The following review contains spoilers for the finale of The Penguin, Great or Little ThingIn great pieces of media, a story will go to places that the audience wasnt expecting or didnt even know they wanted it to go, and deliver something fresh and unique. Its something that modern audiences have struggled with in an age of neverending fan service (I have many thoughts on the subject), but is often the outcome of an artist with a vision for a project that is so thought through and rounded out that it succeeds despite the trends. The Batman is a great example of this, with Matt Reeves taking a character full of opportunity for fan service and creating something both familiar and unique that the audience didnt know they wanted. Because The Penguin sprung from that well of creativity, it has benefitted a lot from it. The tone, characters, and aesthetic of The Batman can all be used as a blueprint. And ahead of the finale, the series has done solid work at yes and-ing the movie without veering much at all into overtly flattering or catering to its most ardent devotees (or those of Batman in general).Now, The Batman isnt entirely innocent on this front. The Joker bit at the end is a huge fan service-y teaser (and probably my least favorite moment of the movie). The Penguin, too, has saved its fan service for the end, with the final shot of the series almost literally passing the baton to The Batman Part II. Reeves has said that The Batman would lead directly into The Penguin, and The Penguin would then lead directly into The Batman Part II, but the series makes it crystal clear. That, on top of a note sent to Sofia Falcone from Selina Kyle a.k.a. Catwoman, gives audiences a ton to look forward to in the sequel film. Theres a part of me that thinks The Penguin could have done away with these moments. They stoke anticipation for whats to come in a heavy-handed way. But at the same time it was enough to get me excited for the Batman Epic Crime Saga to continue, now that The Penguin has added so much lore and backstory to Matt Reeves little pocket dimension of the DCU.The Penguin does a really good job at the hardest part of concluding its own story: How do you finish something like this, or even begin telling it, when the protagonist is a villain? Its something that Ive mentioned before while reviewing the series, and I think throughout, The Penguin has always done the right things in this regard. It never tried to paint Oz as a good guy maybe sympathetic, but never good and the more time spent with him, the harder it is to be on his side. And Great or Little Thing is not a happy ending. As much as hell try to convince himself he won, and that he got what hes always wanted, its easy to see in those final moments how empty his success is. That his quest for power over Gotham has driven him to become his worst self, and he was already pretty terrible. Great or Little Thing leaves a bad taste in your mouth, and thats exactly what The Penguin is going for, as well as what it should do. Oz is not the hero of this story, and the finale sinks that knife in deep.The Penguin Finale GalleryIts the pacing of the finale that really takes it out at the knees, though. The story logically heads down the path it created for itself last week, but in a way that meanders at times. It takes its time getting to the better moments towards the end. I feel like each week Ive talked about how every scene is a necessary and impactful one, and that its just about the order theyre placed that throws off the rhythm. Its a symptom that much of the latter half of The Penguin has suffered from, and Great or Little Thing is no exception. While every scene adds up and makes sense for where the characters are and who they are as people, it just doesnt always flow. Great or Little Thing has a number of impactful moments that will excite and dismay (in a good way), but theyd have been more impactful if the smaller moments of the episode lived up to them.The most impactful moments are the final scenes we get with these characters. Vics final scene in particular is awful to watch, as the kid talks his way into trouble just by being human, letting Oz know how much he means to him. Vic was always too good for this world, and his death at the hands of his supposed mentor and protector solidifies that we can no longer excuse Ozs actions. Sofia gets to leave with her life, at least, but is sent back to Arkham, ending up right back where she started, all thanks to Oz once again. Great or Little Thing leaves a bad taste in your mouth, and thats exactly what The Penguin is going for.But where we leave Francis is maybe the most horrifying of them all. To live the rest of her life in a vegetative state, the one thing she said she could never do, while shes forced to stare out at a Gotham shell never again really see. And yes, she sucked, but no one deserves what she got. Where Oz leaves the people around him is the ultimate indictment, putting the final nail in the coffin of his soul. Hes sold it, and has truly become The Penguin.

Great shows with bad first seasons almost feel like a luxury in the modern streaming era. At a time when new projects are relatively abundant and often treated as disposable, shows are forced to find a substantial audience out of the gate or risk being canceled. There are far fewer instances of an interesting series with a small, but dedicated, fanbase being allowed to grow into itself in subsequent seasons.That said, its difficult to revisit some of the worst first seasons of your favorite shows and try to imagine sticking with them if you didnt know what they would eventually become. Yes, most shows need time to grow. A long-running series first season is rarely its best season or even among its best seasons. Still, these debut efforts will leave you wondering how these shows got renewed in the first place.Star Trek: The Next GenerationAvailable on: Paramount+ (U.S. and U.K.), Netflix (U.K.)Its easy and not entirely inaccurate to blame Gene Roddenberry for The Next Generations first season. By all accounts, Roddenberry desperately tried to maintain creative control over the series and ensure that the show followed a direction he outlined early on. Unfortunately, the first seasons revolving door of writers struggled to work within Roddenberrys often immovable boundaries and attempts to revive old ideas that were questionable, at best, in the first place.The result is one of the strangest collections of episodes youll ever see from an otherwise beloved series. This seasons lackadaisical pacing may have worked in a more serialized show slowly building toward something. Sadly, many episodes often drag along with only half-hearted attempts at drama occasionally appearing to remind you that youre still alive. Even the wonderfully weird moments are too scattered to be anything more than frustrating blips on a static radar. Mercifully, the seasons better episodes and some beneficial behind-the-scenes circumstances showed a better way forward that TNG would soon follow.Parks and RecreationAvailable on: Peacock (U.S.), ITVX (U.K.)You can sum up Parks and Recreations woeful six-episode first season with the name Mark Brendanawicz. Due respect to actor