Exquisite bird fossil provides clues to the evolution of avian brains
Exquisite bird fossil provides clues to the evolution of avian brains
The skeleton of Navaornis hestiae, an 80-million-year-old bird fossil
S. Abramowicz/Dinosaur Institute/Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
An 80-million-year-old fossil bird has been discovered with a skull so exquisitely preserved that scientists have been able to study the detailed structure of its brain.
In both age and evolutionary development, the new species, named Navaornis hestiae, is almost midway between the earliest known bird-like dinosaur, Archaeopteryx, which lived 150 million years ago, and modern birds. It lived in the Cretaceous ******* alongside dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops.
The fossil, which bears a superficial resemblance to a pigeon, was found near Presidente Prudente, Brazil, in 2016 and was immediately recognised as significant because of the rarity of a full bird skeleton, particularly one of that age.
But Daniel Field at the University of Cambridge says it wasn’t until 2022 that he and his colleagues realised the skull was so intact that they could possibly scan it and create a 3D model of its brain.
High-resolution CT scanning allows palaeontologists to peer inside fossils. “This involves careful ‘digital dissection’: separating out each individual component of the skull and then reassembling them into a complete, undeformed three-dimensional reconstruction,” says Field.
“The new fossil provides unprecedented insight into the pattern and timing by which the specialised features of the brain of living birds evolved.”
Based on the team’s reconstruction of the brain, Field says the cognitive abilities and flying capacity of Navaornis were probably inferior to those of most living birds.
Artist’s impression of Navaornis hestiae
J. d’Oliveira
The portions of the brain responsible for complex cognition and spatial orientation aren’t as enlarged as those of modern birds, he says.
“Although the cerebrum of Navaornis is greatly expanded relative to the condition in a more archaic bird relative like Archaeopteryx, it is not as expanded as what we see in living birds.”
The enlarged brains of modern birds support a huge range of complex behaviours, says Field, but understanding how their brains evolved has been challenging due to a lack of adequately complete and well-preserved fossil bird skulls from early bird relatives.
“Navaornis fills a roughly 70-million-year-long gap in our understanding of how the distinctive brains of modern birds evolved.”
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Softbank once offered Jensen Huang a loan to buy Nvidia entirely — Nvidia CEO regrets not taking the loan
Softbank once offered Jensen Huang a loan to buy Nvidia entirely — Nvidia CEO regrets not taking the loan
At Nvidia’s AI Summit in Tokyo this week, Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, and Masayoshi Son, the head of SoftBank, expressed regrets that the former did not privatize Nvidia a decade ago when the latter offered him money to do so. As a result, the two companies have ******* to merge and create an AI and supercomputer giant with CPU and GPU prowess, reports Fortune.
At the event, the two executives discussed three critical attempts to strengthen ties, from privatization to a potential merger with Arm, which regulators stopped.
“Masa said, ‘Jensen, the market doesn’t understand the value of Nvidia. Your future is incredible,” said Huang. “‘Your journey of suffering will continue for some time, so let me give you the money to buy Nvidia.’ He wanted to lend me money to buy Nvidia, all of it. Now I regret not taking it.”
Masayoshi Son remembered that this happened one month after he acquired Arm sometime in 2016. Apparently, this is when Huang and Son talked about combining the two companies into a powerhouse that could address virtually everything from smartphones to PCs and from mainstream servers to AI machines and supercomputers.
Buying Nvidia stock on the open market in 2016 would be much ******* than buying the same stock in 2014 – 2015. According to CompaniesMarketCap.com, the company’s capitalization in 2014 was $10.89 billion, grew to $17.73 billion in 2015, and skyrocketed to $57.53 billion in 2016.
Jensen Huang also reminded Masayoshi Son that he bought Nvidia stock on the open market after 2016 but sold his shares before Nvidia’s stock skyrocketed in 2023 – 2024. Today, Nvidia’s market capitalization is $3.606 trillion, making it the most valuable company in the world by market cap.
The conversation captures their mixed emotions — nostalgia for the bold ideas they once entertained and a sense of loss as they see what might have been achieved. Jensen’s teasing highlights how Nvidia’s explosive growth has made these missed opportunities even more poignant, emphasizing how foresight and timing are crucial in the fast-moving tech industry.
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The price of bitcoin is soaring. Here’s how to reduce crypto taxes
The price of bitcoin is soaring. Here’s how to reduce crypto taxes
Amid the latest bitcoin rally, crypto investors face a looming deadline that could impact future taxes — and they must take action before Jan. 1, 2025.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury and IRS in July unveiled final tax reporting rules for digital asset brokers, with phased-in guidelines.
Starting in 2026, brokers will use Form 1099-DA to report ****** proceeds from 2025 sales. In 2027, brokers will include “cost basis,” or the original purchase price for sales in 2026.
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Here’s a look at other stories impacting the financial advisor business.
Basis is important because, generally, if you can’t prove your basis, the IRS considers it zero — which can inflate gains. Your profit is the sales price ****** your basis.
The price of bitcoin jumped above $93,000 on Wednesday, notching a fresh record that added to the post-election rally.
“People don’t necessarily think of the tax consequences, especially when they see that we’re going up very rapidly,” said Matt Metras, an enrolled agent and owner of MDM Financial Services in Rochester, New York, where he specializes in digital assets.
Avoid a tax ‘reporting nightmare’
Previously, crypto investors could track basis using the “universal method,” which combines assets into a single account, even for crypto held in multiple digital wallets.
Under the universal method, crypto investors could assign an asset’s basis when selling, based on their inventory method.
But starting in 2025, the “universal method is going away” and reporting will happen at the wallet level, according to Sulolit Mukherjee, executive director of compliance and implementation for the IRS’ Office of Digital Asset Initiative.
In the meantime, investors must establish a “reasonable allocation” of basis by Jan. 1, 2025, according to the IRS revenue procedure released in July.
Investors should provide their broker with these details to avoid a “reporting nightmare” in the future, said Mukherjee, speaking at the ********* Institute of CPAs’ national tax conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.
IRS ramps up digital asset enforcement
The new IRS reporting requirements come as the agency focuses on digital asset enforcement.
“These regulations are an important part of the larger effort on high-income individual tax compliance,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement in July. “We need to make sure digital assets are not used to hide taxable income, and these final regulations will improve detection of noncompliance in the high-risk space of digital assets.”
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Trump, Biden pledge orderly transition of power in White House meeting – National
Trump, Biden pledge orderly transition of power in White House meeting – National
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump made a victor’s return to Washington on Wednesday, visiting the White House for an Oval Office meeting with President Joe Biden and committing to a smooth transition of power as the president-elect moves quickly to build out his new administration.
Sitting in front of a crackling *****, the rivals shook hands in the Oval Office as reporters looked on. Biden called Trump “Mr. President-elect and former president” before settling on “Donald.”
“Congratulations,” the Democrat told the ***********. “I look forward to having, like they said, a smooth transition,” Biden said. “Welcome. Welcome back.”
Trump replied, “Thank you very much,” saying that “politics is tough. And it’s, in many cases, not a very nice world. But it is a nice world today, and I appreciate it very much.”
Neither man answered questions shouted by the media. At one point, Biden looked at Trump, who moved his head to the side and gave a small shrug but did not respond. Each was joined by his chief of staff for the private meeting that is a traditional part of the peaceful handoff of power, but a ritual that Trump declined to participate in four years ago after losing to Biden.
