rlex

U.S. job openings soar to highest level on record » U.S. job openings have soared to their highest level on record. The Labor Department on Tuesday reported job gains increased only modestly, even as employers lament a severe shortage of workers. The news comes as several states have announced plans to end so-called enhanced unemployment benefits. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster he’s heard from many businesses with ‘Help Wanted’ signs in the window. MCMASTER: They’re looking for people to work, and the people just won’t come to work because they’re getting as much money, or more in some cases, by staying home. The $300 per week federal boost to unemployment aid started at the height of COVID-19 shutdowns. But the Republican governor said companies are now open for business, and it’s time to end that program. His state will do so next month, as will at least eight other GOP-led states. The Labor Department reports that job openings rose to 8.1 million in March. That’s a gain of nearly 8 percent, the most on record. Yet overall hiring rose only 4 percent. A separate survey of small businesses by the National Federation of Independent Business found that 44 percent had jobs they couldn't fill. That’s also a record high. Still the White House maintains that enhanced unemployment benefits aren’t the reason. Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the president believes the real cause is … PSAKI: A range of issues, including primarily the fact that we’re continuing to fight a pandemic. And there are a lot of implications of that. One of them is people being fearful about being safe if they’re not vaccinated. One is childcare. Tuesday’s report follows a far weaker than expected jobs report on Friday. Some gas stations run out of fuel following pipeline shutdown » More than 1,000 gas stations in the Southeast have reported running out of fuel this week. Analysts say the sporadic shortages are due to panic-buying among drivers after news that a cyberattack forced the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline. That pipeline delivers almost half of the fuel consumed on the East Coast. Government officials waived environmental rules to speed the delivery of fuel by truck, ship or rail. But motorists may still feel a crunch because it takes a few days to ramp up operations. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told reporters at the White House Tuesday that by the end of the day today… GRANHOLM: Colonial will be in a position to make a full restart decision. But even after that decision is made, it will take a few days to restart operations. This pipeline has never been shut down before. Experts don’t expect a significant increase in gas prices as long as the pipeline is back up and running soon, as expected. Republicans to vote on removing Liz Cheney from leadership » House Republicans will vote today on whether to remove Congresswoman Liz Cheney from her leadership post. Cheney is the number three ranked Republican in the House. But her ongoing feud with former President Donald Trump has placed her politically on very thin ice which may now be giving way. Other GOP leaders are worried about alienating Trump supporters ahead of next year’s election. North Carolina Congressman Greg Murphy seems to speak for many Republicans right now. He called Cheney a respected friend, but… MURPHY: What I think the conference believes right now is that she’s not the best one to move forward. And I think there’s a lot of support that’s gathering around Elise Stefanik to be that messenger, to be that uniter. New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik could soon replace Cheney in House leadership. But some GOP lawmakers stand with Cheney and plan to vote “no” on removing her. Violence escalates in Israeli-Palestinian conflict » Violent conflict continued in the Middle East on Tuesday. Hamas militants fired hundreds of rockets into Israel. And the Israeli military unleashed new airstrikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Stip. SOUND: GAZA NATS An unknown number of people died in the Gaza Strip, and Hamas rocket attacks killed at least three people in Israel. The conflict appeared to be some of the most intense fighting between Israel and Hamas since their 2014 war. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said President Biden’s team is engaging “intesively” with senior Israeli and Palestinian leaders. PSAKI: His team is communicating a clear and consistent message in support of deescalation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the fighting would continue for some time. In a speech Tuesday, he said Hamas and Islamic Jihad “have paid, and will pay, a heavy price” for deadly attacks in Israel. At least nine people dead after school attack in Russia » At least nine people are dead, including seven children after a gunman attacked a school in Russia. WORLD’s Leigh Jones has that story. LEIGH JONES, REPORTER: The attacker opened fire at a school Tuesday in the city of Kazan, about 400 miles east of Moscow. In addition to the dead, at least 21 others are hospitalized, six in grave condition. Authorities arrested the attacker, identified only as a 19-year old former student at the school. Investigators found violent posts from the attacker on a messaging app. He reportedly vowed to kill a large number of people. President Vladimir Putin reacted by ordering the head of the country's National Guard to revise regulations on the types of weapons civilians are allowed to own. The Russian government announced a day of mourning on Wednesday and canceled all classes in Kazan schools.

An excerpt from journalist Jason Schreier's new book on game development, published on Polygon, tells a familiar story of triple-A game development: BioShock Infinite was a mess for much of its development, and many of its developers had to crunch for months to ship the game in 2013. Developers who spoke to Schreier talked about how "challenging" it was to work with Ken Levine. Many called the BioShock director a creative "genius" but said he often had trouble communicating his ideas or leading the 200-plus developers at Irrational. Since the excerpt's publication, other former Irrational developers have shared their experiences on Twitter, offering more personal stories from their years working on BioShock Infinite. "While waiting in the drink line at the gold party, I overheard two spouses of Irrational devs talking about how it was nice to have their SOs back—that the last year had felt like a divorce. I looked at my wife and asked if she felt the same... 'yes'" tweeted developer Mikey Soden. "Here's how Infinite changed me: I promised I would never do that to her again, and started looking for positions outside Irrational the following. I made a promise to myself, as a producer, that I would never do that to a team." Soden tweeted that the way Irrational developed BioShock Infinite wasn't sustainable. In the excerpt from Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry, producer Don Roy said that when he joined the studio in March 2012, a year before release, he was shocked at the lack of organization. That summer, the studio brought on Epic Games' Rod Fergusson (who later ran Gears of War studio The Coalition before moving to Blizzard) to act as a "closer," building a schedule that would actually let them ship Infinite. A key part of Fergusson's role was working with Levine, a challenging task. Xbox accessibility program manager Tara Voelker tweeted, "When I started at Irrational, I was the Multiplayer QA Lead. When I left, I was technically QA Level Lead but honestly spent 50% of my time as a personal Ken secretary, sitting in 1:1 meetings to take very specific notes, entering them in as tasks, and following up with Rod."

