A-Town Magazine
Humanoids dance and thread needles as Japanese robotics developers look to outdo Chinese
TOKYO | Mechanical hands dexterous enough to thread a needle, childlike dancing robots and adult-sized ones to help with deliveries were on display Thursday as the Humanoids Summit Tokyo opened. Among the dozens of companies taking part, including well-known players like Boston Dynamics and Toyota Motor Corp., the big stars now were clearly the Chinese. […]
Why your co-worker might be listening to music tuned to 432 hertz
NEW YORK | Yoselin Sanchez has been in chronic pain since she was born with cervical scoliosis. While little eases the discomfort, she’s found ways to distract herself from hurting. She practices yoga. She performs free flow dance. And while she works, she frequently listens to house music tuned to 432 hertz, a frequency lower […]
‘Shoot me up with a big one’: A timeline of the last days of Matthew Perry
LOS ANGELES | After a lifetime of sobriety struggles, Matthew Perry spent the last days of his life desperately seeking the ketamine that would ultimately cause his death. The 2 1/2-year investigation and prosecution that followed came to a close Wednesday with the sentencing of his personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, who bought him the drugs, […]
Some brands say their jeans are eco-friendly. Here’s how to find a pair that’s actually sustainable
NEW YORK | Your favorite pair of jeans may have traveled around the world through cotton farms, dye houses, wash facilities and factories before ending up in your closet. The denim may have never been worn but it is stonewashed, sanded, chemically faded or laser-treated to look like it. Those processes can require significant amounts […]
In ‘Pressure,’ the story of the meteorologist who helped save D-Day
D-Day was supposed to happen on June 5, 1944. The story of why it ultimately took place on June 6 is one that has been a bit lost to history, consumed by the larger events surrounding it. One day might not seem like much in the grand scheme, but it was a seismic delay in […]
Movie Review: ‘Backrooms’ goes from internet meme to the big screen
What evil lurks in the drabbest of interiors? The meme-rooted “Backrooms” is the latest movie to pull its mounting horrors out of liminal spaces. “Exit 8,” released earlier this year, was set entirely in a subway corridor. In “Backrooms,” a struggling furniture salesperson discovers beneath his store an underground labyrinth, all lined with yellow wallpapered […]
Japanese woman who scaled the world’s 14 top peaks says she wants to share joy
TOKYO | The first woman to conquer the world’s second-highest peak, K2, three times has also summited all 14 of the world’s tallest mountains. But Naoko Watanabe, 44, says climbing is less about piling up records than enjoying an adventure, being happy and experiencing new people, food and culture. She’s planning to return in June […]
A proposed additive ban could change New York’s pizza and bagels, some say for the better
NEW YORK | After more than a decade of mixing and kneading dough in his family’s Brooklyn pizzeria, Salvatore Lo Duca recently made a distressing discovery: A key component of their thin-crust pies, bromated flour, contained a suspected carcinogen already banned in much of the world. So, in the back kitchen of Lo Duca Pizza, […]
Jim Henson’s Creature Shop opens for tours. Here’s what’s inside the once-hidden puppet studio
NEW YORK | Deep in a cavernous New York City warehouse, the artisans behind some of the world’s most beloved children’s characters have been fashioning costumes and puppets for years in relative anonymity. Now Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, the workshop founded by the legendary creator of the Muppets, is drawing back the curtain. This year, […]
The trolls come indoors as a Danish recycling artist stages his first museum exhibit
ISHØJ, Denmark | For more than a decade, Danish recycling artist Thomas Dambo has scattered wooden troll sculptures around the world. He has created almost 200 in 19 countries. Now the poet and former hip-hop artist is bringing a collection of fairy tale-inspired creations in from the cold for his first museum exhibit. “The Garbage […]