The WitcherCredit: CDPRI was surprised to see The Witcher 4 open this years Game Awards ceremony. The trailer for the upcoming game from Polish studio CD Projekt Red was both unexpected and exciting. But I admit to having some mixed feelings about several aspects of the trailer and the implications of Ciri as the next games protagonist. Indeed, Ciri will be the protagonist of the next three games, starring in her very own trilogy.First, theres the bizarre new look for the character. She just doesnt look at all like Ciri from The Witcher 3. Its not just that shes older. Her entire bone structure has changed. Her face looks different and her voice has changed far more than mere aging would dictate. (While Doug Cockle returns as the voice of Geralt, Jo Wyatt is not returning as Cirimores the pity). So while I think she still looks fine and sounds fine, its a radical and jarring enough transformation that if I didnt have the scar to go by, I wouldnt know she was the same character at all.This brings up perhaps an even more important issue with The Witcher 4. Should Ciri even be the main playable character in a series about Witchers? Theres much debate over whether she is or isnt an actual Witcher, for one thing. Following the release of the trailer, however, CDPR confirmed that in this version of the story Ciri has taken Trial of Grasses, giving her the mutations necessary to drink potions and have her eyes change like that. Its possible she went to a different school than Geralt (Wolf) such as the school of the Lynx.Frankly, Im okay with Ciri having somehow become a full-blown Witcher even if it breaks lore, because I can accept the games are and always have been different from the books. But what does this mean for Ciris own magical powers? She has the Elder Blood in her, which is one reason she couldnt take the Trials (the other being shes a woman, and Witchers are always men). Has she lost her powers? The trailer indicates that she has at least some of them, but surely this also shows us a huge downgrade from where she was at the end of The Witcher 3.A Ciri game where she traveled through space and time, had teleportation powers and other abilities, could be really cool on its own, but it wouldnt really be a game about a monster-hunting mutant Witcher, either.MORE FOR YOUWhat Ive been hoping for since The Witcher 2 was a fully customizable Witcher that players could build from the ground up. Again, Id be more than happy to bend lore and make this a male or female character that players could choose and then customize the appearance, voice, etc. This would add greatly to our roleplaying options. That being said, CDPR seems to realize that players want room to shape their own character, and since Ciri is at the start of her Witcher journeyas opposed to Geralt, who was already a veteran monster hunterplayers will have more opportunities to be able to feel that they define their experience.The other issue with having Ciri as the protagonist is the timeline. A lot of people were hoping for a new timeline entirely, set either much earlier or later than Geralts story. (And some gamers were just upset Geralt wasnt the lead, but his story was told and CDPR has said for years that he wasnt returning as the hero).Still, when all is said and done I really like Ciri as a character and I think this could be a great game. The trailer is dark and exciting, and even though that last lineThere are no gods here, only monstersis super derivative of the debut Witcher 3 trailerWhat are you doing? Killing monstersit nevertheless has me excited to play. Sometime in 2028 or whenever it finally releases.P.S. People have noted that Geralt in this cinematic trailer didnt look exactly like Geralt in The Witcher 3, so its possible Ciri will follow suit. I dont think this is a very good argument. For one thing, he looked pretty close. For another, you only barely see his face the entire time, whereas you see lots and lots of Ciris in The Witcher 4 trailer.The other argument Ive heard about appearances is that Geralt also changed from game to game. This is certainly true:The WitcherCredit: CDPRBut this was also done because A) technology changed radically between each game, and CDPRs budget and experience grew along with it and B) they made Geralt look more attractive with each game. I dont think theyve made Ciri look more attractive or higher fidelity. She just looks different. Almost unrecognizably different.I think a bit of skepticism is warranted in this day and age of video games and the oft-strange choices developers have been making. Compound that with CDPRs failed launch of Cyberpunk 2077 and Id say it makes sense to be cautious. All that being said, Im still cautiously optimistic. Whatever changes have occurred at the studio, CDPRs track record is still mostly great and this remains one of my favorite fantasy universes. If nothing else, this trailer has made me want to fire up The Witcher 3 again.Of course, if CDPR screws up again gamers might not be so lenient. As Geralt once said: Youd better pay up, or the invisible hand of the market will smack you so hard you wont sit down for a week.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim Score DetailsThe Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is a slight, surprisingly flat prequel that will likely only win over die-hard Tolkien fans.ProsA likable leadBrian Cox's voice performance as Helm HammerhandVisually impressive, expansive animation throughoutConsA by-the-numbers scriptMultiple distracting Easter eggs and referencesUnderdeveloped villainsIn terms of desperate attempts to keep beloved franchises going, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is one of the most ingenious thats come along in recent memory. The new film, which is set around 200 years before the start of The Fellowship of the Ring, is based on an event that Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien wrote about in the appendices of his original trilogy. Its story includes multiple battles and explores the history of Rohan, a kingdom anyone familiar with Tolkiens novels or director Peter Jacksons movies should remember. It is, additionally, a big-screen anime adventure that has the potential to drastically and excitingly expand the Lord of the Rings franchises multimedia scope.Recommended VideosAll of which is to say that The War of the Rohirrim seems, on paper at least, like the answer to all the problems that Warner Bros. has run into while trying to keep its Lord of the Rings film franchise alive, most of which stem from a shortage of existing narrative material. At first glance, it doesnt seem like the kind of franchise spinoff that requires extracurricular homework or is stuck suffocatingly in the shadow of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, either. Both of those assumptions are thankfully true of The War of the Rohirrim, though the film does shoehorn in more unnecessary Easter eggs and references than even die-hard Tolkien fans may see coming. Unfortunately, The War of the Rohirrim lacks both the magic