• METRO.CO.UK
    Nintendo Switch 2 price at Italian retailer sounds too good to be true
    Seems far too generous (Nintendo)An official price for the Nintendo Switch 2 is probably months away, but that wont stop some retailers from making their own guesses.There remain several key questions for Nintendo to answer about the Nintendo Switch 2, most of which are expected to be addressed in its planned April showcase, which should also confirm an exact release date and probably when official pre-orders will open.Theres enough information to help narrow down a potential release date with June being the current best guess but whats harder to guess at is the price of the Switch 2.Nintendo will likely wait until right before the Switch 2 comes out before committing to a price, but it doesnt look like this will stop retailers from advertising their own prices for the console.Recently, Italian retailer Games And Movies started offering pre-orders for the Switch 2, despite its lack of a release date. It doesnt pretend to know when exactly itll launch though, only giving a placeholder date of December 31.However, it has set a price of 364.99, which works out at around 307. For comparison, the original Switch on its own goes for 259.99 on Nintendos online store. The Switch 2s unlikely to be as expensive as a PlayStation 5, but even this seems too low (Games And Movies)Before you get too excited, its extremely unlikely this comes directly from Nintendo. For starters, while that UK price would make it more expensive than the original Switch, which youd expect, its actually cheaper than the OLED Model, which retails at 309.99.While theres been no suggestion that the Switch 2 will also have an OLED screen (in fact, leaks point to it being an LCD screen like the basic Switch model), it is notably larger than any previous model and contains much more modern, and therefore expensive, components.Even ignoring that, the pricing doesnt make sense for Italian customers. 364.99 sounds like a lot, but thats only 15 more than what the Switch OLED Model costs, according to the Italian Nintendo store.The site also notes that By pre-ordering it now you can guarantee the discounted price, which could suggest its deliberately low-balling the price to make its listing more enticing than whatever price Nintendo ultimately picks.More TrendingAt the time of writing, though, we were unable to place a pre-order. The site tells you to pre-order now but there doesnt seem to be any button to allow you to do so.This is probably not the last time this will happen though, as various retailers around the world try to get a headstart on pre-orders and try to guess the price ahead of time.As a reminder, President Donald Trump has threatened to impose stronger tariffs on China, which analysts have said would make consoles like the Switch 2 more expensive.That means Nintendo may be anxious about committing to a US price, since it might have to change it before the console is even out. How much do you expect to pay for the Switch 2? (YouTube)Emailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.GameCentralSign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy
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  • GIZMODO.COM
    How Star Trek: Section 31 Got That Wild Cameo
    Section 31 might have lit up last week upon hitting Paramount+ for not exactly the right reasons, but the latest Star Trek film still has a few surprises up its spy-gear sleeves. Perhaps one of the most out there of them all came thanks to a suggestion from Michelle Yeoh herself. Section 31 concludes with the surviving members of the team meeting up on the Baraam station three weeks after theyve saved the prime universe from a Mirror Universe invasion, and with the offer for Georgiou to once again sign up with the black ops organization as part of Aloks group. After she accepts, they all watch an incoming transmission for their next mission which is when Jamie Lee Curtis fizzles into view, wearing a suitably Trek-y tech-faceplate and sighing exasperatedly at the ramshackle group formed in front of her. Curtis plays Control, a name familiar to Discovery fans as the identity of the infamous AI villain of the shows second season. There, Control was a program used by Section 31 to make operational decisions that eventually went rogue, threatening the entire galaxy unless theDiscovery crew flung into the far future (with them along for the ride). Thankfully, Curtis doesnt seem to be an evil AI, and Section 31 simply kept Control as the name for biological handlersbut the surprise came from Curtis herself showing up, rather than the utterance of Control as a title. And its all down to Michelle Yeoh that her Everything, Everywhere, All at Once co-star beamed into the Star Trek galaxy. Michelle and Jamie Lee are dear friends, and just adore each other, Star Trek executive producer Alex Kurtzman explained to io9 at a recent press junket for the film. The idea of who gets to play the character of Control [lead to] You know, itd be nice if it could be somebody, a fun cameo and Michelle suggested, What about Jamie Lee?. Youre talking about one of the greatest actors in the world, and the second we asked her she said I would do anything for Michelle.'Its actually not the first time Curtis has had a brush withTrek-adjacencyher older sister, Kelly Curtis, appeared in Deep Space Nines first season as Sarda, a dabo girl at Quarks bar being harassed by her Ferengi employer. But her own time inStar Trek was similarly brief, with Curtis scene as Control being over and done in a handful of hours. She just showed up and came in, did all of her stuff in I think less than two hours, Kutzman continued. Just laid it all out, gave us like, 16 different versions of every line, improvs a bunch of stuff, did the stuff that was on the page [she] came in like an absolute murderer, killed it, walked out the door. We were just standing there with our jaws on the ground, she was so amazing. Star Trek: Section 31 is now streaming on Paramount+.Additional reporting by Cheryl Eddy. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, whats next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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  • GIZMODO.COM
    Looming Budget Cuts Threaten Webb Telescopes Groundbreaking Science
    By Isaac Schultz Published January 27, 2025 | Comments (1) | An artist's concept of the Webb Space Telescope. Image: NASA-GSFC, Adriana M. Gutierrez (CI Lab) The Webb Space Telescope mission is threatenednot by anything in the desolate outskirts of the Sun, but by potential budget cuts. Webb is performing better than expected, astronomers say, but reduced funding for the telescopes operation could jeopardize the rate and quality of the missions outputs. The funding shortfall could reduce the missions effectiveness as early as fall 2025, according to SpaceNews. NASAs latest request for the telescopes future budget would cut the missions operational budget by 20%, according to Tom Brown, head of the Webb Telescope mission office at the Space Telescope Science Institute. The Webb Space Telescope began scientific operations in July 2021. Webb images the cosmos at infrared and near-infrared wavelengths, which distinguishes it from the 35-year-old Hubble Space Telescope, which takes images from ultraviolet to near-infrared wavelengths. Webb can image the most ancient light we can detect, allowing the telescope see individual stars and galaxies from the early universe. Webb can only observe one thing at a time, and theres only so much observing time available on the telescope. Brown told Gizmodo that time on the telescope is oversubscribed by a ratio of 9:1meaning nearly 10 times as many scientists want time on the telescope than are afforded it.According to a presentation by Brown shared at a town hall earlier this month, Webbs operational costs were set idealistically low in 2011. Combined with higher-than-expected inflation and less flexibility in NASAs budget, Webb faces a budget shortfall even with flat top-level funding. If the budget reductions went into effect, the impact would cut across all aspects of operations, Brown told Gizmodo in an email. Everything from solicitation and peer review of programs, to planning and scheduling of observations, to data calibration and analysis, public outreach, and more would be affected by the proposed reductions to Webbs budget.These cuts would decrease the observatory efficiency and slow response to anomalies, thus reducing the amount of observing time available, Brown added. The cuts would decrease the cadence and fidelity of instrument calibration, reduce support for the observing modes associated with the four scientific instruments, and even reduce the number of instrument modes available for science, thus decreasing the scientific productivity and impact of the mission. Webb had a surprisingly perfect launch into space in December 2020, meaning that less fuel was used getting the telescope into space than expected. The saved fuel meant that the missions lifetime will be longer than scientists projectedperhaps up to 20 years, up from a minimum mission baseline of five years. But the telescope wont last forever, so its imperative that scientists optimize their time with Webb. In the last solicitation for proposals alone, the Space Telescope Science Institute Webb mission team received 2,377 proposals for time with the telescope. Demand for the telescopes time is a measure of its importance to science, one that does not grok with the shrunken budget proposal. Its critical that NASA finds a workable solution, or their marquee mission of the decade will be underperforming just two years into its (potentially) two-decade runtime.Daily NewsletterYou May Also Like By Passant Rabie Published January 23, 2025 By Passant Rabie Published January 15, 2025 By Margherita Bassi Published January 14, 2025 By Isaac Schultz Published January 14, 2025 By Isaac Schultz Published January 14, 2025 By Isaac Schultz Published January 13, 2025
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  • WWW.ARCHDAILY.COM
    Cooking School for Migrants of Renovation Industrial Hall / FREAKS
    Cooking School for Migrants of Renovation Industrial Hall / FREAKSSave this picture! David FoesselFranceArchitects: FREAKS ArchitectureAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:700 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2023 PhotographsPhotographs:David FoesselManufacturersBrands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers: BASF, Bildau & bussman, Forbo, ROTOR DC, Ross Structural Steel, Sammode Lighting Lead Architects: Guillaume, Cyril Gauthier, Yves Pasquet, Ivan Mata Save this picture!More SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Text description provided by the architects. The project consists of setting up a cooking school for the Cuistots Migrateurs association in a former local industrial building located in Montreuil, France, made up of a metal structure with hangar roofs.Save this picture!The school offers cooking training for regular migrants, offering both theoretical and practical courses. The interior spaces are organized to accommodate kitchen rooms equipped with individual workstations, technical rooms, changing rooms, and a double-height "agora" event space, connecting the interior to the exterior square.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Upstairs there are classrooms, offices and a lunch area for students. Two staircases and a personnel elevator allow fluid circulation between levels.Save this picture!Save this picture!Aesthetically, the renovation respects the existing industrial architecture: the design of the facade ispreserved and improved to include contemporary elements while retaining the original style. The facade and exterior joinery are made of wood, to harmonize with the brick and concrete of the building, and create a space that is both warm and functional.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessProject locationAddress:Rue de Romainville, Montreuil, FranceLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officeFREAKS ArchitectureOfficeMaterialsWoodBrickMaterials and TagsPublished on January 27, 2025Cite: "Cooking School for Migrants of Renovation Industrial Hall / FREAKS" 27 Jan 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1026165/cooking-school-for-migrants-of-renovation-industrial-hall-freaks&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream
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  • WWW.DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
    Music's Soundscape Is Becoming Simpler over Time
    (Credit: carlos castilla/Shutterstock) NewsletterSign up for our email newsletter for the latest science newsHow is music changing over time? On one scale, its easy to see how music evolved through the ages as baroque music was displaced by classical, romantic and then modern music. In the 20th century alone, jazz, country and western, rocknroll all emerged along with pop, rap, hip hop and so on. Much of this rapid rate of change was driven by new ways of composing, experiencing and sharing music via vinyl, cassettes, CDs and mp3s. The emergence of digital streaming platforms, social networks and composing technologies like GarageBand have accelerated these changes by breaking down barriers and enabling new forms of musical expertise. So an important question is how this new cultural landscape is changing the nature of music. And today we get an answer thanks to the work of Niccol Di Marco at Sapienza University of Rome, and colleagues, who have developed a way to think about musical compositions as networks and then to use the tools of network science to study how it is changing over time. They say this network approach clearly distinguishes between musical genres and that it reveals clear changes in music composition over timescales stretching from months to centuries.Soundscape NetworkRevealing the network properties of a piece of music is straightforward. The trick is to think of each note as a node on the network. These nodes are connected by an edge if they appear consecutively in the composition. The edges become thicker depending on the number of times one note transitions into another. This approach immediately reveals patterns associated with distinctive styles. For example, classical music often contains complex sequences of notes that repeat throughout the composition. The network structure then clearly represents these themes. But pop music by comparison tends to consist of simpler sequences repeated far more often. This leads to smaller structures within the network that are more tightly linked. Jazz has a more diffuse structure of links, and so on.A key advantage of this approach is that scientists have developed highly sophisticated mathematical tools to study the properties of networks. These have come from areas as diverse as the study of the spread of disease, of the structure of the internet and of food networks in ecosystems. Di Marco and co have been able to bring all this to bear on the structure of music. The team analyzed approximately 20,000 MIDI files spanning six genres of music from the last four centuries. This expansive dataset provided a broad base to compare genres such as classical, jazz, rock, and pop, across different time periods. Notable differences immediately became apparent. Our results show that classical and jazz compositions have higher complexity and melodic diversity than recently developed genres, say Di Marco and co.Simple MindsBut curiously, the network analysis reveals that these forms of music are becoming simpler. A temporal analysis reveals a trend toward simplification, with even classical and jazz nearing the complexity levels of modern genres, they say. This simplification trend raises intriguing questions about the factors driving the change. The researchers speculate that technological advancements, changes in listening habits promoted by digital music platforms, and shifts in cultural production and consumption are an important influence. Our study highlights that the democratization of the composition process and the advent of new technologies and platforms have fostered the development of genres characterized by reduced complexity relative to earlier eras, they say. This kind of change is not unique to music. Di Marco and co point out that similar simplification trends have been observed for other forms of cultural expression, such as language and literature. The observed trend of musical simplification reflects broader societal changes, including the influence of global interconnectedness, rapid content dissemination, and the algorithmic curation of music consumption."Ref: Decoding Musical Evolution Through Network Science : arxiv.org/abs/2501.07557physics1 free article leftWant More? Get unlimited access for as low as $1.99/monthSubscribeAlready a subscriber?Register or Log In1 free articleSubscribeWant more?Keep reading for as low as $1.99!SubscribeAlready a subscriber?Register or Log In
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  • WWW.POPSCI.COM
    I didnt know what the heck I was doing on ChatGPT until I took this course
    Stack CommerceShareWe may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more Im not going to liewhen ChatGPT first came out and blew everyones minds, I was pretty hesitant about it. Im not going to say I was anti-AI, but I just figured Id do the work myself to ensure it was right, especially since Id heard a few of my coworkers complain about how ChatGPT could never give them perfect results.But in recent months, Ive started getting so much more scrambled with work, and its not super sustainable to rely on myself for all the answers. So, I finally started branching out and using ChatGPT, but ran into similar frustrations my coworkers did. Thankfully, I found thisChatGPT beginner course for only $9.99, and its seriously upgraded how I understand the chatbot and create prompts.For starters, I was just typing in literal questions and wording ideas I had into ChatGPT, hoping it would spit out something that wasnt complete trash. Unfortunately, the answers and responses I got werent quite helpful. Thats where this online ChatGPT course came in!Once you know exactly how to sweet-talk this chatbot, it becomesso much easier to streamline your workday. I mean, ChatGPT is capable of so much, whether you need answers to technical questions, image generation, or copy generation for marketing campaigns or blogs. Heres exactly what I learned in this course to make ChatGPT work for me:How to write effective ChatGPT prompts to get the answers I needHow to get ChatGPT to develop copy like poetry, character biographies, and articlesHow to use the chatbot to learn more about people, places, and thingsHow to use ChatGPT to brainstorm ideas for my personal and professional projectsIm a little embarrassed it took me this long to come around with ChatGPT, but Im glad I found a resource thats helped me level up how I use this chatbot daily.Join me and learn how tomaster ChatGPT prompts with this absolute beginner course, now just $9.99 (reg. $50) for lifetime access.StackSocial prices subject to change.ChatGPT for the Absolute BeginnerOnly $9.99 at Popular Science
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  • WWW.POPSCI.COM
    This tool is like ChatGPT, but for creative needs
    Stack CommerceShareWe may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more If you think ChatGPT is cool, wait until you see what this creative AI platform can do. Yeah, we know GPT can get pretty crafty, but were talking about an AI thats specifically designed to generate art, logos, stories, articles, code, and morenot just help you with your busy work.AI Magicx also offers users lifetime access to their premium AI features for a one-time payment, while Open AI gatekeepers their models behind recurring fees. AI Magicxs lifetime subscription is also affordable with our coupon code TAKE30 at checkout, dropping the cost from $972 to $70 for a limited time.Maybe you run a blog and constantly need new images to feature in your posts. Your AI Magicx subscription allows you to generate 250 AI images each month. And, if you need help writing or brainstorming, you can generate unlimited words.Heres how simple it is to do something like generate an AI logo with AI Magicx:Open the AI Magicx web app on any device.Select the AI logo tool.Enter a description of your dream logo.Choose a style, color palette, and background color.Click Generate.Before you ask, youre free to use anything you create with AI Magicx anywhere you need since a commercial license is included (and its generated with AI).Use code TAKE30 at checkout to get your AI Magicx lifetime subscription for $70 (reg. $972) for a limited time and create essentially unlimited AI art.StackSocial prices subject to change.AI Magicx: Lifetime Subscription (Rune Plan)See Deal
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  • WWW.NATURE.COM
    Extreme heat will kill millions of people in Europe without rapid action
    Nature, Published online: 27 January 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00239-4Climate models predict that the number of heat-related deaths could soar in cities over the coming century, even when efforts are made to keep people safe.
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