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By Eddie Makuch on March 31, 2021 at 12:14PM PDT 2 Comments GameSpot Report & Deals Newsletters Get the latest gaming news, reviews, and deals sent to your inbox, FREE! Email Address Moa birds, the extinct animal from Halo: Reach, have become something of a phenomenon for the Halo franchise, inspiring Pringles and t-shirts, but they won't be featured in Halo Infinite for a very good reason. John Junyszek, the community manager for Halo developer 343, said on Twitter that Moas are native to the planet Reach, so they won't show up in Halo Infinite, which is set on Zeta Halo. Now Playing: Free Halo Multiplayer Is Such A Smart Move "They are native to Reach, so you probably won't be finding any of this portion of Zeta Halo - or perhaps they're missing cause we ate too many Moa Burger Pringles?" he wrote to a fan. Moas, which were made into burgers at restaurants on Reach according to Halo lore, were actually real birds that existed in New Zealand before going extinct. The real birds were never made into burgers in real life, however ... we think. Halo Infinite's setting on Zeta Halo will have other wildlife for players to encounter, but the game is not an RPG, so players won't be hunting and skinning animals for resources. "Halo Infinite's campaign doesn't have a crafting system, however, and you won't spend time hunting and skinning animals to make better gear for Master Chief," Microsoft's Joseph Staten said. "Spartans wear Mjolnir assault armor. They don't need leather boots." Microsoft recently became interested in the Moa birds again for marketing purposes and partnered with Pringles for "Moa Burger" chips, and then later created a special "Have S'Moa Burgers" t-shirt that you can buy. Only modern science can let us distill down the flavor of an extinct bird from a video game into flavor dust. After a year-long delay, Halo Infinite is slated to release this fall for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. We recently learned that Spartan Griffin will appear in the game, while 343 has showcased a brand-new weapon, the Skewer. Halo Infinite's multiplayer will be free-to-play.

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Nvidia just released a new Game Ready Driver, version 465.89, earlier this morning. This driver update comes with several new features, plus an assortment of bug fixes and more game support. The highlight of the new driver is the addition of Resizable BAR support on all desktop RTX 30 series products. Before, this technology was limited to just the RTX 3060 12GB, but now it has filtered down to all Ampere products. (Fingers crossed that it will also land on RTX 20 series products in the future, but that might be hoping for too much.) Resizable BAR is a feature built into the PCIe protocol that allows the CPU to access all of a discrete GPU's frame buffer or VRAM, whereas before CPUs were limited to accessing small chunks (256MB) of VRAM at a time. This optimization can improve frame rates in some games by up to 10%, but currently game support is limited as the tech has only recently been adobted by Nvidia, AMD, and Intel. Another feature added to this driver is 'Windows Virtual Machine Beta' support on all of Nvidia's currently supported GPUs. Simply put, this feature allows your physical Nvidia GPU to interface directly with a virtual machine as if the card was directly connected to the VM. This will allow for full GPU acceleration in a VM environment, allowing you to do things like run older video games in say a Windows 7 virtual machine, if the game can't run on a native Windows 10 device. Also coming in this new Game Ready driver are a bunch of updates to game support. Nvidia notes DLSS support for the upcoming Outriders RPG, and an update to Rainbow Six Seige that adds Nvidia's Reflex technology to the game. There's also support for Dirt 5's new ray-tracing update, support for Evil Genius 2: World Domination and Kingdom Hearts. Bug Fixes Here are all the additional bug fixes addressed in this driver update. For the rest of the updates pertaining to this driver, check out Nvidia's blog post here. Pixelated Smoke in Rainbow Six Siege running the Vulkan API. A game crash on RTX 30 series when playing X4 Foundations with the Vulkan API. Blue screen crashes when pairing Samsung's Odyssey G9 with a HDMI TV. Another blue screen crash on the RTX 2060 specifically, when gaming and watching YouTube simultaneously. In Sunset Overdrive, display random green corruption might happen when enabling depth of field. Realtek's DisplayPort to HDMI 2.1 protocol converted clock limited to 600Mhz. GPU power consumption may be high in idle conditions when using some high refresh rate G-SYNC monitors. Screenshots taken with GeForce Experience are washed out when HDR is enabled.

Making your profile stand out on the business-focused social network LinkedIn is about to get a whole lot easier as the company is rolling video profiles as well as a new Creator Mode. Using the company's new video Cover Story tool, users will be able to bring their profiles to life with a short video showcasing their abilities and skills while letting recruiters and potential employers know the type of position they're looking for. Once a user adds a Cover Story to their profile, an orange ring will appear around their profile photo and a preview of their video will auto-play silently within their photo frame. We've built a list of the best website builders around These are the best portfolio website builders on the market Also check out our roundup of the best WordPress themes For job seekers, a Cover Story can be a great way for them to introduce themselves to hiring managers by sharing their career goals while freelancers can use the tool to attract new clients by creating a Cover Story that talks about the services they offer. At the same time though, LinkedIn users can also now create a dedicated Service Page right from their profile. Creator Mode As LinkedIn is seeing more members share and connect than ever before with almost a 50 percent increase in conversations over the past year, the company is introducing a new Creator Mode in its profile dashboard. With Creator Mode enabled, users of the social network will be able to add hashtags to indicate what topics they post about the most. The new mode also moves your Featured and Activity sections to the top of your profile to more prominently display your content and changes the “Connect” button to “Follow” to help you better engage with your community and build a following. Additionally, now when LinkedIn Live broadcasters go live, their profile background will show their live broadcast to help increase the visibility of their content. Both Creator Mode and Cover Story will roll out to LinkedIn members globally beginning this week and these tools should make it easier for users to stand out on the platform and possibly find their next position or gig. We've also featured the best business laptops

