As part of their ongoing celebration of the Hubble Space Telescope's 35th anniversary, NASA and ESA have shared a new image of the Eagle Nebula, specifically a "spire of cosmic gas and dust" that's in a region last captured by the telescope two decades ago. The tower in the image is 9.5 light years tall, according to NASA and ESA, and only a portion of the larger Eagle Nebula, which is considered a "nursery" for young stars. The tower's unique mix of oranges and dark blues is thanks to a combination of swirling hydrogen gas and space dust. The nebula's "Eagle" name comes from how it looks when you pan across it, where edge clouds like the one in the image look like the wings of a giant bird of prey. ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll As of late, the James Webb Space Telescope has become the designated source for spectacular images of space, but clearly Hubble still has some juice in it, too. Some of that is thanks to "new data processing techniques" that are being applied to the images captured by the telescope.  The Eagle Nebula is just one of several celestial targets Hubble is revisiting for its 35th anniversary. By capturing different angles and using data differently, the telescope is able to produce more spectacularly colored images. There's no major discoveries made with these "reruns," but they are, without a doubt, even cooler than before. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/celebrate-the-35th-anniversary-of-the-hubble-space-telescope-with-a-gigantic-tower-of-gas-and-dust-184340147.html?src=rss

Ryan Gosling will play an all-new character in 'Star Wars: Starfighter' a new standalone film set after 'The Rise of Skywalker' that hits theater on May 28, 2027.

Volvo Group plans to lay off as many as 800 workers at three U.S. facilities over the next three months due to market uncertainty and demand concerns in the face of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, a spokesperson said on Friday. Volvo Group North America said in a statement it has told employees it plans to lay off 550-800 people at its Mack Trucks site in Macungie, Pennsylvania, and two Volvo Group facilities in Dublin, Virginia, and Hagerstown, Maryland. The company, part of Sweden’s AB Volvo, employs nearly 20,000 people in North America, according to its website. Trump has upended the global trading system that has been in place for over 75 years with a plan for tariffs on products from across the world. His vacillating trade policy has undermined consumer and business confidence, and caused economists to raise their forecasts for a U.S. recession. Volvo Group’s lay-offs are the latest response from a car and truck industry that is reeling from the Republican president’s tariffs on certain parts, which is expected to increase the cost of manufacturing vehicles. “Heavy-duty truck orders continue to be negatively affected by market uncertainty about freight rates and demand, possible regulatory changes, and the impact of tariffs,” a spokesperson for Volvo Group North America said in an emailed statement. “We regret having to take this action, but we need to align production with reduced demand for our vehicles.” —Chris Prentice, Reuters

In a world brimming with cookie-cutter ceramics and all-too-familiar furniture, standing out often takes a splash of bold color, a twist of creativity, and a generous helping of quirk. That’s exactly what you get with these Cheeseburger Stackable Snack Plates, a playful yet practical tableware set that turns heads and sparks conversations. At first glance, the set looks like a glossy, cartoon-style cheeseburger stacked high and ready to devour. But a closer look reveals its clever design: six ceramic plates, each shaped and colored to represent a classic cheeseburger ingredient. The golden-brown “top bun” and “bottom bun” serve as shallow bowls, perfect for dips or sauces. Sandwiched in between are four vibrant plates: bright red for ketchup, sunny yellow for cheese, crisp green for lettuce, and deep brown for a juicy patty. Designer: The Farm Brunch Click Here to Buy Now Each dish in this adorable set ranges from 3.7 to 4.1 inches in diameter, making them the ideal size for a variety of small bites, think sushi, condiments, side dishes, fruit, or desserts. Planning a burger night? Use the individual plates to serve all your toppings, from chopped onions to pickles, and let guests build their burgers in style. These plates are so charming, even picky eaters and little ones might be tempted to snack a bit more enthusiastically. But this set isn’t just about novelty, it’s built to last. Crafted from high-quality ceramic, each plate is glazed on both sides for a glossy, high-shine finish that resists fading, scratches, and everyday wear. Whether you’re plating hot sliders or chilled veggies, these dishes are up to the task. They’re dishwasher-safe for easy cleanup and conveniently stack into their iconic burger shape, making them a clever space-saving solution for small kitchens or crowded shelves. Visually, the cheeseburger stack brings a pop-art flair to your dining space. Its bright, retro-inspired design adds a splash of fun to both modern apartments and cozy family homes. This isn’t just dinnerware, it’s a decorative piece that brings a smile to your face every time you reach for a plate. The multicolor layers not only make food look more appetizing, but they also elevate the overall table setting with a playful twist that never takes itself too seriously. Looking for a gift that’s fun, functional, and full of personality? These cheeseburger snack plates are a hit for any occasion: Christmas, birthdays, weddings, housewarmings, or just because. Ideal for food lovers, design enthusiasts, and anyone who enjoys a touch of whimsy in their everyday life, this set is sure to impress. So if your kitchen is craving a little more color, charm, and creativity, say goodbye to boring plates. The Cheeseburger Stackable Snack Plate set is here to serve up style, with a side of flair. Click Here to Buy Now The post Cheeseburger-Shaped Stackable Plates Are Perfect Decor For People Who Don’t Take Adulting Seriously first appeared on Yanko Design.

