YaKoMoS

Reinstall your Cs

Start Vote : V1 V2

Greetings , Is Not a big problem which needs a big help Just follow my steps : 1- Go to your Game File 2- Then Cstrike 3-Then Maps 4-Search for zm_foda.BSP 5-Remove the file 6-Enter the game and join the server then zm_foda will downloading automaticaly 7-Enjoy !

> Opponent's nickname: @[MC]Ronin[MC] > Theme (must be an image): https://imgur.com/a/0tSAYK0 > Work Type: Avatar > Size & Texts: 150x250 & Battle > How many votes?:The First one reached 6 votes win > Work time: 12hrs

²²²Hitting ‘start’ on a 4X game’s main menu is an investment akin to picking a flatmate or doing a degree in medicine. You know you’re in this for the long haul, and if you don’t do your research or make bad decisions from the offset you’ll be stuck with them for hundreds of hours. So when Age of Wonders: Planetfall asked me to customise my commander, I froze. First of all: what even were these beings I was looking at? Planetfall’s sci-fi is a whole cloth fantasy creation, and it’s not immediately obvious by looking at them that the cyborg-Dwarf-like Dvar are analogues for Soviet Russia. Or that the insectoid Kir’ko race can control the minds of their enemies using psionic powers. The six races available are all obviously the result of many hours of through-the-looking glass lore meetings, and I imagine that if I asked the writers what the Assembly’s favourite smell is (they’re a bit like the Borg so I imagine they’re indifferent to olfactory stimulus) or what the Vanguard generally eat for breakfast (probably freedom fries, they’re hyper-American archetypes), they’d answer in a heartbeat having decided that incidental detail several builds ago. Right, good. That’s races, then. But what are these other menu options and tickboxes? Secret technologies for WMDs, biological warfare, teleportation, and the like? And a catalogue of perks that let your chosen hero hop in massive armoured vehicles or take passive resource harvesting bonuses? It’s almost offputting, realising just how much you have to learn before passing as basically competent in a game like this, and how many games it will take before you fully understand the weight of your decision to take that perk instead of the other. Not to mention the complex political relationships between Planetfall’s races and the factions within those races. Fortunately, a little bit of Civ knowledge is enough to let you muddle through the 4X layer for the first few hours, while any prior knowledge of XCOM or Divinity: Original Sin’s turn-based fights will see you right through Planetfall’s early encounters. And what a wonderful marriage of quintessentially PC gaming elements that is. Who hasn’t longed to go deeper into a Civ game and sort out those Barbarians on a more granular level instead of fighting them on hex tiles in encounters that might take decades of in-game time to resolve? That trademark Age of Wonders granularity works brilliantly in this newfound sci-fi setting too, where special abilities and even the venues themselves present an opportunity for developer Triumph Studios to really sell you its own slant on distant future space combat. Most units have a few simple abilities in combat which supplement the usual ‘shoot the thing’ and ‘stand guard, ready to shoot the thing’ orders, and in the early stages of a campaign these might be relatively straightforward. Example: Dvar Foremen can heal, and their Trencher compatriots dig in and create a protective barrier around their position. Used together, they form a formidable backline that melee units won’t get near enough to damage. That might free up your commander to do their particular thing, whether that’s rushing in and dealing massive melee damage or sniping with great accuracy from afar. Even these fairly basic variables to units make for brilliant tactical turn-based encounters. Since area-of-effect attacks deal friendly fire damage, you need to sweat your unit positioning even in those foregone conclusion battles and think a couple of turns ahead so as not to paint yourself into a messy, inglorious demise. Victories have a way of feeling like cerebral masterstrokes, and while defeats are commonplace on normal and hard difficulties, they’re at least understandable. You can take some glimmer of knowledge away from them to use again in a later battle: usually ‘don’t leave anyone near those poison-spitting insect arseholes’. But Planetfall has a way of tacking on those variables over time, knowing when you’re fluent enough in the game mechanics to deal with, say, a Plague Lord who can resurrect units, or Assembly cyborg Wreckers with biblical health bars who can reduce most infantry units to paste with one punch. It’s a game that builds on itself expertly. Speaking of: Operations add another layer of decision-making and strategy to turn-based fights, essentially acting as spells did in the fantasy-based Age of Wonders titles. They’re not available in the first turn and until you research them you won’t have much to work with, but later into a campaign they allow all manner of handy buffs and special attacks. It’s like magicking in another army from thin air when your physical forces are looking a bit squishy, and adds yet another welcome wrinkle to hostile engagements. There’s enough depth in the second-by-second fighting that I’d probably be satisfied with Age of Wonders: Planetfall if this was all there was: just meaningless skirmishes of ascending complexity bookended by triumphant menu screens. Obviously that’s not the case. That’s very, very far from the case. Wrapped around the