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People visit the "meowseum", a privately funded cat museum and cafe where some 30 friendly felines roam freely throughout the exhibition space, in Tehran.

Purrfect for Persians: Tehran's 'meowseum'

Lifestyle

Sprawled nonchalantly across the doorstep, a large tomcat welcomes visitors to Tehran's cat museum and cafe, a curious establishment where some 30 friendly felines roam freely throughout the exhibition space.

Shahrzad, Farrokh, Shapoor and Shirin are among the real stars of this attraction in a small two-storey building in the centre of the Iranian capital.

Director Hossein HamlehDari says that when it first opened in 2020 it was named the "meowseum".

It is a place where visitors and cats coexist peacefully in the exhibition rooms and on the cafe terrace.

Jade Fadojutimi's 'And willingly imprinting the memory of my mistakes, 2023' is another of the 41 works

Not dead yet: abstract art alive and kicking at London's Gagosian

Lifestyle

London, United Kingdom - London's Gagosian gallery is hosting a major new exhibition of abstract art, bringing together the playful use of textures by young artists and traditional work of veterans in the field.

"Abstract painting is a term that we've been trying to define for over 100 years and there is no consensus," curator Gary Garrels told AFP on Thursday at the opening of the show, which runs until August 25.

"For me, abstract painting is painting that is having an internal conversation where the issues of the painting itself -- colour, surface, texture, materials, scale -- are the primary parts of the conversation that's not referring to something outside the painting, that's somehow descriptive."

Garrels spent 18 months visiting the studios of "three generations" of artists to bring together 41 recent paintings for the exhibition -- "To Bend the Ear of the Outer World"

Some are from well-known artists, others are by virtual unknowns.

The overall aim is to take the pulse of a movement that has sometimes been seen as a dying art form.

But Garrels insisted: "It's far from being dead. It's very much alive. We have another good century ahead of us. Incredible range, richness and diversity."

To demonstrate that abstract art is very much alive, the show opens with contrasting paintings by two European artists of the same age.

One -- "It's not yesterday anymore" (2022) -- is by British painter Cecily Brown's explosion of harsh brushstrokes and colours.

The other -- "Emko" (2023) -- by Germany's Tomma Abts, is small, precise, monochromatic and geometrical.

Each painting is displayed on its own, on a large white wall, to highlight each artist's individuality.

- 'No movement' -

The rooms of the Gagosian gallery are organised according to links between the painters, whether temporal, geographical or stylistic.

Veteran German painter Gerhard Richter's richly variegated "Abstraktes Bild" (2017) is coupled with the minimalist "Rivers (2020-21) by American artist Brice Marden and the organic fluidity of Pat Steir's "Rainbow Waterfall #6".

"They began their serious, mature work and were recognised in the 1960s but have continued to make great painting," said Garrels.

At the other end of the scale, Columbia's Oscar Murillo's "Manifestation" (2020-22) combines conventional oil paint with oil stick, graphite and spray paint on canvas and linen.

Its dramatic thick dark strokes contrast with the lightness and luminosity of "Untitled" (2022) by the young American Ryan Sullivan.

With Sullivan's use of moulded cast urethane resin, fibreglass and epoxy, both have free reign in their use of textures.

Garrels says "there's no movement" in abstract painting.

"It's not like we have abstract expressionism or colour field painting. We have individual artists pursuing their own visions," he added.

For some, the medium is all about the expressiveness of the stroke, while others focus on "quiet" art based on pure, almost homogeneous surfaces, with few tonal nuances.

Many of these artists have friendships that, according to Garrels, are reflected in the dialogue between their works.

American artist Jacqueline Humphries and US-based German artist Charline von Heyl for example share a taste for indirect painting, mediated by screens or other tools.

That gives their work an elusive character that is difficult to take in.

The exhibition mainly features German, American and British artists.

Murillo, who was born in the city of La Paila, has dual Colombian-British nationality. He emigrated to the UK with his family, and trained and now lives in London.

