- Help
- Google+
Imagine you're buying a new laptop. You come across a model that can do some pretty nifty stuff, but uses many times more electricity than your current laptop. (Ten times? Thirty times? No salesman can give you the exact number, because it's a company secret.)
Oh yeah, and this laptop comes with a funnel on top; every time you ask it for a joke, or a fun image you just thought up, the PC needs a water refill (again, it won't tell you how much). What do you think, worth the upgrade? For those of us who care about an ever-warmer, ever-thirstier Earth, probably not.
Yet that laptop, or something like it, is the net result of our current AI gold rush. Wait, something like it? Yes, because vague estimates are all we have. The true cost in carbon dioxide emissions for every AI prompt — not to mention the groundwater used to cool down thousands of servers crunching those prompts — is still hidden. Researchers can paint a rough picture; Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and others could provide a more precise portrait any time they wanted.
SEE ALSO: A Google AI model is improving climate forecastingBut ever since ChatGPT launched in 2022, "there's been a general crackdown on information," says Sasha Luccioni, a 10-year veteran of AI energy usage research, a TED talk star, and currently climate lead at Hugging Face, a platform for open-source AI.
"Not a single company that offers AI tools, that I know of, provides energy usage and carbon footprint information," Luccioni says in tones of rising frustration. "We don't even know how big models like GPT are. Nothing is divulged, everything is a company secret."
In short: climate-conscious, AI-hungry companies like Google and Microsoft have become a little compartmentalized. They can tell you exactly how many kilograms of carbon your next plane flight is going to emit, but won't offer the same when it comes to your next AI-written term paper or AI-painted Pope in a puffy jacket.
Perhaps with good reason: if we knew the environmental cost of AI products, we'd start shaming each other for our flagrant usage of it.
AI makes us all dirtierSince tech firms also still care about being seen as good environmental citizens, we do have a sense of the scale of the problem. In its 86-page 2024 sustainability report, Google revealed that its total greenhouse gas emissions shot up by 48 percent between 2019 and 2023, with the bulk of that rise coming since 2022.
Given that Google still aims to get to net zero emissions by 2030, that's not great news. Nor is Microsoft's 2024 sustainability report, which shows a 29.1 percent rise in emissions since 2020.
Both companies point the finger at third parties, specifically the ones building data centers for them. They also point out that these data centers do a lot more than just answer AI prompts, which is true and a big part of why the energy cost of AI is so nebulous.
But neither can the AI-proud companies fully deny what's driving this sudden burst of construction: data centers that are "designed and optimized to support AI workloads," in Microsoft's words.
"We have a long way to go to meet our 2030 target," the Google report admits. Given that data center energy demand is expected to grow 160 percent by 2030, that's an understatement. As a May 2024 Goldman Sachs report estimates: "the carbon dioxide emissions of data centers may more than double between 2022 and 2030."
Where should we point the finger for this rise? As Google's report puts it in this doozy of a passive-voice sentence: "Reducing emissions may be challenging due to increasing energy demands from the greater intensity of AI compute."
SEE ALSO: People are using AI to date youTo be fair to the owners of power-hungry AI models, their energy usage is probably still dwarfed by other power-hog data center technologies such as cryptocurrency, streaming apps, and online games.
But don't make that comparison to Luccioni. "That always pisses me off," she says, "because AI is not a vertical. It's a horizontal — a tool that gets used across many different verticals. Google Maps uses AI, and so do all the ads we see online, and so does precision agriculture, and so do military drones. How do you calculate what part AI plays?"
Or to put it another way: Google doesn't force you to use cryptocurrency when you do a Google search. But it has put AI search results front and center — and you can't opt out. Which means that even if you think you've never used an AI tool in your life, if you've Googled recently, you're part of the problem. (For the climate-concerned, Luccioni recommends switching to a non-AI search engine like Ecosia.)
If Google, Microsoft, and the other big generative AI players were to reveal all, how bad could it be? Good question. Guesses from experts range from pretty bad to climate disaster.
The International Energy Agency estimates, conservatively, that a single ChatGPT prompt uses nearly 3 watt-hours. Compare that to 0.3 watt-hours for a single Google search (before the company integrated AI results with Gemini, that is).
The power required to reply to hundreds of millions of ChatGPT queries each day could power 33,000 households in the U.S. alone, according to University of Washington researcher Saijad Moazeni. And that doesn't include energy consumed in the process of training every company's AI model in the first place, which is anyone's guess.
AI is incredibly thirstyAnother way to see the scale of the problem: tell-tale spikes in water usage. When OpenAI was in the final month of training its latest model, GPT-4, at a group of Microsoft data centers in West Des Moines Iowa, the company had to pump in 11.5 million gallons — or 6 percent of all the water in the whole district. West Des Moines told Microsoft not to add more data centers unless it could reduce its water usage, echoing a similar problem in Arizona and a 2021 water fight in Oregon over Google data centers.
There is good news, of course. Data center water is increasingly drawn from non-potable sources, and companies are figuring out how to use less of it in the first place. Some data centers are using special HVAC systems, which decrease water usage even as they add to the electricity bill.
But hey, how about the exponential growth in wind and solar power? Surely that can drive our AI revolution, right?
Not so fast, say researchers, who point out that it's impossible to tell whether your AI query is going to a data center in green energy-friendly Europe, coal-friendly India or oil-friendly Saudi Arabia. Even Europe isn't greening its grid fast enough to keep pace with Silicon Valley's AI obsession.
"Renewable energy is definitely growing," Sasha Luccioni says. "The problem is it's not growing fast enough to keep up with AI's growth."
Tech companies are trying to plug that gap with carbon credits, which as a recent Bloomberg investigation points out, isn't the same as taking emissions out of the atmosphere. Microsoft and Amazon rely on credits for more than 50 percent of its so-called renewable energy, the report said.
Meta is a little better, with just 18 percent of its allegedly green energy coming from carbon credits. (Luccioni also credits Meta with being a little better on the AI data disclosure front too, in part because the company currently has less skin in the AI game.)
Can AI help us be more green?Even if AI-focused data centers were 100 percent powered by wind, solar, hydro and nuclear, that still means they're calling dibs on green power that belongs to all of us.
This isn't a theoretical debate; a conflict over Amazon dropping new data centers next to a 2.5 Gw nuclear power station in Pennsylvania, then fighting locals for the output, appears to be the first in a wave of similar legal battles now ramping up around other nuclear stations.
Are there ways in which using AI is worth such a power suck? Might AI-powered climate research actually help us model extreme weather better, maybe even help us design carbon capture solutions that could scale up fast enough to tackle global warming?
That's a possibility for sure, and one for a future story. But one thing's for sure: few of us, from Gen Z students handing in ChatGPT-written papers to boomers posting AI cat pictures on Facebook, are using AI to save our warming planet. Perhaps we'd be better off leaving this tool to the people who are.
A viral TikTok trend has rebranded bank fraud as an exploitable "Chase Bank glitch" offering unlimited money for free. Unfortunately, it seems some people couldn't smell the rot on this highly suspect scheme, seemingly prompting them to commit a crime and rack up a shocking amount of debt.
The Chase Bank "glitch" has gained widespread attention on TikTok over the past few days, though thankfully most creators are talking about how ill-advised it is rather than trying to take advantage of it. Nevertheless, several photos and videos circulating on social media show people boastfully showing off stacks of cash after apparently using this ostensible real-life money "glitch" — or panicking over bank balances now deep in the red after the error is rectified.
SEE ALSO: How to protect yourself from bank fraudThe Chase Bank money "glitch" is simple. Chase customers would write a bad cheque to themselves for an obscene amount of money, deposit it, then quickly withdraw the cash from an ATM before the bank clued into the fact that the funds didn't exist.
This is similar to cheque kiting, a form of bank fraud that has been around for over a century. However, if there's anything we've learnt from living in a capitalist hellscape, it's that branding is everything. Simply calling bank fraud a "glitch" was apparently enough to prevent people from seeing the crime for what it was, tempting them to try it out for themselves.
