Latest news with #Galatea
New York Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Did She or Didn't She? She Did, and She'll Tell You Exactly How.
In Ovid's 'Pygmalion' an artist creates an ivory sculpture of a woman so beautiful that he falls in love with it. He kisses his statue, adorns it with jewels and finery, and prays to Venus for a bride just like her. Venus answers his prayer. She grants the statue life, turning ivory to flesh. Pygmalion marries his ideal creation, later known as 'Galatea.' Artists have reimagined the tale of Pygmalion (written in 8 A.D.) for centuries, in countless stories of alluring dolls or automatons who either come to life or hover between seeming fully alive and being inanimate objects, from the ballet 'Coppélia' to Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis,' the 1987 film 'Mannequin' (starring Kim Cattrall), the Spike Jonze film 'Her,' and even Greta Gerwig's 'Barbie' in 2023. In all cases though, 'aliveness' is presented as the desired option. But in our new, artificial intelligence-driven world, where human reality recedes ever further from our grasp, the Pygmalion paradigm is changing. Instead of transcending from inanimate substance to human flesh, today's Galateas go the opposite way, morphing into artists' creations and subjecting their living flesh to tinkering and inanimate substances — gleefully announcing it all on social media, itself yet another form of irreality. The mother-daughter duo of Kris and Kylie Jenner are at the forefront of this shift, ushering in a new era of beauty culture. Now not only can celebrities acknowledge plastic surgery, they might also reveal their doctors' names and even drop surgical details, essentially stamping their aesthetically altered body parts with a medicalized luxury logo. Move over Balenciaga and Chanel, the poshest labels now read 'Dr. Steven Levine' or 'Dr. Garth Fisher,' the plastic surgeons cited by the Jenners. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Business Insider
12-05-2025
- General
- Business Insider
I spent over a decade tracking my reading habits and goals. Now that I've stopped, I love books more than ever.
My past self would never believe it, but I couldn't tell you how many books I've read this year. After all, I've been hooked on reading since I was 7 years old, and for most of my life, I've kept track of all the books I've finished. It started in middle school with reading logs and journals I completed for homework. Then, I took it a step further and started keeping track of books I borrowed from the library, and later developed a reading diary. I loved that I could look back on different versions of myself and see how my reading preferences and taste in books changed over time. My love for book tracking only intensified when I discovered Goodreads in 2014. The website (and app) allowed me to more easily track my books, reviews, and reading habits from my computer or phone. Years later, I still read a lot. If I were to guess, I'd say I finish an average of 30 to 40 books a year, but I have no way of knowing the exact number because I no longer track the books I read. Tracking my reading habits made the experience less about fun and more about meeting a metric After many years of tracking the books I'd read, I began to lose some of the joy that came with reading. I became obsessed with hitting the reading goals I'd set for myself on Goodreads every January. Whenever I fell into a reading slump, I'd force myself to read books I didn't even want to read yet just to achieve an arbitrary metric. Last year, I spent a whole week trying to determine if finishing Madeline Miller's short story"Galatea" should count toward my reading goal for the year. Why did it matter so much? I was overthinking and missing the point of reading in the first place. All in all, actively tracking the books I read was making me unhappy, so I decided to stop. Ditching the metrics and goals have been freeing in many ways Of course, some of this is my fault. Setting reading goals is optional, and book tracking doesn't need to be as rigid as I'd defined it. Many people find happiness and satisfaction in all of the metrics and digital shelves, but stepping away from them has been great for me. Now, I read because I want to enjoy the content, go on adventures, and learn more about myself, not because I'm trying to achieve something. I no longer feel pressured to keep up with new books or stress over whether re-reading old favorites "counts" toward a goal — I just enjoy the hobby I'd always loved so much. I've given myself the freedom to branch out and read more than just books, too. I've expanded my interests to enjoy articles, think pieces, and poems I previously wouldn't have read because they weren't things I felt like I could easily track. Now that I've removed book tracking from my life, I don't see myself ever going back. After all, what good is reading so much if it doesn't bring me joy?
South China Morning Post
09-03-2025
- Science
- South China Morning Post
Styrofoam no match for Hong Kong robot that collects marine rubbish
Hong Kong's Clearwater Bay Golf & Country Club faced an uphill battle for years, as it tried to clean up the marine debris that washed ashore at its waterfront location in Sai Kung. Advertisement Workers had a never-ending task of gathering seaweed, large baskets and plastic. But the hardest to retrieve was styrofoam junk, because the material could disintegrate into tiny bits. Now, a robot cleaner named Galatea, is proving to be a big help. The robot, developed by Polytechnic University (PolyU) engineers, targets minuscule plastic waste. Club chairman Jack Wong Wai-kwong said: 'It has helped us save about two workers for debris clean-up. It was extremely difficult to collect small items such as styrofoam, and the robot was invented to solve the problem.' Advertisement The club turned to Chan Luen-chow, a research professor at PolyU, at the department of industrial and systems engineering, for help. The robot took two years to develop, with the device tested at the club late last year and put into full-time operation at Clear Water Bay in January. The club said it cost more than HK$1 million (US$128,700).
