SpaceX successfully launched four people into space on Friday, beginning a mission that will give the International Space Station enough crew members to allow astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to return to Earth after their nine-month stay.The mission, known as Crew-10, will see SpaceXs Dragon spacecraft dock with the International Space Station (ISS) late Saturday. The new astronauts will overlap with the existing crew for a few days before Williams and Wilmore (along with two others) return to our planet. That could happen as soon as March 19, weather permitting.SpaceX crew launches to the ISS have become routine, but this mission has been hotly anticipated because of how Williams and Wilmore got to the station in the first place and because SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has blamed their prolonged stay on former President Joe Biden.The duo was part of the first crewed launch of Boeings Starliner spacecraft last June. The test mission was supposed to be a crucial milestone in Boeings quest to compete with SpaceX for these types of crewed launches to the ISS. Starliner was supposed to dock with the ISS for 10 days before returning Williams and Wilmore to Earth. But the spacecraft experienced leaks and thruster problems, which delayed Starliner from docking with the ISS. Starliner eventually coupled with the station and the astronauts were able to board. But Boeing and NASA spent weeks performing testing and analysis before they decided in August to bring Starliner back to Earth empty. NASA and SpaceX agreed to bring the astronauts home on the next crewed mission to the ISS, Crew-9. They bumped two astronauts off that flight to accommodate the return of Williams and Wilmore. A return flight was slated for February 2025; an earlier flight would have left the ISS understaffed, according to NASA.While Williams and Wilmore have been aboard the ISS, though, Musk finished helping Donald Trump get elected for a second time, and began his rampage through the federal government with his Department of Government Efficiency. Musk started saying both on X and in interviews that he offered to bring the astronauts back earlier but that Biden refused because of political reasons.Musk has not provided any evidence to support this claim. NASAs former administrator and deputy administrator under Biden have both said that no offer from Musk made it to the space agencys headquarters.

Close up. Bearded serious man is inhaling aroma of scarlet wine with pleasuregettyData has grades. Much like olive oil, flour, gasoline, beef and cotton, information is graded into various classes depending on its nature. We also classify data according to its state of managed structureness or unstructuredness, its state of deduplication, its mission-criticality, its speed of transport within a given network and its level of ratified veracity.All of which measures (and more) go some way towards enabling us to say whether we are dealing with high-quality data, or not.Why High-Quality Data MattersBut if the ingredients in any given recipe are good enough to work (a cheap burger is still filling and anyone can fall asleep under low-grade cotton sheets), why does it matter whether we are using high-quality data or not? Business analysts would argue that refined information streams enable them to take more wide-ranging strategic business decisions; they would also propose that better customer/user experiences result from purified, ratified and amplified information provenance. Better data also helps firms more adroitly meet enhanced regulatory compliance targets, while it also helps reduce operational costs.But how do we keep tabs on whether an organizations data is able to maintain its high-quality level and mechanisms can we use to know when standards are slipping?Ken Stott, field CTO at real-time API engine and data access platform company Hasura says that the key to unlocking this value lies in implementing high-velocity feedback loops between data producers and data consumers. These feedback loops enable continuous communication and early issue detection, transforming how organizations manage their data assets. This proactive approach not only prevents problems at their source but creates a foundation for ongoing innovation and improvement.Traditional data quality approaches rely on incident reporting systems and source-level checks. While effective for single domains, these methods break down at intersection points where data combines across boundaries, explained Stott. Take margin calculations - sales data and inventory data may each be accurate individually, yet quality issues emerge only when combined. When downstream teams discover these issues, their quality assessments often remain siloed - their insights rarely flow back upstream in a way source teams can effectively understand or act upon. This broken feedback loop perpetuates quality issues and slows organizational learning.To enhance data quality, Stotts recommendation to establish rapid feedback loops is said to enable a business to identify issues at the point of delivery and provide structured feedback for swift resolution. Understanding the typical organizational structure concerning data responsibilities is also important. Drawing from experience gained when working with its own customer base and further afield, the Hasura tech leader views three typical teams that share this duty.Three Levels Of Data ResponsibilityData domain owners: made up of data scientists and database administrators, network architects and software application developers (which might all be one person in reality) that manage data models, define quality rules and ensure data provisioning.Federated data teams: that oversee metadata standards, offer data discovery tools and manage data provisioning.Cross-domain data teams: that create derived data