Shelby Van Pelt’s best-selling book is adapted into an easily digestible, sweet-natured afternoon watch

Every now and then, a strange forgotten chapter of life during Covid will interrupt my thoughts. Remember when we used to fake happy hour merriment on the Houseparty app? Or when Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor made an unwatchably awful film about stealing diamonds from Harrods during lockdown? Or how about when people developed an unhealthy obsession with a Netflix documentary about a man with an unhealthy obsession with an octopus?

The unavoidability of My Octopus Teacher led to everything from a creepy spike in people googling “did octopus teacher sex with octopus” (time-saver: he didn’t) to an unforgivably undeserved Oscar win for best documentary (Collective, you were robbed) and then, while not a direct on-record inspiration, it at least paved the way for the success of Shelby Van Pelt’s best-selling novel Remarkably Bright Creatures in 2022. The book, which hinges on the bond between an elderly cleaner and a grumpy octopus, gave those still yearning for more octopus teaching a gentle summer read with no weird questions needing to be asked and now, inevitably, the adaptation lands on Netflix to be filed in the growing “inspiring octopus movie” section.

Continue reading...

Many of us struggle to not get sucked into the content machine, even if we simply say: ‘This doesn’t matter’

Last week a video did the rounds of Diego Simeone getting annoyed with Ben White for walking over an enormous Atlético Madrid crest-doormat placed literally in the middle of the tunnel entrance which Ben White had to walk into to get to the room Atlético Madrid had themselves selected for Ben White to get changed in.

Then on Tuesday night, Diego Simeone walked over an enormous Arsenal crest-doormat situated in the middle of the tunnel at the Emirates Stadium to get to the room Arsenal had themselves selected for Diego Simeone and the rest of his Atlético Madrid side to get changed in.

Continue reading...

The great Mexican director is in England to pick up a BFI fellowship – and buy a haunted house. He talks gods, ghosts, monsters and almost being destroyed by the Weinsteins

When Guillermo del Toro goes to the cinema, he buys three seats. “I’m an expansive fellow,” he says, occupying one end of the sofa in the library of a London hotel. “Between the popcorn and my elbows and my girth, I need more than one seat. But I also like the feeling of being in company and yet alone. Everyone says how great the cinema is as a collective experience, and I agree. At the same time, I enjoy it the most when it’s not packed. I like being semi-alone.”

Those vacant seats must come in handy, too, if there are any ghosts in the vicinity. Ghosts and Del Toro go way back. The multi-Oscar-winning director was 11 when he first sensed a spectral presence at his family home in Guadalajara, Mexico. He insists this was his late uncle, who, before his death, had promised the young horror buff that he would pop back and tip him off if there were anything on the other side. Del Toro later heard a persistent sighing in his dead uncle’s room – a detail that inspired Santi, the sighing ghost-boy in The Devil’s Backbone, his 2001 horror set during the Spanish civil war. Decades later, when Del Toro was in New Zealand scouting locations for The Hobbit (which he co-wrote), his hotel room was filled with the cacophonous uproar of a murder in full swing, audible in a kind of surround-sound. And though there was no ghost as such when he stayed in an early-19th-century hotel in Aberdeen while filming Frankenstein two years ago, he felt “an oppressive vibe” about which he duly live-tweeted to his two-million-plus followers. Currently, he is looking to buy a haunted house in the UK. Presumably via Frightmove.

Continue reading...

The world No 1 lost to Jorden van Foreest, but squeezed into a tie for first and won the blitz playoff

The world No 1, Magnus Carlsen, making a rare return to classical chess this week at the annual TePe Sigeman tournament in Malmö, Sweden, squeezed through to a blitz ­playoff in Thursday’s final round after ­Turkey’s 14-year-old ­talent Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus ­blundered fatally in the late stages after reaching a drawn position.

Carlsen tied on 5/7 with India’s Arjun Erigaisi and won the blitz playoff 2-1. This was the final sudden death game.

Continue reading...