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Spanish chef Ferran Adria poses in the former El Bulli restaurant transformed into 'elBulli1846' Museum, in Roses, near Barcelona on May 24, 2023. Before it closed its doors over a a decade ago, Spain's elBulli was repeatedly voted the best restaurant in the world for its wildly experimental dishes. Now ground-breaking chef Ferran Adria is set to reopen his former eatery located in an isolated cove on Spain's far northeastern tip -- this time as a museum.

'World's best restaurant' to reopen in Spain as museum

Business

ROSES, Spain — Spain’s elBulli, repeatedly voted the world’s best restaurant before it closed over a decade ago, is set to reopen as a museum dedicated to the culinary revolution it sparked.

Nestled in an isolated cove on Spain’s northeastern tip, the museum is dubbed “elBulli1846” — a reference to the 1,846 dishes ground-breaking chef Ferran Adria says were developed at the eatery.

“It’s not about coming here to eat, but to understand what happened in elBulli,” the 61-year-old told AFP near the kitchen of the restaurant he ran for over two decades.

The museum will open on June 15, nearly 12 years after the restaurant served its final dish to the public.

Visitors will be able to see hundreds of photos, notebooks, trophies and models made of plastic or wax that emulate some of the innovative dishes which were served at the eatery.

Adria pioneered the culinary trend known as molecular gastronomy, which deconstructs ingredients and recombines them in unexpected ways.

The results are foods with surprising combinations and textures, such as fruit foams, gazpacho popsicles and caramelised quails.

Under Adria’s watch elBulli achieved the coveted Michelin three-star status and was rated the world’s best restaurant a record five times by British magazine The Restaurant.

“What we did here was find the limits of what can be done in a gastronomic experience,” Adria said.

“What are the physical, mental and even spiritual limits that humans have. And that search paved paths for others.”

– ‘Passion for cuisine’ –
Some of the world’s most famous chefs were trained by Adria at elBulli, including Denmark’s Rene Redzepi of Noma and Italy’s Massimo Bottura of Osteria Francescana.

A foundation set up to maintain elBulli’s legacy invested 11 million euros ($11.8 million) in the museum.

Plans to expand the building on the idyllic Cala Montjoi cove near the towns of Roses had to be adjusted after they ran into opposition form environmentalists.

Adria headed to the white-walled restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean in 1983 for a one month internship on the recommendation of a friend.

He was invited to join the restaurant’s staff as a line cook the following year, and became its solo head chef in 1987.

Adria bought the restaurant in 1990 with his business partner Juli Soler, who passed away in 2015.

“The most important thing that happened to me at elBulli is that I discovered for the first time passion for cuisine,” he said.

“At the table, when the staff ate together, we did not talk about football, or our weekends, we talked about cuisine.”

– ‘Right to close’ –
The restaurant opened usually just six months of the year to give Adria and his staff time to conceive new dishes.

The meal consisted of a set menu comprising dozens of small dishes which cost around 325 euros, including a drink, when the restaurant closed in 2011.

A team of 70 people prepared the meals for the 50 guests who managed to get a reservation.

Adria said he accepted that his culinary innovations did not please everyone.

“In the end they are new things and it’s a shock after the other, it is normal that it makes you reflect on what you like,” he said.

In the final years of the restaurant, demand for reservations was so high that Adria allocated seats mostly through a lottery.

When Adria decided to close the restaurant, he justified the move saying it “had become a monster”.

“I was very certain that we were right to close. We had reached what we felt was a satisfactory experience at the maximum level,” Adria told AFP.

“And once we reached it we said ‘why do we have to continue?’. The mission of elBulli was not this, it was finding the limits,” he added.

Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, co-founder of fintech firm Flutterwave and training platform Andela, poses for a portrait at Victoria-Island, Lagos Nigeria on June 6, 2023. Iyinoluwa Aboyeji might not have the personal wealth of Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg, but his level of success as an African entrepreneur bears comparison with any Silicon Valley tech titan. While still in his twenties, the Nigerian co-founded two "unicorns", an industry term for companies that achieve a valuation of more than $1 billion. By most counts, Africa has produced only seven unicorns compared with more than 700 in the United States.

