Our 21st-Century Architecture: 25 Years 25 Buildings pick for 2011 is the National 9/11 Memorial, designed by Michael Arad of Handel Architects a powerful symbol of loss, remembrance and healing.The most significant building of 2011 was not actually a building in fact, it was almost the opposite. Few events loom so large in the 21st century as the terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center towers in September 2001.Completed 10 years later, the National 9/11 Memorial takes the form of two granite-lined reflecting pools that trace the former footprints of the Minoru Yamasaki-designed skyscrapers.It represents an architecture of absence, a sort of wound in the urban fabric that pointed to the horror of that day and its legacy.Taking cues from other abstract modern monuments, it signalled a sense of closure in the aftermath of the attacks, a new era for New York City and the complexities of rebuilding in such a dense environment.The National 9/11 Memorial was designed by Michael Arad of Handel Architects. Photo courtesy of the 9/11 Museum & Memorial, Jin Sup LeeAfter local officials decided that there should be no buildings on the site, in 2004 a call was put out for designs for a memorial, in line with the masterplan by American architect Daniel Libeskind.The competition, which attracted almost 5,200 entrants, was won by a relatively unknown Israeli-American architect named Michael Arad.His design, called Reflecting Absence, took a minimalist, non-representational approach to memorialising the tragedy, calling to mind both Maya Lin's Vietnam War Memorial and Peter Eisenman's Holocaust Memorial in Berlin.The memorial is part of the wider Ground Zero redevelopment site. Photo courtesy of Handel ArchitectsInsistent on sparing no expense for the memorial and the redevelopment around it, the local and state governments set up the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) to oversee the distribution of funds and construction.Soon, the complexities of the infrastructure downtown, the need to appeal to the public and the families of victims and the multiple different agencies, politicians and other architects involved with the project created difficulties for the memorial. This was compounded by Arad's apparent intransigence on any edits to his design.A New York magazine piece in 2006 reported Arad feuding constantly with his primary collaborators Max Bond Jr of Davis Brody Bond and landscape architect Peter Walker, as well as with government officials and architects Libeskind and Santiago Calatrava.Its mysterious disappearance captures and holds your attention in a way most unusual for the static medium of conventional architectureMartin Filler for Slate"Design, it seemed, couldn't create unity; it led only to intractable differences of taste," wrote Ted Loos, emphasising the complexity of such a public project.Many of the planned skyscrapers at the Ground Zero site also seemed to be stalling at the time due to power struggles between developers and the government.However, Arad was embedded into local studio Handel Architects, where he still works today, and progress on the memorial went forward, in part due to championing by then-mayor Michael Bloomberg.It rests in a park designed with landscape architect Peter Walker. Photo courtesy of Handel ArchitectsToday two massive granite-and-steel lined reflecting pools sit on a site surrounded by groves of swamp oak trees. All around the two pools, waterfalls constantly flow, with the water running over serrated weirs, flowing eventually into another void in the bottom.Around the perimeter of the pools are bronze parapets with names of victims engraved clear through, backlit and temperature-controlled so the metal is never too hot or cold to touch.Surrounding the pools, the whole of the public plaza was lifted above street level on a concrete and steel podium topped by granite pavers.Read: 9/11 anniversary: how the World Trade Center site was rebuiltOn one side of the grove is a sculptural, Snhetta-designed pavilion that provides entry to the subterranean 9/11 museum designed by Davis Brody Bond and Aedas.Despite the confusion and lack of coordination among the stakeholders, the memorial was widely considered a success by critics.Martin Filler was astounded at "how this stunning result emerged from such a fraught and contentious process"."The propulsive aural and visual excitement of the three-story-deep waterfall and its mysterious disappearance captures and holds your attention in a way most unusual for the static medium of conventional architecture," he wrote.The surrounding parapet is engraved with the names of the victims. Photo courtesy of the 9/11 Museum & Memorial, Jin Sup LeeMore than 10 years on, it seems that the complex public-private reviews for the memorial led to its strength as a piece of the built environment.Reflecting on the legacy of 9/11 in 2021, Libeskind told Dezeen he thought the destruction in New York had made people pay more attention to architecture, placing more emphasis on citizen input for larger projects.It might be seen as fitting, then, that the 9/11 memorial seems to exemplify this public input and complexity.Arad's design functioned beyond the scope of normal client-architect relationships it was constructed not just for the local stakeholders, but for the whole city, and the nation. It is architecture as wound, reminder and healing.You wouldn't mistake it for an ordinary park or urban piazza, but it isn't a cemetery, eitherPaul Goldberger for the New YorkerWriting for the New Yorker upon its opening, critic Paul Goldberger said that the memorial had managed to somehow turn the void of the tallest buildings in the city into something "monumental"."You wouldn't mistake it for an ordinary park or urban piazza, but it isn't a cemetery, either," considered Goldberger."You feel a sense of dignity and repose, and you see the shapes of the renewed city in the rising skyscrapers, as you should."In the 10 years since the memorial's completion, most of the remaining developments around the structure have gone in, and as Goldberger notes, life in Lower Manhattan has gone on.The memorial represents a sense of architectural perseverance despite complex stakeholder input, but it also embodies a massive historical shift.The state of the world has been indelibly affected by 9/11, with wars ongoing, surveillance ever-increasing and trust eroding, and these two voids serve as markers of that shift of who, and what, we've lost.Did we get it right? Was the The National 9/11 Memorial the most significant building completed in 2011? Let us know in the comments. We will be running a poll once all 25 buildings are revealed to determine the most significant building of the 21st century so far.This article is part of Dezeen's21st-Century Architecture: 25 Years 25 Buildingsseries, which looks at the most significant architecture of the 21st century so far. For the series, we have selected the most influentialbuilding from each of the first 25 years of the century.The illustration is byJack Bedfordand the photography is byNick Merrickunless stated otherwise.21st Century Architecture: 25 Years 25 Buildings2000:Tate Modern by Herzog & de Meuron2001:Gando Primary School by Dibdo Francis Kr2002:Bergisel Ski Jump by Zaha Hadid2003:Walt Disney Concert Hall by Frank Gehry2004:Quinta Monroy by Elemental2005:Moriyama House by Ryue Nishizawa2006:Madrid-Barajas airport by RSHP and Estudio Lamela2007:Oslo Opera House by Snhetta2008:Museum of Islamic Art by I M Pei2009:Murray Grove by Waugh Thistleton Architects2010:Burj Khalifa by SOM2011: National 9/11 Memorial by Michael AradThis list will be updated as the series progresses.The post The National 9/11 Memorial was the most significant building of 2011 appeared first on Dezeen.

