Title: Microbes in Lungs Could Affect COVID-19 Outcomes
Category: Health News
Created: 8/24/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/25/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: U.S. Kidney Transplant Outcomes Are Improving
Category: Health News
Created: 8/24/2021 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/24/2021 12:00:00 AM

Title: Smart Phones, Watches Can Mess With Implanted Pacemakers
Category: Health News
Created: 8/26/2021 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/26/2021 12:00:00 AM

Title: Scientists Design Skin Patch That Takes Ultrasound Images
Category: Health News
Created: 7/29/2022 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 7/29/2022 12:00:00 AM

Title: When Hospital Patient & Doctor Speak Same Language, Outcomes Improve
Category: Health News
Created: 7/11/2022 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 7/11/2022 12:00:00 AM

Title: witch hazel
Category: Medications
Created: 8/18/2022 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/18/2022 12:00:00 AM

BACKGROUND:Opioids are known to cause respiratory depression, aspiration, and to suppress the immune system. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between short- and long-term opioid use and the occurrence and clinical outcomes of pneumonia in South Korea.METHODS:The data for this population-based retrospective cohort analysis were obtained from the South Korean National Health Insurance Service. The opioid user group consisted of those prescribed opioids in 2016, while the non-user group, who did not receive opioid prescriptions that year, was selected using a 1:1 stratified random sampling method. The opioid users were categorized into short-term (1–89 d) and long-term (≥90 d) users. The primary end point was pneumonia incidence from January 1, 2017–December 31, 2021, with secondary end points including pneumonia-related hospitalizations and mortality rates during the study period.RESULTS:In total, 4,556,606 adults were enrolled (opioid group, 2,070,039). Opioid users had a 3% higher risk of pneumonia and an 11% higher risk of pneumonia requiring hospitalization compared to non-users. Short-term users had a 3% higher risk of pneumonia, and long-term users had a 4% higher risk compared to non-users (P < .001). Additionally, short-term users had an 8% higher risk of hospital-treated pneumonia, and long-term users had a 17% higher risk compared to non-users (P < .001).CONCLUSIONS:Both short- and long-term opioid prescriptions were associated with higher incidences of pneumonia and hospital-treated pneumonia. In addition, long-term opioid prescriptions were linked to higher mortality rates due to pneumonia.

Purpose Dental professionals are exposed to hazardous noise levels on a daily basis in clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to compare the hearing status of dental hygienists who utilize ultrasonic scalers in the workplace compared to age-matched control participants (non-dental hygienists) who were not exposed to ultrasonic noise.Methods A convenience sample of nineteen dental hygienists (experimental) and nineteen non-dental hygienists (control) was recruited for this study. A matched pairs design was utilized; participants in each group were matched based on age and gender to eliminate confounding variables. The testing procedure consisted of an audiologist performing a series of auditory tests including otoacoustic emissions test, pure-tone audiometry, and tympanometry on the experimental and control groups.Results In the right ear, there were notable differences from 1000 Hz – 10,000 Hz and in the left ear from 6000 Hz – 10,000 Hz, with higher hearing thresholds in the experimental group of dental hygienists. While 56% of the univariate tests conducted on how many days were worked per week showed statistical significance, the regression line slope indicated those that worked more days had better hearing statuses. The variables for years in practice for dental hygienists, how many of those years were full-time employment, and how many years the dental hygienist had used an ultrasonic scaling device, also had many significant univariate tests for the experimental group only. These variables were more likely to serve as proxies representing true noise exposure. The paired t-test between the groups demonstrated statistically significant differences between the experimental and control group at 9000 Hz in both ears.Conclusion While results from this study demonstrated various qualitative differences in hearing status of the control group (non-dental hygienists) and experimental group (dental hygienists), age was found to be the most critical variable. Furthermore, this data demonstrated differences in hearing status based on various frequencies between dental hygienists and age-matched controls that should be further explored with a larger population.

End-to-end RNA-sequencing methods that capture 5'-sequence content without cumbersome library manipulations are of great interest, particularly for analysis of long RNAs. While template-switching methods have been developed for RNA sequencing by distributive short-read RTs, such as the MMLV RTs used in SMART-Seq methods, they have not been adapted to leverage the power of ultraprocessive RTs, such as those derived from group II introns. To facilitate this transition, we dissected the individual processes that guide the enzymatic specificity and efficiency of the multistep template-switching reaction carried out by RTs, in this case, by MarathonRT. Remarkably, this is the first study of its kind, for any RT. First, we characterized the nucleotide specificity of nontemplated addition (NTA) reaction that occurs when the RT extends past the RNA 5'-terminus. We then evaluated the binding specificity of specialized template-switching oligonucleotides, optimizing their sequences and chemical properties to guide efficient template-switching reaction. Having dissected and optimized these individual steps, we then unified them into a procedure for performing RNA sequencing with MarathonRT enzymes, using a well-characterized RNA reference set. The resulting reads span a six-log range in transcript concentration and accurately represent the input RNA identities in both length and composition. We also performed RNA-seq from total human RNA and poly(A)-enriched RNA, with short- and long-read sequencing demonstrating that MarathonRT enhances the discovery of unseen RNA molecules by conventional RT. Altogether, we have generated a new pipeline for rapid, accurate sequencing of complex RNA libraries containing mixtures of long RNA transcripts.

