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Many of us are rounding the corner on a full year of home life. All. The. Time. Work, play, dinner, celebrations and downtime all take place in our residence, sometimes all in the same room, depending on our proverbial New York square footage, and that’s paired with a testy wallet fearful of spending in a pandemic economy. "We’re at home and everybody needs a change," said Charlotte Barnes, principal of Charlotte Barnes Interior Design and Decoration. "None of us have thought about our houses as much [before] because we were constantly running from here and there, working, meeting friends. Now we’re at home, and it’s a whole different feeling." The designers dish the dirt on how to reimagine your home without dipping into your savings. The designers dish the dirt on how to reimagine your home without dipping into your savings. (iStock) It’s not all gloom and doom, though, when it comes to freshening up your home. The designers dish the dirt on how to reimagine your home décor without dipping into your savings. SICILIAN VILLAGE AUCTIONING HOMES FOR $1 AND PAYING FOR RENOVATIONS Get rid of clutter "The first step in giving your home a refresh is to declutter," said Jamie Hord of Horderly Professional Organizing. "Decluttering not only helps set priorities, but it helps your space feel lighter and brighter. You’d be surprised how different your home feels when it’s only packed with the items you use and love." Hord recommends removing all of your items and categorizing them in different piles to distinguish what you should keep, donate or throw away. Then reorganize what you’ve decided to keep and move on, both emotionally from your past and physically, to rearranging the rest of your belongings "We’re not meant to exist in static environments," said Patty Morrissey, a lifestyle and organizing expert and Master KonMari consultant (for the famed Marie Kondo). "Nature is always changing, but our indoor environments do not. This fuels a feeling of stagnation and can exacerbate anxiety and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. When our environment is static, it sends us a signal that things will not change, whereas, in nature, we’re receiving input that everything is temporary — and ‘this too shall pass.’ " No one wants to feel stagnant, but we don’t want to move into the forest either. So, what to do? According to Morrissey, you need a "lifestyle design." Think about the type of person you want to be and what type of space would suit that person. Then go create it, and think outside of the box about how you go about it. Cost-free options include changing the function of the rooms in your house. Morrissey switched rooms with her 8-year-old daughter when the pandemic hit to give her more room to spread out and play, and they are still marveling at how the simple change made them happier and brought them closer together. You can also pretend your home is a store and go "shopping" for supplies, like old paint in the garage that you can use to touch up fading walls. Are there picture frames lined up in the attic? Create new décor with your favorite family photos. Frames lined on the floor — and not hanging on the wall — are in vogue. Sell unwanted items that you find via apps like Mercari or Facebook Add some flair A simple pop of color or pattern added to a space, even if nothing else changes, is enough to brighten a room and make you feel like you are somewhere different, according to Barnes. Look for old materials around the house and repurpose them. Have an old towel with a cool pattern? Turn it into a bath mat. That sheet? Your new slipcover or curtain. To create ambience in your home, or to transition from office to evening solo soiree, add candles and dim the lights. That warms the space and improves your mood, said Barnes. Barnes also suggests repurposing those drawers filled with old photos or even that stack of magazines. Cut out cool images and create a collage that you can hang in your bathroom. "It’s the place where you are sitting. You might as well give people something to look at," she said. The simple act of moving a chair that has sat in your living room for eight years to a different room is enough to feel like you are in a new space. "Just pick something up and move it," Barnes said. "Give it a try. If you don’t like it, you can put it back."

For the first time, the Tiguan R joins Volkswagen's global lineup. Revealed during the launch of the facelifted version of the compact crossover, the Tiguan R packs some serious grunt under its hood. While the Tiguan R is yet to be confirmed for the US market, it looks like the rest of the world will enjoy the go-fast VW Tiguan soon – but not if you currently reside in France. Known as the 2021 Ecological Penalty, the most powerful version of the Tiguan in that part of the world is set to receive penalties of up to 30,000 euros or around $36,500 with the current exchange rates. Gallery: 2021 VW Tiguan facelift Volkswagen Tiguan R 2020 60 Photos Needless to say, that's an eye-watering penalty for the conventionally-powered Tiguan R, which uses the same turbocharged 2.0-liter unit in the Golf R. This engine makes 316 horsepower (236 kilowatts) and 310 pound-feet (420 Newton-meters) of torque – pretty powerful for a relatively small crossover but ultimately comes at an incredible price for the French buyer. Ordering has already commenced for the Tiguan R in Europe, and it has a starting price of 54,900 euros or around $67,000. Adding the aforementioned penalty above, the model's price tag would go beyond the six-digit mark – not exactly attractive especially for a Volkswagen. Of course, the Ecological Penalty comes from the French government's effort to curb its carbon emissions, discouraging buyers to buy ICE-powered vehicles and go for electrified choices instead. This is quite expected from the European country, given its strict adherence to its promise to helo the environment. The penalty's too steep, though. In the US, the campaign to go for electric and electrified vehicles come in the form of incentives instead of penalties – at least for now.

