In the wake of Donald Trumps reelection as U.S. president, a growing chorus of voices is calling on liberals to toughen up and tone down the moral high ground. If the left wants to claw back power, they argue, its time to play dirty. Enter: dark woke.The term began circulating online soon after Trump was sworn in for his second term. A video of someone sprinting up to a Cybertruck and spraying its silver shell with spray paint? Dark woke. New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calling the new Republican government rapists and, in response, telling critics to cry more? Dark woke.#DarkWoke is rising. pic.twitter.com/2taP6TzHo2 Right Wing Cope (@RightWingCope) February 3, 2025 Even elected Democrats seem to be testing the waters. California Representative Robert Garcia recently claimed hes borrowing from House member Marjorie Taylor Greenes playbook by bringing a dick pica photo of Elon Muskto a Department of Government Efficiency subcommittee meeting. Its not just a terminally online trend. TikToker and self-described Regina George liberal Suzanne Lambert echoed the sentiment in a CBS interview, urging Democrats to be meaner. Her reasoning: You fight fire with fire: I want people to feel more comfortable fighting back, and I want them to see someone fighting for them.Its the latest evolution of what was once known, during Trumps first term, as the dirtbag lefta label for young progressives who ruthlessly mocked their political enemies. During the 2024 election, then-President Joe Bidens campaign also briefly embraced the Dark Brandon meme, which reimagined the 81-year-old Democratic nominee as a cooler internet alter-ego. I think the dark woke stuff had to happen eventually because the liberal side of the culture war has not been overtly cruel enough to fit into American politics, one X user mused last month.I think the dark woke stuff had to happen eventually because the liberal side of the culture war has not been overtly cruel enough to fit into American politics Liv (@Liv_Agar) February 1, 2025 However, one interpretation of dark wokeism essentially boils down to slurs but said in a leftist way. On X, this is framed as a backlash against the namby-pamby language policing that no one likes in liberal politics. Most people think dark woke just means using slurs/adopting inherently regressive right wing positions, journalist Taylor Lorenz posted on X. Most dark woke types have just adopted conservatism but refuse to acknowledge that bc they are nominally against Trump or want to think of themselves as good ppl.Most people think dark woke just means using slurs/adopting inherently regressive right wing positions. Most dark woke types have just adopted conservatism but refuse to acknowledge that bc they are nominally against Trump or want to think of themselves as good ppl Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) February 2, 2025 This shift toward meaner, nastier politics isnt exactly surprising. Trumps risebuilt on a strategy of saying absolutely anything, no matter how offensive or plain wrongdidnt just win him a second term. It set the tone for global politics.For now, dark woke is more gallows humor than any kind of serious organizing force. Whether it becomes something more? That remains to be seen.

How can a razor brand market its products online when the word razor is shadow banned? Start an OnlyFans, of course.London-based Nimbi, which launched at Erewhon in January 2024, began posting on TikTok last summer but noticed its views were disappointingly low. Turns out, its because the company was using the word razor, which is shadow banned on TikTok (meaning the platform was limiting who could see Nimbis content). So, the company got creative.Cofounder Anna Reid first suggested the idea of making an OnlyFans account as a joke. But it turned out to be a smart move. Most brands would steer well clear of posting on a platform infamous for sexually explicit content. But OnlyFans is not just a site for adult creators, and brands might be missing out on its marketing potential.Rather than posting sexualized content for a male audience, Nimbis OnlyFans content is instructional and intended to answer questions consumers might never have the courage to ask. One post, for example, is an in-depth shaving tutorial. Its much more like, How do we show that we all share a lot of the same needs? Reid told Inc. in a recent interview. Lets share better educational techniques that arent [for] our skin on our face, but other body parts that we just cant show on social media.While OnlyFans isnt the brands major marketing channel (it has fewer than 100 subscribers), Reid told Inc. that the team is having a lot of fun with it. The bold approach appears to be paying off. Nimbi is now Erewhons No. 1 seller in the personal care category, and expanded to more than 900 Target stores March 1. Unlike traditional razors, Nimbis plastic-free, disposable products are made from waste wood pulp, pine oil, and claya first-to-market material.OnlyFans might not work for the Este Lauders of the world. But for a razor brand, it simply makes sense.

