Events Letterheads Per L'Horta: An Intimate International Meet The masses amass in Almàssera for an inspiring four days painting in the Valencian sun. Better Letters Jun 5, 2025 • 8 min read Letterheads Per L'Horta in Almàssera, Valencia, 1–4 May 2025. This time last month, over 45 guests from 11 countries were feeling the post-Letterheads blues after four days in the small town of Almàssera, just outside Valencia, Spain. Letterheads Per L'Horta was organised by Nico Barrios, and it was a wonderfully intimate experience, with a host of activities to enjoy and learn from.Something that made the event feel extra special was the involvement of people from the local community, who were just as much a part of it as those that had travelled from as far afield as Australia and Mexico to attend. This included bidding in the auction for a souvenir of the long weekend in May spent with friends, new and old.Almàssera and L'HortaAlmàssera is a small town set within a vast expanse of small-scale agricultural production. While each plot of land is known as a huerto (allotment), they are collectively referred to as horta, which doesn't really have a direct translation. The Horta Nord (North Horta) that surrounds Almàssera is the largest and best surviving example of this type of terrain.We were based in the town's Museu de l'Horta (Horta Museum), which consists of an old and a modern building with a yard between them that housed the panel jam area.A traditional alquería (farmhouse) in l'horta, a view down on the meet, and the tents protecting the panel jam area.Inside the modern building there was a selection of pieces from Juan Nava's 2022 Gráfica Urbana de Valencia (Urban Graphics of Valencia) exhibition. There was also a trip down memory lane for Valencian locals in the form of another exhibition, L'ombra de les lletres (the shadow of the letters), with photos of signs spanning the period 1880–2000.L'ombra de les lletres was originally curated by Tomàs Gorria in 2024. Pedal PowerAlmàssera, and the city of Valencia, are easily navigated by bicycle, which Nico used to facilitate a cycling tour of the old signs of l'horta. In addition to the stories of the individual companies advertised, he was also able to identify the painters responsible for some of the signs.The tour took guests into the heart of l'horta, which, as a largely agricultural area, boasts a surprising number of old and hand-painted signs.Panel JammingAfter a windy first day or so, the event was bathed in beautiful Mediterranean sunshine. The protective tents were essential, although those in the middle had to carefully manage their colour schemes in light of the red hue they cast across the easels.Getting painty in l'horta: Nathan Collis, Xis Gomes, Maria Cano, Mike Meyer, and Loughlin Brady Smith.Panels set to dry in the early evening sun.WorkshopsAcross the first three days, Thursday to Saturday, there was a series of lettering and calligraphy workshops that were also open to those outside of the Letterheads event proper.Pictured are workshops being led by Ester Gradolí, Juanjo López, and Joan Quiros.TV TimeThe meet was profiled in the local newspaper on the day before it opened, and then a TV crew turned up to cover proceedings.Local press coverage and Letterheads Per L'Horta host Nico Barrios being interviewed for the TV report. 0:00 /1:34 Letterheads Per L'Horta makes the news! If you look closely at the top of the paper that Daniel Esteve Carbonell is working on it says "Collons de rètol" (it's only a fucking sign) which clearly escaped the attention of the censors. Talks & DemosIn addition to workshops, the museum building also hosted a busy programme of talks. These were delivered by the Asociación de Diseñadores de la Comunidad Valenciana (Valencian Graphic Design Association), the errorerror.studio creative typography studio, graphic designer Juan Nava, and type designer Juanjo López.Juan Nava talking about the evolution of his Letras Recuperadas (Recovered Letters) project, previously featured here at bl.ag online.One of the highlights was hearing from veteran local sign painters Ricardo Moreno and Paco Vivó, both of whom appear in the Tipos Que Importan film that was screened. They were interviewed by Nico and brought a host of goods with them, including their sign kits, photographic portfolios, work samples, books, and other reference materials.Ricardo (in glasses) and Paco (with beard) were mobbed after talking about their lives on the brush in Valencia.Following the session, everyone moved outside to watch Paco Vivó paint one of the motifs that he produced many times in his career: the Pepsi-Cola bottle top.Paco Vivó painted his demonstration piece on a canvas which was subsequently sold in the auction.Meanwhile, over in the town square, David Vanderh had set up his screenprinting station to apply Nico's event design in a single colour to any material that the public brought to him.The live screenprinting was in just blue, while the official event t-shirt combined this with a striking orange.Panels on Show and on SaleOn the Sunday, a small exhibition was mounted with the panels that folks could bid on in the auction. This was an open invitation, with those from the neighbourhood stopping by to inspect and snag some goods.Panels getting ready for new owners in the charity auction.Panels by Veronika Skilte (Vermut), Joe Coleman (Mental on the Rental), Rachel E Millar (Rotulos, Gracias), and Victor Calligraphy.This panel (right) by Joe Coleman was inspired by the truck lettering that was a lucky incidental on the earlier cycling tour.The auction raised over 2,000€ in support of those affected by the devastating DANA floods in 2024.The assembled crowd were ready with open wallets as the auction got underway.The auction was expertly hosted by Mike Meyer and Nico Barrios, with Nil Muge logging all the winning bids and accounting for the cash payments.Thank YouAs with any event, the photos never show the challenges that must be overcome behind the scenes. Some of these were substantial but Nico took each one in his stride, maintaining a smile throughout. Thank you, Nico, for facilitating these special days that will live long in the collective memory.Letterheads Per L'Horta host Nico Barrios.Letterheads Per L'Horta was hosted by Nico Barrios with the support of the following organisations: AVV Carraixet d'Almàssera; Ajuntament d'Almàssera; BLAG; A.S. Handover; 1 Shot; ADCV; gráffica. Also check out the event's dedicated Instagram account, @letterheadsperlhorta, for even more photos and videos. More LetterheadsFuture Meets

The bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) is a very large bird of prey in the monotypic genus Gypaetus. It is vernacularly known as the Homa, a bird in Iranian mythology. The bearded vulture is the only known vertebrate whose diet consists of 70 to 90 per cent bone. It lives and breeds on crags in high mountains in Iran, southern Europe, East Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Tibet, and the Caucasus. The bearded vulture population is thought to be in decline; since 2014, it has been classified as near threatened on the IUCN Red List. Bearded vultures are 94 to 125 centimetres (37 to 49 inches) long, with a wingspan of 2.31 to 2.83 metres (7.6 to 9.3 feet). This bearded vulture was photographed carrying a piece of carrion in the Alps in Switzerland, where the species was reintroduced in the late 20th century after having become locally extinct in the early 20th century. Photograph credit: Giles Laurent Recently featured: London King's Cross railway station Daft Punk Eastern quoll Archive More featured pictures

When it comes to Apple, all eyes are on AI. Generative AI (genAI) is the most disruptive technology we’ve seen in years; it is weaving itself into all parts of life – so why should IT management be left unscathed? It won’t be, and the latest AI-powered IT management features within the Jamf platform will soon be the kind of tools IT expects. Jamf is a leading Apple-in-the-enterprise device management (and security vendor recently began offering enterprise support for Android devices). The company has been working away on AI features to support its solutions for some time, and has at last introduced some of these at its Jamf Nation Live event. The tools are designed to boost efficiency and support better decision-making when it comes to handling your fleets. Of course, you’d expect anyone fielding genAI solutions to say something like that, so what do these tools do? Introducing Jamf AI Assistant Available as a beta, AI Assistant is designed to support tech support! That means it will help IT admins find what they need and help them understand how and why devices they do find are configured. Jamf splits these two paths into two categories: Search skill and Explain skill. Search skill lets admins perform natural language inventory queries across their managed fleets, enabling them to quickly find devices within their flotilla that meet the search parameters. The goal is to make it quicker and easier to audit managed devices for compliance, and to troubleshoot when things go wrong. Explain skill caters to another facet of an IT admin’s daily challenges. As Jamf explains, it means the genAI can translate complex configurations and policies into clear, easy-to-understand language. This helps admins make informed decisions, streamline troubleshooting and manage policies more confidently, says Jamf. While these new Jamf tools don’t automate much of the workload facing IT, it’s not hard to see how once the AI can understand what’s happening on a Mac and identify those devices that meet a set of parameters, the only missing piece is to automate some of the workflow in between. This, of course, is the direction of travel and will likely ripple across IT and every platform. Who knows, it might even make the cost of supporting Windows fleets almost as affordable as that of managing fleets of Apple devices. (Though I doubt it.) Beyond AI Jamf also made a handful of announcements outside of AI, including the general availability of Blueprints, a set of tools the company announced at JNUC last year. Blueprints builds on Apple’s Declarative Device Management framework and is designed to simplify and accelerate device configuration by consolidating policies, profiles and restrictions into a single, unified workflow. This makes a lot of sense on a road map to further AI deployment, as well as for anyone attempting to manage and deploy large Apple fleets. I imagine admins preparing for mammoth college- or school-wide deployments will have some optimism that Blueprints could help save time. Don’t neglect that education tech is expected to deploy thousands of devices in a few weeks, so these tools should be significant to them. Jamf continues working on Blueprints, and has introduced a beta release of Configuration Profiles within Blueprints. This tech consists of a new dynamic framework designed to help teams manage devices at scale, thanks to the new dynamic framework for MDM key delivery. Ticket to ride Jamf has offered a Self Service+ portal since earlier this year. Aimed at end-users, the system lets users request, download and update apps, as well as monitor their device security. Those features have been expanded with identity management tools, so users can view their accounts change passwords, and request things like temporary admin access. The beauty of Self Service+ is that it enables users to do these things autonomously while keeping their devices fully auditable and compliant. The idea is that it’s a lot better to focus the expensive tech support teams on the big problems, rather than seeing them bogged down in small, transient (albeit important), challenges.  The company also introduced Compliance Benchmarks. Based on Apple’s macOS Security Compliance Project (mSCP), this system helps IT automate the process of securing their Apple devices. Jamf has also added malware detection to its App Installers module, which means every application made available through that system is scanned to maintain security confidence. That’s really important to companies attempting to provision apps to employees, particularly if they want to avoid accidental installs of hacked malware posing as the original app. You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, and Mastodon.

