Dance of the Royal of Cambodia

Dancer with the Royal Government of Cambodia to be the classic tragedy of the Khmer. Khmer classical dance (ballet) of the Kingdom of Cambodia is famous for its soft gesture fascinating and accessories shining bright lightning. Dancer with the Royal Government of Cambodia is to be the traditional classical tragedy Khmer close as part of their lawful King over a thousand years ago. Dance honor four plays such as: (F) the deputy (male) the Giants (bad) the Monkey (Animal) each character features and colorful, with separate dressing painted powder makeup, face shields and gesture custom. gesture and dance, these neadakar learn active and busy for the past several years remember meaningful emotional fear romantic happy or angry.

Performances take place according to the rhythms of the music shrine by neadakar voice breaking dance interpretation of the story and romance with a small group of women sang. Dancer with the Royal almost disappeared under the Khmer Rouge regime, which was exhumed uprooted almost entirely teachers dramatic, musical and teachers. Since the fall of the Pol Pot regime in 1979. The dancer with the Royal has been training and re-installed Series tragedy. Formal classical dance, which is associated with King and since then has become an item a core for building and build a new Khmer identity. Today, the Royal Ballet has discovered, and its bright rays but there are many obstacles Manufacturers such as lack of budget and performance competition from news media or the risk of popular art in relation to tourism. There are only three teachers tragedy only four people who escape and survival, and knowledge really sure of all the martial arts, dance featuring amenities.

Angkor Night is a cultural activity France Khmer showing scenes Arts Federation is a Western culture and one Oriental culture, which work together to make out was the culmination of a number of works between the Khmer and French artists. Concept (glass between French culture and Khmer culture) is a red fiber cable of the production program. This cultural activity was born in 2000 as a joint initiative between the British, French Ambassador Jean Andrew Bush and stimulating Minister culture and Fine Arts Khmer Samdech Preah Ream Norodom Bopha Devi. since then, the event has become an artistic activity largest and a major cultural change, which was organized and coordinated by the French cultural Center. Since 2003, the public is invited to visit have risen steadily to nearly 4,000 2005. Strong because of success in the past Angkor Night 2008 was also announced that it will be held from 31 January to March 2 February, the resort at Angkor Wat temples. Meanwhile, to make the rich in the production of cultural activities also have a good reputation up every each year. The annual amount of viewers increased to reach nearly 4,000 in 2005 and more than 4,700 in 2006. Cultural activities are many news media reporters and published in 2006 and are the opinion praise.

Royal Ballet Khmer Classical Dance Ballet has 82 dancers and 35:

Dance Dance revival at 54 and lost 28 dance

Dances resurrection story that was 21 missing for 14



Brief History
Votha Samdech Norodom Bopha Devi dance Prays The Royal Ballet as Classical Dance Khmer, which is the art form worship (art gods), an older long ago among art forms sanctuary and an art form that valuable real spiritual and technical levels highest among the form performing arts in the country. Beginning next session alas tragedy to tragedy athletes annual castle has a role for a dance dedicated to priority TEP or dance offered gods monarchy is a sustainable peace on the situation of mankind to heaven Angel and actress peace or a peace terrorist MC emotional hearts, minds who once danced media ethics and virtue to happiness, peace Khmer thousands of years ago. We can try to conclude that the form Classical Khmer Royal Ballet is a dance of women, because the beginning you are playing characters with four: character she (woman) Neay (male) tuoyok and figures monkeys, as well as chassis secondary chassis animals are all women as expressed those of characters except the characters hermit and clown only performed by males.

Later, with the evolution of the art form this character is expressed by men today.



The performance
The Dance of King Sisowath The Royal Ballet of Classical Dance Khmer is a type of dance that neadakar use animated style and romance, today skillful follow the evolution of the story recounted confirmed by the lyrics of the songs they ( h Heang Caribbean Levi ), which serves sang to the dance with the orchestra Pinpet whose role plays to dance, too.

compatible compatible



Ensembles forget Pinpeatya
1. Rneatek
2. Rneatthoung
3. Rneatdek (now rarely seen)
4. Gamelan Thong (less)
5. Major (kongovng)
6. Kongtauch (kongovng)
7. saamphor
8. A pair of drum
9. Javanese drum pair (less)
10. A pair of premium furnace
11. calm
12. graph

Dance of the Royal of Cambodia

Dancer with the Royal Government of Cambodia to be the classic tragedy of the Khmer. Khmer classical dance (ballet) of the Kingdom of Cambodia is famous for its soft gesture fascinating and accessories shining bright lightning. Dancer with the Royal Government of Cambodia is to be the traditional classical tragedy Khmer close as part of their lawful King over a thousand years ago. Dance honor four plays such as: (F) the deputy (male) the Giants (bad) the Monkey (Animal) each character features and colorful, with separate dressing painted powder makeup, face shields and gesture custom. gesture and dance, these neadakar learn active and busy for the past several years remember meaningful emotional fear romantic happy or angry.

Performances take place according to the rhythms of the music shrine by neadakar voice breaking dance interpretation of the story and romance with a small group of women sang. Dancer with the Royal almost disappeared under the Khmer Rouge regime, which was exhumed uprooted almost entirely teachers dramatic, musical and teachers. Since the fall of the Pol Pot regime in 1979. The dancer with the Royal has been training and re-installed Series tragedy. Formal classical dance, which is associated with King and since then has become an item a core for building and build a new Khmer identity. Today, the Royal Ballet has discovered, and its bright rays but there are many obstacles Manufacturers such as lack of budget and performance competition from news media or the risk of popular art in relation to tourism. There are only three teachers tragedy only four people who escape and survival, and knowledge really sure of all the martial arts, dance featuring amenities.

Angkor Night is a cultural activity France Khmer showing scenes Arts Federation is a Western culture and one Oriental culture, which work together to make out was the culmination of a number of works between the Khmer and French artists. Concept (glass between French culture and Khmer culture) is a red fiber cable of the production program. This cultural activity was born in 2000 as a joint initiative between the British, French Ambassador Jean Andrew Bush and stimulating Minister culture and Fine Arts Khmer Samdech Preah Ream Norodom Bopha Devi. since then, the event has become an artistic activity largest and a major cultural change, which was organized and coordinated by the French cultural Center. Since 2003, the public is invited to visit have risen steadily to nearly 4,000 2005. Strong because of success in the past Angkor Night 2008 was also announced that it will be held from 31 January to March 2 February, the resort at Angkor Wat temples. Meanwhile, to make the rich in the production of cultural activities also have a good reputation up every each year. The annual amount of viewers increased to reach nearly 4,000 in 2005 and more than 4,700 in 2006. Cultural activities are many news media reporters and published in 2006 and are the opinion praise.

Royal Ballet Khmer Classical Dance Ballet has 82 dancers and 35:

Dance Dance revival at 54 and lost 28 dance

Dances resurrection story that was 21 missing for 14



Brief History
Votha Samdech Norodom Bopha Devi dance Prays The Royal Ballet as Classical Dance Khmer, which is the art form worship (art gods), an older long ago among art forms sanctuary and an art form that valuable real spiritual and technical levels highest among the form performing arts in the country. Beginning next session alas tragedy to tragedy athletes annual castle has a role for a dance dedicated to priority TEP or dance offered gods monarchy is a sustainable peace on the situation of mankind to heaven Angel and actress peace or a peace terrorist MC emotional hearts, minds who once danced media ethics and virtue to happiness, peace Khmer thousands of years ago. We can try to conclude that the form Classical Khmer Royal Ballet is a dance of women, because the beginning you are playing characters with four: character she (woman) Neay (male) tuoyok and figures monkeys, as well as chassis secondary chassis animals are all women as expressed those of characters except the characters hermit and clown only performed by males.

Later, with the evolution of the art form this character is expressed by men today.



The performance
The Dance of King Sisowath The Royal Ballet of Classical Dance Khmer is a type of dance that neadakar use animated style and romance, today skillful follow the evolution of the story recounted confirmed by the lyrics of the songs they ( h Heang Caribbean Levi ), which serves sang to the dance with the orchestra Pinpet whose role plays to dance, too.

compatible compatible



Ensembles forget Pinpeatya
1. Rneatek
2. Rneatthoung
3. Rneatdek (now rarely seen)
4. Gamelan Thong (less)
5. Major (kongovng)
6. Kongtauch (kongovng)
7. saamphor
8. A pair of drum
9. Javanese drum pair (less)
10. A pair of premium furnace
11. calm
12. graph

Fitbit Flex 2 and Charge 2 hands-on: Sweating in style

Fitbit is synonymous with fitness trackers. Heck, chances are your uncle Ted calls the tracker he got in a McDonald’s Happy Meal a Fitbit. And now the company, Fitbit, not McDonald’s, is rolling out two new versions of its most popular trackers: the $100 Flex 2 and $150 Charge 2.

I got to check out both the Flex 2 and Charge 2 ahead of their announcement during a small press gathering. And to show off how the trackers function, Fitbit asked my fellow journalists and me to participate in a short workout with athlete Gabby Reece, who terrorized us by making us do squats and sit-ups for a full 20 minutes. It was … horrible.

I’ve since recovered from my workout, but the mental scars from the nightmare will likely remain for quite some time.

Anyway, here are the trackers.

Let’s Flex: Part Deux

The Flex hasn’t received a meaningful physical update since it debuted in 2013, so the introduction of the Flex 2 is certainly welcome. The new Flex has a more streamlined design that’s 30% smaller than the original Flex. That’s a welcome change considering how bulky the old Flex feels compared to sleeker options from competitors Jawbone and Misfit.

The Flex 2 also gets new color-coded LED indicator lights that update you on your total daily step progress, when you get a phone call and when you receive messages via your texting app, Google Hangouts, Facebook Messenger and others.

Most impressive of all, though, is that the Flex 2 is waterproof. Yep, you can finally take your Fitbit swimming. In fact, Fitbit says the tracker can survive in up to 150 feet of water. I’m not sure how many scuba divers are pining for a solid fitness tracker, but hey, now they’ve got one.

The Flex 2’s bands come in either a black, lavender, magenta or navy. If you get bored of your Flex’s original color, you can pop out the little tracker and slide it into a different band.

But if you want to class up your tracker for your next high-society cocktail hour/Crossfit class, you can pop the tracker into one of Fitbit’s new gold or stainless steel bangle accessories. The company is offering chic gold or stainless steel pendant accessories, as well.

Beauty comes at a pretty steep price, though. The gold bangle and pendant each go for $100, while the silver bangle and pendant cost $90 and $80, respectively.

The Flex 2 isn’t just about good looks. The tracker also gets a handful of new functions including automatic workout tracking, which means the gadget knows you’re working out the instant you start and logs your activity in the Fitbit app. The Flex 2 will also nudge you to get moving when it detects that you’ve been sitting for too long. So in addition to your mother telling you to get off your butt, your fitness tracker will too. Hooray!

Charging up

Like the Flex 2, the Charge 2 gets a much needed design update. The tracker now comes with a larger display that’s far easier to read when on the move. The Charge 2 also feels more like a premium device thanks to its new look.

Fitbit has added a handful of new features to the Charge 2 included the company’s PurePulse heart rate tracking technology, which continuously monitors your heart rate to provide you with an overall look at your ticker’s health.

A new VO2 Max reading can calculate your cardio fitness level and provide you with information on how to improve your score and, in turn, your health.

The tracker also gets a new, guided breathing feature that measures your heart rate and then provides you with an animated pulsating circle on the Charge 2’s display. The idea is to match your breathing to the circle’s rhythm in order to lower heart rate, which should make you a bit calmer.

The Charge 2 can also track multiple kinds of workouts. So if you’re lifting weights, you can set it to the weights option and it will track your heart rate and duration of your workout to provide you with an estimate of the number of calories you burned. You can also track circuit workouts, runs, yoga, biking and more.

Like the Flex 2, the Charge 2’s bands can be swapped out for different colors and styles depending on your mood or outfit.

The Charge 2 and Flex 2 are available for pre-sale today and will hit stores nationwide in September and October, respectively. Stay tuned for our full reviews.

Pokémon Go

Pokémon Go is a free-to-play, location-based augmented reality game developed by Niantic for iOS and Android devices. It was initially released in selected countries in July 2016.
Initial release date: July 6, 2016
Series: Pokémon
Developer: Niantic, Inc.
Publisher: The Pokémon Company
Genre: Augmented reality
Platforms: Android, iOS

Download for Android
Download for IOS

Ocean Park Hong Kong

Ocean Park Hong Kong, commonly known as Ocean Park, is a marine mammal park, oceanarium, animal theme park and amusement park, situated in Wong Chuk Hang and Nam Long Shan in the Southern District of Hong Kong.
Address: Hong Kong
Opened: January 10, 1977
Hours: Open today · 10AM–7PM
Rides: Hair Raiser, The Dragon, Bumper Blaster, The Whirly Bird, The Abyss, The Eagle
Notable animals: Ying Ying, Le Le, Jia Jia, An An

Windows of the World in Shenzhen, China

The Window of the World is a theme park located in the western part of the city of Shenzhen in the People's Republic of China. It has about 130 reproductions of some of the most famous tourist attractions in the world squeezed into 48 hectares.
Address: 9037 Shennan Ave, Nanshan, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China, 518053
Opened: 1993
Area: 119 acres
Hours: Open today · 9AM–10PM
Province: Guangdong Province
Phone: +86 755 2660 8000

Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications made of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood, and other materials, generally built along an east-to-west line across the historical northern borders of China to protect the Chinese states and empires against the raids and invasions of the various nomadic groups of the Eurasian Steppe. Several walls were being built as early as the 7th century BCE; these, later joined together and made bigger and stronger, are now collectively referred to as the Great Wall. Especially famous is the wall built 220–206 BCE by Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. Little of that wall remains. Since then, the Great Wall has on and off been rebuilt, maintained, and enhanced; the majority of the existing wall is from the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644).

Other purposes of the Great Wall have included border controls, allowing the imposition of duties on goods transported along the Silk Road, regulation or encouragement of trade and the control of immigration and emigration. Furthermore, the defensive characteristics of the Great Wall were enhanced by the construction of watch towers, troop barracks, garrison stations, signaling capabilities through the means of smoke or fire, and the fact that the path of the Great Wall also served as a transportation corridor.

The Great Wall stretches from Dandong in the east, to Lop Lake in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. A comprehensive archaeological survey, using advanced technologies, has concluded that the Ming walls measure 8,850 km (5,500 mi).[4] This is made up of 6,259 km (3,889 mi) sections of actual wall, 359 km (223 mi) of trenches and 2,232 km (1,387 mi) of natural defensive barriers such as hills and rivers. Another archaeological survey found that the entire wall with all of its branches measure out to be 21,196 km (13,171 mi).

Dubai

Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates known for luxury shopping, ultramodern architecture and a lively nightlife scene. Burj Khalifa, an 830m-tall tower, dominates the skyscraper-filled skyline. At its foot lies Dubai Fountain, with jets and lights choreographed to music. On artificial islands just offshore is Atlantis, The Palm, a resort with water and marine-animal parks.

The Secret Life of Pets

Max (Louis C.K.) is a spoiled terrier who enjoys a comfortable life in a New York building until his owner adopts Duke, a giant and unruly canine. During their walk outside, they encounter a group of ferocious alley cats and wind up in a truck that's bound for the pound. Luckily, a rebellious bunny named Snowball swoops in to save the doggy duo from captivity. In exchange, Snowball demands that Max and Duke join his gang of abandoned pets on a mission against the humans who've done them wrong.

Initial release: July 8, 2016 (USA)
Directors: Chris Renaud, Yarrow Cheney
Box office: 674.7 million USD
Production company: Illumination Entertainment
Producers: Chris Meledandri, Janet Healy

Pete's Dragon (2016)

Mr. Meacham (Robert Redford), a woodcarver, delights local children with stories of a mysterious dragon that lives deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. His daughter Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard) believes these are just tall tales, until she meets Pete (Oakes Fegley), a 10-year-old orphan who says he lives in the woods with a giant, friendly dragon. With help from a young girl named Natalie (Oona Laurence), Grace sets out to investigate if this fantastic claim can be true.

Initial release: August 11, 2016 (Russia)
Director: David Lowery
Box office: 57.5 million USD
Budget: 65 million USD
Music composed

Forget ideology, liberal democracy’s newest threats come from technology and bioscience

The BBC Reith Lectures in 1967 were given by Edmund Leach, a Cambridge social anthropologist. “Men have become like gods,” Leach began. “Isn’t it about time that we understood our divinity? Science offers us total mastery over our environment and over our destiny, yet instead of rejoicing we feel deeply afraid.”

