Pelican Press

Toyota defends new LandCruiser Prado fuel range Toyota defends new LandCruiser Prado fuel range Due to the location of the spare wheel, Toyota isn’t planning to offer a sub fuel tank for the new Prado 250 Series. Source link #Toyota #defends #LandCruiser #Prado #fuel #range Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Everything You Need to Know Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Everything You Need to Know Here’s everything you should know about MachineGames’ Indy adventure. Source link #Indiana #Jones #Great #Circle Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Nvidia, Meta, Apple, and Microsoft Could Help This Magnificent ETF Turn $250,000 Into $1 Million Nvidia, Meta, Apple, and Microsoft Could Help This Magnificent ETF Turn $250,000 Into $1 Million Artificial intelligence (AI) might be the most revolutionary technology in a generation. Depending on which Wall Street forecast you rely upon, it could add between $7 trillion and $200 trillion to the global economy over the next decade. Some companies are already reaping the rewards. Nvidia, for example, has added a staggering $3.2 trillion to its market capitalization in the last two years alone. Start Your Mornings Smarter! Wake up with Breakfast news in your inbox every market day. Sign Up For Free » But previous tech revolutions, like the dot-com internet ***** and bust in the late 1990s and early 2000s, have taught us that picking winners and losers won’t be easy. After all, Amazon started out by selling books online in 1994, but most of its profit now comes from cloud computing instead — a business that didn’t even exist when the company was founded. Who could have predicted that? Investors don’t have to be expert stock pickers if they buy an AI-focused exchange-traded fund (ETF). The iShares Expanded Tech Sector ETF (NYSEMKT: IGM) owns practically every AI stock an investor could want, and it could turn an investment of $250,000 into $1 million over the long term. Image source: Getty Images. The objective of the iShares ETF is to offer investors broad exposure to technology and technology-related companies spanning hardware, software, interactive media, and more. It was established in 2001 so it has navigated several tech booms including the internet, cloud computing, and enterprise software. The ETF currently holds 278 different stocks, but it’s relatively concentrated. Its top four positions alone account for 33.1% of the total value of its portfolio, but they are among the key players in the AI industry: Stock iShares ETF Portfolio Weighting 1. Nvidia 9.48% 2. Meta Platforms 8.48% 3. Apple 7.67% 4. Microsoft 7.55% Data source: iShares. Portfolio weightings are accurate as of Nov. 12, 2024, and are subject to change. Nvidia supplies powerful graphics processors (GPUs) for the data center, which are used to develop AI models. Demand continues to outstrip supply, and the company’s revenue has soared by triple-digit percentages in each of the last five quarters. Nvidia just started shipping its new Blackwell GPUs, which offer an incredible leap in performance and cost efficiency, so they should drive strong sales growth for the foreseeable future. Meta and Microsoft are both customers of Nvidia. Meta fills its data centers with GPUs to train its Llama large language models (LLMs), which it’s using to create new AI features for its Facebook and Instagram social networks. Microsoft, on the other hand, created a virtual assistant called Copilot which can generate text, images, and even computer code. Plus, the Microsoft Azure cloud platform offers developers access to the computing capacity and LLMs they need to build their own AI software. Story Continues Apple is still early in its AI journey. It just started rolling out Apple Intelligence, which is available to owners of its latest iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers. It delivers new writing tools that can instantly summarize and generate text, and it also introduces new capabilities to the Siri voice assistant thanks to a partnership with OpenAI. But the iShares ETF holds a number of other popular AI stocks outside of its top four. They include Alphabet, Oracle, Advanced Micro Devices, CrowdStrike, and more. The iShares ETF has generated a compound annual return of 10.9% since its inception in 2001, which is much better than the average annual return of 8.2% delivered by the S&P 500 index. However, the compound annual return in the iShares ETF accelerated to 20.1% over the last 10 years thanks to the growing adoption of technologies like cloud computing, enterprise software, and now, AI. The below table shows how long it could take the ETF to turn an investment of $250,000 into $1 million based on a range of different annual returns: Starting Balance Compound Annual Return Time to Reach $1 Million $250,000 10.9% 14 Years $250,000 15.5% (midpoint) 10 Years $250,000 20.1% 8 Years Calculations by author. It would be extremely difficult for any fund to consistently generate a return of more than 20% per year over the long term, because the law of large numbers eventually becomes a headwind. Almost half of Nvidia’s revenue comes from just four customers, and it’s unlikely they can spend hundreds of billions of dollars (combined) on AI infrastructure every year in perpetuity. Additionally, Meta already has 3.3 billion daily active users, so the company will eventually hit a growth ceiling unless the world’s population significantly expands. With that said, the iShares ETF could turn $250,000 into $1 million within 14 years even if its average annual return reverts back to 10.9%. It could grow more quickly if the value created by AI truly lives up to some of the estimates I mentioned at the top, but the reverse is also true — stocks like Nvidia will heavily underperform if AI fails to meet expectations. That’s why it’s a good idea for investors to own the iShares ETF as part of a balanced portfolio of other funds or individual stocks. Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you’ll want to hear this. On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a “Double Down” stock recommendation for companies that they think are about to pop. If you’re worried you’ve already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it’s too late. And the numbers speak for themselves: Amazon: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2010, you’d have $23,818!* Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you’d have $43,221!* Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you’d have $451,527!* Right now, we’re issuing “Double Down” alerts for three incredible companies, and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon. See 3 “Double Down” stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of November 11, 2024 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Anthony Di Pizio has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, CrowdStrike, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Oracle. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Nvidia, Meta, Apple, and Microsoft Could Help This Magnificent ETF Turn $250,000 Into $1 Million was originally published by The Motley Fool Source link #Nvidia #Meta #Apple #Microsoft #Magnificent #ETF #Turn #Million Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Parachute OTT Release Date: When and Where to Watch Tamil Drama Movie Online? Parachute OTT Release Date: When and Where to Watch Tamil Drama Movie Online? The much-anticipated Tamil drama Parachute, starring Krishna and Kishore, is set to stream on Disney+ Hotstar from November 29. Directed by Sridhar K, the film introduces a heartfelt narrative about childhood, familial relationships and the challenges of parenthood. Alongside the lead actors, the ensemble cast includes Kani Thiru, Kaali Venkat and child artists Shakthi Ritwik and Iyal. A multilingual release ensures that Parachute will be accessible to audiences in Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi and Bengali. When and Where to Watch Parachute Parachute will be available for streaming exclusively on Disney+ Hotstar starting November 29, 2024. While it is primarily a Tamil-language production, the availability of multiple dubs that the movie will reach a wider audience across India. Official Trailer and Plot of Parachute The official trailer for Parachute was released on social media, providing a glimpse into its emotional core. The story centres around two children, their adventurous escapades and the panic caused within their family and community when they go missing. A poignant moment in the trailer highlights a father scolding his son, after which the kids set off on a motorbike, unknowingly triggering a series of dramatic events. The trailer portrays the frantic search by the parents, police and local community, blending suspense and drama. Cast and Crew of Parachute The film features Krishna in a dual role as lead actor and producer, under his production banner Tribal Horse Entertainment. Kishore, Kani Thiru and Kaali Venkat take on key roles, supported by a talented cast, including child actors Shakthi Ritwik and Iyal. Sridhar K directs the project, with Om Narayan as cinematographer and Richard Kevin handling the editing. Source link #Parachute #OTT #Release #Date #Watch #Tamil #Drama #Movie #Online Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Ninja Thirsti Max review: your own personal soda machine Ninja Thirsti Max review: your own personal soda machine Ninja Thirsti Max: one-minute review Reduce the use of single-use bottles and cans by making your own carbonated beverages at home with the Ninja Thirsti Max. With a touch of the CO2 button, you can add a low, medium, or high level of carbonation for fizzy drinks or you can skip the carbonation entirely for a still beverage. The Ninja Thirsti Max comes with four bottles of Flavored Drops, which you’ll need if you want to make anything besides plain seltzer water. Ninja makes a variety of these flavor drops in different categories: Zero Soda, Seltzer, Fruiti Chill (electrolytes or B vitamins), and Fruiti Chill+ (with caffeine). You can also adjust the amount of flavoring that goes into your drink, either low or high. The machine holds two flavor drop bottles at once, so you can combine the flavors into one drink, proportioned the way you like. You can make four different drink sizes: 6oz, 12oz, 18oz, or one liter. With some experimentation, I found the fizz and flavor level I liked best. I tested out eight different flavors, at least one from each category. I liked some flavors better than others, but overall the drinks were tasty. The flavored seltzer drops are unsweetened, similar to a La Croix or other sparkling water. All of the other flavor drops are sweetened with the artificial sweetener sucralose. Ninja Thirsti Max: price and availability List price: $169.99 (about £132 / AU$259) The Ninja Thirsti Max is available at all the major retailers you’d expect, both in brick and mortar stores and online. The price includes a CO2 tank and four bottles of Ninja Flavored Drops. If you order directly from Ninja’s website, you can select the exact flavors you’d like, otherwise you get four pre-selected flavors in the box. The Flavored Drops retail for $6.99 (£5.43 / AU$10.64) apiece. Each bottle yields 17-20 12oz beverages. The 60L CO2 tank runs $36.99 (£28.76 / AU$56.34), but you can save 30% by recycling your spent tank each time. Each canister should carbonate about 100 12oz drinks, depending on how carbonated you like your beverages. Ninja Thirsti Max: specifications Swipe to scroll horizontally Price $169.99 Beverage sizes 6oz, 12oz, 18oz, 1L Tank capacity 60L Size 8 1/4 x 12 5/8 x 16in / 20.9 x 32 x 40.6cm (WxDxH) Carbonation levels: None, low, medium, high