New AI DALL-E 2 creates images from text prompts
A new AI system can create a variety of images both realistic and surreal from natural language descriptions. It has the potential to be game changing, but not without some concerns. Algorithms and AI continue to make waves across the art industry. The latest breakthrough comes from a research team...
Current in Culture
El Salvador president reveals designs for volcanic ‘Bitcoin City’
El Salvador president Nayib Bukele is quite literally obsessed with cryptocurrency. This week, he caused big stir online with tweets showing intricate designs of a full blown Bitcoin city. One does not merely dabble in cryptocurrency. Once you’re in these days, you’re all in. El Salvador president Nayib Bukele is the...
How the pandemic changed our outlook on workplace design
Luring us back into the office was never going to be easy, so architects are finding ways to make modern workspaces virtually irresistible. After spending months working from the comforts of our own homes (and beds) we’ve all been armed with fresh expectations for what office spaces should look and...
Netflix’s editorial division hit with layoffs
Four months ago, the streaming service ‘aggressively’ recruited a small army of journalists – primarily women and people of colour – to run its new fan site, Tudum. This week, it abruptly axed a significant portion of those hires. After posting disastrous results for its March quarter – the loss...
Opinion – why Julia Fox is the perfect celebrity throwback
From being relatively unknown to becoming a household name in just a few weeks, let’s explore why Julia Fox is the celebrity Hollywood has been missing. As we jump from one global crisis and (unwillingly) right into the next, it can feel like the only collective source of mindless escapism...
What’s it like to live with synesthesia?
Do you associate certain colours with numbers and letters, or see time as a colourful shape? You might have synesthesia – one of the most weird and wonderful neurological conditions. When I was in my late teens, I asked my mother how she ‘saw a year’. In hindsight, this sounds rather...
Students build solar greenhouse that produces energy
Traditional greenhouses typically use a ton of energy to work properly, but students in Catalonia have built a solar powered structure that creates energy rather than consuming it. Who says greenhouses can’t adapt to modern energy needs? First built in the nineteenth century, greenhouses are a nifty way to grow plants and produce our own flowers, but they usually use lots of energy to function. Students in Barcelona have created a solution...
Opinion – Why assuming celebrities are pregnant is damaging
Though watching our favourite celebrities venture into motherhood is both exciting and weirdly humanising, can sensationalising their pregnancies be damaging? Society has had a fascination with Hollywood couples for as long as celebrities have existed, but where our adoration really takes hold is when they’re expecting a child together. In recent months many beloved icons have coupled up, gotten engaged, or made the decision to become parents. Kravis (Kourtney & Travis),...
Dyson reveals air purifying headphones that block pollution
The vacuum company Dyson has just announced its new over-ear headphones that include an air-purifier for your mouth. A little dystopian, but a novel example of how we’ll need to adapt with a changing climate and world. Dyson has just unveiled a new set of headphones that include an air-purifying mouth visor. They allow users to listen to music on the go while also breathing in clean air. The nifty new...
Milked is a tea-spitting look at dairy’s dark reality
Now available to watch for free on environmentally-focused streaming service Waterbear, Milked offers a magnified look at New Zealand’s dairy industry and the damage it's inflicting on the country and world as a whole. Why are we still drinking cow’s milk? This is the question that Milked, a new documentary available on Waterbear, wants you to ask. Fair warning, be prepared for every conceivable pro-dairy argument to be debunked during the...
