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How Mortal Kombat and the Moral Panic Revolutionized the Gaming Landscape

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On December 9, 1993, Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman addressed Congress at a
Congressional hearing on video game violence. He asserted that the video game industry had overstepped ethical boundaries, particularly targeting Midway’s Mortal Kombat, a violent fighting game that had recently made waves on the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System after its arcade success. “Blood will splatter from the heads of the contestants,” Lieberman warned. “The game’s narrator guides players to finish off their opponents, offering choices on how to execute them, from ripping out their hearts to decapitating them with the spinal cord attached.”

The aim of Mr. Lieberman’s hearing was to compel the U.S. gaming industry to implement a formal rating system to restrict minors from buying violent games. He was successful; this led to the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board. However, he also fueled a moral panic that had started with Mortal Kombat’s arcade debut in 1992. This concern heightened following the major home console launch on September 13, 1993 (the event dubbed Mortal Monday). U.S. news networks
sent reporters to gaming centers, questioning teens who passionately battled against each other. Newspapers consulted worried child psychologists, while the BBC featured author Will Self live on “The Late Show” to discuss the concerns.




Charmingly awkward…Mortal Kombat: Legacy Collection. Photo: Atari

In hindsight, viewing those hearings juxtaposed with the games they critiqued is fascinating. Just released this week, Mortal Kombat: Legacy Collection compiles the first four titles in the franchise across arcade formats and multiple home consoles, along with several spin-offs for the Game Boy Advance and PlayStation. The original game now feels like a nostalgic relic from 1990s youth culture. Its digitized visuals, crafted by filming actors executing martial arts moves and converting the footage into 2D animations, have a charmingly clunky and low-resolution quality that renders the controversial fatalities more amusing than horrifying. A highlight of the collection is the Fatality Trainer, which lets you practice each title’s gruesome finishing moves. Had this mode existed back then, it would have likely been my sole focus.

Revisiting the game now, it’s evident that it stemmed from a small team of enthusiasts who had grown up on ’80s horror flicks. Initially, Midway created a four-person team, including programmers Ed Boone and John Tobias, aiming to develop a combat game featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme. However, when that partnership dissolved, Boone and Tobias envisioned a contender to Capcom’s popular Street Fighter II, drawing inspiration from a wave of violent martial arts films such as Bloodsport and The Best of the Best. Boone described it as “an MTV version of Street Fighter,” and the team borrowed concepts from iconic films like “RoboCop,” “The Terminator,” and “Enter the Dragon,” often facing challenges during development. The company recognized that embracing violence could lead to notoriety, and no one hesitated. As Boone recounted,
in a 2022 interview with Polygon, he noted, “If something happened, I would ask, ‘Is this going too far?'” The CEO’s response was, “No, go further.” Under the leadership of [Midway game designer] Eugene Jarvis, who had just played a notably violent game called Narc, the team was encouraged to push boundaries even more.

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Essentially, the moral panic ignited by Mortal Kombat in the early 1990s mirrored earlier concerns about video games in the 1980s. This was fueled by the fear of new entertainment technologies infiltrating homes unchecked and affecting children’s minds, and paradoxically, it propelled the series’ success. Following the Christmas season, Mortal Kombat became the best-selling game, moving 6 million copies across various platforms. The collection illustrates how gaming adapted in the age of 32-bit consoles, transitioning from arcade concepts to handheld devices and evolving into action-adventure spin-offs like Mortal Kombat: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces.

For the gaming industry, the Mortal Kombat controversy escalated into yet another battleground in the console wars. Sega capitalized on the heated debate, allowing Mega Drive users to unlock the full gore of the arcade version through a “secret” code, while Nintendo aimed to preserve its family-friendly brand by removing fatalities and transforming blood into gray “sweat.” Unsurprisingly, the Sega version became the top seller.




It’s so real it hurts…Original press ad for Mortal Kombat. Photo: Midway

Since then, media hysteria surrounding video games has persisted. Doom remained a frequent tabloid topic throughout the 1990s;
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold’s interest in the game was blamed for the Columbine school shooting. The 2010s saw Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty regularly targeted, while more recently, Fortnite has faced accusations of leading a generation of schoolchildren into
addiction. Yet, Lieberman’s fervent examination of Mortal Kombat, Night Trap, and Lethal Enforcers in a boarded-up Senate chamber retains its unique appeal.

This was a pivotal moment for the gaming industry, marking a shift from child-focused games to those aimed at teens and adults, transitioning from abstract puzzles and platformers to graphically rich shooters, gory beat-’em-ups, and action-adventures. Midway set out to discover just how far they could push the envelope, and their findings would influence the entire industry.

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is available now on PC, PS5, Switch, and Xbox.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Memes and Nihilistic Humor: Exploring the Online Landscape of Charlie Kirk’s Controversy

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on the day 22-year-old Tyler Robinson shot and killed right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, prosecutors claim he texted his roommates to confess to the act. While admitting to the murder and seemingly indicating he intended to reclaim his firearm, he shifted the conversation to his motivation for inscribing messages on the ammunition.

“Remember how I was carving the bullets. The messages are almost a big meme,” Robinson texted.

Robinson’s shooting of Kirk underscores the intersection of political violence and a growing nihilistic online environment that fosters misinformation and extremism. This convergence raises significant questions about the impact of internet culture on the nature and understanding of extremist actions.

Robinson was heavily engaged with online platforms and seemed to enjoy video gaming. A friend described him as “Online at the end,” noting his activity on Discord, a messaging service popular among the gaming community.

The bullets he allegedly fired bore niche internet references and phrases, such as “What is this?”, alluding to sexual memes within online furry communities, “If you read this, you’re gay LMAO,” and “Hey fascist! Catch!” referencing the game Far Cry 6.

In conversations with his roommate, with whom he had a romantic relationship, Robinson appeared to contemplate how his ironic messages would be interpreted.

He even mentioned “UWU’s awareness” in Fox News [sic] highlighting the absurdity of certain responses,” Robinson texted.

Robinson exemplifies not only a product of online culture, but also aligns with a contemporary trend where attackers feel compelled to leave behind a message. The increase in manifestos and single-sentence declarations online, be it a full manifesto or a brief phrase, has been notable in recent years.

The manifesto left by the neo-Nazis who murdered 51 people in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019 included extreme white nationalist ideologies and “shitposting” style ironic references related to video games and podcasters. The shooter who opened fire in a supermarket in El Paso, Texas the same year announced his attack on the 8chan message board while creating memes that encouraged others to “achieve high scores” with body counts.

