Warlock-

It's Raz's first day on the job in a new story trailer, and the whole Aquato family has come to wish him luck. A new story trailer for Psychonauts 2 has all the psychedelic madcap action you may expect from the long-awaited sequel, along with one thing you may not have expected: Raz's surprisingly large family. The trailer explains that it's Raz's first official day as a Psychonaut, and that the organization is facing a threat from a long-dormant enemy who may have compromised one of your allies. In the process we see lots of wild set-pieces and gameplay elements, like a Raz pencil sketch that comes to life. But near the very end, his family makes an appearance, adding seven more Aquatos to the mix. Like the first game, Psychonauts 2 appears to be an inventive mix of puzzle-platforming and Burton-esque landscapes as you delve into the minds of various subjects to battle their inner demons. In fact, the trailer makes a point of this, as a character narrates that a Psychonaut's job is to help people, not change their minds or "fix" them. When Double Fine boss Tim Schaefer gave an update on development as the game entered the home stretch, he committed not to "crunch" on the game - the common practice of developers putting in long hours. I have cited a bad crunch experience from the first Psychonauts as the reason for this new approach. "You're just so focused on making the game good, and getting it done, and then you look up and it's a sea of dead bodies all around you," he said. "And you're like, 'What have I done?'" Psychonauts 2 is coming on August 25 for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X | S. As a first-party game from Microsoft, it will be included with Xbox Game Pass.

You can order the Volvo C40 Recharge in any of seven different colors, but it would be a mistake to choose any but Fjord Blue. Not only is it fun to say, but it comes with a matching cerulean interior that pops like the silk lining of a vintage overcoat. It's the kind of fashion statement you don't tend to see in any cars below the level of a custom-built Rolls-Royce, and it's a delightful change from the monochromatic minimalism we've grown used to in electric-car cabins. Choosing a car purely for the pretty interior is not recommended, but if you were to go that route, you could certainly justify it on the C40. Even if you don't go with the blue, the layout inside the C40 is the same innovative and tidy design we liked on Volvo's first all-electric SUV, the XC40 Recharge. The seats are soft, roomy, and leather-free, available in either a soft wool upholstery or a mix of faux suede and faux leather micro-tech trim. The door panel pockets are wide enough for a laptop, the wireless charging phone pad will house cells both big and small, and should you prefer connected charging, there’s a wee clip above the USB ports to help keep the cord tidy. Everything in its place is a theme in the C40. There’s a hanging hook for a purse or shopping bag in the glovebox which folds away when not needed. There’s even a snap-in spot to hold a pen, three different slots to house parking garage tickets or other easily lost and oft-needed cards and papers, and a removable trash can in the console to get rid of the less-needed ones. The back seat has plenty of headroom, even with the lowered roofline, and the doors are attached on the outer body of the car, to offer added space for stepping in, or lifting a kid into a child seat. The same outside-hinge approach was used for the rear hatch, to prevent any loss of headroom in the back, and to give designers and excuse to use cool little winglet roof covers. Rear cargo space will be slightly, but not dramatically, less than the square-roofed XC40, and the clever cargo hooks and stowable cargo cover we liked in that vehicle make it over to the C40 as well. If Volvo followed some of the more typical car naming conventions, the C40 might be called an "XC40 Recharge Coupe," since it shares the Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) platform and dual-motor, all-electric AWD powertrain with that crossover, but it packages them under a sleek, curved roofline. Unlike the XC40 Recharge, which is also available as a gas-powered SUV, the C40 is only available in Recharge all-electric form. Either because the designers wanted to highlight the change in personality from the more upright and square XC40, or because they believed that coupe is reserved for two-doors, the C40 gets its own designation. We weren't able to drive the new model, but since we know it offers the same combined 402 horsepower of the XC40 on the same chassis, we can safely guess that it will perform similarly in acceleration, range, and pleasant, balanced driving character . Volvo claims zero to 60 mph in in 4.7 seconds, a range estimate of 208 miles, and recharge times of 40 minutes to 80 percent for the XC40. We expect the same or slightly better for the C40. A major move for Volvo with the XC40 Recharge, and used now for C40, was the development with Google Android Auto of an integrated operating system. Rather than simply mirroring a cell, drivers can log in with a Google ID and have instant access to maps, contacts, music, and Google voice recognition, with or without connecting a phone. This is the same system used on the Polestar 2.

