is

The imaginary American town that became a tourist attraction

Map-makers insert fake towns or trap-streets to catch out plagiarists, but Agloe, in New York state, took on a strange life of its own

In 2008, Argleton village in west Lancashire appeared on Google, complete with weather reports, a job site and an estate agent advertising houses for sale. Argleton vanished two years later. While its site was – and still is – a damp field in the middle of nowhere, it’s worth noting that Argleton is an anagram of G Not Real. Although Google never admitted to having created it, Argleton was a phantom settlement, planted as a trap.

In the world of digital mapping and cartography, snares to catch unwary plagiarists take the form of fake roads or places, known as “trap streets” or “paper towns”. For some, such as Lye Close or Noereal Road, the clue is in the name. (A real alleyway in Cardiff that served as a trap street in the 2014 Dr Who episode Face the Raven may, conversely, be the world’s only fictional fictional street.)

Continue reading...



  • Maps
  • United States holidays
  • North and Central America holidays
  • Travel

is

Feel the heat: Gilles Peterson's Brazilian playlist

From samba to jazz and house, the DJ and founder of radio station Worldwide FM picks 10 tracks to transport you to Brazil

Originally released in 1980, this funky track from solo artist Cristina Camargo is pure “80s vibes”, Peterson says. “I’ve been loving this boogie tune, produced by Lincoln Olivetti and Robson Jorge, of late. It lifts the mood every time.” Olivetti and Jorge crafted Rio’s early-80s boogie sound, and produced classic albums by Brazilian disco legends in the mid-70s. “It reminds me of line dancing in Rio, particularly on a Sunday afternoon in Lapa, where sound systems play a mixture of this and classic British 80s cuts by the likes of Lisa Stansfield and Soul II Soul – very obscure!”

Continue reading...




is

Fifty Shades of Sligo: Normal People poses a challenge for Irish tourism

The travel industry has sifted through the BBC show’s many sex scenes to showcase shots of Ireland’s landscape

Promoting Ireland as a tourism destination used to be straightforward – just showcase the bucolic landscape and put a slogan on the end – but that was before Normal People turned a chunk of the Atlantic coast into Fifty Shades of Sligo.

The television adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel features beautiful shots of Sligo’s beaches and mountains, plus Trinity College Dublin, but there is also sex. Lots of sex.

Continue reading...




is

Moments in history quiz: where in the world

You may be familiar with these iconic images, but where did the events take place?

Where did this ship dock on 22 June 1948?

Felixstowe

Liverpool

Southampton

Tilbury

Where was this short-lived celebration?

Berlin

Budapest

Paris

Prague

Where did these three famously meet?

Geneva

Nuremberg

Potsdam

Yalta

Prime Minister Harold Wilson, with pipe and sunburnt legs, is on holiday where?

Anglesey

Isles of Scilly

Isle of Wight

Isle of Skye

This Pablo Picasso masterpiece depicts the carnage of the Spanish civil war in which region?

Asturias

Basque Country

Galicia

Catalonia

One of the most famous fights in history took place where?

Kinshasa

Las Vegas

Manila

Mexico City

This didn't end well. Where did it all start?

Belgrade

Sarajevo

Versaille

Vienna

This is somewhere between Ibiza and the Norfolk Broads – but where exactly?

Brixton

Camden

Hackney

Soho

It's a wrap! Where did this take place?

Berlin

Moscow

Paris

Stockholm

Gazza's tears made him the most famous person in the UK for a while, but where was this match played?

Milan

Naples

Rome

Turin

Where are these matchstick men and women?

Birmingham

Liverpool

Manchester

Newcastle

Fidel could always draw a crowd - where was this one?

Havana

Moscow

New York

Rio de Janeiro

Where did the Arab spring begin?

Egypt

Libya

Lebanon

Tunisia

The barefoot runner, the nasty fall ... but in which Olympics did this controversial race take place?

Moscow

Barcelona

Seoul

Los Angeles

Nelson Mandela was freed just over 30 years ago. Where was the jail he walked out of to greet cheering crowds?

Paarl, near Cape Town

Robben Island

Sun City, south of Johannesburg

Pretoria Central

Which English town did Malcolm X visit just nine days before he was assassinated?

Halifax

Northampton

Oldham

Smethwick

13 and above.

Past master!

9 and above.

You're an old hand at this

0 and above.

Best stick to Where's Wally!

5 and above.

You're history!

