Collin County News Online

What Channel Is Alabama Vs. Texas A&M On Today? Time, TV Schedule For Bitter SEC West Game – Sporting News https://collincountynewsonline.com/what-channel-is-alabama-vs-texas-am-on-today-time-tv-schedule-for-bitter-sec-west-game-sporting-news/ alabama-texas-channel-time-schedule What is there to be said about Saturday’s meeting between No. 1 Alabama and Texas A&M that Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher didn’t say over the offseason? Though neither coach will admit it, there’s bad blood between the Crimson Tide and Aggies after Saban publicly accused his former offensive coordinator of using an NIL collective to buy the top-ranked recruiting class in the country. Fisher responded with an impromptu news conference the following day to blast his former boss in a way that few have. Alabama running back Jahmyr Gibbs — fresh off a 206-yard game against Arkansas — told reporters this week his teammates “feel some kind of way about” Saturday’s game. Linebacker Will Anderson Jr. told reporters at SEC Media Days this offseason that “everything will be addressed” when the Crimson Tide take the field vs. the Aggies. MORE: Watch Alabama vs. Texas A&M live with fuboTV (free trial) It certainly doesn’t help matters that Alabama is coming off a 41-38 loss to the Aggies in 2021, a game in which the Crimson Tide were favored by 18 points. With that loss, Fisher became the first Saban disciple to beat him. If Alabama wants to exact revenge, it may have to do so without defending Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young at quarterback; he suffered a sprained shoulder in the win vs. Arkansas and, though his injury is not considered serious, he could miss this week’s game. If he does, Jalen Milroe will be called into action once again after holding Arkansas off in a 49-24 win. Texas A&M has quarterback instability of its own. Starter Max Johnson hurt the thumb on his throwing hand in last week’s loss to Mississippi State, and ESPN reported Thursday that the LSU transfer has a broken bone and could miss the rest of the season. Haynes King — whom Johnson replaced as the starter three weeks ago — will take over for the Aggies. MORE: Betting trends to know ahead of Texas A&M-Alabama grudge match With that, The Sporting News breaks down where and how to watch the big game: What channel is Alabama vs. Texas A&M on today? TV channel (national): CBS Live stream: Paramount+, fuboTV The SEC West meeting between Alabama Texas and Texas A&M will be broadcast nationally on CBS. Gary Danielson and Brad Nessler will be in the booth calling the game while Jamie Erdahl works as a sideline reporter. Cord-cutters can stream the action on Paramount+ and fuboTV, which offers a free trial. MORE: Jimbo Fisher might be done with Nick Saban feud, but it’s not done with him Alabama vs. Texas A&M start time Date: Saturday, Oct. 8 Kickoff: 8 p.m. ET Alabama vs. Texas A&M will kick off at 8 p.m. ET — one of CBS’ coveted night games — from Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala. MORE: College football picks, predictions against the spread for Week 6 top 25 games Alabama schedule 2022 Date Opponent Outcome Sept. 3 vs. Utah State Alabama 55, Utah State 0 Sept. 10 at Texas Alabama 20, Texas 19 Sept. 17 vs. Louisiana Monroe Alabama 63, ULM 7 Sept. 24 vs. Vanderbilt* Alabama 55, Vanderbilt 3 Oct. 1 at No. 20 Arkansas* Alabama 49, Arkansas 26 Oct. 8 vs. Texas A&M* TBD Oct. 15 at No. 8 Tennessee* TBD Oct. 22 vs. No. 23 Mississippi State* TBD Oct. 29 Bye N/A Nov. 5 at No. 25 LSU* TBD Nov. 12 at No. 9 Ole Miss* TBD Nov. 19 vs. Austin Peay TBD Nov. 26 vs. Auburn* TBD * SEC game Texas A&M schedule 2022 Date Opponent Result Sept. 3 vs. Sam Houston State Texas A&M 31, Sam Houston State 0 Sept. 10 vs. Appalachian State App State 17, Texas A&M 14 Sept. 17 vs. No. 13 Miami Texas A&M 17, Miami 9 Sept. 24 vs. No. 10 Arkansas* Texas A&M 23, Arkansas 21 Oct. 1 at Mississippi State* Mississippi State 42, Texas A&M 24 Oct. 8 at No. 1 Alabama* TBD Oct. 15 Bye N/A Oct. 22 at South Carolina* TBD Oct. 29 vs. No. 9 Ole Miss* TBD Nov. 5 vs. Florida* TBD Nov. 12 at Auburn* TBD Nov. 19 vs. UMass TBD Nov. 26 vs. No. 25 LSU* TBD * SEC game

Wholesome – Out And About Interview: “Why Not Create A Healthy Metaverse?” – TrueAchievements https://collincountynewsonline.com/wholesome-out-and-about-interview-why-not-create-a-healthy-metaverse-trueachievements/ Wholesome – Out and About has a lovely message, as it hopes to inspire a real-world connection with nature through its gameplay. Check out our interview with Yaldi Games founder and managing director Elena Höge! Wholesome – Out and About will see us working to help a community rebuild its town and strive towards sustainability, while we explore, craft, cook, and more! What is Wholesome – Out and About? Wholesome – Out and About is an open-world life-sim with farming and exploration elements, and a big focus on encouraging a real-world appreciation of, and engagement with, nature. It’s in development and is published by Yaldi Games. “‘I called the company Yaldi Games because that’s a Scottish word… the word means something like ‘excitement’ and ‘joy’, it’s like ‘yay’ but the Scottish version of it,” Höge tells us. “I thought it was adorable, I loved how the word was written, so that’s why I called the company Yaldi Games, because excitement and joy were just the things that we’re trying to create within the games, but also inspiring real-life experiences. That’s kind of the model of the company, the mission is we want to make games that inspire real-life activities. Any games I want to make in the future should all have really fun gameplay (that’s like common gameplay, not ever educational)… and then this little piece of knowledge integrated into things and then use them in your real life.” This core aim, and the founding of Yaldi Games, was partly inspired by an experience Höge had in 2019, a few months before founding the company in 2020. “My parents had started foraging, and that’s not something that we had ever done before. Usually when we went outside, we went hiking or we went for a walk, and especially as a kid that was quite boring; you don’t have the same appreciation for nature as a child and as a young adult,” Höge says. “So when I went foraging with them at that point, when I was grown up, that was the point that I realised how much it connects you to nature. Foraging was kind of like a window that allowed me to see through to nature and the ecosystem and how everything ties together. I went foraging with my parents on this Bavarian hill, and we were scrambling up the slopes — they were very steep slopes — but I found quite a few interesting mushrooms for the first time… that was such an exciting activity,” she continues, likening the experience to a treasure hunt and a detective game, because of the need to carefully identify the mushroom you’re looking at to avoid any dangerous ones. “Exploring a forest is always so much more interesting than just walking down a given path. And then that way you actually move more; you spend a whole day outside, and it feels like fun. So I knew, in that moment coming down that mountain, that’s when I decided I was going to make a game that had real plants, real mushrooms, real recipes and crafting instructions, because we could potentially inspire people to actually then go out and recreate those activities,” Höge says. “That’s what I did on that day, and it made me really happy, and I felt like, that’s something the world needs, so I’ll try to make it. Let’s see how it goes!” Höge describes the experience of entering and winning competitions and grants for Yaldi Games and Wholesome – Out and About, and laments the difficulties indie games and studios face. “I got the UK games fund, which is the first games fund and the only games fund… there’s not enough funding for games, there’s not enough funding for indies. It’s bad. All the money goes into film.” In general, she says, it creates a “super bad ecosystem for indies to actually thrive.” Wholesome – Out and About was able to stand out thanks to its aim to promote both physical and mental wellbeing, as well encouraging a connection with nature and education. When does Wholesome – Out and About launch? We don’t yet have a release date for Wholesome – Out and About on Xbox, but we’ll keep an eye out! What’s it about? In Wholesome – Out and About, we arrive at Wholesome village to find it suffering in the aftermath of a storm which also wrecked our Granny’s cottage. We’ll be trying to help the townsfolk and repair the town, while also helping the community work towards sustainability. “The most important thing about the story, the messages that I wanted to communicate with the story, were all about community, sustainability, and climate action,” Höge says. “It was actually inspired by an article I read in a newspaper about a town coming together as a community to make their town net zero, because they saw that their government was just not doing enough, so they decided to just do it themselves… I thought that was really inspiring,” she continues, “so the whole setting of the game is inspired by that story… there will be a dramatic incident at the beginning of the game which is a cause of climate change and the lack of the response we have been doing as humans so far, so that will actually bring the town together, bring the people together, and allow them to think about how can they become more sustainable.” The townspeople will also be working on “how can they come together as a community to buy this community centre,” while we’ll aim to “help the people that have been struck down by the misfortune of this event, to rebuild. It’s still a little bit wobbly,” Höge says, “but the message is really all about the community, sustainability, climate action, and this town coming together.” Höge explains that “it’s all about communicating some actionable things… what’s really important to me is that every character has their own journey to sustainability, and that we as a player learn about it through them. So we can learn about fast fashion through a character that used to order lots of clothing like we do on Asos or something, and then them realising how this is bad, and then changing their behaviour…. It’s very light-touch information, but just by having it integrated into a character’s behaviour and their dialogue, I think it could have a huge impact on teaching people about it, just putting the information out there.” What’s the gameplay like? In Wholesome – Out and About, we will be “helping the town, bringing people together, and seeing them buy and restore this community centre that is the centrepiece of the town,” all while seeking to learn more about nature. We’ll also be upgrading our house, garden, and shop, and “essentially contributing as an active part of the community.” Along with completing quests, we’ll be exploring, cooking, crafting, gardening, foraging, and decorating. “When you’re in the middle of the game, for example, you’ll probably start a day by rolling out of bed, and then going outside and watering all your plants, because watering is best done in the morning,” Höge begins. “And then you’ll probably have lots of items that you created and cooked in your inventory so you’ll take them to your little shop. You can place them there and they’ll be sold over the course of the day… your granny takes care of them, and then you can go off and explore.” While exploring the world, we can walk, ride our bike, and unlock train stations to get around faster. “Essentially it’s all about that exploration and foraging, because you can really take your time, you can explore those beautiful environments, and then what you’ve found, you can take that back, you can cook something with it or craft something with it, and then put that in your store and sell that the next day, and fulfill some orders in your garden.” Höge refers to playing Animal Crossing, saying, “I just noticed that, for me, I would really love to have a bit more engagement and direction than Animal Crossing is offering.” To that end, Wholesome – Out and About will feature daily quests. “Those daily quests are really interesting, I’m a big fan of them myself, because they’ll be all about the characters and curing some problems that they’re having,” she explains. “So for example, I have a long list of medical conditions and herbal remedies for them, so through the daily quests, you’ll learn about nutrition, what kind of herbal cures you can use to heal certain kinds of problems. If you have a headache, for example, the character could tell you to get meadowsweet and make a tincture from it, or a tea, or if they have a fever, that also works… the daily quests are really the things that I’m looking forward to the most. There’ll be a lot of them, and so you’ll find different ones every day, that give you something to do, something to forage for, something to look for, and then that improves your friendship with the characters and allows you to level up and unlock more dialogue and that kind of thing.’ Höge says these daily quests will likely be the “main way” of helping the townsfolk and making friends. “We’ll have a really beautiful storyline in the first actual seasons, the first days of the game, essentially, but then we’ll let the player loose, and they can choose to do what they want to do. In that case, the daily quests will be something they can come back to and do every day, to engage with the characters, to help them out, and of course you can also gift them things.” One of Wholesome – Out and About’s core aims is to encourage players to take what they learn in the game and apply it to the real world; for instance, trying out the crafting recipes in the game, in real life. There will be a lot of these recipes: “in my spreadsheet currently, I have like 180 recipes, and I love all of them,” Höge says. “I did create a lot of them myself as well, so for example something that’s in there that I created is spruce tip jelly. Spruce tips come out in spring… You can harvest them, you can eat them like this as well, they’re...

Another Fight For Bob ‘The Hammer’ Fleming – Chicago Sun-Times https://collincountynewsonline.com/another-fight-for-bob-the-hammer-fleming-chicago-sun-times/ HENDERSON, Nev. — Bob “The Hammer” Fleming fiddles with a gray remote control that resembles a 9-volt battery in his thick left hand, with which he conducted so much hockey business. His Hammer’s Grill & Bar is a cool, dark oasis from the bright high-noon desert sun. Walls display photos of Bears legends Walter Payton and Dick Butkus, a Bobby Hull inscription, John Belushi barking, “To-ga! To-ga!” We retreat to the Penalty Box, in the back, where a poster trumpets Fleming’s status as one of the 25 most-revered Peoria Rivermen. This little gadget, however, confounds the 61-year-old Hammer, who’s 6-1 and self-deprecating about his 303 pounds, 70 more than his playing weight. A smart TV in the Box can access YouTube, so we aim to view his jousts with Stu Grimson, ‘‘The Grim Reaper,’’ in a preseason game inside rabid Chicago Stadium on Sept. 29, 1991. It was Fleming’s final shot at the NHL as a member of the Sabres. He enters his email and password. A mishit. It reverts back to start. He taps. Back to start. He rings wife Julie, whom he met and married in Peoria. She finds a recent password. He’s patient. He taps. Back to start. ‘‘Ahh,’’ he says. “We tried.” Less than two years ago, Fleming admits, he would not have attempted this futile exercise. Having undergone electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in Calgary, though, has mitigated the damage of countless fights. The Flemings recommend former athletes, anyone who suffers from mental issues, to investigate it. Julie Fleming got her husband back. “One thousand percent,” she says. “Saw it with my own eyes.” The Hammer returned from intermittent sessions, over two months, clearheaded, prepared to run his business. Two days after we talked, he went to Mexico to close a big mescal deal. “I didn’t want to make decisions,” he says. “At night, I had bad anxiety. I was hoping I wasn’t going down that road, drinking out of a vodka bottle and ready to commit suicide. “But I’m good.” FEEL THIS Fleming became ‘‘The Hammer’’ in 1980, at 19, in Medicine Hat of the Western Hockey League. Bruce Gordon, a 17-year-old wing from Saskatoon, ran roughshod in training camp. “Gooney Gordon,” Fleming says. “He fought five guys that first day and a half. He told me, ‘You’re next.’ I just pounded him. I grabbed him with my right hand, and just, my left . . . I probably hit him 10 times before he went down. “The last five, probably, were unnecessary.” Fleming was raised with an oily spoon. Don Fleming was a successful oil rigger, and he raised his son and two daughters on a Calgary ranch. When Queen Elizabeth II passed through, youngest son Prince Edward sought an excursion. A tough captain of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Fleming and the prince took the compound’s top horses into the Rockies. “We reach a glacier, a helicopter lands and a chef serves us prime rib and Yorkshire pudding,” Fleming says. “I could probably write a book.” Medicine Hat fans first chanted, “Ham-Mer! Ham-Mer!” which would play well in Peoria. The lefty with the dominant left eye had discovered his gift. “I found out at a young age that I could hit pretty much where I wanted on their face, before they could react. I was accurate and pretty heavy-handed.” He removes a cap. “Feel this!” A mutual friend and I tap an iron-hard forehead. “A Fleming trait, I guess. I could head-butt guys, too!” YOU FIGHTIN’ GRIMMER? The Hammer skated onto the Chicago Stadium ice in awe. He’d participated in two preseason games for the Sabres. “But I’d never seen anything quite like that,” he says. “Eighteen thousand screaming people in Chicago. [Buffalo wing] Rick Vaive said, ‘Hammer, this is nothing. Wait till the playoffs!’ I said, I hope I’m here for that.” Fleming, 30, had been retired for two years, but he was in solid shape. He’d just won a Toughman competition on an Indian reservation outside Calgary when Buffalo coach Rick Dudley rang him. “Knocked four guys out, all in one day. Exhausting,” Fleming told Dudley, who had coached him in Flint of the International Hockey League. “Took $1,800 and their cheesy belt.” Dudley, laughing, booked him a flight. Fleming chokes up. Cancer was destroying his father. A doctor wanted to back off thyroid radiation, as Don Fleming glowed from its effects. Give me the rest of the treatments, Don demanded. “Kill this or kill me.” The doctor had never met anyone as tough as Don Fleming. Sabres trainer Jim “Pizza” Pizzutelli, a former Vietnam medic who had famously saved Clint Malarchuk’s life on the ice 2½ years earlier, handed Fleming a No. 42 Buffalo jersey. Behind the helmet, above the number, Pizza had etched a tiny “H.T.” ‘‘Hammer Time,’’ Pizza told a puzzled Fleming. Rapper MC Hammer’s song featuring those words had exploded 17 months earlier. “You fightin’ Grimmer tonight?” Pizza said. “Yeah, we’ll see what happens.” SO CLOSE Grimson’s 2,113 penalty minutes rank him 44th on the NHL career chart. By Sept. 29, 1991, he had become a known quantity, with class. He was 26, having played a full season with Chicago. “I’m an older guy coming out of retirement, just trying to win a spot in Buffalo,” Fleming says. “The announcer says I’m going to get on the team or get a trip to the Chicago hospital. They thought I’d had one too many cups of coffee.” Fleming watches YouTube, on our friend’s horizontal cell phone, in the Box. Sabres vs. Blackhawks. On the periphery of a faceoff, Fleming brushes up against Grimson. Ding, Round One. “We know what’s going on,” Fleming says. “He was a very ethical tough guy. No cheap shots. I give him a bit of a check.” Gloves drop. Fleming gets in four jabs with that power left. He slips. “Stumble a little bit,” he says. “I don’t usually stumble. Probably nervous.” Grimson lands a flurry. They drop to the ice. Fleming’s left ear would swell from a hard Reaper hook. The Hammer can’t believe he slipped. His money shot was a left uppercut, but he couldn’t reach the 6-6 Reaper. Grimson skates a tight circle, which Fleming mirrors. Another faceoff. Ding, Round Two. Fleming pokes a straight left arm, taunting Grimson. The Reaper stays poised, skating backward elegantly. Fleming jabs with his right. Grimson retaliates. Fleming hugs Grimson in a back-breaker. They fall to the ice. Grimson gets free, skates away. “I was kinda crazy at that point,” Fleming says. “I tried to climb the glass to get into [his] penalty box. He circled an ear, like I was crazy, and shook his head. I said, ‘Let’s go again!’ I was yelling stuff and got booted out. “They pelted me with beer. I said, ‘Hey, that’s big-league beer!’ Off I went to the dressing room.” He scores the second bout for Grimson, the first a draw. “Stu was one of the game’s best enforcers. I’d like to meet him, shake his hand. He became a lawyer and championed stuff for concussions.” Ensuing days are hazy. Fleming says Dudley told him he’d play for the Sabres until Christmas. Bob called his father, who was elated. Don Fleming died within a month. John Muckler, Buffalo’s director of hockey operations, demoted Fleming, sacked Dudley and took over as coach. Muckler died in January 2021. Dudley is a senior advisor for the Florida Panthers. The Hammer never played a regular-season game in the NHL. CUTTING EDGE He started Hammer’s Bar and Restaurant, in Bartonville, in 1994, selling it to a former Rivermen teammate when he moved here, where sister Marilyn resides. Hammer started this iteration in 2007. The enforcer who’d broken maybe 48 full beer bottles over that iron coconut, as either a bar gag or to warn adversaries, started worrying. Tragic demises of NFL players Junior Seau, Mike Webster and Dave Duerson, and NHL enforcers Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien, Wade Belak and others, all related to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), troubled him. Julie Fleming believes her husband had CTE. “I had to physically get him out of bed, to go for a walk,” she says. “He became lucid and lethargic, just not Bob. Very depressed. I just knew something had to be done, and I knew it was from knocks to the head.” The Hammer says he had anxiety, and he didn’t want to live that way. “This [expletive] gets into your head. Mike Webster was plucking his teeth with pliers and putting them back in with Krazy Glue. There are Steelers who feel guilty that they didn’t do more for him.” The Flemings are forever grateful that Bob’s sister, Dr. Shannon Zedachuk, introduced him to Dr. Kelly Fredell, a psychologist and mental-health expert in Okotoks, near Calgary. Medication, prescribed by another doctor, had zapped the Hammer. “Couldn’t take them anymore. Didn’t want to be sedated like an old bull.” In early 2021, Zedachuk arranged first-class accommodations for Bob, who sometimes underwent two procedures a day. “I had the halo on me,” Fleming says of a contraption that connects electrodes to his iron skull. “They fixed me without giving me Prozac and all that crappy medicine. It’s cutting-edge electrical-shock stimulation. They map your brain.” For example, he told Fredell he’d had trouble sleeping. She recommended working on his sleep center. Fleming was dubious when she said, ‘‘You’ll see the ocean; you’ll feel like you’re in a boat.’’ Soon, he was grabbing chair arms, feeling as if the room were rocking back and forth, like a yacht. Today, he sleeps like a puppy. Fredell warned the Hammer. “She said, ‘You might have one more concussion in you, or 10,’ ” Fleming says. “You might bump into that [expletive] door and not be cognizant again. Don’t [expletive] with that. That’s me [translating] her words.” The Mayo and Cleveland clinics also treat depression, mania and other symptoms with mild electrical-current therapy. “People need to know about this procedure,” Julie Fleming says. “I know for a fact it works. I’ve seen the difference. I...

