Tag Archives: Shadows

Tesla’s Massive Factory in Germany: Shadows Cast on Local Lives

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when Elon Musk encouraged Germans to support the far-right Alternative for Germany (AFD) in last year’s election, Manu Heuer, a resident of the small town where the billionaire established Tesla’s European production center, expressed her concerns.

“How can you engage in business with individuals who endorse right-wing extremism?” she questioned Dietimar Wudike, the Social Democrat leader in Brandenburg, who backed the creation of the Tesla Giga Factory in Grunheide.

Heuer described Woidke’s “unfortunate, yet predictable” response, where he dismissed the claim. “He claimed he didn’t know Musk personally, as if that were a valid excuse,” she noted.




Manu Heuer has sought to question local politicians regarding Elon Musk’s backing of the far-right Alternative for Germany party. Photo: Imago/Alamy

She co-founded Citizens’ Initiatives to develop a vibrant community on a sandy plain southwest of Berlin to oppose plans announced in 2019. At the time, there was significant concern regarding the potential environmental effects of factories on the local pine forests and groundwater.

Recently, it is Musk’s politics that have raised alarms. Not only did he notably endorse far-right European parties, but he also appeared to make a Nazi salute at a rally following Donald Trump’s inauguration.




Elon Musk will inspect the vehicle when production commences at the Tesla facility in Grunheide. Photo: Patrick Pleul/AFP/Getty Images

Meanwhile, Tesla’s sales have declined, particularly in Europe, where new vehicle sales have dropped for the fifth consecutive month, despite overall growth in the electric vehicle market.

Heiko Basin, another member of the civic initiative, expressed a sense of schadenfreude. “We had placed our hopes in this,” the carpenter shared during a recent walk in the shadows of the expansive Grunheide factory.

As sales continue to drop, factories face challenges. Production shifts for the Y model have decreased from 3-2 units per day. IG Metal, which has recruited hundreds of workers despite Tesla’s resistance, urged the company to consider placing employees in “Kurzarbeit.”

Regional media has reported that Tesla is relocating to carriers at a former East German airport, approximately 60 km (37 miles) away.

Musk’s apparent Nazi salute elicited shock and horror in Germany, but it went largely unnoticed in Grunheide until the campaign group projected an image on the facade of the Tesla factory with the Nazi-related word “heil” provocatively placed in front of the Tesla logo.

The outcry from the incident was palpable on the factory floor, as workers told tabloid Berlin Klier. “In Tesla Germany, they tried to maintain distance from (Musk) and remained silent,” one worker noted. Now, they could no longer ignore their ties.

Workers are hard to reach and are often compelled to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). Yet, on Khunnu, a work portal allowing employees to express their thoughts anonymously, a Tesla worker shared:

Almut, a local resident, remarked that politicians tout the benefits Tesla has brought to the area, yet “fail to acknowledge the troubling reality that it subsidizes the wealthiest individual in the world who bears no social responsibility for what occurs here.”

She said locals often joke about what might replace the factory if Tesla were to fail. “Ammunition factories? Prisons? In a way, those seem like decent alternatives,” she quipped. The only positive contribution she could recall from Tesla was the robotic lawnmower it donated to a local soccer club.




While local politicians in Grunheide were keen to highlight the advantages of the factory, some residents voiced concerns about the environmental effects of light pollution and excessive water consumption. Photo: Michele Tantussi/Getty Images

Just two weeks prior to the salute, Musk publicly supported the AFD during an hour-long discussion with co-leader Alice Weidel, touching on topics like Hitler, solar energy, and German bureaucracy. Musk mentioned that Tesla had to submit a staggering 25,000-page form to establish the Grunheide factory. Notably, the AFD has vehemently opposed the Tesla facility, citing concerns over US-led turbo-capitalism and the erosion of workers’ rights. “People need to get behind the AFD,” Musk stated.

