The Canadian Accessible Ready Housing Standard is currently out for public review with the goal to make Canada barrier-free by 2040.The public review period will run until the end of the month and suggestions can be submitted until 11:59 p.m. PST, on January 31, 2025.Accessible-ready housing is designed for easy adaptation with minimal changes to its structure, electrical, or mechanical systems. This Standard outlines a framework for accessible-ready housing, easily adaptable with minimal alterations.Additionally, it incorporates legal, technical, and research sources, and provides guidelines for several housing elements. The Standard emphasizes Design for Accessible-Ready (DAR), which is an approach anticipating future accessibility needs, ensuring homes can be easily modified to meet emerging requirements.The accessible-ready housing standard also aligns with the National Standard of Canada known as CSA/ASC B652 Accessible Dwellings. It covers accessibility in areas such as entrances, parking, common areas, interior paths, kitchens, bathrooms, and emergency features.The aim is to build homes that can be modified to meet future accessibility requirements with minimal structural changes. This standard makes housing accessible, functional and adaptable. Comprehensive coverage: All aspects of residential design, including finishes, lighting, controls, and emergency provisions, are aligned to accessibility needs, reads the Government of Canadas website.For more information and to submit feedback on the standard, click here.The post Canadian Accessible Ready Housing Standard out for public review appeared first on Canadian Architect.

Energetic and Loyal: Meet the Danish-Swedish Farmdog, the Newest Breed Recognized by the American Kennel ClubThese small but mighty pups have roots on family farms in Denmark and Sweden, where they helped catch rodents, herd livestock, hunt and watch over the property The Danish-Swedish farmdog is now eligible to participate in all the American Kennel Club's events and competitions. Fed WetherbeeMeet the Danish-Swedish farmdog, the newest breed recognized by the American Kennel Club (AKC). Theyre spry, theyre energetic and theyre up for anythingbut at the end of the day, theyre happy to settle down and cuddle.Last week, the AKC, a nonprofit that maintains a dog breed registry, officially welcomed the Danish-Swedish farmdog to its ranks. The club now recognizes 202 breeds, which are eligible to participate in all its events and competitions, including the esteemed AKC National Championship.Danish-Swedish farmdog breeders and owners in the United States began their quest to have the breed officially recognized back in 2011, reports the Washington Posts Jonathan Edwards. The effort, spearheaded by the Danish-Swedish Farmdog Club of America, involved developing breed standards, writing an ethics code and raising awareness about these petite pups.The AKC inducted Danish-Swedish farmdogs into its Miscellaneous Class in 2021, which meant they could compete in certain dog sports competitions, including agility, obedience, herding, tracking and dock diving.But that designation didnt permit them to enter the clubs conformation contests, during which individuals are evaluated based on how closely they match their breeds standards. At the AKC National Championships, the canine competitors face off against members of their breed, their group and other finalists, with one earning the title of Best in Show and becoming, essentially, the top dog for the year. (A giant schnauzer named Monty was crowned champion in 2024.)While Danish-Swedish farmdogs are new to the clubs line-up, theyve likely been around for hundreds of years. The breeds exact beginnings are a bit murky, but they might have originated in old Denmark. Archaeologists have discovered farmdog-type skeletons in Viking burial sites from the Middle Ages, according to the AKC.More recently, these pups helped out on small family farms in Denmark and Sweden. They caught and killed rodents, herded livestock, went hunting with their owners and watched over the property. They also kept their human family members company.The breed began to disappear after industrialization, as family farms fell by the wayside. But, starting in the late 1980s, kennel clubs in Denmark and Sweden began rallying to save them. The first one was imported to the U.S. in 1998, followed by two more individuals in the coming years. In 2003, the trio of Danish-Swedish farmdog owners in the U.S. started a club for the breed.Today, the dogs remain popular in Europe, where they are known as Dansk Svensk Gardshund or Danski. These four-legged friends are a common sight in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, per the AKC. Danish-Swedish farmdogs are energetic and need lots of playtime and walks. Brooks H MabryDanish-Swedish farmdogs are small, weighing just 15 to 20 pounds and standing up to 14.5 inches tall. But dont