Tom Cruise is taking on one last daring adventure in "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning," which pits Ethan Hunt against an evil AI that threatens to destroy the world.The actor has been the face of the franchise since the first movie in 1996, and has starred in eight films in total.The Impossible Mission Force (yes, really) first debuted in the "Mission: Impossible" TV series in 1966, which starred Steven Hill and Peter Graves and ran for six seasons until 1973, before it was revived for another two seasons on ABC in 1988.With the franchise set to end with "The Final Reckoning," here are all the "Mission: Impossible" movies, ranked. 8. "Mission: Impossible 2" (2000) Tom Cruise riding a motorbike in "Mission: Impossible 2." Paramount Pictures "Mission: Impossible 2" should be given way more love than it gets, mainly because the Hong Kong cinema legend John Woo helmed it. Yes, the "Hard Boiled" and "Bullet in the Head" director brought his signature bullet ballet style to the "Mission: Impossible" sequel, with all the slow-motion flair you could ask for.Is it cheesy? Sure. Does the script need some work? Definitely. Is there any smart subtext or meaning underneath all the action? Absolutely not. This is a peak 2000s action movie, and it knows it. "Mission: Impossible 2" is so over the top that once you've made peace with it, it's best to just go along for the ride. Come on, Tom Cruise and Dougray Scott play motorbike chicken with each other before a midair tackle sends them both crashing to the ground. What's not to love? It's the type of vehicular chaos that the "Fast & Furious" franchise's Dominic Toretto would be proud of.Even so, "Mission: Impossible 2" ranks at the bottom of the bunch. 7. "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" (2011) Tom Cruise on the side of the Burj Khalifa in "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol." Paramount Pictures The 2011 film "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" takes the franchise into the modern era. It follows Hunt and his team as they're forced to go on the run when they're framed for bombing the Kremlin.It quickly becomes a race to stop the villainous Kurt Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist), who wants to start a nuclear war so that only the strongest members of humanity will survive. It's this plot that keeps "Ghost Protocol" from ascending the ranking, because, as spy thrillers go, stopping a nuclear war feels predictable, and the film fails to do anything unique with the premise. Plus, there's nothing particularly extraordinary about Hendricks as a baddie.But generic plot devices aside, the film features some brilliant fights and gripping set pieces. The stand-out moment is when Cruise's hero climbs the Burj Khalifa in Dubai with nothing but sticky gloves and rope.One of the most surprising elements of the film is Jeremy Renner's William Brandt, a disgraced former agent who's grappling with the guilt of failing Ethan on a former mission. That sub-plot works very well among the rest of the action, and it's a clever way of injecting a bit of heart into the mission. 6. "Mission: Impossible 3" (2006) Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt and Keri Russell as Lindsey Farris in "Mission: Impossible 3." Paramount Pictures Two words: JJ Abrams. The "Lost" and "Fringe" creator made his big screen debut in 2006 with "Mission: Impossible 3," which takes a mid-noughties approach to the Impossible Mission Force and gives it a brutal edge.The sequel pits Ethan, Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), Zhen Lei (Maggie Q), and Declan Gormley (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) against a nefarious arms dealer played by the incomparable Phillip Seymour Hoffman.Part of what elevates "Mission: Impossible 3" from previous films is that it never actually explains what Ethan and the gang are chasing. It's known only by its mysterious codename, the Rabbit's Foot. It could be an infectious disease, a computer virus, a hard drive teeming with currency, or nuclear codes — and that's what makes it so compelling. It's also refreshing to see Ethan settled and in love with Michelle Monahan's Julia Meade. What does married life look like for a superspy? How does that complicate his responsibility to save the world? The sequel feels very busy, as Abrams packs a lot into a tight two-hour run time. And some parts don't quite work, like Ethan's dynamic with his young mentee Lindsey Farris (Keri Russell). But there are some stellar sequences throughout, like the ballistic shoot-out on the bridge, which is an eye-popping piece of action choreography. 5. "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning" (2025) Tom Cruise in "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning." Skydance/Paramount Pictures "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning" is the sequel to 2023's "Dead Reckoning," and sees Hunt race to stop an assassin known as Gabriel (Esai Morales) from controlling a sentient AI called the Entity. Just to raise the stakes, the Entity has already taken control of the world's nuclear weapons and plans to wipe out humanity.While the 2025 movie is billed as the final entry in the franchise, its story doesn't quite live up to the high expectations set by "Dead Reckoning." The first hour is bogged down by lengthy exposition and generic action movie silliness.That being said, as soon as the action picks up and Cruise embraces his adrenaline junkie persona once more, "The Final Reckoning" provides a breathtaking cinematic experience.Whether it's the suspenseful scuba dive into a wrecked submarine or how Hunt climbs between two biplanes in the sky to fight Gabriel, the film's ambitious sequences deserve to be seen on the big screen. 