League of Legends season 15 is here, and with it plenty of in-game changes that drastically alter the way the good ol' fashioned push and pull of Summoner's Rift goes down. However, alongside a fresh coat of paint, a new champion, and some significant changes to the map courtesy of feats of strength and a new map boss, there are a few bugs that are rubbing folks the wrong way.These include a bug with the nexus towers, which act as a final line of defence before a team can take out their opponent's base and win the game. These towers, as shown in the clip below, don't appear to be working correctly in some cases. Whereas usually you'd not be able to hit the nexus until both are down, here we see Midbeast (long time League streamer) attack an open nexus despite one tower remaining to pepper shots at him and his team. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.In addition, more minute bugs have been spotted by folks using the new and improved training tool. European streamer Nayil posted a video that shows that a well-timed (or poorly timed, I suppose) teleport on a Jhin trap will cancel the teleport. Ths not only doesn't take you to the trap's location, but puts the teleport summoner spell on cooldown, which is a big deal! To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Now obviously, bugs happen. But given that these two can genuinely win or lose games in certain circumstances, it has some of the game's most dedicated players a tad frustrated. It's worth noting that, while the new additions like Feats of Strength and the new map boss are also a source of controversy, with some popular streamers coming away from initial game with poor first impressions.This season is a new approach from Riot, choosing to dive deeper into the seasonal structure with drastic changes to the game both aesthetically and gameplay-wise. As such, it's safe to assume tweaks and changes will come in response to community feedback. This wouldn't be the first time such a thing has happened. Back in 2018, Riot replaced the normal dragon boss with variable elemental dragons, which provided permanent effects if four were killed by a single team. Later, the Chemtech drake was removed and later re-introduced with drastic changes following complaints that the visibility shift on the map it caused was more frustrating than exciting for most players. Also, it made Talon players happy, which I'd argue is horrible.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. So if you're truly invested in climbing the ranked ladder and winning matches, it may be worth holding off for now until some of the rougher edges caused by bugs in Season 15 are fixed. As for the more permanent changes, it's a mystery whether or not Riot will tone them down. After all, it's not even been a week since the season started. Perhaps in time, players will adapt and a new meta will form around the game. Whether or not it'll be be for the better is something you - as well as the entirety of the LoL player base - will have to decide in the coming months.

Image: Gavin Lane / Nintendo Life2025 brought three new Animal Crossing sets to LEGO's line of cute critters from Nintendo's slow-life-sim series, including the cheapest set in the main range so far.Stargazer Celeste is one of our favourite characters, so we've been itching to get our hands on this affordable set since it was first announced. Let's see if it twinkles.On this page: Review: LEGO Animal Crossing - Stargazing With Celeste - A Cute Little Set, Though Not Quite StellarLEGO Animal Crossing - Stargazing with Celeste (77053)Price: $9.99 / 8.99 / 9.99Pieces:Ages:Minifig(s) included:What's in the bag?Images: Gavin Lane / Nintendo LifeAs with all the Animal Crossing Lego sets, you get a lot of 1x1 pieces (and a lot of leftovers).The headliner here is Celeste herself, obviously. Her head mould is as good as any of the other minifigs, although we were a little disappointed from the neck down.The printed details on the torso and arms and feet get the job done, but Celeste's owl form isn't well suited to a minifig's dimensions. The short, static leg piece doesn't capture her legs and talons well, with yellow printing only on the front edge of the feet. And while the printed arms suggest feathers, a new pair of 'wing' elements would have looked so much better.Naturally, brand new Lego elements would have pushed up the price and the head here is already new. Still, you'd imagine wing-style arm elements would be useful for bird characters across all Lego sets in the future. Without a tail or