“Big Blue” has clawed its way back into investor favor, but the company needs to show staying power in AI to cement its comeback.

"Hard to reconcile" Trump orders Ed Dept to make AI a national priority while plotting agency’s death States could mess with Trump’s AI education plan if the Education Department dies. Ashley Belanger – Apr 24, 2025 4:56 pm | 31 Credit: breakermaximus | iStock / Getty Images Plus Credit: breakermaximus | iStock / Getty Images Plus Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Donald Trump's executive order requiring artificial intelligence training in education as a national priority has been met with enthusiasm and confusion. On the one hand, his plans to promote early AI training in K–12 schools appear to be "critical," as Trump says, to "maintain America’s global dominance in this technological revolution for future generations." To that end, the order established an AI Presidential Challenge to highlight significant student and educator achievements and encourage innovative thinking. "It is the policy of the United States to promote AI literacy and proficiency among Americans by promoting the appropriate integration of AI into education, providing comprehensive AI training for educators, and fostering early exposure to AI concepts and technology to develop an AI-ready workforce and the next generation of American AI innovators," Trump's order said. But on the other hand, Trump's plan depends on staffing and funding after several rounds of severe cuts in agencies he hopes will somehow find existing funding for his initiative. His plan also hinges on the existence of the Department of Education, which Trump is simultaneously seeking to eliminate. Only about half the staff are left at the DOE, EdWeek reported. John Bailey, a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former director of the Office of Educational Technology under George W. Bush, told EdWeek that "it’s hard to kind of understand at a time when they’re deprioritizing federal education policy and priorities, how to reconcile that with establishing a national priority in this area." But possibly, he suggested, a sleeker department could streamline adoption of AI initiatives. However, perhaps critically, EdWeek pointed out, Trump recently cut "the team at the Education Department that was tasked with framing a national educational technology plan under multiple administrations and assisting states and districts in implementing technology in schools." Trump pushes for industry involvement It seems clear that Trump's executive order was a reaction to China's announcement about AI education reforms last week, as Reuters reported. Elsewhere, Singapore and Estonia have laid out their AI education initiatives, Forbes reported, indicating that AI education is increasingly considered critical to any nation's success. Trump's vision for the US requires training teachers and students about what AI is and what it can do. He offers no new appropriations to fund the initiative; instead, he directs a new AI Education Task Force to find existing funding to cover both research into how to implement AI in education and the resources needed to deliver on the executive order's promises. Although AI advocates applauded Trump's initiative, the executive order's vagueness makes it uncertain how AI education tools will be assessed as Trump pushes for AI to be integrated into "all subject areas." Possibly using AI in certain educational contexts could disrupt learning by confabulating misinformation, a concern that the Biden administration had in its more cautious approach to AI education initiatives. Trump also seems to push for much more private sector involvement than Biden did. The order recommended that education institutions collaborate with industry partners and other organizations to "collaboratively develop online resources focused on teaching K–12 students foundational AI literacy and critical thinking skills." These partnerships will be announced on a "rolling basis," the order said. It also pushed students and teachers to partner with industry for the Presidential AI Challenge to foster collaboration. For Trump's AI education plan to work, he will seemingly need the DOE to stay intact. However, so far, Trump has not acknowledged this tension. In March, he ordered the DOE to dissolve, with power returned to states to ensure "the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely." Were that to happen, at least 27 states and Puerto Rico—which EdWeek reported have already laid out their own AI education guidelines—might push back, using their power to control federal education funding to pursue their own AI education priorities and potentially messing with Trump's plan. Ashley Belanger Senior Policy Reporter Ashley Belanger Senior Policy Reporter Ashley is a senior policy reporter for Ars Technica, dedicated to tracking social impacts of emerging policies and new technologies. She is a Chicago-based journalist with 20 years of experience. 31 Comments

