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Is Metaverse Dualchain Network Architecture (DNA) Trending Lower Or Higher Monday? – InvestorsObserver https://collincountynewsonline.com/is-metaverse-dualchain-network-architecture-dna-trending-lower-or-higher-monday-investorsobserver/ News Home Monday, October 10, 2022 05:35 PM | InvestorsObserver Analysts Metaverse Dualchain Network Architecture receives an average long-term technical score of 57 from InvestorsObserver analysis. Our proprietary scoring system considers the trading patterns over the past several months to a year by analyzing the coin’s consistency, volatility, and where it is relative to long-term averages to determine whether it’s a strong buy-and-hold investment opportunity. Currently, DNA holds a superior long-term technical analysis score than 57% of crytpocurrencies. Long-term investors employing a buy-and-hold strategy will find the Long-Term Rank especially relevant when allocating their assets and may find additional value finding cyptos with a high short-term technical score to discover coins that have bottomed out. InvestorsObserver is giving Metaverse Dualchain Network Architecture a 57 Long-Term Technical Rank. Find out what this means to you and get the rest of the rankings on Metaverse Dualchain Network Architecture! Trading Analysis DNA is currently -$0.0020978 (-97.51%) below its 100-day moving average price of $0.002151441 with its current price of $0.000053601. Meanwhile, Metaverse Dualchain Network Architecture is $0.0000194 (-32140441.46%) above its 52-week low price of $0.000034225 and -$0.01068209 (-93146.76%) below its 52-week high of $0.010735689. The current price relative to its moving average and 52-week high and low leads to an average long-term technical score of 57. Trends for the long-term trading history of Metaverse Dualchain Network Architecture suggest that traders are currently neutral on the coin. Metaverse Dualchain Network Architecture has a total market value of $1,079,726.99 with an low average daily volume of $326,247.65 worth of the currency exchanged over a typical 24 hour period. As of the past 24 hours, DNA’s volume is below its average with $48,696.98 exchanged in total. Summary Technical analysis of Metaverse Dualchain Network Architecture over the past year results in the crypto receiving a an average long-term technical score of 57 as its price movement in that time has given traders reason to be neutral on the coin in the long-term. Click Here to get the full Report on Metaverse Dualchain Network Architecture (DNA). Stay In The Know Subscribe to our daily morning update newsletter and never miss out on the need-to-know market news, movements, and more. You May Also Like

Column: Digging Up The Most Boring Time Capsule In History • Long Beach Post News – Long Beach Post https://collincountynewsonline.com/column-digging-up-the-most-boring-time-capsule-in-history-long-beach-post-news-long-beach-post/ Chief Engineer Patrick Brown uses a sledgehammer to break up the concrete which a 1972 time capsule was placed in Long Beach Monday, October 10, 2022. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova. The year 1972, like most years, wasn’t without interest. I know. I was there when it happened as a senior in high school. You had “The Godfather” premiere, you had Nixon trouncing McGovern, you had the arcade release of the Pong video game, you had Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon, you had the Munich Massacre at the Olympics and The Troubles in Northern Ireland. Not to mention all the outdated gadgets that are now long gone, many of which have been made obsolete by today’s iPhone, as opposed to a 50-year-old rotary phone that couldn’t even help you navigate traffic. The small crowd that attended a Monday afternoon opening of a time capsule buried at 100 Oceangate in Downtown in 1972 was largely filled with people who were alive 50 years ago when the capsule was buried in honor of the dedication of the Oceangate Tower and Plaza by the now-defunct Redevelopment Agency (RDA, as old-timers wistfully recall it). As time capsules go, this one was horribly disappointing unless you’re a collector—an inordinately avid collector— of real estate and Port of Long Beach ephemera, because most of the items in the box (almost-dug-up in advance before workers struggled with the rest of the digging up on Monday) were scraps of paper relating to the first of the buildings to be erected at the Oceangate complex and its plaza, along with a smattering of photos and pamphlets that probably weren’t very interesting a half century ago and they haven’t grown more compelling while sitting in a box for 50 years. The box featured a lot of things I have in my garage, souvenirs and miscellaneous trinkets. If I was better organized I might have thrown them out by now because they don’t exactly spark joy in me. Instead of interesting items that may have been puzzling and amusing to people under the age of, say, 30, the mystery box contained an awful lot of Port of Long Beach documents along with a press kit from Oceangate developer Boise-Cascade, the RDA plan for the area, initially called West Beach Development, a handful of grant deeds, a lot of photo books and souvenir programs from the Historical Society of Long Beach and long-gone beauty contests and a tie from the Port of Long Beach to be given to the current executive director, Mario Cordero, who just happened to be in the audience along with City Manager Tom Modica, 9th District Councilman Rex Richardson and emcee Amy Bodek, former director of Development Services as well as former director of the Redevelopment Agency. To say that the tie was the most interesting thing in the box does not mean it was an interesting tie. There was a lot of speechifying in advance of the box-opening, which was almost as exciting as the main event. The highlight for me was a brief conversation with Brett Bixby, whose forebears once owned most of the land in Long Beach. He attended and assisted with the burial of the box in 1972 when he was 4, along with his little brother Grant (also in attendance) who was 1 and his older brother, the late Mark Bixby, who was 6. He said he didn’t remember much about that day but that it seemed pretty cool. It’s funny how you sometimes remember things as having been cooler than they actually were. Former Development Director Amy Bodek holds a redevelopment bond pulled from a 1972 time capsule in Long Beach Monday, Oct. 10, 2022. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova. Julie Bartolotto, executive director of Historical Society of Long Beach, left, and Amy Bodek hold up a Port of Long Beach flag, one of many items pulled from a 1972 time capsule in Long Beach Monday, Oct. 10, 2022. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova. Julie Bartolotto, executive director of the Historical Society of Long Beach, holds a 1956 Miss Universe Pageant brochure, one of many items pulled from a 1972 time capsule in Long Beach Monday, Oct. 10, 2022. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova. Support our journalism. Hyperlocal news is an essential force in our democracy, but it costs money to keep an organization like this one alive, and we can’t rely on advertiser support alone. That’s why we’re asking readers like you to support our independent, fact-based journalism. We know you like it—that’s why you’re here. Help us keep hyperlocal news alive in Long Beach.

Biggest Crypto Gainers Today 10 October – Quant (QNT), Battle Infinity (IBAT), Chainlink ( LINK ), Huobi Token (HT), Terra Classic (LUNC), Tron (TRX) – Cryptonews https://collincountynewsonline.com/biggest-crypto-gainers-today-10-october-quant-qnt-battle-infinity-ibat-chainlink-link-huobi-token-ht-terra-classic-lunc-tron-trx-cryptonews/ During the early European session, the cryptocurrency market was slightly bearish, with the global crypto market cap falling from $936 billion to $933 billion. Despite a slowdown in the crypto market, leading crypto coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum prices are experiencing choppy sessions.  McGlone and fellow market strategist Jamie Douglas Coutts shared BI’s October cryptocurrency forecast. According to the two analysts’ predictions, bitcoin and Ethereum will outperform most assets when the economy changes. Biggest Crypto Gainers Today, October 10  Despite the slowdown in the crypto market, a few altcoins have maintained their bullish momentum. Let us take a look. Quant (QNT) Gains 11.66% QNT has been one of the most active coins in the cryptocurrency market over the last five months. Since its June low of $40, the price has produced eleven consecutive non-consecutive bullish weekly candlesticks. Sibos, the largest conference in the world devoted to financial services, has also been a recent booster for QNT prices.  Several thousand people, including Quant Network leaders, are expected to attend the conference hosted by SWIFT, which just announced its CBDC concepts.  The price of QNT is likely to be more volatile than usual on October 13 because of their upcoming speech. Quant Network plans to capture a substantial share of the CBDC market in the future as the only simple and secure platform that offers straightforward connectivity to any DLT globally.  When nations like Australia, India, and Norway announce the launch of their own CBDC programs, the company will already have the requisite knowledge to deal with state cryptocurrencies, thanks to joint experiments with the Bank of England on the digital pound. QNT Price Chart – Source: Tradingview Today’s live Quant price is $155.26, and the 24-hour trading volume is $94 million. In the previous 24 hours, Quant has been down 1.19%, and 11.66% up in the last seven days. CoinMarketCap now ranks 31st, with a live market cap of $1.8 billion.  The QNT/USD pair is supported at $149, while resistance remains at $160. QNT has formed an upward channel, which is likely to keep the coin bullish. A break above $160 may expose the $160 level to $169. Battle Infinity (IBAT) Pumps 3.18%  Battle Infinity’s current price is $0.003098, with a 24-hour trading volume of $352K. In the last 24 hours, Battle Infinity has gained 3.18%. CoinMarketCap currently ranks #3125. Following the success of IBAT, the coin is trending on coingecko. Already, over a billion IBAT have been staked on the Battle Infinity platform, making the launch of the staking program a major success. This is great news for token holders, as it will reduce the supply of IBAT on the market, driving up the price. With the staking initiative, the circulating quantity of IBAT has been drastically reduced, as one billion IBAT is more than 35% of the total.  Since so much has already been staked, selling pressure has been reduced, and the staking program means that Battle Infinity can guarantee that it can sustain a major chunk of its community for the long run. Chainlink (LINK) Spikes 6.24% Several recent good developments in the Chainlink (LINK) ecosystem have helped increase the blockchain’s use. Recently, Chainlink tweeted about its most recent adoptions, which included 22 applications utilizing five unique Chainlink services. The current price of Chainlink is $7.65, with a 24-hour trading volume of $296 million. Chainlink has increased by 0.30% in the last 24 hours. CoinMarketCap currently ranks #21, with a live market cap of $3.7 billion.  The LINK/USD pair has formed a symmetrical triangle pattern, which is extending an immediate resistance near $8.31. The support level for LINK remains at $6.54.  The symmetrical triangle has the potential to break out on either side at the moment, depending on the release of fundamentals. A bullish breakout above $8.31 could propel LINK to the $9.49 level. Because the RSI and MACD have entered the buying zone, the 50-day moving average is likely to keep LINK above $7. Huobi Token (HT) Stroms 29.14% in Seven Days  The Huobi Global native cryptocurrency – rose by almost 29% in the seven days after Justin Sun said he would accept an advisory role in the exchange. Tron’s founder, Justin Sun, is a mysterious owner of Huobi Global, the cryptocurrency exchange. It was made public only a week after the company announced a change in its shareholder structure. A buyout rumor, however, has been denied by him. Sun has been relegated to the position of global advisor. This comes after it was reported that Huobi founder Leon Li was looking to sell his majority stake for more than $1 billion, putting the value of the exchange at $3 billion. In addition to receiving new funding, the company’s growth and development initiatives will be overseen by the Global Advisory Board, which was recently established. Huobi disclosed the new unit’s formation on Sunday and promptly invited industry leaders to join it. Justin Sun, the Chinese entrepreneur and founder of the TRON Foundation, was one of those people. Following the news, Huobi gained 24% in 24 hours and is now approaching a major resistance level of $5.50. The HT/USD has formed a bullish engulfing candle on the daily timeframe, indicating a strong bullish bias.  Because HT has entered the overbought zone, we may see a slight bearish correction until the $4.48 level before continuing the next flight. Terra Classic (LUNC) Steady Near $0.00029 Terra Classic’s current price is $0.000294, with a 24-hour trading volume of $501 million. In the last 24 hours, Terra Classic has dropped 1.56%. CoinMarketCap currently ranks 32nd, with a live market cap of $1.8 billion.  Recalling Terra Classic price prediction, an updated burn mechanism for the Luna Classic (LUNC) token developed by cryptocurrency exchange Binance has sparked fresh interest in the token’s original Terra chain. It is demonstrating an immediate support bear $0.58855 level. A break below this opens up extra selling space till the $0.58855 level. The coin is supported by the 50-day moving average, located near $0.0631764. For the time being, a breakout of the immediate resistance level/double top level can drive TRX to $0.07157 while support remains at $0.600. Terra Classic Jumps amid Re-Peg Proposal After the infamous failure of the Terra ecosystem, the field of algorithmic stablecoins took a major hit (including UST). After the catastrophic event, the Terra community was divided between those who favored the updated version (still known as Terra) and those who preferred the older, now-defunct Terra Classic. Even though it’s unusual for a cryptocurrency meant to be stable, the price of Terra Classic USD (also known as USTC), a stablecoin, has increased by 40% in the past day. Tobias Andersen has recently submitted a proposal to re-peg the stablecoin, which would address some of the problems currently confronting the protocol. LUNC has technically bounced off the 50-day moving average line at $0.000279 and is currently trading at 0.000294. At $0.000279, the LUNC/USD has completed a 61.8% Fibonacci retracement, and candles closing above this level improve the possibility of a bullish reversal.  The immediate resistance level for LUNC is $0.000342, which is prolonged by a 38.2% Fibonacci retracement. Above this, LUNC can aim for the 50% and 61.8% Fibonacci retracement levels of $0.000392 and $0.000440, respectively. Tron (TRX) Spikes TRON Gains 3.78% TRON’s current price is $0.063578, with a 24-hour trading volume of $536 million. TRON has increased by 1.59% in the previous 24 hours.  CoinMarketCap now ranks 15th, with a live market cap of $5.8 billion. Despite a 3.78% increase, the TRX token trades sideways in a symmetrical triangle pattern. It is demonstrating an immediate support bear $0.58855 level. A break below this opens up extra selling space till the $0.58855 level. The coin is supported by the 50-day moving average, which is located near $0.0631764. For the time being, a breakout of the immediate resistance level/double top level has the ability to drive TRX to $0.07157, while support remains at $0.600. Alternatives Coins- Tamadoge & IMPT in Focus The project’s native currency, the IMPT token, has already raised more than 3 million after only six days of presale, having sold 172 million tokens. Despite the blockchain-based carbon credit marketplace opening its auction during a weak market in bitcoin, demand for the marketplace token remained robust. Tamadoge, a meme coin, has gained traction since its yearly low of $0.01683. OpenSea is now selling ultra-rare Tamadoge NFTs for 1 WETH. Tamadoge has risen to become the third most valuable meme coin in the cryptocurrency market.

