Over the last year, more than 20 million people, mostly young, have enjoyed social media refuge BeReal, an app that gives its users two minutes to snap and share a photo with friends once a day. BeReal has exploded in popularity over the past year, thanks in large part to the ways it avoids social media’s common…
Nearly 200 years after the Rosetta Stone was deciphered, unlocking the key to understanding Ancient Egyptian heritage, the iconic slab sits far from where it originated. But a group of Egyptian archeologists is hoping to change that, renewing a plea to return the Rosetta Stone back to its birthplace.
It’s finally clear just what the long-expected Super Mario Bros. movie will look like. Nintendo and Illumination have shared a teaser trailer (below) offering a peek at the computer animated blockbuster. The clip shows Bowser (played by Jack Black) terrorizing a penguin kingdom in his quest for an invincibility star. Not surprisingly, we know who will come to their rescue — Mario (Chris Pratt) makes an abrupt entrance to the Mushroom Kingdom, while his brother Luigi (Charlie Day) makes a cameo.
The movie also stars The Queen’s Gambit‘s Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad and Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, among other big names. Super Mario Bros. is expected to premiere April 7th, 2023.
If the teaser is anything to go by, the creators aren’t taking any chances. This appears to be a straightforward CG movie meant to appeal to a wide audience — you won’t have flashbacks to the odd 1993 live action film. With that said, the top-tier actors and lavish visuals might help it stand out if the iconic gaming franchise isn’t enough by itself.
Today’s Star Trek: Lower Decks asks its surprising lead character if it’s worth trying to do something out of your comfort zone, even if you fail. At least unlike its surprising lead character, Lower Decks is much better having tried, even if not everything quite worked out.
Renewables have been keeping pace with growing global energy demand, a new analysis finds, in an encouraging sign during a global energy crisis. But there’s trouble ahead for clean power, as climate change keeps wreaking havoc and supercharging droughts and heatwaves.
The days of Spot being leveraged as a weapons platform and training alongside special forces operators are already coming to an end; Atlas as a back-flipping soldier of fortune will never come to pass. Their maker, Boston Dynamics, along with five other industry leaders announced on Thursday that they will not pursue, or allow, the weaponization of their robots, according to a non-binding, open letter they all signed.
Agility Robotics, ANYbotics, Clearpath Robotics, Open Robotics and Unitree Robotics all joined Boston Dynamics in the agreement. “We believe that adding weapons to robots that are remotely or autonomously operated, widely available to the public, and capable of navigating to previously inaccessible locations where people live and work, raises new risks of harm and serious ethical issues,” the group wrote. “Weaponized applications of these newly-capable robots will also harm public trust in the technology in ways that damage the tremendous benefits they will bring to society.”
The group cites “the increasing public concern in recent months caused by a small number of people who have visibly publicized their makeshift efforts to weaponize commercially available robots,” such as the armed Spot from Ghost Robotics, or the Dallas PD’s use of an EOD bomb disposal robot as an IED as to why they felt the need to take this stand.
To that end, the industry group pledges to “not weaponize our advanced-mobility general-purpose robots or the software we develop that enables advanced robotics and we will not support others to do so.” Nor will they allow their customers to subsequently weaponize any platforms they were sold, when possible. That’s a big caveat given the long and storied history of such weapons as the Toyota Technical, former Hilux pickups converted into DIY war machines that have been a mainstay in asymmetric conflicts since the ’80s.
“We also pledge to explore the development of technological features that could mitigate or reduce these risks,” the group continued, but “to be clear, we are not taking issue with existing technologies that nations and their government agencies use to defend themselves and uphold their laws.” They also call on policymakers as well as the rest of the robotics development community to take up similar pledges.
DeSantis spent four minutes talking to a broadcaster who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, complaining about the coverage of ‘regime media.’
Are you in the market for a new electric vehicle? Automakers sometimes throw in free charging as an incentive and we have a list of EVs with that perk.
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