• PS Plus Extra January 2025 reveal time confirmed as players hope for Hogwarts Legacy
    www.dailystar.co.uk
    PS5 owners are gearing up for the reveal of another PS Plus Extra lineup, and it's likely to be a banger month if predictions are anything to go by here's when we'll knowTech17:00, 14 Jan 2025PlayStation fans are desperate for Hogwarts Legacy to join PS Plus(Image: Still)It's mid-January, and while PlayStation gamers have this month's PS Plus Essentials titles to download (including Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League), if you've subscribed to the Extra or Premium tiers you've got a little more to come.Essentially PlayStation's answer to Xbox Game Pass, PS Plus adds a rotating library of titles to play. Since games go in and out of the lineup, this means newer games are often included, and fans have been predicting they might see Hogwarts Legacy.Whatever is coming, we've got the full rundown of the key dates for reveal and release here's when we'll know all about the PS Plus Extra and Premium titles.Hogwarts Legacy is tipped, yet again, for PS Plus(Image: Still)Running a little later than it usually does, the PS Plus Extra and Premium reveal time is 4:30 PM on January 15 (that's Wednesday).Sony usually has its reveals on the second Wednesday of every month, but the Holiday season and New Year celebrations nudged everything back a little.So what could be included? We've already covered predictions, and there are certainly some bangers among them.Aside from Hogwarts Legacy, fans are hoping for Resident Evil 4 Remake, or last year's excellent Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.Other Ubisoft titles in consideration include Assassin's Creed: Mirage and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, while console exclusives like Final Fantasy 16 and God of War: Ragnarok could be included.Many of those titles were included in the PlayStation January sale in recent weeks, too.Article continues belowAs for when they'll be released for download, we're glad you asked. It tends to be 5pm on the third Tuesday of the month. Because of the way the dates line up, that would mean they'll be available from January 21.For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.RECOMMENDED
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  • Rare Halo 2 E3 demo found on an Xbox devkit sold for over 4,000
    metro.co.uk
    If we had a penny for all the Halo E3 demos to be made publicly available, wed have two pennies (Microsoft)Months after the original Halo 2 E3 2003 demo was made available to the public, a second demo has surfaced online but not from Microsoft.Last November, Microsoft and 343 Industries (or Halo Studios as its now called) celebrated the 20th anniversary of Halo 2 by releasing a playable version of the games E3 2003 demo.It was a great treat for long-time Xbox fans and the perfect way to celebrate Halo 2s anniversary, but it looks like thats not the only E3 demo for the game to make its way online.This week, somebody managed to come across a different multiplayer build for Halo 2 that was shown during E3 2004 and has uploaded it online as a free download for preservation purposes.The person responsible is X user Stian Schultz, a translator and video game store owner in Norway, who found the demo on an Xbox debug kit. They dont say exactly how they came to acquire it, but they did admit to spending approximately $5,000 (roughly 4,100) on it.They managed to upload the build to the Internet Archive, meaning anyone is free to download it. Although it apparently requires an original Xbox and is rather barebones, containing only Halo 2s Zanzibar map.Being an old demo meant for demonstrating the game at public events, it was never going to be feature rich. But this will certainly catch the attention of diehard Halo fans and preservationists.Something similar happened this past November when a group of fans archived 90s shooters Unreal and Unreal Tournament, which had been delisted for years. Although in that instance they had permission from publisher Epic Games.This Halo 2 demo has been uploaded without approval from Microsoft, but theyre unlikely to object. (If this had been Nintendo it mightve been a different story.)More TrendingAs for the officially released 2003 demo, if youve yet to try it yourself, its available as a Steam Workshop download, though you obviously need to own Halo 2 to access it.Its a strange time to be a Halo fan. 2021s Halo Infinite has continued to receive updates and new content for its multiplayer mode, but theres been hide nor hair of a new game.After suffering layoffs in 2023 and rumours of it being removed from the Halo series, 343 Industries cemented its continued commitment to Halo by rebranding itself to Halo Studios in October. It also revealed it had multiple Halo games in development, but stopped short of saying what any of them are.Since then, Microsofts begun embracing the idea of bringing its Xbox exclusive titles to other platforms, and its strongly rumoured older Halo games will see ports to both the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2. Future Halo games will be made using Unreal Engine 5 (Microsoft)Emailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.GameCentralExclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy
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  • The Techno-Utopian Dream of the 1990s Is Alive on RedNote (For Now)
    gizmodo.com
