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As much as we love it, hi-fi isn’t traditionally synonymous with convenience – those stacks of components and tangles of cables, the rigamarole around turntable assembly, the nuisance caused by being repeatedly bitten by the hi-fi upgrade bug. Aiming to bring the two closer is a new era of just-add-speakers streaming systems. In recent years, electronics brands have combined music streamers and amplifiers into do-all boxes to make the prospect of 'hi-fi sound' less daunting and more domestically attractive, to both the hi-fi and wider community. With such versatile streaming boxes, you could say the microsystem has come of age. Having established itself in both areas of audio expertise, Cambridge Audio has now entered the market – with its Evo 75 and more aspirational Evo 150. We sat down with the firm’s managing director, Stuart George, to talk about its approach to creating something that straddles hi-fi and lifestyle design; something that by its very nature should be relevant to a bigger audience than its dedicated separates. Read our Cambridge Audio Evo 75 review It all started with Edge, Cambridge’s flagship hi-fi series introduced in 2018. “When we launched Edge, one of the biggest requests was 'why didn't you put a streaming module in the Edge A amplifier?' And that was part of the inspiration for the Evo. Before then, our thoughts were that an all-in-one product had to include a CD player. Evo was never intended to be a ‘mini Edge’, but our concept was to try to get all the qualities of Edge into a small form factor.” George doesn't claim that Edge’s sonic qualities are matched by Evo. After all, Cambridge’s Edge NQ streaming preamp and Edge W power amp are a £6000-odd combination, while the Evo costs around a third of that – and even less comparable footprint-wise. Cambridge’s midrange CX series streamer and amplifier, a similarly-priced combination to the Evo, is a fairer comparison – and the benchmark for the Evo. “I’m not going to tell you it sounds as good as a CXN and CX81 together,” says George. "But it sounds pretty comparable; we aren’t talking about night and day differences, we’re talking shades. I can accept the word ‘lifestyle’, but this is a proper hi-fi product.”

There is growing evidence that many young people are putting down roots in small towns, drawn to a strong sense of community, the lower cost of living, the proximity to natural areas, and increasingly, the awareness of the ability to work remotely. A recent report from the Center for Rural Policy and Development found that wages in rural Minnesota can go further in meeting the cost of living compared to the seven-county metro area. Employers and economic development professionals can use this report and the accompanying tool that shows wage data for various occupations across the state to recruit more people to move to rural Minnesota. Additionally, remote work has become so commonplace that more people are able to live where they want to live instead of where their work is located. This is a huge opportunity for small towns to gain a younger generation of workers who are committed to building their lives in rural Minnesota. The Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF) can play a supporting role for people moving back to the region. For entrepreneurs who want to start or grow a business here, we offer business financing and training opportunities. For families who have young children, we support early childhood through a variety of programs and funding, including efforts to enhance the availability and quality of childcare facilities. Personally, there is no place I would rather be than in rural Minnesota. As the pandemic continues to shape our lives, I believe more and more people will be moving back home or choosing rural where they can work remotely or start their own businesses while taking advantage of small-town life. ST. PETER HERALD Sorry, Honey, No Beekeeping Four years after a proposal to allow beekeeping in the city of St. Peter was struck down by the city council, a new proposal suffered the same fate on April 26. The St. Peter City Council voted 5-2 against an ordinance that would have allowed the practice of keeping honeybees within city limits. Councilor Emil Bruflat, who also supported the 2017 proposal before she was on the council, and Brad DeVos were the two yes votes. Councilors Keri Johnson and Shanon Nowell, who had expressed an open mind to the proposal throughout several months of discussion, ended up voting against it due to the potential impact honeybees might have on other native pollinators in the community, believing that honeybees tend to dominate other pollinators and put more pressure on species that are already in decline. Maintaining that native pollinators and honeybees can successfully co-exist, Bruflat made the following argument. “First, all pollinators, including honeybees, are already here in St. Peter. We can’t legislate them away. Two, if one has the opinion that honeybees should only be in the country but also believes they’re invasive and should not be involved in conservation efforts, I believe those ideas are contradictory. Third, I would not vote for something I believe to be dangerous. I believe the risk in this case to be negligible…” Johnson suggested moving ahead on other pollinator friendly initiatives. “Many of the constituents who wrote us really asked the council to direct our energy and time toward promoting pollinator friendly practices as a city and /or incentives… I think that’s a great place to direct energy,” she said. Mayor Chuck Zieman and Councilors Ed Johnson and Stephen Grams, who were on the council in 2017, voted against the ordinance change then and now. SHAKOPEE VALLEY NEWS Different Look at Valleyfair After a rollercoaster year of shuttered gates, Valleyfair in Shakopee will open to the public May 22, and Soak City Waterpark will open May 29. The amusement park will still be operating under COVID-19 safety protocols, which means things will look different than they have in the past, and here are the details. Valleyfair will be closed most Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. It will be open most Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Fridays from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and weekends from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., though hours on certain dates may differ. Guests can check the park’s hours on specific dates at valleyfair.com/explore/calendar-and-hours. Guests will need to make reservations this year as a way for the park to maintain a controlled capacity. A face covering will be required on all rides and attractions except for water attractions. Wait lines for open rides and attractions will be marked for social distancing. Seats, restraints, headrests, and armrests will be sanitized frequently. The park encourages guests to download its mobile app, which allows guests to store tickets or season passes virtually. The app also includes ride wait times, show times, and an interactive map. Guests who purchased season passes for the 2020 season will be able to use their passes for the 2021 season. However, due to the park’s restricted calendar hours, the park responded to complaints on its Facebook page from guests who wanted refunds for their season passes. The park stated it would add a $35 “loyalty reward” to all 2020 season pass holders who chose to keep their passes. If guests are still interested in a refund, they can fill out a form online at valleyfair.com/help/contact-us. “Guests are encouraged to go to Valleyfair.com for the latest updates on requirements, policies, and safety protocols for the 2021 season, as these guidelines may be revised prior to opening day,” the release stated. CHASKA HERALD Family Tradition Tyr Christianson, a Chanhassen High school senior, will be the third member of his family to attend the United States Military Academy, commonly known as West Point, and the fourth to start his path toward full-time service in the military. Siblings Katarina, 23, and Torin, 22, are current cadets at West Point, located in New York, while brother Connor, 21, enlisted straight out of high school and is studying to be a helicopter pilot through ROTC at North Dakota University. With just 1,300 cadets admitted each year, West Point’s acceptance rate is around 10%, if applicants make it through the extensive application process, which requires high scores in academics, excelling at fitness tests, athletic skills, participation in extracurriculars, and nominations from state or national legislators. If accepted, cadets learn everything there is to know about the military and graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree and the rank of second lieutenant, then head straight into active duty. It’s a major commitment but one the Christianson siblings have been pursuing since middle school. “We’ve been very vocal in our family about service, honoring your country, and serving others. They all picked up on that, and as they got older, it became apparent they were all interested,” said mom Jackie Christianson, who has lived with her family in Carver since 2004. “It’s heartwarming to have them together and I think it’s brought them closer.” According to Tyr, “Torin said Katarina being there has helped him a lot, and I think it’ll be the same thing for me. We can help each other out with whatever’s going on, and if there’s a problem, you can go hang out with the other sibling, vent, and make things better. I’m kind of worried about doing things wrong, but it’s West Point. It’s going to happen. They’re going to push you until you fail, but it’s what you do when you fail that defines who you are.” CHANHASSEN NEWS MN State Mushroom Minnesota has an official state mushroom, the morel, which is a rare delicacy that has sparked a nationwide hobby for dedicated foragers. Typically, morel mushrooms can be found throughout the state in late April and May, but because they only appear for a few weeks out of the year and are nearly impossible to grow or farm indoors, morels and their earthy, nutty flavor are highly desirable to hunters and retailers and fetch a high price; you’ll find them in stores for around $60 per pound. Many hunt the elusive mushrooms, which have a spongy, cone-shaped cap and can range from pinky to softball sized, for their own kitchen. They’re delicious sautéed in butter, ground into a concentrated powder added to dishes like mushroom risotto or dehydrated and used as a topping. Others find morels to sell to local grocery stores and restaurants, as long as they were foraged legally, and the seller has training on identification. No matter the use, searching for morels can be a fun way to get outdoors and enjoy the thrill of the hunt, with an added, delicious bonus. There are plenty of old wives’ tales about the perfect growing weather, but it really comes down to temperature and moisture; the ground should be warm and the soil moist, said MN Master Naturalist Amy Rager, who is also the state’s program director and has hunted morels for years. With the ever-changing MN weather, it’s tough to put an exact time frame on when they’ll appear, but a good way to stay informed is checking neighboring states’ morel hunting Facebook groups. If they’re popping up in northern Iowa, expect them in MN within a few weeks. Others will share what county they’ve found morels in, but don’t expect any other details. “You never, ever give up your secret spots,” Rager said. Rager also offered the following advice. Ensure you’re on public land that allows foraging. Familiarize yourself with their appearance, since real morels are hollow inside and a yellow to brown color. Check around dead trees, such elm, ash, poplar, and aspen. While you’re hunting, look for other edible plants, like wild leeks. Once you’ve found morels, pinch or cut the stem right above the soil and haul them out in a mesh bag so they’re dropping more spores as you carry them through the forest. Remember they don’t store well, so be sure to use them within a few days.