and the affecting grandeur necessary to bring its alluring fantasy world to life with sufficient vibrancy. It is a strangely and surprisingly lackluster epic.Warner Bros. PicturesDirected by longtime Japanese animation director Kenji Kamiyama, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim begins in a time of tenuous peace in Middle-earth. It follows Hra (Gaia Wise), the wild and strong daughter of Helm Hammerhand (Succession star Brian Cox), the mighty reigning king of Rohan. Helms hold on his kingdom and its people is tested early in The War of the Rohirrim by Freca (Shaun Dooley), a rich lord of a neighboring region who demands that Helm marry Hra to his son Wulf (Luke Pasqualino) rather than a lord of the nearby Gondor or any other land. When Helm refuses, he and Freca come to blows in a brutal confrontation that sets the stage for the vengeance-fueled war between Rohan and Wulf that encompasses The War of the Rohirrims final two-thirds.RelatedThis story is well-known among Tolkien obsessives, but it is around Helm himself or his valiant nephew Fralf (Laurence Ubong Williams) that The War of the Rohirrims military conflict is usually centered. In this case, the film finds a unique way into its story through Hra, an Amazonian figure of fierce intelligence and courage so clearly drawn in the image of future Rohan noblewoman and warrior owyn (Miranda Otto) that The War of the Rohirrim is actually narrated by Otto herself. The present but unspoken parallels between owyn and Hras stories prove to be the films most effective and powerful attempts to connect its plot to the events of the War of the Ring. Other crossover efforts, like a brief run-in with a pair of ring-hunting Orcs sent from Mordor and a couple of last-minute name-drops, are less successful.Warner Bros. PicturesThe War of the Rohirrim sticks pretty close to Tolkiens original, truncated retelling of its story. What original material it creates is done in the service of fleshing out Hra, who emerges across the films 134-minute runtime as a figure who feels both strikingly modern and timeless in a way that makes her a fascinating and welcome compatriot to the other heroines, like owyn, whom Tolkien included in his fictional world. The movie, however, struggles to create the same depth that it does in Hra in nearly all of its other characters, including Freca and Wulf, two villains who remain frustratingly underdeveloped. Olwyn (Lorraine Ashbourne), a shieldmaiden and friend to Hra, stands out less because of what is revealed about her and more because of what is implied. Coxs commanding vocal performance as Helm, meanwhile, gives the kind of weight to his characters ferocity and short-sightedness that The War of the Rohirrims screenplay fails to convey on its own.Warner Bros. PicturesKamiyama is no stranger to franchise filmmaking, having previously worked on Blade Runner: Black Lotus and directed the best episode of Star Wars: Visionsvolume 1. He has a hard time nonetheless making The War of the Rohirrim feel like a worthwhile companion piece to Peter Jacksons live-action Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films. The new movie feels almost slavishly devoted to the look and designs of Jacksons Tolkien adaptations, but no matter how detailed and stunning its animated frames often are, The War of the Rohirrim never manages to fully recapture the magic of Jacksons Middle-earth.Much like The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, The War of the Rohirrim fails to realize that the lived-in, tangible quality of Jacksons original, live-action take on Middle-earth is why it feels so real and inviting in his Lord of the Rings films. The War of the Rohirrim may cover why the Rohan fortress of Helms Deep receives its name and reputation, but none of the scenes set there come close to matching the visual beauty of those in 2002s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim | Extended Sneak PreviewFrom its aesthetic to its sometimes lethargic pace, The War of the Rohirrim remains unwaveringly committed throughout its runtime to moving and looking simply like an animated version of a Jackson-directed Tolkien film. In doing so, it fails to really explore the stylistic and structural opportunities of its animated form. Its pace could have been faster, editing more experimental, and action more stylized and in-your-face. The Lord of the Rings prequel is made with a kind of rigid formalism, though, which prevents it from ever becoming its own, unique experience. It comes across, instead, like a less vibrant and immersive version of something viewers have already seen done better before.Warner Bros. PicturesThe Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is far from the worst bit of franchise expansion that Hollywood has produced over the past 10 years. Its obvious attention to detail and faithfulness to its parent films will, in fact, likely make it a more than satisfactory experience for all the Lord of the Rings fans out there who are just desperate to return to Middle-earth on the big screen. For everyone else, though, The War of the Rohirrim doesnt have anything truly new or memorable to offer. Its a fantasy adventure that never really gets going or builds enough power and wonder to leap off the page and screen the same way that J.R.R. Tolkiens original stories and Peter Jacksons feature adaptations have continued to for decades now.The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is now playing in theaters.Editors Recommendations

The slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe Twirling body horror in gymnastics video exposes AIs flaws Nonsensical jabberwocky movements created by OpenAIs Sora are typical for current AI-generated video, and here's why. Benj Edwards Dec 13, 2024 9:12 am | 129 A still image from an AI-generated video of an ever-morphing synthetic gymnast. Credit: OpenAI / Deedy A still image from an AI-generated video of an ever-morphing synthetic gymnast. Credit: OpenAI / Deedy Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreOn Wednesday, a video from OpenAI's newly launched Sora AI video generator went viral on social media, featuring a gymnast who sprouts extra limbs and briefly loses her head during what appears to be an Olympic-style floor routine.As it turns out, the nonsensical synthesis errors in the videowhat we like to call "jabberwockies"hint at technical details about how AI video generators work and how they might get better in the future.But before we dig into the details, let's take a look at the video. An AI-generated video of an impossible gymnast, created with OpenAI Sora. In the video, we see a view of what looks like a floor gymnastics routine. The subject of the video flips and flails as new legs and arms rapidly and fluidly emerge and morph out of her twirling and transforming body. At one point, about 9 seconds in, she loses her head, and it reattaches to her body spontaneously."As cool as the new Sora is, gymnastics is still very much the Turing test for AI video," wrote venture capitalist Deedy