Percentages: FG .404, FT .778. 3-Point Goals: 9-25, .360 (Ree 3-5, Newman 3-6, Abram 2-7, Cooper 1-3, Bates 0-1, Green 0-3). Team Rebounds: 5. Team Turnovers: None. Blocked Shots: 2 (Batcho, Newman). Turnovers: 10 (Newman 4, Batcho 2, Abram, Cooper, Green, Ree). Steals: 6 (Cooper 4, Abram, Allen). Technical Fouls: None. Percentages: FG .421, FT .667. 3-Point Goals: 6-29, .207 (Roumoglou 2-6, Walz 1-1, Graham 1-2, Hunt 1-5, Neskovic 1-5, Beagle 0-1, Tanner 0-1, Roche 0-3, Tyne 0-5). Team Rebounds: 3. Team Turnovers: 1. Blocked Shots: 2 (Roumoglou, Walz). Turnovers: 7 (Hunt 2, Roumoglou 2, Tyne 2, Beagle). Steals: 7 (Hunt 3, Roche 3, Tyne). Technical Fouls: None. A_451 (7,186).
Thomas scores 25 as Austin Peay defeats Georgia State 62-50By ERIC TUCKER WASHINGTON (AP) — A ninth U.S. telecoms firm has been confirmed to have been hacked as part of a sprawling Chinese espionage campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans, a top White House official said Friday. Biden administration officials said this month that at least eight telecommunications companies , as well as dozens of nations, had been affected by the Chinese hacking blitz known as Salt Typhoon. But Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technologies, told reporters Friday that a ninth victim had been identified after the administration released guidance to companies about how to hunt for Chinese culprits in their networks. The update from Neuberger is the latest development in a massive hacking operation that has alarmed national security officials, exposed cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the private sector and laid bare China’s hacking sophistication. The hackers compromised the networks of telecommunications companies to obtain customer call records and gain access to the private communications of “a limited number of individuals.” Though the FBI has not publicly identified any of the victims, officials believe senior U.S. government officials and prominent political figures are among those whose whose communications were accessed. Neuberger said officials did not yet have a precise sense how many Americans overall were affected by Salt Typhoon, in part because the Chinese were careful about their techniques, but a “large number” were in the Washington-Virginia area. Officials believe the goal of the hackers was to identify who owned the phones and, if they were “government targets of interest,” spy on their texts and phone calls, she said. The FBI said most of the people targeted by the hackers are “primarily involved in government or political activity.” Neuberger said the episode highlighted the need for required cybersecurity practices in the telecommunications industry, something the Federal Communications Commission is to take up at a meeting next month. “We know that voluntary cyber security practices are inadequate to protect against China, Russia and Iran hacking of our critical infrastructure,” she said. The Chinese government has denied responsibility for the hacking.
Mark Few likes No. 3 Gonzaga's toughness after win over future Pac-12 'partner' SDSUQatar tribune Matthew A Winkler Now that pollsters are declaring President Joe Biden a “failure,” historians will reckon with too many economic signals rendering the prevailing narrative little more than media noise. From the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 that ushered in the longest period of unemployment below 4% since the 1960s to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 that paved the way for road and bridge building, and from the Chips and Science Act of 2022 that sparked the biggest manufacturing construction boom the country has ever seen to 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act that has led to many tens of billions of investment in new technologies that are already leading to new sources of climate-friendly energy, history will show that the 46th president laid the groundwork for US exceptionalism lasting many years, perhaps even decades, after his administration has long ended. This is why the US economy is growing faster than any developed country as measured by the International Monetary Fund. It’s why America has been able to avoid a recession that so many pundits said would be inevitable by now. It’s why the US stock market is the envy of the world, soaring 58% percent under Biden’s watch, compared with just 2.5% for everyone else as measured by the MSCI indexes. Were he still around, economist John Maynard Keynes would surely call the performance of equities a psychological referendum on Biden’s policies. No US president in the last half century comes close to replicating Biden’s superior score among most of the 15 measures of relative prosperity weighted equally, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The 2.9% annual increase in non-farm payrolls, 7.9% nominal rate of annualized GDP growth, 14.1% increase in homeowners equity, 