Flavor intensity: None, low, high Ninja Thirsti Max: design and features Easy to use Choose your fizz and flavor intensity Choose your beverage size The Ninja Thirsti Max is a nice neutral matte metallic gray that will probably look at home with nearly any kitchen decor. It’s not a tiny machine, but it’s reasonably-sized for what it does. Setting up the Ninja Thirsti Max is easy and takes just a couple of minutes. Plug it in, insert the CO2 tank, fill the water tank, attach the drink tray, place your Flavored Drops into their slots, and you’re ready to go. (Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future) The 60L CO2 tank is neatly hidden behind a door in the back, so once it’s installed you don’t notice it. (Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future) The water tank also happens to have a 60L capacity. Ninja recommends that you use either very cold water or water plus ice in order to maximize your carbonation and taste. The water tank has a plunger so you can quickly chill your ice water by pressing it up and down a few times. (Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future) The height of the drink tray can be adjusted depending on the size of the cup or glass you’re filling. It can also be removed if you’re using an extra large cup. (Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future) Ninja Thirsti Max: performance The Ninja Thirsti Max works exactly as Ninja describes. Once you have set up the machine, choose the flavor intensity you want from each Flavored drop bottle: none, low, or high. Choose your beverage size: 6oz, 12oz, 18oz, or 1L. Choose your carbonation level: none, low, medium, or high. Place your cup under the nozzle and press start. The Ninja Thirsti Max will beep when your drink is ready. Ninja recommends using ice water or very cold water in the water tank, and I agree that you get a better result if you do that. I’d also recommend emptying the water tank and adding fresh water once a day or each time the ice melts, otherwise your drink can have a stale ‘melted ice’ flavor. (Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future) The real limitation of the Ninja Thirsti Max is the Flavored Drops. There are currently more than two dozen zero sugar flavors with more on the way. The seltzer flavor drops are unsweetened, but all of the other flavors are sweetened with sucralose, the artificial sweetener found in Splenda. There are no flavors with sugar or any other sweeteners in the lineup as of this writing. I tried all of the Flavored Drops that Ninja sent me to test. There were four soda flavors: root *****, orange, cola, and Dr Thirsti. I also received a lemonade with added vitamins, strawberry kiwi electrolyte beverage, peach mango energy drink, and unsweetened ****** cherry seltzer. (Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future) The sodas are new to the Ninja Thirsti lineup. They all tasted pretty much like the diet sodas they are intended to replicate. However, the cola and Dr Thirsti flavors wouldn’t fool you into thinking they are Diet Coke or Diet Dr Pepper in a ****** taste test. (Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future) Ninja has changed the labeling on their original Flavored Drops, and I got both some of the old and the new. ‘Hydrate’ and ‘Vitamins’ became ‘Fruiti Chill’, ‘Energy’ became ‘Fruiti Chill+’, and what was called “Splash” is now “Seltzer.” All of the ones I tried were pretty tasty, once I got the right flavor intensity and level of fizz for my taste. All of the carbonation levels were sufficient, but I liked the highest level the best. I find I generally prefer a low level of flavor intensity since the higher level tended to be quite sweet, but your tastes may vary. In some cases, I even added extra plain seltzer to cut the ********** a bit. It’s important to note that I do use sucralose in my everyday life, so I’m used to the way it tastes and I’m fine with it. If you don’t, you might not enjoy it. (Image credit: Karen Freeman / Future) Of course, the seltzer flavor drops are not sweetened at all, and making sparkling water might be some people’s main reason for buying the machine. I’m a big sparkling water drinker, and lugging home multi-packs of canned water is a hassle. I found the Ninja Thirsti ****** cherry seltzer to be comparable in both fizz and flavor to popular canned sparkling waters like La Croix, Polar, Waterloo, and others. Keep in mind, there is nothing stopping you from making plain seltzer in the Ninja Thirsti Max and adding whatever you like to it. I tried adding a favorite powdered drink mix to the plain seltzer I made and that was great. You could also try adding fruit juice or even wine for a sort of spritzer beverage. You can always add flavor drops from any other brands. Should you buy the Ninja Thirsti Max? Swipe to scroll horizontally Ninja Thirsti Max report card Attribute Notes Rating Value If you spend a lot on carbonated beverages, this machine might save you some money. Keep in mind you’ll still have to buy CO2 tanks and flavor drops. 4.5/5 Design It’s well-designed, nice-enough looking, and easy to use. 4.5/5 Performance The machine does everything exactly as it claims it will. But not everyone will love the taste of the proprietary flavor drops. 4/5 Overall I was quite happy with the Ninja Thirsti Max overall. However, the limited flavor variety and sucralose sweetener may be a turn-off for some people. 4/5 Buy it if Don’t buy it if Ninja Thirsti Max: also consider If you’re not sure about the Ninja Thirsti Max, here are some other options to consider… How I tested the Ninja Thirsti Max I tasted a variety of beverages I tried different carbonation levels and different flavor intensities I made plain seltzer and added my own drink mix I’ve been drinking lots and lots of fizzy drinks over the past couple of weeks. I tried all eight of the flavors that Ninja sent me, plus I tried adding my own drink mix to plain seltzer. I tried different fizz levels and different flavor intensities. Personally I liked the lower flavor setting, as the higher flavor setting yielded too sweet of a beverage for my taste. All of the fizz settings were really fine, but I kept it set to maximum carbonation for the longest lasting bubbles. I tried mixing some of the flavors together, though I didn’t find a combination that I really loved. Everyone’s tastes are different, though. Read more about how we test. First reviewed November 2024 Source link #Ninja #Thirsti #Max #review #personal #soda #machine Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

What is Bluesky, the fast-growing social platform welcoming fleeing X users? What is Bluesky, the fast-growing social platform welcoming fleeing X users? Jakub Porzycki/ | Nurphoto | Getty Images Disgruntled X users are again flocking to Bluesky, a newer social media platform that grew out of the former Twitter before billionaire Elon Musk took it over in 2022. While it ******** small compared to established online spaces such as X, it has emerged as an alternative for those looking for a different mood, lighter and friendlier and less influenced by Musk. What is Bluesky? Championed by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Bluesky was an invitation-only space until it opened to the public in February. That invite-only ******* gave the site time to build out moderation tools and other features. The platform resembles Musk’s X, with a “discover” feed and a chronological feed for accounts that users follow. Users can send direct messages and pin posts, as well as find “starter packs” that provide a curated list of people and custom feeds to follow. Why is Bluesky growing? Bluesky said in mid-November that its total users surged to 15 million, up from roughly 13 million at the end of October, as some X users look for an alternative platform to post their thoughts and talk to others online. The post-election uptick in users isn’t the first time Bluesky has benefited from people leaving X. The platform gained 2.6 million users in the week after X was banned in Brazil in August — 85% of them from Brazil, the company said. About 500,000 new users signed up in one day in October, when X signaled that blocked acascounts would be able to see a user’s public posts. Across the platform, new users — among them journalists, left-leaning politicians and celebrities — have posted memes and shared that they were looking forward to using a space free from advertisements and hate speech. Some said it reminded them of the early days of Twitter more than a decade ago. Despite Bluesky’s growth, X posted after the election that it had “dominated the global conversation on the U.S. election” and had set new records. Beyond social networking Bluesky, though, has ******* ambitions than to supplant X. Beyond the platform itself, it is building a technical foundation — what it calls “a protocol for public conversation” — that could make social networks work across different platforms — also known as interoperability — like email, blogs or phone numbers. Currently, you can’t cross between social platforms to leave a comment on someone’s account. Twitter users must stay on Twitter and TikTok users must stay on TikTok if they want to interact with accounts on those services. Big Tech companies have largely built moats around their online properties, which helps serve their advertising-focused business models. Bluesky is trying to reimagine all of this and working toward interoperability. Source link #Bluesky #fastgrowing #social #platform #welcoming #fleeing #users Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

PS5 Pro Runs Max PC Settings in Lords of the Fallen, Says Dev; A Comparable PC Would Be More Costly PS5 Pro Runs Max PC Settings in Lords of the Fallen, Says Dev; A Comparable PC Would Be More Costly senorfartcushion1d 3h ago And your only reaction will be making another Batman game similar to Arkham, instesd of experimenting with other DC heroes ALA Green Arrow. The one issue that I’d **** thought about was how much of an effect ******** Squad KTJL would have had on a potential Superman and Justice League game. The fact that the game is set in metropolis alone means that it will be hard to get that game a green light. Source link #PS5 #Pro #Runs #Max #Settings #Lords #Fallen #Dev #Comparable #Costly Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Children in Need 2024… in 91 seconds Children in Need 2024… in 91 seconds Almost £40m was raised by the end of Friday night’s Children In Need 2024 live programme. The money will help disadvantaged young people across the ******* Kingdom. It includes £8.8m raised by the presenter Paddy McGuinness on his five day cycling challenge from Wales through England to Scotland, on a children’s Chopper bike. The total is set to rise as more money comes in. Source link #Children #2024.. #seconds Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