Pork Industry Takes Fight Over California Law To U.S. Supreme Court – Reuters https://collincountynewsonline.com/pork-industry-takes-fight-over-california-law-to-u-s-supreme-court-reuters/ Industry groups appeal ruling that backed California law At issue is Commerce Clause U.S. constitutional provision WASHINGTON, Oct 10 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on Tuesday in an industry challenge to the constitutionality of a California animal welfare law in a case that could undermine the power of states to regulate a range of issues within their own borders. The National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation are appealing a lower court’s decision to throw out their lawsuit seeking to invalidate a 2018 ballot initiative passed by voters barring sales in California of pork, veal and eggs from animals whose confinement failed to meet minimum space requirements. The pork industry has defended the size of the cages used at pig farms as humane and necessary for animal safety. Animal rights groups have said some pork producers confine mother pigs in cages so small the animals cannot turn around for most of their lives. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com The industry groups have argued that the measure, called Proposition 12, violates a provision of the U.S. Constitution known as the Commerce Clause, which gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce, by requiring out-of-state producers to comply or face a California sales ban. A legal doctrine called the “dormant” Commerce Clause bars states from passing laws discriminating against commerce in other states. Proposition 12 violates that doctrine, the pork producers argued in a legal filing, because it would increase costs for pig farmers, nearly all of whom are located outside California. While being the most populous U.S. state and an important market, California produces just 0.1% of the nation’s pork. “If you’re looking for an example of an unconstitutional law, this is it,” said Michael Formica, chief legal strategist for the pork producers. Proponents of the law disagree, saying California has the right to set standards for products sold to its consumers regardless of where these are produced. “There’s a long history of state laws that have to do with protecting public health, food safety and animal welfare,” said Josh Balk, vice president of farm animal protection at the Humane Society of the United States, which led the campaign to pass Proposition 12 and is a party in the case. “Producers have a choice if they want to sell products within the state’s borders that meet that standard.” The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s decision to throw out the lawsuit, finding no Commerce Clause violation. President Joe Biden’s administration has sided with the pork producers, saying in a Supreme Court brief that states cannot ban products “that pose no threat to public health or safety based on philosophical objections.” ‘DRAMATIC EXPANSION’ A ruling by the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, favoring the pork industry would have major implications for Commerce Clause interpretation, according to some legal experts. The industry is “asking for a dramatic expansion of the doctrine in a way that would call into question all kinds of state laws,” lawyer Brian Frazelle of the Constitutional Accountability Center liberal advocacy group, which filed a brief in the case on behalf of law professors, told reporters in a conference call. Sixteen liberal U.S. senators, including both of California’s, had urged Biden’s administration to back the law. They wrote that a ruling endorsing the industry’s Commerce Clause position “could allow large, multi-state corporations to evade numerous state laws that focus on harms to their constituents, including those addressing wildlife trafficking, climate change, renewable energy, stolen property trafficking and labor abuses.” A group of 20 primarily Republican-governed states led by Indiana said in a brief that upholding Proposition 12 would undermine state sovereignty. Another group of 14 primarily Democratic-governed states and the District of Columbia, led by Illinois, said overturning it would undermine state authority to legislate. A ruling favoring pork producers could inspire more industry challenges to state regulations, according to Nandan Joshi, an attorney with the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, which filed a brief supporting California. Pressed by animal welfare and consumer groups, many food and restaurant companies already have committed to phasing out small confinements for pigs and to buying or producing cage-free eggs. Proposition 12, passed with the support of about 63% of California voters, set the required space for breeding pigs, or sows, at 24 square feet (2.2 square meters). The current industry standard is between 14 and 20 square feet (1.3 to 1.9 square meters), according to a 2021 report from Dutch banking and financial services company Rabobank. The measure also increased the space required to house egg-laying hens and calves raised for veal. Top U.S. pork producer Smithfield Foods, owned by Chinese company WH Group Ltd (0288.HK), said last year it plans to comply with the law. Kansas-based Seaboard Foods, the No. 2 U.S. pork producer, said this year it is was converting some of its production to achieve compliance. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Leah Douglas; Editing by Will Dunham Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Leah Douglas Thomson Reuters Washington-based award-winning journalist covering agriculture and energy including competition, regulation, federal agencies, corporate consolidation, environment and climate, racial discrimination and labour, previously at the Food and Environment Reporting Network.

Clarience Technologies Earns 2022 Wabash Platinum Award For Supply Chain Excellence – Business Wire https://collincountynewsonline.com/clarience-technologies-earns-2022-wabash-platinum-award-for-supply-chain-excellence-business-wire/ SOUTHFIELD, Mich.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Clarience Technologies, a global leader in transportation technology and parent company to Truck-Lite, Road Ready advanced telematics, DAVCO filtration systems and Pressure Systems International (P.S.I.), has been awarded a 2022 Wabash Platinum Award. The award recognizes Wabash suppliers for excellence in supply chain performance, considering criteria such as innovation, quality, delivery, cost and service. This is the tenth time the company has been recognized with the Wabash Platinum award. “Strong customer relationships like that we established with Wabash are built by demanding quality in everything we do,” said Brian Kupchella, CEO of Clarience Technologies. “We are proud of the work we’ve done to support Wabash, and we look forward to continuing to deliver them our best well into the future.” Clarience Technologies serves Wabash through three of its businesses. Truck-Lite, recognized as the leader in LED lighting systems for commercial transportation, has been supplying LED lighting and harnesses for trailer and van bodies to Wabash for more than 20 years, while more recently Road Ready has provided advanced trailer telematics solutions — its system became standard equipment on all Wabash dealer stock trailers earlier this year. Pressure Systems International (P.S.I.) also supplies indirectly to Wabash through its equipment on Meritor axles. “As our companies are accelerating their new product development pace, innovators like Wabash are pushing to get these solutions on the road,” said Jon Stineman, Senior Vice President of Commercial Sales for Clarience Technologies. “We expect commercial fleets will continue to benefit from collaboration between our two companies.” Two Industry Leaders Join Forces to Innovate Commercial Transportation In March, Clarience Technologies and Wabash announced their technology alliance focused on trailer applications, including new advanced connectivity applications that will be essential as electric and autonomous vehicles come to market. As a first step, Road Ready advanced telematics, now in its fifth year of production and experiencing exponential demand from customers, is now installed first fit on new Wabash trailers. Road Ready is “advanced” trailer telematics because it goes well beyond asset tracking, delivering actionable insights to fleets from trailers in active operation. Insights are drawn from data generated from a variety of sensor types installed throughout the trailer, enabling fleets to have line of sight into everything from temperature, weight distribution, volumetric cargo capacity, rear door status and more. For the Wabash dealer body, this alliance brings an industry-leading factory-installed smart trailer offering. Road Ready is the most comprehensive trailer connectivity solution on the market today, and Clarience Technologies has continued to make investments in the Road Ready business to ensure its solutions continue to be the best in the industry. About Clarience Technologies Clarience Technologies focuses on developing vehicle and fleet management technology innovations for the commercial vehicle, passenger car, recreational off-road machine and pleasure craft markets. Through our data and insights, we improve fleet management, streamline supply chain management and enhance safety on and off the road. Since our Truck-Lite brand introduced the first sealed marker light in 1955, our companies have unveiled a steady stream of innovations that have turned customers into long-term partners. Today, Clarience Technologies is a global company known for its quality and dedication to sustainability – and to providing the technologies that keep our world moving forward. Learn more at www.clariencetechnologies.com. About Wabash Wabash (NYSE: WNC) is the visionary leader of connected solutions for the transportation, logistics and distribution industries that is Changing How the World Reaches You. Headquartered in Lafayette, Indiana, the company enables customers to thrive by providing insight into tomorrow and delivering pragmatic solutions today to move everything from first to final mile. Wabash designs, manufactures, and services a diverse range of products, including: dry freight and refrigerated trailers, flatbed trailers, tank trailers, dry and refrigerated truck bodies, structural composite panels and products, trailer aerodynamic solutions, and specialty food grade processing equipment. Learn more at www.onewabash.com.

Viper On Edward Gaming’s Struggles, How He Learns Chinese – ONE Esports https://collincountynewsonline.com/viper-on-edward-gamings-struggles-how-he-learns-chinese-one-esports/ Also, his philosophy in life. It was exciting enough that Edward Gaming was drawn into the same group as T1 in Group A, and even more exciting when they handed Fnatic their first loss of the tournament on day three of the Group Stage. Within the first two minutes, Park “Viper” Do-hyeon’s Sivir scored a double kill onto Fnatic’s bot lane. Grouping up with jungler Iván “Razork” Martín Díaz, FNC tried to invade and steal blue side’s red buff, but were outnumbered. EDG had predicted this early game move, and had help from their mid and top laner. This is their second win in a row after they took down Cloud9 on day two, bouncing back from their first loss to LCK rivals T1 on day one. In an interview with ONE Esports, Viper shares more about his experience competing against Fnatic for the first time on the Worlds stage, the challenges that Edward Gaming faced this year, and what he plans to do in the offseason. Gen.G Lehends lets us in on astonishing secret behind his large champion pool Faker becomes first player to play 100 Worlds games, dominates with 72 wins EDG Viper evaluates Fnatic, shares what’s been going on with the team, and his language proficiency For the first 18 minutes of the game, Viper’s Sivir maintained a perfect 4/0/1 scoreline and a 400 gold bounty with the support of Tian “Meiko” Ye’s Yuumi, two champions that EDG prioritized in draft. Fnatic kept it competitive, unexpectedly winning a team fight at the second drake and acing the defending 2021 World Champions. But it would not happen again. The LPL representatives took control of every team fight after, and finally got the ace at the 36-minute mark with Viper contributing 31.9% of total damage. “I watch a lot of LEC matches, and I always thought Fnatic plays pretty well. I noticed that Fnatic and the LEC [in general] have a very standard playstyle, and their picks are also very standard as well,” Viper told ONE Esports. “I think that’s one of their greatest strengths. For weaknesses, I don’t think they had any today.” Credit: Riot Games So far, EDG look a lot more convincing here at Worlds 2022, more than their entire year combined. In LPL Spring 2022, they maintained a top three position for six weeks, before falling to 7th at the end of the split. Seeded into Round 1 of the playoffs, they were eliminated by Weibo Gaming in Round 2. At the time, Viper revealed in an interview with eSports Focus that communication was “the most urgent” thing that the team needed to work on, among others. In Summer, they finished in 5th place and kicked started their playoffs run in Round 3 where they knocked out MSI 2022 champions Royal Never Give Up 3-1. In Round 4 of the upper bracket, they lost to Top Esports, but overcame LNG Esports in the lower bracket before losing to TES again. Finally, at the regional qualifiers, they edged out Royal Never Give Up 3-2 to clinch third seed and qualify for the Worlds 2022 Group Stage. “For Summer, we struggled with the way we played, and felt that we were behind in terms of understanding the meta. These are two of the reasons why we couldn’t do as well during Summer,” said Viper. He added that mistakes were inevitable. But the team “rebooted,” fixed things, and eventually won the world championship last year, and they’re undergoing the same process now. “I also had to sacrifice personal things in order to spend more time playing games this year,” shared Viper. His Mandarin has also improved by leaps and bounds. He joined Edward Gaming in Spring 2021, and it has been almost two years since he first landed in China. At the end of Summer, he started to take interviews in Mandarin without the help of a Korean translator. “The number one way I learned how to speak Chinese is through the game. League of Legends is a game with a lot of communication, so not knowing how to speak Chinese was detrimental to my play. So I did my best to try to memorize certain words for game purposes as much as I could,” replied Viper when asked about his secret to learning Mandarin so quickly. “Later, when speaking Chinese, I would try to listen a lot, and try to memorize those words. Also, I’m not afraid to make mistakes,” he said. “I know people in China know I’m not fluent in Chinese so they’re not going to make fun of me, so I’ll just try to speak as much as I can. Even though I make mistakes, that is how I learned very quickly.” Work hard, play hard is a philosophy he lives by. Once Worlds is over, he’s looking forward to taking his break “very seriously,” because he believes that the offseason is as important as the amount of good practice he puts in during the year. “During free time right now, during offseason, because I’m in China, I can’t move around that much, so I make sure that I eat well, sleep well, and sometimes spend time playing other games,” he said. Watch the 2022 World Championship matches live on Riot Games’ official channels on Twitch and YouTube. READ MORE: Faker reveals what his American IGN means, promises something should T1 make Worlds 2022 finals

Russia-Ukraine War Updates – The New York Times https://collincountynewsonline.com/russia-ukraine-war-updates-the-new-york-times/ For months, Russia’s state media insisted that the country was only hitting military targets in Ukraine, leaving out the suffering that the invasion has brought to millions of civilians. On Monday, the mask came off. Russian state television showed gas lines in Ukraine, empty store shelves and a long-range forecast promising months of freezing temperatures there. And rather than focus on the civilian destruction in Russian-held areas as they usually do, news broadcasts in Russia showed columns of smoke and carnage in central Kyiv. “There’s no hot water, part of the city is without power,” one anchor announced, describing the scene in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. The sharp shift was a sign that domestic pressure over Russia’s flailing war effort had escalated to the point where President Vladimir V. Putin felt a decisive show of force was necessary. His military has come under increasingly withering criticism from the war’s supporters for not being aggressive enough in its assault on Ukraine, a chorus that reached a fever pitch after Saturday’s attack on the 12-mile bridge to the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea — a symbol of Mr. Putin’s rule. With Monday’s brutal escalation of the war effort, Mr. Putin in part appears to be responding to those critics, momentarily quieting the clamors of hard-liners furious with the Russian military’s humiliating setbacks on the battlefield. “This is important from the domestic political perspective, first and foremost,” Abbas Gallyamov, a Russian political analyst and former Putin speechwriter, said of Monday’s strikes. “It was important to demonstrate to the ruling class that Putin is still capable, that the Army is still good for something.” But with his escalation, Mr. Putin is also betting that Russian elites — and the public at large — do indeed see it as a sign of strength, rather than a desperate effort to inflict more pain in a war that Russia appears to be losing. “The response was supposed to show power, but in fact it showed powerlessness,” Mr. Gallyamov said. “There’s nothing else the army can do.” After Monday’s strikes, some of the invasion’s harshest critics among the Russian hawks declared that the military was finally doing its job. The strongman leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov — who recently excoriated the army’s “incompetent” leadership — said in a Telegram post that he was now “100 percent happy” with the war effort. “Run, Zelensky, run,” he wrote, referring to Ukraine’s president. Other cheerleaders of the war triumphantly recalled Mr. Putin’s declaration in July that Russia had not “started anything yet in earnest” in Ukraine. “Now, it seems, it’s started,” one state television talk show host, Olga Skabeyeva, said. Mr. Putin described Monday’s strikes as a response to Ukrainian “terrorist acts,” casting them as a one-time assault to deter future Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory. In his home city of St. Petersburg, where he had traveled on Friday for his 70th birthday, Mr. Putin spoke on national television for just over three minutes in what the Kremlin characterized as the start of a meeting with his Security Council. He made a point of saying the strikes came at the military’s initiative, an apparent effort to head off assertions that he was plotting the war effort in isolation. “This morning, at the suggestion of the Ministry of Defense and according to the plan of the Russian General Staff, a massive strike with air, sea and land-based high-precision long-range weapons was launched against Ukrainian energy, military command and communications facilities,” Mr. Putin said. “If attempts to carry out terrorist attacks on our territory continue, the measures taken by Russia will be tough and in their scale will correspond to the level of threats posed to the Russian Federation. No one should have any doubt about it.” In his speech, Mr. Putin made one notable omission: he did not mention the West as the ultimate culprit behind Saturday’s Crimean bridge explosion or other suspected Ukrainian attacks. That was a departure from the typical Kremlin rhetoric that portrays Washington and London as the puppeteers behind Ukraine’s resistance. The shift was a possible signal that the Russian leader was interested in controlling the escalation of the war, and that he was not on the verge of provoking a direct conflict with NATO. But some signs pointed to Mr. Putin being prepared for a wider escalation of the war. On Saturday, he appointed a general known for his ruthlessness, Sergei Surovikin, to lead the war effort in Ukraine. And Mr. Putin’s closest international ally, President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus, declared on Monday that thousands of Russian soldiers would soon arrive in the country to form a joint military group with Belarusian forces — creating the specter of a new threat to Ukraine’s north. Greg Yudin, a professor of political philosophy at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, said Mr. Putin had bent to pressure from right-wing hawks who are calling for even more escalation. He said he expected that Mr. Putin would “sooner or later” heighten the threats of potentially using tactical nuclear weapons. In central Moscow, many people said they were unaware of what had happened in Ukraine. People soaked up the sun in the chic neighborhood of central Tsvetno, or rushed to work or appointments. Some younger people, more attuned to social media, said they were aware of the strikes on Ukraine but felt powerless to assign blame. “It is bad when people are killed for any reason,” said Sasha, 19, a university student. Still, she went on, “In any fight, both sides are responsible.” In Russia, the penalties for criticizing the war — or even using the term war — come with hefty fines and even jail time, so many Russians are cautious about making comments that might have a negative connotation about the war. Valerie Hopkins reported from Moscow. Alina Lobzina also contributed reporting.