Preorders for the console will resume next week at the previously announced price of $450, but accessories are getting more expensive.

Sniper Elite and Zombie Army developer Rebellion launched a new IP last month in the form of Atomfall, a wonderfully bizarre new open world survival action title that has seen solid critical acclaim and player numbers to match. Earlier this month, Rebellion announced that the game had crossed 2 million players since release, and the studio now says that its day and date release on Game Pass for PC and Xbox has had a big hand to play in that success. Speaking with GamesIndustry, Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley called Atomfall’s Game Pass launch a “huge success,” calling it a “really good deal” for both the British studio and Microsoft, who, according to Kingsley, have “been a fantastic partner to work with.” “It’s been a huge success,” he said. “Microsoft has been a fantastic partner to work with, they’ve really leaned in to helping us. They brought their skills and their scale to bear on our small project, and it’s done really, really well for them, so they got a good deal, we got a good deal out of it as well.” Speaking specifically about how Microsoft’s subscription service has helped the game, Kingsley touched on the exposure the service provides to games and new IP in particular, and how that lowers the barrier to entry. “With Game Pass, you can get people to try it, then as a result of those people trying it, they like it, and they then tell their mates on social media, ‘I found this game on Game Pass, I really enjoyed it, you should have a go,'” he said. “And then some of them are on Game Pass, and will [play] it. But some of them aren’t on Game Pass, and will also want to be part of that conversation. So, they’ll go and buy it. “At least, that’s our theory – we don’t have the data in for that. But Chris [Kingsley, co-founderand CTO] and I both feel, one of the biggest challenges for a company like us is discovery. And Game Pass has allowed for a lot of discovery for our game.” Kingsley added that Game Pass helped the studio “mitigate risk.” He admitted that launching on the service does perhaps cannibalize sales, but as per the Rebellion CEO, the tradeoff makes it worth it. “Yes, it does mitigate risk, because without going into details, they guarantee you a certain level of income, regardless of what it will sell for,” he said. “But it potentially has a knock-on effect. Places like Xbox sales, for example. You could argue that all the hardcore are on Game Pass, and they’re the ones that might buy a new IP like this, so therefore, are you cannibalising one section of the audience? And I think, perhaps, yes, a little bit. But what you gain from that cost is disproportionate.” Atomfall is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Read our review of the game through here.

