Plugable's new docking station takes multitasking to a whole new level.

Get an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the intense VFX work that brought Fighter to life! From heart-pounding aerial dogfights to breathtaking, high-speed moments, ReDefine and DNEG VFX teams have worked painstakingly on each sequence with great precision. It involved intricate simulations, compositing, and seamless integration of practical elements that made each aerial battle feel as real as it looks on screen.With the focus on detail and realism, the teams could capture the scale and intensity of action and ensure the planes felt like they were going to soar right over the audience. With leading-edge VFX techniques and deep knowledge of the narrative of the film, Fighter is a very exciting visual experience that heightens the intensity of every moment. These onscreen visuals have action, bringing about an extras sense of excitement in the films, giving an audience front-row seats to the action as its happening from above.The post Fighter VFX Breakdown by ReDefine and DNEG appeared first on Vfxexpress.

Sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey influenced the design of this coffee shop in Miami Design District, created by NBA star Jimmy Butler and design agency DE-YAN.The first physical Bigface store opened in December 2024 ahead of the annual Art Basel fair and concurrent events around the city.A pill-shaped service counter sits at the centre of the Bigface coffee shopButler, a basketball player who's currently signed with Miami Heat, devised Bigface as a specialty coffee brand in his hotel room during the 2020 NBA playoffs.The brand's online sales grew quickly in popularity, encouraging Butler and his team to offer a "destination" where fans could purchase the coffee in-person as well as spend time enjoying it.The brand's smiley logo adorns the dropped ceiling over the counterDirector Stanley Kubrick's 1968 movie served as a reference point for the interior, which is predominantly white and minimally furnished like the film's spaceship setting."It's a futuristic yet inviting environment that's as much about the experience as it is about the coffee," said DE-YAN founder Dejan Jovanovic of the Bigface store.Merchandise is displayed inside backlit niches surrounded by brushed stainless steelMerchandise adorned with the smiley Bigface logo including apparel, mugs and insulated cups is displayed inside backlit niches set within a brushed stainless steel wall.Another display unit opposite is wrapped in the same material and houses ready-to-drink canned beverages in chillers.Ready-to-drink beverages are stored inside chillersThe logo is also enlarged and applied to the pill-shaped drop ceiling above the counter, positioned in the centre of the space.This counter follows the same round-cornered shape and has a matte-grey surface finish upon which coffee grinders and taps for cold brew are located.Read: Studio Collective completes The Hotel at The Moore in Miami Design DistrictA glossy grey-toned floor runs throughout the building, while exposed beams and ductwork across the ceiling are all painted white to blend into the surroundings.A seating area at the back of the space, with concrete bleachers built into one corner and several black leather soft chairs placed casually in the middle.Bigface coffee packaging is replicated and enlarged as a station for drink additions"The design concept blurs the lines between art and space, with a dynamic layout that encourages exploration and interaction," said the design team."Custom-built seating areas create a sense of intimacy, while open spaces allow for a communal experience."A seating area at the back provides a spot for customers to relaxThe set design of 2001: A Space Odyssey has influenced generations of interior designers, and has been used as a reference for spaces ranging from a day spa in Venezuela to a restaurant in Manhattan.Miami Design District is filled with luxury retail spaces that have interesting facades and interiors, including a Cult Gaia stor fronted with a tiled mural, PatBo's boutique featuring a "feminine, organic" interior, and a Diesel outpost anchored by a red spiral staircase.The post DE-YAN designs Jimmy Butler's Bigface coffee shop in Miami appeared first on Dezeen.