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First lady Jill Biden greeted Trump upon his arrival at the White House and gave him a handwritten letter of congratulations for his wife, Melania Trump, who did not make the trip to Washington. The letter also expressed the first lady’s team’s readiness to assist with the transition.
As Trump met with Biden, Trump sent out a fundraising email to supporters saying that he “is inside the White House right now conducting a very important meeting.”
Trump had flown from Florida in the morning, joining up with billionaire Elon Musk for a morning session with House Republicans. That discussion came as Trump prepares for a potentially unified *********** government and sweep of power.
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Back in Washington for the first time since his election victory, Trump told the GOP lawmakers, “It’s nice to win.”
He received a standing ovation from House GOP members, many of whom took cellphone videos of Trump as ran through their party’s victories up and down the ballot, in what would be, under the constitutional limits, his final presidential election.
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“I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say he’s good we got to figure something else,” Trump said to laughter from the lawmakers.
It’s a stunning return to the seat of America’s government for the former president, who departed Washington in January 2021 a diminished, politically defeated leader after the ******* on the Capitol. Today, he is preparing to come back to power with what he and his GOP allies see as a mandate for governance.
“He is the comeback king,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., before Trump’s arrival. “We owe him a great debt of gratitude.”
2:24
Democrats left wondering where campaign went wrong after Trump’s landslide win
The private meetings, including his sit-down with Biden, put in stark relief the former president’s remarkable political rebound. The reemergence comes amid *********** congressional leadership elections — with the potential for him to place his imprint on the outcome.
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Trump endorsed Johnson’s return to the speaker’s office with the president-elect saying he is with Johnson all the way, according to a person familiar with the remarks but not authorized to publicly discuss the private meeting.
Musk joining Trump on the return to Washington comes after the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has been spending much of his time at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida estate, and participating in discussions as the incoming Trump administration prepares to transition from Biden’s.
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Trump has named Musk to a government efficiency advisory role in his incoming administration. Some close to Trump and his team now see Musk as the second most influential figure in Trump’s immediate orbit, after Susie Wiles, the campaign manager who is Trump’s incoming chief of staff.
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After his election win in 2016, Trump met with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office and called it “a great honor.” But he soon was back to heaping insults on Obama, including accusing his predecessor — without evidence — of having wire-tapped him during the 2016 campaign.
Four years later, Trump disputed his election loss to Biden, and he has continued to lie about widespread voter ****** that did not occur. He didn’t invite Biden, then the president-elect, to the White House and he left Washington without attending Biden’s inauguration. It was the first time that had happened since Andrew Johnson skipped Ulysses S. Grant’s swearing-in 155 years ago.
Biden insists that he’ll do everything he can to make the transition to the next Trump administration go smoothly. That’s despite having spent more than a year campaigning for reelection and decrying Trump as a threat to democracy and the nation’s core values. Biden then bowed out of the race in July and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him.
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Trump’s promises ‘might cause Canadians to bristle,’ former *********** strategist says
Traditionally, as the outgoing and incoming presidents meet in the West Wing, the first lady hosts her successor upstairs in the residence, But her office said Melania Trump wasn’t attending, saying in a statement that “her husband’s return to the Oval Office to commence the transition process is encouraging, and she wishes him great success.”
When Trump left Washington in 2021, even some top Republicans had begun to decry his role in helping incite a mob of his supporters that had staged the violent ******* on the Capitol mere weeks earlier, trying to stop the certification of Biden’s election victory.
But his win in last week’s election completes a political comeback that has seen Trump once again become the unchallenged head of the GOP.
Wednesday’s trip was not the first time Trump has returned to the Capitol area since the end of his first term, though. Congressional Republicans hosted Trump over the summer, as Trump was again solidifying his dominance over the party.
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In last week’s election, Republicans wrested the Senate majority from Democrats and are on the cusp of keeping control of the House, are in the midst of their own leadership elections happening behind closed doors Wednesday. Johnson has pulled ever-closer to Trump as he worked to keep his majority — and his own job with the gavel.
It’s unclear whether Trump will also visit the Senate, which is entangled in a more divisive closed-door leadership election in the three-way race to replace outgoing GOP Leader Mitch McConnell.
Trump’s allies are pushing GOP senators to vote for Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who had been a longshot candidate challenging two more senior Republicans, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, for the job.
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Trump team hostile to Chagos deal, claims Nigel Farage
Trump team hostile to Chagos deal, claims Nigel Farage
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The ***’s deal to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius will be met with “outright hostility” by the Trump administration, Nigel Farage has predicted.
The Reform *** leader, a supporter and friend of the incoming US president, told MPs the agreement would put the *** at odds with an important ally.
He added that Donald Trump’s advisers had security concerns, amid claims the deal could boost China’s influence in the region.
But Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty said he was confident the “full detail” of the arrangement would allay concerns.
It had won backing “across the national security apparatus in the ******* States”, he added.
Under the deal, the *** will hand over sovereignty of the islands while retaining control over a ****** ***-US military base on the island of Diego Garcia, for an “initial *******” of 99 years.
The *** government says the accord, which it hopes to ratify next year, will end legal uncertainty over the islands following international rulings backing Mauritian claims to sovereignty.
But the strategic importance of the archipelago, known officially as the British Indian Ocean Territory, has prompted criticism that the agreement will deliver a security boost to China.
A number of US Republicans have attacked the deal, which has been backed by the outgoing Biden government, although Trump himself has not commented publicly on it.
‘Vacuum’ warning
Speaking in the Commons, Farage said the *** would find “outright hostility” to the deal among the next US administration, adding it had been an “enormous mistake” to sign up to it before last week’s presidential election.
He said he knew this because of time he had spent in America in the aftermath of the election, and because he knew the incoming defence secretary, Fox News host Pete Hegseth, “very well”.
He added that Michael Waltz, expected to become Trump’s national security adviser, “has form” on the topic, having written a letter to Biden’s secretary of state Antony Blinken in 2022 during talks under the previous Tory government.
In the letter, published on his website at the time, the *********** congressman warned that China would “take advantage of the resulting vacuum” if the *** handed over sovereignty of the islands.
“Diego Garcia was described to me by a senior Trump adviser as the most important island on the planet, as far as America was concerned,” Farage told MPs.
He said continuing with the deal would put the *** “at conflict with a country without which we would be defenceless”.
‘Not sustainable’
Doughty dismissed Farage’s criticism, arguing legal uncertainty over the Chagos Islands threatened the “secure and effective operation” of the base on Diego Garcia.
He added that given previous findings against the ***, a legally binding ruling siding with Mauritian sovereignty claims “seemed inevitable” at some point, creating legal uncertainty over the base that was “not sustainable”.
He said the deal contained measures to prevent foreign presence in the “outer islands”, and had also been welcomed by all parts of “the US system”.
He added the *** was looking forward to working with the Trump administration, saying: “I’m sure that they will being briefed on the full detail of this deal.
“I am confident that the details of this arrangement will allay any concerns.”
Negotiations on a deal began under the previous ************* government in 2022, but several senior Tories have also spoken out against the deal.
Shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel, who left government two months before negotiations began under Rishi Sunak, said the accord would “give away a key strategic asset” in the Indian Ocean.
