Every item on this page was hand-picked by a House Beautiful editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.Jump to:Art Deco is one of the most easily recognizable architectural styles out there. Known for its sleek symmetry and geometric motifs, the style adorns skyscrapers, storefronts, and apartment buildings across the country. And this year, the fan-favorite style turns one hundred. The style originated in France before spreading worldwide in the latter half of the 1920s. Art Deco architecture was seen as a celebration of progress, using geometric forms, lavish materials, and bold ornamentation to embody the optimism of its time: the Roaring Twenties. Officially a centenarian, Art Deco has dominated the design world longer than mid-century modern and Memphis combined, and it continues to be a popular choice for designers and architects alike.Like any major interior design trend, Art Deco has waxed and waned in its widespread popularity, but the classical elements that define its style have outlasted many a fad, and for good reason. According to a 2025 designer survey by vintage retailer 1st Dibs, Art Deco is the top trending design era this year, with 32 percent of American interior designers looking to the 1920s and ‘30s for inspiration. “Art Deco is a sophisticated, modern design style that combines elements of luxury, geometric precision, and technological innovation,” says Glen Hardwick-Bruce, founder of the Art World Advisory Group. “It was influenced by a mix of modernism, avant-garde movements, exotic cultural imagery, and the optimistic, lavish spirit of the 1920s and 1930s.”The Roaring Twenties was not just a time of opulence and glamour; the decade also saw a major technological boom that influenced the architectural style. Motorized vehicles, ocean liners, and a budding aviation industry all contributed to the atmosphere of limitless possibility. There is so much that encompasses the Art Deco style, especially after 100 years. Below, we highlight the key elements of the architectural juggernaut. Read on for everything you need to know about Art Deco’s influence and lasting impact.Additional copy by Kate McGregor.Related StoriesWhat Is Art Deco?mkfoto//Getty ImagesElevator lobby in the Four Fifty Sutter Building in San Francisco, California. The building was completed in 1929.Art Deco is a decorative arts, architecture, and design movement that began in the mid-1920s and continued through 1940. Known for its sleek, symmetrical lines and rich materials, it’s characterized by an emphasis on industrial innovation, opulent decoration, and fine craftsmanship.When it comes to architecture specifically, Art Deco is largely about verticality, as new engineering techniques and materials led to the rise of steel skyscrapers. Pulling from the other parts of the design movement, Art Deco architecture also featured geometric patterns and flamboyant ornamentation.“Art Deco may best be described as a popular form of modernism. If we think of modern architecture in its most rigorous form as having stripped away ornament and replaced it with glass-and-steel austerity, Art Deco responds with Jazz-Age glamour and sophisticated urbanity,” says Tom McDonough, an art history professor from Binghamton University, State University of New York. “Think streamlined silhouettes, curved corners, and rhythmic composition, not strict geometry and cubic form. Think the Chrysler Building, not Lever House.”The term Art Deco comes from the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, where arts décoratifs, meaning “decorative arts” in French, was shortened to Art Deco. At this exposition, Art Deco architects, designers, and artists showcased a new, modern style intended to break away from the flowing, natural forms of Art Nouveau. Launched into international prominence, Art Deco spread globally during the next 15 years. “Its appeal was easy to convey in photographs, which meant it quickly found a global reach, extending from Paris and New York to Mumbai, Shanghai, and beyond,” says McDonough. “Everywhere it spread, its designs offered people a means to identify themselves with what was new, modern, cosmopolitan.”The Influences of Art DecoS. Greg Panosian//Getty ImagesUnion Station in Los Angeles, built in 1939. Art Deco is inextricably tied to the social atmosphere of the 1920s. “Art Deco responded to the atmosphere of the Roaring Twenties, the release and relief felt at the end of the First World War,” says McDonough. “It replaced the ascetic intellectualism—not to say puritanism—of much modern architecture with an image of hedonistic desirability.”But Art Deco was also directly linked to industrial progress, too. The rise of mass production and the advent of new materials such as stainless steel, chrome plating, and plastics including Bakelite allowed designers to create sleek, streamlined forms. “Designers were fascinated by machinery, speed, and the efficiency of industrial