From peddling snake oil on social media, to backing foreign coups. Some actors who were desperate to make a quick buck are now learning of the horrifying consequences of selling their likenesses to companies that use them in AI videos, .South Korean actor Simon Lee, for example, found that his image was being used to promote "questionable health cures" on TikTok and Instagram. And the terms of his contract meant there was nothing he could do to get the videos removed."If it was a nice advertisement, it would've been fine to me," Lee told AFP. "But obviously it is such a scam."In 2022, British actor and model Connor Yeates signed a three-year deal with a company called Synthesia for $5,240 because, at the time, he was sleeping on a friend's couch and "needed the money." Later, Yeates found out that his face was used in a video to promote Ibrahim Traore, the president of Burkina Faso who took power in a coup d'état in 2022 — a usage that was a blatant violation of Synthesia's terms of service."Three years ago, a few videos slipped our content moderation partly because there was a gap in our enforcement for factually accurate but polarizing type content or videos with exaggerated claims or propaganda, for example," Alexandru Voica, head of corporate affairs at Synthesia, told AFP.These stories encapsulate AI technology's potential to perpetuate misinformation, and in particular the invasiveness of AI-enabled deepfakes. With very little effort, anyone willing to pay money to use these services — which are sometimes free — can create a convincing enough video of someone saying something, so long as there's enough footage of that person out there. Public figures like Taylor Swift and Scarlett Johansson understand this better than anyone, having had to condemn creeps that deepfaked them to promote political messages. Recently, the voice actor for Aloy in the "Horizon" video games said she was unnerved by an AI imitation of her performance as the character. Background actors, too, have voiced concerns about how they had their bodies fully digitized for indefinite use by studios.They're also emblematic of AI's inroads into the acting industry. Actors have fought tooth and nail for protections against generative AI, but they're fairly limited and don't apply to the Wild West of non-union jobs. That opens the door for AI firms to capitalize on actors desperate for work, trapping them into dubious contracts. The temptation is strengthened by the fact that it's usually pretty easy work, requiring just several hours' worth of shooting in front of a green screen, getting fed lines by a teleprompter."The clients I've worked with didn't fully understand what they were agreeing to at the time," Alyssa Malchiodi, a lawyer who specializes in business law, told AFP. "One major red flag is the use of broad, perpetual and irrevocable language that gives the company full ownership or unrestricted rights to use a creator's voice, image and likeness across any medium." Synthesia, the platform that let an actor's visage be used in a propaganda piece during the leadup to a coup, recently announced that it'd be starting a talent experience program that will allow actors to be involved in decision-making processes, . Protections are nice, but they can only change so much if not widely adopted. Otherwise, firms and clients might simply choose not to hire actors that aren't willing to fully sign their autonomy over.Share This Article

Apr 22, 2025Ravie LakshmananIoT Security / Malware Cybersecurity researchers have detailed a malware campaign that's targeting Docker environments with a previously undocumented technique to mine cryptocurrency. The activity cluster, per Darktrace and Cado Security, represents a shift from other cryptojacking campaigns that directly deploy miners like XMRig to illicitly profit off the compute resources. This involves deploying a malware strain that connects to a nascent Web3 service called Teneo, a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) that allows users to monetize public social media data by running a Community Node in exchange for rewards called Teneo Points, which can be converted into $TENEO Tokens. The node essentially functions as a distributed social media scraper to extract posts from Facebook, X, Reddit, and TikTok. An analysis of artifacts gathered from its honeypots has revealed that the attack starts with a request to launch a container image "kazutod/tene:ten" from the Docker Hub registry. The image was uploaded two months ago and has been downloaded 325 times to date. The container image is designed to run an embedded Python script that's heavily obfuscated and requires 63 iterations to unpack the actual code, which sets up a connection to teneo[.]pro. "The malware script simply connects to the WebSocket and sends keep-alive pings in order to gain more points from Teneo and does not do any actual scraping," Darktrace said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "Based on the website, most of the rewards are gated behind the number of heartbeats performed, which is likely why this works." The campaign is reminiscent of another malicious threat activity cluster that's known to infect misconfigured Docker instances with the 9Hits Viewer software in order to generate traffic to certain sites in exchange for obtaining credits. The intrusion set is also similar to other bandwidth-sharing schemes like proxyjacking that involve downloading a specific software to share unused internet resources for some sort of financial incentive. "Typically, traditional cryptojacking attacks rely on using XMRig to directly mine cryptocurrency, however as XMRig is highly detected, attackers are shifting to alternative methods of generating crypto," Darktrace said. "Whether this is more profitable remains to be seen." The disclosure comes as Fortinet FortiGuard Labs revealed a new botnet dubbed RustoBot that's propagating through security flaws in TOTOLINK (CVE-2022-26210 and CVE-2022-26187) and DrayTek (CVE-2024-12987) devices with an aim to conduct DDoS attacks. The exploitation efforts have been found to primarily target the technology sector in Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Mexico. "IoT and network devices are often poorly defended endpoints, making them attractive targets for attackers to exploit and deliver malicious programs," security researcher Vincent Li said. "Strengthening endpoint monitoring and authentication can significantly reduce the risk of exploitation and help mitigate malware campaigns." Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter  and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post. SHARE    