A new packaging of Seeq features and packages was launched in March that features and applications as Seeq Team and Seeq Enterprise editions (photo). Both, which run best as SaaS on AWS or Microsoft Azure, represent the culmination of learning and experiences with hundreds of Seeq deployments in process-manufacturing organizations. For these manufacturers, Seeq enables advanced analytics insights to improve production and business outcomes across their organizations. Seeq Cortex, a renaming of Seeq Server, is included in both editions and is the execution engine that delivers key features, including multi-source and type data connectivity, security, calculation scalability, and other features. Seeq Cortex ensures immediate and long-term support for user data architectures and IT requirements. Among the Cortex benefits is the abstraction of data sources with high speed connectivity to multiple and diverse time series and contextual data sources, including historians and SQL-based data sources. — Seeq Corp., Seattle, Wash. www.seeq.com Related Content REPSOL AND MICROSOFT RENEW PARTNERSHIP DEVELOPING AI-POWERED DIGITAL SOLUTIONS Repsol S.A. (Madrid, Spain) and Microsoft Corp. (Redmond, Wash.) have renewed their strategic collaboration focused on accelerating Repsol’s digital transformation… AN INTEGRATED IOT SOFTWARE FOR WATER-TREATMENT FACILITIES This company is launching the IoT Solution Pack software application (photo) for water and wastewater treatment plants. IoT Solution Pack… SOFTWARE POWERS THE CPI IIoT technologies have enabled software platforms that are more powerful than ever, but fundamental engineering principles are still at the… NEW ACADEMIA-INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIP FOCUSED ON AI-DRIVEN MATERIALS DISCOVERY A new partnership focused on using artificial intelligence for materials discovery has been launched. The Alliance for AI-Accelerated Materials Discovery… HEIDE REFINERY ACCELERATES ITS DIGITAL JOURNEY WITH ASPEN TECHNOLOGY SOFTWARE Aspen Technology, Inc. (Bedford, Mass.) announced that Heide Refinery, one of the most complex refineries in Europe, has licensed Aspen…

Four years ago, when Charlie Boyle was about a year into his job running the unit of Nvidia that makes and sells full AI hardware solutions, many IT and data center managers were intimidated by this new class of hardware. Nvidia DGX systems – essentially AI supercomputers – are large, powerful, and gold colored. People that would have to support them in their data centers were worried about the hardware’s power density and intimidated by the presence of InfiniBand (an interconnect technology from the supercomputer world). Generally, they thought the systems would take some learning to get a handle on, and who in IT has time for that? Related: Nvidia Is Designing an Arm Data Center CPU for Beyond-x86 AI Models So, conversations Boyle used to have with customers often tended to start with him explaining that not only were these systems nothing to fear, but that they were designed to require no more, if not less, than the amount of IT personnel hours their typical enterprise servers required. “To an IT administrator, it’s just a bigger Linux box,” he said. “They shouldn’t be scared of it. It’s not esoteric.” Related: Nvidia Rolls Out Slew of New AI Hardware for Data Centers We recently interviewed Charlie Boyle, an Nvidia VP and general manager of the company’s DGX Systems unit, for The Data Center Podcast. We talked about what the arrival of AI hardware means for an IT organization and its data center staff, the role liquid cooling will inevitably play in data centers of the future, Nvidia’s own experience operating a massive AI hardware cluster across multiple data centers, AI computing infrastructure in the cloud vs. on-prem vs. in colo, and more.