AFLW preliminary final schedule AFLW preliminary final schedule Schedule for the AFLW preliminary finals, with Port to take on North Melbourne and Brisbane hosting Adelaide. Source link #AFLW #preliminary #final #schedule Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Activists at UN climate talks in Baku call on world leaders to keep their promises Activists at UN climate talks in Baku call on world leaders to keep their promises Climate activists staged a demonstration at the UN’s COP29 talks in Baku on Saturday, calling on the world leaders to “keep their promises” when it come to tackling planetary warming. Activists held up signs urging for promises to be kept and tied ribbons to ropes in tribute to a religious tradition called Cirio de Nossa Senhora de Nazaré in the north region of Brazil. (AP video shot by Ahmed Hatem) Source link #Activists #climate #talks #Baku #call #world #leaders #promises Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Turns out the zombie apocalypse isn’t as fun as they said it would be – Rebecca Solnit on our dangerously disconnected world | Society Turns out the zombie apocalypse isn’t as fun as they said it would be – Rebecca Solnit on our dangerously disconnected world | Society Nobody’s home. Not in the young woman with the big headphones cycling against the light. Not in the person in the middle of the crossing staring at their phone, or the person talking to someone who’s not there and ignoring the one they’re pushing in the baby carriage, or the distracted driver who doesn’t seem to notice those cyclists and pedestrians. So I move through a world of people who are not all the way there and sometimes hardly there at all – and who don’t seem to want anyone else to be there either. Aversion to direct contact with others has become so normal in my home town – San Francisco, a city swallowed up by Silicon Valley – that I’ve become avoidant myself after too many encounters with people who seem to find it bafflingly transgressive to engage with any casual remark or question from a stranger, and mostly fail to respond. I wander in a city that feels ghostly, depopulated, even when bodies are on the street, and I feel like a ghost myself in the lack of acknowledgment, in others’ blank reluctance to utter even those tiny “excuse me” negotiations to get around someone or warn someone. The pandemic emptied out the streets, but this is another kind of emptiness – it often seems as though fewer people are out and about, but also the people still present are a lot less present. Had this happened overnight it would be a sci-fi horror movie scenario – people seeming numbed, dazed, their attention captured and manipulated by the contents of tiny devices controlled by powerful corporations, a billion Manchurian candidates in a wifi-equipped Metropolis. A Night of the Living ***** to You. But it’s happened so incrementally it’s become normal for us all to be in that limbo, that bardo. All of which is to say, welcome to my zombie movie, which I daresay is also yours to some extent. San Francisco still has its walkable, dense cityscape, but no longer the sense – especially among the young and affluent – that it is a place you belong to by connecting. I am not confident the people I pass by would do anything more than take out their phones to record an ********, if they noticed at all Rightwing tech bros and ************* media have pushed hard at the idea that San Francisco is a scary, dangerous place to walk around in, so much so that when a friend came to the city, his Lyft driver repeated the idea that he – a tall, fit ex-New Yorker – should quail at the idea of traversing our streets. They are, in one way, a little more dangerous: if people out in public keep each other safe as potential witnesses and participants, the withdrawal from paying attention, the reluctance to intervene, makes us less safe. I am not confident a lot of the people I pass by would do anything more than take out their phones to record an ********, if they noticed and stopped at all. And, after decades of decline, pedestrian fatalities have risen nationwide at the hands of distracted drivers (the extent to which distracted pedestrians also play a role has been less studied and, of course, the arguments for the driverless cars now cruising around San Francisco could be that we need this technology because we’ve been captured by another one). So maybe it is less safe, not for the reasons they claim, but for reasons they’re complicit in. A lot of people seem to move through the streets as though they’re somehow both hostile and boring, and they are more boring now that people around us are less engaged and more enterprises are outlets of corporate chains such as Starbucks and Walgreens, so there’s nothing distinctive or local and no one lasting to get to know. The ******* to withdraw, to seek smoothness and avoid the potential friction of contact, arises from the view that nonparticipation is self-protection, in contrast to the older idea that being urban is a participatory sport. Promenading, strolling to see and be seen, was a celebrated, desired part of urban life in the 19th and much of the 20th century, whether it meant showing off your Sunday finery on the boulevard or cruising the sidestreets under cover of darkness in search of ******* opportunities. The films of an earlier era feature jaunty boulevardiers or lady flaneurs moving from encounter to encounter. The detectives in classic film noir movies are masterful because they know cops, cabbies, bartenders, reporters, crooks, nightclub hat-check ****** and everyone in between. They’re love songs to cities that are made out of connections and circulation. It’s true that after the golden age of such movies, we in the US had a few decades of high urban street ******, now long over; true that police have always been a menace to ****** people, men to women – but the conviviality of the ****** neighbourhood I lived in in the 80s, and the nearby gay neighbourhood I wandered through then, was real and, despite my own youthful experiences with street harassment, I have never stopped walking the city. Democracy itself is based in trust in strangers and a sense of having something in common with them (which is part of why xenophobia and ***** of ****** serve fascist agendas so well). Circulating freely among them – especially in the diverse places most cities are – helps inculcate this feeling; it gives you a sense of confidence, of being able to coexist with difference. It orients you, literally, and it’s very useful knowledge in an emergency. That’s what’s celebrated in those old movies and shunned in the rhetoric and designs of the new technologies. I suspect a lot of people are now if not outright disoriented, not really oriented to where they live. Unlike using a map to find your way, which gradually becomes superfluous as you internalise it, using an app means obeying instructions without grasping the underlying geography, so you never really learn where you are. As someone who learned to navigate several cities and regions before smartphones came in, I wonder about the spatial blur the phone-reliant inhabit, the lack of a mental picture of the terrain. As San Francisco awaits its next big earthquake, I also wonder how my most tech-dependent neighbours will cope when it comes and electricity, and likely cell phone towers, fail. This navigational withdrawal, like the others, is egged on by the new technologies, in part because it’s useful to them if everything we do is mediated by a product they’re selling, either directly because we bought the phone or paid for the service plan, or indirectly because, as the tech adage goes, “if it’s free, you’re the product”. When you’re on social media or using a search engine, it’s harvesting your data and collecting revenue from pushing targeted ads at you, unless you went through the acrobatics of opting out. Some of the old points of connection have disappeared – automatic toll machines replace the people in booths, self-checkout replaces the cash register, renewing your car registration, bill-paying and banking can be done online, as can buying almost anything. Other connection points are still there, but shunned. There’s a Middle Eastern deli run by a really nice guy I go to sometimes – the first time I went in he gave me some free falafel while I waited; he’s greeted me warmly every time since, but these days on the tables are signs for “contactless ordering”, in case you want to scan the QR code right there because walking the few steps up to the counter and speaking would be too much. Many restaurants have put their menus online and offer a QR code to access it even when you’re there in person, a dismal way to find out what’s on offer; a San Francisco mall has signs on its entrances offering a QR code to find out its hours, rather than simply putting them on the signs; sometimes filtering things through phones seems reflexive, even when direct information is easy to come by. Of course, you can just order takeaway and avoid contact almost entirely. I had a startling experience last year in a ******** restaurant here – it was half-empty when we sat down and ordered dinner; an hour later it turned out our food hadn’t come because our order came in after dozens of online orders, which were being filled first. The kitchen was very busy, but not for those there in person. The takeaway *****, which works by pressuring restaurants to cut prices for the tech companies running the services carried out by underpaid workers, has created its own in-between, in which neither the creative labour of cooking your own dinner nor the gregariousness of eating out occurs. In between the wholly public space of city streets and parks and the entirely private space of home are the workplaces, cafes, restaurants and other social spaces in decline in various ways. For example, Silicon Valley has provided both the technology and the arguments for working from home, which has emptied out San Francisco’s centre and made it something of a ghost town, with the ripple effect of bankrupting sandwich shops and retail establishments there. (Cafes in this city had too often become de facto workplaces in which freelancers were silently absorbed in their screens, which prompted some to stop offering wifi and others to stop offering anything but takeaway drinks.) I recognise the benefits of being spared some of the lousy aspects of in-person work, including time-consuming commutes and related emissions, office attire, workplace ******* harassment. But it’s happened without much discussion of what else occurs in the workplace besides work, including friendships, mentorships, conversations, human contact and informal and formal worker solidarity. This is part of a larger shift towards pursuing the quantifiable – productivity, efficiency, profitability – while overlooking or devaluing the unquantifiable. The science journalist Victoria Atkinson wrote recently in praise of the coffee break. She states that in the labs she used to work in as a chemist, “from the very beginning of my time to now, years after leaving, I have found these pauses from work one of the most productive uses of my time”. This is because in the conversations around her when she was starting out, “I began to pick up the little bits and pieces of knowledge that make lab work quicker and easier – the kind of advice and information you’d never find in a paper or a departmental handbook.” She adds that “more than once, a suggestion over coffee led to an important breakthrough” and as she became more experienced, she became one of the participants offering, as well as receiving, guidance and took pleasure in that. Illustration: The Red Dress/The Guardian It’s a small jump from there to the fact that the workplace once featured prominently among the ways couples used to meet. In the 80s, according to one study, the second most common way couples met was through work. Of course, now it’s primarily through online means, notably dating apps (and most of them are harvesting your data for ***** to third parties). I’m all for love, but the rise of online services reflects the decline of other means of connecting. As unmediated in-person places and experiences get undermined by technology, we become yet more dependent on the technology, and that’s part of the horror movie. At the gym a few months ago, I spent at least 15 minutes waiting for a guy to get off the weight machine I wanted to use, a guy who would do a desultory short set of reps, then sit on the device scrolling through Grindr. The annoyance wasn’t so much that he was shopping for **** as that, for an exceptionally long stretch, he was doing something a lot of people in this gym do: use their phones to distract themselves between sets, but also to stay in the bubble that justifies their obliviousness to the people waiting for them to be finished. The mobile phone is not only a device offering you things to pay attention to but also offers you a way not to pay attention to other things. I could have forced Grindr guy to shake out of his trance and let me take a turn, but it would have been so unwelcome an act that I gave up instead. It was not my job to make someone who was wilfully anywhere-but-here show up. I suspect all these things are worse because I live in a city annexed by Silicon Valley, and I’ve lately found more civic joy in New York City and in Querétaro, Mexico. But the affliction is worldwide, and you’re in it, too. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion Vampires have devoured our attention and left us the ghosts of public and civic and community life. Tech has sold us not only the capacity to withdraw but the logic of it, with the rhetoric – at least since the late 90s dotcom ***** and the birth of online shopping and banking – that insists leaving the house, milling around, talking to strangers, going to your bank or the post office, or even eating out in a restaurant is inconvenient, unpleasant, unnecessary and possibly dangerous. Some of the justification for the withdrawal seems to be efficiency – the capitalist sense that time is money and you need to hoard the former so you can work incessantly to earn the latter. Another piece of it is the idea that the activities of daily life are so tedious and burdensome that you should try to avoid them. There are upscale counter-narratives that sometimes penetrate – think of baking sourdough bread during the pandemic, or knitting, or growing tomatoes, things that are not about getting ahead economically, but are about reconnecting to manual skills and activities, to seeing a process through rather than just getting the product, to slowing down rather than speeding up. In Zen training, just sweeping or washing the dishes can be an occasion for mindfulness, and being fully present – just doing that one thing with full attention, not being half there and half elsewhere – is an important part of the practice. Tech, by contrast, promotes ghosting your own embodied life and the systems that support it (though it also offers mindfulness apps you can install on your phone). The people designing and promoting and profiting off those technologies genuinely seem to both shun the turbulent, unpredictable world out there and to believe substitutes for direct and authentic human contact and experience are as good as the real thing – all the way down to virtual reality, virtual girlfriends and AI therapists. There is no shortage of actual human beings, but society is increasingly organised – in no small part by these merchants of withdrawal – to make it ******* to connect, which becomes the justification for pushing these substitutes. We’re now in the midst of an international loneliness pandemic whose impact on mental – and even physical – health, as well as happiness, is now a subject of medical concern. If you object that we’re not in a zombie movie because there are no brain-eating cannibals, let me reassure you, there are. The corporations are devouring our attention, and chewing our lives down to the bone to get at our data. They have shown their ruthlessness in what they offer as long as they capture us and extract our attention, information and other assets from us. And the harm is real. Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) turned a ****** eye to Facebook Messenger being used for the Rohingya genocide a few years back or for organising extremist militias on Facebook now. Meta’s Instagram is clearly fine with teenage body issues, social anxiety and suicides as long as the profits roll in, and the same goes for X and TikTok when it comes to misinformation, disinformation and hate speech, or YouTube with algorithms pushing extremist content. All these sites have been used to corrupt elections, and X owner Elon Musk himself promoted extremist content and misinformation as he toiled to elect Donald Trump. It’s not nearly well-enough known that Jair Bolsanaro, the far-right Brazilian president from 2019-23, rose to power and prominence thanks to his YouTube videos and the algorithm’s promotion of them. This means the destruction of the Amazon and attacks on indigenous groups during Bolsanaro’s time in office can be traced back in part to YouTube’s parent company Google/Alphabet in Silicon Valley. At the far end of this nightmare is China’s Orwellian surveillance society, in which few activities are free of government oversight and violation of the rules leads to dire consequences. The new technologies have created a whole realm of new vulnerabilities. Identity theft, hacking, stalkerware and revenge ***** are among the more literal kinds. Russian troll farms and manosphere influencers, *********** theorists and incels have found ways to warp minds and instil corrosive beliefs. I hear stories of young people rejecting smart phones and online life – but they’re salmon swimming upstream Young people are particularly vulnerable, and what happens to them when they’re sucked into the online world is widely linked to rises in bullying, sleep disorders, depression, loneliness, ********, the intake of misinformation, the recruitment of white boys in particular into rightwing, ******* and misogynist online spaces, and the decline of real face-to-face friendships. Some studies suggest youths’ susceptibility is tied to parental neglect due to the same causes, notably to parental “phubbing”, a word coined to describe the snubbing that occurs when someone is technically present but ignoring others by being absorbed in phone use. In a 2024 Pew study, 46% of ********* teenagers surveyed “say their parent is at least sometimes distracted by their phone when they’re trying to talk to them, including 8% who say this happens often”. Online social media and search engines, notably Google, cannibalise actual news-producing organisations and siphon off their ad revenue, notably that of newspapers, which are dying in the US at the rate of about two a week. That is, the very local ones are really dying out and even many of the big ones are gutting their staff, partly to stay afloat and partly because some of them now belong to investors who are stripping them for parts. With less local news there’s less local knowledge and civic participation, more room for *********** and unaccountable institutions (and while there are local news sites and blogs, podcasts and other online information sources that do a great job, they’re not reaching people the way a local newspaper once did or, for the most part, doing the kind of reporting newspapers do). Local news advocate Steven Waldman writes, “One study of toxic emissions at 40,000 plants found that when newspapers reported on pollution, emissions declined by 29% compared with plants that were not covered.” In a famous incident in 2002, a train derailed in a small North Dakota town and “five tank cars carrying anhydrous ammonia ruptured, filling the area with a poisonous gas cloud. But a public warning over radio wasn’t broadcast for nearly 90 minutes. One person *****, and more than 300 were injured.” The problem was there was no longer a local radio station or other local means of raising the alarm, only corporate stations playing automated programmes. No one was home. I hear stories of young people consciously rejecting smart phones and online life, and finding ways to connect in person – but they’re salmon swimming upstream. Their resistance is valiant, but individual will is far from adequate to escape the grasp of these corporations and recommit to the fading world of the here and now and embodied and gregarious. I don’t have a sweeping solution, but I think recognising that one of our deepest human desires is to connect, to belong, to be at home, and that doing so is made up of innumerable small in-person acts, might be a start. Source link #Turns #zombie #apocalypse #isnt #fun #Rebecca #Solnit #dangerously #disconnected #world #Society Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

*** snow and ice warnings as weather forecast to turn colder *** snow and ice warnings as weather forecast to turn colder As colder Arctic air moves southward across the *** over the weekend, wintry showers will start across northern Scotland on Sunday afternoon. The Met Office warn that around 5-10cm of snow could settle on higher ground in northern Scotland into Monday morning with 1-3cm possible to lower levels. Along with falling temperatures overnight into Monday, this will also bring the risk of ice. Arctic air also tends to be cleaner so with some clear skies on Sunday night, there could be a good chance of seeing the Leniod meteor shower. A weather system will push in from the Atlantic on Monday and this is where there could be some uncertainty in the forecast. While rain is expected across much of England and Wales, there will be some snow falling on the northern boundary of this area. Higher ground in Northern Ireland, northern England and southern Scotland will be most likely to see snow . Met Office yellow warnings have been issued on Monday and Tuesday for northern England and southern Scotland. Over the high ground of the Pennines, there could be 15-20cm of snow accumulating and possibly causing some disruption. Towns and cities at lower elevations also have a risk of disruptive snow, perhaps 2-10cm in places, but this will depend on the precise track of the rain moving across the *** – the heaviness of the precipitation and the elevation of the land. As we are still in mid-November, the ground ******** relatively warm and therefore it will be ******* for snow to settle at low-levels. Snow showers will continue to fall in Northern Scotland on Monday and Tuesday. Source link #snow #ice #warnings #weather #forecast #turn #colder Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

‘I can’t live my life’: Disability advocate’s plea after he was left stranded for 3 hours ‘I can’t live my life’: Disability advocate’s plea after he was left stranded for 3 hours A man was left with a hefty fee when a routine hospital visit turned into an “emergency” after he was left stranded waiting for a taxi. Source link #live #life #Disability #advocates #plea #left #stranded #hours Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Mom ***** After Getting Ejected From Golf Cart Mom ***** After Getting Ejected From Golf Cart Mary Blasetti was ejected from a cart at a golf community in Annapolis, Maryland. The 32-year-old mom had to be airlifted to a hospital. Many places are now treating golf carts like cars, and safety is being taken into consideration by many manufacturers. Blasetti ***** two days later. She leaves behind a husband and a 2-month-old baby. The investigation into the ****** of the young mother is still underway. Source link #Mom #***** #Ejected #Golf #Cart Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Catcalls and being followed – why women ***** running in the dark Catcalls and being followed – why women ***** running in the dark BBC Natalie Bell says she regularly experiences abusive comments while out running – especially now the nights have drawn in It is 7pm and after a busy day that means one thing: time for my evening run. I put on the hi-vis, turn on my head torch and set my smartwatch. But before I head out of the door, I have a very important task – a message to my husband. I tell him the exact route I’ll be running and the time I’m likely