The Nephilim and the Flood
The Nephilim and the Flood
Who are the Nephilim and what do they represent? Are they biblical giants? What does the term literally translate to, and why does the brief mention of them in the Book of Genesis show resemblance to other mythologies? The Nephilim have been a topic of great controversy. Many scholars, both independent and accredited, have dedicated much of their lives to answer these questions. It wasn’t until the discovery and translation of the Book of 1Enoch that we were finally given a better understanding of these Nephilim, but is it a proper understanding?
This detailed analysis will incorporate the theology during the proposed time of writing for the verses, grammatical study in Hebrew and Aramaic word forms, and even external influences that would have played a role in the region.
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20-Year Old Title’s Sudden Surge in Player Count Can Put Major AAA Workhorses Like Starfield to Shame
20-Year Old Title’s Sudden Surge in Player Count Can Put Major AAA Workhorses Like Starfield to Shame
There are many games that have risen to huge fame during their initial phases but later faded away as time went on. Starfield is a recent example of it. This space exploration title from Bethesda busted into the scene at the very beginning but then eventually ******* to hold on to its consumers.
Starfield was released on September 6, 2023. | Credit: Bethesda.
There are other games like Baldur’s Gate 3, which still hold the heavy ground with its huge player base. Despite being a one-year-old title, this Larian Studios game still jacks more than 50k concurrent players. However, there is a 20-year-old game that is still dominating the Steam charts.
Half-Life 2‘s Unexpected Player Surge Puts Starfield Into Shame
Half-Life 2 was released on November 16, 2004. | Credit: Valve.
Half-Life 2 was released more than two decades ago. The game initially got huge popularity for its exciting FPS gameplay. This title combines *********, puzzles, and storytelling all into one. Being a 20-year-old game, it was bound to lose its aura and it did. But this first-person shooter remained one of the all-time classics.
However, recently the game has gotten a sudden burst of response from the players. As per SteamDB, the game right now boasts over 30k concurrent players with a 24-hour peak of 64.085 players. Not only that, this also marks the game’s all-time peak, which was reached 18 hours ago (at the time of writing this article).
The game has got a surge of a staggering 96.37% suddenly in terms of concurrent player base. In 2012, 2020, and 2022, the game got several spikes in its player base, but these three don’t come close to the surge it got 18 hours ago.
This incredible feat puts Starfield to shame. This Bethesda space exploration title was released in September 2023 and gathered a huge player base in the initial part of its journey, with a peak of over 330k players.
Surprisingly, the game has stumbled so hard that only 2,579 players are playing it right now (as per SteamDB). Baldur’s Gate 3 is another title that is still massively popular despite being released around the same time as Starfield.
Half-Life 2: Episode 3 – New Footage Showcased
Half-Life 2 has recently completed its 20-year anniversary. | Credit: Valve.
In addition to giving the game away for free for a short time, Valve recently released a documentary tracing the development of the renowned first-person shooter in honor of Half-Life 2‘s 20th anniversary. The company also shows off tidbits of a much-anticipated project that never materialized—Half-Life 2: Episode 3—during that documentary.
Additionally, Valve has unveiled brand-new, never-before-seen footage of the shelved project in the documentary. It introduces a brand-new shapeshifting ****** type that resembles a blob and has the ability to split into smaller versions of itself or move through grates. Additionally displayed was a brand-new ******* known as the Ice ****, which performed precisely as its name implied.
Members of the development team for Episode 3 disclose in the documentary that Valve had created several game levels prior to the project being halted so the team could assist in finishing the development of Left 4 *****. However, Valve leadership, including Gabe Newell, concluded that it was too late to go back to Half-Life 2: Episode 3 by the time that was finished.
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Xiaomi Said to Replace GetApps With PhonePe’s Indus Appstore in India
Xiaomi Said to Replace GetApps With PhonePe’s Indus Appstore in India
Xiaomi will likely soon discontinue its GetApps app store for Indian users. Although the company has yet to officially announce the store’s discontinuation, information regarding the same has surfaced online. The ******** smartphone maker is said to replace the app store with Indus Appstore, an Android-based mobile app marketplace by PhonePe. The Indian digital payment platform introduced the storefront in the country in February. Indus Appstore supports English and 12 Indian regional languages.
Xiaomi to Replace GetApps With PhonePe’s Indus Appstore in India
According to an X post by user Aryan Gupta (@SavageAryan007), Xiaomi has begun notifying Indian users about PhonePe replacing its GetApps store. The move will affect Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco devices purchased in the country. The post claims that some Xiaomi users in India have started receiving a notification about the impending change within the GetApps store.
MAJOR NEWS: Xiaomi is phasing out and removing GetApps for Indian users!
Some users (including me on my Xiaomi 14) have received this notice within the GetApps store on Xiaomi phones.
Here are the changes:
Indian users will no longer get GetApps on existing and future… pic.twitter.com/tP6gcMzXhj
— Aryan Gupta (@SavageAryan007) November 15, 2024
The post shared a screengrab of the notification, which suggests that Xiaomi users in the country will not have access to the GetApps store from January 2025. The marketplace is said to be replaced by the Indus Appstore, which was introduced by PhonePe on February 21 this year. The transition is expected to trim down bloatware on Xiaomi phones.
The screenshot of the notification suggests that Xiaomi users in India need not take any action for the transition. As per the notification, the GetApps team will continue to provide installation and support services for apps under the moniker of “Indus Services App”.
The Indus Appstore is available in English and 12 Indian regional languages like Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, and more. The app storefront launched with 200,000 apps, including several thousand games. App listings on the developer platform will be free for the first year, however, an annual fee will be charged thereafter. Additionally, PhonePe announced that the marketplace would not impose any platform fees or commissions on developers for in-app payments if they use separate payment gateways.
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What travelers need to know about Spirit Airlines’ bankruptcy
What travelers need to know about Spirit Airlines’ bankruptcy
A passenger waits for assistance at the Spirit Airlines check-in counter in the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on November 13, 2024 in Austin, Texas.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images
Spirit Airlines has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, becoming the first major U.S. passenger carrier to do so since ********* Airlines 13 years ago.
The budget-travel icon is not shutting down, however. The filing will buy Spirit time and protection to restructure so the carrier can continue flying and bringing in sorely needed cash.
CEO Ted Christie wrote to customers on Monday to reassure them that they can continue to book flights and use loyalty points or credits normally.
Here’s what travelers need to know:
Why did Spirit file for bankruptcy?
Spirit Airlines has been losing money since 2019, but its financial woes worsened after the pandemic, when industry costs climbed, dozens of its Airbus jets were grounded because of an engine recall and a federal judge blocked Spirit’s planned acquisition by JetBlue Airways.
The airline had struggled to renegotiate its $1.1 billion in debt payments due next year. A deadline at the end of the year tied to its credit-card processing agreement was fast approaching.
Spirit said Monday that it has reached a prearranged deal with the majority of its bondholders for a “streamlined” Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection plan. It expects to exit that process in the first quarter of 2025.
Is my flight still happening?
Filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection doesn’t mean the airline will cease operations. Rather, it gives the airline protection to reorganize its business, which often means shedding assets or parts of its operation.
“From a consumer standpoint, you’ll need to pay attention if Spirit makes any schedule changes or if they’re going to get rid of any aircraft, lay off any pilots and flight attendants — that will affect the traveling public,” said Henry Harteveldt, founder of travel consulting firm Atmosphere Research Group.
The carrier is likely to keep as much of its schedule as possible in place for the holiday season, when airlines generate a lot of revenue during the popular travel *******, but additional cuts are likely not far behind.
What am I entitled to if Spirit cancels my flight?
Under U.S. rules, airline customers are entitled to a cash refund if the airline cancels their flight and they’re not rebooked. Spirit Airlines said Monday that plans to continue flying and CEO Ted Christie tried to reassure customers, whose bookings will bring in needed cash during the peak holiday season.
However, the DOT warns that bankruptcy protection could make getting a refund *******.
“If the airline or ticket agent has filed for bankruptcy, the company may be temporarily prohibited from providing refunds and/or vouchers — for example, to conserve assets,” according to its website.
The agency says that if an airline that has filed for bankruptcy protection refuses to refund you for a canceled or significantly changed flight, your credit card could provide one under the Fair Credit Billing Act.
Even if you get a refund, however, buying a ticket last minute to replace your original flight could be costly due to high demand and scarce seats. Harteveldt recommends always buying airline tickets with a credit card, which affords customers more cancellation protections than debit cards or cash. Travelers can also book a refundable ticket on another carrier if they are worried, though that can be very costly, too.
Travel insurance might also cover pre-paid expenses if bankruptcy alters airline flights.
What happens next?
This ******** to be seen. Spirit expects to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the first quarter of next year. Airlines can emerge from this process smaller, more cost-efficient airlines. Other airlines, short on airplanes, could scoop up some of Spirit’s assets.
Spirit had a deal to merge with fellow discounter Frontier before JetBlue swooped in with a rival bid. Frontier and Spirit could attempt a combination again, especially since some industry members think the incoming Trump administration will be relatively friendly toward deal-making.
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Report: Back 4 Blood 2 in Development Under Codename "Gobi 2"
Report: Back 4 Blood 2 in Development Under Codename "Gobi 2"
Back 4 Blood 2 seems to be in development at Turtle Rock Studios with the working codename title of “Gobi 2”
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Lend me your ears: great Shakespearean actors given hi-tech talking portraits | Theatre
Lend me your ears: great Shakespearean actors given hi-tech talking portraits | Theatre
Great actors have always attracted artists. I think of Edmund Kean looking wild-eyed and demonic as Sir Giles Overreach painted by George Clint; Ellen Terry as a green-gowned Lady Macbeth preserved by John Singer Sargent; and Ruskin Spear’s study in oils of Laurence Olivier as a tormented, guilt-haunted Macbeth. For well over a century, it has also been possible to record the voices of our leading actors. But what would happen if image and sound were combined?
One answer is to be found in a ******** new exhibition called The Shakespeare Portraits on view at the Red Eight Gallery, which can be found in the City of London’s Cornhill alongside the Royal Exchange. The show consists of 10 digital portraits of living actors accompanied by speeches from Shakespeare plays. I can best explain by example. I sat beneath a large, framed image of Ian McKellen and as I spoke to the exhibition’s creative director, Arsalan Sattari-Hicks, I realised that Sir Ian’s head was occasionally moving, that his gaze was subtly shifting and his features expressing a variety of emotions. At one point I even heard him speaking a fragment of “All the world’s a stage” from As You Like It with characteristic virtuosity. Richard Brierley, the gallery’s director, put it succinctly when he told me: “Normally the portrait is passive and you are the active one. In this case the portrait is active and you are passive.”