4. "Mission: Impossible" (1996) Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in "Mission: Impossible." Paramount Pictures Taken from the 1966 TV series of the same name, 1996's "Mission: Impossible" introduces Cruise's Ethan Hunt, a field agent working for Jim Phelps (Jon Voight), the main character from the show. It has audiences instantly on their toes when Ethan's entire team, including Phelps, are assassinated by a double agent in the opening — forcing our hero to go on the run after being framed for their deaths."Mission: Impossible" earned itself a place in cinema history thanks to the brilliantly intense break-in scene, in which Cruise's Hunt hacks into a CIA mainframe computer while suspended on cables.And of course, the high-octane ending on top of a Channel Tunnel train is a pulse-pounding affair set to the iconic theme music. Cruise effortlessly brings Hunt to life alongside top-notch performances from Voight, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Ving Rhames, which really help sell the paranoid atmosphere of the film 3. "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" (2015) Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust in "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation." Paramount Pictures "Rogue Nation" is where frequent Tom Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie properly put his stamp on the franchise. McQuarrie expands the world in a fascinating way with the introduction of the Syndicate, a vast organization made up of rogue agents from every intelligence agency on the planet.Their mission (should they choose to accept it) is to create disorder and chaos to destabilize the global intelligence community, although their true goals don't become apparent until 2018's "Mission: Impossible - Fallout." Hunt is determined to root out the Syndicate, and its sinister leader, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris)."Rogue Nation" also introduces Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), an enigmatic British agent who has a delicious will-they-won't-they dynamic with Cruise's hero.A brawl in the rigging above an opera stage in Vienna is a stunning highlight, as is Cruise's underwater dive to retrieve a computer chip from a submerged safe. Cruise broke the world record for holding his breath for six minutes while completing that stunt in 2014. 2. "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One" (2023) Esai Morales as Gabriel and Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One." Paramount Pictures "Dead Reckoning Part One" sees Hunt's IMF team chasing a key that will lead them to an unstoppable AI that could wreak havoc on the world.And, of course, every government agency in the world wants to get their hands on it, so Hunt and his team are effectively on the run from everyone. "Dead Reckoning's" focus on AI gives it a grounding in the real world, but the film also continues to elevate the sheer scale of action that audiences have come to expect from the "Mission: Impossible" franchise. That jaw-dropping mountain jump at the movie's climax has to be seen to be believed, and it only gets more bonkers after that.It's a testament to Cruise and McQuarrie that the film feels fresh and new — even if the script does drag on at points. Then again, audiences are coming to see Cruise throw himself off a mountain, not to hear Oscar-winning dialogue. 1. "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" (2018) Tom Cruise in "Mission: Impossible - Fallout." Paramount There's no question that McQuarrie's "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" is the best movie in the franchise, which is impressive considering it's the sixth outing for Hunt and the gang. It continues the Syndicate storyline from "Rogue Nation" and dives further into Solomon Lane's scheme. He wants to destabilize the world by irradiating the Siachen Glacier, which supplies water to India, Pakistan, and China. This would kill off a third of the world's population and drastically change society in the process.  But most of the story revolves around a CIA and IMF mole who goes by the codename 'John Lark.'The hunt to find this rogue agent crosses the world, introducing the likes of Henry Cavill's CIA agent August Walker and Vanessa Kirby's underworld matriarch, Alanna Mitsopolis. The scope of McQuarrie's movie is massive, and its huge stunts mirror that size. A gobsmacking scene sees Hunt dive with Walker from a plane and parachute into Paris. Cruise shot the stunt alongside a cameraman to properly capture the chaotic dive. Then, of course, there's the film's exhilarating helicopter chase through a New Zealand mountain range — just another example of McQuarrie and Cruise's commitment to filming these stunts in the most jaw-dropping way possible."Fallout" is a thrilling chapter of the "Mission: Impossible" franchise that deepens the audience's understanding of Cruise's hero while delivering a stunning cinematic experience.