A California-based company called MarsCharge is dedicated to developing EV infrastructure. To design their flagship product, a freestanding commercial charger that can top off two EVs at once, they turned to industrial design consultancy DesignStein Studios. After extensive industry feedback, MarsCharge realized that there was a huge demand for large, standalone EV charging station chargers that actually work. The client built a highly-engineered prototype freestanding DC fast charger that can fully charge most EVs in approximately 20 minutes, which is nearly twice as fast as most standalone DC fast chargers, and arguably one of the fastest on the market today. However, they found it lacking a beautiful design and easy-to-use interface. Styling was paramount. Our client did not want a clunky, boxy-looking charger like most of what exists on the market today. After collaboration with them, we selected three design themes that would embody the charger's design: Monolithic, Annular and Premium. Monolithic designs aren't simply large, their presence stops you in your tracks. Annularity promotes a natural, swooping flow, eliminating the slightest hint of "boxiness" in our design. Premium structures stand alone. You know them when you see them. Together, these Mood Board elements became the inspiration for our sketches.MONOLITH, ANNULAR, PREMIUM With our mood board completed, we explored multiple design directions (below). The first drawings below, with the pencil sketches behind them, are the initial configurations: Our client loved them, and through the collaborative process we encourage with all our clients, they evolved into these detailed concepts: The video below has the full story on how we employed our process with MarsCharge, and helped them use this design to increase their profitability.You can see more of DesignStein Studio's work here.

Any bookworm worth theirwell, bookhas probably experienced this at one point or another, probably when they were kids. Your parents or guardians have turned the lights off because its bedtime already. But you know you cant put your book down because you cant wait until morning to find out what happened. So you dive under the covers and use a flashlight to continue reading until the wee hours of the morning. Of course that doesnt do wonders for your eyesight, but whats a bookworm to do?Designer: Onurhan DemirGood thing we now have some solutions that can help bookworms out. Or at least, we have some concepts that can make it easier. This is a concept for a 2 in 1 lighting design. It is a rechargeable flashlight that can also become a reading lamp that you can use when you want to finish reading a book in the dark. Unlike regular flashlights which can be a bit inconvenient as youre holding a book and turning the page, this one makes it easier as you can clip it to your book. Hopefully the clip can also hold on to thick books, which some bookworms prefer reading sometimes.When in its flashlight mode, it looks like a regular flashlight with its spherical body. It seems a bit small though so I dont know if its something that can be used for a long time. When you want to use it as a reading lamp, you just flip open the clip underneath and then attach it to your book and continue reading even if you dont have the main lights on or if you dont have a desk reading lamp. The product renders show different colors like gray, white, and orange, with the gray one also having orange highlights. Again, we dont know how long the rechargeable light will last, so maybe your thick book will not be finished in one sitting. Now I dont know if the reading lamp function has something that will not damage your eyes so much, as this is still a concept. It would be nice to have that feature though, especially if theyre targeting readers. I mean, most heavy readers develop bad eyesight eventually, so tools like this should not exacerbate our already burdened eyes. But at least, this concept will help free our hands when holding a book, especially if were still reading under the covers. The post 2-in-1 lighting device serves as flashlight and reading lamp first appeared on Yanko Design.

