Warmth, joy, and wonder. From descriptive language to physical products, concepts in light remain intrinsic to man’s emotional expression with the luminary, in its various artifactual forms, captivating global audiences through today. This year’s Euroluce – a biennial exhibition exploring the evolution of lighting design, presented as part of Salone del Mobile in Milan – saw a tremendous amount of product pushing the limits of technology, artistry, and craft. But it should come as no surprise that the most memorable displays demonstrated the ingenious applications of time-honored traditions in contemplative ways, a stark contrast to the surrounding theater.

Fresh from its debut at the international showcase, Cascade – a new lighting collection designed by the prolific British creative Lee Broom for Lladró, an artistic porcelain brand – challenges traditional ceramic craftsmanship while leveraging its makers’ material acuity to execute a contemporary vision rooted in the ritual of celebration.

Broom’s earliest inkling of a scheme concerning performance came from full immersion into the trade while visiting Lladró’s factory in the “City of Porcelain”, a small town outside of València, Spain, where artisans shepherded him through the delicate process. “In its raw state, porcelain is unpredictable, and creating precise geometric forms requires a deep knowledge of the material,” Broom shares. “This experience allowed me to push the boundaries of what was possible while maintaining the integrity of the craftsmanship, which was essential in overcoming any challenges and realizing the design I envisioned. The process has definitely expanded my perspective on materials and the possibilities of working with porcelain in new ways.”

Porcelain proves to be the latest loom with which Broom weaves the lantern’s romantic history between conceptual threads regarding opacity and transparency – in this context bound by the material prowess of Lladró’s many makers.

The fully realized collection comprises three primary porcelain pendant lamp silhouettes: two orbs in various scales with a distinct horizontal break between hemispheres; and a tubular element aligned vertically. Made to order, a fine black cord bolstered for structure links custom, cascading configurations with great intention, articulating narrative-driven connections that reference traditional lanterns often strung together. Additionally, the grouping includes a portable table lamp variation, enhancing the series’ overall versatility and decorative potential.

Broom’s theatrical sensibilities shine through in Cascade’s dual personality. When switched off, each globe presents itself as opaque, seemingly solid in a classic, pure white form. Once illuminated, the vessels come to life, reconstituted in a way that defies preconceived notions of porcelain’s performance. The fixtures’ second act is highly engineered, the result of production methods that pair a thin layer of material with multiple LED-configurations to achieve the desired luminosity.

“For me, the collection came together when I achieved exactly what I had envisioned; porcelain that appears crisp and white when unlit but transforms into a warm amber glow when illuminated,” he adds. “Much like candle lit lanterns, evoking an emotional response and bringing that sense of joy as lanterns do at commemorative events.”

Lee Broom

To stay tuned for the Cascade collection’s official store launch, visit leebroom.com and lladro.com.

Photography courtesy of Lladró.

Who remembers “prompt engineering”? Ask ChatGPT questions real good and pull down $200,000 a year!

In 2023, a Washington Post headline said: “Prompt engineers’ are being hired for their skill in getting AI systems to produce exactly what they want, and they make pretty good money.” With “no coding required”! Huge if true. [Washington Post, 2023, archive]

The Wall Street Journal also claimed you could make a bundle asking a bot questions! If you also knew data science, machine learning, and programming. [WSJ, 2023, archive]

Two years later, it turns out there are not high-paying jobs in asking bots questions good. You might think there never were. [WSJ, archive]

It “remains unclear whether companies were ever truly hiring for individually titled prompt engineers.” [Fast Company, archive]

“Prompt engineer” is out. The new titles are “AI trainer,” “AI data specialist” or “AI security specialist.” You might think those are just “trainer,” “data specialist” or “security specialist” but you also have to put up with your boss thinking the chatbot does anything.

“Prompt engineer” was a promotional claim for chatbots that no-one could verify. Every scam needs one.

The hype did not magic the jobs into existence. Because this was all part of marketing chatbots to the enterprise. They wanted companies to believe in the magic of chatbots.

But you should know by now – if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. That applies to AI just as much as any previous scam that promises you can get something for nothing.