Binance Licensed In Kazakhstan As Provider Of Crypto Exchange And Custody Services – Exchanges Bitcoin News – Bitcoin News https://collincountynewsonline.com/binance-licensed-in-kazakhstan-as-provider-of-crypto-exchange-and-custody-services-exchanges-bitcoin-news-bitcoin-news/ Authorities in Kazakhstan have granted Binance a license to operate as a digital asset platform and provide an array of relevant services. While working out of the nation’s financial hub in the capital Nur-Sultan, the crypto exchange will offer registration to customers from other countries as well. Crypto Exchange Binance Receives License to Operate From Kazakhstan Binance, the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume, has been granted a permanent license by the Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA), the regulatory body that oversees the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC), Kazakhstan’s financial hub. The license will allow Binance to extend its services as a digital asset platform operator and work from AIFC as a custodial service provider for global clients. The financial center is based in Kazakhstan’s capital Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana). The move comes after Binance obtained preliminary approval in August. The permanent authorization gives it the status of a regulated platform in Kazakhstan, the exchange explained. With compliance and security controls, it will now be able to process deposits and withdrawals of fiat money, conversion to cryptocurrencies, and offer storage and exchange trading for crypto assets. The exchange indicated it plans to expand the range of supported services. Private individuals and legal entities from any other country will be able to register with the Kazakhstan-licensed trading platform, Binance assured in an announcement. Its Director for Asia, Gleb Kostarev, commented: We welcome Kazakhstan’s intention to become a leading player in the field of new digital technologies and the cryptocurrency ecosystem. The government in Nur-Sultan has made significant changes to Kazakhstan’s legislation and regulatory environment, setting the highest compliance standards for cryptocurrency platforms in the republic, the executive added. Kostarev pointed out that the strong regulatory framework has helped AIFC to become a leading platform in the region, facilitating the development of services for digital assets. He also emphasized that Binance is taking another step in its quest to be a compliance-focused exchange. Binance will support Kazakhstan in what the two sides describe as the safe development of the country’s crypto market. As part of a recently signed Memorandum of Understanding, the crypto exchange and the Central Asian Nation’s Financial Monitoring Agency agreed to share information on financial crimes involving cryptocurrencies. Kazakhstan, which turned into a major crypto mining hotspot following the crackdown in China, has been taking steps to regulate other sectors of the digital asset industry, too. A local lender and a domestic crypto exchange, Eurasian Bank and Intebix, recently reported conducting a crypto purchase transaction for a client — the first such joint operation in the country, they said. Tags in this story AFSA, AIFC, approval, authorization, Binance, Crypto, crypto assets, crypto exchange, crypto services, Cryptocurrencies, Cryptocurrency, custody, deposits, Exchange, Kazakhstan, License, licensing, operator, permanent license, Services, Withdrawals Do you expect other global crypto trading platforms to seek to acquire a license to operate in Kazakhstan? Tell us in the comments section below. Lubomir Tassev Lubomir Tassev is a journalist from tech-savvy Eastern Europe who likes Hitchens’s quote: “Being a writer is what I am, rather than what I do.” Besides crypto, blockchain and fintech, international politics and economics are two other sources of inspiration. Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Marshall Plan, Forging U.S.-Europe Alliance, Tested By Ukraine War – The Washington Post https://collincountynewsonline.com/marshall-plan-forging-u-s-europe-alliance-tested-by-ukraine-war-the-washington-post/ George C. Marshall was doubtless moved to be equated with George Washington. As Harvard University granted the secretary of state an honorary law doctorate on June 5, 1947, its citation called him “a soldier and statesman whose character and ability brook only one comparison in the history of this country.” But Marshall — the former Army chief of staff during World War II and then arguably the country’s most admired public servant — had something else in mind as he received applause from a crowd of 15,000 in Harvard Yard: pitching a multibillion-dollar aid plan for the broken European continent. Seventy-five years later, as Russia’s war against Ukraine retests the historic bond between Western Europe and the United States, the legacy of the Marshall Plan has gained renewed relevance — as has the need to understand the frequently miscast initiative. “The Marshall Plan has become a favorite analogy for policymakers,” said Harvard political scientist Graham T. Allison, “yet few know much about it.” One reason for the confusion was the anodyne nature of Marshall’s speech itself. “It is logical that the United States do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world,” Marshall told his receptive, if somewhat puzzled, audience that day, “without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace.” That was about as rousing — or as specific — as his short address got. There was no mention of the Soviet Union, against whose influence the plan was directed. “Any government which maneuvers to block the recovery of other countries cannot expect help from us,” he said. That was it. Marshall’s speech was vaguely worded for two reasons, said Benn Steil, director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of “The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War.” “First, Marshall wanted to put the burden on the European countries themselves to come up with an integrated recovery plan. Also, Marshall wanted to avoid the impression that he was trying to divide Europe.” The Soviet Union was nominally welcome to join too. “Moscow was carefully not excluded,” said Steil, but behind the scenes it “was prodded to exclude itself.” European leaders certainly got the message. Within hours of Marshall’s speech, the British and French foreign ministers were conferring about how much aid they needed to regain their “economic health” and in what form. This collaboration — and the economic ties that bound the 16 nations that ultimately received U.S. loans, grants or commodities over the four-year plan — laid the groundwork for European integration. Marshall has recently come under criticism from revisionist historians for claiming principal authorship of the plan. But Marshall never denied that the European Recovery Plan — the policy’s official name, which he always used — was the work of many hands. The plan’s true godfather, according to Steil, was Marshall’s boss, President Harry S. Truman. Truman laid the ideological groundwork for it in a March 1947 speech in which he asked Congress to provide financial support for the Greek government against a Communist insurgency. Articulating what would become known as the Truman Doctrine, the president argued that the United States was “compelled to assist free people in their struggles against totalitarianism” lest its “spread undermine the foundations of international peace and hence the security of the United States.” Truman’s belief that the Soviets would meddle in Greece turned out to be wrong. But when Marshall led a delegation to Moscow the following month, he came away convinced that the Kremlin had little interest in aiding Europe, which was in social and economic turmoil and had just struggled through the “hunger winter” of 1946-47. “The patient is sick,” Marshall said in a nationally broadcast radio address upon his return from Russia, “while the doctors debate the cure.” Something had to be done to help Europe and fend off Moscow’s efforts at expanding Communism. Piecemeal aid of the sort that Congress had just granted Greece would no longer do. Marshall enlisted the big thinkers on the State Department planning staff, led by George Kennan, known as the author of the “containment” policy for deterring the USSR. The result was the Marshall Plan — a moniker Truman fostered “because I wanted General Marshall to get full credit for his brilliant contribution to the measure he helped formulate,” the president said in his memoir. Marshall led a furious campaign to pass the plan, crisscrossing the country giving pep talks and interviews. “I worked on that as if I was running for the Senate or the presidency,” he later said. On Nov. 11, 1947, Marshall made an impassioned case for the plan before a joint session of the House and Senate foreign affairs committees. Now his words were anything but anodyne. “We must not permit the free community of Europe to be extinguished,” he said. “Should this occur, it would be a tragedy for the world.” Nor was there any need to mince words about Moscow. After briefly flirting with the idea of cooperating, Joseph Stalin had made clear his opposition to the plan, forcing Europe’s Communist bloc to reject it. “It is now clear that only one power, the Soviet Union, does not for its own reasons share” the goal of restoring Europe, Marshall said. The Cold War, a phrase that had just come into use that fall, was on. And so was America’s first line of defense: the Marshall Plan. Seven months later, Congress enacted the Economic Cooperation Act, providing $17 billion ($160 billion today) in loans and grants to the 16 participating countries. Did it work? Economically, it’s not clear: The plan’s own accounting showed that the aid to the recipient countries accounted for just about 3 percent of their combined national income between 1948 and 1951. “The importance of the Plan to Europe’s recovery remains a one of contention amongst historians,” said Fredrik Logevall, a Harvard historian and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam.” But there is little doubt of its success in fortifying European unity and democracy. “It strengthened Western Europeans’ belief in democracy and capitalism and tied the region more firmly in a U.S.-led economic union and later a military alliance,” Logevall said. “Moreover, it helped to undermine Soviet influence in Europe.” Logevall added, “It served America’s strategic purposes, but it was also charitable to a degree seldom seen in international politics.” “It is impossible to imagine the E.U. or NATO without the Marshall Plan,” Steil said. However, the plan’s political and moral legacy was undermined by the Donald Trump administration’s derisive treatment of the U.S.-European alliance, Steil said. And now it’s being tested again by Vladimir Putin’s Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. Amid that fight, Marshall’s successor, current Secretary of State Antony Blinken, is invoking the Marshall Plan in an effort to maintain the transatlantic unity that has bound the United States and its European allies for three-quarters of a century. In June, on the anniversary of Marshall’s Harvard speech, Blinken tweeted that in 1947, “European nations rallied to the call to come together, united in purpose, contributing to the revival of Europe. Answering the call together, we can once again prevail, just as the U.S. and Europe did together 75 years ago.”

AP Top Technology News At 6:01 A.m. EDT – Federal News Network https://collincountynewsonline.com/ap-top-technology-news-at-601-a-m-edt-federal-news-network/ China lashes out at latest U.S. export controls on chips To buy Twitter, Musk has to keep banks, investors on board Judge delays Twitter trial, gives Musk time to seal buyout Binance crypto exchange hit by latest digital currency hack Biden order promises EU citizens better data privacy Commerce tightens export controls on high end chips to China Munich Re to stop its backing for new oil, gas fields READ MORE China lashes out at latest U.S. export controls on chips To buy Twitter, Musk has to keep banks, investors on board Judge delays Twitter trial, gives Musk time to seal buyout Binance crypto exchange hit by latest digital currency hack Biden order promises EU citizens better data privacy Commerce tightens export controls on high end chips to China Munich Re to stop its backing for new oil, gas fields Polling software CEO given bond, deadline to surrender in LA Twitter under Musk? Most of the plans are a mystery Silent films to live on in movie theater lobby card project Copyright © 2022 . All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

Dallas Serial Killer Billy Chemirmir Charged With Killing 22 Texas Women Gets 2nd Conviction – WFAA.com https://collincountynewsonline.com/dallas-serial-killer-billy-chemirmir-charged-with-killing-22-texas-women-gets-2nd-conviction-wfaa-com/ Billy Chemirmir, 49, was convicted in April of capital murder in the smothering death of 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris and sentenced to life in prison without parole. DALLAS — A man accused of killing 22 elderly women in the Dallas area and stealing jewelry and valuables was found guilty of a second capital murder charge by a Dallas County jury Friday. Billy Chemirmir, 49, was convicted in April of capital murder in the smothering death of 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Now, he’ll receive the same punishment after being convicted of killing 87-year-old Mary Brooks, officials say. “We have accomplished what we set out to do. There is no question that Billy Chemirmir will spend the rest of his life behind bars. We thank the family of Mary Brooks and the family of Mr. Chemirmir’s other alleged victims for putting their faith in this office to ensure justice was done,” Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot said following Friday’s conviction. “The pain and loss he has caused will never be erased, but we can all sleep better at night knowing he has, in effect, received a death sentence. Bill Chemimir will die in a state penitentiary,” Creuzot said. It was Mary Annis Bartel’s survival of a March 2018 attack that set Chemirmir’s arrest in motion. Bartel, 91 at the time, told police that a man had forced his way into her apartment at an independent living community for seniors, tried to smother her with a pillow and took her jewelry. Before Bartel died in 2020, she described the attack in a taped interview that was played at Chemirmir’s previous trials. She said the minute she opened her door and saw a man wearing green rubber gloves, she knew she was in “grave danger.” Police said they found Chemirmir the next day in the parking lot of his apartment complex. He was holding jewelry and cash, and he had just thrown away a large red jewelry box. Documents in the box led them to the home of Harris, who was found dead in her bedroom, lipstick smeared on her pillow. Most of Chemirmir’s alleged victims lived in apartments at independent living communities for older people. The women he’s accused of killing in private homes include the widow of a man he had cared for while working as an at-home caregiver. Brooks’ grandson, David Cuddihee, testified that he found her body on Jan. 31, 2018. Police testified that grocery receipts showed Brooks was at Walmart the day before her body was found. Surveillance video from the store showed a vehicle matching the description of Chemirmir’s leaving just after Brooks, going in the same direction. Chemirmir faces 11 more capital murder cases in Dallas County, but no trial dates have been set. Prosecutors in neighboring Collin County haven’t yet said if they will try any of their nine capital murder cases against Chemirmir, who has maintained his innocence.