Reindeer fur would have helped ancient humans endure the climate of the last glacial maximumEsteban De Armas/Shutterstock An open-air site in Austria occupied by humans during the coldest part of the last glacial period may have been dedicated to hunting reindeer for pelts, showing how people adapted to extreme temperatures in Europe. The site, called Kammern-Grubgraben, was heavily occupied from around 24,000 to 20,000 years ago and contains the largest abundance of tools, ornaments, artefacts and stone structures in Europe during the cold and unforgiving most recent glacial maximum. At this time, the mean annual temperature…

Despite the geopolitical chaos and market collapses triggered by President Trump’s announcement of broad tariffs on international goods, some supporters still hope the strategy will produce a “golden age” of American industry. Trump himself insists, “Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country.” While it’s possible that very targeted tariffs could help protect some nascent sectors of domestic manufacturing, the belief in the power of blunt tariffs flies in the face of manufacturing reality. And it’s not just the idea of a speedy return to economic prowess thanks to smoke-belching factories and the sudden ability to cheaply assembled armies of iPhones that strains credulity. The sweeping tariffs ignore the complexities of today’s supply chains and the way technology advances are shifting how and where goods are made. In fact, the high and crudely designed tariffs set out by the administration could damage a recent rebound in US manufacturing. Building factories and the supply chains they run on takes years—even decades—of steady investment. Meanwhile, tariffs have the immediate impact of boosting costs for critical supplies, many of which come from overseas—helping to raise prices and, in turn, slowing demand. None of that is good for those planning to invest in US manufacturing. “Tariffs, in general, as a tool for encouraging the type of manufacturing we want in the US are a terrible instrument,” says Elisabeth Reynolds, a professor of the practice at MIT. Reynolds, who was an advisor to President Biden on manufacturing and economic development, says the Trump tariffs will raise the costs of US manufacturing without providing incentives for “strategic investments in the technologies we care about for national and economic security.” Willy Shih, a professor at Harvard Business School, says the tariffs feel like “random acts of violence” in how they hurt manufacturing and supply chains. Because the tariffs proposed so far “are so scattershot and change so often,” he says, “it’s basically freezing up investments. Who is going to make any kind of investment commitment when things are changing so fast?” There are already indications that the prospect of widespread tariffs could be harming the US manufacturing boom. One closely scrutinized survey called the Purchasing Managers’ Index, or PMI, showed troublingearly signs of rising costs for manufacturers due to the tariffs. Other indicators watched carefully by policy wonks, including surveys of manufacturers by theNew York Federal Reserve Bank, the Richmond Fed, and thePhiladelphia Fed, also show a loss of confidence among US producers and drops in new orders and hiring. The longer-terms effects of the tariffs are, of course, unknown. For one thing, the specifics—how large, how long, and on what countries—seem to be constantly shifting. And that’s a big part of the problem: For manufacturers and investors, uncertainty is the killer of plans for expansion, new factories, and even the R&D that feeds into new products. It’s that uncertainty, above all else, that could derail a reindustrialization still in the early stages for much of the country. In fact, US manufacturing in the years following the covid pandemic has been booming—or at least the groundwork for such a boom is getting built. Until the most recent few months, spending on the construction of factorieshad been soaring. New facilities to build batteries, solar cells, semiconductors, electric motors, and other new technologies are springing up all around the country—or wereuntil very recently. “We never had more construction starts in the United States than we’ve had in the past four years,” says Milo Werner, a partner at the venture capital firm DCVC. “We’re at this amazing moment where we could actually rebuild Main Street America and bring back the industrial base.” The move to bolster US manufacturing was fueled by a sense during the beginning of the pandemic that the country must regain the ability to make critical products and technologies. Thedecline of US manufacturing had become obvious. Federal support torebuild the industrial base came in a series of bills passed during