That was nearly half a century ago, and yet Leach’s opening lines could easily apply to today. He was speaking before the internet had been built and long before the human genome had been decoded, and so his claim about men becoming “like gods” seems relatively modest compared with the capabilities that molecular biology and computing have subsequently bestowed upon us. Our science-based culture is the most powerful in history, and it is ceaselessly researching, exploring, developing and growing. But in recent times it seems to have also become plagued with existential angst as the implications of human ingenuity begin to be (dimly) glimpsed.

The title that Leach chose for his Reith Lecture – A Runaway World – captures our zeitgeist too. At any rate, we are also increasingly fretful about a world that seems to be running out of control, largely (but not solely) because of information technology and what the life sciences are making possible. But we seek consolation in the thought that “it was always thus”: people felt alarmed about steam in George Eliot’s time and got worked up about electricity, the telegraph and the telephone as they arrived on the scene. The reassuring implication is that we weathered those technological storms, and so we will weather this one too. Humankind will muddle through.

But in the last five years or so even that cautious, pragmatic optimism has begun to erode. There are several reasons for this loss of confidence. One is the sheer vertiginous pace of technological change. Another is that the new forces at loose in our society – particularly information technology and the life sciences – are potentially more far-reaching in their implications than steam or electricity ever were. And, thirdly, we have begun to see startling advances in these fields that have forced us to recalibrate our expectations.

A classic example is the field of artificial intelligence (AI), defined as the quest to enable machines to do things that would require intelligence if performed by a human. For as long as most of us can remember, AI in that sense was always 20 years away from the date of prediction. Maybe it still is. But in the last few years we have seen that the combination of machine learning, powerful algorithms, vast processing power and so-called “Big Data” can enable machines to do very impressive things – real-time language translation, for example, or driving cars safely through complex urban environments – that seemed implausible even a decade ago.

Read More...

If This Robot Spinning a Serbian Man Isn't Art, I Don't Know What Is

What is art? According to Plato, art is an imitation of an imitation, a mere illusion twice removed from the reality of the eternal Forms. According to me, art is something I like looking at.
One thing I apparently like looking at is an industrial robot twirling around Serbian artist Dragan Iliclike a parade baton, which (conveniently enough) is the basic premise of his project DI-2K4.
In it, a robot previously used in factory production takes Ilic and his paintbrushes around a large canvas in a preprogrammed route, allegedly imitating “both the repetitiveness involved in technological production, as well as representing a new stage of ritual or transgressive experiences of the author himself.”

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 review: An almost flawless smartphone, almost

The Note 7 is here with the S Pen stylus and the best features from the S7 edge in tow. Here's our Samsung Galaxy Note 7 review UK.
It's no secret that Samsung has launched the Galaxy Note 7, a new smartphone for 2016 aiming to be one of the best Android phones you can buy. Instead of waiting until IFA in Berlin, Samsung has announced the Note 7 at various locations around the globe. Here's our Samsung Galaxy Note 7 review. See also: Best phones 2016.
Before we dive into the review, you might be wondering what happened to the Galaxy Note 6 – considering the Note5 didn't even get a proper UK launch. Well Samsung wants to keep the Note range in-line with the Galaxy S range. Afterall, it does make sense if all the phones launched in the same year have the same model number.
The Galaxy Note7 release date in the UK is 2 September with the option to pre-order from 16 August. The Note7 price, via MobileFun, is £749 SIM-free which is rather expensive. Carphone Warehouse has it SIM-free for a slightly more reasonable price of £699. If you pre-order then you'll get the phone three days early and Samsung will also throw in a free GearVR when you buy from selected retailers so look out for the deal.
Although the price is pretty high, when you consider that the iPhone 6S Plus with 64GB of storage is also £699, the Note 7 doesn't seem so bad. After all, the iPhone doesn't have features such as the S Pen, expandable storage, waterproofing and more. If the price is a bit high for you (still talking SIM-free) then bear in mind that the S7 edge is pretty similar and can be bought for under £600. MobileFun has the gold model for £579, for example.

Thought-Wired crowdfunding to launch brain-controlled technology

Tech start-up Thought-Wired is raising money to fund the launch of its first product, Nous, designed to help people with severe disabilities communicate using their brains.
A startup that's developing thought-controlled communication technology is fundraising to launch its first product.
Thought-Wired is an Auckland-based company that started working on its software, called nous, five years ago to help people with disabilities who cannot talk or move to communicate using their minds.
A headset reads brainwaves, which can then be interpreted by computer software, with the idea being that nous can control anything that uses a touch screen or keyboard.
James Pau and Dmitry Selitskiy hope their brain computer interface technology will be a world-leader in the future.
Nous has been designed and tested, but needed additional funding to get it to its first users.
The first version of the technology allows for yes and no responses, custom multiple choice answers and interaction with programmes that can be controlled with a few keys from a keyboard.
Sarvnaz Taherian, left, Dmitry Selitskiy and James Pau started working on their product, Nous, five years ago when they were university students.
Co-founder Dmitry Selitskiy​ was inspired to develop nous by his 13-year-old cousin, who has cerebral palsy and cannot talk.
Selitskiy saw a demonstration of some technology six years ago that picked up brain signals and sent them to a computer.
"I thought, wouldn't it be cool to allow someone like [his cousin] to communicate with others using what he has functioning perfectly, which is his mind."
Thought-Wired launched its PledgeMe campaign last week with a minimum goal of $200,000 and it is more than half-way there, with 26 days still to go.
Up until now, the company has been mostly self-funded, although it has received some smaller amounts of capital, including initial seed funding through a University of Auckland entrepreneurship programme and Callaghan Innovation grants.
Selitskiy said the possibilities of the software depend on how technology in general develops, but he hoped nous could help users with daily tasks like like controlling a music playlist or a text-to-voice communication system.
In five years' time, Selitskiy wanted Thought-Wired to be a world leader in natural interface technology and have a user base of more than 10,000 people.
"An able-bodied person does thousands of activities on a daily basis, but a lot of that is inaccessible for someone with profound disabilities. The goal is to remove that line and make sure everything is accessible to everyone," Selitskiy said.
University of Otago associate professor Zhiyi Huang has been researching brain computer interface technology since 2012 and collaborates with a Chinese company that develops technology for a mind-controlled drone.
Huang said the technology was "promising" and there was plenty of room for development.
One of the challenges was the differing levels of accuracy: some people might find the technology harder to use than others, in which case they would required more training.
Differences between how a human brain worked in the morning (more alert) compared with the afternoon (more drowsy) also impacted on the accuracy of the technology, Huang said.

Forget ideology, liberal democracy’s newest threats come from technology and bioscience

The BBC Reith Lectures in 1967 were given by Edmund Leach, a Cambridge social anthropologist. “Men have become like gods,” Leach began. “Isn’t it about time that we understood our divinity? Science offers us total mastery over our environment and over our destiny, yet instead of rejoicing we feel deeply afraid.”

That was nearly half a century ago, and yet Leach’s opening lines could easily apply to today. He was speaking before the internet had been built and long before the human genome had been decoded, and so his claim about men becoming “like gods” seems relatively modest compared with the capabilities that molecular biology and computing have subsequently bestowed upon us. Our science-based culture is the most powerful in history, and it is ceaselessly researching, exploring, developing and growing. But in recent times it seems to have also become plagued with existential angst as the implications of human ingenuity begin to be (dimly) glimpsed.

The title that Leach chose for his Reith Lecture – A Runaway World – captures our zeitgeist too. At any rate, we are also increasingly fretful about a world that seems to be running out of control, largely (but not solely) because of information technology and what the life sciences are making possible. But we seek consolation in the thought that “it was always thus”: people felt alarmed about steam in George Eliot’s time and got worked up about electricity, the telegraph and the telephone as they arrived on the scene. The reassuring implication is that we weathered those technological storms, and so we will weather this one too. Humankind will muddle through.

But in the last five years or so even that cautious, pragmatic optimism has begun to erode. There are several reasons for this loss of confidence. One is the sheer vertiginous pace of technological change. Another is that the new forces at loose in our society – particularly information technology and the life sciences – are potentially more far-reaching in their implications than steam or electricity ever were. And, thirdly, we have begun to see startling advances in these fields that have forced us to recalibrate our expectations.

A classic example is the field of artificial intelligence (AI), defined as the quest to enable machines to do things that would require intelligence if performed by a human. For as long as most of us can remember, AI in that sense was always 20 years away from the date of prediction. Maybe it still is. But in the last few years we have seen that the combination of machine learning, powerful algorithms, vast processing power and so-called “Big Data” can enable machines to do very impressive things – real-time language translation, for example, or driving cars safely through complex urban environments – that seemed implausible even a decade ago.

