Hello, I’m Eser Kaya, I’m part of the Ubik Studios team developing Leila. I’d like to tell you a little bit about the world of Leila that you’ll be diving into. Leila puts you inside the mind of a middle-aged woman and lets you wander there. You are allowed to enter her mind and you travel through her past experiences on her way to becoming the person she is today. So what is in the past? The same things that everybody has: Regrets, mistakes, traumas, what ifs… The bad things leave more traces and when we look back at them, we see that they have shaped us, brought us to the present. As we experience Leila’s life story, we try to unravel the mystery of all this baggage, to get to the bottom of it. And we do this with the help of creative puzzles built into the game. We used traditional animation techniques to produce all the end-of-episode cinematics, and through the production of these we had the chance to see how intensive this work is. Every one of them is like a short film, giving the player clues about Leila’s past and functioning as a complement to the story. Leila wanders through her memories with the help of a technological device that her daughter gave her as a gift. While doing so, she tries to get to know herself better, to establish a cause and effect relationship of her actions, and ultimately to see what exactly makes her who she is. The player becomes Leila as she listens to her inner voice and identifies themself with Leila, often looking at the world from her point of view. As you move back and forth between the decades, you also get a glimpse of the aesthetics or trends of the time. Thus the game strikes a balance between the nostalgia of the past and the promise of the future. Leila was designed to be a powerful example of the female gaze, which we feel is sorely lacking in games. By looking at life from a woman’s perspective, it adds a new layer to the experience. By taking a close look at the untold, often ignored stories of women, she shows a practice of healing, shaking up and standing up that applies to everyone. We put a lot of effort in for our first game Leila for about two years. Now it’s time to take it out to the world and present it to people and make it a part of them. We hope that Leila can show a path of healing for everyone who experiences it. Leila NAISU ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ $12.99 Pre-order "Normally I'd dig a hole in me and then fall into it, But this time I decided that instead of falling in, I would willingly go in. Here I am, drifting on the shores of my life." Play as Leila and traverse through all phases of her life, uncovering her pivotal life moments. By unraveling puzzles imbued with the fragments of her narrative, you'll comprehend the motives behind Leila's life decisions. As you delve deeper into her psyche and her emotional landscape, you'll discover facets of your own self mirrored in the life journey of this seemingly ordinary woman. Step into journey through the layers of Leila, a captivating, story-driven adventure that comes alive with charming narration and stunning artwork. Every frame is a masterpiece, handcrafted with detailed traditional animation, and each moment is accentuated with an evocative original soundtrack. Embark on Leila's journey as she grapples with the complexities of love, trust, and the shadows of her past. Navigate thought-provoking puzzles that challenge and engage, deepening the immersion in her tale. The post Are You Ready to Enter Leila’s Mind and Journey into Her Past? appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Courtesy MinottiMilan Design Week is an embarrassment of riches—everywhere you turn there seems to be another striking, bold seating arrangement or beautifully hand-painted plate. It's easy for standout items to get lost in the sheer vastness of design's biggest week. This year, as major industry players from home, fashion, and jewelry gathered in Italy's design capital, it felt like the number of outstanding pieces, installations, and experiences multiplied tenfold. To narrow things down a bit, we here at Elle Decor asked our editors to share their favorite picks. After a week of scouring by-appointment-only events, elegant showrooms, and, of course, Salone del Mobile and the Fuorisalone, here's what they chose. BuccellatiCourtesy BuccellatiI gasped as I walked through the mid-Milan dream that Buccellati created for this collection. I had seen the house’s beautiful home collection before—and coveted that bamboo silverware—but I had never before witnessed such large scale Buccellati figures, and with all that Italian handcraftsmanship intact. The ambition and beauty of it all was something to behold, and, ultimately why we all go to Milan and Salone. —Stellene Volandes, Editorial & Brand DirectorPoltrona FrauElisa Lipsky-KaraszThe Poltrona Frau showroom is in an incredible historic palazzo in the center of Milan, which they have carefully restored. It was a treat to walk through and visit their private rooms on the upper floors. The juxtaposition of the elaborate Italian frescoes and a very restrained Teahouse collection in one room was especially striking. The serene calm amidst the hubbub of Salone madness was a welcome respite. I especially loved a clever cupboard with hinged shelves that opened to reveal all the elements needed for a traditional tea ceremony. —Elisa Lipsky-Karasz, head of editorial content.Advertisement - Continue Reading BelowMolteni&CElisa Lipsky-KaraszGio Ponti, Gio Ponti, Gio Ponti! I will never tire of the great Italian master, especially in Milan, which feels like the perfect setting for his timeless creations. Molteni&C staged an exhibition of his wondrous “Impossible Objects” in the Poldi Pezzoli Museum, which showed his