Evil Genius 2: World Domination(PC) Developer: Rebellion Developments Publisher: Rebellion Developments Released: March 30th, 2021 MSRP: $39.99 Evil Genius 2 casts you as one of four masterminds. There’s Maximillion, your typical Ernst Stavro Blofeld kind of dude; Red Ivan, a military dictator sort of boss; Zalika, an aloof, science-minded mad genius; and Emma, who looks like she has a closet full of clothes made out of the hides of children's pets. Each one comes equipped with their own twist on the campaign and a unique doomsday device. You also get to pick from one of three deserted islands, which becomes your soul real estate for the game. No switching up halfway through this time. The plot is much the same as the first one: you’re evil and you’ve got a bone to pick with the world. There is some indication that this takes place after the first game, so I guess your old well of evil dried up and the world got back to business. If at first you don’t succeed… The formula is somewhat the same. It’s largely a management game where you build your base, run human resources for your minions, and enact schemes on the world stage. The base building is key to your plans. The forces of justice will come knocking to ask you to stop being so bad, and a well-maintained base is necessary to keep them at bay. Evil Genius 2 diverges a bit in focus from the first game. With the original, good base building meant keeping up a front: build your innocuous rooms towards the entrance and your important stuff in the back where they can’t get to them. For bonus points, build a hotel so invaders get bored and decide to leave. Here, the cover operation is less important. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still an advantage to building your good stuff in more secure areas - and the casino front is good for repelling bog standard investigators - but some enemies can’t be distracted, aren’t on a timer, or just use the back door. This means you’ll be relying more on placing traps and making sure your henchmen and minions can react to intruders in the most efficient way possible. Screw it up and your hallways will be littered with body bags. Get it right and they won’t make it across your welcome mat. The world stage has been completely redesigned. In the first title, you’d move your pawns onto the territory you want to plunder and then just complete missions or wait while they accumulate wealth, but here you will need to take a more active role. It’s still the place where you complete most of your missions and build your wealth, but they’re all done by accomplishing schemes. Schemes are performed by sacrificing a certain number of minions, intel, and cash, which could be viewed as the game’s three primary currencies. Heat has changed as well. Each territory has its own heat threshold, and all your heat accumulates for whichever of the five factions the territory belongs to. Previously, you’d send out deception minions to hide the presence of your combat minions, but now you have to drain your heat with, what else, schemes. This can make it difficult to monitor your heat levels. This gets worse when special agents hit the field and start cranking up the heat on whatever territory they’re in. You also have to be careful when they’re around; if you accomplish a scheme while they’re on the same territory, they’ll show up on your doorstep to cause trouble. Some of them can lay waste to your minions, so it’s important to figure out when to lay low. It makes the opening of the game far different than the end. You begin as a plucky organization trying to steal as much as possible while remaining invisible. Towards the end, when your tentacles have reached into every crevice, you’ll be free to pick opportunities as they come up. On the whole, it’s a worthwhile overhaul. One of the best improvements is with the side objectives. Throughout the game, while you’re keeping plates spinning both in your base and on the world stage, you’re also able to challenge criminal masterminds for a chance to recruit them as henchmen, frustrate special agents to eventually be rid of them entirely, and gather a range of loot that has different benefits on your base. It’s pretty key in keeping things moving and allowing you to run your empire as it suits you. You can’t take out all your enemies and recruit all the henchmen off the hop, but while you’re working on fine tuning your deathray, you can push things along until eventually you're able to apply the coup de grace. The game does stumble over itself in a few places. The pacing is a bit off, especially when it comes to scientific development. Different advanced minions are unlocked as you proceed through the main objectives, which means tiers of research are locked until you reach that point, and the first recruitment options take a while to present themselves. The last chapter of the game is also a bit of a slog. Without getting into spoiler territory, your secondary objectives are removed and the schemes now require the most advanced of advanced minions and lots of intel. This means that you are sometimes left waiting for minions to be trained to the tippy-top and intel to drop into your UI, and there’s no secondary objective to distract you. So you’re just left tenting your finge rs and watching progress bars fill. Not the best climax. If there’s one major place that Evil Genius 2 improves over the first title, it’s in the way it makes you feel evil. Your most evil acts in the original seemed to happen after the credits rolled, as the goal was to build your doomsday device and that’s it. Here, you get your doomsday device rather early, and much of your time is spent eliminating enemies and causing havoc. The mere fact that you get the option to fire your device whenever you have the fuel available is delightfully satisfying in its own way. It comes across as a diabolical labor of love. The game is obviously made by people who cared for the property, as it conserves everything that was great about the original title while tightening the screws on the old doomsday device. Even without the multiple campaigns, it’s a ridiculously long game. But the fact that I was rarely annoyed or bored, while continuously finding new elements to love, is a testament to how well-executed the sequel is. If the first game wasn’t diabolical enough for you, this one should scratch that evil itch a bit better. Now begone. While the world rebuilds, I must contemplate my next nefarious scheme. Insert maniacal laugh here. The evil genius archetype is one that fascinates me. It’s not that outlandish that an eccentric megalomaniac could gather a group of underlings and launch a campaign against the world, but I can’t convince a courier to leave a package at my doorstep, let alone a legion of faceless goons to lay down their lives for me. I also don’t know what I’d do with the world if I ruled it. Enact permanent daylight savings and mandatory nap times? Forget that, though; what would I make my minions wear? What humiliating nickname would I give my most loyal henchman? How would I mock secret agents? I’d probably invite them to tea and just repeat everything they say. Back in 2004, Evil Genius provided me the chance to live my dream. Kind of. I really enjoyed the game, but it definitely had its problems. Nonetheless, Rebellion has seized the reins and has breathed new life into the property with Evil Genius 2: World Domination. Their approach to a sequel seems to be a complete do-over. The result is another game that may not be for everyone but certainly tightened the screws on the old doomsday device. ----------------------------------- System Requirments ----------------------------------- Minimum : ----------------------------------- CPU: Intel Core i3-8100 RAM: 8 GB OS: Windows 10 VIDEO CARD: GeForce GT 1030 2GB, Radeon RX 550 2GB PIXEL SHADER: 5.1 VERTEX SHADER: 5.1 DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 2048 MB -------------------------------- Recommeneded : -------------------------------- CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K, AMD Ryzen 5 1600 RAM: 8 GB OS: Windows 10 VIDEO CARD: GeForce GTX 1660 Super 6GB, Radeon RX 5700 8GB PIXEL SHADER: 5.1 VERTEX SHADER: 5.1 DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 6144 MB ----------------------------------- Video Trailer :

As social media networks continue to grow and expand, companies are trying to keep up with trends. Sometimes, that means hiring someone to play with toy guns on TikTok. Hasbro recently announced that it is hiring for a new position titled Chief TikTok Officer. Hasbro recently announced that it is hiring for a new position titled Chief TikTok Officer. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images) Hasbro recently announced that it is hiring for a new position titled Chief TikTok Officer. Based on the job posting, the job is specifically tied to the Nerf brand of toy guns that shoot foam darts and other foam objects. In the job listing, which says that it was written by "desperate millennials trying to appeal to Gen Z, Hasbro wrote: "It’s the Nerf blaster for me (did we do that right?). In any case, we need your help – because you, yes YOU, can become the next Nerf CTO (Chief TikTok Officer). The Nerf CTO is a big title with some bigger perks – Nerf blasters for uh… research purposes, real money, and bragging rights for three glorious months. If this sounds like a dream, that’s because it is." The official job requirements say that the CTO will be responsible for creating 10 to 12 "approved Nerf related TikTok videos" a month for the official Nerf TikTok account. The CTO will also apparently still be able to post and comment from their own personal account while working as the Nerf CTO. Unlike typical jobs, the application process for this position doesn’t involve filling out a normal application. Instead, potential TikTok officers should "post the perfect Nerf related TikTok video" to their own account and use the hashtag "NerfApplication" between the dates of March 26 and April 2. The job posting does say, however, the finalists will have to go through a formal application and interview process.

