( MENAFN - The Conversation) Extreme temperature and rainfall events are increasing around the world, including Australia. What makes them extreme is their rarity and severity compared to the typical climate. A region's“climate” is defined by a 30-year average of mainly rainfall and temperature. Increasingly, these climate definitions have become less appropriate – we need to look at events over shorter time periods to gain a more accurate picture. We can see this in the recent worldwide proliferation of extreme flooding and prolonged heatwaves . Using southern Australia as a prime example, our newly published research in Academia Environmental Sciences and Sustainability shows that machine learning techniques can help identify key climate drivers, supporting a redefinition of climate in a warming world. In Australia, eastern coastal regions of Queensland and New South Wales continue to receive record downpours and flash floods , interspersed by dry periods of a few months to a few years. In stark contrast, southern coastal regions are drying and facing more extreme heatwaves. With already parched vegetation and catastrophic fire dangers, this region is experiencing drought conditions due to decreased cool season rainfall and increased temperatures. Notably, flash droughts and flash floods have adversely affected both agricultural crop yields and grazing pasture quality. Flash droughts greatly reduce moisture for germination. Flash floods ruin crops close to harvest time. The problem with these“flash” events is just how difficult they are to forecast. To make more accurate seasonal and annual predictions for rainfall and temperatures, we need to update our climate models. But how do we know which climate drivers need to be included? To keep track of typical climate conditions and provide context for weather and climate forecasts, the World Meteorological Organization uses a set of data products known as climatological standard normals . They define climate as averages of monthly, seasonal and annual weather-related variables such as temperature and rainfall, over consecutive 30-year periods. Climate normals can be used to assess how typical of the current climate a particular event was in a given location. It's how we arrive at temperature anomalies. For example, to tell whether a year was relatively“hot” or“cool”, we look at the anomaly – the difference between the average temperature for the calendar year in question, compared to the climate normal. But extreme variations are now occurring in periods of ten years or even shorter. Consequently, multiple increases and decreases can cancel each other out over a 30-year period. This would hide the large changes in statistics of weather variables within that period. For example, large rainfall changes in average monthly, seasonal and annual amounts can be hidden within 30-year averages. Global warming often amplifies or diminishes the impacts of multiple climate driver phases within approximately ten-year periods . When averaged over 30 consecutive years, some information is lost. Over the past decade or so, machine learning (where computers learn from past data to make inferences about the future) has become a powerful tool for detecting potential links between global warming and extreme weather events. This is referred to as attribution . Machine learning techniques are simple to code and are well-suited to the highly repetitive task of searching through numerous combinations of observational data for possible triggers of severe weather events. In our new study , machine learning helped us untangle the dominant climate drivers responsible for recent flash flood rainfall on the east coast of Australia, and a lack of rainfall on the southern coast. Along the southern coast, the cool season from May to October is typically produced by mid-latitude westerly winds. In recent years these winds were farther away from the Australian continents, resulting in the recent drought of 2017–19 and flash drought of 2023–24 . In contrast, after the 2020–22 La Niña, the east coast continues to experience wetter conditions. These come from generally higher than average sea-surface temperatures off the east coast and Pacific Ocean, due to the presence of onshore winds. Machine learning identified the dominant drivers of the scenario above: the El Niño-Southern Oscillation , the Southern Annular Mode , the Indian Ocean Dipole , and both local and global sea surface temperatures. A key finding was the prominence of global warming as an attribute, both individually and in combination with other climate drivers. Climate drivers and their combinations can change with increasing global warming over shorter periods that contain extremes of climate. Hence, the use of 30-year periods as climate normals becomes less useful. Climate models often disagree on the climate drivers likely to be relevant to extreme events. A key feature of machine learning is the ability to deal with multi-source data by identifying regional attributes . We can combine possible climate-driver predictors with high-resolution climate model predictions, especially after the climate model data are downsized to cover specific regions of concern. This can help with extreme event forecasting at a local scale. Scientists are continuously developing new methods for applying machine learning to weather and climate prediction. The scientific consensus is that global warming has dramatically increased the frequency of extreme rainfall and temperature events. However, the impacts are not uniform across the world, or even across Australia. Some regions have been more affected than others. Currently there is no single alternative definition to the traditional 30-year climate normal, given the variable impacts across the planet. Each region will need to determine its own relevant climate time period definition – and machine learning tools can help. MENAFN27112024000199003603ID1108934309 Legal Disclaimer: MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.Kylian Mbappé saw a penalty saved as Liverpool beat Real Madrid 2-0 on Wednesday to inflict a third Champions League defeat in five matches on the holders. Alexis Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo scored the goals in the second half as the Reds maintained their perfect record to return to the top of the table. Mohamed Salah also fired wide from the spot, but it mattered little as Liverpool secured a 17th win in Arne Slot's first 19 games in charge. Slot has already achieved what Jurgen Klopp could not as Liverpool boss by slaying the Spanish giants. Liverpool had a score to settle with Madrid, who were unbeaten in eight previous meetings between the sides, including Champions League finals against Klopp's men in 2018 and 2022. Defeat sends Carlo Ancelotti's side tumbling down to 24th in the table. Only the top 24 progress to the knockout stage with the top eight advancing directly to the last 16. Liverpool are well on course to do just that and the confidence coursing through a side also eight points clear at the top of the Premier League was in evidence throughout in front of a highly-charged Anfield crowd. Madrid were hamstrung by a lengthy injury list and made the trip to England without Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo, Dani Carvajal, Eder Militao, Aurelien Tchouameni and David Alaba. Young centre-back Raul Asencio has been pressed into action by those absences and he made a vital goal-line clearance on four minutes. (AFP)

