BirSaNN

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• Name: @BirSaNN • Time & Date: 01:20 • Screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/VchovLb

Amazon media chief Jeff Blackburn joined the company in 1998 and guided the company through its initial public offering prospectus at Deutsche Bank. Amazon.com's top media executive Jeff Blackburn plans to retire at the start of 2023, the e-commerce giant said on Friday. The company said that the media and entertainment businesses, led by Blackburn since May last year, will be overseen by two current executives, Mike Hopkins and Steve Boom, who will report directly to Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy. The businesses include Prime Video, Amazon Studios, Music, Audible, Games, and Twitch. Blackburn, who also served as senior vice president at Amazon, joined Amazon in 1998 and guided the company through its initial public offering prospectus at Deutsche Bank. He left Amazon briefly in February 2021, before returning again in May 2021. "I've decided to spend 2023 differently, giving more time to family, and feel strongly this is the right decision for me," said Blackburn. Over the past year and a half, Blackburn was a key figure behind the success of shows like Rings of Power as well as the acquisition of movie studio MGM this year, said Amazon. Meanwhile, Amazon witnessed mass layoffs in November this year, which are now claimed to extend into next year, as stated by CEO Andy Jassy. The company has informed workers in its devices and books divisions about layoffs. A few employees were also offered a voluntary buyout offer. Amazon has already notified that it would lay off about 260 corporate workers at various facilities in the state. For those being laid off, Amazon is offering severance packages. It is one among the many tech companies that are witnessing mass layoffs this year. Meta and Twitter also announced job cuts in November, laying off thousands of employees. Are the gaming-centric Asus ROG Phone 6 and 6 Pro worth the price jump? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts. link: https://www.gadgets360.com/internet/news/amazon-media-chief-jeff-blackburn-announces-plans-retire-2023-beginning-3573808

You know what they say, a scalper's pain is a gamer's gain (actually I just made that up), because scalpers that jumped the gun on NVIDIA's RTX 4080 have been left holding the bag and are struggling to return their purchases or sell them on the open market under their cost basis. The news comes from Reddit (via Videocardz, via Mooreslawisdead). Retailers like Newegg remove the refund option for NVIDIA's RTX 4080, leaving scalpers scampering in the direction of third-party marketplaces Posts on r/PCMR show that scalpers are flocking to various marketplaces like Facebook in an effort to offload their scalped stash of NVIDIA RTX 4080s. It looks like they are having trouble the inventory even at a very "generous" pricing close to MSRP ($1200). Quite understandably, gamers that were left in the lurch during the cryptocurrency mining boom are watching this unfold with glee. Scalpers have made an easy profit on pretty much all NVIDIA GPU launches in the recent past but it looks like it is time to face the music when it comes to the RTX 4080. This card is hard enough to move at MSRP so people that bought up the SKUs in bulk hoping to flip them for a profit are in for a rude awakening. Interestingly, another reason why scalpers are flocking to third party marketplaces is provided by MLiD, who spotted that retailers like Newegg have removed their refund policy for the NVIDIA RTX 4080 - meaning scalpers cannot take the easy road of simply returning the product to the retailer they scalped it from. This would mean that a pricing war should soon ensue which should apply selling pressure to the RTX 4080 pricing and automatically bring it below the MSRP due to market forces. The NVIDIA RTX 4080 is starting to develop quite the embattled history. First, its 12GB variant, which wasn't actually a RTX 4080 (it had lower CUDA cores and was actually in the RTX 4070 Ti class), was cancelled after not-negligible-consumer-and-media-backlash. Now it seems that the public isn't being very receptive to the RTX 4080 16GB either. Meanwhile, the RTX 4090 is selling like hotcakes and flying off the shelves even though it is significantly more pricey. The reason might have something to do with the value that the cards offer. While the RTX 4090 offers $19.5 USD per TFLOP, the RTX 4080 only offers offers a TFOP for $24.6. This means that the RTX 4080, at its $1200 price point offers 21% less value per dollar than the RTX 4090. There is also the consideration that people who want the absolute best GPU that money can buy will go for the RTX 4090 and at $1200, the RTX 4080 is not something the mainstream gamer can afford. NVIDIA appears to have miscalculated the market depth at the $1200 price point. If you take the same TFLOP per USD as the RTX 4090, the price of the RTX 4080 should have been $949 USD, and that is the maximum price point we believe the card should have launched with. link: https://wccftech.com/scalpers-left-holding-the-bag-and-are-struggling-to-return-nvidia-rtx-4080s-en-masse/

Nickname: @BirSaNN Video author: Throneful Name of the game: Counter-Strike: Global Link video: Rate this video 1-10: 10/9

