Brands like Samsung dominate the world of TVs for good reason. This longstanding developer of LEDs and OLEDs has been churning out some of the best TVs on the market since flatscreens were a thing, and today, wed like to draw attention to one of our favorite Samsung TVs of 2024, the S90D QD-OLED.Right now, when you purchase the Samsung 55-inch S90D at Amazon, Best Buy, Crutchfield, and a handful of other retailers, youll only pay $1,200. The full MSRP on this model is $1,400.The Samsung S90D is a thing of beauty for several reasons wed like to dish about. For starters, the TVs QD-OLED display combines the self-emissive pixel tech of traditional OLEDs with the enhanced brightness and colors that only quantum dots can deliver. Thats on top of Samsungs phenomenal picture processing and 4K upscaling, leaving you with a final picture thats brilliant, sharp, and lifelike.RelatedWe were impressed at how well the S90D holds up against glare in a brightly lit room, and the TVs terrific HDR support delivered extra-impressive highlights, making it an excellent choice for Netflix and Hulu streaming in 4K. The S90D also features HDMI 2.1 connectivity on all four ports, as well as VRR and ALLM support. This makes the TV a solid choice for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC gamers.The S90Ds Tizen OS handles apps, casting, and smart home controls, and the included remote can be recharged via solar or USB-C. Its hard to say how long this discount will hold out, so your best bet is to buy ASAP if youre interested. Take $200 off the Samsung 55-inch S90D OLED when you purchase today.We also recommend taking a look at our collections of the best Samsung TV deals, best OLED TV deals, and best QLED TV deals for even more markdowns on top TVs!Editors Recommendations

Allegedly Intelligent You knew it was coming: Google begins testing AI-only search results AI Mode could be the future of Google, but it's currently just an experiment. Ryan Whitwam Mar 5, 2025 4:04 pm | 83 Credit: Google Credit: Google Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreGoogle has become so integral to online navigation that its name became a verb, meaning "to find things on the Internet." Soon, Google might just tell you what's on the Internet instead of showing you. The company has announced an expansion of its AI search features, powered by Gemini 2.0. Everyone will soon see more AI Overviews at the top of the results page, but Google is also testing a more substantial change in the form of AI Mode. This version of Google won't show you the 10 blue links at allGemini completely takes over the results in AI Mode.This marks the debut of Gemini 2.0 in Google search. Google announced the first Gemini 2.0 models in December 2024, beginning with the streamlined Gemini 2.0 Flash. The heavier versions of Gemini 2.0 are still in testing, but Google says it has tuned AI Overviews with this model to offer help with harder questions in the areas of math, coding, and multimodal queries.With this update, you will begin seeing AI Overviews on more results pages, and minors with Google accounts will see AI results for the first time. In fact, even logged out users will see AI Overviews soon. This is a big change, but it's only the start of Google's plans for AI search.Gemini 2.0 also powers the new AI Mode for search. It's launching as an opt-in feature via Google's Search Labs, offering a totally new alternative to search as we know it. This custom version of the Gemini large language model (LLM) skips the standard web links that have been part of every Google search thus far. The model uses "advanced reasoning, thinking, and multimodal capabilities" to build a response to your search, which can include web summaries, Knowledge Graph content, and shopping data. It's essentially a bigger, more complex AI Overview.As Google has previously pointed out, many searches are questions rather than a string of keywords. For those kinds of queries, an AI response could theoretically provide an answer more quickly than a list of 10 blue links. However, that relies on the AI response being useful and accurate, something that often still eludes generative AI systems like Gemini.Google insists this is not the end of web search, saying that helping people discover content online "remains central" to its approach. Indeed, the examples Google shows include links and citations from around the web similar to AI Overviews. However, you can't just scroll down in AI Mode to see organic results. Instead, AI Mode is designed to operate in a conversational way, allowing you to refine your search or ask follow-up questions. AI Mode can still show some web links, but organic results are nowhere to be found. AI Mode can still show some web links, but organic results are nowhere to be found. If this sounds like something you absolutely do not want, you can safely ignore it for now. The experimental feature is only available for Google