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A reminder of what life and art are all about. Thats how Martin Scorsese describes the filmmaking partnership between Kents Michael Powell and Hungarian migr Emeric Pressburger arguably Britains greatest ever filmmaking partnership. Nominally Powell directed and Pressburger wrote (under the collective banner of The Archers) but their collaboration blurred standard distinctions forming a singularity of voice that remains magic. As the BFI launches a major retrospective, here is a primer for their unique brand of cinematic alchemy.

P&P films are ambitious on every count; narratively, emotionally, cinematically and intellectually. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp charts the lifelong friendship of a British army office and his Prussian counterpart (perhaps a thinly veiled version of Powell and Pressburger themselves). A Matter Of Life and Death tells the story of a RAF pilot on trial for his life in the afterlife (the escalator to heaven is iconic). Black Narcissus is built around a community of nuns in the Himalayas aroused by the arrival of a handsome stranger. Typically, these works are marked by wit, experimentation and maximum audacity.

P&P could also work in a smaller register. Shot in shimmering black and white, A Canterbury Tale relocates Chaucer from the 14th century to World War II Britain. I Know Where Im Going is an intoxicatingly imaginative story of mysticism and romance on a small Scottish island. Gone to Earth, the pairs only foray into Hollywood, concerns a Shropshire girl with a deep affinity to nature. Few filmmakers know how to harness the power and poetry of landscapes like P&P.

P&P worked with the best actors in Britain and beyond. David Niven, Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring, Wendy Hiller, Jennifer Jones all did career-best work with them.

No-one has put dance on film to more entrancing effect than P&P. The Red Shoes, the story of a ballerina caught between a young composer and a monstrous svengali, is graced with a 17-minute ballet sequence that toggles between wonder and terror. Three years later, P&P pushed dance on film even further, with Tales of Hoffman, a sumptuous adaptation of Jacques Offenbach.

P&Ps films are filled with fantastic handcrafted flourishes that lift the film out of the ordinary. In A Matter of Life and Death, rather than use a fade in from black, Powell simply breathed on the lens to create dream-like transition to a beach scene. On Black Narcissus, the backdrop for the Himalayas were black and white photographs blown up and then enhanced by pastel chalks to create stunning, stylised vistas.

P&P were masters of Technicolor, a motion picture colour process that, especially in P&Ps hands. delivered ultra-vibrant hues. Perhaps its most amazing use comes in Black Narcissus when Kathleen Byrons disturbed Sister Ruth opens a door and is seen sporting bright red lipstick. Indelible. The image, not the lipstick.

P&P speak subtly but directly to the emotions and nowhere is this more to the fore than in the beginning of A Matter of Life and Death. Its May 2, 1945. A Lancaster bomber is limping over the channel and RAF pilot Peter Carter (David Niven) is the only one left alive onboard and bereft of a parachute. He starts talking to June (Kim Hunter), an American radio operator, and the exchange that follows is heart-breaking and spirit-affirming all at once (Youre life, June, and Im leaving you!). Contemporary critics dismissed it as saccharine, but from this vantage point its as moving as movies get.

To truly understand P&P is to know their genius was only made possible by a raft of key collaborators. Names to drop include cinematographers Erwin Hillier, Christopher Challis and Jack Cardiff; art directors Hein Heckroth and Alfred Junge; and composer Brian Easdale. Shoot the works, Powell told his crew. And, boy, did they.

It would be easy to dismiss P&Ps visions of airmen and nurses as depicting a stiff-upper-lipped Britain that never existed, but their worldview is more nuanced than that. Their wartime output The Spy in Black, 49th Parallel, Contraband, Blimp, One of Our Aircraft Is Missing, A Canterbury Tale imbues standard anti-Nazi propaganda with complexity, compassion and a gentle humanism.

The influence of P&P is everywhere, informing filmmakers as diverse as Gene Kelly, Spike Lee, Joanna Hogg, Wes Anderson and Greta Gerwig, who cites their work as big influence on the fantasy feel of Barbie. But their inspiration is perhaps most clearly detected in the work of super-stan Martin Scorsese, from the reds of Mean Streets, the changing frame rates of Raging Bulls fight scenes (pilfered from The Red Shoes), and the refined aesthetic of The Age Of Innocence. But dont wait to see their brilliance through another filmmakers lens. See it unfiltered at the BFI this autumn.

Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger runs October 16-December 31 at BFI Southbank

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10 reasons why you need to see a Powell and Pressburger movie - Time Out London

The California State University, Sacramento Center for Practical and Professional Ethics and Cosumnes River College Honors Program collaborated in hosting a two-day symposium on Monday and Tuesday that debated the ethics of artificial intelligence. The first day of the 18th annual collaborative symposium took place on the Sac State campus with roughly 200 people in attendance. CRC Philosophy Professor Richard Schubert partnered with Sac State Philosophy Professor and Director of the Center for Practical and Professional Ethics Kyle Swan to organize this series of the symposium.

A panel discussed the possibility of creating technology with consciousness indistinguishable from human beings. The panel also discussed the harms and benefits that AI could have. The first concept was presented by the Associate Professor of Philosophy Michael Pelczar from the National University of Singapore. You hear a lot of conversation about the dangers that AI potentially poses to human beings, Pelczar said. You have the risk of AI harming humans. You also hear a good talk about the risks of humans using AI to harm one another. What you dont hear very much talked about is the risk of human harming AI. Sac State Professor of Philosophy Matt McCormick discussed the reality in living with highly advanced technology that could be considered conscious or sentient. He said AI could soon have legal rights and be looked at as a citizen, which could bring a moral singularity, collapsing the infrastructure of our civilizations economy and culture. The moral singularity is a crisis where the evolved human equilibria of moral rights and obligations is inundated by the machines, McCormick said. Twenty-two-year-old Sac State history major Drew Harris said that AI was an interesting topic to talk about at the symposium. He said he was interested in the effect AI has on our morality and the ramifications or questions to consider as the technology develops. Psychology and political science major Gabriela McMorris, 19, who is also in the CRC Honors Program, said she has participated in a few symposiums and she came to understand AI as best as she could. Its always a good experience to hear from academic professionals, its a great opportunity. You get to see it live, McMorris said. Dr. Edwin Fagin, a CRC economics professor, said industries of science and technology will decode AI just like they did for DNA and it will become common knowledge. Were just beginning to explore it, chart it and track it, Fagin said. The second day of the symposium took place in the Winn Center at CRC with roughly 90 people in attendance on Tuesday, featuring Program Director of Academic and Student Programs at George Mason University Rosolino Candela. Candela said his main topic of discussion was AIs place in the market for allocating resources efficiently. Candela said economic markets are imperfect and a process called economic calculation is necessary for maintaining them, as those calculations cannot be replaced by artificial intelligence. Candela said it is difficult to determine genuine choice in AI because people know subjectively what they want. He said preferences would be given to an AI instead of demonstrated and interpreted by people. A panel discussion between the three keynote speakers, Honors Student Personnel Assistant Sopuruchukwu Nwachukwu, Sac State Associate Dean for Budget and Assessment, College of Arts & Letters Christina M. Bellon and Sac State Lecturer Kevin Vandergiff ended the presentation, discussing the ethics of AI within higher education. I think there was a general freak out about two years ago with the release of Chat GPT, Bellon said. Those of you who follow AI were aware that something was being developed and then the good developers of Chat GPT said, Lets just throw it out there for everyone to use. What could possibly go wrong? and everyone had visions of Terminator and how it could take control, but the primary concern seemed to be around student cheating. Bellon said it is not only student cheating that could be a problem, but also faculty members cheating or taking shortcuts. Bellon said AI is currently being used in education systems as a tool that improves assisted technology. It has the promise to improve currently utilized assisted technologies for disabled students, disabled faculty and disabled staff to better perform their jobs and promote their own success, Bellon said. Bellon said if the inequities already existing in the academic world are not attended to, they will be exacerbated if AI is expected to be a tool in education. AI is not transparent. Chat GPT doesnt cite its sources. So, I cant cite the sources that Chat GPT used, Bellon said. Bettina Le, a biology major, 18, said she learned a lot more about AI, but she is still skeptical. You still have to use it in a smart way. Its definitely not something you should play around with. It could be really beneficial if used correctly, Le said. The panel discussion on ethics in education ended the presentation and symposium with a Q&A session. I think with all AI and similar tools, it depends how we use it and what purpose were using it for, Bellon said.