• Video version

Ricardo Prada Vásquez, a Venezuelan man whose family says he was “disappeared” and who wasn’t included on a previously leaked government list of people sent to a notorious mega prison in El Salvador, was included on a private airline’s flight manifest to the country, according to hacked airline data obtained and analyzed by 404 Media. 

That means a private charter flight company might have more accurate information on where people are being deported than the government, experts say, and raises questions about the process being used to deport people. 

While the government initially declined to say where Prada had been sent before eventually admitting he was sent to El Salvador, the man was on a manifest for a March 15 flight held by GlobalX, one of ICE’s primary charter companies. The news also raises questions about whether other people whose families are unaware of their whereabouts may be in El Salvador too. 

“There are so many levels at which this concerns me. One is they clearly did not take enough care in this to even make sure they had the right lists of who they were removing, and who they were not sending to a prison that is a black hole in El Salvador,” Michelle Brané, executive director of Together and Free, a group that has been working with families of deported people, including Prada’s, told 404 Media. “They weren't even keeping accurate records of who they were sending there. What that says about how much due process or how much accuracy there is in the rest of the assessments of whether these people should be on those planes at all follows very closely behind that.”

Ich weiß nicht, was bei euch heute so ansteht, aber wenn es eher gelassen zugehen soll, könnte das hier der passende Sound dazu sein. Christian Löffler und Meredi haben anlässlich des Piano Day 2025 erstmalig ihre gemeinsamen Kompositionen auf die Bühne gebracht. Konkret auf die des LAB in Nantes. Arte Concert war dabei. Macht ganz in Ruhe.

Christian Löffler ist Produzent, DJ, Musiker und Gründer des Labels Ki Records in Deutschland. Er hat einen kontemplativen und akribischen Stil aus Ambient, Techno und House entwickelt. Christian Löfflers sieben Studioalben, darunter das 2024 veröffentlichte Album A Life, sind wahre Juwelen der Electronica mit subtilen Pop-Einflüssen.

Meredi (alias Ina Meredi Arakelian) ist eine deutsch-armenische Komponistin und Pianistin und beim renommierten Label Deutsche Grammophon unter Vertrag. Ihr Talent zeigt sich sowohl in ihren eigenen Werken als auch in Auftragsarbeiten für Film und Theater.

On Wednesday, The Information reported that Meta is working on facial recognition for the company’s Ray-Ban glasses. This sort of technology—combining facial recognition with a camera feed—is something that big tech including Meta has been able to technically pull off, but has previously decided to not release. There are serious, inherent risks with the idea of anyone being able to instantly know the real identity of anyone who just happens to walk past their camera feed, be that in a pair of glasses or other sort of camera. 

The move is an obvious about-face from Meta. It’s also interesting to me because Meta’s PR chewed my ass off when I dared to report in October that a pair of students took Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses and combined them with off-the-shelf facial recognition technology. That tool, which the students called I-XRAY, captured a person’s face, ran it through an easy to access facial recognition service called Pimeyes, then went a step further and pulled up information about the subject from random the web, including their home address and phone number.

When I contacted Meta for comment for that story, Dave Arnold, a spokesperson for the company, said in an email he had one question for me. “That Pimeyes facial recognition technology could be used with ANY camera, correct? In other words, this isn't something that only is possible because of Meta Ray-Bans? If so, I think that's an important point to note in the piece,” he wrote.

This is true. But entirely misses the point of why the students created the tool with Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses. They said themselves in a demonstration video they identified dozens of people without their knowledge. You do that by wearing a pair of glasses that look like any other. Meta’s Ray-Ban’s do have a light that turns on when it’s recording, but according to the new report, Meta is questioning whether new versions of its glasses need this.

I replied to Arnold spelling this out a bit. “Yes, it could theoretically work with other cameras. That being said, they didn’t stick a GoPro onto their body—which would undermine the surreptitious nature of it. They used smart glasses, which Meta makes,” I wrote.

We published the article under the headline Someone Put Facial Recognition Tech onto Meta's Smart Glasses to Instantly Dox Strangers. Arnold had an issue with that.

