Palworld is an open-world game in which players can explore various islands, gather resources to build bases and facilities, and most importantlydiscover, obtain, and collect various monsters known as Pals. Pals can aid players both in exploration and battles, as well as base production by pitching in to build new facilities or performing various tasks at structures and facilities that already exist.

Players will have to complete a lot of tasks during the Strings of Time limited event in Infinity Nikki if they wish to obtain all available rewards. The tasks range from simple activities, such as upgrading your Eureka and taking a photo in a specific location, to completing all available Whim Tangram levels. Luckily, on day 5 of the Strings of Time event, Stylists will complete an easy task, which is taking a picture while sitting on a picnic blanket.

GOG, a digital storefront for classic and DRM-free PC games, is debuting a new tool for users to vouch and vote on what theyd like to see released next. Its called GOG Dreamlist and its essentially an evolution of the community voting its done in the past but organized into a full-on tool for recommending and sharing stories about your favorite games.In the FAQ, GOG says itll use data from the highest voted games to help negotiate with IP owners about bringing them to the service. It wont be able to give updates on the status of each game, but its working on a feature to let you track which ones youve voted for that become available.Each game will have its own page where you can vote for it and submit a story about your experience with it. The plan is to have those stories live on once the game is out, GOG says in the FAQ. Were working on a solution to migrate Stories to GOG.COM game cards once the game is released: we wont let them get lost.GOG recently started its GOG Preservation Program to maintain compatibility for games that would otherwise struggle to run on modern systems. There are 102 games currently part of this commitment, including Fallout: New Vegas, Diablo, and Resident Evil 2. Even delisted games, like Warcraft and Warcraft 2 will still be available to download through it indefinitely. The company says its goal is for all games to eventually be a part of this program.Along with the release of GOG Dreamlist, Dino Crisis and Dino Crisis 2 are now available, and theyre both included in the Preservation Program.

Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) are re-introducing a bill that aims to ban social media platforms from knowingly letting kids aged under 13 from using them. The bipartisan Kids Off Social Media Act (KOSMA) was introduced last year, but it didn't progress beyond the committee stage. However, KOSMA may pick up more momentum this time around given the current political landscape.I'm going to do everything I can to get it passed out of committee and advanced on the floor [...] and signed into law, Cruz told The Washington Post. Ted and I are in the middle of about two dozen different disagreements and disputes, but the one thing that seems to unite the political parties is that we need to protect small children from the negative outcomes of being on social media, Schatz said.Cruz is now the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee (which has become a prominent battleground for social media-related issues in recent years). Not only that, Republicans are in control of both houses of Congress while Lina Khan is no longer head of the Federal Trade Commission.Under KOSMA, that agency would have extra regulatory power over social media platforms. Some Republicans were reluctant to hand Khan those reins. I think that [Khan's stint as FTC chair] understandably caused significant reluctance on the part of Congress to entrust any additional authority on the FTC, Cruz said.If KOSMA becomes law as it stands, social media platforms would have to delete any accounts held by users aged under 13 as well as any data collected from those children. It would also block them from using data collected from users aged under 17 to algorithmically suggest or promote content. Furthermore, it stipulates that schools would have to block students from accessing social media services on school devices and networks in order to keep receiving certain subsidies.Schatz was among a bipartisan group of senators that introduced the Protecting Kids on Social Media Act in 2023. That bill aimed to set 13 as the minimum age for using social media, and require parental consent for under 18s to access such platforms. However, the bill did not pass through the Commerce Committee.Last July, two online safety bills that ostensibly sought to protect minors, the Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act and the much-derided Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), passed the Senate in a 91-3 vote. However, neither passed through the House before the previous Congress ended on January 3.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/senators-again-attempt-to-ban-pre-teens-from-social-media-160535890.html?src=rss

Building a working nuclear fusion reactor has proven to be a daunting challenge even for multiple wealthy nations, as we've seen with the much-delayed ITER project. However, a private start-up called Helion thinks it can build one and start supplying energy by 2028 by taking a different approach than other reactors.Founded in 2013, Helion is in the news thanks to a $425 million funding round, backed by billionaires like Sam Altman and Peter Thiel. With more than $1 billion raised, the company is now valued at $5.4 billion.Nuclear fusion, which combines hydrogen atoms to form helium, is the holy grail for green energy. It's carbon free, and unlike current nuclear plants, produces no long-term radioactive waste. At the same time, reactors could produce enough electricity to power small cities.Sustained fusion reaction that produces more energy that it consumes has never happened, though. The largest project, ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), is projected to cost up to $22 billion and won't go online until at least 2034 and still hasn't produced a sustained reaction. The longest fusion reaction is 1,066 seconds (17 minutes and 43 seconds), set just recently by the EAST reactor in China.So how does Helion think it can succeed? Most experimental reactors compress plasma using magnetic or inertial confinement, which heats it enough to spark a fusion reaction. Once that happens, the fusion-generated heat powers a steam turbine to generate electricity.Polaris 2024 pic.twitter.com/stHliJz8pB Helion (@Helion_Energy) December 30, 2024 Helion is using a different approach by dispensing with the steam turbine. Fuel (deuterium and helium-3) is injected into both ends of the hourglass shaped reactor, then heated to form a plasma. Magnets form the plasma into a donut shape and fire them at each other at speeds up to 1 million MPH. They collide in the narrow middle section of the reactor and are further compressed by magnets there. That heats them up to the magic 100 million degrees Celcius, creating fusion."As the plasma expands, it pushes back on the magnetic field from the machine's magnets," Helion explains on its website. "By Faraday's Law, the change in field induces current, which is directly recaptured as electricity, allowing Helion's fusion generator to skip the steam cycle."This system is simpler and potentially more efficient than a steam turbine. However, while the company has achieved fast enough pulse rates to achieve fusion, it has only done so on a small scale to date. "There [are] some big engineering challenges to get to those high repetition rates at the kind of big pulse powers where we talk about millions of amps," CEO David Kirtley told TechCrunch.And that's the rub with every other reactor. Fusion produces a huge surge of energy all at once and so far no one has been able to control and harness that. Helion thinks its simpler system will help, but has yet to prove it can do it experimentally, let alone commercially. Still, the company says its seventh-generation reactor, Polaris, is now "in operation" but has declined to share any results to date.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/a-private-start-up-called-helion-aims-to-have-a-working-fusion-reactor-by-2028-142020697.html?src=rss

We hear from 10 experts on DeepSeeks potential for chaos.

The newly launched, dinky Dyson Car+Boat solves many the problems I have with handheld vacuums.

As fires burned tens of thousands of acres across Los Angeles County, officials were warning residents that the air was a toxic soup of pollutionfueled by the fact that not only vegetation but cars, buildings, homes, and all the plastics and electronics inside them were going up in flames.But to some residents surprise, the Air Quality Index (AQI) on their phones didnt relay that same message. Thats because AQI doesnt capture the full scope of air pollutionwhich, during the fires, was made up of toxins including lead, chlorine, and bromine. To give residents a fuller picture of what exactly was in the air around L.A., scientists with an air monitoring project made their advanced air pollution measurements available to the public.Lead data, Los Angeles 1/1/2025-1/28/2025 [Screenshot: ASCENT Data]What doesnt AQI capture in air pollution?The Environmental Protection Agency developed the AQI to measure five major pollutants: ground-level ozone, particle pollution (also called fine particulate matter or PM2.5, meaning particles that are 2.5 microns or less in size), carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. PM2.5 and ozone tend to be the primary pollutants. The index gives all this air pollution a value based on the total mass concentration.That means the general AQI reading can lack specificity, says Roya Bahreini, a professor of atmospheric science at University of California Riverside and a co-principal investigator of the Atmospheric Science and Chemistry mEasurement NeTwork, or ASCENT project. Its also missing certain toxins that may be released during events like urban wildfires. Just looking at the value of PM2.5 cannot tell you how toxic the air is.The way many cities measure the aerosols in their air doesnt show a full, real-time picture, she adds. While some may measure air pollutants continuously, they may only analyze the air filters every three or five days. Theyre also aggregating all that data into a 24-hour period. You dont get these very dynamic profiles, Bahreini says, We dont know if the high concentration that one filter sees is because of something that happened in the morning rush hour or the afternoon rush hour or at night.These gaps are what the ASCENT project, which was funded by the National Science Foundation in 2021, hopes to fill. We wanted to have a continuous look at the chemical composition of the PM2.5, and this fast, sort of state-of-the-art network has not existed in the U.S., Bahreini says. ASCENT set up its network at 12 sites across the country, including two locations in Los Angeles. With this network, we see continuously how dynamic the aerosol composition can be, and also how things change.Chlorine data, Los Angeles 1/1/2025-1/28/2025 [Screenshot: ASCENT Data]Lead and chlorine in L.A. wildfire airASCENTs goal is to have all its measurements public by September 2025, but it rushed to make a website with its L.A. readings available during the fires as researchers realized the importance of what they were capturing. Early on, ASCENTs monitoring site in Pico Rivera, which is part of southeastern Los Angeles County, saw massive spikes in airborne leadjumping, at its worst, to 472 nanograms of lead per cubic meter of air. The EPAs safe levels for lead in the air is 150 nanograms per cubic meter averaged over three months. Before the fires began, L.A.s levels were less than 3 nanograms.Around the same time. ASCENTs tools also clocked spikes in chlorine to more than 13,000 nanograms per cubic meter of air, when the background level in the region is usually less than 50 nanograms. Bromine levels also saw significant spikes.Exposure to all of these can come with health impacts: Breathing in lead has been associated with brain and nervous system damage; chlorine can damage the respiratory tract and lungs, and bromine exposure can cause lung inflammation. (Though for the latter two, its difficult to know the risk given how they were distributed through the air during the fires.) Breathing in lots of particulate pollution in general can cause respiratory issues and even premature mortality. These three chemicals are very unique to something like an urban wildfire, Bahreini says. Lead could have gotten into the air from soil deposits that were burning, as well as lead pipes or paint from older homes. Chlorine is often added to plastics, including PVC piping, computer casings, or the insulation around wires. You can imagine how much of that got burned, Bahreini says. Bromine could be in all sorts of household materials, from mattresses to sofas to carpets, because its often used a component of flame retardants.Checking the air qualityand masking upThe highest levels of those three toxins did decrease after the most active periods of the fires. Still, even once they decreased, their levels were still above normalpossibly because of wind, cleaning efforts, or other disturbances that can redistribute the particles in the air.ASCENT is planning to keep its publicly-available L.A.-area data online as long as there is interest, and fire risk, so residents can keep an eye on these pollutants with real-time data. (L.A. did recently get some rain that eased the wildfires, though officials warned that fire conditions could still persist afterwards, especially if the Santa Ana winds return.) Bahreini encourages residents to wear a mask, like an N95 or Kn95, that protects against PM2.5.

Our cognition and mental well-being are crucial factors for our quality of life and put us in a good position to contribute to society. Ultimately, it can be near impossible to achieve physical goals and demanding life challenges if our brain health is not optimal.Yet most of us appear to be more concerned with physical health than brain health. According to the YouGov website, the most popular New Years resolutions in the U.K. in 2024 were doing more exercise, saving money, losing weight and dietingwith about 20% reporting they were failing some resolutions just six days into the year. A large study of approximately 1,000 participants showed that mental health featured in only about 5% of resolutions.Its easy to monitor your physical health using mobile devices and wearable technology. It may be more unclear, however, how to improve and monitor brain health and mental well-being. In our new book, Brain Boost: Healthy Habits for a Happier Life, we draw on research to offer practical tips.A number of factors contribute to our happiness in life, including genetics, our social and physical environment, cognition, and our behavior, such as lifestyle choices. Studies have shown that good cognitive function is related to better well-being and happiness.Interestingly, according to the 2024 World Happiness Report, all five Nordic countriesFinland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Swedenare among the top 10 happiest countries. The U.K. and the U.S., however, do not feature in the top 10.In the U.K., the YouGov website has been tracking mood states, and while it reports that happiness is the most commonly expressed emotion, only 45% of people feel it. Ideally this number should be much higher.In addition, feeling stressed and frustrated are the next top emotions, with 40% and 35% of people having these feelings, respectively. Disappointingly, optimism is also low; for example, only 23% of 18-to-24-year-olds and those older than 75, and just 17% of 45-to-54-year-olds, report feeling optimistic on average.Happiness and well-being in general reduces the effects of stress and promotes health and longevity.Nurturing your brainIn our book, we draw on the latest scientific evidence, including our own, to highlight seven essential lifestyle factors that improve our brain health, cognition, and well-being. We demonstrate how simpleand often surprisingadjustments to our daily habits can enhance brain fitness, boost cognition, and promote overall well-being.We suggest small incremental steps to improving lifestyle habits and ensuring these fit within our daily activities, as well as being enjoyable and pleasurable. In this way we can ensure that, unlike New Years resolutions that we give up within six days, we can maintain these throughout life. This puts us in a better position to achieve physical challenges in the future.These lifestyle factors include exercise, diet, sleep, social interactions, kindness, mindfulness and learning, and knowing how to get the best out of work. For example, exercise is an all-rounder, as it can boost our physical health but also our brain health, cognition, and mood. In fact, studies have shown that exercise can increase the size of our hippocampus, which is critical for learning and memory.Similarly, sleeping the optimal number of hours each night can improve our immune system, brain structure, and mental well-being. Our own study showed that sleeping seven to eight hours per night in middle to older adulthood was associated with better brain structure; cognition, such as processing speed and memory; and mental health.Staying socially connected also plays an important role in our brain health. We have shown that being socially isolated in older adults is associated with a 26% increased risk of dementia. Whereas having the optimal number of friends in adolescence, about five, is linked with better brain structure, cognition, educational attainment, and well-being.Learning new things is also essential to keep the neural circuits in our brain functioning at their best level for as long as possible. We need to challenge ourselves mentally to keep our brains activejust as we need to do physical exercise to keep our bodies fit.This builds cognitive reserve and helps us in times of stress. We can also keep our brains active in a number of ways, for example by learning a new language or how to play a musical instrument. Or you can read an educational book about something that interests you.Keeping our bodies healthy is incredibly important. But we need to also nurture our brains if we want to be happy, mentally sharp, and well protected against diseases such as dementia.Embracing these simple strategies to prioritize our brain health and well-being is essential for a happier and more fulfilling life. Ultimately, lifestyle choices play a significant role in reducing stress and promoting resilience, creativity, and overall quality of life.Barbara Jacquelyn Sahakian is a professor of clinical neuropsychology at the University of Cambridge.Christelle Langley is a postdoctoral research associate of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Cambridge.This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The developer behind Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia has announced that the long-stalled project, designed by Chicago studio Adrian Smith + Gill Gordon Architecture, will complete in 2028.Developer Kingdom Holding Company announced that the project, which will be the world's tallest building when completed, had restarted at a ceremony last week."Construction of the Jeddah Tower, a global symbol of ambition and progress, has officially restarted," said Kingdom Holding Company.Jeddah Tower in 2019 with work halted at the 63rd floor. Photo by S Nitzold via Wikipedia CommonsDesigned by Adrian Smith + Gill Gordon Architecture, the skyscraper, previously known as the Kingdom Tower, was first announced in 2011 with construction beginning in 2013.Although the final height has not been revealed, the skyscraper is planned to reach a height of at least 1,001 metres.This would make it at least 173 meters taller than the 828-metre-tall Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, the world's current tallest building that was named among the most significant buildings of the 21st century in our recent series.Jeddah Tower will be the world's tallest building when it completesAlthough it was originally planned to reach completion in 2020, construction on the skyscraper was delayed and finally halted in 2018, with its structure completed up to the 63rd floor.Last year Dubai-based magazine Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) reported that work was set to resume on the project this has now been confirmed.At a ceremony last week, concrete was poured on the 64th floor. A representative of the developer said that they expect to complete a floor every four days, with a completion date now anticipated in 2028.Read: Construction starts on world's largest building in Saudi ArabiaOnce complete, Jeddah Tower will be the centrepiece in a new district under construction to the north of the city. The skyscraper will contain a Four Seasons hotel, apartments, offices and the world's highest viewpoint on the 157th floor.Renders of the building show a sleek glass-clad structure that tapers up to a pinnacle with a three-pronged footprint.The project is one of numerous large schemes currently being developed in Saudi Arabia. Recently construction began on the world's largest building the 400-metre-high, cube-shaped Mukaab supertall skyscraper in Riyadh. Meanwhile, UK studio Foster + Partnersis reportedly designing a two-kilometre-highskyscraper in the city, which would overtake the Jeddah Tower as the world's tallest if built.The post Construction on world's tallest skyscraper "officially restarts" in Jeddah appeared first on Dezeen.