A four-year-old class action lawsuit filed in the UK again Apple's App Store fees will finally go to trial on Monday, January 13 seeking up to 1.5 billion pounds ($1.83 billion) in potential damages.The UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal will hear the case.Claimants in the case, led by digital economy specialist and lecturer at King's College Dr. Rachael Kent, are fighting the up to 30 percent commission Apple collections for in-app purchases (IAP). The lawsuit charges Apple is running its App Store as an illegal monopoly.The suit says Apple forces developers to pass on the commission costs to consumers in the form of higher app prices. Apple has called the lawsuit "meritless" in court filings. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

What happens inside our digestive systems when we feeble humans consume digestion-resistant corn? You wouldn't know from the not-so-helpful graphics holding rank as Google's top image results for the query, which have been polluted by bizarre AI-generated slop.As pointed out on X-formerly-Twitterby the hardworking account "Insane Facebook AI Slop," a simple search query for the phrase "does corn get digested" returns a Google image results page loaded down with strange, nonsensical AI graphics claiming to depict corn kernels' quest through the human digestive tract. As it stands, four out of the top six results for the query including the first and second results are AI slop, and all stem from one of two spam blog posts published by a shady website claiming to sell "Top-notch Proteins&Nutrition" from "China No.1 Manufacturer."Each graphic yields its own slate of AI-mangled oddities and, frequently, body horrors.Take the top-ranked image for the query, which is linked to a clearly AI-generated blog post titled "Do Humans Digest Corn?" The graphic appears to suggest that human-consumed corn piles up in the human body outsideof our intestines, and may even sprout a vine that could, per the allegedly scientific graphic, wrap around our internal organs. (It's unclear which organ this one is actually meant to be, but we're guessing maybe liver?)Text overlaid on the graphic is somehow even less helpful than the image itself."Uncoked kermelss of corn thatlt stay stay undigetated," reads the garbled text. "Uncoked kardes of corn, corn, abenen of part in ite broken bown into grose and absosed." Okay!The second-ranked result which is linked back to a near-identical spam blog titled "How Long Does It Take Corn To Digest?" presents a similar vision for corn's digestive journey. This time, though, the graphic suggests that consuming corn somehow transforms humans' intestines into yellow maize, meanwhile insisting that a pink, Valentines-style heart is located at the center of the stomach.The graphic also includes a series of captioned images to define the major players at hand; they include "cornc," the "sttomach," and the "lage intetiine." (We'll let you guess what all of those are supposed to be.)To be clear: eating corn will notturn your intestines into the field vegetable, nor will it lead to internally-sprouted vegetation wrapping around major organs like a boa constrictor. While some parts of corn kernels are digestible, corn is packed with insoluble fiber, meaning that certain parts of the kernel go through the human digestive system intact leading to the widely accepted myth that humans simply can't digest corn at all. (Curious people Googling that phenomenon, presumably, are why spammy AI content mills are churning out garbage-quality blog posts about corn digestion in the first place.)The discovery is just the latest that illustrates the impact that cheap and easy-to-make AI slop is having on our information pathways, clogging search results with woefully unhelpful if at times hilarious text and imagery.As of May 2024, according to Search Engine Land, Google controlled roughly 90 percent of all search market share, meaning that Google's search tools are the primary means by which most humans access and explore the web. So as AI garbage leaches its way into the search engine's top results, it makes the internet a more frustrating, harder-to-manage landscape riddled with inaccurate, insidious, or as so perfectly captured by the image results above straight-up bonkers information.Put more simply? We're in the midst of a digital slopaggedon, with the felt everyday impacts ranging from mild irritants like graphs about "uncoked kermelss" to more serious information erosions the replacing of images of famous artworks and historical events with AI-generated fakes, for example, or the flooding of social media with fake AI-generated imagery during environmental disasters.Anyway. Time to go eat some glue.More on AI slop: People Think the Hollywood Sign Is on Fire Because of AI SlopShare This Article

