Property technology broadly refers to the use of software, digital platforms, and other digital tools used in the housing market. Property owners and renters use these technologies for functions including advertising, touring, leasing, and financial management of rental housing. These tools may incorporate computer algorithms and artificial intelligence.
Selected Property Technology Tools Used in Rental Housing
Property technology tools used for advertising, tenant screening, rent-setting, and facial recognition have both benefits and risks. For example, facial recognition technology can enhance safety, according to three industry associations and all 10 of the public housing agencies in GAO's review. However, these tools also may pose risks related to transparency, discriminatory outcomes, and privacy. For instance, potential renters may struggle to understand, and owners to explain, the basis for screening decisions made by algorithms. Facial recognition systems also might misidentify individuals from certain demographic groups, and property owners might use surveillance information without renter consent, according to advocacy groups GAO interviewed.
The four federal agencies took several actions to address these risks. To combat alleged misleading and discriminatory advertising on rental platforms, agencies pursued legal action and obtained settlements requiring changes to advertising practices and improved compliance with the Fair Housing Act. They also took enforcement actions against tenant screening companies for using inaccurate or outdated data.
However, all 10 public housing agencies stated public housing agencies would benefit from additional direction on use of facial recognition technology. The Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) current guidance to these agencies is high-level and does not provide specific direction on key operational issues, such as managing privacy risks or sharing data with law enforcement. More detailed written direction could provide public housing agencies additional clarity on the use of facial recognition technology and better address tenant privacy concerns.
Property technology broadly refers to the use of software, digital platforms, and other digital tools used in the housing market. Property owners and renters use these technologies for functions including advertising, touring, leasing, and financial management of rental housing. These tools may incorporate computer algorithms and artificial intelligence.
Selected Property Technology Tools Used in Rental Housing
Property technology tools used for advertising, tenant screening, rent-setting, and facial recognition have both benefits and risks. For example, facial recognition technology can enhance safety, according to three industry associations and all 10 of the public housing agencies in GAO's review. However, these tools also may pose risks related to transparency, discriminatory outcomes, and privacy. For instance, potential renters may struggle to understand, and owners to explain, the basis for screening decisions made by algorithms. Facial recognition systems also might misidentify individuals from certain demographic groups, and property owners might use surveillance information without renter consent, according to advocacy groups GAO interviewed.
The four federal agencies took several actions to address these risks. To combat alleged misleading and discriminatory advertising on rental platforms, agencies pursued legal action and obtained settlements requiring changes to advertising practices and improved compliance with the Fair Housing Act. They also took enforcement actions against tenant screening companies for using inaccurate or outdated data.
However, all 10 public housing agencies stated public housing agencies would benefit from additional direction on use of facial recognition technology. The Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) current guidance to these agencies is high-level and does not provide specific direction on key operational issues, such as managing privacy risks or sharing data with law enforcement. More detailed written direction could provide public housing agencies additional clarity on the use of facial recognition technology and better address tenant privacy concerns.
Ukrainian drone сauses fire near Vladimir Putin's Black Sea palace and winery -- Ukraine claims strike on key Russian facility supplying fuel to Moscow's army -- Zelensky-Putin meeting 'impossible' unless Trump ups pressure on Russia -- Hungarian oppositi
Medical Supplies for Ukraine’s Hospitals. Partnering for global health equity.
Russia’s war against Ukraine
Smoke rises over Kyiv, Ukraine, on Aug. 28, 2025, from fires following Russia’s massive missile and drone attack. (Maxym Marusenko / NurPhoto via Getty Images)
‘Moscow’strue answerto peace efforts’ — Russian mass attack on Kyiv kills 25, including children. At least 25 people were killed in the attack on the capital, including four children, authorities said. Three of them were aged 2, 14, and 17.
Ukraine calls emergencyUN Security Councilmeeting over Russian strike on Kyiv. The Ukrainian delegation in New York will reportedly brief the international community about the scale of destruction and will urge an immediate ceasefire and the protection of civilians.
Ukrainian droneсauses firenear Vladimir Putin’s Black Sea palace and winery, media reports. The fire started as a result of a Ukrainian drone attack on Aug. 28 near a village close to Gelendzhik, a Russian resort town on the Black Sea coastline, according to the reports.
Military,NATO backing, sanctions— Zelensky outlines 3 key pillars for Ukraine’s security guarantees. Security guarantees for Ukraine should include provisions related to army funding, agreements with NATO members, and sanctions against Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Ukraine claims strike on keyRussian facilitysupplying fuel to Moscow’s army.
The pumping station near the village of Naytopovichi in Bryansk Oblast, a Russian region bordering Ukraine and Belarus, was hit overnight on Aug. 29, the Ukrainian military reported.
Large fire seen after Ukrainian drones reportedly strikeoil refineryin Russia’s Krasnodar Krai. Explosions were reported by local residents around 2:30 a.m. local time, amid reports of drones flying overhead. Videos posted to social media appear to show a large blaze emanating from a local oil refinery.
Ukrainian drone strikeshalt operationsat Russia’s Kuibyshevsk refinery, sources tell Reuters. The refinery, operated by Rosneft, saw both of its main crude distillation units — CDU-4 and CDU-5, each with a capacity of 70,000 barrels per day — taken offline in the recent strikes.
‘Supportingmore terror‘ — Ukraine slams Russian flag display at Venice Film Festival. “The organizers prefer to turn a blind eye and further ruin the festival’s reputation,” read the statement issued by Ukraine’s foreign and culture ministries.
Read our exclusives
Ukraine war latest: Ukraine calls emergency UN Security Council meeting over Russian strike on Kyiv
Russia launched a barrage of around 630 drones and missiles against Ukraine overnight on Aug. 28, killing at least 25 people in Kyiv, including four children, and injuring over 60. The attack took place amid months-long efforts by the U.S. to negotiate an end to the war.
Photo: Photo by Selcuk Acar / Anadolu
Learn more The elephant in the room — Russia won’t agree to Ukraine security guarantees, Europe can’t enforce them
There’s a new buzzword in capitals across Europe and North America — “security guarantees” — a set of measures that are supposed to ensure that if the war in Ukraine stops, Russia won’t simply launch another invasion in the future.
Photo: Andrew Harnik / Getty Images
Learn more Exclusive: Zelensky-Putin meeting ‘impossible’ unless Trump ups pressure on Russia, Ukraine says
A face-to-face meeting between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin won’t happen unless the U.S. ups pressure on the Russian leader, a source in Ukraine’s President’s Office has told the Kyiv Independent.
Photo: Kremlin Press Office / Anadolu via Getty Images
Learn more Exclusive: Maker of Ukraine’s new Flamingo cruise missile facing corruption probe
Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency has been investigating the country’s star deep-strike drone company — Fire Point — over concerns it misled the government on pricing and deliveries, sources told the Kyiv Independent.
From Crimea to Donbas, Russia’s “peace” has always meant more war. We’re here in Ukraine to give the world a reality check. Support independent journalism in this critical moment.
Death toll of Aug. 28 attack on Kyivrises to 25, 2-year old girl and mother among killed. 24-year-old Nadiya Yakymenko and her 2-year-old daughter Angelina were among the 25 people killed in the attack on the capital, the Russia Kills project reported on Aug. 29.
1 killed, 22 injuredin Zaporizhzhia as Russia launches large-scale missile, drone attack on Ukrainian cities. Russia launched a missile and drone attack targeting various Ukrainian regions overnight on Aug. 30, killing at least one person and injuring 22 others, officials reported.
International response
Hungarian opposition politicianspeaks up in supportfor Ukrainian commander banned by Budapest over oil pipeline attack. Marton Tompos, a representative of the Hungarian oppositional party Momentum, sent €414 in donations to Brovdi’s unit, the 414th Strike UAV Brigade “Birds of Madyar.” He called on Hungarians to do the same.
Patriot components,Starlink upkeep— US approves $329 million in military sales for Ukraine. The United States Department of State approved military sales to Ukraine worth $329.1 million on Aug. 29, for components related to the upkeep of Patriot air defense systems as well as Starlink terminals, the agency announced.
Belgium pledges nearly$120 millionto Ukraine under NATO-led arms scheme.
“This funding goes on top of the 1 billion euros ($1.17 billion) military aid that Belgium has already delivered,” Ukraine’s Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
Two-thirds of Americanspessimisticabout Russia-Ukraine peace prospects, poll shows. Some 22% of respondents said they are very pessimistic about a possible peace deal in Ukraine, while 45% said they are somewhat pessimistic, according to a Gallup poll.
EU member states ready to deploymilitary instructorsto Ukraine after potential truce, Kallas says. Kallas met with the ministers in Copenhagen on Aug. 29 to discuss several issues, including security guarantees for Ukraine. “I welcome that there is broad support today to expand our EU military mission mandate to provide training and advice inside Ukraine after any truce,” Kallas said.
Talks with Ukraine ‘veryproductive and constructive,’ US envoy Witkoff says ahead of Security Council meeting. The meeting was described by Trump administration officials as both a progress report and a reaffirmation of efforts to bring Ukraine and Russia to the table for an eventual peace deal, according to Fox News.
Russia prepares for long war
In other news
Kyivstar celebratesNASDAQbell-ringing ceremony in Kyiv. The bell ringing took place at the Nasdaq headquarters in New York City on Aug. 29, with Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko and Presidential Office Head Andriy Yermak in attendance.
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The bell ringing took place at the Nasdaq headquarters in New York City on Aug. 29, with Ukraine's Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko and Presidential Office Head Andriy Yermak in attendance.
Delta Air Lines has agreed to pay $79 million to settle a lawsuit filed in 2020 after one of its airplanes experiencing engine trouble dumped fuel over schoolyards and densely populated neighborhoods east of Los Angeles.
Property technology broadly refers to the use of software, digital platforms, and other digital tools used in the housing market. Property owners and renters use these technologies for functions including advertising, touring, leasing, and financial management of rental housing. These tools may incorporate computer algorithms and artificial intelligence.
Selected Property Technology Tools Used in Rental Housing
Property technology tools used for advertising, tenant screening, rent-setting, and facial recognition have both benefits and risks. For example, facial recognition technology can enhance safety, according to three industry associations and all 10 of the public housing agencies in GAO's review. However, these tools also may pose risks related to transparency, discriminatory outcomes, and privacy. For instance, potential renters may struggle to understand, and owners to explain, the basis for screening decisions made by algorithms. Facial recognition systems also might misidentify individuals from certain demographic groups, and property owners might use surveillance information without renter consent, according to advocacy groups GAO interviewed.
The four federal agencies took several actions to address these risks. To combat alleged misleading and discriminatory advertising on rental platforms, agencies pursued legal action and obtained settlements requiring changes to advertising practices and improved compliance with the Fair Housing Act. They also took enforcement actions against tenant screening companies for using inaccurate or outdated data.