the Biden administration, including the CHIPS and Science Act and the climate bill. At the same time, opportunities offered by artificial intelligence and automation breakthroughs have spurred an appetite for new investments among many manufacturers. Many of those technologies are just starting to be deployed, but they promise a way for US producers to finally become more competitive with those in low-wage economies. If the Trump tariffs slow or even reverse such progress, the impact on the country’s economic and technological future could be devastating. There are a lot of reasons to want a stronger US industrial base. But it’s not mainly about whether we have countless well-paying jobs for those with only a high school diploma and little technical training, despite what you will hear from many politicians. Those days are mostly long gone. Manufacturing jobs account fora little under 10% of total jobs in the US. That percentage hasn’t changed much over the last few decades—nor is it likely to grow much in coming years even if manufacturing output increases, because automation and other advanced digital tools will likely cut into the demand for human workers. Still, manufacturing is critical to the future of the US economy in other ways. The invention of new stuff and production processes greatly benefits from an intimate connection to manufacturing capabilities and expertise. In short, your chances of successfully creating a new type of battery or AI chip are much greater if you’re familiar with the intricacies of manufacturing such products. It’s a lesson that was often forgotten in the 2000s as companies, led by such Silicon Valley giants as Apple, focused on design and marketing, leaving the production work to China and other countries. The strategy created huge profits but severely crimped the United States’ ability to move ahead with a next generation of technology. In 2010, Intel cofounder Andy Grove famouslywarned, “Abandoning today’s ‘commodity’ manufacturing can lock you out of tomorrow’s emerging industry.” Prompted by such concerns, in 2011 I visited manufacturers across the country, from industrial giants like GE and Dow Chemical to startups with exciting new technologies, and wrote “Can We Build Tomorrow’s Breakthroughs?” Over the next few years, the answer to the headline’s question proved to be no. GE and Dow gave up on their most innovative manufacturing ventures in batteries and solar, while nearly none of the startups survived. The US was great at inventing new stuff, it turns out, but lousy at making it. The hope is that this situation is changing as the country builds up its manufacturing muscles. The stakes are particularly high. The value of producing strategic goods and their supply chains domestically—biomedicine, critical minerals, advanced semiconductors—is becoming obvious to both politicians and economists. If we want to turn today’s scientific breakthroughs in energy, chips, drugs, and key military technologies such as drones into actual products, the US will need to once again be a manufacturing powerhouse. Limited tariffs could help. That’s especially true, says DCVC’s Werner, in some strategically important areas marked by a history of unfair trade practices. Rare-earth magnets, which are found in everything from electric motors to drones to robots, are one example. “Decades ago, China flooded the US economy with low-cost magnets,” she says. “All our domestic magnet manufacturers went out of business.” Now, she suggests, tariffs could provide short-term protection to US companies developing advanced manufacturing techniques to make those products, helping them compete with low-cost versions made in China. “You’re not going to be able to rely on tariffs forever, but it’s an example of the important role that tariffs could play,” she says. Even Harvard’s Shih, who considers the sweeping Trump tariffs “crazy,” says that far more limited versions could be a useful tool in some circumstance to give temporary market protection to domestic manufacturers developing critical early-stage technologies. But, he adds, such tariffs need to be “very targeted” and quickly phased out. For the successful use of tariffs, “you really have to understand how global trade and supply chains work,” Shih says. “And trust me, there is no evidence that these guys actually understand how it works.” What’s really at stake when we talk about the country’s reindustrialization is our future pipeline of new technologies. The portfolio of technologies emerging from universities and startups in energy production and storage, materials, computing, and biomedicine has arguably never been richer. Meanwhile, AI and advanced robotics could soon transform our ability to manufacture these technologies and products. The danger is that backward-looking policy choices geared toward a bygone era of manufacturing could destroy that promising progress.