to be home. It should not have to be part of a woman’s routine, but this is the grim reality – especially at this time of year. Verbal ******, wolf whistles, beeps from cars and inappropriate comments. As a female runner, it almost feels normal. I have spoken to many who say they regularly experience ******, especially when the nights draw in. One of my most daunting experiences was when I was followed by a group of men in a car. One of them wound the window down and shouted. The car then followed me. I’m just glad it happened close to where I live, as all I wanted to do was get home. Jeannine Ursell is doing more group running because she feels uneasy about going out alone On other occasions, people have run alongside me to try to intimidate me. They would not do that to my male running friends, or if I was in a group. Jeannine Ursell, from North Ferriby, East Yorkshire, says she gets beeped at and shouted at by people in cars and vans. “They’re usually commenting on my appearance, my looks or my body and it can make me feel really intimidated. “When it gets darker, around dusk, is probably the worst time. I go out running because it gives me head space, but this gets in the way. “I’ve got friends who won’t go out running and have taken to the treadmill in the gym, which I think is quite sad. “I’m doing more group running because I wouldn’t particularly want to go out on my own.” Gemma Stephenson, also from East Yorkshire, fits in her runs around her full-time job and young children, which means going out early in the morning or after work. “It is dark and I live in a village where it is quite rural, so I do find it a lot more uneasy when I go running in the dark,” she says. Gemma Stephenson always lets her husband know her route Thanks to a smartwatch, her husband can track her, but it means she has to plan her routes in advance. “I always carry my phone in case of an emergency, and I have run early in the morning holding a torch. “It can be used as a light, but also as a means of protecting myself if I need to.” Melissa Hawkes, from Lincoln, has joined a new local running group, Just Run Community, in order to run with others and feel more safe. I joined her on a run in North Hykeham, to the south of the city. “There’s a good running group here and having that community and other people to run alongside is great,” she tells me. “It helps us to stay together, feel safe. People have shouted at me, people have commented on my running, I get comments about the clothes that I’m wearing, parts of your body that they shouldn’t be saying anything about. “It does make me think about the routes that I choose and whether I am safe.” Melissa Hawkes uses a tracking app so family and friends know where she is All three runners say those aiming comments at women should think about the way it makes them feel. “It’s not something that is going to change overnight, I think it’s something culturally we have to change,” Melissa says. “We have got to teach those around us that it is not appropriate to say these things to people who are just trying to better themselves and doing something that they enjoy.” Figures published by This Girl Can, a campaign set up by Sport England to support women to be active, show nearly three quarters (72%) change their outdoor activity routines during the winter months. Earlier this year, the University of Manchester found just over two thirds of women (68%) had experienced ****** while running, but very few incidents had been reported to the police. What the police say Lincolnshire Police and Humberside Police both say tackling harassment and improving women’s safety is a “priority”. A spokesperson for the Humberside force told the BBC: “Unsolicited and unwanted comments, gestures, wolf-whistling or ‘catcalling’ can cause distress and offence to victims and we would encourage anyone affected to report it. “We are working closely with local running groups to understand the concerns… and to offer them appropriate support.” A spokesperson for Lincolnshire Police said women and ****** should be able to “feel safe and be safe”, “free of ***** and harassment”. “We continue to take opportunities to highlight the issue with, for example, videos created in partnership with Lincoln College and a behavioural change campaign targeting male behaviour.” The force said it encouraged runners to use the StreetSafe website and app to highlight areas where they felt unsafe. “The information we collate allows us to work with partners to make improvements,” the spokesperson added. Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Source link #Catcalls #women #***** #running #dark Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Injured Healy out of WBBL, in race to face India Injured Healy out of WBBL, in race to face India Alyssa Healy is racing the clock to play in Australia’s looming ODIs against India after being ruled out of the remainder of the WBBL with a knee injury. The Sydney Sixers on Saturday said Australia’s captain would not play for them again this tournament, after picking up an injury in her left knee. Australia’s three-match ODI series starts four days after the WBBL final, leaving Healy in significant doubt for international duties. Healy did not keep in the Sixers’ last-start loss against Brisbane because of body management, and had entered the tournament with a foot injury that ended her T20 World Cup early. Australia host India in three one-day internationals, before travelling to New Zealand over Christmas for three more 50-over matches. It’s understood Healy will be assessed in the next fortnight ahead of those two series, with a squad to be announced next weekend. The injury is not believed to be serious enough to have her in any current doubt for the multi-format Ashes, which begin with an ODI at North Sydney on January 12. Healy had warned on her return from her foot injury that she may need to be managed through the summer. “There are higher powers sitting above that are quite vocal in what can and can’t happen, which I completely understand,” Healy said earlier this month. “Being skipper as well is a fairly big role for me. I want to be available for as much of the summer as I can. “I’ve hardly played a game for the Sixers for the past two seasons, and it’s a place I really enjoy playing cricket. “I want to be available for every game that I possibly can, but the reality is that might not be the case. “It’s going to be managing the pain, function and what I can and can’t do (all summer). How I pull up from games is going to be really important as well.” Healy’s injury comes as a serious ***** to the Sixers, who face the prospect of needing to win their last three matches to make the WBBL finals. If Healy does miss international matches, Tahlia McGrath would be expected to deputise as captain again after doing so in the World Cup. Source link #Injured #Healy #WBBL #race #face #India Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Man cashes settlement check in Glendale, and then chaos ensues Man cashes settlement check in Glendale, and then chaos ensues GLENDALE, Ariz. – A Glendale man who just cashed a settlement check quickly had tens of thousands of dollars stolen from his car after leaving it unlocked while he was looking at a truck to buy. Surveillance cameras captured the moment two suspects swiped nearly $50,000 from his car on Nov. 7. “So you went to some location to buy a truck with the money in the car and then what happened?” police asked the victim. The victim explained to the officer, “When we got off to get the truck, we had the money in the car, and me, like an ******, didn’t lock the car.” As the victim and his son were looking at the truck, the person selling it said, “‘Hey dude, that car took off with something. He stole something out of your car, he said, and he left.” The victim decided to take the situation into his own hands. He and his son jumped back in their car, calling 911 as they chased after the suspects. Glendale Police’s real-time ****** center traffic cameras captured the suspects crashing into another vehicle after running a red light at 67th Avenue and Olive Avenue. “I was running after him and I lost him from the front of this complex to over here and then I seen him and I said ‘I’ll wait for the cops,'” the victim said. Raymond Pouncy and Reginold Chatman were arrested. Inside their car, officers say they found $47,205 in cash. “There’s money all over the street, making a right-hand turn seeing the fighting, came up to a car accident and then fighting, and I was like, ‘You guys need to separate,’ and the guy is like, ‘He stole $50,000 from me,’” a witness said. Source link #Man #cashes #settlement #check #Glendale #chaos #ensues Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Russia pumping gas via Ukraine but volumes to Austria cut Russia pumping gas via Ukraine but volumes to Austria cut Last week, Gazprom accused Ukraine of withholding gas supplies destined for Moldova and threatened to reduce those flows, although Ukraine denied the accusation. Kirill Kudryavtsev | Afp | Getty Images Russian gas giant Gazprom continued to pump steady volumes of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Saturday, but supplies to Austrian energy company OMV were halted hours after Vienna said Russia had given notice it would cut off flows. Russia, which before the Ukraine war was the biggest single supplier of natural gas to Europe, has lost almost all of its ********* customers as the EU tried to reduce its dependence and the Nord Stream gas pipeline to Germany was blown up in 2022. Now one of the last main Russian gas routes to Europe – the *******-era Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline via Ukraine – is due to shut down at the end of this year as Kyiv does not want to extend a five-year transit agreement which brings northern Siberian gas to Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Austria. Austria said on Friday that Moscow had informed it that the gas would be shut off from Saturday following an arbitration award to OMV, Austria’s biggest energy supplier, over unfulfilled Gazprom supplies to its ******* unit. On Saturday, Austria’s energy regulator E-Control said Gazprom’s deliveries to OMV had stopped at 6 a.m. local time (0500 GMT), adding that prices and supplies to Austrian customers were steady. OMV is seeking to recover the 230 million euro damages awarded during arbitration from Gazprom by off-setting the claim against invoices for deliveries to Austria – essentially stopping some payment for gas supplied via Ukraine. Gazprom said it would send 42.4 million cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Saturday, the same volume as on Friday. Flows into Slovakia from Ukraine were stable but nominations for flows to Austria from Slovakia were around 16% below averages seen this month, data from transmission system operator Eustream showed. OMV usually accounts for around 40% of Russian gas flows via Ukraine, or some 17 mcm per day. Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke to President Vladimir ****** on Friday for the first time in nearly two years, as ********* leaders wait to hear Donald Trump’s ideas on ending the biggest land war in Europe since World War Two. Gas politics According to the Kremlin, ****** told Scholz that Russia had always fulfilled its contractual obligations for energy supplies and was “ready for mutually beneficial cooperation if the ******* side shows interest in this”. ******* and post-******* leaders spent half a century from the discovery of major Siberian gas deposits in the post-WW2 years building up an energy business which linked the ******* Union, then Russia, and Germany, by far Europe’s biggest economy. War, and explosions, have destroyed that link, damaging the economies of both countries. At its peak, Russia was supplying 35% of Europe’s gas but since the 2022 war, Gazprom’s market share has been lost to Norway, the ******* States and Qatar. The Yamal-Europe pipeline via Belarus was closed down after a dispute while Russia blamed the ******* States and Britain for the mysterious explosions under the Baltic Sea that closed the Nord Stream route. Washington and London have denied they blew up the pipelines. The Wall Street Journal has reported Ukrainian officials were behind the *******. Kyiv has denied that. Without Austria, significant Russian supplies will only go to two ********* countries – Hungary and Slovakia, in Hungary’s case via a pipeline running mostly through Turkey. Russia shipped some 15 billion cubic metres of gas via Ukraine in 2023, about 8% of peak Russian gas flows to Europe via various routes in 2018-2019, according to data compiled by Reuters. In 2023, the Ukraine transit route met 65% of gas demand in Austria and its eastern neighbours Hungary and Slovakia, according to the International Energy Agency. Source link #Russia #pumping #gas #Ukraine #volumes #Austria #cut Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Newport pharmacist Betty Pritchard retires aged 91 after 59 years Newport pharmacist Betty Pritchard retires aged 91 after 59 years Betty Pritchard has finally decided to retire from her job at a community pharmacy after 59 years – and at the age of 91. She started at Watkin-Davies in Bettws, Newport, in 1965 but had spent the previous 13 years working at another pharmacy. Mrs Pritchard, from Bassaleg, Newport, regularly took two buses to work and back each day but has now decided to call it a day. “I’m so lucky to have had this job,” she said. Mrs Pritchard previously told BBC News she decided to work long after many peers had put their feet up because she had “seen so many people retire and fall apart”. She also recalled how pharmacies had changed during her career. “When I first started work, you could buy poppy heads – opium,” she said. “It was make-your-own medicine. Then everything became pre-packed.” Colleagues and residents threw Mrs Pritchard a retirement party with cake, flowers and champagne to say farewell. “It’s just a lovely place to work,” she said. “I’ve made so many friends.” Aneurin Bevan University Health Board described Mrs Pritchard as the “heart and soul of the community pharmacy, dedicating herself to helping others since joining in the early 1960s”. Source link #Newport #pharmacist #Betty #Pritchard #retires #aged #years Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Wind And The Lion wins $500,000 Placid Ark, justifying months of expectation from punters about prized gelding Wind And The Lion wins $500,000 Placid Ark, justifying months of expectation from punters about prized gelding Long-time Listed $500,000 TABtouch Placid Ark Stakes (1200m) favourite Wind And The Lion justified months of lofty wraps by landing the big feature on day one of the Pinnacles carnival. The $3.80 TABtouch elect was hunted forward by jockey Chris Parnham but could only get as close as seventh, with Golden Vale ($31) kicking up to lead and London’s Image ($18) forcing the pace out three-wide. Approaching the home bend, Parnham latched onto the back of London’s Image who had moved to challenge London’s Image with the two ****** leaders by the 350m mark. Parnham continued to hold onto Wind And The Lion until the 250m when he finally cut the ribbons, but still had at least three lengths to find on the front-runners. Finally, inside the last 100m, the frantic pace began to fold and Wind And The Lion launched a final flurry to grab the lead 30m from the post. He drew away to win by a half-length from London’s Image and Golden Vale, who were separated by just a nose. Camera IconConnections of Wind And The Lion celebrate. Credit: Simon Merritt/Simon Merritt / Western Racepix Earlier, Rope Them In ($8) further enhanced his prospects for the Winterbottom Stakes in a fortnight’s time with victory in the Group 3 $200,000 Colonel Reeves Stakes (1100m). Settling back fourth last, the Steve Wolfe-trained gelding was level-pegging with Western Empire ($2.60) by the 600m, but crucially was able to make ground around the outside while the favourite was pinned on the fence. Peeling five-wide once straightening, Rope Them In sizzled to the front with 200m to go, with Western Empire finally gaining clear running to charge after him. Camera IconRope Them In. Credit: Simon Merritt/Simon Merritt / Western Racepix But Rope Them In’s brilliant dash proved too much to overcome, with the four-year-old holding on to score by three-quarters-of-a-length. Another son of Playing **** would later claim Group 3 glory, with Mojo Rhythm regaining top form by winning his first race since last year’s edition of the $200,000 R J Peters Stakes (1500m) and banking his place for another attempt at the Railway Stakes next week. The gelding hit the bridle hard after the start, with jockey Patrick Carbery tugging against the six-year-old to restrain him back to third last before weaving through congestion nearing the turn. The $26 roughie let down inside the final 200m to claim the front just before the post before holding off the late thrust of Yonga Lass ($6). Source link #Wind #Lion #wins #Placid #Ark #justifying #months #expectation #punters #prized #gelding Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Scientists Discover World’s Largest Coral Discovered in Solomon Islands Scientists Discover World’s Largest Coral Discovered in Solomon Islands A massive coral, thought to be the largest ever recorded, has been discovered by scientists in the Solomon Islands, drawing global attention to its size and environmental significance. The coral, which extends about 111 feet across and 104 feet in length, spans an area comparable to two basketball courts and can be seen from space. This discovery, made by a team from National Geographic’s Pristine Seas expedition in October, highlights the presence of previously unrecorded marine giants. A Hidden Giant in the Ocean Dr. Molly Timmers, the expedition’s lead scientist, noted that the coral appeared “like a shipwreck” from the water’s surface. Its sheer size was confirmed by underwater divers, who found the coral extending across the seafloor with undulating waves of brown, yellow, and blue hues. Estimated to be between 300 and 500 years old, the coral dwarfs the previous record-holder, a coral known as “Big Momma” in ********* Samoa. Pristine Seas founder Dr. Enric Sala compared the discovery to finding “the world’s tallest tree” and emphasized its importance in marine biodiversity research. Dr. David M. Baker, a coral reef researcher at the University of Hong Kong, who was not part of the expedition, highlighted that large coral structures represent resilience, having endured significant environmental changes over centuries. A Vital Marine Habitat at Risk Though the coral appears healthy, scientists have expressed concern about the threats it faces from both local and global stressors. Overfishing disrupts coral reef ecosystems by removing key species that support its health, while climate change poses a longer-term threat. Coral reefs are highly susceptible to warming oceans, which can lead to coral bleaching and ultimately coral ******, Timmers noted. With more than 490 species of hard and soft corals, the Solomon Islands host one of the world’s richest coral ecosystems. The discovery of this coral serves as a reminder of both the ocean’s hidden wonders and the urgent need for conservation amidst rising global temperatures. For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who’sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube. Crypto Price Today: Bitcoin Briefly Hits $93,000 Before Retreating Amid Price Correction Study Finds Industrial Aerosols May Cause Local Snowfall by Freezing Clouds Source link #Scientists #Discover #Worlds #Largest #Coral #Discovered #Solomon #Islands Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Wealthy Americans are buying homes in Scottsdale and Jackson *****. I visited both and thought one felt more livable. Wealthy Americans are buying homes in Scottsdale and Jackson *****. I visited both and thought one felt more livable. Wealthy Americans are buying homes in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Jackson *****, Wyoming. These areas offer natural landscapes, luxury lifestyles, and lower taxes, attracting the rich. I visited both. I thought Scottsdale felt more livable, and Jackson ***** was a better vacation spot. The rich are moving from urban metropolises to suburban areas in the ********* West. Scottsdale, Arizona, and Jackson *****, Wyoming, are two of America’s wealthy hot spots known for their natural landscapes, luxury lifestyles, and lower taxes. The southwestern hub of Scottsdale is one of the fastest-growing cities in the US in terms of millionaire residents, according to the USA Wealth Report by Henley & Partners. Meanwhile, the ultra-rich have been hiding out in Jackson ***** for decades. Affluent Americans move to these two places for similar reasons, including the mountainous scenery and the remote luxury estates. But after visiting both, I found that they offer completely different lifestyles. One felt like a place to vacation, and the other seemed like a better place to live. Scottsdale and Jackson ***** are some of the most affluent places in the ********* West. Scottsdale and Jackson ***** are in the ********* West.Joey Hadden/Business Insider Scottsdale is east of Phoenix in central Arizona, and Jackson ***** is on the western edge of Wyoming, bordering the Teton mountain range. Scottsdale and a nearby town called Paradise Valley make up Arizona’s wealth enclave. Paradise Valley and Scottsdale.Joey Hadden/Business Insider When it comes to millionaire hot spots, I see Scottsdale and Paradise Valley as one and the same. “Paradise Valley is really a separate place, but it blends so close into Scottsdale,” a local real-estate agent, Shawn Shackelton, told Business Insider. Between Phoenix and Scottsdale, Paradise Valley sits on 15.4 square miles of land. It was established as a town and residential haven in 1961, while Scottsdale developed into an urban area. Azcentral reported in March that Scottsdale had 243,000 residents, and about 14,600 of them were millionaires. Paradise Valley, meanwhile, has around 12,500 residents, according to Census Bureau data from July 2023. Paradise Valley is more expensive than Scottsdale. It’s the richest town in the state, often called the “Beverly Hills of Arizona.” Jackson ***** comprises multiple towns in Teton County. The town of Jackson and a more remote area in Teton County.Joey Hadden/Business Insider Jackson ***** refers to the communities in Teton County, including Jackson, Moose, Wilson, and Teton Village, among others. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the top 1% of locals across Teton County make an average of more than $22 million, 142.2 times as much as than the bottom 99%. Jackson, with fewer than 11,000 residents, is the most developed town in the group. Its bustling downtown area has plenty of restaurants, hotels, and retail stores. Sam Haack, a local real-estate agent, told *** that the more remote towns tend to have more expensive real estate because they’re more secluded. CEOs, entrepreneurs, and retirees tend to move to Scottsdale and Paradise Valley for full-time residency. Mansions dot a mountain in Scottsdale.Joey Hadden/Business Insider Scottsdale and Paradise Valley have been known for their luxury housing market since at least 2001, when Shackelton began selling homes in the area, she told ***. Shackelton’s clientele includes entrepreneurs, medical professionals, C-suite executives, and wealthy retirees. Shackelton said many of her clients came from California, Colorado, and the East Coast. But she’s recently seen an increase in new residents moving from a wider range of cities around the US, from Chicago and Minneapolis to Seattle and Portland. Jackson ***** has similar demographics, but more often than not, buyers purchase vacation homes and aren’t full-time residents. A vacation home in Jackson *****.Joey Hadden/Business Insider “There’s a saying in Jackson: ‘You either have two houses or two jobs,”’ Haack told ***. Roughly 60% of Haack’s clients, who include DINKs (dual-income, no kids) and boomers, purchase vacation homes in Jackson and live in them for only part of the year. “The baby boomers have largely gained their wealth through their appreciation of assets over the years like their equity portfolios, other homes, and businesses,” he said. “Some of these clients may still work W2 jobs in finance, consulting, or real estate but are usually business owners and entrepreneurs.” Meanwhile, the DINKs he works with typically make a combined $250,000 to $350,000 a year working corporate jobs. Laurie Huff, a real-estate agent at Sotheby’s Jackson ***** who was born and raised in the area, told *** that about 50% of her clients had become full-time residents, while the others spent half the year in warmer places. “Our clients in the past few years have ranged in age from 30 to 60 years and come from high-net-worth backgrounds,” she said. “A finance/business background seems to account for a large percentage.” Tourism in Jackson ***** may make life ******* for locals. The town square in downtown Jackson.Joey Hadden/Business Insider Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park visitors often lodge in Jackson *****. In 2023, the two parks had a combined 7.9 million visitors. “Summers are the busiest season with millions of tourist visits,” Haack told ***. “We have traffic in downtown Jackson with locals and tourists honking at each other.” Winter is another popular visiting time, he added, while spring and fall, when I visited, are considered shoulder seasons. During my September trip, it certainly didn’t feel like shoulder season — the downtown area was congested with traffic, crowds strolled through the town square and streets lined with shops, and a hostel I stayed in was packed with guests. Haack said that lately, more tourists had been visiting between peak seasons. “These offseasons used to be much longer,” he said, “but now that pricing for summer and winter hotel stays and restaurants have gone up so much, tourists are spilling over into the spring and fall for more affordable visits, cutting into local’s recovery time from the peak seasons.” Scottsdale is also a popular destination for luxury travel. Old Town Scottsdale is in the downtown area.Joey Hadden/Business Insider Shackelton told *** that Scottsdale and Paradise Valley are luxury travel hot spots from late fall through the winter. It’s when second homeowners and other snowbirds fly in to escape the cold, she added. “This increases our traffic and makes it ******* to get a reservation in many restaurants,” Shackelton said. “I can always tell when the second homeowners are starting to come back because I start to see the car transports dropping cars off all over town,” she added. Despite the inconvenience, Shackelton said, tourism season is generally manageable for locals. “We know it’s coming, and we just plan for it,” she said. “There are certain times of the year we just know not to drive in certain areas because it’s just going to be busy.” Scottsdale has a range of housing, but the luxury market has the largest presence. A luxury home in Scottsdale.Joey Haden/Business Insider “The reality is that Scottsdale has never been a place where people come looking for affordable housing,” Shackelton said. The Phoenix suburb has a median listing price of $1 million, and the most expensive home on the market is $29.5 million, according to Realtor.com. Paradise Valley has a median listing price of $4.8 million, and a $50 million mansion is the priciest listing on Realtor.com right now. During my trip, I noticed Scottsdale had a more traditional suburban feel. Many homes are placed close together, with less than an acre of land each. The most expensive neighborhoods I visited in Scottsdale had housing similar to Paradise Valley. Mansions were sprawled across multiple acres, giving residents a secluded, luxury lifestyle. Property in Jackson ***** is ******* to ******* because the supply is scarcer. A home in Jackson *****.Joey Hadden/Business Insider This is largely because 97% of Teton County is public land, Haack said, and only 3% can be privately owned and built on. Homeowners “tend to hang onto these properties for the appreciation and tax advantages, leading to even less inventory and supply,” he added. According to the Viehman Group‘s third-quarter Jackson ***** real-estate report, obtained by ***, the average listing price in Jackson ***** over the last three months was $6.42 million. The most expensive home on the market is a 9,100-square-foot, six-bedroom home listed for $40 million. In Jackson *****, I noticed that most properties were built ranch-style — short and wide. The homes stretched across multiple acres. Scottsdale was too hot for my comfort in the spring, so I bet summers would be a bummer. The author at a hotel in Scottsdale.Joey Hadden/Business Insider When I visited Scottsdale in April, I was sweating through my outfits multiple times a day. It was 90 degrees Fahrenheit in the middle of spring. I thought summer must be tough to endure since temperatures often exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit. On the flip side, winters are full of breezy days in the high 70s. “Our summers are hot — there’s no question,” Shackelton said. “But all of my clients that have moved here from the Midwest or East Coast say the same thing: ‘I will take this heat over gray clouds, ice, snow, and freezing rain.'” Jackson ***** was pleasantly cool in the fall, but the winters seem harsh. The author enjoys fall weather in Jackson *****.Joey Hadden/Business Insider The locals Huff and Haack said Jackson ***** experiences all four seasons. I layered up for my mid-September trip to Jackson *****, when temperatures ranged from 40 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. During the day, I appreciated the cool breeze in a cardigan and a light jacket. After three months of sweating, I was excited by the fall weather. Winter would be another story, as temperatures drop below 10 degrees Fahrenheit. As a full-time resident, I’d probably be trudging through the snow with a red, numb face for a quarter of each year. But Haack said it felt magical. “Imagine living in a snow globe,” he added. For Huff, the winters feel long, but as a Jackson ***** native and former Alpine racer, she loves them. Huff and Hack said locals refer to spring as “mud season.” “The spring is when all the snow melts, and there is mud everywhere,” Haack said. “You spend a lot on car washes in the spring.” And in the summer, Huff said, temperatures typically range between 40 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on the time of day. Both enclaves have great scenery … A desert landscape in Scottsdale.Joey Hadden/Business Insider Scottsdale and Paradise Valley are in the desert, surrounded by the Camelback and Mummy Mountains. As a resident, I’d get to see the sunset as the hills change colors every night. I’ve never lived in a desert climate or anywhere with a natural view like this. Vibrant succulents dotting the landscape made it even more unique. … but Jackson *****’s views are unmatched. The Teton mountain range in Jackson *****.Joey Hadden/Business Insider Jackson ***** is also in a valley, but the mountains surrounding it are the Tetons. To me, the views were more dramatic than in Scottsdale. The mountains climbed higher, had sharper edges, and more snow capping the top. But if you’re not a nature lover, Haack has a message: “Don’t move here.” “We have so much public land right out our back doors, and the goal is to spend as little time indoors as possible,” he said. “I think this is why people are willing to live in such small and expensive living situations in Jackson.” Both enclaves offer golfing and hiking, but Jackson ***** also has winter sports such as skiing and snowboarding. A private golf course in Scottsdale.Joey Hadden/Business Insider Residents of both wealth hubs spend their free time hiking and mountain biking in beautiful, natural places with varying elevations. Jackson ***** and Scottsdale are also known for their pristine public and private golf courses. I visited private golf clubs in both towns and gazed in awe at the courses before me. In Scottsdale, succulents added visual interest to the course, and contrasting red pebble paths made it feel vibrant. The courses in Jackson ***** had a different look. The greens were darker and richer, pine trees replaced succulents, and mountains stood taller in the background. Scottsdale’s warm weather allows golfers to play year-round. But in Jackson *****, the colder months transform the landscape into a winter wonderland, and residents trade in their golf clubs for skis. Flights in and out of Jackson ***** have incredible views, but the airport is tiny. A view from a plane landing in Jackson *****.Joey Hadden/Business Insider As a travel reporter, I have to think about proximity to a major airport whenever I consider moving. Jackson ***** is just minutes from Grand Teton National Park, where one of the smallest airports in the country, Jackson ***** Airport, is. If I lived there, I imagine I’d have to take a lot of connecting flights, which isn’t ideal for a frequent traveler. Arizona’s wealthy enclave is more conveniently located for travel. Downtown Phoenix is conveniently near Scottsdale and Paradise Valley.Joey Hadden/Business Insider Scottsdale and Paradise Valley residents can reach the well-connected Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in as little as 15 minutes, depending on where they’re coming from. If I lived in one of these suburbs, getting out of town would be a breeze compared with Jackson *****. Scottsdale appeared to be a more convenient place for daily life. Scottsdale’s Fashion Square entry point.Joey Hadden/Business Insider From Fashion Square to Scottsdale Quarter, there was endless shopping in Arizona’s wealth enclave. Scottsdale alone has about 2,500 stores, many of which make up high-end outdoor malls in North and South Scottsdale. “Something people love when they come here is that even if they enjoy the outdoor lifestyle, they can still go to fine-dining restaurants and high-end boutique shops,” Shackelton said. The area has chains such as Fry’s, Safeway, Sprouts, Trader Joe’s, Albertsons, and Costco. For those who don’t live near the city center, residential communities such as DC Ranch, 40 minutes from downtown, have their own shopping centers with groceries, healthcare, and dining within the neighborhood. According to Payscale‘s cost-of-living calculator, groceries are 5% more expensive than in the average US town, and healthcare costs 4% more. Scottsdale was also ranked the 19th best city in the US for healthcare by WalletHub, which considers cost, quality, and accessibility. Jackson ***** seemed to have less to offer for locals. Stores in downtown Jackson.Joey Hadden/Business Insider Jackson ***** has a few big stores, including Target, Whole Foods, Albertsons, and Smith’s, but the area’s Chamber of Commerce website lists fewer than 100 stores. Most of the stores I saw were in downtown Jackson, far from the mansions spaced out in the remote areas of Teton County. From