mischievous, absurdist side. Meanwhile, across the street in their newly renovated palazzo headquarters, I wished for this aerodynamic, seemingly weightless D.847.1 desk originally designed in 1947—it seems like it would make all my deadlines fly. —ELK​​Dozie KanuCourtesy Dozie KanuOff the Milan Design Week hidden path and up a curving set of stairs was an intervention by Dozie Kanu at Galleria Federico Vavassori, “not opposed to tossing bricks into the quotidian, your honor.” A steel and aluminum handrail extends the full length of the gallery’s three exhibition rooms, grounding visitors and controlling their movement. Kanu’s work is decidedly fine art, though sometimes with a dual functional purpose (see his sculpture in Knoll’s Salone booth), after all what is design if not tools to direct our movement? In a week of the brand new, shiny plastic seating, derivative works based on past classics, Kanu’s reuse of found and discarded materials is a breath of fresh air. Doubly so as the works on view take on a cosmic, otherworldly skin in Kanu’s hands. As the shows title suggest, Kanu’s highly emotional works are meant to disrupt. And thank God they do. —Camille Okhio, senior design writer.Advertisement - Continue Reading BelowSam Baron for Dior HomeCourtesy DiorAt the Dior store on Milan’s Corso Venezia, the French designer Sam Baron exhibited three limited edition vases inspired by Christian Dior’s fascination with botany and gardens. The intricate pieces, designed by Baron and hand-blown by Italian artisan Massimo Lunardon, are delicate feats of glass, with ribbed vases intertwined with petals on branches. “They are part of a numbered edition of eight, which was Mr. Dior’s favorite number,” notes Baron. Also on view was Baron’s collection of glass objects for Dior Maison, out this fall, encompassing everything from wine goblets to carafes. —Ingrid Abramovitch, executive editor .Hermès en Contrepoint Dinner ServiceAnnie GoldsmithThis thirty-three piece kaolin white porcelain table service is subtly, but characteristically, Hermès. Each piece is lined with colorful friezes—from purples to sages to a muted canary yellow. They’re playful and geographic, painted in watercolor by the artist Nigel Peake, and designed to mimic a musical meter. Certainly, any food displayed on these plates is undoubtedly sure to sing. —Annie Goldsmith, senior editor & digital leadAdvertisement - Continue Reading BelowCompletedworks at AlcovaCourtesy CompletedworksThe London-based accessories brand Completedworks showed furniture for the first time at Alcova, recontextualizing motifs found in their jewelry and ceramics in pieces like a cast-bronze chair modeled in fabric and re-created in metal through lost-wax casting (pictured) and a hand-built and sculpted console, stool, and coffee table made from clay, wood, and polystyrene in a silver nitrate mirror finish. —Sean Santiago, deputy editor.Adrien Home Office Desk, PoliformCourtesy PoliformLooking to ditch the dining table and finally upgrade to a home office desk worthy of a corporate high rise corner office? You and Jean-Marie Massaud had the same idea. The designer has reimagined the classic Adrien table from Poliform and created the brand’s first piece designed specifically for WFH bliss. High end amenities like a built-in embroidered leather desk pad, cable management and an integrated side drawer unit will keep any home office work tidy and chic. Of course, custom sizing is available upon request. —Benjamin Reynaert, market director Formafantasma and Cassinacourtesy FormafantasmaFor a practice rooted so stolidly in research and data, Italian design duo Formafantasma has cultivated a deeply lighthearted oeuvre. Same goes for the projects they conceive in collaboration. This year the designers conceived a performance “Staging Modernity’ in celebration of the 60th anniversary of Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, and Charlotte Perriand’s collections for Cassina. The happening took place at Teatro Lirico Giorgio Gaber, a classic, cinematic break to showrooms and galleries. Among red velvet folding cinema chairs, several platforms were erected with backdrops that mimicked the natural world and sculptures in the shape of lambs and rams. Performers repeated lines that emphasized humanities link to the animal kingdom, as they swung and stretched over Le Corbusier, Jeanneret, and Perriand-designed chairs and chaises. The performance was a poignant reminder of how closely life imitates art. —CO Objects of Common InterestPiercarlo QuecchiaGreek design duo Objects of Common Interest are often Milan Design Week's most prolific participants. This year they had six projects on view of which two in particular referenced their history as designers and people. At Alcova’s Villa Borsani location “Voids Rollers,” presented with curator Joy Herrero and gallery The Breeder, extended the studio’s investigation of movement via resins, rubbers, and melting materials. Several lights, stools, vases and pedestals, leaned on walls, hung precariously off shelves, and moved with each curious visitors touch. A short walk away in the gardens of Villa Bagatti Valsecch’s Pasino Glasshouses the duo showed a truly remarkable suite of marble works “Soft Horizons” quarried entirely from Greece. Some marble even came from the same quarry to supply the Acropolis. Sea, sun and land were represented by moving columns mounted in water and a sound installation by ODA. Both installations were a melody for material, encouraging visitors to consider the vast and poetic possibilities of our material universe. —COAdvertisement - Continue Reading BelowLee Broom for LladróCourtesy Lladró x Lee BroomLladró showed Cascade, its lighting collection created in collaboration with British designer Lee