-Sn!PeR-

A cow herd in Germany has gained an unlikely following, after adopting a lone wild boar piglet. Farmer Friedrich Stapel told the dpa news agency that he spotted the piglet among the herd in the central German community of Brevoerde about three weeks ago. It had likely lost its group when they crossed a nearby river. Stapel said while he knows what extensive damage wild boars can cause, he can’t bring himself to chase the animal away, dpa reported Thursday. The local hunter has been told not to shoot the piglet — nicknamed Frieda — and in winter Stapel plans to put it in the shed with the mother cows. “To leave it alone now would be unfair,” he told dpa. Source.

It's a crazy car with an even crazier price, but in most respects the M4 CSL justifies its cost by simply being a brilliant driver’s car. One that’s not just faster and more focused than the M4 on which it’s based, but also much more rewarding to drive where it counts. The CSL is an instant legend, if ever there was one, even if its steering remains a touch ordinary. BMW doesn’t apply its CSL (Competition Sport Light) badge too often, with just two other cars being gifted the sacred moniker during the last 50 years. But whenever it does, the results tend to be spectacular, and this new £129k, 190mph M4 CSL appears to be no exception. Not only has it lapped the Nurburgring faster than any other production BMW in history, it’s also the most potent six-cylinder BMW there has ever been. Its 3.0-litre twin-turbo straight-six engine and eight-speed automatic gearbox are fundamentally the same as those you’ll find in a regular M4 (or M3) Competition, but the engine’s output has risen to 543bhp and 650Nm thanks to a plethora of modifications that help it breathe and rev more sweetly, while the gearbox has been remapped to deliver sharper, faster shifts. Cooling and lubrication have also been significantly improved to make the CSL work better on a track, while the brakes are carbon ceramic as standard, the suspension comprehensively reworked and the tyres are Michelin Pilot Sport 4S – or, if you’re seriously committed to circuit driving, Cup 2s are available at no extra cost. Perhaps most important of all, the CSL also weighs 100kg less than a regular, rear-wheel drive M4 thanks to the complete removal of its rear seats, plus the addition of a new lightweight boot lid and bonnet. Even so, the CSL still tips the scales at 1,700kg, so although it’s lighter, it is not what you’d call a light car. The last BMW that wore the magic badge, the E46 M3 CSL of 2003, weighed just 1,385kg… You’d be hard pressed not to pick a CSL from a regular M4 visually. The test car’s look-at-me black and red stripes and its frozen grey paint are all standard issue, but the CSL also rides 8mm lower while its 19-inch front and 20-inch rear forged cross-spoke alloys are similarly bespoke. As is the pared-back, carbon-festooned cabin design, which features the lightweight bucket seats that cost many thousands if you spec them on your regular M4. The 0-62mph sprint takes just 3.7 seconds, claims BMW, which is a pretty immense time for a car that’s still rear-wheel drive, remember. But then the CSL is one of those cars that somehow manages to over-deliver right the way across its dynamic repertoire, so despite its weight and eye-watering price, you still walk away having driven it muttering to yourself in disbelief – not just at what it can do but at the way it can do it. That means it’s very much a proper CSL. It feels instantly lighter and more incisive than a regular M4. The seat clamps you almost violently in position behind the suede-rimmed steering wheel, and although the cabin is still a complex-looking environment in which to operate, featuring the same big central touchscreen and iDrive controls on the centre console, it definitely feels more focused inside. It sounds it too, thanks to the louder exhaust note and the removal of many sound deadening materials. You can even hear the fuel sloshing around in the tank when you come to a halt, while the level of road noise on the move is also louder, and more intense than in the regular M4. Yet the ride is still surprisingly decent – unless you dial the electronically operated dampers up to 11 and select Sport Plus mode, at which point you need to hold on tight. The point is, in its default mode the CSL is not the hard riding, uncompromising track-day renegade you might expect it to be, judging purely from its looks. In certain respects, and on most surfaces, it’s actually better damped than the regular M4 while its steering doesn’t suffer the same kickback over rough roads, either. Having said that, the steering itself is maybe the most disappointing aspect of the CSL in that, despite this, it feels not a lot unlike that of the regular M4’s. In most other respects – the way it sounds, rides, stops, goes, changes gear, looks etc. – it represents a decent step up over the already fiery M4 Comp, and justifies its exorbitant price accordingly. But in the area that arguably matters most – the way it steers – there isn’t enough to distinguish it, which is a shame. Not least because in the E46 CSL the steering was nothing short of sublime. Not that the M4 CSL is in any way a disappointing car overall. Its extra performance alone (which is truly outrageous) is almost sufficient to justify the nutcase price premium. Then there’s the extra fizz from its chassis and brakes, both of which are way stronger than standard. And that’s before you even mention the fact that it will be limited in numbers to just 1,000 examples worldwide, only 100 of which will come to the UK in right-hand drive form, thereby assuring it of potentially vast long-term appreciation. But in the here and now, that doesn’t matter. What does is that the M4 CSL wears its badge with sincerity. It is the real deal, even if it doesn’t quite hit the spot like its predecessor so obviously did. Source.

Billie Eilish has always been candid about her body image issues and overall health. And now, the singer, who is admittedly been working out regularly, has opened up about her love for fitness in a recent interview with Zane Lowe. “I have been working on my bones and my body for the last … since then really,” the 20-year-old said, referring to the ankle injury that she suffered in 2019. “And more seriously for the last four months, I’ve been completely changing the way that my life is involving fitness.” Calling herself “a gym rat”, Billie added, “When did that happen? I don’t know but it did and it started with ‘I can’t get injured anymore.’ I’m not gonna let myself live like that because I lived like that for years.” Detailing her fitness journey, the singer mentioned how working out has regularly changed her life. “Especially [after] coming back from Europe I started working out at a gym for the first time every day. And I know that’s a pretty — like a lot of people do that.” She continued, “But that was not a thing I did and it’s become such an incredibly huge part of my life.” She concluded by saying that focusing on her fitness makes her “feel so much better as a person” and the way she “can move on stage now”. Earlier this year, in an interview with the Sunday Times, Billie had revealed what she thinks of her body. “I kind of think of my body as my friend. My ugly friend!” She added that her relationship with her body “has been a truly horrible, terrible thing since I was 11.” Source.

