Its been one week since the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost mission launched on its journey to the moon, carrying NASA payloads and aiming to make the second ever commercial soft lunar landing. During this week, the spacecraft captured a gorgeous view of a solar eclipse seen from space, and now it has captured an even more impressive visual: our planet Earth, as seen from a distance of 4,000 miles away.Firefly captured the beauty of our home planet during another Earth orbit burn, Firefly Aerospace wrote in a mission update, sharing the image above. This second engine burn (and first critical burn) adjusted Blue Ghosts apogee (the furthest point from Earth) using our Spectre RCS thrusters. With just over two weeks left in Earth orbit before our Trans Lunar Injection, the Firefly team will continue operating our NASA payloads onboard and capturing science data along the way.Recommended VideosIn addition to the photo, the team also shared this video taken during the second engine burn, showing the Earth retreating as the spacecraft burns away from it:Blue Ghost, Meet Blue MarbleThe spacecraft will now spend a little over two further weeks in orbit around Earth, gradually adjusting its trajectory until it performs a maneuver called a trans lunar injection, after which it will head on a four-day journey toward the moon on a path called a lunar transit. Once it arrives at the moon it will have to enter lunar orbit, performing a maneuver called a lunar orbit injection, then it will spend 16 days orbiting the moon before attempting a landing on the moons surface.Please enable Javascript to view this contentDespite the fact that the Apollo missions saw men on the moon over 50 years ago, lunar landings remain challenging. The moons surface is covered in rocks and boulders, and has many areas which have slopes and craters that make landing difficult. The first commercial lunar landing, performing by Intuitive Machines last year, had problems as the lander came down at an angle and ended up somewhat on its side, having tipped when a foot caught on the surface. This lander was still able to collect science data, but due to its angle it could only collect a small amount of solar power and its operations on the surface lasted just a few Earth days.Firefly Aerospace will be hoping for a smoother landing operation, and will be using technology similar to that used for landing rovers on Mars called terrain relative navigation, in which on-board computers use images of the terrain below to select an appropriate landing site.Editors Recommendations

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but the GTX 1060 will never die Nvidia starts to wind down support for old GPUs, including the long-lived GTX 1060 Nvidia last dropped Game Ready driver support for older GPUs in 2021. Andrew Cunningham Jan 24, 2025 5:13 pm | 2 Some GeForce GTX GPUs based on the Pascal architecture. Credit: Mark Walton Some GeForce GTX GPUs based on the Pascal architecture. Credit: Mark Walton Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreNvidia is launching the first volley of RTX 50-series GPUs based on its new Blackwell architecture, starting with the RTX 5090 and working downward from there. The company also appears to be winding down support for a few of its older GPU architectures, according to these CUDA release notes spotted by Tom's Hardware.The release notes say that CUDA support for the Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta GPU architectures "is considered feature-complete and will be frozen in an upcoming release." While all of these architectureswhich collectively cover GeForce GPUs from the old GTX 700 series all the way up through 2016's GTX 1000 series, plus a couple of Quadro and Titan workstation cardsare still currently supported by Nvidia's December Game Ready driver package, the end of new CUDA feature support suggests that these GPUs will eventually be dropped from these driver packages soon.It's common for Nvidia and AMD to drop support for another batch of architectures all at once every few years; Nvidia last dropped support for older cards in 2021, and AMD dropped support for several prominent GPUs in 2023. Both companies maintain a separate driver branch for some of their older cards but releases usually only happen every few months, and they focus on security updates, not on providing new features or performance optimizations for new games.The Maxwell and Pascal architectures powered a few graphics cards that used to be a big deal. Those include the Maxwell-based GeForce GTX 750 Ti, which was widely praised for keeping pace with AMD cards that used twice as much energy, and the Pascal-based GeForce GTX 1060, which was the single most popular graphics card model in the Steam Hardware Survey for over five years. (As of this writing, the GTX 1060 still occupies the no. 12 spot, above any GPU of any model or vintage from AMD or Intel.)We've asked Nvidia if it has anything to share about its plans for these older GPUs, and will update if we receive a response.Andrew CunninghamSenior Technology ReporterAndrew CunninghamSenior Technology Reporter Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS. Andrew lives in Philadelphia and co-hosts a weekly book podcast called Overdue. 2 Comments