The mass shooting in predominantly Black areas of Buffalo, New York in 2022 and the Poway synagogue shooting in California in 2019, both echoed with the language used in fringe online forums. A 2022 survey by multiple newsrooms found thousands of messages from international neo-Nazi networks, showcasing exchanges filled with memes and gaming slang as they plotted violence.

Moreover, attackers frequently engage with each other in far-right circles, celebrating individuals as “saints” on memorial days or mimicking elements from previous attacks. As noted by others, Robinson’s inscriptions on bullet cases closely resemble the meme messages left on ammunition and firearms by a young shooter from a Minneapolis Catholic School attack, echoing the patterns left by United Healthcare CEO shooter Luigi Mangione on bullets, which was visible on a popular alt-fashion brand’s shirt.

Robinson’s messages do not provide a clear motive for Kirk’s murder. Prosecutors claim Robinson indicated he shot Kirk because he believed conservative activists were perpetuating hatred. His mother reportedly stated that her son had “become more political, more inclined towards the left, and supportive of gay and trans rights.”

However, the path to Robinson’s radicalization remains unclear. There is a vast gulf between opposing Kirk’s ideologies and enacting targeted violence. Experts increasingly contend that the motivations behind such actions, especially among young individuals, are shaped more by the fragmented and chaotic online landscape of modern politics rather than fitting neatly into traditional political categories. Neglecting the radical nature of these individuals in favor of simplified narratives can obscure the factors driving them towards extremist violence.

Radicalization of being online

Rather than striving to decipher the exact meanings behind the sarcastic trolling messages left by attackers, researchers studying extremism argue that understanding how online media contributes to widespread radicalization is more valuable. In fact, many suggest that the current era of political violence is markedly different from past occurrences due to the influential role of social media and online communities in radicalizing and isolating users.

While technological factors represent only part of the rise in political violence—alongside mental health concerns, political polarization, and easy access to firearms in the U.S.—extremist researchers increasingly focus on how social media platforms and online environments evolve to foster radicalization.

In a 2023 paper by George Washington University’s Project on Extremism, Jacob Wear, explained the emergence of what he termed the “third generation of online radicals” in the late 2010s. Characteristics of this generation include how memetic culture facilitates radicalization and normalizes attacks, as well as a shift away from ideology and group affiliations towards individual acts of violence. Wear argues that online culture surrounding violence and extremism blurs the conventional boundaries of terrorism, spurring content designed to showcase acts of violence.

“Global grievances are expressed with great intensity in localized contexts, yet the primary audience often remains online,” writes Wear.

The expansion of social media and the erosion of traditional gatekeeping have muddled strategies to combat escalating online radicalization, especially given shifts in social media platforms. Responsibility for hosting violent and extreme content has become a contentious issue. What was once a standard policy among media organizations and platforms to refrain from disseminating a perpetrator’s manifesto has evolved into a public health debate among researchers, deteriorating as social media platforms replaced amateur detectives who amplified the digital footprints of individuals for perilous discoveries. Furthermore, as messages and memes from attackers spread more effortlessly, riffs about violence produce more posts, transforming them into consumable content. This represents a particularly grim aspect of an industry that has thrived by algorithmically promoting politically divisive and extremist content.

Consequently, online culture has become intertwined with extremism and political violence, increasingly blurring lines as previously extremist internet culture permeates everyday online experiences. The use of sarcastic humor associated with violence and extremism isn’t new to the digital landscape—a 1944 essay debated how factions entertained themselves with euphemisms of hate, yet has now become a prominent feature of online interaction. Ideologies and memes that were once confined to obscure message boards and extremist sites now serve as the common language of the Internet, disseminated across mainstream social media platforms.

Kirk is also a product of this online milieu, widely recognized for his confrontational, debate-style clips that have gone viral, stirring reactions from various political audiences.

The footage of Kirk’s murder has since propagated through the same online ecosystem that once rendered him omnipresent, now autoplaying on X without caution for viewers. The aftermath of his death has blended into the same content machine, with video essays analyzing the murder and AI-generated tributes portraying his legacy online. One aspiring influencer who attended the event where Kirk was fatally shot attempted to exploit the chaos for content, posting videos promoting his social media channels amid the turmoil.

“Make sure to subscribe!” the TikToker, who later deleted the video, exclaimed while flashing peace signs as attendees screamed and fled.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Study Reveals How the Extinction of Non-Bird Dinosaurs Transformed the Landscape

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Recent studies indicate that dinosaurs acted as ecosystem engineers, fostering habitat openness during the late Cretaceous period. Their extinction around 66 million years ago likely triggered a significant reorganization of ecosystem structures, profoundly affecting rivers. The emergence of dense forests helped stabilize sediments and created a wide, meandering river surrounding the water.

Dinosaurs functioned as ecosystem engineers, regulating forest growth. Their abrupt extinction resulted in extensive ecological shifts, as illustrated in these artistic renderings. Image credit: Julius Csotonyi.

“When considering how life and the environment evolve over time, it’s typically viewed as climate-driven, causing specific effects on living beings. Alternatively, geographic shifts, like rising mountains, also have a notable impact,” explained Luke Weaver, a paleontologist at the University of Michigan.

“It’s uncommon for life to play a crucial role in altering climate and landscape; the influence isn’t solely one-directional.”

The extinction of dinosaurs followed the impact of a massive asteroid on the Yucatan Peninsula approximately 66 million years ago.

Researchers investigating asteroid evidence discovered that the geological layer above the fallout fragments differed significantly from the underlying rock.

Dr. Weaver and his team began examining this abrupt geological transformation within the Williston Basin, which encompasses the Bighorn Basin across eastern Montana, western North Dakota, and northern Wyoming.

“During my review of previous research, I focused on the Fort Union Formation,” Dr. Weaver mentioned.

“This formation, laid down post-dinosaur extinction, appears to consist of layered rocks in various hues.

“Initially thought to be pond sediments resulting from sea level rise, these formations presented an intriguing contrast to the layer beneath, characterized by poorly developed soils that recall features found along flood plains.”

Researchers then hypothesized a link between these geological alterations and the mass extinction event of dinosaurs, commonly referred to as the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.

They further explored the environments represented by the diverse rock formations.

“Our findings indicated that the striped layers were not sediment from ponds,” Dr. Weaver stated.

“Instead, these are point bar deposits, or sediments from the inner curves of large river meanders.”

“Rather than reflecting a tranquil setting, what we uncovered was a highly dynamic environment within those meandering flows.”

Substantial river sediments are framed by layers primarily comprising lignite, a low-grade coal formed from organic material.