CBC is restoring its live New Year’s Eve celebration. A year after the national broadcaster cancelled the 2024 countdown due to “financial pressures,” it says the special event is back on the TV schedule to mark the dawn of 2025. Festivities begin Dec. 31 with the one-hour “22 Minutes New Year’s Eve Pregame Special,” a satirical reflection on the events of 2024 with the cast of the political comedy series “This Hour Has 22 Minutes.” It will be followed by “Canada Live! Countdown 2025,” a special hosted by news anchor Adrienne Arsenault and singer Jann Arden broadcasting live from Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre, and anchor Ian Hanomansing and comedian Ali Hassan at Vancouver’s VanDusen Botanical Garden. A representative for the CBC says the coast-to-coast show will feature reporters at more than a dozen community events across the country while a countdown to the new year will take place in each of the six time zones. Throughout the seven-and-a-half-hour program, “many Canadian celebrity guests” will appear in live and pre-taped messages. “Canada Live! Countdown 2025” begins at 8 p.m. ET on CBC News Network and CBC Gem with CBC-TV and CBC Radio picking up the feed at 9 p.m. in local markets. Last year, the CBC replaced its live New Year’s Eve programming with a taped Just For Laughs special hosted by comedian Mae Martin. That left Canadians without a homegrown countdown on any of the major networks, which sparked blowback on social media from some viewers. The CBC began its annual specials in 2017 to mark Canada’s sesquicentennial year. Some of the more recent broadcasts were hosted by comedian Rick Mercer and featured fireworks and musical performances in key cities. But when CBC paused those plans last year, it said the show had become “increasingly expensive to produce.” The decision to sideline the program was made shortly after members of Parliament summoned outgoing CBC president Catherine Tait to testify about job cuts and her refusal to rule out bonuses for CBC executives.IT’S A QUESTION that comes up every election cycle: How exactly does our voting system work? It’s often quickly followed by another question: Should I vote the whole way down the ballot paper? Fear not, we’ve got you covered. Ahead of Friday’s general election, let’s take a look at how the Irish voting system works. Proportional representation with a single transferable vote (PR-STV) is relatively unique, Ireland and Malta are the only countries to use it. A ‘party list’ system is So, what exactly is PR-STV and how does it work? And what will the ballot papers look like? The ballot papers will show the names of the candidates in alphabetical order, along with their photographs and their party emblem (if they have one). Voters indicate who they would like to see elected in order of preference – so, you should write 1 opposite your first choice, 2 opposite your second choice, 3 opposite your third choice, and so on. Do not make any other mark on the ballot paper. If you do, your vote may be considered . You should not write X or tick the box beside candidates, this could also spoil your vote. When you have voted you should fold your ballot paper, return and place it into the ballot box at the same station. Only one of the preferences in your vote is active at a time. Your vote stays with your first preference candidate unless and until they do not need it anymore – either because they have been elected with a surplus of votes over the quota, or eliminated from the race. If your first preference candidate is elected, your vote is transferred to your second preference. If your second choice is elected or eliminated, your vote may be transferred to your third choice, and so on. Your vote could transfer a number of times at the same election to your lower preference candidates, depending on how many people you give a preference to. If a candidate receives more than the quota on any count, the surplus votes are transferred to the remaining candidates in proportion to the next available preferences indicated by voters. As explained by , if the quota to be elected is 5,000 votes and candidate A receives 6,000 first preference votes at the first count, they are elected with a surplus of 1,000 votes. Let’s say that out of candidate A’s 6,000 total votes, 30% of voters gave their second preference to candidate B, and 20% gave their second preference to candidate C. In this scenario, B receives 300 votes (30% of 1,000) and C receives 200 votes (20% of 1,000). In a previous episode of , Virgin Media’s Political Correspondent Gav Reilly noted that your vote works a “little bit harder” in Ireland than in countries such as the US or UK “where you only get one vote, you vote for one candidate”. In Ireland, if your first choice candidate gets eliminated or elected early “and they’ve got spare votes that they don’t need... those votes can be passed on”, Reilly explained earlier this year. “Ultimately, what you have is an outcome which is slightly more representative of broader consensus, rather than just being a straightforward popularity contest,” he added. One of the perennial questions asked every time an election rolls around in Ireland is: Should you vote all the way down the ballot paper? In short, there are different schools of thought on this – . In some constituencies, it would be quite time-consuming to vote the whole way down the ballot paper but, of course, this is up to the individual. Reilly told The Explainer that voters are at liberty to “cast as many or as few preferences” as they like. He continued: “The best way to make sure that your vote is as useful as possible is for you to consider in advance how many candidates you might ultimately like to see get elected. “And indeed, in some cases, if there’s anyone that you absolutely don’t want to see getting elected.” If there are specific candidates that you “absolutely don’t want to get elected”, you should vote “for literally everybody else”. Giving an example, Reilly said if there are 10 people running in a constituency including two you really don’t want to get elected, “the best way to try and achieve that is to cast preferences 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 for the eight other candidates in your preferred order”. “But the thing that a lot of people don’t always understand or don’t realise, is that if you leave a whole slew of candidates blank and you don’t give them anything, basically what you are telling the returning officer and the count staff is that you are passive, you are meh about which of them may or may not get in. “And if that is genuinely the case, if you are completely passive about those candidates, you are at liberty to do that. “But if, of those remaining candidates, there’s some that you’d prefer to see rather than others, you should keep voting until you’ve run out of all your preferences or until you know that you’ve listed all of the candidates in the true preference of order that you have.”Marjorie Taylor Greene to head new DOGE House subcommittee with plans to cut 'waste'

Nokia Corporation: Repurchase of own shares on 12.12.2024Enterprise softball player Ane Blevins signs with Wallace Lady Govs

Writers Guild of America this week sent a letter to major Hollywood studios asking them to take action against tech companies that are using writers’ work to train AI tools without their permission. “The studios, as copyright holders of works written by WGA members, have done nothing to stop this theft,” the guild’s leadership said in a letter. “They have allowed tech companies to plunder entire libraries without permission or compensation. The studios’ inaction has harmed WGA members.” The guild said its collective bargaining agreement requires studios “to defend their copyrights on behalf of writers” and urged studios to “take immediate legal action against any company that has used our members’ works to train AI systems.” The letter was sent to studios including Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, Walt Disney Co., Paramount Global, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures and Amazon MGM Studios. Representatives from those studios either declined to comment or didn’t respond to requests for comment. WGA‘s letter referenced an Atlantic article last month that reported that subtitles from thousands of movies and TV episodes were included in an AI-training data set used by companies including Facebook parent company Meta and San Francisco-based AI company Anthropic. Anthropic and Meta did not immediately return a request for comment. The WGA letter comes as some studios are in discussions with tech companies that are developing AI tools. In September, “Hunger Games” studio Lionsgate announced a partnership with AI startup Runway. Under that deal, Runway will create a new AI model for Lionsgate to help with behind-the-scenes processes such as storyboarding. Other major Hollywood studios have yet to publicly announce deals, in part because AI is a complicated landscape where regulations and legal questions surrounding the technology are still evolving. There are also questions over how studio libraries should be valued for AI purposes and concerns about protecting intellectual property.