About 20 members of a Jewish sect held at a facility in Mexico after a police raid on their jungle base have fled. Footage showed men, women, and children streaming out of the site in Huixtla, in the west, on Wednesday night. They had been there since the raid last Friday when two members were arrested on suspicion of human trafficking and serious sexual offences. The sect, Lev Tahor, is known for extremist practices and imposing a strict regime on its followers. It advocates child marriage, inflicts harsh punishments even for minor transgressions and requires women and girls as young as three years old to completely cover up with robes. Local media said members of the group had been protesting against their detention since their arrival, including rioting and assaulting personnel. Video from Reuters news agency shows the detainees, dressed in gold, grey and white robes, forcing their way past two guards at a gate as one of their members holds it open. One of the guards trying to hold them back falls down and the group climb over him as they make their escape. A youth is seen turning and kicking the guard as he lies on the ground. It is unclear where the group has gone. Associated Press said they were collected by a lorry and headed towards the border with Guatemala, while news site El Heraldo de México said they went by foot for several miles before disappearing into the night. Their compound, 11 miles (17.5km) north of Tapachula in Chiapas state, was raided by an elite police unit after a months-long investigation and surveillance operation involving Mexican and Guatemalan authorities and a private four-man team from Israel including former Mossad and domestic intelligence agents. Twenty-six members were found at the site, among them Israelis with dual citizenships including Canada, the US and Guatemala, Israel's foreign ministry said. It said a Canadian and an Israeli citizen were arrested, while two other wanted members reportedly left the compound two days before the raid and are being sought. Five more were detained for allegedly breaking immigration rules. The operation stemmed from an appeal to a former member of Israel's domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet, by a former member of the sect, Yisrael Amir. Mr Amir fled the group's base in Guatemala in 2020, having to leave his then one-year-old son there. His son was released in the raid last week and flown back to Israel with his father. The group had lived in Guatemala since 2014, but in January members illegally crossed into Mexico, settling in the jungle. The leadership in Guatemala has been at the centre of a kidnapping case since 2018. Nine of the sect's members have been charged, four of whom have so far been convicted. Lev Tahor - Hebrew for Pure of Heart - was formed in Israel in 1988 and is thought to number up to 350 members, according to an ex-members group. It has been forced to move from country to country in recent years after coming under scrutiny from local authorities. It is currently spread between Israel, the US, North Macedonia, Morocco, Mexico and Guatemala. Between 70 and 80 members are still in Guatemala. While the group is often described as ultra-Orthodox, it follows its own sets of rules and has been declared a "dangerous cult" by an Israeli court. Its leaders have denied breaking local laws and say the group is being targeted because of its beliefs. Source.

Welcome!

Accepted, i will probably send you my work by night time, i’m busy at day time

Google has announced a bunch of changes to its core search functionality, focusing on making searching the web a quicker and more convenient process, and more besides. Announced at its Search On conference(opens in new tab), All of these changes will be rolling out in the US down the line, and the first major introduction is that shortcuts to various tools are going to be brought in, nestling right underneath the search bar. These are things like an icon for translating text with the camera, or identifying a tune by humming it, or indeed to help with a homework problem via the camera – common tasks that you might need, and can now be very swiftly accessed with a tap on the relevant shortcut. In this case, the feature is coming to the Google app for iOS in the US (English language) to begin with, and a wider rollout will doubtless follow. In terms of making core search quicker and more intuitive, Google is ushering in topic options that appear directly below the search box as you type a query. The example Google gives is someone typing a search for ‘best Mexico cities’, and after having entered that text, a bunch of suggestions for finishing the query pop up – such as ‘for families’, ‘for expats’, ‘to retire’, and so forth. These are the most likely options you’ll need, and will hopefully allow you to quickly finish your query with a simple tap. Again, this feature will launch in the US (in English) to begin with, in the “coming months” Google informs us, and the same is true of the remaining capabilities we’re about to explore. Next up are the details surfaced by a search, which again in Google’s example of searching for a city will now prominently include visual stories and the likes of video clips from folks who have visited that particular place. The emphasis is on imparting more practical info such as tips on getting around the city, how to travel there, or what to do during your stay, rather than just, say, historical or geographical facts for example (not that you won’t still receive some of that as results). After a search, suggestion buttons will also pop up below the search box pointing to further topics you might want to explore, such as the beaches of that city you’re going to visit – and you simply tap these, and dive down even deeper into further suggestions if required. Finally, Google tells us it’s revamping the way search results are presented to “better reflect the ways people explore topics”, meaning that as you scroll down, related topics will be highlighted. Sticking with the city example provided, those subjects include the likes of results pertaining to the local cuisine and recipes, musical traditions, art, and so forth. Analysis: Some chunky changes to move with the times The broad thrust here, then, is to make searching easier and quicker as we mentioned at the outset, and to surface more practical content and advice – with the likes of videos from folks who have visited a place – as well as making it as simple as possible to see and explore all manner of related topics. In some corners of the web in more recent times, we’ve noticed complaint threads about how Google isn’t what it used to be when it comes to the quality of search results, and so perhaps the company felt it was time to start changing things up – in a pretty big way. There’s certainly a fresh take on search here with all these different elements, so it’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out when we actually get to use the new search; and of course what the reaction is from those who have become more skeptical about Google. Google is about as old a veteran of the web as you’ll find, and mustn’t fail to move with the times. So when there’s chatter about youngsters hitting up TikTok to discover things rather than Google search, that must be, well, maybe not a threat to Google, but certainly something which is a bit of a worry and should be paid attention to. When other regions outside the US will get these changes, we don’t know, but seeing as they’re down as arriving in the “coming months” in the States, it sounds like it’ll be a slow rollout, particularly in global terms. Source.

While the eyes of industry observers are at Intel's Innovation 2022 in San Jose, the company is also hosting its Open House event in Taipei, Taiwan to demonstrate its upcoming Arc A750 and Arc A770 graphics cards as well as boards built by its partners. Truth to be told, there are not so many partners to demonstrate Intel-based graphics adapters right now, but at least those cards promise to deliver slightly higher performance than Intel's own cards. We already know that Intel is launching its own Arc A770 Limited Edition 16GB graphics board when the cards launch on October 12 at $329. This product will be quickly followed by Intel's own Arc A750 Limited Edition as well as custom cards from the company's partners. ASRock and Gunnir are currently the only companies ready to demonstrate their Intel Arc A750 and Arc A770 graphics adapters. Apparently, these companies prepped three boards: two come from ASRock and one comes from Gunnir, as noticed by @momomo_us. Images have shown up on sites like xfastest, Engadget's Chinese language site and Cool3C. For those looking forward something cheaper, ASRock will offer its Challenger Arc A750 board equipped with 8GB of GDDR6 memory, two eight-pin auxiliary PCIe power connectors as well as a dual-fan cooling system. The company yet has to disclose all specifications of this product, but given higher power limits it will likely offer higher performance than Intel's own board. Gunnir is also prepping an Arc A770 graphics card for gamers that want to have more than Intel's Arc A770 LE can offer, which is why it has two eight-pin power connectors, and a huge triple-fan cooling system. It is noteworthy that for now ASRock and Gunnir do not disclose nominal or turbo frequencies of their custom Arc A770/A750 boards, perhaps because they are not yet finalized. Speaking of Intel's own card, there is one interesting thing to note about Intel's Arc A770 Limited Edition device pictured by Engadget as it carries the 33782 serial number. While the product indeed seems to be a limited edition one with consecutive SNs, it looks like Intel has produced quite a number of these boards already, which may imply that they will be available widely. Will Intel's Arc Alchemist A770 be one of the best graphics cards available at $329 is something that only time will tell though. Intel Arc Alchemist Specifications Source.

Name of the game: Death Road to Canada Price: $14.99 - $3.74 Link Store: Here. Offer ends up after X hours: WEEK LONG DEAL! Offer ends 3 October. Requirements:

Government departments will be asked to make cuts to help balance the budget, the BBC has been told. Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Chris Philp, will write to government departments in the coming days about finding spending efficiencies. The Treasury has rejected calls to abandon last week's mini-budget in the face of market turmoil. The value of the pound dropped to $1.05 on Wednesday, after the Bank of England stepped in to stabilise the economy. The Bank announced it would buy government bonds on a temporary basis to help "restore orderly market conditions". Labour has called on ministers to ditch the mini-budget after it sparked a fall in the pound and a surge in borrowing costs. Party leader Sir Keir Starmer has called for Parliament to be recalled so MPs can overturn last weeks mini-budget. But Financial Secretary to the Treasury Andrew Griffith said they were the "right plans" to grow the UK economy. He claimed "every major economy is dealing with exactly the same issues". Mr Griffith said the £45bn package of tax cuts announced last week would repair "underlying problems in the economy". Mr Griffith is the first minister to comment on the market turmoil in the last few days that saw the pound drop to record lows against the dollar. Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, who unveiled the tax-cutting package last Friday, is yet to speak publicly on the effect of the package on markets. The Treasury said the plans would be funded by £72bn of borrowing and there is an expectation this will surge as interest rates rise. The pound slumped following his statement and later fell to a record low against the dollar after Mr Kwarteng hinted there were more tax cuts to come. Strong balance sheet Julian Smith became the first former cabinet minister to call for the government to "make changes". The former Northern Ireland Secretary, who backed Rishi Sunak to become prime minister, tweeted: "It is critical that the government is honest about the current situation and plays its part in stabilising markets. "It can keep a growth plan but needs to make changes. Not doing so will only continue further stress and strain on UK citizens." Speaking to broadcasters, Mr Griffith insisted the UK had a "very strong balance sheet" and one of the lowest debt to GDP ratios of major economies. Asked whether the government had any plans to change Friday's measures, he replied: "We think they're the right plans, because those plans make our economy competitive". "At the end of the day, that's ultimately what we've got to do," he said, saying ministers were focused on "getting on and delivering" its plans. Source.