Researchers suggested these formed due to less frequent river activity, attributable to the stabilizing effects of dense forests.

“By stabilizing rivers, these forests curtailed the supply of clay, silt, and sand deep into the floodplain, resulting in an accumulation of mainly organic debris,” Dr. Weaver explained.

What evidence will ascertain whether changes occurred right after the mass extinction?

Fine layers rich in iridium are typically found only from cosmic events.

However, the asteroid impact introduced a mix of elements that settled in thin layers across the globe.

This iridium-rich sediment layer, which defines the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, contains about three orders of magnitude more iridium than standard sediments and is recognized as an iridium anomaly.

The researchers subsequently focused on areas of the Bighorn Basin where the boundary was absent.

By analyzing geological shifts between the dinosaur-rich layers and those containing early mammals, they sampled narrow bands of red clay about 1 cm wide.

“These iridium anomalies were perfectly situated at the interface between the two differing geological layers,” Dr. Weaver noted.

“This discovery led us to believe that this phenomenon wasn’t isolated to the Williston Basin; it likely applies across many regions in western North America.”

However, questions linger regarding the reasons for the substantial geological transformations observed before and after the dinosaurs’ extinction.

Later, the team came upon discussions regarding how modern animals, such as elephants, impact their ecosystems.

“This was the moment of clarity that connected all the dots,” Dr. Weaver remarked.

“Dinosaurs were enormous; they must have substantially influenced the vegetation.”

Paleontologists have posited that dinosaurs played a crucial role in facilitating forest growth, trapping sediments, and shaping river structures.

“For me, the most thrilling aspect of our research is the evidence that dinosaurs may have directly influenced their ecosystems,” said Dr. Courtney Splain, a researcher at the University of Florida.

“Notably, the impacts of their extinction may be observed not merely through the disappearance of fossils in the geological record, but also through evident changes in the sediment itself.”

Survey results were published this week in the journal Communication Earth and the Environment.

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ln weaver et al. 2025. Dinosaur extinction can explain the change in continental facies at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. Commune Earth Environment 6, 712; doi:10.1038/s43247-025-02673-8

Source: www.sci.news

The Extinction of a Dinosaur: A Dramatic Transformation of Earth’s Landscape

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Large dinosaurs such as Titanosaurus significantly influenced their ecosystems

Christian Jegou/Science Photography Library

The extinction of dinosaurs had profound consequences for Earth, leading to significant alterations in the planet’s landscapes, including shifts in river systems.

There is a clear distinction between various rock formations in North America before and after the end of the dinosaurs during the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-PG) extinction event approximately 66 million years ago, triggered by the Chicxulub asteroid impact in the Yucatan Peninsula.

For example, the Green Gray Mudstone, recognized as the Hell Creek Formation from the dinosaur period, transitions into the more vivid pajama-striped layers of the Fort Union Formation, which hosts many lignite-rich charcoals from plant material that surfaced with the rise of mammals.

This transition was initially attributed to the direct impacts of asteroid strikes, such as increased rainfall. However, Luke Weaver from the University of Michigan and his team propose another explanation.

They examined floodplain areas in the western United States, revealing abrupt geological changes around the K-PG boundary, particularly in the Williston Basin, stretching across parts of Wyoming, Montana, and the Dakotas.

The multifaceted colorful layers from the Post-dinosaur period are believed to be deposits formed by rising water levels, creating temporary ponds. However, Weaver and his colleagues did not find supporting literature on water level changes during this era.

“There’s no evidence of extremely high water tables or particularly wet conditions,” he says. While there was an intrusion of seawater inland, the nearest instance occurred at least 300,000 years after the K-PG boundary.

Weaver’s team argues that significant sandstone layers formed post-K-PG boundary are indicative of large, stable rivers, known as Point Bar deposits, instead of temporary pond deposits. These layers can exceed 10 meters in thickness, reflecting the stability of these rivers.

Researchers attribute these findings to the extinction of dinosaurs. They propose that, like today’s large herbivores, dinosaurs were ecological engineers, disrupting vegetation, trampling, and grazing seedlings, inhibiting new plant growth.

“These creatures were colossal compared to modern fauna,” Weaver notes. For instance, while a contemporary elephant weighs around 5,000 kilograms, a Triceratops could weigh at least double that.

As they moved through and destroyed vegetation, the rivers would have flooded periodically instead of winding through forests. This change ultimately led to the expansion of marshy mudstone, according to Weaver. Once the dinosaurs vanished, tree roots stabilized the sediments, allowing water to flow through a meandering riverbed, thus creating point bars.

“This illustrates a landscape where biology plays a crucial role,” Weaver observes. Animals, he argues, significantly modify their environments, much like humans have drastically altered Earth’s landscapes.

Christopher Doughty from Northern Arizona University believes this perspective better explains the observed geological transformations than earlier theories. “In contemporary studies where large animals are removed from ecosystems, tree cover significantly increases,” he mentions. “With the extinction of dinosaurs, there were no longer large animals capable of uprooting trees. This led to a decrease in herbivory and reduced the disturbance of seedlings giving rise to robust tree growth.”

However, Cat Schroder from the University of New Mexico remains skeptical. “While there seems to be a correlation between large dinosaurs and open nutritional landscapes, causality hasn’t been established yet,” she says. “Forests thrived before, during, and after the age of dinosaurs.”

Doughty is using isotopic analysis of fossil leaves to investigate how forest structures have shifted since the dinosaurs went extinct.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Reevaluating Reality: How Google’s AI Transformation is Reshaping the Online News Landscape

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WThe chief executive of the Financial Times suggested this summer at a media conference that competing publishers might explore a “NATO” alliance to bolster negotiations with artificial intelligence firms.

Nevertheless, John Slade’s announcement regarding a “pretty sudden, sustained” drop in traffic from readers via search engines quickly highlighted the grave threat posed by the AI revolution.

Queries submitted on platforms like Google, which dominate over 90% of the search market, have been central to online journalism since its inception, with news outlets optimizing their headlines and content to secure high rankings and lucrative clicks.

Currently, Google’s AI summary appears at the top of the results page, presenting answers directly and reducing the need for users to click through to the original content. The introduction of the AI mode tab, which responds to queries in a chatbot format, has sparked fears of a future dominated by “Google Zero,” where referral traffic dwindles.

“This is the most significant change in search I’ve witnessed in decades,” states a senior editorial tech executive. “Google has historically been a reliable partner for publishers. Now, certain aspects of digital publishing are evolving in ways that could fundamentally alter the landscape.”

Last week, the owner of the Daily Mail revealed that the AI summary was officially in place following Click-Through traffic to a competitive market review of Google’s search services.