One AI Premium subscribers, who pay $20 per month for access to Google's best LLMs. This could be an indication that generating these search pages is extremely costly even for a company that gives away so much AI processing for free. Still, Google's AI efforts move fast, and you could find yourself confronted with AI Mode soon. It only took a few months for the Search Generative Experience to graduate from Labs as AI Overviews.Google notes that it still has a lot of work to do before AI Mode is ready for prime timeit's a dramatic departure for a core part of the Google experience, after all. Google says the AI-only searches might not always be able to offer a good rundown. In those instances, it will fall back to showing you traditional links to websites that can answer your questions. AI Mode may also appear to take on a persona or form an opinion like a chatbot while it's still in development.The feedback from the public test will help Google address AI Mode's shortcomings and make rapid changes to the experience. If you want to check out AI Mode, you can join the waitlist in Search Labs. If not, it's probably only a matter of time before you have no choice. No one was exactly clamoring for AI Overviews, but that hasn't stopped Google from pushing it to ever more searches.Ryan WhitwamSenior Technology ReporterRyan WhitwamSenior Technology Reporter Ryan Whitwam is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering the ways Google, AI, and mobile technology continue to change the world. Over his 20-year career, he's written for Android Police, ExtremeTech, Wirecutter, NY Times, and more. He has reviewed more phones than most people will ever own. You can follow him on Bluesky, where you will see photos of his dozens of mechanical keyboards. 83 Comments

An artists impression of the norovirusScience Photo Library/AlamyAn early trial of a norovirus vaccine pill has shown promise at protecting against the notorious winter vomiting bug, with researchers saying it could potentially be available for use in a few years.The virus is highly contagious, infecting the stomach and intestines and causing vomiting and diarrhoea. Most people recover within a few days, but very young and older people are especially at risk of ending up in hospital, with significant healthcare costs. Just in the US alone, its a 10 billion-[dollar]-a-year problem, says Sean Tucker at biotech company Vaxart in San Francisco, California. AdvertisementThis has spurred scientists to develop a vaccine, but so far, efforts have failed. That is partly because prior attempts have focused on developing injectable vaccines, which are less good at generating protective antibodies in the intestine, where the virus replicates, says Tucker.To address this, Tucker and his colleagues previously developed an oral norovirus vaccine that delivers a protein from the GI.1 norovirus variant into the intestine. An initial trial in adults under 50 found that the pill could generate norovirus-specific antibodies in their guts, but people in this age group probably wouldnt be a priority for a vaccine given that they generally recover from the virus easily.Now, the researchers have tested the vaccine in people in the US aged between 55 and 80. The team gave 11 of them the pill while 22 others took a placebo. About a month later, the researchers collected blood and saliva samples from the participants.Get the most essential health and fitness news in your inbox every Saturday.Sign up to newsletterThey found the people who took the vaccine had higher levels of IgA antibodies, which can block norovirus from entering cells. These antibodies had increased by more than 10 times in their blood and around seven times in their saliva, compared with samples taken just before vaccination. In contrast, the placebo group saw little change in antibody levels.Importantly, the antibodies were still present six months later in the people who took the pill, albeit at lower levels, suggesting it could offer lasting immunity. The fact that theyve got this robust antibody response makes me hopeful that it could provide protection [against infection], says Sarah Caddy at Cornell University in New York. In particular, the saliva antibody response is a way we can get a snapshot of whats happening in the intestine because the immune responses there are similar, she says.But further work should explore whether the vaccine actually prevents infection or reduces the spread of norovirus, she says. The team hopes to explore this.Whats more, the study focused on just one norovirus variant. In the real world, there are dozens of different strains you might encounter the vaccine may not protect against them all, says Caddy. In unpublished work, the researchers found that a version of the vaccine containing both GI.1 and GII.4 norovirus variants the latter of which is currently surging in the UK generated antibodies against multiple variants, says Tucker.This suggests we might soon have a norovirus vaccine, says Tucker. If everything went smoothly, with no funding hiccups, a vaccine might be available in a couple of years, he says.Journal reference:Science Translational Medicine DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.ads0556Topics:infectious diseases