African space tech? Don't rule it out, says Nigeria's startup king

Innovations

Iyinoluwa Aboyeji might not have the personal wealth of Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg, but his level of success as an African entrepreneur bears comparison with any Silicon Valley tech titan.

While still in his twenties, the Nigerian co-founded two "unicorns", an industry term for companies that achieve a valuation of more than $1 billion (R18.9 billion).

By most counts, Africa has produced only seven unicorns compared with more than 700 in the United States.

Aboyeji, who has many of the trappings of a global tech boss - he is often known simply as "E" and he wants to build a city devoted to tech - says African

entrepreneurs should have big ambitions.

But they cannot simply copy-paste from the playbooks of Zuckerberg or Musk.

"We admire these guys, they're inspirations," he told AFP over the phone from an investor conference in the United States.

"But when we're looking for a path we don't look to them because they've got a completely different reality from ours. You've got to find your own way."

Now 32, Aboyeji now spends much of his time funding startups, having left his posts in both of his unicorns - fintech firm Flutterwave and training platform Andela, which counted Zuckerberg as an investor.

"Now I'm the coach, I take a backseat," he said with a laugh. "I had my time in the spotlight, I played well."

His Future Africa firm, one of the continent's biggest startup funds, is preparing to launch a new round of investing.

But it comes as tech firms across the world have slashed workers, and venture capitalists have tightened their purse strings.

An African Delaware

The global downturn has seriously hampered African tech startups.

They attracted more than $2 billion (R37.9 billion) in funding during the first quarter last year but this year's figure is less than half that amount, according to specialist publication The Big Deal.

The gloomy figures do not dim Aboyeji's confidence.

He said:

It feels like the recession really unlocked people's ability to build all of a sudden.

His firm Future Africa has invested more than $10 million (189.6 million) in dozens of projects, many of them fintech startups trying to improve access to loans and banking services.

Future Africa helps them launch their ideas and get further funding.

But Aboyeji still has an eye for a grand scheme - he is helming a project to build a city devoted to tech talent.

"Think Delaware, but for Lagos," he said, referencing the tiny US state with low taxes that hosts many international companies.

The project, called Itana, aims to house thousands of tech workers and give firms tax breaks and other incentives - with a likely budget of $500 million (R9.4 billion).

Silicon Valley libertarian ideologue Peter Thiel is among the backers.

Like similar attempts to create such "charter cities", critics have said Itana will be a tax haven or an opt-out from state control.

Aboyeji and his partners have repeatedly denied that, insisting Itana is located within an established free trade zone and will respect Nigerian law.

– Youth ‘are not bums’ –
Aboyeji is the son of a pastor and often talks about his religious convictions, describing himself as a “faith-driven investor”.

“I invest in companies that have redemptive qualities. They save people, they improve people’s lives,” he said.

“They transform communities just like my faith does.”

Aboyeji, who spent time at university in Canada and praises the United States as “the capital of capital”, has a talent for teachable stories and has been a regular on the TED talk circuit for years.

He said the insight that led him to launch his investing career came a decade ago when he saw thousands of young Nigerians gathered in a football stadium trying to get permission to emigrate and get jobs.

“You’re not dealing with bums, you’re dealing with people who are desperate for opportunity,” he said.

He agonised over how investors could help to raise incomes in a country where more than half the population are under 18.

“It can’t be with agriculture, and it can’t be manufacturing. It is the internet,” he said, adding that the possibilities were limitless.

For example, African entrepreneurs can legitimately think about space travel, he said, especially if their ideas can help communications in the way that Musk’s StarLink mini-satellites have.

“Never say never,” he said. “But we’re not going to do space exploration or space tourism.

“I don’t think we’re there yet. I’ll leave that for my kids to contemplate.”

SpaceX, Twitter and electric car maker Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends an event during the Vivatech technology startups and innovation fair at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in Paris.

