A whole range of invisible effects work, make-up effects enhancements, and more. Note: this breakdown contains nudity.The post Watch CGEVs VFX breakdown for The Substance appeared first on befores & afters.

PresidentDonald Trumphas abruptly fired the director of the National Security Agency, according to U.S. officials and members of Congress, but the White House and the Pentagon have provided no reasons for the move.Senior military leaders were informed Thursday of the firing of Air ForceGen. Tim Haugh, who also oversaw the Pentagons Cyber Command, the officials said. They received no advance notice about the decision to remove a four-star general with a 33-year career in intelligence and cyber operations, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel decisions.The move has triggered sharp criticism from members of Congress and demands for an immediate explanation. And it marks the latest dismissal of national security officials by Trump at a time when his Republican administration faces criticism over his failure to take any action against other key leadersuse of an unclassified Signal messaging chatthat included The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to discuss plans for a military strike.Its unclear who now is in charge of the NSA and the Cyber Command.Also fired was Haughs civilian deputy at the NSA, Wendy Noble.The NSA notified congressional leadership and top lawmakers of the national security committees of the firing late Wednesday but did not give reasons, according to a person familiar with the situation who insisted on anonymity to discuss the matter. The person said Noble has been reassigned to the office of the defense undersecretary for intelligence.The White House did not respond to messages seeking comment. The NSA referred questions about Haugh to the Defense Department, which had no comment Friday.Far-right activist andcommentator Laura Loomerappeared to take credit Friday in a post on X, saying she raised concerns to Trump about Haughs ties toGen. Mark Milleyand the Biden administration and questioned the NSA chiefs loyalty to the president. Milley served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during Trumps first term but has since become an outspoken critic.Given the fact that the NSA is arguably the most powerful intel agency in the world, we cannot allow for a Biden nominee to hold that position, Loomer wrote. Thank you, President Trump for being receptive to the vetting materials provided to you and thank you for firing these Biden holdovers.Loomer, who has claimed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were an inside job, had discussed staff loyalty with Trump in an Oval Office meeting Wednesday, according to several people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive personnel manner. A day later, Trump said he fired some White HouseNational Security Councilofficials.Rep. Jim Himes, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth demanding to know why Haugh and Noble were fired.Public reporting suggests that your removal of these officials was driven by a fringe social media personality, which represents a deeply troubling breach of the norms that safeguard our national security apparatus from political pressure and conspiracy theories, Himes, D-Conn., wrote.Sen. Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island, said Friday that he has long warned about the dangers of firing military officers as a political loyalty test.In addition to the other military leaders and national security officials Trump has fired, he is sending a chilling message throughout the ranks: dont give your best military advice, or you may face consequences, Reed said in a statement.He added that Trump has given a priceless gift to China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea by purging competence from our national security leadership.Another Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the U.S. was facing unprecedented cyber threats and asked how firing Haugh, who has served in the military for more than 30 years, makes America safer.Haughs firing sets off a 60-day process. Unless he is moved to another three- or four-star job in 60 days he would automatically revert to a two-star.Any new high-level job would be unlikely since that would require a nomination from Trump, who just fired him. As a result, Haugh, who was confirmed for the NSA job in a unanimous Senate vote in December 2023, would likely retire.Trump hasnt commented on Haugh or Noble, but on Thursday he dismissed the National Security Council firings as normal.Always were letting go of people, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he made his way to Miami on Thursday afternoon. People that we dont like or people that we dont think can do the job or people that may have loyalties to somebody else.The firings come as Trumps national security adviser, Mike Waltz, fightscalls for his ousterafter using the publicly available encryptedSignal appto discuss planning for a sensitive March 15 military operation targeting Houthi militants in Yemen.Warner called it astonishing that Trump would fire the nonpartisan, experienced leader of the National Security Agency while still failing to hold any member of his team accountable for leaking classified information on a commercial messaging app even as he apparently takes staffing direction on national security from a discredited conspiracy theorist in the Oval Office.Haugh met last month withElon Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency has roiled the federal government by slashing personnel and budgets at dozens of agencies. In a statement, the NSA said the meeting was intended to ensure both organizations are aligned with the new administrations priorities.Haugh had led both the NSA and Cyber Command since 2023. Both departments play leading roles in the nations cybersecurity. The NSA also supports the military and other national security agencies by collecting and analyzing a vast amount of data and information globally.Cyber Command is known as Americas first line of defense in cyberspace and also plans offensive cyberoperations for potential use against adversaries.Lolita C. Baldor and Lisa Mascaro, Associated PressAssociated Press writers Matthew Lee, Aamer Madhani, Zeke Miller, David Klepper, and Lou Kesten contributed to this report.