Now Open in Kansas City, The World’s First Barbecue Museum Is a Feast for the Senses Jump in the bean-themed ball pit, solve a pork puzzle and pose with a championship mustard belt at the new Museum of BBQ The museum is filled with interactive exhibits and activities, including a bean-themed ball pit play area. Ben Pieper Photo From tender beef brisket to succulent pork spare ribs, barbecue is a beloved staple of American cuisine and culture. You can learn all about this delicious food tradition at the Museum of BBQ, which opened on April 12 in Kansas City, Missouri. First announced last fall, the new venue houses ten interactive installations designed to educate visitors about the history and significance of smoked meats and sides. Museumgoers can touch five types of wood commonly used to fuel smokers, smell the spices often used in barbecue rubs and play a ring toss game while learning about the “smoke ring” that forms in meat during the smoking process. For young visitors—as well as those who are young at heart—the museum has a ball pit featuring 8,000 tannish-brown orbs designed to mimic barbecued beans, reports the Kansas City Star’s Tammy Ljungblad. Visitors can learn about dry rubs, sauces, meats and more. Ben Pieper Photo Other hands-on activities include a pork puzzle and a sauce room with squishy, sauce-inspired floor tiles, according to NPR’s Frank Morris. The museum’s entrance is designed to look like the door of a commercial smoker, too. A large section of the museum is dedicated to four regions of American barbecue: the Carolinas, Texas, Memphis and Kansas City. Visitors can learn about the specific barbecue traditions, customs and practices that are unique to each region. The interactive activities continue in this part of the venue, too. Guests can pose for a photo with a championship mustard belt, in a nod to the mustard-based sauce that’s so popular in South Carolina. They can also enjoy “rib ticklers,” or barbecue-themed dad jokes. For guests who want to bring home a little souvenir, the museum has a well-stocked gift shop with barbecue-themed merch, sauces, rubs, spices and other mementos. Spanning roughly 4,000 square feet, the museum is filled with colorful murals. Ben Pieper Photo The Museum of BBQ is the brainchild of Jonathan Bender, a food writer and barbecue judge who spent the past six years working on the project. He also collaborated with Alex Pope, a Kansas City butcher and chef who co-owns a whole animal butcher shop called Local Pig. For Bender, barbecue is all about the camaraderie. “One of the things I love about barbecue is that you’re going to tell me your favorite place and I’m going to tell you my favorite place,” he tells KSHB’s Tod Palmer. “We can argue or banter back and forth, but we’ll still sit down and have the meal together afterwards, which feels great.” In Bender’s opinion, Kansas City, which has more than 100 barbecue restaurants, was the perfect place to open the world’s first barbecue museum. It also hosts several competitions, including the World Series of Barbecue and the Great Lenexa BBQ Battle, and it’s home to the Barbecue Hall of Fame. A Black chef named Henry Perry first introduced Kansas City to this flavor-packed cuisine when he arrived from Memphis in the early 1900s. Perry, who called himself the “Barbecue King,” became famous for cooking meat in a brick-lined pit in the ground. “Barbecue and Kansas City have been inexorably linked for more than a century,” Bender tells WDAF-TV’s Carey Wickersham and Olivia Johnson. “It’s a true melting pot of barbecue. When we thought of where to put the museum, no other place in the world made sense.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Nintendo said today that Switch 2 preorders in the US will begin on April 24th ahead of the console’s June 5th launch day, and now GameStop, Target, and Walmart have shared exactly when you can try to snag a preorder. GameStop said on X that in-store Nintendo Switch preorders will start when “doors open” on April 24th. Online preorders will kick off that day at 11AM ET. The company also says that “all stores” will open on June 5th at 12AM ET / June 4th at 9PM PT for console launch. Target’s Switch 2 preorders will kick off on April 24th at 12AM ET, according to Target’s website. The preorder time applies to consoles, games, and accessories. Walmart’s Switch 2 preorders begin on April 24th at 12AM ET, company spokesperson Leigh Stidham tells The Verge. Walmart’s website also says that you’ll get your console before 9AM on June 5th if you preorder by June 4th at 8AM ET “while supplies last.” Best Buy has not listed a specific preorder time, but according to a post on its website, preorders for “the console, games and accessories will be available April 24 via the Best Buy Mobile App and BestBuy.com.” We’ve asked Best Buy what time preorders open. Best Buy also says that “most stores” will open for preorder pickup on June 5th at 12AM ET / June 4th at 9PM PT. We’ve also asked Amazon if it will offer Switch 2 preorders and when they may start. Nintendo originally planned to have preorders start on April 9th, but it delayed them “in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions.” As part of this morning’s announcement, Nintendo said that the Switch 2’s starting price would remain $449.99, and the bundle that includes Mario Kart World would also stay at $499.99. But accessories got price bumps, including $5 increases for the Switch 2 Joy-Con and Pro Controller. Prices could also change down the line; Nintendo said today that “other adjustments to the price of any Nintendo product are also possible in the future depending on market conditions.” Updates, April 18th: Added details from GameStop, Walmart, and Best Buy.

Mastering Hadoop, Part 1: Installation, Configuration, and Modern Big Data Strategies 0 like April 19, 2025 Share this post Author(s): Niklas Lang Originally published on Towards AI. A comprehensive guide covering Hadoop setup, HDFS commands, MapReduce, debugging, advantages, challenges, and the future of big data technologies.Photo by Nam Anh on Unsplash Nowadays, a large amount of data is collected on the internet, which is why companies are faced with the challenge of being able to store, process, and analyze these volumes efficiently. Hadoop is an open-source framework from the Apache Software Foundation and has become one of the leading Big Data management technologies in recent years. The system enables the distributed storage and processing of data across multiple servers. As a result, it offers a scalable solution for a wide range of applications from data analysis to machine learning. This article provides a comprehensive overview of Hadoop and its components. We also examine the underlying architecture and provide practical tips for getting started with it. Before we can start with it, we need to mention that the whole topic of Hadoop is huge, and even though this article is already long, it is not even close to going into too much detail on all topics. This is why we split it into three parts: To let you decide for yourself how deep you want to dive into it: Part 1: Hadoop 101: What it is, why it matters, and who should care This part is for everyone interested in Big… Read the full blog for free on Medium. Join thousands of data leaders on the AI newsletter. Join over 80,000 subscribers and keep up to date with the latest developments in AI. From research to projects and ideas. If you are building an AI startup, an AI-related product, or a service, we invite you to consider becoming a sponsor. Published via Towards AI Towards AI - Medium Share this post

