ZDNETMemorial Day savings are a few days away. If you aren't soaking up the sun at the beach this holiday, maybe you're shopping for some summer essentials. It might sound silly to consider a health tracker a summer essential, but as someone who tests them out year-round, they come in handy while I exercise at the park, pay for food and snacks at the beach (thank you, Apple Pay on Apple Watch), or track my steps on vacation. I've rounded up some of my favorite health trackers you can shop at a discount right now, ahead of Memorial Day. From a fitness tracker fit for marathon training to a smart ring that will capture your night's rest and recovery, these are the deals I recommend mostShop Amazon Memorial Day dealsMy favorite Memorial Day health tracker deals Nina Raemont/ZDNET Current price: $200Original price: $250The nice thing about buying one of Oura's earlier model smart rings is you'll get the same app and software experience -- just a different form factor and one less day of battery life. If prospective Oura Ring buyers don't mind this, they should opt for the Oura Ring 3, which has reduced its price by around 20% since the Oura Ring 4's debut.The Oura Ring tracks your daily sleep, stress, activity, and readiness to deliver scores, insights, and recommendations. It's a great health tracker for people looking to optimize their sleep and activity routine, but who want gentle recommendations and encouragements that won't make them feel bad about a poor night of sleep or a day of low activity. It's constantly innovating with new features, like a Cardiovascular Age feature that tells you if your physiological age is ahead, behind, or at your chronological age. Plus, it partners with other health brands, like Dexcom, so you can keep track of your glucose levels on the Oura app if you use its Stelo continuous glucose monitor. The smart ring is compatible with Android and iOS phones, so everybody can use it to capture data. The only downside of an Oura Ring is its $70 annual subscription (which is not on sale) to unlock all that data it collects and displays. The Ring Gen 3 is also an sale in select finishes and sizes at Oura.  Show more View now at Amazon Kerry Wan/ZDNET Current price: $229Original price: $299I test health trackers for a living, but even when I am (or am not) testing a wearable for work, I have the Apple Watch Series 10 on my wrist. As an avid exerciser who goes to the gym most days of the week, no fitness tracker makes me feel as on top of my exercise as my Apple Watch and my closed activity rings. This deal applies to the Apple Watch Series 10 in jet black, rose gold, and silver. The sport loop the smartwatch comes with is uber-comfortable, especially for exercise, and also moisture-wicking (I've taken many a shower with this smartwatch on and haven't had any issues of prolonged wetness. The Apple Watch Series 10 is an accurate health and sleep tracker that doubles as your iPhone's assistant. Yes, you can record hundreds of workouts on the Fitness app or stay up to date on your sleep in the Vitals app, but you can also set timers while you're cooking, respond to calls or texts, and even locate your lost phone with a quick and easy ping. That's the best part of Apple Watch -- you get accurate data aggregation of your health metrics and a personal assistant around your wrist.  Show more View now at Amazon Matthew Miller/ZDNET Current price: $350Original price: $450Maybe you want a health tracker that you'll only wear during workouts -- or you aren't an iPhone owner and an Apple Watch wouldn't work with your phone. Either way, if you aren't interested in the Apple Watch Series 10, I'd recommend the Garmin Venu 3S instead. Garmin watches are loved by runners, bikers, and outdoorsy exercisers, and they come with several health and sleep-tracking features that rival Oura and Apple. Unlike the Apple Watch's one-day battery life, the Garmin Venu 3S comes with a ten-day battery life to power a week's worth of walk, run, or cycle sessions. It also tracks your sleep -- and naps -- to identify sleep stages and monitor vitals during rest. Even though it doesn't have the seamless integration of an Apple Watch for an iPhone or a Galaxy Watch for a Samsung phone, you can still take calls straight from your watch once it's paired with your smartphone.  Show more View now at Amazon Jason Hiner/ZDNET Current price: $189Original price: $250 Apple has released new earbuds since it debuted the AirPods Pro 2 in 2022, but none have been able to match the Pro 2's software and hardware functionalities. These are Apple's best earbuds, and lucky for us, they regularly go on sale. The AirPods Pro 2 include noise cancellation that minimizes distractions around you, microphones that make your voice clear on calls, and a battery life that will carry you through a run, workday, or commute home. Other benefits of the Pro 2 within the Apple ecosystem include getting text notifications spoken to you through the earbuds as you're on the go, and a seamless connection and setup.  Show more FAQs When is Memorial Day? Memorial Day is Monday, May 26.  How did I choose these Memorial Day deals? As I type this, three fitness trackers are around my wrist and fingers. I wear and test these health trackers constantly and have developed opinions on which ones are worth buying -- and which ones are worthy of skipping. I and someone on the ZDNET team have tested and can vouch for the products I recommended above. Looking for the next best product? Get expert reviews and editor favorites with ZDNET Recommends. Show more ZDNET Recommends

Publisher financials sound a warning for industry growth | Opinion As consumers around the world feel the economic squeeze, gaming's value for money is facing new challenges – and publishers are battening down the hatches Image credit: Ubisoft/Lucasfilm Opinion by Rob Fahey Contributing Editor Published on May 16, 2025 Corporate financials season may not be the most exciting of the year's changing seasons, but it does present a rare opportunity to take the industry's pulse in a more-or-less objective way. It would be an exaggeration to say that financial reports and the statements made on the earnings calls which follow them are free of marketing bluster, but different, stricter rules apply here than at other times. Companies can and do spin the numbers, but the numbers themselves have to be reported honestly – which means that everyone gets a chance to see how everyone else is doing, and adjust their own planning and outlook accordingly. Since this is also usually when we get firm updates on shipment figures for console hardware, that's the story that tends to attract the most focus. So with the launch of Switch 2 fast approaching and the threat of tariff impacts looming, it's no surprise that that's been the case on this occasion as well. Still, while platform holder results do hold special importance for the industry, they are somewhat separate from the reality that most other companies in this business are facing. For the broader picture, we really do need to dig into the stack of reports issued from publishers around the globe. This quarter – and indeed this year, since most firms are reporting full-year figures – a lot of those reports make for somewhat serious reading, even by the dry standards of corporate financials. Looking across the major results released in the past few weeks from companies ranging from Capcom, Square Enix, and Sega, through to Ubisoft, Warner Bros, and Take-Two, there's unsurprisingly a great deal of diversity on display given their very different market positions and product line-ups, but there are nonetheless a few trends that go beyond the travails of a single company and are worth exploring as potential bellwethers for the wider industry. Firstly, and perhaps most concerning – sales are generally down, with most companies reporting a drop in revenues over the past year. This isn't universal, with Capcom being a notable exception as it continued a genuinely impressive years-long winning streak, and Take-Two also managing to report a few percentage points of growth thanks largely to great performance for its sports titles. Overall, though, revenues seem to be in decline right now. The underlying causes differ in each case – you can look across each company and pinpoint the specific decisions or problems each of them suffered – but the broader trend is still meaningful. That's especially the case since this fits with the warning signals that have begun flashing in market data from various territories around the world, suggesting that overall consumer spend on gaming has fallen over the past year, albeit only by a relatively small percentage. In spite of the lower sales numbers most companies are reporting, however, several of these publishers are nonetheless showing improvements in operating income – notably Sega and Square Enix, both of which were more profitable over the past year despite their revenues being lower. This is due in part to restructuring and narrowing the focus of their development efforts, but a major factor is also the strong sales of back catalogue titles, which incur minimal costs and are thus great for a company's bottom line. Image credit: Rockstar Games These long-tail sales are proving crucial to keeping the industry's financials looking healthy (and if we take a broad definition, you could make an argument that transactions in games like GTA Online also comprise a form of long-tail sales for Take-Two, for example), but they may also point to a rising price sensitivity among consumers who are showing more willingness to buy competitively priced older games rather than forking out for full-price releases in some cases. Again, if that is the case, it fits with broader economic trends; we know that consumers in a lot of territories are feeling a serious squeeze on their discretionary expenditure, and seeking competitively priced alternatives is a natural response in that case. If that's impacting the games industry's top line, then this could potentially mean that the industry is facing its first actual recession (not counting the mean reversion that we saw after the massive industry growth recorded in the first couple of years of the pandemic). There's a long-standing piece of conventional wisdom which says that although individual sectors may suffer, the games business overall is well-insulated against recessions (we used to say "recession-proof" a couple of decades ago, but I don't know anyone who'd care to make a wager on that statement these days). This is because games offer tremendous value for money compared to most other discretionary expenditures – such that consumers who have slashed their spending on travel, going out, and other expensive hobbies and pursuits may actually end up modestly increasing their gaming expenditure to fill the resulting free time. Even by the games industry's usual standards of franchise obsession, that lack of focus on new IP creation or expansion stands out as unusual That logic has been strongly challenged in recent years by the existence of things like subscription video services, which offer hours-per-dollar of entertainment easily comparable with any game, or free-to-play games. Not to mention the other free alternative preferred by many consumers: doomscrolling your way through hours of brain-rot. Moreover, there's an especially tricky calculus at work right now, because the strong possibility of widespread belt-tightening by consumers is coming right as gaming is in the midst of trying to increase prices for many of its top-line products. The reasons for that are well and good, but the timing is horrible, and in these results we may be seeing the first signs that some groups of consumers are actually