All posts tagged: Piece

A Piece of Chalk, with Luke Donnellan – what can humble chalk teach us about the humanist approach to life?

A Piece of Chalk, with Luke Donnellan – what can humble chalk teach us about the humanist approach to life?

Published by skeptic

Luke Donnellan, Director of Understanding Humanism at Humanists UK, will speak on ‘A Piece of Chalk’ at Humanists UK Convention 2025, taking place from 13–15 June at the Octagon Centre in Sheffield. In 1868 renowned biologist T H Huxley (also known as ‘Darwin’s bulldog’) gave a celebrated lecture in which he reconstructed the geology of Britain and the evolutionary history of life on Earth from a simple piece of chalk. In this presentation, Luke will attempt to go one step further and reveal how the chalk can help to illustrate even more about a humanist understanding of knowledge, and our capacity to lead fulfilling and flourishing lives. Tickets for Humanists UK Convention 2025 are on sale now – and running very low. Tickets for Humanists UK Convention 2025 are on sale now – and running very low. At Humanists UK, Luke is responsible for promoting the understanding of humanism, especially in formal education settings. He manages Humanists UK’s school speakers programme, teacher training and CPD, and the production of educational resources, and speaks about humanism to …

One piece of gear shared by everyone from alien hunters to night fishers

One piece of gear shared by everyone from alien hunters to night fishers

Published by skeptic

Was that light in the clouds a drone, an alien, or maybe just a really tech-savvy pigeon? It’s hard to tell when you’re staring into the night with the naked eye, and phones aren’t much better. Have you seen the quality of most nighttime videos? Woof.  Whether you’re searching the skies for first contact or just want to keep fishing long into the dark winter months, a set of night vision binoculars could help. It sounds expensive, but night vision tech has advanced enough that there’s some really good stuff that’s actually available at a decent price, and it helps that there’s a sale going on. That’s how you can get these Mini Night Vision Digital Binoculars for $79.97 instead of $159.  See and record in total darkness Hunting for aliens? If you have these binoculars, you won’t need that close of an encounter with the third kind. That’s because the 850nm infrared illuminator can give you crystal clear visibility up to 1,000 feet in complete darkness.  In daylight, you can use the 10X optical …

Lego to launch 1,600 piece Red Bull F1 car with ‘2-speed gearbox and V6 engine’

Lego to launch 1,600 piece Red Bull F1 car with ‘2-speed gearbox and V6 engine’

Published by skeptic

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Lego and Oracle Red Bull Racing are set to launch a hyper-realistic brick-built race car as part of a newly announced multi-year partnership with Formula 1. The new Lego Technic set replicates the championship-winning RB20, driven by Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez. Featuring authentic red, blue, and yellow livery, the 1,636-piece set includes a 2-speed gearbox, a powerful V6 engine and moving pistons. The RB20 will be part of a broader collection launching in early 2025, showcasing all ten F1 teams. Spanning Lego’s Duplo, City, Speed Champions, and Collectibles ranges, the rollout will begin in January 2025, with additional sets available for pre-order in select regions. open image in gallery (Lego) The collaboration comes as F1 prepares to celebrate its 75th anniversary and signals …

Prince Harry Says Battling Tabloids Was ‘Central Piece’ to Family Rift

Prince Harry Says Battling Tabloids Was ‘Central Piece’ to Family Rift

Published by Sam

new video loaded: Prince Harry Says Battling Tabloids Was ‘Central Piece’ to Family Rift transcript Back transcript Prince Harry Says Battling Tabloids Was ‘Central Piece’ to Family Rift In an interview airing on ITV on Thursday, Prince Harry talks about his marathon battle with British tabloids over privacy and the effect it had on his relationship with other royals. “To what extent do you think that your determination to fight the tabloids destroyed the relationship with your family?” “I think there’s — that’s certainly a central piece to it. But they — that’s a hard question to answer because anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the press. I’ve made it very clear that this is something that needs to be done. It would be nice if we did it as a family. I believe that, again, from a service standpoint, and when you’re in a public role, that these are the things that we should be doing for the greater good. But, I’m doing this, I’m doing this …

Biden’s address was a moving piece of political theatre and a rebuke of Trump | US elections 2024

Biden’s address was a moving piece of political theatre and a rebuke of Trump | US elections 2024

Published by skeptic

There was 6 January 2021, and a violent coup attempt by a president desperately trying to cling to power. Then there was 24 July 2024, and a president explaining why he was giving up the most powerful job in the world. Joe Biden’s address on Wednesday night was a moving piece of political theatre, the start of a farewell tour by “a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings” who entered politics in 1972 and made it all the way to the Oval Office. For diehard Democrats it was a case of: if you have tears, prepare to shed them now. The speech was also a rebuke of his predecessor Donald Trump’s authoritarian impulses in both word and deed. Although he never mentioned his predecessor by name, Biden laid out two radically different visions of the US presidency set to clash again in November. ‘History is in your hands,’ Biden tells country in powerful Oval Office address – video Last Sunday the 46th president bowed to a chorus of fellow Democrats questioning his age and …

Google helped make an exquisitely detailed map of a tiny piece of the human brain