production, which can be seen in the sleek and streamlined forms,” says Hardwick-Bruce.Art Deco certainly wasn’t the only art and design movement that drew from those influences. Before it came Cubism, Futurism, and Bauhaus, which promoted technology with an aesthetic vision—these styles directly influenced the development of Art Deco.And finally, there’s the matter of global discoveries. Though Art Deco is a forward-looking style celebrating the machine age, its adherents also incorporated elements from ancient cultures, such as Egyptian and Mayan art into their work. “The discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922 sparked a fascination with Egyptian art and symbolism, bringing elements like scarabs, sphinxes, and pyramids into the Art Deco style,” says Hardwick-Bruce. Eventually, the Great Depression and World War II shifted the cultural and economic landscape, and Art Deco began to fade in popularity. While new, more austere architectural styles took over—examples include the International Style, Midcentury Modernism, and Brutalism—Art Deco’s influence remains visible in many buildings and design objects around the world.The Defining Characteristics of Art Deco Architecture and StyleGeometric Forms and SymmetryChris MottaliniOpulent materials lend an Art Deco vibe to a Manhattan apartment designed by Nannette Brown.The hallmark of Art Deco architecture lies in its geometric precision. Buildings are structured with sharp, clean lines, often forming stepped or ziggurat shapes—again, a nod to ancient cultures. Ornamentation and Decorative ElementsWhile geometric forms establish structure, ornamentation adds visual richness. “Common motifs include zigzags, chevrons, sunbursts, and trapezoidal shapes,” says Hardwick-Bruce. “An example of this includes The Chrysler Building in New York City which has sharp geometric details, with a sunburst pattern crowning its spire.”Verticality and HeightArt Deco buildings, particularly skyscrapers, are characterized by their vertical emphasis, often accentuated by narrow, elongated windows. Such tall, sleek forms were meant to reflect progress, ambition, and the upward mobility of society.Use of ColorArt Deco designers were not afraid to use color. “Art Deco color palettes often featured vibrant, saturated colors, including deep greens, gold, silver, bright reds, and metallic finishes,” says Hardwick-Bruce. This was not only featured on the exterior of structures but also in interior design.Lavish MaterialsKEVIN J. MIYAZAKIA Deco-inspired bedroom in Chicago by designer Erin Shakoor.“Designers used opulent materials such as lacquer, polished wood, chrome, glass, and exotic materials like ivory or sharkskin to exude luxury,” says Hardwick-Bruce. “Furniture pieces by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann often used rich veneers and inlays of ivory, giving it a sophisticated and expensive appearance.”Famous Art Deco Buildings Around the WorldChrysler Building, New YorkGary Hershorn//Getty ImagesNo building embodies Art Deco quite like New York’s Chrysler Building. Designed by architect William Van Alen and completed in 1930, the Chrysler Building has a tiered crown of stainless steel arches embedded with triangular windows. Much of the ornamentation here is derived from automobile elements like hood ornaments and radiator grilles.Empire State Building, New YorkJamesHarrison//Getty ImagesThe only Art Deco building more famous than the Chrysler Building is the Empire State Building. Completed in 1931, the Empire State Building remains a towering symbol of Art Deco ambition. Designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, the building has a geometric look thanks to its tiered setbacks, which are quintessential Art Deco style. Art Deco Historic District, Miami BeachJean-Pierre BOUCHARD//Getty ImagesSouth Beach in Miami Beach, Florida, is a hotspot of Art Deco architecture—it’s impossible to pick a single building to exemplify this entire district of Art Deco structures. Here, the Art Deco architecture was largely inspired by the ocean liners seen just offshore. And in a regional touch, many feature more tropical hues that differ from the jewel tones found in Art Deco design elsewhere.Hoover Building, LondonMichael Nicholson//Getty ImagesDesigned by Wallis, Gilbert & Partners and completed in 1933, this factory-complex-turned-residential building is a masterpiece of British Art Deco. It has a white cement (also known as snowcrete) façade and colorful geometric details that were unheard of in factory design of the era.Eastern Columbia Building, Los AngelesMichael Lee//Getty ImagesA standout example of West Coast Art Deco, this 1930s department store (also now a residential building) is known for its striking turquoise terra-cotta façade with deep blue and gold ornamentation. Architect Claud Beelman’s use of color and form makes it one of L.A.’s most photographed landmarks.Follow House Beautiful on Instagram and TikTok.

