Second Jeju Air plane experiences landing gear malfunction, same Boeing model involved Published: 30 Dec. 2024, 10:08 Updated: 30 Dec. 2024, 10:22 Jeju Air's Boeing 737-800 [YONHAP] A day after a Jeju Air passenger plane crashed at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla, another Jeju Air airplane, also a Boeing 737-800, experienced a landing gear malfunction. Jeju Air Flight 7C 101, which departed from Gimpo International Airport at 6:37 a.m. on Monday with 161 passengers, reported a landing gear malfunction shortly after takeoff and was forced to return to the airport, according to airline industry sources on Monday. Related Article The passengers were transferred to another aircraft anddeparted for Jeju Island at 8:30 a.m. The aircraft involved was a Boeing 737-800, the same model as the one in Sunday's crash, one of the deadliest aviation disasters on Korean soil. Jeju Air Flight 7C 2216, a Boeing 737-800 returning from Bangkok, Thailand, with 175 passengers and six crew members, veered off the runway after a crash landing at 9:03 a.m. on Sunday. The plane collided with a perimeter fence at the airport and exploded upon impact. Fire authorities confirmed 179 fatalities as of 9 p.m. Sunday, with two crew members injured. Initial investigations suggest a malfunction in all three landing gear systems was the primary cause of the tragic accident. A bird strike is also suspected to have caused the landing gear to fail. Jeju Air currently operates 39 Boeing 737-800s out of its fleet of 41. "The turnaround was a necessary measure for safe operation," a Jeju Air official said. "We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused to our passengers." BY WOO JI-WON [[emailprotected]]

While I generally feel like acquisitions are almost always bad for consumers, with Digital Eclipse and Nightdive Atari really did a great job pulling together developers that were kind of naturally aligned to what modern Atari was attempting anyway.I'm really impressed with their recent projects, especially the Karateka and Llamasoft collections, along with Tetris Forever. They definitely are bringing a refreshing take to retro collections lately and I am here for it!

Image: ConcernedApeWe all know Stardew Valley has been a runaway success ever since it released on PC in 2016. But it continues to sell gangbusters across multiple platforms, and as of December 2024, has reached an absolutely huge milestone.The farming sim has now sold 41 million copies, ConcernedApe announced on the official Stardew Valley press site. While most of those copies are on PC 26 million, even the Switch got a special shoutout, where a further 7.9 million copies have been purchased.Let's put those numbers into context for a second. Back in February, ConcernedApe confirmed that the game had sold over 30 million copies. That means, in 2024 alone, Stardew Valley has sold around 10 million copies.That also means that, over the past 12 months, Stardew Valley has overtaken the likes of Mario Kart Wii, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Tetris (on Game Boy), Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Wii Sports Resort. It's now the 15th best-selling game of all time.Of course, it's available on just about every console out there, and it's also extremely cheap at under USD $15, but 41 million copies in 8 years is extremely impressive.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube790kWatch on YouTube Part of the big uptick in sales in 2024 may be down to the latest free update, which landed on Switch in November 2024. 1.6 adds new events, a new farm layout, new pets, a whole new skill system, and tons more. It's probably the biggest update yet, and that says a lot when 1.5 added Ginger Island. Oh, and it's free.ConcernedApe could be sitting back and relaxing at this point, but he's hard at work on his next game, Haunted Chocolatier, which is coming out... at some point!Are you one of the many who have played Stardew Valley? Let us know what you think of these sales in the comments. Back to the farm we go[source stardewvalley.net]Related GamesSee AlsoShare:02 Alana has been with Nintendo Life since 2022, and while RPGs are her first love, Nintendo is a close second. She enjoys nothing more than overthinking battle strategies, characters, and stories. She also wishes she was a Sega air pirate. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related Articles161 Games You Should Pick Up In Nintendo's 'Hits For The Holidays' eShop Sale (North America)Every game we scored 9/10 or higher54 Games You Should Pick Up In The Nintendo Switch eShop Holiday Sale (Europe)Every game we scored 9/10 or higherMultiple Cartoon Network Games Have Been Removed From The Switch eShopMerry Christmas!Nintendo Reveals Japan's "Top 30" Most Downloaded Switch eShop Games Of 2024Suika Game takes out the top spotLevel-5 CEO Shares Another Update About Its 2025 Switch Game ScheduleThe CEO hopes 2025 will be a "breakthrough year"