The eyes have it … Juliet Stevenson’s portrait. Photograph: Stageblock
I would qualify this by saying the modulations in the sitter’s movements are so nuanced as to be often barely perceptible and that the speeches can be activated by the viewer through the press of a button. But the total effect is uncanny and I was intrigued as to how it was done. I was told that Sattari-Hicks and a small crew would record the sitter in a studio using a state-of-the-art camera and then refine the images through hours of post-production. The spoken texts were chosen by the actors in collaboration with the Shakespeare director Ron Daniels, who curated the finished version. Given the actors’ vast experience, that process was usually done in an hour and 20 minutes.
I was struck by the intimacy of the experience. The actors’ faces are seen in close-up as if they had suddenly materialised on the gallery walls. And the texts are spoken in a way that adds to the pervading quietude. Patrick Stewart takes the St Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V and strips it of rhetoric to show us a man, on the eve of battle, talking to other men: when he suggests that Crispin’s feast will be remembered “from this day to the ending of the world” he does so with modest certainty whereas Olivier on film famously sent the line soaring upwards to the heavens.
In the midst of “To be or not to be” Derek Jacobi inserts a prolonged pause after the lines “To ****, to sleep”, pondering the implication of each word. Harriet Walter as Prospero in The Tempest leaves us in no doubt as to the character’s awesome power stressing the key verb in “I have bedimmed the noontide sun”: this, you realise, is a magician who has not only raised the ***** from their graves but also created darkness at noon.
Impressive roster … Juliet Stevenson, Derek Jacobi, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Harriet Walter and Charles Dance. Photograph: Stageblock
The big question is what happens next? The 10 portraits on show are unique collectables which will be on ***** to individuals or institutions. But they are the work of a company, StageBlock, co-founded by Sattari-Hicks and Francesco Pierangeli, which has ambitious plans for the future. They are already planning a second volume of Shakespeare Portraits to be recorded in the new year. They also dream of extending the idea of living portraits to other writers and other cultures and of ploughing 10% of the money from placements and exhibitions back into the performing arts.
Given the impressive roster of names in the first exhibition – which also includes David Suchet, Juliet Stevenson, Adrian Lester, Simon Callow, Charles Dance and Frances Barber – there is a good chance that profits will ensue. It’s a bold, visionary new idea for the digital age but I hope it won’t stifle the talent of the individual portraitist. I cherish the notion of, say, Salvador Dalí’s painting of Olivier as Richard III hanging on a gallery wall alongside the mesmerising image of McKellen looking on at one in watchful fascination.
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Monday’s biggest analyst calls like Nvidia
Monday’s biggest analyst calls like Nvidia
Here are Monday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Oppenheimer reiterates Netflix as outperform Oppenheimer said the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson ****** “demonstrates [the] ability for meaningful” live event viewership for Netflix. “While the press will focus on the technical bandwidth issues and customer complaints, our guess is that viewing was likely ~2x internal expectations, a high quality problem than can be easily fixed by Christmas Day.” Citi initiates Astera Labs as by Citi said it’s bullish on the AI/Cloud infrastructure company.” “We initiate coverage of ALAB with a Buy rating and $120 target price.” Goldman Sachs initiates Ingram Micro as buy Goldman said the IT solutions provider is well positioned. “We initiate coverage of Ingram Micro (INGM) with a Buy rating and a 12-month target price of $33.” Goldman Sachs initiates Gatx as buy Goldman said it’s bullish on the railcar company. “We initiate coverage of GATX Corporation with a Buy rating and $185 12-month price target.” RBC initiates TechnipFMC as buy RBC said the oil and gas company is well positioned for shareholder returns. “TechnipFMC’s ability to convert its record $14.7bn backlog into profitability and grow shareholder returns underpins the company’s strong medium-term outlook.” UBS initiates Franco-Nevada and Wheaton Precious Metals a buy The firm said it’s bullish on the metals companies. “We initiate coverage with Buys on WPM & FNV as we think they offer lower risk, more reliable leverage to gold price upside and organic growth.” HSBC upgrades Moderna to buy from hold HSBC said the biotech company is undervalued. “We think there is a good opportunity for Moderna’s pipeline to support the back-to-growth story and view it as currently undervalued.” Baird upgrades Roku to outperform from neutral Baird said in its upgrade of Roku that it sees an “attractive long-term opportunity.” ” ROKU is down 25% YTD vs. S & P 500 +23%. Historically, we have been hesitant regarding the company’s ********** in a rapidly evolving streaming landscape – but we now think shares are overlooking the meaningful changes in the business and the attractive long-term opportunity.” Morgan Stanley upgrades Futu to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said it’s bullish on the Asia brokerage and wealth management company. “We upgrade Futu to OW – we view the recent correction as a good entry point for its long-term growth potential from overseas franchise expansion.” UBS upgrades Air Products to buy from neutral UBS said it sees a rerating for the air product and chemical company. “We upgrade APD stock to Buy. We lift our FY25/26 adj EPS and are now 1%/5% above consensus.” Raymond James upgrades Hewlett Packard Enterprise to strong buy from outperform Raymond James said in its upgrade of the stock that it sees an “expanding multiple and server growth.” “We upgrade HP Enterprise to Strong Buy from Outperform. We have refined our model to break out AI platforms and traditional servers, and this leads us to increase our FY25 sales estimates.” Goldman Sachs downgrades Redfin to sell from neutral Goldman said in its downgrade of the online real estate company that it sees rising competition. “We downgrade Redfin ( RDFN) to Sell from Neutral with a new 12-month target price of $6.50 (v. $6.00 prior).” Wells Fargo upgrades CVS to overweight from equal weight Wells said the “aggressive growth strategies” have “likely peaked.” “We are upgrading CVS to Overweight from Equal Weight and increasing our PT to $66. We believe the negative consequences of aggressive growth strategies at Aetna have likely peaked and create a compelling investment opportunity.” Needham downgrades Biogen to hold from buy Needham said it sees a lack of upside for the stock. “We are stepping to the sidelines as we do not see a meaningful source of upside for BIIB over the next 12 months.” Bank of America reiterates Nvidia as buy The firm said it’s sticking with the stock heading into earnings later this week. ” NVDA reports on Wed with sell-side consensus for FQ3/FQ4 sales at $33.2bn/$37bn, though as usual bullish investors’ expectations likely at least a $1bn+ higher at $34bn/$38-$40bn for FQ3 and FQ4.” Bank of America reiterates Alphabet as buy The firm said it’s bullish on Alphabet search in 2025. “We expect an eventful year for search in 2025, with new competition, remedy ruling in DOJ case, and Google capitalizing on new AI overview format (better results, more ads). For the last three months, Google’s US search share has increased, and the global rollout suggests Google is seeing a positive impact on search share.” BMO upgrades Bright Horizons to outperform from market perform BMO said in its upgrade of the day care company that it sees margin expansion. “We upgrade BFAM to Outperform from Market Perform. The stock has been weak since 3Q24 earnings, while beating expectations, management cited slightly slowing top-line growth which could impede margin expansion.” Loop upgrades Monolithic Power to buy from hold Loop said in its upgrade of Monolithic that investors should buy the dip in the power company. “We are taking the opportunity to up our rating to Buy from Hold. Our PT ******** $660.” Needham upgrades Robin Hood to buy from hold Needham said the stock is a beneficiary of the Trump election. “We are upgrading HOOD to a Buy as Donald Trump’s election win stands to materially benefit the company, primarily via changes at the SEC.” Bernstein reiterates Tesla as underperform The firm said the EV automaker is full-self driving beneficiary under a Trump administration but it’s sticking with its underperform rating. “Trump is anti-EVs, but TSLA is on a tear. Tesla’s stock is up 28% since Trump’s election victory, despite the fact that the new administration will likely end IRA consumer and battery manufacturing tax credits, potentially lower emissions standards and could increase tariffs on ******** batteries.”
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****** Ops 6 Hit List event release date & rewards
****** Ops 6 Hit List event release date & rewards
****** Ops 6 Season 1 has given players plenty of content to dig their teeth into. Not only are there two new weapons and a variety of cosmetic rewards to unlock in the first Battle Pass for the game, but there’s more planned to release throughout ****** Ops 6 Season 1’s duration.
The Hit List event will arrive in BO6 Season 1, and if you’re interested in the details, such as its release date, rewards, and more, here’s everything we know so far.
When is ****** Ops 6 Hit List event?
The ****** Ops 6 Hit List event will arrive on November 21, 2024, at around 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET / 6 PM GMT.
The event tab is now in the game with a countdown to its release, so this is how we know exactly when the limited-time event will be arriving.
What is Hit List event in BO6?
Hit List is a limited-time event coming to ****** Ops 6 during Season 1 and it offers players a chance to earn rewards via in-game challenges.
We don’t yet know what these challenges are, but the blog revealed that the event will give players a “board of contracts” that they will need to take out. Taking out these hit list contracts in-game will grant players exclusive rewards.
****** Ops 6 Hit List event rewards
Credit to Activision.
Call of Duty are yet to reveal the official rewards, but based on the promotional image for the ****** Ops 6 Hit List event, we can assume that players will be working towards earning the following:
Shadow Perk (Strategist)
Sirin 9mm Secondary
Power Drill Melee *******
CoD Points
It seems players will be able to get the new weapons through this event, as well as the new Shadow Perk, which makes you undetectable by ****** traps and mines.
We expect more on top of this, but these are some of the rewards seen in the promotional image for the Hit List event. Previous Call of Duty events have also had cosmetic rewards like Calling Cards, Emblems, and more, so perhaps those will be up for grabs too.
Will you be participating in the Hit List event to earn all the rewards in BO6? Let us know in the Insider Gaming forum.
If you want more guides on ****** Ops 6, be sure to check out how to get the Dragon’s Breath attachment and everything we know about the new Citadelle des Morts Zombies map.
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Samsung might finally launch a Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses rival in 2025
Samsung might finally launch a Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses rival in 2025
The Samsung XR headset project has been an open secret for some time, but a new report suggests it has finally settled on a design we’ll see in 2025. The bad news? It could be landing later in the year than we’d like and might not be as ‘XR’ as we had hoped.
The report is from Wellsen XR Research from China, and has been shared by the likes of Samsung leaker @Jukanlosreve on social media. With the highlight being the Q3 2025 release date (that’ll be July, August, or September). Samsung usually hosts one of its Unpacked events in July for its foldables, so it’s possible it’ll slip its glasses into the mix for 2025 if we’re lucky.
As for what the specs will be capable of, the leaks don’t mention a display and the teased weight doesn’t leave room for one (unless Samsung has developed some super next-gen display tech). Overall, the specs sound remarkably similar to the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses; Samsung’s glasses would apparently also be equipped with a Qualcomm AR 1 chipset, a 12MP camera sensor, and has a 155mAh battery capacity and a 50g weight – compared to Meta’s 154mAh battery and 48g weight.
The only difference this smart glasses clone can claim is it’ll reportedly rely on Google Gemini instead of Meta AI for its AI functionality. Though right now it doesn’t appear one option is significantly better than the other, so the race to the summit of our best smart glasses guide could be a tight one.
No XR, no problem?