Election Chief Wants To Tamp Down Election Conspiracy Theories – Texas Monthly https://collincountynewsonline.com/election-chief-wants-to-tamp-down-election-conspiracy-theories-texas-monthly/ Take pity on John Scott. In October 2021, Governor Greg Abbott appointed the Fort Worth attorney as Secretary of State, Texas’s top elections official. He immediately found himself in the hot seat, targeted by voting rights activists aggrieved by what they saw as Republican-led voter suppression and by conspiracy theorists inflamed by former president Donald Trump’s claims of a stolen election. Scott, who had previously served under Abbott as deputy attorney general for civil litigation and COO of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, told Texas Monthly at the time that his top priority was “bringing the temperature down.” This proved harder than he anticipated.  Scott’s first major task was to conduct a “full forensic audit” of the 2020 general election in the two largest Democrat-led counties, Dallas and Harris, and the two largest Republican-led counties, Collin and Tarrant. The audit was demanded by Trump—even though he won Texas by more than five percentage points—and had been agreed to, less than nine hours after Trump issued his demand, by the Secretary of State office (the top post was then vacant). The effort immediately drew scorn from both liberals, who denounced it as a capitulation to election deniers, and Trump himself, who complained that limiting the audit to four counties was “weak.”  Phase one of the audit examined voting-machine accuracy, cybersecurity, and potentially ineligible voters. Quietly released last New Year’s Eve, it found nothing unusual about the election. The results of the second phase, a more detailed review of all available records from the four counties, are scheduled to be released later this year.  The inability to please either liberals or conservatives has been the hallmark of Scott’s tenure. He drew bipartisan criticism for the high rejection rate for mail-in ballots (12 percent) during this year’s primary election—an all-too-predictable result of the confusing new vote-by-mail rules imposed by Senate Bill 1, which the Republican-controlled Legislature passed last year over vehement Democratic opposition. Scott’s attempt to fulfill SB 1’s strict voter list–maintenance requirements led his office to challenge the citizenship status of nearly 12,000 registered voters, at least some of whom turned out to be on the list by mistake. His office was sued by a coalition of voting rights groups, including the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which has called the list “a surgical strike against voters of color.” (The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently ruled that Scott did not have to divulge the list; the plaintiffs are deciding whether to appeal.) But no matter how diligent his efforts to ensure what the GOP calls “election integrity,” Scott can’t seem to satisfy those who believe Trump’s claims of a stolen election. At a routine voting-machine demonstration in Hays County in September, Scott was ambushed by around a dozen “stop the steal” activists, who peppered him with arcane questions about voting-machine security. “We’re following state law,” Scott assured the crowd. “No you’re not!” they shouted back.  With early voting for the November general election just weeks away, Texas Monthly decided to check in with the embattled Secretary of State. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.  Texas Monthly: The voting-machine test you attended in Hays County got pretty rowdy. What was that like? John Scott: The local elections administrator in Hays County invited us down to film a public service announcement. It kind of devolved into a little bit of a question-and-answer session [with the activists]. I felt bad that it became disruptive to the process we were all there for. Part of my job is answering questions. But a lot of the people who have questions, it’s the misinformed and the uninformed.  The misinformed people seem like they really don’t care. They know something, and they’re going to stick to it no matter what you tell them. You can talk until you’re blue in the face. With the uninformed, we have to reach out and tell them the truth. Otherwise there will only be bad information circling around. The shouting eventually ended and they did calm down. I think there were several protesters who accepted a lot of what I was saying. TM: Why do you think so many people are angry about these issues?  JS: I don’t know why. If I did, we would address it immediately. There’s a lack of information, and then there’s people out there filling that lack of information with stories that are simply not true. I have yet to hear about or meet any elections administrator in the state who is not trying to do a perfect job. We’re all humans, and so we’re all prone to error. It seems like, a lot of times, people latch on to those errors and ascribe motives. I don’t know how we stop that other than to continually address it. It’s like Whac-A-Mole.  TM: What is the most common misperception you hear about elections?  JS: That our voting machines are connected to the internet. It’s completely false. There are zero machines in this state that are connected to the internet. They’re not connected to anything. They stand alone, and that air gap is what gives them the protection that we depend upon.  TM: Attorney General Ken Paxton has been laser-focused on rooting out voter fraud. But he’s only charged 44 people with election-related crimes over his seven years in office. Is voter fraud a major problem in Texas? JS: I don’t want to step out of my lane. The Secretary of State’s office is not a law enforcement agency. We’re not tasked with prosecuting anyone. If we find something suspicious that may rise to that level, we immediately pass it off to the local district attorney or the attorney general’s office. In the wake of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals opinion [stating that Paxton needs permission from local DAs to pursue election cases], our working model is to make sure we always refer it to the local DA. I know there have been a lot of different situations involving voting that have ended up in prosecutions. The system seems to always take care of itself.  TM: You have said that the results of the second and final phase of your forensic election audit will be released to the public by the end of this year. Is there anything in the results that casts doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 general election in those four counties? JS: We don’t want to have any narrative attached to this at all. We’re just going to walk people through the process from the beginning of the election to the end. We’re going to show the results of our investigation. And people can make of it what they will.  TM: During the spring primary, 12 percent of mail-in ballots were rejected—most for failing to follow the new rules established by Senate Bill 1. In previous elections, the rejection rate was around 1 or 2 percent. Why was there such a high number of rejected ballots this year? JS: I don’t know, other than that it was a brand-new system. Sometimes that has the unintended consequence of making it more difficult [to successfully cast a ballot]. In the primary runoff election, the rejection rate dropped to about 4 percent—and [less than] 1 percent in Bexar County. What happened is that Bexar County included an insert with the ballot [explaining how to fill it out]. That’s something most counties this time are going to do. That’s really a best practice, and that’s something we encourage.  TM: One of SB 1’s requirements is that voters write down either their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number—whichever one they used when they registered to vote. Many people forgot which number they used, so their ballot was rejected. Are you now encouraging voters to write down both numbers?  JS: I told my mom to write both numbers down. She’s eighty-nine. I told her, “If either one of them matches [your voter registration application], you’re golden.” I think this is a concern of everybody who votes by mail. A lot of them are in a fragile state of their lives, but they truly love participating in the election process. We want to make sure they still have the ability to vote. So I would give everybody the same advice I gave my mom. TM: Given the confusion around the new vote-by-mail requirements, would you encourage the Legislature to clarify the rules during the next session? JS: If there are any improvements [to be made], we will definitely relay that to the legislative leadership and the governor’s office. And if we hear about better ways to do stuff, we will absolutely continue to relay that.  TM: Earlier this year, the Brennan Center for Justice conducted a survey of election workers across the country. It found that one in every six workers has received threats because of their job. In Texas, the top three election administrators in Gillespie County recently resigned because of harassment. Tarrant County election administrator Heider Garcia received death threats after being the subject of a conspiracy theory involving his prior employment by voting-machine manufacturer Smartmatic. How big of a problem is this? JS: It’s a huge problem. Heider and his deputy both carry guns now. They don’t bring them into polling places, because that’s illegal, but they have to have a gun on them. Which is pathetic—the fact that they’re in that much fear of their life, that it’s gotten that heated. I think it’s obscene. In Gillespie County I visited with the county judge and let him know we were here to help in any way possible, given the situation they had. Everybody over there had glowing comments about the elections administrator. She was somebody you would want as your neighbor, and somebody you’d want as your public servant in...

Best Credit Cards For International Travel – GOBankingRates https://collincountynewsonline.com/best-credit-cards-for-international-travel-gobankingrates/ South_agency / Getty Images If you are counting down the days until your next international destination, the right credit card could make all the difference. With the right piece of plastic in your wallet, you can rack up credit card rewards to pay for your next trip. Plus, the best credit cards for international travel protect your wallet from excessive transaction fees. As you wait to head to the airport, consider adding a premium credit card to your wallet for a smooth international travel experience. 5 Best Credit Cards for International Travel Here’s a quick guide to help you learn more about the best credit cards for international travel. Card Annual Fee Bonus Capital One Venture X Rewards Card $395 Earn 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 within three months of account opening United Explore MileagePlus $95 — waived the first year Earn 50,000 bonus miles when you spend $3,000 within three months of account opening Earn 60,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 within three months of account opening Earn 125,000 Membership Rewards Points when you spend $6,000 within six months of account opening $695 Earn 120,000 Membership Rewards Points when you spend $15,000 within three months of account opening Capital One Venture X Rewards Card The Capital One Venture X Rewards card makes international travel more enjoyable and more accessible. Flexible travel redemption options are available through the card, which comes without a foreign transaction fee. Although there is an annual fee of $395, frequent travelers can use this card to stretch their international travel budget a little bit further. Features: Earn 10,000 anniversary bonus miles every year; receive a $300 annual travel credit; get up to $100 fee credit for Global Entry or TSA Precheck; earn 10x miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel; get access to Capital One airport lounges and the Partner Lounge network; earn 5x miles on flights booked through Capital One Travel; earn 2x miles on all other purchases; earn 10x miles when you book a car on Turo. Bonus: Earn 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 within three months of account opening. APR: Annual fee: $395 Foreign transaction fee: None UnitedSM Explorer MileagePlus The United Explorer MileagePlus card offers a wide range of perks. It’s especially useful to travelers who frequently fly with United Airlines. But since United Airlines is a part of the largest international airline network, the Star Alliance, racking up United miles can come in handy for world travelers. With the fee waived for the first year, you can see whether or not this card is the right fit for your wallet. Features: Earn 2x miles on United purchases, hotel accommodations, delivery services and dining; earn 1x miles for all other purchases; get up to $100 fee credit for Global Entry or TSA Precheck; get 25% back as a statement credit on in-flight United purchases; enjoy Priority boarding; get 2 United Club one-time passes for each cardholder anniversary; lost luggage reimbursement; trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance. Bonus: Earn 50,000 bonus miles when you spend $3,000 within three months of account opening. APR: Annual fee: $95, waived for the first year Foreign transaction fee: None Chase Sapphire Reserve® The Chase Sapphire Reserve puts a VIP-level travel experience within reach for those with excellent credit scores. As a cardholder, you’ll start building up points based on your spending. Depending on your spending habits, these rewards can quickly turn into a helpful sum for your next international destination. You can breeze through airports with Global Entry, courtesy of your credit card. And if you are stuck with a long layover, use your credit card to access one of over 1,000 airport lounges worldwide. Features: $300 annual travel credit; up to $100 fee credit for Global Entry or TSA Precheck; earn 10x points on hotels and car rentals booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards, earn 3x points on other travel, earn 10x points on Chase Dining purchases, earn 3x points on all other dining, earn 1x point on all other purchases; $10 monthly statement credit for GoPuff; one year of free DashPass subscription; earn 10x points on Lyft rides; access to airport lounges via the Priority Pass; trip cancellation and interruption insurance; lost luggage reimbursement. Bonus: Earn 60,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 within three months of account opening. APR: Annual fee: — plus $75 for each authorized user Foreign transaction fee: None Platinum Card® from American Express With a $695 annual fee, the Platinum Card from American Express, Member FDIC, doesn’t come cheap. But a lengthy list of benefits can make the price point worth it for frequent international travelers. The card comes with access to a Platinum Travel Service, which can create custom itineraries based on your unique interests to help you get the most out of a vacation. And the Premium Global Assist Hotline can come in handy to help you sort through medical, legal, financial or other emergency issues while away from home. Features: Earn 5x points on flights and prepaid hotels; $200 airline fee credit; $15 Uber credit every month; $200 hotel credit; $240 digital entertainment credit; $155 Walmart+ credit; access to the Global Lounge Collection with over 1,400 airport lounges; $189 Clear Credit; fee credit for Global Entry or TSA Precheck; get a $100 experience credit at hotel stays booked with the Hotel Collection; trip delay and trip cancellation insurance. Bonus: Earn 125,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend $6,000 on purchases within six months of account opening. APR: Annual fee: Foreign transaction fee: None The Business Platinum Card® from American Express If you happen to be a business owner, the Business Platinum Card from American Express can open up doors for your international travel experiences. It gives you the chance to tap into extensive travel perks as a result of your business spending. Help from the Business Platinum Travel service can lead to unforgettable trips with itineraries designed for your specific interests. Plus, you’ll get access to many premium membership levels at hotels and car rental providers for a top-notch travel experience. Features: Earn 5x points on flights and prepaid hotels; earn 1.5x points on spending business categories; earn 1.5x points on eligible purchases of $5,000 or more; earn 1x points on all other purchases; $400 annual statement credit with Dell Technologies; $360 annual statement credit for Indeed; $150 annual statement credit for Adobe Creative Solutions; $200 airline fee credit; fee credit for Global Entry or TSA Precheck; trip delay and trip cancellation insurance. Bonus: Earn 120,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend $15,000 on purchases within three months of account opening. APR: Annual fee: $695 Foreign transaction fee: None What Is The Best Credit Card for Your International Travel Plans? The best credit card for your international travel plans varies based on your goals. As a baseline, you should opt for a credit card with no foreign transaction fees. Plus, you should ensure that the credit card of your choice is widely accepted in countries you regularly frequent. Beyond those basics, selecting the right credit card comes down to your specific plans. You might choose the flexibility of a travel rewards credit card or select an airline-branded card for your favorite airline. Additionally, look for a credit card that offers the most rewards for your spending habits. For example, business owners might get the most out of a business-specific credit card. But frequent travelers that stick to a specific airline might get the most perks by selecting the airline’s branded card. Rates are subject to change; unless otherwise noted, rates are updated periodically. All other information on accounts is accurate as of Oct. 6, 2022. Editorial Note: This content is not provided by any entity covered in this article. Any opinions, analyses, reviews, ratings or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author alone and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any entity named in this article. All information about American Express card offers has been collected independently by GOBankingRates and has not been reviewed or approved by American Express. These offers are not available through GOBankingRates. The information related to Chase United Explorer and Chase Sapphire Reserve cards was collected by GOBankingRates and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer of this products/cards. Product details may vary. Please see issuer website for current information. GOBankingRates does not receive commission for these products. About the Author Sarah Sharkey is a personal finance writer with a desire to help readers improve their own financial balance sheets. After earning a bachelor’s degree in biology, she went on to business school. With a master’s degree in Management from the Hough School of Business at the University of Florida, she loves diving into the details of personal finance. With years of experience as a personal finance writer, she helps readers grasp the concept and take control by breaking down complex topics filled with jargon down to their basic components. After all, a little bit of knowledge can go a long way in the world of personal finance. Learn More

Kitchen Tune Up Erie Works To Quickly Remodel Homes: Giving You The Business – Erienewsnow.com https://collincountynewsonline.com/kitchen-tune-up-erie-works-to-quickly-remodel-homes-giving-you-the-business-erienewsnow-com/ Tatiana and Michael Cross are the franchise owners of Kitchen Tune Up Erie. They launched the business just a few months ago, adding Erie County to the other spots the more than 30 year business has a footprint in, across the U.S. “We wanted to find something that was not a back up the truck and tear out the entire thing because there’s just a lot of people that cant afford that,” said Michael Cross.  The aim is to help residential and commercial customers tune up their kitchen in one to five days, starting with reconditioning the wood. “Then there’s painting and the bulk of the services seems to be re-dooring and refacing where you are not, changing the layout of the kitchen you’re simply giving it updated doors and a whole new look,” said Michael. “And then of course it goes up to custom kitchens for anybodys budget.” The Crosses will be doing the work alongside a technician. “A tune up can take a day, re-dooring and refacing can be done within the week, and we do everything we can in one day to the best of our ability,” said Michael. “Clean, so it’s not in the way and then in the morning, start all over again.”

