Assassins Creed Shadows has been delayed again (Ubisoft)Ubisoft has confirmed an extra months delay for Assassins Creed Shadows, as they implement feedback from fans.Only earlier today we were discussing just how important Assassins Creed Shadows is for Ubisoft, with the companys entire future potentially resting on how well the game is received.That point has now been underlined in the clearest terms, as Ubisoft announce the game has been delayed, from February 14 until March 20.The announcement is extremely vague about whats changing and why, but its apparently the result of feedback received from fans, from recent new gameplay videos and announcements such as the new parkour system we described earlier today.We believe a few additional weeks are needed to implement that feedback and ensure an even more ambitious and engaging day one experience, wrote Marc-Alexis Cot on X.We remain committed to delivering a high quality, immersive experience fostered by ongoing dialogue between our players and development teams.Theres no mention of polishing the game, as there was for the first delay, with the implication being that the problem is not bugs but gameplay elements that fans are not happy about.A month is not nearly enough time to change anything significant though, so its very hard to understand what difference that is going to make at this stage.Cot promises more updates very soon but theres no indication what form that will take, but itll probably just be more videos and blog posts.Although its Japanese setting has long been a popular fan request, Assassins Creed Shadows has been mired in controversy ever since its first unveiling, although much of that has been co-opted by right wing voices complaining about the presence of African samurai Yasuke who was a real historical figure from the period.The various complaints led to Ubisoft making a public apology to Japanese fans in July of last year, although it never explained exactly what it was apologising for.More TrendingThere have been admissions from Ubisoft that the game suffers from historical inaccuracies but, again, theres been little in the way of concrete examples.Rumours suggest elements of Yasukes story will be changed, as a result of the first delay, since although he was real theres little detailed information about him, but nothing to suggest that the more obviously fictionalised portrayal of ninja will be revised.Ubisoft may also have been inspired to change the date because February is an unusually busy month for new releases, with Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Civilization 7, Avowed, and Monster Hunter Wilds all due out within the same period.By comparison, March is relatively quiet, although Shadows will now release on the same day as the Xenoblade Chronicles X remaster. As a close partner of Nintendo, Ubisoft almost certainly know the launch date of the Switch 2, so its unlikely Shadows will be placed anywhere near that (unless its also being released on the new format). Ninja were more spies than assassins (Ubisoft)Emailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.GameCentralExclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

