All posts by admin

10Apr/23

Good Friday Agreement: the early 1990s back-channel between the IRA and British government that made peace possible

Politics, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Niall Ó Dochartaigh, University of Galway

In February 1990, in the midst of the Troubles, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness publicly invited the British government to reopen a back-channel used during previous phases of contact with the IRA in the 1970s and during the 1981 hunger strike.

If [the British government] think there is something to be lost by stating publicly how flexible they would be, or how imaginative, we are saying they should tell us privately … there is an avenue which they are aware of whereby they can make what imaginative steps they are thinking about known to the Republican movement.

It was a crucial early step on the road to the Good Friday Agreement.

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08Apr/23

NASA’s High-Resolution Air Quality Control Instrument Launches

Space, , , , , , , , ,

A NASA instrument to provide unprecedented resolution of monitoring major air pollutants – down to four square miles – lifted off on its way to geostationary orbit at 12:30 a.m. EDT Friday. The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument will improve life on Earth by revolutionizing the way scientists observe air quality from space. Continue reading

08Apr/23

A professor is going to live in an underwater hotel for 100 days – here’s what it might do to his body

Science, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bradley Elliott, University of Westminster

As nightmares go, being trapped in a small box deep underwater is probably high on many peoples’ lists. But one US professor is doing this on purpose. Joe Dituri, a former US navy diver and expert in biomedical engineering has been living in a 55 square meter space 30 feet below the surface of the Florida Keys since March 1, and plans to stay for 100 days. If he manages this, he will break a record for most time spent in a habitat beneath the surface of the ocean.

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07Apr/23

TCL PARTNERS WITH ARSENAL TO ENHANCE CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT IN THE MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA AND EUROPE

Football, , , , , ,

TCL, a Global top 2 TV brand, has announced a new partnership with Arsenal Football Club. The collaboration will give Arsenal supporters in the UK, Middle East and Africa more opportunities to engage with the club, while also increasing TCL’s expanding footprint in sport by becoming the club’s Official Regional Consumer Electronics Partner in those markets.

With a mission to Inspire Greatness, TCL understands the impact sport has on people around the world and the new partnership aims to engage supporters around their common passion for football. Continue reading

06Apr/23

Life: modern physics can’t explain it – but our new theory, which says time is fundamental, might

Science, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sara Imari Walker, Arizona State University

Over the short span of just 300 years, since the invention of modern physics, we have gained a deeper understanding of how our universe works on both small and large scales. Yet, physics is still very young and when it comes to using it to explain life, physicists struggle.

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04Apr/23

Kanye West and Wyndham Lewis: how ‘cancellation’ affected two artists, a century apart

Human Interest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Nathan Waddell, University of Birmingham

It may seem like the modernist painter and writer Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957) and Kanye West (the rapper and onetime presidential hopeful now known as Ye) have little in common. But their stories are connected: both are known for making controversial statements about the Nazis.

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04Apr/23

The Pope Francis puffer coat was fake – here’s a history of real papal fashion

Fashion, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Carol Richardson, The University of Edinburgh

Before news of his hospitalisation for a respiratory infection this week, a fake image of Pope Francis wearing a Balenciaga-style white puffer jacket was posted to Reddit and Twitter. The image – created through AI programme Midjourney – had many viewers fooled into believing that the head of the Catholic church had dramatically updated his style.

As an art historian and an ecclesiastical historian, the image has fascinated me, not least in thinking about the rich history of papal fashion.

First of all, it caught my eye because it looks like shot silk (fabric made of silk woven from two or more colours producing an iridescent appearance). Intentionally or not, it’s a nice nod to the fascia, a sash worn by clerics over their cassocks.

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