Their ages vary. But a conspicuous handful of filmmaking lions in winter, or let’s say late autumn, have given us new reasons to be grateful for their work over the decades — even for the work that didn’t quite work. Which, yes, sounds like ingratitude. But do we even want more conventional or better-behaved work from talents such as Francis Ford Coppola? Even if we’re talking about “Megalopolis” ? If Clint Eastwood’s “Juror #2” gave audiences a less morally complicated courtroom drama, would that have mattered, given Warner Bros.’ butt-headed decision to plop it in less than three dozen movie theaters in the U.S.? Coppola is 85. Eastwood is 94. Paul Schrader, whose latest film “Oh, Canada” arrives this week and is well worth seeking out, is a mere 78. Based on the 2021 Russell Banks novel “Foregone,” “Oh, Canada” is the story of a documentary filmmaker, played by Richard Gere, being interviewed near the end of his cancer-shrouded final days. In the Montreal home he shares with his wife and creative partner, played by Uma Thurman, he consents to the interview by two former students of his. Gere’s character, Leonard Fife, has no little contempt for these two, whom he calls “Mr. and Mrs. Ken Burns of Canada” with subtle disdain. As we learn over the artful dodges and layers of past and present, events imagined and/or real, Fife treats the interview as a final confession from a guarded and deceptive soul. He’s also a hero to everyone in the room, famous for his anti-Vietnam war political activism, and for the Frederick Wiseman-like inflection of his own films’ interview techniques. The real-life filmmaker name-checked in “Oh, Canada” is documentarian Errol Morris, whose straight-to-the-lens framing of interview subjects was made possible by his Interrotron device. In Schrader’s adaptation, Fife doesn’t want the nominal director (Michael Imperioli, a nicely finessed embodiment of a second-rate talent with first-rate airs) in his eyeline. Rather, as he struggles with hazy, self-incriminating memories of affairs, marriages, one-offs with a friend’s wife and a tense, brief reunion with the son he never knew, Fife wants only his wife, Emma — his former Goddard College student — in this metaphoric confessional. Schrader and his editor Benjamin Rodriguez Jr. treat the memories as on-screen flashbacks spanning from 1968 to 2023. At times, Gere and Thurman appear as their decades-young selves, without any attempt to de-age them, digitally or otherwise. (Thank god, I kind of hate that stuff in any circumstance.) In other sequences from Fife’s past, Jacob Elordi portrays Fife, with sly and convincing behavioral details linking his performance to Gere’s persona. We hear frequent voiceovers spoken by Gere about having ruined his life by age 24, at least spiritually or morally. Banks’ novel is no less devoted to a dying man’s addled but ardent attempt to come clean and own up to what has terrified him the most in the mess and joy of living: Honesty. Love. Commitment. There are elements of “Oh, Canada” that soften Banks’ conception of Fife, from the parentage of Fife’s abandoned son to the specific qualities of Gere’s performance. It has been 44 years since Gere teamed with Schrader on “American Gigolo,” a movie made by a very different filmmaker with very different preoccupations of hetero male hollowness. It’s also clearly the same director at work, I think. And Gere remains a unique camera object, with a stunning mastery of filling a close-up with an unblinking stillness conveying feelings easier left behind. The musical score is pretty watery, and with Schrader you always get a few lines of tortured rhetoric interrupting the good stuff. In the end, “Oh, Canada” has an extraordinarily simple idea at its core: That of a man with a movie camera, most of his life, now on the other side of the lens. Not easy. “I can’t tell the truth unless that camera’s on!” he barks at one point. I don’t think the line from the novel made it into Schrader’s script, but it too sums up this lion-in-winter feeling of truth without triumphal Hollywood catharsis. The interview, Banks wrote, is one’s man’s “last chance to stop lying.” It’s also a “final prayer,” dramatized by the Calvinist-to-the-bone filmmaker who made sure to include that phrase in his latest devotion to final prayers and missions of redemption. “Oh, Canada” — 3 stars (out of 4) No MPA rating (some language and sexual material) Running time: 1:34 How to watch: Opens in theaters Dec. 13, running 1in Chicago Dec. 13-19 at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St.; siskelfilmcenter.org Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

Aaron Rodgers insists there's nothing uncertain about his status for the New York Jets' game Sunday at Buffalo. “There's no way I'm not playing,” the quarterback said during a video call Tuesday. Rodgers acknowledged he has “a little MCL” issue in a knee, but added: “I've had a lot worse. I lucked out. I avoided major stretchage of the MCL.” Rodgers was hurt in the Jets’ 19-9 loss to the Los Angeles Rams last Sunday but remained in the game. “I’m gonna play,” Rodgers said of the game against the Bills. “It feels pretty good.” Rookie left tackle Olu Fashanu’s promising first season is over, though, as the first-round pick was placed on injured reserve with an injury to the plantar fascia in his left foot. Interim coach Jeff Ulbrich said earlier Tuesday that it was “just too early to tell” what Rodgers' availability might be, but he was optimistic about the 41-year-old quarterback's chances. “If I’m a betting man," Ulbrich said, “I’m betting on Aaron Rodgers to play.” Rodgers said he didn't need an MRI on the knee, the latest ailment in what has been an injury-filled season. He earlier dealt with knee, hamstring and ankle issues that hindered his play at times. One of the four-time MVP's goals entering the season was playing in all 17 games after being limited to four snaps in his debut last year because of a torn Achilles tendon. “I definitely felt like at midseason that was going to be difficult,” Rodgers said of playing in every game. “But right now, it looks like, for sure, 16. And hopefully get through this one and get to 17.” The Jets held a walkthrough Tuesday and their next full practice is Thursday, giving Rodgers some extra time to recover. Rodgers has 24 touchdown passes and eight interceptions this season, and he's one TD throw from becoming the fifth player in NFL history with 500 for his career in the regular season. While his plans for the final two games appear clear, his playing future beyond this season is uncertain. Rodgers has another year left on his deal with the Jets, but the team is looking for a new general manager and head coach. Whether the quarterback will be part of the new regime's plans will be a major storyline this offseason. During an appearance Monday on “The Pat McAfee Show,” Rodgers suggested he could be released the day after the regular season ends. He said there's also a chance he could be retained but acknowledged he's going to take some time to decide if he even wants to play in a 21st NFL season. “I think anything is truly possible,” Rodgers said Tuesday of potentially being released. "Whether it happens or not, I’m sure that there will be decisions that, I don’t think there will be surprises where there’s like, ‘Oh, I don’t know what we want to do with certain people.’ I think there’s going to be some decisions that want to be made the day after the season or a couple days after the season, so I don’t know. I’m just not naive. “There’s not zero percent in my mind. I don’t think it’s a high percentage. I think there’s probably a conversation to be had, but I’m just not naive to that being a zero percent chance. I think it’s more than a zero percent chance and less than a certainty, so somewhere in the middle.” Rodgers said he hasn't spoken recently to owner Woody Johnson and doesn't necessarily think the lack of any indication of whether he's wanted back means he won't be. “I would be surprised if there was a conversation now because there’s so many uncertainties,” he said. “There’s a GM that has to get hired, I would assume first, and then he’s going to be part of hiring the head coach, so I have to be in the plans of multiple people, starting with the ownership and then the GM and then the head coach." Rodgers added that if he's told the Jets want him back, it would mean they see him as an important part of trying to change the culture of a team that hasn't made the postseason in 14 years. “That’d be special to hear that,” he said, “but if they don’t, again, no offense at all will be taken.” Fashanu had a solid first NFL season after being the 11th overall draft pick in April out of Penn State. He began the year as veteran Tyron Smith's backup before filling in at right tackle for two games when Morgan Moses was injured. Fashanu, who played only left tackle in college, also stepped in at right guard for an injured Alijah Vera-Tucker against Houston. When Smith was lost for the season with a neck injury last month, Fashanu took over as the starter and excelled in five starts. He was hurt midway through the fourth quarter against the Rams and was seen on crutches in the locker room after the game. Ulbrich said he believed Fashanu would need surgery, but the team later clarified that a procedure won't be required. “It's unfortunate,” Ulbrich said. “He's having a great rookie season. But at the same time, these injuries sometimes give you an opportunity to step back and really start absorbing some of the information as you were kind of thrown into the fire. He'll use it as an opportunity to grow, I know that.” The Jets signed veteran kicker Greg Joseph to the practice squad and he'll compete with Anders Carlson for the job this week. Ulbrich said Greg Zuerlein, on IR since late October with a knee injury, also could be in the mix. Carlson, the fourth kicker used by the Jets this season, missed an extra point and a 49-yard field goal try late in the fourth quarter against the Rams. He is 8 of 10 on field goal tries and 9 for 11 on extra points in five games with New York. “We'll see how it goes and we'll put the best guy out there,” Ulbrich said. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nflNewsweek New & Noteworthy: Products You Need to Try (Dec 17, 2024)

Ohio's Shale Energy Industry Attracts $3.1 Billion in Direct Investment in Second Half of 2023 with Cumulative Investment Reaching $108.2 BillionBlackRock says investors interested in bitcoin should allocate 1%-2% of their portfolio to the token. That amount would generate risk comparable to holding assets like the Magnificent Seven stock. The firm says that while volatile, bitcoin offers a diverse source of risk for portfolios. Bitcoin deserves a spot in traditional multi-asset portfolios for interested investors, but only to a "reasonable" extent, BlackRock said on Thursday. The world's largest asset manager said that investors interested in bitcoin should allocate 1%-2% of their portfolio toward the cryptocurrency. Such weighting would result in a similar level of risk to holding the Magnificent Seven mega-cap stocks in a traditional portfolio. "In a traditional portfolio with a mix of 60% stocks and 40% bonds, those seven stocks each account for, on average, about the same share of overall portfolio risk as a 1-2% allocation to bitcoin," analysts in a recent research note from Blackrock Investment Institute. "We think that's a reasonable range for a bitcoin exposure," they added. A share over 2%, though, would make the risk associated with the crypto much higher, it added. "Going beyond that would sharply increase bitcoin's share of the overall portfolio risk," the analysts said. The firm said that the framework is helpful for considering the potential risks of including bitcoin in a portfolio given its reputation for volatility. The cryptocurrency has soared in recent weeks, up 48% since Donald Trump won the US presidential election last month/ Trump has since picked several crypto supporters for posts in his administration, including Paul Atkins as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. That announcement last week helped push bitcoin above the key $100,000 threshold for the first time ever. The cryptocurrency has gained about 136% this yea. "On top of having higher average volatility over time, bitcoin has also suffered sharp selloffs. In an extreme case, should there no longer be any prospect of broad bitcoin adoption, the loss could be the entire 1-2% allocation," they said. However, the analysts said allocating up to 2% to bitcoin would provide a diverse source of risk compared to pouring into mega-cap tech stocks while still managing risk exposure. "Even though bitcoin's correlation to other assets is relatively low, it's more volatile, making its effect on total risk contribution similar overall. A bitcoin allocation would have the advantage of providing a diverse source of risk, while an overweight to the magnificent 7 would add to existing risk and to portfolio concentration," the analysts said. They added that wider adoption and trading of the cryptocurrency could reduce its volatility, bringing down its share of portfolio risk and potentially allowing investors to increase their allocation. On the flip side, broader adoption could also mean it loses the structural catalyst for big price gains , they said. "The case for a permanent holding may then be less clear-cut and investors may prefer to use it tactically to hedge against specific risks, similar to gold," they said. Broader adoption and trading appear likely, given easier avenues for gaining exposure to bitcoin, like the dozen spot bitcoin ETFs from firms including BlackRock. Since they were launched in January, the ETFs have garnered over $113 billion in assets.