wings, you'd be hard-pressed to recognise Celeste as a bird without her head.Elsewhere, you get a cute constellation book, a telescope, a moon statue, a picnic-style tea set, some flowers, and what we first thought was a lantern with yellow-orange spikes representing light in the darkness but then realised is a star fragment. Oh, and an underwhelming little fir tree.Images: Gavin Lane / Nintendo LifeAnd except for over a dozen extra pieces for your spares pot, that's your lot. Build-wise, it'll take you 10 minutes if you're relaxed about it, or if you drop some pieces. We enjoyed the mise en scene of the details combined, and while her body could have been rendered more accurately, Celeste is still a no-brainer addition to your AC minifig collection.In fact, the moon and the star fragments make this set one of the few ways to bring a night-time feel to your collection. This could have been pushed further, with darker green, blue, or even purple base tiles to emulate twilight and nighttime hours (which they show on the box). Nighttime activities are a huge part of the game itself and not leaning into that here is a missed opportunity.Stargazing with Celeste costYou get 78 pieces for $9.99 / 8.99 / 9,99, including an exclusive minifig.Despite our disappointment with the figure (perhaps influenced by the fact that Celeste is in our top five characters from the game!), you can't argue with the price. No stickers, the printed detail on the constellation tile is great, and the star fragment on the blue tile adds variety that some of the other sets lack.Images: Gavin Lane / Nintendo LifeConclusionWhat you've got here is a nice supplementary set with a fan-favourite character and a decent price point. We would have liked to see Celeste's Lego body rendered more accurately. Likewise, the bright green base tiles feel like a missed opportunity - a darker colour for a character linked to the nighttime would have been more thematically appropriate and made for a unique 'after-hours' set.Still, as an ensemble, the details are great and we love Celeste. So grumbles aside, it's a thumbs up.The details ('scope, flowers, fragment, book, big moon thing) are greatGotta love CelesteNot going to break the bankDifficult to tell she's an owl from her body aloneBase tiles with darker, nighttime hues would have been more fittingStill not a fan of that firGood 7/10Please note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.

Popular Los Angeles-based cannabis brand Stiiizy has confirmed that hackers accessed reams of sensitive customer data, including government-issued documents and medical cannabis cards, during a November cyberattack.In a data breach notice filed with Californias attorney general this week, Stiiizy said it was notified by its point-of-sale processing vendor that an organized cybercrime group had compromised the data from some of its retail locations.In a letter sent to affected customers, Stiiizy confirmed that the hackers acquired customer data processed from the unnamed vendor between October 10 and November 10, 2024.Stiiizy said the stolen information included information on customers drivers licenses, passports, and medical cannabis cards. Hackers also accessed customer names, addresses, dates of birth, transaction data, and other unspecified personal information.Stiiizy, which operates 39 stores across the United States, has not yet said how many of its customers were affected but said the incident affected four of its retail locations in California. Stiiizy did not respond to TechCrunchs questions.Stiiizy hasnt confirmed or described the nature of the incident, but Texas-based cybersecurity startup Halcyon AI said in a November blog post that the cannabis operator had been the target of a ransomware attack.The Everest ransomware group claimed credit for the cyberattack, according to Halcyon, which said the gang had stolen the personal information, including identification documents, of more than 420,000 Stiiizy customers.In a post on its dark web leak site, which TechCrunch has seen, Everest claims to have published the data stolen from Stiiizy after the company ignored its ransom demands.Topics