alternative_right shares a report from Phys.Org: Using conventional propulsion and low-energy trajectories, it takes six to nine months for crewed spacecraft to reach Mars. These durations complicate mission design and technology requirements and raise health and safety concerns since crews will be exposed to extended periods in microgravity and heightened exposure to cosmic radiation. Traditionally, mission designers have recommended nuclear-electric or nuclear-thermal propulsion (NEP/NTP), which could shorten trips to just 3 months. In a recent study, a UCSB physics researcher identified two trajectories that could reduce transits to Mars using the Starship to between 90 and 104 days. The study was authored by Jack Kingdon, a graduate student researcher in the Physics Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). He is also a member of the UCSB Weld Lab, an experimental ultracold atomic physics group that uses quantum degenerate gases to explore quantum mechanical phenomena. [...] As outlined on its website, conference presentations, and user manual, the SpaceX mission architecture consists of six Starships traveling to Mars. Four of these spacecraft will haul 400 metric tons (440 U.S. tons) of cargo while two will transport 200 passengers. Based on the Block 2 design, which has a 1,500 metric ton (1,650 U.S. ton) propellant capacity, the crewed Starships will require 15 tankers to fully refuel in low Earth orbit (LEO). The cargo ships would require only four, since they would be sent on longer low-energy trajectories. Once the flotilla arrives at Mars, the Starships will refuel using propellant created in situ using local carbon dioxide and water ice. When the return window approaches, one of the crew ships and 3-4 cargo ships will refuel and then launch into a low Mars orbit (LMO). The cargo ships will then transfer the majority of their propellant to the crew ship and return to the surface of Mars. The crew ship would then depart for Earth, and the process could be repeated for the other crew ship. Kingdon calculated multiple trajectories using a Lambert Solver, which produces the shortest elliptical arc in two-body problem equations (aka Lambert's problem). The first would depart Earth on April 30th, 2033, taking advantage of the 26-month periodic alignment between Earth and Mars. The transit would last 90 days, with the crew returning to Earth after another 90-day transit by July 2nd, 2035. The second would depart Earth on July 15th, 2035, and return to Earth after a 104-day transit on December 5th, 2037. As Kingdon explained, the former trajectory is the most likely to succeed: "The optimal trajectory is the 2033 trajectory -- it has the lowest fuel requirements for the fastest transit time. A note that may not be obvious to the layreader is that Starship can very easily reach Mars in ~3 months -- in fact, it can in any launch window, over a fairly wide range of trajectories. However, Starship may impact the Martian atmosphere too fast (although we do not know, and likely SpaceX don't either actually how fast Starship can hit the Martian atmosphere and survive). The trajectories discussed are ones that I am confident Starship will survive." The paper describing the work has been published in the journal Scientific Reports. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Matali Physics 6.9 Presents Physics-driven, Completely Dynamic Light Sources Published June 02, 2025 Advertisement We are pleased to announce the release of Matali Physics 6.9, the next significant step on the way to the seventh major version of the environment. Matali Physics 6.9 introduces a number of improvements and fixes to Matali Physics Core, Matali Render and Matali Games modules, presents physics-driven, completely dynamic light sources, real-time object scaling with destruction, lighting model simulating global illumination (GI) in some aspects, comprehensive support for Wayland on Linux, improved simulation of stacked objects, improved physics-based photo mode, introduces optimizations for Steam Deck portable gaming console and Linux as well as provides a refreshed Matali Physics Game demo. What is Matali Physics?Matali Physics is an advanced, modern, multi-platform, high-performance 3d physics environment intended for games, VR, AR, physics-based simulations and robotics. Matali Physics consists of the advanced 3d physics engine Matali Physics Core and other physics-driven modules that all together provide comprehensive simulation of physical phenomena and physics-based modeling of both real and imaginary objects.What's new in version 6.9?Physics-driven, completely dynamic light sources. The introduced solution allows for processing hundreds of movable, long-range and shadow-casting light sources, where with each source can be assigned logic that controls its behavior, changes light parameters, volumetric effects parameters and others;Real-time object scaling with destruction. All groups of physics objects and groups of physics objects with constraints may be subject to destruction process during real-time scaling, allowing group members to break off at different sizes;Lighting model simulating global illumination (GI) in some aspects. Based on own research and development work, processed in real time, ready for dynamic scenes, fast on mobile devices, not based on lightmaps, light probes, baked lights, etc.;Comprehensive support for Wayland on Linux. The latest version allows Matali Physics SDK users to create advanced, high-performance, physics-based, Vulkan-based games for modern Linux distributions where Wayland is the main display server protocol;Other improvements and fixes which complete list is available on the History webpage.What platforms does Matali Physics support?AndroidAndroid TV*BSDiOSiPadOSLinux (distributions)macOSSteam DecktvOSUWP (Desktop, Xbox Series X/S)Windows (Classic, GDK, Handheld consoles)What are the benefits of using Matali Physics?Physics simulation, graphics, sound and music integrated into one total multimedia solution where creating complex interactions and behaviors is common and relatively easyComposed of dedicated modules that do not require additional licences and feesSupports fully dynamic and destructible scenesSupports physics-based behavioral animationsSupports physical AI, object motion and state change controlSupports physics-based GUISupports physics-based particle effectsSupports multi-scene physics simulation and scene combiningSupports physics-based photo modeSupports physics-driven soundSupports physics-driven musicSupports debug visualizationFully serializable and deserializableAvailable for all major mobile, desktop and TV platformsNew features on requestDedicated technical supportRegular updates and fixesIf you have questions related to the latest version and the use of Matali Physics environment as a game creation solution, please do not hesitate to contact us.  Cancel Save 0 likes 0 comments Comments Nobody has left a comment. You can be the first! You must log in to join the conversation. Don't have a GameDev.net account? Sign up!