For Grunheide residents who oppose Musk, their concerns are compounded by the factory’s impact on rural areas characterized by forests, lakes, and rivers.

New bike lanes and roads necessitate the clearing of large swaths of pine forests, threatening the area’s already precarious drinking water resources and officially declared drought zones.




Tesla Giga Factory with forests in the backdrop. Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

The expansive factory complex, covering 300 hectares (740 acres), is set for expansion by another 100 hectares under a plan submitted by the Mayor of Grunheide, despite a local referendum where 62% of voters voiced opposition.

Supporters highlight the 11,000 jobs created by the factories and the positive impact on the local economy in a region previously governed by the Communist Party. Many young residents look forward to more frequent train services to Berlin, improved supermarket stocks, and the elevation of their hometowns alongside Tesla’s other locations in Shanghai, Nevada, and Austin as examples of “green capitalism.” It is said that an invitation to the “Rave Cave” Technodance Space Mask was sought within the factory complex.

For job openings, the Tesla recruitment page emphasizes that diversity is central to its business model, listing numerous positions available from shift managers to maintenance technicians.

Nevertheless, even among those who have previously expressed enthusiasm for Tesla, sentiments have turned cold. Formerly, a group of local teenagers routinely flew drones over the construction site and proudly shared their videos on YouTube. “Even though I’m no longer anonymous about Tesla/Elon, I’m happy to discuss publicly about them,” one teen texted to the Guardian.

There has been no response from the company regarding interview requests or access to the factory.

Arne Christani, the Mayor of Grunheide and a steadfast Musk supporter, expressed confidence that Tesla will thrive in Grunheide. He mentioned he was unfazed by Musk’s statements or actions. “We must differentiate between what happens in the United States and here in Grunheide,” he stated.

Heuer, living 9 km from the factory, remains hopeful of seeing a starry sky from her garden once again. “Since the factory was built, it’s been challenging due to light pollution from the round-the-clock operation,” she remarked, sharing before and after photos on her phone.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Review: Assassin’s Creed Shadows – A Stunning Return to Feudal Japan

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I I’ve played various Assassin’s Creed games over time, but I never truly adored them. Ubisoft’s historical fiction is almost exceptional. Many players argue that the series reached its peak in the late 2000s, particularly with the Italian Renaissance trilogy starting with Assassin’s Creed 2, featuring the charismatic hero Ezio Auditore. Since then, the franchise has become bloated, offering endless hours of repetitive open-world exploration and assassination across ancient Greece, Egypt, and even Viking Britain. The last game I delved into seriously was Odyssey, set in Ancient Greece. The settings were stunning, the gameplay somewhat engaging, and the sheer scale was utterly overwhelming.

Assassin’s Creed games serve as an incredible dive into historical fiction, effectively recreating lost periods of history for players to roam through, almost like a form of time travel. Personally, I enjoy them for the virtual tourism they offer, yet I’ve often found that a significant portion of the gameplay, roughly 80%, consists of loosely tying together moments of exploration with stealthy assassination missions.

Recently, the latest installment in the series, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, was released after multiple delays. Surprisingly, I found it to be more engaging and entertaining than many of its predecessors in years. This time, the game is set in 16th century Japan amidst the samurai and ninja conflict involving Warlord Oda Nobunaga, presenting a visually captivating and historically intriguing narrative. The two main characters in Shadows find themselves at the heart of this transformative period in Japan’s history, with each offering unique playstyles and stories that add depth to the overall experience.

The setting in Shadows is truly remarkable. Playing on the PS5 Pro, I can confidently say that this is the most visually stunning game I’ve ever encountered. The attention to detail in depicting the Japanese landscape, architecture, and natural beauty of the mountains is exceptional. The changing seasons add a dynamic element to the world, constantly offering new perspectives on the surroundings. It’s evident that a tremendous amount of effort went into creating this immersive environment, with every minute detail meticulously crafted.