Paul Schneider (who tries his absolute best with what he was given), but that characters painfully generic love interest role gets to the heart of a series so desperate to maintain its kind of like The Office origins that it was seemingly terrified of displaying more than a hint of personality lest everything go off the rails.This is essentially a season-long pilot filled with generational talent going through the motions as they struggle to figure out their characters. It has all the awkwardness and scattered humor of going to an improv show on amateur night. Its remarkable that this show was able to turn things around so quickly in the early parts of its second season. As for Mark, he stayed around for a time, though the changing direction of the series made it clear there wasnt a place for such a throwback character concept. Perhaps Mark should have been louder, angrier, and given access to a time machine.Halt and Catch FireAvailable on: AMC+ (U.S.)Every Halt and Catch Fire fan reaches that point in their life when they have to seriously weigh the consequences of continuing to push this show on their friends. Desperate pleas of It gets better! are soon undercut by the painful admission that you cant skip the lackluster first season of this otherwise compelling drama about the rise of the PC industry during the 80s and early 90s. At some point, you start to sound crazy going to bat for this one.Much like its AMC cousin Mad Men, Halt and Catch Fires early episodes rely on its period-setting atmosphere and mood to do much of the heavy lifting. Unlike Mad Men, that setting is not nearly as immediately striking at least as the show presents it to make the necessary first impression. What youre left with is a show trying to navigate a real insider baseball concept with the help of characters that feel like they were plucked from other series they would much rather be in. Halt and Catch Fire essentially rebooted itself after season one, though it retained enough of that first year to make its debut episodes a painfully necessary part of the experience.Sex and the CityAvailable on: Max (U.S.), Netflix (U.S.), Sky (U.K.)Sex and the Citys season one struggles often get lost in the discussions about the shows innovations and significance. I completely understand why. Even a lesser version of this series felt positively refreshing in 1998 on the cusp of what would prove to be the early days of the prestige TV era.In retrospect, though, Sex and the Citys debut season feels like an almost entirely different show. You can write off the seasons cheap look as circumstances of the times, but the constant fourth-wall breaks and almost documentary-like cutaway sequences are often jarring. Early on, the show also had this strange habit of devoting too much time to a parade of side characters while leaving its main cast stuck in a series of questionable circumstances that youd struggle to imagine them in now.AngelAvailable on: Hulu (U.S.), Disney+ (U.K.)The first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is also pretty rough, but you can still see significant traces of what that show would become through all the growing pains. When Angel debuted, there was plenty of reason to hope the series would hit the ground running and confidently exhibit its creative identity out of the gate. Hey, thats what we eventually got from Firefly.Read more Sadly, Angels first season often feels like a parody of the entire spinoff concept. Buffy characters keep making Why, its our old friend! cameos in Angels new life, and even those characters that would become significant down the line most notably, Wesley, struggle to find a place for themselves early on. What were left with is a motley collection of case of the week episodes and some half-hearted attempts to make the series one significant new character (Doyle) feel like the heart of the show. Even this series worst seasons (you know Im looking at you season 4) at least felt like they were experimenting with far more interesting ideas.SeinfeldAvailable on: Netflix (U.S. and U.K.)At this point, the show about nothing is such an inarguable cultural institution that its tough to remember the time when that whole concept seemed doomed to fail. If you really want to remember what those times were like, though, just watch Seinfelds five-episode first season.Fundamentally, the idea of watching Jerry and his friends struggle through often exaggerated versions of real-life social scenarios was established pretty early on in the series. Everything else just feelsoff. It makes sense that the characters took time to grow into the versions of themselves we know and love, but few of them especially Kramer feel like much of anything early on. Worse, that razor-sharp writing that would eventually define this series was clearly still being honed in these early episodes. Granted, season 2 and 3s episodes were still figuring things out, but those episodes often offer a pleasantly grounded contrast to what the show would soon become. Season 1 of Seinfeld iswell, truly a show about nothing.Person of InterestAvailable on: Freevee (U.S.)Many shows use the X of the week format during their first season as a way to grow an audience while trying out bigger ideas. Even in shows where that format doesnt entirely work compared to what comes next like The X-Files and Hannibal you still get enough of a glimpse of better days to come to make them eventually feel like pieces of a greater whole. Sadly, Person of Interests first season still sticks out like a sore thumb.Person of Interests debut season is one of the better seasons on this list, but its difficult to watch it and trust those who insist that this series gradually becomes one of the best sci-fi shows of the last 20 years. Instead, Person of Interests first season offers a fairly typical CBS procedural that is occasionally sweetened by its supercomputer that predicts crimes plot device. If youre into that style of show, it offers a pretty good version of it. If not, youll really have to have faith that this thing eventually earned its rabid following.Its Always Sunny in PhiladelphiaAvailable on: Hulu (U.S.), Netflix (U.K.)Many great comedies have bad pilots and rough first seasons. It just takes time for everyone involved writers, characters, and the audience to establish that connection that allows such shows to hit their stride. That said, even Always Sunnys creators have said that its hard for them to watch these early episodes and understand how the show was allowed to continue.This is the only Always Sunny season without Danny DeVito, and you certainly start to feel his absence if youre only familiar with that era of the long-running comedy. The bigger problem is that Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, and Rob McElhenney were essentially trying to figure out even the basics of making a TV show on the fly. Everything feels like a struggle during this season, and that trickle-down effect impacts jokes and scenarios that are otherwise not too far off from what the show would eventually become. Its one of the easiest skip this season options when youre recommending a show to friends.JustifiedAvailable on: Hulu (U.S.), Disney+ (U.K.)Much