Renaissance

Beyoncé is getting candid about what led to the creation of Act II: Cowboy Carter, which is a continuation of her record-breaking album Renaissance. The 2022 Grammy-winning album has long been rumored to be a part of a trilogy, with the upcoming album being the second installment. The artist announced Act II in a Super Bowl commercial and dropped two songs: “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages.” Beyoncé shared the cover art for the album on Instagram, along with a lengthy caption, celebrating the…

What first comes to mind when you hear the word “library”? Is it dusty old books, a certain nostalgic smell or perhaps the slow computers that make ungodly sounds while trying to load up websites? Luckily, for many libraries, these are all distant memories as they are equipped with the newest technologies, comfy chairs for reading a large selection of books on any topic and even fun events where people can socialize and pick up a new skill. It is no wonder that libraries are becoming the new “it” place amongst…

Beverley Knight is mid song. Joss Stone’s Super Duper Love is playing in the restaurant we’re meeting in, and I’ve caught her lost in the music. “Yeah, I’m diggin’ on you, now baby? Yeah,” she warbles at low volume, yet with all the same soul, depth and tender warmth that earned her the nickname “Little Aretha” from her noteworthy admirer: David Bowie.“It’s an automatic response for me to sing,” she says. “I hear a song and I have to join in. It’s the most natural thing in the world for me.”David Bowie with Knight –…

I love it, you love it, we all love it – let's talk about the best and worst things about every film from the Disney Renaissance. That's right – those ten sacred films from the long-lasting Disney catalog that never seemed to do any harm to anyone. While I love those movies with all my heart, I can even say that there are some flaws with these otherwise fantastic films.Let's start with the first – and probably one of the most known. (Image credit: Disney)The Little Mermaid (1989)Best Thing: It's Vibrant Colors And Music…

Simply stated: less coding and development work, and more focus on the business. We've heard this prediction many times over the past couple of decades, but AI seems to be effectively picking up the slack of heads-down programming. "The time spent doing non-value-added work to create software -- like searching through internal knowledge systems -- will be sped up through AI, so engineers can focus on more high-value tasks," says Jonny LeRoy, chief technology officer at Grainger. For example, he relates, "Grainger's…

This story originally appeared on Kotaku.It’s fair to say that Helldivers 2 is having a good week. Beating GTA V’s concurrent Steam players records, the extraction shooter is outdoing everyone’s expectations, including its own, and it seems this success is spilling over. Because if there’s one source that Helldivers owes the most to, it’s Starship Troopers, and it seems the 1997 film is having its own renaissance. Here’s why you should watch it too.Denis Villeneuve Had a Blast Building the Dune LegoAs highlighted by…

As this year’s Super Bowl dies down, the hype for new titles from the 2024 movie schedule is starting to heat up. Though they may not be as prolific as they once were, trailers for films like Deadpool & Wolverine and Twisters were still on hand to get the hype engines revved up. In the case of the latter Universal legacy-quel, that hype sees a long awaited sequel finally taking shape; but it also could mean a renaissance for the works of best-selling author Michael Crichton. The upcoming Jurassic World follow-up…

As Teslas and other electric vehicles dazzled car buyers with futuristic technology and dreams of a gasoline-free future, hybrid cars began to seem like yesterday’s news. Sales of the Toyota Prius, the standard-bearer for hybrids, fell 85% over a decade. Now, a slowdown in the growth of electric-car sales has led General Motors, Ford Motor and Volkswagen to walk back ambitious targets for those vehicles. And sales of hybrids are robust, underscoring what may be the enduring reality check of 2023: Many Americans are hugely…

Y Combinator is putting hard tech in the spotlight. On Wednesday, the accelerator released an updated list of ideas it would like to see in applications — with categories like space, manufacturing and defense featured prominently. YC has backed plenty of hard tech startups before. Launch companies Stoke Space and Relativity Space and satellite broadband provider Astranis are among its alumnus. The accelerator’s biggest exit is still General Motors’ $1 billion purchase of autonomous vehicle company Cruise Automation…

Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney star in Sony's "Anyone But You."SonyReleased just before the crowded Christmas movie season, Sony's "Anyone But You" seemed destined to be anything but a box-office hit — especially after it tallied just $6 million in ticket sales during its opening weekend.However, the film's box-office success was as much of a slow burn as the romance between its main characters played by rising stars Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney.In the seven weeks since, the romantic comedy has tallied $170 million…