Antarctica's Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf may be under threat due to relatively warm water from the deep sea flowing towards the shelf. Is climate change to blame?

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Nearly nine years ago, the original Crashlands introduced players to an alien space trucker named Flux Dabes as she survived a crash landing on the planet Woanope and crafted her way out of that jam. Flux's history will repeat itself this spring when Crashlands 2 arrives. In the new trailer below, Flux is literally dropped on to Woanope again as she is forced to make a new life for herself until she can get off-world. Essentially, Flux has to start over from scratch. That means if she wants a home, she'll have to build one herself. As before, Flux can craft her own objects and buildings, and she can also create weapons, traps, and any kind of gadget she needs to survive on Woaope. But on this world, Flux isn't necessarily on top of the food chain, and the alien creatures often hunt each other.The announcement for the game also hints that Flux will uncover multiple mysteries on Woanope, and she'll be making some new friends to help her solve them. An ancient warrior named Grandmammy is among her new allies, in addition to Kleewik, an inventor who can employ Flux as a lab technician. Beyond mere escape, Flux's goal is to unite the various factions of Woanope, and "restore balance to the planet."Continue Reading at GameSpot

Hearts of Iron 4 has become a much more complex game since its initial release in 2016. Players now have more control than ever over their nations in the lead-up to the 20th century's greatest catastrophe, the Second World War. Fans have a diverse plethora of countries to choose from, many of them containing their own unique National Focus Trees.

Antares OpenGL engine (C++|OpenGL)Just a cumulative video showing most of the features implemented in my custom OpenGL engine.---------------------------------------List of the current features provided by the engine:. normal mapping. parallax occlusion mapping (with self shadowing). shadow mapping (directional and omnidirectional). advanced bloom (via downsampling)

Were back! My name is Blake Stone, Lead Designer at VitruviusVR, the development team behind Mervils & Shadow Legend VR on the original PS VR. We are very excited to launch our newest title Arken Age, a single-player VR adventure set in a terraformed sci-fi fantasy world.In the game you engage in full physics-based combat using Arkenite infused swords & guns; and can freely explore the densely filled environments under siege by Hyperions neural corruption. Arken Age has a full 15-hour story driven campaign, was built from the ground-up for PlayStation VR2, and is launching tomorrow, January 16.10 years of developing for PlayStation VRIn 2015, we were demoing an early version of Mervils: A VR Adventure, our third-person VR platforming game at the Immersed Conference in Toronto, Canada when we were approached by Richard Marks, Head of Sonys Magic Lab at the time. He couldnt tell us too much, but said that his team had something really cool in works for VR and that Mervils could be a great fit for it. He later sent us a prototype of the Project Morpheus headset which would later be renamed PlayStation VR, and since then we have never looked back.We released Mervils in 2017 and later launched Shadow Legend VR in 2020, a first-person medieval sword-fighting game, and we learned a ton from the PlayStation VR communitys feedback on those games that we have directly applied to Arken Age.From Shadow Legend we learned that players loved the Climbing Picks both for their fluidity of movement in VR and haptics on impact. For Arken Age we took the Climbing Picks one step further and physically integrated them into the players forearms and added the ability to flick your wrists upwards to deploy them at any time during the game.The Climbing Picks is only one example, but theres so much more included in the game. We further refined our custom VR inventory system, weapon crafting, character interactions, unique combat features, exploration elements, and our design philosophy behind building high-fidelity worlds in VR.Dynamic Foveated Rendering & breath-taking HDR graphicsIn order to take full advantage of the PlayStation VR2 we worked hard to ensure Arken Ages rendering, shaders, particle-effects, and post-effects were compatible with Dynamic Foveated Rendering (DFR) for the best image resolution possible. Although, image quality is not the only benefit of the PS VR2, with the vibrant world of the Bio-Chasm in Arken Age, it really showcases the importance of HDR graphics in VR with the bright blue waters, lush foliage, and emissive energy bloom from Arkenite weapons, buildings, & the robotic Hyperion soldiers in the world.VR weaponry & custom adaptive triggersWhen developing Arken Age our biggest focus was on realistic physics-based combat and one-of-a-kind VR weaponry; each with their own unique Adaptive Trigger haptics. In the game you begin with 3 fully customizable & paintable weapons and can collect over 30 unique weapon mods in total. Each attachment is custom designed for VR gameplay, ranging from the Hyperion God Axe; a throwing axe that uses PS VR2s eye-tracking & can be recalled at your will, the Tempered Cutter; a deployable saw blade that dismembers enemy limbs, and the Astral Ballista; a high-powered chargeable bow, to name a few. In addition, eye-tracking is used to enable the sniper scopes in the game, just close one eye when your head is close to a scope and watch the magic happen!Uncover the story of Bio-Chasm & your full VR alien bodyIn Arken Age you are a biological alien creation, built with full locomotion and the ability to freely jump, crouch, climb, & swim. You can view your full body in first-person and holster all weapons physically onto your character.Your journey begins in Celestial Custodians Tower on the shores of the Bio-Chasm, a terraformed realm created to harvest Arkenite Energy. Its divine founder, the Grand Arborist, has ceased cultivation of your planet and every transmission sent to him has been met with abject silence. In Arken Age you uncover the truth behind the disappearance of the Grand Arborist, forge alliance with the Nara alien race, take up arms against Hyperions legion of corrupted soldiers, and learn how your character; who is part Nara and part Hyperion tech, fits into this world.Arken Age takes the player through a full 15-hour adventure, combines both physics-based sword combat with long-range gun combat, has a wide-range of custom VR interactions, epic VR boss fights, and gives the player full freedom to explore the dense environments of the Bio-Chasm.We want to thank everyone in the PlayStation VR community for their support over the years and we hope Arken Age will be something PS VR2 fans can enjoy this Jan 16 and for the years to come!

