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Stock market today: Live updates Stock market today: Live updates Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the opening bell on November 13, 2024, in New York City. Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images S&P 500 futures inched lower Thursday night as investors wondered what’s next for the market after the postelection rally wavered. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 91 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 futures slipped about 0.3%, while Nasdaq 100 futures shed 0.4%. In extended trading, Applied Materials slid more than 5% after posting weak guidance for revenue in the current quarter. Domino’s Pizza jumped more than 7% after Berkshire Hathaway announced a new stake in the pizza chain. That action follows a losing day on Wall Street as the postelection upswing continued to show signs of fizzling. The Dow fell more than 200 points in the session, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite each slipped about 0.6%. Stocks took a leg down in afternoon trading after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said during an event in Dallas that the central bank wasn’t “in a hurry” to cut interest rates. That comes after the Fed cut the borrowing cost last week. The three major indexes are also tracking to end the week lower, giving up some gains seen during last week’s climb on the back of Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election. The Nasdaq Composite has dropped 0.9% this week, while the S&P 500 and Dow have shed 0.8% and 0.5%, respectively. “Investors are catching their breath and evaluating whether the advance has merit,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research. “We really don’t see anything on the horizon right now to upend stocks, but investors are always sort of looking around to see what could cause the trend to end.” Investors will watch Friday for economic data on retail sales, import prices and industrial production. That caps a busy week for economic data that was punctuated by releases of closely watched inflation gauges focused on consumers and producers. On the earnings front, e-commerce giant Alibaba is due to report quarterly results on Friday. Source link #Stock #market #today #Live #updates Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

[Famitsu Sales: 11/4/24 11/10/24] PS5 Pro sold 78,000 units in the first week [Famitsu Sales: 11/4/24 11/10/24] PS5 Pro sold 78,000 units in the first week Famitsu: “Sales ranking announced by Famitsu. This time, we bring you a summary of the estimated weekly sales figures for game software and hardware from November 4th to November 10th, 2024.” Source link #Famitsu #Sales #PS5 #Pro #sold #units #week Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Weight-loss medications may also ease chronic pain Weight-loss medications may also ease chronic pain Popular semaglutide-based drugs used for weight loss may reduce chronic and acute pain, which could make them a promising alternative to opioids Source link #Weightloss #medications #ease #chronic #pain Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

AMD Ryzen AI offers up to 75% faster gaming than Intel AMD Ryzen AI offers up to 75% faster gaming than Intel AMD has just unveiled some internal benchmarks of its Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor. Although it’s been a few months since the release of the Ryzen AI 300 series, AMD now compares its CPU to Intel’s Lunar Lake, and the benchmarks are highly favorable for AMD’s best processor for thin-and-light laptops. Let’s check them out. For starters, AMD compared the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 to the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V. The AMD CPU comes with 12 cores (four Zen 5 and eight Zen 5c cores) and 24 threads, as well as 36MB of combined cache. The maximum clock speed tops out at 5.1GHz, and the CPU offers a configurable thermal design power (TDP) ranging from 15 watts to 54W. Meanwhile, the Intel chip sports eight cores (four performance cores and four efficiency cores), eight threads, a max frequency of 4.8GHz, 12MB of cache, and a TDP ranging from 17W to 37W. Both come with a neural processing unit (NPU), and AMD scores a win here too, as its NPU provides 50 trillion operations per second (TOPS), while Intel’s sits at 47 TOPS. It’s a small difference, though. AMD Digging into the results, AMD compares the two CPUs in a number of games, claiming major wins across the board. AMD says that the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is on average 75% faster than Intel, and we can see that in these tests. Some titles, such as F1 24 and Forza Horizon 5 show massive gains of over 50 frames per second (fps) at 1080p on medium settings. It’s worth noting that both laptops were running with all of the game-boosting technologies available to each vendor for this test. In the case of AMD, this includes FSR 3 where applicable, as well as AMD’s one-button game-boosting solution, AMD HYPR-RX. Next, AMD also compared native performance with FSR 3 and Intel’s rival upscaler XeSS. AMD Things even out quite a bit when comparing native performance without any bells and whistles. Although the exact data isn’t