Continue reading...




is

‘In lockdown, spring is unfolding before my eyes’

With no alternative but to explore the nature on their doorstep, three writers describe the joy of enforced slow travel

It is a place I’d discovered before the virus: a left-hand bend in a narrow stream, a couple of steps off the footpath. There is nothing remarkable there, or not at first glance. There are breeze blocks in the stream bed and plastic bags deeply embedded in the roots of an alder tree. With a few variations, it could be anywhere in Britain: the neglected corner of a city park, the back of a private garden, behind a national park cafe. It’s just one of those spots that no one ever thinks to stop at and, if not for Covid-19, I would not have begun visiting daily, pausing for a few breaths before continuing. I saw the first snowdrops appear there, followed by primroses; then they were swamped by wild garlic and wood anemone. One morning a weasel shot out of a hole under a root and sprinted up the opposite bank. It was the first of several surprises.

Continue reading...




is

'Alien comet' visitor has weird composition

The first known comet to visit us from another star system has an unusual make-up.





is

Tsunami risk identified near future Indonesian capital

Scientists map ancient underwater landslides in the region chosen for Jakarta's replacement.





is

Antarctica's A-68: Is the world's biggest iceberg about to break up?

The 5,100 sq km behemoth which broke away from Antarctica in 2017 drops its own large chunk of ice.





is

Nature crisis: 'Insect apocalypse' more complicated than thought

The health of insect populations globally is far more varied than previous research suggested.





is

Software tools for mining COVID-19 research studies go viral among scientists

One month after the debut of the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset, or CORD-19, the database of coronavirus-related research papers has doubled in size – and has given rise to more than a dozen software tools to channel the hundreds of studies that are being published every day about the pandemic. In a roundup published on the ArXiv preprint server this week, researchers from Seattle's Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Microsoft Research and other partners in the project say CORD-19's collection has risen from about 28,000 papers to more than 52,000. Every day, several hundred more papers are being published, in… Read More





is

NASA puts Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX on the list for lunar lander development program

NASA has selected teams led by Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX to develop lunar landing systems capable of putting astronauts on the moon by as early as 2024. "We want to be able to go to the moon, but we want to be a customer," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told reporters today during a teleconference. "We want to drive down the costs, we want to increase the access, we want to have our partners have customers that are not just us, so they compete on cost and innovation, and just bring capabilities that we've never had before." Fixed-price contracts totaling… Read More





is

Nasa names companies to develop Moon landers for human missions

The space agency announces the companies that will work on landers to return astronauts to the Moon.





is

Forests 'can take cover to resist alien invaders'

Native woodlands can resist the spread of invasive species if they block light reaching the ground.





is

NASA and SpaceX get set to make history with landmark spaceflight during pandemic

Everything is in readiness for the first mission to send humans into orbit from U.S. soil since NASA retired the space shuttle fleet in 2011 – from the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that will take two astronauts to the International Space Station, to the parachutes that will bring them back down gently to an Atlantic Ocean splashdown, to the masks that NASA's ground team will wear in Mission Control. The fact that the launch is coming in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic has added a weird and somewhat wistful twist to the history-making event. "That certainly is disappointing," NASA… Read More





is

NASA confirms it’s working with Tom Cruise (and SpaceX?) to make a movie on space station

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has confirmed in a tweet that the space agency is working with movie star Tom Cruise on a project that involves shooting a film on the International Space Station. Deadline Hollywood reported on Monday that a space movie project involving NASA and SpaceX is in the works, but that "no studio is in the mix at this stage." Bridenstine followed up with a tweet saying that NASA was "excited" to be working with Cruise, and explaining that "we need popular media to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists to make NASA's ambitious plans a… Read More





is

What is climate change? A really simple guide

BBC News looks at what we know and don't know about the Earth's changing climate.





is

Scientists explain magnetic pole's wanderings

The North Magnetic Pole has been racing across the top of the world, from Canada towards Siberia.





is

'Nearest black hole to Earth discovered'

An unseen object is found to be lurking in a double-star system a mere 1,000 light-years from Earth.





is

University of Washington wins NASA grant to create spacey contest for Artemis Student Challenges

NASA has awarded the University of Washington a $499,864 grant to develop a competition that calls on students to turn a simulated lava tube into a habitat suitable for harboring humans on the moon or Mars. The exploration and habitation skills competition will be funded as part of NASA's Artemis Student Challenges program, which plays off the themes of the Artemis moon program to inspire the next generation of explorers and engineers. The competition will involve navigating a rover through a facsimile lava tube and surface structures, generating maps, identifying valuable resources and deploying an airtight barrier to seal the… Read More





is

Some landscapes show resistance to ash dieback

Certain habitats can help dampen the spread of ash dieback, which threatens ash trees.





