What are the big moves that matter in domestic retrofit? Find out at our free webinar on 30 April Homes account for 14 per cent of the UK’s total carbon emissions, and the role that architects can play in demystifying whole house decarbonisation is a considerable opportunity for the profession. From advising on steps that can be made at scale, to ensuring improvements at an individual project level – whatever the residential retrofit you’re working on, there are consistent carbon saving measures that can add to up to make a real difference. Run in association with Fisher & Paykel, the webinar is taking place at 11am on Wednesday 30 April.Advertisement Through compelling case studies and expert input to help you advise your clients on their retrofit journey, topics will include: How to develop a whole house plan: from plan reconfiguration, to fabric improvements, to material and appliance specification How to use a detailed understanding of domestic energy demand to inform the design process – including getting homes off gas i.e. electrification and use of heat pumps Guidance and tools that can support decision making to reduce demand – including energy and water ratings and in-use carbon emission estimates Basic principles of material and product specification The future potential of the ‘connected’ home For the UK to meet its net zero targets, 29 million homes must be retrofitted by 2050. The UK Green Building council has called for retrofitting 19 million homes in the next decade. With practical insights that you can immediately share with your clients, and an opportunity to ask questions from our expert panel, we’ll explore and clarify the complex topic of domestic retrofit. Register for your free webinar place now. 2025-04-11 Richard Waite comment and share

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OpinionApril 11, 20254 min readGetting Rid of FEMA Will Bankrupt Small TownsIf the Trump administration successfully shutters FEMA, it will bankrupt small towns and force people to moveBy Jesse M. Keenan & Yuliya Panfil An aerial view of a neighborhood destroyed by the Camp Fire in Paradise, California on Nov. 15, 2018. Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesThe Trump administration is preparing to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the agency that leads the nation’s disaster response. We predict this move will have the unintended consequence of bankrupting some small towns and accelerating the relocation of people out of high-risk areas. Cutting off the post-disaster financial assistance that FEMA provides to states will drive up taxes, drive down services, and drive out residents and small businesses. This “climate doom loop” poses the very real risk of destroying small-town America.The number of billion-dollar disasters in the U.S. is increasing. A recent report says FEMA made a disaster declaration somewhere in the U.S. every four days, on average, in 2024. Disasters have displaced anywhere between one million and four million Americans per year in recent years; an estimated 20 percent of these people never return home. Some move in with family and friends, whereas others either cannot afford to return home or they have nothing left to lose by moving elsewhere in the search for a better life.Then there are significant challenges for local governments associated with accommodating displaced households, whether individuals or families. They must extend resources to accommodate new students in schools and manage crowding-out pressures associated with rapid inflation in home prices and rents. From Chico, Calif., to Orlando, Fla., cities where people have relocated after disasters have faced significant pressures from the influx. After the 2018 Camp Fire all but destroyed the town of Paradise, Calif., 20,000 people moved to Chico. The sudden relocation caused a 21 percent spike in housing prices and triggered a homelessness surge that the city still struggles with seven years later. Disasters are not just local events.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.A Camp Fire evacuee pushes a shopping cart with donated items in Chico, California, on Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018.David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesEven California, with one of the largest economies in the world, cannot afford individual assistance grants that shelter and feed its own residents. The state most certainly cannot afford to replace the federal public assistance dollars that repair and replace the basic infrastructure for turning on the lights and flushing the toilets. Without FEMA’s financial support, state and local governments will be forced to borrow more money, increase taxes and even privatize public infrastructure. Many small towns will be forced to scale back critical services, including closing schools, libraries, parks and solid waste facilities, because they are limited in how much money they can borrow and how much they can tax residents.Increased taxes and utility bills on top of skyrocketing insurance costs are already pushing people to move. The situation is so dire with natural disasters and spiraling insurance costs in Louisiana that Moody’s Investor Service is concerned that the ongoing and projected loss of working-age people represents a material credit risk for the state. Even wealthy states such as Florida face significant credit risks without FEMA’s financial assistance, particularly as tax rolls shrink with waning property values in high-risk counties. Florida is only a few catastrophic hurricanes away from an income tax, which would have a chilling impact on its population growth. Florida already experiences more deaths than births, and its future is entirely reliant on people moving to the Sunshine State.Natural hazards