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1 SOUTHWEST AIRLINES BOEING 737-8 N871HK MSN 67775 · LN 8405 Southwest Airlines (WN) took delivery of a Boeing 737-8 sporting its iconic ‘Desert Gold’ colors, which will bear the name of Herbert D. Kelleher (1931-2019), WN’s founder, CEO, and chairman emeritus. The number 71 in the registration is a nod to 1971 (the year Southwest took to the skies), together with Herb’s initials. 2 GLOBAL CROSSING AIRLINES AIRBUS A320-214 N281GX MSN 2830 GlobalX (Global Crossing Airlines) (G6) has put a ‘Bad Bunny—Adidas’ promotional livery on one of its Airbus A320s. Bad Bunny, a Puerto Rican rapper and singer, chartered the aircraft in collaboration with Adidas. The winners of a free raffle received a one-night stay in Puerto Rico and concert tickets to Bad Bunny’s concert in New York, among other prizes. 3 SUN COUNTRY AIRLINES BOEING 737-8K5 N844SY MSN…

When COVID-19 hit, it drastically affected the work environment for many Americans. Some began working remotely, while others were forced into reduced hours or lost their jobs entirely. Mark Pankey had been working as a first officer (copilot) for Southwest Airlines since 2016. Prior to that job, he spent 20 years in the U.S. Air Force, most of which was as a fighter pilot flying F-16s. After transitioning to civilian life, Pankey felt a lingering desire for independence and adventure in the great outdoors. Strangely, COVID presented the opportunity he had been waiting for — a sudden reduction in demand for flights caused Southwest to seek volunteers who were willing to take up to five years off with partial pay. Pankey accepted the offer and used this sabbatical to tackle…

My favorite thing in Darktide is the skull. OK, let me clarify—there’s definitely more than one skull. But I was enamored with one in particular: The skull decoder, a grinning cranium with spider-like legs used to interface with computers. There won’t be a better interaction prompt this year than “Press E to prepare Skull Decoder”. “There’s no hacking in 40K,” says Fatshark head of design Victor Magnuson, who spent about two hours talking to me while we played through a few missions. Thankfully, 40K does have skull decoding—at least now. “Everything we do we check with Games Workshop. They check every asset, every voice line, everything. It’s a back and forth. But especially since we’ve done Vermintide, they trust us.” There’s an attention to detail in Darktide that exudes confidence, and a…

GPs’ admin burdens… To The Times Dr Kieran Sharrock is slightly disingenuous in blaming patient demand and GP numbers on the workload pressure experienced by GPs. The number of monthly appointments has increased, but that number is for primary care and its expanded workforce as a whole. Less than half of those monthly appointments are with a GP. The many causes of GP disillusionment include an increasing proportion of elderly patients with complex conditions, a merry-go-round of hospital referrals, Care Quality Commission inspections, annual appraisals, and compliance with everchanging edicts from external agencies. However, the greatest burden has arisen from increased regulation, scrutiny and fear of litigation, leading to the need to record every patient-doctor interaction in time-consuming detail. It is the loss of GPs’ autonomy over how to manage their patients that…

Dopo che la traiettoria del tempo si è fermata, è come se, una volta ripartita, avesse preso a seguire un altro percorso. Irrimediabilmente (ma non incomprensibilmente) diverso da prima. Il suo scorrere, lo sappiamo, lo ha interrotto il sisma del Covici, che, a due anni e mezzo dall'irruzione sulle scene mondiali, sta finalmente lasciando intravedere quello che si è lasciato alle spalle. Svelando, sulle strutture sociali ed economiche, così come sulle consuetudini collettive, danni sorprendentemente simili, nella scala della gravità, a quelli inflitti agli organismi umani: più fragili erano, peggiori le conseguenze. È successo così, per esempio, che certe routine soltanto in apparenza immutabili hanno finito per alzare bandiera bianca, o quasi. I riferimenti sono tanti, pur restringendo il campo all'industria dell'auto, ma quello dei Saloni ne costituisce tuttora il…

Odds are good that if you have a desktop computer, you spend a lot of time sitting at your desk, either for business or for pleasure. So why shouldn’t your desk be as comfy and efficient as possible? While upgrading your computer can often take serious dough (especially these days), you can spend a lot less to improve your workstation itself in some surprising ways. Here are ten ways to improve your workstation for under $100, presented in no particular order. Most of these cost less than $50, and many are under $25! 1. A FANCY DESK MAT No matter what kind of mouse you use or what kind of desk you use it on, you need something in between to protect both of them. A $10 mousepad will do just fine, though…

On July 18, 1989, Rebecca Shaeffer answered a knock on her apartment door. She was a young actress living in West Hollywood and was anticipating the delivery of a movie script in preparation for an audition. Rather than receiving the script for the role of a lifetime in the upcoming Godfather movie, Rebecca was shot in the chest with a .357 Magnum and died at the hospital. This was her first meeting with the man who’d been stalking her for the last three years. Shaeffer’s death, along with other high-profile incidents of harassing behavior ending in violence, was the catalyst that spurred the state of California to enact its first antistalking laws. Shortly thereafter, the rest of the country followed suit and a problem that was largely associated with overzealous fans…