noping out of paying higher price points for premium games. It's not just competitively priced back catalogue titles that seem to be over-performing relative to other segments. We're also seeing very strong performance from games (such as EA's Split Fiction, and indie title Clair Obscur: Expedition 33) which chose to launch at $50 price points. Their success is a data point worth bearing in mind at a moment when several publishers are trying to push past $70 and establish $80 as a new regular price level. The fact that things like remasters of back catalogue titles sit comfortably at lower price points may well be part of their appeal, both to consumers and to publishers. The restructuring of development efforts that many publishers are currently undertaking is always described in terms of streamlining and improving, but generally looks a lot like strategic de-risking – focusing in on sure-fire bets and a small number of core franchises. Image credit: Sega/Atlus In fact, one common point across every company that has reported results in the past couple of weeks is that they're all quite open about being tightly focused on three or four core IPs. The only company in the bunch with anything really positive to say about a non-core or original IP was Sega's reference to the strong performance of Metaphor: ReFantazio. Even by the games industry's usual standards of franchise obsession, that lack of focus on new IP creation or expansion stands out as unusual – and even in the companies that are doing very well, like the aforementioned Capcom, it's notable that remakes, remasters, re-imaginings and re-visitings describe pretty much the entire software pipeline. The overall sense is clear: publishers are in battening-down-hatches mode right now. In that respect, assuming the economic situation is going to worsen, this approach probably makes sense. Companies facing a market in which consumers are feeling financially precarious need to focus on relatively sure bets for their headline titles, and fill in the gaps with lower-cost games, for which digging into the back catalogue is ideal. In the medium to long term, though, we have to hope against hope that publishers who are narrowing their focus to tentpole franchises right now have some strategy for getting back to building new IPs eventually. Franchise exhaustion is also a very real concern, and growth, ultimately, has to come through creative innovation. No company can run forever just by finding increasingly aggressive ways to flog the same dying horses.

Horses migrated back and forth repeatedly between North America and Eurasia, during the Late Pleistocene. But when a warming environment flooded a land bridge, it cut off travel between the continents, leading to both the decline of the horses in North America and changes to the land caused by their absence, according to a report in the journal Science by an international team that includes 18 indigenous scientists.The team drew upon both tribal knowledge of environmental events as well as the cutting-edge scientific tools. The study both provides a glimpse of the horse’s history on two continents as well as ways to think about conservation in the future.Grazing and Roaming HorsesHorses, when unfenced, tend to graze in a flower petal pattern around a water source. When the food runs out, they move on to another area and repeat the process. Along the way, they do what horses do — fertilize the land. Horse droppings often contain seeds and attract bugs. Some seeds grow into plants. Some bugs attract animals. When the horse disappears from an area, this process stops.“In this way, the horse is not only responding to change, it is also actually part of the change,” says Yvette Running Horse Collin, a member of the Lakota Nation, a scientist at the University of Toulouse, France, and an author of the paper. “If provided the opportunity, you would find that horses today would also move great distances in response to changes in the environment. In doing so, they provide a great service to all life. Where the horse goes, other life follows.”Ancient Horse FossilsHorses were both agents and objects of change over the past 50,000 years. The scientific team analyzed genomes from 67 ancient horse fossils found across Beringia, Siberia, and continental North America, dated them with radiocarbon and isotopes, and compared the data to all known lineages.The study reveals a wider range of horse genetic diversity during the late Pleistocene period than we see today, as well as long, bi-directional transcontinental migration. For example, some lineages found in Siberian and Iberian fossils show genetic traces of North American horses.The study suggests that not only did the closing of the bridge between continents affect the North American horse population, but other effects of warming made an impact as well. As eras shifted from Pleistocene to Holocene, grasslands turned to wet, boggy tundra unsuitable for horses to graze and difficult for them to travel upon.Climate and Geological ChangeThe authors emphasize that the study shows the necessity of looking at whole systems, not just an individual species to understand the past impacts of climate and geological change. The same applies to future conservation efforts.“In order to have successful conservation efforts for the horse, you must also put in place successful conservation efforts for other forms of life," Collin says. “It is for this reason that one of the research outcomes of this study is to suggest the creation of corridors that would allow life to move — together — as needed."Some tribes involved in the study intend to put those concepts into practice in the Black Hills of South Dakota. They will provide scientific measures of those efforts and intend to share the results with the wider scientific community.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.