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Annual symposium discusses ethics of artificial intelligence - The Connection

Assembling Genshin Impact Arkhium Stock is a key part of exploring Fontaines hidden corners. Using it to forge Arkhium Lumenite is the only way to enter one of the Liffey regions secret areas, where youll find a Hydroculus, some valuable treasure, and some of the Fontaine achievements as well.

Getting to that point involves figuring out how to work the Arkhium forge, and its a bit of a process.

The only way to get Arkhium Stock is by assembling seven pieces of Mysterious Ore. Some chunks are locked behind world quests, though you can find others in certain parts of the Liffey region. Our Genshin Impact Mysterious Ore locations guide explains where to find them all.

Your Mysterious Ore automatically turns into Arkhium Stock once you collect all seven pieces of it. The next step is transforming it into Arkhium Lumenite and the Forging Press.

Finding the Forging Press is not an easy task unless you know where to look. The road there starts in the chamber with the Millennial Pearl Seahorse boss, which you need to fight for your Neuvillette build. Skirt around the arenas right side, and dive into the water. The tunnel spits you out in a large room with a Waypoint in front of you and a Meka on your left. Fight it or ignore it, and keep moving forward.

At the end of the large tunnel is another pool. Dive in, and follow it until you reach the next room. This route eventually spits you out in a large round area with another Meka, one on wheels with a flaming Pyro buzzsaw. Defeat it, activate the mechanism, and enter the next room. This is where youll find the Forging Press.

Place the Arkhium Stock in the forges center. Now you need to turn the gas off. Travel around the rooms lower portions, and use the valve handles to shot the gas off like you did in Road to the Singularity. Return to the forge controls, and begin the forging process.

Wait until a Pyro shield forms around the Arkhium Stock, and then activate the press. Repeat this action several times until a group of Pyro Slimes appear and overheat the system. Defeat the slimes, and then activate the cooling mechanism.

The cooling system is really just a fancy way of saying flood the room. Break the rocks with blue veins in them under the Hydroculus location on the eastern side of the room to flood the chamber. The rocks are unbreakable before reaching this point of the process, so you cant speed anything along by trying to shatter them sooner.

Use the press a few more times. Youll then get a notice that water has entered the system.

Remove the Red Meanies from the drainage vents around the room to siphon off the excess water, and finish the press process. The room will flood completely, and in the center, youll find your Arkhium Stock transformed into Arkhium Lumenite.

Your shiny new Arkhium Lumenite is a key that unlocks a hidden chamber in the Liffey Regions eastern side. Travel to the mountain waypoint southeast of the lake, and glide to the west. Drop down this hole.

Use your Lumenite on the device to open the door, and head inside to collect a Plume of Death from the Golden Troupe set, a Hydroculus, and two Luxurious Chests.

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Genshin Impact Arkhium Stock and how to use the Forging Press - VG247

Finding all the Genshin Impact Mysterious Ore locations takes you around Fontaines Liffey region, into the depths, and through some of the areas world quests. You can find most of these without even progressing in Fontaine's Archon quests, though one is at the end of a very long world quest.

We've listed htem as we found them, but you can grab the Mysterious Ore in any order. Once you're done, the Ore will turn into Arkhium Stock automatically.

This one is the easiest to grab. You can start from the southwestern Statue of the Seven, travel east, and stop at the arena with the Experimental Field Generator. Climb the northern wall you can get by without alerting the boss and grab the Ore. Its just sitting there in the open.

The Hilichurl camp with a giant robot in the middle is home to another easily-obtained Ore. Climb the arm, or use the nearby bubble traversal to reach it without climbing.