5.1% surge in average hourly earnings and the dollar’s 19% appreciation against a basket of major currencies are just some of the metrics that make Biden the uncontested economic leader. What makes this performance all the more remarkable is that Biden inherited the once-in-a-century COVID-19 pandemic that led to a catastrophic 1.12 million deaths in the US alone from his predecessor, President-elect Donald Trump. Remember that at the time of the 2020 election, a recovery from both the pandemic and the worst recession since the Great Depression presided over by Trump was still in doubt. Biden then delivered what had been largely missing for the previous two decades: fiscal stimulus. “If you look at the economy” before the pandemic “it was very low growth for 20 years,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon told the Economic Club of New York in April. “But if you look at the economy since then, it’s been booming.” (It was the first time in his career as the CEO of the No. 1 bank that Dimon used the word “booming” to describe the US) “The American consumer, even if we go into a recession, is much wealthier than before,” he added. “Debt service ratios are very low...their home prices are up; their stock prices are up.” Dimon should know because JPMorgan is one of 16-based US companies that make up the 20 most valuable in the world by stock market value, with most of their superior valuations occurring during the past three years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Investors are gladly paying a record 28% average premium to own American stocks, more than twice what they paid under Trump. Contrary to popular opinion, the Biden economy benefitted a wider swath of Americans. The poverty rate fell to 11.1%, the second lowest in data going back to 1973, according to the US Census Bureau. Also, the Gini Index of Income Inequality declined for two straight years, the first time that has happened since the early 1970s. Under Biden, household net worth has surged by an unprecedented $32.1 trillion through mid-2024. Americans are spending less than 10% of their incomes servicing debt, a record low in data going back to 1980 and excluding the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021 when many payments were put on hold. The problem for Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris was that all of these accomplishments were overshadowed by the sudden scourge of inflation due mostly, according to researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and elsewhere, to the pandemic-era disruption to the global supply chain under Trump, and a housing market that effectively “trapped” millions of Americans in place. Inflation is the more complicated story because although the rate of increase in the cost of goods and services has been tamed, as seen in the collapse in the Consumer Price Index from 9.1% in mid-2022 to the recent 2.7%, which is where it was under Trump, overall prices are higher. While wages have been rising faster than inflation since mid-2023, helping to explain why consumer spending has exceeded forecasts, it’s clear that the two years prior when earnings growth lagged behind inflation still weighs on the minds of voters. Never mind that inflation rates in the US have come down much faster and farther than just about anywhere else in the developed world. It’s also clear that Americans feel like the housing market is somehow “broken” despite the rising home prices referenced by Dimon and big gains in homeowners equity. The problem here is that in order to help get inflation under control, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate from near zero in early 2022 to as high as 5.5% last year. This led to a rise in 30-year mortgages from 3.25% to more than 7%. Existing home sales fell to levels last seen during the financial crisis as housing affordability measured by the National Association of Realtors collapsed. In effect, those who want to buy a home largely can’t and those who already own a home don’t want to sell and give up their low mortgage rates. There is light at the end of the housing tunnel. With inflation subsiding, the Fed has started to lower its target for the federal funds rate, and the cost of financing a home is starting to drop as well. A Mortgage Bankers Association index tracking loan applications to purchase a home just posted its biggest two-week increase since January 2023. Unfortunately for Biden and Harris, little of this context was shared with readers, listeners or viewers by corporate or social media. On the contrary, many disingenuous media overwhelmed the favorable outlook with misinformation that continues unabated from domestic and foreign perpetrators. It may not have mattered anyway. In many ways, Biden and Harris are victims of circumstances. Incumbents around the world are being ousted in elections by voters still scarred by the pandemic and looking to assign blame. Like Biden, Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson were former vice presidents who also shared much greater disapproval than approval from voters during their waning days in the White House. Only much later did Truman and Johnson garner a much greater appreciation for their handling of the economy. It’s likely to be the same with Biden. Matthew A. Winkler, editor in chief emeritus of Bloomberg News, writes about markets. Copy 24/12/2024 10