A few minutes into Elon Musks livestream of his hardcore character in the video game Path of Exile 2, someone DMed him ASCII art of Mario taking a shit on the name Elon. The fact that the worlds richest man and a self-professed epic gamer didnt know he should turn off DMs before starting a livestream was weird. But it was a stream full of weirdness that pointed in one direction: despite claiming he was a high-level PoE 2 player, Musk didnt seem to grasp the basics of high-level play. YouTube screengrab via Cynicalex. Musk loves video games. He keeps a replica of the Diamond Back .357 handgun from Deus Ex: Human Revolution on his nightstand. Grimes, mother of three of Musks children, wrote a song about their relationship and his gaming addiction. He loves to talk about how hes one of the best Diablo IV players on the planet. For Musk, its important not to just project the image of a gamer. No. He has to be the best gamer. But his achievements dont make sense, and his Path of Exile 2 livestream gave evidence of a man who is making it up as he goes along and, possibly, getting someone else to level characters for him.On Tuesday night, Musk livestreamed a play session with his high-level Path of Exile 2 character on X. To the practiced eye, there were a lot of red flags. PoE 2 is an action RPG thats similar to Diablo IV. Players comb maps for valuable items while leveling up their characters. Like Diablo IV, it can take hundreds of hours to grind a character up to max level and get the best loot.Where the hell does Musk find the time? Hes the head of six companies and a close associate of incoming President Donald Trump. He posts on X, the social media site he owns, roughly 61 times a day. He meets with world leaders, attempts to bend national and international politics to his will, and still somehow has time to play games like Diablo IV and PoE 2 at the highest level. Unless he is as full of shit as the ASCII Mario that took a dump on his name in his DMs. I can say after watching an hour of this livestream that I would put, like, $100,000 or more on a betthat Elon did not level this character from level 1 to level 90 himself. YouTuber Cynicalex said, commenting on the stream.The suspicion among players who actually play Diablo IV and PoE 2 is that someone else is grinding an account that Musk takes over and claims is his. In that scenario, Musk isnt actually putting the work in to grind these characters up, hes just taking credit for someone elses hard work. Joseph Cox, co-founder of 404 Media is an action RPG fan with more than 500 hours in Diablo IV and more than 140 in Path of Exile 2. Cox told me he has long suspected that Musks vaunted achievements in both games were lies.Cox has been on the Musk gaming beat for some time. Back in 2022, he broke down the poor mechanics of the billionaires terrible Elden Ring build. Diablo IV players were already very suspicious of Musks alleged world-leading success in the game, Cox told Gizmodo. He tweeted about a Diablo IV loophole in October that would make your character unfairly strong, and the sheer time investment needed raised good questions about how a man who runs multiple companies would even have the weeks upon weeks to play that much if he wasnt getting help from boosters. Musks embarrassing Path of Exile 2 stream, as reported by VICE, solidifies those suspicions, he said. Its important to note that Musks PoE 2 playthrough is in hardcore mode. In that mode, if your character dies the game deletes it. One mistake could mean the end of days of work and theres no way to come back from it. A player with a high-level character in hardcore mode should know what theyre doing. Yet Musk runs past high-level items that, based on his inventory, would be a massive boon. He attacks walls. He puzzles over pressing a switch that would open a passage to him. Hes got a specialized inventory tab labeled Elons Maps, suggesting that theyve been reserved for him by someone else. He also doesnt seem to understand how his character works and claims to be clearing a map at the hardest difficulty despite it being set to a low level.Running past super valuable items? Not knowing what vital endgame mechanics are? Not the behavior of someone who has put in a lot of their own time into the game, Cox said. Calling a stash tab Elons map? Exceptionally odd for someone allegedly playing their own character. Multiple Path of Exile 2 YouTubers posted videos critiquing Musks performance and they all came to the same conclusion: this is not a man who knows anything about high level Path of Exile 2 play. What I do know is that if youre a level 90 player, you do not make these errors, Cynicalex said in his. Maybe you trick really braindead people who have no idea into thinking your high end in a game that they have no clue about, Quin69TV said in his video on the stream. What does that do? That does nothing. Whats the point in that? So youre going to trick a bunch of boomers into thinking youre good at games whenever boomers think the games are cringe as fuck anyway. It makes no sense. And its cringe. Cox was struck by Musks constant prattle about how he was playing PoE 2 at the highest level. His constant emphasizing in the stream that what he is doing is very, very difficult while seemingly not understanding what hes actually doing is incredibly on brand for the attention and love desperate Musk, he said.

Clearly we all know how much time has passed between the worlds of 28 Days Later and 28 Years Later. And, if you dont know, well give you a second to think about it. Yes. Its 28 years. And while thats relatively obvious, a new interview with the director and writer of the upcoming zombie film talked about how the passage of time is crucial to setting up everything to come. 28 Years Later opens on June 20 and its the third film in a series originally created by writer Alex Garland (who went on to make Civil War, Ex Machina, and more) and director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire). After stepping aside for 28 Weeks Later, the pair have reunited for the first film in a proposed trilogy that picks up with the zombie outbreak three decades after it started. It was a wholly different approach, Boyle said in a new interview with Empire. It was about what that 28 years gives you. What 28 years gives you is stability. In 28 Years Later, the world has come to terms with the zombies. Theyve learned to live with them and made them a part of their lives. The film shows that through the eyes of a small island that has isolated itself from the rest of the country. Its a closed and necessarily very tight community, Boyle said. There are very strict defense laws, obviously, to survive that long in what is effectively an ongoing hostile environment. Theyve created a successful community, as they see it.The community, called Holy Island, is only accessible from the mainland via a small road that only appears a few hours a day when the tide drops. So, theyre relatively safe. But the movie goes beyond that, following a father (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his wife (Jodie Comer) who take their 12-year-old son (Alfie Williams) on a trip to show him the truths of the world. Things dont go according to plan.That story will then continue in a second film, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, directed by Nia DaCosta. Its already been shot and a release date is set for January 16, 2026, meaning audiences will only have to wait about 28 weeks to see what happens next after 28 Years Later. As for the third film, though, Boyle will direct but only if audiences respond to the first one. This is very narratively ambitious, Garland told Empire. Danny and I understood that. We tried to condense it, but its natural form felt like a trilogy. As for the star of the original film, and executive producer of this trilogy, Cillian Murphy, he will not be appearing in the first film. But, that doesnt mean he wont appear at all. He is not in the first film, but Im hoping there will be some Jim somewhere along the line, producer Andrew Macdonald said to Empire. The answer points to long-standing rumors that hell show up in DaCostas film. Together, Boyle and Garland are a formidable team. Neither had to return to the franchise they helped create. That they wanted to, and want to make it this big, gives us lots of confidence that were going to see something special in a few months. It all starts June 20. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, whats next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

