PC Gamer argues that 2025 was a year full of high-profile AI embarrassments across games and entertainment, with Disney and Lucasfilm serving as the "opening salvo." From the report: At a TED talk back in April, Lucasfilm senior vice president of creative innovation Rob Bredow presented a demonstration of what he called "a new era of technology." Across 50 years of legendary innovation in miniature design, practical effects, and computer animation, Lucasfilm and its miracle workers at Industrial Light & Magic have blazed the trail for visual effects in creative storytelling -- and now Bredow was offering a glimpse at what wonders might come next.

That glimpse, created over two weeks by an ILM artist, was Star Wars: Field Guide: a two-minute fizzle reel of AI-generated blue lions, tentacled walruses, turtles with alligator heads, and zebra-stripe chimpanzees, all lazily spliced together from the shuffled bits of normal-ass animals. These "aliens" were less Star Wars than they were Barnum & Bailey. It felt like a singular embarrassment: Instead of showing its potential, generative AI just demonstrated how out of touch a major media force had become. And then it kept happening.

At the time, I wondered whether evoking the legacy of Lucasfilm just to declare creative bankruptcy had provoked enough disgusted responses to convince Disney to slow its roll on AI ventures. In the months since, however, it's clear that Star Wars: Field Guide wasn't a cautionary tale. It was a mission statement. Disney is boldly, firmly placing its hand on the hot stove. Other embarrassing AI use cases include Fortnite's AI-powered Darth Vader NPC, Activision's use of AI-generated art in what was widely described as the "weakest" Call of Duty launch in years, McDonald's short-lived AI holiday ad, and Disney's $1 billion licensing deal with OpenAI.

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Axios reports that venture capitalist Alex Davis is warning that a speculative rush to build data centers without committed tenants could trigger a financing crunch by 2027-2028.

"This critique is coming from inside the AI optimist camp," notes Axios, as Davis' firm, Disruptive, "recently led a large investment in AI chipmaker Groq, which then signed a $20 billion licensing deal with Nvidia. It's also backed such unicorn startups as Reflection AI, Shield AI and Gecko Robotics."

Here's what Davis had to say in his investor letter this morning: "While I continue to believe the ongoing advancements in AI technology present 'once in a lifetime' investment opportunities, I also continue to see risks and reason for caution and investment discipline. For example, we are seeing way too many business models (and valuation levels) with no realistic margin expansion story, extreme capex spend, lack of enterprise customer traction, or overdependence on 'round-trip' investments -- in some cases all with the same company. I am also deeply concerned about the 'speculative' data center market. The 'build it and they will come' strategy is a trap. If you are a hyperscaler, you will own your own data centers. We foresee a significant financing crisis in 2027-2028 for speculative landlords. We want to back theowner/users, not the speculative landlords, and we are quite concerned for their stress on the system."
The full letter can be found here.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from DW: India has surpassed Japan to become the world's fourth-largest economy, according to calculations in the Indian government's end-of-year economic review. On current trends, India is expected to overtake Germany to become the world's third-largest economy within the next three years, the review said.

The review said India's gross domestic product has already reached about $4.18 trillion, and is projected to reach $7.3 trillion by 2030. On current trends, it said, India would trail only the United States and China in economic heft. India's real GDP grew 8.2% in the second quarter of the 2025-26 financial year, up from 7.8% in the previous quarter and marking a six-quarter high.

Export performance has also strengthened, the review noted. Merchandise exports rose to $38.13 billion in November, up from $36.43 billion in January, supported by engineering goods, electronics, pharmaceuticals, and petroleum products. Official confirmation however depends on data due in 2026 when final annual GDP figures are released. The International Monetary Fund suggests India will surpass Japan next year. The Reserve Bank of India has revised its growth forecast for the 2025-26 financial year upward to 7.3%.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Pair became ALPHV affiliates to prey on US-based clients

A ransomware negotiator and a security incident response manager have admitted to running ransomware attacks.…

We’ve reached the perineum of the holidays and I’m enjoying some quiet time before the new year—a perfect time to reflect on the year just spent.

Travel

This year was a quiet year for air travel, perhaps even quieter than expected. I have been avoiding travel to the States, for the most part. That has meant not getting any status on United next year—the first year in probably 15 years or so I haven’t reached at least silver with them. I did travel to Europe enough on Air France, though, to get Silver status on Delta.

I made it to Italy, France, and Belgium, which were all lovely trips with more casual time, rather than trying to pack all the tourist spots in. I’ve really enjoyed getting to settle into a place, even for a week, find a local coffee shop, and then hit up the occasional museum. I was absolutely delighted with Bruges and would love to go back.