Put simply, this Bluetooth speaker moves in response to music, but it's much more than just that. It's a groovy space-age dream of musical visualisation—the lava lamp of the future, today and is the brainchild of Hackaday maker Dakd Jung. A chamber in the middle of the speaker contains a liquid that dances to the beat of whatever is played via the Bluetooth music maker, and you can even adjust the behaviour of that liquid on the fly by twiddling the knobs on the front of the box. The project involves reprocessing the magnetically attracted, dancing ferrofluid used inside the speaker to give it more of that smooth lava lamp aesthetic. Because ferrofluid has a habit of sticking to glass surfaces, treatment of the water was necessary to remove the spiky look you apparently often get when playing with ferrofluid and magnets. There's no note on the exact treatment used, but generally speaking the addition of isopropyl alcohol to the liquid should create the desired effect. The mechanism itself is operated via dials on the front of the case, which edit the behaviour of the ferrofluid using an electromagnetic device. Aside from the ferrofluid concoction, and fully 3D printed housing designed by Jung himself, an 'MSGEQ7' graphic equaliser display module was employed, along with a passive radiator, and two upward-facing speakers to complete the project. But you don't care about that... look at the dancing liquid, man. Though if you are interested as to how the ferrofluid speaker performs when faced with different kinds of music, here's a link to the Instagram page where Jung has posted some further sound tests.

You have to get used to it: Alpine will convert exclusively to electricity in a few years. This will be the case with the A110 coupe which already provides some information. Future electric Alpine A110 - Last January, the craftsman from Dieppe began his turn towards the electrification of all his future models , through the voice of the parent company Renault. In addition to the introduction of an SUV , alongside a city car, a sports coupe will indeed be in the game . We know a little more about this future electric A110, expected by 2025. While the Renault-Nissan Alliance is preparing to roll out its new CMF-EV electric platform in all its flavors, it prefers to delegate the development of the one on which the future electric Alpine A110 will be based. And not to just anyone since it was the English Lotus that caught the attention of Renault's thinking heads. Lotus in the ranks It must be said that the English specialist has already acquired serious experience in terms of electrification , for a few years, through the Evija project . This is the name of the electric hypercar developing up to 2000 hp that Lotus intends to sell in 130 units, at a rate of £ 1.7 million, excluding taxes, each. More than 400 electric hp A nice introduction that lets predict a bright future for its future electric coupe which will share its mechanical components with the Alpine A110. Rumor has it that the two battery- powered sports cars would develop a minimum of 300 kW, or more than 400 hp, in propulsion , thanks to two electromotors housed in the rear central position. The death of the thermal A110? We also learn that a second variant, even more powerful , would receive the reinforcement of a third engine on the front axle , with all-wheel drive. A riot of power that should not make us forget that electrical technology will involve a strong weight gain . And despite the use of an aluminum architecture, it is not certain that the future electric A110 will outclass its thermal counterpart which currently peaks at 292 hp. The arrival of this electric sports car will not, however, eclipse the current A110 . Both will be marketed in parallel for a few more years, after 2025. To stay up to date, the thermal sports car will benefit from a restyling, in a few years , and will be armed with a supercharged variant, exceeding the bar of. 300 hp.

The decision to allow extension for pay fixation will have direct impact on the central government employees’ 7th pay commission pay matrix 7th Pay Commission: While the central government employees are busy calculating their salary hike post-Dearness Allowance (DA) restoration from 1st July 2021, the center has given another piece of good news for the Central Government Servants (CGS). The central government has extended the pay fixation deadline within the three months from 15th April 2021. However, the center issued this clarification after receiving series of requests from various central government employees’ organizations. The decision to allow extension for pay fixation will have direct impact on the central government employees’ 7th pay commission pay matrix. Pay fixation exercise will enable central government servants to choose either of the date of promotion or date of increment to fix their pay that helps more to their 7th CPC pay matrix. The Department of Expenditure at Ministry of Finance issued an Office Memorandum in this regard and said, “A large number of references have been received in this department seeking condonation of delay and allowing another opportunity to exercise/re-exercise the option of pay fixation as allowed under OM dated 28.11.2019 as the employees have faced time constraint, etc. in exercising their option of pay fixation thereunder." The OM went on to add that the issue has been examined and the said OM approves for allowing another opportunity to the central government employees to exercise/re-exercise their option for pay fixation within the three months of the date of issue of the OM. The Om was issued on 15th April 2021. Hailing the center’s decision in regard to the central government employees pay fixation and date of salary increment Shiva Gopal Mishra, Secretary — staff side at national Council of JCM said, “It’s a good move by the center as it will give central government servants to choose whether they want their pay fixed on the basis of the date of promotion or on the basis of the date of increment." Mishra said that central government employees have option to choose either date of increment or date of promotion, whichever is in their favour to choose and get their pay fixed.

Thanks to technological advancement there is no doubt that the software industry has grown quite a lot and is now saturated too. Since the tech start-ups are growing like never the industry experts advise that in the coming future there will be more than millions of software companies across the globe in the next 10 years. More than 50% of the businesses are already well packed in the American cities and western Europe. The competition is quite high all the time. Besides, the cost of operation is also climbing while the talent is getting scarce every day. This has increased nothing but the alarming yet challenging situation. What is offshore software development? Offshore software development is the time when the company shall hire an offshore development team and opens a new office which is known as the offshore development centre in another country. They work more like the permanent employees. Just the way your local team members shall work with you, they would work but the only difference would be the location. This means they will be based somewhere in another location where your company is not established. Suppose, there are some of the known IT giants such as Microsoft, Google and Apple that have made the establishment and their Research and development areas are in Bangalore which is known to be the Silicon Valley in Asia. The operational price with a huge talent pool is what you get from offshore software development. Besides, you also get a platform to improve at a fast pace so that there will be quite an increase in the output and thus your technological expertise shall improve too without any kind of undue stress Why is Offshore Software Development Important? Since this is the first time that you are planning to opt for such a service, it is obvious for you to wonder what exactly makes this service so po[CENSORED]r. This kind of option is advantageous only when things are rightly done at every stage of the project. If the company management team is quite clear with what things are needed from the offshore development, then and how the goals need to be set then it will help the company to make the right decision for future growth. To Lessen down the Liabilities Usually, the software development process requires quiet time and resource too. It also needs complete attention and the focus on the primary objective from the phase of inception till the time when the final product is deployed. To maintain these, it is important to have a good team that is quite dedicated and can handle the task while acquiring the right tools that are needed for the development. These monetary requirements and time obligations can be quite pricey for the organization especially if it is just a start-up. That is when hiring remote developers can be useful. Your operational costs are pricey Often engineers who are quite skilled and would ask for a better price. Needless to say that engineers are quite a highly rapid workforce that an employer can hire. With the wages of the employees that seem to be quite more than half of the pricing of an average business, top hire local talent in the west means to have you pay hard to form your pocket. Well, that is what payroll is. Besides you may have to add the employee centre advantages such as insurance, travel allowance and yearly bonuses to name some. Rather if you start with the process to hire dedicated offshore developers, you will be able to save quite a good amount. To pace up the time of Development These days, you cannot afford to slow down your life in the market which itself is progressing at a faster pace. With the competition that is demanding quite a lot of opportunities quickly as they emerge, you need to understand that you should be focusing on staying ahead of the competition. The in-house development needs to start the hiring process of the software developers and also the hard-core research on the best of the tools for the progress. If there is no technical knowledge then it would be quite a time consuming besides the process of the development shall also be compromised. That is when you can consider the option of offshore development. You’re not scaling fast enough You probably might be progressing but when it comes to scaling yourself with other competitors, you might be in a situation where someday sooner you would have to turn away your profit generation as the internal capacity is not that much. If the right tech team is not present then you may not grow. That is why considering offshore development as the long-term option. This would scale your team and it can also prove out to be quite an invaluable option. If you hire offshore developers in India, you will be able to have a huge pool of talented engineers who are not outsourced help but there will surely be a value-adding extension of the business. This would eventually be helpful for you to take some better projects and have high profits. Final verdict: Innovation and quality should always be the primary core of any organization to grow. It offers the client with best of the services that worth the investment. Besides, it can put you ahead in the business competition as well. For better service quality and good innovation standard, you can consider getting offshore software developers on board. This eventually would give your business a good platform to explore the market and even learn some new ways to connect with the massive talents that are in different locations. That is when you can consider to hire remote developers services. It works as the best solution for western businesses that are now looking forward to going ahead in the expensive market place. If you are planning to use the same solution but don’t have much clarity about it then certainly, this is the right place where you have landed up.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) – The Berwick community is calling Damian Austin a hero for detaining a man accused of raping a woman in a grocery store bathroom. WSAV News 3 obtained exclusive security footage showing the exact moment Austin took down the suspect, 25-year-old Gregory Hathorne. Austin says he was shopping at the Kroger on Ogeechee Road when he heard a woman scream from the bathroom. “It made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck because it wasn’t a normal yell,” Austin recalled. He said a bit of chaos erupted in the store, and he quickly realized what had happened. “A lady behind me just said he raped that girl in the bathroom, and once she said that there was nothing else for me to do besides go out the door after him,” said Austin. It’s the kind of situation that would cause many to run in the other direction, but not Austin. The former Marine chased Hathorne through the parking lot and ended up in the back of the nearby Ace Hardware store. The surveillance video shows Austin approach Hathorne with a gun.