Leader and HealthA rise in cancers among younger people, particularly colorectal cancer, is prompting speculation on social media over the causes. Only slow, careful research can get to the truth 5 March 2025 Steve Gschmeissner/Science Photo LibraryCareless pork costs lives, wrote The Sun newspaper, a British tabloid, in a headline about the bowel cancer risks associated with eating bacon sandwiches. That scaremongering story was published almost a decade ago, but spurious claims about lifestyle choices and cancer especially bowel cancer, also known as colorectal cancer are still rife. The big difference? The alarmist claims are largely playing out on social media and are increasingly targeted at the young.Why is this? In recent years it has become clear that rates of various cancers are rising in younger people. This is raising questions and speculation

"Food Wars" hosts Harry Kersh and Joe Avella travel across Los Angeles to find the best pizza in the city. They'll be visiting four locations in just one day to see what the city has to offer. This is "Food Tours."Read the original article on Business Insider

2025-03-05T21:39:56Z Read in app Adam Mosseri is Instagram's top exec and says the platform is doubling down on DMs. Courtesy of Meta This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? Instagram has been beefing up DMs with over 20 updates in recent months, with many focused on AI.Top exec Adam Mosseri said Instagram is "doubling down" on DMs in 2025.We made a chart breaking down all the recent changes at the Meta-owned platform.Instagram has been very busy building new tools for its direct messaging products.In the past year, the Meta-owned platform has rolled out more than 20 updates to DMs, ranging from AI chatbots to new ways to share music with friends.Why is Instagram so busy in the DMs? It's become the primary social interaction on the app."When you think of Instagram, you probably think of a feed of square photos, but how Instagram works has changed a lot over the years," Adam Mosseri, Instagram's top executive, said last year. "And if you look at what people share, how people express their creativity, the primary way they do so is actually DMs on Instagram."In March 2024, Instagram announced a handful of new messaging features, including the ability to edit messages after they'd been sent and turn on or off read receipts.The following months were filled with various updates to Instagram DMs. Several months saw new AI feature rollouts, like a suite of user-made AI characters in July and AI-generated DM themes in September.Instagram also confirmed via a Threads post from Mosseri that it was testing moving its DM button, typically seen at the top right of the app, to the main navigation bar in November.To top it all off, at the start of 2025, Mosseri said it would be "doubling down" on messaging as it focused on two core priorities for the new year creativity and connection.Business Insider compiled all of the updates Instagram has made to messaging since last March to help you keep track.Here's a chart breaking down each feature and when it launched:Editing messagesAbility to pin chats to inboxTurning on/off read receiptsNew chat themesMeta launches AI Studio for Instagram DMsAbility to ask Meta AI questions in DMs and to imagine and animate photosCustom AI chat themesCutout sticker in DMsDraw doodles, add text, and edit gallery sends in DMs"Imagine" self-portraits with AI in DMsLonger voice messages in DMs (up to five minutes)New sticker packs (more than 300 additions)NicknamesLocation sharingInstagram confirms it is testing moving the DM button to the main navigation barInstagram Broadcast Channels get more social features (replies, prompts, insights, and best practices)High-definition images in DMsAbility to @mention a group chat in Reels/Feed commentsScheduling messagesMusic stickers in DMsTranslating messagesAbility to pin messages in chatsAIs in group chatsQR codes for group chats and Instagram Broadcast Channels