    The U.S. government will officially ban TikTok on Sunday, Jan. 19, unless the U.S. Supreme Court decides to do something to stop it in a last-minute ruling. The looming ban has caused a large number of TikTokers to migrate to a new Chinese video-sharing app called XiaohongshuRed Note or Red Book, in Englishas a general fuck-you to the American ruling class. And with RedNote maintaining the number one spot on the Apple App Store in the U.S. for a second day, its a fascinating thing to watch. Its unclear whether Americans will actually stick around on RedNote for the long term, especially if TikTok is saved through a successful sale to an American company or President-elect Donald Trump somehow intervenes. A Bloomberg report that Elon Musk may try to buy TikTok was quickly swatted down by TikTok on Monday night. But its really interesting to see both American and Chinese users discuss the migration to RedNote in very techno-utopian terms. Internet users in the U.S. and China have been separated by an immense digital moat for so long that RedNote users, both old and new alike, are talking about how this finally feels like an opportunity for real cultural exchange between average citizens in the two countries. Because back in the 1990s, the idea of a global village, where everyone could freely communicate peacefully around the world, was a big part of humanitys technological dream for the future. But things like Chinas Great Firewall and the U.S. surveillance apparatus have put a damper on that vision. Seeing TikTok refugees pouring into red notes is so nostalgic for me, one user on Red Note called Zoey said in a video. It reminds me of the early 2000s when the internet first made a global village possible.Zoey compared it to how people of the 20th century often had pen pals, a common way of communicating with random people you didnt know on the other side of the world. Physical letters were exchanged through the postal service, often coordinated through schools, so that kids could practice their language and writing skills while learning about different cultures. Zoey said her exercise in school was just about pretending she and her fellow students were actually writing to a pen pal, but the idea was the same.I remember back then. In China, when I was little, when I first started learning English, we practiced writing by pretending that there is a pen pal from the United States or the UK, Zoey said. And we write them in English. That feels very much like what is going on on Red Note right now. Zoey concedes that its a bit chaotic but says that overall people are very curious about each other.Its just almost magical that the will to connect and gather can still transcend so many boundaries, especially in an age when the internet is so fragmented and algorithms have built really strong echo chambers that prevent people from understanding each other, Zoey says, going on to call it very magical. Zoey doesnt have to pretend to be writing to a pen pal anymore. At least not for now. But Zoey knows that it could be an illusion, and this brief moment could go away very quickly.I might be over-romanticizing this, but its been so long since Ive felt this way. Like, people can actually connect and people are genuinely interested and curious about each other, Zoey said. I dont know how long this moment will last. Im not an optimistic person, but I really hope this can stay a little longer. Other English-speaking users based in China have spoken about their conflicted feelings seeing an American influx on the app. One creator said that she was a TikTok Live host and would come to Red Note (or Red Book, as she called it) to complain about Americans she encountered on TikTok.Red Book is also the place where I can talk about my American customers behind their back. So I was wondering where I should post those things now, the user jokes. The user also encouraged Americans to start learning Mandarin, a common sentiment that has popped up frequently for U.S.-based users who are trying out the site. But its not all serious discussion, of course. There are countless jokes on Red Note about the American surge of interest. Many users have joked about being spies on TikTok and wanting to keep up their spying as more U.S. users move to Red Note. That kind of joke has also been extremely common among Americans on TikTok in recent days and weeks. Other Red Note longtime users speaking to Americans have welcomed the new users but provided tips about everything from ignoring trolls to engaging in Mandarin if you can. At the end of the day, we aint that different, one Red Note user said in English about the cultural divide between American and Chinese users. But that same user also spoke in coded language about the rules of Red Note.Yes, there are rules here, the user says. The place is pretty chill, but not without rules. To be honest, I dont know much about it, because I dont really have to, if you know what I mean. The user goes on to say that the things you should be saying in the United States, chances are you shouldnt be saying here either. The user continues, You see what Im trying to say here? while encouraging Americans to just use common sense. Red Note is not a utopia from the perspective of any American who cares about the ideals of liberal democracy and free speech. The app plays by the rules of the Chinese government, which means youre not going to find any criticism of the Communist Party. And China isnt a utopia for LGBT people. Recent years have seen a crackdown on LGBT advocacy groups by Beijing.The only area where Americans may find more freedom are topics like Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old man charged with killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson back in December. Social media sites like TikTok have been playing whack-a-mole to suppress content celebrating Mangione but there seem to be no such restrictions on Red Note. One of the more funny realizations for Americans on TikTok in recent days has been that other English-speaking creators they may enjoy around the world arent necessarily getting booted from the platform. As one U.S. user called Mystery of Kyle joked about British users who will remain on the platform, saying, Were not going to be able to make fun of each other anymore. What are you going to do without us? Its going to be literally a British app now. And theres not many of you guys, he continued. Theyre all contained within a restricted