The author enjoys spending time with her family outside. Courtesy of Melissa Noble 2025-04-25T10:07:01Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? My husband and I have three kids, and in recent years, things have gotten more expensive. We've figured out ways to make our money stretch further for our family of five. I buy generic brands at the grocery store and we spend time outdoors for entertainment. As a family of five, we have definitely felt the pinch in recent years. It feels like so many things are getting more expensive, including the cost of groceries, daycare, utility bills, insurance premiums, and more.In order to make ends meet, we've had to make a few adjustments to our spending habits. Our lifestyle has definitely changed, but I wouldn't say that it's necessarily a bad thing. In fact, reining in our spending has meant that when we splurge on nice-to-haves, we appreciate them more.Here are the tweaks we've made that have worked for us.I meal plan and buy generic brand groceriesI try to meal plan as much as possible in such a way where we're using up all the ingredients we buy. For example, if I buy sour cream for a Mexican dish, I use the rest up up in a dessert as well, rather than letting it go bad.I don't let anything go to waste at home. If vegetables are starting to wilt or go soft, I throw them in a soup or stew. If meat is about to turn bad, I freeze it and use it later in the month.I've always been a thrifty shopper, but I am even more budget-conscious nowadays. I buy the generic brands and check what's cheapest according to the unit price at the grocery store. Sometimes, I'll buy in bulk if it means saving money per unit and it's something we'll use up eventually.We also eat what's in season or on special. If blueberries are $8 a basket and apples are $2 a pound, apples it is.We rarely eat out at restaurantsWhen we only had one child, my husband and I used to love eating out. We ate out once or twice a week, but now that we're a family of five, it's just too expensive.We probably only eat out at a restaurant once every few months now. Often, we'll make it a date night and leave the kids at home, so that my husband and I can enjoy the outing in peace (and it's also cheaper that way).Funnily enough, I don't miss going out to restaurants at all. Not only are we saving money, but we're also eating more wholesome, home-cooked food. When we do eat out, it feels like a real treat, too.We cut back on subscriptions and spend our free time outside or with friendsThree years ago, we moved to Bright in regional Victoria, Australia. Living in the country, we had to get better at making our own fun and discovered that free entertainment is actually a joy.Nowadays, most of our weekends are jam-packed with picnics and nature walks, bike rides and dinners at friends' houses, or friends coming over to ours. We also invest in quality "toys" that will last the distance and provide entertainment in years to come. For example, all of us have mountain bikes that we ride most weeks.One of my favorite hobbies is reading, and to save money, I've started using the library rather than buying books. Libraries are such a great resource, even in a small town like ours.We've also cut back on subscriptions we don't need, like streaming services. The author and her family invest in items that will provide entertainment for a long time, like mountain bikes. Courtesy of Melissa Noble I swap clothes with friends or buy secondhandI used to love buying nice clothes, but my priorities have shifted. When I do buy something, I love buying secondhand. It's a great way to find quality clothing (sometimes even designer brands) for a fraction of the usual cost.My friends and I lend each other clothes for special occasions in order to save money, and I also hosted a swap party with a bunch of my friends recently. Everyone brought clothes, jewellery, perfumes, and books they no longer wanted, and went home with a bag of goodies at the end of the night. It was a great way to reduce, reuse, and recycle.Budgeting has been key, and every little bit adds upOverall, adjusting our spending habits has helped us stay afloat during what has been a challenging time financially for many families. Having a clear understanding of where our money is going has been crucial, and has allowed us to identify areas to save. It's easy to forget that every little bit adds up, but it definitely does! Recommended video