Introduction

Exacerbation of COPD complicated by respiratory acidaemia is the commonest indication for noninvasive ventilation (NIV). The NIV outcomes (NIVO) score offers the best estimate of survival for those ventilated. Unfortunately, two-thirds of cases of COPD are unrecognised, and patients may present without COPD having been confirmed by spirometry.

[¹⁷⁷Lu]Lu-PSMA-617 was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for patients with prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)–positive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Since the time of regulatory approval, however, real-world data have been lacking. This study investigated the efficacy, safety, and outcome predictors of [¹⁷⁷Lu]Lu-PSMA-617 at a major U.S. academic center. Methods: Patients with mCRPC who received [¹⁷⁷Lu]Lu-PSMA-617 at the Johns Hopkins Hospital outside clinical trials were screened for inclusion. Patients who underwent [¹⁷⁷Lu]Lu-PSMA-617 and had available outcome data were included in this study. Outcome data included prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response (≥50% decline), PSA progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS). Toxicity data were evaluated according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events version 5.03. The study tested the association of baseline circulating tumor DNA mutational status in homologous recombination repair, PI3K alteration pathway, and aggressive-variant prostate cancer–associated genes with treatment outcome. Baseline PSMA PET/CT images were analyzed using SelectPSMA, an artificial intelligence algorithm, to predict treatment outcome. Associations with the observed treatment outcome were evaluated. Results: All 76 patients with PSMA-positive mCRPC who received [¹⁷⁷Lu]Lu-PSMA-617 met the inclusion criteria. A PSA response was achieved in 30 of 74 (41%) patients. The median PSA PFS was 4.1 mo (95% CI, 2.0–6.2 mo), and the median OS was 13.7 mo (95% CI, 11.3–16.1 mo). Anemia of grade 3 or greater, thrombocytopenia, and neutropenia were observed in 9 (12%), 3 (4%), and 1 (1%), respectively, of 76 patients. Transient xerostomia was observed in 23 (28%) patients. The presence of aggressive-variant prostate cancer–associated genes was associated with a shorter PSA PFS (median, 1.3 vs. 6.3 mo; P = 0.040). No other associations were observed between circulating tumor DNA mutational status and treatment outcomes. Eighteen of 71 (25%) patients classified by SelectPSMA as nonresponders had significantly lower rates of PSA response than patients classified as likely responders (6% vs. 51%; P < 0.001), a shorter PSA PFS (median, 1.3 vs. 6.3 mo; P < 0.001), and a shorter OS (median, 6.3 vs. 14.5 mo; P = 0.046). Conclusion: [¹⁷⁷Lu]Lu-PSMA-617 offered in a real-world setting after regulatory approval in the United States demonstrated antitumor activity and a favorable toxicity profile. Artificial-intelligence–based analysis of baseline PSMA PET/CT images may improve patient selection. Validation of these findings on larger cohorts is warranted.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:

Periprocedural intracranial hemorrhage is one of common complications after stent placement for symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis. This study was conducted to demonstrate predictors and long-term outcomes of periprocedural intracranial hemorrhage after stent placement for symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis.

Watch President Donald Trump and the Greek prime minister’s joint news conference in the player above.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says the U.S. stands with Greece as they recover from their economic crisis. He is speaking with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras at the White House in a joint news conference.

The U.S. president says the two leaders have discussed defense, energy, commerce and trade.

Trump is praising Greece for its defense spending under NATO and is noting a potential sale to Greece to upgrade its F-16 aircraft, which he says would be worth up to $2.4 billion and generate thousands of U.S. jobs.

Tsipras says his country has made economic strides and is “leaving behind the economic model that led to the crisis.” He says Greece’s relationship with the U.S. is “more important than ever.”

The post WATCH: Trump and Greek prime minister hold joint news conference appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

The Scotch whisky distiller has announced a major change

A former aid to Tony Blair has been criticised by the SNP after he said the Government "should do farmers what Thatcher did to the miners".

3D Scotland are an innovative, Glasgow-based company who specialise in the design and manufacture of unique chess sets. Their sets have proved extremely popular as Christmas gifts, graduation gifts, fathers’ day gifts and everything in between.

Paul Cousins presents a multi-channel installation in which the listener becomes the performer.

The post Patch Notes: Atomised Listening appeared first on Fact Magazine.

The Nintendo Switch was the best-selling console in Japan with 241,803 units sold for October 2024, according to VGChartz estimates. The Nintendo Switch has now sold an estimated 34.30 million units lifetime in Japan.

The PlayStation 5 sold an estimated 49,056 units to bring its lifetime sales to 6.12 million units. The Xbox Series X|S sold 5,862 units to bring their lifetime sales to 0.64 million units. The PlayStation 4 sold an estimated 162 units to bring its lifetime sales to 9.68 million units.

PS5 sales compared to the same month for the PS4 in 2017 are down by nearly 53,000 units, while the Xbox Series X|S compared to the same month for the Xbox One are up by over 5,000 units. PS4 sold 101,851 units for the month of October 2017 and Xbox One sales were at 563 units.