Broom, as part of Euroluce 2025. Inspired by traditional paper lanterns, the porcelain lights were shown in a custom-designed installation, hung in clusters in a mirrored “dark room” meant to pay homage to the emotive power of lanterns. Technically limited by shrinkage, Broom worked with the Spanish heritage brand’s artisans to push the fussy material to its limits. Known for its colorful collaborations with artists like Jaime Hayon and SupaKitch, Lladró ultimately let Broom be his “modular, monochrome self,” resulting in three distinct silhouettes that can be combined vertically in multiple configurations. —SSRimadesioCourtesy of RimadesioLong known as an interior designer and architect’s secret weapon for the finest built-in wardrobes, custom doors, and room dividers, Rimadesio took the big step of launching a new line of freestanding furniture last week designed by Guiseppe Bavuso. One standout: the Sinua chair which comes available as a dining or lounge chair and available in multiple finishes and materials. A lower magnetic back cushion is also available, helping to keep this piece always looking neat and put together. —BR Advertisement - Continue Reading BelowThe Library Project by Eleftheria Tseliou GalleryPiergiorgio SorgettiIn a quiet corner room at Alcova’s Villa Borsani, lucky visitors were surprised by a library of sorts. Instead of seats and desks, each artist-made book was presented by Eleftheria Tseliou Gallery on glass pedestals, with plastic gloves available to use as you sifted through each volume. Some books, like David Sampethai’s gorgeous tome 'For the Small Price of Your Soul,' showed page after page of unique monotypes suggesting the cosmic toll of transactions in the modern world. Another artist, Iannis Ganas, presented “The Runners,” a hand drawn typography quoting Paul Auster that could be read by the turn of a knob. With each turn the reader is confronted with running as a metaphor for the ending of life. —CONendo for MinottiCourtesy MinottiGracious, undulating curves repeat across the front and the seat backs of the Saki armless sofa designed by Oki Sato, chief designer of Nendo which has been collaborating with Minotti since 2017. The Saki collection features lacquered, almost floating seat backs that elegantly support the rear upright cushions. This poetic piece is poised to become one of the next “it” sofas. Its clean form and trim proportions allow this piece to fit nicely into smaller urban scale dwellings while its flexible design can also expand to fill larger rooms. —BR Advertisement - Continue Reading BelowCarlo Scarpa at Sofia ZeviCourtesy of Sofia Zevi.In the series of Chiarastella Cattana-lined cabinets that comprise Sofia Zevi’s gallery one held a particularly precious surprise. Nestled among tiny, rotund dishes was a green “Torchon” mirror mounted in Venini Murano glass designed by Carlo Scarpa in the 1930s. Like a snakeskin in glass, the circular ribbed frame of the mirror curves in waves set in a brass stand. The glass dishes surrounding the mirror fit comfortably in the center of your hand, in candy colors, fit for a single piece of candy. Beyond this cabinet the gallery was showing astounding contemporary glassware by Akira Hara and lighting fit for NASA by The Back Studio. —COLaila Gohar with MarimekkoSean DavidsonAs far as the story goes, we aren’t supposed to have our cake and eat it too. But Laila Gohar makes sure everyone eats, all the time, even if the cake in question doesn’t appear to be a cake at first sight. The glamorous Egyptian food artist partnered with Marimekko this year on a room-sized bed outfitted in textiles she selected from Marimekko’s archives. The colorful, candy-hued stripes were originally designed by Maija Isola and now stretch the full length of the Teatro Litta foyer where the bed was displayed. Gohar took the surrealist installation one step further by baking and serving a twin mattress-sized cake: the twin of it’s fabric counterparts. So now, not only can you have your cake and eat it, you can do so in bed, and if you’re lucky Gohar might be there to join you. —COAdvertisement - Continue Reading BelowOfficine GulloCourtesy Officine GulloStepping into the distinctive Officine Gullo showroom was like being transported to lazy days at sea. The Italian brand synonymous with luxury kitchens has dedicated their newest offerings at Salone to the growing yachting industry. Since kitchens on boats tend to be hidden away below deck, as it were, Officine Gullo puts the kitchen on display, making it the new heart of the home, at sea. —BRPierre Frey courtesy Pierre FreyIn addition to the colorful JC De Catelbajac pavilion erected along Via Fatebenefratelli, Pierre Frey also quietly launched a new collection of “Betty” dining chairs equally influenced by Gio Ponti and the sets of Mad Men. Available with and without arms, these pieces can be used around a table, desk or beyond, as the look smart from all angles and mix well with other furniture in living spaces too. I’m particularly fond of the structured base, the little kink in the rear leg and the idea of upholstering each one in a different colored fabric. —BRAdvertisement - Continue Reading BelowArflexCourtesy ArflexLike a loafer from The Row, the leather ruching details give the classic 1970s Marius&Marius sofa a distinctive style for those in the know, which is why I’m delighted that Arflex is bringing this piece back. Designed by Mario Marenco, this generously proportioned sofa calls for all of the good things that signify Italian design, comfort and originality packaged in a chic, iconic profile. —BR MeridianiCourtesy MeridianiOrganic shapes combined with glossy lacquer make this new desk as covetable as a Perriand. Equally viable as a desk, console or even a small dining table in a city apartment, the chunky proportions and graceful curves give this piece a certain presence that stands out in a room but can also mix well with antiques and vintage furnishings too. —BR