For most of the last 30 years, the story of religion in America has been a pretty steady one: a constant, and consistent, drop in religious affiliation every year. Starting in the 1990s, the share of Americans who identified as Christian, or identified with any religion at all, began to drop precipitously. At the same time, those with no religious affiliation — nicknamed “nones” — began to spike. Americans have been steadily losing their religion entirely. They haven’t been converting to other religions, or getting religion later in life.That trend might be ending. Over the last five years, the share of Americans who are “nones” has stabilized at roughly 30 percent, across multiple tracking surveys — largely because of one group: zoomers.Sometime around or after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, young Americans began to find, or at least retain, religious belief at higher rates than previous generations. The numbers tell this story quite cleanly. While the share of “nones” jumped by about 40 percent from 2008 to 2013, the rise began to slow between 2013 and 2018.Then, in 2020, it stagnated. According to associate professor of political science and data analyst Ryan Burge, who has been tracking this trend over the last few years, that stagnation can largely be traced to younger generations now losing their religion at slower rates than older generations. “From a pure statistical standpoint, I don’t know if we can say with any certainty whether there’s a larger share of nones in the United States today than there was in 2019,” he wrote in 2024.Gen Z seems to be the key. Recently, The Economist analyzed findings from the General Social Survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center, and found that zoomers are the only generation not losing their religious affiliation. Why? There’s no unifying explanation for this trend, but it extends beyond the United States. And that suggests that there might be some structural reasons Gen Z is rediscovering faith. Something about post-Covid seems to be bringing youth back to Christianity, specifically, but also to religion in general.There are three potential explanations:A response to the loneliness epidemic?That Gen Z, and younger Americans in general, feels more lonely and isolated from each other and society in general is one of the defining stories of the 2020s. Anywhere from two-thirds to three-quarters of Gen Z reports feeling isolated, alone, or disconnected from the world, a dynamic that has bled into the way they socialize, date, get married, or find community in general.Some have attributed this dynamic to the rise of social media, and of smartphones, in the pandemic lockdown period that defined the adolescence of so much of Gen Z, and a resulting “mental health crisis” in response. Just how unique these are to Gen Z (as opposed to how any generation might have felt during these tumultuous years of life), is up for debate still, but it still follows that some members of this generation who do feel isolated or lost might be finding community and friendship in organized religion.This social aspect to religion, and the idea of a third space or community created through churches, is an oft-repeated explanation in the reporting and surveying of zoomers who are returning to church. Church offers “solace,” and young newcomers report attending services “to feel less ‘lost’.” As one Massachusetts zoomer told The Economist, though friends and family may come and go, “people in church don’t get to reject you.”A response to loss of trust in the establishment?Relatedly, religiosity and spirituality becoming less taboo among Gen Z might be a part of a countercultural, counter-status quo, anti-incumbency energy that has swept many Western democracies since the pandemic’s outbreak. It might seem odd to think of religion as countercultural, but at least for many of the youngest Americans, growing religious disaffiliation has been the popular narrative and posturing of their elders.In that way, it makes sense that religious unaffiliation might have hit a ceiling at the start of the Covid-era, as Western societies — and particularly younger people — began to question orthodoxies, political and secular institutions, and conventional political parties and leaders.Some young respondents to surveys and journalists report that atheism, agnosticism, and indifference to religion became a kind of status-quo, mainstream opinion, boosted in particular by the quick religious dissociation of the millennial generation — the cohort of Americans who seem to have had the strongest liberal and secular bend. At least in the United Kingdom and in the United States, some degree of Gen Z’s slowing religious dissociation is related to an increase in anti-mainstream, anti-status quo religious fervor: In the United Kingdom, for example, where Anglicanism has long been the mainstream, Catholicism has recently fueled the the rise in religious identification. In the United States, where various types of Protestantism used to be associated with elite culture, Catholicism has risen on the right, while various evangelical, and both Catholicism more tolerant nondenominational Christian churches, have grown, as opposed to more popular atheism or agnosticism.There’s a sharp gender divide in who is driving the Gen Z religious shift. Young Gen Z men are becoming much more religious, while young women keeping a religious affiliation are shifting to more politically liberal and tolerant