Clark County News Now

Uncollected Solid Waste Posing Health Hazards To Multanites – Pakistan Today https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/uncollected-solid-waste-posing-health-hazards-to-multanites-pakistan-today/ MULTAN: Solid waste management is getting tougher in the fifth largest metropolitan of the country adding to environmental pollution and endangering hundreds of thousands dweller to serious health hazards. With an urban population of just over 2.1 million, the city daily generates around 1300 tone solid, industrial and hospital waste of which the local authorities have the capacity to only collect only 700 tone waste. The only landfill site used by Multan Waste Management Company (MWMC) since 2013 is now filled up to the brim, leaving MWMC staff with no option to identify another place to dump the waste. The concerned authorities have described the shortage of staff and resource constraint behind uncollected waste as the situation is getting tougher with every passing day due to population influx as well as proper mechanism of waste segregation and treatment. “We have the capacity to collect only 700 tone waste daily against a daily bulge of 1300 tone,” said Manager Operations MWMC Anwar-ul-Haq. “The company is covering 68 urban Union Councils housing over two million people with only 2200 staff including 1500 sanitary workers.” “Expecting 100 percent results with such staff strength was unjust,” the Manager Operations said, revealing that no recruitment of workforce or acquisition of new machinery was made since 2013. ‘The Hospital Management Rules’ were introduced in 2005 necessitating yellow-bagged waste to be disposed by burning and then dump it at a landfill site or dispose it of through any other method approved by the concerned Federal or Provincial agencies. In 2012, the Punjab government had established Waste Management Companies in big cities for swift cleanliness arrangements in the major cities but the objective is yet to be fully achieved in case of Multan due to certain factors despite MWMC fully operational since 2014. Keeping in view the urgency, the Manager Operation said that the company Board of Directors (BoD) recently approved recruitment of 500 workers and procurement of over 100 vehicles at a cost of Rs 170 million in first phase. “These measures would help evolve a swift sanitation system to ensure proper waste disposal.” Although, the officials are busy locating an alternate place to use landfill site, yet there are other issues like hazards of dumping waste in open, proper segregation of house, industrial and hospital waste and having different landfill sites for it. Lack of professional human resource to collect and properly dump or treat solid waste is yet another reason contributing to environmental degradation and hazards to human health. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) MWMC Muhammad Farooq Dogar said that international standards require a sanitary worker deployed for every 1000 persons for proper sanitation and waste management. “This is missing in our case. To fill the gap of company’s limitations, special campaigns are launched periodically targeting specific areas to cover maximum, if not 100 per cent.” Moreover, he said, there was no practice of solid waste segregation to manage different kinds of waste properly. “Waste segregation would ensure proper management and disposal in accordance with the nature of waste.” Officials are busy these days, in searching a new landfill site and locations including 17-Kassi, Labar Morr and Head Muhammad Wala are in focus. A plan is also under consideration to develop a park at Habiba Siyal landfill site to avoid environmental pollution. Talking of equipment, Farooq Dogar said the waste collection containers have completed their life span running for nine years instead of three years specific period. He pleaded to raise the workforce number to 3500 besides procurement of more machinery to cover maximum area of the urban population. He also proposed to enhance the number of present 12 transfer stations to 20 where primary waste is gathered for onward transportation to dumping site. “It is our utmost endeavor to collect maximum waste generated daily,” he said. “Our mission is to provide healthy living conditions and better environment to Multanites.” Assistant Director Environment Hameed Akhtar said, environment should be made part of curriculum to raise awareness on the issue right from primary level. He said, since there is no mechanism in vogue in the city to segregate waste, there is always risk of diseases outbreak due to dumping infectious and hazardous industrial and hospital waste in open. Meanwhile, the residents have called upon the civic agencies to ensure proper collection and disposal of waste also urging residents to cooperate with Waste Management Company. “It is our collective responsibility to keep our city clean. The people should cooperate with sanitary workers and throw the waste only into the containers or places designated by the company,” said a citizen Shafiq Bhatti. Another citizen Tanvir Shakir suggested community participation in the whole exercise. “The waste management company should divide city into wards and engage local notables to educate people in their respective area in cleanliness.” He said that citizens should also hand over the waste to sanitary workers instead of throwing it on roads or streets.

What Time Does The NASCAR Race Start Today? TV Schedule, Channel For Las Vegas Playoff Race – Sporting News https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/what-time-does-the-nascar-race-start-today-tv-schedule-channel-for-las-vegas-playoff-race-sporting-news/ The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs make a stop in Sin City this weekend. FOLLOW LIVE: Updates from the NASCAR playoff race in Las Vegas The South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway has tended to excite in recent years with some wild events. Brad Keselowski’s dramatic last-lap comeback to beat Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2014 is one of the top examples. The site has become a West Coast jewel in the series. This year’s edition of the fall Vegas race looks as exciting as ever. The 2022 playoffs have been a string of unpredictable performances, from non-playoff drivers winning multiple races to Christopher Bell sealing postseason advancement in the most dramatic fashion with a last-gasp win. MORE: Watch NASCAR Cup Series races live with fuboTV (free trial) Here’s what you need to know about Sunday’s South Point 400, including start time and broadcast information. What time does the NASCAR race start? Race: South Point 400 Date: Sunday, Oct. 16 Start time: 2:30 p.m. ET Sunday’s race, the South Point 400, is listed to start at 2:30 p.m. ET, but the green flag is scheduled to wave at 2:52 p.m. ET. What channel is NASCAR on today? TV channel: NBC (U.S.) | TSN3 (Canada) Live stream: Peacock, fuboTV Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio The South Point 400 will be broadcast on NBC in the United States. Canadian viewers can follow the action on TSN3. Rick Allen will lead Sunday’s broadcast, serving as the race’s lap-by-lap announcer. He’ll be joined by NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr., former Cup Series driver Jeff Burton and Daytona 500-winning crew chief Steve Letarte. All three will offer analysis. Cord-cutters can stream Sunday’s race on Peacock or fuboTV, which offers a free trial. MORE: Round of 8 drivers after the Charlotte cutoff race NASCAR schedule 2022: Playoff races (All times Eastern) Date Race Track Start time TV channel Radio Oct. 16 South Point 400 Las Vegas Motor Speedway 2:30 p.m. NBC PRN Oct. 23 Dixie Vodka 400 Homestead-Miami Speedway 2:30 p.m. NBC MRN Oct. 30 Xfinity 500 Martinsville Speedway 2 p.m. NBC MRN Nov. 6 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Phoenix Raceway 3 p.m. NBC MRN

UAE: Police Force First To Offer Services In Metaverse – Khaleej Times https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/uae-police-force-first-to-offer-services-in-metaverse-khaleej-times/ This comes on the heels of Gitex Global 2022, where government entities presented latest technological innovations and services By Web Desk Published: Sun 16 Oct 2022, 1:04 PM Ajman Police has become the first police agency to provide its services to customers through Metaverse technology, according to a tweet by the authority. The Gitex Technology Week also saw the Ajman Police General Command launch the ‘Request for Sponsorship’ service, which is a new smart service that allows the public to communicate with the police remotely. The Ajman Police General Command also participated in the Dubai Metaverse Forum. Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Abdullah Abu Shehab said that the force participated with the aim to benefit from metaverse technology in the police field. Meanwhile, the Dubai Police General Command announced the launch of the new version of its smart application on the second day of Gitex Global 2022, which includes a premium bunch of 70 developed services using the latest programming languages, techniques, and artificial intelligence. The Dubai Police smart app supports seven languages: Arabic, English, Russian, German, Chinese, French, and Spanish. ALSO READ: Dubai Police launch new version of app in seven languages Access to over 6,000 govt services: Why UAE Pass is a must-have app

Just Because You’re Lazy Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Keep Your House Looking Nice — These Genius Things Are Proof – Mic https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/just-because-youre-lazy-doesnt-mean-you-cant-keep-your-house-looking-nice-these-genius-things-are-proof-mic/ We only recommend products we love and that we think you will, too. We may receive a portion of sales from products purchased from this article, which was written by our Commerce team. Shopping ByNikol Slatinska Decorating the home might seem frivolous at first. As long as you have a comfy bed to sleep in, functioning kitchen appliances, and furniture in every room, little knick-knacks aren’t such a pressing issue, right? In reality, though, the details are what make a home feel like it’s really yours. That’s why Amazon is so convenient. Its inventory is chock-full of literally anything you could ever want, including interior goods. Still, that doesn’t mean you have time to scroll the site all day and compare reviews (though that’s certainly a pleasurable pastime). We’ve rounded up some of the top-rated products that’ll make your living spaces more efficient and stylish — no renovations or serious spending required. Read on to discover the best clothing hangers, a hands-free microwave cleaner, and other small but important essentials. 01 These wheel stoppers that prevent furniture from rolling Not to be dramatic, but these wheel stoppers could save a life. If you’ve ever had a bed, sofa, or chest of drawers on wheels, you know that such furnishings can be dangerous, especially when small children and visitors are around. Prevent falls by placing one of these hollow rubber boxes under each wheel and keeping furniture stationary. There’s no reason to upgrade to a whole new bed or couch when these exist. 02 This wet floor mop that you can fill with your favorite household cleaner Forget the traditional string mop; this lightweight wet mop is so much easier to use and will have your floors spotless in no time. Unlike some dusters for which you have to repurchase pads, this product comes with a microfiber pad that you can toss in the washer and reuse again and again. The mop also has a detachable bottle that you can fill with your favorite cleaning product, which is so much handier than having to manually spray your floors. 03 A storage beanbag that comes in fun prints and helps kids keep their rooms clean Get ready to finally have an obstacle-free floor thanks to this beanbag that doubles as a toy holder. Picking up after playtime will result in a comfy seat to jump into, so motivating your little ones shouldn’t be such a hassle. If you don’t have kids, these bags are also a great place to store extra towels or linens. The beanbag comes in a variety of fun prints and colors, so your child can pick their favorite one. Available colors: 16 04 This refined toilet brush that’ll match your other bathroom fixtures You probably never thought you’d hear a toilet cleaning product referred to as “elegant,” but that’s exactly what this stainless steel brush is. It has a bronze finish, so it’ll match perfectly with faucets and other fixtures that are the same color. No more flimsy plastic brushes from the dollar store; this one is still inexpensive but looks way better. 05 These versatile storage boxes that snap shut and come in cute prints Whether you need a designated spot for important documents, sentimental keepsakes, or cosmetics, these storage boxes are ready to lend that extra space. They arrive in a set of three (small, medium, and large) and in your choice of a floral, dotted, or diamond print. Arguably the best part is that each container has a magnetic closure, so even if a box gets jostled or takes a tumble, your items will remain inside. Available colors: 6 06 These space-saving storage bags that make packing a breeze Why deal with an overstuffed suitcase when you can flatten your clothing down in these vacuum storage bags instead? The bags come in a pack of six and a variety of sizes. In any case, you’ll be able to double, maybe even triple, your storage space for apparel and bedding. A travel-sized hand pump is included, so you can easily take these on the go and never feel dread upon packing again. 07 This massive collection of food storage containers that’s a must for meal prepping This set of plastic food containers contains 16 boxes of varying sizes and their respective lids, so you won’t have to worry about what to use when packing leftovers for lunch. What’s more, the set comes with a chalkboard marker and stickers, so you can label each box. To microwave the contents, simply remove the lid and pop the container inside. 08 This hanging organizer that doubles the shelf space in your closet You’ve likely seen a hanging closet organizer similar to this one, but we doubt it had this many individual compartments for apparel and accessories of all kinds. In addition to spacious shelves for stacked clothing, this product also has slide-out cubbies and mesh pockets on the sides for smaller items. You can even plan your outfits a couple of days in advance and place them on the shelves to make getting dressed easier in the mornings. Available colors: 2 09 This glaze that gives furniture a rustic finish If your wooden tables and cabinets don’t have that farmhouse vibe you’re after, simply sweep a layer or two of this furniture stain over them. They’ll instantly look older but in a charming, antique way. This way, you don’t have to rip out your entire kitchen or replace the dining room table. The stain also comes in six different tones, so you can choose the one that best matches your surface. Available colors: 6 10 This labeled container that keeps your napkins off the table Don’t leave napkins strewn about the table. Instead, dinner guests can pluck clean ones out of this clean stainless steel napkin holder, which is conveniently labeled. It’s the perfect size for standard rectangular napkins, and there are handles on the sides that make the container easy to pass around. The tin-like construction and scrawled font lend this product a charming, old-timey appearance. 11 A silver utensil holder that keeps cooking tools within reach Rather than leaving whisks and stirring spoons lying about on the counter, store them neatly in this chrome-finished container. It’s simultaneously spacious and compact, so it won’t take up too much counter space. “Just as advertised,” one reviewer said of the holder. “It’s very sturdy, and I’m able to fit a couple spatulas, tongs, garlic press, and a ladle with no issues. It has never tipped over or anything, and it keeps my kitchen nice and orderly.” 12 This stainless steel gadget that gets all the gunk off your grill This grill scraper allows you to get the residue off your barbecue without forcing you to put your back into it. It has a long handle that offers plenty of leverage, plus four different-sized grooves that hug the individual grates on your grill and shuck the grime right off. And the tool, itself, is dishwasher safe. 13 A leather cleaner that revives old surfaces, giving them a glossy finish Even the highest quality leather gets dull over time, so it’s good to keep a bottle of the SHINE ARMOR leather cleaner in your cleaning cabinet. This product gently gets rid of any dirt that might be hiding on your couches and car seats before leaving them with a polished sheen. A little goes a long way, so one bottle will last you a while. 14 These holders that (literally) elevate your candle display Make your candles stand out by placing them on these tall black metal holders, which come in a set of three. The holders have pillar bases and a simple design, so you can use them all year long and change the surrounding decor with the seasons. The top base is wide enough to catch any wax that drips off, keeping surfaces underneath safe. Available styles: 3 15 These biodegradable dishcloths that you can reuse countless times These spongey dishcloths are a much more eco-friendly alternative to paper towels. Not only that, but they’re also super absorbent and can be rewashed up to 50 times before you recycle them. Next time you have a spill of any kind, you won’t even think before reaching for one of these. Available colors: 10 16 These floating shelves that save space and look so modern This set of floating wall shelves would look great in any room thanks to its minimal design. You can choose from five different colors and match them to the rest of your furniture. The shelves are a terrific storage solution for those who live in small homes and don’t have enough floor space for extra drawers or cabinets. Also, customers also say these are so easy to mount. Available colors: 5 17 This flower seed kit that even beginners can use to plant and grow Grow your own garnishes with this flower-growing kit. That’s right — these buds aren’t just for decoration. The six varieties included in the kit are all edible. In addition to the seeds themselves, you get five starter growing pots, plant markers, and soil blocks. Sounds like a worthy endeavor, even for the amateur gardener. 18 An upright rack that keeps your cutting boards stable Avoid the annoyance of toppled cutting boards by investing in this stainless steel rack. It has four rungs and can therefore hold up to three boards of any size. If you’re feeling innovative, you can store other items on this rack, like baking sheets and flat dinnerware. For more space, buy the six-slot rack instead of the three-slot. From there, just set it on your counter, and place your boards inside. 19 A chic bamboo bath mat with an anti-slip surface Make your home feel like a cozy ski chalet by placing this bamboo bath mat in front of your shower instead of a basic rug. The mat is less than 20” wide, so it won’t take up too much space in small bathrooms. It’s sturdy, though, thanks to its non-slip surface and bottom, as well as a water-resistant ...

