Singapore awarded initial approvals to five energy projects in Indonesia as it aims to advance plans to import

Huawei Technologies Co. grew sales for a third straight quarter, after new businesses like cloud services and a

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 11, 2023--

Nintendo Co. hit a new high for first-quarter profit after the successful launch of its latest Legend of

TL;DR: NordPass Family is a cost-effective choice for securing your family and friends’ online lives.

MBA grads say the investment in their degree was worth it, according to a 2022 survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council, an association of graduate business schools

WILMINGTON, Mass. & SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 13, 2023--

Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla is reportedly under a federal investigation over a mysterious project that might involve the construction of a “glass house” for its chief Elon Musk. Federal authorities are probing whether the EV company’s funds were being used for Mr Musk’s own personal use, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The US attorney’s office in New York has sent subpoenas to current and former employees at Tesla, asking information about the company’s purchase of hard-to-get construction materials, and investigating whether the project involved appropriate use of the EV-maker’s funds, according to Bloomberg. The strange project appears to be for a “dramatic glass-walled building” close to Tesla’s Texas headquarters, the Journal noted. Prosecutors are also reportedly reviewing Tesla’s 2022 purchase order for a construction material – “a special kind of glass”. But a mere investigation by federal agencies does not mean there is likely any criminal or civil proceedings ahead, as officials sometimes start inquiries that can lead to dead-ends. It also remains unclear if the project is still under work, or if any construction material was ever delivered. Tesla has not immediately responded to The Independent’s request for comments. Mr Musk has previously expressed interest in building a “utopia” in Texas, constructing a whole new town from scratch on thousands of acres of farmland Tesla bought outside the state capital Austin. In March, the Tesla titan attended meetings with land owners and real estate agents, where he and his staff outlined his ideas for the project, The Independent reported. Mr Musk reportedly wants his staff around Austin – including employees at SpaceX, Tesla and the Boring Company – to be able to live in new homes for rents below market value. Local court documents filed in January also show plans to build over 100 homes near “Snailbrook” – a reference to the Boring Company mascot “Gary the Snail.” A town needs at least 201 residents and approval from a county judge to be incorporated, according to Texas law. Documents also reveal further plans to build 110 more homes in the planned town “Project Amazing”. Read More Elon Musk booed at video games contest as crowds shout: ‘Bring back Twitter!’ Meta could finally launch Threads feature everyone is waiting for Musk admits X may be doomed to fail as glitch wipes out old pictures from Twitter Elon Musk booed at video games contest as crowds shout: ‘Bring back Twitter!’ ‘San Francisco will end up like Detroit’: Why Elon Musk and tech CEOs are fighting lawsuit on homeless crisis Elon Musk’s SpaceX sued over allegations of hiring discrimination

The Mona Lisa has been the subject of awe and fascination for centuries, with experts from around the world desperate to solve the mystery behind her iconic, enigmatic smile. Now, thanks to X-ray technology, scientists have begun to uncover the secrets of Leonardo da Vinci’s legendary portrait, and explain how he was able to create something so mind-bending with just a few strokes of a brush. The research, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on Wednesday, suggests that the Italian Renaissance master may have been in a particularly inventive mood when set about crafting the piece in the early 16th century. "He was someone who loved to experiment, and each of his paintings is completely different technically," Victor Gonzalez, the study's lead author, told the Associated Press.. Gonzalez, who has studied the chemical compositions of dozens of works by Leonardo and other artists, discovered that there was something special about the paint used for the Mona Lisa. Specifically, the researchers found a rare compound, called plumbonacrite, in Leonardo's first layer of paint. The discovery confirmed that Leonardo most likely used lead oxide powder to thicken and help dry his paint as he began working on the portrait. He is thought to have dried the powder, which has an orange colour, in linseed or walnut oil by heating the mixture to make a thicker, faster-drying paste. "What you will obtain is an oil that has a very nice golden colour," Gonzalez said. "It flows more like honey." Carmen Bambach, a specialist in Italian art and curator at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, who was not involved in the study, called the research "very exciting". She emphasised that any scientifically proven new insights into Leonardo's painting techniques are "extremely important news for the art world and our larger global society." Finding plumbonacrite in the Mona Lisa attests "to Leonardo's spirit of passionate and constant experimentation as a painter—it is what renders him timeless and modern," Bambach said. The paint fragment Gonzalez and his team analysed for their study was taken from the base layer of the painting and was barely visible to the naked eye. It was no larger than the diameter of a human hair, and came from the top right-hand edge of the picture that now takes pride of place in Paris’s Louvre Museum. The scientists peered into the sample’s atomic structure using X-rays in a synchrotron – a large machine that accelerates particles to almost the speed of light. This allowed them to unravel the speck's chemical makeup and detect the plumbonacrite. The compound is a byproduct of lead oxide, allowing the researchers to say with more certainty that Leonardo likely used the powder in his paint recipe. "Plumbonacrite is really a fingerprint of his recipe," Gonzalez said. "It's the first time we can actually chemically confirm it." After Leonardo, Dutch master Rembrandt may have used a similar recipe when he was painting in the 17th century; Gonzalez and other researchers have previously found plumbonacrite in his work, too. "It tells us also that those recipes were passed on for centuries," Gonzalez said. "It was a very good recipe." Still, the ‘Mona Lisa’—said by the Louvre to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine silk merchant—and other works by Leonardo still have other secrets to tell. "There are plenty, plenty more things to discover, for sure,” Gonzalez said. “We are barely scratching the surface.” Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter 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.

TL;DR: As of September 5, get The All-in-One Microsoft Office Pro 2021 for Windows: Lifetime

Ford nears UAW deal, Meta revenue jumps on ad rebound, new House Speaker elected, and other news to start your day.

Remedy Entertainment has revealed details of the game plus mode.