Latest news with #Kafka
Time of India
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Kaiju No. 8 season 2 release date and streaming platforms confirmed: Anime fans rejoice, call it 'better than Solo Leveling'
Kaiju No. 8 season 2 release date and streaming platforms confirmed: After months of anticipation, Kaiju No. 8 fans finally have something solid to look forward to. The anime's official website and social media accounts confirmed that season 2 is coming this July, which is sooner than fans had expected. The second season will stream globally, just like the first, with Crunchyroll and X carrying the episodes outside of Japan. Along with an announcement, a powerful new key visual showing the Defense Force in full action mode was also released. A look back at Kaiju No. 8's story Based on Naoya Matsumoto's manga, Kaiju No. 8 follows Kafka Hibino, a man who once dreamed of fighting Kaiju but ended up working as part of a clean-up crew instead. His childhood promise to Mina Ashiro, now a Captain in the Defense Force, has long since faded but a chance encounter with a determined recruit named Reno Ichikawa brings back his almost dead passion. What Kafka doesn't expect is the transformation he undergoes, turning into a half-Kaiju himself. As season 1 ended, Kafka's secret was exposed, and he was recruited on a probationary basis to help the Defense Force, which is keeping a very close eye on whether his monstrous side will go out of control. When is Kaiju No. 8 season 2 coming out? Mark your calendars. Kaiju No. 8 season 2 officially premieres on July 19, and for the fans who have been keeping score, that's right in the thick of the Summer 2025 anime season. Where to watch Kaiju No. 8 season 2? The show will air in Japan and stream globally at the same time via Crunchyroll and X. In addition, a new original episode titled Hoshina's Day Off will premiere ahead of the new season on July 5, 2025, as part of the pre-season lead-up. That special was previously screened during the Kaiju No. 8: Mission Recon event but is now getting a proper broadcast release, at least in Japan and on X. Fans can't wait to dive back in Reactions of fans have been overwhelmingly positive, with many calling Kaiju No. 8 one of the best action anime in recent years. One user chimed in, 'Better story than Solo Leveling, tbh,' while another excitedly mentioned listening to OneRepublic's Invincible, already treating it like the season 2 soundtrack. The sentiment is clear—viewers are hyped, and July can't come soon enough. 'Eagerly waiting for it,' wrote one fan, while another added, 'About time, one of the best I've seen.' What to expect from Kaiju No. 8 season 2 With Kafka now officially part of the Defense Force, even though he's under a close watch. Season 2 is expected to pick up directly where the first left off, diving straight into the conflict as the Kaiju threat escalates. With Ichiro Okouchi writing the scripts and Shigeyuki Miya directing, the team at Production I.G. looks locked in to deliver something even more intense and character-driven. If the new key visual is anything to go by, we're about to see the Defense Force operating at full strength—and Kafka walking a tightrope between saviour and threat. If you haven't watched season 1 yet, now's the time to catch up. July isn't far off, and from the looks of it, Kaiju No. 8 season 2 is going to be bigger and better than ever. To stay updated on the stories that are going viral, follow Indiatimes Trending.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The best recent translated fiction
