Life

Five not-so-famous things about the Impressionist movement

By Olivier THIBAULT and Emilie BICKERTON PARIS, March 24, 2024 (AFP) – As the art world marks 150 years since Impressionism burst onto the canvas in a blurry riot of colour, here are five little-known facts about the wildly popular movement. – ‘Wallpaper pattern’ – “Impressionism” was never meant as a compliment. While today works by artists such as Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir and Edgar Degas fetch eye-popping sums at auction, reviews after their inaugural […]

Paris museum takes visitors back 150 years to Impressionism’s birth

By Eric RANDOLPH PARIS, March 24, 2024 (AFP) – The Orsay Museum in Paris is marking 150 years of Impressionism from Tuesday with an unprecedented reassembling of the masterpieces that launched the movement, and a virtual reality experience that takes visitors back in time. Using VR technology, visitors to “Paris 1874: Inventing Impressionism” can take a plunge into the streets, salons and beauty spots that marked a revolution in art. Through VR helmets, they can […]

UN warns against thirsty tech to solve water crisis

PARIS, March 22, 2024 (AFP) – The world needs to better manage its freshwater resources but thirsty new technologies touted as solutions could lead to “serious problems” if left unchecked, a UN report warned Friday. Roughly half of the planet’s population is facing grave water shortages, with climate change-linked droughts affecting more than 1.4 billion people between 2002 and 2021, the report for the UN cultural agency UNESCO said. As of 2022, more than 2 […]

‘Dragon Ball’ theme park planned in Saudi Arabia

TOKYO, March 22, 2024 (AFP) – A theme park based on Japan’s “Dragon Ball” manga franchise will be built in Saudi Arabia’s new high-end tourist attraction of Qiddiya just outside Riyadh, authorities said Friday. The announcement comes two weeks after fans of the massively popular and influential series were shocked by news of the death of its creator Akira Toriyama, aged 68. The 500,000-square-metre (125-acre) park will allow fans to “live the adventures at the […]

Launch of Russian spacecraft aborted moments before liftoff

  MOSCOW, March 21, 2024 (AFP) – The launch of a Russian spacecraft to the International Space Station was aborted at the last minute on Thursday, in another high-profile setback for Russia’s space programme. The Russian Soyuz MS-25 mission was due to take off from the Baikonur space port in Kazakhstan on Thursday, carrying three astronauts from Russia, the United States and Belarus. But the launch was cancelled just seconds before scheduled blast-off at 4:21 […]

NASA: El Niño and climate change drive global sea level rise

Global average sea level rose by about 0.3 inches (0.76 centimeters) from 2022 to 2023 — nearly four times the increase of the previous year — NASA said Thursday, attributing the “significant jump” to a strong El Nino and a warming climate. The NASA-led analysis is based on more than 30 years of satellite observations, with the initial satellite launching in 1992 and the latest in 2020. Overall, sea levels have risen by around four […]

US sues Apple: DOJ alleges illegal monopoly practices with iPhone

By Alex PIGMAN WASHINGTON, March 22, 2024 (AFP) – The US Department of Justice sued Apple on Thursday, accusing the tech giant of illegally maintaining a monopoly for its iPhone by stifling competition and imposing exorbitant costs on consumers. The lawsuit, also brought by multiple US states, said Apple raked in hundreds of billions of dollars by allegedly making it difficult for consumers to switch to cheaper smartphones and devices. The long anticipated case against […]

Spring’s splendor: Celebrating 75 years of blooms at Keukenhof

LISSE, Netherlands, March 22, 2024 (AFP) – The world’s biggest tulip garden opened to the public on Thursday for its 75th edition, with hundreds of thousands of people expected to enjoy a bewildering array of seven million bulbs in the western Dutch city of Lisse. Keukenhof park, southwest of Amsterdam in the heart of “bulb country”, contains millions of tulips of every colour as well as other flowers across 32 hectares (80 acres). The park […]

US surgeons transplant pig kidney to live patient in world first

By Chris Lefkow WASHINGTON, March 21, 2024 (AFP) – US surgeons have successfully transplanted a genetically modified pig kidney into a living patient for the first time, the hospital said Thursday, a procedure that could help address the chronic shortage of donor organs. The four-hour operation was carried out on Saturday on a 62-year-old man suffering from end-stage kidney disease, Massachusetts General Hospital said. “The procedure marks a major milestone in the quest to provide […]

Neuralink shows quadriplegic playing chess with brain implant

SAN FRANCISCO, March 21, 2024 (AFP) – Neuralink on Wednesday streamed a video of its first human patient playing computer chess with his mind and talking about the brain implant making that possible. Noland Arbaugh, 29, who was left paralyzed from the shoulders down by a diving accident eight years ago, told of playing chess and the videogame “Civilization” as well as taking Japanese and French lessons by controlling a computer screen cursor with his […]

The search to discover why ‘outliers’ survive deadliest cancers

By Isabelle TOURNÉ When Herve found out he had glioblastoma — the most aggressive form of brain cancer — at the age of 40, he made a deal with himself. “I said to myself: it is serious, but you are at war — and you’re going to win,” the French teacher, who did not want to give his surname, told AFP. “For my wife and children, I forbade myself to die.” Eight years later, following […]