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  • IBM and the USTA Roll Out AI-Powered Fan Experiences for 2025 US Open

    IBM and the USTA Roll Out AI-Powered Fan Experiences for 2025 US Open

    – ‘Match Chat’ AI assistant answers questions in real-time, during and after all 254 singles matches

    – Enhanced IBM SlamTracker to offer live Likelihood to Win projections, while ‘Key Points’ instantly summarizes articles on USOpen.org and the US Open app

    – New global IBM survey confirms demand for AI-powered fan experiences on the rise

    Aug 18, 2025

    ARMONK, N.Y., Aug. 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) and the United States Tennis Association (USTA) today announced a new lineup of AI-powered digital experiences coming to USOpen.org and the US Open app for this year’s tournament. Co-created by IBM and the USTA, the features are designed to deliver millions of tennis fans worldwide more of the customized, nonstop coverage they crave throughout the two-week Grand Slam.

    Experience the full interactive Multichannel News Release here:  https://www.multivu.com/ibm/92400510-en-ibm-usta-ai-fan-experiences-2025-us-open

    IBM and the USTA Roll Out AI-Powered Fan Experiences for 2025 US Open

    Serving first is Match Chat, an interactive AI assistant available during and after all 254 singles matches. Fans can engage the tool by selecting a pre-written prompt or typing their own question on topics such as player stats, head-to-head records, match insights and even player name pronunciations (e.g., ‘who has converted more break points in the match?’).

    Built with IBM watsonx Orchestrate technologies – including AI agents and large language models (LLMs) such as IBM Granite – Match Chat is trained on the US Open editorial style and leverages real-time data to provide users with responses.

    An enhanced version of IBM SlamTracker is back, now offering fans live Likelihood to Win probabilities for every singles match. The tool will update in near real-time with projected win percentages that can change throughout each match, based on AI-powered analysis of player statistics, expert opinion and match momentum. For post-match insights, AI Commentary will once again offer AI-generated audio and subtitles in English for highlight videos of men’s and women’s singles matches.

    Rounding out this year’s lineup is Key Points built with watsonx which creates three-bullet summaries of articles, tournament data and match analysis on the US Open app and website. By simply clicking a button at the top of the article page, fans will receive a “TL:DR” (Too Long; Didn’t Read) recap of all the action they are looking to follow.

    The new and enhanced capabilities come at a time when audience demand for more dynamic digital content is accelerating. According to a new global survey also out today from Morning Consult and commissioned by IBM, 86% of tennis fans surveyed worldwide see value in AI-powered features, with real-time insights and personalized highlights central to how they engage with sports.

    “As fan engagement and content consumption habits evolve, IBM and the USTA are at the cutting edge – leveraging data and AI to create unique digital experiences that bring the excitement of the US Open to life for audiences around the world,” said Jonathan Adashek, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications, IBM. “We’re applying the same powerful technologies that we use with client partners across all industries to meet the demands of tennis fans, deepening the connection to the players and game we all love.”

    “Working with IBM, we developed a long-term technology roadmap that has transformed how we operate and connect with fans,” said Brian Ryerson, Sr. Director of Digital Strategy at the USTA. “IBM took the time to understand our vision for the US Open, and together we identified the hybrid cloud and AI capabilities needed to bring it to life. Today, those efforts are paying off — delivering real-time insights that enrich the fan experience, while significantly improving the reliability, scalability, and efficiency of our digital platforms and behind-the scenes-operations.” 

    The full findings of IBM and Morning Consult’s new survey can be found here.

    The 2025 US Open runs from August 18 – September 7. Explore these IBM technologies and more by visiting USOpen.org and/or the US Open app available in the Apple and Android app stores on all mobile devices.

    About IBM

    IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more information.