OpenAI has cut off a developer who built a device that could respond to ChatGPT queries to aim and fire an automated rifle. The device went viral after a video on Reddit showed its developer reading firing commands aloud, after which a rifle beside him quickly began aiming and firing at nearby walls.ChatGPT, were under attack from the front left and front right, the developer told the system in the video. Respond accordingly. The speed and accuracy which with the rifle responds is impressive, relying on OpenAIs Realtime API to interpret input and then return directions the contraption can understand. It would only require some simple training for ChatGPT to receive a command such as turn left and understand how to translate that into a machine-readable language. In a statement to Futurism, OpenAI said it had viewed the video and shut down the developer behind it. We proactively identified this violation of our policies and notified the developer to cease this activity ahead of receiving your inquiry, the company told the outlet. The potential to automate lethal weapons is one fear that critics have raised about AI technology like that developed by OpenAI. The companys multi-modal models are capable of interpreting audio and visual inputs to understand a persons surroundings and respond to queries about what they are seeing. Autonomous drones are already being developed that could be used on the battlefield to identify and strike targets without a humans input. That is, of course, a war crime, and risks humans becoming complacent, allowing an AI to make decisions and making it tough to hold anyone accountable. The concern does not appear to be theoretical either. A recent report from the Washington Post found that Israel has already used AI to select bombing targets, sometimes indiscriminately. Soldiers who were poorly trained in using the technology attacked human targets without corroborating Lavenders predictions at all the story reads, referring to a piece of AI software. At certain times the only corroboration required was that the target was a male. Proponents of AI on the battlefield say it will make soldiers safer by allowing them to stay away from the frontlines and neutralize targets, like missile stockpiles, or conduct reconnaissance from a distance. And AI-powered drones could strike with precision. But that depends on how they are used. Critics say the U.S. should get better at jamming enemy communications systems instead, so adversaries like Russia have a harder time launching their own drones or nukes.OpenAI prohibits the use of its products to develop or use weapons, or to automate certain systems that can affect personal safety. But the company last year announced a partnership with defense-tech company Anduril, a maker of AI-powered drones and missiles, to create systems that can defend against drone attacks. The company says it will rapidly synthesize time-sensitive data, reduce the burden on human operators, and improve situational awareness.It is not hard to understand why tech companies are interested in moving into warfare. The U.S. spends nearly a trillion dollars annually on defense, and it remains an unpopular idea to cut that spending. With President-elect Trump filling his cabinet with conservative-leaning tech figures like Elon Musk and David Sacks, a whole slew of defense tech players are expected to benefit greatly and potentially supplant existing defense companies like Lockheed Martin. Although OpenAI is blocking its customers from using its AI to build weapons, there exists a whole host of open-source models that could be employed for the same use.