Wētā Digital – now part of Unity – developed many of the tools and solutions used to bring the world of Avatar: The Way of Water to life. Here, we take a look at the CGI technology behind the water. If you’re interested in being among the first to access some of the tools used in the film, you can register for the Unity Wētā Tools beta through our website.James Cameron is no stranger to working with water. Titanic aside, in 2012 he made a record-breaking solo dive, piloting a submarine to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean: Earth’s lowest point at nearly 11 kilometers deep. As he said in the resulting 2014 documentary, Deepsea Challenge, “Down here you feel the power of nature’s imagination, which is so much greater than our own.”It must have been truly remarkable, then, seeing as the world of Pandora and its stunning visuals ultimately came from Cameron’s own imagination.Translating Cameron’s vision, which for the sequel included the new reef village of the aquatic Metkayina clan, required extensive use of visual effects – especially for the dominant water setting.The tools and solutions used to create the film’s VFX – including the award-winning water effects – were developed by Wētā Digital, now a division of Unity.To ensure that the interactions between the characters and water elements were as realistic as possible, a team of experts, including Unity and Wētā’s water simulation VFX specialists Alexey Stomakhin, Steve Lesser, Joel Wretborn, and Sean Flynn, were brought together to form the “Water Taskforce”. This team’s water toolset was recently recognized with a win at the Visual Effects Society (VES) Awards, with the Emerging Technology Award.Extreme attention to detail saw the taskforce conduct extensive research and experimentation in collaboration with New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) to find the best approach to creating CGI water. This included taking into account the effects of tides, wind, and the sea floor on aquatic environments.Avatar: The Way of Water required water effects for 2,225 shots, some taking up to eight days of simulation to achieve the high resolution needed.There were also numerous scenes where water interacted with over 50 creatures in a single shot. This presented the challenge of needing simulations to be accurate at scale, from large domains for bigger creatures, to submillimeter resolution for thin film on skin.As it was not computationally feasible to create a single-representation water system, the toolset was developed with a number of distinct solvers to keep compute times to a minimum.“The Loki water state machine was crucial for delivering the sheer volume of large-scale water shots in this movie. In a typical VFX-heavy movie, water shots of this complexity are few and far between and require many iterations and passes from very experienced artists. In contrast, our state machine approach was able to deliver great results after just a single pass, even by artists who had just entered the industry.” – Sean Flynn, simulation lead, Unity x Wētā DigitalA majority of the water tools developed by the team sit within Wētā’s proprietary simulation framework, Loki. This piece of tech includes solvers for multiple water states, including procedural water waves, bulk water, spray, mist, hero bubbles, diffuse bubbles, foam, capillary surface waves, thin film, and residual wetness.State machineMany of these solvers sit within the Loki state machine – an airborne spray system. The water states are coupled with the surrounding air, with transitions between states handled in a mass- and momentum-conserving way.Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, the Loki state machine allows multiple solvers to run in tandem. Each solver is optimized for the level of detail required by its respective state, such as bulk water, spray, and mist. This helps keep large-scale water simulations efficient while still capturing the very fine droplet interactions required by spray and mist.All of the states including the surrounding air are completed in a single simulation pass. As all solvers are computed with proper physical interactions between them, this is what helped to create such natural and realistic water interaction throughout the film.During SIGGRAPH 2019, a practical approach for modeling close-up water interaction with characters was presented, with a focus on high-fidelity surface tension and adhesion effects as water moves over and drips from skin. Using a scene from Alita: Battle Angel (a screenplay also written by Cameron), the team showed how this method allowed for a resolution of effects that was performant enough – on the scale of a fraction of a millimeter – to cover a whole character with a layer of water.The approach was to adapt an existing particle-in-cell (FLIP/APIC) solver to capture small-scale water-solid interaction dynamics. This technique was then advanced during the production of Avatar: The Way of Water to handle any sequence that involved characters emerging from water.“This was not a cheap solution, as we had to simulate water dynamics at sub-millimeter scales. The results would often take days to compute. We had to ensure our solver was scalable, robust and reliable enough to produce physically plausible visuals out of the box, with minimal tuning required from artists.” – Alexey Stomakhin, principal research engineer, Unity x Wētā DigitalTo achieve believable dynamics in underwater scenarios – for example, when characters breathe underwater in Avatar: The Way of Water – the approach to underwater bubbles was to simulate them together with a narrow band of water around the region of interest. The bubbles themselves would be represented in two parts: a hero and diffuse counterpart.The hero counterpart captures bigger bubbles with more explosive and turbulent behaviors. It utilizes an incompressible two-phase Navier-Stokes solve on a Eulerian grid, with the air phase represented by FLIP/APIC particles to facilitate volume conservation and accurate interface tracking.The diffuse counterpart captures the motion of smaller bubbles below the resolution of the Eulerian grid. The team has developed a novel scheme for coupling diffuse bubble particles with bulk fluid that could also be applied