    About the USTA

    The USTA is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the U.S. and the leader in promoting and developing the growth of tennis at every level — from local communities to the highest level of the professional game. A not-for-profit organization, it invests 100 percent of its proceeds in growing the game. It owns and operates the US Open, one of the highest-attended annual sporting events in the world, along with approximately 100 Pro Circuit events throughout the U.S., and selects the teams for Davis Cup, Billie Jean King Cup, and the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The USTA’s philanthropic entity, the USTA Foundation, provides grants and scholarships in addition to supporting tennis and education programs nationwide to benefit under-resourced youth through the National Junior Tennis & Learning (NJTL) network. For more information about the USTA, go to USTA.com or follow the official accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X) and TikTok.

    Media contact:

    IBM

    Sarah Benchaita

    sarah.benchaita@ibm.com

    IBM and the USTA Roll Out AI-Powered Fan Experiences for 2025 US Open

     

    IBM and the USTA Roll Out AI-Powered Fan Experiences for 2025 US Open

     

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  • Can turmeric/curcumin help with weight control in diabetes?

    Can turmeric/curcumin help with weight control in diabetes?

    A review of 20 clinical trials reveals that turmeric/curcumin supplements can aid weight and fat loss in people with diabetes or prediabetes, especially when taken in higher doses or for longer durations.

    Review: The effect of turmeric/curcumin supplementation on anthropometric indices in subjects with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes mellitus: A GRADE-assessed systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Image Credit: New Africa / Shutterstock

    In a recent study published in the journal Nutrition & Diabetes, researchers assessed the effects of curcumin or turmeric supplementation on anthropometric indices in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) or prediabetes. Diabetes imposes a significant societal burden, including indirect and direct consequences, such as work-related losses and diminished productivity.

    The International Diabetes Federation estimates that diabetes-related costs will reach $1.03 trillion by 2030. Due to drawbacks of conventional treatments, such as dosage tolerance, side effects, and high costs, novel, cost-effective, and safe alternatives are being explored.

    Herbal supplements are being widely used for medicinal purposes. Turmeric is commonly used as a culinary additive to enhance flavor and color. It ranks among the most common dietary supplements worldwide. However, its therapeutic effectiveness is limited due to low bioavailability. This has prompted interest in advanced delivery methods, like nanoparticles and co-administration with piperine, to improve absorption.

    Curcumin, the main active component in turmeric, has beneficial effects on glycemic and anthropometric indices in metabolic diseases. It reduces the expression of transcription factors involved in fat production in the liver. Besides, curcumin exerts anti-obesity effects by repressing preadipocyte differentiation and inhibiting mitogenesis. It may also enhance fat burning, reduce fat accumulation, and increase energy expenditure.

    About the study

    In this study, researchers systematically reviewed and analyzed randomized controlled trials testing curcumin or turmeric in people with T2DM or prediabetes. Trials were included if they measured body weight, waist size, fat mass, or other indicators of body composition, and compared outcomes against a placebo. Studies involving pregnant women or combining curcumin with other treatments were excluded. The study followed international guidelines for systematic reviews and assessed the strength of evidence using the GRADE system.

    Findings

    The researchers reviewed 20 eligible trials involving 1,387 adults. Most used turmeric/curcumin doses between 80 and 2100 mg daily.

    In people with T2DM, supplementation led to modest but statistically significant reductions in body weight, waist size, body fat percentage, and hip circumference. However, it did not clearly affect BMI or waist-to-hip ratio, and the certainty of evidence for most outcomes was low or very low.

    In prediabetic individuals, turmeric/curcumin reduced body weight and waist size, but not BMI, and the evidence was of moderate certainty.

    People who took high-absorption forms of curcumin or used it for at least 12 weeks tended to see greater benefits.

    Only a few studies reported side effects, which were generally mild and included stomach discomfort, itching, or nausea.

    Notably, the study also found that longer use (over 22 weeks) was linked to weight reductions, and higher doses (around 1500 mg/day) were associated with smaller waistlines.

    Conclusions

    This study suggests that turmeric/curcumin supplements may help reduce some markers of obesity, especially body weight and waist circumference, in people with prediabetes and T2DM. While encouraging, these effects were modest and often based on evidence rated as low in certainty.