Image by Getty / FuturismDevelopmentsA body of the world's leading public health researchers says that the number of children dying from noncommunicable diseases over the past 50 years has gone up dramatically, largely because of exposure to synthetic chemicals and plastics.In a new paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which one author described to The Guardian as a "call to arms," the scientists demandurgent global action and a dramatic restructuring of the law and the chemical industry."The evidence is so overwhelming and the effects of manufactured chemicals are so disruptive for children, that inaction is no longer an option," study coauthor Daniele Mandrioli, director of the Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Center at the Ramazzini Institute in Italy, told The Guardian."Our article highlights the necessity for a paradigm shift in chemical testing and regulations to safeguard children's health."The data the researchers point to, encapsulating the past 50 to 75 years, is alarming. Childhood cancer rates have increased by 35 percent. One in 36 children are now diagnosed with autism. The number of children with asthma has tripled, while obesity has quadrupled. And for boys, the rate of birth defects in the reproductive organs has doubled.This escalation of disease rates coincides with a surge in synthetic chemical and plastics production, which has increased by 50 times since 1950. Even today, the manufacturing of these largely fossil fuel-derived substances is on a steady upward trajectory of 3 percent per year and is expected to triple by 2050, the authors wrote, per The Guardian."There's an ancient axiom in medicine and toxicology that the dose makes the poison, meaning that the higher the dose, the greater the harm," lead author Philip Landrigan, director of the Global Observatory on Planetary Health at Boston College, told WBUR."But what we've learned in the last... couple of decades is that in early human development, which really means during the nine months of pregnancy, the timing is equally as important as the dose," he explained. "And even a very tiny dose at the wrong moment in early pregnancy can have very serious consequences for a child's health and child's development."The threat is no less concerning once a baby is out of the womb, as even low levels of exposure to toxic synthetic chemicals during a child's development can cause diseases, the researchers said.Combatting this will require nothing short of a herculean effort, but some of the most consequential changes that the scientists call for can be accomplished with existing institutions, though it will require both government and manufacturers to take more responsibility."The core of our recommendation is that chemicals should be tested before they come to market, they should not be presumed innocent only to be found to be harmful years and decades later," Landrigan told The Guardian. "Each and every chemical should be tested before they come to market." After they're brought to market, Landrigan says, manufacturers should be required to actively monitor the long term effects of their products.More on harmful chemicals: There's a Scandal Growing About That Paper About How Black Spatulas Are Killing YouShare This Article

Incredible.Natty IceAn international team of scientists have drilled nearly two miles down into the Antarctic bedrock, extracting an ice core sample that's estimated to be at least 1.2 million years old, they announced this week.By analyzing the sample, the researchers, working as part of the Beyond EPICA project, expect to glean critical insights about the Earth's climate and atmosphereand why it shifted away from having more frequent ice ages."Thanks to the ice core we will understand what has changed in terms of greenhouse gases, chemicals and dusts in the atmosphere," Carlo Barbante, an Italian glaciologist and coordinator of the European Union-funded effort, told The Associated Press.Core CleanserThe ice sample is a staggering 2,800 meters, or about 1.7 miles, in length. It's in the uppermost 2,480 meters where over a million years of climate history are contained, and in which "up to 13,000 years are compressed into one meter of ice," explained the project's chief field scientist Julien Westhoff in a statement.This isn't the oldest sample ever found, but Barbante said that crucially, it does provide the longest continuous record of the Earth's past climate. A record-breaking 2.7 million year old sample extracted seven years ago was obtained from ice that was gradually driven to the surface by natural processes, and as such provided an incomplete picture (though a staggering find in its own right).By extracting the ice, the scientists have surmounted the formidable 800,000 year barrier in the field. Obtaining continuous samples older than this has, until now, proved impossible, because ice that deep is typically melted by bedrock.Cold CasePrevious samples extracted by Epica have already