Commute no more: US employees embrace telework

Business

Washington, United States - Like Claire, millions of employees across the United States have grown fond of telework since the Covid-19 lockdown and now companies are struggling to bring them back to the office.

Before Covid-19, Americans workers had grown used to less-than-friendly job conditions, such as short vacations and little or no maternity leave, but the experience of working from home left them wanting more. “All of these practices that workers had become accustomed to in the US before have now then kind of disrupted by the pandemic,” chief economist Nela Richardson with the ADP Research Institute told AFP. American offices are still half-empty compared to February 2020, according to a weekly average calculated by Kastle, which manages the entry badges of 40,000 companies around the country.

‘The world is changing’

There are also wide disparities between different regions and cities: offices in California’s Silicon Valley, for example, have only recovered a third of their pre-pandemic occupants, compared with around half in New York and Washington, and as much as two-thirds in the Texas cities of Austin and Houston. “Collaborating and inventing is easier and more effective when we’re in person,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a memo to the company’s vast workforce back in February, ordering them to return to the office for at least three days a week.

Many Amazon employees disagreed so strongly with the in-person working requirements that they took to the streets in front of the company’s Seattle headquarters last month to protest the move. “The world is changing, and Amazon needs to embrace the new reality of remote and flexible work,” the organizers of the demonstration said in a statement. Elon Musk, the billionaire boss of Tesla and Twitter, went a step further than Jassy, banning telework in the name of productivity and morality. “You’re going to (tell) the people who make your food that gets delivered, that they can’t work from home, the people that come fix your house, they can’t work from home, but you can?” he said in a recent interview.

Half-empty offices

A third of employees in the United States currently have complete freedom about where they work, compared with just 18 percent in France, according to a recent ADP study of 17 countries. “If I worked for an employer that required five days a week, I just don’t think that would be on the table for me,” Claire, the Washington-based consultant, told AFP. Claire, who requested anonymity to discuss her employment, goes to the office irregularly, usually once every two weeks, sometimes more often. And, given the upsides, she can’t see herself going back full-time.

A gallery assistant studies a work by the Dutch forger Han van Meegeren, a copy of a work by the 17th century artist Dirck van Baburen at a press view for "Art and Artifice: Fakes from the Collection" at The Courtauld Gallery in central London on June 16, 2023. Some of the world's most notorious art forgeries form the centre-piece of a new London show, which reveals a cat-and-mouse world of intrigue, deception and painstaking detective work. The exhibition, which opens at the Courtauld in Somerset House on Saturday, features around 25 drawings and seven paintings, as well as sculpture and decorative art from the renowned gallery's collection.

Cat-and-mouse world of art fraud revealed in London show

Lifestyle

London (AFP) – Some of the most notorious art forgeries form the centre-piece of a new London show, which reveals a cat-and-mouse world of intrigue, deception and painstaking detective work.

The exhibition, which opens at the Courtauld in Somerset House features around 25 drawings and seven paintings, as well as sculpture and decorative art from the renowned gallery's collection.

Armed with magnifying glasses, visitors can scrutinise purported masterpieces by Sandro Botticelli, John Constable, and Auguste Rodin.

Visitors will learn how they were created, the methods of the most infamous forgers and the increasingly sophisticated methods used to detect them.

"Forgeries have always existed in the history of art and have a place in our study," Rachel Hapoienu, drawings cataloguer at the gallery, told AFP.

Hapoienu highlighted one work thought to be by English artist Constable, which came from a sale from his daughter Isabel.

"We thought we had a straight line back to the artist," said Hapoienu, but a shock discovery proved them wrong.

Shining a torch through the work revealed a watermark on the paper that dated it to the 1840s -- after Constable had died.

"There is a sizeable group of paintings and drawings that came from John Constable's children and grandchildren which were... probably made by one of his sons," said Hapoienu.

"Whether they were trying to perpetrate fraud...is up or debate."