Developers Max Brodeur-Urbas and Rahul Behal think that AI has the potential to automate lots of business-relevant tasks, but that many of the AI-powered automation tools on the market today are unreliable and costly. Part of the problem is that users expect too much of AI, Brodeur-Urbas told TechCrunch for instance, they assume that it can handle highly specialized, niche workloads where precision matters.If users ever want to use AI for enterprise purposes, the technology really has to have no margin for error, Brodeur-Urbas said. Leaving specific workflows completely up to AI is not realistic. Users would be paying for [an AI] to spin its wheels performing the same Google search over and over again.Still, Brodeur-Urbas, an ex-Microsoft software engineer, and Behal, previously a software developer at Amazon Web Services, thought todays AI had promising narrower applications. So they started thinking about ways they could squeeze what Brodeur-Urbas called real value out of AI tech. These ideas became a wrapper for the open source app Auto-GPT, then a proof-of-concept, and eventually a startup: Gumloop. Gumloop automates repetitive workflows with AI, aiming to streamline basic tasks.We started the company in a bedroom in Vancouver as a side project, Brodeur-Urbas said. We were trying to solve a very simple problem for a group of nontechnical people in a Discord server, and it spiralled into something larger than we could have ever imagined.Gumloop provides a workflow builder that integrates with third-party apps and tools including GitHub, Gmail, Outlook, and X. Users can drag modular components onto a canvas to build automations, or choose from prebuilt pipelines for tasks like generating daily stock reports and summarizing documents.Gumloops workflow builder, visualized. Image Credits:GumloopBrodeur-Urbas claims that teams at Instacart and Rippling are using Gumloop for various use cases.Today, thousands of users rely on Gumloop as a core tool for their business, he said. Giving nontechnical people the tools to solve their own problems without relying on engineers is where we found market pull.Theres no shortage of workflow automation tools out there. Parabola, Tines, Induced AI, and Nanonets come to mind. And on the horizon are agentic tools from OpenAI and others, which promise to automate more complex tasks end-to-end.To remain nimble, Gumloop plans to keep its team quite small. The company is hiring, but Brodeur-Urbas said that the plan is to cap headcount at 10 people. Using AI to code letus have the throughput of a 20-person team and outpace competitors, he claimed. Our plan is to be a 10-person, billion-dollar company.As it prepares to relocate from Vancouver to San Francisco, Gumloop has closed a $17 million Series A round led by Nexus Venture Partners with participation from First Round Capital, Y Combinator, and angel investors including Instacart co-founder Max Mullen and Databricks co-founder and chief architect Reynold Xin. To date, Gumloop has raised $20 million in capital.We didnt need the money at all, Brodeur-Urbas said. Raising money isnt the goal building a product people love is. This new venture capital will help us build and scale that product even faster.

Breakdown & ShowreelsBambi, lhistoire dune vie dans les bois: VFX Breakdown by AutrechoseBy Vincent Frei - 10/01/2025 The invisible visual effects work by Autrechose in Bambi, lhistoire dune vie dans les bois blends seamlessly with the films world, adding layers of realism to the forest scenes and character movements without overshadowing the narrative! Vincent Frei The Art of VFX 2025

Casa Baldo | Ruy TeixeiraLocated in Rio de Janeiro, Itana House presents an example of architectural renewal. The project involved the renovation and expansion of Casa Baldo, an original Oscar Niemeyer design, exploring the relationship between the built environment and the natural landscape. Siqueira+Azul undertook the task of transforming this site. By acquiring the neighboring property, the studio extended the possibilities of the urban lot, integrating a garden and leisure annex into the design. This intervention revitalized the property and redefined its relationship with the surroundings.Itana House Technical InformationOriginal House Architects: Oscar NiemeyerRenewal & Expansion Architects1-13: Siqueira+AzulLocation: Rio de Janeiro, BrazilArea: 800 m2 | 8,610 Sq. Ft.Project Year: 2017 2025Photographs: Ruy Teixeira, Andr NazarethThe faades of the main existing blocks receive a new element large pivoting panels. Their functioning is made feasible by the custom structural scheme in an iron square mesh. Siqueira+Azul ArchitectsItana House PhotographsCasa Baldo + Itana House | Andr NazarethEntrance | Andr NazarethEntrance | Andr NazarethPool | Andr NazarethPool | Ruy TeixeiraSide View | Andr NazarethGardenPatio | Ruy TeixeiraDining Area | Andr NazarethRooftop | Ruy TeixeiraCasa Baldo Renewal and ExpansionThe expansion of the compact