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XR Training: How Extended Reality Supercharges Brain-Based Learning

William Attardi on November 25, 2025

In today’s fast-paced digital workplace, organizations are searching for more effective ways to skill and reskill their workforces. Extended reality (XR), which encompasses Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality (MR), and Augmented Reality (AR), offers an immersive and highly effective alternative. These XR technologies are not just more engaging—they also work in harmony with how the human brain learns best. Neuroscience shows that experiential learning—learning by doing—activates multiple regions of the brain at once. XR places learners in a simulated environment that mimics real-life scenarios, tapping into the brain’s natural mechanisms for spatial and sensory learning. This immersive context not only minimizes distractions but also enhances focus and recall through contextual cues that the brain retains as lived experiences. XR Training: How Extended Reality Enhances Brain-Based Learning

UL Solutions Expands Marketing Claim Verification Into AI

William Attardi on September 29, 2025

UL Solutions Inc. announced that it is expanding its evaluation and verification services into the high-growth industrial software sector, advancing what is known as the industrial metaverse—virtual manufacturing environments that use data, AI, digital twins, augmented reality, and other tools to optimize physical machines and factories. UL Solutions’ related Marketing Claim Verification provides a third-party evaluation, indicating that the industrial software and advanced automation tools performed as claimed and are backed by credible evidence. Verification helps confirm that the systems powering these immersive manufacturing environments meet the performance, security, and interoperability benchmarks necessary to drive the next wave of digitalization. UL Solutions Expands Marketing Claim Verification Into AI – electrifiED

The Statue of Liberty was made with copper but due to oxidation, it turned green.

When the “Lady in the Harbor” first arrived in New York in 1886, she didn’t look like the mint-green icon we know today. In fact, for the first twenty years of her life, she stood as a towering, metallic beacon of reddish-gold. Designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and engineered by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the statue was a gift from France to America. To build her, Bartholdi chose copper for three practical reasons:

  • Malleability:It could be hammered into elaborate, thin sheets.
  • Weight:Copper is lighter than stone or bronze, making it easier to ship 350 individual pieces across the Atlantic.
  • Durability:It was strong enough to survive a 27-day ocean voyage and the harsh winds of the harbor.

When she was unveiled on October 28, 1886, her skin—made of 300 copper sheets roughly the thickness of two pennies—shone with a bright, metallic brown luster. The transformation from “penny-colored” to “patina-green” wasn’t planned. Bartholdi actually expected the statue to age into a deeper, darker red. However, the unique environment of New York Harbor—a mix of salt air, moisture, and industrial pollution—triggered a process called oxidation.

The Timeline of Change:

  1. 1886–1900:The bright copper dulled into a dark, muddy brown.
  2. 1903:The first hints of a light green crust, or “patina,” began to appear.
  3. 1906:The color change was so controversial that Congress nearly stepped in. They appropriated $62,000 to paint the statue back to its original color, but the public protested, calling the idea “sacrilege.”
  4. 1910–1920:The statue was a patchy mix of brown and green until 1920, when the oxidation was complete, leaving her entirely teal.

While we now view the green color as iconic, it actually serves a vital structural purpose. The layer of verdigris (the green patina) acts as a protective shield. It seals the copper underneath, preventing the metal from further corrosion and weathering.  By the time the color fully changed, a new generation of immigrants had arrived in America seeing a green statue.