Who Needs GMT?
‘Cosmic clock’ dates earliest human presence in Europe
By Katie Hunt
Stone tools unearthed in a quarry in Ukraine belonged to ancient humans who used them more than a million years ago, according to new research.
The fresh dating analysis of the artifacts reveals the earliest known presence of hominins in Europe, said Roman Garba, an archaeologist at the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. The first humans to inhabit Europe made their way from east to west, the report also suggested.
Initial dating of the Korolevo archaeological site, discovered in the 1970s, suggested it had been used for more than 800,000 years. Archaeologists have recovered 90,000 stone tools from the site, which lies close to Ukraine’s southwestern border with Hungary and Romania.
God Bless Venice
Where It All Ended
Patmos: The Greek island where the end of the world began
by John Malathronas
The island of Patmos, sitting under perfect blue skies in the eastern reaches of the Aegean sea, may look like a typical vacation destination in Greece, but it isn’t.
It’s where the end of the world began.
Not that you’d guess that, strolling down the winding path in the center of the island, where a sleepy priest tends a souvenir stall.
Yet, this is the place from where infernal visions of mankind’s ultimate downfall sprang – inspiring St. John to write the Book of Revelation which forms the closing pages of the New Testament and gives the Bible some of its most portentous descriptions.
Raising Union Station
Billionaire Todd Graves Hopes to Use Art to Fuel Infrastructure Improvements
Graves plans to display and then donate a group of Carlos Diniz drawings depicting the 1988 renovation of D.C.’s Union Station.
By Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly
Todd Graves, founder of the Raising Cane’s restaurant franchise, is hoping an art exhibition will help spur on the long-awaited renovation of Union Station in Washington, D.C.
A proposed $10 billion redevelopment would be the train station’s first major facelift in more than three decades. With an upcoming display of illustrations detailing its last major renovation in the 1980s, Graves hopes to remind the city of the station’s potential.
Currently on display at Raising Cane’s Union Station location, the six drawings were made by Carlos Diniz, one of the most iconic architectural illustrators of the 20th century. Graves, who acquired a dozen of Diniz’s illustrations of the station for around $200,000, will donate the entire batch to a yet-to-be-announced museum in Washington, D.C., later this year.
Subliminal Da Vinci
Art Bites: Did Leonardo Hide Music in ‘The Last Supper’?
Dinner and a show.
Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper (c. 1495-98) which shows the final meeting of Jesus and the 12 apostles, is one of the world’s most famous artworks.
It has been analysed time and time again, its true cast of figures has been questioned, has been found to contain hidden astrological messages, and in 2007 a University of Oxford doctorate candidate found that the masterpiece was also holding a musical secret: a hidden hymn coded in the bread.
Giovanni Maria Pala, an Italian musician, computer technician, and at the time student at Magdalen College, had been fascinated by Leonardo and The Last Supper for years.
He began examining the straight row of scattered pieces of bread that ran along the iconic table, which were present in the banquet as a symbol of the body of Christ.
What Pala found was that, when paired with the hand-placement of the 13 figures, the bread spelled out a haunting 40-second melody when the painting was overlaid with a standard five-line musical staff.
But what if you turn into a monkey?
If you yearn for the void, try floating naked in a dark tank
Depending on who you ask, spending an hour floating naked in a soundproof, lightproof tank with only your own thoughts for company sounds either like a soothing respite from everyday life, or a nightmarish punishment devised by a uniquely devious and vengeful deity.
Personally, I yearn for the void. So I signed up for a session in a float tank. These used to be called sensory deprivation tanks, but the term has fallen out of favor because your senses aren’t fully deprived; the terms of art are flotation therapy or flotation Rest (restricted environmental stimulation therapy).
Isolation tanks were first developed in the 1950s by John C Lilly, a neuroscientist who used them to enhance his psychedelic experiences. They didn’t become commercially available until the 1970s but their popularity quickly grew.
Eno Illuminated
Brian Eno’s New Illuminated Turntable Does More Than Spin Records
The record player doubles as an artwork and can be yours for a mere $25,000.
Musician and artist Brian Eno has released a new edition of a custom-designed turntable that is as much an artwork as a device for playing music.