https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-57449112 In 1639 Japan adopted a policy known as sakoku (closed country), by which the Asian nation closed its doors to the rest of the world, prohibiting both the entry and the exit of people. Whoever entered or left the country would be sentenced to death. This isolation lasted for more than two hundred years, until, in 1853, an American naval officer named Matthew Perry entered what is now Tokyo Bay with a fleet of warfighters. Perry managed to force Japan to reopen to international trade, but the country continued to prohibit its citizens from leaving the territory. But the Western-inspired reforms were so fast-paced that they caused rapid social transformation, bringing thousands of people from rural areas to cities. Large urban centers, such as Tokyo and Osaka, began to have problems of overcrowding. It was in this context that the first great wave of Japanese migration began. The emigrants, who would later be known as Nikkei (a person with ties to Japan), left their country in search of better opportunities, encouraged by a government that not only sought to solve the problem of overpo[CENSORED]tion, but also to expand political influence and economy of Japan in the world. First destination The first Japanese migration abroad occurred in 1868 and the destination was Hawaii, which was not yet part of the United States at that time. It was a small contingent of 148 rural workers. "Hawaii required labor for agriculture, particularly its sugar farms, and it was an agreement that was made with the king of the archipelago," historian Cecilia Onaha, a professor at the Center for Japanese Studies (CEJ), told BBC Mundo. from the Institute of International Relations of the National University of La Plata, in Argentina. According to records from the National Museum of American History, many of those early emigrants later moved to the United States, settling in California, Washington, and Oregon. The North American country became the main focus of interest for Japanese emigrants, who had already viewed that country with interest since the arrival of Commodore Perry. "Almost all the migration of that time went to the US or Canada, because they were the countries that paid the best wages," explains Onaha. It is estimated that between 1886 and 1911 more than 400,000 Japanese arrived in the United States, according to the Library of Congress of that country. Most settled in Hawaii or on the West Coast. The wave of Japanese immigration was so great that at the beginning of the 20th century the US government decided to intervene, prohibiting new arrivals from Japan. It was this limitation that led many Japanese and the government of that country to become interested in a new destination to emigrate: Latin America. The Enomoto colony The first official migration project for Latin America was organized in 1897, when about thirty Japanese were sent to Chiapas, in southern Mexico. It was at the initiative of former Japanese Foreign Minister Enomoto Takeaki, one of the biggest promoters of Japanese emigration. In 1891, when he headed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Enomoto had established an office dedicated to seeking new territories for the Japanese abroad. After leaving the government, in 1893, he founded the Association for Colonization and Emigration (Shokumin Kyokai). According to academic Alberto Matsumoto, an expert on the history of Japanese immigration, Enomoto had become interested in Mexico because this country had signed a Treaty of Friendship and Commerce with Japan in 1888. In 1891, when he was chancellor, he established in that country the first consulate of Japan in Latin America. The then Mexican president, Porfirio Díaz, "was promoting the entry of foreign capital to develop infrastructure and was pleased to receive immigrants to po[CENSORED]te the country," Matsumoto recounted in a series he wrote for the Discover Nikkei site. "Studies carried out by the Japanese government at the time concluded that they could make significant profits from agriculture, something that was later shown to be not such an easy adventure," he says. The small group of Japanese settlers arrived in Chiapas with the intention of setting up a coffee plantation. But the climatic difficulties and the acquisition of plants not suitable for that region led to the failure of the project in a short time. The so-called Enomoto colony disintegrated and, according to Matsumoto, the vast majority went to other parts of Mexico "in search of more promising horizons." Immigration by contract But the failure of the project did not end Japanese immigration to Mexico. The Porfirian government granted new concessions for the exploitation of mines and the construction of railways, and the companies in charge required more labor than they could obtain in Mexico. Contract immigration attracted thousands of foreign workers to the Latin American country. In the book "Destination Mexico: a study of Asian migrations to Mexico, 19th and 20th centuries", the author María Elena Ota Mishima points out that between 1900 and 1910 10,000 Japanese workers arrived. The vast majority ended up crossing the border into the United States. Aware of this phenomenon, the US government signed agreements to also limit Japanese migration to Mexico. It is for this reason that the Japanese community in Mexico would end up being considerably smaller than those of Brazil and Peru, the two South American nations that most attracted Japanese workers at the beginning of the 20th century. Peru and Brazil The first Japanese to arrive in Peru and Brazil also did so as contract immigrants. At the end of the 19th century, Peru required labor for its growing sugar industry and that was how the first 790 Nikkei arrived in 1899, hired to work on farms on the coast. According to the Museum of Japanese Immigration to Peru, that first group consisted entirely of men, but "it was followed by 82 other groups - already made up of women and children - until 1923, when the migration by contract ended." In Brazil, Japanese immigration only began in 1908, with the arrival of 781 peasants hired to work on the coffee plantations. But a decade later, the largest country in Latin America would become the main pole of attraction for the Japanese. Of the nearly 245,000 Japanese who had migrated to Latin America by the 1940s, three-quarters - 189,000 people - went to Brazil, according to records from the Japan International Cooperation Agency. In comparison, 33,000 Japanese arrived in Peru, 15,000 in Mexico and 5,000 in Argentina (mainly from Brazil and Peru). Impact According to Onaha, the number of Japanese who settled in Latin America during that first wave of migration was similar to what would later arrive after World War II, when the second massive wave of Japanese emigrants occurred.