Wintertide wonderland Snow is settling over the Outlands, which can mean only one thing: Winter has come to Apex Legends, and with it returns its seasonal Wintertide event from December 6 - 27. Not only is it free to play, but Apex Legends is one of the best battle royale games there is. EA’s massively po[CENSORED]r co-op shooter sees you fighting your way through maps, using not only weapons but your character’s unique abilities to take out enemy teams, snag yourself a victory, and earn some juicy cosmetic rewards. The Wintertide Collection offers a flashy array of 24 new cosmetics and skins that can be bought for either real cash or in-game currency if you’re looking to give your Legends a festive makeover, including a new Prestige skin as an incentive to collect all the other items. Finally, and most importantly, this season features the return of the limited capture-the-flag game mode, Winter Express. A frosty welcome In EA’s announcement(opens in new tab) of the event, it says the limited edition items pay homage “to the deadliest winter legends [...] designed to instill fear in whoever your prey may be.” Fans of Legends Bangalore, Crypto, Newcastle, Valkyrie, Gibraltar, and Bloodhound should get excited, because these cool-as-ice items are yours for the taking. Well, purchasing. They can be purchased through the game for Apex Coins or Crafting Metals, or you can pick up a Wintertide Event Apex Pack instead. The Prestige skin this season is for Wraith, called the Apex Voidshifter, and you’ll only be awarded it for unlocking all other 24 items. Alternatively, if you’re looking to kit out your other Legends, you can opt for one of the sales packs via the in-game store for some limited-edition cosmetic deals. The Synthetic Huntress pack, for example, will only cost you 2,500 Apex Coins during the first week of Wintertide. As for the event itself, Winter Express is set to make a grand return. The three-team capture the flag mode will have you chasing down and attempting to board the mysterious train before your opponents do, traversing an icy landscape that glitters all things Christmas as you strive to earn points that all feed into your event progress for the season The event Reward Tracker will help you keep an eye on your efforts. You can earn up to 1,600 points daily, with the challenges refreshing every morning to keep you on your toes and grinding for success. Although there isn’t much variance from past years of Wintertide in terms of the limited Winter Express game mode, all 24 cosmetic items are brand new to Apex Legends. They likely won’t be sticking around for Wintertide 2023, so be sure to load in between December 6 - 27 if you don’t want to miss out. Love to game with your buds? Here are the best co-op games to get now. Jasmine Gould-Wilson Jasmine is a freelance writer and podcaster based in the UK. Whether it's a Sims 4 lore deep-dive or a guide to securing kills in Dead By Daylight, her work is featured on TheGamer as well as the door of her mother's fridge. When she's not aggressively championing the Oxford comma on Twitter, you can find her scoping out the local music scene or buying gaudy Halloween decorations all year round. link: https://www.techradar.com/news/apex-legends-wintertide-event-is-back-with-some-very-snazzy-skins

US Army Reportedly Earmarked Millions For An Ad Campaign Targeting Gamers The U.S. Army planned to use Call of Duty streamers on Twitch as a means of gaining more Gen-Z recruits, according to military spending documents recently acquired by Vice. The Army has reportedly spent millions on the project--or planned to, anyway--with the hopes of winning over young adults and minorities who, historically, have plenty of interest in playing war games, but considerably less interest in enlisting in real life. Vice acquired the documents via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, and according to their report, the U.S. Army had millions earmarked for the project's 2021-2022 goals. Over the course of those years, the Army aimed to use esports tournaments and high-profile streamers as advertisement platforms, with the ultimate goal of reaching an audience that has evidently proven elusive in terms of recruitment. Now Playing: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Everything to Know The documents openly state the desire for the ad campaign to target Gen-Z in particular, noting the preferred age range (18 to 24) in addition to other subgroups the Army hoped to reach via advertisement. "Focus on the growth of females, Blacks, and Hispanics," reads one section of the document. Much of the document focuses on proposed spending for events like Twitch's HBCU (Historically Black colleges and universities) Showdown, along with many others. One page in particular displays a tiered list of advertising prospects. "Twitch x HBCU Showdown" tops the chart, with a proposed budget of $1 million. Further down the list is Call of Duty League, with a note that such a move was pending a discussion with Activision Blizzard. The documents indicated that involvement with Activision Blizzard was being halted due to misconduct allegations and other legal troubles facing the publisher. According to Vice, an August 2021 email included in the documents states, "At this time, we intend to 'pause all activities' immediately with Activision due to serious allegations of sexual harassment at their workplace, and also recommended tha[t] the Marketing Engagement Brigade not send their eSports team to the tournament." The U.S. Army is no stranger to aiming ads at gamers online, including via video game publications such as GameSpot. It even has its own official esports team, which has been used as a recruitment tool at various gaming conventions and esports tournaments for several years. The team is made up of actual soldiers who must first finish basic training and can be deployed at any moment, just like any other member of the United States Armed Forces. But streamers aren't the only method the military has used in an attempt to reach what it may see as an untapped market of potential recruits. Per Vice, both the streaming service Paramount+ and the WWE were also approached as potential candidates for pro-enlistment advertisements. Additionally, $200,000 was allocated for a proposed sponsorship of Call of Duty Mobile. According to Vice, the documents indicate that there were once plans for the mobile game to reward players who watch U.S. Army ads with in-game currency. It's not clear exactly how much of the proposed $6.9 million budget was successfully spent on the projects outlined in the report. While some projects--like the aforementioned mobile game rewards for watching U.S. Army ads--obviously never happened, the success of other projects (like behind-the-scenes sponsorships) is more difficult to gauge. According to Vice, Activision Blizzard and Paramount+ declined a request for comment, while Twitch only stated that the company's ad services did not receive payment from the U.S. Army for individual streams or the HBCU Showdown in 2022. The U.S. Army, however, did have something to say. "Ad recall and favorability are important as they are both industry accepted measures of effectiveness of the advertising and sponsorships we purchase," read an emailed statement received by Vice. "Army Marketing’s goal for sponsorship is similar to all our advertising purchases which is to reach a specific market in support of Army recruiting." Though the U.S. military has frequently used games as a tool to drive recruitment (with varying degrees of success), some argue that the practice is immoral, potentially influencing young people to conflate in-game grenade-flinging with real-life combat. On the other hand, GoArmy.com advertisements have been slipped in between preview trailers at American cinemas for decades now, and concerns are rarely raised about this practice. Still, there is one significant difference there: Those cinema advertisements don't follow their young, impressionable audiences home the way ads in online games and po[CENSORED]r streaming platforms do. "In Army marketing, we must meet the youth where they are," the Army's emailed statement to Vice concluded. "And that is online." (Disclosure: The U.S. Army has advertised on GameSpot in the past.) link: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/us-army-reportedly-earmarked-millions-for-an-ad-campaign-targeting-gamers/1100-6509672/