RetopoFlow is a suite of intuitive, sketch-based retopology tools for Blender developed by Orange Turbine. It allows you to draw directly onto the surface of high-poly models, automatically generating geometry that conforms to their shape.The toolset has recently been updated with the release of RetopoFlow 4, a complete rewrite that introduces powerful new features. While still in beta, RetopoFlow 4 is available at a discounted price.In RetopoFlow 4, the PolyPen tool offers precise control for building complex topology one vertex at a time, while the PolyStrips tool makes it easy to map out and refine key face loops on complex models. The Strokes tool is highly versatile, ideal for quickly sketching out quad patches or filling gaps in topology, and the Contours tool gives you a quick and easy way to retopologize cylindrical forms. For interactive adjustments, the Tweak Brush lets you reposition vertices directly on the source mesh, and the Relax Brush helps smooth out vertex positions while keeping them constrained to the mesh surface.While RetopoFlow 3 included a symmetry system that essentially relied on Blender's Mirror Modifier behind the scenes, RetopoFlow 4 will give you direct access to the Mirror Modifier itself.Please note that RetopoFlow 3 will not receive new features going forward, but it will continue to be supported for at least two years following the official release of version 4.If you previously purchased RetopoFlow 3 through Superhive (Blender Market), you can upgrade to version 4 at an additional 25% discount, on top of the current beta pricing, by using the coupon code retopoflow-og. You can also sign up to test the beta for free here.Purchase RetopoFlow 4 by clicking this link and join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.

I travel constantly and internationally. Whenever I return to the United States, I enjoy using Global Entry, which is like E-ZPass for customs. Here’s what it’s like: As you approach customs, you see a sign that says “Global Entry,” which leads you into a corral formed by retractable belt stanchions containing connected kiosks. A uniformed TSA agent tells you to stand in front of one of the stations, which takes your picture in about 2 seconds. The kiosk then tells you to proceed to the customs agent, who just waves you through. While entering a major airport like LAX or SFO from abroad normally involves 30 minutes in a massive line, Global Entry gets me through in 3 minutes. Technically, it’s not that big a boon. It merely means that I get to baggage claim way before most others on my flight, where I wait for 45 minutes for the bags. In any event, face recognition is the secret sauce of fast customs entry. Facial recognition works. It’s super handy for unlocking smartphones and computers, enhancing security through access control and surveillance, streamlining airport and border checks, enabling secure financial transactions, improving patient identification in healthcare, personalizing retail and customer experiences, supporting law enforcement in suspect identification, and facilitating fast check-ins at events and entertainment venues. But many oppose facial recognition technology because it jeopardizes privacy, civil liberties, and personal security. It enables constant surveillance and raises the specter of a dystopian future in which people feel afraid to exercise free speech. Another issue is that one’s face can’t be changed like a password can, so if face-recognition data is stolen or sold on the Dark Web, there’s little anyone can do about the resulting identity theft and other harms. But as people fret and debate about the tradeoff between convenience and security on the one hand, and privacy risk and dystopia on the other, the surveillance tech industry has quietly moved beyond face recognition. Facing the reality of the new biometrics A company called Veritone is succeeding in the market for its Track product. As with face recognition tech, Veritone Track uses AI to spot, identify, and follow people. But unlike facial recognition, it uses body size, gender, hair color, clothing, accessories, and more. Police departments that use Track can choose attributes from a menu (specific types and colors of clothing, hats, backpacks, and other items), and then the system shows them video clips of people matching the user-selected criteria. The system can also track vehicles by make and model, rather than by license plate, and it can stitch together clips from different cameras (CCTV, body cameras, drone footage, social media, and smartphone uploads) to build a timeline of location. More than 400 clients, including police departments, universities, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, and others, are already using Track, Veritone says. Track is part of Veritone’s iDEMS (Intelligent Digital Evidence Management System), which itself is powered by the aiWARE platform, which brings together more than 300 different AI models (like those for transcription, object detection, etc.) to extract insights from otherwise unrelated data sources, according to the company. Veritone’s offering isn’t alone. Clothing and attribute recognition technology is available through various APIs and platforms, often provided by companies specializing in computer vision and AI. Companies like Ximilar, Clarifai, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft offer identification based on