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#PRO! Good member, great Job! Good Luck!

Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp has announced the launch of a trial aimed at freeing its users from smartphones. In a blog post on Wednesday, Facebook engineers said the new feature would allow for the hugely po[CENSORED]r service be used on multiple "non-phone" devices without needing to connect to the smartphone app. "With this new capability, you can now use WhatsApp on your phone and up to four other non-phone devices simultaneously—even if your phone battery is dead," the blog post said. Since its launch in 2009 as a smartphone messaging app, WhatsApp has amassed more than two billion users around the world and been acquired by Facebook. WhatsApp can already be used on "companion devices," such as computers, but exchanges are routed in such a way that if a person's smartphone is offline or has zero battery, it won't work. Other issues can arise as well, such as frequent disconnection. "The new WhatsApp multi-device architecture removes these hurdles" by no longer requiring a smartphone to perform every operation, the company said. The new capability will be expanded more broadly as it is refined, Facebook added. It also made assurances that WhatsApp's security measures will still work under the new system. "Each companion device will connect to your WhatsApp independently while maintaining the same level of privacy and security through end-to-end encryption that people who use WhatsApp have come to expect."

Respected hardware leaker kopite7kimi, who has an excellent history with Nvidia Ampere leaks, has claimed that Nvidia is already preparing its GeForce RTX 30-series Super SKUs. According to the leaker, the GeForce RTX 30-series Super graphics cards will be based on Samsung's 8nm process node, like their non-Super counterparts. They will allegedly serve as an interim lineup leading up to Nvidia's next-generation Ada Lovelace gaming graphics card, which are rumored to be based on TSMC's 5nm manufacturing process. The leaker didn't specifically mention which Ampere graphics card they expect to receive the Super treatment. If Nvidia follows the same blueprint as it did with its Turing-based cards, we could see a GeForce RTX 3060 Super, GeForce RTX 3070 Super and a GeForce RTX 3080 Super. Naturally, the mobile GeForce RTX 30-series variants would arrive alongside the desktop versions. Nvidia hasn't confirmed when or if it will unleash its GeForce RTX 30-series Super army to contend with the best graphics cards on the market. The only clue that we have is that they will plausibly debut early next year. On the other hand, kopite7kimi teased the the potential arrival of the GA103 Ampere die early this year. The silicon's current status is unknown, and the leaker admitted that Nvidia may have cancelled it. However, it would appear that the GA103 could come out after all, thanks to the purportedly upcoming GeForce RTX 30-series Super cards.