If a human ate tens of thousands of calories a day, ballooned in size, then barely moved for months, the health outcomes would be catastrophic. Scientists have long been puzzled why this same behavior doesn’t lead to diabetes in grizzly bears—until now. By feeding honey water to hibernating bears, researchers at Washington State University have discovered genetic clues to how these bruins can control their insulin. Their results—published in iScience—might lead to better diabetes treatments for people. Insulin is a hormone found in most mammals that regulates the body’s blood sugar levels, for instance by telling the liver, muscle, and fat cells to absorb blood sugar, a source of energy. But if a lot of blood sugar enters the bloodstream, over time the cells stop responding, and become resistant to insulin. This is a leading cause of Type 2 diabetes, a disease that can lead to heart attacks, strokes, and blindness. About 1 in 10 Americans, or about 37 million people, have Type 2 diabetes. However, unlike humans, bears can mysteriously control their insulin resistance—turning it on and off like a switch. To find out how, researchers drew blood serum from six captive grizzly bears—aged between five and 13 years—at the WSU Bear Center, a research facility in Pullman, Washington. They also collected bear fat tissue that they used to grow cell cultures in the lab. “It gives us a way to test things that we couldn't do in a fully grown bear,” says study co-author Blair Perry, a postdoctoral researcher at the university. (Read how bottlenose dolphins can turn diabetes on and off.) This experiment helped the team narrow down the bears' secret to controlling their insulin: Eight key proteins that seem to have a unique role in bear biology, working either independently or together to regulate insulin during hibernation. Because humans share most of our genes with bears, understanding the role of these eight proteins could teach scientists more about human insulin resistance, Perry says. Bear seasons Grizzly bears—found in parts of the western U.S., Canada, and Alaska—experience three stages in a year: Active, hyperphagia, and hibernation. In the spring and summer, the massive mammals spend their time foraging, mating, and caring for young. Then in the fall, the animals transition into hyperphagia, when “pretty much all their energy is devoted to eating as much as possible,” Perry says. (Read about the fascinating ways animals prepare for fall.) During this time, bears consume up to 20,000 daily calories and gain up to eight pounds each day to prepare for the upcoming winter. When the bears begin hibernating in early winter, they rely on their fat deposits to sustain them through the cold months. Hibernation is “more than just a deep sleep,” Perry says. “Lots of physiological changes allow bears to survive these long winters without food.” Their metabolic rate, heart rate, and body temperature decrease, and they become insulin resistant. Hibernating bears experience periods of wakefulness, during which they move around but don’t eat. When the study bears awoke, the team fed them honey water—a favorite treat—for two weeks, then collected their blood. The team already had blood samples taken from the same bears during the spring and summer. Next, in the lab, the researchers combined various blood serums with cell cultures of various types—for instance, they mixed a cell culture from fat tissue taken from hibernating bears with blood serum taken from active bears. This allowed the team to see what genetic changes would occur within the cells. Of all the combinations studied, the serum taken from the honey-fed hibernating bears helped the most in narrowing down those eight key proteins involved in regulating insulin sensitivity and resistance. (Learn more how bears’ bodies change during hibernation.) For Mike Sawaya, a bear biologist at Sinopah Wildlife Research Associates who was not involved in the study, the big take home of this “fascinating study” is how many implications bear hibernation can have for human health. “Identifying those eight proteins is an important step,” he says, as is identifying “exactly what is being turned on and off” when bears change their insulin resistance, he says. One step closer to diabetes prevention? While insulin resistance and its consequences are well understood, there is much to learn about its genetics. Studying how a bear goes in and out of insulin resistance each year gives scientists a “unique opportunity” to better understand this, adds Perry. (Learn about a link between COVID-19 and developing diabetes.) For instance, figuring out how to mani[CENSORED]te those eight proteins in people could potentially “reverse a human out of insulin resistance,” Perry says. Such medications or interventions are very far off, "but we're getting closer,” he says. Sawaya agrees that this is “definitely one more piece of the puzzle” and hopes that unravelling the mysteries of bear physiology could lead to diabetes prevention. In future studies, the team hopes to investigate exactly how these specific proteins turn off insulin resistance in bears. Source.

Ever since Bentley launched the Bentayga back in 2015, it has been continually evolved and improved, and the EWB is the best of the lot. It uses innovative tech to make it the most luxurious of luxury SUVs from the back seat, while it’s also pretty special from the driver’s seat. What a difference 180mm makes. The extra length the Bentley Bentayga EWB (standing for extended wheelbase) gets over the standard Bentayga all sits behind the B-pillars. As Bentley’s interior design boss Darren Day explained to us: “We thought about adding some space in the front, but we really wanted to spoil the rear passengers.” If anything, what equates to an extra seven inches makes the Bentayga EWB look better; the elongated rear doors and roof give it an elegant look that the standard car doesn’t have. Just as well, because this in effect replaces the Mulsanne saloon as the British brand’s range-topper and go-to model for anyone wanting to be chauffeured in the finest Bentley has to offer. Inside, the firm has really gone to town on spoiling those in the back, with three seating configurations to choose from. There’s a standard three-seat rear bench, a two-plus-one arrangement with a rather narrow centre seat for occasional use, or the glorious four-place Airline Seat spec with 40 degrees of recline, 22 different ways of adjustment and a passenger seat that leans forward to offer up an additional footrest. To be fair, it’s actually better than any airline seat we’ve ever sat in. The pampering doesn’t stop there. Bentley has worked with neurologists to concentrate on wellbeing, with the new Azure model focusing on just that. There’s been lots of attention on reducing NVH (noise, vibration and harshness), while in the back at least, a smart seat will automatically sense if it needs to adjust its shape to ensure you remain comfortable and relaxed – and it’ll do the same with the heating and cooling function. Of course, rear passengers shouldn’t have to reach out to close the doors, so buttons to do that for you are mounted on the revised centre console, alongside a small removable screen that controls the seating, climate and audio functions. Finally, the panoramic glass roof has been repositioned to give the optimal view upwards for those in the back – lucky things. All this comes with incredible quality that has got better and better during the Bentayga’s lifetime. The attention paid to the quality of the leather, the knurling on some of the switchgear, and seemingly every single switch and stitch, is better than you’ll find anywhere else at any price. All that and Bentley claims the Bentayga EWB’s cabin is longer than that of either a long-wheelbase Range Rover or a Rolls-Royce Cullinan. Certainly the sheer volume of space in front of rear occupants is enormous, especially with the passenger seat set forward and the Airline Seats in relax mode. Even when they’re more upright in the business setting, there are acres of legroom, while getting in and out in a dignified manner is easier than it ever was in the Mulsanne – you just step in and slide out. The driver has every right to be a little envious of the luxury in the back, but hopefully our feedback should result in the driver getting a little more pampering, with the smart seat tech top of the want list for anyone spending lots of time in the driver’s seat – as Bentayga drivers often want to do. Also on standard Bentayga buyers’ wish lists will be the new four-wheel steering system that’s fitted to every EWB model. It turns the rear wheels in the opposite direction to the fronts at slow speeds to aid manoeuvrability – with an impressive turning circle of 11.8 metres. At swifter speeds, the rear wheels turn the same way to aid stability. Sure enough, the Bentayga is more wieldy than before, but not just when parking. Combined with the 48-volt active roll control system, turning into corners – even with some zest – gives you greater assurance, with the nose tucking in more accurately and with less desire to push wide. You’ll almost feel like you’re in a Continental GT. As a result, the four-wheel steering is also expected to make it onto the standard Bentayga at some stage. However the two SUVs will have different characters. Regular Bentayga drivers will notice a softer side to the EWB as it glides over road ridges and potholes with greater plushness. “I’m glad you noticed,” Bentley’s head of engineering, Matthias Rabe, said to us. “We wanted to make the EWB more luxurious and slightly softer, with the standard car still having a sportier feel to it.” Job done. The 4.0-litre V8 (a plug-in hybrid version is expected later) is silky smooth, with 542bhp and 770NM of torque to get the EWB from rest to 60mph in just 4.5 seconds and on to 180mph. That’s just a tenth of a second slower than the standard Bentayga V8, while the weight increase is only 98kg. The price, though, is likely to take a much bigger jump, up to an expected £211,300 for the EWB Azure, around a £16,000 premium over the equivalent standard-length Bentayga Azure. That’s the price you have to pay for what is, from the back seat at least, the best of British luxury. Source.

