Stellantis wants you to know that, even in a premium electric version, a Jeep is still a Jeep. In other words, as the title of the marketing campaign for Jeeps first all-electric model says: beautiful things can still get dirty.The Jeep Wagoneer S EV is slated to arrive at dealerships in January 2025 but parent-company Stellantis aims to launch its marketing campaign on TV during Netflixs Christmas Day NFL games.Recommended VideosA 30-second version of the spot will also run elsewhere on television and on the Jeep brands social media channels, including Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.Please enable Javascript to view this contentAfter showing off the luxurious faux-leather-seat interior, and a glimpse of its front three screens (for instrument, infotainment, and entertainment displays), the Wagoneer is seen breaking out of its cocoon and riding through some muddy roads.RelatedJeep vehicles, even one as stunning as the Wagoneer S, look even better when theyre muddy, says Bob Broderdorf, senior VP of Jeep North America, in a statement.Jeeps electric SUV, he says, breaks free from the confines of luxury stereotypes into the great outdoors, while pushing the boundaries of electric capability.The Wagoneer S can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds, and features Jeeps Selec-Terrain options, allowing drivers to switch from auto to sport, eco, snow, and sand modes.With a 100kWh battery pack, the SUV offers 300 miles of driving range, and fast-charging from 20% to 80% in 23 minutes.In some ways, Stellantis media campaign for the Wagoneer S echoes similar themes used earlier this month in ads for Dodges first-ever EV, the Daytona Charger.That ad, while prominently featuring pro-nature themes associated with EVs, presented the Charger as an all-American muscle car, reminiscent of the vehicles 1960s version as seen in the classic movie Bullittand theDukes of HazzardTV series.Editors Recommendations

THE CULT OF THE FOUNDER. THE CULT OF THE TECH GENIUS. Beware: Silicon Valleys cultists want to turn you into a disruptive deviant. Techs cult of the founder bounces back. Silicon Valleys Strange, Apocalyptic Cults. How the cult of personality and tech-bro culture is killing technology. Company or cult? Is your corporate culture cultish? The Cult of Company Culture Is Back. But Do Tech Workers Even Want Perks Anymore? 10 tech gadgets with a cult following on Amazonand why theyre worth it. 13 steps to developing a cult-like company culture. The headlines seem to write themselves (if that clich is allowed anymore in the age of ChatGPT and generative AI). Tech is culty. But that is a metaphor, right? Right?! When I first saw Michael Saylors Twitter account, I wasnt sure. Saylor is an entrepreneur, tech executive, and former billionaire. Once reportedly the richest man in the Washington, DC, area, he lost most of his $7 billion net worth in 2000 when, in his mid-30s, he reached a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission after it brought charges against him and two of his colleagues at a company called MicroStrategy for inaccurate reporting of their financial results. But I had no idea who he was back then. In 2021 Saylor started showing up in my Twitter feed. His profile picture showed a man with chiseled features, silver hair, and stubble sitting in a power pose and looking directly into the camera, a black dress shirt unbuttoned to display a generous amount of his neck. It was a typical tech entrepreneurs publicity shot except for the lightning bolts blasting from his eyes, and the golden halo crown. Then there were his tweets: #Bitcoin is Truth. #Bitcoin is For All Mankind. #Bitcoin is Different. Trust the Timechain. Fiat [government-backed currency] is immoral. #Bitcoin is immortal. #Bitcoin is a shining city in cyberspace, waiting for you. #Bitcoin is the heartbeat of Planet Earth. As MITs humanist chaplain, I follow a lot of ministers, rabbis, imams, and monks online. Very few religious leaders would dare to be this religious on social media. They know that few of their readers want to see such hubris. Why, then, does there seem to be an audience for this seemingly cultish behavior from a cryptocurrency salesman? Are tech leaders like Saylor leading actual cults? According to Bretton Putter, an expert on startups and CEO of the consulting firm CultureGene, this neednt be a major concern: Its pretty much impossible, Putter writes, for a business to become a full-blown cult. And if a tech company or other business happens to resemble a cult, that might just be a good thing, he argues: If you succeed in building a cultlike culture similar to the way that Apple, Tesla, Zappos, Southwest Airlines, Nordstrom, and Harley-Davidson have, you will experience loyalty, dedication, and commitment from your employees (and customers) that is way beyond the norm. Are the cultlike aspects of tech companies really that benign? Or should we be worried? To find the answer, I interviewed Steve Hassan, a top expert on exit counseling, or helping people escape destructive cults. At age 19, while he was studying poetry at Queens College in New York City in the early 1970s, Hassan was recruited into the Unification Churchthe famously manipulative cult also known as the Moonies. Over his next 27 months as a member of the church, Hassan helped with its fundraising, recruiting, and political efforts, which involved personally meeting with the cult leader Sun Myung Moon multiple times. He lived in communal housing, slept only a few hours a night, and sold carnations on street corners seven days a week for no pay. He was told to drop out of college and turn his bank account over to the church. In 1976, he fell asleep at the wheel while driving a Moonie fundraising van and drove into the back of a tractor-trailer at high speed. He called his sister from the hospital, and his parents hired former members to help deprogram him and extract him from the cult. After the Jonestown mass suicide and murders of 1978 brought attention to the lethal dangers of cult mind control, Hassan founded a nonprofit organization, Ex-Moon Inc. Since then, hes earned a handful of graduate degrees (including a doctorate in the study of cults), started numerous related projects, and written a popular book on how practices with which he is all too familiar have crept into the mainstream of US politics in recent years. (That 2019 book, The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control, seemed even more relevant in early 2024, when a video called God Made Trump went viral across the campaign trail.) Hassan even found himself advising Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin, leader of the second impeachment trial against Donald Trump, in 2021, on how to think and communicate about the cultish aspects of the violent mob of Trump followers who stormed the Capitol on January 6 of that year. I wanted to ask Hassan what he makes of the discourse around tech cults, but first its important to understand how he thinks about cults in the first place. Hassans dissertation was titled The BITE Model of Authoritarian Control: Undue Influence, Thought Reform, Brainwashing, Mind Control, Trafficking, and the Law. The idea was to create a model that could measure cult exploitation and manipulation, or what Hassan and other experts in related fields call undue influence. His BITE model looks to evaluate the ways social groups and institutions