The Solidaires Informatique union has filed a new complaint against Ubisoft with the courts in Bobigny, France, alleging that executives including CEO Yves Guillemot enabled and encouraged a culture of "institutional sexual harassment" at the company. "In June 2020, dozens of testimonies emerged on social medias, quickly backed by articles from various outlets (Libération and Numérama in particular), reporting cases of sexual harassment within Ubisoft, with the complacency of the Human Resources departments, which was protecting the harassers and silencing the victims," Solidaires Informatique said in a translated statement sent via email. "On July 15, 2021, a complaint was filed at the Bobigny criminal court by Maude Beckers, both representing the Solidaires Informatique union and several victims of the company." "More importantly, the complaint targets Ubisoft as a company, for institutional sexual harassment," the union said. "For establishing, maintaining and reinforcing a system where sexual harassment is tolerated, because keeping harassers in place is deemed more profitable for the company than protecting employees. This harassment, tolerated and done by the upper echelons of the company, protected by the Human Resources departments, has created a company-wide system. Beyond the list of people mentioned above, this action seeks to dismantle the dynamics of this system." François, Hascoët, and Cornet are no longer with Ubisoft: All three departed the company last year amid allegations of workplace misconduct and abuse. Yannis Mallat, the managing director of Ubisoft's Canadian studios, and Ubisoft vice president Maxime Beland also resigned from the company over similar complaints. Guillemot apologized for the abuses in September 2020, but took no responsibility for them. In more recent months, Guillemot has touted leadership changes at the company aimed at making Ubisoft "an exemplary workplace in the tech industry." Not everyone is convinced that things are actually changing, however, or that Guillemot has the ability to make it happen. A May report by Le Télégramme said some employees don't believe that meaningful changes are being made, leading to the #holdubisoftaccountable hashtag trending on Twitter. The report also said that the union was planning collective legal action against Ubisoft, presumably a reference to this complaint. A Solidaires Informatique representative said that the union is filing the complaint now because it took roughly a year to collect evidence and testimonies, and put the case together. "Institutional sexual harassment is a charge that is very rarely seen in court in France, and the lawyer, Maude Beckers, wanted to have the strongest complaint possible," the rep said. "However, we consider that the changes made by Ubisoft are superficial ... The situation inside hasn't changed much, and we hope the evolution of the case will also keep bringing attention to its evolution, and keep putting pressure on Ubisoft to commit to its promises." Solidaires Informatique invited other potential complainants to join the action, "to testify or to file a complaint." In response to an inquiry about the new complaint, a Ubisoft representative provided a link to the company's May 2021 update detailing changes at the company in response to the allegations of misconduct, but beyond that said only that "we do not have further details regarding the claim filed against Ubisoft."

Reject this report, he is a child without prejudice only to insult when they want to help him, I wanted to save you from the guillotine but people like you do not deserve mercy, he deserves that ban and more, he wanted to help him but he likes to be mistreated. Good luck! Joker : )

@romanhns use message private on forum 🙂

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Well, so much for getting the po[CENSORED]r Tremor off-road package in a 2022 Ford Super Duty (F-250 / F-350) XLT pickup truck. "Why?" you ask? Because, as a company representative recently explained, "due to the chip shortages, the XLT Tremor was removed from our offering in the 2022 model year." The chips in question are semiconductors that are essential for powering a variety of vehicle features, from batteries and fuel pumps to power steering, infotainment systems, backup cameras, emergency brakes, and more. As we reported in February, the chip shortage actually forced temporary shutdowns at two U.S. plants that produced the 2021 Ford F-150. Although the entry-level XLT Tremor is no longer available, the big off-roader can still be had in Lariat, King Ranch, and Platinum trims, which all received a slick interior makeover and new infotainment gear for 2022.