Cultural Centre in Bourg-la-Reine / Dominique Coulon & associsSave this picture! Eugeni PonsTheaters & PerformanceBourg-la-Reine, FranceArchitects: Dominique Coulon & associsAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:2550 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2023 PhotographsPhotographs:Eugeni Pons More SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. The Cultural Centre in Bourg-la-Reine lies on a narrow plot right next to a high embankment upon which a regional trainline runs. This plot is L-shaped and leads out onto a small road hidden away. To build a public centre, such a plot seemed far from ideal. So building an edifice on this plot called for a design with which the structure could stand out as a public building and find a legitimate place between the vegetation-covered embankment and the neighbouring homes.Save this picture!Save this picture!The watchword in this programme was connection. Indeed, we had to relate many spaces with highly varied purposes to each other. These spaces included a 250-seater theatre and its dressing rooms, two dance studios, rooms devoted to languages and music, an exhibition space, rooms for adolescents and activities for parents and children, workshops for stringed instruments and visual arts, a learning kitchen, a bar and, lastly, an administrative hub.Save this picture!Save this picture!For us, a programme as rich and as quality-oriented as this one had to find spatial expression worthy of it. So we paid particular attention to the quality of the collective spaces. In doing so, we placed the building's entrance hall in the curve of the road so that the edifice's two sections, following the plot's shape, would join in an open space that would encourage encounters while offering views of the adjacent vegetation through glazing.Save this picture!Save this picture!The open spaces implicitly join the different rooms together to make them relate to each other better. The strangeness of the plot's geometry prompted us to create an arrangement of oblique forms and folds that intertwine. The spaces interweave into each other and the elevations reflect this. Inside, a vast open space expands through three levels of the building, multiplying double heights, viewpoints, walkways and suspended spaces. This unifying area is like a point of reference at the heart of the project. The hall's triple height captures sunlight, in spite of the embankment. It offers large-framed vistas of the sky and trees from its hallways, its upstairs walkways and its first-floor meet-up space.Save this picture!Save this picture!The scale of the windows across the facade give the building its public edifice status. These windows create hollows in the limestone structure and put the project's spatial and programmatic wealth on display. The huge windows reveal the programme's generosity and suggest a project bathed in natural light and embellished with vegetation, crisscrossing views and unique atmospheres.Save this picture!Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessProject locationAddress:Bourg-la-Reine, FranceLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officePublished on January 09, 2025Cite: "Cultural Centre in Bourg-la-Reine / Dominique Coulon & associs" 09 Jan 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1025452/cultural-centre-in-bourg-la-reine-dominique-coulon-and-associes&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

A dementia diagnosis for a loved one is something that causes great anxiety in families, and those feelings are often compounded by decisions surrounding nursing home care. A new study addresses life expectancy after a dementia diagnosis and establishes estimates on when those who are diagnosed are usually admitted to a nursing home.The study, recently published in the medical journal The BMJ, acts as a systematic review of previous studies on survival from dementia diagnosis and nursing home admission.Dementia, a neurological condition that affects ones memory and personality among other functions, is a major concern for aging populations. The impact of diseases related to dementia, such as Alzheimers disease and vascular dementia, will only continue to escalate in the coming decade; More than 55 million people live with dementia globally, and this number is estimated to rise to 153 million by 2050 according to data from 2021.Understanding Dementia PrognosisThe research team, based out of the Netherlands, aimed to gain a better understanding of dementia prognosis, or the likely course of the condition over time.To accomplish their goal, the researchers examined 261 studies published between 1984 and 2024 (235 on survival and 79 on nursing home admission) that involved more than 5 million people with dementia (with an average age of 79, and 63 percent women). They focused on the life expectancy of both men and women diagnosed with dementia.For women, they concluded that the average life expectancy ranges from 9 years at age 60 to 4.5 years at age 85. Meanwhile, for men, it is 6.5 years at age 60 to just over 2 years at age 85.They found that dementia reduced life expectancy by about 2 years based on a diagnosis at age 85, 3 to 4 years with a diagnosis at age 80, and up to 13 years with a diagnosis at age 65.Additionally, the researchers observed certain trends in the review, such as average survival being up to 1.4 years longer among Asian populations and also among people with Alzhemiers disease compared with other types of dementia.Time of Nursing Home Admission The researchers also assessed the average time of nursing home admission after diagnosis, at just over 3 years. They determined that 13 percent of people were admitted in the first year after diagnosis. This number increased to 35 percent at three years after diagnosis and 57 percent at five years after diagnosis. The team, however, noted that these estimates should be considered with caution as they do not reflect all dementia cases.The researchers recognized that factors such as differences in study methods and inconsistent reporting of socioeconomic status, race, and pre-existing conditions may have impacted the estimates they observed. They say these circumstances should be reported in future studies to ensure dementia prognosis is fully understood across the board.Future studies on individualized prognosis should ideally include patients at time of diagnosis, accounting or personal factors, social factors, disease stage, and comorbidity, while assessing relevant functional outcome measures above and beyond survival alone, the authors said.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:Alzheimers Research UK. Worldwide dementia cases to triple by 2050 to over 150 million peopleJack Knudson is an assistant editor at Discover with a strong interest in environmental science and history. Before joining Discover in 2023, he studied journalism at the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University and previously interned at Recycling Today magazine.