The Propagandist by Cécile Desprairies, translated by Natasha Lehrer (Swift, £14.99) This clever and vivid book by a historian of Vichy France falls somewhere between autobiographical novel and fictionalised memoir. It opens as a colourful story based on the author's family: her grandmother's morphine addiction, her aunt Zizi's vanity (she 'boasted that all she kept in her refrigerator were beauty products'), and her mother's reluctance to talk about the past. But what were grandmother and Zizi doing in the pages of Nazi propaganda magazine Signal? The narrator learns her family were 'Nazi sympathisers', though the phrase hardly captures the zeal of her mother Lucie's support. The details are shocking: to Lucie and her lover, 'mice, rats and Jews were basically the same', and she has no regrets after the war. 'If all the French had been on the right side, Germany would have won.' Their blinkered support has lessons for today, too. 'What does it matter if something is true or false,' asks one character, 'if you believe it to be true?' Lovers of Franz K by Burhan Sönmez, translated by Sami Hêzil (Open Borders, £12.99) Nazi-supporting parents feature in this novel too, set in West Berlin in 1968, the year of revolutionary protests around the world. A young man of Turkish descent faces off against a police commissioner. Ferdy Kaplan is under investigation for killing a student – but his intended target was Max Brod, the executor of Franz Kafka's estate who published Kafka's work against his wishes. Police suspect Ferdy had an antisemitic motive against the Jewish Brod, 'influenced by [his parents'] ideas'. There's a Kafkaesque quality to the interrogation – 'It is our job to assume the opposite of what you tell us,' the police say – but Kurdish author Sönmez is really interested in the question of who owns literature. Was Brod right to publish? Would Kafka be unknown if he hadn't? The dialogue-led approach makes the book punchy and fast-moving, and brings some surprising twists before the end. Back in the Day by Oliver Lovrenski, translated by Nichola Smalley (Hamish Hamilton, £14.99) Sixteen-year-old Ivor is a typical schoolboy in Norway: 'every day sitting in the same classroom, getting smart, creating chaos' and torn between 'the side of me that wanted to do good things, and the other side saying, chill man, no stress'. That other side tends to win, as he and his friends Marco, Jonas and Arjan get up to antics that may need further translation for middle-aged readers: 'bunn a zoot', 'we blazed some lemon haze', 'we rocked up like we was about to harvest some bamboo'. But amid the intensity of young male friendship, there's love, family loyalty and vulnerability. 'Sometimes you hang the biggest towel you can find over the mirror [cos] you wanna smash the face of the brother staring back at you.' The energy and richness of this novel would be impressive, even if Lovrenski hadn't been only 19 years old when he wrote it. Waist Deep by Linea Maja Ernst, translated by Sherilyn Hellberg (Jonathan Cape, £14.99) Five friends, one week, a summerhouse: sounds like a dream – which could become a nightmare. 'It'll be like our own clever talk show, fabulous and never-ending,' says one character. Danish debut novelist Ernst delineates her characters snappily, from Esben, an experimental poet who went commercial with a novel about his mother, to Gry, who 'hasn't eaten any carbohydrates in three weeks'. But what brings the friends together and drives them apart is sex. Central to this is 'confused' Sylvia, who enjoys being dominated by her 'dreamboat' girlfriend Charlie: 'She has been a jug full of dark, heavy liquid, and now the jug is broken', is her description of being brought to orgasm. But Sylvia also gets angry at the 'vanilla hetero-banality' of the other happily settled couples. The novel is operatic in its emotional intensity and its surprise pairings, but ultimately a lament for lost youth. 'Weren't they true radicals just a second ago?' wonders Sylvia. Weren't we all?