Youd be forgiven for mistaking it for a prop straight out of Blade Runner 2049a cross between a drone and a dieselpunk art installation. But the Cyclotech Blackbird is very real, very airborne, and potentially the boldest reimagining of vertical flight weve seen in years. Forget spinning rotors and tilt wings. This machine flies on six mechanical barrels that look more at home in a gearbox than the sky.The Blackbird isnt a full-sized eVTOL yetits a 750-pound demonstrator with zero seating and all the raw, experimental energy of a garage-built prototypebut its making history as the first aircraft ever to fly using six Cyclorotors. If that sounds like a new indie rock band, lets get technical: Cyclorotors are essentially horizontal barrels with a rim of paddle-like blades, each capable of tilting mid-spin. Think Voith-Schneider Propeller meets Da Vinci sketchbook.Designer: CycloTechJust looking at it, it feels counterintuitive. Helicopters adjust pitch on long, spindly blades rotating around a central mast. Cyclotechs system instead manipulates the tilt of short airfoils housed inside rotating drums Im in half minds to throw my clothes in and expect them to dry. The whole mechanism is a throwback to the swashplate designs of classic rotorcraft, but here, the blade adjustments are so rapid and precise they can redirect thrust 360 degrees on the flyliterally. Unlike conventional props that need to spool up or down to modulate thrust, Cyclorotors shift airflow direction on demand by altering blade orientation. Thats not a marginal upgradeits a different language of control.What does that mean in the sky? Micro-adjustments to keep hover stable in gusty wind. Immediate lateral thrust without banking. Redundancy across multiple axis-aligned rotors. And a footprint compact enough to not look totally dystopian on a rooftop pad. The current prototype has four Cyclorotors at each corner and two more mounted horizontally under the nose and tail. This six-pack layout allows the aircraft to twist, slide, or climb without angling its bodyideal for surgical maneuvers in crowded airspace.But lets not gloss over the awkward bits. Cyclotechs voodoo barrels are mechanically complex, with a moving-part count that might make aerospace engineers sweat. And the blades, while arguably less intimidating than traditional rotors, still look like they could julienne a bird mid-flight. Theres also the looming reality that this thing wont hit consumer or commercial markets before 2035an eternity in eVTOL years.Yet Cyclotech isnt sprinting to market with air taxi dreams and urban mobility decks. The real play here is propulsion tech. Their goal isnt to win the flying car raceits to build an engine platform that can be licensed across platforms, from drones to emergency VTOLs to cargo craft. Its a modular, mechanical idea in an age of batteries and software.Speaking of specs, the envisioned production modeltentatively called CruiseUpis aimed at personal ownership. A two-seater with a top speed of 93 mph (150 km/h) and a max range of 62 miles (100 km) sounds humble, but keep in mind this isnt an airliner. Its a city-hopper, a flying commuter capsule for the well-heeled futurist. Range anxiety? Sure. But its enough for suburb-to-downtown hops, especially in traffic-choked megacities.And if youre wondering about the ride experience, Cyclorotors could deliver surprisingly smooth motion. Unlike quadcopters that jostle with every micro-correction, Blackbirds 360-degree thrust vectoring promises a more composed hover and agile, side-slip maneuvers that resemble underwater thruster dynamics more than airborne flight.Theres a whiff of nostalgia baked into the entire endeavor. It recalls an era when flight felt experimental againwhen engineers were allowed to be weird and curious, and prototypes werent just sleek renderings but awkward, brilliant machines with exposed parts and ambitious dreams. The Blackbird is very much that. Aesthetically odd. Mechanically dense. Technically ambitious. And more than anything, a signal that aviations next leap might not be software-defined or purely electricbut mechanically radical.Its early days still, with test flights likely consisting of cautious hops and brief hovers. But the concept is up, airborne, and pivoting in the air like a sci-fi dragonfly. Cyclotechs approach wont dethrone the tiltrotors or ducted fans of the world anytime soon. But it might make them rethink what agility, control, and mechanical elegance really look like in the sky.The post Worlds Weirdest Flying Car Uses Spinning Drums Instead Of Propellers For Better Stability first appeared on Yanko Design.