Published June 4, 2025 10:00am EDT close Windows bug leaves computer Wi-Fi vulnerable to hackers Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson explains how to keep your Windows computer safe and the security risks of online retail giant Temu. NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Hackers are no longer targeting only tech giants or hospitals. Any business that collects valuable personal information, such as names, phone numbers, email addresses or even basic financial details, is now a target.Companies that rely heavily on third-party vendors or outsourced customer support are even more at risk, especially if they are not particularly strong in the technology sector.German retailer Adidas learned this the hard way. The company recently confirmed a data breach involving one of its external partners, and although it has acknowledged the issue, many important details are still missing. A hacker at work (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Adidas confirms vendor breach: Here’s what we knowAdidas has officially acknowledged that a third-party vendor suffered a breach, resulting in unauthorized access to consumer data. In a public notice titled "Data Security Information," the company revealed that a "third-party customer service provider" had been compromised. While the brand was initially silent on the scope, it had already been reported earlier this month that customers in Turkey and Korea had received breach notifications.MASSIVE DATA BREACH EXPOSES 184 MILLION PASSWORDS AND LOGINSAdidas posted this information on both its German and English websites. However, no specific region or number of affected individuals has been confirmed. The company’s statement did clarify that no payment information, such as credit card details, nor passwords were included in the breach. Instead, it involved contact details submitted by users to Adidas’ help desk in the past.Data obtained reportedly includes names, phone numbers, email addresses and dates of birth. While this might seem limited compared to financial data, this type of information can be exploited for phishing scams and identity theft.  An Adidas sign (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)What Adidas told customers after the breachIn the wake of the breach, Adidas began notifying potentially affected customers directly. The company's email to customers below aimed to reassure recipients and clarify what information was involved. Here is the full text of the notification sent to affected individuals.Dear customer,We are writing to inform you of an issue that we recently became aware of which may have impacted some of your data.What happenedadidas recently learned that an unauthorized external party gained access to certain customer data through a third-party customer service provider.What information was involvedThe affected data does not contain passwords, credit card or any other payment-related information. Nor have any Social Security numbers been impacted.It mainly consists of contact information relating to customers who had contacted our customer service help desk in the past. This may have included one or more of the following: name, email address, telephone number, gender and/or birth date.What we are doing Privacy and the security of your data is our priority. Upon becoming aware of this incident, adidas took proactive and immediate steps to investigate and contain the incident. This includes further enhancing security measures and resetting passwords for customer service accounts.What you can doWe are currently unaware of any harm (such as identity theft or fraud) being caused to our customers as a result of this incident. There are no immediate steps that you need to take. Although, as always, please remain vigilant and look out for any suspicious messages. As a reminder, adidas will never directly contact you to ask that you provide us with financial information, such as your credit card details, bank account information or passwords.Who you can contactIf you have any questions, then please contact our Customer Service team at https://www.adidas.com/us/helpWe apologise for any inconvenience caused by this incident.adidas TeamWhat Adidas hasn’t said about the vendor hackDespite the official acknowledgment, several questions remain unanswered. Adidas has yet to clarify whether this is a single breach affecting multiple regions or several separate incidents. The lack of transparency around the name of the third-party vendor and the absence of concrete numbers or locations for affected users has created frustration among observers and possibly among customers themselves.The earlier regional reports from Turkey and Korea might suggest that this incident was either global in scale or that similar third-party vendors were independently targeted. In either case, the company's current handling of the situation has left room for speculation. Adidas claims it is in the process of informing potentially affected customers, but it has not detailed the method or timeline for this outreach.We reached out to adidas for a comment, and a representative referred us to this statement on their website. In part, the company said, "We remain fully committed to protecting the privacy and security of our consumers, and sincerely regret any inconvenience or concern caused by this incident."GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE An Adidas shoe (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)6 critical steps to take after the Adidas data breachIf you think you were affected or just want to be cautious, here are some steps you can take right now to stay safe from the Adidas data breach:1. Scrub your data from the internet using a personal data removal service: The more exposed your personal information is online, the easier it is for scammers to use it against you. Following the Adidas breach, consider removing your information from public databases and people-search sites. Check out my top picks for data removal services here.Get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web.2. Watch out for phishing scams and use strong antivirus software: With access to your email and phone number, Adidas attackers can craft convincing phishing emails pretending to be from healthcare providers or banks. These emails might include malicious links designed to install malware or steal login information. To defend yourself, use a strong antivirus program. Get my picks for the best 2025 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices.3. Safeguard against identity theft and use identity theft protection: Hackers now have access to high-value information from the Adidas breach. This makes you a prime target for identity theft. You might want to consider investing in identity theft protection, which can also assist you in freezing your bank and credit card accounts to prevent further unauthorized use by criminals. Signing up for identity theft protection gives you 24/7 monitoring, alerts for unusual activity and support if your identity is stolen. See my tips and best picks on how to protect yourself from identity theft.4. Set up fraud alerts: Requesting fraud alerts notifies creditors that they need extra verification before issuing credit in your name. You can request fraud alerts through any one of the three major credit