is

Abbott coronavirus test is accurate; infected mother's breast milk may protect infants

The following is a brief roundup of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. A new antibody test is highly accurate at determining whether people have been infected with the novel coronavirus, according to a study published on Friday in The Journal of Clinical Microbiology. Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine found the test, manufactured by Abbott Laboratories, had a specificity rate of 99.9% and a sensitivity rate of 100%, suggesting little chance of incorrectly diagnosing a healthy person as having been infected and virtually no chance of a false negative readout.





is

Scientists obtain 'lucky' image of Jupiter

The Hawaii-based Gemini telescope produces a super-sharp picture of the gas giant in the infrared.





is

Robert May, former UK chief scientist and chaos theory pioneer, dies aged 84

Friends and colleagues pay tribute to gifted polymath whose achievements spanned biology, physics and public policy

Pioneering Australian scientist Robert May, whose work in biology led to the development of chaos theory, has died at age 84.

Known as one of Australia’s most accomplished scientists, he served as the chief scientific adviser to the United Kingdom, was president of the Royal Society, and was made a lord in 2001.

Continue reading...




is

UK scientists condemn 'Stalinist' attempt to censor Covid-19 advice

Exclusive: report criticising government lockdown proposals heavily redacted before release

Government scientific advisers are furious at what they see as an attempt to censor their advice on government proposals during the Covid-19 lockdown by heavily redacting an official report before it was released to the public, the Guardian can reveal.

The report was one of a series of documents published by the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) this week to mollify growing criticism about the lack of transparency over the advice given to ministers responding to the coronavirus.

Continue reading...




is

UK scientists hit back at attempts to discredit scientific basis for lockdown

Letter seeks to dispel view that Prof Neil Ferguson was single architect of lockdown idea

A group of leading UK scientists have insisted that the scientific basis for the coronavirus lockdown is the work of a large group of experts, and that epidemiologist Prof Neil Ferguson is just one voice among many.

In a letter co-ordinated by Dr Thibaut Jombart, an associate professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, more than 25 prominent scientists said debates after Ferguson’s “individual error” – in which he flouted lockdown rules by receiving visits at home from his lover – had amplified a misconception that he alone persuaded the government to change policy.

Continue reading...




is

No 10 scientific advisers warned of black market in fake coronavirus test results

Sage told widespread use of antibody tests could lead to criminal behaviour, papers reveal

Downing Street’s scientific advisers feared people might intentionally seek to contract coronavirus and that a black market in fake test results could emerge if employers allowed workers to return only when they had a positive antibody test.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, known as Sage, was warned last month by its behavioural psychology subgroup that the widespread introduction of antibody tests could lead to a range of potentially dangerous and even criminal “negative behavioural responses” if not handled well.

Continue reading...




is

Warty comb jelly, scourge of fisheries, also eats its young

Researchers say cannibalistic tendency may help explain why the invasive creatures thrive

When the going gets tough, most parents try to protect their offspring. But the warty comb jelly takes a different tack: it eats them.

Despite initial appearances, comb jellies are not jellyfish but belong to a different group of animals, ctenophora, which swim using tiny hair-like projections called cilia.

Continue reading...




is

Ontario Premier Doug Ford briefly visited cottage after asking residents not to

Ontario Premier Doug Ford dropped by his cottage last month, days after asking the province’s residents to stay away from theirs. His office says Ford "drove alone" and was there for less than an hour to check on construction.



  • News/Canada/Toronto

is

Wild horse stuck in muddy bog is alive and kicking thanks to some determined rescuers

A young wild horse likely wouldn't have survived the night if a group of animal lovers hadn't stumbled across the filly struggling — and failing — to drag itself out of a two-metre deep mud hole.



  • News/Canada/Calgary

is

This Ancaster mother works in a grocery store. Now her daughter is afraid of her

Mother's Day is coming up, but it doesn't feel quite right for Dawn Degeus. The 39-year-old mother from Ancaster, Ont., will try to celebrate while one of her two kids actively avoids her.