combat encounters are campaigns – story-led longform experiences – and scenarios – like the former, but you can tinker with the variables a bit more, at the expense of bespoke plotlines and cutscenes. Each race has several campaigns, led by different commanders and focusing on a different geopolitical throughline in Planetfall’s – frankly baffling – universe. More than any mechanical failing, it’s the unwieldiness of its lore that made it harder for the game to get under my skin. Or perhaps it’s that, for all the detail and diversity, there’s not a lot to its stories and creations that’s particularly engaging. Take the Assembly: an ancient race left with no means to produce organically who’ve taken to harvesting the organs of their enemies and splicing their DNA with battlefield wreckage. Cyborg-like information junkies who can hack into every po[CENSORED]tion member’s mind to gather additional research points. That’s a great backstory, and it makes for a genuinely different playstyle than the other races. But when it comes to their actual execution, the Assembly look and sound exactly as you’d expect having read the blurb above. Like the broader sci-fi universe they live in, they feel a bit stock. That might seem like a point of very little consequence in such a mechanically rich game. But in campaigns, there’s such laser-guided focus on story beats and infighting between factions that actually, yes, the quality of its world-building becomes quite a big deal. And its quality is weighted much more towards variation in tactical approaches and unit types than real personality or intrigue. That’s not to say the hex map’s wealth of structured missions and side quests is a mis-step in itself. Whatever race and planet combination you play in a campaign, you always know exactly what you’re striving for in Age of Wonders: Planetfall, and that feels like a direct response to some of Civ’s biggest weaknesses. Even in the most recent and polished Firaxis games you might spend ten turns doing nothing but watching other leaders move their Scouts about while you wait for a Wonder to be completed. Here it’s different. Not only are the cadences of building and research greatly reduced, but there’s always a side quest to be getting on with while you accumulate the requisite army/resources/research for your main goal. It might be heading south to investigate an old ruin, and finding it swarming with Assembly. Or it might be a diplomatic mission to either form an alliance with a faction leader or take over their territory. In either case you gain some resources for your troubles, but more importantly you’re never passively ending turns, waiting for some timer or other to spit out The Thing You Need. This feels like an important addendum to the great 4X formula, chiselled into 8-bit granite all those decades ago. Since we’re on the topic of traditional 4X pitfalls, Triumph Studios slays a couple more in Planetfall. The first and most deadly is the genre’s tendency to silt up in the late game, where most of the map is explored and other leaders’ units trundle around for an eternity between your turns. The turn-based battles here take away that tedium and push it behind a curtain where enemies can battle each other without you having to watch it all in painstaking detail. Again, maybe that sounds like a small detail, but it makes campaign playthroughs feel so much more focused – not to mention quicker. Diplomacy’s generally the genre’s other great bane, once again slowing campaigns to a crawl as you watch chain reactions of stance changes towards you. And again Age of Wonders: Planetfall manages to keep from falling into the worst of that trap. Its interface obviously bears a little bit of Civ influence, but is generally more readable and predictable. Most importantly, AI leaders don’t fly off the handle for mysterious reasons anything like as often, so it’s possible to build and maintain relations for a whole campaign. Makes a difference, that. There’s a lot to love here, then, but it’s not necessarily a case of love at first sight. The depth and complexity baked into Planetfall are definite boons, but even for regular 4X players its menus, research trees, unit types and resource properties take a long time to become fluent in. And that process isn’t expedited by the UI, which sometimes appears in real danger of swallowing the game altogether and showing you only explanations and stats. It’s the classic ‘persevere and you’ll be rewarded’ kind of strategy for everyone but established AoW players, but the rewards are certainly bountiful enough. Here are the Age of Wonders Planetfall System Requirements (Minimum): CPU: Intel Core i5 (3rd Generation) or AMD FX Series processor (or equivalents) CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 6 GB OS: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 (64-bit versions) VIDEO CARD: nVidia GTX 650Ti 1GB or AMD Radeon HD 7770 (or equivalents) PIXEL SHADER: 5.0 VERTEX SHADER: 5.0 SOUND CARD: DirectX Compatible Sound Card with latest drivers FREE DISK SPACE: 20 GB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 1024 MB Age of Wonders Planetfall Recommended Requirements: CPU: Intel Core i5 (7th or 8th Generation) or AMD Ryzen 5 CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 8 GB OS: Windows 10 (64-bit) VIDEO CARD: nVidia GeForce GTX 1060 3GB or AMD Radeon RX 570 4GB (or equivalents) PIXEL SHADER: 5.1 VERTEX SHADER: 5.1 SOUND CARD: DirectX Compatible Sound Card with latest drivers FREE DISK SPACE: 20 GB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 3 GB (4 GB AMD).