    The strongest results appeared when high-absorption formulations were used over more extended periods. More rigorous research is needed to confirm these effects and understand which types of patients benefit most.

    Journal reference:

    • Moradi Baniasadi M, Arzhang P, Setayesh A, Moradi M, Nasli-Esfahani E, Azadbakht L (2025). The effect of turmeric/curcumin supplementation on anthropometric indices in subjects with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes mellitus: A GRADE-assessed systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Nutrition & Diabetes, 15(1), 34. DOI: 10.1038/s41387-025-00386-7

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  • Implantable brain technology: ALS patient is first to control iPad by thought – Genetic Literacy Project

    1. Implantable brain technology: ALS patient is first to control iPad by thought  Genetic Literacy Project
    2. Synchron Connects Brain Implant to Apple Vision Pro  ForkLog
    3. Brain computer interface revolutionizing life for motor-impaired  NewsNation
    4. Man Controls iPad with His Mind Using BCI HID  Medical Device and Diagnostic industry
    5. Synchron Integrates OpenAI’s AI into Brain-Computer Interface  ForkLog

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  • What marketers need to know about VTubers in 2025

    What marketers need to know about VTubers in 2025

    2025 is shaping up to be the year of the VTuber — and as audience interest in this nascent category of creator grows, advertisers are starting to buy in.

    Although VTubers — livestreamers or video creators who use virtual avatars, rather than their real-life identities, as their public personas — initially became popular in Japan in the mid-2010s, this type of creator has become increasingly popular in the West in the past year, with VTubers such as the Twitch streamer Ironmouse becoming some of the most-subscribed or most-followed creators on their platforms. 

    Where audience eyeballs go, brands follow — and this year, brands across categories such as sports, food and even alcohol have widened their influencer marketing spend to include VTuber collaborations. 

    Here’s everything marketers should know about the rise of VTubers in 2025.

    What do VTubers do? 

    VTuber stands for “virtual YouTuber.” They are much like any other creators on Twitch or YouTube, with many streaming themselves playing video games or making videos about their day-to-day lives. However, instead of revealing their real-life faces to the camera, VTubers use motion-capture or hand-tracking technology to map their movements and facial expressions to an animated avatar. That way, they can keep their identities private while still building distinct, marketable personas that fans connect with. 

    Since the practice originated in Japan, many VTubers’ avatars are inspired by anime aesthetics. 

    In addition to Ironmouse, who boasts over 2.3 million followers on Twitch, top Western VTubers include Gawr Gura — who has a following of over 4.7 million on YouTube — and Mori Calliope, whose YouTube subscriber count stands at 2.6 million.

    One of the most prominent agencies that manages VTubers is Hololive Production, a subsidiary of the Japanese entertainment company Cover Corporation, with a roster of 88 VTubers that boasts a total following of over 80 million, according to figures shared by the company. In March, Cover Corporation launched its U.S. arm to capitalize on growing Western interest in VTubers. In February 2025, Hololive VTubers accounted for 51 percent of all VTuber video viewership on YouTube.

    “We generally say our demographic is Gen Z,” said Cover Corporation CEO Motoaki Tanigo. “People that watch anime content are the same user base that also watch VTuber content — and as anime viewing in Gen Z has grown in the U.S., VTuber viewing has grown as well.”

    The key numbers

    • In Q1 2025, livestreamed VTuber content consumption reached an all-time high of nearly 523 million hours watched, according to a report by the livestreaming data platform Streams Charts. 
    • In April, YouTube acknowledged the rise of VTubers by publishing an official report breaking down the growing category for members of the platform’s ecosystem. In 2024, a sample of 300 VTubers on YouTube earned over 15 billion views, per the report.
    • The current size of the U.S. VTuber market is roughly 2.86 billion, according to a report by Mordor Intelligence, which predicted that the market would grow to 4.5 billion by 2030.
    • As audience engagement in VTubers grows, so too has advertisers’ interest in the category. Tanigo told Digiday that Cover Corporation’s licensing and brand partnership revenue had grown by approximately 30 percent year-over-year in 2025. “In Japan, this has led to contracts with major clients, while in the U.S., we’ve secured partnerships with gaming companies,” he said.