Miles de millones de ordenadores y portátiles en todo el mundo cuentan con Windows como sistema operativo. Y, como la mayoría de los usuarios hacen poco por cambiar el diseño, todos tienen el mismo aspecto. ¡Vaya rollo! Gracias a Computer Hoy, podrás decir ahora adiós al aspecto repetitivo de muchos equipos. Por ejemplo, con esta colección, te proponemos una serie de programas con los que dar tu toque personal al diseño estándar de Windows. De este modo, podrás personalizar de forma rápida y sencilla tu Escritorio, además del fondo de pantalla, la barra de Tareas y el menú Inicio de Windows. Funciones muy útiles Pero no solo te vamos a enseñar cómo cambiar el aspecto de tu sistema. También te ofrecemos una variedad de funciones nuevas y prácticas para Windows, como el…

REMEMBER WHEN watching TV used to be fun? About a decade ago, following popular television meant keeping up with a handful of tentpole shows. As long as you took in the meth-cook madness of Breaking Bad, embraced the ’60s sleaze of Mad Men, and kept your goblet full for Game of Thrones, you were basically set. Ah, yes, those were the days: Netflix was still in the fight for streaming dominance, big networks were in a post-Lost relevance recession, and Law & Order filled in the gaps. Now TV is work. You’ve already read about the number of services (Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, and so on) and the sheer volume of programming, but now there’s the issue of length. What was once the 22-minute-episode standard of The Simpsons grew into the…

Chi ha avuto la fortuna di conoscerlo, sa che Paul Frère non era una persona comune. Giornalista e ancor prima pilota – corre in Formula 1 negli anni 50 e vince la 24 Ore di Le Mans nel 1960 a bordo di una Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa –, lascia le competizioni agli inizi degli anni 60 per dedicarsi completamente alla attività giornalistica. È considerato uno dei maggiori esperti di Porsche e, in particolare, della 911, di cui ha seguito tutti gli sviluppi e scritto libri imperdibili. Appena arrivata in Italia l'ultima versione della sportiva tedesca, quella con il motore di 2.4 litri, Quattroruote, com'era solita fare quando si trattava di super sportive, gli affida la prova su strada. Che Paul, come sempre, gestisce a modo suo. Terminati i rilevamenti dinamici,…

As mammals, cats and dogs share a lot of similarities. They’re both warm-blooded, air-breathing, fur-covered creatures, with almost all the same organs. However, there are some differences in their physiology. For example, their brains are set up slightly differently from one another. Typically, a dog has a bigger brain than a cat, and a larger portion of its mass is dedicated to the cerebral cortex. This part of the brain is responsible for receiving and processing sensory information – the smells, sights and sounds that a dog encounters – along with decision-making and social interaction. Cats have developed a brain that favours areas such as the hippocampus that are responsible for memory development, navigation and movement. Dogs have twice the number of neuron cells that transmit information around the brain than…

DANA BENNER Current job title: Freelance writer Describe your residence and its occupants as it relates to protective or defensive decision-making. My residence is a single-family, ranch-style home located between the state’s largest city and rural farmland. The layout has both main entrances at one end of the home, though my wife and I have multiple exit strategies in the event of an emergency. Doors and windows remain locked. The defense zone from intruders is a 30-foot hallway between exterior doors and bedrooms. Other homes are nearby, some with small children, so munitions used must be contained within the walls of the home to avoid external damage and/or injury. How does your home/neighborhood environment affect your choice of home defense/bedside firearm and defense items? While I have my share of firearms, when it comes to…

To watch Joya Mukerjee Logue at work is like stumbling upon one of those painting-within-a-painting scenes: her canvasses reveal a coterie of women, usually garbed in saris in muted hues, congregating over a meal, a conversation or a beachside jaunt. Every so often, a solitary figure breaks away from the cluster to retreat into her own ruminations. Seated in front of the easel, Mukerjee Logue regards her progress, tucks a stray lock of dark hair behind her ear and arranges the folds of her pastel sari meticulously, looking like she stepped out of the very same canvas she was working on just moments ago. Born in Ohio Country to an Indian father and an American mother, an impressionable Mukerjee Logue became curious about art at a young age, having spent countless…

Quando si parla di lunga crociera ci si può riferire tanto alla consistenza del percorso complessivo quanto alla durata. Nel concepire questo nuovo semidislocante della linea Swift Trawler si è fatto in modo di far coincidere i due concetti in un cruiser capace di garantire ben 900 miglia di range alla velocità di 10 nodi e, allo stesso tempo, uno sfruttamento dei volumi tale da consentire un perfetto comfort anche nelle più prolungate permanenze a bordo. Lo si percepisce appena saliti a bordo, accolti da un pozzetto assai razionale, con la scala del fly che può essere addossata alla paratia per dare più spazio al piano di calpestio e un vano sottostante che non si esita a chiamare “stiva” per il suo generoso volume. A poppa, la plancetta up&down consente di…

Pietro Savorgnan di Brazzà era nato nel 1852 a Castel Gandolfo, sui colli che guardano la città di Roma, decimo di tredici figli di un’antica e nobile famiglia friulana stabilitasi nello Stato Pontificio. Hic sunt leones Il padre, conte Ascanio, era consigliere di papa Pio IX: pittore e scultore, già allievo del Canova, viaggiatore in Medio Oriente e in Egitto, aveva sistemato i Musei Vaticani e realizzato la fontana del Mosè al Pincio. In una famiglia di scienziati, artisti e viaggiatori, il piccolo Pietro, ispirato dal padre e dagli zii, sognava di entrare in Marina e di esplorare terre sconosciute, soprattutto quella macchia bianca sulla carta geografica dell’Africa che corrispondeva all’odierna Repubblica del Congo. E la cui capitale, non a caso, si chiama ancora oggi Brazzaville. Poiché il Regno d’Italia non aveva ancora…