Nintendo Switch sales compared to the same month a year ago are down by 41,368 units (-14.6%). PlayStation 5 sales are down by 17,208 (-26.0%) and Xbox Series X|S sales are down by 2,294 units (-28.1%). The PlayStation 4 is down by 5,362 units (-97.1%) year-over-year.

Looking at sales month-on-month, Nintendo Switch sales are down up nearly 67,000 units, the PlayStation 5 sales are down by over 4,000 units, and Xbox Series X|S sales are up by over 2,000 units.

2024 year-to-date, the Nintendo Switch has sold an estimated 2.47 million units, the PlayStation 5 has sold 1.16 million units, and the Xbox Series X|S has sold 0.09 million units.

Monthly Sales:

Japan hardware estimates for October 2024 (Followed by lifetime sales):

1. Switch - 241,803 (34,300,699)
2. PlayStation 5 - 49,056 (6,121,649)
3. Xbox Series X|S - 5,862 (636,764)
4. PlayStation 4 - 162 (9,679,626)

Weekly Sales:

Japan October 12, 2024 hardware estimates:

1. Switch - 55,097
2. PlayStation 5 - 11,810
   
3. Xbox Series X|S - 429
4. PlayStation 4 - 31

Japan October 19, 2024 hardware estimates:

1. Switch - 58,866
2. PlayStation 5 - 11,324
3. Xbox Series X|S - 1,612
4. PlayStation 4 - 36

Japan October 26, 2024 hardware estimates:

1. Switch - 67,736
2. PlayStation 5 - 11,951
3. Xbox Series X|S - 1,207
4. PlayStation 4 - 40

Japan November 2, 2024 hardware estimates:

1. Switch - 60,104
2. PlayStation 5 - 13,971
3. Xbox Series X|S - 2,614
4. PlayStation 4 - 55

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463008/switch-comfortably-best-seller-japan-hardware-estimates-for-october-2024/

Here we see data representing the sales through to consumers and change in sales performance of the three current platforms (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch) and two legacy platforms (PlayStation 4 and Xbox One) over comparable periods for 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. Also shown is the market share for each of the consoles over the same periods.

Year to Date Sales Comparison (Same Periods Covered)

Market Share (Same Periods Covered)

2021 – (January 2021 to October 2021)

2022 – (January 2022 to October 2022)

2023 – (January 2023 to October 2023)

2024 – (January 2024 to October 2024)

"Year to date" sales for 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 sales are shown in series at the top of the table and then just below a comparison of 2024 versus 2023 and 2024 versus 2022 is displayed.  This provides an easy-to-view summary of all the data.

Total Sales and Market Share for Each Year

Microsoft

• Xbox Series X|S
• 0.09 million units sold year-to-date
• Down year-on-year 0.03 million units (-23.2%)

Nintendo

• Nintendo Switch
• 2.47 million units sold year-to-date
• Down year-on-year 0.75 million units (-23.4%)

Sony

• PlayStation 5
• 1.16 million units sold year-to-date
• Down year-on-year 0.94 million units (-44.9%)
• PlayStation 4
• 0.01 million units sold year-to-date
• Down year-on-year 0.05 million (-77.2%)

Note: VGChartz 2024 estimates through October includes 44 weeks, while 2023, 2022, and 2021 estimates includes 43 weeks.

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463009/ps5-vs-xbox-series-xs-vs-switch-2024-japan-sales-comparison-charts-through-october/

Publisher Kasedo Games and developer Beard Envy have announced he roguelite spaceship repair simulation game, Uncle Chop's Rocket Shop, has been delayed to December 5. It will launch for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.

View the release date trailer below:

Read details on the game below:

Come on down to Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop, for all your roguelite spaceship repair simulation needs! Wake up, clock in, fix ships, make friends and enemies, pay R.E.N.T., upgrade your workshop, ponder the futility of your existence, go to bed and then do it all over again the next day.

On an asteroid-bound service station in an unfrequented space lane, Wilbur carves out a paltry living as a mechanic, repairing as many ships as he can to afford the ever-rising R.E.N.T payments to his corporate overlord, Uncle Chop. Where most of his customers find meaning in pastimes like worshipping deranged space gods, feeding random crap to a sentient black hole, endlessly digging for The Treasure™ or mentally enslaving donut shop workers, Wilbur lives a more humble life, fixing the galaxy’s ills one broken ship module at a time.

Fix Stuff

Using a range of tools, diagnostic devices, parts and workshop appliances, you’ll be correcting faults in the modules of procedurally generated spaceships. From simple refuel jobs to total overhauls, get ready to frantically fumble, slice, loosen, tighten, grab and drop as you try to complete as many jobs as you can within each daily time limit. With a huge variety of ships and modules, your hands are gonna get real dirty real fast, in some real unusual places.

Read Stuff

Flaunt your basic literacy by consulting manual pages for guidance on diagnosing and correcting faults in spaceship modules, as well as operating workshop appliances. And if basic literacy isn’t your bag, then at least you’ve got pretty diagrams to gawp at! All your IKEA furniture-assembly training has led to this moment.