(Image credit: Meta)
The lack of displays means these specs wouldn’t really be XR – certainly not in the way the Meta Quest 3 is or the Meta Orion AR Glasses will be.
But it’s not necessarily the end of the world. While wired AR glasses – such as the Xreal Air 2 specs – are a delight, they aren’t faultless. They rinse the battery of the device they’re connected to, and they aren’t smart glasses you wear around casually – they’re best for when you’re sat down and want to watch a movie on a giant virtual screen.
The leaked Samsung glasses, as with the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, are something you wear all the time. And thanks to their solid AI abilities and in-built speakers I’ve been using my pair of Meta glasses a lot more recently and loving it.
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While I’d love Samsung to make an XR headset still, I’m not disappointed to hear they’re working on a different kind of smart glasses. And while all rumors should be taken with a pinch of salt the success of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses (and their lack of competition) does suggest there’s room for some rivals in the space.
We’ll have to wait and see what 2025 brings, but for Samsung it looks like it could be an exciting year with yet another major launch.
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Rates tipped to stay higher despite Aussies cutting back on their spending
Rates tipped to stay higher despite Aussies cutting back on their spending
Aussies are doing what the Reserve Bank of Australia is asking and cutting back on spending, but they might need to wait nine months for a reduction on their mortgage.
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The Feminist Who Inspired the Witches of Oz
The Feminist Who Inspired the Witches of Oz
Every living generation has been petrified by The Wizard of Oz. Early in the 1939 film, a cranky neighbor riding her bicycle through a tornado suddenly transforms into a witch. She soars off on her broomstick, tilting her head back and screaming with laughter as her cloak billows out behind her.
The 1900 book by L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, inspired the film’s theme of good and evil sorcery. All the witches in the story have magical powers. They can fly, materialize at will, and see all things far and near. But while the Witches of the North and South are kind and supportive, the Witches of the East and West are seen as evil. “Remember that the Witch is Wicked—tremendously Wicked—and ought to be *******,” the Great Oz bellows to Dorothy as she heads off to the west.
The backstories of the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good are the subject of the upcoming movie Wicked, based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel and Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz’s 2003 stage musical. The witch, who is unnamed in The Wizard of Oz, has a name in Wicked: Elphaba, an homage to the initials of L. Frank Baum. (His first name, which he rarely used, was Lyman.) But the real-life backstory of the witches of Oz is just as fascinating. It involves a hidden hero of the 19th-century women’s rights movement and the most powerful woman in Baum’s life: his mother-in-law, Matilda Electa Joslyn Gage.
It was likely at Gage’s urging that Baum began submitting his poems and stories to magazines. Gage even suggested putting a cyclone in a children’s story. But she was a notable figure in her own right. As one of the three principal leaders of the women’s rights movement, along with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Gage was known for her ******** views and confrontational approach. At the Statue of Liberty’s unveiling in 1886, she showed up on a cattle barge with a megaphone, shouting that it was “a gigantic lie, a travesty and a mockery” to portray liberty as a woman when actual ********* women had so few rights.
After male critics branded Gage as satanic and a heretic, she became an expert on the subject of witch hunts. Her 1893 manifesto Woman, ******* and State chronicled the five centuries between 1300 and 1800 when tens of thousands of human beings, mostly women, were accused of witchcraft and put to ****** by *****, hanging, ********, drowning or stoning. In one gruesome scene, she described 400 women burning at once in a French public square “for a ****** which never existed save in the imagination of those persecutors and which grew in their imagination from a false belief in woman’s extraordinary wickedness.”
In a still image from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy looks out the window to see her meddling neighbor transformed into the cackling Wicked Witch of the West.
LANDMARK MEDIA / Alamy Stock
Gage ***** two years before the publication of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a story that produced the most enduring image of female wickedness in ********* history. But Baum also introduced the world to a different kind of witch. It was the beautiful and benevolent Glinda, likely inspired by Matilda herself, who showed Dorothy that she always held the power to return home.
Born March 24, 1826, Gage grew up as Matilda Joslyn north of Syracuse, New York, the only child of Helen Leslie and Hezekiah Joslyn, the town physician. The couple gave their daughter an unusual middle name, Electa—a Greek word that meant “elected” or “chosen one.”
Hezekiah Joslyn was a freethinker who taught his daughter that wisdom comes through one’s experiences. Freethinkers of 17th-century Europe challenged ******* authority, demanding the end of medieval witch hunts. Many of those backing the ********* Revolution also called themselves freethinkers, including Thomas Paine, whose 1776 pamphlet, Common Sense, helped instigate independence from England.
Gage’s parents were staunch abolitionists whose home was a station on the Underground Railroad. Escaped enslaved people hid under the floorboards of the kitchen. Gage was home-schooled in Greek, mathematics and physiology. At age 15, she set off for the Clinton ******** Institute, a boarding school that promised an education free of religious dogma. At 18, she married Henry Gage, a merchant and store owner, and they settled in the Syracuse suburb of Fayetteville, where three of their four children were born in the 1840s. Their youngest daughter, Maud, arrived in 1861.
Gage in the 1850s.
Courtesy of Matilda Joslyn Gage Center
Haunted by injustice, Gage only grew fiercer in her thinking. She was furious at an America failing to live up to the ideal of liberty for all expressed in the Declaration of Independence. She was unable to leave her children at home to travel 60 miles to the inaugural 1848 National Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York. But by 1852, when the third convention came to city hall in Syracuse, she was ready to speak her mind to the crowd of 2,000. “There will be a long moral warfare before the citadel yields,” Gage proclaimed. “In the meantime, let us take possession of the outposts. … ***** not any attempt to frown down the revolution.”
Afterward, Gage found herself locked in a war of words with religious leaders. One local minister called the convention “satanic,” while another denounced the women as “infidels.”
After the Civil War, the leaders of the movement formed the National Woman Suffrage Association, with Stanton as president, Anthony as secretary and Gage as chair of the executive committee. On Election Day, 1872, Anthony was arrested and jailed for voting. Gage was by her friend’s side for the trial in Rochester. The judge was “a small-brained, pale-faced, prim-looking man,” Gage wrote. “With remarkable forethought, he had penned his decision before hearing” the case. The resulting publicity made Susan B. Anthony a household name.
After struggling to support his family on the Midwestern plains, Baum found success with his Oz series. The first book was an instant best seller in 1900, and the 13 sequels kept him busy until his ****** in 1919.
Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo
In 1876, a six-month celebration of the centennial of the Declaration of Independence attracted nearly ten million Americans—roughly a quarter of the entire U.S. population—to Philadelphia. The activists petitioned President Grant to make a declaration of their own at the opening ceremony. The request was denied. That wouldn’t stop the suffragists.
At the ceremony, Anthony, Gage and three other leaders lurked behind the press section. Gage clutched a three-foot scroll and marched through the crowd of 150,000 people toward the podium. She passed the document to Anthony, who then placed it into the hands of the master of ceremonies, announcing: “We present to you this Declaration of the Rights of the Women Citizens of the ******* States.” Before the guards could catch them, the suffragists quickly handed out printed copies of the declaration to the reporters in the crowd:
“The women of the ******* States, denied for one hundred years the only means of self-government—the ballot—are political slaves, with greater cause for discontent, rebellion and revolution, than the men of 1776. … We ask justice, we ask equality, we ask that all the civil and political rights that belong to citizens of the ******* States be guaranteed to us and our daughters forever.”
Afterward, the women decided to record their struggles in a book, which eventually ballooned to comprise six volumes. The mammoth undertaking took a decade to finish. Most of the labor was split between Stanton and Gage, who completed the History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I, in 1881.
Artist William Denslow shared the copyright for the first Oz book and was crucial to its success. As Denslow later said, he had to “work out and invent characters, costumes and a multitude of other details.” But he and Baum soon fell out.
Shawshots / Alamy Stock Photo
The book’s publication coincided with Maud Gage’s freshman year at Cornell, the first Ivy League university to become coeducational. Maud resided in the female dormitory, Sage College, a magnificent brick building that still stands on the Ithaca, New York, campus. One Saturday evening in February 1881, the young women of Sage were treated to a lecture by Maud’s mother on the subject of women’s suffrage. “A large audience greeted Mrs. Gage on Saturday evening,” reported the Cornell Daily Sun. “Her discourse was well received.”
Still, Maud had a difficult time at school, left out of social clubs and mocked by college boys. “Her name is Gage and she is lively,” her schoolmate Jessie Mary Boulton wrote home in a letter. “A girl scarcely dares look sideways here. I came to the conclusion long ago that Cornell is no place for lively ******.” When Boulton co-founded a new chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta, the first sorority on an Ivy League campus, Maud was not on the membership rolls. Boulton also joined the Lawn Tennis Club for ladies, again without Maud.
But fate would have its way: The 20-year-old student shared her room with a girl from Syracuse named Josie Baum, who introduced Maud to her cousin Frank, a 25-year-old bachelor, at a family party on Christmas Eve. At the time, Frank Baum was a ******* chicken farmer who was writing and starring in his own touring stage plays. The two hit it off, and after a proper ******* of Victorian-era courtship, Baum proposed marriage.
At first, Gage called her daughter “a darned fool” for wanting to drop out of college to marry this itinerant playwright and actor, a most disreputable profession. Yet a wedding date was set for November 1882. With a string quartet playing, the wedding took place at the Greek Revival home of the Gage family. “The promises required of the bride were precisely the same as those required of the groom,” noted a local newspaper, in apparent surprise. (At the time, it was standard for the bride, but not the groom, to promise to “love and obey.”)
Now a designated New York State commemorative landmark owned and operated by the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, the Gage House serves as a museum and dialogue center hosting programs on social justice led by progressive scholars and activists. One of its advisory board members, feminist icon Gloria Steinem, called Gage “the woman who was ahead of the women who were ahead of their time.”
After the September 1884 ****** of her gentle and solemn husband Henry—an inspiration for the character of Uncle Henry in The Wizard of Oz—Gage threw herself even more fully into her work. Among many other projects, she’d been collaborating with Anthony and Stanton on the first two volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage. In the mid-1880s, though, Anthony came into some money and took over the rights to the series herself, paying Gage and Stanton for their shares.
John Rea Neill took over the imaginative visuals in book two.
Buyenlarge/Getty Images
Meanwhile, Gage was increasingly frustrated by the more ************* leanings of her fellow suffragist leaders. Anthony, in particular, had strong ties with the temperance movement, which blamed alcohol for the bad behavior of men but also had an overtly religious vision for national politics.
Gage disapproved of the alliance between the women’s suffrage movement and the Woman’s ********** Temperance Union, which began in 1874. In 1890, Gage left the National Woman Suffrage Association and founded the Woman’s National ******** Union, which fought for the separation of ******* and state and drew attention to the religious subjugation of women.