area with horrible cuisine. What are you guys gonna do? Talk about tinned fish? Theres a guy called tinned fish reviews. Hes probably going to be the number one creator on this app when were gone. The utopian ideals of a global village online were always a romanticization. The U.S. intelligence community literally helped build the internet from its earliest days in the 1960s and 70s, with the NSA and CIA spying on it ever since. The internet was a creation of the Cold War, and the borders of the web were set up along those same Cold Warrior battle lines. The first internet node outside the U.S., after all, was set up in Norway to monitor Soviet nuclear tests. China, though late to the internet party, has a government thats been spying on the internet for nearly as long as the Americans, corralling and censoring its population by blocking access to American websites for decades. And now its the Americans turn to learn about serious forms of censorship with the TikTok ban. If there is a critical mass of Americans on Red Note weeks from now, the U.S. government could very well make moves to ban that app under the guise of national security concerns. But with Trump taking office on Monday, its unlikely that a new ban for a Chinese-owned app will be front-page news. With everything Trump has promised to do on day onefrom mass deportations to serious suppression of political opponentsanother app getting banned will just be any other Monday in America.
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  • Nuu Auge Suite / Rodap Arquitetura
    www.archdaily.com
    Nuu Auge Suite / Rodap ArquiteturaSave this picture! Carolina LacazMotelTatuap, BrazilArchitects: Rodap ArquiteturaAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:926 ftYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2024 PhotographsPhotographs:Carolina Lacaz Lead Architect: Luciana Ligeiro More SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. The Nuu.Motel project created a design methodology that initiated the Rodap architecture office and is structured on the understanding that it is impossible to practice architecture without research. Research, in this specific project, aimed to identify common imaginaries of the motel space in Brazil to re-signify elements and propose new ones, with the goal of confronting sex as the main action of appropriating bodies in the created spaces - the suites. This sex should be light, fun, permissive, and still protected within four walls, preserving the anonymity that is so prevalent in the origins of Brazilian motels. The entire preliminary study took into account precisely what was preserved from this imaginary, what is re-signified from there, and what we would create anew.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!In this particular suite, one of the challenges that arose was the dimension of accessibility. Beyond the architectural requirements established by current technical standards, thinking and designing an accessible motel suite means facing the relationship of bodies with space from the many ways of existing and experiencing sexuality. Thus, a space that is oriented towards sexual practices and seeks to be a place of pleasure cannot be accessible if it only meets the parameters of ABNT. The space needs to serve as a platform for experimentation and support for the most varied sexual practices and performances, accommodating and associating in distinct ways with multiple bodies in order to allow plural occupations and appropriations.Save this picture!Save this picture!Can the material elements of a motel suite - bed, glass, mirror, etc. - function as prosthetics, that is, as external bodies to the subjects, but that associate with them in order to expand the extent and possibilities of a body? Can architecture challenge the boundaries between the body and the world, between inside and outside? Which spaces are capable of catalyzing bodily practices that challenge sexual and gender normativities?Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessProject locationAddress:Tatuap, So Paulo, SP, BrazilLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officeRodap ArquiteturaOfficeMaterialGlassMaterials and TagsPublished on January 14, 2025Cite: "Nuu Auge Suite / Rodap Arquitetura" [Sute Nuu Auge / Rodap Arquitetura] 14 Jan 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1025589/nuu-auge-suite-rodape-arquitetura&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream
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  • Looking Back at the Scopes Monkey Trial Nearly 100 Years Later
    www.discovermagazine.com
    In the summer of 1925, journalists, lawyers, and gawkers alike descended upon Dayton, Tennessee, population 1,800, to witness the unfolding of what was to become one of the most famous episodes in the ongoing conflict between science and religion.It was oppressively hot and muggy, but that didnt hamper the carnival atmosphere. Street vendors hawked lemonade, iced tea, and cheap souvenirs. Christian groups held open-air prayer meetings while a circus chimpanzee strolled the streets wearing a suit and swinging a cane.The event that brought the world to Dayton that summer has been called the trial of the century. American journalist H. L. Mencken dubbed it the Monkey Trial. The facts are these: A high school science teacher, John Scopes, was being tried for violating the Butler Act, a recently passed Tennessee law that forbade the teaching of evolution in public schools. You might imagine a burly sheriff dragging Scopes from the classroom in handcuffs. But thats not what happened. Instead, Scopes volunteered to be arrested.The American Civil Liberties Union heard about the Tennessee law and offered to pay the legal expenses of anyone who would get themselves arrested and challenge the law in court. The idea was to get the case before the U.S. Supreme Court, hoping for a favorable ruling on the issue of separation of church and state. A