If you're a fan of vehicle auctions, you probably had a busy weekend. Barrett-Jackson's COVID-delayed Scottsdale auction took place the week of March 22, and the primetime weekend slots saw some surprising million-dollar sales. The first production Ford Bronco sold for just over $1 million, while the first production GMC Hummer reached $2.5 million. That's some serious coin to claim the first vehicle of many, but it got us thinking about value. It also got folks at Reddit thinking, and admittedly, their line-of-thought was a bit more imaginative than ours. Surely everyone is familiar with the well-worn phrase worth its weight in gold. In short, it's a cliched way of saying something is really valuable, but how valuable of a car are we talking for that phrase to be literally accurate? At gold's current value of $1,713 per ounce, a typical 4,000-pound (1,814-kilogram) vehicle would need a sales price of nearly $110 million. At half the weight, however, that falls to $55 million and we know at least one car that exceeded such a figure. Yup, the Ferrari 250 GTO. Gallery: Ferrari 250 GTO World's Most Expensive Ferrari 250 GTO World's Most Expensive 30 Photos At present, the most expensive publically known vehicle sale was for a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO that changed hands in 2018 for no less than $70 million. Applying the current price of gold to the GTO's 2,094-lb (950 kg) weight, we arrive at a value of $57.4 million – if it was made entirely of gold. So actually, the Ferrari 250 GTO is worth more than its weight in gold, or at least, that particular car was. The most expensive public vehicle auction crown also goes to the GTO, but at $48 million it's a bit less than the value of gold. Still, you get the point. Considering we recently saw a 250 GTO being blissfully exercised on roads and highways in the UK, this bit of trivia offers a new perspective on what it means to see one anywhere in public. And with just 36 GTOs built back in the 1960s, it's likely the value will only continue to increase.

Traffic has resumed in the Suez Canal after a stranded container ship blocking it for nearly a week was finally freed by salvage crews. Tug boats honked their horns in celebration as the 400m-long (1,300ft) Ever Given was dislodged on Monday with the help of dredgers and tug boats. Hundreds of ships are waiting to pass through the canal which links the Mediterranean to the Red Sea via Egypt. It is one of the world's busiest trade routes. The cost of the Suez Canal blockage How do you refloat a giant cargo ship? In pictures: Efforts to shift huge ship from canal Peter Berdowski, CEO of Dutch salvage company Boskalis, said the Ever Given had been refloated at 15:05 (13:05 GMT) on Monday, "thereby making free passage through the Suez Canal possible again". The Ever Given on the move IMAGE COPYRIGHTREUTERS image captionThe Ever Given on the move on Monday The vessel was towed to Great Bitter Lake, which sits between two sections of the canal to the north of where the ship got stuck. It will undergo safety checks. Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi thanked Egyptians for their efforts in "ending the crisis" in the canal. Presentational grey line A strong sense of achievement By Sally Nabil, BBC Arabic bilingual correspondent, Suez Port Spirits here are quite high. There's a strong sense of achievement. Some experts had warned that it might take weeks to free the Ever Given. But the high tide, as well as the specialist equipment brought in, all helped the rescue operation. Now the authorities will have to address another challenge - congestion. The head of the Suez Canal Authority said that hundreds of stranded vessels would be allowed through the canal on a first-come-first-served basis, though there might be some exceptions to specific ships, based on the types of goods on board. The blockage put the authorities under immense pressure, given the major impact it had on global trade. For Egyptians, the canal is not only a source of national pride, but it also provides the economy with much needed foreign currency. A couple of days ago, I asked Osama Rabie, the head of the Suez Canal Authority, whether he was concerned that some shipping companies might be discouraged from sending such giant ships through the canal in the future. He replied that there was no alternative to the Suez Canal, which he said was fast and safe. So, it's not just about time here, but also about security.

Adafruit's smallest RP2040 board is still coming soon, but in a recent video, Adafruit founder Limor "Ladyada" Fried demonstrated the QT Py 2040, a tiny board powered by the same chip as a Raspberry Pi Pico, using a community Arduino core that enables any RP2040 board to be used with the Arduino IDE. In the video, we get a first look at Adafruit's upcoming QT Py RP2040, which Fried mentions is being readied for sale. The QT Py RP2040 is shown running a simple temperature sensor project, with the board connected to an I2C OLED and temperature sensor via the Stemma QT connector. The QT Py 2040 is compatible with CircuitPython and the Arduino IDE via a community project, Arduino-Pico from Earle F. Philhower, III. Official Arduino support for the RP2040 is still a work in progress, possibly timed to coincide with Arduino's own RP2040 board. Adafruit has three RP2040 boards in their range. From their largest board, the Feather RP2040 which has already been released, to the IstyBitsy RP2040, to the QT Py RP2040, Adafruit has a board for all projects and wallets. Measuring just 22 x 18 mm, the QT Py RP2040 isn't the smallest RP2040 board, that honor goes to Pimoroni's Tiny 2040. But the QT Py packs plenty of features into a diminutive form factor. USB Type C connector RP2040 32-bit Cortex M0+ dual-core running at ~125 MHz @ 3.3V logic and power 264 KB RAM 4 MB SPI FLASH chip for storing files and CircuitPython/MicroPython code storage. No EEPROM Native USB supported by every OS (USB HID) Can be used with Arduino IDE or CircuitPython Built-in RGB NeoPixel LED 13 GPIO pins (11 breakout pads and two QT pads): Four 12 bit ADCs (one more than Pico) Two I2C ports (STEMMA QT and GPIO) SPI and UART peripherals PWM outputs on every IO pin There are 6 GPIO in consecutive order for PIO compatibility 3.3V regulator with 600mA peak output Reset button and Bootloader buttons The pricing and release date for the QT Py RP2040 is still largely unknown, with stock being prepared for their store we can expect an imminent release. At a guess, the price could be between that of a Raspberry Pi Pico ($4) and the Feather RP2040 ($12).