The full sweat-and-gore experience needs some serious hardware. The system requirements for sci-fi gorefest The Callisto Protocol(opens in new tab) have been released via the game's official Twitter feed. And it makes for scary reading for your PC. The full, blood-spattered experience at Ultra settings requires an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080(opens in new tab) or AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT(opens in new tab). Step down to Max and a Radeon RX 6700 XT(opens in new tab) or RTX 2070 deemed sufficient. In both cases, you're going to want 16GB of RAM. CPU specs for Ultra are set at an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X or Intel Core i9 9900K. But the question remains whether you'll still suffer from the stuttering issues widely reported on Steam(opens in new tab) even if you meet those specs, as indeed Shaun Prescott found during our review(opens in new tab) conducted on an RTX 3080: "There were definitely some stutters, especially when loading new areas or when camera control is taken away or given back on either side of cutscenes and certain pre-canned animations, which The Callisto Protocol is full of." Moreover, Shaun noted that Callisto ran at sub 60fps with ray tracing enabled on the RTX 3080. So, this is clearly a beast of a game. It's also worth noting that the Callisto Project does not support Nvidia's DLSS scaling tech(opens in new tab). However, there is still upscaling in the game engine courtesy, courtesy of AMD's FSR(opens in new tab). That will run on both AMD's own GPUs and Nvidia's, but Shaun found it didn't deliver quite as big a performance boost as you'd normally expect, especially with FSR set to performance mode. Still, when getting the most realistic sweaty faces(opens in new tab) ever rendered in real time, you just know the frame rates are going to take a hit. The Callisto Project Project is out today, December 2. Feel free to wallow in the gore and sweat, with or without ray- tracing enabled. link: https://www.pcgamer.com/system-specs-for-sci-fi-horror-epic-callisto-protocol-will-terrify-your-pc/

Former chancellor and health secretary Sajid Javid has said he will stand down as an MP at the next general election. Mr Javid, MP for the Worcestershire seat of Bromsgrove, said he had made the decision "after much reflection". He said his decision had been accelerated by a Tory Party review, which is asking sitting MPs to indicate now whether they want to stand again. Eleven other sitting Tory MPs are set to quit at the next election, expected in 2024. Mr Javid previously served as home secretary under former Prime Minister Theresa May, and in 2019 was promoted to chancellor by Boris Johnson. But he dramatically quit as chancellor after six months in the role, following tensions with Mr Johnson's then-advisor Dominic Cummings. In a reference to their shared love of the Star Wars film franchise, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak paid tribute to Mr Javid by tweeting "May the Force be with you, Saj". Boris Johnson plans to stand at next election Don't reinstate Hancock as Tory - party vice chair Rising Tory star Davison to quit at next election The Conservative Party has asked its MPs to indicate by Monday if they want to run again, to aid the party's preparations ahead of the next election. Among those to announce they are quitting Parliament in recent days are Dehenna Davison, a levelling up minister, backbenchers William Wragg and Charles Walker, and former work and pensions secretary Chloe Smith. Eleven current Labour MPs have also said they will be standing down, but they are mostly older - with five over the age of seventy. Mr Johnson, as well as former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, are among Tory MPs to have made public their intention to stand again. Mr Javid, who turns 53 on Monday, has a large 23,000 majority in his Bromsgrove constituency. Unlike some MPs, the boundaries of his seat are not due to be changed under a scheduled review of the electoral map. Confirming his decision in a letter to the area's Conservative association, he did not give a reason why he had decided to stand down. However, in a signal that he will continue to operate within the political world, he said quitting as an MP would not "mark the end of my Parliamentary activity". Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak attended a Star Wars film premiere together in late 2019 Since entering Parliament in 2010, Mr Javid has held ministerial or cabinet-level roles at six different government departments. He was the first cabinet minister to announce he was quitting Boris Johnson's government in July, minutes before Prime Minister Rishi Sunak did the same. Their departures - which both have denied co-ordinating - led to a slew of further resignations that eventually led to Mr Johnson's departure. Mr Javid then put himself forward to succeed Mr Johnson at this summer's Conservative leadership contest, but pulled out of the race ahead of the first round of voting by Tory MPs. He threw his weight behind eventual winner Liz Truss, attacking her leadership rival Mr Sunak for saying tax cuts would have to wait until the economy grows. He then backed Mr Sunak in his successful bid to replace Ms Truss in October, but he was not given a ministerial position. Mr Javid had stood to be Conservative leader once before in 2019 - when he was knocked out at the final round of Tory MPs' voting. Since leaving government this summer, has given a number of lucrative speeches to banks - a sector in which he had a career before entering politics. According to the latest register of MPs' interests, he is set to receive £30,000 for a speech to HSBC executives in September, and £36,000 for a speech to clients of Deutsche Bank in October. According to the Financial Times, he has held talks with a number of banks and investment groups about his career after politics. link: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-63835091

