• The $500 Million Debacle at Sonos That Just Wont End
    www.wsj.com
    Companies update their apps all the time. This one annoyed customers, cratered the stock and cost the CEO his job.
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  • When my toddler has emotional outbursts, I ignore her. The tantrums tend to pass when I'm not paying attention anymore.
    www.businessinsider.com
    Many modern and popular parenting techniques place a high emphasis on attending to our kids' emotions.I give my daughter space when she experiences big emotional outbursts.I want her to learn that emotions are passing sensations.I could see the emotional monsoon coming from a mile away. That's why, as we approached the house, I gently warned my daughter that we would need to take her rainboots off before going inside. She continued splashing through the puddles in our driveway, either unable or unwilling to hear me. Sure enough, when we entered the garage and sat down to take off our shoes, a torrent of tears erupted."No, you're NOT taking my boots off!" she screamed. Days earlier, her daycare teacher informed me that she even refused to remove them during naptime.I briefly considered allowing her to wear the boots inside just to avoid the fight. But glancing down at our muddy footprints only strengthened my resolve.I breathed in, took her tear-streaked face in my hands, and explained why the boots needed to stay outside. More shrieks. I slipped off her shoes (narrowly avoiding a kick to the face) and carried her thrashing body into the kitchen, where I placed her on the ground. She curled into a ball, threatening to explode again at any moment."I love you," I reassured her, patting her back. "I'm sorry we had to take off the boots. We can put them back on later. Right now, I need to cook dinner. Can I give you a hug?""NO!" She spat. "I want my boots!" She scrambled back toward the door, slamming her tiny fists against it. "Give me my boots!" she wailed.Her outburst continued to escalate, but I started making dinner anyway.I ignored her and carried on with the evening to-dosModern parenting philosophies (like gentle parenting) would advise me not to leave her side. These "big emotions" deserve our utmost attention and investigation, according to gentle parenting experts. Many millennial parents have fallen into this "pendulum parenting" trap. We were raised to suppress our own emotions, so now we're over-correcting that mistake by giving our kids' emotions all the power.But here's the mistake I think we're making as parents in this gentle parenting era: we need to go beyond identifying the emotion and teach our kids how tomove pastit.We need to teach our kids how to move past their emotionsStopping everything to comfort a child for 45 minutes over something like rainboots or rice crackers does not increase their emotional competence. It's communicating that, despite whatever else is going on, their emotions reign supreme. Nothing and no one else matters; plans get lost in the wake.Oftentimes (especially when it comes to toddlers), emotions do not represent reality. So, instead of validating our kids' emotions, we validate their outsize reactions to trivial matters. Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a Havard-trained neuroscientist, explains that the physical sensations of emotions pass after 90 seconds. Our feelings persist because we choose to dwell on whatever caused them in the first place. The solution is to acknowledge the emotions and allow them to move through us without continuing to react.All emotions will pass once I stop giving them my attentionI don't expect my daughter to understand or comprehend what took me years of therapy and practice to figure out. She's only 2, after all. But if I can show her that our emotions don't have all the control, I think it will save her a lot of heartache in the future.So when a toddler tornado hits, I get out of the way.After labeling her feelings and offering comfort (if she wants it), I give her time and space to express her emotions in a safe environment. But I don't add fuel to an already-raging fire by giving it more of my own energy and attention. Even the worst storms will eventually pass.Emotions are a sometimes delightful and sometimes distressing part of the human experience. But they are only onepart there's so much more to life, and the actions that we take in response to our circumstances (and feelings) matter more than anything else.