India.com
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- India.com
6 Best Works of Franz Kafka: Stories That Changed Modern Literature
photoDetails english 2908398 Franz Kafka, is renowned for his exploration of themes like alienation, existential anxiety, and the absurdity of bureaucracy. His distinct, surreal style often called "Kafkaesque" is evident in works such as The Metamorphosis, The Trial, The Castle, and In the Penal Colony. Scroll to read more about him. Updated:May 30, 2025, 03:23 PM IST About Kafka 1 / 7 Franz Kafka was born on 3rd July, 1833 in Prague, Czechia. His work explores themes of alienation, existential dread, and oppressive bureaucracy. Kafka's writing style is marked by dark humor, and nightmarish scenarios, often referred to as "Kafkaesque'. The Metamorphosis 2 / 7 This iconic novel was published in 1915, The story shows the tension between individual identity and societal roles. The protagonist's emotional journey highlights the cruelty of conditional love and the deep human need for understanding. The Castle 3 / 7 This novel was published in 1926 in an unfinished book, The novel delves into themes of bureaucracy, alienation, and the search for meaning. Kafka portrays a confusing, indifferent system that frustrates K's, the protagonist's every effort. In The Penal Colony 4 / 7 Published in 1919, this short story examines themes of justice, punishment, and blind adherence to tradition. Kafka's storytelling triggers discomfort and contemplation, using stark imagery and ethical ambiguity to challenge the reader's sense of fairness and authority. The Trial 5 / 7 This amazing novel was published in 1925. The book explores existential anxiety, powerlessness, and the human longing for clarity and justice. The protagonist, Josef K., is arrested and prosecuted by a mysterious and inaccessible legal system. The charges against him are never revealed. Letters to Milena 6 / 7 These deeply personal letters offer a rare glimpse into Kafka's emotional world. Addressed to Milena Jesenská, his beloved, they reveal themes of longing, vulnerability, love, and spiritual connection and the fact that despite their intimacy, Kafka and Milena never lived together which makes these letters more intimate. The Hunger Artist 7 / 7 Published in 1922, is a short story that follows a professional artist who performs public fasting as an art form. Over time, audiences lose interest in his act, and he is forgotten by his audience. The story explores themes of isolation, misunderstood artistry, and existential longing.
Hans India
5 days ago
- Business
- Hans India
How Ashok Choppadandi's Data Architecture Transformed a $28B Financial Institution
In today's hyper-competitive financial landscape, data is more than a business asset—it's a strategic differentiator. Few embody this principle better than Ashok Choppadandi, whose architectural leadership at a $28 billion U.S. regional bank catalysed one of the most transformative digital journeys in modern banking. Before Choppadandi's involvement, the bank was grappling with deep-rooted inefficiencies: over 40 fragmented systems across business lines, inconsistent customer experiences, and compliance processes riddled with manual effort. 'The bank had accumulated a patchwork of legacy systems through years of growth and acquisitions,' Choppadandi recalls. 'This created blind spots that affected everything from customer service to regulatory compliance.' Recognising the urgent need for change, Choppadandi led the design and implementation of a cloud-native, intelligent data ecosystem that would redefine both the institution's internal operations and its external reputation. Built on Snowflake, AWS S3, and Kafka, with business-specific data marts and governed by Collibra and Coalesce low-code ELT tooling, the new architecture was a leap toward real-time, customer-centric banking. 'We designed the system with both current and future requirements in mind,' he explains. 'It had to meet regulatory frameworks like CECL, AML, and Basel III, but also empower agile decision-making and customer personalisation.' At the core of this transformation was Data Vault 2.0 modeling, enabling a flexible and scalable data warehouse. Kafka streaming pipelines delivered real-time insights across functions, while an ambitious data governance initiative enforced over 1,500 data quality rules and complete lineage mapping. But perhaps the most pioneering element was Choppadandi's application of Data Reliability Engineering (DRE). 'We treated data platforms as living environments,' he says. 'Our self-healing architecture could detect and resolve anomalies before they affected operations, driving resiliency and trust.' The results were nothing short of extraordinary. A unified Customer 360 platform enhanced relationship banking, regulatory reviews found zero compliance gaps, and platform resiliency soared. Real-time insights accelerated decisions across departments, and automated governance reduced both risk and cost. The transformation's impact extended well beyond the institution. 'The solutions we developed weren't just about one bank,' Choppadandi reflects. 'We were creating blueprints that address industry-wide challenges—trust, transparency, compliance, and customer focus.' Today, those architectural patterns are part of peer-reviewed publications and industry reference models, establishing Choppadandi as a thought leader in financial data innovation. His work didn't just change one bank's future—it helped define a new era for data-driven banking.
