Apple ranked Temu as the top free app on its U.S. iOS store for the second year running even as Chinese companies face greater U.S. government scrutiny

Super Micro is exiting the Nasdaq 100 after just five months in the index.

Michael Saylor compared bitcoin to New York City and its economy on Monday as the cryptocurrency rose to new records.

Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham discuss the film and showcase puppet making and animation.The post Behind the scenes of Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl appeared first on befores & afters.

Step into the dazzling world of Better Man as director Michael Gracey and Wt FX bring the life story of British pop icon Robbie Williams to the big screen. Through groundbreaking visual effects, the film recreates Robbies meteoric rise, tumultuous fall, and inspiring resurgence, blending reality and imagination with stunning visuals.Wt FXs artistry captures pivotal moments of Robbies career, from his early days in Take That to his record-breaking solo success. The film also delves into the emotional and psychological challenges of fame, with surreal VFX sequences that reflect Robbies personal struggles and triumphs.With its innovative storytelling, Better Man is a heartfelt tribute to one of the worlds greatest entertainers, perfectly blending humor, vulnerability, and spectacular visuals. Experience Robbies extraordinary journey in select theaters on December 25, with a wider release on January 10.The post Behind the Visual Effects of Better Man (2024) A Robbie Williams Biopic appeared first on Vfxexpress.

Step into the symbiotic universe of Venom: The Last Dance with Digital Domains breathtaking VFX breakdown. See how cutting-edge technology, such as Masquerade3, powered lifelike facial capture, blending emotion and action in the immersive world of Klyntar.The breakdown also highlights the chilling transformation of Knull, the God of the Symbiotes, whose design pushes the boundaries of digital artistry. The Xenophages are also added to the spectacle with intricate detail and complex fluid simulations that make their terrifying presence unforgettable.Through technical brilliance and creative vision, Digital Domains work on Venom: The Last Dance sets a new benchmark in VFX storytelling, immersing audiences in a dark, captivating world unlike any other.The post Venom: The Last Dance | VFX Breakdown by Digital Domain appeared first on Vfxexpress.

James Gunn redefines the iconic Man of Steel in a stunning new trailer for Superman. This first look promises to be bold and fresh with a legendary hero, blending emotional depth with thrilling action sequences that redefine the essence of Superman.It features a fantastic visual effects created by the industry giants Framestore, ILM, and Weta FX. This movie trailer is guided under Production VFX Supervisor Stephane Ceretti and VFX Producer Susan Pickett, with great awe-inspiring visuals, giving a glimpse of Supermans world in terms of its scale and wonder.Directed by James Gunn, Superman is scheduled to fly its way into theatres across the United States on July 11, 2025, with an exciting new take on the epic tale of the Earths greatest superhero.The post Superman: A James Gunn Vision appeared first on Vfxexpress.