“When it doesn’t have to do anything in particular, like play a record, it’s a sculpture,” said the artist.
The turntable features a round base, echoing the shape of the platter; the two parts light up and transition among various colors independently of each other, creating what the artist calls “generative ‘colorscapes.’” The first edition of the turntable, produced in 2021, inspired the stage set for U2’s recent shows at the Sphere, in Las Vegas.
It’s Beginning
Private lander makes first US moon landing in more than 50 years
BY MARCIA DUNN
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A private lander on Thursday made the first U.S. touchdown on the moon in more than 50 years, but managed just a weak signal back until flight controllers scrambled to gain better contact.
Despite the spotty communication, Intuitive Machines, the company that built and managed the craft, confirmed that it had landed upright. But it did not provide additional details, including whether the lander had reached its intended destination near the moon’s south pole. The company ended its live webcast soon after identifying a lone, weak signal from the lander.
“What we can confirm, without a doubt, is our equipment is on the surface of the moon,” mission director Tim Crain reported as tension built in the company’s Houston control center.
Added Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus: “I know this was a nail-biter, but we are on the surface and we are transmitting. Welcome to the moon.”
No worries, Eve made the same mistake.
Investigative Issues: The Apple Vision Pro May Rewire Our Brains in Unexpected Ways
By Adam Rogers
The Vision Pro, like the similarly kitted-out Quest 3 and Quest Pro headsets from Meta, uses what’s known as “passthrough” video — cameras and other sensors that capture imagery of the outside world and reproduce it inside the device. They feed you a synthetic environment made to look like the real one, with Apple apps and other non-real elements floating in front of it. Apple and Meta are hoping that this virtual world will be so compelling that you won’t just visit. They’re hoping you’ll live there.
That, unfortunately, could have some very weird and very messy consequences for the human brain. Researchers have found that widespread, long-term immersion in VR headsets could literally change the way we perceive the world — and each other. “We now have companies who are advocating that you spend many hours each day in them,” says Jeremy Bailenson, director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford. “You’ve got many, many people, and they’re wearing it for many, many hours. And everything magnifies at scale.”
Meaning: Our brains are about to undergo a massive, society-wide experiment that could rewire our sense of the world around us, and make it even harder to agree on what constitutes reality.
Coyote vs. Warner Bros.
The Final Days of ‘Coyote vs. Acme’: Offers, Rejections and a Roadrunner Race Against Time | Exclusive
Warner was seeking $75 – $80 million but rejected offers from Netflix, Amazon and Paramount, insiders tell TheWrap
by Drew Taylor
In early January, “Coyote vs. Acme” producer Chris DeFaria got a startling phone call from a Warner Bros. executive. “They just want to get this behind them,” the executive told DeFaria. “They want to close the books.”
In the words of the Roadrunner: Meep.
The movie, a live-action/animated hybrid that stars Will Forte and the “Looney Tunes” gang, had been earmarked for demolition on Nov. 9. But following the announcement that the movie would be canceled, a firestorm of outrage and indignation erupted. It was heightened by a friends-and-family screening that had already been planned before the cancellation announcement was made. The screening brought more goodwill and an even louder public outcry.
“What was so exciting was that it felt like the film captured the voice of the Looney Tunes that we love in a way none of the other feature versions have ever done,” Paul Scheer, who was at that screening, told TheWrap. (The last movie to feature the characters, 2021’s “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” was pilloried by critics and lost money.)
Carl Weathers Gone
Carl Weathers, Apollo Creed from ‘Rocky’ and ‘Mandalorian’ star, dies at 76
The beloved actor, who also had roles in “Happy Gilmore” and “Predator,” died in his sleep, his family said.
By Diana Dasrath and Antonio Planas
LOS ANGELES — Carl Weathers, the actor best known as Apollo Creed in the “Rocky” movies and more recently for his role in the hit “Star Wars” series “The Mandalorian,” died Thursday in his sleep, according to his family.
He was 76.
Weathers got his big-screen break in 1976, when he landed the role of Creed in “Rocky,” according to his bio on IMDb. He continued his role in three other “Rocky” movies. Weathers also landed parts in 1987’s “Predator,” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, in Adam Sandler’s “Happy Gilmore” in 1996 and on the small screen in “The Mandalorian.”