Flathead Lake Lodge Montana Dude Ranch Review With Photos – Insider https://collincountynewsonline.com/flathead-lake-lodge-montana-dude-ranch-review-with-photos-insider/ My kids at Flathead Lake Lodge. Allison Tibaldi I’ve always lived in major cities like New York and Rome, and vacation in Tuscany or the Hamptons. This summer I tried something very different. I brought my two adult kids to a Montana dude ranch. I loved it even though I didn’t ride a horse. Everyone should try it — if it’s not cost prohibitive. I’m one of the least likely people to vacation at a dude ranch. I prefer beach trips where I can read a good book while relaxing on the sand. Plus, I don’t even ride horses. But a post-pandemic appreciation for the outdoors had me craving something totally different. Hiking with my daughter. Allison Tibaldi I’m a New York City-based travel writer who’s been to every continent, including many remote corners of the world. But as someone who’s lived in New York City or Rome for most of my life, cities and cosmopolitan places are typically my favorite places to visit. Before the pandemic, jogging around the Central Park reservoir was enough fresh air for me. However, after being locked-down in my New York City apartment for so long, my perspective changed. I discovered a newfound appreciation for nature and the outdoors and when it was time to return to travel, I started dreaming of wide-open spaces, craving room to roam. Usually, my family and I vacation in Europe each summer. But when I was ready to book our holiday, a negative COVID-19 test was still required to re-enter the US and I didn’t want to risk not being allowed back in. Staying in the states was a priority. As I researched options and spoke to friends, several acquaintances highly recommended Flathead Lake Lodge in Montana, a 2,000-acre dude ranch in the shadows of Glacier National Park. I had never been to Montana, liked the idea of going somewhere new, and it seemed a fitting choice for a week-long nature-filled family vacation. It turned out to be a pandemic silver lining as my kids and I had a blast — even though it was a dude ranch and we had no desire to ride any horses. A dude ranch is an all-inclusive western-style vacation with meals, accommodations, and activities included. Horseback riding is often a focal point with group trail rides, lessons, and rodeo skill classes offered. The ranch is immersed in nature. Allison Tibaldi I was sold on my friends’ recommendations for Flathead Lake Lodge because despite the fact that it was a dude ranch centered around equestrian activities, it had so much else on offer, too. From hiking to water sports, yoga and art classes, days are filled with as much, or as little as you want to do.  With so many activities, many guests never leave the premises. The farthest we ventured was cycling a few minutes into the tiny village of Bigfork for ice cream cones. I also found the staff to be uniformly friendly. I met several employees who initially came to the ranch on vacation and enjoyed the experience so much, they applied for a job. Flathead Lake Lodge is expensive — around $5,000 per person for a week. The lake at Flathead Lake Lodge. Allison Tibaldi Flathead Lake Lodge hosts guests from June to September and guests must book an entire week, starting on a Sunday and ending on the following Sunday. I reserved nearly a year in advance and suggest booking early, as return visitors tend to book the same week year after year. A vacation at Flathead Lake Lodge is costly. I paid $5,439 per person, per week. Everything is included, from activities to meals to adult beverages. There are a few sports that incur a charge, like sporting clays but my kids and I participated in many activities without ever paying an extra cent. The only additional cost was tipping the hardworking staff.  Unlike many resorts, there’s no low or shoulder season where you’ll find a discount rate. While Flathead Lake Lodge is clearly very expensive, I’ve paid more for a holiday at top resorts in Europe, where I paid for everything à la carte. The price of a family vacation abroad quickly balloons when each soda costs 10 euros or more. At Flathead Lake Lodge, there were no costly surprises when it came to paying the bill. A dude ranch isn’t the type of place to pop in for an overnight stay or quick weekend getaway. The main lodge. Allison Tibaldi Because they only accept reservations for a seven-night stay, and with a complete turnover happening every Sunday and all guests departing and arriving on the same day, I expected check-in to be as hectic as a Times Square subway turnstile. But I was pleasantly surprised to find everything was very well organized. My children and I were dropped off at the main lodge building where check-in took place just outside the front door. It had been a long flight from New York with a connection in Denver for me, and we were all hungry. The kitchen staff had prepared an outdoor buffet with do-it-yourself sandwich fixings and a few fresh salads to feed us right away. We stayed in a two-bedroom cabin for the week that I thought was rustic and comfortable. Our cabin at Flathead Lake Lodge in Montana. Allison Tibaldi Our spacious two-bedroom cabin was a short stroll from the main lodge where our bags were dropped off. I found our accommodations to be rustic but upscale, with wood floors, cozy area rugs, beds with firm mattresses adorned with country quilts, knotty-pine log furniture, and window boxes overflowing with colorful flowers. I thought the chairs on the front porch made for a scenic perch for soaking in views of Flathead Lake. The master bedroom had a king-size bed, en suite bathroom, and an outdoor patio. There was a second bedroom with a bathroom and two twin beds for my kids. A large living room and a third bathroom meant lots of space for the three of us. Flathead Lake Lodge is a place to disconnect, so there was no television but Wi-Fi worked like a charm. Guest accommodations are cleaned daily. An unexpected surprise was laundry service, which was offered several days during the week at no extra charge. We left our dirty clothes in a designated bag and housekeeping delivered them back neatly folded. After we unpacked, it was time to go to a guest orientation in the main lodge. There were around 100 of us, from babies to senior citizens, with many multi-generational family groups. Chase, the owner (R), with his son and other ranch guests. Allison Tibaldi Chase Averill, the owner, grew up at the ranch and now runs it, the third generation of his family to do so. He lives on property with his wife and three young children, and sporting Wrangler jeans, a plaid shirt, and a cowboy hat, he greeted everyone personally before giving us a brief overview of ranch life and the many available activities. Chase treated us like welcome houseguests rather than customers, even sharing his cell phone number in case anyone had a problem late at night when the main office is closed. I noticed that he already knew many guests, which I later learned was because they return year after year. His dad, Doug Averill, who used to run the ranch, also lives here and often helps out. My kids and I don’t horseback ride, but for most guests, riding is a big part of their dude ranch vacation. Horse riding and activities are the focal point at Flathead Lake Lodge in Montana, including the weekly rodeo. Allison Tibaldi Chase walked us all over to the barn for a tour. Horseback riding is at the heart of the dude ranch experience and the wranglers provide lessons and trail rides for all ages, from beginners to expert equestrians. Guided trail rides and lessons are offered from early in the morning until dusk, and guests may ride as much as they like. Many guests spend a good part of each day in...

Openings And Closings: Business Happenings Around Region | Business News | Wfmz.com – 69News WFMZ-TV https://collincountynewsonline.com/openings-and-closings-business-happenings-around-region-business-news-wfmz-com-69news-wfmz-tv-3/ From new apartments being approved to restaurants reopening and ready to serve, here’s your weekly look at what’s happening with businesses in your neighborhood. THE 330 THRIFT: 1421 Center St., Bethlehem The new thrift store held its grand opening Wednesday. The store is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday; 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday; and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday; closed Monday. Owner Michele Jurkowski carries men’s and women’s clothing, shoes, jewelry, handbags and accessories. She said buying second-hand items is good for the environment and saves people money. Even though she sells used items, some are like new and still have store tags on them. *** ARTSQUEST: Between Second and Third streets, South Bethlehem Bethlehem City Council approved a “certificate of appropriateness” for ArtsQuest’s new cultural center this week.  The new five-story building will take the place of the Banana Factory, and cover 73,458 square feet. The $22.1 million project required a certificate, known as a COA, because it is in a historic district. Get the full story. *** BOYD THEATER SITE: 30 W. Broad St., Bethlehem Developer Plamen “Rocco” Ayvazov and Don Wenner of DLP Capital broke ground this week on their $55 million development at the site of the old Boyd Theater.  Their six-story building will contain more than 200 apartments, 10 Airbnb rooms and amenities for residents. There will be two storefronts, and the plan is to complete the development in 18 months. Read more. *** MUSSEL POLYMERS: Ben Franklin Technology Center, 116 Research Drive, Bethlehem The company that uses a synthetic version of a substance from shellfish said this week that it may be able to help ease dental pain. Mussel Polymers, named for the creature that can adhere to wet surfaces, said its proprietary poly (catechol-styrene) molecule can help calcium phosphate bond to teeth, easing pain.  Mussel Polymers said it is in talks with dental companies about bringing the technology to the market. Find out more. *** ORASURE TECHNOLOGIES: 2685 Opus Way, Bethlehem Township The maker of medical diagnostic kits showed off its “factory of the future” this week. The 139,000-square-foot building off Brodhead Road will, when at full operation, have the capacity to produce more than 100 million tests annually. OraSure, based in Bethlehem, makes the InteliSwab home COVID-19 test and the OraQuick home test for HIV.  During an opening ceremony, OraSure Chief Executive Officer Carrie Eglinton Manner said home testing for illness will gain in popularity. Get the full story. *** PROLOGIS INC.: Developer for 7201 Hamilton Blvd., Upper Macungie Township The warehouse giant got bigger this week as Prologis completed its acquisition of Duke Realty Corp.  Air Products and Chemicals Inc. chose Prologis earlier this year to develop part of its former headquarters. Prologis plans to put three warehouses covering 2.61 million square feet total at the Upper Macungie site. Read more. *** FASTBRIDGE FIBER: 15 N. 6th St., Reading The fiber-optic company said it has started building a network that will serve Berks County customers with high-speed Internet.  Work has begun in Spring and Lower Heidelberg townships. FastBridge’s website will show when service is available in the county. Find out more. *** ORRSTOWN FINANCIAL SERVICES INC.: 77 E. King St., Shippensburg The parent company of Orrstown Bank will close five locations in Franklin, Lancaster and Cumberland counties.  Orrstown operates in Pennsylvania, including in Berks County, and in Maryland. Orrstown Bank has closed or announced plans to close 16 branches or 43% of its network since the end of 2019. Get the full story. *** STITCH FIX: Mohnton Mills, Shillington and Mohnton Stitch Fix is closing two Berks County sewing businesses and cutting 56 jobs by the end of this year. San Francisco-based Stitch Fix is trying to become profitable after losing $96 million in its fiscal fourth quarter. The online fashion retailer bought the Berks operations in 2017. Employees will receive severance pay, extended health benefits and assistance in finding new jobs. Read more. *** WELLS FARGO: 26 S. Fourth St., Hamburg The South Fourth Street branch closed Sept. 21 as part of the industry move toward digital banking. Hamburg customers can find a Wells Fargo branch 12 miles away at Fairgrounds Square in Muhlenberg Township. Find out more. *** LASTICK FURNITURE & FLOOR COVERING: 269 E. High St., Pottstown The furniture store will be closing after almost 50 years of serving customers throughout southeastern Pennsylvania. Owners Jerry Lastick and Marsha Petnick, his sister, said they plan to retire. Their parents, Eli and Sonia Lastick, founded the business with Jerry in 1973, and Marsha and her husband Martin joined them in 1979. A liquidation sale started Thursday. Get the full story. *** WELLS FARGO: 400 Old York Road, Jenkintown The bank branch closed Sept. 21 as part of a national trend toward closing offices and adding digital-banking services.  Customers of the former Jenkintown branch will find a Wells Fargo office a mile away in Abington. *** JERSEY MIKE’S SUBS: 378 Pottsville Saint Clair Highway, East Norwegian Township The New Jersey-based submarine-sandwich chain held a grand opening Wednesday. Jersey Mike’s, founded in 1956, now has more than 2,000 locations operating or under development. The chain says it serves “A Sub Above” because of its fresh ingredients and sauce, which is a mixture of red wine vinegar and olive oil. Read more. ***

How To “Detox” Your Liver Quickly, Say Physicians — Eat This Not That – Eat This, Not That https://collincountynewsonline.com/how-to-detox-your-liver-quickly-say-physicians-eat-this-not-that-eat-this-not-that/ It’s common to hear people say they want to do a liver detox after a night of partying too much or eating a bad diet for a while, and there’s a slew of products promising you’ll have a healthy liver again in no time. But how safe and effective are liver detoxes? And should you do one? Eat This, Not That! Health spoke with Dr. Ravi Chandiramani, NMD – Naturopathic Doctor; Soul Surgery who shares what to know about liver detoxes and if they’re beneficial. As always, please consult your physician for medical advice. Read on—and to ensure your health and the health of others, don’t miss these Sure Signs You’ve Already Had COVID. Shutterstock Dr. Chandiramani explains, “The liver is the largest internal organ in the body, weighing in at about 3 pounds in an adult on average. The human liver performs over 500 vital functions.  Bile is produced by the liver to aid in the digestion and absorption of consumed fats. Bile also allows for the absorption of vitamin K from dietary fats. The liver is also our primary blood filter, allowing for the removal of toxins, byproducts and other harmful substances from our blood.  The liver creates blood clotting factors using the same vitamin K absorbed with the help of bile.  The liver removes excess glucose from the bloodstream and stores it as glycogen. The glycogen can then be broken down again when glucose is needed by the body.  The liver stores significant amounts of fat soluble vitamins (A,D,E,K) and B12 along with iron and copper.  The liver produces albumin, a protein that keeps fluids in your bloodstream from leaking into surrounding tissue(s). The liver metabolizes proteins, carbohydrates and fats so your body can use them.” Dr. Chandiramani says, “Diets high in saturated fats and refined carbohydrates such as processed foods and “fast” foods are not healthy for your liver and your body in general. You may be a candidate for a detox if this is how you eat the majority of the time or if you have been overindulging in such foods over a shorter period of time.  Lifestyle: The liver has to process all the toxins you put into your body so if your lifestyle includes smoking tobacco or anything else, consuming alcohol over established safe guidelines of one drink (12 ounces of beer or 5 ounces of wine or 1 shot of liquor) a day for women and two drinks a day for men, using recreational or illicit drugs, etc., you may be a candidate for a liver detox. Environment: Again, the liver has to process all the toxins that enter your body even if they enter your body unintentionally. Think carbon monoxide exhaust from vehicles, pesticide exposure, paint fumes, off-gassing of solvents from new cars, carpet and furniture. Therefore both the choice of living environment and the choice of job may carry a greater risk of exposure to environmental toxins. For example, big city dwellers may have greater environmental exposure to carbon monoxide but non-organic farmers may have greater exposure to pesticides. Both may be good candidates for liver detoxes.  Genetics, viral hepatitis B and C infection and the overall state of one’s health also factor into the functioning of your liver.” Dr. Chandiramani tells us, “The relative safety of a liver detox depends largely on the nature of the detox itself and the individual’s tolerance of the detox.  The safest detoxes are the ones that improve upon one or more of the “controllable” variables of diet, lifestyle and environment. Poor diets can be improved by reducing the intake of saturated fats and refined carbohydrates in favor of unsaturated fats and complex carbohydrates respectively. Adding in fresh fruits, vegetables, green leafy plants and nuts will take this dietary modification to the next level. Garlic and turmeric are excellent seasoning agents and therapeutic spices that can easily be incorporated into yummy recipes that make your food your medicine. Water is the key to it all. Staying hydrated with plenty of water is paramount in any detox effort and in general. Flavor with lime or lemon if necessary. Limiting alcohol intake, cutting back on smoking, abstaining from the use of recreational or illicit drugs, preventing hepatitis infection by not engaging in risky behaviors such as unprotected sex and intravenous drug use are all essential components to any detox effort. Engaging in any kind of movement, whether formal exercise or not, is yet another key component to lifestyle modification.  While you may not be in a position to drastically change your job or living environment, you can take steps to reduce exposure to harmful environmental toxins by wearing a mask with one or more filters, gloves, long sleeves, protective eyewear and other personal protective equipment as appropriate. Instead of only engaging in these modifications temporarily or intermittently, the goal should be to incorporate these changes to diet, lifestyle and environment permanently. If that means that they have to be incorporated gradually in order to make them part of the routine, that’s ok too.” According to Dr. Chandiramani, “Symptoms of an unhealthy or diseased liver may include: –Jaundice or a yellow hue to the whites of the eyes and skin due to high levels of bilirubin, a waste product of red blood cell breakdown. –Easy bruising due a problem with the production of blood clotting factors –Edema or swelling or fluid retention in the legs and/or ankles due to a problem in the production of albumin. –Pain in the abdomen, most commonly on the right side of the body towards the bottom of the rib cage where the liver is located in most people. –Itchy skin due the excess buildup of bile salts under the skin. –Darker colored urine than normal and/or pale colored stool than normal. –Confusion or loss of orientation due to high ammonia levels in the blood that then travels to the brain and other organs. –More subtle signs of an unhealthy liver may include feeling tired all the time, memory and focus issues, variable sleep patterns, feeling bloated, lack of appetite, more aches and pains than usual and dry mouth and eyes.”  Dr. Chandiramani suggests, “Instead of spending a lot of money on the latest and greatest juices, teas, supplements, not all of which are healthy or safe, focus instead on incremental change in diet, lifestyle and environment. In addition to the suggestions under #3, there are some additional “toxins” to consider and while these toxins may not affect your liver directly, they may well be triggers to maladaptive behaviors such as the abuse of alcohol as a coping mechanism. What causes you stress? The answer usually falls into one or more of three categories; people, places or things. If there are any steps that can be taken to mitigate these factors, take them. Correlated to this is taking a relationship inventory. Take a piece of paper and divide it into two columns, relationships that serve you and relationships that do not serve you. Every relationship in your life must be placed in one of these columns. If you approach this exercise with a truthful lens, you will have a better understanding of toxic relationships in your life and then you can make informed choices.”