Seventeen days after Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina, tearing down power lines, destroying water mains, and disabling cellphone towers, the signs of relief were hard to miss.Trucks formed a caravan along Interstate 40, filled with camouflaged soldiers, large square tanks of water, and essentials from pet food to diapers. In towns, roadside signsofficial versions emblazoned with nonprofit relief logos and wooden makeshift ones scrawled with paintadvertised free food and water.And then there were the generators.The noisy machines powered the trailers where Asheville residents sought showers, weeks after the citys water system failed. They fueled the food trucks delivering hot meals to the thousands without working stoves. They filtered water for communities to drink and flush toilets.Western North Carolina is far from unique. In the wake of disaster, generators are a staple of relief efforts around the globe. But across the region, a New Orleans-based nonprofit is working to displace as many of these fossil fuel burners as they can, swapping in batteries charged with solar panels instead.Its the largest response effort the Footprint Project has ever deployed in its short life, and organizers hope the impact will extend far into the future.If we can get this sustainable tech in fast, then when the real rebuild happens, theres a whole new conversation that wouldnt have happened if we were just doing the same thing that we did every time, said Will Heegaard, operations director for the organization.Responders use what they know works, and our job is to get them stuff that works better than single-use fossil fuels do, he said. And then, they can start asking for that. It trickles up to a systems change.Nick Boyd, left, and Blake Davis unload solar panels in Asheville, North Carolina. [Photo: Elizabeth Ouzts]A no-brainer solution to the problem of gas generatorsThe rationale for diesel and gas generators is simple: theyre widely available. Theyre relatively easy to operate. Assuming fuel is available, they can run 24/7, keeping people warm, fed, and connected to their loved ones even when the electric grid is down. Indubitably, they save lives.But theyre not without downsides. The burning of fossil fuels causes not just more just more carbon that exacerbates the climate crisis, but smog and soot-forming air pollutants that can trigger asthma attacks and other respiratory problems.In Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, generators were so prevalent after the electric grid failed that harmful air pollution in San Juan soared above the safe legal limit. The risk is especially acute for sensitive populations who turn to generators for powering vital equipment like oxygenators.There are also practical challenges. Generators arent cheap, retailing at big-box stores for more than $1,000. Once initial fuel supplies run outas happened in parts of Western North Carolina in the immediate aftermath of Heleneit can be difficult and costly to find more. And the machines are noisy, potentially harming health and creating more stress for aid workers and the people they serve.Heegaard witnessed these challenges firsthand in Guinea in 2016 when he was responding to an Ebola outbreak. A paramedic, his job was to train locals to collect blood samples and store them in generator-powered refrigerators that would be motorcycled to the city of Conakry for testing. He had a grant to give cash reimbursements to the lab techs for the fuel.This is so hard already, and the idea of doing a cash reimbursement in a super poor rural country for gas generators seems really hard, Heegaard recalled thinking. I had heard of solar refrigerators. I asked the local logistician in Conakry, Are these things even possible?The next day, the logistician said they were. They could be installed within a month. It was just a no-brainer, said Heegaard. The only reason we hadnt done it is the grant wasnt written that way.A solar-powered water filter station in Asheville [Photo: Elizabeth Ouzts]Game-changing for a responseTwo years later, the Footprint Project was born of that experience. With just seven full-time staff, the group cycles in workers in the wake of disaster, partnering with local solar companies, nonprofits, and others, to gather supplies and distribute as many as they can.They deploy solar-powered charging stations, water filtration systems, and other so-called climate tech to communities who need it moststarting with those without power, water, or a generator at all, and extending to those looking to offset their fossil fuel combustion.The group has now built nearly 50 such solar-powered microgrids in the region, from Lake Junaluska to Linville Falls, more than it has ever supplied in the wake of disaster. The recipients range from volunteer fire stations to trailer parks to an art collective in West Asheville.Mike Talyad, a photographer who last year launched the collective to support artists of color, teamed up with the Grassroots Aid Partnership, a national nonprofit, to fill in relief gaps in the wake of Helene. The whole city was trying to figure it out, he said.Solar panels from Footprint that initially powered a water filter have now largely displaced the generators for the teams food trucks, which at one point were providing 1,000 meals a day. When we did the switchover, Talyad said, it was a time when gas was still questionable.The team at Footprint also provided six solar panels, a Tesla battery, and a charging station to displace a noisy generator at a retirement community in South Asheville.The device was powering a system that sucked water from a pond, filtered it, and rendered it potable. Picking up their jugs of drinking water, a steady flow of residents oohed and aahed as the solar panels were installed, and sighed in relief when the din of the generator abated.Most responders are not playing with solar microgrids because theyre better for the environment, said Heegaard. Theyre playing with it because if they can turn their generator off for 12 hours a day, that means literally half the fuel savings. Some of them are spending tens of thousands of dollars a month on diesel or gas. That is game-changing for a response.Showing up for their neighborsFootprints robust relief effort and the variety of its beneficiaries is owed in part to the scale of Helenes destruction, with more than 1 million in North Carolina alone who initially lost power.From left: Nick Boyd, volunteer Blake Davis, and Will Heegaard of the Footprint Project on the ground in Asheville [Photo: Elizabeth Ouzts]Its really hard to put into words what [happened] out there , said Matt Abele, the executive