Happy Birthday ??

Boris Johnson has defended his notorious comments about “tank-topped bum boys” and Muslim women looking like “letterboxes”, saying: “I defend my right to speak out.” The prime minister faced a hostile audience over his past newspaper columns, with the accusation that he had “personally contributed” to rampant racism in Britain. But he denied they were offensive – claiming they could only be “made to seem offensive” if taken out of context. "If you go through all my articles with a fine toothcomb and pick out individual phrases, there’s no doubt that you can take out things that can be made to seem offensive,” he told the BBC Question Time audience. Mr Johnson has been dogged by the articles he wrote as a journalist, including the recent revelation that he wrote that seeing “a bunch of black kids” scared him. There was loud applause when the prime minister was accused of contributing to the problem of “racist rhetoric” being “rife in this country”. He claimed: “I have written many millions of words in my life as a journalist and I have genuinely never intended to cause hurt or pain to anybody.” But, when he suggested the questioner was “referring to a particular article” – in which he likened veiled Muslim women to letter boxes and bank robbers – the host, Fiona Bruce cut in. “To be fair, there's a few articles,” she said. “So, there's the Muslims going around looking like letterboxes, which was last year, you referred to tribal warriors with watermelon smiles and flag-waving piccaninnies and then just to get another demographic in, tank-topped bum boys.” The prime minister replied: “I defend my righ to speak out.” And, on the Muslim women article, he claimed: “What I was really doing was mounting a strong liberal defence of the right of women in this country to wear what they choose.” But Andrew Gwynne, Labour’s co-campaign coordinator, said: “Boris Johnson's performance was appalling. “He failed to take responsibility for the pain caused by austerity and shockingly defended his racist and homophobic comments.” During the 30-minute grilling, the prime minister also defended the botched universal credit benefits system, insisting: “It has worked.” And he came under fire over his claim that he had set aside the cash to build 40 new hospitals, Ms Bruce saying: “Prime Minister it's six, it’s six.” “It's building six new ones immediately but a programme over the next 10 years, with seed funding already going in, to build 40 new hospitals,” Mr Johnson insisted.