Even as CarPlay 2 work keeps chugging along, Apple has been slowly adding new features to the existing CarPlay too. Last fall CarPlay got some Apple Intelligence enhancements, and recently Ford EV owners gained NACS routing. Now, with iOS 18.4, there are three more new CarPlay features that just arrived. #1: Third row of app icons One of the complicated things about CarPlay is that it needs to adapt to a wide range of vehicle infotainment systems. Fortunately, iOS 18.4 brings a nice enhancement for vehicles that have especially large displays. Users throughout the beta found that on certain screen sizes, CarPlay gained a third row of app icons where it only supported two before. This extra screen real estate for apps pairs nicely with this next CarPlay addition… #2: Sports apps Apple has made a new API available to app developers that will bring sports apps to CarPlay. Starting in iOS 18.4, apps that show sports scores can integrate with CarPlay. This way, you can stay on top of how your favorite team’s doing even while in the car. It could take some time for third-party sports apps to officially add CarPlay support, but here’s hoping we get a CarPlay update for the Apple Sports app before long. #3: Default navigation in EU iOS 18.4 brought a long-awaited new option for EU users: the ability to set a default navigation app. That’s right, rather than relying on Apple Maps, users in the EU can set alternatives like Google Maps as their default. This change should have a huge impact on the CarPlay experience. Why? Because it means you’ll be able to tell Siri, “Take me to X” and the assistant will use your chosen navigation app to route you. Quick, seamless, and hassle-free—just like voice computing in the car should be. CarPlay iOS 18.4 features: wrap-up I’d just like maps to show me where the storm fronts are. Rain, snow, tornadoes, etc., so I can outrun ‘em or choose a new direction. View all comments CarPlay’s latest updates may not be for everyone—if your vehicle’s display is small, and you’re outside the EU, this list shrinks very quickly—but they’re welcome nonetheless. While we continue waiting for CarPlay 2, anything Apple can do to continue improving the existing CarPlay is a win in my book. Seen in that light, iOS 18.4 is a solid step down the right path. What are your thoughts on iOS 18.4’s new CarPlay features? Let us know in the comments. Best CarPlay accessories Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed.  FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Now here's a legal-drama-worthy twist in the recent spate of dumb lawyers getting caught using AI: it turns out that the very bar exam administered to aspiring attorneys in California was itself created with the help of a large language model, .The admission was made by the State Bar of California on Monday, following complaints about the quality of the test's questions, and numerous glitches experienced by test-takers when they took it in February.In a news release, the organization said that 23 of the exam's total of 171 scored multiple-choice questions were drafted by the firm ACS Ventures, which developed the questions "with the assistance of AI." Another 48 questions were lifted from an older version of an exam for first-year law students."The debacle that was the February 2025 bar exam is worse than we imagined," Mary Basick, assistant dean of academic skills at UC Irvine Law School, told the LA Times. "I'm almost speechless. Having the questions drafted by non-lawyers using artificial intelligence is just unbelievable."Katie Moran, an associate professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, called it a "staggering admission." The same company that used AI to draft the questions was then paid "to assess and ultimately approve of the questions on the exam, including the questions the company authored," she noted to the newspaper.For weeks, test takers had complained that they were randomly kicked off the online platform that the bar was administered on, while screens lagged and showed error messages, per the reporting. The test itself was riddled with typos, and some questions were total nonsense.Despite these complaints — and despite pleading guilty to AI usage — a spokesperson for the State Bar insisted that the test questions were reviewed by content validation panels and subject matter experts.In any case, the whole situation sounds like a mortifying catastrophe. For one, the Supreme Court of California, of which the State Bar is an administrative arm, maintains it had no idea about the use of AI to create the test questions until this week — even though it had instructed the State Bar to explore the use of AI to "improve upon the reliability and cost-effectiveness of such testing" last fall, according to Alex Chan, chair of the State Bar's Committee of Bar Examiners.Casting additional scrutiny, Basick and Moran argued that the exam questions, which should take years to develop, were drafted far too quickly, while 50 practice questions re-released just weeks before the actual exam contained numerous errors, they wrote early this month, per the LA Times.What spurred the dubious measures sounds like a familiar tale of disastrous cost-cutting. Faced with a $22 million deficit last year, the State Bar ditched the commonly used National Conference of Bar Examiners' Multistate Bar Examination, and decided to transition to a hybrid model of in-person and remote testing. To create the new test, it inked a $8.25 million deal with Kaplan Exam Services, and contracted Meazure Learning to administer it.In a fittingly legal result, Meazure Learning is now being sued by some of the students who took the glitchy exams. The State Bar said it will ask the California Supreme Court to adjust test scores for those who took the test in February. Chan said that the Committee of Bar Examiners will meet on May 5 to discuss other remedies, but doubted that the State Bar would release the exam questions to the public or go back to the NCBE.Share This Article