Dev Brendon Chung explains why old "laser-focused" tech still matters.

A successful reflight of SpaceX's Super Heavy booster would be an important milestone for its Starship program.

The tech market lost 29,000 jobs in March, even as the unemployment rate for tech-related jobs slipped 0.1% to 3.1%, according to an analysis of US Labor Department data released today.At the same time, tech sector employment fell by 8,428 jobs last month, driven largely by job cuts in tech services and telecommunications, according to CompTIA, a non-profit IT trade association that analyzed figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)The BLS data, CompTIA said, sent conflicting signals about the IT job market as uncertainty around it accelerated.With many employers in wait-and-see mode, the jobs data is about in line with expectations for the month, said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA.Overall, US job growth beat expectations, with the broader economy adding 228,000 positions. Thats nearly 100,000 more than the 135,000 economists had predicted would be added. Conversely, the federal government lost 4,000 jobs, due to reduction in force efforts by the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).Victor Janulaitis, CEO of IT industry research firm Janco Associates, said DOGEs impact is causing IT contracts to be delayed, leaving government IT professionals uncertain about their future.The overall US unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.2% in March, just 0.1% higher than in February. Previous US job gains for January and February were revised down by a total of 48,000, with January reduced by 14,000 and February by 34,000, according to BLS data.In the first quarter of 2025, the IT job market shrank by 34,200 jobs, according to Janulaitis. The number of unemployed IT professionals dropped slightly in March to 133,000 from 148,000 at the start of the year. We believe that many low-skilled, legacy-skilled IT pros, or displaced IT professionals have stopped looking for jobs in the IT sector, he said.CompTIA said new employee job postings for tech occupations rose slightly to more than 213,000. In all, there were nearly 478,000 active tech job postings last month. Industry sectors adding the most new tech job postings included professional, scientific and technical services (52,526), administrative and support services (26,099) and manufacturing (21,975).Software developers and engineers, tech support specialists, systems engineers and architects, and cybersecurity engineers and analysts were in highest demand, according to CompTIA. Positions in artificial intelligence (AI) or that require AI skills accounted for 21% of all active tech job postings. And half of all tech job postings did not require a four-year academic degree.Several industry experts saw the uptick in overall hiring and steady unemployment rates as a good omen.Martha Heller, CEO of executive search firm Heller, called the BLS jobs report healthy, and said it reinforces the plain truth that technology innovation (primarily AI) will drive up employment. In every sector, companies need people to realize the return on their AI investments, and while those people are often technologists, the AI employment boom will expand to include a broader range of skills.With the nearly certain instability that our current economic policy brings, technology and the people who can use it to navigate uncertainty will have job security for a long time, Heller said.Kye Mitchell,head of US tech recruiting firm Experis North America, sees AI as a boon for all businesses. In the tech sector, our real-time data shows that businesses are addressing their AI needs by focusing on their data to be prepared to best leverage AI in this new era, he said.Quarter over quarter, demand for data analysis and cleansing has risen sharply, he said. For example, roles for data scientists are up 238%. Database architect positions rose 142%. And, job openings for mathematicians were up 1,272%, Mitchell said.Additionally, theres a growing need for executive management, indicating businesses are relying on leadership to drive AI integration, he said. The impact of recent economic policy shifts on AI worker demand is still unfolding, and market uncertainty may lead to longer decision timelines and adjustments.Others familiar with the tech industry saw the latest jobs report as positive, including Ger Doyle, US country manager at global staffing firm ManpowerGroup. Todays jobs report is a welcome sign, given the negative indicators we saw leading into it. While the US labor market is proving to be resilient, there are signs of cooling that are consistent with employers navigating uncertainty.ManpowerGroup data shows a 2% overall decline in all job postings and a 3% drop in new job postings. While the labor market appears stable, Doyle said employers remain cautious, with the exception of healthcare and education sectors.Uncertainty is keeping both employers and employees from making moves, leading businesses to focus on maintaining current workforces but considering adjustments if the uncertainty persists, he said.Janulaitis said interviews he performed with more than 100 CFOs and CIOs revealed optimism about Trump administration, though many anticipate a mild economic downturn in mid-2025. Unemployed IT pros found jobs faster than expected as CIOs quickly filled positions while hiring was still authorized, he said.`