like Person of Interest, its easy enough to recommend Justifieds first season to someone as long as theyre not expecting much more than a standard procedural crime show. If you dont have a fondness or maybe a weakness for those kinds of shows, then youll likely find Justifieds debut episodes to be a wild series of ups and downs that ultimately doesnt amount to much.Actually, its fascinating to consider that many of this seasons best moments involve Boyd Crowder: the Walton Goggins character who was originally supposed to die in the series pilot. When much of a shows juice comes from a character who wasnt even supposed to be there in the first place, you know youve got a season of experiments and failures.BoJack HorsemanAvailable on: Netflix (U.S. and U.K.)If BoJack Horseman was canceled after its first season, it probably would have become one of those Netflix shows with a rabid following of fans who insist it still had so much to offer. They may have been right in retrospect, but theyd be defending a debut season so far removed from the brilliant meditations on loneliness, celebrity, and humanity that this show would eventually offer that you have to wonder if the whole thing is somehow an intentionally weak part of the series meta storytelling style.Thats almost certainly not the case, but its probably best to treat this season as some kind of commentary on the adult animated TV series trends that were popular around at that time. Because this first season lacks many of those deeper elements that would eventually define this series, youre left with largely disposable gags and thin characters that will struggle to sell this show to anyone who watches comedies toyou knowlaugh.The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of PowerAvailable on: Prime Video (U.S. and U.K.)Too soon? Maybe. It remains to be seen how many more seasons of Rings of Power well get, and it certainly remains to be seen if those upcoming seasons will live up to or improve upon what we saw in season 2. Still, its tough to imagine that this show will ever dip below what we suffered through during its first season.Read more Even those willing to lower their expectations for all things Lord of the Rings likely found Rings of Powers first season to be a lore-fuelled slog painfully devoid of compelling characters, exciting scenarios, and actual storytelling. While the shows second season still tries to do a little too much, the significantly improved pacing and action alone suggest that this debut season which often feels like the audiobook version of The Silmarillion will likely be an anomaly.

This article contains spoilers for The Penguin episode 8.When The Penguin began, embattled mid-level mobster Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) was left reeling in the wake of his boss Carmine Falcones assassination in The Batman and the resulting chaos left by the Riddler. In pitting the Falcone and Maroni crime families against each other, Oz made his own calculating bid for power to become Gotham Citys newest kingpin of organized crime, relying heavily on wayward youth Victor Aguilar.Though Victor quickly proved himself valuable to Oz, saving his life on multiple occasions and helping him outmaneuver the vengeful Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), Oz murders Victor in The Penguin season finale, feeling his trusted associate had grown too close.In an exclusive interview with Den of Geek, The Penguin actor Rhenzy Feliz unpacks Victors death scene, reflects on the characters arc over the course of the season, and explains Victors role in the wider story along with Ozs violent rise to power.Den of Geek: A moment of silence for Vic. How was it playing such a brutal death scene in the season finale?Rhenzy Feliz: It was an interesting one. Me and Colin both circled the dates in our calendar knowing that the scene was coming up. I remember even a week leading up to it, he came up and went You ready for our scene? and I was like Yeah. Three days before that, he was like Three days before our scene! and then, [the day before] Big day tomorrow!We knew this day was coming and it was a big deal plot-wise, character-wise, and so many different things. The thing that I was most interested in nailing was the moment right before that happened. Its a very soft scene. The way I read it, its vulnerable and emotional. These two are opening up to each other in a way that they maybe havent before. In a way, Victor is being as open and honest as he can be with a guy like Oz.Then, for Oz to do that directly afterwards, its meant to be a gut-punch. That was its own challenge as well, filming the strangling and dying of it all. That was an interesting thing to do, but thats more physical. The first half is more emotional, mental, and wanting to tackle this challenge. Theyre two different challenges ones physical and ones emotional. It was a big day and we knew as much. You could feel it on set, that it was a bit different that day, with the way people interacted with each other. It was a little bit darker, more sad and sullen kind of day.Even before that, in the hospital, its Vic coaching Oz after they bring in Francis. Vic pulls up Oz from his lowest moment only to get rewarded for it shortly thereafter. How was it playing Vics journey from somebody trying to steal Ozs hubcaps to an assertive figure in his life?That was one of the things that interested me the most about the part, that we get to tell this arc of his character who is, at the beginning, very different from who he is at the end. That was always the mental charting that I was doing in my mind, making sure there was this change and this arc. By the end, you dont feel that its forced, but a natural progression of what hes turning into.That was an incredibly exciting thing to get to do over eight episodes. You get time that you dont necessarily get on a movie because you dont get as much time to draw out the arc. You get eight hours on this thing and that was very exciting. By the end, he is more assertive. You can see that in the way hes talking to the gangs. The guy is looking at five different gangs in the face and calling them cowards, telling them Nut up! Is this it? Yall are a bunch of cowards.Thinking about how Squid walks up on the rooftop, a week before the show technically begins in episode 3, and he walks away from this lower level guy. By the end of the show, hes telling off the heads of these five different gangs. Hes a very different person and it was always exciting to chart that out, get to create that, and do it in a way that didnt feel too rushed.Do you think Vic killing Squid in the seventh episode also killed the innocent, old Vic?I think there is still a death process happening between 7 and 8, its not a switch thats flipped. I think it is the beginning of a descent, where hes going into a darker and less innocent place. By the time he pulls that gun on Sofia, I think if need be, hed pull the trigger and not feel as bad as he did about Squid. I think its on a gradual spectrum versus an on-and-off switch. Hes on his way to something much darker and it wouldve been interesting to play out.I wonder if hed lose all of his goodness and innocence, I dont know. I