And this, in turn, has led to a renewal of excited speculation about the possibility – and the existential risks – of the “intelligence explosion” that would be caused by inventing a machine that was capable of recursive self-improvement. This possibility was first raised in 1965 by the British cryptographer IJ Good, who famously wrote: “The first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control.” Fifty years later, we find contemporary thinkers like Nick Bostrom and Murray Shanahan taking the idea seriously.

There’s a sense, therefore, that we are approaching another “end of history” moment – but with a difference. In his famous 1989 article, the political scientist Francis Fukuyama argued that the collapse of the Soviet empire meant the end of the great ideological battle between east and west and the “universalisation of western liberal democracy as the final form of human government”. This was a bold, but not implausible, claim at the time. What Fukuyama could not have known is that a new challenge to liberal democracy would eventually materialise, and that its primary roots would lie not in ideology but in bioscience and information technology.

For that, in a nutshell, is the central argument of Yuval Noah Harari’s new book, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. In a way, it’s a logical extension of his previous book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, which chronicled the entire span of human history, from the evolution of Homo sapiens up to the political and technological revolutions of the 21st century, and deservedly became a world bestseller.

Most writers on the implications of new technology focus too much on the technology and too little on society’s role in shaping it. That’s partly because those who are interested in these things are (like the engineers who create the stuff) determinists: they believe that technology drives history. And, at heart, Harari is a determinist too. “In the early 21st century,” he writes in a striking passage, “the train of progress is again pulling out of the station – and this will probably be the last train ever to leave the station called Homo sapiens. Those who miss this train will never get a second chance. In order to get a seat on it, you need to understand 21st century technology, and in particular the powers of biotechnology and computer algorithms.”

He continues: “ These powers are far more potent than steam and the telegraph, and they will not be used mainly for the production of food, textiles, vehicles and weapons. The main products of the 21st century will be bodies, brains and minds, and the gap between those who know how to engineer bodies and brains and those who do not will be wider than the gap between Dickens’s Britain and the Madhi’s Sudan. Indeed, it will be bigger than the gap between Sapiens and Neanderthals. In the 21st century, those who ride the train of progress will acquire divine abilities of creation and destruction, while those left behind will face extinction.”

This looks like determinism on steroids. What saves it from ridicule is that Harari sets the scientific and technological story within an historically informed analysis of how liberal democracy evolved. And he provides a plausible account of how the defining features of the liberal democratic order might indeed be upended by the astonishing knowledge and tools that we have produced in the last half-century. So while one might, in the end, disagree with his conclusions, one can at least see how he reached them.

In a way, it’s a story about the evolution and nature of modernity. For most of human history, Harari argues, humans believed in a cosmic order. Their world was ruled by omnipotent gods who exercised their power in capricious and incomprehensible ways. The best one could do was to try to placate these terrifying powers and obey (and pay taxes to) the priesthoods who claimed to be the anointed intermediaries between mere humans and gods. It may have been a dog’s life but at least you knew where you stood, and in that sense belief in a transcendental order gave meaning to human lives.

But then came science. Harari argues that the history of modernity is best told as a struggle between science and religion. In theory, both were interested in truth – but in different kinds of truth. Religion was primarily interested in order, whereas science, as it evolved, was primarily interested in power – the power that comes from understanding why and how things happen, and enables us to cure diseases, fight wars and produce food, among other things.

In the end, in some parts of the world at least, science triumphed: belief in a transcendental order was relegated to the sidelines – or even to the dustbin of history. As science progressed, we did indeed start to acquire powers that in pre-modern times were supposed to be possessed only by gods (Edmund Leach’s point). But if God was dead, as Nietzsche famously said, where would humans find meaning? “The modern world,” writes Harari, “promised us unprecedented power – and the promise has been kept. Now what about the price? In exchange for power, the modern deal expects us to give up on meaning. How did humans handle this chilling demand? ... How did morality, beauty and even compassion survive in a world of gods, of heaven or hell?”

The answer, he argues, was in a new kind of religion: humanism – a belief system that “sanctifies the life, happiness and power of Homo sapiens”. So the deal that defined modern society was a covenant between humanism and science in which the latter provided the means for achieving the ends specified by the former.

And our looming existential crisis, as Harari sees it, comes from the fact that this covenant is destined to fall apart in this century. For one of the inescapable implications of bioscience and information technology (he argues) is that they will undermine and ultimately destroy the foundations on which humanism is built. And since liberal democracy is constructed on the worship of humanist goals (“life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” by citizens who are “created equal”, as the American founders put it), then our new powers are going to tear liberal democracy apart.

How come? Well, modern society is organised round a combination of individualism, human rights, democracy and the free market. And each of these foundations is being eaten away by 21st-century science and technology. The life sciences are undermining the individualism so celebrated by the humanist tradition with research suggesting that “the free individual is just a fictional tale concocted by an assembly of biochemical algorithms”. Similarly with the idea that we have free will. People may have freedom to choose between alternatives but the range of possibilities is determined elsewhere. And that range is increasingly determined by external algorithms as the “surveillance capitalism” practised by Google, Amazon and co becomes ubiquitous – to the point where internet companies will eventually know what your desires are before you do. And so on.

Here Harari ventures into the kind of dystopian territory that Aldous Huxley would recognise. He sees three broad directions.

1. Humans will lose their economic and military usefulness, and the economic system will stop attaching much value to them.

2. The system will still find value in humans collectively but not in unique individuals.

3. The system will, however, find value in some unique individuals, “but these will be a new race of upgraded superhumans rather than the mass of the population”. By “system”, he means the new kind of society that will evolve as bioscience and information technology progress at their current breakneck pace. As before, this society will be based on a deal between religion and science but this time humanism will be displaced by what Harari calls “dataism” – a belief that the universe consists of data flows, and the value of any entity or phenomenon is determined by its contribution to data processing.

Personally, I’m not convinced by his dataism idea: the technocratic ideology underpinning our current obsession with “Big Data” will eventually collapse under the weight of its own absurdity. But in two other areas, Harari is exceedingly perceptive. The first is that our confident belief that we cannot be superseded by machines – because we have consciousness and they cannot have it – may be naive. Not because machine consciousness will be possible but because for Harari’s dystopia to arrive, consciousness is not required. We require machines that are super-intelligent: intelligence is necessary; consciousness is an optional extra which in most cases would simply be a nuisance. And it’s therefore not a showstopper for AI development.

The second is that I’m sure that his reading of the potential of bioscience is accurate. Even the Economist magazine recently ran a cover story entitled: “Cheating death: the science that can extend your lifespan.” But the exciting new possibilities offered by genetic technology will be expensive and available only to elites. So the long century in which medicine had a “levelling up” effect on human populations, bringing good healthcare within the reach of most people, has come to an end. Even today, rich people live longer and healthier lives. In a couple of decades, that gap will widen into a chasm.

Homo Deus is a remarkable book, full of insights and thoughtful reinterpretations of what we thought we knew about ourselves and our history. In some cases it seems (to me) to be naive about the potential of information technology. But what’s really valuable about it is the way it grounds speculation about sci-tech in the context of how liberal democracy evolved.

One measure of Harari’s achievement is that one has to look a long way back – to 1934, in fact, the year when Lewis Mumford’s Technics and Civilization was published – for a book with comparable ambition and scope. Not bad going for a young historian.

Rose Garden with a Waterfall

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Sunflower

The sunflower (Helianthus annuus) is an annual plant in the family Asteraceae, with a large flower head (capitulum). The stem of the flower can grow up to 3 metres tall, with a flower head that can be 30 cm wide. Other types of sunflowers include the California Royal Sunflower, which has a burgundy (red + purple) flower head.

The flower head is actually an inflorescence made of hundreds or thousands of tiny flowers called florets. The central florets look like the centre of a normal flower, and the outer florets look like yellow petals. All together they make up a "false flower" or pseudanthium. The benefit to the plant is that it is very easily seen by the insects and birds which pollinate it, and it produces thousands of seeds.

The sunflower is the state flower of Kansas. That is why Kansas is sometimes called the Sunflower State. To grow well, sunflowers need full sun. They grow best in fertile, wet, well-drained soil with a lot of mulch. In commercial planting, seeds are planted 45 cm (1.5 ft) apart and 2.5 cm (1 in) deep.

Description
Head displaying florets in spirals of 34 and 55 around the outside The outer petal-bearing florets are the sterile florets and can be yellow, red, orange, or other colours. The florets inside the circular head are called disc florets, which mature into seeds.