A Japanese chipmaker you've probably never heard of wants to power Apple's future artificial intelligence server farms.Manufacturing for AppleRapidus, Japan's ambitious semiconductor startup, is moving quickly toward becoming a key supplier for advanced AI chips. The company has reportedly initiated talks with Apple, Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft.The supplier is aiming to secure agreements for mass-producing cutting-edge 2-nanometer chips by 2027. Although it trails behind TSMC, Rapidus CEO Atsuyoshi Koike believes the company can close that gap with more advanced manufacturing techniques. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

The stiff tariffs soon to be imposed on foreign countries at the remit of the Trump Administration will inflate the cost of building a new home by an average of $9,200, according to a recent NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) survey.While nationally the median value of a new home reached $414,500 in March according to U.S. Census Bureau data, the broad-ranging tariffs on goods from China, the EU, Canada, Japan, and Mexico will further increase the cost of doing business for homebuilders with states such as North Carolina, Delaware, and Utah feeling a particular impact due to the share of new construction in their local markets.The ability of domestic building materials manufacturers to fill the need in time is unlikely due to lingering labor and supply chain issues left over from the pandemic. The NAHB estimates that 85% of all softwood lumber products come from Canada alone, turningthe exemptions granted to producersfrom there and Mexicointo at least one "major win...

FromSoftwares The Duskbloods proved one of the bigger surprises for the Nintendo Switch 2, though its also relatively new for the developer. As a PvEvP title, the focus is on multiplayer as you control the Bloodsworn and compete for the First Blood as humanity ends.In a Creators Voice interview with Nintendo, director Hidetaka Miyazaki revealed more details about the Bloodsworn and their abilities. There are several reasons we put the players focus on the Bloodsworn with one of those being character actions.The Bloodsworn possess superhuman abilities thanks to special blood, so their actions are more dramatic than anything seen in our previous titles. Even basic character actions in this game, such as sprinting, super jump, and double jump, are designed to be dynamic and stress-free and are complemented by each characters unique weapons and abilities, allowing for a wide range of creativity.Each Bloodsworn can also attack at range, with some possessing firearms. While each match can have up to eight players, there are over a dozen different characters to choose from, each with their own identity and appearance.I think there are a lot of unique elements to the character designs and the weapons they use, so hopefully, players can find one or two favorites among them, said Miyazaki. He also confirmed that players can customize them to a certain extent and build a character that feels like their own.The Duskbloods launches in 2026 as a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive. Stay tuned for more details in the coming year. In the meantime, FromSoftware is bringing Elden Ring to the platform with the Tarnished Edition, which includes the base game, Shadow of the Erdtree and some new items.

