All posts tagged: view

Half the public view Church of England unfavourably, survey finds

Half the public view Church of England unfavourably, survey finds

Just under half the British public hold an unfavourable opinion of the Church of England, polling has found. Forty-nine per cent of those surveyed says they held a negative opinion of the Church, a ten point increase since November, when 39% reported a similarly unfavourable view. In the same, period the net unfavorability of the Church more than tripled, from -7 to -24. Eighteen per cent of respondents also said they held a ‘very unfavourable’ view of the Church. Just 25% of respondents said they held a favourable view of the church, a 7 point decrease from November, when 32% reported holding a favourable view. Fifty per cent also said they supported ending the Church of England’s established status, a figure consistent with previous findings. Just 23% said the connection between Church and state should be maintained. The new polling comes amidst an ongoing abuse crisis in the Church of England. In November, Justin Welby resigned as archbishop of Canterbury after a review found he failed to act on reports of abuse by Church of …

Ben Fogle surprises with his ‘view from the loo’ at private country home

Ben Fogle surprises with his ‘view from the loo’ at private country home

Ben Fogle, 51, has shared a never-before-seen room at his Henley residence and his Instagram photo has left fans in fits of laughter. The New Lives in the Wild presenter shared his “view from the loo” on Tuesday, revealing his two Labrador dogs in the bathroom with him as he sat on the toilet.  WATCH: Ben records inside stunning sitting room The surprising photo was captioned: “No privacy with Labradors….#viewfromtheloo,” and many of his followers found the candid photo hilarious, sharing laughing face emojis in the comments section.  As well as his gorgeous dogs, the snap inadvertently revealed his unique bathroom décor and a few fans added their words of admiration. “Sorry never mind the labradors I had to double back for that insane sink! What a beauty,” wrote one, and: “I’ve just painted my bathroom the same colour as your loo, good choice by the way,” added another.  The beautiful space has been designed with terracotta floor tiles, striking green cabinets, a painted sink and a twee curtain to cover the under-sink storage area.  Ben …

TikTokkers are turning Google Street View into a nostalgic time machine

TikTokkers are turning Google Street View into a nostalgic time machine

Google’s been driving Street View cars around the world for nearly two decades now. And TikTok has recently discovered that backlog of images is ripe with nostalgia. There’s a new trend on the app in which folks dig up old Google Maps images showing their homes, meaningful places, or photos from a specific time via Street View to tell a story — this might involve a relative they lost, a past relationship, a childhood moment, or whatever else. Here’s a TikTok, for instance, of a person showing their now-deceased grandparents working on their lawn in 2008. Here’s another of a grandmother, this time sitting on their porch. Here’s one of someone playing with their childhood dog. Mashable Top Stories Here’s one that’s just stores in someone’s hometown that have closed. Lots of the comments in these wistful posts are about how nostalgic and sad they are. Some folks have even lamented looking for their deceased relatives and not finding them on Google Maps. The trend caught my attention because I wrote about Street View nostalgia …

Caravaggio Portrait Unseen for Decades now on View

Caravaggio Portrait Unseen for Decades now on View

A portrait attributed to Italian painter Caravaggio has gone on view in Rome, marking the first time it can be seen by the painting’s existence was made public 60 years ago. The painting depicts Maffeo Barberini, a Florentine aristocrat who was coronated as Pope Urban VIII in 1623. By papal standards, his reign was illustrious reign. Barberini expanded the church’s territories through armed force and keen politicking, even weathering 21 years of the Thirty Years War. Urban VIII was a major patron of the arts (he often commissioned Gian Lorenzo Bernini), though the same was not true for science. Under pressure from the Vatican, Galileo publicly recanted his astronomical breakthrough, itself derived from the Copernican heliocentric model also rejected by Urban VIII. Related Articles Caravaggio met the one-day pope as a young, ambitious man. Dated to 1598, the painting shows a 30-year-old Barberini wearing a black biretta—a three or four-peaked cap worn by Catholic clergy—and a green sleeveless cassock, another traditional Catholic signifier. Bright-eyed and grasping a letter, he had already obtained a law doctorate …

A drone’s eye view of ‘foodscapes,’ from cattle to soybeans to shrimp : Goats and Soda : NPR

A drone’s eye view of ‘foodscapes,’ from cattle to soybeans to shrimp : Goats and Soda : NPR

The African nation of Mauritania was a land of pastoral nomads when it gained independence from France in 1960, but it has since become a nation of fishermen as well, with hundreds of pirogues lining the beach of the capital of Nouakchott. George Steinmetz hide caption toggle caption George Steinmetz We usually encounter our food roughly at eye level: stacked on shelves in the supermarket, displayed on stands at outdoor markets, beckoning at the Thanksgiving table. Acclaimed photographer George Steinmetz wanted to bring a different perspective to our daily bread, protein and produce. As he looks at the way food makes its way to feed a constantly growing human population, he works mainly with drones for a bird’s eye view. In his “foodscapes,” human, boats and machines all play a role. George Steinmetz, a pioneer in aerial photography, atop The New York Times building. His new book is Feed the Planet: A Photographic Journey to the World’s Food. Kathy Ryan hide caption toggle caption Kathy Ryan Steinmetz is a pioneer of photographing from above. Before …