In England and America, selling bird seed for feeders is a big business. In Delhi, people toss bits of meat into the air for black kites. Fleets of ships ply the oceans to catch fish for domestic cats, the descendants of predatory land animals. Humans feed animals all the time, whether it’s our pets, the chickens we plan to eat or the ducks at the park pond, even though we shouldn’t. Throughout history in fat years and lean across many cultures, sometimes with no apparent reason, humans have fed animals of every imaginable stripe in every imaginable way. Some researchers think the desire to give food to other animals may drive domestication as much as the human desire to eat them does. Our Stone Age leftovers from the hunt may have fostered the domestication of dogs. Some of us give our beloved dead to vultures, which is a problem when the birds disappear. We fed and feed cats both tame and feral, sharks, alligators, deer, hedgehogs, bears, pigeons of all sorts, ducks, swans, zoo animals, lab animals, pets, farm animals and more. Now, a group of researchers in Britain is asking: Where does this desire to give food to other animals come from, and what has it meant for animals, humans and their shared environments? One striking possible answer is extinction. Domestication may be the death knell for wild progenitors. The ancestors of horses and cattle are gone. And while there are still wolves around, they are not thriving the way dogs are. Some feeding of animals is purely practical. You feed chickens today if you want to eat their eggs, or their wings, tomorrow. You can’t ride a starving horse. Animals used for experiments in laboratories have to be kept alive to get cancer. But a lot of feeding is unrelated to any return on investment. The black kites of Delhi reach po[CENSORED]tion densities that may be the highest for raptors anywhere because of accidental and purposeful feeding. They rely on garbage and on the tasty and nutritious pests that garbage attracts. And they also benefit from the charity of Muslims who follow a tradition of tossing bits of meat into the air for the birds. Many Indians feed street dogs as a matter of course, treating them as animal neighbors. In a small city near Ahmedabad where I reported on anti-rabies efforts, residents told me that you can’t just give dogs plain leftover bread. You have to put some clarified butter on it, to make it palatable. The residents were middle class, and had both bread and butter to give, but I also met people who lived by the side of the road, with nothing more than mattresses and a few pots, who shared their food with dogs. Almost nothing about humans feeding animals is fully understood, largely because scholars have not given the subject a great deal of attention. And that, most of all, is what the researchers in England and Scotland want to change. With a four-year grant of more than $2 million from the Wellcome Trust, five researchers are pursuing a collaborative multidisciplinary attempt to give animal feeding its due, and begin to answer some puzzling questions. They call their project, “From ‘Feed the Birds’ to ‘Do Not Feed the Animals.’” Naomi Sykes, an archaeologist at the University of Exeter, is the moving force behind the project. The first chickens Chickens were one of the animals that led Dr. Sykes to this point of view, she said. She was working on some ancient sites in Britain and was surprised by what isotope studies of fossilized chicken bones suggested about the birds’ diet. Isotopes are different forms of elements like carbon and nitrogen, and researchers use the amount of one versus another to determine what animals or humans ate. Different grains or even grains from different geographical regions give different results, or values. “At sites where there’s a lot of chicken sacrifice to the gods of Mercury and Mithras” during the Roman occupation of Britain, Dr. Sykes said, “some of the values of those chickens just looked really bizarre.” It seemed the chickens were eating some sort of special diet. She talked to colleagues who told her that, in fact, chickens in Roman times that were to be sacrificed were sometimes fed a special diet of millet in preparation for their ritual slaughter. Eventually, chickens became a major food source. But they are one example, Dr. Sykes said, of a process of domestication in which feeding animals was more important at first than eating them. In addition to their religion, the Romans brought with them dogs and cats. Remains of the cats are found in settlements along with remains of wildcats that seemed to be living with or near humans as well, not as pets, but not quite wild either. “That got me thinking about cat diet, which then made me think, wait a minute, why do we feed domestic cats fish?” Dr. Sykes asked. Cats and Christianity Could Christianity have something to do with it? “I think that monks start keeping cats for the first time, at least in Britain, as domestic pets,” she explained. “And they keep them because they want to have cats to eat the mice that eat the documents that they’re writing. And of course, monks are eating fish because they’re required to fast all the time.” Perhaps, she said, the monks fed the cats fish. The practice spread. And now an entire separate fishery catches fish for cat food. That worries Dr. Sykes because of its environmental impact. She says shoppers don’t put the same pressure for sustainability on the cat food fleets that they do on fisheries providing food for people. She began to wonder more generally: “What is it that encourages people to feed animals in the first place? What are the drivers of this throughout time and across cultures?” The four colleagues who joined Dr. Sykes in this project are: Angela Cassidy, also at the University of Exeter, who researches government policy on animals and has written about the internecine wars over the culling of badgers in Britain; Gary Marvin, an anthropologist at the University of Roehampton, who holds one of the world’s few professorships in human-animal studies; Stuart Black, a geochemist at the University of Reading; and Andrew Kitchener, principal curator of vertebrates at National Museums Scotland. The group is limiting its research geographically to Britain, for practical and logistical reasons. Its attention is mainly focused on the roles played by birds and cats in human life, as pets, pests, wild animals and zoo animals. In each case, they are asking the same broad questions about the origin of and reason behind various feeding methods, and what needs to change, if anything. For instance, Dr. Sykes will be looking at the archaeological records of cats from Roman settlements. Dr. Black will be studying the isotopes in modern and ancient cat bones to determine what cats were eating. Did monks’ cats in fact eat a lot of fish? He has already proved his technique on modern cats. “We can tell a fishy cat from a meaty cat,” he said. “In fact we can tell an Iams cat from a Whiskers cat,” although he concedes that knowledge may not be so useful in studying felines from the Middle Ages. Image Credit...Guy Billout Dr. Kitchener can look at old cat skeletons from Roman times and see that wildcats, now restricted to a small po[CENSORED]tion in Scotland, were living in human settlements. Dr. Cassidy may look at political policies on feeding stray cats. Dr. Marvin said he would be working with postdoctoral researchers employed through the grant to look at cultural artifacts and historical literature to gauge how human attitudes toward cats have changed. He is also working with another postdoctoral researcher in Italy who will pursue anthropological studies among women who feed the feral cats of the coliseum in Rome. This interdisciplinary approach is very important, Dr. Marvin said. “To be in a room where a geneticist can be talking to an anthropologist and actually helping to answer questions, or ask more interesting questions — I think it’s quite a feat.” The feeding of birds suggests numerous avenues of research such as where, when, how and why it began. Also how is it that people come to view some birds as beloved but disdain others? And that in turn brings up the deep philosophical question of squirrels. In Britain, Dr. Marvin said, people spend somewhere around 200 million pounds feeding birds, presumably because they like them, and want to be close to nature. But they don’t like pigeons. And squirrels are beyond the pale. “You’ve got good and bad creatures in your back garden,” he said. Dr. Black’s isotope work is key to the interdisciplinary approach of this research, which is unusual, he said, because, “it’s a humanities-driven project.” The archaeologists, anthropologists and sociologists pose questions that he can help answer. For example, in the 1500s in England, laws known as the vermin acts set bounties for killing many animals, not just rats and mice. “There were things like crows, red kites, lots of birds of prey,” Dr. Black said. What caused the change in perspective? What were people thinking? Searching texts and literature from the time may bring some answers. But one idea is that the cold temperatures of the time, known as the little ice age, made food scarce and caused animals that normally might have been foraging in the wild to turn to human settlements to steal food or prowl for refuse. Studying old bone samples and comparing them to modern bones will show, for instance, if birds of prey in the 1500s depended more on human food than on traditional forage. Old, excavated raptor bones are plentiful to examine because 16th-century British citizens empowered by the vermin acts would kill the birds and toss them on garbage heaps. Chimp tea parties In addition, the project is taking one look at zoo inhabitants that is not simply a question of what tigers or koalas should eat. For years a British brand of tea, PG Tips, promoted its product with television advertisements that featured dressed up chimps having tea, with crumpets and scones, of course. The chimps lived at the Twycross Zoo, although chimp tea parties were common at zoos all over England. The zoo was founded in the 1960s by “two women who were mad about primates,” Lisa Gillespie, the zoo’s research and conservation manager said in an interview. “The ladies, as they were called,” she said, had trained the chimps for parties at the zoo and for advertisements, prompting the tea company to approach them. Income from those commercials greatly helped the zoo in its early days. “The animals ate human food, tea with milk in it, cake,” Ms. Gillespie said. Because adult chimps are too aggressive to keep as pets or use in advertisements, the zoo featured babies under 3 years old. Primatologists, zookeepers and the Twycross founders later acknowledged the harm in using the chimps that way, both from high sugar foods and from interfering with their natural behavioral development as chimpanzees. They were retired to the Twycross Zoo. With no tea or parties or costumes. The last of the PG Tips chimps to die was a female named Choppers in 2016. The chimps are, however, now unwittingly helping science. The National Museum of Scotland, where Dr. Kitchener works, collected the full skeletons of the PG Tips chimps to add to their trove of animal remains from other zoos and the wild. In studying the skeletons of Choppers and the other tea party chimps, Dr. Kitchener and other researchers identified signs of illness, probably related to what they were fed. Dr. Black is using isotope analysis to nail down the nutritional profile of the tea party chimps. The project is partnering with the Powell-Cotton Museum in Kent, which has a large collection of remains of wild chimps. He and Dr. Sykes have also been looking at changes in wildcats in Britain and their diet over time, and studying the bones of wild squirrels that were fed peanuts to help keep the po[CENSORED]tion going. In adapting to the diet, the squirrels may not have developed the same jaw muscles as squirrels that have to struggle with pine cones, he said. Adaptations to changing diets for animals that live around or near humans can result in significant skeletal changes, he said, which raises questions about some physical changes that are thought to accompany domestication in different animals. Animals might have adapted to living around humans long before they became what we think of as domesticated. “So did the change come before they were domesticated or did the change come because they were domesticated?” he asked. The group will largely restrict itself to the last 2,000 years, but Dr. Black said some detours are irresistible, like the Tomb of the Eagles, a 5,000-year-old stone-age site in the Orkney Islands known officially as the Ibister Chambered Cairn. The cairn, or tomb, held about 16,000 human bones, and the remains of about 30 white-tailed sea eagles, Dr. Black said. “They were deposited over quite a significant period of time,” he said, “so it was people coming back, putting eagle remains in there.” He said: “The key question that nobody has really answered at the moment is whether people went out and killed and then deposited them as a sort of an offering. There is a suggestion that they may have been pets.” If that were the case, the eagles would have probably been eating a different diet than wild eagles that were foraging at sea. Dr. Sykes sees much of the human habit of feeding animals in the light of domestication, which she says happened as much through the process of humans feeding animals as it did through catching and corralling them to eat. That seems clear enough with our close companions, dogs and cats. It also seems that some animals that we now eat, like chickens and rabbits, may have first come into our lives not as food, but as eaters. And, she said, “domestication is not this thing that happened way back when, in this kind of neolithic moment where everybody got together and goes, we’re going to domesticate animals. I just don’t buy it. I think it’s something that has not only continued throughout time, but it’s really accelerating.” Bird feeding is just one example, and that sets off warning bells for her, because domestication and extinction often go together even if the cause and effect isn’t clear. The aurochs gave way to cattle. There are plenty of domestic cats in Britain, but just a few Scottish wildcats. Wolves are still here but not the wolves that dogs descended from. They are extinct. And modern wolves are just hanging on, while dogs might number a billion. Their future, at least in terms of numbers, is bright. As long as there are people, there will be dogs. No one knows what they will look like, and whether we will have to brush their teeth day and night, and spend a fortune on their haircuts. But they will be here. The same cannot be said of wolves. And as wild creatures go extinct, we all lose.