Finding the Raga: An Improvisation on Indian Music by novelist and academic Amit Chaudhuri, has won the biography prize in the James Tait Black Prizes, an annual award from the University of Edinburgh — the UK’s longest-running literary prize. Published by Penguin India, the book is “by turns essay, memoir and cultural study”, detailing Chaudhuri’s personal relationship with north Indian music and its evolution over the years. Simon Cooke, among the jury in the biography category where the book won, called the work one of “great depth, subtlety, and resonance, which unobtrusively changed the way we thought about music, place and creativity. Folding the ethos of the raga into its own form, it is a beautifully voiced, quietly subversive masterpiece in the art of listening to the world”. Chaudhuri, a professor of creative writing at the Ashoka University, was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2009 and was Professor of Contemporary Literature at the University of East Anglia from 2006 to 2021. He is also a singer in the Hindustani music tradition and has performed internationally. He has released two recordings of his singing and has often written on his experiences with classical music, his style described as having “no obvious plot, no determined design, no fakes or other drama … [with] the effect [being] closer to documentary than to fiction,” in The New Yorker. The James Tait Black Prizes date back over a century, after Janet Tait Black née Coats – from the thread-making family J&P Coats – made a provision in her will for the creation of two annual book prizes in the memory of her husband, James Tait Black. Every year, two academic judges work with postgraduate student readers to evaluate the entries. Source.

The EU has said leaks in two major gas pipelines from Russia to Europe were caused by sabotage - but stopped short of directly accusing Russia. European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said deliberate disruption would meet the "strongest possible response". The EU has previously accused Russia of using gas supplies as a weapon against the West over its support for Ukraine. But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed accusations of sabotage as "predictable, stupid and absurd". The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he thought the leaks would "not have a significant impact on Europe's energy resilience". Neither pipeline is transporting gas at the moment, although they both contain gas. Mr Blinken did not directly accuse Russia - but said it would be in "no-one's interest" if they were caused deliberately. The Danish Energy Minister, Dan Jorgensen, said the leaks were likely to last for at least a week, until the gas escaping from the pipes runs out. An investigation has been launched. The operators of Nord Stream 2 warned of a loss of pressure in the pipeline on Monday afternoon. That led to Danish authorities saying ships should avoid the area near the island of Bornholm. Then on Tuesday, the operator of Nord Stream 1 said the undersea lines had simultaneously sustained "unprecedented" damage in one day. The Nord Stream 1 pipeline - which consists of two parallel branches - has not transported any gas since August when Russia closed it down, saying it needed maintenance. It stretches 745 miles (1,200km) under the Baltic Sea from the Russian coast near St Petersburg to north-eastern Germany. Its twin pipeline, Nord Stream 2, was halted after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Mike Fulwood, a senior research fellow at the independent Oxford Institute for Energy Studies told the BBC sabotage was, indeed, the most likely cause of the leaks. "To rupture an offshore pipeline is a rare occurrence, so three in 18 hours would be a big coincidence," he said. If the sabotage was indeed committed by Russia, this was a "bizarre" move, he said, as it had already shut supplies off. He estimated that repairs could take between three and six months, as the damaged sections would need to be replaced. Similar damage to a different pipeline in the past took nine months. Dmitry Peskov said he was "extremely concerned" about the leaks, adding that the possibility of a deliberate attack could not be ruled out. Seismologists reported underwater blasts before the leaks emerged. Denmark's Defence Command has released footage of the leaks which shows bubbles - the largest is 1km (0.6 miles) in diameter - at the surface of the Baltic Sea. "There is no doubt that these were explosions," said Bjorn Lund of Sweden's National Seismology Centre. Greenpeace raised concerns over the leaks, saying they could have the same detrimental impact on the environment as 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. But the German environment ministry said the leaks would not pose a significant threat to marine life. Source.

The problem is actually from the resolutions settings tho… i just used to do that everytime to fix it. anyway if u like to run ur cs in a window then do it, u will find it in video settings “Run in a Window”, the problem will be solved for sure.

i had that problem some days, i was solving it by either clicking " Ctrl AND + " or " Ctrl AND - ", i don't really remember, try them both...