Boston’s Jaylen Brown Ranked In Sporting News’ Top Five NBA Shooting Guards – Celtics Wire https://collincountynewsonline.com/bostons-jaylen-brown-ranked-in-sporting-news-top-five-nba-shooting-guards-celtics-wire/ Star Boston Celtics shooting guard Jaylen Brown has cracked the top five at his position in a new assessment of the NBA’s best starters by position put together by the Sporting News’ Stephen Noh, but even in such elite company we feel the Georgia native is a tad undervalued. Just ahead of the Washington Wizards’ Bradley Beal and just behind his friend and Cleveland Cavalier Donovan Mitchell, we wouldn’t gripe with this assessment save for Brown being two spots behind the Chicago Bulls’ Zach LaVine, an oft-injured and comparatively less accomplished wing. Noh believes that JB had “an outstanding postseason, showing that he had a little bit more shot creation than previously thought and hitting seemingly everything from 3-point range.” “He’s a great two-way player, and he was critical to the Celtics making the 2022 NBA Finals. He does need to work on a loose handle in order to move up this list,” counters the author with a familiar if legitimate criticism. Celtics Lab 145: Honoring Bill Russell’s legacy and talking Boston basketball with Rep. Ayanna Pressley https://t.co/bQdqt3EZPB — The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) October 7, 2022 Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on: Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

Metavisionaries – Bringing The Next Big Thing Within The Metaverse – Daily Times https://collincountynewsonline.com/metavisionaries-bringing-the-next-big-thing-within-the-metaverse-daily-times/ Metaverse isn’t just the future of the internet, it is the epitome of modern-day technologies like Web3, Blockchain, Creative Arts, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Smart Contracts, NFTs and much more. This has given rise to several new possibilities and dimensions for the world in which we live. As a result, new areas of expertise and industries evolved. The metaverse has introduced new avenues for professionals like software engineers, creative designers, animators, creative artists, writers, etc. While taking a deeper dive into the core of this new emerging segment, it is evident that creative artists are one of the key players. What is the Metaverse? – The metaverse is a unique virtual space parallel to the real one in which we are. Backed by the concept of futurism, it is the modern form of the internet which is composed of 3D virtual spaces connected together. In this new world, people can interact, socialize, trade, entertain, and make virtual things. All of this requires a highly intense 3D graphic environment which has become possible with the power of artificial intelligence and virtual reality. This includes everything from buying virtual land, building houses, hotels, museums and other real-life things to engaging with the big idea of a metaverse economy. The metaverse is a unique virtual space parallel to the real one in which we are. Backed by the concept of futurism, it is the modern form of the internet which is composed of 3D virtual spaces connected together What is The Metaverse Economy? – The unique infusion of the internet with spatial computing brought new dynamics to society. Among them, economics is one of the most affected areas. With the introduction of digital currencies, a new financial order came into existence and shook the global financial system. Everything that’s bought or sold in the Metaverse is based on smart blockchain-based contracts and transactions. As a result, the metaverse economy emerged and quickly gained its hold over global money markets. This becomes possible through NFT marketplaces, cryptocurrency exchanges and some other channels. What is Metavisionaries? – Metavisionaries is a rapidly growing community backed by modern technologies like Web3, NFTs, Metaverse and AI. It is an all-in-one place for those who want to gather, share, and do even more within their personalised digital world. Metavisionaries is dedicated to creating a unique virtual ecosystem with a key focus on learning, media, eduversity, NFTs, and Metavisionaries. So, it is a global collaboration of tech enthusiasts, NFT fans, art collectors, and many other key contributors to the modern-day world of immersive realities. Metavisionaries & Global Business Sustainability Space Challenge 2022 – In the quest to educate, inspire and empower the next generation of global change agents and visionaries who would contribute to creating a sustainable future on earth. The initiative has been taken in partnership with Qatar University under the banner of Global Business Sustainability Space Challenge 2022 to build 5 space labs across the world. As a result, Qatar University and Metavisionaries are at the forefront of introducing the next big thing. It is a great effort to educate and create awareness about the Metaverse Economy and Space Science among the future change agents around the world. The contest winner will be announced right in front of the entire world from the International Space Station at FIFA 2022 Qatar. Backed by visionary leaders and a big idea, Qatar University and Metavisionaries will lay the foundation for a new way to address Global Business Sustainability concerning Space. With this initiative, Metavisionaries have their hands on making the future of tech and space education on a global level. Backed by the latest technologies in collaboration with ICE Cubes for a live broadcast from space, the goal is to educate, create access to the space economy and frontier technologies through the metaverse and metaship, establish a sustainability innovation lab at Qatar University, and build a global community of changemakers and visionaries within the metaverse and related institutions. What Inspired the Inception of Metavisionaries? – It is undoubtedly true that not only millions of dollars have been invested in the Metaverse but now millions of people have rushed into this new world of virtual reality where some people are even making unimaginable fortunes. The rising demand for the Metaverse, its huge economic benefits and our unmatched capabilities in digital arts, AI, VR, and NFTs, gave birth to the idea of Metavisionaries. Its pool of global community is expanding at an unprecedented pace and is gaining considerable fame on a global level. Partnerships & Opportunities for Celebrities – Metavisionaries has continued to partner with famous people from all over the world. This includes everyone from entrepreneurs and investors to celebrities, influencers, sportsmen and other renowned entities. The team has got an exclusive 100 NFT drop and future projects which is focused on enticing an impactful influencer drop full of shows, events, concerts, masterclasses, the campaign drops and many other value additions. For those who are looking for a Personal or Corporate presence in the Metaverse, access to global innovative campaigns, competitions and events, NFT revenue sharing, brand management and design services, and other exclusivities within the Metaverse, Metavisionaries is the place to be. Metavisionaries is the immersive hub for developers, designers, creative artists, celebrities, brand influencers, enterprises and many other top entities. It encourages everyone to join its rapidly growing community for unimaginable benefits. From tangible to intangible takeaways, there is huge monetary potential within this whole new Metaverse called Metavisionaries. Become a MetaVisionary – Become a Visionary Metavisionaries is indeed progressing towards its set goals at an exponential pace and it has already attracted countless people from all over the world. This won’t discourage newcomers to join this thriving Web3 community. This is the ideal time for all those who want to make big fortunes in their lives. While taking a closer look at the various dimensions of the Metavisionaries and its concrete plans, the entire community expects a booming future for this unique platform. Experts at Metavisionaries believe, “Every form of change starts with a vision… ‘Metavisionaries’ – Metavisionaries”. Those who are interested in exploring more about Metavisionaries are advised to follow it now on social media and join its community right away.

These 5 Cool Tech Gadgets Make Your RV Feel Just Like Home – Komando https://collincountynewsonline.com/these-5-cool-tech-gadgets-make-your-rv-feel-just-like-home-komando/ You don’t need to be an RV enthusiast to recognize the famous Airstream trailer. It’s been around since 1936 and is an American icon. Now the company behind the Airstream is giving it a modern makeover with all the latest tech and its own electric motor. Tap or click here to hear Kim tell you all about it. The pandemic saw people using recreational vehicles more than ever. And why not? You can take your work with you and stop worrying about flights or hotels. Not a fan of roughing it? You don’t have to be! Here are five ways to make your RV feel more cozy and welcoming. It’s just like taking your home on the road! 1. Internet on the go We understand that people like to leave their connected life behind and unplug for a while. But if you need to be in contact with work or loved ones on the road, having a stable internet connection is a huge help. First, invest in a mobile hotspot plan. Once that’s set up with your carrier, you’ll need the device itself to connect your phone, tablet or laptop to the internet. Mobile hotspots act as a bridge between your devices and a cellular network. Tech news that matters to you, daily Privacy, security, the latest trends and the info you need to live your best digital life. The Netgear Nighthawk M5 5G mobile hotspot lets you connect up to 32 devices simultaneously and is compatible with 5G and 4G. Wi-Fi 6 capability offers speeds up to 1.8 Gbps. The Nighthawk M5 has a 13-hour battery life and a simple touchscreen display so that you can set it up to your liking. You can plug it in with the AC adapter and even charge a device via its USB-C port. WPA3 personalized encryption ensures the highest security standards. If the Nighthawk M5 is too pricey for your taste, check out the M1, which lets you connect 20 devices and works with 4G. NOTE: These hotspots work best with AT&T and T-Mobile service. 2. Portable power Unless you’re at a campsite with power, you should bring a portable generator. This lets you run electric appliances when you are off the grid or charge your RV’s batteries. When eyeing a new generator, some key things are your power needs and space limitations. You should also consider an inverter generator, which inverts electricity to provide cleaner, safer power for your devices. The Champion Power Equipment 4500-Watt portable inverter generator provides up to 14 hours of runtime on 2.3 gallons of gasoline. An economy mode monitors power consumption in real-time. This generator is RV-ready with a 120V 30A power outlet. You also get two 120V 20A and a 12V outlet, plus a dual-port USB adapter. RELATED: Hitting the road? Here’s a money-saving change you should make before your next vacation 3. Boost your phone signal A cell phone booster is the way to go if you want better reception wherever you are. The weBoost Drive X RV Base cell phone booster kit improves your 4G or 5G cell phone signal, resulting in fewer dropped calls, better voice quality, faster mobile internet and improved streaming. This booster is designed for use with all RV classes, towables and trailers. It’s compatible with all U.S. carriers, including Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. The included installation guide will show you how to mount the outside antenna, attach the booster antenna and install the booster. The cable can be easily routed through existing cable ports. RELATED: Money-saving tip: How to get a FREE year of AAA membership 4. Ditch the dirt RVs get dirty fast. If you’re out in nature, you’re tracking in dirt and mud. It gets even messier when you have pets and kids. Not to mention you’re living, eating and sleeping in a tiny space. A vacuum cleaner is an easy answer, but you don’t want one that takes up too much room or needs a constant source of power. The Dyson V8 Animal cordless stick vacuum runs up to 40 minutes on a charge, so you should get multiple cleaning sessions out of it before needing to plug it in again. It’s lightweight and powerful, sucking up dirt, dust, allergens and pet hair from your hard floors and carpets. Need to get into a tight space? This Dyson vacuum transforms into a handheld and back again in seconds. The dirt ejector empties from the bin in a single action. No bag is required! Need a destination? Tap or click here for the perfect road trip planner. 5. Don’t forget the tunes Music is essential for any get-together, whether you’re having a nice dinner after a long day or a fireside party outside. RVs are all about portability, and your music should be as well. The Anker Soundcore Bluetooth speaker packs a lot of punch in a handheld unit. You get deep bass and clear highs and mids. It boasts 24-hour battery life, is IPX5 waterproof and is built tough for accidental drops. You can connect your phone, tablet or other devices to the speaker via Bluetooth from 66 feet away. It has a built-in microphone and works with Alexa. You may also like: Travel tech tip: How to pause cable and internet service while you’re away We may receive a commission when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.

Coinbase Joins Ethereum Foundation To Improve ETH Transaction Speed And Cost – Crypto News Flash https://collincountynewsonline.com/coinbase-joins-ethereum-foundation-to-improve-eth-transaction-speed-and-cost-crypto-news-flash/ Optimism’s team will also join the Coinbase and Ethereum Foundation teams to facilitate the EIP-4844 upgrade. Coinbase is dedicating its engineering resources and EIP-4844 testing to boost crypto adoption. On October 7, 2022, Coinbase issued an official statement saying it has chosen to support and contribute to the upcoming EIP-4844 upgrade. The upgrade will enhance layer-2 roll-ups, reducing transaction costs by up to 100 times and increasing transaction throughput. In his remarks via Twitter, Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong, said that the crypto exchange is proud to contribute to the Ethereum ecosystem. Proud of this contribution to Ethereum ecosystem. We have a small team working on proto-danksharding, which promises to create 100X capacity on roll ups. Scalability will unlock many new use cases in crypto. https://t.co/JG8hJ5gDHL — Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) October 7, 2022 He added that the company has a team developing a proto-danksharding to boost roll-ups’ capacity by up to 100 times. He also said the scalability would result in several new use cases in the crypto space. The popular exchange believes that the EIP-4844 upgrade will attract more customers into the crypto sector since the industry would be more secure, simpler to use, and with fast and less expensive transactions. In addition, it will bring institutional developments and adoption into Web3. Apart from the Ethereum foundation team, Coinbase is also collaborating with the team from layer-2 blockchain, Optimism. This will hasten the completion of the EIP-4844 upgrade. The crypto exchange has a team focused solely on completing and testing the EIP-4844 upgrade. The combined group has detailed specifications regarding launched Devnet v1, execution and consensus clients, Prysm and Geth, releases for the Ethereum clients, and preparations for the KZG ceremony. The upgrade makes transaction costs cheaper by using a new transaction type to Ethereum to accept data “blobs” in the beacon node for a brief period. It minimizes disk usage and is forward-compatible. It is worth noting that any interested persons or entities, including an exchange or a roll-up, can support or contribute to the upgrade for the upcoming “Surge” development. The Merge and Ethereum price The EIP-4844 upgrade will result in more institutional and retail adoption. Thus, causing a jump in Ethereum’s price. The wider community, particularly businesses, will benefit from a faster transaction speed and less expensive transaction fees. Furthermore, using layer-2 roll-ups to manage large transaction volumes is an effective approach. Ethereum’s price has been moving sideways since the beginning of the month and currently trades at $1,330. It is down 1.78 percent in the last 24 hours, according to our data. Data from on-chain analytics firm, CryptoQuant, claims that Ethereum whales (large volume Ethereum holders) have been engaging in various exchange activities to manipulate Ethereum’s price. CryptoQuant explained that these whales moved huge volumes of their ETH tokens to exchanges to cause a spike in the token’s price. Whales deposit #Ethereum into the exchange and raise prices to sell it at a higher price by @t0_god Read Morehttps://t.co/qd8W2dQsh7 — CryptoQuant.com (@cryptoquant_com) October 4, 2022 Then, they sold these tokens at these hiked prices. The on-chain analytics firm stated that Ethereum’s price rose sharply following a rise in the token’s balances on exchanges. Usually, an increase in the volume of Ethereum or any other token on exchanges results in a decline in their price. Hence, CryptoQuant alleges that Ethereum whales must have been involved in causing a rise in Ethereum’s price after moving their Ethereum tokens to exchanges. Then, make huge profits by selling off the tokens at higher prices.