shown that the concentrations of greenhouse gases during the past 800,000 years has never exceeded the levels seen since the Industrial Revolution, according to Barbante."Today we are seeing carbon dioxide levels that are 50 percent above the highest levels we've had over the last 800,000 years," he told the AP.The hope is that the new sample will provide a window into a period 900,000 to 1.2 million years ago called the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, when the Earth shifted to lengthier climate cycles. For reasons that continue to stump scientists, the planet's ice ages stopped occurring every 40,000 years, lengthening to every 100,000.The groundbreaking ice core, along with others, will be shipped back to Europe for further analysis.More on Antarctica: Scientists Consider Drastic Action as Doomsday Glacier Threatens to Flood Entire Islands and CoastsShare This Article

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As fans of the Apple TV sci-fi thriller Severance, we have held our collective breath for almost three years since the exhilarating season 1 finale. Our patience will soon be rewarded on Friday, Jan. 17, when the second season returns with the first of 10 new weekly episodes culminating in a season finale on March 21.On Lumon Industries' severed floor, the employees of the Macrodata Refinery team cope with brain chips that have permanently separated their work personalities from the rest of their lives. Severance's first season featured thrilling twists and turns, juicy melon bars, one bonkers musical dance experience, an extremely revealing waffle party and a cavalcade of questions.CNET spoke with series star Adam Scott, director and executive producer Ben Stiller and series creator and showrunner Dan Erickson over Zoom during the show's official press day. Our chat gave us further insight into what might come next for the MDR crew. Below, we've compiled five of our most burning questions for season 2.It might go without saying, but stop reading now if you haven't caught up on Severance season 1. Major spoilers are below.Read more: Apple TV Plus Review: Small Library but the Quality Is Top Notch Getty Images/Zooey LiaoWhy did the Macrodata Refinery team decide to get severed? Zach Cherry, Britt Lower, John Turturro and Adam Scott return to Lumon Industries in season 2 of Severance, coming to Apple TV Plus on Jan. 17. Apple TV PlusWe know that Mark (Scott) chose severance because he was grieving the loss of his wife, and Helly (Britt Lower) joined because of her family connection with Lumon, but what about Irving (John Turturro) and Dylan (Zach Cherry)?We've seen very little of Dylan's life, but we know he lives with his three kids, and they seem to have a decent relationship. Irving is obsessed with the elevator to the testing floor and lives a cloistered life with a dog named Radar.When Severance first premiered, audiences were left wondering what it would take to sever their own minds if such a technology really existed. What sort of trauma or toxic living situation would motivate such a choice?Each character surely has their own heartbreaking story behind their decision to be severed, and it's almost certain that we'll get answers to this question in season 2.Is Gemma really alive? Dichen Lachman stars as Ms. Casey in season 1 of Severance on Apple TV Plus. Apple TV PlusOne of the biggest reveals of season 1 came at the end of episode 7, Defiant Jazz, when we learn that Ms. Casey -- Lumon's wellness director -- looks exactly like Outie Mark's wife Gemma (Dichen Lachman), whom everyone in the outside world believes died in a car crash.How the heck did Lumon pull that one off? Was dead Gemma a fake or a lookalike? Is Lumon in the practice of cloning humans?Cast members debunked that last theory in the aforementioned YouTube video, but it's clear that Ms. Casey (whose innie has only been alive for 108 hours) is much different from the other severed workers.One fan theory suggests that Gemma is in a coma from the car accident and her innie version is only able to awaken occasionally. But she shows no physical indications of a serious accident.The real truth of Gemma/Ms. Casey seems like one of the biggest writing challenges for the show. This mystery will most certainly be addressed in season 2. According to Scott, it's a plot point that fuels his character's storyline this season and provokes a struggle between Mark's two selves."He feels like he has to help his outie and get Gemma somehow out the door," the actor said. "But is that where his emotional ties and his emotional interests are? The really interesting thing about the Innie and the Outie Mark this season is how aligned their interests are. At what point are they either going to come together or move further apart?"Why is Harmony Cobel so obsessed with Lumon Industries? Patricia Arquette plays Harmony Cobel in season 1 of Severance. Apple