DMG Media and other major news organizations, including the Guardian Media Group and the Magazine Trade Body, the PPA, have advocated for the competitive watchdog. Urge Google for more transparency regarding AI summaries and traffic metrics provided to publishers as part of an investigation into tech company search monopolies.

Publishers are already experiencing financial strain from rising costs, declining advertising revenue, reduced print circulation, and changing readership trends. Google insists that they must accept agreements regarding how their content is utilized in AI systems or face the loss of all search results.

Besides the funding threat, concerns about AI’s impact on accuracy persist. Historical iterations advised users to consume harmful items, and although Google has since enhanced its summaries, the issue of “hallucinations” — where AI presents inaccurate or fabricated information as truth — remains, alongside inherent biases when machines, not humans, interpret sources.




Google Discover has supplanted search with content as the primary source of traffic clicks. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

In January, Apple pledged to improve its AI feature that summarized BBC News alerts with the company’s logo on the latest iPhone model. The alert misleadingly stated that a man accused of murdering a US insurance executive had taken his own life and falsely claimed that tennis star Rafael Nadal had come out as gay.

Last month, in a blog post, Liz Reid, Google’s search manager, claimed that AI had not yet been integrated into searches. “Driving more queries and quality clicks”.

“This data contradicts third-party reports that inaccurately suggest a drastic reduction in overall traffic,” she stated. “[These reports] are often based on flawed methodologies, isolated instances, or traffic alterations that occurred prior to the deployment of AI functionalities during searches.”

She also mentioned that overall traffic to all websites remains “relatively stable,” though “spacious” webs mean that user trends are redirecting traffic to different sites.

Recently, Google Discover, which delivers articles and videos tailored to user behavior, has taken precedence over search as the main source of traffic.

However, David Buttle, founder of DJB Strategy, stated that the services linked to publisher search transactions do not supply the quality traffic most publishers require to support their long-term strategies.

“Google Discover holds no product significance for Google,” he explained. “As traffic from general search diminishes, Google can concentrate more traffic on publishers. Publishers are left with no choice but to comply or face losing organic search, which often rewards ClickBaity content.”

Simultaneously, publishers are engaged in a broader struggle against AI companies looking to exploit content to train extensive language models.

The creative sector is rigorously lobbying the government to prevent AI firms from using copyrighted materials without authorization, urging for legislation.

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The February Make It Fair campaign highlighted threats to the creative sector posed by Generative AI. Photo: Geoffrey Swaine/Rex

Some publishers have reacted against bilateral licensing agreements with AI companies, including the Financial Times, German media group Axel Springer, the Guardian, and Nordic publisher Schibsted. Others, like the BBC, have initiated actions against AI companies for alleged copyright infringement.

“It’s a double-edged attack on publishers, almost a ‘Pinker move’,” remarks Chris Duncan, a senior executive at News UK and Bauer Media, also leading the consultancy Seadelta. “Content is vanishing into AI products without appropriate compensation, while AI summaries are embedded within products, negating the need for clicks and effectively draining revenue from both ends. It’s an existential crisis.”

Publishers are pursuing various courses of action, from negotiations and litigation to regulatory lobbying, while also integrating AI tools into their newsrooms, as seen with the Washington Post and Financial Times launching their AI-powered chatbots and solutions for climate inquiries.

Christoph Zimmer, chief product officer at Germany’s Der Spiegel, notes that while current traffic remains steady, he anticipates a decline in referrals from all platforms.

“This is part of a longstanding trend,” he states. “However, it has affected brands that haven’t prioritized direct audience relationships or subscription growth in recent years, instead depending on broad content reach.”

“What has always been true remains valid. Prioritizing quality and diverse content is essential; it’s about connecting with people, not merely chasing algorithms.”

Publication industry leaders emphasize that efforts to negotiate deals for AI models to aggregate and summarize news are rapidly being replaced by advancements in models interpreting live news updates.

“The initial focus was on licensing arrangements for AI training to ‘speak English,’ but that will become less relevant over time,” asserts an executive. “We’re transitioning towards providing news directly. To achieve this, we require precise, live sources — a potentially lucrative market publishers are keen to explore next.”

PPA CEO Saj Merali emphasizes the need for a fair equilibrium between technology-induced changes in consumer digital behavior and the just compensation for trustworthy news.

“What remains at the core is something consumers require,” she explains. “AI needs credible content. There’s a shift in how consumers prefer to access information, but they must have confidence in what they read.”

“The industry has historically shown resilience through significant digital and technological transitions, yet it is crucial to ensure pathways that sustain business models. At this point, the AI and tech sectors have shown no commitment to support publishers’ revenue.”

Source: www.theguardian.com

Discover Bernband’s Alien Landscape: A Perfect Spot for Digital Exploration—No Maps Needed!

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hA game serves as a poetic narrative within its description. Bernband is described as “a science fiction exploration game for those who enjoy wandering….” Players can meander through vivid and peculiar worlds, bask in the glow of streetlights, and navigate beneath the zigzagging flags overhead. They traverse corridors hosting odd green flora growing in planters, and even engage with otherworldly subway trains that sway above them—tentacle grips, perhaps? “I have no objectives apart from walking,” the game’s Steam page asserts. “Where will your feet lead you?”

There’s an alluring quality about a game that encourages exploration. However, this doesn’t imply that creating such a game is straightforward. “Wandering as the primary objective poses numerous challenges,” remarks Tom Van Den Boogart, who began this venture back in 2014 to reassess the project.




“Exploration is our primary goal”… Bern Band. Photo: Sokpop Collective

Consequently, every journey through Bernband commences similarly. In a modest apartment with windows offering glimpses of the strange universe contained within the game. “The idea is to convey that you are a resident of this city,” explains Van den Boogert. “And as time passes, familiarity with the environment will develop. Your adventure starts once you step through the door.” The apartment also serves as a sanctuary for players to return to after their explorations. “It introduces a subtle goal: ‘Can I find my way back to the apartment?’ Even if it’s just at a subconscious level.”

Van Den Boogat discovered quickly that the Wandering Game should offer players destinations to explore freely. Consequently, the majority of the Bernband universe is arranged in a nonlinear manner. “In most instances, there are various routes to a destination,” he states. “Some paths are more obscure or less obvious than others. If exploration is the core objective of the game, I aim to allow players to choose what they wish to investigate.”




An alien city influenced by real-world locations… Bern Band. Photo: Sokpop Collective

Despite this unobtrusive design, Van Den Boogat acknowledges that avoiding predictability is an ongoing struggle. Yet, he persists. “I believe having access to this sort of information can rob players of the enchanting feeling that comes from stumbling upon hidden realms,” he chuckles. “You are aware that they exist on some level.”