WhatsApp this week released a major update that adds a new way to create and manage sticker packs without having to leave the app. Read on as we detail exactly what’s new for WhatsApp users. Creating WhatsApp sticker packs just got easier WhatsApp already had an option to create and save custom stickers. However, finding and sending these stickers to someone wasn’t exactly an easy task when you have a lot of them in the app. To solve this, WhatsApp is introducing a new option for creating sticker packs. With sticker packs, you can create and organize stickers in multiple folders. More than that, you can also share a entire pack of stickers with another WhatsApp user, instead of having to send each one individually. “Whether it’s a pack of stickers of your dog, or hilarious selfies of your closest friends, now you can make your chats more fun and personal, with sticker packs that are unique to you. Earlier this year we announced sticker pack sharing, so now you can create and share your very own sticker packs with your friends and family in-chat,” a WhatsApp spokesperson told 9to5Mac. In addition to stickers, WhatsApp recently introduced some other new features, including an indicator to show how many people are online in a group chat, a feature to scan and send documents, and the ability to set WhatsApp as the default calling and messaging app on the iPhone. WhatsApp is available for free on the App Store. Make sure you update to the latest version of the app to get access to the new features. Gadgets I recommend: Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed.  FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

At UnitedHealthcare's headquarters in Minnesota, a young man was arrested with a weapon after calling in threats against the insurance giant.As USA Today and other outlets report, police arrested 26-year-old Ian Wagner with a gun and bullets near UHC's Minnetonka campus after an hour of phone negotiations led to his surrender.Though he's the same age as Luigi Mangione, the suspect accused of killing UHC CEO Brian Thompson in December, the two alleged gunmen couldn't be more different.While Mangione appears to have been an ideologue driven to mortal violence by his hatred of the insurance industry, it doesn't seem that Wagner, who was well known to Minnetonka police due to prior felonies and open felony and misdemeanor cases, was similarly principled. When the suspect called 9-1-1, he allegedly told the police dispatcher that he would shoot into the UHC facilities if the charges against him were not dropped — and apparently, he made similar demands when he phoned the FBI's Minneapolis field office, too."While the investigation is still in its early stages," the FBI told USA Today, "there is currently no indication that the individual had specific grievances against UnitedHealthcare."Following Wagner's arrest earlier in the week, Twin Cities broadcaster KTSP reported that the 26-year-old's threats against UHC came just after police made multiple attempts to arrest him over probation violations stemming from his other charges.Cheryl Wagner, the suspect's mother, told the ABC affiliate that her son suffers from mental health issues and was set off by the arrest attempts. He apparently drove to his grandparents' house, retrieved a gun there, and headed to the insurer's headquarters.Though the young man had been wearing an ankle monitor as part of his electronic home monitoring from his felony convictions — details about which have not been shared with media — authorities told KTSB that the device was not equipped with GPS and could only tell them when Wagner was out of range.In a sense, that technology fail echoes the way Mangione was apprehended: not with the NYPD's expensive facial recognition and AI surveillance tools, but thanks to a random eagle-eyed employee at a Pennsylvania McDonald's who recognized him from the news.Though authorities insist Wagner only made his threats for attention, the would-be gunman seemed to intentionally echo Thompson's assassination when he appeared in court while wearing an anti-self-harming flak jacket after his arrest. According to KTSB, he shouted the words "power, money, [and] corruption" during his hearing — a reference, perhaps, to the words "deny, defend, [and] depose" that were found on the bullet casings from the UHC CEO's slaying.Share This Article

The following post contains SPOILERS for Sinners. If you’re wondering on a basic information level if Sinners has a post-credits scene: Yes, it actually has two. There’s one after the first batch of credits and one at the very end of the film. You’re welcome.It looks like Ryan Coogler is done making Marvel movies, at least for a while. His first post-Marvel project, Sinners, is far from the sort of film the studio would produce; a vampire tale that also mixes in social commentary and music — so much music, in fact, that it arguably qualifies as a full-blown musical. Sinners also contains more explicit sexual content than every single film and television series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe combined.In short, Sinners is the work of a big-budget filmmaker freed from the creative restraints of IP moviemaking. At the same time, Coogler clearly took some lessons from his tenure at Marvel, none more important than this: Always leave the audience with one final post-credits scene to think about as they’re leaving the theater.In Marvel films, that’s typically a scene that teases (or sometimes the full-blown trailer for) the next film in the MCU. In Sinners, Cooglar applied