Collaboration tools are meant to encourage and inspire people to work together. When we can easily and effectively connect and share ideas, we are more productive, more creative and happier. But for those who are visually impaired, poorly designed tools will inevitably fall short. That’s why elements such as predictable navigation and other easy-to-use accessibility features are not just nice-to-haves, but altogether necessary. Ideal keyboard and screen reader accessibility elements should be designed from the ground up with input from users who require these features the most. Element-based navigation that delivers a smooth, predictable, and frustration-free user experience eliminates the need for a mouse, and instead relies innovative tabbing and region navigation, as well as robust screen reader compatibility. Here's our list of the best VoIP services right now Check out our list of the best video conferencing services around We've built a list of the best VoIP phones available ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ian Tien is CEO and co-founder of Mattermost Visually impaired accessibility The American Foundation for the Blind estimates that in 2018, there were as many as 32.2 million American adults who reported experiencing vision loss. That vision loss is defined as “individuals who reported that they have trouble seeing, even when wearing glasses or contact lenses, as well as to individuals who reported that they are blind or unable to see at all.” What’s surprising is that in 2021, there are still websites that are not optimally designed for use by these millions of people, making them effectively inaccessible. Inaccessibility is not acceptable – whether we’re talking about websites, enterprise applications, email and other office suites, or collaboration tools. Efficient and intuitive shortcuts Accessibility in collaboration tools is typically enabled via manual navigation shortcuts. But if these shortcuts aren’t efficient simple, efficient, or easy to use, they might as well not exist. There should be as few inputs needed by the user to perform a given action, and the order in navigational action should be carefully designed to match how people typically use the app. Here are three important capabilities that increase accessibility for the visually impaired: Predictable region navigation Predictability is key for visually impaired users, so navigation between the software’s key focus regions works best when it is looped in a continuous order which never changes. For example: Message list region Message input region Right-hand side message list region Right-hand side message input region Team menu region Channel sidebar region Channel header region Search With simple, manual controls, such as pressing F6 (or CTRL+F6 on browser) continuously, users can move between regions quickly and effectively without losing track of where they are in the software. Or, by pressing TAB and SHIFT+TAB, users can move back and forth between elements. The use of highlighting on-screen by a colored outline, by simply pressing Enter or Space, puts elements in focus. Intuitive message navigation Simple navigate through messages can be done using just the arrow keys. For example, by hitting F6 (or CTRL+F6 on browser), a user can enter the message list region, then use UP or DOWN arrow keys to navigate between messages. By pressing TAB, a user can easily navigate through message actions, including replying and reacting.

After previously only offering a vague Spring 2021 window for Rust: Console Edition, the development team at Double Eleven has finally given a firm launch date: May 21. The launch comes after several years of work that were necessary to get it running at a level close to that of its PC counterpart. In fact, the limited specs of the Xbox One and PS4 make it a marvel that it's working at all. In a post on its website, Rust: Console Edition studio Double Eleven--the PC version was made by Facepunch Studios--said it needed to get the game working with 4.5 GB of RAM, despite the PC version having a minimum 10 GB requirement. This required rewriting much of the game in the Unity engine, but it still had extremely long loading times that could hit 45 minutes. Further optimization tricks cut this down to about one minute. "We have got to a level of performance and stability that the majority of our beta testers seem to be happy with, and we are in the background striving to make it better every day!" said community manager Pedro Silva. It took three years to create Rust: Console Edition, and the game will continue receiving new updates alongside the PC version, though these will not be the same updates the other version receives. It will remain a separate experience with its own roadmap and community. Earlier this year, the original PC version of Rust saw a huge surge in po[CENSORED]rity after big-name streamers took an interest in the game. It was the top-streamed game on Twitch for a time, even beating out the behemoth League of Legends.

The Bend Police Department has changed the name of one of its K9s, "Lil' Kim," following a controversy over the fact that it shares a name with Grammy award-winning rapper Lil' Kim, Oregon Public Broadcasting reports. Riccardo Waites, the founder of the Central Oregon Black Leaders Assembly, said in a video Thursday that he met with Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz to express concerns about the dog's name. "It’s a little tiny black dog, K9 dog, that the police call 'Lil' Kim.' If you’re a person of color, or if you’re a fan of Lil' Kim, you know her significance in Hip Hop. You also know that she’s a gangster rapper," he said in the video. "Just to be honest, I don’t want to see Lil' Kim out there biting people of color." TIK TOK FAMOUS POLICE DOG FROM WASHINGTON STATE RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL AFTER SHOOTING Waites went on to say that Chief Krantz agreed to only use the dog's actual name, Kim, in the future. The Bend Police Department's K9, Kim, can be seen here through a nigh vision monocular working a training scenario in complete darkness. The Bend Police Department's K9, Kim, can be seen here through a nigh vision monocular working a training scenario in complete darkness. (Bend Police Department) Chief Krantz told Oregon Public Broadcasting that the dog, a Belgian Malinois shepherd, was never named after the rapper, but would now go by Kim. "Although the dog is not named after a musician, it’s important to recognize that some people may assume that or believe that," Krantz told OPB. "I think in the eyes of some community members there is a connection historically to the use of dogs, specifically on protestors and Black community members, and that, that could bring a fear of canines." Krantz also denied that the recent controversy was responsible for the name change. NORTH CAROLINA POLICE FORCE INVESTIGATES AFTER DISTURBING K9 VIDEO EMERGES The Bend Police Department routinely referred to the K9 as Lil' Kim in press releases and statements on social media. The Bend Police Department wished their K9, Kim, a happy 6th birthday in January. "Bend PD K9 Kim (aka Lil’ Kim as she is little but mighty) is turning 6," the department wrote on Facebook to celebrate her birthday in January. "K9 Kim is a Belgian Malinois who is a rockstar suspect apprehension dog," the department wrote. "She is trained to locate a suspect who is fleeing or hiding. Her skills are not limited to only tracking suspects; she can also help with searching for missing people, like a child or elderly person who has wandered away from home." Waites wrote on Facebook Friday that he is "appreciative of the department for stepping up and listening to community

