The pattern is named after the European dance craze, but what exactly the dots have to do with polka is a bit of a mystery.

Animatronic versions of bar patrons Norm and Cliff made two actors named George and John very unhappy.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 10, 2023--

A group of electric utilities and producers is throwing its support behind the Biden administration’s plan for throttling

Musician Robbie Robertson, who died this week, is remembered by Scott Bauer of The Associated Press for the impact he had on his lifelong love of The Band and its music

Google and Universal Music Group (UMG) are reportedly working on a partnership to license artists'

Taylor Swift capped off her sixth and final "Eras Tour" concert at Los Angeles's SoFi Stadium on Wednesday with a big announcement that Swifties had been speculating about for weeks.

Victoria’s Secret has launched a new campaign, which brings back models from the lingerie brand’s once-iconic “Angels” list alongside some newer faces. Launching its new The Icon by Victoria’s Secret collection on Thursday (10 August), the brand has also been teasing its film-style fashion show, the Victoria’s Secret World Tour, which will stream on Prime Video on 26 September. The campaign is part of the company’s major rebrand, after it was criticised for promoting unrealistic body image with its non-inclusive culture and accused of failing to protect its models against sexual misconduct. In response to the criticism, Victoria’s Secret got rid of its “Angels” team in 2021 and replaced it with the “VS Collective”, a group of seven successful women. The “Angels” were a ever-growing group of some of the most famous and in-demand models of the time, and included the likes of Tyra Banks, Rosie Huntington-Whitley, Chanel Iman, Heidi Klum, Lily Aldridge and more. As the brand strives to improve ethnic and body diversity among its models, it chose seven successful women to be part of the collective, not all of them fashion models. It includes models Adut Akech and Paloma Elsesser – who both feature in the new campaign – as well as journalist Amanda de Cadenet, athlete Eileen Gu, professional footballer Megan Rapinoe, actor Priyanka Chopra Jones, and model Valentina Sampaio. Victoria’s Secret released a black-and-white promotional video for its latest campaign on social media, revealing all the famous faces who are participating. Here are all the models in Victoria’s Secret new Icons campaign: Naomi Campbell While Naomi Campbell was a frequent face on Victoria’s Secret’s legendary fashion shows, she was never an Angel. As reported by People in 2020, the supermodel told The Sun that the brand “could not afford” her. Gisele Bundchen Gisele Bundchen became an Angel in 1999. She walked her last Victoria’s Secret Runway Show in 2005. Candice Swanepoel The South African model became an Angel in 2010. She has also previously been on the cover of the brand’s Swim Catalogue and donned the US$10m “Fantasy Bra” on the runway in 2013. Adriana Lima Adriana Lima was an Angel for nearly two decades before she hung up her wings in 2018. The year before she ended her time as an Angel, the Brazilian model was named “the most valuable Victoria’s Secret Angel”. Adut Akech Victoria’s Secret announced that Adut Akech had joined its family in June 2022. At the time, the South Sudanese and Australian model said on Instagram: “To be working alongside this brand that is continuing to transform to being a brand that advocates for all women, telling our stories and making the real positive changes that it should’ve done a while ago.” Emily Ratajkowski Emily Ratajkowski has previously modelled on Victoria’s Secret runways. Throughout her career, she has appeared on numerous magazine covers, including Vogue Australia and Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issues, and has strutted down the runway for Marc Jacobs, Miu Miu, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, and other designers. Hailey Bieber Influencer Hailey Bieber joined the VS Collective in 2021, although she has never walked a Victoria’s Secret show before. She wrote at the time: “I’m humbled to be in the company of these amazing women, many of whom have inspired me in countless ways with their own stories. I look forward to helping to create positive change as part of the VS collective.” Sui He Chinese model Sui He was the first East Asian model to open a Ralph Lauren show and only the second model of Chinese descent to walk Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Paloma Elsesser One of the “founding members” of the VS Collective, Paloma Elsesser describes herself as a “mixed Black fem in a size 14 body”. Speaking to the New York Times after she joined the group, Elsesser said it gave her a platform to “make radical change” and is lobbying for the brand to increase its sizing to XXXXXL. Read More Fake meat is dying, but that shouldn’t mean the end of veganism Lil Tay: Mystery surrounds ‘death’ of 14-year-old Canadian influencer Woman behind ‘not real’ plane tirade identified as marketing executive with $2m home Government urged to remove VAT from period pants How to get the ‘quiet luxury’ look on the high street Rihanna breastfeeds baby RZA as she launches Savage X Fenty maternity wear