A few weeks before the unveiling of the new Volkswagen Polo GTi, Auto-Moto unveils its almost final style exclusively. New Volkswagen Polo GTI 2021 - As the brand indicates through its official voice, “the new Polo GTI is in the starting blocks. " She had abandoned the French market last year, will return in late June and enjoy the facelift of the classic range , but also an engine power of cure. Planned in Wörthersee Ideally, Volkswagen would have liked to take advantage of the traditional GTI gathering, which is held every year on the shores of Lake Wörthersee , in Austria, to lift the veil on the new Polo GTI. But once again, the global health crisis will have got the better of the event. A precise idea of its design It is finally at the end of June that the most sassy of the "Ants" will be unveiled, after having communicated in the form of a teaser, at the beginning of May. A fairly precise sketch revealed the specific design of its grille and the honeycomb grille of its front bumper. An appetizer that allowed Auto-Moto to produce an illustration very close to the final model which will be made official in the coming weeks. The codes of the Golf GTI Compared to the classic Polo, whose facelift was unveiled during the month of April, the GTI trades the usual fog lights against optics merging with the air intake pattern. A more muscular bow that runs a red border on its grille, to extend into the headlights. On the flanks, the urban in competition gear will be flanked by new rims and the GTI badge on its fenders. But the mystery remains as to the modifications made to the stern. More powerful Finally, on the engine side, its 2.0 l TSI 4-cylinder will level its power from 200 to 207 hp in order to improve its performance. Until now, the Polo GTI shot 0 to 100 km / h in 6.7 s until crossing at 237 km / h in peak. New Volkswagen Polo GTI price After its revelation, the marketing of the new Volkswagen Polo GTI should take place this fall , at a base price probably setting over € 30,000.

Personal development coach Annette Kelly (32) is the founder of the online platform Little Penny Thoughts and creator of Wellness From Within. She is from Carrickmore in County Tyrone and is a passionate mental health and well-being advocate. Q: Do you take regular exercise and if so, what? A: I am a firm believer that movement is medicine. I have to admit I am not a regular gym goer or a runner. My exercise comprises mainly of daily walks, swimming or hikes. I aim for 12k steps per day and my FitBit keeps me on track/target. There was a time where I wouldn't have walked out of your road but now it's a daily habit which I thoroughly enjoy. It is hard to beat getting out in the fresh air, embracing nature, moving your body and clearing the head. Q: What is the worst illness you've had? A: My most serious illness would have been suffering from anxiety that led to depression. It was an illness that shaped my life and the person I am today. Even though it was a very painful and unwanted experience, it has made me appreciate my health and wellbeing more than ever. It has also encouraged me to be more mindful of looking after myself through self-care and I now have deep compassion and empathy for those that suffer at the hands of their mental health. A key message I would like to share is that there is always hope and help out there, no matter how bad things may seem. Q: How healthy is your diet? A: I would say overall my diet is healthy yet balanced. I am a major foodie and I love a wide range and variety of food. Over these past few years I have enjoyed cooking meals that are nourishing and tasty. I'm aware that good food equals good mood, therefore I try to eat as healthily as possible without restricting myself. However, I think it's all about balance too. As much as I enjoy nutritious and wholesome food, I love treats and snacks here and there. Life is for living! I feel it is important to try not to demonise food. Personally, I don't believe in "cheat days" or "guilt free foods". I believe that food is food and it is to be enjoyed. Q: Any bad habits? A: Absolutely! Where do I start? I have a few that I am currently working on and trying to combat. My screen time is embarrassingly high so I feel I could cut down on the amount of time I spend on my phone. Another poor habit is not being the best timekeeper. I'm improving slowly but surely but I'm just not there yet. In my opinion, recognising poor habits is the first step to changing them, although I aim not to be too hard on myself and I try to take small steps for long term self-improvement. Q: Do you drink and smoke/ if so how much? A: I enjoy an occasional G&T with friends, and I am a non-smoker, thankfully. Q: Do you take any supplements? A: Only within these past few months I have started taking supplements. It takes a while to feel and see the benefits internally and externally. I take a range of supplements daily, mainly for my skin and gut health. The most beneficial supplements I take are fish oil and vitamin D. Q: How do you take time out? A: Taking time out is vital for my productivity and energy levels. I have learned that taking time out is so important for my overall wellbeing. I always say "Self-care is the best care. It isn't selfish, it's essential". There are many ways I take time out depending on how I feel. I love listening to podcasts, going for walks or hikes, swimming in the sea, getting my teeth into a good book, meeting a friend for a coffee, having a laugh with my nieces and nephews, or taking a long relaxing soak in the bath. I practice one or more of these each day. It really is the simple things that mean the most. Q: How well do you sleep? A: My sleep has improved in recent months. Strangely, I would be a night owl but also a morning person too. What has helped me is a simple swap at bedtime which has boosted my quality of sleep. Instead of scrolling on my phone at night, I prefer to read a book instead. Making my room conducive to sleep has also been a game changer - having low lighting at night and a clutter-free room are my top tips. At the minute I get an average of eight hours sleep per night which I am pleased about. Q: Do you worry about getting old? A: "Growing old is a privilege denied to many" is one of my favourite quotes. Growing old or ageing thankfully doesn't worry me. I totally embrace my age and stage in life. I'm 32 and I'm a lot happier and content in my 30s than I was in my late 20s. I am also of the mindset that unnecessary worry can prevent you from enjoying the present and steals your joy. Q: What is your go-to product that keeps you feeling healthy? A: H20. Drinking plenty of water daily helps me feel healthy and hydrated. Annette was a proud and passionate ambassador of this year's Darkness Into Light, helping to raise vital funds for suicide prevention across Northern Ireland. You can still donate at www.darknessintolight.com

Children and a teacher were killed in a shooting accident at a school in the Russian city of Kazan. Reports of the number of deaths varied. But officials said at least seven children died, and others were injured and taken to hospital. A teenager was arrested after the attack on the school, located about 820 kilometers east of Moscow, in the Muslim-majority republic of Tatarstan. The President of Tatarstan, Rustam Minikhanov, described the shooting as a "tragedy". Commenting on the attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would review the laws on carrying weapons in his country. School shootings are relatively rare in Russia. One of the last major incidents occurred in Russia's annexed Crimea in 2018. what do we know about the accident? The shooting took place at School No. 175 in Kazan on Tuesday. Heavily armed police and emergency services vehicles rushed to the scene. Video footage circulated on social media showed some children jumping from the windows to escape, in addition to evacuating the wounded. Russian television reported that two children died after jumping from a window on the second floor. A student who witnessed the attack described what happened to the Russian news site MediaZuna. "Everyone started to panic," he said. "They closed the doors. After about a minute, the school principal started shouting, 'We are closing the doors.'" He added, "We went out after about 15 minutes. We did not go out of the windows. I wanted to do that, but the teacher immediately closed the window and said no." Reports initially stated that there were two armed men and one of them was killed, but officials later said there was only one suspect. Officials confirmed eight deaths. The president of Tatarstan said that among the victims were four male and three female eighth-graders. His press office later added that a teacher was also killed in the accident. He told reporters outside the school that in addition to the deaths, 12 children and four adults were being treated in the hospital. Six children were reported to be in critical condition. One of the videos on social media showed a teenager lying on the ground, apparently being held outside the school building. In the aftermath of the attack, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that President Putin ordered the head of the Russian National Guard "to urgently draw up new regulations regarding the types of weapons that can be in circulation to civilians and that the public can possess." Interfax news agency quoted Peskov as saying that the instructions were issued "in light of the type of firearm used by the shooter." According to local media reports, security forces in Kazan were searching houses, in the area where the suspected shooter lived, while the entrances to schools in the area were cordoned off.