Japan, U.S. Conduct Joint Drill Involving Aircraft Carrier -Japan Govt – Reuters https://collincountynewsonline.com/japan-u-s-conduct-joint-drill-involving-aircraft-carrier-japan-govt-reuters/ TOKYO, Oct 8 (Reuters) – Japan and the United States are conducting a joint military drill involving U.S. aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan in areas around Japan in light of North Korea’s continued missile launches, Japan’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday. North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Thursday in the direction of Japan. The missile launch was the sixth in 12 days and the first since Pyongyang fired an intermediate-range missile over Japan on Tuesday. “Amid an increasingly severe security environment surrounding Japan, including North Korea’s repeated ballistic missile launches, Japan Self-Defense Forces and U.S. Armed Forces have been conducting a bilateral exercise,” the ministry said in a statement. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com The joint drill, in which a Japanese destroyer is participating, has been underway since Oct. 1, the statement said. It did not say when it is scheduled to end. The United States and South Korea carried out joint exercises this week. North Korea’s defence ministry was “taking a stern look at the development of the current situation, which is very worrisome,” regarding the U.S.-South Korean drills, North Korea’s state media KCNA said in a statement on Saturday. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by William Mallard Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

CPC Steers China Toward Prosperity – PR Newswire https://collincountynewsonline.com/cpc-steers-china-toward-prosperity-pr-newswire/ , /PRNewswire/ — A news report from Science and Technology Daily: China is the second-largest economy of the world, however the country was not as advanced as it is now when the Communist Party of China (CPC) founded the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on October 1, 1949. Since then, the CPC has been at the helm to steer the country toward its current prosperity. The CPC set out on its historic journey, with only 50 members, from a boat in Zhejiang, an eastern coastal province of China, on July 23, 1921. Nearly three decades after its foundation, the CPC established the PRC. The party has never forgotten its core goal of serving the people of China against all odds. Therefore, the CPC could build every inch of China according to its dream and up to the expectations of the Chinese people. If we look back at history, we can realize how fast and effectively the CPC has improved the fate of China and its people. In the 1930s, China’s GDP fell to 21.3 billion USD. The foreign investment totaled 3.5 billion USD, while capital investment dropped to only three billion USD. China witnessed a massive decline in agricultural prices at this time and the income of rural farmers fell to 57 percent in some areas. In 1937, Japan invaded China and most of the prosperous east coast was occupied by the Japanese, who destroyed all that China had built up in the preceding decade. The country’s textile industry was decimated and key exports were limited to glue, tea, silk, sugar cane, tobacco, cotton, corn, and peanuts. Before the PRC was established in 1949, inflation was rampant, and the total currency in circulation was 120 billion times more than in 1936. The country had the 40th largest GDP in the world and struggled to provide its large population with enough food, clothes, and other basic needs. The CPC also inherited 80 percent illiteracy rates among youth and adults aged from 12 to 40, and lacked educational facilities with minimal national curricular goals. However, the leaders and activists of the party had adequate courage, morale, and dreams to build China into a prosperous country. The CPC has been leading China closer to its core dream for the last century. China has now been the world’s second-largest economy since 2010 in nominal GDP , making prospects for becoming the largest in nominal GDP by 2028. As of 2020, China has the largest number of billionaires and millionaires in the world. According to the 2019 Global Wealth Report by Credit Suisse Group, China surpassed the U.S. in the wealth of the top ten percent of the world’s population. China is also home to the largest companies in the Fortune Global 500, with 129 being headquartered in the country. The moon exploration program of China is the epitome of its diversified and startling development. With one success after another in lunar exploration, China has successfully carried out three-phase lunar probe missions, with Chang’e 5 returning to earth with lunar samples on December 17, 2020. The country is upbeat about completing its next phase in the lunar exploration program by putting a man on the moon by 2030. With a total of 11 missions, China is expected to complete the building of its space station, the first of its kind by a single country, this year, while a Chinese robot is conducting thorough research on Mars. Since the adoption of its opening-up and reform policy in 1978, the country has lifted more than 700 million people out of poverty, which is over 70 percent of total global poverty reduction during this time. It, therefore, shook off the abject poverty yoke one decade before the deadline set by the UN for 2030. During the dark days of the COVID-19 pandemic, China has emerged as an unparalleled friend of humanity. It was the first to pledge to make its vaccines a global public good and it has been honoring this commitment. The country has so far provided vaccine assistance to over 80 developing countries and exported doses worldwide. Overcoming a raft of challenges, the CPC has now embarked on a journey to transform China into a modern socialist nation by 2049, the centenary of the foundation of the PRC. SOURCE Science and Technology Daily

Overwatch 2: Kiriko’s Debut And Launch Day Woes – Lords Of Gaming https://collincountynewsonline.com/overwatch-2-kirikos-debut-and-launch-day-woes-lords-of-gaming/ Overwatch 2 is here. Finally, the much-anticipated sequel to 2016’s game of the year has launched. Activision-Blizzard suffered from studio restructuring around the Overwatch team. This resulted in the franchise suffering from content drought and the sequel taking longer to develop than planned. Three new heroes came with the game’s launch including Kiriko’s debut. Unfortunately, this week was far from ideal for Overwatch fans. Heroes Under Siege This week, Overwatch 2‘s servers were flooded with players. The game is free to play, unlike its predecessor. Thus the player population was at an all-time high, probably higher than the original title’s golden era. Besides the server stress, things were not any easier for the development team. We’re steadily making progress on server issues and stability, as well as working through a second DDoS attack. We’re all hands on deck and will continue to work throughout the night. Thank you for your patience – we’ll share more info as it becomes available. — Aaron Keller (@aaronkellerOW) October 5, 2022 Read more: Sledgehammer Games May Be Developing Advanced Warfare 2 Additionally, Activision-Blizzard was targeted by mass DDOS attacks. This resulted in irregular player disconnects and extremely high queue times when logging in. These problems persisted across multiple days. Activision-Blizzard applied a patch on Thursday night. This aimed to solve these issues. This patch mostly accomplished that. However, a new issue arose. Players now experience outrageous wait times for role-que quickplay. This seems to be limited to that mode as open-role and competitive wait times are standard. An additional patch is planned for this and other persisting problems. That aside, Overwatch 2’s new hero has impressed fans and me in more ways than one. Kiriko’s debut is one for the ages. Protector of Kanezaka TwitchCon has returned for 2022. This convention celebrates the streaming platform and the community of gamers and content creators who call it home. This year marks a return to normalcy for the convention since the pandemic. Previously, TwitchCon took a year off and tried an online alternative. Aaron Keller ( game director of Overwatch 2) took time to discuss some highlights of the game’s launch at the convention. Additionally, he teased fans about the new cinematic from the team. Aaron described it as “one of his favorite animated shorts ever created.” This cinematic paves the way for Kiriko’s debut. Kiriko is the new support hero of Overwatch 2. She shares a childhood home with Hanzo and Genji and balances the spiritual and physical planes of life. Kiriko’s kit grants her survivability and synergy with her team, unlike other support heroes. She is a menace on the battlefield in the hands of a skilled player. Her launch brought a small silver lining to a troublesome launch week for the Overwatch team. History Repeats Itself I find the game to radiate Halo Infinite energy. The gameplay and world are solid. People love these heroes and the small stories that accompany them. I am not surprised so many are eager for the PvE mode to arrive next year. However, Activision-Blizzard has delivered a poor excuse for a live-service, free-to-play model at launch. The battle pass has abysmal rewards for the free tier. This unfairly pushes players to spend money. Additionally, each new hero will be locked behind the battle pass starting with Kiriko. Players looking to save money will have to grind the pass to tier fifty-five to unlock her. The alternative is purchasing the battle pass which of course grants her immediately. It is only the first week. Activision-Blizzard has a chance to right this ship before it sinks too deep like Halo Infinite. The PvE mode will also attract goodwill along with great new content like Kiriko’s debut. However, the developers have to work fast if they wish to retain the massive new audience. Modern gaming seems to encourage old franchise juggernauts out of retirement. However, I fear they may be doomed to flounder in the shadow of old greatness. How are you enjoying your time with the game? Let us know in the comments down below. Remember for all things Overwatch 2, bend the knee in the realm of Lords of Gaming. We at Lords of Gaming condemn the discrimination, misogyny, and toxic working environment at Activision Blizzard. For more information, please see our Lord’s Minute on the subject. If you are struggling with thoughts of self-harm or suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline. We care about you.”

Draft Environmental Impact Statement And Public Hearing: Spur 399 Extension From US 75 To US 380 – North Texas E-News https://collincountynewsonline.com/draft-environmental-impact-statement-and-public-hearing-spur-399-extension-from-us-75-to-us-380-north-texas-e-news/ McKinney, Texas — The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is proposing to construct an extension to Spur 399 from US 75 south of McKinney to US 380 east of McKinney in Collin County, Texas. This notice advises the public that a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) is available for public review and that TxDOT will be conducting an in-person and online virtual public hearing on the proposed project.   The same information will be available at both the in-person and virtual hearings. The in-person public hearing will follow an “open house” format. The purpose of the hearing is to present the DEIS and updated schematic design of TxDOT’s Preferred Alternative which has previously been presented as the Orange Alternative, east of McKinney National Airport. In-Person Hearing Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Sheraton Hotel Throckmorton Ballroom 1900 Gateway Blvd, McKinney, TX 75070 Virtual Hearing Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022, at 5:30 p.m. through Saturday, Dec. 10 at 11:59 p.m. www.keepitmovingdallas.com/Spur399 *Not a live event The proposed project would accommodate a six to eight-lane freeway with frontage roads on each side in most areas to improve north-south mobility and improve connectivity between the eastern portion of Collin County and destinations south of McKinney. The typical proposed right-of-way (ROW) would be approximately 400 feet wide, with the minimum and maximum ROW width ranging from 165 feet to 696 feet, respectively. Depending on the location, the typical freeway section would consist of four 12-foot-wide travel lanes in each direction with 10 to 17 foot wide inside and outside shoulders and 2 lane (each 12-feet-wide), one-way frontage roads on either side of the mainlanes. Shared-use paths (SUPs) built along the outside of the frontage roads would provide bicycle and pedestrian accommodations and support multi-modal access. The total proposed ROW acreage is estimated at 366.1 acres. The proposed project passes through the City of McKinney and Collin County and is near the Town of Fairview. The proposed project would cross over a portion of the Wilson Creek Greenbelt, owned by the City of McKinney, east of State Highway (SH) 5. The new location freeway would be constructed on a bridge over the park land. The piers supporting the bridge would touch down within the park property but would not affect the trails and other park amenities. TxDOT anticipates making a De Minimis determination for this use under Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act of 1966. Public comment on the effects of the proposed project on the activities, features, or attributes of the Wilson Creek Greenbelt may be submitted as described below. The proposed project would, subject to final design considerations, require additional ROW and potentially displace seven residences and two business structures. Relocation assistance is available for displaced persons and businesses. Information about the TxDOT Relocation Assistance Program and services and benefits for those displaced and other affected property owners, as well as information about the tentative schedule for ROW acquisition and construction, can be obtained from the TxDOT district office by calling (214) 320-6675 or online at www.keepitmovingdallas.com/Spur399 The proposed project would involve construction in wetlands and an action in a floodplain. Environmental documentation and studies, including the draft EIS and any maps and drawings showing the project location and design, tentative construction schedules, and other information regarding the proposed project are on file and available for inspection Monday through Friday between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. at the TxDOT Dallas District Office, 4777 East US Highway 80, Mesquite, Texas 75150-6643. Project materials will also available online at www.keepitmovingdallas.com/Spur399 and in hard copy form for review at the in-person public hearing. The public hearing will be conducted in English. If you need an interpreter or document translator because English is not your primary language or you have difficulty communicating effectively in English, one will be provided to you. If you have a disability and need assistance, special arrangements can be made to accommodate most needs. If you need interpretation or translation services or you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation to attend and participate in the virtual public hearing or in-person option, please contact TxDOT Public Information Office at (214) 320-4480 no later than 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. Please be aware that advance notice is required as some services and accommodations may require time for the Texas Department of Transportation to arrange. Comments from the public regarding the proposed project are requested and may be submitted to TxDOT Dallas District Office, 4777 East US Highway 80, Mesquite, Texas 75150-6643 or  Stephen.Endres@txdot.gov. Verbal comments may be submitted by calling (833) 933-0443. All comments must be received or postmarked before Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022. Responses to written comments received by the deadline will be available on the project website once they have been prepared. If you have any general questions or concerns regarding the proposed project or the hearing, please contact the TxDOT Project Manager, Mr. Stephen Endres, P.E., at (214) 320-4469 or Stephen.Endres@txdot.gov.

Did You Know: Lufthansa Will Let You Book A Mystery Vacation? – Simple Flying https://collincountynewsonline.com/did-you-know-lufthansa-will-let-you-book-a-mystery-vacation-simple-flying/ German flag carrier Lufthansa is offering passengers the chance to book flights to a surprise destination, potentially saving them a significant amount of money in the process. The concept, branded as Lufthansa Surprise, is a unique way for passengers to add some excitement to their travel plans. The process is simple – passengers choose one of nine different travel themes, their preferred dates of travel, and a departure point of either Frankfurt Airport (FRA) or Munich Airport (MUC). The price of the booking is then displayed, and once payment has been processed, the destination is revealed. Bookings can be made from one to 42 days in advance, and passengers can choose to exclude individual destinations from each travel theme. However, according to Lufthansa, the more flexible they are, the more money they stand to save. Lufthansa Surprise allows passengers to save money by booking flights to a mystery destination. Photo: Getty Images What are the travel themes? There are nine different travel themes available. Example destinations from within each theme and their prices are listed below (departures from Frankfurt): Worth Seeing – from €79 ($77) – Ibiza, Vilnius Go East – from €89 ($87) – Dubrovnik, Riga Arts and Sights – from €89 ($87) – Bordeaux, Santiago de Compostela The Great Outdoors – from €89 ($87) – Bergen, Valencia Follow the Sun – from €89 ($87) – Palma de Mallorca, Rhodes Party On – from €99 ($96) – Barcelona, Helsinki For Lovers – €99 ($96) – Florence, Malta Shop Till You Drop – €99 ($96) – Copenhagen, Milan Urban Adventures – from €109 ($106) – Madrid, Reykjavik All bookings are made on Lufthansa’s Economy fare, which includes one 8kg item of cabin baggage. Passengers can choose to add ancillary services such as checked baggage and seat selection. Once booked, the flights cannot be changed and are non-refundable. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the airline’s 24-hour free cancelation policy does not apply in this case either. There are some significant savings to be had – according to Lufthansa, savings average €250 ($243) per person. For example, on a dummy booking, flights departing mid-week in October to a ‘Follow the Sun’ destination were available for €90 ($88), whereas regular flight bookings to the potential destinations, including Palma de Mallorca and Faro, were coming in at over €300 ($292). As part of Lufthansa Surprise, passengers can select their travel dates and a travel theme. The destination is then revealed once the booking has been completed. Photo: Lufthansa Flights can also be credited to the passenger’s Miles & More account – Lufthansa’s frequent flyer program, which is due to be revamped in early 2024. The destinations available as part of Lufthansa Surprise are all within Europe. This means that flights will most likely be operated by the airline’s Airbus A320 family aircraft. Lufthansa currently has 187 Airbus narrowbody aircraft in its fleet, with 79 more Airbus A320neos and Airbus A321neos on order. Destination unknown Lufthansa is not the only airline to be offering flights to unknown destinations. This summer, ultra-low-cost carrier Wizz Air took 200 competition winners on a mystery journey from its hub at Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH). The destination of Kutaisi (KUT) was only announced onboard once the aircraft had landed. Wizz Air recently ran a competition to fly to an unknown destination (Kutaisi), which was announced on arrival. Photo: Wizz Air While Wizz Air’s one-off competition was different from Lufthansa’s bookable flights, the concept of a surprise flight is an ingenious idea for airlines to fill seats on flights with otherwise lower load factors. What do you think of the idea of booking a flight to an unknown destination? Share your thoughts by commenting below. Lufthansa IATA/ICAO Code: LH/DLH Airline Type: Full Service Carrier Hub(s): Frankfurt Airport, Munich Airport Year Founded: 1953 Alliance: Star Alliance Airline Group: Lufthansa Group CEO: Carsten Spohr Country: Germany

Board Of Suzlon Energy Appoints Chairman And MD – Business Standard https://collincountynewsonline.com/board-of-suzlon-energy-appoints-chairman-and-md-business-standard/ At board meeting held on 07 October 2022 The Board of Suzlon Energy at its meeting held on 07 October 2022 has approved the appointment of Vinod R.Tanti as the Chairman & Managing Director of the Company with immediate effect, i.e. from 7 October 2022. The Board also approved the appointment Girish R.Tanti as the Executive Director designated as the Executive Vice Chairman of the Company with immediate effect, i.e. from 7 October 2022. The Board has appointed Pranav Tanti (DIN: 02957770) as an Additional Director of the Company, with effect from 7 October 2022. Powered by Capital Market – Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Subscribe to Business Standard Premium Exclusive Stories, Curated Newsletters, 26 years of Archives, E-paper, and more! First Published: Sat, October 08 2022. 13:23 IST