a similar technique for a slightly different purpose, providing an epilogue to his story and tying a bow around the themes that have bubbled beneath its bloody surface.SINNERSWarner Bros.loading...READ MORE: The Worst Post-Credits Scenes EverBefore those credits scenes unfold, Sinners is essentially a horror film about a group of men and women trapped inside a juke joint in rural Mississippi in the 1930s. A vampire named Remmick (Jack O’Connell) targets the bar because of the presence of a blues prodigy named Sammie (Miles Caton), the cousin of the establishment’s two owners, twin brothers Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan).Over the course of a long night, Remmick and his followers kill and transform most of the juke joint’s staff and patrons, including Stack and his ex-girlfriend Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), before Smoke manages to stab Remmick with a stake. The first rays of morning sunlight then finish him and the rest of his followers off, while Smoke later dies fighting the KKK members who sold him the building where he and Stack built their bar. That leaves Sammie as the lone survivor; he drives out of Mississippi to pursue his musical career. Roll credits.SINNERSWarner Bros.loading...Then the epilogue hits. Sammie is now an old man — played by real-life blues guitarist Buddy Guy. After a gig in a blues club in 1992, Sammie is sitting at the bar when who should walk in but a still-youthful (and still-vampiric) Stack and Mary. Coogler was careful to include a brief moment during the big climax (easily forgotten in all the violent chaos) where the pair plan their escape, and Coogler never shows them burning along with Remmick and his other followers either.Stack claims that Smoke allowed him to live — after he promised never to threaten Sammie again. He then offers to turn Sammie into a vampire — to give this aging master everlasting life to make music as long as he wants — but Sammie turns him down. The vampires accept his choice and leave Sammie unharmed, but before they depart Stack and Sammie agree about one thing: The big night where they opened the juke joint; the night where Sammie played for the first time, and Stack got to briefly enjoy his dream of owning his own bar before he was turned into a vampire, was the best day of both of their lives.Warner Bros.Warner Bros.loading...If you leave as soon as the credits roll — and I witnessed a couple of colleagues do precisely that at the Sinners press screening — you’ve watched a very effective and thematically rich survival horror film. If you stay for that extra scene, you see that Sinners is a lot more than that.The mid-credits scene shows that Sammie didn’t squander his gifts after this fateful night. He achieved his goals, which means the sacrifices made to help Sammie survive — both the literal ones in that juke joint and the more symbolic ones about helping a poor African American kid who wants to leave home and make something of himself — were not in vain.What you’re left with, then, is a revisionist (and more vampiric) take on the classic legend of bluesman Robert Johnson, who supposedly struck a deal with the devil at a Mississippi crossroads: His soul in exchange for musical genius. (The fact that the legend is patently false — Johnson learned guitar from another local musician — has done little to diminish it.)Coogler’s film opens with a narration that explicitly mentions folklore about the connection between transcendent music and the supernatural, and the rest of Sinners contains other nods to Johnson myths as well. One account of Johnson’s death, for instance, claims he was poisoned by the husband of a woman he flirted with at a dance. In Sinners,SINNERSWarner Bros.loading...In Coogler’s twist of this sort of American myth, Sammie’s talent is given by God, not the devil. The supernatural monster craves the artist’s talent, rather than bestows it. (Interestingly, the monster claims to only want to assimilate the artist into its collective, as if the Borg from Star Trek were, like, super into Delta blues.) Becoming a great artist in Coogler’s formulation, then, is not about a demonic cheat code; it’s about survival and endurance, and avoiding the temptation to sell out to the collective. Without that epilogue during the credits, very little of that gets communicated.There’s a lot more going on in Sinners. This is a movie about the Jim Crow era, and dreams, and the nature of sin. It’s also a movie with remarkable music, much of it performed by Caton, including in the second of Sinners’ two post-credits scenes, when he sings a solo rendition of “This Little Light of Mine,” emphasizing several of those aforementioned themes.But Sinners is also a very satisfying entertainment filled with scares and suspense and a couple big laughs. And these days, just about every Hollywood entertainment is required to include at least one post-credits scene. Marvel has conditioned audiences for big-budget movies to expect them, and most other studio franchises have followed suit.That could be why this is my favorite aspect of Sinners; the way Coogler uses the structure of a modern blockbuster not to tease some needless sequel but to leap decades into the future to wrap up both his protagonist’s tale and his larger message. He sends you out of the theater with the thrill of this unexpected gesture. Instead of speculating about some movie that’s coming out in two years, you exit into the lobby basking in the glow of what happens when a talented director is given the freedom to tell the story — just one story — they want to tell.Get our free mobile app25 Actors Who Turned Down Huge Movie RolesSome of the most famous actors in history turned down the chance to play cinema’s most iconic roles.