TV PlusAs the manager of Lumon's severed floor, Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette) takes her job extremely seriously. She is cult-like in her devotion to Lumon's founder, Kier Eagan, and the nine core principles. Her home basement includes a shrine to Kier and personal artifacts from her mother, Charlotte.Harmony is unsevered, like Seth Milchick (Tramell Tillman) and Doug Graner. Still, unlike the two of them, she maintains a separate persona in the outside world -- Mark's neighbor, "Mrs. Selvig," who makes atrocious lavender cookies and constantly screws up Mark's recycling and trash bins.One of the running themes of the show's first season is Harmony's conflict with the Lumon board about "reintegration," the controversial practice of fusing workers' personalities back together after removing the brain chip. The board insists reintegration is impossible, while Harmony has firsthand evidence that Petey Kilmer accomplished it (before it killed him).After keeping Helly's suicide attempt a secret, the board fires Harmony, who responds by trashing her basement and collapsing in dejection at her shrine, which we now see holds a ventilator tube and a medical bracelet that reads, "Charlotte Cobel" with a birth date of March 17, 1944.Harmony and Mrs. Selvig dress in a way that covers their necks, which are never seen. Could Harmony be Charlotte, who has scars from a tracheotomy or other neck surgery? Does she have a personal investment in reintegration?Cobel is genuinely an interesting character. There has to be a lot more to her story. We have a few more out-of-the-box questions that we've been pondering: Is Harmony holding a historical grudge and playing the long game to avenge a mother or sister? Could Lumon be experimenting with life-extending technologies? And does Harmony talk so strangely because she's actually the reincarnation of Kier Eagan's wife, Imogene?!We could go on, but you get the point. The questions surrounding Harmony Cobel abound, and it's almost certain that we'll learn much more of her backstory in season 2.Why is Irving painting that hallway and elevator? John Turturro as Irving in season 1 of Severance. Apple TV PlusWhen we see Outie Irving, we learn he loves to listen to Motorhead and repeatedly paints the elevator down to Lumon's testing floor. Dominated by thick black, these paintings fill Outie Irving's home and explain why Innie Irving's nails are full of dark gunk.But what's Innie Irving's connection to that desolate hallway and elevator? Has he been to the testing floor or lost someone to it? We never see him in that elevator area at Lumon. In fact, the only person we do see using that elevator is Ms. Casey.One fan theory claims Innie Irving has visited the testing floor and been "reset" by Lumon several times, which could explain why he says he's been there three years, but his badge indicates nine.Irving's John Turturro has personally "debunked" that theory in a Severance cast promo video. Perhaps Innie Irving's trauma from the testing floor has leaked into his outside persona. Or is Outie Irving trying to send a message through his unconscious to Innie Irving?How much of a sociopath is Helena Eagan, anyway? Britt Lower portrays both Helly R. and Helena Eagan in the Apple TV Plus show Severance. Apple TV PlusAs her story arc in season 1 made clear, Helly wanted nothing to do with Lumon. In fact, she threatened self-harm to escape. Things didn't go her way. In one of the more brutal scenes of season 1, Outie Helly sends a video message to Innie Helly, saying, "I am a person. You are not. I make the decisions."During the season finale, we discover that Outie Helly is Helena Eagan, the daughter of current Lumon Industries CEO Jame Eagan, and has undergone severance as a PR campaign to ensure the severing practice remains legal. During our Zoom chat with Erickson, it was teased that maybe Outie Helly has drunk too much of the Lumon Kool-Aid."The Innies feel closer to the true, authentic version of the self for each of the characters, in part, because they wake up as a little bit of a blank slate," Erickson said. "In a way, she [Helly] represents a truer version of that person than her outie probably would." Tramell Tillman plays Mr. Milchick in season 2 of Severance. Apple TV PlusInstead of solely focusing on the stuff inside Lumon, which is how season 1 mostly played out, it sounds like Severance season 2 will expand its scope and explore the homes and personal lives of the MDR outies. According to Erickson, things will get darker and scarier.This begs the question: Now that the innies have seen a piece of the outside world, what sort of repercussions are on the horizon? "There is no victory without pushback and without pain," Erickson teased."We wanted to see what would happen to the characters once they had sort of poked the bear," he added. "What happens when the bear pokes back?"