products (a term we have discussed and defined before here), build reports and develop applications and models.Cross-domain data users face unique challenges, as they often create the critical datasets that reach executive leadership and regulatory bodies, detailed Stott, in a private press briefing this month. Their need to compose and validate data across domains demands a modern approach built on: real-time validation with standardized metadata-driven feedback; centralized rule standards that maintain flexibility for local needs; integrated observability across the data lifecycle; and self-service composition capabilities for cross-domain teams.Success here requires both organizational and technical foundations i.e. this vision only becomes a reality through lightweight additions to existing architectures: an extensible metadata-driven data access layer, automatable data quality rules and data-quality-as-a-service to assess composited datasets at the point of use. These enhancements create feedback loops without disrupting established data flows or requiring massive reorganization.By adopting this approach, organizations can incrementally evolve their [data management and operational business] practices. Teams maintain their current workflows while gaining new collaboration capabilities. Clear ownership and accountability of data naturally emerges as feedback loops connect data producers and consumers. This foundation also paves the way for advanced capabilities like anomaly detection and sophisticated data profiling, concluded Hasuras Stott. Ultimately, improving data quality isnt just about technology, its about creating efficient processes that connect data producers and consumers.By implementing automated feedback loops at the point of data delivery, the theory offered here suggests that organizations can significantly reduce the time and effort needed to identify and resolve data quality issues while preserving existing investments in data architecture and team structures.Data Diversity, Difficulty & DefinitenessBut is that the end of the data quality argument? Of course it isnt and Stott had not set out to write the encyclopedia of data management with his essentially feedback-centric propositions. In his role as chief technology officer of AI model design for IoT company Aizip, Weier Wan has three key D(s) for us to embrace when it comes to data quality.High-quality data only occurs when information channels are able to surface and evidence diversity, saw Wan. In this context I mean that data must be able to cover all scenarios so that the models based upon it can learn to generalize. It should also be a measure of data difficulty, so that means information resources that contain good amount of difficult examples, by which datasets that are inherently complex and not straightforward (i.e. requires more convoluted reasoning), ambiguous in nature and may often require specialized (perhaps graph and/or vector-based data analysis and management tools) to be able to extract value out of.Wan also champions high-quality data to come out of information definiteness (we could say veracity to be conventionally aligned with the five Vs of big data, or we could simply say correctness which is the factor that Wan underlined) when it comes to working with data sources that will lead us to high quality data. Im talking about data definiteness or correctness where the business knows its information resources contain <1% of error, which is surprisingly not the case for almost all well-known public datasets."Of similar mind to Wan is Kjell Carlsson, head of AI strategy at Domino Data Lab. He says that enterprise leaders need to dramatically rethink data quality when it comes to AI. This is because efforts to clean, normalize and standardize data for one AI use case can easily remove signals and make it useless for others.Standard methods of anonymizing data can alternately be unnecessary or ineffective depending on both the use case and the nature of the solution. Worse, most traditional approaches to data quality are not designed for the new types of unstructured data (documents, chats, emails, images, videos) used by AI solutions. Finally, what quality data looks like usually only becomes apparent once an initial version of the solution is developed, rendering much of the data cleansing and engineering effort useless, detailed Carlsson, in an online press briefing.For him, the answer to data quality for AI is to take a far more iterative and agile approach to quality control i.e. one that is integrated with and driven by the AI development and implementation lifecycle. Carlsson says that only by aligning data quality efforts to the actual needs of your AI use cases is the value of high quality data realized. But how do we ensure that sensitive data is protected during these cycles of development? Through governance, he says, that goes beyond data management, spans the activities of the AI lifecycle, and is tailored to the risks of the specific AI project.What Is High-Quality Data?In a world of digitally encoded exactness across the information technology industry, a standardized and internationally codified measure of high-quality data is perhaps conspicuously absent. Given the number of databases, the diversity between different data management techniques and methodologies and the now-neural level of interconnection points between applications, application programming interfaces and cloud datacenter backend services (lets not even mention the encroaching universe of agentic AI functions), its not hard to see why there is room for debate here.Unlike good olive oil, high-quality data rarely comes from the first extra virgin pressing, but it does need Wagyu-level massaging like good beef and a fine-milled and refined approach like doppio-00 flour and well-aged cheese. Its cheeseburger logic, basically.