NFT Bargain-Hunting Is In As Crypto Bust Craters Prices – HT Tech https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/nft-bargain-hunting-is-in-as-crypto-bust-craters-prices-ht-tech/ NFT sales plunged 67% sequentially in the third quarter as speculators and celebrities made an exodus. A year ago, Daniel Maegaard, one of the higher-profile collectors of nonfungible tokens, was spending tens of thousands of dollars on CryptoPunks featuring funky-looking people or apes. In the last few months, he’s been buying NFTs that typically sell for less than $2,000. The shift is indicative of the metamorphosis taking place in the market for the once-coveted digital images promoted by the likes of Justin Bieber and Madonna. NFT sales plunged 67% sequentially in the third quarter as speculators and celebrities made an exodus, leaving the sector mostly to the dedicated long-term believers in the various potential use cases, and collectors betting that the plunge in prices will rekindle speculative demand. “There’s more upside potential compared to other NFT projects with much higher market capitalizations,” said the 32-year-old Maegaard, who began investing in NFTs connected to land sales in the blockchain-based game Axie Infinity in early 2019. Cheaper NFT collections and $100 gaming NFTs have been generally selling better than the expensive stuff, though Maegaard said he did sell a CryptoPunk depicting an ape in a hoodie for $4.45 million on Sept. 28. On average, an Ethereum blockchain-based NFT fetched $120 on Oct. 3, compared with $1,631 in early February, according to market data researcher NonFungible. On the Ronin blockchain used by Axie Infinity, average prices were down to $16 as of Oct. 3, from $69 in February, the researcher found. The steep decline in cryptocurrency prices overall this year is credited mostly for the decline. On top of that, there is mounting concern about whether NFTs are likely to be viewed as securities, in light of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s investigation of Yuga Labs Inc., the creators of the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club tokens. “It is definitely not a super interesting space for short-term trading these days,” said Gauthier Zuppinger, co-founder of NonFungible. “Which may be an explanation why the space is currently at a pretty low pace.” That’s transforming the competitive landscape, especially for NFT trading platforms, as buyers search for bargains and many new collections debut outside of the Ethereum blockchain. OpenSea, the world’s biggest NFT marketplace, had a 38% market share in September, down from nearly 85% in March, according to tracker DappRadar. Rival platforms x2y2 and Magic Eden have boomed — with Magic Eden more than doubling its sales in September. Magic Eden had a 13.4% market share in September, up from also less than 1% in March, according to DappRadar. Last month, x2y2 boosted its share to 31.3%, up from less than 1% in March. One reason for Magic Eden’s success: the average price of an NFT there is $43, according to DappRadar, versus $82 on OpenSea over the last 30 days. Folks are more apt to scoop up cheaper tokens as they play games, instead of looking to invest thousands or even millions into art they hope will double in price some day. “The NFT market is showing signs of evolution, where the NFT traders went from degens” — a slang word for crypto believers — to more rational investors, said Pedro Herrera, head of research at DappRadar. “There is a highly competitive environment across marketplaces.” In the week of Sept. 19, mints of new NFTs reached all-time highs, according to researcher Nansen — largely due to debut of small NFT collections with low prices. But, Nansen cautions, that doesn’t mean that large, expensive collections are out for good. An index of blue-chip NFTs like Bored Ape Yacht Club, Azuki, CryptoPunks and Doodles still often outperforms others, said Martin Lee, a research analyst at Nansen. “So while average transactions might be lower in dollar/ETH value, a large bulk of attention and value accrual still resides within the more expensive, well-known collections,” Lee said. What has changed, perhaps, is the investor mindset. “The mania of paying outrageous prices for unexceptional NFTs is gone for good,” said crypto investor Aaron Brown, who writes for Bloomberg Opinion. “I see potential appreciation for NFTs with substance, although I expect NFTs to show the same kind of ups and downs, fads and forgetfulness, of all collectible markets.”

Trump Attacks American Jews In A Truth Social Post – The Washington Post https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/trump-attacks-american-jews-in-a-truth-social-post-the-washington-post/ Former president Donald Trump attacked American Jews in a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, saying Jews in the United States must “get their act together” and show more appreciation for the state of Israel “before it is too late.” American Jews have long been accused of holding secret loyalty to Israel rather than the United States, and Trump’s post leaned on that antisemitic trope, suggesting that by virtue of their religion, American Jews should show more appreciation to Israel. Trump also complained in the post that “no president” had done more for Israel than he had but that Christian evangelicals are “far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S.” It was not the first time that Trump has suggested that American Jews, who traditionally have more often aligned with the Democratic Party on domestic policies, should be more supportive of him because of how he dealt with Israel. “Jewish people who live in the United States don’t love Israel enough. Does that make sense to you?” he said in an interview last year with an Orthodox Jewish magazine, adding that it seemed “strange” to him that he did not have more Jewish support. At a Hanukkah event at the White House in 2018, he drew criticism for referring to Israel as “your country” while speaking to American Jews. He was also rebuked when he said during an Oval Office meeting in 2019 that “any Jewish people who would vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.” Trump’s latest diatribe about Jews came as Republican candidates have made overt appeals to racial animus and resentments in the closing weeks of the midterm election campaign. It also comes as leading Republican figures have failed to disavow musician and sometime-Trump supporter Ye, the rapper and fashion designer formerly known as Kanye West. Ye earlier this month tweeted that he wanted to go “death con 3” on “JEWISH PEOPLE,” an apparent reference to Defcon, the U.S. military defense readiness system. Instagram and Twitter removed posts by the artist, who had been featured on conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s show. Trump has long been frustrated that he has not drawn more support from American Jews, particularly when as president, he moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and his Jewish son-in-law, Jared Kushner, helped negotiate new treaties between Israel and some of its Arab neighbors. In Sunday’s post, Trump wrote that his support among people living in Israel is “a different story.” “Highest approval rating in the World, could easily be P.M.!” he wrote, contrasting his popularity in the foreign country with his support among American Jews. Trump’s post drew quick criticism. “We don’t need the former president, who curries favor with extremists and antisemites, to lecture us about the US-Israel relationship,” Anti-Defamation League chief executive and national director Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “It is not about a quid pro quo; it rests on shared values and security interests. This ‘Jewsplaining’ is insulting and disgusting.” On her personal Twitter account, Neera Tanden, a senior adviser to President Biden, wrote, “We should all stand against what feels like a growing chorus of anti-Semitism. There should be no quarter for it in our politics or culture.”

Technology Can Make Northern Roads Safer, Slower: Report – Sudbury.com https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/technology-can-make-northern-roads-safer-slower-report-sudbury-com/ Report from Northern Policy Institute recommends new ways to make roads and highway traveling safer in the North Technology can be used to make Northern Ontario roads safer with such things as sensors that will automatically create a lower speed limit if the roads are too snowy or ice-covered.  Using the technology can reduce crashes and save lives according to a detailed report published by the Northern Policy Institute (NPI), — Smart Solutions for Northern Roads authored by William Dunstan. Dunstan argued that by using existing technology to change accepted driving practises, fewer crashes would occur and lives could be saved. It would also reduce the number of driving disruptions from closed highways.   “Roads in Northern Ontario are often dangerous, in poor shape, or non-existent. A new briefing note from NPI finds that these shortcomings can be addressed by using innovative technologies in road construction and design. Several “smart road” technologies already implemented in other areas represent cost-effective options to improve safety. As well, innovative road construction techniques could make it cheaper and easier to build and maintain roads in Northern Ontario,” Dunstan wrote. The 14-page report outlines there are several options open to the government to bring about changes. One of the options is called FAST, or Fixed Automated Spray Technology. FAST is already being used in a handful of locations in Southern Ontario.  The FAST option would automatically spray anti-icing liquids when sensors detect that atmospheric conditions are likely to form ice or bonded snow on the road surface.  “The technology is best suited for bridges that freeze before the rest of the road, especially those in remote locations that are costly to service manually,” said the report.  The Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) currently maintains eight FAST installations across the province, but only one in its northern regions: at Burk’s Falls, near the southern boundary of the northeastern region, said the report. Another option would use sensors to determine a safer — and slower — speed limit when the weather is bad. The system is known as a Dynamic Speed Limit (DSL), which would adjust the speed limit to match the prevailing road conditions. Drivers would be forced to slow down and therefore reduce crashes. The report said the system could send weather information to an operator who would manually adjust the speed limit, or it would use technology to automatically change the speed limits.  The report said DSLs have been implemented successfully in British Columbia on roads similar to those in Northern Ontario.  One study done in 2021 examined the impact of DSLs on a section of a rural, undivided, two-lane highway and a divided, four-lane freeway during the winter season (October–March). It was found that DSLs reduced collision frequency by 35 per cent, said the report.  Dunstan argued that DSLs could be implemented easily enough given that weather sensors are already in place on highways throughout Northern Ontario. Dunstan noted in this report that “on some northern highways, half of all collisions and an equal share of fatal crashes occur during periods of snow and ice cover on roads.”  Section speed control is another option described in the report. It said instead of using speed cameras to monitor the speed of a vehicle at one location, the cameras could be spaced apart over several kilometres to monitor a vehicle’s speed over that section of highway. Studies done in other jurisdictions found that section control was able to reduce the incidence of serious auto crashes, injuries and deaths from 30 to 50 per cent. “If drivers know that their speed will be monitored across an extended road segment, they are more likely to adhere to the lower speed limit,” said the report. The fourth option outlined in the report was about the creation of wooden mat roads. This option speaks to the need of more all-weather roads to serve small and rural communities in the Far North. The report said the many existing winter roads do not last long enough and with climate change, most winter roads will be in place for weeks, instead of months. This would be especially important in areas that have wetlands and muskeg. This would make mat roads viable, said the report, because they have less environmental impact than a traditional gravel road, and are far less expensive to build and maintain.  The report concluded that the Ontario government should take a serious look at the options for improving safety as well as commit to more funding for research.  “To improve road safety in the North, the Ontario government should implement proven smart road technologies on many sections of highways. Furthermore, government support ought to be provided for further research and trials to assist the development of equally promising but less proven road construction techniques.” This is the second report in as many months where NPI is recommending changes to government policy to improve Northern Ontario highways. A report released in September — Saving Lives and Money: 2 + 1 Roads — spoke to the importance of twin-laning major highways across the North in a move aimed at saving lives.

Raleigh Shooting – Latest: Suspect, 15, Will Face Charges As An Adult After Killing Five – MsnNOW https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/raleigh-shooting-latest-suspect-15-will-face-charges-as-an-adult-after-killing-five-msnnow/ Neighbors describe kid wearing camouflage clothing in North Carolina mass shooting LIVE – Updated at 14:35 Five people were killed by a shooter who opened fire along a walking trail in North Carolina’s capital city on Thursday and eluded police for hours before he was cornered and arrested, police said. Law enforcement officials identified the victims of the shooting on Friday. An off-duty police officer was among those killed by the suspect, whom police described as a white, 15-year-old male. The suspect was arrested around 9.37pm after evading capture for hours and hiding inside a home, authorities said. Gunfire broke out around 5pm, along the Neuse River Greenway in a residential area northeast of downtown, Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said. Officers from numerous law enforcement agencies swarmed the area, closing roads and warning residents to stay inside while they searched for the shooter. Two people, including another police officer, were also taken to hospitals. “Tonight terror has reached our doorstep. The nightmare of every community has come to Raleigh. This is a senseless horrific and infuriating act of violence that has been committed,” Governor Roy Cooper told reporters. Key Points President Joe Biden calls for assault weapon ban DA to charge 15-year-old shooting suspect as adult Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal calls for gun safety laws Congresswoman Deborah Ross zeros in on gun violence after shooting Shooting began in golf course community, police chief says Second officer reported to be wounded Friday 14 October 2022 01:26 , Phil Thomas The shootings happened at the Neuse River Greenway in the Heddingham neighborhood near Osprey Cove Drive and Bay Harbor Drive, according to ABC 11 Eyewitness News. The outlet says one officer was shot and killed while a second was also wounded. Three other people were reportedly taken to WakeMed’s trauma unit. Reports that suspect has been captured Friday 14 October 2022 01:29 , Phil Thomas There are reports that a suspect has been captured. The town of Knightdale in North Carolina tweeted: “Attention Knightdale residents: We have been actively monitoring the situation regarding the active shooter in eastern Raleigh, and we can now inform you that the suspect has been captured. There is no longer any threat to the public. Posted Thursday, October 13, 8:15 pm.” Attention Knightdale residents: We have been actively monitoring the situation regarding the active shooter in eastern Raleigh, and we can now inform you that the suspect has been captured. There is no longer any threat to the public. Posted Thursday, October 13, 8:15 pm. — Knightdale, NC (@KdaleNC) October 14, 2022 Conflicting reports over whether suspect still at large Friday 14 October 2022 01:44 , Phil Thomas Raleigh Police have reportedly said no one is currently in custody, despite a tweet earlier from the town of Knightdale that someone had been captured. Police have been telling locals to stay inside their homes as the search continues. Reports that gunman is ‘contained’ inside a barn Friday 14 October 2022 01:58 , Phil Thomas There are reports that the suspected gunman has been “contained” inside a barn. Raleigh Police have confirmed that the situation is ongoing despite earlier reports from a nearby town that the shooter was in custody. This remains an active investigation. No suspects are in custody at this time. Residents in the affected area are advised to remain in their homes until further notice. — Raleigh Police (@raleighpolice) October 14, 2022 Suspect said to be wearing camouflage Friday 14 October 2022 02:11 , Phil Thomas Some reports described the gunman as a white teenager dressed in camouflage. There were reports that he was firing with a shotgun or a “long rifle”. The suspect has not yet been formally identified. Five confirmed dead in North Carolina shooting Friday 14 October 2022 02:15 , Phil Thomas The mayor of Raleigh has confirmed that five people have been killed in a mass shooting on the outskirts of the city. Mary-Ann Baldwin said one of those killed was an off-duty Raleigh Police Department officer. In a short briefing, she said that the suspect was “contained” in a residence in the area, contradicting previous reports that the gunman had been captured. Mayor Baldwin said it was “a sad and tragic day for the city of Raleigh”. Governor reacts to mass shooter Friday 14 October 2022 03:44 , Phil Thomas The governor of North Carolina has tweeted committing assistance to police in Raleigh following the mass shooting that has left five people – including an off-duty police officer – dead and several others wounded. Roy Cooper wrote: “I have spoken with Mayor Baldwin and instructed state law enforcement to provide assistance responding to the active shooter in East Raleigh. State and local officers are on the ground and working to stop the shooter and keep people safe. – RC” I have spoken with Mayor Baldwin and instructed state law enforcement to provide assistance responding to the active shooter in East Raleigh. State and local officers are on the ground and working to stop the shooter and keep people safe. – RC — Governor Roy Cooper (@NC_Governor) October 13, 2022 More than 34,000 gun deaths in 2022 so far, says public access source Friday 14 October 2022 04:04 , Phil Thomas According to the Gun Violence Archive, a not-for-profit resource which collects evidence from 7,500 law enforcement, media, government and commercial sources to try to monitor the number of shootings in the US, there had been 34,883 gun deaths in the country during 2022 as of 13 October. Of those, 16,001 were classified as homicides. There have been 17 mass shootings in North Carolina this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. It defines mass shootings as incidents wherein four people or more suffer gunshot wounds. Second officer wounded Friday 14 October 2022 04:29 , Phil Thomas The mayor of Raleigh, Mary-Ann Baldwin, said a second police officer had been shot. The canine officer was wounded and was one of at least four people taken to hospital with gunshot wounds. Neither the wounded officer – nor the off-duty Raleigh Police Department officer who was killed – have been publicly named. The condition of the wounded officer was not immediately known. Suspect arrested after being cornered in a home, police confirm Friday 14 October 2022 04:57 , Stuti Mishra The shooting suspected who eluded police for hours after killing five people, including an off-duty police officer, has now been arrested, Raleigh police say. The suspect was arrested around 9.37pm, authorities said. His identity and age weren’t released. He is thought to be a teenage boy wearing camouflage. Earlier there were reports that the suspected gunman has been “contained” inside a barn. ‘Lights on, doors locked’, residents describe fear they are living under tonight Friday 14 October 2022 05:35 , Stuti Mishra Hundreds of residents in Raleigh were forced to live under stay-inside orders after the alleged gunman who killed five hid in an unknown house and eluded police for hours. The suspect is now in police custody. Brooke Medina, who lives in the neighbourhood bordering the greenway, described the scenes when she saw about two dozen police cars, both marked and unmarked, race toward the residential area about from Raleigh’s downtown at about 5.15pm. She then saw ambulances speeding the other direction, toward the closest hospital. She and her husband, who was working from home with their four children, started reaching out to neighbours and realised there was a shelter-in-place order. The family closed all of their window blinds, locked the doors and congregated in an upstairs hallway together, said Ms Medina, who works as a communications vice president at a think tank. The family listened to the police scanner and watched local news before going back downstairs once the danger seemed to have moved further away from their home. “We’re just going to hunker down for the rest of the night and be very vigilant. Keep all of our lights on, doors locked,” she said. She described the neighbourhood known as Hedingham as a sprawling, dense, tree-lined community that’s full of single-family homes, duplexes and townhomes that are more moderately priced compared to other parts of the Raleigh area. Ms Medina said she often takes her kids on bike rides along the greenway during the day, but typically brings pepper spray along just in case. “There’s a lot of places one could disappear,” she said. Allison Greenawalt, 29, who also lives in the neighbourhood, said she was sitting on the couch with her cat around 5pm when she heard “three shots in a pretty rapid succession”. “I was sitting in our house with the lights turned off and the windows closed for the majority of the evening, just waiting to hear that” the shooter had been arrested, she said. © Provided by The Independent In this aerial image taken with a drone, Law enforcement work at the scene of a shooting in Raleigh (AP) Images show heavy police presence in Raleigh Friday 14 October 2022 06:04 , Stuti Mishra Latest images show the aftermath of the shooting incident. Police officers work in the Hedingham residential neighborhood (EPA) Law enforcement officers congregate outside an armored vehicle at the Aldi on New Bern Avenue in Raleigh (AP) An ambulance believed to be carrying a shooting suspect arrives at Wake Medical Center Emergeny Room in Raleigh (AP) Police officers work in the Hedingham residential neighborhood (EPA) Law enforcement stand at the entrance to Neuse River Greenway Trail parking at Abington Lane following a shooting in Raleigh, N.C., Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022 (AP) 5/...

