One of our favorite air fryer toaster ovens is on sale for a record low. The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer, which has 11 cooking functions and takes up less counter space than the pricier Pro model, is available for $80 off. The appliance will usually set you back $350, but this Black Friday deal brings the brushed stainless steel mode down to $270. Most other colorways are down to $280. Brevilles Smart Oven Air Fryer has a long list of cooking functions: toast, bagel, broil, bake, roast, warm, pizza, air fry, reheat, cookies and slow cook. The oven uses five quartz heating elements known for quick and consistent heating. It uses algorithms to direct heat to where its needed most for each mode. The oven uses super convection tech to reduce cooking time by up to 30 percent. It speeds up cooking by raising hotter air and sinking the cooler, less dense air. It supports a wide temperature range of 120 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. The appliance requires a decent amount of counter space: 18.9-inch wide x 15.9-inch deep x 10.9-inch high. But in return, you can squeeze in six slices of pizza or toast, a whole chicken or nine muffins. Brevilles oven has a smooth-looking brushed stainless steel texture, including snazzy-looking knobs and buttons and an interior light that automatically turns on at the cooking cycles end. (You can also flip it on manually.) Check out all of the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-breville-smart-oven-air-fryer-drops-to-a-record-low-price-for-black-friday-150032299.html?src=rss

Sunday freebies: get VFX Assets' free 2D Cloud Textures Pack. The set of 125 cloud textures are provided as 1,024px JPEGs on black backgrounds for luminance-based keying in compositing work. Licensed for commercial use.https://www.cgchannel.com/2024/11/download-vfx-assets-free-2d-cloud-textures-pack/

Looking for Quordle clues? We can help. Plus get the answers to Quordle today and past solutions.

Looking for NYT Strands answers and hints? Here's all you need to know to solve today's game, including the spangram.

The project, codenamed "Encore," was part of Amazon's moonshot incubator Grand Challenge, which launched under founder Jeff Bezos.

At the end of last year, AMD had 26,000 employees, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The weeks after an election are open season for pet political theories. An electorate as massive and sprawling as Americas will never swing on just one thing. But thats no fun to admit. So why not share your one thingyou can be as right as anyone else. But among the Monday-morning quarterbacks of social media, one strain of analysis seems poised to rule them all: that liberals need to find their own version of Joe Rogan.As expected, the viral idea was met with a bit of enthusiasm, then a whole lot of scorn, before eventually reaching its final stage: memes.But, despite the social media clowning, its not hard to understand where the idea came from. Rogan, the undisputed champion of the podcast medium, has crept rightward since endorsing Bernie Sanders in 2020. Since 2020, his unprecedented Spotify deal has netted him upwards of $200 million and countingthe streaming giant re-upped this February which gives a not-so-subtle clue to Rogans invaluable reach. The most popular show on Spotify for four years running, The Joe Rogan Experience boasts 14.5 million subscribers on the platform as of March. Thats almost three times more than the second-most popular show. During the two weeks ahead of Election Day, he had Donald Trump, JD Vance, and Elon Musk on his show. (Rogan invited Harris on his show, but he explained via X that her campaign declined to travel to Austin, a condition for the live recording.) Then, right before Election Day, Rogan endorsed Trump.The leftist Joe Rogan pipe dream goes up in smoke upon close examination. In Vulture, Nicholas Quah argues that the idea is little more than fantasy wish-casting, driven by a top-down desire to inorganically bring into the world something that can only exist organically. The effectiveness of a Rogan endorsement is tied to the very fact that hes not an inherently political figure; for a political movement to build their own Rogan would be sort of like trying to force a campaign jingle into the mainstream versus coopting a successful song as a campaign soundtrack. (At least with music, the Democrats went the latter route with Charli XCXs Brat this summer. The effectiveness of the now famous kamala IS brat tweet will undoubtedly be studied generations from now by legions of American Empire scholars.)The thing about Rogan that separates him from the more blatantly right-wing podcasters, like Charlie Kirk and Candace Owen, is that by not foregrounding politics, hes able to draw a listenership that actually isnt that right-leaning. An Edison Research study found that the audience is, unsurprisingly, very male (80%), but perhaps more surprisingly, extremely nonpartisan: 27% identified as Democrats and 32% as Republicans. Most significantly, 35% IDd as Independent or Something Else. In todays polarized political climate, where else can a candidate reach an audience that is 35% undecided? And more than that, a group of Undecideds who agree on one key thing: They