A Londoner has just been awarded costs and damages of tens of thousands of pounds against a chartered surveyor who didn’t spot Japanese knotweed growing in their garden. In a case likely to have surveyors checking their botanical guide books, the owner sued not only for the cost of the removal of the invasive plant from their property but also of “making good” the garden and distress and inconvenience suffered. The judge also took into account the diminution of value of the property. The owner commissioned a full structural survey when purchasing a ground-floor flat in 2014. The survey made no mention of knotweed so the owner went ahead with the purchase. But the following year, their gardener found signs of the plant. Environet, a company specialising in knotweed removal, confirmed the plant was in three sites in the garden and had been there for at least three years. The owner paid the company to remove it, at a cost of more than £10,000. Japanese knotweed has long been feared by property owners, and London is a hotspot. Just about now, new shoots of the bamboo-like plant are emerging and will quickly reach a height of two metres, while the strong roots can rampage under fences, damage paths and patios and work their way inside the cavity walls of houses, even emerging two storeys up out of the chimney stack. Removing knotweed from the London Olympics site cost £70m. If you allow knotweed to escape from your garden into a neighbour’s you could be prosecuted, or given an Asbo for causing a nuisance. It gets even more problematic if you are moving house. If you have knotweed growing in your garden you must declare it if you sell and this is likely to reduce the value of your property. Mortgage lenders will want an insurance-backed guarantee that the knotweed has been eradicated before agreeing funds to a potential buyer. Nic Seal from Environet says: “Even when treated there’s still a risk valuers will say there is a residual diminution of the property of two to five per cent.” The costs for knotweed removal in an average London garden, he says, are around £2,500 plus VAT to treat with herbicide and £5,000 to £10,000 to dig it out. So what should you do if you find knotweed in your garden? If you have a major infestation or you plan to sell your home in the next five years, contact a specialist. Most mortgage companies want a firm associated with the trade body the Property Care Association, so check its website to find a member near you. However, if you have only a small clump and don’t plan on moving any time soon, you could aim to get rid of it yourself, says RHS chief horticultural adviser Guy Barter. “It’s evil stuff. It’s a lot of work and not feasible if there’s a vast infestation, but you can dig it out with a spade. “Because it’s classified as ‘controlled waste’, you can’t let any plant material leave the garden. So stack it up to dry on plastic or concrete and then burn it. Or put it in rubble bags and leave it to die for a few years to be sure.” Barter suggests combining digging up the plant with a herbicide such as Roundup. “But if you’re organic, just dig it up.” If knotweed is coming in from a neighbouring garden, he says to dig a deep trench on the boundary and line it with a strong root barrier. Try ecomerchant.co.uk for root block impermeable membrane, from £6.25 per linear metre. Knotweed is the most notorious but by no means the only plant likely to have Londoners tearing their hair out. Bamboo makes a great urban privacy screen, rapidly growing to 6ft. But the roots of “running” varieties can travel 20ft, easily ducking under a fence or wall and popping up next door in the form of thick, spiky shoots. If you plant bamboo, make sure you choose one described as “clump-forming” so it doesn’t get out of control. If your neighbour’s bamboo is coming into your garden, talk to them about it first, suggests Barter. If they won’t remove it, you could offer to pay for a contractor to do it. And if this doesn’t work, dig a trench at least 20in deep and line it with a strong root barrier. In this case, a nice clump of bamboo leaves between you and them might be a welcome thing.