Weathers also was the voice for Combat Carl in “Toy Story 4” and other shorts in the beloved Disney-Pixar franchise.
He also earned comedy cred by playing a bizarro version of himself in the cult sitcom “Arrested Development.” Other TV acting credits include “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Magnum P.I.” and “Chicago P.D.”
Koko Meets Mork
Battle of New Canaan
Gates Battle of the Bands FINALE
by Rachel Lampen
Gates Restaurant is celebrating 5-years of championing local music and raising money for Meals on Wheels – in 2023 they presented a check for $4.3k. This highly charged production consists of 4-weekly heats and an electrifying final, hosted by radio presenter Jon Kamal.
The ticketed final on Saturday, February 3rd, will see 4-bands play a 20-minute set from 8pm. Special guest judges have been recruited to decide their fate. This year it is Brooklyn based Paul Green – Founder of School of Rock, PG Academy. His wife Kim France, editor, music writer and author. Renowned international author James Frey and local musician Michael Louis-Smith. Organizer Rachel Lampen says: “The competing bands work so hard and it’s an important time of year to raise money and encourage community spirit. It’s a huge production and I want to personally thank Todd Grosberg for sound, the judges for giving up their time and to Jen and Jay, Owners of Gates Restaurant for putting their trust in me five years ago. Everyone plays an integral part.”
Norman Jewison Gone
Norman Jewison Dies: ‘Fiddler On The Roof,’ ‘Moonstruck’ & ‘In The Heat Of The Night’ Director Was 97
By Tom Tapp
Norman Jewison, who directed Best Picture Oscar winner In the Heat of the Night and nominees Fiddler on the Roof, A Soldier’s Story, Moonstruck and The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, also producing the latter four, died peacefully Saturday, January 20. He was 97.
Jewison’s film career spanned more than four decades and seven Oscar nominations — three for Best Director (In the Heat of the Night, Fiddler on the Roof and Moonstruck) and the four for Best Picture. His films received a total of 46 nominations and 12 Academy Awards. In 1999, Jewison was honored with the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Award at the Academy Awards. He also collected three Emmy Awards for his work in television.
Mormorio di storni
Production Bowl
Behind the Scenes of the Most Spectacular Show on TV
Months of preparation, hundreds of staff, convoys of cutting-edge gear: inside the machine that crafts prime time’s most popular entertainment.
By Jody Rosen
Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the Kansas City Chiefs, the N.F.L.’s defending champions, is a very loud place. Players say that when the noise reaches top volume, they can feel vibrations in their bones. During a 2014 game, a sound meter captured a decibel reading equivalent to a jet’s taking off, earning a Guinness World Record for “Loudest crowd roar at a sports stadium.” Chiefs fans know how to weaponize noise, quieting to a churchlike hush when the team’s great quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, calls signals but then, when opponents have the ball, unleashing a howl that can even drown out the sound of the play call crackling through the speaker inside the rival quarterback’s helmet.
There are others whose work is complicated by the din. Around 11 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 7, Brian Melillo, an audio engineer for NBC Sports’ flagship N.F.L. telecast, “Sunday Night Football,” arrived at Arrowhead to prepare for that evening’s Chiefs-Detroit Lions game. It was a big occasion: the annual season opener, the N.F.L. Kickoff game, traditionally hosted by the winner of last season’s Super Bowl. There would be speeches, fireworks, a military flyover, the unfurling of a championship banner. A crowd of more than 73,000 was expected. “Arrowhead is a pretty rowdy setting,” Melillo said. “It can present some problems.”
Melillo was especially concerned about his crowd mics — three stereo microphones intended to catch the ambient oohs and aahs of fans, mounted atop 16-foot-high painters’ poles that he and a colleague had secured to the railing separating the seats from the field. These needed to be kept at a distance from exploding pyrotechnics and angled away from the blare of the stadium’s public-address system. A perhaps greater hazard was overzealous fans, who are prone to shaking the poles or even pulling them down. “You’ll get people who’ve been tailgating for five hours,” Melillo said. “I might have to bribe some people to stay off those poles.”
