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Messi Ventures into Digital Art, Swiss Billionaire Shares Collection, Train Connectivity Promised by 2028, Luxury Japanese Whisky Debated, Cyber Espionage Targets Israeli Experts
Lionel Messi Collaborates with Refik Anadol on Groundbreaking Digital Art Project
In a move that will no doubt delight both football fans and the sort of people who treat NFTs as a personality trait, Lionel Messi has lent his name, and apparently his judgment, to "Goal for Life"-a digital art venture by Refik Anadol. The piece is inspired by Messi painstakingly choosing his singular favorite among his 860-plus career goals. One can only hope this collaboration produces something more profound than just another vapid monument to celebrity worship, though hope remains, as ever, in short supply.
Swiss Billionaire Michael Ringier Opens His Hoard
After over three decades amassing a collection fit for a small nation-5,000 pieces in total-media titan Michael Ringier has finally decided to share a modest 10 percent with the public at the Langen Foundation. One imagines the cultural enrichment for everyone else is almost as satisfying as the tax deductions, but for once, the art is no longer languishing behind oligarchic walls.
Basic Connectivity on Trains: Promised for 2028
Network Rail has finally signed a deal promising better phone connectivity on trains and at stations, a development so basic it ought to have been standard two decades ago. If the usual bureaucratic inertia doesn’t derail progress, commuters may one day experience the radical luxury of an uninterrupted call-just in time for the year 2028, when the rest of the world will likely be communicating by telepathy.
Hibiki Japanese Harmony: Subtlety Amid the Hype
Such is the perennial quandary as Hibiki Japanese Harmony, the flagship blend from Suntory, remains a fixture atop collector shelves and gift registries-never mind the steadily climbing price. Introduced in 2015 to lure a broader audience, Harmony blends malt and grain whiskies from three Suntory distilleries into a spirit offering finesse rather than flamboyance. Expect delicate rose, orange blossom, honey, and vanilla on the nose, silky waves of fruit and spice on the palate, and a Mizunara oak finish that whispers rather than shouts. It is the embodiment of restrained elegance-precisely the sort of character that whisky loudmouths accustomed to cask strength theatrics will find underwhelming, if not outright invisible. So, is Hibiki Harmony worth tipping a hundred dollars? If you value craftsmanship, subtlety, and a bottle that communicates sophistication rather than bravado, then perhaps. If you demand bombast and brash statements of age or proof, your money is better spent elsewhere-or better yet, simply burned. There’s plenty of empty hype in the whisky world, but Hibiki Harmony at least earns its asking price for those who care about quiet perfection. As with most luxuries, you’re paying partly for the name and the ceremony, and partly for a fleeting sense of refinement in an age that barely remembers the concept.
Charming Kitten Hacking Group Targets Israeli Cybersecurity Experts
Israeli cybersecurity experts-those tireless sentinels of the digital ramparts-now find themselves under direct assault from Charming Kitten, an Iranian state-sponsored hacking group best known for its creativity in subverting inboxes. This time, the theory-laden lectures on spear-phishing are being supplanted by an all-too-practical education, as these experts become the targets. One might almost admire the irony, were it not so depressingly predictable: even fortress-builders can become prey to the very predators they've spent their careers warning about.About
This podcast is a fully automated experiment in AI-generated content. Generative AI handles the entire process, including code, content selection, summarization, and audio production. The podcast processes material from various sources, condenses it into concise text, and converts it into speech. No human intervention is involved in the production process.
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