director of the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association, who visited in the early days after the storm. It [was] just the most heartbreaking thing Ive ever seenwhole mobile home parks that are just completely gone.But the breadth of the response is also owed to Footprints approach to aid, which is rooted in connections to grassroots groups, government organizations, and the local solar industry. All have partnered together for the relief effort.Weve been incredibly overwhelmed by the positive response that weve seen from the clean energy community, Abele said, both from an equipment donation standpoint and a financial resources standpoint.Some four hours east of the devastation in Western North Carolina, Greentech Renewables Raleigh has been soliciting and storing solar panels and other goods. It also raised money for products that are harder to get for freelike PV wire and batteries. Then it trucked the supplies west.Weve got bodies, weve got trucks, weve got relationships, said Shasten Jolley, the manager at the company, which warehouses and sells supplies to a variety of installers. So, we try to utilize all those things to help out.The cargo was delivered to Mars Hill, a tiny college town about 20 miles north of Asheville that was virtually untouched by Helene. Through a local regional government organization, Frank Johnson, the owner of a robotics company, volunteered his 110,000-square-foot facility for storage.Johnson is just one example of how people in the region have leapt to help each other, said Abele, whos based in Raleigh.You can tell when youre out there, he said, that so many people in the community are coping by showing up for their neighbors.Available for the next responseTo be sure, Footprints operations arent seamless at every turn. For instance, most of the donated solar panels designated for the South Asheville retirement community didnt work, a fact the installers learned once theyd made the 40-minute drive in the morning and tried to connect them to the system. They returned later that afternoon with functioning units, but then faced the challenge of what to do with the broken ones.This is solar aid waste, Heegaard said. The last site we did yesterday had the same problem. Now we have to figure out how to recycle them.Its also not uncommon for the microgrids to stop working, Heegaard said, because of understandable operator errors, like running them all night to provide heat.But above all, the problem for Footprint is scale. A tiny organization among behemoth relief groups, they simply dont have the bandwidth for a larger response. When Milton followed immediately on the heels of Helene, Heegaards group made the difficult choice to hunker down in North Carolina.With climate-fueled weather disasters poised to increase, the organization hopes to entice the biggest, most well-resourced players in disaster relief to start regularly using solar microgrids in their efforts.As power is slowly restored across the region, with just over 5,000 remaining without electricity, theres also the question of what comes next.While theres a parallel conversation underway among advocates and policymakers about making microgrids and distributed solar a more permanent feature of the grid, Footprint also hopes to inspire some of that change from the ground up. Maybe the volunteer fire station decides to put solar panels on its roof when it rebuilds, for instance.We can change the conversation around resilience and recovery by directly pointing to something that worked when the lights were out and debris was in the street, Heegaard said.As for the actual Footprint equipment, the dream is to create lending libraries in places like Asheville, to be cycled in and out of community events and disaster relief.The solar trailer or the microgrid or the water maker that went to the Burnsville elementary school right after the stormthat can be recycled and used to power the music stage or the movie in the park, Heegaard said. Then that equipment is here, its being utilized, and its available for the next response, whether its in Knoxville or Atlanta or South Carolina.ByElizabeth Ouzts, Energy News NetworkThisarticlefirst appeared onEnergy News Networkand is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Leaders dont always have the answers, and the best of them know that and will often be the first to remind you of this. Consider a situation in which a leader opens up a discussion about a topic important to an upcoming meeting and invites discussion and disagreement with her proposed course of action. She weighs alternatives and takes into account a variety of opinions.Contrast that case with a leader who gets defensive at the first sign of disagreement. This leader defends the choices she has made, shuts down offers of alternative perspectives, and ultimately fails to learn much from a group discussion.This first leader feels like she is handling the situation better than the second, and is clearly displaying more confidence in her abilitydespite showing vulnerability that she may be wrong on some counts.In order to have the confidence to display this vulnerability in a group setting, you must believe that you belong in the discussion and in your role. This belief then allows you to treat discussions as being about the topic at hand, rather than thinking of them as a referendum on your knowledge and skills. As a result, finding out that someone disagrees with your proposed course of action signals that you may need to change your thinking about the issue, but says nothing about your fitness to lead.When you have doubts that you should be in your role, then you start looking to others for evidence that you deserve to lead. Disagreement and suggestions that you consider an alternate approach are now taken as threats to your position, rather than differing perspectives on the current topic. You defend yourself vigorously, because you feel like you are fighting for your role as a leader.At the root of the problem here is that if you get defensive when you have a lack of knowledge or have a disagreement about approach, youre outsourcing your confidence to someone else. Youre allowing someone elses approval or disapprovaltheir agreement or disagreementto determine whether you think that you should have your role as a leader.In the end, leadership is not about your position in an org chart. It relies on you own belief in the contributions you can make to an organization. Youre leading whenever you engage in constructive discussions that promote disagreement and challenge in order to reach a positive outcome. Only you should decide whether you belong in the room.