https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-57857337 The United States embargo against Cuba is one of the measures that has been rejected the most times in the UN General Assembly, where every year since 1992 a resolution against it has been approved. The condemnation resolution has obtained almost unanimous support in recent years: last June 23, when it was voted for the last time, it had the support of 184 of the 193 members of the UN. Its most convincing result, however, was obtained in 2016 when it added 191 votes in favor and none against, since even the United States government refrained from defending its own embargo. The reasons for condemning the embargo vary and more than an endorsement of the Cuban government in many cases -such as that of the United Kingdom and other European countries- they respond more to a rejection of the fact that the United States intends to limit the possibility that companies from other countries do business with the island or have the embargo seen as a dangerous precedent for unilateral coercive measures. After the unprecedented protests that occurred last Sunday in several Cuban cities demanding food and medicine, but also "freedom" and the "end of the dictatorship," the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel pointed to the US embargo as the root of the evils. that plague the island. "What we need here is for the 243 additional blockade measures to be withdrawn and the blockade lifted. It is the only thing that Cuba demands," Díaz-Canel said in a broadcast on television and radio on Monday. The Cuban government announced on Wednesday the temporary elimination of customs restrictions on medicines and food, in an attempt to appease the discontent that the aforementioned protests revealed.

Google's search history can reveal a lot about the user – it shows what users have been looking for online and also gives a sneak peek into their browsing habits, which is something you might not necessarily want to keep a record of. Considering how prevalent phones are becoming as a user's primary devices, a lot of these searches now take place on mobile devices. Until now, it has been a little convoluted to delete your recent search history, with the options provided by Google rather limited in scope. Previously, users could either wipe their entire search history from their Google app, delete entries one by one or set up auto-deletion every 3, 18, or 26 months. Identifying the obvious gap here, Google has now added the option to “delete last 15 min” with a single tap from a settings screen, with the setting doing exactly as its description suggests. This new privacy feature to delete partial search history was introduced by Google at the recent Google I/O developers conference and according to Google, it is one of the most demanded features by users. How to delete the last 15 minutes of search history from your phone? Google now allows you to delete recent search entries, all you need to do is to follow the below process: Go to Google App on your phone Tap on your profile picture on the top right to access settings On the next page, you’ll see an option “Delete last 15 minutes” and all you need to do is to tap it and the entries from the last 15 days from your search history will be deleted Additionally, Google will also make it possible to delete the entire search history easily. The new two-tap process to delete search history will be rolled out soon as well. Remember though, once you delete the search history, all the details from Google’s My Activity section will also be deleted.

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal citing people familiar with the matter, Intel is in talks to buy GlobalFoundries for roughly $30 billion. Intel has not confirmed the report, but if true, the plan would intercept GlobalFoundries' widely-reported plans for an IPO later this year. We reached out to Intel about the report and the company responded that it does not comment on rumors and speculation. The news comes on the heels of recent reports that Intel is in talks to buy RISC-V chip designer SiFive for $2 billion as it undergoes a major restructuring effort under new CEO Pat Gelsinger. Intel's rumored buy-out plan also comes as it lobbies the US government for subsidies to boost its manufacturing capabilities, particularly to help fund its IDM 2.0 initiative that will find it producing chips for other companies through a newly-formed Intel Foundry Services (IFS). Intel has pledged $20 billion of its own money to kick-start that initiative with two fabs in Arizona. Acquiring GlobalFoundries would be an immediate shot in the arm for that initiative, particularly because it would bring in experienced leadership teams and an already-healthy third-party foundry business. GlobalFoundries' production capacity of trailing-edge nodes, which are the largest volume movers for most third-party fabs, would also fit well with Intel's plans to begin offering its manufacturing services to other parties. Even though GlobalFoundries famously abandoned the race for leading-edge node technology, it has plenty of its own existing fabs in the US with impressive production capacity. GlobalFoundries has long serviced contracts with the US government, which requires certain indigenous chip production for some of its military projects. As such, the company's existing work with the US government makes it a shoo-in for government funding. GlobalFoundries, AMD's former foundry, is headquartered in the US. The company is currently owned by the Mubadala Investment Company, an investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government. GlobalFoundries has been widely reported to be seeking an IPO, but it scuttled its plans last year amidst the turmoil of the pandemic. However, according to the WSJ, GlobalFoundries could move ahead with its planned IPO if talks with Intel fall through. The proposed deal would dwarf Intel's $16.7 billion Altera acquisition, which was its largest thus far. Intel recently sold off its NAND and SSD business to SK hynix for $9 billion as it looks to focus on its core competency of manufacturing high-margin logic devices. However, an Intel-GlobalFoundries deal would certainly face intense regulatory scrutiny, especially amid the tensions associated with the US-China trade war. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has also been on a tour throughout the EU to drum up support for government funding to build fabs there, saying that the company's investments in Europe could total $100 billion. Interestingly, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger will provide an update on the company's process and packaging technology and roadmap on July 26 at 2pm PT, streamed via the Intel Newsroom. If an acquisition of GlobalFoundries is in the cards, we're sure to learn more at this event.