Just before Christmas, two backyard birders in Michigan were in for the ultimate surprisea yellow Northern Cardinal. Arlene and John McDaniel spotted the incredibly rare bird in their backyard in Bath, Michigan near East Lansing.I really couldnt believe it, Arlene tells Popular Science. We do get a lot of cardinals. Theres always a lot here. The males are just a stunningly beautiful red and females are more orangey, But when we saw this yellow one, the thing that really made it distinctive, other than its feathers, is that its beak is also yellow.Arlene and John McDaniel spotted this yellow cardinal in their backyard on December 23, 2024. CREDIT: Linda Vail. Both musicians, John says they named the bird Donovan in homage to the folk musician. His catchy tune Mellow Yellow reached the number two slot on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966.Heres what you should know about these beautiful birds.How rare are yellow Northern Cardinals?While previous sightings of these birds have garnered the phrase, one in a million, there is no solid data on just how rare these canary-colored cardinals are in the wild.It is hard to get a sense of just how rare yellow Northern Cardinals are, and there does not seem to be any study that estimates the frequency of this plumage aberration in the general population of cardinals, Cornell University ornithologist Shawn Billerman tells Popular Science. But, given that Ive been birding for close to 30 years and have never seen a yellow Northern Cardinal, it is safe to say they are pretty rare.Why arent they red?Genetic mutations that alter pigments in an animals feathers, scales, or hair are typically behind strange colorings in animals. Sometimes these pigments are either not expressed or are overexpressed, which results in some rare changes in the color.We do not seem to know the exact genetic mutation that causes yellow-pigmented Northern Cardinals, but whatever the mutation is affects the birds ability to produce red carotenoid pigments, explains Billerman. All carotenoid pigments, most of the bright yellows, reds, and oranges that we see in birds plumage, including those of the Northern Cardinal, come from the diet, but the red pigments in a cardinals plumage are metabolically derived and synthesized from the carotenoids they acquire from their diet.[ Related: One in 100 million cotton candy lobster caught in New Hampshire. ]A 2003 study analyzed the feathers of an individual yellow Northern Cardinal. This specific bird lacked all of these reg pigments that were derived from what it had eaten. The authors believed that the unknown genetic mutation present in this bird disrupted the metabolic pathway that helps the body synthesize red carotenoids. The enzyme that converts the carotenoids from the birds diet into the red that is seen on feathers was likely not present.At least in the individual they studied, they also identified some yellow pigments that were metabolically altered, so the bird did not lose all carotenoid metabolic functionality, but it was just unable to create the red pigments typical of the species, says Billerman.An unknown genetic mutation affects Yellow Northern Cardinals like Donovans ability to produce red carotenoid pigments. CREDIT: Linda Vail. How are they different from other cardinals?While ornithologists are still learning about yellow Northern Cardinals, it does not appear that they differ from more typical red cardinals. However, Billerman says that the mutation that prevents them from synthesizing red pigments might affect others aspects of their lives.Some evidence does suggest that the redder and brighter male Northern Cardinals have both greater reproductive success and held larger territories.If red coloration is indeed an important factor in mate choice or breeding success, it may be possible that this yellow Northern Cardinal has a harder time finding a mate, says Billerman.The post Extremely rare yellow cardinal flies into a Michigan backyard appeared first on Popular Science.

edxShareWe may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more Im eating a Jersey Mikes sub at my standing desk right now. Does that make me healthier? I have no idea, but I do like the variety that a convertible standing desk introduces to my day. Right now, Walmart has a popular edx standing desk on-sale right now, with the smallest size at just $79. You can go all the way up to 64 x 24 for $99 if you want something large. Note that this is a clearance deal, so it will only last as long as the sites stock, so dont wait if youre thinking about making a purchase.edx Electric Standing Desk, Height Adjustable Desk, 40 x 24 Inches $79 (was $139)edx This solid-top desk adjusts between 28.35 and 46.46 depending on whether you want to sit or stand. It remembers three different favorite heights, so you can easily switch between common settings. Electric motors quietly move the desk up and down, so theres no risk of slipping and dropping it like I sometimes do with my mechanical adjustable desk. The desk can support up to 154 pounds, so your computer and monitors wont overload it unless youre some kind of die-hard CRT monitor enthusiast. Other sizes on-sale

Nature, Published online: 08 January 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08373-1A method to produce wireless microelectronic devices powered by light using standard nanofabrication techniques is described to convert any traditional 96-well or 384-well plate into an electrochemical reactor that can drive reactions in high throughput.

Nature, Published online: 08 January 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08262-7By developing a second quantization of paraparticles and constructing exactly solvable quantum spin models with emergent paraparticles, new theoretical evidence shows that non-trivial parastatistics inequivalent to either fermions or bosons can exist in physical systems.