intrinsically trust the man behind the mic.I called Quah a few days after his piece ran because I needed to talk through something that had been bugging me: After three decades of the political radio host Rush Limbaugh and the conservative talk radio megalith, how did the Democrats miss the growing power of podcasts to convince the electorate?Quah was quick to differentiate between Limbaugh and Rogan. Democrats, with Crooked Media and Ezra Klein; and Republicans, with Kirk, Carlson, and Dan Bongioni have extremely popular shows that serve, and rile up, their respective bases. Certainly the two sides tenor is starkly different, but the ability to win new votes seems negligible in either case. But people primarily go to Rogan for something else and develop a kinship with him on something else, Quah tells me. So when he does weigh in on a political issue, it feels less like youre being sold and more like this person that you care about and have a relationship with has this belief. Quah says hes been batting around the idea that as church attendance falls, podcasters have started to fill the space left by pastors. We go to fucking podcasts to try to understand ourselves.In that sense, the appropriate Rogan comparison is more Howard Stern than it is Limbaugh. The goal of Roganand Theo Von, Lex Fridman, Bill Simmons, and Alex Cooperis not to appeal to policy wonks or college Republicans. Everything is political, sure, but politics, in its most essential form, is the art of persuasion. And in an election where a few thousand votes in a handful of swing states was always going to be the difference, reaching the persuadable in one of the few remaining spaces where they can be persuaded seems straightforwardly the right move.On Wednesday, the New York Times published a piece featuring conversations with 13 young undecided voters from August through November. Three of the interviewees mentioned Rogan. One, a white 22-year-old man from New York, said that Trumps appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience was huge for me. Trump enthusiastically said yes to a three-hour, open, honest conversation with Joe Rogan, who was a former Bernie bro. I think its very telling about which candidate is authentic and which candidate is not.Rather than do Rogan, the Harris campaign leaned on celebrity support: The vice president touted endorsements from people like Beyonc and Taylor Swift, and held sold-out rallies with performances by Megan Thee Stallion and Bruce Springsteen. She avoided the podcast space until the last moment, when she appeared on Alex Coopers Call Her Daddy and former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jacksons All the Smoke, and did a radio interview on The Breakfast Club with cohost Charlamagne tha God. According to the Financial Times, Jennifer Palmieri, a senior adviser to Harriss husband, Doug Emhoff, said this week that Harris declined to appear on Rogan out of fear by some in the campaign that it would prompt backlash. After all, they reasoned, Rogan has been maligned for his positions on vaccines, trans rights, and his repeated use of derogatory language. But now, after November 5ths results, its hard not to wonder if, when it comes to convincing new or undecided voters, a podcast appearance mightve been more powerful than a viral Swift Instagram.Theres been a lot written about the intimacy of the radio and podcast medium, but Ira Glass probably put it best in a recent interview with The New Yorker: Its like youre in the bed in the dark with somebody. Not seeing somebody and just hearing them, and hearing the silences between sentencesthe intimacy is just built in. And its also not hard to achieve. Putting Rogan on while you sit in traffic or while you wash the dishes or in bed before you sleep creates the illusion of a relationship. Theres trust there. If even a little of that trust can rub off onto a politician, thats worth a thousand TV ads or cable news hits where the medium too clearly exposes the artifice.In August, Harriss campaign chair Jen OMalley Dillon said at the CNN-Politico Grill: We all know who the vice president is, but the American people dont really know her that well, and they dont know her story. Declining the chance to speak, at length and off book, to millions of Independent or Something Else voters seems like a clear misstep by Harris.Perhaps this is just one more Pet Take to explain the hard-to-fathom appeal of Trump. Theres almost certainly no one thing that Harris could have done to win on November 5. But the audio medium has been a dominant force in politics for as long as radios have been in homes. Which is why its so vexing that the Democrats seemed to miss it this cycle. FDR and Winston Churchill understood its power, but theres a better example from those early days. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Pappy ODaniel became the central force in Texas politics by riding his ultra-popular midday radio show into the Governors Mansion and then the United States Senate. The political sharps of the time doubted him: He was a political novice. And he was corrupt and ineffectual once he reached those posts. But he wasnt like other politicians. The voters felt they knew him. He came into their living room every day. So, he was theirs.