Other Tories to have criticised the deal include James Cleverly, who took part in negotiations himself as foreign secretary but has since described Labour’s proposed agreement as “weak”.
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Turntable Labs just launched a new social music platform called Hangout
Turntable Labs just launched a new social music platform called Hangout
Everything old is new again. Turntable Labs , a social music platform that’s eerily similar to that , Turntable.fm. The app is available as a web client or via an app for Android and iOS. It allows users to play virtual DJ, with over 100 million songs to choose from.
It not only functions like the old-school Turntable.fm. It even looks the same. There’s a stage, record players and cartoon avatars that sort of look like characters from South Park. I started and am pleasantly surprised at the sheer number of songs here that I actually like.
Turntable Labs
This is because those 100 million songs have been secured through partnerships with Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. The catalog also pulls from Merlin, which represents a vast array of indie labels and rights holders.
The company likens the experience to “gathering around a jukebox or listening to albums with friends.” It seems that way to me, as someone I don’t know just jumped in my room and started playing their own stuff. To that end, folks take turns playing DJ. There looks to be room for five people at the same time to play a game of round robin with their favorite songs.
The robust catalog is one major difference from Turntable.fm. The platform didn’t have agreements in place with labels, instead relying on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and a partnership with ASCAP. This forced a number of rules on users as to how many people could be in a room at once and how many songs could be played each hour. It looks like those rules are now dunzo.
Turntable.fm originally went dark all the way back in 2013, before showing . This could be a fun retro throwback to an age when we actually got our music recommendations from people, and not algorithms.
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World’s Largest Living Organism Pando Might Be The Oldest Living Thing, Reveals New Study
World’s Largest Living Organism Pando Might Be The Oldest Living Thing, Reveals New Study
A recent study has unveiled new insights into Pando, the colossal quaking aspen clone in Fishlake National Forest, Utah, suggesting that this vast organism could be up to 80,000 years old. The study, conducted by Rozenn Pineau, a researcher at Utah State University, reveals Pando’s potential age by examining its unique clonal growth pattern and genetic mutations, indicating that the organism might have been growing since the earliest human migrations out of *******. The research, currently posted on bioRxiv for peer review, investigates the mutation rate in Pando’s genome, with estimates ranging between 16,000 and 80,000 years.
The World’s Largest Living Organism
Pando, which means “I spread” in ******, holds the title of the world’s largest single organism, covering more than 100 acres and comprising around 47,000 stems. This massive clonal colony originates from a single root system that connects each stem, making Pando not only extensive in area but also the world’s heaviest living organism. According to Paul Rogers, director of the Western Aspen Alliance, the genetic continuity of the aspen’s root system enables it to withstand environmental changes. Rogers noted that no prior studies had confirmed Pando’s age, making this study a significant milestone in understanding the organism’s ancient origins.
Genetic Findings and Environmental Challenges
Pineau’s research highlights that Pando’s mutation spread is less than anticipated, with nearby stems showing limited genetic diversity despite spatial proximity. This suggests a surprising level of genetic stability in Pando, even over thousands of years. While analysing pollen from a nearby lakebed, researchers noted that aspen pollen has consistently appeared in sediment for over 60,000 years, potentially affirming Pando’s ancient presence in the area.
To combat threats from deer and cattle grazing, conservation measures have been implemented, with fenced sections now protecting parts of the grove. Rogers observed encouraging signs of regeneration during a recent visit, hinting that the fencing and favourable rainfall may be aiding Pando’s recovery.
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Electric vehicle tipping point for US drivers expected in next 10 years
Electric vehicle tipping point for US drivers expected in next 10 years
A report from Accenture says automakers need to adopt a life-centric approach to understand the next wave of electric vehicle (EV) buyers, their individual values in life, their expectations of an EV, and the related services and features.
The study combined quantitative and qualitative methods. For the former, it surveyed 6,000 car-drivers and decision-makers aged 18-75 in the US, Germany, Italy, France, China and Japan, analysing the relevance and patterns of attitudes, beliefs and needs of EV mobility. The latter saw 18 interviews in the US, Germany and China to derive the scope of potential attitudes, beliefs and needs towards future EV mobility while reflecting life stages and innovation affinity.
At the heart of the report is the notion that the automotive industry is in a critical stage in its race to net carbon-zero and its transformation towards sustainable mobility. The transition to EVs is facing challenges that demand a deeper understanding of the needs and expectations from car buyers to accelerate the adoption in key markets still lagging behind. The data shows a slow but growing acceptance of electric vehicles, but mass adoption is facing a longer timeline, between five to 20 years, depending on the geographic location.
Yet despite the uncertainty and negative talk about the future of electric vehicles, the survey found 57% of people worldwide expect to have an electric vehicle in the next 10 years. Only 10% said they would never buy an electric vehicle. The rest are open to it – notably, not for their next car, but potentially the one after that. With current EV offerings, only 23% of non-EV drivers see an EV as a realistic purchase in the next five years.
Early market adopters were found to be driven by sustainability and technology enthusiasm, and the critical mainstream market for EVs prioritises reliability (83%), safety (82%) and value for money (82%), showing that these buyers evaluate EVs with similar criteria as traditional internal combustion engine vehicles.
Battery size and electric range were important factors for future EV drivers, with 81% of drivers worldwide ranking battery size and electric range as one of the most critical factors when purchasing an EV. When owning an all-electric car, 70% of drivers worldwide expect to be able to charge their car whenever it is parked – at home or in public spaces such as supermarkets. Also globally, drivers agreed on the top two new features an EV should have: supportive safety features ranked number one, followed by advanced driver-assistance systems.
Looking on a regional basis, the study found 65% of drivers in China believe the future belongs to electric cars, with 44% of non-EV owners in the country planning to buy an EV in the next five years. In contrast, Germany (37%) and France (36%) are currently sceptical when it comes to an EV-dominated future.
In a call to action, Accenture said that to get more people to buy electric vehicles, companies must take a life-centric approach that fully understands the individual values and expectations of future EV buyers. They should focus on smart features, charging comfort and the flexibility of owning an electric vehicle.
Moreover, prioritising qualities that are important to mainstream customers, such as reliability, safety and value for money, was regarded as essential. It added that automakers should keep their long-term commitment to the EV market, focusing on traditional car features and improving battery performance to mitigate range concerns.
“The future of mobility is electric, with EVs being the most viable solution for sustainable transportation,” said Juergen Reers, global automotive and mobility lead at Accenture. “Backed by ongoing developments in energy infrastructure and regulations, the automotive industry should maintain its strategic shift to cross the ‘early adoption chasm’ and reach all market segments.
“Focusing on aspects like user experience, performance, range, charging convenience and affordability is essential for understanding the varied needs and expectations of potential EV buyers. Therefore, automakers need to continue innovating, investing and forming partnerships to expedite the transition to electric vehicles.”
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This fund outperformed the S&P 500 over the past 5 years. Here’s how
This fund outperformed the S&P 500 over the past 5 years. Here’s how
Investment firm GQG Partners has a fund that’s trouncing the broader stock market. The Florida-based firm’s GQG Partners U.S. Select Quality Equity Fund (GQEPX) is up 33% in 2024, outpacing the S & P 500’s 27% year-to-date total return. The fund, which is rated five stars by Morningstar, is also a long-term outperformer. GQEPX has returned 137% to investors over the past five years, while the broad market index has seen a total return of 109% in that time, according to FactSet. It has also outperformed 99% of funds in its category over the past five years, per Morningstar. GQEPX is a 30-name portfolio, with the top 10 comprising between 35% and 50% of assets at any time. This matches the rest of the firm’s fund strategies, GQG portfolio manager Brian Kersmac told CNBC. The fund’s top holdings are more heavily weighted toward tech, health care, consumer and utilities. Some of the names include Nvidia , Eli Lilly and Coca-Cola . The fund has more than $3 billion in assets and charges 0.67% in fees. Its minimal investment is $2,500. The firm manages $161.6 billion across all funds. Here’s a breakdown of the firm’s investment approach and how its top holdings encompass it. Aim for consistent growth “Our ultimate goal is to compound capital over the course of time. It’s much more of an absolute focus than it is a relative focus,” said Kersmac, who manages the fund alongside GQG founder Rajiv Jain and two other portfolio managers at the firm. “We want a fund that’s high single-digit, low double-digit compounding over the course of time, and we want to do that with less volatility, less risk,” he said. “If we achieve that, and miss those more severe downturns and compound at a reasonable base in more normal periods — or the rest of the time — you end up outperforming the market by 200 to 300 basis points annualized over the course of the set market cycle,” Kersmac said, speaking about the firm’s broader investing view. “If you’re doing that, you’re getting a smoother ride along the way.” One percentage point equals 100 basis points. Behind this view lie three pillars that support GQG’s overall investing strategy: A stock’s long-term growth horizon, its “forward quality” and its capital preservation. GQG has at least a five-year view on the stocks in their portfolios while constantly optimizing its exposure to changing trends. For example, Kersmac said GQEPX had a minimal weighting in technology stocks in 2022 and 25% weighting in energy, while tech has now gone up to comprising about 45% of the fund. The firm owned a double-digit percentage of Nvidia in GQEPX and has since shaved the stock down to a single-digit percentage in the fund, though it’s still one the largest holdings in GQEPX. The firm began cutting its tech holdings in April due to a less compelling risk-reward in those names, given the run-up in pricing of stocks such as Nvidia, Kersmac said. As GQG trimmed its tech holdings, it bought more staples and utilities. One of those names is Philip Morris, which comprises 4.32% of the fund as of June 30. Kersmac said the tobacco company has proved high single-digit, low double-digit earnings compounding. He also noted that its next-generation products are seeing good momentum and profitability compared with its legacy products. The stock — which is up nearly 33% year to date — has reclaimed its reputation as a growth company due to the recent success of Zyn ***** nicotine pouches. “There’s software companies out there that are growing at that similar clip from a top line perspective … but I would argue that Philip Morris is a little bit more stable in terms of the way that they earn over the course of time,” Kersmac said. “Very good growth, very good return, and you’re paying a really reasonable multiple for it. So we just thought the risk-reward was better on that, and maybe a little bit more underappreciated with a name like that versus some of these other areas in the portfolio.” Coca-Cola ‘s another top holding of the fund that demonstrates strong pricing with its product, distribution machine and volumes, especially when compared with other staples companies, he added. The beverage maker’s shares have gained 7% this year. The sizeable portion of staples and health-care names in GQEPX revives the notion that “boring is the new exciting,” Kersmac said. “We do move pretty swiftly and aggressively at times, or reposition the portfolio. We do adapt and change to what we believe that five-year view is,” Kersmac said. “Because of how efficient trading is done, we believe that there’s almost infinite ability to substitute back and forth. … Even if we don’t necessarily have a name in the portfolio — we could take that name out — it doesn’t mean that we no longer have a strong five-year view on it. We just might be optimizing and substituting other players into the team, so to speak.” The firm’s second and third pillars — quality and capital preservation — refer to how well a company can hold up during periods of a downturn. GQG gauges these through different traits, including strong return on equity over cost of capital, balance sheet strength, an economic moat, modest leverage and whether a company has a margin structure that can sustain forward earnings growth, he said. “We focus on this concept of forward quality,” Kersmac explained. “We have a belief that quality ebbs and flows over the course of time, and may exhibit itself in some places, and may fade away in others. It’s not a static measure.” An example of this was seen two years ago, when the fund bought Exxon Mobil. Kersmac called it a “very high quality asset” under the thesis that energy businesses had a solid long-term structural outlook with strong free cash flow levels and shareholder returns. Exxon pulls “oil out of the ground cheaper than anybody else around the world. … Even if oil prices go down, refining stuff does better. So they’re considered that sort of a blue chip, almost widow-and-orphan stock within the portfolio,” Kersmac said. Exxon shares had a rocky 2023, losing more than 6%, but are 20% higher this year. The stock had jumped 80% in 2022. The fund has since sold its Exxon holdings. “Allow the fact that you can change your mind to actually give you greater conviction and a call on a longer-term basis,” Kersmac said.
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New Senate Majority Leader elected in early test of Trump’s power
New Senate Majority Leader elected in early test of Trump’s power
U.S. Sen. John Thune, (R-SD) speaks with reporters following the Senate Republicans weekly policy lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 6, 2024.
Bonnie Cash | Reuters
Republicans elected Sen. John Thune of South Dakota to be the Senate majority leader on Wednesday.
Thune defeated Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Sen. Rick Scott of Florida to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell as the GOP caucus leader.
Republicans are set to hold the majority in the Senate for the next two years, starting in early January. Democrats currently hold majority control of the chamber.
This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.
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Ambulance patients murdered in Haiti *******, MSF says
Ambulance patients murdered in Haiti *******, MSF says
Doctors’ charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) says at least two of its patients have been ******* in Haiti after police and vigilantes attacked their ambulance in the capital Port-au-Prince.
The charity said its crews had been transporting three patients with gunshot wounds to a MSF hospital on Monday when they were stopped by authorities and forced to go instead to a public hospital.
When they arrived, officers and “members of a self-defence group” attacked the vehicle, slashing its tyres and forcing occupants out through tear-gas.
The wounded patients were then taken away from the hospital grounds where “at least two of them were *********”, the charity said.
It is unclear from MSF’s statement the condition of the third patient. But the group said its ambulance staff were also assaulted in the incident by “law enforcement officers and members of a self-defence group”.
MSF said staff were “violently attacked, insulted, tear-gassed, threatened with ******” and held ******** for more than four hours before being released. The motive behind the ******* is unclear.
“The act is a shocking display of ********* and it seriously calls into question MSF’s ability to continue delivering essential care to the Haitian people,” said Christophe Garnier, the group’s head of mission in the country.
MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, is one of the last humanitarian non-government organisations (NGOs) still operating in Haiti, where violent chaos has gripped the capital.
Since the ************** of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, armed gangs have seized power in many areas, leading to a spike in street ********* in the poorest country in the Americas.
A UN Security Council briefing last month heard that ********* gangs had gained control of 85% of the capital.
More than 3,600 people have been ******* in Haiti since January and more than 500,000 have had to leave their homes, according to the UN.
The UN has sent an international policing operation to Haiti, largely made up of Kenyan police. The mission is said to have secured some key sites in the capital including the national hospital, seaport and airport.
However, several US airlines suspended flights to the country this week after three planes were hit by gunfire approaching or departing the airport this week.
A new prime minister was sworn into office in Haiti earlier this week. Alix Didier Fils-Aimé said his priority was “restoring security” in the country.
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Halo Had Emotional Punch Because It Underlined Quiet Tragedy
Halo Had Emotional Punch Because It Underlined Quiet Tragedy
Halo: The Master Chief Collection celebrated its 10-year anniversary on November 11, 2024. Below, take a look back at the quiet sense of loss that permeated throughout the main trilogy.
Halo: Combat Evolved opens with waking up. Halo 3 concludes with falling asleep. Between is ******. It’s fun, of course. It’s in space and exaggerated: a holy war between Americanized space marines and zealot aliens who find a common ****** in the zombie “Flood.” I don’t want to pretend that Halo is anything other than a blockbuster FPS. Yet, there is something sad about it, isn’t there? The Halo rings themselves are all machines of ******: tools of mass eradication. But all have sunrises and sunsets, wildlife, plants, ecosystems, snowy mountains, and rocky deserts. They have the texture of life, albeit carved in with ancient tech that outlived its creators and resounding with the sound of gunfire. Master Chief wanders through it all. One man, no matter how great, enveloped in majesty and *******. The original trilogy, despite its massive scale and gigantic stakes, comes down to intimate tragedy: just a man and the ghost in his head.
It’s hard to remember that Halo: Combat Evolved was stark and bare. Since its release, there have been multiple miniseries, a television show, an abandoned movie project, dozens of novels, and real-time-strategy spin-offs. It is a downright multimedia phenomenon (though not all of its projects have been successful, in terms of popularity or quality). It is a universe that has been thoroughly elaborated on, with many of its gaps plastered over.
Nevertheless, Halo: Combat Evolved itself, despite a tie-in novel releasing just weeks before its launch, is uninterested in explaining things to you. You can gather from context clues what the alien “Covenant” is and what makes Master Chief “a Spartan,” but it’s hard if you aren’t paying attention. Every character you meet, except Master Chief and Cortana, presumably perish in the game’s explosive finale (though Sgt. Johnson and 343 Guilty Spark return in sequels). The game itself is snappy and quick, but the story is ponderous and exposition-heavy, without much opportunity for emotional investment.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Master Chief himself is not much of a character. He is stoic: a halfway point between silent protagonist and fleshed-out hero. He spits out one-liners and ****** bad guys, but not much else. Cortana is flirty and witty, and expressive in a way Master Chief is not, but there still isn’t a lot to her. She acts as a way to give the player context for what is happening. She has character in that expression, but doesn’t really have a psychology beyond that (at least not yet).
So, most of Halo’s emotional space is taken up by its still-impressive combat and sometimes-transcendent level design. It has a lot of empty space, giving you walking time, and flying or driving back through places you’ve already been. That’s not all good. The Library is still, for my money, one of the most ********** levels in FPS history. Still, all that non-combat time offers beauty and melancholy. The game’s best moments, such as “The Silent Cartographer’s” sprawling set pieces (which stretch from a beach ******** to underground abysses) and “Halo’s” rambunctious road trip, offer interludes in Halo’s “natural” world. Drives between mission locations and firefights grant contemplation. Its level design lets you look up at the sky as much as run down your enemies.
Halo is no nature walk, however. Its final set piece–an awkward but exhilarating drive across the spine of a capital ship–gets interrupted when Cortana calls in a transport for evac. It is immediately shot down. The set piece pauses in a strange, grieving breath. You hear the pilot’s dying words, then an **********. Cortana says, “She’s gone,” a beat passes, then she adds, “Calculating alternate escape route.” This moment is a complication in the escape: a reason to stretch the set piece just a little further. But that ****** hangs in the air. Master Chief will, once again, escape this alone.
Halo 3 offers a parallel set piece: another driving escape across an exploding spaceship. This time, most of the Chief’s allies escape, but he stays behind. He and Cortana float in one half of a spaceship and he goes into cryosleep yet again. His last words are, “Wake me when you need me.” What else would you need him for but ********? It was inevitable that he would wake up again. But, absent any follow-ups, that fact is more dreadful than inspiring. The ****** finished with nothing to hope for but another one beginning.
Narratively speaking, single-player Halo since Reach has been stuck. Halo 4, 5: Guardians, and Infinite are all soft franchise reboots. Ultimately, they have nothing close to the still-satisfying arc of the original games. Halo 4 picks up a few years after where Halo 3 left off, with Master Chief awakening once again from cryosleep. Guardians holds on to some of 4’s plot threads, but turns Cortana into a malevolent AI, setting her up to be the big bad of a sequel that never came. Infinite is a Force-Awakens-esque run at the original Halo, ending with the promise that the franchise will continue more or less how it began. In these games, the tragedies are grand and explicit. Across Infinite’s Halo ring, you’ll find audio logs with the words of the *****. Cortana cries when she ***** in Halo 4 and (disturbingly) quotes Virginia Woolf’s actual ******** note when she ***** again in Infinite. It’s cheap tragedy.
In the Bungie games, with the exception of Reach, most of the main characters live. Cortana and the Arbeiter both make it to the end, though side characters like Miranda Keyes and Sergeant Johnson are less fortunate. Most deaths are of generalized populations, like the Brutes’ massacre of the Elites in Halo 2, or offscreen, like the ****** of Spartans. Master Chief carries a grief that is almost absent–historical even. Reach’s surface was already destroyed, “glassed” as the games put it. Chief does win the war, but the battle was lost before he could start.
In contrast, Infinite wakes up Chief after hope is lost and then lets him blaze across the battlefield, triumphing over the enemies that every other Spartan could not defeat. In Infinite, he wins the battle with the promise that he’ll win the war too. It starts in tragedy, sure. But its ending is hopeful, for perhaps the first time in Halo, rife as it is with tragic endings and cliffhangers. This is necessarily not bad, but it does illustrate the limits of franchise storytelling. There must always be another ****** and it must still be empowering and fun, even if Chief is ever more world-weary. It means that future Halo games will likely never match Halo 3’s ending note: sleeping and waking up, with nothing but ****** to frame your days.
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Millions of phones create most complete map ever of the ionosphere
Millions of phones create most complete map ever of the ionosphere
The ionosphere is part of Earth’s upper atmosphere
Shutterstock/buradaki
Data from millions of phones has helped produce the most complete map ever made of the ionosphere, part of Earth’s upper atmosphere. This could help us understand disturbances caused by geomagnetic storms and perhaps even improve GPS.
“Smartphone-based measurements cover twice as much of the ionosphere as traditional scientific monitoring stations,” says Brian Williams at Google Research. “It’s like there is a scientific monitoring station in every city where there are phones.”
Williams and his colleagues analysed data…
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Buy now, pay later provider Klarna filed confidentially for U.S. IPO
Buy now, pay later provider Klarna filed confidentially for U.S. IPO
Buy now, pay later firms like Klarna and Block’s Afterpay could be about to face tougher rules in the U.K.
Nikolas Kokovlis | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Klarna, which is known for its popular buy now, pay later business, announced Wednesday that it’s confidentially filed IPO documents with the SEC.
The Swedish payments company has yet to publicly file its IPO prospectus. The company said the offering would follow the SEC’s review process and is subject to market conditions.
Analysts recently valued Klarna, which was founded in 2005, in the $15 billion range. At its peak during the pandemic-led surge in fintech stocks and e-commerce, the company had a valuation of $46 billion in a funding round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2.