Next week's EA Play Live showcase won't feature any new Star Wars games, the publisher has confirmed, adding to a list of confirmed no-shows including Dragon Age 4 and the new Mass Effect game. That doesn't mean EA doesn't have Star Wars games planned though: "all of us look forward to celebrating with you next year when we share our vision for the Galaxy far, far away," the EA Star Wars Twitter account promised. EA held the exclusive right to develop Star Wars games until January, when Disney announced the revival of Lucasfilm Games. Shortly after, Ubisoft announced an open-world Star Wars game in development at Massive Entertainment. That won't slow down EA's Star Wars interests though, with the publisher quickly assuring that it'll continue to develop games for the series. Nothing is confirmed, but Respawn is currently recruiting for roles on its Star Wars team, pointing to a possible sequel to Jedi Fallen Order. Earlier this year rumors circulated on Reddit that a third instalment in the modern Star Wars Battlefront series is in development at DICE. At this stage, with some of EA's more exciting forthcoming games ruled out for the showcase, it looks like EA Play Live will be pretty heavily focused on Battlefield 2042, EA Sports titles, and maybe some Apex Legends news. A Dead Space reboot is also heavily rumored.

#CONTRA! Good activity but your attitude kills you, bad vibes, breaks some rules and plays words with sarcasm with the administrators, A big mistake to accept someone like that! When you learn what respect is all about, you will receive a Pro from me, while learning values. Good Luck!

Like its big sibling the Silverado, the Chevy Colorado pickup will offer a Trail Boss off-road package starting for the 2022 model year. The dealer-installed extra will be offered for $ 2995 on LT models and $ 2895 on Z71 models, and it includes a suspension lift, different wheels, skid plates, and a few visual modifications — similar to the AT4 trim level already offered for its mechanical twin , the GMC Canyon. The suspension lift raises the truck 1.0-inch, and the package also includes the removal of the front air dam and the addition of skid plates for the front and middle of the underbody. Other add-ons include red tow hooks, black badges, and 17-inch black wheels taken from the full-blown ZR2 off-road model. The 2022 Colorado is otherwise unchanged and continues to offer three engine choices: a 2.5-liter inline-four, a 3.6-liter V-6, and a turbodiesel 2.8-liter inline-four. Elsewhere in the Chevy truck lineup, the Silverado is scheduled to receive an update for 2022, and the full-size pickup will add an off-road ZR2 version of its own.

https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-57845234 Britney Spears stepped forward on her way to free herself from what she calls a "bondage" situation. The Superior Court of Los Angeles allowed the American singer to choose her own lawyer, a substantial change in the legal guardianship that has controlled her life for more than 13 years and which the singer wants to end. The ruling came on Wednesday, the day the pop star addressed a court for the second time in less than a month. From now on, Spears will be represented by Mathew Rosengart, a lawyer who has handled cases of celebrities such as Sean Penn or Steven Spielberg and whose first objective will be to remove Jamie Spears, father of the artist, from guardianship. The fact that the artist can hire her own representative casts doubt on the validity of her own legal guardianship, a mechanism reserved for severely disabled people who are not supposed to take care of themselves. Spears went further and announced that she wants to sue her father for "abuse." What happened this wednesday Last month, the singer made a dramatic plea to end the agreement that has been in place since 2008. This Wednesday, in a new hearing, Spears repeated her request in an emotional statement in which she asked that charges be brought against her father for "abuse." "I am here to press charges. I am angry and will resort to that," the singer said, addressing the remote court over the phone of a lawyer. The singer insisted on Wednesday that her priority is to remove her father from the guardianship that governs his personal and financial affairs. In her words to the judge, Spears said she does not want to undergo a "stupid" medical evaluation and that she is fine with co-tutor Jodi Montgomery remaining in her position. "I just want you to understand how much time they have taken from me by forcing me to do these psychological tests that do not yield any results." And he added that he has "serious problems of abandonment" by his father.