Of course, because people are using their own bank accounts to do this "glitch," it should be ridiculously easy for Chase Bank to track them down.
"We are aware of this incident, and it has been addressed," Chase said in a statement shared with multiple publications. "Regardless of what you see online, depositing a fraudulent check and withdrawing the funds from your account is fraud, plain and simple."
Tweet may have been deletedIt's unclear exactly how the Chase Bank "glitch" trend began, or how many people actually tried it. It's entirely possible that people are creating fake screenshots or skits to take advantage of the viral moment, which seems more plausible than them believing they could scam the largest bank in the U.S. out of thousands and get away unscathed. We can only hope that the majority of people are just joking around, and that they didn't actually commit bank fraud based on a TikTok.
Mashable has reached out to Chase Bank for further comment.
With the cost of living soaring, many people are looking for ways to earn a bit of extra cash. As such, easy money hacks such as this Chase Bank "glitch" can seem very enticing. However, it's good to remember that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
TL;DR: Live stream Badosa vs. Navarro in the 2024 US Open for free on 9Now or TVNZ+. Access these free streaming platforms from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
Every player in the US Open quarter finals will start to genuinely believe they can win the whole thing. It's only three more games, after all.
Emma Navarro triumphed over Coco Gauff in the last round, and now finds herself up against Paula Badosa. Can the American go all the way and win at Flushing Meadows?
If you want to watch Badosa vs. Navarro in the 2024 US Open for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.
How to watch Badosa vs. Navarro in the 2024 US Open for freeFans can live stream the 2024 US Open for free on these platforms:
These streaming services are geo-blocked, but anyone from around the world can access these sites with a VPN. These handy tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to secure servers in other countries, meaning you can unblock 9Now and TVNZ+ from anywhere in the world.
Access free live streams of the 2024 US Open by following these simple steps:
Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)
Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)
Open up the app and connect to a server in Australia or New Zealand
Watch Badosa vs. Navarro in the 2024 US Open for free from anywhere in the world
The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but top VPNs do tend to offer free-trial periods or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can access free live streams of Badosa vs. Navarro without actually spending anything. This clearly isn't a long-term solution, but it gives you enough time to watch every US Open match before recovering your investment.
If you want to retain permanent access to free streaming sites from around the world, you'll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for streaming sport is on sale for a limited time.
What is the best VPN for the US Open?ExpressVPN is the best service for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream the US Open for free, for a number of reasons:
Servers in 105 countries including Australia and New Zealand
Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more
Strict no-logging policy so your data is always secure
Fast connection speeds
Up to eight simultaneous connections
30-day money-back guarantee
A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $99.95 and includes an extra three months for free — 49% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee.
Live stream Badosa vs. Navarro in the 2024 US Open for free from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
TL;DR: Live stream Zheng vs. Sabalenka in the 2024 US Open for free on 9Now or TVNZ+. Access these free streaming platforms from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
The US Open quarter finals were always going to match up some of the best players in the world, but it's still exciting to see top-seeded stars go head-to-head. One of these exciting matchups is Zheng vs. Sabalenka, with the latter looking to go one better than her defeat in last year's final.
If you want to watch Zheng vs. Sabalenka in the 2024 US Open for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.
How to watch Zheng vs. Sabalenka in the 2024 US Open for freeFans can live stream the 2024 US Open for free on these platforms:
These streaming services are geo-blocked, but anyone from around the world can access these sites with a VPN. These handy tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to secure servers in other countries, meaning you can unblock 9Now and TVNZ+ from anywhere in the world.
Access free live streams of the 2024 US Open by following these simple steps:
Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)
Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)
Open up the app and connect to a server in Australia or New Zealand
Watch Zheng vs. Sabalenka in the 2024 US Open for free from anywhere in the world
The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but leading VPNs do tend to offer deals such as free-trial periods or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can access free live streams of Zheng vs. Sabalenka without actually spending anything. This clearly isn't a long-term solution, but it gives you enough time to watch every US Open match before recovering your investment.
If you want to retain permanent access to free streaming sites from around the world, you'll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for streaming sport is on sale for a limited time.
What is the best VPN for the US Open?ExpressVPN is the best service for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream the US Open for free, for a number of reasons:
Servers in 105 countries including Australia and New Zealand
Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more
Strict no-logging policy so your data is always secure
Fast connection speeds
Up to eight simultaneous connections
30-day money-back guarantee
A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $99.95 and includes an extra three months for free — 49% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee.
Live stream Zheng vs. Sabalenka in the 2024 US Open for free from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
TL;DR: Live stream Fritz vs. Zverev in the 2024 US Open for free on 9Now or TVNZ+. Access these free streaming platforms from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
The US Open quarter finals are here, promising exciting matchups between some of the best players in the world. With the likes of Djokovic and Alcaraz already out of the tournament, a lot of players will see this year's US Open as there for the taking. Fritz and Zverev will both believe they can win their first Grand Slam.
If you want to watch Fritz vs. Zverev in the 2024 US Open for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.
How to watch Fritz vs. Zverev in the 2024 US Open for freeFans can live stream the 2024 US Open for free on these platforms:
These streaming services are geo-blocked, but anyone from around the world can access these sites with a VPN. These handy tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to secure servers in other countries, meaning you can unblock 9Now and TVNZ+ from anywhere in the world.
Access free live streams of the 2024 US Open by following these simple steps:
Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)
Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)
Open up the app and connect to a server in Australia or New Zealand
Watch Fritz vs. Zverev in the 2024 US Open for free from anywhere in the world
The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but leading VPNs do tend to offer deals such as free-trial periods or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can access free live streams of Fritz vs. Zverev without actually spending anything. This clearly isn't a long-term solution, but it gives you enough time to watch every US Open match before recovering your investment.
What is the best VPN for the US Open?ExpressVPN is the best service for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream the US Open for free, for a number of reasons:
Servers in 105 countries including Australia and New Zealand
Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more
Strict no-logging policy so your data is always secure
Fast connection speeds
Up to eight simultaneous connections
30-day money-back guarantee
A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $99.95 and includes an extra three months for free — 49% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee.
Live stream Fritz vs. Zverev in the 2024 US Open for free from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
TL;DR: Live stream Dimitrov vs. Tiafoe in the 2024 US Open for free on 9Now or TVNZ+. Access these free streaming platforms from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
The US Open has been far from predictable. A number of big names are out of the tournament, opening the door to the likes of Dimitrov and Tiafoe. These exciting players go head-to-head in the US Open quarter finals, both aiming to win their first Grand Slam title.
If you want to watch Dimitrov vs. Tiafoe in the 2024 US Open for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.
How to watch Dimitrov vs. Tiafoe in the 2024 US Open for freeFans can live stream the 2024 US Open for free on these platforms:
These streaming services are geo-blocked, but anyone from around the world can access these sites with a VPN. These handy tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to secure servers in other countries, meaning you can unblock 9Now and TVNZ+ from anywhere in the world.
Access free live streams of the 2024 US Open by following these simple steps:
Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)
Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)
Open up the app and connect to a server in Australia or New Zealand
Watch Dimitrov vs. Tiafoe in the 2024 US Open for free from anywhere in the world
The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but leading VPNs do tend to offer deals such as free-trial periods or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can access free live streams of Dimitrov vs. Tiafoe without actually spending anything. This clearly isn't a long-term solution, but it gives you enough time to watch every US Open match before recovering your investment.
What is the best VPN for the US Open?ExpressVPN is the best service for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream the US Open for free, for a number of reasons:
Servers in 105 countries including Australia and New Zealand
Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more
Strict no-logging policy so your data is always secure
Fast connection speeds
Up to eight simultaneous connections
30-day money-back guarantee
A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $99.95 and includes an extra three months for free — 49% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee.
Live stream Dimitrov vs. Tiafoe in the 2024 US Open for free from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
TL;DR: Prepare for your next job with beginner to advanced courses on Excel, Word, Access, Outlook, and PowerPoint with the Ultimate Microsoft Office 2021/365 Training Bundle, available now for just £30.38 (reg. £341.08).