The One Thing I Don’t Leave Home Without When I Travel Solo – TravelAwaits https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/the-one-thing-i-dont-leave-home-without-when-i-travel-solo-travelawaits/ Solo Traveler Snapshot While solo traveling isn’t for everyone, Bridget says “Just do it!” for those considering it. Photo credit: Bridget Hieb Name: Bridget H. Age: 51 Location: Hudson, Wisconsin Marital Status: Married Favorite Solo Trip: St. Augustine, Florida Bridget is her own travel agent when it comes to traveling solo. She enjoys exploring the U.S. and finds it refreshing. Bridget does have one item she never leaves home without no matter where she goes. Solo Traveler Inspiration TravelAwaits: What inspired you to travel solo? Bridget: As a mom and wife, being able to take a solo trip is a chance to rejuvenate and reset from the fast-paced and sometimes chaotic home life. First Solo Trip TravelAwaits: What was your first solo trip? Bridget: My first solo trip was to Texas to see a friend. It was exciting to know I didn’t have to keep track of any kids in the airport and rush anyone along. Favorite Aspect Of Solo Travel TravelAwaits: What is your favorite part of traveling solo? Bridget: Besides traveling with my family, I would also travel with friends. That eventually started feeling like I was traveling with family. Traveling alone sounds lonely, but it doesn’t have to be. You can do what you want, when you want, and go wherever you want without having to compromise, make decisions, or wait on anyone. If you want to just sit and read a book, take a nap, or watch your favorite movie; you can without interruption! Favorite Solo Trip TravelAwaits: What is your favorite solo trip so far and why? Bridget: St. Augustine, Florida, is my favorite solo trip and I have been back a few times to visit. The city is steeped with history, beautiful buildings, and delicious restaurants. Bonus: the beach is just across the bridge! Biggest Solo Travel Concern  TravelAwaits: What was your biggest concern before your first solo trip and how did you overcome it? Bridget: I think anytime you travel alone, the unknowns are a little scary. You have to be your own navigator, driver, and planner. The best way to overcome this is to be prepared before you go. Do some research on places you want to see, have hotel and car confirmations handy, and check your driving routes. Even with the best of planning, things might not go completely the way you want. But guess what… no crabby kids or spouse to deal with! It’s just you and the open road. Favorite Travel Product TravelAwaits: What is one product you cannot live without on your trips? Bridget: My pillow! Pillows contain so many allergens. If you wake up stuffy in the morning after sleeping on a hotel or vacation home rental pillow, it could be all the dust mites living in the pillow. Yuck! I Wish I Would Have Joined A Group For This Trip TravelAwaits: Is there a solo location/destination that would have been better in a group and why? Bridget: Being a female, I’m hesitant to travel to another country alone. There is something to be said about traveling within the U.S. and having a bit more sense of security than you do outside the country. A different language, different rules, and a different government are a little intimidating to me. Best Advice For Solo Travelers TravelAwaits: What advice would you give someone who is considering solo travel?Bridget: If you are considering it, then I say just do it! Solo traveling isn’t for everyone. My husband likes to have people around and doesn’t like going places alone. It just depends on the person and what their preferences are. I enjoy solo traveling because I need that break from the demands of everyday life to treat myself. Don’t be afraid or feel guilty about taking some time for yourself. Maybe you try it just once and decide it’s not for you. Maybe you discover that you can give so much more to your family after taking a little time for yourself. To learn about more solo traveler experiences, check out these articles: How A Trip Of A Lifetime Turned Into My First Solo Trip 9 Things I’ve Learned Road Tripping Solo 13 Inspiring Books Every Solo Female Traveler Should Read

Anthony Bourdain: An Unvarnished Life – Business Standard https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/anthony-bourdain-an-unvarnished-life-business-standard/ Down and out in paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain Down and out in paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain Author: Charles Leerhsen Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pages: 308 Price: $28.99 Anthony Bourdain would have hated that autocorrect turns his name into Boursin, a bland cheese with zero culinary credibility. It’s surprising that predictive text doesn’t suggest his name first. Bourdain: He’s hot, he’s sexy and he’s dead, as Rolling Stone said about Jim Morrison on a notorious 1981 cover. Since his death by his own hand in France, in 2018, there’s been a steady drip of books and documentaries and television specials and magazine one-offs about his life and career. On social media, he’s omnipresent in old clips, explaining how to make a Negroni or ripping the phrase “farm to table.” There are a lot of poignant Bourdain tattoos jiggling around out there. A new biography by Charles Leerhsen is making news. It’s grittier than anything we’ve read about him before. Here are the prostitutes, a lot of prostitutes, and one-night stands, and rumours of affairs with other food-world personalities. Here is the use of steroids, human growth hormone and Viagra. Here are exact, disturbing details about his suicide. His heroin habit is recounted. So is his frequent coldness to many who loved and worked with him. A previous book, Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography (2021), compiled by Laurie Woolever, felt like an official Bourdain-industry product. It was heavy on pontificating celebrities, from the food, television and journalism worlds, who tried to puzzle out what made this magnificent, pagan, literate, lantern-jawed beast tick, to put him on the couch. Leerhsen’s book, on the other hand, has a lot of people trying to join Bourdain on the couch, ideally without his trousers, and thus has more adrenaline and feels truer to life. He’s not here, though, to discredit or dismiss his subject. His admiration for Bourdain is nearly always apparent. It’s hard to say if Bourdain would have liked this book. Either way, I suspect he would have admired the author’s guts. Leerhsen is a former executive editor at Sports Illustrated whose previous books include biographies of Ty Cobb and Butch Cassidy. His Bourdain book goes down like a mass-market rock bio. I’d have loved it if I were 17. The author goes all in on Bourdain’s angst, his instinctive distrust of authority, his hero-worship of talented outsiders like Hunter S Thompson, Iggy Pop and William S Burroughs. The older me, the one who prefers wine to fizz, wishes Leerhsen had more to say about things like: a) the elite and vernacular food worlds pre- and post-Bourdain; b) how Bourdain walked a moral tightrope across the conventions of travel writing and reporting, no mean feat for a wealthy white man in skinny jeans; and c) the sense that he was at the vanguard, more so than even the most scrutinised actors, of a new type of American masculinity. You can’t have everything. Leerhsen sacrifices weight for speed. He tracks Bourdain from his suburban New Jersey childhood — his parents had frustrated bohemian inclinations — to Vassar, where he followed the woman who would become his first wife. College did not appeal to him, but cooking did, its piratical side, and he graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, a hidebound place at the time. He worked in restaurants in Provincetown, Mass., and later New York, earning battle scars. He smoked four packs a day and had a big tank for alcohol, and for drugs. He was a late bloomer. He published a first novel at 39. He studied unhappily with the editor Gordon Lish before writing the piece that changed his life. “Don’t Eat Before Reading This: A New York Chef Spills Some Trade Secrets” appeared in The New Yorker in April 1999. The impact, in those mostly pre-internet days, is hard to overstate: There were television news trucks outside Les Halles the next day. The essay was supposed to run in New York Press, an alternative weekly, but the paper accepted it and never printed it. The New Yorker piece, in which Bourdain sharpened his teeth on lax restaurant practices, led directly to his best-selling memoir, Kitchen Confidential, and to everything that followed, particularly the increasingly well-made television shows. Bourdain had a million opportunities to sell out and vastly enrich himself. There are no Bourdain knife sets, or airport bistros. We learn he had a Google alert set to his own name. It gave him real-time, ego-stroking push notifications. We learn he Googled the name Asia Argento — the Italian actress with whom he had a torrid, messy affair — several hundred times in the last three days of his life, after she rattled him by appearing in public with another man. “You were reckless with my heart,” Bourdain wrote, before he hanged himself. The last website he visited was a prostitution service, Leerhsen writes, though he seems to have died alone. “You need to have a lot of things go right in your life before you can become as miserable as Anthony Bourdain, by his late 50s, found himself — that is, before you can work your way to a position where you have so much to lose,” Leerhsen writes. “In Tony’s case it took decades to reach a height from which falling would matter.” There’s an old joke in Hollywood that the film Gandhi was popular because Gandhi was everything people there wish they were: Thin, tan and moral. Bourdain — thin, tan (he was addicted to sunbeds) and mostly moral himself — is approaching secular sainthood. This book doesn’t merely light candles but scuffs him up. I doubt it will be the final word. First Published: Sun, October 16 2022. 22:16 IST

Scientists Reappraise The Role Of ‘Zombie’ Cells That Anti-Aging Medicine Has Sought To Eliminate – Neuroscience News https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/scientists-reappraise-the-role-of-zombie-cells-that-anti-aging-medicine-has-sought-to-eliminate-neuroscience-news/ Summary: Some senescent (zombie) cells are embedded in young, healthy tissue and promote normal repair from damage, researchers say. Source: UCSF Not all senescent cells are harmful “zombies” that should be wiped out to prevent age-related disease, according to new research from UC San Francisco, which found that some of them are embedded in young, healthy tissues and promote normal repair from damage. Scientists have now seen these cells in action in lung tissue, as well as other organs that serve as barriers in the body, such as the small intestine, colon and skin. When they used drugs called senolytics to kill these cells, injuries to lung tissues healed more slowly. “Senescent cells can occupy niches with privileged positions as ‘sentinels’ that monitor tissue for injury and respond by stimulating nearby stem cells to grow and initiate repair,” said Tien Peng, MD, associate professor of pulmonary, critical care, allergy and sleep medicine, and senior author of the study, which appears in Science on October 13, 2022. Aging cells can both damage and heal Peng said it was understandable that scientists at first viewed senescent cells as purely detrimental. As people age, senescent cells accumulate that have characteristics of old, worn-out cells, including the inability to make new cells. Instead of dying like normal aged cells, they to live on, spewing a cocktail of inflammatory compounds that form the senescence associated secretory phenotype (SASP). These factors are linked to Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, and other age-related maladies including cancer. The catchy name “zombie cells” was coined for them. Using senolytics that target and kill “zombie cells,” researchers made the exciting discovery that clearing senescent cells from animals thwarted or diminished age-related disease and extended the lifespan of the animals. Thereafter, a boom of activity ensued in research labs and pharmaceutical companies focused on discovering and refining more powerful versions of these drugs. But killing off senescent cells has dangers, Peng said. For one thing, this current study showed that senescent cells also possess the ability to promote normal healing through activation of stem cell repair. “Our study suggests that senolytics could adversely affect normal repair, but they also have the potential to target diseases where senescent cells drive pathologic stem cell behavior,” said Peng. Lighting up senescent cells One major challenge to studying senescent cells is that biomarkers of senescence (such as the gene p16) are often quite sparse, making it difficult to detect the cells. In early experiments, researchers extracted cells called fibroblasts into culture dishes, allowing them to grow and produce enough cells to experiment with, and then stressed the cells with chemicals that induced them to become senescent. But in living organisms, cells interact with tissues around them, strongly affecting the cells’ gene activity. This means that the characteristics of cells growing isolated in a glass dish could be quite different from that of cells in their natural environment. To create a more powerful tool for their studies, postdoctoral scholar Nabora Reyes de Barboza, Ph.D. and colleagues improved on a common technique of fusing a relevant gene—in this case, the p16 gene, which is overly active in senescent cells—with green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a marker that can reveal the location of the cells under ultraviolet light. By enhancing the quantity and stability of green fluorescent protein in these senescent cells, Reyes greatly amplified the fluorescent signal, finally enabling the researchers to see senescent cells in their natural habitat of living tissues. “Zombies” stimulate stem cells shortly after birth Using this highly sensitive tool, the researchers found that senescent cells exist in young and healthy tissues to a greater extent than previously thought, and actually begin appearing shortly after birth. The scientists also identified specific growth factors that senescent cells secrete to stimulate stem cells to grow and repair tissues. Relevant to aging and tissue injury is the discovery that cells of the immune system such as macrophages and monocytes can activate senescent cells, suggesting that inflammation seen in aged or damaged tissue is a critical modifier of senescent cell activity and regeneration. In their studies of lung tissue, Peng’s team observed green glowing senescent cells lying next to stem cells on the basement membrane that serves as a barrier preventing foreign cells and harmful chemicals from entering the body and also allows oxygen to diffuse from air in the lungs into underlying tissues. Damage can occur at this dynamic interface. Using this highly sensitive tool, the researchers found that senescent cells exist in young and healthy tissues to a greater extent than previously thought, and actually begin appearing shortly after birth. Image is in the public domain The team saw senescent cells in similar positions in other barrier organs such as small intestine, colon, and skin, and their experiments confirmed that if senescent cells were killed with senolytics, lung stem cells were not able to properly repair the barrier surface. Leanne Jones, Ph.D., director of the UCSF Bakar Aging Research Institute and Stuart Lindsay Endowed Professor in Experimental Pathology, said Peng’s study is truly significant for the field of aging research, where the goal is to help individuals live longer and more healthy lives. See also “The studies suggest that senolytics research should focus on recognizing and precisely targeting harmful senescent cells, perhaps at the earliest signs of disease, while leaving helpful ones intact,” she said. “These findings emphasize the need to develop better drugs and small molecules that will target specific subsets of senescent cells that are implicated in disease rather than in regeneration.” Additional authors include Nabora Reyes, Maria Krasilnikov, Nancy C. Allen, Jinyoung Lee, Ben Hyams, Minqi Zhou, Supriya Ravishankar, Monica Cassandras, Chaoqun Wang, Imran Khan, Michael Matthay, and Dean Shappard from the Department of Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care Division, Peri Matatia and Ari Molofsky from the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Makato Nakanishi of University of Tokyo, and Judith Campisi of the Buck Institute. About this neuroscience and aging research news Author: Press Office Source: UCSF Contact: Press Office – UCSF Image: The image is in the public domain Original Research: Closed access. “Sentinel p16INK4a+ cells in the basement membrane form a reparative niche in the lung” by Nabora Reyes de Mochel et al. Science Abstract Sentinel p16INK4a+ cells in the basement membrane form a reparative niche in the lung We engineered an ultrasensitive reporter of p16INK4a, a biomarker of cellular senescence. Our reporter detected p16INK4a-expressing fibroblasts with certain senescent characteristics that appeared shortly after birth in the basement membrane adjacent to epithelial stem cells in the lung. Furthermore, these p16INK4a+ fibroblasts had enhanced capacity to sense tissue inflammation and respond through their increased secretory capacity to promote epithelial regeneration. In addition, p16INK4a expression was required in fibroblasts to enhance epithelial regeneration. This study highlights a role for p16INK4a+ fibroblasts as tissue-resident sentinels in the stem cell niche that monitor barrier integrity and rapidly respond to inflammation to promote tissue regeneration.