Niemeyer-designed Casa Baldo was made possible by the acquisition of the adjacent property. This enabled the introduction of a garden marked by distinct vertical and horizontal delineations. This green space acts as both a visual and functional extension of the architecture.The new leisure annex appears to hover between the pool and the garden. Its planar design adds a dynamic element to the composition while maintaining a sense of lightness. This structure balances bold architectural gestures with sensitivity to context.Itana House: Integration of Independent VolumesItana House is composed of three distinct yet interconnected volumes. Pathways, walkways, and stairs link these constructions, creating a seamless flow between spaces. These circulation routes are more than just functional; they are architectural elements inviting movement and exploration.One of the most striking features is the circular oculus, which serves as an observation gap and a source of additional natural light. Positioned strategically, it provides views into the upper courtyard while enhancing the spatial experience of the interiors. The helical staircase, leading to a tower element with sliding glass panels, underscores the projects commitment to vertical integration. These design choices enhance usability and enrich the spatial narrative.Itana House: Design Details and Structural InnovationsThe projects faades underwent a transformation with the addition of large pivoting panels. These custom-designed elements, supported by an iron square mesh structural framework, allow for interaction with the outdoors while maintaining the integrity of Niemeyers original design. This intervention is functional and aesthetic, offering flexibility and enhancing the buildings appeal.A long bench, designed to outline the boundary of the slabs, serves as a bridge between indoor and outdoor spaces. This feature reinforces the continuity of spaces, blurring the line between architecture and landscape. Inside, natural lighting is optimized through the oculus and strategically placed openings.The leisure annex, constructed from natural materials such as stone and concrete, contrasts with the aesthetic continuity of Casa Baldo. This juxtaposition highlights the studios skill in balancing differentiation and harmony within the same project.Landscape Architecture and Urban HarmonyThe landscape design by Isabel Duprat plays a pivotal role in the project. The gardens vertical and horizontal delineations create a cohesive extension of the architectural design. By incorporating native plant species and structured layouts, the garden enhances the propertys privacy while offering expansive views of the surroundings.The integration of green spaces reflects a larger trend in urban renewal, where architecture seeks to mitigate the harshness of metropolitan environments. Duprats work emphasizes the importance of landscape architecture in fostering a dialogue between natural and built elements, making the garden an inseparable part of the projects identity.Itana House PlansLower Floor Plan | Siqueira+AzulUpper Floor Plan | Siqueira+AzulSection | Siqueira+AzulElevation | Siqueira+AzulItana House Image GalleryAbout Siqueira+AzulCredits and Additional NotesLead Architect: Lia SiqueiraArchitect: Felipe SiqueiraArchitecture Studio: Siqueira+Azul ArchitectureLandscape Architect: Isabel Duprat Arquitetura PaisagsticaLighting Design: Maneco QuinderStructural Design: AbilitEngineering: Stewart EngenhariaWindows Manufacturer: Panoramah!Waterproofing: CetimperSoftware Used: AutoDesk, Trimble Navigation, LightworksLighting Fixtures: FLOS, DimluxPlumbing Fixtures: DecaAudio and Video: EVOLUSOM

One of the few Gothic style buildings in the enchanting town of Cornwall, Connecticut is this large church-turned-residence in West Cornwall village. As West Cornwall developed in the second half of the 19th century into the largest district in town, residents here began to discuss the idea of building their own Congregational church, rather than travel to the central village church to attend services. In the 1870s, West Cornwall congregationalists raised over $4,000 to acquire a building lot and erect this fine church. Dedicated in January 1878, the wood-frame church is a rare example of the Victorian Gothic/Stick styles with clapboard siding, lancet (pointed arched) windows, a corner tower with belfry, vertical sheathing in the gables, and ornamental applied stickwork. The church closed in the 20th century and was converted to a private residence, and is presently for sale!