Jeff Goldblum, the star of FMV game Goosebumps: Escape from Horrorland, Sci-Fi Pinball, and let's not forget Call of Duty: Black Ops 3's zombie mode—I suppose he's been in one or two movies as well—will take on his next game-related role when he joins a Dungeons & Dragons podcast. As Deadline reports, Goldblum will be playing an elf sorcerer named Balmur in a new season of the podcast Dark Dice, beginning on May 12. Dark Dice is a heavily edited series with an original soundtrack and "immersive soundscapes", so don't expect to hear Goldblum rolling dice and asking where on the character sheet his spell save DC is. It's more of an improvised narrative deal, with a horror theme. That should be no problem for Goldblum, who we will never forget played Dracula one time in that FMV game. For a D&D show complete with dice-rolling and moving miniatures around on a grid, may I recommend to you Dimension 20 and in particular their series Fantasy High, which is sort of like The Breakfast Club but with goblins and whatnot.

From salamanders and porcupines to maned wolves and Asian elephants, we care for a wide range of species at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. While we can simply scoop up some animals for checkups, like our friendly three-banded armadillo, other species are more challenging. There are some animals that we never share a physical space with because their size, strength or natural behaviors could be hazardous for keepers and veterinarians. It is important for animals (including large predators) to express their natural instincts, but staff safety is also key. One way we prioritize both is by working with some species — such as lions, tigers and gorillas — in a protected contact setting. Protected contact means there is always a physical barrier, such as fencing or steel mesh, between an animal and a person, including for training sessions, health checks and routine care. The only exception is if an animal is sedated by the veterinary team for a special exam. So, how do we give a big cat or a 400-pound gorilla a checkup? We use training and positive reinforcement. During training sessions, we can use hand signals and verbal cues to ask an animal to voluntarily approach a barrier and turn a body part toward us. Many sessions start by asking an animal to move toward a target, such as a red sphere on the end of a stick. This is called target training. When the animal moves to the target, a reward helps to reinforce the good behavior. For lions, a training reward is often a chunk of meat. It might surprise you to learn that we don’t share space with our herd of Asian elephants either. While elephants are known to be gentle giants, they have a hierarchical social structure and often display assertive behaviors, such as charging or trunk swinging. Those behaviors are OK for fellow elephants but could injure a human, due to an elephant’s sheer size and strength. On average, Asian elephants weigh 6,000-12,000 pounds and stand 6-12 feet tall at the shoulder. We always work with our elephants in protected contact. Thanks to the ingenuity of our facilities team, the barriers between animals and keepers often have small windows where an animal can place a foot, trunk or other body part. These windows help us interact safely with our elephant herd. We can ask an elephant to present their ear for a blood draw or to show us their foot, so we can file their toenails.

You have to get used to it: Alpine will convert exclusively to electricity in a few years. This will be the case with the A110 coupe which already provides some information. Future electric Alpine A110 - Last January, the craftsman from Dieppe began his turn towards the electrification of all his future models , through the voice of the parent company Renault. In addition to the introduction of an SUV , alongside a city car, a sports coupe will indeed be there . We know a little more about this future electric A110, expected by 2025. While the Renault-Nissan Alliance is preparing to roll out its new CMF-EV electric platform in all its flavors, it prefers to delegate the development of the one on which the future electric Alpine A110 will be based. And not with just anyone since it was the English Lotus that caught the attention of Renault's thinking heads. Lotus in the ranks It must be said that the English specialist has already acquired serious experience in terms of electrification , for a few years, through the Evija project . This is the name of the electric hypercar developing up to 2000 hp that Lotus intends to sell in 130 units, at a rate of £ 1.7 million, excluding taxes, each. More than 400 electric hp A nice introduction that lets predict a bright future for its future electric coupe which will share its mechanical parts with the Alpine A110. Rumor has it that the two battery- powered sports cars would develop a minimum of 300 kW, or more than 400 hp, in propulsion , thanks to two electromotors housed in the rear central position. The death of the thermal A110? We also learn that a second variant, even more powerful , would receive the reinforcement of a third engine on the front axle , with all-wheel drive. A riot of power that should not make us forget that electrical technology will involve a strong weight gain . And despite the use of an aluminum architecture, it is not certain that the future electric A110 will outclass its thermal counterpart which currently peaks at 292 hp. The arrival of this electric sports car will not, however, eclipse the current A110 . Both will be marketed in parallel for a few more years, after 2025. To stay up to date, the thermal sports car will benefit from a restyling, in a few years , and will be armed with a supercharged variant, exceeding the bar. 300 hp.