The future of Mercedes-Benz vehicles is almost here, arriving with the all-new 2022 Mercedes EQS. Despite not being the first EQ model to be introduced, the flagship EQS is the first model to be based on the company's modular architecture for luxury and executive-class electric vehicles. As such, designers at Stuttgart were given the liberty to create a totally fresh interior design and experience for the driver and occupants. The cabin's production version is totally different from the EQS Concept, though, so forget that and scroll down to see the bevy of official images provided. The new MBUX Hyperscreen is at the forefront of that design evolution, presented by three large displays under a single scratch-resistant glass that covers the entire dashboard. Of note, the system utilizes eight CPU cores, 24 GB of RAM, and 46.4 GB per second RAM bandwidth. Though not seen in the official images, the base model EQS not equipped with the MBUX Hyperscreen will have a different layout. Common on both, though, is the lack of a transmission tunnel. Beyond the MBUX Hyperscreen, Mercedes said that the EQS is made to be experienced with virtually all human senses, namely visual, auditory, olfactory, and haptic. Yes, olfactory, as the EQS comes with High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter that cleans and filter outside air entering the cabin. As part of the Air-Balance Package, the EQS has active fragrancing as well, which comes with a new fragrance called No.6 Mood Linen. In terms of haptic perception, the MBUX Hyperscreen offers haptic feedback that uses force feedback on both the center and passenger displays. There are also 12 actuators located under the touchscreen surfaces, which can trigger a tangible vibration upon contact. Other elements in the cabin that excite the sense of touch are the materials used and knowing Mercedes, you know what to expect. Obviously, the eyes are among the primary focus of the EQS's interior design. Apart from the visual play on textures, a play on ambient lighting has been employed in the entire cabin. The door panels, on the other hand, are said to be borrowed from the interior design of modern living spaces. Interestingly, the needles on the digital gauges show a laser sword effect. Auditory stimulation starts even before the driver and passengers enter the 2022 EQS, with sounds greeting them as they approach and enter the vehicle. Apart from the 15-speaker Burmester surround sound system, there are two soundscapes that come standard with the vehicle called Silver Waves and Vivid Flux, while driving sounds, which change depending on the driving mode and other dynamic inputs from the driver, are optional and produced by interior speakers. More importantly, the EQS is available with soothing sounds called Forest Glade, Sounds of the Sea, and Summer Rain that can be selected during stop-overs to promote relaxation. In other words, Mercedes wants you to recharge your body as you recharge the EQS's battery. Speaking of charging, while not mentioned in the recent lengthy press release, Mercedes announced before that there will be 500,000 supported Mercedes Me Charge locations worldwide, including over 200,000 of those being in Europe. The EQS will also have a range of over 435 miles (700 kilometers) in the WLTP test. The 2022 Mercedes EQS will be launched in Europe this August. We'll know more details by then, but we know that it will be built alongside the S-Class and Maybach S-Class in the carbon-neutral "Factory 56" at the Sindelfingen plant.

Islamist militants have ambushed a convoy that was trying to rescue civilians from a hotel amid fighting in northern Mozambique, reports say. A South African man has been confirmed as dead, but many details are unclear. Hundreds of people fled the fighting, which began on Wednesday in the town of Palma. Evacuees included foreign gas workers. French energy giant Total said it was forced to suspend operations at a huge gas project nearby. The company had only just announced it would restart work on the $20bn (£14.5bn) project which it had halted in January over security concerns. In a statement, the company said none of its staff were killed in the incident, but the "remobilisation of the project that was envisaged at the beginning of the week" had been halted. Total added that it trusted the Mozambican security forces, who were working to regain control of the area. Human Rights Watch said that witnesses described seeing "bodies on the streets and residents fleeing after the... fighters fired indiscriminately at people and buildings". Northern Mozambique has been torn apart by an insurgency since 2017. Militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) group are behind the conflict in the predominantly Muslim region of Cabo Delgado. The fighting has left more than 2,500 people dead and 700,000 displaced. Map There are unconfirmed reports of British citizens being caught up in the hotel siege. A UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson told the BBC: "Our High Commission in Maputo is in direct contact with authorities in Cabo Delgado to urgently seek further information on these reports." Hungry, angry and fleeing horrors in Mozambique The jihadists and the 'curse' of Mozambique's riches Is Mozambique the latest outpost of Islamic State? Insurgents launched a surprise assault on Palma earlier in the week, attacking shops, banks and a military barracks. Hundreds of people fled the fighting, running into forests, mangroves or nearby villages. About 180 foreign and local gas workers took refuge in the Amarula Palma hotel. Some tried to escape the hotel in a convoy of vehicles on Friday, aiming for a nearby beach, Reuters news agency quoted Lionel Dyck as saying. Mr Dyck runs a South African private security company that works with the Mozambique government. But they were ambushed outside the hotel, Mr Dyck said, adding that at least 20 people were initially flown to safety in helicopters. The South African man confirmed to have been killed was thought to have been driving one of the escape vehicles. One source told the BBC several people were successfully evacuated and reached the city of Pemba, 420km (260 miles) south of Palma.

According to VideoCardz, Chinese graphics card maker MaxSun has reportedly just released a new RTX 3060 model with the rather unusual name of Big Mac. And unfortunately, there is no McDonald's color theme to compliment the name. With some graphics cards already equipped with a honey bee-theme on the market, we bet someone out there would love a fast-food theme for a graphics card! Seriously though, we don't know why this card is called the Big Mac. It could a Chinese reference we don't understand. For specs, the card features the 3060's usual 3584 CUDA cores, 12GB of memory, and reference frequencies of 1320Mhz for the base clock and 1777MHz for the boost frequency. The card's TDP remains the same as the reference specs, as well, at 170W. But the card is no slouch. Even at stock speeds, its still one of the best graphics cards you can buy in 2021, if you can find one close to MSRP. The card's size is rather compact, measuring at just 18.3cm, and a width of 12.2cm. That means it's just two slots thick and a few centimeters over the standard height of the PCI-e bracket. So if you want to fit this card in a compact case, make sure it has extra height clearance to fit the card.5325502q25/*&- 18/09/20The Tom's Hardware Show 9/24: Best Streaming Platforms, RTX 3090 Tested For cooling, the card features two fans of unknown size, plus a fin array heatsink below the fans. However, we don't know how many heat pipes the cooler has or how the cooler is set up. Maxsun RTX 3060 Big Mac (Image credit: Videocardz) For aesthetics, the card is basically the definition of normal, with no RGBs in sight, and a plain matte-black shroud. The only hint of color is the "M" branded stickers on the fan hubs, with a green-and-white theme. But at least you get a nice-looking matte-black backplate. Usually, for cards that look this cheap, you don't receive a backplate to keep costs low. We don't know how much this card costs, or if it will ever be shipped to the USA or other countries. But in a time when graphics card shortages are the norm, it's nice to see more graphics cards being produced, even if some models never make it out of China.--+

Microsoft will begin bringing workers back to its suburban Seattle global headquarters on March 29 as the tech giant starts to reopen more facilities it largely shuttered during the coronavirus pandemic. In a post Monday on the company’s corporate blog, Executive Vice President Kurt DelBene said Microsoft has been monitoring local health data and decided it can bring more employees back to its Redmond, Washington, campus. DelBene said workers will have the choice to return to headquarters, continue working remotely or do a combination of both. More than 50,000 people work at the company’s headquarters campus in Redmond, 15 miles (24 kilometers) east of Seattle. ‘You bald Maya Rudolph plays Beyoncé having a meltdown during Hot Ones on SNL On Monday, Washington state moved into Phase 3 of its COVID-19 reopening plan, meaning all of the state’s 39 counties will be allowed to relax coronavirus restrictions. Under Phase 3, all indoor spaces — including indoor dining at restaurants, indoor fitness centers, and retail — can increase capacity from 25% to 50%. Larger events like concerts and graduation ceremonies will also be OK since up to 400 people will be allowed to gather for indoor and outdoor activities as long as physical distancing and masking are enforced. your@email.com