“THE CULT OF THE FOUNDER.” “THE CULT OF THE TECH GENIUS.” “Beware: Silicon Valley’s cultists want to turn you into a disruptive deviant.” “Tech’s cult of the founder bounces back.” “Silicon Valley’s Strange, Apocalyptic Cults.” “How the cult of personality and tech-bro culture is killing technology.” “Company or cult?” “Is your corporate culture cultish?” “The Cult of Company Culture Is Back. But Do Tech Workers Even Want Perks Anymore?” “10 tech gadgets with a cult following on Amazon—and why they’re worth it.” “13 steps to developing a cult-like company culture.” The headlines seem to write themselves (if that cliché is allowed anymore in the age of ChatGPT and generative AI). Tech is culty. But that is a metaphor, right? When I first saw Michael Saylor’s Twitter account, I wasn’t sure. Saylor is an entrepreneur, tech executive, and former billionaire. Once reportedly the richest man in the Washington, DC, area, he lost most of his $7 billion net worth in 2000 when, in his mid-30s, he reached a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission after it brought charges against him and two of his colleagues at a company called MicroStrategy for inaccurate reporting of their financial results. But I had no idea who he was back then. In 2021 Saylor started showing up in my Twitter feed. His profile picture showed a man with chiseled features, silver hair, and stubble sitting in a power pose and looking directly into the camera, a black dress shirt unbuttoned to display a generous amount of his neck. It was a typical tech entrepreneur’s publicity shot except for the lightning bolts blasting from his eyes, and the golden halo crown. Then there were his tweets: #Bitcoin is Truth. #Bitcoin is For All Mankind. #Bitcoin is Different. Trust the Timechain. Fiat [government-backed currency] is immoral. #Bitcoin is immortal. #Bitcoin is a shining city in cyberspace, waiting for you. #Bitcoin is the heartbeat of Planet Earth. As MIT’s humanist chaplain, I follow a lot of ministers, rabbis, imams, and monks online. Very few religious leaders would dare to be this religious on social media. They know that few of their readers want to see such hubris. Why, then, does there seem to be an audience for this seemingly cultish behavior from a cryptocurrency salesman? Are tech leaders like Saylor leading actual cults? According to Bretton Putter, an expert on startups and CEO of the consulting firm CultureGene, this needn’t be a major concern: “It’s pretty much impossible,” Putter writes, “for a business to become a full-blown cult.” And if a tech company or other business happens to resemble a cult, that might just be a good thing, he argues: “If you succeed in building a cultlike culture similar to the way that Apple, Tesla, Zappos, Southwest Airlines, Nordstrom, and Harley-Davidson have, you will experience loyalty, dedication, and commitment from your employees (and customers) that is way beyond the norm.” Are the cultlike aspects of tech companies really that benign? Or should we be worried? To find the answer, I interviewed Steve Hassan, a top expert on exit counseling, or helping people escape destructive cults. At age 19, while he was studying poetry at Queens College in New York City in the early 1970s, Hassan was recruited into the Unification Church—the famously manipulative cult also known as the Moonies. Over his next 27 months as a member of the church, Hassan helped with its fundraising, recruiting, and political efforts, which involved personally meeting with the cult leader Sun Myung Moon multiple times. He lived in communal housing, slept only a few hours a night, and sold carnations on street corners seven days a week for no pay. He was told to drop out of college and turn his bank account over to the church. In 1976, he fell asleep at the wheel while driving a Moonie fundraising van and drove into the back of a tractor-trailer at high speed. He called his sister from the hospital, and his parents hired former members to help “deprogram” him and extract him from the cult. After the Jonestown mass suicide and murders of 1978 brought attention to the lethal dangers of cult mind control, Hassan founded a nonprofit organization, Ex-Moon Inc. Since then, he’s earned a handful of graduate degrees (including a doctorate in the study of cults), started numerous related projects, and written a popular book on how practices with which he is all too familiar have crept into the mainstream of US politics in recent years. (That 