Google helped make an exquisitely detailed map of a tiny piece of the human brain

Published by skeptic

Many other brain atlases exist, but most provide much lower-resolution data. At the nanoscale, researchers can trace the brain’s wiring one neuron at a time to the synapses, the places where they connect. “To really understand how the human brain works, how it processes information, how it exports memories, we will ultimately need a map that’s at that resolution,” says Viren Jain, a senior research scientist at Google and coauthor on the paper, published in Science on May 9. The data set itself and a preprint version of this paper were released in 2021. Brain atlases come in many forms. Some reveal how the cells are organized. Others cover gene expression. This one focuses on connections between cells, a field called “connectomics.” The outermost layer of the brain contains roughly 16 billion neurons that link up with each other to form trillions of connections. A single neuron might receive information from hundreds or even thousands of other neurons and send information to a similar number. That makes tracing these connections an exceedingly complex task, even …

The one piece of advice that completely transformed my life

The one piece of advice that completely transformed my life

Published by skeptic

Since I was a child, I’ve always had a sense that time is running out. That I’m chasing a destination, yet never quite getting there. Working towards a mystery goal meant that I spent much of my life never really awake or paying attention. I wasn’t living with real intention, but one day it dawned on me that we have one shot at life, and that changed everything for me. Imagine this scenario. Someone gives you a ball and says you have ten shots to get the ball in the hoop. Brogan credits the ‘one shot’ analogy with changing her life Then, imagine I give you the same ball and the same hoop, but you only have one shot. When you have ten shots to get it right, you probably waste a few and don’t give them your all. But if you knew you only had one shot to get the ball in this hoop, you’d likely do everything in your power to get the ball in the hoop and put your all into that attempt. …

Lawyer Suing Boeing Surprised to Find Large Piece That Fell Off Boeing Plane Outside His House

Lawyer Suing Boeing Surprised to Find Large Piece That Fell Off Boeing Plane Outside His House

Published by skeptic

“Our case is all about safety issues at Boeing, and this slide is literally right in front of my house.” Slide on Over Suing a company is one thing — but finding a piece of its faulty wares outside your house is another entirely. Jake Bissell-Linsk, whose firm is involved in a lawsuit against Boeing, told the New York Post that he was shocked to look out the window of his oceanfront home in Queens to see an inflatable slide floating in the water. “We are right on the beach,” the lawyer marveled, “and I saw it was sitting on the breakers.” A partner at the Labaton Keller Sucharow law firm that’s currently suing Boeing over the Alaska Airlines fiasco in which one of its fuselages fell off mid-flight, the lawyer was as surprised as anyone at the sight. “Our case is all about safety issues at Boeing,” Bissell-Linsk said, “and this slide is literally right in front of my house.” The yellow-colored piece trapped yards from the attorney’s front door was, as it turns out, …

Britney Spears gets “final piece of freedom,” settles with her father after conservatorship saga

Britney Spears gets “final piece of freedom,” settles with her father after conservatorship saga

Published by skeptic

Britney Spears has settled with her father, Jamie Spears, in the drawn-out legal battle that followed the cessation of the singer’s nearly 14-year conservatorship in 2021. The settlement amount was undisclosed, per the New York Times and CNN. Jamie Spears in 2021 petitioned to the court that his legal fees should be paid by his daughter’s estate — which USA Today reported was worth $60 million — “to ensure the Conservatorship can be wound up quickly and efficiently to allow Britney to take control of her life as she and Jamie desire.” Britney Spears’ attorney, Mathew S. Rosengart, said in a statement to USA Today on Monday, “Britney Spears won when her father was suspended as conservator and she obtained her freedom and her civil rights and liberties were restored.” He added, “She now has obtained her final piece of freedom as she instructed, as she no longer will need to be entangled with the court or the court system in this matter.” A lawyer for Jamie Spears, Alex M. Weingarten, said that the pop icon’s father is …

Boy, 13, finds ‘holy grail’ Lego octopus piece from sea spillage in 1997 | UK News

Boy, 13, finds ‘holy grail’ Lego octopus piece from sea spillage in 1997 | UK News

Published by Sam

A rare Lego piece that fell into the sea in 1997 has been found by a 13-year-old boy in Cornwall. Liutauras Cemolonskas had been hoping to find a “holy grail” plastic octopus for two years in his hunt for pieces of Lego that famously fell into the sea in 1997 when a cargo ship encountered a storm. Among the Lego pieces that fell into the sea were 352,000 pairs of flippers, 97,500 scuba tanks, and 92,400 swords – but octopuses are the most prized objects as only 4,200 were onboard. Liutauras, who found it on a beach in Marazion, regularly goes down to the local beaches with his parents and has amassed 789 Lego pieces over the course of two years, as well as numerous fossils. Image: Liutauras Cemolonskas with his discovery. Pic: Vytautas Cemolonskas/PA Image: Liutauras with father Vytautas and mother Edita. Pic: Vytautas Cemolonskas/PA “We’ve been looking for that octopus for two years, it’s not easy to find,” his father Vytautas Cemolonskas, 36, said. “We were not expecting to find it at all …