Sub-£1,000 PURE ELECTRIC PURE FLUX ONE The first electric bike from e-scooter specialist Pure Electric has three things going for it: a low price, unusually cool looks for an ebike, and really quite extreme simplicity. Rather than having gears, it has three assistance levels capped at 9mph, 12mph and 15.5mph so it’s easy to vary your pace if you hit traffic. Its disk brakes are mechanical rather than hydraulic – less stopping power, sure, but also less maintenance required – and a grease-free, theoretically unbreakable carbon belt is used instead of a chain. While it may have a max range of 25 miles, the Pure Flux One is a blast to ride and great value for money. ​£824.25, pureelectric.com XIAOMI MI SMART FOLDING ELECTRIC BIKE Brands are increasingly focused on delivering competitively priced ebikes, as…

Step aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier and see how it compares to other giant warships In order to protect a country at sea, a naval force doesn’t rely solely on ships. Aircraft carriers are large warships that serve as a platform for military planes to take off from and land on, and they are so efficient that aircraft can be launched every 25 seconds from them. To be considered an aircraft carrier, all a ship needs is a runway on its upper deck. But as these vessels have evolved since the early 1900s, ships such as the Gerald R. Ford, the latest class in a long line of US Navy carriers, are decked out with an assembly of machine guns, missiles, submarines, fighter jets and helicopters. These assist…

Cover boat As I approach the recently refitted 70.6-metre explorer yacht Force Blue, moored alongside the historic port of Nice, France, the dance of charter guest changeover is in full swing. The yacht’s crane flies overhead with a sizable pallet of provisions, which is deftly lowered onto the ample working foredeck while the tenders are being stowed, decks washed and stainless steel shined. Force Blue has just disembarked guests who spent eight weeks on board, and her crew is busy getting ready for new charterers arriving that very evening. She’s been consistent in attracting charter business, but this latest refit – which included a seven-metre stern extension, updated interiors and added performance – aims to make her even more desirable. “The key to the refit was to refresh the yacht and improve…

“When we first moved in, we had the kids in one bedroom for a while. We had a bunk bed and a single bed in the master bedroom, and Boyd and I were in the other room. We did it tough After spending the majority of her working life in offices, Helen Hopgood finally found a way to unleash her creative flair. And as the 66-year-old chats wearing what she calls her “daggy old Chanel glasses”, with her hair impeccably blowdried in a living room styled with gilded wood and eclectic furnishings, you can see that artistic glint in her eye. “I always felt like a square peg in a round hole,” she says of her working life. “I’m artistic, and office life is so organised. If I could’ve chosen any career,…

NEED TO KNOW EXPECT TO PAY $25 DEVELOPER Kalla Gameworks PUBLISHER Fulqrum Publishing LINK thepegasusexpedition.com Stop me if you've heard this one before. An alien race is threatening Earth. Three major powers send fleets into space in the hope of finding a new home for humanity among the twinkling points of light in the night sky where it can thrive and build and frolic under alien suns. What actually happens is that your fleet comes out of the wormhole in the Pegasus Galaxy (presumably UGC 12613 beloved of Stargate Atlantis fans) to find an unwelcoming star system surrounded by alien armadas. Yay! The Pegasus Expedition is a 4X, placing you in command of a human faction, its leader making a rousing speech before blast off. Luckily, humans have jumpgate tech, so they can travel interstellar distances fairly easily, but they have…

Il ragionamento della Nissan è chiaro e condivisibile: l'elettrico è senza dubbio una necessità per l'ambiente, tuttavia molti automobilisti non sono ancora pronti ad attaccarsi emotivamente e materialmente a una spina. La soluzione per offrire loro i vantaggi della guida a batteria - silenziosità, fluidità, spinta istantanea - senza dover programmare la propria vita in funzione delle ricariche è uno schema full hybrid che rappresenta un'ottima soluzione ponte in attesa dell'evolversi degli scenari futuri. Si chiama e-Power, ha debuttato sulla Qashqai ed è l'unico powertrain deputato a spingere la quarta generazione di una delle sport utility di maggior successo della Casa giapponese: la XTrail. Lato tecnico, la faccio brevissima, perché ne parliamo meglio a pagina 42: il protagonista è un motore elettrico da 204 cavalli che spinge, sempre e comunque,…

One of the greatest villains of the Roman Empire is the empress Messalina. The third wife of the emperor Claudius, she is remembered today as the most promiscuous woman in Rome, the nymphomaniac empress. The Messalina in the modern imagination is a pinnacle of uncontrolled, violent, irrational, and impulsive behavior. Her sexual appetite is unrivaled, and her motivations quite wicked. When Mikhail Bulgakov was filling Satan’s ball in The Master and Margarita, he included Messalina as a guest. When Charlotte Bronte needed to describe the mad wife in the attic in Jane Eyre, Bronte likened her to a German vampire as well as Messalina. Of all the scandalous women who violated Roman gender roles, Messalina has come down through history as the most scandalous of all. Noble Beginnings Valeria Messalina was at…