Upgrade Stuff

Using whatever hard-earned pennies Uncle Chop doesn’t take from you, expand your workshop and kit it out with a range of workstations. From industrial devices to esoteric altars, these workstations will allow you to fix bigger and more lucrative ships.

Talk About Stuff

Interact with a diverse range of oddballs as you engage with both anthology-style storytelling and a multiple-ending, overarching narrative. The lore is (*consults notes*) “deep and rich and good,” with different factions you can choose to ingratiate yourself with – each with their own inane agendas.

Discover Stuff

Narrative and random events, hidden puzzles and upgrades, secret lore—we got all that goodness that ensures each day and gameplay run will feel substantially different from the last.

Do All That Stuff Again, But Better

Meeting those escalating R.E.N.T payments ain’t gonna be easy, but chin up, champ – certain station upgrades will persist across gameplay runs, making life a little more tolerable every time around. You’ll also get faster and smarter the more you do the thing, so keep doing the thing!

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463037/uncle-chops-rocket-shop-releases-december-5-for-ps5-xbox-series-xs-switch-and-pc/

The Pokémon series is no stranger to mobile games, being responsible for one of the most successful ever (Pokémon Go), as well as many others with different takes on the massive franchise, but this time it’s a Pokémon card game - a tradition nearly as old as the original games - that has taken the spotlight in Pokémon TCG Pocket.

For the physical version of Pokémon TCG, the collecting has always been as big or bigger than the battling, and right off the bat we can see that TCG Pocket has made plenty of room for both these aspects in its design. In fact, the battling isn’t even available until you level up a few times, which, while a bit limiting, is a fine way for players to get their bearing and collect a few cards before they start competing. The game does suffer from just a tad bit too much forced tutorialization in the early stages, particularly when getting to the battles, but it’s still hardly the worst sinner among mobile titles in this regard.

The collecting all starts with the opening of packs, an infamously addictive part of any card game, and they’ve done a good job of making the process quite satisfying TCG Pocket. More importantly, the number of packs given for free is quite generous - at least two packs a day by default - meaning the game is perfectly playable without spending money, regardless of whether you’re in it for the collecting or battling aspect. Whenever you obtain new cards, they also get filled out in a sort of card Pokédex, which adds to the fun of collecting new ones.

A lot of what makes the collecting in TCG Pocket enjoyable, however, is quite simply the excellent card art. This is, of course, borrowed mostly from the game’s physical counterpart, and strengthened by little touches like being able to being able to zoom in and tilt the cards, with a slight holographic on the rarer ones. Whether they’re cute or cool, the Pokémon themselves are at the heart of this franchise and with the generally splendid art the game does a great job of bringing them to life, in some ways doing them more justice than recent mainline entries with low-detailed 3D models.

As for the other part of aesthetics, namely sound design, the game is also passable in this area but nothing special with slightly boring battle music. It's not the biggest issue perhaps, as most are likely to play mobile games with sound disabled, but with all the cosmetic unlockables (which we shall get to) it   seems like a wasted opportunity not to have unlockable battle themes when the Pokémon series has so many great ones to draw upon from its legacy.

Looking for a moment at the less positive side, while Pokémon TCG Pocket is fairly generous to free-to-play players, it does still suffer from some of the pitfalls that are typical of that type of mobile game; namely, the amount of noise that comes with too many currencies, constant quests and rewards, and perhaps a few more types of cosmetics than is necessary. Again, I wouldn't describe Pokémon TCG Pocket as the worst sinner of this type of issue, mostly just that it can be a bit overwhelming at first, and of course knowing that it’s intended to add to the addictiveness of the game can be a bit iffy, but ultimately it isn’t too hard to ignore aspects you don’t care about and simply enjoy the ones you do.

It might be high time to touch on the battles themselves, which to many players might be their first encounter ever with the actual rules of these pretty collectible cards. While it might not be simplest card game ever invented, I’m happy to say the TCG Pocket variant is still intuitive, fun, and quite strategic once you get the hang of it. To summarize it in very brief: you play and evolve Pokémon from your hand onto the field and charge them up with energy types to allow them to attack. Just like in the RPGs, only one Pokémon is active at a time and can use one move per turn, while you can assign others to your “bench”, where they await their turn in the spotlight. Unlike in the RPGs, switching Pokémon won’t cost you your turn (only some energy), meaning benched Pokémon can potentially step into action immediately - if you have the energy necessary. Rather than any form of life-points, you win the battle by defeating three of your opponents' Pokémon, which each award one point.

This bench system and charging up of your Pokémon before they can take action might in some regards make the game slower compared to other card games, but it also adds a strategic element, since you can generally see what moves you and your opponent have available in the immediate future and can only really be caught by surprise by item or support cards (which can be quite useful but rarely complete game changers). It’s not the type of game where you perform crazy one-turn game-winning combos, but it’s fun for the strategic aspect and of course the satisfaction that comes from evolving your Pokémon throughout the battle - and sometimes pulling off an impressive comeback.

Adding to this are the EX-cards, extra powerful cards that come with the added risk of rewarding the opponent two points if defeated rather than one. I’ve seen complaints that this risk is too big in a game when it only takes three points to win (unlike the physical version of the game where you need six points), but when the card is extra strong and you have the option of switching it out it seems justified, plus you still have that golden window of playing it when your opponent already has two points, at which point the extra risk is nullified.