I got my latest Screen Time report from Apple halfway through my daughters first day at Disney World. Waiting in line for rides, Id been checking my phone reflexively, tapping app icons. Like many distracted parents, this triggered a pang of guilt that I was looking at a screen instead of being more present for my little one. I do it at home, too, and Id like to stop. Ironic that I was distracted once again by a notification telling me to look at my phone in order to learn how to look at my phone less.Screen time reports the weekly roundups of time spent on various apps that Apple and Google send its users are a cornerstone of digital wellness, a concept thats been around for over a decade. To some, digital wellness might mean simply using their phone less, and to others, it might mean cutting down on distractions, like unwanted notifications. Following some public backlash about how smartphones were exacerbating mental health issues for young people, Apple and Google gave people additional tools to track and restrict their device usage. In 2018, Apple announced Screen Time, and Google launched its Digital Wellbeing features for Android. These settings were essentially adult versions of existing features that let parents limit their childrens devices, including setting time limits on certain apps. In effect, you could now parent yourself when it comes to digital wellness.Its been seven years now, and Im not sure I feel digitally well.Its been seven years now, and Im not sure I feel digitally well. While Ive experimented with a combination of hacks in my phones accessibility settings and tinkered with third-party apps that nudge my behavior away from bad habits, like many people, I still look at my phone more than Id like to. And I still ended up being that dad at Disney World checking my notifications.There is one thing that has helped my phone habits, however. I made my home screen as boring as I could. And when that doesnt work, I just leave it behind.Screen time has always been a poor metricThe mission of digital wellness tools from Apple and Google has always seemed confused. After all, its counterintuitive that tech companies would release a set of features designed to make you use their products less. Apple and Google dont actually want you to put your phone down. They just want you to like them.About a decade ago, a wave of anxiety that smartphones were damaging our brains and, especially, our childrens brains hit the tech industry. In a 2017 Atlantic article, psychologist Jean Twenge asked if smartphones had destroyed a generation. The following year, two prominent Wall Street investors asked Apple to study how its products were affecting our health. Screen Time was the companys answer. Google launched its Digital Wellbeing tools around the same time. Many social media apps, including Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, now offer features like these, too, usually in the form of parental controls.3 easy things to doNobody should feel helpless in our app-saturated world. But you can update a few simple settings to make your phone less habit-forming. Tristan Harris, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, offered three tips in a 2018 Vox video that still make sense today:Turn off all nonhuman notificationsMake your screen grayscaleRestrict your home screen to essential, everyday toolsApples Screen Time reports show you some basic stats: total screen time, time spent on individual apps, the number of times you picked up your phone, and total notifications. You can also set time limits for apps as well as downtime, so that only certain apps are available for a period of time. Googles Digital Wellbeing reports are virtually identical. This is all buried in your devices settings, and on Apple devices, the data gets deleted after seven days.This information is kind of interesting if youre someone who likes looking at stats to spot patterns. Its almost like fitness tracking for your attention. But unlike Apples Health and Fitness apps which, if you have an Apple Watch, will proactively prompt you to stand up or alert you to loud noises, Screen Time just passively collects this information and delivers it to you once a week through a push alert. Although theres been a lot of focus on screen time for the past decade, knowing the amount of time youve spent staring at a screen isnt all that helpful. And when it comes to social media apps, its a really poor metric, according to Amira Skeggs, a researcher at Cambridge.When you say screen time, that could be someone calling their mom on WhatsApp and having a beautiful conversation, really fulfilling, or it could be a 14-year-old looking at self-harm content on TikTok, Skeggs explained. And those two things are equated as screen time, and obviously those relationships to well-being are going to be vastly different.The fact that these reports give you numbers and little actionable information is a well-covered topic. The New York Times reported as early as 2019 that Screen time is over. The Atlantic called Screen Time reports The Worst Feature Apple Ever Made last year, and Wired said Tracking Screen Time Is Ruining Your Life in 2023. These are melodramatic takes, in my opinion, but I do wonder if theres more that Apple and Google could be doing. You need a nudgeTogether, the software made by Apple and Google are running on over 98 percent of mobile devices worldwide. If Apple and Google really wanted to, they could be doing a lot more to integrate digital wellness features into their operating systems. A nudge here or there