Scientists have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can classify four subtypes of Parkinson’s disease with up to 95% accuracy. Researchers from the Francis Crick Institute and the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology in London “trained” a computer program to recognise the subtypes of the condition using images of stem cells from patients. The team said their work, published in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence, could pave the way for personalised medicine and targeted drug discovery. Sonia Gandhi, assistant research director and group leader of the Neurodegeneration Biology Laboratory at the Crick, said: “We understand many of the processes that are causing Parkinson’s in people’s brains. The hope is that one day this could lead to fundamental changes in how we deliver personalised medicine Sonia Gandhi, Francis Crick Institute “But, while they are alive, we have no way of knowing which mechanism is happening, and therefore can’t give precise treatments. “We don’t currently have treatments which make a huge difference in the progression of Parkinson’s disease. “Using a model of the patient’s own neurons, and combining this with large numbers of images, we generated an algorithm to classify certain subtypes – a powerful approach that could open the door to identifying disease subtypes in life. “Taking this one step further, our platform would allow us to first test drugs in stem cell models, and predict whether a patient’s brain cells would be likely to respond to a drug, before enrolling into clinical trials. “The hope is that one day this could lead to fundamental changes in how we deliver personalised medicine.” Parkinson’s is a condition in which parts of the brain become progressively damaged over many years. Symptoms include involuntary shaking of particular parts of the body, slow movement, and stiff and inflexible muscles. But there is also a wide range of other physical and psychological symptoms such as depression and anxiety, problems sleeping, and memory problems. These vary from person to person due to differences in the underlying mechanisms causing the disease. The researchers said that until now, there was no way to accurately differentiate Parkinson’s subtypes. It means people are given nonspecific diagnoses and do not always have access to targeted treatments, support or care, the team added. For the study, the researchers generated stem cells, which have the ability to develop into specialised cell types in the body, from patients’ own cells. The team then used those cells to chemically create four different subtypes of Parkinson’s: two involving pathways leading to toxic build-up of a protein called alpha-synuclein and two involving pathways associated with dysfunctional mitochondria, the cell’s battery packs. Working with the British technology company Faculty AI, the team developed machine-learning algorithms which were able to accurately predict the Parkinson’s subtype when presented with images it had not seen before. James Evans, a PhD student at the Crick and UCL, and first co-author of the study, said: “Now that we use more advanced image techniques, we generate vast quantities of data, much of which is discarded when we manually select a few features of interest. “Using AI in this study enabled us to evaluate a larger number of cell features, and assess the importance of these features in discerning (the) disease subtype. “Using deep learning, we were able to extract much more information from our images than with conventional image analysis. “We now hope to expand this approach to understand how these cellular mechanisms contribute to other subtypes of Parkinson’s.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Oxford scientists find no evidence to suggest Facebook not good for wellbeing Many adults would struggle to understand video-sharing platforms’ rules – Ofcom Ozzy Osbourne PlayStation tweet which failed to reveal link to Sony banned

Taylor Swift closed the 2023 U_S_ leg of her landmark Eras Tour in Los Angeles in a big way by announcing the fourth edition of her re-recording project: “1989 (Taylor’s Version).”

Taylor Swift announced last night that 1989 (Taylor's Version) is coming later this year - and Swifties correctly predicted the singer would share this news on this day (August 9) The pop star shared the exciting update with her fans during her last Los Angeles show after playing at the SoFi Stadium for six nights, concluding the US leg of The Eras Tour. "And so now, here we are on the last night of the U.S. leg of The Eras Tour in the eighth month of the year on the ninth day," she said, with the 8/9 alluding to the album title. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter "You might have noticed there are some new outfits in the show. "There's something that I've been planning for a really, really, really ridiculously, embarrassingly long time, and instead of telling you about it, I think I'll just sort of show you," she added as the album cover appeared on the big screen with the October 27 release date. Swifties are of course thrilled at the news, but many in the dedicated fanbase saw this announcement coming with many accurately predicting it would happen on 8/9. "So we all know the tour ends on August 9, 8/9, 89 but I was sitting here curious, how many active weeks of tour would that be or like weeks she's had shows or weekends which would also be the number of she would've played on the whole tour," @amberpunkrose said. @amberpunkrose My sanity is gone #taylorswift #greenscreen #1989 #swiftie #taylorsversion ##erastour##tour##1989taylorsversion ##eastereggs After counting four times, she realised the answer was 19 - "She's ending the tour on 19-8/9, 1989," the TikToker concluded in the video posted last month. A viral TikTok by @swakbeauty asked "Is 1989 TV being announced on 8/9? She [Swift] almost let her out!" as a recent clip from The Eras Tour played of Swift singing 'Look What You Made Me Do' while dancers are dressed in her previous eras stuck in glass boxes. @swakbeauty Will 8/9 be the lucky day? 🔮 #1989taylorsversion #LATSTheErasTour #lookwhatyoumademedo #latstheerastour #tstheerastour #taylorswift #erastour #latserastour #losangeles #sofistadium The clip referred to Swift almost releasing the dancer in the outfit from the 1989 era, teasing the new re-recording. There were also rumours circulating about Starbucks receiving a 1989 (Taylor's Version) playlist this week to play in stores, as @jessicagolich explained sharing a tip from celebrity gossip account DeuxMoi which suggested some news about the re-recording was coming soon. @jessicagolich #greenscreen Rumors are swirling that 8/9 is the day for 1989 TV announcement 👀☕️🍵 #starbucksplaylisttaylorswift #taylorswift1989tv #1989taylorsversion #taylorsversion1989 #swiftienews #taylorswiftnews #sofinight4 #tstheerastourlosangeles While another eagle-eyed fan @alexantonides noticed that Swift had an Instagram post scheduled, believing it to be the album announcement. @alexantonides I am freaking out #1989taylorsversion #fyp #swifttok #tstheerastour #latstheerastour #1989 @Taylor Swift So it looks like Swifties were spot on with their prediction. This new 1989 (Taylor's Version) re-recording comes after Swift released Fearless (Taylor's Version) in April 2021, followed by Red (Taylor's Version) in November 2021, and most recently Speak Now (Taylor's Version) on July 7 this year. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

A conlang is a constructed language, where someone has intentionally created its grammar, vocabulary, and phonology. Here are five you can learn.