The shadow of the Assassin’s Creed. Photo: Ubisoft

One notable aspect is the inclusion of multilingual scripts, allowing players to experience the game with English voiceovers or Japanese and Portuguese subtitles, adding to the authenticity of the historical setting. Despite my limited knowledge of Japanese history and language, playing in this mode proved to be surprisingly immersive and engaging, with each conversation feeling like a delicate interplay of words and intentions. The level of nuance in character interactions was impressive, offering players the chance to influence the outcomes through their choices.

The approach in Shadows to historical accuracy is more grounded and serious compared to previous entries in the series. The characters and events draw from actual historical references, steering clear of exaggerated side quests or comedic elements in dialogues. The game strikes a balance between authenticity and entertainment, capturing the essence of the samurai and shinobi in a way that feels believable and engaging.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Assassin’s Creed: Shadows – Exploring Feudal Japan in a Historical Gaming Experience

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jApan, 1581: Iga Province is burning around you. You will be monitored, injured, helpless
Oda Nobunaga – the warlord responsible for many civil wars and the ultimate unification of the country – a smirk from the nearby hill. You draw your katana and glow in the flickering light of flames. This is Assassin’s Creed: Shadows – some exciting ninja games, some history lessons. It’s a strange combination, but it brings together a vast historical fiction adventure filled with discoveries and deceptions.

The turbulent times, when Japan was unified in the late 1500s and seeing the collapse of Nobunaga, are ideal environments that will help you play as despicable ninja and brave samurai. The series’ science fiction framing device means that you, the player, are cornering the mysterious craft by jumping into your ancestor’s memory and defeating a group of terrifying masked samurai one at a time. But most games leave you alone to enjoy feudal Japan.

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During this difficult period there is a constant sense of danger, and each conversation is like a careful step at the edge of the knife. The stories are of course complete fiction, but they weave real historical events and characters, and the Ubisoft developers clearly have become a huge pain to make them feel authentic, authentic, both the scenery and the people who inhabit them. If you automatically remove your shoes when you enter the building, it looks like you’ve seen the famous temple, not as a tourist destination today.

The world is truly luxurious, with several states to explore in all seasons and weather, as well as cities of the era, including Kyoto and Osaka. The giant temples rise above a busy town filled with food stalls and workshops, while mossy shrines are scattered along the winding paths of the countryside. Japan of all colours will see Japan in all colours, from the mild pinks of cherry blossoms in spring to the fiery colours of leaves covering the hills in autumn to the pitch black darkness of winter nights. It’s easy to be distracted by views along the way when surrounded by ancient Red Torigates or when you notice random puppet performances on the streets. I feel that Ubisoft’s Japan is alive. Also, sometimes it feels completely overwhelming.

It’s as fun as riding horses around the country and scouting new villages and historic places, so it’s easy to feel lost because there are so many. There are many missions and side quests that will guide you around the map, but those tasks have many repetitions. To kill a high-level samurai, you need some help. Someone who can help you want the bounty, it includes finding
Another Someone I want you to kill me
different Samurai, etc. After a long time in the game, this starts to grate.




Important Features: You can keep all Japanese cats (and dogs) if you wish. Photo: Ubisoft

The double hero helps to reduce the feeling of you being stuck in a loop repeatedly. For the first 10-15 hours of the game, she steps into sandals on Fujiwarajima Island, a young woman seeking revenge after the house is destroyed, reconstructing her life and helping her set up a network of spies and rebels from a secret mountain base. Then there is Yasuke, a principled black samurai based on a real historical figure of the same name. They appear briefly in the introduction to the game, disappearing until Naoe approaches Nobunaga.