Thank you for sharing this story! However, please do so in a way that respects the copyright of this text. If you want to share or reproduce this full text, please ask permission from Innovation Origins (partners@innovationorigins.com) or become a partner of ours! You are of course free to quote this story with source citation. Would you like to share this article in another way? Then use this link to the article: https://innovationorigins.com/en/software-contract-simplifies-cooperation-between-different-industrial-interfaces/ Automation makes things easier. But it can also lead to problems. The software of the various systems that make up an industrial process must be able to communicate with each other. In practice, linking software turns out to be very complex. The problem can now be solved with ComMa, a method developed by TNO-ESI in collaboration with Philips, according to a press release issued today. TNO-ESI is a research group within the the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) that focuses on the design and engineering of high tech and embedded systems. Furthermore, the organisation offers special programmes for supporting innovation and developing the competence of system architects. Using ComMA, software builders are able to describe the interfaces of a component. This is how data is exchanged on what a certain component of the system should do and when it should do it. Based on these ComMA specifications, a variety of things can be generated, such as code for interaction technology (middleware), documentation, monitoring and testing. Thank you for sharing this story! However, please do so in a way that respects the copyright of this text. If you want to share or reproduce this full text, please ask permission from Innovation Origins (partners@innovationorigins.com) or become a partner of ours! You are of course free to quote this story with source citation. Would you like to share this article in another way? Then use this link to the article: https://innovationorigins.com/en/software-contract-simplifies-cooperation-between-different-industrial-interfaces/ “ComMA creates a contract, as it were, between the components that need to work together,” Jozef Hooman explains. He is a senior researcher at ESI (TNO) and a professor at Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands. “It’s like buying a car. You make agreements about the delivery of the car, the payment, the order in which those actions take place and the delivery time. This kind of contract is essential to enable software components to work together properly. We use ComMA to formalise this and also to generate the means to test and monitor whether a component is fulfilling the terms of the contract. ComMA is integrated into the software development process at Philips.” ComMa will be available as an open source package via the Eclipse Foundation. The Eclipse Foundation is a renowned worldwide community for cooperation and innovation in the field of open source software. TNO recently became a member of this non-profit organisation. Expectations are that this will be realised by mid 2021 under the name Eclipse CommaSuite™. Until that time, the technology is available to ESI partners and others through a licencing agreement.

Chinese banking institutions have introduced central bank digital currency (CBDC) hardware prototypes for several different use cases. The People’s Bank of China (PBoC), the nation’s central bank, and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) have introduced prototype hardware devices that aim to offer support for the use of the virtual renminbi across multiple applications. The PBoC and ICBC showcased the devices at the 4th Digital China Construction Summit held in the city of Fuzhou, where digital commerce firm JD.com confirmed that it had started paying staff members in the virtual yuan. At the event, Chinese Fintech giants Ant Group and Tencent also showcased their contributions to ongoing CBDC research and development (R&D) initiatives. During the event, the PBoC showcased a device for converting physical currency notes and foreign currency into the virtual yuan and uploading them to a CBDC hardware wallet smart card. As first reported by Sina News, foreigners carrying passports will simply have to place foreign currency into these machines and then the machine will automatically provide a digital RMB card. The news outlet further explained that the card will display screen “showing the transaction amount and available balance, so it is also called a ‘visual chip’ wallet.” With this particular wallet, foreigners may easily spend their funds on terminals that will take virtual renminbi payments in the future. The application scenarios will aim to cover Chinese shopping malls, supermarkets, vending machines, transportation, education, medical care, and farmer’s markets, the news outlet confirmed while adding that “it will be officially put into use at the Winter Olympics for the first time next year.” ICBC also showcased a hardware device that allows people to exchange physical currency (coin and paper) into the virtual yuan in either an online or digital wallet or a hardware wallet smart card (and may operate in online and offline mode). ICBC’s other prototype devices reportedly include agricultural aid vending machines that allow people to provide virtual yuan public welfare donations on a digital commerce platform. There’s also a digital yuan smartphone that “can realize multiple functions such as hardware wallet issuance, wallet recharge and withdrawal, digital renminbi transfer and remittance, domestic and foreign currency exchange of digital renminbi, and provides a full range of digital renminbi services for disadvantaged groups in digital finance and short-term overseas visitors to China,” according to a report from the Mobile Payment Network (MPN). During the two-day event, they also revealed devices that were enabled for digital renminbi payments, such as “special-shaped hardware wallets”, “student watches” and “large-screen voice broadcast wallets”. MPN reported that these initiatives intend to “promote the implementation of hardware wallets in closed scenarios such as retirement communities.” JD.com also mentioned in a blog post: “In a test run that started in January, JD used the solution for payroll payment for some of its employees who are based in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Changsha and Xi’an. Employees can transfer the digital RMB to their regular personal bank accounts, or use it directly to make purchases via selected offline stores or JD’s online platform. This payroll program improves efficiency for the payment process, especially when there is a need to pay multiple entities or transferring to other banks.” A spokesperson from the payroll department at JD Technology explained: ‘The process is similar to paying by cash, and employees will receive the fund immediately, helping us to improve the process’.” While attending the summit, Ant Group and Tencent revealed that they’re working closely as technical partners in China’s CBDC pilot. Last year, Ant Group entered a cooperation agreement with PBoC’s Digital Currency Research Institute that will see “the two parties carry out exchanges and cooperation in the technical field and do not involve specific product selection,” Sina confirmed. Sina further noted: “It is understood that this cooperation will be based on Ant Group’s independent research and development of distributed database OceanBase and mobile development platform mPaaS, and jointly promote the construction of a digital RMB technology platform. As an operating agency, Tencent directly participated in the presentation of the digital renminbi results. Since the launch of the digital renminbi project, Tencent has also been deeply involved in related design, R&D and operation work, providing support for the implementation of the digital renminbi.” Reuters reveals that large banks in Shanghai have “quietly” been “promoting” the virtual yuan by asking merchants and retailers to download digital wallets so that transactions during the pilot may be completed directly in digital yuan. These processes reportedly bypass the payment infrastructure provided by tech giants such as Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba 9988.HK, and Tencent 0700.HK.

"Just a few months ago, Sennheiser announced it was looking for somebody to buy its Consumer product business—including its po[CENSORED]r audiophile-grade headphones. It didn't take long for it to find one, either, as the company has announced that Sonova, a Swiss hearing aid company, will take over the reins later this year. The €200 million ($243m) deal will earn Sonova ownership of the Sennheiser brand and product lineup, subject to a successful transfer by the end of 2021. Sennheiser will use this opportunity to focus primarily on its pro lineup. It's unlikely you'll see a Sonova HD 800 S replacing the flagship Sennheiser HD 800 S on the shelves, though. The deal includes a license for future use of the Sennheiser brand, which means the Sennheiser branding is sure to stick around as the face of the consumer headphone biz. Furthermore, the two have agreed on a permanent cooperation clause as a part of the deal. What that means for the design of future products is unclear, but if it can keep future Sennheiser consumer products close to the Sennheiser heritage that'll be to everyone's benefit. Sennheiser's pristine reputation in the audiophile market has been earned with consistently decent high-end headphones over the years, and it would be a huge shame to see that slip at all. We couldn't have asked for a better partner than Sonova for our Consumer Electronics business," Daniel Sennheiser, co-CEO at Sennheiser, says. "Sonova is a strong, well-positioned company. Not only do we share a passion for unique audio experiences, we also share very similar corporate values. This gives us an excellent foundation for a successful future together." This isn't the first time that Sennheiser has licensed its brand to another. In fact, its gaming headsets, notably the GSP lineup, were made and manufactured under a joint venture between Sennheiser and Demant, then known as Sennheiser Communications. This was dissolved in 2020, and led to the formation of EPOS as a standalone headset brand offering both new EPOS-branded headphones and co-branded legacy Sennheiser ones.