The Maserati GranTurismo Folgore is an exceptionally fun electric drive.MaseratiThere have been few electric sports cars so far, although this is no surprise. Its a huge risk bringing out a low-volume vehicle format with a drivetrain type that is growing but still also small in volume. In fact, the only affordable BEV sports cabriolet so far has been the MG Cyberster. Go further upmarket, however, and Maserati has more choices for you: the Maserati GranTurismo Folgore and its open-top derivative the GranCabrio. I took both for a test drive.Maserati GranTurismo Folgore: Italian Style Goes ElectricWhether you go for the hard top GranTurismo or soft top GranCabrio, this is a beautiful vehicle. After all its an Italian luxury sports car. If it wasnt pretty, what would be the point? The lines are swoopy, rather than looking like they were calculated for maximum efficiency using software. The grille at the front might seem superfluous, but its there because there are internal combustion versions that share the same platform. There are Modena and Trofeo variants of both GranTurismo and GranCabrioHowever, grille aside, the GranTurismo is designed to be equally good whichever drivetrain you choose. The EV batteries arent below the floor, but sit in the transmission tunnel, so the driving position is the same while weight remains even distributed. In fact, you wouldnt immediately know whether you were sitting in a Folgore or Trofeo / Modena. There are some subtle trim differences, and the name on the outside, plus an alternative wheel design for the Folgore. But Maseratis intention was to make the buyers powertrain choice about driving experience rather than appearance.The GranTurismo is definitely a +2 rather than a four-seater.MaseratiThe GranTurismo and GranCabrio have four seats, although this is definitely a 2+2, with the rear more for emergencies than regular use. At first glance it looks like youd need to have lost your legs to fit in the back of the GranTurismo or GranCabrio. However, there is a recess in the back of the seat in front that makes it just about possible to make use of the two rear seats, at a pinch. The comfort in the front is unquestionable, though, with the sense of luxury youd hope for in a Maserati.Driving The Maserati GranTurismo FolgoreYou dont spend the kind of money a Maserati sports car costs without expecting the ultimate driving experience. The GranTurismo Folgore was always meant to be more sedate than a supercar like the MC20 I test drove last year, and the GranCabrio even more so. But both cars are still incredibly quick.This is despite the weight we have come to expect from BEVs. The GranTurismo is 2,260kg without the driver, and the GranCabrio is 80kg heavier still. But the there are three 300hp electric motors one driving the front wheels, and two at the back. Not all that grunt can be used at once, due to battery output constraints. The total available power output is a whopping 761hp with 1,350Nm of torque, which is balanced between front and rear as needed.The GranCabrio is almost as quick as the GranTurismo, only in topless form.MaseratiThis propels the GranTurismo Folgore to 62mph in just 2.7 seconds, and the GranCabrio is only slightly slower at 2.8 seconds. The GranTurismo tops out at 202mph while the GranCabrio is limited to 180mph. A knob on the steering wheel lets you choose between Comfort, GT, Sport and Corsa modes.Corsa is a bit aggressive for public roads, but in Sport mode these Folgore cars are still exhilaratingly relentless under acceleration. I test drove both the GranTurismo and the GranCabrio Folgore on British country A roads around the Surrey area, and it was one of the most enjoyable driving experiences Ive had on public roads.The sense of immense power available immediately whenever you want is hugely pleasurable. Despite the weight, both soft and hard top feel entirely sure footed, too. Its also worth noting that the suspension isnt annoyingly hard, which would be a deal breaker in a grand tourer. While cornering is flat, the GranTurismo and GranCabrio deal with bumpy roads better than, for example, the 2020 Tesla Model 3 Performance that is my daily driver.The GranTurismo Folgore may be a grand tourer, but it still has plenty of track capability.MaseratiThe Rimac Nevera is the most exciting EV Ive ever driven, but thats a $2 million hypercar. The GranTurismo and GranCabrio are still very expensive but a bit more within the realm of a car youd drive regularly (if youre very rich). The performance, handling and sense of occasion make the GranTurismo a car youll long to drive, while the GranCabrio has even more style assuming the weather lets you get the top down regularly.Ive also been driven around the Formula E track in Misano in the GranTurismo, which really showed its sporting credentials. The launch acceleration was brain-numbing. The weight made cornering a battle at the extremities of grip, but the GranTurismo is no Sunday cruiser. This is a proper performance car with unquestionable abilities if you want to drive incredibly fast.Maserati GranTurismo Folgore: Still A Practical Grand TourerThe main reason for the weight of these Folgore cars is their batteries, which have been made big enough to satisfy the grand touring implied by the name. A 92.5kWh battery (83kWh net) has been used, giving the GranTurismo a range of 280 miles, while the GranCabrio goes four miles fewer. Those arent enormous distances compared to todays best EVs, but Maserati has used an 800V architecture, so DC charging goes up to 270kW. This means that the battery can replenish 62 miles of range in five minutes.The GranTurismo will be great for munching through highway miles.Lorenzo MarcinnoThe GrandTurismo Folgore achieved 2.4 miles per kWh during my test driving, which was mostly on British A-roads with 50 or 60mph limits and through villages, with little highway. This would equate to around 200 miles of real-world range. With the rapid charging, youd probably only need to stop for 15-20 minutes every two or three hours during a long journey, which is entirely acceptable if youre planning to drive across Europe.Maserati GranTurismo Folgore: Is The Trofeo Still Better?As I mentioned earlier, Maserati hasnt put all its eggs in electric basket with these cars. Both are also available with the companys excellent V6 Nettuno internal combustion engine. For comparison, I also took the GranTurismo Trofeo for a spin on the same roads.The Trofeo weighs 1,795kg, 465kg less than the Folgore, and you notice this in corners. The steering is lighter and lither with greater willingness to change directions. The Folgores driven front wheels makes its steering heavier, whereas the Trofeo is rear-wheel drive. You can flick the rack around very quickly.A Maserati GranTurismo Folgore would be the perfect electric addition to anyone's stately home.Lorenzo MarcinnoHowever, despite the excellent automatic gearbox in the Trofeo and ability to shift down with the steering wheel paddles, the reduction in immediate torque is also obvious. The Trofeo only has 550hp and 650Nm of torque, so hits 62mph in 3.5 seconds. In other words, The Trofeo is clearly not so brutally quick in a straight line as the Folgore, and after driving a Folgore you really notice the less immediate throttle response.But its quick enough, and with lighter steering and a lighter car in general, the Trofeo is an A-road monster. In summation, the Trofeo handles supremely but doesnt feel as powerful, whereas the Folgore handles well and has serious acceleration muscle. Which you prefer will be a matter of taste. As an EV torque addict, I err on the side of the Folgore. But if youre in the market for a GranTurismo or GranCabrio, try both Folgore and Trofeo versions to see which you prefer.Of course, you will need to be a High Net Worth Individual to afford any of these cars. The Maserati GranTurismo Folgore starts at 178,330 ($231,000) and the one I drove had extras lifting this to 195,370 ($253,000), while the GranCabrio Folgore starts at 183,990 ($238,000) and my test car was 195,080 ($252,500). The GranTurismo Trofeo is a bit cheaper at 159,630 ($207,000), with my test car priced at 173,480 ($224,500). Sadly, Maserati has purportedly cancelled its plans for an electric version of the MC20 due to lack of demand, so we wont be seeing the companys abilities making electric performance cars in an even more extreme form. Thats a shame, because the Folgore cars are brilliant. Now all I need is to find an extra 195,000 for that GranCabrio. Whats the going rate for a kidney these days?