something as simple as prompting people to take a break could help billions of people stop doomscrolling. If it was a priority for them, you would be seeing better integration, Andrew Przybylski, a professor of technology and human behavior at the Oxford Internet Institute, told me. He went on to explain that you cant export Screen Time data and you cant enroll in clinical trials about your device usage like you can with Apple Health data. Researchers also have very little insight into how Apple and Google develop Screen Time and Digital Wellbeing features. There are just things in the last seven years that are missing that you would expect, Przybylski added. You would expect that there actually would be some independent testing to show that they work.I asked Apple and Google about integrating digital wellness tools into their operating systems. Apple declined to comment. Google did not reply.To be clear, Apple and Google have updated these suites of features, but those updates have largely focused on parental controls. After cracking down on third-party parental control apps, Apple introduced a Screen Time API in 2021 that enabled developers to build apps using certain Screen Time data without compromising user privacy. Google, meantime, released an alert called Heads Up that tells you when youre walking and using your phone. And last year, Google quietly rolled out a feature called Screen Time Reminders that nudges you occasionally if youve been in a single app for too long. When you compare these incremental improvements to third-party digital wellness apps, you can start to get a handle on just how much more Apple and Google could be doing. Ive spent the last couple of weeks testing out three popular ones Forest, One Sec, Freedom and although my reflexive phone-checking isnt cured, Im a lot more mindful about how I spend my attention looking at screens.Forest is my favorite app so far. Borrowing from the Pomodoro time management technique, it lets you plant a digital tree, and for a set amount of time, you cant leave the app or the tree will die. Forest rewards you with tokens for focus sessions that you can use to unlock new kinds of trees to plant. Its $4 to download and own, and its oddly compelling to use.One Sec, which has a more complicated setup process, essentially adds a time delay when you try to open certain apps. It lets you create custom interventions for each app, including simple tasks to complete before an app will open and activating your front-facing camera to look yourself in the eye before proceeding to doomscroll. The free version lets you do this with one app, and for $20 a year, the Pro version gives you unlimited apps as well as a few other features.Freedom is even more comprehensive and gives you granular control over which apps and websites to block during certain situations. Because it taps into Apples Screen Time API, which lets it communicate with your phones operating system, Freedom can completely change the way your phone works when its on, dimming blocked app icons and preventing websites from loading in Safari. It costs $40 a year.Whats really worked in terms of helping me be on my phone less is just making it less interesting. Making your phone grayscale is the easiest way to do this. Its boring to scroll through Instagram when everything is black and white. You can also try Apples Focus Modes, which let you create presets to minimize distractions for different scenarios Googles Digital Wellbeing has similar features or just turn off notifications altogether.The secret to scrolling less is simple: Make your home screen boring. Use the grayscale trick or use the Tinted option in your iPhone settings or use your Android settings to make the app icons monochrome. While youre at it, delete as many app icons as you can. You can keep the ones you really use on your phone and use the search feature to find the rest. You can also use widgets for basic info like your calendar and the weather so you dont have to open the app. Most of us dont even notice how much were staring at screens without purpose. In a sense, I had to break my phone to get it to work right. My home screen is now monochrome and sparse. I only get notifications when a human is trying to contact me, and when I really want to pay attention to my family, I just leave my phone in the other room. Its impossible to scroll when you cant touch it.A version of this story was also published in the User Friendly newsletter. Sign up here so you dont miss the next one!See More:

You might be forgiven, given Mon Mothmas increased importance to modernStar Wars, for thinking that her homeworld of Chandrila was one of the galaxy far, far aways most explored locales, up there with the likes of Coruscant, Hoth, Tatooine, Alderaan, and more for their pivotal roles across the Skywalker Saga. But even now, after years of potential study in both the old expanded universe and contemporary canon alike, Chandrila at large is a mystery: and even its role in the Rebel Alliance has largely been rendered symbolic rather than particularly material. Andors upcoming second season will mark the first time weve actually visited Chandrila on-screen in currentStar Wars canon, the worlds importance to continuity beyond it being more for its role in the early days of the New Republic rather than the time of the Empire. But even in the EU, Chandrila remained, much like its erstwhile Senator, more of a figurehead of resistance to the Empire, rather than necessarily a truly vital player in the Alliance to Restore the Republic. So what do we know about the planets role in the Galactic Civil War in either very ofStar Wars story? The answer is ultimately not much, which itself says a lot. Chandrilas Role inStar Wars Canon Jethro Morales and Joe Caramagna/Marvel Comics In both renditions of its history, Chandrila is a key player in the foundation of the Republic. One of the major worlds in the galactic core, despite its proximity to the heart of what would become galactic civilization, little has been really explored about the world until the time of the mainlineStar Wars movies. Even Chandrilas role in the Clone War is largely left untouchedalthough we did at least learn recently during Alexander Freeds novel Mask of Fear that its capital, Hanna City, was targeted by extended orbital bombardment during the conflict, largely resisted by planetary shielding. This mystery continues throughout the rise of the Empire itself. Although Mon Mothmas public history of opposition to the new Emperor, and her legacy in Padm Amidalas Delegation of 2,000 would make her a prime player in the Imperial Senates attempts to block overreach of power, it wouldnt be until Mothmas own departure from office in the wake of the Imperial militarys massacre on Ghorman, and the formal announcement of the Alliance to Restore the Republic in 2BBY, that Chandrila would become known as a sympathetic world to the Rebel cause. Even then, its direct role in the war remains obscurethe world was simply one among thousands that suffered in the shadow of the Empire, rather than being a particularly focused target. Chandrila was considered an important locale to the Alliance in terms of materiel and safe supply caches, its reputation was largely symbolic due to its connection to Mon Mothmaa symbolism that would in part lead the world, alongside Mon Cala, to be on the list of intended targets for the second Death Star after the Rebel fleets destruction over Endor. Instead, Chandrilas importance in the rebootedStar Wars canon comes with a much clearer role in the wake of the events ofReturn of the Jedi. With Coruscant embroiled in planetary civil war in the wake of the Emperors death, it would be Chandrila that would become the capital of the reformed Republic, its first senate being called to quorum in Hanna City, with Mothma as its first Chancellor. In the following year, Chandrila would become an important military and legislative hub for the nascent Republic as military campaigns against the Imperial remnant continued. But an attempted terror attack by brainwashed liberated Imperial prisoners at peace talks between the New Republic and the Empire saw the first attempt to bring an end to the Galactic Civil War crumble, and Chandrilas position as the heart of the New Republic in jeopardy.Although it would remain the Republics capital, even after Coruscants liberation and the formal end of the war with the signing of Galactic Concordance, the Republic Senate itself would establish a rotating residency across member worlds, relocating every year until the bodys destruction on Hosnian Prime in 34ABY. Chandrila inStar Wars Expanded Universe Lucasarts Much more is known about Chandrilas time during the rise of the Empire in the Expanded Universe (largely through the sheer volume of content), but even then what we did learn of the planet was ultimately a mirror in prelude to what was going to come in rebooted continuity. In the EU, Chandrila was still a largely symbolic representative of resistance to the Empire, but a far more proactive one: although tensions between itself and other worlds involved in the early formalization of the Alliance (namely Corellia and Alderaan) once again largely made Mon Mothma a political figurehead of the organization rather than a particular military force, Chandrila was a key world for Rebel recruitment and supplies throughout the Empires rule.It would take the Rebellions destruction of the first Death Star to really make Chandrila a particularly targeted world by Imperial effort, however. After Mon Mothmas replacement as its representative in the Imperial Senate, Canna Omonda, was executed a year after the Battle of Yavin for publicly decrying the Emperors dissolution of the governing body, Chandrilawhich had already been subject to retaliatory tariffs on luxury agricultural exports by COMPNOR (the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order)was subject to blockade by the Imperial Navy. Although Rebel forces, lead by Rogue Squadron, managed to liberate the port city of Nayli from ground assault and supply restrictions, Imperial forces in the sector stationed fleets around the nearby worlds of Brentaal IV and Corulag, effectively threatening Chandrila with a larger planetary blockade that effectively kept the planet out of open participation in the Galactic Civil War. It wouldnt be until after the Battle of Endor (just as would be the case in revised continuity, victory for the Empire wouldve meant a full planetary invasion of Chandrila and its eventual destruction by the second Death Star) and the liberation of Coruscant itself that the blockade would be lifted, allowing Chandrilas provisional government to formally join the nascent New Republic. Chandrilan Society, and a Planet of Politics Lucasfilm The relative lack of exploration of Chandrilaeither from its real lack of focus in current Star Wars canon beyond Mon Mothma herself, or the planets blockade in the EU largely leaving it as a primary factor in that rendition of the Galactic Civil Warhas left the worlds society likewise only touched on in broad strokes. In many ways, Star Wars love of single-biome worldbuilding applied to Chandrilan culture in the small ways it was touched upon: because or primary lens on the world was through the existence of Mon Mothma, herself largely only explored as a political leader of the Alliance and eventually the New Republic, what information about Chandrila we learned would become filtered through her. Mon Mothma was into politics? Okay then, Chandrila is now anentire planet of politics, with a cultural reputation for robust debate and interest in civics to match, its people defined by outspoken political candor.That at least might change a little when we visit the world for the first time inAndor season two. Much of the shows prior, but brief exploration of Chandrilan cultureagain framed through the perspective of Mon Mothmas personal interaction with ittouched on a divide between modern cosmopolitan society and ancient cultural traditions, especially those around arranged marriage. Chandrilan culture, when not expressly about politics, had a similar undertone in the EU: an agricultural world, Chandrila was known for its steadfast nurturing of the planetary ecology, advocating that its natural world could co-exist with the technological advancement of interstellar society. Theres no doubt what we see of Chandrila inAndor will continue to focus on that aspect of the traditional elements Mon Mothma bristles against, moreso than anything else. But beyond being our first time to see the world on-screen, itll at least add some much needed texture to a significant place in Star Wars galaxy. 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.

By AJ Dellinger Published March 5, 2025 | Comments (1) | A truck wtih a car carrier trailer carries several new vehicles Justin Sullivan/Getty Images It seemed inevitable from the moment Donald Trump announced his sweeping 25% tariffs on all imports from Mexico and Canada that the carveouts would come. One day into the attempt to inflict pain on seemingly everyone, including his own populus, Trump has issued his first exception: Automakers have managed to lobby for an additional month of tariff-free trade, according to Bloomberg. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that cars coming across the northern and southern border as part of the cleverly named United StatesMexicoCanada Agreement (USMCA), a trade deal that Donald Trump negotiated during his first term but now is largely blowing up, will be exempted through the start of April. At the request of the companies associated with USMCA, the president is giving them an exemption for one month so they are not at an economic disadvantage, Leavitt said. The move reportedly came after Trump administration officials met with leadership from Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, which owns Chrysler, with more meetings expected in the coming days, according to Bloomberg. Notably, an executive for American automaker Tesla also happens to sleep in the White House. Its hard to imagine Musk didnt have the presidents ear on the decision in some shape or form, given that his company relies heavily on Chinese auto parts made in Mexico. Per Bloomberg, part of the reason Trump granted the brief reprieve to automakers is to allow them to draft up plans on how theyll invest more in domestic production. Which, hey, that would be great! The United Auto Workers union even offered its support for the idea of using tariffs for this purpose. Usually, though, youd secure those types of investments ahead of time, maybe even start actually building up your manufacturing base before levying the tariffs. Standing up factories is not exactly a 30-day processit can take years. But maybe automakers will figure it all out before the next set of reciprocal tariffs, including ones on auto imports, go into effect on April 2. While automakers managed to successfully negotiate a carve-out, it seems like Trump has decided to play hardball with everyone else, including the leadership of the countries with which he just started a trade war.