One look at the Maeving RM1 electric motorcycle and it’s easy to see how this thing turns heads. Simply put, the motorcycle looks stunning, with a gorgeous overall retro style contrasted at its heart by the electric motor and second battery tank. It’s a gorgeous hybrid of old and new to my eye. Which is why I was so interested to leave my Aprilia RSV 1000R in my garage and hop on board. There’s lots of lovely details on the RM1. The floating, leather-upholstered seat, rear-wheel-guard-mounted licence plate, streamlined classic bike instrument cluster, large circular central headlamp, thin and sculpted tank (where another battery is) and slick black suspension springs and frame. Okay, now let’s talk the bike’s power source – its removable battery or, if you buy two, batteries plural. It…

1 ULTICLIP ENDUO ulticlip.com CONSISTS OF: Two Enduos, adhesive tape MSRP: $17 NOTES: The Enduo is a little accessory that offers big benefits — possibly life-saving ones. What looks like a small piece of plastic is actually an ingenious magazine add-on that allows you to carry extra rounds in your pants pocket with nothing but the metal clip showing. The Enduro lets you carry your spare mag in your pocket and deploy it as quickly as if you were drawing a pen or flashlight. Essentially, you’re hiding a spare magazine in plain sight. Plus, its stainless steel clip automatically retracts after you pull out the mag, preventing any possible snagging during a reload. The low-visibility device can be attached to most magazine’s baseplates in mere moments, thanks to high-bond adhesive tape; no assembly required. Made in…

Polish sci-fi stunner The Invincible left a hell of a first impression when it was first announced back in 2020—and that was just with a handful of screenshots. At last, we’ve finally had a proper look at the Firewatch-style adventure’s rusted retro-future sci-fi world, and thankfully it doesn’t disappoint. Inspired by a novel of the same name by Polish author Stanisław Lem, developer Starward Industries’ game follows roughly the same plot, taking us to the dusty canyons of unexplored planet Regis III after our vessel crash lands on its surface. It is a hostile, lifeless, wretched land—but the good news is that you don’t need to face it alone. After a short introduction, we’re placed in the space-boots of Dr Yasna, who’s sitting behind the wheel of a delightfully retro Eastern bloc…

kwooton@aimmedia.com Fans of the Netflix drama series The Crown who waded into season five last fall noted scenes meant to be aboard the former royal yacht Britannia. Sadly, her presence in the story doesn’t celebrate the stately majesty of her classic lines or the impressions she made as she laid down more than a million nautical miles over her 44 years of service to the royal family and to Britain. In the series, she serves as a metaphor for the monarchy itself: in decline, out of date and in need of a refit. In these days of surging populism, I suppose an argument could be made that a state yacht, no matter her value as a vehicle for projecting power—and for being a place of respite and privacy for her busy, coddled,…

THE MARS GEOLOGIST tries to keep her hand from trembling as she stows the final sample of volcanic rock from the slope of Olympus Mons. Collecting samples of the solar system’s largest volcano by hand should fulfill any geologist’s dream. Instead, she’s racing a deadly, invisible solar flare. It’s a short trip back to the rover, a ruggedized golf cart. But there’s no time to drive back to the safety of the colony, and so her expedition partner has already started to unpack a pill-shaped emergency shelter for two. The fabric walls have wide pouches that hold carbon-fiber plates that block radiation, while a battery pack and oxygen tanks replenish their suits. A solar flare makes an already-bad background radiation on the Martian surface—about 38 times that on Earth—even more dangerous. For this…

Se cercate in rete la Citroen Ami, oggi, viene fuori questo simpatico microveicolo, un simbolo della nuova mobilità. Bisogna scavare più a fondo e indietro nel tempo per scoprire che quello stesso nome - pronunciato in francese con l'ac-cento sull'ultima vocale suona un po' come “amico” - era stato utilizzato già negli anni 60 per individuare un'automobile dal design altrettanto anticonvenzionale (e frutto dell'italiano Flaminio Bertoni). È di certo amichevole il modo in cui vuole proporsi l'Ami moderna, anche nella sua versione Cargo destinata al trasporto merci protagonista di queste pagine. Trattan-dosi di un mezzo professionale, della facoltà di poter essere guidata già a 14 anni non può vantarsi, ma la conduzione senza pa-tente, o meglio con il solo patentino dei ci-clomotori, allarga la platea dei potenziali utilizzatori. Sì, perché l'Ami…

IF ONLY LOVECRAFT LIVED LONG ENOUGH TO WITNESS THE FAME AND POPULARITY OF HIS CREATIONS, HE’D BE HORRIFIED TO SEE HOW THEY HAVE BEEN RE-CONTEXTUALIZED AND COMMODIFIED TO FIT CONSUMER SOCIETY. The creatures that he took pains to keep in the dark now are brought into broad daylight and sharp relief, rendered clearly, with stunning detail, in plastic, metal, vinyl, porcelain, etc. The gruesome Cthulhu, once the source of nightmares, is now available as an action figure with intricate sculpts and multiple points of articulation – or, if that is too horrific, Lovecraft’s most popular creation is also available as a cuddly plush doll, green with some yellow on its belly and face, which also sports four tentacles and cute black eyes. The sold-out series Nightmares of H.P. Lovecraft offered plastic…

Whoosh goes the Cadillac. And then it glides. Drive the all-electric Lyriq and you’re reminded of the quiet grace of Cadillacs past. Electrification appears to be returning the 120-year-old brand to its smooth, silent, and comfortable roots. In reaching for the future—Cadillac promises an all-EV lineup by 2030—the luxury carmaker is reintroducing a few long-dismissed attributes. The Lyriq’s demeanor is in keeping with the virtues of its powertrain. An electric motor, such as the permanent-magnet spinner in the Lyriq (340 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque), never does much more than hum. The 102.0-kWh battery pack in the floor—sort of like sitting atop a giant slice of Texas toast—suppresses nearly all road noise. A wind-cheating and range-extending shape helps keep the air’s howl to a low whisper at highway speed. The…