attributes other than face recognition. In addition to specific-person identification, these companies use such technology for product tagging, personalized shopping recommendations, fashion trend analysis, and enhanced image search. Other services combine face recognition with the recognition of people based on clothing and other attributes. In fact, you probably use these technologies all the time whenever you use Google Photos or Meta’s Facebook. Google Photos, for example, analyzes photos taken together in time and detects if a person is wearing the same clothing across multiple photos, even if their face is not visible. The system also considers visual cues and other attributes to help identify individuals across multiple photos taken within a similar timeframe. I once uploaded a picture of two nieces, which I had taken with my iPhone, to Google Photos. When I search for myself, this picture shows up. Why? One of my nieces is wearing mirror sunglasses, and a reflection of my arm is visible in them. Meta developed and uses algorithms that can identify people in photos even when their faces aren’t visible by analyzing visual cues like clothing, hairstyles, and body language. Both platforms use a combination of facial recognition, clothing, and other attribute recognition, as well as contextual information, to improve the accuracy of identifying individual people. What’s also worth noting is that they do this entirely without the subjects’ permission. For example, I could take a picture of someone who doesn’t even have a Google account, then label their face in Google Photos with their name. Many active Google Photos users label dozens of people in their Photos lineup, and most of these people do have Google accounts, which Google could match to their photos. The new world of identification Worry about face recognition tends to obscure the real situation we all find ourselves in: Face recognition is now just one of many ways new technology can identify you. You can be identified by your gait (how you walk). And surveillance cameras now use AI-powered video analytics to track behavior, not just faces. They can follow you based on your clothing, the bag you carry, and your movement patterns, stitching together your path across a city or a stadium without ever needing a clear shot of your face. The truth is that face recognition is just the most visible part of a much larger system of surveillance. When public concern about face recognition causes bans or restrictions, governments, companies, and other organizations simply circumvent that concern by deploying other technologies from a large and growing menu of options. Whether we’re IT professionals, law enforcement technologists, security specialists, or privacy advocates, it’s important to incorporate the new identification technologies into our thinking, and face the new reality that face recognition is just one technology among many.

In an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, billionaire and Trump megadonor Elon Musk offered his thoughts about what motivates political progressives to support immigration. In his view, the culprit was empathy, which he called “the fundamental weakness of Western civilization.” As shocking as Musk’s views are, however, they are far from unique. On the one hand, there is the familiar and widespread conservative critique of “bleeding heart” liberals as naive or overly emotional. But there is also a broader philosophical critique that raises worries about empathy on quite different and less political grounds, including findings in social science. Empathy can make people weaker—both physically and practically, according to social scientists. Consider the phenomenon known as “empathy fatigue,” a major source of burnout among counselors, nurses, and even neurosurgeons. These professionals devote their lives to helping others, yet the empathy they feel for their clients and patients wears them down, making it harder to do their jobs. As philosophers, we agree that empathy can take a toll on both individuals and society. However, we believe that, at its core, empathy is a form of mental strength that enables us to better understand the impact of our actions on others, and to make informed choices. The philosophical roots of empathy skepticism The term “empathy” only entered the English language in the 1890s. But the general idea of being moved by others’ suffering has been a subject of philosophical attention for millennia, under labels such as “pity,” “sympathy,” and “compassion.” One of the earliest warnings about pity in Western philosophy comes from the Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus. In his Discourses, he offers general advice about how to live a good life, centered on inner tranquility and freedom. When it comes to emotions and feelings, he writes: “He is free who lives as he wishes to live . . . and who chooses to live in sorrow, fear, envy, pity, desiring and failing in his desires, attempting to avoid something and falling into it? Not one.” Feeling sorry for another person or feeling pity for them compromises our freedom, in Epictetus’s view. Those negative feelings are unpleasant, and nobody would choose them for themselves. Empathy would clearly fall into this same category, keeping us from living the good life. A similar objection emerged much later from the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche framed