think itd be interesting to play out and get to see, but we never get the chance because Oz does what he does.In speaking with [showrunner] Lauren LeFranc and the directors, were there things you were conscious of as you were figuring out where Vic was mentally from the beginning across each episode?For sure! There were some things I was doing with posture and my stutter. The scenes and words hes going to say are there, so its easy to chart out and keep track of that myself. But definitely my stutter and the way that Id stand, sit, and things like that change over the course of the show, for sure. At the beginning, his shoulders are rolled a little bit and he looks up a lot more. As the show goes on, hes talking to you more head-on.I think that subtly, without the audience even knowing whats happening, shows confidence, insecurity, youth, and that this feels more submissive or assertive. It was slowly and gradually changing over the course of the first three [episodes] and little more after the time jump in 6 and even more in 7 and 8. There were definitely things we were charting along the way in creating this arc, even if its just subconsciously. Maybe the audience wont know that its happening, but theyll feel that theres a difference.So many of your scenes are with Colin Farrell. How was it working with him on this series, especially on the more intense scenes?It was awesome! The guy is so giving as an actor. There were definitely moments where it felt like he was overdoing it, where he didnt have to be this generous. Hes been on set far longer than I have because he has to put on prosthetics at the beginning of the day. Hes there three hours before I am and hes got to be there about 45 minutes afterwards to take off all the prosthetics as well.There were times where we were doing scenes and Id just need to look in that general direction and not really have any words to say to him, just reactions to what he was saying. Id tell him You can totally go home, were just finishing this coverage. He never would. Hed always stay back and give whatever I needed for looks as an actor.Thats just an example. The guys an incredibly giving human being, a generous person, so incredibly talented, and works so hard. I couldnt have asked for a better person to stand next to and take this journey with.We had talked about Vic not having a lot of time to process losing his family and the trauma from that. How was it playing this guy who thinks he found his father figure and place only to swim into the mouth of a shark?Its heartbreaking, its brutal. If youre looking at it from an audiences perspective, this poor kid is trying to do his best and hes found someone who he thinks is looking out for him, who he thinks cares for him, and who he thinks cares for a lot of people. Victor falls into the trap of [thinking] Oz really cares about the people of Crown Point, about the small guy.If Im looking at it as Rhenzy, I think Oz cares about people who adore him. The way you get that is making people think that you care about them. Its more about the adoration that Oz gets rather than the care that he gives to others. I think that Victor confused the two. When hes giving him that speech in the hospital, the reason that he cares about Oz so much is because Oz cares about the little guy, for me. Im the little guy and look at what hes doing for me. He couldve killed me but he didnt because he cares.I think he confuses that adoration, attention, and wanting to look up to Oz. It is heartbreaking. I think he misread the situation and who Oz was at his core and it ends up costing him his life.Looking back, what scenes standout for you? What makes the sizzle reel?Its hard to watch my own stuff, to be honest. I try not to bring that up as much as possible, I think its eye-rolling behavior. There are very small moments in 6 that I like. There are, like, three seconds from a scene that Ill think are decent, but its all tough. I like watching everyone elses work more. I like watching that scene between Colin and [Deirdre OConnell] when she tells him if my mind goes before my body does, youve got to help me die. That whole scene is heartbreaking.The scene between Sofia and Eve, when theyre having their moment at the end is a heartbreaking moment and its so intense. I was having the time of my life watching Francis talk to Sofia, going Go fuck yourself. I cant wait until my son puts a bullet in that little skull of yours. All of those scenes are fun to watch. Some of them are heartbreaking, some of the other ones are intense. I just find them to be awesome.The whole fourth episode with Cristin, and that scene where she realizes shes going to go to Arkham, what a scene. I can stand back and appreciate those. I think its hard for me to stand back and appreciate my own. Its the other ones that Im in awe of.Rhenzy, lets lay Vic to rest. How was it getting to add your own stamp in the Batman mythos with this tragic, impressionable character who grounds the narrative and this world of organized crime and losing ones soul?It was an honor. I was also afraid that maybe people wouldnt understand it, that maybe people are so used to seeing Ozes and Sofias, the badasses doing badass stuff. I was afraid people wouldnt embrace Victor in that way because hes too sensitive, he feels too much, or hes too weak. I, the creators, the producers, the writers, and the directors always saw it as what would probably really happen if somebody didnt just want to go around murdering people in cold blood. A 17-year-old kid probably wouldnt just take to it like that.Itll probably take some time, itll hurt, and it wont be fun. Taking a real grounded approach to it and bringing it into reality, I thought it was awesome. I was afraid that people wouldnt understand it and, what I realized, is that people have really embraced Victor as a character, embraced his innocence and how good he is. They seem protective of him, they dont want him to go. They dont want him to meet a tragic demise.Its been eye-opening. Its taught me about the world and that maybe I didnt give the world enough credit and was cynical about how theyd perceive him. Ive learned that on this show, to give the audience a bit more credit with empathy, that they would be more empathetic when I was afraid that they wouldnt be. Thats been nice.I think thats who Victor is at his core. He is the kid who, after Batman fights whoever, the buildings get blown up, and whatever happens, hes the personification of the people who are affected by this thing on the ground level. We get to see that, see the everyday person and what happens to them. Their families are lost, they dont have any clothes, their girlfriend and people they know are scared of the city and leaving Gotham. Thats the human aspect of whats going on in the city and Victor embodies that.We get to see an extraordinary tale because its not the everyday person who gets to meet Oz. We get to see what happens. We get to take the ordinary person and put them in an extraordinary situation and circumstances, and that makes for good television. I think thats who he is and Im glad people were able to embrace him.All eight episodes of The Penguin are available to stream on Max.