let their diminutive stature fool you: They are bundles of energy that love to work on farms or romp around with kids. Once theyve had a bit of exercise, theyll gladly snuggle up on the couch.They are intelligent and eager to please their human owners, which makes them highly trainable, according to the AKC. Theyre also relatively low-maintenance dogs, only needing to be brushed and bathed periodically.Affectionate and loyal, Danish-Swedish farmdogs are gentle with children and social with other dogs and strangers. One pup living in Cheyenne, Wyoming, even has her own YouTube channel for kids called Miss Mae for Little Learners, reports the Cheyenne Post.The breed typically has short, white hair with black, brown, yellow, tan and fawn markings. Because of their physical appearance, theyre often mistaken for beagles and Jack Russell terriers.This compact working dog is very versatile, loves a challenge and having a job to do, says Gina DiNardo, the clubs executive secretary, in a statement. It would make a wonderful addition to a family that is able to provide it with the exercise and mental stimulation that it needs. As always, we strongly encourage prospective dog owners to do their research to find the best breed for their lifestyle.With their newly awarded status, Danish-Swedish farmdogs and their owners are excited to compete in conformation contests. And, already, some had signed up for events in Minnesota and California after the AKCs announcement, per the Washington Post. Fans may also catch them at the 2025 AKC National Championship, which is typically held in December.Breed advocates are pleased that Danish-Swedish farmdogs are now recognized by the AKC. But their enthusiasm is tempered by a bit of trepidation. The dogs newfound celebrity could be a double-edged sword, as Carey Segebart, the incoming president of the Danish-Swedish Farmdog Club of America, tells the Associated Press Jennifer Peltz.We dont want the breed to just explode too quickly, Segebart tells the AP. And she doesnt want illegal puppy mills to exploit any increased attention to the breed, she adds to the Washington Post.More broadly, some animal rights groups oppose dog breedingand the promotion of purebred dogsas a whole.All breeders fuel the animal overpopulation crisis, and every time someone purchases a puppy or a kitten instead of adopting from an animal shelter, homeless animals lose their chance of finding a home, according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals(PETA).The AKC says purebreds can help owners find a pet with predictable characteristics and whose temperament matches your lifestyle and personality.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Agriculture, Animals, Dogs, European History, Farming, Pets

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Krafton is the latest company to present a "bold vision for the future" that can purportedly only be realized by harnessing the power of generative AI.The PUBG maker joined Nvidia at CES 2025 to introduce its prototype 'Co-Player Character' (CPC) concept, which is billed as a human-like companion that can assist players in a variety of scenarios.Krafton CEO Changhan 'CH' Kim said the tech was built in collaboration with Nvidia and is powered by an on-device SLM (Small Language Model) for gamingcrafted using Nvidia ACE technology.Kangwook Lee, head of the Deep Learning Division at Krafton, claimed CPCs will surpass traditional NPCs due to their ability to engage players with dynamic interactions such as real-time conversations, strategic cooperation, and flexible responses tailored to in-game scenarios."We will continue to innovate user experiences by integrating CPC into our games and aim to establish it as a benchmark for the gaming industry," he added in a blog post."Our collaboration with Nvidia is a testament to the transformative potential of AI in gaming, and we plan to work closely together to push the boundaries of what is possible."Krafton demonstrated how CPCs might be integrated into existing titles such as PUBG with a video (embedded below) that showed a CPC in the guise of a 'PUBG Ally' that can search for specific weapons and ammunition upon request, spot and engage enemies in combat, and drive vehicles.Krafton said it intends to deploy CPC technology across its gaming portfolio, including the PUBG franchise and upcoming life simulation title inZOI.The South Korean company is by no means the first tech firm or video game studio to espouse the supposed transcendental benefits of generative AI technology.Others including EA, Embracer, Square Enix, Microsoft, Ubisoft and others have jumped on the bandwagon in recent months, but it remains to be seen whether players or developers will find a practical use for generative AI tools that are often hyped beyond measure by their creatorsbut (as this writer opined last year) can sometimes feel woefully underbaked or depressingly misguided.