In a nutshell: As Microsoft prepares to end free security updates for Windows 10 in October, a significant challenge looms for charities that refurbish and distribute older computers to those in need. With an estimated 240 million PCs unable to meet the stringent hardware requirements for Windows 11, these organizations face a difficult decision: provide potentially insecure Windows 10 systems, send them to e-waste recyclers, or explore alternative operating systems like Linux. Microsoft's requirements for Windows 11 include a 1GHz or faster CPU with at least two cores, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, Secure Boot capability, and TPM 2.0 compatibility. However, the supported Intel CPU list only goes back to 8th Gen chips, introduced in 2017, while the AMD list includes Ryzen 2000 series and above.This means many relatively recent and powerful computers are ineligible for the upgrade, despite having ample RAM and storage."Deploying Windows 10 at this time is a bad idea," Chester Wisniewski, director and global field CISO for Sophos, told Tom's Hardware."The writing is on the wall. Microsoft has made the internal decision to obsolete this equipment, so I guess they just don't want more people to use Windows."Wisniewski notes that Windows 10 and Windows 11 share a largely common codebase, meaning vulnerabilities patched in one can often be exploited in the other. On recent Patch Tuesdays, dozens of vulnerabilities were addressed, with some already being exploited by criminals before fixes were available.Besides the security implications, charities that remain on Windows 10 must consider other risks, such as compliance.For instance, charity shops using Windows 10 for electronic point-of-sale systems will face potential compliance issues with regulations like GDPR once support ends. Non-compliance can result in significant fines, damaging the charity's reputation and financial stability. // Related StoriesThe issue of e-waste also looms large, with only 14 to 40 percent of US electronic waste being recycled. This could lead to an estimated 1.06 billion pounds of e-waste, equivalent to the weight of 320,000 cars. When electronic devices are not recycled, they can end up in landfills, where toxic substances like lead, mercury, and cadmium can leach into the soil. The contamination affects soil quality, making it unsuitable for agriculture, and poses risks to drinking water supplies and aquatic ecosystems. Additionally, burning e-waste releases harmful fumes into the atmosphere.This amount of e-waste isn't just impacting the environment. According to the UN, the net annual economic cost of e-waste is $37 billion. Unless improvements are made to e-waste management and policies, it is expected to reach $40 billion by 2030.Despite these concerns, many users will continue running Windows 10. According to Statcounter, Windows 10 still accounts for 58.7 percent of all Windows installations, compared to 38.1 percent for Windows 11. The likelihood of all these systems being upgraded or replaced by October is low, and even fewer users will opt for Microsoft's Extended Security Update program, which costs $61 per year.Tom's points out that charities like PCs for People are taking steps to avoid this issue. CEO Casey Sorensen explained that they discontinued distributing Windows 10 a year before the cutoff and now focus on Linux Mint for older systems. "We will distribute Linux laptops that are 6th or 7th gen. If we distribute a Windows laptop, it will be 8th gen or newer," Sorensen tells the publication.PCs for People refurbishes 140,000 PCs annually, offering affordable options to low-income individuals and sending older units to recyclers.Sorensen notes that attitudes toward Linux have changed over time. "Ten years ago, if we distributed Linux, they would be like 'What is it?'" he says. Today, many users view their computers primarily as gateways to the internet, making user-friendly Linux distributions like Mint more acceptable.However, Linux still lacks some popular applications, such as Microsoft Office and Slack, though alternatives are available.As charities navigate the challenges of obsolete systems, they must balance the need for secure computing with the environmental impact of disposal. Whatever path they choose, it's clear that many users will continue running Windows 10 beyond its support lifecycle, leaving them vulnerable to emerging threats.