Championship Health Partners, Hall Of Fame Health Introduce Tiger Legacy Care For All Alumni Student-Athletes – Louisiana State University Athletics https://collincountynewsonline.com/championship-health-partners-hall-of-fame-health-introduce-tiger-legacy-care-for-all-alumni-student-athletes-louisiana-state-university-athletics/ October 10, 2022 – 03:30 PM Our Lady of the Lake Health and LSU Athletics Partner with Hall of Fame Health to Provide Lifetime Behavioral Healthcare to Athletes through Tiger Legacy Care BATON ROUGE, LA – Championship Health Partners LSU Athletics and Our Lady of the Lake Health have joined with Hall of Fame Health to provide all alumni student-athletes with access to a lifetime of world-class care through Tiger Legacy Care. Through Tiger Legacy Care, all alumni of LSU Athletics and their families will have access to Hall of Fame Health’s behavioral health network indefinitely. This access extends to alumni of all 21 varsity athletics programs at LSU, ensuring the access to world-class care they receive during their collegiate careers continues for the rest of their lifetimes. “Our Lady of the Lake Health is committed to providing the best possible care to LSU athletes, helping them perform at their best during competition while also preparing them for a lifetime of healthy living,” said Dr. Catherine O’Neal, chief medical officer at Our Lady of the Lake Health. “This partnership with Hall of Fame Health allows us to extend our care of athletes beyond their time on campus and provide them and their families with vital behavioral health care throughout the rest of their lives.” Originally developed by the Pro Football Hall of Fame to provide healthcare solutions to former NFL players and their families, Hall of Fame Health provides a full spectrum of mental health, behavioral health, and substance use services. Through this partnership, LSU will become the first university in the country to offer a lifetime of behavioral health services to every alumni athlete and their immediate family, with areas of focus such as stress & emotional regulation, depression, anxiety, substance use disorder, PTSD, and more. “When the Championship Health Partnership was formed, the mission was to elevate the entire state through collaborative efforts just like this one,” said Shelly Mullenix, LSU senior associate AD for health and wellness. “This agreement with Hall of Fame Health will ensure generations of Tigers continue to receive the world-class care they’ve enjoyed at LSU long after they complete their athletic careers.” Former LSU student-athletes and their families will have access to a dedicated concierge call line (866-578-9989), a 24/7 mental health crisis hotline (866-901-1245), preferred access to select clinical programs, a nationwide list of vetted and accredited providers, and discounted provider pricing. “As a proud Tiger alum and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, I am happy to see LSU joining with Hall of Fame Health as the first NCAA program to offer premier mental and behavioral health services to all its former athletes,” said Alan Faneca, former LSU All-American and NFL Hall-of-Famer. “Good mental health is essential as we compete in sports and move through life because the challenges never stop coming. This partnership will offer our former LSU athletes the support and care to help them continue to achieve their goals for the rest of their life. Once a Tiger, always a Tiger!” “Being an athlete, we face the same daily stresses as everyone else—from balancing family to day-to-day life,” said DJ Chark, former Tiger wide receiver and current Detroit Lion. “I’ve learned to use meditation as well as a therapist, and I try and stay in the present to help me work through life’s challenges. All former LSU athletes need access to the same tools and resources. That’s why Tiger Legacy Care is a needed resource for the LSU Athletics family.” The program will be funded by the Tiger Athletic Foundation’s Our Lady of the Lake Programmatic Support Fund for LSU Athletics, which was created through the Championship Health Partnership announced in February. Further support will be provided by the National L-Club, LSU’s national letterwinner association. “The Tiger Legacy Care program provides the meaningful opportunities and treatment options Hall of Fame Health envisioned when looking to expand its reach beyond Pro Football Hall of Famers and their families,” said Ryan Cain, President of Hall of Fame Health. “First of its kind, and with great partners in LSU and Our Lady and the Lake Health, TLC will positively impact thousands of college athletes for life by providing access to elite mental and behavioral health treatment.” About Championship Health Partnership The Championship Health Partnership is a first of its kind, long-term, healthcare-focused partnership between Our Lady of the Lake Health and LSU that optimizes both organization’s talents, resources, assets and brands to achieve measurable impacts for Baton Rouge and the state. Together, Our Lady of the Lake Health and LSU will set a new standard for healthcare delivery, research, and education that improves the health and well-being of the LSU population and our community, supports athletic excellence, fosters research to stimulate economic growth and development, and transforms healthcare and education for the future. Together We Roar. About Hall of Fame Health Hall of Fame Health is an affiliate of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and was started at the behest of Hall of Famers to provide more resources to all former football players and their families, not just Hall of Famers.  Hall of Fame Health provides a concierge service that can guide families to world-class doctors and other healthcare providers, can assist with understanding health benefits and selecting among insurance options, and can advocate for families who need expertise on their side as they navigate the complexities of providers, benefits, and coverage issues, etc.  In addition, Hall of Fame Health has assembled a diverse group of premier clinicians and physician leaders on its Medical Advisory Board and a rapidly growing nationwide network of best-in-class health systems, medical groups, and behavioral health professionals who stand ready to provide a Hall of Fame experience for our football community, including mental health, addiction, and substance abuse, and in times of true crisis.  Additionally, Hall of Fame Health has established the Hall of Fame Family Recovery Fund in partnership with Fund Recovery to raise money and provide financial assistance to those in need.  Beyond serving the community of former NFL players and families, Hall of Fame Health has extended its platform to select veteran organizations and college football alumni groups. For more information about Hall of Fame Health, visit HOFHealth.com.

Champions League Matchday 4 Buildup: Lionel Messi Out For PSG, With Chelsea, Man City, Juventus Also In Action – CBS Sports https://collincountynewsonline.com/champions-league-matchday-4-buildup-lionel-messi-out-for-psg-with-chelsea-man-city-juventus-also-in-action-cbs-sports/ The UEFA Champions League is back again for another slate of matches this midweek with Tuesday and Wednesday boasting some massive showdowns between some European giants.  On Tuesday, Milan vs. Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain vs. Benfica are the two box office encounters kicking off at 3:00 p.m. ET with Copenhagen vs. Manchester City and Maccabi Haifa vs. Juventus serving as the appetizers at 12:45 p.m. ET. If that was not enough, Borussia Dortmund vs. Sevilla and Shakhtar Donetsk vs. Real Madrid make for pretty interesting undercard tussles. As for Wednesday, Napoli vs. Ajax and Atletico Madrid vs. Club Brugge promise early fireworks in the 12:45 p.m. ET slots before the second instalment of Barcelona vs. Inter and Rangers vs. Liverpool at 3:00 p.m. ET. Also keep an eye out for Sporting vs. Marseille and Spurs vs. Frankfurt in what is shaping up to be a tight Group F while Bayern are on the road at Viktoria Plzen. It goes without saying that we will be bringing you the best of the buildup to these games on the Monday with a focus on the Tuesday matches as well as any big storylines developing ahead of Wednesday. You can look forward to all of this and more coming to you via Paramount+ these next few days. Pinned This week’s full slate… Tuesday Group G: FC Copenhagen vs. Manchester City — 12:45 p.m. (midday) ET and Borussia Dortmund vs. Sevilla — 3:00 p.m. ET Group H: Maccabi Haifa vs. Juventus — 12:45 p.m. (midday) ET and PSG vs. SL Benfica — 3:00 p.m. ET Group E: AC Milan vs. Chelsea — 3:00 p.m. ET and Dinamo Zagreb vs. FC Salzburg — 3:00 p.m. ET Group F: Celtic vs. RB Leipzig — 3:00 p.m. ET and Shakhtar Donetsk vs. Real Madrid — 3:00 p.m. ET Wednesday Group A: SS Napoli vs. AFC Ajax — 12:45 p.m. (midday) ET and Rangers vs. Liverpool — 3:00 p.m. ET Group B: Atletico Madrid vs. Club Brugge — 12:45 p.m. (midday) ET and Bayer Leverkusen vs. FC Porto — 3:00 p.m. ET Group C: Barcelona vs. Inter — 3:00 p.m. ET and Viktoria Plzen vs. Bayern Munich — 3:00 p.m. ET Group F: Sporting CP vs. Olympique de Marseille — 3:00 p.m. ET and Tottenham Hotspur vs. Eintracht Frankfurt — 3:00 p.m. ET See New Posts Pinned Chelsea pre-Milan Graham Potter on… Updates: “Hakim [Ziyech] is ill. N’Golo [Kante] were just waiting for his reaction from his training. It is certainly not ideal [his reaction] so we will have to wait and see the extent of it and go from there. It is certainly not ideal so we will have to wait and see the extent of it and go from there. It’s not ideal and it is disappointing for him and for us. We’ll have to see the extent of it and go from there.” Beating Milan at San Siro: “That’s our challenge and it’s what we have to try to do. It’s an incredible place here and a very different game. AC Milan will try to use the home advantage like we did. Two good teams, too evenly matched teams. I’m looking forward to it.” XI: “I won’t tell you about how we’re going to line up, you can wait for that. But we’re happy with the options that we have. We’re expecting a really tough game because AC Milan have a lot of great players and are a really tough team.” Thiago Silva on… Milan return: “I am very happy and excited to be here again 11 or 12 years after my last time. All the good experiences I’ve had here came back to my mind and tomorrow I will be even more excited and moved. It is going to be a great emotion. I don’t think AC Milan are not highly competitive. They had a bad game last week against us, that can happen, but great clubs like AC Milan won’t do it twice. They had a great result against Juve so they are strongly motivated to do a great match tomorrow night and I can tell myself and the team that we will need to make great efforts because it is never going to be easy to play here at San Siro against AC Milan.” Career end: “I have already made my history here at AC Milan so this isn’t the case here anymore at the moment. If this could’ve happened, it should’ve been before I joined Chelsea. But who knows, I will have to see then.” Milan threats: “Tomorrow is is going to be a very difficult match. It will be difficult for us to defence. On Leao, we’ll have to be very focused and make sure he can’t get the ball. If those give him the ball, they will be dangerous because if he gets the ball, they can score. And it’s not only him because Giroud is in the box. It’s not going to be easy but that is why we have to be focused. Theo is a very good player, one of the best on the left side. He is also very good at defending. We have to be careful of the whole squad because a good team is not only one, two, three good players. It’s the whole squad who work well so we have to be focused on all of them” Pinned More Galtier The PSG boss on… Messi: “Leo felt a problem in his calf during the first game with Benfica. We all thought he was going to be able to play in the second game, but it’s not quite there. There’s only six days between the two…He’s a lot better, but he still has that feeling that could be problematic in a game of this importance, and he preferred to sit it out. We’re going to see how it progresses during the week, and it’s very probable that he’s available for Marseille.” “You all know how important Leo is in our play, but the most important thing is his physical shape and his connection with Neymar and Kylian and the wing-backs. We’ll have to find other solutions, other situations, other connections to create danger for the Portuguese defence.” Benfica draw: “First, you have to analyse the first game, and see how Benfica caused us problems. You have to ask yourself if everything was done right tactically. If we decide to go for another system, we have to be able to create new connections, we can get the players playing higher up the pitch, there’s a whole analysis to do regarding the options. I speak a lot to my senior players, with my staff, to see how we can change in terms of the players who are missing.” Marseille on Sunday: “Every week is important at Paris Saint-Germain. There’s this double-header with Benfica, there was the match with Nice before the international break, and the highly anticipated meeting with Marseille on Sunday. It’s an important week in terms of the stakes and the games, but the week after will be very important and the week after that too. We take into account each player’s shape, knowing that certain players will rejoin the squad soon.” Pinned Gomez speaks up Sevilla’s Papu Gomez has spoken ahead of the clash with Borussia Dortmund with the Spaniards now led by Jorge Sampaoli after Julen Lopetegui’s dismissal. Pinned City in Copenhagen Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola on… The XI: “I will decide on the selection. I will speak with players, doctors and physios and decide the best. We will see.” Qualification: “We play one week later and they (Copenhagen) have pride and they want to perform. But at the same time, we have a chance to conclude our qualification for the next stage and we are going to try.” Defender Nathan Ake on… This season: “I am happy. I played a few games and then got a setback, but thankfully it was not too bad. I feel I am progressing well and hopefully, I will continue like this.” Form: “At the moment I am very happy and the team is happy, we are in a good flow, but it is only the beginning. We have so much more to do.” Copenhagen: “We have to be prepared and focused, like in the last game, and hopefully we can do well. In the second half, they changed their shape a little bit and created a few more dangerous moments.” Pinned Srna’s emotional plea The former Croatia international who is now Shakhtar Donetsk director of football has addressed each Champions League participant to ask for support for Ukraine through Saving Lives after Russian aggression intensified: “Today Ukraine needs your support more than ever,” he wrote. “So I addressed the European clubs and I am sure that many teams will not stay aside and show solidarity with our people and country.” Pinned Real arrive in Poland The defending champions’ boss Carlo Ancelotti and Lucas Vazquez have been speaking ahead of the clash with Shakhtar Donetsk. “What we have to do is to see how the players who played on the weekend are feeling,” said the Italian. “This training session is important to see which players are line-up on Tuesday.” “It’s a key game for us,” added the Spaniard. “If we win we take a major step to qualify. It’s not easy to achieve.” Pinned Leipzig lines RBL boss Marco Rose on… Celtic Park: “A great stadium. We are expecting a good crowd with an audience who understands football and not only supports their team, but also appreciates it when the opposition plays well. It will be fun to play here!” Regrets: “We are not looking back at the Rangers game. Our focus has to be looking forward to Celtic vs. Leipzig. To this great game in a great stadium with a great atmosphere in the Champions League. And obviously on the next three points!” Striker Andre Silva on… Celtic Park: “It will not be easy because of the fans and the atmosphere. We will need to give it everything right until the end and try to win. We need to be compact as a team and deliver the same energy we did in the first leg.” Pinned Pioli and Tomori chime in pre-Chelsea The AC Milan boss Stefano Pioli and defender Fikayo Tomori have been speaking ahead of Tuesday’s UCL clash with Chelsea. Pinned Galtier confirms Messi absence The PSG boss has confirmed that Messi will miss the Benfica clash. However, the Frenchman did hint that the Argentine will be back for this weekend’s Classique vs. Marseille. “Leo felt discomfort in the calf during the match at Benfica,” said Galtier. “It is very likely that...

