The Precinct – you are the sound of the police (Kwalee) An interesting new indie title is a homage to both old school, top-down GTA games and 80s cop shows like Kojak and Cagney & Lacey. Nostalgia is very much to the fore in The Precinct. Not just for video games but for TV. While its appearance, with an isometric style camera mounted high in its virtual sky, brings to mind memories of early, top-down Grand Theft Auto games, its content is a clear and unabashed homage to much-loved cop shows and films of the 1970s and 80s – from Kojak and The French Connection to Hill Street Blues, and Cagney & Lacey. That’s an unusual setting for a game, made more interesting because it tries to turn the GTA blueprint on its head, by playing as a police officer instead of a criminal. To be precise, you play as rookie Nick Cordell Jr., fresh out of the Police Academy and eager to make his mark on the mean streets of Averno City (a thinly disguised New York, without the skyscrapers but with lots of neon and forbiddingly rundown dark alleys). This is basically a police procedural in video game form – and if you think about it, there have been precious few of those over the years (weirdly, RoboCop: Rogue City is about as close as it’s come recently). So, if you’ve ever had a secret hankering to pound a beat, you should find plenty to interest you here. It splits its gameplay into working day chunks, so you can be sent out with a brief to do everything from issuing parking tickets to keeping a lid on rowdiness in the nightclub district on a Friday night. While Cordell’s days on Averno City’s streets might start off as mundane, they rarely finish that way. There are two very active gangs (The Jawheads, centred on a punk band, and Crimson Serpent, which is based in Chinatown) and as you perform your duties, you frequently encounter their members performing crimes, which yields evidence enabling you to work up the food chain from captains to underbosses to bosses. There are also other activities to pursue, such as very GTA style illegal street races (the story being that Cordell has been placed undercover to gather evidence about who’s running them) and murders that the homicide cops get you to perform the grunt work for. Whenever you amass enough evidence to arrest a key gang member, you’re given the honour of leading the charge in what inevitably becomes a big shoot-out. The Precinct also has a role-playing element, in that as you level up you acquire upgrade tokens which improve Cordell’s key stats (including stamina – in true 80s cop show style, there’s an awful lot of running after criminals, weaponry (acquiring the automatic rifle is a game changer) and general privileges, such as the clearance to commandeer random cars and pilot the police chopper. Despite all this, The Precinct’s upgrade tree is commendably compact, in keeping with the game’s general size: the main story takes about six hours to work through and then there’s probably another six hours’ worth of general sandbox style police work to pursue after that. That will, undoubtedly, be added to via DLC, but The Precinct is not a game designed to occupy your every waking hour. Developer Fallen Tree Games, although full of industry veterans, is a small outfit and most of The Precinct was created by a team of just five people. In practice, the action is fun: the cars are wallow-y and tail-happy – much like those of GTA – and the third person shooting uses a line-of-sight indicator, makes use of cover, and is heavy on the snap aim. But the odd thing is that perhaps the most enjoyable tasks to perform in The Precinct are the most mundane ones. This includes the thrill of finding a car parked on a pavement, to which you can issue a ticket, and the satisfaction of finding something illegal on a random suspect who has committed a minor misdemeanour – which enables you to arrest them rather than merely issuing a fine. More Trending Even when you’re driving, you can run random cars’ plates, and occasionally uncover wanted criminals, inevitably leading to some classic car chase action. Despite its obvious homages to early era GTA, The Precinct looks pretty decent, too; whatever its viewpoint, it is fully 3D and properly textured, with some modern visual effects in evidence. It also nails the 80s atmosphere, with some very good music and hard-boiled dialogue – although not as problematically hard-boiled as many of those old cop shows are now deemed to be. The Precinct is something of an antidote to games that are over-the-top and in your face: it has an understated, matter-of-fact air that somehow serves to make it more compelling. The fact that it is clearly a labour of love helps, as does its simple but effective structure. Anyone with a secret urge to live the vicarious life of an 80s cop should find it satisfyingly authentic. The Precinct review summary In Short: A fine attempt at turning 80s cop shows into a video game, that wisely uses PS1 era GTA games as its gameplay template. Pros: Well structured and with plenty of varied mission types. Decent action sequence and surprisingly good graphics and music. Nails the 80s tone. Cons: The AI for criminals sometimes acts very oddly, and the driving can be a bit too reminiscent of GTA at times. Relatively expensive for the short length. Score: 7/10 Formats: Xbox Series X/S (reviewed), PlayStation 5, and PCPrice: £24.99Publisher: KwaleeDeveloper: Fallen Tree GamesRelease Date: 13th March 2025Age Rating: 18 Get to da choppa (Kwalee) Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. GameCentral Sign up for exclusive 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

Should you care about the suffering of bugs? For most people, it’s a laughable question. But for those who really, really care about animal welfare, there’s a certain intellectual journey that might lead them to take it seriously. It goes something like this: First, they learn that the vast majority of the 84 billion birds and mammals raised for food are kept on factory farms, where animals are routinely mutilated and intensively confined. They become passionate advocates for these neglected and abused creatures. Then they learn that over 90 percent of those land animals are poultry birds — chickens and turkeys raised for meat, and hens raised for eggs — who are treated worse than pigs and cows, and have even fewer legal protections. They become, more or less, advocates for chickens. But then they might learn that fish and shrimp are farmed (or caught from the ocean) on an even greater scale — trillions annually compared to a measly 76 billion chickens. If their compassion for animals extends equally to marine life, they might come to advocate primarily for these sea creatures. Go even further, and they’ll discover the emerging industry of insect farming, which works much like chicken, pig, or fish factory farming, with the aim of producing as many animals as possible as cheaply as possible. On these insect factory farms, vast numbers of bugs are confined in trays or other containers until, at several weeks old, they’re frozen, cooked, shredded, or suffocated alive. Most are then sold as feed for farmed fish, poultry, and pigs, as food for pets, or to a lesser degree, direct human consumption. For the animal advocates who take this journey and wind up at the bottom of this animal suffering rabbit hole, a new report from the research organization Rethink Priorities will be pure nightmare fuel. According to the group, humanity is on track to farm and kill nearly 6 trillion animals annually by 2033, a near-quadrupling from 2023. And almost all of the growth in animal farming will come from tiny animals: shrimp, fish, and most of all, two insect species (mealworms and black soldier fly larvae). While humans farm and slaughter an astonishing 3 billion pigs, sheep, goats, and cattle each year, these animals are so dwarfed in numbers by farmed chicken, fish, and bugs that Rethink Priorities didn’t even include them in its calculation, nor did it include the 1 to 2 trillion wild fish scooped out of the ocean every year. The forecast starkly illustrates how a transformation in global agriculture patterns have ratcheted up animal suffering to mind-boggling proportions. The reason is that we’re increasingly eating really small animals. In the 1990s, chicken overtook beef as America’s meat of choice, and US chicken consumption continues to climb every year. And it takes about 127 chickens to produce the same amount of meat as one cow, because cows are enormous, while chickens weigh only about 6 pounds at slaughter. So, as Americans shifted toward eating animal species that are smaller in size, the total number of animals raised on US factory farms shot up. The same logic applies to an even greater extent to fish and shrimp — you’d have to kill about 28,500 shrimps to get the same amount of meat as you would from one cow. These animals are being farmed and eaten in increasingly massive numbers around the world, with both fish and shrimp typically confined in crowded, disease-ridden ponds or tanks that animal advocates liken to underwater factory farms. The world now eats more fish from these farms than from the ocean. Even worse, small animals, like chickens, fish, insects, and shrimp, tend to be treated worse and have fewer protections than larger