Liverpool Vs Manchester City Live Score, Updates, Highlights And Lineups From Sunday Premier League Match – Sporting News https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/liverpool-vs-manchester-city-live-score-updates-highlights-and-lineups-from-sunday-premier-league-match-sporting-news/ ANFIELD, LIVERPOOL — This Liverpool vs. Manchester City clash won’t have the feel of the title-deciding showdowns of recent seasons, but the stakes are still high: Man City are in the hunt for a third straight title, and Liverpool are desperate to relaunch their season in order to secure a top-four finish. While injuries and poor form have seen Liverpool sink to an unfamiliar 11th place in the Premier League table, defending champions Man City are neck-and-neck with Arsenal atop the Premier League.  These two teams last met in the Community Shield to kick off the 2022/23 campaign and that match saw Liverpool emerge as 3-1 winners in another entertaining affair. Few would have predicted what would transpire in the two months that followed: Liverpool winning just two of eight Premier League matches, and Haaland scoring 20 goals to Nunez’s four. Sporting News is following the Liverpool vs Man City match live and providing live score updates, commentary. MORE: Liverpool vs. Man City betting guide Liverpool vs Man City live score   1H 2H Final Liverpool 0 0 — Man City 0 0 — Goals: None Liverpool vs Man City live updates, highlights from Premier League 72nd min: Liverpool making a triple sub as Nunez, Carvalho and Henderson replace Firmino, Elliott and Fabinho. 64th min: Gundogan strides through the Liverpool midfield and tees up Haaland as Anfield holds its collective breath… But the Norwegian can’t beat Alisson, who dives down to his right to brilliantly palm the ball away.  56th min: And another big chance, this time for Liverpool. Salah picks out Jota at the back post with City’s defence stranded but the Portuguese’s header is over the bar.  This is some game. 54th min: A huge moment in the game! City think they have opened the scoring after Foden follows in an Alisson spill and smashes the ball home. However, a VAR check shows a foul on Fabinho in the build-up and Anfield erupts. 50th min: What a chance for Liverpool!  A Manchester City move breaks down on the edge of the box and within three passes Liverpool are in on goal through Salah. But the Egyptian can’t beat Ederson, who replays show got the slightest of touches on the finish to push it around the post (though the referee failed to spot that and a goal-kick has been awarded). 46th min: Back under way at Anfield – who can stamp their mark on this game in the second half? HALFTIME: It’s 0-0 at the break at Anfield but that is one of the highest-quality goalless halves you’ll see. Neither side has been able to carve out what you’d call a gilt-edged opportunity but they’ve both come close and the game has constantly felt on a knife-edge. The first goal will surely be huge. 40th min: De Bruyne chips a ball over Gomez to Haaland at the back post but the Norwegian just can’t generate the power on his headed attempt, which Alisson collects. 32nd min: Haaland sneaks in behind and tries to dink a finish over Alisson but the Brazilian is tall enough to grab the ball out of the air. This game is brilliantly poised. 21st min: Elliott hangs up to the back post where Jota gets a clear header at goal but it’s straight into the grateful arms of Ederson. Both sides at it so far in what has been an engrossing start. 15th min: The first shot on target of the game goes to the visitors, with Gundogan forcing Alisson into a comfortable save down to his right. 11th min: City now settling into this and it is they who are enjoying the lion’s share of the ball. Liverpool have to defend well to keep this multitude of threats at bay. 4th min: Liverpool enjoying a decent start, pinning City in a bit with a spell of possession and this crowd is loving it. They’re booing every touch a visiting player gets. 1st min: Erling Haaland starts the game, with Manchester City attacking the Kop end in the first half. 15 mins from kickoff: The warm-ups come to a close and Liverpool are enthusiastically roared back into the dressing rooms. They’ll need this crowd today. 45 mins from kickoff: Well, some interesting calls from Jurgen Klopp there. Despite Alexander-Arnold making the squad, it looks like James Milner starts at right-back. And it’s a brave shout to throw Harvey Elliott in given his tender years. As for City, that’s a surprisingly normal-looking teamsheet from Pep Guardiola in a big game. Given the form these two sides have shown as late, there is absolutely no need for the Spaniard to come up with a left-field plan. 1 hour from kickoff: Team news is here! Liverpool: Alisson, Milner, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson, Fabinho, Thiago, Elliott, Firmino, Jota, Salah. Manchester City: Ederson, Cancelo, Dias, Akanji, Ake, Rodri, Gundogan, Silva, De Bruyne, Foden, Haaland. 1 hour 10 mins from kickoff: One thing Manchester City fans will be keen to see today: a fast start. Liverpool have conceded the opening goal in 17 of their last 21 games, and an early one for the visitors today could really take the sting out of the atmosphere. 1 hour 40 mins from kickoff: A major fitness concern for Liverpool fans to consider as we close in on the team news announcements. Ibrahima Konate is an injury worry after picking up a muscle problem in training this week but, with Joe Gomez needed at right-back and Joel Matip out, can Jurgen Klopp afford not to take the risk? 2 hours from kickoff: The financial conversation has been the dominant one leading into Liverpool-Man City on Sunday. It’s probably an indicator of where how many expect this match to go. “Nobody can compete with City. We cannot act like them, it’s not possible.” “Newcastle have said ‘there’s no ceiling for this club’, and he’s absolutely right. Congratulations. Some other clubs have ceilings.” Jurgen Klopp pic.twitter.com/5ieS3MANQO — The Anfield Wrap (@TheAnfieldWrap) October 14, 2022 — Football Daily (@footballdaily) October 15, 2022 MORE: Updated Erling Haaland goal tracker Liverpool vs Man City lineups With Joel Matip (calf) and Ibrahima Konate (muscle) absent, Jurgen Klopp returns Joe Gomez to centre-back as he goes with James Milner at right-back despite Trent Alexander-Arnold making a surprise return to the bench. Andy Robertson is back after a return in midweek, while Harvey Elliott retains his starting spot having impressed at Rangers. Liverpool lineup (4-2-3-1, right to left): Alisson (GK) — Milner, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson — Fabinho, Thiago — Elliott, Firmino, Jota — Salah Liverpool subs (9): Kelleher (GK), Henderson, Tsimikas, Bajcetic, Alexander-Arnold, Jones, Phillips, Carvalho, Nunez,  Man City are missing defender John Stones (hamstring), along with Kalvin Phillips (shoulder surgery) and Kyle Walker (groin surgery). Manuel Akanji has done well to help fill the gap that the absence of Stones and Walker has created, earning a start here. Ilkay Gundogan keeps his place in midfield despite also starting in midweek, while the prolific Erling Haaland leads the line at Anfield as you would expect. Man City predicted lineup (4-3-3, right to left): Ederson (GK) — Cancelo, Dias, Akanji, Ake — De Bruyne, Rodri, Gundogan — Silva, Haaland, Foden. Man City predicted subs (9): Ortega (GK), Grealish, Laporte, Mahrez, Lewis, Gomez, Palmer, Wilson-Esbrand, Alvarez MORE: How Haaland and Foden can break the Liverpool-Man City rivalry Liverpool vs Man City TV channel, live stream   UK USA Canada Australia TV channel Sky Sports Premier League, Sky Sports Main Event USA Network, Telemundo — — Streaming Sky GO fuboTV fuboTV Canada Optus Sport UK: The match will be televised and streamed by Sky Sports in the UK.  USA: Fans in the USA can watch Liverpool-Man City on USA Network (English) and Telemundo (Spanish), with both channels streaming on fuboTV.  Canada: The match can be streamed live in Canada on fuboTV. Australia: Fans in Australia can stream the match live and on demand on Optus Sport.

Increase Your Brand Value Online By Venturing Into The Metaverse – Entrepreneur https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/increase-your-brand-value-online-by-venturing-into-the-metaverse-entrepreneur/ Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Innovation is critical for brands willing to break away from the competition and embrace creativity. Businesses are beginning to see the utility of NFTs — digital products with unique IDs. Businesses that integrate NFTs into their branding strategy should consider collaborating with NFT creators, tokenizing events, turning physical products into NFTs, licensing and hosting NFT contests and giveaways. Zipline survey results indicated that 84% of Gen X, 70% of millennials, and 63% of Gen Z would be interested in an NFT from brands they enjoy. NFTs allow brands to give value to digital products; however, the product must be of value to consumers. Brands such as Gucci have created NFT clothing, and Nike offers digital sneakers that avatars can use in the metaverse. The emerging use of NFTs now allows brands to merge the digital and physical worlds; consumers can purchase or win a digital product such as an image or video, then the business can provide a physically branded product to close the marketing loop. Businesses can design NFTs on their own or utilize a company specializing in NFT creation and NFT platforms. NFTs are a viable option for brands to connect with the consumer and grow brand recognition. Brands that invest in using a premade NFT platform are more likely to experience gains in the marketplace. Related: Your Brand Can Become Part of the Metaverse. Here’s How. Design an interactive virtual storefront In the past, customers visited a website or app to access products offered by a business. With technological advances, brands can create more immersive experiences for customers. Customers might visit a virtual storefront, such as the one created by Nike, to go beyond just looking at products. In the metaverse, customers can engage with digital products by using an avatar to try on clothing and other products. The prospect for brands to elevate the customer experience from a bland website visit to a rich and immersive encounter should be explored. An Accenture consumer survey indicated that 64% of respondents made a virtual purchase with 83% willing to make purchases via the metaverse. Brands that simulate the convenience and efficiency of a traditional in-store shopping experience are more likely to maintain customer attention. Once the decision is made to launch a storefront in the metaverse, businesses must decide which metaverse platform to use. There are well-known platforms, but brands should consider building their own platform for more control. The design of the storefront could be a standalone app or virtual space. Multimedia companies can help the brand to create and design interaction layers that define the functionality of the storefront and the ability to integrate with third-party tools. Customers can have a 3D experience using wearables such as virtual goggles, haptic gloves, smart glasses and VR headsets. Well-built storefronts allow a high level of interoperability with increased access to data and manipulation of digital objects by the consumer. Related: 4 Ways to Revolutionize Your Customer Experience in The Metaverse Create virtual events Virtual meetups are in thanks to the Zoom boom, and brands can take advantage of the change by hosting custom-branded virtual events. Immersive virtual experiences can engage new business customers for brands that want to expand beyond geographical boundaries. The type and structure of the virtual event are only limited by the level of creativity and allow unlimited customizations. Brands might collaborate with influencers or even create their own virtual influencer. Businesses can host live or pre-recorded events accessed from a mobile device or laptop. Although 3D events that require VR goggles or headsets are possible, they are not as popular now. Entertainers are one of the largest groups to harness the metaverse to engage customers with live music, comedy shows and other social events. Virtual event attendees can be present in the virtual world using avatars that allow them to dance with others while listening to their favorite artists. Roblox tapped into the innovative technology of the metaverse with more than 33 million attendees to its virtual concert event. The gaming market, including Fortnite, has successfully used VR games to promote products during customer interactions, demonstrating the power of virtual branding. Virtual exhibitors can create realistic interactions like traditional conference hall events. Businesses can utilize branded booths to present various content, but high-quality productions are key. Brands can use virtual tokens, badges, avatar upgrades and digital giveaways to convert fans into customers. The metaverse provides the opportunity for more engagement with participants. Brands must make targeted decisions to ensure that potential customers are part of the event, not merely spectators. Related: 5 Content Ideas to Attract People to the Metaverse Launch your own metaverse Having a presence on virtual platforms is good, but it is even better to own your own. Brands should look into creating their own virtual platforms. Although it might initially seem financially risky, the ability to provide brandable and targeted customer interactions will only improve the consumer experience. Businesses that want a successful launch into the metaverse should prepare a market analysis to ensure the project will meet the customer’s needs and outshine the competition. Some companies even offer the ability to create your own secure smart contracts, NFT marketplaces and more. Related: Back To The Future: What It Feels Like Using A VR Headset For The First Time

The 8 Best Remote Control Toys That Are Perfect For Kids And Adults – Popular Mechanics https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/the-8-best-remote-control-toys-that-are-perfect-for-kids-and-adults-popular-mechanics/ Popular Mechanics; Courtesy of Apitor It doesn’t matter if you’re an adult, toddler, or a literal baby: RC toys are fun to play around with. Whether you’re looking for a new gadget to play with while walking down a sidewalk, or you just need something to occupy those kids at home, remote control toys are truly one of the cheapest thrills you can enjoy just about anywhere. From cars and boats to helicopters and drones, RC gizmos come in a wide variety of vehicles, figures, and robots, and have a long list of diverse functions. If you’re a parent looking to keep their child’s hands busy, or even an adult just curious about the power that these small toys can hold, we’ve picked out the best RC toys for you to check out down below and pump some new joy into that typical routine. The Best Remote Control Toys 1 2 3 4 Best For Star Wars Fans Star Wars RC Grogu Plush Toy Mattel Read More 5 Best Boat R308 RC Boat with Case ALPHAREV Read More 6 Best for Nintendo Fans Super Mario Kart Anti-Gravity Mini RC Racer Nintendo Read More 7 Best for Animal Lovers Remote Control Robot Dog Toy yiman Read More 8 What to Consider Many toys operate via remote control, but not all of them are cars. RC toys can range from water-shredding boats to aerial drones. When searching for an RC toy, consider what kind of vehicle or figure you’d like to control with a remote, and take note of what it takes to operate them. A drone, for example, may require proper licensing to operate, depending on its use. Those adults searching for reliable RC toys may remember that these gadgets sometimes require a large number of batteries to operate. That’s not always the case today. Many modern RC toys rely on rechargeable batteries to operate. Take battery life and operation into consideration when shopping for RC toys to understand how much playtime you can get with them. It’s vital to pay attention to suggested age recommendations for each product and consider the edges of a toy if buying one for a child. Anything that’s jagged may pose a risk of injury. How We Evaluated To find the best remote control toys out there, we consulted our own guides to the best remote control boats, cars, and helicopters. We also checked out guides from competitor sites like Futura and CNET. Taking critical and user reviews into consideration, we scoured through thousands of reviews and made a list of the most accessible, family-friendly toys on the market today. Every product has at least a 4- out of 5-star average rating, so rest assured that these toys are the best of the best. Looking for more gadgets to gift young ones for a special occasion? Check out our picks for the best science toys, popping toys, and ride-on toys. 1 Best Overall BEZGAR TB141 RC Car Key Specs Age Recommendation 8+ Dimensions 13.03 x 8.5 x 5.94 inches Toy Battery Source Rechargeable Remote Battery Source 2 AA batteries 2 Best Drone SYMA RC Helicopter Key Specs Age Recommendation 14+ Dimensions 10.75 x 7.83 x 5.08 inches Toy Battery Source Rechargeable Remote Battery Source Rechargeable 3 Best For Education Apitor Robot X Key Specs Age Recommendation 8+ Dimensions 13.80 x 10.70 x 2.40 inches Toy Battery Source 3 AA batteries Remote Battery Source N/A 4 Best For Star Wars Fans Mattel Star Wars RC Grogu Plush Toy Key Specs Age Recommendation 3+ Dimensions 6.8 x 17.01 x 12.8 inches Toy Battery Source 4 AA batteries Remote Battery Source 2 AA batteries 5 Best Boat ALPHAREV R308 RC Boat with Case Key Specs Age Recommendation 8+ Dimensions 15.98 x 9.06 x 5.35 inches Toy Battery Source 2 rechargeable 7.4 V 1200 mAh Li-ion batteries Remote Battery Source 3 AA batteries 6 Best for Nintendo Fans Nintendo Super Mario Kart Anti-Gravity Mini RC Racer Key Specs Age Recommendation 4+ Dimensions 11.5 x 8 x 7.25 inches Toy Battery Source 6 AA batteries Remote Battery Source 2 AA batteries 7 Best for Animal Lovers yiman Remote Control Robot Dog Toy Key Specs Age Recommendation 3+ Dimensions 5.5 x 3.9 x 7 inches Toy Battery Source Rechargeable Remote Battery Source Rechargeable 8 Best Robot ALLCELE Robot Toy Key Specs Age Recommendation 3+ Dimensions 4.7 x 3.4 x 4.9 inches Toy Battery Source Rechargeable Remote Battery Source 2 AA batteries Kevin Cortez Kevin Cortez is a culture and product journalist with over nine years of experience.