20 Best Air Fryers In Nigeria And Their Prices – InfoGuide Nigeria https://collincountynewsonline.com/20-best-air-fryers-in-nigeria-and-their-prices-infoguide-nigeria/ Air fryer price in Nigeria – In this article, you will see the 20 best Air fryers in Nigeria, their essential features, and their price. The air fryer is one of the most important cooking appliances to have in your kitchen because it is quick and simple to use, and, most importantly, the meals prepared with it are healthy. As a result of these factors, the demand for air fryers in Nigeria is rapidly increasing.Information Guide Nigeria Best air fryers in Nigeria and their picture– These healthy cooking appliances are also highly versatile, as they can be used to prepare various meals by frying, baking, grilling, and so on. Most importantly, unlike the Deep Fryer, they use very little oil and are very easy to clean after use. Below is a list of the best Air fryers in Nigeria, along with their prices, to help you decide which product best fits your budget. Choosing the best fryers in Nigeria – Choosing the best air fryer on the market can sometimes be challenging because there are so many manufacturers with comparable features and costs. However, there are some key features to consider before concluding that a particular air fryer brand or model is the best or most suitable, though these points may vary slightly depending on your preferences. In this article, you will find a concise review of the best 20 best air fryers, their features and prices, and some reputable online stores where you can buy air fryers confidently. 1. Quinix AIRFRYER 8L Large Capacity UK STANDARD The Quinix 8L Digital Air Fryer is one of the latest air fryers in Nigeria that allows you to fry food without using oil. It also assists you in reducing your fat intake by up to 80%. The Airfryer has fast air technology, adjustable temperature control, and a 30-minute timer that lets you plan your cooking time. However, parts of the air fryer are detachable and dishwashing safe. It also contains an integrated air filter that keeps your kitchen clean and fresh.Best Air Fryers   FEATURES Healthy eating lifestyle. Adjustable timer. Temperature control. Capacity: 8L High-power performance for fast cooking results. Easy to clean and creates less smell than regular fryers. Nonstick UK STANDARD Price: ₦ 50,500 2. Silver Crest 6L Digital (Healthy) Airfryer- Extra Large This air fryer makes fried foods healthier by using less or no oil. You may enjoy the same fried and crispy dishes with this air fryer while using less fat and oil. Without a doubt, using little or no oil when frying is healthful. You were considered during the creation of this air fryer. The risk of cholesterol in all fries is significantly reduced or eliminated. However, if you require one of the best fryers in Nigeria, you can try Silver Crest 6L Digital (Healthy) Airfryer- Extra Large. FEATURES Fries in a healthier way LCD touch control Less fat and grease Guaranteed reliability 2400 Watts German technology Uses hit air circulation Easy to operate Noiseless operation Low Power consumption Durable Effective Uses hit air circulation Easy to operate Noiseless operation Low Power consumption Durable Effective Uses hit air circulation Easy to operate Noiseless operation Low Power consumption Durable Effective Price: ₦ 45,000 3. Silver Crest Extra Large 15L Multifunctional Less Oil Air Fryer And Oven The Silvercrest extra-large capacity air fryer is one of the best air fryers in Nigeria. The air fryer allows you to fry, bake, toast, and roast snacks and meals with less fat than a conventional fryer by using less oil or no oil. It is led touchscreen display and a 5000W premium oil-free fryer. In addition, the oil-free fryer is simple to clean, safe, and affordable for regular use. It also emits less smell than a conventional fryer. FEATURES Power: 5000W  Voltage: 220-240, Weight: 8kg  Capacity 12 liters Constant and consistent hot air convection technology  The temperature is distributed evenly, making food finish faster.  Temperature can be adjusted.  Set the cooking timer up to 30 minutes.   Non-stick coated food basket does not stick to the economy  It can be detached from the machine.  Easy to clean Current Price: ₦ 47,500 4. Faster Digital Air Fryer 6L The Faster Digital Air Fryer allows you to fry food without using oil. It also helps to cut your fat intake by up to 80%. The air fryer has fast air technology, adjustable temperature control, and a 30-minute timer that lets you plan your cooking time. Additionally, parts of the air fryer are detachable and dishwashing safe. Also, it has an integrated air filter that keeps your kitchen clean and fresh. However, the air fryer manufacturer provides you with a recipe book that will assist you in getting started with your healthy cooking routine. The Faster Digital Air Fryer is one of the cheapest air fryers in Nigeria. FEATURES Healthy eating lifestyle. Adjustable timer. Temperature control. Capacity: 6L High-power performance for fast cooking results. Easy to clean and creates less smell than standard fryers. Nonstick Price: ₦ 31,400 5. Silver Crest Extra Large Capacity Digital Air Fryer-6L The Silver Crest Germany 6L Digital Air Fryer is an exceptional design air fryer that helps you fry food without using oil and reduce your fat intake by up to 80%. The machine has fast air technology, adjustable temperature control, and a 30-minute timer that allows you to plan your cooking time. However, some parts of the air fryer are detachable and dishwashing safe. It also has an integrated air filter that keeps your kitchen clean and fresh. Also, the manufacturer provides a recipe book that assists you in getting started with your healthy cooking routine. The Silver Crest Germany 6L Digital Air Fryer is one of the latest air fryers in Nigeria in 2022. FEATURES Healthy eating lifestyle. Adjustable timer. Temperature control. Capacity: 6L High-power performance for fast cooking results. Easy to clean and creates less smell than regular fryers. German Technology Price: ₦ 26,900 6. ANKO 3-IN-1 Multipurpose Air Fryer, Oven, And Dehydrator – 11L FEATURES 3 functions: Air fryer, oven, and dehydrator LED touchscreen display 10 pre-set functions: Chips, chops, prawns, baking, drumsticks, steaks, fish, chicken, dehydrate and defrost 11-liter capacity Easy to use and clean ₦ 71,500 7. 22L Industrial 12-IN-1 Multipurpose Oil-Free Air Fryer/Oven The 22L manual Air Fryer Oven is a digital oven and air fryer. The air fryer is a breakthrough low-fat choice for the kitchen. You can cook delectable rotisserie roast chickens, faultless pizzas, and much more without using any oil. The 22L manual Air Fryer Oven also allows you to bake, roast, bake, and more while producing crispy and succulent food. However, you can choose from 12 built-in preset cooking options or completely control the powerful heating with temperature controls to experience consistently delicious meals. FEATURES All-in-one air fryer, rotisserie, oven, and more! Energy-saving fryer with no oil needed It comes with Heating power with 60-230°C adjustable temperature control 12 Preset cooking settings via the digital control panel Rotisserie 360deg food rotation for crispy chips and rotisserie chicken Stainless steel accessories are dishwasher safe Adjustable timer Rotisserie spit, wire rack, baking pan, air fryer basket, spit removal tool, crumb tray, and rolling cage included Price: ₦ 65,800 8. Multi-Programme Non-oil Halogen Oven + Air Fryer + Extender The 20L Air Fryer is manufactured to help you and your family retain the consumption of fried food but eliminate unhealthy ones. The modern air fryer is a quick and healthy way to enjoy the dishes you love because it uses a small amount of oil compared to a conventional fryer. Also, this kitchen tool will quickly become your go-to item when you want a quick and delectable supper because it is loaded with features that make it incredibly handy to use, such as variable temperature control and a timer function. It also includes a fantastic recipe book and tongs, giving you everything you need to start.Npower Recruitment  FEATURES Multi-programs convection oven Large 20L capacity (with extender ring included) 60-minute timer 60-degree ~ 250° thermostat control High-speed turbo heating system – even cooking Oil-less cooKing Cooks 2-3 times faster than the standard oven Saves up to 60% of energy Transparent & heat-resistant glass bowl Smart handle with safety switch Automatic self-cleaning function BONUS 8 cooKing accessories Plug Type: EU Plug Price: ₦ 34,000 9. Healthy Multipurpose 12litres Hot Airfryer Healthy Multipurpose 12litres Hot Airfryer is a premium oil-free fryer. This fryer allows you to fry, bake, toast, and roast the best fast foods and meals with less fat than the conventional fryer. Also, it uses little or no oil for frying. In addition, the healthy multipurpose oil-free fryer produces less odor and is easy to clean, safe, and economical for everyday use. The built-in timer function allows you to preset up to 30 minutes of cooking time. The auto-off function includes a “ready” sound indicator. KEY FEATURES Name: 12L 2500W Air Fryer Oven Toaster Rotisserie Dehydrator Countertop Oven Color: Black Dimension: 30x30x36cm Power: 2500W Voltage: 220V Frequency: 50/60Hz Capacity: 12L Price: ₦ 70,500 10. Silver Crest 8 Litres Digital Silver Crest Air Fryer The Digital Air Fryer enables you to lower your fat intake by up to 80%. It is one of the most durable air fryers in Nigeria. The fryer helps you to eliminate the need for oil to fry food. It has fast air technology, adjustable temperature control, and a 30-minute timer that lets you plan your cooking time. However, some parts of the air fryer are detachable and dishwashing safe. The integrated air filter o...

Japanese GP: Lando Norris Says Max Verstappen Should Get Penalty After Qualifying Incident – Sky Sports https://collincountynewsonline.com/japanese-gp-lando-norris-says-max-verstappen-should-get-penalty-after-qualifying-incident-sky-sports/ Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player McLaren’s Lando Norris somehow managed to avoid a crash with Max Verstappen during the final part of qualifying at Suzuka McLaren’s Lando Norris somehow managed to avoid a crash with Max Verstappen during the final part of qualifying at Suzuka Max Verstappen held on to pole position for the Japanese GP after Lando Norris withdrew his accusation that the Dutchman had intentionally forced him off track in qualifying. Verstappen, who can claim the world championship by winning Sunday’s race and taking the fastest lap, was fastest in qualifying on Saturday but faced an agonising wait as the stewards investigated a Q3 incident with Norris. As the drivers were on their out-laps ahead of their first flying efforts, with Verstappen going slowly, Norris attempted to overtake the Red Bull on the approach to 130R. Verstappen keeps pole, has title chance, after reprimand for Norris near-miss Gasly joining Alpine for 2023 | De Vries to fill AlphaTauri seat Japanese GP: When to watch live on Sky Sports F1 Verstappen then suddenly accelerated, and appeared to lose control of the rear of his car as he swerved across the track towards the line the McLaren was on, leaving Norris no option but to go off track to avoid a collision. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Karun Chandhok was at the SkyPad to analyse if Red Bull’s Max Verstappen impeded McLaren’s Lando Norris in qualifying Karun Chandhok was at the SkyPad to analyse if Red Bull’s Max Verstappen impeded McLaren’s Lando Norris in qualifying Norris initially accused Verstappen of intentionally pushing him off the track, but later told stewards it had simply been an “unfortunate incident”, likely helping the Dutchman escape with just a reprimand that allowed him to hold on to pole. Before the resolution had been reached, the drivers’ post-race media obligations had resulted in a back and forth as both put forward their views of the incident. Norris makes accusation Both Verstappen and Red Bull team principal Christian Horner argued that Norris was breaking a “gentleman’s agreement” between drivers not to overtake on out-laps, but the Briton was initially adamant the stewards should take action. Asked if he thought Verstappen tried to block his overtake, Norris told Sky Sports F1: “I mean it was quite clear he tried to do that. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player McLaren’s Lando Norris blamed Red Bull driver Max Verstappen for almost causing a collision with him during Q3 at Suzuka McLaren’s Lando Norris blamed Red Bull driver Max Verstappen for almost causing a collision with him during Q3 at Suzuka “There’s no rule on what you can do, but doing what he did is something that you cannot do. “People always overtake before the last corner, as much as everyone agrees to it [gentleman’s agreement], everyone always does it, so it doesn’t matter, he probably would have done the same if he was in my situation, but I wouldn’t have swerved at him if I was in his situation.” Asked if he would expect a penalty if he had done what Verstappen did, Norris replied: “Oh yeah, for sure.” Verstappen: Norris could be more respectful Verstappen, who appeared to offer an apology on the drivers’ in-laps as he pulled alongside Norris and waved, said he had not intentionally blocked the McLaren. “I was just driving quite slow, and I wanted to accelerate but my tyres were quite cold, so then I had a big moment,” Verstappen said in his on-track interview immediately after qualifying. “Then of course Lando was trying to pass me at the same time so he had to avoid me a little bit, but luckily nothing happened.” Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz took the top three spots in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz took the top three spots in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix However, speaking shortly after in the top-three press conference, Verstappen offered a stronger riposte to Norris’ comments. “We were on our out-lap and we were all lining up to try to create a gap to everyone, and somehow he still wanted to get me into the chicane, but I was at the point of acceleration, but I was on very cold tyres so I had a little moment and that’s why he had to drive around me,” he said. “But if you’re just a bit more respectful, then everyone is anyway already lining up. I don’t think anyone is trying to pass into that last chicane, so basically by trying to pass me you create that kind of problem.” Then in a third interview in the media pen, Verstappen appeared to soften his stance once more. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Red Bull’s Max Verstappen gave his perspective on the incident concerning Lando Norris and revealed how he is feeling about possibly becoming world champion in Sunday’s race Red Bull’s Max Verstappen gave his perspective on the incident concerning Lando Norris and revealed how he is feeling about possibly becoming world champion in Sunday’s race “Lando is a very good friend of mine so I would never deliberately push him off the track… maybe he thinks I did,” Verstappen said. “The problem is that I was creating a gap to the cars ahead which everyone, of course, does because you don’t want to be too close around here. But, of course, your tyres are so cold because you’re driving so slow. I was just trying to warm my tyres a bit and then in my mirrors I saw he was coming quite quick and I wanted to stay ahead of him, and as soon as I accelerated I lost the rear by having cold tyres. “I had a big moment and tried to correct the car, and that’s why he had to go through the grass. Maybe he saw it as I was trying to turn in on him but I lost the car and I couldn’t have done anything else.” With Verstappen and Norris waiting to visit the stewards, Red Bull boss Horner added that he was adamant the incident had been caused accidentally. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Red Bull boss Christian Horner believes Lando Norris was wrong to try overtaking Max Verstappen on his out-lap and did not think the Dutchman should be penalised for the incident after securing pole Red Bull boss Christian Horner believes Lando Norris was wrong to try overtaking Max Verstappen on his out-lap and did not think the Dutchman should be penalised for the incident after securing pole “I don’t think he’s trying to block Lando, I just don’t think he was expecting someone on an out-lap at that point near the chicane,” Horner said. “They’re both on out-laps and there’s a gentleman’s agreement between the drivers that when you get to that part of the circuit you hold position and they file through the last chicane one-by-one. “So, Lando has decided that he wants to jump the queue as they head up to that final chicane. They’ve been following each other all the way around the circuit until that point.” ‘Always friends’ Almost an hour after qualifying had finished, Verstappen and Norris made their way to see the stewards, with the pair, who are known to be good friends, emerging from the meeting together. Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz, who was in the middle of his live Qualifying Notebook show, approached the pair, first asking if they were still friends. Twitter Due to your consent preferences, you’re not able to view this Privacy Options Verstappen replied that they will “always” be friends, before appearing to suggest the situation had been resolved. “It’s just when you are in the car, once you see every on-board, it makes a lot more sense,” he said. “They [the stewards] have everything.” Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Red Bull’s Max Verstappen takes pole for the Japanese Grand Prix Red Bull’s Max Verstappen takes pole for the Japanese Grand Prix Almost 30 minutes later, the FIA would release its ruling, confirming Verstappen had received just a reprimand and would not face a grid penalty. That was despite finding him guilty of breaching article 33.4 of F1’s sporting regulations, which state that: “At no time may a car be driven unnecessarily slowly, erratically or in a manner which could be deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers or any other person.” It also said in the report that Norris had “stated that this was simply an unfortunate incident”. Button: it could have been a massive incident | Herbert surprised by decision Before the ruling had been made, Sky Sports F1’s Jenson Button said he thought there was a “good possibility” Verstappen would receive a penalty due to the dangerous nature of the incident. Button said: “[He breached] all three [sporting regulations] I’d have to say. I don’t think any of it was intentional, when Lando says he turned left into me, I don’t think he did. “He [Max] is not looking in his mirrors, he looks like he’s got on the throttle to try and warm the tyres up and that’s put him in a position that looks like he’s moving over on Lando. Should he have done that? No. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Craig Slater and Johnny Herbert explain that Max Verstappen avoided serious punishment for his qualifying incident with Lando Norris because the stewards deemed he did not intend to cause a collision Craig Slater and Johnny Herbert explain that Max Verstappen avoided serious punishment for his qualifying incident with Lando Norris because the stewards deemed he did not intend to cause a collision “He’s going too slow on the exit of a 200mph corner, so that’s the issue that he has. “None of it was intentional but the problem is that it could ...

GAMA Is Onboarding Crew Members For Its Space-Themed Metaverse | Bitcoinist.com – Bitcoinist https://collincountynewsonline.com/gama-is-onboarding-crew-members-for-its-space-themed-metaverse-bitcoinist-com-bitcoinist/ Los Angeles, September 19 – GAMA has launched its metaverse, the GAMA Space Station (GSS). The project, which is focused on interoperability, is opening its doors to other communities in the blockchain and web3 ecosystem. This initiative has already begun with the recent announcement with members of the CloneX community, who have shown off their NFT characters inside the GSS. We are not alone in the universe GAMA is the Web3 project behind the GSS metaverse. The project is focused on delivering an immersive virtual experience. As such, the GSS plans on featuring innovative game mechanics along with an immersive social ecosystem, which combines to create a realistic experience that aims to set the standard for metaverse projects. This is accomplished with Unreal Engine 5. This game engine allows GAMA to integrate high-end graphics and quality audio, lighting, and animations into the experience. This aligns with its goal to bring “innovative gaming mechanics that blend the digital world with reality.” GAMA isn’t the only Web3 project out there. The blockchain ecosystem is full of platforms doing their own thing. Each tries to create a dedicated community and offer members unique experiences. And, while that has its benefits, it would be great if these platforms would regularly collaborate to create new experiences for users. With this in mind, GAMA puts a special emphasis on interoperability in their metaverse. The goal is for people in other communities to experience the project’s immersive entertainment experiences. “We are not alone. Interoperability is a key factor in the Metaverse. We know we are not alone in the universe & welcome more communities to join our mission aboard the GSS.” The first beneficiary of this initiative is the CloneX NFT community. Through the collaboration, CloneX NFT owners can see their characters in the GAMA metaverse and will soon be able to freely experience the metaverse with their characters brought to life. Recently, one CloneX owner even incorporated an image of his GSS CloneX as an album cover art. Merging worlds While GAMA’s focus is on providing an incredible metaverse experience, the project has also realized the value of physical, real-world offerings. Thus, it strives to include a unique user experience through GAMA Studios via graphic storytelling formats represented through both digital and physical collectibles. GAMA’s NFTs give holders access to real-world events where they can interact with each other in person. This deepens the sense of community and belonging in the GAMA metaverse. About GAMA GAMA is a Web3 platform that is building a new form of entertainment through its metaverse. In addition to providing an exclusive experience for its own community, GAMA is applying a universal standard by offering the experience to other NFT communities as well. GAMA NFTs are the core of its GSS Metaverse narrative, each one representing a crew member that is traveling to space to harness alternative forms of energy. GAMA recently teased its first playable game, Dark Horizon, which will be the first extension to its metaverse. Discord: https://discord.gg/gama Twitter: https://twitter.com/gama_nft Website: https://gama.io Disclaimer: This is a paid release. The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the content provider and do not necessarily represent those of Bitcoinist. Bitcoinist does not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of information available in such content. Do your research and invest at your own risk.