    How brands are buying in

    There’s no shortage of brands that have dived into VTuber marketing in 2025. In recent months, Hololive has signed sponsorship deals with restaurants such as McDonald’s and Kura Sushi, as well as a licensing collaboration with the personal computer brand iBuyPower. In June, the Los Angeles Dodgers sponsored VTubers such as Usada Pekora to show up at an official VTuber game day event. 

    “I often prioritize VTubers for a multitude of reasons: they have a very energetic and creative approach to their content that makes each campaign feel like a natural and organic fit,” said Tatiana Tacca, the founder of the anime and gaming brand consultancy Oni Vision. “Their audiences are also hyper passionate, resulting in great scale, engagement and click-throughs. And there is still a white space for brands, so there is a strong appreciation among the VTuber community for brands that recognize and elevate this community.”

    VTuber activity differs across regional markets. In Japan, direct deals between brands and influencers are common, whereas brands in Taiwan are more likely to create their own VTuber to act as a spokesperson or appear in commercials, according to Donna Hsu, a deputy sales director for the Asian influencer marketing platform Kolr. This was the approach taken by the whiskey brand Ballantine’s, which unveiled its own VTuber spokesperson on August 9, transforming an image of its founder George Ballantine into a Fortnite-playing Twitch streamer. 

    Although this type of in-house VTuber requires up-front technical costs that aren’t a factor for traditional creators, including the creation of the virtual avatar and motion-capture technology, it can help a brand run repeated campaigns without racking up too many influencer activation fees.

    VTubers charge similar rates to other types of creators, with a range of fees depending on the size of the creator’s following and the objectives of the campaign. VTubers offer brands access to a potentially new and growing audience — but they are not inherently cheaper or more expensive than other creator categories.

    “By design, VTubers are inherently digital. This virtual nature allows for flexibility in not only the characters, but the content as well,” said Sami Barnett, senior director of gaming for the agency TMA. “Brands can experiment with creative concepts without the high costs and logistics of influencer marketing.”

    Why brands are buying in

    While VTubers aren’t generally pulling in the same global numbers as top traditional influencers, they are drawing loyal, hard-to-reach audiences who are niche but deeply engaged. That opens up new collaboration opportunities for brands that traditional influencers can’t match, stressed Barnett. Video game publishers, for example, can easily integrate VTuber avatars directly into gameplay – as with Usada Pekora’s recently teased cameo in Death Stranding 2 earlier this month. 

    VTubers aren’t a fit for every campaign, but they’ve carved out a sweet spot with younger, digital-native audiences who grew up in virtual worlds and treat animated avatars as authentic personalities, according to Barnett. 

    “VTubers are a great avenue for digitally innovative campaigns — especially for brands targeting Gen Z, gaming, or anime communities,” she said. 

    Naturally, while VTubers offer fresh ways to engage younger audiences, their niche appeal means they won’t be the right fit for every brand’s target demographic or campaign objective, added Barnett. 

    “I think there is still a disconnect with virtual personalities for a ton of people, perceiving them as less relatable or ‘real’ than traditional influencers, which can definitely deter a brand from going down the VTuber path,” she said. 

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  • Pool Kids: Easier Said Than Done Album Review

    Pool Kids: Easier Said Than Done Album Review

    On Pool Kids’ self-titled 2022 album, the Tallahassee quartet juxtaposed its love of math rock, ’00s pop-punk, and post-hardcore with genuinely funny musings about group chats and performative narcissists. The result was slick enough for an opening slot with indie-pop trio Beach Bunny but raw enough for a tour with post-hardcore group La Dispute. So where to next? The band naturally put pressure on itself to recreate the exuberant, hooky energy of its breakthrough, reuniting with producer Mike Vernon Davis and spending a grueling five weeks recording and re-arranging songs.