Disappointed by their schools’ decline on U.S. News and World Report’s annual ranking of the nation’s best high schools, Palm Beach County public school leaders criticized the magazine for using what they called incomplete information to evaluate schools. The magazine, which released its po[CENSORED]r rankings Tuesday, left the county’s two application-only high schools, Dreyfoos School of the Arts and Suncoast High School, out of the Top 100 for the second straight year. The schools rated at No. 119 and No. 128, respectively. Both routinely ranked in the top 100 before 2019. More:Palm Beach County high schools shut out of U.S. News’ Top 100 list More:Report: Palm Beach County schools use Baker Act on ‘shockingly high’ number of children More:Palm Beach County high school graduations: How they will work Four of the school district’s traditional high schools — Spanish River High, Boca Raton High, West Boca Raton High and Jupiter High — also ranked in the top 2,000 this year. Rankings should value AICE curriculum now in wide use, district says The magazine changed its rating system in 2019 to place less emphasis on college-level classes and more on how schools serve poor and minority students But Palm Beach County Deputy Schools Superintendent Keith Oswald said Wednesday there is another reason many county schools didn’t fare better: U.S. News ignores the school district’s main program for providing college-level courses. The magazine ranks schools based on six academic categories, but the most weight is given to one called “college readiness,” which measures what percentage of seniors at each school passed at least one exam for a college-level class.

D-CLIP, a lifestyle education program to prevent diabetes in South Asians with prediabetes, increased moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) by up to nearly an hour a week, researchers at the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging have found. The results of their study were published online Feb. 28 in the medical journal Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice and will be featured in the journal's April print edition. The D-CLIP trial, that included 573 individuals with prediabetes from Chennai, India, aimed to implement and evaluate the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and sustainability of a culturally appropriate, low-cost lifestyle intervention for the prevention of type 2 diabetes mellitus in India. These lifestyle interventions included training on improving diet quality and reducing dietary intake through keeping weekly food diaries, adhering to individual goals for total fat intake, reducing portion sizes, and increasing intake of fiber-rich foods. In addition, a lifestyle modification team, including a health coach, a fitness instructor and a community volunteer peer leader worked with each participant. Using data from this trial, an abbreviation for Diabetes Community Lifestyle Improvement Program, the Rush investigators examined if the program's intervention increased MVPA. MVPA was measured with a questionnaire given to study participants at six, 12, 18, 24, 30 and 36 months after the program began. Rush investigators used a methodology called random effects models to examine the relationship between the group participating in D-CLIP and odds of reporting more than 150 weekly minutes of MVPA, as compared to a control group. They also examined the impact of intervention on weekly MVPA. Random effects research models enable the assessment of an entire sample of data for subgroup differences without need to split the data into subgroups. The researchers found that D-CLIP increased the average amount of weekly MVPA by an additional 56.7 after six months and 34.3, 23.6 and 24.3 minutes a week at 12, 18, and 24 months, respectively. "We found that the intervention significantly increased physical activity by increasing walking, the duration of exercise and number of workout sessions per week," Ford explained. "Findings from this study show that lifestyle interventions to prevent diabetes in South Asians at high risk of diabetes can significantly increase physical activity." Studying the data found in the D-CLIP trial could have a major impact that extends beyond how to prevent diabetes in South Asians. "Studying diabetes in South Asians could inform national recommendations to prevent diabetes in India and also could have implications for the treatment and prevention of diabetes globally," Ford says. "Findings from this study may be important to global health policy makers."

A relatively new type of tools analyzes the search engines results pages (SERPs) and provides recommendations based on statistical analysis of similarities shared between the top ranked sites. But some in the search community have doubts about the usefulness of this kind of tool. SERP Correlation Analysis and Lack of Causation This kind of analysis is called Search Engine Results Page (SERP) Correlation Analysis. SERP analysis is research that analyzes Google search results to identify factors in ranked web pages. The SEO community has found startling correlations in the past by studying search results. One analysis discovered that top ranked sites tended to have Facebook pages with a lot of likes. Of course, those top ranked sites were not top ranking because of the Facebook likes. Just because the top ranked sites share certain features does not mean that those features caused them to rank better. And that lack of actual cause between the factors in common and the actual reasons why those sites are top ranked can be seen as a problem. Just because web pages ranked in the search results share a word count, a keyword density or share keywords in common does not mean that those word counts, keyword densities and keywords are causing those pages to rank. SERPs Are No Longer Ten Blue Links Another problem with analyzing the top ten of the search results is that the search results are no longer a list of ten ranked web pages, the ten blue links. Bill Slawski (@bill_slawski) of GoFishDigital expressed little confidence in search results correlation analysis.