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  • Landmark Survey Reveals 74 Exocomet Belts Orbiting Nearby Stars
    www.discovermagazine.com
    30 of the exocomet belts, as imaged in this study, showing the extreme variation in such belts. (Credit: Prof Luca Matra, Trinity College Dublin.)NewsletterSign up for our email newsletter for the latest science newsAstrophysicists have taken images of a large sample of exocomet belts for the first time, imaging the bands along with the tiny pebbles that orbit within. The images were published in a study in Astronomy and Astrophysics, showing bands of a variety of structures. The images reveal a remarkable diversity in the structure of belts, said Sebastin Marino, a study author and an astronomer at the University of Exeter, according to a press release. Some are narrow rings [] but a larger number of them are wide, and probably better described as disks rather than rings. Read More: How Are Exoplanets Discovered?Exploring Exocomet BeltsIn our own Solar System, comet belts are bands of comets and other objects that orbit the Sun. The Kuiper Belt is one such band, orbiting the Sun beyond the reach of Neptune. Formed from the remnants of the birth of the Solar System, the Kuiper Belt is basically a band of frozen leftovers.But the Kuiper Belt isnt the only band of frozen leftovers out there. Similar bands surround other stars, too, in solar systems other than our own. These exocomet belts are a lot like the comet belts in our own Solar System, featuring exocomets and other objects, frozen at temperatures of around negative 420 degrees Fahrenheit to negative 240 degrees Fahrenheit.Exocometary belts are found in at least 20 percent of planetary systems, said Luca Matr, another study author and an astrophysicist at Trinity College Dublin, according to the release. Surprising SizesSetting out to survey a large sample of exocomet belts for the first time and dubbing the survey REASONS (REsolved ALMA and SMA Observations of Nearby Stars) a team of astrophysicists imaged 74 exocomet belts of various structures. Some were narrower, some were broader, and some werent alone, belonging to systems with multiple bands.The power of a large study like REASONS is in revealing population-wide properties and trends, said Matr in the release.One of these trends, for instance, related to the broadness of the belts, which tended to be wide, not narrow like our own Kuiper Belt. Another related to the objects inside the belts: Older belts tended to contain fewer pebbles, which form when exocomets collide. Exocomets are boulders of rock and ice [] which smash together within these belts to produce the pebbles that we observe here, said Matr in the release. The number of pebbles decreases for older planetary systems as belts run out of larger exocomets smashing together. [] This decrease in pebbles is faster if the belt is closer to the central star.A Telescopic TeamTo image these exocomets, which also varied in age from young to old, the team turned to the ALMA and SMA telescope arrays. Comprising 66 radio telescopes in the Atacama Desert in Chile and 8 radio telescopes on Maunakea in Hawaii, the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Submillimeter Array (SMA) were capable of capturing these exocomet belts in crystal-clear resolution, revealing their impressive range of sizes. Arrays like the ALMA and SMA used in this work are extraordinary tools that are continuing to give us incredible new insights into the universe and its workings, said David Wilner, another study author and an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, in the release. The REASONS survey required a large community effort and has an incredible legacy value, with multiple potential pathways for future investigation.New insights could come from the same telescopes, or from others, like the James Webb Space Telescope. The REASONS dataset of belt and planetary system properties will enable studies of the birth and evolution of these belts, as well as follow-up observations across the wavelength range, said Wilner in the release, to zoom even further onto the details of these belts.Article Sources:Our 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:Astronomy and Astrophysics. REsolved ALMA and SMA Observations of Nearby Stars (REASONS)NASA. The Kuiper BeltSam Walters is a journalist covering archaeology, paleontology, ecology, and evolution for Discover, along with an assortment of other topics. Before joining the Discover team as an assistant editor in 2022, Sam studied journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
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  • A mutation makes plant roots more welcoming to beneficial microbes
    www.nature.com
    Nature, Published online: 15 January 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00092-5Promoting mutually beneficial relationships between plants and soil microbes that enhance nutrient acquisition by plants could improve crop production without increasing inorganic-fertilizer use. A mutation that causes an amino-acid substitution in a channel called CNGC15 in the plant cells nucleus boosts the formation of such endosymbiotic relationships.
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  • 'ELIZA,' the world's 1st chatbot, was just resurrected from 60-year-old computer code
    www.livescience.com
    Researchers discovered long-lost computer code and used it to resurrect the early chatbot ELIZA.
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  • Fields Of Mistria Developer Reveals Roadmap And Major March 2025 Update
    www.gamespot.com
    Fields of Mistria developer NPC Studio has revealed its upcoming roadmap of future content, as well as what's coming to the game in its second major update in March.The March 2025 update for Fields of Mistria will introduce a new character named Caldarus and a mechanic that allows players to gossip with Elsie in order to discover a character's preferred gifts. More NPC dialogue and schedules will be added too. There are also several new unlocks, including spells and mines, as well as a Fire Seal quest and the next mine biome. Fields of Mistria's latest Roadmap is here!Our 2nd Major Update will be coming in March! Here's a look at everything we have planned for it, as well as what to expect from future updates! Details: https://t.co/ueEJKH6EaM pic.twitter.com/Nb5YS284oW Fields of Mistria Out Now in Early Access (@FieldsofMistria) January 17, 2025 More requests and museum rewards will come to the town, and the Renown level cap will be raised by 20 levels. Farmland expansions, new furniture decor, and cosmetics will also be included. As for what comes next after March, the studio is working on various other features such as marriage and children mechanics. However, the developer notes that the release schedules of these upcoming features are in no particular order.Continue Reading at GameSpot
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  • Best Movies That Won A Razzie For Worst Picture
    gamerant.com
    If there are awards for good movies, such as the Oscars or the Golden Globes, then there has to be an equivalent for bad movies. These would be the Golden Raspberry Awards, also known as the Razzies, and they've recognized and "awarded" bad movies since the event was founded in 1981.