Social Divorce
The zeitgeist is changing. A strange, romantic backlash to the tech era looms
by Ross Barkan
Empiricism, algorithms and smartphones are out – astrology, art and a life lived fiercely offline are in.
Cultural upheavals can be a riddle in real time. Trends that might seem obvious in hindsight are poorly understood in the present or not fathomed at all. We live in turbulent times now, at the tail end of a pandemic that killed millions and, for a period, reordered existence as we knew it. It marked, perhaps more than any other crisis in modern times, a new era, the world of the 2010s wrenched away for good.
What comes next can’t be known – not with so much war and political instability, the rise of autocrats around the world, and the growing plausibility of a second Donald Trump term. Within the roil – or below it – one can hazard, at least, a hypothesis: a change is here and it should be named. A rebellion, both conscious and unconscious, has begun. It is happening both online and off-, and the off is where the youth, one day, might prefer to wage it. It echoes, in its own way, a great shift that came more than two centuries ago, out of the ashes of the Napoleonic wars.
Ken Block’s Finale
Ken Block’s Final Gymkhana Video Is a Spectacular Showcase of What He Did Best
Elecktrikhana Two: One More Playground is an epic exhibition of car control and cinematography.
Before we tragically lost driving and racing legend Ken Block at the beginning of this year, he had already filmed one last Gymkhana-style video with his Hoonigan crew. That video finally dropped today, and it’s absolutely epic.
“Electrikhana Two: One More Playground; Mexico City in the Audi S1 Hoonitron” features, of course, Block’s incredible driving talents, Hoonigan’s delightful attention to detail, and this bizarre electric Audi that’s somewhere between a rally car and a spaceship going wild in Mexico’s capital.
BÖC
Always and Forever
That Scannable Spotify Tattoo Sounded Like a Good Idea at the Time
It’s becoming popular to get inked with a barcode so you can flash your flesh to turn on music. But the codes can stop working as skin sags and ink fades.
By Megan Graham
Mary Haley has the perfect party trick: a barcode-like tattoo of nearly two dozen fine lines that, when scanned with a Spotify music app, prompts a phone to play “Mambo No. 5” by Lou Bega.
Haley, who is 33 and runs a marketing agency in Skowhegan, Maine, got the Spotify tattoo in early 2022. When she moonlights as a waitress at a local snowmobiler bar, guests will sometimes ask her what song it plays. She often tells them, ‘You have to scan it.’ If they do, they are rewarded with lyrics that include the line, “A little bit of Mary all night long.”
Just how long the tattoo will perform as advertised is a painful subject. A growing cadre of music fans have joined the Spotify tattoo craze as a conversation starter or a way to commemorate sentimental favorites like wedding first-dance songs. But while many on social media tout the tats and how well they scan, some are starting to discover that nothing in life is permanent, even tattoos. Over time, ink fades. As skin ages it may warp the lines.
Haley said her tattoo artist tried to ward off the ravages of time by making the lines thinner than normal. “Eventually, they will get fuzzy, like regular tattoos,” said Haley, who also has eight other tattoos.
America Now
America’s cultural supremacy and geopolitical weakness
The notion of ‘decline’ is too crude to capture what is happening to the US in the 21st century
by JANAN GANESH
When the top two teams in the Premier League go at each other this weekend, America can’t lose. Arsenal and Liverpool, like AC Milan, Roma, Marseille, Lyon, Chelsea and (for now) Manchester United, are both US-owned. In 1994, when the nation last hosted the World Cup, it didn’t even have a domestic league. When it next does so in 2026, it should have a major proprietorial role in at least three European ones. The planet’s favourite game is being steered to a considerable extent from American boardrooms.
Perhaps your test of cultural influence is higher-minded than that. Well, consider that US universities continue to dominate world rankings. Or that America accounts for 45 per cent of art sales by value, according to UBS, which is more than Britain and China, the next two markets, combined. To attend the Venice Biennale now is to enter a new Jazz Age in which experts from all over the world vie to advise American patrons on how to spend the spoils of their economic boom.
A Wave Pulse On A String
School of Rock: The Physics of Waves on Guitar Strings
Playing the guitar is an art form. But the good vibrations you hear are a science.
PERHAPS THE MOST iconic instrument in modern rock is the guitar. It’s really just a bunch of strings stretched across a board, which you can strum to make awesome tunes, thanks to the physics of waves and sound.
Let’s start with a demo you could probably repeat at home. Get a nice string—one that’s sort of thick—and lay it out in a straight line on the floor. Now grab one free end and give it a side-to-side shake. Here’s what it might look like….
More Number Four
No Sign of ‘I Am Number Four 2’ Sequel Yet Despite Continued Fan Demand for Next Alien Thriller Installment
I Am Number Four was a teen sci-fi movie released in 2011 by Dreamworks Pictures. Based on the novel of the same name by Pittacus Lore (a pseudonym for co-authors James Frey and Jobie Hughes), the story followed John Smith, one of nine alien children hiding on Earth from villainous extraterrestrials out to kill them.
The movie starred Alex Pettyfer as John/Number Four alongside Dianna Agron, Teresa Palmer, and Timothy Olyphant. It was directed by D.J. Caruso and produced by Michael Bay. Reviews were mixed but it performed decently at the box office, earning about $150 million globally.
Its ending clearly set up sequels, with John and his guardian Henri escaping the carnage to find more of the nine alien children scattered across Earth. The book it was based on was also the first in a series, making a movie franchise seem likely.
Atouk of the Morning
Morning Person? You Might Have Neanderthal Genes to Thank.
Hundreds of genetic variants carried by Neanderthals and Denisovans are shared by people who like to get up early.
by Carl Zimmer
Neanderthals were morning people, a new study suggests. And some humans today who like getting up early might credit genes they inherited from their Neanderthal ancestors.
The new study compared DNA in living humans to genetic material retrieved from Neanderthal fossils. It turns out that Neanderthals carried some of the same clock-related genetic variants as do people who report being early risers.
Since the 1990s, studies of Neanderthal DNA have exposed our species’ intertwined history. About 700,000 years ago, our lineages split apart, most likely in Africa. While the ancestors of modern humans largely stayed in Africa, the Neanderthal lineage migrated into Eurasia.
About 400,000 years ago, the population split in two. The hominins who spread west became Neanderthals. Their cousins to the east evolved into a group known as Denisovans.
The two groups lived for hundreds of thousands of years, hunting game and gathering plants, before disappearing from the fossil record about 40,000 years ago. By then, modern humans had expanded out of Africa, sometimes interbreeding with Neanderthals and Denisovans.
And today, fragments of their DNA can be found in most living humans.
Amazon Placing Lasers In Space!
Amazon to connect Kuiper satellites with laser links to boost space internet network
Amazon will include a key speed-boosting technology in its coming Project Kuiper internet satellites, the company announced Thursday.
Amazon says it tested the laser link tech successfully during its recent Protoflight mission. Traditionally, satellites are limited to sending data between an individual spacecraft and the ground. Laser links connect satellites to each other.
The Kuiper satellites’ “optical inter-satellite links,” also known as OISLs, serve as a way to transmit data through space. Laser links are a feature that Elon Musk’s SpaceX began introducing in later generations of its Starlink satellites. The links help improve both the latency and speed of these networks.
“With optical inter-satellite links across our satellite constellation, Project Kuiper will effectively operate as a mesh network in space,” Rajeev Badyal, Amazon’s Project Kuiper vice president of technology, said in a statement.
Apocalypse Shower
The massive meteor shower that convinced people the world was ending
By Dave Kindy
This week’s Geminid meteor shower is expected to be one of the most impressive of the year. According to astronomers, this stellar show — peaking Wednesday night — could produce up to 150 “shooting stars” per hour in white, yellow and even green hues.
As dramatic as that might be, it can’t hold a candle to the Leonid Meteor Shower of 1833. On the night of Nov. 12-13, so many meteors burned through the Earth’s atmosphere that they seemed to turn the night sky into morning. Eyewitnesses claimed the air was filled with brilliant “snowflakes,” while newspapers dubbed it “the shower of stars.” In oral histories, Native American tribes referred to it as “the night the stars fell.”