Top 8 Super Heroes Who Probably Smoke Weed – The Illuminerdi https://collincountynewsonline.com/top-8-super-heroes-who-probably-smoke-weed-the-illuminerdi/ A List of Stoned Characters and Superheroes who probably smoke weed. When you think of your favorite comic book heroes, it’s probably not easy to name stoned characters. The absence of weed and other controversial consumables from comic books is due to legislation prohibiting it. If, however, you look more closely at the information provided for each superhero, you might pick up clues.  When considering personality traits, environmental factors, and character history, it’s easier to figure out who dabbled with weed. There may even be a superhero or two who grow high-yield marijuana seeds in secret.  Are you ready to discover which heroes dated Mary Jane (besides Spider-Man, who has a relationship with her)?  RELATED: She-Hulk Star Jameela Jamil Post Dazzling Photoshoot Pictures of Titania Online 1. Hulk  Weed might’ve saved this city The Hulk is the green giant responsible for mass destruction and damage to countless cities. He’s the product of a gamma radiation experiment gone awry and the alter-ego of timid scientist Dr. Bruce Banner.  The logically minded doctor has no control over the actions of the Hulk, who comes out when Banner gets angry. The scientist tries various treatments and alternative therapies to remedy the problem, but nothing helps.  To minimize the chances of Hulk appearing, Bruce Banner must remain calm. What better way to get yourself to a serene mental space than with a toke or two? There’s even a strain named after the scientist. This tribute is an indication that the Hulk is a weed superhero.  2. Rogue The only female superhero to make this list. She has a rebellious streak and, as such, probably does a couple of things outside of the protocol.  She started her super career as a villain and later joined the X-Men. The name Rogue began as a nickname after she ran away from home because of her aunt’s controlling nature.  That fact is enough to require a joint to calm down. However, her ability to absorb and mimic other heroes’ powers probably takes a mental toll. What better way to destress and feel like herself than by lighting up a potent indica? RELATED: MMPR/TMNT 2 Comic-book Series Announced at SDCC 3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Seth Rogen is writing this movie. Weed is involved in some way. While they’re a group of superheroes, they tend to do most things together. The biped turtles display several signs that raise suspicions.  Despite the enemies they face or the stressful situations they encounter, they remain chilled. They have calm, peaceful demeanors, and nothing seems to dampen their spirits.  The mutant brothers display signs of 420 munchies. They’re always hungry and obsessed with pizza and quickly become mesmerized when watching T.V. 4. Superman This guy should probably smoke weed. Seeing Superman and weed in the same sentence may seem shocking, but if you dig deeper, you’ll understand why. The hero has all the qualities of an upstanding citizen but comes from another planet.  He must ensure that his superhero actions align with what the public views as good and just. At the same time, he maintains a secret identity, a normal career, and tries to woo the love of his life.  With so much pressure, something has to give unless he has some assistance in dealing with it all. A natural herb helps him unwind and let go at the end of the day. 5. Batman  Batman’s romantic trope doesn’t follow the usual comic book style, as he keeps much of his life private.  The superhero subjects himself to a range of chemicals to help him fight specific villains. He needs to keep his cool under pressure and hide his true identity.  A toke or two of the green herb may be the secret to his success in handling stressful situations. It’s not easy to picture stoner Batman, but when he’s alone in his lab, he might just be taking a puff or two to get his mind off things. RELATED: The Rock Revealed New Comic Accurate Black Adam Movie Poster 6. Deadpool Deadpool takes on Wolverine and other rivals with an upbeat demeanor.  He constantly cracks jokes and has a second voice in his head. These signs hint that Deadpool may indulge in potent THC-rich weed.  His body is resistant to most intoxicating substances, so to feel even slightly inebriated, the anti-hero needs to ingest a lot. 7. Spider-Man a lot to handle. Having to keep it all a secret while attending school and keeping up with a regular routine is even more overwhelming.  A possibility is that he starts his day with a toke of sativa to improve his focus and clarity. He then thrives off the energy boost to get him through the day. Spider-Man’s weed secret is even more hidden than his identity. 8. The Flash The quick-moving superhero is known for lab experiments as a police scientist. Initially, he may have opposed using cannabis, but when you’re breaking the sound barrier so often, you need to take time to recharge.  As you can imagine, The Flash probably finds it challenging to slow down. One way of forcing himself to unwind is with marijuana, a potent indica that induces couch-lock.  While the effects most likely won’t lead to body melt, it should be enough to get this fast-paced hero to chill out. Stoner Superheroes While all these possibilities are debatable, it’s exciting to think that even those with superhuman abilities may enjoy weed. Looking closely at the personality traits of the prospective stoned characters makes them more relatable.  Now that you know which superheroes possibly smoke weed, why not try a strain you think your favorite character may enjoy? About the Author Jennifer Gallagher LinkedIn Jennifer Gallagher, an experienced cannabis grower at SeedSupreme Seedbank. During a 7-year career in the marijuana growing business, Jennifer has gained a high competence in this field. As far as weed is concerned, she knows it all inside out. Jennifer is an expert in pot growing, as well as cannabis types and their effects. She’s also familiar with all legislation nuances. What do you think of this list? Are there others you think should be added to the list? Is there someone obvious that you feel should be here? Let us know and share your reasons why with us on Twitter! KEEP READING: 7 Best Cannabis Documentaries for True Cannabis Fans

Jim Cramer Says He Bought A Farm With Bitcoin Profits—And Dares You To Bet Against Him – Decrypt https://collincountynewsonline.com/jim-cramer-says-he-bought-a-farm-with-bitcoin-profits-and-dares-you-to-bet-against-him-decrypt/ CNBC’s Jim Cramer prodded his myriad online non-believers on Friday with a challenge: bet against him. He dares you.  Cramer bragged to Crypto Twitter that he’s divested from Bitcoin and Ethereum and bought a farm and boat with the spoils. He then coaxed doubters of his crypto market analyses to go all in on their anti-Cramer positions. Soon, those doubters may be able to do precisely that. As far as crypto, same: i bought a farm with my Bitcoin winnings, all announced, and i bought a boat with Ethereum. All announced. Everything disclosed. I WANT you to bet against me. You do not do this for 42 years and lose money evert year. — Jim Cramer (@jimcramer) October 7, 2022 According to an SEC filing from earlier this week, Tuttle Capital Management has applied to launch two exchange-traded funds—the Inverse Cramer ETF (SJIM), and the Long Cramer ETF (LJIM)—that will put an investor’s funds towards the opposite of whatever the outspoken television personality advises on his CNBC program “Mad Money,” and via his Twitter account.  “The Fund is an actively managed exchange traded fund that seeks to achieve its investment objective by engaging in transactions designed to perform the opposite of the return of the investments recommended by television personality Jim Cramer (“Cramer”),” the SEC filing reads. “Under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the Fund’s investments is invested in the inverse of securities mentioned by Cramer.” The history of the relationship between Cramer and Crypto Twitter is long and storied. Once an ardent crypto bull who stated it was “almost irresponsible” not to buy Bitcoin, Cramer had a 180-degree change of heart once crypto markets crashed earlier this year.  On Twitter, apparent patterns of Cramer’s financial advice backfiring perfectly led to the emergence of a parody account titled “Inverse Cramer ETF,” which would gloat whenever Cramer’s prognostications turned out to be precisely incorrect.  As Cramer developed increasing skepticism of crypto assets in the aftermath of May’s crypto crash, the television host began accumulating an ironic following on Crypto Twitter, with users jokingly—or maybe not—positing that so long as Cramer continued to bash crypto, there was hope for the market.  Cramer’s statement today may have been some form of acknowledgement of the lack of deference his financial advice is now generally granted online, and potentially, of his awareness of a prospective batch of publicly traded, anti-Cramer financial products.  As one Twitter user posited though, what “Inception”-level event would transpire if Cramer ever turned bullish on the Inverse Cramer?  What happens if Jim Cramer recommends the Inverse Jim Cramer ETF? — Genevieve Roch-Decter, CFA (@GRDecter) October 6, 2022 Stay on top of crypto news, get daily updates in your inbox.

South African Rand Weakens After Strong U.S. Jobs Data; Stocks Slide – Reuters https://collincountynewsonline.com/south-african-rand-weakens-after-strong-u-s-jobs-data-stocks-slide-reuters/ Oct 7 (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand weakened on Friday, as the dollar strengthened after a stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs report suggested the Federal Reserve will likely stick to its aggressive tightening policy for now. At 1523 GMT, the rand traded at 18.1000 against the dollar, 0.6% weaker than its previous close. Like most emerging market currencies, the rand is highly susceptible to global drivers such as U.S. monetary policy. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com The dollar index , which measures the greenback against six major rivals, was up 0.089% to 112.35. U.S. inflation data, due next week, will be watched closely as well and could prove influential in setting investors’ expectations for the Fed, according to strategists. read more On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), the Top-40 (.JTOPI) and the broader all-share (.JALSH) indexes ended almost 0.25% lower. The government’s benchmark 2030 bond was little changed in afternoon deals, with the yield down 1 basis point to 10.635%. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru and Anait Miridzhanian in Johannesburg; Editing by Christian Schmollinger Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Google’s News Partnerships APAC Head: ‘Committed To Responding To Needs Of Indian Publishers… Challenging When Govt Is Involved’ – The Indian Express https://collincountynewsonline.com/googles-news-partnerships-apac-head-committed-to-responding-to-needs-of-indian-publishers-challenging-when-govt-is-involved-the-indian-express/ Kate Beddoe, director of Google’s News Partnerships in APAC, believes India is a market where Google can have a very strong impact on ensuring access to quality information through a sustainable and growing business of news. She spoke with Nandagopal Rajan on how Google is engaging with publishers, updating the product to cater to the needs of readers, and balancing the many forces at play in the space of news. Edited excerpts from a video interview. As you engage with publishers, what is your North Star goal? What is it that you finally want to achieve? Is it improving the visibility of the publishers, is it improving your ad business? Kate Beddoe: As a former journalist, and as somebody who has spent an entire career in the news industry, the thing that is most important to me is that we find the right balance of how can I help quality news reach an audience in a meaningful way. But in order to do that, how do we find the business models that will allow that quality content to exist and reach audiences? For me, the North Star is a balance in the relationship between users, technology and news organisations themselves, and finding a workable equilibrium on those three factors. How important is it then to ensure you have a level playing field, because you have different types of publishers, some big, some small… and you have the technology also coming into the picture with the algorithm. How do you manage all of that, especially in times where news and the delivery of news, the access to news is so critical, especially in the democracies? Kate Beddoe: There are a combination of things that we need to balance. I think on one hand there is the response to users and you know, what is it that they’re looking for, and how do we serve the needs they have. We have increasingly found that people are looking for very local-based news which is becoming increasingly important. We saw that during the pandemic as well. People didn’t want to discuss the pandemic in general, they wanted to know what was happening that was most relevant to them. And so, there is an element of user behaviour and we track very carefully what users want and need, and how they are expressing their preferences for content. There is a very strong sense that we get through the way that we send traffic to different news organisations, as to what content is best to answer the kinds of questions that people have. But there is a whole journey that goes into making sure there are quality answers to questions that is everything from media literacy, and how critical people are about thinking about the content they are consuming and where it’s coming from. Instead of trusted sources, there’s somebody that writes with authority on this topic, through to the way that news organisations themselves are focusing on, you know, taking their beats to make sure they are accurate and fact-checked and then the signals that we can take from the interaction between those two things to make sure that we are elevating quality content, regardless of where it comes from. So we are very focused on making sure there are a diverse range of quality content voices that meet user needs in every country we are working with. Google has been working on taking search out of search by serving content based on user preferences. Does that also come with the pitfalls of creating echo chambers for the readers? Kate Beddoe: So we tend to talk about our products as query-based surfaces like search, and then query-less surfaces… Discover would be a great example of that and it is so strong in India. Google News would be another example of that. The question of balance and whether or not we are just reaffirming consumers’ behaviours and beliefs is something that we look at, and we think very carefully about. So one of the things that you will see in Google News, for example, is that when you see an article it will offer you more on this topic. And the more on this topic is deliberately designed to offer you a diverse perspective on the topic so that you are hearing from a range of different voices. That’s one example of the way we are trying to embed the sense of user curiosity and how can you go deeper on this from a broader perspective. I think that the challenge of affirming echo chambers is something that is probably much broader than just Google and something that we really are very keen to collaborate and work very constructively with the industry on. Are you also working on new products like Showcase which maybe gives more control on what should be read compared to what people want to read? Kate Beddoe: That’s an interesting challenge. There’s a lot I love about the Showcase product and the way that it helps to signal the kind of quality content through the 90 publishers that we have signed up for the programme in India. We have heard feedback for years around editors wanting to be able to use some of our space to identify what they think is important. I think there is always going to be a challenge with digital media, in that it is more measurable to see what consumers are actually interested in reading. I don’t think that anybody has yet cracked the challenge of getting people to read what they need to know, against what they want to know or what entertains them. More broadly, we are moving into an environment where the competition for attention is something that we see universally. People can spend time reading very long form articles or they can spend a very short amount of time consuming a much more visually rich expression of the same information. We know that people are going to want to go to the more visually rich but shorter time spent consuming (information). That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have the same value, but I think that there’s a lot of questions that we are very keen to work with the industry on how do we bring trust and authenticity to a group of readers who have a much shorter attention span than, perhaps, we are used to creating content for. Of late Google has been surfacing a lot of the smaller publishers or websites often not from the mainstream. Is there a mechanism within Google to keep an eye on content that you end up surfacing? Kate Beddoe: I’m not an algorithm expert. What I can say is that our way of surfacing content is relatively simplistic. Within search, we are looking at where a user is and what responses have we seen to other questions. It’s very rare that you get a question that’s never been asked before in search. And so we look at things like have other users clicked on this content… if they have clicked and if they bounce back and ask a slightly different question, we know that (content) hasn’t really answered their question. So what we are looking at is very much focused on the engagement and interaction that people are having with the small amount of content that surfaces on our platforms. Because we don’t host all of this content, we don’t have visibility into that in-depth version of it that, perhaps, other platforms where all the content is fully hosted would have. I’m dramatically oversimplifying what is, I’m sure, very complicated for all our engineers, but at the simplest level that’s what we’re attempting to do. There’s no question of how it plays through from a broader corporate perspective. News is just 2% of what Google handles and in that sense it is pretty low down the hierarchy. But given the impact of that 2% on everything that we do, is it getting a little bit more headspace in the organisation as such? Kate Beddoe: Definitely. I think when you look at organisations within Google, such as the partnerships work that I do, it is important to us that we have a very strong relationship and that we are fulfilling our need and desire to be elevating and showcasing quality content. And that’s because our product is better when there are better answers. If users came to Google and didn’t feel like they could trust the information they were getting in response to the questions they were asking, we would not be an effective product. But it is also important to us that we’re working on the sustainability of the industry. And so as much as we run some amazing programmes where we are working with training, I think we have trained literally thousands of journalists through the News Lab and over 40,000 journalists have gone through our training around quality content. But we are similarly running programmes around advertising, where we have worked with over 300 publishers in India, or reader revenue where we are much more focused and you know and we are running programmes on digital transformation with 20 publishers. All of this is designed to make sure that the business of news is supporting the goal of that quality content. India is a very different market with a lot more dependence on search for distribution of news and algorithm changes hence have a very significant impact on the business of news. Is that something that you are mindful of? Kate Beddoe: We work a lot with news organisations to increase their specific presence so that direct entry is important. The thing that is important is that when it comes to the changes that we make in the way different content is shown, it is really about making sure that we are continuing to meet the needs of users, and that we are answering their questions. I’ll give you a really specific example from about 18 months ago, when the pandemic hit. There was a working assumption that this was an international story for most people. And so what we were looking for was what is the most authoritative source of content at an international level for what was a story ...