    The result, Easier Said Than Done, offers clear evidence of this lengthy process: while not as pristine as the self-titled, their debut record for Epitaph is much denser, often overwhelming. For the album’s 11 tracks, we are trapped inside Goodwyne’s head as she navigates the grief of touring and the ghosts of old friendships. This is an album that fears a vacuum—one where every second is crammed with heavily processed vocal overdubs and synths. It’s not the first time the band has experimented in the studio. But if Pool Kids was eager to please, its follow-up is knowingly desperate to hold listeners’ attention—and that’s exactly why it’s more compelling. Easier Said Than Done is a weirder, proudly overworked record, made more interesting for its imperfections.

    Pool Kids clearly put a lot of care into these songs, to the point where their sound mirrors the lyrics’ neurosis: “Leona Street” doesn’t need those spacey delay throws, nor does “Not Too Late” need reversed vocals, but that’s part of the freedom that comes with five weeks in the studio. The title track sounds like it’s building to a giant belt the way songs like Pool Kids highlight “Swallow” did, but here, the moment of catharsis is buried in a cascade of disembodied intrusive thoughts: “I’m not gonna change, I’m never gonna change,” “Don’t tell me next time/It’s the right time,” “Let me down easily,” “Hear! Me! Now!” The whole band joins in on the chaos throughout the record, as when drummer Caden Clinton and bassist Nicolette Alvarez carry on the band’s early math-rock spirit by constantly shifting the groove every other section. Clinton in particular is more kinetic than ever, his restless rim clicks and cymbal washes elevating midtempo songs like “Last Word” that threaten to retread old territory.

    These songs are noticeably darker, though not without some levity, like the way Goodwyne draws out the word “dead” (as in “over my dead body”) on the unusually 1975-like “Sorry Not Sorry.” But instead of songs about, say, subtweets, the band opts for thornier explorations of disintegrating relationships under the weight of tour life and general adulthood. Plenty of bands have sung about missing important events while on tour, but the way Goodwyne  spits lines like “For Christmas Eve, I’ll make a big plan/Then I’ll spend it in a black Dodge Caravan” on “Tinted Windows” makes those frustrations feel visceral. Just before recording, Goodwyne received an OCD diagnosis, and she’s said the lyrics on this record draw from “fixations that my OCD latches on to.” You might hear it when she blows up mundane thoughts  into full-on crises, like the deceptively laid back “Not Too Late,” where an unusually breathy performance and Clinton’s restrained groove capture the allure of an emotional affair.

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  • Trump’s Tariffs Will Crush India’s Exporters, Threatening Livelihoods – The New York Times

    1. Trump’s Tariffs Will Crush India’s Exporters, Threatening Livelihoods  The New York Times
    2. The Shocking Rift Between India and the United States: Can Progress in the Partnership Survive Trump?  Foreign Affairs
    3. As Trump splits from India, is the US abandoning its pivot to Asia?  Al Jazeera
    4. Can India Survive the Trade War?  The Diplomat – Asia-Pacific Current Affairs Magazine
    5. US tariffs impact on jobs: Nearly 3 lakh workers at risk in textiles and gems? Here’s what experts say  The Times of India

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  • Call for papers: Voice/s in the Museum – Announcements

    Call for papers: Voice/s in the Museum – Announcements

    Museums have a responsibility to tell culturally inclusive stories of art, facing both internal and external pressures in the process. How might interpretation practice address the complex expectations placed on museums today?