his discussion in terms of mitleid—a German term that can be translated as either “pity” or “compassion.” Like Epictetus, Nietzsche worried that pity or compassion was a burden on the individual, preventing them from living the good life. In his book Daybreak, Nietzsche warns that such feelings could impair the very people who try to help others. Epictetus’s and Nietzsche’s worries about pity or compassion carry over to empathy. Recall the phenomenon of empathy fatigue. One psychological explanation for why empathic people experience fatigue and even burnout is that empathy involves a kind of mirroring of other people’s mental life, a mirroring that can be physically unpleasant. When someone you love is in pain, you don’t just believe that they are in pain; you may feel as if it is actually happening to you. Results from neuroscience and cognitive psychology research indicate that there are different brain mechanisms involved in merely observing another’s pain versus empathizing with it. The latter involves unpleasant sensations of the type we experience when we are in pain. Empathy is thus difficult to bear precisely because being in pain is difficult to bear. And this sharpens the Stoic and Nietzschean worries: Why bother empathizing when it is unpleasant and, perhaps, not even necessary for helping others? From understanding knowledge to appreciating empathy The answer for why one should see empathy as a strength starts with a key insight from 20th century philosophy about the nature of knowledge. That insight is based on a famous thought experiment by the Australian philosopher Frank Jackson. Jackson invites us to imagine a scientist named Mary who has studied colors despite having lived her entire life in a black-and-white room. She knows all the facts about the spectrum distribution of light sources and vision science. She’s read descriptions of the redness of roses and azaleas. But she’s never seen color herself. Does Mary know everything about redness? Many epistemologists—people who study the nature of knowledge—argue that she does not. What Mary learns when she sees red for the first time is elusive. If she returns to her black-and-white room, never to see any colored objects again, her knowledge of the colors will likely diminish over time. To have a full, rich understanding of colors, one needs to experience them. Thoughts like these led the philosopher and logician Bertrand Russell to argue that experience delivers a special kind of knowledge of things that can’t be reduced to knowledge of facts. Seeing, hearing, tasting, and even feeling delivers what he called “knowledge by acquaintance.” We have argued in a book and recent articles that Jackson’s and Russell’s conclusions apply to pain. Consider a variation on Jackson’s thought experiment: Suppose Mary knows the facts about pain but hasn’t experienced it. As before, it would seem like her understanding of pain is incomplete. In fact, though Mary is a fictional character, there are real people who report having never experienced pain as an unpleasant sensation—a condition known as “pain asymbolia.” In Russell’s terminology, such people haven’t personally experienced how unpleasant pain can be. But even people without pain asymbolia can become less familiar with pain and hardship during times when things are going well for them. All of us can temporarily lose the rich experiential grasp of what it is like to be distressed. So, when we consider the pain and suffering of others in the abstract and without directly feeling it, it is very much like trying to grasp the nature of redness while being personally acquainted only with a field of black and white. That, we argue, is where empathy comes in. Through experiential simulation of another’s feelings, empathy affords us a rich grasp of the distress that others feel. The upshot is that empathy isn’t just a subjective sensation. It affords us a more accurate understanding of others’ experiences and emotions. Empathy is thus a form of knowledge that can be hard to bear, just as pain can be hard to bear. But that’s precisely why empathy, properly cultivated, is a strength. As one of us has argued, it takes courage to empathically engage with others, just as it takes courage to see and recognize problems around us. Conversely, an unwillingness to empathize can stem from a familiar weakness: a fear of knowledge. So, when deciding complex policy questions—say, about immigration—resisting empathy impairs our decision-making. It keeps us from understanding what’s at stake. That is why it is vital to ask ourselves what policies we would favor if we were empathically acquainted with, and so fully informed of, the plight of others. Emad H. Atiq is a professor of law and philosophy at Cornell University. Colin Marshall is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Washington. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Multifunctional Art Center of Lhozhag County Middle School / Shenzhen Huahui DesignSave this picture!