attempt to control followers behavior, information access, thoughts, and emotions. Because there is no one quintessential, Platonic definition of a cult, what matters is where a given instance of potential cultishness falls on an influence continuum. In this continuum model, Hassan evaluates the ways in which institutional cultures attempt to influence people. To what extent are individuals allowed to be their authentic selves or required to adopt a false cult identity? Are leaders accountable to others, or do they claim absolute authority? Do organizations encourage growth in the people who participate in them, or do they seek to preserve their own power over all else? While any kind of person or group can struggle with some of the dimensions on Hassans continuum chart (which lists constructive behaviors at one end and destructive behaviors at the other), healthier organizations will tend toward constructive responses more of the time, whereas unhealthier institutionsthose more truly worthy of the cult label in the most negative sensewill tend toward destructive responses such as grandiosity, hate, demands for obedience, elitism, authoritarianism, deceptiveness, or hunger for power. It turns out that there are some real, meaningful similarities between cults and tech, according to Hassan. This is the perfect mind-control device, he told me, holding up his iPhone. He explained that when he joined the Moonies in 1974, cult recruiters had to get information from the victim. Now, he said, users of everyday technologies are sitting ducks: There are 5,000 data points on every voting American in the dark web, and there are companies that will collect and sell that data. The first time Hassan was told about cryptocurrency, he added, it smacked of multilevel marketing to him. The proposition that you can make a fortune in a very short amount of time, with almost no labor, was something he had seen many times in his work. As was the idea that if you become an early investor in such a scheme, youll make more money if you recruit more people to join you. The people who started it are always going to make 99% of the money, Hassan said. And as in the cults that recruited him and continue to recruit the kinds of people who ultimately become his clients, everyone else is going to get burned. All of this would certainly seem to explain why I so frequently hear from people, eager for me to know they are fellow atheists, who tell me to buy some bitcoin because it will rewire my neurons and cure me of the woke mind virus. Of course, it should be noted that some scholars have complained about Hassans work, arguing that brainwashing and mind control are concepts for which there is not sufficient evidence. But Im not claiming that tech uses literal brainwashing, nor is it like when a character in a Scooby-Doo episode hears You are getting very sleepy and then their eyes become squiggles. Hassan probably wouldnt say so either. Companies dont need to go to such extremes to exert undue influence on us, though. And as is clear from the headlines I cited above, a lot of companies have been accused of, or associated with, a bit of cultishness. I wont attempt to evaluate anyones cultish tendencies on a scale of 1 to 10. But I see crypto sales techniques as a particularly good example of cultlike behavior, because if theres one thing cults need to be good at to sustain their existence, its separating people from their wallets. Cryptocurrency has specialized in that to extraordinary effect. Its all a continuum, and it would be hard to find a person whose life is completely devoid of anything cultish, technological or otherwise. But as a culture, we are careening dangerously toward the wrong end of Hassans chart. Or to quote a Michael Saylor tweet, We all stumble in the dark until we see the cyber light. #Bitcoin. Adapted from Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the Worlds Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation. Copyright 2024 by Greg Epstein, the humanist chaplain at MIT. Used with permission of the publisher, MIT Press.

Dan Huttenlocher, SM 84, PhD 88, leads the way up to the eighth floor of Building 45, the recently completed headquarters of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. Theres an amazing view of the Great Dome here, he says, pointing out a panoramic view of campus and the Boston skyline beyond. The floor features a high-end event space with an outdoor terrace and room for nearly 350 people. But it also serves an additional purposeluring people into the building, which opened last January. The event space wasnt in the original building plan, says Huttenlocher, Schwarzmans inaugural dean, but the point of the building is to be a nexus, bringing people across campus together. Launched in 201920, Schwarzman is MITs only college, so called because it cuts across the Institutes five schools in a new effort to integrate advanced computing and artificial intelligence into all areas of study. We want to do two things: ensure that MIT stays at the forefront of computer science, AI research, and education, Huttenlocher says, and infuse the forefront of computing into disciplines across MIT. He adds that safety and ethical considerations are also critical. To that end, the college now encompasses multiple existing labs and centers, including the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), and multiple academic units, including the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. (EECSwhich was reorganized into the overlapping subunits of electrical engineering, computer science, and artificial intelligence and decision-makingis now part of both the college and the School of Engineering.) At the same time, the college has embarked on a plan to hire 50 new faculty members, half of whom will have shared appointments in other departments across all five schools to create a true Institute-wide entity. Those faculty memberstwo-thirds of whom have already been hiredwill conduct research at the boundaries of advanced computing and AI. We want to do two things: ensure that MIT stays at the forefront of computer science, AI research, and education and infuse the forefront of computing into disciplines across MIT. Dan Huttenlocher The new faculty members have already begun helping the college respond to an undeniable reality facing many students: Theyve been overwhelmingly drawn to advanced computing tools, yet computer science classes are often too technical for nonmajors who want to apply those tools in other disciplines. And for students in other majors, it can be tricky to fit computer science classes into their schedules. Meanwhile, the appetite for computer science education is so great that nearly half of MITs undergraduates major in EECS, voting with their feet about the importance of computing. Graduate-level classes on deep learning and machine vision are among the largest on campus, with over 500 students each. And a blended major in cognition and computing has almost four times as many enrollees as brain and cognitive sciences. Weve been calling these students computing bilinguals, Huttenlocher says, and the college aims to make sure that MIT students, whatever their field, are fluent in the language of computing. As we change the landscape, he says, its not about seeing computing as a tool in service of a particular discipline, or a discipline in the service of computing, but asking: How can we bring these