    We are seeking contributions exploring the role of art museum interpretation in serving audiences, artists and institutions. Possible areas of focus include:

    –Examining the current challenges involved in museum interpretation practice
    –Considering the ethical, intellectual and financial justifications for new approaches to developing texts for exhibition and displays
    –Providing case studies on emerging museum interpretation practice
    –Mapping potential methodologies

    We welcome reflections on how museums can strive for more equitable and balanced storytelling when discussing artists who have been historically excluded from mainstream art histories. We also invite contributions that consider how interpretation practices might attend to the needs of audience and to the well-being of museum staff. Further areas for consideration are:

    –The challenges of sharing interpretive authority with artists and communities
    –Presenting histories of radicalism and protest in art institutions– Approaches that centre multiple perspectives and voices, such as affinity viewings and “equity edits”
    –Moving beyond assumptions about what audiences might want or need
    –Recognising that those who shape museum narratives are themselves part of the audience

    Please send submissions via email, including your full name and affiliation, as well as those of any co-authors or contributors.

    Deadline for submissions: October 13, 2025

    Before submitting an article, we recommend reviewing past articles published in Tate Papers as well as consulting our submission guidelines. For more information on editorial policies and processes, such as peer review, see About Tate Papers.

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  • ‘Raising Her Voice was born out of frustration at seeing myself reflected nowhere in the Irish theatrical canon’ – The Irish Times

    ‘Raising Her Voice was born out of frustration at seeing myself reflected nowhere in the Irish theatrical canon’ – The Irish Times

    Part cabaret, part pop spectacle and part blistering social commentary wrapped in rhinestones, Pea Dinneen’s Dublin Fringe Festival debut is many things at once, just like its creator.

    A trans woman with a voice that’s lower than audiences might expect, a musical-theatre nerd with an anti-establishment streak, and a self-described “disenfranchised millennial hag”, Dinneen is singing her way through the contradictions of identity, politics and belonging in modern Ireland.

    But Raising Her Voice isn’t just an autobiographical show about gender: it’s also a reclamation of cultural space. “Raising Her Voice was born out of the frustration of being a cabaret singer and reluctant theatre performer who was met with a canon of work that, despite everyone telling me it was brilliant and to revere it – that the Irish canon is one of the great theatrical canons – I saw myself reflected nowhere in it,” the 34-year-old says.

    “Despite how tied to tradition our country is, no Oscar Wilde, no Seán O’Casey could have anticipated that in 2025 a trans woman would want to make declarations about the country she grew up in on stage.”

    Dinneen uses hit songs to disarm audiences who might arrive with narrow ideas of femininity, performance or Irishness. “There’s a lot of sugar in the pill,” she says. “I will take a message that this audience might not think they’re capable of digesting, but I will present it to the music of Gwen Stefani or Marina and the Diamonds, and suddenly it goes down a lot easier.

    “The show is about me singing with a deep voice as a woman. The opening number begins, they hear me sing, and then I greet them, and I say, ‘Hello, Ireland. My name is Pea Dinneen, and that’s what my voice sounds like.’ That, for me, is a very quick invitation for them to lean forward and go, ‘What else do I not know about this country? What else is going on that I’m not party to? And how is this woman going to invite me in?’”

    Raising Her Voice tracks her three visits to the National Gender Service and other key moments in her life: trying to pronounce the modh coinníollach – the Irish language’s conditional mood – as a child, or voting in the abortion referendum in 2018. These moments are connected to her generation’s experience of growing up in a boom-and-bust Ireland, and the impact that has had on identity, ambition and rage.

    “The financial crash happened when I was 18 years old,” she says. “Heading out into the world after a childhood of being told I can be anything I want, suddenly I was being told, ‘No actually, you can’t be that at all.’ It felt like a broken promise.”

    Dinneen grew up both within and outside Irish privilege. She went to a “classic south Dublin private all-boys rugby-playing school” but rarely attended. Knowing she was trans from a young age, she regarded the school’s hallmarks of privilege and exclusion as clashing with her queer identity.

    “As soon as I hit puberty, and I knew I was trans and needed to transition, I just couldn’t face going into a school that was hallmarked by the idea that our parents had all decided to pay a certain amount of money in order to remove us from certain portions of society. Leaving school at that time, I knew I no longer had to try and fit into those boxes.”