My prank demonstrated how our minds can adversely affect our health, and scientists are increasingly showing that negative thoughts can produce very real symptoms

For his last birthday, I gave my husband a monthly beer box subscription. While he saw it as a generous and delicious present, it spawned a mischievous idea on my part. One evening, as I watched him drain the last bottle, I opened my email. “We’ve just had a message from the beer people,” I said. “They’re issuing a recall on the last batch.”

“What’s the problem?” he answered. “Some sort of contamination issue,” I replied. My husband’s face fell. “Are you OK? You look a bit peaky,” I said.

Helen Pilcher is a science writer and the author of This Book May Cause Side Effects

Continue reading...

After Zelenskyy, Robert Brovdi is Moscow’s top assassination target owing to his long-range attacks deep within Russia

Vladimir Putin has told Russians that victory against Ukraine is inevitable. But on Saturday no tanks or missiles will rumble over the cobbles of Moscow’s Red Square. For the first time in almost 20 years the annual celebration of the allies’ victory over Nazi Germany will take place without military hardware. The reason: the Kremlin is afraid of a Ukrainian attack.

The man who has arguably done more to spook the Putin regime this weekend than anyone else is Robert Brovdi, the head of a Ukrainian military drone unit, Madyar’s Birds, named after his call sign. In recent months it has carried out a series of long-range strikes against targets deep within Russia, including ports, oil refineries and missile factories.

Continue reading...

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

Continue reading...

Hoeveel nou?

Feest van IJsselstein tot Loosdrecht want we krijgen een: asielmaatregel. Het kabinet-Jetten verprutste het hele asielfestijn van Faber nog in de Eerste Kamer (moet:kapot), maar vandaag danken we Bart van den Brink op onze blote knieën omdat hij luttele dagen later dan de zelfopgelegde deadline alweer een heuse asielmaatregel presenteert: het makkelijker ongewenst verklaren van overlastgevers. De asielminister bezweert tegenover De Telegraaf: "Overlastgevers kunnen straks makkelijker worden bestraft. Ze kunnen ook een gevangenisstraf krijgen.". Ja ja mensen, 't is wat. Gelukkig zitten de gevangenissen niet vol en rotten er niet allerlei ongewenst verklaarden weg in cellen en tbs-klinieken. Uitzetten, wat dus niet gaat gebeuren, is dan niet eens nodig joh. D66 steunt dit voorstel in ieder geval en staat zelfs open voor méér, dus als Boris Dittrich nou een keertje mag uitpraten in de eerste kamer, verwelkomen we als trotse Nederlanders straks gezamenlijk een waar wondertje: een eerste asielmaatregel.

No week at The Register is complete without a new installment of On Call, the reader-contributed column in which you share tales of the peaks and troughs of the tech support experience. So let's get going and meet this week's contributor, who we shall Regomize as "Gerald." He took us back to an early moment in his career, when he worked for an outfit that configured Windows 98 PCs as "data collectors" for its clients. As part of his job, Gerald built PCs and provided field support. In this story, he built a new data collector, checked that it worked with the usual round of tests, and left it for someone else to install because he had another job to do elsewhere for a different client. That visit was interrupted by his boss, who Gerald said "reamed me out for allowing a non-functional system to leave the shop." After the criticism stopped, Gerald's boss ordered him to fix the stricken PC, ASAP, even though it was 100 km away by car. "The boss man said go, so I went," Gerald told On Call. "About an hour and a half later, I arrived to diagnose the recalcitrant PC. The client was literally hopping mad and asking how I could be so stupid, because his firm was losing money." Gerald got to work and inspected the PC, which was on the shop floor, connected to power and peripherals. It booted and worked well but couldn't reach the network. "A check of devices installed showed the network card," Gerald reported, "and a ping to home worked... but nothing outside the box itself was reachable." Gerald decided the only thing to do was take the PC back to the office for more tests, so he started unplugging the peripherals. "Out came the power cord, display cable, keyboard, mouse..." and then he noticed the network cable wasn't plugged in. "It was neatly coiled and taped to a support column," Gerald told On Call, making it very easily fixed – and quite the embarrassment for the angry client and boss. Have you been abused for a customer's error? If so, click here to send On Call an email so we can share your story on a future Friday. ®

DEN HAAG (ANP) - Bij de stewardess van KLM die werd getest op het hantavirus is de uitslag van de test negatief. Dat bevestigt de Wereldgezondheidsorganisatie (WHO). De vrouw uit Haarlem was eerder in het Zuid-Afrikaanse Johannesburg in contact gekomen met een Nederlandse vrouw die later overleed aan het virus.