In the ambitious pursuit to tackle the harms from false content on social media and news websites, data scientists are getting creative.While still in their training wheels, the large language models (LLMs) used to create chatbots like ChatGPT are being recruited to spot fake news. With better detection, AI fake news checking systems may be able to warn of, and ultimately counteract, serious harms from deepfakes, propaganda, conspiracy theories and misinformation.The next level AI tools will personalise detection of false content as well as protecting us against it. For this ultimate leap into user-centered AI, data science needs to look to behavioural and neuroscience.Recent work suggests we might not always consciously know that we are encountering fake news. Neuroscience is helping to discover what is going on unconsciously. Biomarkers such as heart rate, eye movements and brain activity) appear to subtly change in response to fake and real content. In other words, these biomarkers may be tells that indicate if we have been taken in or not.For instance, when humans look at faces, eye-tracking data shows that we scan for rates of blinking and changes in skin colour caused by blood flow. If such elements seem unnatural, it can help us decide that were looking at a deepfake. This knowledge can give AI an edge we can train it to mimic what humans look for, among other things.The personalisation of an AI fake news checker takes shape by using findings from human eye movement data and electrical brain activity that shows what types of false content has the greatest impact neurally, psychologically and emotionally, and for whom.Knowing our specific interests, personality and emotional reactions, an AI fact-checking system could detect and anticipate which content would trigger the most severe reaction in us. This could help establish when people are taken in and what sort of material fools people the easiest.Counteracting harmsWhat comes next is customising the safeguards. Protecting us from the harms of fake news also requires building systems that could intervene some sort of digital countermeasure to fake news. There are several ways to do this such as warning labels, links to expert-validated credible content and even asking people to try to consider different perspectives when they read something.Our own personalised AI fake news checker could be designed to give each of us one of these countermeasures to cancel out the harms from false content online.Such technology is already being trialled. Researchers in the US have studied how people interact with a personalised AI fake news checker of social media posts. It learned to reduce the number of posts in a news feed to those it deemed true. As a proof of concept, another study using social media posts tailored additional news content to each media post to encourage users to view alternative perspectives.Accurate detection of fake newsBut whether this all sounds impressive or dystopian, before we get carried away it might be worth asking some basic questions.Much, if not all, of the work on fake news, deepfakes, disinformation and misinformation highlights the same problem that any lie detector would face.There are many types of lie detectors, not just the polygraph test. Some exclusively depend on linguistic analysis. Others are systems designed to read peoples faces to detect if they are leaking micro-emotions that give away that they are lying. By the same token, there are AI systems that are designed to detect if a face is genuine or a deep fake.Before the detection begins, we all need to agree on what a lie looks like if we are to spot it. In fact, in deception research shows it can be easier because you can instruct people when to lie and when tell the truth. And so you have some way of knowing the ground truth before you train a human or a machine to tell the difference, because they are provided with examples on which to base their judgements.Knowing how good an expert lie detector is depends on how often they call out a lie when there was one (hit). But also, that they dont frequently mistake someone as telling the truth when they were in fact lying (miss). This means they need to know what the truth is when they see it (correct rejection) and dont accuse someone of lying when they were telling the truth (false alarm). What this refers to is signal detection, and the same logic applies to fake news detection which you can see in the diagram below.For an AI system detecting fake news, to be super accurate, the hits need to be really high (say 90%) and so the misses will be very low (say 10%), and the false alarms need to stay low (say 10%) which means real news isnt called fake. If an AI fact-checking system, or a human one is recommended to us, based on signal detection, we can better understand how good it is.There are likely to be cases, as has been reported in a recent survey, where the news content may not be completely false or completely true, but partially accurate. We know this because the speed of news cycles means that what is considered accurate at one time, may later be found to be inaccurate, or vice versa. So, a fake news checking system has its work cut out.If we knew in advance what was faked and what was real news, how accurate are biomarkers at indicating unconsciously which is which? The answer is not very. Neural activity is most often the same when we come across real and fake news articles.When it comes to eye-tracking studies, it is worth knowing that there are different types of data collected from eye-tracking techniques (for example the length of time our eye fix on an object, the frequency that our eye moves across a visual scene).So depending on what is analysed, some studies show that we direct more attention when viewing false content, while others show the opposite.Are we there yet?AI fake news detection systems on the market are already using insights from behavioural science to help flag and warn us against fake news content. So it wont be a stretch for the same AI systems to start appearing in our news feeds with customised protections for our unique user profile. The problem with all this is we still have a lot of basic ground to cover in knowing what is working, but also checking whether we want this.In the worst case scenario, we only see fake news as a problem online as an excuse to solve it using AI. But false and inaccurate content is everywhere, and gets discussed offline. Not only that, we dont by default believe all fake news, some times we use it in discussions to illustrate bad ideas.In an imagined best case scenario, data science and behavioural science is confident about the scale of the various harms fake news might cause. But, even here, AI applications combined with scientific wizardry might still be very poor substitutes for less sophisticated but more effective solutions.Magda Osman, Professor of Policy Impact, University of LeedsThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Story by The Conversation An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