Das when he originally shared the video on X. The video inspired plenty of reaction jokes, such as this reply to a similar post on Bluesky: "hi, gymnastics expert here! this is not funny, gymnasts only do this when theyre in extreme distress."We reached out to Das, and he confirmed that he generated the video using Sora. He also provided the prompt, which was very long and split into four parts, generated by Anthropic's Claude, using complex instructions like "The gymnast initiates from the back right corner, taking position with her right foot pointed behind in B-plus stance.""I've known for the last 6 months having played with text to video models that they struggle with complex physics movements like gymnastics," Das told us in a conversation. "I had to try it [in Sora] because the character consistency seemed improved. Overall, it was an improvement because previously... the gymnast would just teleport away or change their outfit mid flip, but overall it still looks downright horrifying. We hoped AI video would learn physics by default, but that hasn't happened yet!"So what went wrong?When examining how the video fails, you must first consider how Sora "knows" how to create anything that resembles a gymnastics routine. During the training phase, when the Sora model was created, OpenAI fed example videos of gymnastics routines (among many other types of videos) into a specialized neural network that associates the progression of images with text-based descriptions of them.That type of training is a distinct phase that happens once before the model's release. Later, when the finished model is running and you give a video-synthesis model like Sora a written prompt, it draws upon statistical associations between words and images to produce a predictive output. It's continuously making next-frame predictions based on the last frame of the video. But Sora has another trick for attempting to preserve coherency over time. "By giving the model foresight of many frames at a time," reads OpenAI's Sora System Card, we've solved a challenging problem of making sure a subject stays the same even when it goes out of view temporarily." A still image from a moment where the AI-generated gymnast loses her head. It soon reattaches to her body. Credit: OpenAI / Deedy Maybe not quite solved yet. In this case, rapidly moving limbs prove a particular challenge when attempting to predict the next frame properly. The result is an incoherent amalgam of gymnastics footage that shows the same gymnast performing running flips and spins, but Sora doesn't know the correct order in which to assemble them because it's pulling on statistical averages of wildly different body movements in its relatively limited training data of gymnastics videos, which also likely did not include limb-level precision in its descriptive metadata.Sora doesn't know anything about physics or how the human body should work, either. It's drawing upon statistical associations between pixels in the videos in its training dataset to predict the next frame, with a little bit of look-ahead to keep things more consistent.This problem is not unique to Sora. All AI video generators can produce wildly nonsensical results when your prompts reach too far past their training data, as we saw earlier this year when testing Runway's Gen-3. In fact, we ran some gymnast prompts through the latest open source AI video model that may rival Sora in some ways, Hunyuan Video, and it produced similar twirling, morphing results, seen below. And we used a much simpler prompt than Das did with Sora. An example from open source Chinese AI model Hunyuan Video with the prompt, "A young woman doing a complex floor gymnastics routine at the olympics, featuring running and flips." AI models based on transformer technology are fundamentally imitative in nature. They're great at transforming one type of data into another type or morphing one style into another. What they're not great at (yet) is producing coherent generations that are truly original. So if you happen to provide a prompt that closely matches a training video, you might get a good result. Otherwise, you may get madness.As we wrote about image-synthesis model Stable Diffusion 3's body horror generations earlier this year, "Basically, any time a user prompt homes in on a concept that isn't represented well in the AI model's training dataset, the image-synthesis model will confabulate its best interpretation of what the user is asking for. And sometimes that can be completely terrifying."For the engineers who make these models, success in AI video generation quickly becomes a question of how many examples (and how much training) you need before the model can generalize enough to produce convincing and coherent results. It's also a question of metadata qualityhow accurately the videos are labeled. In this case, OpenAI used an AI vision model to describe its training videos, which helped improve quality, but apparently not enoughyet.Were looking at an AI jabberwocky in actionIn a way, the type of generation failure in the gymnast video is a form of confabulation (or hallucination, as some call it), but it's even worse because it's not coherent. So instead of calling it a confabulation, which is a plausible-sounding fabrication, we're going to lean on a new term, "jabberwocky," which Dictionary.com defines as "a playful imitation of language consisting of invented, meaningless words; nonsense; gibberish," taken from Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem of the same name. Imitation and nonsense, you say? Check and check.We've covered jabberwockies in AI video before with people mocking Chinese video-synthesis models, a monstrously weird AI beer commercial, and even Will Smith eating spaghetti. They're a form of misconfabulation where an AI model completely fails to produce a plausible output. This will not be the last time we see them, either.How could AI video models get better and avoid jabberwockies?In our coverage of Gen-3 Alpha, we called the threshold where you get a level of useful generalization in an AI model the "illusion of understanding," where training data and training time reach a critical mass that produces good enough results to generalize across enough novel prompts.One of the key reasons language models like OpenAI's GPT-4 impressed users was that they finally reached a size where they had absorbed enough information to give the appearance of genuinely understanding the world. With video synthesis, achieving this same apparent level of "understanding" will require not just massive amounts of well-labeled training data but also the computational power to process it effectively.AI boosters hope that these current models represent one of the key steps on the way to something like truly general intelligence (often called AGI) in text, or in AI video, what OpenAI and Runway researchers call "world simulators" or "world models" that somehow encode enough physics rules about the world to produce any realistic result.Judging by the morphing alien shoggoth gymnast, that may still be a ways off. Still, it's early days in AI video generation, and judging by how quickly AI image-synthesis models like Midjourney progressed from crude abstract shapes into coherent imagery, it's likely video synthesis will have a similar trajectory over time. Until then, enjoy the AI-generated jabberwocky madness.Benj EdwardsSenior AI ReporterBenj EdwardsSenior AI Reporter Benj Edwards is Ars Technica's Senior AI Reporter and founder of the site's dedicated AI beat in 2022. He's also a tech historian with almost two decades of experience. In his free time, he writes and records music, collects vintage computers, and enjoys nature. He lives in Raleigh, NC. 129 Comments