Mural on the Southeast Financial Center building in Miami, Florida. All images courtesy of Mantra and Justkids.art, shared with permissionMantras Murals Collect Enormous Butterflies in Building-Size Specimen CasesJanuary 10, 2025ArtNatureKate MothesFrench artist Youri Cansell, a.k.a. Mantra (previously) continues to brighten neighborhood streets and large cities alike with his vivid insect murals. Drawing on a fascination with nature and its preservation, he creates monumental specimen cases on buildings around the world, filled with a wide variety of butterflies.The artist recently completed his largest mural to date in Miami, positioned on the rooftop of the Southeast Financial Center building. Nestled into the surface of a characteristically organized case, a range of colorful butterflies rest alongside the structures utility systems.Detail of progress on mural in MiamiThe mural features numerous species, including the endangered Miami blue butterfly thats native to South Florida. Its always a pleasure to paint in Miami, a city that thrives on its vibrant mix of people and culturesmuch like the butterflies in my mural, which represent a diverse selection of specimens, the artist says.Additional recent projects include a giant glass-fronted display on the side of a building in Brooklyn and a towering, narrow composition in downtown Houston. Find more on Mantras website and Instagram.Houston, TexasBrooklyn, New YorkCrans-Montana, SwitzerlandBreda, The NetherlandsDetail of progress on mural in MiamiRombas, FranceDetail of progress on mural in MiamiNext article

sdecoret - stock.adobe.comNewsGenAI causing hyperscale datacentres to swell in size, research showsSynergy Research Group data shows impact that generative AI demand will have on the number and size of hyperscale datacentres in operation around the worldByCaroline Donnelly,Senior Editor, UKPublished: 10 Jan 2025 13:25 Hyperscale datacentres are getting increasingly larger in size, as operators look to bolster the amount of IT load their facilities can handle to accommodate the growing demand for generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) services.Thats according to figures shared by IT analyst house, Synergy Research Group, whose forecast data shows the average hyperscale datacentre is set to double in size over the next four years.The trend has always been for critical IT load of hyperscale datacentres to grow in size over time, but generative AI technology and services are power-hungry and have super-charged that trend, said Synergy, in a research note.Meanwhile, as the average IT load of individual datacentres ramps up, the number of operational hyperscale datacentres will continue to steadily grow.The companys data confirms there are already 1,103 hyperscale datacentres in operation worldwide, with 497 more set to come online within the next four years.Combine the ever-increasing number of hyperscale datacentres with a much-increased average size, and we now forecast that total hyperscale datacentre capacity will almost triple by the end of 2030, added Synergy.The companys hyperscale research is based on an analysis of the datacentre footprint and operations of 19 of the worlds major cloud and internet service firms.The number of operational hyperscale datacentres continues to grow inexorably, having doubled over the past five years, said John Dinsdale, chief analyst at Synergy Research Group.That installed base will continue to grow, but the most marked change in the market is the ever-increasing capacity of datacentres that are being brought online.The math is complicated as the mix of hyperscale datacentres continues to change old versus new, region by region, and owned versus leased but in aggregate, we will see GPU-oriented infrastructure leading to a doubling of the capacity of new hyperscale datacentres.This is the second time in recent days that Synergy Research Group has released figures that point to the transformative impact that the demand for GenAI is having on the datacentre market.That data revealed that the demand for GenAI services is one of the reasons why spending on datacentre hardware and software had hit a record high in 2024, as datacentre operators splashed the cash last year to bring online AI-ready server farms.While the ongoing success of public cloud has been the main driving force behind datacentre investments for well over a decade now, no one imagined a 2024 market for datacentre gear reaching over $280bn, said Dinsdale.Read more about GenAI impact on datacentresFigures from Synergy Research Group highlight how demand for generative AI and GPU technology has generated record amounts of spending in the datacentre hardware and software space during 2024At AWS Re:Invent 2024, CEO Matt Garman shared details of how its GenAItechnologies are helping enterprises accelerate the pace of Microsoft and VMware datacentre migrations.In The Current Issue:What do the home secretarys policing reforms mean for the future of the Police Digital Service?What are the security risks of bring your own AI?Download Current IssueFear the technologists, not the technology? The rise of the tech baron Computer Weekly Editors BlogBeyond Textbooks: why businesses must invest in grassroots stem initiatives WITsendView All Blogs