Surrounded by iconic vehicles from Hollywood's Sci-Fi history such as Blade Runner and Back to the Future, Tesla unveiled its interpretation of a sci-fi-themed electric pickup this evening in Southern California, and it's called the Cybertruck. There's something very different about this machine versus all those others, however. This isn't science fiction – it's fact. Gallery: Tesla Cybertruck Pickup Truck Debut: There's absolutely no mistaking this truck for anything else on the road. Its body is comprised of a steel alloy that Musk says is dent-resistant, scratch-resistant, and, per a demo onsite at the reveal, sledgehammer-proof as well. In fact, he also says the Cybertruck is bulletproof to 9mm shells. The metal used is said to be the same as the metal used to skin the SpaceX Starship prototype that's going through construction and testing. What's also interesting is that the exposed metal body panels are actually a structural part of the truck. It's unibody in the truest sense of the word, in that the body is the frame. The glass is also said to be extremely strong, though not quite as strong as Musk apparently hoped since the Cybertruck's glass did shatter rather spectacularly on stage. We have no idea if that was planned or not, but hey, welcome to a Tesla vehicle debut. So yeah, the body is super strong, but what about vehicle stats? Musk tossed some serious numbers out for the bonkers pickup, not the least of which being capable of 0-60 mph in just 2.9 seconds for the highest-performance all-wheel-drive model. That machine will also turn a quarter-mile in 10.8 seconds, and it's said to "corner like it's on rails." In its most efficient trim (Tesla will offer three versions), it can exceed 500 miles on a single charge, with base models achieving over 250 miles of range. At first glance, cornering on rails might seem rather impossible, but the Cybertruck rides on an adaptive air suspension setup that can give the truck as much as 16 inches of ground clearance. The suspension can also lower on the fly for on-road use, and it can employ a load mode to hunker down just at the rear, allowing for toys like Tesla's nifty ATV (which also made a surprise debut at the event) much easier to stow-and-go. So okay, it sounds pretty shocking performance-wise, and it certainly looks crazy, but can it perform as an actual truck? The Cybertruck comes with an industry-standard 6.5-foot pickup bed and a 3,500-pound cargo capacity, and it's available with either a single-motor / rear-wheel-drive setup, a dual-motor / all-wheel-drive setup, or a tri-motor / all-wheel-drive arrangement. For off-roading, it features a 35-degree approach angle, 28-degree departure angle, and it can tow up to 14,000 pounds. And since this is an EV truck with an air suspension, electric outlets and air lines for power tools are literally built into the package. At first glance, cornering on rails might seem rather impossible, but the Cybertruck rides on an adaptive air suspension setup that can give the truck as much as 16 inches of ground clearance. The suspension can also lower on the fly for on-road use, and it can employ a load mode to hunker down just at the rear, allowing for toys like Tesla's nifty ATV (which also made a surprise debut at the event) much easier to stow-and-go. So okay, it sounds pretty shocking performance-wise, and it certainly looks crazy, but can it perform as an actual truck? The Cybertruck comes with an industry-standard 6.5-foot pickup bed and a 3,500-pound cargo capacity, and it's available with either a single-motor / rear-wheel-drive setup, a dual-motor / all-wheel-drive setup, or a tri-motor / all-wheel-drive arrangement. For off-roading, it features a 35-degree approach angle, 28-degree departure angle, and it can tow up to 14,000 pounds. And since this is an EV truck with an air suspension, electric outlets and air lines for power tools are literally built into the package.

Accepted !

0.7% of daily Destiny 2 players are on Stadia: A complete edition of Destiny 2 comes bundled with the Stadia Pro subscription, which is included with every Stadia package since the platform’s launch. It is, effectively, the streaming service’s flagship launch title. But not many people are playing it, according to the latest Destiny 2 player count. Roughly 9,960 Stadia players logged into Destiny 2 on November 20, according to the stat-tracking Charlemagne bot. On the same day, 1.37 million players logged into Destiny 2 across all platforms, and 550,000 logged of those were on Steam. Naturally, there are many more potential players on other platforms – and some early Stadia purchasers had their access delayed – but it does not bode well for the state of big multiplayer games on Stadia. The vast majority of those Stadia players are in PvE, and things are much worse in matchmaking and raid content. On November 20, Stadia had 44 players in Crucible, 13 players in Gambit, and 52 players in raids. Yes – that’s barely 100 people in all non-PvE modes. There are plenty of caveats when talking about Stadia’s potential player counts right now, but these counts mean you’re going to have a very rough time getting into some of Destiny 2’s biggest modes. Things are likely to be even shakier on the platform’s other games. While Destiny 2 does have cross-save features with Stadia, it does not have cross-play, so believers in the streaming future are going to have to stick with their own for now.