2019 book, , seemed even more relevant in early 2024, when a video called “God Made Trump” went viral across the campaign trail.) Hassan even found himself advising Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin, leader of the second impeachment trial against Donald Trump, in 2021, on how to think and communicate about the cultish aspects of the violent mob of Trump followers who stormed the Capitol on January 6 of that year. I wanted to ask Hassan what he makes of the discourse around tech cults, but first it’s important to understand how he thinks about cults in the first place. Hassan’s dissertation was titled “The BITE Model of Authoritarian Control: Undue Influence, Thought Reform, Brainwashing, Mind Control, Trafficking, and the Law.” The idea was to create a model that could measure cult exploitation and manipulation, or what Hassan and other experts in related fields call “undue influence.” His BITE model looks to evaluate the ways social groups and institutions attempt to control followers’ behavior, information access, thoughts, and emotions. Because there is no one quintessential, Platonic definition of a cult, what matters is where a given instance of potential cultishness falls on an “influence continuum.” In this continuum model, Hassan evaluates the ways in which institutional cultures attempt to influence people. To what extent are individuals allowed to be their authentic selves or required to adopt a false cult identity? Are leaders accountable to others, or do they claim absolute authority? Do organizations encourage growth in the people who participate in them, or do they seek to preserve their own power over all else? While any kind of person or group can struggle with some of the dimensions on Hassan’s continuum chart (which lists constructive behaviors at one end and destructive behaviors at the other), healthier organizations will tend toward constructive responses more of the time, whereas unhealthier institutions—those more truly worthy of the cult label in the most negative sense—will tend toward destructive responses such as grandiosity, hate, demands for obedience, elitism, authoritarianism, deceptiveness, or hunger for power. It turns out that there are some real, meaningful similarities between cults and tech, according to Hassan. “This is the perfect mind-control device,” he told me, holding up his iPhone. He explained that when he joined the Moonies in 1974, cult recruiters had to get information from the victim. Now, he said, users of everyday technologies are sitting ducks: “There are 5,000 data points on every voting American in the dark web, and there are companies that will collect and sell that data.” The first time Hassan was told about cryptocurrency, he added, it smacked of multilevel marketing to him. The proposition that you can make a fortune in a very short amount of time, with almost no labor, was something he had seen many times in his work. As was the idea that if you become an early investor in such a scheme, you’ll make more money if you recruit more people to join you. “The people who started it are always going to make 99% of the money,” Hassan said. And as in the cults that recruited him and continue to recruit the kinds of people who ultimately become his clients, “everyone else is going to get burned.” All of this would certainly seem to explain why I so frequently hear from people, eager for me to know they are fellow atheists, who tell me to buy some bitcoin because it will rewire my neurons and cure me of the woke mind virus. Of course, it should be noted that some scholars have complained about Hassan’s work, arguing that brainwashing and mind control are concepts for which there is not sufficient evidence. But I’m not claiming that tech uses literal brainwashing, nor is it like when a character in a episode hears “You are getting very sleepy” and then their eyes become squiggles. Hassan probably wouldn’t say so either. Companies don’t need to go to such extremes to exert undue influence on us, though. And as is clear from the headlines I cited above, a lot of companies have been accused of, or associated with, a bit of cultishness. I won’t attempt to evaluate anyone’s cultish tendencies on a scale of 1 to 10. But I see crypto sales techniques as a particularly good example of cultlike behavior, because if there’s one thing cults need to be good at to sustain their existence, it’s separating people from their wallets. Cryptocurrency has specialized in that to extraordinary effect. It’s all a continuum, and it would be hard to find a person whose life is completely devoid of anything cultish, technological or otherwise. But as a culture, we are careening dangerously toward the wrong end of Hassan’s chart. Or to quote a Michael Saylor tweet, “We all stumble in the dark until we see the cyber light. #Bitcoin.” : How Technology Became the World’s Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation.