This year has ushered in a more robust return to the office, with companies across industries now putting an end to remote work for most employees. The likes of Amazon, UPS, and Boeing are now requiring workers to be in the office five days a week, along with several banks and finance companies. Walmart has required that corporate employees not only return to the office, but also relocate to the retail giants headquarters in Arkansas.These edicts have faced significant pushback from employees, some of whom have threatened to quit. Many workers have been frustrated by the loss of flexibility they enjoyed since the pandemic upended how we work. But another recurring complaint has been that companies often offer little explanationand notice, in some casesfor their decision to bring people back to the office.Its an issue that AJ Thomas often raises when she advises startups and other companies. Thomaswho was formerly the head of talent at Googles moonshot factory and continues to advise therehas worked across talent, product, and teams and now runs her own coaching firm. (She is also a CXO in residence at tech hiring platform A. Team and the founder of the venture capital fund, Good Trouble Ventures.) In an interview with Fast Company, Thomas talked about what companies are getting wrong with their messaging around RTO and what they should be considering before rolling out a strict in-office mandateincluding the impact on marginalized employees. This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.The return-to-office push is obviously not new. But there has been a change in the kinds of mandates were seeing, with companies asking people to come into the office full time. What do you make of this shift and the pushback companies have received from employees?Its now a pull, not a push. I think were actually focusing on the wrong thing. Its not about returning to the office. Its really about, What is the work youre returning to that requires for you to be in the office? In my time at the moonshot factory, we had robotics and hardware and experiments and wet labsand all of these spaces where we needed to have people come in.For me, its just, What is the job that is required? I dont think organizations have gotten really good at articulating that, which is why theyre getting the pushback. Companies [think], Well, this is the way that we need to work.My view on itadvising different CEOs, startups, and teams, and coaching individuals as theyre working through thisis really to just get crisp around the problem that theyre solving for. It has to be based around the principles of what that organization is trying to get done.The blanket messages really do a disservice. Companiesespecially HR leaders and the C-suitehave to get really good at personalizing the message and having it be both inclusive and accessible. Inclusivity, for me, means: Here are the principles by which we decided this. Here are the top priorities that we have. Based on these priorities, here are the skills and the areas in which we will need people either in office, remote, or hybrid. You create the infrastructure for that. And then you say, Okay, lets communicate this to make sure that people understand.Are there any companies that you think have articulated the rationale behind their return to office mandates more clearly?Roblox did a really great job in how they talked about bringing everybody back to the office. What they did was they said, Hey, look, this is our mandate. We want people to be co-located and in the office most of the time. Everybody who has moved outwe want to give you the option. If you want to relocate, we will pay for that. If you dont want to stay, we will give you two quarters to find a new role and then severance.They had a whole policy and a process to make sure it was an inclusive decision. What mattered to them was the culture they were trying to preserve. So it didnt become: Do it, or else. It was, Look, we need to do this. This is the goal. For us to be thoughtful about the workplace culture that were trying to put together, we have these options for you.You dont want somebody going in because they feel obligated to. [And] you dont want somebody because they have to. You want somebody because they want to. And the companies that I see doing this well are articulating the work.We have a sense of what is driving the decision to go back to the office full time. But it seems like a real risk, especially for companies that are trying to retain top performers or employees who need more flexibility. What do you think could be the impact of these mandates?As an employee, you will weed out if its right for you. And as an employer, you will weed out if you actually have people who are just staying and quitting[people who say,] Okay, I need the paycheck, so Im coming back five days a week.Somethings going to giveand whats going