Here’s What Crypto Traders Are Doing With Volatility Gone | Mint – Mint https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/heres-what-crypto-traders-are-doing-with-volatility-gone-mint-mint/ 3 min read . Updated: 16 Oct 2022, 08:50 PM IST Bloomberg Premium A volatility gauge for Bitcoin has dropped in recent days to its lowest level since April (REUTERS) Besides dangling the opportunity to get rich quickly, one of the biggest attractions for crypto traders was the ability to profit from wild price swings. Now with volatility all but gone — at least for now — both professionals and amateurs are altering their strategies as the crypto winter drags on. Besides dangling the opportunity to get rich quickly, one of the biggest attractions for crypto traders was the ability to profit from wild price swings. Now with volatility all but gone — at least for now — both professionals and amateurs are altering their strategies as the crypto winter drags on.  A volatility gauge for Bitcoin has dropped in recent days to its lowest level since April, reaching 61 on Friday. That’s a far cry from the 140 it hit in May amid the collapse of the Terra stablecoin ecosystem. After surging to an all-time high of almost $69,000 in November, the largest digital asset by market value has been trading in a narrow range of around $20,000 since June.  Which begs the question: what exactly are crypto traders and investors, accustomed to the twists and turns of the asset class, doing now to make money?  Bloomberg News talked to a number of investors and traders about what they’ve been doing to survive the chill. Here’s a by no means complete list of recent strategies:  Selling Options Julian Koh, co-Founder and CEO of Ribbon Finance, a structured investment products protocol for DeFi, says his firm’s seen “increased demand to sell options,” which can make money in a sideways market. Ribbon over the past month reached $100 million in total value locked (a crypto term to denote funds deposited in a project) from $70 million, and its options vaults are “doing well in this environment,” Koh says.  “Basically it’s a way for people to express the view that markets will continue to be flat and still make money,” he added. Staking  Steven McClurg, co-founder and chief investment officer at digital-asset fund manager Valkyrie Investments, has been risk-off for most of the year. But he says Bitcoin’s a buy whenever it hits between $17,000-$18,000. “That’s when we’re buying. We’re waiting for those opportunities,” he said in an interview. But he’s also seeing “good opportunities” with staking certain assets. Avalanche, for instance, is a token he favors because it took a big hit earlier in the year. Buying it and staking it can earn 8% currently.  Still, given how uncertain things have been, McClurg has moved some of his firm’s assets into cash. “Sometimes doing nothing is a great strategy,” he says. Some of his strategies are more than 50% in cash. That could mean straight-up, old-fashioned cash, though it could also include a stablecoin like USDC or Gemini token.  Playing the Long Game With where Bitcoin’s currently trading, it makes sense to go long, according to Zaheer Ebtikar, portfolio manager at crypto fund LedgerPrime. “The market factors I look at tell me that a lot of people are positioned in the opposite way, so I think the expected value is for me to go long,” he said.  He’s noticed the “vol crush” in the market, which he likened to Bitcoin’s last halving event in 2020. But at some point, volatility will get “super attractive, the range will break and vol will surge again.” “This makes it pretty attractive to get long volatility because then you can make money if the range breaks if you think there’s another catalyst,” he added.  ‘Distressed-Asset Market’ One of the side effects of the crypto downturn has been that lots of DAOs — decentralized autonomous organizations that allow holders to vote on different proposals  — sitting on treasuries that are “in distress,” says Michael Safai of proprietary trading firm Dexterity Capital, meaning that their prices are beneath their treasury value.  “The game then is, Hey, can I convince the rest of the DAO to liquidate the treasury and then pay it out? And if I do that, the liquidation value is going to be greater than the price I’m paying of the token,” he said on a recent episode of Bloomberg’s “What Goes Up” podcast. “And that’s because crypto prices are sometimes irrational,” he said, adding that he’s seen this happening recently, though his firm has not done anything like this.  Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates. More Less

OPEC+ Members Line Up To Endorse Production Cut After U.S Coercion Claim – Reuters https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/opec-members-line-up-to-endorse-production-cut-after-u-s-coercion-claim-reuters/ CAIRO Oct 16 (Reuters) – OPEC+ member states lined up on Sunday to endorse a steep production cut agreed this month after the White House, stepping up a war of words with Riyadh, claimed Saudi Arabia had pushed some other nations into the move. Iraq, OPEC’s second largest exporter, said the decision was based on economic indicators and was taken unanimously. “There is complete consensus among OPEC+ countries that the best approach in dealing with the oil market conditions during the current period of uncertainty and lack of clarity is a pre-emptive approach that supports market stability and provides the future the guidance it needs,” Iraq’s state oil marketer SOMO said in a statement. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Oman and Bahrain also said in separate statements that OPEC+ – which includes other major producers, notably Russia – had been unanimous in deciding on the 2 million barrels per day reduction. Algeria’s energy minister called the Oct. 5 decision “historic” and he and OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais, currently visiting Algeria, expressed their full confidence in it, Algeria’s Ennahar TV reported. The cut came despite oil markets being tight, with inventories in major economies at lower levels than when OPEC has cut output in the past. But some analysts have said recent volatility in crude markets could be remedied by a cut that would help attract investors to a market that was underperforming fundamentals. U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday that “more than one” OPEC member felt coerced by Saudi Arabia into the vote, adding that the cut would also increase Russia’s revenues and blunt the effectiveness of sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine. Oman’s energy ministry said OPEC+ decisions were based purely on the realities of market supply and demand. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Moataz Mohamed, Yasmin Hussien and Maha El Dahan; Editing by Louise Heavens, Alexandra Hudson Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Demand For Local And Resilient Cloud Capabilities Keeps Growing: Here’s How Microsoft Is Bringing More Options To Australia And New Zealand – Microsoft https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/demand-for-local-and-resilient-cloud-capabilities-keeps-growing-heres-how-microsoft-is-bringing-more-options-to-australia-and-new-zealand-microsoft/ “The Cloud” plays an increasingly significant role in our lives – enabling remote work and learning, global collaboration, business continuity, supporting discovery and innovation, and importantly, powering critical life and safety services. Today we’re outlining additional cloud infrastructure investments Microsoft is making to ensure organisations of all sizes in Australia and New Zealand can continue to transform their business operations and accelerate the pace of innovation. This includes upcoming availability of Azure Availability Zones (AZs) in our Australia Southeast (Melbourne) and New Zealand North (Auckland) datacenter regions, to support additional services and higher reliability. Microsoft’s global cloud infrastructure spans 60+ datacenter regions across the globe, connected by over 280,000 kilometres of optical fibre, and built to deliver on our customers’ stringent expectations of security, data residency, reliability, and sustainability. In Australia and NZ, Microsoft operates datacenter regions in Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra today, with a new datacenter region coming soon to Auckland, NZ. This geographic separation of infrastructure is a key requirement for many organisations to meet disaster recovery objectives for critical infrastructure. However, multi-regional architectures can be challenging and are often reserved for only the most critical workloads. Microsoft’s global cloud infrastructure spans 60+ datacenter regions across the globe Azure Availability Zones make multi-regional architecture much easier by providing infrastructure redundancy within a datacenter region. In 2020 we launched this capability in our Australia East (Sydney) datacenter region, giving customers the ability to distribute cloud resources across three physically separate locations around the Sydney metropolitan area. This helps organisations better protect their applications and data from infrastructure risks, ranging from technical software issues, hardware failures and natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, and fires. By expanding our AZ capabilities to our Australia Southeast (Melbourne) and upcoming NZ Central (Auckland) regions, customers will have multiple low latency and high resiliency cloud locations, and more choices for managing their workloads in the Microsoft Cloud. The Australia Southeast region has grown significantly since launching in 2014, and now encompasses multiple data centres across metropolitan Melbourne. Customers’ workloads are already protected from unexpected downtime or data loss through comprehensive Azure Backup services, Premium storage (99.9% uptime SLA), Availability Sets (99.95% uptime SLA) and region failover options. Azure Availability Zones will further enhance this resilience by offering an industry leading 99.99% financially backed uptime guarantee. Ducas Francis, Head of Technology – Cloud, Reliability and Platform Engineering, Woolworths Ducas Francis, Head of Technology – Cloud, Reliability and Platform Engineering, Woolworths, has welcomed the addition of new Availability Zones in our Australia Southeast region. The major retailer recently migrated its business-critical SAP system to Microsoft Azure. “The needs of our business and our customers are constantly changing, which requires Woolworths’ technology infrastructure to be scalable, agile and resilient,” says Francis. “Microsoft’s new Azure Availability Zones in the Australia Southeast region will further support our efforts to innovate in the cloud and simplify work for our teams in order to deliver exceptional customer experiences across our network of stores and online channels.” The National Australia Bank (NAB) will also benefit from additional cloud resiliency offerings in Melbourne. These AZs will support the NAB’s strategic five-year partnership with Microsoft to deliver its multi-cloud strategy. Steve Day, Chief Technology Officer at NAB “Resilience is the foundation of everything we do in technology, underpinning our ability to provide our customers with great banking experiences,” says Steve Day, Chief Technology Officer at NAB. “Microsoft’s investment in additional Azure Availability Zones in Melbourne will enable us to deploy critical applications into the Australia Southeast region.” The expanded scale and services of Microsoft’s cloud offerings in Australia and New Zealand are made possible by close partnership with several data centre providers as well as our own datacenter construction efforts. These innovative facilities will support current and future demand for Microsoft Cloud services from government, business, and consumers in Australia. Microsoft has operated in Australia and New Zealand for 39 years – and we continue to invest in the region and the ecosystem of partners and technology providers we rely on, to meet the demand of delivering fast, reliable, and sustainable cloud services.

Expert Help With Medicare Available In Clark County – The Columbian https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/expert-help-with-medicare-available-in-clark-county-the-columbian/ Annual enrollment period for seniors runs through Dec. 7 Published: October 16, 2022, 6:04am Medicare annual enrollment period has begun, providing an opportunity for new enrollments and for current Medicare beneficiaries to review their plans and needs during this period, which runs through Dec. 7. (Associated Press files) This year’s Medicare annual enrollment period opened Saturday and runs through Dec. 7, giving residents who are 65 or older and qualify for Medicare a chance to sign up or change plans for the federal health insurance program. In Clark County, 16.3 percent of the population is 65 years and older, according to the United States Census Bureau. Recognizing that the process can cause confusion, the Community Health Plan of Washington — a not-for-profit organization that offers Apple Care, Medicare, and individual and family plans — is offering two free informational sessions in Vancouver to connect community members to Medicare experts. “I would like the senior community and those Medicare eligible to understand that they’re not alone through this process of electing and reviewing their plan options,” said Brisa Guajardo, manager of business development and Medicare expert at the Community Health Plan of Washington. The organization will host events at 11 a.m. Wednesday and at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 10, both at 5107 E. Fourth Plain Blvd., No. 111. “The intent is to educate them and, if nothing else, really to bring them the answers to those questions that they have so that they can make a really informed decision for their coverage starting in 2023,” Guajardo said. Guajardo recommends that during this enrollment period, not only should people who are not currently enrolled apply, but those enrolled in Medicare should review their annual notice of change and evaluate their own overall health to see if they have any additional needs. She recommends exploring what plans are out there so each individual can find a plan that best suits his or her needs. The Community Health Plan of Washington announced a new alternative treatments benefit package and a companionship program on Wednesday. The alternative package allows up to 25 alternative medicine treatments, such as massage or acupuncture, depending on the plan. The companionship program is a partnership with Papa Pals that offers recipients help with everyday tasks such as running errands or household chores and even just someone to come spend time with a person. “We understand that each of our members has unique health needs and that those needs change throughout the course of their lives,” Caitlin Duffy, director of Medicare Outreach at the Community Health Plan of Washington, said in a press release. “That is why we are excited to launch these new unique benefits that go beyond traditional health care and address all aspects of one’s health — mental, emotional and physical.” For more information on Medicare, including who is eligible and how to choose the right plan for you, visit medicare.chpw.org or medicare.gov.

These 10 U.S. Cities Were Named The Best For Foodies – Travel Off Path https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/these-10-u-s-cities-were-named-the-best-for-foodies-travel-off-path/ Last Updated 3 mins ago It’s not much of a secret that Americans love their food – and why wouldn’t they? The United States is home to some of the best restaurants, diners and street food vendors in the world, serving up a dazzling array of international cuisines that few countries can match when it comes to diversity, affordability and availability. With trying new and exotic cuisines a key reason to head around the world for many travelers, most would be just as well served traveling domestically to get their foodie fix – and here’s where they can do that.  An exhaustive new study has been completed that looked at a range of different cities around the United States, assessed them across a variety of food-related metrics and created a list of the top 10 foodie cities in the country. Here’s a look at how the study was completed, and which cities across the United States have earned the title of the best cities for foodies.  Top Foodie Cities Study – Information For Travelers The study into the top foodie cities in the United State was carried out by WalletHub, a personal finance website. In their quest to find the top foodie cities in the country, WalletHub compared 182 cities in the US, which included the 150 most populated cities, in addition to at least two of the most populated cities in each state. These cities were then not only analyzed in two key dimensions, “Affordability” and “Diversity, Accessibility & Quality,” but across 29 metrics, before being given an overall score out of 100. Don’t Forget Travel Insurance For Your Next Trip! Travel Off Path Recommends These 5 Fast and Easy Travel Insurance Plans To Sign up For Now Plans starting at only $10 per week The metrics were wide-ranging in order to determine which city could truly be crowned Mecca for the Foodies. Across the “Affordability” dimension, such metrics included restaurant meal costs, the costs of groceries and the price of beer and win. On the “Diversity, Accessibility & Quality” side of the coin, metrics included the number of restaurants per capita, presence of Michelin star restaurants, food trucks per capita, food and wine tours per capita and several other food-related criteria. Coming out in first place and earning the title of the best US city for foodies was Portland, Oregon. The quirky, scenic city had an overall score of 69.96 – three clear points above the nearest competitor – with the study proving that Portland claimed the joint-highest number of craft breweries and wineries per capita and the third-best ratio of full-service restaurants to fast food establishments – two more great reasons to take a trip to the city in the coming months. Second place went to Orlando, Florida, with an overall score of 66.63, whilst nearby Miami took the bronze medal with a score of 66.15. Both Orlando and Miami held the joint-first position in the restaurants per capita metric and the number of ice cream and frozen yogurt shops per capita – perfect for the hot Florida summers. Orlando also took the top spot when it came to the number of coffee shops and gourmet specialty food stores, showing that it clearly caters to all crowds.  Fourth place went to San Francisco, California, scoring 65.10, whilst Austin, Texas finished in a respectable fifth place with 63.19. San Francisco was also in joint first position in the restaurants per capita criterion, as one would expect from such a major foodie destination. Looking at the star performers from selected metrics, Brownsville, Texas proved to be the cheapest place to buy both groceries and beer and wine, whilst Santa Rosa, California and Salt Lake City, Utah perfect the best in the craft breweries and coffee shop metrics respectively.  The top 10 best foodie cities in the US are as follows: Portland, Oregon (69.96) Orlando, Florida (66.3) Miami, Florida (66.15) San Francisco, California (65.10) Austin, Texas (63.19) Sacramento, California (62.89) Seattle, Washington (62.58) Tampa, Florida (61.80) Las Vegas, Nevada (61.20) San Diego, California (60.78) In contrast, the bottom five consisted of Pearl City, Hawaii, Montgomery, Alabama, Moreno Valley, California, Shreveport, Louisiana and Jackson, Mississippi – places to avoid if getting a good meal is high on your to-do list on vacation.  Read More: Travel Insurance That Covers Covid-19 For 2022 Traveler Alert: Don’t Forget Travel Insurance For Your Next Trip! ↓ Join Our Community ↓ The Travel Off Path Community FB group has all the latest reopening news, conversations, and Q&A’s happening daily!  SUBSCRIBE TO OUR LATEST POSTS Enter your email address to subscribe to Travel Off Path’s latest breaking travel news, straight to your inbox This article originally appeared on TravelOffPath.com