Scientists recently discovered the first non-avian theropod dinosaur with a streamlined body similar to that of penguins, auks and other modern diving birds. A dinosaur with an undulating noodle neck and a streamlined body like those of modern diving birds may have plunged through the depths of a Cretaceous sea about 71 million to 72 million years ago, in what is now Mongolia. This predator belonged to a different lineage of theropods — bipedal and mostly meat-eating dinosaurs — than the one that produced modern birds, but its body shape and limbs hint that it swam and dove as a penguin does, scientists recently discovered. The skeleton was in exceptional condition with a near-complete skull. It was excavated from the Baruungoyot (also spelled Barun Goyot) Formation, a location in the southern part of Mongolia's Gobi Desert dating to the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago). In life, it would have been about the size of a mallard duck, and researchers noted that its gooselike neck, flipperlike forelimbs and proportions of its digits resembled those of the Mongolian theropod genus Halszkaraptor, which is thought to be aquatic. However, there isn't enough fossil evidence from Halszkaraptor and its closest relatives to suggest what their body shapes may have looked like. The newfound fossil is more complete than any of the known Halszkaraptor fossils; the skeleton is "mostly articulated" with ribs that are oriented toward the tail, as they are in aquatic diving birds, according to a study published Dec. 1 in the journal Communications Biology(opens in new tab). This offered scientists the first evidence of a nonavian theropod with a body that was optimized for reducing drag in aquatic environments. Related: 'Dwarf dinosaur' that lived on prehistoric island unearthed in Transylvania These adaptations, along with teeth that were "unusually numerous" and "tightly packed" in the jaw, would have made the diving dinosaur a fearsome aquatic predator, and the number and shape of its teeth suggests that it hunted for fish or insects, according to the study. Researchers named the newly described genus and species Natovenator polydontus; the genus comes from the Latin words for "swim" ("nato") and "hunter" ("venator"), while the species means "many teeth" in Greek. "The long nares [nostrils] and posterior rib orientation are only known in Natovenator because these parts are not well preserved in Halszkaraptor," said study co-author Yuong-Nam Lee(opens in new tab), a professor of vertebrate paleontology in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Seoul National University in South Korea. N. polydontus probably wasn't able to soar through the air with its short, flattened forelimbs, though it may have used them to paddle through water. But one of the most compelling clues about its aquatic habits was its ribs — specifically, the direction in which they were pointing. In land-based theropods, the dorsal ribs extended from the spine in a mostly horizontal arc. But in N. polydontus, these ribs curved back toward its tail. Such backward-oriented ribs lower the height of the rib cage, and are a feature in diving birds, Lee told Live Science in an email. This suggests that N. polydontus had a streamlined body, "which would be advantageous because a streamlined body reduces drag in the water and allows efficient swimming," Lee said. Ever since the first vertebrates crawled out of the oceans to live on land, "many different groups have secondarily adapted to aquatic environments," the scientists wrote in the study. Whales, for example, evolved from four-legged terrestrial mammals before adapting to live exclusively in the oceans. Among dinosaurs, only birds and some of their extinct ancestors evolved aquatic or semi-aquatic forms. (A bizarre sail-backed dinosaur called Spinosaurus was briefly hailed as a "swimming dinosaur", but the claim is controversial among paleontologists, and a 2021 study in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica proposed that Spinosaurus would have been a mediocre swimmer at best.) However, N. polydontus looks like it would have been right at home in the ocean's depths. "Natovenator is a valuable discovery to awaken how diverse dinosaurs' ecological position was," Lee said. "Finding semi-aquatic dinosaurs means that the ecological diversity was very high in dinosaurs, and it could change our prejudice about the lifestyle of dinosaurs. More than 30 different lineages of tetrapods have independently invaded water ecosystems. Why not dinosaurs?" link: https://www.livescience.com/diving-dinosaur-swimming-hunter-many-teeth