© Right Angle ImageVisual Arts Center•Shannan, China Architects: Shenzhen Huahui Design Area Area of this architecture project Area:  6009 m² Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2024 Photographs Photographs:Right Angle Image Lead Architects: XIAO Cheng More SpecsLess Specs Save this picture! Text description provided by the architects. The site of our multifunctional art center project is located within Lhozhag Middle School, the county's junior high campus. Funded and built by COFCO Group, the project aims to create a composite art education space that serves as a cross-cultural exchange venue for school staff and students, local residents, international tourists, and artists visiting Tibet.Save this picture!Save this picture!The Weaving and Reconstruction of the Landscape. The site of Lhozhag County Middle School is situated with the mountains to the south and a road to the north. Beyond the road lies a martyrs' memorial square, and further north are National Highway 219 and the Lhozhag Gorge. The campus has undergone construction in different periods, resulting in a fragmented layout dominated by dispersed linear buildings. This has prevented the formation of a cohesive spatial order. Therefore, one of our key objectives is to take this opportunity to reorganize and construct a more organic relationship between the elements of the site. Additionally, the site has a noticeable elevation difference, which, if utilized properly, offers the potential to create more dynamic and engaging spaces.Save this picture!Save this picture!Given the limited area of the site, the design adopts an "embedded" strategy. The first step involves demolishing the existing staff activity room directly facing the school entrance and incorporating it into the new building volume. This move creates a continuous central axis through the campus. The new building is arranged in a compact L-shaped mass at the southern end of this axis, forming a spatial sequence that connects the main entrance of the campus, the front yard, and the small plaza at the entrance to the multifunctional art center. When viewed on a larger scale, the multifunctional center to the south, facing the mountains, and the memorial square to the north, facing the water, create an urban spatial axis within the limited depth of the southern part of Lhozhag County.Save this picture!Save this picture!Massing Configuration and Spatial Morphology. Situated at the northern foothills of a south-facing mountain slope, the project site is constrained by limited space towards the south, making optimal natural daylighting from this direction difficult to achieve. In response, the design incorporates various forms of skylights to maximize solar utilization. The main structure of the Multi-Functional Center is composed of two primary volumes—one linear and one cubic. The elongated volume is organized in a "sandwich-like" spatial configuration, consisting of two solid masses and a narrow central atrium. Flanking the double-height skylit atrium—serving as a hub for circulation, exhibitions, and gatherings—are small-scale spaces housing art classrooms and studios. The square volume contains a 700-seat auditorium, with a skylit side hall designed along its lateral facade.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!These two volumes are arranged in a near-perpendicular relationship, a deliberate response to both the site's spatial axis and the surrounding buildings. Considering the site's topography, a subtle elevation difference is established between the two forms. The roof of the auditorium becomes a highly accessible outdoor activity platform. On this rooftop, several small, south-facing structures with windows are designed to offer engaging and playful spaces for students' extracurricular activities. Between the main building's southern edge and the northward-sloping mountain base lies a narrow wedge-shaped courtyard, functioning as a "miniature gorge" between architecture and terrain—an extension of both outdoor exhibition areas and indoor activity spaces.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Low-Tech Construction and Contextual Integration. Our intention was to express the project's sense of place through a distilled contemporary architectural language—one that remains restrained and respectful in its articulation. The surrounding context—both its unrefined natural landscape and the neighboring built forms—exudes a raw, elemental force that speaks to the site's primal character. Each day, the children's recitations echo through the arms of the mountains, mingling with the distant sound of the Lhozhag Valley stream. I envisioned the new building as a stone emerging from the mountain itself—something that sparks curiosity while also evoking a quiet familiarity. It is curious in the way it appears as a white "magic box" filled with intriguing spatial experiences; yet familiar in its subtle dialogue with the surrounding built environment, sharing a common architectural language. This "stone" is firmly grounded in the land—solid, steady, and reassuring.Save this picture!Save this picture!At the main entrance façade, we designed what could be described as a "Mondrian frame" for Lhozhag. Through a composition of solids and voids, light and reflection, the façade glass is broken down into mirrored panels of varying sizes and hues. These reflections—of the sky, the snow-capped peaks, the building, and the children themselves—create a sense of "familiar strangeness", subtly provoking curiosity and encouraging exploration in their daily routines.Construction methods employ conventional, locally executable techniques, prioritizing recyclable regional materials. Skylight configurations enhance natural daylighting and thermal mass performance, significantly reducing heating energy use in winter.Save