Category: Новини

A fully autonomous ship named for the Mayflower, the ship that sailed to what is now the eastern U.S. state of Massachusetts, left Plymouth Harbor in southwestern Britain Tuesday to retrace the original’s 5,000-kilometer voyage.If successful, the 15-meter Mayflower 400 would be the largest autonomous vessel to cross the Atlantic. The $1.3 million ship was built by a nonprofit marine research organization named ProMare in partnership with the computer-tech giant IBM. It is powered by a combination of wind and solar energy, with a back-up diesel generator.ProMare co-founder and project director Brett Phaneuf said the ship is designed to test a variety of different technologies, as well as research the ocean. Computing and artificial intelligence systems supplied by IBM — and more commonly used by financial services firms — help it make decisions at sea without human help.  Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 7 MB480p | 10 MB540p | 13 MB720p | 31 MB1080p | 54 MBOriginal | 129 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioA New Mayflower: Fully Autonomous Ship Takes to the SeasA range of equipment including cameras and radar allow the craft to sense the world around it and detect hazards. The vessel is also loaded with instruments to measure ocean health, including a “tongue” to taste seawater chemicals, and an acoustic payload to listen for whales and dolphins.Phaneuf, who originally built submarines and has extensive experience with robotics and underwater systems, told The Associated Press he sees practical applications for the technology used in the Mayflower 400.  “I think you’ll start seeing it in short hauls, water taxis and ferries, where you can reduce the crew and increase the safety, and maybe get to a point in a few years where they’re just fully autonomous systems,” he said.The ship was launched and christened last September, 400 years to the day after the original Mayflower left Plymouth carrying settlers, who became known as Pilgrims.The team behind the Mayflower 400 say the ship’s journey should take about two weeks. It is hoping to end up in Provincetown, on the tip of Cape Cod, the original Mayflower’s 1620 landing point.
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Sexual and gender minorities continue to suffer discrimination and harassment around the world. But in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, some transgender women are finding solace in religious teachings, as reported by VOA’s Rendy Wicaksana.Camera: Rendy Wicaksana 
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An Argentine prosecutor began hearing evidence on Monday involving seven people accused of contributing to the death of soccer player Diego Maradona. Maradona, the revered former Boca Juniors and Napoli star who was addicted to alcohol and drugs for many years, died Nov. 25, 2020, from heart failure at age 60 after undergoing brain surgery earlier that month.   A medical board formally appointed to investigate Maradona’s death concluded that several members of the star’s medical team acted in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless manner” and that he was not properly monitored before he died. Monday’s pretrial hearing had been delayed by an increase in coronavirus infections in Argentina. It began with questions to the nurse who, according to his own witness statement, was the last person to see Maradona alive. Questions will be put in the coming days to Maradona’s doctor, psychologist, neurosurgeon and personal physician, among others.   When the medical board’s report was presented to prosecutors in May, it accused the defendants of carrying out a plan with a “criminal purpose” and as part of a deficient care system around Maradona that contributed to his death.   If found guilty, all seven could face between eight and 25 years in prison. 
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Olympic champion Ryan Lochte failed to advance from the preliminaries of the 200-meter freestyle on Monday, his first event of the U.S. Olympic swimming trials.The 36-year-old Lochte, attempting to make his fifth Olympic team, posted a time of 1 minute, 49.23 seconds — only good enough for 25th place overall.The top 16 advanced to the evening semifinals, led by Kieran Smith at 1:46.54. Caeleb Dressel was second in 1:46.63.Smith won the 400 free on Sunday to earn his first trip to the Olympics.Lochte was set to swim another preliminary Monday morning, the 100 backstroke. He initially entered six events at the trials but scratched the 400 individual medley on Sunday.Lochte has won 12 Olympic medals, including six golds. Now married with two children, he hopes to make it to one more Olympics to erase the stigma of an incident at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, where he lied about being robbed at gunpoint.  
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The Westminster Dog Show crowned a Pekingese named Wasabi its “Best in Show” Sunday, in the culmination of a reworked pandemic edition of the competition missing its usual pooch-loving crowds.
 
Normally held in February, the show was delayed and moved from its home in the heart of New York City to a country estate due to Covid-19.
 
Spectators were kept away, and it was the show’s first time being held outside Manhattan, but the singular passion of the event, now in its 145th year, was unchanged: dogs.  
 
Three-year-old Wasabi was crowned best in show from a pack of seven group winners which also included Mathew, a French bulldog; Connor, an Old English sheepdog; and Striker, a Samoyed.
 
Bourbon the whippet came in second.
 
Speaking a day earlier when Wasabi won the toy group, his owner and handler David Fitzpatrick — who also won “Best in Show” in 2012 — lauded his pooch’s “charisma, movement and showmanship.”
 
“He’s in his prime and he just looks wonderful,” he added.
 
The event, an annual celebration of purebred dogs from across the spectrum in size, shape and fur types, brought together over 2,000 candidates from more than 200 breeds.
 