World record Americans spend more years being unhealthy than people in any other country The gap between US lifespan and healthspan was 12.4 years, the world's largest. Beth Mole Dec 13, 2024 8:19 am | 196 Credit: Getty | Blend Images - JGI/Tom Grill Credit: Getty | Blend Images - JGI/Tom Grill Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreThe gap of time between how long Americans live and how much of that time is spent in good health only grew wider in the last two decades, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open.The study, which looked at global health data between 2000 and 2019prior to the COVID-19 pandemicfound the US stood out for its years of suffering. By 2019, Americans had a gap between their lifespan and their healthspan of 12.4 years, the largest gap of any of the 183 countries included in the study. The second largest gap was Australia's, at 12.1 years, followed by New Zealand at 11.8 years and the UK at 11.3 years.America also stood out for having the largest burden of noncommunicable diseases in the world, as calculated by the years lived with disease or disability per 100,000 people.The news is perhaps not shocking given the relatively poor quality of health care in the US. An analysis published in January by the Commonwealth Fund found that, compared to other high-income countries, the US has the highest rate of adults with multiple chronic conditions, and the highest rate of obesity. Among just those high-income countries, the US also has the shortest life expectancy at birth, the highest rate of avoidable deaths, the highest rate of newborn deaths, and the highest rate of maternal deaths. Thats all despite the fact that the US spends far more on health care than any other high-income country.For the new study, researchers at the Mayo Clinic analyzed health statistics collected by the World Health Organization. The resource included data from 183 countries, allowing the researchers to compare countries' life expectancy and healthspans, which are calculated by years of life weighted by health status.Longer, but not betterOverall, the researchers saw lifespan-healthspan gaps grow around the world, with the average gap rising from 8.5 years in 2000 to 9.6 years in 2019. Global life expectancy rose 6.5 years, to about 73 years, while healthspans only rose 5.4 years in that time, to around 63 years.But the US was a notable outlier, with its gap growing from 10.9 years to 12.4 years, a 29 percent higher gap than the global mean.The gap was most notable for womena trend seen around the world. Between 2000 and 2019, US women saw their life expectancy rise 1.5 years, from 79.2 to 80.7 years, but they saw no change in their healthspans. Women's lifespan-healthspan gap rose from 12.2 years to 13.7 years. For US men, life expectancy rose 2.2 years, from 74.1 to 76.3 years, and their healthspans also increased 0.6 years. Their lifespan-healthspan gap in 2019 was 11.1 years, 2.6 years shorter than women's.The conditions most responsible for US disease burden included mental and substance use disorders, plus musculoskeletal diseases. For women, the biggest contributors were musculoskeletal, genitourinary, and neurological diseases.While the US presented the most extreme example, the researchers note that the global trends seem to present a "disease paradox whereby reduced acute mortality exposes survivors to an increased burden of chronic disease."Beth MoleSenior Health ReporterBeth MoleSenior Health Reporter Beth is Ars Technicas Senior Health Reporter. Beth has a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and attended the Science Communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She specializes in covering infectious diseases, public health, and microbes. 196 Comments

Montana contractors are struggling to hire due to a construction labor shortage.Many contractors say they are actively recruiting Gen Z to get more young people into trades.Some firms have apprenticeship programs that help young workers learn on the job.Although Montana's population has grown considerably in recent years, it's facing worker shortages in several trades, according to a September report from the Montana Department of Labor and Industry.Construction and healthcare were identified by Sarah Swanson, the department commissioner, as industries that would "need considerably more employees between now and 2032."Contractors say that although demand for construction in Montana is strong, they can't hire enough people to keep up with all the potential work.Now some Montana contractors are investing in recruiting efforts to attract more workers to the field, including by launching educational and apprenticeship programs and visiting high schools to encourage Gen Zers to consider construction as a career."We're trying to prove and show that these hands-on careers do have value," Bill Ryan, the education coordinator at Dick Anderson Construction, one of the largest contractors in Montana, told Business Insider. "The tide is turning a little bit," he said. "We're starting to see more Gen Z consider going into trades."Contractors are raising wages to attract workersThe construction labor shortage is not just hitting Montana, putting added pressure on contractors trying to hire.Brian Turmail, the vice president of public affairs and workforce at the Associated General Contractors of America, told BI contractors around the US are struggling to fill roles.AGC's annual workforce survey released in December found 94% of contractors said they had openings that were difficult to fill.Ken Simonson, the chief economist at AGC, told BI that the number of workers in construction in Montana grew by 7% year-over-year as of October, compared to 3% growth nationally. Even as the sector is growing in the state, there's still more roles to fill.Turmail said one factor driving the shortage is not unique to construction: an aging workforce. "We just have a lot of people hanging up the tool belts and moving off to Florida to retire," he said.He said there's also been about 40 years of federal government policy that focused on encouraging every student in America to go to college to get a four-year degree and work in the "knowledge economy." As a result, he said there's been underinvestment in vocational or technical training, and in turn fewer young people pursing trades.Some construction