Rubys creator, Yukihiro Matsumoto (Matz), released the first public version of the programming language in December 1995, making Ruby just shy of its 30th birthday. It spread across Japanese-language Usenet newsgroups, a popular way of exchanging conversation and media before the World Wide Web, and then reached broader communities throughout the late 1990s.This was thanks to Rubys friendly community and, in no small part, thanks to Matz. (The community has a motto, Matz is nice, and so we are nice.) At this years annual European Ruby Konferenze EuRoKu in Sarajevo, Matz said he created Ruby because he was lazy and full of hubris.That doesnt sound like a justification for creating and maintaining a programming language for 30 years, but its a sign of his derisive humbleness that feeds Ruby and has kept it a generally welcoming community over the decades.30 years of Ruby historyThe programming language emerged when the rapid growth of web-related technologies embraced lightweight, easier-to-learn, and easier-to-run languages such as PHP and Python. While all three languages have myriad other uses, timing and external factors often propelled them into broader popularity. For Ruby, this was the Rails framework in 2004 and two books Dave Thomass Pragmatic Programmer in 1999 and WHYS (poignant) Guide to Ruby in 2005*.The of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!While Thomass book didnt cover Ruby in detail, it mentions it, and the author continued to promote the language for many years after publishing it. The book, in general, has been a long-term success, and contributed to increasing interest in Ruby in its early life.Sometimes, Ruby on Rails feels like a blessing and a curse for Ruby itself. To many developers, they are one and the same thing. Rails events typically have more attendees. Many of the recent features and changes in Ruby came upstream from Rails.Finally, Rails creator and founder of 37Signals, David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH), is a far more recognised name in the wider programming and tech community and is a vocal presence online. One attendee at EuRoKu I spoke to stated that as much as the community doesnt want to admit it, the two projects are highly connected.Many Web 2.0 sites that emerged in the early 2000s ran on Rails, and many still do (at least in part), including Airbnb, GitHub, Twitter (now X), Netflix, and Shopify (another major Ruby contributor and sponsor). Rails introduced many features that any older developer (like myself) will remember how groundbreaking they were, and many younger developers will now take it for granted. As a Drupal PHP developer at the time, I remember looking at features such as database table creation, management, and migration with envy.While interest and search term tracking for Rails shows at a quarter of what it once was, actual usage remains reasonably close to its peak. This shows that many developers using it are at a senior level and largely know what theyre doing.The 2024 Planet Argon survey confirms this: nearly 70% of respondents had more than seven years experience and have run their applications for about the same length of time. I dont know how many new projects choose Rails, but there are enough pre-existing ones to maintain a healthy interest for a 20-year-old project.If you remove the several-year peak of Rubys interest after Rails release, then Ruby is as popular as it was 30 years ago. According to Tiobe statistics, its slightly more popular. The 2023 Stack Overflow survey puts Rubys popularity at 16 out of 50 languages, and an IEEE survey from 2024 and PYPL reports about the same.Its easy to draw negative or inaccurate statistical comparisons to an unprecedented blip, but abstract them out over time, and you see a different story.Every language with a few decades under its belt has a degree of technical or community baggage, and I felt this same impression with Ruby in general and at the EuRuKo event. The community was friendly and welcoming but full of references and name drops that meant nothing to me. Granted, all communities do this to a degree, and maybe other events support newcomers, but there were few beginner-level talks.The next 30 yearsBut enough of the distant past. What has Ruby recently added, or changed, or planned to keep the current developers interested and maybe attract new ones?Ruby is an interpreted language, meaning its converted from human-readable to machine-runnable code when run, often in a virtual machine that runs on a physical machine. One modern criticism of Ruby, and all interpreted languages, is that they are too slow for the scale of modern applications.Ruby has a default interpreter, CRuby (formerly Matzs Ruby Interpreter), that translates the code into instructions run by the Ruby virtual machine. But Ruby and the community have added alternative and more performant interpreters, especially in the past few years, including multiple just in time (JIT) compiler options, which is a popular technique for bringing compiled code speed to interpreted languages.Other programming languages, such as C, C++, and Rust, are compiled languages, turning human-readable code into machine-readable code before its run. While not primarily designed for running as a compiled language, other options make it possible with Ruby.However, compiling languages is nothing new, and as I mentioned in my KubeCon EU wrap-up, WebAssembly (WASM) is the present for some and the future for many. Principally, WASM lets you run supported languages in the browser (but also now offers much more, maybe thats a future post), bringing complex and powerful applications to the browser. Since 2022, Ruby has been able to compile to WASM. If youve used Mastodon in the browser, its a Ruby on Rails application running as WASM.When Ruby began life, monoliths were the common application architecture pattern one large codebase written in one language that handles all functionality and services. In recent years, microservices has become the more popular architectural design, at least in an ideal world.Instead of one large, multifunctional, monolingual codebase, an application is broken up into a diverse array of code bases and languages that communicate with each other. Ruby was never really designed with this architecture in mind, and you can track its decline along parallel lines with the increase in microservices.In recent years, Ruby has added features to keep up with changes that may surprise or tempt non-Ruby developers. These include asynchronous and threaded code, allowing applications to communicate simultaneously with other applications and services.Many modern languages support these features, but Rubys syntax is simpler than JavaScript. Developers at EuRuKo were excited by some of the other forthcoming features, all of which continue to add creative options for coding with the language.While many developers may now dismiss Ruby as an option to start with, it has also inspired many other languages directly and indirectly that may suit the contemporary microservices-fuelled developer.Elixir, first appearing 12 years ago, drew inspiration from Ruby, and its creator, Jos Valim, came from the Ruby community. Elixir is more optimised for high concurrency and low latency, making it well-suited for finance and telecommunications industries.Crystal, created ten years ago, also has members of the Ruby community as maintainers. Its syntax is more inspired by Ruby but adds features that make the language more stable and reliable, including running as compiled instead of interpreted.Community motivatedWhy do long-term Ruby developers still use it despite the plethora of new and shiny options they can choose from? Dave Thomas told me about how he discovered Ruby amongst dozens of other languages he played with on Usenet forums back in the 1990s. I was blown away. I played with Ruby for a day. I