The official PlayStation Blog was recently updated with info on what PlayStation Plus subscribers can expect from the service through the rest of January, and lets just say theres a lot to get excited about.Starting on Jan. 21, the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog will add a veritable smorgasbord of heaters for Extra and Premium members, including God of War Ragnark, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, Sayonara Wild Hearts, ANNO: Mutationem, and Citizen Sleeper, the lattermost of which drops just in time for you to catch up before Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector arrives on Jan. 31.Premium subs will also get exclusive access to PlayStation classics Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings and Medievil 2. Dont get too excited: the Indiana Jones game everyone cares about, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, is still exclusive to Xbox Series X/S and PC for now, but will make its way to PlayStation 5 this spring.All of this comes in addition to monthly games Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered, and The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, which will be free to download until Feb. 3.

The latest in the 2024/2025 Design Conversation Series by the Vignelli Center for Design Studies, Antenna Design brings their unique perspective to the stage at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Founded in 1997 by Masamichi Udagawa and Sigi Moeslinger, the studio is known for its people-centered approach to solve complex design challenges. With an impressive portfolio that includes the design of subway cars, information kiosks, and ticket vending machines for New York City and Washington D.C., Antenna has reshaped the way public spaces function. Their award-winning work, such as the Help Point Intercom for the New York MTA, even holds a place in the permanent collection of MoMA, underscoring their lasting impact on design.In this lecture, Antenna Design shares their approach to using interaction design as a tool to shape behavior in public spaces. From pioneering the citys first touchscreen ticket vending machines to redesigning subway cars for smoother passenger flow, they demonstrate how even the smallest design interventions can lead to significant behavioral shifts. Emphasizing adaptability, they reflect on the unpredictability of public design and the importance of creative problem-solving in response to real-world challenges.To learn more about Antenna Design, check out the lecture below:Masamichi Udagawa and Sigi Moeslinger of Antenna DesignSketches for Knolls AWS DeskKnoll AWS DeskTouchscreen ticket vending machine, first introduced in 1999Knoll Toboggan Chair DeskConfigurations for Knoll Toboggan Chair DeskTo learn more about The Vignelli Center for Design Studies at RIT, they have launched digital access to the archives through Google Arts & Culture, joining over 2000 cultural institutions from around the world. The initial launch includes nearly 900 high resolution images of artifacts from the archives so that now anyone with access to the Internet and Google Arts & Culture can search the Vignelli archives or browse it by color or chronological order.This lecture is presented with the support of RITs MAGIC Center.This lecture series is made possible in part by the generosity of RIT Alumnus, Chris Bailey, and Bailey Brand Consulting.