The $3 million P900 will also be offered with a V-10 for those who don't want to wait until 2024 for the 900-hp, synthetic fuel–powered 6.2-liter V-12 to be ready. The De Tomaso P900 packs a 900-horsepower 6.2-liter naturally aspirated V-12 and weighs around 2000 pounds. The company claims that the V-12 is being developed to run on carbon-neutral synthetic fuels, and a Judd-built V-10 will be available for those who don’t want to wait for the V-12. Just 18 P900s will be built, and the wild-looking hypercar will cost $3 million. The storied De Tomaso name—most well-known for the wedge-shaped Pantera supercar powered by Ford V-8s and famously owned by Elvis Presley—was revived in 2019 with the [CENSORED]ceous, retro-inspired P72. Now the Italian automaker has revealed a more extreme, track-only hypercar, the P900, that builds on the P72’s design but brings a new powertrain and chassis. The P900—named for its dry weight of 900 kilograms (1984 pounds)—trades the P72’s supercharged 5.0-liter Ford Coyote V-8 for a 6.2-liter V-12 that pumps out 900 horsepower and revs to a 12,300 rpm redline. While De Tomaso calls the engine bespoke, it also says that it comes from Germany, making us wonder if it’s related to the 6.3-liter LaFerrari-derived V-12 developed by German race team HWA and used in the Apollo Intensa Emozione, which shares its underpinnings and designer with the P72. De Tomaso says that its “focus remains solely on creating longevity for the naturally aspirated, soulful, internal combustion engines,” so it is designing the P900’s V-12 to run on carbon-neutral synthetic fuels, a strategy also being explored by Porsche and Formula 1. De Tomaso also claims that this engine will be the lightest and shortest V-12 ever. However, the V-12 won’t be fully ready until late 2024, so for the restless billionaires who need their P900 now, De Tomaso will also offer a V-10 built by Judd Power, which is apparently a descendent of the engine from the Benetton B197 that competed in the 1997 F1 season. De Tomaso is remaining tight-lipped about the P900’s performance figures, but the massive amount of power is sent exclusively to the rear wheels through an Xtrac sequential gearbox. Despite bearing a familial resemblance to the P72, De Tomaso says that the P900 is built around a unique carbon chassis, and it features far more extreme bodywork than the V-8-powered model. An enormous rear wing wraps around the circular taillights and muscular rear fenders and incorporates active aerodynamics. A ultra-wide diffuser also contributes downforce, as does a protruding front splitter. The sultry, voluptuous bodywork has gaping air intakes and brake-cooling vents carved into it and wraps around a spaceship-like cockpit, although De Tomaso has yet to show off the interior design. De Tomaso plans to build just 18 P900s, each customized to the owner’s liking with a starting price of $3 million. De Tomaso will also run a racing series for the P900, called De Tomaso Competizione, which will include motorsports tutoring and the chance for owners to race their P900s on tracks around the world with support from a team of mechanics and engineers. De Tomaso is also offering to provide storage and maintenance at its facilities at the Nürburgring in Germany. The first P900s will arrive in the second quarter of 2023, presumably with the Judd V-10, with the V-12 variant arriving the following year. This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. link: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a42112075/de-tomaso-p900-details/