About usAt Enhancv, we build the world’s best resume-editing platform. Each month, we help hundreds of thousands of customers worldwide get the job they love. We are a team of 25 spread across Europe. Our customers love us, pay for our service, and put us in a superb position to scale our business! The roleWhile we have made some steps on paid social, our footprint is very limited. Your short to mid-term goal would be to scale spend on Meta (and than on other platforms) to $150 000 per month while maintaining target cost per acquisition. Youtube creative would also be on your agenda fairly soon. You will have the ability to define some aspects of the role, but it would certainly entailConstantly coming up with creative concepts, angles and hooks to testManaging the production of creative - with (UGC) creators, actors, creative agencies, motion graphics designersLearning & iteratingIdeally you’d also manage the media buying, at least on Meta. We don’t believe in micro-managing the algorithm, so this should be no more than 10% of your dayYour qualificationsYou’ve done it before, at scale and with passion. Salary, Benefits & Perks Regular compensation reviews — we reward great work! Great healthcare + dental + vision coverage Fitness stipend — monthly reimbursement for a gym membership or other sport activities MacBook + monitor combo — those are our standards, but we’re happy to get you whatever equipment helps you get your job done Travel: We encourage work-related travel, so you get to know the whole team. Annual stipend for professional development (Opportunities to attend training, workshops, and conferences).Interview Process① Apply and fill out the application form - takes at least 20 minutes. ② We'll review your application and invite you for an online interview to get to know you better. ③ If we like each other, we will follow up with a small assignment. ④ Finally, we'll make an offer if we feel you are the best fit for the position

On Thanksgiving weekend of 2013, Jeff Bezos, then Amazon’s CEO, took to 60 Minutes to make a stunning announcement: Amazon was a few years away from deploying drones that would deliver packages to homes in less than 30 minutes.  It lent urgency to a problem that Parimal Kopardekar, director of the NASA Aeronautics Research Institute, had begun thinking about earlier that year. “How do you manage and accommodate large-scale drone operations without overloading the air traffic control system?” Kopardekar, who goes by PK, recalls wondering. Busy managing all airplane takeoffs and landings, air traffic controllers clearly wouldn’t have the capacity to oversee the fleets of package-delivering drones Amazon was promising.  The solution PK devised, which subsequently grew into a collaboration between federal agencies, researchers, and industry, is a system called unmanned-­aircraft-system traffic management, or UTM. Instead of verbally communicating with air traffic controllers, drone operators using UTM share their intended flight paths with each other via a cloud-based network. This highly scalable approach may finally open the skies to a host of commercial drone applications that have yet to materialize. Amazon Prime Air launched in 2022 but was put on hold after crashes at a testing facility, for example. On any given day, only 8,500 or so unmanned aircraft fly in US airspace, the vast majority of which are used for recreational purposes rather than for services like search and rescue missions, real estate inspections, video surveillance, or farmland surveys.  One obstacle to wider use has been concern over possible midair drone-to-drone collisions. (Drones are typically restricted to airspace below 400 feet and their access to airports is limited, which significantly lowers the risk of drone-airplane collisions.) Under Federal Aviation Administration regulations, drones generally cannot fly beyond an operator’s visual line of sight, limiting flights to about a third of a mile. This prevents most collisions but also most use cases, such as delivering medication to a patient’s doorstep or dispatching a police drone to an active crime scene so first responders can better prepare before arriving. Now, though, drone operators are increasingly incorporating UTM into their flights. The system uses path planning algorithms, like those that run in Google Maps, to chart a course that considers not only weather and obstacles like buildings and trees but the flight paths of nearby drones. It’ll automatically reroute a flight before takeoff if another drone has reserved the same volume of airspace at the same time, making the new flight trajectory visible to subsequent pilots. Drones can then fly autonomously to and from their destination, and no air traffic controller is required.  Over the past decade, NASA and industry have demonstrated to the FAA through a series of tests that drones can safely maneuver around each other by adhering to UTM. And last summer, the agency gave the go-ahead for multiple drone delivery companies using UTM to begin flying simultaneously in the same airspace above Dallas—a first in US aviation history. Drone operators without in-house UTM capabilities have also begun licensing UTM services from FAA-approved third-party providers. UTM only works if all participants abide by the same rules and agree to share data, and it’s enabled a level of collaboration unusual for companies competing to gain a foothold in a young, hot field, notes Peter Sachs, head of airspace integration strategy at Zipline, a drone delivery company based in South San Francisco that’s approved to use UTM.  “We all agree that we need to collaborate on the practical, behind-the-scenes nuts and bolts to make sure that this preflight deconfliction for drones works really well,” Sachs says. (“Strategic deconfliction” is the technical term for processes that minimize drone-drone collisions.) Zipline and the drone delivery companies Wing, Flytrex, and DroneUp all operate in the Dallas area and are racing to expand to more cities, yet they disclose where they’re flying to one another in the interest of keeping the airspace conflict-free. Greater adoption of UTM may be on the way. The FAA is expected to soon release a new rule called Part 108 that may allow operators to fly beyond visual line of sight if, among other requirements, they have some UTM capability, eliminating the need for the difficult-­to-obtain waiver the agency currently requires for these flights. To safely manage this additional drone traffic, drone companies will have to continue working together to keep their aircraft out of each other’s way.  