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been actively trying to comply with Trumps largely nonsensical demands, including issuing more border security and reducing the amount of fentanyl that crosses the Canadian border. Trudeau has correctly acknowledged that less than 1% of all fentanyl intercepted at US borders comes from Canada, and the Center for Foreign Relations found that Canada is responsible for almost none of the fentanyl that winds up inside U.S. borders. But Trump has insisted that Canadas efforts are not good enough for the tariffs to come off. Its clear that Trump is trying to get concessions from basically everyone at this point, but hes largely making them guess what those concessions are. Automakers figured out enough to buy themselves some time. Well see if anyone else cracks the code and gets some relief.Daily NewsletterYou May Also Like By Matt Novak Published March 5, 2025 By Matthew Gault Published March 5, 2025 By Lucas Ropek Published March 5, 2025 By AJ Dellinger Published March 5, 2025 By Matt Novak Published March 5, 2025 By AJ Dellinger Published March 4, 2025

Tens of thousands of cuneiform tablets are sitting around, just waiting to be translated. Its not an easy job; the ancient language is based on wedge-shaped pictograms and includes more than 1,000 unique characters that vary by era, geography, and individual writer.But decoding the pictograms could be a culturally and historically significant task. Cuneiform arose about 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, in what is now Iraq. It is one of four known pristine languages writing systems with no known influences from any other. Some translated cuneiform tablets have revealed contents as banal as a record of inventory for shipping. Others have been more profound like the Epic of Gilgamesh," the first known written work of literature.Those translations, done by a relatively few individuals who know the language, required a lot of labor and perhaps some guesswork. Decoding such complexity would be the perfect job for artificial intelligence, thought some Cornell University researchers, who, with colleagues at Tel Aviv University, created a system to do just that, they report in a paper to be presented at an April 2025 conference.AI Deciphers Ancient TabletsThe research team developed a system that overcomes the many obstacles that variations present to translation. When you go back to the ancient world, theres a huge variability in the character forms, Hadar Averbuch-Elor, a Cornell computer science professor who led the research, said in a press release. Even with the same character, the appearance changes across time, and so its a very challenging problem to be able to automatically decipher what the character actually means.The computer system reads photographs of clay cuneiform tablets, then adjusts by computationally overlaying the images atop ones with similar features, and whose meaning is known. Because the system automatically aligns the two images until they digitally click into place, they named the system ProtoSnap.What We Can Learn From Ancient TextsIn the paper, the researchers demonstrated that the snapped characters can be used to train the system to see other similarities between other characters later in the process, what they call downstream. When the system received such training, ProtoSnap performed much better at recognizing cuneiform characters even rare ones or characters with lots of differences than previous AI efforts.This advance could help automate the tablet-reading process. This would save an enormous amount of time. It could also help scholars better compare writings from different times, cities, and authors. But most importantly, it would dramatically hasten the translation process ultimately giving the world access to an abundance of ancient writing.The base of our research is the aim to increase the ancient sources available to us by tenfold, Yoram Cohen, a co-author and archaeology professor at TAU said in the press release. This will allow us, for the first time, the manipulation of big data, leading to new measurable insights about ancient societies their religion, economy, social and legal life.Although many translated tablets will likely just show, say, a receipt for a livestock purchase, others could contain fascinating historical accounts or even another epic poem.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:Cornell University and Tel Aviv University. ProtoSnap: Prototype Alignment for Cuneiform SignsBefore joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.