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 S63'FFXIV's Toughest Dungeons Are Here to Stay -- If Players Want Them   With the release of Patch 6.25, Final Fantasy XIV introduced a wildly popular new feature, Variant and Criterion dungeons. Variant dungeons are designed around choice and replayability, focusing on puzzles and branching paths in addition to battle content. Criterion dungeons are visually similar but incredibly difficult, on par with Extreme Trials or Savage Raids. With two Variant and Criterion dungeons now available in FFXIV, the features seem to be a hit with the player base.
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S62'Final Fantasy XVI' DLC Could Spotlight Two Underdeveloped Characters  Despite the massive amount of hype around Final Fantasy XVI, the development from Square Enix was adamant that future DLC plans would have to wait until after the game’s full release and would depend on player response. Well, Final Fantasy XVI has been about for almost three months now and the critical success of the game seems to have been enough for plans to fall into place. During PAX West 2023, Producer Naoki Yoshida revealed the game will be receiving two paid expansions in the future. While there aren’t any concrete details on who or what these expansions will focus on in the world of Valisthea there is one group that is overdue their moment in the sun — The women of Final Fantasy XVI.
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S5714 Years Later, a Modern Blaxploitation Classic is Launching a Cinematic Universe  It’s been over a decade since Michael Jai White starred in Black Dynamite, the bombastic 2009 film that perfectly satirized the blaxploitation capers of the ‘70s. Though White is probably best known for his work in knock-down, drag-out action flicks, Black Dynamite might just be his most iconic role — if only for the way it allows the actor, writer, and martial artist to flex his muscles as a comedic force. White served as a co-writer and a producer on Black Dynamite, but with his latest film, Outlaw Johnny Black, he takes on the role of director. The film explores another aspect of blaxploitation: westerns like Sidney Poitier’s Buck and the Preacher, or Jim Brown’s El Condor. White cites a handful of films directed by Poitier, as well as Eddie Murphy’s late ‘80s comedies, as inspiration for Johnny Black.
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S56The Secret Life and Anonymous Death of the Most Prolific War-Crimes Investigator in History  It was 4:17 A.M. on February 6th in Antakya, an ancient Turkish city near the Syrian border, when the earth tore open and people’s beds began to shake. On the third floor of an apartment in the Ekinci neighborhood, Anwar Saadeddin, a former brigadier general in the Syrian Army, awoke to the sounds of glass breaking, cupboard doors banging, and jars of tahini and cured eggplant spilling onto the floor. He climbed out of bed, but, for almost thirty seconds, he was unable to keep his footing; the building was moving side to side. When the earthquake subsided, he tried to call his daughter Rula, who lived down the road, but the cellular network was down.Thirty seconds after the first quake, the building started moving again, this time up and down, with such violence that an exterior wall sheared open, and rain started pouring in. The noise was tremendous—concrete splitting, rebar bending, plates shattering, neighbors screaming. When the shaking stopped, about a minute later, Saadeddin, who is in his late sixties, and his wife walked down three flights of stairs, dressed in pajamas and sandals, and went out into the cold.
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S55"They Didn't Know That We Were Here": New York's African Asylum Seekers  Sophie Kouyate had been living undocumented in New York City for more than a decade when she was referred to African Communities Together (A.C.T.), a small nonprofit organization, in 2015. One of A.C.T.'s organizers helped Kouyate apply for legal status. "She bring me up," Kouyate said. "Like, I was on the ground. And she said, 'Sophie, you can make it, if you want it, you can make it.'Â " Two years ago, after Kouyate finally obtained a green card, A.C.T. offered her a job. "You better pay me good," Kouyate recalled telling her new employers. "Because now I have my papers."Kouyate was born in France. Her father was born in Guinea, her mother in the West Indies. When she was twenty-two years old, she decided to move to New York Cityâshe hoped that it would be less racist than France. She met her husband in New York, and had three children. (Her oldest teaches third grade at a Harlem charter school, and her middle child is a captain of the men's basketball team at SUNY Maritime.) Now Kouyate is helping people navigate their very first days in town. She and her colleagues at A.C.T. are frontline workers in New York City's ongoing migrant crisis. "It is a crisis, point blank," Kouyate said. "A humanitarian crisis."
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S34S595 Years Ago, Nicolas Cage Made a Wild Action Thriller -- And Saved His Own Career  From the meme-spawning Wicker Man remake, to the bizarre religious epic Left Behind, to all the direct-to-video slop in between, Nicolas Cage had one of the most bizarre career paths of any Oscar-winning actor. From the late 2000s to the mid-2010s, it was clear Cage wasn’t getting the meaty and dynamic roles he’d become known for embodying.He did enjoy some successes. David Gordon Green’s pre-Blumhouse drama Joe and Paul Schrader’s Dog Eat Dog earned positive reviews, with critics signaling Cage’s signature go-for-broke sensibilities as highlights. But it was Panos Cosmatos’ second feature, Mandy, that led to a wider cultural reappraisal, despite no one being able to predict that such a strange little movie would have so much influence on the actor’s career.