'National hero'

The show also highlights the infamous tale of British forger Eric Hebborn, who operated from 1950s until he was exposed in the 1970s.

Hebborn was classically trained at the prestigious Royal Academy, winning many awards while a student.

He struck up a close relationship with dealers and earned their trust by supplying them with genuine works, but mixed in his own forgeries.

"He was really meticulous, and would make his own inks and chalks in the manner of Renaissance artists and make sure he got the right paper," said Hapoienu.

"He made a mistake when he had one piece of paper cut in half; one side he did a drawing by one artist, on the other side he did a drawing by an artist who lived a 100 years later," she added.

"Both sheets ended up in the same collection... the curator happened to be looking at them next to each other and thought, 'How can this artist and this artist be working on the same sheet of paper?'"

Hebborn, who was never convicted of a crime, claimed to have produced thousands of other forgeries, and was murdered in Rome in 1996.

Also on show is a fake Vermeer created by Dutch forger Han van Meegeren, whose works often ended up in the hands of leading Nazis, including Hermann Goering.

He was tried for collaborating with the enemy, "but got out of it by saying he had been tricking the enemy and therefore became a national hero," explained Karen Serres, curator of paintings at the gallery.

Rusty nails and bakelite

Serres also revealed some of the tricks of the trade used by leading forgers.

Van Meegeren used bakelite to give his paintings an aged appearance, while another fraudster used a fine brush to paint "cracks" onto his works.

One renowned deceiver painted on a woodworm-riddled piece of wood to date his work and recommended using rusty nails to hold together panels.

But Serres also highlighted some of the tools used by investigators in their game of "cat-and-mouse".

One painting, supposedly by Botticelli, aroused suspicion when one expert noted the similarity of its Madonna to the silent movie stars of the 1920s.

Analysis of pigments can also flag up fakes, and close scrutiny of brush strokes can reveal whether the creator was left- or right-handed.

One fake was identified by bushes meticulously drawn outside a castle, which researchers realised weren't planted until after the work was purportedly created.

Alongside old-school detective work, the gallery also uses the latest technology, such as a machine that performs ultraviolet and infrared scans of works.

"It's satisfying, you have found out the truth," Hapoienu said of the moment when a case is cracked.

"If you are a dealer obviously it's a whole different story."

A model presents a creation for Dhruv Kapoor Men's Spring - Summer 2024 fashion show as part of the Fashion Week in Milan.

Five trends from Milan men's fashion week

Lifestyle

Men's fashion week wraps up in Milan Tuesday after five days of catwalk shows presenting the luxury market's Spring-Summer 2024 collections.

Here are the top five trends.

- Short suits-

Gone are traditional jacket and trouser suits. Instead, shorts are paired with wide, double-breasted blazers or slim-fitting jackets, worn with or without a tie.

Valentino is crazy about them, and offers them in cotton or leather, loose-or close-fitting, but always elegant. Prada's shorts have darts and are a perfect fit, while Billionaire prefers them in Hawaiian mode, adorned with palm trees.

Indian brand Dhruv Kapoor dares to bare with an ultra-short version in black cotton or denim, with an exposed zip.

But spoilsport Giorgio Armani, 88, issued his own rule on shorts during fashion week, saying that "Bermuda shorts mean being on a beach or out and about for the holidays."

"And above all you have to have good legs! In the meantime, shorts are for sport, and that's that", said the Italian master of minimalism.

Mini skirt, maxi effect

For the more daring, Charles Jeffrey Loverboy offers a sparkling blue mini-skirt with a flashy belt revealing hairy legs, also suitable for XXL sizes. Or a low-waisted fluorescent green tutu which reveals a flash of red underpants.

Dhruv Kapoor has a full skirt to below the knees or worn over trousers, matched with flat sandals and an ultra-long belt with straps skimming the ground.

Fendi, which deserted the catwalks of Milan to have its models strut in a leather workshop outside Florence instead, offers a work kilt in the form of an ultra-short skirt in brown or greige leather, to slip over trousers or shorts.