LOOK IT UP Anthropic builds RAG directly into Claude models with new Citations API New feature allows Claude to reference source documents and reduce hallucinations. Benj Edwards Jan 24, 2025 4:05 pm | 11 Credit: Kirillm via Getty Images Credit: Kirillm via Getty Images Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreOn Thursday, Anthropic announced Citations, a new API feature that helps Claude models avoid confabulations (also called hallucinations) by linking their responses directly to source documents. The feature lets developers add documents to Claude's context window, enabling the model to automatically cite specific passages it uses to generate answers."When Citations is enabled, the API processes user-provided source documents (PDF documents and plaintext files) by chunking them into sentences," Anthropic says. "These chunked sentences, along with user-provided context, are then passed to the model with the user's query."The company describes several potential uses for Citations, including summarizing case files with source-linked key points, answering questions across financial documents with traced references, and powering support systems that cite specific product documentation.In its own internal testing, the company says that the feature improved recall accuracy by up to 15 percent compared to custom citation implementations created by users within prompts. While a 15 percent improvement in accurate recall doesn't sound like much, the new feature still attracted interest from AI researchers like Simon Willison because of its fundamental integration of Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) techniques. In a detailed post on his blog, Willison explained why citation features are important."The core of the Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) pattern is to take a user's question, retrieve portions of documents that might be relevant to that question and then answer the question by including those text fragments in the context provided to the LLM," he writes. "This usually works well, but there is still a risk that the model may answer based on other information from its training data (sometimes OK) or hallucinate entirely incorrect details (definitely bad)."Willison notes that while citing sources helps verify accuracy, building a system that does it well "can be quite tricky," but Citations appears to be a step in the right direction by building RAG capability directly into the model.Apparently, that capability is not a new thing. Anthropic's Alex Albert wrote on X, "Under the hood, Claude is trained to cite sources. With Citations, we are exposing this ability to devs. To use Citations, users can pass a new "citations: {enabled:true}" parameter on any document type they send through the API."Early adopter reports promising resultsThe company released Citations for Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Claude 3.5 Haiku models through both the Anthropic API and Google Cloud's Vertex AI platform, but it's apparently already getting some use in the field.Anthropic says that Thomson Reuters, which uses Claude to power its CoCounsel legal AI reference platform, is looking forward to using Citations in a way that helps "minimize hallucination risk but also strengthens trust in AI-generated content."Additionally, financial technology company Endex told Anthropic that Citations reduced their source confabulations from 10 percent to zero while increasing references per response by 20 percent, according to CEO Tarun Amasa.Despite these claims, relying on any LLM to accurately relay reference information is still a risk until the technology is more deeply studied and proven in the field.Anthropic will charge users its standard token-based pricing, though quoted text in responses won't count toward output token costs. Sourcing a 100-page document as a reference would cost approximately $0.30 with Claude 3.5 Sonnet or $0.08 with Claude 3.5 Haiku, according to Anthropic's standard API pricing.Benj EdwardsSenior AI ReporterBenj EdwardsSenior AI Reporter Benj Edwards is Ars Technica's Senior AI Reporter and founder of the site's dedicated AI beat in 2022. He's also a tech historian with almost two decades of experience. In his free time, he writes and records music, collects vintage computers, and enjoys nature. He lives in Raleigh, NC. 11 Comments