De 69-jarige Nederlandse vrouw ging op 25 april aan boord van een vlucht van KLM van Johannesburg naar Amsterdam, maar de bemanning besloot uiteindelijk de vrouw om haar gezondheidstoestand niet mee te nemen. De stewardess zat op die vlucht en is volgens de GGD Kennemerland een van de vijf mensen die "intensief contact" had met de vrouw.

FRANKFURT (ANP/AFP/BLOOMBERG) - Commerzbank heeft de winstverwachting voor dit jaar verhoogd. Ook schrapt de Duitse bank meer banen. De stappen volgen op het vijandige bod van de Italiaanse bank UniCredit op Commerzbank.

UniCredit wil de tweede bank van Duitsland kopen voor in totaal ongeveer 35 miljard euro. Commerzbank wil echter zelfstandig blijven en heeft het bod afgewezen. De Italiaanse bank, die al bijna 30 procent van de aandelen Commerzbank bezit, heeft deze week zijn bod echter rechtstreeks aan de aandeelhouders van Commerzbank voorgelegd.

Topvrouw Bettina Orlopp van Commerzbank is er tot nu toe in geslaagd de Italiaanse concurrent op afstand te houden door de winstgevendheid en de dividenduitkeringen te verhogen om zo de aandelenkoers van Commerzbank op te drijven en een deal duurder te maken. Ook schrapt de bank duizenden banen om de kosten te verlagen. Lagere kosten en hogere winsten stuwen de aandelenkoers, waardoor een overname duurder wordt.

TOKIO (ANP) - Elektronica- en entertainmentconcern Sony verwacht dit jaar de winst op te voeren, geholpen door betere resultaten van zijn gametak en muziekdivisie. Het bedrijf verkoopt onder andere de PlayStation 5-console en denkt ook meer eigen games te verkopen. Van de spelcomputers zelf verwacht Sony er juist minder te verkopen dan in het afgelopen boekjaar.

In het gebroken boekjaar 2026, dat tot maart volgend jaar loopt, rekent Sony op een licht lagere omzet en een 13 procent hogere winst. Dit is ondanks de sterk gestegen prijzen voor geheugenchips, een gevolg van massale bouwplannen van AI-datacenters. Sony verwacht dat de marges op verkochte gameconsoles ondanks die kostenstijging op hetzelfde niveau als in 2025 blijven.

In het afgelopen boekjaar kwam de omzet uit op 12,5 biljoen yen (64,9 miljard euro), 4 procent meer dan in het voorgaande boekjaar. De operationele winst, dus voor betaling van rentes en belastingen, steeg 13 procent tot ruim 1,4 biljoen yen.

Eigenaar Jan Belder van de Coop in Schiedam-West voelt zich machteloos, na weer een overval in zijn supermarkt. De zoveelste in een paar jaar tijd. "Die jongens beseffen niet wat ze aanrichten", zegt Belder.

Eigenaar Jan Belder van de Coop in Schiedam-West voelt zich machteloos, na weer een overval in zijn supermarkt. De zoveelste in een paar jaar tijd. "Die jongens beseffen niet wat ze aanrichten", zegt Belder.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Business Insider: As the trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI ended its second week, the Tesla CEO started scoring points against Sam Altman. His witnesses landed three solid punches in testimony about how Altman runs OpenAI as CEO, raising concerns about his dedication to AI safety, the nonprofit's mission, and his honesty as a leader of the organization. [...] This week, Musk's legal team called a parade of witnesses who questioned whether Altman was acting in the interest of the nonprofit. On Thursday, that included a former OpenAI safety researcher, who described a slow erosion of the company's safety teams, which prompted her to leave the company. Witnesses also shared stories about the company launching products without the proper safety reviews -- or the knowledge of the board. Rosie Campbell, a former AI safety researcher at OpenAI, testified that the company became more product-focused during her time there and moved away from the long-term safety work that had initially drawn her in. She said both long-term AI safety teams were eventually eliminated, and that she supported Altman's reinstatement only because she feared OpenAI might otherwise collapse into Microsoft: "It was my understanding at the time that the best way for OpenAI to not disintegrate and fall about would be for Sam to return." Still, Campbell's testimony wasn't entirely favorable to Musk. She also said xAI, Musk's AI company, likely had an inferior approach to safety than OpenAI.