things together to forge something new? The college has been the hub of this experiment, sponsoring over a dozen new courses that integrate computing with other disciplines, and it provides a variety of spaces that bring people together for conversations about the future of computing at MIT. More than just a nexus for computing on campus, the college has also positioned itself as a broad-based leader on AI, presenting policy briefs to Congress and the White House about how to manage the pressing ethical and political concerns raised by the rapidly evolving technology. Right now, digital technologies are changing every aspect of our lives with breakneck speed, says Asu Ozdaglar, SM 98, PhD 03, EECS department head and Schwarzmans deputy dean of academics. The college is MITs response to the ongoing digital transformation of our society. Huttenlocher, who also holds the title of Henry Ellis Warren (1894) Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and coauthored the book The Age of AI: And Our Human Future with Henry Kissinger and Eric Schmidt, has long been exploring such issues. He started programming computers back in middle school in Connecticut in the 1970s on an ASR 33 teletype machine, and eventually he studied at the University of Michigan as a double major in cognitive psychology and computer science, exploring speech recognition and visual perception. AI work back then was relatively disconnected from the physical world, he says. Being interested in the perceptual side of things was kind of an outlier for what was going on in AI then. When he looked at grad schools in the 1980s, only MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and Stanford were doing significant work in AI, he says: I applied to those three schools and figured if it didnt work out, Id get a job. It worked out, of course. He headed to Cambridge and gravitated to MITs AI Lab in Technology Square, where he first worked on speech recognition and then transitioned into computer vision, at the time still in its infancy. After earning his PhD, he served simultaneously as a computer science professor at Cornell and a researcher at Xerox PARC, flying between New York and the burgeoning Silicon Valley, where he worked on computer vision for the digital transformation of copiers and scanners. In academia, you have more curiosity-driven research projects, where in the corporate world you have the opportunity to build things people will actually use, he says. Ive spent my career moving back and forth between them. Along the way, Huttenlocher gained administrative experience as well. He was a longtime board member and eventual chair of the MacArthur Foundation, and he also helped launch Cornell Tech, the universitys New York Citybased graduate school for business, law, and technology, serving as its first dean and vice provost. When Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of the investment firm Blackstone Group, gave $350 million to MIT to establish a college of computing in 2018, he was eager to return to the Institute to lead it. The fact that MIT was making a bold commitment to become a broad-based leader in the AI-driven ageand that it was cutting across all of its schoolswas exciting, he says. Schwarzman College took shape through task forces involving more than 100 MIT faculty members. By the fall of 2019 a plan had been nailed down, and Huttenlocher was in place as director with EECS head Ozdaglar named deputy dean of academics. I never believed that everybody wants to do computer science at MIT, she says. Students come in with a lot of passions, and its our responsibility to educate these bilinguals, so they are fluent in their own discipline but also able to use these advanced frontiers of computing. Ozdaglars background is in using machine learning to optimize communications, transportation, and control systems. Recently she has become interested in applying machine-learning algorithms to social media, examining how the choices people make when sharing content affect the informationand misinformationrecommended to them. This work builds on her longstanding interdisciplinary collaborations in the social sciences, including collaborations with her husband, economics professor (and recent Nobel laureate) Daron Acemoglu. I strongly feel that to really address the important questions in society, these old department or disciplinary silos arent adequate anymore, she says. The college has enabled me to work much more broadly across MIT and share all that Ive learned. Ozdaglar has been a driving force behind faculty hiring for the college, working with 18 departments to bring on dozens of scholars at the forefront of computing. In some ways, she says, its been a challenge to integrate the new hires into existing disciplines. We have to keep teaching what weve been teaching for tens or hundreds of years, so change is hard and slow, she says. But she has also noticed a palpable excitement about the new tools. Already, the college has brought in more than 30 new faculty members in four broad areas: climate and computing; human and natural intelligence; humanistic and social sciences; and AI for scientific discovery. In each case, they receive an academic home in another department, as well as an appointment, and often lab space, within the college. Asu Ozdaglar, SM 98, PhD 03, Schwarzmans deputy dean of academics, in the lobby of the new headquarters building. That commitment to interdisciplinary work has been built into every aspect of the new headquarters. Most buildings at MIT come across as feeling pretty monolithic, Huttenlocher says as he leads the way along brightly lit hallways and common spaces with large walls of glass looking out onto Vassar Street. We wanted to make this feel as open and accessible as possible. While the Institutes high-end computing takes place mostly at a massive computing center in Holyoke, about 90 miles away in Western Massachusetts, the building is honeycombed with labs and communal workspaces, all made light and airy with glass and natural blond wood. Along the halls, open doorways offer enticing glimpses of such things as a giant robot hanging from a ceiling amid a tangle of wires. Lab and office space for faculty research groups working on related problemswho might be from, say, CSAIL and LIDSis interspersed on the same floor to encourage interaction and collaboration. Its great because it builds connections across labs, Huttenlocher says. Even the conference room does not belong to either the lab or the college, so people actually have to collaborate to use it. Another dedicated space is available six months at a time, by application, for special collaborative projects. The first group to use it, last spring, focused on bringing computation to the climate challenge. To make sure undergrads use the building too, theres a classroom and a 250-seat lecture hall, which now hosts classic Course 6 classes (such as Intro to Machine Learning) as well as new multidiscipline classes. A soaring central lobby lined with comfortable booths and modular furniture is ready-made for study sessions. For some of the new faculty, working at the college is a welcome change from previous academic experiences in which they often felt caught between disciplines. The intersection of climate sustainability and AI was nascent when I started my PhD in 2015, says Sherrie Wang, an assistant professor with a shared appointment in mechanical