“I saw the article, and respectfully, I think the headline as written could be misleading to readers. It says someone ‘put facial recognition tech ONTO Meta's Smart Glasses’, which sounds like someone's hacked the device, or installed facial recognition device on the glasses themselves, when in reality, they are live-streaming from the glasses to Instagram and then they use a program to monitor the stream. I think that is an important distinction. Is it possible to update the headline to reflect the nuance here?”

I didn’t update the piece or reply because this is a distinction without any real meaning. Into the glasses, onto the glasses, with, glued to, whatever. The impact is what matters, and the project was done on Meta’s glasses.

Arnold left it at that for the time being. We then recorded a podcast episode about the students’ tool, and Arnold had some more complaints. He wanted to talk about the headline of the podcast, which was “The Smart Glasses That Dox Strangers.”

Arnold wrote:

You say in the podcast that the glasses don't have facial recognition capabilities, and you've previously acknowledged that this could be done with any camera/recording device, but a headline saying ‘smart glasses that dox strangers’ clearly makes it sound like this is an issue that is specific to the glasses, or that the facial recognition was executed on the glasses themselves vs. the reality, which is that this was all run by a program on their laptop. This is despite the fact that the students themselves have said publicly: ‘We do not want this to be a criticism of their product at all, and we just had them on hand—this could have been done on a phone camera.’ I realize we may not agree on everything here, but surely you can appreciate how headlines like this are misleading for readers.

Someone Put Facial Recognition Tech onto Meta’s Smart Glasses to Instantly Dox Strangers

The technology, which marries Meta’s smart Ray Ban glasses with the facial recognition service Pimeyes and some other tools, lets someone automatically go from face, to name, to phone number, and home address.

404 MediaJoseph Cox

No, I don’t appreciate that. I also don’t care if the students didn’t intend their project to be a criticism of Meta’s smartglasses or not. The fact is, they built a doxing tool with Meta’s glasses, tested it on multiple unsuspecting members of the public without consent, and specifically chose Meta’s glasses because they allow a user to scan a face in a stealthier manner than jamming a phone’s camera in someone’s face, for example. The intellectual dishonesty at the expense of protecting the brand at all costs here is embarrassing.

I replied: “We think the headline is fair and accurate.”

I followed up with Arnold on Thursday to ask for comment for this piece too. I asked, does his earlier stance that this is not specifically a Meta problem, but a broader one, still stand? And what was their statement on The Information report?

Arnold wrote back: “404 Media's previous reporting misleadingly implied that the students' experiment was uniquely possible with Ray-Ban Meta glasses, despite the fact that the students themselves acknowledged 'this could have been done on a phone camera.' Our objection to this still stands.”

Seit dem 1. Mai ist es in Dresden verpflichtend, für Pass- und Ausweisdokumente digitale Passbilder in den Bürgerbüros zu verwenden. Dazu können entweder die vorhandenen Fotoautomaten vor Ort genutzt werden oder man lässt ein digitales Passbild in einem Fotostudio anfertigen. Die Studios laden das Bild anschließend auf ein zentrales Portal hoch, von dem das Bürgerbüro es abrufen kann.

Seit dem 1. Mai funktioniert jedoch weder der Automat in den Bürgerbüros noch das Portal für die externen Fotografen. Ein Mitarbeiter erklärte, dass das System zum Stichtag nicht mehr zertifiziert war.

Deshalb bitten die Bürgerbüros nun darum, vorerst wieder Papierfotos mitzubringen. Eine offizielle Mitteilung per E-Mail gab es dazu aber nicht, lediglich einen kleinen Hinweis auf der Website der Stadt, sodass viele Bürger weiterhin davon ausgehen, dass sie wie bei der Terminbuchung angegeben ein digitales Passfoto vor Ort machen können. Das führt natürlich zu erheblichem Chaos.

Ihr habt es hier zuerst gehört. Bei Bürgeramtsterminen sicherheitshalber ein eigenes Passphoto mitbringen.

Update: In Potsdam ist die Situation wie in Dresden.