Behold, the giants! The Hubble Space Telescope has completed a decade of observing Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

How can DNA from a cheek swab determine if someone is closely related to you?

While it may be tempting for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 players to create a class that works well in all situations, sometimes the map design or pace of a match brings out a need to get into the thick of it. As such, a more specialized firearm at close range may prove more effective than a tried-and-true all-rounder.

Fallout 5 is far off on the horizon, but speculating and theorizing about what the next big chapter in the series has in store is compelling. Through the years, Fallout has told gripping post-apocalyptic tales, and the next mainline game will hopefully offer even more insight into an already fascinating world of wastelands and survival.

NieR: Automata may not seem like it, but it has very strict rouge-like mechanics that can greatly set you back if you die in the wrong situation. Dying can lead to permanently losing items that you can spend a lot of time finding and upgrading, which can set back late-game playthroughs.

Amazing unanimous consensus among three chatbots.Continue reading on UX Collective

When I close my eyes and daydream about 2025, I envision a wondrous, carefree future.Oh, the United States just invaded Canada? Sorry, I cant be bothered by that right now. Im deep into the third act of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.RFK Jr. just inexplicably deadlifted a pony on live TV during a White House briefing on bird flu? Ill get to that after I find out whats in this promising locker from a 15-year-old Storage Wars rerun.Call it escapism. Call it nihilism. I dont care: I call it self-care. Its likely going to be a strange year, so Im going to do everything I can to provide some cushioning for my brain. And Im going to start by uncutting the cord and resubscribing to cable TV.Years ago, like most everyone else my age (Im a super old millennial), I made the once bold and empowering decision to cut the cord. As I told Time Warner Cable to kick sand (but not too harshly; after all, I still needed them for my internet connection), I switched my Netflix plan to streaming and settled in for the golden age of on-demand entertainment.A decade ago, the argument against cable was that you were paying for 400 channels when you only wanted 4. But fast-forward to today, and somehow, across my bevy of streaming services, Im paying for 40,000 movies and series when I really only want 40.Or, as Dak Dillon, editor-in-chief of broadcast industry trade pub NewscastStudio, told me, In the olden days you had your cable bundle, you had your 200 channels, and that was it. And now, you have to flip-flop between nine different apps to find the one show you want to watch.Streaming is a veritable Cheesecake Factory menu with 40 pages of subpar options that leave you paralyzedand, ultimately, hangry. So as the world turns, its time to return to simpler times.THE PARADOX OF CHOICEI recently dealt with some medical issues (all good now!), but laid up at a hospital or hotel, it was easy to forget them. Thats because I was rediscovering the sheer bliss of basic cable via fare like MTVs The Challenge. When youre watching cable, you render your smart TV wholly unintelligentand free it from the apps and algorithms that endeavor to think they know what you want to watch (and what they would like you to watch).TV programming is an inexact science dictated by ratings, advertising, the day of the week and hour, and, crucially, the cost of creating shows, which yields a blend of both high-quality drama and low-culture reality TV. Its a soupy mix that is not directly for any one person, but rather a general version of . . . us.The result? Surprise! Delight!A discovery that you havent watched Speed in 20-plus years, and it indeed holds up. The somewhat seismic realization that Independence Day: Resurgence was actually rather forward-thinking as a sequel when it came to its sci-fi world-building.Moreover, like that Cheesecake Factory menu, streaming makes it entirely possible to have too much choice. Which is exactly what psychologist Barry Schwartz espouses in his TED Talk and book, The Paradox of Choice.In his talk, Schwartz offers a study on workplace mutual fund benefits. Its author found that for every 10 additional funds businesses offered employees, the number taking advantage of the benefit dropped by 2%. In other words, he recapped, if a company offered 50 funds, participation dropped off by 10%. Its just too hard to choose. So people didnt. And by that point, they lost out on free money.According to Schwartz, if you do make a choice on something in a sea of options, you end up less happy with the result than if youd had fewer choices to begin withbecause, among other reasons, you wonder whether youve made the correct decision. So you feel regret.Anyway! Its all a roundabout way to say that choice can in fact suck, particularly when youre parsing the aforementioned 40,000 movies when you just want to relax.Life is exhausting. Entertainment shouldnt be.TUNING IN AND TUNING OUTOf course, there are endless other reasons to hate on streaming services these days, which all endured and escalated in 2024.Theres the nightmarish UX. (Ever lose yourself in a rage blackout by trying to accomplish a task as simple as turning subtitles on or off?!) Theres the lazy branding ecosystem, whereby a plus sign stands in for any remotely creative alternative.There are the constant price hikes (seen this year across nearly every platform). The ad-supported tiers on Netflix and elsewhere. The death of the shared password. The bundles! And now the live sporting events that sometimes work.It all feels very much like . . . cable.Still, despite the ubiquity of streaming apps, theyre not exactly all in the black. There are a lot of accounting tricks that make them look like theyre about to reach profitability, Dillon tells me. This year Netflix announced it would stop