As for the young Baums, Frank and Maud rented a house in Syracuse and had the first of their four sons. The new dad brought in steady money as the superintendent and sales manager for Baum’s (pronounced Bom’s) Castorine Company, a family business that created lubricants for buggies and machinery, a firm that still operates out of Rome, New York. Despite the outfit’s success, Baum grew bored. Yet he would never forget his days selling cans of oil, making the item a must-have for the Tin Woodman, who always needs a few drips to avoid rust.
In the 1939 film, the Kansas scenes are sepia-toned, but the Oz scenes were filmed using a new process called three-strip Technicolor.
World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo
Gage corresponded regularly with her son and two other daughters who had settled in the Dakota Territory, joining half a million other Easterners catching “Western fever.” As Baum heard about their lives, he yearned for a more adventurous one. Relocating with his family in 1888 to the new “Hub City” of Aberdeen, in what became South Dakota, he established a novelty shop on its main street called Baum’s Bazaar. The store ******* in just 15 months, as Baum misjudged the clientele, focusing on frivolous toys and games and impractical items like parasols and fancy wicker. “Frank had let his tastes run riot,” wrote sister-in-law Helen, who picked up the leftover inventory for $772.54 but turned her family’s store, renamed Gage’s Bazaar, into a success by selling things people actually needed.
Around the time Baum closed the store in December 1889, Matilda Gage blew in from the East to visit. She’d stay with the Baums every winter for the rest of her life. By early spring, Gage decided that she’d be remaining for the rest of the year. She and her band of suffragists convinced legislators to hold a referendum in the new state of South Dakota on the right to vote for women.
Delegates came to Washington, D.C., from nine different countries for the first meeting of the International Council of Women in 1888. A portrait of conference leaders shows Gage seated, second from right. Susan B. Anthony is seated second from left, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton is seated fourth from left.
LOC / Corbis / VCG via Getty Images
Baum put his remaining cash into another distressed business, buying the weakest newspaper in a town that had several ******* ones. His first editorials for the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer were high-minded. “The key to the success of our country is tolerance,” he wrote. “The ‘live and let live’ policy of the Americans has excited the admiration of the world.” Volunteering as secretary of Aberdeen’s Women’s Suffrage Society, Baum argued that a law giving women the vote was more likely out there, as the West was new and open-minded. Gage barnstormed the state as Baum published editorials: “We are engaged in an equal struggle,” Baum wrote. In the West, he added, “a woman delights in being useful; a young lady’s highest ambition is to become a bread-winner.”
This inclusive spirit was often found in Baum’s early editorials. But on November 4, 1890, everything he advocated was shot down in the election. Baum had written a clever poem endorsing the town of Huron as the new state’s capital. The voters chose Pierre. And at the end of the day, the male voters of South Dakota broke 2 to 1 against the right of women to vote. Aberdeen had also just faced a drought and massive crop ******** that crushed its economy. Failing farmers and merchants were heading back East or on to other boomtowns out West, leaving Baum with worthless credit slips and unpaid expenses.
That drought was felt even more harshly 150 miles away at Standing Rock, the Sioux reservation, where the community of several thousand began to suffer from starvation. As part of a well-documented *********** campaign fueled by the U.S. military, newswire reports warned that an uprising and massacre of the people of Aberdeen was coming. At first Baum tried keeping his readers cool and sensible about this “false and senseless scare.” On November 29, he wrote: “According to the popular rumor, the Indians were expected to drop in on us any day the last week. But as our scalps are still in healthy condition, it is needless for us to remark that we are yet alive.”
Baum lambasted his rival newspapers for printing the worst of the *********** and racism in order to sell newspapers. “Probably papers who have so injured the state by their flashy headlines of Indian uprisings did not think of the results of such action beyond the extra ***** of a few copies of their sheets,” Baum continued in his November 29 editorial.
When U.S. officials ordered the arrest of Chief Sitting Bull in mid-December, newspapers all over the country reported that ********* was likely to break out. Baum got caught up in the issue. “A man in the East can read the papers and light a cigar and say there is no danger,” he wrote, “but put that man and his family on the east bank of the Missouri, opposite Sitting Bull’s camp … he will draw a different picture.”
Maud Gage at Cornell in the 1880s. Over her mother’s objections, she dropped out to marry Baum and travel with his theater troupe.
Courtesy of Matilda Joslyn Gage Center
After police invaded Sitting Bull’s camp on December 15 and shot him as he was trying to escape, wire reports went out far and wide, and Baum printed the headline on December 20: “Expect an ******* at Any Moment. Sitting Bull’s ****** to Be Avenged by a Massacre of ******* in the Near Future.” In this same issue, Baum printed his first of two ******* editorials. Dehumanizing the Native Americans as “whining curs” and “********** wretches,” he called for “the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians.” On December 29, as many as 300 Sioux men, women and children camping by a creek called Wounded Knee were shot ***** by U.S. soldiers. Baum’s editorials put him on the wrong side of history.
There’s no known written record of Gage’s response to this incident. She was living with the Baums at the time, so any exchanges she had with Frank would have happened face-to-face. But his editorials were certainly at odds with her own views. She had the utmost respect for Indigenous communities. After paying several visits to an Iroquois Confederation north of Syracuse, she had concluded that the sexes there were “nearly equal,” and “never was justice more perfect, never civilization higher.” In 1893, she would become an honorary member of the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk Nation and, at the ceremony, receive the name of Ka-ron-ien-ha-wi, roughly translated as She Who Holds the Sky.
By January 1891, Baum seemed to have lost almost everything, including his integrity. His newspaper business collapsed. At the age of 34, he had no job, no career, no prospects, only a damaged reputation.
That spring, the Baum family moved to Chicago, where Frank got a job working for the city’s Evening Post. In this new chapter of his life, he accompanied his mother-in-law to lectures, séances and other gatherings. In September 1892, he became a member of a group called the Theosophical Society. Founded in New York City, the society was led by the Russian mystic Madame Helena Blavatsky. Matilda, a freethinker like her father, had joined the society at a conference in Rochester, New York, in March 1885. The brew of Theosophical beliefs appealed to Gage—the ancient wisdom of Hinduism and Buddhism, combined with other mystical ideas like mediumship and telepathy—and all of it with an emphasis on universal human rights and living a life of nonviolence in both word and deed. A mission statement published by the group’s founders in 1882 defined Theosophy as “a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed or ******.” Gage called Theosophy the “crown blessing” of her life.
Baum was especially interested in Theosophy’s description of the astral plane, a world of emotion and illusion where one’s “astral body” could go for a supernatural experience reached through mental powers. An 1895 book called The Astral Plane: Its Scenery, Inhabitants and Phenomena would become so popular in the family that three copies would circulate among the Baum and Gage households.
Gage’s painting of a hyacinth. At a time when mainstream pharmacists used ingredients like mercury and arsenic, Gage made her own plant remedies.
Courtesy of Matilda Joslyn Gage Center
In 1893, Gage published Woman, ******* and State, her most influential work. Gage called it “a book with a revolution in it.” The 450-page volume put forth the provocative view that ******* and state had been suppressing women for centuries. The book was banned by her nemesis, Anthony Comstock, a U.S. postal inspector and the secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, who called it “salacious” and declared he would bring ********* proceedings against any person who placed it in a public school or sent it through the U.S. mail.
Gage cited passages from the King James ******, such as “though shalt not suffer a witch to live” (Exodus 22:18), showing the link between the preaching of religion and accusations of witchcraft. She traced this misogyny back to the Garden of Eden with the tale of Eve, the trickster serpent and the forbidden fruit. “A system of religion was adopted which taught the greater sinfulness of women,” she asserted, “and the persecution for witchcraft became chiefly directed against women.”
As this view gained traction within the *******, Gage wrote, “a witch was held to be a woman who had deliberately sold herself to the evil one.” Anything could be used as evidence of witchcraft—possessing rare knowledge, having an unusual “witch mark,” suffering from mental illness, owning ****** cats, the use of herbs for healing, performing ****** magic, or having an ability to float or swim. But “those condemned as sorcerers and witches, as ‘heretics,’ were in reality the most advanced thinkers of the ********** ages,” Gage wrote.
She was especially moved by an 1883 gathering in Salem, Massachusetts, for descendants of Rebecca Nurse, one of the best-known women put to ****** in the Salem witch trials of 1692. Nurse was a 70-year-old woman with eight children and, as Gage wrote, “a ******* member of unsullied reputation and devout habit; but all these considerations did not prevent her accusation … and she was hung by the neck till she was *****.”
Gage was promoting her new book when she visited the 1893 Columbian Exposition, a spectacular world’s fair in Chicago. Her son-in-law was covering the sprawling event as a reporter, and he wrote about the light pouring through the walls of windows of the white buildings, so bright that people purchased ******** eyeshades from vendors. This detail would later reappear in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, where all the residents of the Emerald City wear green eyeshades. “Because if you did not wear spectacles the brightness and glory of the Emerald City would ****** you,” Baum would write in the novel. Indeed, the Oz novel’s illustrations would be sketched by William Wallace Denslow, who was drawing splendorous images of the fair’s fanciful architecture for another Chicago paper.
One day, Gage visited the exposition’s Woman’s Building and encountered statues immortalizing her old colleagues Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Seeing the statues only increased her ire at her old colleagues for aligning with the Woman’s ********** Temperance Union. She also felt undervalued as a writer, and she harbored suspicions that Anthony had taken funds from a ****** account to pay her own exorbitant travel expenses. “They have stabbed me in reputation, and Susan, at least, has stolen money from me,” she wrote in a July 1893 letter to her son, Thomas. “They are traitors, also, to woman’s highest needs.”
A military salute at the Statue of Liberty’s 1886 dedication. From a nearby barge, Gage shouted through a megaphone about the lack of liberty for ********* women.
Library of Congress
Gage herself was falling into ********. The cost of publishing and promoting her new book had exceeded its earnings, and she was now in debt. “I like an active life and one with freedom from money troubles,” Gage wrote. “I like to be independent in every way. But fate or Karma is against me.”
In February of 1895, Gage came across a writing contest in the children’s magazine The Youth’s Companion offering a prize of $500 for the best original story. The rich sum (equivalent to more than $18,000 today) seized her attention, and she considered her daughter Helen and son-in-law Frank the family’s best writers. While there are no known records of her in-person conversations with Frank, she likely shared the same ideas she sent Helen in a letter. “Keep in mind it is not a child’s paper but a paper for youth and the older members of the family,” she wrote. “The moral tone and literary character of these stories must be exceptional.”
She encouraged them to write “not narration or passages from history, but stories,” which she defined as tales with “a dramatic arc from the beginning to the end.” Gage went so far as to suggest a topic: “If you could get up a series of adventures or a Dakota blizzard adventure where a heroic teacher saves children’s lives.” Or, she added, “bring in a cyclone,” perhaps recalling a true twister story of a house rising off its foundation that Helen had written in the Syracuse Weekly Express in 1887. Above all, Gage added, create “fiction which comes with a moral, without however any attempt to sermonize.”