There’s a certain amount of nostalgia in any trip to a theme park like Disneyland or Universal Studios. Visitors want to re-ride the attractions they loved as a kid; Pirates of the Caribbean or E.T. Adventure or the Haunted Mansion. But they also want to experience something new. If it all feels old, if you’ve done it all before, there’s not much reason to spend hundreds of dollars for another batch of tickets.So running these parks is a delicate balance of maintaining their long-running character while preserving certain things and letting go of others in order to make room for modern updates. While some attractions’ need for replacement is self-evident — nobody started a petition begging Disney to reconsider the closure of the notorious Superstar Limo — others that have been demolished over the decades were quite popular, and maintain devoted cult fanbases long after their closure.Below, you’ll find tributes to 35 different Disney and Universal rides that have been torn down or totally re-themed. You’ll also find videos of each one. You can’t ride them again, but at least you can see what they looked like one more time.Adventure Thru Inner SpaceIn the late 1960s, Disney Imagineering innovated a style of attraction featuring an endless loop of ride vehicles that perpetually traveled around the same track without ever stopping. They dubbed it the “Omnimover.” That system is still used in parks all around the world, on such iconic attractions as the Haunted Mansion and Spaceship Earth. But the first ride to ever deploy it was called Adventure Thru Inner Space, a high-tech (for 1967) science-based attraction that placed guests in “Atommobiles” and shuttled them through the “Monstanto Mighty Microscope” (thank you product placement) which supposedly shrunk them down to the size of molecules. The ride survived into the 1980s, until the building was repurposed for use by Star Tours.Alfred Hitchcock: The Art of Making MoviesThese days, Universal’s theme parks are exclusively devoted to immersive rides and environments that let guests feel like they have stepped inside their favorite movies and shows. That’s a stark contrast to their parks’ initial concept as a place where tourists learned the secrets of film and TV production, with a couple bigger rides thrown in for extra oomph. One of the best examples of old-school Universal was Alfred Hitchcock: The Art of Making Movies. After a 3D highlight package of Hitchcock films was interrupted by the stars of The Birds, guests were ushered into a soundstage where a “director” and his “crew” explained how Hitchcock shot Psycho’s shower scene. The finale of the attraction was an interactive area where guests who participate in demonstrations of the practical movie magic behind Hitchcock movies like Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, and Saboteur. It was like a cross between a thrill ride and a museum — and for a budding cinephile, it was a paradise.BackdraftAnother of Universal’s early how-they-do-it-style attractions was Backdraft, based on the 1991 Ron Howard film about a crew of heroic firefighters. This show, which played at Universal Studios Hollywood from 1992 to 2010, and at Universal Studios Japan from 2001 to 2020, included several behind-the-scenes videos featuring Howard and the Backdraft cast, and a practical fire effects demonstration on one of the Universal soundstages. Backdraft never got a sequel (at least until a direct-to-video one in 2019) and the rise of CGI gradually made practical wizardry like the stuff on display in Backdraft far less exciting to tourists. The buildings that once housed this attraction are now the home of an elaborate 3D dark ride inspired by Transformers.Back to the Future: The RideThe unforgettable Back to the Future: The Ride was a simulator that let visitors board a detailed copy of the franchise’s DeLorean time machine for a aerial chase through the centuries. (The story of the ride, which played out in pre-show videos featuring Christopher Lloyd and Thomas F. Wilson, was about Biff stealing a time machine and Doc sending tourists in his new eight-seater, remote-controlled DeLorean to catch him.) With special effects by 2001: A Space Odyssey legend Douglas Trumbull, BTTF:TR lived up to the old Universal slogan that promised a vacation where you could “ride the movies.” Its closure was inevitable; the “future” of the Back to the Future franchise is set in 2015, which is now a decade old. The two American versions of the attraction closed by the late 2000s, although Universal Studios Japan’s version managed to hang on until 2016 — one year after Marty and Doc went back to the future.Beetlejuice’s Rock and Roll Graveyard RevueThe history of Universal’s parks is littered with all kinds of stage shows, often quite elaborate and musical in nature, most of which are now as dead as Doctor Frankenstein’s signature creation. For many years, the Universal parks in Hollywood and Florida were home to a song-and-dance extravaganza featuring Beetlejuice and the company’s famous movie monsters like Frankenstein, the Phantom of the Opera, and the Wolfman. Because when you think of bio-exorcists, undead ghouls, and assorted other horror icons, you also think of the classic disco anthem “I Will Survive.” Technically, this one isn’t totally extinct — if you visit Universal Studios Japan you can still see the Universal Monsters sing their Graveyard Revue. But that’s quite a trek just to hear Dracula do a spooky rendition of “Livin’ La Vida Loca.”Body WarsFollowing the success of Star Tours, Disney attempted to apply the same simulator technology to other venues. Epcot’s Body Wars essentially took the basic premise of Adventures Thru Inner Space andStar Wars IP (and with a notoriously bumpy ride experience), Body Wars never quite attained the same level of popularity as Star Tours. It closed in 2007, although the area of the park where it was located, the Wonders of Life pavilion, still sits abandoned in a quiet corner of the Epcot. Is it too late to get Body Wars 2.0?Captain EOIt really speaks to just how massive Michael Jackson was as a pop culture figure in the 1980s (and how wholesome his image was at that point), that Disney eagerly put him at the center of a major new attraction — and partnered him with Hollywood heavyweights George Lucas (whose Lucasfilm co-produced this elaborate 17-minute 3D movie) and Francis Ford Coppola (who directed the film). The story was silly (something about Jackson as a space captain of a ship full of kooky Lucasfilm aliens) but the ILM effects were good and the music and dancing were on par with the best Michael Jackson music videos. Captain EO was retired in 1998, but was later brought back in tribute to Jackson after his death in 2009.Dynamite Nights Stunt SpectacularStunt shows were another cornerstone of the old school Universal Studios. In Hollywood, the classic Waterworld stunt show is still going strong, but in Florida, there isn’t really a comparable attraction. When that park first opened, they had something called the “Dynamite Nights Stunt Spectacular,” whose Miami Vice-inspired combination of boat chases and explosions was like The Fall Guy movie come to life. If it were up to me, no theme park would be allowed to operate without at least one really great stunt spectacular. It should be required.READ MORE: Theme Park Rides Based on Movies You Never Knew ExistedEarthquake: The Big OneEarthquake: The Big One was another good example of the old “ride the movies” Universal ethos. The main event was a modified version of the old Earthquake attraction from the Universal Hollywood tram tour, but before guests boarded their trams they were treated to several rooms full of practical effects demonstrations inspired by the 1974 film. Of course, Earthquake was already an old movie by the time this ride even opened; in 2007, the Earthquake specific elements were removed and the attraction was renamed Disaster! A Major Motion Picture Ride ... Starring You! Now the pre-show featured a hologram of Christopher Walken playing a studio executive named Frank Kincaid, who recruited guests to play extras in his latest movie. After the earthquake finale, visitors watched a trailer for the movie they supposedly helped make, which was called “Mutha Nature” and featured a cameo from Dwayne Johnson. Disaster! closed in 2015 and the building was retrofitted to house another transplanted tram tour stop from Hollywood, Fast & Furious: Supercharged.Fievel’s PlaylandEvery theme park needs a playground to distract little kids for a few minutes while their parents take a break from the endless lines for meet-and-greets and churros. For many years, Universal Studios’ was Fievel’s Playland, themed to the now-mostly-forgotten animated franchise An American Tail. Its two films followed an adventurous mouse who immigrates to America with his family. Accordingly, the playground featured gigantic versions of everyday objects so that kids could get a taste of what it felt like to be the size of a small household rodent. Although An American Tail mostly faded into obscurity by the 21st century, Florida’s Fievel’s Playland endured for an inexplicably long time, and only closed in early 2023. There’s now a Shrek-themed playground in its place.The Funtastic World of Hanna-BarberaThe left side of Universal Studios Florida’s main thoroughfare has housed a series of big simulator rides throughout the park’s history. The very first was called The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera, and it featured a variety of characters from the Hanna-Barbera catalogue trying to rescue a kidnapped Elroy Jenson from the villainous Dick Dastardly. It was essentially a tamer and less technologically sophisticated version of Back to the Future: The Ride geared toward younger kids. In 2003, this ride was changed to ... another extinct attraction on this list.Ghostbusters SpooktacularGhostbusters is a Sony property, a company without a major foothold in the theme park industry. As a result, the franchise has had few theme park attractions relative to its popularity. But in the early 1990s, Universal licensed the Ghostbusters property for an attraction that used the Pepper’s ghost illusion from Disney’s Haunted Mansion to create a 20-minute stage show inspired by the climactic fight between the Ghostbusters and Gozer. Over its six-year run at Universal Studios Florida, Ghostbusters Spooktacular existed in two distinct forms, one that hewed closer to the story of the first Ghostbusters movie, and a second variation involving Louis Tully (Rick Moranis’ dweeby accountant character) and Walter Peck (the EPA jerk played by William Atherton). With no new Ghostbusters movies or shows on the horizon in the mid-’90s, Universal closed the show and replaced it with a staged attraction based on the studio’s recent blockbuster, Twister. (It was replaced a few years ago by a Tonight Show simulator ride.)The Great Movie RideThe original centerpiece of Disney-MGM Studios park in Orlando was the Great Movie Ride, a lengthy tour through Hollywood history featuring animatronics and human actors recreating scenes from classics like Casablanca, The Wizard of Oz, Footlight Parade, and Singin’ in the Rain. As that list of classics suggests, the ride and its subjects didn’t necessarily appeal to younger audiences; the most recent film featured in the Great Movie Ride was Raiders of the Lost Ark, which was already eight years old when the attraction first opened. Over time, no major updates were made beyond adding late TCM personality and film historian Robert Osborne to the attraction as host, so that by the end of its run, it felt like a relic from an era just as old as the movies it celebrated. The Great Movie Ride gave its final film history lesson in 2017 and was ultimately replaced by Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway.Hercules and Xena: Wizards of the ScreenUniversal Studios Florida’s opening overlapped with the heyday of syndicated television programming, none of it bigger than the two-headed adventure show hydra of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess. When the previous subject of Universal’s attraction all about TV production was canceled in 1996, they re-themed the show to be based around the two popular series. But then Hercules was canceled in 1999 too. Wizards of the Screen was performed for the final time in early 2000; this area of the park is now home to Transformers: The Ride.Honey, I Shrunk the Audience! At Disneyland and Walt Disney World, the attraction that replaced Captain EO was Honey, I Shrunk the Audience! a 4D sequel to the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids franchise that was a big hit for Disney in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Rick Moranis and the cast of the Honey films reprised their roles, in a 3D movie with in-theater effects; a demonstration of Moranis’ character’s shrinking technology accidentally gets turned on tourists, leading to encounters with giant mice, dogs, and snakes. The effects worked surprisingly well, to the point that some kids (okay, me) were traumatized by some of the effects. (No one likes the feeling of mice on their legs, Rick Moranis!) Honey, I Shrunk the Audience! worked so well it outlived the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids movies by about a decade. Ironically, it was replaced by ... Captain EO, when it was brought back in 2010.HorizonsAh, Horizons, perhaps the #1 cult object in the Disney park universe. It was a cornerstone of early Epcot’s “Future World,” which was populated with pavilions dedicated to the history (and potential innovations) of various aspects of our planet: The Land, The Seas, Universe of Energy, and so on. Horizons, which opened in 1983 and was housed inside a boldly geometric building, took guests on an Omnimover into an imagined future that included robots, space stations, and video conferencing. (Phone calls with video? Can you even imagine???) Horizons closed for good in 1999, but the ride’s utopian vision and mellow vibes have made it a perennial favorite among Disney nerds, who hold it up as the prototype of the sort of hopeful optimism missing from Epcot today.Jaws: The RideEveryone seems to enjoy the Diagon Alley area of Universal Studios Hollywood, inspired by the Harry Potter franchise. As much as I love a cup of frozen butterbeer, I will always hold a slight grudge against the place because to make room for it, Universal closed the old Amity section of the park, which included the classic Jaws ride. The attraction was like a scary, effects-laden version of Disney’s Jungle Cruise; guests boarded a tour boat for a trip around Amity, only to discover all sorts of wreckage and chaos, and then Bruce the Shark himself. Jaded modern audiences might not be impressed, but to a kid in the 1990s, this was the height of excitement — at least once Universal worked out all the kinks that caused the ride to break down regularly for the first two years of its existence. Like the Universal Monsters revue, this one still lives on in Japan ... if you can get there.Jimmy Neutron’s Nicktoon BlastIn 2003, the Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera became Jimmy Neutron’s Nicktoon Blast, a very similar attraction that starred Jimmy Neutron and several other Nickelodeon characters. That version lasted until 2012, when the ride was again updated to feature the cast of the Despicable Me franchise, owned by Universal. While the film has changed drastically through the years, the basic experience remains mostly the same; people sit in a large theater equipped with moving seats that rock along with the image onscreen.InnoventionsFor years, guests at Disneyland in California or Epcot in Florida could take a leisurely tour through Innoventions, buildings filled with various gadgets and inventions. There were actual (or proposed) products from real tech companies, as well as games, interactive exhibits, and animatronics. The rotating lineup of booths included the Sum of All Thrills, an innovative and interactive attraction where tourists could design their own roller coaster and then “ride” it using a simulator built onto a robotic arm. Both Innoventions were closed in the 2010s; Epcot’s has been replaced by various restaurants plus a Moana-inspired waterStar Wars meet-and-greet area and a lounge for Disney Vacation Club members.KongfrontationKing Kong has been a mainstay in Universal’s various theme parks since the mid-1980s, when a giant King Kong animatronic was added to the Studio Tour at Universal Studios Hollywood. That was expanded to a full-blown attraction at Universal Studios Florida called Kongfrontation. In the extensively themed ride, guests were evacuated from Manhattan on the Roosevelt Island Tramway after Kong starts running amok. Naturally, the evacuation does not go smoothly, and Kong grabs the tram before it makes a last-second getaway. It was a surprisingly intense experience with fun touches — like the fact that the Kong animatronic’s “breath” smelled like bananas. Kong was put out to pasture in 2002 to make way for a roller coaster inspired by The Mummy franchise, but the great ape has since found a new home at nearby Islands of Adventure, where an attraction called Skull Island: Reign of Kong opened in 2016.Lucy: A TributePerhaps the simplest attraction in the history of Universal Studios Florida, Lucy: A Tribute was basically a miniature museum dedicated to Lucille Ball and I Love Lucy. It sounds incredibly dated, but the attraction opened in 1992, a couple years after Ball’s death, at a time when nostalgia for her classic sitcom was still very high. The exhibit included artifacts from Ball’s career, interactive quizzes, and a model of the original I Love Lucy set in exacting detail. Lucy: A Tribute survived in a small building at the