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) should embrace artificial intelligence (AI) to maintain its military advantages, which will require nurturing the countrys private AI defence sector and ensuring there is interoperability with the systems used by its allies, the Commons Defence Committee has said.In December 2023, the committee launched an inquiry examining how the MoD could meet the aim of strengthening the UKs defence and security AI ecosystem, as set out in the 2022 Defence AI Strategy.Highlighting the use of AI in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict including for the purposes of analysing battlefield data and intelligence, combatting disinformation, drone piloting and targeting identification the committee said that while the technology can offer serious military advantages, there is a mismatch between rhetoric and reality on the UKs AI capabilities.According to a report published by the committee on 10 January 2025, while the UK has natural strengths that could allow it to develop first-class specialisms in defence AI, the sector is under-developed and needs further cultivating.Developing a thriving defence AI sector will require improvements in digital infrastructure, data management and the AI skills base, and we urge the MoD to identify where gaps exist so that work can begin to address these issues, it said.We suggest some specific actions it can take, such as making AI a greater part of military education and making it easier for AI specialists to move between the civilian and defence sectors. MoD is also likely to need to work with smaller and non-traditional defence suppliers who currently face barriers to working with defence, and the department needs to adopt its ways of working to make itself a more appealing and effective partner for the sector.It needs to become more comfortable with risk-taking, rapid development cycles and working with non-traditional defence suppliers, it added.It also noted that military AI systems will be most effective if they are interoperable with those of the UKs allies, including Nato and the Aukus partnership with Australia and the US.It therefore calls for dialogue with allies over shared approaches to data collection, labelling and the ethical use of autonomous technologies, as well as joint working on skills and capacity building.Aside from further developing the UKs military AI sector and collaborating with allies, the committee said there also need to be cultural changes to the ways of working at the MoD.Harnessing AI for defence requires not just updated technology, but an updated approach, and in todays report, we call on the Ministry of Defence to transform itself into an AI-native organisation, fully integrating AI into its work and mindset, said sub-committee chair Emma Lewell-Buck.Our report finds that the UK is ripe with opportunity, and has the potential to become world-leading in defence AI, she said. But if we are to realise this potential, the Ministry of Defence must take a proactive approach and nurture the UKs industry. While the UKs Defence AI sector may not compete with the US and China when it comes to scale, we can offer valuable specialism and sophistication.Read more about military AIAutonomous weapons reduce moral agency and devalue human life: Military technology experts gathered in Vienna have warned about the detrimental psychological effects of AI-powered weapons, arguing that implementing systems of algorithmic-enabled killing dehumanises both the user and the target.Global majority united on multilateral regulation of AI weapons: Foreign ministers and civil society representatives say that multilateralism is key to controlling the proliferation and use of AI-powered autonomous weapons, but that a small number of powerful countries are holding back progress.AI interview: Elke Schwarz, professor of political theory: Elke Schwarz speaks with Computer Weekly about the ethics of military artificial intelligence and the dangers of allowing governments and corporations to push forward without oversight or scrutiny.The report added that while there are pockets of excellence at the MoD, AI is still treated by the department as a novelty or a niche interest rather than something that will soon be a core component of defence systems across the Armed Forces.It suggested the MoD should undertake mapping exercises to assess the adequacy and resilience of the digital infrastructure required to run AI products and systems, including computing power; secure cloud computing; datacentres; the availability of semiconductors; quantum computing capacity; and frontier AI models.In December 2023, the Lords AI in Weapon Systems Committee published a report on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (Laws), which urged the UK government to proceed with caution when developing and deploying AI for military purposes.It said that while the government promised in its 2022 Defence Strategy to approach military AI in an ambitious, safe and responsible way, these aspirations have not lived up to reality, and must be translated into practice.The committee added that it was key that the government sought, established and retained both public confidence and democratic endorsement in the development and use of AI generally, and particularly in respect of Laws.Responding to the findings of that committee in March 2024, the government insisted its already acting responsibly with due caution, and that the MoDs priority with AI is to maximise military capabilityin the face of potential adversaries, which it claimed are unlikely to be as responsible.During a debate held in April 2024, Lords expressed mixed opinions towards the UK governments current position, including its reluctance to adopt a working definition and commit to international legal instruments controlling their use.