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsWhat devices are moving to Gemini?How are things changing with Gemini?Why is this a better deal?The writing has been on the wall for a while, but the shift away from Google Assistant is now official. Google has announced that it will shift users to Gemini as the default AI assistant on their devices in the coming months. Once that happens, they will no longer be able to access the Google Assistant. At the moment, you can switch to Google Assistant as the default option on your Android phone, even on newer phones that come with Gemini running out of the box. In addition to phones, Google will be giving a similar treatment to smartwatches, Android Auto, tablets, smart home devices, TVs, and audio gear. Recommended VideosWere also bringing a new experience, powered by Gemini, to home devices like speakers, displays, and TVs, says Google, without sharing a specific time frame for the transition. What happens to Google Assistant following the transition? Well, it will be removed from devices and will no longer be available to download from app stores. Nadeem Sarwar / Digital TrendsTalking about apps, Gemini can already interact with a wide range of Googles own as well as a few third-party apps. Users can ask it to perform chores across different products, without ever having to open those apps. In addition to in-house apps such as Docs, Drive, and Gmail, the Gemini assistant can also perform tasks in third-party apps such as WhatsApp and Spotify, alongside a bunch of Samsung apps. Please enable Javascript to view this contentWhat devices are moving to Gemini? Gemini will support a majority of the features that are currently available with Google Assistant. The fundamental Google Assistant capabilities, such as controlling smart home devices, accessing the virtual assistant from the Lock Screen, routines, song detection, and messaging will be available with Gemini.Digital TrendsA healthy bunch of them have also been enhanced for Gemini to offer a better experience. For example, Gemini can better handle tasks such as dealing with Reminders, events, and lists, tackling queries related to Google Maps, Google Drive, enquiring about YouTube videos, awareness of on-screen context, and more.Following is the broad list of comparability for devices that will be upgraded to Gemini in the coming months: Phones with at least 2 GB RAM. Android 10 or a later version.iPhone running iOS 16 or a newer version. The virtual assistant on your headphones will match the one currently installed on your phone. An exception will be the budget-centric Android Go phones, which run a simplified and pure Google-only experience of the operating system. No brand has launched an Android Go phone in years, and the whole project is effectively dead, so its not surprising that Gemini is not moving ahead for these devices. How are things changing with Gemini?Lets start at the basic level. In case you are concerned about any change in the activation hotword, there is no reason for concern here. The Hey Google vocal cue will continue to work as the hotword for summoning Gemini, just the way it worked for Google Assistant. For devices that havent been transitioned to Gemini, using the Hey Google hotword will summon the Google Assistant without any feature limitations.GoogleIn order to make the switch seamless, especially in terms of familiarity for users, Google will also be porting over some of the user data from Google Assistant to Gemini. Assuming users have already provided the necessary on-device permissions, Gemini will automatically get access to details such as calls and messaging history. We will use some preferences and history from Google Assistant when we upgrade your device to Gemini, says Google in a support document. Thankfully, users wont be running into a functional wall. In the coming months, Gemini will also take a look at your Search history to give more personalized answers. Down the road, it will be able to interact with Photos, too.Why is this a better deal? Gemini is almost a fundamental upgrade over Google Assistant, down to the foundation tech stack. Where Google Assistant was an AI product built atop natural language understanding capabilities, Gemini stands out as a natural language chatbot that is capable of language understanding as well as reasoning.Nadeem Sarwar / Digital TrendsUnlike Google Assistant, Gemini is more like a knowledge bank that has been trained on a whole corpus of information and works offline for a wide range of on-device tasks. It can handle free-flowing conversations in multiple languages, but where it reigns supreme is its understanding of various input formats. For example, you can upload a PDF file and Gemini will break it down for you. It can accept pictures, text, audio, and even live video as an input format. In technical terms, it is called multi-modal processing. Gemini is also capable of image generation. Talking about comprehension capabilities, Gemini can solve complex science, maths, and coding-related problems the kind of stuff Google Assistant cant handle. In the coming months, with the rollout of Project Astra, Gemini will also be able to understand the world around you, as seen through the camera in real-time.Nadeem Sarwar / Digital TrendsBut there are a few other features that go far beyond what Google Assistant could ever accomplish. For example, the newly free Deep Research tool can perform comprehensive web research and create a full-fledged report in a matter of minutes, a task that would otherwise take hours of internet search and documentation. Then we have Gems, which is essentially a user-generated custom version of the Gemini assistant, trained to perform a certain task. Any person can create these Gems, without any coding knowledge, and by using only natural language instructions. So far, Gems and Deep Research have been limited to paying subscribers, but Google made them available to all users for free in March this year. Another notable aspect of Gemini is that it comes in multiple formats, each with its own set of capabilities. Google Assistant was more of a one-size-fits-all approach. With Gemini, users can pick between models based on the complexity of the task at hand.Nadeem Sarwar / DigitalTrendsFor example, if you want it to answer questions based on a 200-page book you uploaded, the Pro model is the best choice. Otherwise, the Flash model is snappy and capable enough for your average virtual assistant tasks.In a nutshell, Gemini is a massive upgrade over Google Assistant, both in terms of sheer capabilities as well as versatility. And if you own a high-end phone that can run the Gemini Nano model natively, the AI assistant will handle tasks like live translation without even requiring an internet connection. Editors Recommendations