bureaus; they’ll notify the others. This adds another layer of protection without completely freezing access to credit.5. Change passwords and use a password manager: Update passwords on any accounts tied to compromised data. Use unique passwords that are hard to guess and let a password manager do the heavy lifting by generating secure ones for you. Reused passwords are an easy target after breaches. Consider password managers for convenience and security. Get more details about my best expert-reviewed password managers of 2025 here.6. Be wary of social engineering attacks: Hackers may use stolen details like names or birthdates from breaches in phone scams or fake customer service calls designed to trick you into revealing more sensitive info. Never share personal details over unsolicited calls or emails. Social engineering attacks rely on trust, and vigilance is key.Kurt’s key takeawayThe Adidas breach shows that even companies with decades of brand equity and a massive global footprint are not immune to lapses in data security. It underscores the need for companies to go beyond basic compliance and actively evaluate the cybersecurity standards of every partner in their ecosystem. Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the trade-offs they make when sharing their personal information, and brands that fail to meet this moment may find their reputations eroding faster than they expect.CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPShould retailers be penalized for neglecting basic cybersecurity practices? Let us know by writing us atCyberguy.com/Contact.For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.Ask Kurt a question or let us know what stories you'd like us to cover.Follow Kurt on his social channels:Answers to the most-asked CyberGuy questions:New from Kurt:Copyright 2025 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved. Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on "FOX & Friends." Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

By CHRIS McGOWAN This image of Jupiter from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) shows stunning details of the majestic planet in infrared light. (Image courtesy of NASA, ESA and CSA) Special effects have been used for decades to depict space exploration, from visits to planets and moons to zero gravity and spaceships – one need only think of the landmark 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Since that era, visual effects have increasingly grown in realism and importance. VFX have been used for entertainment and for scientific purposes, outreach to the public and astronaut training in virtual reality. Compelling images and videos can bring data to life. NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) produces visualizations, animations and images to help scientists tell stories of their research and make science more approachable and engaging. A.J. Christensen is a senior visualization designer for the NASA Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. There, he develops data visualization techniques and designs data-driven imagery for scientific analysis and public outreach using Hollywood visual effects tools, according to NASA. SVS visualizations feature datasets from Earth-and space-based instrumentation, scientific supercomputer models and physical statistical distributions that have been analyzed and processed by computational scientists. Christensen’s specialties include working with 3D volumetric data, using the procedural cinematic software Houdini and science topics in Heliophysics, Geophysics and Astrophysics. He previously worked at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications’ Advanced Visualization Lab where he worked on more than a dozen science documentary full-dome films as well as the IMAX films Hubble 3D and A Beautiful Planet – and he worked at DNEG on the movie Interstellar, which won the 2015 Best Visual Effects Academy Award. This global map of CO2 was created by NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio using a model called GEOS, short for the Goddard Earth Observing System. GEOS is a high-resolution weather reanalysis model, powered by supercomputers, that is used to represent what was happening in the atmosphere. (Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) “The NASA Scientific Visualization Studio operates like a small VFX studio that creates animations of scientific data that has been collected or analyzed at NASA. We are one of several groups at NASA that create imagery for public consumption, but we are also a part of the scientific research process, helping scientists understand and share their data through pictures and video.” —A.J. Christensen, Senior Visualization Designer, NASA Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) About his work at NASA SVS, Christensen comments, “The NASA Scientific Visualization Studio operates like a small VFX studio that creates animations of scientific data that has been collected or analyzed at NASA. We are one of several groups at NASA that create imagery for public consumption, but we are also a part of the scientific research process, helping scientists understand and share their data through pictures and video. This past year we were part of NASA’s total eclipse outreach efforts, we participated in all the major earth science and astronomy conferences, we launched a public exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History called the Earth Information Center, and we posted hundreds of new visualizations to our publicly accessible website: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov.” This is the ‘beauty shot version’ of Perpetual Ocean 2: Western Boundary Currents. The visualization starts with a rotating globe showing ocean currents. The colors used to color the flow in this version were chosen to provide a pleasing look. (Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) The Gulf Stream and connected currents. (Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) Venus, our nearby “sister” planet, beckons today as a compelling target for exploration that may connect the objects in our own solar system to those discovered around nearby stars. (Image courtesy of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center) WORKING WITH DATA While Christensen is interpreting the data from active spacecraft and making it usable in different forms, such as for science and outreach, he notes, “It’s not just spacecraft that collect data. NASA maintains or monitors instruments on Earth too – on land, in the oceans and in the air. And to be precise, there are robots wandering around Mars that are collecting data, too.” He continues, “Sometimes the data comes to our team as raw telescope imagery, sometimes we get it as a data product that a scientist has already analyzed and extracted meaning from, and sometimes various sensor data is used to drive computational models and we work with the models’ resulting output.” Jupiter’s moon Europa may have life in a vast ocean beneath its icy surface. (Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) HOUDINI AND OTHER TOOLS “Data visualization means a lot of different things to different people, but many people on our team interpret it as a form of filmmaking,” Christensen says. “We are very inspired by the approach to