Coal power plants contribute to global warmingWalaiporn SangkeawCurrent policies of governments around the world are likely to result in Earth warming by anywhere between 1.9 and 3.7C by 2100, with potentially more to come in the 22nd century.Every year we keep emitting CO2 after 2100 results in higher and higher global temperatures, says Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at Stripe, a California-based software company that invests in carbon-removal technology. AdvertisementHis conclusions are based on a review of more than a dozen studies published in the past five years looking at the implications of current policies. According to these studies, the world is most likely to warm by between 2.3 and 3C by 2100.However, these numbers dont fully take account of the uncertainties about future emissions of greenhouse gases as a result of human actions, and also in how the climate system will respond to those emissions. Including those uncertainties gives a broader range, of 1.9 to 3.7C.These numbers reflect the most likely range of scenarios the 5th to 95th percentiles meaning there is a small chance of warming of as much as 4.4C this century with current policies. Unmissable news about our planet delivered straight to your inbox every month.Sign up to newsletterThe good news is that all the recent studies agree that very high emission scenarios are now unlikely. In these, more than 4C of warming before 2100 would be the most likely outcome.This is partly because the worst-case scenarios considered by climate scientists werent that plausible in the first place, says Hausfather, but it also reflects real progress in limiting emissions growth, with coal use now plateauing.If climate policies are strengthened and technological advances continue to exceed expectations, future emissions could be even lower than envisaged in these studies but this isnt guaranteed, and the rise of energy-hungry technologies like artificial intelligence could do the opposite.Its definitely possible to envision a world where AI rapidly accelerates and drives near-term emissions increases beyond what we think will happen today, says Hausfather.But he doesnt think AI-related emissions will make a huge difference in the long run. Its certainly not in line with rapid emissions reductions, but hard to see it by itself putting us on track for a significantly different end-of-century outcome, says Hausfather.Journal referenceDialogues on Climate Change DOI: 10.1177/29768659241304854Topics:climate

EarthCryopreserved coral sperm could be used for future breeding programmes to restore damaged reefs 24 January 2025 For the first time in Europe, coral researchers have successfully fertilised coral eggs using frozen and thawed sperm. Spectacular images of the coral spawning are shedding new light on the role cryopreservation is playing in advancing coral restoration efforts.When corals spawn, they release tiny bundles of eggs and sperm into the water. To become fertilised, eacheggbundle must find aspermbundle from the same species. A team at the Horniman Museum in London recreated this process in tanks in the lab, replicating water temperatures and the rising and setting of both the sun and moon each day to trick the corals

Lina Wertmller, "Seven Beauties" (1977)Lina Wertmller. Getty Images In 1977,Wertmller became the first woman ever to be nominated in the directing category at the 49th Academy Awards. She was also nominated for best original screenplay. Her film, "Seven Beauties," is an Italian-language movie about an Italian man who deserts the army during World War II, and is captured by Germans and sent to prison camp.Wertmller lost the directing category to John G. Avildsen for "Rocky." Other nominees in the category were Sidney Lumet ("Network"), Ingmar Bergman ("Face to Face") and Alan J. Pakula ("All the President's Men").Jane Campion, "The Piano" (1994), "The Power of the Dog" (2022)Jane Campion won the award for best directing for "The Power of the Dog." Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic In 1994, Campion became the second woman to be nominated for directing a film. "The Piano," about a mute piano player and her daughter, stars Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, and Anna Paquin, who won best supporting actress at age 11.At the 66th Academy Awards ceremony, Campion won for best original screenplay, but lost the directing category to Steven Spielberg, who won for "Schindler's List."Campion is the only woman who has earned multiple best director nominations at the Academy Awards. In 2021, she was nominated and won the award for "The Power of the Dog," which starred Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee.Sofia Coppola, "Lost in Translation" (2004)Sofia Coppola. Getty Images Coppola's critically acclaimed dramedy starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson was a favorite in the 2004 awards season, earning her a nomination for best director. The movie, about two lonely Americans who become friends after meeting at a Tokyo hotel, was also nominated for best picture.Though it didn't win in either of those categories, Coppola won the statue for best original screenplay. Coppola lost the directing category to Peter Jackson for "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King." Other nominees in the category included Fernando Meirelles ("City of