IFFI 2024: Ranbir Kapoor On Portrayal Of Violence In His Blockbuster Animal: "This Is Our Responsibility To Bring Movies..."NORMAN, Okla. – Oklahoma appears to have borrowed from the past to cure its recent offensive ills. The Sooners , best known this century for a passing prowess that has produced four Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks, took it back to the 20th century against then-No. 7 Alabama. Oklahoma ran 50 times for 257 yards while only throwing 12 times in a 24-3 win over the Crimson Tide that took coach Brent Venables off the hot seat. The Sooners more resembled Barry Switzer’s squads that dominated the old Big 8 with the wishbone offense in the 1970s and ’80s than the more recent Air Raid teams. Recommended Videos Venables said the change was a matter of necessity for a unit that has been besieged by injuries at receiver and offensive line. “I think this staff has done a really good job with trying to figure that out, get better every week, put together a great gameplan but also figure out, ‘OK, what does this group of guys, what does this team — what do we need to do?'” Venables said. To make it work, Oklahoma needed to trust that such a change would work in the modern Southeastern Conference. They had to implement it with an interim play-caller in Joe Jon Finley, who stepped in after the Sooners fired Seth Littrell last month. Oklahoma (6-5, 2-5 SEC) pulled it off, and LSU coach Brian Kelly has taken notice ahead of their game on Saturday. “This is now much more about controlling the football, running the football, playing with physicality," Kelly said. "They've got perimeter skill, but I think it's centered around much more of a run-centric, quarterback run and take care of the football." The Sooners started to see success on the ground against Maine. They ran 52 times for 381 yards in a 59-14 win that got the wheels turning. Jovantae Barnes ran for career highs of 203 yards and three touchdowns that day. Venables said the timing of the opportunity to play that non-conference game against Maine in early November and figure some things out was perfect. “Everybody has some degree of vulnerability and maybe some self-doubt,” he said. “And just developing some confidence and putting something on tape other than practice, like, ‘Man, look, see what you’re capable of?’ And executing against, again, a well-coached team — certainly, we played off of that in all the right ways like you would expect us to. And so there’s a real place for that.” After a bye week, the Sooners tried the same approach against Missouri. It wasn't as successful — they ran 36 times for 122 yards — but they hung tough before losing 30-23 . The Sooners went all in against Alabama. Jackson Arnold — the same guy who threw 45 times in the Alamo Bowl last year, ran 25 times for 131 yards and threw just 11 passes. The Sooners found something in running back Xavier Robinson. With Barnes out with an injury, Robinson carried 18 times for career highs of 107 yards and two touchdowns. Suddenly, a team that had been forcing the pass and getting sacked at an alarming rate was moving the line of scrimmage and controlling the tempo. Oklahoma had the ball for more than 34 minutes against the Crimson Tide, lending support to a talented defense that had been spending way too much time on the field. The new approach could be helpful on Saturday — LSU (7-4, 4-3) ranks 14th out of 16 conference teams against the run. Venables said the Sooners still need to throw the ball well to win, but he's glad to know his squad can run with force when necessary. “I think that’s the art of having a system that’s adjustable, flexible, adaptable, week in and week out, but also has an identity — toughness, physicality," he said. "You’ve got to be able to run the ball at every level of football, but you do have to throw it. You can’t just do one thing. But we need to be efficient.” ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
Northwestern women blank Saint Joseph's 5-0 to win second national championship in field hockey
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Penn State players have watched Ashton Jeanty make opponents look silly all season. They don't want to be the next defenders Boise State’s star posterizes with jukes, spin moves, stiff arms and heavy shoulders. But they also know that slowing down Jeanty, who finished second in Heisman Trophy voting , will be their toughest task yet when the two teams meet in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal Fiesta Bowl on Dec. 31. “In any other year, I think the guy wins the Heisman,” Penn State coach James Franklin said. “You could make the argument that he should have won it this year. He is hard to tackle. He is compact, 5-(foot)-10, he has the ability to run away from you. He has the ability to make you miss.” Jeanty led the nation with 2,497 rushing yards on 344 carries this season. He scored more touchdowns (30) than any player since Najee Harris scored 30 times with Alabama in 2020. Additionally, Jeanty’s yards after contact (1,889) exceed every FBS running backs’ rushing total since Oklahoma State’s Chuba Hubbard led the NCAA with 2,094 total rushing yards in 2019. Jeanty