Helen Toner, another former OpenAI board member, also testified about the board's concerns leading up to Altman's removal. She said the board was not primarily worried about ChatGPT's safety, but about Altman's leadership and investor relationships, saying, "The issues that we were concerned about in our decision to fire Sam were exacerbated by relationships with investors." Toner also described concerns that Altman was misrepresenting what others had said, telling the court, "We were concerned that Sam was inserting words into other people's mouths in order to get people to do what he wanted."

Meanwhile, Tasha McCauley, a former OpenAI board member, described a deep loss of trust in Altman and accused him of creating "chaos" and "crisis" inside the company. She said Altman fostered a "culture of lying and culture of deceit," including allegedly misleading others about whether GPT-4 Turbo needed internal safety review before launch.

Musk's lawyers then called to the stand David Schizer, a Columbia Law professor and nonprofit-governance expert, who framed Altman's alleged behavior as a serious governance problem for an organization that was supposed to be mission-driven. Asked about claims that products were launched without full board awareness or safety review, he said, "The board and CEO need to be partnering, working together, to make sure the mission is being followed," adding that "if the CEO is withholding that information, it's a big problem."

The day ended with the start of a Microsoft executive's deposition. Microsoft VP Michael Wetter said Azure had integrated OpenAI technology, that Microsoft saw strategic value in having AI developers build on Azure, and that a 2016 agreement allowed OpenAI to use Microsoft tools for free even though it could mean a loss of up to $15 million for Microsoft. Testimony ended early, with no court on Friday and the trial set to resume Monday.

Recap:

Sam Altman's Management Style Comes Under the Microscope At OpenAI Trial (Day Seven)
Brockman Rebuts Musk's Take On Startup's History, Recounts Secret Work For Tesla (Day Six)
OpenAI President Discloses His Stake In the Company Is Worth $30 Billion (Day Five)
Musk Concludes Testimony At OpenAI Trial (Day Four)
Elon Musk Says OpenAI Betrayed Him, Clashes With Company's Attorney (Day Three)
Musk Testifies OpenAI Was Created As Nonprofit To Counter Google (Day Two)
Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Head To Court (Day One)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

The single most common category of entries for this column is failed handling of NaN, null and undefined. Almost exclusively from javascript in web pages, sometimes in node servers, and almost never any other languages or frameworks. They're getting a bit repetitive but it's our solemn duty to call out failure where we find it. So if you send us one of these, make sure it identifies the source!

"If you want something you've never had, do something you've never done" exhorted Ben.

"Dashed Hope for Jennifer Null," titled an entry from some guy[sic]. "As recently linked from TDWTF article "Not for Nullthing", not only names can break computer systems, but also article content." Stretching, but we'll allow it.

"Where does Batman go on holiday?" asked Morgan. "Nananananana... Nowhere!"

"UBER is ready for driverless vehicles..." Bruce C. "Uber is getting so big, they can't even keep track of their driver's names."

"Well at least the reason wasn't null or NaN," wrote Steve W. regarding CenturyLink. "I've been trying for weeks to use their web page to change my (incorrect billing address). Such progress."

Additional entries on the topic from
Dan : "we're fresh out of null"
Henrik : "What is this null music streaming service"
Mike : "Name: undefined"
Laks : "In this app, every new user defaults to a nullptr."
and
Jim : "Think I'll buy $NaCar with this refund!"
and many others were all appreciated and noted.