Ultimately there is one distinct issue with the battle system, however, which is how type weaknesses are handled. Pokémon TCG, whether physical or digital, has condensed Pokémon down to nearly half as many types (a tad too few in my opinion, though all 18 would definitely have been overwhelming), while the weaknesses and resistances are reduced to one type per card, and in TCG Pocket resistances are removed so you only have the weaknesses. This, for example, means that (most) Water types are weak to Lightning   but not Grass, while Fire types are weak to Water but not Ground (which has been combined with Fighting). The issue however is not so much the differences from the RPGs as it is simply having these basic and pretty consistent weaknesses in a game that, unfortunately, strongly encourages mono-type   decks in its design (or one type + colorless), since you’ll be needing specific energy types to charge your Pokémon and receive them at random if your deck uses multiple types.

While there is something to be said for having to commit to certain types, it’s a bit unfortunate that it’s taken to the degree where dual-type decks can feel awkward and triple-type decks, while allowed, require very specific cards or a lot of luck to pull off. The result is that when most players play with only one type and all types have one weakness, online matches will often either play out without weaknesses playing any role or with one player having an advantage before the first card is even played. One can always hope that this is somehow redesigned a bit in the future, but for now it’s an unfortunate though not game-breaking issue, as the weaknesses are at least a bit milder here, adding only a flat amount of damage rather than a multiplier.

Lastly it wouldn't review this game without mentioning the nostalgic aspect, which to many a player might add an extra appeal to the experience. Even as someone who hasn't dabbled in Pokémon cards for nearly 20 years, I can still recognize many that I’ve owned myself at some point, and it’s also great to revisit the first generation, which has smartly put front and center for now (with a small mix from other generations on top). I consider it a good call to start off with a single set of a manageable size for now - one that doesn’t seem too daunting - while leaving plenty of room to grow in the future.

All in all, Creatures Inc. and Dena Co. have done a great job adapting the Pokémon card game to mobile in a way that can appeal to both old and new players, and to those who want to collect and those who want to battle. It brings Pokémon to life with great card art and, contrary to unfortunate trends, the game is also fairly generous to its free-to-play players (and certainly a cheaper alternative to collecting the physical cards). While it does suffer from a few design issues and some classic pitfalls, it’s overall one of the better mobile games out there at the moment and certainly worth checking out for those who have nostalgia for the Pokémon TCG or old school Pokémon in general.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463039/pokemon-tcg-pocket-android/

Publisher indie.io and developer Maple Powered Games announced G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch on November 21.

The game is currently available for PC Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG.

View the console reveal date trailer below:

Read details on the game below:

Cobra rears its ugly head yet again and it’s up to G.I. Joe to save the world! Embracing the 1980s era of the iconic universe, Wrath of Cobra is a retro side-scrolling beat ’em up. Play as one of the legendary G.I. Joe characters, including Duke, Scarlett, Roadblock, Snake Eyes, and more. Defeat hordes of Cobra troopers, Vipers, Crimson Guards and more of Cobra’s malevolent machinations.

Bring Cobra down, striking back at the likes of Destro, Serpentor, Baroness, and Cobra Commander himself! Fight your own way: Rely on your fists and get up close and personal using each character’s unique combos and special moves or keep your foes at a distance with a variety of weapons!

Retro Gameplay in a Modern Era

Wrath of Cobra takes the classic arcade beat ’em up and brings it into the modern age: Easy to play, hard to master, and smoother than a ride in a H.I.S.S. Want to play with your friends? The game supports local multiplayer (eg. from your couch) and online co-op!

Play as Classic Heroes

Fight Cobra as your favorite G.I. Joe heroes, painstakingly recreated in beautiful pixel art. The differences between characters aren’t just cosmetic: Each hero has different movesets and unique abilities. From the fast and nimble Snake Eyes to the rough and tumble Roadblock, each character is true to form!

Battle Iconic Villains

Cobra isn’t just the Cobra Commander, it’s also its legions! Face hordes of troopers, armored Alley Vipers, artificial B.A.T.s, armed with some of the most iconic weapon systems in the franchise, including the H.I.S.S., C.L.A.W., and the notorious Trubble Bubble.

Retro-Infused Soundtrack

Foil the Commander’s plot to the beat of classic G.I. Joe themes, reimagined by industry veterans at Kid Katana Records, bringing a modern twist to classic arcade music!

Post-Launch Support

Like Destro’s plots, Wrath of Cobra will continue with extensive post-launch support, bringing more G.I. Joe heroes into the fray, adding new game modes, levels, and more to keep the G.I. Joe legacy alive!

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

Full Article - https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463047/gi-joe-wrath-of-cobra-releases-november-21-for-ps5-xbox-series-xs-and-switch/

A collective gasp echoed like a thunderclap in a valley in our Daily Beast newsroom late Wednesday afternoon at the news that singer Liam Payne, who became famous as a member of the group One Direction, died at age 31.