There’s no evidence that Baum entered that particular contest, but around that time, he began a new routine. He’d moved on to a new day job as a traveling salesmen of fine china for Pitkin & Brooks. Every evening, especially when he was away at hotels, he’d write down ideas in a journal. Soon, Baum began submitting his tales and poems to newspapers and magazines. At first, Baum kept track of his rejection letters in a journal called his “Record of ********,” a title that could have described his whole business career, too.
But in early 1896, Baum started receiving acceptance letters for his short stories. In January 1896, the Chicago Times-Herald published a story of his titled “Who Called Perry?” In February, the same paper published his story “Yesterday at the Exposition,” which imagined a world’s fair in Chicago nearly 200 years in the future. His first national magazine story was called “The Extravagance of Dan” and published in the National magazine in May 1897.
Sioux bodies wrapped in blankets at Chief Spotted Elk’s camp, soon after the U.S. Army ******* as many as 300 Sioux. Baum’s editorials were part of the wave of fearmongering surrounding the massacre.
Trager and Kuhn, LOC
Once his submissions started getting accepted, the stories kept coming, typically turning real life into the poetic. With both earnings and confidence rising, Baum expanded his vision to two successful books for children, Mother Goose in Prose (1897), a collection of short stories based on traditional nursery rhymes, and Father Goose: His Book (1899), a series of original nonsense poems. In October 1899, he got a story called “Aunt Hulda’s Good Time” into the magazine first suggested by his mother-in-law, the prestigious Youth’s Companion.
For the first time, the Baums were able to afford a stately home, a Victorian on Humboldt Boulevard wired with electric lights and featuring a covered front porch where Baum would tell stories to his sons and the neighborhood children. He maintained a close relationship with his mother-in-law. “Frank came in and kissed me goodbye, as he always does,” wrote Gage. “He is very kind to me.”
Gage was staying with the Baums in Chicago when she was confined to bed with pain in her lungs, throat and stomach. “We all must ****, and I pray to go quickly when I leave,” she wrote in an 1897 letter. “I would a thousand times prefer ****** ****** to long-term paralysis. … The real suffering comes from lack of knowledge of real things—the spiritual.”
In Washington, D.C., thousands of activists were gathering for a convention to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Seneca Falls conference. Unable to attend, Gage penned a final speech that was read aloud at the convention by a friend. Gage proclaimed what she called “the femininity of the divine” and shared her belief that one day “the feminine will soon be fully restored to its rightful place in creation.”
Gage also wrote messages to her loved ones and colleagues as part of her last will and testament. “I am one of those that are set for the redeeming of the Earth,” Gage wrote to Baum. “I am to live on the plane that shall be above all things that dishearten. … When I receive instructions from those who are in the Invisible, I will receive them willingly, with a ******* to put them into practice to the extent of my spirit light and potency.”
Matilda Electa Joslyn Gage ***** on March 18, 1898. Her four-paragraph obituary in the New York Times reported her ****** was caused by “apoplexy,” an old medical term for a ******* but also meaning a state of extreme rage.
Following a small ceremony for her mother in Chicago, Maud left her husband behind with their four sons and transported the urn of her mother’s ******** east, to be interred by the old house in Fayetteville alongside her father’s grave.
During the 1910s, the Baums lived in Hollywood—in a house called Ozcot, with a dog named Toto. Baum designed an emerald- green lighting system for the dining room.
Courtesy of Matilda Joslyn Gage Center
This is when the magic happened. The story “moved right in and took possession,” Baum later said. The inspiration came at the twilight of a winter’s day when he saw his sons and their friends returning home from playing in the snow. “It came to me right out of the blue,” he said. “I shooed the children away.” Word paintings came out through his pencil onto scraps of paper: A gray prairie. A terrifying twister. A mystical land ruled by both good and wicked witches. A trio of comical characters who join a girl on her quest, a journey to a magical city of emeralds controlled by a mysterious wizard. “The story really seemed to write itself,” he told his publisher. Yet at first, Baum hadn’t settled on a name for his main character.
In June 1898, Maud’s brother and wife welcomed a girl they named Dorothy. Maud enjoyed visiting them in Bloomington, Illinois, that summer, but the baby became ill and started running fevers. On November 11, only 5 months old, Dorothy Louise Gage *****. She was “a perfectly beautiful baby,” Maud mourned. “I could have taken her for my very own and loved her devotedly.” In Baum’s writings, the girl from Kansas took on the name Dorothy, with a last name, Gale, that was perhaps a double reference to the gale-force cyclone and the family name of Gage.
His mother-in-law also lived on through the story. She’d believed strongly in mental manifestation, insisting that people could accomplish anything through the power of their minds. When Helen’s daughter Leslie fell ill in 1895, Gage had prescribed positive thought energy: “Take five minutes three or four times a day to think of health and when you go to bed at night keep saying to yourself ‘I am well.’ Grandma knows by experience that a great deal of good comes from concentration of thought.” As a woman who spent her whole life urging women to have confidence in themselves, Gage would have been pleased to see her views taking on a central role in the story of Oz. Dorothy’s silver shoes (in the movie ruby slippers) are not magical in themselves. It’s only after a lesson from Glinda on the power of thought that their magic can work. As the good witch Glinda tells Dorothy: “All you have to do is to knock the heels together three times and command the shoes to carry you wherever you wish to go.”
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Bloodborne Fans Are Being Served a Fresh Batch of Disappointment as Leaks Claim a Dark Souls 3 Remaster is On The Cards
Bloodborne Fans Are Being Served a Fresh Batch of Disappointment as Leaks Claim a Dark Souls 3 Remaster is On The Cards
For years, Bloodborne fans have hoped for a remaster or PC port of their beloved gothic masterpiece. But these hopes have been met with nothing but disappointment as Sony continues to seemingly ignore these demands. And to add salt to the wound, there’s been a new ***** suggesting that Dark Souls 3 is getting a new Remaster.
DS3 getting a remaster would not have been in anyone’s bingo cards. | Image Credit: FromSoftware
This alleged project has already started discussions online, and would you believe it? Bloodborne fans aren’t happy. This new information came from insider Nick Baker on the XboxEra podcast. With the recent trend in remakes and remasters, this isn’t entirely suspicious.
Bloodborne Fans Continue to Be the Punchline for a Joke That’s Gone Too Far
Released in 2016, Dark Souls 3 is a cornerstone of the Souls franchise with over 10 million units sold. The game already runs at 60fps on modern consoles but at the cost of resolution, which is capped at 1080p. A remaster would probably include higher resolutions and improved textures, much like the ******’s Souls remake.
But fans are still divided as they question whether a remaster is necessary for a game still considered visually and mechanically sound. Bloodborne fans have waited patiently for years to get an update or a PC port. Many argue that the gothic horror masterpiece needs no remaster, only a patch to address its locked 30fps on modern consoles.
But even then, no announcements have been made. This has led to frustration within the community. How is it even possible for so many fans to get ignored over the amount of time that’s passed? This is quite a departure from the repeated remastering of other FromSoft titles, such as the original Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2.
Comment byu/AnchovyKing from discussion inGamingLeaksAndRumours
Over on Reddit, reactions to the rumored remaster have been mixed. Some fans welcome the possibility, seeing it as an opportunity to improve the already good game. Some fans think that it doesn’t need a remaster as it still holds up well.
Comment byu/AnchovyKing from discussion inGamingLeaksAndRumours
And of course, the most commonly brought up thing is how Bloodborne continues to be ignored. As one comment says, “Dark Souls 3 remaster before Bloodborne? We’re living in a Dark Souls loop.”
Yes a DS3 Remaster is Cool, But It’s Not What Fans Want
DS3 is arguably already fine as it is. | Image Credit: FromSoftware
The timing of this ***** also raises eyebrows. FromSoft has been on a roll with massive successes like Elden Ring and its Shadow of The Erdtree DLC. Revisiting DS3 is a safe financial bet, leveraging its popularity for a new generation of players is an easy formula for success.
Comment byu/AnchovyKing from discussion inGamingLeaksAndRumours
Still, there’s a historical precedent for FromSoftware revisiting their catalog. Both Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2 were remastered with new versions that brought upgrades but also got people thinking of the necessity.
The pattern suggests that a DS3 remaster was inevitable, especially given the current industry trend of remastering and remaking older titles.
For now, the rumored DS3 remaster ******** unconfirmed, with no release date or official announcement. With The Game Awards merely a few weeks away, we could see an announcement very soon during the event. If it is really though, we’ll be looking at a lot of upset fans.
But it’s probably true given FromSoft’s track record. As one commenter joked, “You can tell this might actually be true because it doesn’t say it’s Bloodborne.”
Would you still play a remaster of DS3 if it actually came out? Let us know your thoughts!
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SilverStone Extreme 1200R Platinum SFX-L PSU review
SilverStone Extreme 1200R Platinum SFX-L PSU review
SilverStone is a prominent manufacturer in the PC hardware industry, known for producing high-quality components such as power supply units (PSUs), cases, and cooling solutions. SilverStone’s products are often characterized by their compact, power-dense designs and commitment to efficiency, making them a popular choice for small form factor builds and high-performance systems alike.
The SilverStone Extreme 1200R Platinum (EX1200R-PL) SFX-L PSU is a powerful solution designed to meet the needs of compact yet high-performance systems. With a power output of 1,200 W and compliance with ATX 3.1 / SFX12V V4.1 standards, it offers a robust feature set, including individually sleeved cables and a 12+4 pin (12V-2×6) connector for seamless compatibility with the latest high-performance graphics cards. Achieving 80 Plus Platinum efficiency, the Extreme 1200R is positioned for enthusiasts and professionals who demand top-tier performance, efficiency, and reliability in a space-saving form factor.
Specifications and Design
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Power Specifications (Rated @ 50 °C)
RAIL
+3.3V
+5V
+12V
+5Vsb
-12V
MAX OUTPUT
20A
20A
100A
3A
0.3A
Row 2 – Cell 0
100W
Row 2 – Cell 2
1200W
15W
3.6W
TOTAL
1200W
Row 3 – Cell 2
Row 3 – Cell 3
Row 3 – Cell 4
Row 3 – Cell 5
AC INPUT
100 – 240 VAC, 50 – 60 Hz
Row 4 – Cell 2
Row 4 – Cell 3
Row 4 – Cell 4
Row 4 – Cell 5
MSRP
$330
Row 5 – Cell 2
Row 5 – Cell 3
Row 5 – Cell 4
Row 5 – Cell 5
In the Box
The SilverStone Extreme 1200R Platinum SFX-L PSU arrives in a durable and glossy cardboard box, reflecting the blue and mustard theme SilverStone has been using for some time. The PSU is safely housed within a nylon pouch and protected by packaging materials to ensure secure transit.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The bundle includes mounting screws, an AC power cable, four basic cable straps, and a few cable ties. Additionally, SilverStone includes an SFX-to-ATX case adapter, though users should be aware that the relatively short cables may present challenges when installed in larger ATX cases.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The PSU features all-****** cables with individually sleeved wires, enhancing aesthetics and offering greater flexibility. The inclusion of a single 12+4 pin (12V-2×6) connector and two 6+2 pin PCI Express connectors on the same cable ensures compatibility with modern GPUs, though the overall number of connectors is relatively low for a unit of this power rating. Despite this, the Extreme 1200R stands out for its clean design and efficient cable management, making it a solid choice for demanding small-form-factor builds.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Be Quiet Dark Power Pro 13
Connector type
Hardwired
Modular
ATX 24 Pin
–
1
EPS 4+4 Pin
–
2
EPS 8 Pin
–
–
PCI-E 5.0
–
1
PCI-E 8 Pin
–
4
SATA
–
8
Molex
–
3
Floppy
–
1
External Appearance
The SilverStone Extreme 1200R Platinum SFX-L PSU is housed in a sleek, matte ****** chassis measuring 130 mm in length, making it larger than standard SFX units. This extended size is typical of SFX-L units and is important to consider for compatibility with compact cases.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The PSU’s finish is smooth and elegant, with the detachable fan finger wire guard featuring the traditional concentric design, complemented by SilverStone’s metallic badge at the center. Decorative stickers showcasing the company and series logo adorn both the left and right side, while the top is reserved for a label displaying the electrical specifications and certifications.
