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Radify Metals is developing a new way to process a variety of metals that promises to be pollution free.

Two Alphabet-owned businesses are teaming up to find potholes and share that information with cities.

Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord has dropped its first two episodes on Disney+ at last. And already, fans and critics love this “crime drama meets the dark side of the Force” series. Of course, Maul’s future is mapped out thanks to his story ending in Star Wars Rebels. And this series covers how Maul went from a discarded Sith apprentice to a notorious crime lord in Solo. One aspect new to Maul history is the character Devon Izara, a Twi’lek former Jedi padawan who survived Order 66. All signs point to Devon (Gideon Adlon) becoming Maul’s new apprentice. But could she become the deep cut Star Wars villain, Darth Talon? We have a strong feeling that she will.

Lucasfilm

If you’re wondering which movie or animated series Darth Talon appeared in, the answer is zero. She first appeared in Dark Horse Comics’ Star Wars: Legacy series in 2006, created by John Ostrander and Jan Durseema. Legacy took place 127 years after the events of A New Hope. Talon was a Sith Lady, clad with black tattoos covering her red skin, evoking Darth Maul. Each tattoo was one that Talon earned in ritual combat, inscribed on her by Sith Lord Darth Krayt. Her Sith master was fellow Twi’lek Darth Ruyn, whom she later murdered on the orders of Krayt. She became one of the galaxy’s deadliest warriors, and an adversary to Luke Skywalker’s descendant, Cade Skywalker. Although sometimes, they were lovers as well. She quickly became a favorite for cosplayers, and sold tons of merch.

Lucasfilm

If Devon on Maul becomes Talon, none of her backstory will resemble what you just read. That’s because George Lucas had plans for Talon that would have contradicted her Legacy backstory. Apparently, before selling Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012, Lucas took a liking to the design of Darth Talon. He planned to pair her up with Maul for a video game that never came to fruition. But when Lucas sold his company to Disney, he had plans to bring Talon into canon. Only this time, as Maul’s apprentice in his proposed Star Wars sequel trilogy. In Lucas’ early ideas, Maul would have reemerged in the galaxy after Return of the Jedi, taking his place as head of a criminal empire. His apprentice, Darth Talon, would have attempted to seduce Ben Solo into becoming a villain. Lucasfilm’s Ian McCaig even drew up some provocative Talon concept art.

Lucasfilm

Obviously, the sequel trilogy went in a different direction. But Dave Filoni, who was George Lucas’ apprentice in a fashion, never forgot Lucas’ original plans for Maul and Talon. When he began crafting Maul – Shadow Lord, he used some of Lucas’ ideas of Maul’s rise as head of the crime syndicate Crimson Dawn, and pushed it much earlier in the timeline. And given how Devon is being primed as Maul’s new apprentice, and is a red-hued Twi’lek? It sure feels like her transition to becoming Talon might be around the corner. Although, as Maul is no longer a Sith, she wouldn’t be “Darth” Talon, just Talon. They could change her name entirely, but “Maul and Talon” does have a nice ring to it.

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MAUL: SHADOW LORD Will NOT Make Maul ‘a Good Guy’ Shares Creative Team

If Devon becomes Talon, or a Talon-like character, it makes sense for where Maul’s arc ultimately ends. In Star Wars Rebels, a few years prior to A New Hope, Maul was portrayed as a lonely, pathetic figure. He no longer had control over any crime syndicates from the look of things. He became obsessed with recruiting young Ezra Bridger as his new apprentice. Could Maul have been trying to replace Devon/Talon? She’s not around by the time of Rebels. She could have died, or turned back to the light side. So it would make sense that Maul was “replacing” Devon with Ezra. We’ll see how this all unfolds in Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord seasons one and two.

The post Will MAUL-SHADOW LORD’S Devon Become This Deep Cut Villain? appeared first on Nerdist.

Departure may accelerate further AI-centric moves for programming tools

Julia Liuson, president of Microsoft's developer division (DevDiv), will resign at the end of June, though she will continue in an advisory role.…

Pronto's autonomous haulage trucks are about to start operating at Mariana Minerals's Utah copper mine -- the first such deal since Pronto got acquired by Travis Kalanick's Atoms Inc.