Their ages vary. But a conspicuous handful of filmmaking lions in winter, or let’s say late autumn, have given us new reasons to be grateful for their work over the decades — even for the work that didn’t quite work. Which, yes, sounds like ingratitude. But do we even want more conventional or better-behaved work from talents such as Francis Ford Coppola? Even if we’re talking about “Megalopolis” ? If Clint Eastwood’s “Juror #2” gave audiences a less morally complicated courtroom drama, would that have mattered, given Warner Bros.’ butt-headed decision to plop it in less than three dozen movie theaters in the U.S.? Coppola is 85. Eastwood is 94. Paul Schrader, whose latest film “Oh, Canada” arrives this week and is well worth seeking out, is a mere 78. Based on the 2021 Russell Banks novel “Foregone,” “Oh, Canada” is the story of a documentary filmmaker, played by Richard Gere, being interviewed near the end of his cancer-shrouded final days. In the Montreal home he shares with his wife and creative partner, played by Uma Thurman, he consents to the interview by two former students of his. Gere’s character, Leonard Fife, has no little contempt for these two, whom he calls “Mr. and Mrs. Ken Burns of Canada” with subtle disdain. As we learn over the artful dodges and layers of past and present, events imagined and/or real, Fife treats the interview as a final confession from a guarded and deceptive soul. He’s also a hero to everyone in the room, famous for his anti-Vietnam war political activism, and for the Frederick Wiseman-like inflection of his own films’ interview techniques. The real-life filmmaker name-checked in “Oh, Canada” is documentarian Errol Morris, whose straight-to-the-lens framing of interview subjects was made possible by his Interrotron device. In Schrader’s adaptation, Fife doesn’t want the nominal director (Michael Imperioli, a nicely finessed embodiment of a second-rate talent with first-rate airs) in his eyeline. Rather, as he struggles with hazy, self-incriminating memories of affairs, marriages, one-offs with a friend’s wife and a tense, brief reunion with the son he never knew, Fife wants only his wife, Emma — his former Goddard College student — in this metaphoric confessional. Schrader and his editor Benjamin Rodriguez Jr. treat the memories as on-screen flashbacks spanning from 1968 to 2023. At times, Gere and Thurman appear as their decades-young selves, without any attempt to de-age them, digitally or otherwise. (Thank god, I kind of hate that stuff in any circumstance.) In other sequences from Fife’s past, Jacob Elordi portrays Fife, with sly and convincing behavioral details linking his performance to Gere’s persona. We hear frequent voiceovers spoken by Gere about having ruined his life by age 24, at least spiritually or morally. Banks’ novel is no less devoted to a dying man’s addled but ardent attempt to come clean and own up to what has terrified him the most in the mess and joy of living: Honesty. Love. Commitment. There are elements of “Oh, Canada” that soften Banks’ conception of Fife, from the parentage of Fife’s abandoned son to the specific qualities of Gere’s performance. It has been 44 years since Gere teamed with Schrader on “American Gigolo,” a movie made by a very different filmmaker with very different preoccupations of hetero male hollowness. It’s also clearly the same director at work, I think. And Gere remains a unique camera object, with a stunning mastery of filling a close-up with an unblinking stillness conveying feelings easier left behind. The musical score is pretty watery, and with Schrader you always get a few lines of tortured rhetoric interrupting the good stuff. In the end, “Oh, Canada” has an extraordinarily simple idea at its core: That of a man with a movie camera, most of his life, now on the other side of the lens. Not easy. “I can’t tell the truth unless that camera’s on!” he barks at one point. I don’t think the line from the novel made it into Schrader’s script, but it too sums up this lion-in-winter feeling of truth without triumphal Hollywood catharsis. The interview, Banks wrote, is one’s man’s “last chance to stop lying.” It’s also a “final prayer,” dramatized by the Calvinist-to-the-bone filmmaker who made sure to include that phrase in his latest devotion to final prayers and missions of redemption. “Oh, Canada” — 3 stars (out of 4) No MPA rating (some language and sexual material) Running time: 1:34 How to watch: Opens in theaters Dec. 13, running 1in Chicago Dec. 13-19 at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St.; siskelfilmcenter.org Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.《TAIPEI TIMES》GlobalWafers to get US$406m from US

Jim Alexander: They talk about “winning the press conference” – shorthand for an acquisition or coaching hire that’s more splash than substance. Given Bill Belichick’s historic reticence with the media, I’m not sure that’s what the University of North Carolina did Wednesday. But win the announcement? No doubt. Hiring the 72-year-old Belichick , winner of six Super Bowls in New England and also famously reluctant to share decision-making duties, to his first college coaching job seems weird at first glance, and also at second and third. Asking a guy who referred to America’s favorite photo sharing app as “Instaface” a while back – which is actually, I believe, a Belichick running joke – to try to connect with young people for whom social media is almost more important than eating? Good luck with that. But this isn’t as nutty as it appears, in my mind, for one reason: College football is becoming more professionalized by the day. NIL agreements, the transfer portal, players represented by agents, a future where schools themselves will pay the players, and maybe even unionization down the road? Guys whose whole careers have been spent in college football are starting to wonder if they can handle these changes. So why not bring in an NFL coach to help with this transition? Especially one with the résumé of Belichick? It’s a risk, but who’s to say he can’t handle the transition to coaching 18- to 22-year-olds better than college football lifers can when it comes to dealing with agents, rustling up NIL money, etc.? And yes, I realize there’s a slight flaw in that logic, because Chip Kelly was both a college and a pro head coach, and we saw how little energy he directed toward NIL matters and how far back it set UCLA’s program. Will Belichick lean into it with more energy? We’ll see. What do you think, Mirjam? They’re already putting up betting propositions – in this case, at BetOnline.ag – on not only North Carolina’s record under Belichick this coming season but how many power conference transfers will come to UNC (the over/under is four), how many years he’ll stay (21⁄2, or half his contract), and – get this one – What will happen first with Bill Belichick’s 20-something girlfriend? Enroll in classes at UNC or date a UNC football player? Yeesh! Mirjam: Wait, are there really odds on that last one? Oh boy. You mentioned Chip Kelly, and I’ve also been thinking about his up-and-down track record, in college and the pros, since he caught lightning in a bottle at Oregon. Also about Deion Sanders, who has been anything but traditional in how he’s approached his job at Colorado – making recruits come to him, being up front about treating the transfer portal as free agency – and how that has transformed