Developed by: Four Quarters Published by: Devolver Digital Genre(s): Role-Playing For all its automated systems, Loop Hero can be incredibly stressful. Battles play out without any input from you, navigation loops over a predetermined path, and resources are collected for you, but that doesn't mean you can take your eyes off the battlefield for even a second. This captivating mix of familiar genres demands constant attention, testing your ability to think well into the future when making your moves. It's a riveting balance of risk and reward wrapped in a deviously challenging roguelite that will tempt you into pushing forward for just one more round. Loop Hero is a distinct mish-mash of multiple genre ideas, none of which influence gameplay enough to easily classify the overall gameplay experience. Loop Hero is primarily a run-based role-playing game in which you indirectly control a hero through procedurally generated loops. Instead of controlling the hero's movements, you mainly control what they encounter by placing objects on the loop that create the world--things like cemeteries that can spawn skeletons, villages that can heal you, or swamps that generate nasty mosquitos. These are provided by cards that you draw from a limited deck which you can edit between runs, letting you curate each one to a degree. And while your hero automatically navigates in circles and resolves fights with enemies without any inputs, you also manage their inventory carefully to deal with the increasing challenges that each new round trip brings. Ultimately, Loop Hero challenges you to balance risk and reward by keenly considering all the options your current cards give you to make your next loop challenging, but not deadly. Each run is an opportunity to gather resources you use to expand your camp in the hub world, unlocking new cards, classes, and abilities to use on subsequent runs. Enemies drop specific resources that you'll need to further progress outside of each expedition, giving you incentives to place multiple groves for wild, mutated dogs or dimly lit houses that can spawn bloodthirsty vampires on tiles around them. With each new addition to the loop, you're also extending the time it takes to make a trip around it, which directly affects spawn rates of enemies that are tied to a persistent day-night cycle. While a tile might seem harmless when it's only adding one enemy to the loop every day, it can become dangerous when the route is stuffed to the point where an entire group might be waiting the next time you make it around again. Balancing the placement and density of enemies on the loop is what will inform each of your moves, pushing your understanding of how each of these small singular systems play out over extended stretches of time. Each battle rewards you with additional cards and loot, forcing you to recalculate the right balance of risk that fits with your current capabilities and the current toughness of enemies. Overestimating your ability is punishing--if you die in battle, you only get to keep a third of the resources you've gathered during that run. You're able to flee at any point during a loop if you're not engaged in battle, but you only take everything you've earned if you do so at the single campfire on the path. And because you're ultimately in control of the overall difficulty and balance of each run, even brutal failures still feel fair--and clutch victories are all the more satisfying when you successfully risk it all on one more loop. A lot of Loop Hero's fun stems from the vague descriptions of cards and figuring out how different cards can play off each other. Meadows, which heal you at the start of each day, can be placed around a loop to give you additional health at the start of each new day. Place it next to any existing structure, however, and this effect is buffed. Not all effects are beneficial to your hero, either. A group of Mountains placed together will turn into a Peak, which gives you a nice resource bonus but also starts spawning enemy harpies you'll have to contend with. Villages offer you small quests and healing outside of your campfire but also attract thieves who will steal equipment off your back while in a fight. Seeing any given loop fill up with the consequences of your actions while exploring the potential possibilities of new combinations keeps each run interesting. It can be somewhat frustrating, however, when you can't figure out how or why an effect occurred. While some cards will explicitly state what their properties are, it can be difficult to decipher why the placement of one card in a particular slot had the effect it did. Other times the consequences of your actions only become apparent when you face a new enemy on the loop, for example, making it difficult to track when and where those consequences came from. The ASCII-like art style used for enemy sprites on the loop itself is partly to blame for this, with the tiny icons and limited animations often easy to overlook until you actually get into the battle and see an unfamiliar enemy as battles play out automatically in a Final Fantasy-like style. Also providing some variety are a handful of classes you can choose from at the beginning of each run, with unique equipment for each that alters your physical and magical attributes. The standard warrior will let you equip a range of items including swords, shields, and armor, while both the rogue and necromancer introduce additional complexity to the standard formula. The rogue can equip two weapons and boots instead of a shield but gathers loot in a bag that can only be accessed once you pass through a campfire; this forces you to commit to what you have in your inventory and what you have equipped for each loop, while also overwhelming you with new loot at the end of it. The necromancer, by contrast, doesn't allow you to use any weapons but instead gives you the ability to summon increasingly powerful skeletons to do battle for you. Items like amulets increase a magic shield that protects your far more limited maximum health, while grimoires and rings help you increase both the quality and total possible number of summons you can muster. The loot you gather during a run is specific to the class you play but comes in thick and fast most of the time, pushing you to make quick decisions about what to keep. Your inventory space is limited, with new items pushing out old ones and scrapping them for resources. Any item you unequip is similarly destroyed, forcing you to be careful when you want to make a switch. Each class also comes with inherent passive abilities (the rogue starts with life steal, for example) that can help guide your dynamic builds. Just like the cards dealt to you, the effectiveness of a run is entirely down to how quickly you can adapt to the loot that you find, which in turn feeds into the decisions you must make regarding the complexity of the loop you're constructing. You obtain these new classes and additional cards by expanding the survivor camp outside of your run-based expeditions. Each new structure requires numerous resources to build but rewards you with permanent upgrades and equipment that can help you with each new run. While you're still getting adjusted to the balance between risk and reward during your runs, this progress can feel incredibly slow. The resource requirement for new buildings is steep enough that even successful runs where you managed to flee without losing anything might not be enough to make any progress back at camp. This is meant to motivate you to flee runs rather than push too far and die, but without the ability to make a difference to your hero or the cards you bring into each expedition, it is easy to feel like you're just spinning your wheels for a few hours. Once you settle into Loop Hero's cadence, and especially after you construct some of the most basic structures, this frustration eases up and forward progress is more regular and rewarding, but it's a pity it takes some grinding to get to that point. The camp also acts as the main hub for Loop Hero's story progression. An omnipotent villain has managed to wipe away the memory of all existence from every living creature on earth, with only your hero able to recall some parts at a time. This premise allows for some surprisingly sharp and often witty writing, giving a new spin to the idea of what it means to be a hero and who a hero might be fighting for. An early exchange with a harpy encapsulates this idea well, with the foe questioning the hero as to why they would help them recreate the world as it was when it can just be reformed into something more kind to monsters. You don't play an active role in how these conversations or the overall narrative path play out, but Loop Hero's story, as light as it is, does manage to carve out some poignant moments that break up the consistently run-based gameplay nicely. You'll have to battle numerous bosses at the end of each act to see it through, however, which epitomizes how all of Loop Hero's mechanics need to be carefully considered before challenging them. As you play cards during a run, a boss meter fills up, with the big bad of each act spawning at your campfire when it's completed. This locks you into a climatic yet automated fight where every decision you've made during a particular run is put to the test. You can do nothing but watch your hero duke it out with an extremely powerful foe, grinning at every evasion or counter attack or wincing when a heavy blow carves through what you thought was a solid defense. Despite being completely passive, these moments are exhilarating. Even if you don't manage to win (and you will fail many times before you overcome each), the encounter teaches you a little more about how to build your hero and construct the loop around them for this one, final encounter. It's these moments that make the hours of looping before worth it, as you watch your kitted-out hero land the final blow on an enemy that was once wiping the floor with your mismanaged builds. The thrill of learning in Loop Hero is the driving force of its procedural gameplay, with each small discovery and minute change in approach producing outcomes you might not have imagined. Its opening hours are a punishing hurdle to overcome, but once you've found the rhythm of Loop Hero, you won't want to break from its beat. --------------------------------------- Game System Requirments --------------------------------------- Minimum ----------------------------------------- CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E4500 (2 * 2200) or equivalent, AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3600+ (2 * 1910) or equivalent RAM: 2 GB OS: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 x64 VIDEO CARD: GeForce 7300 GT (512 MB), Radeon X1300 Pro (256 MB) PIXEL SHADER: 3.0 VERTEX SHADER: 3.0 FREE DISK SPACE: 200 MB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 128 MB ---------------------------------------- Recommended ---------------------------------------- CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E6750 (2 * 2660) or equivalent, AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+ (2 * 2600) or equivalent RAM: 2 GB OS: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 x64 VIDEO CARD: GeForce 8600 GT (512 MB), Radeon HD 4650 (1024 MB) PIXEL SHADER: 4.0 VERTEX SHADER: 4.0 FREE DISK SPACE: 200 MB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 512 MB (AMD 1 GB) ------------------------------------------ Video Trailer :