The idea of returning to education fills me with the type of dread that has you waking up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night, muttering about the horrors of student loan debt and whatever heinous culinary sin your housemate has decided to whip up in the kitchen at 2am. The Sims 4: Discover University aims to give players an authentic higher education experience, for better and worse. It’s a huge step up from the equivalent University Life expansion for The Sims 3, and as much as I loved the magical elements of Realm of Magic, Discover University offers the best quality of life enhancements to The Sims 4 since Seasons. Flexibility is at the core of most gameplay decisions for Discover University. There are two universities to choose from; the Ivy league-esque University of Britechester, which specialises in creative arts and the humanities, or the more modern Foxbury Institute, which offers degrees in the STEM subjects and uh, villainy? If you’re like me, the choice can also be boiled down very simply to: Britechester has ghosts, while Foxbury has robots. Do I want to be spooked as I’m pulling an all-nighter for my coursework? No thank you. Any Sim that’s a young adult or older can apply for university, so worry not if you feared that your elder Sims would miss the chance to indulge in a few semesters of hedonism – all secondary to the pursuit of knowledge, of course. Unfortunately, my poor Sim didn’t have the skills necessary to get accepted into either university (too busy casting spells to turn Sims into gnomes, I assume), and with almost zero savings to her name, she’d also need to bank several scholarships to afford a degree. There’s also an option to take out student loans, but on principle I refused to entertain that notion. It’s a full free ride or nothing. Honing my Sim’s skills takes several hours of my real-life time – time I could’ve probably spent improving my actual real-life skills as well (like how I keep promising myself I’ll learn the ukulele one day…). Nevertheless, my Sim eventually submits a successful university application on her third try, opting to major in a distinguished degree in Computer Science at Foxbury (not that I’m bragging or anything), and picking up scholarships for being in a low-income household, having an already established career, and two skill-based scholarships for cooking and videogames. Whoever said playing games gets you nowhere clearly hasn’t seen my in-game esports scholarship. Degrees come in two forms: regular and distinguished. Foxbury offers distinguished degrees in tech and science subjects, and Britechester offers the same for the arts and humanities. Distinguished degrees are naturally harder to get into, but regular degrees can have just as much merit if you work hard enough and graduate with honours. To graduate in Discover University, you must complete a total of 12 course credits, with up to four credits available per term. Each term lasts one week, during which time you’ll have plenty of classes to attend. Again, there’s a lot of flexibility in how you live and study, and how difficult you want to make the experience. Taking the maximum possible credits each term means your time in university will be over before you know it, and you’ll be precariously trying to balance your Sim’s needs with their study schedule, but it’s definitely the cheaper option overall. Take fewer classes each term, however, and you’ll have more time for socialising, part-time jobs, and secret societies. Sims can also choose to move into dorms or on-campus housing in the new world of Britechester, among picturesque neighborhoods that remind me of places like Dartmouth and Cambridge, or stay off-campus and commute to lectures. Britechester is admittedly a little lacking in empty or buildable lots for Sims to move into, but that’s because the new co-ed dorms are billed as its main attraction, and you can see why. They’re fantastic venues for Sims to experience hilarious and borderline nonsensical life stories, which really is The Sims doing what it does best. After moving my Sim into her new dorm at Foxbury, I can immediately tell that her housemates are a peculiar bunch. One routinely breaks most of our appliances, only for her temper to flare when someone else (usually my Sim) repairs them and leaves the debris on the floor (cleaning is not her strong suit). Another girl seems to have an inexhaustible supply of cooked rotisserie chicken, and while I can’t for the life of me figure out where she’s getting it all from, it’s also the only thing keeping my Sim relatively well fed. A guy in our dorm is also a narcolept, nodding off on just about every available surface, including the floor. Much as I envy his amazing power to nap at the drop of a hat, he definitely got kicked out of university last semester and has just been hanging around ever since. The first term at Foxbury is a glorious mess. Underestimating the workload, I sign up for four credits, and nab a spot on the university’s esports team. What ensues is probably a more accurate re-enactment of my actual time at university than I’d like to admit. Frantic studying in the early hours of the morning, unfinished homework abandoned as my Sim runs to class, and half-disdainful, half-pitying messages from lecturers telling me to step up my game. Trying to balance a semblance of a social life alongside all the course commitments and my nightly esports scrims feels impossible. My Sim becomes a total recluse as, only two days into term, I scramble to rescue her already floundering grades. Between completing each course’s daily tasks – typically a piece of homework – on top of attending classes and studying for each term’s finals, everything but school work falls to the wayside. Day five is a particular low point, as my Sim doesn’t have enough time to shower before one of those finals, causing visible stink fumes to attend along with her. Coupled with the pre-exam burps brought on by nerves, it’s fair to say that everyone in that exam hall was visibly repulsed by her presence, and my Sim finishes the semester with a thoroughly mediocre grade. I’m determined to bring her back from the brink of academic failure in the remaining terms, so I halve my Sim’s classes, and finally find time to indulge