releasing subscriber numbers; for posterity, at last count, it reported 283 million paid memberships. Dillon adds that cable networks had the boon of two income streams: advertising and carriage fees. Streamers often lack those dual profit centers, and also absorb the costs of marketing, customer supportall these pieces of the process that in the past Charter or Xfinity was responsible for, Dillon says.Of course, that doesnt mean cable is doing great, either. According to Forbes, it flew high into the early 2010s, when it was in 105 millionor 90%of U.S. households. This was the era of Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead. But all that cord-cutting came at a clear cost, and collectively we did cable dirty. As Dillon reported in August, Warner Bros. Discovery announced a $9.1 billion devaluation of its cable biz, Paramount reported a $5.98 billion devaluation of its own, and so on. Still, he noted, analysts predict that a group of some 50 million household subscribers will continue to carry the cable torch forward.Sure, thats likely an army of boomers and others resistant to change, soon to include me. But could cable, like other hallmarks of the 1990s, find itself in Gen Zs embrace? Could the empire truly strike back and disrupt its former disruptors?Ultimately, when it comes to streaming apps and the future, There are too many services, and theres going to be consolidation, Dillon says. Theres just no way that they can keep propping up these services and not making money. That merry-go-round is going to stop spinning pretty soon.All I know is that not long ago, a friend and I went backpacking. We had hiked 8 miles into the forest, and then we ran into a bear and its cubs. It scared the bejesus out of us, and there were no sound campsites nearby, so we turned around and hiked 8 miles out and checked into a hotel. It had cable. Forrest Gump was on. And as my friend reminisced last week when discussing cable, it was like a spa.I look at the calendar and I see some bears coming. There has never been a better time to tune out, and tune in.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a top oil and gas industry trade group aresuing Vermont over its new lawrequiring fossil fuel companies pay a share of the damage caused over several decades by climate change.The federal lawsuit filed Monday asks a state court to prevent Vermont from enforcing the law, which was passed last year. Vermont became the first state in the country to enact the law after it suffered catastrophic summer flooding and damage from other extreme weather. The state is working to estimate the cost of climate change dating back to Jan. 1, 1995.The lawsuit argues the U.S. Constitution precludes the act and that the state law is preempted by the federal Clean Air Act. It also argues that the law violates domestic and foreign commerce clauses by discriminating against the important interest of other states by targeting large energy companies located outside of Vermont.The Chamber and the other plaintiff in the lawsuit, the American Petroleum Institute, argue that the federal government is already addressing climate change. And because greenhouse gases come from billions of individual sources, they argue it is impossible to measure accurately and fairly the impact of emissions from a particular entity in a particular location over decades.Vermont wants to impose massive retroactive penalties going back 30 years for lawful, out-of-state conduct that was regulated by Congress under the Clean Air Act, said Tara Morrissey, senior vice president and deputy chief counsel of the Chambers litigation center. That is unlawful and violates the structure of the U.S. Constitution one state cant try to regulate a global issue best left to the federal government. Vermonts penalties will ultimately raise costs for consumers in Vermont and across the country.A spokesman for the states Agency of Natural Resources said it had not been formally served with this lawsuit.Anthony Iarrapino, a Vermont-based lobbyist with the Conservation Law Foundation, said the lawsuit was the fossil fuel industrys way of trying to avoid accountability for the damage their products have caused in Vermont and beyond.More states are following Vermonts lead holding Big Oil accountable for the disaster recovery and cleanup costs from severe storms fueled by climate change, ensuring that families and businesses no longer have to foot the entire bill time and time again, Iarrapino added.Under the law, the Vermont state treasurer, in consultation with the Agency of Natural Resources, is to issue a report by Jan. 15, 2026, on the total cost to Vermonters and the state from the emission of greenhouse gases from Jan. 1, 1995, to Dec. 31, 2024. The assessment would look at the effects on public health, natural resources, agriculture, economic development, housing and other areas. The state would use federal data to determine the amount of covered greenhouse gas emissions attributed to a fossil fuel company.Its a polluter-pays model affecting companies engaged in the trade or business of extracting fossil fuel or refining crude oil attributable to more than 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions during the time period. The funds could be used by the state for such things as improving stormwater drainage systems; upgrading roads, bridges and railroads; relocating, elevating or retrofitting sewage treatment plants; and making energy efficient weatherization upgrades to public and private buildings. Its modeled after the federal Superfund pollution cleanup program.The approach taken by Vermont has drawn interest from other states, including New York, whereGov. Kathy Hochul signed into lawa similar bill in December.The New York law requires companies responsible for substantial greenhouse gas emissions to pay into a state fund for infrastructure projects meant to repair or avoid future damage from climate change. The biggest emitters of greenhouse gases between 2000 and 2018 would be subjected to the fines.Michael Casey, Associated Press