There Might Be Something Human in the Way Bonobos CommunicateTheir Calls Share a Key Trait With Our Language, Study SuggestsResearchers attempted to decode bonobo calls by recording their social context, then analyzed how the primates string together these vocalizations A young bonobo female responds to group members. Martin Surbeck, Kokolopori Bonobo Research ProjectScientists have long considered the complexity of language to be an obvious separation between humans and all other life forms on Earth. New research, however, suggests our linguistic abilities might not be as unique as we thought.Researchers studied the vocal behavior of wild bonoboswhich are among humans closest living relativesand concluded their oral communication features complex combinations that are potentially similar to those found in human language. Their work is detailed in a study published Thursday in the journal Science and hints at the evolutionary origin of our own communication.We would never say that bonobos have language, because language is specific to humans. Its our very special communication system, Simon Townsend, a comparative psychologist at the University of Zurich and a co-author of the study, tells NBC News Evan Bush. However, were showing that features of language seem to be present in the communication system of bonobos.In linguistics, compositionality is the principle in which the meaning of a phrase is determined by the meaning of its constituent words and the way they relate to each other. In basic, or trivial, compositionality, the meaning of a phrase is simply the addition of the meaning of its words. For example, a blond dancer is an individual who is blond and a dancer, as explained in a statement from the University of Zurich.In nontrivial compositionality, a word within a phrase modifies another. A bad dancer, for example, is not a person who is bad and also a dancer. Bad specifically relates to the dancing, together meaning an individual who dances poorly. While some animal vocal communication features trivial compositionality, researchers used to assume that nontrivial compositionality was unique to humans.Its the force behind languages creativity and productivity, Townsend tells the New York Times Carl Zimmer. Theoretically, you can come up with any phrase that has never been uttered before. Tupac, a young male bonobo, scratches his head. Lukas Bierhoff, Kokolopori Bonobo Research ProjectThe new study, however, suggests bonobos oral communication relies on both trivial and nontrivial compositionality.To conclude this, Townsend and his colleagues studied adult bonobos at the Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They recorded 700 vocalizations along with the contexts in which they were used. Then, they borrowed linguistic techniques to investigate the meaning of individual calls.We kind of established this dictionary, Mlissa Berthet, lead author of the study and an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Zurich, tells New Scientists Sophie Berdugo. We have one vocalization and one meaning.The team classified bonobos sounds into various categoriespeep, grunt, yelp, high-hoot and low-hoot. They used the context of each vocalization type to determine what it might mean. Scientists translate the grunt, for instance, as look at me and the yelp as a rigid imperative: Lets do that.With this understanding of individual vocalizations, they relied on yet another linguistic method to analyze call combinations, testing how their meaning relates to the meanings of their component calls. If the meaning of a series of calls was differentbut derivedfrom its two parts, and different from the parts merely added together, the team concluded that it was an example of nontrivial compositionality.They ultimately identified several examples. A high-hoot (pay attention to me) with a low-hoot (I am excited) together appeared to mean something like: Pay attention to me, because I am in distress. And a peep (I would like to) with a whistle (lets stay together) was used in intimate contexts like sex or displays of dominance.While the nontrivial compositionality they detected in bonobos is significantly less complex than the one employed in human language, Townsend tells Scientific Americans Cody Cottier that it represents another layer chipped away from the assumed differences between humans and animals. Olive, a first-time bonobo mother, vocalizes toward distant group members. Lukas Bierhoff, Kokolopori Bonobo Research ProjectTownsend and colleagues had previously detected hints of nontrivial compositionality in chimpanzees. Now, however, its the first time in any animal species that there is an unambiguous evidence for nontrivial syntax, nontrivial compositionality, and so that changes the game, says Mal Leroux, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Rennes in France who was not involved in the study, to New Scientist.Not all researchers agree, though. Thom Scott-Phillips, a cognitive scientist from Central European University who was also not involved in the study, is critical of the teams criteria for detecting nontrivial compositionality, per Scientific American. He thinks even signaling in bacteria might meet most of the authors requirements: If they go and do the same work with [bacteria], and they dont find it, he says, that would be a challenge to someone like me.If confirmed, however, the study would have important implications for the ancient evolution of language. Humans and bonobos might have inherited nontrivial compositionality from our last common ancestor, who walked the Earth around 7 million to 13 million years ago, asMartin Surbeck, a co-author of the study and researcher at Harvard Universitys department of human evolutionary biology, points out in the statement.Thus, the cognitive building blocks that facilitate this capacity is at least seven million years old, says Townsend to the Guardians Nicola Davis. And I think that is a really cool finding.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.