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S51France launches bird vaccination scheme, amid fears of a repeat of H5N1 outbreaks  Anthropologie, EHESS, CNRS, Laboratoire d'anthropologie sociale, Collège de France, Auteurs historiques The Conversation France Of all the recently emerging and potentially pandemic viruses, the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus H5N1 is one of the fiercest. First detected in Hong Kong in 1997, it spread to the rest of the world with a mortality rate of 60% when transmitted from birds to humans. The World Health Organization has declared in August 2023 that 878 cases and 458 deaths were recorded since 1997.
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S64Astronomers Spot Rare Phenomenon That Einstein Predicted We'd Never See  Astronomers have just spotted a phenomenon in the sky that Albert Einstein predicted we’d never see — and it’s one of dozens observed so far.The four light blue spots surrounding the little orange blob in this image from the Very Large Telescope (yes, that is its official name, VLT for short) are actually four images of the same galaxy, projected by a gravitational lens in a rare formation called an Einstein cross.
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S67You Need to Play the Most Iconic Strategy Game on Xbox Game Pass ASAP  With huge numbers of interlocking systems, layers upon layers of tactics, and globe-spanning campaigns, strategy games can be intimidating for newcomers. Once they’ve got their hooks in you, though, the best among them are almost impossible to put down. The latest entry in one of the most venerable strategy series around is leaving Game Pass this month, and that makes this a great time to try it out.Sid Meier’s Civilization debuted in 1991, beginning one of the most popular and beloved series of strategy games that’s still running today. Each entry has tried new ways to reinvent itself and expand Civilization’s growing empire, and the newest installment benefits from those decades of refinement. Hardcore fans may prefer specific mechanics in earlier versions of the game, but they don’t need anyone telling them to play Civilization 6. If you’re looking to jump into the series or even try out strategy games in general for the first time, you’d be hard-pressed to get a better introduction than Civilization 6.
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S70'Ahsoka's Princess Leia Easter Egg Reveals A Shocking Star Wars Canon Secret  When Senator Leia Organa is asked about her dad, she’ll talk about Jimmy Smits every single time. In the years after Return of the Jedi, within Star Wars canon, Leia did not make her true family lineage public knowledge — and with good reason. How would you feel if one of your elected officials was lying about being Darth Vader’s daughter? And, although Leia has not appeared in Ahsoka thus far, one brief Easter egg in Episode 5 touches upon a strange truth about “Senator Organa.” And the truth is: At this point in the timeline, Leia is living a double life. Spoilers ahead.In Ahsoka Episode 5, “Shadow Warrior,” much of the plot is focused on the New Republic forces, led by Hera, trying to figure out exactly how long they can hang out on the planet Seatos until they get busted. Hera and Carson are on an unauthorized mission, and therefore on borrowed time. (Though you really gotta wonder why the New Republic needs to send three massive starships to retrieve a few X-wings and the Ghost, but whatever.) Relative to the story of the hidden Skywalkers, we get a quick line of dialogue from Carson that is the first hint at what Leia is up to at this point in the timeline. As he and Hera bicker about how long they can keep going with their search mission, Carson says: “Senator Organa says she can only give us cover for so long.”
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S65Rule the Galaxy With These 9 Awesome 'Starfield' PC Cheats  Our galaxy is vast. So it’s no surprise that Starfield is a very big game. It’s got tons of skills to use, companions to romance, and stuff to steal. The problem with all this bigness is that it can take a long time to get what you want. Grinding is a key part of most RPGs, but there’s no shame in taking shortcuts. PC players have access to console commands, essentially cheat codes, for Bethesda’s latest release. These require a smidgen of technical knowhow and aren’t meant to be user-friendly — their intended purpose is for game devs to easily make changes on the fly. Now, players can use them to summon 10,000 milk cartons in zero gravity. If you’re interested in god modes, infinite money, or just creating chaos then here’s everything you’ll need to know about console commands, including a comprehensive list to use for reference. Happy cheating!