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The rear of the PSU includes the standard on/off switch, AC power receptacle, and a hybrid fan mode switch. Disabling the hybrid fan mode will force the fan to be always on but the fan’s speed ******** thermally controlled, maintaining a very low speed while the cooling demand is low. The front of the unit houses the modular cable connectors, with a legend for easy identification. Notably, the connectors slightly protrude from the PSU’s body, and some of them have protective plastic caps.
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Internal Design
The SilverStone Extreme 1200R Platinum SFX-L PSU uses a 120mm low-profile Globe S1201512HBP-4M fan with a ball-bearing engine. It has impressive air flow specifications for a low profile fan but it should not be compared to a normal thickness fan. The fan of this unit shouldn’t have to work overtime as the PSU has a zero-RPM mode. It has a maximum speed of 2,100 RPM, relatively high for a 120 mm low-profile model.
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
SilverStone’s Extreme 1200R is built on a platform by Enhance Electronics, a reputable OEM known for its advanced PSU designs. Internally, the unit is densely packed, with great attention to maximizing space efficiency. The filtering stage is robust, featuring four Y capacitors, three X capacitors, and two filtering inductors, a commendable configuration for a unit where space comes at a premium.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The rectifying bridges are mounted on a heatsink right after the filtering stage. The APFC circuit includes two OSG55R070H MOSFETs and one UJ3D065 diode mounted on a heatsink, with two Rubycon 470 μF capacitors providing passive support. Interestingly, these capacitors are rated at 85°C, which is less common in high-end PSUs where 105 degrees Celsius ratings are the norm. The primary stage uses four Oriental Semi OSG55R160FZ MOSFETs in an LLC resonant topology. These are found on another heatsink right after the PFC stage, next to the two compact encased transformers of the unit.
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Eight MOSFETs found at the underside of the PCB generate the primary 12V line, with illegible markings. The only thing we know about those is that they are so efficient that they are primarily cooled just via the thermal pad that thermally connects them to the chassis. It is a synchronous rectification topology. DC-to-DC circuits on a vertical daughterboard at the main PCB’s edge generate the 3.3V and 5V lines. The secondary capacitors are all rated at 105°C and supplied by Rubycon, Nichicon, and Unicon — all ********* companies.
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Cold Test Results
Cold Test Results (25°C Ambient)
For PSU testing, we are using high precision electronic loads with a maximum power draw of 2,700 watts, a Rigol DS5042M 40 MHz oscilloscope, an Extech 380803 power analyzer, two high precision UNI-T UT-325 digital thermometers, an Extech HD600 SPL meter, a self-designed hotbox and various other bits and parts.
Image 1 of 5
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
During cold testing, the SilverStone Extreme 1200R Platinum SFX-L PSU comfortably meets the Cybenetics Platinum certification requirements across different input voltages. It would probably lose the 80 Plus Platinum certification due to the efficiency dip at maximum load, which at 100% load is just a breath under the certification’s limit. With a 115 VAC input, the PSU achieves an average nominal load efficiency of 90.2%, improving to 92.4% when using a 230 VAC input. The efficiency peaks around 50% load, which is typical for most PSUs. Although there is a measurable 2.2% efficiency drop when using a 115 VAC input, the unit still meets the Cybenetics certification’s requirements. Its performance at very low loads is also commendable.
The fan in the SilverStone Extreme 1200R starts operating when the PSU reaches approximately 30% capacity. It ******** fairly quiet at lower loads but gradually increases in speed as the load rises. Even under full load, the fan does not reach its maximum speed when the PSU is operating at room temperature, but it will definitely be audible even in a busy room. Internal temperatures remain well within safe limits under these operating conditions.
Hot Test Results
Hot Test Results (~45°C Ambient)
During hot testing, the SilverStone Extreme 1200R Platinum SFX-L PSU experiences a very slight decrease in efficiency under heavy loads, with efficiency figures dropping to 89.7% at 115 VAC and 91.9% at 230 VAC, compared to 90.2% and 92.4% during cold testing. This efficiency degradation of about 0.5% is negligible, indicating that the unit handles high ambient temperatures exceptionally well, without significant thermal stress on its components.
Image 1 of 5
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
In these hotter ambient conditions, the fan of the SilverStone Extreme 1200R activates slightly earlier than during cold testing, starting at around 200 watts of load. It ramps up progressively as the load increases, reaching maximum speed when the unit operates under sustained heavy loads. Although the fan becomes very loud at maximum speed, this is expected given the compact SFX-L design and the use of a low-profile fan. Despite this, the unit’s internal temperatures remain well-controlled, a small miracle for such a dense and powerful design.
PSU Quality and Bottom Line
Power Supply Quality
The SilverStone Extreme 1200R Platinum SFX-L PSU delivers fairly good electrical performance that stands out when compared to SFX units. It showcases good voltage regulation, with the 5V rail maintaining a 1.2% deviation, the 3.3V rail at 1.6%, and the 12V rail at 1.4%. In terms of ripple suppression, the 1200R Platinum performs exceptionally well for such a compact, power-dense unit. The measured maximum ripple values are 62 mV on the 12V line, 28 mV on the 5V line, and 24 mV on the 3.3V line, figures maxing just above half of what the design guide dictates as the limit. While ATX units typically have slightly better ripple suppression, these results are outstanding considering the high power density of the SFX-L form factor.
During our thorough assessment, we evaluate the essential protection features of every power supply unit we review, including Over Current Protection (OCP), Over Voltage Protection (OVP), Over Power Protection (OPP), and Short Circuit Protection (SCP). The SilverStone Extreme 1200R Platinum passed all these critical protection tests without issues.
The OCP settings for the 3.3V and 5V rails are set to activate at 140%, aligning with the unit’s high combined output for these rails. The 12V rail’s OCP is set at 124%, a well-calibrated threshold for a unit of this power density, ensuring the PSU can handle short-term overloads without sacrificing safety or performance.
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Main Output
Load (Watts)
242.14 W
Header Cell – Column 2
603.26 W
Header Cell – Column 4
898.09 W
Header Cell – Column 6
1193.42 W
Header Cell – Column 8
Load (Percent)
20.18%
Row 0 – Cell 2
50.27%
Row 0 – Cell 4
75.84%
Row 0 – Cell 6
99.45%
Row 0 – Cell 8
Amperes
Volts
Amperes
Volts
Amperes
Volts
Amperes
Volts
3.3 V
1.87
3.37
4.68
3.35
7.01
3.32
9.35
3.31
5 V
1.87
5.065
4.68
5.03
7.01
5.01
9.35
4.99
12 V
18.71
12.1
46.77
12.06
70.15
11.97
93.53
11.93
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Line
Regulation (20% to 100% load)
Voltage Ripple (mV)
Row 0 – Cell 3
Row 0 – Cell 4
Row 0 – Cell 5
Row 0 – Cell 6
Row 0 – Cell 7
Row 1 – Cell 0
Row 1 – Cell 1
20% Load
50% Load
75% Load
100% Load
CL1 12V
CL2 3.3V + 5V
3.3V
1.6%
12
16
16
24
14
20
5V
1.2%
12
16
20
28
16
22
12V
1.4%
20
28
38
62
58
26
Bottom Line
The SilverStone Extreme 1200R Platinum SFX-L PSU is a premium power supply unit that sets itself apart through its compact design, exceptional electrical performance, and high power output. Retailing at $330, it is undoubtedly a high-end product targeting a niche group of users — primarily enthusiasts and professionals looking for high wattage in compact systems. While the price point is steep, the PSU offers a feature set and performance that justifies the cost for those who need this level of power and efficiency in an SFX-L form factor.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
One of the most notable aspects of the Extreme 1200R is its ability to deliver 1200 Watts of power while maintaining Platinum-level efficiency. It comfortably meets Cybenetics Platinum certification requirements, with minimal efficiency drop under high ambient temperatures. This performance is a significant achievement given the constraints of the SFX-L form factor, where space is at a premium. Despite the spatial constraints, the power quality of the Extreme 1200R is very good, maintaining good voltage regulation and delivering fair voltage filtering for such a power-dense unit.
Thermal management may be exceptional considering the very compact dimensions of the unit but, from a consumer’s point of view, it leaves room for criticism. The low-profile 120 mm fan does a great job but the noise level ramps up significantly under heavy loads. While this is somewhat expected given the power density of the unit, the noise profile at higher loads may deter users who prioritize quiet operation, as the acoustics performance does not stand out in a way that justifies the very high cost.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The build quality is another area where SilverStone seems to have made compromises. While the internal components, such as Rubycon and Nichicon capacitors, are of high quality, the use of 85°C-rated capacitors in the APFC stage raises some concerns about longevity under heavy, sustained loads. Additionally, the compact design means that some components are crammed into place with glue, an approach that feels less than premium for a product of this class. Furthermore, the short cable length and relatively low number of connectors could be an issue for users intending to use this PSU in ATX systems or larger cases. The included SFX-to-ATX adapter helps with compatibility, but the number and length of the cables may limit both compatibility and flexibility if moving to a larger case.
The SilverStone Extreme 1200R Platinum SFX-L PSU is an ambitious, powerful, efficient, and fairly well-designed unit for those building compact, high-performance systems. However, its $330 price tag positions it at a very unique market position, making it difficult to recommend to anyone but the most dedicated enthusiasts who absolutely need a high-wattage PSU in a small form factor. For those who do seek top-tier performance in a compact footprint, the SilverStone Extreme 1200R Platinum SFX-L will not disappoint.
MORE: Best Power Supplies
MORE: How We Test Power Supplies
MORE: All Power Supply Content
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To Get The Most Benefits, Should You Walk Faster…Or Farther? Here’s What Doctors Say
To Get The Most Benefits, Should You Walk Faster…Or Farther? Here’s What Doctors Say
For years now, walking has gradually gained a posse of devoted supporters who cherish the ritual for both physical and mental health reasons. Going on a walk activates your vascular system, increases circulation, improves blood sugar utilization, and helps manage inflammation, says Johanna Contreras, MD, a cardiologist at Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital. Basically, it’s a low-impact activity accessible to even the most beginner of exercisers that boasts *a lot* of benefits for both the brain and bod.
But while you might not need to ****** for 10,000 steps every day, there’s still the question of whether distance is most important when it comes to a walk. Or, should you focus on speed to get the most out of the exercise?
The truth is that walking both farther and faster is ideal, says Dr. Contreras. But, you might only have the time—or energy—for one. Whichever you choose to do, “All walking is important,” says Dr. Contreras. Whether it’s doing an extra lap in the grocery store or taking the stairs, you’re making a difference, she says. If you’re deciding between tacking on an additional half-mile to your daily walk or zooming through your usual route faster than usual, here’s what you need to know about the benefits of prioritizing each one.
Meet the experts: Lauren Hannon Redler, MD, is an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine physician at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Johanna Contreras, MD, is a cardiologist at Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital.
Walking farther boosts your endurance.
Before we go deep, it’s worth noting that there *is* a minimum speed you want to achieve to make sure you’re getting a good enough workout during any walk.
This pace will look different on every person, but you want to feel challenged—and you’ll know you’re going fast enough if your heart rate starts to increase, even ever-so-slightly. Even if you’re going for distance, by the end of your walk, you still want to have broken a sweat, Dr. Contreras says. (Target heart rates vary based on age, but are published by the ********* Heart Association.)
The biggest perk of walking a far distance: You improve your endurance, or your ability to sustain exercise without overtaxing your heart, because it gets you get used to having your heart rate elevated for an extended amount of time. Walking for longer is key to conditioning your heart to keep working in an elevated state for longer periods of time, says Dr. Contreras. And, BTW, as you age, walking farther might be the better option because you don’t need to elevate your heart rate quite as much to get the same benefit—and you may not want to put too much demand on your heart, she notes.
Walking for a longer distance also means that you’re getting even more benefits beyond what you get beyond walking for a shorter distance at the same pace. And, if you’re someone who can’t walk faster or run, walking farther will also eventually even out to what you can get out of those activities in a shorter amount of time, says Dr. Contreras. (One minute of walking at a high-intensity by picking up your speed generally equals about two minutes of walking at a lower-intensity, per the CDC.)
But, walking faster conditions your heart.
Walking faster puts more demand on your heart, which means your heart rate goes up even higher than walking at a slower pace. “Walking faster definitely helps stimulate more of a cardiovascular response,” says Lauren Hannon Redler, MD, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine physician at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “Your heart pumps blood around your body more quickly, which helps your muscles improve how they use oxygen and makes them more efficient.”
The higher you elevate your heart rate, the better a workout it is for your heart, which will help increase your exercise capacity, demand more of your metabolism, and manage blood pressure, says Dr. Contreras. Also, since it’s more taxing, you can get the same benefit as walking at a slower pace for longer, potentially even cutting the time required in half.
Is one better for weight loss?
Experts are mixed on whether walking farther or faster is better for weight loss. Walking slower, but farther is Dr. Redler’s preference because it keeps you in zone 2 cardio (a level of heart rate training categorized as 60 to 70 percent of your heart rate max). During zone 2, your body uses **** as its primary source of fuel, though this does not equate to losing **** from your body, says Rachelle Reed, PhD, an exercise scientist in Athens, GA. Still, walking at a slower speed for a longer ******* of time (about three miles per hour for an hour) led to greater total **** loss in postmenopausal women in a 2023 study in Nutrients.
Meanwhile, walking faster demands more of your metabolism and burns more calories because it’s a ******* workout, says Dr. Contreras. “If people want to lose weight, they need to think about increasing that exercise level,” she says. Focusing on burning calories—rather than using an energy source of **** versus glucose—is probably more important for a weight loss goal, says Reed. Plus, even though you’re walking faster, you’re likely still in zone 2 anyway.
Ultimately, weight loss is tricky—and determined by a lot more than your exercise selection. For example, genetics, nutrition, and environment all play a role, according to the National Institute of Health. Keep in mind that walking slower for longer can eventually even out to walking faster for a shorter amount of time, so the “better” between the two might just be what feels best for you, especially since exercising consistently is most important to reap health and weight loss benefits, says Reed.
Ultimately, it’s ideal to mix up your routine with both short-and-speedy walks and longer, slower ones.
Let’s be real: Most people don’t have the time to make every walk miles long *and* at a power walking pace. And you don’t have to. Our experts recommend you do both versions of walking workouts—long and slower as well as short and speedier—depending which one fits into your lifestyle better at any given time, or on any given day. “Both matter,” says Dr. Redler.
While walking faster gives your heart a more intense workout, walking longer builds up endurance by making it work longer. Instead of being just a distance or speed walker, try alternating between the two on different days, says Dr. Redler.
Two more things: When you’re walking long distances, you want to be careful to avoid overuse injuries. You can do this by gradually building up your mileage over time and wearing the proper footwear, says Dr. Redler.
If you’re looking to increase your speed, walking with intervals might be a great way to get there. Walk at a slower pace for three minutes, then increase to a faster one for one minute, alternating until you’ve come to the end of your route. Eventually, you can decrease the amount of time you spend walking at slower intervals and increase the amount of time you’re going faster.
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This abandoned Pokémon game is perfect for Nintendo Switch Online
This abandoned Pokémon game is perfect for Nintendo Switch Online
If youve never heard of Pokémon mini, we cant blame you, which is exactly why this forgotten game needs to join Nintendo Switch Online.
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Final report on Nats calls for improvements to contingency process
Final report on Nats calls for improvements to contingency process
The major incident caused by the ******** of the ***’s National Air Traffic Services (Nats) in August 2023 may be a very rare occurrence, but a final report into the system ******** has recommended 34 changes.
The report, prepared for the *** Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) by the Independent Review Panel, looked at what could be done better to limit the effects of the ******** that occurred because an incorrectly formatted flight plan was submitted to the system.
In the event of a ******** of a primary system, the backup system is designed to seamlessly take over processing. The authors of the Nats major incident investigation final report noted that in this instance, the primary system had not *******, but had acted as programmed. It placed itself into maintenance mode to make sure irreconcilable – and therefore potentially unsafe – information was not sent to an air traffic controller.
However, the backup system applied the same logic to the flight plan with the same result. It subsequently raised its own critical exception, writing a log file into the system log, and placed itself into maintenance mode.
The ******** of Nats occurred because both the primary and backup Flight Plan Reception Suite Automated – Replacement (FPRSA-R) subsystems were in maintenance mode to protect the safety of the air traffic control operations. This meant flight plans could no longer be automatically processed, and manual intervention was now required.
The report recommended that Nats should review the current command structure, its supporting technology and processes. This should analyse whether the current model is likely to lead to the best outcomes in the majority of incidents, or whether it can be optimised further with the addition of alternative options.
The report’s authors recommended that this review should include, as a minimum, options for alternative models and examples of other effective command structures, including the use of a single incident manager model. They also noted that such options should include guidance about when the use of each option is most appropriate, and suggested a review of training requirements to maximise operational oversight capabilities during incidents, and system and process requirements to support selected structures, including decision-making, escalation and creation of a common operating picture.
When Nats went offline, a subset of unprocessed data remained in the system but was outside the established pause ******. This required further escalation to identify the root cause of the issue.
The report recommended that air traffic control documentation should be reviewed to ensure that the system complexity and behaviour can be better understood by engineers and users who are not dedicated to the system. There should also be a high-level ****** Technical Services and Operations review of key critical systems. The report recommended that this review should confirm that the operational documentation for each system reviewed has sufficient description and clarity to allow the system to be operated safely and resiliently in unexpected circumstances.
While escalation procedures were followed, the authors of the report pointed out that earlier contact with the supplier would most likely have expedited the resolution of the event.
They recommended that Nats should update the escalation process to provide guidance on the time or other key criteria that should trigger when, and under what circumstances, supplier support is requested. “Nats should create a single controlled document detailing the supplier contracts and associated contacts, who provide 24-hour support,” the report stated. “These details should be accessible by anyone in Nats likely to be required to support an incident response. As a minimum, these should include Levels 1 through 3 of engineering support.”
Among the minor recommendations is that given the complexity of the system architecture, which is regularly changed and upgraded, it is impossible to maintain up-to-date overall system mapping of Nats. The report’s authors recommended conducting an assessment of the feasibility of using new technology, or a model-based engineering process, to rapidly produce the required system schematic information to the teams during the early stages of an incident.
They also said that the technical services director should review the current operational documentation in support of implementing new technology, or a model-based engineering process that supports rapid mapping. “This must ensure that there is sufficient and accurate detail for the various levels of engineering support to see the high-level, key interfacing systems and methods by which they connect,” they wrote.
The key aim of this review should be to assist in the identification of problems that might be upstream or downstream of the specific system where a fault first occurs.
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LeBron James’ SpringHill agrees to merge with Kardashians producer Fulwell 73
LeBron James’ SpringHill agrees to merge with Kardashians producer Fulwell 73
LeBron James, right, and Maverick Carter participate in a Q and A after the premiere of the STARZ original series “Survivor’s Remorse” in Los Angeles.
Matt Sayles | AP
Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James’ entertainment business, SpringHill Co., has agreed to a merger of equals with Fulwell 73, the British television, film and music production company behind shows including “The Kardashians” and “Carpool Karaoke.”
The deal was spearheaded by SpringHill co-founder Maverick Carter and Fulwell 73 co-founder Ben Winston, who have been friends for a decade after veteran TV producer Tom Werner introduced them, the two said in an interview with CNBC. Carter will be co-CEO of the combined company along with Leo Pearlman, Fulwell’s managing partner.
SpringHill has largely focused on sports content, producing “Starting 5,” a 10-part Netflix sports docuseries that follows James and other NBA players throughout the 2023-2024 season, and “Hustle,” a 2022 sports comedy-drama movie starring Adam Sandler. The deal will bring James’ company increased scale to strike larger deals with media companies and streaming platforms, Carter said.
“[Fulwell] makes shows we always wished we could do, and we just did not have that capability, in terms of unscripted productions around the world, fully scaled,” Carter said. “Now that jealousy goes away.”
Carter and Winston first began talking about merging about 13 months ago in a parking lot after having dinner together, said Winston, who added he always admired SpringHill’s ability to blend branding and content. The combined companies will use SpringHill’s New York-based brand consultancy firm ****** to build other business opportunities off its series and films, Winston said.
“It’s just a smart way of running an entertainment company in 2024,” Winston said of SpringHill’s blending of commerce and content.
The combined companies will be backed by investors including Fenway Sports Group, RedBird Capital Partners, UC Investments, Nike, Epic Games, Main Street Advisors and Eldridge Industries. As part of the transaction, existing shareholders will invest an additional $40 million to fuel growth initiatives, the companies said in a press release.