Western boutiques and art shops to home furniture and decor stores, it seemed like a great place to buy gifts, but I wondered where locals get everyday items. You’d have to cross over into Idaho to find the nearest Costco. According to Smart Asset’s cost-of-living calculator, groceries in Jackson ***** cost 2% more than in Scottsdale. At the same time, healthcare in Teton County was 2% higher than Wyoming’s average in 2023, according to the finance company SoFi. Jackson ***** residents may find themselves saying goodbye to their neighbors. A golf course in Teton Village, Wyoming.Joey Hadden/Business Insider Haack told *** the most challenging part of living in Jackson ***** was the cost. “The kind of sacrifices you have to make to stick around in the valley can wear you down, and a lot of people end up leaving and giving up on their mountain town dreams,” Haack said. “When you see your friends dropping like flies while simultaneously seeing people thriving in Jackson because they came from money, it can break your spirit.” But he said that if you hang on, “it will all be worth it in the end.” After visiting these two Western enclaves, I could only see myself living in Arizona. A snapshot of Arizona’s wealth enclave.Joey Hadden/Business Insider Scottsdale may not have the most awe-inspiring landscapes compared with Jackson *****, but I think the warmer weather, larger housing supply, and ease of travel make it a more reasonable place to live. But Jackson ***** is undoubtedly a better place to vacation. The author in Jackson *****.Joey Hadden/Business Insider After my trip to Jackson *****, it was easy to see why so many homeowners only live there part time. From brutal winters to connecting flights, spending 12 months a year there seems to be more challenging than relaxing. As a vacation spot, though, Jackson ***** reigns supreme with some of the best natural views in the US and a range of activities for different climates. Correction: November 15, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated the average cost of healthcare in Teton County last year, according to SoFi. It was 2% higher than Wyoming’s average, not 102% higher. Read the original article on Business Insider Source link #Wealthy #Americans #buying #homes #Scottsdale #Jackson #***** #visited #thought #felt #livable Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Unreal and Unreal Tournament available for free on Internet Archive Unreal and Unreal Tournament available for free on Internet Archive The classic shooters Unreal and Unreal Tournament, showcasing the original Unreal Engine from Epic Games, are now available for free on the Internet Archive for PC. Unreal led to the creation of the Unreal Tournament franchise, which became one of the most popular multiplayer games of the 2000s. If you’re eager to revisit the golden age of first-person shooters, both games are now completely free to play online. You can visit the Old Unreal website and download both titles for free forever. “We can confirm that Unreal and Unreal Tournament are available on Archive.org and people are free to independently link to and play these versions,” an Epic spokesperson told Polygon. Both Unreal games were removed from digital storefronts in 2023 after Epic shut down their official servers. Fortunately, the community stepped up, creating dedicated servers to keep the games running. So, if you’re looking to ***** into Unreal Tournament’s online multiplayer, you can still enjoy the game through these community-hosted servers. Unreal made its debut in 1998, crafted by Cliff Bleszinski, who later contributed to the hit Gears of War, with programming handled by Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic Games. The first-person shooter quickly gained popularity, acclaimed for its impressive graphics and thrilling gameplay. In 1999, Unreal Tournament was released, shifting the focus toward multiplayer arenas and paving the way for several sequels. Source: Polygon Source link #Unreal #Unreal #Tournament #free #Internet #Archive Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

6 reasons why you should get a VPN this ****** Friday 6 reasons why you should get a VPN this ****** Friday VPNs are getting increasingly popular and ****** Friday is the best moment of the year to get one of the best VPN apps yourself at a bargain price if you haven’t yet. Some of the top providers are seriously dropping their pricing with their ****** Friday VPN deals, becoming even better value for money. Not convinced, yet? I’ve worked with VPNs for years, here are my top six reasons why you should get a VPN this ****** Friday before it’s too late. 1. The cheapest deals you can get Let’s start with the obvious – on ****** Friday, you can get some top-tier VPN providers for a very low price. This year, for example, even ExpressVPN – a long-time entry among our list of tried and tested best services – has entered the ****** Friday deals market for the first time with a jaw-dropping discount of up to 82% on its normal prices. TechRadar’s favorite pick NordVPN has also seriously axed its prices, alongside our best cheap VPN provider, Surfshark, Private Internet Access (PIA), PrivadoVPN, Proton VPN, and some other big names. (Image credit: Future) 2. Take back control over your online privacy Every time you access the internet, you leave behind digital footprints that can be traced back to you. These include the device you’re using, your approximate location, your IP address, and your browsing history. A VPN hides your IP address, routing your connection through one of its many servers. Doing so ensures that your online activities remain (pretty much) anonymous. At the same time, all of your data is routed through an encrypted tunnel that prevents hackers, your internet service provider (ISP), your workplace or school, and even the government from accessing the content of what you do online. Using a VPN is especially crucial when connected to public Wi-Fi as hackers may exploit these unsecured networks to compromise your device. 3. Enjoy international streaming From Netflix and BBC iPlayer to Amazon Prime and Now TV, all streaming platforms apply geo-restrictions on their content catalogs. This means that, depending on where you are in the world, you’ll be able to watch different programs. This is where a streaming VPN comes in handy. By spoofing your IP location, you can use your streaming service to keep up with your favorite shows while you’re traveling abroad by connecting to servers in your home nation. To watch US-based content, for instance, all you need to do is connect to a VPN server in New York, L.A., or any other available city. Likewise, pick one scattered across the ******* Kingdom if you wish to browse through the BBC iPlayer library. (Image credit: Shutterstock) 4. Boost your gaming performances Online gaming has certainly make this activity way more fun, but can also put gamers’ privacy and performances at risk. Malicious players have increasingly been using DDoS attacks, for example, to slow down other players by flooding their IP addresses with junk traffic. Hackers may be joining these platforms to hunt for your personal data, too. ISPs might also throttle your bandwidth speeds to manage network congestion. Again, a gaming VPN can help you stay protected when playing online while squashing ping and latency for maximum performance. 5. Access restricted content Masking your original IP address and approximate geographical location is even more important if you live somewhere with harsh government restrictions. While the likes of Russia, China, and Iran enforce strict censorship on their national internet, increasingly more governments worldwide are blocking popular social media platforms during times of political turmoil. Both Mozambique and Mauritius have restricted social media access recently for the first time, for example, with France becoming the first Western democracy to block TikTok in New Caledonia (France’s overseas territory) during antigovernmental protests. Whether you’re traveling or living in a country at risk of censorship, a VPN is your master key to keep enjoying a free web by bypassing all geo-restrictions within a couple of clicks. 6. Not just a VPN Subscribing to one of the top VPN providers on the market right now also means you’re getting way more than just a VPN service. As digital threats get more diversified, providers have been adding new tools to offer all-round protection. Getting NordVPN or ExpressVPN, for example, also means you will be able to enjoy reliable password manager and tracker-blocker tools. Both companies even launched a new identity theft protection service recently, NordProtect and Identity Defender respectively. It’s worth mentioning that NordProtect only comes with the provider’s more expensive plans, while ExpressVPN’s ID suite comes free of charge alongside the feature-packed VPN for all new customers signing up for ExpressVPN’s new 2-year plan – which is currently a bargain thanks to ****** Friday sales. If you want to check out this year’s ****** Friday VPN deals and find the savings for you, check out our full guide before it’s too late. We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the ******** or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing. Source link #reasons #VPN #****** #Friday Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Moon’s far side once had erupting volcanoes, scientists find Moon’s far side once had erupting volcanoes, scientists find Volcanoes were erupting on the mysterious far side of the moon billions of years ago, US and ******** researchers have found. Analysis of samples collected by a ******** mission found basalt (volcanic rock formed after an eruption) fragments dating back more than 4.2 billion years. The findings were published in the Nature and Science journals on Friday. While scientists already knew of volcanic activity on the near side of the moon, which we can see from Earth, the “dark side” is very different in its geology, and ******** largely unexplored. The rock and dust samples – the first to be retrieved from the far side of the Moon – were collected by the Chang’e-6 spacecraft, following a nearly two-month long mission which was fraught with risks. Led by experts from the ******** Academy of Sciences, researchers used radiometric dating to determine the age of the volcanic rock. Their analysis also revealed a “surprisingly young” eruption occurred some 2.83 billion years ago, something which has not been found on the near side of the Moon. “This is an incredibly exciting study”, Professor Qiuli Li from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics wrote in a detailed peer review. “It is the first geochronology study to come from the Chang’e-6 samples, and will be of immense importance to the lunar and planetary science community.” While it is widely known as the “dark side”, this part of the Moon actually gets plenty of sunlight – we just don’t see it. This is because the Moon is tidally locked to Earth, and takes the same amount of time to orbit our planet – about 27 days – meaning the same side always faces us. The first image of the far side was captured in 1959 by the ******* spacecraft, Luna 3. They were grainy, but gave Earthlings a glimpse of the Moon from a different angle. There have been several higher quality images beamed back since, including an extraordinary Nasa video showing the Moon from the far side, with Earth in the background. And earlier this year, during the Chang’e-6 mission, a small roving vehicle was deployed to take a selfie of the lander sitting on the far side’s rocky surface. Source link #Moons #side #erupting #volcanoes #scientists #find Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]