GAME INFO Return to Monkey Island: September 19, 2022 Platform: PC, Nintendo Switch Publisher: Devolver Digital Developer: Terrible Toybox Good ol’ Guybrush Threepwood has been sailing choppy seas for a while now. Following those back-to-back early-90s classics The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, series masterminds Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman weighed anchor and left LucasArts. The franchise continued with The Curse of Monkey Island and Escape from Monkey Island from new creative teams, both of which have their merits, but felt just slightly off the mark. Then came the episodic Tales of Monkey Island from Telltale Games, which suffered from an obvious low budget and the questionable decision to tether the series to Nintendo’s WiiWare service. Guybrush needs to get his mojo back and thankfully, Gilbert and Grossman have finally sailed back onto the scene with Return to Monkey Island in tow. Of course, a lot has changed in the 30-plus years since Gilbert and Grossman last made a Monkey Island game. Does Return to Monkey Island prove the series’ formula has aged like a fine leather jacket or will you be point and clicking toward the Quit button? Grab your grog and let’s set sail… Early Return to Monkey Island PR indicated the game was a direct sequel to Monkey Island 2, causing many to assume the later games in the series were being shot out of the ol’ canon cannon, but that’s not exactly the case. Return to Monkey Island does continue on from Monkey Island 2, but not quite in the way you might expect (skip the next paragraph if you want to avoid Spoilers for a 31-year-old game). Monkey Island 2 featured a somewhat divisive ending that implied the events of the first two games were simply the imaginings of a kid Guybrush and his brother Chuckie as they hung out at a pirate-themed amusement park. Most subsequent Monkey Island games just pretended that ending never happened, but Return to Monkey Island recontextualizes it in an inventive way. The “kid Guybrush” from the end of MI2 is actually Guybrush and Elaine’s son Boybrush (yes, that’s really the name) and he and Chuckie (whose parentage is now unclear) were just acting out adventure tales his dad told him. This acts as the framing device for RtMI with Guybrush relating the events of the game's story to his son. It’s a clever conceit that allows Gilbert and Grossman to introduce Monkey Island tropes to new audiences and do some fun meta humor in an unobtrusive way. As for the game’s main plot, it’s classic Monkey Island stuff. Both Guybrush and LeChuck have got sand in their britches about finally finding the true Secret of Monkey Island. As they battle to outwit and outmaneuver each other, players will meet a cast of favorite characters like Elaine, Stan, and Murray, as well as a few new faces, and journey from familiar places like Melee Island to the distant shores of Brr Muda and Terror Island. For those new to all of this, know that nothing in a Monkey Island game is taken particularly seriously, but the series’ characters are typically treated with dignity and care (well, except for poor Wally). Thankfully, the franchise’s sense of humor is very much intact, with this latest offering plenty of legit laugh-out-loud moments. Return to Monkey Island’s sharp writing is elevated by top-notch voice acting led by the ever-capable Dominic Armato as Guybrush and a murderer’s row of 90s cartoon voices anybody of a certain age will be sure to recognize. And yes, while the game’s highly-stylized 2D visuals caused a bit of a kerfuffle prior to launch, they actually do their job quite well. The style is lively, allows for a lot of unique characters and scenes to be created on a modest budget, and somewhat resembles the wonky angular look mid-90s LucasArts games like Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max adopted (a style the Monkey Island series originally missed out on). In terms of gameplay, Return to Monkey Island sticks to the basics. On the Switch, classic point ‘n’ click mechanics are combined with the proximity-based controls of later LucasArts games like Grim Fandango. As you move around a scene, various hot spots appear, which can be highlighted for interaction using the right analog stick. You can also cycle through all the hot spots in the room with the L and R buttons or push them at the same time to make all hot spots show up at once. The controls take a bit of getting used to, but ultimately work just fine (LucasArts certainly came up with worse schemes in the past). Progression is still very much focused on inventory puzzles, with old-school “adventure game logic” in full effect. Require a broom to complete the deck hand disguise needed to sneak aboard LeChuck’s ship? You’re going to need a mop, but not that obvious one in the Scumm Bar’s kitchen. Oh no, you need to whittle a sliver off that broom and take it to the map maker, who will then make you a map to the ancient mystical mop tree, which you’ll use to carve your own mop. Of course. It may sound like I’m complaining, but I’m really not. Gilbert and Grossman understand better than most that wacky puzzles are part of the fun of classic adventure games, and weird logic is fine as long as long as it’s adequately explained in-game. Return to Monkey Island does a better job of this than past games in the series. Other tweaks have also been made to make things less frustrating – you have a checklist to keep track of all your tasks, the game clearly communicates when an object can’t be used in a situation, and if all else fails, there’s a fairly exhaustive hint system available. The result is a game that still feels like Monkey Island, but won’t induce that floppy-disc-snapping frustration some past entries did. That said, Return to Monkey Island does get a bit uneven toward the end, with a bloated fourth chapter full of backtracking and multiple nested collection quests. Monkey Island 2 served up something similar, but honestly, it wasn’t the best part of that game either. I also found the puzzles in the game’s final chapter to be a bit underwhelming. And it isn’t just puzzles -- the story doesn’t quite nail the landing, either. For a brief moment RtMI hints at an interesting examination of the Guybrush Threepwood character, who, let’s face it, is kind of a selfish jerk at times, but any interrogation of his behavior is ultimately brushed off by Guybrush and the game itself. The game’s ending also doesn’t really do much with its unique framing device or provide a lot of new insight into the series’ characters. But hey, the Monkey Island games has never really been about, y’know, deep stuff. Much like Guybrush Threepwood, the series has largely sailed along on charm. For the 7 or 8 hours it lasted, I was happy to spend some time with my old swashbuckling friends, even if true change seems as elusive as the Secret of Monkey Island itself. Source. Return to Monkey Island - Launch Trailer - Nintendo Switch.

Name of the game: Horizon Chase Turbo Price: $19.99 - $3.99 Link Store: Here. Offer ends up after X hours: WEEK LONG DEAL! Offer ends 3 October. Requirements:

Intel has been hyping up Xe Graphics for about two years, but the Intel Arc Alchemist GPU will finally bring some needed performance and competition from Team Blue to the discrete GPU space. This is the first 'real' dedicated Intel GPU since the i740 back in 1998 — or technically, a proper discrete GPU after the Intel Xe DG1 paved the way last. The competition among the best graphics cards is fierce, and Intel's current integrated graphics solutions basically don't even rank on our GPU benchmarks hierarchy (UHD Graphics 630 sits at 1.8% of the RTX 3090 based on just 1080p medium performance). The latest announcement from Intel is that the Arc A770 is coming October 12, starting at $329. That's a lot lower on pricing than what was initially rumored, but then the A770 is also coming out far later than originally intended. With Intel targeting better than RTX 3060 levels of performance, at a potentially lower price and with more VRAM, things are shaping up nicely for Team Blue. Could Intel, purveyor of low performance integrated GPUs—"the most po[CENSORED]r GPUs in the world"—possibly hope to compete? Yes, it can. Plenty of questions remain, but with the official China-first launch of Intel Arc Alchemist laptops and the desktop Intel Arc A380 now behind us, plus plenty of additional details of the Alchemist GPU architecture, we now have a reasonable idea of what to expect. Intel has been gearing up its driver team for the launch, fixing compatibility and performance issues on existing graphics solutions, hopefully getting ready for the US and "rest of the world" launch. Frankly, there's nowhere to go from here but up. The difficulty Intel faces in cracking the dedicated GPU market can't be underestimated. AMD's Big Navi / RDNA 2 architecture has competed with Nvidia's Ampere architecture since late 2020. While the first Xe GPUs arrived in 2020, in the form of Tiger Lake mobile processors, and Xe DG1 showed up by the middle of 2021, neither one can hope to compete with even GPUs from several generations back. Overall, Xe DG1 performed about the same as Nvidia's GT 1030 GDDR5, a weak-sauce GPU hailing from May 2017. It was also a bit better than half the performance of 2016's GTX 1050 2GB, despite having twice as much memory. The Arc A380 did better, but it still only managed to match or slightly exceed the performance of the GTX 1650 (GDDR5 variant) and RX 6400. Video encoding hardware was a high point at least. More importantly, the A380 is potentially about a quarter of the performance of the top-end Arc A770, so there's still hope. Intel has a steep mountain to ascend if it wants to be taken seriously in the dedicated GPU space. Here's the breakdown of the Arc Alchemist architecture, a look at the announced products, some Intel-provided benchmarks, all of which give us a glimpse into how Intel hopes to reach the summit. Truthfully, we're just hoping Intel can make it to base camp, leaving the actual summiting for the future Battlemage, Celestial, and Druid architectures. But we'll leave those for a future discussion. Intel's Xe Graphics aspirations hit center stage in early 2018, starting with the hiring of Raja Koduri from AMD, followed by chip architect Jim Keller and graphics marketer Chris Hook, to name just a few. Raja was the driving force behind AMD's Radeon Technologies Group, created in November 2015, along with the Vega and Navi architectures. Clearly, the hope is that he can help lead Intel's GPU division into new frontiers, and Arc Alchemist represents the results of several years worth of labor. Not that Intel hasn't tried this before. Besides the i740 in 1998, Larrabee and the Xeon Phi had similar goals back in 2009, though the GPU aspect never really panned out. Plus, Intel has steadily improved the performance and features in its integrated graphics solutions over the past couple of decades (albeit at a slow and steady snail's pace). So, third time's the charm, right? There's much more to building a good GPU than just saying you want to make one, and Intel has a lot to prove. Here's everything we know about the upcoming Intel Arc Alchemist, including specifications, performance expectations, release date, and more. Potential Intel Arc Alchemist Specifications and Price We'll get into the details of the Arc Alchemist architecture below, but let's start with the high-level overview. Intel has two different Arc Alchemist GPU dies, covering three different product families, the 700-series, 500-series, and 300-series. The first letter also denotes the family, so A770 are for Alchemist, and the future Battlemage parts will likely be named Arc B770 or similar. Here are the specifications for the various desktop Arc GPUs that Intel has revealed. All of the figures are now more or less confirmed, except for A580 power. These are Intel's official core specs on the full large and small Arc Alchemist chips. Based on the wafer and die shots, along with other information, we expect Intel to enter the dedicated GPU market with products spanning the entire budget to high-end range. Intel has five different mobile SKUs, the A350M, A370M, A550M, A730M, and A770M. Those are understandably power constrained, while for desktops there will be (at least) A770, A750, A580, and A380 models. Intel also has Pro A40 and Pro A50 variants for professional markets (still using the smaller chip), and we can expect additional models for that market as well. The Arc A300-series targets entry-level performance, the the A500 series goes after the midrange market, and A700 is for the high-end offerings — though we'll have to see where they actually land in our GPU benchmarks hierarchy when they launch. Arc mobile GPUs along with the A380 were available in China first, but the desktop A580, A750, and A770 should be full world-wide launches. Releasing the first parts in China wasn't a good look, especially since one of Intel's previous "China only" products was Cannon Lake, with the Core i3-8121U that basically only just saw the light of day before getting buried deep under ground. We now have an official launch date for the A770 and presumably A750 as well, though we're not clear if the A580 will also be launching on that date or what it might cost. Intel did reveal that the A770 will start at $329, presumably for the 8GB variant — unless Intel is feeling very generous and the A770 Limited Edition made by Intel will also start at $329? (Probably not.) Also note that the maximum theoretical compute performance in teraflops (TFLOPS) uses Intel's "Game Clock," which is supposedly an average of typical gaming clocks. AMD and Nvidia sort of have that as well but call it a boost clock, and in practice we usually see gaming clocks higher than the official values. For Intel, we're not sure what will happen. The Gunnir Arc A380 has a 2450 MHz boost clock for example, and in gaming it was pretty much locked in at that speed, though it also used more power than the 75W Intel gives for the reference design. It sounds like "typical" gaming scenarios will probably run at higher clocks, which would be good. Real-world performance will also depend on drivers, which have been a sticking point for Intel in the past. Gaming performance will play a big role in determining how much Intel can charge for the various graphics card models. As shown in our GPU price index, the prices of competing AMD and Nvidia GPUs have plummeted this year. Intel would have been in great shape if it had managed to launch Arc at the start of the year with reasonable prices, which was the original plan (actually, late 2021 was at one point in the cards). Many gamers might have given Intel GPUs a shot if they were priced at half the cost of the competition, even if they were slower. That takes care of the high-level overview. Now let's dig into the finer points and discuss where these estimates come from. Source.

Web hosting(opens in new tab) giant GoDaddy(opens in new tab) and Google have combined resources to offer a new Google Ads solution through GoDaddy’s marketing dashboard. With the aim of giving customers the ability to manage all their marketing activities from one location, the move will allow GoDaddy customers to pay per click, which means they won’t be charged unless a consumer clicks on the ad. GoDaddy says the new integration will also simplify customizing and creating any number of paid Google campaigns - for any size budget - using keywords and themes. Google Ads with GoDaddy Within the platform, entrepreneurs will be able to include three ad titles and two ad descriptions to launch a campaign, which can be picked from a predetermined selection based on Google’s algorithm or input by the business owner. Google will then automatically merge different ad descriptions with ad titles across Google properties such as Maps, YouTube and Search. It will also optimize the different ad descriptions to a combination that suits its users campaign goals. Available now, Google is offering new Google Ads users $500 (£467.78) in ad credits when they spend $500 (£467.78) in the first 60 days of activating their accounts. TechRadar Pro reached out to GoDaddy for information on whether there will be a minimum and/or maximum spend cap, but the company is yet to reply. Sudha Reddy, director of product at GoDaddy, said in a blog post(opens in new tab): “By combining the ease of GoDaddy’s suite of marketing tools(opens in new tab) with the massive reach of Google, entrepreneurs and small to midsize business owners are set up for success in a crowded marketplace where every click counts.” The new solution also has the ability to reach specific locations (for in-person sales and events) or reach beyond a given region (for online sales or brand awareness). On the GoDaddy marketing dashboard, users will be able to monitor engagement and results once a campaign is launched. Source.

Happy birthday big boi naudy <33

Sir Keir Starmer has said Labour can come to the UK's rescue as it has done at key moments in the past, in his big speech to the party's conference. He said the public must never forgive the Tories for "crashing" the economy. And the only way to end the turmoil and create a "fairer, greener, more dynamic" society was with a Labour government, he told delegates. He said "this is a Labour moment", just as it was when the party won election victories in 1945, 1964 and 1997. In an hour long speech, Sir Keir said the country "can't go on like this". "The government has lost control of the British economy - and for what? They've crashed the pound - and for what? "Higher interest rates. Higher inflation. Higher borrowing. And for what? "Not for you. Not for working people. For tax cuts for the richest 1% in our society. "Don't forget. Don't forgive." He claimed Labour had been transformed under his leadership into a party that is once again "fit to serve our country" and was now the party of "sound money". But he also warned his party they had to show discipline in the two years before the next general election. Labour's psyche has changed. When Sir Keir Starmer became leader, it seemed he was there for a rebuild job after the terrible election result in 2019. Talk of winning power was rare. But Labour insiders think they've turned a corner - that the economic situation has presented an ideological debate Labour should relish. And crucially, one they think they can win. So in his speech, we heard Sir Keir Starmer talk about plans for government; from driving economic growth to setting up an energy generation company. Sir Keir talked about those big moments in the Labour Party's history, when it went from opposition to government. The years 1945, 1964 and 1997 are historic moments in British politics - and Sir Keir thinks he can emulate them at the next election. It's a big ask given the Conservative majority in Parliament and the fall in support Labour has faced in many of its old heartlands. Wining them back is a big ask. But it's the challenge the Labour Party has just set itself. The main policy announcement was a plan to create a publicly-owned renewable energy firm the party hopes will help deliver British jobs and achieve their aim of carbon-free electricity by 2030. Sir Keir also announced: A new 70% home ownership target if Labour wins power Plans to control immigration using a points-based system Proposals to help first-time buyers onto the property ladder with a new mortgage guarantee scheme In his speech, Sir Keir spoke about his own working class background, which he said had given him an "impatience" to bring about the change he said the country was "crying out" for. And he sought to answer criticism that he had not set out a vision for what he would do with power. After the first term of a Starmer government, he claimed the cost of living crisis will have been defeated, the economy would be stable again and the NHS "back in good health". The speech came on the third day of the Labour conference in Liverpool. The party's annual gathering has not been riven by the divisions evident in the years when Jeremy Corbyn was leader. In his speech, Sir Keir also spoke about Brexit at greater length than he has in the past, saying: "It's no secret I voted Remain - as the prime minister did." But he accused PM Liz Truss of letting both Leave and Remain voters down, and promised that Labour would "make Brexit work". The Labour leader also took aim at the Scottish National Party, saying: "Scotland's success in the UK is met with gritted teeth, seen as a roadblock to independence, and so, they stand in the way." To cheers from delegates in the hall, he said: "We can't work with them. We won't work with them. No deal under any circumstances." There was no mention of the Liberal Democrats in his speech. He said Labour will beat the Conservatives at the next election, because the party has "fairness" and "economic reason" on its side, he said. "If they want to fight us on redistribution, if they want to fight us on workers' rights, if they want to tell us working people don't come first, we'll take them on - and we will win." Source.