front of the park for almost 25 years before Universal turned the space into a Hello Kitty shop (and later Wicked: The Experience).MaelstromThese days, Epcot is filled with thrill rides. It’s got a Guardians of the Galaxy coaster, the high-speed Test Track, and the intense g-force simulator Mission: Space. Back in the late ’80s and early ’90s, none of that stuff existed, and Epcot was mostly a place to wander through international pavilions or relax on slow dark rides about the history of energy, cars, or, uh, history. In that world, Maestrom was about as exciting as Epcot got. It was still a dark flume ride but at least it had some animatronic trolls (themed to its home in the Norway pavilion) and a famous backwards drop. Disney closed Maestrom in 2014 and adapted its ride system (including that drop) into the Frozen Ever After attraction.The Magic of Disney AnimationYou would never know it walking around Disney’s Hollywood Studios today, but in its former incarnation as Disney-MGM Studios, the place actually did give you a look behind-the-scenes of how films and TV shows were made — most directly in the Magic of Disney Animation building. After a film hosted by Walter Cronkite and Robin Williams introduced guests to the process of animating cartoons, visitors could then peek inside the actual animation studio Disney operated in Florida during those years (Mulan and Lilo & Stitch were drawn there, among other films and shows). It wasn’t just a simulation of an animation studio — it was the real deal. I guess nowadays such a facility would be boring and pointless; you’d look in on a bunch of people clicking away at computers. Back in the ’90s, it was like a magician walking you through how they did their best trick.Murder, She Wrote Mystery TheaterYoungs today might find it hard to believe, but for 12 years in the 1980s and ’90s, one of broadcast TV’s biggest hits was a quaint show about a writer (Angela Lansbury) solving mysteries in a little town in Maine. The show was so big, in fact, that it got its own opening day attraction at Universal Studios Florida: Murder, She Wrote Mystery Theater. It was yet another of the park’s behind-the-scenes shows, and it focused mostly on the post-production process. Guests moved through a series of rooms, each focused on a different aspect of TV making, like editing, foley work, and ADR. Volunteers got to try some of these aspects for themselves, and watch the Murder, She Wrote scenes they helped to create. After Murder, She Wrote was finally canceled in 1996, it was replaced by the aforementioned Hercules and Xena show.Nickelodeon StudiosUniversal Studios Florida wasn’t just a gimmicky name back in the early ’90s; the place really was a working film and TV studio — most notably as the home of “Nickelodeon Studios,” where the popular cable channel shot many of its game shows and sketch comedy series. In a canny bit of synergy, every show made at Nickelodeon Studios was also a commercial for Universal Studios Florida, and ended with a graphic announcing where they were made. Kids who made the trek to Orlando could take a tour of the facility, get slimed in the “Game Lab,” and sit in the studio audience if there was a show in production during their visit. Eventually, the novelty of the place wore off, and Nickelodeon began moving more and more of their live-action production back to Los Angeles. The studio closed for good in 2005. For many years a production of Blue Man Group occupied the building. Since the Covid pandemic, Universal has used the venue to host a holiday show starring the Grinch.The Disneyland PeopleMoverThe stakes were a lot lower in 1967 when Disneyland debuted the PeopleMover, a ride that essentially gave people a tour through other rides in Tomorrowland via a series of interconnected elevated tracks. Through the years, Disney attempted to update and improve the leisurely ride with a variety of gimmicks; in the ’70s they added a “SuperSpeed Tunnel” (which did not actually go very fast) and after the release of Tron they added Tron projections to it. In the ’90s, they attempted to upgrade it to an actual high-speed ride called Rocket Rods — but because the PeopleMover tracks were not designed for high-speed vehicles, maintenance issues popped up constantly. Rocket Rods closed by the summer of 2000, and the PeopleMover tracks have sat dormant at Disneyland ever since. (A similar PeopleMover remains in operation at the Magic Kingdom in Florida.)Screen Test TheatreRemember: When Universal first turned their studio into a theme park, there was no such thing as a smartphone. Consumer-grade video cameras were still years away. Making your own TV show was effectively impossible, hence the appeal of attractions like Screen Test Theatre, which let tourists create their own mock-ups of popular movies and television shows. One version from the 1970s inserted guests into Airport ’77; later, there was a Star Trek option shot on a surprisingly detailed recreation of the old Enterprise bridge. Obviously, these sorts of attractions — which usually gave participants the option to buy a souvenir VHS of their creations — hold a lot less appeal in a world where you can shoot your own TV show on your phone and upload it to YouTube.Shrek 4-DThe aforementioned Alfred Hitchcock attraction in Florida was closed to make room for Shrek 4-D, an animated movie with in-theater effects including vibrating seats, water, and gusts of wind. Opened at the height of Shrek mania, Universal gradually began winding down these Shrek 3D movies in the mid-2010s, after the franchise originally petered out. (The Japanese attraction managed to hold on; it still operates part-time in a theater it shares with a Sesame Street 3D attraction.)new Universal attractions; in 2024, Universal Florida added a new meet and greet with Shrek characters in their own little?The SkywayDisneyland and the Magic Kingdom both used to operate a Skyway connecting the Fantasyland and Tomorrowland areas of their respective parks. (Tokyo Disneyland had one too.) The original Disneyland version, which operated at the park from 1956 to 1994, even passed through