faith traditions, particularly in the US.This gender divide is quite dramatic: Gen Z men are significantly more likely to attend religious services than Gen Z women, a reversal from what the norm was in the US. And young women are leaving American churches en masse, largely because of political and ideological cross-pressures on what these churches teach about gender norms, sexual identity, and gender equality, as well as the roles they offer women in religious institutions and the political leanings of some churches, according to research from the American Enterprise Institute’s Survey Center on American Life.One Survey Center study, for example, found that about two-thirds of young women believe “most churches and religious congregations” don’t treat men and women equally, while the Public Religion Research Institute has consistently found that the “negative treatment of gay and lesbian people” has been key driver of young women away from organized religions. That might be amplified by the fact that high rates of Gen Z women, some three in 10, now identify as LGBTQ.At the same time, the subtle integration of religious traits into the teachings and preachings of some alt-right, manosphere-adjacent content creators who have a particular reach with young men, might be amplifying this tension. The result is a generation of men finding community and belonging in religion, that reinforces their existing political preferences, and causes a further rightward lurch (as was seen in the 2024 election).Will it last?Whether these trends continue doesn’t seem guaranteed. If anything the data suggests we may have reached a temporary equilibrium in religious affiliation and belief that might change as older, more religious Americans, continue to pass away. The strongest social research suggests that biggest driver and predictor of continued religious identification is how religious your parents were — so if a more religious and faithful Gen Z ends up keeping that faith, and raising their children with the same norms, what looked like an inevitable and endless decline in American religiosity may have been less drastic than it appeared.See More:

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered – a new old game (Bethesda) Bethesda remaster the predecessor to Skyrim, turning an almost two decade old role-player into one of the most talked about games of 2025. The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion was originally released 19 years ago (as an Xbox 360 console exclusive) to almost universal acclaim, and in spite of the copious bugs and jank that Bethesda fans had, by that point, learned to expect. It sold nearly 10 million copies, and while that was later eclipsed by the 40 million sales of sequel Skyrim, Oblivion remains a much loved and highly influential action role-playing game. Ironically, this remaster was supposed to be a surprise, being announced and released on the same day, and yet thanks to endless leaks and rumours it ended up being the most widely anticipated launch of the year. Despite a major graphical upgrade to Unreal Engine 5, Bethesda are at pains to describe it as a remaster and not a remake, as they’ve attempted to ensure the ‘original game was there as you remember playing it.’ For those who fully immersed themselves in the original, there’s much that’s been smoothed and reworked in this new version. If you haven’t played it before though the game is, naturally, very reminiscent of Skyrim, except with more varied biomes and less dragons. At the time there was really nothing else like it, with predecessor Morrowind being little more than a cult hit, but Oblivion is the game that put The Elder Scrolls on the map. All of the game’s visual assets have been recreated from the ground up and a huge number of the voices have been re-recorded. Where the 2005 version had to get by with a few exceptionally hard-working voice artists, each of whom played multiple characters, this time many more actors were involved, giving Cyrodiil’s population a more variegated feel. It’s still unmistakably old school though. Characters’ faces are higher resolution, but most still look either hilarious or mildly disturbing, with eyes far too close together and cartoonishly massive jawlines. They also retain the endearing habit of introducing themselves to you with first and last names, even when you’re unlikely ever to see or speak to them again. The HUD’s compass has been moved to the top of the screen and now presents you with considerably more information about points of interest in your vicinity. Health and magicka bars are larger and clearer, and it’s easy to forget that Oblivion didn’t have a sprint button, forcing you to explore its colossal landmass at walking pace. That’s now changed, giving you further incentive to upgrade your stamina so you can run for longer. Despite its upgraded visuals, you would never mistake its landscapes for sophisticated modern open worlds like Assassin’s Creed