Why I’m Ready To Work In VR And Embrace The Office Of The Metaverse – Digital Trends https://collincountynewsonline.com/why-im-ready-to-work-in-vr-and-embrace-the-office-of-the-metaverse-digital-trends/ In the days leading up to the launch of the Quest Pro, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has called the new headset a “great working device” — possibly even a laptop replacement. Gaming in VR is one thing — but socializing, living, and working there? It seems as if the broad consensus on the internet is: “no thanks.” But not me. I’m ready and excited to move my working life into virtual reality, and from what we know so far, the Quest Pro just may be the device that fixes many of the current problems with trying to do so on current-gen hardware. What’s better than a mouse? Navigation is one of the main hang-ups with trying to work in VR at the moment. Work requires being as efficient as possible, which isn’t exactly what you’d call the current VR controls. With a current Meta Quest headset, you’re stuck using the two controllers. They’re quite comfortable and accurate, but it feels a bit like typing with two fingers. You have the option of pairing a mouse and keyboard with a Quest 2, of course, or you can even put down the controllers and use your hands to interact with the environment. The variety is nice, but none of it is so different from what’s possible with a laptop or PC. Replacing the mouse and keyboard, though, is no easy feat. As effective has touchscreens have become, most people feel that when it comes to getting real work done, the mouse (or pointer) and keyboard is still the most efficient. The real innovation comes with eye tracking, which is a feature that is certain to be demonstrated with the Quest Pro at tomorrow’s Meta Connect event. With this new VR headset, you’ll be able to use your gaze to control guide input. This subtle difference could provide a dramatic boost in productivity. Have you ever made the mistake of looking at one window or screen and beginning to type while another window is active? Your keystrokes and text will affect the active window. This can be disastrous if you have an app open that accepts keyboard commands. A few words that you thought would be typed into a document or text field could become a series of commands that send unfinished emails, merge layers, or delete documents. With eye tracking, the Quest Pro should be able to avoid this nightmare. If eye tracking is used to identify the active window, gestures, button presses, and keyboard input will be sent to the window and app that you’re looking at. This is just one example of how a VR headset can be more intuitive since it has access to new forms of input and can work in a way that matches natural human interactions instead of forcing us to learn to do things the way the computer expects. Are VR screens better than real computer monitors? Screens are the next big hurdle with moving work into VR, but this is an area where the metaverse already has an advantage. Virtual screens remove all of the hassles of buying and setting up physical computer monitors. You can create several, large virtual displays at no extra cost and without requiring a large desk or wall mount to hold bulky screens. With a high-quality VR headset, you can use a multiscreen setup anywhere whether sitting, standing, or even lying down. I’ve tried using a computer with three monitors, a MacBook with an iPad connected via Universal Control, and a computer with a phone as a secondary device. None really works ideally because they are physical objects with restrictions on size, location, and input. Breaking out of the old way of computing could easily provide us with a far better solution. A VR headset’s virtual monitors behave more like floating windows in a 360-degree environment than regular screens. This provides the most flexibility possible to create displays in different aspect ratios and sizes. You can make a portrait screen for writing or formatting a print document, a landscape display for traditional computer work, or place a small screen nearby in your virtual space to design something that will be viewed on the screen of a phone or a watch. Of course, most VR headsets at the moment lack the dynamic range and color fidelity of a high-quality computer monitor. That will improve over time, and Meta’s Quest Pro should offer a significant improvement in display quality since it is rumored to have mini-LED backlighting and a higher resolution than the Quest 2. A VR headset also shows a slightly different image to each eye, providing depth to objects. Very few computer displays have this capability. This is a game-changing difference if you design real-world products or architecture, or if you work with 3D graphics. With a Quest 2, you can create a 3D model by directly drawing and manipulating objects. You can ditch flat screens entirely and physically walk around a virtual building and get a sense of the flow and scale. Both virtual and augmented reality solutions are revolutionary in this regard, making concepts look and feel more real. Virtual meetings might be better than reality As videoconferencing has become a more and more important part of our online work lives, taking these meetings into VR has some very positive benefits. Nothing beats being face-to-face, sure, but when that’s not possible, it’s easy to see how meeting in VR beats standard video calls. First off, even the fastest flight or work commute is painfully slow compared to teleporting to a virtual workspace, and Horizon Workrooms is just one example of how a team can come together to present and share ideas in a way that’s more personal than a video call by using VR headsets. Right now, the problem is with avatars and tracking. There’s little benefit with the current technology, which doesn’t give you access to the full range of body language and facial expression needed to properly communicate. The technology is still evolving, and Meta’s current avatars have plenty of room for improvement, that’s for sure. But avatars are rumored to get a big upgrade with the Meta Quest Pro, making your virtual presence feel more real. With eye and face tracking, your avatar will look more realistic than ever to others, showing your reactions and where you’re looking, just as if you were present. On the flip side, your view of the environment can be brighter, sharper, and more realistic with processor and display improvements. If there’s one part of work that feels best suited for the metaverse, it’s certainly meetings, and I can’t wait to have more interactive and engaging meetings with my colleagues in the future. Drawbacks and solutions for working in VR It’s not all good news when working in VR. Sharing in person is more difficult with a VR headset since no one can glance over and see your screen. That might be a good thing if you want to avoid distractions or are working on a sensitive project. Your screen is automatically private when wearing a VR headset and audio is quite muted to others when wearing a Quest even if you don’t have earbuds in. If you want to share your Meta Quest screen with others that are nearby, it’s easy to cast from your Quest to a TV, phone, tablet, or computer. Remote meetings are easier to set up without VR, but the virtual environment has some advantages. Sometimes you might not feel like you are presentable for a work meeting, but your avatar will look as dapper as ever — even if you just rolled out of bed and are wearing pajamas. The multiscreen advantage can also help with meetings since your virtual space has room for people, notes, reference material, a whiteboard, and more. You can even present three-dimensional art that would be difficult to experience with a traditional flat computer display. Another concern with VR productivity is discomfort after only a few hours of wearing a headset. The Quest 2 is relatively light and isn’t a problem in the short term, but you’ll often notice an imprint on your face from the pressure of the headset. It can cause headaches and skin irritation. A lighter headset with better weight distribution that improves overall comfort will help. Meta has already shared that it’s planning on using pancake lenses, which are thinner and lighter. This type of lens also features a larger sweet spot of sharp focus. Meta’s Quest Pro is also expected to have its battery mounted at the rear to balance the weight for greater comfort. Lastly, mobility is greatly limited when wearing a current Quest VR headset even though you can trigger a passthrough view of your real room. The trouble is that you’re seeing through a low-resolution, black-and-white camera. The Quest Pro will have a higher-resolution color passthrough camera, allowing you to travel around your physical room without the need to remove your headset. Rumors suggest Meta will offer a docking station for its next-generation headset that makes it quicker and easier to switch between wearing the Quest Pro and charging it so it’s ready to go at a moment’s notice. Performance is the final piece of the puzzle. The Quest 2 is a relatively slow device when compared to your desktop computer, with most laptops putting it to shame in benchmarks. However, it was released in 2020, and the Quest 2 still tops the list of best VR headsets. It doesn’t lag when playing games, but when using the browser, some slowness is apparent. That’s where its age shows. Meta’s Quest Pro will feature upgraded hardware meant for professionals, and rumors suggest its performance might be similar to that of a Chromebook or a tablet. That suggests the Quest Pro won’t reach the top levels of computing power, but it should have enough power to run most web apps with decent speed. Whether that’s fast enough or not depends on your usage. I wouldn’t expect to edit 4K videos with a Quest Pro or use it to bulk-process RAW photos. But as a writer, I generally only need a computer that c...

When Vivo Phone Is Available In Just Rs 24,990 With Flagship Feature And Cool Style You Can’t Think Of Anything Else – The Tech Outlook https://collincountynewsonline.com/when-vivo-phone-is-available-in-just-rs-24990-with-flagship-feature-and-cool-style-you-cant-think-of-anything-else-the-tech-outlook/ With every passing day, phone brands are trying hard to bring something new to their customers. This strategy not only helps them to attract customers but also to compete with other brands in the market. The same is with the Vivo Y50 which has come into the market with flagship features and an affordable price.  This article will take you through all the features and specifications of this phone. Its iris blue back cover gives it a premium look and every time you look it looks new. If we talk about its screen it is 6.53 inches wide with a resolution of 2340 x 1080 Pixels and 395 PPI pixel density that will take care of your viewing experience. And if We talk about the camera, the back side houses a quad camera setup that has 13 MP + 8 MP + 2 MP + 2 MP. The front side has a notch on the top of it that has a 16MP camera that will take care of your selfie and vlogs. What makes it hassle-free is its 8GB RAM and 128 GB of internal memory. You would be able to use it for a longer duration because of its 5000mAh battery that comes with a fast charger. As far as the price is concerned it’s about Rs 24,990.

A Look Inside Crypto.com Arena’s Newest Renovations – KTLA Los Angeles https://collincountynewsonline.com/a-look-inside-crypto-com-arenas-newest-renovations-ktla-los-angeles/ Morning News by: David Pingalore, Nancy Cruz Posted: Oct 10, 2022 / 10:44 AM PDT Updated: Oct 10, 2022 / 10:44 AM PDT by: David Pingalore, Nancy Cruz Posted: Oct 10, 2022 / 10:44 AM PDT Updated: Oct 10, 2022 / 10:44 AM PDT David Pingalore was live at Crypto.com Arena with a preview of its newest upgrades and renovations fans will notice when they step inside. Visit the arena’s website for more information, including upcoming games and shows. David Pingalore reports for the KTLA 5 News on Oct. 10, 2022. Most Popular Why flags are flying at half-staff in CA Nury Martinez resigns as L.A. City Council president Vehicle plows into Rialto Stater Brothers, 6 hurt California inflation relief checks go out today Suspect charged in Merced family’s kidnapping, slaying ‘A dark day for our City of Angels’ Racist comments lead to calls for resignations Close Subscribe Now Latest News Suspect charged in Merced family’s kidnapping, slaying Man charged in Merced family’s kidnapping, slaying These cities have seen the biggest home price drop Mental Health assistance in California Vehicle plows into Rialto Stater Brothers, 6 hurt Social Security COLA increase to be announced soon View All News

Benedict College Awarded Technology Grant From U.S. Government – WIS News 10 https://collincountynewsonline.com/benedict-college-awarded-technology-grant-from-u-s-government-wis-news-10/ COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – Benedict College announced Monday it received a $525,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The department’s Economic Development Administration is awarding $47 million nationwide to organizations in support of technology entrepreneurs, innovation, and economic growth through the Build to Scale program. The college will use the money to launch a state-wide investment program for minorities in the early stages of entrepreneurship in SC. Dr. Roslyn Clark Artis, President and CEO of Benedict College said, “We are primed to contribute to South Carolina’s innovation ecosystem in a powerful way. Benedict looks forward to working with our partners across the state who are supporting this project including the South Carolina Department of Commerce, South Carolina Research Authority, and HI Mark Capital.” Dr. Tracy Dunn, Dean of the Tyrone Adam Burroughs School of Business and Entrepreneurship said, “This EDA Build to Scale Grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce is significant because it allows us to expand the reach of our work to envelop the state, and more importantly, it includes a pathway for our women and minority early-stage companies in South Carolina to secure capital to grow their businesses.” Notice a spelling or grammar error in this article? Click or tap here to report it. Please include the article’s headline. Copyright 2022 WIS. All rights reserved.

Here’s How Small Restaurant Chains Should Approach Technology – Nation’s Restaurant News https://collincountynewsonline.com/heres-how-small-restaurant-chains-should-approach-technology-nations-restaurant-news/ By now, building a tech stack is a given for restaurants of all sizes, but as we’ve previously stated, investing in technology does not take a one-size-fits-all approach. While national restaurant brands like Domino’s and Chipotle have become leaders in cutting-edge foodservice technology, how does a smaller brand compete with fewer resources? According to Peter Baghdassarian, co-owner of seven-unit Armenian kabob chain, Massis Kabob, you have to do your homework, know your company’s needs, and not be afraid of investing ahead of the curve. Baghdassarian said that Massis Kabob, which has been serving Mediterranean food in California mall food courts since 1976, was one of the first restaurants to invest in digital video menu boards around 17 years ago. “This was a huge deal at the time, and we had to partner with a company in Taiwan to make them because it was so hard to get them here,” he said. “The menu boards increased our business because our food was so hard to explain through regular menu displays.” When Baghdassarian’s father first opened Massis Kabob, most customers were unfamiliar with Mediterranean food and had never eaten kabobs, Baghdassarian said, so eventually the digital menu boards helped to explain the menu of shish kabobs, pita wraps, and combo plates. This is exactly how Baghdassarian approaches all aspects of food service technology: will this make my employees’ lives easier? Is it solving a problem? If not, it goes in the garbage, he said. Currently, Massis Kabob has a very simple tech stack: they use Toast for POS and third-party delivery integration, Incentivio for building out and operating their loyalty app, and are currently looking for a new partner for scheduling software. “When we wanted to swap out our POS system, we did not have a full-time IT guy to help us like a big chain would,” Baghdassarian said. “If the tech requires a mouse and a computer in an office, my manager is not going to use it. We don’t have that kind of setup. It has to be on a phone or tablet and has to be very intuitive.” While it might sound like Baghdassarian is skeptical of a lot of technology, he just knows exactly what he wants and what would work for a counter-service kebab restaurant. Massis Kabob just opened a new flagship location last month in Culver City. The 3,500-square-foot-store is the largest of the chain’s seven locations and can accommodate on-premises patrons and lanes for pickup and delivery. Unlike many of Massis Kabob’s larger restaurant industry colleagues, however, the off-premises-focused location does not have a drive-thru lane because “that’s just not practical in Los Angeles.” As the restaurant industry in general has become more off-premises-focused and people discover and interact restaurants increasingly through apps, Baghdassarian said it has been an adjustment for their brand. “We’re not flipping burgers,” he said, adding that it takes more effort and exact timing to make kabob orders from scratch, and it’s not a continuous process like other types of quick-service would be. “We tell people their food will be ready in 12 minutes, because otherwise it will be sitting and getting cold,” Baghdassarian said. “We call our customers personally when their food is ready for pick up, and even though it’s one more step, it lets us do more quality control than our competitors.”   Of course, this process is much easier now with the launch of Massis Kabob’s new app which became available to download this year and allows them to have a one-on-one relationship with customers through crucial customer data. “We’re glad to be working [with Incentivio] because I avoid having to hire four guys to sit around in an office doing data analysis,” Baghdassarian said. “McDonald’s might have a group of data scientists doing custom loyalty stuff for them, but I’m not going to have the time or half a million dollars to spend on that.” As for Baghdassarian’s final bits of advice for investing in tech as a smaller restaurant brand? Don’t necessarily go for the biggest companies in technology just because you recognize the names, make sure the technology is user-friendly, and take advantage of your more compact size to add more personal touches: “One time we had a tech failure on the part of a third-party delivery company and a customer’s food didn’t get picked up by a driver,” he said. “We looked him up in the database and noted that he was a regular customer and had spent thousands of dollars with us. So, I picked up the bag of food and drove 20 minutes to hand-deliver it myself.” Contact Joanna at [email protected] Find her on Twitter: @JoannaFantozzi

Dell G15 Gaming Laptop Is $250 Off In Its Anti-Prime Day Sale – Digital Trends https://collincountynewsonline.com/dell-g15-gaming-laptop-is-250-off-in-its-anti-prime-day-sale-digital-trends/ Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us? Amazon is launching another round of Prime Day deals this year with the Amazon Prime Early Access Sale, which is unofficially known as October Prime Day, and other retailers like Dell are rolling out their own discounts in response. Gamers should take advantage of the Dell Black Friday Pricing Sale to get the Dell G15 gaming laptop for cheap, as it’s currently available for just $900 following a $250 discount to its original price of $1,150. The bargain may end at any moment, though, so you have to hurry with your purchase if you don’t want to miss out. Why you should buy the Dell G15 gaming laptop The best gaming laptops promise that you’ll be able to play today’s latest games and even the titles that are arriving in the near future. This holds true for the Dell G15 gaming laptop, which is powered by the 12th-generation Intel Core i5 processor and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card, in addition to 16GB of RAM that’s recommended by our laptop buying guide for running intensive software like video games. You’ll be able to appreciate all that processing power on the device’s 15.6-inch Full HD screen, with a 120Hz refresh rate for smooth visuals. The Dell G15 gaming laptop’s 512GB solid-state drive (SSD) offers ample space for several games with all their DLCs, and it comes with Windows 11 Home pre-installed so that you can start installing games as soon as you unbox the machine. It also features the Alienware Command Center, which will let you customize how the Dell G15 gaming laptop runs each and every game that you play. For an extra boost, you can activate the laptop’s Game Shift technology, which triggers a dynamic performance mode within the Alienware Command Center by maximizing the speed of the device’s fans to maintain a cool temperature while its components are pushed to their limits. We didn’t expect the Dell Prime Day sale to return this year. However, with the announcement of October Prime Day comes the Dell Black Friday Pricing Sale as a response, which gives gamers a chance to buy the Dell G15 gaming laptop at $250 off. You’ll only have to pay $900 for the machine instead of $1,150, but you should act fast if you want to buy the Dell G15 gaming laptop for below $1,000. Click that Buy Now button as soon as you can. Editors’ Recommendations The 5 best laptop deals in the Walmart rollback sale — from $98 Today’s Best Deals: Get a 70-inch TV for $450, a Chromebook for $98 Dell Black Friday Pricing Sale: Save on laptops and more Best Prime Day Laptop Deals: What to expect from the second sale Best Prime Day Chromebook Deals: What to expect in October