also forced an NCAA-record 143 missed tackles this season. The junior did it all behind an offensive line that has been forced to shuffle its parts in the wake of numerous injuries. Only left tackle Kage Casey and left guard Ben Dooley have started every game up front for the Broncos this season. “He’s a beast in terms of his production on the field, but then also his durability,” Franklin said. “There’s not too many people that are able to get clean shots on him. All of it is super impressive. But I think the stat that I mentioned earlier, the most impressive stat is the yards after contact.” This could be Jeanty’s biggest challenge to date, too. Although he’s helped Boise State churn out 250 rushing yards per game, good for fifth among FBS programs, the Nittany Lions are well stocked to defend the run. Their defense is seventh nationally allowing just 100 rushing yards per game and has tightened up down the stretch. In its last six games, Penn State is allowing just 2.7 yards per rush and has only given up three rushing touchdowns, two coming in the Big Ten championship game against No. 1 Oregon. “They’ve had our backs throughout the whole year,” Penn State quarterback Drew Allar said. “They have made me a lot better throughout the year, just going against the best defense in America and just glad I got to go against them every day in practice and not against them out on the field in a game setting.” In the opening round of the CFP, Penn State held SMU to just 58 rushing yards on 36 carries. Meanwhile, the Nittany Lions notched 11 of their 50 tackles for loss over the last six games against the Mustangs. Most of those came from a defensive line that regularly rotates run-stuffing tackles Zane Durant, Dvon J-Thomas and Coziah Izzard between dynamic ends Abdul Carter and Dani Dennis-Sutton. Carter alone has 21 1/2 of his team’s 102 stops behind the line of scrimmage this year. He's hoping to add a few against Jeanty and stay off the star back's own long-running highlight reel. “I’m living in my dreams,” Carter said. “I’m having the most fun I ever had playing football and I’ve been playing since I was 8 years old. I’m very blessed. I’m just very humbled to have this opportunity. I just want to keep taking advantage of all the opportunities that I have.” Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballExciting Developments for AMD Fans AMD is making waves as it prepares to launch a new lineup of CPUs and GPUs. The tech community is abuzz with anticipation for the release early next year, sending AMD’s stock up by 4.76%. The spotlight is on AMD’s rumored Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D CPUs, in addition to the highly anticipated RDNA 4 GPUs, specifically the RX 9070 XT. These innovations are expected to redefine performance standards in gaming and content creation. Unleashing the Power of Ryzen 9 9950X3D The upcoming Ryzen 9 9950X3D is designed to impress. It will feature enhanced clock speeds to handle demanding applications with ease, complemented by AI-boosted performance. Users can look forward to a turbo boost reaching up to 5.70 GHz, offering unprecedented speed. Its 16 cores and 32 threads ensure users can tackle gaming, content creation, and multitasking efficiently. Built using a 4 nm process, it promises energy efficiency with reduced heat output, a big plus for tech enthusiasts. Revolutionary RDNA 4 GPUs AMD’s unveiling of the RX 9000 series starts with the RX 9070 XT GPU, set to transform gaming graphics. With improved ray tracing capabilities, it aims to deliver stunningly realistic lighting and shadow effects. The graphics card is expected to have a clock speed up to 3.0 GHz and improved power efficiency, making it perfect for extended use in gaming systems or editing suites. These upcoming releases not only satisfy the growing demands of tech users but also signal promising financial prospects for AMD. AMD’s Next-Gen Breakthroughs: What You Need to Know Embracing Next-Gen Tech: AMD’s Upcoming Lineup AMD fans and tech enthusiasts are eagerly anticipating a new wave of cutting-edge CPUs and GPUs set for release early next year. This surge of innovation is fueling excitement in the tech community and driving AMD stock prices up by 4.76%. The anticipated Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D CPUs, along with the RDNA 4 GPUs like the RX 9070 XT, promise to set new performance benchmarks in gaming and content creation. Ryzen 9 9950X3D: Unmatched Performance and Energy Efficiency The Ryzen 9 9950X3D stands poised to redefine processing power. Boasting a turbo boost capability reaching up to 5.70 GHz, this CPU is tailored for demanding applications, aided by AI-boosted performance for enhanced efficiency. Featuring 16 cores and 32 threads, it is designed for high-intensity gaming and content creation, seamlessly handling multitasking. Manufactured with a 4 nm process, this CPU offers energy efficiency and reduced heat output, catering to the needs of sustainable tech solutions. RDNA 4 GPUs: Elevating Graphics to New Heights The forthcoming RX 9070 XT GPU from AMD’s RX 9000 series promises significant advancements in gaming graphics, with an emphasis on improved ray