Since 1856, the Chicago Historical Society has carefully preserved artifacts and documents that catalog the heritage of the Windy City. Its collections are housed in the Chicago History Museum, a structure erected in 1932 in the city’s Lincoln Park neighborhood several blocks from Lake Michigan. The building has been expanded multiple times and now boasts an array of sleekly curated exhibits. In 2021, the museum broke ground on an effort to modernize its shaded lawns. The project included the construction of a walking trail with signs highlighting Chicago history, the installation of native plantings, and the reinforcement of the ceiling above its leaky underground archives. The work was designed, in part, to make the space a more attractive venue for high-dollar events like weddings and fundraisers. The area, however, was also adjacent to a long-standing breeding ground for at least 45 pairs of black-crowned night herons, which are listed as endangered in the state of Illinois. Museum officials were not only aware of the herons, staff and visitors even enjoyed having an endangered bird’s rookery on the museum’s grounds. “The birds had been around for a while,” John Russick, senior vice president of the museum, told National Geographic. “It was kind of cool that they were here.” Yet museum officials appeared to minimize possible damage to the birds’ rookery that a major construction project would cause. Based on the museum’s limited assessment of the birds, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources conducted a brief environmental review and found the renovation posed little risk of disruption to the herons. Teams of workers arrived in March of 2021, just before the herons’ annual springtime nesting season. The crews operated loud equipment at times only a few yards from the rookery. Soon after, the birds abandoned their nests. Weeks later, crows were seen scavenging on dead nestlings. In 2022, a handful of male herons returned to the site, but after failing to attract mates, they left. The museum maintains that it followed all appropriate steps to limit the impact of the construction on the birds. “We tried to mitigate as much of the heavy work as we could during that time period,” says Russick. But environmental and wildlife advocates think more could have been done to prevent harmful impacts on the birds. Amy Lardner, a conservationist who in 2022 founded the Chicago Black-Crowned Night Heron Project, had obtained permission from the museum to monitor their progress. She visited the site shortly after construction began and said she found the scene disturbing. While some trees had been partitioned by fencing, the rest of the property was bare dirt. The construction noise went from early morning to late afternoon. “I initially thought, ‘Well, it's a quiet time at the rookery,’” Lardner says. “But as time passed, I was seeing fewer and fewer adults and hearing no chicks. I knew by the middle of May that things were not on track.” Herons under encroachment The museum project is not the first time black-crowned herons have experienced reductions of crucial habitat in Illinois. While the birds can be found on every continent except Australia and Antarctica, and are populous in parts of the U.S., they have been listed as endangered in Illinois since 1977. Surveys in the 1980s and 1990s reported as many as 70 breeding sites. Today, the only major breeding colony in the state is in Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo. Small colonies persist along the Fox River and another large colony remains at an industrial site in nearby Indiana. In the past three decades, human development of freshwater habitats, which the herons need to survive, has been the main driver of habitat destruction. But the herons face threats from non-human competitors as well. Colonies in the Chicago suburbs at Lake Renwick and Baker’s Lake were eventually overtaken by aggressive double-crested cormorants. Walter Marcisz, the former president of the Chicago Ornithological Society, remembers seeing massive numbers of herons emerging from the colonies surrounding Lake Calumet on Chicago’s Southside, one of the species’ last redoubts. “The highest number we got in a single day flying out of the colonies was around 1,500,” he recalls. Beginning in 2002, Marcisz helped Jeffrey Levengood, a University of Illinois wildlife toxicologist, track the herons’ nightly expeditions to feed on invasive alewives—a type of fish—in Lincoln Park on Chicago’s Northside. A series of floods and droughts later drove the herons north permanently, where they began nesting in the dense canopies edging the neighborhood. Greg Neise, who at the time served as the staff photographer for the Lincoln Park Zoo, first noticed empty black-crowned night heron nests on an overgrown island located in South Pond adjacent to Lincoln Park Zoo in the winter of 2006. The following July, he photographed active nests. However, in the winter of 2009, the trees that po[CENSORED]ted the island were cleared as part of a restoration effort. Though mature trees were planted as replacements, the herons did not return to breed the following season. They relocated to an allée of trees in the neighboring parklands to the west and small numbers began nesting above the Children’s Zoo in Lincoln Park Zoo. By 2010, all the herons had vacated the Calumet area and settled into Lincoln Park. Then, in 2014, they again came into conflict with local interests. The removal of the trees due to damage by emerald ash borers and the herons’ guano pushed the birds toward the zoo and other areas of the park. By 2015, they had set up camp on the grounds of the Chicago History Museum. A shortened environmental review Around the same time, the history museum was accelerating plans for a redevelopment of its site, which sits on land owned by the Chicago Park District. In April of 2020, the museum, via its primary contractor, filed a request for an EcoCat consultation with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, as required by state law. All state and local projects are subject to such an impact review in Illinois, a process that also occurs in other states and at the federal level through the National Environmental Policy Act. The request for review mentioned both black-crowned night herons and the state-threatened longnose sucker, a fish inhabiting nearby Lake Michigan. But it did not mention explicitly that black-crowned night herons were known to breed on museum grounds. It simply noted that herons were in the vicinity—a reference that could have been interpreted to mean the nearby colony at the zoo. “At that time, we had no records of black-crowned night heron at the museum, and the applicant made no indication that herons are known to nest on the museum grounds, so we terminated the consultation without recommendations,” said Jayette Bolinski, director of communications for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, in an emailed statement. As a result, IDNR investigators never visited the site, and the review was closed a day later. The Park District, which owns the land the history museum stands on but was not involved in the environmental review, suggested the onus was on the museum to flag the presence of sensitive wildlife conditions. “Any and all construction in or around a Chicago Park District natural area or a known bird habitat is avoided during migration and nesting season,” said Irene Tostado, Park District deputy director of communications, in an emailed statement. She added that “the Chicago History Museum was responsible for management of the construction project, which included monitoring and documenting the presence of wildlife in the area as well as seeking approval for the project from IDNR.” In the aftermath, Lardner, the conservationist, asked the IDNR to investigate the matter. The agency opened an investigation into whether there was an illegal “take” at the rookery on the museum grounds, an action that would potentially violate Illinois’ endangered species law. But officials eventually closed the investigation, citing the limited availability of information. The IDNR concluded that any potential offense did not rise to the level of a criminal matter. Seeking common ground It is often difficult to balance the needs of human development with those of wildlife, especially in urban environments. In 2012, a colony of grey-headed flying foxes, a species listed as vulnerable by the IUCN and by Australian authorities, was pushed out of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney, Australia because it was destroying much-beloved trees. In 2019, volleyball courts in Chicago had to be shut down and a concert canceled to accommodate a pair of nesting piping plovers. The species is listed as endangered in Illinois and on a federal level in the Great Lakes region. This constant tension often pits conservationists against land-use experts and provokes debates about what it means to protect land for maximum use and enjoyment—and whose use and enjoyment should be prioritized. Around the Chicago History Museum, the effects of the construction on the herons appear to be permanent. The herons have not returned to breed, and other than the straggly remains of several nests, there are few signs the herons were ever there. The evicted birds are believed to have retreated to the colony at the Lincoln Park Zoo, where they concentrate around a habitat devoted to the red wolf, a federally endangered canid. The zoo’s Urban Wildlife Institute reported a record 750 adult herons and 400 fledglings this year. Except for a few small, isolated colonies, the rookery at the zoo appears to be the species’ last remaining breeding ground in the state. Advocates hope that restoration efforts in the Calumet region aimed at creating habitat for marsh birds and other wildlife may help to draw some of the po[CENSORED]tion south again to their historic breeding grounds. Until then, the species finds itself restricted to its space at the zoo, surrounded by wolves and speeding cars, and reliant on the consideration of humans who now dominate what was once undisturbed wetland. Source.