engineering and the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, who is principal investigator of the Earth Intelligence Lab. When she hit the job market in 2022, it still wasnt clear which department shed be in. Now a part of Schwarzmans climate cluster, she says her work uses machine learning to analyze satellite data, examining crop distribution and agricultural practices across the world. Its great to have a cohort of people who have similar philosophical motivations in applying these tools to real-world problems, she says. At the same time, were pushing the tools forward as well. AI impact papersIn the fall of 2023, MIT began providing seed funding to teams of MIT faculty and researchers to explore how generative AI will transform peoples lives and work.As generative AI evolves at an exceptionally rapid pace, MIT has a responsibility to help humanity pursue a future of AI innovation that is broadly beneficial and mitigates potential harm, President Sally Kornbluth observed when announcing the publication of the first set of resulting white papers. A deep understanding of the societal impact of AI is a vital part of this effort, and MIT faculty have an extraordinary breadth of knowledge and insight to contribute.To date, MIT has published preprints of 39 white papers on a wide range of topics. Browse them all at https://mit-genai.pubpub.org/. Among other researchers, she plans to collaborate with Sara Beery, a CSAIL professor who analyzes vast troves of visual, auditory, and other data from a diverse range of sensors around the world to better understand how climate change is affecting distribution of species. AI can be successful in helping human experts efficiently process terabytes and petabytes of data so they can make informed management decisions in real time rather than five years later, says Beery, who was drawn to the colleges unique hybrid nature. We need a new generation of researchers that frame their work by bringing different types of knowledge together. At Schwarzman, there is a clear vision that this type of work is going to be necessary to solve these big, essential problems. Beery is now working to develop a class in machine learning and sustainability with two other new faculty members in the climate cluster: Abigail Bodner, an assistant professor in EECS and Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (whose work uses AI to analyze fluid dynamics), and Priya Donti, assistant professor in EECS and LIDS (who uses AI and computing to optimize integration of renewable energy into power grids). Theres already a core course on AI and machine learningan on-ramp for people without prior exposure who want to gain those fundamentals, says Donti. The new class would be for those who want to study advanced AI/ML topics within the context of sustainability-related disciplines, including power systems, biodiversity, and climate science. The class on machine learning and sustainability would be part of Common Ground for Computer Education, an initiative cochaired by Ozdaglar and involving several dozen faculty members across MIT to develop new classes integrating advanced computing with other disciplines. So far, says Ozdaglar, it has generated more than a dozen new courses. One machine-learning class developed with input from nine departments provides exposure to a variety of practical applications for AI algorithms. Another collaboration, between computer science and urban studies, uses data visualization to address housing issues and other societal challenges. Julia Schneider 26, a double major in AI and mathematics, took the Common Ground class on optimization methods, which she says demonstrated how computer science concepts like shortest-path algorithms and reinforcement learning could be applied in other areas, such as economics and business analytics. She adds that she values such classes because they blend her two areas of study and highlight multidisciplinary opportunities. Even faculty who are leading researchers in this area say I cant read fast enough to keep up with whats going on. Dan Huttenlocher Natasha Hirt 23, MEng 23, came to MIT thinking that computer science was peripheral to her major in architecture and urban planning. Then she took a course with building technology professor Caitlin Mueller on structural optimization and designand it changed the trajectory of her MIT career. That led her to Interactive Data Visualization and Society, a Common Ground class, and several interdisciplinary classes combining computer science and field-specific knowledge. She says these provided the perfect introduction to algorithms without delving too much into math or coding,giving her enough working knowledge to set up models correctly and understand how things can go wrong. They are teaching you what an engine is, what it looks like, and how it works without actually requiring you to know how to build an engine from scratch, she says, though she adds that the classes also gave her the opportunity to tinker with the engine. Shes now working on masters degrees in both building technology and computation science and engineering, focusing on making buildings more sustainable by using computational tools to design novel, less material-intensive structures. She says that Common Ground facilitates an environment where students dont have to be computer science majors to learn the computational skills they need to succeed in their fields. And thats the intent. My hope is that this new way of thinking and these educational innovations will have an impact both nationally and globally, Ozdaglar says. The same goes for recent papers MIT has commissioned, both on AI and public policy and on applications of generative AI. As generative AI has spread through many realms of society, it has become an ethical minefield, giving rise to problems from intellectual-property theft to deepfakes. The likely consequence has been to both over- and under-regulate AI, because the understanding isnt there, Huttenlocher says. But the technology has developed so rapidly its been nearly impossible for policymakers to keep up. Even faculty who are leading researchers in this area say I cant read fast enough to keep up with whats going on, Huttenlocher says, so that heightens the challengeand the need. The college has responded by engaging faculty at the cutting edge of their disciplines to issue policy briefs for government leaders. First was a general framework written in the fall of 2023 by Huttenlocher, Ozdaglar, and the head of MITs DC office, David Goldston, with input from more than a dozen MIT faculty members. The brief spells out essential tasks for helping the US maintain its AI leadership, as well as crucial considerations for regulation. The college followed that up with a policy brief by EECS faculty specifically focusing on large language models such as ChatGPT. Others dealt with AIs impact on the workforce, the effectiveness of labeling AI content, and AI in education. Along with the written documents, faculty have briefed congressional committees and federal agencies in person to get the information directly into the hands of policymakers. The question has been How do we take MITs specific academic knowledge and put it into a form thats accessible? Huttenlocher says. On a parallel track, in July of 2023 President Sally Kornbluth and Provost Cynthia Barnhart, SM 86, PhD 88, issued a call for papers by MIT faculty and researchers