The return of the tie

Ties make a big comeback.

At Dolce & Gabbana, they are narrow and discreet, in a vintage 1950s style.

Valentino innovates with a grey wool jumper with an almost imperceptible incorporated tie, while Armani and Fendi go with casual-chic scarves, tied around the neck.

Free the torso

Waistcoats are worn without shirts, including at the very classic Armani, while at Dsquared2 models go bare-chested, with just a pearl necklace.Etro offers colourful poncho-style capes that leave chests and navels bare, while at Dolce & Gabbana, shirts and tunics are translucent, even transparent, while some trousers reveal legs underneath.

Show-stopping bags

Bags are a must: black, yellow, apple green or bright red, tiny or voluminous, discreet or flashy.

At Fendi, they range from woven baskets all the way to trompe-l'œil toolboxes. The luxury house's iconic "Baguette" bag has also been brought up to date, while Prada highlights its leather bags, "unexpectedly soft to the touch", in black, grey, khaki, red and purple.

SpaceX, Twitter and electric car maker Tesla CEO Elon Musk (L) and Publicis Groupe's Chairman of the Supervisory Board Maurice Levy attend an event at the Vivatech technology startups and innovation fair at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in Paris, on June 16, 2023.

How Big Tech Embraced Disabled Users

Innovations

How big tech embraced disabled users

Paris, France - Buried beneath the hype of the artificial intelligence revolution, big tech is quietly rolling out services for disabled people that it hopes will push a greater transformation for customers.

Apple and Google are leading the field, harnessing the sensors and cameras of their best-selling smartphones that allow users to edit, enhance and improve their photos and audio.

Among the latest announcements, Apple unveiled its Live Speech feature in May that uses machine learning -- the term Apple uses for AI -- to re-create a user's voice.

The idea is to allow people who are at risk of losing the ability to speak to type messages and have them read out in their natural voices.

Google, meanwhile, is testing an upgrade to its Lookout app, a program that describes images to blind people and those with impaired vision.

The new version, Google says, will use AI to identify objects without the need for labelling.

- Digital 'kerb cuts' -

Both firms are keen to portray this as the norm.

"We try and put a lot of time in, early and often," Sarah Herrlinger, who leads Apple's accessibility projects, told AFP during a recent tech event in Paris.

When asked about the process behind developing a product like the Vision Pro -- a headset launched to great fanfare earlier this month -- she said the idea was "to make sure that, when we are at the point of making an announcement like that, we can say we've been thoughtful about this".

Google's accessibility chief Eve Andersson makes a similar point, telling AFP hundreds of people worked full-time on accessibility at the company.

"What's even more important is that we expect accessibility to be a core part of everybody's job who is creating products," she said.

If there is discord between the firms' approaches, it is more in emphasis than practicalities.

While Herrlinger stresses the rigour of Apple's targeting, Andersson is keen to talk up the way that such features end up improving everyone's lives.

She describes it as a digital "kerb cut", an idea named after the initiative to lower kerbs on pavements that was initially intended to help wheelchair users but also helped people with pushchairs, bicycles or those carrying anything awkward.

Andersson cites digital kerb cuts such as autocorrect, autocomplete and voice recognition software.

"A lot of this was originally developed as accessibility technology that now it's just productivity-enhancing, for all of us," she said.

- 'Marketplace reality' -

Google and Apple are among the most well-known brands on the planet and both describe how they develop accessibility features by gathering feedback from their vast numbers of users.

They are also among the richest firms, so they can go into fine-grain detail in their product planning.

Herrlinger said Apple had worked closely with Team Gleason, a charity formed by ex-American football player Steve Gleason who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a rare, incurable and debilitating disease.

Apple worked with his foundation to make sure its products would work for those suffering from ALS.

But Apple and Google are not the only ones developing accessibility tech -- the widening availability of AI models has sparked huge creativity.

Microsoft has developed SeeingAI, which describes photos for visually impaired people, and there are a host of startups in the field.