The alien city in Bernband isn’t structured as a traditional open world; instead, it comprises distinct areas interlinked by elevators and various transport options. This format was chosen to ensure that players can immerse themselves in specific sections of a broader landscape. Additionally, Van Den Boogat creates from a compilation of locations he finds engaging or enjoyable. To maintain his creativity, he ensures this list remains somewhat vague: a large supermarket, a shaded bar, and a swimming pool with water slides.

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And while the world is alien, Bernband draws inspiration from real-life locations familiar to Van Den Boogat, whether it’s his hometown of Gouda in the Netherlands or influential spots in the gaming industry found in Tokyo, San Francisco, Stockholm, and beyond.

“When I develop games, I prefer to draw inspiration from personal memories and experiences, rather than other media like games or films,” he shares. “This approach fosters a deeper, more personal connection to my work, and I hope it imparts a unique essence to the game and its world.”

Bernband is currently under development for PC, with no release date confirmed as of yet.

Source: www.theguardian.com

What’s Going on with Elon Musk? Tech Leaders Navigate the Trump Landscape

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The Oval Office was bustling, and reporters cautioned him to avoid bumping into the significant desk. Beside him, dressed in black, stood Donald Trump’s billionaire associate, leading his administration’s efficiency initiative.

“Elon is from South Africa. I don’t want to draw Elon into this,” the US president said to South African leader Cyril Ramaphosa during a conversation regarding crimes against white farmers. “He actually came here on a different topic: launching rockets to Mars. He’s even more passionate about that.”

Musk’s quiet demeanor throughout the hour-long discussion hinted at the evolving dynamics in Trump’s sphere. He planned to stay close to the president and remain welcome in the West Wing. He also made two visits to the Pentagon this week. However, the relationship, once predicted to result in a clash of egos, appears to be gradually fading instead.

On Monday, Politico published an analysis titled “Why Has Elon Musk Disappeared from the Spotlight?” revealing a notable decline in the frequency of Trump’s posts about Musk on his social media platform, with an average of four mentions weekly in February, dropping to none from early April to March.



In February, Trump’s fundraising team reported he mentioned Musk almost daily in emails for fundraising. However, those references abruptly ceased in early March, save for one email in May promoting the “American Bay” hat Musk wore.

Furthermore, White House staffers no longer filled their social media feeds with Musk-related content. Reporters seldom inquire about him during White House press briefings. Council members are steering clear of his name.

Musk appears to have noted the shift. Recently, Tesla’s CEO confirmed he has scaled back his involvement in the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) to merely two days a week. Reducing his political expenditures serves as his latest indication that he is redirecting his focus to his business empire, amidst rising concerns from investors.

This represents a stark contrast to the opening week of Trump’s second term, during which Musk attended the inauguration, was a constant figure at Mar-a-Lago, regularly appeared in the Oval Office with Trump, and exchanged mutual accolades during a Fox News interview. DOGE dominated headlines as he aimed to streamline the federal bureaucracy.

Trump seemed captivated by the wealthiest individuals intent on launching rockets into space, contributing at least $250 million to last year’s election campaign. In March, the president converted the South Lawn of the White House into a temporary Tesla showroom, showcasing five electric vehicles and promising to buy one for himself.




Elon Musk and his son x† depart the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on Wednesday. Photo: Oliver/EPA

However, the polls painted a different story. Last month, a national survey by Marquette University Law School revealed only a 41% approval rating for Musk’s management of DOGE, while 58% disapproved. Around 60% of respondents held unfavorable views of Musk, compared to just 38% who viewed him positively.

Congressman Khanna, a Democrat familiar with Musk for over a decade, remarked, “As his approval ratings decline, so do Trump’s fortunes. When Trump’s ratings drop, he tends to distance himself from people in a similar situation. It’s indicative of his fleeting charm and the feeling of abandonment.”

Khanna, representing a district in Silicon Valley, predicted Musk would not last beyond four or five months in this role.

At that time, Khanna wished for DOGE to focus on reducing the Pentagon’s budget. Instead, they downplayed the importance of reforming entities such as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Department of Education, the Internal Revenue Service, and other targets.

“I noted he wouldn’t enact a $2 trillion cut anywhere. He didn’t even reach a trillion. It’s closer to around $81 billion. He learned the lessons many very successful business leaders do,” Khanna stated.

Certainly, Musk continues to face significant challenges. On Wednesday, the American Institute of Peace was revising its governance after a federal judge ruled it illegal to dismiss the board and employees by DOGE. On Thursday, a federal judge in San Francisco stated Trump could not restructure and downsize the U.S. government without Congressional approval, likely extending a decision that would inhibit federal agencies from executing large-scale layoffs.

Nevertheless, DOGE has already initiated deep cuts in the workforce and expenditures, attempting to shutter entire agencies, resulting in severe disruptions to government operations.

For instance, internal agency reviews reveal that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is “not prepared” for the onset of hurricane season next month, as CNN reports. The disaster relief agency, employing over 20,000 personnel, faced approximately a 30% staff reduction due to layoffs and DOGE acquisitions.

Khanna warned: “[The National Institutes of Health] have been harmed, the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] has been compromised, and the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] stands diminished, significantly impacting the State Department, all of which will require a generation to rebuild.”

“I hope the damage halts. We need to observe what unfolds, but ideally, these institutions will regain their strength.”

Even conservatives advocating for a smaller government have expressed concerns. Rick Tyler, a political strategist with experience in Republican campaigns, stated, “What they’re attempting to do is shrink the government. This isn’t reform; it’s merely dismantling and destruction.”

Tesla, a significant source of Musk’s wealth, has incurred considerable brand damage and lost sales, particularly due to political engagements with Trump. He has also shown support for the far-right anti-immigrant AFD party in Germany. Tesla dealerships have become sites of protests and vandalism in the U.S. and beyond.

Perhaps Musk encountered his political downfall in Wisconsin. His investment of over $3 million made the Supreme Court race there the most expensive in U.S. history. He appeared in Green Bay wearing a cheesehead hat, popular among NFL Green Bay Packers fans, personally handing out a million-dollar check to supporters.




Musk will address City Hall in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on March 30th. He spent $3 million on a candidate who lost by 10 points in the judicial election. Photo: Jeffrey Phelps/AP

However, the candidate he backed lost ground, dropping 10 percentage points. Democrats successfully mobilized voters to counter his influence in the elections dubbed “People vs Musk.”