File sizes forWWE 2Ktitles tend to be pretty bloated (not unlike a disheartening majority of modern AAA titles), and unsurprisingly, it seems like the upcomingWWE 2K25will be no different in that regard.Thats as per @PlaystationSize on Twitter, a page that tracks the PlayStation Store backend, which has reported thatWWE 2K25has a download size of 110.479 GB on PS5, and 88.682 GB on PS4. Presumably, that means we can expect roughly similar sizes on Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One respectively, though the different decompression tech used by each hardware kit will likely bring some variation here and there.Meanwhile, as per @PlaystationSize,WWE 2K25will become available for pre-load two days ahead of release- which means March 5 for those who purchase its Deadman or Bloodline Editions, and March 12 for those who purchase the Standard Edition.WWE 2K25will launch globally on March 14 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

The Last of UsIP is bigger than its ever been, which is really saying something. The games, of course, remain a critical and commercial success on a scale that very few other franchises can claim to match, while the success of the HBO adaptation has shot the franchise further and higher into the mainstream. With that, many have taken it as a fact that Naughty Dog will, at some point, makeThe Last of Us Part 3 but series creator and Naughty Dog head honcho Neil Druckmann himself isnt quite so sure.Speaking in a recent interview with Variety, when asked about a thirdLast of Usgame, Druckmann said there are no guarantees that Naughty Dog will make on, and that 2020sThe Last of Us Part 2could simply be the end of the series.I was waiting for this question, Druckmann says, sighing, when I bring up the prospect of a third game. I guess the only thing I would say is dont bet on there being more of Last of Us. This could be it.Of course, its fair to say that few will believe Druckmann, and many might even strongly believe thatThe Last of Us Part 3is in the worksright now. Druckmann himself has certainly made statements in the past that seemingly allude to that being the case.Back in 2021, he said he had a story outline in mind forThe Last of Us Part 3.Meanwhile, in a development documentary forThe Last of Us Part 2released last year, Druckmann spoke once again about his ideas for a sequel, saying, it does feel like theres probably one more chapter to this story. Read more on through here.In 2023, Naughty Dog confirmed it had multiple major single-player titles in development. Last December, one of those was officially confirmed to be sci-fi action-adventure gameIntergalactic.The Last of Usfranchise has sold over 37 million units as of January 2023. Season 2 of HBOs adaptation premieres next month.

Toyota Research Institute Researchers have unveiled Multi-View Geometric Diffusion (MVGD), a groundbreaking diffusion-based architecture that directly synthesizes high-fidelity novel RGB and depth maps from sparse, posed images, bypassing the need for explicit 3D representations like NeRF or 3D Gaussian splats. This innovation promises to redefine the frontier of 3D synthesis by offering a streamlined, robust, and scalable solution for generating realistic 3D content.The core challenge MVGD addresses is achieving multi-view consistency: ensuring generated novel viewpoints seamlessly integrate in 3D space. Traditional methods rely on building complex 3D models, which often suffer from memory constraints, slow training, and limited generalization. MVGD, however, integrates implicit 3D reasoning directly into a single diffusion model, generating images and depth maps that maintain scale alignment and geometric coherence with input images without intermediate 3D model construction.MVGD leverages the power of diffusion models, known for their high-fidelity image generation, to encode appearance and depth information simultaneouslyKey innovative components include:Pixel-Level Diffusion: Unlike latent diffusion models, MVGD operates at original image resolution using a token-based architecture, preserving fine details.Joint Task Embeddings: A multi-task design enables the model to jointly generate RGB images and depth maps, leveraging a unified geometric and visual prior.Scene Scale Normalization: MVGD automatically normalizes scene scale based on input camera poses, ensuring geometric coherence across diverse datasets.Training on an unprecedented scale, with over 60 million multi-view image samples from real-world and synthetic datasets, empowers MVGD with exceptional generalization capabilities. This massive dataset enables:Zero-Shot Generalization: MVGD demonstrates robust performance on unseen domains without explicit fine-tuning.Robustness to Dynamics: Despite not explicitly modeling motion, MVGD effectively handles scenes with moving objects.MVGD achieves state-of-the-art performance on benchmarks like RealEstate10K, CO3Dv2, and ScanNet, surpassing or matching existing methods in both novel view synthesis and multi-view depth estimation.MVGD introduces incremental conditioning and scalable fine-tuning, enhancing its versatility and efficiency.Incremental conditioning allows for refining generated novel views by feeding them back into the model.Scalable fine-tuning enables incremental model expansion, boosting performance without extensive retraining.The implications of MVGD are significant:Simplified 3D Pipelines: Eliminating explicit 3D representations streamlines novel view synthesis and depth estimation.Enhanced Realism: Joint RGB and depth generation provides lifelike, 3D-consistent novel viewpoints.Scalability and Adaptability: MVGD handles varying numbers of input views, crucial for large-scale 3D capture.Rapid Iteration: Incremental fine-tuning facilitates adaptation to new tasks and complexities.MVGD represents a significant leap forward in 3D synthesis, merging diffusion elegance with robust geometric cues to deliver photorealistic imagery and scale-aware depth. This breakthrough signals the emergence of geometry-first diffusion models, poised to revolutionize immersive content creation, autonomous navigation, and spatial AI.Check outthe Paper.All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,feel free to follow us onTwitterand dont forget to join our80k+ ML SubReddit. Jean-marc MommessinJean-marc is a successful AI business executive .He leads and accelerates growth for AI powered solutions and started a computer vision company in 2006. He is a recognized speaker at AI conferences and has an MBA from Stanford.Jean-marc Mommessinhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/jean-marc0000677/Revolutionizing Robot Learning: How Metas Aria Gen 2 enables 400% Faster Training with Egocentric AIJean-marc Mommessinhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/jean-marc0000677/Introducing Parlant: The Open-Source Framework for Reliable AI AgentsJean-marc Mommessinhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/jean-marc0000677/Level Up Your Coding: Get Your AI Pair Programmer with Magicode Jean-marc Mommessinhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/jean-marc0000677/Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed AI Agents that can Autonomously Hack Websites and Find Zero-Day Vulnerabilities Recommended Open-Source AI Platform: IntellAgent is a An Open-Source Multi-Agent Framework to Evaluate Complex Conversational AI System' (Promoted)