Shadows or Dragon’s Dogma 2. Its trees and foliage might look sparse by today’s standards, but it remains a great place to explore, its undulating hills punctuated by frequent dungeons – each of which has its own character, enemies, and backstory. It’s perhaps Oblivion’s greatest strength that the best way to play it is to ignore your starter quest, to deliver Emperor Septim’s sacred amulet to his last surviving heir, and simply head off into the wilds to seek your fortune. The benefit of slightly fewer trees, and hills that are rarely as steep as Skyrim’s, is that traversal is easy. You can see something interesting in the distance and investigate or just follow the road and see where it takes you. The serendipity of finding a door in a hillside, that leads you into a vast series of underground chambers and corridors, many of which contain enemies and loot, never seems to get old. As you enter you have no idea what you’re going to find. Will it be a few interconnected rooms or an apparently endless labyrinth? Will you be fighting bandits, necromancers, or vampires? By the time Bethesda made Skyrim, they’d learned to make dungeons effectively circular, so the final room would often lead back to the entrance via a previously locked one-way door. In Oblivion you still normally find yourself retracing your steps past a mob of recently looted corpses to get back out into the fresh air. First person RPGs were never the same again (Bethesda) There remains an inspiring variety of things to do in Oblivion. You can join the Mages, Fighters, and Thieves Guilds; you can tray and find the Dark Brotherhood; or you can get involved in the business of the region’s towns and cities. Plenty of these need your help getting rid of Oblivion gates: hellish portals to a fiery netherworld that spew out monsters until you seal them by finding and removing their sigil stones. The remaster also includes previously paid-for expansions, Knights Of The Nine and Shivering Isles, so there’s an abundance of quite varied stories to play through. You’ll still find plenty of the quirks you’d expect in a Bethesda role-player though. Along with the catalogue of boss-eyed freaks that comprise its townsfolk, you’ll discover that horse riding can produce some fairly outlandish moments of in-game physics. You’ll also still be spending a large amount of your time fiddling about with menus and inventory management. It’s a reminder that this is a role-playing game, which traditionally used to require pencils, paper, and a lot of looking things up in large hardback rulebooks. Whether or not its idiosyncrasies trigger nostalgia for you, Oblivion is still a powerfully involving game. Its system of levelling up may have been rationalised, scrapping the limitations and peculiar complexity of the original, but there are still dozens of skills to improve as you play, along with your character’s base stats to upgrade as you gain levels; while specialisation in alchemy and spell creation can still create character builds that are awesomely powerful. More Trending It may be fairly clunky by today’s standards and, although improved, its first person melee combat remains primitive, but the sense of scale and immersion are just as spectacular in the modern era. It’s a massive living world to explore and while it most certainly is a remaster, not a full remake, its simplicity in some areas can definitely been seen as a positive. Despite its importance on release Oblivion has been largely forgotten in recent years but this remaster proves that The Elder Scrolls is more than just Skyrim. The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered review summary In Short: An excellent remaster that preserves the original’s eccentricities and old school character, while instituting a complete graphical overhaul and adding a suite of modern conveniences. Pros: The same joyous sense of exploration and discovery as the original and impressive upgrade in visuals, sound, and combat. Contains both pieces of previously paid-for DLC and almost no bugs. Cons: Characters’ faces are still deeply odd looking. Controls and menu management are clumsy by modern standards, and not everyone will appreciate the resolutely old school approach. Score: 8/10 Formats: Xbox Series X/S* (reviewed), PlayStation 5, and PC*Price: £49.99Publisher: Bethesda SoftworksDeveloper: Virtuos and Bethesda Game StudiosRelease Date: 22nd April 2025Age Rating: 18 *available on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass from day one It wouldn’t be Elder Scrolls without weird looking characters (Bethesda) Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. GameCentral Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