Opens in a new window Credit: StreamSkill The Ultimate Microsoft Office 2021/365 Training Bundle £30.38 at the Mashable ShopDon't let that "proficient in Microsoft Office" on your resume be a lie. Knowing how to format a spreadsheet or compose a document in Word is just the beginning. The more advanced functions take a little more effort to learn, but you might be able to save time on tasks like data organisation, formatting, and more when you enroll in the Ultimate Microsoft Office 2021/365 Training Bundle. This pack of seven courses goes from beginner to intermediate and advanced lessons for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access, and it's on sale for just £30.38 (down from £341.08).
Excel beginners welcomeIf you don't know how to construct functional lookup formulas in Excel or use Excel tables to structure data in a way that's easy to update, have a seat. That's not even the advanced Excel course. Beginners can start with lessons on Excel keyboard shortcuts, basic formulas, and simple functions. Once you're ready for the intermediate course, that's where you can find tips to help you design better spreadsheets.
The advanced Excel course is your chance to learn how to use new dynamic array functions, create flexible lookup formulas, and practice using statistical functions. In essence, it's where you learn the real data analysis tools, and it could save you a ton of time in any role that involves large data sets.
Excel isn't the only star of the show. Word may feel like the simplest software in the set, but there are a ton of advanced features you might not know about yet. The Word 2021 course shows you how to access document templates, customize your work interface, and polish your work to a professional shine.
Don't know if a video course is the right fit for you? Preview some of the videos to get an idea of what's in store. Each course is video-led and packed with practice exercises to help you retain what you learn. You'll even get a certificate of completion when you finish the course. These certificates are different from an official certification, but they could still be useful if you want to show an employer you mean business.
Become an Office expertGo beyond the basics and use Microsoft apps like a true professional.
Get the Ultimate Microsoft Office 2021/365 Training Bundle on sale for £30.38.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
Connections is the latest New York Times word game that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.
If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for September 3's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections?The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.
Tweet may have been deletedEach puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer. If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.
Tweet may have been deletedPlayers can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.
SEE ALSO: NYT's The Mini crossword answers for September 2 Here's a hint for today's Connections categoriesWant a hit about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:
Yellow: Clemency
Green: Doing too much
Blue: Money
Purple: Types of heads
Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:
Yellow: Absolve
Green: Excessively
Blue: Global Currencies
Purple: ___Head
Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.
Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.
Drumroll, please!
The solution to today's Connections #450 is...
What is the answer to Connections todayAbsolve: EXCUSE, PARDON, SAVE, SPARE
Excessively: BEYOND, EXTRA, OVER, TOO
Global Currencies: POUND, REAL, WON, YEN
___Head: ARROW, BLOCK, FORE, KNUCKLE
Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections.
Oh hey there! If you're here, it must be time for Wordle. As always, we're serving up our daily hints and tips to help you figure out today's answer.
If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for September 3's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable Where did Wordle come from?Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once.
Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.
What's the best Wordle starting word?The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.
What happened to the Wordle archive?The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles used to be available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it. Unfortunately, it has since been taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times.
Is Wordle getting harder?It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though.
SEE ALSO: NYT's The Mini crossword answers for September 3 Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:Close to losing consciousness.
Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?There are no reoccurring letters.
Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...Today's Wordle starts with the letter F.
SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. The Wordle answer today is...Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.
Drumroll please!
The solution to today's Wordle is...
FAINT.
Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.
Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Wordle.
I was all about the wedding bells after getting engaged in June, but after seeing some of these wedding venue quotes, it’s more like alarm bells.
"Ding-dong" has been remixed to "cha-ching" – and I need help.
I don’t even know how to begin wedding planning. What are the first steps? What do I need to prioritize first? Which tasks are pressing – and which can wait a year or two?
I decided to enlist the help of an AI assistant. Taking it one step further, I thought it’d be interesting to see which chatbot – Gemini Advanced or ChatGPT Plus (i.e., ChatGPT 4o) – is the better wedding planner.
Gemini vs ChatGPT: Create a to-do listI’m planning on have my wedding in the summer of 2026 – sometime between August and September. Besides that, I don’t have anything else nailed down, so I asked both Gemini and ChatGPT to give me a to-do list based on the following prompt:
“My wedding is between August 2026 and September 2026. Give me a to-do list of things to do for the remainder of 2024, 2025, and 2026 for a 100-guest wedding.”
ChatGPT's response: ChatGPT's response Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable Gemini's response: Gemini's response Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / MashableBoth kicked off their lists accurately: setting a budget is a crucial first step. However, the problem with Gemini's response is that it recommends venue hunting before drafting a guest list. You can't search for wedding places without having a rough idea of your guest count. One of the first things venue coordinators ask is, "How many people are coming to your wedding?"
Interestingly, ChatGPT wants me to take the early-bird approach. It recommended booking my venue in 2024 and finalizing other vendors (e.g., florist, entertainment, and photographers) in 2025. Gemini, on the other hand, is OK with both being booked in 2025. ChatGPT wants me set up a registry in 2025 and obtain a marriage license in 2025; Gemini, on the other hand, is fine with me procrastinating on the former until 2026 — and mentions nothing about a marriage license.
To be fair, though, ChatGPT didn't mention anything about honeymoon planning.
Both agree that 2025 is the year I should go wedding dress shopping and send save-the dates. In 2026, both advise to send out invitations and confirm bookings with vendors.
ChatGPT offered helpful tips that I hadn't considered before, including using a folder or binder to organize quotes, contracts, and ideas in one place and creating a wedding-day timeline.
Winner: ChatGPT
Gemini vs ChatGPT: Find a cheap venueI was curious to see if Gemini Advanced and ChatGPT Plus could help me find a bang-for-your-buck venue within my budget (i.e., $20,000).
After searching the far corners of the internet, I found some venues, at less than $20,000, that offer all-inclusive packages, including the DJ and master of ceremonies, limousine service, florist, cake, and photographer.
As such, I tested Gemini Advanced and ChatGPT Plus to see if they could find these locations with the following prompt:
"Find a venue that falls within my budget of $20,000 that offers a complete wedding package. The venue should be located in Queens, Long Island, or within the Hudson River Valley area at most. My guest count is 100. My wedding is in 2026, with a preference for months between August and September. Sunday weddings are OK, as well as Saturday weddings. It doesn't matter whether it's daytime or nighttime."
ChatGPT's response ChatGPT's response Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / MashableThese are wedding venues that I've seen during my research that offer gorgeous, visually stunning weddings without demanding exorbitant expenses.
Pavilion at Sunken Meadow State Park does, indeed, have a complete wedding package, with a starting price of $18,000. I'm not sure if Bourne Mansion and Larkfield have complete wedding packages, but the latter quoted me $110 per-person for a 100-guest afternoon wedding, which comes with food and a wedding cake. Including the $1,500 ceremony fee, that comes out to a subtotal of $12,500.
Did it miss other budget-friendly venues I've discovered during my research? Yes, but it's on the right track.
Gemini, on the other hand, shocked me — and not in a good way. Gemini is a Google-owned service, so I thought it'd be able to tap into its vast treasure trove of information to beat ChatGPT. Instead, Gemini delivered a rather disappointing, lazy answer.
Gemini's response Gemini Advanced's response Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / MashableLeonard's Palazzo is a wedding venue I've received a personalized quote for while venue hunting. They do not offer a complete wedding package, but while throwing in the food and the cake, they quoted me about $16,000 for a 100-guest ceremony and reception. Not bad!
The Manhattan-based recommendations are a head scratcher because they're not in my desired region. (At least Andaz 5th Ave is within the ballpark of my budget.)
And then, Gemini had the audacity to say, "I hope this helps!" Is it trolling me?
Winner: ChatGPT
Gemini vs ChatGPT: Calculate pricingBoth Gemini Advanced and ChatGPT Plus can "read" PDFs and screenshots, making them ideal AI assistants for making sense of confusing pricing charts (as well as the small-text taxes and gratuities within them that need to be tacked on to the base cost).
Here's an example of one of the many charts I ran into while venue shopping:
2025 pricing list for Whitby Castle Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / MashableI decided to test Gemini and ChatGPT's ability to make calculations based on the above PDF.