animals like pigs and cattle.Concern for the welfare of insects — and even fish and shrimp — might bemuse or even offend many people. Humans already kill untold numbers of bugs annually by simply going about our daily business — driving, walking, exterminating ant infestations from our homes, and spraying pesticides on our crops. Americans eat tens of billions of individual shrimps each year with virtually no worry that they might feel pain. While farmed chickens and pigs have received the sympathetic Hollywood treatment, like the Chicken Run movies, Charlotte’s Web, and Okja, similar films about shrimp or mealworms don’t seem to be in the offing. But Rethink Priorities, along with a growing chorus of scientists and philosophers, believe that invertebrates like shrimp and insects could be sentient, meaning they possess the capacity for pain, pleasure, and other sensations. They’re not arguing that these animals are equivalent to a chicken, cow, or human, but that they may be worth some moral consideration given emerging research on their potential for sentience and the massive scale on which they’re farmed.History has long shown us that today’s laughable moral concern could be tomorrow’s tragedy. That could be the case for these tiny, unfamiliar, uncharismatic animals the more we come to understand who they are and what they might be capable of feeling. What can a shrimp or an insect feel?There had long been relatively little research into whether invertebrates like shrimp and insects are sentient, but that’s begun to change in recent years.“Evidence is building that there’s a form of sentience there in insects,” Jonathan Birch, a philosopher at the London School of Economics who leads the Foundations of Animal Sentience project at the university, told me. Historically, this line of inquiry has focused on bees, he said, who have demonstrated signs of sentience by engaging in wound-tending behavior, complex decision-making in weighing pain versus pleasure, and even play. Some research has shown that fruit flies may have the capacity to feel pain and enjoy play.According to Birch and several of his colleagues, adult flies and mosquitoes, along with cockroaches and termites, satisfy six of eight key criteria for sentience, while several other orders satisfy three to four. He’s now collaborating with researchers to study pain indicators in black soldier fly larvae and crickets.What little research has looked at shrimp sentience has found mixed results, and much of it has been conducted on Caridean shrimp, not penaeid shrimp, the group that’s most commonly farmed (shrimp are not a single species, but a massive category comprising more than 2,000 known species across several taxonomic groups).Fish thrash inside a tightening net on a fish farm. Havva Zorlu/We AnimalsSome research has shown that shrimp have nociceptors, sensory neurons that detect and respond to potentially harmful stimuli — an important indicator of sentience — but their efforts to avoid threats could be merely reflexive. In one study, shrimp engaged in wound-tending behavior when researchers poured acid onto their antennae, but when they treated it with an anesthetic, the shrimp increased that behavior. This suggests they may not feel pain the way other animals do because the pain relief should have caused them to reduce wound tending.But Birch believes there is strong evidence of sentience in another crustacean species: the crab.Despite our limited understanding of invertebrates’ capacity for pain, our understanding of other animals’ capacities can quickly evolve. Just a couple of decades ago, it was largely thought that fish (which are not invertebrates) couldn’t feel pain, but scientific consensus has significantly shifted toward the belief that they can — and that they could experience many other physical and mental states. Given everything humans have learned about animals’ capacities in recent decades, there’s a strong argument to be made in favor of assuming that other animals are sentient unless proved otherwise, rather than assuming that they aren’t as the starting point.And if shrimp and insects are sentient, it would exacerbate an already emergency situation for global animal welfare, raising the number of farmed sentient animals by well over a trillion creatures today, and potentially many trillions in the decade ahead. The proposition to include these animals in humanity’s moral circle can lead some, Birch said, to throw up their hands in exasperation. “We lack ethical frameworks that tell us how to think about them, but to me, that’s not an excuse for ignoring the issue,” Birch said. “I think people sometimes imagine, well, if the sentient world is so vast — if all ways of feeding ourselves cause harm — then there can’t be any ethical constraints. And I think that’s entirely wrong. I think we do need to take the harm seriously, and think about what we might do to conduct ourselves more ethically.”A question of strategyMost people who advocate for factory-farmed animals focus on pigs, cows, chickens, and turkeys. Only the most quantitatively minded number-crunchers, like Birch and the folks at Rethink Priorities, look at the data and focus on fish, shrimp, and insects.Some in the animal advocacy movement might consider this expansion of moral concern — especially for insects — a major strategic error, one that will make an already fringe movement seem even more strange and scolding. It’s something, if I’m being honest, I’ve felt myself. A worker disinfects crickets’ watering trays in the final grow room at Entomo Farms in Ontario, Canada. James MacDonald/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesBut the general public might be more open to having some ethical consideration for these animals than we might think. Hannah McKay, a research analyst at Rethink Priorities who co-authored the new report, pointed me to recent surveys from the UK and Brazil in which a majority of participants said that they believed that shrimp can feel pain. In the UK and the Netherlands, food companies are phasing out particularly cruel practices in their shrimp supply chains, “even in the absence of high public pressure,” McKay said. Last month, a post about eyestalk ablation — the common, disturbing practice of tearing out female shrimp’s eyes to make them breed faster — made it to the front page of Reddit, whose users were overwhelmingly horrified by it.In 2022, the UK passed the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act, which included decapod crustaceans (shrimp, lobsters, crabs, and crayfish) among the animals that should be considered sentient, in large part on the advice of Birch and colleagues.The aim of Rethink Priorities, Birch, and their ilk isn’t necessarily to start a campaign for worldwide shrimp and insect liberation, but rather to, at the very least, secure some minimum welfare standards.Many animal advocates today wish that their predecessors in the 1950s, who were more focused on the welfare of pets, had devoted more attention to cows, pigs, and chickens. Instead, the quiet rise of factory farming in mid-20th-century America went largely unchallenged, and has now led to the confinement, abuse, and slaughter of tens of billions of mammals and birds each year. Sagar Shah, a senior researcher at Rethink Priorities who co-authored the report with McKay, feels the same way about fish and shrimp farming, telling me that if he could turn the clock back 30 years to when these industries were relatively small, he would’ve pushed for “more resources into thinking about these questions: Are [fish and shrimp] sentient? What does good welfare mean for these animals if we’re going to use them?”“Collectively, we missed the boat a bit, and we’ve already got a huge scale of farming for fish and shrimp, and we’re catching up now,” Shah said. “But for insects, the industry is in its infancy, and that means we’ve got an opportunity to figure out what good welfare means and shape the growth of the industry.” It’s a cause that few animal advocates are willing to dedicate themselves to, and it may not win them many allies anytime soon. But that doesn’t deter Shah, who says “that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.” You’ve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you — threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you — join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More:

Key Takeaways Valve Expands SteamOS Beyond the Deck: A new Steam compatibility rating for non-Steam Deck devices signals Valve’s intent to make SteamOS a mainstream PC gaming operating system.  Windows 11 Leaves Older PCs Behind: With Windows 10 support ending in 2025 and strict hardware requirements for Windows 11, many gamers are seeking lighter, less restrictive alternatives. Proton Makes Linux Gaming Easy: Valve’s Proton layer enables most single-player Windows games to run smoothly on Linux, making SteamOS a real contender for everyday gaming. A Platform Play, Not Just a Storefront: Valve is evolving into a full-stack platform provider, offering hardware, software, and services that challenge Microsoft’s dominance in PC gaming. Valve quietly took another big step in its plan to change how we play PC games.  This week, they added a new compatibility rating for Steam games that run on devices other than the Steam Deck.  That might sound small, but it’s a big signal: Valve is gearing up to make SteamOS more than just the Deck’s operating system.  It wants SteamOS to be the go-to PC gaming OS. And with the way Windows is going, that might actually work.  SteamOS – From Side Project to Real Player When Valve launched the Steam Deck in 2022, it came with SteamOS pre-installed.  Back then, most people saw it as a Deck-only solution – a weird little Linux-based system with a funny name that made a handheld work.  But now Valve’s trying to ensure SteamOS can run on any device, not just the Deck. Think gaming laptops, desktops, mini PCs, and even other handhelds.  The new compatibility tag added to Steam will tell you how well a game works on ‘SteamOS, not on Deck’ setups.  It’s a subtle change, but Valve is ready to support players building their own Linux-based PC gaming rigs. It’s not just about hardware anymore – Valve wants to own the whole ecosystem.  Windows 11 – The OS Nobody Asked for Timing, as they say, is everything. Windows 10 is reaching end-of-life in 2025, which means no more updates unless you pay up.  And Windows 11? It’s bloated, loves telemetry, and keeps pushing users into Microsoft’s cloud services whether they want them or not. Gamers haven’t exactly embraced it.  What’s worse is that many older PCs can’t even run Windows 11 without jumping through hoops.  You’ll need a compatible TPM 2.0 chip, Secure Boot enabled, and often a relatively recent CPU.  And if your hardware doesn’t meet these strict requirements, you’ll have to mess with registry hacks or unofficial installers just to get it working.  Meanwhile, SteamOS is becoming lighter, faster, and more compatible with each update. Windows now feels bulky and overcomplicated for gaming, while SteamOS is streamlined, efficient, and built for play.  Proton Is the Secret Sauce A few years ago, gaming on Linux was like trying to ride a unicycle on a gravel road – technically possible, but mostly painful.  But Valve changed all that with Proton. It’s a compatibility layer that lets you run Windows games on Linux and performs impressively well.  Players are saying most single-player games just work. You install them, click play, and boom – you’re in. The exceptions are mainly multiplayer games that rely on invasive anti-cheat systems like the ones used in Valorant or Call of Duty.  These systems, like Riot’s Vanguard and Activision’s Ricochet, operate at the kernel level – meaning they have deep access to your computer’s core functions.  That level of control makes them harder to bypass, but also raises serious privacy concerns and often clashes with Proton, which is why these games usually won’t run on Linux.  But for indie games, RPGs, roguelikes, and story-driven titles, Proton is a dream.  So now that Proton is good enough for everyday gaming, why bother with Windows at all?  Why SteamOS Actually Makes Sense Now SteamOS isn’t just a gamer-friendly version of Linux. It’s also a great way to keep older hardware alive.  Since it’s built to run games efficiently, it doesn’t waste resources on background processes you don’t need. That means faster boot times, better performance, and less overheating.  If you’ve got a mid-range gaming PC from 2018, SteamOS might give it a second life. And in a world where GPUs are still absurdly priced and RAM isn’t getting cheaper, that’s a real win.  Plus, most non-gaming services today are cloud-based – think streaming, productivity, and communication tools – so you can access them from a browser without needing Linux-native apps. And for developers, there’s another perk. SteamOS encourages cross-platform development. If more users adopt it, game studios won’t have to rely so heavily on DirectX or other Windows-only tools.  The end result? Games that are easier to port, cheaper to maintain, and potentially more stable.  Valve is Building a Platform, not Just Selling Games For years, Valve has remained primarily a storefront. Steam was simply a place to buy games, and that was the extent of it. But now, Valve is turning into something more like Apple – a company with its own hardware (Steam Deck), its own OS (SteamOS), and its own platform (Steam). The shift toward platform ownership allows Valve to gain greater control over its ecosystem, enabling them to shape the gaming experience more directly.  This move opens up more options for gamers, giving them greater flexibility, access to a variety of services, and a wealth of content, all while allowing them to make more informed decisions throughout their gaming experience. Don’t want to use Windows anymore? Fine. Don’t want to buy a Steam Deck? That’s fine too. Build your SteamOS box, slap it under your TV, and enjoy a console-like experience with a PC gaming library.  That’s a shift Microsoft should be nervous about.  What Still Needs Work Of course, SteamOS isn’t perfect.  The biggest roadblock is still anti-cheat support. Many competitive multiplayer games don’t run on Linux because the anti-cheat software doesn’t play nice with Proton.  Until Valve solves that (and they are working on it), Windows will still be required for certain genres.  Valve has already worked with major anti-cheat providers like BattlEye and Easy Anti-Cheat to support Proton and SteamOS. Still, it’s up to individual developers to flip the switch and enable it in their games.  That’s the current bottleneck – the infrastructure exists, but adoption is slow. But there is a path forward.  If Valve can win over a few major game publishers or eSports tournaments, the floodgates might open. Imagine a world where CS:GO and Valorant run perfectly on Linux, and gamers no longer feel tied to Microsoft’s ecosystem. It’s not far-fetched.  The Big Picture So here’s the thing: Valve isn’t just building an OS. It’s building an escape route.  Gamers frustrated with Microsoft’s direction now have a real alternative – one that’s free, fast, and focused on games first. The new SteamOS compatibility rating is a small update, but it hints at a much bigger shift.  In the end, this isn’t about the Steam Deck anymore. It’s about making Linux gaming mainstream.  Valve’s not shouting about it yet. But it’s coming. And when it arrives, it won’t just change how we game – it’ll change who owns the future of gaming.  So go ahead, Windows 11. Keep adding bloatware. SteamOS will be over here doing squats, waiting to take your crown.  Anya Zhukova is an in-house tech and crypto writer at Techreport with 10 years of hands-on experience covering cybersecurity, consumer tech, digital privacy, and blockchain. She’s known for turning complex topics into clear, useful advice that regular people can actually understand and use.  Her work has been featured in top-tier digital publications including MakeUseOf, Online Tech Tips, Help Desk Geek, Switching to Mac, and Make Tech Easier. Whether she’s writing about the latest privacy tools or reviewing a new laptop, her goal is always the same: help readers feel confident and in control of the tech they use every day.  Anya holds a BA in English Philology and Translation from Tula State Pedagogical University and also studied Mass Media and Journalism at Minnesota State University, Mankato. That mix of language, media, and tech has given her a unique lens to look at how technology shapes our daily lives.  Over the years, she’s also taken courses and done research in data privacy, digital security, and ethical writing – skills she uses when tackling sensitive topics like PC hardware, system vulnerabilities, and crypto security.  Anya worked directly with brands like Framework, Insta360, Redmagic, Inmotion, Secretlab, Kodak, and Anker, reviewing their products in real-life scenarios. Her testing process involves real-world use cases – whether it's stress-testing laptops for creative workloads, reviewing the battery performance of mobile gaming phones, or evaluating the long-term ergonomics of furniture designed for hybrid workspaces.  In the world of crypto, Anya covers everything from beginner guides to deep dives into hardware wallets, DeFi protocols, and Web3 tools. She helps readers understand how to use multisig wallets, keep their assets safe, and choose the right platforms for their needs.  Her writing often touches on financial freedom and privacy – two things she strongly believes should be in everyone’s hands. Outside of writing, Anya contributes to editorial style guides focused on privacy and inclusivity, and she mentors newer tech writers on how to build subject matter expertise and write responsibly.  She sticks to high editorial standards, only recommends products she’s personally tested, and always aims to give readers the full picture.  You can find her on LinkedIn, where she shares more about her work and projects.  Key Areas of Expertise: Consumer Tech (laptops, phones, wearables, etc.) Cybersecurity and Digital Privacy PC/PC Hardware Blockchain, Crypto Wallets, and DeFi In-Depth Product Reviews and Buying Guides Whether she’s reviewing a new wallet or benchmarking a PC build, Anya brings curiosity, care, and a strong sense of responsibility to everything she writes. Her mission? To make the digital world a little easier – and safer – for everyone.  View all articles by Anya Zhukova Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors.