Naoe is bright on her feet, allowing easy expansion of walls and temples, blending into the shadows to sneak around her enemies. Her stealth approach makes for fun, mean moments like stabbing a screen door on a paper for a surprising attack. But that tipped approach costs her when she faces a brawl. The enemy strikes attack her hard, and she is soon overwhelmed in the battle. Yasuke, meanwhile, cruelly strong, runs straight through those screen doors, shrugging on sword strikes, shrugging like the stimulant they tickle. He can still assassinate his enemies like Naoe Can, but he does it from the front, not from the shadows. In a series that traditionally prioritized stealth, it is extremely liberated when you break through the castle gates and everyone faces it head-on. Both characters are viable options for playing most of the game and can be freely exchanged between them (almost) at their own pace.




Few other games have done such a good job in this setting… Assassin Creed: Shadow. Photo: Ubisoft

Unfortunately, no matter who plays, you have to put up with some great things in the fight. Dodge and Parry find themselves surprised in one-on-one scraps, but you often find yourself surrounded as more opponents are warned of your presence. It feels like everything is when you take your time sneaking up around the castle roof and picking enemies, bouncing backwards into the shadows before scopeping your next kill. But the moment you get caught up in a battle on the ground, it starts to feel nasty and frustrating.


I found myself getting frustrated with going back and forth between the quest givers, but I can’t stop thinking about the shadows. Emotionally resonating moments, such as excellent performances and Naoe’s painful recovery after losing everything she cherishes, mean that she feels all her sadness and anger along with the game’s hero. Events are often troubling as the power struggles between the Lord often cost locals a lot and see the unwelcome impact of your actions on allies.

Few games have done such a good job in this environment as they run through lush bamboo forests before creeping up to shrink the walls of ancient castles and steal treasures. These moments of glow are more than making up for that weak point.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Embracing the Challenge: Bringing Shadows of Assassin’s Creed and Feudal Japan to Life in Gaming

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mFour years after its announcement, and after two last minute delays, the latest title from Ubisoft’s historic fiction series Assassin’s Creed will finally be released on Thursday. Set in Japan in 1579, the period of intense civil war ruled by feudal Oda Bunaga follows two characters overcoming bloody chaos. A female ninja named Fujiwarajima Island and an African slave Yasusuke became samurai. According to Ubisoft, Japan is the series’ most requested setting for many years.

“I’m on the ride [this] For the 16 years of the franchise, every time we start a new game, Japan comes out and asks if this is the time.” says executive producer Marc-Alexis Coté. “We have never pushed beyond the conceptual stage with Japan.”

The game comes at a critical time for Ubisoft after the disappointing performance of the expensive closure of last year’s titles Star Wars Outlaw, Skull and Bones, Prince of Persia: Lost Crown and live service shooter Xdefiant. There was also a stir against the black and female protagonists of the game. Criticize them as “awakening” And historically, it is inaccurate despite the fact that female warriors fought throughout the feudal era and that Yasuke, the black samurai of the game, is a historical figure.

That’s something the team wants to deal with. “In-house historians were some of the first to staff the production team,” says creative director Jonathan Dumont. “We have a continuous supply of huge data banks. As we gain a sense of the times, research efforts must either narrow down the details or understand more detailed cultural points, seeking the help of experts around the world, including Japan.”

The game features advances in landscape lighting. Photo: Ubisoft

There was also a field trip to key locations in the Kyoto and Osaka game, revealing elements the team hadn’t thought up. Coté recalls a local colleague traveling to Japan to showcase some technical breakthroughs the development team had made in light of the landscape. But they all shook their heads and said it wasn’t working. “I was like, ‘Why?!'” he says. “And they just replied: ‘That’s not the way light falls on the mountains in Japan.’ So, when our art director was there, I asked him to go and see the mountains in particular. He went and took a reference photo, but now he captured it.”

The team also had to render socks for individual characters. Because they are always painted with their footwear removed when they enter the building. “The expectations were much higher. That was a challenge.”