AI is changing the workplace, but there is one area in which it cant (yet) compete with humans and thats imagination. In fact, the latest Future of Jobs report from the World Economic Forum called creativity one of the most important skills for workers today.The problem, though is that most people dont consider themselves particularly gifted in that area, says Duncan Wardle, author of The Imagination Emporium: Creative Recipes for Innovation and Disneys former vice president of innovation and creativity. When I speak to audiences, I ask people if they think theyre creative, he says. Less than 5% put their hands up. But I believe everyone can be creative in the right environment.The idea of being innovative can feel intimidating, the solution is infusing playfulness into your day. Unfortunately, the work environment isnt set up to foster play.Where are you when you get your best ideas? asks Wardle. Not one person ever says, at work. Ninety percent of people will say the shower.Get Into the Right Brain SpaceThe biggest barrier to innovation at work is what Wardle calls our river of thinking. It doesnt matter what industry youve worked in or how long youve worked in it, you are locked into a river of thinking that allows you to make quick and informed decisions based on your experience, he says.While this default setting it can be good in emergency circumstances, it hinders new ideas. In the last four years, weve had a global pandemic, climate change, and artificial intelligence, says Wardle. We dont get to think the way we thought four years ago. You need to stop thinking the same way you always do and think differently.The solution is moving from your conscious mind into your subconscious mind. The conscious mind makes up 13% of your brains capacity. Its the gray matter that deals with day-to-day details and the default when youre feeling stress. Your subconscious brain makes up the remaining 87%, but its door is closed because the two parts of your brain are rarely engaged at the same time, says Wardle.In that 87% is all of your creative stimuli, he says. It holds your experience, your expertise, and every innovation youve ever seen. Every creative problem is back there waiting for you to solve the challenge. When its closed, you cant access it.Purposeful play activities help you move your brain to the Amazing Alpha state, which is what Wardle calls the doorway between conscious and subconscious.Warm Up with EnergizersTo warm up your brain and get into a playful state of mind, Wardle shares several energizers, or zings, in his book. For example, one activity is called Experts n Gurus. Separate teams into pairs and tell one person to play the part of an expert and the other person to be a news reporter.I tell them, Person A, you are the leading designer of parachutes for elephants. Nothing you say is wrong because you are the leading guru on this topic. Person B, you are a news reporter. Interview the designer about their job, says Wardle. When you hear some of the answers people come up with, you realize anyone can be incredibly creative.Another zing is Random Connections. In this activity, each participant is given 60 seconds to find a random object in a room. Then the group splits up into pairs and has to invent a new business that uses their two random objects as stimuli. Then they get 60 seconds to pitch their idea to the team.And a third zing is called Once Upon a Time. Teams create a story by having each person add one sentence at a time. Wardle says this zing fuels creativity and strengthens teamwork, using collaboration to create a tale.Implement Creative BehaviorsEnergizers are tools that help you with the doing of innovation. Creative behaviors, or what Wardle calls sparks, shape your mindset and are the being of innovation. Wardle calls them the secret sauce for unlocking creativity on a regular basis.One spark is to adopt a mindfulness practice, which increases focus, enhances observation and awareness, and reduces stress and anxiety. Mindfulness helps foster a nonjudgmental attitude, allowing you to be more open to new ideas and experiences, says Wardle. Embracing a beginners mindset, free from your river of thinking, can help foster more innovative and creative thinking.Another example of a spark is using your intuition. This involves being willing to trust your gut and listen to your conscience. To be more intuitive, Wardle recommends taking a deep breath, clearing your thoughts, and listening to what your heart is telling you. Listen to that eureka moment, says Wardle. That ah-ha moment of brilliance that appears in a flash may be worth considering.You can also reflect on your dreams to find your spark. Capture the ideas that come to you as you drift off to sleep. Engaging in activities that put you into a childlike mindset can also enhance intuitive thinking.Everyone has the capacity to be creative, says Wardle. I dont define creativity as the ability to paint or draw or write music, he explains. Those are a form of creativity. I define creativity as the ability to have an idea. We can all do that. We all have hundreds every single day. Innovation is the ability to get that idea done. Thats the hard part.