Christine Farro has cut back on the presents she sends her grandchildren on their birthdays, and she’s put off taking two cats and a dog for their shots. All her clothes come from thrift stores and most of her vegetables come from her garden. At 73, she has cut her costs as much as she can to live on a tight budget.But it’s about to get far tighter.As the Trump administration resumes collections on defaulted student loans, a surprising population has been caught in the crosshairs: Hundreds of thousands of older Americans whose decades-old debts now put them at risk of having their Social Security checks garnished.“I worked ridiculous hours. I worked weekends and nights. But I could never pay it off,” says Farro, a retired child welfare worker in Santa Ynez, California.Like millions of debtors with federal student loans, Farro had her payments and interest paused by the government five years ago when the pandemic thrust many into financial hardship. That grace period ended in 2023 and, earlier this month, the Department of Education said it would restart “involuntary collections” by garnishing paychecks, tax refunds and Social Security retirement and disability benefits. Farro previously had her Social Security garnished and expects it to restart.Farro’s loans date back 40 years. She was a single mother when she got a bachelor’s degree in developmental psychology and when she discovered she couldn’t earn enough to pay off her loans, she went back to school and got a master’s degree. Her salary never caught up. Things only got worse.Around 2008, when she consolidated her loans, she was paying $1,000 a month, but years of missed payments and piled-on interest meant she was barely putting a dent in a bill that had ballooned to $250,000. When she sought help to resolve her debt, she says the loan company had just one suggestion.“They said, ‘Move to a cheaper state,'” says Farro, who rents a 400-square-foot casita from a friend. “I realized I was living in a different reality than they were.”Student loan debt among older people has grown at a staggering rate, in part due to rising tuitions that have forced more people to borrow greater sums. People 60 and older hold an estimated $125 billion in student loans, according to the National Consumer Law Center, a six-fold increase from 20 years ago. That has led Social Security beneficiaries who have had their payments garnished to balloon by 3,000% over the same period, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.An estimated 452,000 people aged 62 and older had student loans in default, according to a January report from CFPB.Debbie McIntyre, a 62-year-old adult education teacher in Georgetown, Kentucky, is among them. She dreams of retiring and writing more historical fiction, and of boarding a plane for the first time since high school. But her husband has been out of work on disability for two decades and they’ve used credit cards to get by on his meager benefits and her paycheck. Their rent will be hiked $300 when their lease renews. McIntyre doesn’t know what to do if her paycheck is garnished.She floats the idea of bankruptcy, but that won’t automatically clear her loans, which are held to a different standard than other debt. She figures if she picks up extra jobs babysitting or tutoring, she could put $50 toward her loans here and there. But she sees no real solution.“I don’t know what more I can do,” says McIntyre, who is too afraid to check what her loan balance is. “I’ll never get out of this hole.”Braxton Brewington of the Debt Collective debtors union says it’s striking how many older people dial into the organization’s calls and attend its protests. Many of them, he says, should have had their debts cancelled but fell victim to a system “riddled with flaws and illegalities and flukes.” Many whose educations have left them in late-life debt have, in fact, paid back the principal on their loans, sometimes several times over, but still owe more due to interest and fees.For those who are subject to garnishment, Brewington says, the results can be devastating.“We hear from people who skip meals. We know people who dilute their medication or cut their pills in half. People take drastic measures like pulling all their savings out or dissolving their 401ks,” he says. “We know folks that have been driven into homelessness.”Collections on defaulted loans may have restarted no matter who was president, though the Biden administration had sought to limit the amount of income that could be garnished. Federal law protects just $750 of Social Security benefits from garnishment, an amount that would put a debtor far below the poverty line.“We’re basically providing people with federal benefits with one hand and taking them away with another,” says Sarah Sattelmeyer of the New America think tank.Linda Hilton, a 76-year-old retired office worker from Apache Junction, Arizona, went through garnishment before COVID and says she will survive it again. But flights to see her children, occasional meals at a restaurant and other pleasures of retired life may disappear.“It’s going to mean restrictions,” says Hilton. “There won’t be any travel. There won’t be any frills.”Some debtors have already received notice about collections. Many more are living in fear. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order calling for the Department of Education’s dismantling and, for those seeking answers about their loans, mass layoffs have complicated getting calls answered.While Education Secretary Linda McMahon says restarting collections is a necessary step for debtors “both for the sake of their own financial health and our nation’s economic outlook,” even some of Trump’s most fervent supporters are questioning a move that will make their lives harder.Randall Countryman, 55, of Bonita, California, says a Biden administration proposal to forgive some student debt didn’t strike him as fair, but he’s not sure Trump’s approach is either. He supported Trump but wishes the government made case-by-case decisions on debtors. Countryman thinks Americans don’t realize how many older people are affected by policies on student loans, often thought to be the turf of the young, and how difficult it can be for them to repay.“What’s a young person’s problem today,” he says, “is an old person’s problem tomorrow.”Countryman started working on a degree while in prison, then continued it at the University of Phoenix when he was released. He started growing nervous as he racked up loan debt and never finished his degree. He’s worked a host of different jobs, but finding work has often been complicated by his criminal record.He lives off his wife’s Social Security check and the kindness of his mother-in-law. He doesn’t know how they’d get by if the government demands repayment.“I kind of wish I never went to school in the first place,” he says. Matt Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ap.org and https://x.com/sedensky —Matt Sedensky, AP National Writer

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.If you’re looking to beef up your home security, the Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Plus is currently down to $119.99 on Amazon, the lowest price it's hit according to price trackers. Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Plus $119.99 at Amazon $179.99 Save $60.00 Get Deal Get Deal $119.99 at Amazon $179.99 Save $60.00 This is a hardwired unit, so you’ll need to factor in a bit of installation effort (or call in a professional), but once it’s up and running, it feels like a solid, set-it-and-forget-it kind of system.The image quality holds up OK (sharp enough to recognize faces and details within a few meters) with its 1080p resolution, especially during the day. At night, the two 2,000-lumen floodlights really help it punch above its weight in visibility, illuminating a wide 270-degree area if positioned right. When motion is picked up, you'll immediately receive a phone alert. From there, you can view a live feed, speak to whomever’s at the door, or hit the built-in 105dB siren if things feel sketchy. You can also customize motion detection zones through the app to avoid constant alerts from things like passing cars or neighborhood dogs. The two-way audio is clear enough for short conversations, though there’s reportedly a bit of lag due to wifi or mobile network delays.Alexa users will especially appreciate the integration—it lets you call up live feeds on an Echo Show or get motion alerts through voice announcements. That said, the big thing to know is that while the camera works out of the box, recorded footage is only available if you subscribe to a Ring Home plan. That’s $4.99/month for one device, which gives you 180 days of video history, person alerts, and more. If you plan on expanding to multiple Ring devices, the $9.99 or $19.99/month tiers might be worth it. That’s a recurring cost you’ll want to factor in. If you're the type who only wants live viewing and real-time alerts without saving video, this might not matter. But if you ever need to review a package theft or suspicious activity, you’ll want that cloud history.

NimueIntroductionFor three semesters, our student team has been hard at work on the prototype for Nimue, a 3D platformer in which you play an enchanted princess who lost her memories. She needs to find her way through the castle ruins on a misty lake to uncover her past. Water is a visual core element of this game prototype, so we took extra care in its development. In this article, we will take an in-depth look at the design and technical implementation of a lake water material.The first prototype of Nimue can be played on itch.io soon. A link to our shader for use in your own projects can be found at the end of this article.Taxonomy of WaterBefore we dive into the design decisions and technical implementation, we present a simplified taxonomy of visual water components to better understand the requirements of its representation:RiMEWind WavesWaves generated by wind, which form on an open water surface, can be divided into capillary waves and gravity waves. Capillary waves, or ripples, are small, short-wavelength waves caused by weak winds affecting surface tension in calm water. They can overlap longer and larger gravity waves. How these physically complex wave types are represented in stylized video games varies depending on the respective style. Both types are usually heavily simplified in form and motion, and capillary waves are sometimes omitted entirely to reduce detail.Sea of ThievesFoam PatternsFoam patterns refer to white foam crests that form on a water surface without breaking against an obstacle or shoreline. In reality, this effect occurs when different water layers collide, and waves become steeper until their peaks collapse, and the resulting bubbles and drops scatter the sunlight. Stylized foam patterns can be found in many video game water representations and can easily be abstracted into patterns. Such patterns contribute to a cartoon look and can sometimes even replace waveforms entirely.The Legend of Zelda: The Wind WakerFoam LinesFoam lines are a very common water element in video games, represented as white graphical lines surrounding shorelines and obstacles like rocks. They typically reference two different water phenomena: foam forming around obstacles due to wave breaking, and foam along shorelines, resulting from wave breaking and the mixing of algaes with organic and artificial substances.Foam lines can have different visual appearances depending on the surface angle: The shallower the angle, the wider the foam effect. Due to the weaker waves, distinctive foam lines are rarely observed on natural lakes, but they can be included in a stylization for aesthetic purposes. Animal Crossing: New HorizonsReflectionsWhen light hits a water surface, it can either be reflected (specular reflection) or transmitted into the water, where it may be absorbed, scattered, or reflected back through the surface. The Fresnel effect describes the perceived balance between reflection and transmission: at steep angles, more transmitted light reaches the eye, making the water appear more translucent, while at shallow angles, increased reflection makes it appear more opaqueIn stylized video games, implementations of water reflections vary: RiME, for example, imitates the Fresnel effect but does not reflect the environment at all, only a simple, otherwise invisible cube map. Wind Waker, on the other hand, completely foregoes reflection calculations and renders a flat-shaded water surface.RiMETranslucencyAs an inhomogeneous medium, water scatters some of the transmitted light before it can be reflected back to the surface. This is why water is described as translucent rather than transparent. Some scattered light is not reflected back but absorbed, reducing intensity and shifting color toward the least absorbed wavelengths, typically blue, blue-green, or turquoise. Increased distance amplifies scattering and absorption, altering color perception. Modern real-time engines simulate these effects, including absorption-based color variation with depth. However, stylized games often simplify or omit transmission entirely, rendering water as an opaque surface.RiMERefractionAn additional aspect of water transmission is refraction, the bending of light as it transitions between air and water due to their differing densities. This causes light to bend toward the normal upon entering the water, creating the apparent distortion of submerged objects. Refraction effects also commonly appear in stylized water rendering. Kirby's Forgotten Land, for example, showcases two key visual characteristics of refraction: distortion increases with steeper viewing angles and is amplified by ripples on the water's surface.Kirby and the Forgotten LandCausticsCaustic patterns form when light rays are focused by a curved water surface (caused by waves and ripples), projecting bundled light patterns onto underwater surfaces or even back to surfaces above water. These patterns are influenced by the clarity of the water, the depth of the water, and the strength of the light source. They contribute greatly to the atmosphere of virtual worlds and are often found in stylized games, although only as simplistic representations.The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3DDesign DecisionsDue to the fact that the setting of Nimue is a lake with a calm overall atmosphere, the decision was made to use very reduced gravity waves, as a calm water surface underlines this atmosphere. Capillary waves have too high a level of detail for the stylistic requirements of Nimue and were, therefore, not implemented.NimueShapesThe mood in Nimue can be summarized as calm and mystical. The design language of Nimue is graphic, rounded, and elegant. Shapes are vertically elongated and highly abstracted. Convex corners are always rounded or have a strong bevel, while concave corners are pointed to prevent the overall mass of objects from becoming too rounded.ColorsNimue uses mostly broken colors and pastels to create a serene, reflective mood and highlight the player's character with her saturated blue tones. Platforms and obstacles are depicted with a lower tonal value (darker) to increase their visibility. Overall, the game world is kept in very unsaturated shades of blue, with the atmospheric depth, i.e., the sky and objects in the distance, falling into the complementary orange range. Shades of green and yellow are either completely avoided or extremely desaturated. The resulting reduced color palette additionally supports the atmosphere and makes it appear more harmonious.Color gamut & value/tone tests Hue, Tone & SaturationSince the color of the water, with its hue, tone, and saturation, is technically achieved by several components, a 2D mockup was first designed to more easily compare different colors in the environment. Here it could be observed that both the low and the high tonal value formed too great a contrast to the rest of the environment and thus placed an undesirable focus on the water. Therefore, the medium tone value was chosen.The hue and saturation were tested in relativity to the sky, the player character, and the background. Here, too, the color variant that harmonizes the most with the rest of the environment and contrasts the least was chosen.Foam LinesFor the design of the foam lines, we proceeded in the same way as for the color selection: In this case, a screenshot of the test scene was used as the basis for three overpaints to try out different foam lines on the stones in the scene. Version 3 offers the greatest scope in terms of movement within the patterns. Due to this, and because of the greater visual interest, we opted for variant 3. Following the mockup, the texture was prepared so that it could be technically implemented.ReflectionThe reflection of the water surface contributes to how realistic the water looks, as one would always expect a reflection with natural water, depending on the angle. However, a reflection could also contribute to the overall appearance of the water becoming less calm. The romantic character created by the reflection of diffuse light on water is more present in version 1.In addition, the soft, wafting shapes created by the reflection fit in well with the art style. A reflection is desirable, but the reflections must not take up too much focus. Ideally, the water should be lighter in tone, and the reflections should be present but less pronounced. Reflection intensityRefraction & CausticsEven though most light in our water gets absorbed, we noticed an improvement in the believability of the ground right underneath the water's surface when utilizing refraction together with the waveforms. When it comes to caustics, the diffuse lighting conditions of our scene would make visible caustic patterns physically implausible, but it felt right aesthetically, which is why we included it anyway (not being bound to physical plausibility is one of the perks of stylized graphics).Technical Realization in Unreal Engine 5When building a water material in Unreal, choosing the right shading model and blend mode is crucial. While a Default Lit Translucent material with Surface Forward Shading offers the most control, it is very costly to render. The more efficient choice is the Single Layer Water shading model introduced in Unreal 4.27, which supports light absorption, scattering, reflection, refraction, and shadowing at a lower instruction count. However, there are some downsides. For example, as it only uses a single depth layer, it lacks back-face rendering, making it less suitable for underwater views. And while still quite expensive by itself, its benefits outweigh the drawbacks of our stylized water material.WaveformsStarting with the waveforms, we used panning normal maps to simulate the rather calm low-altitude gravity waves. The approach here is simple: create a wave normal map in Substance 3D Designer, sample it twice, and continuously offset the samples' UV coordinates in opposing directions at different speeds. Give one of the two samples a higher speed and normal intensity to create a sense of wind direction. This panning operation does not need to run in the fragment shader, you can move it to the vertex shader through the Vertex Interpolator without quality loss and thereby reduce the instruction count.Texture RepetitionTo reduce visible tiling, we used three simple and fairly efficient tricks. First, we offset the UVs of the Wave Samplers with a large panning noise texture to dynamically distort the wave patterns. Second, we used another sampler of that noise texture with different tiling, speed, and direction to modulate the strength of the normal maps across the surface. We sampled this noise texture four times with different variables in the material, which is a lot, but we reused them many times for most of the visual features of our water. Third, we sampled the pixel depth of the surface to mask out the waves that were far from the camera so that there were no waves in the far distance.Vertex DisplacementWhile these normal waves are enough to create the illusion of altitude on the water surface itself, they are lacking when it comes to the intersections around objects in the water, as these intersections are static without any actual vertex displacement. To fix that, two very simple sine operations (one along the X-axis and the other on the Y-axis) were added to drive the World Position Offset of the water mesh on the Z-axis. To keep the polycounts in check, we built a simple blueprint grid system that spawns high-res plane meshes at the center in a variable radius, and low-res plane meshes around that. This enables the culling of non-visible planes and the use of a less complex version of the water material for distant planes, where features like WPO are not needed.ColorThe general transmission amount is controlled by the opacity input of the material output, but scattering and absorption are defined via the Single Layer Water material output. The inputs Scattering Coefficients and Absorption Coefficients, which are responsible for reproducing how and how far different wavelengths travel through water, are decisive here. We use two scattering colors as parameters, which are interpolated depending on the camera distance. Close to the camera, the blue scattering color (ScatteringColorNear) dominates, while at a distance, the orange scattering color (ScatteringColorFar) takes over. The advantage is a separation of the water's color from the sky's color and, thus, higher artistic control.Reflections & RefractionReflections in the Single Layer Water shading model are as usual determined by the inputs for Specular (reflection intensity) and Roughness (reflection diffusion). In our case, however, we use Lumen reflections for their accuracy and quality, and as of Unreal 5.4, the Single Layer Water model’s roughness calculation does not work with Lumen reflections. It forces mirror reflections (Roughness = 0), no matter the value input, leaving the specular lobe unaffected. Instead, it only offsets the reflection brightness, as the specular input does.For our artistic purposes, this is fine, and we do use the roughness input to fine-tune the specular level while having the specular input as the base level. A very low value was set for the specular value to keep the reflection brightness low. We further stylized the reflections by decreasing this brightness near the camera by using the already mentioned masking method via camera to interpolate between two values (RoughnessNear and RoughnessFar). For refraction, the Pixel Normal Offset mode was used, and a scalar parameter interpolates between the base refraction and the output of the normal waves.CausticsFor the caustic effect, we created a Voronoi noise pattern by using Unreal's Noise node and exporting it with a render target. In Photoshop, the pattern was duplicated twice, rotated each, colored, and blended. This texture is then projected on the objects below by using the ColorScaleBehindWater input of the Single Layer Water Material output. The pattern is dynamically distorted by adding one of the aforementioned panning noise textures to the UV coordinates.FoamlinesWe started by creating custom meshes for foam lines and applied the earlier texture pattern, but quickly realized that such a workflow would be too cumbersome and inflexible for even a small scene, so we decided to do it procedurally. Two common methods for generating intersection masks on a plane are Depth Sampling and Distance Fields. The first works by subtracting the camera's distance to the water surface at the current pixel (i.e., the "PixelDepth") from the camera's distance to the closest scene object at that pixel (i.e., the "SceneDepth"). The second method is to use the node "DistanceToNearestSurface" which calculates the shortest distance between a point on the water surface and the nearest object by referencing the scene's global distance field. We used both methods to control the mask width, as each alone varies with the object's surface slope, causing undesirable variations. Combining them allowed us to switch between two different mask widths, turning off "Affect Distance Field Lighting" for shallow slopes where narrower lines are wanted.The added mask of all intersections is then used for two effects to create the foam lines: "edge foam" (that does not depart from the intersection) and "edge waves" (which go outwards from the edge foam). Both are shaped with the noise samplers shown above to approximate the hand-drawn foam line texture.Foam PatternsThe same noise samplers are also used to create a sparkling foam effect, loosely imitating whitecaps/foam crests to add more visual interest to the water surface. Since it only reuses operations, this effect is very cheap. Similarly, the wave normals are used to create something like fake subsurface scattering to further distinguish the moving water surface. Interactive RipplesA third type of foam is added as interactive waves that ripple around the player character when walking through shallow water. This is done through a Render Target and particles, as demonstrated in this Unity tutorial by Minions Art. The steps described there are all easily applicable in Unreal with a Niagara System, a little Blueprint work, and common material nodes. We added a Height to Normal conversion for better visual integration into our existing wave setup. Finally, here are all those operations combined for the material inputs:NimueBest PracticesUse Single Layer Water for efficient translucency, but note it lacks back-face rendering and forces mirror reflections with Lumen;For simple low-altitude waves, pan two offset samples of a normal map at different speeds; move panning to Vertex Shader for better performance;Break up texture tiling efficiently by offsetting UVs with a large panning noise, modulating normal strength, and fading distant waves using pixel depth;Sampling one small noise texture at different scales can power this and many other features of a water shader efficiently;If high-altitude waves aren't needed, a simple sine-based WPO can suffice for vertex displacement; implement a grid system for LODs and culling of subdivided water meshes;Blend two scattering colors by camera distance for artistic watercolor control and separation from sky reflections;Combining depth sampling and distance fields to derive the foam lines allows for more flexible intersection widths but comes at a higher cost. Further ResourcesHere are some resources that helped us in the shader creation process:General shader theory and creation: tharlevfx, Ben Cloward;Interactive water in Unity: Minions Art;Another free stylized water material in Unreal by Fabian Lopez Arosa;Technical art wizardry: Ghislain Girardot.ConclusionWe hope this breakdown of our water material creation process will help you in your projects.If you want to take a look at our shader yourself or even use it for your own game projects, you can download the complete setup on Gumroad. We look forward to seeing your water shaders and exchanging ideas. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or want to connect.Kolja Bopp, Academic SupervisorLeanna Geideck, Concept ArtistStephan zu Münster, Technical Artist

Posted on : May 15, 2025 By Tech World Times Education  Rate this post Research should be fair, honest, and accurate. But sometimes, bias enters and ruins the results. One common bias is selection bias. It happens when certain people or data are left out. Let’s explore the meaning, causes, examples, and solutions of selection bias in simple words. Define Selection Bias Let’s first simply define selection bias. Selection bias happens when a sample does not represent the full population. It affects research accuracy and leads to wrong or unfair conclusions. If the data selected is not random or fair, bias can occur. To define selection bias clearly: It is a type of error that happens when certain groups are more likely to be included or excluded. As a result, the study does not reflect the full picture. Causes of Selection Bias Let’s look at common causes of selection bias. These are often simple mistakes but with big effects. 1. Non-Random Sampling This happens when participants are chosen on purpose. For example, a survey is only for people in one city. It leaves out others and does not reflect the entire population. 2. Self-Selection Sometimes people decide whether to join a study. This means only people with strong opinions may take part. It creates an unfair sample and leads to bias. 3. Loss to Follow-Up In long studies, some participants stop responding. If many drop out, the remaining group may no longer represent the original group. 4. Exclusion Criteria Researchers sometimes exclude certain data or people. This may be needed, but it can cause bias if not handled carefully. 5. Sampling from a Special Group If you only pick people from a school, hospital, or gym, it may not represent the general population. Examples of Selection Bias Let’s make the meaning more clear with real-life examples. Example 1: Health Study A study on exercise includes only gym-goers. This group is likely healthier than others. So, the results do not apply to everyone. Example 2: Online Poll A poll about internet use is shared only on Twitter. Older people or non-users are left out. This leads to biased answers. Example 3: School Survey A survey about education includes only top-performing schools. It ignores schools with fewer resources. This makes the results unfair. Example 4: Medical Research A drug test only includes young adults. It skips older or sicker patients. The drug may not work the same for everyone. Why Selection Bias Matters Selection bias leads to wrong findings. It can harm real-life decisions, like health, law, or policies. Biased studies may waste time, money, and even risk lives. That’s why it’s important to fix it early. Solutions to Avoid Selection Bias Now that we have defined selection bias and seen its causes, let’s solve it. 1. Use Random Sampling Random sampling means everyone has an equal chance to be selected. It makes the sample more fair and balanced. 2. Ensure Large Sample Size A bigger sample reduces the effect of bias. Try to include as many different people as possible. 3. Keep Participants Engaged In long-term studies, follow up regularly. Use emails, calls, or visits to reduce dropouts. 4. Pre-Test Your Method Before the main study, test your sample plan. See if some groups are missing or over-represented. 5. Be Transparent Always explain how your sample was chosen. Mention any limitations in your study report. 6. Use Weighting Methods If some groups are over- or under-represented, adjust the weight of their data. This helps balance the results. Conclusion To get accurate results, we must avoid bias. Selection bias is a major cause of poor research. It happens when the sample does not represent the whole group. We have discussed what it is, how it happens, and how to fix it. To define selection bias simply: It is when your study misses some parts of the population. This leads to false, unfair, or misleading results. Always choose samples wisely. Avoid shortcuts. Use fair methods and stay honest in your research. This will help you get real, helpful, and trustworthy results. FAQs 1. What does “define selection bias” mean? It means to explain what selection bias is. Selection bias is when the chosen sample is unfair or unbalanced. 2. What is a real-world example of selection bias? A survey shared only online may miss people without the internet. This makes the sample biased. 3. Can selection bias be removed completely? It can be reduced but not always removed fully. Using random sampling and large groups helps a lot. 4. How does selection bias affect research? It makes the results unreliable. You may draw wrong conclusions from the study. 5. Is self-selection a form of selection bias? Yes, when people choose to join a study, it may lead to bias. 6. Why is it important to define selection bias in reports? It helps readers understand the study’s quality and limits. It also shows honesty from the researcher. Tech World TimesTech World Times (TWT), a global collective focusing on the latest tech news and trends in blockchain, Fintech, Development & Testing, AI and Startups. If you are looking for the guest post then contact at techworldtimes@gmail.com

While Fallout 76 might be in a decent state today, the game had a famously terrible launch with a host of issues not only in-game, but out of the game too with controversies surrounding the quality of its Collector’s Edition items. In an interview with VideoGamer, former studio design lead Dan Nanni spoke about how the game’s development team was feeling as it shipped the game and started work on its expansion. For context, Nanni worked on Fallout 76 as part of Escalation Studios, which would eventually become Bethesda Game Studios Dallas. During the game’s development before its launch, the development team was split into groups. While the main team worked continued working on the base release of Fallout 76, Nanni and a group of other developers started to work on its Nuclear Winter expansion. Interestingly, it is also worth noting that Nuclear Winter – a 52-player battle royale mode released in 2019 – has since been removed from Fallout 76. “We were trying to build expansion while the game was still being built simultaneously,” said Nanni. “So we didn’t know what the game was going to end up being. We just knew what our goal was going to be, but we were so dependent on the game being finished.” Nanni also spoke about having to work on what was ostensibly a multiplayer-only mode while the studio wasn’t even sure at the time about how the servers for Fallout 76 would work. Working on the expansion, Nanni described feeling like he would have to start getting ready for “a rough ride.” “Let’s just be completely honest: when we were told we were going to make a battle royale for Fallout 76, I think everybody was hands on heads like, ‘oh, man, here we go. This is it’. Like, you’re boarding this train and you know it’s going in a direction that you did not agree to be going into,” he explained. “So much as you knew this is going to be a rough ride. You knew that this was going to take some dedication, right, and perseverance. And you had to fight through that.” Ultimately, Nanni considers the fact that the studio was able to make a game engine that was designed for single-player RPGs be able to handle multiplayer servers as an amazing feat in itself. He also notes that behind-the-scenes accomplishments like these don’t really get acknowledged much by players. “A lot of people worked a lot of hours… totake that engine and to make it multiplayer was a feat,” Nanni said. “That itself was an amazing feat of technology, that was worth the price of entry, but you can’t sell that to a gamer. ‘Hey, look at all this work we did to make it work and it shouldn’t have worked but it did!’ You can’t sell that as a product, right? But it doesn’t matter, it still hurts.” When Fallout 76 ultimately launched to a fairly negative reception both critically and commercially, Nanni described working on Nuclear Winter at the time as “marching towards doom.” “Working on the product that’s supposed to follow that up knowing that the rumours are out there and nobody wants it, it just makes you feel like you’re marching towards doom, and it’s not a good feeling but you have to do it,” he explained. “It’s your pride, it’s your passion; you have to change your perspective, you have to change your frame of mind. You have to think what is good about this and put everything into it.” Eventually, Fallout 76 would start getting a more positive critical reception once some of its more glaring issues were fixed through regular updates. The Wastelanders expansion – which was also worked on by Nanni – would also bring in quite a bit of positive buzz around the online title. The title is still going quite strong, having kicked off its 20th season back in March. Fallout 76 is available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. The game can also be played on current-gen consoles through backwards compatibility.

The bird above is not your typical charismatic species. It’s no bald eagle, no peregrine falcon. It’s a groundbird known as the lesser prairie-chicken that lives in the southern Great Plains. It’s not even the greater prairie-chicken, another, related avian species, that’s a bit larger. Today, however, this bird is very much worth paying attention to. In 2023, lesser prairie-chickens — which are actually fascinating birds, not least for their ridiculous mating rituals — were granted protection under the Endangered Species Act, the country’s strongest wildlife law. Scientists say this protection is justified: The population of lesser prairie-chickens has crashed since the last century from hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of birds to roughly 30,000 today. Now the Trump administration is trying to axe those extinction-thwarting protections. In a motion filed earlier this month in a Texas court, the administration argued that federal officials made an error when listing prairie-chickens under the Endangered Species Act. The listing — which makes it illegal to kill or harm the birds, with a number of exceptions — should be tossed out, the administration said. The move isn’t totally unexpected. Prairie-chickens overlap in some areas with oil and gas drilling. And President Donald Trump has signaled that he will prioritize drilling over environmental safeguards. Yet it reveals that his administration will take extreme steps to undo wildlife protections if they stand in the way of his agenda. If his administration is successful in delisting the bird, it will signal that no endangered species is safe — especially those, like these chickens, that happen to live where fossil fuels are buried.Send us a tipDo you have a story idea or a tip to share? Reach Benji Jones at benji.jones@vox.com or at the secure encrypted address benjijones@protonmail.com. You can also find him on Signal at @benji.90.The dance of the prairie-chickenMale lesser prairie-chickens are extremely extra.Each spring, they come together in breeding grounds called leks to dance for females, hoping to attract them as mates. They inflate large sacs on their neck, flare yellow combs above their eyes, and raise wing-like feathers behind their heads. Then they stomp their feet and start booming, producing a noise that sounds like sped-up yodeling. (These are not to be confused with the greater sage-grouse, a bird in the same family that has a similarly spectacular display.)The Great Plains were once filled with these unusual dancing birds, which play important roles in grassland ecosystems: They provide food for raptors, spread seeds, and control insects. But in the last few centuries, prairie-chickens lost most of their habitat — largely to the expansion of oil and gas, commercial farming, housing developments, and, more recently, wind energy. Scientists estimate that the range of lesser prairie-chickens has shrunk by 83 percent to 90 percent since European settlement.“Grasslands are the most threatened ecosystem on the continent and in the world, and nowhere more so than in the southwestern Great Plains,” said Ted Koch, executive director of the North American Grouse Partnership, a bird conservation group. Facing extinction as a result of powerful industries, the prairie-chicken has been caught up in a game of political ping pong. The government first granted them federal protection in 2014. Then, in response to a lawsuit filed by an oil-industry trade group and several counties in New Mexico, the Texas court tossed out the listing in 2015. They were officially delisted in 2016. The suit argued that in granting federal protections the government didn’t adequately consider existing voluntary efforts, such as habitat conservation, to conserve the birds.Shortly after, the Interior Department — the government agency that oversees endangered species listings — reevaluated the bird and once again determined, under the Biden administration, that it is at risk of extinction, even with those voluntary efforts in place. In 2023, Interior added the chickens back on the endangered species list. That brings us to the present day, when these forsaken birds could once again lose protection. Trump moves to strip endangered species protections on a technicalityThe Trump administration is arguing that the Interior Department made a mistake when it recently listed the birds again. It comes down to a somewhat wonky technicality. Briefly, the Endangered Species Act allows the government to grant formal protection to a species or to a population of a species — if those populations are important on their own, and at risk. That’s what the Biden administration did: It determined that there were two distinct populations of lesser-prairie chickens and it granted each of them slightly different protections. One of the populations is in the northern end of the birds’ range, including Oklahoma and Kansas, and the other is in the southern reaches of its range, in Texas and New Mexico. Under the Trump administration, Interior claims that it didn’t provide enough information to show that the two bird populations are distinct. That’s reason enough to delist the birds, the administration argues, while it reviews their status over the next year. If the species is delisted — even temporarily — the government would be able to permit activities, such as energy projects, even if they might harm the bird and the endangered grasslands it’s found in. Male lesser prairie-chickens fight for territory at a lek in Edwards County, Kansas. Michael Pearce/Wichita Eagle/Tribune News Service via Getty ImagesAvian experts, meanwhile, say the reasoning behind the original listing — which was the result of months of work and more than 30,000 public comments — is sound, and these birds are very clearly in trouble. “The North American Grouse Partnership agrees completely that listing of chickens is warranted,” said Koch, a former biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the division within Interior that implements the Endangered Species Act.The move to delist prairie-chickens appears to be an effort by the Trump administration to skirt wildlife regulations that some perceive to stand in the way of the oil industry, said Jonathan Hayes, executive director of Audubon Southwest, a regional office of the National Audubon Society, a large environmental nonprofit. “Whether it’s true or not, this chicken symbolizes a challenge, or an impediment, to oil and gas development for industry,” Hayes told Vox. “We would expect this administration to push back on regulations that may or may not impact oil and gas. That’s what it feels like is happening here.” In a statement to Vox, the Interior Department said it has an “unwavering commitment to conserving and managing the nation’s natural and cultural resources…and overseeing public lands and waters for the benefit of all Americans, while prioritizing fiscal responsibility for the American people.”The new administration can quibble with the technical points of the listing, Koch said, but that will do nothing to change the reality: The bird is at risk of extinction and needs to be protected. “Whether somebody wants to engage in debate on technicalities is up to them, but simply and fundamentally lesser prairie-chickens are threatened with extinction,” Koch said. “Delisting lesser prairie chickens on a technicality is going to do nothing to address the underlying threat to these ecosystems.”The future for threatened species in the US There’s no guarantee that prairie-chickens will lose protection. The Trump administration’s motion to delist the birds came in response to a pair of lawsuits filed by both the state of Texas and groups representing the oil and livestock industries. The suits allege that the Interior Department made a mistake in splitting the birds into two distinct populations and failed to follow the best available information. (Interior’s spokesperson told Vox they will not comment on ongoing litigation.)Before Trump took office, the government was planning to defend its decision to protect the birds — and to split them up — in court, in response to those lawsuits. Now it’s reversing course and agreeing with Texas and the oil industry to toss out the listing.It’s possible that the judge overseeing this case could agree to remove protections, said Jason Rylander, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. In that case, groups like his would try to appeal to block the delisting. The court could also tell the government to review the bird’s status while keeping existing protections in place, Rylander says. What’s key here is that the decision to list lesser prairie-chickens involved a formal rulemaking process with public input. It’s not clear that the government can simply reverse its decision and yank federal protections without going through that process again.“The government can’t act in a capricious way,” Hayes of Audubon said. “It can’t just blow with the wind, and that’s exactly what it did here. They just changed their minds when the administration changed. I’m not sure how they will legally defend their complete 180.”But no matter how this plays out, this effort to delist lesser prairie-chickens puts other threatened species in an even more precarious spot, especially those that live in regions with oil and gas.One example is the endangered dunes sagebrush lizard. It’s a small, scaly reptile that lives in the Permian Basin of Texas, the largest oil-producing region in the country, and nowhere else on Earth.The state of Texas similarly sued the government after it listed the dunes sagebrush lizard as endangered last year. The suit — which asks the court to vacate the endangered listing — alleges, among other things, that the government didn’t rely on the best available data to evaluate the lizard’s extinction risk. That case is still pending, though environmental advocates fear that the Trump administration could side with Texas and claim it made a mistake when listing the lizard. Then there’s the beloved monarch butterfly. Following decades of population decline, the government proposed federal protections for the iconic insect late last year. Monarch habitat similarly overlaps with the oil and gas industry, as well as commercial farmland. Fossil-fuel groups have already asked the Trump administration to reconsider the listing. “As the Trump administration is in power, we can expect that endangered species protections are going to be under attack,” Rylander said. “I think there’s a chance we can stop this in court,” he said of efforts to delist the prairie-chicken, “but I think if we don’t, we will see more efforts to remand and vacate listings that they [the Trump administration] don’t want to have in place anymore.” It’s important to remember that wildlife protections benefit people, Koch said. And prairie-chickens are a good example. Most of the remaining birds live on sustainably managed, private ranchlands in the Great Plains, he said. Those lands — those working grassland ecosystems — are under threat from energy development and other industries that are more profitable. Saving prairie chickens means saving those lands. And saving those lands benefits the ranchers that live on them, he said.“The purpose of the Endangered Species Act is to conserve the ecosystems upon which we and all other species depend,” Koch said. “People depend on grassland ecosystems, and so do lesser prairie-chickens. We need to save grasslands for both of us.”See More:

This is today's edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. The first US hub for experimental medical treatments is coming The news: A bill that allows clinics to sell unproven treatments has been passed in Montana. Under the legislation, doctors can apply for a license to open an experimental treatment clinic and recommend and sell therapies not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to their patients. Why it matters: Once it’s signed by the governor, the law will be the most expansive in the country in allowing access to drugs that have not been fully tested. The bill allows for any drug produced in the state to be sold in it, providing it has been through phase I clinical trials—but these trials do not determine if the drug is effective.The big picture: The bill was drafted and lobbied for by people interested in extending human lifespans. And these longevity enthusiasts are hoping Montana will serve as a test bed for opening up access to experimental drugs. Read the full story. —Jessica Hamzelou Google DeepMind’s new AI agent cracks real-world problems better than humans can Google DeepMind has once again used large language models to discover new solutions to long-standing problems in math and computer science. This time the firm has shown that its approach can not only tackle unsolved theoretical puzzles, but improve a range of important real-world processes as well. The new tool, called AlphaEvolve, uses large language models (LLMs) to produce code for a wide range of different tasks. LLMs are known to be hit and miss at coding. The twist here is that AlphaEvolve scores each of Gemini’s suggestions, throwing out the bad and tweaking the good, in an iterative process, until it has produced the best algorithm it can. In many cases, the results are more efficient or more accurate than the best existing (human-written) solutions.Read the full story. —Will Douglas Heaven Research cuts are threatening crucial climate data —Casey Crownhart Over the last few weeks, there’s been an explosion of news about proposed budget cuts to science in the US. Researchers and civil servants are sounding the alarm that those cuts mean we might lose key data that helps us understand our world and how climate change is affecting it. Long-running US government programs that monitor the snowpack across the West are among those being threatened by cuts across the US federal government, as my colleague James Temple’s new story explores. Also potentially in trouble: carbon dioxide measurements in Hawaii, hurricane forecasting tools, and a database that tracks the economic impact of natural disasters.  It’s all got me thinking: What do we lose when data is in danger? Read the full story. This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Donald Trump doesn’t want Apple building iPhones in India The US President claims Apple will be upping their US production as a result. (Bloomberg $)+ He also said that India was willing to “literally charge us no tariffs.” (WSJ $)2 Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot ranted about white genocide  In response to completely unrelated queries. (FT $)+ It’s not the first time Grok has shared questionable responses. (Bloomberg $)+ Grok told users it was instructed to accept white genocide as real. (The Guardian) 3 RFK Jr doesn’t think we should take his medical advice Which begs the question: why is he US Health and Human Services secretary? (NY Mag $)+ Kennedy said his opinions on vaccines are irrelevant. (NYT $)+ He defended his decision to downsize the health department amid protests. (The Guardian)4 GM’s new EV battery can power a truck for more than 400 miles  Its lithium manganese-rich cells use cheaper minerals than lithium-ion ones. (Fast Company $)+ Tariffs are bad news for batteries. (MIT Technology Review) 5 Anthropic has been accused of using AI-generated evidence in a legal case A lawyer for Universal Music Group claimed an expert cited a source that didn’t exist. (Reuters)+ A judge in another case reportedly caught fake AI citations, too. (Ars Technica)+ AI companies are finally being forced to cough up for training data. (MIT Technology Review)6 AI won’t put human radiologists out of a job any time soonThe technology is helpful, but is unable to do everything trained human experts can. (NYT $) + Why it’s so hard to use AI to diagnose cancer. (MIT Technology Review) 7 The US Defense Department wants faster aircraft and missiles And startups are more than willing to answer the call. (WP $)+ Phase two of military AI has arrived. (MIT Technology Review)8 SpaceX has successfully tested its Starship rocket 🚀Clearing a major hurdle ahead of its planned launch later this month. (Wired $)9 YouTube will start inserting ads into videos’ crucial moments Wow, that doesn’t sound annoying at all. (TechCrunch)10 Apple’s Vision Pro headset is a pain in the neckAnd early adopters are regretting shelling out $3,500 apiece. (WSJ $) + Maybe the ability to scroll using their eyes will change their minds. (Bloomberg $) Quote of the day “To say a professor is ‘some kind of monster’ for using AI to generate slides “is, to me, ridiculous.” —Paul Shovlin, a professor at Ohio University, reacts to student backlash against professors using AI to create teaching materials, the New York Times reports. One more thing Who gets to decide who receives experimental medical treatments?There has been a trend toward lowering the bar for new medicines, and it is becoming easier for people to access treatments that might not help them—and could even harm them. Anecdotes appear to be overpowering evidence in decisions on drug approval. As a result, we’re ending up with some drugs that don’t work. We urgently need to question how these decisions are made. Who should have access to experimental therapies? And who should get to decide? Such questions are especially pressing considering how quickly biotechnology is advancing. We’re not just improving on existing classes of treatments—we’re creating entirely new ones. Read the full story.—Jessica Hamzelou We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet 'em at me.) + Food nostalgia is the best nostalgia, and this Bluesky account of discontinued foods doesn't disappoint.+ Don’t even think of calling your newborn baby King if you live in New Zealand.+ Actor Jeremy Strong just loves a bucket hat.+ Watch out Swiss drivers—a duck has been caught speeding 🦆