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S70Pain Hustlers review: Emily Blunt is 'the only reason to watch this'  Don't confuse the recent Painkiller, an earnest Netflix series about a fictionalised pharmaceutical company and the opioid epidemic, with the new Netflix film Pain Hustlers, which has a similar story about a different fictionalised company and a tone that goes for entertaining long before it turns earnest too. Why the creators of one of these projects didn't flinch and change the title is a good question.And while Pain Hustlers is a perfectly fine title, the film probably should have been called Liza Drake, the name of the sales rep played by Emily Blunt, who single-handedly almost saves this tone-deaf drama from itself. As the rags-to-riches heroine who finds herself in the midst of a morally compromised situation, Blunt creates a character who is engaging, smarter than she's given credit for, and hungry to improve her hardscrabble life as a single mother with an adolescent daughter. She makes the film watchable, but is the only reason to watch.
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S48S61S54A Memoir of Contested Illness That Takes On the Legacy of Hysteria  Emily Wells is interested in what her doctors see when they look at her: a depressed or anxious woman, perhaps even one who is faking sickness for attention.In her wide-ranging début memoir, “A Matter of Appearance,” Emily Wells recounts an early memory of watching a videotaped performance in a ballet recital. She danced well: her movements were quick and precise, and her features carefully composed. But, as soon as she was safely back in the wings of the theatre, she winced in pain and collapsed on the floor.
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S66'Ahsoka' Episode 5 Wasted Its Wildest Sci-Fi Concept -- And That's a Good Thing  Sometimes, it feels like there are two different versions of Ahsoka. There’s the version that Rebels fans see, the epilogue they were promised at the end of the animated series but in live-action. Then, there’s the version that fans who have only seen the live-action Disney+ shows have seen, a glimpse into Ahsoka’s past from before we met her in The Mandalorian Season 2. Balancing these two levels of knowledge and emotional resonance has proven to be one of the most frustrating elements of the entire show. This reached a head in Episode 4, when Ahsoka has a near-death experience and wakes up in a mystical realm. This one location proves just how Ahsoka is dealing with its biggest issue — and why it’s the best-case scenario for the show.
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S49This desk is mine! How noisy offices can make us more territorial  From colleagues chatting about their weekends or having intense phone conversations, to email alerts and loud tapping on keyboards, the evidence that open-plan offices take a toll on our wellbeing continues to mount. There’s a clear relationship between noise levels and physiological signs of stress such as heart rate. This stress can also manifest in unconscious actions to reclaim control – and while some of these behaviours are therapeutic and benign, others are more toxic.
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S52The 2023 National Book Awards Longlist: Translated Literature  This week, The New Yorker is announcing the longlists for the 2023 National Book Awards. This morning, we presented the ten contenders in the category of Young People’s Literature. Check back tomorrow morning for Poetry.Five titles on this year’s longlist for Translated Literature are set in Latin American countries. Two novels, “Abyss,” by Pilar Quintana, and “The Devil of the Provinces,” by Juan Cárdenas, take place in Colombia. Astrid Roemer’s “On a Woman’s Madness” depicts a queer Black woman’s romance with an older woman in the capital of Suriname. Stênio Gardel’s “The Words That Remain” recounts its narrator’s upbringing in Northern Brazil. The stories in “This Is Not Miami,” by Fernanda Melchor, chronicle horrifying, quotidian violence in and around Veracruz, Mexico.
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S606 Years Later, Hulu's Creepy New Thriller Learns the Wrong Lesson From Jordan Peele  The spectrum of Black horror is more much psychological than it is physical. Black filmmakers know that there are scarier things than those that go bump in the night, but depicting the perils of police brutality or the necessity of code switching without alienating a particular audience is still a tricky balancing act. So much of the struggles that minorities face are impossible to point out to those that don’t live it themselves — so stories that make that experience tangible, that parse things out via metaphor, have become a necessity. Racially-coded horror is by no means a new thing, but it wasn’t until Jordan Peele made history with Get Out that Hollywood realized how profitable it could be. What began as a way to make tough concepts more digestible became something of a gimmick, one that most can now see from a mile away. Countless copycats have risen up since: some, like Lovecraft Country, manage to make the trend their own. Others — like Hulu’s latest series, The Other Black Girl — struggle to balance grounded thrills with a supernatural conspiracy.
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S69'Ahsoka's Sneakiest Cameo Reveals a Dark Truth About Star Wars  The Mandoverse has been stuffed full of cameos of familiar characters from across the galaxy, whether they’re from movies (like Luke Skywalker), TV shows (like Ahsoka popping up in The Book of Boba Fett), or even from Star Wars books (like Cobb Vanth). In The Mandalorian Season 2, Boba Fett (Temeura Morrison) made his live-action debut, bringing the face of the Clone Wars — and the clones that fought in them — into contemporary Star Wars. But while Boba Fett got his own spinoff, one of the most beloved clone characters won’t get the same attention. Captain Rex, who formed a close bond with Ahsoka over the course of The Clone Wars, had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in Ahsoka Episode 5’s flashbacks. Does that mean we’ll see Rex in future Ahsoka episodes? Probably not, and it’s for a bleak reason.