"Check out this 2025 wedding price list. Based on a date between August 2025 and September 2025 on Sunday at noontime, and a guest list of 100 adults, calculate the full total. We will have the ceremony on site. Include the administrative fee, NY sales tax, suggested gratuities, and bridal attendant fee."
Gemini Advanced offered a total of $21,017 while ChatGPT Plus posted $20,568.69. Why are the totals different? The former added the bridal attendant fee of $400 in the subtotal before tacking on the 22% administration fee.
ChatGPT, on the other hand, applied the 22% administration fee only to the base cost (i.e., $130 x 100 guests) and ceremony fee — and then it added the $400 bridal attendant fee. Based on how other venues have quoted me, it seems like ChatGPT's calculation is more accurate.
Winner: ChatGPT
Gemini vs ChatGPT: Image generation of wedding conceptI asked Gemini and ChatGPT to generate an image of a wedding reception concept based on the following prompt:
"My fiancé and I are tech journalists who are, of course, obsessed with tech, including laptops, phones, VR headsets, gaming, XR glasses, etc. We also love space, and we’re leaning toward some sort of celestial vibe for our wedding. Generate an image of a wedding reception beautifully conveys this wedding theme and design."
ChatGPT's image ChatGPT's interpretation of a tech-focused, galaxy-themed wedding Credit: ChatGPT / Open AI Gemini's images Gemini's interpretation of a tech-focused, galaxy-themed wedding Credit: Gemini / Google Gemini's interpretation of a tech-focused, galaxy-themed wedding Credit: Gemini / Google Gemini's interpretation of a tech-focused, galaxy-themed wedding Credit: Gemini / GoogleChatGPT delivered one image and nailed what I'm looking for. Gemini churned out three, and only one of them, just the first one, caught my eye.
ChatGPT, however, generated the most eye-catching image.
Winner: ChatGPT
Gemini vs ChatGPT: Creativity based on wedding favor ideasFinally, we asked Gemini Advanced and ChatGPT Plus for wedding favor ideas.
"My fiancé and I want to get cheap tech-product wedding favors. Give us 10 techy wedding favor ideas that will delight our guests."
ChatGPT's listCustomized USB Drives:
Portable Phone Chargers:
LED keychains
Earbuds
Smartphone PopSockets
Mini Bluetooth Speakers
Touchscreen Gloves
Digital Photo Frames
VR Cardboard Headsets
Fitness Tracker Bracelets
Personalized USB drivers
Mini Bluetooth speakers
Phone Ring Holders
Custom Phone PopSockets
Portable Power Banks
LED Flashing Badges
Selfie Ring Lights
Miniature LED projectors
Card-Sized Multitools
Wireless Charging Pads
Portable phone chargers, earbuds, mini bluetooth speakers, and fitness tracker bracelets caught my eye on ChatGPT's list. Similarly, on Gemini's list, mini bluetooth speakers, portable power banks, and wireless charging pads grabbed my attention.
Unfortunately for Gemini, ChatGPT won this round, too.
Winner: ChatGPT
Gemini vs ChatGPT: WinnerChatGPT Plus mopped the floor with Gemini Advanced in this face-off. To my surprise, ChatGPT had more thoughtful, research-based responses compared to Gemini.
ChatGPT Plus costs $20 month; Gemini Advanced is also $20 a month.
ChatGPT $0.00 at ChatGPTIt turns out Windows 11 users won't be able to uninstall Microsoft's controversial "Recall" feature after all.
Recall is a Copilot+ feature announced in May that essentially takes constant screenshots of your behavior while using operating system, ostensibly for users to easily find previous work.
A report by Deskmodder seemed to reveal recent Windows 11 update 24H2 allows users to completely uninstall the feature. But now, in a statement to The Verge, Microsoft clarified that that the uninstall option was just a bug.
"We are aware of an issue where Recall is incorrectly listed as an option under the 'Turn Windows features on or off' dialog in Control Panel," said Windows senior product manager Brandon LeBlanc to the outlet. "This will be fixed in an upcoming update."
When Microsoft announced Recall, it was intended to be baked into Windows 11's functions. The feature tracks everything you do on compatible Windows PCs and uses an on-device generative AI model to retrieve particular information a user is looking for, by filing through a library of screenshots saved on the device. Critics of the feature immediately pointed out that it is highly susceptible to cybersecurity flaws since it indiscriminately saves sensitive information like passwords, confidential work, and personal information.
Former Microsoft security expert Kevin Beaumont described it as a cybersecurity "disaster."
"Stealing everything you’ve ever typed or viewed on your own Windows PC is now possible with two lines of code," said Beaumont.
SEE ALSO: Microsoft's new AI 'Recall' feature is like hitting 'CTRL + H' on your entire digital lifeThe public backlash to the new feature led to Microsoft just days after its May announcement following up with a new statement that the Recall feature would be opt-in and therefore switched off by default.
It is also being investigated by the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for violations of user privacy. But after all the outcry and potential legal ramifications,
Recall was initially slated for release in June, but was delayed as Microsoft scrambled to address security concerns. Now, it will launch in October to Windows Insiders testers.
The Brutalist is a towering paean to the American dream, in all its force and folly. Set over several decades, Brady Corbet's post-World War II immigrant saga is — like the architectural achievements of its protagonist — constructed with meticulous consideration, resulting in a work of multifaceted technique and piercing humanity.
The film, arresting from its first frames, spends three-and-a-half engrossing hours on the tale of László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a fictitious Jewish Hungarian architect and survivor of the Holocaust, whose arrival in America yields both rigorous struggle and tempting opportunity. It embodies the kind of American epics no longer really made by Hollywood studios. Comparisons to The Godfather have abounded since its Venice International Film Festival premiere (though as a vast immigrant saga, a more fitting analogy might be The Godfather Part II). Time will tell whether these are hyperbole, but while watching The Brutalist, it's hard not to think of the truly great American stories of the 20th century, like Once Upon a Time In America, and on occasion, even Citizen Kane.
SEE ALSO: 42 movies you'll want to see this fallThe latter is the loftiest possible invocation, but it's a comparison of scale and subject matter, not of technical innovation. The Brutalist, for all its splendor, is not a forward-thinking film like Orson Welles' Kane — but this is, in fact, a key piece of its aesthetic and thematic puzzle. The immediacy with which it conjures past masterpieces is part of its enormous thesis on the purpose of art, which it smuggles beneath a soul-stirring saga of survival, one that exists in conversation with, of all things, Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. The film is both a densely-packed text, filled with rich thought on the world at large, as well as an excitingly rhythmic work of cinema that moves with a fearsome passion. It's hard not to think of it as a new American masterpiece.
What is The Brutalist about?Written by Corbet and Mona Fastvold, The Brutalist begins in 1947, in a time of reconstruction and uncertainty. When László arrives on Ellis Island — an intimate, disorienting scene that begins in his darkened ship bunk and moves above deck — his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) and niece Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy), from whom he was separated during the war, remain stuck in the Soviet Union.
Taken in by his cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola) in Philadelphia and working in his furniture shop, László begins proposing unique Modernist designs, until he's commissioned to build a library for a wealthy family, the Van Burens. Over the years, these aristocratic, old-money magnates — the boastful Harrison Lee (Guy Pearce) and his slimy son Harry (Joe Alwyn) — become a vital part of László's story. The film is novelistic in its unfurling, occasionally taking the form of an epistolary, via the letters sent between László and Erzsébet, but to borrow a phrase from a fellow critic, it's also "Great American Novel-istic." László's architectural passions, and his desperation to be reunited with his family, become deeply entwined with his personal and artistic ambitions. To put it simply, money is the solution at every turn, even if it corrodes his soul — but The Brutalist isn't quite so didactic.