to give is performance. Theres going to be a dip in performance because of the mental health toll and physical [and] emotional toll that employees are going through. And you will run the risk of top performers maybe leaving because thats not what they want. You want to look at the design of your system. What is the data? If [of] the top 10% of the company, 8% already work remotely, theres probably something there. [If your] policy is saying they need to come back to the office five days a week, that doesnt quite match.A broad brush policyeverybody comes back or else were going to track all your badgingjust instills fear thats unnecessary. As an organization, I have to cater to the persona of my customer. My customer is the employee waking up every day, choosing my company to do the work I need [them] to do. So I think we need to think about that organizationally as people leaders. We always say that people are the largest bottom-line cost and expense that we have. But they are also our customers.What do you think is being left out of the conversation around return-to-work mandates?The thing that we are not focusing on enough is the part of the population that now had accessibility to this flexibility because of the pandemic. Folks who are differently abled [who] thrive in a virtual environment. Working moms or single working parents who have to juggle many different things.I just dont think weve had enough dialogue around: What are the new ways in which work happens? Because we are now more aware that people actually have lives outside of work. Who are the most marginalized employees when it comes to this kind of policy? What are their needs, and how do you design for that?Is there any other advice you would give to companies that are looking to bring employees back into the office full time?Is return to office really the problem youre solving for? Or is it high performance? Because those are two different things. If its just return to office, youre going to be okay with getting 100% return to office but a 52% engagement rate. But if it is about high performance, then youre going to redesign your systems to get to whatever that goal is. If you care about return to office? You can get an outcome of a return to office, but you [will] get a totally different barometer of impact if youre not clear on what youre incentivizing.Ill leave you with this. Thinking about culture as a product: In the tech space, as an analog, there is usually a tech stack youre working with. Theres an operating system, an application layer, and a feature layer. If you think about these layers, the operating system is analog to your mission, vision, and values as an organization. The application layer are the teams that need to execute to make the operating system come to life, and the features are things like RTO, policies, revenue, OKRs, etc. I find most of the great teams debug at the operating-system layer. If youre just going in and tacking another feature on top of a broken operating system, then your application layer is going to be screwed 100% of the time because the teams arent going to understand what command to execute on. We just [have to] debug at that operating-system layer.

Mid-century modern and traditional Japanese influences blend inside this Los Angeles home, which the principals of design studio OWIU have reimagined for themselves.Close to Silverlake Reservoir on the east side of the city, the house was originally built in 1962 by renowned mid-century architect Carl Maston, then later owned and re-designed by Swiss architect Pierre de Meuron.OWIU's renovation of the mid-century home involved incorporating several Japanese design elementsThe property was sold to OWIU principals Joel Wong and Amanda Gunawan by de Meuron's son, and the duo set about restoring the building while tailoring elements to their tastes."For Wong and Gunawan, it was a symbolic opportunity to extend the legacy of the home," said a statement from the studio.Shoji screens were installed throughout the home, while the original brick floors were retainedThe couple retained structural elements like the brick flooring across the ground floor and left the basic layout relatively untouched.However, they imbued the spaces with Japanese design elements similar to those typically found in traditional ryokans, or inns to create a sense of tranquillity within the city.Akari lamps suspended above the dining table create an intimate gathering space"A home shouldn't energetically spark you," said Gunawan. "It should be a place for meditation. You come home to recharge, re-balance."For instance, floor-to-ceiling sliding shoji screens were installed across both floors to offer options for partitioning the spaces and enabling privacy.OWIU added a custom kiln-dried Douglas fir platform at the base of the staircaseThe light-filled living area enjoys a double-height