Though Yuto Suzukis manga Sakamoto Days hasnt been publishing for all that long, an animated adaptation of the series is already making its way to Netflix in just a few days.Set in a world where its not uncommon for people to have superhuman abilities, Sakamoto Days tells the story of Taro Sakamoto (Tomokazu Sugita / Matthew Mercer), a legendary hitman who becomes a humble convenience store owner after falling in love with his wife. While Sakamotos wife Aoi (Nao Tyama / Rosie Okumura) doesnt hold his past against him, their marriage hinges on her rule that he must never kill again.For the most part, its easy enough for Sakamoto to stick to Aois rule. But things start to get tricky when a bounty is placed on his head that makes him the target of other assassins like telepath Shin Asakura (Dallas Liu) and sharp-shooter Heisuke Mashimo (Ryta Suzuki / Xolo Mariduea). Netflixs new trailer for the series teases a bit of how some of Sakamotos enemies quickly become allies in his fight to keep his small family safe, and while it doesnt show all that much of the shows action, well be able to check it out for ourselves when the show debuts on January 11th.

Smart lock companies have spent 2024 crafting nifty ways for you to gain entry into your home, including iPhone-tapping Home Key options from Aqara, a palm scanner from Philips, keypad and fingerprint smart locks from August, and even a Face ID-style one from Lockly. These all sound pretty futuristic already... but do they feel like magic?Im talking magic like how my cars driver door unlocks without me needing to do or touch anything other than pulling on the handle. Im talking about smart home locks that see me approaching and take action so I dont have to pause and interact with anything when I really just need to run inside to use the bathroom.You dont even need to take out your phone to unlock UWB-capable smart locks. Image: UltraloqLuckily, at CES 2025, many smart lock makers are poised to launch models that offer touchless passive entry support. That means you wont need to take extra steps like pulling out an RFID fob from your pocket or smacking your Apple Watch against a pad to unlock your door. (Thats so last year!)One of the most promising locks from the show is Schlages new Sense Pro Smart Deadbolt, which comes equipped with an ultra wideband (UWB) chip that will sense your paired smartphones trajectory and motion to know when to trigger an unlock for you.RelatedSchlage isnt the first to announce UWB in a smart lock; that credit goes to U-tecs Ultraloq Bolt Mission, which was revealed last year. The Ultraloq was announced with a lack of support for the newAliro smart access standard backed by Google, Apple, Samsung, and others (meaning no Apple Home hands-free unlocking support).Now, the Bolt Mission is here at CES with a Q1 2025 launch timeframe, a $399 price tag, and a promise that Aliro and Apple Home hands-free are coming. Theres also the Lockly Secure Pro, which promises Apples touchless feature, costs $379.99, and will arrive in Q4. While itll still be a while before a lot of these devices are on the market, the UWB-powered smart lock options are clearly arriving soon.Schlages Sense Pro debuted at CES 2025 and supports hands-free unlocking. Image: SchlageOf course, plenty of companies are still sticking to other unlock technologies instead of UWB. That includes palm scanner locks such as TP-Links Tapo PalmKey and TCLs Smart Lock D1 Pro, both of which claim they use AI to scan for vein patterns in your hand. Meanwhile, others, like the Lockly Styla, are just here to look nice. Heck, if youd rather have everything but UWB, you can look at SwitchBots new Lock Ultra, which literally has 16 different hands-on-something unlocking methods. Smart lock makers are trying pretty much anything right now, including adding digital peepholes to deadbolts in the new Lockly Vision Prestige and TCL Smart Lock Ultra. But whats really missing from smart homes today is that new car feeling: where you finally drive off the lot no longer needing to think about age-old ideas like lock, unlock, and push to start. We still have to see these locks in action to see whether they can reliably and securely pull off their hands-free feat. But the opportunity is coming. I hope the smart lock companies have that transformative feeling in mind as they launch products with UWB this year.