But Klarna took an 85% haircut in its most recent primary fundraising round, in 2022, when the company raised money on a valuation of $6.7 billion.
In addition to SoftBank, Klarna’s roster of shareholders includes Sequoia Capital and London-based firm Atomico.
Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski previously told CNBC in an interview that unfavorable rules in Europe on employee stock options could risk the company losing talent to U.S. tech giants such as Google, Apple and Meta.
Plans for an IPO have been in the works for some time. In a February interview with CNBC’s “Closing Bell,” Siemiatkowski said an IPO in 2024 was “not impossible.” Affirm, one of the company’s key competitors, went public in 2021 and is now valued at about $18 billion.
In August, Klarna said it swung to a profit in the first half of the year.
Klarna’s decision to go pursue a listing in the U.S. represents a major ***** to ********* stock exchanges, which have been trying to encourage local tech companies to list at home.
The London Stock Exchange, for example, has made reforms to make the U.K. a more attractive market for tech companies to list, including the ability for founders to issue dual-class shares that enable entrepreneurs to maintain control over a company’s strategy and direction.
Siemiatkowski hadn’t previously committed to listing in one market over another, and London was among the markets he was considering for Klarna’s IPO.
However, in 2021 he said that the firm was more likely to list in the U.S. than the U.K., due in part to higher visibility.
WATCH: Block and Affirm slide on earnings
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Thune wins contested race for Senate GOP leader
Thune wins contested race for Senate GOP leader
John Thune will lead the Senate *********** conference next term, winning a three-way election to succeed ********* Leader Mitch McConnell in a closed-door vote on Wednesday.
The South Dakotan will take over in January at the turn of the new Congress, when Republicans are expected to control the government trifecta: the House, Senate and the presidency. And he’ll have some room to maneuver in his own chamber, with Republicans’ 53-seat majority, as the party considers wide-ranging legislation that would tackle tax cuts, immigration and energy policy.
At 63, Thune, current GOP whip, is considered relatively young for leadership. Thune has not committed to imposing a term limit on the role of conference leader, meaning he’s well-positioned to hold the job for years to come. He is not up for reelection until 2028, and South Dakota is solidly red.
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How I played for England after having a *******
How I played for England after having a *******
Footballers Matt Crossen and Aaron Lucas speak to BBC Sport about representing England at the Cerebral Palsy World Cup in Spain.
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PlayStation Plus Game Catalog Gets 16 Games In November 2024
PlayStation Plus Game Catalog Gets 16 Games In November 2024
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November 13, 2024
Sony has revealed that the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog will get 16new games in November 2024. All of the games will be available for subscribers starting November 19.
With the list of new games, 11 of them will be available for both PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium subscribers. The remaining 5 games are exclusively for the higher-tiered Premium members. There’s also one game for PS VR 2.
Some of the ******* games in this list include Grand Theft Auto 5, which returns after leaving in June, as well as Dying Light 2: Stay Human, MotoGP 24, and Like a Dragon: Ishin.
In addition to the games, The Sims 4 Island Living expansion pack is part of this month’s offerings from the catalog.
RELATED: Free PlayStation Plus Games For November 2024 Announced
You can check out the full list of games coming to the catalog below.
PlayStation Plus Game Catalog Games November 2024
PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium
Grand Theft Auto V | PS4, PS5
Dying Light 2: Stay Human | PS4, PS5
Like a Dragon: Ishin | PS4, PS5
MotoGP 24 | PS4, PS5
The Sims 4 Island Living (Add-on only) | PS4
Digimon Survive | PS4
Overcooked! All You Can Eat | PS4, PS5
Stick ******: The Game | PS4
Clash: Artifacts of Chaos | PS4, PS5
******* Frequency | PS4, PS5
Hungry Shark World | PS4
Chivalry 2 | PS4, PS5
PlayStation Plus Premium | PS VR2 & Classic Games
Synapse | PS VR2
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain | PS4, PS5
Blood Omen 2 | PS4, PS5
Resistance: Fall of Man | PS3
Resistance 2 | PS3
What do you think of the new games coming to the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog in November? Let us know down below, and join the discussion in the official Insider Gaming Forums.
For more Insider Gaming, read about who could be a candidate for the next Disney CEO. And don’t forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter.
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Sweeter tomatoes are coming soon thanks to CRISPR gene editing
Sweeter tomatoes are coming soon thanks to CRISPR gene editing
Gene editing can make larger tomato varieties sweeter
Paul Maguire/Shutterstock
If you like your tomatoes sweet, the smaller cherry tomato varieties are currently the ones to go for. But ******* tomato varieties could soon get a ********** boost with the help of CRISPR gene editing.
The ******* a tomato is, the lower its sugar content usually is, says Jinzhe Zhang at the ******** Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing. Efforts to boost the ********** of larger varieties have had downsides such as lowering yields.
So Zhang and colleagues compared different varieties to identify genetic variants that affect **********. They found that two closely related genes called SlCDPK27 and SlCDPK26 are more active in large varieties. These genes code for proteins that lower the levels of an enzyme that produces sugars.
When the team used CRISPR gene editing to disable these genes in a variety called Moneymaker, the levels of glucose and fructose in the fruits increased by up to 30 per cent with no decrease in yield. The fruits were also rated as sweeter in a taste test. The only other effect was fewer and smaller seeds, which consumers may prefer.
“We are working with some companies to develop some commercial varieties by knocking out these genes,” says Zhang. “It is still at the beginning stages.”
Besides tasting sweeter, another potential benefit is that fewer tomatoes will be needed to make tomato ketchup with the same ********** level.
The gene-edited Moneymaker tomatoes aren’t as sweet as cherry varieties such as Sungold, but it should be possible to boost ********** even further, says Zhang. “There are still many important genes that regulate sugar waiting to be discovered.”
A CRISPR-edited tomato that has high levels of a beneficial nutrient called GABA is already being sold in Japan – the first CRISPR food to go on ***** – as well as being given away as seedlings.
The first ever genetically modified food to be sold commercially was also a tomato. Called Flavr Savr, it was sold in the US in paste form from 1994, but was later discontinued. Since last year, a purple GM tomato high in anthocyanins has been available in the US in fruit and seedling form.
Several countries, including Japan and China, have regulations that make it easier for gene-edited crops to get approval compared with other forms of genetic modification, not counting conventional breeding. China approved its first gene-edited crop last year, a soya bean with raised levels of oleic acid.
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Tired of over-processed photos? New Android app joins ‘anti-AI’ alternatives that work like old-school digicams
Tired of over-processed photos? New Android app joins ‘anti-AI’ alternatives that work like old-school digicams
New Zerocam app lands on Android promising ‘natural photography’
App calls itself an ‘anti-AI’ camera app that removes ‘artificial effects’
The app needs a subscription for full access and unlimited photos
A new Android app called Zerocam has just launched to give photographers a more natural alternative to the over-processed snaps that many phones ****** by default.
Zerocam is already available on iOS but has now come out of beta for Android. The app has a simple, stripped-down interface and shoots in the raw format – an option that is already available in many other camera apps.
However, like Halide’s Process Zero feature (which is iOS-only), Zerocam differentiates itself from other apps in its treatment of that raw photo. If left untouched, the raw file will look flat and lifeless, so Zerocam applies a custom-made LUT (Look Up Table), which is similar to a preset or filter. This promises to be much less heavy-handed than the computational processing most phones apply automatically.
Instead of an oversharpened or overprocessed shot, Zerocam told us its aim is to produce more subtle shots like those from “small pocket digital cameras.” The app also applies noise reduction and lens corrections to achieve that look.
The downside is that you’ll need to pay a subscription to fully unlock Zerocam and ****** unlimited photos – $0.99 / month or $10.99 a year. So you’ll need to weigh whether its simplicity is worth the automation of tweaks you can achieve manually in some of the best camera apps.
Analysis: Cook according to taste
The Halide app’s Process Zero mode (above) has a similar, stripped-down philosophy to Zerocam, but is iOS-only. (Image credit: Lux Camera)
Rather than being ‘anti-AI,’ apps like Zerocam are really more anti-computational photography. Since the Google Pixel 4, computational processing has revolutionized the best camera phones and taken them to new heights – but for many, it now goes too far and produces unrealistic, flat photos that fall apart when you crop into them.
There are ways to get simpler, more camera-like photos from your phone, but this usually involves ********* in the raw format and manually editing your snap to taste using apps like Snapseed or Lightroom. Apps like Zerocam and Halide’s Process Zero feature are here to fill that gap, albeit at a price.
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It’s a similar trend to the one that’s seen the return of film cameras – rather than trying to mask the limitations of smaller, cheaper cameras; these apps encourage users to embrace the physical drawbacks of smaller sensors and take snaps like the cameras of the past.
Whether you prefer that or the incredible processing skills of the best Android phones is a matter of taste, and there’s no correct answer. But computational photography certainly isn’t going anywhere, so it’s good to have alternative options – even if they do, unfortunately, come with a subscription sting.
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Socceroos ready for any Saudi approach in crunch clash
Socceroos ready for any Saudi approach in crunch clash
With a parochial Melbourne crowd at their backs, the Socceroos are ready for whatever Saudi Arabia throw at them in their huge World Cup qualifier.
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Hundreds of Bethesda employees strike over remote work and outsourcing policies
Hundreds of Bethesda employees strike over remote work and outsourcing policies
Hundreds of Bethesda employees are striking today over remote working and outsourcing concerns they claim Microsoft has ******* to address.
Workers in Maryland and Texas are holding a one-day strike after filing an unfair labor complaint against parent company ZeniMax in October, Inverse reports.
They represent the second largest video games union in the US, which was formed in January 2023 and includes over 300 quality assurance workers.
The strike is designed to encourage Microsoft to meet the union at the bargaining table to address their concerns.
According to the union, ZeniMax workers are currently required to go to the office twice a week, but it claims many are being denied their remote work requests.
Additionally, it’s seeking to limit the percentage of quality assurance testers ZeniMax outsources in comparison to the number of full-time workers present in its bargaining unit.
Following its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard last year, Xbox cut more than 2,500 jobs and closed four Bethesda game development studios.
“The Xbox business has never been more healthy,” Microsoft gaming CEO Phil Spencer told Bloomberg in an interview published today.
He also said Xbox is still open to more acquisitions, that it’s not ruling out bringing any first-party games to PS5 or Switch, and that Xbox is building a handheld.
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Why we now think the myopia epidemic can be slowed – or even reversed
Why we now think the myopia epidemic can be slowed – or even reversed
I vividly remember getting my first pair of glasses as a child. My mum is very near-sighted and dispatched me to the optician every year. My older sister was diagnosed at around the age of 8 and I prayed I wouldn’t follow suit for ***** of being made fun of, but by the time I was the same age, the world was becoming a blur. That year’s visit to the optician confirmed it, and I have worn glasses or contact lenses ever since.
Back then, in the late 1970s, it was quite unusual to need glasses at such a young age. Not any more. Over the past 30 years, there has been a surge in near-sightedness, or myopia, especially among children. Today, around a third of 5 to 19-year-olds are myopic, up from a quarter in 1990. If that trend continues, the rate will be about 40 per cent by 2050 – or 740 million myopic young people.
That is more than an inconvenience. “Myopia is a ********,” says K. Davina Frick at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Maryland, who co-chaired a recent US National Academy of Sciences committee on the condition. “It has wide-reaching quality-of-life and economic implications,” she says, not least the risk of going ****** in severe cases. Increasingly, however, researchers think the epidemic can be slowed – or even reversed.
Most cases of myopia are axial, meaning the axis of the eyeball – the distance between the cornea at the front and the light-sensitive retina at the back – grows too long. This means that light entering the eye is focused in front of the…
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Nintendo DS at 20 – the console that paved the way for smartphone gaming | Games
Nintendo DS at 20 – the console that paved the way for smartphone gaming | Games
By 2004, video games were well into their adolescence. The war between ***** and Nintendo that defined the early 1990s was in the rear-view mirror – the PlayStation had knocked both of them off their perch, and Microsoft had released the Xbox. The critical and commercial hits of the day were not cartoon platformers but operatic space shooters (Halo) and anarchic ****** games (Grand Theft Auto). There were lots of guns, and most games were embracing increasingly cinematic cutscenes.
Nintendo, meanwhile, had fallen into third place with its Game Cube home console – but it still owned the handheld game market with the Game Boy Advance. Everyone was expecting the next iteration in the Game Boy family. But instead, Nintendo released a strange-looking silver clamshell console that you controlled with a stylus.
The Nintendo DS turns 20 this month. Despite its weird looks and unconventional controls, it was Nintendo’s biggest-ever hit, selling more than 150m units. It catered not just to people who wanted to play Mario on the go, but also to those who had never thought of picking up a video game console before. Intuitive touchscreen controls opened video games up to millions more people than the Game Boy had been able to reach. On the DS, you could play sudoku, language-learning games and raise virtual pets. Many people bought it not for Pokémon but for Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training.
The idea of a dual-screen console had been knocking about at Nintendo for a while. It was an idea that Hiroshi Yamauchi, president of Nintendo from 1949 until 2002, was especially fond of, and he mentioned it often to his successor, Satoru Iwata, and to Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo’s creative lead. As Iwata put it: “The demand to make something with two screens had been with us for a while, a persistent source of motivation, to the point where Miyamoto and I basically reverse-engineered the thing.”
Iwata always had confidence in the idea, but the markets and the public met the DS with enormous scepticism. “At first, lots of people were confused,” he remembered. “When we announced, ‘We’re going to release a console that has two screens and a touch panel’, most people must have thought, Nintendo has gone off the deep end.”
The DS marked the advent of touchscreen gaming … The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Photograph: undefined/Nintendo
In retrospect, the Nintendo DS prepared the world for the iPhone, and for the ********** in touchscreen smartphone gaming that would eventually ***** off the whole idea of a handheld games console. We don’t need them any more, now that we have one device that fits in our pockets and can do everything from giving us directions and taking photos to playing games. The DS was a half step between the Game Boy and the smartphone – a device that played games but could also do other things.
I was there for the games, of course. When I bought my DS, nobody knew that it would vastly expand the gaming population. And it had some tremendous games, including plenty of weird and wonderful ones. The DS’s new control method seemed to inspire developers to do all kinds of playful, unexpected things. Touchscreen control was this console’s most lasting innovation, but the dual-screen clamshell of the DS is surprisingly adaptable, and lent itself to a bunch of uses.
Brain Training had you holding the console sideways like a book, writing answers to simple maths and logic questions on the touch-screen. The puzzles in adventure game Another Code had you opening and closing the DS to stamp documents, or angling the screens to reflect off one another to decipher a symbol. In Electroplankton, you draw paths for small musical organisms. There was even a Guitar Hero game that came with a small attachable fretboard and plectrum. In the DS Zelda game Phantom Hourglass you have to shout at a character through the microphone to get them to lower a bridge for you. You could talk to your Nintendog, too.
More than anything, the DS inspired variety. I have a huge collection of DS games ranging from unexpectedly heartbreaking desert-island simulators (Lost in Blue) and the basketball game Mario Hoops 3-on-3 to rhythm games and visual novels (the courageously heartfelt lawyer-drama series Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney has never been better than it was on the DS). Among its bestsellers were, as you’d expect, New Super Mario Bros and Mario Kart, but also Brain Training, Nintendogs and Professor Layton (a charming puzzle game about an English professor and his child protege). Its catalogue was anything but homogeneous.
The 3DS, released in 2011, was a worthy successor with its own great lineup, but by then smartphones had already dealt a ******* ***** to the handheld games console, and the industry was becoming more *************. The kind of wide-ranging, open-ended experimentation that defined the DS catalogue would never be seen again. The DS will be remembered by the world as the console that pioneered touch-screen control – but for me, it’ll always be the console with the most eclectic selection of games ever.
What to play
A classic pick … Mario Kart. Photograph: Nintendo
The most obvious classic DS picks are Mario Kart, Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Nintendogs (don’t @ me) and Animal Crossing: Wild World. But since when have I ever served you what’s obvious?
Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan (called Elite Beat Agents outside Japan), is the perfect encapsulation of this experimental age in handheld game design. It is an interactive musical opera-manga in which you take control of a team of cheerleaders to help people through moments of strife in their lives, soundtracked by massive J-pop tunes. You use the stylus to tap and swipe in time with the music, directing the cheer squad to help a pottery artist rediscover his muse, a school pupil ace his exams and a ghost tell his still-living wife that he loves her. There are carts on eBay for less than £15.
Available on: Nintendo DS Estimated playtime: 4 of the best hours of your life
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Star Wars Outlaws, which is up for a Grammy, weaves in-universe and player-focused music together. Photograph: Ubisoft
The Grammy nominees for best video game soundtrack have been announced. They are: Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora; **** of War Ragnarök: Valhalla; Marvel’s Spider-Man 2; Star Wars Outlaws; and Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the **** Overlord. We recently profiled the people behind the music of Star Wars Outlaws in our High Scores video game music column.
Deadline reports that the stars of Amazon Prime’s excellent Fallout TV adaptation will be joined next season byMacaulay Culkin, as “a crazy-genius type character”.
Sony and Nintendo announced quarterly financial results this week. Highlights on the PlayStation side: Sony has now sold 65m units of the PS5, and 1.5m of the delightful Astro ****. On the Nintendo side: it has now sold 146m Switch consoles, which still falls just short of the DS (154m) as Nintendo’s bestselling console ever.
The next Nintendo console will be backwards-compatible with Switch games, Nintendo’s president, Shuntaro Furukawa, confirmed in a press conference. More details on the new machine are coming before the end of this financial year.
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Question Block
Monument Valley, one of the smartphone games available with a Netflix subscription. Photograph: ustwo
Reader Lewis asks:
“I love playing mobile games of all types, but the one I play the most often is a Puzzle Bobble/Bust-a-Move copycat that I use to mindlessly destress after a long day (I’m on level 5,264). The only issue with these games is the endless onslaught of confusing, long and weird adverts. Do you have any suggestions for solid, well designed, free puzzle games will keep me from doomscrolling?”
Alas, the price for free games on your phone is, almost invariably, horrible ads. My first thought is: do you have a Netflix subscription? It comes with a bunch of smartphone games, some of which are very good puzzlers: Monument Valley, Paper Trail, Arranger, Cut the Rope and a variety of appealingly mindless match-3 and word games.
I also asked the fine people of Bluesky to weigh in, and here are the recommendations they came back with (thank you, everyone): Slice & Dice, Konami’s Pixel Puzzle Collection, Township, Threes, Match Factory! and Twenty. A dev shouted out their game, Vectic Lite, which has ignorable banner ads, alongside another banner-ad-only puzzle game called Nokama. There’s also an independent puzzle games website, Thinky Games, that lets you search its database for recommendations.
If you’ve got a question for Question Block – or anything else to say about the newsletter – hit reply or email us on *****@*****.tld.
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Pelican News
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Trump Media CFO, director sell DJT stock
Trump Media CFO, director sell DJT stock
Pavlo Gonchar | Lightrocket | Getty Images
The chief financial officer of Trump Media and two other corporate insiders sold more than $16 million worth of company stock in the week following the presidential election, according to new disclosures.
Most of the stock was sold by CFO Phillip Juhan, who in August adopted a trading plan that revealed his intention to sell 400,000 DJT shares by December 2025.
Trump Media director Eric Swider and Glabe Scott, the company’s general counsel, each sold fewer shares of the company, whose majority owner Donald Trump was elected president on Nov. 5.
Trump Media, which operates the Truth Social app, has a market capitalization of $6.3 billion despite reporting revenue of slightly more than just $1 million in the third quarter of this year.
The company, whose share price has dramatically fluctuated since the stock became publicly traded in late March, reported losses of $19.2 million for the quarter.
Truth Social’s daily active user rate is minuscule compared to other social media apps.
Similarweb, a digital intelligence platform, reported that Truth Social had about 200,000 daily active users on Nov. 6, the day after Election Day. By contrast, the social media site X had 36.7 million users that day, Threads had 4.7 million users and Bluesky had about 1 million users.
Juhan, who is also Trump Media’s treasurer, sold 320,000 shares on Friday at a price of $30.65 per share, or a total of $9.8 million worth of stock according to a Form 4 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
On Monday, Juhan sold another 64,000 shares at $32.97 per share, another $2.11 million worth, the same filing said.
Read more CNBC politics coverage
After the second *****, Juhan still had 265,798 shares of DJT, according to the filing. All but about 20,000 of those shares are restricted stock units, which were awarded him on Nov. 5, Election Day, and which cannot be immediately sold.
One-quarter of that awarded stock will vest, and become eligible for *****, on Dec. 25, a filing showed. The remaining shares will vest in quarterly installments through March 2027.
Swider sold 136,183 shares of DJT on Friday at $28.23 per share, for a total of $3.84 million worth, according to his new Form 4 filing.
The ***** disposed of all of Swider’s Trump Media shares, the filing indicated. Swider controls a company, Renatus Advisors, that still owns 18,043 shares of Trump Media.
Scott, the general counsel, on Friday sold 15,917 shares for $32.19 per share, or a total of $512,368, a filing shows.
Scott, who is also the company’s secretary, still owns 336,576 restricted stock units in Trump Media after that *****. That stock was awarded to him on Nov. 5, and will vest according to the same schedule as Juhan’s RSUs.
On the same day that Juhan and Scott received the RSUs, Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes received 1.3 million RSUs, which as of Wednesday were worth nearly $38 million on paper.
Nunes’ RSUs are subject to the same vesting schedules as those owned by Juhan and Scott.
A Trump Media spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the stock sales.
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#Trump #Media #CFO #director #sell #DJT #stock
Pelican News
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