Apr 25, 2025Ravie LakshmananVulnerability / Network Security Cybersecurity researchers are warning about a new malware called DslogdRAT that's installed following the exploitation of a now-patched security flaw in Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS). The malware, along with a web shell, were "installed by exploiting a zero-day vulnerability at that time, CVE-2025-0282, during attacks against organizations in Japan around December 2024," JPCERT/CC researcher Yuma Masubuchi said in a report published Thursday. CVE-2025-0282 refers to a critical security flaw in ICS that could allow unauthenticated remote code execution. It was addressed by Ivanti in early January 2025. However, the shortcoming has been exploited as a zero-day by a China-nexus cyber espionage group dubbed UNC5337 to deliver the SPAWN ecosystem of malware, as well as other tools like DRYHOOK and PHASEJAM. The deployment of the latter two malware strains has not been attributed to any known threat actor. Since then, both JPCERT/CC and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have revealed the exploitation of the same vulnerability to deliver updated versions of SPAWN called SPAWNCHIMERA and RESURGE. Earlier this month, Google-owned Mandiant also revealed that another security flaw in ICS (CVE-2025-22457) has been weaponized to distribute SPAWN, a malware attributed to another Chinese hacking group referred to as UNC5221. JPCERT/CC said it's currently not clear if the attacks using DslogdRAT is part of the same campaign involving the SPAWN malware family operated by UNC5221. The attack sequence outlined by the agency entails the exploitation of CVE-2025-0282 to deploy a Perl web shell, which then serves as a conduit to deploy additional payloads, including DslogdRAT. DslogdRAT, for its part, initiates contact with an external server over a socket connection to send basic system information and awaits further instructions that allow it to execute shell commands, upload/download files, and use the infected host as a proxy. The disclosure comes as threat intelligence firm GreyNoise warned of a "9X spike in suspicious scanning activity" targeting ICS and Ivanti Pulse Secure (IPS) appliances from more than 270 unique IP addresses in the past 24 hours and over 1,000 unique IP addresses in the last 90 days. Of these 255 IP addresses have been classified as malicious and 643 have been flagged as suspicious. The malicious IPs have been observed using TOR exit nodes and suspicious IPs are linked to lesser-known hosting providers. The United States, Germany, and the Netherlands account for the top three source countries. "This surge may indicate coordinated reconnaissance and possible preparation for future exploitation," the company said. "While no specific CVEs have been tied to this scanning activity yet, spikes like this often precede active exploitation." Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter  and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post. SHARE    

Marvel has made plenty of tie-in comic books for their movies. I remember selling quite a few copies of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man book that was written by Stan Lee back in my days as a comic store clerk. Marvel has made movie prequels and movie adaptations, and movie spinoffs.So it’s not particularly shocking in and of itself that Marvel is making a comic tied to their upcoming Fantastic Four film, The Fantastic Four: First Steps. What makes it a little more notable, or at least more interesting is that (per Deadline) the company’s First Steps comic is “designed to be an artifact from the world of the upcoming movie” and also confirms that the film is “not an origin story, but will pick up four years after they become heroes.”In other words: this Fantastic Four comic isn’t just about the MCU version of the characters — played by Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bacharach — it exists as a comic within the film’s universe. As in, if you were a kid who loved the Fantastic Four in the MCU, you could walk to your local comic store (or more likely your corner drug store, since First Steps takes place in the past before comic stores even existed) and buy a copy of this book.THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPSMarvelloading...Marvel’s First Steps comic is written by Matt Fraction and illustrated by Mark Buckingham, with a cover by Phil Noto. As you can see above, Noto’s piece is inspired by the cover to the very first Fantastic Four #1 from 1961 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Given that image, and the fact that the book supposedly confirms the film is not an origin story, I am going to make the educated guess that this comic is this FF’s origin — retelling their first battle with the Mole Man, just as Lee and Kirby did in their original Fantastic Four #1, for fans of the group in the MCU. (The movie’s trailers have already made it clear the FF are huge celebrities in their universe.)Lee and Kirby’s Fantastic Four stories often referenced the fact that the FF were celebrities with their own comic book — which, in an even more meta touch, was written and drawn by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. So this continues that tradition as well.Marvel‘s First Steps comic goes on sale on July 2. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is scheduled to open in theaters on July 25.Get our free mobile appThe Best Superhero Movie Of Every Year From 2000 to TodayThere are a lot of comic-book movies these days. If you could only pick one best one from every single year of the 21st century, what would you choose? Here are our picks.