and climate-attributed extreme events are wrecking havoc on communities and local economies across the Sun Belt. People initially moved there for warm weather, but the real reason for the region’s growth since the 1990s has been centered on the readily available supply of affordable housing. Recent research has even found evidence that some people are beginning to move away from the Sunbelt, particularly retirees and younger households who are rethinking where they want to plant their roots in the long term. These people are sensitive to the unexpected costs of disasters and insurance eating into their hard-earned wealth just as they are attempting to retire or build families. When people move, they take their tax revenue with them.The cost of living will no doubt continue to increase in higher-risk areas across the Sunbelt and beyond, and without FEMA those costs will skyrocket. FEMA does not just help coordinate recovery. The agency also invests in risk-reduction infrastructure, and it sets rules that offer predictability and keep costs down for insurance policies and mortgages. FEMA also provides grants and affordable loans for infrastructure projects that keep schools safe and hospitals accessible for tens of millions of American households. Without FEMA, municipal bond and mortgage investors on Wall Street will decide who gets to rebuild and who gets left behind.Those local governments that do begin the long process of rebuilding will still face the erosion of both their local population and their economy. The costs of debris removal, toxic cleanup and infrastructure recovery are so significant that one in five county governments impacted by disasters have to borrow money and implement public funding cuts while they wait for FEMA assistance. These events drain so much cash that even the City of Los Angeles faced a negative credit outlook from its credit rating agency after recent wildfires, meaning there was concern about the city’s ability to meet financial obligations.For some small towns and counties, the only path forward might be to default on their debt and to file for bankruptcy. After the Camp Fire, Paradise’s redevelopment agency eventually defaulted on their debt in 2023. Research tells us that FEMA’s post-disaster aid plays a major role in preventing widespread bond defaults. By the same token, municipal bankruptcy after disasters is nothing new. Galveston, Tex., filed for bankruptcy after a major hurricane in 1900. Bankruptcy would have the perverse effect of driving up the cost of living and driving away residents and small businesses. Many small towns face the prospects of being wiped off the map—physically and economically.The Trump administration and Congress should reform and invest in FEMA if they are serious about taming inflation, promoting working class households and shrinking government. They should invest in FEMA’s capacity to help preserve the communities and small towns that define the American experience. It is one thing to rename places on maps, but it is another to erase the places that people call home.This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

GAME auctions fixtures and fittings as head office and warehouse shut down Pick up a GTA San Andreas poster, football table or combi oven. Image credit: GAME / Eurogamer News by Tom Phillips Editor-in-Chief Published on April 11, 2025 Beleagured high street chain GAME has begun auctioning off the fixtures and fittings from its Basingstoke head office and main warehouse, following the site's recent closure as part of the company's continued assimilation by its parent firm. Eurogamer first reported on the closure of GAME's headquarters earlier this week, with the expectation of job losses. The move is yet another step in the brand's demise as its own entity, as it becomes just another arm of the Frasers Group, which also owns House of Fraser and Sports Direct. GAME's Basingstoke facility had served as its headquarters for more than two decades. Now, dozens of office and kitchen items, warehouse equipment and a few more unusual oddities are all up for auction on bidding site NCM Auctions. Items listed include a shopfloor pirate ship display unit for products from TY, the maker of Beanie Babies. That's currently going for £40. Alternatively, you can buy the company's breakroom football table for £120, or a perspex-fronted poster of CJ from Grand Theft Auto San Andreas for £30. Several of the photos give a glimpse behind the scenes in the Basinstoke office - at its board rooms, where decisions like the one to sell Pokémon cards for almost triple the price, were presumably made. One meeting area has a poster for Destiny 2 expansion Forsaken on the wall. Another small room has a wall decorated with a mural of Nintendo characters. The downside? The items are all collection only, so you'll need to be in Basingstoke yourself later this month to pick them up. Suddenly GAME's oversized £10.99 delivery price for those Pokémon cards doesn't seem so bad. While GAME's brand still exists, it has largely been reduced nationwide to a concession area within other Frasers Group stores - typically in Sports Direct. The changes have meant the loss of hundreds of dedicated GAME staff, a continued shift towards GAME's focus of selling toys, and a loss of all the chain's previous customer programmes. As Eurogamer previously reported, you won't be able to pre-order a Switch 2 in-store at GAME. Indeed, Eurogamer has been told by GAME staff that in-store pre-orders will now no longer offered for any item, despite outdated messaging on the company's website saying otherwise. Last year, Eurogamer reported on GAME's various ongoing issues as it is further integrated into Sports Direct's Fraser Group, and suffers store closures, redundancies, and stock problems.