this picture!Save this picture!The Canyon of Light. The "Light Canyon Atrium" serves as the spiritual and spatial core of the entire building. It is both an abstract interpretation of Lhozhag's dramatic natural terrain and a contemporary reimagining of the essential qualities of traditional Tibetan architecture. (Diagram: Spatial Archetype) Inspired by the idea that "sunlight breathes life into the canyon, where daily routines unfold", the design celebrates this raw, vibrant energy through spatial scale, light quality, and chromatic composition.Save this picture!Save this picture!Upon entering from the foyer, one ascends a multipurpose stepped platform to the second floor and then turns—only to be met with a breathtaking atrium measuring 60 meters in length, 7 meters in width, and 14 meters in height. This vertical void captures abundant daylight from above, extending across the building to link diverse functional zones. It gathers the distant landscape into its frame, forging a dialogue between interior and exterior, architecture and nature. The experience is ever-changing—one may pass through, pause, encounter, gaze into or out of it—each movement revealing new spatial surprises. Witnessing children in colorful attire moving through the longitudinally unfolding space, where the indoor sky seamlessly merges with the real one beyond, and distant mountains appear to embrace the end of the axis, the envisioned scenarios have materialized as intended.Save this picture!Save this picture!Here, light is "combed" through a kaleidoscopic filter—a gesture that feels uniquely appropriate to Tibet's vivid natural palette. White walls act as canvases for sunlight's seasonal performances, while solid-colored interior corridors peek through varying-sized apertures, adding layers of visual liveliness. Ultimately, the "Canyon of Light" became the guiding concept of the entire project. Through a dialogue between architecture and environment, and a fusion of tradition and modernity, the project creates a space that is both functional and poetic—an iconic centerpiece for Lhozhag County Middle School and a cultural threshold for exchange between campus and community. Yet above all, we hope the true owners of the space are the students themselves. On holidays, when children in traditional Tibetan dress gather here to play and laugh, the scene feels so naturally harmonious that it evokes a beautiful illusion: as if this building has always been here， growing with the children, quietly witnessing the passage of time.Save this picture!The "Roots" and "Wings" of Culture. The 2017 Pritzker Prize-winning Spanish firm RCR Arquitectes articulated a profound view on locality: "We believe that harmony with nature means that architecture must deeply understand its surrounding environment. While we embrace globalization, we hope our architecture remains firmly rooted in its place. We often say that architecture needs both 'roots' and 'wings.' The three of us each have our own origin, something intrinsic that resides within us. Even as we move from one place to another, this origin remains unchanged—it is the product of a place, a climate, and a culture. The world is becoming increasingly interconnected, but we believe that understanding and respecting these origins is essential. They enrich the shared creative force that expresses who we are, and that is deeply important."Save this picture!In Lhozhag, the younger generation navigates a cultural tug-of-war: between their deep Tibetan heritage and the currents of modernity. Like the mirrored facades that reflect distant snow-capped mountains, village rooftops, ancient monasteries, and colorful prayer flags by day—with the children's own figures merging into these scenes—the architecture becomes a metaphor for cultural identity. "Who are you?" "Where do your roots lie?" When they see themselves in these reflections, they encounter both their homeland and the coexistence of their culture with the wider world. Through architectural language, the project aims to show that they need not choose between tradition and modernity but can balance both—rooted in their cultural soil while courageously reaching outward. May the light of the canyon forever illuminate the path in these children's hearts.Save this picture! Project gallerySee allShow less Project locationAddress:Shannan, ChinaLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this office MaterialsGlassConcreteMaterials and TagsGlass

By Natalia Mesa Published May 23, 2025 | Comments (0) | Adult Cooper’s hawk dispatching a house sparrow. © Vladimir Dinets Birds continue to be amazing. Crows can use tools and hold grudges against specific people. Magpies can recognize themselves in mirrors. And now, hawks are using traffic signals to hunt down prey, according to a study published today in the journal Frontiers in Ethology.  