Months before the shows second season is set to debut, Disney has confirmed thatPercy Jackson and the Olympianswill be back for a third season. The show, which is adapted from a series of popular YA novels by Rick Riordan, will be adapting the third novel in the series,The Titans Curse. Disney also confirmed that the shows second season will debut in December, almost exactly two years after the first season debuted in 2023.Were so grateful to be continuing the story of Percy Jackson on Disney+. This third season will be new territory for the screen, bringing fan favorites like the Hunters of Artemis and Nico di Angelo to life for the first time, Riordan said in a statement. Its a huge sign of commitment from Disney, and speaks volumes about the enthusiasm with which the fandom has embraced the TV show. Thank you, demigods worldwide!Recommended VideosThe shows third season will be the first time it adapts material that has never made it to the screen before, as the first two books were adapted into movies in 2010 and 2013, respectively.Please enable Javascript to view this contentThe shows second season recently wrapped filming in Vancouver.It feels older. It feels comfortable, but different, star Walter Scobell said of the second season in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. Weve gotten so much of that expository stuff out of the way we have so much more room to play and work with our characters a little more freely.We dont know when the third season might debut, but it seems like Disney is taking its time with the adaptation.Editors Recommendations

We, robots Behind the scenes of The Electric State Production designer Dennis Gassner: "I have one fallback position: when in doubt, make it beautiful." Jennifer Ouellette Mar 15, 2025 11:44 am | 10 Credit: Netflix Credit: Netflix Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreAnthony and Joe Russo's new sci-fi adventure film, The Electric State, is adapted from the graphic novel by Swedish artist/designer SimonStlenhag. So naturally the directors wanted to create their own distinctive look and tonecomplete with a colorful array of quirky misfit robots who team up with their human counterparts to take down an evil corporation.(Some spoilers below but no major reveals.)The Electric State is Stlenhag's third book, published in 2018. Like much of work, it's set in a dystopian, ravaged landscape: a reimagined America in an alternate 1990s where a war between robots and humans has devastated the country. Paragraphs of text, accompanied by larger artworks, tell the story of a teen girl named Michelle (Milly Bobby Brown) who must travel across the country with her robot companion, Cosmo (Alan Tudyk), to find her long-lost genius brother, Christopher (Woody Norman), while being pursued by a federal agent (Giancarlo Esposito).Screenwriter Christopher Markus introduced the Russo brothers the book, which they felt "encapsulated the zeitgeist in terms of what's happening in this moment between humans and our connection to technology," Anthony Russo said. Tonally, they were inspired by 1980s Amblin Entertainment movies, albeit with a darker tinge. And film is a different medium than a book, so the brothers made several changes to the source material.In the movie, Michelle and Cosmo reluctantly join forces with a smuggler named Keats (Chris Pratt) and his wisecracking robot sidekick, Herman (Anthony Mackie). Eventually they find themselves in the Exclusion Zone, a walled-off corner in the desert where robots now exist on their own. There they find additional allies in Dr. Amherst (Ke Huy Quan) and a colorful assortment of robots: Mr. Peanut (Woody Harrelson), Popfly (Brian Cox), Penny Pal (Jenny Slate) Perplex (Hank Azaria), Garbage Bot (Billy Gardell), and Mrs. Scissors (Susan Leslie), among others. Stanley Tucci plays chief villain Ethan Skate, the man behind Christopher's disappearance whose plans are far more diabolical than Michelle ever imagined.The directors adopted more of a colorful 1990s aesthetic than the haunting art that originally inspired their film. While some fans of Stlenhag's work expressed disappointment at this artistic choice, the artist himself had nothing but praise. "When you paint or draw something, you can do anything," Stlenhag has said. 