Real had defender Eder Militao sent-off after nine minutes but they took the lead soon after through Marco Asensio. Jose Luis Morales levelled for Levante and Roger Marti scored the winner with 12 minutes remaining to make amends for his earlier penalty miss. Leaders Atletico, who have played two games fewer than Zinedine Zidane's side, face Cadiz on Sunday (15:15 GMT). Real Madrid v Levante as it happened Real boss Zidane returned to the sidelines having missed his side's 4-1 win over Alaves last weekend after testing positive for coronavirus. He chose to partner Militao with Raphael Varane at centre-back in the continued absence of injured captain Sergio Ramos, but the pairing lasted less than 10 minutes. Militao was initially shown a yellow card for tripping Sergio Leon outside the penalty area, before a VAR review upgraded his punishment for denying a goalscoring opportunity. Real appeared untroubled by that set-back as Asensio finished from Toni Kroos' excellent through-ball, but Levante captain Morales' first-time strike from Jorge Miramon's cross made it level before half-time. Marti looked to have squandered the chance to win the match when Thibaut Courtois saved his spot-kick, until he punished Real following a corner with a powerful, low shot. It was a first defeat in 10 La Liga matches for defending champions Real, but they have lost three of their last four games in all competitions including their shock Copa del Rey exit to third-division Alcoyano.

France is imposing new Covid-19 border restrictions from Sunday, but has again resisted a new nationwide lockdown. All but essential travel from outside the EU will be banned and testing requirements on travellers from within the EU will be tightened. PM Jean Castex said France's night curfew would be more tightly enforced and large shopping centres would close. But the measures were seen as mild and favouring the economy. Some doctors fear they will not curb infections. Which countries have been hit the hardest? Tracking the Covid vaccine across Europe Paris police 'broke Covid curfew' at party The new border restrictions will affect the UK, now no longer in the EU, but its transport minister clarified on Twitter that the change would not impact hauliers transporting goods to or from the UK. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. View original tweet on Twitter Presentational white space What are the new border measures? Mr Castex said that from Sunday, apart from exceptional reasons, "any entry into France and any exit from our territory to or from a country outside the European Union will be prohibited". A number of countries are exempted, as they are not considered at risk, they are Australia, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore and Thailand. In addition, arrivals from inside the EU, and several other states - Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, the Vatican and Switzerland - will have to present a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. All arrivals, not just by air and sea, but by land too, must comply with the test rule. There are exemptions, including cross-border workers and hauliers, and other groups such as students, health workers and diplomats, although the list is not fully defined. The new Covid variants are, of course, the main motivating factor, and travel to the UK, which has been hit by the UK - or Kent - variant, is "strongly discouraged". There were few specific details about how the measures would be enforced, particularly on those arriving by road and having to provide test results. What are the other measures? The closure of all non-food shopping centres with a surface area greater than 20,000 sq m (215,000 sq ft) Increased police presence to check non-compliance with the overnight curfew that runs between 18:00 and 06:00, as well as clampdowns on illegal restaurant openings and clandestine parties Working-from-home rules to be reinforced so that it is encouraged wherever possible The shopping centre rule will affect some 400 malls and 25,000 businesses. Small traders welcomed not being included. media captionPolice in Paris ensure shops close at 6pm as France begins a new curfew to tackle Covid-19 The other measures appeared more general, with French media saying they were fairly mild and an attempt to slow the virus without harming the economy further. For now schools remain open across the country. Some health sector experts were unconvinced the measures would be of use in controlling rising infections. Mahmoud Zureik, professor of public health at the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin, told BFMTV: "Unfortunately I fear it is too late. It is not enough." Why no lockdown? The threat of a third national lockdown in France has loomed large all week, following warnings by top health officials that