Encode, the nonprofit organization that co-sponsored Californias ill-fated SB 1047 AI safety legislation, has requested permission to file an amicus brief in support of Elon Musks injunction to halt OpenAIs transition to a for-profit company.In a proposed brief submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Friday afternoon, counsel for Encode said that OpenAIs conversion to a for-profit would undermine the firms mission to develop and deploy transformative technology in a way that is safe and beneficial to the public.OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, claim to be developing society-transforming technology, and those claims should be taken seriously, the brief read. If the world truly is at the cusp of a new age of artificial general intelligence (AGI), then the public has a profound interest in having that technology controlled by a public charity legally bound to prioritize safety and the public benefit rather than an organization focused on generating financial returns for a few privileged investors.In a statement, Sneha Revanur, Encodes founder and president, accused OpenAI of internalizing the profits [of AI] but externalizing the consequences to all of humanity, and said that [t]he courts must intervene to ensure AI development serves the public interest.Encodes brief has garnered the support of Geoffrey Hinton, a pioneer in the AI field and 2024 Nobel Laureate, and UC Berkeley computer science professor and director at the Center for Human-Compatible AI Stuart Russell. OpenAI was founded as an explicitly safety-focused nonprofit and made a variety of safety-related promises in its charter, Hinton said in a press release. It received numerous tax and other benefits from its nonprofit status. Allowing it to tear all of that up when it becomes inconvenient sends a very bad message to other actors in the ecosystem.OpenAI was launched in 2015 as a nonprofit research lab. But as its experiments became increasingly capital-intensive, itcreatedits current structure, taking on outside investments from VCs and companies,includingMicrosoft.Today, OpenAI has a hybrid structure: a for-profit side controlled by a nonprofit with a capped profit share for investors and employees. But in ablog post this morning, the company said it plans to begin transitioning its existing for-profit into a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation (PBC), with ordinary shares of stock and the OpenAI mission as its public benefit interest.OpenAIs nonprofit will remain but will cede control in exchange for shares in the PBC.Musk, an early contributor to the original nonprofit entity,filed suit in November requesting an injunction to halt the proposed change, which has long been in the works. He accused OpenAI of abandoning its original philanthropic mission of making the fruits of its AI research available to all, and of depriving rivals of capital including his AI startup, xAI through anticompetitive means.OpenAI hascalledMusks complaints baseless and simply a case of sour grapes.Facebooks parent company and AI rival, Meta, is also supporting efforts to block OpenAIs conversion. In December, Metasenta letter to California attorney general Rob Bonta, arguing that allowing the shift would have seismic implications for Silicon Valley.Lawyers for Encode said that OpenAIs plans to transfer control of its operations to a PBC would convert an organization bound by law to ensure the safety of advanced AI into one bound by law to balance its consideration of any public benefit against the pecuniary interests of [its] stockholders.Encodes counsel notes in the brief, for example, that OpenAIs nonprofit has committed to stop competing with any value-aligned, safety-conscious project that comes close to building AGI before it does, but that OpenAI as a for-profit would have less (if any) incentive to do so. The brief also points out that the nonprofit OpenAIs board will no longer be able to cancel investors equity if needed for safety once the companys restructuring is completed.OpenAI continues to experience anoutflowofhigh-leveltalentdue in part to concerns that the company is prioritizing commercial products at the expense of safety. One former employee, Miles Brundage, a longtime policy researcher who left OpenAI in October, said in a series of posts on X that he worries about OpenAIs nonprofit becoming a side thing that gives license to the PBC to operate as a normal company without addressing potentially problematic areas.OpenAIs touted fiduciary duty to humanity would evaporate, as Delaware law is clear that the directors of a PBC owe no duty to the public at all, Encodes brief continued. The public interest would be harmed by a safety-focused, mission-constrained nonprofit relinquishing control over something so transformative at any price to a for-profit enterprise with no enforceable commitment to safety.Encode, founded in July 2020 by Revanur, describes itself as a network of volunteers focused on ensuring voices of younger generations are heard in conversations about AIs impacts. Encode has contributed to various pieces of AI state and federal legislation in addition to SB 1047, including the White Houses AI Bill of Rights and President Joe Bidens executive order on AI.Updated December 30, 10:10 a.m. Pacific with statements from Revanur and Hinton. TechCrunch has an AI-focused newsletter! Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday.