companies have tried to draw more people to the field with proactive recruiting efforts and higher wages including trying to attract workers from out of state. Montana has already lured a high number transplants in part due to a relatively lower cost of living, especially when compared to a state like California, where many have moved from.Ian Baylon, a tradesman from California, told BI earlier this year that when he visited Montana in 2022 and was considering moving there, he decided on a whim to see if anyone was hiring.When he reached out to a company about an opening, they quickly invited him in for an interview. A week later when he was back home, they offered him the job matching his Bay Area salary, plus moving costs and other perks.In Montana, wage growth in construction grew annually by an average of 0.6% from 2020 to 2023, according to the state government report, with an average salary of $67,386.Still, some say the growth in wages has not been enough to keep up with the rising costs of living in the state. An analysis by Construction Coverage, an industry site that reviews construction software and other services, found the average construction worker in Montana would need to work 68 hours a week to afford a median-priced home. Construction employment in Montana is growing faster than other states but contractors still can't fill all their open roles. Noah Clayton/Getty Images Apprenticeship programs allow young workers to 'earn and learn'Two of the largest contractors in Montana told BI that folks interested in getting into construction do not need any experience in the industry to get hired they can learn on the job.Representatives of both companies, Dick Anderson and Sletten Construction, said they also have dedicated apprenticeship programs that are a draw for new workers to the field, especially young people.Ryan, of Dick Anderson, said he was hired by the company in 2021 to develop an education program that would help attract and retain employees. The four-year apprenticeship program allows employees to work and earn while also enrolling in classes at a college they partner with. Students who complete the program can come out of it with an associates degree, real work experience, and actual earnings.While jobs in construction do not require an associates degree, Ryan said they can help with career advancement and promotions, as well as satisfy a desire to pursue some level of college."When we are talking to young people and mom and dad are saying, 'You're not going to work. You need to go to college,' we can at least say, 'Well, what if they're doing both at the same time?'"Michelle Cohens, who works in human resource management at Sletten, said the company also has a four-year apprenticeship program that allows employees to "earn and learn." Employees in the program also take a week several times a year to do trainings with the union, and then come back and hop right back into work.Both companies said they've developed relationships with high schools and high school educators to help reach young people, who they said seem increasingly open to forgoing college and considering trades.After several years of trying to get in front of students, Cohens said the efforts do seem to be paying off, with more reaching out about jobs. She said young people are drawn in by the chance to work with their hands rather than sit at a computer all day, and the chance to avoid taking on student loans."We highlight how good paying jobs they are, how you can get into the trades right out of high school or without any true knowledge," she said, adding, "You're not paying us to learn, we're paying you to learn."David Smith, executive director of the Montana Contractors' Association, said companies are also evolving their culture to meet Gen Z workers where they're at. Young people today, he said, don't necessarily want to work 55 hour weeks in the summer. They want breaks. They want to take time off.In the last five or ten years contractors have realized "you can't just throw a job out there and say, 'Hey, we pay big wages,'" he said. "You've got to have other things, and the construction world has to think differently too."Have a news tip or a story to share? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@businessinsider.com.

Are local co-op games back in vogue? (Hello Games)The team behind chaotic co-op title Overcooked announced their next project during The Game Awards, and it seems to take a few cues from Hazelights work.Were you aware that two split-screen co-op adventure games, designed specifically for two players, were announced at The Game Awards 2024 last night?The one with the most buzz was obviously Split Fiction, the latest project from It Takes Two creator Josef Fares and his team at Hazelight. Its name and release date had already leaked beforehand, but its reveal trailer promises a fun premise and unique mechanics for every level.But Ghost Town Games, the team behind chaotic co-op title Overcooked and its sequel, have been working on something relatively similar, albeit with more cartoonish, Luigis Mansion inspired presentation and British voice acting.Titled Stage Fright, its hard not to draw comparisons with Hazelights work, as Ghost Town Games describes their next project as an all new co-operative experience for two players that can be enjoyed locally or online.Publisher Hello Games (the same company behind No Mans Sky) even namedrops It Takes Two when describing how theres a clear market for such co-op centric games: Overcooked started a little resurgence, but there arent enough games you can play with friends. The huge success of Overcooked and It Takes Two shows that folks really crave them.We assume theyre referring to games you can play with friends locally. There are countless multiplayer games out there, but couch co-op has certainly become something of a lost art.If the trailer is anything to go by, Stage Fright will also make use of split-screen, as its child protagonists find themselves separated across two parallel worlds, where actions in one can impact the other.More TrendingAlthough you are limited to just two players, Stage Fright promises Overcooked-style chaotic moments as players make their way through escape room-esque challenges.When is Stage Fright being released?Currently, Stage Fright lacks any sort of release window, and its also only scheduled to launch on PC via Steam.If its anything like Overcooked, though, its bound to make the jump to consoles as well. It may even be in the works for the Nintendo Switch 2, since thats meant to be arriving in 2025, but time will tell if thats indeed the case. It seems the protagonists wont be separate throughout the entire adventure (Hello Games)Emailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.GameCentralExclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