While it spends several hours chronicling the way László changes, and is changed by the United States, the temptations of wealth and power are a small subset of the larger forces that mold him into a much angrier and bitter person. A party scene in Harrison's mansion diverts its focus from conversations to slow-motion shots of champagne and expensive jewelry, just as László is about to sign a long-term contract with the family to construct a community center. However, at no point does Corbet cut to reaction shots of László noticing these trinkets. They represent the fabric of the world he's about to enter, though as his chat with Harrison proceeds, he continues to speak of architecture with poetic adoration. ("I always find our conversations intellectually stimulating!" Harrison rasps, disguising the knowledge that he'll never be László's intellectual equal.) Wealth may not change László’s passions, but it might change how he approaches them.
SEE ALSO: TIFF 2024 preview: 15 movies you ought to know aboutAll the while, the film also explores the fraught corners of post-World War II Jewish identity in the West. From the moment László arrives on America's shores, he's presented with questions of assimilation. His cousin Attila has married a Catholic woman, Audrey (Emma Laird), and has converted. The store he runs is called Miller and Sons, even though his last name is (or was) Molnár, the Hungarian equivalent — and as László quips, "You have no sons!" Before long, news of the infant state of Israel reaches him, leading to other Jewish characters in his vicinity wrestling with their rights and obligations.
Filming on The Brutalist was completed in May of last year, before the events of Oct. 7 led to a more widespread discussion on understanding of the colonial aspects of Israel's founding. The film doesn't get into granular detail — László himself may not be aware of the U.N.'s plans for the region, or how they might displace local Arabs — but the looming specter of this conversation imbues the movie with a tragic dilemma. László's options, as a refugee, are to bring other people harm through displacement, or to continue bringing harm to his own soul, through his immersion in American capitalism.
As the film proceeds, it centers a key question that applies to every facet of its construction: "What is strength?"László's vision for the Van Burens' building — a blocky, pyramidic structure few others seem to understand — is uncompromising to a fault, even if it means pushing other people away in the process. But as the film proceeds, it centers a key question that applies to every facet of its construction: "What is strength?" What is its nature? Is it the materials and the deep concrete foundation László builds? If so, must this come at the cost of the shakier foundation of his roots in a new country? He is always seen as an outsider, whether because of his Jewish-ness, his foreign-ness, or both. Does strength involve living with the physical and psychological pain he's endured, and the strain it puts on his marriage? Or does it involve numbing that pain at any cost?
This thematic exclamation point would mark the end of discussions on most modern American films. But in the case of The Brutalist, it's merely the beginning, thanks in large part to Corbet's multifaceted, referential, and at times reverential use of form.
Every aspect of The Brutalist is finely tunedWhat stands out first and foremost about The Brutalist is Adrien Brody's lead performance. It's funny, and stirring, and risible. However, there's not a single moment where the Hungarian-American actor isn't reaching into the depths of his soul, mining some corner of either his previous roles (such as in The Pianist) or of his mother's experience as a Hungarian woman of Jewish descent forced to flee her country in the 1950s. There's an awkwardness to László too, given the way he interacts with the world around him — which is to say, the country around him. To the untrained ear, his Hungarian dialogue (and his Hungarian accent while speaking English) seem just fine, but the Queens-born actor also purges himself of any remotely American intonation or idiosyncrasy. Whether or not he nails Hungarian specificities, he plays "foreigner" to a tee, between the way he gesticulates, to the way he enters and leaves both rooms and conversations. He is, first and foremost, an outsider.
While Brody's work is magnificently pained, let it not go unsaid: Guy Pearce is the movie's secret weapon, as the actor charged with creating the in-groups and inner circles which tacitly reject László in the first place. As Harrison, the Australian actor channels an air of arrogance that the character often smarmily re-frames as benevolence, leading to moments of shockingly casual cruelty towards László, usually played off as jokes. This dynamic is a key part of the story, and of the America in which László starts to assimilate, taking on Harrison's traits in turn.
Corbet's camera helps these performances shine, especially in the moments that The Brutalist takes dark and dour turns. Cinematographer Lol Crawley bathes certain scenes in darkness; his palette's contrasting warmth and shadow may have led to some of the Godfather comparisons, but the film isn’t interested in mere imitation, even though it conjures old-world styles as though they were forgotten spirits.
SEE ALSO: The 10 best movies of 2024 (so far!)The Brutalist was shot on VistaVision, an IMAX-like technique first developed in the 1950s, in which 35-millimeter film stock was run sideways through a camera, increasing the surface area of the frame (the movie was subsequently projected on 70-millimeter at its premiere). This results in a crisper, sharper image than results from most modern digital workflows, but The Brutalist also appears to employ older lenses with numerous flaws, and razor-thin margin for what is or isn't in focus, revealing new dimensions to spaces and even people. Between its use of era-appropriate techniques and withered tools, The Brutalist ends up existing in a liminal space between past and present; it's simultaneously of an older era, as well as a window to that era, revealing a complicated relationship to the past.
'The Brutalist' ends up existing in a liminal space between past and present; it's simultaneously of an older era, as well as a window to that era, revealing a complicated relationship to the past.For László, this relationship manifests as a pull-and-push between art and industry, and a struggle to preserve the forms his buildings take under capitalist constraints. However, the film itself takes intriguing form as well, wielding a litany of techniques owed to numerous different film movements over the years (that they even remotely gel together is something miraculous). The Brutalist is, in large part, shot with the classical composition of old Hollywood, with controlled framing and movement, but it often breaks from this norm.
On occasion, one might find the pronounced jump cuts of the French New Wave (created, ironically, as a response to the classic Hollywood studios), alongside the use of Soviet montage, accompanied — equally ironically — by voiceover and spliced footage from American propaganda newsreels about industrial innovation. The stark and careful shadows of Godfather cinematographer Gordon Willis, of New Hollywood, find themselves alongside techniques from contemporary independent movements in New York, like the freewheeling, improvisational, up-close-and-personal style of John Cassavetes. You might even find some Hungarian influence if you look closely enough (certain shots are owed to Béla Tarr, while others to László Nemes), and as the film moves forward through time, it even pulls from Lynchian surrealism, and techniques developed during the early video revolution.
Corbet's use of these contrasting techniques isn't just pronounced, but powerful and purposeful. He employs them to create jolting moments of narrative impact, but he also seems to pay homage to the history of the cinematic medium (and its development) as a means to embody the very story he's telling, about the complicated ways in which people hold on to the past. And, as a film that's as much about László's painful history as it is about America's past, it makes for an aesthetic refutation of one of its biggest influences: Ayn Rand.
The Brutalist remixes and transforms The FountainheadThe Brutalist owes much of its story and structure to Rand's The Fountainhead, from its basic premise of an uncompromising architect, to plot developments like László being plucked from toil and obscurity to create something lasting; he shovels coal for a period, the same way Rand's hero Howard Roark worked in a granite quarry. But as visualized in King Vidor's much-maligned 1949 film version of the book — which stars Gary Cooper, and for which Rand herself wrote the screenplay — Modernist and Brutalist architecture take on a fascistic tone in The Fountainhead. They become about leaving the past behind, and shaking off the influences of Graeco-Roman styles, in favor of a "form flows from function" approach. This function-first belief, though it has older origins, was notably espoused by Adolf Hitler, who abhorred "stupid imitations of the past."
Brutalism, though it has more egalitarian origins like low-income social housing, does have a stylistic and philosophical overlap with totalitarian architecture. Both come to similar aesthetic conclusions — the angular, the monochrome, the display of materials — albeit for very different reasons. Vidor's The Fountainhead, in which Roark creates in a Modernist style verging on Brutalist, arguably does a disservice to form, both as an architectural concept, and a filmic one. In Vidor’s story, the influence of the past is framed as a cloying, constraining force intent on snuffing out individuality, and the way that story is told is similarly functional (the film has its charms, but it's straightforward in its presentation, and rote in its delivery of dialogue).
Vidor's film is hardly a defining pillar of modern American politics, but Rand's Objectivist philosophies certainly are. Her rejection of collectivism both tapped into and subsequently clarified the heart of American capitalism — the very same heart Corbet puts on display, and presents as a magnetic force for László, pulling him toward more autocratic ideals. The Brutalist never expands on László’s political outlook, or that of his wife, because the movie's immigrant characters tend to tiptoe around these questions, from poor and wealthy Americans alike, at a time when foreigners (and communists) were looked upon with suspicion. However, Corbet leaves plenty by way of breadcrumbs to figure out what their beliefs might be, and how those beliefs come into immediate conflict with the ideals of their adopted home.
'The Brutalist' is, deep in its bones, a collectivist film that not only places immense emotional value on people and their history, but creates and embodies that value too.Though he puts on an uncompromising front when it comes to his designs, László is always found compromising when it comes to belief, and the way he conducts himself. These are tensions The Brutalist works into every scene, making its gargantuan runtime seem like a piece of cake. It's a film from which you cannot look away, and wouldn't want to — even when it takes dark and dour turns, whose presentation verges on the phantasmagorical.
As much as The Brutalist is a film of steel and concrete, it's a film of the spirit too, and the way the soul is built and constructed from local materials. It's about all the things that make America, and make American stories. Ultimately, when the movie reveals a previously obscured detail about László's work, it makes for a devastating cinematic mic drop that reclaims even the Randian notion that Modernism, Brutalism, and progress at large are ideals that must be cut off from the past, and from connections to other human beings.The Brutalist is, deep in its bones, a collectivist film that not only places immense emotional value on people and their history, but creates and embodies that value too.
The Brutalist was reviewed out of its world premiere at the Venice International film Festival.
After Aggro Dr1ft last year, Harmony Korine has once again made the most galaxy-brained movie of the Venice International Film Festival, Baby Invasion. A work that takes the form of a messed up livestream, the filmmaker's new video game-inspired nightmare is wildly, oppressively hypnotic, even though it eventually runs out of places to go.
The edgelords at Korine's vowel-less EDGLRD production house feel less like traditional filmmakers, more like a collective of media enthusiasts running wackadoodle experiments. Observe them from afar and you might find pretentious faux-intellectualism on the future of cinema; Korine claims that this is what movies will soon be like. It's a hard notion to take seriously.
SEE ALSO: 42 movies you'll want to see this fallBut should you choose to submit to the work regardless, you'll be treated to a stunning example of what movies can be right now, with a strong dose of eerie premonition about where the world at large might be headed — if it isn't already there.
What is Baby Invasion about?Baby Invasion opens with a brief interview clip with a fictitious Filipina game developer — who, for some strange reason, doesn't remove her VR headset. She explains the concept for a game she created that was unfortunately leaked on the internet: a first-person-shooter (FPS) in which assailants disguise their faces with those of babies. Furthermore, its popularity on some corners of the web inspired people to go out and re-create its core concept in real life, and broadcast their crimes via livestream.
This deeply fucked-up idea is, in its entirety, the movie's premise. It takes the form of screenlife cinema, from the point of view of someone watching and interacting with one such online stream, though given that the eponymous baby invaders wear helmet-mounted cameras, the film itself may as well be a first-person shooter movie, like Hardcore Henry. Using AI facial filters (à la TikTok and Snapchat), a cult-like group dressed in horned black hoodies obscure their appearance with the trend-requisite images of baby faces, as they collect ammunition and travel between various Florida mansions in a covert van.
The screen is filled with a Twitch-like scrolling community chat on the left-hand side (in various languages, and with its own memes and internal lingo), alongside graphics and other statistical displays. However, at very few points is the actual audio of this stream ever heard. Instead, it's overlaid with an extremely lengthy, constantly morphing rave track by producer Burial, accompanied by whispers about a rabbit-like creature. As the film's parameters become clear, so too does that of the streamers, who point their guns at wealthy hostages for fun and — it would seem — commit grisly murders just off-screen.
"Crimson towel!" numerous viewers type into the chat, referring to the blood-soaked face coverings over filmed bodies strewn about, as though this were some familiar trope or community reaction. The assailants' baby disguises may be strange, but they're hardly the most perverse part of the whole affair: that would be the casual cruelty and dehumanization on display in the stream, towards women in particular, which becomes part of the movie's self-reflexive point.
Baby Invasion taps into distinctly modern forms of violenceAs with the video game influences in Aggro Dr1ft, Korine appears fixated with the collision of gaming and real-world violence. Of course, the idea that video games are some root cause of violent outbursts has long been exaggerated, but the movie, like video games themselves, exists in a violent world that adopts the language of mass media. More tame real-world examples include video creators impersonating Grand Theft Auto, and streamers pretending to be video game characters (specifically NPCs or "non-playable characters") and accepting input via emojis.
Unfortunately, this adoption of gaming language has a darker side. For instance, NPC has become an epithet meant to imply someone is devoid of personality or humanity, which is the next logical step in an online culture intent on dehumanizing its targets. In Baby Invasion, distressed hostages immediately have their reactions screencapped and turned into memes, reducing their plight to content meant for easy consumption. The closer they are to being killed, the more filters are applied to their person, obscuring their humanity.
The more the movie lingers in this first-person perspective, the more it disturbingly places viewers in the mindset of such terrorists, and in doing so, Baby Invasion calls to mind real mass shootings and violent crimes which have been livestreamed — the Christchurch mosque shooting that was streamed live on YouTube and Facebook, and a Michigan murder that was broadcast on Facebook are just two examples.
If there's something missing from Baby Invasion, it's the actual, sickening outcomes of the crimes themselves. The victims are living, breathing people in one moment, gone the next, with the actual act of execution having been obscured. Perhaps it's a violation of the guidelines of the fictional streaming platforms of the film themselves, but this missing piece is thematically vital too. Should we, as viewers, want to see the complete picture? Without realizing it, we might be complicit in Korine's portrait of a world gone mad as soon as we realize there's more to the story, and something we're prevented from seeing.
Baby Invasion is an arresting experience — up to a pointThe film is also self-reflexive about who its audience is, and who the participants in the stream might be. A small window pops up on occasion, with teens in colorful skull masks watching the stream, as though it were from their vantage (or on their screens) that the film was playing out. Not only does the movie dictate who its audience is — in terms of their macabre desires, and how they mold themselves — but it speculates on who the shooters might be in the strangest fashion. The stream boots up with an EDGLRD logo. The shooters wear EDGLRD insignia, and the horns they wear resemble the masks worn in Aggro Dr1ft. Are they fans who might've misinterpreted that movie as a call to violence, or simply adopted its aesthetics?
Korine is just as culpable as the rest of the culture, it would seem. But this is, in a way, freeing for him as a filmmaker. It verges on offering Korine carte blanche to do, essentially, whatever he wants in the realm of cinematic debauchery. As much as the screen may be cluttered by graphics and text, there's a distinct realism to the online world we see, and how the people within it interact and operate. We don't see much of the bloodshed in the moment, though the movie does feature disturbing flashes of what appears to be separate stabbing attacks shot with a more rudimentary camera — as though this were some flashback or memory, or ghost in the machine.
However, there are times when the very reality of the film is called into question, rendering the aforementioned stabbing a potential peek into the real world from, perhaps, an unreal one. The game designer in the prologue talks about her intent to blur the virtual and real worlds, and the entrancing effect of Baby Invasion often does just that, lulling its more willing viewers into a state of arrest, to the point that even its most realistic images become mere stimuli. But then the stream takes odd turns, and the shooters find themselves in a metaverse of sorts, peeking out at the real events they perpetrate. Perhaps this is some quirk of the stream or real life "game" — we are, at the end of the day, witnessing what other viewers might see on a screen — but there are also moments where digital recreations of real environments so closely resemble the real thing that it's genuinely hard to tell the difference.
Figuring out the distinction (or even wanting to) is sort of irrelevant. Baby Invasion doesn't exactly have a plot beyond the shooters' violent depravity, and so there's only so long one can be swept up in its techno madness, despite its mere 80-minute runtime. However, that it takes these detours at all is terrifying enough, and provides just enough room for speculation. In a movie where desensitization lies at the root of everything, the notion of whether something feels real (regardless of whether it is) becomes the most pressing question. If fiction can be made to feel like reality, then so too can reality become fiction, giving way to everything from conspiracy theories to bullets and bloodshed.