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here Civilization 7 makes some rather huge and controversial changes to the Civ formula. With a focus on a new narrative system, the latest Civilization game’s major changes were inspired by an underrated Warhammer 40K strategy game.  Speaking at the 2025 Game Developers Conference, via GamesRadar, Civilization 7 narrative designer Cat Manning explained that the team looked to a bunch of other strategy games for inspiration, including Warhammer 40K: Chaos Gate.  Civilization 7 was inspired by Warhammer 40K Chaos Gate  At the GDC panel, Manning explained that the new Civ game looked at other strategy games that did narratives right. Alongside titles like FTL and BattleTech, Warhammer 40K: Chaos Gate was the key point of inspiration.  “There’s a long history of successful narrative systems in strategy games, particularly when they’re tied pretty closely to the game’s mechanics…Warhammer 40k: Chaos Gate was a huge touch point as we were beginning to talk about what the system could look like,” Manning said.  Even with all of this inspiration, it was still incredibly challenging to make every other system in Civilization 7 talk to the narrative system. After all, in a great strategy game, everything is interconnected and everything plays together. “The way all of Civ’s basic systems run is that the game sends signals to other parts of the game,” Manning said. “It’s just kind of this constant back and forth. If you purchase, say, a unit with gold, you might immediately get a narrative event tied to that unit. And that’s because the system is just always in the background listening.” Civilization 7 hasn’t released to great acclaim, but there’s still years of improvements coming… just like every Civ game. Nevertheless, it’s interesting to see just what inspired the developer to make such sweeping changes to the Civ formula.  For more Warhammer coverage, read about the upcoming Space Marine 3 game in development at Saber Interactive.  Related Topics Subscribe to our newsletters! By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime. Share

Sometimes the challenge of having to work with a space just as it is—no demolitions whatsoever—can invigorate a designer’s imagination. Just look at the sofa that Susannah Holmberg created for the oddly shaped living room of this home in Salt Lake City: It’s a sculptural piece loosely inspired by tête-à-tête styles that anchors the room and has become the clients’ favorite hangout. “We’ll all kind of slowly gather there one by one,” says homeowner Amy Furstenau, who lives with her husband, Chris Furstenau, and their four kids. “It just feels like a special spot.”The Furstenaus moved into the property, a five-bedroom home with a classic Tudor exterior, more than five years ago. Since the interiors had been recently renovated, they didn’t think to work with a designer. But the space didn’t quite reflect their personalities, and after spending the long months of 2020 huddled inside, the couple were ready for a change. They called Salt Lake City–based AD PRO Directory designer Susannah Holmberg to help them transform the property into a soulful haven filled with color and whimsy. The catch was that they didn’t want to rip out any recent additions, things like kitchen cabinets, bathtubs, or even a massive marble floating shelf by the fireplace.Holmberg made the entryway stand out with this Lee Jofa abstract wallpaper and matching paint color—a hue called Rue from Portola Paints—applied to the ceiling in a swooping offbeat form. Susannah Holmberg designed this Salt Lake City home for a young family of six. To make the most of the existing layout, she created several bespoke pieces, including this multidirectional sofa loosely inspired by tête-à-tête styles. ”It’s a really tricky floor plan; you’ve got octagonal windows, a nook under the stairs and this fireplace, so we felt like we needed something versatile,“ she says. “We really had to get strategic to figure out how to give the house a full remake without going too deep and working around what was existing,” says Holmberg, one of AD’s 2024 New American Voices. “It was a fun challenge.” To achieve a thoroughly custom look, she had to pull a few tricks, such as designing offbeat furniture and built-ins. There’s an organically shaped banquette hugging an entire section of the kitchen, for example, and a sinuous headboard that flows into a corner seat in the primary bedroom. These one of a kind, flowing silhouettes, along with an eclectic color palette where dusty pastels feature alongside deeper shades like rust orange, malachite green, or midnight blue, reflect the cheeky style of Holmberg’s clients. “We’re a creative family and we wanted it to inspire,” Amy says. “We didn’t