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S50Are crows really that clever?  Mélissa Berthet a reçu des financements du Fond National Suisse et de l'Université de Zürich. Internet is awash with videos of crows imitating voices or solving complex brainteasers. But are these birds as intelligent as they are made out to be?
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S58Yoko Taro Wants Aliens to "Attack Earth" and Send Us Back to the 8-Bit Era  Every time Yoko Taro speaks, you get the feeling he is messing with you, just a little bit.It’s not unlike the twisting, surreal stories behind the Drakengard and NieR franchises he’s masterminded. And yet underneath all of Taro’s theatrics — including the large, moon-like mask called Emil that he is rarely seen without — there is always a kernel of sincerity behind every answer he gives.
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S46What is 'budget Ozempic' that's all over social media? Can it help me lose weight?  Social media is lighting up over what influencers are calling “budget Ozempic”. These are drugs normally used as laxatives and stool softeners, but people are taking them to lose weight. The demand is so high in the United States, there are reports this is contributing to shortages in pharmacies.These laxatives are just the latest alternatives influencers are touting for the blockbuster drug Ozempic.
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S53Why Gen X Dads Can Appreciate Olivia Rodrigo  Six-year-olds are careless little obsessives. Some flashy thing—these days, they all seem to involve dogs and the police—grabs their attention and, for a very short period of time, nothing else matters. The fever breaks as soon as you finally pull out your wallet and buy the action figure or lunchbox or whatever else they’ve been asking for. The toy gets tossed, and then it’s on to the next law-enforcement animal trend. My daughter has gone through every fixation, including “Octonauts,” “Paw Patrol,” and Pokémon. She has read multiple book series about moody dragons. Still, every obsession has been entirely disposable to her.The only thing that seems to have stuck is the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” She has watched pretty much every incarnation of the Ninja Turtles, starting from the 1990 movie—which is how we recently found ourselves at a matinée showing of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” the most recent Turtles filmic adventure, from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. From the jump, there was something intergenerationally gratifying about this trip; I had gone to see the original T.M.N.T. film in the theatre with my parents. The filmmakers must have had viewers like me in mind. The movie’s soundtrack—which included M.O.P.’s “Ante Up,” De La Soul’s “Eye Know,” Blackstreet’s “No Diggity,” and A Tribe Called Quest’s “Can I Kick It?”—sounded like something I would have downloaded on LimeWire in my dorm room in 2001. My daughter has heard all these dad-rap songs because I play them in the car; now here we were, watching characters from both our childhoods.
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S43Is it really safe to feed your cat a vegan diet?  Veterinary Specialist, PhD scholar (wild horse ecology & welfare), University of Technology Sydney Research Checks interrogate newly published studies and how they’re reported in the media. The analysis is undertaken by one or more academics not involved with the study, and reviewed by another, to make sure it’s accurate.
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S68Siege of Mandalore: Why Star Wars' Darkest Battle is So Important to Ahsoka  From the moment Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) reunited with Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) in the fourth episode of Ahsoka, fans knew they’d be in for a heartbreaking trip down memory lane. Episode 5 wasted no time reacquainting us with Skyguy and Snips, but it went even further by pulling Anakin and Ahsoka into the past.Ahsoka takes its heroine and her former Jedi master back to the events of the Clone Wars, where Anakin leads Ahsoka through the Battle of Ryloth, one of their first missions. The pair then jump forward to one of the Clone Wars’ defining battles, the Siege of Mandalore. Anakin, notably, doesn’t recognize it; Ahsoka fought alone, while he and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) were off on a very different mission.
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S36The aged care system has failed Aboriginal people. Here's what Elders say needs to change  The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety recognised the aged care system has failed to provide culturally safe care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as they age. It recommended major reforms, including active partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This was at the centre of our study, led by the Dharriwaa Elders Group in its long-term partnership with UNSW, known as Yuwaya Ngarra-li.The study involved speaking with 22 Elders in the remote New South Wales town of Walgett about what ageing well means to them.
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S28How action over parliamentary spying scandal could affect the UK's economic relationship with China  Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden has also said there is a “strong case” for the government to officially designate China as a threat to the UK, but that it was unrealistic to “completely disengage”.This is an early Christmas present for the hawkish side of the Conservative party which has called for the UK to take a tougher stance on China for several years. A more critical engagement with China is long overdue, but clumsy mitigation policies won’t safeguard the UK’s relationship with China – economic or otherwise.
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