the Buffs from doormat to contender in two short years. And how before that, he was at Jackson State from 2020 to 2022. But Belichick doesn’t have the charisma Coach Prime does. Sure, he’s got his own aura as the NFL’s greatest modern coach, and if he wants control – which is a large piece of why he hasn’t been invited to coach another NFL team – he’d have it as a college coach, where reports are that UNC will increase its NIL package for football to $20 million from $4 million. But will he be too blunt for today’s college player, who isn’t contractually obligated to stay anywhere longer than a year? Too honest and critical in his assessments? Will he simply pass on the fanfare and glad-handing that’s supposed to be required of college coaches? We’re gonna find out. But if I were betting, I wouldn’t bet on North Carolina becoming a powerhouse under Belichick. Or even on Belichick loving the gig, because you can take the amateurism out of college football, but still it’s not the NFL. Jim: I’d take the under on the 21⁄2 years, and that has nothing to do with age or energy. Trust me, I’m the last guy who would call someone too old to do whatever. But college football is different, especially in that region of the country. I saw something a while back in the Washington Post which suggested that the hatred for rivals in college football is a feature and not a bug. And that intensity of emotion extends to everything involving the sport, which is why alumni and boosters play such a large role. Let Belichick start out, say, 2-4, and see what the reaction is. Yeah, NFL fans can be rabid, but it’s nothing compared to the way emotions seesaw in college football nation. All of that said, I stand on the premise that the changes in college football – in all of college sports – require an adjustment in the way coaches and athletic departments do business, and I’m not sure the old idea of the program as the coach’s fiefdom applies any longer. More programs in football and basketball are hiring “general managers,” which are positions to oversee NIL payments and the groups that make them – and, ultimately, the disbursements from the schools themselves – and probably also will have a role in player personnel matters. As an aside, the one guy I’m sure – positive, actually – could handle this transition seamlessly has been teaching classes at USC this fall. Pete Carroll made the switch from pro to college the first time and built a dynasty, made the switch from college back to the NFL and built a Super Bowl champ in Seattle, and if he wanted to and felt up to it I’m sure he could handle the new era of college football. (And let’s hear no talk about extra benefits or the like during Carroll’s USC run. You really don’t think stuff was happening elsewhere? The beauty of today’s system is that everything everywhere is above the table now.) Next subject: Is the transfer portal out of control? Is it approaching, or has it already gotten to, the point where there’s too much movement and requires some additional limitations? Old friend Lane Kiffin came out and said what I’m sure lots of other people in the game are thinking: The timing – the combination of the transfer portal opening and early signing day right around the time teams are preparing for bowl or playoff games – is “dumb.” He’s right, but it’s another consequence of a sport that has no leadership and thus has become pure chaos. How do we solve this? I say the first step would be to make Kiffin college football’s first commissioner, but that’s just me. Mirjam: It’s a whirlwind, for sure. Utter chaos. And that free agency is happening on the eve of bowl games tells you everything you need to know about how little college football values bowl games anymore. There’s something to be said for giving athletes agency in a game where coaches come and go all the time. There’s something to their being categorized as employees and given rights as employees, free to give notice and change jobs when they find a better one. Shoot, the non-athletic regular people studying on college campus known as students are free to transfer schools whenever they like, too. But there’s also something to be said about the grass not always being greener. We’ve heard stories about programs allegedly reneging on payment promises, for one. And despite whatever tampering abounds, athletes have to be careful before jumping into the portal with both feet – and it’s doubtful most of them are, considering how incredibly many are transferring. Like, will starting from scratch – or maybe not scratch, but as a player whose last situation didn’t work out – be for the best? Will they really end up in a better situation when the music stops and everyone’s fighting for a seat? Maybe, every case will be its own. It’s hard to know in a scene so chaotic. So, yes, Lane Kiffin, or a conference commission – as Chip Kelly suggested – or some entity helping create and enforce transfer guidelines would sure help everyone. Jim: My suggestion, beyond having someone – anyone – fully in charge of all of the sport’s various stakeholders? Employment, and contracts. This is something the NCAA is resisting with all of its might, while hoping for Congress to hand out an antitrust exemption. But it might be the only way to restore sanity to the process. Make players employees, with signed contracts – could be one year, could be two, could be four years for true stars, could include option years. The system would allow players free agency but would also give programs a certain amount of certainty from year to year, as opposed to a coach walking into the locker room after the final regular-season game and wondering how many of these guys will opt to stay. Another advantage: Those contracts would include bowl games, and there would be no more sitting out just because. That’s something that drives college football people crazy. And we have to understand: College football is a different beast from every other sport on campus. Other sports may come up with different rules. Other levels – Group of Five, mid-major basketball schools, etc. – will have different needs and require different rules as well. But again, a leadership vacuum at the top helps nobody, aside from FOX and ESPN. Before we go, however, we must note that 2024, the first year without the Pac-12 as we knew it, turns out to have been a statement on behalf of college football in the West. Oregon – your alma mater, Mirjam – is the top seed in the College Football Playoff. Fellow Pac-12 refugee Arizona State is in the mix as champion of the Big 12 and the Sun Devils’ coach, Kenny Dillingham, is a former Oregon guy. Boise State will represent the Mountain West (and future reconstituted Pac-12) in the field. Meanwhile, three of the four Heisman Trophy finalists are from the West – Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel, Colorado’s Travis Hunter and Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty. Makes me miss the old Pac-12 a little more. Mirjam: Right?! How ’bout them Ducks? Both top-ranked/seeded Oregon and Dillingham. Season’s not over yet, but what a showing by the westerners ... and what that tells me is, yes, it’s a shame the Pac-12 is no more. But also, Oregon – with its 14 transfers in starting roles and a reported $23 million in NIL money – is good at playing the modern game. And so too is Dillingham, who has used a few of his postgame press conferences as marketing opportunities, making direct pitches to Arizona businesses to funnel money into the program: “If you had fun watching [Cam Skattebo] play and make those plays, it was there all night ... because it’s a different day and age in college football. And if that was something that we want to continue to do, then what’s that saying? Pay the man his money, right? Isn’t that a saying? Pay the man his money. Pay these guys what they deserve to be paid because right now our team is underpaid. We’re doing more with guys who just got it out the mud, but eventually you should get what you deserve. Our guys deserve more ...” Now imagine Belichick making that kind of pitch.Trump’s tariffs in his first term did little to alter the economy, but this time could be different