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  • [ROYALTY] Negative Plus - Looking for 3D artists(Environment/Character) FPS/RPG
    gamedev.net
    Project Title:Negative PlusDescription:In NP you play as Evander, an android who is a soldier for a global superpower. But he begins to question his role in this organization, and seeks out the mythical emotion processor that would let him hang up the sword and become a human like being, capable of emotions and love.Includes:FPS RPGInventory/Quests and component upgrades.<
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  • My kids first meeting with Nintendo
    www.polygon.com
    Game File is a thrice-weekly newsletter about the culture and business of video games, written by longtime gaming reporter Stephen Totilo (Kotaku, Axios, MTV News, The New York Times). Subscribe here for scoops, interviews and regular updates about gaming with the authors nearly 8-year-old twins.For decades, Ive trekked to office buildings and hotel suites to meet with game developers and public relations people in order to play upcoming video games ahead of their release.Until last week, Id never brought my kids.But, when Nintendo invited me to do so for a meeting last week, it seemed like a fun idea.It mostly was.The game was Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, a Switch remaster that was not yet released last Friday when my twins, freshly turned 8, hopped on the train with me to head into Manhattan for our appointment.The original DKCR on Wii was a fairly hard game. Id forgotten. I shouldnt have.But what is parenting, if not a succession of twists that you an adult who thought youd prepared for everything should have seen coming?My kids have been gaming since age 5 , exclusively on Nintendo systems for the first two years, so I was focused on the excitement that they could meet real Nintendo people.No, I explained to them a few days prior to our meeting, the man who created Donkey Kong wouldnt be there. But Id interviewed him a bunch of times! (Cool points for dad?) And people who work with him would be there.Better: Wed get to play a game before it came out! This concept delighted them last September, when we played early review code of Astro Bot their first PlayStation game. At the time, my son surmised that a bonus area that was labeled in the game with a row of question marks hadnt been named yet, because we had Astro Bot early and the game wasnt done.Of course, this Donkey Kong game was a remaster, but my kids hadnt even been alive for the original. Itd be new to them.Things started well.The Nintendo people were welcoming. A rep greeted us in the lobby, escorted us up an elevator, and we were soon greeted by Nintendo officials. We went into a room that my daughter would later marvel had a lot of TVs and sat at a table where the game was paused. A few other families took their spots, too.Before we could play, a Nintendo rep began an obligatory presentation, explaining the game via a set of slides marked confidential that explained the controls for Donkey Kong and his pal Diddy. The rep promoted Nintendo Switch Online as a means to play other Donkey Kong games.Then we encountered reality.Co-op gaming experiences are a risk with my kids. The twins, eternally seeking balance, can easily get frustrated with each other when they have different ideas about what to do in the game theyre mutually controlling. DKCRHD triggered that tension within seconds.When my daughter, playing as Diddy, wanted to race ahead, my son, as Donkey Kong, wanted to hang back and explore. Naturally, as soon as he wanted to proceed, she wanted to hang back. The game isnt the hardest thing ever, but they usually take turns playing Nintendo games and have rarely played anything in co-op thats tougher than Kirby. Some of the jumps were tough. He cared about collecting things; she did not.My kids started getting testy with each other, and I started getting mortified.A Nintendo rep kindly floated the idea of switching to single-player mode. Yes, please!That went better. As my son played, I tried to get my daughter to chat with the Nintendo folks. Maybe they could learn something from each other, I hoped.She played Mario Kart, she told them. And Smash Bros. One of the reps asked who her favorite Smash characters were. She likes Zero Suit Samus, she said. And the lady who shoots things from her feet.Meanwhile, my son was learning how to make Donkey Kong hang from moss-covered ceilings. He was also trying to find the levels hidden KONG letters. It had become really important to him.Soon, he took a break and my daughter resumed playing. With time running short, she finally landed a tricky jump, exclaimed I did it! And we called it there.Success! They were happy. I exhaled.Whatd my son think of his first ever Donkey Kong Country game?I like it, but its really hard, he said. I liked the first level and how you have to go on the vines and stuff, and when you find the hidden areas.And my daughter?Hard but good, she said.Both liked the game. But what they really liked were the Donkey Kong-themed water bottles that had been placed at each familys gaming station. The kids hoped they could keep them. The Nintendo people said they could. Who am I to enforce no-swag ethics on my children?My daughter, giddy, marveled at the DK initials on her bottle.Theres this restaurant, she excitedly told me. And the commercials are like [she started singing that Burger King jingle ] DK, have it your way!Oh, thats BK. I said.No, she said confidently. Its DK.And that was about it. We headed to the Lego store afterward, didnt buy anything, then dropped into the Nintendo Store (he picked out a plush Fireball Mario and a Bullet Bill; she grabbed Kirby and Toadette).My kids said they had a good time meeting with Nintendo. They liked the game, loved the bottles. The brief squabble didnt even register. Theyd love to do it again.As for me, the evening was the latest reminder of another truth of parenting: Im just along for the ride. Better hold on tight.More from Game File:You are not good at gaming: My very silly meeting with Keita TakahashiExclusive: How Sony improved the PS5 dashboard
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