Ga[M]er

Binturong A 40-pound mammal creeps along a tree branch in a steamy forest. The animal looks like a cross between a cat and a bear. And its appearance isn’t even its strangest quality. What’s even weirder is the creature's smell: It gives off the scent of buttered popcorn! This is the binturong, an animal that's full of surprises. COMMON NAME: Binturongs SCIENTIFIC NAME: Arctictis binturong TYPE: Mammals DIET: Omnivore AVERAGE LIFE SPAN IN THE WILD: 18 years SIZE: 2.3 to 2.8 feet WEIGHT: 24 to 71 pounds GET A GRIP Binturongs live in the rainforests of Southeast Asia. They belong to a family of carnivorous mammals that also includes civets. The animals spend most of their time hanging out in the treetops. When they aren’t lounging on branches, they’re looking for yummy snacks such as insects, birds, and fruit. The animal uses its tail—which is almost as long as its body—like a fifth limb as it climbs through the forest. This tail is prehensile, which means it’s capable of gripping things. The binturong is one of only two carnivores that has a prehensile tail. (The other is the kinkajou.) By grasping onto branches and trunks with the furry extension, the binturong is able to move more easily along the trees. PASS THE POPCORN As they travel, binturongs rub a pungent substance produced in their scent glands onto branches and foliage. The animals use the odor to mark territory as well as to attract mates. The substance smells like buttery popcorn. With all its cool qualities, you definitely can't turn your nose up at this odd-smelling animal! https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/binturong

Nissan is betting a proportion of customers in Europe will still want combustion-engine vehicles after 2030 and plans to keep selling full-hybrid models even as rivals plan to move to full-electric vehicles. “The question is: how quick will Europe be only EV?” asked Guillaume Cartier, head of the Nissan region that includes Europe, in an interview with Automotive News Europe. “Some countries like the UK have drastic regulations where it’s possible even hybrids will be banned after 2030, but central Europe will totally different.” Nissan’s commitment to offer 100 percent electrified vehicles – meaning either EVs or hybrids -- after 2030 is similar to the approach taken by fellow Japanese automaker Toyota, which has said it will offer “at least 50 percent” zero emissions vehicles in Europe by 2030 Nissan is launching three hybrid crossovers this year: the Qashqai compact e-Power, the Juke hybrid and the X-trail e-Power. Nissan’s e-Power technology is an alternative hybrid drivetrain to that used by rivals including Toyota and alliance partner Renault in that the 1.5-liter combustion engine does not directly link to the driven wheels. Instead, the powertrain directly charges an on-board battery which powers a motor that drives the wheels. This is known as a 'series' set-up in which the engine does not directly power the wheels. Nissan says the technology delivers a driving experience more akin to that of a pure electric vehicle. The Juke hybrid meanwhile uses a more conventional hybrid drivetrain shared with the Renault Captur E-Tech. Renault is one of many mainstream car makers to have made a pledge to drop combustion engines by 2030. Ford has also promised to go all electric by the same date, along with Peugeot and Fiat. Opel/Vauxhall has committed to an earlier EV-only start date of 2028. Across Stellantis’ brands in Europe, 70 percent of sales will be pure EV by 2030 CEO Carlos Tavares has said. Meanwhile, the Volkswagen brand will ditch its last combustion engine vehicles in 2035, by which time automakers must achieve a 100 percent cut in CO2 emissions compared to 2021 levels, the European Union has said. Nissan will launch 15 electric vehicles in Europe by 2030, Cartier said at a presentation for journalists held in Madrid. Models include: An crossover replacement for the Leaf compact to be built at Nissan’s plant in Sunderland, England, expected around 2024. The upmarket Ariya midsize crossover due later this summer. The electric Townstar compact van based on the Renault Kangoo dues this year that replaces the e-NV200 van. A replacement for the Micra small car built on the Alliance CMF-BEV small electric car platform and due in 2024 or 2025. Nissan would not give a prediction on the mix between hybrids and pure electric by 2030. “We know what we think but like any forecast we will be wrong for sure,” Francois Bailly, head of planning for the region that includes Europe, told Automotive News Europe. “Today in the industry we are facing the dilemma of looking 10 years ahead when we don’t know the next crisis in one month.”

Ifelt quite smug moving from London to Bali, Indonesia, in January 2020. I had left my stressful job as an editor in order to pursue a freelance career from a sunnier climate for a few months. Things took an unexpected turn when the pandemic began and international flights stopped. I felt quite smug again 18 months later, having finally popped back to the UK for six weeks, when I managed to leave shortly before the Omicron wave hit towards the end of last year. But then, on a New Year’s Eve trip to the beautiful Nusa islands, just off Bali, I was bitten by one mosquito too many. I found myself hospitalised not with Covid, but with dengue fever. I had been living in Indonesia for almost two years and had contracted dengue fever before, in May 2020. It was manageable: a week in bed with the lights off and plenty of nutrients was all I needed to recover. This time was different. Dengue fever is a virus that causes a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains and a skin rash. Get it once and, while you certainly won’t enjoy it, you will probably be fine. Get it a second time and there is a significant chance of it becoming much more serious, leading to dengue haemorrhagic fever, where your blood thins and can leak from your veins. I watched, in agony, as my body struggled to cope. A splitting headache exploded across my temples and refused to waver. The aches were akin to the most intense workout – and then some. Sickness and nausea left me incapable of doing any more than sipping rehydration drinks or sucking ginger sweets. I was five days into this when I tried to sit up in bed and experienced stomach pains so severe that they made me cry out, tears streaming down my face. I called the hospital. This is a common symptom of severe dengue and can be an indication that you have reached haemorrhaging point. Ambulances aren’t easy to arrange in Indonesia (especially when your Indonesian lessons haven’t reached that part of the curriculum), so my partner called a taxi. As my stomach pains intensified, we rushed to the hospital. My stay there was brief, but harrowing. Next to me, behind a half-closed curtain, was a middle-aged man who had gone blue in the face. A shrieking woman was hurriedly pushed out of the way as paramedics struggled to access an airway. Opposite, a tiny child, all alone, was hooked up to an oxygen machine. I spent days in and out of fevers, shivering and vomiting. When finally I began to recover, though, I started to view myself in a completely different light. Advertisement I had never had a good relationship with my body, struggling through diets, exercise regimes and unhealthy comparisons for as long as I could remember. From as young as six or seven, I had critiqued my body, comparing it with those of my school friends. It never really stopped. As I got older, I tried fasting, calorie counting, cutting out carbs and exercising for hours at a time. I would walk home from the gym feeling woozy and lightheaded, proud of having exhausted my body. I only ever though about my body with hatred and despair. But, struck down in bed, undergoing regular blood tests and IV drips, comparison was the last thing on my mind. It felt stupid to worry about the size of my thighs or the circumference of my waist rather than my ability to build up platelets and recover from an awful illness. I wouldn’t call it a brush with death, but my stint in a Balinese hospital showed me that my body is something to appreciate, to be grateful for and to admire. I am thankful for it – and seriously proud of everything it can do. Having recovered from a virus that many do not, I feel almost embarrassed about my previous criticisms of myself. Now, treating my body badly – a luxury that many do not get – would feel like a complete waste. It deserves nothing but my respect. It survived dengue fever twice – and that will always be more important than what it looks like on the outside. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/mar/23/a-moment-that-changed-me-dengue-fever-put-me-in-hospital-and-taught-me-to-love-my-body

LAHORE: Australia’s 14-member white ball contingent has arrived in Pakistan for the first time in 24 years amid tight security. According to the details, Australia’s ODI and T20 squad reached the Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore via a chartered flight. During the white-ball series, Pakistan and Australia will play three One-day Internationals (ODIs) and one T20 international next week. Captain Aaron Finch, Sean Abbott, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Ellis, Ben McDermott, Ben Dwarshuis, Marcus Stoinis and Adam Zampa will link with the remainder of the squad following the final Test. The squad will commence training on Sunday in preparation for the first ODI scheduled to be played on March 29 (Tuesday). Australia's ODI, T20 squad On February 22, Cricket Australia had announced a 16-member a squad for its ODI and Twenty 20 International Pakistan tour. According to the statement issued by Cricket Australia, batter Aaron Finch will lead the squad, while David Warner, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitch Starc and Glenn Maxwell will not be part of the squad. However, the Aussies suffered a blow last week when Kane Richardson suffered an injury and was ruled out of the series. Left-armer Ben Dwarshuis has been included in the squad. Australia's ODI and T20 squad: Aaron Finch (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Ben McDermott, Ben Dwarshuis, Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa.

It was supposed to be a routine two-hour flight carrying 132 people from one big city to another in southern China. But just over an hour into its journey, China Eastern Flight MU5735 pitched over into a sudden near-vertical dive. The Boeing 737-800 jet hurtled to the ground at high speed - thousands of feet a minute - slamming into a hillside in a fiery explosion. Most of the jet appears to have disintegrated on impact. But search crews scouring the mountains in Wuzhou, Guangxi province have found charred wreckage, scattered belongings, debris and some human remains. They've also found a piece critical to the puzzle - one of the two so-called black boxes. The cockpit voice recorder was damaged on the outside but its recordings were still intact. Investigators are hoping it will explain a disaster confounding aviation experts. What caused the plane to suddenly nosedive and crash? Here's what we know so far. Nothing amiss prior to nosedive Flight MU5735 took off from Kunming at 13:11 local time (05:11 GMT) and was due to arrive, two provinces across, in Guangzhou at 15:05. On board were 123 passengers and nine crew. The jet was a Boeing 737-800, a model long viewed as a reliable workhorse in the industry. Airline and aviation officials say they've not found any faults with the plane or concerns about flying conditions. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said the plane, which was less than seven years old, had passed all checks prior to take-off. Once in the air, it had also flown the normal flight path, through "not dangerous" weather, said Mao Yanfeng, head of aircraft investigation at CAAC. Air controllers had been in contact with the plane right until it nosedived, after which they received no response to multiple urgent calls. Tracking site FlightRadar24 showed the plane cruising along at a typical 29,100ft (about 9,000m). Two minutes and 15 seconds later it had plunged to 9,075ft (2,700m). The radar data shows the plane reaching maximum descent speeds of 31,000 ft per minute - or 157m per second. "This is extremely excessive and not something we would normally see in any sort of flight. The aircraft would have been almost vertical," says Dr Sonya Brown, an aviation expert from the University of New South Wales. At about 7,000-8,000 ft from the ground, there was a slight upturn, the data shows. But then it continued it's high speed plummet to the ground. Two main theories "It's very unconventional for a plane to be cruising and then suddenly dive like this," said Dr Brown. She said it was difficult to determine the cause but said that, "there's really two schools of thought - and I'm not sure I can say which it is at this point". One is "a catastrophic failure" of the plane's horizontal tail - the part at the back which stabilises the plane and keeps it in line with the direction it's moving. That could lead to the plane tipping over as it did. "That could be something mechanically caused - for example a runaway stabiliser," she said. The other option that's increasingly being suggested among experts is sabotage. "Unfortunately we have seen this in the airline industry before," Dr Brown said. She mentioned the Germanwings Flight 9525 crash in 2015, where a co-pilot crashed an Airbus carrying 150 people into the French Alps. All on board died on impact. But she notes that even then, that aircraft only reached descent rates of 3,000-4,000ft per minute, compared to the rate at which Flight MU5735 plummeted. "So this is a significantly, significantly different scenario - really extreme," Dr Brown said. Aircraft are designed to glide, she said. "They're not designed to tip over and dive. Even if all engines went out - the plane would slow down a little maybe but it will just glide. "So in terms of mechanical failure, it's really got to be around pitch control which is around the horizontal tail... so something has to have forced the aircraft down." What do we know about the pilots? There were three pilots on the plane, China Eastern officials disclosed on Wednesday. One of them was there as an observer to build up experience. The captain had 6,709 hours flying experience, while the first and second officers had 31,769 hours and 556 hours respectively. "From what we know, the performance of the three pilots had been good and their family life relatively harmonious," said airline spokesman Shangguan Xuemin. He confirmed that typically, the airline deployed only two pilots on short-haul flights as per industry practice. On Thursday, some Chinese media outlets had begun to name the pilots and their families. These details have yet to be confirmed by authorities. What can the black boxes tell us? Authorities have sent the cockpit recorder found on Wednesday to a lab in Beijing where it is hoped the data can be decoded quickly. The black box, the first one found, was dented by the crash impact, but the data inside appeared stable, officials said. "If this aircraft was brought down deliberately, that will actually be really helpful because it's going to record every sound in the cockpit - what they were saying, if anyone broke into the cockpit, if any alarms were going off," Dr Brown said. The other black box - the flight data recorder - is still to be recovered. It would have more information on control settings, air data and other factors which may help illuminate any mechanical issues. What's happening now? Chinese investigators have invited US aviation experts to join the investigation, as the Boeing plane was manufactured in the US. Meanwhile, more than 600 workers and volunteers continue to scour the hillside near Wuzhou, battling wet weather and flooded terrain in a difficult recovery mission. There has been no sign of survivors, though human remains have been found. But Chinese officials have still not officially declared the number of dead. China Eastern has said it is offering help to 110 families who have "suffered a loss". Devastated relatives arrived at the site just a day after the crash. Some have spoken briefly to local media, others have posted grief-stricken laments online. In the meantime, China is carrying out a two-week safety audit of all planes. China Eastern and its two subsidiaries have also grounded its fleet of Boeing 737-800s as an emergency precaution. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-60856855

My answere is a BIG NO because I was old here and my many friends are Muslims (Arbi) and i'm also a Muslim so i didn't see any trouble and problem with them they are very friendly they are helping each others actually all members of this forum even any religion they all are so nice and helping.

Nick: Ga[M]er Real name: Syed Kumail Hussain How old are you?: 23 in june Which Games you play? and for how long?(each of them): Still cs1.6 zombie plague otherwise pubg Where are you from?(country and city): Karachi - Pakistan Describe yourself(at least 50 words): well I'm from Pakistan and I am shy and honest person still i completed my college i want to become a software developer I give respect to all trying to help others how much i can and i loved to help people and positive and calm person and and loved to play games like cs1.6 pubg Gta Note some of your qualities: I'm trustworthy if someone shares their secrets so i never disclose to others like i said i love to help others. Tell us some of your defects: defeat is i get mad when i cant get anything and i trying my best to get it and doing hardwork to get it. Had you before any kind of responsabilities(describe it): yes still I'm member of JOURNALISTS and VGR and and I'm doing well and have good activity in both projects' On which category/categories have you been active lately?(describe your activity): Vgr and Journalists. Which category/project you want to care off?: Vgr And Journalists How well you speak english?(and other languages): (English : 8/10) (Urdu : 10/10) Do you use TS3? Do you have an active microphone?: Yes i have For how long can you be active after you get accepted?(days, weeks, months, years): years otherwise future will be decide Contact methods: TS3 & Discord & Whatsapp Last request: First Request

Small, cute, and extremely portable, the Kodak Luma 150 ($249.99) is a small, rectangular pocket projector, less than an inch tall and 3.9 inches on a side. Attractively housed in a white frame with gold trim, the Luma 150 can project photos and videos stored on a microSD memory card or USB thumb drive, or mirror a computer, phone, or tablet's screen over a wireless or HDMI connection. Image quality is decent, though the projector's low brightness limits useful image size, particularly in the presence of ambient light. Pocket or Palmtop Projector? The middle model of three tiny projectors in Kodak's Luma line, the Luma 150 stands between the 75-lumen Luma 75 ($199) and the 350-lumen Luma 350 ($349). It's either a large pico—meaning it's (barely) pocketable—or small palmtop projector. Either way, it's a DLP-based LED projector with a rated brightness of 150 lumens and a native resolution of 854 by 480 pixels, both typical for moderately priced micro projectors. Looking at the projector from the front, the lens is offset near the right side. The area around the lens is angled slightly upward. The Luma 150 rests on four tiny feet, each about an eighth of an inch tall, and at the center of the bottom is a threaded hole for a tripod (not included). I noticed, however, that when setting the projector on a table, resting only on its feet, it could still throw a complete image onto a screen with none of the lower part being cut off. A mini tripod would have been useful, though, to raise it above any small obstructions.

Spreadsheet software company Rows has launched a new desktop application in beta, in an effort to undermine the dominance of Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. The company released the beta in stealth back in December, but has now gone public with native applications for both Windows and macOS, TechRadar Pro can reveal. Until now, Rows has been available exclusively as a web app, which had placed a limit on performance. However, the company says the new desktop build will support complex and large-scale sheets as efficiently as the market leaders, as well as providing a foundation for functionalities only available with Rows. Spreadsheets, but different The central ethos behind the Rows project is that the spreadsheet software market is ripe for disruption. The duopoly of Microsoft and Google has led to a dearth of innovation, the company believes, leaving the door wide open for an ambitious challenger. “Let’s face it. Spreadsheets suck,” said Humberto Ayres Pereira, Rows co-founder and CEO. “The business world still runs on them but they’re slowing us down. Rows is bringing the beloved spreadsheet into the modern working world.” The company has not been shy about its ambitions to topple the incumbents. As part of a recent marketing campaign, Rows rented billboard space close to the Microsoft headquarters and erected a sign that read: “Dear Microsoft, your spreadsheet has been at it for 36 years. It’s time to retire.” And Google was given the same treatment. To understand what distinguishes Rows from every other spreadsheet software, we spoke to Renan Araújo, who is heading up the development of the desktop app. Although Rows features all the familiar spreadsheet functionality - cells, rows, columns, functions, tables etc. - the service differs from Excel and Sheets in a few crucial ways, he told us. Most significantly, Rows has focused closely on the ability to integrate third-party APIs into spreadsheets, with little to no coding expertise required. In practice, this means someone could easily draw data from services as diverse as Twitter, Stripe and Google Analytics into their sheets, in a way that would require a mastery of Excel. Rows spreadsheets can also be configured to update themselves at regular intervals. In an example shown to us by Araújo, a spreadsheet was set to update every 60 seconds with new pricing information from the Amazon marketplace, effectively allowing for real-time price comparison. Another unique feature is the ability to turn Rows spreadsheets into simple web apps that can then be let loose on the public. For example, someone could turn a Rows sheet into a landing page that collects information from customers, without having to meddle with HTML and JavaScript or pay for a third-party service. “Building spreadsheets is a kind of programming - it’s a visual programming language,” said Araújo. “But bringing this kind of flexibility to spreadsheets takes things to a whole other level.” Elephant in the room The main problem facing Rows is the extent to which Microsoft and Google services are embedded in the professional world, creating a platform effect that can be difficult to overcome. Advertisement Excel and Sheets are both just small parts of much wider software and services bundles that encompass email, productivity tools, calendaring, collaboration software, cloud storage, VPN and more. In the case of Microsoft, the company is able to establish synergies between products that extend all the way out to the Windows operating system on which most business computers run. As a result, companies like Rows must convince potential buyers that their service is not only on-par with existing apps, but also offers sufficient additional value to justify the extra line of expenditure on the balance sheet. With fewer than 4,000 weekly users, Rows is currently a flea nipping at the heels of the giants. But the user base has expanded rapidly since the turn of the year, and the firm is confident in its growth prospects, despite the significant headwinds. Asked why the company believes its spreadsheet software will succeed where others have failed, we were told that changing market conditions have combined with product innovation to create a window of opportunity for Rows. “The evidence we see is that our two biggest innovations (built-in integrations and sharing as a website) are strong enough drivers to lead large teams to adopt a new spreadsheet,” said Henrique Cruz, Head of Growth at Rows. “In the past 15 years have seen three very large changes in work setup (mobile-first, APIs and explosion of SaaS, and async first), and we are the first company building a pure spreadsheet for this new world.” To close the gap on the likes of Microsoft and Google, Rows will rely largely on virality. In other words, the company intends to let its product speak for itself. Like other SaaS offerings, Rows is available for free to those that want to dip a toe in the water. And although the desktop beta is missing a handful of features (e.g. charts), the company says it aims to achieve parity with the web service by the end of the year. https://www.techradar.com/news/the-tyranny-of-microsoft-excel-may-finally-be-over

Shenzhen, China-based PC components maker Yeston has added a new GPU to its lineup. The new Sakura Hitomi AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT graphics card joins the ranks of the firm's famous anime design products. We last reported upon one of these confections back in December 2020, when the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 got a similarly kawaii makeover. Twitter leakster Greymon55 spotted Yeston's update to its social media account today. Yeston's Bilibili post features a bevy of promotional imagery showing its new RX 6500 XT from all angles and highlighting its features and specifications. This is set to be the most affordable GPU Yeston has produced wearing the Sakura Hitomi pink and powder blue livery. Yeston's Sakura Hitomi AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT 4GD6 is also the smallest GPU bearing this design language yet, with its Mini ITX-friendly super cute shroud measuring just 172mm in length. We reviewed the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT back in January, and it didn't gain a very favorable appraisal from our graphics editor, but it was weighed down at the time with expectedly awful pricing. Today some RX 6500 XT cards are selling for 35% under MSRP, which puts a more positive shine on products like this. The Yeston Sakura Hitomi doesn't push the format in performance terms, with a max boost clock just 1% higher than reference when switched to OC mode. Rather, its strengths are the aforementioned shroud design and compactness (172 × 101 × 41mm). By now you've probably had a good look at the various pictures showcasing this new Sakura Hitomi product. Compared with all the previous releases into this series, we think this one might also disappoint with its paint job. Basically, other GPUs in the family feature a Sakura Hitomi image on their backplates. This one has an image of a stylized pet bear. Have Yeston made a silk purse out of a sow's ear with this new product? For some, the Radeon RX 6500 XT will always be a sow's ear, or worse. However, for Sakura Hitomi collectors and fans this might be an attractive purchase thanks to its, presumably, more accessible pricing. The previously released Sakura Hitomi graphics cards from Yeston have been concentrated at the higher end. Current products include familiar pink and powder blue customized versions of the RTX 3070, RX 3080, RX 6700 XT and RX 6800 XT. With the graphics card market as it was and somewhat still is, these will have likely been out of reach of many. Moreover, it is natural to wonder whether any of these Yeston Sakura Hitomi graphics card editions were scalped and taken down the (crypto) mines. That link recalls a similar fate being forced upon a stack of very cool Limited Edition Asus Gundam RTX GPUs in Vietnam. Advertisement The Yeston Sakura Hitomi AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT 4GD6 should be available via Yeston's JD.com store starting on Wednesday, March 23. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/yeston-sakura-6500-xt

Name of the Game : The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth Price : 07.49$ https://store.steampowered.com/app/250900/The_Binding_of_Isaac_Rebirth/ Offer ends up after 40:04:59 hours: Xmarch Requirements: MINIMUM: OS: XP Processor: Core 2 Duo Memory: 2 GB RAM Graphics: Discreet video card Storage: 449 MB available space Sound Card: Yes RECOMMENDED: OS: Windows 8 / 7 / Vista / XP Processor: 2.4 GHz Quad Core 2.0 (or higher) Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000 and higher, ATI Radeon HD-Series 4650 and higher, Nvidia GeForce 2xx-Series and up Storage: 449 MB available space Sound Card: Yes

Norco is a many-headed creature—a narrative hydra of place, personhood, nostalgia, and spirituality. But to start with the basics, it's a real Louisiana town named for the New Orleans Refining Company, a monumental piece of psychogeographical storytelling, and in March 2022, I'm ready to call it my game of the year. The tiny dev collective Geography of Robots has called Norco's style "petroleum blues," a nod to the area's relationship with the oil corporation that has defined both the town and the environmental decline that colors its existence. The game pointedly avoids the disaster porn and fetishization that tend to dominate media portrayals of the Deep South, and while a big part of Norco revolves around grief and trauma, it's also full of rousing punk momentum channeled from the DIY music scene. The result is nothing short of incredible. Norco is a bristling pastiche of Louisianan references, pop culture, and satirical moments distilled into a point-and-click pixel art adventure. The townscape and Greater New Orleans area take the form of distant highways, refinery stacks, and familiar snapshots of suburbia; impossibly careful, subtle dithering imbues each scene with warmth and life. Norco isn't just for Louisianans, though residents will get a kick out of seeing real locations like Kenner's Esplanade Mall—closed due to Hurricane Ida and now being repurposed for political events—rebirthed as the Promenade Mall. Despite its hyperlocality, Norco has a universal reach that touches on widespread issues like the gig economy and automation. For starters, the non-descript bar Saint Somewhere is an instantly recognizable fixture of gentrifying neighborhoods across the US. On the surface, its story is simple—Kay is returning home after roaming around post-apocalyptic America doing piecemeal jobs, hitching rides, and fighting in fragmented militias. Her mother Catherine has died of cancer, which means reconnecting with her fragile younger brother. The player alternates between Kay and Catherine to uncover something strange and sinister in their hometown, culminating in a fascinating exploration of faith and identity. But while Norco is most obviously about external destruction and decay—the oil corporation's environmental harm is critical to the story but overwhelmingly dominated its media coverage—it's also about so, so much more. If Norco's aesthetic is "petroleum blues," then its existential milieu can only be described as "bummer vibes." Creator Yuts, who was born and raised in Norco, began working on the beginnings of the project in 2015 as a series called Bummer—a handful of short films and an experimental sidescroller starring Norco's robot Million, with original music by Norco collaborators Gewgawly I and Andy Gibbs from sludge metal band Thou. "The game was going to be Bummer 4 where it was just going to be like a short little vignette," says Yuts. "So yeah, bummer vibes is the word." Today Norco has become a small but mighty sensation in the indie game world, winning the first ever Games Award at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2021. Geography of Robots isn't just Yuts anymore, either—it includes musician Gewgawly I, artist Jesse Jacobi, sound designer fmAura, and coder/designer Aaron Gray; orbiting this core are other collaborators like Yuts' sister, who's helping to produce the artbook. Jacobi, who comes from a traditional painting background, took to pixel art so fast that Yuts redrew and replaced all of Norco's older art last December to maintain a cohesive aesthetic. Gray brought some of his gaming favorites to the table, namely Undertale's use of humor and pacing. "The way they use combat more as a narrative device than as a skill-test is a philosophy we've stuck to for various parts of the game," he says. Yuts wrote an exchange between two characters about their favorite game "Fantasy Horse 6" after being inspired by Gray's love of Kingdom Hearts (as well as weird 2.5D platformer Tomba! 2). "I used to boot up Kingdom Hearts when I was a youngun and just pretend to coexist in those spaces with these fun characters," says Gray. "I feel like Norco has a similar vibe." Norco's characters are lively and beautifully written, but infused with a pervasive sadness that brings us back to bummer, which sits in my head like a mantra throughout the game. It's not as bleak as "depression," but a very nuanced form of disappointment with a hint of playfulness. The word comes from the old German word "bummler," which means "loafer." In a modern American context it took on more antisocial connotations, and can be used interchangeably as a noun and a verb. It's also a great way to understand the Garretts—a cult of teen malcontents who form the backbone of the story. Norco comes from the same DNA that you'll find in DIY music scenes and punk collectives—a formative part of Yuts' youth and several others in the collective. "The informal nature of DIY punk as well as… almost a proto-internet of zine exchanges and informal and esoteric knowledge in those spaces was something that carried over into the game," Yuts says, explaining where he first shared his art. Punk subcultures are directly referenced in the game world, like a book called Crisis LARPing that chronicles the early days of disaster tourism before "collapse became the zeitgeist." There's nothing that delves more into this rich ecology of subcultures than the game's introduction of the Garretts—blue-shirted boys who answer to a sociopathic pseudo-religious leader named Kenner John. Their home base is the abandoned Promenade Mall, where they wander its hallways reading, playing video games, doomscrolling, and bickering among themselves. The Garretts are working on something important—something that John has promised them—while the rest of the town (particularly the patrons at Saint Somewhere) derides them as "mall Nazis." "There's the whole rift between the Garretts and what they call 'the scum,' which are basically crustpunks and DIY punks, who they don't like," Yuts explains. "The insular, often small-minded nature of those scenes… is worth analyzing and critiquing [and] is incorporated into the game, but it also in certain oblique ways tries to touch on the value of those kinds of scenes as we become more atomized. That there are these new emergent forms of community to be built." The Garretts mostly come into play in Act 2, which Yuts describes as the most collaboratively-constructed part of Norco. Gray designed a Voice Memo mechanic and the team iterated on that idea to create a clever exploration of quarreling social identities and performativity. It's also got some of the funniest moments in the game. While a few Garretts are goofy caricatures of some of the dev team, there's a little bit of Yuts in all of them. "It's all of these infantile 4chan-esque tendencies that we keep buried in our personalities," he says. "This was a way of exorcizing those things." Some of these emergent Garrett-like communities coalesce around faith—a huge social and cultural pillar for folks in the South. And while Kay goes through a very personal spiritual, quasi-religious journey, Yuts deliberately avoids offering the player any crumbs of objective truth. But he did still weave pieces of his Catholic upbringing into his work. "If you try to over-secularize your life and your community, and you lose the rootedness, and the kind of folkways that religion offers," he says, "then when you return to it, you lose a lot of its material application, and it becomes what you see with the Garretts… just this bizarre perversion of what it should be." For all their impotence, the Garretts are in many ways the true protagonists of the game. Yuts didn't want to make a didactic narrative around these desperate, problematic little bummers. "I wanted them to be more or less identifiable sympathetic characters," he says. "I tried to avoid any kind of binary thinking when it comes to that stuff. The Garretts' place in the larger world is most evident towards the end of the game when a bunch of hipster partygoers—gathered to watch a Garrett-created spectacle of epic proportions—reflect on what the Garretts have managed to accomplish. "These punks are like, 'we've just been drinking and hanging out doing the same shit,'" says Yuts. "And so in a way it's like, respect for these kids. Maybe we're more confused than they are." It's a material world Perhaps the most significant impact of Norco as a game (and a piece of interactive art) is its place in a small but vital group of hyperlocal narrative-driven point-and-click games—yes, Kentucky Route Zero included—that focus on the material world: class and social and economic issues that define distinct regions and industries across the US. This started to feel like a trend with Night in the Woods, which came out in 2017, and reached peak hype around 2020 with the final acts of Kentucky Route Zero. Kentucky Route Zero is doubtless a landmark game, but it's also been an exhausting point of reference for Norco: the default framing being that Norco is the next KR0. It's easy marketing for a game with so much to say, and it feels like games critics and fans haven't yet cultivated better ways to talk about this sub-genre. Yuts played the first part of the first chapter of KR0 and stopped, partially because he didn't want to deal with the anxiety of influence. "I don't think it's an unreasonable comparison to make," he says. "But I do see Norco as very different mechanically, thematically, and everything else." If there wasn't a distinct movement around hyperlocal material games, back when KR0 ended, there should be one now with Norco. "I think people are exhausted by the alienation and the dematerialization of the internet, and I think there is kind of a new emergent regionalism as well as a new kind of emergent sincerity that I can kind of see in my filter bubble," says Yuts. If collapse already became the zeitgeist years ago, perhaps this emergent sincerity is simply the result of younger generations' increasing desperation and frustration with climate change, widening class divides, and virulent technocapitalism. It's not romantic to be cynical and disaffected when we still have the power to do something about it, at the very least, in our own backyards. However we come to talk about games like Norco, I don't think they need a quirky catch-all "-punk" label. "It's like advertising, to construct some kind of identity that stands against [something] kind of just makes you seem like you're even more psyop'd than everyone else," says Yuts wryly. "I'm not even interested in trying to construct some kind of outward facing identity that seems subversive or something." For now, Norco has been a way to make sense of his relationship to his hometown, his home state, and even his old faith. It's been a way to make sense of Louisiana as a region and a cultural identity. And even if you've never been to Louisiana, one thing is certain—Norco is a testament to the transformative power of politics in art, and proof that even in the midst of the world falling apart, games remain potent vectors for love and humor in the most unexpected places. https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/this-stunning-deep-south-fable-isnt-the-next-kentucky-route-zeroits-the-first-norco/

The Faisal Mosque is the largest mosque in Pakistan, located in the national capital city of Islamabad. Completed in 1986, it was designed by Turkish architect Vedat Dalokay, shaped like a desert Bedouin's tent, is an iconic symbol of Islamabad throughout the world. It is situated at the north end of Faisal Avenue, putting it at the northernmost end of the city and at the foot of Margalla Hills, the westernmost foothills of the Himalayas. It is located on an elevated area of land against a picturesque backdrop of the Margalla Hills. This enviable location represents the mosque's great importance and allows it to be seen from miles around day and night. The Faisal Mosque was conceived as the National Mosque of Pakistan and named after the late King Faisal bin Abdul-Aziz of Saudi Arabia, who supported and financed the project. The largest mosque in Pakistan, the Faisal Mosque was the largest mosque in the world from 1986 until 1993, when it was overtaken in size by the newly completed Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco. Subsequent expansions of the Masjid al-Haram (Grand Mosque) of Mecca and the Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (Prophet's Mosque) in Medina, Saudi Arabia, during the 1990s relegated Faisal Mosque to fourth place in terms of size. The impetus for the mosque began in 1966 when King Faisal bin Abdul-Aziz supported the initiative of the Pakistani Government to build a national mosque in Islamabad during an official visit to Pakistan. In 1969, an international competition was held in which architects from 17 countries submitted 43 proposals. The winning design was that of Turkish architect Vedat Dalokay.[3]Construction of the mosque began in 1976 by National Construction of Pakistan, led by Azim Khan and was funded by the government of Saudi Arabia, at a cost of over 130 millionSaudi riyals (approximately 120 million USD today). King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz was instrumental in the funding, and both the mosque and the road leading to it were named after him after his assassination in 1975. The mosque was completed in 1986, and used to house the International Islamic University. Many conservative Muslims criticised the design at first for its unconventional design and lack of a traditional dome structure, but most criticism ended when the completed mosque's scale, form, and setting against the Margalla Hills became evident. The Faisal Mosque is the work of Turkish architect Vedat Dalokay, who won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for the project. The mosque's architecture is modern and unique, lacking both the traditional domes and arches of most other mosques around the world. Shah Faisal Masjid, also known as Faisal Mosque, located in the start of Margala hill sector E-7 Islamabad Pakistan The mosque's unusual design is a departure from the long history of South Asian Islamic architecture, fusing contemporary lines with the more traditional look of an Arab Bedouin's tent, with its large triangular prayer hall and four minarets. However, unlike traditional masjid design, it lacks a dome. The minarets borrow their design from Turkish tradition and are thin and pencil like. The shape of the Faisal Mosque is an eight-sided concrete shell inspired by a desert Beduoin's tent and the cubic Kaaba in Mecca, flanked by four unusual minarets inspired by Turkish architecture. The architect later explained his thinking to design school students: “ I tried to capture the spirit, proportion and geometry of Kaaba in a purely abstract manner. Imagine the apex of each of the four minaret as a scaled explosion of four highest corners of Kaaba – thus an unseen Kaaba form is bounded by the minarets at the four corners in a proportion of height to base. Shah Faisal Mosque akin to Kaaba. Now, if you join the apex of each minaret to the base of the minaret diagonally opposite to it correspondingly, a four-sided pyramid shall be bound by these lines at the base side within that invisible cube. That lower level pyramid is treated as a solid body while four minarets with their apex complete the imaginary cube of Kaaba. Entrance is from the east, where the prayer hall is fronted by a courtyard with porticoes. The International Islamic University was housed under the main courtyard, but recently relocated to a new campus. The mosque still houses a library, lecture hall, museum and cafe. The interior of the main tent-shaped hall is covered in white marble and decorated with mosaics and calligraphy by the famous Pakistani artistSadequain, and a spectacular Turkish-style chandelier. The mosaic pattern adorns the west wall, and has the kalimah written in earlyKufic script, repeated in mirror image pattern. Nekka Phullai is the adjacent hill to the mosque in Margalla Hills.

Tribes of Europa Season 1 is a German sci-fi show streaming on Netflix. The six-episode series was created by Philip Koch, who also wrote and directed many of the episodes. The show stars Henriette Confurius, Emilio Sakraya, and David Ali Rashed. The series starts in 2074, decades after a global blackout wiped out all technology in the world. Society collapsed, and the countries as we knew them ceased to be. Nations were replaced with tribes, creating new beliefs and traditions and forming their own states. The story centers around three young members of the Origine Tribe, a small group of reclusive hunters who call the forest home. The three siblings, Liv (Confurius), Elja (Rashed), and Kiano (Sakraya), are hunting when they spot a futuristic hover-jet crash land at the edge of the forest. The trio investigates and discovers a badly wounded pilot with a precious item in his profession. But bringing the pilot back to their village results in tragedy. Others are after the object, namely the Crows, a brutal and powerful tribe. What follows separates the three siblings, sending them out alone into different areas of what used to be Germany, forcing them to experience intense pain and suffering on their journeys. The plot has an interesting concept and structure. We are thrown into the action very quickly with the basics and laws of the world explained inside the first two episodes. The main plot regarding the Crows and Kiano is a gripping story that also serves as a destination that other characters are trying to get to. Liv’s main objective within this season is to get to Kiano and the rest of her family, who are being held captive in the Crows’ capital city. Elja’s own journey feels like a sidequest given how important the primary story is. However, the revelations that happen in the second half of the series may impact the future of Europa’s entire continent. There are huge surprises within the first three episodes. Still, as the audience gets used to the tone of the series and the characters’ personalities, it becomes easier to predict what will happen. That is not to say that they aren’t enjoyable when they happen, as the scenes are often shocking in their execution. But some of the reveals designed as huge character moments have already been foreseen. Tribes of Europa Season 1’s pacing is ultimately very fast. The scenes themselves are always intriguing and captivating. But only having six episodes means that this sci-fi epic has to progress at speed. However, the intensity and suspense are maintained throughout, with the story itself not being affected negatively by the pacing. But character development happens jarringly quickly. The three main characters all go through intense and brutal experiences, examples of the show’s violent and dark tone. Tribes of Europa Season 1 is gruesome and truly dystopian, and the Crows force the three youngsters to grow up quickly. Liv, played fantastically by Confurius, possibly has the best arc and acting of the protagonists. She is intensely protective over those that help her or those she’s close to. Like all of the Origines, it is ingrained within her that her tribe is the most important part of her life. But she is intensely mani[CENSORED]tive, using people to get what she wants. Confurius gives a brilliant physical performance. Kiano initially feels boring to watch, acting much like a typical lead in a young adult series. Proud, rebellious, and jealous, he constantly believes himself to be in the shadow of his sister, Liv. But he is forced into acts that are both troubling and powerfully impactful. Sakraya grows into the role, and it takes a rewatch of the series to understand what he is trying to achieve fully. As for Rashed as Elja, he is the youngest and quietest of the trio. He travels far away after the events in the pilot episode. He is presented by Koch as the sci-fi version of Frodo, going on an adventure on his own with a special item desired by everyone else. Elja is quiet and withdrawn, which lessens his screen presence. To many, he and his mission doesn’t carry the same weight as the other two as it seems so far away from everything else regarding the show. The tribes themselves are what the series is based around. Some are only mentioned in passing, with three serving as pillars of the story. The main characters are descendants of the founder of the Origines, a tiny and reclusive tribe. The Crows are a dark wave that has spread across the continent, absorbing all of Europa. Those that survive either become Crows themselves or are turned into slaves. The theme of slavery is one of the most impactful themes within the series, as every part of Crow culture revolves around it. Even as they progress in power and ranks, they are in turn enslaved by someone bigger than them. Their designs speak towards the clothing worn by Germany’s anarchist communities, the detail evident especially in the facial makeup. Opposing them ideologically are the Crimsons. They are a military unit, appearing to have retained a sense of order and hierarchy from before the fall of Europe. While striving for peace, they share the Crow’s desire to reunite Europa under one flag. They appear to have respect for the tribes and cultures, which their enemies reject. But an outsider has just as much reason to fear them as they would the Crows. The hints towards Brexit and the separation of countries being a negative ideal from the European Union isn’t as subtle as they may first appear. A character that appears later in the series makes frequent comments about how the Crimsons’ ideals of unity and peace are what Europe was founded upon. When someone joins the Crimsons, they are told that their own tribe’s cultures are respected and included. And yet, they wear the same uniform and symbols. These are possible hints towards various regions existing in Europe and how they continue to express their own identities. But also in regards to those sovereign states and their place within the EU itself. The supporting cast is fantastic in how they are written and performed. Perhaps the best of them is Moses, portrayed by Oliver Masucci. He is a charming scavenger and smuggler, acting as the comic relief in what is a very dark show otherwise. He and Elja become a brilliant team as he serves as the boy’s protector and guide. To combine two classic characters, if Elja is Frodo, then Moses appears to emulate Lando Calrissian. In Brahtok, a fortress for the Crows, Kiano becomes the personal slave and concubine of Lord Varvara. She is vicious, monstrous, and remorseless; all lives around her are worthless. But she takes a liking to the Originie, personally tormenting him for her own pleasure, in all meanings of the word. Melika Foroutan shines in her portrayal of Varvara, captivating the audience and making them despise her whilst making sure they can’t stop watching her. For Liv, there are numerous members of the Crimson unit around her. The commander of them all is David, played by Robert Finster. His arc and his actions feel the most predictable; his role within the story is always obvious despite attempts to obscure it. But Finster is engaging and absorbing even if his character’s arc feels destined for a certain ending. As hinted at, there is a giant cast of characters, all members of this sprawling mass called Europa. What is missing is real, genuine diversity. Throughout the tribes, very few of them are played by people of colour. Aside from one place in the last two episodes, the world feels very white. But the world itself doesn’t feel stretched either. The countries have fallen, Europe has essentially become stateless. But nearly all of the areas that the Tribes of Europa occupies are Germanic in origin. The fortress the Crows function out of is built on what used to be Berlin, and there are warnings to avoid Leipzig. One of the slaves is Dutch, and other tribes from other countries are mentioned in their name. But this isn’t enough for world-building. Outside of the Origines, the Crows, and the Crimsons, the rest of the world is skin deep in detail. It would be appreciated if there was an expansion in both representation and geography in future seasons if there are any to come. Regarding the production quality and set design, great care and attention have been taken by those involved. The locations are nearly all built sets that are solid and authentic. The places, primarily interiors, look real. Infrequently used, CGI is flawless in nearly all cases, used to show headquarters or settings too big to be created naturally. These shots occasionally look unsettling, with the actors standing in front of a clear green screen, but these are few and far between. The camera work is always fantastic and smooth, with some gorgeous landscape shots. The biggest negative in regards to production is the costumes. They don’t feel memorable or unique to the character wearing them. The aesthetic identity of both main tribes is clear, but close up, the costumes look cheap and flimsy. The fight scenes carry scale whilst also being intimate and intense. The set pieces are laid out for brilliant choreography. The camera will often follow one person as chaos reigns around them, creating a unique dynamic to how they are displayed. You get the impression of being next to the characters, even the camera lens appearing to replicate a human eye. The frame’s edge loses focus as the character moves, but it is still easy to see those being slaughtered next to them. The battles are violent and gory, almost uncomfortable in regards to what happens within them. When a character is killed, their bodies jolt to sudden, powerful stops. The one downside is that there are far too many Willhelm screams and occasionally unimpressive stunts. These are jarring and instantly break immersion. Something that should be highlighted about the dialogue of Tribes of Europa is that within the original German dub, the characters will sporadically switch from their native German into English. Viewers may not realize this because this transition does not also occur in the English or other language versions. Tribes of Europa Season 1 is a fascinating start to a new world, having the potential to be built into an extensive and expansive series. The characters within are all given brilliant, powerful identities that allow them to stand out, something often difficult to accomplish within ensemble casts. The story itself has incredibly meaningful and current themes. The engaging narrative will result in the audience wanting to watch from start to finish. There are layers to the plot, and although some twists can be seen coming they mask those that take you by surprise.

Canada’s ruling Liberals have reached a deal with a left-leaning opposition party to prop up their minority government until 2025, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced, promising to advance a range of issues, including a dental care programme for low-income families. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday morning, Trudeau said the “supply-and-confidence” agreement with the New Democratic Party (NDP) would bring “stability” to Canadian politics after a series of snap elections in recent years. The deal gives the Liberal Party government a total of 184 votes in the 338-seat House of Commons – a majority is 170 seats – and the ability to stay in power for the full, four-year term, with the NDP agreeing to back it on budgets and confidence votes. “What this means is that during this uncertain time, the government can function with predictability and stability, present and implement budgets, and get things done for Canadians,” Trudeau said. “Both parties have identified key policy areas where we share similar objectives and we’ve agreed to work together to put the needs and interests of Canadians first.” In a statement, the NDP outlined key policies the parties have agreed to advance as part of the agreement, including a dental care programme for low-income Canadians and a universal prescription-drug coverage programme. They also pledged to continue fighting the climate crisis and phase out public financing of the fossil-fuel sector. “We’re making sure people get help to get their teeth fixed, to get the medication they need,” Jagmeet Singh, the NDP leader, told reporters on Tuesday morning. “And we’re not going to let the Liberal government off the hook. We’re going to continue to fight hard for people and continue to make sure we hold them to account to deliver these things that people need,” he said. The NDP has backed the Liberals in key votes since 2019, as the ruling party failed to gain a majority of seats in Parliament in two successive federal elections, the latest of which was held in September. While the so-called “supply-and-confidence agreement” is not unheard of in Canadian politics, it is unprecedented to have such a deal in writing at the federal level. The opposition Conservative Party slammed the agreement, saying in a statement on Monday that it was “a callous attempt by Trudeau to hold on to power”. “Canadians did not vote for an NDP government. This is little more than backdoor socialism. Trudeau is truly polarising politics, which is what he likes,” said interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen. Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet also called the deal a “false majority” that betrayed last year’s vote. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/22/canadas-justin-trudeau-reaches-deal-to-stay-in-power-until-2025

MILAN — Maserati is set to challenge the Porsche Macan and BMW X3 with the Grecale midsize SUV, the exotic Italian brand's second SUV after the larger Levante. It will arrive in European dealerships in the third quarter and in the U.S. by the end of 2022. It will be available with a regular gasoline engine and two mild-hybrid versions. A full-electric version will launch in 2023. Pricing will be released later. The Grecale sits on a Maserati-reworked version of the Giorgio platform that underpins the Alfa Romeo Stelvio midsize SUV. It will be built alongside the Stelvio in a Stellantis plant in Cassino, Italy. The Grecale is named after a northeasterly Mediterranean wind, following a long-standing Maserati tradition. 523-hp engine The most powerful version of the Grecale, badged Trofeo, has a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 engine based on the Nettuno engine used on Maserati’s MC20 sports car. It has 523 hp and peak torque of 457 pound-feet. Cylinder deactivation is used to reduce fuel consumption. The SUV will also be offered with a choice of two 2.0-liter, four-cylinder mild-hybrids with 296 hp on the GT version and with 325 hp on the Modena version. The mild-hybrid engines use a 48-volt battery, a belt-starter generator and an e-booster. All three versions of the Grecale are four-wheel drive. The Trofeo version has a maximum speed of 178 mph and accelerates from 0-62 mph in 3.8 seconds. The 2.0-liter versions have a 150 mph top speed. The Modena and Trofeo version have a rear wheel track widened by 34 mm compared to the GT model, to accentuate their sporty character. The interior has a classic instrument cluster with a central 12.3-inch panel plus a smaller 8.8-inch comfort panel. Most functions are operated by touch control. The battery-electric version, called the Grecale Folgore, will feature a 105-kilowatt-hour battery. Maserati said this month it will launch only battery-electric vehicles from 2024 while continuing to sell existing combustion engine variants. By 2030, it aims to sell only full-electric vehicles. Next year Maserati will launch the GranTurismo coupe and GranCabrio convertible with full-electric and gasoline drivetrains. By 2025, Maserati will unveil successors to the Quattroporte large sedan and Levante large SUV. Both will come as EVs only. A full-electric version of the MC20 will also be launched by 2025. The Grecale was due to be launched in 2021 but Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares delayed the program. Tavares told Automotive News Europe that he postponed the launch “to make sure it is absolutely where it should be in terms of fit and finish, electronics and infotainment.” https://www.autonews.com/cars-concepts/maserati-packs-grecale-suv-powerful-engines

Black Bear COMMON NAME: American black bears SCIENTIFIC NAME: Ursus americanus TYPE: Mammals DIET: Omnivore GROUP NAME: Sleuth, sloth AVERAGE LIFE SPAN IN THE WILD: 20 years SIZE: 5 to 6 feet long WEIGHT: 200 to 600 pounds Balanced on a rock in the middle of a river, a black bear lowers her head to the water and … chomp! A wriggling salmon is no match for her strong jaws. She’s spent the summer eating berries and roots—now she’s eating all the salmon she can catch to gain as much weight as possible. She needs enough stored fat for her body to make milk for newborn cubs this winter. ALL YOU CAN EAT Black bears live throughout most of North America, including northern Mexico. They typically live in forests and are excellent tree climbers, even sleeping in trees during the summer. They’re also found in mountains and swamps. Despite their name, black bears can be blue-gray or blue-black, brown, cinnamon, or even sometimes (rarely) white. In addition to eating berries, roots, and salmon, black bears also prey on deer, moose, insects, and sometimes even carrion (dead animal flesh left behind by other predators). They’re not picky eaters, since their goal is to store up as much body fat as possible before their winter hibernation. NAP TIME In late November and early December, black bears head to their dens to sleep away the winter, or hibernate. Their body temperature and heart rate are lowered, and their breathing slows down while they live off the huge amounts of body fat they stored up during the summer and fall. This way, they don’t have to leave their dens and hunt for food in the bitter cold. FAMILY BONDING Male black bears leave their dens around mid-March, but females stay a little longer. That’s because they give birth around January and want to give their cubs time to nurse and grow bigger before heading back outside in the early spring. Black bear cubs stay with Mom for one to three years while she teaches them how to live in the wild. Then, when they’re ready, they head off to survive in the woods alone—until they start a family of their own.FAST FACTS • Black bears are smaller than brown bears, often called grizzlies. • Black bear cubs weigh less than one pound at birth. They gain 20 to 30 pounds in three months. • Excellent swimmers, black bears can paddle at least a mile and a half in freshwater. • A bear’s claws can grow as long as a whiteboard eraser. https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/black-bear

Kylie Jenner has shared an update about her newborn son with a candid video montage and social media bombshell. A week after the little one’s birth last month, Kylie has also revealed that she has renamed him. The video, that features clips previously seen in Kylie’s September pregnancy announcement, gives an intimate look at noteworthy moments leading up to the birth of her son, including a look at his hospital delivery, his nursery and clips from family parties. After sharing the video, the reality TV star revealed that her son’s name isn’t Wolf Webster anymore. The social media sensation had a change of heart, as shared by her on Monday, after she realised it “just didn’t feel like him.” Kylie wrote on her Instagram story, “Our son's name isn't Wolf anymore. We just really didn't feel like it was him.” She went on to add that she "just wanted to share [this information] because I keep seeing Wolf everywhere." Kylie has not revealed her son's new name to fans but they can’t wait to hear back from her. The Kylie Cosmetics founder’s son was born on February 2, with boyfriend Travis Scott, whose real name is Jacques Berman Webster II. The two are also parents to 4-year-old Stormi Webster, whose birthday lands a day before her baby brother on February 1. Kylie had shared a similar video montage for Stormi a few days after she was born. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2349123/kylie-jenner-reveals-her-sons-name-is-no-longer-wolf-webster

Pakistan vs Australia, 3rd Test, Day 2 Highlights:Abdullah Shafique and Azhar Ali steadied Paksitan's ship as Pakistan reached 90 for one at stumps on Day2 of the third and final Test in Lahore on Tuesday. Pakistan were trailing Australia by 301 runs, with Shafiue and Azhar batting on 45 and 30, respectively. Earlier, Australia were bowled out for 391 in their first innings. Resuming at 232-5, Australia added 159 runs with Cameron Green scoring 79 and Alex Carey 67. For Pakistan, the pace duo of Naseem Shah (4-58) and Shaheen Shah Afridi (4-79) were the main wicket-takers. At the start of play Pakistan would have felt they could make early inroads with the second ball only five overs old. But Australia, who resumed at 232-5, took advantage of a placid Gaddafi Stadium pitch to bat through 28 overs unscathed. The series is tied 0-0 after the first two Tests, in Rawalpindi and Karachi, ended in draws. Pakistan: Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Azhar Ali, Babar Azam (c), Fawad Alam, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Naseem Shah, Sajid Khan, Hasan Ali, Nauman Ali, Shaheen Afridi Australia: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Swepson 3rd Test, Australia in Pakistan, 3 Test Series, 2022, Mar 21, 2022Day 2 | Stumpsnotify PAK90/1 (39.0) AUS391Gaddafi Stadium, LahoreAustralia won the toss and elected to batCRR: 2.31% chance to win PAK 24% Draw 53% AUS 23% Batsman Abdullah Shafique45* (117)Azhar Ali30 (79) Bowler Pat Cummins27/1 (10)Cameron Green17/0 (7)

On the day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Svetlana found it hard to believe that what she was watching on the news was really happening. Things were calm in her home town, Bila Tserkva, a historic city on a winding river 80km (50 miles) south of Kyiv. Then the explosions began. Svetlana and her husband dragged their mattresses into the corridor of their apartment building and huddled there with their three children. The noise of the sirens was constant and they didn't sleep for days. Thousands of miles away in Australia, Emma Micallif was frantically messaging. The two women are intimately connected because Svetlana is pregnant with Emma's second child. As rockets fell on Bila Tserkva Emma felt angry and helpless. For six months the two mums had chatted back and forth using a translation app. They shared pictures of their children, discussed the things they liked to bake with their kids or moaned about the stress of pandemic home-schooling. Now they were trying to co-ordinate an evacuation. "I thought having cancer was stressful or having a baby while having treatment was stressful or having round after round of IVF and it not working was stressful," Emma says. "But it just does not compare." With the help of the surrogacy agency, Emma got in touch with two other parents who had surrogates in Ukraine. They found a bus that would take the three women and their 10 children on an 18-hour trip to the Moldovan border. When they finally got to the Moldovan capital they were crammed into a small apartment. Emma was horrified when she heard that there weren't enough beds. "Our lovely, pregnant Svetlana was sleeping on the floor," she says. But Svetlana was too devastated to care. She had left her husband behind in Ukraine and her mother had fled to Germany. When her mother calls she just cries down the phone. "It hurts so much that this war is tearing families apart," she told me. "I feel safe in Moldova but my heart is in Ukraine." More than 2,000 children are born through surrogacy every year in Ukraine, the majority to foreign couples. The country has around 50 reproductive clinics and many agencies and middle-men who match couples - known as "intended parents" - to surrogates. Ukraine is a po[CENSORED]r choice because of the way its laws on surrogacy are written. In many European countries, including the UK, when a surrogate gives birth she is listed as the mother on the birth certificate. If she is married, her husband will be listed as the father. In Ukraine the intended parents are listed as mother and father. That means getting the baby a passport and bringing them home is much simpler. The agency that Emma and Svetlana are using is small - it is currently managing nine surrogacies - but Ukraine's biggest agency currently has 500 surrogates at different stages of pregnancy. Forty-one babies in its care are stranded in Kyiv, because their intended parents, from all over the world, have been prevented from collecting them by the war. Many of these children are being cared for in a basement nursery in Kyiv as Russian forces sit outside the city and shell it. Every day more children are born, but since the invasion only nine sets of parents have risked the journey to Kyiv to pick up their babies. Another five have arranged remote pick-ups. "If nothing changes in the near future, we may have 100 babies under our care," says Denys Herman, the agency's legal adviser. The company has been grappling with whether to move the babies out of Kyiv to a safer location in western Ukraine, but transporting them in a war zone also carries risks. It's not just Denys Herman who has a problem with stranded babies. Nastya was saving up to buy a house in Kharkiv, where she lives with her two young boys, and coming to the end of her second surrogate pregnancy. When the war broke out she was only weeks from her due date and went into labour to give birth to twins a few days later. "We spent the entire time in the hospital in a bomb shelter," she says. Kharkiv was under heavy bombardment and the hospital's basement was packed from wall to wall with mattresses and baby cribs. She camped out in a storage room with her two children, sleeping on sofa cushions on the floor, underneath shelves piled high with files and paperwork. "But the doctors were wonderful, I am very grateful to them," she says. She gave birth to two healthy boys. A week later she left the hospital. Kharkiv was still under attack and the foreign parents couldn't get there to collect the twins. So, together with some staff from her agency, Nastya, her two sons and the new-born twins travelled across Ukraine. She cared for the babies while delivering them to their parents at the border. That was more than a week ago, and she hasn't heard from them since. Short presentational grey line When Emma envisages the family she wants, she thinks of the drive from her home in Canberra to her parent's place in Sydney. She imagines looking into the back seat and seeing a gaggle of children. Instead, she has one. "It just feels like a hole in my life," she says. Five years ago while she was pregnant with her son, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. The tumour was growing at an alarming rate, helped along by the hormones she produced in pregnancy. It was a rare medical event and when her son was born doctors crowded into the delivery room to observe. "He came out perfect, he didn't have to go into the neonatal ICU, so I felt very lucky," she says. When her son was only five weeks old, she started intense radiation and chemotherapy which damaged her reproductive organs. "I went into early menopause at 29. So that was delightful," she says wryly. In the five years since her cancer diagnosis, Emma's every waking moment has been consumed by thoughts of how to conceive her second child. She and her husband went through 13 cycles of IVF which were traumatic and expensive, but none of the embryos would ultimately take. "Surrogacy is never anyone's first pick but it comes as a result of a deep loss beforehand," she says. Emma and her husband, Alex, struggled to find a surrogate in Australia where only altruistic surrogacy is allowed. When they first heard about the option of Ukraine they were hesitant but they were reassured by other Australians who'd had a good experience. With their first surrogate, two attempts at pregnancy didn't take, causing further heartbreak. When they were matched with Svetlana and she got pregnant right away it felt like the battle was finally over. "It was such a relief that we could stop fighting. We'd been in a state of fight or flight, as husband and wife, for so long." Before the war, the whole family had planned to travel to Ukraine. Emma had hoped to spend time with Svetlana so that she could tell her new child about her birth mother. With the baby due in a month that's unlikely to happen now. But for some intended parents the war is making the relationship with their surrogates even closer. Christine (not her real name) woke up on the day of the invasion and felt sick. Her surrogate was in Zaporizhzhia, in the south-east of Ukraine, which would make headlines a few days later when its nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, was attacked by Russian forces. Her surrogate, Tatiana (also not her real name) left for Poland that day with her six-year-old son. Christine marvels at her strength. When she asked Tatiana if she was interested in coming to England Christine wasn't sure how she would react. But she was delighted. "We can come next week," she said. She is one of only four or five women applying for a bespoke visa created by the Home Office for surrogate mothers. "The past few days have been unbearably traumatic in what's already been a traumatic year," Christine says. Last January she and her husband lost a child, a daughter who was born prematurely and died at five weeks old. At one point during the delivery her husband was told he might have to choose between Christine and the baby. She was advised not to try again but she did and miscarried again. "Because I was impatient and grieving and wanting it now, we looked abroad." They found out Tatiana was pregnant in January this year. "It was kind of too good to be true," she says. On Sunday Christine flew to Poland to meet Tatiana for the first time. Both were nervous, but relaxed when a Polish doctor said the results of the first scan were good. Now they are working hard to get to know each other, using Google translate. "Yesterday, we had a discussion about our spiritual beliefs, whether we believe in clairvoyance and all those things. It's not just all about pregnancy," she says. The visa will last three years and Christine and her husband have invited Tatiana to stay with them for as long as she wants to, beyond the birth of their child. In Mariupol, children bear the brunt of Putin's war Pregnant woman and baby die after hospital shelled 'We try to tell them the truth' - parenting in wartime Surrogacy is legal in the UK, but under English law the surrogate's name will be on the birth certificate, along with Christine's husband's. Legal parenthood will then have to be transferred from Tatiana to Christine. If the baby is born in a third country there are even more legal complications. And that's left Svetlana, Emma and Alex with a dilemma. Surrogacy is not permitted in Moldova. If the baby is born there, Svetlana will be its legal guardian. She could place it for adoption but then it could be years before Emma and Alex are allowed to take their child home. So together they have come up with a plan for Svetlana to deliver the baby in a city close to the border. Svetlana has mixed feelings about going back to Ukraine. "There's shooting everywhere, homes are being reduced to rubble and the Russians are shelling maternity hospitals, kindergartens and schools," she says. On the other hand, she is desperate to see her husband, who can't leave the country under the terms of Ukraine's martial law. For Emma, the idea of Svetlana returning to a war zone is hard to take. "If you'd asked me a year ago, I'd say 'No, I wouldn't do that.' Because it's just not what we should be doing. It's not what should be happening," she says. One possible snag is that it could take weeks for the baby's birth certificate to be issued. If that happens Emma and Alex are not sure what they will do. The war has left thousands of surrogates and intended parents in equally terrible positions. Cyrille, who is French, struggled to get in touch with his surrogate in Kharkiv for two weeks after the invasion. When eventually he did, he helped her to come to Paris where he hopes she will stay until she gives birth in August. But she has left her children in western Ukraine with their father, who didn't want them to leave. Natasha, a surrogate in Cherkasy is 10 weeks pregnant with the baby of a couple in the US. She is tormented by sirens, shelling and morning sickness. "This is not life, it's a nightmare," she says. Just a few days before the war, I spoke to another surrogate who is pregnant with a baby girl for a couple in Spain. Maryna lived close to Svetlana in the town of Uzyn. When we spoke she was getting ready to move to Kyiv for the last two months of her pregnancy. "Kyiv is always going to be a safe place because it's so far from the Donbas," she said. Even after Russia invaded she struggled to imagine how bad things could get. "I really hope that a brain will appear in Putin's head and he will start to withdraw his troops. Because Ukrainian and Russian mothers didn't give birth to children so that they would fight." Short presentational grey line Just after Svetlana arrived safely in Moldova, Emma felt a moment of bittersweet relief. "She sent me a photo of her youngest daughter with a soft-serve ice cream from McDonalds and a balloon and the biggest smile on her face. And I just completely broke down," Emma says. It reminded her of what every child should be doing, enjoying her life safely, with her family. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60824936

Wyze has been moving into lifestyle lighting products, first with the Wyze Floor Lamp and now with the Wyze Night Light. Available in a three-pack for $20 (shipping begins in August), these affordable and rechargeable night lights aren’t so smart—they don’t support Alexa or Google Assistant, nor do they connect to the Wyze app—but they do come with motion and ambient light sensors, and they link together via an RF connection. I had the Wyze Night Lights installed in a stairwell for a few weeks, and for the most part, they worked as advertised. That said, there was an annoying mounting issue that left me wondering whether Wyze’s QA department has been stretched a bit thin. Also, the battery life on my test units wasn’t so hot. Note: This review was originally published on July 14, 2021. Following another week or so of testing, the batteries on my test units died, which means the batteries only lasted for roughly two weeks. I’ve updated this review with my battery life observations, along with responses from Wyze about that issue and others. Design and operation Measuring 3.14 x 2.04 x 0.55 inches (WxHxD) and weighing a hair under two ounces, each individual Wyze Night Light is a little smaller than a stack of credit cards. Twin LEDs are embedded in the top and bottom edges, which are angled to splash light on the wall or whatever surface the module is attached to. There’s also a small rectangle on the face of the light that glows faintly when the LEDs are on The night light puts out about 4.5 lumens of light, and three of them were bright enough (but not too bright) to illuminate my dark downstairs stairwell. Tuned to a white color temperature of 2,500 Kelvin, the lights emit a warm, soothing glow. [ Further reading: How to optimize your home’s lighting using color temperature ] A three-way switch on the right edge of each light changes the unit’s lighting mode. “Auto” sets the light so that it only turns on when it’s dark and when the motion sensor detects movement; you need to be reasonably close, within a few feet or so, and the light turns off again after about 15 seconds. “Off” turns the light off completely, while “on” keeps the light glowing continuously. To group the lights, you switch them all to “auto” mode while they’re close together; they’ll blink momentarily before linking to each other. Switching the light to “off” resets the linkage. The lights connect to each other via an RF signal over the 2.4GHz band, although they don’t connect to Wi-Fi. They have a range of up to 30 yards. Up to 10 Night Lights can be grouped together, but since the lights come in three-packs, you can only buy either nine or 12. (I guess you could buy 10 three-packs to get three groups of 10 lights each.) Wyze doesn’t currently plan to offer the lights in anything other than a three-pack, a rep told me. For most of my testing, I had the night lights installed in a stairwell just a few feet from each other, but I also tried placing them along the length of my entire railroad-style apartment, which is about 35 yards long. I triggered the light that was nearest to me, and the other two obediently switched on, including the one that was way over on the other side of the apartment. Inside each light is a 300mAh lithium polymer battery, which you can recharge via a USB-C port that sits right next to the three-way power switch. Wyze promises that the battery will keep the light charged for up to 128 days when it’s in “auto” mode by itself, or up to 85 days when it’s linked to other night lights. Those are just estimates, however, and it turns out they’re rather optimistic ones. In practice, my test units ran out of juice after about two weeks. Now, to be fair, I installed the lights in a heavily trafficked stairwell; there are three of us in our family, and we tromp up and down the stairs on a fairly regular basis. That said, I was pretty disappointed that I had to recharge the lights so quickly. When I asked about the brief battery life on my Night Light sample units, a Wyze rep said that “the amount of triggers/usage…may have played a factor.” Installation The Wyze Night Lights don’t have any mounting holes, so you don’t screw them onto a wall; instead, they come with square magnetic mounting plates that you attach to a surface using short lengths of removable double-sided tape. Only three pieces of tape come in the box, but you can easily I attached the mounting plates to the wall along my downstairs stairwell, with the plates about 1.5 feet above the floor (as Wyze recommends). The night lights, which have magnets embedded in their plastic housings, then snap onto the mounting plates. That’s how it works on paper; in reality, my results were mixed. One of the three Wyze Night Lights snapped onto its mounting plate perfectly, both straight and firm. The second snapped on firmly, but I had to fuss with it a bit to prevent it from spinning into an upside-down position. The third light was so wobbly that I really had to work with it to keep it upright, and the merest touch made it spin upside down. At first I thought I’d messed up the mounting plates somehow, but when I switched the lights to different plates, they behaved consistently; the first light was always perfect, the second light was wobbly, and the third was really wobbly. With some careful balancing, I did eventually get them all positioned just right, but there are clearly manufacturing issues with the magnets. Informed of my problems with the Night Light magnets, a Wyze rep said that I likely received “a defective unit,” and that “a fresh batch of lights” would be “more representative of the quality of the product.” I’ll update this review once I test out the replacement units. Bottom line Wyze has a reputation for churning out affordable yet high-quality smart home products; I’ve had the Wyze Cam v2 in my basement for more than a year, and it’s worked flawlessly. But as Wyze plunges into one home and lifestyle category after another, I can’t help but wonder if its standards have begun to slip, and the Wyze Night Light is a case in point. Yes, the lights functioned just as Wyze promised they would, but the wobbly magnetic mounting was a big disappointment, not to mention the iffy battery life. I’d chalk it up to being a “you get what you pay for” situation, but with Wyze, we usually expect more.