The flower petals within the sunflower's cluster are always in a spiral pattern. Generally, each floret is oriented toward the next by approximately the golden angle, 137.5°, producing a pattern of interconnecting spirals, where the number of left spirals and the number of right spirals are successive Fibonacci numbers. Typically, there are 34 spirals in one direction and 55 in the other; on a very large sunflower there could be 89 in one direction and 144 in the other.

Sunflowers commonly grow to heights between 1.5 and 3.5 m (5–12 ft.). The tallest sunflower confirmed by Guinness World Records is 9.17 m (2014, Germany). In 16th century Europe the record was already 7.3 m (24 ft., Spain).[3] Most cultivars are variants of H. annuus, but four other species (all perennials) are also domesticated. This includes H. tuberosus, the Jerusalem Artichoke, which produces edible tubers.

As food[change
Sunflower "whole seed" (fruit) are sold as a snack food, after roasting in ovens, with or without salt added. Sunflowers can be processed into a peanut butter alternative, Sunbutter. In Germany, it is mixed together with rye flour to make Sonnenblumenkernbrot (literally: sunflower whole seed bread), which is quite popular in German-speaking Europe. It is also sold as food for birds and can be used directly in cooking and salads. Sunflower oil, extracted from the seeds, is used for cooking, as a carrier oil and to produce margarine and biodiesel, as it is cheaper than olive oil. A range of sunflower varieties exist with differing fatty acid compositions; some 'high oleic' types contain a higher level of healthy monounsaturated fats in their oil than Olive oil.

The cake remaining after the seeds have been processed for oil is used as a livestock feed. Some recently developed cultivars have drooping heads. These cultivars are less attractive to gardeners growing the flowers as ornamental plants, but appeal to farmers, because they reduce bird damage and losses from some plant diseases. Sunflowers also produce latex and are the subject of experiments to improve their suitability as an alternative crop for producing hypoallergenic rubber. Traditionally, several Native American groups planted sunflowers on the north edges of their gardens as a "fourth sister" to the better known three sisters combination of corn, beans, and squash.[9] Annual species are often planted for their allelopathic properties.[source?] However, for commercial farmers growing commodity crops, the sunflower, like any other unwanted plant, is often considered a weed. Especially in the midwestern USA, wild (perennial) species are often found in corn and soybean fields and can have a negative impact on yields. Sunflowers may also be used to extract toxic ingredients from soil, such as lead, arsenic and uranium. They were used to remove uranium, cesium-137, and strontium-90 from soil after the Chernobyl disaster (see phytoremediation).

Pattaya, Thailand

Pattaya is a city on Thailand’s eastern Gulf coast known for its beaches. A quiet fishing village as recently as the 1960s, it’s now lined with resort hotels, high-rise condos, shopping malls, cabaret bars and 24-hour clubs. Nearby, hillside Wat Phra Yai Temple features an 18m-tall golden Buddha. The area also features several designer golf courses, some with views of Pattaya Bay.
Getting there: 6 h 15 min flight. View flights
Weather: 30°C, Wind SW at 19 km/h, 70% Humidity
Province: Chonburi Province

Halong Bay - Vietnam

Hạ Long Bay, in northeast Vietnam, is known for its emerald waters and thousands of towering limestone islands topped by rainforests. Junk boat tours and sea kayak expeditions take visitors past islands named for their shapes, including Stone Dog and Teapot islets. The region is popular for scuba diving, rock climbing and hiking, particularly in mountainous Cát Bà National Park.

Elevation: 100 m
Area: 1,553 km²
Start: Hanoi
Province: Quảng Ninh Province
Extension: 2000
Bridges: Bãi Cháy Bridge

Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, is a large city known for ornate shrines and vibrant street life. The boat-filled Chao Phraya River feeds its network of canals, flowing past the Rattanakosin royal district, home to opulent Grand Palace and its sacred Wat Phra Kaew Temple. Nearby is Wat Pho Temple with an enormous reclining Buddha and, on the opposite shore, Wat Arun Temple with its steep steps and Khmer-style spire.

Cambodia Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat (Khmer: អង្គរវត្ត or "Capital Temple") is a temple complex in Cambodia and the largest religious monument in the world, with the site measuring 162.6 hectares (1,626,000 m2; 402 acres). It was originally constructed as a Hindu temple of god Vishnu for the Khmer Empire, gradually transforming into a Buddhist temple toward the end of the 12th century. It was built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in Yaśodharapura (Khmer: យសោធរបុរៈ, present-day Angkor), the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum. Breaking from the Shaiva tradition of previous kings, Angkor Wat was instead dedicated to Vishnu. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious center since its foundation. The temple is at the top of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors.

Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture: the temple-mountain and the later galleried temple. It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the devas in Hindu mythology: within a moat and an outer wall 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) long are three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next. At the centre of the temple stands a quincunx of towers. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west; scholars are divided as to the significance of this. The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, its extensive bas-reliefs, and for the numerous devatas adorning its walls.

The modern name, Angkor Wat, means "Temple City" or "City of Temples" in Khmer; Angkor, meaning "city" or "capital city", is a vernacular form of the word nokor (នគរ), which comes from the Sanskrit word nagara (Devanāgarī: नगर). Wat is the Khmer word for "temple grounds", also derived from Sanskrit vāṭa (Devanāgarī: वाट), meaning "enclosure".

History
King Suryavarman II, the builder of Angkor Wat Angkor Wat lies 5.5 kilometres (3.4 mi) north of the modern town of Siem Reap, and a short distance south and slightly east of the previous capital, which was centred at Baphuon. In an area of Cambodia where there is an important group of ancient structures, it is the southernmost of Angkor's main sites.

According to legend, the construction of Angkor Wat was ordered by Indra to act as a palace for his son Precha Ket Mealea. According to the 13th century Chinese traveler Daguan Zhou, it was believed by some that the temple was constructed in a single night by a divine architect.

The initial design and construction of the temple took place in the first half of the 12th century, during the reign of Suryavarman II (ruled 1113 – c. 1150). Dedicated to Vishnu, it was built as the king's state temple and capital city. As neither the foundation stela nor any contemporary inscriptions referring to the temple have been found, its original name is unknown, but it may have been known as "Varah Vishnu-lok" after the presiding deity. Work seems to have ended shortly after the king's death, leaving some of the bas-relief decoration unfinished. In 1177, approximately 27 years after the death of Suryavarman II, Angkor was sacked by the Chams, the traditional enemies of the Khmer. Thereafter the empire was restored by a new king, Jayavarman VII, who established a new capital and state temple (Angkor Thom and the Bayon respectively) a few kilometers to the north.

Toward the end of the 12th century, Angkor Wat gradually transformed from a Hindu center of worship to Buddhism, which continues to the present day.[2] Angkor Wat is unusual among the Angkor temples in that although it was somewhat neglected after the 16th century it was never completely abandoned, its preservation being due in part to the fact that its moat also provided some protection from encroachment by the jungle.

One of the first Western visitors to the temple was António da Madalena, a Portuguese monk who visited in 1586 and said that it "is of such extraordinary construction that it is not possible to describe it with a pen, particularly since it is like no other building in the world. It has towers and decoration and all the refinements which the human genius can conceive of."

By the 17th century, Angkor Wat was not completely abandoned and functioned as a Buddhist temple. Fourteen inscriptions dated from the 17th century discovered in Angkor area, testify to Japanese Buddhist pilgrims that had established small settlements alongside Khmer locals. At that time, the temple was thought by the Japanese visitors as the famed Jetavana garden of the Buddha, which originally located in the kingdom of Magadha, India. The best-known inscription tells of Ukondafu Kazufusa, who celebrated the Khmer New Year at Angkor Wat in 1632.

In the mid-19th century, the temple was visited by the French naturalist and explorer, Henri Mouhot, who popularised the site in the West through the publication of travel notes, in which he wrote:

"One of these temples—a rival to that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michelangelo—might take an honorable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome, and presents a sad contrast to the state of barbarism in which the nation is now plunged."

Mouhot, like other early Western visitors, found it difficult to believe that the Khmers could have built the temple, and mistakenly dated it to around the same era as Rome. The true history of Angkor Wat was pieced together only from stylistic and epigraphic evidence accumulated during the subsequent clearing and restoration work carried out across the whole Angkor site. There were no ordinary dwellings or houses or other signs of settlement including cooking utensils, weapons, or items of clothing usually found at ancient sites. Instead there is the evidence of the monuments themselves.