in a few extracurricular activities. She throws an admittedly terrible keg party in the dorm, but it’s a party nonetheless! We also get up to some vintage academic mischief by defacing the University of Britechester statue with Foxbury banners and toilet paper, causing the two institutes’ mascots to roughhouse outside the lecture halls the next morning. Finally, in an act of true youthful rebellion, my Sim gets some facial piercings and some new tattoos, but balances it out by taking on the responsibility of cooking for herself – which means instant noodles and pizza rolls for nearly every meal. Baby steps. Now that my Sim is practically drowning in free time, she can also finally focus on her budding esports career, and is eventually promoted to captain despite the team failing to win a single match throughout my university career. And what of campus romance? Somewhat unconventionally, my Sim falls in love with Foxbury’s resident robot Mach, putting those robotics course credits to good use. Their relationship is surprisingly adorable, if tested by Mach’s habit of breaking down at a moment’s notice, obliging my Sim to quite literally rebuild him. Such incidents have occurred on: their first date, during a game of beer pong, during WooHoo in the shower (definitely should have anticipated that one), during a very important presentation my Sim was giving, and lastly, during my Sim’s graduation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decried a corruption indictment against him as "an attempted coup". Charges including bribery, fraud and breach of trust have been filed against Mr Netanyahu, raising further uncertainty over the political future of a country heading towards an unprecedented third election in less than a year. Mr Netanyahu has denied wrongdoing in three corruption cases and - in Donald Trump style - has previously dismissed the investigations into him as a "witch hunt". The allegations include suspicions that he accepted hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of champagne and cigars from billionaire friends, offered to trade favours with a newspaper publisher, and used his influence to help a wealthy telecoms magnate in exchange for favourable coverage on a po[CENSORED]r news site. In a televised speech, Mr Netanyahu dismissed them as an "attempted coup against him" and said the corruption investigation was "tainted", adding: "They weren't after the truth, they were after me." The 70-year-old, who has been prime minister since 2009, is under no obligation to resign after being charged and is due to make a statement later. He is under pressure to step down, with opposition leader Benny Gantz declaring that he has "no public or moral mandate to make fateful decisions for the state of Israel". Mr Netanyahu had become more vulnerable to indictment because of his failure to form a government after a trio of public votes, with opposition leader Benny Gantz also unable to secure a coalition. The current situation is that the Israeli parliament has less than three weeks to nominate any of its 120 lawmakers to try and establish a coalition, otherwise another election will be triggered within 90 days. Despite his failure in ballots in April and September, Mr Netanyahu remains leader of the Likud party. He is the longest-serving leader in Israeli history, having first served from June 1996 until July 1999 and started his second tenure back in March 2009. The prime minister has sought to cast his rival Mr Gantz as a novice not up to the task of running the country, and has failed in repeated bids to have him agree to form a government of national unity. President Reuven Rivlin had proposed a "rotation" agreement between the pair, in which Mr Netanyahu would take a leave of absence as prime minister should he be indicted. One potential kingmaker, Avigdor Lieberman, declined to back either of them as the latest deadline neared, likely condemning the country to yet another election.

Noise is not the same as noise - and even a quiet environment does not have the same effect as white noise. With a background of continuous white noise, hearing pure sounds becomes even more precise, says a new study. White noise is a combination of different sound frequencies, which makes a seemingly random soothing sound that can help cover up other noises. For the study, published in the journal Cell Reports, researchers investigated the neuronal foundation of sound perception and sound discrimination in a challenging sound environment. "We found that less overlap occurred between po[CENSORED]tions of neurons during two separate tone representations, as a result, the overall reduction in neuronal activity produced a more distinct tone representation," said study researcher Tania Rinaldi Barkat from the University of Basel in Switzerland. The focus was on research into the auditory cortex - the "auditory brain," that is, the area of the brain that processes acoustic stimuli. The resulting activity patterns stem from measurements in a mouse brain. As is well known, the distinction between sounds becomes more difficult the closer they are in the frequency spectrum. Initially, the researchers assumed that additional noise could make such a hearing task even more difficult. However, the opposite was observed: The team was able to demonstrate that the brain's ability to distinguish subtle tone differences improved when white noise was added to the background. Compared to a quiet environment, the noise thus facilitated auditory perception. The data of the research group showed that white noise significantly inhibited the activity of the nerve cells in the auditory cortex. Paradoxically, this suppression of the neuronal excitation led to a more precise perception of the pure tones. To confirm that the auditory cortex and not another area of the brain was responsible for the change in sound perception, the researchers used the light-controlled technique optogenetic. Their findings could possibly be used to improve auditory perception in situations where sounds are difficult to distinguish. According to Barkat, it is conceivable that cochlear implants could be stimulated with an effect similar to white noise in order to improve the frequency resolution and thus the hearing result of their users.