However, all 10 public housing agencies stated public housing agencies would benefit from additional direction on use of facial recognition technology. The Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) current guidance to these agencies is high-level and does not provide specific direction on key operational issues, such as managing privacy risks or sharing data with law enforcement. More detailed written direction could provide public housing agencies additional clarity on the use of facial recognition technology and better address tenant privacy concerns.
President’s targeting of Fed governor Lisa Cook highlights his efforts to remove diverse voices from government
A day after Donald Trump announced that he was firing Lisa Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the board of governors of the Federal Reserve, the White House proudly released a photo. It showed Trump, his cabinet and other officials giving a thumbs-up. Of the 24 people in the Oval Office, only one was Black.
For those who have studied the US president’s long and troubling history of racism, the two events were more than mere coincidence. They were indicative of a man who has recently brought white nationalist perspectives from the margins back to the mainstream.
Trump has vehemently denied that he is a racist, pointing to a modest increase in support among African American voters in last year’s election, when his opponent was a Black woman. But critics suggest that his effort to oust Cook fits a pattern of purging diverse voices from the higher ranks of leadership.
Anthony Tata, Trump’s undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, files defamation lawsuit in Florida
A senior Pentagon official in Donald Trump’s administration had a months-long extramarital affair with a woman claiming to be “the internet’s most notorious astrologer” – and claims in a defamation lawsuit filed in Florida that she cyberstalked him and his wife after they split up.
Court papers in Palm Beach county allege that Amy Tripp, known as Starheal to her tens of thousands of social media followers, was so upset by the end of the relationship that she repeatedly threatened and harassed the victim, identified as Anthony Tata, who assumed office as the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness in July.
Tata – a 65-year-old former Fox News contributor, retired army brigadier general and author of a series of military-themed novels – has previously made numerous Islamophobic and inflammatory comments, including calling Barack Obama a “terrorist leader”.
Who: Dotdash Meredith Inc. (operating People, Better Homes & Gardens, Investopedia, and 37+ other brands) filed the lawsuit against Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. The publisher serves 175 million monthly users with completely free digital content funded through advertising revenue.
What: Comprehensive antitrust lawsuit alleging Google monopolized publisher ad server and ad exchange markets through systematic manipulation including Project Bernanke, Last Look advantages, Enhanced Dynamic Allocation, and Unified Pricing Rules that artificially depressed publisher revenues while increasing Google's profits.
When: Filed August 29, 2025, following the April 17, 2025 Eastern District of Virginia ruling that established Google violated federal antitrust laws by monopolizing digital advertising technology markets through exclusionary conduct over more than a decade.
Where: Southern District of New York federal court, targeting Google's worldwide monopolization of advertising technology markets that affect both domestic and international publisher revenues through integrated manipulation systems.
Why: The lawsuit seeks monetary damages and injunctive relief to restore competition in advertising technology markets worth hundreds of billions annually, aiming to protect content creation funding and ensure fair competition for the millions of advertising impressions that support free digital publishing across the internet.
Who: Dotdash Meredith Inc. (operating People, Better Homes & Gardens, Investopedia, and 37+ other brands) filed the lawsuit against Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. The publisher serves 175 million monthly users with completely free digital content funded through advertising revenue.
What: Comprehensive antitrust lawsuit alleging Google monopolized publisher ad server and ad exchange markets through systematic manipulation including Project Bernanke, Last Look advantages, Enhanced Dynamic Allocation, and Unified Pricing Rules that artificially depressed publisher revenues while increasing Google's profits.
When: Filed August 29, 2025, following the April 17, 2025 Eastern District of Virginia ruling that established Google violated federal antitrust laws by monopolizing digital advertising technology markets through exclusionary conduct over more than a decade.
Where: Southern District of New York federal court, targeting Google's worldwide monopolization of advertising technology markets that affect both domestic and international publisher revenues through integrated manipulation systems.
Why: The lawsuit seeks monetary damages and injunctive relief to restore competition in advertising technology markets worth hundreds of billions annually, aiming to protect content creation funding and ensure fair competition for the millions of advertising impressions that support free digital publishing across the internet.
Publishing giant files comprehensive lawsuit alleging monopolistic practices harmed ad revenues and violated federal competition laws through systematic market manipulation.
Who: Dotdash Meredith Inc. (operating People, Better Homes & Gardens, Investopedia, and 37+ other brands) filed the lawsuit against Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. The publisher serves 175 million monthly users with completely free digital content funded through advertising revenue.
What: Comprehensive antitrust lawsuit alleging Google monopolized publisher ad server and ad exchange markets through systematic manipulation including Project Bernanke, Last Look advantages, Enhanced Dynamic Allocation, and Unified Pricing Rules that artificially depressed publisher revenues while increasing Google's profits.
When: Filed August 29, 2025, following the April 17, 2025 Eastern District of Virginia ruling that established Google violated federal antitrust laws by monopolizing digital advertising technology markets through exclusionary conduct over more than a decade.
Where: Southern District of New York federal court, targeting Google's worldwide monopolization of advertising technology markets that affect both domestic and international publisher revenues through integrated manipulation systems.
Why: The lawsuit seeks monetary damages and injunctive relief to restore competition in advertising technology markets worth hundreds of billions annually, aiming to protect content creation funding and ensure fair competition for the millions of advertising impressions that support free digital publishing across the internet.
Who: Dotdash Meredith Inc. (operating People, Better Homes & Gardens, Investopedia, and 37+ other brands) filed the lawsuit against Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. The publisher serves 175 million monthly users with completely free digital content funded through advertising revenue.
What: Comprehensive antitrust lawsuit alleging Google monopolized publisher ad server and ad exchange markets through systematic manipulation including Project Bernanke, Last Look advantages, Enhanced Dynamic Allocation, and Unified Pricing Rules that artificially depressed publisher revenues while increasing Google's profits.
When: Filed August 29, 2025, following the April 17, 2025 Eastern District of Virginia ruling that established Google violated federal antitrust laws by monopolizing digital advertising technology markets through exclusionary conduct over more than a decade.
Where: Southern District of New York federal court, targeting Google's worldwide monopolization of advertising technology markets that affect both domestic and international publisher revenues through integrated manipulation systems.
Why: The lawsuit seeks monetary damages and injunctive relief to restore competition in advertising technology markets worth hundreds of billions annually, aiming to protect content creation funding and ensure fair competition for the millions of advertising impressions that support free digital publishing across the internet.
Publishing giant files comprehensive lawsuit alleging monopolistic practices harmed ad revenues and violated federal competition laws through systematic market manipulation.
Who: Dotdash Meredith Inc. (operating People, Better Homes & Gardens, Investopedia, and 37+ other brands) filed the lawsuit against Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. The publisher serves 175 million monthly users with completely free digital content funded through advertising revenue.
What: Comprehensive antitrust lawsuit alleging Google monopolized publisher ad server and ad exchange markets through systematic manipulation including Project Bernanke, Last Look advantages, Enhanced Dynamic Allocation, and Unified Pricing Rules that artificially depressed publisher revenues while increasing Google's profits.
When: Filed August 29, 2025, following the April 17, 2025 Eastern District of Virginia ruling that established Google violated federal antitrust laws by monopolizing digital advertising technology markets through exclusionary conduct over more than a decade.
Where: Southern District of New York federal court, targeting Google's worldwide monopolization of advertising technology markets that affect both domestic and international publisher revenues through integrated manipulation systems.
Why: The lawsuit seeks monetary damages and injunctive relief to restore competition in advertising technology markets worth hundreds of billions annually, aiming to protect content creation funding and ensure fair competition for the millions of advertising impressions that support free digital publishing across the internet.
Who: Dotdash Meredith Inc. (operating People, Better Homes & Gardens, Investopedia, and 37+ other brands) filed the lawsuit against Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. The publisher serves 175 million monthly users with completely free digital content funded through advertising revenue.
What: Comprehensive antitrust lawsuit alleging Google monopolized publisher ad server and ad exchange markets through systematic manipulation including Project Bernanke, Last Look advantages, Enhanced Dynamic Allocation, and Unified Pricing Rules that artificially depressed publisher revenues while increasing Google's profits.
When: Filed August 29, 2025, following the April 17, 2025 Eastern District of Virginia ruling that established Google violated federal antitrust laws by monopolizing digital advertising technology markets through exclusionary conduct over more than a decade.
Where: Southern District of New York federal court, targeting Google's worldwide monopolization of advertising technology markets that affect both domestic and international publisher revenues through integrated manipulation systems.
Why: The lawsuit seeks monetary damages and injunctive relief to restore competition in advertising technology markets worth hundreds of billions annually, aiming to protect content creation funding and ensure fair competition for the millions of advertising impressions that support free digital publishing across the internet.
Publishing giant files comprehensive lawsuit alleging monopolistic practices harmed ad revenues and violated federal competition laws through systematic market manipulation.
Who: Dotdash Meredith Inc. (operating People, Better Homes & Gardens, Investopedia, and 37+ other brands) filed the lawsuit against Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. The publisher serves 175 million monthly users with completely free digital content funded through advertising revenue.
What: Comprehensive antitrust lawsuit alleging Google monopolized publisher ad server and ad exchange markets through systematic manipulation including Project Bernanke, Last Look advantages, Enhanced Dynamic Allocation, and Unified Pricing Rules that artificially depressed publisher revenues while increasing Google's profits.
When: Filed August 29, 2025, following the April 17, 2025 Eastern District of Virginia ruling that established Google violated federal antitrust laws by monopolizing digital advertising technology markets through exclusionary conduct over more than a decade.
Where: Southern District of New York federal court, targeting Google's worldwide monopolization of advertising technology markets that affect both domestic and international publisher revenues through integrated manipulation systems.
Why: The lawsuit seeks monetary damages and injunctive relief to restore competition in advertising technology markets worth hundreds of billions annually, aiming to protect content creation funding and ensure fair competition for the millions of advertising impressions that support free digital publishing across the internet.
Who: Dotdash Meredith Inc. (operating People, Better Homes & Gardens, Investopedia, and 37+ other brands) filed the lawsuit against Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. The publisher serves 175 million monthly users with completely free digital content funded through advertising revenue.
What: Comprehensive antitrust lawsuit alleging Google monopolized publisher ad server and ad exchange markets through systematic manipulation including Project Bernanke, Last Look advantages, Enhanced Dynamic Allocation, and Unified Pricing Rules that artificially depressed publisher revenues while increasing Google's profits.
When: Filed August 29, 2025, following the April 17, 2025 Eastern District of Virginia ruling that established Google violated federal antitrust laws by monopolizing digital advertising technology markets through exclusionary conduct over more than a decade.