The first Nintendo Switch basically had the road to itself, and Nintendo instantly proved just how awesome a hybrid console and handheld could be, leading to massive success. The next Switch is imminent, but it will launch into a world thats packed with very capable handheld gaming PCs that could present an interesting challenge to Nintendo, especially following news from CES 2025.Valves Steam Deck kicked off the handheld gaming PC push in large part because its Linux-based SteamOS makes playing your games just about as easy as it is on consoles. Thats why one of the biggest CES announcements is that Valve is going to let people install SteamOS on other handhelds as soon as April, potentially making the entire handheld PC gaming market a lot more appealing.The first official non-Valve device with SteamOS is set to be Lenovos $499 Legion Go S, which launches in May. But its not hard to imagine a near-term future where many other hardware makers announce their own SteamOS handhelds, meaning the magic of SteamOS might be available in all kinds of interesting devices very soon. (And hopefully, the increased competition means Valve will make the eventual next Steam Deck really good.)The Lenovo Legion Go S next to a Steam Deck OLED. Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The VergeCES 2025 featured a bunch of other handheld gaming hardware, too, like the chonk that is Acers Nitro Blaze 11. It has a gigantic 10.95-inch screen, detachable controllers, and a kickstand. Its huge! Intel and Tencent also made a handheld with an 11-inch screen, and theirs has stereo 3D. My colleague Sean Hollister finally got to see the MSI Claw 8 AI Plus. Razer made a docking station that works with handheld gaming PCs. And in a CES panel, Microsoft promised news about changes to the handheld Windows experience for later this year, which could improve things for people who already own Windows-based hardware.RelatedThats a lot of cool stuff! But Nintendo is the 800-pound gorilla in the room, and as interesting as all of the PC gaming hardware is, the Switchs imminent successor will almost certainly be a very compelling upgrade. The original Switch was released nearly eight years ago, so the successor will likely be much more powerful and will probably have splashy new games in marquee franchises like Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda. (Id bet already-announced Switch games like Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Pokmon Legends: Z-A will get some kind of boost on the next Switch, too.)Right out of the gate, Nintendos new console will also have an enormous library. The company already announced its next console will be compatible with original Switch games a catalog that includes many of the indie hits that are also some of the best games on handheld PCs.Back in 2017, when the original Switch launched, there wasnt anything like it. The Switchs successor will compete in a much more crowded field and one thats getting even more crowded after CES 2025. Hopefully, the competition means everyone makes better hardware and better games. Its a great time for handhelds.

LVR 3D Lua Game Development Framework / News / January 9, 2025 / Today we are checking out LVR, a free and open source 3D Lua game and VR development framework heavily inspired by LVE. LVE is a popular 2D game development framework, recently made famous for powering the smash indie hit Belatro. LVR takes the ease of use of LVE and brings it to the world of 3D games and VR applications. In fact it might be the single easiest to use code-based framework for creating 3D games.Features of LOVR include:Cross-Platform Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android.Cross-Device Supports Vive/Index, Oculus Rift/Quest, Windows MR, and has a VR simulator.Beginner-friendly Simple VR scenes can be created in just a few lines of Lua.Fast Writen in C11 and scripted with LuaJIT, includes optimized single-pass stereo rendering.Asset Import Supports 3D models (glTF, OBJ), skeletal animation, HDR textures, cubemaps, fonts, etc.Spatialized Audio Audio is automatically spatialized using HRTFs.Vector Library Efficient first-class support for 3D vectors, quaternions, and matrices.3D Rigid Body Physics Including 4 collider shapes, triangle mesh colliders, and 4 joint types.Compute Shaders For high performance GPU tasks, like particles.Key LinksLOVR HomepageLOVR GitHubLOVE HomepageYou can learn more about the free and open source Lua powered LVR framework in the video below.

Large Language Models (LLMs) aim to align with human preferences, ensuring reliable and trustworthy decision-making. However, these models acquire biases, logical leaps, and hallucinations, rendering them invalid and harmless for critical tasks involving logical thinking. Logical consistency problems make it impossible to develop logically consistent LLMs. They also use temporal reasoning, optimization, and automated systems, resulting in less reliable conclusions.Current methods for aligning Large Language Models (LLMs) with human preferences rely on supervised training with instruction-following data and reinforcement learning from human feedback. However, these methods suffer from problems such as hallucination, bias, and logical inconsistency, thereby undermining the validity of LLMs. Most improvements to LLM consistency have thus been made on simple factual knowledge or simple entailment between just a few statements while neglecting other, more intricate decision-making scenarios or tasks involving more than one item. This gap limits their ability to provide coherent and dependable reasoning in real-world applications where consistency is essential.To evaluate logical consistency in large language models (LLMs), researchers from the University of Cambridge and Monash University proposed a universal framework to quantify the logical consistency by assessing three key properties: transitivity, commutativity, and negation