Meet Denny Mosseller, Long-Time Resident Of Lewisville And Passionate Volunteer – Star Local Media https://collincountynewsonline.com/meet-denny-mosseller-long-time-resident-of-lewisville-and-passionate-volunteer-star-local-media/ Allen American Daily Headlines Have the latest local news delivered every morning so you don’t miss out on updates. Allen American e-Edition Receive our newspaper electronically with the e-Edition email. Allen American Local Sports Get the latest headlines on local sports! Carrollton Leader Daily Headlines Have the latest local news delivered every afternoon so you don’t miss out on updates. Carrollton Leader e-Edition Receive our newspaper electronically with the e-Edition email. Carrollton Leader Local Sports Get the latest headlines on local sports! Celina Record Daily Headlines Daily Headlines from Celina Record Celina Record e-Edition Receive our newspaper electronically with the e-Edition email. Celina Record Local Sports Get the latest headlines on local sports! Coppell Gazette Daily Headlines Have the latest local news delivered every afternoon so you don’t miss out on updates. Coppell Gazette e-Edition Receive our newspaper electronically with the e-Edition email. Coppell Gazette Local Sports Get the latest headlines on local sports! Flower Mound Leader Daily Headlines Have the latest local news delivered every afternoon so you don’t miss out on updates. Flower Mound Leader e-Edition Receive our newspaper electronically with the e-Edition email. Flower Mound Leader Local Sports Get the latest headlines on local sports! Frisco Enterprise Daily Headlines Have the latest local news delivered every afternoon so you don’t miss out on updates. Frisco Enterprise e-Edition Receive our newspaper electronically with the e-Edition email. Frisco Enterprise Local Sports Get the latest headlines on local sports! Lake Cities Daily Headlines Have the latest local news delivered every afternoon so you don’t miss out on updates. Lake Cities e-Edition Receive our newspaper electronically with the e-Edition email. Lake Cities Local Sports Get the latest headlines on local sports! Lewisville Leader Daily Headlines Have the latest local news delivered every afternoon so you don’t miss out on updates. Lewisville Leader e-Edition Receive our newspaper electronically with the e-Edition email. Lewisville Leader Local Sports Get the latest headlines on local sports! Little Elm Journal Daily Headlines Have the latest local news delivered every afternoon so you don’t miss out on updates. Little Elm Journal e-Edition Receive our newspaper electronically with the e-Edition email. Little Elm Journal Local Sports Get the latest headlines on local sports! McKinney Courier Daily Headlines Have the latest local news delivered every afternoon so you don’t miss out on updates. McKinney Courier e-Edition Receive our newspaper electronically with the e-Edition email. McKinney Courier Local Sports Get the latest headlines on local sports! Mesquite News Daily Headlines Have the latest local news delivered every afternoon so you don’t miss out on updates. Mesquite News e-Edition Receive our newspaper electronically with the e-Edition email. Mesquite News Local Sports Get the latest headlines on local sports! Plano Star Daily Headlines Have the latest local news delivered every afternoon so you don’t miss out on updates. Plano Star e-Edition Receive our newspaper electronically with the e-Edition email. Plano Star Local Sports Get the latest headlines on local sports! Rowlett Lakeshore Times Daily Headlines Have the latest local news delivered every afternoon so you don’t miss out on updates. Rowlett Lakeshore Times e-Edition Receive our newspaper electronically with the e-Edition email. Rowlett Lakeshore Times Local Sports Get the latest headlines on local sports! The Colony-Courier Leader Daily Headlines Have the latest local news delivered every afternoon so you don’t miss out on updates. The Colony-Courier Leader e-Edition Receive our newspaper electronically with the e-Edition email. The Colony-Courier Leader Local Sports Get the latest headlines on local sports!

7 Costa Rica Vacations For Every Travel Style – The Washington Post https://collincountynewsonline.com/7-costa-rica-vacations-for-every-travel-style-the-washington-post/ Petite in size but wealthy in natural wonders, Costa Rica is one of the most versatile vacation spots in the world. Whether you’re into sandy beaches and rolling hillside farms or misty cloud forests and active volcanoes, there are options aplenty for relaxation and adventure. The Central American country was already a popular travel destination before the pandemic, but its array of outdoor attractions and early moves to relax entry requirements drove a surge in interest. “Costa Rica is definitely one of our hottest destinations right now,” says Alisa Cohen, founder of the boutique travel agency Luxe Traveler Club. “It’s easy to get to, there’s amazing hotels, there’s tons for every age — especially if you have kids — to do.” With all of Costa Rica’s potential, where should you go? Most travel experts who book trips to Costa Rica agree: Don’t spend your time in one place. “We always say split it,” says Nicki Wheeler, a British expat who’s lived in Costa Rica since 2004 and owns the travel company Sendero Adventures. Wheeler recommends visitors get away from chain hotels and mainstream sites. With so much nature to explore, she says, they should “be adventurous. Do things maybe that you wouldn’t do at home.” 1 For a wellness retreat: Puerto Viejo de Talamanca Return to menu While many different areas in Costa Rica cater to travelers who want a vacation focused on their health and well-being, Jorge Varela, a private guide for ToursByLocals, recommends renting a house in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca in southeast Costa Rica. There you’ll find beautiful rainforest, access to the Caribbean Sea, yoga, mindfulness and meditation workshops and restaurants serving organic food. “Something that I like about this area is they don’t have chain or big hotels,” he says. “They have boutique hotels and bungalows in the middle of the forest.” Alternatively, Sánchez says the Valle del General has a lot of “glamping” and also boasts boutique hotels that focus on wellness. Wheeler is a fan of retreats in Golfo Dulce, a tropical fjord in the Osa Peninsula, her favorite area in Costa Rica. “This is still very rustic, still very local,” she says of the area. As you look for a wellness retreat, or any accommodation, tour and activity in Costa Rica, opt for Costa Rican-owned businesses to best support the local community. “If you go to the international chains, the main percentage of the profit goes out of the country,” says Pabrö Sánchez, a travel guide and chef who takes clients on tailor-made trips for his company Sapoa Adventures. 2 For beaches: Take your pick of Caribbean or Pacific Return to menu With nearly 800 miles of coastline, Costa Rica boasts many distinct beaches. The Pacific side tends to get more attention thanks to its world-class surf spots, but the Caribbean coast dazzles, too. “That’s where you’ll find the most beautiful coastline in Costa Rica,” Varela says of the country’s southern Caribbean region, listing off “Champagne-colored sand, turquoise waters, coral reefs good for snorkeling, colorful schools of fish.” Wheeler says Pacific beaches, “especially in the Guanacaste area” to the north, “are just so beautiful … probably some of the best in the world.” “There’s everything from little touristy towns to completely deserted beaches,” she adds. On the Pacific coast, Varela recommends staying around Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio or Playa Flamingo, known for its pinkish sand and good hotels. If you do pick the Caribbean side, Varela says to go between August and November to catch the best weather, even if that means it’s the rainy season elsewhere. “You have sunny mornings and afternoon rain,” he says. “As long as there’s not a storm, you can be in the hot springs while it’s raining; the contrast feels amazing.” Return to menu While Costa Rica isn’t famous for its gastronomy, Wheeler says recent changes to the food scene include new takes on local ingredients and traditions. “It’s absolutely amazing, especially in San José,” she says. Varela says Barrio Escalante is the best neighborhood for food lovers, where “there are literally seven to 10 blocks with restaurants, pubs, specialty coffee shops.” He says there are also spots for “more refined” cooking as well as sodas, the name for small local restaurants, where you can find “more traditional tapas we call bocas.” Even if you want to spend time eating your way through San José, Sánchez recommends staying outside of the city proper. Areas in the nearby highlands like Alajuela and Heredia have fewer crowds and better views. Sánchez says clients have had life-changing experiences going with him to native Indigenous communities to harvest ingredients together — sometimes even butchering an animal they’ll eat — and cooking it in their homes. “It’s magical,” Sánchez says. “People cry.” 4 For zip-lines and volcano hikes: Corcovado National Park Return to menu Costa Rica is synonymous with adventure tourism. “That’s what we’re good at,” Wheeler says, noting the country’s famous surf, national parks, zip-lining and volcano trekking. Plus, “we have the Pacuare River, which is one of the top 10 rivers in the world for white-water rafting,” she says. At Corcovado National Park, “they do two- or three-night trips where you go live with the park rangers,” she says. “ … It’s very, very remote and it’s definitely one of the places that hosts most of the wildlife species of Costa Rica.” Surfers will want to hit the Pacific coast. For beginners, Sánchez suggests the towns of Nosara, Malpaís or Santa Teresa. The latter is “extremely good,” for different types of breaks, he says. 5 For families: La Fortuna Return to menu Varela and Wheeler say families will find activities for all ages in La Fortuna. “It’s an activity hub,” Wheeler says, listing options like tours of chocolate farms, visiting hot springs and Arenal Volcano National Park. For a beach, Varela sends families to Playa Hermosa because it’s easily accessible from the Liberia Guanacaste Airport (LIR); has calm, swimmable water; and is good for snorkeling. Varela says families can also take boat rides from Playa Hermosa to secluded beaches and islands. Sánchez, who has a 5-year-old daughter, says travelers will find much of Costa Rica to be family-friendly (except for the south Caribbean, where the hiking may be too intense). If he had to narrow it down, Sánchez would send families to the North Pacific region for horseback riding, hiking and tree-climbing. 6 For wildlife: Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve Return to menu To see wild animals, head to the misty forest of Monteverde, home to hundreds of species of birds, monkeys, bats, reptiles and amphibians, porcupines and sloths. “The hikes in Monteverde Cloud Forest are amazing,” Wheeler says. “Especially you go early in the morning.” Sánchez says travelers should be wary of places that are advertised as animal sanctuaries but are really just zoos built for tourists to take photos with animals. The government has a #StopAnimalSelfies campaign encouraging travelers to avoid animals that have been captured for photo opps. Wheeler says a way to tell the difference between a true sanctuary and a sham is that a genuine place will have a rehabilitation program and records of its releases. “Any certified tour guide here will be completely opposed to any kind of activity involving animal selfies,” Wheeler says. “We have so much wildlife in our tiny country that you will be able to take photos as long as they are not interrupting their natural processes.” 7 For something off the beaten path: The Osa Peninsula Return to menu Costa Rica has plenty of hidden gems, but they’re not simple to reach. For example, there’s the Osa Peninsula at the southernmost tip of the country near the Panama border. Varela suggests splurging on an ecolodge like La Paloma on the peninsula’s Drake Bay, where the nature is pristine. “It’s remote and harder to get to … and a little bit more expensive than more-touristy areas,” he says. That’s on purpose: Those extra barriers for entry help prevent overtourism. For a unique experience, Sánchez says you’ll have to hire a local guide. “We have a four or five places that we do not promote the names of for people to come on their own,” he says. “We’ve tried to keep it kind of hidden — a lot of people really appreciate not seeing other tourists around.”

Live News: Colombia Escalates Spat With EU Over Belgian Frites In Appeal To WTO – Financial Times https://collincountynewsonline.com/live-news-colombia-escalates-spat-with-eu-over-belgian-frites-in-appeal-to-wto-financial-times/ Choose your subscription Trial Try full digital access and see why over 1 million readers subscribe to the FT For 4 weeks receive unlimited Premium digital access to the FT’s trusted, award-winning business news Digital Be informed with the essential news and opinion MyFT – track the topics most important to you FT Weekend – full access to the weekend content Mobile & Tablet Apps – download to read on the go Gift Article – share up to 10 articles a month with family, friends and colleagues Print FT print edition delivered Monday – Saturday along with ePaper access Delivery to your home or office Monday to Saturday FT Weekend paper – a stimulating blend of news and lifestyle features ePaper access – the digital replica of the printed newspaper Team or Enterprise Premium FT.com access for multiple users, with integrations & admin tools Group Subscription Premium Digital access, plus: Convenient access for groups of users Integration with third party platforms and CRM systems Usage based pricing and volume discounts for multiple users Subscription management tools and usage reporting SAML-based single sign-on (SSO) Dedicated account and customer success teams Or, if you are already a subscriber Sign in Are you a student or a professor? Check if your university has an FT membership to read for free. Check my access