God"), Peter Weir ("Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World"), and Clint Eastwood ("Mystic River").Kathryn Bigelow, "The Hurt Locker" (2010)Kathryn Bigelow. Getty Images Bigelow was the first female director to win an Oscar, and earned the award for her film "The Hurt Locker." The film follows an elite bomb disposal unit during the Iraq War.Bigelow won over Quentin Tarantino ("Inglorious Basterds"), Lee Daniels ("Precious"), Jason Reitman ("Up in the Air"), and James Cameron ("Avatar").Greta Gerwig, "Lady Bird" (2018)Greta Gerwig. Getty Images Gerwig was nominated for best director for her coming-of-age film "Lady Bird," which starred Saorise Ronan and Laurie Metcalf. Metcalf and Ronan were both nominated in acting categories, Gerwig was also nominated for the award for best original screenplay, and the film was nominated for best picture."Lady Bird" did not win any of those awards. The directing award that year went to Guillermo del Toro for "The Shape of Water."Chlo Zhao, "Nomadland" (2021)Chlo Zhao accepting the award for best directing for "Nomadland." Todd Wawrychuk/A.M.P.A.S. via Getty Images Chlo Zhao became the first woman of color to win the award for best director with her film "Nomadland." The film stars Francis McDormand a woman who pursues a nomadic lifestyle in the United States."Nomadland" also won the best picture award that year, and McDormand won the award for best actress. Zhao was also nominated for, but did not win, the Oscars for best adapted screenplay and best film editing.Emerald Fennell, "Promising Young Woman" (2021)Emerald Fennell won the award for best original screenplay for "Promising Young Woman." Chris Pizzello-Pool/Getty Images Emerald Fennell was nominated for her film "Promising Young Woman" in 2021, but lost the directing award to Zhao that year."Promising Young Woman" was also up for best picture that year, but also lost to "Nomadland." Fennell, however, won the award for best original screenplay.Justine Triet, "Anatomy of a Fall" (2023)Justine Triet won the award for best original screenplay for "Anatomy of a Fall." Mike Coppola/Getty Images Justine Triet was nominated for best director for her film "Anatomy of a Fall," a French film that stars Sandra Hller (also nominated) as a woman attempting to prove that she's innocent of her husband's possible murder.Triet did not win the directing award, which went to Christopher Nolan for "Oppenheimer." She and writing partner Arthur Harari did, however, win the award for best original screenplay.Coralie Fargeat, "The Substance" (2024)Coralie Fargeat at the 82nd annual Golden Globe Awards. Amy Sussman/Getty Images Fargeat is the ninth woman to be nominated for best director at the Academy Awards, and the tenth overall nomination.Her film, "The Substance," stars Demi Moore as a actor in her 50s who, after being fired from a longtime gig, takes a drug that creates a younger version of herself, played by Margaret Qualley.For the directing award, Fargeat is competing against Sean Baker ("Anora"), Brady Corbet ("The Brutalist"), James Mangold ("A Complete Unknown"), and Jacques Audiard ("Emilia Prez").Carrie Wittmer contributed to a previous version of this article.

NBC News became the latest news outlet to make cuts, laying off about 40 staffers.The roles are scattered, and people are being encouraged to apply for some new roles, mostly in digital.TV news viewership has declined as audiences seek out news on social media and streaming platforms.NBC News became the latest news organization to make staff cuts this month. The network cut about 40 roles, or 2% to 3% of the company, as it shifts its focus to growth areas.The roles were scattered across the organization, though some employees shared the perception that teams focused on covering culture and diverse populations were particularly impacted. Another insider said no diversity news teams were eliminated and that there are still eight digital news staffers covering diverse communities.Apart from the layoffs, about 12 new positions will be created, mostly in digital news. NBC News is encouraging those laid off to apply. The network is also hiring for over 50 other positions.TV news is in flux. Linear TV news viewership has declined as people get more of their news on social media and streaming video. CNN just laid off 200, or about 6% of its workforce, as it shifts resources from linear TV to digital. The Washington Post, HuffPost, and Vox Media also conducted layoffs in 2025.NBC News is set to face a big change whenComcast's NBCUniversal spins offseveral of its slower-growing cable brethren, including CNBC, into a new company later this year. The plan has left some at NBC News wondering how the spin will affect newsgathering efforts since it relies on CNBC's reporting. Comcast is positioning the move as a way to grow by acquiring other channels.Do you work in media and have a tip or information to share? Contact Lucia Moses via email or (917) 209-8549 on text/Signal/WhatsApp using a non-work device.