'There are no constraints other than the time you spend painting. To see a live action movie make something I painted and to see it so truthfully translated impressed me on all levels."Bringing a vision to lifeThe task of bringing that aesthetic to the screen fell to people like Oscar-winning production designer Dennis Gassner, whose many credits include Barton Fink, Bugsy, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Truman Show, Blade Runner 2049, Skyfall, Quantum of Solace, Spectre, Into the Woods, and Big Fish. (In fact, there's a carousel featured in the design of the Happyland amusement park that Gassner first used in Big Fish.) He and Richard L. Johnson (Pacific Rim, The Avengers) led a team that not only designed and constructed more than 100 sets for the film, but also created a host of original robot characters to augment the ones featured in Stlenhag's book. On set during filming of The Electric State Netflix On set during filming of The Electric State Netflix Milly Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, and Ke Huy Quan play Michelle, Keats, and Dr. Amherst, respectively. Netflix Milly Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, and Ke Huy Quan play Michelle, Keats, and Dr. Amherst, respectively. Netflix Col. Marshall Bradbury (Giancarlo Esposito) has orders to track down the robot Cosmo from Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci). Netflix Col. Marshall Bradbury (Giancarlo Esposito) has orders to track down the robot Cosmo from Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci). Netflix Milly Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, and Ke Huy Quan play Michelle, Keats, and Dr. Amherst, respectively. Netflix Col. Marshall Bradbury (Giancarlo Esposito) has orders to track down the robot Cosmo from Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci). Netflix All the robots featured in the film have their own stories, "distinct personalities and emotional arcs," per Anthony Russo. The directors wanted the robots to "feel authentic to the alternate 1990s but still had roots in recognizable designs," according to Joe Russothe kinds of things one would see in vintage commercials, shopping malls, corporate branding, and so forth. "Everything is story," Gassner told Ars. "Story is paramount. What story are you telling? Who are the characters in this story? What are their environments? How do they feel within the environments?"Gassner's team designed about 175 robots all told, selecting their favorites to be featured in the final film. "It's like a great casting call," Gassner said. "So we played a lot, there was a long time of development in the art department between myself and a vast team of artists. We worked very closely with the visual effects department, but what the characters look like are part of the art department, and our collaboration with Joe and Anthony Russo on the study of characters. That was the fun part, getting the shape right, the character right, the color right, the clothing right."Gassner's personal favorites were the giant rubber ducky robots. "My wife has a lot of rubber duckies in the bath, and I was going, 'Got to have the rubber duckies in the movie because it'll make her laugh,'" he said.The design of Cosmo proved to be uniquely challenging because he's portrayed in the book as having a gigantic headyet if one were to design an actual robot with those proportions, the robot would topple over. "That was constant, it's always about proportion," said Gassner. "Proportion and color and shape and little nuances as you got into the development of the characters. It's like making anything live, it's a constant flow of creative talent to bring them to life."Ultimately, the team made Cosmo's head a little smaller and added piston armatures to the joints to support the head. Cosmo's design also received the Stlenhag seal of approval; he declared, "the way Cosmo moves is very close to what I had in mind." Michelle with her robot companion Cosmo. Netflix Michelle with her robot companion Cosmo. Netflix Herman (Anthony Mackie) can change sizes, an ability that comes in handy. Netflix Herman (Anthony Mackie) can change sizes, an ability that comes in handy. Netflix Michelle with her robot companion Cosmo. Netflix Herman (Anthony Mackie) can change sizes, an ability that comes in handy. Netflix Mr. Peanut's NUTmobile can be rented as an AirBnB. Netflix Mr. Peanut's NUTmobile can be rented as an AirBnB. Netflix Michelle and her misfit robot allies prepare to defend Happyland. Netflix Michelle and her misfit robot allies prepare to defend Happyland. Netflix Mr. Peanut's NUTmobile can be rented as an AirBnB. Netflix Michelle and her misfit robot allies prepare to defend Happyland. Netflix Bonus: roboticist Dennis Hong of the University of California, Los Angeles, one of the film's science consultants, built an actual working version of Cosmo for the premiere and similar promotional events that can walk and wave its head. Once again, the concept art for Cosmothe huge head, the huge bootsproved difficult, as did the necessity of packing the battery, computer, sensors, actuators and other components into a relatively small body. Among other innovations, Hong's team developed a new type of actuator that functions like artificial muscles to give their robot the desired lifelike motion.The sets also had their own distinctive aesthetics, such as the grimly sterile brutalist look of Sentre Technologies HQ, or the kitschy relics from the 1980s and 1990s that litter Keats' base of operations in an abandoned mine. The most serendipitous find was the abandoned Blue Sky Acres Mall just outside of Atlanta, with a hub-and-spoke layout that made it ideal as a sanctuary set for the misfit robots."We could have never afforded to build something that massive," said Gassner. "It was a magical place to us." The production was able to retrofit many of the original mall storefronts and kiosks, imagining how a misfit band of robots might use the space. So a pizza oven became a metal recycling center; a noodle bar was festooned wth colorful fiber-optic cables; a sunglasses kiosk became a rewiring station, while a juice bar became a charging station. Mr. Peanut lives in the NUTmobile, a peanut-shaped van lent to the film by Planters."I've done 40 films in my day, and every film has a particular quality to it," said Gassner. "I have one fallback position: when in doubt, make it beautiful. That always seems to work. Make them look cool, make them look interesting, make them exciting, give them character, have fun with them. What are they going to do? Make them scary, make them weird, make them all those things."The Electric State is now streaming on Netflix.Jennifer OuelletteSenior WriterJennifer OuelletteSenior Writer Jennifer is a senior writer at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban. 10 Comments