Nothing can ruins your day more thoroughly than a crappy wifi signal that slows your entire life to a crawl filled with error messages, broken images, and tedious loading animations that quickly test your sense of reality.When thats the situation in your own home, its even worsebecause its inescapable. If your wifi signal isnt making it past the room your router sits in, there are several possible explanationsbut you might want to start by considering the stuff your house is made of. Wifi is a radio signal, and when a radio signal passes through a solid material, it weakensand certain materials have a bigger impact than others. MetalMetal is a good electrical conductor, which means it absorbs radio waves, degrading your wifi signal pretty significantly. Look for these culprits: Chicken wire. You might not think there are any metal barriers in your home, but do you know whats inside your walls? Plaster, cement, or stucco walls often use chicken wire or other metal mesh as a reinforcement, essentially turning your walls into wifi-eating machines. Moving your router to a more open location might improve your signal.Appliances and furniture. Appliances like refrigerators or televisions and metal furniture like filing cabinets are big lumps of metal sitting in your house, and if they come between your router and everything else, the signal will have to fight its way through them.Doors. If you have heavy metal doors in the house, those slabs may be gobbling up your wifi signals for breakfast.GlassGlass itself isnt a problem for wifi signals, but many of the glass stuff in your house also contains metal. Mirrors, for example, typically use a thin layer of silver or aluminum to make them reflective, and modern low-emission windows use a thin metallic coating to enhance their insulating properties, which is great for your energy bills but terrible for your wifi signal.Water featuresWater eats low-frequency radio signals for lunch, because it reacts with themthats how a microwave can boil a cup of water so efficiently. You probably didnt put your router at the bottom of a swimming pool, but if you have a large aquarium or other water feature in the home, it will degrade your signal. Water and heating pipes in the walls can also pose a challenge, so having your router on the opposite side of a bathroom, kitchen, or utility room will complicate your coverage.Concrete and brickConcrete is dense and challenging for radio signals to pass through, so if your home or apartment has concrete walls and/or floors your wifi signal might go AWOL between the router and, say, your living room television. The problem will be even worse if the concrete is reinforced with metal. Brick is less dense than concrete but its still going to block a lot of that signal. Ceramic tileCeramic tile by itself is only a moderate barrier to wifi signalsbut when combined with other materials like drywall or plaster, that ceramic tile becomes a real problem for your internet speeds. If you have a tiled bathroom between your router and the stuff that it feeds, for example, you might experience a significant loss of signal as a resultpossibly worsened by water pipes and other metallic materials in the walls as well.What to do if you have these materials blocking your wifi signalIf your wifi signal sucks and you suspect some of these materials might be to blame, you might not be able (or willing) to tear your home apart to boost your wifi signalbut being aware of these materials can help you choose the best possible location for your router to remove as many barriers as possible.If location is a challenge, look into setting up a mesh networking solution, which can blanket your home with a full-strength wifi signal despite any barriers that exist in the walls or other aspects of the structure. You could also look into running wired internet throughout your home, which is still a perfectly viable solution when it comes to getting internet to your various devices.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a suit against John Deere, accusing it of unfair practices that force farmers to pay higher-than-average repair costs. The federal organization, along with attorneys general for Illinois and Minnesota, are alleging that the company engages in practices that keep farmers from being able to make repairs on equipment they own.In other words, this is another salvo in the ongoing right-to-repair battle. The complaint states that John Deere engages in dubious practices, like incorporating software into farm equipment, to dissuade people from trying to fix stuff on their own. Additionally, the suit points to decades of unlawful behavior that pushes farmers to the companys authorized network of dealers for repairs.FTC, states sue Deere & Company to protect farmers from unfair corporate tactics, high repair costs: https://t.co/sdho0iXf1u /1 FTC (@FTC) January 15, 2025 Illegal repair restrictions can be devastating for farmers, who rely on affordable and timely repairs to harvest their crops and earn their income, FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a press release. The FTCs action today seeks to ensure that farmers across America are free to repair their own equipment or use repair shops of their choice.The suit goes on to allege that Deere makes the only fully functional software repair tool capable of performing all repairs on its equipment, which was only made available to official dealers. These dealers allegedly charge higher prices than independent shops, giving the company unlawful monopoly power. Farmers have long maintained that they can conduct basic repairs on equipment, but the computers lock the systems from working again until an officially licensed technician does their thing. This thing, allegedly, is simply flipping a software switch.The company says it supports customers right to repair equipment. It even signed a memorandum of understanding with the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) in 2023 that was supposed to make its software, tools and documentation available to farmers and independent repair shops. It doesnt look like that actually happened, as the suit alleges it continues to unlawfully withhold a fully functional repair tool from equipment owners.The lawsuit seeks to stop Deeres anticompetitive conduct by mandating access to its software repair tool, in addition to other repair resources available to authorized dealers. Nathan Proctor, PIRGs Right to Repair Campaign Director, said in a statement to Gizmodo that We shouldnt tolerate companies blocking repair. When you buy something, you should be able to do whatever you want with it.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/ftc-sues-john-deere-over-unfair-corporate-tactics-and-high-repair-costs-192052941.html?src=rss