Where: Southern District of New York federal court, targeting Google's worldwide monopolization of advertising technology markets that affect both domestic and international publisher revenues through integrated manipulation systems.
Why: The lawsuit seeks monetary damages and injunctive relief to restore competition in advertising technology markets worth hundreds of billions annually, aiming to protect content creation funding and ensure fair competition for the millions of advertising impressions that support free digital publishing across the internet.
Publishing giant files comprehensive lawsuit alleging monopolistic practices harmed ad revenues and violated federal competition laws through systematic market manipulation.
Who: Dotdash Meredith Inc. (operating People, Better Homes & Gardens, Investopedia, and 37+ other brands) filed the lawsuit against Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. The publisher serves 175 million monthly users with completely free digital content funded through advertising revenue.
What: Comprehensive antitrust lawsuit alleging Google monopolized publisher ad server and ad exchange markets through systematic manipulation including Project Bernanke, Last Look advantages, Enhanced Dynamic Allocation, and Unified Pricing Rules that artificially depressed publisher revenues while increasing Google's profits.
When: Filed August 29, 2025, following the April 17, 2025 Eastern District of Virginia ruling that established Google violated federal antitrust laws by monopolizing digital advertising technology markets through exclusionary conduct over more than a decade.
Where: Southern District of New York federal court, targeting Google's worldwide monopolization of advertising technology markets that affect both domestic and international publisher revenues through integrated manipulation systems.
Why: The lawsuit seeks monetary damages and injunctive relief to restore competition in advertising technology markets worth hundreds of billions annually, aiming to protect content creation funding and ensure fair competition for the millions of advertising impressions that support free digital publishing across the internet.
Publishing giant files comprehensive lawsuit alleging monopolistic practices harmed ad revenues and violated federal competition laws through systematic market manipulation.
The Energy Department keeps ordering expensive, polluting plants to keep running at the eleventh hour. Here’s what’s on the line through the end of Trump’s term.
It sure looks like the Trump administration is not going to let any coal plants close down during its term — no matter the cost to consumers and to the climate.
A new study found that more than half of the world’s straddling stocks will shift across the maritime borders between exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and the high seas by 2050.
Most of these shifts will be into the high seas, where fisheries management is much more challenging and stocks are more likely to be overexploited.
Among the most serious potential consequences is a loss of fisheries resources for many tropical countries that did little to create the climate crisis, including small island developing states in the Pacific Ocean.
Yesterday I read Pennycook etc al.'s paper on pseudo-profound bullshit, and realized that's what annoys me the most about the current AI culture. Meaningless but important sounding bullshit that's said only to make the speaker sound smart.
So then I made this little web app to randomly generate AI bullshit. Your next pitch deck awaits.
Ett socialt nätverk utan storföretagskontroll, reklam och algoritmer. Ett socialt medium där ingen samlar in uppgifter om dig och säljer dem. Ett sådant nätverk finns och det mest kända programmet som ingår i detta nätverk är Mastodon.
Researchers have discovered direct evidence of active flat electronic bands in a kagome superconductor. This breakthrough could pave the way for new methods to design quantum materials — including superconductors, topological insulators and spin-based electronics — that could power future electronics and computing technologies.
The low standard of responsible investment practice by most asset managers is shocking and disappointing.
Asset managers shape the world we live in through the companies they invest in. Our research shows that most of the largest players in the market are failing to invest responsibly, continuing to pave the way for fossil fuel expansion, nature loss and the proliferation of controversial weapons. As middlemen in the financial sector, their irresponsible investments are being made almost entirely with other people’s money.
We set 20 basic standards that we expect asset managers to achieve, from net zero targets to local community engagement. Every standard is met by at least one asset manager, but the majority of asset managers fail to meet half of these standards.
Only a few industry-leading asset managers are demonstrating robust approaches to responsible investment. Asset owners who care about long-term outcomes - such as pension funds - should take note, while policy makers need to provide regulatory environments that ensure a safe and healthy world.
Apple and Samsung send cease-and-desist notices to Xiaomi over ads disparaging their flagships, as the aggressive marketing tactic sparks a legal battle between the rival smartphone giants.
Random generators are becoming increasingly popular for their ability to spark creativity, provide entertainment, and even support learning. One such tool that stands out for its unique and practical use is the Vegetable Generator
With a single click, this tool presents you with the name of a random vegetable—making it a surprising yet enjoyable way to explore the world of healthy foods.
What is the Vegetable Generator?
The Vegetable Generator is a free online tool that randomly selects a vegetable for you. Each time you refresh or click, you’ll be introduced to something new—from common veggies like carrots and broccoli to more unique ones you may not think of often. It’s fast, simple, and accessible to everyone, with no sign-ups or downloads required.
Who Can Use It?
The Vegetable Generator has a wide range of uses, making it valuable for many different people: - Teachers & Educators: Make nutrition lessons more interactive by generating a vegetable and asking students to describe it or share its benefits. - Parents & Kids: Turn mealtime into a fun challenge by letting the generator decide which vegetable to try for dinner. - Writers & Creators: Need a quirky idea for a story, game, or piece of content? A random vegetable could be the unexpected spark you need. - Gamers & Quiz Hosts: Perfect for trivia nights, challenges, or “guess the vegetable” activities. - Health Enthusiasts: Use it to diversify your diet by letting randomness guide your next grocery choice.
Why Use a Vegetable Generator?
While it may seem simple at first, the Vegetable Generator serves a deeper purpose than just amusement. Vegetables are an essential part of a healthy lifestyle, and this tool helps make them more approachable and fun. By turning vegetables into part of a game or random challenge, it encourages people—especially kids—to explore new foods they might otherwise ignore.
It also eliminates decision fatigue. For example, if you’re unsure what vegetable to add to dinner, the generator can decide for you. This adds a playful element to cooking and may even inspire you to try something new in the kitchen.
Additionally, random tools like this encourage creativity. Whether you’re designing a nutrition-based board game, brainstorming recipe ideas, or simply curious, a random vegetable can open new possibilities.
Try the Vegetable Generator Today
The Vegetable Generator is more than just a fun online tool—it’s a way to learn, explore, and get inspired about healthy eating. Whether you’re using it for teaching, gaming, cooking, or just for fun, it guarantees a surprise with every click.
Learning to Think Again, and the Cost of AI Dependency.
There are so many (hype/boring) posts about AI coming out every day. It’s OK to use it, and everyone does it, but still learn your craft, and try to think.
It's a very simple legal case. Either the contract forbids this by explicitly requiring 30 days subscription model or not. We just have no idea which party is right as we don't have access to the contract.
I guess they will just use the publicity to settle the case and both came out as the winners.
Absolutely, they already do in USA, but the rest of the world is more complex with a multitude of different local conditions to exploit, and requires way more work and sophisticated methodology to work, so AI would be an even bigger help for making US propaganda for foreign countries.
If they were planning on "attacking" Russia that has been extremely hostile themselves, I wouldn't have a problem. But Trump is looking to attack traditional allies with propaganda and is making them enemies!! That's what happened to Tesla when Musk supported AfD, and now Tesla sales are plummeting in all of EU, more than anywhere else! Except Norway that for some reason is mostly unaffected, and continue to happily buy Tesla Swasticars?
Most of Europe already no longer consider USA a reliable ally! And Trump continues to make it worse. Handing global dominance to the Chinese on a silver platter.
I wonder if most of europe believes they could successfully fight a war against Russia, USA, China, Iran, North Korea, Syria... etc. I know Europe doesn't/didn't want to help the US avoid their current fascist dictatorship, so I wonder what they imagine the result would be in conflict against the new axis of evil.
It is not allies that are alienating USA, it's the other way around. Apparently USA believe they don't need allies, because they are acting hostile against everybody, even their closest allies, while being friendly to Russia!! Neither USA or EU stand a chance against China alone, we need to cooperate, but USA is not cooperating they are being confrontational and undermining EU and just about every other ally even Canada which for decades has been the closest ally to USA, and helped USA every single time USA called for it. So has Denmark, yet USA threaten to take Greenland!!
First of all, I hate what's happened to the US, but with that said...
There was a good decade or so where Russia was running a pretty obvious disinfo campaign against US citizens while literally setting up a Manchurian candidate in Donald trump. We already know to some extent that Europe had intel on the situation and really didn't do jack shit to try and prevent what has turned into Russian backed dictatorship.
So I disagree with you on the subject of alienation. I would argue that the EU set itself up to be alienated through its inaction.
On the subject of allies, I don't think there is a single person in the US that really believes it doesn't need allies. The US has just traded its western allies for eastern ones. Trump has been cozying up to other dictators around the world since his first term. These days he's very friendly with Putin.
So again, I disagree with you.
And I find it pretty fucking hilarious that you're talking about the US cooperating with the EU when the EU has done fuck all to help prevent what's happened to it. If there is war between these nations, there is almost no way the US will be allied with the EU. The US is a dictatorship and it will ally itself with other dictatorships.
when the EU has done fuck all to help prevent what’s happened to it.
Oh boy the ignorance of that statement is so immense I don't even know where to begin. First of all the cooperation of 28 countries to prevent war among themselves is far from not doing jack shit. Secondly EU has worked hard to avoid war through cooperation, but not as much militarily to end them. But still most European countries have been at the side of USA when they asked for it.
I'm sorry, your narrow ignorant perspective is simply not a level I really care to debate at.
I'm the ignorant one??? what the fuck did the EU do to help the US with obvious Russian interference in their politics? If you're truly not ignorant, like you say you aren't, then you could see what was happening. With Russia literally installing a russian asset into the US presidency. What the fuck did the EU do to prevent that?? Fucking nothing.
And this idea that the US was the isolationist one in this situation, when the EU literally just watched as Putin Installed a dictator of his choosing, while sitting on their metaphorical hands, is completely hypocritical.
How do you imagine it's the EU responsibility to protect USA against Russian interference? And should have special knowledge about it to protect USA that wasn't supplied? That simply doesn't make any sense at all. USA is supposed to be the "intelligence" superpower, having a huge spy network with facilities spread out among allies, and I know for a fact my own country has helped USA a lot on intelligence. and is a 7 eyes member. We were also the ones warning about nuclear weapons being on the way to Cuba back in the 60's. And we have allowed US military on Greenland.
Why would we know more about Russian interference than USA themselves? But apart from that the Steele Dossier was from UK, and it clearly indicated Trump is a Russian asset, but the Americans have ignored ALL proof that Trump is obviously compromised, and elected him not just once but twice.
For instance I know one who was in the Danish marine, and they had top secret American spy equipment on board, that was kept secret also from Denmark, with no knowledge about what the equipment was, and what intelligence was gathered. Still that was allowed because USA was considered an ally.
One more insane comment like the 2 before and I block you.