TMZ reports that Payne fell from a hotel balcony in Argentina, where he had reunited with bandmates at 1D-er Niall Horan’s concert. He had, according to the site, been behaving “erratically,” earlier in the day, and was spotted smashing a laptop in the hotel lobby and having to be carried back to his room. He had been in headlines on gossip blogs over tension with his ex-fiancée Maya Henry, who, TMZ says, alleged “he'd left her after asking her to get an abortion.”

In the shock of his death, fans couldn’t ignore the eerie nature that Payne had just connected with his One Direction bandmates. Dark questions emerge when a celebrity dies so young: What role did the often horrific toll of fame have on a person like Payne, who has been open about addiction and suicidal ideation? But there’s also an impulse to go back to the roots of a person’s talent, to revisit what it was that we all fell in love with—and was their passion—in the first place.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called his party’s presidential nominee, Donald Trump, a “stupid,” “ill-tempered,” and “despicable human being,” according to his own records.

McConnell made the withering assessments in a series of private “personal oral histories” that he gave to Michael Tackett, the deputy Washington bureau chief of the Associated Press, who has a forthcoming biography about the Kentucky senator called The Price of Power. The AP conveniently reported the book’s juicy details.

McConnell’s remarks were made after the 2020 election that Trump lost, and the senator was apparently elated to see the backside of the former president, musing, “it’s not just the Democrats who are counting the days” until he leaves office.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Put your hand up if you'd forgotten that every Assassin's Creed game is, strictly speaking, set in the present day. I know I had. That's not the actual distant past you're parkouring through. That isn't actual Renaissance architecture you're clambering on. It's a holographic Animus simulation, conjured from ancestral memories flash-frozen within your DNA - convenient, inasmuch as it means that any inconsistencies are your DNA's fault, not Ubisoft's. If the ledge-mantling animations are glitchy, that's simply because you have bad genes.

We can both be forgiven for losing sight of Assassin's Creed's modern day narrative frame. Ubisoft themselves have downplayed it since the era of Desmond Miles, the watery Peter Parker figure who served as puppetmaster protagonist for AC games up to Assassin's Creed 3. In Assassin's Creed Shadows, however, they're planning to bring back the modern day setting in a big way, though details are scanty.

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Twitch have introduced a new "Politics and Sensitive Social Issues" label for streams that "focus" on topics like "elections, civic integrity, and war or military conflict". As with the streaming giant's existing labels for M-rated material, sexual themes or depictions of gambling, the idea is that viewers can filter out such streams in advance by altering their settings.

Advertisers, similarly, can "make better choices about the content they want to advertise next to" - in other words, pull their ads from a whole swathe of material if they don't want to be associated with anything controversial. Twitch's hope is that "the labels will allow advertisers to have more context to inform which types of streams they show their ads alongside, which we expect to increase brands’ confidence in running ads on Twitch, and could bring new advertisers to our service."

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The developers of hero shooter Overwatch 2 must have dropped a box full of old photographs while clearing the attic, spilling old snapshots of Route 66 onto the floor and getting snared in a nostalgic daze. The game is launching a "Classic" mode today that will let you play the first-person payload pusher as it (mostly) was back in 2016 when the first Overwatch launched. That means 6v6 fights, the original abilities of its heroes, and no limits to stop the entire team picking the same character.

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"Where’s my Neo-Volkite pistol, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2?" was my perhaps slightly ungrateful reaction upon booting the action game up after the previous patch. "I didn’t even know what a Neo-Volkite pistol was until five minutes ago, but now this whole game is trash until I get one!." As promised in the roadmap, the last big update added a whole new Operations map, complete with a gargantuan new pseudo-boss in the form of a hierophant bio-titan. It did not, however, give me my beloved pistol. It’s fine. It’s in now, along with a few, less Neo-Volkite updates to other weapons.

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NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell held a news conference today after the second day of the annual owners meeting. Watch his remarks in the player above.

NFL players will be encouraged to stand for the national anthem at the start of the football games, the league’s chief told reporters today.

After two days of meeting with owners of each NFL team, representatives for the players’ union and players themselves, the NFL has reiterated its decision to keep its existing policy of not requiring players to stand during the anthem. Goodell said yesterday that the league wouldnot instate a rule that would penalize players who refuse to stand for the anthem.

“We believe everyone should stand for the national anthem,” he told reporters at a news conference today. “That’s an important part of our policy. It’s also an important part of our game that we all take great pride in. And it’s also important for us to honor our flag and our country and I think our fans expect us to do that.”

Goodell’s remarks came after President Donald Trump continued his criticism of the NFL this morning. On Twitter, Trump said: “The NFL has decided that it will not force players to stand for the playing of our National Anthem. Total disrespect for our great country!”

After former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeled during the anthem last year to protest police killings of unarmed black men, dozens of other players joined him to draw greater attention to social and racial injustice. Last month, Trump said the NFL ought to fire players who didn’t stand for the anthem.

The players “are not doing this in any way to be disrespectful to the flag,” Goodell said today. “But they also understand how it’s being interpreted.”

Goodell also said the league wanted to stay out of the political arena over the issue.

“We’re not looking to get into politics,” he told reporters. “What we’re looking to do is to continue to get people focused on football.”