This elevated water tower by Spanish studio Temperaturas Extremas is designed to camouflage with trees in a forest in Luxembourg and provide shelter for nesting birds and bats.The Bird and Mammal Shelter and Water Reservoir is located in a protected forest for the municipal water company in the growing district of Kirchberg, a vast plateau northeast of Luxembourg City.It can hold 1,000 cubic metres of water and is designed by Temperaturas Extremas to also provide shelter for swallows, bat roosts and even peregrine falcons at its highest point 50 metres off the ground.Temperaturas Extremas has completed a water tower in a Luxembourg forestThe site is located in a nature reserve called Natura 2000, a European ecological network of zones dedicated to biodiversity conservation.To reduce the reinforced concrete tower's impact on this setting, the Madrid-based studio split it into two separate volumes, each with a cylindrical tank that is raised off the forest floor.The tanks one of which holds 600 cubic metres of water and the other 400 cubic metres sit at different levels to reduce the tower's visual mass and help the industrial structure blend into surrounding trees.The tower doubles as a shelter for nesting birds and bats"The primary challenge was integrating this water infrastructure into a natural environment, such as a forest," said Temperaturas Extremas co-founder Andrs Cnovas."This required careful attention to the fragmentation of the volumes and the textures of the materials, ensuring that the large structure blended harmoniously with its surroundings."The reservoir comprises two volumes each with a cylindrical tankAccording to Temperaturas Extremas, the tower's form draws on an external elevator with cylindrical elements from one of the studio's previous projects in Cartagena, Spain.Meanwhile, the towers of churches in the Italian city Ravenna and buildings by the architect Mario Ridolfi were also key design influences.Read: White Arkitekter designs water tower with wave shape for SwedenOne of the volumes has a rough concrete skin and is home to a number of nesting spots for swallows at different heights.The second tower is coated in untreated cork, which acts as a thermal insulation layer against the water tank, screened with a permeable facade of untreated larch wood slats.Pre-fitted with bat roosts, this wooden skin will eventually be covered with vegetation, "becoming just another tree on the site", the studio said.A permeable facade of larch slats wraps around one towerAt ground level, the Bird and Mammal Shelter and Water Reservoir's ground floor has a metal facade to deter intruders while its surrounding paving is made of rammed earth.The structure also includes rainwater collection systems, an observation deck at its peak and a network of walkways intended for maintenance and monitoring of the nesting areas.It incorporates a series of walkways for maintenanceTemperaturas Extremas won a competition for the water tower project in 2016 held by the Kirchberg Fund on behalf of the City of Luxembourg."The original competition brief included the integration of the project into the natural environment," said studio co-founder Nicols Maruri. "As a result, the development process involved working closely with ornithologists and naturalists to define the bird and mammal nesting areas."The second is clad in textured concreteThe Bird and Mammal Shelter and Water Reservoir is one of several architecturally significant water towers in Luxembourg. Other examples include the water cone tank at Hivange designed by Reuter Architects and the 68 metre-high water tower at Ban de Gasperich wrapped in LED lights by Jim Clemes Associates.Other water towers on Dezeen include afunnel-shaped reservoir in Chile by Mathias Klotz and a wave-like concrete structure in Sweden by White Arkitekter.The photography is by Miguel Fernndez-Galiano.The post Temperaturas Extremas incorporates bird nests into tree-like Luxembourg water tower appeared first on Dezeen.