Yaakov Zinberg is a writer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Submitted by WA Contents Call for submissions: (Re)engaging Cities Landscape for Cultural and Economic Vibrancy Vietnam Architecture News - Apr 17, 2025 - 20:13   html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd" Calling creative minds and innovative urban and architectural design students (bachelor and master) around the world, the committee of the 4th International Design Competition is looking for smart and sustainable solutions to reimagine Nha Trang’s urban landscape!Along the river bank of the Cai Rivers, a heritage route will soon be built. This vision comes with a challenge on balancing the growth of economics and the conservation of cultural beauty. Taking up this challenge, the fourth year of the International Design Competition is now more than a design challenge; it is a global platform where we inspire the next generation to envision future cities that harmoniously blend innovation and tradition.As part of the competition, participants will have the opportunity to engage with leading experts, exchange cutting-edge ideas, and contribute meaningful solutions that foster sustainable urban development.Are you ready to be a changemaker in shaping the future of our cities?Location: Nha Trang City, Khanh Hoa Province, Vietnam.Registration Fees: FreeCompetition Period: March, 2025 - October, 2025.Submission deadline: July 15th, 2025.Participants eligibility: Undergraduate students and Master students ( all around the world (maximum 3 students can form a team).Total Awards: 5,700 USD, come together with being featured in a special session of Smart Urbanisms & Beyond Book series published by UEH Press; Experiment and Exploring Tour; Exhibition and sharing with partners; Opportunity to be supported with flight tickets and accommodation in Nha Trang City.Visit the competition page.List of Jurors:We are proud to present a diverse panel of 30 jurors from around the globe, including Vietnam, Thailand, Italy, Belgium, Korea, China, Singapore, Macao, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. Each juror is a recognized expert in architectural design, urban design and urban development planning.- Assoc. Prof. Tu Anh Trinh, Director, Institute of Smart City & Management, College of Technology and Design UEH University, Vietnam- Dr. Tuan Nguyen Anh, Head General Planning Management Department, Department of Planning and Architecture, Vietnam- Prof. Elena Marchigiani, Department of Engineering and Architecture,University of Trieste, Italy- Assoc. Prof. Kitapatr Dhabhalabutr, Dean, Faculty of Architecture, Khon Kaen University, Thailand- Prof. Kelly Shannon, Director of Master programs, KU Leuven University, Belgium- Assoc. Prof. Yingsawad Chaiyakul, Lecturer, Faculty of Architecture, Khon Kaen University, Thailand- Dr. Tuan Pham Anh, Head of Department of Landscape Architecture (DLA), Faculty of Architecture & Planning Hanoi University of Civil Engineering (HUCE), Vietnam- Dr. Le Thi Thu Huong, Academic Coordinator of Architecture bachelor's program, Senior Lecturer of Sustainable Urban Development master's program, Vietnamese-German University, Vietnam- Prof. Ducksu Seo, Department of Spatial Environment System Engineering, Handong Global University, Korea- Dr. Son Do Xuan, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education, Vietnam- Dr. Adrian Lo, Director of the Urban Design and Development International (UDDI) program, Thammasat University, Thailand- M.Arch Steven Petit, Creative Director/ Landscape Architect, OMGEVING, Belgium- Prof. Bruno De Meulder, Coordinator of Master Programs, KU Leuven University, Belgium- Assist. Prof. Juhyun Lee, Department of Urban Planning and Design, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China- Prof. Barbara E.A. Piga, Coordinator of the Laboratorio di Simulazione Urbana Fausto Curti, Politecnico di Milano, Italy- Assoc. Prof. Jinhyun Hong, Associate Professor, Department of Smart Cities, University of Seoul, Korea- Dr. Lan Hoang Ngoc, Senior Lecturer, Institute of Smart City & Management, Former Vice-Dean, Urban Planning Faculty, University of Architecture Ho Chi Minh City UEH University, Vietnam- M.Arch Long Pham Duc, Lecturer, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Ton Duc Thang University, Vietnam- Dr. Vinh Nguyen Quoc, Head of Department of Architecture, Faculty of Civil Engineering Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Vietnam- Assist. Prof. Kon Kim, Department of Urban Planning and Design, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China- Dr. Harvey Neo, Programme Director & Professorial Research Fellow, Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), Singapore- Prof. Sergio Proença, Faculty of Arts and Humanities University of Saint Joseph, Macao- Dr. Filipa Martins, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Saint Joseph (USJ), Macao- Prof. Nuno Soares, Head of Department of Architecture and Design, Faculty of Arts and Humanities University of Saint Joseph, Macao- Dr. Rachel Jahja, Lecturer, School of Communication & Design, RMIT Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam- Assoc. Prof. Jittisak Thammapornpilas, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Architecture Chulalongkorn University, Thailand- Dr. Sarah Howard, Interim Vice President for Advancement and Strategic Relations, The Boston Architectural College, United States- Assist. Prof. Shusak Janpathompong, Director of the International Program in Design and Architecture, Faculty of Architecture Chulalongkorn University, Thailand- Assoc. Prof. Iderlina Mateo-Babiano, Associate Professor in Urban Planning and Assistant Dean, Diversity and Inclusion, University of Melbourne, Australia- Assoc. Prof. Manfredo Manfredini, Programme Director of Architecture, School of Architecture and Planning The University of Auckland, New ZealandDownload the information related to this competition here: Brochure_Competition2025-compressed-compressed.pdf. The top image in the article courtesy of ISCM.> via ISCM architectural competition