Top 10 Funniest Moments In VR Gaming – Listverse https://collincountynewsonline.com/top-10-funniest-moments-in-vr-gaming-listverse/ Virtual Reality (VR) is still relatively new, and its gaming application is even newer. The first headset that was suitable for VR gaming was the Oculus Rift which didn’t become commercially available until 2016. Developers expected an immediate demand for VR games and headsets. In reality, the VR gaming market grew slowly at first. There were problems with motion sickness and the lag between a player’s action and the feedback to the headset (called “latency” in the jargon). By the time Valve launched Half-Life: Alyx in 2020, the developers had solved some of these problems. Headsets became cheaper, and the range of games increased. Google has introduced a range of cardboard headsets, bringing the price down to an affordable level for everyone. As people interact with a virtual world, their reactions are often funny to watch. The reason why we find watching VR gamers so amusing is easy to find. Players are immersed in a situation that we might be able to see on a monitor, knowing what is coming and that the game is completely fake. For the player, the VR world is real—even though they know deep down it’s just a game. Here are our top ten funniest moments in VR gaming. Related: Top 10 Things That Will Shatter Your Perception Of Reality 10 A Screamin’ Good Time SCARY HAUNTED Virtual Reality – Hilariously FUNNY REACTIONS In this video, the player repeatedly tells himself that he doesn’t like what is happening to him. Judging by his reactions, this is undoubtedly true, but it begs the question of why he doesn’t take the headset off. We’ll see other videos that make us ask the same question. I suppose the answer must be that he wants to see what happens next and is afraid of looking weak if he gives up. Notice that the man does a fair amount of screaming. What good does he think that will do? Screaming is not rational, so why do we do it when we are scared? The amygdala is a structure in the brain’s center that processes those emotions triggered by fear. A scream in the amygdala prompts our brain to be more alert and heightens our powers of analysis. This may help you escape a haunted house, but a fat lot of good it will do you if you jump out of a plane and your parachute doesn’t open. Still, it’s funny to watch people reacting primitively. 9 Down the Rabbit Hole Mom mistakes PlayStation VR for real life You have to admire Mom’s persistence in this clip. She’s willing to give VR a go, even though she’s scared half to death. Her family finds her antics hilarious because they know she is safe at home and not where she believes. Of course, Mom would know this, too, if she could think about the situation rationally. But the thing about virtual reality is that it affects the brain on a more primitive level. In Lewis Carroll’s enduring classic novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice follows the White Rabbit into his burrow and finds herself in a nonsensical, surreal world. Her experience doesn’t help her much in a place where her logical rules often don’t apply. Very similar to the experience of donning a VR headset. Mom has gone down the rabbit hole, and, at one level, her brain is convinced that this is a true experience. 8 This Game Has Teeth GIRLFRIEND PLAYS SHARK ATTACK ON PLAYSTATION VR The girl here is a little wary about what her boyfriend tries to persuade her to do. He’s honest enough to admit that he hasn’t played the game before, so he doesn’t quite know what to expect. The girl has experience with VR gaming, so she is aware that this undersea world is artificial. Still, on occasions, primitive emotions come to the surface. This game is distinguished by the fact that the player has no control over what happens to her. She is in a protective cage and is warned that something is coming. As many of our players do, she says she doesn’t like what is happening. Still, there’s not much she can do about it if she wants to finish the game. An interesting advantage of VR gaming is that it can help people to get over phobias. If people can have fun with sharks, they may be helped to overcome their fear. 7 Stepping Off into the Deep End We Got Fulham Players to ‘Walk the Plank’ on VR and They Nearly S–t Themselves | VR Challenge This one is interesting because it’s a challenge shared by people you know who would probably be too ready to make fun of failure. As you will see, the premise of this game is simple. Players have to walk a short plank suspended high over a city. If they get to the end, they can step off the end and fall to the ground. The graphics clearly show an imaginary place; there’s no attempt to fool the players into thinking this is real. Our brains are divided into the reptilian (or primal), the limbic, and the neocortex (although some use different terms). When our players are walking the plank, the reptilian section is dominant. This is the most primitive of the three parts and controls vital functions such as balance, breathing, heart rate, and temperature. Rationality is not part of its function; it is concerned with basic survival. The dominance of the reptilian brain explains players’ reactions in all of our videos and explains why we, who are using more rational parts of the brain, find VR games hilarious to watch. 6 Releasing Steam SO SCARED I HAD TO STOP PLAYING | Spacewalk VR Although the player reassures himself that he is safe inside a room, rationality flies out of the window once he has his VR helmet on. He babbles occasionally and swears a lot. There’s a lot of swearing in some of our videos, and most of it is stronger than the occasional “dammit.” Swearing is a safety release that allows us to relieve tension, and the stronger the swear word is, the more effective the action is. This player is always clear in his mind that his experience is completely artificial, taking his helmet off to give himself a break before plunging back in. A good idea if you are beginning to feel overwhelmed by the experience. But our player can’t resist diving back in. The VR world is challenging, fun, and addictive. 5 Safety First Oculus Virtual Reality Fails on TikTok Compilation Here, we see a mixture of experiences of people who are not used to VR gaming. We have seen them in other videos. The players shut their eyes, scream, and contort their bodies while onlookers laughingly remind them that they are safe. What is particularly striking about this video is the number of times that people blunder into objects in the real world. This can be dangerous, especially for inexperienced users immersed in a virtual world with no spatial relationship with the actual. I suppose the lesson is that you shouldn’t use VR technology unless you are in a safe environment. This is one reason why some gamers prefer to play in arcades. There they are monitored and can immediately share their experiences with others. 4 This Game is Sick GAME OVER | FUNNY VIRTUAL REALITY FAILS This compilation backs up what we’ve said about other videos. At one point, one of the players says, “I get dizzy,” and this can be a problem with VR technology. Many players report feeling dizziness or nausea when using VR helmets. Basically, this is the difference between what the eyes are telling the player and what the body is actually doing in real space. For example, if a player is climbing stairs in a game, but the body knows that it is really on a flat floor, the player can get disoriented. This feeling can be heightened by something under the impressive name of “vergence-accommodation conflict.” This occurs when, in VR, the eyes are focused on something that seems to be far away but which, in reality, is on a screen right in front of the eyes. But watching people whirl and stagger as if they’ve over-indulged at the Christmas party can be comical. 3 Don’t VR Alone FUNNY VIRTUAL REALITY REACTION COMPILATIONS PSVR FUNNY VR REACTIONS This video highlights the fact that people shouldn’t use VR alone. You might find—in fact, you probably will—that everyone else in the room is laughing themselves sick. Not funny to you when you are going through a terrifying experience. Never mind, you will have your turn to laugh at the others, and it’s better to be safe than sorry. I wonder if it might be a good idea to incorporate a proximity sensor into VR headsets so that people get a warning if they are too close to a real object. 2 With Metaverse, It’s Only Going to Get Better Top 25 VR Fails in 2022 Funniest Moments The commentator on this video points out that space is important. He’s talking about having enough room to play safely. It’s a point we’ve already made, and it’s certainly true. However, in VR, two different spaces collide—the real world and the imaginary. The fact that the Facebook group has changed its name to Meta tells us something about the unlimited ambition that drives the company. It is now dedicated to building a Metaverse. The idea behind a metaverse seems to be the construction of an alternative reality that is internally logical but allows users to perform actions in the “real” world. Gaming will undoubtedly be an important feature of the Metaverse, and companies are developing new technologies to make the experience more real. More real and more fun for everyone. 1 Fast Food Futures WORKING AT MCDONALD’S IN VIRTUAL REALITY – Pavlov VR (Funny Moments) I don’t know if “funny” is the right word to describe this last clip. “Surreal” might be better. The normal activity of ordering a meal in McDonald’s becomes an interactive shooter game with graphics from an early Duke Nukem. The only limits in VR are the limits that we place on our own imaginations. The gaming world is changing, and the changes aren’t just limited to gaming. VR can change the way that we interact with the world. How we live, work, play, and relate to others might change dramatically...

Attorney General Paxton’s Law Enforcement Round Up | Office Of The Attorney General – Texasattorneygeneral.gov https://collincountynewsonline.com/attorney-general-paxtons-law-enforcement-round-up-office-of-the-attorney-general-texasattorneygeneral-gov/ CHILD EXPLOITATION UNIT  In Bexar County, Ramsey Clark was arrested on September 21 on three counts of possession of child pornography. Child Exploitation Unit investigators executed a search warrant in San Antonio, where several electronic devices were seized and will be submitted to the Digital Forensics Unit for examination. During a recorded interview, Clark confessed to owning and utilizing the reported social media account and to possessing and viewing child pornography. This case was received as a National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) CyberTipline report involving the upload of images of child pornography to a social media platform.  FUGITIVE APPREHENSION UNIT  In Bexar County, Domingo Hernandez was arrested on September 21 for failure to maintain sex offender registration requirements. Hernandez was previously convicted of indecency with a child by contact and sentenced to ten years of probation.   In Bexar County, James Burkey, a confirmed Tango Orejon gang member, was arrested on September 21 for violating the terms of his parole by incurring a new charge of felony fraud. Burkey was previously convicted of possession of a controlled substance and sentenced to six years in prison. The United States Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force out of San Antonio assisted with this arrest.    In Bexar County, Rickey Mackey was arrested on September 19 for failure to maintain sex offender registration requirements. Mackey had previously been convicted of sexual abuse and sentenced to five years in prison.   In Bexar County, Nicanor Garcia, a confirmed Mexican Mafia gang member, was arrested on September 16 for violating the terms of his parole by failing to report. Garcia was previously convicted of possession of a controlled substance and evading arrest/detention using a vehicle, for which he was sentenced to five years and two years in prison, respectively. Garcia actively resisted arrest and a subsequent charge of evading arrest/detection has been filed.   In Bexar County, Joseph Walker was arrested on September 14 for violating the terms of his parole by testing positive for narcotics. Walker was previously convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm and sentenced to five years in prison.   In Bexar County, Jose Rivera was arrested on September 14 for violating the terms of his parole by failing to complete mandatory sex offender treatment classes and by failing a urinalysis test. Rivera was previously convicted of indecency with a child and sentenced to five years of probation, but his probation was revoked and he was sentenced to four years in prison. Rivera was also convicted of manufacturing/delivering a controlled substance and sentenced to ten years in prison.   In Bexar County, Justin Klein was arrested on September 12 for violating the terms of his parole by removing his monitoring device. Klein was previously sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted of aggravated robbery.  In Bexar County, Daniel Lynch-Garza was arrested on September 12 for failing to maintain sex offender registration requirements. Lynch-Garza was previously convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child and sentenced to five years of probation.   In Bexar County, David Rocha was arrested on September 12 for violating the terms of his parole by testing positive for narcotics. Rocha was previously convicted of violating a bond/protective order for domestic violence and sentenced to two years in prison.   In Bexar County, Rosanne Salazar was arrested on September 12 for violating the terms of her parole by incurring a new charge as well as for an additional outstanding warrant for possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance. Salazar was previously convicted of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and sentenced to five years in prison.   In Bexar County, Jonathan Pena was arrested on September 12 for violating the terms of his parole by being ejected from the sex offender treatment program. As a juvenile, Pena was previously adjudicated of having committed indecency with a child – sexual contact and sentenced to 96 months of probation (determinate sentence).   In Bexar County, Arnoldo Almeida, a confirmed Latin Kings gang member, was arrested on September 7 on five outstanding warrants. He had two warrants out for possession of a controlled substance as well as one for each of the following: evading arrest/detention with a vehicle, felon in possession of a firearm, and an unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. The United States Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force assisted with this arrest.   In Bexar County, David Thomas was arrested on September 8 for violating the terms of his parole by incurring a misdemeanor for an obscene promote/produce/direct charge. He was previously convicted of murder with a deadly weapon and sentenced to 30 years in prison.   In Brazos County, Lloyd Freeman was arrested on September 22 for violating the terms of his parole by incurring a new charge for resisting an officer. Freeman was previously convicted of indecency with a child – sexual contact and sentenced to two years in prison. Freeman is currently on parole for possession of a controlled substance, for which he received a four-year prison sentence.   In Cherokee County, Antonio Davalos-Avina, an illegal alien from Mexico, was arrested on September 14 for illegal re-entry. The Joint East Texas Fugitive Task Force assisted with this arrest.   In Collin County, Joe Linden Blanton, Jr. was arrested on September 12 on an outstanding warrant for indecency with a child.   In Dallas County, Jacob Vela was arrested on September 13 for theft, $30,000 to $150,000, and engaging in organized crime. This arrest was made as part of the Project Safe Neighborhood Initiative.   In Galveston County, Darion Ray, a confirmed Bloods gang member, was arrested on September 15 for burglary with intent to commit other felony. The Gulf Coast Violent Offender Task Force (Galveston) assisted with this arrest.   In Harris County, Ronnie Scott Jones was arrested on September 22 for violating the terms of his parole by absconding. Jones was previously convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child and sentenced to ten years in prison.   In Harris County, Samuel Jacob Murray was arrested on September 22 on an outstanding warrant for two counts of indecency with a child.    In Harris County, Bruce Edward Barton was arrested on September 22 for failure to comply with mandated sex offender registration requirements. Barton was previously convicted of sexual assault of a child and was sentenced to two years in prison.   In Harris County, Charlie Finley was arrested on September 22 for violating the terms of his parole by failing to attend sex offender treatment program classes. Finley was previously convicted of aggravated sexual assault and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Finley is currently on parole for aggravated robbery and received a 50-year sentence.   In Harris County, Jerome Rodrick Moore was arrested on September 21 for violating the terms of his parole by failing to attend classes. Moore was previously convicted of two counts of indecency with a child – sexual contact and sentenced to four years in prison. Moore is currently on parole for failure to register as a sex offender and received a 12-year sentence.   In Harris County, Phillip Carl Carter was arrested on September 20 for violating the terms of his parole by failing to attend classes. Carter was previously arrested for sexual assault and sentenced to life in prison.   In Harris County, John Benjamin Hutton was arrested on September 16 on four warrants for failure to comply with enhanced sex offender registration requirements. Hutton was previously convicted of carnal knowledge with a juvenile out of Jefferson Parish in Louisiana and was sentenced to a suspended term of two years of hard labor. The investigation was initiated after a referral from the National Sex Offender Targeting Center in Arlington, Virginia. The arrest was made with the assistance of the United States Marshals Service, Gulf Coast Violent Offender and Fugitive Task Force.   In Harris County, Aldifonso Gonzales, a convicted sex offender, was arrested on September 16 for a supervised release violation relating to possession of marijuana and a prohibited weapons offense. Gonzales was previously convicted of aggravated sexual assault and sentenced to ten years deferred adjudication. The arrest was made with the assist of the United States Marshals Service, Gulf Coast Violent Offender and Fugitive Task Force.   In Harris County, Jonathan Johnson was arrested on September 15 for failure to comply with mandated sex offender registration requirements. Johnson was previously convicted of indecency with a child by contact and sentenced to 15 years in prison.   In Harris County, Charles Wesley Banta, a confirmed Aryan Brotherhood of Texas gang member, was arrested on September 14 for failure to comply with mandated sex offender registration requirements. Banta was previously convicted of aggravated kidnapping with intent to commit sexual assault and sentenced to 35 years in prison.  In Harrison County, Troy Wayne Elliot was arrested on September 22 on an outstanding warrant for possession/transport of a weapon by a violent felon. The Joint East Texas Fugitive Task Force assisted with the arrest.   In Harrison County, Victoria Ann Davis was arrested on September 22 on an outstanding warrant for distribution/sell for profit I/II narcotics. The Joint East Texas Fugitive Task Force assisted with the arrest.  In Llano County, Joshua Jordan Lomas was arrested on September 19 on an outstanding w...

Holiday Travel To China Is Down 18% Year Over Year Due To Sweeping COVID Bans. | DH Latest News, DH NEWS, Latest News, NEWS , Dicline In Tourism Rate In China, 18.2cline, China, Covid Lockdown, International Tourism – East Coast Daily (English) https://collincountynewsonline.com/holiday-travel-to-china-is-down-18-year-over-year-due-to-sweeping-covid-bans-dh-latest-news-dh-news-latest-news-news-dicline-in-tourism-rate-in-china-18-2cline-china-covid-lockdown-interna/ Government data suggests that, China recorded 422 million tourist journeys for the weeklong National Day vacation that started on October 1—a decrease of 18.2% from the previous holiday season—as the industry continues to be negatively impacted by strict COVID-19 controls. Data from China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism claims that, state broadcaster CCTV reported late on Friday that the number of trips was 60.7% lower than the pre-COVID 2019 level. The report indicated that domestic tourism receipts, at 287.2 billion yuan ($40.37 billion), were just 44.2% of their pre-pandemic 2019 level and down 26.2% on the year. After a COVID outbreak, with 12 positive cases of the Omicron BA.5.2 variant reported by the end of Thursday, one well-known destination, Xishuangbanna in southwest China’s Yunnan province, was subject to strict curbs over the holiday season. Districts were locked down, and tourists were not allowed to leave. In addition to providing emergency food supplies to visitors unable to leave their hotels, the area has ordered three rounds of testing in Jinghong, one of its metropolitan centres. After halting outbound travel on October 4, Urumqi, the capital of the remote northwest region of Xinjiang, has set up temporary lodging for travellers. State media said on Friday that the government will also assist stranded migrant workers in finding employment locally.