- Could you sell hair care products to Patrick Stewart?- Do you yearn to express yourself through the medium of silly internet videos?- Do you thrive in a high-stress environment filled with political infighting, bureaucracy, and corporate nonsense?If so, then we are the place for you, except you might hate how nice of a company we have - filled with happy, generally competent people that don’t put up with jerks. Frankly, it makes me sick how nice everyone is.We are remote full time, have very flexible hours, people are judged by their output, not by how much they suck up to the boss, and turnover is super low because the company believes that happy employees = happy customers = happy bank account. Simply disgusting, if you ask me.--Is this a real job ad?--Yup! Amazingly enough, we actually paid money to post this on a bunch of different job sites. And it’s not even a pyramid scheme! Plus, get this: the owner just started paying our 70ish employees with money instead of Pizza Hut coupons - we’re big time, people.Our careers page is actually worth checking out to learn more about how insane we are (sidenote: it won a web design award in 1993 - we’re a pretty big deal):http://www.jlstradingco.com/careers/And check out our reviews on Google, Glassdoor, or Indeed to see that it’s not just the founder’s mother who says we’re cool.--What do you guys do?--We do a lot of different things these days including selling awesome consumer products (these are just a small sampling): - Bad Parking Cards (https://amz.run/5Eya)- Beverage Barricades (https://amz.run/6kip)- Child Chucker (https://amz.run/9EUz)Running this Amazon Pay-Per-Click agency: PPCFarm.com (we’re really, really good at PPC)And we will soon be launching a SaaS product for inventory management.We are doing our best to grow rapidly every year, and it’s our intention to continue that for as long as possible, which means we need good people to help us keep up with the growth.--What is your company like?--1. You Can Be Yourself. You don’t have to put on a fake, professional face. You can just be yourself. You can talk smack to the CEO (highly encouraged), and no one will think anything of it. You don't have to dress up, or use formal language, or pretend to be something you're not - you can just be you.2. Major Opportunities for Career Growth. We are not trying to just be a small business. We plan to be doing $100 million annually in the next few years. We promote quickly once we identify talent. It doesn’t matter what your credentials are – it matters what you get done.3. Full Time Remote/Flexible Hours. You will be working from home in your pajamas, on your schedule. And we don’t care if you work 10 hour days 4 days a week or 6 hours a day and catch up over the weekend. So long as you get a lot of work done, we’re happy campers.4. Complete Work/Life Balance. If you’re routinely working more than 45ish hours, you’re gonna get a friendly talking-to. We want you to be operating at 100% capacity, which means that you need to rest.5. Strongly Anti-BS. Anybody in the company can (and is expected to) tell the CEO when he is wrong. There are no bureaucratic or BS rules getting in the way of getting work done.6. No Micro-Management. Once you’re trained and have demonstrated you know your stuff, we are pretty hands-off. In fact, if you need external management to stay on-task and motivated, we probably aren’t the place for you.7. No Toxic/Incompetent People Allowed. We try very hard to screen out mean or stupid people before they get in, but in case they slip through, we fire them quickly. You will never have to interact with someone who is an obvious idiot or straight up malicious. No toxic or incompetent people at work - could it really be? [Yes]8. Supportive Environment. We don’t operate via intense stress or unreasonable top-down deadlines. Everyone wants you to be successful – internal politics are at a minimum here.9. Lots of Raises. We do our absolute best to get ahead of things and give raises preemptively, so you don't have to ask for one. It's not unusual at all for someone to receive 2+ raises per year.10. We’ll Invest in Your Training. We want you and everyone to get better constantly. You’ll be learning new things all the time, and are strongly encouraged to invest time every day to learn new things, improve your system/work process, and just generally try to make your life easier.11. 4-6+ Weeks Vacation. We 100% want you to recharge, so having plenty of time off is absolutely worth it.12. Paid Maternity/Paternity Leave. We’ve even started letting people skip meetings during labor!13. Self-Funded So We Can Do What’s Right for Us. We don’t have to answer to anyone but ourselves, so we can make the right decision for the long-term health of the company vs trying to get big too fast or cut corners to appease some selfish investor.--What are your company’s values?--See here: http://www.jlstradingco.com/careers/Yes, those are legitimately our values. The careers page is definitely worth checking out - it’s not just normal corporate BS. We promise you’ll learn a lot about us.--OK, so I’ve read like 8 dang pages about you guys. Will you tell me what the actual job is?--No.--Wait... What?--OK fine. Super short version:Making social media video content for our products, brands, and services with the aim of building an audience who loves our stuff.Our current channels:- Witty Yeti: https://www.tiktok.com/@wittyyeti.com- PPC Farm: https://www.youtube.com/@PPCFarm/videosHere is a bulleted list of responsibilities:- Follow social media trends- Ideate like crazy- Script/plan your video- Film and edit your videos- Engage with the audience- Iterate and get better- Work with others to give and receive feedback to improve creativelyLike everyone else in the company, you will also need to innovate regularly - which means figuring out ways to improve quality and production speed.It is challenging, but fun work that’s going to require a lot of time and task management, problem-solving, and a reasonable amount of people skills.