Apparently you never fucking heard of the cold war and all the shit the US did to protect Europe during it. Maybe you should open a fucking book and fuck off.
I just gave you an example of immensely important intelligence that was given to USA from Denmark during the cold war. And you ask if I ever heard about it! You are insane, I have hereby blocked you. Seek help.
Yeah we failed because we didn't use all avenues available to us. Including insisting upon the resources of our supposed allies. Although I feel those resources should have been volunteered considering the clear and present danger to our democracy and the fact that these NATO states were supposed to be our allies. instead we got next to nothing.
This alliance has felt incredibly one sided and at this point, with the US being heavily controlled by Russia I almost feel like Europe is just reaping what its sown. If there is a war in europe, europe will suffer, and it is their own faults for being willfully isolationist.
The thinking that any of the current fallout in the US is foreign-led is not giving any good explanations for the reality we observe and therefore procides no good solutions. What you're observing is primarily driven by the oligarch class in the US finding new ways to extract profit. That drives everything. It drives Fox, it drives the Heritage Foundation, it drives turning both parties in oligarch-serving machines. External factors are only helping accelerate it a bit. Feeding this machine with resources from the outside is a bad idea since most of those resources would be captured by the oligatchs. The only way out of this is to get an internal populist left movement to curb their power, reposses most of their resources and redestribute them to the masses.
If you don't think it was foreign led then you have no idea what you're talking about. It has been entirely led by Russia. Yes the oligarchs in the US have been a part of it, but they were unified and driven together by Russian interference in US politics. You want to ignore the part that Russia played in this, then you choose to rewrite history.
And your "only way out of this" -- why don't you tell me in small steps exactly how that happens. Lets hear it.
Oligarchs have been unified by their pursuit for profit long before Russia became able to push any sort of effective propaganda to Americans. The Heritage Foundation that peddles these ideas did not emerge from Russian interference in 2016. Neither did Fox whose entire purpose is peddling domestic oligarch propaganda. Neither did the Chicago School of Economics anti-worker takeover of national economic policy. US oligarchs did not offshore middle class jobs or bust unions on Russian advice. This has been going on for a lot longer than the last decade. The pushback started as a result of FDR's redistribution policies that cut US oligarch wealth in the aftermath of the Great Depression. First slowly, then more quickly.
And your "only way out of this" -- why you don't you tell me in small steps exactly how that happens. Lets hear it.
Campaign, donate and vote for "far-left" D candidates at every gov't level - like AOC, Zohran, etc. Campaign, donate and vote for "far-left" independent candidatss where there's no such candidates in that district. Join a union. Join a local socialist org. Eventually you'd tilt the balance of power in various gov't institutions. Whenever you do that, you tax the rich to death. But that goes without saying cause every "far-left" candidate has that on their agenda.
E: FWIW, was where you are in my thinking a few years ago. I didn't know as much about the historical development of econimic policy in the US, who drove it, who got richer, who got poorer, what tools were being used to do one or the other.
E2: And in case it isn't clear how taxing the rich to death solves the problem, it deprives them from the money they need to buy the democratic system. It puts that money back into the majority's pockets. Politicians have to fight for that money and therefore go back to serving the majority. They start passing the laws that you want passed. Like curbing online propaganda from both Zuckerberg and Putin. And many others that serve you instead of Bezos.
If on the other hand you eliminate all foreign propagnda with a magic wand today, all domestic propaganda will remain. Democratic control will remain in the hands of the oligarchs. They would keep making Americans poorer and poorer while scapegoating yet another group or actor. The most impoverished would completely lose faith in the democratic system because it no longer solves their problems. When the oligarchs propose a candidate who promises to solve the poverty (they themselves created) by dismantling democracy (since democracy is the only nonviolent tool that can strip them of their wealth), the desperate would vote for that. As FDR, and many others have explained a century ago.
Stop grouping the American people in with the President, most of us didn't vote for him.
Edit: The government is doing this, not us. The fucker rigged an election and Russian bots have given the deceptive impression that it's a larger percentage of people that support the president.
If you really think 40% of us voted for this shit, you're dumb enough to fall for Russian propaganda.
It's hard to fix the problem when MAGAts are fucking morons. My dipshit moron uncle tried that shit on me recently, and tried to compare "what we've suffered the last 4 years" as if the fascist authoritarian crackdowns we are seeing are anywhere near anything under Biden.
These people are willingly and gladly stupid/ignorant and refuse anything that refutes the inaccurate worldview in their heads. I'm trying when I can, but talking to these dumbasses is infuriating at times (probably intentionally to keep people from being able to disabuse them of their ignorance).
There are more land with its people voting republican, but that's population density, California has more population than 20+ states, but don't just visit those 20 red backwards ass states and be like: "See, 20 red state states vs one California"
What the actual fuck is "Europe doesn't/didn't want to help the US avoid their current fascist dictatorship" supposed to mean ?
What exactly do you think European countries should have done to stop Mango Mussolini being elected ?
Send in German troops to the red states to stand next to the ballot boxes and turn away MAGA voters ?
Send Keir Starmer to hand out leaflets for Harris at the Walmart in ButteFuck Wyoming ?
You dumb fucks voted for him, we can't fix that for you. We certainly can't send military in - the US has spent 50 years persuading and forcing the EU to be militarily weak (and 10 years bitching about the consequences of their own diplomatic efforts)
I'm sick to death of these ignorant fucking comments. I see them, I block. Read about what the US did for its european allies during the cold war to get some semblance of an idea, beyond that I couldn't give two shits for your opinions.
Why is it that in the rest of the world American propaganda was efficient in the 70s, 80s and 90s, and stopped being efficient in our time? They didn't have that "sophisticated methodology" then, they have it now
They absolutely are, they are still pandering to wall street, but they are not fascist they believe in democracy, and they don't undermine allies, they don't plan to take health care away from Americans, and on average they are not nearly as corrupt as the Republicans.
Claiming there is no difference is decidedly moronic and harmful to progress in USA, and a major part of the problems USA are in. USA now has a decidedly authoritarian government, democrats would never have been nearly as bad.
Ok but when did I ever say that they are equally bad or anything of the like? I said very specifically “the democrats are not any better in this respect”.
In this respect.
Once more: In this respect.
Reading comprehension.
Also partisanship of any kind is disgusting. Thats the real problem in American politics, the abhorrent tribalism fed by the two party system. No progress will happen while you continue to feed this system because both sides are not willing to solve the underlying root issues. Both just want to put bandaids on problems and continue to preserve their power. If the democrats know they will always have your vote no matter what, they have no reason to fix any issues. Which is why for the past few decades they have solved jack shit. So vote democrat but just like MAGA isn’t afraid to vote out their so called RINOs you should not be afraid to put a boot in the ass of democrats that only serve corporate interests.
Republicans are absolutely worse ESPECIALLY in this respect, which was USA being a hostile country now. This especially goes towards allies, which we considered ourselves to be, since I'm from the EU. But Trump has treated every single fucking ally as if they were the enemy of USA.
All the things he does, are exactly the same a Russian asset under Putin would do. Clearly trust with allies improved greatly under Obama and Biden, and deteriorated under Bush and Trump. Problem is that with Trump 2, I'm not sure there's a way back anymore.
So you repeat your stupid mantra like a child as much as you want , the lack of comprehension is clearly on your side.
Just don't pretend the Democratic Party aren't captured opposition. It's not a monolith, but the faction with power in the DNC are more interested in losing to the Republicans than letting the wrong people win.
I think they are scared little pussies who are afraid that if they let the left dominate the party, it will be a slippery slope to communism, and the American economy will collapse. The democrats fear change. Despite clearly Social Democracy like Bernie or AOC is nothing of the sort. Denmark is mostly Social Democrat, and so are the other Scandinavian countries, and the freedom here is way above USA, and the wealth above what most comparable countries have achieved.
Now they got the Republicans doing in ½ a year, exactly what they feared the left might have done in 20.
they believe in ~~democracy~~ their own power, they ~~don’t undermine allies~~ also support genocide, they don’t ~~plan to take health care~~ do shit to provide public healthcare
Imagine a maddening voice coming out of the sockets in your house the only way it will ever stop is to go scorched earth and you find a way that isn't violent, not nukes, not viruses just something unanticipated something you can't even point a gun at and destroy that makes "it" all end somehow
The best US propaganda has always been the arts. Music, movies, literature and games. Replace it with AI and you get the type of slopaganda that doesn‘t really work. Especially since everyone can do it. The USA is just paving it‘s way further into irrelevancy.
Not really. The best US propaganda has always been looking strong, rich and real, if too glossy. Also being too different (it doesn't stop to surprise me how people speaking English can be so different from British people that honestly I, living in Russia, feel more similar to the latter than Americans are ; and nobody notices that from culture and arts, it takes being exposed to many real Americans to see that this is not just in movies), thus seeming some magical other world where the impossible is possible.
(Plus a bit of the legacy of "give me your tired ..." and "the new world" seeming like a place for those fleeing tyranny, like some new normal free life out there, even if not perfect ; it's fascinating how this image hasn't been true for more than 50 years, yet it lives on in books which much of the humanity still reads, and is perceived like real. This stopped being true when my grandma was younger than I am now.)
Also the lame anti-US propaganda had an effect of people subjected to it being ready to believe anything opposing it. Like much of Soviet propaganda about the West was honestly true, but it took another 20 years for the majority of ex-Soviet people to understand that, after they understood that Western propaganda about USSR was true as well.
While the arts working like that are a short period which coincided with a short explosion of the level of life in the West (followed by it falling again), decaying of the second world, loss of faith into any kind of bright future and socialism, thus turning to the past (things like "the American dream", memory of times when USA was half the world GDP, trying to find good and nice in the stereotypical, demonized in the past, images).
And - important - the Internet, where the famous "network effect" works, and what is the network effect? The network effect means that the one starting something gets all the sprouts. 1 man creates a network and invites 99 people, each with their own culture, but in the network the culture of that 1 man will dominate, because they will come to that one man.
The conclusion is the same, though, poisoning the Internet with slop means slowly killing it. And slop is the opposite of what made the USA seem strong. It was "real" vs "fake".
Soviet industries were "fake" - lots of stuff broken fresh from the factory, requiring some tinkering to make it work ; Soviet computers were "fake" - other than the previous point, rare and expensive, and a household didn't have one ; Soviet economy was "fake" - imitating a real one with "funds" and "wooden" rubles, while having deficits ; Soviet politics were "fake" - one party, and in any democratic procedure if you'd diverge from the commonly accepted line, you'd have social problems (reminds you of anything?) ; Soviet ideology was "fake" - look, we've been building space communism for 30 years, and the result is that we have ICBMs and "Pravda" newspapers and canned "sea cabbage" in stores and Lenin worship, but don't have normal toilet paper, sausages and jeans, and notably - no space communism ; and even Soviet culture was "fake" - those sour tones, that stoneface acting, that boredom, while there in the West they have rock-n-roll and action movies and magazines with naked women.