ceiling and is furnished with a mix of contemporary and mid-century pieces including a Le Corbusier LC4 chair.A mezzanine over the dining area creates a more intimate space that's warmed by Akari lamps over the wooden table.The rooms upstairs are equally bright, open and calmingOWIU added a custom kiln-dried Douglas fir platform at the base of the staircase "to remind the guests they are 'ascending' into a more intimate space" and also installed a bespoke console to fit the curve of the landing.The rooms upstairs are equally bright and open, with white walls, wood furniture and flooring, and pale linen fabrics all used for their calming qualities.Read: OWIU creates tranquil environment in mid-century LA homeDespite being in the centre of Silverlake, the home is surrounded by greenery and feels relatively secluded, according to OWIU.The connection to the outdoors is enhanced by large windows that face the lush foliage, breaking up the weathered timber facades.OWIU extended the building with a wellness centre"I never understood why we needed to leave town or go far away to feel we're in nature," Gunawan said. "I love that we can build a home that brings the feeling of retreat and peace to my everyday life."She and Wong also built a glass-wrapped extension that houses a wellness centre with a sauna and cold plunge tub for rejuvenation and meditation.The house in Silverlake was originally built by mid-century architect Carl Maston, then later owned and re-designed by Swiss architect Pierre de MeuronThis isn't the first time OWIU has looked to traditional Japanese inns for references for their projects in LA.The studio previously took a similar approach when renovating another mid-century home as well as an apartment in an old biscuit factory both times adding Japanese design elements to the spaces.The photography is by Justin Chung.The post Japanese ryokans inform OWIU's renovation of Duane House in LA appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen School Shows: furniture which is specifically designed to suit the needs of women's bodies is included in this school show by students at Instituto Tecnolgico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey.Also included is a musical tool designed for visually impaired people and ceramic condiment holders inspired by Mexican culture.Instituto Tecnolgico y de Estudios Superiores de MonterreyInstitution: Tecnologico de MonterreySchool: Architecture, Art and Design (EAAD)Course: Horizontes 2024Tutors: Professors of Tecnolgico de MonterreySchool statement:"EAAD is conformed by students all over the country at Tec de Monterrey Institution and it focuses on training professionals capable of facing contemporary challenges in these fields through innovation, creativity and sustainability, by supporting the students' initiatives and giving visibility to their work."Since the founding of our school, it has been a member of prestigious organisations such as the International Association of Universities and Colleges of Art, Design and Media (CUMULUS), the World Design Organisation (WDO), the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), UN-Habitat and the Association of Institutions of Architectural Education of the Mexican Republic (ASINEA) and it has stood at the top 50 according to the QS World University Ranking by Subject, 2024."Each exhibition showcases the best projects created by design students. All the selected projects stand out for their high conceptual and execution quality, as well as their alignment with the principles and DNA of the Tecnolgico de Monterrey School of Design."Every end of the semester our students put on a final exhibition on each of their campuses. This is a small sample of ten of the most significant collections and projects of the Tecnologico de Monterrey School of Design."Acobijo by Airam Ruelas"Designed to help those who keep culinary traditions alive, 'acobijo' is born from the feeling of security of the kitchen of our childhood home, which nourished us body and soul."It consists of a molcajete and a mill, limiting the movement of the wrists to avoid pain and reduce wear and tear in the area."Winner, Sustainable Category CEM."Student: Airam RuelasCourses: Thinking and Creative Process, Specification of Products and Services, Design and InnovationTutors: Mariana Sols, Joel Olgun, Laura Nino, Raymundo Acosta and Christian GmezMachila by Emilano Snchez"Machilia is a set of ceramic condiment holders inspired by the street cuisine of Mexico, which seeks to reflect the vitality of food stalls and the values related to food as a collective action in our culture."This family of products consists of a salt shaker, a pepper shaker, a bowl and a sauce boat."Home Category Winner CEM."Student: Emilano SnchezCourse: Product Family Design, Modularity and Optimisation and Extended ExperienceTutors: Montserrat Castan, Liliana Ovalle and