Apple is allowing anyone to access its Apple TV+ streaming service for free this weekend, from January 3 to 5. The company made the announcement on Monday alongside a short video featuring its most popular TV shows, including Severance, Slow Horses, Shrinking, and more.Its worth noting that this is the first time that Apple has offered something like this. The announcement comes a few days after Apple TV+ began teasing that it was planning to open up its content to non-subscribers.A weekend is enough time to binge-watch some of Apples most popular shows, especially Severance, which is returning for its highly anticipated second season on January 17.Although Apples tweet announcing the promotion says Apple TV+ will be free to stream on January 4 and 5, Apples official press release says it will be available for free from January 3 to 5. By opening up access to its content, Apple is likely hoping that people will explore its TV shows and then eventually sign up for a subscription to keep up with the show or check out the rest of the streaming services library of content. The company says Apple TV+ will be free on any device where Apple TV+ is available, and that all you will need is an Apple ID to access the streaming service.Apple TV+ is priced at $9.99 per month, and allows up to six members of a Family Sharing group to watch content under a single subscription.

Bench, the VC-backed accounting startup that left thousands of customers locked out of their accounts after it suddenly shut down last week, will be acquired by Employer.com for an undisclosed price in a last-minute deal, TechCrunch has exclusively learned.The San Francisco-based HR tech company Employer.com focuses on payroll and onboarding, in contrast to Bench, which specializes in accounting and tax. Employer.coms chief marketing officer Matt Charney told TechCrunch the company will revive Benchs platform and provide instructions for customers to login and obtain their data imminently.Customers will be given the choice to port their data or keep their service under new ownership, Charney told TechCrunch. Benchs previous recommendation to file for a six month extension with the Internal Revenue Service to look for a new bookkeeper is no longer needed if customers decide to stay on, Employer.com confirmed.Benchs website, which is still offline at the time of writing, previously touted more than 35,000 American small business owners on its platform, according to an archived copy. (Post-publication, Employer.com told TechCrunch that Bench has approximately 12,000 customers.) Benchs website currently reads: More information on how to continue your services will be available soon. The startups abrupt shutdown on Friday caused chaos, with customers finding themselves locked out of their accounts right as tax season is set to begin, and emails from TechCrunch to Bench employees bouncing back.TechCrunch confirmed the acquisition with a Bench board member. Neither Bench nor Employer.com would comment on the acquisition price.Employer.com is a new company: Its CEO, Jesse Tinsley announced his acquisition of the domain name in November for about $450,000. Tinsley is behind a host of HR, onboarding, and recruiting-related businesses, including Recruiter.com and BountyJobs. In a post on December 11, Tinsley said that the company is still acquiring companies in the HR space. Employer.com is not VC-backed and is entirely self-funded, Charney told TechCrunch.In a statement announcing the acquisition, Employer.com said Bench customers can expect to continue working with the same expert in-house bookkeepers they know and trust.This acquisition ensures that Bench customers can continue relying on the same high-quality service theyve always received, while also opening the door to future enhancements and capabilities powered by Employer.coms extensive resources, Employer.coms statement said.That may be tricky in practice. Bench employed more than 600 people, according to its website, some of whom posted on LinkedIn after the shutdown notice that they were now looking for work. Bench is now starting to call many but not all of its employees back to work to ensure continuity, Jennifer Bouyoukos, Benchs chief people officer, told TechCrunch.TechCrunch archived Benchs original shutdown notice from December 27 below: A copy of the Bench notice of service closure on December 27, 2024.Image Credits:TechCrunch (screenshot)Topics