Not so long ago, watching a movie on a smartphone seemed impossible. Vivienne Sze was a graduate student at MIT at the time, in the mid 2000s, and she was drawn to the challenge of compressing video to keep image quality high without draining the phone’s battery. The solution she hit upon called for co-designing energy-efficient circuits with energy-efficient algorithms. Sze would go on to be part of the team that won an Engineering Emmy Award for developing the video compression standards still in use today. Now an associate professor in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Sze has set her sights on a new milestone: bringing artificial intelligence applications to smartphones and tiny robots. Her research focuses on designing more-efficient deep neural networks to process video, and more-efficient hardware to run those applications. She recently co-published a book on the topic, and will teach a professional education course on how to design efficient deep learning systems in June. On April 29, Sze will join Assistant Professor Song Han for an MIT Quest AI Roundtable on the co-design of efficient hardware and software moderated by Aude Oliva, director of MIT Quest Corporate and the MIT director of the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab. Here, Sze discusses her recent work. Q: Why do we need low-power AI now? A: AI applications are moving to smartphones, tiny robots, and internet-connected appliances and other devices with limited power and processing capabilities. The challenge is that AI has high computing requirements. Analyzing sensor and camera data from a self-driving car consumes about 2,500 watts, but the computing budget of a smartphone is just about a single watt. Closing this gap requires rethinking the entire stack, a trend that will define the next decade of AI. Q: What’s the big deal about running AI on a smartphone? A: It means that the data processing no longer has to take place in the “cloud,” on racks of warehouse servers. Untethering compute from the cloud allows us to broaden AI’s reach. It gives people in developing countries with limited communication infrastructure access to AI. It also speeds up response time by reducing the lag caused by communicating with distant servers. This is crucial for interactive applications like autonomous navigation and augmented reality, which need to respond instantaneously to changing conditions. Processing data on the device can also protect medical and other sensitive records. Data can be processed right where they’re collected. Q: What makes modern AI so inefficient? A: The cornerstone of modern AI — deep neural networks — can require hundreds of millions to billions of calculations — orders of magnitude greater than compressing video on a smartphone. But it’s not just number crunching that makes deep networks energy-intensive — it’s the cost of shuffling data to and from memory to perform these computations. The farther the data have to travel, and the more data there are, the greater the bottleneck. Q: How are you redesigning AI hardware for greater energy efficiency? A: We focus on reducing data movement and the amount of data needed for computation. In some deep networks, the same data are used multiple times for different computations. We design specialized hardware to reuse data locally rather than send them off-chip. Storing reused data on-chip makes the process extremely energy-efficient. We also optimize the order in which data are processed to maximize their reuse. That’s the key property of the Eyeriss chip that I co-designed with Joel Emer. In our followup work, Eyeriss v2, we made the chip flexible enough to reuse data across a wider range of deep networks. The Eyeriss chip also uses compression to reduce data movement, a common tactic among AI chips. The low-power Navion chip that I co-designed with Sertac Karaman for mapping and navigation applications in robotics uses two to three orders of magnitude less energy than a CPU, in part by using optimizations that reduce the amount of data processed and stored on-chip. Q: What changes have you made on the software side to boost efficiency? A: The more that software aligns with hardware-related performance metrics like energy efficiency, the better we can do. Pruning, for example, is a po[CENSORED]r way to remove weights from a deep network to reduce computation costs. But rather than remove weights based on their magnitude, our work on energy-aware pruning suggests you can remove the more energy-intensive weights to improve overall energy consumption. Another method we’ve developed, NetAdapt, automates the process of adapting and optimizing a deep network for a smartphone or other hardware platforms. Our recent followup work, NetAdaptv2, accelerates the optimization process to further boost efficiency. Q: What low-power AI applications are you working on? A: I’m exploring autonomous navigation for low-energy robots with Sertac Karaman. I’m also working with Thomas Heldt to develop a low-cost and potentially more effective way of diagnosing and monitoring people with neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s by tracking their eye movements. Eye-movement properties like reaction time could potentially serve as biomarkers for brain function. In the past, eye-movement tracking took place in clinics because of the expensive equipment required. We’ve shown that an ordinary smartphone camera can take measurements from a patient’s home, making data collection easier and less costly. This could help to monitor disease progression and track improvements in clinical drug trials. Q: Where is low-power AI headed next? A: Reducing AI’s energy requirements will extend AI to a wider range of embedded devices, extending its reach into tiny robots, smart homes, and medical devices. A key challenge is that efficiency often requires a tradeoff in performance. For wide adoption, it will be important to dig deeper into these different applications to establish the right balance between efficiency and accuracy.

Earlier this week, Paradox released the Leviathan expansion for Europa Universalis 4, which is aimed at making it easier to 'play tall', gaining power by centralizing rather than expanding. It adds more diplomatic options, specialized colonial nations, and so on. At the time of writing, it has a rating of Overwhelmingly Negative on Steam, with only 10 percent positive user reviews. That's lower than Flatout 3 (14 percent positive), Spacebase DF-9 (18 percent positive), or RollerCoaster Tycoon World (25 percent positive). To be fair, it only has 1,351 reviews so far versus the, say, 5,719 that Godus has. It could turn things around yet, but there's a lot that players want to see changed. Since the release of Leviathan, players have encountered a raft of issues. Even those who didn't buy the DLC are finding bugs related to the accompanying 1.31 Majapahit update to the base game. A release problem megathread on the official forum that's over 40 pages and a Leviathan bug report megathread on Reddit collects the complaints. Among them, hordes' missionary strength being set to 100 percent instead of one percent (allowing them to convert entire provinces in a day), the Sikhism interface missing buttons, natives transforming into Europeans when unified no matter where they're from, settled provinces reverting to unsettled, games crashing after 100 years (in-game time, obviously), and plenty more. Paradox has already released a hotfix, which has dealt with some of the bugs, like problems with reform rates, and attempted to rebalance broken or exploitable mechanics like monuments and the speed at which favors are gained. Some of the fixes are quite minor: "Ulm flag made slightly higher quality", one of the patch notes says. It hasn't done much to alter opinions on the forums or in the user reviews, which remain predominantly negative. Among the rare positive reviews is one that reads, "Now i finally can quit complaining about Cyberpunk 2077 being the most glitchy, btoken [sic] and rushed out game i've ever played."

More than 140 animals have been taken to a shelter from a North Dublin petting farm after concerns had been raised about their welfare. Inspectors from the Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA) attended the farm in the north of the county on Wednesday, April 21st, at the request of the gardaí, according to the charity. There had been concerns reported about the welfare of a large number of animals on the property. After the initial inspection, the owners surrendered all of the animals and over 140 were removed by the DSPCA and brought to its shelter in Rathfarnham. The DSPCA’s veterinary team have examined the animals, including 31 dogs, 46 rabbits, 9 guinea pigs, 6 Geese, 37 chickens, 9 pigeons, 6 Goats, 2 ponies and their foals, and a heavily pregnant donkey. Most of the adult dogs were female and four were nursing young puppies, a spokeswoman for the DSPCA said. Each of the dogs had matted coats and there were also many pregnant and nursing rabbits. “All of these animals are now in the care of the DSPCA animal care staff and will be looking for homes shortly,” the spokeswoman said. An appeal will be launched shortly to find homes for the large number of rabbits and guinea pigs as well as the chickens and roosters. Some other animals that were surrendered, including geese, pigs and a number of horses and donkeys, have been relocated to other animal Charities.