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Trump names commission member Brendan Carr as FCC chairman
Trump names commission member Brendan Carr as FCC chairman
President-elect Donald Trump has named Brendan Carr as the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, The New York Times reported. Carr has previously argued in favor of punishing TV networks for political bias and regulating big tech firms like Google and Apple. The appointment doesn’t require the usual senate approval, since Carr has sat on the commission since 2017.
Under a Trump administration, the FCC will have two Democrat and three *********** commissioners. Carr will take over from current FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel.
Carr wrote the FCC section on the infamous Project 2025 document, proposing new social media restrictions that could benefit ************* viewpoints. He also wants to limit the Section 230 legal shield that allows social media and other platforms to host and moderate comments and other user-generated content.
“The censorship cartel must be dismantled,” Carr wrote last week on X. He added that the FCC under his leadership will also go after TV networks. ” Broadcast media have had the privilege of using a scarce and valuable public resource — our airwaves. When the transition is complete, the FCC will enforce this public interest obligation.”
However, Carr won’t have full powers to enact new rules. Since companies like Google and Meta aren’t considered communications services, the FCC would have limited power to regulate them. That means an expansion of its powers would require new legislation. Brendan Carr has “proposed to do a lot of things he has no jurisdiction to do and in other cases he’s blatantly misreading the rules,” Free Press co-chief executive Jessica Gonzalez told the NYT.
That’s not to say that Carr can’t affect the way the internet operates. In 2017, he voted to repeal net neutrality rules, and in 2021, voted against restoring them.
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Nvidia rumored to be winding down production of RTX 4000 GPUs ahead of next-gen launches – which could mean some tempting ****** Friday bargains
Nvidia rumored to be winding down production of RTX 4000 GPUs ahead of next-gen launches – which could mean some tempting ****** Friday bargains
Nvidia is said to be halting production of mid-to-higher-end Lovelace GPUs
That means the RTX 4080 Super, RTX 4070, 4070 Super, and 4070 Ti Super
Next-gen successors are expected to arrive soon for those GPUs
Nvidia is rumored to be winding down production of most of the firm’s RTX 4000 GPUs, ahead of the launch of next-gen RTX 5000 models.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard such speculation, and once again it originates from the Board Channels forums over in China (as noticed by ********* tech blog Gazlog, via VideoCardz). As ever, we’d add more than a little seasoning to these theories.
We’re told that the Nvidia RTX 4080 Super is discontinued as of this month (November), and existing stock is all that’s left to be sold – and that inventory could sell through by the close of December (or certainly January 2025).
With the RTX 5080 arriving in early January, the rumors reckon, that could potentially leave a gap of a month between existing RTX 4080 Super models selling out, and the next-gen replacement arriving.
Apparently, the RTX 4070 Ti Super is in much the same boat, and while there’s a small supply of chips left, that won’t last beyond November. This means that the 4070 Ti Super could sell out in a similar timeframe to the 4080 Super.
It’s a rather different story with the RTX 4070 and 4070 Super, though, which will get a supply of chips from Nvidia to board makers through to the close of 2024. Don’t expect anything but a limited supply, and hence production, of these graphics cards, though, which could run dry in January 2025, possibly lasting a bit longer.
The RTX 4060 isn’t mentioned, so the supply isn’t being run down by Nvidia by all accounts – not yet anyway.
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(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
Analysis: A hopeful sign of some top-notch deals
This does make sense based on next-gen rumors, with Nvidia expected to be readying an RTX 5090, 5080, and 5070 for launch early next year (or maybe even late in 2024). So, leaving the RTX 4060 alone would be the plan if there isn’t going to be an RTX 5060 for some time yet.
This sort of speculation has to be treated very carefully, mind, as we’ve had all sorts of chatter along these lines in recent times. In fact, we’ve been hearing about Nvidia slowing down the assembly lines since August 2024, and more recent revelations have also suggested that Team Green is now in the ‘final stage of inventory clearance’ for the RTX 4000 range. Save for the RTX 4060 as noted, though even that had a pause in its production, if the rumors are right.
There are a mix of theories coming through, then, but all add up to the broad conclusion that Nvidia is looking to halt Lovelace production and move full speed ahead with RTX 5000 models.
While it might seem obvious to wait for these next-gen graphics cards to arrive at this point – and see how they shake out, performance and price-wise – retailers are also aware of this, and the need to shift existing Nvidia RTX 4000 stock as the transition to RTX 5000 begins.
What this means is we might see some excellent ****** Friday bargains on Lovelace GPUs, and perhaps deeper graphics card discounts than normal at the higher end of the spectrum with Nvidia. Fingers crossed, and we’ll keep you up to date on all the best ****** Friday deals, whether they pertain to GPUs or otherwise.
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Why VCs Are Banking on Bitcoin? Billion-Funds Expect BTC to Grow in 2025
Why VCs Are Banking on Bitcoin? Billion-Funds Expect BTC to Grow in 2025
After the US presidential election, (BTC-USD) updated its historical maximum, reaching $93,000 on November 13. Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at the investment company VanEck, expects that in the next six months, BTC can reach even higher values, up to $180,000.
Since November 5, the day of the US presidential election, Bitcoin has grown by about 34%, trading on November 18 at $91,240. As Sigel noted, the growth may continue in 2025.
BTC Can Reach $180,000
VanEck is a global investment company with under management $100 billion in assets. It is considered a pioneer in innovative exchange-traded funds (ETFs), including the first VanEck Gold Bullion ETF (ASX:). In early January, the company received approval to launch a Bitcoin ETF. As of mid-November, VanEck’s Bitcoin fund had $17 billion in assets under management.
According to Sigel’s calculations, the price of Bitcoin could double, rising to $180,000 over the next two quarters, that is, by mid-2025.
“It is just getting started,” Sigel told CNBC. “We’re now in blue sky territory, no technical resistance, and we think we are likely to make repeated all-time highs over the next two quarters.”
Still, positive expectations for Bitcoin growth do not guarantee that the market will grow permanently. According to VanEck, there were about six price corrections of 10% each in 2020 between the election and the end of the year: “The same patterns occurred four years ago, and a number of indicators that we track still point to a continuation of the rally.”
.co analysts came to similar conclusions about the continued growth of the main cryptocurrency. They believe that the BTC price peak in the current bullish ******* may occur in mid-2025. The experts’ data is based on the duration of previous cycles, although they do not predict the price level, as in the case of VanEck, where they indicated $180,000 per Bitcoin.
Indeed, the previous Bitcoin price rally lasted for several months after the 2020 elections. Then, starting from November 6, the price of the first cryptocurrency rose from about $15,000 to $29,000 by December 31. And the maximum value of that cycle was $63,000 in April 2021, according to CoinMarketCap.
“Our price target for this cycle is $180,000, which would represent a 1,000% return from the bottom”, Siegel specified.
Similar calculations for the time of the price peak were given by the analytical crypto company Cryptorank in October 2025. The company also noted a potential scenario for the general market growth before that time — the onset of the so-called altcoin season.
Interest in Bitcoin
As an example of the indicators that VanEck tracks to determine the state of the cryptocurrency market, Sigel noted the rise in Bitcoin searches via Google (NASDAQ:).
The popularity of the Bitcoin query, according to Google Trends on November 15, is 46, which is comparable to the peaks in 2020 and 2021. While this is half the all-time high of 100 at the end of 2017, the indicator has only risen higher twice in the entire history of observation (both in 2021, with peaks of 72 and 67).
Sigel noted the significant rise in downloads for the U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase (NASDAQ:) app, which climbed to 9th place in the U.S. App Store’s most downloaded free iPhone apps on November 14, up from 435 before the election.
Coinbase also secured the top spot in the Finance category. Other crypto-related apps saw increased downloads: Robinhood (NASDAQ:) ranked 2nd, and Crypto.com ranked 5th in the Finance category. On Google Play, Crypto.com was 2nd, Coinbase 5th, and Robinhood 9th, reflecting a surge in interest in crypto trading platforms.
In previous cycles, as The Block writes, the Coinbase application was in the top 10 when the cryptocurrency market was approaching peaks. Based on this, we can expect that following Bitcoin reaching new price highs, interest from retail traders will grow.
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More than $1 billion worth of art heads to auction in New York this week
More than $1 billion worth of art heads to auction in New York this week
CNBC’s Robert Frank reports on a pulse test for the high-end art market.
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Davina McCall makes ‘enormous leap forward’ as she leaves ICU after surgery
Davina McCall makes ‘enormous leap forward’ as she leaves ICU after surgery
EPA
TV presenter Davina McCall is out of intensive care and has made an “enormous leap forward” in the last 24 hours, following her surgery to remove a rare brain tumour.
In an update on her Instagram account her partner Michael Douglas said: “Thanks so much to all the well wishers. She really has made an enormous leap forward in the last 24 hours. She is out of ICU.”
The TV presenter, 57, previously posted a video on Instagram, to say she had been diagnosed with a type of benign tumour called a colloid cyst.
A benign tumour is not cancerous, but such cysts tend to grow slowly, according to the Brainstrust charity.
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BLAST R6 Major Montreal Win Secured by w7m In Effortless Grand Final
BLAST R6 Major Montreal Win Secured by w7m In Effortless Grand Final
The BLAST R6 Major Montreal has wrapped, and at the end of all things sat a redemption story for Brazil’s w7m Esports. The team went up against BDS in the grand final in Canada, mere weeks after the EU side eliminated w7m at the Esports World Cup in Riyadh in the final series.
Fortunately, as the match unravelled, w7m Esports found immense traction against Team BDS, losing the first map but closing out the next three back-to-back-to-back without much fuss.
Brazil Wins Big
It has been a mixy year for w7m Esports. In February, the organisation won the Six Invitational in Sao Paolo then promptly dropped the entire roster before starting over again. In August, the team finished in second place at the Esports World Cup but still managed to net a $350,000 prize after being knocked out at the final post by Team BDS.
This latest win was a revenge story for w7m Esports, but it also marked the third BLAST R6 Major in just over a year that the organisation has won. In May 2023, the org won in Copenhagen, and in November 2023, the BLAST R6 Major Atlanta was ripe for the taking for the Brazilian squad.
This weekend, the BLAST R6 Major in Montreal played out as most people predicted. Team BDS came hard and knocked out Team Secret and FaZe Clan to make it into the grand final, while w7m swept Spacestation and beat Virtus.pro to quality for the title shot.
The last match in the tournament was an intense one.
As the series opened on Consulate, Team BDS pushed for an early win, but w7m immediately fired back on Nighthaven with a retaliatory point. From there, it was effortless for the Brazilian squad, as the following two matches on Clubhouse and Kafe were tidied up without too much resistance.
The stunning set pieces put out by w7m’s DoDez earned him MVP of the grand final.
That marks the end of the 2024 competitive schedule for Rainbow Six Siege – what’s next is the Six Invitational 2025, which will be held in Boston in February.
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