We Just Launched Our New Fundraising Platform: Find Your Good – Climbing Magazine https://collincountynewsonline.com/we-just-launched-our-new-fundraising-platform-find-your-good-climbing-magazine/ “], “filter”: { “nextExceptions”: “img, blockquote, div”, “nextContainsExceptions”: “img, blockquote”} }” Get full access to Outside Learn, our online education hub featuring in-depth fitness, nutrition, and adventure courses and more than 2,000 instructional videos when you sign up for Outside+ ”,”name”:”in-content-cta”,”type”:”link”}}” data-analytics-event=”click” href=”http://www.climbing.com/outsideplus”Sign up for Outside+ today. Think about your most profound outdoor experience. The one where it all began, your love of being outside, your connection to nature, and your discovery of a new passion. Think about your sense of awe during that moment at how you fit into the natural world and the unspeakable beauty of it all. What if it never happened? How different would your life be if you never discovered hiking, cycling, running, climbing, skiing, or whatever it is that you love to do outdoors? At Outside, our mission is to get everyone outside. We believe that the future of our planet depends on it. That’s why our parent company, Outside Inc., created Find Your Good and partnered with 14 nonprofit organizations that share our mission. Put simply, our new philanthropic branch, Find Your Good, is a place where you can find and support causes that align with your passions. There are hundreds of amazing nonprofits out there showing up for people and the planet. We spent months researching organizations that bring in under $5 million in funds per year (because we prefer to focus on grassroots efforts). We surveyed organizations about their audience and impacts. And we finally landed on 14 mission-aligned partners working in seven categories: Hiking and Camping, Cycling, Running, Climbing, Winter Sports, Healthy Living, and Sustainability. Trust us, these organizations are worth your attention and support. No matter what your outdoor jam is, we’ve got you covered. So pick your passion, then Find Your Good. Lead Photo: Andre Schoenherr / Getty Images Section divider Climbing Access Fund What they do: Access Fund protects public lands, restores climbing areas impacted by use, buys threatened land, and educates climbers and land managers about responsible stewardship and risk mitigation. A recent win: Access Fund (with the support of Backcountry) just announced $30,000 in climbing conservation grants that will bring ten local climbing projects around the country to life in 2023. SUPPORT ACCESS FUND Paradox Sports What they do: Paradox Sports provides rock and ice climbing experiences and training for adaptive athletes and works with climbing facilities to help build local adaptive climbing programs. A recent win: Paradox held its first ever Adaptive Climbing Summit in July 2022 in Denver, Colorado, and has since taught four Adaptive Climbing Initiatives with three more scheduled for the fall. SUPPORT PARADOX SPORTS Section divider Hiking and Camping (Photo: Courtesy the Outdoorist Oath) The Outdoorist Oath What they do: Through free workshops and learning tools, the Outdoorist Oath teaches people how to take personal action for the planet, inclusion, and adventure and creates a community of allies for sharing and support. A recent win: Since its launch in early 2022, almost 1,900 people have taken the Oath’s free educational workshop and 3,000 people remain in the queue. SUPPORT THE OATH Big City Mountaineers What they do: Big City Mountaineers (BCM) takes inner city kids on transformative outdoor adventures that strengthen life skills and build community. A recent win: In 2022, BCM increased the number of program hours enjoyed by its youth participants by 82 percent. SUPPORT BCM Section divider Cycling (Photo: Courtesy Bahati Foundation) Bahati Foundation What they do: Bahati Foundation provides inner-city youth access to bikes, gear, and training, along with resources and education to foster success on and off the bike. A recent win: Bahati fully sponsored five young riders for their first ever 100-mile gravel race at  Steamboat Springs’ SBT GRVL in August 2022. Three of them made the podium! SUPPORT BAHATI FOUNDATION Grow Cycling What they do: Grow Cycling works to make the sport of cycling more diverse, equitable, and inclusive  by providing education, access, and opportunities to ride to underserved communities. A recent win: The city of Los Angeles approved Grow Cycling’s proposal to build a 30,000-square-foot pumptrack in a public park which will provide cycling opportunities to thousands of local residents. The city will also be adding extra bike cars on metro trains and expanding bike racks on city buses leading to the pump track to ensure safe access to the new facility. SUPPORT GROW CYCLING Section divider Winter Sports (Photo: Courtesy POW) Protect Our Winters What they do: Protect Our Winters (POW) unites outdoor enthusiasts, athletes, scientists, and Congress members in the fight to stop climate change, through lobbying in Washington DC, get-out-the-vote efforts, social media campaigns, and education. A recent win: By encouraging hundreds of thousands of people to contact their Congress members, writing op-eds, and even taking senators skiing and climbing, POW played a critical role in the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act designed to fund solutions that will protect the places we live and lifestyles that we love. SUPPORT POW Share Winter Foundation What they do: Share Winter partners with and funds local community centers around the U.S. to eliminate barriers and get underrepresented kids out on skis and snowboards, providing all the gear, instruction, and transportation needed. A recent win: Last winter, Share Winter launched partnerships with companies such as Motel 6, United Airlines, and Alterra Mountain Company that expanded ski and snowboard access for 1,318 youth. SUPPORT SHARE WINTER Section divider Running (Photo: Courtesy Wings of America) Wings of America What they do: Through competitive and non-competitive programming, Wings of America (Wings) connects Native American youth to the spiritual and cultural legacy of running through the power of their own legs. A recent win: Wings rebounded from the pandemic and successfully completed more than a dozen youth enrichment camps for nearly 500 kids in Tribal communities across the Southwest this past summer. SUPPORT WINGS 261 Fearless What they do: 261 Fearless empowers and trains women around the globe to create safe, supportive running communities. A recent win: 261 Fearless Inc. has educated over 350 women coaches from 12 countries on 5 continents. These coaches have launched 19 women’srunning groups and united over 5,000 women of all ages, backgrounds, and cultures around the joy of running. SUPPORT 261 FEARLESS Section divider Healthy Living (Photo: Courtesy Prison Yoga Project) Prison Yoga Project What they do: Prison Yoga Project (PYP) offers healing yoga programs and training to incarcerated people and correctional facility staff to address the trauma, addiction, and mental health issues that lead to and arise from incarceration. A recent win: PYP is just wrapping up its third round of 200-hour yoga teacher training, which is rooted in social justice, teaching instructors to offer trauma-informed and accessible classes outside of a studio setting. SUPPORT PRISON YOGA PROJECT Jones Valley Teaching Farm What they do: Jones Valley Teaching Farm (JVTF) offers food-based education to grammar-, middle-, and high-school-aged kids, using food, farming, and the culinary arts as a foundation for academic exploration, leadership, and pursuit of post-secondary pathways. A recent win: JVTF’s annual Twilight Supper this year (featuring Outside’s director of food and nutrition, Mary-Frances Heck) has raised $337,000 to date that will be used to propel the org’s growth and impact on youth. SUPPORT JVTF Section divider Sustainability Intersectional Environmentalist What they do: Through story-telling and education, Intersectional Environmentalist (IE) connects people to climate justice movements in their local communities and amplifies the work and legacies of diverse people in the environmental space. A recent win: During Climate Week NYC, IE hosted 120 attendees at its fifth Earth Sessions, which featured local orchestral group Gaia Music Collective performing hip hop songs, a panel discussion about identity and activism, and a screenprinting activation featuring climate-focused designs. SUPPORT IE Earth Guardians What they do: Earth Guardians (EG) trains and empowers youth (ages 15 to 21) across the globe to be leaders and take action for the environment and social justice. A recent win: EG recently approved more than 30 microgrant applications, awarding $300 to $500 to youths executing community projects relating to reforestation programs, building waste management systems, and climate education in elementary schools. SUPPORT EARTH GUARDIAN

In The First Month Kansas Sports Betting Generated $1.3 Million In Revenue – Newstalk KZRG – NewsTalk KZRG https://collincountynewsonline.com/in-the-first-month-kansas-sports-betting-generated-1-3-million-in-revenue-newstalk-kzrg-newstalk-kzrg/ (AP Photo/Wayne Parry, File) TOPEKA – Governor Laura Kelly today announced that in the single month that sports wagering has been legal, it has generated a total of $1.3 million in revenue, including nearly $130,000 for the State of Kansas. “These revenues reinforce what we already knew: Legal sports betting is a common-sense solution that keeps Kansans’ money in Kansas and supports Kansas businesses,” Governor Laura Kelly said. “While legal wagering is just in its infancy, these revenues will continue to grow and benefit the state over time.” On May 12, 2022, Governor Laura Kelly signed Senate Bill 84, bipartisan legislation making it legal to wager on sports at casinos, on digital platforms, and other venues in Kansas. Sportsbooks opened in record time on September 1, with Governor Kelly placing the first legal bet. “Sports betting has successfully kicked off in Kansas, and players could not be more excited to get in on the action,” Stephen Durrell, Executive Director of the Kansas Lottery, said. “The launch went smoothly thanks to the efforts of our casino partners, the sports wagering platforms, the KRGC, and our staff at the Kansas Lottery. We will continue to work to make sports betting in Kansas safe, secure, and fun for all players as we expand and grow.” Casino Facility Platforms Revenues State Share Kansas Star FanDuel $207,722 $20,772 Hollywood Barstool Sports $762,305 $76,230 Kansas Crossing BetMGM, Caesar’s, PointsBet $326,147 $32,615 Boot Hill DraftKings $ – $ – Totals $1,296,174 $129,617

Microsoft Metaverse Strategy Uncertain As US Army Test Falls Short – Business Insider https://collincountynewsonline.com/microsoft-metaverse-strategy-uncertain-as-us-army-test-falls-short-business-insider/ HoloLens chief Alex Kipman left Microsoft in June after an Insider report on misconduct allegations. While “Alex needed to go,” insiders say, the mixed reality unit split up after his exit and left a leadership vacuum. Microsoft’s US Army smart-goggles project is falling short, though it continues to move forward. In June, Microsoft’s Mixed Reality unit — responsible for the HoloLens goggles and other nascent metaverse projects — saw a huge shakeup. Alex Kipman, who led metaverse strategy, left after an Insider investigation into misconduct allegations.  Now, months later, Microsoft insiders say the company’s metaverse and mixed reality ambitions remain uncertain amid canceled projects, budget cuts, a struggling contract with the United States military, and lack of leadership. One insider said that there’s “no roadmap to speak of” for HoloLens as Microsoft instead focuses on the Army contract. And the special headsets Microsoft is making for the battlefield are still falling short in some areas. “The devices would have gotten us killed,” one tester said of the current iteration of Microsoft’s device for the military, in an excerpt of an Army report dictated to Insider, owing to the light generated by the goggles when they’re active.  Publicly, Microsoft has projected confidence: A slide in a recent Microsoft presentation to investors suggests the company is expecting $100 million in HoloLens augmented reality device revenue in its next quarter alone. However, insiders suggest that the math doesn’t quite add up. Each current-model HoloLens 2 headset has a sticker price starting at $3,500, meaning Microsoft would have to sell around 30,000 units in three months at full price to meet that projection. That would be a significant amount for a device one former employee estimates has sold between 40,000 and 60,000 devices since its 2016 launch. Even if all of those devices sold for full retail price, that would put the device’s lifetime revenue at around $200 million.  Meanwhile, those insiders say the biggest bulk-purchase sale of HoloLens devices in recent memory is a sale of $1 million worth of the devices to a startup making mixed reality for the government and public sector called Eolian. Microsoft once considered acquiring the startup to bolster its effort to build the HoloLens-like devices for the Army, according to a person with knowledge of the HoloLens order and acquisition talks.  Eolian cofounder Mike Simmons confirmed to Insider that it purchased the headsets for the “relatively accurate” amount of $1 million, but declined to provide more details on the deal or whether acquisition talks occurred. He did say that Eolian leadership has “zero interest in selling the company.”  Microsoft spokesman Frank X. Shaw declined to comment on Eolian and referred IVAS questions to the Army. “Microsoft is committed to all aspects of mixed reality and the metaverse,” Shaw said. Microsoft’s headset for the US Army is falling short As Insider reported earlier this year, Microsoft scrapped plans for the next generation HoloLens device, internally called Project Calypso. At the time, Microsoft insiders said that the company was instead focusing its mixed-reality hardware efforts on a similar but more specialized device for military use called the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS). The contract to build IVAS was once said to be worth as much as $22 billion to Microsoft. In lieu of an acquisition of the likes of Eolian, insiders say that Microsoft has doubled down on its own public sector plans, which include an IVAS-like device for the aviation industry, 3D terrain services, and getting the Army to buy subscriptions for its software related to IVAS. The IVAS contract has been behind schedule and plagued by quality and performance problems. One insider said Microsoft has recently improved its standing with the Army by making changes to the device’s display. A company employee briefed about a recent Army test of the device said it still isn’t meeting expectations. The device succeeded in just two out of six evaluation events in a recent operational test, according to the employee, who said they reviewed a report summarizing the results of the test. Criticisms, according to the employee who dictated to Insider excerpts of this report, included that the device’s glow from the display was visible from hundreds of meters away, which could give away the position of the wearer. Testers also found that the soldiers’ field of view including peripheral vision is limited while the headset is on, and the bulk and weight of the device restricts a soldier’s movement. Meanwhile, an Army spokesman said the operational test is so far generally considered a success and that the Army remains committed to the IVAS program. “The emerging results indicate that the program achieved success in most of the Army evaluation criteria,” Brigadier General Christopher D. Schneider said in a statement to Insider. “However, the results also identified areas where IVAS fell short and needs additional improvements, which the Army will address.” “The Army will provide the most reliable and advanced equipment to its soldiers,” the statement also said. Microsoft’s vision for the metaverse is unclear Beyond the IVAS contract, some close to the company worry that Kipman’s departure left a leadership vacuum. While his resignation following the allegations against him was generally received as a necessary step, insiders say, the move also left the company’s metaverse ambitions fragmented and lacking in clear vision. “Alex needed to go,” one insider said. And yet, “there’s no one who can take the reins of the whole program. The culture has gone from manic under Alex to so hyper-cautious that nothing of consequence is happening.” Microsoft has declined to confirm or deny the specific allegations against Kipman. “Every reported claim we receive is investigated, and for every claim found substantiated there is clear action taken,” the company said in a statement for Insider’s previous report. Kipman did not respond to multiple requests for comment.  After Kipman’s resignation, mixed reality hardware teams joined the Windows + Devices organization under chief product officer Panos Panay, while the software teams responsible for software products including Microsoft Mesh mixed reality platform moved under the Experiences + Devices division under Jeff Teper, the Microsoft Office veteran now best known for running the Microsoft Teams chat app.  “Both Jeff and Panos are old company hands,” one former employee said. “They are trusted, have deep networks, no drama in public, well-protected/well-insured. Everything Alex was not. But neither of them are really great stewards of the vision.” The former employee expects that under Teper’s guidance, Teams will become Microsoft’s leading play for the metaverse. Mixed reality teams have already seen significant cuts to their expenses. Even requests to expense office supplies and travel to meet with customers and attend partner events have been denied, according to one insider. Shaw, the Microsoft spokesman, said budget cuts aren’t specific to the IVAS team and are happening across the industry. “Teper is an Office veteran, and Office is all about managing expenses, not bleeding edge innovation,” the former employee said.  Do you work at Microsoft or have insight to share? Contact the reporter Ashley Stewart via the encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-425-344-8242) or email (astewart@insider.com). Check out Insider’s source guide for other tips on sharing information securely.

Windows 95 Went The Extra Mile To Ensure Compatibility Of SimCity, Other Games – Ars Technica https://collincountynewsonline.com/windows-95-went-the-extra-mile-to-ensure-compatibility-of-simcity-other-games-ars-technica/ Start me up (in compatibility mode) — Pickup trucks full of software boxes, Win95VersionLie, and other tricks. Kevin Purdy – Oct 10, 2022 6:38 pm UTC Enlarge / Microsoft wanted people to have zero reasons not to upgrade to Windows 95. That meant making sure SimCity Classic worked, with some memory-reading workarounds. It’s still possible to learn a lot of interesting things about old operating systems. Sometimes, those things are already documented (on a blog post) that miraculously still exist. One such quirk showed up recently when someone noticed how Microsoft made sure that SimCity and other popular apps worked on Windows 95. A recent tweet by @Kalyoshika highlights an excerpt from a blog post by Fog Creek Software co-founder, Stack Overflow co-creator, and longtime software blogger Joel Spolsky. The larger post is about chicken-and-egg OS/software appeal and demand. The part that caught the eye of a Hardcore Gaming 101 podcast co-host is how the Windows 3.1 version of SimCity worked on the Windows 95 system. Windows 95 merged MS-DOS and Windows apps, upgraded APIs from 16 to 32-bit, and was hyper-marketed. A popular app like SimCity, which sold more than 5 million copies, needed to work without a hitch. Spolsky’s post summarizes how SimCity became Windows 95-ready, as he heard it, without input from Maxis or user workarounds. Jon Ross, who wrote the original version of SimCity for Windows 3.x, told me that he accidentally left a bug in SimCity where he read memory that he had just freed. Yep. It worked fine on Windows 3.x, because the memory never went anywhere. Here’s the amazing part: On beta versions of Windows 95, SimCity wasn’t working in testing. Microsoft tracked down the bug and added specific code to Windows 95 that looks for SimCity. If it finds SimCity running, it runs the memory allocator in a special mode that doesn’t free memory right away. That’s the kind of obsession with backward compatibility that made people willing to upgrade to Windows 95. Spolsky (in 2000) considers this a credit to Microsoft and an example of how to break the chicken-and-egg problem: “provide a backwards compatibility mode which either delivers a truckload of chickens, or a truckload of eggs, depending on how you look at it, and sit back and rake in the bucks.’ Windows developers may have deserved some sit-back time, seeing the extent of the tweaks they often have to make for individual games and apps in Windows 95. Further in @Kalyoshika’s replies, you can find another example, pulled from the Compatibility Administrator in Windows’ Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK). A screenshot from @code_and_beer shows how Windows NT, upon detecting files typically installed with Final Fantasy VII, will implement a fittingly titled compatibility fix: “Win95VersionLie.” Simply telling the game that it’s on Windows 95 seems to fix a major issue with its operation, along with a few other emulation and virtualization tweaks. Just did it. Too cool. An example for a game I still own – FF7 – will outright die if it sees it’s running on Win NT instead of Win95, so Windows lies based on the presence of some files pic.twitter.com/Wc08tSffcz — & (@code_and_beer) October 6, 2022 Install the Windows ADK and open up the Compatibility Administrator, and you can spy on some of the things Windows does for particular apps to make them work in the System Database section. If it detects files named “Horny.tif” and “bullfrog.sbk”, it updates where Windows 95/98 versions of Dungeon Keeper should put those files in Windows XP and later. Windows has to stop Tom Clancy’s Rainbox Six from accessing the CD drive while it’s already playing a movie or other media, as well as disable Alt+Tab switching while the game is open because the game can’t handle losing focus. And it’s not just older titles; Street Fighter V gets a little tweak to its DirectX implementation to run on some systems. In 2005, longtime Microsoft staffer and The Old New thing blogger Raymond Chen documented Microsoft’s Windows 95 compatibility obsession. Chen writes that Windows 95’s development manager “took his pick-up truck, drove down to the local Egghead Software store (back when Egghead still existed), and bought one copy of every single PC program in the store.” Everybody was responsible for up to two programs, which they would install, run, and document for bugs. If a staffer finished two, they could come back to grab up to two more. And testers could keep whatever they finished. Mike Perry, former creative director at Sim empire Maxis (and later EA), noted later that there was, technically, a 32-bit Windows 95 version of Sim City available, as shown by the “Deluxe Edition” bundle of the game. He also states that Ross worked for Microsoft after leaving Maxis, which would further explain why Microsoft was so keen to ensure people could keep building parks in the perfect grid position to improve resident happiness.