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Without doubt, the remedy Congress and the President chose here is dramatic, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a concurring opinion. Whether this law will succeed in achieving its ends, I do not know.

Metas Instagram and Googles YouTube are getting ready to welcome TikTok users, as the Supreme Court upheld a law that effectively bans the Chinese-owned app from the United States.

MacworldFor a large number of Mac users who are still on Intel-based Macs, theres one very good reason why theyre not switching over to Apple silicon. They do a good amount of work that requires them to switch over to Windows, and Intel Macs are best suited for that.But a major breakthrough is in the works: the folks at Parallels have revealed a new proprietary emulation engine that allows for Intel-based virtual machines in Parallels Desktop 20.2. Using Parallels, users can run x86 versions of Windows 10 or 11,Windows Server 2019 or 2022, or Linux on an M-series Mac.The new feature is provided as a technology preview in Parallels Desktop 20.2, which means its very much a work in progress and has limitations. For example, it only works with 64-bit versions of the Windows operating system, though you can run 32-bit apps within those OSes. The company also says the performance is slowreally slow, with boot times ranging between two and seven minutes. USB devices arent supported yet, theres no sound, and Windows updates may fail to install. Parallels has an article that details what you need to know about using x86 Windows emulation.Even with the limitations, Parallels emulation is a huge deal. The introduction of the M1 Mac in 2020 came with the inability to run x86 versions of Windowsit couldnt be done through virtual machine software like Parallels, and Apple killed the Boot Camp feature that allows users to boot into Windows and run the OS natively on Mac hardware. Eventually, virtual machines were able to support Windows on ARM, but thats not ideal in many situations for people who need to work in real Windows.The Standard Edition of Parallels Desktop for Mac is available as a $100/100 per-year subscription, or as a one-time fee of $129.99/129.99. The Pro Edition and Business Editions are subscription-only for $120/120 and $150/150 per year, respectively. Student pricing is also available.

Support for Microsoft 365 ends along with Windows 10PixieMe/ShutterstockAlthough Microsoft announced some time ago that Windows 10 will only be supported (free of charge) until October 14, 2025, the switch to its successor Windows 11 is only taking place slowly. According to calculations by security provider Eset, 32 million PCs in Germany are still running Windows 10. The situation is similar in other countries. One reason for this is that although the switch to Windows 11 is free, there are stricter hardware requirements which , according to studies by Lansweeper, around 50 percent of computers in Germany do not meet.Functional, but not supported To urge more users to upgrade to Windows 11, Microsoft recently announced in a blog post that Microsoft-365 apps will no longer be supported on Windows 10 devices after October 14, 2025. To use Microsoft 365 apps on your device, you will need to upgrade to Windows 11, it continued.The blog post raised numerous questions, and has since been deleted by Microsoft. However, there was no correction or explanation.What the software giant was actually getting at is shown by a support page on the subject that was updated in December. Here, too, Microsoft points out that Microsoft 365 apps will no longer be supported under Windows 10 after the end of support in mid-October. At the same time, however, the company explains that the applications will continue to work as before. However, to avoid performance and reliability problems over time, an upgrade to Windows 11 is strongly recommended.The reasoning: Microsoft 365 is subject to the Modern Lifecycle Policy, which requires that customers keep the product or service up to date according to maintenance and system requirements and use Microsoft 365 on a Windows operating system for which support is currently provided. License versions not affected The situation is somewhat clearer for Office versions with a one-time license: Based on the Fixed Lifecycle Policy, Office Home & Student, Office Home & Business or Office Professional Plus will continue to be fully supported under Windows 10 as long as they do not reach the end of support themselves. Support for Office 2016 and 2019 will also end at the same time as Windows 10.