For this week only, Best Buy is offering a great price on a prebuilt gaming PC that's perfect for up to 1440p gaming. The Yeiyan Tanto gaming PC is equipped with a GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card for only $1,099.99 shipped. This is currently the only RTX 4070 gaming PC we've found for $1,100 or lower, and a better value than picking up a new RTX 5070 card, especially if 1080p or 1440p gaming is your goal.Yeiyan RTX 4070 Prebuilt Gaming PC for $1,099.99Yeiyan Tanto AMD Ryzen 7 5700 RTX 4070 Gaming PC with 16GB RAM, 1TB SSDThe Yeiyan Tanto gaming PC is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 5700 CPU, RTX 4070 GPU, 16GB of DDR4-3200MHz RAM, and a 1TB M.2 SSD. The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 processor has a max turbo frequency of 4.6GHz with 8 cores and 16 threads. This isn't the fastest processor on the block, but it won't be an issue for gaming, since gaming performance is mostly GPU bound. Note that the motherboard accepts DDR4 memory only. The benefit is that DDR4 RAM is much less expensive than DDR5 if you ever want to increase your total capacity. However if you want to upgrade to DDR5, you'll have to replace the motherboard. Will you notice a performance increase going with DDR5? With this CPU and GPU combo, absolutely not.The RTX 4070 can easily hold its own in 1080p and 1440p gaming, and you should be able to comfortably push framerates of 60Hz+ in nearly every game. You'll be able to push even higher framerates in games that support DLSS 3.0. It's also perfectly capable of running games in 4K, although at that point you'll see noticeable gains upgrading to a more powerful GPU. The RTX 4070 has 12GB of VRAM, which is the same amount as the RTX 5070 that was just released.Why Should You Trust IGN's Deals Team?IGN's deals team has a combined 30+ years of experience finding the best discounts in gaming, tech, and just about every other category. We don't try to trick our readers into buying things they don't need at prices that aren't worth buying something at. Our ultimate goal is to surface the best possible deals from brands we trust and our editorial team has personal experience with. You can check out our deals standards here for more information on our process, or keep up with the latest deals we find on IGN's Deals account on Twitter.Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.

Looking forthe most recentMini Crossword answer?Click here for today's Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.Today'sNYT Mini Crosswordfeatures a lot of words beginning with the letter Z. Need some help with today's Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times' games collection. If you're looking for today's Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visitCNET's NYT puzzle hints page.Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword The completed NYT Mini Crossword puzzle for March 6, 2025. NYT/Screenshot by CNETLet's get at those Mini Crossword clues and answers.\Mini across clues and answers1A clue: Sound of mosquito electrocutionAnswer: ZAP4A clue: Niche publication printed in small batchesAnswer: ZINE5A clue: Nintendo princessAnswer: ZELDA6A clue: Malevolent creatures in "The Lord of the Rings"Answer: ORCS7A clue: Cry of delightAnswer: OOHMini down clues and answers1D clue: ZipAnswer: ZILCH2D clue: "No ifs, ___ or buts"Answer: ANDS3D clue: Sphere in a stir-fryAnswer: PEA4D clue: ZipAnswer: ZERO5D clue: What parents with toddlers might compare their household toAnswer: ZOOHow to play more Mini CrosswordsThe New York Times Games section offers many online games, but only some are free for all to play. You can play the current day's Mini Crossword for free, but you'll need a subscription to the Times Games section to play older puzzles from the archives.

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 | 140 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. 140 Comments

Now back to farming.In case you missed it, Stardew Valley's most recent update (Version 1.6.15.1) included an error on the Switch. While the game was "mostly playable, there were some issues like "crashes", text problems and some other issues.Fortunately, the game's creator Eric 'ConcernedApe' Barone has been working to resolve this issue and a patch for this patch has now been issued. Here's what he had to say about this, along with the official website notice:Read the full article on nintendolife.com

A new wave of NSO icons are also available.It's the month of March and for Xenoblade fans it means the return of Monolith Soft's Wii U game Xenoblade Chronicles X.Of course, this new version for Switch is the 'definitive edition' and that means updated visuals as well as additional content. As we noted in our hands on, this title now "looks and feels every bit as good as the most recent entries in the franchise" with these enhancements.Read the full article on nintendolife.com