A recent graduate of SMU's Dedman School of Law has written computer language for a smart contract that, if adopted by courts, could make it much easier and less expensive for someone to sort out the estate of a loved one who dies without a will. Madison Arcemont, who received her juris doctor degree from SMU in May, wrote computer code that would use blockchain technology to replace some of the work that must be done manually in what the law calls "intestate succession." That's the legal term for when a judge in the probate court system must oversee the payment of any debts and determine who can inherit the estate of a deceased person with no will. It can take months, if not years, to complete intestate succession, even if no one disputes the court's decisions. And the price tag for this can also be expensive. The average price for court fees, attorney's fee, and other expenses can cost roughly 3 to 7 percent of the total value of the estate. "Currently, intestate succession is decided by the courts on a case-by-case basis, even though the law is relatively formulaic, said Arcemont. "Turning over some of that responsibility to a smart contract can save the family of the deceased person a lot of time." Before a judge can make a ruling on a case, it's up to a personal representative —usually a relative of the deceased assigned by the court—to actually determine how much an estate is worth and who in the family would qualify as an heir. Intestate succession laws lay out who should get what percentage of the estate, based on who is living. Yet it can still be a daunting task for personal representatives to make sense of the legal instructions, which is why they turn to a lawyer for help. Arcemont's approach is a blueprint for simplifying the process, possibly eliminating the need for a lawyer. How it work A "smart contract" is created by using computer coding to build a document. Arcemont took the rules for her contract from the Uniform Probate Code and converted them into a series of "if/then...when" statements with guidance from Carla L. Reyes, an SMU assistant professor of law who is a nationally recognized leader on issues raised by the intersection of business law and technology. For example, if someone answers "yes" to the question, "Is this deceased person survived by a spouse?," the smart contract will then ask if the deceased person had children. If the answer is again, "yes," the program will ask if they had those children with the deceased person's current spouse. If the personal representative answers "no" to questions about a spouse or kids, they will instead be asked questions like, "Is the deceased person survived by one or both parents?" and, "Are both of those parents alive?" All of these facts allow the smart contract to put together a descendent tree that tells the personal representative who should get a portion of the estate and how much. The representative would then present this information to a judge for approval. Computer coding strikes a balance between legal terms and everyday language Arcemont used a program called Lexon to write the computer code. The program specializes in writing computer code in language that both the legal industry and a layperson can understand, while simultaneously performing the necessary computing functions. Lexon also allows smart contracts to be stored using blockchain technology, meaning any information loaded into a smart contract by a personal representative or a judge would be saved on multiple computers instead of a single one. Because multiple versions are stored, a smart contract can't easily be tampered with and can be validated by several, randomized computers to ensure the information is correct. Arcemont noted that a smart contract can't cover every situation. For example, any family disputes about the information being entered in the smart contract would still need to be decided by a judge. For courts to use smart contracts for intestate succession, computer code must be written to match the state's intestate succession law. Each state has its own succession laws, though 18 of them are modeled after the same law that Arcemont did in creating the computer code. There would also be a fee involved with using these smart contracts. Lexon stores its smart contracts on a blockchain-based platform called Ethereum. This platform has a transaction fee when someone directs the smart contract to determine who the potential heirs are in an intestate succession case. This cost depends on a few variables for when the smart contract is run, but it can be as low as 15 cents. Compared to the time and expense a smart contract could save a personal representative, though, Arcemont said this price would be minimal. "Technology in this area could make intestate succession more accessible, affordable and efficient," Arcemont said.