When you think of AIs contributions to science, you probably think of AlphaFold, the Google DeepMind protein-folding program that earned its creator a Nobel Prize last year.Now OpenAI says its getting into the science game toowith a model for engineering proteins.The company says it has developed a language model that dreams up proteins capable of turning regular cells into stem cellsand that it has handily beat humans at the task.The work represents OpenAIs first model focused on biological data and its first public claim that its models can deliver unexpected scientific results. As such, it is a step toward determining whether or not AI can make true discoveries, which some argue is a major test on the pathway to artificial general intelligence.Last week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he was confident his company knows how to build an AGI, adding that superintelligent tools could massively accelerate scientific discovery and innovation well beyond what we are capable of doing on our own.The protein engineering project started a year ago when Retro Biosciences, a longevity research company based in San Francisco, approached OpenAI about working together.That link-up did not happen by chance. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, personally funded Retro with $180 million, as MIT Technology Review first reported in 2023.Retro has the goal of extending the normal human lifespan by 10 years. For that, it studies what are called Yamanaka factors. Those are a set of proteins that, when added to a human skin cell, will cause it to morph into a young-seeming stem cell, a type that can produce any other tissue in the body.Its a phenomenon that researchers at Retro, and at richly funded companies like Altos Labs, see as the possible starting point for rejuvenating animals, building human organs, or providing supplies of replacement cells.But such cell reprogramming is not very efficient. It takes several weeks, and less than 1% of cells treated in a lab dish will complete the rejuvenation journey.OpenAIs new model, called GPT-4b micro, was trained to suggest ways to re-engineer the protein factors to increase their function. According to OpenAI, researchers used the models suggestions to change two of the Yamanaka factors to to be more than 50 times as effectiveat least according to some preliminary measures.Just across the board, the proteins seem better than what the scientists were able to produce by themselves, says John Hallman, an OpenAI researcher.Hallman and OpenAIs Aaron Jaech, as well as Rico Meinl from Retro, were the models lead developers.Outside scientists wont be able to tell if the results are real until theyre published, something the companies say they are planning. Nor is the model available for wider useits still a bespoke demonstration, not an official product launch.This project is meant to show that were serious about contributing to science, says Jaech. But whether those capabilities will come out to the world as a separate model or whether theyll be rolled into our mainline reasoning modelsthats still to be determined.The model does not work the same way as Googles AlphaFold, which predicts what shape proteins will take. Since the Yamanaka factors are unusually floppy and unstructured proteins, OpenAI said, they called for a different approach, which its large language models were suited to.The model was trained on examples of protein sequences from many species, as well as information on which proteins tend to interact with one another. While thats a lot of data, its just a fraction of what OpenAIs flagship chatbots were trained on, making GPT-4b an example of a small language model that works with a focused data set.Once Retro scientists were given the model, they tried to steer it to suggest possible redesigns of the Yamanaka proteins. The prompting tactic used is similar to the few-shot method, in which a user queries a chatbot by providing a series of examples with answers, followed by an example for the bot to respond to.Although genetic engineers have ways to direct evolution of molecules in the lab, they can usually test only so many possibilities. And even a protein of typical length can be changed in nearly infinite ways (since theyre built from hundreds of amino acids, and each acid comes in 20 possible varieties).OpenAIs model, however, often spits out suggestions in which a third of the amino acids in the proteins were changed.OPENAIWe threw this model into the lab immediately and we got real-world results, says Retros CEO, Joe Betts-Lacroix. He says the models ideas were unusually good, leading to improvements over the original Yamanaka factors in a substantial fraction of cases.Vadim Gladyshev, a Harvard University aging researcher who consults with Retro, says better ways of making stem cells are needed. For us, it would be extremely useful. [Skin cells] are easy to reprogram, but other cells are not, he says. And to do it in a new speciesits often extremely different, and you dont get anything.How exactly the GPT-4b arrives at its guesses is still not clearas is often the case with AI models. Its like when AlphaGo crushed the best human at Go, but it took a long time to find out why, says Betts-Lacroix. We are still figuring out what it does, and we think the way we apply this is only scratching the surface.OpenAI says no money changed hands in the collaboration. But because the work could benefit Retrowhose biggest investor is Altmanthe announcement may add to questions swirling around the OpenAI CEOs side projects.Last year, the Wall Street Journal said Altmans wide-ranging investments in private tech startups amount to an opaque investment empire that is creating a mounting list of potential conflicts, since some of these companies also do business with OpenAI.In Retros case, simply being associated with Altman, OpenAI, and the race toward AGI could boost its profile and increase its ability to hire staff and raise funds. Betts-Lacroix did not answer questions about whether the early-stage company is currently in fundraising mode.OpenAI says Altman was not directly involved in the work and that it never makes decisions based on Altmans other investments.

Amazon's AirPods Max sale delivers a $100 discount on the latest USB-C model, reflecting the lowest price on record as the retailer engages in a weekend price war with Best Buy.Get Apple's latest AirPods Max with USB-C for $449.99.Save $100 on Apple's latest AirPods Max over-ear headphones with USB-C charging at Amazon this weekend, bringing the price down to $449.99. Inventory is limited so it's recommended to order early for the best shipping date. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums