_Happy boy

Shanghai residents voiced growing frustration on Friday at confusion over a week of snap Covid lockdowns, taking to social media to complain about food shortages and bewildering stay-at-home orders. After initially vowing they would avoid a city-wide lockdown, officials changed tack this week and announced a phased shutdown which divided China’s financial centre in two so authorities can test its 25 million residents. A four-day lockdown of the Pudong area began on Monday, followed by stay-at-home orders for the densely po[CENSORED]ted Puxi zone which was meant to start on Friday. But many Puxi neighbourhoods were suddenly ordered inside early on Thursday, while much of Pudong was still closed on Friday, angering residents on both sides. “This is de facto city-wide lockdown,” one Weibo user said. “Many Pudong streets and compounds are still in lockdown, few are lifted.” Authorities late Thursday published a bewildering “grid management” plan for reopening, which would keep all residential compounds where a positive test is found closed, as well as the “cells” next to them. The restrictions have led to panic buying at shops as well as a dire shortage of delivery drivers to get food to the millions now trapped at home. “Is this continuing lockdown aiming to starve us?” another poster on Weibo said, calling government promises so far “window dressing”. Residents of some compounds have skirted restrictions by taking deliveries attached to ropes lowered to the ground, according to AFP reporters. As patience starts to fray in Shanghai among a public who have broadly acquiesced with virus controls for two years, leading city official Ma Chunlei on Thursday made a rare admission of failure, saying the city was “insufficiently prepared” for the outbreak. With an infection level of several thousand cases a day, Shanghai has become the heart of China’s worst Covid-19 outbreak since the virus was first detected in Wuhan in 2019. The country reported 7,386 virus cases nationwide on Friday. While tiny compared with many countries, the case numbers are alarming to China’s leadership, who have tethered the country to a “zero-Covid” approach to contain the pandemic. https://www.msn.com/en-ae/news/other/covid-19-shanghai-residents-frustrated-by-food-shortages-prolonged-lockdowns/ar-AAVKoXu?ocid=EMMX&cvid=c1705c24508044fbbcee7027cec2ec19

macOS: No third-party app needed If you have a Mac, you don't need to download any apps to extract and save a single or multiple PDF pages as a JPEG image. To save a single PDF page as a JPEG image, right-click on the file, and under "Open With," select "Preview." In the Preview app, scroll to the page you want to save. Then, click "File" in the top-left corner, and in the drop-down menu, click "Export..." If you want to neatly share PDF pages on social media without relying on ugly screenshots, you should convert them to JPEG images, a.k.a. JPG. That's just one of multiple reasons why you'd want to extract pages out of a PDF to use in a different application as an image. The question is, how to do it in the most effortless manner? Here you go. How to do it in Windows If you're a Windows user, the easiest way to do it is with a free app called Any PDF to JPG (available from the Microsoft Store). Once you've launched the app, click "Load PDF" and choose a file. In the main screen, you'll be able to zoom in and out, or choose a page. To continue, click "Save Image." In the next screen, you'll be able to choose whether to save the page you viewed, all of the file's pages or a certain range of pages. Because PDFs usually contain vector elements (meaning they can scale without pixelation), use the "Scale" option to choose how many pixels the image will have compared to the preview in the main screen. You can also save the image in other file formats. If you want to edit the image later, you should choose the PNG format. To save the file, click "Continue." In the new window, make sure to choose the JPEG format (unless you want to edit later). Underneath, you'll be able to choose the file's resolution and level of compression. Once you've chosen your settings, click "Save." Convert all PDF pages with Automator If you want to quickly convert entire PDF files as individual JPEG images, you should use the built-in Automator tool, which you can find with the Spotlight search (Command + Spacebar). When you open Automator, a dialog will appear. Click "New Document." In the new window, click "Quick Action," and then "Choose." Then, in the search field next to "Variables," type "Render PDF Pages as Images." Drag the search result to the right side of the window. In the new bracket, next to "Format," choose "JPEG image." Here you can also choose a resolution and the compression quality. The Automator tool will also let you save the image files in different formats like PNG or HEIF, if you wish to do that. To choose where the images will be saved, click again on the "Variables" search field. This time type "Move Finder Items" and drag the result to the right, under the existing bracket, and select a folder. To save this action, on the main menu click "File" and then "Save," or press Command + S. In the pop-up window, choose a name for the action (such as "Save PDF as JPEG") and click "Save." Now, whenever you right-click on a PDF file in Finder, you'll be able to turn it into JPEG images by clicking the name of the action you've created under "Quick Actions." Did you know? JPEG images are space-efficient thanks to not saving each and every pixel, but saving each block of 8 x 8 pixels as a combination of up to 64 patterns. Depending on the compression quality, the more complex of the 64 patterns may get ignored, greatly reducing the file size but resulting in artifacts, possibly in the form of large, single-color squares. https://www.techspot.com/article/2430-save-pdf-as-jpg/

Final Fantasy 7 Remake has been a gift to modders, who have so far been responsible for such masterpieces as low-poly dress Cloud, clown makeup Sephiroth, and several nude mods I leave interested readers to discover for themselves. Now, a modder known as The Eradicator has truly created the pièce de résistance, with a mod that replaces Cloud's buster sword or ironblade with a 1987 Yamaha SHS-10 shoulder keyboard. Cloud with a keytar is one of those things I didn't know I wanted until I saw it, but now that I have it just looks so right. The Eradicator has done fine work modeling the keyboard's details, and the digital readout even changes color to match the materia you have equipped in the sword's first slot. The mod comes in three different versions for each of the two swords it can replace, depending whether you want it to have a plain, unadorned back, a selection of random stickers, or some specifically Final Fantasy 7-themed stickers including one with Aerith's iconic quote from the original game's shonky English translation, "This guy are sick." To install this you'll need to make a ~mods folder inside your FFVIIRemakeIntergrade/End/Content/Paks directory, then paste whichever of the .pak files you choose to download inside it. While you're at it, check out FFVIIHook to enable the developer console, and some more of the best Final Fantasy 7 Remake mods. https://www.pcgamer.com/final-fantasy-7-remake-mod-gives-cloud-a-keytar-sword/

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Ti will undoubtedly rank among the best graphics cards, but it could be set to blow away the competition in more ways than one. While the majority of the RTX 4000 flagship’s specs remain up in the air, one report suggests that the GPU is so power-hungry that it will need a wind farm for power. We received a tip from wind turbine engineer Gus Towind, who claims to have personally installed PCIe Gen 5 power connectors suitable for the RTX 4090 Ti onto wind turbines across the United Kingdom. “I’ve never seen anything like it in all my years on the job,” Towind says “when the first work order arrived, I thought they were winding us up, but more and more just seemed to appear out of thin air. I don’t know if the grid’s going to handle it.” It turns out that the installation contracts are predominantly coming from crypto miners, who have bought swathes of land surrounding the wind turbines with the intention of building a much less eco-friendly kind of farm. There’s no word of official confirmation from Nvidia just yet, we’ve already seen some prospective RTX 4090 Ti buyers attempting to learn the ‘Song of Storms’ on an Ocarina. We’ve even seen evidence of people trying to relocate to Scotland in an effort to maximise their ‘bps’ (breeze per second), but their efforts have been met with resistance from concerned locals. Hopefully this doesn’t set a new precedent for what makes the best power supply money can buy, or in this case cryptocurrency. However, given that the TDP of graphics cards seems to only increase from generation to generation, we wouldn’t be surprised if we needed a hydroelectric power plant to water cool it too. https://www.pcgamesn.com/nvidia/geforce-rtx-4090-ti-wind-farm-power

no @[Paul] ❤️

HP dude ❤️

HP Dude 🥰

First of all, my brother, happy birthday. You are a nice person and a respectable person. I have the great honor to comment here and write my beautiful words to you.

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Link : https://www.bbc.com/news/health-60482493 Despite a backlog of routine operations, NHS hospitals are being advised to delay elective surgical procedures by at least seven weeks if a patient has just had Omicron. UK experts say it is a precaution since the first couple of months following infection is a riskier period, linked to poorer post-operative recovery. In some circumstances the surgery may be urgent enough to go ahead, however. Patients should ideally have had all of their Covid vaccines too. The advice has been issued by surgery and anaesthesia experts, including two Royal Colleges representing those professions. The experts who drew up the recommendations, which are published in a journal called Anaesthesia, say the desire to tackle waiting lists and backlogs must be balanced with delivering the safest care possible. Currently, there are 6 million people on NHS waiting lists in England. That's one in nine of the po[CENSORED]tion. And about one in 20 of those has been waiting - for routine care such as knee and hip surgery - for more than a year. Ministers have already warned that the waiting list for hospital treatment will not start falling for two years, despite unveiling a plan to tackle England's backlog in care. The latest expert guidance on routine operations recommends: Elective surgery should not take place within 10 days of a confirmed Covid infection, mainly because the patient may be infectious which is a risk to staff and other patients Operations that happen in the six-week period after an infection - even an asymptomatic one - carry a higher risk of serious complications for the patient, experience suggests The data is based on information available before the Omicron surge. Experts are still gathering more information on this variant and say they will relax the rules if possible - given that Omicron may be less severe, partly due to people having built up some immunity from vaccines and past infections. Dr Mike Nathanson, president of the Association of Anaesthetists, said: "The frustration felt by patients is immense and we - the healthcare professionals - want to do our jobs and provide these services when it is safe to do so and with the risks clear to all involved. "We look forward to new data being available soon which may further clarify the situation now that the Omicron variant is dominant, and most patients are vaccinated." Prof Duncan Summerton, one of the co-authors, who is president of the Federation of Surgical Specialty Associations, said there should be "full and frank discussions" between patients and their doctors about the decision to delay or proceed with surgery.

Link : https://www.pcgamer.com/skill-shortages-may-further-fuel-semiconductor-shortage/ More skilled humans may be required to put a true end to the semiconductor shortage. The semiconductor shortage is some of the biggest and most persistent news in electronics hardware, and has been for a few years now. We’ve been constantly reporting on products affected by the supply chain issues, from GPU price hikes, truck heists, and severe DDR5 shortages that aren’t likely to let up anytime soon. It even brought up the price of the ever beloved tiny PC solution Raspberry Pi for the first time in ever. And while company’s have been working hard to develop more infrastructure for silicon production, that may well be only half of the problem. According to Nikkei Asia, a skills shortage might be the next biggest hurdle towards semiconductor shortage. Taiwan is a hot spot for semiconductor production with world leading chip maker TSMC claiming residence. Taiwan is also home to PC hardware’s best trade show, Computex, which is said to be returning to Taipei this year. And it houses the prestigious microelectronics school, Yang Ming Chiao Tung University where students are getting their pick of potential job prospects often before they even graduate.One student, Ken Wu, who’s doctorate won’t even be complete until June this year, has already spent the last two years being headhunted by potential employers. Wu explained that despite not even being able to take a fulltime job due to his studies, companies are constantly trying to schedule interviews with him about future employment. With so many choices on offer, Wu is set to take a role as a senior engineer later this year. He’ll be working with Taiwan's Macronix, which supplies specialised memory to Apple, Nintendo, and BMW. Wu’s story doesn’t seem unique, and jobs are ripe for the picking for many soon-to-be graduates in Taiwan. Nikkei Asia also talked to hiring companies and government officials about the current situation. The consensus is that the current demand for trained and skilled talent in the industry is dire, perhaps even more so than the components themselves. With over 2,000 jobs currently unfilled and more likely to crop up as infrastructure increases are implemented to meet demand, it seems the bottleneck may shift sooner than later. Let's hope they at least see enough typhoons this year.Hope’s been writing about games for about a decade, starting out way back when on the Australian Nintendo fan site Vooks.net. Since then, she’s talked far too much about games and tech for publications such as Techlife, Byteside, IGN, and GameSpot. Of course there’s also here at PC Gamer, where she gets to indulge her inner hardware nerd with news and reviews. You can usually find Hope fawning over some art, tech, or likely a wonderful combination of them both and where relevant she’ll share them with you here. When she’s not writing about the amazing creations of others, she’s working on what she hopes will one day be her own. You can find her fictional chill out ambient far future sci-fi radio show/album/listening experience podcast at BlockbusterStation.buzzsprout.com. No, sadly she’s not kidding.

Link : https://www.pcgamer.com/update-your-motherboard-with-caution-amds-latest-bios-is-causing-trouble-for-some-users/ AGESA ComboAM4v2 1.2.0.5 is AMD's new firmware update for Athlon and Ryzen APUs and processors, as well as AM4 motherboards, and reportedly it has been causing some concerning problems for users. Coupled with the fact that once you install the update, there's no way to revert, you should think carefully before making the leap. As issues with the new BIOS update are cropping up all over the net, some manufacturers are even choosing not to push the update out to their users, due to its instability, yet others are taking it on despite the complaints flying around. According to Computerbase, feedback from the AMD forums, along with a few Reddit posts, suggests the firmware is tanking performance and throwing up a bunch of hurdles in terms of usability. One user who had been putting the firmware through its paces with folding@home on an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and MSI MEG X570 motherboard has seen no issues with temps or clock speeds, however. So perhaps it's not causing issues for everyone. For the unlucky users, installation of the AGESA ComboAM4v2 1.2.0.5 update can lead to drops of up to 100MHz for their chips' single core clock, or up to 150MHz with the multi-core clock. It's also reportedly leading to missing OC functions, a significantly cropped CBS/PBO menu, performance issues with the second CCX, and more WHEA-19 errors after overclocking. There are also issues occurring with the low fabric clock (FCLK)/memory clock ratio, suggesting that the firmware is causing everything to fall out of sync. The ability to change up the ratio can be great for overclocking purposes, but not so good if it's fluctuating all by itself. MSI first had the V2 BIOS update live for a moment, before swiftly reverting to BIOS 7C35vAC1. We checked ourselves at time of writing, however, and the motherboard manufacturer now seems to have settled on the newer 7C34v1F BIOS with the latest (and potentially problematic) AGESA code. Both Biostar and Gigabyte have made the leap now, too, though there are still reports of "significantly lower voltages and clock frequencies" across the board. Asus had tried the update on, but after releasing several beta versions using the AGESA v2 1.2.0.5 firmware, decided to skip ahead to AGESA ComboAM4v2 1.2.0.6b. The safer option would be to stick with the BIOS you're on now, but should you be feeling like making a switch, you could always go for the AGESA ComboAM4v2 1.2.0.3c. It may be older, but it's still better than having to deal with any of the troubles listed above.Screw sports, Katie would rather watch Intel, AMD and Nvidia go at it. She can often be found admiring AI advancements, sighing over semiconductors, or gawping at the latest GPU upgrades. She's been obsessed with computers and graphics since she was small, and took Game Art and Design up to Masters level at uni. Her thirst for absurd Raspberry Pi projects will never be sated, and she will stop at nothing to spread internet safety awareness—down with the hackers.

Link : https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/21/us-warns-of-possible-targeted-killings-by-russia-live-news ussia’s military says it has prevented a “diversionary reconnaissance” group from breaching the border from Ukraine. Five troops were killed in the incident, the Russian defence ministry said on Monday, which allegedly took place in Russia’s southwestern Rostov region at about 03:00 GMT. Kyiv dismissed the allegation as “fake news”. The exchange came hours after the Kremlin dashed hopes that top-level diplomacy aimed at easing the Ukraine crisis would be imminent, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden had appeared to agree – in principle – to talks. Here are all the latest updates: 4 mins ago (17:30 GMT) Russian foreign minister says Minsk agreements are only way to solve Ukrainian conflict Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock that the Minsk agreements are the only way for long-term regulation of the Ukrainian internal crisis, Russia’s foreign ministry said. Lavrov, who spoke to Baerbock by phone, said Germany should put pressure on the Ukrainian leadership to prompt it to adopt a more constructive position amid the unfolding crisis in eastern Ukraine, the ministry added. Ukraine says everyone must focus on de-escalation efforts Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said that after Russian statements on possible recognition of breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, everyone has to focus on de-escalation efforts. “Everyone realizes consequences. A lot of emotions out there, but it’s exactly now that we all should calmly focus on de-escalation efforts. No other way,” Kuleba tweeted. Kuleba said he would discuss de-escalation efforts with US Secretary of State on Tuesday during a trip to Washington. 20 mins ago (17:14 GMT) Russia recognising breakaway Ukraine regions would be ‘deplorable’ -US It would be “deplorable” if Russia recognised two regions of eastern Ukraine held by Russian-backed separatists as independent, the US ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Europe said. “If carried out, this would again result in the upending of the rules based international order, under the threat of force. This, dear colleagues, is deplorable, and … condemnable. And should be (condemned), by all of us,” Michael Carpenter said in a statement to a meeting of OSCE participating states. 57 mins ago (16:37 GMT) Biden meets national security team on Russia, Ukraine, official says US President Joe Biden is meeting his national security team about Russia and Ukraine, a White House official said. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the White House official made the comments after a Reuters eyewitness saw Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrive at the White House on the US Presidents Day federal holiday. 1 hour ago (16:25 GMT) UK says unilateral sanctions against Russia would play into Putin’s narrative British Defence Minister Ben Wallace has warned that imposing sanctions on Russia unilaterally would play into President Putin’s narrative. Asked by a lawmaker whether it was now time to start imposing sanctions, Wallace said: “If we were to unilaterally deliver them now, and America wasn’t, and the European Union wasn’t, I think there is a danger that President Putin would play into a divide and rule narrative.” Putin says Russia is considering recognising, not annexing Ukraine’s breakaway regions President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia was considering recognising the independence of two breakaway Ukrainian regions, but not annexing them and formally adding them to its own territory. He made the comments during a long televised meeting of Russia’s security council during which all the participants said they backed recognising the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic. 2 hours ago (15:55 GMT) Strong cause to believe Putin still committed to Ukraine invasion: UK’s Wallace British Defence Minister Ben Wallace has said that there is strong cause to believe that President Putin is still committed to an invasion of Ukraine. Wallace said there had been a continued increase in troop numbers near the border as well as a “proliferation” of so-called false flag events. “We’ve seen over the last few weeks, the Russian playbook being implemented in a way that gives a strong cause for concern that President Putin is still committed to an invasion,” Wallace told parliament, urging Putin to rule out an invasion and recommit to a diplomatic process. 2 hours ago (15:44 GMT) Residents of breakaway regions did not recognise 2014 ‘coup’: Putin Putin has said that the residents of Donetsk and Luhansk didn’t recognize the 2014 protests in Ukraine that ousted pro-Russian President Viktor Yanykovych. The protests are known in Ukraine as “the revolution of dignity,” but Putin has for years called them a “coup.” “The coup was anti-constitutional and bloody,” he said in televised remarks. “Kyiv authorities conducted two military, punishing operations in these regions,” he said. He said the ongoing tensions in the region are a “third escalation” masterminded by Kyiv and its Western partners.

Link : https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-60452334 Storm Franklin is forecast to hit the UK after Storm Eunice left 1.4 million homes without power. The Met Office has issued an amber wind warning for Northern Ireland for Monday morning and yellow ones for parts of the UK from Sunday. There is a yellow rain warning in the north west of England, where two severe flood alerts indicate danger to life. This comes days after one of the worst storms in the UK in decades in which three people died. More than 80,000 homes still have no power. Franklin is the third storm to hit the UK in a week, and follows the disruption from Storm Dudley and Storm Eunice. High winds could cause further power cuts, transport delays and damage to properties, the Met Office has warned. Environment agencies have issued hundreds of alerts for flooding across the UK, and the North West is expected to be worst hit by up to 80mm of rain. There are two severe flood warnings indicating danger to life in close to the River Mersey at East Didsbury and West Didsbury and Northenden. Natural Resources Wales (NRW) said flooding was expected in several areas along the River Severn in Powys. More than 20 flood warnings and seven alerts have also been issued across the Scottish Borders, Ayrshire, Orkney and the Western Isles by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. In pictures: Storm Eunice's trail of destruction Power cuts continue amid new yellow warnings How do I claim for storm damage? The amber warning for wind in Northern Ireland runs from midnight until 07:00 GMT on Monday. There are milder yellow warnings for wind in Wales, Northern Ireland, the south-west of Scotland and most of England starting from midday on Sunday and until 13:00 GMT on Monday. A yellow warning for rain, meaning "there is a chance that homes and businesses could be flooded", is in place in the northwest of England until 18:00 GMT on Sunday. The focus of the yellow rain warning is around Greater Manchester and extends to Blackburn with Darwen, Cheshire, Cumbria, Lancashire, Merseyside and Warrington. The same warning in also applies in Derbyshire, Durham, Northumberland and Staffordshire in the West Midlands. On Friday a record number of homes were thought to have been without power, said the Energy Networks Association. And 83,000 homes still have no power, it said. This includes around 29,000 in South West England, 23,000 in South East England, 20,000 in South England, 7,000 in Eastern England and around 3,000 in South Wales, it said. Electricity provider Western Power Distribution (WPD) said the outage was the most widespread recorded for the south west of England. Father and son stranded in Scottish mountains Man's lucky escape as car crushed by bricks Marmosets spooked by storm escape enclosure Hundreds of homes evacuated amid flooding fears On Friday Storm Eunice tore through the UK on Friday bringing widespread disruption as trees were toppled, trains were cancelled, schools closed as well as power supplies being affected. A female passenger in her 30s died in Highgate, north London after a tree fell on a car. The driver, a man in his 30s, was taken to hospital. A man died in Merseyside after debris hit the windscreen of a car he was a passenger in. In Alton, Hampshire, two men were in a pickup truck when it was crushed by a falling tree. The passenger died at the scene while the driver was taken to hospital with serious injuries. Meteorologist Becky Mitchell said this was the first time the Met Office had recorded three major storms in a week since the naming system was introduced seven years ago. She told the PA news agency: "At the moment we've got a really active jet stream, which is why we're seeing so many storms track right towards the UK. "We had Dudley on Wednesday, Eunice on Friday and Franklin today."

Link : https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/14/business/canada-protest-auto-supply-chain.html The North American auto industry lumbered back to life on Monday after Canadian authorities cleared protesters and vehicles from a key trade route between the United States and Canada that had been closed for nearly a week. But some auto manufacturers said it would take several days for production to return to normal because it would take time to deliver necessary parts to factories. For some companies, a longer-term shortage of chips was still keeping plants closed. “It’s not like you can flip a switch and get back to where we were production-wise,” said Peter Nagle, a principal analyst who specializes in the auto industry at IHS Markit, a research firm. “It’s going to take a few weeks.” The bridge, which connects Detroit to Windsor, Ontario, and other border crossings were blocked after truckers and their allies paralyzed parts of Ottawa to protest vaccine mandates and other pandemic restrictions. Ford Motor said that it hadn’t seen any impact related to the border disruptions since Friday, but that an Ohio facility would be shut down this week because of the chip shortage. General Motors said its factories were operating normally on Monday. Toyota said that it expected border-related disruptions to continue this week, but that some improvements were likely in the coming days as the supply chain caught up. The company’s facilities in Ontario, Kentucky, Alabama and West Virginia had recently been affected by border blockades, a representative for the company said. Stellantis, which owns Jeep, Ram and other brands, said it had cut short a number of shifts at U.S. and Canadian plants last week because of parts shortages caused by the blockade. Operations resumed Monday morning as scheduled, and the company is aiming to make up lost production in coming months, said Lou Ann Gosselin, a company spokeswoman. “We are working with our carriers to get parts into the plants as quickly as possible to mitigate any f But Mr. Nagle of IHS Markit said it would take longer than that, especially considering that carmakers were already struggling with shortages of semiconductors and other components. Many of the suppliers hardest hit by the bridge blockade were small firms producing specialized components. Until these essential links in the supply chain ramp up production, the industry will not be able to function normally, Mr. Nagle said Monday. Paul Ashworth, chief North America economist for Capital Economics, said some Ford plants had reduced production this month because of chip shortages, “but the broader picture seems to be that the situation is improving.” Congestion at the West Coast ports that handle chip imports has eased. And production at auto plants has been rebounding in recent months, though it remains a bit below normal. The latest sales figures show that new vehicle sales rebounded by about 20 percent in January, Mr. Ashworth said. On Sunday night, the police in Windsor said they had arrested several people and towed trucks parked in an intersection leading to the Ambassador Bridge. The bridge reopened just before midnight. urther disruptions,” she said. A representative for Unifor, a large Canadian union that represents autoworkers at many manufacturers, said auto production was likely to return to normal within days. Editors’ Picks Anna Sorokin on ‘Inventing Anna’ and Life After Rikers At the Super Bowl, Nostalgia’s the Only Game An 8-Year-Old Street Child Is Killed, and a World Opens Up Continue reading the main story

Link : https://gazette.com/thetribune/five-healthy-lifestyle-habits-to-shape-your-heart-health-guest-column/article_5bafc786-8abf-11ec-bdd6-2f6087720115.html ebruary is recognized as American Heart Month, a health observance that encourages Americans to understand the importance of heart health and adopt healthier behaviors that can decrease the risk of serious health outcomes, such as a heart attack or stroke. Unfortunately, heart disease and other conditions that can affect the heart, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, are far too common. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease is the leading cause of death for men, women, and people of most racial and ethnic groups in the United States. By adopting healthier lifestyle habits, individuals can learn to incorporate small, but powerful, changes into their day-to-day routines that can help decrease their risk of heart disease, improve overall health and increase longevity. The CDC states that living a healthier lifestyle can help you lower your blood pressure and cholesterol level and ultimately help lower your risk for heart disease. Living a longer, healthier life starts with taking care of your heart. Here are five lifestyle habits that can be implemented today that can improve not only heart, but whole-body health: Keep a gratitude journal. By taking a few minutes out of every day to acknowledge what or who you are grateful for, you can tap into positive emotions which are linked to greater wellbeing. Try writing the things you are grateful for in a journal or even expressing them out loud to a friend or family member. Find support for smoking cessation. Some old habits are especially hard to break, especially smoking, which is a major cause of cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attack and stroke. In fact, according to the CDC, one in every four deaths from cardiovascular diseases is caused by smoking. If you are ready to quit, asking a friend or a family member for support may help. The person supporting you can help you stay positive, celebrate your successes and aid in changing your daily routine, such as going on an evening walk instead of an after-work cigarette. Move more. Any physical activity is better than none, so it can be helpful to choose an activity that you enjoy, such as biking, yoga, walking, swimming or tennis. Even small changes to your routine, such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator or parking further away from the door when you visit the grocery store can make a difference. Stay motivated to be active by doing the activity with a friend or your pet. According to the American Heart Association, regular moderate to vigorous physical activity reduces heart disease by 30 to 40% and stroke by 25%. Spice it up. Sodium is a mineral that we all need, but too much sodium intake from the foods we eat has been associated with increased blood pressure — and high blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration dietary guidelines recommend limiting sodium intake below 2,300 milligrams per day (about 1 teaspoon), and the American Heart Association recommends moving toward an ideal limit of no more than 1,500 mg per day for most adults. You can substitute salt with flavorful spices and herbs that liven up your food, such as basil, rosemary, mint, ginger, cayenne, cilantro and dill. Floss daily. Practicing good dental hygiene, especially flossing your teeth daily, can contribute to your overall health and heart health specifically, according to the AHA. Many studies have shown that bacteria in the mouth involved in the development of gum disease can move into the blood stream and cause an elevation in C-reactive protein, a marker for inflammation in the blood vessels. This elevation may increase your risk for heart disease and stroke. So, brush and floss daily, not only for fresh breath, but for your heart health, too. It’s true that some habits are hard to break but remember that small steps can lead to big victories. Take one habit at a time and with a series of small changes you are on your way to a healthier lifestyle and healthier heart. Optum Disclaimer: Talk with your doctor before significantly increasing your activity level. Ask about the amounts and types of activities that may be best for you.

Link : https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60380317 Images of Canada's paralysed capital and of pandemic-rules protests have thrust the country's Covid response under the spotlight. What started as a trucker-led movement to demand the end of a vaccine mandate has escalated to include all kinds of public health restrictions. But since the pandemic began, Canada has fared far better than the US, despite similar income disparities, territorial divides, and comorbidities such as obesity and hypertension as its southern neighbour. There is a staggering difference, for example, in how many more Americans have died because of Covid compared to Canadians, both in absolute numbers and as the ratio of deaths per million inhabitants. So what is going on, and why might Canada's experience be different to that of the US so far? And amid mounting public pressure to relax restrictions, will Canada be able to keep a lid on the pandemic going forward? What do the numbers show? The proportion of daily new confirmed Covid cases has been lower in Canada than the US throughout most of the pandemic. As of 12 February - and even with infection rates falling across the country - new cases in the US stood at about 543 per million people, compared with 258 in Canada, according to Our World in Data, a collaboration between Oxford University and an educational charity. The trajectory of the pandemic has been similar in both countries, with cases rising and falling at roughly the same time, with the notable exception of the second US surge in the summer of 2021. In fact, the reproduction rate of the virus has been exactly the same," said Canadian national Dr Mark Cameron, an associate professor in the department of po[CENSORED]tion and quantitative health sciences at Case Western University in Ohio. "[But] Canada's per capita case rate has generally been less than half that of the US". The total death toll of the pandemic in the US stands at about 919,000, compared to 35,500 in Canada, according to Johns Hopkins University. While the po[CENSORED]tion of the US - over 332.4 million - is more than eight times Canada's 38.2 million, its ratio of deaths per million inhabitants still far surpasses Canada's. Another set of statistics compiled by Johns Hopkins shows that as of 11 February, 279 US residents have died of Covid per 100,000, compared to about 94 in Canada. Vaccination rates and healthcare differences As of 9 February, 80% of Canada's po[CENSORED]tion was fully immunised against Covid-19, along with another 5% that is partially vaccinated, meaning they had received at least one dose of a multi-dose vaccine. In the US, 64% of people are fully vaccinated and 12% partially vaccinated. Unlike the US, however, Canada has a universal, decentralised and publicly funded healthcare system administered by its 13 provinces and territories. That means that people, regardless of their socioeconomic status, have access to healthcare," said Dr Donald Vinh, an infectious disease specialist at McGill University Health Centre in Montreal. "What makes that an important factor is that, regardless of where you are in your phase of illness, you will still be able to get healthcare." Far more Americans were ending up in intensive care as well. Last month during the Omicron wave, the number peaked at nearly 79 per million when Canada's was 32 per million. "That has to be a function of healthcare systems. [Canada] is intervening quicker, and in different ways, than the US," Dr Cameron said. "That's where severe cases are ending up when other approaches and interventions have failed." The availability of universal health insurance is the "simplest" explanation for Canada's lower infections and deaths, said Ross Upshur, a professor of public health at the University of Toronto. "Most Canadians would not swap the health system we have, with all its faults, for the US system," he said. Mandates In Canada - like the US - individual provinces and territories can implement and lift local mandates governing behaviour - like going to restaurants, gyms and other public venues - as they see fit. But the federal government still has jurisdiction on issues such as vaccine passports for domestic travel, vaccination requirements for federal employees or cross-border truckers. The latter was what initially prompted the protests. In the US, some cities like New York have introduced vaccine passes to access restaurants and bars, but Canada's mandates have been stricter - and lasted far longer. Canadian public health experts and many government officials believe that the more gradual relaxation of these rules - which are dependent on improvements in public heath data - has allowed it to avoid the same the high levels of infections and deaths that have been experienced in the US, where numbers spiked in a number of locations that rushed to ease regulations. The puzzle of America's record Covid hospital rate Is Trudeau losing his fight against truckers? These measures have been "quite protective" for Canadians and left them "in a better place" than Americans, according to Dr Vinh. "The adherence to public policies is a major factor that distinguishes the impact in the two countries," he said. "But that doesn't mean that the Canadian public isn't fed up with Covid or some public health measures." Now, provincial governments across Canada are beginning to ease restrictions. Last week, Alberta ended its proof-of-vaccination system and plans to soon drop mask requirements for students in schools. Children under 12 will not be required to wear masks anywhere. In Ontario, authorities will begin phasing out measures like capacity limits in restaurants and gyms. Proof of vaccination requirements will be lifted as of 1 March. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said that the province's effective handling of the Omicron variant has allowed it to "fast track" its reopening plans But the easing of restrictions comes as Canada contends with the economic impact of the pandemic. Unemployment in Canada rose half a percentage point to 6.5% in January 2022, according to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In the US, the unemployment rate stands at 4%. The need to balance public health concerns with these economic and social concerns, Dr Vinh added, is often difficult and has left Canada's provincial and federal government in an "unenviable" position. "We have a lot of outspoken physicians and scientists in all the provinces that are keeping an eye on these policies to make sure they are not egregious or dangerous," he said. "There's still a science and political divide." Dr Vinh added that the segment of Canada's po[CENSORED]tion that is against these public health measures isn't necessarily representative of the entire country - and that overall, the debate is less political than in the US. "I think the US is equally disjointed, but on a much grander scale," he said. "The science is the signal, and the politics is the noise. A [failure] to understand the signal from the noise may be contributing strongly to the unfortunate situation they're in." Future Forecast Public health officials warn that while most of Canada's provinces are seeing cases and deaths fall, it may be too early to relax all the country's Covid-induced public health measures. "We're not out of the woods, but we're improving," Dr Vinh said. "The problem with improving is that if you do too much, too soon, you may exacerbate the condition. "It's like recovering from a broken leg. You need to learn how to sit, stand and walk before you run and sprint." Dr Vinh said that a "strategic and staggered process with a constant surveillance of metrics" may be necessary to give provincial and federal mandates the flexibility to respond to changes in the pandemic. "People do get fed up and want to will it away," Professor Upshur said. "But you can't will it away - or honk it away".

Link : https://www.techradar.com/news/this-browser-now-lets-your-web-addresses-just-be-emojis ollowing the release of its dedicated crypto browser, Opera is innovating once again by becoming the first browser to enable emoji-only based web addresses. This marks the first time in the history of the internet that users will be able to navigate to websites by entering a string of emoji into the URL bar instead of letters and words. The addition of emoji in Opera was made possible through a partnership with Yat which allows users to own personalized strings of emoji. EVP of Mobile at Opera, Jorgen Arnesen provided further details on this new partnership in a press release, saying:"The partnership marks a major paradigm shift in the way the internet works. It's been almost 30 years since the world wide web launched to the public, and there hasn't been much innovation in the weblink space: people still include .com in their URLs. Through the integration with Yat, Opera users are able to ditch .com or even words in their links and use only emojis to be directed to websites. It's new, it's easier and more fun"Through its new emoji-centric integration, Opera has now made it easier for all Internet users to find and be directed to Yat pages which are unique domains generated when a Yat is created from a personalized string of emoji. Users can customize their Yat page or have it redirect to anywhere else on the web. For instance, musicians around the world have already set up their own Yat pages including Lil Wayne whose page directs users to his record label or Steve Aoki who has his redirect to his website. Additionally, G-Easy, Kesha, Young Money, 3Lau and Disclosure are also using Yat as well. Following this new integration, Yat emoji web addresses on Opera no longer need to be followed by “.y.at”. At the same time, strings of emoji embedded on web pages now link to the corresponding Yat page automatically. As 90 percent of world's 4.6bn internet users worldwide already use emoji to express themselves according to Brandwatch, Opera's integration of Yats unlocks a new way for people to be present on the web. Interested users can find out even more about using emoji in Opera by checking out this blog post. We've also featured the best web hosting and the best website builder