available, it looks like the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and the Core Ultra 7 258V are fairly close in titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Ghost of Tsushima, and F1 24. Intel’s native performance shoots ahead in Hitman 3 and Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, while AMD obliterates it in Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6. Of course, everything looks different when you look at the portion of the benchmark that shows off the power of FSR 3 versus XeSS. There’s no contest: AMD’s gaming tech wins by a landslide in every title. AMD The last test compares the base version of FSR and AMD’s HYPR-RX. Intel sees a decent boost from enabling FSR, which, unlike Nvidia’s DLSS 3, is available to GPUs from all vendors. AMD still leads by a large margin, although, like before, native performance is not that far apart. The timing for these benchmarks is interesting, considering that both AMD Ryzen AI 300 series and Intel Lunar Lake have been out for a while. The Lunar Lake processor is also not quite the equivalent to the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, which can explain some of the performance gap. Regardless, AMD’s performance-boosting tech bodes well for thin-and-light devices. We’ve already seen the CPU in action in laptops such as the Asus Zenbook S 16, where it did an impressive job. The Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is also set to appear in a GMKtec mini-PC — something akin to the Intel NUC — and in handhelds. Those devices, more than anything else, might largely benefit from what AMD is highlighting here, as without a discrete GPU, this type of tech can really come in handy. Source link #AMD #Ryzen #offers #faster #gaming #Intel Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Trump taps RFK Jr. as HHS secretary Trump taps RFK Jr. as HHS secretary Trump taps RFK Jr. as HHS secretary – CBS News Watch CBS News President-elect Donald Trump announced Thursday that he has selected Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy, who ended his longshot independent presidential bid and endorsed Trump, has a history of being a vaccine skeptic and making false claims about public health. Dr. Jon LaPook takes a look at what it could mean for health care in the U.S. Be the first to know Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Not Now Turn On Source link #Trump #taps #RFK #HHS #secretary Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

‘Amazing showcase’ for *** gaming industry cancelled ‘Amazing showcase’ for *** gaming industry cancelled WASD One of the main showcases for *** gaming has been cancelled, reflecting the wider struggles of an industry which has seen a series of job cuts and studio closures. The WASD expo – which is usually held in London in April – is a shop window for British talent, with a particular emphasis on smaller, independent game-makers. But its organiser has now gone into liquidation. Co-founder David Lilley told the BBC “increasing costs and less demand for stand space means running events is just not viable for us anymore.” There had been speculation about the event’s future after the WASD website disappeared from public view months after its 2024 expo took place. But the industry has still reacted with shock and dismay at the confirmation it was no longer going ahead. James Lightfoot, from the ***-based Lightfoot Bros Games, was picked to showcase his game Sleepytime Village at the event this year, and said he was “so sad to hear it will be no more.” Dave Gilbert, the founder of ********* independent games developer Wadjet Eye Games, who attended the conference every year, called it “an amazing showcase for everything the *** game scene has to offer.” Creator community WASD first opened its doors in 2022 as an answer to the closure of EGX Rezzed, an offshoot of the London gaming festival EGX, which focused mainly on smaller, alternative video games and their developers. The expo typically occurred alongside the London Games Festival in April. As well as talks from industry members, WASD showcased a variety of demos from upcoming smaller games, alongside ******* releases such as Street Fighter 6 and Vampire Survivors. David Lilley told the BBC he recognised the importance of the event for the “indie and creator community” and wanted “to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported us along the way.” The Vampire Survivors team were at WASD in 2023 after winning the “Best Game” BAFTA It comes at a difficult time for in-person gaming events across the *** and the gaming industry as a whole. In September, Insomnia Gaming Festival, the ***’s biggest gaming expo, was due to take place in Birmingham, but following a number of lay-offs at its organiser, Player1 Events, tickets never went on *****. Whilst London’s other video game showcase EGX did take place this October, it did so in partnership with MCM Comic ****, rather than as a stand-alone event. The past two years have also seen mass lay-offs from some of the industry’s biggest companies, such as Xbox makers Microsoft and Sony, which makes PlayStation, following a ******* of record growth and profits during the Covid-19 pandemic. Rachel Watts, games journalist and co-host of the Indieventure Podcast, believes the announcement is a reflection of a wider movement from companies towards announcing their games online. “Now that ******* gaming companies are running their own digital events, there’s no reason for them to spend time, money, and resources on being present at in-person events.” “But for indie developers, events like WASD are vital to showcase their games to the public while also building a community within the indie space.” Source link #Amazing #showcase #gaming #industry #cancelled Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Words With Friends launches more games to compete with Wordle Words With Friends launches more games to compete with Wordle Zynga Words With Friends is expanding. What was once just a popular way to play unofficial multiplayer Scrabble on mobile has now become a larger hub for other daily word games. Mobile development juggernaut Zynga announced that it’s added four games to the app. Mini Crosswords gives you a new crossword to complete every day and a leaderboard for competing against other players. Word Wheel is an anagram game where players connect letters in a wheel to form words. Word Search provides a new puzzle theme each day. Finally, Guess Word is like Wordle, with players having to guess a word in six tries. “Words With Friends has always been about connecting players through friendly competition,” said Yaron Leyvand, executive vice president of mobile games, in a press release. “Our players asked if they could do even more, so we’ve added a whole new layer of personally fulfilling solo minigames where you can disconnect from the world and play word games, with or without friends.” Before there was Wordle, there was Words With Friends. It launched in 2009, and like other Zynga games at the time, it found success through letting users connect with friends through Facebook. It’s since become one of the most well-known online multiplayer mobile games. There isn’t a chat function, but players can message offline and compete with friends and random strangers. By 2021, the app was a huge partof Zynga’s reported $616 million in Take-Two revenue that quarter. With this move, Words With Friends is on track to compete with apps like Puzzmo and NYT Games, which bundle together games into one hub that updates daily. There has been a lot of growth in this area, with The New York Times in particular expanding its game offerings with Strands and Connections over the past couple years. Source link #Words #Friends #launches #games #compete #Wordle Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

This fps-doubling app is now even better than DLSS 3 This fps-doubling app is now even better than DLSS 3 Lossless Scaling is a $7 Steam app that’s flipped the idea of frame generation on its head this year. Similar to tools like Nvidia’s DLSS 3 and AMD’s FSR 3, Lossless Scaling offers frame generation. However, it works with any game, and with any graphics card, and it can triple or quadruple your frame rate with this frame generation. And now, the app is going further with a feature that even DLSS 3 and FSR 3 don’t have. The developer posted the 2.12 beta to Steam on Wednesday, and it adds a couple of new features. The big one is a resolution scale for LSFG, the tool’s own machine learning-based frame generation algorithm. This allows you to decrease the resolution of the input frames, leading to a very minor quality loss in exchange for a fairly large performance boost. The resolution of the game doesn’t change at all. You’re basically giving the frame generation algorithm slightly less information to work with. It’s a very clever way of improving performance that we haven’t seen from Nvidia or AMD yet. There are plenty of artifacts and oddities with generated frames, regardless of where they come from. The idea is that you won’t notice those issues because the generated frames are mixed in between truly rendered ones, and only displayed on screen for a few milliseconds. This new feature capitalizes on that fact, offering an additional performance boost with an almost imperceivable quality loss. Jacob ****** / Digital Trends I tried it out in Cyberpunk 2077, and the feature works very well. At native 4K, I was able to max out my monitor’s 138Hz refresh rate by using 3X frame generation and setting the resolution scale to 70%. The difference between 100% and 70% didn’t even register at that high of a frame rate. However, as with all frame generation tools, it’s best to have a base frame rate of 60 frames per second (fps) before enabling frame generation. Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming In addition to the resolution slider for frame generation, the developer made a few other updates to the app. First, they removed LSFG 1. This was the first frame generation algorithm, which has now been fully replaced with the latest version. The app now supports SGSR v1 as well. This is Snapdragon Game Super Resolution, which is a lightweight upscaler built by Qualcomm that was created for the Adreno GPU. It should provide better upscaling results than some of the other options in Lossless Scaling, particularly on weaker GPUs. This update is a beta release, which means you won’t see an update for the app in Steam. If you want to download the update, head to the Properties window for Lossless Scaling in Steam, and select Betas. Then select beta – beta from the Beta Participation dropdown, and you can download the update. Source link #fpsdoubling #app #DLSS Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

What the Mike Huckabee pick could signal for the West Bank What the Mike Huckabee pick could signal for the West Bank What the Mike Huckabee pick could signal for the West Bank – CBS News Watch CBS News The West Bank has seen escalating ********* since Oct. 7, with ******** soldiers pursuing militants in residential areas and ******* settlers mounting attacks on Palestinians in land grabs. Elizabeth Palmer looks at what President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory and his selection of Mike Huckabee for U.S. ambassador to ******* could mean for the West Bank’s future. Be the first to know Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Not Now Turn On Source link #Mike #Huckabee #pick #signal #West #Bank Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Europe’s flying taxi dreams falter as cash runs short Europe’s flying taxi dreams falter as cash runs short Volocopter The VoloCity made demonstration flights in Paris over the summer One of the innovations at this year’s Paris Olympics was supposed to be an electric flying taxi service. Germany’s Volocopter promised its electric-powered, two-seater aircraft, the VoloCity, would be ferrying passengers around the city. It never happened. Instead the company ran demonstration flights. While missing that deadline was embarrassing, behind the scenes a more serious issue was playing out – Volocopter was urgently trying to raise fresh investment to keep the firm going. Talks to borrow €100m (£83m; $106m) from the government ******* in April. Now hopes are pinned on China’s Geely, which is in talks to take an 85% stake in Volocopter in return for $95m of funding, according to a Bloomberg report. The deal could mean that any future manufacturing would be moved to China. Volocopter is one of dozens of companies around the world developing an electric vertical take-off and landing (EVTOL) aircraft. Their machines promise the flexibility of a helicopter, but without the cost, noise and emissions. However, faced with the massive cost of getting such novel aircraft approved by regulators and then building up manufacturing capabilities, some investors are bailing out. Lilium Lilium’s ******** design involves jets which can be angled for vertical take-off One of the most high-profile casualties is Lilium. The ******* company had developed a ******** take on the EVTOL theme. Lilium’s aircraft uses 30 electric jets that can be tilted in unison to swing between vertical lift and forward flight. The concept proved attractive, with the company claiming to have orders and memoranda of understanding for 780 jets from around the world. It was able to demonstrate the technology using a remote controlled scale model. Construction had begun on the first full-sized jets, and testing had been due to begin in early 2025. As recently as the Farnborough Airshow in July, Lilium’s COO Sebastian Borel was sounding confident. “We are definitely burning through cash,” he told the BBC. “But this is a good sign, because it means we are producing the aircraft. We’re going to have three aircraft in production by the end of the year, and we have also raised €1.5bn”. But then the money ran out. Lilium had been attempting to arrange a loan worth €100m from the ******* development bank, KfW. However, that required guarantees from national and state governments, which never materialised. In early November, the company put its main operating businesses into insolvency proceedings, and its shares were removed from the Nasdaq stock exchange. For the moment, work on the new aircraft is continuing, as the company works with restructuring experts to sell the business or bring in new investment. However, getting the new e-jet into production is looking more challenging than ever. Vertical Aerospace The VX4 recently completed successful take-off and landing tests The high-profile British player in the eVTOL market is Vertical Aerospace. The Bristol-based company was founded in 2016 by businessman Stephen Fitzpatrick, who also set up OVO Energy. Its striking VX4 design uses eight large propellers mounted on slim, aircraft style wings to generate lift. Mr Fitzpatrick has made ambitious claims about the aircraft, suggesting it would be “100 times” safer and quieter than a helicopter, for 20% of the cost. The company has made progress. After completing a programme of remote-controlled testing, it began carrying out piloted tests earlier this year. Initially, these were carried out with the aircraft tethered to the ground. In early November, it carried out its first untethered take-off and landing. But there have also been serious setbacks. In August last year, a remotely-piloted prototype was badly damaged when it crashed during testing at Cotswold Airport, after a propeller blade fell off. In May one of its key partners, the engineering giant Rolls Royce pulled out of a deal to supply electric motors for the aircraft. Ambitions remain sky high. Vertical Aerospace says it will deliver 150 aircraft to its customers by the end of the decade. By then, it also expects to be capable of producing 200 units a year, and to be breaking even in cash terms. Yet financial strains have been intensifying. Mr Fitzpatrick invested an extra $25m into the company in March. But a further $25m, due in August if alternative investment could not be found, has not been paid. As of September, Vertical had $57.4m on hand – but it expects to ***** through nearly double that over the coming year. Hopes for the future appear to be pinned on doing a deal with the ********* financier Jason Mudrick, who is already a major creditor through his firm Mudrick Capital Management. He has offered to invest $75m into the business – and has warned the board of Vertical that rejecting his plan would inevitably lead to insolvency proceedings. But the move has been resisted by Mr Fitzpatrick, who would lose control of the company he founded. Sources close to the talks insist an agreement is now very close. The company believes if a deal can be done, it will unlock further fundraising opportunities. Airbus CityAirbus has an 80km range and can fly at 120kmh Amid the turbulence, one ********* project is quietly on track, says Bjorn Fehrm who has a background in aeronautical engineering and piloted combat jets for the Swedish Air Force. He now works for aerospace consultancy Leeham. He says that the EVTOL project underway at Airbus is likely to survive. Called the CityAirbus NextGen, the four-seater aircraft has eight propellers and a range of 80km. “This is a technology project for their engineers, and they’ve got the money, and they’ve got the know how,” says Mr Fehrm. Elsewhere in the world, other well funded start-ups stand a good change of getting their aircraft into production. That would include Joby and Archer in the US. Once the aircraft are being produced, the next challenge will be to see if there’s a profitable market for them. The first routes are likely to be between airports and city centres. But will they make money? “The biggest problem area when it comes to the cost of operation is the pilot and the batteries. You need to change the batteries a couple of times per year,” points out Mr Fehrm. Given all the uncertainty and expense, you might wonder why investors put money into new electric aircraft in the first place. “No one wanted to miss out on the next Tesla,” laughs Mr Fehrm. More Technology of Business Source link #Europes #flying #taxi #dreams #falter #cash #runs #short Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Google will stop serving political ads in the EU, including on YouTube Google will stop serving political ads in the EU, including on YouTube Google will stop serving political advertisements in the ********* Union. The decision, in The Keyword blog, is in response to an upcoming new rule for the bloc that “introduces significant new operational challenges and legal uncertainties for political advertisers and platforms.” The company says the Regulation on Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising has an overly broad definition for political advertising and raised concerns that technical guidance around the policy may not be given until close to October 2025, when the rules will take effect. In addition to no longer serving that ad content ahead of next October, Google said that paid political advertisements will also not be allowed on YouTube in the EU. The company said that similar regulations have already led it to stop serving political ads in , France and Brazil. Google’s advertising and ad tech have been subjected to scrutiny by the ********* government in recent years. The company faced (but ultimately ) fines for “abusive” advertising practices in 2019, and last year was hit with . And Google has also engaged in other eyebrow-raising behavior in the bloc. Just yesterday, the company began what it called a “small, time-limited test” to from EU-based news publishers in search, Google News and the Discover feed. Source link #Google #stop #serving #political #ads #including #YouTube Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Asus ROG Falchion Ace HFX review: too expensive for plastic Asus ROG Falchion Ace HFX review: too expensive for plastic Asus ROG Falchion Ace HFX MSRP $200.00 “Asus’ first Hall Effect keyboard is a winner, but not at $200.” ***** Solid typing and gaming feel out of the box Rapid trigger and speed tap features Unique media controls 8,000Hz polling rate ***** Pricey for all-plastic construction Armoury Crate is a slog For the past year, I’ve been wondering where Asus’ Hall Effect keyboard is. Hall Effect has been all the rage for PC gamers, infiltrating the best gaming keyboards you can buy, but Asus has stayed away from the trend with releases like the ROG Azoth Extreme. With the Falchion Ace HFX, we finally have the first Hall Effect keyboard from Asus. The company has emerged as one of the leading keyboard brands for enthusiast-level quality with mainstream sensibilities, especially with releases like the ROG Strix Scope II 96. The ROG Falchion Ace HFX is yet another showcase of Asus’ expertise, and it comes with competitive features like rapid trigger analogue switches and an 8,000Hz wired polling rate — it’s just a shame that this otherwise wonderful all-plastic keyboard comes in at $200. Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming Asus ROG Falchion Ace HFX specs Asus ROG Falchion Ace HFX Layout 65% Keyboard type Mechanical Switches Lubed ROG HFX Magnetic switches (40/55gf) Switch mount Gasket Hot-swappable No Stablizers Lubed ROG stablizers Key caps Doubleshot PBT Backlight Per-key RGB Construction Plastic Foam Poron and silicone Onboard storage Up to six profiles Software Armoury Crate Connection USB-C Polling rate 8,000Hz USB ports N/A Dimensions 315 x 115 x 35mm Weight 643 grams (1.4 pounds) List price $200 Where to buy Design Jacob ****** / Digital Trends The Falchion Ace HFX may make big changes to the switches, but the overall design fits right within Asus’ Falchion range. Like the Falchion RX LP, this is a 65% keyboard that’s just a hair taller than a typical 65% design due to the Republic of Gamers logo and light bar at the top. Compared to a smaller 60% design, you get some extra goodies with 65%, including your arrow keys and keys like Insert and Delete. The major change Asus made on the key front is swapping out the right Ctrl key for a Windows Copilot key. In stark contrast to the Falchion RX LP, the Ace HFX is ******, though not across the board. The key caps are ******, as is the top light bar and the edges of the body. However, Asus breaks up the design with a dark-silver plate for the key switches, and two silver controls on the back of the keyboard. It’s a classy-looking design. It’s just not a classy-feeling one, unfortunately. This is a $200 keyboard, and I expected a least a little bit of metal in the construction, but it’s all plastic here. You could argue that’s a positive for an esports keyboard — at only 1.4 pounds, you can easily reposition the Falchion Ace HFX in a way that it’s comfortable — but the materials don’t lie. Asus is using inexpensive materials to build the Falchion Ace HFX while still charging a premium price. Still, the Falchion Ace HFX looks great. Outside of per-key RGB, you get the aforementioned light bar, which pulls double duty as a status bar. On the back left side of the keyboard, there’s a textured piece of silicon that you can slide your finger on to access several functions, including volume and media controls. And as you adjust them, the light bar at the top will react. It’s an ingenious way to give you access to media controls while maintaining a tiny 65% form factor. Sound and feel Jacob ****** / Digital Trends Asus is using it own pre-lubed Hall Effect switches and stabilizers in the Falchion Ace HFX, and they actually feel pretty good. A big part of that is the gasket mount and insane amount of sound dampening packed inside the keyboard. The sound and feel is very similar to what I saw with the Wooting 80HE. That’s to say, it’s good enough for typing, better for gaming, and a small step behind something like the Keychron Q1 HE. It’s clear that Asus spent some time sculpting the sound of the Falchion Ace HFX. Something about the feel doesn’t quite match up with the sound. There are two layers of Poron foam as well as two layers of silicon sound dampening, leading to a very muted sound. That’s good in a lot of cases. The typical high-end ping you find on gaming keyboards isn’t present, and there’s a chunky low-end response when you’re slamming away at the keys. Still, something is missing. The sound feels like Asus scooped out the midrange. You’re getting the low-end thonk with just enough click with each keypress to let you know this is a mechanical keyboard. But the lower midrange sound you get from something with heavier mechanical switches and careful lubrication isn’t present here, and some of that might be due to the plastic construction. Jacob ****** / Digital Trends That’s my biggest issue with the feel of the keyboard. Although typing and gaming on the Falchion Ace HFX is solid for a Hall Effect keyboard, the fully plastic construction at $200 stings. It makes the keyboard feel, in the hands, much more inexpensive than it actually is. And, unlike the Razer ****** Widow V4 75%, there aren’t extra goodies like a comfy wrist rest or an OLED display to justify that higher price tag. In addition, you’re locked into Asus’ switches here. They’re good, resembling a linear mechanical switch with 40gf for the initial actuation, but you can’t swap out the switches. We’ve seen newer keyboards like the Glorious GMMK 3 that, although expensive, allow you to swap between mechanical and Hall Effect switches in the same keyboard. Features Jacob ****** / Digital Trends The main draw of the Falcion Ace HFX is right there in the name. Hall Effect switches not only give you control over the actuation distance of each key — from 0.1mm to 4mm — but also unlocks the rapid trigger feature. This basically gives the switch a dynamic actuation and reset point. Instead of pressing and releasing a key to the set points, the keys will actuate and reset based on what direction they’re moving. You can keep this locked to only certain keys, too — by default, rapid trigger is only enabled on the WASD keys. This isn’t a new feature for Hall Effect keyboards; in fact, it’s the main draw of them. Asus’ contribution is a dedicated switch on the back of the keyboard to turn the rapid trigger feature on and off. I love that inclusion. Not only can you configure your keyboard without opening any software but you can also quickly toggle between the feature being on or off without remembering some hotkey. My only gripe is that the toggle is fairly loose — you could easily bump it and turn off rapid trigger if you game with your keyboard at an angle. In addition to rapid trigger, you also get a speed tap mode. This has been popularized by Razer and Wooting, and it’s been referred to by some esports ***** as cheating. In competitive FPS games, the idea is that you can strafe faster between the A and D keys due to the fact that the keyboard prioritizes the most recent input. You don’t need to fully lift your finger off one key to register the next input. Normally, if you press the D key while the A key is still held, your character won’t move. With speed tapping, you can strafe much faster. This feature has already been banned in Counter-Strike 2, both on official Valve servers and in ESL events. Other games haven’t banned speed tapping, though they could in the future. Regardless, Asus is matching the competition here for features, and coming out slightly ahead due to the dedicated rapid toggle switch. On the competitive bend, the Falchion Ace HFX also includes two USB-C inputs — one on either side of the keyboard. That’s great for positioning the keyboard, though I’m not sure how much the inclusion of an extra USB-C port bloats the price, and I doubt how practical it is for a lot of gamers. Software Jacob ****** / Digital Trends For managing the Falcion Ace HFX, you’ll need to download Asus Armoury Crate. Among the many keyboard utilities available, Armoury Crate is near the bottom of the list for me. It’s just too dense. It’s important to remember that Asus makes desktops, laptops, motherboards, graphics cards, monitors, peripherals, and dozens of other products, and every single ROG-branded device is managed through Armoury Crate. If the Falchion Ace HFX is the only Asus device you own, there’s a ton of bloat in Armoury Crate that just doesn’t apply. Particularly on the RGB front, I can appreciate Asus’ effort to unify different devices with features like Aura Sync, but there’s still a lot of bloat outside of these multi-device features. Asus packs in a tab for game deals, for example. You get some small discounts by registering your device, but the deals are powered by GamesPlanet — a separate website that already has solid game deals. I’d much rather find deals in my browser than bog down my keyboard utility. Add on top of that news, user-created wallpapers, and yet another game library where you can import the games installed on your PC, and Armoury Crate has a lot of extras that extend far beyond managing a keyboard. More isn’t always better, and most PC gamers already have half a dozen utilities installed on their PC that do the exact same thing. And just like those utilities, I suspect Armoury Crate will live in the system tray, never to be touched, after you configure your keyboard. As for managing your keyboard, you have some options in Armoury Crate. You can record and assign macros, adjust the speed tap and rapid trigger features, and swap basic lighting effects. Unfortunately, you can’t go any deeper than Asus’ basic lighting effects through Armoury Crate. You need to download the separate Aura Creator app if you want to create custom lighting effects on a per-key basis. The silver lining here is that you can mostly ignore Armoury Crate. You can turn critical functions like speed tap and rapid trigger on or off with the keyboard itself, and you can trigger macro recording on-the-fly. The textured strip at the back of the keyboard also supports custom commands, and you have space for six onboard profiles. Between these options, you shouldn’t have to open Armoury Crate much. Should you buy the Asus ROG Falchion Ace HFX? Jacob ****** / Digital Trends The Falchion Ace HFX is a good Hall Effect keyboard in a vacuum, but it’s just too expensive to recommend. That mainly comes down to its wired connection and all-plastic construction. There are plenty of fully metal Hall Effect keyboards that come in around the same price, including the Keychron Q1 HE and the Meletrix Boog75. The Wooting 60HE+ is even less at $175, and you can customize that keyboard in just about every way imaginable. Although I like the Falchion Ace HFX, it’d need to drop in price to earn a recommendation. Matching Wooting at $175 would be good, but a drop to $150 would make the Falchion Ace HFX very attractive. For now, you’re spending up for Asus’ first Hall Effect keyboard, and without the build quality that more niche brands offer around the same price. Source link #Asus #ROG #Falchion #Ace #HFX #review #expensive #plastic Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Why Trump chose RFK Jr. for HHS secretary Why Trump chose RFK Jr. for HHS secretary Why Trump chose RFK Jr. for HHS secretary – CBS News Watch CBS News President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary came following several other controversial choices for Cabinet members. Caitlin Huey-Burns takes a look at the president-elect’s decision-making process. Be the first to know Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Not Now Turn On Source link #Trump #chose #RFK #HHS #secretary Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]