one would be needed amid high hospital rates and the spread of new variants. But is has a lot of public opposition, more than 50% in an Elabe Institute poll oppose a strict lockdown, compared to 93% support last spring. Mr Castex said in his televised statement on Friday a lockdown could still be prevented. "We know the grave impact [of a lockdown]. Tonight, looking at the data of the past few days, we consider that we can still give ourselves a chance to avoid one," he said. "The coming days will be decisive. Let's be very vigilant." Where is France with the virus? France reported 820 new deaths on Friday, taking the total recorded nationally to more than 75,000. It has recorded the sixth highest number of infections in the world. More than 25,000 people are in hospital with the virus - including more than 3,000 in intensive care - but Mr Castex said the health situation was "better controlled in France than in many of our neighbours". Health Minister Olivier Veran warned this week that the new more-transmissible variants were now "actively spreading" in France despite the current restrictions. Friday's announcement also comes amid a growing row between the EU and vaccine companies about supply shortfalls. French officials say they have given first doses to 1.45m people so far, but delivery shortages from Pfizer and Moderna are further slowing their rollout. What are other countries doing? From Saturday, Germany has banned most travellers from countries hit hard by new variants. The countries are the UK, Ireland, Portugal, Brazil, South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini. The move is expected to last until 17 February. Also from Saturday, the Czech Republic has banned non-essential entry into the country, again to try to curb the new variants. Portugal on Thursday banned non-essential overseas travel by air, land or sea for its citizens for a fortnight. Belgium on Wednesday banned non-essential trips out of the country until 1 March. In contrast, Italy said on Friday it would move more areas into less-restrictive rules from Monday, despite health officials warning it was risky. No areas would be classified as "red", which brings tough travel and business restrictions.

Nvidia's cloud-based gaming service, GeForce Now, has just received a new update that features new support for Google Chrome's web-browser and support for Apple's M1 based Macs (through the native macOS app). With the addition of Google Chrome, now any device or computer capable of running Chrome should be capable of running GeForce Now. However, Nvidia says they do not guarantee support on devices that are on operating systems other than macOS or Windows. Specifically, that means Nvidia still doesn't officially support Linux platforms. We conducted some cursory testing with the Chrome-based GeForce Now app on a Windows 10 machine and found it was very close to the native app experience. However, several options are missing in the settings menu compared to the native app: There is no 30 fps option (60 fps only), no option to change VSync, and the toggle to "adjust for poor network conditions" is missing as well.

Researchers writing in the International Journal of Arts and Technology, have proposed the use of the affine transformation to improve the performance of the edge fusion algorithms for removing noise from digital photographs, specifically in the art world. Lei Zhao of the School of Fine Arts and Design at Mudanjiang Normal University in Mudanjiang, China, demonstrates how noise can be reduced using this transformation by about 74 percent. Smoothing is also greatly improved when compared to two well-known approaches—non-subsampled contourlet transform and hybrid particle swarm optimisation. Noise in a photograph is a random variation of brightness or color in the image. In monochrome print photography, noise is often referred to as grain and is sometimes a desirable artifact. It may well also be desirable in some context in digital photography or the scanning of otherwise low-noise photographic prints. More commonly, however, avoiding the generation of noise in an image is preferred but not always possible. For photographic images taken under low-light conditions and the requisite high camera sensitivity values (high ISO) inherent noise is almost unavoidable. Such noise may be manifest as a lack of clarity between areas that would otherwise be of high contrast or else appear as a random, fuzzy veil of purple speckles in a color image, or gray specks in a monochrome image. "The proposed fusion algorithm based on radiation transformation can better meet the requirements of edge fusion of art photography images," the team writes. They add that they hope to further improve the smoothness of the fusion and improve the effect of the fused art photography image still further.