Hybrid, but also 100% electrified, the future Peugeot 3008 reveals some of its characteristics, before its arrival scheduled for 2023. New Peugeot 3008 2023 - If the current generation of 3008 has just been restyled to honor its second part of its career, Peugeot already has the lead in 2023 . It will be a question of handing over to a brand new opus amplifying the electrification of its range. Hen with golden eggs Not easy to replace such a “monument”. Internally, the Lion teams must probably put pressure on themselves to renew the best-seller in its catalog. Because the Peugeot 3008 is THE model that brought the Sochaux manufacturer out of the doldrums , on the verge of bankruptcy in the early 2010s. A bit like the 205, in the mid-1980s. Since its launch in 2016, more than 800,000 copies have sold across the world, with a very high product mix, particularly profitable for the French firm. To renew itself within two years, we can bet that the SUV will capitalize on the athletic silhouette of the current model , which had completely turned its back on the tinted architecture of the minivan of the very first 3008, which appeared in 2009 . If we lack information about his final style, we nevertheless imagined the attitude he could display, through our exclusive illustration. Even more dynamic We will probably find in the lines of the future 3008 a hint of the new 308 , revealed at the beginning of the year. Its grille will be more indented, while its gaze will be more piercing , accompanied by even more spectacular side light claws. Its black lacquered pavilion should also be renewed, to boost its line, when the chrome will become more discreet, surfing on the current trend. The new Peugeot 3008 should lengthen a few centimeters to reach or even exceed 4.50 m , resting on a major overhaul of the EMP2 base . Soon named eVMP, this new platform will be multi-energy. Finally micro-hybridized If the diesel offer is brought to disappear definitively, with the arrival of this new Peugeot 3008, the gasoline units will convert to micro-hybridization, potentially provided by a 48 V battery. But the big project of the new Peugeot 3008 will consist in its total electrification , of which we already know some of the characteristics. In 2020, the PSA group, now Stellantis, evoked battery capacities ranging from 60 to 100 kWh , with the promise of autonomy between 400 and 650 km , in order to oppose the Volkswagen ID.4 , among the players who will multiply in this “zero emission” niche. What about rechargeable hybridization? Finally, there is room for doubt as regards the sustainability of the PHEV groups. With the deployment of 100% electric versions, one can wonder if the future Peugeot 3008 will reintroduce rechargeable hybridization , often criticized by environmentalists for its counter-productivity in terms of efficiency. On board, the 3008 cuvée 2023 will put the package in terms of connectivity and driving aids. It will finally inherit the digital 3D panel , housed behind the wheel, inaugurated by the 208 and 2008 , and could add a head-up display in augmented reality . The Franche-Comté SUV could also inherit certain safety equipment which remains, for the moment, the prerogative of DS models. One can very well imagine the integration of a night vision , or of a piloted suspension anticipating the road relief thanks to a camera . In any case, it is certain that the 3008 will push back its autonomous driving capabilities a little more . An electric sports model? Launched in the fall of 2023, the new Peugeot 3008, as well as its 100% electric variants, called e-3008 , could subsequently receive the reinforcement of a sports version, labeled PSE . Once again, this would be a model turning its back on fossil fuels. Finally, this new 3008 will be followed closely by the replacement for the 5008. Better optimized, its architecture will finally allow it to have electrification worthy of the name , when the current one cannot convert to the rechargeable hybridization of its little brother, in because of the size of its third row of armchairs hidden under the trunk.

WEDNESDAY, April 28, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Adults with low socioeconomic status (SES) and the least healthy lifestyle have a twofold higher risk for mortality and more than a 3.5-fold increased risk for incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) compared with adults with high SES and the healthiest lifestyles, according to a study published online April 14 in The BMJ. Yan-Bo Zhang, from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China, and colleagues used data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES; 1988 to 1994 and 1999 to 2014; including 44,462 adults aged ≥20 years) and the U.K. Biobank (including 399,537 adults aged 37 to 73 years) to examine whether overall lifestyles mediate associations of SES with mortality and incident CVD. The researchers found that among adults of low SES, the age-adjusted risk for death was 22.5 per 1,000 person-years in NHANES and 7.4 per 1,000 person-years in the U.K. Biobank, while the age-adjusted risk for CVD was 2.5 per 1,000 person-years in the U.K. Biobank. For adults of high SES, the corresponding risks were 11.4, 3.3, and 1.4 per 1,000 person years. Adults with low SES had higher risks for all-cause mortality (hazard ratio , 2.13 in NHANES and 1.96 in U.K. Biobank), CVD mortality (HR, 2.25), and incident CVD (HR, 1.65) in the U.K. Biobank compared with adults of high SES. The proportions mediated by lifestyle were 12.3, 4.0, 3.0, and 3.7 percent, respectively. Adults with low SES and no or one healthy lifestyle factor had higher risks for all-cause mortality (HR, 3.53 in NHANES; HR, 2.65 in U.K. Biobank), CVD mortality (HR, 2.65), and incident CVD (HR, 2.09) in the U.K. Biobank compared with adults with high SES and three or four healthy lifestyle factors. "Healthy lifestyle promotion alone might not substantially reduce the socioeconomic inequity in health, and other measures tackling social determinants of health are warranted," the authors write.

A landmark case alleging Google illegally tracked millions of iPhone users is set for the Supreme Court. The case will not be about the claim itself but whether the complainant Richard Lloyd - the former director of consumer rights group Which? - can bring it on behalf of those affected. Two days of arguments will be heard, although a judgement is not expected for weeks. If the case is allowed to go ahead, many others are likely to follow. Mr Lloyd alleged that between 2011 and 2012 Google cookies collected data on health, race, ethnicity, sexuality and finance through Apple's Safari web browser, even when users had chosen a "do not track" privacy setting. The case aimed to get compensation for the 4.4 million affected users. Legal precedent It was the first-of-its-kind case in the UK. Although class actions - where one person brings a case on behalf of many - are common in the US, in the UK they can only be brought on an opt-in basis, meaning all those involved have to give their consent. So, for instance, a long-running case over a British Airways data breach is still at the stage of gathering interested parties. The Google case is a test of whether just one individual can bring such an action without having to have people actively opt in, which should speed up such legal actions. A similar case against TikTok, was launched recently by the former children's commissioner on behalf of millions of youngsters in the EU and the UK. It can only proceed if the judgement in the Google case goes in favour of such class actions. The Google case Initially, the Google case was dismissed by the High Court, which ruled it was difficult to calculate how many people had been affected or whether they had suffered damage as a result of the breach. But the Court of Appeal later ruled that the case Mr Lloyd was bringing was a suitable way for people to seek mass redress for data breaches. Google appealed against that decision and the case has now reached the Supreme Court, where TechUK is one of several groups hoping to get it dismissed. The group, which represents Google among others, argues that it could open the floodgates for mass litigations and seriously damage small firms who could face large penalties. "This massively raises the liability for people providing data-driven services in the UK, which is most of the digital economy," said Antony Walker, TechUK's deputy chief executive. Claimant Richard Lloyd said he hoped the case "could establish a form of fair redress for data misuse that doesn't currently exist in this country". "It is about giving millions of consumers access to justice when their rights are abused by global tech giants." Julian Copeman, partner at law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, told the BBC the case could go either way. "There are two ways of looking at this: would allowing opt-out class actions for data claims increase access to justice, allowing companies to be held to account for what they do with their clients' data? "Or would this simply benefit the funders and claimant law firms, while damaging business and clogging up the court system, with affected individuals only receiving nominal amounts at the end of the case?" If the case goes ahead it could mean businesses dealing in data stand to lose a lot of money, Mr Copeman added. "Although the amount per head that claims may win would probably only be small sums of money for each individual, given the number of claimants represented, even a small amount per head will add up to huge sums. This represents a serious problem for businesses, however large they are."