“It appeared so grand and magnificent as to be truly exhilarating,” Joseph Harvey Waggoner, a Pennsylvania teenager, recalled later. “It was a sight never to be forgotten.”
Fight Pub
The Fight for the Future of Publishing
Ideological fanatics and fear have crippled the major houses. But new book publishers are rising up to take the risks they won’t.
By Alex Perez
On September 19, 2022, Elle Griffin, a freelance writer in Salt Lake City, published the first installment of her new fantasy novel, Oblivion, on Substack, under the title “We will create a more beautiful world.”
Since then, Griffin, who has written for Esquire and Forbes, has picked up a few hundred paid subscribers. She’s now earning more than $30,000 annually from her writing—more than she’s ever made.
By contrast, if she’d gone the traditional route and landed an agent and a major publisher, Griffin said, the best she could have hoped for would have been a $10,000 advance, and she would have been lucky to sell 1,000 copies—meaning no extra money.
Plus, serializing the novel on her newsletter means she can include her 11,000-plus subscribers in the creative process.
“They can comment on each chapter,” Griffin told me. “I’m crowdsourcing my wisdom from them.”
Why Dogs Are Better
New study suggests having a pet cat increases the risk of schizophrenia – experts say it could be due to toxic parasites that pets carry
Could owning a cat double your risk of schizophrenia?
That’s the conclusion of a new review of 17 studies by researchers from the University of Queensland, Australia.
The team conducted a meta-analysis of existing research from 11 countries, including the US and UK, published over the last 44 years.
They found individuals exposed to cats before the age of 25 had approximately twice the odds of developing schizophrenia.
In the paper, scientists pose that the link is likely due to a parasite found in pet cats called Toxoplasma gondii, also known as T. gondii, which can enter the body via a bite.
They say the parasite can enter the central nervous system and affect neurotransmitters in the brain, leading to personality changes, psychotic symptoms and psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia.
Auctioning Leo’s Lambos
The $2 Million Conundrum of “The Wolf of Wall Street” Lamborghinis
One is wrecked, the other is still drivable, but separate auction companies have valued them at the exact same price
BY ALEX LAUER
What makes a collector car valuable? The scarcity of the model, the record of ownership, the authenticity of the parts, the current condition and whether or not it still drives are all obvious factors in assessing the price of a noteworthy vehicle. For auction companies, it’s not quite an exact science, but it’s close. When you add Hollywood into the mix, though, the formula can go haywire.
In recent months, two identical Lamborghinis that were used in The Wolf of Wall Street have been put up for auction. One, which is in pristine condition, has been valued by its seller at $1.5 to $2 million. The second, which was smashed, dented and wrecked during filming to the point that it’s no longer drivable, has been valued by a different auction house at the exact same price: $1.5 to $2 million. How could that be?
The car in question is a 1989 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary Edition. Only some 650 models of this special-edition supercar were ever made, but despite its rarity, The Wolf of Wall Street director Martin Scorsese apparently wanted to use the real things for filming (this kind of exacting standard has helped propel the movie to be considered one of the greatest of his career). Using the authentic car makes sense, as it got a close-up during a memorable scene when Jordan Belfort (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) crawled into the white sports car and drove it while high on Quaaludes, crashing it into other cars, a golf cart and street signs.
The Last Adult Standing
Inside the last porn theater in Los Angeles
Story by Angie Orellana Hernandez
After a long and tiring day at work, Mark headed to an East Hollywood movie theater that he called “always a fun, chill” time — and bought an eight-hour ticket.
At this cinema house, there were no movie posters touting “Barbie,” no IMAX screens, no buckets of buttery popcorn. This month’s curated selections include “Tiny & Tight Size Queens 2” and “Stepmom Seductions.”
Mark had come to the Tiki Theater: the last porn theater in Los Angeles.
It is a place that has outlasted more vaunted film houses such as the ArcLight Hollywood and its historic Cinerama Dome, which shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I just want to feel free here, watching something very primal,” said Mark, 34, during a recent screening at the Tiki.
“I think sex is beautiful, and I like sharing it with others — whether the energy is weird or not,” said Mark, who described himself as “gay with a side of bi” and declined to share his last name because, well, he had come to watch porn.