Overall rating The Zero DSR/X has narrowly claimed the accolade of being the world’s first all-electric adventure bike - just beating the Energica Experia to production. Creating the bike is a no-brainer for Zero. The adventure market is huge (and still expanding) and, as first attempts go, it’s impressive. They must be applauded not just for their engineering and design but also bravery. Weight is comparable to a conventional adventure bike. Lean-sensitive rider aids, (including hill control) both on and off-road, are useful and effective. The bike is comfortable, smooth, vibration-free, silent, easy to ride both on tarmac and the dirt, and has that instant surge of torque that will make even petrol heads smile. During the test, I covered 81km/50miles of relatively hard riding, on and off-road, with 105km/65 miles or 60% of the battery charge remaining. In theory, that makes for 186km/115.5 miles in total, which matches Zero’s claimed combined range. The big question will be whether that is enough. Is a 100-mile ride enough for an adventure machine? Do you really want to stop for a two-hour lunch to re-charge? The optional Rapid Charge Module (£2459), will allow you to re-charge in an hour, but stopping every 100 miles might not be to everyone’s taste. Even a weekend tour would have to be carefully planned, especially if you intend to ride two up with luggage. Meanwhile, Zero’s claimed range for motorway miles drops to 137km/ 85miles. It should be inexpensive to run and comes with unique features like the park assist, and extra storage where the dummy fuel tank is but there is no hiding the fact the initial outlay is expensive. Ride quality & brakes To produce an all-new fully electric adventure bike, Zero haven’t simply dressed up an existing model. The DSR/X is an entirely new bike with a completely new frame, subframe and swing-arm all designed to be stronger than their previous models to take the extra weight and demands of off-road. There’s long-travel, fully adjustable Showa suspension front and rear, increased ground clearance, a stronger belt drive, and re-designed sprocket, plus off-road biased wheel sizes (19-inch front 17-inch rear). The electronics are all new too and feature five riding modes: Rain, Eco, Sport, Canyon and Standard. There isn’t a specific off-road mode, but each mode has its own off-road setting, which is simple and easy to select. Lean-sensitive ABS and traction control settings have been produced in partnership with Bosch to work both on and off-road. Furthermore, you can remove TC and ABS should you wish to do so. Road handling is impressive and comparable to other large premium bikes in this class. The directly mounted rear Showa shock is fully adjustable and has a big task controlling the weight and immense torque but it is up for the job. Equally, the 47mm Showa fully adjustable forks cope with the impressive stopping power of the J-Juan brakes. The ride is on the soft side, this isn’t a sporty adventure bike, but it is more than capable of carving up a mountain pass with ease, as we discovered on the bike’s launch on Mount Etna in Scilly. Ground clearance is sufficient, and quality Pirelli Scorpion rubber, combined with that extremely strong mid-range grunt and reassuring lean-sensitive rider aids, plus changeable engine braking (re-gen), make for a fun ride. But has Zero possibly missed a trick? The manually adjustable suspension doesn’t offer the versatility of the semi-active suspension you’d find on the cheaper petrol competition, which transforms when you ride off-road. The DSR/X remains the same unless you manually change the setup. Off-road, it’s not bad and its low-speed balance is as sweet as a GS’s, but there are clear limitations and a KTM Adventure it is not. The 247kg weight may sound like a lot - because it is - but it's comparable to a fully fuelled BMW R1250GS. Engine The DSR/X shares the same 17.3Kwh battery pack as Zero’s other premium bikes but the Z-Force 75-10x motor is all new, making this the most torque-rich bike in the range. Peaks of 225Nm/166lbft of torque and 75Kw/102bhp at 3650rpm deliver a punch Mike Tyson would be proud of. Zero claim a top speed of 180kph/111mph, plus there is a useful Park Mode featuring a slow speed reverse and crawl function. Charging times are also impressive. With the optional Rapid Charge Module you can cram a 95% charge into the battery in as little as 60 minutes. That jumps to two hours with a level two charger and a whopping 10 hours through a three-pin domestic plug. On the plus side, this is the most powerful Zero to date, and it feels it. Even in Eco mode there’s more than enough torque to embarrass most of the adventure competition away from the lights. Canyon mode is comically fast, you can say farewell to almost anything in a straight line. Twist the throttle and go — no engine noise, no gears, just instant and rapid acceleration. Not what you’d expect from a 247kg adventure bike. Each mode has its own power character and engine re-gen; only Sport and Canyon are full power. Eco, Rain and Standard are easy to live with and have a nice connection, if a little sharp. Canyon and Sport are mind-bendingly quick, and owners will really need that lean-sensitive TC back in the wet and slippery UK. The Canyon mode was my preferred option, with enough engine re-gen to make it feel like a big V-twin. Off-road, with so much torque, it is all too easy to get the rear spinning. The instant torque gives the off-road specific TC a hard time but when ridden sensibly, the lack of gears, clutch, heat and noise makes it easier for less experienced riders. There’s a lovely low-speed balance, too, that’s similar to BMW R1250GS. Reliability & build quality As a brand new model, the jury's out on the DSR/X's reliability but it's well put together - as are the other bikes in the range - and with fewer moving parts than a petrol equivalent, there isn't too much to go wrong. Time will tell how the batteries cope with hundreds (and then thousands) of charge cycles, too. Value vs rivals If there’s an elephant in the room with the Zero DSR/X, it’s the £24,150 price. Yes, running costs will be low, but that is considerably more than the competition, even a fully spec’d Ducati Multistrada V4S with luggage and adaptive cruise control is £23,245. The Zero doesn’t have adaptive electronic suspension, isn’t keyless, has no radar. What’s more, the Power Tank option to increase the range adds £2899. And then it’s another £2459 for the Rapid Charger Module. There is another electric adventure bike about to hit the market in the form of the Energica Experia, but at £27,700 it doesn't represent a budget alternative. Realistically, the Zero will need to tempt existing BMW R1250GS and Multistrada riders away from petrol machines and that's a big ask. Equipment The spec is generous with cruise control, a full-colour dash with connectivity, a lockable 20l storage compartment where you’d normally find a fuel tank, plus small storage compartments on both sides of the upper bodywork, accessed by a tool from under the seat. There’s a relatively low seat for an adventure bike plus a huge range of accessories including luggage and more off-road biased tyres. As a first attempt at an all-electric adventure bike, Zero are ticking plenty of boxes. Source.