tracing capabilities. These enhancements intend to deliver hyper-realistic lighting and shadow effects, elevating the visual gaming experience. Clock speeds are expected to reach up to 3.0 GHz, with improved power efficiency perfect for prolonged gaming sessions or intensive editing tasks. AMD’s Path to Market Leadership: Insights and Predictions These anticipated releases not only aim to meet the growing expectations of tech users but also forecast a promising financial horizon for AMD. Market analysts predict these innovations will solidify AMD’s position as a leader in the CPU and GPU markets, potentially attracting a broader customer base and boosting the company’s market share. Sustainability and Innovation at AMD AMD’s commitment to sustainability is highlighted by the 4 nm process technology, which promises energy-efficient operations. This innovative manufacturing process reflects AMD’s dedication to reducing environmental impact while delivering high-performance technology. For more information about AMD and its product offerings, visit the official AMD website .
As Americans are beyond burned out, Tricia Hersey’s Nap Ministry preaches the right to restSir Keir Starmer has paid tribute to his “wonderful” brother Nick, who has died aged 60 after suffering from cancer. The Prime Minister said his younger brother, who had learning difficulties because of complications at birth, had met “all the challenges life threw at him with courage and good humour”. He died peacefully on Boxing Day, according to the Prime Minister’s spokesman. The Prime Minister had been due to go on holiday with his family on Friday, but it is understood that he will now remain at home, and hopes to join them later. Sir Keir said in a statement: “My brother Nick was a wonderful man. “He met all the challenges life threw at him with courage and good humour. We will miss him very much. “I would like to thank all those who treated and took care of Nick. Their skill and compassion is very much appreciated.” Sir Keir spoke candidly about his brother in a recent biography written by journalist and former Labour Party adviser Tom Baldwin. While growing up in Surrey, the brothers shared a bunk bed in a room with an airing cupboard, and “just enough space for a couple of small desks where we’d do our homework”. The biography recorded how each child of the Starmer family was given a dog for their 10th birthday, and Nick and his twin sister Katy received Jack Russell terriers called Greg and Ben. The book also described how their mother, Jo, had taught Nick to read, but Sir Keir remembered how the school described his brother as “remedial”. Sir Keir, the middle child of four siblings, said: “They had no expectation of him or anything and I’m not sure he even sat exams, so he had nothing to show for coming out of education. “We were a family of six, so it didn’t feel lonely and I shared a room with him, but Nick didn’t have many friends and got called ‘thick’ or ‘stupid’ by other kids.” He added: “Even now I try to avoid using words like that to describe anyone.” Nick worked on scrap cars and scaffolding, earning enough money to rent a home near where he had grown up, according to the book. It said Sir Keir was best man at Nick’s wedding, and the now Prime Minister recalled borrowing a car so his brother was not “driving his bride from the church in his beaten-up minivan, which had all his clothes in the back”. The marriage ended and Nick lived for some time in Yorkshire. In 2022, Sir Keir stepped away from local election campaigning to make several hospital visits to see his brother, who was seriously ill at the time. The Prime Minister also spoke about Nick in his speech at this year’s Labour Party conference in Liverpool. As he described his early encounters with art and culture, and the need to remove social barriers, Sir Keir told delegates: “My brother, who had difficulties learning, he didn’t get those opportunities. “Every time I achieved something in my life, my dad used to say, ‘Your brother has achieved just as much as you, Keir’. “And he was right. I still believe that.” Mr Baldwin, writing for The Times on Friday, recalled the moment in 2023 that he learned from Sir Keir that his brother was dying of lung cancer. He wrote: “This has been a huge part of his life over the past couple of years, during which he made regular trips to Leeds where his brother was in hospital. “Even during the election campaign and since he entered Downing Street, Starmer has continued to visit without a camera crew in sight. “He got to know the staff treating his brother so well that he could recite all their names and they would let him into the hospital through a back door so that there would be no publicity.” Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch was among those in the world of politics to offer their condolences. She wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “This is such awful news. Particularly devastating at Christmas time. “My sincere condolences to Keir Starmer and all his family.” Irish premier Simon Harris wrote: “My sincere sympathy to Keir Starmer and his family on such sad news. “They are in my thoughts at this difficult time.”