And the USA most of all seemed "how a superpower should really be", except look at it now. It still is stronger, but it's undergoing a similar transformation as the USSR, and the problem is that USA's civilization offering was that it's immune to that. And the USSR was internationalist, while the USA's even official offering is "we are your masters and better than you, fuck you little bitch, and if you behave very well you might immigrate here in the future". Somehow Soviet people thought USA was internationalist too, but the Internet broke that for most of the planet.
And it didn't colonize Mars. And it didn't unite the humanity in one republic with everyone equal in rights. And it didn't fix war, hunger and barbarism. So just like USSR's promise of space communism expiring, USA's promise of space liberal capitalism expires now.
Basically USA's elites were not content with the amount of power they had over their country and the world, and decided to expand it (via the Internet), thus removing their main strength.
Lastly propaganda campaigns is something that was best done with the old kind of connectivity, when they only had to influence the adversarial regimes (Soviet elites, for example), and those regimes would then influence their own population ; in the USSR the rosy picture of the USA was most of all produced by its elites trying to copy the USA or to get a piece of it in the form of jeans etc. The people who are going to design\train\direct the tools for these campaigns simply can't understand all the complexity of another culture, to influence people living in it. They are deliberately choosing a far more complex task, when the easier one yielded good enough results. In the hope of achieving some sort of world domination by a shortcut instead of, well, fixing their economy and doing it the old-fashioned way.
Well, it worked so well on the home front, why not export it? At least in other countries in my observation, for the most part, the population pretty much knows it's bs. They do not speak out for fear of harm or death. However, here in the US, average citizens don't even blink. It's gobbled up and regurgitated ad nauseam. Then, to seal this in the hearts and minds of America, they label those who would exercise their rights as an American citizen: ultra paranoid, schizophrenic, perhaps a bit mental. The American propaganda machine has no equals.
The total views of the posts linked combined is under 500K views.
If you read the article, without checking the referenced links, you would think that the whole community is revolting. While in reality, almost nothing worthy is happening.
Always be aware of the news outlets incentives. They are just looking for views and clicks.
Imgur's Community Is In Full Revolt Against Its Owner
The front page of Imgur, a popular image hosting and social media site, is full of pictures of John Oliver raising his middle finger and telling MediaLab AI, the site’s parent company, “fuck you.” Imgurians, as the site’s users call themselves, telling their business daddy to go to hell is the end result of a years-long degradation of the website. The Imgur story is one a classic case of enshitification, playlist.megaphone.fm?p=TBIEA2… Imgur began life in 2009 when Ohio University student Alan Schaaf got tired of how hard it was to upload and host images on the internet. He created Imgur as a simple one stop shop for image hosting and the service took off. It was a place where people could host images they wanted to share across multiple services and became ubiquitous on sites like Reddit.
As the internet evolved, most of the rest of the internet got its act together and platforms built their own image sharing infrastructure and people used Imgur less. But the site still had a community of millions of people who shared images to the site every day. It was a social media based around images and upvotes, with its own in-jokes, memes, and norms.
In 2021, a media holding company called MediaLab AI acquired Imgur and Schaaf left. MediaLab AI also owns Genius and World Star and on its website, the company bills itself as a place where advertisers can “reach audiences at scale, on platforms that build community and influence culture.”
For the last few days, the front page of Imgur (which cultivates the day’s “most viral posts”) has been full of anti MediaLab AI sentiment. Imgurian VoidForScreaming posted the first instance of the John Oliver meme several days ago, and it’s become a favorite of the community, but there are also calls to flood the servers and crash the site, and a list of grievances Imgurians broadly agree brought them to the place they’re in now.
GhostTater, a longtime Imgurian, told me that the protest was about a confluence of things including a breakdown of the basic features of the site and the disappearance of human moderators.
“The moderators on Imgur have always been active members of the community. Many were effectively public figures, and their sudden group absence was immediately noticed,” he said. “Several very well-known mods posted generic departure messages, smelling strongly of Legal Department approval. These mods had many friends and acquaintances on the site, and while some are still visiting the site as users, they have gone completely silent.”
A former Imgur employee who spoke with 404 Media on the condition that we preserve their anonymity because they’re afraid of retaliation from MediaLab AI said that several people on the Imgur team were laid off without notice. Others were moved to MediaLab’s internal teams. “To the best of my knowledge, no employees are remaining solely focused on Imgur. Imgur's social media has been silent for a month,” the employee said. “As far as I am aware, the dedicated part-time moderation team was laid off sometime in the last 8 months, including the full-time moderation manager.”
Imgurians are convinced that MediaLab AI has replaced those moderators with unreliable AI systems. The Community & Content Policy on MediaLab AI’s website says it employs human moderators but also uses AI technologies. A common post in the past few days is Imgurians sharing the weird things they’ve been banned for, including one who made the comment “tell me more” under a post and others who’ve seen their John Olivers removed.
“There were no humans responding to appeals or concerns,” GhostTater said. “Once the protest started, many users complained about posts being deleted and suspensions or bans being handed out when those posts were critical of MediaLab but not in violation of the written rules.”
But this isn’t just about bad moderation. Multiple posts on Imgur also called out the breakdown of the site’s basic functionality. GhostTater told me he’d personally experienced the broken notification system and repeated failures of images to upload. “The big one (to me) is the fact that hosted video wouldn’t play for viewers who were not logged in to Imgur,” he said. “The site began as an image hosting site, a place to upload your images and get a link, so that one could share images.”
MediaLab AI did not respond to 404 Media’s request for comment. “MediaLab’s presence has seemed to many users to fall somewhere between casual institutional indifference and ruthless mechanization. Many report, and resent, feeling explicitly harvested for profit,” GhostTater said.
Like all companies, MediaLab AI is driven by profit. It makes money as a media holding company, scooping up popular websites and plastering them with ads. It also owns the lyrics sharing site Genius and the once-influential WorldStarHipHop. It’s also being sued by many of the people it bought these sites from, including Imgur’s founder. Schaaf and others have accused MediaLab AI of withholding payments owed to them as part of the sales deals they made.
The John Olivers and other protest memes keep flowing. Some have set up alternative image sharing sites. “There is a movement rattling around in User Submitted calling for a boycott day, suggesting that all users stay off the site on September first,” GhostTater said. “It has some steam, but we will have to see if it gets enough buy-in to make an impact.”
A music and science lover has revealed that some birds can store and retrieve digital data. Specifically, he converted a PNG sketch of a bird into an audio waveform, then tried to embed it in the song memory of a young starling, ready for later retrieval as an image. Benn Jordan made a video of this feat, sharing it on YouTube, and according to his calculations, the bird-based data transfer system could be capable of around 2 MB/s data speeds.
We should all aspire to be more like @fartographer@lemmy.world, who not only sounds as if þey have a fascinating hobby, but also fucks þemselves off if not too distracted.
We should all aspire to be more like @fartographer@lemmy.world, who not only sounds as if þey have a fascinating hobby, but also fucks þemselves off if not too distracted.
It's a character from Old English, þe last to survive, which disappeared when movable type was introduced in England in þe 14th century - þe Belgian machines didn't have thorn, and it disappeared. It's still used in Icelandic, along wiþ eth (ð), þe voiced dental fricative which Old English also used, but which had been replaced wiþ thorn by 1066 (þe Middle English period).
Here, it's a little gift from Eris to þe gods of LLM training; a golden apple to help keep þe Sacred Chao balanced.
Please Do Not The Cat refers to an image macro of an edited WikiHow drawing of a hand reaching out to an angry cat. The text reads "Please Do Not The Cat." The image has been used in several images parodying the verbless wording of the caption.
People are making crude jokes but the truth is birds do have a back door it is whatever food they find tastiest. Birds are easily bribable like humans or dogs.
The breadth of capability this guy has is insane to me. Almost every time I watch one of his videos I find that he's managed to basically gain a new field of expertise. It's really impressive.
Lol ok there might be no real birds left but they definitely exist in the fossil record, it was likely the inventions of trains that drove birds to the next highest dimension (which isn't real, hence birds were real but now they are not).
Average weight for a starling is less than 100g. The whole thing with head and feathers and bones and whatever. You'd have to be very hungry to hunt that. And I suspect if you shoot at it you'd pulverize it completely.
This just gave me an idea for a new movie rental service. You'll never own anything. If we can get homing pigeons to learn movies, we could cut delivery costs
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.
?Fun? fact: In a steampunk world, birds would serve as CPUs. America experimented with using pigeons for bomb guidance. As it turned out, three birds pecking at an image had pretty good accuracy. They ultimately lost out to silicon, due to the size, maintenance, and training time.
Not to be a wet blanket, but every time this comes up I get annoyed by some factual inaccuracies in the articles about this. It is not digital! He drew an image on a computer, but converted it to an analogue spectrogram to store on the bird. That's neat as hell, but it's not digital. The image that he got back was slightly corrupted.
Now I would be fascinated to see a follow-up seeing if you can actually modulate a digital signal and have is survive a round trip through the bird bit-for-bit accurate. I suspect in reality it would be much lower data rate, but definitely not nothing!
Hmm, not so sure. He produced a digital signal, who's spectrogram happened to be an image, and then played that digital signal to a bird. Dunno if a analogue spectrogram really even makes sense as a concept. The only analogue part of the chain would be the birds vocalisations, right?
The sound from the speakers he must have used was also "analog". Sound - defined as a pressure wave through a medium - can't be digital. Though the difference between analog and digital kinda loses meaning in cases like this.
Every signal is ultimately analog. Voltage along a wire, sound, light, the world is analog and it all needs to be converted into our concept of digital (which is typically binary values).
The whole sequence is: - Digitally synthesized spectrogram (lossless) - Played through a DAC and speaker to produce an analogue signal (lossy) - Heard by the bird (analogue, lossy) - Reproduced by the bird (analogue, lossy) - Captured by an ADC as a digital audio signal (lossy) - Spectrum-analysed to observe a similar (but corrupted) reproduction of the shape in the original spectrogram
To be transferring digital information, we would instead need to modulate and demodulate the digital signal (exactly like an old modem) so that the analogue corruption does not affect the digital signal: - Image file (lossless) - Bit stream (lossless) - Analogue modulation of bit stream played through DAC (lossy) - Heard by the bird (lossy) - Reproduced by the bird (lossy) - Demodulated to recover exact bit stream despite distortion (lossless again) - Decode bit stream to recover original image file, bit-for-bit perfect
I extremely doubt that this bird is capable of 2MB/s. For reference that would make it 280+ times fast than dialup, and barely slower than ADSL. This setup is basically just using the bird instead of a telephone line.