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About 180 million years ago, an eight-armed predator seized its underwater prey — another eight-armed beastie — and began to nibble on it, until disaster struck and they both died from suffocation, a new study finds. The shale slab holding this duo's fossilized remains preserved imprints of their soft tissues in "exceptional" detail, the researchers wrote in the study, published online March 16 in the Swiss Journal of Palaeontology. An analysis of the slab reveals that their last moments together ended in an "eternal embrace," the team said. "We assume that the predator was so happy about its catch that it did not realize that it was sinking," said study first author Christian Klug, a curator at the University of Zurich's Palaeontological Museum and a professor at its Palaeontological Institute. "It probably wound up in the oxygen-poor water layers, suffocated, died and was embedded in the soft mud." Related: Gallery: Vampire squid from hell Amateur collector Dieter Weber found the slab holding the imprints in an abandoned quarry opposite a golf club in Ohmden, a municipality in southern Germany. The fossilized creatures on the slab were positioned with the predator's arms enclosed around the smaller prey, he found. After preparing the fossil, Weber sold the piece to one of the researchers, who then donated it to the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart. When these creatures were alive during the early Jurassic period, the region was a marine basin that extended across much of Central Europe, and "the bottom waters were often poor in oxygen," Klug told Live Science in an email. Photos (A and B) of the fossil in different lights with an illustration (C) of the two early Jurassic vampyromorphs. Photos (A and B) of the fossil in different lights and an illustration (C) of the two early Jurassic vampyromorphs. (Image credit: Klug C. et al. 2021; Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)) Both of the ancient creatures are members of Octobrachia, a group of eight-armed cephalopods that includes the octopus, argonaut (deep-sea shelled octopus also known as the paper nautilus) and vampire squid — an animal that got its eerie name from its cape-like skin that connects its arms, but is neither a blood-sucker nor a squid. In particular, both of the Jurassic animals are vampyromorphs, ancient relatives of the modern-day vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis), Klug said. "The vampyromorphs have eight arms plus — as we also show here — a pair of filaments, which sort of look like thick spaghetti that were cooked for a bit too long," Klug told Live Science in an email. "These filaments are actually used to catch prey." A magnified photo and illustration of the prey that was nibbled on before it died with its predator. A magnified photo (left) and an illustration (right) of the prey that was nibbled on before it died. (Image credit: Klug C. et al. 2021; Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)) Today, vampire squid eat detritus, plankton and other small prey. But, as this specimen shows, "obviously, the larger species [of vampyromorph] was quite a predator," Klug said. After analyzing the specimen, the researchers determined that the larger, 18-inch-long (47 cm) octobrachian is probably Jeletzkyteuthis coriacea. The smaller octobrachian is likely Parabelopeltis flexuosa, which at about 6.5 inches (16.7 cm) long, is less than 40% the length of the predator that tried to eat it.

If you love bacon, but eating it just isn’t enough, now you can wear it on your feet — or at least, you can wear shoelaces that smell like bacon. On Friday, Oscar Mayer announced that it has created bacon-scented shoelaces and will be giving them away to fans for a new sweepstake. The brand — famous for its processed meats and Wienermobile — launched the giveaway on social media on Friday to celebrate Nike’s Air Max Day, when the shoe company re-released its Air Max Bacons. "Happy #AirMaxDay," Oscar Mayer tweeted Friday. "To celebrate the re-release of the Air Max Bacons, we're dropping bacon scented laces that'll make your kicks sizzle." According to the contest rules, Oscar Mayer will be giving away 1,500 pairs of the scented shoelaces. Fans who are 18 or older just have to tweet the hashtags #OscarCookMyKicks and #Sweepstakes before April 1 to enter. Winners will be randomly selected "on or about" April 2, the contest rules say. "There are few things better than the delicious smell of freshly cooked Oscar Mayer bacon, but you shouldn’t have to turn on the stove to fill your nostrils with the heavenly scent," Megan Lang, Oscar Mayer’s associated director said in a statement, per Thrillist. Oscar Mayer is giving away 1,500 pairs of shoelaces that smell like bacon for a new sweepstake, the brand announced Friday. (iStock) Oscar Mayer is giving away 1,500 pairs of shoelaces that smell like bacon for a new sweepstake, the brand announced Friday. (iStock) "We know bacon lovers can’t get enough of it, so we’ve created these bacon-scented laces to give fans the chance to carry their bacon love everywhere, whether they’re styling the hottest new sneakers or sizzling up an old pair of shoes," Lang added.