Gran says bags are excellent for storage. Her granddaughter says they litter up the house. Who will you send packing? Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a You be the judge juror Georgina Lawton Interviews by Georgina Lawton @georginalawton Fri 2 Dec 2022 08.00 GMT The prosecution: Roberta Gran’s house is littered with bags of stuff. She should put things away and ditch the carriers My gran, Martha, is a bit of a hoarder. It’s nothing too serious: she just loves holding on to certain things. She has kept newspaper front pages about the royals from 50 years ago, and also likes keeping stamps and coins that commemorate big events, like the millennium. But one thing I cannot abide is her obsession with bags. She absolutely loves those bags for life you get from the supermarket. She buys a lot of things in bulk – cat food, washing-up liquid, cleaning products – and instead of unpacking it properly, she keeps everything in bags all over the floor of her house. Granted, she has a small place and there isn’t a lot of storage space, but when you walk in, there are bags filled with stuff everywhere. The kitchen is covered in bags of tinned tuna and custard. My gran loves to paint and keeps boxes of art supplies in big Sainsbury’s bags on the floor of her living room. I tell her that she has enough bags to last a lifetime, but she takes no notice She’s also got hundreds of spare bags for life in her car and stuffed into cabinets. I visit every week, so sometimes I’ll suggest throwing some out and unpacking some of her things. But she always says: “I’ll hold on to those, thank you very much. A bag is for life, not just for Christmas.” I tell her that she has enough bags to last a lifetime, but she takes no notice. Gran always lectures me about recycling and buying in bulk. I’m 26, and she says my generation is very wasteful and that I should reuse bags. I agree in principle of course, but remind Gran that it was her generation and the one after it, my parents, who messed up the planet for us. I say: “Gran, we’re doomed because of you lot. No amount of recycling carrier bags can help us now.” She just rolls her eyes. I’d love to declutter her flat but she won’t let me. I reckon she should chuck out the bags and get some proper storage so she can put all her things away. I’m all for reusing carrier bags, but it’s not that eco-friendly if you have a million of them. The defence: Martha Keeping bags is good for the environment. And I like to have things where I can see them – on the floor Roberta loves to dish out advice but she’s slower in taking it. She visits me once a week, and it’s always nice to see her, but she does nag me. I like the way I live and I’ve got used to it. My husband, Edward, died 12 years ago and I’ve learned how to live by myself. When he was around, things might have been tidier as he was a little more uptight, but my home certainly isn’t messy. I’m very houseproud, I just like things where I can see them. If I packed everything away like Roberta suggests, I’d never find anything, so what’s the point? I’m 78 and I do what’s easiest at this age. I like to keep things within easy reach, in bags on the floor. I also buy food and cleaning products in bulk, so I don’t actually have the space to put them all away. When the cupboards are full, I put the bags on the floor or on the countertops. I like to use all the products in the bags first, and then, when they are gone, I revert to what’s in my cupboards. I haven’t bought a new carrier bag in a while – the collection has built up over the years and now I’m careful about not adding to it Advertisement Roberta will come around and say, “Gran, it’s a mess in here.” But I know exactly where everything is and that’s the way I like it. Her generation is incredibly wasteful. I’ve been to the place she shares with her friends and seen how they get a new bag every time they go to the newsagent. They also order food online and throw away the plastic containers afterwards. I wouldn’t dream of doing that. I haven’t bought a new carrier bag in a while – the collection has built up over the years and now I’m careful not to add to it. It is better for the environment to reuse them instead of getting a new one each time you shop. I don’t know how many I have in my home – it is probably coming up to a thousand. I keep the spare ones in the kitchen under the sink, and there are some in my car boot, too. My favourite brand is the Sainsbury’s bag for life. I love that shade of orange, and they are also more durable than the Tesco and M&S ones. Roberta can moan at me all she likes but I shan’t be throwing any bags away. I’m content living this way and that’s it. The jury of Guardian readers Should Martha slim down her enormous bag collection? Martha should take Roberta’s advice and store her supplies away. Upcycled furniture or boxes would make better storage units than endless plastic bags. Martha could give them to someone else – maybe Roberta! Maddie, 29 Martha lives on her own and takes care of herself, so she’s right: it’s up to her how she chooses to (dis)organise her house. But a thousand bags? That’s about a bag for life a week, every week. Adrian, 63 A thousand bags for life is beyond excessive, and storing products in bags on the floor sounds less like a system and more like a bad trip waiting to happen. I applaud her concern for the environment but Roberta is right – having this many bags in the house has gone way beyond the point of being eco-friendly. Elaine, 43 Two or three carrier bags folded in my handbag are quite enough for my shopping and – importantly – they are not a potential tripping hazard. A fall at that age would be a lot more inconvenient than having to unpack your bags. Laura, 22 In my own home I would find that very stressful, but if Martha likes living like that I don’t see there’s a problem. Even Roberta doesn’t seem concerned that the bags are a hazard or that the hoarding is anything to worry about, so she should forget about them and try to enjoy her weekly visit. Rachel, 40 Now you can be the judge Advertisement In our online poll below, tell us: should Martha tidy up her litter of bags? The poll closes on Thursday 8 December at 10am GMT link: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/dec/02/you-be-the-judge-should-my-gran-throw-out-her-hoard-of-reusable-bags

By Elsa Maishman and Jaroslav Lukiv BBC News Up to 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since the start of Russia's invasion, a senior official has said. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said between 10,000 and 13,000 troops had died. Neither Ukraine nor Russia tend to release figures for casualties, and Mr Podolyak's comments have not been confirmed by the Ukrainian military. In June he said between 100 and 200 Ukrainian soldiers were dying daily. Last month, the most senior US general, Mark Milley, said around 100,000 Russian and 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed or wounded since the start of the war. In a video address on Wednesday, EU Commission head Ursula Von der Leyen said that 100,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed. However a spokesperson for the EU Commission later clarified that this was a mistake, and the figure referred to those both killed and injured. Can we say how many people have died in Ukraine? Ukraine losing up to 200 troops a day - Zelensky aide Speaking to Ukrainian TV outlet Channel 24, Mr Podolyak said Kyiv was "openly talking about the number of the killed". "We have official evaluations by the General Staff, official evaluations by the commander-in-chief [Mr Zelensky], and they range from 10,000 to 12,500-13,000 killed," he said. He added that the number of civilians killed could be "significant". BBC News had identified about 3,600 civilian deaths as of mid-June. The figure is now likely to be much higher. Ms von der Leyen said 20,000 Ukrainian civilians had been killed. While that number was not retracted by the EU Commission, it was removed from later versions of the video along with the assertion that 100,000 troops had been killed. Mr Podolyak also suggested that up to 100,000 Russian soldiers had been killed since the invasion began on 24 February, and that a further 100,000 to 150,000 had been wounded, or were missing or unable to return to combat. The BBC's Russian Service has established that at least 9,311 Russian soldiers of all ranks have been killed since the invasion on 24 February while the true death toll could be more than 18,600. In other developments: The Ukrainian military said Russia was using dummy nuclear-capable missiles to exhaust Ukraine's air defences. Russia was using rockets designed for nuclear use without explosive warheads, Ukrainian military experts said, suggesting this might be because the country has used so many of its other missiles in massive strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure Another senior adviser to President Zelensky, Oleg Ustenko, accused BP of being entitled to hundreds of millions of pounds in "blood money" from investments in Russia. BP said it was no longer receiving any profits from Russian energy giant Rosneft The US and French presidents have said they will keep working together to support Ukraine and hold Russia accountable for its actions. At a press conference during a visit by President Emmanuel Macron to the White House, President Biden also said that he was "prepared to speak to Mr Putin" in order to broker an end to the war TikTok is hosting dozens of videos glorifying violence by Russia's Wagner group of mercenaries, according to a new report. The videos have been viewed more than a billion times, found US-based organisation NewsGuard. Tiktok said it will act against any content violating its policies. link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63829973