    Paradoxically, her class background offered her both alienation and safety. When she left school she was able to live with her parents. “That comfort and that time gave me the space to find myself and to find my queer expression. If I was struggling to survive financially, I probably wouldn’t have had that space.”

    She’s acutely aware of how systems of privilege shape who gets to make art. “If I go to someone who is the director of a building or arts organisation, I know how to articulate myself in a way that maybe your average transgender woman without a Leaving Cert wouldn’t know how. That level of code-switching, that knowledge of unseen social structures that you get from being brought up within them, it’s definitely helped me.”

    Dinneen is unsparing on this point about privilege, money and art, addressing the way the conventions of funding bodies often limit how radical or inclusive art can be.

    “So much ‘queer work’ at a certain level of funding isn’t queer at all: it’s populated by gym-fit, able-bodied, conventionally attractive people who happen to be gay. That’s not queer to me.”

    In opposition to these norms and limitations, the cabaret collective she founded with Aoife Sweeney O’Connor, the cult favourite Egg, was defiantly by and for queers. “We didn’t have to explain ourselves to the audience. That was the power. That was the point.”

    Dinneen says that Raising Her Voice is already breaking boundaries for trans representation on the Irish stage. “I think I’m right in saying that my show at Fringe this year will be the first time a show by a trans artist has been platformed at that scale in this country.”

    Still, pushing against the margins comes at a cost. Dinneen has been assaulted in transphobic attacks twice in the past year. She points out that despite having the second-highest GDP per capita in Europe, Ireland ranks worst in the EU for trans healthcare.

    “That contradiction tells you everything,” she says. “It’s not that most people are actively transphobic. It’s just that changing systems takes work – and I don’t think people are ready to have those conversations, let alone do the work.”

    Dinneen urges people who support trans folk to take action to show the Government that the support is there. “If you believe you don’t have any problem or prejudice against trans people, take a tiny action to prove that. Write to your TD. Ask your GP why they won’t do blood tests for trans people who are self-medicating. Small actions matter.”

    Despite the challenges and obstacles, Dinneen has hope. More importantly, she has plans. In the autumn she will premiere a second show, Cool Suburban Mam, this time at Dublin Theatre Festival.

    A comedy of manners set in a posh south Dublin school, it centres on a trans sex worker trying to navigate the social institutions she has bought her way into. “It satirises class guilt, code-switching and what happens when you can afford to belong – but still don’t,” she explains.

    Even as she ascends to prominence, Dinneen is focused on building scaffolding for others. Dinneen led the Trans­form­ing Stages devel­op­ment pro­gramme with the Out­burst queer arts fes­ti­val, the first the­atre men­tor­ship pro­gramme in Ire­land specif­i­cally for trans and nonbinary theatre makers.

    “It’s all well and good to have one trans artist who’s thriving so that everyone else can point to her and say, ‘Look, we did the work – aren’t we great?’” Dinneen says. “But if you aren’t building for the future canon, if you aren’t putting the resources in place to make sure that writers who don’t come from as privileged a background as I do have the same opportunities, then all you’re doing is endorsing a status quo.”

    Dinneen’s commitment to systemic change is clear. But so is her joy. Her recent marriage to the artist May Watson was a riot of colour, celebration and tenderness. “I never thought I’d get married,” she says. “You don’t see trans women get married in media, so I never thought it was viable. But then it just felt right.”

    She credits her marriage with giving her a kind of creative propulsion. “There’s something about being seen by another woman – being loved and supported through that – that gave me such confidence,” she says. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that my career is taking off now.”