to other submerged, porous objects such as sand, hair, and cloth.To enhance the visual detail of a water surface simulation, the team from Wētā Digital and IST Austria developed a method of post-processing that took a simulation as an input, and increased its apparent resolution by simulating detailed Lagrangian water waves on top of it.Linear water wave theory was extended to work in non-planar domains with Lagrangian wave packets attached to spline curves that would evolve over the bulk fluid surface. This method produces high-frequency ripples with dispersive wave-live behaviors, customized to the underlying fluid simulation.A technique was developed for the realistic movement of underwater bubbles – created by movement in the water – reaching the water surface and converting into foam. This was important for nearly all of the water scenes in Avatar: The Way of Water.Grid-based Navier-Stokes simulators – usually reserved for capturing large-scale motion such as bulk fluid – are inherently limited by their grid resolution, making this method impractical for small-scale phenomena like spray and mist from breaking waves. These whitewater effects are usually simulated as independent Lagrangian particles.“One key aspect of our whitewater method is the interaction of two solvers: a grid-based fluid solver coupled with bubbles, and a SPH solver for foam constrained to the water surface. The declarative solver framework in Loki is what makes building and supporting these complex systems possible in production without having to develop new solvers from scratch.” – Joel Wretborn, senior research engineer, Unity x Wētā DigitalThe key aspect most of the existing solvers neglect are the collective effects: groups of bubbles rise faster than single bubbles due to their combined buoyancy, and the collection of many bubbles can have a significant impact on the motion of the water.The new technique addresses this limitation by simulating bubbles two-way coupled with the surrounding fluid. This effectively captures collective bubble effects, and creates a more connected look between bubbles and the motion of the fluid. As bubbles reach the surface they transition into "wet" foam particles constrained to the water surface, discretized with smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH). In the end this created believable whitewater dynamics in both close-up and large ocean shots.The simulation technology used by the Water Taskforce was created by present and former colleagues at Wētā Digital, as well as friends from Wētā FX and academic institutions, including: Alexey Stomakhin, Joel Wretborn, Kevin Blom, Gilles Daviet, Steve Lesser, John Edholm, Noh-Hoon Lee, Eston Schweickart, Xiao Zhai, Sean Flynn, Andrew Moffat, Gary Boyle, Tomas Skrivan, Andreas Soderstron, John Johansson, Christoph Sprenger, Ken Museth, and Chris Wojtan. Learn more about Unity Wētā Tools beta.

The Land Beneath the Biggest U.S. Cities Is Sinking, Finds New Analysis of Satellite Data Largely due to groundwater pumping and shifting of land after the last ice age, major urban areas are subsiding, which could destabilize buildings or worsen flooding Houston is the fastest-sinking of the 28 most populated U.S. cities, according to a new study that examined the urban areas through satellite observations. The Texas city got most of its water from the ground in the 1950s to ’70s, which led to subsidence. Art Wager via Getty Images The 28 most populous cities in the United States are all sinking to some degree, according to a new study that highlights the vulnerability of the roads and buildings in metropolises like New York, Houston and Seattle. In 25 of those 28 cities, at least two-thirds of the land area is sinking, per the research, and most of that subsidence is caused by pumping groundwater. The team’s findings were published in the journal Nature Cities last week. “As cities continue to grow, we will see more cities expand into subsiding regions,” says Leonard Ohenhen, the study’s lead author and a researcher at Columbia University, in a statement. “Over time, this subsidence can produce stresses on infrastructure that will go past their safety limit.” The researchers used satellite data collected between 2015 and 2021 to determine the rising and falling of land across major cities. “By comparing multiple images taken over time from the same area, we can detect tiny vertical movements of the ground, down to a few millimeters per year,” explains Manoochehr Shirzaei, a study co-author and geophysicist at Virginia Tech, to James Woodford at New Scientist. “It’s like taking a high-resolution time-lapse of Earth’s surface and watching how it rises or sinks over time.” Across the country, 80 percent of the sinkage is associated with removing groundwater for drinking and agriculture—and the researchers don’t see the problem getting better in the near future. “The usage of groundwater is not going to decline,” Ohenhen tells Kasha Patel and Naema Ahmed at the Washington Post. “In most places, you are not going to tell people to stop extracting groundwater, because that may be the only available resource for a particular region or city.” Researchers pinpointed the rate of sinking across major U.S. cities. This map shows the level of vertical land motion in the nation's most populated urban areas. Columbia Climate School Houston is the fastest-sinking city the team studied, largely for that reason—in the 1950s to ’70s, nearly all of its water came from the ground, says Bob Wang, a geophysicist at the University of Houston, to the New York Times’ Mira Rojanasakul. And while mitigation efforts slowed subsidence in the city’s center, people continued to pump water from below as the urban area expanded. Now, 42 percent of Houston’s land area is sinking faster than five millimeters (0.2 inches) per year, and 12 percent of it is sinking faster than ten millimeters (0.4 inches) per year. For other cities along the East Coast and Great Lakes area, such as New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., the sinking primarily comes as the land slowly settles after the melting of glaciers from the last ice age. This phenomenon, which makes the ground rise in some areas and sink in others, is called glacial isostatic adjustment. “During