2025-03-15T15:56:01Z Read in app The author got a kitten for her daughter (not pictured). Mariia Zotova/Getty Images This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? I resisted to get a pet for my daughter for a while.I couldn't resist a 6-week-old kitten named Luna. I didn't anticipate how having a cat would help me when my kids are at their dad's house. At first, I was extremely reluctant to get a pet as a newly divorced mom of two. Whenever my 7-year-old daughter Vivian asked if we could get a kitten for her birthday, I imagined it would only be more work for me, more money spent, and it would claw at the newly purchased couch. However, just for fun, we scrolled kittens at an animal shelter, and we were both awed by a black kitten who was only 6 weeks old.At the sight of Luna, I finally caved.The cat wasn't a burden as I thoughtI'll never forget my daughter dashing into my apartment to see her kitten and cuddle it. Luna and Vivian were quite a pair during their first week together. The next week, it was just me and Luna, and it hit me: as a divorced parent, splitting time with my kids week to week, I would see Luna much more than my daughter would.To my surprise, I realized a cat wasn't a burden; caring for Luna was exactly what I needed to lower my stress and distract my heartache when I missed my kids.Luna has become my constant companion I didn't know I needed. During the last two and half years, she has become, the therapy cat I didn't know I needed, making me smile when I'm lonely and bringing out my nurturing energy and playfulness.When she was little, she kneaded my chest and fell asleep on me. I stayed still as we lay together, which reminded me of holding an infant. Luna has her own toy box, she chases feathers and mouse-shaped toys, but mostly, she likes chewing on my daughter's hair ties that have fallen on the bathroom floor.Now Luna is bigger and rests next to my leg while I sleep, as though guarding me and always nearby. I will admit waking up with Luna by my side and her tail brushing against my leg as a sweet hello that brings new joy to my day.She keeps me company when the house is emptyWhen I return from dropping my kids off at their dad's home, a heavy sadness slumps my shoulders, but when I open the door to my apartment and say, "Luna," she is usually already waiting by the door. Knowing she is waiting there for me melts my heart.Filling her food dish, tidying up her litter box, and giving her a treat helps to simmer the ache I carry and my longing for my kids a little bit. Playing a toss game with those hair ties for her to catch with her paws reminds me of playing with my kids in the park when they were little.I'll admit, when my kids aren't here, I talk to Luna throughout the day. Saying things like "Good morning, Luna." "Come on, Luna, let's go get some coffee." and"Luna, I'll be back. I'm going to run errands."I know during my terrible divorce I would have loved to have Luna's eyes and whiskers to look at and soft fur to pet, her cuteness would have made me feel less lonely when my family was breaking apart.Until Luna, I didn't know caring for a pet could uplift my mood each day. Becoming a cat person has become something I now love, and I only wish we had adopted one sooner.

2025-03-15T15:35:24Z Read in app Will Smith and Alfonso Ribeiro. NBC This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? Will Smith previously credited his creative relationship with Alfonso Ribeiro with helping "transform" his life.The pair starred together in the classic '90s sitcom "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air."Ribeiro has now shared an insight into one acting tip that made a lasting impression on Smith."Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" star Alfonso Ribeiro has opened up on his creative relationship with Will Smith.Appearing on "The Jennifer Hudson Show" this week, Ribeiro spoke about how he and the Oscar-winning actor created comedy gold on the classic '90s sitcom after Smith credited Ribeiro with helping change his life in a 2024 appearance on Vice's "Black Comedy in America."In the December Vice episode, Smith heaped praise on Ribeiro's work ethic when they were rehearsing the show and shed light on a key acting tip Ribeiro gave him."Nobody commits as hard as Alf," Smith said. "We call it the 'comedic limb.' You know where you're going to try this joke, and you're going go out there with it, and you're going to risk it all. And one of his big things, why he would commit so hard with the lines, he says, 'You commit so the writers can know it doesn't work.'"Ribeiro, who played Carlton Banks, the preppy cousin of Smith's character in the show, told Hudson that it was "wonderful" to hear Smith's comments."Will is my brother for life and our friendship and bond has now withstood the time of four or five decades. He's absolutely the best," the 53-year-old continued, adding: "Part of it's true.""I believe that part of what I received on 'Fresh Prince' was because of the hard work that I would put in. Going 100% in all rehearsals allowed writers to write better lines for me," he said.He went on: "Other actors may not give 100%, and then you're on show night, and that joke that didn't work on Tuesday is still there on Friday, but because you never showed them it didn't work they kept it in the script, and then it bombed flat on the night."Ribeiro added that he strived to have such an attitude not just with his work but with his entire life. "Anything less than being 100% just doesn't make sense to me.""The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" ran for six seasons between 1990 and 1996 and helped launch Smith's acting career.The show was rebooted as "Bel-Air" on Peacock in 2022, with Jabari Banks taking on the main role as Will and Olly Sholotan playing Carlton.

Bit Reactor and Respawn's turn-based tactics game will have its grand unveiling at Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo, Japan.