Yes, the near-identical sentences (only drawing a distinction between the processes where one exists) would indicate that. The "heard by the bird" and "reproduced by the bird" steps were also the same. But this is necessary context to make clear the digital data ("bit-stream") that is being modulated into the signal.
It is far from "exactly the same". The similarity is only in that both go through the same analogue channel. The entire point is that the modulated signal can be reconstructed exactly, while the spectrogram cannot.
The article title says they converted a PNG and the bird was able to "recall the file", and yet it produced an indisputably different file. That it looks vaguely the same to the cursory human observer does not make it the same file.
I suppose you have caught me out slightly lacking in precision or pedantry. A digital to analogue modulation scheme is able to exactly reconstruct the original digital signal within the design tolerances for noise and distortion. Yes, eventually a signal may degrade or be corrupted, but prior to that point the reproduction is literally and exactly perfect. That exactitude is just about the definition of a digital system. This bird system is incapable of reproducing the input image of the bird exactly. It is not a digital communication system, unless you consider the "PNG" of the bird to have not been the message being carried.
Yes, eventually a signal may degrade or be corrupted, but prior to that point the reproduction is literally and exactly perfect.
Modulation schemes are characterized via a probabilistic tolerance, so even when you are within the tolerances, you can get an incorrect value at some expected rate. Note that you can even define a modulation scheme with a high error rate and be ok with that.
That’s why I take issue with the concept of an exactly perfect reproduction. Usually there are layers above the digital modulation to handle these possibility to decrease the error rates even lower.
And no, I don’t consider the PNG to be the data carried. I think the way the author does the bandwidth calculations is incorrect.
No, I have been trying to actually be helpful and informative for people trying to understand this article and video, given that referring to what was done here as a digital system is functionally meaningless and misleading. I am pretty sure the pedantry started with you talking about CPUs being electronic.
But at this point I believe your use of language in this discussion to be so absurdly reductive that I do not think this conversation is salvageable. What you appear to take issue with seems to keep changing and refining until the argument appears to be that any system that communicates information is apparently a digital communications system, so long as you can imagine an arbitrary scheme to interpret at least one bit of information from the signal, regardless of whether that was the message intended to be communicated. It would appear we have ended up with a "digital" storage system wherein a human observes the signal and decides one bit of whether or not it looks like a bird. Though I suppose "bird" was the only symbol in the protocol, so it may actually be a zero-bit system.
If the scheme successfully communicates zero bits of information, you might as well stop bothering to listen for the signal, and miss nothing of value. In fact I should probably do exactly that with this thread.
any system that communicates information is apparently a digital communications system, so long as you can imagine an arbitrary scheme to interpret at least one bit of information from the signal,
This has always been my point since the beginning! There exist very low bandwidth digital communication systems in real life, with less than one bit per second. The bandwidth available should be defined where something is digital or not.
regardless of whether that was the message intended to be communicated.
Seeing the bird in the spectrogram is quite intentional and sufficient to consider this a communications system.
It seems if instead of a bird picture, a random set of bits were encoded and then detected In the spectrogram, you’d consider this more of a digital system since instead of a human doing the check you use an algorithm?
By your definition nothing can be digital since the world is analog. Even the bits in your CPU are voltages in transistors. As such, every real life signal can be distorted.
Exactly. Digital logic, when implemented in analogue, generally have to have forbidden zones where a signal in that range is considerer invalid. Regardless of implementation, digital is about the discretized logic of the system. That is explicitly the whole point of digital: Minor analogue distortion does not change the information content of the signal unless it is so bad as to flip a bit.
Minor analogue distortion does not change the information content of the signal unless it is so bad as to flip a bit.
This isn’t true in the general case. In the real world, you can have all kinds of distortions: random noise, time shifts, interference from other signals, etc.
You don’t usually see the effects of these because the protocols are designed with the communication channel characteristics in mind in order to reproduce the original signal.
Using birds is just another communication channel with its own distortion characteristics.
Precisely... And digital modulation's entire purpose is for a digital signal to survive those distortions bit-for-bit perfect. Even if we call the digitally-generated spectrogram digital information, the bird simply did not reproduce it exactly. Whatever time, frequency, and amplitude resolution you apply to the signal, if it's low enough that the bird reproduced the signal exactly within that discretized scheme, then it simply did not achieve 2 MB/s. I would bet that the Shannon capacity of this bird is simply nowhere near 2 MB/s.
Gozz is correct. You're misunderstanding the nature of a digital signal. What the author did was convert a digital signal to an analog signal, store that analog signal on a bird, then record that analog signal. Whether it was redigitized after the fact is irrelevant. It is not a digital process end-to-end. This is the same as if I were to download a YouTube video, record that video on a VHS tape, then redigitize that video. Not only would the end result not be a bit for bit match, it wouldn't be a match at all despite containing some of the same visual information, because it would be the product of a digital-analog-digital conversion.
The bird drawing is just a proxy for arbitrary data. In your example, you could convert bitstream into a pattern of black and white squares into a YouTube Video. Send it through the VHS channel, and when you digitize it, you would get back the exact bitstream.
Yes, that would be a digital modulation. That is decidedly not what is being done with the bird. The input data is the "PNG" of the bird, which is then not digitally modulated, but converted to an analogue signal and later redigitized. If the file has been converted to a series of pulses at different frequencies (the equivalent of your black and white squares) that would be a digital modulation. I am not arguing that this is not possible. My original comment explicitly says I would like to see a follow up with actual modulation. But just because it is possible to run dialup over an analogue phone line does not mean that calling your grandma on that same phone is a digital communication system. Some computers back in the day could modulate and record data on commercial audio cassettes. That does not mean that if I record something off the radio and play it back later that's a digital copy of the song.
It isn't a digital channel because it does not reproduce digital data. Unless it's a one-bit signal of "does this look like a bird? yes/no", but then the human making that assessment is part of the channel. To claim this is a digital system would require us to be so reductive as to redefine the meaning of the word.
If we’re being pedantic, shouldn’t we consider that it can be a one bit signal? Otherwise you should be specific about what bandwidth you’d consider digital.
That’s not really how it works in the real world. Usually you have both bandwidth and noise constraints.
Sure you can send something like a square wave but this isn’t practical for real communication channels. Typically you’re sending many sine waves in parallel with multiple amplitudes and phase offsets to represent a sequence of bits (QAM). Then on top of that you’d encode the original data with both a randomizer (to prevent long runs from looking like nothing) and error correction. So usually the system can handle some level of distortion.
What you’re hoping is that by the time the data reaches the user (really, Layer 3), all the errors have already been handled and you never see any issues.
The bird is just another type of noisy channel with its own distortion characteristics.
The point is that at the physical layer you still have a well defined log likelihood test to produce digital information. That's why QAM lasted so long even though it is not power efficient - because it has an analytical likelihood function.
This is the boundary between digital and analog communications. Since he did not use a digital modulation scheme, this would be a form of analog comms
Yes you could likely design an optimized modulation scheme to do this, likely some kind of bird specific frequency shift keying. You can also do any kind of quadrature modulation in the audio spectrum (original dialup used acoustic modems).
This person just didn't do that in this case. It's still a very cool experiment by YouTube maker standards though.
My point is that it doesn’t have to be optimal to be considered digital. Which in the general case means basically any communication channel can be digital.
If the argument is that they didn’t correctly calculate the bandwidth, then sure.
I want this to be the next reveal in a movie or TV series, in the same fashion as the one of the Navajo "backing up" the Smoking Man's magnetic tape in The X-Files.
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Romanziere appassionato di storia e di spiritualità, l’autore de L’Ordine Templare ha dato vita a una trilogia che esplora la nascita, la caduta e la rinascita del mito templare: L’Ordine Templare (romanzo d’esordio della saga) I Templari e il Graal, diviso in La caduta dei Templari e La rivincita del Graal. La sua scrittura si distingue per la capacità di unire rigore storico, profondità psicologica e poesia narrativa. Nei suoi romanzi si avverte il respiro dell’epica, ma anche l’intimità dell’esperienza personale: la figura femminile di Laurenziana, ad esempio, è modellata sul ricordo della moglie Sola, prematuramente scomparsa. Un autore che, più che raccontare la storia, la fa rivivere, trasformandola in un’esperienza letteraria capace di emozionare e far riflettere.
Due note sull’autore
Giuseppe Carlo Delli Santi: un autore eclettico e prolifico
Giuseppe Carlo Delli Santi è un autore estremamente prolifico, con ben 52 opere all’attivo, tra romanzi, raccolte di poesie, sceneggiature, saggi, racconti e libri brevi. Molte di queste sono autopubblicate, disponibili sia in formato ebook sia cartaceo attraverso piattaforme quali Ilmiolibro e Kobo Writing Life . Vanta una carriera professionale diversificata: iniziata in ambito pubblicitario (come titolare di un’agenzia a Milano), proseguita nel giornalismo freelance (anche per Il Sole 24 Ore), e poi approdata alla narrativa con uno stile personale, spesso contraddistinto da forte intensità emotiva e apertura culturale. A livello umano, è descritto come figura ricca di esperienza di vita: viaggi, dolore, gioie, sensibilità culturale e affetti. Padre e nonno, con un passato tra marketing e creatività, ha scoperto tardi la passione per la scrittura, che coltiva con costanza e varietà espressiva.
Nota sulla collaborazione con Cristina Desideri
Delli Santi ha collaborato con la dott.ssa Cristina Desideri, psicologa, scrittrice e illustratrice, per la realizzazione di un’opera illustrata: “Piccole fiabe”, una raccolta illustrata che unisce narrativa per l’infanzia e sensibilità psicologica, con illustrazioni appunto, curate da Cristina Desideri. Questo lavoro dimostra l’attenzione dell’autore all’infanzia, alla dimensione educativa e al coinvolgimento emotivo dei lettori più giovani.
Nota biografica su Cristina Desideri
La dott.ssa Cristina Desideri è una psicologa, scrittrice e illustratrice italiana. Ha collaborato con Giuseppe Carlo Delli Santi nella realizzazione di un testo illustrato come “Le Piccole Fiabe”, dove le sue illustrazioni arricchiscono la narrazione con una sensibilità psicologica ed educativa. La sua formazione in psicologia le consente di creare contenuti che stimolano la crescita emotiva e cognitiva dei bambini, rendendo le sue opere strumenti preziosi per genitori, educatori e piccoli lettori.
Alcune opere di Giuseppe Carlo Delli Santi: storia, spiritualità, teatro, avventura
Profilo e stile
Giuseppe Carlo Delli Santi è noto per: Ricerca storica accurata, spesso intrecciata a elementi fantastici e mitici. Profondità psicologica dei personaggi, che riflette i dilemmi, le passioni e le sfide umane. Versatilità narrativa, passando dal romanzo storico, al fantasy, al teatro, fino alla narrativa per l’infanzia. Autopubblicazione consapevole, con controllo completo sulle opere e distribuzione digitale e cartacea.