Imagine cuddling up with a puppy. She’s fluffy, wriggly, and is happily panting puppy breath in your face. Now, imagine that in book form. Granted, it may not be quite as adorable, but the book version comes with a lot fewer responsibilities, and they get to stay puppies forever! If you’re an animal lover, there’s nothing quite like curling up with a book that puts them front and centre. There are no shortage of genres that explore our relationship with other species on Earth, from tear-jerker children’s books (whyyyy?) to fantasy novels with talking horses to cozy mystery series. That’s why we asked you what animal stories we should be adding to our TBRs! They didn’t have to be about the typical dogs or cats, either. I’m always looking for a good alpaca farmer memoir or lizard-loving YA novel. Here are your recs crawling with all kinds of critters! Watership Down by Richard Adams Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey Mrs. Murphy Series by Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton Mimi Lee Gets a Clue by Jennifer J. Chow Yasmin the Zookeeper by Saadia Faruq We Love You, Charlie Freeman by Kaitlyn Greenidge The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide Duncton Wood by William Horwood Chi’s Sweet Home series by Konami Kanata Copper by Kazu Kibuishi The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan Watchers by Dean Koontz H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil The Friend by Sigrid Nunez The Bees by Laline Paull Reynard the Fox stories Perestroika in Paris by Jane Smiley I Am A Cat by Natsumi Soseki Tales from Gorilla Girl and Gorilla Diaries by Ann Southcombe The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Renault promises the introduction of a 280 hp rechargeable hybridization on its future models. The ideal block for the future Alpine badged Kadjar coupé? New Renault Kadjar coupé - On May 6, the French manufacturer revealed the outlines of its future strategy , through a “Talk” broadcast online. In addition to the evocation of the new Mégane E-Tech Electric , which will be unveiled next fall, Renault has expressed its desire to expand hybrid powertrains , with the result of a rechargeable variant accumulating 280 hp which would fit perfectly. to the future Alpine badged Kadjar coupé. An offer to develop If, for more than 10 years, Renault has taken a step ahead of its French competitors, when it comes to 100% electric vehicles , rechargeable hybridization is not yet one of the priorities of the Diamond. For the moment, only having a PHEV unit developing 160 hp to drive its Captur and its Mégane , the former Régie is not yet able to compete with the firepower of the Stellantis catalog declined in 225, 300 and even 360 hp, while waiting for a more modest variant of 180 hp , soon to be released by the new Peugeot 308 . However, Renault has the merit of a more affordable offer, via its unique 160 hp offer. 200 and 280 hp hybrids For the coming months, Renault is announcing the reinforcement of a classic hybrid E-Tech mechanical, therefore non-rechargeable, 200 hp strong , that the new generation of Kadjar , expected in 2022, will have the honor to inaugurate. Sharper than in the past, this second generation of compact SUV aims for a high level of dynamism to worry the Peugeot 3008 . In the longer term, it will rely in particular on a coupe body with a leaky flag, to establish its new status . The future 280 hp rechargeable hybrid block, based on a 1.2 TCe 3-cylinder engine, will target this variation in particular . The "Alpine" effect P revised for 2024 , this engine, which will compete with the 3008 Hybrid4 with 300 hp , will benefit from all - wheel drive, via the addition of a second engine on the rear axle. From there to conclude that this Kadjar coupe will be badged Alpine, there is only one step that Auto-Moto allows itself to take, insofar as Luca de Meo, at the head of the Renault group, is was recently committed to applying this type of finish on the most upscale models in the catalog, in order to increase the profitability of the brand's sales. A “fullness” of Alpine SUVs to come? Thus, it is an avalanche of Alpine SUVs that can be expected within the Renault range, in the more or less long term. The first of its kind could be the Arkana, running in 2022 , although the machine is not really decided to strengthen its game, in terms of engines. The offer of the Mégane E-Tech Electric Alpine, hoped for in 2023 , will prove to be more legitimate, through an electric motor unit providing around 400 hp. Without forgetting the introduction of a real Alpine SUV , in the coming years, in order to compete with the electric Porsche Macan , scheduled for the course of the year 2022.

Known as the first Chinese e-commerce platform for lifestyle brands, Onion Global on May 7 formally went public at the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “OG”, offering 12.5 million American depository shares (ADS) and achieving the maximum increase of more than 57%. Onion Global is a next-generation lifestyle brand platform that incubates, markets and distributes the world’s fresh, fashionable and future brands to young people, with a unique and innovative business model that leverages key opinion consumers (KOC) representing a total of nearly 700,000 social media accounts. The firm, founded in 2015, currently works with over 4,000 brands across 43 countries and regions through various partners and KOCs. “Our company is positioned as a global brand asset management group,” He Shan, CFO of Onion Global said at the listing ceremony. The prospectus demonstrates that for 2020, the group recorded annual revenue of over 3.8 billion yuan ($591 million), with net profits in excess of 200 million yuan ($31 million), more than double that of 2019. The international e-commerce platform had completed five separate rounds of financing by the time of going public. A report from China Investment Corp shows that according to its total revenue in 2019, Onion Global is the tenth-largest lifestyle brand platform in the country. According to the firm’s gross merchandise value generated by online cross-border retail in 2019, it places fifth among about 30 similar platforms providing import and export business for quality life brands in China. Over recent years, the rise of new consumption patterns has become one of the hot spots across capital markets. China’s city dwellers aged between 18 and 35 have become the most influential consumers within China’s lifestyle brands market. Onion Global’s brand management mode for this specific consumer group is expected to reshape customer behavior and lead the consumption trend of quality life products. “The reason why we chose to recruit KOCs to sell goods at the beginning was that I noticed the existence of freelance retail consultants. When the cross-border e-commerce industry had not yet taken shape, they had strong selling skills and solid customer group, so we wanted to explore how to help them operate more effectively without hoarding goods,” He Shan said in an interview with National Business Daily. The ability of the KOCs to talk directly to consumers has allowed Onion Global’s brand management team to always be one step ahead of market trends in order to meet the expectations of the young generation of consumers. Onion Global is focusing its future development on the urban markets of third and fourth-tier cities, with the help of its social e-commerce model. Pan Jianyue, CMO of Onion Global, said in 2019 that the company enjoys the advantage of integrating cross-border e-commerce and social e-commerce, which could empower its brands with high growth potential in less developed cities through social media. More than 4,000 brands that Onion Global currently cooperates with are mainly second-tier brands and niche trendy brands. SEE ALSO: Alibaba Acquires NetEase Kaola for $2 Billion However, it is uncertain for the firm to rely merely on their unique model to stand out in cross-border e-commerce, which is likely to become crowded with other e-commerce giants in the future. According to a report released by Analysys, in the fourth quarter of 2020, the international market share of Tmall, Kaola and JD.com was 37.2%, 27.5% and 14.3%, respectively.

Reshuffles are moments when leaders have a chance to assert their authority - to show they are in charge. Even the most ardent political obsessive would acknowledge (probably) that opposition reshuffles are not necessarily noticed by the public. But they matter to the mood and atmosphere of parties and Parliament. And for a party to win favour with voters over time, it needs to show the public trusted and favourite faces, to give the impression of an organisation ready for government - a group of people who we can all imagine in charge. Sir Keir Starmer's first reshuffle, however, has been a very messy affair. Dodds out in Labour's post-election reshuffle Labour's deputy leader sacked as party chair Labour insiders on Starmer, what went wrong and how to fix it It began badly with a bust up with his deputy, Angela Rayner, who was being moved from one of her roles - in charge of campaigns. Her allies said she was being sacked. Sir Keir's team said she was being moved. They can't both be telling the whole truth. But there was a late night howl of backlash to the notion she was being ousted, putting pressure on the leader to find a way to make her stay. 'No mood to compromise' It took all day for the two to agree. That may seem astounding given that Sir Keir is meant to be the boss. Remember, however, that Ms Rayner's position as deputy leader is an elected one, and even the suggestion of her losing part of her role had already provoked outrage. Clearly, she was in no mood to compromise. Whether it was settled in the end by an arm wrestle, a staring match, or screaming and shouting, the length of time it took created a massive vacuum - which Sir Keir's critics on the left of the party filled, almost with glee, to push him for a change in direction. And even some of his backers felt anxious, cross about the delays, concerned about the competence of the so called "brains trust" - a nickname for his team of advisers, not always used in a very complimentary way.