Leticia GatynMusic. All by Nimbe Ruis"Music, a universal language except when it comes to studying it."Music. An inclusive tool for people with visual disabilities, it uses potentiometers that simulate the staff and emits musical notes."Thus, with a raised score, users identify and memorise notes by touch and reproduce them in music."Winner, Emotions Category CEM."Student: Nimbe RuisCourse: Integral Project: Design and Emerging TechnologiesTutors: Lobsanth Ortega and Ricardo EspinosaFmina 01 by Valentina Gonzlez"Fmina 01 is furniture designed in line with anthropometric measurements of Mexican women, criticising androcentric standardisation in design."Its reversible seat allows the user to choose the side that best suits their body."The reddish tones symbolise strength and hope, promoting dialogue about the role of women in design."Winner, Entrepreneurship Category CEM."Student: Valentina GonzlezCourse: Integral Project: Development of Strategic Design ProjectsTutors: Andrea Pazos and Manuel LpezEntropa by Brenda Lee, Ana Hernndez, Paola Zarate and Sebastin Arroyo"Entropy is a machine that generates patterns based on human interaction, representing the chaos in migrant life."It has three moments: the migrant's routine, the trigger of migration (user's interaction) and the chaos after the loss of everyday life."It reflects the experience of Angie, a Colombian migrant in Mexico, seeking to generate empathy."Winner, Social Category and Honour Category CCM."Students: Brenda Lee, Ana Hernndez, Paola Zarate and Sebastin ArroyoCourse: Form, function, sense and valueTutors: Jos de La O, Pier Paolo Peruccio and Oscar MirandaSilvestre by Valeria Casas"Inspired by an iconic and mystical plant from Mexican culture, the cactus."The shape resembles the thin and asymmetrical arms of this plant, seeking stylisation and elegance."Student: Valeria CasasCourse: Concentration of art, object and fashionTutors: Ayrton Miranda, Zita Gonzlez, Claudia Kleemann, Alejandro Diaz and Cristina RoblesDualidad by Monica Isobel Lemus"Duality is a unique vase that creates a fascinating optical illusion focused on the flower and its beauty."With a minimalist and elegant design, this vase features a mirror strategically placed behind the flower, giving the impression that there is an additional flower floating in space and allowing different angles of the flower to be seen from a single position."This visual effect delights the eye, transforming any space into a scene of beauty and mystery."Student: Monica Isobel LemusCourse: Workshop: plant-basedTutors: Henry Julier and Jorge Diego EtienneHihamt by Ana Sofa Valenzuela Hernndez, Ana Sofa Yeomans Molina, Victoria Moreno Cruz and Carla Paulina Fuentes Hernndez"Hihamt arises from the need to create a fun educational resource for children and young people to learn Cmiique iitom, promoting interest in their native language and preserving the language."Inspired by the natural resources of Punta Chueca and the Comca'ac calendar, the board game incorporates elements such as the sea, sand, sky and stars."Students: Ana Sofa Valenzuela Hernndez, Ana Sofa Yeomans Molina, Victoria Moreno Cruz and Carla Paulina Fuentes HernndezCourse: Form, Function, Sense and ValueTutors: Hugo Martnez, Ren Corella, Edgar Ludert, Luis Franco, Jaime Solorzano and Diana JimnezGr by Bruno Daz, Diego Carrillo and Joshwa Gutirrez"Gr is a modular system for people with physical and cognitive disabilities, implemented in the New World IAP."It optimises ergonomics and efficiency in greenhouses for heavy use, with trays that make cleaning and transporting plants easier."Its adaptable structure allows for efficient material handling, prioritising accessibility."Outstanding Winner QRO."Students: Bruno Daz, Diego Carrillo and Joshwa GutirrezCourse: Form, Function, Sense and ValueTutors: Ayca Kinik, Francisco Martnez, Luis Cordoba and Mario MartnezEntrelazos by Ximena Monroy, Michelle Daz and Juan Carlos Rodrguez"Entrelazos transforms the painting experience into a three-dimensional game with moving beads and curved tubular structures."This playful furniture allows unlimited combinations, stimulating the creativity and motor development of childhood, evoking the freedom and fluidity of the stroke when painting, and encouraging free play and exploration.""Outstanding Winner CCM."Students: Ximena Monroy, Michelle Daz and Juan Carlos RodrguezCourses: Thinking and Creative Process, Specification of Products and Services, Design and Innovation (CCM)Tutors: Gerado Osio, Daniel Zuita, Marcelo Ramrez, Hilda Varela, Yuruen Lerma, Romain Roy-Point and Alberto MendozaPartnership contentThis school show is a partnership between Dezeen and Instituto Tecnolgico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.The post Ten student design projects from Instituto Tecnolgico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey appeared first on Dezeen.