The question of whether global warming is accelerating is hotly contested among climate scientists. While some have argued that the current rate of warming which hit an all-time high last year is strictly correlated with increased fossil fuel emissions and therefore aligned with current climate models, others have cautioned that the Earth is far more sensitive to fossil fuels than previously thought and that humanity is hurtling toward tipping points from which there can be no return. In a recent study, a group of researchers from the University of Melbourne complicated this debate with an analysis of warming rates across the globe and possible causes for regional differences. Their principal finding: The globe is getting hotter at a faster rate, but this acceleration is occurring unevenly. Surprisingly, densely populated areas with large concentrations of poverty megacities like Cairo and Mumbai are warming more slowly than urban centers in Europe and North America. Why? The researchers found that the large quantity of aerosol particles in the air of highly polluted cities reflect sunlight back out into space and, at least in the short term, can have a net cooling effect on populations. Its a brain-twister, said Edith de Guzman, an adaptation policy specialist at the University of California at Los Angeles Luskin Center for Innovation, who commended the researchers for their work. The authors of the paper emphasized that the finding should hardly be taken as a good sign. For one, its likely only temporary. And secondly, the protection, such as it is, only comes from harmful pollutants. De Guzman concurred, saying accelerated warming means that populations that are already grossly vulnerable to a variety of environmental and climate injustices will be more vulnerable. As countries develop economically, their governments tend to adopt policies to clean up pollution, and as the air clears, vulnerable populations will be at a high risk of dangerous heat exposure. Christopher Schwalm, the Risk Program Director at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, offered the example of China, where the government has begun to equip its coal-fired power plants with emissions reduction technologies like scrubbers, to prevent soot from escaping the facility. Such measures are good for the quality of the air, he said, but they will allow more heat from the sun to seep in. The hardest hit will be those without access to air conditioners and shaded areas. The poorer you are the hotter it gets, where heat is a metaphor for all forms of climate disruption, Schwalm said. Its really hard to do good for not doing bad. Schwalm explained that the scientific community has about three dozen highly sophisticated climate models that are collectively thought of as a panel of experts on the trajectory of global warming. He believes that examining accelerated warming is useful because it can help countries plan for climate adaptation measures and understand how realistic their current climate policy goals are or arent. Last year, the world blew past the emissions targets from 2015s Paris Agreement, and is on track to do the same this year. Scientists are increasingly vocal about the so-called death of the Paris Agreements commitment to keep the world below a temperature increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), in attempts to force policymakers to contend with the inevitability of worsening heat waves and extreme weather events to come. The authors of the Melbourne paper offer much-needed insight about what that future will look like and how nations should prepare: Their findings should encourage targeted climate adaptation strategies directed at the poorest urban communities around the world. This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/climate-energy/some-cities-are-so-polluted-theyre-warming-slower/.Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org.

At $700, the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus is one of the best-feeling Chromebooks you can buy this year. However, even with a quality screen, chassis, and feel, it lacks in some key areas. Ive enjoyed many of the new features introduced to Chromebooks in the last two years. But are these devices now the true AI laptops, thanks to Googles Gemini? No, of course not.Samsung Galaxy Chromebook PlusIt's a great Chromebook, but it lacks some features that will keep it from being your everything entertainment device. Buy on Samsung ProsConsI like a good Chromebook as much as anybody, and the Chromebook Plus models have largely been a solid upgrade for what are still ultra-cheap laptops. There are a few places where you can nab a Plus laptop for basic browsing, streaming, and potentially more intensive cloud-based tasks for around $350, like the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11. With its enterprise-level chassis, this device costs as much as the Asus ExpertBook CX54 Chromebook Plus. Samsungs device is also the first Chromebook to use the new Quick Access Key (right where you find your Caps Lock button). The quick access to Gemini AI certainly isnt worth the extra cost, so what is?What the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus has going for it is a great feel, from the chassis to the I/O port selection down to the spacious keyboard. Its so thin; one PR rep for Google was happy to show how the new Galaxy Chromebook Plus was as thick as two graded Pokmon cards. Its a very specific metric, to be sure, but at 11.8 mm thin, theres no bag or crack in the wall it wont fit into.It has a solid battery life that lasts a little more than 10 hours after periodic use. The Samsung-brand Chromebook also packs a quality near-16-inch AMOLED display that feels luxuriously wide. That, plus the keyboard with full numpad and HDMI port with a solid selection of I/O, makes it a great all-rounder. It also comes with 256GB of storage for your content outside the cloud, more than you normally get elsewhere. Performance on the Intel Core 3 chip is where you need it to be with such a common Chromebook CPU. At the same time, it has a minimum of 8GB of RAM to qualify for Chromebook Plus status.However, without a touchscreen or any other noticeable features, save for the thin chassis, theres not much about this Chromebook that excites me to recommend it for $700. You cant get much better if you want a solid Chromebook and dont care about cost.Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus Review: Build Quality and Usability Photo: Kyle Barr / GizmodoThe Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus sits in a .47-inch tall body and weighs 2.58 pounds. Yes, its light, damn light, but better than that, it still feels solid. The chassis does have some bend toward the center (not nearly as bad as the Acer Swift 16 AI), especially around the palm rest. Otherwise, the laptop feels premium, and you have the extra benefit of the pleasing deep blue color for the cover. The only issue is that the device tends to shine with your greasy fingers and palms, requiring regular wiping. Theres also the extra benefit of plenty of I/O ports, including two USB-C, a USB type A, HDMI, and a micro-SD card slot.See Galaxy Chromebook Plus at SamsungThe keyboard and trackpad feel just about right. The thin keys arent too stiff, though they still have a clacky feeling without being squishy. The clickpad-type trackpad has a smooth texture, although not as fine as a glass surface. I only had a few instances of palm rejection issues, but not enough to be concerning for long-term use. Overall, its just very standard, especially since you dont get a touchscreen on this model.After that, its all down to the ChromeOS software. Easily, my favorite part of the latest updates is the Welcome Recap. It loads every time you restart your Chromebook, allowing you to see what you were most recently working on, alongside little widgets for your Calendar, Weather, and Docs. As for the Quick Insert key, I only used it to text emojis or for quick access to GIFs to send to coworkers in Slack. Thats plenty useful for the memelords, but not much else.After using it for a week, I loved the new Focus features. You can set it to time out your focus tasks, reducing pop-ups and other distractions. You can enable it with YouTube Music, but theres a small selection of Focus Sounds to listen to instead. There are tracks to emulate a thunderstorm, with rain pattering on an invisible roof, or you could choose the classical track to serenade yourself with soft strings and brass as you work. I only wish you had more control over every playlist and that there were more to choose from. Google also integrated Google Tasks directly into the taskbar above the calendar function. Its simple but effective, especially if youre the type that needs a reminder every few hours about what it was you were supposed to be doing.The sound quality is impressive, particularly when using headphones. The display is excellent, but the slim design does not support its role as a complete all-in-one entertainment device.Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus Review: Display and SoundOne of the Galaxy Chromebooks biggest selling points is its 15.6-inch AMOLED display. Its a nice size, and the 1080p resolution is good enough for streaming YouTube or Netflix. The screen was also plenty bright for my use, so I first relied on it to slip into my apartments living area, where it gets the most sun.Yes, it looks great, but its panel has a refresh rate of only 60Hz. Thats fine for streaming video content, but what if I wanted to load up Game Pass or Geforce Now for some game streaming on this bright, beautiful screen? At this price point, Id want a 120Hz panel like theAcer Chromebook 516 GE.Unfortunately, the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus doesnt sound as good as it looks. It can get loud, but its still very tinny, which is certainly not the quality you want to watch your favorite movies while huddled on the bed with your significant other.Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus Review: Performance and Battery Life Photo: Kyle Barr / GizmodoThe laptop uses an Intel Core 3 100U Raptor Lake processor released in January, before all the hubbub around the Qualcomm Snapdragon, AMD Strix Point, and Intel Lunar Lake for thin PCs. Its an entry-level chip, but its good at that level. However, it doesnt have the battery life of these most recent $1,000-plus laptops.The fan couldnt be called loud, but I was surprised to hear it whirring as the device handled three separate Chrome windows and an external display. The laptop could also get relatively warm under stress, but you would only feel it if you held it from the bottom. I never noticed any instances where the heat impacted performance.The Galaxy Chromebook Plus also has 8GB of RAM, more than you normally get with a Chromebook Plus model. Because of this, the Chromebook was speedy for most tasks, but running it with all those windows and too many open tabs caused me to experience some cursor slowdowns and occasional hitching.Battery life used to be one of the defining benefits of Chromebooks, but other small Windows PCs have since eclipsed them. Samsung promises 13 hours of battery life, though that was based on the Chromebook power load test. I found I could get between six and seven hours before I needed to recharge. Its not bad, and I used it with too many open tabs, as I usually do. It just wont be a multi-day laptop.Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus Review: AI Additions Photo: Kyle Barr / GizmodoNew Chromebook Plus models are supposed to sport the Quick Access key landing on the Caps Lock space where the old G key used to be (dont worry, the Launcher button has new space next to the left Alt key). The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus is the first of its kind to get this addition. This has a few benefits. It lets you access files you last had open and see a potential URL link you could add to some text. However, its main raison detre is to give you immediate access to AI writing capabilities.However, I have serious doubts about whether anyone should use this for anything beyond outlining or brainstorming. I asked Googles Gemini to write a paragraph explaining the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus specs just to prove a point. Gemini spat out several options for a paragraph and provided inaccuracies about the display, CPU, size, and more. It will confidently lie about things it does not have the correct information about, and thats a problem.Even the proofread function is less helpful than it should be. It doesnt tell you what parts of a highlighted paragraph will change. This is all with a Gemini Advanced subscription, which is Googles most-capable LLM available to Chromebook users from the desktop.And, of course, theres Gemini Advanced. All new Chromebook Plus buyers get 12 months free of Googles more advanced chatbot, plus 2TB of cloud storage. Gemini Advanced comes with a few Gems like coding partners; depending on the user, it could prove useful. Based on Googles suggestion, I asked the Brainstormer Gem to help me develop gift ideas for a friend who likes Baldurs Gate III. To be succinct, its gift ideas absolutely sucked. Its best idea was to give a gift card or a shirt to a local game shop.Dont buy this or any other new Chromebook because of its AI capabilities. That said, if you use on-device voice recorders, youll find the new AI-generated transcriptions and summaries on the ChromeOS Recorder App, which arent too bad.Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus Review: VerdictThe more I used the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus, the more I endeared myself to it. Its the Chromebook I could see someone replacing their laptop with. It has enough ports and a solid display, but without all the little extras, like a higher refresh rate and better speakers, I would inevitably feel like Im missing something. I would want a Chromebook without compromise for the price youre paying.See Galaxy Chromebook Plus at Samsung

