Author: Vidya Saras

Since bursting onto the scene in April 2021, one NFT collection has redefined the very fabric of what it means to be a digital community, becoming a global phenomenon that intertwines art, technology, and culture in unprecedented ways.That collection is the Bored Ape Yacht Club.The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) stands out not just for its striking artwork, but for its rapid rise to the pinnacle of the NFT industry, its colourful community, and its many trials and tribulations to date. Bored Ape NFTs have become highly-desirable status symbols, held by blockchain heavyweights and celebrities alike – but why are…

AlamyFirst released in November 1969, Ken Loach’s social-realist tale of a boy who adopts a kestrel still resonates and has become a timeless classic of British cinema.When director Ken Loach and producer Tony Garnett first screened Kes for British film executives in the autumn of 1969, they were confident that they’d created something authentic and important.Based on Barry Hines’s 1968 novel A Kestrel For a Knave, and written by Loach, Hines and Garnett, Kes tells the story of Billy Casper (Dai Bradley), a South Yorkshire teenager from a dysfunctional family who struggles at school. He finds a new lease of…

We cannot back down We now confront a second Trump presidency. There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience. Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and…

Yiming Chen ’24, Wilhem Hector, Anushka Nair, and David Oluigbo have been selected as 2025 Rhodes Scholars and will begin fully funded postgraduate studies at Oxford University in the U.K. next fall. In addition to MIT’s two U.S. Rhodes winners, Ouigbo and Nair, two affiliates were awarded international Rhodes Scholarships: Chen for Rhodes’ China constituency and Hector for the Global Rhodes Scholarship. Hector is the first Haitian citizen to be named a Rhodes Scholar.The scholars were supported by Associate Dean Kim Benard and the Distinguished Fellowships team in Career Advising and Professional Development. They received additional mentorship and guidance from the…

In perhaps the most adorable hacker story of the year, a trio of technologists in India found an innovative way to circumvent Apple’s location restrictions on AirPod Pro 2s so they could enable the earbuds’ hearing aid feature for their grandmas. The hack involved a homemade Faraday cage, a microwave, and a lot of trial and error.On the other end of the tech-advancements spectrum, the US military is currently testing an AI-enabled machine gun that is capable of auto-targeting swarms of drones. The Bullfrog, built by Allen Control Systems, is one of several advanced weapons technologies in the works to…

“Palo Alto Networks has observed threat activity exploiting an unauthenticated remote command execution vulnerability against a limited number of firewall management interfaces which are exposed to the Internet,” Palo Alto Networks said in another advisory update, adding “We do not have sufficient information about any indicators of compromise to share at this time.” If a compromise is feared, customers are advised to monitor for suspicious activity such as unrecognised configuration changes or users. As additional workarounds, all Expedition and firewall usernames, passwords, and API keys must be rotated, Expedition software should be shut down in inactivity, and network access to…

CBS 60 years ago, “Gilligan’s Island” blessed the world with an ensemble seemingly fashioned by the gods. Bob Denver as Gilligan, Alan Hale Jr. as the Skipper, Russell Johnson as the Professor, Jim Backus as Thurston Howell III, Natalie Schafer as Eunice Howell, Dawn Wells as Mary Ann, and Tina Louise as Ginger. They are immortalized in the theme song, and ironclad comedic types thanks to the reinforcement of syndication. “Gilligan’s Island” was always meant to be, and we must consider ourselves fortunate that we lived to behold its goofball…

The UK housing market showed unexpected resilience in October, with estate agents reporting increased sales, rising buyer inquiries, and a brighter outlook following the Autumn Budget. Despite pre-budget apprehension, the housing market outperformed expectations, according to the latest survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics). Of the 269 estate agents polled, a majority reported more sales in October compared to September, driven in part by buyers seeking to complete transactions ahead of potential budget-related tax changes. While some agents observed a slowdown in the weeks leading up to the October 30 budget, the overall sentiment was optimistic. “We…

Access to medical abortion pills could be restricted under the incoming Trump presidency. Charlie Neibergall/AP hide caption toggle caption Charlie Neibergall/AP As millions of Americans were waking up last Wednesday morning to learn that Donald Trump won the presidency, it dawned on Dr. Angel Foster that she was about to be very busy. Foster is co-founder of the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project, or the MAP, a telehealth provider that sends abortion medication through the mail to patients across the U.S., including states where it’s illegal. On a typical day, Foster says between 130 and 140 people fill out the…

Olá, frontend friends! 👋Hope your week has been going smoothly so far! This week’s reads offer a lot to think about in design and development, starting with Josh Comeau’s deep dive into container queries. Finally, we’re getting a way to make responsive designs that adapt to an element’s container instead of just the viewport… such a huge win for layouts that actually make sense across different contexts. Of course, as Josh points out, container queries come with unique challenges, and it’ll be interesting to see how they reshape our approach to responsive design.In the design world, Kristina Gushcheva-Keippilä offers a…