Baby Invasion was reviewed out of its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival.
The US Open broadcast suddenly cut out for DirecTV customers on Sunday evening due to contract dispute with Disney.
Disney blocked access to ESPN, ABC, and other Disney-owned channels for the roughly 11 million DirecTV subscribers after ongoing distribution negotiations went sour. The blackout occurred right before the college football season opener with LSU versus USC. That the hardball tactic occurred during primetime at the US Open and right before the start of the NFL season is no coincidence since it motivates both parties to reach a deal. However, that also means when negotiations fall through, millions of customers suffer the consequences.
According to a statement from DirecTV, "Disney is forcing consumers to pay for channels they don't watch," while DirecTV wants to offer customers more flexibility in terms of the channels they wish to pay for. "Disney's only magic is forcing prices to go up while simultaneously making its content disappear," said said Rob Thun, chief content officer in the press release.
SEE ALSO: How to watch the NFL online for freeAccording to a statement from Disney, they're willing to offer flexibility of channels, but "will not enter into an agreement that undervalues our portfolio of television channels and programs." Exactly, a year ago Disney pulled the same move with cable company Spectrum, which resulted in a 10-day blackout. So one thing is certain: during one of the biggest sports broadcasting moments of the year, customers are losing out.
Customers took to X to express their anger and willingness to cancel their account if it's not resolved.
Tweet may have been deletedWhile DirecTV is the one shouldering the blame, and by extension losing customers, users called out Disney as the "root cause" and the "villains" since it's the party that owns the channels and is holding out for more money.
Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deletedMeanwhile, amidst the ongoing battle between DirecTV and Disney, streaming platforms that don't require cable subscriptions like YouTube TV and Fubo are sitting back with popcorn.
Tweet may have been deletedI never imagined a dating app could make me feel guilty.
But there I was, sitting on my sofa, worrying if I was, to quote indie pop band London Grammar, wasting my young years.
It had been a difficult week, to say the least. I was sleep-deprived and my anxiety was running riot. What I needed most right then and there was a quiet, restorative night of doing nothing. I was hiding under a blanket on my sofa when my phone started flashing like a lighthouse on the horizon.
Four Hinge notifications appeared on my home screen in close succession. I had a new match named Jake. My eye scrolled downwards to see that Jake wasn't wasting any time: He wanted to meet up. Right now.
I really didn't want to do that. It was 9 p.m. and I was in my pyjamas watching Bridgerton. The last thing I wanted to do was leave the house for what felt like a booty call. My instinct was to put myself first on this night. But that came with a small kick of guilt that I was somehow failing at dating.
SEE ALSO: Why some people on dating apps just want to be 'pen pals'I couldn't seem to shake the feeling that I was boring and a tiny bit selfish for wanting to stay home. You'll be alone forever at this rate, whispered a small voice in my head. How had a message from a stranger had this effect on me? Truth is, Jake is one of many guys in my phone asking to meet up straight after matching.
Dating app interactions are becoming increasingly fast-paced. That palpable culture shift is a reaction against the "swiping fatigue" that began to plague the dating industry in 2018. This swiping ennui resulted in daters collecting countless matches, but having low-quality interactions that didn't lead to an actual in-person date. "Breadcrumbing" — a term for daters who have interminable chats with their matches with zero intention of meeting up — became a scourge for people genuinely looking for love, not a penpal. Daters became more and more frustrated with accumulating matches who didn't seem serious about testing the waters offline.
Now the pendulum has swung so far in the opposite direction, we may have overcorrected. But we can fix this. We can bring balance back to the online dating world by being honest about preferring to chat online before meeting up IRL. If you're in need of self-care and don't feel like explaining why, then don't. If your schedule is packed, suggest alternatives like voice-noting or FaceTime. It is 100 percent OK to say no when a match wants to meet up straight away. Spare yourself the guilt, if you can.
As for me, I had nothing against Jake. But I'd had zero conversation with him, so I had absolutely no idea whether we were even a good match personality-wise. I weighed whether I wanted to expend the mental energy of explaining the reasons why I couldn't meet up right now. But, to be frank, I just didn't feel like it. I didn't have to explain anything. I ignored the request, stowed away my phone and hit play on my TV remote.
A few days later — and feeling well-rested after several nights on the sofa — I spotted a tweet that really spoke to me. Poorna Bell, an author and journalist who writes about mental health, tweeted that if a match asks to meet up with very little notice, "don't feel guilty or like you'll miss out on 'the one' if you don't. Work to your own timeline."
Tweet may have been deleted"I know it’s not as simple as this but the right person will wait," Bell added. "The right person will understand you have a life and aren’t egotistical to assume you’d drop everything to meet with a random. And time with yourself even if that’s on the sofa with Netflix is as important."
I knew from talking to friends that I was far from alone in feeling this way. But Bell's tweet made me feel validated in the decision I'd made that night.
On-demand dating has been on the rise for some time. Couple that with the growing frustration with breadcrumbing and swiping fatigue and it makes sense that some people are trying to seal the deal and land a date straight away. This change in dating culture might explain why more and more daters are sliding into your inbox asking to meet up straight away.
Dating apps have also played a part in this gear-shift. Some popular apps are actively encouraging users to meet up sooner. Naomi Walkland, associate director for Europe and Middle East marketing at Bumble, told Mashable that "getting asked out on a date shortly after you have matched with someone online can sometimes be overwhelming."
SEE ALSO: People are using AI to date you"At Bumble, we encourage people to meet as soon as you can," Walkland added. "This is one of the reasons why we have a 24-hour window for replies so that it keeps the momentum going with you and your match." After this finite period ends, the match expires and it's no longer possible to get in touch. There is the option of extending that window, particularly if you don't have "first move privileges" (a Bumble feature which allows only one person to break the ice first).
Hinge's CMO Nathan Roth echoed these sentiments. "In today’s digital world, singles are so busy matching that they’re not actually connecting, in person, where it counts," Roth told Mashable. "As the dating app that’s 'designed to be deleted,' we’re always encouraging our users to move things offline and go on a great date," Roth continued.
While dating culture has shifted to combat swiping fatigue, not all online daters are on board with the newfound immediacy.
Adele, a home healthcare assistant who prefers to use only her first name as her surname is very recognisable, told me she feels "absolutely terrified, with a side of suspicion" when a match wants to meet up straight away.
She does not, however, feel pressured to meet up. "Especially with some of the horror stories you see, as well as my own experiences with online dating, my safety and comfort is the first thing I think of," Adele said. "If they immediately push to meet and don't even have like, a brief chat online first then I absolutely won’t go meet them."
She does a "full vetting first" and prefers to see their Facebook and Instagram profiles before meeting up. "I've been out with quite a few guys via online dating and the nice, reasonable ones have completely understood that when you’re a lone woman going to meet a stranger for a date, you want to be as safe as possible," she added. "My advice would be: If they have an issue with you saying no to meeting immediately then just steer well clear. Anyone worth seeing would understand."
Sam Espensen, a spirits producer, used to feel pressured by matches, particularly when the other person is persistently pushing to meet up. She did say yes once, but then cancelled a few hours before the date. "My Spidey Sense was tingling and it turned out to be correct — the person in question turned out to be majorly flawed," she said, clarifying that they were "aggressive and stalkery and wouldn’t take no for an answer and refused to understand why women would be nervous about meeting someone straight away."
She offered some great advice for anyone who might also be feeling pressured.
"Step back and think about why they're pressuring you," she said. "If they really like the sound of you, they'll put some leg work in and communicate online/on the phone for a while before meeting up." She said that anyone putting pressure on you at such an early stage is likely to do so in the future. "If they're being really pushy, they probably don't think you'll agree to meeting with them after speaking online for a while first. And they may have bad intentions," she added.
If you do want to meet up with this person, you could consider telling them you're bringing a friend, Sam suggested. "Their reaction will tell you everything you need to know!"