visual storytelling that Hollywood uses, and we use tools that are standard for Hollywood VFX. Many professionals in our area – the visualization of 3D scientific data – were previously using other animation tools but have discovered that Houdini is the most capable of understanding and manipulating unusual data, so there has been major movement toward Houdini over the past decade.” Satellite imagery from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows the Sun in ultraviolet light colorized in light brown. Seen in ultraviolet light, the dark patches on the Sun are known as coronal holes and are regions where fast solar wind gushes out into space. (Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) Christensen explains, “We have always worked with scientific software as well – sometimes there’s only one software tool in existence to interpret a particular kind of scientific data. More often than not, scientific software does not have a GUI, so we’ve had to become proficient at learning new coding environments very quickly. IDL and Python are the generic data manipulation environments we use when something is too complicated or oversized for Houdini, but there are lots of alternatives out there. Typically, we use these tools to get the data into a format that Houdini can interpret, and then we use Houdini to do our shading, lighting and camera design, and seamlessly blend different datasets together.” While cruising around Saturn in early October 2004, Cassini captured a series of images that have been composed into this large global natural color view of Saturn and its rings. This grand mosaic consists of 126 images acquired in a tile-like fashion, covering one end of Saturn’s rings to the other and the entire planet in between. (Image courtesy of ASA/JPL/Space Science Institute) The black hole Gargantua and the surrounding accretion disc from the 2014 movie Interstellar. (Image courtesy of DNEG and Paramount Pictures) Another visualization of the black hole Gargantua. (Image courtesy of DNEG and Paramount Pictures) INTERSTELLAR & GARGANTUA Christensen recalls working for DNEG on Interstellar (2014). “When I first started at DNEG, they asked me to work on the giant waves on Miller’s ocean planet [in the film]. About a week in, my manager took me into the hall and said, ‘I was looking at your reel and saw all this astronomy stuff. We’re working on another sequence with an accretion disk around a black hole that I’m wondering if we should put you on.’ And I said, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve done lots of accretion disks.’ So, for the rest of my time on the show, I was working on the black hole team.” He adds, “There are a lot of people in my community that would be hesitant to label any big-budget movie sequence as a scientific visualization. The typical assumption is that for a Hollywood movie, no one cares about accuracy as long as it looks good. Guardians of the Galaxy makes it seem like space is positively littered with nebulae, and Star Wars makes it seem like asteroids travel in herds. But the black hole Gargantua in Interstellar is a good case for being called a visualization. The imagery you see in the movie is the direct result of a collaboration with an expert scientist, Dr. Kip Thorne, working with the DNEG research team using the actual Einstein equations that describe the gravity around a black hole.” Thorne is a Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist who taught at Caltech for many years. He has reached wide audiences with his books and presentations on black holes, time travel and wormholes on PBS and BBC shows. Christensen comments, “You can make the argument that some of the complexity around what a black hole actually looks like was discarded for the film, and they admit as much in the research paper that was published after the movie came out. But our team at NASA does that same thing. There is no such thing as an objectively ‘true’ scientific image – you always have to make aesthetic decisions around whether the image tells the science story, and often it makes more sense to omit information to clarify what’s important. Ultimately, Gargantua taught a whole lot of people something new about science, and that’s what a good scientific visualization aims to do.” The SVS produces an annual visualization of the Moon’s phase and libration comprising 8,760 hourly renderings of its precise size, orientation and illumination. (Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) FURTHER CHALLENGES The sheer size of the data often encountered by Christensen and his peers is a challenge. “I’m currently working with a dataset that is 400GB per timestep. It’s so big that I don’t even want to move it from one file server to another. So, then I have to make decisions about which data attributes to keep and which to discard, whether there’s a region of the data that I can cull or downsample, and I have to experiment with data compression schemes that might require me to entirely re-design the pipeline I’m using for Houdini. Of course, if I get rid of too much information, it becomes very resource-intensive to recompute everything, but if I don’t get rid of enough, then my design process becomes agonizingly slow.” SVS also works closely with its NASA partner groups Conceptual Image Lab (CIL) and Goddard Media Studios (GMS) to publish a diverse array of content. Conceptual Image Lab focuses more on the artistic side of things – producing high-fidelity renders using film animation and visual design techniques, according to NASA. Where the SVS primarily focuses on making data-based visualizations, CIL puts more emphasis on conceptual visualizations – producing animations featuring NASA spacecraft, planetary observations and simulations, according to NASA. Goddard Media Studios, on the other hand, is more focused towards public outreach – producing interviews, TV programs and documentaries. GMS continues to be the main producers behind NASA TV, and as such, much of their content is aimed towards the general public. An impact crater on the moon. (Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) Image of Mars showing a partly shadowed Olympus Mons toward the upper left of the image. (Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) Mars. Hellas Basin can be seen in the lower right portion of the image. (Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) Mars slightly tilted to show the Martian North Pole. (Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) Christensen notes, “One of the more unique challenges in this field is one of bringing people from very different backgrounds to agree on a common outcome. I work on teams with scientists, communicators and technologists, and we all have different communities we’re trying to satisfy. For instance, communicators are generally trying to simplify animations so their learning goal is clear, but scientists will insist that we add text and annotations on top of the video to eliminate ambiguity and avoid misinterpretations. Often, the technologist will have to say we can’t zoom in or look at the data in a certain way because it will show the data boundaries or data resolution limits. Every shot is a negotiation, but in trying to compromise, we often push the boundaries of what has been done before, which is exciting.”