While youre in the area, travel northwest to the lab ruins. Use the bubbles to reach the highest water cube, the one with the waypoint, and dive into it. Grab one of the jellyfish. Use it to break this rock formation with the blur cracks. Underneath is another Mysterious Ore

Heres one you probably wouldnt know existed otherwise. Travel to the Liffey regions western waterfall, near the Fatui camp where you can pick up a few Lumitoile for your Neuvillette build. Dive into the deeper water, and follow the tunnel to its end. Make sure to pick up one of the jellyfish, as youll need it for the upcoming battle.

You eventually reach an open chamber with a massive cyst inside. This cyst poisons the water around it, and youll take damage every second while youre in the room. Use the sparkling clusters of fish to restore your health, and use your jellyfish attack on the cysts glowing nodules.

These start releasing enemies, which you should deal with in the same way. Eventually, popping nodules and defeating enemies reduces the cysts health until it explodes and leaves behind a chunk of Mysterious Ore.

Travel to the lake east of the Experimental Field Generator, and dive down at the easternmost point. The Treacherous Light of the Depths quest triggers at the bottom of the tunnel, and youll find the Mysterious Ore once you finish up underwater.

Heat to the waypoint at Liffeys central beach another Lumitoile hotspot and follow the road north. Take a right, and enter the cave to trigger the Road to the Singularity quest. Youll find another Mysterious Ore once you finish.

Grabbing the last Mysterious Ore takes a lot of time and some effort. Its tucked away at the bottom of the fortress, and while you can reach the area at any point, the spot where the Ore lies is at the end of the Unfinished Comedy quest.

If you're wondering what to do next, check out our Genshin Impact Arkhium Stock guide.

And if you need some Primogems for upcoming banners, head over to our up-to-date Genshin Impact promo codes list to see what freebies are on offer and our Genshin Impact banners list to see who's up next.

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Genshin Impact Mysterious Ore locations - VG247

Summary

The Borg Cube is one of the most iconic Star Trek ships of all time, but there have been a handful of other notable Borg ships in franchise history. Introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2, episode 16, "Q Who", the Borg Collective became huge antagonists that struck fear into the hearts of the Federation for decades. Both the assimilation of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) into the Borg Collective and the Battle of Wolf 359 were watershed moments that finally helped TNG shrug off the shackles of Star Trek: The Original Series that had been hampering it since season 1.

Just one Borg Cube was capable of destroying 39 Starfleet ships at Star Trek's Battle of Wolf 359 which established them as a villain to be truly feared. The Borg threat was also existential, as they removed all uniqueness and assimilated individuality into their hive mind, turning their victims into drones that thought as one. The combination of the Borg Cube's power and the existential threat of assimilation into the Collective was enough to ensure that Star Trek never had to make too many updates to the designs to keep the classic villains fresh and terrifying. However, there have been one or two exceptions to this rule from across Star Trek history.

The biggest and best Borg ship is the iconic Borg Cube that was first encountered by the USS Enterprise-D in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2. The terrifying power of one Borg Cube was demonstrated at Wolf-359, but Star Trek: Voyager revealed that "hundreds" of Borg Cubes would surround a world before they destroyed it and assimilated the inhabitants. The interior of a Borg Cube was home to thousands of Borg drones. As these thousands of drones were intrinsically linked to the systems, the Borg drones could practically will the Cube to repair itself, which made it a formidable ship to face in battle.

It was once observed that a Borg Cube could still be operational even if it suffered considerable damage. The Borg Queen's stricken Cube in Star Trek: Picard season 3 proved this hypothesis by Commander Elizabeth Shelley (Elizabeth Dennehy) from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Borg cubes also held the ability to navigate a network of transwarp conduits, allowing them to travel much faster than ships with Star Trek's traditional warp drive. In terms of weaponry, Borg Cubes had hugely powerful tractor beams and cutting equipment, used to hold ships in position while they began assimilating its technology and crew into the Collective.

Although it appears to simply be an escape pod on first viewing in Star Trek: First Contact, the Borg Sphere is a ship in its own right. Predominantly used for long-range reconnaissance and for tactical purposes, the Borg Sphere was an auxiliary vessel in the event of the destruction of a Borg Cube. They're not as strong as the Borg Cube, as demonstrated by the USS Enterprise-E's destruction of one when its shields were down in First Contact. However, it was still incredibly powerful, capable of creating a temporal vortex that allowed it to travel back in time and attempt to sabotage the first warp flight and change the course of Star Trek history.

Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) once led a daring heist to steal a transwarp coil from a Borg Sphere in the episode "Dark Frontier", which was one of a handful of Borg Sphere appearances in the show. In Star Trek: Voyager's finale, the USS Voyager was held inside a Borg sphere as the starship hitched a ride home through a transwarp corridor. Voyager destroyed the sphere from the inside and emerged in the Alpha Quadrant for a heroic return to Earth.

The Borg Sphere effectively replaced the Borg Scout Ship previously seen in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "I, Borg". In that episode, an Enterprise away team recovered a lone Borg drone, later-known as Hugh (Jonathan del Arco) who was the only survivor of the Scout Ship's crash. The structure that appears in the episode is much like the Borg Cube previously seen in TNG but is notably smaller compared to the more formidable mother ship.

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Descent", Captain Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise-D encounter a ship with the Starfleet designation of Borg Type 03. This ship was operated by a rogue group of Borg drones, led by Data's evil brother Lore (Brent Spiner). It was never entirely clear if Lore and his Borg allies had built the ship for themselves, or if they'd assimilated something pre-existing. Whatever the answer, it was incredibly powerful, with the Enterprise struggling to do any damage to it when in direct conflict with the ship. The Enterprise, under the command of acting Captain, Doctor Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) eventually destroyed the Borg Type 03 with an ingeniously timed solar fusion eruption.

The Borg Probe ship was only seen once, in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Dark Frontier" when it attempted to intercept the USS Voyager. It was a smaller ship, described in the "Dark Frontier" script as "a geometric shape we've never seen, and much smaller than the average Borg ship -- about half the size of Voyager." Interestingly, the design was originally proposed as a possible replacement for the Borg Cube in Star Trek: First Contact, but was rejected. Although the Borg Probe was smaller than the USS Voyager, it was heavily armed with the purpose of matching the powerful Intrepid-class USS Voyager. The Voyager crew dispatched the new Borg vessel by beaming a photon torpedo aboard and detonating it inside.

The Borg Tactical Cube was a more heavily-armed version of the standard Cube design, which appeared in the Star Trek: Voyager two-parter "Unimatrix Zero". It differed from the standard Borg Cube in the sense that it had additional armor plating on the outside of the ship, and regenerating security fields inside, protecting the ship from invaders. The security on the Borg Tactical Cube was understandable given that it housed Janeway, Lt. Commander Tuvok (Tim Russ) and Lt. B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) who had all been assimilated into the Collective as part of a daring attempt to spread dissent and create a Borg Civil War. The subsequent uprising forced the Borg Queen (Susanna Thompson) to self-destruct the Tactical Cube.

The ship in which the Borg Queen is hiding in Star Trek: Picard season 3 appears to be a partially destroyed Borg Cube, presumably the one from the Star Trek: Voyager finale. However, Voyager had previously introduced a designated craft for the Borg Queen in "Dark Frontier". To protect the Queen, the octahedron-shaped ship was more heavily armed than standard Borg Cubes but was also protected by a guard of honor, generally traveling with an entourage of Cubes. It was only seen in "Dark Frontier" when Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) was forced to rejoin the Collective before she was rescued by Janeway and the Delta Flyer. Janeway destroyed the Borg Queen's ship by collapsing the transwarp conduit it was traveling inside.

The impressive Borg Singularity ship appeared in Star Trek: Picard season 2, under the command of the more benevolent Borg Queen, Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill). This Borg ship was much more powerful than its contemporaries, not least because the Star Trek: Voyager finale had left the Collective in a desperate state. However, its more advanced technology was presumably due to the fact that Jurati had been developing her more benevolent Borg since 2024, after being left there in Picard season 2's penultimate episode. This new Borg ship was able to tear a hole in space-time to warn the Federation about a destructive transwarp corridor, which Star Trek: Picard season 3 largely ignored. With the destruction of the Borg Queen's Cube in Picard season 3, the Singularity may be the last new Borg ship that will ever be seen in Star Trek.

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Every Borg Ship In Star Trek - Screen Rant