This week, Musk stated at Bloomberg’s Qatar Economic Forum in Doha that the biggest funder in Republican politics might just “take his toys and go home,” as reported by the Associated Press.

Clearly, Musk and his disruptive approach are politically impactful for Republicans seeking re-election next year. Democrats across the nation are expected to leverage Musk as a political boogeyman in attack ads against their opponents.

Tyler remarked: “I believe he has instigated enough conflicts, and his relationships have diminished Trump’s standing, which poses a threat to his party and agenda.”

Wendy Schiller, a political science professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, noted: “There is a trial balloon regarding how they would reduce federal employment. If it worked and people approved, they could have continuously used him as a scapegoat and as a tool for reform.”

“Donald Trump believes he is the sole generator of his appeal, so it’s hard to believe he sees Musk as pivotal to his popularity and stature, and I doubt he is mistaken about that.”

Source: www.theguardian.com

Exploring the Time Expansion in the Universe’s Landscape

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Imagine looking over a beautiful view. The sun peers closely at the snowy peaks of the mountains in the distance, passing through gentle hills with rivers. There is something wonderful about looking at the outlines of a majestic landscape.

It may not be obvious when you see the night sky, but the universe has its own landscape – the galaxy filaments are separated by empty spaces. We've known this for a long time. But now, a group of cosmologists are taking things further, suggesting that the universe has not only landscapes but also timescapes. The idea is that time flows differently depending on where it is.

To say this is against grain is an understatement. We have always thought that at a large scale, time runs at the same speed across the universe. However, in this photo, known as Timescape Cosmology, there is a large patch of the universe that is ticking over billions of years, for billions of years more than we normally imagine.

It may sound strange, but it is the simple elegance of this idea that seduces physicists. Funny physics has nothing to do with it. It arises naturally from established theories. “It's part of the structure of the general theory of relativity,” the inventor says David Wiltshire At the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. “It's not just a part…

Source: www.newscientist.com

Navigating the highly politicized landscape of microchips | Technology

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In a small town in the Netherlands, there is only one factory that produces the only chip manufacturing machine that produces the type of light found naturally on the planet.

Known as EUV, this light is the only way to create cutting-edge semiconductor chips, one of the most valuable and important technologies in the world at scale. The factory is prohibited from selling EUV machines to China.

Below we will explain how the chips are made, why they became the focus of the US-China trade war, how Taiwan was drawn into the vortex, and what comes next. The answer is that we need three planes to travel from deep underground from space, from the dirtiest places in the world to the cleanest places, from the hottest temperatures, from artificial structures smaller than viruses, to the very big, and ultimately two opposite states at the same time.

How are they made?

The chip is made up of a thin, flat layer of silicon (called a wafer) that holds the electrical circuit. These circuits consist of billions of switches called transistors. Very complex and powerful chips containing these networks of transistors are commonly referred to as semiconductors.

If you want to build a semiconductor, you’ll need $380 million. This is the cost of modern EUV machines from Advanced Semiconductor Material Lithography (ASML). Delivery is a nightmare. The machine is so large and delicate that it requires 40 cargo containers, three cargo aircraft and 20 trucks to transport from the Dutch factory in Beldoven. All of this creates light at a shorter wavelength than an X-ray, focusing, and has enough energy to penetrate into solid objects.

Chipmakers strive to meet Moore’s law: its capabilities – or the predictions called the number of transistors on the chip. If the chips keep the same size and ideally smaller, this means that the transistors must be finer.

The ASML machine carries the pattern into a silicon wafer that holds the transistors. The finer the pattern, the more you can stuff it into the chip. Company spokesman Marc Assinck compares the thickness of the pen stroke to the light wavelength. The thinner the pen should be, the more detailed the page is needed. EUV lights have very narrow wavelengths, invisible to the human eye, and pass through most materials.

The light is produced by firing a laser with a tin microscope ball. The tin evaporates into the plasma, and the plasma emits light, travels through the lithography machine and hits a specially made mirror. The light shines through the “mask,” a pattern of one layer of chips. Areas exposed to light cure, and areas that are not exposed will dissolve in the chemical solution, leaving a 3D pattern.

Think of a chip like a 100-story building. Each building takes four months to produce, and each floor has its own layout. This layout features only 25 nanometers. It is about 100 nanometers smaller than influenza virus particles. EUV and other lithography machines carve patterns of these layers one by one.

Building a machine is not easy. Like the chips themselves, they are assembled into dust-free rooms, the cleanest space on the planet. The chips work at the atom level: a single spot of dust can make them useless.

1 is a diagram showing the semiconductor chip structure. FIG. Illustration: ASML

Why is Taiwan so important?

ASML creates a machine that makes the chips, but does not create the chips themselves. This is primarily done by another notable company with another notable name, TSMC, or Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturing company. Taiwan manufactures and supplies many of the US semiconductor chips, which adds to protecting Taiwan amid concerns that China will invade.

In 2022, the US persuaded the Dutch government to take control of ASML machines exports and limit sales to China. To date, according to ASML, no EUV lithography machines have been shipped to China. This means that unless you invent your own EUV lithography machine, or you will use deep ultraviolet lithography rather than extreme ultraviolet lithography, rather than in Western countries, if not more powerful than technology a few years old. These machines can produce extremely complex chips on a large scale, but they are not that complicated.

Another technology that the US and China are fiercely competing to advance, artificial intelligence relies on the world's most complex and powerful semiconductor chips. The main designers of these chips are an American company called Nvidia. The chip is generated by TSMC on a machine created by ASML.

China's lack of access to EUV lithography explains why the debut of Chinese chatbot Deepseek shocked the market. Chinese companies have produced products as powerful as Chat GPT, which has advanced, cheaper technology. Deepseek claims that training costs just $6 million compared to Billions of dollars It was spent by US companies to do the same.

“The US believes that AI is a transformative technology and affects almost every sector of the economy,” says Chris Miller, author of Chip War: The Fight for The World the Critical Technology. “So we don't want China to gain an advantage.”

It is also important for defense and intelligence. The People's Liberation Army has made “great advances” in recent years in efforts to use AI in combat. According to Center for security and emerging technologies.

However, not everyone believes that access to Chinese ASML machines, including ASML, should be restricted.

At a Bloomberg meeting in October, CEO Christophe Foucet said, “We were asked how much the security threat restrictions are.”

The debate may not need to last long. In 2024, China's Shanghai Microelectronics Company (SMIC) revealed that it had filed a patent for its EUV lithography machine a year ago.

Where do you find rare earths?