Wouldnt it be great to have a crystal ball that would give you a peek into the future? Winning lottery numbers aside, knowing what lies ahead could give you insights to workplace trends that could propel your career growth.Sometimes, though, there are clues hiding in the past and present that can point the way. We talked to hiring experts and CEOs to get their take on what could be waiting for us after the ball drops in Time Square.1. Hybrid Is Here to StayThe full return has failed, says Frank Weishaupt, CEO of the AI-powered video conferencing tool Owl Labs. Our data shows full-time office work is down 6%, with remote roles up 57% year-over-year. The flexible 3-2 hybrid model is set to become the norm, while companies still mandating five-day office work face the threat of increased employee turnover.Sam Naficy, CEO of the employee visibility and productivity intelligence software provider Prodoscore, agrees: Hybrid work is the new normal, he says. Despite the push for in-office mandates, hybrid work is here to stay, driven by the need for flexibility. Few companies will fully revert to all-office models without risking talent loss.An Owl Labs survey found that employees rank flexible hours nearly as highly as healthcare benefits in evaluating prospective employers. [This underscores] a shift toward autonomy and balance as key components of job satisfaction, says Weishaupt. To adapt, companies should embrace a more flexible approach, including meeting-free days and valuing outcomes over rigid hours.2. Paid Leave Requests and Resignations Will RiseIf your company is pushing for RTO, dont be surprised by a mountain of paid leave requests or even resignations, says Deborah Hanus, CEO of Sparrow, an employee leave management platform.The push for a return to office will have unintended consequences, says Hanus. We expect to see a rise in disability and caregiving leave requests as employees seek ways to maintain remote or hybrid work arrangements in addition to an increase in resignations as people find ways to maintain their routines with employers who support the reality of their needs to work remotely.Organizations clinging to rigid in-office policies risk alienating their workforce and losing productivity in the process.3. AI Will Accelerate CareersAI will move beyond being just a task helper to becoming a career enabler in 2025, predicts Danielle McMahan, chief people officer for academic publishers Wiley. Organizations will focus on using AI to create personalized career pathways and helping employees align their skills and aspirations with future opportunities, she says.Shaji Mathew, group head of human resource development at IT-service provider Infosys, agrees: AI itself has the potential to help employees enhance their skills and advance their careers through personalized and targeted training, he says. It can help identify skills gaps, recommend new skills, and create tailored learning paths to continuous learning.To tap into the potential, however, leaders will need to develop upskilling and reskilling initiatives to prepare their people for the evolving future of work, says Mathew. While AI can provide insights based on data, humans give it meaning and purpose, he says. In 2025, employers should focus on building this human + AI work model, integrating AI with human capabilities to amplify the latter while upskilling their employees so they can be the I in AI.McMahan says AI training should be an urgent priority for the year ahead, referencing a Wiley Workplace Intelligence survey that found 61% of workers are eager for AI training. This points to the growing role AI is playing in the workplace and the need for AI-driven development strategies, she says. I fully expect that the growing emphasis on AI learning and development will also help to shift AI from enabling tasks to enabling career growth.4. Recruiters Core Role Will ChangeAI will also impact the role of recruiters. In addition to being integrated into applicant tracking systems to match keywords, Felix Kim, CEO of the recruitment platform Redrob, predicts that AI will take over the interview process, either by serving as the sole interviewer or providing questions that maintain consistency and reduce bias.We still want the human in human resourcesits an essential part, he says. But sourcing candidates and doing the initial phone screen calls arent the core aspects of recruitment. Well start to see a bigger difference between a great recruiter and a mediocre recruiter, because AI will be able to duplicate what a mediocre recruiter is doing. The core aspect of a recruiter is to get that human connection and get people pumped up about a job or an opportunity that might not be visible just through a job description.5. The Continuation of Conscious UnbossingConscious unbossing became a popular phrase in the latter part of 2024 used to describe the current leadership climate. It describes the resistance newer generations are having when it comes to stepping into leadership roles. Stephanie Neal, director of research at DDI, leadership development and HR consultants, predicts that the trend will continueTheres different reasons that leaders are motivated to take on leadership roles, she says. Were seeing some tension in the workplace around that. The biggest risk to us is that leaders who do take early first management roles, often regret it if they dont get the support that they need.Neal says organizations must address if they want to attract leaders to their roles. Keep them growing and keep them feeling like they have a purpose, she says. One of the biggest mistakes that organizations often make is taking top technical people that have done well in their individual contributor roles and advancing them into the management.