The post WATCH: NFL commissioner says players ‘should stand for the national anthem’ appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

It is nearly time for one of astronomy's top annual sights – the Perseid meteor shower. This year is a bit special, says Abigail Beall

Asteroids that regularly fly between Earth, Venus and Mars could provide radiation shielding for human missions to explore neighbouring planets

A robot can hold a squash, pumpkin or melon in one hand, while it is peeled by the other

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CAPTCHA tests are supposed to distinguish humans from bots, but an AI system mastered the problem after training on thousands of images of road scenes

Smart TVs from Samsung and LG monitor what you are watching even when you are using the screens to display a feed from a connected laptop or video game console

The Francis Ford Coppola film is now available to rentalopolis.

Gary Lineker is the longest-serving Match of the Day host since the BBC first aired the show in 1964.

Joe Marler discussed his recent comments about the Haka, which sparked backlash.

There has been another shock at the Grand Slam of Darts.

Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker has sealed a new agreement with the BBC just hours after his exit was confirmed.

I’ve been reviewing robot vacuums for more than a decade, and robot mops for just as long. It’s been astonishing how the technology has evolved, from the original iRobot Roomba bouncing off of walls and furniture to robots that use lidar and vision to map your entire house and intelligently keep it clean.

As part of this evolution, cleaning robots have become more and more hands-off, and most of them are now able to empty themselves into occasionally enormous docks with integrated vacuums and debris bags. This means that your robot can vacuum your house, empty itself, recharge, and repeat this process until the dock’s dirt bag fills up.

But this all breaks down when it comes to robots that both vacuum and mop. Mopping, which is a capability that you definitely want if you have hard floors, requires a significant amount of clean water and generates an equally significant amount of dirty water. One approach is to make docks that are even more enormous—large enough to host tanks for clean and dirty water that you have to change out on a weekly basis.

SwitchBot, a company that got its start with a stick-on robotic switch that can make dumb things with switches into smart things, has been doing some clever things in the robotic vacuum space as well, and we’ve been taking a look at the SwitchBot S10, which hooks up to your home plumbing to autonomously manage all of its water needs. And I have to say, it works so well that it feels inevitable: this is the future of home robots.

A Massive Mopping Vacuum

The giant dock can collect debris from the robot for months, and also includes a hot air dryer for the roller mop.Evan Ackerman/IEEE Spectrum

The SwitchBot S10 is a hybrid robotic vacuum and mop that uses a Neato-style lidar system for localization and mapping. It’s also got a camera on the front to help it with obstacle avoidance. The mopping function uses a cloth-covered spinning roller that adds clean water and sucks out dirty water on every rotation. The roller lifts automatically when the robot senses that it’s about to move onto carpet. The S10 comes with a charging dock with an integrated vacuum and dust collection system, and there’s also a heated mop cleaner underneath, which is a nice touch.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time analyzing the S10’s cleaning performance. From what I can tell, it does a totally decent job vacuuming, and the mopping is particularly good thanks to the roller mop that exerts downward pressure on the floor while spinning. Just about any floor cleaning robot is going to do a respectable job with the actual floor cleaning—it’s all the other stuff, like software and interface and ease of use, that have become more important differentiators.

Home Plumbing Integration

The water dock, seen here hooked up to my toilet and sink, exchanges dirty water out of the robot and includes an option to add cleaning fluid.Evan Ackerman/IEEE Spectrum

The S10’s primary differentiator is that it integrates with your home plumbing. It does this through a secondary dock—there’s the big charging dock, which you can put anywhere, and then the much smaller water dock, which is small enough to slide underneath an average toe-kick in a kitchen.

The dock includes a pumping system that accesses clean water through a pressurized water line, and then squirts dirty water out into a drain. The best place to find this combination of fixtures is near a sink with a p-trap, and if this is already beyond the limits of your plumbing knowledge, well, that’s the real challenge with the S10. The S10 is very much not plug-and-play; to install the water dock, you should be comfortable with basic tool use and, more importantly, have some faith in the integrity of your existing plumbing.

My house was built in the early 1960s, which means that a lot of my plumbing consists of old copper with varying degrees of corrosion and mineral infestation, along with slightly younger but somewhat brittle PVC. Installing the clean water line for the dock involves temporarily shutting off the cold water line feeding a sink or a toilet—that is, turning off a valve that may not have been turned for a decade or more. This is risky, and the potential consequences of any uncontrolled water leak are severe, so know where your main water shutoff is before futzing with the dock installation.

To SwitchBot’s credit, the actual water dock installation process was very easy, thanks to a suite of connectors and adapters that come included. I installed my dock in between a toilet and a pedestal sink, with access to the toilet’s water valve for clean water and the sink’s p-trap for dirty water. The water dock is battery powered, and cleverly charges from the robot itself, so it doesn’t need a power outlet. Even so, this one spot was pretty much the only place in my entire house where the water dock could easily go: my other bathrooms have cabinet sinks, which would have meant drilling holes for the water lines, and neither of them had floor space where the dock could live without being kicked all the time. It’s not like the water dock is all that big, but it really needs to be out of the way, and it can be hard to find a compatible space.