--Do I need experience?--We expect you to have a minimum of 70 years of experience (120+ preferred).Oh, you haven't lived two lifetimes eating and breathing business 24/7/365? Who TF do you think you are, reading this job description? You absolute buffoon.Oh, you haven't been directly involved in at least two (preferably three) World Wars? You're not even qualified to operate our coffee machine, you sentient potato.Oh, you didn't observe the Big Bang as it happened? Get out of here, you pirated copy of Windows 95.I might literally throw up from your insolence. The hubris to think that you, you absolute fool, could apply to be a content creator - absolutely sickening.Also, no you don't need any experience, per se. We’ll be evaluating you on your current abilities, and obviously experience can help you there, but your work will stand on its own.The Big Bang requirement still stands though.--Do I need a college degree?--You just need to be awesome.--Are there any geographic restrictions?--As long as you are in a country that doesn’t have active sanctions from the US government, we are interested. Our founder isn’t known for respecting the government much, but they have all the guns, so…Having said that, there is a bit of constraint on your accent. We are selling to an American audience, and it’s likely that they are not gonna vibe with you if your accent is really strong (for better or worse, I’m sorry). --Is it long or short form?--Probably both with a bias towards short form. It’s still very early days, and we’ll have to see how it goes and what you most excel at, but in general, I suspect it will be more short form.--Is part time, full time, or contract?--Given the nature of this role, we can be more flexible and can potentially do a contractor/part-time deal with you, especially if you are keeping up with your own channel.We are aiming for full time creator but we’re definitely flexible.--What type of products will I be pitching?--My current thinking is that you should be a “generalist” content creator, which means you can find a creative way to make videos about just about anything.We’ll definitely want to play to your strengths, and we will absolutely help you as much as possible with educating/training you on our catalog and such, though. It will likely be our fun kitchen products like the Beverage Barricades. We’re also launching a crocodile-shaped hot dog cutter called the CrocoDicer soon.Then there are our gag gifts: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Witty+YetiThen we have our B2B departments which consists of PPC Farm, an Amazon advertising agency, and Omniscio, a software product (not yet launched) for Amazon sellers.For the business stuff, we’ll see how it goes. If you can help make content to promote those, that would be ideal, but again, we’ll definitely help you figure out what to make there.--I have my own channel. Do you expect me to post to that?--We are mostly interested in growing our own following, so it would probably make the most sense to post to our (very, very small) accounts. Nothing is in stone though, except that we will never want to take advantage of you and your following unless you thought that would be mutually beneficial.--Who else is on the team?--This is a VERY new effort for us. We previously have had basically no social media presence until recently. There are 2.5ish people working fullish time in content creation. Everyone is really nice, but it’s definitely a startup-like environment as we build this department and feel our way through.--What type of production volume do you expect?--It’s still too early for us to know what a proper production rate is, but in general, we expect everyone to have a lot of output equal to 40 hours of legit work.It will depend on the quality and difficulty of execution for your videos, so it could be 1 per week or it could be 20. We’ll play it by ear but I promise we’re reasonable.--I am shy and don’t want to be on camera--confused_jackie_chan.gif--This sounds pretty good, though I’m still skeptical that this isn’t a pyramid scheme.--You sound just like the tax authorities!--That doesn’t resolve any of my fears, but what do I need to do to apply?--Please submit your information on the following page to apply. We promise to respond within 5-10 business days even if our answer is No.There will be multiple steps in this process, FYI, including a long written application, interviews with potentially a few different people, and paid work test(s). Hiring the right people is really hard and very expensive if we do it poorly, so we have to front-load the process. I'm sorry about that and thank you for sticking with us.Once you’re in our pipeline though, I would anticipate giving you a final answer within a few weeks, depending on how it goes. We definitely don’t want to string you along, and as long as you do what we ask, we promise to tell you “yes” or “no”, and to not just ghost you (like everybody I match with on Tinder).Thank you for your time and interest, and I hope we can work together soon!Apply NowLet's start your dream job Apply now Meet JobCopilot: Your Personal AI Job HunterAutomatically Apply to Remote Sales and Marketing JobsJust set your preferences and Job Copilot will do the rest-finding, filtering, and applying while you focus on what matters. Activate JobCopilot