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Check Point Software Technologies reported on Monday a higher-than-expected 9% rise in quarterly net profit, boosted by strong growth in its platforms as more employees work from home in the pandemic. Chief Executive Gil Shwed said the company was combining its technologies that help protect cloud storage systems as well as corporate and home networks into one suite called Infinity. Much is still unknown about the future of work and whether business travel will return to pre-pandemic levels, Shwed said, although Check Point expects 74% of firms to allow some sort of working from home. "We know it will be hybrid and that will require new levels of security that we haven't seen before," Shwed told a news conference, noting the number of large cyber attacks continues to grow weekly. "We're in the new world and there are new opportunities." Shwed said Check Point's cloud and home network offerings both saw double-digit percentage growth in the first quarter, and that is expected to continue through 2021. The Israel-based company said it earned $1.54 per diluted share excluding one-time items in the quarter, up from $1.42 a year earlier. Revenue grew 4% to $508 million, with the company on its way to top $2 billion for a second straight year in 2021. It was forecast to earn $1.50 a share on revenue of $502 million, according to I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv. For the second quarter, it sees revenue of $510-$535 million and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.50-$1.60. Analysts have forecast EPS of $1.55 on revenue of $521.8 million. Check Point kept its full-year estimates: revenue of $2.08-$2.18 billion and adjusted EPS of $6.45-$6.85 - compared with 2020 results of $2.07 billion and $6.78 respectively. Its Nasdaq-listed shares opened 1.7% higher at $121.80 but they are down nearly 10% so far in 2021. Check Point said it bought back 2.7 million shares in the quarter worth $325 million. (Reporting by Steven Scheer. Editing by Ari Rabinovitch and Mark Potter)

GUANGZHOU, China — Huawei is boosting its efforts in software areas like cloud computing and smart cars as U.S. sanctions hurt its hardware business. Last week, Arcfox, a brand under automaker BAIC Group, launched a car with Huawei’s vehicle technology. It included a cockpit kitted out with HarmonyOS, the operating system Huawei launched in 2019, as well as autonomous driving capabilities. Huawei will not be making cars and will instead focus on the technology that powers them. And on Sunday, Huawei launched some new cloud computing products as it looks to challenge China’s market leader, Alibaba. Huawei said in a press release on Sunday that it hopes the focus on cloud will “eventually increase the proportion our software and service business has in our total revenue mix.” The pivot to software comes after U.S. sanctions on Huawei have caused smartphone sales to plunge. The Chinese giant was put on a blacklist known as the Entity List in 2019 which restricted its access to some American technology. And last year, Washington moved to cut Huawei off form key semiconductor supplies. “Huawei is doubling down on pivoting to a software/cloud and services company,” Neil Shah, research director at Counterpoint Research, said. As a result of Washington’s sanctions, Shah said the Chinese company is “unable to procure critical semiconductor components and related tech” from the U.S. “Huawei with this effort is becoming like Google,” he said. Google makes the Android mobile operating system used by the majority of the world’s smartphones. The tech giant is also working on in-car software and has a fast-growing cloud computing business. Huawei has also touted its HarmonyOS as being able to work across different devices from smartphones to TVs and cars.

KitGuru has spotted a product listing for the new Acer Nitro XV2 with a FreeSync Premium compatible 360Hz IPS panel that's overclockable to 390Hz—a significant upgrade from the previous Nitro, which could hit an overclocked 270Hz. There are a handful of other 360Hz gaming monitors out there, such as the Alienware 25 AW2521H or the impressive ASUS ROG Swift 360Hz PG259QN, but Acer has the new speed champ here. The Acer Nitro XV242Q F features a 24.5-inch 1080p IPS panel. You're also looking at a screen with a 0.5ms G2G response time, making it one of the fastest around. This version of the Nitro keeps the attractive thin bezels and sleek overall design, too. The XV2 also meets the AMD FreeSync Premium specification, allowing it to vary its refresh rate to match a game's framerate. It's a monitor that is designed to show you as many frames as technologically possible (without too absurd a price), so long as your GPU is up to the task. Considering more games taking advantage of features like DLSS, it's becoming a little easier to make use of refresh rates this high, but you will still need a pretty beefy GPU even to get anywhere close to unlocking this screen's full potential. We don't have any price or release window just yet, but there was a listing for €530, which converts to roughly $730. video playingHow not to hurt yourself Gaming | PC Gamer Health Samsung talks about its 240Hz curved gaming... 11/06/19Samsung talks about its 240Hz curved gaming CRG5 panel - PC Gaming Show 2019 PC Gamer Show: Guide to gaming chairs 14/02/15PC Gamer Show: Guide to gaming chairs This Week in PC Gaming: War gets an overhaul in... 25/04/21This Week in PC Gaming: War gets an overhaul in Total War: Rome Remastered This Week in PC Gaming: NieR Replicant and a... 18/04/21This Week in PC Gaming: NieR Replicant and a mystery Call of Duty: Warzone Update This Week in PC Gaming: Final Fantasy 14 5.5... 11/04/21This Week in PC Gaming: Final Fantasy 14 5.5 Update and Shadow Man Remastered Sadly, you'll likely have an easier time tracking down one of these monitors than one of the GPUs capable of driving it. And, aguably, 240-290Hz is overkill even for competitive gaming. To that I say: leave me in peace as I get murdered in Call of Duty: Warzone with the smoothest refresh rate around.

The Pasadena Humane Society is offering a free virtual webinar on Wednesday, April 28, to guide people about the difference between therapy animals and service animals. Kim Kane, a volunteer at Pet Partners, will lead the discussion, showing how those two types of animals differ, as well as teaching the benefits of therapy animals. Canine Journal says service animals, or service dogs, are trained to help people with disabilities, such as visual impairments, mental illnesses, seizure disorders, diabetes, and other ailments. A therapy dog, on the other hand, is trained to provide comfort and affection to people in hospice, disaster areas, retirement homes, hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and other similar facilities. Both types of animals are trained in different skills. A service dog is specifically trained to perform tasks related to the disabled person’s specific condition. A diabetic person, for example, may have a dog who can detect when the owner’s blood sugar level is too low or high. Training can be done by the owner, a friend, family member, or professional trainer. Therapy dogs are trained to help provide comfort and affection. Canine Journal says spending time with a therapy dog has been shown to lower blood pressure and heart rate, reduce anxiety, and increase endorphins and oxytocin. Kim Kane is a licensed team evaluator with Pet Partners and can evaluate prospective pet visitation therapy animals such as dogs, cats, birds, horses, bunnies, and cavies. She is also currently a volunteer with Orange County Animal Care and is active in its Educational Outreach program, leading shelter tours for students and Scouting groups, and conducting off-site informational and educational presentations.