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Pelican Press

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  1. Pelican Press
    UN climate talks ‘no longer fit for purpose’ say experts UN climate talks ‘no longer fit for purpose’ say experts getty Recent deadly floods in Valencia, Spain, were made worse by climate change, scientists say The ******* Nations’ COP climate talks are “no longer fit for purpose” and need an urgent overhaul, key experts including a former UN secretary general and former UN climate chief have said. In a letter to the UN, senior figures say countries should not host the talks if they don’t support the phase out of fossil energy. This week the Azerbaijani president told world leaders gathered in his country for COP29 that natural gas was a “gift from ****” and he shouldn’t be blamed for bringing it to market. That came days after the BBC reported that a senior Azerbaijani official appeared to have used his role at COP to arrange a meeting to discuss potential fossil fuel deals. The UN’s climate talks have made significant progress in recent years, despite the fact that unanimous agreement is needed among almost 200 countries to take action. The Paris climate agreement, signed in 2015, outlines a long-term plan to rein in rising temperatures, as countries strive to keep that rise under 1.5C this century. They have also agreed to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, and to treble renewable power by 2030. But while the authors of this letter recognise these achievements, they feel that the slow-moving COP process is “no longer fit for purpose” in dealing with a fast-moving climate crisis. “Its current structure simply cannot deliver the change at exponential speed and scale, which is essential to ensure a safe climate landing for humanity,” said its signatories. They include former UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and former president of Ireland Mary Robinson. This year will likely be the warmest on record, with emissions of planet warming gases still rising, while the impacts of warming often outpace the ability of countries to cope. “Planet Earth is in critical condition,” said leading climate scientist Johan Rockström, another signatory. “There is still a window of opportunity for a safe landing for humanity, but this requires a global climate policy process that can deliver change at exponential speed and scale,” Prof Rockström said. Getty Images The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev addressing COP29 delegates The letter has been prompted by growing concerns about some of the countries chosen to host COP talks and their ability to deliver a significant advance in the ****** against rising temperatures. Just before the latest conference started, a secret recording showed the chief executive of Azerbaijan’s COP29 team, Elnur Soltanov, discussing “investment opportunities” in the state oil and gas company with a man posing as a potential investor. At the start of COP29, the country’s authoritarian leader, Ilham Aliyev, defended Azerbaijan’s current exports of gas and plans to expand production by a third in the next decade. “It’s a gift of ****,” he told an audience in Baku. “Every natural resource whether it’s oil, gas, wind, sun, gold, silver, copper, all that are natural resources,” he said. “And countries should not be blamed for having them and should not be blamed for bringing these resources to the market because the market needs them, the people need them.” The use of oil and gas are major causes of global warming, as they release planet-warming gases like carbon dioxide when they are burned. President Aliyev also hit out at France for carrying out colonialist “*******” and “human rights violations” in overseas territories. Such strongly expressed views are extremely rare from the leader of a COP host, where the aim is to build consensus on how to tackle rising temperatures. The authors of the letter are also concerned by the selection process for hosting COPs. Azerbaijan followed on from another major oil producer, the ******* ***** Emirates, which held the conference in Dubai last year. “At the last COP, fossil fuel lobbyists outnumbered representatives of scientific institutions, Indigenous communities and vulnerable nations,” said former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres. “We cannot hope to achieve a just transition without significant reforms to the COP process that ensure fair representation of those most affected.” The authors say that host countries “must demonstrate their high level of ambition to uphold the goals of the Paris agreement.” They also want smaller, more frequent COPs with clear accountability for the promises that countries make. Source link #climate #talks #longer #fit #purpose #experts Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  2. Pelican Press
    The Absurd Toxic Crusaders 90s Cartoon Is Getting A Collector’s Edition Blu-Ray The Absurd Toxic Crusaders 90s Cartoon Is Getting A Collector’s Edition Blu-Ray Back in the ’90s, nothing was better than watching Saturday morning cartoons, and if you’re looking to recapture that nostalgic feeling, one of the more absurd shows of that era is headed to home media. Toxic Crusaders: The Series Collector’s Edition has been digitally restored and remastered on Blu-ray, and while each episode was a typical 21-minute advert to buy action figures based on the exploits of Toxie, it’s still a surprisingly entertaining and weird show in its own right. Priced at $24.75 (was $35), it’ll be released on December 10. $24.75 (was $35) In addition to a sharp remaster of the cartoon series, this Blu-ray also includes some extra content alongside the original 13-episode run. There’s a new introduction by Lloyd Kaufman–the director of the Toxic Avenger movie–the original Toxic Crusaders toy commercials and TV spots, archival footage thought to be lost to time, and bonus cartoons. There’s even a documentary about the making of the Toxic Crusaders video game from Retroware, so this is a comprehensive Blu-ray. If you never watched it, Toxic Crusaders was an adaptation of the horror-comedy film The Toxic Avenger, only with the ********* toned down for younger audiences. The show starred Toxie, a former janitor who was horribly bullied until one day, he’s exposed to toxic waste that mutates him into a super-powered creature. He then joins with several other misfit mutants to battle evildoers. For a few more cartoon series, there are quite a few collections currently available based on ‘80s and ‘90s shows. The complete run of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was recently released on DVD, and this is on ***** for $26.60 (was $34). Super Friends: The Complete Collection brings together the Justice League to save the day from the Legion of *****, and this massive treasure trove of episodes has been discounted to $70 (was $100). Source link #Absurd #Toxic #Crusaders #90s #Cartoon #Collectors #Edition #BluRay Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  3. Pelican Press
    M4 vs. M3: How much better are Apple’s latest chips? M4 vs. M3: How much better are Apple’s latest chips? Apple has begun outfitting its Macs with the M4 chip, following the chip’s debut in the iPad Pro in spring 2024. But not every Mac comes with the M4 — several are still sporting the previous-generation M3, which offers impressive performance in its own right. These devices are expected to make the switch over the coming months. That means there’s a split between M3 Macs and their M4 siblings, and the big question is whether you should upgrade. Is the M4 a large upgrade over the M3, or will you be fine sticking with the older chip? What sort of performance do the M3 and M4 offer, and how do they work under the hood? We’ve analyzed all the similarities and differences so that you know exactly what you should buy. Where can you find these chips? Chris Hagan / Digital Trends Right now, the M4 chip can be found in three Macs: the MacBook Pro, the iMac, and the Mac mini. It’s also in the iPad Pro. Besides the base M4 chip (which is found in all of these devices), the MacBook Pro and the Mac mini also offer the M4 Pro, while the MacBook Pro has a high-end M4 Max option as well. Apple is apparently planning to bring the M4 to every single Mac. The MacBook Air is expected to step up in spring 2025, with the Mac Studio and Mac Pro following around the middle of the year. Once that’s done, every Mac will belong to the same chip family, which is something the company hasn’t done in years. As we mentioned above, you can also find the M4 in the iPad Pro. Apple might well decide to add it to the iPad Air as well (the current model comes equipped with the M2, after all). The next iPad Air update is likely to arrive in early 2025, perhaps around the same time as the MacBook Air. Speaking of the MacBook Air, that laptop is currently the only place where you can buy the M3 chip. While the Mac Studio and the Mac Pro haven’t received the M4 yet, they also skipped the M3 generation entirely. That means they come with either the M2 Max or M2 Ultra chip. What’s different under the hood? Apple There are a few differences under the hood between the M3 and M4 chips, but those differences are subtle rather than monumental and are less significant than the changes experienced when Apple moved from the M2 to the M3 — at least on paper. We’ll get to the actual performance differences shortly. Both the M3 and the M4 are made using a 3nm manufacturing process, which is one reason for the more minor changes (the M2 was a 5nm chip, and moving to 3nm enabled Apple to radically improve performance and efficiency). However, it’s worth noting that the M4 is a second-generation 3nm chip, which means there are some small improvements to its efficiency and output. M4 M3 CPU cores 10 (4 performance, 6 efficiency) 8 (4 performance, 4 efficiency) GPU cores 10 8 or 10 Neural Engine cores 16 16 Starting memory 16GB 16GB Maximum memory 32GB 24GB Memory bandwidth 120GB/s 100GB/s Hardware-accelerated ray tracing? Yes Yes One area where we can see an immediate difference is the number of cores each chip comes with. The M3 has an 8-core CPU made up of four performance cores and four efficiency cores. This is supplemented by either an 8-core or a 10-core GPU (depending on the model) and a 16-core Neural Engine. The M4, on the other hand, bumps those numbers up. The iPad Pro’s M4 has either a 9-core or 10-core CPU (with either three or four performance cores and six efficiency cores) depending on the configuration, while the M4 found in the Mac line has a 10-core CPU. In both cases, you also get a 10-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine. That means you get a few extra cores for your money, which helps to improve performance. In terms of the Neural Engine, Apple says you’ll get 38 trillion operations per second (TOPS) in the M4, making it “more powerful than any neural processing unit in any AI PC today.” The M2, for comparison, could reach 15.8 TOPS, while the M3 reportedly hit 18 TOPS. Apple has also claimed it’s three times as fast as the Neural Engine found in the M1 Max chip. Chris Hagan / Digital Trends That looks like a huge win for the M4, but it’s not quite the whole story, as per Tom’s Hardware. According to that outlet, the M4’s score is 38 TOPS with the INT8 data type. The M3, on the other hand, was 18 TOPS at FP16 precision. Once those two scores are equalized to INT8, the difference is about 5% in favor of the M4 — far less than the apparent doubling between the two chips. There are a few other contrasts of note. The M4 is packed with 28 billion transistors compared to the M3’s 25 billion, and it has a memory bandwidth of 120Gbps compared to its predecessor’s 100Gbps. There’s also a dedicated display engine in the M4 that was absent in all of Apple chips before it, and this engine is used to handle the OLED display in the iPad Pro. What’s more, the M4 doubles the starting memory from the M3’s 8GB up to 16GB, with larger RAM amounts as you move up in configurations. That will provide a big boost to productivity and multitasking and addresses a complaint Apple has faced for a few years now. Performance Apple Now that we’ve been able to start reviewing Apple’s new M4 Macs, we know how well the chip performs compares to the M3. However, due to the chip configurations that Apple sent us for review, we haven’t been able to directly compare the M4 to the M3 in terms of benchmarks. In both the new MacBook Pro and the latest Mac mini, we received the M4 Pro model. When we reviewed the M3 series Macs, however, we got the M3 MacBook Air, the M3 iMac and the M3 Max MacBook Pro. So the following comparisons aren’t quite one to one. Anyway, let’s look at the performance. In our testing, the M3 chip in the MacBook Air scored 141 and 601 in Cinebench R24 for single-core and multi-core performance, respectively, and took 109 seconds to render a video in HandBrake. Now let’s compare that to the M4 Pro. In the MacBook Pro, the M4 Pro scored 179 and 1,752 in Cinebench R24 and took 49 seconds to render a video. That’s a significant increase in performance across the board. Apple OK, it’s also not particularly fair considering the M3 is an entry-level chip and the M4 Pro is much more powerful. But what happens when we put the M4 Pro up against the M3 Max in the MacBook Pro? After all, the M3 Max is one tier up from the M4 Pro. In the 14-inch MacBook Pro, the M3 Max scored 139 and 1,522 in Cinebench R24 and took 53 seconds in HandBrake. That puts the M4 Pro firmly ahead in every scenario, despite being a lower tier of chip. That shows how much Apple has been able to push performance in its latest chips. There’s another thing to consider: the M4’s inclusion of Dynamic Caching, mesh shading, and hardware-accelerated ray tracing. These are not new to Apple users — they’re already in the M3 series — but the iPad Pro didn’t have these features when it was outfitted with the M2. So, while that’s not an advantage the M4 has over the M3, it’s worth considering if you’re looking at getting an M4 iPad Pro. Source link #Apples #latest #chips Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  4. Pelican Press
    Trump’s pick of Matt Gaetz for attorney general draws criticism Trump’s pick of Matt Gaetz for attorney general draws criticism Trump’s pick of Matt Gaetz for attorney general draws criticism – CBS News Watch CBS News Matt Gaetz immediately resigned from the House on Wednesday following the surprising announcement that he was President-elect Donald Trump’s selection for attorney general. His resignation, however, came ahead of a scheduled vote by the House Ethics Committee this week on whether to release the results of an extensive investigation into allegations against Gaetz of ******* misconduct and illicit ***** use, which he has denied. Scott MacFarlane reports. Be the first to know Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Not Now Turn On Source link #Trumps #pick #Matt #Gaetz #attorney #general #draws #criticism Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  5. Pelican Press
    Vinicius Jr misses penalty in Brazil-Venezuela draw Vinicius Jr misses penalty in Brazil-Venezuela draw Brazil had to settle for a 1-1 draw at Venezuela after a quick-***** second-half strike by substitute Telasco Segovia cancelled out Raphinha’s opener in the South ********* World Cup qualifiers. Vinicius Jr missed a chance to win the game with a penalty against a Venezuelan side who played the last minutes of the game down to 10-men after substitute Alexander Gonzalez was sent off for hitting both Gabriel Martinelli and Vinicius in the face in successive plays in the 89th minute. Five-time World Cup champions Brazil are third in the standings on 17 points, five from leaders Argentina, while Venezuela are seventh on 12 points. The top six sides are guaranteed a berth at the 2026 finals. The high-paced match saw numerous chances from both sides who registered 11 goal attempts each, with Brazil enjoying over 60 per cent of possession but failing to turn their dominance into goals. Off the back of successive wins against Peru and Chile, Brazil were dangerous from the start with Vinicius a constant menace, hitting the post in the 20th minute. Raphinha gave Brazil the lead, netting a fine left-footed strike from a free kick on the edge of the box in the 43rd minute that ricocheted off the left post before finding the back of the net. It was Brazil’s first goal from a free kick in over 19 years in World Cup qualifiers after former Real Madrid fullback Roberto Carlos scored also against Venezuela in 2005. But Segovia struck an unstoppable first-effort shot from the edge of the box 38 seconds into the second half to level the game assisted by Jefferson Savarino. But Brazil kept threatening and had an opportunity to get back in front in the 62nd minute when Vinicius was fouled inside the box by goalkeeper Rafael Romo in a counter *******. However, Romo stopped Vinicius’s poorly taken spot kick and the Real Madrid striker also ******* to net the rebound, missing wide left of the empty goal. Venezuela then held on to deny Brazil a winner. “It is just sad because, for me, the most important thing is to win and I think we could have won the match,” Raphinha told Brazilian TV Globo. “We knew it was going to be complicated, their team also has good qualities, but sometimes things get complicated by what happens in the match, when you fail to score the chances you have. We have to keep working to get back to winning ways.” Source link #Vinicius #misses #penalty #BrazilVenezuela #draw Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  6. Pelican Press
    Review: Tetris Forever is a must have game. *******. – Entertainium Review: Tetris Forever is a must have game. *******. – Entertainium WTMG’s Leo Faria: “It doesn’t surprise me that Tetris Forever is so good. This is the fourth playable documentary by Digital Eclipse, and those guys take gaming history and preservation to an outstanding degree of love and care. The interviews are great (Alexey is just the most huggable uncle), the documents are neat, the easter eggs are a nice addition, and the sheer amount of versions of Tetris included in the package will please each and every single fan of the franchise. Sure, a few important ports are missing, but I can only put the blame on some faceless lawyers, not Digital Eclipse. Tetris is a juggernaut of a franchise, and Tetris Forever is a worthy love letter to its history and legacy. And without a doubt, Tetris is, indeed, forever.” Source link #Review #Tetris #game #******* #Entertainium Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  7. Pelican Press
    Google Gemini arrives on iPhone as a native app Google Gemini arrives on iPhone as a native app Google announced Thursday that it has released a new native Gemini app for iOS that will give iPhone users free, direct access to the chatbot without the need for a mobile web browser. The Gemini mobile app has been available for Android since February, when the platform transitioned from the older Bard branding. However, iOS users could only access the AI on their phones through either the mobile Google app or via a web browser. This new app provides a more streamlined means of chatting with the **** as well as a host of new (to iOS) features. For one, you’ll be able to speak directly with the AI via Gemini Live. This is an entirely new feature for the iOS ecosystem that was previously unavailable through either the Google app or mobile web browser. It can reply in 10 user-selected voices and converse in nearly a dozen languages. On other platforms, Gemini Live can speak in as many as 30 different tongues, so expect the iPhone’s version to add more languages moving forward. Google For another, iPhone users will now have access to Imagen 3, Google’s most advanced image generation model, and be able to create AI images from text prompts. Imagen 3’s “enhanced photorealism and accuracy can bring your ideas to life,” the company boasted. Users will also be able to access and integrate Gemini’s functionality into their other Google apps, like YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail, and Calendar through the Extensions feature. Google is also positioning Gemini on the iPhone as a potential tutoring and study partner. “Gemini makes learning easier, enabling you to ask questions about any subject and get tailored study plans,” the company wrote in its announcement blog post Thursday. “Gemini can also provide custom, step-by-step guidance that adapts to your learning style, and you can even test your knowledge with quizzes.” iPhone users can download the Gemini app directly from the App Store. Source link #Google #Gemini #arrives #iPhone #native #app Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  8. Pelican Press
    When can St. Louis expect to see the first snow this year? When can St. Louis expect to see the first snow this year? ST. LOUIS – Temperatures have been slowly dropping over the last few weeks, which means the area could have the possibility of seeing snowflakes in the air sooner than later. Although temperatures will climb this weekend, a burst of cold air will reach St. Louis in the middle of next week, shifting to more typical November weather. Next Thursday will bring a high temperature of 45 degrees. As snow moves through the northern states and Iowa, it grants the possibility of flurries throughout Thursday late and early Friday. However, FOX 2 meteorologist John Fuller says right now, the modeling ******** inconsistent as it is still a week away. The first snowfall has ranged over the past few years, bringing inconsistent times and amounts of snow to the area: 2022-2023: Nov. 15 (.8 inch) 2021-2022: Jan. 2 (.1 inch) 2020-2021: Dec. 16 (.3 inch) 2019-2020: Nov. 11 (1.5 inches) 2018-2019: Nov. 12 (1.2 inches) On average, measurable snowfall and timing for St. Louis is .1 inch or more around Dec. 4. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2. Source link #Louis #expect #snow #year Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  9. Pelican Press
    New report accuses Valve of proliferating extremism on Steam New report accuses Valve of proliferating extremism on Steam Chris Hagan / Digital Trends Valve hasn’t done enough to moderate its Steam platform against extremism, according to a scathing new report from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) that found millions of examples of hateful language and images. ADL looked at over 458 million profiles and over 610 million comments using an AI tool called HateVision, and found millions of instances of white supremacist and anti-Semitic imagery, as well as posts (specifically copypastas with swastikas and slurs), keywords, and avatars, along with thousands of profiles, “that glorify violent extremists.” Pepe the Frog was the most frequently used icon in these posts; it is often depicted in ***** regalia. Steam Community profiles allow users to use custom images, which has also become a hotbed of imagery detected by the ADL’s analysis. “Valve needs to make significant changes to their approach to platform governance both in terms of policy and practice to address the ways in which hate and extremism have proliferated on the Steam platform,” the ADL wrote. Valve has taken heat in the past in regards] to its Steam moderation policies. This came to a head in 2018. Valve started moderating its forums and game hubs in response to developer feedback, but only for user-reported posts. Valve has always had a more hands-off approach when it comes to what kinds of games can be published on Steam, and this became apparent with a Steam game called Active Shooter where players played, as you can guess, asan active mass shooter. It has also faced other controversies surrounding 18+ games. Valve said that it wouldn’t limit what games could be listed on Steam as long as it wasn’t “********” or “straight up trolling,” while also clarifying that it wouldn’t take a stance on games’ politics. “If you’re a player, we shouldn’t be choosing for you what content you can or can’t buy. If you’re a developer, we shouldn’t be choosing what content you’re allowed to create. Those choices should be yours to make,” Valve wrote in a blog post announcing the decision. Other reports throughout the years have identified areas where this approach has caused hate to fester. The Center For Investigative Reporting found 173 Steam groups that glorified mass shooters in 2018, while Motherboard uncovered hate-based curators. Valve hasn’t said anything publicly on the issue, but did start selectively removing groups. It also removed *****-related content in 2019. Just a couple years ago, a U.S. senator wrote a letter to Steam owner Gabe Newell that called him out for allowing white supremacy to flourish on the platform. “This has been largely ad hoc, with Valve failing to systematically address the issue of extremism and hate on the platform,” the ADL’s report said. Steam’s recent efforts have been about improving game developer experiences and the validity of top comments in reviews. It’s also been ensuring players know when a reviewer has played a game on Steam Deck versus PC. Valve has not publicly commented on the report at the time of this writing. Source link #report #accuses #Valve #proliferating #extremism #Steam Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  10. Pelican Press
    Quordle today – hints and answers for Friday, November 15 (game #1026) Quordle today – hints and answers for Friday, November 15 (game #1026) Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,000 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers. Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my Wordle today, NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles. SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers. Your Quordle expert Your Quordle expert Marc McLaren Social Links Navigation Global Editor in Chief Quordle today (game #1026) – hint #1 – Vowels How many different vowels are in Quordle today? • The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 3*. * Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too). Quordle today (game #1026) – hint #2 – repeated letters Do any of today’s Quordle answers contain repeated letters? • The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 2. Quordle today (game #1026) – hint #3 – uncommon letters Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today? • No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today’s Quordle answers. Quordle today (game #1026) – hint #4 – starting letters (1) Do any of today’s Quordle puzzles start with the same letter? • The number of today’s Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 2. If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you’re not ready yet then here’s one more clue to make things a lot easier: Quordle today (game #1026) – hint #5 – starting letters (2) What letters do today’s Quordle answers start with? • P • T • T • F Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM. Quordle today (game #1026) – the answers (Image credit: Merriam-Webster) The answers to today’s Quordle, game #1026, are… Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable ****** Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content. It’s always helpful when the same letter begins multiple Quordle words; it’s sort of a buy-one-get-one-free scenario. Today, TRUSS and TORCH both start with a T, and given that I had all five letters for the latter after my opening three guesses, that inevitably made finding the former all the easier too. Elsewhere, PURER was a potentially troublesome word, what with being an ER answer and having a repeated R. It was not too bad for me, because by the time I got to it I had PUR in place, plus a yellow E that had to go in position #4. But for others, it may be a different story; it’s not an easy word to solve. How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know. Daily Sequence today (game #1026) – the answers (Image credit: Merriam-Webster) The answers to today’s Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1026, are… Quordle answers: The past 20 Quordle #1025, Thursday 14 November: EXALT, TASTE, CRONY, CLOUT Quordle #1024, Wednesday 13 November: YEARN, ELBOW, SURGE, PINEY Quordle #1023, Tuesday 12 November: CHORD, ATTIC, OLIVE, EIGHT Quordle #1022, Monday 11 November: COPSE, REGAL, GRUNT, GOODY Quordle #1021, Sunday 10 November: GROIN, FAULT, FERRY, SUITE Quordle #1020, Saturday 9 November: FLUME, THERE, ATOLL, SANER Quordle #1019, Friday 8 November: DELAY, NAVAL, MOLAR, SWARM Quordle #1018, Thursday 7 November: REPAY, SYNOD, LOATH, PITHY Quordle #1017, Wednesday 6 November: SASSY, DRUID, THREW, SLOSH Quordle #1016, Tuesday 5 November: BEGET, AMUSE, STONY, LOUSY Quordle #1015, Monday 4 November: CHILL, TACKY, GRAPH, PLAZA Quordle #1014, Sunday 3 November: QUIRK, HEART, ELBOW, KNOWN Quordle #1013, Saturday 2 November: SWUNG, FLOOR, PARER, CRUST Quordle #1012, Friday 1 November: FIFTY, GULCH, RECUT, TWEET Quordle #1011, Thursday 31 October: TWINE, RIGID, BELCH, AMEND Quordle #1010, Wednesday 30 October: SLOOP, BRINE, BROOD, FLUID Quordle #1009, Tuesday 29 October: CLIFF, BURNT, SNAKY, POLYP Quordle #1008, Monday 28 October: MACAW, LIEGE, GOUGE, CARGO Quordle #1007, Sunday 27 October: STUNG, CLOUT, SOWER, BASIS Quordle #1006, Saturday 26 October: DUCHY, CANNY, BLOCK, SMART Source link #Quordle #today #hints #answers #Friday #November #game Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  11. Pelican Press
    Japan GDP expands by 0.3% in third quarter, snapping two quarters of year-on-year declines Japan GDP expands by 0.3% in third quarter, snapping two quarters of year-on-year declines Skyline of Tokyo, Japan. Jackyenjoyphotography | Moment | Getty Images Japan’s third-quarter real ****** domestic product expanded 0.3% year on year, snapping two straight quarters of year-on-year decline. The GDP reading marked a reversal from the revised 1.1% decline seen in the second quarter. The data comes against the backdrop of the Bank of Japan raising rates from 0.1% to 0.25% in July — its highest level since 2008. Higher policy rates generally cool the economy, and vice versa. The BOJ has stated that it will continue to raise rates “if economic activity and prices develop as expected.” On a quarter-on-quarter basis, GDP rose 0.2%, in line with Reuters poll estimates. On an annualized basis, the economy expanded 0.9%, beating estimates of a 0.7% expansion. However, this was a sharp decline from the 2.9% rise in the quarter before. Should economic indicators fall into place, the BOJ said it could raise rates to 1% by the second half of its 2025 fiscal year, starting from September 2025. In October, Shigeru Ishiba, Japan’s prime minster, reportedly said that “I do not believe that we are in an environment that would require us to raise interest rates further,” after meeting with BOJ governor Kazuo Ueda. This was in contrast to comments he made in August to Reuters, where he said the BOJ was “on the right policy track” to normalize rates. Following the GDP data release, the benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.76%, while the broad-based Topix climbed 0.64%. The ********* yen weakened 0.16% against the U.S. dollar after the GDP announcement, trading at 156.51. The yen has seen wild swings in the third quarter, prompting multiple rounds of verbal warnings from finance ministry officials against “excessive speculation” and even interventions by the BOJ. Source link #Japan #GDP #expands #quarter #snapping #quarters #yearonyear #declines Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  12. Pelican Press
    The Rogue Prince of Persia gets a big update with ‘The Second Act’ The Rogue Prince of Persia gets a big update with ‘The Second Act’ The Rogue Prince of Persia, a modern reboot of the classic platformer published by Broderbund in 1989, is still in early access mode but it’s getting a bunch of new, cool-sounding stuff next week. Developer Evil Empire posted a blog on that includes information about the new update and premieres a new teaser trailer with some gameplay footage. The Steam page says the update “effectively doubled the game’s content from launch.” “The Second Act” will include a second act and “tons of narrative polish for Act 1” and more biomes, bosses and enemies. The update will also add more “Quality of Life” features like multiple save slots and localization for *******, *********, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish players. The game’s protagonist will also look pretty different — RIP Prince of Purple. To view this content, you’ll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the “Content and social-media partners” setting to do so. The new update drops on November 21. The Rogue Prince of Persia was already slick and inventive, even in its infancy. It’s been updated quite a bit since its early access launch, but next week’s update is likely to be its largest. It’s shaping up to be a good mix of classic gameplay with new visuals and a modern “roguelite” gameplay loop as seen in other indies like Hades. Source link #Rogue #Prince #Persia #big #update #Act Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  13. Pelican Press
    The M4 Max somehow holds its own against the RTX 4080 Super The M4 Max somehow holds its own against the RTX 4080 Super Although the M4 MacBook Pro has been out since last week, we’re still learning just how capable its most high-end M4 Max chip performs. A new series of tests pit the M4 Max against Nvidia GPUs to see which can render Blender projects faster. In an interesting twist, the M4 Max MacBook Pro wipes the floor with the Nvidia RTX 3080 — and even comes close to matching the RTX 4080 Super. The impressive data comes from Robbie Tilton, who does Blender tutorials on YouTube and has now tested the M4 Max and the other Apple chips in Blender against the two generations of Nvidia graphics. I just watched a comparison of M4 chips against dedicated NVIDIA GPUs, and it’s just astonishing – M4 Max on MBP came in second to a 4080 Super on a desktop PC. If you’re not sure why that’s incredible, you should see the size and weight of a 4080 pic.twitter.com/G7qBxRN6AQ — Paul Hudson (@twostraws) November 13, 2024 As coding teacher Paul Hudson points out in his post on X about the results, this is a pretty amazing achievement. The Nvidia GPUs are massive, 30-centimeter-long graphics cards inside desktop PCs. The fact that is tiny chip with integrated onboard graphics inside a MacBook Pro can produce similar results is mind-blowing. The difference in energy used is also significant. An RTX 4080 Super uses a power connector rated at 320 watts maximum, meaning that’s the max amount of energy the graphics card can draw (and there are tests out there showing it’s capable of drawing the full amount). It’s ******* to find this data for the M4 Max, but it seems the maximum consumption for the M4 Pro is 46 watts, so we can assume that whatever the exact number is for the Max, it’s way below the RTX 4080 Super. In our own testing of the M4 Pro in the Cinebench R24 benchmark, the M4 Pro landed in between the RTX 4060 and RTX 4070 mobile GPUs. But clearly, once you double up to the 40 GPU cores in the M4 Max, it makes quite a difference. You do have to pay to get this kind of power, however. The test results show the base M4 chip at the bottom of the pile, taking four times longer to render than the M4 Max. That isn’t a slight against the M4– it’s really just there for comparison and isn’t aimed at people who do 3D modeling work in the first place. The gap between the different chips is evident in the pricing as well. A MacBook Pro with the base M4 chip costs $1,599, while upgrading to an M4 Max configuration will set you back at least $3,199. For comparison, the 4080 Super retails at $1,000 but it is, of course, just one of the many parts you need to build a working desktop PC. Numbers aside, the main takeaway here is that the M4 Max is quite impressive, and it even has 3D artists feeling the temptation to switch over to Mac. Source link #Max #holds #RTX #Super Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  14. Pelican Press
    How bitcoin investors should position after Trump’s election win How bitcoin investors should position after Trump’s election win Investors looking to get in on crypto’s monster run may want to be tactical in their approaches. Bitcoin prices have surged roughly 30% since Election Day on Nov. 5, touching a record of more than $93,000 on Wednesday, according to Coin Metrics. Prices dipped below the $88,000 level just before Thursday’s stock market close, as the postelection rally showed signs of fading. State Street Global Advisors’ Matt Bartolini advises investors to consider how the political environment may influence prices moving forward. “You need to understand how the cryptocurrency market is progressing, particularly around new administration policies,” the firm’s head of SPDR Americas research told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” on Monday. Bartolini expects pro-crypto policies under the Trump administration to give an additional boost to the asset class. “You have an administration that is going to be more crypto-friendly in terms of their regulation policies, and potentially lesser hurdles for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets to start to receive broad-based financial institution support,” he added. ‘Entry price is everything’ While Astoria Portfolio Advisors CEO John Davi agrees Donald Trump’s win is fueling near-term gains, he is skeptical on how much more room bitcoin has to run. “Trump’s cabinet will be pro-crypto. I would caution viewers that a lot of it’s in the price,” Davi said in the same interview. “A lot of it was front-running ETF flows.” The first batch of spot bitcoin ETFs began trading on Jan. 11, with the underlying cryptocurrency rallying over 90% since then. “In this business, entry price is everything, and it’s rallied quite a bit. So I would just be careful and tactical with your entry points,” Davi added. To manage downside risk, State Street’s Bartolini recommends investors take an active approach with their digital currency investments. “The ability to utilize actively-managed strategies to decipher the winners and losers around either regulatory-inspired headwinds or just ongoing usage and adoption of digital assets, I think that could be beneficiary,” he said. Disclaimer Source link #bitcoin #investors #position #Trumps #election #win Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  15. Pelican Press
    Beastieball Has Finally Given Me The Pokemon-Like Game Of My Dreams Beastieball Has Finally Given Me The Pokemon-Like Game Of My Dreams The creature-collector genre is a space first and foremost dominated by Pokemon, then filled out with many games inspired by it. Lots of kids who grew up on the massively popular IP via the card game, anime, and its many video games are today developers looking to add their own spin on the format–some of them to modest or better acclaim, like TemTem, Cassette Beasts, and Palworld. I enjoy such games, but most of them tend to be uninterested in achieving a vision of a game I’ve had in my head for years–to no fault of their own, of course. It’s my vision, not necessarily theirs. Beastieball, a new creature collector from Wishes Unlimited–the team behind heartfelt indie darlings Chicory: A Colorful Tale and Wandersong–seems serendipitously built from the ground up as though its studio read my mind. Finally, there’s a Pokemon-style game that consciously washes its hands of some of the genre’s more uncomfortable implications of animals. I’ve written about the intersection of animal rights and gaming before, and many readers who previously overloaded my articles with negative comments were, from one perspective, right on the money. Where one may be concerned with animal rights, they need not extend their concern to virtual animals, since these are not living beings. To that, I both previously offered and once more render a resounding duh. But it’s never been my point to argue for the liberation of Pokemon, Pals, or, in this case, Beasties. Rather, my focus ******** on portrayals of animals in games. How we present ideas through our media often affects how we view similar subjects in the real world, even if we can’t always sense the changes taking shape. If I watch a lot of movies, read a lot of books, or listen to a lot of podcasts, all espousing a particular point of view, how long will it be until I start to believe it’s true in real life? One needs only to look at how YouTube algorithms or the “manosphere” have, in many cases, Roganized a generation of (usually) white guys. My concern with how we gamify animal exploitation is not centered on freeing virtual animals from their imaginary shackles; it’s about hoping to promote portrayals that ******* the tropes we so often see in games–where animals are little more than crafting resources, transportation vessels, and supply chains. If we reconsider how animals are portrayed in games, it would have a knock-on effect in real life for some number of players. That’s how progress happens, and Beastieball is a sure sign of it. The simple change from dogfighting to volleyball erases a lot of the genre’s typical, more awkward implications. So as to not bury the lede here, I’d enjoy Beastieball for much of what it does, even if it did those things the way Pokemon or any other major creature collector game does them. But by making a concerted effort to harmonize its story universe and its gameplay mechanics, it’s revealed an exciting new, animal-friendly path ahead for games like it. None of this means you should feel bad for liking Pokemon. At the same time, it feels really good to like Beastieball. Pokemon’s central mechanic is its turn-based combat system, which has been around for so long that it can be easy to overlook that it’s essentially in-universe dogfighting, a practice few would endorse in real life. There’s long been debate about whether or not the creatures actually like fighting each other the way they’re made to when captured by human trainers. Some say they enjoy it, and only resist capture so that the trainers can prove their worth. This doesn’t seem to be in the text, but even if we accept it as true for the sake of discussion, the fact that a mistreated creature can’t choose to leave their trainer suggests these creatures are closer to indentured servants than companions. Pokemon does gift some of its prominent creatures with personalities–Ash’s Pikachu most of all, of course. But for the most part, the series’ lovable monsters are defined only by their breed. The story is naturally focused on Ash and his entourage of Pokemon trainers. It’s a story of human triumph in which the creatures are tools to achieve a goal. Beastieball goes to great lengths to ditch all of these notions and more. Beasties form bonds and unlock additional moves during their volleyball matches. For one, its turn-based combat system is recontextualized as volleyball. It’s said that the Beasties adore the sport, and they’ll actively seek out trainers with whom they can tag along to meet other Beasties and play volleyball–called beastieball in-universe. There’s no hint of Beasties causing harm to one another. Such a simple reimagining of the genre’s key mechanic can help players of all ages, but especially younger, often more impressionable players, experience a creature collector that doesn’t require the cognitive dissonance of believing you both love your creatures and eagerly send them into street fights. Given how Pikachu is both Ash’s companion animal and fiercest soldier, this depiction breaks down quickly. Pokemon asks us to accept that this is just how its world behaves. Fair enough, I suppose–the series has never been too concerned with self-reflection–but even better is not asking that of players, which is what Beastieball does. Beastieball goes beyond just that, though. The entire world of the game exists in harmony with this example; it’s clear that slight alterations in the genre’s tropes were consciously made to get away from them. Beasties who play together a lot can become close friends and teach each other moves, and this process is depicted with the pair gleefully meeting for an epic celebration that expresses love and appreciation. Rather than force a Beastie into a Poke Ball-like object, they can be recruited via you discovering their unique recruitment conditions, like winning a game in a certain way or performing specific moves. And the Beasties you recruit trail behind and beside you, freely joining in on your adventure, like dogs on a walk rather than pets locked in a crate. As you fill out your Pokedex-like Beastiepedia, details are filled in that often have nothing to do with gameplay mechanics. These short biographies feel heartfelt, as though their writers mean to celebrate the animals for their traits and personalities the way a museum would. It’s not all there to help you dominate your competition and beat the game. A lot of it is pure enrichment via lore that sees its starring critters as unique beings. Townsfolk view their Beasties as companions, not belongings. Even people around the open world will remark on their Beasties in such a sweet way. A woman I met early in my travels went on about how she feels her bird-like Beastie is unique from others in their family, and explained how that is. Beasties aren’t merely tools or even breeds. They’re individuals, each of them spoken of not as “it,” like a chair or a doorknob, but “he,” “she,” or “they,” like beings with their own wants and needs. Despite such similar story structure and gameplay mechanics to Pokemon, Wishes Unlimited’s game disposes of the parts that require mental gymnastics. Though you still want to be the very best (like no one ever was), to catch them is not your real quest. Its story is actually about saving a Beastie habitat from closure, and the adventure you go on is all in service of returning to your town with the resources to save a space that means so much to the local people and Beasties. This is not a tale of conquest; it’s a story about community. This has long been a genre where we often, consciously or not, ignore the uncomfortable implications of a story’s universe. But Beastieball proves you can have it both ways. In the broader sense–the one that will ultimately determine the game’s staying power–it’s an awesome creature collector that will surely scratch the Pokemon ***** so many never quite satisfy. But by bringing the studio’s now-trademark air of emotional sincerity and attentive kindness to a genre where it’s often lacking, Beastieball is the creature collector I always wanted but wasn’t sure I’d ever get. Source link #Beastieball #Finally #PokemonLike #Game #Dreams Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  16. Pelican Press
    NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Friday, November 15 (game #257) NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Friday, November 15 (game #257) Strands is the NYT’s latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it’s great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints. Want more word-based fun? Then check out my Wordle today, NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games. SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers. Your Strands expert Your Strands expert Marc McLaren Social Links Navigation Global Editor in Chief NYT Strands today (game #257) – hint #1 – today’s theme What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands? • Today’s NYT Strands theme is… Dress for lunch NYT Strands today (game #257) – hint #2 – clue words Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system. SCREE CREED CHIDE REED WARE RANG NYT Strands today (game #257) – hint #3 – spangram What is a hint for today’s spangram? • Rabbit food? NYT Strands today (game #257) – hint #4 – spangram position What are two sides of the board that today’s spangram touches? First: left, 5th row Last: right, 4th row Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM. NYT Strands today (game #257) – the answers (Image credit: New York Times) The answers to today’s Strands, game #257, are… KALE ICEBERG ROMAINE WATERCRESS RADICCHIO SPANGRAM: SALADGREENS My rating: Easy My score: 1 hint I’m not a fan of salad and very rarely eat it, but even I was able to solve today’s easy Strands puzzle. I needed one hint to get started, admittedly, because the theme clue of ‘Dress for lunch’ was just a bit too far on the cryptic side. Strands is a little variable in this regard; some days the theme clues give the game away, some days they are only really helpful once you’ve used up a hint (or found an answer by accident). Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable ****** Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content. That’s a hard thing to get right, though, and in fairness it was a simple task to find the likes of ICEBERG, ROMAINE, WATERCRESS and RADICCHIO once I had KALE on the board; even if you don’t eat these SALADGREENS you’ll surely recognize the names. How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know. Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Thursday, 14 November, game #256) PLUM GREEN PEACOCK MUSTARD ORCHID SCARLET SPANGRAM: CLUESUSPECTS What is NYT Strands? Strands is the NYT’s new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It’s now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT’s games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile. I’ve got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you’re struggling to beat it each day. Source link #NYT #Strands #today #hints #answers #spangram #Friday #November #game Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  17. Pelican Press
    Bluesky experiences outage as users flock to the platform Bluesky experiences outage as users flock to the platform The social media platform Bluesky was hit by an outage on Thursday, amid a rising wave of popularity for the app, which is often described as a friendlier alternative to X,. Bluesky has at times been the most downloaded app on both the US and *** Apple Stores in recent days, with many social media users leaving X, formerly Twitter, in the wake of the US election. But on Thursday, some users around the world had trouble getting their feeds and notifications to load. Bluesky spokesperson Emily Liu told the BBC that one of its internet providers “had some downtime, apparently because a fibre cable was out. That means it happened outside of our company”. Bluesky provided a status notice from Cogent Communications that said some customers using part of its network located between Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina, and Richmond, Virginia, had temporarily lost connectivity. Not all users experienced the outage, which appeared to be largely resolved late Thursday, according to the company. In the week since Donald Trump won the US presidential election, 2.25 million users have signed up for Bluesky, which was started by Jack Dorsey, one of Twitter’s cofounders. The key difference between Bluesky and most other social media platforms is that it is decentralized, meaning it is operated on independent servers and not those owned by the company. Its userbase – while growing – ******** relatively small. Many new users have said their decision to join Bluesky was driven by Elon Musk, who heavily backed Trump’s election campaign and intends to remain involved in the new administration. Threads, Meta’s competitor to X, has also continued to expand. “People are both disgusted and afraid of Elon Musk and what Twitter has become,” said Cory Johnson, Chief Market Strategist at Epistrophy Capital Research. “Users are fleeing X, and Bluesky and Threads are the beneficiaries.” This week, the British news outlet the Guardian announced it will no longer post on X, saying the US election underlined its concerns that Musk had been able to use X to “shape political discourse”. As Thursday’s outage unfolded, Bluesky staff tried to make light of the situation, with one developer joking: “Btw — Today will get interesting! If the site goes down, maybe grab a soda, **** the kitty. We’ll hit it with a wrench as fast as we can.” Source link #Bluesky #experiences #outage #users #flock #platform Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  18. Pelican Press
    The Strangest FPS in History Just Launched on Steam The Strangest FPS in History Just Launched on Steam I’m no stranger to genuinely odd and, occasionally, terrifying first-person shooters that make you scratch your head—for instance, Vladik Brutal or Cruelty Squad. But today’s release is something for the history books. 420BLAZEIT 2: GAME OF THE YEAR -=Dank Dreams and Goated Memes=- [#wow/11 Like and Subscribe] Poggerz Edition—yeah, that’s the game’s full title—hereby known as 420BlazeIt 2, is a trippy first-person shooter full of memes and rather tight gunplay. It’s immensely fun! Prepare yourself for the long awaited sequel. You will blaze it. You will no scope. You will see some weird af s*** as you ****** and xD in 999fps to ******** the Illuminati and rescue the memes. Are you ready for 420BLAZEIT 2????!!1 Normal Wholesome Games is a studio dedicated to one goal: never do what the player expects. Well, they’ve certainly achieved that goal. I think at one point when Illuminati Mecha Sherk dabbed on me before exploding and falling backward into his swamp, whatever I thought this game was going to be went out the window. With a 10% launch discount that lasts until November 21, you can grab this whacky FPS on Steam for under $10. For you achievement hunters out there, 420BlazeIt 2 features a staggering 94 achievements to unlock as you progress deeper into the Illuminati rabbit holt. Furthermore, and rather unsurprisingly, while only a handful of Steam user reviews are currently live for the game, they’re all positive and relatively glowing. When’s the last time you gave an out-there indie game a shot? Let us know in the comments below, or start a thread with your favorite obscure indie titles on our community forum! If you need to cleanse yourself after this one with a more realistic first-person shooter, Escape From Tarkov is receiving a new matchmaking system soon! Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest news and exclusive leaks every week! No Spam. Source link #Strangest #FPS #History #Launched #Steam Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  19. Pelican Press
    The next massive upgrade to ChatGPT is coming in January The next massive upgrade to ChatGPT is coming in January OpenAI is set to launch a new AI agent in January, code-named Operator, that will enable ChatGPT to take action on the user’s behalf. You may never have to book your own flights ever again. The company’s leadership made the announcement during a staff meeting Wednesday, reports Bloomberg. The company plans to roll out the new feature as a research preview through the company’s developer API. AI agents differ significantly from traditional programs. Rather than follow a set of predefined instructions, agents can autonomously perceive their environment, process information, and make decisions to perform tasks or solve problems, such as generating complex computer code or booking travel arrangements. OpenAI is not alone in its efforts. Anthropic recently released its Computer Control feature, which enables the model to manipulate a desktop environment in the same way human users would. Microsoft similarly unveiled its AI agent feature in late October. It’s designed to handle monotonous office work like managing employee records and drafting emails. Google is also working on AI agents of its own, code-named Jarvis, and could preview it by the end of the year. “We will have better and better models,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote during a Reddit AMA session last month. “But I think the thing that will feel like the next giant breakthrough will be agents.” According to Bloomberg’s sources, OpenAI is working on multiple styles of AI agent, with the most production-ready version being a general assistant that will be able to take action through a web browser. The announcement comes as leading AI developers face severe diminishing returns to the rate of their frontier models’ advancement and skyrocketing energy and water requirements. The hope here, apparently, is that if developers can’t simply brute force the upcoming GPT-5 model into better performance metrics, they’ll make them more useful instead. Source link #massive #upgrade #ChatGPT #coming #January Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  20. Pelican Press
    Greece v England: Carsley’s finest night gives positive signs for Thomas Tuchel Greece v England: Carsley’s finest night gives positive signs for Thomas Tuchel Carsley gave a first cap to Newcastle left-back Lewis Hall, a position that is opening up for England, as a half-time substitute for Aston Villa defender Ezri Konsa, while Morgan Rogers was introduced for his international bow after 66 minutes. He came on to replace Newcastle *******’s Anthony Gordon, who grows in stature with every England game, while Chelsea winger Noni Madueke provided genuine threat and set up Watkins’ goal. Watkins against showed he can score goals for England, as he did in the Euro 2024 semi-final against the Netherlands, while other established internationals will have had plus marks against their names when Carsley hands his reports over to Tuchel. Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford ******** a model of consistency, once again producing a crucial save from Fotis Ioannidis, while Bellingham strode around the Olympic Stadium with the sort of confident swagger that has been missing for England and Real Madrid in recent times. This was Bellingham at his best, almost impossible to control with his movement, troubling Greece with his range of passing while also embarking on constant surged into areas of danger. This had all the signs of a potentially troubling evening for England given their own recent indifferent displays, the noise around Carsley and the increasing questions about why Tuchel was delaying his arrival until 1 January. In the end, an inexperienced and makeshift team made the task look relatively easy. The Greece fans had their sense of expectation whipped up by presentations before kick-off to the players who stunned the football world by winning Euro 2004 in Portugal. The squad were paraded to celebrate the 20th anniversary of that triumph, joined by their legendary coach, 86-year-old “King Otto” Rehhagel. England subdued the atmosphere from the start, mixing calm possession with pace in *******, especially down the flanks, setting the tone for Carsley’s finest night. The normally impassive Carsley finally let his emotions out after the final whistle, joining the celebrations with his players, beaming as he wrapped an equally elated Jones in a bearhug. Carsley has occasionally looked uncomfortable in his lofty position, but this was a vital moment for him and England, so he fully deserved to relish it. If he can finish his six-match run with that crucial win at Wembley on Sunday, suddenly the negativity that has characterised the latter part of his time will be replaced a more positive gloss when Tuchel finally arrives to begin his 18-month contract at the turn of the year. Source link #Greece #England #Carsleys #finest #night #positive #signs #Thomas #Tuchel Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  21. Pelican Press
    The full version of “Songs of Silence” is now available for PC and consoles The full version of “Songs of Silence” is now available for PC and consoles “The Munich-based (Germany) indie games developer Chimera Entertainment are today very happy and proud to announce that the full version (v1.0) of their story-rich strategy game “Songs of Silence, is now available for PC (via Steam, GOG, and the Humble Store) and consoles (PS5 and Xbox Series X/S) via digital stores.” – Jonas Ek, TGG. Source link #full #version #Songs #Silence #consoles Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  22. Pelican Press
    Get ahead of ****** Friday — $200 off the Dell G15 gaming laptop Get ahead of ****** Friday — $200 off the Dell G15 gaming laptop Dell There are some great offers right now on laptops among early ****** Friday deals. One of the highlights of the ****** Friday gaming laptop deals is being able to buy the Dell G15 gaming laptop for $800 instead of $1,000 at Dell. A great laptop for anyone wanting to game on a budget, the Dell G15 gaming laptop is a tempting gift for the holidays. Here’s what it has to offer so you know if it’s the one for you. Why you should buy the Dell G15 gaming laptop While it’s Dell’s subsidiary Alienware that features in our look at the best gaming laptop brands, you’ll still see Dell at the top of our look at the best laptop brands. With the Dell G15, you get a reliable design and some good hardware. This particular model has a 13th-generation Intel Core i5-13450HX processor, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage. It’s particularly good to see 1TB of storage space as that’s pretty much the minimum you want while gaming as so many games require a lot of space these days. Talking of gaming, the Dell G15 gaming laptop has an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU. It’s certainly not the most powerful GPU, and in an ideal world it’s smart to avoid GeForce GPUs ending in 50, but at this price it makes perfect sense to see it here. It goes well alongside the Dell G15 gaming laptop’s 15.6-inch full HD screen with 165Hz refresh rate, 100% sRGB ******, and 3ms response time. Adding to the gamer aesthetic, there’s also an orange backlit keyboard with numeric keypad. Sure, the Dell G15 gaming laptop isn’t one of the best gaming laptops, but at this price, it’s pretty appealing. It has the Alienware Command Center installed with a Game Shift macro key for boosting performance as needed. There’s also an Alienware-inspired advanced thermal design with four heat pipes and improved fans for excellent cooling. Usually priced at $1,000, the Dell G15 gaming laptop is down to $800 for a limited time only at Dell. The 20% discount is highly respectable and unlikely to stick around for long. If you’re in the market for an affordable gaming laptop, tap the button below right now before the deal ends. Source link #ahead #****** #Friday #Dell #G15 #gaming #laptop Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  23. Pelican Press
    Matildas: 36-player squad named for clashes with Brazil, ******** Taipei Matildas: 36-player squad named for clashes with Brazil, ******** Taipei Four friendlies to finish 2024 for the Matildas could provide international exposure for the next generation, as ********* duties occupy some regular stars. Source link #Matildas #36player #squad #named #clashes #Brazil #******** #Taipei Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  24. Pelican Press
    GOG is tackling PC games preservation with new program GOG is tackling PC games preservation with new program Capcom GOG has always been at the heart of retro PC gaming. It has a vast storefront with newer games, but GOG is where you can find DRM-free copies of Beyond Good & Evil or Silent Hill 4: The Room (that’s just some of what’s in my GOG library, but you get the idea). There are a lot of games you could play through GOG that would be difficult to get anywhere else. GOG, owned by CD Projekt Red, is capitalizing on that brand with the GOG Preservation Program, which was announced on Wednesday. Games in this program are called “Good Old Games” now on the storefront, and will be supported by GOG in as close to their original state as possible for modern PCs. “If a game is part of the Preservation Program, it means that we commit our own resources to maintaining its compatibility with modern and future systems,” the blog post announcement reads. So while games currently work on Windows 10 and 11 (no Mac or Linux just yet), the promise means they’ll even work on future PCs. Currently, there are 100 games in the program, including popular titles like System Shock 2, Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition, The Witcher: Enhanced Edition, and the original Diablo, with more set to be added. A lot of these games have been on the store for a while, but the program acts as GOG’s guarantee that they’ll receive updates from GOG itself, even if the original developer has moved on, and meet certain standards for the player. They’re also DRM-free, so you don’t have to worry about the license being revoked with a delisting or not being able to play it without an internet connection. Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming For example, GOG published the Resident Evil Bundle earlier this year, which featured the first three original Resident Evil titles for $25. GOG only added some quality-of-life improvements, like new rendering options, more localization, and controller support, and ensured it would run on modern PCs. Basically, it’s as close to the original experience as you can get beyond an emulator or an older physical copy. Games preservation has been in a bad place for a while, with companies shutting down older stores that often featured digital-only titles. While Sony eventually reversed its decision to close the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita storefronts after backlash, Nintendo removed its Wii U and 3DS eShops for good in 2023. While platforms have made improvements in this area, with both Nintendo and PlayStation publishing retro titles on their subscription services and Xbox supporting backward compatibility on its modern consoles, PC hasn’t fared as well. Remakes are great, but they often can’t replicate the feeling of the original release. “Unfortunately, the classic PC games market is in a sorry state. It’s too tiny for leading platforms to give it any attention. Classic releases often get the sell-it-and-forget-it treatment, and as time goes on and technology evolves, compatibility issues arise and remain unaddressed,” the GOG blog post read. Source link #GOG #tackling #games #preservation #program Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]
  25. Pelican Press
    PS5 vs. PC: Which is the better buy for gaming in 2024? PS5 vs. PC: Which is the better buy for gaming in 2024? The PlayStation 5 has been around for several years now, and it’s easier to find in stock than ever before. It’s also built up an incredible roster of games, including Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Horizon Forbidden West, **** of War: Ragnarök, and hundreds of cross-platform games. Toss in the fact that it’s backward compatible with PS4 titles, and you’ll have access to thousands of hours of gaming goodness on the new-gen console. The same could also be said of PC, which is home to thousands of games and can easily be upgraded by installing new hardware instead of buying a whole new console. But if you’re interested in gaming, should you buy a PS5 or PC in 2024? We already compared the PS5 to the Xbox Series X, so now we need to see how PC fits into the mix. There are several factors to consider, including price, performance, game library, accessories, and online services. It’s hard to go wrong with either option, but the two platforms are radically different from each other and come with their own sets of ***** and *****. Here’s a closer look at PS5 and PC gaming to help you decide which is best for your needs. We’re just talking about the base PS5 unit here, not the PS5 Pro. Price Digital Trends Sony sells two versions of the PS5, one with a disc drive and one without a disc drive. The disc drive version costs $500 and the discless version costs $450. Although $50 may seem like a steep price for just a disc drive, the full PS5 includes a 4K Blu-Ray reader, which costs about $100 on its own. It’s worth noting that Sony is now selling a new version of the PS5 (known as the Slim model), that is slightly smaller than the original, but offers the same features and price points — though it does offer a bit more built-in storage space. As for building a PC, around $500 is about the minimum you’ll pay for a current-gen graphics card, and that doesn’t factor in the cost of all of your other components. Premium options like the HP Omen 45L are much more expensive than a PS5. Jacob ****** / Digital Trends / Digital Trends In the world of prebuilt gaming PCs, you’ll need to spend about $1,000 to get similar performance to the PS5. Bump that up to $1,200 to $1,300, and you can get a PC that exceeds the PS5. There’s a lot of variation here, so it really comes down to what you can find and at what price. A modestly configured Lenovo Legion Tower 5i will only run about $1,100, which is considerably more expensive than a PS5. But when you factor in the ability to slowly upgrade components over time instead of dropping $500 when a new console releases in a few years, PC could pose a better value — especially if you also use it for work or school. Performance Jacob ****** / Digital Trends It’s tough to compare PC and the PS5 when it comes to performance. You can configure a PC however you want, so you could end up with a system that performs much better than a PS5, or much worse. However, the PS5 uses an architecture that’s available on off-the-shelf PC parts, so we can make some comparisons. For specs, the PS5 comes with an eight-core Zen 2 CPU with an RDNA 2-based GPU that has 36 compute units (CUs). A pool of 16GB of memory is shared between the CPU and GPU as well. Although still a custom design — you can’t build a PC that exactly matches the PS5 — the console is roughly equivalent to a PC with an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and RX 5700. That’s respectable. Those specs make up a midrange PC from the previous generation. The major difference is that developers can optimize their games for the PS5’s hardware. That pushes performance up, as developers are able to take advantage of the closed system to better optimize games. You mainly see that on first-party titles like Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and Horizon: Forbidden West, which run at consistently high frame rates or resolutions. Third-party titles may struggle, though. This is how the PS5 looks under the hood. Image used with permission by copyright holder There’s always a problem comparing