played with it the next day. And I kept playing with it after that, and it became my programming language of choice when I had a choice.And why does Thomas continue to use Ruby 30 years later? Ruby lets you find ways to express yourself without dictating too much. Like when you write prose and are trying to find the right phrasing and structure for your words, Ruby lets you do the same thing with code. You can experiment with nice ways to express things, not just one way.I am not likely to switch any of my current projects to Ruby, and I am unsure how many developers established using other languages would either. However, one attitude I heard over and over again when speaking with the Ruby community was freedom of creative choice.Many other programming language communities are full of advice on the right way to do things, which is, of course, different, depending on who you speak to. The Ruby community follows a different approach, providing gently opinionated tools to let you find your own way.The technical world is full of trends that come and go and people who tell you that youre wrong for your decisions. If the Ruby community is one of the few that doesnt judge, then no matter its trend or usage percentages, long may it last._______* If you havent read WHYs guide, its available for free and is in equal parts programming book, comic, and surreal journey of self-realisation. Because of this strange combination, its divisive. Some say it was the only book they ever learned programming from. Others find it an utterly confounding and confusing mess. Still, its unique style and mysterious author also increased interest in the language during its nascent days. Story by Chris Chinchilla Technology writer, podcaster, and video maker by day. Fiction, games, and music by night.chrischinchilla.com Technology writer, podcaster, and video maker by day. Fiction, games, and music by night.chrischinchilla.com Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

Nov 11, 2024Ravie LakshmananVulnerability / Network SecurityCybersecurity researchers have discovered a new phishing campaign that spreads a new fileless variant of known commercial malware called Remcos RAT.Remcos RAT "provides purchases with a wide range of advanced features to remotely control computers belonging to the buyer," Fortinet FortiGuard Labs researcher Xiaopeng Zhang said in an analysis published last week."However, threat actors have abused Remcos to collect sensitive information from victims and remotely control their computers to perform further malicious acts."The starting point of the attack is a phishing email that uses purchase order-themed lures to convince recipients to open a Microsoft Excel attachment.The malicious Excel document is designed to exploit a known remote code execution flaw in Office (CVE-2017-0199, CVSS score: 7.8) to download an HTML Application (HTA) file ("cookienetbookinetcahce.hta") from a remote server ("192.3.220[.]22") and launch it using mshta.exe.The HTA file, for its part, is wrapped in multiple layers of JavaScript, Visual Basic Script, and PowerShell code to evade detection. Its main responsibility is to retrieve an executable file from the same server and execute it.The binary subsequently proceeds to run another obfuscated PowerShell program, while also adopting an array of anti-analysis and anti-debugging techniques to complicate detection efforts. In the next step, the malicious code leverages process hollowing to ultimately download and run Remcos RAT."Rather than saving the Remcos file into a local file and running it, it directly deploys Remcos in the current process's memory," Zhang said. "In other words, it is a fileless variant of Remcos."Remcos RAT is equipped to harvest various kinds of information from the compromised host, including system metadata, and can execute instructions remotely issued by the attacker through a command-and-control (C2) server.These commands allow the program to harvest files, enumerate and terminate processes, manage system services, edit Windows Registry, execute commands and scripts, capture clipboard content, alter a victim's desktop wallpaper, enable camera and microphone, download additional payloads, record the screen, and even disable keyboard or mouse input.The disclosure comes as Wallarm revealed that threat actors are abusing Docusign APIs to send fake invoices that appear authentic in an attempt to deceive unsuspecting users and conduct phishing campaigns at scale.The attack entails creating a legitimate, paid Docusign account that enables the attackers to change templates and use the API directly. The accounts are then used to create specially crafted invoice templates mimicking requests to e-sign documents from well-known brands like Norton Antivirus. "Unlike traditional phishing scams that rely on deceptively crafted emails and malicious links, these incidents use genuine DocuSign accounts and templates to impersonate reputable companies, catching users and security tools off guard," the company said."If users e-sign this document, the attacker can use the signed document to request payment from the organization outside of DocuSign or send the signed document through DocuSign to the finance department for payment."Phishing campaigns have also been observed leveraging an unconventional tactic called ZIP file concatenation to bypass security tools and distribute remote access trojans to targets.The method involves appending multiple ZIP archives into a single file, which introduces security issues due to the discrepancy in which different programs like 7-Zip, WinRAR, and the Windows File Explorer unpack and parse such files, thereby resulting in a scenario where malicious payloads are overlooked."By exploiting the different ways ZIP readers and archive managers process concatenated ZIP files, attackers can embed malware that specifically targets users of certain tools," Perception Point noted in a recent report."Threat actors know these tools will often miss or overlook the malicious content hidden within concatenated archives, allowing them to deliver their payload undetected and target users who use a specific program to work with archives."The development also comes as a threat actor known as Venture Wolf has been linked to phishing attacks targeting Russian manufacturing, construction, IT, and telecommunications sectors with MetaStealer, a fork of the RedLine Stealer malware.Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.SHARE