Turrican Flashback (PS4 [reviewed], Nintendo Switch) Developer: Factor 5, Ratalaika Games Publisher: ININ Games Released: January 29, 2021 MSRP: $29.99 It all began with Turrican (1990). At launch considered one of the finest action titles ever made, Turrican tasks a cyber-soldier with clearing out the intergalactic colony of Alterra, laid waste by a rampant A.I. known as MORGUL. Turrican is an epic sci-fi adventure that sees our hero battling wave upon wave of Alterrian bots, attaining massive firepower from hidden weapon caches and utilizing a variety of special abilities (such as a Metroid-style "morph ball") to pick their way through each of the game's large, non-linear stages. Rather than run 'n' gun in typical left-to-right fashion ala Contra, Turrican takes a more open-ended approach, rewarding players who take the time to traverse its verticality en route to memorable boss encounters. It was this exploratory nature that stood Turrican out from its contemporaries - widely welcomed by the "home drawn map" crowd. It can't be denied that some three decades later Turrican's control is a tad unwieldy - particularly its unfriendly jump mechanics - but its audio/visual elements remain as cool today as they ever were, while the team's underlying ambition remains readily apparent. Turrican II: The Final Fight (1991) is perhaps the most widely experienced title in the entire series. With good cause. Factor 5's tale of revenge against intergalactic terror "The Machine" trims the fat from the original Turrican, keeping the same chaotic and challenging gameplay while tweaking mechanics, streamlining weapon systems, and being a little more creative with its enemy design. These changes helped to create an instant classic that spawned myriad imitators. Today, Turrican II still feels epic, a truly influential action game that should be experienced by anybody with interest in our humble hobby. Leading Turrican Flashback's two console entries is Sega Mega Drive release Mega Turrican/Turrican 3 (1993). This anomaly sees the series redesigned for console players, perhaps more attuned to arcade experiences. Of all sequels, Mega Turrican is the most "accessible", with a linear approach to level design and more typical platform-shooter action. Mega Turrican's highlight lies in its smart use of the Mega Drive's capabilities - packing each stage with special effects rarely seen on Sega's 16-bit platform. Though Mega Turrican takes the biggest divergence from the series' norm, it boasts a gameplay style more comfortable to modern players, increasing the pace to keep the action fast 'n' furious. The final entry is SNES release Super Turrican (1993) which sees the franchise look for a sweet spot between the unrestricted scope of the Amiga classics and the more linear arcade action of the Sega Mega Drive effort. This hybrid style works very well for the most part, with a return to the earlier titles' sense of exploration, while keeping the bombastic action of Mega Turrican. The latter's grappling hook mechanic has now been abandoned in favor of an equally blah ice beam, but the great visuals, superb soundtrack and knuckle-cracking challenge remain. With each title being a digital kick in the cajones, Turrican Flashback evens the odds a little with the addition of new save states for each title. Also available is a "Rewind" function, allowing players to take a few steps backwards at the mere tap of a button to correct misjudged jumps and misplaced shots. The original cheat codes for each title are also in full effect, offering infinite health, ammo and other helping hands, though usage of any of the above precludes you from those all-important Trophies. These are neat quality-of-life additions, even if removing Turrican's challenge essentially negates a series trademark. For nostalgia fiends, Turrican Flashback also includes a selection of visual filters, allowing players to adjust the screen ratio, scan-line quality, picture sharpness, edge [CENSORED]ture, and RGB to truly replicate that early '90s "bedroom TV" feel. A sound adjuster allows players to mix Turrican's famous, multi-channel scores into single channels, in order to find the sweet spot of audio ecstasy - the only term befitting Huelsbeck's incredible OSTs. Unfortunately, however, that's your lot. While Turrican Flashback feels like a solid ground layer for a true celebratory release, ININ Games' compendium is almost entirely bare-bones, featuring four games under a very naked presentation style for a steep $30. While Turrican Flashback is no doubt a well-meant retrospective of a golden franchise, (there's no debate the games themselves play very well), the compilation as a whole has the feel of a slightly polished but expensive emulator. There are no new modes on offer - no time-attack, boss rush, or challenges. There are no remixed soundtracks or stages. There's no sprite viewer, developer interviews, or any form of multimedia gallery whatsoever. The most baffling omission: there's no external music player. Add the frustration that missing titles - such as the "Director's Cuts" and 1995 SNES sequel Super Turrican 2 - are being held in reserve for a possible second compilation, and it's ultimately a disappointment ININ Games hasn't gone all-out to ensure Turrican Flashback is the tribute the brand deserves. As dynamic and challenging today as they ever were, Turrican Flashback offers an authentic compilation of games from this classic series, without a single dud among them. Unfortunately, wafer-thin presentation, missing titles, and a complete lack of side-features (in addition to a subjectively high price-tag) let down what could of - should of - been an encapsulating tribute to one of history's most influential and beloved shooter franchises.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjxulQ1bEWg