Long-time Aston Martin figure Tom McCullough will join Red Bull Racing in 2027 as their Head of Racing, it has been announced.

De bedoeling bij ‘De Meestergids’ is dat je als kijker rijker naar buiten gaat dan dat je binnenkwam. Dat lukt daar aardig. Bij ‘RTL Boulevard’ iets minder.

NASA has awarded Blue Origin a contract worth up to $700 million to build and operate a dedicated Mars telecommunications network for current and future missions to the Red Planet. Blue Origin is expected to deliver the spacecraft by the end of 2028, with the network targeted to become operational by 2030. From a press release: Blue Origin will design, develop, integrate, launch, and operate the network as a part of the agency's broader space communications and navigation infrastructure. The architecture will consist of a high-performance telecommunications spacecraft orbiting Mars, transmitting science data, imagery, navigation information, and critical mission communications for spacecraft operating on and around the planet.

The award marks a milestone in NASA's strategy to expand communications and navigation services beyond Earth and the Moon, establishing the foundation for sustained exploration of Mars in the coming decades.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

wing of kaz has added a photo to the pool:

佐賀県有田町、有田ポーセリンパーク / Arita Porcelain Park, Arita Town, Saga Prefecture

De zware begrotingsonderhandelingen zijn nog maar net achter de rug of kabinet-Jetten krijgt weer een andere zware klap te verduren: een BRIEF van allemaal oud-bestuurders en ex-diplomaten waarin wordt opgeroepen tot meer (meer meer) strenge maatregelen tegen Israël. Ondertekenaars zijn 230 stuks oudere burgemeesters, baantjesbobo's en beroepsactivisten waaronder Job Cohen, Ahmed Aboutaleb, Jan Pronk, Jozias van Aartsen en BuZa-ambtenaar turned 'Gaza on my mind' Alternatieve Dodenherdenking- en talkshowmevrouw Angélique Eijpe, met een boodschap waar het kabinet van schrikt: Israël is nog steeds heel gemeen tegen Palestijnen en de handelsboycot die deze maand ingaat is niet genoeg! In de brief wordt gepleit voor een volledig wapenembargo (was Job Cohen eerder nog tegen) en om bijvoorbeeld ook achter de paar in Nederland verblijvende Israëli's en Israëlische Nederlanders die in de IDF hebben gediend aan te gaan. Echt origineel is het allemaal niet en zoals vrijwel alle vormen van activistische heldhaftigheid is dit kunstje 1 op 1 overgenomen uit het buitenland: in Le Monde stond vorige maand al een brief van allemaal oud-diplomaten met dezelfde boodschap aan de Franse en Britse regeringen. Ach, ze hadden ook thuis kunnen zitten gamen!

The ruthless female characters of The Gentlemen, Beef and Peaky Blinders bring new depth to the evil matriarch stereotype

Television loves a gangster story – and apparently so does the Duchess of Sussex. This week, Netflix’s The Gentlemen – Guy Ritchie’s latest addition to the gangster canon, which stars Theo James as a distractingly handsome aristocrat who becomes embroiled in the world of organized crime – returns for its second season. And in August, the show hit the headlines after rumors that Meghan was reportedly in early talks to join its third season when she and Prince Harry made their highly unexpected return to the UK.

At first, Meghan’s potential role seemed like a random pivot for the former Suits star, who now seems far more at home holding a jar of her Montecito-made jam than brandishing a gun. But really, these casting rumours are indicative of a wider shift in the traditionally machismo-fueled gangster genre, where it’s now more common to see women stealing the spotlight – and calling the shots.

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PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X, PC; Bit Reactor
Split priorities between scripted and emergent story moments hamper an otherwise brilliant Star Wars-themed successor to XCOM

Even if you’re unfamiliar with the term “emergent storytelling”, you’ve likely experienced some of the unscripted tales that can bubble up out of a game’s systems. Perhaps you’ve led a scheming dynasty in Crusader Kings, or watched a favourite hero succumb to madness in Darkest Dungeon. Maybe you’ve surrendered yourself to the infinite yarn-spinner that is Dwarf Fortress – or read about it from the mid-00s forums where users helped popularise the term “Let’s Play” by chronicling their games in descriptive posts. Or perhaps you’ve played Firaxis’ XCOM, the alien invasion tactics hit that several key members of Zero Company studio Bit Reactor had a hand in.

Zero Company hinges on a concept as simple as it is perfect: take the complementary class abilities, tough dice rolls, and permanent character deaths of XCOM, and house them in a sci-fi setting known for spaghetti western blaster duels, last stands and heroic sacrifices. As creative director Greg Foertsch puts it, “Star Wars is about loss.” Which losses you end up mourning in Zero Company depends on you.

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The political thinker became famous for declaring the triumph of liberal democracy. Thirty-seven years on, he explains what he really meant and why he made the rare journey from right to left

There are not many public intellectuals who can say they’ve been cited by Capt James T Kirk of the Starship Enterprise, but Francis Fukuyama is one of them. In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, William Shatner’s character is in a reflective mood, and speaks to the Klingon chancellor. “Some people think the future means the end of history,” Kirk muses. “Well, we haven’t run out of history quite yet.”

When the film came out in 1991 and in the years that followed, you’d often hear comments like that. They were nods to a thesis so famous it hardly needed spelling out. It debuted in a 15-page essay written by Fukuyama, then a 36-year-old thinktanker, which was published in the National Interest, a right-leaning journal of US foreign policy, in the summer of 1989. There was a question mark in the title: it was called The End of History?. In book form three years later, it became The End of History and the Last Man. But these were subtleties that, as we shall see, got lost.

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Book recreates recipes from period following end of Spanish civil war when people faced food shortages

Few dishes are simpler to prepare than Spain’s signature dish of tortilla de patatas, which – aside from disputes about onions – requires nothing more than two basic ingredients and a pinch of salt. But where to begin if you have neither eggs nor potatoes?

That is the question the chef and food writer Berta Álvarez Acal sets out to answer in Recetas de Guerra (Wartime Recipes), a compilation of recipes covering the years of hunger after the end of the Spanish civil war in 1939.

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