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House Ethics Committee chairman says panel did not reach agreement on releasing Matt Gaetz report House Ethics Committee chairman says panel did not reach agreement on releasing Matt Gaetz report Why Matt Gaetz is on Capitol Hill Why Matt Gaetz is on Capitol Hill as House Ethics Committee weighs report release 05:49 Washington — The House Ethics committee, meeting to consider the release of a report on its investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, did not reach an agreement on Wednesday afternoon, the committee chairman said. The meeting came one week after the Florida *********** resigned from Congress following President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to select him for attorney general. House Ethics Committee chairman Michael Guest told reporters that the panel had not reached an “agreement to release the report” as he exited the meeting Wednesday afternoon. This is a breaking news story and will be updated. Ellis Kim contributed to this report. Kaia Hubbard Kaia Hubbard is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital, based in Washington, D.C. Source link #House #Ethics #Committee #chairman #panel #reach #agreement #releasing #Matt #Gaetz #report Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

What to know about Trump’s NATO ambassador pick Matt Whitaker – National What to know about Trump’s NATO ambassador pick Matt Whitaker – National Donald Trump says he has chosen his former acting U.S. attorney general Matt Whitaker to serve as U.S. ambassador to NATO, the bedrock Western alliance that the president-elect has expressed skepticism about for years. Trump, in a statement, said Whitaker was “a strong warrior and loyal Patriot” who “will ensure the ******* States’ interests are advanced and defended” and “strengthen relationships with our NATO Allies, and stand firm in the face of threats to Peace and Stability.” The choice of Whitaker as the nation’s representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an unusual one, given his background is in law enforcement and not in foreign policy. Whitaker had been considered a potential pick for attorney general, a position Trump instead gave to Matt Gaetz, a fierce loyalist who has been seen as divisive even within his own party. The NATO post is a particularly sensitive one given Trump’s regard of the alliance’s value and his complaints that numerous members are not meeting their commitments to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense. Story continues below advertisement 1:31 Canada must double defence spending to meet NATO target, PBO report finds Whitaker is a former U.S. attorney in Iowa and served as acting attorney general between November 2018 and February 2019, as special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference was drawing to a close. Before then, he was chief of staff to Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, before being picked to replace his boss after Sessions was fired amid lingering outrage over his decision to withdraw from the Russia investigation. Whitaker held the position for several months, on an acting basis and without Senate confirmation, until William Barr was confirmed as attorney general in February 2019. Whitaker has been a relentless critic of the federal ********* cases against Trump, which appear set to evaporate after Trump’s election win. Whitaker has used regular appearances on Fox News to join other Republicans in decrying what they contend is the politicization of the Justice Department over the past four years. Story continues below advertisement Whitaker has little evident foreign policy or national security experience, making him an unknown to many in U.S. security circles. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Retired Gen. Philip Breedlove, a former supreme allied commander of NATO, said the ambassador’s position was “incredibly important” within the U.S. and NATO security framework, as the direct representative of U.S. presidents in decision-making within the alliance. “The bottom line is they are looked to have the credibility of the president when they speak,” Breedlove said. 9:40 ‘He’s deadly serious’: John Bolton on Trump’s warning to NATO allies Previous ambassadors to NATO have generally had years of diplomatic, political or military experience. Trump’s first-term NATO ambassador, former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, did not, although she had been involved in foreign policy issues while in Congress. Breedlove said a security background was not essential to the post, but being seen as having a direct line to the president was. Story continues below advertisement “They need to be seen as actually representing what the president intends. To have the trust and confidence of the president, that’s what’s most important in that position,” he said. During his 2016 campaign, Trump alarmed Western allies by warning that the ******* States, under his leadership, might abandon its NATO treaty commitments and only come to the defense of countries that meet the transatlantic alliance’s defense spending targets. More on World More videos Trump, as president, eventually endorsed NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense clause, which states that an armed ******* against one or more of its members shall be considered an ******* against all members. But he often depicted NATO allies as leeches on the U.S. military and openly questioned the value of the military alliance that has defined ********* foreign policy for decades. In the years since, he has continued to threaten not to defend NATO members that fail to meet spending goals. Earlier this year, Trump said that, when he was president, he warned NATO allies that he “would encourage” Russia “to do whatever the ***** they want” to countries that are “delinquent.” Trending Now Canada echoes U.S. warning over carrots in deadly E. coli outbreak Canada Post strike talks continue but ‘lot of ground’ ******** “‘You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent?’” Trump recounted saying at a February rally. “‘No I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the ***** they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills.’” Story continues below advertisement Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary-general at the time, said in response that “any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the U.S., and puts ********* and ********* soldiers at increased risk.” 2:13 How Trump’s threats could affect Canada, NATO allies NATO reported earlier this year that, in 2023, 11 member countries met the benchmark of spending 2% of their GDP on defense and that that number had increased to 18 in early 2024 — up from just three in 2014. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has spurred additional military spending by some NATO members. Trump has often tried to take credit for that increase, and bragged that, as a results of his threats, “hundreds of billions of dollars came into NATO,” even though countries do not pay NATO directly. Whitaker, Trump noted in his announcement, is a former Iowa football player. Story continues below advertisement Whitaker has faced questions about his past business dealings, including his ties to an invention-promotion company that was accused of misleading consumers. The Wall Street Journal in 2018 published an email revealing an FBI investigation into the company, World Patent Marketing Inc. The July 10, 2017, email was from an FBI victims’ specialist to someone who, the newspaper said, was an alleged victim of the company. A Justice Department spokeswoman told the newspaper at the time that Whitaker was “not aware of any fraudulent activity.” When Whitaker was named acting attorney general, he was grilled in a contentious House hearing by Democrats who scrutinized his perceived lack of prior experience to serve as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer. “We’re all trying to figure out: Who are you, where did you come from and how the heck did you become the head of the Department of Justice,” New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, now the top House Democrat, said at one point. When Whitaker tried to respond, Jeffries interrupted: “Mr. Whitaker, that was a statement, not a question.” Those selected for the NATO job in recent years have included retired Gen. Douglas Lute, the current U.S. ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, former acting deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and diplomacy academics who previously served on the National Security Council such as Ivo Daalder and Kurt Volker. Source link #Trumps #NATO #ambassador #pick #Matt #Whitaker #National Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

The Adpocalypse Conundrum Continues as Twitch Gets Sued by Elon Musk on Grounds of a Problem Allegedly Plaguing the Streaming Platform The Adpocalypse Conundrum Continues as Twitch Gets Sued by Elon Musk on Grounds of a Problem Allegedly Plaguing the Streaming Platform There’s no denying the fact that Twitch is the king when it comes to live streaming platforms, giving players the chance to shine and experience their favorite titles for masses who are eager to watch. The streaming platform has found itself in yet another hurdle. (Image via Twitch) As a live streaming platform, Twitch is incredibly strict with content streamers that can push out and almost immediately hands down sanctions if streamers are caught doing something inappropriate. However, it seems like Elon Musk isn’t scared of the Amazon-owned platform, as he’s suing it for boycotting ads. Elon Musk is Going After Twitch Now and No One Can Stop Him Elon Musk and his ex-wife Talulah Riley (Image Credit: Your Tango) If you’re unaware, back in August 2024, Elon Musk decided to file a lawsuit against all the members of the Global Alliance of Responsible Media, claiming that they’re working together to boycott his X platform. The lawsuit stated that the companies within this alliance came together and ********** the flow of advertising revenue for the platform formerly known as Twitter. Musk purchased it back in October 2022 and has been actively involved in restructuring the platform. Musk’s X has decided to add even the Amazon-owned live-streaming platform to its list of defendants in the lawsuit. X claims that Twitch has illegally held back all kinds of advertisements on the platform and hasn’t bought any ads on the platform in the US. Musk suggests that the streaming platform has only spent a substantial amount in other countries since November 2022. We still don’t have a public statement about these claims from both companies, and that’s likely going to be the case since it’s an ongoing lawsuit. It’s going to be interesting to see how things pan out for the platform formerly known as Twitter. Ever since Musk’s takeover, it hasn’t been able to fix its advertiser failures. According to reports, X’s revenue fell by nearly 40% in the first half of 2023. Even though some advertisers have returned to the platform after Donald Trump’s election win, the spending from these brands is nowhere near previous levels. Elon Musk is a True Gamer Who Loves Diablo 4 Musk loves playing Blizzard’s Diablo 4. (Image via Joe Rogan) While chatting with Joe Rogan in his podcast, Musk opened up about his love for video games and how they can help gauge mental tiredness. According to him, there were only two Americans in the global top 20 of Diablo 4’s leaderboard, and he was one of them. Back in October, Blizzard’s Diablo 4 was making waves on Steam and hit record-high player counts. This proves just how popular the title is and how challenging it must be to make it to the top 20 globally. Musk’s reveal of his ranking on the game’s global leadership has shocked many players, and they can’t help but wonder how his schedule allows him to play the game and climb the ranks. Many speculate that there might be someone else playing on his behalf while he’s working. Whether or not we’ll ever see Elon diving deeper into how he manages to run his businesses and play among the best in Diablo 4 ******** to be seen. However, it proves that just like all of us, he’s a gamer at heart who finds video games the perfect way to bust some stress! With that said, do you think Musk has made a major error by going after Amazon-owned Twitch? Let us know in the comments below. Source link #Adpocalypse #Conundrum #Continues #Twitch #Sued #Elon #Musk #Grounds #Problem #Allegedly #Plaguing #Streaming #Platform Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

D-Link refuses to patch yet another security flaw, suggests users just buy new routers — D-Link told users to replace NAS last week D-Link refuses to patch yet another security flaw, suggests users just buy new routers — D-Link told users to replace NAS last week A handful of legacy D-Link routers are susceptible to RCE (Remote Code **********) threats as the company outright refuses to offer patches, stating that the devices have reached EOL (End Of Life) and suggests users trash them instead. This report follows a previous incident where D-Link ******* to patch over 60,000 NAS devices and recommended users purchase newer models. Going over the advisory, D-Link says attackers can ******** code remotely (RCE) on these routers owing to a stack buffer overflow vulnerability. D-Link didn’t share the exact specifics of this threat, possibly to ward off potential hackers. Even so, this unleashes a pandora’s box of possible threats, including, but not limited to, data theft, malware and spyware installation, and DoS attacks. In other words, if you own the following routers: DSR-150, DSR-150N, DSR-250, DSR-250N, DSR-500N, or DSR-1000N; your data and privacy are at serious risk. A quick look over the report shows that four out of six of these routers were discontinued just this year. And — to no one’s surprise — D-Link explicitly says, “If a product has reached End of Support (“EOS”) / End of Life (“EOL”), there is normally no further extended support or development for it.” Here’s a list of the specific models in question: Swipe to scroll horizontally Model End Of Life Date DSR-150 May 1, 2024 DSR-150N May 1, 2024 DSR-250 May 1, 2024 DSR-250N May 1, 2024 DSR-500N September 30, 2015 DSR-1000N October 30, 2015 “D-Link US is prohibited to provide support for these EOL/EOS products. D-Link strongly recommends that this product be retired and cautions that any further use of this product may be a risk to devices connected to it.” D-Link Users in the U.S. can snag a newer model at discounted rates — but that doesn’t compensate for the lack of patches, which leave a myriad of unsuspecting users at risk. Alternatively, the report says that various devices on this list are open to third-party firmware with unofficial patches — but going that route will void your warranty (not that it matters much, anymore). Just recently, various NAS models from D-Link were found prone to the CVE-2024-10914 vulnerability — but, due to EOL concerns, the firm declined to patch them and proposed users purchase new routers instead. Given D-Link’s disregard for security flaws in its devices, this news might deter potential customers or business partners. Nonetheless, if you think it’s time for an upgrade, you can check out our Wi-Fi router list to get the best bang for your buck. Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Source link #DLink #refuses #patch #security #flaw #suggests #users #buy #routers #DLink #told #users #replace #NAS #week Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Get the most out of these tax-favored accounts in 2025 Get the most out of these tax-favored accounts in 2025 Benefits enrollment season is here, and with it comes an opportunity for workers to tune up their workplace savings plans and sock away more money on a tax-favored basis. Traditional tax-deferred accounts, like 401(k) plans and individual retirement accounts, are just the beginning for savers. With the proliferation of high-deductible health care plans as employers aim to reduce their costs, more employees are gaining access to health savings accounts – which allow savers to contribute on a pretax or tax-deductible basis, grow on a tax-free basis and permit tax-free withdrawals if they’re for qualified health expenses. In 2023, there were $123 billion in HSA assets held in more than 37 million accounts, reflecting a 19% increase in assets from the prior year, according to Devenir Group . As tempting as it may be for savers to plow money into HSAs and other tax-favored accounts, they’ll need to draw up a strategy before they do so. “HSAs are very underutilized, but they may not be appropriate for everyone and every situation,” said Marguerita Cheng, certified financial planner and CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Indeed, she noted that a significant medical expense can eat up a sizable chunk of savings in these accounts. Establishing a savings waterfall To ramp up after-tax growth potential, UBS’ Chief Investment Office recommends that investors set up a “savings waterfall” plan. This starts with setting up an emergency fund to cover six to 12 months of expenses, contributing to your 401(k) plan such that you qualify for the company match on savings, and socking away the maximum amount for your health savings account (which in 2025 would be $4,300 for those with self-only coverage or $8,550 for family health plans). After meeting those priorities, UBS found, savers with the means can max out their 401(k) contributions (up to $23,500 in 2025, plus $7,500 in catch-up contributions for those over age 50 – or a new and even higher catch-up contribution of $11,250 for workers aged 60-63). They can also earmark additional funds toward 529 college savings plans and taxable brokerage accounts. Asset location Since these workplace savings accounts have different tax treatments, investors who can allocate toward them can fine-tune the taxes they pay when they draw down from retirement. They can also work with a financial advisor to ensure these accounts are holding the right kinds of assets – which can help enhance after-tax returns. For instance, income-paying assets, such as bonds, might be better held in a tax-deferred account, like a 401(k) or an individual retirement account. Consider that corporate bonds spin off interest that’s taxed at the same rate as ordinary income, which can be as high as 37%. In a tax-deferred account, investors won’t be on the ***** for the tax bill until they begin drawing down from it. Stocks and exchange-traded funds that pay qualified dividends could be a good fit in a brokerage account. Qualified dividends are subject to a tax of either 0%, 15% or 20%, depending on an investor’s taxable income. Avoid holding funds that spin out hefty capital gains in this account, though. They can bring unexpected taxable consequences . In a tax-free account like the HSA, investors may be able to take a long-term perspective and invest in high-growth assets. But you’ll want to be sure to have at least enough of your HSA funds held in cash so that you can cover your deductible. Amounts exceeding that can be invested, however. “If you have the dollars, you can have more of a growth orientation,” said Cheng. “You don’t have to keep it in money market funds, but having said that, you can’t forecast whether you get ***** or break bones. I wouldn’t put it in something too volatile.” Source link #taxfavored #accounts Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Paolini leads Italy to Billie Jean King Cup title Paolini leads Italy to Billie Jean King Cup title Two-time grand slam finalist Jasmine Paolini has capped a breakthrough season by leading Italy to their first Billie Jean King Cup title since 2013, defeating Rebecca Sramkova 6-2 6-1 to seal a 2-0 victory over Slovakia in the final of the women’s team competition. The No.4-ranked Paolini was the runner-up at the French Open in June and at Wimbledon in July, making her the first woman since Serena Williams in 2016 to get to the title matches at Roland Garros and the All England Club in the same season. Before this year, Paolini, 28, had lost in the first or second round in all 16 career appearances at majors. “Unbelievable year. Unbelievable. A crazy year. To finish like this, with a title … it’s amazing. I don’t have words to describe it. I’m trying just to enjoy every moment,” Paolini said. “I feel lucky to be in the position. I feel lucky to be part of this team.” She also teamed with Sara Errani to win a doubles gold medal at the Paris Olympics in August. They were lined up to play in the concluding match against Slovakia, but it wasn’t needed because Italy clinched the best-of-three series by sweeping the two singles matches. “Jasmine raised her level really high this year … She’s an example for all of us,” said her teammate, 78th-ranked Lucia Bronzetti, who took Wednesday’s opener 6-2 6-4 score against Viktoria Hruncakova before a crowd that included International Tennis Hall of Famer and equal rights pioneer Billie Jean King. Italy, who eliminated Iga Swiatek and Poland in the semi-finals, earned their fifth championship a year after finishing as the runners-up to Canada. “I’m so proud of them. They ****** every day,” Italy captain Tathiana Garbin said. “This journey was incredible.” The triumph adds to what’s been quite a recent run for Italy in tennis, including two grand slam trophies in 2024 and the No.1 men’s ranking for Jannik Sinner, who helped his country claim last year’s Davis Cup. Sinner and Italy meet Argentina in the men’s quarter-finals on Thursday, also in Malaga. This is the first time the two premier International Tennis Federation team events are being held at the same site. Bronzetti never had played a BJK Cup singles match until this week. She said she didn’t find out until Tuesday night that she would be in the line-up against Slovakia. “I didn’t sleep very well,” Bronzetti said. “You’re not playing just for yourself … You’re playing for your team and your country.” Slovakia, who won the BJK Cup in 2002, eliminated the ******* States, Australia and Great Britain to get to the final. Source link #Paolini #leads #Italy #Billie #Jean #King #Cup #title Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Care Bears: Unlock the Magic announced for PS5, PS4, and Switch Care Bears: Unlock the Magic announced for PS5, PS4, and Switch Care Bears: Unlock The Magic will launch March 27, 2025 on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4/5. Play alongside Cheer Bear, Bedtime Bear, Tenderheart Bear and all your favorite bears from Care A-Lot, exploring over 200 levels across unique minigames. Get Star Power to remove the Storm Clouds from the Silver Lining, meet the funny Whiffles, and reach the end of the magical road for an exciting surprise. Source link #Care #Bears #Unlock #Magic #announced #PS5 #PS4 #Switch Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Nasdaq 100: Can NVIDIA Earnings ****** the Stock Market? Nasdaq 100: Can NVIDIA Earnings ****** the Stock Market? In our previous , we asked if the outcome of the US presidential elections could ****** the stock market. Based on the Elliott Wave Principle (EWP) and market breadth, we found that upside was more likely than downside. “… if the Bears cannot hold the index’s price below the July ATH, we must focus on the alternative EWP count in Figure 2 below, which is the “dreaded” ending diagonal (ED). … the potential 4th wave, as shown, can become more protracted, i.e., a bounce followed by another move lower before the final 5th wave starts. Market breadth readings and sentiment are getting pretty washed out. … . Thus, the path of least resistance for these indicators appears to be up, which can propel the indexes higher.” Fast-forwarding and the stock market rallied strongly in response to the election, which former president Donald Trump won by a landslide. Yes, markets like certainty. However, the “Trump Trade” lasted only four days, as most gains were given up the following week. The next catalyst is NVIDIA (NASDAQ:) earnings. Our previous update states,: “Since the NDX and NAS are often tied to the hip, it is uncommon for the two to have vastly differing EWP counts.” Below we show the (NAS), where we now have a better-defined potential third wave (W-3) top and W-4 underway. So far, the index has peaked right in the ideal target zone for a bounce (blue W-b), as we forecasted last week. Thus, a 2nd leg lower, the blue W-c, to ideally $18,350+/-150 can be reasonably expected but will only be confirmed on a daily close below $18,650. A last fifth wave, ideally $19500-20500, can commence from there. Unfortunately, since we’re dealing with an ending diagonal, less predictable overlapping price action must be expected. That’s the hand we’re dealt and will have to work with. Namely, ED’s five waves have all three wave internals (abc-abc-abc-abc-abc)—the ‘s advance since the August low shows this well. See Figure 2 below. So each time an abc completes, the market can decide to tag on another abc, aka subdivide. The most obvious observation from the chart is that the rally since that low has not completed five larger (red) waves up, let alone reached the 123.60% extension, which is a typical, minimal upside target for a 3rd wave (red W-iii) in an ED. Thus, we can allow another (grey) a-b-c pattern up from the October 31 low. This means the “Trump Trade” high was grey W-a, the most recent low was grey W-b, and grey W-c to ideally $21,500 is about to commence. A break above $19,200 will help confirm this thesis. The bottom line is that NVDA’s earnings can swing the needle to lower prices temporarily, but contingent on the indexes holding above the September 6 lows, we must still expect higher prices after that. Source link #Nasdaq #NVIDIA #Earnings #****** #Stock #Market Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Gang kingpin in jail on ******* charges is accused of impregnating two jail workers Gang kingpin in jail on ******* charges is accused of impregnating two jail workers A North Carolina inmate said to be the state’s highest-ranking Blood gang member has been accused of impregnating two former jail employees. Darrius Tyson is accused of murdering a man who disappeared in 2022. He’s currently being held in Central Prison in Raleigh. During a hearing on Tuesday, prosecutors claimed Tyson used his position to get drugs and **** inside a Durham facility. One of his nicknames is listed as “King Blood” on the county’s website. Durham County Assistant District Attorney Mary Jude Darrow also accused him of impregnating Lerin Burnette, a contracted nurse, and a detention sergeant named ***** Robertson. The two women were charged with having ******* relations with an inmate, a felony ******. The revelation came during the hearing as Tyson was seeking to have his $1.25m bond reduced. A judge declined the request, according to WRAL. Daniel Meier, Tyson’s attorney, argued that his client was a victim in the matter during the hearing. “He was ********* assaulted by two employees who have been charged with felonies,” he told a judge on Tuesday. “It’s a Class E felony for someone to have ******* relations with a detainee. A detainee by law cannot consent. He is a victim in those cases.” Following the **** allegations, Tyson was transferred from the Durham County Detention Center to the Raleigh prison. He’s been charged with *******, *********** to commit *******, kidnapping and burglary. He previously served time for ******* in 2010 but the conviction was overturned in 2020 due to prosecutorial misconduct. The prosecutors did not turn over exculpatory evidence, the outlet reported. The man’s mother, Murryette Tyson, told WRAL county officials are “out for [her son].” She declined to comment on her son’s ties to the gang or the allegations he had **** with the workers. “He’s innocent,” she told WRAL. “Of all the charges.” She claims her son was assaulted by detention officers in August and that the incident caused him to suffer injuries to his jaw. When the outlet inquired about the allegation, a spokesperson for the jail said no ******** had been reported at the time and they would not be able to investigate a claim based on the details given. Source link #Gang #kingpin #jail #******* #charges #accused #impregnating #jail #workers Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Rattling the Divine: The Mystical Role of the Sistrum Rattling the Divine: The Mystical Role of the Sistrum The sistrum was one of the most sacred musical instruments in ancient Egypt and was believed to hold powerful magical properties. It was used in the worship of the goddess Hathor, mythological character of joy, festivity, fertility, eroticism and dance. It was also shaken to avert the flooding of the Nile and to frighten away Seth, the **** of the desert, storms, disorder, and *********. Isis, in her role as mother and creator, was often depicted holding a pail symbolizing the inundation of the Nile in one hand, and the sistrum in the other hand. It was designed to produce the sound of the breeze hitting and blowing through papyrus reeds, but the symbolic value of the sistrum far exceeded its importance as a musical instrument. Ancient Greek historian, Plutarch, speaks of the powerful role of the sistrum in his essay, “On Isis & Osiris”: “The sistrum makes it clear that all things in existence need to be shaken, or rattled about, and never to cease from motion but, as it were, to be woken up and agitated when they grow drowsy and torpid. They say that they avert and repel Typhon by means of the sistrums, indicating thereby that when destruction constricts and checks Nature, generation releases and arouses it by means of motion.” (Plutarch, Moralia, Book 5, “On Isis & Osiris,” section 63) The sistrum consists of a handle and frame made from brass, bronze, wood, or clay. When shaken the small rings or loops of thin metal on its movable crossbars produced a sound that ranged from a soft rattle to a loud jangling. Its basic shape resembled the ankh, the Egyptian symbol of life, and carried that hieroglyph’s meaning. Archaeological records have revealed two distinct types of sistrum. The oldest variety of sistrum is naos-shaped (the inner chamber of a temple which houses a cult figure). The head of Hathor was often depicted on the handle and the horns of a cow were commonly incorporated into the design (Hathor is commonly depicted as a cow goddess). This sistrum, known as the ‘naos sistrum’ or ‘sesheshet’ (an onomatopoeic word), dates back to at least the Old Kingdom (3 rd millennium BC). In ancient Egyptian art, the sesheshet sistrum was often depicted being carried by a woman of high rank. Nefertari, wife of Ramesses II, holding a sekhem-type sistrum. (Public Domain) During the Greco-Roman *******, a second type of sistrum became popular. Known as sekhem or sekham, this sistrum had a simple, hoop-like frame, usually made from metal. The sekhem resembled a closed horseshoe with a long handle and loose metal cross bars above the Hathor head. A priestess with the sekhem sistrum. (Public Domain) In ancient Egypt, while the sistrum was used in the musical worship of several Egyptian deities, including Amon, Bastet, and Isis, it was especially associated with the worship of the great goddesses Hathor. The sistrum was used in rituals and ceremonies including dances, worship, and celebrations, that honored Hathor. It also seems to have carried ******* or fertility connotations, which probably derives from Hathor’s mythological qualities. Because of its association with Hathor, the sistrum became a symbol of her son Ihy as well, who was often depicted as the archetypal sistrum player. Fragment of a sistrum, 26th dynasty. Sistrum in the name of a priestess of Bastet, Late *******, (664-332 BC) (anonymous/CC BY-SA 2.0 FR) The sistrum continued to be used in Egypt well after the rule of the pharaohs. Rome’s conquest of Egypt in 30 BC, following the ****** of Cleopatra and Mark Antony, helped spread the cult of the goddess throughout the Mediterranean and the rest of the Roman world. The Hathor heads were interpreted as Isis and Nephthys, who represented life and ****** respectively. Marble statue of Isis, the goddess holds a situla and sistrum, ritual implements used in her worship, from 117 until 138 AD, found at Hadrian’s Villa (Pantanello), Palazzo Nuovo, Capitoline Museums. (Public Domain) Worship of the goddess Isis became extremely popular in the Greco-Roman ******* and during this time, the sistrum became inextricably tied to Isis. Temples to Isis were built in every major city, perhaps the largest and most richly decorated being in Rome, near the Pantheon. The temple and its surrounding porticoes were decorated with beautiful wall paintings, some of which show priests or attendants of Isis holding a sistrum. In Greek culture, not all sistrums were intended to be played. Rather, they took on a purely symbolic function in which they were used in sacrifices, festivals, and funerary contexts. Clay versions of sistrums may also have been used as children’s toys. Today, sistra are still used in the rites of the Coptic and ********** churches. Top image: Statue of Hathor, goddess of love, music, and fertility with sistrum and hieroglyphs – AI generated. Source: Iarte/Adobe Stock By Joanna Gillan This article was first published in 2014 and was updated by an Ancient Origins editor in Nov 2024. Source link #Rattling #Divine #Mystical #Role #Sistrum Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Final Fantasy XIV Mobile brings the beloved MMORPG to the palm of your hand Final Fantasy XIV Mobile brings the beloved MMORPG to the palm of your hand Final Fantasy XIV is officially coming to mobile, looking set to slowly bring in years of content It’s being developed by Tencent’s Lightspeed Studios in partnership with Square Enix You’ll soon be able to enjoy Final Fantasy XIV and adventure through Eorze in the palm of your hand! Final Fantasy fans can rejoice because the rumours and speculation have finally ceased, with the official announcement that Final Fantasy XIV for mobile is in the works! And, as we noted before, it will be coming courtesy of Tencent subsidiary Lightspeed Studios, set to work closely in concert with Square Enix. Final Fantasy XIV should need little introduction as one of the most disastrous launches, and subsequently well-earned returns to prominence, in the franchise’s history. Originally released back in 2012, the initial version of Final Fantasy 14 met with a huge amount of criticism for its lacklustre nature, leading to a complete revamp of the development team and the release of a ground-up rebuild fittingly called, A Realm Reborn. Set in the familiar world of Eorzea, Final Fantasy XIV Mobile looks set to promise a good amount of content when it launches. You’ll be able to enjoy nine different jobs at release, switching freely between them using the Armoury system. And naturally, minigames such as Triple Triad will also make a return. Limit break I think this is genuinely a bit of a landmark moment considering how big of a release Final Fantasy XIV was and the very intriguing nature of its fall and subsequent rise. It’s become a cornerstone of Square Enix’s catalogue so the decision to work with Tencent to bring Final Fantasy XIV to mobile represents a seemingly quite close partnership. The only wrinkle I can see is that it seems that Final Fantasy XIV Mobile may not have as much in the way of initial content as some might like. Although I’d guess that the intent is to slowly work their way through incorporating expansions and updates over time, instead of trying to bring in all of Final Fantasy XIV’s quite considerable content from over the years. Source link #Final #Fantasy #XIV #Mobile #brings #beloved #MMORPG #palm #hand Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Trump administration picks Matt Gaetz, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Pete Hegseth and Elon Musk have ******* misconduct allegations in their past Trump administration picks Matt Gaetz, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Pete Hegseth and Elon Musk have ******* misconduct allegations in their past Matt Gaetz, Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Elon Musk are all in line to serve as top government leaders. All have faced varying degrees of ******* misconduct allegations. The president’s picks to carry out his agenda reflect an incoming administration hostile to the norms of the “Me Too” movement. Behavior that might have gotten a person fired or canceled (or not nominated to a cabinet position) over the last several years, appears to be less problematic in the Trump 2.0 era. Combo file: Former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida (top left), Pete Hegseth (top right), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (bottom left), Elon Musk (bottom right) Gaetz (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images); Hegseth (John Lamparski/Getty Images); Kennedy (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images); Musk (ALLISON ROBBERT/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) To be clear: three of the men — Gaetz, Hegseth and Musk — have consistently denied the allegations against them. Gaetz, Trump’s attorney general pick, said he did not have a ******* relationship with a minor, a 17-year-old, while he was a member of Congress, despite sworn witness testimony to the contrary. Gaetz allies also point to a Justice Department investigation that yielded no charges. A 2017 ******* ******** investigation into the man Trump plans to nominate to be defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, resulted in no charges, according to Hegseth’s lawyer. Hegseth reached a confidential settlement with the woman involved. Eight employees of SpaceX filed a lawsuit earlier this year accusing CEO Elon Musk of fostering a hostile work environment that the plaintiffs say was rife with ******* harassment. The eight plaintiffs said that during the course of their employment with SpaceX, they were exposed to “unwanted conduct and comments of a ******* nature by Elon Musk that created a hostile and abusive work environment,” their lawsuit said. Musk denied the allegations, according to the Associated Press. Musk has been tapped to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency, a government agency Trump intends to establish. Kennedy, Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, is the only one of the four who indicated it was possible that he had acted inappropriately, apologizing to a former nanny for allegations of unwanted ******* advances in the 1990s. He told CBS News that he does not recall the conduct in question, but does not want to “leave anybody in the world feeling like I did something that was insensitive or inappropriate.” Asked whether he might have to make a similar apology to someone else in the future, Kennedy replied, “It’s quite possible. I’m 70 years old. I had a very rambunctious life.” Trump himself has been accused of ******* misconduct by at least 15 women. In 2023, a jury found him civilly liable for ********* abusing writer E. Jean Carroll. The Trump transition team has not responded to a request for comment. Machismo was often a centerpiece of Trump’s appeal to voters during the 2024 campaign. He regularly spoke about toughness — whether that trait applied to his immigration policy, combating illicit ***** trade or surviving two ************** attempts. Wrestler Hulk Hogan delivered a ********** speech at the *********** National Convention, ripping off his shirt while lavishing praise on the nominee. And Trump also spent time on right-leaning podcasts with largely male audiences. His entreaties to male culture paid off in November. He had a ******* advantage among male voters against Kamala Harris, winning this group by 13 percentage points, compared to the 8-point advantage he had against President Biden in 2020, and the 11-point margin over Hillary Clinton in 2016. The Senate will have final say on whether Gaetz, Hegseth and Kennedy become confirmed cabinet secretaries. Ahead of their confirmation hearings, *********** senators, who are likely to have to provide nearly all of the votes for these four nominees, did not say much about their prospects. Louisiana Senator John Kennedy was uncertain Tuesday on whether Gaetz could get the 51 votes he’ll need for confirmation. “I wouldn’t bet my house on it one way or the other. And if I were ******** your house, which would be a lot easier, I’d say ‘I don’t know,'” he said. Several Republicans interviewed by CBS News had a similar message: let the vetting and confirmation process proceed, and don’t jump to conclusions, even if the allegations are troubling. “We are going to have conversations,” Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa said. “There needs to be legitimate vetting,” Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said. “That’s what committees do. This is our job.” Arden Farhi Arden Farhi is the senior White House producer at CBS News. He has covered several presidential campaigns and the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations. He also produces “The Takeout with Major Garrett.” Source link #Trump #administration #picks #Matt #Gaetz #Robert #Kennedy #Pete #Hegseth #Elon #Musk #******* #misconduct #allegations Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Bitcoin hits new record near $95,000 as investors monitor Trump transition: CNBC Crypto World Bitcoin hits new record near $95,000 as investors monitor Trump transition: CNBC Crypto World ShareShare Article via FacebookShare Article via TwitterShare Article via LinkedInShare Article via Email CNBC Crypto World features the latest news and daily trading updates from the digital currency markets and provides viewers with a look at what’s ahead with high-profile interviews, explainers, and unique stories from the ever-changing crypto industry. On today’s show, Andrew O’Neill of S&P Global Ratings discusses how crypto policy changes under Trump could affect crypto prices. Source link #Bitcoin #hits #record #investors #monitor #Trump #transition #CNBC #Crypto #World Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Meta’s latest features for Messenger Calling include AI backgrounds Meta’s latest features for Messenger Calling include AI backgrounds If you’re one of the people out there making calls with Meta’s Messenger app, its latest update adds a bunch of new features for making video and audio calls, according to . When you make a video call, you can add an AI-generated background to your screen by tapping on the effects icon in the sidebar and selecting “Backgrounds.” So instead of showing your friends and family your grungy apartment or your car that you haven’t cleaned out since you bought it, you can replace the background with a field of sunflowers or an alien landscape as one of its suns is setting. That’s something we’ve seen from basically every other video calling platform, so it’s not a big surprise to see Meta add it here. Meta also added some new features for video calls including high definition video, background noise suppression and voice isolation “to help you make clearer, higher-quality calls directly from Messenger,” according to the blog. The HD video feature will be the default mode for Messenger calls made over W-iFi connections. HD calls can also be made on cellular data in settings by turning on “Mobile data for HD video.” Background noise suppression and voice isolation can also be turned on and off in Messenger’s call settings section. You can also leave voice and video messages for your contacts beyond just a line of text and maybe a cheeky emoji or two. Simply tap the “record message” button on the lower right side of the screen to leave a video or audio message if the person you are contacting doesn’t pick up the call. Finally, if you don’t have a free hand but need to make a call, iPhone users can ask Siri to make calls and messages for them on Meta’s Messenger app. Simply activate Siri and say “Hey Siri, send a message to [contact name] on Messenger” and dictate the message you want to send them. Source link #Metas #latest #features #Messenger #Calling #include #backgrounds Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Nvidia Stock Must Break 149.77 to Pave Way for Further Rise Nvidia Stock Must Break 149.77 to Pave Way for Further Rise NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:). engages in the design and manufacture of computer graphics processors, chipsets, and related multimedia software. It operates through the following segments: Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and Compute & Networking. Nvidia designs and sells GPUs for gaming, cryptocurrency mining, and professional applications; the company also sells chip systems for use in vehicles, robotics, and more. Nvidia’s Compute and Networking business segment, which includes artificial intelligence (AI), is the company’s biggest revenue generator. The Graphics business segment is Nvidia’s second largest revenue generator. Put/Call ratio for Nov. 22 expiry is 0.7866% more calls than puts which suggests the following three scenarios: With Put/Call ratio is around 0.80-0.72 for the next 2 upcoming expiries suggest that the traders are mildly bullish. Earning miss or lower guidance could trigger a short-lived sell-off. As the veteran tech investor won’t sell – regardless of earnings. Earning and guidance in line or better than estimates trigger a sharp rally. Key Highlights: Analysts expect the chipmaker to deliver revenue growth driven by demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure, with record data center sales. All eyes will be on the updates Nvidia’s Blackwell AI chip shipments. Big Tech’s AI spending continues to accelerate at a pace not seen in the past many years. MSFT, AMZN, META (NASDAQ:) & Alphabet (NASDAQ:) have set a huge CAPEX for AI in 2025. NVDA is a cash-rich company with a strong balance sheet as its total debt to total capital of 0.16 is significantly lower than the industry average of 0.30. Technical Analysis Perspective: NVDA has been hovering insider a symmetrical triangle from April 2024 to early October 2024. Typically, these types of triangles form 5 points. Point 1 = April 15, 2024, to June 21 (from 75.61 to 140.76) Point 2 = June 17, 2024, to August 09, 2024, (from 140.76 to 90.69) Point 3 = August 09, 2024, to August 30, 2024, (from 90.69 – 131.26) Point 4 = August 30, 2024, to September 06, 2024 (from 131.26 – 100.95) Point 5 = September 06, 2024, to October 07, 2024 (from 100.95 to 125) breakout point. The upside target of this triangle is 185 – 195 in the coming weeks to months. NVDA needs to break the recent high 149.77 high pre-earnings or during the earnings volatility to pave the way for further rise. A ******** to break 149.77 would suggest a dip to 139 -137 support zone. NVDA 19 years seasonality suggests that it closes 6.9% higher in November 80% of the time. Conclusion: NVDA has been in an uptrend since October 2022, a breakout of a bullish symmetrical triangle is adding fuel to the current rising trend and earnings could be a catalyst force. Fundamental and technical parameters are supporting additional rallies. Let’s see how the earnings and guidance play later this evening. Source link #Nvidia #Stock #Break #Pave #Rise Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Business spending on AI surged 500% this year to $13.8 billion, says Menlo Ventures Business spending on AI surged 500% this year to $13.8 billion, says Menlo Ventures Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images Business spending on generative AI surged 500% this year, from $2.3 billion in 2023 to $13.8 billion, according to data released by Menlo Ventures on Wednesday. The report also found that OpenAI ceded market share in enterprise AI, declining from 50% to 34%. Anthropic doubled its market share from 12% to 24%. The results came from a survey of 600 enterprise IT decision-makers from companies with 50 or more employees, per the report. Menlo is an investor in Anthropic. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Tim Tully, a partner at Menlo Ventures, told CNBC in an interview that the power shift is thanks in part to the advancement of Claude 3.5 and because the majority of companies are using three or more large AI models. Although OpenAI and Anthropic dominated companies’ AI model use, he said, people are “juggling models” and that habit is “not a well-understood piece of data.” “Developers are pretty savvy — they know how to go back and forth between models fairly quickly,” Tully explained. “They’re choosing the model that fits their use case best… and that’s likely Claude 3.5.” Meta’s market share stayed at 16% and Cohere’s share remained at 3%. Google’s rose from 7% to 12%, and Mistral’s lost one percentage point, declining to 5% in 2024. Foundation models — such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude and others — still dominated enterprise spend, the report found, with large language models receiving $6.5 billion in enterprise investment. Menlo’s report was bullish on AI agents, a leading AI trend and area of investment in 2024. Google, Microsoft, Amazon, OpenAI and Anthropic are pursuing the technology. AI agents are viewed as a step beyond chatbots. They can perform multistep, complex tasks on a user’s behalf, and generate their own to-do lists, so that users don’t have to walk them through the process step-by-step. “The agent stuff is real — it’s not hype,” Tully told CNBC. “I don’t think it’s going to cure *******, necessarily, but is it going to make people more productive and help companies generate revenue? Yes.” The report found code generation is the leading use case for generative AI, with more than half of survey responses naming that as a dominant use. Support chatbots came next, at 31%, followed by enterprise search and retrieval, data extraction and transformation, and meeting summarization. Source link #Business #spending #surged #year #billion #Menlo #Ventures Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Chewbacca 2,319-Piece Star Wars Lego Set Gets $55 Discount At Amazon For ****** Friday Chewbacca 2,319-Piece Star Wars Lego Set Gets $55 Discount At Amazon For ****** Friday Amazon has a fantastic ****** Friday deal on the Chewbacca Star Wars Lego set, dropping the price from $200 down to $145. This is very close to the all-time low price ($140) for the 2,319-piece Chewie model kit. We expect this offer to sell out pretty fast, just like earlier this month when Amazon matched Target’s $160 early ****** Friday deal. Thankfully, Walmart also has the $145 Chewbacca deal in stock, so if it sells out at your preferred retailer, make sure to check the other. $145 (was $200) After piecing it all together, you’ll have an 18-inch model of the Wookie hero with his iconic Bowcaster Rifle and bandolier. Like many Lego Star Wars model sets designed for adults, it comes with a display plaque with key details about Chewie and a minifigure. Chewbacca was one of the marquee Lego Star Wars sets released for Return of the Jedi’s 40th anniversary. Chewbacca isn’t the only large-scale Star Wars Lego set on ***** for a big discount right now. Luke Skywalker’s Landspeeder is up for grabs for $175 at Walmart. Normally $240, this highly detailed 1,890-piece model is part of Lego’s Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series. It’s one of the most eye-catching and realistic Lego sets that recreates an iconic vehicle from the movies. Amazon was matching this deal but sold out fast, so you be speedy if you want the Landspeeder. Star Wars Lego Deals at Amazon Amazon has a wide variety of Star Wars sets on ***** for great prices right now. Some of the highlights include Ahsoka’s Ghost & Phantom II Starships set for $138 (click the coupon box) and the Emperor’s Throne Room from Return of the Jedi for $80. For the ambitious and dedicated Star Wars fan, The Ultimate Collector Series Mandalorian set featuring a 6,187-piece model of The Razor Crest is $88 off. If you’re looking for a gift for a young Star Wars fan this holiday, Walmart has restocked its exclusive Lego Star Wars 3-in-1 Gift Set. This unique package comes with three popular playsets that are normally sold separately for only $50 total, which saves you $35 overall. $50 Here’s what you get with this Walmart-exclusive Lego Star Wars gift set: The Clone Wars: Yoda’s Jedi Starfighter (253 pieces) — $35 value Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Jedi Starfighter (282 pieces) — $30 value 501st Clone Troopers Battle Pack (119 pieces) — $20 value All told, the gift set includes two buildable starships, an AV-7 anti-vehicle cannon, seven minifigures , and two droids. Source link #Chewbacca #2319Piece #Star #Wars #Lego #Set #Discount #Amazon #****** #Friday Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Trump sent two stimulus checks in his first term. Here’s what experts say about another payment. Trump sent two stimulus checks in his first term. Here’s what experts say about another payment. President-elect Donald Trump in his first term as president sent out two stimulus checks to millions of Americans during the pandemic, part of the federal government’s goal of keeping consumers financially afloat during the crisis. Now, some social media posts are claiming that Trump, once he takes office next year, may issue another check — a likelihood that experts say is extremely slim. Posts on TikTok are suggesting Trump might issue another round of checks, while on X, some users are questioning if they’re in line for a payment. When the COVID-19 health emergency shuttered the economy in 2020, millions of Americans lost their jobs, sending the jobless rate to almost 15% and causing financial hardship for many. As a result, Trump signed two bills that sent stimulus checks to eligible households, while President Biden authorized a third. Even though many Americans feel the economy is faring badly, with some pointing to the impact of the pandemic’s high inflation, the U.S. isn’t anywhere close to the situation of the early 2020s, economists say. “Stimulus checks typically only happen when the economy is in really bad shape and consumers need a push to start spending money again,” LendingTree senior economist Jacob Channel told CBS MoneyWatch. “That’s not really the case in the present.” Is the economy bad enough for a new stimulus check? While a majority of Americans give the economy poor ratings, economists say that it’s in good shape overall, with solid GDP growth, inflation that is inching closer to the Federal Reserve’s 2% annual goal and a jobless rate of 4.1% — which is near a 50-year low. “Despite some pain points and general ‘bad vibes’ expressed by some people, the economy is currently in remarkably good shape and consumer spending is relatively strong,” Channel said. Even so, many inflation-weary consumers say they haven’t yet seen the benefit of that growth. The November 5 presidential election was viewed as a mandate from voters for a new economic direction. Could Trump issue a stimulus check? While some consumers might believe that Trump or Biden alone was responsible for sending out stimulus checks — perhaps because Trump put his name on the memo line of the first check — the payments were part of three bills passed by Congress, which were then sent to the sitting president for his signature. “A president can’t unilaterally issue stimulus checks, and the ones sent out during his last administration were largely the result of a push from Democrats in the House and Senate,” Channel noted. “Though Trump ultimately did sign the bill that sent stimulus checks to Americans, he isn’t solely responsible for them.” In other words, there would first need to be legislation passed by Congress to authorize another stimulus check, something that currently isn’t on the horizon. Would a stimulus check impact inflation? With the Federal Reserve still aiming to pare inflation to a 2% annual rate — it stood at 2.6% last month — policymakers are likely to be cautious about any actions that could reignite inflation. Some economists have pointed to the surge in federal spending during the pandemic as helping to create the conditions that led to the hottest inflation in 40 years. “Because inflation is still such a big concern at the moment, the last thing a reasonable government would want to do is further stimulate consumer demand with stimulus checks because doing so would unnecessarily risk causing a resurgence in inflation,” Channel noted. That being said, Trump’s economic policies, including adding tariffs to imports and deporting millions of undocumented immigrants, could cause an inflation bump of as much of 1 percentage point, economists have said. That would push inflation to a range of about 3.6%, which Wall Street cautions could cause the Fed to hold off on further rate cuts. Could the IRS issue stimulus checks in 2024? The IRS sent the three rounds of pandemic stimulus checks after they were authorized by Congress and signed into law by Trump and Biden. In other words, without Congress’ approval, the IRS won’t be sending any stimulus checks in 2024. Currently there is no legislation in the works for stimulus spending, and such legislation is also considered extremely unlikely to occur in 2025. Instead, Trump and *********** lawmakers are likely to focus on tax legislation to extend the tax cuts in his 2017 Tax Cuts & Jobs Act, as well as tackling other spending issues, experts say. Aimee Picchi Aimee Picchi is the associate managing editor for CBS MoneyWatch, where she covers business and personal finance. She previously worked at Bloomberg News and has written for national news outlets including USA Today and Consumer Reports. Source link #Trump #stimulus #checks #term #Heres #experts #payment Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Congolese false alarm after mausoleum vandalised Congolese false alarm after mausoleum vandalised AFP The gold tooth was placed in this mausoleum after its return to DR Congo in 2022 The gold-capped tooth of Patrice Lumumba, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s independence hero, is safe and has not been stolen, his daughter has told the BBC. The news comes as a relief to a nation gripped by ***** that the only ******** of the country’s revered first prime minister had been swiped after his mausoleum in the capital, Kinshasa, was vandalised on Monday night. But Juliana Lumumba said previous concerns about the security of the site had prompted the family to move the tooth to a more secure location. The tooth was only returned to the Lumumba family by former colonial power Belgium two years ago – and had been placed in the special memorial building. Lumumba was much loved not just by many at home but across ******* for his outspoken criticism of colonialism – and he became an icon of pan-Africanism. He was seen as a symbol of change and hope after the harrowing years under Belgian rule, during which millions of Congolese people ***** or were brutalised. But within months of the country’s independence from Belgium in 1960 he was toppled as prime minister. At the age of 35 he was shot by a ******* squad in January 1961, with the tacit backing of Belgium. His body was then dissolved in acid, but Belgian police officer Gerard Soete, who oversaw the destruction, took the tooth as a macabre memento. The return of Lumumba’s gold tooth in June 2022 was a cause for celebration in DR Congo – and it was taken on a tour of the vast country so people could pay their respects. The vandalism of the mausoleum has caused outrage – and when Culture Minister Yolande Elebe Mandembo announced on Tuesday that an investigation had been launched, many feared the worst. Footage circulated showing that a glass door had been smashed to get access to the chamber where a coffin could be seen. But Ms Lumumba sought to reassure people on Wednesday – saying her father’s tooth had not been there at the time of the break-in. Nonetheless she told the BBC she felt “anger and sadness” that her father’s grave had been disrespected. Jelle Vermeersch The gold tooth of Patrice Lumumba – pictured here in 2016 – had been preserved in a padded box by Belgian police officer Gerard Soete Now 69, she spent years lobbying Belgium for the return of the tooth. “Patrice Lumumba sacrificed himself for the sovereignty and independence of his country and the Congolese,” she said. “This is so unrepresentative of our culture, which respects the graves of our dearly departed.” Local authorities say four suspects have been arrested over the desecration, but their identities have not been made public. Ms Lumumba said the Lumumba Foundation wanted to take over management of the mausoleum because of security worries and had been lobbying the government to do so. You may also be interested in:Getty Images/BBC Source link #Congolese #false #alarm #mausoleum #vandalised Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

STALKER 2 Developers Address Early Issues With The Game STALKER 2 Developers Address Early Issues With The Game After first being announced in 2010, STALKER 2 is out now for Xbox Series and PC. And despite more positive reception than negative, there are still technical issues with STALKER 2 that have caused some problems for players. In a statement on social media, the game’s developers at GSC Game World expressed their joy of the game finally being available to players. That said, they did acknowledge that the game has some “rough edges” that will be worked on as they monitor the feedback of players. “We understand that in such a game, there may still be rough edges: we literally haven’t released anything of this scale before,” they said. “We’re absolutely committed to being here, monitoring your feedback, and quickly fixing any issues that need our attention.” GUIDES: Improve Your STALKER 2 Experience They continued to say that over the next few days, they will be working on various hotfixes for the game and will release them “as precisely as possible” while still being as frequent as they can. After those are out, the focus will move to larger updates for the game. “There will also be free in-game content — we’ll share its roadmap later in December,” they said. “We have big plans for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe. In a way, today is both a return and the beginning of a grand new journey.” Insider Gaming’s Grant Taylor-Hill reviewed the game, and says that despite any technical hiccups early on, STALKER 2 is “the cream of the crop, and it’s a bar to which every developer in the genre should aspire to reach.” Have you had any major issues with STALKER 2 in your early play? Let us know down below, and join the discussion in the official Insider Gaming forums. For more Insider Gaming, check out our exclusive on what EA is doing to prevent another disastrous launch for the next Battlefield game. And don’t forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest news and exclusive leaks every week! No Spam. Source link #STALKER #Developers #Address #Early #Issues #Game Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

DJI’s next trick could be a surprise ****** vacuum – and no, it sadly won’t fly upstairs DJI’s next trick could be a surprise ****** vacuum – and no, it sadly won’t fly upstairs A leaked image suggests DJI could be planning to launch a ****** vacuum It could be called the DJI Romo and combine a vacuum and mop It’s early days for rumors but DJI has been entering new markets lately From e-bikes to power stations, DJI has been dipping its toes into new waters this year – and it could soon make a particularly surprising leap into ****** vacuums, according to new rumors. According to a leaked image from @JasperEllens (picked up by DroneNR and Notebookcheck) the so-called DJI Romo vacuum seemingly exists, in prototype form at least. Whether the Romo actually makes it to production ******** to be seen, but given DJI’s recent record of branching out from making the best drones, it certainly wouldn’t be a huge leap. A ****** vacuum would also, on paper, combine a lot of its existing tech. DJI currently makes robots like the RoboMaster S1, drones with advanced obstacle-avoidance systems like the DJI Mavic 3 Pro, and cameras with advanced Lidar-based autofocus like the DJI Ronin 4D. The only thing that’s really missing from the tech mix is the cleaning powers of the best ****** vacuums. I can’t stop laughing.@DJIGlobal actually made the #DJIROMO. The vacuum cleaner they registered a year ago. What will it do? Fly up the stairs? And the key question, will it come with LiDAR? That’s it guys, I am out… hahahaha pic.twitter.com/9BcvJjQscCNovember 1, 2024 Given this is the only ***** we’ve seen so far, the DJI Romo ******** highly speculative, but it seems we can expect a combined ****** vacuum and mop with features like individual room controls and **** detection. The only thing we’re pretty confident of ruling out is a flying ****** vacuum with propellors (which the leaked image appears to back up). That is unless DJI has quietly absorbed some of the team behind the bonkers Ring Always Home Cam (below), a flying security cam that never saw the light of day. Why a ****** vacuum? The Ring Always Home Cam (above) never landed officially – and we feel confident in ruling out a flying DJI ****** vacuum. (Image credit: Ring) DJI has never been shy about barging into new markets and disrupting them with its consistently impressive tech – and while the DJI Romo may ultimately be just another of its wild prototypes, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see DJI launch a ****** vacuum in 2025. Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable ****** Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content. The move towards diversifying its product lineup seems to have coincided with the increasing heat it’s been feeling from US regulators about its flying cameras and the supposed security risks they pose. A full DJI ban has fortunately never materialized, but the rumblings seem likely to continue under the new Trump administration in 2025 – which means we can expect to see it continue to branch out next year beyond its Avinox Drive System for e-bikes. Disrupting the ****** vacuum market may also seem more appealing since Amazon’s iRobot takeover bit the dust earlier this year, which means there’s no clear dominant player. Our best ****** vacuums guide contains a wide mix of brands, from Ecovacs to Narwal (pictured at the top of this page). Another rumor that’s much closer to DJI’s home turf is that it could soon gate-****** the world of the best 360 cameras with a rival to Insta360 and GoPro. That’s just one of the many rumored DJI launches we’ve seen recently, which have also included an Osmo Mobile 7 phone gimbal, Mavic 4 drone, and a Mic Mini microphone – which now looks likely to be launched on November 26, according to DJI’s own teaser. That’s quite the roll call of new tech – and who knows, maybe it’ll be crowned in 2025 by a new rival for the likes of Eufy, iRobot, Narwal, and Roborock. You might also like Source link #DJIs #trick #surprise #****** #vacuum #sadly #wont #fly #upstairs Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Man who drugged wife in French mass ***** case told: You’ll **** alone Man who drugged wife in French mass ***** case told: You’ll **** alone CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP Caroline Darian accused her father of lying to the court, saying she was convinced he abused her Tensions at the French mass ***** trial burst into the open on Wednesday when Dominique Pelicot’s daughter Caroline shouted at her father from across the courtroom that he would “**** alone like a dog”. Caroline Darian, 45, has repeatedly said she is convinced her father drugged and abused her after semi-****** photos of her asleep were found on his laptop. He has denied abusing her but has admitted drugging his wife Gisèle for a decade and recruiting men online to ***** her in their home when she was unconscious. Dominique Pelicot and 50 other men have been on trial since September, and a verdict is expected on 20 December. During an emotional day in court in Avignon, Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyers gave their closing arguments, describing the historic nature of the trial and paying tribute to her courage in waiving her anonymity to bring the mass ***** trial into the open. In her statements to the court Caroline spoke of her anguish at what she says are persistent ***** by her father. Earlier this week, with a voice full of emotion, she told the court her life had “stopped” when police first showed her photos from her father’s laptop in 2020. On Wednesday, Dominique Pelicot was given a chance to address his daughter while taking the stand for the final time in this trial. The main defendant said he most wished he still had Caroline’s support. “Some may laugh but it’s my daughter I wish I could look at in the face. It hurts to see her like this,” he said, sitting in a glass box only metres away from his daughter and the rest of his family. “I would love to see her, I would love to talk to her,” he added. As his voice faltered, Caroline’s rose: “I will never come see you. Never. You will **** alone like a dog,” she shouted. “We all **** alone,” he replied. “You especially,” she hit back. It was the last public exchange between a father and daughter who by all accounts had had, for many years, a loving and close relationship. Mr Pelicot recalled visiting her in hospital when she was recovering from surgery as a child so he could hold her and comfort her, and shared memories of her teenage years. When he repeated that he would always love her even if she had stopped loving him, she looked ahead silently, tears streaming down her face – but did not respond. It was only later, when the session ended, that she approached the box her father sat in and shouted: “You had two months [to tell the truth]!” During questioning, Mr Pelicot also stated that he was a **** ******* and that getting found out by police in November 2020 had “unburdened him”. He denied that his ******* against his wife had been sparked by an inferiority complex or by a ******* for revenge for an affair she had in the 1980s. Asked what he thought about chemical submission – drugging someone for the purposes of coercion or ******** – he answered: “It’s *****. It annihilates everything. It should never be done.” Mr Pelicot’s statements were followed by closing arguments from Gisèle Pelicot’s legal team. Lawyers for the 50 other defendants will give their own closing arguments from next week. They are expected to explore more deeply the defence that many of the men cannot be guilty because they did not realise Ms Pelicot was unconscious and therefore did not “know” they were ******* her. Over almost three hours Ms Pelicot’s lawyers, Antoine Camus and Stéphane Babonneau, retold the horrific story of Dominique Pelicot’s *******, peppering their account with literary references. “Everyone contributed to this monstrosity on their own level, and allowed a woman’s ordeal to go on. It’s the banality of evil of [philosopher] Hannah Arendt,” said Mr Camus. Getty Images Gisèle Pelicot gave evidence for the final time on Tuesday They pleaded with the judges to hand down sentences that reflected the extent of the suffering of Gisèle Pelicot and her family. Mr Camus said he was aware of the “expectations and hopes in this room and beyond” for the trial, which he said he described as historic, because “we badly, urgently want and need it to be”. Leaning heavily on the notion of free will, he dismissed the defence’s argument that many of the men who allegedly ****** Ms Pelicot did so because they were intimidated, manipulated or tricked by her husband. “Manipulation is not hypnosis,” he said. The fact they were all aware that Mr Pelicot was “recruiting” many other men too should be taken into account by the judges, he added. “Everyone who came into that house of horrors knew that others had come before him and others would follow,” Mr Camus said. His colleague painted a devastating picture of Ms Pelicot’s life since her husband’s ******* had become known. Stéphane Babonneau then described what had led Ms Pelicot – who by then was living in a small village under her maiden name – to give up her anonymity and open the trial to the public and the media. It was in 2023, he said, when French media began reporting on the Pelicot case using pseudonyms that “a feeling of rebellion started to take hold of Gisèle Pelicot”. “She decided to take back control of her life. The moment had come for shame to change sides.” The will to stop hiding had awoken in her, he said, because she hadn’t done anything wrong. And she thought the details of her case and the videos of the alleged assaults would help expose the reality of *****. “For her story to be useful and to help other women she understood she had to give up the anonymity that had served her for years,” Mr Babonneau explained. “She had to accept she would forever be the victim of the Mazan rapes.” The lawyer also urged judges not to accept that the defendants had made a “mistake” when – as some have said – they ****** Ms Pelicot involuntarily or “out of stupidity or ignorance”. “If you accept the right to make a mistake, what will stop another man tomorrow from saying that when a woman told him ‘no’ he actually understood ‘yes’? That he also made a mistake?” “I ask you to ******* the right to make mistakes which would put society in danger – and at the risk of seeing more Gisèle Pelicots,” Mr Babonneau said. He ended by paying tribute to Ms Pelicot and said the trial would be a “legacy” for future generations: “They will hear the name Gisèle Pelicot, they will hear about her courage and about the price she paid.” Turning to look at Ms Pelicot, he said: “You did your job. You went beyond what was expected of you.” “Now, pass on the torch to the others to carry on the ****** you never chose.” Gisèle Pelicot, to his right, wiped her eyes. Source link #Man #drugged #wife #French #mass #***** #case #told #Youll #**** Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Nintendo Missed Out on a Major Game of the Year Title But Switch 2 May Finally be Powerful Enough to Run it Nintendo Missed Out on a Major Game of the Year Title But Switch 2 May Finally be Powerful Enough to Run it Recently, the nominations for the prestigious Game of the Year title were announced, and to the disappointment of many, Nintendo was completely absent from the list. Not a single original Nintendo game made it through to this year’s GOTY race. While the company has consistently delivered excellent titles and great experiences, it’s clear that the Switch’s hardware is the limitation factor. The anticipation for the upcoming Switch 2 is palpable. | Image Credit: Nintendo With the rumors speculating the upcoming Switch 2‘s performance, things may be about to change. Leaks suggest that the next-generation console will be much more powerful than the current Switch. This means that even if it does not break the drought in GOTY nominations for Nintendo, it will be able to run games like beloved Baldur’s Gate 3, GOTY of 2023. The Switch’s Hardware Limitations May Be Holding Nintendo Back If the Switch 2 is powerful enough, it will be able to run AAA-demanding titles like BG3. | Image Credit: Larian Studios One of the most notable games missing from the Switch library is Baldur’s Gate 3. This game has captivated players with its deep storytelling, complex character progression, and immersive gameplay. However, despite the Switch’s success with many genres, it’s simply not powerful enough to run a game like BG3 or most AAA titles. It is clear that Switch’s selling point is its portability and unique hybrid design. However, with the industry’s recent push towards high graphic fidelity and increasing processing demands of modern titles, the Switch is showing its age. Fortunately for Nintendo, the Switch 2 is close and could change all of that. The nominees for GAME OF THE YEAR at #TheGameAwards on December 12. Vote Now: pic.twitter.com/75AZeqo6KS — The Game Awards (@thegameawards) November 18, 2024 Recent leaks and rumors surrounding the new system suggest that it will have a significantly more powerful GPU and CPU, along with enhanced memory that will be able to run even modern AAA games. If these leaks hold true, the Switch 2 could finally have the performance needed to handle demanding titles, including Baldur’s Gate 3 and other popular AAA titles. Although Larian Studios has stated they are moving away from the Baldur’s Gate franchise, the introduction of a much more capable device like the Switch 2 can encourage the studio to rethink its decision. While everything is still speculation (including the Switch 2’s performance), it would present an enticing opportunity for both Larian and fans of the game. However, this also raises another question, what if leaks are not true and Switch 2 is also not powerful enough? In that case, the fans will need to get accustomed to the fact Nintendo consoles are only good for portability and their hybrid features, rather than for playing AAA games. Switch 2 May Hold the Key to the Future Switch 2 has a lot riding on its shoulders and it must deliver on most of its promise. | Image Credit: Nintendo Nintendo may have missed out on a GOTY nomination this time around, but with the Switch 2 on the horizon, the company has a chance to recover from that disappointment. It can not only try to deliver an engaging new title but also showcase its new console’s hardware capabilities. It is uncertain that the new system will change the outcome of the following GOTY awards, but it could help usher in an era where Nintendo consoles are much more capable and can finally run the kinds of ambitious, cutting-edge games that have been out of its reach for years. As for the players who believe that the Switch 2 may just be the breakthrough that the company needs to push more innovative games. The leaks give them good news as it suggest that the handheld will offer significant performance improvements. If it can deliver on these promises, it will become the key to the future of the company and might even convince Larian to make a port. In the end, who knows? The Switch 2 might be the key for Nintendo to start delivering games that are worthy of being nominated for GOTY awards once again. Source link #Nintendo #Missed #Major #Game #Year #Title #Switch #Finally #Powerful #Run Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Stalker 2 PC performance testing and settings analysis — another demanding game that uses frame generation and upscaling as a crutch Stalker 2 PC performance testing and settings analysis — another demanding game that uses frame generation and upscaling as a crutch Stalker 2 returns to the zone after a long absence Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl finally marks a return to the zone after a 15 year absence. It leverages Epic’s Unreal Engine 5 for some impressive visuals, and it also punishes lesser PCs. We’ve been running benchmarks and this is a game that needs both GPU and CPU horsepower — and don’t neglect the VRAM if you’re planning to run with maxed out settings. Our testing will look at many of the latest Nvidia, AMD, and Intel GPUs that are among the best graphics cards, and we’ll provide a few CPU benchmarks as well. Let us know in the comments what other hardware you’d like to see tested, and we’ll try to make it happen. A lot has changed since Call of Prypiat, Clear Sky, and the original Shadow of Chornobyl came out in the late 00s (note that the spelling was officially updated after the Russian invasion of Ukraine). A state-of-the-art PC back in 2009, when Prypiat launched, consisted of a Core i7-965 or 975 Extreme Edition, or an overclocked i7-920 that was just as fast. The top graphics cards of the era were Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 285 AMD’s newly launched Radeon HD 5870. Windows 7 was also brand-spanking-new, having launched in October 2009, which means DirectX 11 had also just gone live. Call of Prypiat was one of the first (or perhaps the first) games to use DirectX 11, though it was also compatible with DX9 and DX10 GPUs. Now, Windows 7 has officially been retired, along with the Windows 8 sequel, and Windows 10 is on its last legs. GPUs that were top of the line models 15 years ago often can’t even run modern games. Stalker 2 as an example (and yes, we’re going to skip the caps and periods rather than writing “S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2” every time, since it’s not even an acronym) requires at least a GTX 1060 6GB or RX 580 8GB graphics card — those arrived in 2016 and 2017, respectively. It also requires a Core i7-7700K or Ryzen 5 1600X or better, 16GB of RAM, and 160GB of disk space. That’s for a target of 1080p with the low preset and 30 fps. The recommended hardware — and based on our testing, you don’t want to come up short — lists a Core i7-11700 or Ryzen 7 5800X, GeForce RTX 3070 Ti / 4070 or Radeon RX 6800 XT, and 32GB of RAM. That’s for the high preset and 60 fps at 1440p. Also, an SSD is “required” — though I suspect the game can still load (slowly) from a hard drive. And those framerate targets? That’s with TSR, DLSS, FSR, or XeSS upscaling and related technologies, including framegen. Steep requirements might be an understatement, and once again we can only shake our heads sadly at the default enablement of upscaling and frame generation. We prefer to have those as ways to boost performance to higher levels and smooth out framerates, not as baseline requirements. To that end, we’ll be testing at native resolution, as well as with upscaling only, and finally with upscaling and frame generation. So let’s see how Stalker 2 runs on current PC hardware. Stalker 2 Test Setup Stalker 2 comes with the full complement of upscaling technologies from Nvidia, AMD, Intel, and Unreal Engine 5: DLSS (3.7.0), FSR 3.1, XeSS 1.3.1, and TSR (Temporal Super Resolution). Or you can turn off all of those and run with TAA (Temporal Anti-Aliasing), still with the option to enable (a rather poor looking) scaling if you want. Our main test PC consists of our soon-to-be-retired from active duty Core i9-13900K, 32GB of DDR5-5600 CL28 memory, an MSI Z790 Ace motherboard, and a 4TB Crucial T700 SSD. We’ll have additional results for the 4090 and 7900 XTX running on some other CPUs, to show just how CPU limited the game can be. GPU drivers for our initial testing are Nvidia 566.14, Intel 6299, and AMD 24.10.1. This is an Nvidia promoted game, and AMD hasn’t released any new drivers since October 18. Which is a bit concerning, given the number of new games coming out right now, like Flight Simulator 2024. AMD will probably drop new drivers right after we post this, but we didn’t see any noteworthy issues in our testing. Our aim here isn’t to test every current generation GPU. We’ll skip the Nvidia RTX 4080 and RTX 4070 Ti, for example, as well as the Arc A770 8GB and A380. We’ll see about adding some previous generation cards as well in the next couple of days, just as a point of reference to help line up where such cards rank compared to newer offerings. Our typical testing consists of using medium settings at 1080p, and then 1080p, 1440p, and 4K with ultra — or in this case, “epic” — settings. We’ll do all of the baseline testing with TAA and 100% scaling, and then run some additional tests at 1440p and 4K with upscaling, and all three resolutions with upscaling and framegen. Upscaling alone won’t help the fastest cards, as we’ll hit CPU limits (at least on the 13900K), so keep that in mind. Our benchmark sequence consists of a manual run through the starting village of Zalissya. The map, as in previous Stalker games, is effectively completely open from the start and you can wander seamlessly throughout the exclusion zone… assuming you can survive. The first town makes for a decent benchmark sequence as there are no mutants or enemies, but there are plenty of NPCs wandering about as well as buildings and trees. We run each GPU at each setting at least twice, using the higher score, and three times for the first run on each preset (i.e. medium and epic), discarding the first result. We’ll have screenshots and a discussion of image fidelity at the various settings further down the page, after the benchmarks. Stalker 2 does not utilize ray tracing hardware, opting instead for software-based rendering using Unreal’s Lumen and Nanite technologies. It’s plenty heavy even without using hardware RT, though, as we’ll soon see. [Note: We’re still testing additional GPUs and will periodically update these charts. Let us know in the comments if there are any GPUs in particular that you’d like to see tested.] Stalker 2 1080p Medium GPU performance 1080p medium represents our baseline performance metric. Yes, you can go much higher, and you can also go lower — on resolution and settings. You can enable upscaling and framegen as well. But we feel 1080p and medium settings represent a target that most “reasonable” gaming PCs should be able to manage. Here are the results. (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware) One thing that’s immediately obvious is that we’re hitting CPU bottlenecks here. AMD’s top GPUs run slightly faster than Nvidia’s top GPUs, but everything lands right around the 100 fps mark. Considering the relatively low target, that’s a bit surprising, but Stalker games have often pushed the hardware of their time to the limit. Some of this is also due to the use of Unreal Engine 5. It’s possible to hit much higher framerates, with the right settings and game optimizations, but from the games we’ve tested it seems that UE5 is usually quite heavy on both the CPU and GPU fronts. Stalker 2 1080p Epic GPU performance (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware) The CPU bottleneck becomes far more obvious at 1080p and epic settings. Now, the three fastest GPUs are all tied at 85~86 fps, and the next two GPUs aren’t too far off that pace. The 1% lows are also pretty consistent at less than 60 fps. This is, sadly, the state of many games these days, particularly those using Unreal Engine 5. Running at native resolution like we’re doing is no longer the goal. Instead, developers are using upscaling and frame generation technologies as crutches that allow them to post higher performance numbers. Sure, Stalker 2 looks good graphically, but not amazing. UE5 also has a lot of pop-in where you’ll see the geometry on objects massively shift — especially on trees, in this particular game. It’s distracting and not something I like to see on top-end hardware with maxed out settings. Dragon Age: The Veilguard has similar quality graphics in my book, and manages to do away with a lot of the level of detail scaling pop-in that’s so common with UE5 games. (And if it’s not clear, no, Veilguard isn’t using UE5.) We also dropped the 8GB GPUs from testing. 1080p high settings seems to be viable, but 1080p epic exceeds their VRAM capacity and performance absolutely tanks. The RTX 4060 Ti 8GB card initially ran at around 48 fps, but after a minute or so it had dropped to around 20~25 fps with frequent dips into the single digits. The RTX 4060 never showed higher performance and ran in the single digits as well. AMD’s RX 7600 likewise started at a higher level (~20 fps) but then dropped to <10 fps after a minute or so running around the game world. Stalker 2 1440p Epic GPU performance (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware) 1440p epic settings finally starts to move away from the CPU bottleneck, but the 4090 at least is still clearly being held back. Power use for many of the faster Nvidia GPUs is also quite low, a key indicator of CPU limitations. The 4090 used 294W, 4080 Super drew 242W, and the 4070 Ti Super needed 241W. In contrast, AMD’s top GPUs were still close to their rated power limits, with 360W on the 7900 XTX, 317W for the 7900 XT, and 256W on the 7900 GRE. In the overall standings, the 4090 and 4080 Super now take the top two spots, though the 7900 XTX matches the latter with only a 0.8 fps difference (a 1.1% difference, which is within the margin of error). The 7900 XT matches the 4070 Ti Super as well, which means it has the value advantage given its current price — you can check our GPU price index for current values, but right now the 4070 Ti Super costs around $780 while the 7900 XT only costs $640. Similar discrepancies in price to performance exist throughout much of the current GPU landscape. The 4080 Super costs $950 or more while the 7900 XTX starts at $840. The 4070 and 7900 GRE both have a $550 MSRP, but here Nvidia undercuts AMD with a $500 card versus a $530 card — albeit with slightly lower performance. Nvidia’s 4060 Ti 16GB doesn’t look too good either, with a $450 price tag and performance that falls below the $390 7700 XT, never mind the $470 RX 7800 XT that’s 30% faster at these settings. Stalker 2 4K Epic GPU performance (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware) Native 4K at maxed out settings as usual proves to be too much for most of the GPUs. Even the mighty RTX 4090 only manages 57 fps — definitely playable, but not quite perfectly smooth. And while there are less demanding areas in Stalker 2, we’re sure there are also regions that will be even more taxing and would push framerates even lower. The 4090 leads the second string 4080 Super by 20%, which still isn’t as large of a gap as we often see — and the 4090 still only pulls 346W, so something is keeping it from reaching higher levels of performance. The RTX 4080 Super in turn beats the RX 7900 XTX by a couple of FPS in average performance, though minimums are more stable on the AMD cards. That’s actually something we saw throughout our testing: AMD’s GPUs, probably thanks to having more VRAM at most levels, end up with better minimum FPS. VRAM also proves to be an issue on GPUs with less than 16GB now. The RTX 4070 falls below both the 7800 XT and 7900 GRE, but AMD’s RX 7700 XT likewise takes a tumble down to the low 20s. Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Stalker 2 with upscaling Given the obvious CPU bottlenecks at lower resolutions, it shouldn’t be too surprising that those same limitations show up when we turn on upscaling. We skipped 1080p testing for that reason, focusing on the 1440p and 4K results. They’re still pretty underwhelming at times. (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware) At 1440p epic settings with quality mode upscaling (67% render resolution), the top six GPUs all land in the 80–85 fps range, with minimums of 48–52 fps. So, the 13900K isn’t able to keep the GPUs fully saturated with work. We’ll be testing a Ryzen 7 9800X3D shortly to see how that changes things, and maybe a few other CPUs as well, so stay tuned. Lower tier GPUs do benefit from upscaling, and the further they are from 80 fps, the ******* the potential boost. the 7600 XT for example sees a 37% increase over native 1440p, and the 4060 Ti 16GB improves by a similar 35%. Everything from the RX 7800 XT and up manages to break 60 fps as well, and all of the tested cards are definitely playable (of course, we already dropped GPUs like the 8GB cards from our testing at 1080p due to performance issues). But we do need to mention that DLSS, FSR3, and XeSS are not the same. That’s part of why we stick to TAA 100% resolution as the baseline. Software algorithms to improve performance can be beneficial, but fundamentally the 7700 XT using FSR3 upscaling does not look the same as the 4060 Ti 16GB using DLSS upscaling. We would say both are viable, particularly if you’re not too finicky, but DLSS continues to look better. (FSR3 upscaling looked noticeably worse at 1080p as well, if you’re wondering.) (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware) 4K epic with upscaling reduces the CPU bottleneck, though many of the positions still look closer than normal. The 4090 for example only beats the 4080 Super by 12%, which is basically in line with our larger GPU benchmarks hierarchy results for 1440p ultra in pure rasterization performance. But AMD’s 7900 XTX shows a 13% lead over the 7900 XT, compared to just 7.4% in our hierarchy. In games where we’re clearly not CPU limited, though? The RTX 4090 can be up to 30–35 percent faster than the 4080 Super. That often requires the use of hardware ray tracing features, or at least a game that doesn’t run into clear CPU limitations. Stalker 2 with upscaling and frame generation Frame generation is often a highly controversial feature, and rightly so. Some people refer to the generated frames as “fake frames,” and they’re not really wrong. Because there’s no additional sampling of user input, and with the added overhead of framegen, it often feels more like two steps backward for two steps forward. Stalker 2 supports FSR 3.1 and DLSS 3 framegen, which means if you really want to, you can use DLSS upscaling with FSR framegen. That can result in higher performance on Nvidia’s cards — and of course you’d only have the option for FSR framegen if you have an RTX 30- or 20-series GPU, or anything else for that matter. But with pure FSR upscaling and framegen, we checked the 4070 Super and found that DLSS 3 upscaling and framegen was 38% faster than FSR 3 upscaling and framegen. That’s a critical point that many overlook. Yes, FSR 3.1 is technically open source, but that doesn’t mean AMD didn’t do a lot of work optimizing it to work better on its own hardware. Nvidia doesn’t want FSR to be better than DLSS, so it’s not actively working to improve performance with the technology. And so, we have apples and oranges that we get to compare and debate. Here are the results with both quality upscaling and framegen enabled. (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware) Starting with 1080p, because of the heavy CPU bottleneck, framegen gives some significant improvements to perceived FPS. However, as we’ve said in the past, this is basically “frame smoothing” rather than “frame generation” — because no new user input gets factored into the generated frames. It’s not inherently bad, an in Stalker 2 the overall performance uplift can make it worthwhile, but the user input sampling rate will be half of the shown FPS values. And again, as we’ve seen in some other games, FSR3 gives AMD a ******* boost in overall performance than DLSS gives to Nvidia. It’s not a “fair” comparison in that the GPUs are not running the same workloads, and using FSR3 on Nvidia doesn’t fix things as it’s only getting optimizations for AMD GPUs as far as we can tell. 1080p with upscaling and framegen absolutely looks worse on the AMD cards, even if it runs faster. (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware) The higher output resolution of 1440p does make some of the rendering issues that were clearly visible at 1080p go away for FSR3. You have to start pixel peeping to really see differences, so in some sense this is a win. But this is also why we don’t like games or graphics card companies using upscaling and framegen as the default comparison. That’s ripe for ****** by using only the optimal results to make one company’s products look better. The important thing, insofar as Stalker 2 goes, is that every GPU in this chart is still imminently playable. Yes, user input still happens at half the rate shown in the chart, but it does look smoother and that tends to trick your brain into the game feeling smoother as well. When framegen only yields a 20–30 percent improvement in FPS, that’s not very good, but here we’re getting much better scaling. The RTX 4060 Ti 16GB went from 53.3 to 76.3 fps, a 43% improvement. The higher tier 4090 on the other hand gets a 75% boost. So perhaps memory bandwidth or some other factor is holding back the lower tier cards. AMD, as expected, gets an even larger boost from FSR3 framegen. The RX 7600 XT goes from 43.3 to 77.7 fps, a 79% increase. The 7900 XTX at the top of the chart sees an even larger 90% overall performance boost. That’s very near to the theoretical 100% boost that framegen can offer (which shouldn’t ever be realized unless there’s other wonkiness involved). (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware) 4K with upscaling and framegen also yields mostly playable results on all the GPUs we tested — we say “mostly” because the 4060 Ti 16GB and 7600 XT at just 44–45 fps definitely start to feel sluggish. That’s because the input sampling rate is only around 22 fps. But the 4070 and above all break 60 fps of generated performance, which works fine overall. Note that 12GB cards can still struggle at these settings, especially over longer play sessions. So the 4070 and 7700 XT (and 4070 Super and 4070 Ti) become more likely to see short bursts of highly unstable framerates — meaning, you might get individual frames falling into the single digit FPS range. (Image credit: GSC Game World) Stalker 2 settings and image quality We haven’t had time to do a full image quality analysis, so check back and we’ll update this section. Image 1 of 10 (Image credit: GSC Game World) (Image credit: GSC Game World) (Image credit: GSC Game World) (Image credit: GSC Game World) (Image credit: GSC Game World) (Image credit: GSC Game World) (Image credit: GSC Game World) (Image credit: GSC Game World) (Image credit: GSC Game World) (Image credit: GSC Game World) Stalker 2 closing thoughts There’s a lot to digest, but as far as performance and system requirements go, our advice is to make sure you exceed the minimum recommendations. Also, plan on using upscaling and framegen for most GPUs, especially at higher resolutions. We still need to test some CPUs, plus additional GPUs, and we’ll be updating the article with that information in the next day or two (and testing Flight Simulator 2024 at the same time, assuming it continues to work). But if you’re wondering if Stalker 2 properly carries forward the Stalker legacy, it does — in both good and bad ways. The graphics have improved compared to the older games, as well they should after 15+ years. But a lot of the gameplay so far feels quite similar. You’re constantly running into enemies that have PDAs that reveal stash locations, anomalies are all over the place, and you have to try and walk the fine line between the various factions. If you like the post-apocalyptic (-esque) setting of the Chornobyl area, returning to it again after all these years will almost certainly hit all the right pleasure centers of your brain. It’s still frustrating to see Unreal Engine 5 apparently requiring so much help to reach higher levels of performance. Framegen in particular should not be the baseline recommendation. It has some clear drawbacks, and tends to be more useful as a marketing feature. We’d rather have slightly less advanced graphics that run well over interpolated frames to smooth out some of the choppiness. Other games and game engines seem to manage this much better than UE5, but Unreal Engine gets used a lot because it makes life easier on the game developers — often at the cost of performance. Source link #Stalker #performance #testing #settings #analysis #demanding #game #frame #generation #upscaling #crutch Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

B.C. port union files constitutional challenge of back-to-work order B.C. port union files constitutional challenge of back-to-work order By Staff The ********* Press Posted November 20, 2024 2:57 pm 1 min read Descrease article font size Increase article font size The union representing port supervisors in British Columbia is formally challenging the legal and constitutional authority of the federal labour minister to order them back to work. In a legal document dated Tuesday, International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 says it’s questioning whether the order issued by Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon last week violates the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike. The union says these rights are protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 1:53 B.C. port labour dispute impacting economy Trending Now Trump taps Dr. Oz to lead U.S. health insurance programs in next cabinet These were Canada’s top 10 stolen vehicles in 2023 It says the questions will be considered by a panel of the Canada Industrial Relations Board on Dec. 9 and 10. Story continues below advertisement This isn’t the only challenge the federal government is facing on this issue, as the union representing port workers in Montreal also announced last week it intended to challenge the federal government. Get daily National news Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. MacKinnon stepped in on Nov. 12 to get ports in both B.C. and Montreal moving again after employers locked workers out. His order directed the board to order all operations to resume and move both sets of talks to binding arbitration. More on Politics More videos &copy 2024 The ********* Press Source link #B.C #port #union #files #constitutional #challenge #backtowork #order Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]