Galamsey: We Need To Address Rapid Population Growth – Chief – Ghana Business News https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/galamsey-we-need-to-address-rapid-population-growth-chief-ghana-business-news/ Nana Ansah Kwao IV Nana Ansah Kwao IV, Chief of Akwamu Adumasa, has attributed the unending illegal mining- ‘galamsey’ – activity to the continuous growth in the population size of the country. According to him, it was driving unemployment rate in the country high with the desire for survival fueling the situation. He said this while contributing to discussions on the ‘galamsey’ menace on an Accra-based radio station monitored by the Ghana News Agency, on Saturday. “The fundamental issue of all the menace confronting to this issue is the speed with which the population is growing, but some how as a country, it is a taboo subject for us. If you look at our economy and the number of new babies we put in a year, there is absolutely no way we can give them good roads, sanitation, education before December; before we put in another 900,000 new babies for, which a great percentage is coming from the lower end of the spectrum where the financial muscle is not too strong,” he noted. Nana Kwao IV, therefore, called for drastic measures to be put in place and family planning encouraged to check the rapid growth of the population. “What we the traditional rulers are refusing to understand is that the principles have not changed, but the times have changed and so the reasons for, which our forefathers did certain things, the thing is still valid but maybe the reason you can change it, the purpose you cannot change it. And so that’s why we have arrived here, greed and survival,” he stated. Dr Henry Kokofu, Executive Director, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), noted that inadequate staff was hampering the Agency’s efforts to regularly monitor activities of mining companies to ensure that they adhered to the law. He, however, revealed that the Agency was in the process of procuring some 45 vehicles to help in monitoring activities of mining companies, especially ‘galamsey’ in the country. He said that would enable the Agency to identify and arrest mining companies and persons who flouted the mining laws of the country by engaging in illegal activities. “The first time in the history of EPA, we are procuring 45 vehicles, of which 25 are robust mining Land Cruisers size that the large scale miners use and it’s being equipped with all the necessary accouterments, including GPS, siren and all that we need to work with… So, we will be able to march up boot for boot with illegal operators,” he said. The EPA Boss noted that the Agency had taken numerous actions, including sanctioning and revoking the mining licences of companies and individuals who perpetuated illegalities, in an effort to curb the galamsey menace. He said the EPA was currently working with the Minerals Commission to activate the reclamation bond to ensure that all mined lands were returned to their original states. Regulation 23 of the Environmental Assessment Regulations, 1999 (L.I 1652) mandates the EPA to ensure that prospective small-scale miners post reclamation bonds in the form of cash into an escrow account based on approved reclamation plans before they are issued permits to mine. Mr Francis Kwasi Bonzoh, the District Chief Executive for Elembelle District, rejected calls by a section of the public for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives to be sacked for failing to deal with the ‘galamasey’ menace. He described that as “quiet simplicity,” explaining that, actors of ‘galamsey’ business were powerful and highly connected, making the fight against the canker very difficult. Dr Tony Aubynn, President, Africa Institute of Extractive Industries, urged the Minerals Commission to monitor concessions given out to mining firms to ensure the right thing was done. Source: GNA

Innovative Childcare At The Nest Schools Expands With Newest Houston-Area School Opening In November – Community Impact Newspaper https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/innovative-childcare-at-the-nest-schools-expands-with-newest-houston-area-school-opening-in-november-community-impact-newspaper/ With three successful schools under their belt and one more on the way in the Houston area, The Nest Schools has continued to provide childcare that goes above and beyond the norm. The newest school, located at 18150 Park Cypress St., Houston, is set to open in late November and serves infants all the way up until elementary school. Along with the new school, the childcare provider also has locations in Katy, Cypress and Houston, as well as schools across the country. When choosing where to expand next, another Houston location seemed like the perfect next step as the area continues to grow and attract many new families. One thing stands above the rest in how they operate—The Nest Difference. According to their website, The Nest Difference focuses on five key aspects of excellent childcare: health and safety, Nest Play curriculum, parent communication, top teachers and outdoor play spaces. “Our outdoor play spaces are one of the many things that sets us apart from other early childhood programs,” said Brittany Madonna, senior vice president of marketing and communications. “Our play spaces consist of a variety of natural elements and features, and are uniquely designed for each school. They are treated as an extension of our classrooms where children can learn and grow.” In terms of health and safety, all spaces feature state-of-the-art air purifiers that aim to reduce the chance of anyone contracting COVID-19 and other illnesses. Weekly and monthly safety checks are completed on the inside and outside of the school, and observance cameras are also installed throughout. When it comes to the curriculum taught at the school, their daily lesson plans support the development of the whole child and incorporate play-inspired learning opportunities. In addition to the lesson plans, three different enrichment programs, Paints and Pianos, Fit Buddies, and Art of Living, are included as a part of the children’s regular routine. Fit Buddies focuses on promoting a healthy lifestyle from the beginning of a child’s life. Different lessons include dancing, bean bag tossing and dribbling a soccer ball. When a child participates in Paints and Pianos, they get to express themselves through different art forms such as painting and drawing using a variety of mixed mediums. With the Art of Living, children are taught different life skills like having a conversation, caring for pets and writing a thank you note. “Our director of education does all our curriculum planning for our schools. She incorporates the most current research on how children learn to develop the best approach for our students,” Madonna said. “How we educate our students centers around a play philosophy. Through playing and creating hands-on experiences, children become much more engaged and involved in the learning process.” The school is still working on receiving some of these elements, such as the outdoor play spaces, as they prepare for their grand opening. Interested parents can schedule a virtual tour of the school, and in person tours will be available soon. The above story was produced by Community Impact’s Storytelling team with information solely provided by the local business as part of their “sponsored content” purchase through our advertising team. Our integrity promise to our readers is to clearly identify all CI Storytelling posts so they are separate from the content decided upon, researched and written by our journalism department.

Bowl Projections: Tennessee Replaces Alabama In College Football Playoff With Georgia In Top Spot – CBS Sports https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/bowl-projections-tennessee-replaces-alabama-in-college-football-playoff-with-georgia-in-top-spot-cbs-sports/ No. 6 Tennessee’s stunning 52-49 win over No. 3 Alabama not only snapped a 15-game losing streak for the Volunteers in the series, it has also resulted in the Vols replacing the Crimson Tide in the updated College Football Playoff projection. After defeating Alabama for the first time since 2006, Tennessee now sits 6-0 on the season with one of the program’s biggest wins of the last two decades. Though Tennessee is replacing Alabama in the field of four, it is not taking Bama’s exact seed. The Vols are projected for the No. 4 spot setting up what would be a rematch with No. 1 seed Georgia. The placement takes into account a projected win for Georgia over Tennessee on Nov. 5 with the Bulldogs going on to win the SEC Championship Game with the Vols finishing the season 11-1. Ohio State, which was off this week, remains the No. 2 seed slotted for the Fiesta Bowl. The Buckeyes return to action against Iowa next week. Ohio State’s opponent would be No. 3 seed Clemson, which beat Florida State handily and will play what is likely to be a top-15 Syracuse team next week. College Football Playoff Jan. 9 National Championship Inglewood, Calif. Title game Semifinal winners Dec. 31 Peach Bowl Atlanta Semifinal (1) Georgia vs. (4) Tennessee Dec. 31 Fiesta Bowl Glendale, Ariz. Semifinal (2) Ohio State vs. (3) Clemson Beyond the CFP, there are also changes to the other New Year’s Six games coming out of Separation Saturday. Alabama is still expected to win the SEC West and play in the SEC Championship Game, though it is projected to lose to Georgia in that contest. Because of the loss already to the Vols, a two-loss Crimson Tide would slide into the Sugar Bowl as the SEC representative. Wake Forest replaces NC State as the ACC representative in the Orange Bowl. The Wolfpack fell to the Orange, but more importantly, lost quarterback Devin Leary for the season with a torn pectoral muscle suffered in last week’s win over the Seminoles. Penn State (at Michigan), USC (at Utah) and Oklahoma State (at TCU) all retained their projected bowl positions despite road losses this week. Those losses were already expected as part of last week’s projection. Finally, Cincinnati has stepped in as the new Group of Five representative in the Cotton Bowl after Coastal Carolina lost at home to Old Dominion. New Year’s Six bowl games Jan. 2 Rose Pasadena, Calif. Big Ten vs. Pac-12 Michigan vs. USC Jan. 2 Cotton Arlington, Tex. at-large vs. at-large Oregon vs. Cincinnati Dec. 31 Sugar New Orleans SEC vs. Big 12 Alabama vs. Oklahoma State Dec. 30 Orange Miami ACC vs. SEC/B1G/ND Wake Forest vs. Penn State James Madison also lost at Georgia Southern leaving the Group of Five without any remaining undefeated teams. However, the Dukes were already ineligible for the postseason, so while the AP Top 25 and Coaches Poll may rank them again this season, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee will not. There are now 16 bowl-eligible teams out of the 82 that are needed to fill every slot. The SEC has the most so far with four. There are also three teams in this projection expected to have only five wins. That is the smallest number in a bowl projection so far this season. Don’t see your team? Check out the rest of Jerry Palm’s bowl projections after Week 7.

Metacryp: An Emerging Metaverse Like The Sandbox You Should Not Miss – Tekedia https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/metacryp-an-emerging-metaverse-like-the-sandbox-you-should-not-miss-tekedia/ MetaCryp Network is a metaverse platform built on the Binance Smart Chain that aims to provide its users with an ecosystem where they can unwind from daily stress. The project will use blockchain technology to create a virtual space for community members to work, play, and socialize. Although it is not the first metaverse platform, the team aims to solve five problems associated with blockchain projects. Firstly, MetaCryp wants to address the issue of lack of transparency and lack of trust familiar with some blockchain projects. Why do those projects lack transparency? Some do not provide details about their token allocation, reward system, and governance mechanism. However, MetaCryp will ensure that it will account for all its operational processes. Also, the project will use smart contracts to document its reward system. In turn, MetaCryp will be an open-source platform trusted by investors and users. Also, MetaCryp is removing procedures of blockchain games that discourage new people from entering the industry. These procedures include KYC registrations, payment of commissions, or other costs. To solve this, MetaCryp will ensure that its users won’t need to provide their details when joining its metaverse. Instead, users only need to connect their crypto wallets and authorize as many transactions as possible. Meanwhile, some blockchain games charge users recurring fees to play games. At the same time, they remove hidden charges like wallet maintenance fees. On its part, MetaCryp does not charge entry fees, and the necessary deductions will be low in comparison to other platforms. Regarding wallet maintenance, it will be unnecessary since MetaCryp is adopting a peer-to-peer payment method via a crypto wallet. In addition, rigorous transaction processes and delayed settlement time will not exist in the MetaCryp metaverse. Its users can quickly move crypto assets to their public wallets through a free in-game wallet. Furthermore, GameFi projects sometimes restrict their communities from participating in governance. On the contrary, MetaCryp will put its community first. Its users can always submit proposals and possess the right to provide opinions and vote on decisions that MetaCryp will make. MetaCryp token MTCR The MTCR token will function as both the utility and governance token of the MetaCryp ecosystem. MTCR will let users gain access to the metaverse platform and serve as a reward to those using the virtual space. MetaCryp Vs. The Sandbox Like MetaCryp, The Sandbox is a metaverse platform where you can invest in virtual lands. After buying a land parcel or estate, you can develop and build a gaming experience and sell or store it. Apart from a full-blown metaverse, The Sandbox offers three other products: VoxEdit, an NFT marketplace, and a game maker. VoxEdit and The Sandbox Game Maker help create digital artwork that you convert into NFTs. Moreover, those NFTs are permanently yours until you decide to sell them. The Sandbox uses SAND, an ERC-20 token, to operate its GameFi economy. SAND is a utility token that allows you to perform all transactions within the game ecosystem. MeteCryp Vs. FTX Token FTX is among the leading centralized exchanges. The crypto platform is based in the Bahamas after moving from Hong Kong. It has a separate company FTX US, running mainly in the United States. Although a joint management team runs both, their capital structures and trading products differ. On September 5, 2022, FTX US president Brett Harrison stated on Twitter that he had resigned. Meanwhile, he will continue to work with FTX US by taking on an advisory role. How to buy MTCR token Set up a cryptocurrency wallet and add BTC, ETH, BNB, or MATIC. Proceed to the MetaCryp presale website by clicking here. Create an account and fill in the quantity of MTCR tokens you plan to buy. Deposit crypto to complete your purchase. MetaCryp will reward you with a 32% bonus of the amount you purchase for the first time. Final Words MetaCryp Network is a metaverse project that creates a virtual home for everyone. Learn more about MetaCryp (MTCR) Presale: http://presale.metacryptoken.io/ Website: http://metacryptoken.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/MetaCrypOfficial