China boasts other advantages over the West in the race to produce chips. In addition to silicon, semiconductors require so-called “rare earths,” especially germanium and gallium. Gallium demand is forecast by 2030 More than 350% increase from 2015 level. Demand for germanium is expected to double over the same period. China produces 98% of the world's raw gallium and more than two-thirds of the world's raw germanium.

This is one of the reasons why Donald Trump is putting pressure on Ukraine to hand over its rare earth in exchange for aid and has announced that he has agreed to launch a “recovery and processing initiative” for the rare earth after his first meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Silicon wafers for semiconductor manufacturing. Photo: Panther Media GmbH/Alamy

Does Quantum Chips change everything?

Next is the quantum chip. In theory, quantum chips allow computers to solve problems much faster than the world's current supercomputers. This is because instead of an on or off equivalent, or zero or zero or one, the Quantum chip can be in both states. The general explanation is a maze. A regular computer will find a path through the maze by testing each option one after the other. Quantum computers can test them all at once.

So far, quantum computing has been achieved only in limited circumstances. However, Microsoft announced this month that it had built a chip that means quantum computers could be built within years, not decades.

Meanwhile, China's public spending on quantum technology is four times more than the US. According to The Institute of China Research, a European think tank. Furthermore, the chips are not made from EUV machines. Instead, quantum chips are made by machines that use electrons to engrave patterns onto chips. China has these machines.

China also has resources that are often overlooked in chip discussions, said David Reilly, professor of physics and head of the Quantum program at the University of Sydney.

“The key to all this is people,” he says. As people see their needs and know what the existing way to meet those needs is, breakthroughs can happen and imagine what they are.

“There are a lot of smart people in China. They train a lot of STEM graduates,” he says. And those alumni tend to pursue undergraduate or graduate degrees from universities in the US, Australia and Europe before returning.

“The government doesn't want to say it's blind to it, but it has a lot of focus on relocating concrete,” he says. “Invention doesn't happen in a vacuum.”

Source: www.theguardian.com

By 2050, a school’s landscape will be drastically different

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Advancements in technology are rapidly changing the educational landscape. Gone are the days of bulky projectors and computers, replaced by tablets, smartboards, and interactive apps.

As technology continues to evolve, the high-tech tools used in schools today will become outdated. With innovations like artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and wearable technology progressing, the future of education holds endless possibilities.

While it’s impossible to predict the exact future of education technology, some emerging technologies are poised to revolutionize the classroom.

Brain Computer Interface

Brain computer interfaces are becoming more compact and you can quickly find the path to wearable -credit: ethanehot

Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology may sound complex, but it has incredible applications. From helping individuals with speech impairments to controlling devices with brain waves, BCI is transforming accessibility.

These non-invasive devices convert brain signals into actionable commands, enhancing productivity and facilitating communication. In schools, BCI technology can help teachers monitor student engagement and emotional well-being.

Virtual Exchange Student

The virtual exchange system reduces costs and increases the number of students who can experience other cultures -Credit: Svetikd

Virtual exchange programs offer students the opportunity to connect with peers from different cultures, enhancing language skills and cultural understanding. These programs have become popular alternatives to traditional student exchange programs.

By leveraging technology, virtual exchange initiatives can provide immersive learning experiences and foster global perspectives in students.

Wearable Technology

Credit: 10’000 hours

Wearable devices like smartwatches and VR headsets are becoming essential tools in education. These devices can track student progress, enhance physical education activities, and provide immersive learning experiences.

Interactive Holograph

Interactive holograms allow you to have an interactive learning experience at school -Credit: Matbird

Interactive holograms are no longer science fiction, thanks to advancements in holographic technology and interactive devices. These holograms offer immersive learning experiences, allowing students to interact with 3D images in real-time.

This article is affiliated with content Pearson。

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Source: www.sciencefocus.com

FarmVille Celebrates 15 Years: The Impact of the Beloved Facebook Game on the Digital Landscape

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debtFacebook users of a certain age may remember a particularly lonely-looking farm animal that appeared in their feeds during the platform’s heyday. A lonely cow wandered into FarmVille players’ pastures with a frown on its face and tears in its eyes. “She’s very sad and needs a new home,” the caption read, urging players to adopt the cow or message a friend for help. Ignore the cow’s pleas and you’ll likely lose both your friend and your food. Message your friends about it and you’ll have fueled one of the biggest online crazes of the 2010s.

When FarmVille was released 15 years ago, it was a smash hit. Over 18,000 players played on the first day, and by the fourth day that number had risen to 1 million. At its peak in 2010, over 80 million users were logging in each month to plant crops, care for animals, and harvest to earn coins to spend on decorations. They made their obsession public.McDonald’s created farms for promotions long before artists were releasing music on Fortnite. Lady Gaga performs new song From her second album to a cartoon farm sim. Not bad for a game made in five weeks.

By 2009, developer Zynga had established itself as a pioneer in social media gaming, when four friends from the University of Illinois presented plans for a farming sim. It was a hastily reworked version of a failed browser game they’d made that copied The Sims, but Zynga was impressed enough to buy the technology, hire the four people, and pair them with some in-house developers. Zynga quickly released FarmVille.




The world of FarmVille… Photo: PhotoEdit/Alamy

“Facebook was exploding in popularity and engagement in a way that was novel at the time,” says John Tien, a former director of product at Zynga. Farm Town, a farming simulation game with a similar cartoony look and design made earlier by another studio, was already attracting 1 million daily active users on Facebook’s platform. Facebook had previously courted game studios and told Zynga it would soon give third-party developers access to user data, friends lists, and news feeds.

“By opening up its platform to app developers like Zynga, Facebook has been able to create an almost symbiotic relationship,” Tien says. “Facebook has given Zynga access to a large, engaged user base, and Zynga has given Facebook users more to do on the platform.”

Features like the lonely cow, which gently nudged players by requesting their friends to help grow their farm, became central to the experience, and Facebook was flooded with posts and notifications promoting FarmVille to the masses. These viral mechanics gave the game a “meme-like buzz,” says former Zynga vice president and general manager Roy Segal. “It’s this water cooler effect: you see your friends playing and you want to join in.”

And once you were in, it was hard to get out. For each crop you planted, you had to return at a set time, a few hours later, to harvest it. If you left it for too long, it would wither and die. “The idea is that the player makes their own schedule,” says Amitt Mahajan, co-creator and lead developer of FarmVille. “That’s what keeps people coming back every day.”

The result, Tien says, is a game that players feel they have to accomplish. “We all have growing lists of things we need to do and we’re struggling to get them done in the time we want,” Tien says. “Checking things off a list is viscerally satisfying, and playing FarmVille was a way for players to experience that satisfaction.”