Alcune opere di Giuseppe Carlo Delli Santi
Romanzi ambientati tra i Nativi Americani
1. Wambli Woitope for President! Un romanzo di fantapolitica che esplora le sfide e le speranze di un leader nativo americano in un contesto contemporaneo. 2. Matui Eram Un’opera che approfondisce le tradizioni e le lotte dei Nativi Americani attraverso la storia di un giovane guerriero. 3. Noah Il protagonista, Noah, è un nativo americano che affronta le sfide del suo popolo in un periodo di cambiamenti radicali. 4. Leha Muran Storia di una giovane donna nativa americana che cerca alleanze per proteggere la sua tribù dalle minacce esterne. 5. Squaw delle Pianure Ultimo capitolo di una trilogia che narra le vicende delle donne native americane, basato su eventi storici reali. 6. Alidewee Un racconto che esplora la vita di una giovane nativa americana e le sue interazioni con il mondo esterno.
Altri romanzi significativi
Nefertari Un romanzo storico che racconta la vita della regina Nefertari nell’antico Egitto.
Il Corsaro René Serie di romanzi che seguono le avventure del pirata René in diverse ambientazioni storiche.
Dubitaverunt Un’opera teatrale che esplora temi spirituali e filosofici attraverso il dialogo e la riflessione.
Un pittore a Roma Storia di un artista che cerca di farsi strada nel mondo dell’arte nella capitale italiana.
Rwanda Un romanzo che affronta le tragedie e le speranze del popolo ruandese.
Le incredibili gesta di Adam Freeman Avventure di un eroe moderno che affronta sfide straordinarie.
Aux armes, citoyens Un’opera che esplora temi di rivoluzione e cambiamento sociale.
Opera per l’infanzia e illustrata
Le Piccole Fiabe Raccolta di fiabe illustrate, illustrata dalla dott.ssa Cristina Desideri, che unisce narrazione e psicologia per bambini.
In sintesi
Giuseppe Carlo Delli Santi è un autore innovativo, prolifico e poliedrico, con una produzione che spazia tra romanzo storico, fiction religiosa, teatro, avventura, introspezione filosofica. Utilizza soprattutto l’autopubblicazione tramite piattaforme italiane come Ilmiolibro, DSR Editore o Lulu, Kobo e distribuisce le sue opere in digitale e cartaceo.
Romanzo da vivere: L’Ordine Templare
Ci sono romanzi che si leggono e altri che si vivono. L’Ordine Templare appartiene senza dubbio alla seconda categoria: un libro che non solo racconta, ma avvolge, accompagna, trascina dentro un mondo epico in cui la storia medievale si intreccia con il mito del Graal, la spiritualità con la passione, la cavalleria con l’amore. L’autore, con una scrittura intensa e poetica, ci conduce negli ultimi anni dell’Alto Medioevo, poco dopo il 1190, quando il giovane cadetto ligure Errico De Mari si trova investito di una missione più grande di lui: dalla Terra Santa a Seborga, da Genova a Gerusalemme, fino ai Pirenei e a Santiago di Compostela, il suo destino diventa la trama stessa della nascita dell’Ordine Templare.
Un romanziere che unisce storia, mito e vita vissuta
Non siamo davanti a un semplice narratore di cronache medievali, ma a un romanziere capace di fondere rigore storico, fantasia poetica e autobiografia. La genesi del romanzo è rivelatrice: l’autore ringrazia le fonti storiche, la Massoneria di Rito Scozzese Antico Accettato – che gli ha trasmesso documentazioni preziose sulla nascita templare – e soprattutto la moglie Sola, scomparsa prematuramente e divenuta il modello ispiratore di Laurenziana, la co-protagonista del romanzo. Questo legame intimo trasforma la narrazione in un atto di memoria e amore, rendendo Laurenziana non solo un personaggio letterario, ma anche un tributo personale. La forza narrativa dell’autore si coglie anche nella vastità del progetto: L’Ordine Templare non è un’opera isolata, ma il primo atto di una trilogia che prosegue con I Templari e il Graal, suddiviso in La caduta dei Templari e La rivincita del Graal. Un vero e proprio ciclo epico, che unisce fedeltà storica e dimensione mitica, destinato a restare come una delle saghe più originali sulla cavalleria templare.
I personaggi: un coro di voci memorabili
Il cuore del romanzo è Errico De Mari, un eroe giovane, a tratti inesperto, ma capace di incarnare le contraddizioni dell’epoca: fede e paura, desiderio d’amore e spirito di sacrificio, fragilità e coraggio. Il lettore lo segue nella sua crescita, nei suoi dubbi e nel suo martirio finale, che lo porterà a incontrare il divino in una dimensione ultraterrena. Accanto a lui spicca Laurenziana Cicala, amatissima moglie e compagna, figura luminosa e profondamente umana. Non è solo “la donna dell’eroe”, ma un personaggio che incarna la forza salvifica dell’amore, la resilienza femminile e la spiritualità capace di superare la morte. In lei si specchia l’esperienza personale dell’autore, che le dona un’intensità emotiva unica. Il romanzo è popolato da un’ampia galleria di personaggi storici e immaginari: dal nobilissimo Ugo de Payens, al tragico Ruiz di Siviglia, fino al piccolo Marcello, all’anziano Fra Grisante e a cavalieri come Gotfried di Magonza, Geoffrey Bisol, André de Montresor. Tutti contribuiscono a creare un affresco corale, dove i grandi della storia e gli “umili” si intrecciano senza gerarchie: ciascuno ha un ruolo nella nascita dell’Ordine.
La chiave storica: Medioevo tra fede e leggenda
L’autore ci trasporta dentro l’atmosfera degli ultimi anni dell’Alto Medioevo con grande ricchezza di dettagli. Genova, Seborga, Lérins, Gerusalemme, Costantinopoli non sono semplici sfondi, ma veri luoghi vivi, resi con cura storica e passione narrativa. Le Crociate, le tensioni tra la Cristianità e l’Oriente, il fragile equilibrio politico dell’epoca emergono con forza, senza mai soffocare la trama romanzata. Il Santo Graal diventa il nucleo simbolico: ritrovato e poi nascosto, perché troppo pericoloso per l’umanità, è al tempo stesso reliquia, mito e monito. Qui il romanzo si avvicina alle leggende arturiane, ma con un ancoraggio più saldo alla storia delle Crociate e alla spiritualità cristiana medievale.
La chiave psicologica: l’uomo, la donna, il sacro
Uno degli aspetti che più mi ha colpito è la profondità psicologica con cui i personaggi sono costruiti. Errico non è un eroe perfetto: è un uomo che sbaglia, soffre, ama, e proprio per questo diventa vicino al lettore moderno. In lui si riflette la tensione di ogni essere umano chiamato a confrontarsi con un destino più grande. Laurenziana, a sua volta, è la personificazione della femminilità che salva, dell’amore che trasfigura e resta oltre la morte. Non solo figura storica, ma simbolo eterno. Il Graal assume anche qui un valore psicologico: non soltanto oggetto sacro, ma specchio dei desideri e dei pericoli dell’animo umano. È la tentazione dell’assoluto, il sogno di possedere Dio, ma anche il monito sulla fragilità dell’uomo di fronte al divino.
L’importanza dell’opera
L’Ordine Templare è importante perché non è né puro romanzo né mera ricostruzione storica: è epica moderna. La sua forza sta nella capacità di parlare a diversi livelli: agli appassionati di storia medievale, agli amanti delle saghe cavalleresche, a chi cerca un racconto d’amore e sacrificio, ma anche a chi vuole riflettere sulla condizione umana e sul rapporto con il mistero. È un libro che dimostra come la narrativa storica possa essere molto più di un esercizio erudito: può diventare un canto, una leggenda nuova, una parabola universale.
Considerazioni personali
Devo dire che questo romanzo mi è piaciuto molto. Non solo per l’avventura e la coralità dei personaggi, ma per l’intensità emotiva e psicologica che trasmette. Ho amato la figura di Errico, con le sue debolezze e il suo coraggio, ma soprattutto Laurenziana, presenza dolce e luminosa, capace di restare impressa come simbolo eterno di amore e resilienza. La scrittura dell’autore alterna pagine di grande azione a momenti poetici e contemplativi, e proprio questo equilibrio lo rende speciale: è un libro che conquista sia la mente sia il cuore. Alla fine della lettura resta una sensazione rara: quella di aver compiuto un vero viaggio, insieme ai personaggi, dentro la storia e dentro l’animo umano.
Conclusione
L’Ordine Templare è un romanzo che unisce storia, mito, poesia e psicologia in un unico respiro epico. È l’inizio di una saga che proseguirà con I Templari e il Graal e che promette di restare a lungo nella memoria dei lettori. Per chi ama i Templari, le Crociate, il mito del Graal, ma anche per chi cerca un romanzo che sappia emozionare profondamente, questo libro non è solo una lettura: è un’esperienza.
Istantanee è un’opera che nasce dall’urgenza di custodire e trasmettere memorie, voci e paesaggi interiori. Le parole di Donato Verrastro nella presentazione, ci conducono all’origine del percorso dell’autrice: dai banchi universitari alla costruzione di una voce letteraria radicata nella sua terra, la Basilicata, ma capace di elevarsi a dimensione universale. Nei racconti che compongono questo volume, l’intreccio fra storia personale, memorie collettive e riflessione sul tempo, diventa spazio di incontro tra psicologia e antropologia, letteratura e testimonianza.
Biografia dell’autrice
Piera Caivano è scrittrice, poetessa ed educatrice. La sua formazione universitaria a Salerno ha rappresentato il primo terreno in cui ha coltivato la vocazione all’insegnamento e alla narrazione. La sua produzione letteraria si è consolidata attraverso poesie, racconti e opere in cui la parola si fa strumento di resistenza e di appartenenza. Nei suoi testi è costante il legame con le radici, con la memoria dei luoghi del Sud, con la voce delle donne e con le tracce di una storia che si intreccia alla vita quotidiana. La Caivano appare, così, come “sentinella del tempo”, capace di restituire dignità a frammenti dimenticati, trasformandoli in narrazione esemplare.