From Anansi, the spider of West African folklore, to Loki, the shape-shifter of Norse mythology, tricksters are some of the most entertaining characters in stories all over the world. Neither the strongest, the fleetest, nor the best looking, the tricksters triumph through their brains, not their brawn. One of the world’s oldest and best known is Odysseus, whose quick thinking gets him out of one predicament after another in The Odyssey, a circa eighth-century B.C. epic attributed to the Greek poet Homer. Odysseus first appears in another work attributed to Homer, The Iliad, which tells the story of a feud between Achilles and Agamemnon during the 10-year war between the Greeks and Trojans. The king of Ithaca, Odysseus fights for the Greeks. The Odyssey recounts his return home to his kingdom,…

Think back to the last time you were really hungry. I don’t mean you were a bit peckish when a work meeting ran long. I’m talking about real, gnawing hunger—the sort that might make a person do something fairly desperate. Most modern Americans legitimately cannot imagine. Uncle Sam uses hunger and sleep deprivation as stress enhancement tools in military training. That’s where I tasted it myself. However, outside of that environment, I can honestly say I have never been truly hungry, at least not on the scale we will discuss directly. The human body is a most majestic machine. Efficient, versatile, capable and tough, this remarkable contrivance can navigate, refuel, reproduce and heal, all with the singular goal of survival at any cost. This drive to survive can, under certain circumstances, take…

If you have a Chromebook or don’t want yet another program on your Windows desktop there is an alternative to a full VPN: a Chrome extension. Many people are looking for a VPN solely to use with their web browser anyway. So why bother with the full program? With an extension you can have your browser appear as if it’s somewhere else, while the rest of your desktop programs use the local IP address. Even better, depending on your needs, you can get this service for free. There are a number of free “VPN” extensions in the Chrome Web Store. The problem is the same with all other types of free services, however. Namely, which ones do you trust? All of the extension recommendations we have here have been tested by…

The Meta Quest Pro is not for everyone, and that’s simply down to the fact it’s stupidly expensive. But if you’re willing to splash out then this VR headset is the beginning of a new era, one where socialising in the virtual world seems somewhat realistic. First up, let’s talk design. The Meta Quest Pro is undoubtedly the best-looking VR headset you can buy right now. It looks refined, premium and futuristic with a sturdy black plastic build, a reflective front panel and thick padding that sits against the back of your head and across your forehead. A handy wheel at the back lets you adjust the fit and there’s a smaller dial on the front which will adjust the depth of view. Unlike the Quest 2, this headset doesn’t cover your…

LATIN AMERICA IS “RISING STAR” Cruise holidays in South and Central America are on the rise as the region bounces back post-pandemic. Colin Stewart, chairman of the Latin American Travel Association (Lata), said: “[Cruise] has been the rising star in terms of untapped markets, with growth over the past four or five years, pre-Covid. I don’t think there’s ever been a healthier appetite for cruising.” A Lata consumer poll, which included Cruise International readers, found 18% of those surveyed had taken a holiday in the region in the past five years, with a quarter including a cruise (lata.travel). SEABOURN VENTURES FORTH Seabourn has taken delivery of its first purpose-built expedition ship, Seabourn Venture (above), which at the time of going to press was due to sail a maiden voyage from Tromso, Norway, on July…

There are two sides to Monster Hunter Rise’s new Sunbreak DLC. The first sees you in a luscious jungle, gathering bugs and swatting away little monsters as you look for a snail: which you’ll then take a picture of, and be rewarded with a fetching hat. The other side of Sunbreak is your hunter, helpless on the ground as a furious red-eyed monkey stomps your limp form into the ground. Over and over again. Monster Hunter Rise was first released on Switch in early 2021, and arrived on PC in January this year. More in the lineage of the older portable titles than the all-singing all-dancing Monster Hunter: World, I wouldn’t say Rise is an easy game by any means. But it is one that is meant for most players to…

Il fascino della posizione, a pochi passi dallo splendido lago di Como, si unisce allo charme senza tempo di una ex marmeria, acquistata recentemente da un imprenditore straniero. “La caratteristica più evidente della struttura era sicuramente la forma. Assomigliava alla prua di una nave, con dimensioni imponenti e un volume piuttosto particolare - raccontano a Ville&Casali l’architetto Massimiliano Nutricati e l'interior designer Dario Turani (www.darioturani.eu) -. Dato il palese stato di degrado dell'edificio si è reso necessario un importante intervento architettonico, operato a cura dello studio Numax (www.numax.eu). Lo spazio, piacevole e funzionale, ha conservato senza dubbio lo splendore originale che abbiamo voluto valorizzare con uno studio attento e curato”. Tutto ruota intorno ai materiali, principalmente legno di recupero e ferro crudo, capaci di donare, insieme ai toni pacati scelti…

SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS È il protagonista principale della serie animata. Vive (e combina guai!) a Bikini Bottom (vedi riquadro a destra) e, nonostante possa sembrare un pezzo di formaggio Emmental (quello con i buchi), è una spugna di mare: queste creature vivono agganciate ai fondali e si nutrono filtrando l’acqua. Il nostro simpatico eroe, invece, preferisce gli hamburger vegetariani! Spesso i personaggi dei fumetti o dei cartoon sono creature fantastiche che nascono dall’immaginazione dei loro autori. Nel caso di SpongeBob, invece, la simpatica spugna gialla che vive sul fondo del mare con un gruppo di bizzarri amici, si tratta di creature prese dalla realtà. Infatti l’ideatore della fortunata serie tv, Stephen Hillenburg (scomparso nel 2018) era un biologo marino e conosceva perfettamente gli abitanti del mondo subacqueo. Di certo quando, nel 1989, inventò questi…