to articulate effective road maps, policy recommendations, and calls for action across the broad domain of generative AI. Huttenlocher and Ozdaglar played a key role in evaluating the 75 proposals that came in. Ultimately, 27 proposalsexploring the implications of generative AI for such areas as financial advice, music discovery, and sustainabilitywere selected from interdisciplinary teams of authors representing all five schools. Each of the 27 teams received between $50,000 and $70,000 in seed funds to research and write 10-page impact papers, which were due by December 2023. Given the enthusiastic response, MIT sent out another call in the fall of 2023, resulting in an additional 53 proposals, with 16 selected in March, on topics including visual art, drug discovery, and privacy. As with the policy briefs, Huttenlocher says, we are trying to provide the fresher information an active researcher in the field would have, presented in a way that a broader audience can understand. Even in the short time the college has been active, Huttenlocher and Ozdaglar have begun to see its effects. Were seeing departments starting to change some of the ways they are hiring around degree programs because of interactions with the college, Huttenlocher says. There is such a huge acceleration of AI in the worldits getting them to think with some urgency in doing this. Whether through faculty hiring, new courses, policy papers, or just the existence of a space for high-level discussions about computing that had no natural home before, Huttenlocher says, the college hopes to invite the MIT community into a deeper discussion of how AI and other advanced computing tools can augment academic activities around campus.MIT has long been a leader in the development of AI, and for many years it has continued to innovate at the cutting edge of the field. With the colleges leadership, the Institute is in a position to continue innovating and to guide the future of the technology more broadly. The next step, says Ozdaglar, is to take that impact out into the world.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe is about to make its closest approach to the sun.The spacecraft will fly within 3.8 million miles of the solar surface.The spacecraft is collecting essential data that can help inform forecasting models on Earth.The fastest human-made object is hurtling toward the sun at this very moment, approaching speeds of 430,000 mph and on December 24, it's scheduled to make history.NASA's Parker Solar Probe launched in 2018 and has completed 21 close flybys around the sun. However, its mission on Christmas Eve will be unlike any other.At 6:53 a.m. ET, the spacecraft is set to fly the closest to the sun of any human-made object. The mission will take it closer than any previously scheduled or planned future approaches.If all goes to plan, the uncrewed spacecraft will come within 3.8 million miles of the solar surface.NASA anticipates the probe will experience temperatures of 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, which shouldn't be an issue since the spacecraft's protective heat shield is designed to withstand temperatures over 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit.Yes, 3.8 million miles is far by Earth's standards, but it's ridiculously close when you're out in deep space.It's like if you put the Earth and sun at opposite ends of an American football field: "Parker Solar Probe is on the 4-yard line approaching the sun," Joe Westlake, Director of NASA's Science Mission Directorate's Heliophysics Division, told 6abc Philadelphia."It is getting so close that we're actually in the sun's upper atmosphere. We're actually touching the sun with humanity's first mission to a star," Westlake added.The moment NASA has been waiting forThe Christmas Eve flyby is the moment the mission has been building up to for years."This close approach is only possible because of the mission's orbital design," a NASA spokesperson told Business Insider via email."The spacecraft had to shed a lot of orbital energy to get this close to the sun, so that's why it took several years," the spokesperson added.Over the years the Parker Solar Probe, about the size of a small car, has made increasingly close flybys.For example, in September 2020, it flew within 8.4 million miles of the solar surface. By September 2023, it reached within 4.5 million miles.When the spacecraft makes these close approaches, it cuts communication with Earth and flies autonomously, guiding itself through the sun's harsh upper atmosphere until it's far enough away to reestablish coms.NASA last heard from Parker Solar Probe on December 22 and expects to hear from it again around midnight between Thursday and Friday, Nour Rawafi, Parker Solar Probe project scientist at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, said during a recent NASA livestream.While flying so close to the sun doesn't hold any promise of discovering alien life there or paving the way for future crewed missions to walk on the solar surface, the Parker Solar Probe's mission is, arguably, more important.Here's what you need to know about this historic mission and how it could help humanity solve some of the world's biggest questions.Parker Solar Probe is helping us answer the big questionsIt may appear calm and quiet from far away, but the sun is a turbulent sphere of activity. It's got solar flares and massive eruptions that fire fast-moving, charged particles deep into our solar system."Without that activity, we would not exist. That activity is really necessary for life to kick off," Rawafi said during NASA's livestream.So, on a grand scale, understanding how our sun works can help us better understand how life originated on Earth and where it might exist elsewhere in the universe.Also, by studying our own star up close, we can learn how other stars in the universe interact "with the billions and billions of other planets that may or may not be like our own planets," Alex Young, associate director for science communication in NASA's Heliophysics Science Division, said during the livestream.Wishing for the biggest explosion everRawafi said the best gift the sun could give scientists during Parker Solar Probe's coming approach is "one of the strongest explosions ever."The sun is currently at asolar maximum a period of peak solar magnetic activity lasting one to two years and causing powerful flares, eruptions, and ejections.Sometimes, the charged particles from these eruptions reach Earth. When that happens, it candisrupt satellites, mess with GPS, and subsequently ground flights. It can also expose astronauts to high levels of space radiation.As we continue to launch more satellites and people into space, these solar events are a growing threat. Yet, scientists don't have a highly accurate forecasting model for warning satellite operators and astronauts far in advance.That's why Rawafi wants a big explosion: The probe would be in a perfect position to study the event mere moments after it occurs, offering scientists swaths of data that could help inform and improve forecasting models.Parker Solar Probe has already collected so much data during its years of operation that it will take decades to study it all, Rawafi said at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in early December.According to NASA, the spacecraft is scheduled to complete 24 orbits around the sun, with its last two planned for 2025.