Proposed BTR scheme to include a cultural venue and student accommodation as part of the final phase of the £1.5 billion redevelopment. Source: Get LivingThe proposed scheme by Allies and Morrison Build-to-rent developer Get Living has submitted a revised planning application to Southwark council for the final phase of its regeneration of Elephant and Castle Town Centre. Designed by Allies and Morrison, the proposed development includes additional housing, purpose-built student accommodation and a cultural venue. Known as the West Site, the development will replace the current London College of Communication (LCC) buildings, which will be vacated when the college relocates to a new campus next door. The site becomes available in 2028 and forms the third and final phase of Get Living’s £1.5 billion masterplan for the area. Get Living’s updated plans for the West Site propose 507 rental homes in total, including 165 affordable units. The revised scheme also introduces 452 student bedrooms in response to what the developer describes as growing demand for student accommodation in the borough. According to Get Living, the student population in Southwark has increased by 25 percent over the past decade. Designs for the scheme seek to integrate a new public square and a major cultural venue into the site. Part of the existing LCC Workshop building is to be retained and repurposed to accommodate flexible space for performance, arts and community activities. The adaptive reuse of this structure is intended to reduce embodied carbon while retaining a physical connection to the site’s educational history. Get Living said the updated application responds to local feedback. Rick de Blaby, chief executive of Get Living, said: “As long-term stakeholders, we are committed to delivering a new meeting place where people can come together to live, work and socialise, delivering much-needed homes, including affordable homes, student accommodation and vibrant public spaces that bring energy and opportunity to the area.” Changes include the replacement of retail units along Pastor Street with nine additional homes. The architecture is intended to respond to the surrounding context, transitioning from the Elliott’s Row Conservation Area and nearby Victorian housing to the emerging Elephant and Castle town centre. The proposed energy strategy includes an all-electric, low-carbon system, with a design that adopts passive house principles. Increased greening and a focus on minimising emissions during both construction and occupation form part of the sustainability approach outlined in the planning submission. Allies & Morrison’s revised scheme builds on an earlier 2019 masterplan for the site. The West Site sits alongside The Elephant, the second phase of the wider scheme, due to open in 2026. That phase will provide 485 rental homes, 172 of which will be affordable, as well as 135,000 square feet of shops, restaurants and leisure uses, a new university campus, 55,000 square feet of workspace, and a new public square. The first phase of Get Living’s Elephant and Castle redevelopment, Elephant Central, was completed in 2017 and comprises 374 rental homes, 278 student bedrooms and over 65,000 square feet of commercial space, including a supermarket, gym and nursery.

Hints and answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 215, for Saturday, April 26.

April 25, 20254 min readTrump’s NOAA Has Downplayed an Alarming Finding: CO₂ Surged Last YearUnder the Trump administration, NOAA has minimized an announcement that climate-warming carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere grew at a record-breaking speed in 2024By Chelsea Harvey & E&E News Volumetric visualization of the total carbon dioxide (CO₂) on a global scale added on Earth's atmosphere over the course of the year 2021. NASA's Scientific Visualization StudioCLIMATEWIRE | Climate-warming carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere grew at a record-breaking speed in 2024, surging by 3.7 parts per million, a recent NOAA data analysis has found.It’s one of the agency’s biggest scientific findings of the year — yet the research largely has flown under the radar after NOAA officials took steps to minimize the announcement.Instead of publishing a press release or a featured article online, the agency described the findings only in social media posts on Facebook and on X. And the posts failed to highlight the dataset’s most important finding: that last year’s CO₂ concentrations jumped by an unprecedented amount.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.That’s a departure from the agency’s historical approach to public communication. NOAA typically releases a public report each spring, prominently featured on its website, describing the previous year’s greenhouse gas concentrations. It also usually sends a press release to members of the media.Last year’s report, for instance, noted that carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide concentrations all continued to climb in the atmosphere in 2023.According to a source with knowledge of the 2024 analysis, NOAA staff prepared a public web story this year as usual. But officials nixed the report at the last minute, instead releasing the findings only on social media. The source was granted anonymity because they feared reprisal from the Trump administration.A NOAA communications officer did not respond to a request for comment.The move is part of a broader assault on NOAA science and public communications by the new administration.Last month, the agency confirmed it was ending its regular monthly climate briefings, in which NOAA scientists presented climate and weather data to the media. That's on top of widespread layoffs this year at the agency. And a recent proposal from the White House Office of Management and Budget would dramatically reorganize the agency and terminate much of its climate work — eliminating its entire Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.A NOAA official suggested that downplaying the new CO₂ data has dampened media attention on what otherwise would have been a major climate headline. The scientific findings were reported earlier this month by The Washington Post, and the suppressed web story was reported by CNN earlier this week. There’s otherwise been little news reported on the subject.But scientists say it’s a finding that’s worth more attention — and more worry. Some researchers believe last year’s CO₂ spike is evidence that the Earth system itself is becoming more vulnerable to the impacts of rising temperatures.Natural landscapes, such as forests and wetlands, historically have acted as a carbon sink — soaking up excess CO₂ emissions and helping to offset some of the impacts of climate change. But some of these ecosystems may be breaking down under the stress of continued warming, with the added side effects of droughts and wildfires. And they’re storing less carbon in the process.