The core product is solid and priced fairly

I've spent over a decade telling anyone who'd listen that S3 is not a filesystem, which in retrospect was a really weird way to start some conversations. So when AWS launched S3 Files on Tuesday – which lets you mount an S3 bucket as an NFS share – I did what any reasonable person would do: I spun up an EC2 instance and started trying to break it.…

Attackers slipped into the process and redirected funds, leaving the company scrambling to recover the cash

UK-listed oil and gas outfit Zephyr Energy plc has admitted a cyber incident siphoned off roughly £700,000 after a single payment to a contractor was quietly redirected to an attacker-controlled account.…

The city of Santa Cruz will celebrate the completion of the Wharf End Interim Repairs project, reopening of the southern end of the Santa Cruz Wharf to the public. 

Construction began on Nov 25, 2025 after winter storm damage in 2024. 

The celebration is scheduled for April 29, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., on the south end of the wharf.

The repairs mark a milestone in maintaining one of Santa Cruz’s most iconic community spaces.

“The wharf is where our community comes together to connect, enjoy the coast, and experience everything that makes Santa Cruz special,” parks and recreation director Tony Elliot said. “These repairs ensure this space remains accessible, welcoming, and resilient for years to come.” 

For more information about the Santa Cruz Wharf, ongoing improvements, and upcoming events, visit www.santacruzca.gov/wharf. 

The post Santa Cruz to celebrate completion of wharf repairs appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

The Santa Cruz County housing market began to heat up in March, as usual, with home sales and inventory both ticking up noticeably. Realtors say that some high-end buyers have shifted their perspective, opting to take out mortgages instead of paying all cash, in order to maintain their liquidity among geopolitical and economic uncertainties.

The post Santa Cruz County home sales tick up as more look to invest in real estate appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

OPINION: While Pleasure Point’s female surfer statue has broad support, Nikki Hotvedt takes issue with the proposed location and a process she says has moved forward too quickly.

The post The last patch of old Santa Cruz dirt: Pleasure Point’s female surf statue is kicking up a community dilemma appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

DSIT hiring directors general with packages reaching £260K plus pension

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is recruiting three directors general to lead aspects of the UK government's digital work, all on pay in excess of the prime minister's salary.…

As if the backlog, the bugs, and the chatbot fixes weren't enough

Capita has limited the online functionality of its Civil Service Pensions Scheme (CSPS) member portal after confirming an "issue" briefly exposed the personal data of public sector workers.…

Home Office hopes tech will help cops target hotspots as ministers push to halve offenses

The British government is spending £15 million over the next three years to improve crime mapping in England and Wales, partly to allow more targeted policing of knife crime.…

Court of Appeal hearing in ValueLicensing dispute may shape parallel proceedings

The Microsoft and ValueLicensing legal tussle will enter an appeals phase this month, attracting the attention of a multibillion-pound class action against the Windows giant.…

Even fitness equipment is vulnerable to mischief makers these days

PWNED  Welcome back to Pwned, the column where we share war stories from IT soldiers who shot themselves – or watched someone else shoot themselves – in the foot. Today's tale shows that even when you're setting up something as simple as fitness gear, there's no excuse for leaving security credentials lying around.…

The time is maybe

Quantum computing exists in a sort of superposition with regard to cryptography – it's both a pending threat and a technology of no immediate consequence for decryption.…

At a Nowruz celebration in Santa Cruz, Iranian students shared food, tradition, and quiet fears—caught between war abroad and uncertainty at home.

Watsonville Police respond to a three-vehicle crash Wednesday on Green Valley Road at Freedom Boulevard. Watsonville Police said that around 2:50pm a man driving a Honda Accord (right) southbound on Green Valley Road appeared to have lost control of his sedan and plowed into the front end of a Mazda sedan with a male driver at the entrance to Taco Bell. The Mazda was then shoved into a GMC Acadia SUV with a male driver. While the Honda driver suffered major injuries, the Mazda driver had minor injuries and the GMC driver was not hurt. The incident is still under investigation.

You were the chosen one! It was said that you would destroy the proprietary models, not join them!

Nearly two years after extolling the virtues of open source AI, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is singing a different tune. …

South Korea’s biggest theme park is also riding the VM migration roller coaster

Western Union has commenced a migration from VMware to Nutanix after deciding it didn’t want to do business with Broadcom.…