(Subscribe to our Today's Cache newsletter for a quick snapshot of top 5 tech stories. Click here to subscribe for free.) Nintendo has announced a new software dubbed Game Builder Garage for its Switch video game console that is designed to help people create their own video games. The software offers guided lessons covering basics of visual game programming and can be used by anyone even without prior experience in creating a video game, the company noted in a release. Also Read | Nintendo forecasts decline in Switch sales, warns of chip uncertainty “For anyone who has always wanted to make their own video games, Game Builder Garage is the perfect place to start,” Nick Chavez, SVP, Sales and Marketing at Nintendo of America, said in a release. “Through the use of guided lessons and memorable Nodon characters, Game Builder Garage helps make creating video games just as much fun as playing them!” Dozens of colourful Nodon creatures, each with a specific function, help in building a game. People can learn the process of building a game “just by connecting” the Nodon creatures in a number of ways, Nintendo said. Also Read | NASA lets kids build Mars helicopter video game In Lesson Mode, people will use the Nodon creatures to learn the concept of visual programming in step-by-step, interactive lessons with checkpoints in between for them to test their knowledge. The guided lessons can teach people to build seven games, including Tag Showdown, On a Roll, Thrill Racer, Alien Blaster, and Mystery Room. In Free Programming mode, people can try their game ideas, as well as test what they have learned in the guided lessons. Also Read | Nintendo’s new Mario Kart game offers virtual racing experience The software allows people to quickly switch between the programming and game screens to check their game’s progress. They can build a game using button controls, the touchscreen in handheld mode, along with an option to use a compatible mouse connected to the Nintendo Switch dock, the video game company noted. Game Builder Garage will be available on June 11 in Nintendo eShop and on Nintendo.com for $29.99 (about ₹2,200), Nintendo said.

The pandemic drove cloud and as-a-service consumption models into countless companies. The need for on-the-fly flexibility continues as uncertainty about the future hangs over many. So is it the end for on-premises hardware? Actually, plenty of companies plan to stay on the hybrid track they had mapped out before COVID-19. Can providers take the parts of as-a-service they’ve come to love and graft them onto hardware? “There are new levels of unpredictability that have been accelerating this adoption of as-a-service,” said Alyson Langon (pictured, left), senior manager of product marketing at Dell Technologies Inc. “[Companies] don’t want to make big upfront investments in infrastructure when they’re having such a hard time forecasting their needs.” But, believe it or not, some effects of pay-per-drip pricing are not loved by all. For example, when usage stretches, so do costs, which can result in unpleasant surprises on the monthly bill, like overage charges and fees. Moreover, some applications may be better placed on-prem for various reasons. “There’s still a segment of customers that wants some technology control, they want to build their cloud, they want to build their infrastructure,” said Devon Reed (pictured, right), senior director of product management at Dell Technologies. Will they have to sacrifice the OpEx pricing, fast procurement and on-demand scalability of cloud and as-a-service in exchange? Reed and Langon spoke with John Furrier, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during Dell Technologies World. They discussed typical as-a-service pros and cons and Dell’s new APEX infrastructure offering. (* Disclosure below.) As-a-service scaling minus overage charges Some key as-a-service features are transferable to hardware, according to Langon. Dell’s new APEX, for example, lets companies procure and use hardware owned and managed by Dell that is also elastically scalable. The first product in the APEX portfolio is storage. Customers commit to an initial base capacity and are able to scale above or beneath that base and pay just for what they use. A main differentiator is that APEX eliminates billing surprises. “You’re not getting any overage penalties or fees for going into that on-demand. It’s essentially a single rate based on your commitment, and as much as you scale up and down, you’re going to stay within one single rate,” Langon said. Customers can also raise their base commitment coterminously, Langon added. “If they’re seeing a strong growth trajectory or anticipating a burst in usage for some data-intensive workloads, we can raise that floor commitment, resulting in a lower rate, but still a single rate for both base and on-demand,” she said. Procurement is speedy, and Dell takes care of tasks today’s companies don’t want to fuss with, according to Reed. “The time it’s dropped to the time that they can provision their first volume is 14 days. And we manage everything for them from capacity management, to change management, to software lifecycles, patching, [non-disruptive upgrades],” he said. Reed added that APEX is built for hybrid, and Dell is in fact announcing a relationship with co-location provider Equinox. The two will offer a subscription service that allows customers to place APEX infrastructure off-premises in a co-location facility. APEX might be the right mix of critical as-a-service advantages — OpEx pricing and on-demand scaling — sans overage charges for customers that aren’t ready for all-cloud, Langon explained. “You’re able to align your expenses with actual usage versus anticipated usage. It eliminates that cycle of over- and under-provisioning, which either results in over-provisioned waste or under-provisioned risk,” she concluded. Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Dell Technologies World. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Dell Technologies World. Neither Dell Technologies Inc., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Which is the more reliable storage medium, a solid state drive (SSD) or a hard disk drive (HDD)? To help answer that question, cloud backup provider Backblaze provided some interesting drive failure stats in its latest reliability report, and things are looking good for SSDs. So far, anyway. Before now, Backblaze has never included SSD stats into its reliability reports. It only began using SSDs as boot drives a little over two years ago, as that is when it could finally procure models around 200GB in capacity for less than $50, which is what it was paying for 500GB HDDs. So now two years later, Backblaze is able to compare failure rates between its SSDs and HDDs as boot drives, from within the same environment. Out of the 1,518 SSDs deployed, only two of them failed last quarter (January 1 through March 31, 2021), for an annualized failure rate of 0.58%. Meanwhile, 44 out of 1,669 HDDs failed during the same time period, resulting in a much higher annualized failure rate of 10.56%. Backblaze also provided lifetime HDD and SSD annualized failure rates, from April 20, 2013 to March 3, 2021. Over the past eight years, Backblaze experienced 559 HDD failures, for a 6.04% annualized failure rate, compared to eight SSD failures for a piddly 0.65% failure rate. Simply put, "SSD drives fail less often than HDD drives," so case closed, right? Not so fast. Backblaze readily acknowledges "that ignores one important factor: drive age." "If we focus on the age of each of the cohorts, there are potential cracks in our 'SSD drives are better' supposition," Backblaze says. On average, the SSDs included in the latest reliability report are just 12.7 months old, versus the average age of the HDDs deployed as boot drives being 49.6 months. The oldest SSD in Backblaze's stable is 30 months, while the youngest HDD is 24 months. And the oldest HDD is 96 months, or eight years). So there is a big discrepancy in drive age, and it is a data point that matters when it comes to evaluating storage reliability and drive failure stats. "Basically, the timelines for the age of the SSD and HDD drives don’t overlap very much and in general drive failure rates typically increase as drive po[CENSORED]tion ages. These two considerations make the conclusion that SSD fail less often than HDD drives not as clear cut as it first seems," Backblaze says. There is another aspect that is not really discussed in detail by Backblaze, that being the limited write durability of SSDs. That becomes a bigger factor when using an SSD to perform frequent backups—NAND flash memory cells wear out after many repeated writes. This doesn't matter quite as much when buying an SSD for a gaming PC (though generally speaking, if looking for the best SSD for gaming, you should still consider the endurance rating in terabytes written, or TBW). Probably for that reason, Backblaze does not use SSDs for storing customer data. However, the company says labeling them as boot drives "is a misnomer as this cohort is also used to store log files for system access, diagnostics, and more." They're regularly reading and writing data, in other words, and deleting files, which are chores in addition to booting up servers. So what's the takeaway? In the early going, it sure seems SSDs fail less often than HDDs, at least in a supercharged boot environment. But more time and stats are needed for a better comparison with HDDs. In the more immediate future, Backblaze says it will plans to examine failure stats from the early years of each storage medium, and will publish those results in the coming months.

Julia, her friends and family agreed, had style. When, out of the blue, the 18-year-old chimpanzee began inserting long, stiff blades of grass into one or both ears and then went about her day with her new statement accessories clearly visible to the world, the other chimpanzees at the Chimfunshi wildlife sanctuary in Zambia were dazzled. Pretty soon, they were trying it, too: first her son, then her two closest female friends, then a male friend, out to eight of the 10 chimps in the group, all of them struggling, in front of Julia the Influencer — and hidden video cameras — to get the grass-in-the-ear routine just right. “It was quite funny to see,” said Edwin van Leeuwen of the University of Antwerp, who studies animal culture. “They tried again and again without success. They shivered through their whole bodies.” Dr. van Leeuwen tried it himself and understood why. “It’s not a pleasant feeling, poking a piece of grass far enough into the ear to stay there,” he said. But once the chimpanzees had mastered the technique, they repeated it often, proudly, almost ritualistically, fiddling with the inserted blades to make sure others were suitably impressed. Julia died more than two years ago, yet her grassy-ear routine — a tradition that arose spontaneously, spread through social networks and skirts uncomfortably close to a human meme or fad — lives on among her followers in the sanctuary. The behavior is just one of many surprising examples of animal culture that researchers have lately divulged, as a vivid summary makes clear in a recent issue of Science. Culture was once considered the patented property of human beings: We have the art, science, music and online shopping; animals have the instinct, imprinting and hard-wired responses. But that dismissive attitude toward nonhuman minds turns out to be more deeply misguided with every new finding of animal wit or whimsy: Culture, as many biologists now understand it, is much bigger than we are.