Photo credit: Checkwitch Poiron Architects Discover Montessori School, a project by Checkwitch Poiron Architects, consists of a 10-classroom Montessori farming school on the Agricultural Land Reserve outside of Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island. The client was committed to the idea of sustainability embedded in the Montessori principles of interconnectedness, citizenship and minimalism. Photo credit: Checkwitch Poiron Architects The zoning required that the site be easily returnable to farm use and more specifically precluded the use of a concrete slab on grade. This led Checkwitch Poiron Architects to identify low carbon construction as an achievable sustainable target. The budget was limited, and as such, all design decisions considered the implications on cost, schedule and carbon footprint. This included an analysis of various foundation strategies, including concrete piers and helical piles, prepared by structural engineers Fast and Epp with life cycle analysis by Introba. Photo credit: Checkwitch Poiron Architects The design uses recycled Douglas Fir floorboards as exterior cladding, and interior corridors are lined with Hemlock tiles using waste diverted from a lumber mill. The mechanical consultant (Introba) used the correlation between low precipitation levels and low school use during summer months to design one of the first rainwater catchment systems in British Columbia to be certified for commercial use. Photo credit: Checkwitch Poiron Architects This project demonstrates how low-carbon and sustainable construction can be achieved, despite budget limitations, by identifying opportunities and the use of practical, cost efficient design. Discover Montessori recently achieved CAGBC Zero Carbon Building Standard Certification, was the Overall Winner of the Vancouver Island Commercial Building Awards, and was awarded the BC Embodied Carbon Award for Large Buildings by the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF). Photo credit: Checkwitch Poiron Architects The project also incorporates water-saving design strategies and collects rainwater for potable water use, as the first project of this kind approved in BC. Photo credit: Checkwitch Poiron Architects Technical Sheet: Location: Nanaimo, BC Client: Discover Montessori Size: 12,492 sf Status: Completed 2023 The post Discover Montessori School achieves CAGBC Zero Carbon certification appeared first on Canadian Architect.

Sunday night baseball games may soon be available via Apple TV+, as the company is reportedly seeking to land additional MLB streaming rights.Apple is reportedly in talks over MLB streaming rights.Apple has reportedly emerged as the company most likely to acquire Major League Baseball streaming rights previously held by ESPN. The iPhone maker currently offers Friday Night Baseball via Apple TV+, which consists of two baseball games every Friday without interruptions or restrictions, but that could soon change.According to a Sports Business Journal report on Monday, Apple is looking to land streaming rights for MLB content beyond the scope of its current arrangement. Legacy media outlets such as NBC are also said to be in talks with MLB over the same streaming rights, but Apple's offer is said to be noticeably higher. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

The Steam Deck changed the game for PC players, opening up a world of portability that was usually reserved for Nintendo fans. Naturally, manufacturers tried to follow suit with Windows-based handhelds and the results are, shall we say, mixed. Now, Valve has released official instructions for installing its SteamOS on devices other than the Steam Deck. Let's dive into how to do it—and whether you should.I should note up front: This is going to be a nebulous area when it comes to official support from the company that made your handheld. At time of writing, the Lenovo Legion Go S is the only handheld with the "Powered by SteamOS" branding (besides the Steam Deck itself), meaning it's officially supported with a final build. You can install SteamOS on devices like the Legion Go and the ROG Ally, but their support isn't final.Also, it should go without saying, but we'll say it anyway: If you wipe Windows from your handheld, you won't be able to play Windows-based games that aren't supported via SteamOS. That largely consists of online games that require anti-cheat software, but it's worth checking sites like ProtonDB to make sure your favorite games will work on SteamOS.Why should you install SteamOS on your Windows handheld?So, with the caveats out of the way, what are the upsides? Put (overly) simply, Windows is not designed for handhelds. In fact, under the hood, Windows tends to see your gaming handheld as a laptop. Right down to including things like Microsoft Teams that run in the background, or popping up alert boxes that interrupt your game to inform you of a low battery.Now that people are able to experiment with SteamOS and Windows on the same hardware, it's becoming clearer that Windows itself is a massive nerf to both frame rate and battery life. Even gaming laptops, which can often last all day for normal work, can struggle to get even a few hours of gameplay while away from a charger. That's why it's so important to tweak your settings for the best battery life.Gaming handhelds only make this problem worse with a smaller form factor, and thus a smaller battery. In my own experience, I've struggled to get two hours of playing a lightweight game like Stardew Valley from a Windows handheld, while the Steam Deck and even the Switch can get upwards of six hours or more.Since Windows is primarily designed as a desktop (and secondarily as a tablet) computer, it's also harder to tweak settings using controller inputs. What, exactly, is the controller equivalent of