Cision Canada
5 days ago
- Business
- Cision Canada
Zilliz Introduces Zero-Downtime Migration Services for Seamless Unstructured Data & Vector Embeddings Transfers
New solutions eliminate friction, enabling effortless portability of unstructured data and embeddings across systems — with no downtime, no vendor lock-in, and no added cost. REDWOOD CITY, Calif., May 29, 2025 /CNW/ -- Zilliz, creator of the world's most widely adopted open-source vector database, Milvus, introduced a powerful new set of Migration Services designed to make moving unstructured data and vector embeddings between platforms fast, reliable, and cost-free. These solutions eliminate the technical and operational barriers that typically slow down AI data infrastructure modernization. "Organizations working with unstructured data for AI applications face migration challenges that traditional ETL pipelines simply can't solve," said James Luan, VP of Engineering at Zilliz. "Our new tools provide the missing infrastructure layer — making it easy to migrate from Elasticsearch to Milvus, consolidate across multiple vector stores, or move to Zilliz Cloud with zero disruption." Breaking Down Migration Barriers for Unstructured Data Unstructured data — including images, text, audio, and video — now accounts for over 90% of enterprise data. As organizations turn this data into vector embeddings, they run into major roadblocks: Format Variety: Unstructured data exists in diverse formats (JSON, CSV, Parquet, images, etc.), requiring specialized processing System Fragmentation: Business information is scattered across S3, HDFS, Kafka, data warehouses, and data lakes Vendor Lock-in Risks: Moving vector embeddings between databases often creates technical dependencies and potential vendor lock-in Complex Transformations: Converting unstructured data requires AI model integration for embedding generation and schema mapping Two Flexible Options for Every Environment Zilliz offers Migration Services that directly respond to these challenges through two complementary deployment options: Zilliz Migration Service provides a free, fully managed solution with zero configuration requirements and zero downtime. This service handles all aspects of migration while maintaining continuous synchronization between source and target systems. Vector Transport Service (VTS), available as open-source software, offers the same capabilities for organizations that require self-hosted deployments in secure or air-gapped environments. Purpose-Built for AI and Vector Workloads Both solutions deliver essential features specifically designed for unstructured data and vector embeddings: Zero-Downtime Migrations: Continuous synchronization keeps applications running seamlessly during transitions Broad Source Compatibility: Support for Elasticsearch, Pinecone, Qdrant, PostgreSQL, Milvus, and more Flexible Migration Modes: Options for one-time batch imports or real-time streaming synchronization Purpose-Built for Unstructured Data and Vector Embeddings: Specialized handling with schema mapping and transformations Enterprise-Grade Reliability: Designed for massive datasets with robust monitoring and alerting Empowering Data Freedom Across Industries Organizations across sectors are already using Zilliz Migration Services to transform their AI infrastructure: A global retailer migrated 200 million product embeddings from Elasticsearch to Zilliz Cloud, improving search accuracy by 40% while cutting infrastructure costs in half A healthcare organization moved patient data vectors between systems while maintaining strict HIPAA compliance A financial services provider eliminated vendor dependency by moving to an open-source foundation while maintaining continuous operation "Migrating between platforms without rebuilding pipelines from scratch is a game-changer for our AI strategy," said one customer. "What would have taken months of engineering was completed in days, allowing us to focus on innovation rather than infrastructure management." Availability Zilliz's new migration solutions are now generally available: Zilliz Migration Service: Available as a free, fully managed service within Zilliz Cloud Vector Transport Service: Available as open-source software under the Apache 2.0 license at For more information about Zilliz Migration Services, visit or contact support. About Zilliz Zilliz is an American SaaS company that builds next-generation vector database technologies, helping organizations unlock the value of unstructured data and rapidly develop AI and machine learning applications. By simplifying complex data infrastructure, Zilliz brings the power of AI within reach for enterprises, teams, and individual developers alike. Zilliz offers a fully managed, multi-cloud vector database service powered by open-source Milvus, supporting major cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, and Azure, and is available across more than 20 countries and regions. Headquartered in Redwood Shores, California, Zilliz is backed by leading investors including Aramco's Prosperity7 Ventures, Temasek's Pavilion Capital, Hillhouse Capital, 5Y Capital, Yunqi Partners, Trustbridge Partners, and others.