Electrification is inevitable, even for automakers you won't normally associate with electric vehicles. Gone were the days when electric vehicles were seen as stale and unexciting machines – even a vehicle as robust and tough as the Jeep Wrangler now has an electrified model that was introduced last year. But the Wrangler 4xe plug-in hybrid has a problem – it has received a disappointing all-electric range from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The off-roader can only run solely in batteries up to 21 miles (34 kilometers), compared to the expected 25 miles (40 km). Gallery: Jeep 4xe Charging Stations Jeep 4xe Charging Stations 9 Photos To solve this problem, Stellantis has announced that it will be putting up charging stations on the trailheads of three po[CENSORED]r off-roading sites, namely in Moab, Utah; the Rubicon Trail in Pollock Pines, California; and Big Bear, California. The charging stations will be located near Jeep Badge of Honor trails, which were created in cooperation with Electrify America and expected to open this spring. These stations will either be directly connected to the power grid or as the images suggest, will use solar power to generate electricity. Jeep 4xe owners will need to login via a custom mobile app by Electrify America to unlock free charging. The app also allows owners to initiate and monitor the charging session. Thinking about it, installing charging stations on trailheads is a good thing as hikers who will park their Jeep 4xes and will hike can benefit from the extra juice slowly fed into the battery of their plug-in hybrids. Of note, the trailhead chargers will deliver Level 2 (240-volt) charging, which can fully charge the Wrangler 4xe's 17 kWh battery pack in around two hours. Apart from the trailhead chargers, the Jeep 4xe charging network will expand this year, with locations to be announced in the future.

The large container ship trapped in the Suez Canal could be dislodged as soon as Saturday, the vessel's Japanese owners have said. Yukito Higaki, president of Shoei Kisen, told a news conference on Friday that 10 tugboats had been deployed to dredge the banks and canal bottom. The US has also offered to send help, including a team of US Navy experts. The Ever Given became wedged in the canal on Tuesday, forcing companies to reroute ships around Africa. The blockage has also caused a huge traffic jam of more than 200 ships in the Red Sea. Mr Higaki told a press conference in the western Japanese city of Imabari that they were "continuing work to remove sediment as of now, with additional dredging tools". He added that crews were hoping to dislodge the ship as early as Saturday evening Tokyo time, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported. Satellite image from Maxar Technologies showing the Ever Given in Egypt's Suez Canal (26 March 2021) IMAGE COPYRIGHTMAXAR TECHNOLOGIES image captionThe Ever Given is almost as long as Manhattan's Empire State Building is high "The ship is not taking water," he said. "There is no problem with its rudders and propellers. Once it refloats, it should be able to operate. "We are continuing work to remove sediment as of now, with additional dredging tools." Meanwhile Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM), the ship's technical manager, said on Friday that an attempt to refloat the vessel had failed. A specialised suction dredger, which can shift 2,000 cubic metres (70,000 cubic feet) of material every hour, arrived on site on Thursday, it added. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki also said the US had offered assistance to get the Suez Canal reopened, and that they were "tracking the situation very closely". Joe Reynolds, chief engineer of the Maersk Ohio, told the BBC on Friday that the number of vessels waiting at the canal's southern entrance was "growing exponentially". "It's going to affect shipping schedules around the world," he warned. The 400m-long (1,300ft), 200,000-tonne vessel ran aground on Tuesday morning in high winds and a sandstorm that affected visibility. Specialist salvage companies have been brought in to help refloat the ship, and an adviser to Egypt's president had said he hoped the situation would be resolved within two to three days. But experts have said it could take weeks if the vessel's containers need to be removed. 'Our customers are worried about the Suez blockage' How do you refloat a giant cargo ship? In pictures: Efforts to shift huge ship from canal About 12% of global trade passes through the 193km (120-mile) canal, which connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea and provides the shortest sea link between Asia and Europe. An alternative route, around the Cape of Good Hope on the southern tip of Africa, can take two weeks longer. Map showing alternative route for shipping while Suez Canal blocked 1px transparent line How the stranded Ever Given is affecting shipping in the Suez Canal Tap or click for more details Source: VesselsValue 1px transparent line John Denholm, president of the UK Chamber of Shipping, told the BBC that if the diggers and tugs were not successful, salvage teams would have to start the slow process of "lightering" the ship - transferring its cargo to another vessel or the canal bank. That would involve bringing in specialist equipment, including a crane that would need to stretch more than 60m (200ft) high, he said. "If we go through the lightering process, I suspect we're talking weeks."

Intel has started to publish documents related to its upcoming Discrete Graphics 2 (DG2) GPUs based on the Xe-HPG microarchitecture, inadvertently revealing some of their specifications. As expected, Intel's Xe-HPG family looks like it'll include multiple models and compete across desktops and laptops and different levels of performance. In order to prepare for a new product launch, Intel not only has to send various samples to its partners, but it also has to publish extensive documentation about the parts. Usually, such documents are hidden in password-protected sections of Intel's website, but a simple search of the term "discrete graphics2" revealed dozens of documents about Intel's DG2 family, as well as some of its specifications, as spotted Friday Twitter leakers @momomo_us and @Komachi_Ensaka. According to the newfound documents, Intel's DG2 lineup will include at least five different models for notebooks and at least two models for desktops. For some reason, notebook GPUs are referred to as SKU1 through SKU5; whereas, desktop graphics processors are called SoC1 and SoC2. The new GPUs will support a PCIe 5.0 interface, GDDR6 memory running at 14 GT/s or 16 GT/s, HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort Alt Mode over USB Type-C, according to Intel's documents. However, it is unclear whether all the capabilities will be enabled on all SKUs. Based on names of the documents that Intel has made available to its partners, the company and its allies are currently testing five mobile DG2 graphics processors with 96 execution units (EUs), 128 EUs, 256 EUs, 384 EUs and 512 EUs. Meanwhile, the desktop-oriented SoC1 is believed to feature 512 EUs. (Image credit: Intel) Since Intel's DG2 products are based on the yet-to-be-revealed Xe-HPG architecture tailored for gaming graphics processors, it's hard to estimate how the new graphics solutions from Intel will stack up against existing DG1 product or the best graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia. Assuming this is the full lineup, it's a bit odd to see Intel prepare a relatively broad lineup of GPUs for notebooks and only two graphics processors for desktops. It's possible that Intel plans on revealing more desktop GPU models (with more EUs, perhaps). It's also possible that the company will try to address a sweet spot niche of the gaming graphics cards market with a limited number of offerings.