Dogs are judged based on how well they stack up against breed characteristics as set by the American Kennel Club.
 
Breeds are assessed not just in terms of how they move, but whether their facial expressions show what is deemed proper vigilance or merriment.
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For 14 years, a Khmer classical dance troupe in northern Cambodia has distinguished itself with its embrace of spirituality. But the impact of the coronavirus pandemic may end the troupe’s livelihood and spiritual identity, as VOA’s Chetra Chap reports.
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Ned Beatty, the indelible character actor whose first film role as a genial vacationer raped by a backwoodsman in 1972’s “Deliverance” launched him on a long, prolific and accomplished career, has died. He was 83.Beatty’s manager, Deborah Miller, said Beatty died Sunday of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles surrounded by friends and loved ones.After years in regional theater, Beatty was cast in “Deliverance” as Bobby Trippe, the happy-go-lucky member of a male river-boating party terrorized by backwoods thugs. The scene in which Trippe is brutalized became the most memorable in the movie and established Beatty as an actor whose name moviegoers may not have known but whose face they always recognized.“For people like me, there’s a lot of ‘I know you! I know you! What have I seen you in?’” Beatty remarked without rancor in 1992.Beatty received only one Oscar nomination, as supporting actor for his role as corporate executive Arthur Jensen in 1976′s “Network,” but he contributed to some of the most popular movies of his time and worked constantly, his credits including more than 150 movies and TV shows.Beatty’s appearance in “Network,” scripted by Paddy Chayefsky an directed by Sidney Lumet, was brief but titanic. His three-minute monologue ranks among the greatest in movies. Jensen summons anchorman Howard Beale (Peter Finch) to a long, dimly lit boardroom for a come-to-Jesus about the elemental powers of media.“You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won’t have it!” Beatty shouts from across the boardroom before explaining that there is no America, no democracy. “There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.”He was equally memorable as Otis, the idiot henchman of villainous Lex Luthor in the first two Christopher Reeve “Superman” movies and as the racist sheriff in “White Lightning.” Other films included “All The President’s Men,” “The Front Page,” “Nashville,” and “The Big Easy.” In a 1977 interview, he had explained why he preferred being a supporting actor.“Stars never want to throw the audience a curveball, but my great joy is throwing curveballs,” he said. “Being a star cuts down on your effectiveness as an actor because you become an identifiable part of a product and somewhat predictable. You have to mind your P’s and Q’s and nurture your fans. But I like to surprise the audience, to do the unexpected.”He landed a rare leading role in the Irish film “Hear My Song” in 1991. The true story of legendary Irish tenor Josef Locke, who disappeared at the height of a brilliant career, it was well reviewed but largely unseen in the United States. Between movies, Beatty worked often in TV and theater. He had recurring roles in “Roseanne” as John Goodman’s father and as a detective on “Homicide: Life on the Streets.”On Broadway he won critical praise (and a Drama Desk Award) for his portrayal of Big Daddy in a revival of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” a role he had first played as a 21-year-old in a stock company production. He created controversy, however, when he was quoted in The New York Times on the skills of his young co-stars, Ashley Judd and Jason Patric.“Ashley is a sweetie,” he said, “and yet she doesn’t have a lot of tools.” Of Patric, he remarked: “He’s gotten better all the time, but his is a different journey.” His more recent movies included “Toy Story 3” in 2010 and two releases from 2013, “The Big Ask” and “Baggage Claim.” He retired soon after.Ned Thomas Beatty was born in 1937 in Louisville, Kentucky, and raised in Lexington, where he joined the Protestant Disciples of Christ Christian Church. “It was the theater I attended as a kid,” he told The Associated Press in 1992. “It was where people got down to their truest emotions and talked about things they didn’t talk about in everyday life. … The preaching was very often theatrical.” For a time he thought of becoming a priest, but changed his mind after he was cast in a high school production of “Harvey.”He spent 10 summers at the Barter Theater in Abingdon, Virginia, and eight years at the Arena Stage Company in Washington, D.C. At the Arena Stage, he appeared in Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” and starred in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman.” Then his life changed forever when he took a train to New York to audition for director John Boorman for the role of Bobby Trippe. Boorman told him the role was cast, but changed his mind after seeing Beatty audition.Beatty, who married Sandra Johnson in 1999, had eight children from three previous marriages.
 
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Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic defeated Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas Sunday in the French Open final, clinching his 19th Grand Slam win 6-7, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
 
“I want to thank my team, my box, my family, my coach,” Djokovic said after his win, acknowledging that while the game was “physically and mentally very difficult” he knew he was capable of the win.
 
The five-set match lasted four hours and 11 minutes, as the 34-year-old Djokovic made a comeback from losing the first two sets, in what he called an “electric ambiance” after the match.
 
Sunday marked the first time the 22-year-old Tsitsipas had made it to a Grand Slam final.
 
Djokovic, currently ranked the No. 1 male player in the world, defeated “King of Clay” Rafael Nadal in the semifinals last week.
 
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