    Pea Dinneen: Raising Her Voice is at Project Arts Centre, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, on September 6th-7th and 11th-14th. Cool Suburban Mom is at the same venue, as part of Dublin Theatre Festival, on October 3rd


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  • KIST Develops World’s First ‘High-Conductivity Amphiphilic MXene’ That Can Be Dispersed in a Wide Range of Solvents

    KIST Develops World’s First ‘High-Conductivity Amphiphilic MXene’ That Can Be Dispersed in a Wide Range of Solvents

    Newswise — Dr. Seon Joon Kim and his team at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST)’s Convergence Research Center for SEIF have developed a “high-conductivity amphiphilic MXene” material that can be dispersed in water, polar and nonpolar organic solvents. This is an achievement that fundamentally overcomes the solvent compatibility limitation that has hindered the practical use of high-conductivity MXene, and is noted as a general-purpose technology that can be widely applied to high-tech industries in the future.

    MXene, a two-dimensional nanomaterial with high electrical conductivity, excellent solvent dispersibility, and excellent EMI shielding performance, is expected to find applications in a variety of fields, including secondary batteries, advanced sensors, stealth paints, and EMI shielding films. However, so far, MXene has been mostly hydrophilic, which means that it disperses well in water but is difficult to apply in various organic solvents. This has limited their compatibility with practical processes such as polymer composites and ink processes.

    The researchers developed the world’s first surface modification technology that introduces alkoxide organic monomers to the surface of MXene, making it both hydrophilic and hydrophobic, giving it amphiphilic properties. This technique enabled MXene to be stably dispersed in a wide range of solvents, from water (with a high solvent polarity index) to toluene (with a low solvent polarity index).

    In addition, the developed amphiphilic MXene exhibited better coating properties and EMI shielding performance than conventional MXene. Inks formulated from amphiphilic MXene was uniformly coated on copper and aluminum substrates, which are widely used as collectors for secondary batteries, and also on commercial polymer substrates such as polyimide and PET, as well as on Teflon substrates, which have the highest hydrophobicity. It also maintained excellent EMI shielding performance in the 28 GHz region, a key frequency band used in next-generation communications, and exhibited shielding performance of more than 50 dB (blocking more than 99.999% of electromagnetic waves) even in a very thin film with a thickness of 0.01 mm.

    The newly developed MXene is a general-purpose technology that can be applied to EMI shielding materials for future mobility such as autonomous vehicles, manufacturing electrode materials for secondary batteries based on a solution process, and radio wave absorption composites for stealth unmanned aerial vehicles, and is expected to have a significant scalability and industrial impact.

    “This achievement is a technological milestone that proves that MXene materials can be directly applied to industrial field processes beyond lab scale,” said Dr. Seon Joon Kim at KIST. “We are currently working with domestic and foreign MXene companies to expand toward mass production-based technologies and accelerate the transition to the commercialization stage.”

     

    ###

    KIST was established in 1966 as the first government-funded research institute in Korea. KIST now strives to solve national and social challenges and secure growth engines through leading and innovative research. For more information, please visit KIST’s website at https://www.kist.re.kr/eng/index.do

    This research was supported by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIT) and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) under the KIST Institutional Program, Future Leading Convergence Research Center (CRC22031-000), and the Global Industrial Technology Cooperation Center (P0028332). The research was published in the latest issue of the international journal Advanced Materials (IF 26.8, JCR field 2.1%).


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  • Today’s Hurdle hints and answers for August 18, 2025

    Today’s Hurdle hints and answers for August 18, 2025

    If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

    There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it’ll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.

    An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.

    If you find yourself stuck at any step of today’s Hurdle, don’t worry! We have you covered.

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    Hurdle Word 1 hint

    Sky blue.

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    Hurdle Word 1 answer

    AZURE

    Hurdle Word 2 hint

    Insanely.

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    Hurdle Word 2 Answer

    MADLY

    Hurdle Word 3 hint

    A puppy.

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    Hurdle Word 3 answer

    WHELP

    Hurdle Word 4 hint

    A sticky, stretchy candy.

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    Hurdle Word 4 answer

    TAFFY

    Final Hurdle hint

    To vomit.

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    Hurdle Word 5 answer

    RALPH

    If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

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