This New Green Crypto Is Predicted To 50x By 2023 – Cryptonews https://collincountynewsonline.com/this-new-green-crypto-is-predicted-to-50x-by-2023-cryptonews/ The Impact Project presale has now raised just over $2.8 million, barely a week after it began. This figure is only the latest milestone passed by the decentralized carbon credit marketplace and green shopping platform, which crossed the $2 million mark within five days. Given how quickly the presale for the Impact Project’s IMPT token has progressed, it already stands as one of the most successful offerings of 2022, with the platform’s focus on the environment helping to attract ESG investors. Yet during a year in which a number of exciting new coins have gone on to surge after a healthy presale, it’s also attracting traders simply hoping for above-average gains. This New Green Crypto is Predicted to 50x By 2023 Kicking off on October 3, the Impact Project presale quickly passed a number of key targets, first raising $150,000 within 24 hours. It then proceeded to reach $550,000 within 48 hours, $1 million within 72 hours, and then $2 million within five days. As of writing, the presale has set IMPT’s price at $0.018. However, this is for only the first stage, with the second and third/final stages set to push the presale price to $0.023 and $0.028, respectively. It, therefore, seems that many investors have rushed in to acquire the altcoin before it becomes 27.7% more expensive, which is due soon. Of course, investors are taking to the Impact Project also because of its fundamentals and roadmap. Running on the Ethereum blockchain, it will provide consumers with the ability to shop via a network of “thousands” of retail brands which distribute a percentage of their sales to environmental initiatives. Not only will the Impact Project’s platform allow consumers to shop in a more environmentally conscious way, but it will also reward them for this with carbon credits in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Such credits can also simply be bought via the Impact Project’s marketplace, where users can also sell them. By providing users with tokenized carbon credits for eco-friendly shopping, the Impact Project will incentivize greener behavior on the part of consumers. Correspondingly, by providing a stream of consumers willing to spend with green brands, it will, in the long term, incentivize retailers to turn green in order to tap into such markets. It’s also worth pointing out that by putting carbon credits on the Ethereum blockchain as NFTs, the Impact Project will help make the market for carbon offsets more transparent. For too long, this market has been undermined by opaqueness and inefficiency, yet by making the issuing and circulation of credits more open, the Impact Project should help rectify this. It’s for such reasons that the Impact Project has captured the interest of ESG investors. And with ESG investment increasing in popularity in recent years, the Impact Project has arguably appeared at the right time to capitalize on this growing trend. How High Can It Go? Predicting the future is a fool’s errand, yet other big presales from 2022 offer some indication of what IMPT might do once its presale has finished and it gains its first listings. Tamadoge (TAMA), for example, closed its presale after raising $19 million. It then listed soon after on OKX, before proceeding to rise by over 1,800% from its presale price. Likewise, Battle Infinity (IBAT) sold for $0.0015 during its presale. Soon after it was listed in August, it rose to $0.00554060, representing a return of 269% for anyone who sold at the top. Of course, there’s no guarantee that IMPT will replicate such gains. Nonetheless, its fundamentals are strong, and with its presale already doing well, it looks like it has the kind of momentum that will carry into its initial batch of listings.

Analysis | If You Think US Pensions Are Safe, Just Wait – The Washington Post https://collincountynewsonline.com/analysis-if-you-think-us-pensions-are-safe-just-wait-the-washington-post/ You never know where the next crisis will arise but last week it came from a particularly unlikely place: defined-benefit pensions. The UK government bond market (gilts) went wild as rates spiked and pension funds failed to meet their margin calls. It created so much turmoil that the Bank of England had to step in. Does this mean that US pensions could create similar turmoil? Not to be coy about it, but yes and no. The good news is US pension funds are not so exposed to rate changes because they hold less fixed-income assets. But that is also the bad news. Interest rates are rising and will stay high for the first time in years. This means anyone exposed to fixed income is due for some disruption. US plans hold less debt than UK pensions because they do less risk hedging, so spiking rates probably won’t cause immediate damage. But that also means they are more exposed to market risk, and as rising rates unearth all sorts of financial vulnerabilities, US plans may eventually find themselves in even worse shape than UK plans were last week. The smaller subset of US corporate defined-benefit plans invest about half of their $3.7 trillion in assets in bonds (similar to the UK plans), according to a report from the Milliman Corporate Pension Funding Study.  It’s worth noting American pensions are not so vulnerable to margin calls because they do Liability Driven Investment the old-fashioned way: by mainly just owning bonds instead of adding in leverage. This means as rates rise their assets and liabilities move together, keeping their funding fairly stable. Corporate plans are in relatively good shape, but they are not the big source of risk. A much bigger worry are state and local government pensions, which have more than $9 trillion in assets, and (as of 2021) only 22% of those assets are in fixed income. A low fixed-income allocation was typically considered nothing to brag about for pensions. But public pension plans have been moving out of fixed income and public equity over the last 20 years because rates dropped so low. Unlike UK and US corporate plans, public plans in the US value their liabilities using the expected rate of return on their assets instead of the market interest rate; a convention that makes financial economists’ heads explode. This way of accounting may mean less direct exposure to interest rates, but it also rewards more risk taking because the higher “expected” return pensions choose, the smaller their liabilities appear to be. As interest rates fell pension plans had an incentive to move into opaque, illiquid and risky assets, like private equity and hedge funds because they could claim a higher rate of return. In addition to high fees this meant more risk. US government plans are also underfunded. In 2019, using comparable accounting methods, the public pensions have only enough assets to cover 50% of their liabilities, compared with UK plans, which went into the pandemic able to cover more than 90% of their liabilities. The UK pension dustup is only the first buried body higher rates uncovered. US plans are less directly exposed to a sudden large rate increase, but over time they have an equally troubling vulnerability: They are underfunded and dependent on risky assets paying off. Now, with falling markets, their assets are shrinking and their expected returns are harder to justify. A higher interest-rate environment is also bad for private equity and may mean fewer profitable exits. This could mean that over the next few years pension funds will learn that the 12% to 15% returns they thought they were getting from their alternative investments were an illusion and they have less money than they thought. Pensions may be just the beginning, as the US economy has become dependent on low rates. And that means the new source of vulnerability may come from parts of the economy once thought of as boring and safe, like mortgages and now pensions. Central banks have painted themselves into a corner. The Bank of England attempted to reduce inflation with higher rates and quantitative tightening. But they discovered that fighting inflation and financial stability may be at odds with each other. More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion: • A European Crisis Is Coming. Which Kind Will It Be?: Tyler Cowen • Don’t Let Lehman’s Ghost Cast Pall on Credit Suisse: Paul Davies • How to Lift the Lid on Hidden Pension Leverage: Chris Hughes This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Allison Schrager is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering economics. A senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, she is author of “An Economist Walks Into a Brothel: And Other Unexpected Places to Understand Risk.” More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion ©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

Converge Technology Solutions Acquires Analytics Consultancy Newcomp – ChannelE2E https://collincountynewsonline.com/converge-technology-solutions-acquires-analytics-consultancy-newcomp-channele2e/ by Ty Trumbull • Oct 10, 2022 Cloud and IT solutions provider Converge Technology Solutions has acquired fellow Canadian company Newcomp Analytics for an undisclosed amount. This is technology M&A deal number 882 that ChannelE2E has covered so far in 2022. See more than 2,000 technology M&A deals involving MSPs, MSSPs & IT service providers listed here. Converge Technology Solutions, founded in 2017, is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The company has 1,085 employees listed on LinkedIn. Converge’s areas of expertise include advanced analytics, cloud and cybersecurity offerings to clients across various industries, as well as managed services, digital infrastructure, and talent expertise offerings across all major IT vendors in the marketplace. Newcomp Analytics, founded in 1986, is based in Thornhill, Ontario, Canada. The company has 60 employees listed on LinkedIn. Newcomp’s areas of expertise include business intelligence, business analytics, performance management, predictive analytics, information management, machine learning, data science, Alteryx, Tableau, DataRobot, IBM, training and education, Snowflake, data visualization, advanced analytics, data governance, deep learning, data engineering, text analytics, automated workflows and unstructured and structured data. Newcomp serves customers across Canada, the United States and the Caribbean. The company works with clients in a variety of sectors including government, banking, education, healthcare, financial services, retail and the public sector. Converge Acquires Newcomp: Leadership Insight Greg Berard, president, Converge Technology Solutions Michael Langton, president, Newcomp Analytics, commented: “Newcomp Analytics is very excited to be welcomed into the Converge family, allowing us to bring our modern data analytics expertise to the global marketplace. Converge’s broad technology partnerships and strong client base present a significant opportunity for our team to continue our journey as a trusted analytics advisor to clients across all industries.” Greg Berard, president and North American CEO, Converge, said: “Converge is excited to expand our advanced analytics portfolio and offerings with the addition of Newcomp Analytics. Newcomp Analytics will greatly enhance Converge’s ability to help our clients become even more insight-driven and dive deeper into understanding and analyzing their data. Their technical expertise and years of experience will help us drive more value in Canada with our clients and give us more depth and breadth across our North American analytics organization.” Converge’s M&A Growth This is the thirty-fourth acquisition announced by Converge or one of its affiliates since October 2017. In September 2022, Converge acquired UK-based Stone Technologies Group Limited analytics and AI (artificial intelligence) consultancy Newcomp Analytics. In June 2022, the company bought three education market-focused German companies for approximately US$25.9 million. In May 2022, it bought PC Specialists — which does business as Technology Integration Group (TIG). Converge also acquired 1CRM, a Saas-based provider of task management, marketing automation, sales and opportunities, order management, client service and project management solutions in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Before that, it bought up Interdynamix (IDX), a Canadian business solutions and engineering systems integrator.

LG’s Ultragear 32-Inch 4K 144Hz Gaming Monitor Falls $400 To New All-Time Low Of $900, More – 9to5Toys https://collincountynewsonline.com/lgs-ultragear-32-inch-4k-144hz-gaming-monitor-falls-400-to-new-all-time-low-of-900-more-9to5toys/ Amazon is now offering the LG Ultragear 32-inch 4K 144Hz Gaming Monitor for $899.99 shipped. Normally going for $1,300, this 31% discount, or a solid $400 price drop, marks a new all-time low price we’ve tracked. This is one of the latest gaming monitors from LG and comes equipped with a 4K IPS panel that has a base refresh rate of 144Hz with the ability to overclock it to 160Hz over the DisplayPort connection; the HDMI 2.1 ports are limited to 4K 144Hz. AMD FreeSync Premium Pro support and NVIDIA G-SYNC compatibility are present here to eliminate screen tearing from games that detract from immersion. VESA DisplayHDR 1000 certification and HDR10 support mean your games will look great with the 98% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut backing it up. Head below for more monitor deals. More monitor deals: Acer 31.5-inch Curved 1440p 165Hz – $250 (Reg. $300) Acer Nitro 24-inch Curved 1080p 165Hz – $150 (Reg. $180) Acer Nitro 24-inch 1080p 75Hz – $120 (Reg. $150) ASUS TUF 24-inch 1080p 144Hz – $210 (Reg. $270) LG 34-inch Curved 1440p 160Hz – $300 (Reg. $400) Be sure to stop by our PC gaming hub for the latest deals on hardware and peripherals like the monitors above. If you’ve been wanting to jump into PC gaming but don’t want to build a system yourself, you could grab the Skytech Chronos i5/32GB//RTX 3070 Desktop for $1,600. This computer comes equipped with an Intel 12th Gen i5-12600K CPU and an NVIDIA RTX 3070 GPU for a powerful gaming experience. The 32GB of DDR5 RAM is paired with 1TB of NVMe M.2 SSD storage to store all your games with quick access for those large files as well. LG Ultragear 32-inch 4K 144Hz Gaming Monitor features: Experience the flawless imagery and stunning graphics of a 4k gaming monitor from LG. The LG UltraGear 32-inch Gaming Monitor (32GQ950-B) takes creating, browsing the web, and exploring virtual worlds to the next level. This 32-inch monitor is designed with the capabilities necessary to thrive in competitive gaming. 144Hz of speed provides the optimal refresh rate for fast, smooth gameplay. Regardless of the genre or the level of your gaming, a 144Hz gaming monitor is your ticket to an immersive gaming experience. LG’s 32-Inch 4k Gaming Monitor is NVIDIA® G-SYNC® compatible. A monitor with G-SYNC® compatibility is what you need to reduce the risk of interruption from screen tearing and stutter.  FTC: 9to5Toys is reader supported, we may earn income on affiliate links Subscribe to the 9to5Toys YouTube Channel for all of the latest videos, reviews, and more!

Voter Registration Ends Tomorrow – Local Profile https://collincountynewsonline.com/voter-registration-ends-tomorrow-local-profile/ The November election is coming up fast, but the deadline to register is coming even faster. October 11 is the last day to register and there are a number of important issues on this year’s ballot.  This year is a big election with a governor’s race, senate races, judge positions, Plano ISD issues and many more will be featured on the ballot. To learn more about voting or to see a sample ballot visit collincountytx.gov.   On October 6, the Texas Secretary of State announced in a tweet that 17,615,253 Texans have registered to vote, compared to 15.7 million in 2018. Campaigns have run through North Texas encouraging voters to register. Local Profile previously covered the Black Voters Matter campaign, just one organization helping Texas residents register.  Running for governor, Beto O’Rourke and Greg Abbott have centered their campaigns around the future of Texas. Both candidates have very different views and ideas, yet they have spent a large amount of time and money touring around Texas. But they share the same idea of wanting people to vote in this election.  Even though there are a number of big candidates running this election season, areas such as Collin County still have a number of important measures on the ballot. In order to vote in Collin County residents must print a voter registration application and mail it to the county registrar signed.  To register to vote you must be a U.S. citizen at least 18 years of age. The voting requirements also state that you cannot be serving a felony conviction or declared mentally incompetent by a judge.  Once you’re registered, you need a valid ID to vote. The state accepts seven forms of identification: a Texas driver’s license, Texas election ID certificate, Texas ID card, Texas handgun license, U.S. Citizenship certificate with a photo, U.S. Military ID with a photo or a U.S. Passport. For voters ages 18-69, photo IDs can be expired for up to four years. For those over the age of 70, a photo ID can be expired for any length of time. To check your registration status click the link here.  Related