New features and content were added several times a week to keep players interested, but the real magic happened behind the scenes with Zynga’s in-house data analytics tool, ZTrack. The tool could monitor the most detailed player behaviors, from what features players used to how long they spent on them to where they clicked on the screen, with the goal of building an ever-evolving, data-driven picture of player interests.

“At any given time, we had hundreds, maybe thousands, of dashboards and experiments running,” says Tien. “We could see core metrics every five minutes. We could see immediately after a new feature was released whether it was having an effective impact.”

Metrics-based design is standard today across social media platforms, apps, online retailers and digital services. Reliance on big data to predict consumer behavior is the foundation of everything from Google’s advertising empire to Cambridge Analytica’s political consulting. But back in 2009, no one was doing it quite like FarmVille.

“Zynga’s approach to game analytics inspired the entire digital analytics industry,” says Jeffrey Wang, co-founder and chief architect of analytics platform Amplitude. “One of Amplitude’s earliest customers was a former Zynga product manager who had started his own company and was looking for a tool comparable to ZTrack. There was nothing even close at the time.”

ZTrack became the backbone of FarmVille – features were repeatedly tested, analyzed and optimized, and the results determined what to deploy, monetization options and how to integrate to maximize player retention.

“Zynga’s dirty secret is that none of our five company values ​​are more important than our metrics,” the Zynga co-founder said. Andrew Trader Ken Rudin, former vice president of growth, analytics and platform technology at Zynga, went a step further: Quoted In 2010:[Zynga is] An analytics company disguised as a gaming company.”


Like most Facebook apps at the time, users could not play FarmVille without giving Zynga permission to collect their personal Facebook data. But the details of what data would be shared were written in small print on click-through screens that most users habitually ignored. “We as citizens, and government policymakers, didn’t really know the extent of it. [online data harvesting]”We’ve seen the harm that can come from unrestricted data extraction,” says Florence Chi, an associate professor of communication at Loyola University Chicago. But since then, she says, “we’ve seen the harm that can come from unrestricted data extraction.” Discovered in 2010 They share players’ personal data with advertisers and online data brokers.

FarmVille’s success, driven by data-driven design, was short-lived. Over the next few years, players abandoned the game, Zynga turned to unpopular sequels, and Facebook eventually revoked access to developers the game relied on for its early virality. In 2020, Adobe dropped support for Flash, the software that powers FarmVille. The game suddenly went offline.

But Zynga’s success continued. Words with friendsmobile racing game CSR Racing, Draw Something and a suite of slot machine games all use player data to maximise engagement. Zynga still makes data-driven, aggressively monetised games for mobile phones under Take-Two Interactive, which acquired the company in 2022 for $12.7bn (£9.4bn).

For Chee, FarmVille was a Silicon Valley entrepreneur’s dream, and very much a product of its time. “If you look at today, there’s not really a Facebook social phenomenon like there was in 2009,” she says. “It was a very special time for a game like FarmVille to come out, and the recommendation systems and algorithms were just in the right place.”

Source: www.theguardian.com

Shrinking glaciers reveal desolate mountain landscape in Canada

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This frigid landscape in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, is a sight to behold, but it may not stay like this for long, so enjoy it while you can.

When snow falls in these places, it hardens into thick ice that flows over the land, forming glaciers, and when it melts, it creates huge reservoirs of water that sustain life. These are ancient and important resources.

Ice age processes have occurred throughout most of Earth's history. However, many of these icy relics are at risk. Photographer and artist Edward Burtynsky says he feels lost.. That's the message behind this photo. New work exhibition at Flower Gallery, London, February 28th to April 6th.

Photographing from a helicopter, Burtynsky was shocked to see that the glacier had retreated dramatically since his last visit 20 years ago. The history of glaciers in this range dates back 150,000 years, he said, but they are rapidly shrinking due to global warming caused by human activity.

“When it's gone, it's gone, and the whole ecosystem and the whole living system is changed forever,” Burtynsky says. His images, he says, are designed to remind us of what has been lost. New work It also focuses on soil erosion in Turkey and the impact of coal mining on Australia.

Burtynsky is currently exhibiting in another exhibition in London. extraction/abstraction. It also explores the impact humans have on the planet and is on display at Saatchi's gallery until May 6th.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Exploring the Cosmic Landscape: Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines

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This Copernicus Sentinel 2 image shows the Nueva Vizcaya province in the Philippines, highlighting its agricultural landscape and urban areas through a false color composite. The image depicts different seasons in different colors, revealing intricate details about crop growth stages, flooded rice fields, and urbanization. Credit: Contains corrected Copernicus Sentinel data (2022-23) processed by ESA. CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

This pseudocolor satellite image from Copernicus Sentinel 2 brightens the center of Nueva Vizcaya province on Luzon, the Philippines’ largest and most populous island.

The image’s color is due to it being a multitemporal composite consisting of three Copernicus Sentinel 2 images acquired in the mission’s near-infrared channel over a 10-month period. Each acquisition is assigned a different color. Red is the acquisition in May 2022 during the hot dry season, green is the acquisition in September 2022 during the rainy season, and blue is the acquisition in March 2023 during the cool dry season.

This combination highlights different characteristics such as crop type and changes that occur between acquisitions indicating different growth stages.

A patchwork of brightly colored farmland stands out from the center of the image to the bottom left. Areas of red and green shades mean that plant growth took place in May and September, respectively. The fields visible in shades of blue, which make up most of the image, indicate that plant growth occurred mainly in March, during the cool dry season.

Perhaps due to intensive rice production, there are irrigation canals between the fields, and most fields remain flooded all year round. A bright white area, such as the one in the middle of a field, indicates a zone covered with dense vegetation.

Straight lines and gray areas represent roads and urban areas. These include Nueva Vizcaya’s largest town, Solano, visible in the lower left surrounded by blue fields, and Bayombong, the provincial capital further south.

The dark curving lines represent rivers, the largest of which is the Magat River, flowing northeast through the image. If you look closely, you can see different colors along the river’s flow. This is probably due to changes in water levels and river channels at different times of the year.

Copernicus Sentinel 2 has 13 spectral channels and is designed to provide data that can be used to map and monitor agricultural land, as the mission frequently revisits the same areas and has high spatial resolution. , changes in inland waters can be closely monitored.

In January 2023, ESA and the European Commission signed an agreement to build the first Copernicus mirror site in Southeast Asia in the Philippines. This new initiative will strengthen the Philippines’ response capacity and resilience to natural and man-made disasters through the strategic use of space data.


Source: scitechdaily.com