French firm Sonar Vision is developing technology to guide visually impaired people around cities, and Equally AI is harnessing the ChatGPT bot to improve the accessibility of websites.

Manuel Pereira of the French Valentin Hauy association, which campaigns for greater accessibility, reckons AI has the potential to give blind and visually impaired people more autonomy.

But he had a warning for the companies in the field.

"If we fall into an economic model that emphasises profitability, the door can close as quickly as it opened," he said.

Google's Andersson makes the opposite point, saying the realisation that one billion people live with disabilities has jolted companies into realising what this could mean for their bottom line.

"It's marketplace reality, not every company does it out of the goodness of their hearts," she said.

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CEO of LED Community Leisure Peter Gilpin, poses for a portrait beside the swimming pool which is using heat to warm the water generated from computers in a data processing centre located at Exmouth Leisure Centre in Exmouth, southwest England, on June 13, 2023. A leisure centre in the British town of Exmouth is trialling an innovative way to reduce its energy bill by using a small data centre to heat its indoor swimming pool. An on-site installation captures heat generated by a bank of computers, bringing the 25-metre swimming pool to the required temperature around 65 percent of the time, reducing the use of gas boilers.

Small but powerful: tiny data centre heats UK swimming pool

Innovations

Exmouth, United Kingdom - A leisure centre in Exmouth, southwest England, is using a small data centre to heat its indoor swimming pool, trialling an innovative solution that reduces its energy bills and carbon footprint.

An on-site installation captures heat generated by a bank of computers, bringing the oil that captures the excess heat.

25-metre swimming pool to the required temperature around 65 percent of the time, cutting reliance on gas boilers.

Deep Green, the UK company behind the project, gives the heat away for free and covers its own electricity costs but charges clients to use its computers that can power machine learning and artificial intelligence.

"It's a symbiotic relationship. We get our computers cooled for free," Deep Green CEO Mark Bjornsgaard told AFP at the Exmouth Leisure Centre, their flagship site.

"The pool is doing an equally big favour as we are."

Bjornsgaard lifted the lid of a white dishwasher-sized box, revealing computers immersed in a mineral

The oil then flows into a heat exchanger where it meets cold water from the pool.

"Normal data centres are simply venting that heat. They use an enormous amount of water to evaporate the heat away," Bjornsgaard said, adding that 99 percent of this heat is wasted into the atmosphere.

According to Bjornsgaard, around half of the cost of running a data centre goes towards keeping the computers cool.

"We don't have those costs. So from an environmental and sustainable point of view, it's a very good thing to do," he said.

- 'Significant savings' -

Peter Gilpin, CEO of LED Community Leisure, which runs the swimming pool, said the deployment of the Deep Green technology has been "very timely" after Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year sent energy prices soaring.

Utilities usually account for about a third of the total costs of running the leisure centre and the swimming pool's annual gas bill had more than tripled to nearly £80,000 ($102,000) before they installed the data centre in March, he added.

"We have been hit quite hard by that rising cost of gas through the winter but hopefully next winter a very large proportion of our heating costs will come through the Deep Green technology," Gilpin said.

While it's early to judge results over a long period of time, they are seeing "reductions in our gas consumption already" and "significant savings" even with energy costs coming down in recent months.

He added that "not only it reduces our energy costs and our gas consumption, which was the primary benefit but... we reduce our carbon footprint".

Gilpin said they are "proud" to have been the first site to deploy Deep Green's technology and are now looking into installing it at the other swimming pools that they run.

But now they might have competition.

Bjornsgaard said they have seen "demand go through the roof", with thousands of potential sites across Europe wanting to deploy their technology, especially swimming pools and district heating systems.

At the same time more and more companies are looking to use Deep Green computers because its "environmentally friendly" and "way cheaper than their normal cloud provider", Bjornsgaard said.

"But also we're doing some social good, right? We're heating a swimming pool and helping swimming pools to stay open," he added.