Meta Connect 2022 Mega Roundup: ALL You Need To Know In One Single Article! – The Ghost Howls https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/meta-connect-2022-mega-roundup-all-you-need-to-know-in-one-single-article-the-ghost-howls/ Meta Connect has been the big event of the week, and as it is a tradition of this blog, I’m going to write today for you a super article where you can find inside ALL the news announced during the event! This way, by reading this article, you are sure you have not missed any one of the announcements made there. I truly hope this can be useful for all of you in the XR community… How to read this post Just a quick notice before starting. Some years ago, I was used to writing in the Connect roundup article every detail I could find online about the news announced. This year I’m still writing a very long and comprehensive post, but I’m going to skip some details, that anyway you can read in the other articles I’m linking to let you can go deeper on the topics. I’ll do this for two reasons: first of all, there have been so many pieces of news, that if I had to write every detail of all of them, you would need 4 hours to read this post (and ain’t no one got time fo that); and then, I’m currently too busy with my dev work that I don’t have two full-time days to write a post of that kind anymore. I’m sure you will appreciate my choice. Ok, enough with this boring premise, let’s dig into the Connect! Meta Quest Pro announcement video Meta Quest Pro was what everyone was expecting from this event, and Zuck has not disappointed us with this point. It has especially not disappointed the analyst Brad Lynch, because basically, the device is exactly as it was leaked by him. In fact, for all of us in the XR ecosystem, the announcement was not a surprise at all, because it was exactly how we were expecting it to be. Specifications Let me list here the full specs of the Quest Pro, courtesy of Road To VR: Quest Pro Specs Resolution 1800 × 1920 (3.5MP) per-eye, LCD (2x) Refresh Rate 72Hz, 90Hz Lenses Pancake non-Fresnel Field-of-view (claimed) 106ºH × 96ºV Optical Adjustments Continuous IPD, contiguous eye-relief IPD Adjustment Range 55–75mm Processor Snapdragon XR2+ RAM 12GB Storage 256GB Connectors USB-C Weight 722g Battery Life 1–2 hours Headset Tracking Inside-out (no external beacons) Controller Tracking Inside-out (headset line-of-sight not needed) Expression Tracking Yes (eyes, face) On-board cameras 5x external, 5x internal Input Touch Pro controllers (rechargeable), hand-tracking, voice Audio In-headstrap speakers, dual 3.5mm aux output Microphone Yes Pass-through view Yes (color) MSRP $1,500 The specifications are more or less as it was leaked, with two exceptions: The displays were rumored to be 2K*2K, but it has not been the case The device was supposed to have a depth sensor, which would have helped a lot in implementing on this device advanced environment scanning and understanding features. Meta has not explained why it was removed: some people suspect it was because it could have been used “to see through some clothes”, but I don’t know if the truth is actually some software/hardware incompatibility. More Info Quest Pro specifications (Road To VR) Quest Pro won’t ship with a depth sensor (Upload VR) Features Pico 4, which costs one-third of the price of the Pro. Headsets anyway have not to be just evaluated on paper: Quest Pro introduces a lot of innovations and polishes, which all together create a headset that is for sure not revolutionary, but a noticeable step forward from the Quest 2. Talking about visuals, the display resolution is 1800 × 1920 per eye, which is even less than the one of the Quest 2, but here there are two displays, one per each eye, so there are fewer “wasted pixels”. Plus the lenses are not Fresnel ones, but pancake lenses studied to give you a bigger eye box. This means that on the Quest Pro you can actually move your eyes and read a text in a normal way, by just scrolling the text with your eyes without having to rotate your head. The clarity is much more on this device, with “more pixels” concentrated into the center of vision, that is exactly where your eyes perceive better. This has been reported by all the reviewers. According to Meta, Pro has a 25% improvement in sharpness at the center of the field-of-view, and a 50% improvement across the periphery. The field of view is just a bit wider than the one of Quest 2, but enough so that it is noticeable. Meta also claims Quest Pro includes a 500-element (Mini-LEDs) local dimming backlight which enables improved contrast up to 75% compared to Quest 2, while also allowing for a 1.3 times larger range of color. This means that blacks are “more black” than in a standard LCD display, but still not as black as in a OLED one. Refresh rate tops at 90hz, and it is unlikely it will go at 120 after launch. The chipset is the new Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+, which moves slightly the RAM on the chip: XR2 has the RAM stacked on top of the chip, whereas XR2+ has the RAM to the side to enable better thermal dissipation and thus higher sustained performance. It offers 50% more performance than its predecessor… but most of this performance boost is used by the additional sensors this device mounts, so very little arrives to the final application. So, don’t expect a huge bump of performance of your application on this device. Quest Pro is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ As for the comfort, the device is lightweight (722g), compact, and comfortable, with the battery on the back which guarantees a good balancing of the weight . Pancake lenses help in making it smaller and lighter than Quest 2. The only disadvantage of the Pro reported by the reviewers is that it uses a halo design for the headband for which is usually difficult to find a perfect fit on the head. It’s good news by the way that there is continuous IPD adjustment (and with a wider range than before) and that thanks to eye tracking sensors, the headset can tell you if you have positioned it well on your head. There is also an eye-relief dial, so you can put the lenses very close to your eyes, for added field of view. Talking about eye tracking, there is another feature that it brings to the table: dynamic foveated rendering, so that the headset can render in full resolution only the part of the screen you are looking at. I was pretty excited about this, but John Carmack clarified that it doesn’t bring a massive performance boost with regard to the fixed foveated rendering of Quest 2 (less than 2x, which is anyway good, but not impressive). Anyway, at least it makes the presence of foveated rendering less visible: with FFR, you can see the visuals at the border of the lenses becoming jagged, while here, wherever you look at, you see that part of the scren in full resolution. Notice how the pose of the index, including the exact position of the finger tip, is detected by Quest Pro controllers (Image by Upload VR) More Info Quest Pro official launch article (Oculus blog) Quest Pro specifications (Road To VR) Quest Pro specs in detail (Upload VR) Oculus Link and Air Link work on Meta Quest Pro (Road To VR) Quest Pro vs Quest 2 comparison (Road To VR) Impressive Face Tracking demo on Quest Pro (Road To VR) Quest Pro and the performances of XR2+ and foveated rendering (Upload VR) Another article on foveated rendering performances (Upload VR) Quest Pro lets you open the browser while you use apps (Upload VR) Upgrades in Controllers tracking and haptics (Upload VR) Face and eye data not available via Oculus Link (Oculus Forums) Privacy Face and eye tracking introduce obvious privacy concerns. Meta has clarified that the images of the tracking cameras never leave the device and that the user is free to enable and disable these sensors whenever he wants, so it should be safe privacy-wise. BUT if you read the privacy policies of these two services, you can discover that Meta can send some of your eye tracking data to Meta servers, and while this may just be to guarantee the correct visualization of expressions on your avatar face in multiplayer experiences, it opens a backdoor to Meta to get some precious data about our eyes. I think we need better clarifications on this side. More Info Meta privacy policy for eye tracking (Meta website) Meta privacy policy for face tracking (Meta website) Mark Zuckerberg’s interview (The Verge) Doubts about privacy of Quest Pro (Wired) Battery App Lab… Jokes apart, the duration is a bit small, so I envision that 3rd-parties power banks are going to be announced soon for this device.  In the meantime, the company advises recharging the device often by leaving it on the dedicated charging dock which is provided together with the whole Quest Pro set. More Info Battery life on Quest Pro is 1-2 hours (Road To VR) Battery Life of Controllers is up to 8 hours (Zimtok + Boztank Twitter feeds) Battery Life of Pro Controllers (Upload VR) Hands-on reviews The hands-on reviews have highlighted more or less what we could imagine. The device is very good, but not a huge jump forward if compared with Quest 2. Reviewers were usually impressed by the wide eye box and the clarity of the visuals even at resolution parity with Quest 2. Even the peripheral part of the screen has increased clarity if compared to similar headsets. Anyway, Ben Lang said that the text on the device is readable but still not perfectly readable. Also, the controllers were reported to be great. Ben Lang said that the handles feel comfortable like the ones of the Rift CV1 controllers (which are the most ergonomic controllers I have ever tried), and David Heaney of Upload VR reported the haptics to be so well defined that they were be even better than the ones on PSVR 2! More Info Ben Lang’s hands-on Quest Pro (Road To VR) Ben Lang’s technical analysis of Quest Pro (Road To VR) David Heaney’s hands-on Que...

The State Of Crypto In Western Europe: Swiss Powerhouse And French Unicorns – Cointelegraph https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/the-state-of-crypto-in-western-europe-swiss-powerhouse-and-french-unicorns-cointelegraph/ Despite the turbulence that broke out in the crypto market this summer, there is an important long-term marker that should be considered in any complex assessment — the combination of adoption and regulation. The latest report by EUBlockchain Observatory, named “EU Blockchain Ecosystem Developments,” tries to measure this combination within the European Union, combining the data on each and every member country from Portugal to Slovakia.  As the original report counts more than 200 pages, Cointelegraph prepared a summary with the intent to capture the most vital information about the state of crypto and blockchain in Europe. We started from a group of countries that are usually labeled as “Western European.”  Austria Numbers: 50 blockchain solution providers, $48.72 million (50 million euros) in total funds raised Regulation and legislation: A registry for Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) was established by the Financial Market Authority a year later, in 2020. Regulators have adopted an “overall non-restrictive approach” toward crypto and blockchain and crypto mining remains largely unregulated. Taxes: As is the case in most European countries, digital currency exchange is VAT-exempt. Capital gains from the sale of crypto are subject to a progressive income tax that amounts to up to 55% for individuals and 25% for corporations, but digital taxation policies may apply if the digital currency generates interest income and thus qualifies as an investment asset. Notable initiatives: In November 2019, the Austrian Blockchain Centre (ABC) was created to explore blockchain applications in the fields of finance, energy, logistics, public administration and the Internet of Things. ABC, currently involving more than 21 institutions and 54 companies in its public-private partnership model, aspires to become the world’s largest blockchain research center. Blockchain is also a key facilitator of the Smart City Vienna and Open Government Data initiatives. Local players: Bitpanda, a Vienna-based trading platform, which market value exceeded $4 billion in 2021, Blockpit, a digital assets investment platform responsible for more than $500 million traded in 2017, and Conda, a crowd-investing platform for Austrian startups. Belgium Numbers: 47 blockchain solution providers, 992 blockchain professionals.  Regulation and legislation: According to the report, there are currently “no specific laws or regulations” in Belgium. In 2017, Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) published a communication on an overview of the legislation and regulations that may apply to Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and crypto assets. At the same time, FSMA maintains a red list of fraudulent crypto companies. Nevertheless, utility token offerings are considered “a regular option” to raise capital. The FSMA characterizes crypto assets as investment instruments given that they may provide rights to revenues or returns, a means of storage and exchange given their convertibility into other assets or a utility token if they provide access to certain products or services. From May 2022, registration for VASPs and custodial wallets is obligatory. The providers must fulfill certain conditions including status as a legal entity and maintaining minimum capital of 50,000 euros. Taxes: Tax stands at 33% on any cryptocurrency income, depending on how the individual is investing. A mere increase of value over time escapes taxation, but the investor is obliged to prove their holding strategy. There is no specification on the required holding time. Notable initiatives: “Blockchain for Europe” represents international blockchain industry players at the EU level, with a primary focus on participation in the regulatory debate. HIVE Blockchain Society is a nonprofit blockchain association whose aim is to promote the understanding of distributed ledger technology and to inform the Belgian and international community about its developments. Local players: Keyrock, a company that develops crypto-asset financial infrastructure by means of scalable, self-adaptive algorithmic technologies, Credix, a decentralized credit marketplace powered by Solana blockchain technology, and Delta, a Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency portfolio tracker app. France Numbers: 160+ blockchain startups, $175.4 million (180 million euros) of fundraised revenue Regulation and legislation: France established a friendly legal framework for ICOs in 2016, allowing issuers to register cash vouchers directly into the blockchain. In 2017, the Financial Market Authority (AMF) launched the digital-asset fundraising support and research program UNICORN. France also authorizes the registration and transfer of unlisted securities using blockchain technology. Taxes: The country’s highest administrative court reduced the tax burden on profits coming from cryptocurrencies and set a flat rate tax of 30%. Notable initiatives: The public Deposits and Consignments Fund makes direct investments in crypto projects. The fund has invested $292.3 million (300 million euros) in blockchain and AI in the European Commission’s Investment Programme for the Future. Community self-organization: The French Digital Asset Association (ADAN) operates as a professional lobbying group on behalf of the industry. Local players: Ledger, leading global cryptocurrency hardware wallet provider, Coinhouse, a crypto asset management and transaction services company, providing staking, saving and custody services, and Sorare, a fantasy football gaming platform that uses blockchain technology based on Ethereum. Germany Numbers: 343 blockchain startups  Regulation and legislation: Since 2013, virtual currencies have been the “units of account.” In 2020, Germany introduced the concepts of “crypto asset” and “crypto custody.” The latter requires a license from the supervisory body BaFin. Virtual currencies are not considered legal tender in the country and are generally treated as investment assets or so-called “substitute currencies.” Taxes: In May 2022, Germany’s Finance Ministry has released new cryptocurrency tax guidelines with no tax payable on gains from BTC and Ether (ETH) sold 12 months after acquisition. Notable initiatives: In September 2020, the Deutsche Energie-Agentur announced the launch of the Future Energy Lab. It involves, among other things, the pilot projects related to the application of blockchain technology in the energy sector, such as the Blockchain Machine Identity Ledger (BMIL) and the Smart Contract Registry. The BMIL is a digital and decentralized directory for device identities. The same year one of the four electricity transmission system operators in Germany announced a multi-year strategic partnership with Energy Web that will focus on testing and validating the technological promises of blockchain-based solutions. Community self-organization: Established in 2017, the Blockchain Bundesverband is a non-profit association with more than 60 members. The association’s initiatives focus on education for decision-makers and the wider public. Based in Munich, the European Blockchain Association provides an independent, neutral platform for blockchain-related communities and organizations to discuss, develop and elaborate on shared work. Local startups: Iota Foundation develops an open-source protocol that supports data and value transfer between devices and humans, and BitsCrunch, a crypto-analytics company. The Netherlands Numbers: 160+ blockchain startups, $360.5 million (370 million euros) of raised funds. Regulation and legislation: The central bank and the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) maintain a one-stop shop for regulatory information for startups called InnovationHub. There is also a regulatory sandbox for emerging technologies with a principles-based (rather than a rules-based) approach. Compliance is determined based on the intent of laws and regulations rather than their letter. A practice of partial authorizations, when a startup does not need to meet all the banking license criteria to obtain a license, is rather common. Notable initiatives: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Tymlez launched a project to support the government’s transparency in medical supply chains through blockchain technology. There are projects in agriculture such as Blockchain for Agri-food, financed by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality to improve supply chains. Community self-organization: The report mentions meetup groups such as Blockchain Talks, Blockchain Netherlands, Food Integrity Blockchained, Permissionless Society Blockchains and Bitcoin Wednesday Amsterdam, as well as Ethereum Dev NL and Hyperledger Netherlands. Local players: Bitfury provides mobile Bitcoin mining data centers, Aurus, a gold-backed cryptocurrency on the Ethereum blockchain, and Finturi, a blockchain-powered trade finance platform. Switzerland Numbers: $247.48 billion (254 billion euros) of the total valuation of the top 50 companies in 2021, 877 blockchain solution providers. Regulation and legislation: In 2019, the Federal Council updated the existing framework conditions in relation to blockchain and crypto. In 2020, the Swiss Parliament passed the DLT blanket act, which selectively adapts 10 existing federal laws. In 2021, a license for DLT trading facilities was introduced. According to the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), digital currencies are categorized based on their function and purpose as payment tokens, utility tokens and asset tokens. Taxes: Tax rules vary between the individual cantons. Digital currencies are generally treated as foreign currencies for the purposes of wealth taxation. Their exchange value is determined by the Fede...