Russian President Vladimir Putin maintains alliances despite sanctions, keeping Russia's economy afloat.Countries like India and Vietnam balance relations with both Russia and the West.These alliances are crucial for Russia to navigate trade restrictions and economic challenges.Russian President Vladimir Putin may be heavily sanctioned and running a country that faces sweeping trade restrictions, but he still has friends.Russia's friends or frenemies aren't all pariah states or US rivals. Some of them, like India and Vietnam, have good relations with the West, too."Putin is eyeing strategic swing nations like India, which opposes China and trades with Russia," Sean McFate, a military strategist and author of "The New Rules of War," told Business Insider in September.Moscow is also trying to emerge from diplomatic isolation, looking to forge strategic relationships beyond autocratic partners like China, North Korea, and Iran, he said.Still, among the nations Putin has been cozying up to, some are more important to Russia because they keep trade humming.These are five key countries for Russia's sanctions-skirting economy:

"Snow White" is set for March 21, 2025.Snow White is the original Disney princess. Disney/"Snow White" Disney is working on a live-action version of its first animated classic, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Marc Webb ("The Amazing Spider-Man") directs the upcoming adaptation with "West Side Story" star Rachel Zegler playing the iconic Disney princess. Gal Gadot assumes the role of her stepmother, the Evil Queen."Snow White is the girl you remember, but she's definitely made for the modern age," Zegler told the D23 crowd in 2022. "There's such an emphasis on what it really means to be the fairest of them all. For Snow White, it's coming to terms with finding herself and finding her inner voice and finding a sense of agency so that she can be a just ruler and a wonderful queen."The fairy tale will have new music by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who wrote the songs for "The Greatest Showman" and "La La Land." Disney will release a live-action adaptation of "Lilo & Stitch" on May 23, 2025.Stitch and Lilo are coming to the big screen. Walt Disney Emmy winner Courtney B. Vance will play Cobra Bubbles in the film, according to Deadline. Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen will also star. Maia Kealoha will play Lilo. Dean Fleischer Camp ("Marcel the Shell With Shoes On") will direct.The director of the original movie, Chris Sanders ("The Wild Robot"), will return to once more voice Stitch. "Moana" will be released July 10, 2026."Moana" will get the live-action treatment. Disney Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson announced Disney's working on a live-action "Moana" during a pre-recorded video for a Disney shareholders meeting in early April 2023.Johnson will reprise his role from the hit 2016 movie as Maui."I'm deeply humbled and overcome with gratitude to bring the beautiful story of 'Moana' to the live-action big screen," Johnson said in a statement released by Disney."This story is my culture, and this story is emblematic of our people's grace and warrior strength," he added. "I wear this culture proudly on my skin and in my soul, and this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reunite with Maui, inspired by the mana and spirit of my late grandfather, High Chief Peter Maivia, is one that runs very deep for me."Auli'i Cravalho announced on Instagram she won't reprise her role as the Disney princess. Instead, she'll serve as an executive producer.This follows the animated box office hit "Moana 2" released at the end of 2024, which has become the studio's "hottest IP." A live-action "Hercules" is expected to get a theatrical release."Hercules" came out in 1997. Walt Disney Animatino The DisInsider first reported the 1997 animated film about the son of Zeus will get a live-action remake.According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Avengers: Endgame" directors Anthony and Joe Russo will produce, but not direct, the film. Guy Ritichie, who directed "Aladdin," will direct.Joe Russo described the film in November 2022 as a musical that will be "a little bit more experimental in tone."Danny DeVito and James Woods lent their voices in the animated film. Ariana Grande performed a solo six-part harmony of the movie's "I Won't Say I'm In Love" in 2020, prompting many fans to suggest she'd be the perfect Meg. It's unclear at this time whether music will be a part of the film. Disney is working on an adaptation of 1996's "Hunchback of Notre Dame," but it's in limbo.Quasimodo is going to get his time to shine. Disney Deadline reported in 2019 that a live-action version of Disney's 1996 movie about an orphaned Quasimodo living in the bell tower of Notre Dame was in the works. Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, who teamed up on "Pocahontas," will write the music, while Josh Gad ("Frozen") is producing.Deadline reports the live-action film will adapt both the 1996 Disney film and the Victor Hugo novel. It's not clear whether or not the remake will be for Disney's streaming service or a theatrical release.Gad has said the script is "one of the best" he has read and expressed his hope that Disney will let them make the live-action adaptation.In May 2023, Menken gave ComicBook.com an update: "It's a tough one, because the Hunchback movie, Hunchback story involves a lot of real, real issues that are important issues and should be explored to be discussed. And there has to be an agreement about how we deal with those issues... It sits in this limbo right now." "Robin Hood" is getting remade for Disney+.The animated "Robin Hood" is currently available to stream on Disney Plus. Disney According to The Hollywood Reporter, the remake will be directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada and will head to Disney+.In June 2022, Chris Evans said he'd love "a crack" at playing the character since he's a big fan of the animated film. A sequel to the live-action "Aladdin" may still be in the works, but the star doesn't seem hopeful.You can't have an "Aladdin" sequel without Will Smith. Disney Variety reported that John Gatins and Andrea Berloff are writing a sequel to the 2019 film with producers Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich returning.Lin told Business Insider in August 2019 they were discussing a sequel."I can't talk too much about the sequel just yet, but know that we are hearing fans' desires to see another 'Aladdin' movie and feel like there's more story to tell," Lin told BI after the film crossed $1 billion at the box office.Director Guy Ritchie told Collider in February 2023 he "would very much like to" return for a sequel, adding they've "been kicking some ideas around."However, in March, star Mena Massoud sounded less hopeful, telling fans on Twitter a sequel was "very unlikely at this point."Disney released two popular direct-to-video sequels for "Aladdin" in the '90s, including "The Return of Jafar" and "Aladdin and the King of Thieves." Variety reported the sequel will be completely original and not based on the straight-to-video films.Disney has not officially announced the sequel. An Aladdin spinoff, featuring Prince Anders, is in development at Disney+.Billy Magnussen will be back as the aloof Prince Anders. Disney In 2019, THR reported that Billy Magnussen's "Aladdin" character would get his own spin-off movie on Disney Plus. The film is not supposed to be a sequel.Anders is a prince who unsuccessfully sought Princess Jasmine's hand in marriage in the 2019 film.In May 2022, Magnussen told Screen Rant the film was still moving forward and in the process of rewrites. Disney is reportedly remaking 1963's "The Sword in the Stone," which follows a young King Arthur and his lessons with the wizard Merlin.The moment the young Arthur reaches for the sword is iconic. Disney The remake will be written by "Game of Thrones" writer and producer Bryan Cogman. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo was named as the director in January 2018.In 2024, Fresnadillo, who directed the Netflix movie "Damsel," gave an update to Collider on the project: "I was attached a long time ago, and I prepped a lot for Disney for that movie. I don't know exactly what happened, but the studio decided to hold the project. So right now it's in a holding situation, and I don't know what's going to happen, to be honest. But I think it's a great story. I would be so keen to make it if they decided to greenlight the project." "Bambi" will be getting remade for a new generation.The Prince of the forest is getting his own Disney movie. Disney According to Variety, the remake of the 1942 film won't be live-action with a real deer, rabbit, and skunk. Disney will utilize the technology that helped bring "The Lion King" remake to life to look photorealistic.In 2023, Deadline reported that Sarah Polley ("Women Talking") was on board to direct, but a year later The Wrap reported that she had exited the project. We haven't heard updates on the rest of these films in a while. "The Jungle Book" sequel was originally announced years ago.Plan on seeing more of Baloo and Mowgli. Disney Before the release of Disney's remake of 1961's "The Jungle Book," the studio already started planning a sequel. The movie was a huge success, grossing nearly $1 billion at the box office.According to The Hollywood Reporter in 2016, Jon Favreau was expected to return to the director's chair for "The Jungle Book 2" along with Justin Marks to return for the sequel. There is no set release date for the movie.Peter Pan's fairy companion Tinker Bell was reportedly getting her own live-action film, too.Tinker Bell may finally get her own live-action movie. RKO Radio Pictures/Disney The Hollywood Reporterwrote about a movie in 2015 that would star Reese Witherspoon. Disney was reportedly in talks to remake Roald Dahl's "James and the Giant Peach," which was adapted as a stop-motion film in 1996.Would you want to see a "James and the Giant Peach" movie? Disney No new information has been released since 2016.