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Slovenian chef Ana Ros, who runs the two-star Michelin restaurant Hisa Franko, poses at her restaurant in Kobarid, on May 12, 2023. Slovenia's cuisine "is one of a kind" and deserves a place on the culinary map, according to Lior Kochavy, a founder of a weekly street food festival in the capital that also brings together leading restaurants. Now Ana Ros, who was named the world's best woman chef in 2017, has her two Michelin stars tattooed on her fingers, and is helping make her small Alpine homeland one of Europe's prime gastronomic destinations.

'Crazy' good: star chef Ana Ros puts Slovenia on food map

Lifestyle

Kobarid, Slovenia -When Ana Ros started as a chef in Slovenia, all she had were some cookbooks and a bit of a "crazy" personality, as she herself puts it.

Now the self-taught cook -- who was named the world's best woman chef in 2017 -- has her two Michelin stars tattooed on her fingers, and is helping make her small Alpine homeland one of Europe's prime gastronomic destinations.

Ros quickly found she had a talent for "matching crazy flavours", like coffee pasta with sea bass, lemon foam and basil, one of the early dishes that helped make her name.

"Like a painter sees colours, the chef sees flavours, and I was always very well known for using very strong flavour combinations," the 50-year-old told AFP at her restaurant in the Soca valley close to the border with Italy.

Hisa Franko -- which Ros has been running for the last 20 years -- currently ranks 32nd in the World's 50 Best Restaurants list.

But it is not the only restaurant of note in the country sandwiched between Italy, Austria and Croatia.

The Michelin guide recommends 58 there, saying Slovenia "is asserting itself as a gastronomic destination whose potential and quality are constantly improving."

- 'Cooking from scratch' -

And a large part of that is down to innovative chefs like Ros, who has also featured in Netflix's "Chef's Table" series.

Hisa Franko was a family inn serving traditional fare when Ros's partner at the time, Valter Kramer, took it over from his parents in 2002.

Ros decided to join her husband in the restaurant, following her heart rather than pursuing her ambitions to pursue a diplomatic career in Brussels.

"At the beginning, it was just like cooking for survival... I started cooking from scratch," said the chef.

Right from the start, Ros developed a particular way of making "flavours hit your mind".

"Because my food is all about my character. A bit crazy... still childish" to some extent, she said.

Ros said her food is a combination of understanding the regional traditions and seasonality, but also her own personality.

After years of hard work, news about the remote restaurant with a talented woman chef started spreading, and Ros is now regarded as one of the world's best in a field still dominated by men.

"Sometimes you look like an exotic animal," she said. "But of course, the picture is changing with the new generation, who are super talented and super ambitious."

Hisa Franko now has a team of 40 people from around 20 countries working in her kitchen and she plans to open a bistro in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana.

The day she talked to AFP, her kitchen was turning out a starter of deer heart, oyster, kiwi and beetroot with mountain greens.

- 'Like a big family' -

The country's cuisine "is one of a kind" and deserves a place on the culinary map, according to Lior Kochavy, a founder of a weekly street food festival in the capital that also brings together leading restaurants.

"You will never be bored. There is all the time something new to try," he said.

With Slovenia a melting pot of Latin, Slavic and Germanic influences, other chefs also say they attract diners by honouring traditions, seasonality and sourcing food locally.

"We've always tried to make sure the distance between the field and the plate is as short as possible," said Tomaz Kavcic, who runs the one-star Michelin Gostilna pri Lojzetu (Lojze's Inn).

"In the past that might not have been appreciated much, but now it is very valued," he told AFP. His menu "writes itself with just the products we see" from the restaurant's terrace on a vineyard-covered hill.

Ros, too, said Slovenians have "always been using nature as their market".

"Farmers and foragers -- you grow with them, you learn from them, you teach them. It's kind of like a big family," she said.

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The Foreign Post is the newspaper of the International Community in the Philippines, published for foreign residents, Internationally-oriented Filipinos, and visitors to the country. It is written and edited to inform, to entertain, occasionally to educate, to provide a forum for international thinkers.