Princess Leia’s twin buns made Star Wars‘ first big fashion statement, but it wasn’t until the prequels that a true style icon emerged in the galaxy far, far away. We’re talking, of course, about Padmé Amidala. While her elaborate Queen of Naboo garb made an impression in The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones is where the Natalie Portman character really got to flex her favorite flowing fabrics and sleek battle attire. Lucasfilm, never one to shy away from marketing any corner of Star Wars, clearly hit upon a good idea by releasing a book of paper dolls celebrating costume designer Trisha Biggar’s gorgeous creations. However, 23 year after the movie’s release, pristine copies of Random House’s Star Wars: Attack of the Clones: Padmé Amimdale Paper Doll Book, featuring art by Joyce Patti, are hard to find. But fret not: as part of an upcoming Star Wars sale timed to May the Fourth, Heritage Auctions has on offer not a copy of the book, but the original Joyce Patti acrylic-on-paper artworks, mounted to illustration boards and suitable for displaying to show off every precise detail. The set of eight artworks (each measuring approximately 13.25″ x 20″) showcases Padmé new status as the Senator representing Naboo, as well as her off-duty attire while falling in love with Anakin Skywalker: “her loyalist dress, her refugee dress, her picnic dress, her dinner dress, her Tatooine blue dress, her wedding gown, and her Geonosis battle attire,” Heritage Auction notes. Anakin also gets his moment as an added bonus, but his Jedi togs ain’t much next to Padmé’s undeniable galactic flair. © Heritage Auctions/HA.com © Heritage Auctions/HA.com © Heritage Auctions/HA.com © Heritage Auctions/HA.com © Heritage Auctions/HA.com © Heritage Auctions/HA.com © Heritage Auctions/HA.com © Heritage Auctions/HA.com © Heritage Auctions/HA.com The fine print is that the starting bid on this set of original illustrations is the queenly sum of $3,000. Learn more how to bid here. You can check out the full Star Wars auction here. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

Desert Fairway Residence / Kendle Design CollaborativeSave this picture!© Ema PeterHouses•Paradise Valley, United States Architects: Kendle Design Collaborative Area Area of this architecture project Area:  5385 ft² Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2024 Photographs Photographs:Ema Peter Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers:  Blocklite, Bulthaup, Fleetwood , Subzero Lead Architects: Brent Kendle More SpecsLess Specs Save this picture! Text description provided by the architects. Nestled amongst a rich palette of native vegetation, the Desert Fairways Residence slowly reveals itself as it emerges from its lush surroundings. Its design captures the eye, with low masses defining private zones that contrast with a dynamically folded metal plane that shelters the social zone. Changing hues of textured metal cast rhythmic shadows, recalling the ribs of a cactus, while rhythm masonry forms shield the interior from the western sun.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Low walls of layered earth guide one up to the front entry where a fractured rammed earth tower establishes an exterior foyer, creating a powerful and welcoming presence. An organically patterned metal sunshade cast playful spots of light and shadow along these walls while vertical trellis screens the interior space. Inside, the ribbed metal fascia transitions to warm wood, whose lines draw one's eye back out to the exterior environment. The refined and sophisticated palette of earth-derived materials continues inside with natural stone floors, rammed earth accent walls, and ground face block surfaces extending into select rooms.Save this picture!Save this picture!A lush desert garden approaches the interior, its proximity heightened by a nearly frameless glass wall that dissolves any sense of boundary. Beyond, glimpses of the golf course appear through the diverse, low-water-use plantings, which ground the mountain views beyond. A narrow pool reflects the blue Arizona sky while simultaneously cascading down textured walls to compose a soothing harmony of sound and visual delight, while creating a cool micro-climate within the outdoor living area.Save this picture!Save this picture!Lounging on the terrace adjacent to the pool, the themes of contrasting elements— the transparency and solidity of the building against the delicate foliage, the distinction of interior to exterior, and the play of light and shadow—create a perfect balance and oasis. The Desert Fairways Residence is a testament to the power of design to transform the built environment and elevate our daily lives. Project gallerySee allShow less About this office Published on April 25, 2025Cite: "Desert Fairway Residence / Kendle Design Collaborative" 25 Apr 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1029482/desert-fairway-residence-kendle-design-collaborative&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

Discover how to multiply colors and adjust brightness in your VFX materials using Unreal Engine. This quick tip will elevate your material design skills!#UnrealEngine #VFX #MaterialDesign #GameDev #Tutorial