Like all previous Assassin’s Creed titles, Shadows uses authentic locations and historical figures to take the game’s time hopping story by storm. Takada, Fukuyama and Hill Castles are all replicated along with villages, harbors and countryside landscapes in Central Japan. However, as always, this is a game where you secretly defeat enemies first and foremost, first and foremost, secretly defeat them. In the demo played just before its release, the main character attacks Himeji Castle. Choose to play as Nae and use smoke bombs and quiet attacks to scalp shadows to escape detection. Ubisoft has put a huge effort into acquiring the nature of the nearby Tayama period and the IGA peasant class (possibly origins of modern ninja archetypes), but equally important is how good it feels to plunge out the roof and decapitate the enemy.

“Incredibly bloody battle.” Photo: Ubisoft

In many ways, the game appears to be portrayed from modern cultural portrayals, just like history as it is from the era and its warriors. “Japanese storytelling has a very impact on the development of the game and all Western art in general,” says Dumont. “The tale of Kurosaki’s Kagemsha, 13 Assassins, Zatachichi, Zekigahara, and Genji or Musashi on Yoshikawa Island, give a more obvious name [all] It helped shape the vision of the game. Even Studio Ghibli films like My Neighbor Totoro helped me understand the countryside and vegetation.”

It’s certainly an interesting time for Shadow to release. With multiple famous failures in recent live service games, players are eager to see an era of big single player adventures, and Obsidian’s recent RPGs have been reported. Meanwhile, the huge success of FX/Hulu’s Shōgun series has brought feudal Japan back to the cultural spotlight. And the story of how that standout British navigator John Blackthorne becomes high-class is somewhat of a reflection of that of Yasuke.

The game looks beautiful with complex environments, dramatic weather systems and incredibly bloody combat. Ubisoft survived a difficult time. Much depends on its most precious possessions.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be released on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox on March 20th. Keith Stuart attended a press conference in Kyoto along with other journalists. Accommodation and travel expenses were met by Ubisoft

Source: www.theguardian.com

Will Assassin’s Creed Shadows Be the Savior of Ubisoft? |Culture

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IIt’s no secret that the video game industry is struggling. In the past two years, 25,000 redundant employees And over 40 studios have closed. The soaring costs of game development (it now costs hundreds of millions of dollars to create a blockbuster title), over-investment during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the need to create the next money-making “eternal game” The blockbuster game is under pressure thanks to a series of failed bets. Success rates are higher than ever.

This seems to be a particularly relevant predicament for Ubisoft. The company, which employs 20,000 people at 45 studios in 30 countries, has had commercial failures with its latest big licensed games, “Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora” and “Star Wars Outlaws.” The company has had two expensive and failed live service experiments in the past year: Skull and Bones and X-Defiant. Ubisoft’s stock price plummets, Investment partners circling like sharksrarely has the fate of a huge gaming company depended so heavily on a single release. It has already been postponed many times to ensure quality.

Against this dark backdrop, I found myself wandering the glittering halls of Ubisoft Quebec to experience the world’s first Assassin’s Creed: Shadows. The company’s historical action game series is back after a two-year hiatus. This time, the setting is feudal Japan. According to creative director Jonathan Dumont, this was the most requested setting by fans, but ironically some of the so-called fans turned to Ubisoft during the game’s development. .

Shadows centers on Yasuke, a historical figure known as the Black Samurai, and a female ninja named Naoe. This sparked a mini-culture war, with X posters and YouTube commenters furious over “historical inaccuracy” and video game wokeness. (Oddly enough, these complaints of historical inaccuracy are the same despite the fact that it stars a secret order of what are essentially time-traveling assassins doing side-quests from Karl Marx and Leonardo da Vinci.) It had never been brought up in the series until now.)