the middle of the Matterhorn mountain. Unfortunately, that area was supposedly vulnerable to “metal fatigue and stress cracks,” which ultimately led to Disney closing the ride. (The Magic Kingdom Skyway followed suit in 1999.) The slow-moving, open-air gondolas are certainly not up to par with modern theme-park technology, but there was something awfully nice about this dramatic views — and getting to take a little breather from all that walking, especially in the hot Florida sun.Special Effects StageUniversal Studios Hollywood has hosted a variety of makeup and special effects shows throughout its history, starting in the mid-1970s. By the 2010s, the special effects show (sometimes called the Special Effects Stage) found a home at the Castle Theater, where guests were shown how a variety of modern VFX like motion capture were created. The show was retired for good in 2023 and the Castle Theater was demolished, along with the home of Universal’s Animal Actors, in order to make room for the new Fast & Furious roller coaster, Hollywood Drift.Splash MountainWhatever you think of The Song of the South and its depiction of life in the late 19th century, the Splash Mountain ride Disney inexplicably chose to theme to it (in 1989!!) was a lot of fun. A log flume enhanced with animatronic cartoon characters and one of Disney’s most famous songs (“Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah”), it combined Disney’s flair for storytelling with family-friendly thrills. The fact Disney never released The Song of the South on home video meant it was only a matter of time before Splash Mountain got tossed into the briar patch itself. The ride lives on in a new form, though; the mountain and flume are now the subject of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. If you’re desperate to ride Splash Mountain again, you’ll need to take a trip to Japan; it’s still operating at Tokyo Disneyland.Submarine VoyageToday, “E-ticket” is a designation informally assigned to all of the biggest Disney rides. The name comes from the old ticket books Disneyland guests used to get onto rides at the park; the tickets assigned letter ratings based on the level of demand and thrills, A through E, with E reserved for the best of the best. And in 1959, E meant Submarine Voyage, which simulated a journey through the deep ocean aboard an advanced submarine. (In reality, the boats never even fully submerged; a bubble effect provided the illusion of a deep-sea dive, while the “sub”’s seats all faced out through portholes below the water line.) When Submarine Voyage was ported to Walt Disney World in 1971, it was given a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea theme, with the subs designed to look like the Nautilus from the 1954 Disney film of the same name. Both voyages closed in the 1990s, although the Disneyland version eventually reopened with a Finding Nemo overlay. (The Magic Kingdom’s lagoon was later razed to make room for a Seven Dwarfs Mine Train coaster.)T2-3D: Battle Across TimeUniversal’s Terminator 2 3-D movie and live show didn’t just boast the stars of T2 — Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and Edward Furlong — it was also directed by Terminator mastermind James Cameron. Cameron shot the filmed segments at a cost of $24 million, making it, in typical Cameron fashion, one of the most expensive films ever made (at least on a per minute basis). The story follows the T-800 as he makes his promised (but not particularly logical) return and takes the young John Connor into the future to protect him from a resurrected T-1000. (Admittedly this is not the best plan.) T2-3D boasted impressive effects and integrated real actors into the show in clever ways; at times the Terminator seemed to step off the screen into the auditorium and vice versa. Unfortunately, its storyline contradicted all of the Terminator movies released after it, making its “battle across time” feel a little out of time by the 21st century. It closed at Universal Hollywood and Florida in the 2010s. The T2-3D at Universal Japan — which had the coolest show building by far — survived until 2020, then closed for good during the Covid pandemic. Judgment Day has nothing on real life these days.Universe of EnergyHere’s another opening-day Epcot attraction that gradually became a dinosaur in the park — only in this case, the ride was actually about dinosaurs. Originally sponsored by the oil company Exxon, it informed riders about the history of energy via an animated educational film and then through audio-animatronic dinosaurs. (In a classic Disney touch, the “theater” you watched the film in housed six different stationary ride vehicles which drove through the rest of the show building where the dinosaurs were located. In 1996, the attraction was updated as “Ellen’s Energy Adventure”; while the dinosaurs were largely preserved, the film was now hosted by comedian Ellen DeGeneres. This version was present in the park until 2017, when work began on the Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster. The ride was certainly old-fashioned by that point, but the animatronic dinos were fabulous for their era.World of MotionBefore Epcot’s current Test Track, its car-based ride was called World of Motion, a far more sedate Omnimover trip through the history of the travel from ancient times right up to the modern automobile. The coolest part was arguably the ride’s first moments; after boarding, the vehicles exited the show building to make a sweeping uphill right turn up into the actual attraction. As you can see in the video below, the vehicles moved comically slowly, and were perhaps not the most appropriate choice for a ride about motion. Still, there’s a kitschy appeal to these early Epcot attractions — and World of Motion was distinguished by its quirky sense of humor, provided in part by contributions from legendary Disney animator Ward Kimball.Get our free mobile app10 Disney Movies That Deserve Their Own RidesHere are 10 Disney movies that we think would make particularly great theme park rides, whether it be a dark ride, flume ride, or rollercoaster.