Penn State preparing for hard-charging Jeanty and Boise State in CFP quarterfinals
In her new book, “We Will Rest! The Art of Escape,” the author and academic says you too can flee the toxic grind culture.
OTTAWA — Two senior members of the federal cabinet were in Florida Friday pushing Canada's new border plan with Donald Trump's transition team, a day after Trudeau himself appeared to finally push back at the president-elect over his social media posts about turning Canada into the 51st state. Both Trudeau and former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney, who Trudeau has been courting to become Canada's next finance minister, shared posts on X Thursday, a day after Trump's latest jab at Canada in his Christmas Day message. It isn't clear if Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who has repeatedly insisted Trump's 51st state references are a joke, will raise the issue with Trump's team when he and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly meet with them in Palm Beach. The two are there to discuss Canada's new $1.3 billion border plan with just under four weeks left before Trump is sworn in again as president. He has threatened to impose a new 25 per cent import tariff on Canada and Mexico the same day over concerns about a trade imbalance, as well as illegal drugs and migration issues at the borders. The broad strokes of Canada's plan were made public Dec. 17, including a new aerial intelligence task force to provide round-the-clock surveillance of the border, and improved efforts using technology and canine teams to seek out drugs in shipments leaving Canada LeBlanc's spokesman, Jean-Sébastien Comeau, said the ministers will also emphasize the negative impacts of Trump's threatened tariffs on both Canada and the U.S. Comeau said the ministers will build on the discussions that took place last month when Trudeau and LeBlanc met Trump at Mar-a-Lago just days after Trump first made his tariff threat. It was at that dinner on Nov. 29 when Trump first raised the notion of Canada becoming the 51st state, a comment LeBlanc has repeatedly since insisted was just a joke. But Trump has continued the quip repeatedly in various social media posts, including in his Christmas Day message when he said Canadians would pay lower taxes and have better military protection if they became Americans. He has taken to calling Trudeau "governor" instead of prime minister. Trudeau had not directly responded to any of the jabs, but on Thursday posted a link to a six-minute long video on YouTube from 2010 in which American journalist Tom Brokaw "explains Canada to Americans." The video, which originally aired during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, explains similarities between the two countries, including their founding based on immigration, their trading relationship and the actions of the Canadian Army in World War 2 and other modern conflicts. "In the long history of sovereign neighbours there has never been a relationship as close, productive and peaceful as the U.S. and Canada," Brokaw says in the video. Trudeau did not expand about why he posted a link to the video, posting it only with the words "some information about Canada for Americans." Carney, who is at the centre of some of Trudeau's recent domestic political troubles, also called out Trump's antics on X Thursday, calling it "casual disrespect" and "carrying the 'joke' too far." "Time to call it out, stand up for Canada, and build a true North American partnership," said Carney, who Trudeau was courting to join his cabinet before Chrystia Freeland resigned as finance minister last week. Freeland's sudden departure, three days after Trudeau informed her he would be firing her as finance minister in favour of Carney, left Trudeau's leadership even more bruised than it already was. Despite the expectation Carney would assume the role, he did not and has not made any statements about it. LeBlanc was sworn in as finance minister instead the same day Freeland quit. More than two dozen Liberal MPs have publicly called on Trudeau to resign as leader, and Trudeau is said to be taking the holidays to think about his next steps. He is currently vacationing in British Columbia. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 27, 2024. Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press