It even boasts champagne flutes and a dedicated cabin fragrance. After the extravagant G650 Landaulet signaling the end of the previous-generation G-Class, another Maybach SUV is ready to take the automotive luxury market by storm. This time around, it’s here to stay as unlike the ostentatious G built in limited numbers, the new Maybach GLS 600 4Matic is a permanent member of the double M family. While the real magic happens inside the cabin, the exterior has also been discreetly modified to separate it from the Benz GLS. Starting at the front, the fullsize SUV features a shiny new grille with vertical chrome pinstripes as seen on the Maybach S-Class facelift and its extra-long Pullman sibling. The chrome theme continues on the lower grille as well as on the side air intakes flanked by curved trim strips, while the underbody protection reminding you this is still an SUV is also finished in high-gloss chrome. Gallery: Mercedes-Maybach GLS (2020): The side profile reveals bespoke 22-inch alloy wheels, although we have a feeling many people will go for the optional 23-inch set with its multi-spoke layout mimicking the front grille. To continue the chrome theme at the front, there are chrome plates on the B-pillars and even similar inserts on the roof rails. A total of eight two-tone finishes will be available, and regardless of choice, the Maybach emblem will be proudly displayed on the D-pillar. Moving at the back, a chrome strip runs along the entire width of the tailgate and continues on the fenders, above the taillights. Yet even more chrome is noticeable at the top and bottom of the bumper, including for the dual exhaust tips featuring a rectangular design. Rounding off the changes compared to the standard GLS is the model designation in a specific script reserved to Mercedes-Maybach models. Before we hop inside, we have to mention the running boards. They electronically extend and are each 2.06 meters (6.8 feet) long, with a maximum width of 21 centimeters in the rear door area. These occupy the entire length of the side sill panels and feature an LED strip in the rear door area where a Maybach emblem is projected. It’s not a problem if you’re carrying around some extra weight as the running boards can support a maximum load of 200 kilograms (441 pounds). Rubber strips in the same design as the front grille slats are embedded into the anodized aluminum to provide better grip. Once you’re inside, you’re going to notice the third row is gone. With Mercedes retaining the same wheelbase of the standard GLS – measuring 3135 mm (123.4 inches) – the only wait to enable more legroom was to eliminate the rearmost seats. Rear passengers get to enjoy 1103 mm (43.4 inches) of legroom and can relax on seats that can be extended. The front passenger seat can be moved forward into what is referred to as a chauffeur position for even more rear legroom, at 1.34 meters (4.4 feet). The most luxurious version of the Maybach GLS accommodates only four people, but a five-seat configuration is also available. From folding tables and champagne flutes to a dedicated fragrance and a rear-seat entertainment system, the luxobarge has just about every high-end feature you could think of, and then some. Goodies such as ventilated and heated massaging seats and an opaque roller blind come as standard, as does the electronic panoramic sunroof. A refrigerator with space for champagne bottles can be ordered for the four-seat model if you really want to go all out. Power comes from a twin-turbo V8 4.0-liter engine providing effortless cruising thanks to 550 hp and 538 lb-ft (729 Nm) of torque, plus the EQ Boost offering an extra 21 hp and 184 lb-ft (249 Nm) for a limited time. Mercedes-Maybach says the U.S.-spec GLS 600 4Matic does 0 to 60 mph (96 km/h) in an estimated 4.8 seconds and tops out at a limited 130 mph (209 km/h), which is more than the owner of such an SUV will ever need. On the other hand, the Euro model can hit 155 mph (250 km/h). It will reach the U.S. market in the second half of next year, with pricing to be announced closer to launch.