We’re on Day 2 of Star Wars Celebration 2025 in Japan, and IGN has all the details on the Andor: Season 2 panel happening right now! Stars Diego Luna, Genevieve O’Reilly, Adria Arjona, Denise Gough, Kyle Soller, Alan Tudyk, and creator Tony Gilroy were on hand to tout the new season, which launches its first episode on Disney+ on April 22. (Andor Season 2 will make its broadcast debut on ABC and FX on Wednesday, April 23, at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.)Follow along below for live updates: Diego Luna Says to Watch Rogue One After Andor Season 2Diego Luna took the stage to inform the fans in attendance that Season 2 is “so big in every possible way. Everything matters so much because we’re getting close to Rogue One. We have all the characters from Season 1 plus many new characters. Many familiar faces you might be expecting. It’s going to be intense.”Luna added, “Then when you finish watching the season, you should go to Rogue One because you're going to see (it as) a different film.” Gilroy said that with Season 1’s storyline, “we took a whole year to do the whole season. Season 2, we’re going to do 4 years in one season. Each three episodes represent one year. We’re dropping them three a week. It’s basically like dropping a movie every week. We try to find the most important three to four days (story-wise) in each year to land on.” Star Wars: Andor, Season 2 ImagesAndor Season 2 Will Be "More Ambitious"Executive producer Sanne Wohlenberg said this season is “wider, larger, more ambitious. Our extraordinary team really outdid themselves.” The second season boasts 140 sets across 7 stages. 2 backlots, 700 costumes for principals, 150 creatures, 30 droids ad 4100 VFX shots!Gilroy said that “we’ll follow everyone you like and love. Cassian’s at center, but there’s a chorus all around him. We will tell every story full out. We go all in on all of them all the way.”“For Mon Mothma, we start somewhere, this season takes us to whole new worlds. Whole new characters. We start in Chandrila. We start with a wedding and all the complications that brings. Then we drive and we reach. For Mon, in particular, we see her have to work under the eyes of the Empire. We go to some dark places this season. She must step out of the shadows and risk everything to speak some truth.” Deep Diving Into Andor Season 2 CharactersAs for Dedra Meero’s arc this time around, Denise Gough said, ”We found out where Dedra comes from in this season. A little bit about maybe what makes her who she is. Things get real strange. Just to be part of this thing, every character is so fully drawn. I’ve never been part of such an ensemble. Dedra really shows herself this season. It wasn’t so much girl boss. It was much more fascist this season.”Kyle Soller said the relationship between Dedra and his character Syril Karn is “really weird." Syril starts out the season feeling really good about himself. Promotion, new friends, on a new planet. Flexing the small amount of power he has in his little pocket of the Empire. Trying to flex this [Soller then pointed to Gough].”Soller added, “It’s an amazing relationship because them coming together and opening themselves up to each other ultimately forces them into extreme situations that they never anticipated. So it’s pretty spicy.” “When we first meet Bix in season 2, she’s left her home,” said Adria Arjona. “She’s really trying to reconstruct herself. Coping with everything that happened with Dr. Gorst. You get a sneak peek into this special relationship that starts forming (with Cassian). In this season, you really get to see these two characters come together.”PlayK-2SO Is Back on the Screen!Andor Season 2 sees Alan Tudyk reprise his role from Rogue One as the droid K-2SO. Tudylk said: ”I always held up hope that K-2SO would return. I really wanted it to happen. I held out for my own spinoff, K2-Fast, K2-Furious. But Tony is a better writer. He has made an amazing show. We get to see how K and Cassian meet and the birth of K-2SO will be seen this season. It’s beyond anything I could have hoped. It feels like a very important series and it’s great to be a part of.”K-2SO and Tudyk’s absence was keenly felt by Luna. “I missed Alan badly. It was seven very tough years. I was laughing the moment i saw him back in his very tight suit. We spent a lot of time in a cockpit. He’s the most generous and nicest partner you can have in a scene. He was always finding a way to make it more interesting, more fun. As an actor, that's beautiful. I never knew it was going to be so much fun. K is a character that has a soul. Alan took the character to another level. It was nice and awful to see how that character gets born.”The Andor panel then concluded with an exclusive treat for the fans there: the screening of the first episode of Season 2! (Look for IGN’s review next week.)For more Star Wars Celebration coverage, find out the latest on The Mandalorian & Grogu, the Ryan Gosling-starring Star Wars: Starfighter (and when it happens on the timeline), Star Wars Outlaws, and the new Darth Maul animated series.