Portugal’s national team led Group H with a total of X points. Rabat - South Korea and Portugal’s national teams have qualified for the Qatar World Cup’s round of 16 after South Korea won 2-1 against Cristiano Ronaldo’s squad. Portugal took the lead five minutes into the match after winger Ricardo Horta opened the scoring, putting the South Korean squad under immense pressure. South Korea scored an equalizer in the 27th minute through Kim Young-Gwon scored, restoring the team’s hope to advance to the next round. South Korea struggled to get control of the game as Ronaldo’s squad dominated possession of the ball, notably in the second half of the game. However, South Korea’s Hwang Hee-Chan scored his team’s second goal during added time. Portugal leads Group H with 7 points, while South Korea follows in second spot with 4 points. Fellow Group H rivals Uruguay and Ghana came at the bottom of the group respectively, failing to advance to the next round of the World Cup. Tomorrow will mark the beginning of the tournament’s first knockout round, the round of 16. The Netherlands will lock horns with the US at 16:00 Moroccan time, while Argentina and Australia will face off at 20:00. The World Cup’s group stage will officially conclude tonight after Group G’s final games. Cameroon will play against Brazil while Switzerland faces Serbia. Read also: Regragui: Fighting Spirit, Teamwork Paved the Way for Canada Win © Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Your support allows us to continue delivering quality journalism that is accessible to audiences across the globe. Every contribution, however big or small, is valuable for our mission and readers. link: https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2022/12/352775/portugal-south-korea-qualify-for-round-of-16

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Nick Movie: Mindcage Time: December 16, 2022 Netflix / Amazon / HBO?: ? Duration of the movie: 1h 36m. Trailer:

Live Performance Title: YNW Melly "Murder On My Mind" (Live Performance) | Open Mic Signer Name: Melly "Murder Live Performance Location: - Official YouTube Link: Your Opinion About the Track (Music Video): 10/10

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A real screen-burster For any sci-fi horror fan, it’s hard to imagine a world without 1979’s Alien – or its myriad sequels and spin-offs. Luckily, we don’t have to ponder such a meaningless existence; there’s still time to get stuck into its action shooter successor before it leaves Xbox Game Pass for good. Aliens: Fireteam Elite is one of the 11 games set to pack up and head out of the Game Pass roster on December 15. Sure, we’ll be consoled by 11 new titles to sink our Facehuggers into, but now’s as good a time as ever to head to the USS Endeavor for one last alien-blasting hurrah with your friends. Think Warzone, but with Xenomorphs and a storyline. In with the crew It’s always a bittersweet time when Xbox Game Pass announces its comings and goings. Although 11 new games certainly won’t go amiss, especially if you’re one of the lucky new owners of an Xbox Series S after it cleaned up on Cyber Monday, there’s something special to be said about Aliens: Fireteam Elite that will be hard to find in another title. Whether it’s the nostalgia factor or the bizarre enemies you go up against, it’s definitely worth a gander before it leaves the service. You play as a Colonial Marine heading out into the expansive battleground of outer space, answering a distress call. What you find is more than just a spaceship wreck. You and your team quickly learn that an extraterrestrial experiment has gone horribly wrong. If you’ve always been a bit put off by the litany of Alien films and movies as a person who scares easily, you don’t need to panic heading into Fireteam Elite. Much like how Resident Evil 6 replaced the screams with teams, Aliens: Fireteam Elite leans heavily into the action-shooter side of the tracks rather than being a straight-up survival horror adventure. This is not the case with the likes of its Game Pass native sibling, Alien: Isolation, so you’ll want to be sure you don’t download that one by mistake. If the promise of frights being fewer and farther between isn’t enough to encourage you, you can go at it with two friends by your side for that extra bit of moral support. The game is fully supported for online co-op gaming, so there’s no need to get worried about those nasty Chestbursters. New kids on the chopping block Although it will be sad to bid Fireteam adieu on December 15, don’t despair. We will see the likes of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga coming to Game Pass on December 6, encompassing all nine games and even some elements of the TV spin-offs. Accompanying the utterly massive Lego Star Wars collection is Hello Neighbor 2 on December 8, the much-anticipated sequel to the 2017 original stealth horror game that took streamers by storm. Using only your wits and surroundings, your mission will be to infiltrate your creepy neighbor’s house and uncover the secrets he is hiding there before he finds you first – and if the first installment is anything to judge this one by, you really don’t want that to happen. Check out the full list of Game Pass’s December additions on the Xbox blog(opens in new tab). What to play next? Here are the best Xbox Series X games to try out. Jasmine Gould-Wilson Jasmine is a freelance writer and podcaster based in the UK. Whether it's a Sims 4 lore deep-dive or a guide to securing kills in Dead By Daylight, her work is featured on TheGamer as well as the door of her mother's fridge. When she's not aggressively championing the Oxford comma on Twitter, you can find her scoping out the local music scene or buying gaudy Halloween decorations all year round. link: https://www.techradar.com/news/dont-miss-your-chance-to-play-this-sci-fi-co-op-shooter-on-xbox-game-pass