group of local business leaders decided that Dayton could use the publicity. Scopes agreed to become the defendant.The trial might have attracted little attention outside the world of constitutional law were it not for the two famous lawyers who volunteered to help with the case: William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow for the defense.Two CrusadersBryan, known as The Great Commoner for his efforts on behalf of working people, was a three-time Democratic candidate for U.S. President and a former Secretary of State. Darrow was then, and is still, considered one of the greatest defense attorneys in the history of the U.S.Both men were politically progressive. Bryan supported womens suffrage, an eight-hour workday, a minimum wage, and the right of unions to strike. Darrow held similar positions and, in addition had represented unions and the NAACP.The two men could not have been more different philosophically, however. Darrow was an avowed agnostic who believed passionately in freedom of speech and thought and in the value of reason. Bryan was a fundamentalist Christian who believed in a literal interpretation of the King James Bible. Bryan had spent the last ten years crusading against the teaching of evolution.But the Scopes trial was never about evolution, not really. For Bryan, it was about religion.Bryan felt that he was going into a duel to the death on behalf of Christianity. He really believed that he was a modern Crusader, explains Brenda Wineapple, author of Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation.For Darrow, Wineapple explains, the case was about protecting the freedom to learn, to teach, to think, and to worship (or not) as you please. Yet Darrow, too, she says, was on a crusade of a sort.Darrow felt that he'd seen too much intolerance, too much racism, too much xenophobia, too much prejudice, Wineapple says. For both men, America was on the line.National Biology LessonAt the time, few people outside science, least of all Bryan, truly understood evolution or the writings of Charles Darwin. Unfortunately, Bryan and most of his followers confused evolution with social Darwinism, a misunderstanding and misapplication of Darwins theories that were used to justify racism, imperialism, and eugenics.For his part, Darrow aimed to educate people. That plan came to a head late in the trial when, after the judge had refused to allow expert witnesses to testify about the science of evolution, Darrow called Bryan himself to the stand.Darrow asked Bryan about the age of the Earth, about biblical miracles, such as when Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and many more questions that revealed not only Bryans ignorance of science but his ignorance of the Bible as well.This was intended, I think, to expose Bryans ideas about creationism as silly and unsupported, but you almost get the sense that Darrow was trying to humiliate him, says Douglas O. Linder, a law professor at the University of Kansas-Missouri School of Law and founder of the website Famous Trials.And the press did see it as a humiliation. Bryan was near hysterics and intellectually butchered, according to journalists cited by Wineapple.However, the jurys job was not to decide the merits of Bryans beliefs but to determine if John Scopes had violated the Butler Act, and that was never really in dispute. It took the jury all of nine minutes to return a guilty verdict. The case was headed to the Tennessee Supreme Court.However, the appeal did not go as planned. The judges upheld the law, but reversed the verdict on a technicality (the judge had fined Scopes $100, but according to Tennessee law, any fine over $50 had to be decided by the jury). The defenses request for a new trial was denied. The case would never make it to the Supreme Court.According to Linder, you can see the outcome as a draw. He says, the strategy of getting to the Supreme Court didn't work, but it did give Darrow an opportunity to give the nation a biology lesson. The expert testimony that the jury didnt hear was presented by affidavit and published in periodicals around the nation.But perhaps the most tangible effect of the Scopes trial was that the circus atmosphere and national attention discouraged other states from enacting similar legislation, says Linder. Of the states that were considering banning the teaching of evolution, only two Louisiana and Arkansas actually passed such legislation. Arkansas ban made it to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1968, where it was ruled a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, reinforcing the separation of church and state and ending the movement to outlaw the teaching of evolution in the U.S.Read More: How Does Speciation Drive Evolution?Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:Edward J. Larson. Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and Americas Continuing Debate over Science and Religion.Clarence Darrow. The Story of My Life.Britannica. H.L. Mencken Tennessee Virtual Archive. Butler Act American Civil Liberties Union. HistoryOffice of the Historian. William Jennings BryanBritannica. Clarence DarrowBritannica. Social DarwinismMiddle Tennessee University. Epperson v. Arkansas (1968)Avery Hurt is a freelance science journalist. In addition to writing for Discover, she writes regularly for a variety of outlets, both print and online, including National Geographic, Science News Explores, Medscape, and WebMD. Shes the author of Bullet With Your Name on It: What You Will Probably Die From and What You Can Do About It, Clerisy Press 2007, as well as several books for young readers. Avery got her start in journalism while attending university, writing for the school newspaper and editing the student non-fiction magazine. Though she writes about all areas of science, she is particularly interested in neuroscience, the science of consciousness, and AIinterests she developed while earning a degree in philosophy.