Suixian Agricultural Infrastructure Renovation / Qing StudioSave this picture! Yilong ZhaoLandscape Architecture, RefurbishmentSuizhou, ChinaArchitects: Qing StudioAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:226 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2024 PhotographsPhotographs:Yilong ZhaoMore SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!1. Terraced Tea-Oil Gardens: From "Idyllic Pastoral" to "Robust Structures"In Huan Tan Town, Suixian County, thousands of acres of tea-oil gardens were cultivated through terraced farming. Here, the beauty of the landscape derives not only from nature's craftsmanship but also from the marks of human activity. Contemporary rural beauty is no longer merely pastoral poetry; amidst mountains and rivers, there are also various robust infrastructural megastructures: the lines of terraces, the contours of water reservoirs, and the upright forms of transmission towers.Save this picture!These elements serve as tools for production and life, yet they also emerge as new landscape symbols. In their raw simplicity, they reveal a sense of utility and strength, showcasing the authenticity of human interaction with nature. On this land, human intervention and natural forms no longer oppose but instead complement and depend on each other. The definition of "landscape" has expanded to a technological system where humans wrestle with, yet coexist with, nature.Save this picture!2. Irrigation Reservoir: From "Aerial Perspective" to "Human Connection"The reservoir resembles a giant circular mirror, quietly embedded among the mountains, reflecting the shifting sky and clouds. Its beauty is profound yet untouchable, belonging to the eyes of drones and the divine, inaccessible to human proximity. To bring this aerial reflection closer to human experience, a large triangular staircase was introduced. Its width tapers from 6 meters at the base to 600mm at the top, with mirror-polished stainless steel risers. The mirrored surfaces give the impression of water cascading down the steps, carrying the rippling reflections of sky and mountain onto the vertical facade, allowing even those at the foot of the mountain to witness this otherworldly illusion.Save this picture!Save this picture!Climbing the staircase to the reservoir's summit, visitors find themselves on a walkway that leads to the reservoir's center. Entering this circular frame, their gaze aligns with the water's surface, where mountain shadows and human reflections intertwine. The vast mirrored surface beneath seems to penetrate the observer's inner world, washing away any restlessness and noise, leaving only clarity.Suspending the water-level walkway is a large circular structure set at a 45-degree angle to the reservoir. Beyond its structural purpose, it channels the reservoir's water into an arched spray, nourishing the surrounding land. Rising mist and rippling waves romantically visualize the reservoir's irrigation function.Save this picture!Save this picture!3. Fire Lookout Tower: From "Observation Post" to "Community Hub"The fire lookout tower, once a solitary and austere observation post, stands on a mountaintop, guarding the safety of the tea mountains. The tower's slender form is upright yet commanding, like a thumbtack pinning itself into the vast landscape. Around this structure, a 12-meter-diameter circular base with two layers of seating was added, enhancing the tower's anchoring effect within the site through horizontal circularity that contrasts its vertical stance. This design draws attention and footsteps inward, creating a sense of calm cohesion.To provide shelter for the expanded base, a steel frame was cantilevered from the tower's original structure, supporting a semi-transparent membrane. This veil-like material lends a softened texture to the steel megastructure, resembling a skirt cascading from the top of the tower and halting mid-air at a height of 2.1 meters. The membrane cuts the surrounding mountain scenery into a continuous panoramic band, framing it like a long scroll.Save this picture!Today, the lookout tower has evolved into an essential communal space for the tea mountains. With seating, lighting, and an open square, tea farmers from near and far gather here, their lively conversations and the crisp sounds of tea fruits drying filling the air day and night. The fire lookout tower has transformed from a distant "eye" into a bustling gathering place, not only anchoring the site physically but also forging deeper connections between people and the land.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessProject locationAddress:Huan Tan Town, Suixian County, Hubei Province, ChinaLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officeQing StudioOfficePublished on December 14, 2024Cite: "Suixian Agricultural Infrastructure Renovation / Qing Studio" 14 Dec 2024. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1024583/suixian-agricultural-infrastructure-renovation-qing-studio&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save? / You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! 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Explore how utilizing Adobe Firefly and AI-powered features in Photoshop, Illustrator, Adobe Premiere Pro, and After Effects can elevate your approach to creating standout video content on social media. Join award-winning editor and producer Karina Anglada as she guides you through several techniques, tips, and tricks to expand the creative possibilities of working with video. Youll learn how to: Level up your text, graphics, and other video elements Find new ways to revitalize existing media and create unique video elements Take advantage of AI-powered features to optimize your video content for better engagement and performance on social mediaSubscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud: https://adobe.ly/48Y1QJ1 Learn more about Creative Cloud: https://adobe.ly/3RTndnp About Adobe Creative Cloud:Unlocking creative potential goes beyond tools it's about cultivating inspiration, fostering innovation, and mastering artistic expression. On the Adobe Creative Cloud YouTube channel, discover stories, concepts, and trends that ignite your creativity. We are your hub for creativity, connecting you with Adobe channels for detailed tutorials and product insights. Adobe Creative Cloud brings together everything you need to create your greatest work. One membership gives you access to all Adobe professional creative desktop applications, plus new features as soon as they're available. Cloud storage ensures file access anywhere, even on mobile, streamlining concept sharing. Cloud-based services let you build websites, mobile apps, and content for any medium/device. With Behance integration, you can publish your portfolio on your own URL and plug into the world's largest creative community to get inspired, get feedback, and find new opportunities.Connect with Adobe Creative Cloud:Twitter: https://twitter.com/creativecloud LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/adobe-creative-cloud/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adobecreativecloud Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adobecreativecloud/ #Adobe #AdobeYouTube #AdobeCreativeCloud