“In my opinion, there is no reason to believe that this will not continue with further dry years in the future,” said Philippe Ciais, a climate scientist at the Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace in France.Ciais was not involved with the NOAA analysis, but he co-authored a recent preliminary study — not yet peer-reviewed — investigating the reasons for high CO₂ growth in 2023 and the first half of 2024. The study included a variety of real-life data sources, including satellite measurements, as well as complex Earth system models. And it found that some of the Earth’s natural carbon sinks are declining.The tropics, in particular, began to lose an unusually high amount of carbon beginning in the middle of 2023, Ciais said. That’s due in part to an increase in drought and wildfires in places such as the Amazon. Those losses continued into 2024 — and while the study’s timeline ends at the beginning of last July, Ciais suspects they’ve probably continued into 2025 as well.The effects are partly due to the influence of El Niño, a natural climate cycle that causes periodic drying in the tropics. But that can’t explain everything. For one thing, the recent El Niño was not particularly strong compared with some other recent events. And it also ended in the first half of 2024, while dry conditions persisted in the tropics for the rest of the year.More studies are needed to fully understand what happened in 2024. But Ciais and other scientists are worried last year’s events could point to a kind of climate feedback loop in which rising temperatures cause natural ecosystems to deteriorate, releasing more carbon into the atmosphere and causing the planet to warm even faster.“With one year you cannot say that all the future will be lost,” Ciais cautioned.But he’s worried the Earth might be on track to warm more rapidly than some scientists — and world leaders — expect. Many climate models don’t account for an increasingly rapid breakdown of Earth’s natural ecosystems, accelerated by wildfires, droughts, pests and other climate-related disasters.Meanwhile, studies have found that fossil fuel emissions also reached a record high in 2024. Those emissions can’t account for last year’s CO₂ surge all on their own. But they’re part of the puzzle, and a major indicator that the world is not tackling global warming quickly enough to meet the Paris Agreement’s climate goals.“The policy goals say, well, we still have some time to reach 2 degrees,” Ciais said. “But all these predictions are based on the fact that the carbon absorption will stay good.”Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2025. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment professionals.

Classic Capcom RPG Breath of Fire 4 returns to PC as part of GOG's Preservation Program Plus Realms of the Haunting and more. Image credit: Capcom News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on April 25, 2025 GOG has announced a fresh wave of additions to its Preservation Program, including Capcom's classic RPG Breath of Fire 4, which returns to PC after an absence of over 20 years. Breath of Fire 4, if you're currently drawing a blank, follows the adventures of a young man named Ryu (who usefully has the power to transform into dragons) as he attempts to stop an immortal emperor from destroying the world. The game is celebrating its quarter-century anniversary this year - having originally launched for PlayStation in Japan and the US back in 2000 - and GOG is marking the occasion by bringing it to PC for the first time since 2003. GOG's Preservation Program is intended to provide "the best [versions of classic games] you can buy on any PC platform", and each features a range of enhancements intended to "guarantee convenience and compatibility with modern systems". In Breath of Fire 4's case, GOG is promising Windows 10 and 11 compatibility, "improved graphics powered by an upgraded DirectX renderer", as well as new display options including anti-aliasing, V-sync, windowed mode, and "refined" gamma correction. Here's Breath of Fire 4's annimated intro.Watch on YouTube Missing environmental sounds are also said to have been restored and new configuration options have been added as part of an audio engine upgrade, and players can choose between either English or Japanese localisations. And if that sounds like something you might be interested in, Breath of Fire 4 is available to purchase on GOG right now for £8.99. And it doesn't stop there. GOG has released a further nine titles as part of its Preservation Program, including Gremlin Interactive's stupendously weird 1996 haunted house mystery adventure Realms of the Haunting - a sort of first-person shooter/point-and-click/FMV adventure hybrid, which pretty much consumed me back in the day. It's now gained the likes of cloud support, custom key mapping, and the ability to play either the US or UK version. Breath of Fire 4 and Realms of the Haunting arrive alongside upgrades for Ultima Underworld 1+2, Ultima 9: Ascension, Worlds of Ultima : The Savage Empire, Ultima Worlds of Adventure 2: Martian Dreams, Worms: Armageddon, Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood, Stonekeep, and cult classic point-and-click FMV adventure Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon. GOG announced its Preservation Program last November, when 100 games were part of the line-up. That list has continued to expand since then with a regular influx of new additions - including Monolith Production's much-loved horror shooter FEAR, which was added to "honour [the studio's] legacy" in February, following Monolith's shock closure.