Released in 2019, the second generation of Peugeot 208 is already thinking about its overhaul. What changes can we expect on the techno and aesthetic side in 2023? New Peugeot 208 2023: what changes during restyling? - Regularly trusting to the n ° 1 place in European sales , all categories combined, the Sochaux city-dweller is already asserting itself, two years after its launch, as a huge box. A success that will not prevent it, in 2023, from reviewing its copy in order to stay in the race , as the competition is sharpening. By opting for a 100% electric variant, named e-208 , when the Clio 5 opted for hybridization , we did not give the skin of the Peugeot dear to shine commercially. But the figures speak for themselves, and seem to prove that the 208 is right: whether on the French market or in Europe, it is clearly ahead of its competitor of the Losange , and does not intend to rest on its laurels. A mini-308 In the course of 2023, it will widen its grille to acquire a new motif revolving around the coat of arms inaugurated by the 308 at the beginning of 2020 . A new logo that the 208 will proudly display on its front fenders, its revisited rims, as well as at the base of the tailgate. Coming back to the bow, the Franche-Comté could save on new headlights , unless they use Matrix LED technology, like the restyled Polo . On the other hand, its front bumper will offer a new design, more pierced with air inlets, whether real or fictitious. In order not to obstruct the grille, the base of which should be raised a handful of centimeters, the license plate will likely migrate lower. At the rear, few changes are expected, and it is still too early to mention any modification to the level of the lights or the shield. A real electric range? It is more certain that the restyled Peugeot 208 will modernize its range of thermal engines, with a probable conversion of its 3-cylinder petrol to 48 V light hybridization . As for the 100% electric powertrain, it is rumored that a more powerful variant will support the current 100 kW (136 hp) engine, for the needs of a sporty model, badged PSE. Without achieving the characteristics of the late 208 GTi (208 hp) , the future e-208 PSE would turn around 170 hp largely sufficient to offer acceleration similar, or even superior to its predecessor, thanks to the immediacy of the maximum torque. , inherent in electromotors. Enhanced autonomy In addition to this quest for power, the restyled Peugeot e-208 should also improve the capacity of its battery, and why not offer a real range, with several levels of autonomy offered. We can bet that the 400 km WLTP will be greatly exceeded to do better than the current Renault Zoe. New Peugeot 208 price Launched in the course of 2023 , the new restyled Peugeot 208 will also see its prices change. Its base price will then blithely exceed 17,000 € , no doubt.

When Dennis Box thinks of the men living in his small farming community, he loses count of those who have experienced prostate cancer, and he wonders why. The 68-year-old grain farmer from Northampton in Western Australia's Wheatbelt has survived Australia's most common male cancer, something he credits to early detection and regular health screenings. Now Mr Box and his wife Alison wonder if prostate cancer is more prevalent in rural communities like theirs and what could be causing this. "I've been thinking about it for a long time, whether the rural blokes on the farm have more trouble with it than anyone else, or whether it's just one of those things with men these days," he said. Mr Box said the pair contemplated factors like diet, genetics, lifestyle or his own personal exposure to agricultural chemicals, particularly during the "early days" of farming, before personal protective equipment and filtered airflow in drivers' machinery cabs were used by farmers. He said in the early days of his farming in the 1970s, farmers handled chemicals frequently without protective equipment, a vast contrast to modern practices. "I drive the boom spray on the farm. I do all of the sprayings and have done since boom sprays came out, and before that with the old misters and stuff like that, so you were open to all of that … all open cabs," Mr Box said. "So all of these chemicals, do they build up in your body enough to come out one day down the track? "It might not happen straight away, but in 40 years time it might break out and end up in a cancer like that. You really don't know what causes it. "It's just something that the city blokes and the country blokes — it doesn't matter where you are — have to follow up and do your [prostate] tests."

The federal Liberals and Conservatives were both evasive when asked if Canadians abroad who have access to a COVID-19 vaccine should get a shot, but other federal leaders and health experts encourage such action if people get the opportunity. CBC News posed the question to four federal parties and health experts: Should Canadians who are snowbirds, or who are out of the country for business or other reasons, take advantage of vaccines that may be available there? Cole Davidson, a spokesman for federal Liberal Health Minister Patty Hadju, would not answer the question directly, saying only that they "encourage everyone to get vaccinated when it's their turn, but we've been clear: now is not the time to travel." Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole was similarly coy about whether Canadians should be getting inoculations outside of the country. He instead slammed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government for being "slow and incompetent when it comes to securing vaccines for Canadians." In a statement to CBC News, O'Toole referred to the recent agreement in which North Dakota would administer shots to Manitoba truck drivers, teachers and other school employees, a deal he said "underscores the complete failure of the Trudeau government." Currently around 35 per cent of the Canadian po[CENSORED]tion has been vaccinated with at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. On Thursday, Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, the military commander leading vaccine logistics at the Public Health Agency of Canada, said that with future deliveries of Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca-Oxford, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, there should be more than enough supply on hand for everyone 12 and older to get one shot by the nation's birthday. Ontario approaches Michigan about possibility of essential workers getting vaccinated stateside Still, the interval between second shots could be months. And with demand declining in the U.S., some Canadians are flying there to get their shots, Reuters reported. Some states do not require residency proof to get a COVID-19 vaccination, making it easier for Canadians to acquire a shot there. Meanwhile, just this week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford approached the governor of Michigan about the possibility of having essential workers who cross the border from Canada vaccinated against COVID-19 stateside. Should get vaccine 'wherever they are' NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, while accusing the government of failing to secure enough vaccines, said in a statement that "Canadians should get the vaccine when they can access it, wherever they are in the world."

With digital innovation comes the possibility to create completely new market categories, as increasing numbers of businesses find themselves generating ideas and solving problems in ways that haven’t been done before One such market category is that of value stream management, which has one simple objective: deliver value to the customer. But how do new categories come to exist? Let’s look at some examples to introduce the context. The leaders in category creation Social media is a great example of this. Approximately four billion people use social media worldwide, but what some users may be too young to know is that less than 30 years ago, social media employed nobody and generated zero revenue. Today, the market leaders are valued in their billions and the industry employs hundreds of thousands of people worldwide both directly and across a multitude of businesses servicing the sector. Over time, many pioneers of the social media category have dropped off the scene, unable to capitalise on their moment in the spotlight, while others have thrived – take MySpace vs Facebook as an example, among many others. Regardless of the sector, building a new market category is hugely ambitious, and success is never guaranteed. But, the development of new segments is also an inevitable result of human ingenuity and the appetite of societies for products and services that can fill a gap that hasn’t been filled before. Another example of the emergence of a new market category is the development of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Currently valued at over $40 billion worldwide, this recently created market counts global businesses such as Salesforce, Microsoft, Oracle and many others among its leading brands. Each of these companies offers increasingly intelligent tools to help organisations around the world manage their interactions with current and potential customers. Today, the industry is light years away from its roots in simple contact management software, underlining the direct correlation between innovation and bottom line success. It’s part of a well worn path in the technology industry where today’s niche innovation can become tomorrow’s leading trend. Innovation in software development Category creation can occur in almost every industry, and software development is no exception. Agile methodologies and DevOps have helped to transform the way that software is built, which in turn impacts virtually every other sector. DevOps, for example, began as a way to bring together development and IT operations to meet the need for continuous software delivery, and now is a mainstream technology segment in its own right. And among the hottest new technology markets today is Value Stream Management (VSM), which could be considered a ‘live’ case category creation study, as it has really only just emerged in the last couple of years. In a nutshell, value streams include everything involved in the delivery of software – from idea to the realisation of value. VSM removes the cumbersome and inefficient operational silos that are common in the traditional software development process, and instead builds connections between key processes, teams and tools to deliver better software. Real-time metrics are utilised to enable cross-team collaboration, embed governance in the software delivery process and coordinate automated workflows. This combination of capabilities support organisations in their efforts to deliver high-quality software at higher speeds but with lower risk – a massive priority for businesses across the economy. As a result, its rise has been rapid with the likes of the Value Stream Management Consortium’s inception to drive exponential growth in the software development industry. With this growth has come recognition that VSM has become much more than a nascent trend, but rather is a market category firmly in its own right. The impact of the VSM category While VSM has only come into the spotlight fairly recently, the concept is not as new as it seems, and its origins lie in the middle of the last century. But there have been changes that have enabled this category to finally come into its own. The founder of Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford is quoted as saying, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”, and this sentiment holds true to the creation of new market categories in general and VSM in particular. Essentially, innovators don’t necessarily set out to create a new market category per se, but rather they build business models that can help solve specific challenges or create new ways of doing things. In doing so, these teams ‘disrupt’ established practices and even entire markets. As increasing numbers of organisations realise the benefits that can be achieved and awareness of new ideas grows, competitors drive further innovation and momentum to stand out from the crowd. For a market niche like VSM, this is a virtuous circle where customer success has attracted the attention of investors who see the emergence of new market categories as an opportunity for significant returns. Developing the VSM market category gives individuals and businesses the rare opportunity to define and build solutions where customers not only reap benefits from the start, but they can also participate in the development process. There are a wealth of new technology markets coming into creation as innovation drives new ideas and investment. Compared to some of these, VSM may still be in its early stages, but as more organisations get on board and technology continually develops to support its aims, this emerging category will be one to watch out for.