  • News/Canada/Hamilton

is

Smart Education And Learning Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Age, By Component, By Learning Mode, By End User, By Region And Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2027

Smart Education And Learning Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Age, By Component (Hardware, Software, Service), By Learning Mode, By End User, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2027Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05891723/?utm_source=PRN The global smart education and learning market size is expected to reach USD 680.1 billion by 2027. The market is anticipated to witness a CAGR of 17.9% from 2020 to 2027. Demand for smart education and learning solutions is increasing among the growing population in corporate and academic sectors, owing to benefits such as improved education quality and easy access to educational content. Increasing adoption of consumer electronics, such as smartphones, e-readers, laptops, and e-learning applications, has altered conventional education methodology and has enhanced the efficiency of an individual to learn. Additionally, there are enormous opportunities for advancements in the market, owing to improved internet accessibility.Also, the COVID - 19 outbreak has emerged an opportunity for the market with an increasing number of states and countries closing educational institutes. For instance, over 90.0% of the world's students are not attending their schools due to this pandemic, as mentioned by UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization). Commonwealth of Learning (COL), an intergovernmental organization of The Commonwealth (Canada), has supported educational institutions and governments in building robust distance education solutions for quality e-learning practices. However, lack of awareness among end-users about the latest technologies and inadequate amount of resources for delivering quality education in developing regions is anticipated to hinder market growth.The simulation-based learning segment is anticipated to exhibit the highest CAGR because this mode enables corporate professional and educational institutions to create a realistic experience in a controlled environment.It also allows professionals and learners to practice, navigate, explore, and obtain more information through a virtual medium before they start working on real-life tasks.Growing awareness among people and the rising popularity of smart education are encouraging solution providers to invest in research and development for creating more reliable, better, and cost-effective solutions. Manufacturers are making substantial investments in developing new products for enhancing the user experience.Smart education and learning market report highlights:• Growing demand for smart educational practices can be accredited to factors, such as reducing expenses of online training, curbing geographic challenges in physically attending classes, and time constraints faced by aspirants• Increasing penetration of the Internet of Things (IoT), enhanced internet accessibility, and rapid adoption of mobile technology have encouraged users to adopt smart education and learning solutions• Innovative techniques, such as gamification, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), microlearning, and adaptive learning, which improve the overall educational process, are expected to drive the market over the projected period• North America accounted for the largest market share in 2019 owing to its large consumer base for e-learning methodsRead the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05891723/?utm_source=PRN About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Contact Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001





is

Amid pandemic, Pompeo to visit Israel for annexation talks

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to Israel next week for a brief visit amid the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown, a trip that’s expected to focus on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to annex portions of the West Bank, the State Department said Friday. Pompeo will make the lightning trip to Jerusalem to see Netanyahu and his new coalition partner Benny Gantz on Wednesday as the Trump administration tries to return to business as normal by resuming governmental travel and reopening an economy devastated by the COVID-19 outbreak.





is

Pakistan army: Roadside bomb in remote area kills 6 troops




is

Coronavirus in Kenya: Fearing 'money heists' amid pandemic

Kenyans are afraid that money set aside to tackle the virus is being misspent, writes Waihiga Mwaura.





is

Lawyers: Investigators recommend whistleblower is reinstated

Federal investigators have found “reasonable grounds” that a government whistleblower was punished for speaking out against widespread use of an unproven drug that President Donald Trump touted as a remedy for COVID-19, his lawyers said. Dr. Rick Bright headed the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a unit of Department of Health and Human Services that focuses on countermeasures to infectious diseases and bioterrorism. The OSC is an agency that investigates allegations of egregious personnel practices in government.





is

US objects to UN resolution on virus in dispute with China

The United States on Friday objected to a proposed U.N. resolution on the coronavirus pandemic after diplomats said it had agreed to compromise language with China that didn’t directly mention the World Health Organization, an issue of growing dispute between the world’s two major economic powers. The U.S. objection to the Security Council resolution drafted by France and Tunisia reflects rising tensions between Washington and Beijing. It also leaves the U.N.’s most powerful body impotent on reacting to the greatest crisis facing the world — and unable to back Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ March 23 call for global cease-fires to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, which diplomats said all 15 Security Council members agree on and is the main point of the resolution.





is

Germany sees increased risk of hard Brexit if Britain refuses to extend deadline




is

Hard Brexit more likely because of coronavirus and lack of progress in talks, says German foreign minister