Breakdown & ShowreelsIF: Character Breakdown by FramestoreBy Vincent Frei - 30/12/2024 Lets dive back into the magical world of IF! Framestore brings the story to life with an incredible lineup of adorable, intricately designed characters. From their expressive animations to their charming details, these creations will steal your heart!WANT TO KNOW MORE?Framestore: Dedicated page about IF on Framestore website.Chris Lawrence & Arslan Elver: Heres my interview of Chris Lawrence (Production VFX Supervisor) & Arslan Elver (Animation Supervisor) at Framestore. Vincent Frei The Art of VFX 2024

Want More?VDB SimulationsIf you want tons of fire and smoke simulations, but dont want to spend all of the time rendering them procedurally, check out our VDB packs. We did all of the simulating, and you will receive a file that you can drag-and-drop into your project. Theyre much faster to use, much more detailed, and the results are incredible. We have almost 2,000 of them in our store, so check them out!

Perhaps one of the most resounding and uplifting images of U.S. politicians these past tumultuous years has been that of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Even well into his nineties, he banged a hammer, getting up on roofs, building houses, all while wearing blue dungarees like Bruce Springsteen. Carter was a longtime volunteer at Habitat for Humanity and a dogged environmentalist which did much set the country straight toward a green future. Carter died this weekend at age 100. News of the former presidents death was confirmed by The Carter Center. The 2002 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate passed at his home surrounded by family in Plains, Georgia, making him the longest-living U.S. president.My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love, Chip Carter, the presidents son, said in a statement. My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.Carter volunteered for Habitat for Humanity well into his nineties. (Courtesy Habitat for Humanity)James Earl Carter Jr. was born in 1924 in Plains, Georgia. In 1946, he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy. He married his wife, Rosalynn Smith, that same year.In 1953, Carter left the U.S. Navy to manage his fathers peanut farm. In 1963, he successfully ran for a Georgia State Senate seat. Carter operated the peanut farm while serving in the state senate. He subsequently served as Governor of Georgia between 1971 and 1975. Carter was elected U.S. President in 1977. In 1978, under Carters tutelage, Congress authorized the Solar Photovoltaic Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 1978. This legislation granted time and resources for scientists to explore solar irradiance (sunlight) as an alternative to fossil fuels.Leading the ChargeCarter said he wanted to harness the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil. That same year, May 3 forever became Sun Day. Carter didnt mince any words when he said his goal was to wage the moral equivalent of war on the energy crisis at hand. This pioneering investment was made famous when, in 1979, Carter had 32 photovoltaic panels installed on the West Wings roof. These same photovoltaic panels however were famously taken down by his successor, Ronald Reagan, after moving in. (Ironically, George H. W. Bush reinstalled solar panels at the White House in 2003 to help heat the pool, albeit quietly, and then Barack Obama added more to the roof in 2013.)The Carter Presidential Center was built in 1986 and designed by Henri Vatable Jova, Stanley Daniels, and John Busby, reputable Atlanta architects. (Nicolas Henderson/Flickr/CC BY 2.0)While in office, Carter ensured that more than a dozen new parks were added to the National Park Services purview. Carter placed special emphasis on nature reserves in Alaska, where oil tycoons sought to plunder. In 1980, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act was approved, putting much land in Alaska under public management.Habitat for Humanity WorkCarter lost to Reagan in 1981. After, The Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project was founded in 1984 as an offshoot of Habitat for Humanity. That program started in Georgia as a one-off, but eventually spread out into 15 countries around the world, becoming an annual affair. The program ultimately built and renovated 4,390 homes. Its gathered more than 104,000 volunteers.We are deeply saddened by President Carters passing, and our prayers are with the Carter family, Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity International, said in a statement. President and Mrs. Carter began volunteering with Habitat for Humanity near their home in southwest Georgia more than 40 years ago, and soon brought worldwide attention to the need for decent and affordable housing. Reckford continued: We are grateful for the incredible impact the Carters have had on Habitat and on the families who have benefited from their shining example. The Carters put Habitat for Humanity on the map, and their legacy lives on in every family we serve around the world.In the early 1980s, construction started on the Jimmy Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta. A local firm ran by Henri Vatable Jova, Stanley Daniels, and John Busby designed the building together with Hawaii-based Lawton, Umemura, Yamamoto. In 1986, the same year the Carter Presidential Center completed, Reagan shut down research into renewable energy. Reagan also prohibited tax breaks for property owners who installed photovoltaic panels and wind turbines. These measures were praised by The Heritage Foundation, but critics argued Reagans antics put the U.S. back on track to be fully dependent on foreign countries for dirty, nonrenewable energy.Peace and PoliticsCarter stayed politically activethroughout the 1990s.In 2002, he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. The committee bestowed the award upon Carter for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter (Courtesy Habitat for Humanity)In 2006, Carter strayed away from his contemporaries in U.S. politics when he used the word Apartheid to describe the situation in Israel and Palestine when speaking to Charlie Rose.Critics like Rashid Khalidi argued however in his book The 100 Years War on Palestine (which President Biden was recently seen brandishing) that the 1978 Camp David Accordswhich Carter helped broker between Israel and Egyptdid much to destabilize the Levant, and ultimately hurt Palestinians.Carter spent much of his nineties volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, and continuing to advise global leaders. His wife, Rosalynn Carter, died on November 19, 2023.Today, Carter is survived by his four children, 11 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren.