the last ice age, these areas were covered by massive ice sheets. The sheer weight of the ice pushed down on Earth’s crust, like sitting on a memory foam mattress,” explains Shirzaei to New Scientist. When the ice melted, the pressure on the Earth’s surface was lifted, and the crust that was beneath it started to rise. But this rebound isn’t happening evenly across all regions, adds Shirzaei. In some areas, “the land is still sinking rather than rising, because they’re near the forebulge,” he says to New Scientist, “a zone that had been pushed up by the weight of the ice nearby and is now collapsing.” Shifting land—especially if it happens unevenly—can lead to destabilized structures and flooding hazards. Because of those risks, the team hopes their study creates a push toward damage mitigation efforts, per the statement. In cities susceptible to tilting, that can look like retrofitting existing buildings, implementing new building codes and limiting construction in the most vulnerable areas. To help with flooding, municipalities can implement land raising, enhance their draining systems and build more green infrastructure, like artificial wetlands. “Having detailed maps of ground movement as well as the information of what causes it can aid in designing policies,” says Pejman Tahmasebi, a subsidence researcher at the Colorado School of Mines who was not involved in the study, to the Washington Post. “We should start talking about those solutions right now,” adds Ohenhen to the Washington Post. “This problem is always only going to increase as we progress into the future.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

It’s safe to say I’ve written about probably hundreds of EDC knives at this point – but hardly ever (if not never) written about an EDC sharpener. I’m not entirely sure if it’s even a category, but it is now, with the TiSpinx – a portable pendant-shaped knife sharpener that’s also a fidget spinner, and made almost entirely from titanium. Designed as jewelry, but functionally essential, the TiSpinx lets you keep your blades sharp no matter where you are. Three micro sharpening stones sit on the cylindrical surface of the TiSpinx, giving you a place to quickly (and effectively) jazz up any dull EDC blade you’ve got while outdoors. When you’re not whetting blades, the TiSpinx transforms into a fidget spinner, keeping your hands and mind occupied. All this sits in something the size of a piece of candy, making it perfectly portable, and ideal for stringing around a paracord, a keychain, a bracelet, or even a neck-chain. Designer: TIGO Click Here to Buy Now: $59 $89 (34% off) Hurry! Only 43 of 100 left. “The idea for TiSpinx was born from a common outdoor frustration. On a camping trip, a dull knife became a real problem—and sharpening it with rough stones just didn’t cut it,” said the folks at TIGO, who designed the TiSpinx. You see, EDC knives are a dime a dozen, and a decent amount of them are designed to stay sharp for years. But that promise is only good up until you’re faced with a dull blade that doesn’t slice through wood or cut paracord. That’s when the TiSpinx comes in handy, giving you a proper place to sharpen your blade rather than a random rock on a riverbank. But wearing a knife sharpener around your neck isn’t particularly glamorous – which is why TIGO took a subtle, yet sophisticated approach to making the TiSpinx. It had to be a sharpener, but it had to be more than just one too. The result, a pendant-shaped bead-like EDC that also doubled as a fidget spinner. With 3 micro sharpening stones, 9 tritium slots, and a hollow, compact design, the TiSpinx easily fits on bracelets, keyrings, or necklaces. It has the appeal of a dog tag, while being functional too. Spin it when you’re bored, sharpen knives when you’re equipped with dull blades, and show it off as haute outdoor jewelry when you’re just going about your day. The entire device is machined from GR5 titanium, a bona fide EDC-grade metal known for its lightweight, rugged nature. The TiSpinx measures under an inch high and wide (a 25.3mm x 19.9mm cylinder to be precise), and weighs a paltry 19.2 grams or 0.6 ounces. That officially makes it the smallest knife sharpener ever made, and the only one designed to be worn as EDC jewelry. The titanium construction houses 3 tiny sharpening stones that can easily be removed and flipped over if they get dirty. Meanwhile, an integrated ball-bearing system allows the TiSpinx to double as a silent fidget spinner. The tiny whetstones are made from Alumina or aluminum oxide – a hard, amorphous material extracted from bauxite ore. It’s known for its hardness and abrasion resistance, making it perfect for sharpening all kinds of blades, even ones made from tough high-chromium steel. Three strategically placed stones on the TiSpinx give you three surfaces to sharpen your blade on. You can choose to wet the stone too, for a cleaner experience – titanium is naturally rust-proof, making it the perfect material for the TiSpinx. The TiSpinx comes in 3 colors – a plain, sandblasted finish for lovers of the classic titanium color, an anodized yellow for people who want their sharpener/pendant to also have a little bling, and a PVD black for lovers of stealth. Each TiSpinx also comes with a total of 9 tritium slots, which you can put glow-vials into, giving the pendant a unique appeal while also allowing it to be visible in the dark. The TiSpinx starts at a discounted $59, which feels like a steal given most knives often cost the same amount, and this product basically extends the lifespan of every one of those knives. It’s jewelry, it’s EDC, it’s a fidget toy, but it’s also an investment in the longevity of your favorite blades, which is a laundry list of features that no other product I’ve ever written about has. I mean, a wearable knife sharpener that also happens to be a fidget pendant? And comes with a titanium construction that’s guaranteed to last a lifetime? It’s practically a dream for EDC enthusiasts, outdoor lovers, knife nerds, and just about anyone who adores functional jewelry. Click Here to Buy Now: $59 $89 (34% off) Hurry! Only 43 of 100 left.The post World’s Smallest Knife Sharpener Doubles as a Titanium EDC Pendant You Can Wear first appeared on Yanko Design.