A hard Brexit is more likely due to the coronavirus crisis because Britain and the European Union have made so little progress in talks, Germany's foreign minister has said. Heiko Maas said that negotiations between Britain and the EU so far on the future trade relationship had yielded few gains with the UK disregarding the political declaration, which he said was "simply not on". Britain left the EU in January, and talks with the bloc are now focused on setting new trading terms from 2021, when London's status-quo transition period ends. However, the talks quickly hit an impasse when negotiations resumed last month, according to diplomats and officials. "It's worrying that Britain is moving further away from our jointly agreed political declaration on key issues in the negotiations," Mr Maas told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper. "It's simply not on, because the negotiations are a complete package as it's laid out in the political declaration." Mr Maas said there was currently neither common ground on how to shape a comprehensive trade deal or on whether to extend the negotiation period beyond the end of the year. "The British government is still refusing to extend the deadline," Mr Maas said. "If it stays that way, we will have to deal with Brexit in addition to the coronavirus at the turn of the year." Simon Coveney, Ireland's foreign minister, said on Friday that the coronavirus pandemic had made an already difficult timeline for a British-European Union trade deal "virtually impossible" and that it would make sense to seek more time.





is

U.S. continues media battle with Beijing, limits Chinese journalists' visas

The back-and-forth continues.The Department of Homeland Security said Friday the United States will shorten the visa length for Chinese journalists working for non-American news outlets to 90 days. Previously, journalists with Chinese passports were granted open-ended visas. They can apply for extensions under the new rules, but renewed visas will also last just 90 days. The new limit won't apply to reporters from Hong Kong Macau, or to mainland Chinese citizens who hold green cards.It's the latest development in a media war between Washington and Beijing that has intensified during the coronavirus pandemic. American officials said the rules were meant to counterbalance the "suppression of independent journalism" in China, whose government expelled journalists from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post in March. Before that, the U.S. reduced the number of Chinese citizens employed by multiple state-controlled Chinese news organizations to work in the country. The New York Times notes the move wasn't unexpected; U.S. intelligence officials have long believed some journalists at Beijing-run outlets are spies, and the Trump administration has designated some Chinese news agencies foreign government functionaries.The heightened tensions between the world's two biggest powers didn't just show up in the media world Friday. U.S. lawmakers wrote to nearly 60 countries asking them to support Taiwan's participation in the World Health Organization, a move that likely won't sit well with China. And Washington also blocked a United Nations security council resolution calling for a global ceasefire during the pandemic because it indirectly referenced the WHO, which the U.S. has blamed in conjunction with China for failing to suppress the outbreak.More stories from theweek.com Outed CIA agent Valerie Plame is running for Congress, and her launch video looks like a spy movie trailer 7 scathing cartoons about America's rush to reopen Trump says he couldn't have exposed WWII vets to COVID-19 because the wind was blowing the wrong way





is

Georgia man's death raises echoes of US racial terror legacy

Many people saw more than the last moments of Ahmaud Arbery's life when a video emerged this week of white men armed with guns confronting the black man, a struggle with punches thrown, three shots fired and Arbery collapsing dead. The Feb. 23 shooting in coastal Georgia is drawing comparisons to a much darker period of U.S. history — when extrajudicial killings of black people, almost exclusively at the hands of white male vigilantes, inflicted racial terror on African Americans. It frequently happened with law enforcement complicity or feigned ignorance.





is

AP FACT CHECK: Trump is not credible on virus death tolls

Truth can be a casualty when President Donald Trump talks about deaths from the coronavirus in the United States. Pushing to get the country back to normal, Trump also suggested that children are safe from the coronavirus. Germany has done very good.





is

Ajit Pai uses bad data to claim ISPs are deploying broadband to everyone

Pai’s “baffling” report ignores broadband gaps and high prices, Democrats say.




is

Frontier, amid bankruptcy, is suspected of lying about broadband expansion

Small ISPs want investigation as Frontier tries to block FCC funding for rivals.




is

Ubuntu 20.04: Welcome to the future, Linux LTS disciples

ZFS gets more accessible, security becomes a bigger priority, and Ubuntu speeds up overall.




is

“Chickens**t” whistleblower firings are “poison,” resigning Amazon VP says

Firings highlight “toxicity running through the company culture,” Bray said.





is

Comcast resists call to open home Wi-Fi hotspots, cites potential congestion

"Comcast's excuse simply does not add up," three US senators say.




is

US military is furious at FCC over 5G plan that could interfere with GPS

FCC accuses military of “baseless fear-mongering” in fight over Ligado network.