The story starts with Vladimir Dinets, a zoologist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the study’s author, and an intersection in West Orange, New Jersey, near his home. As a zoologist, he had long been interested in animals’ perspective on and understanding of urban environments—and in birds’ relationship with cars, in particular. Scientists have previously observed ravens patrol American highways waiting for roadkill and songbirds using cars to hide from predators. Dinets was on the lookout for these interesting interactions when a young Cooper’s hawk migrated into his neighborhood and started doing something brilliant. The intersection wasn’t particularly busy, even during rush hour, Dinets wrote in a guest editorial for Frontiers in Ethology. But sometimes, a pedestrian would cross the street, causing cars to pile up all the way to a small, bushy tree down the block. The pedestrian “walk” signal would also make a sound that indicated it was time to walk. One morning, Dinets saw the hawk emerge from the tree, fly very low above the line of cars, cross the street between the cars, and then dive to get something near one of the houses. Then the same thing happened again. And again. It turns out that the family that lived in that house near the bushy tree liked to have dinner in their front yard. In response, birds—like sparrows and doves—would flock there to claim the leftover crumbs. That made for easy pickings for the hawk, who would swoop down into the yard to catch said sparrows and doves. But, curiously, the hawk only did this when cars were lined up along the block all the way to the tree. Dinets eventually figured out that the line of cars provided cover for the hawk, and that the hawk had learned to recognize the sound of the pedestrian “walk” signal. As soon as a pedestrian pressed the button, the hawk would fly from wherever it had been hanging out and into the small, bushy tree. It would then wait for cars to pile up before using the line of cars as cover to sneak up on its prey. The hawk had, apparently, learned to use the pedestrian signal as a cue to start heading over to the house crowded with defenseless birds, according to Dinets. “That meant that the hawk understood the connection between the sound and the eventual car queue length,” Dinets explained. The hawk also apparently had a good mental map of the neighborhood. The hawk (or what Dinets thinks was the same hawk) returned the next year and used the same strategy to hunt. Eventually, though, the family moved away and the signal stopped working, so Dinets hasn’t seen any super smart hawks hunting near his home since. Life is tough for birds in cities—they have to avoid windows, weave through cars, and deal with noise. But this study shows at least one way that they’ve adapted to urban living. “I think my observations show that Cooper’s hawks manage to survive and thrive there, at least in part, by being very smart,” Dinets wrote. Daily Newsletter You May Also Like By Ellyn Lapointe Published May 21, 2025 By Ed Cara Published May 15, 2025 By Isaac Schultz Published May 14, 2025 By Isaac Schultz Published May 6, 2025 Partner content with Bird Buddy Updated May 1, 2025 By Isaac Schultz Published May 5, 2025

Forward-looking: While night vision is typically associated with bulky goggles that display only monochromatic images, recent experiments suggest the technology could be miniaturized for everyday eyewear. New applications of thin, lightweight filters may allow humans to perceive both infrared and visible light simultaneously. Contact lenses and eyeglasses could one day enable people to see beyond the natural visible light spectrum. Eyewear equipped with this special technology holds promise for enhancing visibility in challenging conditions and introducing new ways to convey information. Researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China are developing contact lenses that allow mice and humans to perceive infrared light in multiple colors. Unlike traditional night vision goggles, these lenses don't require an external power source. Additionally, because they are transparent, they don't block visible light – allowing wearers to combine natural and infrared vision. In the image above, the lenses change how letters appear under near-infrared light (bottom) compared to visible light (top), in one case revealing a previously hidden letter. In another experiment, mirrors that appeared monochromatic in visible light became more colorful under near-infrared, while those showing color in visible light shifted hues under NIR. The study, published in Cell, describes how upconversion nanoparticles convert light just outside the visible spectrum – known as near-infrared – into visible red, green, and blue light. Test subjects wearing the lenses were able to detect previously invisible colors and perceive near-infrared light beams. // Related Stories Although night vision is the most obvious application, the technology could also enhance visibility in foggy or dusty environments. Smart devices could use it to assist during emergencies, and wearers could receive information encoded in infrared light. The technology may also benefit individuals with color blindness. Although the experimental lenses do not yet provide a sharp infrared image, specially designed eyeglasses incorporating this technology can enhance image quality, and nanoparticle development is ongoing. Interestingly, wearing the lenses allows near-infrared light to be seen even with closed eyes, as infrared light penetrates eyelids more effectively than visible light – making near-infrared information clearer. The study parallels a paper published last year by Australian researchers, who used metasurface-based upconversion technology to demonstrate eyeglasses that merge infrared and visible light. Their goal: to create thinner, lighter, and more practical night vision gear. Continued research aims to expand access to more of the infrared spectrum.