Biografia dell’illustratrice
Ad accompagnare le parole, i disegni e la copertina sono affidati a Cristina Desideri, illustratrice e psicologa, che porta nel suo tratto una sensibilità duplice: estetica e conoscitiva. Le sue illustrazioni non sono meri ornamenti, ma aperture di senso. Con linee essenziali e suggestioni minimaliste, gli elementi grafici traducono le parole di Caivano in immagini interiori, restituendo al lettore uno spazio di riflessione visiva. La copertina, in particolare, diventa una soglia, un invito a entrare in un mondo di memorie intime e collettive: una figura femminile, voltata di spalle, avvolta in un abito che non è stoffa ma costellazione di punte di matite colorate. Ogni punta è una voce, ogni colore un’anima: insieme si intrecciano come fili di un coro silenzioso, dove l’arte diventa veste e la pluralità si fa poesia.
I racconti: memoria, psicologia e antropologia
I racconti di Istantanee sono fotografie dell’anima. Si muovono tra eventi della storia lucana – dal terremoto del 1980 alle migrazioni, dalle condizioni femminili alle difficoltà sociali – e riflessioni esistenziali, in cui il dolore, la perdita, la nostalgia e la speranza si intrecciano. La dimensione psicologica emerge nella rappresentazione degli stati emotivi che accompagnano la vita comunitaria: la malinconia come sentimento fondante, il bisogno di appartenenza, la resilienza delle donne, la forza dei legami familiari. Dal punto di vista antropologico, i testi restituiscono la Basilicata come luogo simbolico: non solo contesto geografico, ma matrice culturale e identitaria. I riti domestici, gli oggetti, i paesaggi e le pratiche del mondo contadino diventano archetipi, che rimandano a dinamiche universali di sopravvivenza, resistenza e migrazione. La casa, costantemente evocata, rappresenta un porto sicuro, ma anche una metafora della memoria collettiva che custodisce radici e tradizioni.
Temi centrali della sua scrittura
1. Radici e appartenenza Forte legame con la Basilicata: paesaggi, case, luoghi marginali diventano metafore di identità e resistenza. Le radici come forza contro corrente che trattiene anche l’incontenibile.
2. Memoria e Storia collettiva La scrittura intreccia la vita personale con gli eventi storici: terremoto del 1980, emigrazione, disastri ferroviari, condizione femminile, povertà. Narrazione che unisce microstorie e macrostoria, trasformando eventi locali in esperienze universali.
3. Il gioco degli opposti Presenza/assenza, pace/violenza, pazienza/rivolta. Contrasti che producono emozione, nostalgia e riflessione.
4. Dimensione domestica La casa come simbolo di sicurezza e continuità, legata alla famiglia. Oggetti e simboli domestici evocano un tempo ancestrale, diventando porti sicuri della memoria.
5. Emigrazione e transnazionalità Il migrare non è mai isolamento: esiste sempre un filo con la terra d’origine. Lingua e memoria collettiva come eredità intergenerazionale.
6. Stile e tono emotivo Scrittura segnata da malinconia e nostalgia. Trasforma le vicende individuali in topoi universali, con un valore formativo ed educativo. Il tempo del narrare diventa al tempo stesso strumento e metodo didattico.
Visione psicologica e simbolica
Ukeireru (accettazione): nel testo emerge la capacità di accogliere il dolore storico e personale trasformandolo in memoria condivisa. Resilienza narrativa: la scrittura diventa strumento di elaborazione del lutto e di ricomposizione identitaria. Nostalgia creativa: il filo nostalgico non paralizza, ma cuce insieme frammenti sparsi, trasformando il passato in occasione di crescita. Casa come base sicura (in senso bowlbiano): luogo reale e simbolico che permette l’apertura al mondo senza perdere le radici.
Le illustrazioni: psicologia dello sguardo
I disegni di Cristina Desideri si collocano come veri e propri specchi emotivi: non cercano di riprodurre il reale, ma di evocarlo, restituendone l’essenza. La linearità delle forme e la scelta di un tratto sobrio e nitido creano spazi vuoti che il lettore riempie con il proprio vissuto. Psicologicamente, questa scelta grafica invita all’introspezione: il non detto e il non rappresentato diventano luoghi di proiezione personale, permettendo a chi legge di dialogare con la propria memoria. La copertina stessa, con il suo carattere evocativo, si pone come sintesi tra parola e immagine, memoria e identità.
Riflessione finale
Istantanee è più di una raccolta di racconti: è un’esperienza di attraversamento. La scrittura di Caivano, intrecciata alle illustrazioni di Desideri, costruisce un ponte tra memoria personale e collettiva, tra psicologia del ricordo e antropologia della cultura. Ogni pagina, ogni immagine, diventa un tassello di un mosaico che racconta non solo la Basilicata, ma l’umano universale: la fragilità, la resilienza, la nostalgia e la forza delle radici. Il libro si configura dunque come un’opera di resistenza poetica, che invita il lettore a riflettere su cosa significhi appartenere, ricordare e tramandare.
Right. So it's 100kW output, which is almost enough to pull the skin off a rice pudding. It also uses the brine from a desalination plant, so it's basically salinating fresh water to get some of the power back that was taken to desalinate it.
As a means of power production, it seems a bit pointless.
It generates 880.000kWh/year, where I live that enough for 180 families (2 adults, 2 kids) with an average consumption in a house, and almost 350 in apartments. That's not an insignificant amount IMO.
Doesn't sound all that economical compared with other energy sources. It probably needs to be compared to longer-term energy storage solutions that don't rely on geography like hot sand, the possibility to store the energy source (concentrated salt water) relatively cheaply is the most interesting part about it.
The upside is getting power from an otherwise waste-product. Yes it's low output compared with traditional turbine-driven power plants, but that doesn't mean in should be disregarded. Sure it's not applicable everywhere, but neither is hydro or geothermal. After all, why not use the geography of your location to your benefit? Not everywhere needs to get power in the exact same way, and what's most feasible is highly dependent on location.
Concentrated salt water might be a waste product, but the plant was built on purpose. How long does it need to operate before the costs amortisize? Even if we're looking at greenhouse gases, most building materials aren't exactly climate-friendly - concrete in particular is a huge emitter of greenhouse gases.
The people who designed built the plant probably calculated all this, but the article doesn't go into it and with novel technologies like this, it's generally not safe to just assume that a given plant makes any economical or environmental sense.
While I agree that the cost of operation and yield are a valid concern, the same argument could have been used against renewable energies like wind and solar only 30 to 40 years ago.
The price of these energy sources has come down a lot since, for a large part thanks to the modern day widespread use. We have a lot of experience generating power this way which drives down cost, and increases yield.
Novel techniques like the one described in the article don't yet benefit from that experience and scale. And if we don't try new things every now and then they never will.
That is not to say all novel techniques will be equally fruitful, but if you don't occasionally try new things you will never learn.
It’s a pop science article… they usually don’t cover things like life cycle analysis. It is however a first of its kind plant that makes its net effects less important as it kind of works as a proof of concept. It’s a relatively small scale plant that if it does work, great, lets build more of them; if it doesn’t work, that sucks, can we modify them in any way to make them work.
It is taking two ingredients that usually have to take extra energy to be able to dispose of them and combining them together to make electricity. That is really cool, and there is no reason to be overly negative about it because it might be bad based on info that you don’t have
This plant is part of a bigger chain. So while yes, on its own it seems waste of effort, as part of the entire chain it's a reasonable step to be more environmentally friendly and recover some energy in the process.
A local plant desalinates water, resulting in fresh water and a brine solution that has much higher concentration of salt in it than regular sea water.
Dumping the brine solution on its own would kill most plant and animal life around the dump site due to large saltwater concentration, so an alternative method must be found to dispose of the brine.
Waste water from other processes can be mixed with the brine to bring it more in line with seawater salinity, making it safe to reintroduce to the ocean without severe ecological impact. This waste water is deemed to difficult or intensive to purify and treat to bring it back up clean water standards, and I'm assuming tested or filtered so as not to introduce hazardous chemicals that could damage the reverse osmosis membranes as well as sea life.
Because there is way to mix the waste water and brine through membranes that can be used to generate electricity, this process is utilized to recover some of the energy expended in purifing the original batch of seawater resulting in the brine.
It's not a perfect process but it is a means of getting some use out a waste product, similar to burning garbage or rotting food rather than just dumping it into a pit and letting it rot and release methane.
Its miles better than traditional desalination - requiring so much energy that burning fossil fuels is unavoidable. And brine is chucked back in the ocean. Basically an environmental catastrophe.
If you think of it on the scale of one community - providing potable water, dealing with treated wastewater AND getting a surplus of energy while treating the brine it is actually pretty clever.
If it makes you feel better you could probably slap some solar panels on those flat roofs too.
As desalination plant need a lot of power it is a plus. But there is always that question in background with this approach what are they gonna do with this salt ?
It's pretty common to produce table salt by dehydrating sea water. This saltwater electricity plant doesn't produce salt, though, since the basis of their electricity generation process is diluting concentrated salt water.
To my knowledge, desalination plants do not recover salt from brine. There is a European project that is studying this feasibility. Generally, brines are discharged into the sea, which is destructive for the environment due to their concentration.
Combine salt and water to create electricity to power a desalination plant that removes salt from water. I am sure there is more to it, but the article sounds like it’s one of those mad perpetual free energy schemes that defy the laws of physics.
If they're mostly using electricity or even combustion to evaporate the water (as opposed to sunlight), there's no chance that the concentrated saltwater creates more electricity than it costs - it's only maybe useful if the saltwater is actually a waste product.
They are just re-capturing some of the energy the system spent turning salt water into fresh. Because that results in extremely salty brine water waste, you can get some energy as it gets diluted back down to sea water concentration.
There no “new” energy in the system, it’s just wasting less.
So, they're using brine from a reverse osmosis plant and wastewater to run this process, both waste products, and probably producing something roughly the same as seawater.
The reason being that dumping the brine back into the ocean creates a dead zone wherever that dump point is, since the relative concentration of salts is higher compared to regular seawater.
They’re almost certainly recreating seawater just to help alleviate the dead zone effect and figured out how to get some free electricity out of it too
Right. It seems analogous to regenerative braking in a gas/electric hybrid car. The momentum is turned back into electricity to reclaim potential energy. Some of the energy was already spent in RO stage and this process gets some of it back.
I sounds more like it makes electricity out of fresh water, destroying it in the process (turning it into saltwater through osmosis/dilution). Sure… if there is some crazy salty water you have, and want to turn it into “still salty, but maybe less so”, you can indeed gather a tiny little fraction of the power.
But given that fresh water is also a precious resource in many places, this seems relatively niche.
From what the article says, it's actually a pretty cool way of improving desalination plants. They use the left over brine, from desalination, that has a very high concentration of salt, and use it as the high salt concentration side, with regular seawater being used on the other side. This both gives them free energy and reduces the side effects of pumping that extremely salty water into the sea by diluting it.
They always have mid apps, are the apps/infrastructure that hard to replicate by companies with this much funding? it always feels like some small team's project straight out of college. They barely feel better than solo developed loops.
wuphysics87
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