One of the most beautiful temples in Kathmandu – the Swayambhunath temple. Swayambhunath is known as the Monkey Temple. So called “Holy monkeys” live on the site of this temple. They are as much of a tourist attraction as are the temple, the large Buddha stupa, the monasteries and other buildings of the Swayambhunath complex.
Humanities Magazine – Winter 2024 Issue:
A new exhibition looks at Europe’s earliest societies
As visitors exit “First Kings of Europe,” the gift shop offers a kind of test. Two craft beers were created for the exhibition, a collaboration between the museum and Off Color Brewing: Beer for Kings, made from top-quality rich and ancient grains, and Beer for Commoners, made from the more modest ingredients of the poor. Beneath the racks of beer hang T-shirts with the art for each. Which identity does the visitor want to take home: commoner or king? The answer for most exhibitions celebrating the awe-inspiring treasures of royalty would be easy, but “First Kings of Europe” is a different kind of show, with an ambitious new approach to how we display and envision power, kingship, and history.
During World War II, Axis espionage inspired a media panic, but amateurish German agents turned out to be “underwhelming”
The timing for a vote on the Security Council resolution was unclear. Diplomats were focused on who would oversee the inspection of aid entering the enclave.
Israel has battered Gaza in its quest to destroy Hamas, without finding the commanders it has named as its most important targets.
TikTok, Facebook and YouTube are transforming global migration, becoming tools of migrants and smugglers alike.
As Donald Trump faces a new threat to his political future, this time over the question of ballot eligibility, Democrats again find themselves looking toward American institutions to stop him.
Video timeline: 00:05 The Investigation of Consciousness – Our minds are constantly taking in new external information while also creating their own internal imagery and narratives. How do we distinguish reality from fantasy? This year, researchers discovered that the brain has a “reality threshold” against which it constantly evaluates processed signals. Original paper: “Subjective signal strength distinguishes reality from imagination”
04:30 Microbiomes Evolve With Us – This year, scientists provided clear evidence that the organisms in our microbiome —the collection of bacteria and other cells that live in our guts and elsewhere on our body — spread between people, especially those with whom we spend the most time. This raises the intriguing possibility that some illnesses that aren’t usually considered communicable might be.
08:43 How Life Keeps Time – The rate at which an embryo develops and the timing of when its tissues mature vary dramatically between species. What controls the ticking of this developmental clock that determines an animal’s final form? This year, a series of careful experiments suggest that mitochondria may very well serve dual roles as both the timekeeper and power source for complex cells.
A ghostly quasiparticle rooted in a century-old Italian mystery could unlock quantum computing’s potential—if only it could be pinned down
Preference for cash and privacy fears deterred bitcoin adoption in El Salvador.
Encapsulated aerogel fibers offer thermal insulation, breathability, and strength
REASON MAGAZINE (December 21, 2023) – The latest issue features ‘The Conformity Gauntlet’ – How Universities use DEI Statements to Enforce Groupthink; The Post-Neoliberalism Moment; We Absolutely Do Not Need an FDA for AI, and more…
DEI statements are political litmus tests, write Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott.
Anyone advocating neoliberal policies is now persona non grata in Washington, D.C.
If our best and brightest technologists and theorists are struggling to see the way forward for AI, what makes anyone think politicians are going to get there first?
Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter (JANUARY 2024): The new issue features ‘Healthy Lifestyle May Outweigh a Genetic Risk Factor for Heart Disease; How to Stick to Those Resolutions!; Check Your Nutrition Knowledge; Special Report – Expand Your Plant Palate; The Facts About Pea Protein; and more…
GRAND PRIZE
Anup Shah
Chippenham, England
“It is powerful and decisive, the pace compact yet energetic,” says Anup Shah of this year’s spectacular top photo, catching zebras at the edge of a river crossing in Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve. “I wanted the viewer to feel the energy in the path of a galloping herd.” We do, and it’s exhilarating.
BABY ANIMALS
FIRST PLACE
Torie Hilley
Ventura, California
Torie Hilley trudged through the mudflats of Alaska’s Lake Clark National Park and Preserve with a professional guide in July 2022, hoping to catch this coastal brown bear and her cubs in a line as they dug for clams. When Hilley spotted the family falling into formation on her last day, she dropped to one knee to preserve the moment. She later learned not all of the cubs survived the following weeks. “It reminded me to never take anything for granted,” she says.
BABY ANIMALS
SECOND PLACE
Carl D. Walsh
Dayton, Maine
Listed as endangered by Maine, the state’s piping plover population has seen some improvement in recent decades—a hopeful note suggested by the glow surrounding this days-old fledgling. To get this July 2022 photo, Carl D. Walsh “spent a lot of time lying in the sand, trying to capture the right vantage point and backlight” on a Cumberland County beach. “Many thousands of frames were shot,” he says.
BIRDS
FIRST PLACE
Suliman Alatiqi
Kuwait City, Kuwait
In 1954 a new agency was founded: the KGB. While less violent and arbitrary than what it replaced, its insidious reach soon permeated Soviet society.
Richard Whatmore’s The End of Enlightenment: Empire, Commerce, Crisis takes the ideals of the 18th century on their terms.
Boomers Daily 