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  • Titanic artifact salvage efforts paused indefinitely
    www.popsci.com
    RMST confirmed last year that a section of the bow railing has disintegrated. Credit: NOAA/IFE/URIShareThe only company legally permitted to salvage artifacts from the Titanic has confirmed it will not return to the wreckage in 2025. The decision also ends a yearslong legal battle with the US government that began before the COVID-19 pandemic. But while RMS Titanic, Inc. (RMST) isnt ruling out future expeditions entirely, its most recent visit underscored that time is running out for conservationists.Since the US granted RMST sole salvor-in-possession rights in 1994, RMST has conducted a total of eight excursions to the luxury liners historic resting place at the bottom of the North Atlantic. These operations have resulted in the recovery and conservation of thousands of items, including silverware, clothing, passengers personal effects, and a section of the hull. Its most recent mission took place over 20 days in July 2024, resulting in over two million high resolution videos and photographs. Most notably, however, was RMSTs confirmation that a portion of the forecastle decks bow railing (made famous in James Camerons Titanic) had disintegrated. Experts estimate the majority of the Titanic will disintegrate within the next few decades.According to the Associated Press, the US government decided to withdraw its motion to intervene in a federal admiralty court on January 10th, citing RMSTs decision to scrap recovery dive plans dating back to 2020. The expedition-in-question was originally intended to not only document the wreckages status, but bring back historically valuable artifacts that have spent over 112 years exposed to the crushing depth pressures and corrosive waters approximately 12,500 feet below the oceans surface. The Georgia-based company was particularly focused on retrieving items from the Titanics Marconi room. The space is named for its Marconi wireless telegraph machine, which crew used to signal the ships distress calls in Morse code.Past evidence showed the telegraph resting near the grand staircase in a deck house. At the time, the plan was to guide an uncrewed robotic submersible to the machine, either through an open skylight or by cutting open a small portion of the corroded roof. Once the team located the radio, handlers would then use the submersibles suction dredge to remove any surrounding silt while manipulator arms severed its electrical cords. Get the Popular Science newsletter Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.Although a US District Court judge initially approved RMSTs plans in 2020, the US government quickly challenged the ruling. According to the complaint, RMSTs telegraph recovery strategy violated a federal law passed in 2017 banning any future exploration that entered the hull, an umbrella phrase for disturbing any of the Titanics physical remains. The subsequent onset of the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the case from ever actually going to court.Following the 2023 Oceangate Titan submersible implosion, RMST announced its forthcoming voyage would only involve recording external images and video. The controversial trip resulted in the death of all five passengers, including Oceangates CEO, Stockton Rush, and RMSTs director of underwater research, Paul-Henri Nargeolet.The AP notes that RMST will not visit the wreck this year and has no definitive plans for future missions. At the same time, the company isnt ruling out a returnpotentially one that brings back additional artifacts before they are lost for good.[RMST will] diligently consider the strategic, legal, and financial implications of conducting future salvage operations at the site, the company wrote at the time. But regardless of what happens in the future, the US government made clear it would be paying attention.Should future circumstances warrant, the United States will file a new motion to intervene based on the facts then existing, federal lawyers wrote in their filing last week.
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  • Australias social-media ban wont work there are better ways to keep kids safe
    www.nature.com
    Nature, Published online: 14 January 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00051-0Research and resources are crucial to educate parents and carers the world over about the best ways to manage their childrens use of social media.
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  • What's in the pink fire retardant being dropped on LA, and is it dangerous?
    www.livescience.com
    Parts of Southern California are covered with pink fire retardant as firefighters try to control deadly wildfires raging in Los Angeles. But what is Phos-Chek fire retardant and is it safe?
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  • https://soundcloud.com/benoit-prada/this-is-the-groove-radio-show-ft-costa-54

    #thisisthegroove #radioshow #djset
    https://soundcloud.com/benoit-prada/this-is-the-groove-radio-show-ft-costa-54 #thisisthegroove #radioshow #djset
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