It’s essential to track the whereabouts of any aircraft that takes to the sky. However, when one of the passengers on board is a high-profile government figure such as the President of the United States, the safety and security of the aircraft is taken much more seriously. Equipped with nuclear bomb-resistant materials and technology that can make it invisible to enemies, the president’s aircraft is designed to be one of the safest aeroplanes on Earth. This plane is referred to as Air Force One. Air Force One is not a term that refers to one specific plane, but any aircraft that is carrying the current US president. Even planes that are designed to carry the person at the top of the US government cannot be referred to as Air Force One…

In warfare, a stationary target is a vulnerable target. Firing any weapon from a static position for an extended period of time can allow an enemy to pinpoint your location. Conversely, repositioning frequently makes it harder for an enemy to launch an effective counterattack. The Scorpion mobile mortar system from Global Military Products is designed to address this need, achieving an effective balance between mobility and lethality. The Scorpion system was originally developed by a family-owned business in Spain called NTGS (New Technologies Global Systems). NTGS is the manufacturer of the Scorpion; Global Military Products, a division of Global Ordnance, partnered with the company to adapt and distribute it internationally. Once you see how the Scorpion works, it becomes clear that its name isn't just meant to sound imposing — it’s a…

Uncharted, I've missed you. The reckless personalities, lush environments and ridiculous action set-pieces are unlike anything else we have in games, and coming back to the series with this PC port of the fourth game and its standalone expansion (The Lost Legacy) has been a pleasure. I've always loved Nathan Drake because he's a morally grey hero who, with a cheeky quip and mischievous smile, can get away with almost anything. Where Lara Croft claims she's just an archaeologist, despite her chaotic exploits, Drake and crew are self-confessed thieves, mercenaries and rogues, with silver tongues and dark pasts. In his wake, history is destroyed one collapsing temple at a time, but in the end he always makes the right choice… and ends up no richer than when he started. They're thrilling…

Akio Toyoda, il numero uno della Casa giapponese, è stato il primo a fare coming out, manifestando in diverse occasioni le ragioni del suo scetticismo sull'elettrico a tutti i costi: possibile collasso del modello di business dell'automotive, difficoltà nell'adeguare la rete elettrica e la produzione (pulita) della stessa, costi sociali della transizione energetica e via discorrendo. Poi, a seguire, come in una sorta di movimento "me too", anche altri ceo delle case automobilistiche hanno esternato le proprie perplessità in merito al completo abbandono dei motori termici. Per farla semplice, un futuro elettrico al 100% è ancora piuttosto lontano e la diversificazione delle tecnologie parrebbe la strada più logica. Gli addetti ai lavori ne sono consci da tempo ed è per questo che esistono oggetti come la Toyota qui a fianco. Che…

1 SONY ALPHA 7R V • £4,000, sony.co.uk It’s time to make two bold and controversial statements. One, the quality of Sony’s recent camera output now places it directly next to Canon and Nikon in pro cameras’ upper tier. Two: the DSLR is dead. Mirrorless sensors open up new possibilities, and manufacturers are only now scratching the surface of what’s possible. Right now, the Alpha 7R V is utterly remarkable for its AI subject detection engine, which utilises deep learning to pull off what Sony calls ‘next-generation autofocus’, able to not only accurately pick out subjects in frame but to analyse their pose to ensure the 7R V never locks onto a foreground finger. Five years down the line? The entire mirrorless market will be brainier than your cat. The Alpha 7R V also…

The HP Elite Dragonfly G3 is aiming to be one of the best lightweight laptops around, especially for business users. Like the Dragonfly G2 that came before it, it aims to pack plenty of everyday computing power in a chassis that’s compact and light. With a screen size of just 13.5 inches corner to corner, the laptop measures just 297 x 220 x 16mm, and weighs a kilo exactly. Slide this into a backpack and you’re not really going to notice it’s there, whether in terms of its size or its weight, and it has the perfect dimensions for working on the train or in other cramped spots. In terms of aesthetics, there’s a lot of understated style on show, from the silver HP logo on the laptop lid to the subtle…

The first new IP created by Bethesda for 25 years, so they say, and more specifically described as “Skyrim in space” by its director Todd Howard, Starfield represents a lot of the hopes for the future of triple-A singleplayer PC gaming—perhaps even pointing the way for single-player RPGs. This is, after all, the game we will still be talking about in 2032, following its enhanced re-release on the Xbox VR Xtreme console, and fully expect the next Elder Scrolls instalment to be described as “Starfield in, like, a medieval fantasy world. Can you imagine that?” Following its delay—we’re not getting it until next year now—the game was all over this year’s Xbox and Bethesda Showcase event, letting us see everything from space combat to character creation to planetary exploration and a little…