want it to feel like every other home.”With that in mind, the designer chose a series of whimsical objets for the residence. A gorilla-shaped chair by Marcantonio, tucked into a nook in the living room, immediately catches the eye, as does a vintage wooden floor lamp reminiscent of cacti, placed near the main dining table. But she was careful not to overdo it. “It doesn’t feel like a funhouse when you’re inside,” Holmberg says. “Even though there’s a lot going on, it’s just so calm.”Holmberg’s clients wanted to keep the existing cabinets. To give the kitchen a new look, she repainted them in French Beige from Portola Paints, and outfitted them with wavy bronze pulls from Lo&Co. The backsplash tile, a trapezoid-shaped zellige from Zia Tile, is also new. This breakfast nook sits on one end of the L-shaped kitchen, which gave Holmberg the opportunity to create this enveloping built-in banquette. “She loves playful forms, rounded legs, and quirky, non-linear shapes,” says the designer of client Amy Furstenau. With that in mind, Holmberg picked fabric-covered tubular chairs, from Moustache, to pair with the banquette. While the overall palette of the home is indeed fairly soft, one notable exception is the primary bedroom. There, a midnight blue on the walls and ceiling and a burnt orange fabric covering the bed and built-in seats create a sexy, cosseting atmosphere. The clients, who are world travelers, said they wanted to be transported to a luxurious hotel suite in some faraway land.“In Utah, a lot of the homes look the same, and I feel like our home is a great conversation starter,” Amy says. “I hope people get a little bit inspired when they come over to step out of their comfort zone and do something different.”In the dining room, which occupies the same space as the living room, Holmberg paired vintage oak chairs with funky chrome chairs from Love House. “I just think it’s such a fun chair,” she says of the ball-footed design. “And I think those coupled with the wood created a really nice tension.” The three-globe chandelier is by Astraeus Clarke, a studio in Brooklyn. “Every time we go to bed, it just feels like we’re transported to a different place,” says Amy of the moody, enveloping color scheme of the primary suite. The headboard, which extends into a corner sectional seat, was custom made and upholstered in a burnt orange velvet from Kirkby Design. On either side are checkered wooden nightstands from Claude Home. Black walls and accents in wood and leather add depth and a touch of rusticity to the primary bathroom. Family heirlooms make the family room on the main floor extra special. The horns on the wall belonged to Amy’s grandfather. “They were up in a family cabin in Lake Arrowhead for years, and I remember being young and thinking they were so cool,” she says. “When he passed away, that was the one thing that I wanted.” Below them is a black-and-white photo of Amy’s grandmother. The wallpaper, a sand hue with peach undertones, is by Alyson Fox for Hawkins New York. To update this second-floor bathroom, which was not renovated, Holmberg added new organically shaped mirrors from Ethnik Living, a Muni sconce from Black Rooster Decor, and hardware from Lo&Co. The wide-legged stool used as a coffee table in the downstairs playroom, from Squares and Things, was inspired by Brazilian modernist Oscar Niemeyer. The hand-braided rattan lamp is from Ferm Living. This colorful nook is by the playroom on the basement level. A green lacquered desk—it matches the Zebra Fern wallpaper from Paper Mills—was paired with a wavy-back accent chair designed by Sarah Sherman Samuel for Lulu and Georgia. Shop it out:LU 3 Ceiling LightHAY Mags SectionalLostine Walnut Candle HolderLeland End Table by Four HandsMoraccan RugFerm Living Ceramic BasketFerm Living Forma Wool RugL'Enchere Square Wool Ottoman by Athena CalderoneWest Elm Zaccai Oak Nesting Coffee TablePottery Barn Classic Striped Outdoor Lumbar PillowCoklat BedsideLaddi LED Table Lamp by Jenna Lyons for Roll & HillAlva Floral Cotton Velvet PillowLee Dresser by Sarah Sherman SamuelZara Plain Linen BedspreadColin King Acacia Wood Side TableRipple Accent Chair by Sarah Sherman SamuelTalbot and Yoon Doko LampFerm Living Dou Floor LampTriplo Strato Hand-loomed Wool RugMarant Lumbar Pillow CoverSpace Side Table/Stool in Yellow ValchromatSpotted Bird by Enikő EgedCapsule Side Table

Learn Body Retopology the Right Way With This Comprehensive Walkthrough By Dikko on April 11, 2025 Videotutorials Dikko writes:In this comprehensive walkthrough, discover the best tips I have for retopology of a body sculpt that is super efficient for animation.This video shows the process in real time, with no timelapses or skips, so you don't miss out on any crucial information or methods.