The dramatic summer feud among the cast of It Ends With Us took a darker turn last week when Blake Lively accused Justin Baldoni, the movies costar and director, of sexual harassment on set and a subsequent plot to tarnish her reputation. On Friday, Lively filed a legal complaint against Baldoni, his studio Wayfarer, Wayfarer CEO Jamey Heath, and others alleging a smear campaign and detailing numerous instances of sexual harassment she allegedly endured while making the film. In addition to the legal complaint filed with the California Civil Rights Department which precedes a lawsuit the New York Times published a story that detailed allegations of behind-the-scenes texts and a strategy between Baldoni and his crisis PR firm that expressed a desire to bury Lively. I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted, Lively said in a statement. Livelys legal filing alleges deplorable behavior from Baldoni and Heath and sheds light on what was previously categorized as a feud between the two stars. But it also shows the inner workings of crisis management the nefarious tactics publicists deploy to shape the narrative around celebrity and perhaps more strikingly, how incredibly easy their job is when social media users are primed to turn against a female celebrity. Blake Livelys legal filing alleges a hostile work environmentThe biggest revelation about the filming experience from Livelys legal complaint is a January 4 It Ends With Us all hands with high-level executives during the middle of production. At the meeting, Lively claimed that Baldoni and Heath, also a producer of the movie, had created a hostile work environment and subjected her to inappropriate behavior and sexual harassment; she and the rest of the cast and crew would not return to set until their behavior was addressed. Among Livelys allegations were that Baldoni improvised kissing scenes, that Heath had shown her a nude picture of his wife, that both talked about their past porn addictions, and that Baldoni and Heath had each walked into her trailer uninvited while she was changing, nude, or breastfeeding. According to Livelys filing, the meeting included a 30-point conduct improvement plan for Baldoni and Heath. The points address the aforementioned alleged behavior and include other guidelines like: No more pressing by Mr. Baldoni to sage any of BLs (Blake Lively) employees and No more inquiries by Mr. Baldoni to BL trainer without her knowledge or consent to disclose her weight.Hugh Jackman, Blake Lively, and Ryan Reynolds attend the It Ends With Us New York Premiere. Lively and co-star Baldoni did not attend premieres together. (Photo by Gotham/WireImage)After the meeting, Wayfarer brought an intimacy coordinator on set and conditions improved enough that Lively finished filming. Lively also asserts that in the final stages of production, she made her own cut of It Ends With Us a version that Sony and Wayfarer ultimately went with. That decision gave her a producing credit, a bigger role in the making of the movie. The key to understanding this complaint and, seemingly, the fight over this movie is that Lively claims that Baldoni and Heath were worried that Livelys allegations would eventually surface and damage their reputations. Because they believed that Lively could pull the trigger at any moment, Lively alleges, Baldoni hired crisis PR to effectively smear her. Justin Baldoni allegedly hired a crisis management firm to employ gross tactics against his costarWhile Lively and Bandoni are the faces of the It Ends With Us debacle, the most incendiary figure of the complaint is Melissa Nathan, the crisis management expert Baldoni hired. Publicists like Nathan are very important in Hollywood because celebrities images are so valuable. Actors and actresses careers depend on how marketable they are, and bad stories about said actors and actresses threaten their livelihoods. Nathan, who has also helped rehab clients like Johnny Depp and Travis Scott, makes those stories go away. Nathans connections in the media seemed to help facilitate her work her sister, Sara Nathan, for instance, is a journalist at the New York Post and the two allegedly coordinated on Page Sixs coverage of the feud, according to the filing. Livelys filing also alleges via text messages and emails reportedly obtained through a subpoena an interaction in which Nathan sent around a Daily Mail article with the headline: Is Blake Lively set to be CANCELLED? String of hard to watch videos that have surfaced following tone deaf Q&A to promote It Ends With Us could tarnish 36-year-old stars golden Hollywood image for good. To be clear, it is not your imagination nor a hallucination; Daily Mail headlines are almost always that long and almost always find a way to mention an actresss age in a menacing way. You really outdid yourself with this piece, a text from Jennifer Abel appears to read, a PR executive working with Wayfarer and Baldoni, to Nathan. Thats why you hired me right? Im the best, Nathan seemingly wrote back. You know we can bury anyone, Nathan appeared to write in another message that surfaced in Livelys filing. In addition, Nathan also allegedly presented Baldoni with an entire takedown plan that included teams that would monitor and post stories on Reddit and social media, as well as the hiring of Jed Wallace, a Texas-based contractor who was in charge of creating content that appeared to be authentic but was actually Baldoni PR that was designed to go viral. Justin Baldoni speaks onstage at the Vital Voices 12th Annual Voices of Solidarity Awards this month. Getty Images for Vital VoicesWhile Nathan and her teams communications appear to be incendiary, sometimes stopping just short of a cartoon villain going Muahahahaha, the odd wrinkle to this story is that it seems as though Baldoni needs her services more than ever the allegations of his films toxic work environment are out in the open while Nathan, Wallace, and Abels alleged machinations on his behalf have also been made public. How much of Blake Livelys reputational hit was a smear campaign and how much of it is misogynyLivelys filing argues that the work of Nathan and her associates is directly responsible for the tarnishing of her reputation. The filing alleges that Nathan delivered a proposal to Baldoni detailing how her team would shift the narrative against Lively engage with audiences in the right way, start threads of theories this is the way to be fully 100% protected. But its a little difficult to parse who was doing what and how much of a hand Nathan, Abel, and Wallace had in public opinion. Aside from a few instances of stories showing up in trade and tabloid publications, the legal filing doesnt specifically get into what Nathan and Wallace did and didnt seed. And while Livelys assertion that Nathan is a master social media manipulator, it is giving a lot of credit to someone who allegedly gave the Daily Mail a tip.Further, Livelys It Ends With Us promotion was a disaster, partly due to the fact that a film about domestic violence and Livelys desire to simultaneously promote her other ventures a hair care company, an alcohol company, her husband Ryan Reynoldss projects were always going to be at odds. (The filing alleges that the marketing directive was to focus on the more hopeful and empowering aspects of the movie rather than the films serious, domestic violence subject matter.) While Nathan seemingly was, to whatever degree, trying to manipulate the press, she wasnt responsible for Livelys conduct or the fact that her reputation already seemed to be on the downturn. Plus, Nathans alleged campaign was no doubt helped along by social medias ingrained misogyny and its habit of cyclically turning on female celebrities. At one point during the initial release of the film, Nathan appeared to express her glee and surprise at how the narrative had shifted. Baldoni doesnt realise how lucky he is right now. We need to press on him just how fucking lucky, Nathan allegedly wrote to Abel in October 2024. The majority of socials are so pro Justin and I dont even agree with half of them lol, Nathan added that same month. The socials Nathan is referring to seem to be, in some part, stan accounts social media fan accounts run by people online who relentlessly attack others who dont share their point of view about a given celebrity or cultural property. More details are sure to come out, but for now it appears as though Baldoni paid people to do a smear job but a lot of people online did a better job for free. Youve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More: Culture

By Thomas Maxwell Published December 23, 2024 | Comments (0) | Microsoft is looking to reduce its reliance on ChatGPT. Sean Gallup/Getty Images Microsoft and OpenAI have had something of a symbiotic relationship, with the former giving billions of capital to a startup AI lab and in return gaining early access to cutting-edge models that are now baked into Microsofts suite of productivity software. The two companies have been headed in diverging directions, however, and Reuters reported today that Microsoft is looking to add more models to its 365 Copilot product that arent built by OpenAI. The reasoning, according to the report, is that Microsoft sees OpenAIs cutting-edge GPT-4 model as too expensive and not fast enough to satisfy its enterprise customers. Copilot 365 is an AI-powered assistant built into Microsofts suite of productivity applications including Word and PowerPoint. The tool is supposed to ingest all of a companys data and do a myriad of things, like give users the ability to quickly find information without needing to hunt through disparate apps; quickly generate a list of the companys most profitable business units; or instantaneously summarize meetings and emails.It is supposed to do those things, but customers and insiders alike are still underwhelmed by Copilot 365, which costs an extra $30 per month per user on a team. In a recent Business Insider story, employees of Microsoft speaking anonymously called the tools terrible and gimmicky, not working well 75% of the time. On the customer front, Business Insider cited a survey of 123 IT leaders published by management consultancy Gartner, which found only four said Copilot provided significant value to their companies. It should be noted some other stories have reported on companies that have found value in using large language models, such as by simplifying customer support. Some customers who spoke to Business Insider specifically noted that 365 Copilot is too expensive.OpenAIs ChatGPT is a frontier, general model, meaning it is trained on vast swaths of data and can be more expensive and slow to run; that is why most models are offered in lite versions that perform less intensive inference or thinking. Microsoft has been training its own in-house, smaller models like one called Phi-4, and Reuters reports that sources speaking to the outlet said the company is looking to customize other open-weight models to make 365 Copilot faster and more efficient. In one sense, it makes sense that Microsoft would want to reduce its reliance on OpenAI. If the company is right and AI is going to be the next generational change in computing, relying on an independent company for the core technology is not a great idea.Microsoft has plowed billions of dollars into OpenAI and will receive 75% of its profits until it makes it breaks even on its investment, and even then will still hold a large stake in the startup. The company in effect gets to hedge its betsbuild its own in-house models while keeping a lottery ticket in OpenAI in case it continues on its current skyward trajectory. Despite being the front-runner today, some skeptics of OpenAI say that we may not know a true winner in the AI race yet (should these technologies be as revolutionary as we are told to believe). In the same way that there were numerous search engines that came online in the 90s, only to be quickly trounced when the latecomer Google showed up. Microsoft is likely wise to hedge.Daily NewsletterYou May Also Like By AJ Dellinger Published December 23, 2024 By Thomas Maxwell Published December 23, 2024 By Matt Novak Published December 23, 2024 By Thomas Maxwell Published December 20, 2024 By Thomas Maxwell Published December 20, 2024 By Thomas Maxwell Published December 20, 2024

Frieren: Beyond Journeys End is a show where mana is the universal measure of a mages power and pride. Its their greatest metric for gauging opponents, but its concealment is perceived as a lose-lose situation. In Frierens case, its mastery makes her a formidable mage, yet at the same time, its also a cultural and philosophical affront to both demons and mages.

Disney Dreamlight Valley's The Storybook Vale DLC is bursting with cooking recipes to try, including appetizers, entres, and desserts. One of its Disney Dreamlight Valley cookie recipes is Nutmeg Cookies, a classic twist on the game's more classic cookie recipes. With the Vale introducing the villainous Haydes into the mix, the presence of nutmeg in the game might also bring to mind the moment Haydes nicknames Meg his "little nut-Meg" in Disney's Hercules movie. Of course, with so many recipes and ingredients to discover, you might wonder how to make Nutmeg Cookies in Disney Dreamlight Valley and where to get everything you need.