Element House / APOLLO Architects & AssociatesSave this picture!Houses•Uji, Japan Architects: APOLLO Architects & Associates Area Area of this architecture project Area:  189 m² Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2024 Photographs Photographs:Masao NishikawaMore SpecsLess Specs Save this picture! Text description provided by the architects. ELEMENT stands in a quiet residential area in the southern part of Kyoto. The L-shaped plot, which faces two roads, features a change in elevation and distinct facades on the north and south sides. The main facade is characterized by a large overhang with a wide southern-facing window, enclosed by a concrete wall imprinted with cedar-board formwork. The secondary façade is distinguished by its powerful cantilevered appearance, which allows for a pilotis-style garage area.Save this picture!Save this picture!The main entrance opens into a two-story atrium space, where light streams in from high windows positioned on both the north and south sides. Guests are warmly welcomed by a cozy entrance courtyard visible directly ahead. The family living area, located within the atrium space, is complemented by a total of three courtyards of various sizes.Save this picture!Save this picture!In addition to the entrance courtyard, there is a courtyard in the kitchen and dining area that draws natural light all the way into the back of the kitchen, as well as a central courtyard equipped with a bench and full-opening sliding doors. Each of these distinct courtyards makes a unique contribution to the spatial experience within the home.Save this picture!The second-floor workspace is equipped with dedicated office and meeting areas as well as fitness facilities, providing a perfect base for remote work. From the living room's atrium, one can look up through the glass to catch a glimpse of people engaged in work or physical training, creating an atmosphere that promotes both productivity and well-being.Save this picture!Additionally, the ceiling features a visually striking combination of concrete ribs and recessed solid walnut panels, creating a coffered effect that spans the entire living space. This element not only introduces a distinctive rhythm and harmony but also serves as the foundation for the interior design of the space.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Private rooms and wet areas are concentrated near the secondary entrance, while public areas such as the living and dining rooms and outdoor spaces are laid out near the main entrance. ELEMENT subtly integrates these various scenes of daily life to create a unique narrative, serving as a model for an environment where life and work are in perfect balance. Project gallerySee allShow less About this office Published on May 15, 2025Cite: "Element House / APOLLO Architects & Associates" 15 May 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1030140/element-house-apollo-architects-and-associates&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

Did Superman blink... or did James Gunn?In the latest trailer for the filmmaker's upcoming Superman, some eagle-eyed (Kryptonian-eyed?) fans noticed something about... well, Superman's eyes! Specifically, a change that Gunn and his team seem to have made from the first teaser trailer which was released last December.In that first teaser, there's a shot of Superman walking through a crowd of angry Metropolis citizens, seemingly after a battle of some kind where David Corenswet's hero hasn't fared too well. One man in the crowd throws a can of something at the Man of Steel, who flinches a bit and blinks, but continues to walk on without looking back.This had some fans wondering why Superman would react in such a manner to getting hit by a mere can (we don't know what's in the can but let's just pretend it's Duff Beer). But now, in the new trailer, Supes takes the hit like a man -- a super man even! Check out the teaser version and the new trailer version below that:You will believe a man can blink... or not, as the case may be.Of course, it's nothing new for filmmakers to tweak shots from trailers for the final version of the film. Gunn himself has yet to comment on this minor change, and while it's an interesting alteration, it's also a pretty inconsequential one. Sure, we're all combing over every detail of new Superman info as Gunn gets ready to launch his DC Universe on the big screen, but also, I would go so far as to say Superman -- as invulnerable as he is -- is also capable of involuntary physical reactions just like the rest of us. So just as you or I might blink or flinch when, for example, a harmless whiffle ball is thrown at us unexpectedly, it's not out of the realm of possibility that the Man of Steel would also react in a moment like the one in the trailers, despite his relative inability to get hurt.Besides, the real question is why would that guy in the crowd waste a perfectly good Duff Beer like that?