When you ask nervous Ubisoft developers about the amount of nasty comments and online harassment they’ve received over the past year, they’re understandably horrified. No one wants to address it directly. “We love making games and that’s what we wake up every morning to do,” Dumont says. “So if there is any criticism, obviously, [we receive] Subtle nuances and good feedback will always be accepted. ”

When you pick up the controller, the first character that appears is Yasuke. After a mesmerizing opening cutscene, a Portuguese missionary introduces Diogo, an African slave, to Lord Nobunaga, the ruler of the Oda family. A powerful military commander took notice of Diogo, hired him as a samurai, and changed his name to Yasuke. As I wander silently through the cobblestone streets of Harima, I am greeted with the kind of stu…


Naoe, the ninja from Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Photo: Ubisoft

Source: www.theguardian.com

Laser Beams Can Create Shadows with the Proper Conditions

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in new paper Published in today's magazine opticaphysicists explain how a laser beam casts a shadow that behaves like any other ordinary shadow.

Photographic image of the shadow of a laser beam. A high-powered green laser beam (object) passes through a ruby ​​cube and is illuminated from the side with blue light: (A) Photograph of the shadow cast by the object laser beam on a white piece of paper, imaged through a simple lens It will be magnified approximately 4 times using The length of the ruby ​​cube is approximately 1.2cm, and the enlarged image is approximately 4.8cm. Therefore, whether magnified or not, it depicts what can be seen directly. (B) Photographic image showing the surroundings for scale reference. Place a white plastic marker (i.e., a wide-tipped pen) in the path of the shadow between the object beam and the paper, and fix the camera focus on the (C) paper or (D) marker. The appearance of a shadow along the contours of the surface it falls on. All images were taken with a regular home digital camera in a dark room. Image credit: Abrahao others., doi: 10.1364/optica.534596.

“Laser light that casts shadows was previously thought to be impossible because light typically passes through other light without interacting,” said Dr. Rafael Abrahao, a researcher at Brookhaven National Laboratory. spoke.

“Demonstration of a highly counterintuitive optical effect prompts us to reconsider our concept of shadow.”

Dr. Abrahao and his colleagues used a ruby ​​crystal and a specific laser wavelength to show that laser beams can block light and create visible shadows through nonlinear optical processes.

This effect occurs when light interacts with a material in an intensity-dependent manner and can affect another light field.

“Our understanding of shadows has developed in close connection with our understanding of light and optics,” Dr. Abrahao said.

“This new discovery could prove useful in a variety of applications, including optical switching, devices in which one light controls the presence of another, or technologies that require precise control of light transmission, such as high-power lasers. There is a possibility that

In their experiment, the researchers shined a high-power green laser onto a cube made of a standard ruby ​​crystal, then shot a blue laser at it from the side.

When a green laser is incident on a ruby, it locally changes the material's response to blue wavelengths.

The green laser acts like a normal object, and the blue laser acts like a light.

The interaction between the two light sources creates a shadow on the screen, where the green laser appears as a dark area blocking the blue light.

It met all the criteria for a shadow, as it was visible to the naked eye, followed the contours of the surface it fell on, and followed the position and shape of the laser beam acting as the object.

The laser shadow effect is the result of ruby's optical nonlinear absorption.

This effect occurs because the green laser increases the light absorption of the blue illumination laser beam, creating a matching region within the illumination light with lower light intensity.

“This discovery expands our understanding of the interaction between light and matter and opens up new possibilities for harnessing light in previously unimagined ways,” Dr. Abrahao said.

The researchers experimentally measured that the shadow contrast depends on the power of the laser beam and found that the maximum contrast was about 22%, similar to the contrast of a tree's shadow on a sunny day.

They also developed a theoretical model and showed that it could accurately predict shadow contrast.

“From a technical point of view, the effect we demonstrated shows that the intensity of the transmitted laser beam can be controlled by firing another laser,” the scientists said.

“Next, we plan to investigate other materials and other laser wavelengths that can produce similar effects.”

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Raphael A. Abrahao others. 2024. Shadow of laser beam. optica 11 (11): 1549-1555;doi: 10.1364/optica.534596

Source: www.sci.news