Angkor Wat required considerable restoration in the 20th century, mainly the removal of accumulated earth and vegetation. Work was interrupted by the civil war and Khmer Rouge control of the country during the 1970s and 1980s, but relatively little damage was done during this period. Camping Khmer Rouge forces used whatever wood remained in the building structures for firewood, a pavilion was ruined by a stray American shell, and a shoot-out between Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese forces put a few bullet holes in a bas relief. Far more damage was done after the wars, by art thieving working out of Thailand, which, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, claimed almost every head that could be lopped off the structures, including reconstructions.

The temple is a powerful symbol of Cambodia, and is a source of great national pride that has factored into Cambodia's diplomatic relations with France, the United States and its neighbor Thailand. A depiction of Angkor Wat has been a part of Cambodian national flags since the introduction of the first version circa 1863. From a larger historical and even transcultural perspective, however, the temple of Angkor Wat did not become a symbol of national pride sui generis but had been inscribed into a larger politico-cultural process of French-colonial heritage production in which the original temple site was presented in French colonial and universal exhibitions in Paris and Marseille between 1889 and 1937. Angkor Wat's aesthetics were also on display in the plaster cast museum of Louis Delaporte called musée Indo-chinois which existed in the Parisian Trocadero Palace from c.1880 to the mid-1920s.

The splendid artistic legacy of Angkor Wat and other Khmer monuments in the Angkor region led directly to France adopting Cambodia as a protectorate on 11 August 1863 and invading Siam to take control of the ruins. This quickly led to Cambodia reclaiming lands in the northwestern corner of the country that had been under Siamese (Thai) control since 1351 AD (Manich Jumsai 2001), or by some accounts, 1431 AD. Cambodia gained independence from France on 9 November 1953 and has controlled Angkor Wat since that time. It is safe to say that from the colonial period onwards until the site's nomination as UNESCO World Heritage in 1992, this specific temple of Angkor Wat was instrumental in the formation of the modern and gradually globalized concept of built cultural heritage.

In December 2015, it was announced that a research team from University of Sydney had found a previously unseen ensemble of buried towers built and demolished during the construction of Angkor Wat, as well as massive structure of unknown purpose on its south side and wooden fortifications.[25] The findings also include evidence of low-density residential occupation in the region, with a road grid, ponds and mounds. These indicate that the temple precinct, bounded by moat and wall, may not have been used exclusively by the priestly elite, as was previously thought. The team used LiDAR, ground-penetrating radar and targeted excavation to map Angkor Wat.

Sunrise

Sunrise or sun up is the instant at which the upper edge of the Sun appears over the eastern horizon in the morning. The term can also refer to the entire process of the Sun crossing the horizon and its accompanying atmospheric effects.

"Rise"
Although the Sun appears to "rise" from the horizon, it is actually the Earth's motion that causes the Sun to appear. The illusion of a moving Sun results from Earth observers being in a rotating reference frame; this apparent motion is so convincing that most cultures had mythologies and religions built around the geocentric model, which prevailed until astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus first formulated the heliocentric model in the 16th century.

Architect Buckminster Fuller proposed the terms "sunsight" and "sunclipse" to better represent the heliocentric model, though the terms have not entered into common language.

Beginning and end
Astronomically, sunrise occurs for only an instant: the moment at which the upper limb of the Sun appears tangent to the horizon. However, the term sunrise commonly refers to periods of time both before and after this point:

Twilight, the period in the morning during which the sky is light but the Sun is not yet visible. The beginning of morning twilight is called dawn.
The period after the Sun rises during which striking colors and atmospheric effects are still seen.

AFTER AILES, FOX NEWS HAS A NEW CRISIS: CAN IT KEEP MEGYN KELLY?

Within its subterranean newsroom, staffers and executives have a new fear: Will they be able to convince Megyn Kelly to re-sign with the network and stave off a potential post-Ailes ratings decline? And does that mean the end of Bill O’Reilly?

For a few glorious weeks this summer, Fox News seemed as if it had emerged from a retrograde stupor defined, in part, by “leg cams,” the cinematic technique predicated on shooting broadcasters at thigh level, in favor of a period of enlightenment. After former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual-harassment lawsuit against the network’s co-founder, Roger Ailes, numerous other women came forward with surprising velocity to voice their own allegations. Meanwhile, James Murdoch, the C.E.O. of 21st Century Fox, and his brother, Lachlan Murdoch, its executive chairman, swiftly ordered an aggressive internal investigation to be administered by the white-shoe law firm Paul, Weiss. As I have previously reported, many within Fox News’s subterranean newsroom credited the younger Murdochs, still ubiquitously known as “the Boys,” for handling the crisis so expeditiously, and for pledging to sanitize Fox News’s culture. Ailes once said that the company was prepared to broadcast until the end of time, meaning up until the critical moment of a potential apocalypse or world war. In less than two weeks, however, he was out. The wooden door that famously cordoned his office suite from prying eyes was removed. Within, two handguns were discovered—one a Glock, the other a Smith & Wesson—with ammunition for both. (“Roger has a permit for those two guns,” Ailes’s attorney, Susan Estrich, told me, adding that her client has a license to carry a handgun in New York, “for his personal protection.” She continued: “Those guns are licensed and appropriate.” Ailes has repeatedly denied all allegations of sexual harassment.)

Within the newsroom, according to one staffer, the days following Ailes’s departure were defined by “shock and awe.” But as Rupert Murdoch moved in to take over as interim C.E.O., it seemed like the big boss was working in tandem with his heirs. The Murdochs tried to extract some of Ailes’s associates. The company announced that former Fox News C.F.O. Mark Kranz was retiring. Some of Ailes’s closest allies were also dismissed. His so-called black ops team left Fox. Several of his former assistants followed.

As reporters and producers grew accustomed to the sweeping changes, however, the Murdochs did something seemingly peculiar: they elevated Ailes’s closest deputy, Bill Shine, and a Fox Television Stations executive, Jack Abernethy, to co-presidents of Fox News. They also kept on Dianne Brandi, the general counsel, and Suzanne Scott, ‎executive vice president, programming and development. These moves seemed counter-intuitive to those who saw the younger Murdochs agitating for change. Not only had Shine and Brandi been influential deputies in the Ailes regime, but they were also reportedly implicated in the allegations of Laurie Luhn, the former Fox booker, who accused Ailes of sexual harassment and psychological torture. As Gabriel Sherman detailed in New York, Luhn received a $3.15 million settlement. (Through a Fox News spokesperson, Shine and Brandi said they had no knowledge of Laurie Luhn’s sexual relationship with Roger Ailes.) A person close to 21st Century Fox also insists that Shine was vetted. “We wouldn’t have given Shine the job if he wasn’t clean,” this person says. Another staffer confirmed this perspective: “Everybody inside these walls knows Bill Shine.”

Read More...

Psy, iKON, and MONSTA X completely edited out from Chinese dance survival program

K-Pop artists have been entirely edited out from yet another Chinese tv program - Guangzhou Satellite TV's 'The Remix'.
Since the very beginning of the dance survival program back in June, iKON and MONSTA X have been a part of the competition while Psy had been sitting as one of the judges. Despite their stellar performances thus far, the Korean judge and competitors did not make any appearances on the latest episode aired on August 21.
During the entire broadcast, iKON and MONSTA X were nowhere to be seen, while Psy's face was blurred out. In addition, Psy has also been removed from the program's main web page.
The current controversy regarding THAAD is assumed to have caused this occurrence.

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BTS’s Rap Monster Revealed To Have Co-Written Homme’s New Song

Big Hit Entertainment has revealed that composer Bang Shi Hyuk and BTS’s Rap Monster co-wrote Homme’s upcoming digital single “Dilemma.”
Apparently Bang Shi Hyuk himself suggested that Rap Monster play a leading role in producing the song.
Rap Monster is known for his rising producing skills. Previously, he participated in the producing of “EPILOGUE: Young Forever” from BTS’s most recent album “The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever.”
Many are anticipating the synergy between hitmaker Bang Shi Hyuk and Rap Monster for “Dilemma.” The new song is described as a ballad that comforts hearts that are tired from worrying and hurting because of love.
“Dilemma” will be released on August 30 at 12 a.m. KST. Prior to that the duo will meet fans at a showcase on August 29 at 8 p.m. KST.