The Packers (7-3) could damage San Francisco’s playoff hopes Sunday by beating the 49ers at Lambeau Field. San Francisco (5-5) dropped to .500 after losing at home to the Seattle Seahawks, though the 49ers remain just a game behind the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC West. “I think we’re motivated to keep winning more than anything,” Packers center Josh Myers said. “Obviously, they have knocked us out quite a bit. There’s that extra motivation behind it, but at this point, we’re just trying to churn out wins.” Green Bay is third in the NFC North and two games behind the Detroit Lions, but the Packers appear on track to at least earn a wild-card playoff berth. History suggests their path to a potential Super Bowl would get much clearer if the 49ers aren’t standing in their way. The 49ers trailed 21-14 in the fourth quarter before rallying to beat the Packers 24-21 in the divisional playoffs last year on Christian McCaffrey’s 6-yard touchdown run with 1:07 left. Now it’s the 49ers who are struggling to protect late leads, as they’ve blown fourth-quarter advantages in three games against divisional opponents. “You could look at, ‘Hey, we’re three possessions away from being 8-2,’ but you can’t really live like that,” 49ers tight end George Kittle said. “Those are the mistakes that we’ve made to be 5-5. It’s not exactly where we want to be. It is frustrating. The nice thing is we have seven games left to go out there and play Niners football and take advantage of those opportunities.” Green Bay’s recent history of playoff frustration against the 49ers also includes a 13-10 loss at Lambeau Field in the 2021 divisional playoffs and a 37-20 road defeat in the 2019 NFC championship game. Even the Packers who weren’t around for last season’s playoff loss realize what this game means. “I think one of the first meetings that I was in here, we had a conversation about the Niners beating us,” said Green Bay safety Xavier McKinney, who joined the Packers this season. “So I understand how important it is, and we all do.” Both teams must figure out how to convert red-zone opportunities into touchdowns. The 49ers are scoring touchdowns on just 48.8% of their drives inside an opponent’s 20-yard line to rank 27th in the NFL. The Packers are slightly worse in that regard, scoring touchdowns on 48.7% of their red-zone possessions to rank 28th. In their 20-19 victory at Chicago on Sunday, Green Bay drove to the Bears 5 without scoring on two separate series. Kittle expects to play Sunday after missing the Seahawks game with a hamstring injury, but four-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Nick Bosa’s status is uncertain after he hurt his left hip and oblique in that game. Seattle scored both of its TDs after Bosa left in the third quarter with an injury and averaged 2.7 additional yards per play after he got hurt. Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander didn’t play in the second half of the Bears game due to a knee injury that also prevented him from playing in a Nov. 3 loss to Detroit. Green Bay’s defense feasted on turnovers the first part of the season, but hasn’t been as effective in getting those takeaways lately. The Packers have 19 takeaways – already exceeding their 2023 total – but haven’t forced any turnovers in their last two games. 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan hasn’t eased McCaffrey back into the lineup in his return after missing the first eight games with Achilles tendinitis. McCaffrey has played 91% of the 49ers’ offensive snaps the past two weeks. Jordan Mason, who rushed for 685 yards during McCaffrey’s absence, has just five snaps on offense the last two games. Shanahan said he’d like to get Mason more opportunities, but it’s hard to take McCaffrey off the field. Green Bay nearly lost to the Bears because of its third-down struggles on both sides of the ball. The Packers were 1 of 5 on third-down opportunities, while the Bears went 9 of 16. The Packers’ defense could have a tough time correcting that problem against San Francisco, which has converted 45.4% of its third-down situations to rank fourth in the league. AP Pro Football Writer Josh Dubow contributed to this report. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

Artificial intelligence has changed how people work and live in 2024, as companies create tools that can write code, generate images, and solve complex problems. The technology is seemingly everywhere, and while the advances have brought excitement, they have also kindled concern about AI’s growing influence. Reflecting on another big year for AI, Creatie.ai curated five of the biggest AI stories in 2024. Issues of copyright and intellectual property, creative control, and how AI is being leveraged in business topped the list. “There’s still a pretty wide delta that exists between a power user who’s using it [AI] in their workflows, every different way, who has multiscreens, multitools... and those who are still resistant, saying they don’t want to get involved with it,” Brandon Z. Hoff told Stacker. Hoff, the founder of RUDI AI, a consultancy that helps organizations implement AI technology responsibly, found this “shocking” given that AI is “really one of the most revolutionary technologies of our time.” As more people integrate AI tools into their personal and professional lives, questions emerge about privacy and fairness. Some businesses praise AI’s ability to speed up productivity, while civil liberties groups and data privacy organizations worry about data protection and job security. Government officials have also stepped in to figure out how best to implement guardrails on this fast-moving technology while also allowing room for it to evolve. Some of 2024’s biggest AI headlines came from policymakers working to establish safe practices. In the U.S., the Colorado AI Act was the first state legislation of its kind intended to set requirements for high-risk AI systems used in education, financial services, and other critical industries. It also sought consumer protections and accountability measures. It was modeled after the EU Artificial Intelligence Act , which set guidelines for high-risk AI system providers and worked to safeguard transparent and safe development of AI applications. The year’s biggest developments in AI illustrate the technology’s rapid shift from a future possibility into a present reality. Read on to see where AI made the most significant impact. OpenAI debuted AI models in 2024 called o1-preview and o1-mini that can tackle harder problems by working through solutions. The company offered o1-preview for general users, while