STAR/BUTTERWORTH. Photo by Ronaldas Buozis. All images courtesy of the artist, shared with permissionBeams of Light Lance Monumental Architecture in Jun Ongs Astral InstallationsDecember 30, 2024ArtDesignKate MothesIn artist Jun Ongs luminous installations, rays of light pierce through concrete, stone, and steel. In his ongoing Stars series features LED strips that intersect with the human-built environment in monumental, illuminated geometries.Ongs latest piece, HALO, relies on an existing architectural structure to provide a site-specific framework. Beams of light appear to permeate stone and concrete, simultaneously contained by the buildings yet impervious to their solidity.HALO. Photo by YueJin Art MuseumExploring themes of time and space, HALO radiates from within the Xiu De Bai Pavilion, a former Buddhist temple in Yan Shui, Tainan, Taiwan. Built in 1919, the temple has history tracing back to the Qing dynasty and was pivotal in supporting the community, Ong says.Light in Buddhism is an important metaphor for enlightenmentthe awakening or the understanding of truth, says a statement from YueJin Art Museum. Just as Buddha, in addition to sacred figures in other religions, is often portrayed with a bright aura or halo around the head or body, Ong envisions the burst of light as a means of illuminating our surroundings and our past.HALO builds upon a work titled STAR/BUTTERWORTH, which he installed in Penang, Malaysia, in 2015. The artist was inspired by the idiosyncratic designs of Buckminster Fuller, like his geodesic domes, and M.C. Eschers optical illusions. He says, Using only two materialstensile steel cables and LED stripsI manipulated light and architecture to create a colossal object that seemingly burst out of the building like a glitch in time.Detail of HALOFor HALO, Ong created a starburst form that can also be interpreted as a ring of light, reimagining a 2022 piece called STAR/KL, which he installed in brutalist interior in Kuala Lumpur. I hope that the Star series continues to emerge across different cities and cultures and possibly also in interesting terrains, like caves, the desert, or even forests, Ong says.Commissioned byfor the 2024 Yuejin Art Museum Festival, HALO remains on view through February 16. If youre in The Netherlands, you can also see Ongs piece POLARIS on view as part of the Amsterdam Light Festival through January 19. Find more on the artists website and Instagram.Detail of STAR/BUTTERWORTH. Photo by Ronaldas BuozisPOLARISDetail of HALOHALO. Photo by YueJin Art MuseumPOLARIS. Photo by Merce WouthuysenDetail of STAR/BUTTERWORTH. Photo by Ronaldas BuozisDetail of HALO. Photo by YueJin Art MuseumNext article