As the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill continues its progress through the Wetsminster system, NHS digital leaders have called for their suppliers to sign up to a voluntary cyber security charter as it works to build up its resilience against threats such as ransomware, and better secure its supply chain. The NHS has a long and sorry history of cyber breaches, perhaps most famously its systems came under sustained fire during the 2017 WannaCry incident. More recently, health services across south London were impacted by a cyber attack on Synnovis, a supplier of pathology lab services to various NHS trusts in the region. In light of the growing and ever-changing threat landscape, and the growing frequency and severity of incidents, the NHS said there has been a step change in recent months In an open letter to suppliers, Phil Huggins, national CISO for health and care at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Mike Fell, director of cyber operations at NHS England, and Vin Diwakar, national director of transformation at NHS England, said: “As valued partners to the NHS, it is important to us that we work together and defend as one.” The NHS is asking suppliers that where reasonably necessary – such as in the case of organisations that support clinical systems or process confidential patient data – they commit to keeping their IT systems in support and patched, to achieve and maintain at least ‘Standards Met’ under the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPOT), apply multifactor authentication alongside NHS England’s existing MFA policies, deploy always-on cyber monitoring and logging of critical infrastructure, and put in place immutable backups of critical data alongside appropriate business continuity and recovery plans. The charter also requires suppliers to conduct board level exercising on incident response, report cyber attacks affecting NHS customers in a timely manner and work with them to resolve, and only supply software produced in adherence to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) software code of practice. Huggins, Fell and Diwakar asked suppliers to commit to being an “outstanding and trusted partner” by agreeing to sign the charter. “This voluntary charter will contain the asks outlined above and show your commitment to being a trusted and secure partner to the health and care system. We will be launching a self-assessment form in the autumn, whereby suppliers can sign the charter. This will allow time for suppliers to work through the eight statements and be ready to commit,” they said. In recognition that making continuous improvements in cyber resilience in the present threat environment is a significant challenge, the NHS leaders also said they were ready and willing to ensure the health service plays its own part through, for example, developing bespoke tools that suppliers can use to audit their own supply chains in accordance with NHS needs, and defining requirements for a national supplier management platform and risk assurance model. The NHS will also review the contractual frameworks that its own organisations use to enter contracts to ensure appropriate security schedules and expectations. This piece is part of a wider government initiative in this regard. The health service plans to run a series of webinars in the coming months, and hopes to launch a supplier cyber security forum in the autumn. “For threat actors, sensitive data is the ultimate target and NHS suppliers are custodians of vast volumes of highly confidential information. In Q1 alone, healthcare was the most targeted sector by ransomware attacks globally, with 57 recorded incidents,” said BlackFog founder and CEO Darren Williams. “It’s no surprise, then, that the NHS is urging its suppliers to step up their cyber security practices in response to escalating threats across the supply chain.  “Given the spate of ransomware attacks that has impacted both public and private sector, initiatives which incentivise providers are a necessary step. It’s not only about safeguarding patient data but also ensuring the continuity of critical services.” Read more about NHS cyber incidents The ICO has issued a £3m fine to software provider Advanced in the wake of security failings that led to significant disruption to NHS customers in a ransomware attack. T and security teams at Wirral University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust continue to work around the clock following a major cyber incident, with services disrupted and no timeline for resolution. Clinicians warn that the NHS England Outcome Registries Platform has poor security and is vulnerable to cyber attack, putting critical patient data at risk of being exposed.

Achieving peace is a team effort. And there is no I in Team.  DC Studios has dropped the official teaser for Peacemaker Season 2, which streams August 21 on Max. Eagly returns... and hope springs eternal. In Season 1 of the R-rated action-adventure-comedy series, which explores the origins of The Suicide Squad character played by John Cena, mercenary Christopher Smith returns home after recovering from his encounter with Bloodsport. Per the logline, the upcoming season follows the vigilante “as he struggles to reconcile his past with his newfound sense of purpose while continuing to kick righteous evil-doer butt in his misguided quest for peace at any cost.” Hopefully, his incredibly animated friend Eagly can keep him grounded in his ongoing search for purpose. Returning cast includes Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Holland, Freddie Stroma, Steve Agee, and Robert Patrick. New Season 2 cast members include Frank Grillo, David Denman, Sol Rodriguez, and Tim Meadows. James Gunn wrote all eight episodes of Peacemaker Season 2 and directed three, including the first episode. Gunn, Peter Safran, and Cena serve as executive producers. Greg Mottola, Peter Sollett, and Althea Jones also direct. Gunn’s Troll Court Entertainment and The Safran Company produce in association with Warner Bros. Television. VFX for Season 1 were crafted by Clear Angle Studios, Crafty Apes, Mr. Wolf, Peerless, Proof Inc, Rodeo FX, and Wētā FX. For Season 2, we know Wētā FX is involved, we’re guessing at least for the work on Eagly. You can read about their incredible first season raptor work here. Check out the teaser now: Source: DC Studios Journalist, antique shop owner, aspiring gemologist—L'Wren brings a diverse perspective to animation, where every frame reflects her varied passions.