Stressy Spell "I thought the project might fall apart": The Baldur's Gate 3 Stardew Valley mod Swen Vincke likes "almost got scrapped" just one month into development "Somehow, the right people just kept showing up when we needed them." Image credit: Larian/XunHe1145 News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on April 11, 2025 While Baldur's Village - the Stardew Valley mod with a town full of Baldur's Gate 3 characters - recently survived an accidentally served DMCA takedown from Wizards of the Coast, it might never have gotten that far if things had played out a little differently. As main developer XunHe1145 has revealed in an interview with modding site Nexus Mods, the creation that's earned ringing endorsements from Larian CEO Swen Vincke himself narrowly avoided biting the dust when its development was barely out of the blocks. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "This project almost got scrapped a month in," the modder said, "The project started with only two people. When the other developer, who was responsible for coding, left for personal reasons, I thought the project might fall apart. I had zero modding experience — I had to look up coding tutorials in order to save this project. And I ended up paying out-of-pocket for some help until we opened donations." Luckily, help was around the corner in the form of another modder with the handle Yudeling, who joined the Baldur's Village team along with a friend and helped take some of the stress off of XunHe1145. "Later, we found our event scripter and our localization lead," the modder continued, "And somehow, the right people just kept showing up when we needed them. None of us had related experience, but we made it. That still feels unreal." It's the kind of story you hear a lot when it comes to ambitious modding projects that people are dedicating their free time to on a volunteer basis - which makes it even more special when something like Baldur's Village, Fallout: London, or Skyblivion (assuming everything goes to plan with the latter this year) makes it over the full release line. Further on in the interview, XunHe1145 said that the mod's team is currently "still recovering from the shock" of that WotC DMCA debacle I mentioned earlier, but they're still working away on two major focuses. "A key storyline centers on Karlach’s heart, as we aim to have her find a way to fully restore it," they explained, "In our BG3 endings, Karlach had to return to Avernus to keep her heart stable. Wyll chose to become the Blade of Avernus. These two joined forces in Avernus and have been slaying monsters nonstop. We wish they can return and enjoy a peaceful pastoral life, even just for a little while. "This storyline has been in development, but it is quite large and complicated and therefore requires time to refine. Our focus is divided between Halsin’s romance and Karlach’s heart quest, advancing both simultaneously." Have you given Baldur's Village a go and are you keen to play these fresh encounters with everyone's favourite shaggable bear and golden retriever from hell its team's working on? Let us know below!

"That DLC is available as a separate purchase".Amid all the Switch 2 excitement, there has been some confusion over the exact nature of the Nintendo Switch 2 Editions of games like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Reports now suggest that all the game and upgrade data comes on the cart, although with customer service and store reps offering conflicting information, we're still waiting to hear directly from Nintendo for 100% confirmation.It seems that the folks over at IGN (thanks, Eurogamer) have managed to get an answer to another big question, though — whether or not the Champion's Ballad and Expansion Pass DLC for Breath of the Wild would be included in the Switch 2 version.Read the full article on nintendolife.com

A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024.