Ahmed

Image: LucasfilmThis season’s penultimate episode, Chapter 23, was called “The Spies,” which created unspoken tension that someone was going to betray the Mandalorians who went down to scout the surface of their former planet. That didn’t happen. In the finale, there were moments where we thought maybe a betrayal was coming—and again, nothing.So, who were “The Spies?” Well, we think the term “Spies” isn’t being used in a typical James Bond context. The term also has a biblical context that basically means a group of…

What’s on the set list? Why did he only tell you about the tape now after 60 years? Two of the questions I’ve been bombarded with since I made public the existence of an almost complete concert recording of the Beatles on the cusp of their great breakout.There’s a third question of my own: why has the news that 15-year-old John Bloomfield made and kept a tape recording of the Beatles playing at Stowe boarding school in Buckinghamshire on 4 April 1963 gladdened our hearts quite so much? Answers to all three lie ahead.I’ve…

An end-to-end use-case combining PyTorch Lightning and BentoMLPhoto by SpaceX on UnsplashAs an ML engineer, I often encounter two main challenges when working with deep learning models in production.The first one is the need to rewrite boilerplate code for each project to handle tasks like training loops, data loading, or metric computation. As this work often makes the codebase more complex with unnecessary abstractions, it slows down the iterative process.The second challenge involves the wide range of skills or tools…

Photo via Disney Plus Warning: The following article contains spoilers for The Mandalorian. With the third season of The Mandalorian in full swing, everyone’s favorite sci-fi foster family is back touring the galaxy. Each episode thus far has certainly had its moments, yet none quite as powerful as last week’s chapter: “The Foundling.” In a twist that almost no one could have predicted, Ahmed Best has finally returned to Star Wars. Portraying Jar Jar Binks during George Lucas’ prequel trilogy, the fandom…

Remix by David James Mark Hamill took to Twitter this weekend to blow our collective mind. The Star Wars alum spilled the beans on the other potential universe we could have had and we’re just “Walken” away from that one. Meanwhile, other users dug through the annals of the site to find a fan prediction from 2020. The Nostradamus-like user accurately called Ahmed Best’s return to the ‘verse as the Jedi savior of young Grogu – a prediction so accurate that folks are now convinced they’ve found an actual prophet.…

If you are aware Ahmed Best was the motion capture actor behind Jar Jar Binks in The Phantom Menace, you also likely know that the actor suffered for portraying what was (and maybe still is) the most reviled character in Star Wars history. And if you know that, there’s also a decent chance that you were delighted by seeing Best in this week’s episode of The Mandalorian, and knowing he finally had a chance to have a positive experience in the Star Wars universe—but his appearance wasn’t an easy decision for him.If you…

Photo via Netflix Easter weekend will likely lead to some big announcements for Star Wars. In London, the Star Wars Celebration three-day convention will no doubt see several new projects announced, and potentially trailers for upcoming Disney Plus projects like Ahsoka, Skeleton Crew, and The Acolyte. Indications from Variety are that Disney and Lucasfilm are keen to unveil something big, which is presumed to be the next theatrical Star Wars release. But, as fans have come to expect, there’s been a mild sense of…

Office With a View: Innovation expert Fareeda Ahmed had to get past her own impostor syndrome to emerge as a powerful advisor to studios and other media companiesFareeda Ahmed has seen her share of sexist environments. She got her MBA at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, worked on Wall Street and most recently joined Arthur D. Little, a global consulting firm, to advise Hollywood firms on technology. The Consulting Report named her one of 2023’s top 25 digital transformation leaders: She was one of only five women…

At this point it is impossible to separate the story of Din Djarin and Grogu from the wider universe of Star Wars’ galaxy far, far away. In a similar manner to how the unlikely duo met, The Mandalorian has picked up iconic characters from across Star Wars film and TV to become part of its story. But for once, its latest surprise was less about pointing at the familiar, and doing right by someone Star Wars has rarely done justice with.“The Foundling,” the fourth episode of The Mandalorian’s third season, largely focuses…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeRiz Ahmed struggled to contain his laughter while reading out an X-rated film title during the 2023 Academy Award nominations ceremony.On Tuesday (24 January), the nominations for the Oscars ceremony were announced. You can read the full list of nominees here.The nominees were presented by Riz Ahmed and Alison Williams, with the Animated Short Film category.Among the nominees was My…