a console to a PC when it comes to performance. A console is closed, and a PC is open. No matter how powerful a console is, the hardware inside will eventually age, and you have no option to replace or upgrade that hardware unless the designer releases a revision or a new console generation. With PC, you always have the option of higher performance if you’re willing to spend the money. Upscaling solutions like AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) also offer a way to boost your performance for free that isn’t available in PS5 games. In addition, PC games have multiple graphics options while PS5 games generally come with a small number of performance modes (high resolution or high frame rate in most cases). There’s a lot more opportunity in PC games to tune them to achieve the performance you want, and you can’t do that tuning on the PS5. So, which is better for performance? It’s tough to say because it comes down to the PC’s configuration. At the very least, a PC offers more bandwidth to achieve the performance you want, and it allows you to upgrade if you like. That’s not present on PS5, but it still offers a great gaming experience in 2024. Game library Jacob ****** / Digital Trends The PS5 has quickly amassed a great library of games. Blockbuster hits like Returnal, ******’s Souls, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart are all available on PS5, and the console is home to tons of exclusive adventures that can’t be played anywhere else. That’s not to say PC is lacking when it comes to quality. Short of first-party exclusives, the vast majority of AAA games get a release on PC that lines up with the console launch. In the previous year, we’ve seen Helldivers 2, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and Star Wars: Outlaws — to name a few. For the most part, PC gets the same big releases that PS5 does. Some first-party Sony games are making it to PC, too. Horizon Zero Dawn and **** of War are available now, as is Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves. Still, Sony continues to release its newest games on its hardware first. If you want to play the latest and greatest from Sony’s first-party studios — such as Horizon: Forbidden West or **** of War: Ragnarok — you need a PS5. On the flip side, PC isn’t subject to console war exclusivity. Deathloop is one recent example of that. It’s a console exclusive for the PS5, so you had to wait several months before it arrived on Xbox Series X. However, it released on the same date on PC. Similarly, ******’s Door is a console exclusive for Xbox that also released simultaneously on PC. Epic Games PC has a far ******* game library overall, and you’ll be able to play most games on the day they release. You don’t have access to big first-party exclusives from Sony, at least at launch. However, PC has a large library of experiences — such as grand strategy and MMO games — that aren’t possible with PS5. Backward compatibility GOG offers a large library of decades-old PC games. Image used with permission by copyright holder In terms of backward compatibility, there’s no contest between PS5 and PC. You can play games from the last few decades on PC without too many issues, while the PS5 is limited to PS5 and PS4 games, plus a selection of PS1, PSP, PS2, and PS3 classics through PlayStation Plus Premium. If you want to play older games, PC is always the best option. You can find a wide selection of older games on Steam and GOG, with some dating back to the 1980s when PlayStation was but a thought in Sony’s mind. We don’t want to advocate for piracy, but there are also several ways to legally dump and play retro games through emulators on PC. You also don’t have to worry about backward compatibility with PC moving forward. Although Sony has taken steps to preserve PS4 games on PS5, it’s always possible that the next generation of consoles will drop support. Short of a few exceptions, PC games will continue to work across Windows versions and new hardware. Digital Rights Management (DRM) and older storefronts can also pose an issue on PS5. Platforms like GOG offer games free of DRM, and developers are free to remove DRM on Steam as well. On PC, there are options to own digital copies of games so you can continue playing them even when the publisher pulls the plug. With a console like the PS5, it’s more hit-and-miss. Controllers Image used with permission by copyright holder The PS5 supports many controllers, such as the DualSense controller that comes with the console, the DualShock 4 that worked on the PS4, and the DualSense Edge. Support is a little messy, though. For PS4 games on PS5, you can use either controller. But for PS5 games, you can only use the DualSense because of its additional features. Those additional features include adaptive triggers that simulate resistance as you press them down and better haptic feedback. Sony says this restriction is in place so players can “take advantage of the new capabilities and features” on the PS5. There are dozens of examples of the DualSense offering a unique experience over the DualShock 4. Astro **** provides resistance on the adaptive triggers and a full range of haptics. Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6 simulates the resistance of a **** trigger, while Kena: Bridge of Spirits lets you feel the tug of a bow. The DualSense offers a better experience, but the lack of DualShock 4 support in PS5 titles is a concern — especially if you have a DualShock 4 you enjoy using from the previous generation. Jacob ******/Digital Trends On PC, you can use any controller with enough work. For basics, any controller that uses XInput will automatically work. This is the layout that Xbox controllers use, and Windows supports it. You can connect everything from an Xbox 360 to Xbox Series X controller and it will work on PC, as well as a long list of third-party controllers. The 8BitDo SN30 Pro+, for example, looks and feels like a Super Nintendo controller, but it supports XInput and will automatically work on PC. A step below that, you have Steam controller configurations. Controllers like the DualShock 4 and Nintendo Switch Pro Controller will work on PC, but their buttons need to be remapped so Windows will recognize them properly. Steam has a few profiles built-in — DualShock 4 and Pro Controller among them — that will handle this process automatically when you connect one of these controllers. The main issue with this is non-Steam games, which is where controller support on PC gets messy. You have to use a third-party program like reWASD, which works with everything from the DualSense to the Google Stadia controller. Jacob ****** / Digital Trends Of course, keyboard and mouse is an option, too. The PS5 supports keyboard and mouse, but only in a select few games. These are mostly online titles like Call of Duty: Warzone, Final Fantasy XIV, and The Elder Scrolls Online. You won’t be able to access any software features on these devices with the PS5, either. Similar to a lot of areas in this PS5-versus-PC matchup, PC runs away thanks to much broader support. Any unique features, like the DualSense’s adaptive triggers, eventually make their way to PC (reWASD supports them, for example). However, the PS5 provides a smoother experience where you don’t need to resort to wikis and third-party software to get everything working. Online services Multiplayer is essential for the lion’s share of games, and Sony charges for multiplayer on PS5. In order to play most games online, you need a PlayStation Plus membership. It’ll run you $80 per year for the lowest tier, and $135 for Extra and $160 for Premium. You only need Essential to play online, but the other tiers come with additional perks. There are some exceptions with PS Plus, though. Most free-to-play games, including Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone, don’t require a PS Plus subscription. Similarly, MMOs that have their own subscription model, like Final Fantasy XIV, don’t require a membership, either. A recent example of free games on PlayStation Plus. Image used with permission by copyright holder Online play is just one perk of PS Plus. A membership also entitles you to three games for free every month (two on PS4 and one on PS5), cloud saves, and exclusive discounts. There are also tiers that grant you access to a free catalog of games, making it a great way to test out dozens of games without dropping tons of cash. A PS Plus membership more than pays for itself, but the issue is that it’s required. On PC, online play is free and platforms like Steam support cloud saves by default. You can also set up private servers for many multiplayer games. You can also set up your own private Terraria server, for example. The important distinction between PC and PS5 is that you have to pay with PS5 while you can pay with PC. Core functionality like online play is free on PC, and you can get free games through subscription services like Xbox Game Pass and Humble Choice. PC is the winner here, but that’s hardly a surprise. PS5 vs. PC: The verdict Image used with permission by copyright holder With a PS5, you’re purchasing a viable gaming machine that will hold up for at least five years. As time goes on, your performance will likely slip. There are already examples of that, like Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which will drop into lower frame rates even in its performance mode. With a PC, you’re getting a gaming machine you can upgrade at any time. Want to play Dying Light 2 with all of the visual bells and whistles? PC doesn’t make you choose as long you have powerful enough hardware. That hardware is expensive, but the option is there. In 2024, we’d recommend most people seek out a PS5. It’ll save you a lot of money, and you’ll get an excellent gaming experience for years to come. If you don’t mind spending more upfront, though, PC is a much more flexible platform that allows you to upgrade over time. Source link #PS5 #buy #gaming Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

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