o1-mini provided a faster, cheaper option for writing code, according to the company’s official system card . These tools mark an important shift in AI’s capacity for reasoning , Northwestern University researchers explain. Instead of just giving quick answers like earlier AI, these new models work through problems step-by-step, more like how humans solve complex tasks. OpenAI reported that tests showed significant improvements in the system’s abilities. The model could solve 83% of complex math competition problems, while older versions only solved 13%, illustrating how this slower, more careful approach dramatically improved results. In analyzing chemistry, physics, and biology problems, the new model outperformed PhD-level scientists in problem-solving proficiency. However, these advances worry experts in the field. In an interview with Newsweek, computer science professor and AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio called the improvement in AI’s reasoning and potential for deception “particularly dangerous” and called for better regulation. Two Nobel Prizes recognized AI’s growing impact on science in 2024, marking the first time artificial intelligence received such prestigious recognition. John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton received the Nobel Prize in physics for laying the groundwork for modern machine learning, while Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and researcher John Jumper shared half the chemistry prize for using AI to solve a 50-year-old protein structure problem, according to the Nobel Committee. The awards highlighted AI’s potential and risks should the technology fall into the wrong hands. Hinton, dubbed the “godfather of AI,” uses his Nobel platform to warn about the technology’s potential for “getting out of control,” The New York Times reported. He had previously told MIT Technology Review that he was deeply concerned that AI will surpass a human’s ability to learn, creating a superintelligence that could too easily cause widespread harm, manipulation, or warfare in the hands of bad actors. Hassabis compared AI’s risks to climate change, telling The Guardian that “we can’t afford the same delay with AI.” “This is more a Nobel moment for AI risk , rather than for AI itself,” Bhaskar Chakravorti, dean of global business at Tufts University, wrote in Foreign Policy. He noted the prizes served as recognition of AI’s transformative growth and a warning about its unchecked development. Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, and Google began building AI directly into everyday devices, bringing it to broader audiences in 2024. Features like enhanced photos, text-to-speech tools, personalized recommendations, and myriad other AI optimizations helped integrate AI into everyday tasks. Adoption varied widely, however. In CNBC’s bi-annual survey of executives on its Technology Executive Council in October, 79% said their company was using Microsoft Copilot AI —though many questioned its $30 monthly per-user cost. Google’s Gemini chatbot attracted 42 million active users and 1.5 million developers since its May launch, according to the Business of Apps. Apple followed with its own AI Intelligence that works across devices, though it’s initially limited to its newest phones and computers with specific chips, the company announced in October. Samsung introduced Galaxy AI, which lets users translate conversations in real time and edit photos with simple taps, according to the company. The focus shifted from standalone AI tools to integrated features, but questions about data security were raised. While Apple emphasized the importance of privacy through on-device processing, sending personal data to company servers could expose it to government agencies, employees, or bad actors, according to security experts The New York Times interviewed in June. “We should be really looking at the cost benefit in terms of what we give up and what we get in exchange,” said Hoff, who shares insights on AI and digital intelligence with his 14,000 TikTok followers. “Tools like Google’s suite are free because they’re tracking our information to sell to advertisers. Now, large language models are aggregating all our data at once, putting everything into an algorithmic black box that nobody really knows how works.” Despite significant concerns, businesses increasingly embraced AI tools in 2024. “Business executives were, I think, resistant,” Hoff said. “And now there’s definitely an opening and receptiveness and a fear of missing out that exists on the private side.” When it launched in June 2024, Claude 3.5 Sonnet changed how coders work, quickly becoming a Silicon Valley favorite. The AI model solved 64% of coding problems in internal testing, according to Anthropic, the AI safety and research company behind Claude. The system could write new code and update old programs with fewer errors than previous versions, making it one of the most proficient—and popular—models powering AI-based software development tools such as Cursor. In October, Anthropic announced new features that let Claude use computers similarly to humans. The model could move a mouse, click buttons, and read screens to complete tasks. Tests by GitLab, a major software development platform, showed a 10% improvement in development tasks with these updates, spurring debates about AI’s growing role in software development and its impact on programming jobs. Many current top-scoring AI software development agents are already based on Claude. Letting the model control computers directly could unlock even further productivity gains for businesses. In addition to coding, the model has been praised for its uncanny analytical ability and capacity to understand what users want. Many users have reported success using Claude as a sounding board to help them think through complex problems and make decisions in their personal lives. Skateboarding cats, dazzlingly beautiful crystals, and politicians in compromising situations are just some of the ways Flux, a new AI image generation system from Black Forest Labs, churned up viral buzz around its hyper-realistic images. The system launched in August with $31 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz. The model uses 12 billion parameters to create images, making it more powerful than previous systems, according to the company. Advancements in parameters like fractal dimension and relative smoothness all contribute to Flux’s ability to render extraordinary detail in human features, deft animations, and high-quality images. The model quickly drew the attention of the tech world. X (formerly Twitter) chose it to power image generation in its Grok-2 AI system, making the technology available to millions of users. However, this wide availability raised concerns about potential misuse, particularly around creating misleading images of political figures and spreading false content. Story editing by Alizah Salario. Additional editing by Kelly Glass. Copy editing by Kristen Wegrzyn. Photo selection by Ania Antecka. This story originally appeared on creatie.ai and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio. Founded in 2017, Stacker combines data analysis with rich editorial context, drawing on authoritative sources and subject matter experts to drive storytelling.Impersonation: Health Practitioners petition IGP, want bill signed into law