Ctrl+Alt+Delete again? While you can plug in a keyboard to dig around in your handheld's settings, it's just easier to do on SteamOS, since its interface has been built from the ground up for controller input.At this point, Valve has also shown that running Steam games via the Proton compatibility layer works so well that it's almost seamless. I admit, when the Steam Deck was first announced, I expected games to be broken or perform much worse than their native Windows counterparts. Four hundred hours in Hades II later, though, and it's clear that many games can actually run better on SteamOS than Windows.Step 1: Download and prepare a SteamOS recovery image USB stickWith all that out of the way, let's get started. To install SteamOS on your gaming handheld, you'll need two things: the SteamOS recovery image and a USB stick (preferably USB-C) with at least 8GB of storage. Make sure anything on that USB stick is properly backed up, because this process will reformat that device.The Steam Deck recovery image can be found here. It's a little over 3GB, so it might take a little while to download, depending on your connection. While you wait for that, you'll also need a utility to create the recovery USB drive. Valve recommends Rufus for Windows users, and Balena Etcher for Mac or Linux users. Once the recovery image is downloaded, use whichever tool you chose to write the recovery image to your USB drive. This process should be relatively straightforward. Rufus, for example, will present you with a dropdown to select which drive to write the file to under Device, and under Boot Selection, click Select to pick the recovery image file. Click Start and wait. Reminder: This will wipe the contents of your USB drive.Step 2: Disable Secure Boot on your handheldThis part can be a bit tricky, and the exact process will vary depending on which handheld you own. Valve has a breakdown of the steps here for a couple specific devices, like the Legion Go and the ROG Ally. However, other devices like those from MSI or Ayaneo will have their own process.In general, the steps will usually go something like this:Reboot to the bios. Similar to how you can hold Del or F2 on a computer while rebooting to get to the bios, your gaming handheld has a similar process. Often it's holding a button like Volume + while pressing the power button, but check your specific device's instructions if that doesn't work.Navigate to the Secure Boot settings. You may have to poke around for this one. Look for categories like Security, and you may need to switch to an Advanced settings mode or menu to find it. This setting should be called Secure Boot. Change this to Disabled.Save settings and restart your device. Once you've changed the Secure Boot setting, make sure to save the changes to your bios and restart.Depending on the device, you might have to use the touchscreen to navigate the bios, or even plug in a keyboard or mouse. Again, Valve has specifics for a couple of devices in the link above, but if you're lost, your device's manufacturer will be your best bet for getting specific instructions.Step 3: Boot using the SteamOS recovery image Credit: Eric Ravenscraft Once you've disabled Secure Boot, you can plug the USB stick into your handheld and restart the device. At this point, you should end up at a boot menu that lets you choose which drive to boot to. Once again, this process will sometimes differ by device, so if you're not sure how to get to the boot menu, check your device's documentation.When you get to the boot menu, select your USB drive with the SteamOS recovery image on it. This will take you to a SteamOS desktop environment. Here, you'll see four shortcuts on the desktop. The one we care about is labeled "Wipe Device & Install SteamOS". Give that a single tap (double-tapping will launch it twice, so be careful).At this point, you should see a warning that proceeding with this step will erase everything on your device. If you had any important game saves, media, or work files (for some reason) on this device that weren't already backed up, you can still bail on this process and reboot to Windows to save them. This is the point of no return, though. Make sure you're ready before moving forward.Step 4: Familiarize yourself with your new handheld's quirks Credit: Eric Ravenscraft The install process won't take too long, and when it's done, your handheld will restart and begin setup as though it's a natural-born Steam Deck. There are a few quirks, though. For example, in my testing on the Legion Go, the device tutorial pointed to the "Steam button" on the bottom-left side, but used the Xbox logo. In reality, the corresponding button was at the top-right, and had a Legion logo. It also pointed to a microSD card slot on the bottom of the device that doesn't exist.Unless you're using an official "Powered by SteamOS" device, prepare for some awkwardness while using the device. Aside from the tutorial, I found some games I wasn't able to install—pressing "Install" on Doom Eternal simply did nothing, for example—and it took some time to figure out which hardware buttons were mapped to which Steam Deck input.To my surprise, some things that I expected to be broken worked perfectly when I tested this. The Legion Go is unique in that its controllers can be detached, Joy-Con style, from the handheld. I expected them to be laggy or non-functional when I played with SteamOS, but they worked perfectly during a Hades II run—a game that isn't very forgiving of input lag.Your mileage can and will vary depending on what games you want to play and what hardware you want to run SteamOS on. Still, as we wait for manufacturers to more officially support SteamOS—or for Microsoft to make a proper handheld of its own—it's exciting to finally be able to have a choice in platform for these devices.