EXID’s Solji Tears Up While Thinking Of Her Mother During Performance On “Immortal Song”

On August 20’s episode of “Immortal Song,” seven talented female singers perform as part of the show’s “Seven Divas” special.
When it’s EXID member Solji’s turn to take the stage, host Shin Dong Yup introduces her as a filial daughter who wants to be able to take care of her mother financially.
Solji explains in her private interview that she used to get emotional while listening to the song “As I Live” by SG Wannabe when she was living far apart from her mother for a while when she was younger. She says that she cried while practising the song for the show as well, and she’s worried that she will on stage.
She gets teary as she sings but still wows with her beautiful performance, bringing some of the audience members to tears as well. After stepping down from the stage, she sits down backstage to wipe her tears as everyone cheers. When she comes back on stage to receive her score, she struggles a bit to stop crying.
She explains, “For me, this song isn’t about a story between a man and a woman. I once had to say goodbye to my mother. My mother is now here today watching, and I thought about her and that time, and all the emotions welled up.”
August 20’s episode of “Immortal Song” also features singers Hyorin of SISTAR, Yangpa, Big Mama’s Lee Young Hyun, Lim Jeong Hee (also known as J-Lim), Son Seung Yeon, and Kim Na Young.

5 K-POP IDOLS WHO LOOK LIKE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS WHEN THEY CROSSDRESS

Since the early 90s, K-pop music has become one of the biggest genres of music to be accepted around the world. Because of Hallyu, also known as the Korean Wave, which was Korea’s movement to expand Korean culture outside of their country, many people have heard of and are fans of K-pop acts like EXO, BTS, and Girls’ Generation. As a testament to how big K-pop has become, one needs to look at YG Entertainment’s new K-pop girl group Black Pink. Within one week, Black Pink’s music videos on YouTube have been watched over 26 million times. Not only that, their song “Whistle” was played during the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Despite K-pop’s popularity and innovative direction, there are certain points they are conservative on. South Korea is primarily a Christian country and still has strong views towards the LGBT movement. Yet, there are tolerable acts that insinuate LGBT to the point before it is considered LGBT. Skinship among K-pop idols of the same gender is a big thing, especially during live shows.

However, the biggest act K-pop idols partake in that surely appeals to the pro-LGBT crowd is crossdressing. It is often argued that certain male K-pop idols look so beautiful and feminine that they can pass off as “cute girls.” With that in mind, here are five male K-pop idols who do exactly that when they crossdress.

Read more...

Jay Park, Sistar’s Hyolyn Join Ultra Singapore

Plus, big local acts among the final line-up for the live music festival
Giant DJ music festival Ultra Singapore has just announced a game-changing update to its line-up.
South Korean superstars Jay Park and Hyolyn – the face and voice of girl group Sistar – will be taking on the Live Stage on 10 and 11 Sep respectively.
Together with the two K-Pop hotties (we wonder if they DJ on the side), several other acts were also announced. These include Australian group Slumberjack and South African-born Cara Frew. Local musicians will also be jumping on board – look out for Myrne, Shigga Shay, Rave Republic and The Sam Willows.
This latest phase of acts completes the two-day festival’s powerful line-up, which was previously revealed to include hot names like Far East Movement, Afrojack and deadmau5.

Meet CL, the K-pop rapper with one of your new favorite music videos

America, meet CL. She's going to be taking you by storm, just as she took New York in the music video for her much-anticipated U.S. debut single, Lifted.

The breezy and tropical hip-hop track heavily samples Wu-Tang Clan's Method Man -- even featuring Method Man himself for a brief cameo in the video. Directed by Dave Meyers (Missy Elliott's WTF), the Lifted music video, which dropped Thursday, shows CL dancing and drinking her way through a hazy New York summer day, eventually flying above the roofs atop cartoonish clouds.

Produced by frequent collaborator Teddy Park and co-written by Park, CL and Asher Roth, Lifted reached the top 30 of iTunes’ Hip-Hop/Rap chart within three hours of its release.

It's a long-awaited English-language debut for the 25-year-old rapper, whose become one of the most prominent K-pop superstars in South Korea. Now, she's ready to break into the States.

Who is CL?

Chaelin Lee, better known as CL, is a South Korean rapper, 2NE1 girl group member and fashion icon better known in the States for her appearances at New York Fashion Week than her music.

As a member of 2NE1 and as a solo artist, she's released tracks that experiment in electronic pop, reggae and trap. With Lifted, CL takes on 90s East Coast hip-hop with heavy beats and a mellow sound -- a huge change of pace from her usually aggressive style.

Why should you care?

CL has been testing the waters in the U.S. for years, with last year's grime-influenced Doctor Pepper -- a collaboration with Diplo, Riff Raff and OG Maco -- as well as her traptastic electronic single Hello B****es in November. As part of 2NE1, she was featured on several will.i.am songs, and filled in for Fergie on a Black Eyed Peas tour.

It's high time for CL's U.S. debut, and with her upcoming EP, also titled Lifted, she may take K-pop to new heights.

ICE Fantasy

Ice Fantasy (Chinese: 幻城; pinyin: Huànchéng) is a 2016 Chinese epic fantasy television drama based on Guo Jing Ming's bestselling novel, City of Fantasy. It was directed by Ju Jue Liang, and stars Feng Shaofeng, Victoria Song, Ma Tianyu, and Zhang Meng. The drama was produced by Shanghai Youhug Media and will broadcast on Hunan Satellite Television Diamond independent broadcast theater.

Watch Episode 1 Full

The story is set a hundred years after a war between the Empire of Snow (Ice Tribe) and the Fire Tribe, where the Fire Tribe was defeated, leaving Prince Ka Suo (Feng Shaofeng) and his younger half-brother Ying Kong Shi (Ma Tianyu) the only royal heirs and pure-blood ice illusionists left in the Ice Tribe. Conflict ensues after Ka Suo reluctantly ascends to the throne as his lover, Li Luo (Victoria Song), and his brother go missing.

Ka Suo also accidentally discovers an evil presence lurking in the Ice Tribe's holy shrine. He and his companions enter the mysterious shrine, and defeated the head of the shrine, Yuan Ji (Yan Yikuan), only to find out that all the chaos was triggered by him. Ka Suo also experiences hardships in trying to find his lover and brother, not knowing that his brother has lost all of his memories and has become the Fire Prince under his mother's command. A war between the two tribes commences once again, with the two brothers pitted against each other.

BTS' Suga Addresses Depression & Cost of Fame on 'Agust D' Mixtape

“This K-pop category ain’t enough size for me,” Suga claims on the title track of Agust D as he lays a fierce rap over the pulsating beat.

Just weeks after spitting “Fire” at the Staples Center at KCON LA alongside the rest of his boy bandmates in BTS, Agust D brings Suga’s (Min Yoongi) career path and difficulties to the forefront with an old-school rap style. The swaggering rapper took on his and the K-pop industry’s naysayers in his first mixtape, which dropped on Monday (Tuesday in South Korea). He is the second member of BTS to release a mixtape, following Rap Monster’s RM last year.

Throughout the impassioned 10-track Agust D, Suga added a new element to his career, separating his mixtape artistry from what he’s released with BTS as one of the group’s most prominent songwriters and lyricists. To cut ties with his identity as a K-pop idol and highlight his underground influences, the mixtape was released eponymously under the name Agust D, combining his stage name spelled backward with the initials of “Daegu Town,” referencing his hometown in southern South Korea.

Setting the stage as an outsider, the mixtape begins with a fierce declaration of Suga’s success in a quick intro and title track, both of which sample the seemingly anachronistic James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” for added pizzazz. (“Agust D” also features a shout-out to Billboard as he aggressively expresses his lofty goals.) Following with “Give It to Me,” an attack against those who would like to see him fail, the first part of Agust D is pure bombast. Things slow down for a skit in which Suga reminds the listener that this is his own music, something that is entirely separate from his identity within BTS.

Agust D then transitions into the raw reality of depression, OCD and social phobia that has plagued Suga between the time he left his hometown to pursue his dream in Seoul and the anguish he’s felt about selling out. Unusually frank for Korea, where suicide is prevalent and mental health care faces extreme stigma, the mixtape climaxes with “The Last,” as Suga relates seeking psychiatric help and coming to terms with the fact that he is in fact an idol and part of the mainstream pop industry. Whether that’s selling out or not is left up to the listener with the next track, the Scarface-evoking “Tony Montana,” on which Suga and featured artist Yankie lay out the dangers of success.

Ending with an interlude, “Dream, Reality,” and “So Far Away” featuring Korean indie singer Suran, Agust D finishes with the contradictory desire for the reality of life to be nothing more than a dream while at the same time urging his army of listeners to dream on.