Jon Favreau “felt disappointed” that The Mandalorian could not initially be shared on the big screen.The 58-year-old filmmaker is directing, and co-writing with Dave Filoni, The Mandalorian & Grogu, a feature-length film of the Disney+ series that he created and said making a movie has given him more opportunities than he had on TV.Although he is “very proud” of what the show has become, Favreau always thought it “felt cinematic.”He explained to Collider.com: “The big difference is the amount of construction you can do.”“The process is so long compared to television that you can plan, look at it, discuss, use multiple stages, indoor and outdoor sets, do construction, you can do stop-motion ... there are a lot of things that you have an opportunity to do because of the timeframe that you would never be able to do to the same extent on a small screen.”“Although I'm very proud, I have to say that whenever we looked at the stuff that we made for the show, or in an environment where we shared it with fans, it always felt cinematic. I felt disappointed that we couldn't share it with more people that way.”Jon FavreauGetty Imagesloading...READ MORE: Darth Maul Is Getting His Own Disney+ SeriesHowever, the movie, which was filmed for IMAX on set and is gearing up to be released in May 2026, has proven to be a challenge because, as three seasons of The Mandalorian exist, not everyone who will be going to the cinema to watch The Mandalorian & Grogu will have watched the series.Favreau said: “That’s honestly a big part of what we see as the challenge that we wanted to meet head-on.“A lot of people know these characters who haven’t seen the show. So, it’s not just that there are people who saw the show and people who don’t know the characters, there's a big range of people who are familiar with who they are, the archetypes, what they look like.”“They’ve seen them in fan-made stuff, social media clips, so you want to lean into that understanding, but not take for granted that they know all the lore associated with every season of the show.”Get our free mobile app12 Pairs of Wildly Different Movies With the Exact Same TitleYou'll be very confused if you get any of these movies mixed up. Gallery Credit: Emma StefanskyCategories: TV News

Missive is a complex app (collaborative email client), it's a challenging beast to master, but it's fun! What you'll achieve• Collaborate with product and design teams to implement new features from scratch using React and TypeScript.• Improve and modernize existing front-end code for performance, maintainability, and user experience.• Develop and maintain reusable UI components using Storybook.• Lead bug fixes and support related investigation (we are dealing with complex user interactions, you need to love edge cases)Must Have Skills• 5+ years of experience in all things related to what is listed in this job offer.• Deep React and TypeScript knowledge: Projects showcasing complex UI development, state management, performance optimization, and security best practices.• Thrives in a small, high-performing team, takes ownership, and learns new technologies independently.• Be obsessed with polished UIs, optimized code, and usability.Working at MissiveWe are passionate about our craft and committed to delivering exceptional results. We build with a clear focus on serving our customers. Creating the best possible product, in the end, is what truly matters.We ship with high quality and velocity, believing that it is not only rewarding but also a lot of fun.• Zero-ish meeting culture, allowing you to focus on what you do best.• Do more with less mentality.• Remote or/and in-office work options (HQ 👉 Quebec City, Canada).• Work closely with a team that recognizes the value of technical expertise.• Work with/for a product loved by its users.• Retreats.Compensation & BenefitsThe salary for this position depends on experience and qualifications within the range of CAD $125,000 to $175,000 annually. In addition to the base salary, we offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes insurance coverage, telemedicine, 5 weeks of vacation time, and other perks.How to ApplyWe welcome applications from candidates located in Europe and Americas.Start date is as soon as possible. Submit your resume to [email protected].p.s. It's the age of AI. If you want an interview, you must stand out. Don't bother with a dissertation – we have no way to know if you actually wrote it or just used AI. In your email write a point-form list of your acheivements, with links to relevant content.Apply NowLet's start your dream job Apply now Meet JobCopilot: Your Personal AI Job HunterAutomatically Apply to Remote Front-End Programming JobsJust set your preferences and Job Copilot will do the rest-finding, filtering, and applying while you focus on what matters. Activate JobCopilot

Location: Work-from-Home (Asia-based candidates only - we need you on our time zone) - and you if aren't but have a colleague in Asia - pass them the details! About Us: We’re a fast-moving fintech team building a high-performance trading platform that empowers traders worldwide. Based across Asia, we’re a small, collaborative group obsessed with bold ideas, clean code, and rigorous design to deliver real-time, low-latency solutions. We’re on the hunt for a brilliant mind—someone who can outthink our team, master our existing systems, and push our trading tech to new heights. The Role: We’re seeking an exceptional C# .NET Developer to join our remote Asia team, working on our WinForms-based trading platform powered by SQL Server Compact CE. You’ll dive into our existing codebase, quickly learn its intricacies, and extend it with performant, multi-threaded code while adhering to established design patterns. You’ll collaborate closely, rotating design and coding duties daily, and use AI tools to turbocharge development. If you’re a creative genius who can outsmart us and thrive in complex systems, we want you. What You’ll Do:Enhance and optimize WinForms UI for real-time trading, ensuring top-tier performance and responsiveness.Write highly performant, multi-threaded C# code, mastering thread-safe collections and avoiding pitfalls like deadlocks and race conditions.Manage data efficiently with SQL Server Compact CE for lean, local storage.Dive into existing systems, rapidly learning their architecture, workflows, and design patterns to extend and improve them.Co-create and review technical designs (e.g., UML, architecture docs), leading and contributing in a collaborative, rotating workflow.Leverage AI tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, LLMs) to accelerate coding, debugging, and design innovation.Quickly adapt to new tools, APIs, or proprietary systems to tackle evolving challenges.Contribute to a trading platform with real-time market data, order execution, and financial algorithms.Who You Are:A brilliant problem-solver with 3–7 years of C# .NET Framework experience, including deep WinForms expertise.A multi-threading expert, with proven experience handling deadlocks, race conditions, and thread-safe collections (e.g., ConcurrentDictionary).Skilled with SQL Server Compact CE or similar embedded databases (SQL Server knowledge a plus).A master of OOP (SOLID principles, design patterns) who writes elegant, scalable code.Adept at working with existing systems, quickly learning their structure, and following established design patterns to maintain consistency.Comfortable crafting and critiquing technical designs, with a disciplined design-before-coding