There are other ways of "meeting" without having to take the step of meeting up in person. Some daters use WhatsApp voice notes to "pre-screen" their dates before meeting up IRL. Chatting over voice notes, if you're comfortable with it, can provide the opportunity to get a sense of your match's personality ahead of arranging a date. If your schedule is jam-packed, you could also try a quick video chat on FaceTime. Bumble also has a video calling feature so you can chat face-to-face over the app without disclosing your mobile number. If you notice a spark while voicenoting or video-chatting, try moving things into an in-person date.
Dating culture is in high-gear, but you don't need to drop everything just to keep pace. There will be times in everyone's life where meeting up immediately doesn't work. Sometimes your busy work schedule won't sync up with a match's. Other times, your calendar might be free as a bird, but you're in desperate need of downtime. The right person will understand. Don't feel bad about putting yourself first.
This article was first published in 2020 and republished in 2024.
Last year, Apple ditched all of its leather accessories in favor for a new material. Called FineWoven, it was supposed to be better than leather while being environmentally friendlier.
Alas, it didn't go exactly as planned. FineWoven cases and accessories look fine new, but many users complain that they get worn out faster than leather. I've used a couple FineWoven cases and wallets for nearly a year now, and can confirm that they look pretty shoddy right now.
There's good news ahead, though. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, stock of FineWoven iPhone cases and Apple Watch bands is "at all-time lows," ahead of Apple's Sept. 9 iPhone launch event.
SEE ALSO: Apple's new M4 Macs are probably coming in NovemberThis could mean that Apple is preparing to replace FineWoven accessories with something else; perhaps a new version of the material, or a new material entirely. It could also mean, however, that the company is merely looking to update the lineup with new colors, as well as support for the new devices it's about to launch.
A report in April said that Apple will ditch FineWoven for a different, non-leather material, but a later update to the report claimed that Apple will still produce another round of FineWoven accessories, only in new colors.
Personally, I'd like to see some sort of update to FineWoven. The first version of the material hasn't stood the test of time well, with several polls showing that the majority of consumers strongly dislikes it. Perhaps it's time for FineWoven 2.0?
The House of the Dragon Season 2 finale didn't go down particularly well with fans, but the show may be about to get its biggest critic yet: George R.R. Martin, the author of the book the series is based on, Fire and Blood.
On Friday, Martin posted a new "Not a Blog" entry in which he talked about Siesta in Sante Fe, during which a giant marionette called Zozobra is burned as a way of "devouring the darkness."
SEE ALSO: 'House of the Dragon' Season 3 predictions: What's next?"Believe me we need that, more than ever before," wrote the author. "The world, the country, and yes, certainly me. This has not been a good year for anyone, with war everywhere and fascism on the rise… and on a more personal level, I have had a pretty wretched year as well, one full of stress, anger, conflict, and defeat."
Featured Video For You House of the Dragon Season 1: Everything you need to remember about Season 1 in 60 secondsMartin went on to say that he plans to talk more about this in future blog entries — and that he'll also be sharing his thoughts on House of the Dragon.
"I do not look forward to other posts I need to write, about everything that’s gone wrong with HOUSE OF THE DRAGON… but I need to do that too, and I will," Martin wrote. "Not today, though."
Yikes. This is particularly notable because the language Martin uses is fairly blunt. When speaking about Game of Thrones' ending in the past he's explained that he wished it could have gone on for longer, but he's typically avoided giving his own personal opinion about the show.
If we had to guess, we'd say Martin's most likely to have some things to say about what's gone on behind the scenes of House of the Dragon — maybe some of the logistics that caused a key battle to be pushed into Season 3, leaving Season 2 on a cliffhanger, for instance.
If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game.
Strands requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on MashableBy providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.
If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.
SEE ALSO: NYT Connections today: See hints and answers for September 2 SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Here's the answer hints for September 2 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Order in the court!These words are more commonly heard across the pond.
Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explainedThe answers all relate to noble titles.
NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.
NYT Strands spangram answer todayToday's spangram is Titles.
NYT Strands word list for September 2Viscount
Queen
Knight
Duchess
Esquire
Titles
Baron
Earl
Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!
Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Strands.
Apparently, Boeing's troubled spaceship isn't done giving NASA some brain teasers while it's still in space.
Starliner's commander, astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore, asked Houston mission control on Saturday why the test capsule had started emitting strange noises from a speaker. At first the sounds weren't audible, then Wilmore, 61, captured a better recording: an unnerving, perpetual blooping, similar to the pulse of a submarine's sonar ping.
"I'll let y'all scratch your heads and see if you can figure out what's going on," Wilmore said in his Southern drawl over the radio.
Flight controllers didn't seem to immediately know the cause or source of the noise. Neither NASA nor Boeing, the spacecraft's developer, responded to questions from Mashable on Sunday regarding the sounds, and it was unclear whether the issue persisted. The only unusual thing Wilmore had observed at the time of the communication was the sound transmitted over the speaker. No other problems or weird configurations were happening within the capsule, he said.
SEE ALSO: 2 women lose their ride to space in Boeing Starliner fallout Boeing's Starliner experienced propulsion problems during its crewed testflight in June 2024. Credit: NASAThough the U.S. space agency recently decided Wilmore and his crewmate, pilot Sunita "Suni" Williams, would not return on Starliner but a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, Starliner remains docked at the International Space Station some 250 miles above Earth. It is expected to stay there until departing for a robotic landing without passengers no earlier than 6:04 p.m. ET Friday, Sept. 6.
If all goes as planned, Starliner will touch down at the Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico about six hours later. A system of parachutes and air bags should cushion its drop over the desert shortly after midnight on Sept. 7.
The pulsing sounds are the latest in a series of quandaries related to Starliner, which launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in June for its first test flight carrying people. The issue was first reported by Ars Technica on Sunday, based on a posting of the International Space Station chatter in a NASASpaceflight.com forum. The authenticity of the recording, which can be found in the forum, has not been independently verified.
Boeing Starliner's test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will return to Earth on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in February 2025. Credit: NASAVeteran astronauts Wilmore and Williams were in limbo this summer while NASA leadership and Boeing managers discussed whether Starliner was safe to bring them home. During their flight to the space station, Starliner experienced propulsion issues.
What should have been an eight-day stint in space for them will now stretch for eight months. Both will be incorporated as regular crew members of Expedition 71/72 through February 2025 and will return with the agency’s Crew-9 mission. In the fallout, two female astronauts who were originally assigned to Crew-9 — Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson — lost their ride to space to free up a pair of seats for Wilmore and Williams to come home.
"I'll let y'all scratch your heads and see if you can figure out what's going on."Getting Starliner through its testing phase has been a relentless battle for Boeing, though its representatives have not always been forthcoming on why the program has suffered so many setbacks. A string of issues has spanned a decade.
After the Space Shuttle retired in 2011, NASA hitched all of its rides on Russian rockets to the space station, costing the United States tens of millions of dollars per ride. Some considered it a national embarrassment.
Tweet may have been deletedNASA hired Boeing and SpaceX to build commercial spaceships to carry astronauts to and from the station in 2014. While SpaceX's capsule went into service four years ago, Boeing's Starliner has yet to obtain certification for regular flight operations.
NASA never intended to have all its eggs in Elon Musk's basket and says Starliner is still crucial to have as a backup. Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for space operations, hinted that the agency expects Starliner to fly again.
"We’ve learned a lot about the spacecraft during its journey to the station and its docked operations," he said in a statement. "We also will continue to gather more data about Starliner during the uncrewed return and improve the system for future flights to the space station."
Take a New York Minute to Review Your Recovery Plan Don Henley is right: everything can change in a New York...
I Lost all of my Photos In every disaster I have ever responded to from here to...
Boston's most important responders: Bostonians The people of Boston are to be congratulated for being...
3 Values Your Business Continuity Plan Should Have Your business lives with risk every day from competitors...
Digital Privacy: A Catch 22 Mobility, convenience, accessibility and real-...
Take a New York Minute to Review Your Recovery Plan Don Henley is right: everything can change in a New York...
3 Values Your Business Continuity Plan Should Have Your business lives with risk every day from competitors...
I Lost all of my Photos In every disaster I have ever responded to from here to...