Source: Studio AVCSource: Studio AVCSource: Studio AVCSource: Studio AVCSource: Studio AVCSource: Studio AVCSource: Studio AVC1/7show captionStudio AVC has completed Frame House, a new home within a predominantly Victorian conservation area.The design respects the heritage of the neighbourhood, incorporating materials and architectural details that reference nearby Victorian architecture.Key features include angled brick soffits and recessed glazing inspired by local decorative eaves brackets, along with dog-tooth brickwork that echoes the intricate patterns found on surrounding buildings. The front faades geometry also aligns with the canted bay windows characteristic of nearby homes.Ayca Vural-Cutts, founding director of Studio AVC, said: Frame House embodies an innovative architectural approach that celebrates light, views, and openness while balancing privacy within a contemporary urban setting. At its core, the design is distinguished by an angled faade that both frames and directs the interiors connection to the outside world, enhancing natural light and creating dynamic sightlines.Inside, the layout maximises light and space, with floor-to-ceiling windows and a central open-plan kitchen and dining area. Large sliding doors open to a terraced garden, integrating the indoor and outdoor spaces.Bedrooms on the upper floors are framed by Juliette balconies, providing views of the surrounding landscape. Reflective solar-control glass on the front faade enhances privacy while maintaining a visual connection to the street.Source: Studio AVCSource: Studio AVCSource: Studio AVCSource: Studio AVCSource: Studio AVCSource: Studio AVC1/6show captionConstructed from handmade bricks and sustainable materials, Frame House emphasises craftsmanship and energy efficiency. Insulated building fabric, a new heating system, and a Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) system reduce energy consumption, while a biodiverse roof supports local ecology.According to the designers, the buildings environmental performance marks a significant improvement over previous structures on the site, with solar studies guiding the integration of rooflights and shading to prevent overheating.Project dataStart on site: August 2023Completion date: October 2024Gross internal floor area: 190 mGross (internal + external) floor area: 240 mArchitectural team: Studio AVCStructural engineer: Anderson Consulting EngineersPrincipal designer: Studio AVCApproved building inspector: Stroma Building ControlMain contractor: Onebuild Group LtdPhotographs courtesy of Studio AVCSuppliersFacade: Vande Moortel (brickwork)Sliding door systems: MinimaAll furniture and lighting: SCP ContractsFloors: The Natural Wood Floor Company and Lazenby for polished concreteKitchen: The Wood WorksMVHR design: Green Building Store

Looking for the most recentregular Connections answers? Click here for today's Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.Have you been enjoying the New York Times Connections puzzle? Now there's a new version of the game focusing on sports-related words. It's simply called Connections: Sports Edition, and we have hints and the answers.For now, the game is in beta, which means the Times is testing it out to see if it's popular before adding it to the site's Games app. You can play it daily for the next few weeks for free and then we'll have to see if it sticks around.Read more: NYT Has a Connections Game for Sports Fans. I Tried ItHow to play Connections: Sports EditionThe rules are pretty much the same as the regular game. You're given 16 words and asked to put them into four groups that are somehow connected. The main difference is that all the words and categories have some kind of sports tie-in. Sometimes the categories seem obvious, but the game attempts to trick you by using sports-related words that can fit into more than one group. And the four groups of words have different difficulty levels. Yellow is the easiest and purple the hardest, but you won't know which color group is which until you solve the puzzle.But you don't have to be a sports obsessive to solve Connections: Sports Edition, though it helps to know a little bit about a bunch of different sports and athletes. The words might include player names, team names or sport-related activities.Hints for today's Connections: Sports Edition groupsHere are four hints for the groupings in today's Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.Yellow group hint: Get your racket.Green group hint:Flips and tricks.Blue group hint: Bad luck.Purple group hint: Not Man City, but...Answers for today's Connections: Sports Edition groupsYellow group: Tennis grand slams.Green group: American gold medal-winning gymnasts.Blue group: Famous sports "curses."Purple group: ____ United.Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English WordsWhat are today's Connections: Sports Edition answers? The completed NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Nov. 11, 2024. NYT/Screenshot by CNETThe yellow words in today's ConnectionsThe theme is tennis grand slams. The four answers are Australian, French, US and Wimbledon.The green words in today's ConnectionsThe theme is American gold medalwinning gymnasts. The four answers are Biles, Douglas, Lee, Liukin.The blue words in today's ConnectionsThe theme is famous sports "curses." The four answers are Bambino, Billy Goat, Drake and SI cover.The purple words in today's ConnectionsThe theme is ____ United. The four answers are Atlanta, DC, Manchester and Newcastle.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today's Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.Need the answers for theNew York Times Connections puzzle? To me,Wordle is more of a vocabulary test, but Connections is more of a brainteaser. You're given 16 words and asked to put them into four groups that are somehow connected. Sometimes they're obvious, but game editor Wyna Liu knows how to trick you by using words that can fit into more than one group. Read on for today's Connections hints and answers.There's also news in the Connections world. The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one it's had for some time for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. And players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.Read more:Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every TimeHow to play ConnectionsPlaying is easy.Winning is hard. Look at the 16 words and mentally assign them to related groups of four. Click on the four words you think go together. The groups are coded by color, though you don't know what goes where until you see the answers. The yellow group is the easiest, then green, then blue, and purple is the toughest. Look at the words carefully and think about related terms. Sometimes the connection has to do with just a part of the word. Once, four words were grouped because each started with the name of a rock band, including "Rushmore" and "Journeyman."Read more:New NYT Connections Game for Sports Fans Lets Players Swing for the FencesHints for today's Connections groupsHere are four hints for the groupings in today's Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest, yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.Yellow group hint: Snickers is one.Green group hint: Essence.Blue group hint: Strapless or underwire.Purple group hint: Larry of the NBA.Answers for today's Connections groupsYellow group: Chocolate bars.Green group: Gist.Blue group: Kinds of bras.Purple group: ____ bird.Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English WordsWhat are today's Connections answers? The completed NYT Connections puzzle for Nov. 11, 2024, #519. NYT/Screenshot by CNETThe yellow words in today's ConnectionsThe theme is chocolate bars. The four answers are Crunch, Dove, Mars and Payday.The green words in today's ConnectionsThe theme is gist. The four answers are core, meat, substance and thrust.The blue words in today's ConnectionsThe theme is kinds of bras. The four answers are demi, push-up, sports and wireless.The purple words in today's ConnectionsThe theme is ____ bird. The four answers are Big, early, Lady and Sue.

I tried my hand at recreating a complex scene from my favorite movie. This was also a task from "Blender Camp by JCenter".It was necessary to recite a small scene from any movie as accurately as possible.Of course, I chose Harry Potter, no other options were even considered.Weeks without sleep, but I did it! Did I manage to do it?..