mindset.Experienced using AI tools (e.g., Copilot, ChatGPT) to boost productivity and innovate workflows.A quick learner who thrives on complex challenges and adapts to new tech effortlessly.Ideally experienced in trading platforms or fintech (e.g., low-latency systems, order matching).Young (25–35), energetic, and driven to outthink and outshine your peers.Based in Asia, with reliable internet for remote work.A clear communicator who excels in collaborative, idea-driven teams.Standout Qualities:You’ve mastered a complex legacy system and made it better, faster, or smarter.You’ve used AI to solve a tricky coding, design, or system integration problem in a way that surprised your team.You’ve led a project or design that redefined how your team approached a challenge.Bonus: Experience with .NET Core, APIs, or cloud (Azure/AWS), or open-source/personal projects that showcase your brilliance.Why Join Us?Work-from-home flexibility with a passionate, Asia-based team.A collaborative culture where everyone designs, codes, and challenges each other to innovate.A high-impact trading platform that traders rely on daily.Freedom to use AI and cutting-edge tools to redefine development speed and quality.A team that celebrates your ability to outthink us and elevate our systems to the next level.How to Apply: Send your resume, GitHub/LinkedIn profile, and a short note describing how you’ve outsmarted a tough technical challenge (e.g., multi-threading, system integration, or AI-driven solution) to [email protected]. Bonus points: Include a sample technical design, a code snippet showcasing multi-threading or system integration, or an example of how you used AI to innovate and reduce coding implementation times. Application Deadline:  April 30th, 2025 Challenge Us: If you can outthink our team, master our systems, and build trading tech that blows us away, we want you. Apply now and show us what you’re capable of!Apply NowLet's start your dream job Apply now Meet JobCopilot: Your Personal AI Job HunterAutomatically Apply to Remote Full-Stack Programming JobsJust set your preferences and Job Copilot will do the rest-finding, filtering, and applying while you focus on what matters. Activate JobCopilot

Revised application has changed office buildings to student resi and affordable homes Aerial view of the revised proposals TP Bennett’s redesign of a major commercial scheme in Canada Water is set to be approved by Southwark council next week. The firm’s revised application for half of the Dockside Canada Water scheme, which has transformed two buildings from offices to student accommodation and affordable housing, has been recommended for approval by the council’s planning officers ahead of a council meeting on 29 April. It comes four months after the four-block scheme’s developer Art Invest Real Estate submitted its rethink of the development, which had originally been entirely commercial and had been granted outline approval in 2023. The other half of the site, plot A, consisting of a 25-storey office building designed by BIG and a 12-storey office block designed by HWKN, remains unchanged. TP Bennett’s proposals for plot B would see the construction of a 26-storey tower containing 742 student beds and an eight-storey residential block containing 75 affordable homes. CGI of the proposed student accommodation tower AIRE has said the changes “represent a natural evolution of the scheme and respond to a clear need for additional places for students to live in Southwark”. Purpose built student accommodation is among the most buoyant property sectors in London, with the market growing by 12% in 2024 compared to the previous year, according to planning firm Turley. Southwark council’s planning offices described the scheme as “exemplary in design” and said it would make a positive contribution to the surrounding townscape. The project team on plot B also includes project manager Gardiner & Theobald, masterplanner BIG, civil and structural engineer Ramboll, landscape architect Townshend, planning consultant DP9, facade engineer Arup, transport consultant WSP and heritage consultant Tavernor. The plot’s changes are part of a wider shake-up of the Canada Water development area following British Land’s decision to radically redesign its neighbouring scheme. The developer announced plans earlier this year to increase the height of 11 buildings on its 3,000-home site by up to 13 storeys, including all residential buildings, which would be made taller to accommodate second staircases. The two projects together would create a substantial new high rise district in south-east London, with construction on British Land’s Allies & Morrison-designed development already well underway where Mace and Wates have been working for several years.

We got our first purported look at Motorola's new foldable phone just two days before its announcement, but there was no leak for the Razr 60 Ultra.

Photos of the French Alps, Utah, the Maldives, Quebec, Australia and Argentina show the naturally occurring letters.

April 22, 20252 min readFight, Flee or Freeze? This Tiny Caterpillar Does a Secret Fourth ThingBaby warty birch caterpillars vibrate when threatened—before swinging away like Spider-ManBy Rohini Subrahmanyam edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier Thomas FuchsWhen facing an intruder, animals generally tend to fight, flee or simply freeze. But certain baby caterpillars do something else entirely: they vibrate.Newly hatched warty birch caterpillars, each about the size of a single pepper grain, live and feed alone on the very tips of leaves. In a recent study in the Journal of Experimental Biology, scientists found that the caterpillars are fiercely protective of their little abode. If another caterpillar wanders into their territory, these tiny critters start furiously drumming their heads, shaking their bodies and scraping their butts against the leaf—a series of complex vibratory behaviors to signal that their leaf tip is off-limits.This research “takes me into how complex the sensory world of even a tiny, tiny organism is that humans are just not aware of,” says Jayne E. Yack, a neuroethologist at Carleton University and senior author of the new study.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.The scientists used close-up videos and a laser-doppler vibrometer—an instrument that can pick up a leaf’s vibrations without touching it—to tap into the caterpillars’ shaky world. “For such small caterpillars, [their vibrations] are like lion roars,” Yack says. “You have to turn down the volume and take the headphones off your ears because they’re so loud.” The bouncy leaf tip may also boost the sound, she adds.The caterpillars most likely guard their leaf tip because it offers a good escape route. If an undeterred intruder continues to approach, the caterpillar drops a silk thread and flees like Spider-Man. But its warning wiggle often does the trick.These vehement vibrations could also be a bluff; some spiders make similar moves. “It’s a distinct possibility that they’re mimicking a spider to deter somebody else from taking over their precious leaf tip,” Yack says.Like singing birds, “these caterpillars are also declaring ownership of their territories and competing with rivals—in this case by sending vibrations through the leaf surface rather than the air,” says Andrew Mason, who studies animal communication at the University of Toronto Scarborough and was not involved in the study. “This paper gives us a window onto this otherwise undetectable world.”