Mediocre Mapping

With the dock set up, the next step is mapping. The mapping process with the S10 was a bit finicky. I spent a bunch of time prepping my house—that is, moving as much furniture as possible off of the floor to give the robot the best chance at making a solid map. I know this isn’t something that most people probably do for their robots, but knowing robots like I do, I figure that getting a really good map is worth the hassle in the long run.

The first mapping run completed in about 20 minutes, but the robot got “stuck” on the way back to its dock thanks to a combination of a bit of black carpet and black coffee table legs. I rescued it, but it promptly forgot its map, and I had to start again. The second time, the robot failed to map my kitchen, dining room, laundry room, and one bathroom by not going through a wide open doorway off of the living room. This was confusing, because I could see the unexplored area on the map, and I’m not sure why the robot decided to call it a day rather than investigating that pretty obvious frontier region.

SwitchBot is not terrible at mapping, but it’s definitely sub-par relative to the experiences that I’ve had with older generations of other robots. The S10 also intermittently freaked out on the black patterned carpet that I have: moving very cautiously, spinning in circles, and occasionally stopping completely while complaining about malfunctioning cliff sensors, presumably because my carpet was absorbing all of the infrared from its cliff sensors while it was trying to map.

Black carpet, terror of robots everywhere.Evan Ackerman/IEEE Spectrum

Part of my frustration here is that I feel like I should be able to tell the robot “it’s a black carpet in that spot, you’re fine,” rather than taking such drastic measures as taping over all of the cliff sensors with tin foil, which I’ve had to do on occasion. And let me tell you how overjoyed I was to discover that the S10’s map editor has that exact option. You can also segment rooms by hand, and even position furniture to give the robot a clue on what kind of obstacles to expect. What’s missing is some way of asking the robot to explore a particular area over again, which would have made the initial process a lot easier.

Would a smarter robot be able to figure out all of this stuff on its own? Sure. But robots are dumb, and being able to manually add carpets and furniture and whatnot is an incredibly useful feature, I just wish I could do that during the mapping run somehow instead of having to spend a couple of hours getting that first map to work. Oh well.

How the SwitchBot S10 Cleans

When you ask the S10 to vacuum and mop, it leaves its charging dock and goes to the water dock. Once it docks there, it will extract any dirty water, clean its roller mop, extract the dirty water, wash its filter, and then finally refill itself with clean water before heading off to start mopping. It may do this several times over the course of a cleaning run, depending on how much water you ask it to use, but it’s quite good at managing all of this by itself. If you would like your floor to be extra clean, you can have the robot make two passes over the same area, which it does in a crosshatch pattern. And the app helpfully clues you in to everything that the robot is doing, including real-time position.

The app does and excellent job of showing where the robot has cleaned. You can also add furniture and floor types to help the robot clean better.Evan Ackerman/IEEE Spectrum

I’m pleasantly surprised by my experience with the S10 and the water dock. It was relatively easy to install and works exactly as it should. This is getting very close to the dream for robot vacuums, right? I will never have to worry about clean water tanks or dirty water tanks. The robot can mop every day if I want it to, and I don’t ever have to think about it, short of emptying the charging dock’s dustbin every few months and occasionally doing some basic robot maintenance.

SwitchBot’s Future

Being able to access water on-demand for mopping is pretty great, but the S10’s water dock is about more than that. SwitchBot already has plans for a humidifier and dehumidifier, which can be filled and emptied with the S10 acting as a water shuttle. And the dehumidifier can even pull water out of the air and then the S10 can use that water to mop, which is pretty cool. I can think of two other applications for a water shuttle that are immediately obvious: pets, and plants.

SwitchBot is already planning for more ways of using the S10’s water transporting capability.SwitchBot

What about a water bowl for your pets that you can put anywhere in your house, and it’s always full of fresh water, thanks to a robot that not only tops the water off, but changes it completely? Or a little plant-sized dock that lives on the floor with a tube up to the pot of your leafy friend for some botanical thirst quenching? Heck, I have an entire fleet of robotic gardens that would love to be tended by a mobile water delivery system.

SwitchBot is not the only company to offer plumbing integration for home robots. Narwal and Roborock also have options for plumbing add-on kits to their existing docks, although they seem to be designed more for European or Asian homes where home plumbing tends to be designed a bit differently. And besides the added complication of systems like these, you’ll pay a premium for them: the SwitchBot S10 can cost as much as $1200, although it’s frequently on sale for less. As with all new features for floor care robots, though, you can expect the price to drop precipitously over the next several years as new features become standard, and I hope plumbing integration gets there soon, because I’m sold.

Overwatch 2 is bringing 6v6 gameplay back from Overwatch 1 - and fans are overjoyed. Here's all we know so far, including when you can finally play the Classic mode

If you wanted to return to GTA Trilogy, now might be the best time as the game has finally got an update after three years which makes it closer to the much better mobile version

President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman and director of national intelligence, will serve as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency in his administration.

President-elect Donald Trump announced a flurry of appointments Tuesday for key posts in his new administration, including former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe to lead the CIA and the expected nomination of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to head the Department of Homeland Security.

Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson says opening emails is safe, but risks arise from interacting with links, attachments or HTML content.