Goga, the first Benetti B.Yond 37M, is very much the brainchild of Azimut-Benetti President Paolo Vitelli. The 121-foot (36.9-meter) project sprang from his desire to do something different, to build a steel yacht in a size category more commonly associated with fiberglass, and with a design for clients who would see it as more than just an expensive plaything. “An important consideration was to keep the dimensions reasonable,” Vitelli says. “I’ve been all around the Mediterranean, and I love the small harbors where generally the limit is around 40 meters, or 130 feet in length. So, part of the dream was to have a yacht that could still enter these places and be close to the town or village life, rather than always anchoring outside.” There were other drivers. Exceptional for this…

In my favourite moment, late in Scorn, you transition from the industrial underbelly of this forgotten civilisation to its alien and terrifying, yet also still somehow mournful, regal capital. The entire game up until now you've seen the gruesome brown machinery of this ancient people churning and grinding to do something, ripping familiarly human-like beings apart, sometimes while they're still alive, for some unknowable purpose. Here in the Polis, you see a decaying cathedral adorned with colossal statues of these same being's, some taking heroic poses, others cradling red, glowing wombs, and many of them copulating. How did this civilisation digest the contradiction in how it represented itself versus how it treated its people? This grey cathedral bathed in lilac light was the part of the game that most reminded me of…

I am no longer working in the world of counterterrorism where packing and strapping weapons were as common as me now carrying a laptop bag and phone charger to the office. These days, I am just a regular guy with a regular job who is raising a family in one of the safest towns in America, along with a bunch of other backyard dads who will hopefully never have to draw a weapon in self-defense. Still, the question comes up while hanging with these guys, “J.T., you’re probably a ‘gun guy,’ what do you carry for personal defense?” My not having a basement racked and stacked with weapons may surprise some of them. I don’t have a knife or gun or load for every hostile or threatening situation and I use…

THE LAST MOMENTS of the journey to Mars are the most dangerous. Strapped to her seat, the geologist tries not to picture what’s happening outside: entering Mars’s thin atmosphere at 16,000 mph. Each passenger was warned that the craft would “decelerate aerodynamically,” but the phrase doesn’t capture being pressed into their seats by more than five times Earth’s gravity. Six miles high, the atmosphere becomes thick enough to produce lift. The spaceship rotates its tail fins to tilt the nose up until it looks like a missile soaring backward across the Martian landscape. The engines flare to life a mile and a half above the surface, shedding enough speed to land safely. With another wiggle of its fins, the ship stands fully upright, engines aimed straight down and still roaring. It slowly…

F1 is properly back in vogue thanks to the Hamilton/Verstappen controversy of last year’s finale, Netflix’s Drive to Survive docu-series, and closer racing thanks to sweeping rule changes. Every team has managed to score championship points before the midway point of this season. Picking any one of these angles would be a great place to start for a racing game. So why does F1 22 start off by focusing on soft furnishings? Well. Remember the ‘live the life’ ethos of F1 2010? This game takes that to its logical conclusion, giving you an all-new living space for your multi-millionaire avatar, which you can kit out right away with furniture, wall hangings, and yes, dammit, soft furnishings of your choice. Other players can visit your space online and admire your race trophies,…

Just what is Germany’s Zeitenwende, the latest coinage in a language famous for its compound nouns? The “change in times” announced by the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, rolled like a thunderclap across a country that, since unification in 1990, had flourished on the benefits of the post-cold-war peace dividend, its status as Europe’s powerhouse economy and being de facto regulator of the single currency, calling the shots in eurozone squeezes. For obvious reasons of 20th-century experience, today’s federal republic is an entity more comfortable with its role as a proponent of restraint and cautious multilateralism than decisive action. The Ukraine crisis blew up that placidity. Last week, a newspaper leak revealed that a pledge by Scholz to supply a fully equipped army…

Fair winds, Your Majesty. I came to London for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral as I wanted to be part of it. We were down in Hyde Park to see all the flowers and pageantry. I had enormous respect for her, like most people did. She was a remarkable woman. Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to rub shoulders with the Royal Family, through my work with CLIC Sargent, the Chelsea Flower Show and Laurent Perrier. The Queen was always incredibly gracious and, of course, she loved horses so, me being Irish, we always had something to talk about. I thought her coming to Ireland in 2011 was a great moment, and I was happy to play a small role in that visit by linking her with the Coolmore Stud, which…

“WHAT HAS HAUNTED MY DREAMS FOR NEARLY 40 YEARS,” LOVECRAFT WROTE, “IS A STRANGE SENSE OF ADVENTUROUS EXPECTANCY CONNECTED WITH LANDSCAPE AND ARCHITECTURE AND SKY-EFFECTS….” A significant part of his imaginarium is made of memorable places: dreamed, imagined or re-imagined (i.e. based on the real ones). As Angela Carter noted in her essay “Lovecraft and Landscape,” “Lovecraft’s is an expressionist landscape of imminent dread; his very world is inimical to man….” These are some of the most striking cities, towns, deserts etc. which have haunted the dreams of his readers ever since. MORE-OR-LESS IMAGINARY PLACES ARKHAM – Vaguely corresponds to Salem in terms of atmosphere and style of houses, but is more hilly. It is the home of Miskatonic University. The town is prominently featured in Herbert West – Reanimator, “The Unnamable” and…

A few years ago, I made a $1000 reservation for a Tesla Model 3. I eventually canceled it, because I wanted the most basic, $35,000 iteration of the car and Tesla took so long getting around to making those that I gave up. But I like Tesla’s products. The Model X is goofy futuristic, the Model 3 is great fun, and the Model S can still smoke exotics in a drag race. I’ve never driven the Model Y, because that one came out after Tesla launched its PR department into orbit on a SpaceX rocket, but I bet it’s good too. So don’t take this the wrong way, Tesla super-fans, when I say that there could be trouble ahead for your favorite company. Tesla enjoyed more than a few years with…