Alley Cat Antiques manager Terri Berry has taken on the additional role of manager of Marine Supply and Hardware in Old Town Anacortes. A story in the May 5 Anacortes American misidentified Marine Supply's new manager. Berry joined Alley Cat Antiques in 2015 and became the antique store's manager in 2017, when Alley Cat purchased Marine Supply. As manager of Marine Supply, she succeeds Rick Sohn, who retired May 1 after 34 years with the company. Other members of the Marine Supply team are Joanne Reger, Donna Lane-Johnston, and newly hired part-time employee Mark McKinney, a retired oil refinery mechanic. Marine Supply was founded in 1910 by Efthemios “Mike” Demopoulos. The Demopoulos family sold the building in 2014 to the Port of Anacortes and the business in 2017 to Lea Mayberry of Alley Cat Antiques. Marine Supply and Hardware and other buildings on the block were placed in 2019 on the state’s Most Endangered Places list by the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation. — The manager's name was incorrect in a story in the May 5 Anacortes American.

A particularly mean Apex Legends bug is mistakenly dropping players into trios, duos, and even Arena matches without any teammates when the "Fill Teammates" box is checked before matchmaking. After three drops into Olympus all by my lonesome, I'm starting to think the game hates me. Respawn is aware of the issue, though no word yet on when a fix will be deployed. Responding to a Reddit post about the bug's persistence, Respawn comms director Ryan Rigley expressed frustration that it's still popping up following planned fixes. "God I hate this bug. We shipped some fixes with the season update that we thought would get it. Just gonna have to take another shot at it." Players first started experiencing accidental solo drops not long after the "Fill Teammates" button was introduced in March's Chaos Theory event update. Affected players have a lot of theories about what is causing the bug and how it might be avoided, but even reports from those who have repeatedly encountered the bug since March aren't very consistent. For instance, Reddit user Uncredited1's experience is all over the place, but does seem to happen on a cycle. "I only play trios. The first three or four games, I am alone or with one teammate. After that, I get a full squad for about five or six games. Then the cycle repeats. It fluctuates, good days and bad, but it does not seem to matter what time of day it is." Until a solution is finally found, we're pretty much out of luck. What makes the squad fill bug so frustrating is that you can't notice it's happening early and then back out of matchmaking. You only know that you've been hit with it once matchmaking has run its course, all players have loaded in, and you're finally greeted with a lonely character select screen. On the bright side, this is the perfect opportunity for me to drop into hot zones with nothing to lose and finally get good at Apex's shooting.

Vacant kennels fill the rooms of the facility. Employees explained the kennels have been empty since April 9. “We take in animals and we care for them until a rescue steps up or they get owners that are interested in adopting or reclaiming,” said Tabitha Hicks, a former employee. Hicks said she was fired after the city officials claimed the facility was unsafe. “I took it amongst myself to try and show the residents of Mount Carmel that it is indeed not caving in,” Hicks said. “In return for that, I was pulled into a meeting that was supposed to be about discussing policy to better perform my job.” City officials stated the facility is unsafe for housing animals because of roofing issues. Now, the animals are being sent to the Hawkins County Humane Society until the next Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting, when a decision may be made on whether the facility should continue operating. “All that was reported to the board earlier this year was we had a roof leak. It went from a small leak to somebody saying the building was unsafe,” Alderman Steven McLain said. “The building was constructed before we had a building code, so it doesn’t meet current code. So, I don’t understand how I can hear a lot of talk about the building not being up to code, well, it was built prior to code.” While safety is an issue, McLain said he believes the facility is an asset to Mount Carmel, therefore it needs to be relocated within the town. “It’s inside the sewer plants, fenced-in area. In my opinion, it would be a lot better out by itself where the public can access it a lot easier,” McLain said in a phone interview Wednesday morning. “We have the funds to do our animal shelter. I feel like it needs to stay inside the town.” Alderman John Gibson said he believes the animals should be transferred to Hawkins County Humane Society and that Mount Carmel should not be in the shelter business. “The facility definitely needs some repairing to the ceiling, to the roof, and we’ve got estimates of that upwards of $40,000,” Gibson said. “That’s where looking at the fact that we only have like 62 animals last year, it becomes a, ‘is it a really smart investment for us to spend that kind of money on repairing the animal shelter that’s only serving you know, that’s only serving 1-point-something animals a week.” McLain said, “From the people that I’ve talked to, 99% of them want an animal shelter in Mount Carmel. If my dog was out and they were to pick it up, I would have to drive to Rogersville to get it. You know, I don’t think that’s good business.” McLain said the town does have the funds for the animal control facility, which is sometimes used as an animal shelter, and believes it needs to stay inside the town. Hicks believes the town should stop outsourcing to other counties. “Selling, letting other businesses take over, as far as Hawkins County, they reached out to Kingsport. I mean, Kingsport already picks up their trash, I mean there’s plenty of residents in Hawkins County that would like jobs to stay within Hawkins County,” she explained outside of the animal control facility. “They don’t have money going to these animals. They don’t have the vet care done. I have paid to have the vet care done. I am one of many rescues that have paid to have these animals taken care of.” Hicks said she commends the Hawkins County Humane Society for stepping up during a time the animals need the community the most. “Without them, I don’t know what would happen to these animals,” Hicks said. The Board of Mayor and Aldermen plans to have a public hearing May 20 regarding the facility.

If classic motorcycles are boring you, now you can get a single wheel electric model to spice up your rides. Motorcycles, there are now all kinds, whether sports, models more dedicated to the ride, thermals but also electric . As with cars, two-wheeler manufacturers are also turning to this more virtuous type of motorization, while large bodies are making it more and more difficult to sell internal combustion vehicles, whatever they may be. While car brands began to electrify themselves a little while ago, the world of motorcycles and scooters is also starting to embrace it, and the biggest names such as Harley Davidsondo not escape it either. Enough to offer an even wider choice for customers, with models meeting all kinds of needs. But the vehicle we are telling you about today is still a little different, and should appeal to those looking for an original and compact vehicle. It is indeed possible to find on the Chinese site Alibaba a motorcycle at the very least surprising, since it has only one wheel, in addition to being propelled by an electric motor. At first glance, we have to admit that the machine has a particular look to say the least, even if some will notice a certain resemblance to the Ducati Monster, with its red frame and its dummy tank. But the family link ends there, while this astonishing "single wheel »Of another kind adopts a look at the very least confusing. Obviously, you wonder how such a machine can advance. In reality, it is very simple, since its operation is in fact similar to that of a segway. Then all you have to do is lean forward to move forward, and think backward to slow down. Interesting performances If this motorcycle is more of an unusual means of urban transport than a real vehicle, its performance is nevertheless quite interesting, with a maximum speed of 48km / h and its power of 2,000 watts., associated with a weight of about forty kilos on the scale. You will then be able to travel between 60 and 100 kilometers in a single charge, while this requires between three and twelve hours depending on the type of plug you have at home. Note that it is possible to get this amazing vehicle on the Alibaba site, for a displayed price from around € 2,200. A price that does not however include any taxes or customs fees, which can then cause the final invoice to rise depending on your place of residence. We don't know you, but we would love to test this machine, which could appeal to city-dwellers looking for an original and rather practical mode of transport, with its reduced weight and size.