invariance. Transitivity ensured that if a model determined that one item was preferred over a second and the second over a third, it also concluded that the first item was chosen over the third. Commutativity ensured that the models judgments remained the same regardless of the order in which the items were compared.At the same time, negation invariance was checked for consistency in handling relational negations. These properties formed the foundation for reliable reasoning in models. The researchers formalized the evaluation process by treating an LLM as an operator function FFF that compared pairs of items and assigned relational decisions. Logical consistency was measured using metrics like stran(K)s_{tran}(K)stran(K) for transitivity and scomms_{comm}scomm for commutativity. Stran (K)s_{tran}(K)stran(K) quantified transitivity by sampling subsets of items and detecting cycles in the relation graph. At the same time, scomms_{comm}scomm evaluated whether the models judgments remained stable when the order of items in comparisons was reversed. Both metrics ranged from 0 to 1, with higher values indicating better performance.Researchers applied these metrics to various LLMs, revealing vulnerabilities to biases like permutation and positional bias. To address this, they introduced a data refinement and augmentation technique using rank aggregation methods to estimate partial or ordered preference rankings from noisy or sparse pairwise comparisons. This improved logical consistency without compromising alignment with human preferences and emphasized the essential role of logical consistency in improving logic-dependent algorithm performance.Researchers tested three tasks to evaluate logical consistency in LLMs: abstractive summarization, document reranking, and temporal event ordering using datasets like SummEval, NovelEval, and CaTeRS. They assessed transitivity, commutativity, negation invariance, and human and self-agreement. Results showed that newer models like Deepseek-chat, Phi-3-medium, and Gemma-2-9B had higher logical consistency, though this did not correlate strongly with human agreement accuracy. The CaTeRS dataset showed stronger consistency, focusing on temporal and causal relations. Chain-of-thought prompting had mixed results, sometimes reducing transitivity due to added reasoning tokens. Self-agreement was related to transitivity; this shows that consistent reasoning is fundamental for logical consistency, and models such as Phi-3-medium and Gemma-2-9B have equal reliability for each task, emphasizing the necessity for cleaner training data.In the end, researchers showed the importance of logical consistency in enhancing the reliability of large language models. They presented a method for measuring the key aspects of consistency and explained a data-cleaning process that reduces the number of defaults while still being pertinent to humans. This framework can further be used as a guideline for subsequent research in improving the consistency of LLMs and for continuing efforts to implement LLMs into decision-making systems for enhanced effectiveness and productivity.Check out the Paper. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,dont forget to follow us onTwitter and join ourTelegram Channel andLinkedIn Group. Dont Forget to join our60k+ ML SubReddit. Divyesh Vitthal Jawkhede+ postsDivyesh is a consulting intern at Marktechpost. He is pursuing a BTech in Agricultural and Food Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He is a Data Science and Machine learning enthusiast who wants to integrate these leading technologies into the agricultural domain and solve challenges. [Recommended Read] Nebius AI Studio expands with vision models, new language models, embeddings and LoRA (Promoted)

Wicked star Cynthia Erivo has revealed her next dream role is to play Storm from X-Men in a Marvel Studios film.Erivo told the National Board of Review that she wants to explore the character's depth and "inner turmoil" more than what's been done previously. Storm, real name Ororo Munroe, is a mutant with weather manipulation powers, and is a beloved member of the X-Men."I really want to play Storm," Erivo said. "I know it sounds frivolous but I think we haven't uncovered how grand she is and all of that inner turmoil that she has, so I think there's a world where we could do something like that."Erivo played Elphaba Thropp, a reimagined Wicked Witch of the West, alongside Ariana Grande's Glinda the Good in Wicked, which reviewed strongly and brought in $164.2 million in its opening weekend at the box office. It won the Cinematic and Box Office Achievement at the 2026 Golden Globes as a result.Marvel Studios, creators of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is likely considering its new wave of X-Men at the moment. Storm was famously played by Halle Berry in the Fox X-Men films before Alexandra Shipp took on the role from X-Men: Apocalypse. The Fox X-Men universe was subsequently scrapped in favor of the more popular and successful MCU, with last year's blockbuster success Deadpool & Wolverine acting as a farewell.The X-Men Movies in (Chronological) OrderIn November, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige teased the introduction of X-Men characters in the "next few" MCU movies. Feige said fans will see some X-Men players that you might recognize in the next few MCU movies, but he stopped short of saying which characters or what movies. The Fantastic Four: First Steps comes out in July.On bringing the X-Men into the MCU, Feige added: I think you will see that continues in our next few movies with some X-Men players that you might recognize.Right after that, the whole story of Secret Wars really leads us into a new age of mutants and of the X-Men. Again, [its] one of those dreams come true. We finally have the X-Men back.Image Credit: TheStewartofNY/FilmMagicRyan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.