Ogni mattina, Roberto si alza alle 4.30. Una ricca colazione, e poi subito in stalla. Ogni giorno si parte con il gregge verso l’alta montagna, lì dove ci sono i pascoli migliori. Si sale per qualche chilometro affrontando un ripido dislivello di 500 metri. Ad accompagnarlo ci sono i suoi cani, tre pastori dei Pirenei. Grandi, bianchi, sono fondamentali per difendere il gregge dai lupi che popolano quelle montagne e che spesso arrivano a “bussare” fino alla porta della stalla. Arrivato tra i pianori d’altura dove cresce un’erba ricchissima di decine di essenze e fiori profumati, Roberto lascia il suo gregge e torna indietro. «Le mie capre sono abituate a rimanere sole. Non si allontanano mai più di tanto. Sanno che a una certa ora torno a prenderle» ci racconta.…

Red sand shifts under the boots of the crew members. In the distance, it appears that a rocky mountain range is rising out of the Martian horizon. A thin layer of red dust coats the solar panels and equipment necessary for the year-long mission. However, this landscape isn’t actually 230m km away. We are in a corner of the Nasa Johnson Space Center in Houston, in a large white warehouse right next to the disc golf course and on the tram route used by tourists and school groups. Starting this June, four volunteer test subjects will spend a year locked inside this building, pretending to live on Mars. Nasa researchers say they are doing everything they can to make their Martian bunker as realistic as possible so they can learn the effects…

This year’s model of the Dell XPS 13 has been on a bit of a self-improvement kick – losing a little weight here, trimming a few millimetres there and getting the sort of internal upgrades that keep you up with the Joneses. The headlines are it’s slightly lighter, smaller and faster. But it’s more about evolution than revolution, and Dell isn’t offering the first-class features, such as OLED screens, that it did before. Those are now reserved for the flagship XPS 13 Plus. You probably won’t miss them, though, and the XPS 13 remains the ultralight model to beat. The cosmetic changes in the new XPS 13 are minimal, but they make the whole thing a smidge smaller. The updated model is slightly lighter at 1.17kg, down from 1.27kg. It’s slightly skinnier…

While browsing the gallery of convicts that form Darktide's character creator, I can't help but be reminded how different the human perspective of Warhammer 40K is. For most people, the towering Space Marine is their touchstone for this setting, clad in immaculate MK IV plate armour, inscribed with battle honours, and adorned with fluttering oath papers. There's nothing of that here. The closest thing these rejects have are their tattoos; symbols of hive gangs or ex-imperial Guard slogans etched in a shaky hand in the bowels of some prison ship, or the trenches of a forgotten warzone. This is the human reality of 40K, rarely seen beyond Black Library books, and I love that Darktide recognises that. Another thing I really like is the shovel. The moment I see it in…

By the time you read this, Black Friday should be upon us. Or it may be happening shortly, or it might have just have passed. It doesn’t make a great deal of difference, as you’ll also have the pre-Black Friday sales, the post-Black Friday sales, the pre-Christmas sales, Boxing Day sales and then the New Year sales to enjoy. Just last month, Amazon had its first ‘Early Access Sale’, AKA Prime Day 2. Soon, I predict, we will start having names for the increasingly rare days and weeks where there aren’t any sales going on. Taupe Wednesday, perhaps. Rich and ostentatious people could show off how wealthy they are by making all their purchases on Taupe Wednesday, the one day of the year when everything is full price, and you don’t…

While the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 may look like ‘Samsung does a MacBook Pro’, it can do stuff a MacBook can’t. You get a Samsung signature OLED, its touchscreen folds back by 360 degrees and it’s lighter. But is it a true killer for design pros? The Pro 360 is a big laptop, but not a heavy or thick one. It weighs 1.8kg, which, while fairly light for a 16-inch laptop, is not nearly as light as an Acer Swift Edge or LG Gram 16. However, we don’t mind: ultra-light laptops often have a slightly hollow feel to them. This is an altogether sturdier thing: it looks and feels the business. One part we’re not 100% down with, though, is that the hinge is a little too wobble-prone. This is what…

Owner of Mabelle Length: 23.8m Year: 2022 Location: Cannes After a lifetime of sailing yachts, you've bought a motor yacht… Until I discovered BOAT International and became a World Superyacht Awards judge, I didn't really think about motor yachts; they were just fast, noisy things. But in the last 11 or 12 years of being a judge, I have visited so many motor yachts and have learned to appreciate them. I have discovered that there is a way to maintain low noise, low speed and efficient consumption in a motor yacht. Then you reach a certain age when you must calculate a lot of things. My husband looks like a little boy, but he's no longer a boy. He lost his patience with sailing - the regattas, the organisation, the crew. He was tired of…

Active shooters aren’t a novel problem in the United States. The immediate aftermath of mass shootings sends minds reeling for solutions. Like any complex dilemma, any easy or pat answer you hear is unlikely to tell the entire story or be a panacea — but this article isn’t about criminal and ideological shooters in general or legislative and law enforcement responses, but about responding to one that’s near you in particular. And how to best survive and solve deadly force encounters. As a defender rather than a victimizer, the time and place of the initiation of violence isn’t up to you. The other guy virtually always gets the first vote. If there’s a shooting nearby, regardless of the motivation of the shooter, the common advice you’ll hear is to not involve…