this sci-fi ‘B-movie’ still shapes how we view the threat of AI

this sci-fi ‘B-movie’ still shapes how we view the threat of AI

October 26, 2024 marks the 40th anniversary of director James Cameron’s science fiction classic, The Terminator – a film that popularised society’s fear of machines that can’t be reasoned with, and that “absolutely will not stop … until you are dead”, as one character memorably puts it. The plot concerns a super-intelligent AI system called Skynet which has taken over the world by initiating nuclear war. Amid the resulting devastation, human survivors stage a successful fightback under the leadership of the charismatic John Connor. In response, Skynet sends a cyborg assassin (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) back in time to 1984 – before Connor’s birth – to kill his future mother, Sarah. Such is John Connor’s importance to the war that Skynet banks on erasing him from history to preserve its existence. Today, public interest in artificial intelligence has arguably never been greater. The companies developing AI typically promise their technologies will perform tasks faster and more accurately than people. They claim AI can spot patterns in data that are not obvious, enhancing human decision-making. There …

Getty PST ART’s Expansive View of Science Centers Indigenous Knowledge

Getty PST ART’s Expansive View of Science Centers Indigenous Knowledge

On first glance, one might be forgiven for wondering how the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s new exhibition, “We Live in Painting: The Nature of Color in Mesoamerican Art,” fits into PST ART. For the 2024 edition of the recurring initiative, over 70 cultural institutions, supported by $20 million in grants from the Getty Foundation, will open shows based around the theme of “Art & Science Collide.” The LACMA exhibition, which opened Sunday, initially appears as a historical exhibition, featuring over 270 Mesoamerican ceramic vessels, mural fragments, stone sculptures, and textiles, over half of which are drawn from the museum’s permanent collection. There are also artworks and archaeological artifacts on loan from Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia and two rare, spectacular Mesoamerican codices from Oxford University’s Bodleian Library. A reasonable viewer might ask, where is the link to science? Related Articles At a press preview last week, California-based, Zapotec textile artist Porfirio Gutiérrez offered an answer. “Color comes from nature. Color is actually an extension of the information that each textile—in this …

Artemisia Gentileschi Work Goes on View for First Time in 400 Years

Artemisia Gentileschi Work Goes on View for First Time in 400 Years

The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, has acquired an Artemisia Gentileschi painting that has been owned by private collectors for nearly 400 years. When the work goes on view today, it will be the first time the painting has been exhibited publicly since the 17th century. The painting, titled Penitent Mary Magdalene (1625–26), centers a female figure from the Bible, making it one of the many by Gentileschi to do so. Gentileschi’s work has been prized by art historians for the way it offered her female subjects a form of interiority that was not always present in paintings by her contemporaries. Related Articles Though lesser-known for years than the male painters of 17th-century Italy, Gentileschi is today considered one of the foremost artists of the Baroque era, largely thanks to scholarship of feminists like Linda Nochlin and Mary Garrard. A recent Gentileschi retrospective at London’s National Gallery was widely praised by critics. Taking cues from artists like Caravaggio, Gentileschi painted dramatically composed works such as this one, in which a hunched-over Mary Magdalene …

How a woman dresses affects how other women view her male friendships, study suggests

How a woman dresses affects how other women view her male friendships, study suggests

When it comes to friendships between men and women, many people hold the belief that there’s always a potential for something more than just friendship. But how does this belief change when the woman in the friendship dresses or behaves more like “one of the guys” rather than someone who might be a romantic rival? A recent study published in Personality and Individual Differences explored this intriguing question, revealing that women who prefer male friends are generally perceived by other women as less trustworthy, more sexually promiscuous, and greater threats to romantic relationships. However, these perceptions might shift depending on how the woman presents herself. Friendships between men and women (cross-sex friendships) have long been subjects of suspicion. Previous research has shown that women who prefer male friends are often viewed as less trustworthy and more sexually promiscuous, which can lead to social aggression and ostracism from other women. However, researchers had not explored how a woman’s gender expression — how masculine or feminine she appears — affects these perceptions. “My interest in this topic …

The Guardian view on hyperlocalism: communities need more oomph | Editorial

The Guardian view on hyperlocalism: communities need more oomph | Editorial

When a campaign in Queen’s Park in Westminster led to the creation of London’s first parish council a decade ago, the expectation was that more new urban parishes would follow. Around half of people in Queen’s Park live in social housing; 45% of children are eligible for free school meals. But community development work was well established in the neighbourhood, and sufficiently valued that when government funding was cut, residents formed an action group. Queen’s Park community council marked its 10th anniversary in May. But it remains the sole example of this form of community governance in the capital. While devolution deals have continued to be struck between central government and English regions, proposals to reinvigorate democracy at the ultra-local level have petered out. Neighbourhood plans, which were supposed to give communities more say over planning, proved to be highly labour intensive. The listing of community assets conferred limited entitlements, compared with those of landlords. Rhetoric around localism turned out to be a fig leaf for deep cuts to council budgets – just as the …