The newest party of gaming's summer is doing it live in 2023. Summer Game Fest will be opening to the public for the first time ever, as event curator Geoff Keighley and his team have announced the Summer Games Fest 2023 Kickoff Show will air live from the YouTube Theater at Hollywood Park on June 8. In addition to audiences streaming on YouTube and Twitch like previous years, the 2023 SGF Kickoff will allow fans to purchase tickets and see every world premiere, gameplay demo, and musical performance live in Inglewood, CA. Tickets will be available for purchase "in early 2023" according to the official press release. "Over the past three years, Summer Game Fest has cultivated an incredible community around the world through our digital-first events," Keighley said in the release. "We’re thrilled to invite thousands of fans to experience the SGF show in-person for the first time in 2023." The official lineup of Summer Game Fest 2023 participants has not been announced, but the show will follow a 2022 event that featured The Last Of Us Part 1, The Callisto Protocol, an extended gameplay demo of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and the debut of Goal Simulator 3. Keighley and his team have announced plans for SGF 2023 just one week before his other project, The Game Awards, holds its 2022 ceremony on December 8. That event will also stream on multiple platforms including YouTube and Twitch, while those who choose to watch via Steam could win a Steam Deck just for tuning in. The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site. link: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/summer-game-fest-2023-kickoff-show-set-for-june-8-will-be-first-with-live-audience/1100-6509612/

They've "dialled back" the survival elements that were initially too hardcore. Todd Howard has given a wide-ranging interview on the Lex Fridman podcast, during which he talked a little more about Bethesda's upcoming Starfield(opens in new tab), which following a delay(opens in new tab) is set for release early next year. I'm still just expecting this to be Skyrim in space, and I'll play the hell out of it, but Howard gives a little more detail on how the star systems will be structured and some of the things that were "dialled back" for being too hardcore. On the game's number of 1000 planets(opens in new tab), Howard says that's all about having "a set we can validate and know about." With Bethesda's technology they could have generated as many as they wanted: "a hundred planets or a thousand or a million, you just change the number, press the button." But Howard says this means you can't know what the experience will be like for anyone landing on those planets, which may well be taken by some as a not-so-coded reference to No Man's Sky. As for the feel of piloting in space, the game's intended to communicate that this is a hard thing to do without constantly killing the player. "We've dialled it back," said Howard. "You used to run out of fuel, jump out, you get stranded: on paper it's a great moment." When this happened players had to call a beacon and wait to see who'd turn up. But what Bethesda designers found when playing the game was that every so often you'd accidentally run out of fuel… and then you'd just end up exploring nearby planets, and mining to try and find fuel. "It's a fun killer." Howard does note that Bethesda may return to some of these ideas post-launch with some sort of more hardcore survival mode. As for the systems themselves, they'll be structured in the same way that a lot of RPGs traditionally approach world-arranging. "We do level the systems, when you enter you'll see like this is a level 40 system," said Howard. "Like when you look at a map in a game it says 'this is the area for low level' basis, so we do that on a system basis." Other tidbits: different space suits will have different tolerances for atmospheric conditions like toxicity and temperature, so some will be more useful than others. There are enemy robots out in space! Though most robots are utility robots. Other ships will come and go from starports, and can make contact with you. Howard also refers to Starfield as a "platform seller" in which context, of course, delaying the game was "tough" but also "the right thing to do". There's also a part where Howard says he personally prefers gaming on console in his leisure time, purely because he works in front of a PC all day. We'll skip that one over shall we. Et tu, Toddy? Finally, Howard claims that Starfield's planets have their own orbits and move around the sky: which I will say is cool as hell, and let's wait to see what it means in practice. Bethesda's marketing for this has all been a bit fuzzy so far, but there's still a lot of solid details about what will hopefully be one of next year's biggest hitters: here's everything we know about Starfield(opens in new tab). link: https://www.pcgamer.com/todd-howard-says-youll-never-run-out-of-fuel-in-starfield-because-its-a-fun-killer/