Art Spurs Climate Change Discussion In Museums Here And Across The U.S. – Boston.com https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/art-spurs-climate-change-discussion-in-museums-here-and-across-the-u-s-boston-com/ Arts “Art connects with us at an emotional level and a human level and touches on that empathy that’s in all of us.” Earlier this year, when volunteers painted trees in downtown Salem bright blue for a new Peabody Essex Museum installation, a passerby remarked that the trees hadn’t always been there. “He walked up and asked us what we were doing, as many did,” recalled Jane Winchell, the director of PEM’s Art & Nature Center and curator of Natural History. “And he said, ‘These trees weren’t here before, right?’ But the trees had been there for years, passed unnoticed by many, until they were painted blue for Konstantin Dimopoulos’s ‘The Blue Trees’ installation.” Using a chalk-based, non-toxic pigment, Dimopoulos turns attention toward local trees to highlight the global concern of deforestation, a major contributor to climate change and biodiversity decline. His PEM installation is his 27th worldwide. “The Blue Trees” is one of several ongoing environmental exhibits at PEM. Winchell is spearheading PEM’s new climate and environment work, and so far, she says, it’s “been a really rewarding and inspiring and empowering process to take part in.” Other exhibits in the initiative include “Down to the Bone,” a collection of work by nature photographer Stephen Gorman and New Yorker illustrator Edward Koren, showing photos of polar bears struggling to survive in the Arctic alongside Koren’s hairy, anthropomorphic cartoon animals at the mercy of human-made climate disaster. “Climate Change: Inspiring Action” highlights climate solutions through the work of a range of contemporary artists. Connecting art with action As news about the climate crisis continues to unfold around us, conversations surrounding it tend to seep into more and more facets of everyday life. Recently, police arrested 15 protesters blocking the Central Artery in Boston, disrupting the daily commute to bring attention to new fossil fuel infrastructure in Massachusetts.  “There’s been a real barrier for people talking [about the climate crisis],” said Winchell, adding that art can initiate conversations, bring climate statistics into understandable terms, and breach that barrier. “Art connects with us at an emotional level and a human level and touches on that empathy that’s in all of us,” she said.  The PEM collaborated with the Climate Museum in New York City, the first museum in the country dedicated to the climate crisis, on “Climate Change: Inspiring Action.”  “Art allows visitors to explore the impacts of climate change in community with others,” said Miranda Massie, director of the Climate Museum, “and to build resolve for taking collective action on the climate crisis.” Anjali Mitra, The Seas Are Rising, So Are We, 2020 (Courtesy of PEM) From devastation to inspiration Winchell notes that sometimes, artwork about the climate crisis can feel devastating, and sometimes it can feel inspiring, and both kinds of art play a role in the climate conversation.  “Down to the Bone,” for example, she puts on the more devastating end — muddy polar bears stare hollow-eyed into the camera, next to naive cartoon animals amid the bones of their species. But the “Climate Change: Inspiring Action” exhibit sits in the adjacent room, offering viewers an opportunity to embrace a more promising future. “We can’t have the devastating art without the balance of the works that are showing where we can go forward, how we can go forward,” said Winchell. Art plays a stripping-back role in exhibits like “Down to the Bone,” but a visionary one in “Inspiring Action.” “Where people may be coming out of ‘Down to the Bone’ somewhat emotionally exposed, we are offering right there: this is what you can do,” said Winchell. “This is our opportunity.” One of Winchell’s favorite environmental exhibits she’s done, “Where the Questions Live: An Exploration of Humans in Nature” by Wes Bruce, ran just before “Inspiring Action.” Bruce’s immersive, multimedia exhibit examined humans’ relationship with the natural world — and visitors loved it.  “There were so many beautiful messages left by people about … how they felt understood,” said Winchell, “and how they perceive their own relationship with nature in a new and powerful way.” The exhibit created moments of connection with nature from inside a building — it wasn’t a walk in the woods, but it might have been even more inspiring for some visitors. The Peabody Essex Museum is scrutinizing its own carbon footprint, too. Starting in December, they begin a three-year contract with ENGIE to get 100% of their electricity from sustainable sources like solar, wind, water, and geothermal. With all of her climate initiatives at PEM, Winchell’s goal is to meet viewers where they’re at. “PEM is very much an accessible museum that’s focused on relevancy to people’s lives,” said Winchell, “and I hope that whenever people are coming into these exhibitions, they’re leaving having experienced something which spoke to them personally.” Naima Penniman, “Foresight,” 2018, acrylic on wood (Courtesy of PEM) More museums exploring climate change Museums across the country are using art to help folks engage with and better understand the natural world. At the Anchorage Museum in Alaska, the director, Julie Decker, has made climate change one of the museum’s central themes, showing up in multiple exhibits.  “It’s important that museums not be episodic in how they talk about climate change,” Decker told The New York Times. “We need to make it part of our programs every day.” She also echoes Winchell’s notion that climate exhibits shouldn’t be all doom and gloom, but rather they should inspire change. Last summer, the Museum of Fine Arts did an environmental exhibit outside — “Garden for Boston,” at the Huntington Avenue entrance, comprising a sunflower garden and a field of corn, beans, and sedges grown in the traditional Woodlands Native American method.  Massie calls the shift in more art exhibits about the environment “critical” for inspiring action.  “Art reaches diverse communities and creates a sense of agency and connection shifting our shared culture toward action on climate,” said the director of the Climate Museum. 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Netflix To Debut Subscription With Ads – HT Tech https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/netflix-to-debut-subscription-with-ads-ht-tech/ Netflix said a subscription option subsidized by ads will debut in November across a dozen countries. Netflix said a subscription option subsidized by ads will debut in November across a dozen countries as the streaming service strives to jumpstart stalled growth. Netflix reported a loss of 970,000 subscribers in the second quarter along with stagnant profits, and its share price is down 63 percent from this time last year despite rising slightly on the ad-tier news. The new “Basic with Ads” subscriptions will be priced at $6.99 in the United States — three dollars less than a no-ads basic option, Netflix chief operating officer Greg Peters said in a briefing. “The timing is great because we really are at this pivotal moment in the entertainment industry and evolution of that industry,” Peters said. “Now streaming has surpassed both broadcast and cable for total TV time in the United States.” The ad-discounted tier, a first for Netflix, will roll out in Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Spain and the United States. Video ads will be from 15 seconds to 30 seconds long. “We are looking at a very light ad load with no more than four to five minutes of ads per hour, and including some very tight frequency caps so that members don’t see the same ad repeatedly,” Peters said. After having shunned advertising since it started its streaming service, Netflix acquiesced as competition in the market intensifies and as consumers recoil from soaring inflation. With the launch of cheaper, ad-supported subscriptions, Netflix and Disney are expected to bite into the revenue of traditional television channels. Netflix rival Disney is expected to launch its own ad-subsidized subscription soon. “These launches are going to create the biggest premium advertising space in more than a generation,” said analytics company Samba TV senior vice president Dallas Lawrence. “It’s going to be a major moment for advertisers.” – Avoiding politics – Netflix has sold nearly all the ad space for the new tier launch, president of worldwide advertising Jeremi Gorman said during the briefing. Advertisers will be able to target audiences based on factors such as the country they live in as well as show genres or hit shows to be part of “zeitgeist moments” on the platform, executives said. Netflix will not take political ads, nor will it accept marketing promoting smoking, guns, fireworks “or anything that feels like a get-rich-quick scheme,” Gorman added. Advertisers will have options to avoid shows with sex, nudity or graphic violence, and Netflix is partnering with Neilson and ad-traffic verification companies to provide data regarding how well messages are reaching audiences, executives said. “The new Netflix ad-supported tier will help the streamer to staunch the bleeding of its subscriber totals, but it will pull most users from the company’s existing user base instead of expanding the pool of Netflix viewers,” said Insider Intelligence forecasting analyst Peter Newman. Peters acknowledged the potential for Netflix subscribers to switch to the lower-priced offering, but said the company expects that to be offset by ad revenue plus an overall increase in the number of subscribers. “We’re not trying to steer people to one plan or the other. We really want to take a pro-consumer approach and let them land on the right plan for them,” Peters said. “We think that the revenue model will be fine as a result.” Netflix is continuing to invest in shows it believes will attract, and keep, subscribers. Peters noted hits such as “Stranger Things” and “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” and pending releases of keenly anticipated films such as “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.”

Northwest Arkansas Divorces – Arkansas Online https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/northwest-arkansas-divorces-arkansas-online/ The following divorces granted were recorded Oct. 5-11 in the Benton and Washington county clerks’ offices. BENTON COUNTY 21-1076. Nilda Encarnacion v. Javier Colon 21-2077. Jessica Dutton v. Windsor Dutton 22-160. Tiffinie Wright v. Thomas Wright 22-348. Carey White v. Joshua White 22-756. Kenra Jones v. Tyson Jones 22-838. Karen Everhart v. Jerry Everhart 22-854. Matthew Kepchar v. Sabrina Kepchar 22-926. Juanita Martinez v. Serafin Martinez 22-927. Brianna Baugus v. Matthew Baugus 22-999. Nicole Stockdale Mitzner v. Jacob Mitzner 22-1186. Adriana Ochoa v. Alejandro Rios 22-1225. Katie Raphael v. Jesse Raphael 22-1273. Stephanie Donahue v. Jeremiah Hurley 22-1367. Steve Rubisch v. Brenda Rubisch 22-1376. Megan Martin v. Bradley Martin 22-1380.. Cesar Torres Contreras v. Maria Hernandez 22-1389. Nida Jaber v. Salaheldine Alkhatib 22-1400. Seth Culbertson v. Jennifer Culbertson 22-1416. Cuma Kyzer v. Christopher Kyzer 22-1440. Sienna Nealon v. Oscar Carballo 22-1529. Mathew Goodwin v. Teri Goodwin WASHINGTON COUNTY 22-185. Jon Hill v. Melissa Hill 22-261. Alexis Deshazo v. Kolin Deshazo 22-332. Steppen Clark v. Elijah Gibson 22-510. Rebecca Burkhart v. Christopher Burkhart 22-649. Maria Sifuentes v. Antonio Sifuentes 22-812. Chibuzor Dilibe v. Brandy Dilibe 22-813. Laura Keasey v. Adam Keasey 22-1039. Siana Sherrill v. Kyle Sherrill 22-1135. Marlene Tackett v. Shannon Tackett 22-1140. Kristen Beasley v. Valeria Gonzalez 22-1141. Roxane Gomez v. Luis Gomez 22-1197. Rina Orellano v. Ronald Orellana-Mejia 22-1227. Laruel Reynolds v. Rex Reynolds 22-1229. Macie Stone v. William Stone 22-1251. Marvin Ruiz Ruano v. Nicole Falt 22-1279. Isaura Tapia Cruz v. Juan Araujo Garcia 22-1293. Randolph Covey v. Allyson Covey 22-1239. Tracy Saxton v. Kevin Saxton 22-1353. Kristy Lamb v. Brian Lamb 22-1386. Joselin Estrada v. Jimmy Suazo Doblado

Packing Advice From Pilots, Flight Attendants, Frequent Travelers – Business Insider https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/packing-advice-from-pilots-flight-attendants-frequent-travelers-business-insider/ Frequent fliers say there’s a strategy to packing for trips and fitting in everything you need. A flight attendant suggested asking yourself whether you need an item or just want to bring it. Noise-canceling earbuds and a personal water bottle — preferably a collapsible one — are key. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you’re on the go. For the first time since the pandemic started, I’m spending the holidays traveling to a handful of places, including California, Boston, Florida, and Las Vegas. While some are just weekend trips, for others, I’m on the go for over a month. The first trip isn’t for a few more weeks, but I’m already trying to figure out how to pack for different climates and longer vacations. To help make the process less stressful, I asked a handful of experts, including pilots and frequent fliers, how they pack and which items they can’t travel without. Be strategic with your carry-on luggage I always try to fly with only a carry-on bag — that way I don’t have to worry about paying baggage fees or losing my luggage. But packing everything I want to bring on a trip often makes my bag nearly impossible to zip. Tifsit Teferra, a Delta Air Lines flight attendant, said to be strategic with your carry-on luggage. If you’re traveling during the winter and plan to pack bulky items like jackets, Teferra suggested laying them flat on top of each other at the bottom of the suitcase and rolling lighter items like T-shirts on top. Wear the bulkiest items you want to bring with you, like a coat and boots, on the airplane, she advised. Use packing cubes Teferra said packing cubes can come in handy for organizing clothes not only while you pack, but after you wear them. “When your clothes are dirty, you can use a packing cube to separate your dirty clothes,” Teferra said. This helps isolate dirty clothes so other items in your suitcase stay clean. Pack only what you need While it might be easier said than done, Teferra suggested that if you’re eager to pack light, first lay out all the things you think you want to bring with you, then have an honest conversation with yourself. “Ask yourself whether or not you really need this item or if you just want to bring it with you,” she said. “If you need it, pack it. If you want it, don’t bring it.” Follow the 1-2-3-4-5-6 rule Even if I’m just taking a weekend trip, I struggle to figure out how much to bring. Daniel Green, a frequent flier who’s traveled the world and who founded a travel-insurance company called Faye, said he follows the 1-2-3-4-5-6 rule: “Pack one hat, two pairs of shoes, three bottoms, four tops, five pairs of socks, and six pairs of underwear.” Daniel Green is a frequent flier who has circled the world more than 40 times. Jen Glantz While this method works well for a short trip, it can also work for a one- or two-week vacation, as long as there’s a nearby spot to do laundry. Pack noise-canceling earbuds Traveling can be unpredictable, and loud noises — whether they’re from other passengers on your flight or people outside your hotel — might surround you for longer than you’d like. Duke Armitage has been an airline pilot for 15 years and is the founder of Aviamonde. Jen Glantz Duke Armitage, an airline pilot with 15 years of experience, said the No. 1 thing to remember when you travel is a great pair of noise-canceling earbuds. “It will help you keep your sanity when things get rowdy,” said Armitage, the founder of Aviamonde. “Plus, you can find pairs that are under $50.” Bring your own water bottle Sarah Guerra, a former Delta flight attendant, suggests packing an empty portable water bottle if you get extra thirsty when you fly. “As a flight attendant, so many people would ask me for water because they ran through the airport or had to take a pill. It was almost always when I was performing safety-related duties like the safety demo or final checks,” Guerra said. “Passengers would get so frustrated by the wait, and to be honest, sometimes I would forget by the time I had completed my FAA-required safety checks.” Guerra said passengers can avoid buying expensive water at the airport by bringing an empty water bottle through security then filling it up at their gate. For packing purposes, she recommends a collapsible water bottle that doesn’t take up too much space. Former Delta Airlines flight attendant Sarah Guerra Jen Glantz Luggage for former Delta Airlines flight attendant Sarah Guerra Jen Glantz

Meta Introduces A $1,500 Metaverse Headset …And Other Small Business Tech News This Week – Forbes https://clarkcountynewsnow.com/meta-introduces-a-1500-metaverse-headset-and-other-small-business-tech-news-this-week-forbes/ © 2022 Bloomberg Finance LP Here are five things in technology that happened this past week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them? 1 – The Meta Quest Pro is a $1,500 virtual-reality headset for working in the Metaverse. Meta is releasing a new headset known as the Meta Quest Pro. This virtual-reality headset costs $1,500 and is designed for those looking to work in the Metaverse. Although the headset has facial-expression tracking and high-quality visuals, experts say it unfortunately has a short battery life. (Source: WSJ) Why this is important for your business: I’m a big believer in the Metaverse and truly believe that it will have an enormous impact on how business is done in the coming years. But based on this report, the Meta Quest Pro is a miss. I don’t see any sane manager or employee wearing these things without undergoing withering abuse from their colleagues. The Metaverse will happen when there’s a more user-friendly way to get on it – like a normal pair of glasses that can switch us between both worlds. Easier said than done, but that hardware will eventually happen. 2 – GoDaddy is offering small business training and networking at the Baltimore GoDaddy Open on October 19th. On October 19th, the Baltimore GoDaddy Open will offer training and upskilling to small businesses. The open will be free to anybody who wishes to attend and will include educational events and classes in critical areas such as growing a business, developing digital skills, and marketing. Those interested must register online at GoDaddy.com/Baltimore. (Source: Yahoo Finance) Why this is important for your business: According to its press release “in February 2022, GoDaddy activated its global social impact program in Baltimore with local nonprofit partner Impact Hub to help accelerate and equip entrepreneurs from underserved communities with the digital resources they need to do business in the modern era. The Empower Baltimore program consists of working directly with cohorts of local businesses. Through learning intensives, self-guided courses, business strategy development and complimentary website products from GoDaddy, it impacts local employment, strengthens the local entrepreneurial ecosystem, and improves the digital footprint of Baltimore’s small businesses. The program is free, as long as you can withstand the future marketing promotions you’ll inevitably received from hosting service. But the content is valuable, particularly for non-tech-savvy entrepreneurs. 3—Sift is launching a major update for the Microsoft Teams app to help amplify online meetings. People directory provider Sift has announced significant updates to its Microsoft Teams app. The update – known as Sift for Teams V2.1 – will now enable those present in meetings to get to know more about attendee work location, name pronunciation, interests, project teams, and more. Users can now download the updated Sift Teams app through online marketplace Microsoft AppSource. (Source: PRNewsWire) Why this is important for your business: This is a valuable and affordable tool for enhancing your Teams meetings and one of many good apps for Teams and other Microsoft products to be found on AppSource that will help increase your people’s productivity. 4 – Weave is adding new features to its online scheduling tool. Weave recently announced new features for its Online Scheduling tool. The all-in-one customer engagement and communication platform for small business will now have the added compatibility integration with top management systems in the optometry and dental fields. When an appointment is confirmed, Weave will immediately create the appointment on the calendar of the integrated system and send users a text notification. (Source: MarTech Series) Why this is important for your business: If you’re in the dental, medical, optometry or veterinary service industries you’ll be interested in this very powerful platform for not only scheduling but also forms, phone integration, payments, insurance verification and many of the other functions that can be automated in your practice. Weave has been a popular product among many businesses in these fields. 5 – This ‘thermal attack’ can read your password from the heat your fingertips leave behind. Researchers in the computer security space recently shared that they’ve created a system powered by AI that is able to guess smartphone and computer passwords in mere seconds. The system works by simply analyzing the heat signatures left by fingerprints on screens and keyboards after punching in passwords and other data. (Source: ZDNet) Why this is important for your business: The researchers built this application to illustrate how the fall in the price of thermal-imaging technology and the rise in AI and machine-learning algorithms open up new avenues to thermal attacks. So what to do? “Longer passphrases take longer to type, which also makes it more difficult to get an accurate reading on a thermal camera, particularly if the user is a touch typist,” one of the researchers told ZDNet’s Danny Palmer. The researcher also suggested that biometric verification also adds protection.