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April 17, 20254 min readWhy Astronomers Are Not Sold on New Alien Life ClaimsNASA’s James Webb Space Telescope detected an intriguing compound in the atmosphere of the exoplanet K2-18 b, but scientists are divided about what the chemical meansBy Alexandra Witze & Nature magazine Artist's impression of the exoplanet K2-18b. A. Smith/N. Mandhusudhan, University of CambridgeA University of Cambridge-led team of astronomers made worldwide headlines last night with claims that they had found the “strongest hints yet of biological activity outside the Solar System”. The discovery involves a distant planet known as K2-18 b, which the team says has one or more molecules in its atmosphere that might have been generated by living things.The announcement has been met with floods of scepticism from other researchers who study such ‘biosignatures’ in exoplanet atmospheres.“It is not strong evidence,” says Stephen Schmidt, an astronomer at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. “It’s almost certainly not life,” says Tessa Fisher, an astrobiologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Here, Nature explores the high-profile claim — and why many scientists say it’s far from proof of alien life.What has been found?Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the Cambridge team reported finding hints of the molecule dimethyl sulfide (DMS), a pungent smelling compound that can be produced by bacteria, in the atmosphere of K2-18 b, a planet smaller than Neptune that lies about 38 parsecs from Earth. The scientists detected the molecule by analysing starlight as it filtered through the planet’s atmosphere; different chemical compounds leave identifying imprints in the light’s spectrum. The data might indicate the presence of the related molecule dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), either in addition to DMS or in its stead. These chemicals are intriguing because on Earth they are produced by living organisms such as marine phytoplankton.In 2023, the researchers reported similar findings. This follow-up work looks at the planet in a different set of wavelengths and is a stronger and cleaner signal that the molecules are present, the team says.Being able to tease out the detailed chemistry of a faraway planet is a technical tour-de-force, the researchers say. “What we are seeing is a major paradigm shift in the field of exoplanet science,” said team leader Nikku Madhusudhan, an astronomer at Cambridge, in a livestreamed colloquium on 17 April. He did not respond to a request for an interview before press time for this story.Why is it important?Scientists have been looking for life beyond Earth for centuries. If DMS and DMDS do exist in this planet’s atmosphere, and if they are formed by biological activity, it would represent a groundbreaking moment in the search for extraterrestrial life.The work also marks a step toward understanding planets like K2-18 b, which are some of the most common of the 5,800-plus planets that have so far been identified throughout the universe. They are referred to as ‘mini Neptunes’ based on their mass, but beyond that, little is known about their makeup. Some researchers, including Madhusudhan’s team, say that some could be exotic water worlds cloaked in hydrogen atmospheres. If so, they may be some of the best places to look for the existence of extraterrestrial life.Why are other researchers skeptical?For starters, there are questions about whether K2-18 b even has water — or a surface where anything could live. Modelling studies of it and similar planets suggest that they are probably barren. “A lifeless mini-Neptune scenario remains the most parsimonious explanation,” says Joshua Krissansen-Totton, a planetary scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle.Then there’s the issue of whether DMS/DMDS is actually present, or whether it is a spurious signal. The measurement reported by the Cambridge team is “really pushing the limit of what JWST can do,” says Laura Kreidberg, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany.Schmidt and his colleagues recently re-analysed the 2023 claim from the Cambridge team and found no evidence of biosignature molecules in that data. Schmidt says the new observations are “pretty noisy, and any reported features could still just be statistical fluctuations”. For their part, the Cambridge researchers say there is just a 0.3% probability that the signal could be due to chance.Finally, if the DMS/DMDS signal is indeed real, then there are many additional questions that need to be resolved before it could be attributed to life, other researchers say. For instance, laboratory experiments have shown that DMS can be made through abiotic processes — those not involving life. “We know very little about the chemistry of these atmospheres,” says Eleanor Browne, a chemist at the University of Colorado Boulder who led that recent study. Others have reported that DMS is present on a comet explored by the European Space Agency, which definitely does not have life on it.“The planetary context is what matters,” says Edward Schweiterman, an astrobiologist at the University of California Riverside. If the molecules really are in the planet’s atmosphere, he says, “we have to brainstorm novel ways of producing a lot of it through abiotic means and evaluate those possibilities before accepting it as evidence for life.”What happens next?Madhusudhan and his colleagues hope to get more observing time with JWST to help nail down the statistical significance of their claim. Beyond that, says Schweiterman, “what you’d like to see is validation from multiple independent groups.”Regardless of how the claim plays out, it highlights the importance of studying planets like K2-18 b, Kreidberg says: “This is a very, very rich playground for us to understand how planetary atmospheres work.”This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on April 17, 2025.