Intense in its vulnerability, Agust D was entirely produced by Suga, something atypical within the K-pop world. After being made available for free through a variety of download and streaming sites, “AgustD” trended worldwide on Twitter following album’s release. The accompanying music video for “Agust D” also saw immediate success, and was viewed more than 1 million times within 12 hours of appearing on YouTube.

K-Pop Star CL Reaches New Heights on Debut Single 'Lifted'

After making a name for herself as a member of girl group 2NE1 and dipping her toes into the English-language music market with a bevy of songs, the 25-year-old rapper set her sights on the U.S. market with the release of “Lifted” on Aug. 18 (Aug. 19 in South Korea). Produced by frequent collaborator Teddy Park and co-written by Park, CL, and Asher Roth, the single changes up the star’s identity from that of the Baddest Female. “Lifted” aims to take fans higher through its refreshingly mellow hip-hop sound and laid-back video.

The new song diverges sharply from CL’s image as one of South Korea’s most prominent female rappers and eschews her typical aggressive style. Referencing drugs and liquor liberally while roaming around New York City, this isn’t the same CL that K-pop fans are used to. Built for listening to on a hazy summer day, “Lifted” takes a step back from CL’s typical raps, aside from a quick bit at the beginning of the song. Instead, “Lifted” favors a tropical sound with a heavy beat that draws on ‘90s east coast hip-hop, drawing liberally on Wu-Tang Clan’s “Method Man.” Method Man appears for a quick cameo in the music video.
“Get yourself a 40 and enjoy the song,” CL suggested through an email ahead of the release, referencing the laid-back lyrics of “Lifted.”

Filmed in New York City, CL begins the Dave Meyers directed video vaping on a fire escape before dancing her way through streets and parks. Coming to a conclusion high above the NYC skyline, CL takes getting “Lifted’ literally as she sways amongst the clouds. A style icon just as much as Korean music star (she’s tight with Jeremy Scott), CL swaps outfits with each scene and runs the gamut from lingerie to heavy leather, looking fresh and summery despite the brutal NYC humidity.

Following its release, “Lifted” trended immediately on Twitter, where K-pop fans were torn between praising CL and denouncing her for changing her style to appeal to American audiences. Despite the mixed feelings, the song appeared in the top 30 of iTunes’ Hip-Hop/Rap chart within three hours of being released.

CL first came into prominence as a member of the K-pop girl group 2NE1 in 2009. “Lifted” is the first release from any of the remaining three members following the departure of former member Minzy earlier this year. CL released her first solo song, “The Baddest Female,” back in 2013 and signed with Scooter Braun in 2014. Since then, fans have anxiously anticipated the release of her first official step into the U.S market. An EP by the same name was announced late last year, but for the time being, fans will just have to take things higher with “Lifted.”

Vivian calls out 'Get It Beauty' for 'evil editing' her interview about cousin Yuri

Vivian expressed concerns about the recently aired episode of 'Get It Beauty' and its evil editing.

Following the broadcast on August 17, Vivian made headlines for portraying frustration about her title - 'Girls' Generation Yuri's cousin'. However, Vivian claimed her interview was wrongly edited to make it sound like she disliked the title.

She then called out 'Get It Beauty' for manipulating the truth, as well as the media in general. Vivian wrote on her Instagram in English,

"What I actually said at the interview was 'I do feel upset that some people who did not recognize what I have actually done in my career and are saying that I am just using my cousin.' I was pointing at the people have said that I have not done anything in my career and just trying to use my cousin without knowing how hard I personally have been doing in my career as a model. The problem is the editor of the tv program totally removed the important part and made it sound just like what you guys thought. That is the media. I have been saying multiple times that I have got to be known to people quickly thanks to her. Do not thoughtlessly judge about me, and hurt both of us. What you are trying to do is just hurting us. #thetruth #gonnadeletethissoon."

Go Kyung Pyo updates fans on what he's been up to lately in 'Kwave M'

'K Wave' magazine has changed its name to 'Kwave M', and with the change, we have another set of cuts from Go Kyung Pyo's feature in a new edition!

In his interview, he talked about maturing with age, saying, "Back when I was young and full of energy, some of the more self-righteous sides of my personality showed up negatively in people's eyes, but as I got older, I learned to be embarrassed, and also learned to look back with a peace of mind. These days, a lot of friends come to me first. I could say [this maturity] comes from that fact. (laughter) These days I harmonize with people of all personalities and backgrounds."

On what he's been up to lately, the actor relayed, "I'm dieting, so I can't drink at all. We choose healthier options where you can use your body. We go for ping pong, pool, shooting, pitching machines, and lately, I've been into darts. When 4-5 guys play on bets, the time ends up being 5AM instantly."

Why letting goldfish go wild is a bad idea: They become giant pests

You may think dumping goldfish into a river is a harmless act, but in reality the fish can become destructively big.
Researchers from the Centre of Fish and Fisheries at Murdoch University have been trying to control goldfish for 12 years in the Vasse River, located in the southwest of Western Australia.
An invasive species, the goldfish is causing havoc for native fish and its surrounding ecosystem, which is why Stephen Beatty and his fellow researchers spent a year studying the little-known movement patterns of the goldfish in the wild. The results of the study, now concluded, has been published in a paper in the journal, Ecology of Freshwater Fish.
Beatty told Mashable Australia that the study was conducted because of the sharp rise in aquarium species, such as the goldfish, being detected in the Vasse River in the last 15 years. That's all thanks to people letting them go in local waterways.
"We think it's a major factor, people letting their aquarium species go. Unwanted pets, basically. They can do quite a lot of harm," Beatty said.
Goldfish are omnivores in the wild, and they can have destructive feeding habits. They deteriorate the quality of water by stirring up sediment on the bottom of river beds, dig up vegetation and also consume anything edible that comes before them — including native fish eggs.
On top of that, the goldfish compete for space and resources with native fish, and have been responsible for introducing disease.
Most startling is the fact that goldfish in the wild can grow to massive sizes, and they have an unprecedented ability to travel long distances. One goldfish found by researchers weighed 1.9 kilograms (4.1 pounds), while another was tracked travelling a marathon 230 kilometres (142 miles) in a year.
"We didn't think goldfish were that mobile," Beatty said. "What this study shows is that they are quite mobile, but I think it's mostly to do with with feeding and foraging."
Beatty said they were able to discover evidence of goldfish undergoing migration into nearby wetlands, where they are reproducing — a.k.a. a spawning migration. It's a discovery which will help researchers figure out how to stop the invasive species.
"It gives us better clarity on how to control them. That wetland has only a small opening, so we think we can manufacture some sort of trap to catch them when they go in to breed," he said.
Other removal methods include nets and electrofishing, but Beatty admits it can be difficult to remove an alien species without damaging the local fish population. As always, prevention is the cure.
"The key thing is if you've got unwanted pets, you can see if the pet shops will take them back. But if you're going to euthanise them, putting them in the freezer is the most humane way," Beatty explained.
"But just letting go of a pet, no matter how innocuous you think it is in your aquarium, or how pretty it is, can potentially cause a lot of damage. Not all fish you let go will form a self-maintaining population, but we're finding more and more that do."

Three killed after kites slit throats in India

Two children and a man have died in the Indian capital after their throats were slit by glass-covered strings used for flying kites during Independence Day celebrations, police said Wednesday.
The tragedies prompted the Delhi government to this week issue an immediate ban on the production, sale and storage of the razor sharp strings which are used to try to cut down competitors' kites.
The government said anyone caught with the strings, known locally as manjha, faced a five-year jail term and a 100,000-rupee ($1,500) fine.
The children, aged four and six, died in separate incidents in New Delhi on Monday after they looked out of the sunroof of their cars.
"The children were looking out of the sunroofs when they entangled in the deadly threads," Pushpender Kumar, west Delhi's deputy police commissioner, told AFP.
A 22-year-old man also died in the same way while he was riding his motorbike on a flyover in the capital, another officer said.
No one has been arrested over the deaths.
Another five-year-old child and a policeman were badly injured in other incidents involving the strings, reports have said.
Kite flying is hugely popular on Independence Day, with the sky dotted with ones often painted in the colours of the Indian flag and attached to long strings.
The Delhi High Court last week directed the city government to raise awareness of the dangers of the strings, saying there had been a raft of deaths in recent years in Delhi and two neighbouring states.
Some states have already banned such strings following accidents.

Kite flying is hugely popular on Independence Day, with the sky dotted with ones often painted in the colours of the Indian flag (AFP Photo/Narinder Nanu)