The Switch 2 has been revealed, at least partially, and we're still waiting for Nintendo to reveal the launch lineup but we've got an idea about what will be coming to the new systemTech22:12, 24 Jan 2025This is the Switch 2After months of leaks, Nintendo finally revealed the Nintendo Switch 2 or at least it showed us the hardware. Looking like a larger, slicker-looking version of the 2017 original, fans have been curious about what its game lineup will look like.Surprising no one, we know there will be Switch 2 exclusives, as well as backward compatibility with most Switch 1 games, and rumours have suggested the controller might double as a mouse which could open up fresh opportunities.Now, though, as developers show their hand, we're getting the first look at what we could be playing thanks to ComicBook..We'll be the first to admit the list looks pretty light, but it's worth remembering that Nintendo hasn't fully shown off the system yet that'll happen with a Nintendo Direct on April 2.For now, though, we know the following, albeit none of them have release dates.Yooka-Replayee is a 3D platformer remake and could fill a void if Nintendo doesn't ship the system alongside a new 3D Mario adventure (here's hoping for some truth in rumours of Super Mario Odyssey 2), while Bestiario is a turn-based RPG.Littlelands and My Time At Evershine are both relatively cosy titles that'll be ideal for playing handheld while under a blanket (unless we get Animal Crossing at launch, of course) and an MMORPG called Secret Forest will get a closed beta in early 2025. Aurascope is a puzzle platformer that looks delightful, too.Perhaps one of the most exciting titles is Synth Beasts, which is an action-RPG which involves capturing and leveling up creatures. While it's more action-packed than Pokmon, it certainly sounds like there are some similarities there.We've already heard that one AAA third-party game could be making the jump, and Nintendo has already shown a new Mario Kart in the initial console reveal.Article continues belowExpect the company to show much, much more on April 2.For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.RECOMMENDED

Fortnite developer Epic Games has revealed its plans for its new mobile store, and it'll give away free games, too, while it also confirmed the staggering amount Fortnite creators have been paidTech21:25, 24 Jan 2025Epic's mobile storefront is here if you're in the EU(Image: Epic Games)Fortnite Chapter 6 gets weirder every day, with Godzilla and King Kong making an appearance in Titan Takedown, but the popular shooter has made Epic Games a titan in its own right.The studio opened its own PC storefront in recent years, and now that the dust has settled from its huge legal battle with Apple and Google, it's repeating the trick on mobile (albeit only in the EU for now).Just as with the PC store, Epic is pledging a bunch of free games for mobile gamers, too here's all we learned.Dungeon of the Endless is free to play right now(Image: Epic Games)As mentioned in a new blog post, Epic has confirmed "nearly 20" third-party titles are joining its store."In addition to great third-party games, were introducing new app features, including Epic Account login, with persistent status across Epics games on iOS and Android," the blog explains."Weve also added a new auto-update feature to the Epic Games Store Mobile app, so that your games and apps are ready when you are."An Epic Games spokesperson confirmed to Daily Star that the games joining the program are as follows:iOS and Android:Dungeon of the EndlessEvoland 2Figment 1Hidden FolksIdle ChampionsPilgrimsOut ThereShapezSamorost 2Samorost 3Super Meat Boy ForeverSuper Space ClubThere is no GameiOS:Firestone Idle RPGGigapocalypseAndroid:Blade of God XMafia CityOffice FightThe Grand MafiaDungeon of the Endless is currently free for users, and new games are being added for free each month eventually moving to a weekly cadence.Epic also revealed that its creator 'ecosystem' is thriving, confirming there are 70,000 total creators included in the program, with 198k total 'Islands' built by them.In another blog post, Epic confirmed it has paid out a staggering $352million to creators (over 260million). That's up from last year, too, with Epic saying it's "up 11% when measuring March-December time periods of 2023 to 2024"."In 2024, players spent 5.23 billion hours playing games made by creatorsa number that represents 36.5% of total Fortnite playtime and continues to rise," the blog says."This marks a 5% increase from the 4.98 billion hours in 2023. These numbers are buoyed by meaningful growth in game genres that dont feature combat, like social roleplay, party games, deathruns, and horror.Article continues below"So far in January 2025, this type of variety content has made up more than 30% of time spent in creator-made experiences, an increase of nearly 50% from the same time period last year."For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.RECOMMENDED