The new year is already looking full of travel. My mom is trying to finish off bucket lists and I’m planning to join her for a couple trips including my first time to Alaska. I’m hoping to make it back to Norway. I’d like to visit more of Asia. No specific plans for either of those yet.

Projects

I didn’t really get any projects done this year, but also didn’t give myself any.

I’ve been bringing my Leica more often instead of just relying on my phone for photos. I’ve been enjoying getting back into photography and hope to do more of it in the new year. I have my photo blog but keep forgetting about it. Whoops.

That One Dish

I thought about doing a new food blog and started in on some designs. I might kick that off in the new year but considering I’ve already got a photo and whisky blog that are languishing, I’m not rushing off to create yet another dead site. Instead, I’m using Instagram as a placeholder for the time being.

The idea behind That One Dish is exemplifying the best of a particular restaurant. Especially when having a fine dining experience, I could say these dishes were good and those dishes were okay but it was hard to really showcase a meal that had a dozen or more courses. I want to celebrate amazing food and picking out a particular dish felt easier to write about than detailing each course with mundane descriptions or ingredient lists.

Restaurants

I didn’t think I had made it to that many fine dining restaurants this past year and while it was definitely my slowest year since I started going to fine dining restaurants with any regularity, I still went to a dozen Michelin-starred restaurants. Highlights include Lido 84 in Italy, The Jane in Antwerp, and Epicure in Paris.

Ottawa is levelling up, even if we don’t have the Michelin guide here. I try to make it to Perch at least once a year and I should go more often. Antheia just opened up and it’s spectacular.

I haven’t set myself any specific bucket lists for the new year but already have more than a handful of restaurants booked.

I’ve considered trying to get to every Michelin starred restaurant in Ontario, which is about 16 restaurants. I’m still uncommitted to that but unsure why. I think it’s because I don’t love Toronto. I find the city large and spread out in a way that doesn’t make it easy to get to everything. Like, New York is big but public transit makes it pretty easy to get around. Going to a couple restaurants over the course of a week is one thing. Going to more than a dozen restaurants over weeks or months becomes a logistical task that isn’t as fun to organize.

Life

Life really quieted down over the course of this year. My oldest son got a full-time job in the career he wanted. My youngest son moved out for school. I sold my house and am now living downtown in an apartment. I barely drive because I can walk or Uber/Lyft wherever I need to go. I no longer need to mow the lawn or shovel the driveway. My expenses have dropped and simplified and I’m using the extra room for a few revisions to the apartment.

I upgraded my gaming PC after I thought my old one was dying. The old PC was an Intel i7 with Nvidia 3070. The new PC is an AMD with Nvidia 5090. Then I got a dead pixel in my monitor a week later so I upgraded to an Asus ROG 32” 4K 240Hz monitor from an Acer Predator 27” 4K 144Hz monitor. I’m mostly just playing Call of Duty Warzone with friends and the upgrade feels real nice.

Arbitrary Date Line

This year felt mostly good for me. I was able to steady myself and be there for others. The end of this year also saw the end of a regular schedule dictated by kids and as such, I find myself ebbing and flowing between productive and not. I started introducing a modicum of structure back in by giving my weeks a theme to focus on.

For example, I might say that this week will be focused on organizing a particular trip and all the research that goes into booking lodging, flights, and everything in between. Or perhaps it’s a week to focus on a particular project, working on writing, photography, or design.

I keep considering learning a language or instrument but have yet to do so. Maybe the upcoming year is when that might happen. With all the travel, I have some incentive to learn the language of wherever I’m going, even if it’s just basic understanding.

Theme Word

I was smart in not trying to predict what the 2025 theme would be. Change definitely happened but it didn’t turn out exactly like I expected. It didn’t turn out badly, just different. “Steady” is probably the best word for the past year.

The next year feels open, like anything or nothing could happen, and I’d be good either way. I’m looking forward to the year ahead…

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peaceful-jp-scenery has added a photo to the pool:

Near of Tokyo Station
東京駅周辺

I didn't know there was such a large pine park right next to Tokyo Station.
Thank you very much for your support this year.
I wish you Happy New Year!!

東京駅のすぐそばに、このように広い松の公園があるのですね。
本年も皆様には大変お世話になりました。
良いお年をお迎え下さい。

[16:9 trimming]
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo pref, Japan

peaceful-jp-scenery posted a photo:

Near of Tokyo Station
東京駅周辺

I didn't know there was such a large pine park right next to Tokyo Station.
Thank you very much for your support this year.
I wish you Happy New Year!!

東京駅のすぐそばに、このように広い松の公園があるのですね。
本年も皆様には大変お世話になりました。
良いお年をお迎え下さい。

[16:9 trimming]
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo pref, Japan

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

date stamped on slide, March 1973

Thomas Hawk posted a photo: