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The Palomar Hotel had just opened in 1929, ready to celebrate the 1930 new year. (Ross Eric Gibson collection) The Town Clock had to stop its tolling so visitors to the new Palomar Hotel could sleep through the night. (Ross Eric Gibson collection). New Year’s parties, dancing and toasting took on different features throughout Santa Cruz County. (Public domain) With the large Scottish population, Ben Lomond celebrated “Hogmanay” for New Year’s. (Ross Eric Gibson collection). Did an angel ring the dead bell in the clock tower on New Year’s, 1930? (Ross Eric Gibson collection) The Palomar Hotel had just opened in 1929, ready to celebrate the 1930 new year. (Ross Eric Gibson collection) New Year’s Eve traditions have been long popular in Santa Cruz, from dancing and feasting, toasting the new year with a drink, a kiss for good luck, and making a racket to ward off evil spirits and bad luck. The Town Clock now stands at Clock Tower Plaza, which has become a focus for our New Year’s traditions. But when the Town Clock was at a different location, it seemed to have had a life of its own on the eve of the Great Depression. Andy Balich wanted the most beautiful hotel in Santa Cruz, back when beauty was an important part of architecture. Groundbreaking for the Palomar Hotel was Dec. 6, 1928, then nine months later, on Sept. 7, 1929, the Palomar Hotel opened to the public. The elegant Spanish art deco masterpiece was designed by Watsonville architect William Weeks, a seven-story building that the Santa Cruz News called “Santa Cruz’s first skyscraper.” The hotel became a hive of events, with a new program every Saturday. Yet visitors who spent the night complained that the Town Clock on the neighboring Odd Fellows Building, tolled round the clock. The Odd Fellows club agreed to let the tolling mechanism run down so it would still tell the time but made it impossible to sound the hour. The Palomar hosted a New Year’s dinner-dance for 300 in its mezzanine ballroom, to a popular jazz band. When midnight came, 1930 was ushered-in with squeaky horns, the clack of spinning noise makers and shouts of “Happy New Year!” Then people heard an odd sound over the din. To the disbelief of many, the dead bell in the town clock tower began to toll, which was bizarre enough in itself, but it tolled 13 times. The question in the local papers was “Who Rang the Bell?” When a woman repeated this question to her friend, her 4-year-old daughter chimed in, “I know, mommy! An angel rang that bell!” “Why do you think that?,” the mother asked. And with a sense of the obvious, the little girl replied, “Well, only an angel could reach so high!” My aunt Gloria Kaas recalled this story. And in fact, an angel did make sense. For after the hotel opened in September, the stock market crashed the economy on Oct. 29, 1929, plunging America into the Great Depression. It would take an angel’s intervention to keep the hotel afloat. In 1933, the $360,000 hotel was sold at auction from the steps of the courthouse for $90,000 to its bondholders. Four months later the leaseholder closed the hotel to sell off its fixtures, but Balich stopped him and became the new 10-year lease holder, eventually becoming the sole owner of his hotel in 1941. Thanks to Balich, his dream survived a rocky start. Over the years, Santa Cruz held special New Year’s Eve parties in its finest buildings. In 1861-62, from the rooftop of the Otto-Trust Brick Building on Front Street, came music from a modern all-saxophone band. This included alto, tenor, baritone and bass saxophone, but also a deep contrabass, and the higher soprano and sopranino saxes without a bent bell. People were used to brass bands but not to reed instruments with a loud voice. The Germania was a German-language hotel, first on Front Street, then in a new building called the Santa Cruz Hotel. It featured brass oom-pah bands and beer served from barrels. The Arian Singing Society on the other hand, brought the German classics to life at Arian Hall on Front Street above Soquel Avenue. These became features of German New Year celebrations. The Vienna Beer Gardens was a family friendly venue at the corner of Ocean Street and Soquel Avenue. It had an open-air dancing pavilion, playground equipment in a park setting beside Branciforte Creek, and beer with picnic-style lunches. Our first true luxury hotel was the 1866 Pacific Ocean House at the corner of Pacific Avenue and Plaza Lane. It hosted a ball for 150 of the most respectable people in high fashion finery, dancing to a ballroom orchestra. Meanwhile the castle-like Armory building at Front and Soquel Avenue, was known for years for its New Year’s Masquerade Ball, where one didn’t unmask until midnight. In the 1890s, the Sea Beach Hotel on Beach Hill hosted grand balls to popular dance bands, and the new St. George Hotel hosted a dinner dance in its dining room. The Boardwalk Casino became the largest ballroom and banquet hall in town for New Year’s parties. Fraternal organizations held their own dinner dances for members in their club rooms. Watch Night parties were at homes or in social halls. Historian Ernest Otto recalled from his 1870s childhood, that the parties included popping corn, pulling taffy and playing card games or board games. The Christmas tree would be cut into small branches because for safety reasons, you wouldn’t want a piece sticking out of the fireplace. One by one, people were solicited to toss a branch into the fire to represent something they didn’t want to bring into the new year. They could announce what it was or say it was private. The purpose was to keep the fire burning from sunset to midnight. Some played a memorization game where people sat in a circle and said “I went to Grandmother’s house and gave her ...” and would mention a gift, either practical or fantastical. The next person repeated the line, a new gift and the previous one. Each person had to remember all the previous gifts and was eliminated for forgetting a gift or its order, until there was only one person left who remembered all the gifts. The song “The 12 Days of Christmas” is suspected to have started as a memorization song, once including random absurd gifts invented on the spot to defy memorization. At midnight, all the doors were opened to usher the old year out and the new year in. Everyone went on their porches and sounded horns and cow bells to drive away misfortune. In the distance one could hear the revelry from many different quarters. Factory whistles blared from the town’s three tanneries and mills near Cathcart, plus the depot and Beach Hill. A great clanging came from the 12 churches clustered around Churchside (the junction of Lincoln and Center streets). Some churches held special New Year’s services. Then they would toll their bells, which sometimes took 15 or 20 minutes, as the kids lined up to get their turn ringing the big bell. Up on Mission Hill were heard the bells of Temperance Hall, Holy Cross School, Mission Hill Public School, the Leslie Building firebell, the Catholic boy’s school and Holy Cross Church. Many had a church banquet or potluck after midnight. If you didn’t want to get dressed up to celebrate, you went to the local saloons. Downtown Santa Cruz had its “Famous 55” saloons in a three-block area. These were a sign of prosperity, not for their quality (some were dives, others were gentlemen’s clubs). But the success of the lumber, leather, lime and gunpowder industries meant more workingmen employed, coming to town on weekends to spend their paychecks on provisions, whiskey, gambling and women. Temperance Hall on Mission Hill Grade provided non-alcoholic, family friendly New Year’s entertainment. Soquel had the first Temperance Society in California, founded in 1848, and Santa Cruz developed nearly 10 clubs by the time Temperance Hall was constructed in 1861. Some of the San Lorenzo Valley’s large Scottish population celebrated “Hogmanay.” When the Scotch Presbyterians banned Christmas in Scotland in the 1600s, the Scotts simply moved their Christmas traditions to New Year’s Eve, some of which became American New Year’s traditions. Below Ben Lomond was a 300-acre resort called “Rowardennan” (“Enchanted Forest”). It was one of the last to keep the area’s “Hogmanay” celebration, reminiscent of the Christmas Bracebridge Dinner held at Yosemite’s Ahwahnee Lodge. Rowardennan’s rustic ballroom had the look of a Highland’s hunting lodge, with deer and elk heads watching from the walls, and evergreen bunting. A large riverstone fireplace dominated one wall. A boy on a Yule log was ceremoniously carried in to bagpipe music. While drinking a toast, a cup of spirits was poured on the log, which was lit with a piece of the previous year’s log. This fire was not allowed to go out before the new year. The evening began with a banquet. Desert was “New Year’s cakes”: scones (oat cakes), nut and caraway shortbread and black buns. After dinner was a concert of Highland songs and dances, followed by a square dance. The first guest of the new year was a bachelor called the “First Footer,” who arrived at midnight. He brought “wisemen gifts” of a coin, bread and a log, symbolizing prosperity, food and warmth. Some combined these gifts into a log shaped cake with a coin hidden in it. Toasting was usually reserved for Champagne, wine, or brandy. The term “toasting” came from Wassail, an ale-and-sherry punch with cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger, plus pieces of toast floating in the bowl to keep the spice sediments down. It was a popular drink for Christmas, New Year’s and Epiphany (12th Night). Stephen and Luigi Martinelli started a Watsonville soda water business in 1861 and in 1865 created non-alcoholic Orange Champagne. Their Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider has become the universal non-alcoholic holiday drink. The longtime mystery of the angel who rang the clock tower bell in 1930 wasn’t solved until about 1970. Whitney Hardware store was in the Odd Fellows Building in 1929, and Rolla, the owner’s son, persuaded the elderly night watchman Thompson to leave the trap door to the tower unlocked on New Year’s Eve. Rolla and Barbara Clay made their way into the belfry and triggered the hammer mechanism by hand which rang the bell, although they lost count and the bell struck 13. So the angels were a couple of kids driving off misfortune with their own clocktower noisemaker, as an excuse to steal a New Year’s kiss.MILWAUKEE (AP) — Themus Fulks' 26 points helped Milwaukee defeat IU Indianapolis 88-81 on Sunday. Fulks also contributed five rebounds and five assists for the Panthers (10-4, 3-0 Horizon League). Kentrell Pullian scored 20 points while going 5 of 9 from the floor, including 4 for 7 from 3-point range, and 6 for 8 from the line. Erik Pratt shot 5 for 9, including 1 for 4 from beyond the arc to finish with 11 points. Sean Craig led the way for the Jaguars (5-10, 1-3) with 22 points, eight rebounds and four steals. Paul Zilinskas added 21 points and three steals for IU Indianapolis. Jarvis Walker finished with 12 points and four assists. Milwaukee's next game is Thursday against Oakland on the road. IU Indianapolis hosts Youngstown State on Wednesday. ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by and data from . The Associated PressDoctored images have been around for decades. The term "Photoshopped" is part of everyday language. But in recent years, it has seemingly been replaced by a new word: deepfake. It's almost everywhere online, but you likely won't find it in your dictionary at home. What exactly is a deepfake, and how does the technology work? RELATED STORY | Scripps News Reports: Sex, Lies, and Deepfakes A deepfake is an image or video that has been generated by artificial intelligence to look real. Most deepfakes use a type of AI called a "diffusion model." In a nutshell, a diffusion model creates content by stripping away noise. "With diffusion models, they found a very clever way of taking an image and then constructing that procedure to go from here to there," said Lucas Hansen said. He and Siddharth Hiregowdara are cofounders of CivAI, a nonprofit educating the public on the potential — and dangers — of AI. How diffusion models work It can get complicated, so imagine the AI – or diffusion model – as a detective trying to catch a suspect. Like a detective, it relies on its experience and training. It recalls a previous case -– a sneaky cat on the run. Every day it added more and more disguises. On Monday, no disguise. Tuesday, it put on a little wig. Wednesday, it added some jewelry. By Sunday, it's unrecognizable and wearing a cheeseburger mask. The detective learned these changes can tell you what it wore and on what day. AI diffusion models do something similar with noise, learning what something looks like at each step. "The job of the diffusion model is to remove noise," Hiregowdara said. "You would give the model this picture, and then it will give you a slightly de-noised version of this picture." RELATED STORY | Scripps News got deepfaked to see how AI could impact elections When it's time to solve the case and generate a suspect, we give it a clue: the prompts we give when we create an AI-generated image. "We have been given the hint that this is supposed to look like a cat. So what catlike things can we see in here? Okay, we see this curve, maybe that's an ear," Hiregowdara said. The "detective" works backward, recalling its training. It sees a noisy image. Thanks to the clue, it is looking for a suspect — a cat. It subtracts disguises (noise) until it finds the new suspect. Case closed. Now imagine the "detective" living and solving crimes for years and years. It learns and studies everything — landscapes, objects, animals, people, anything at all. So when it needs to generate a suspect or an image, it remembers its training and creates an image. Deepfakes and faceswaps Many deepfake images and videos employ some type of face swapping technology. You've probably experienced this kind of technology already — faceswapping filters like on Snapchat, Instagram or Tiktok use technology similar to diffusion models, recognizing faces and replacing things in real time. "It will find the face in the image and then cut that out kind of, then take the face and convert it to its internal representation," Hansen said. The results are refined then repeated frame by frame. The future and becoming our own detectives As deepfakes become more and more realistic and tougher to detect, understanding how the technology works at a basic level can help us prepare for any dangers or misuse. Deepfakes have already been used to spread election disinformation, create fake explicit images of a teenager, even frame a principal with AI-created racist audio. "All the netizens on social media also have a role to play," Siwei Lyu said. Lyu is a SUNY Empire Innovation Professor at the University of Buffalo's Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and the director of the Media Forensics Lab. His team has created a tool to help spot deepfakes called "DeepFake-o-meter." "We do not know how to handle, how to deal, with these kinds of problems. It's very new. And also requires technical knowledge to understand some of the subtleties there," Lyu said. "The media, the government, can play a very active role to improve user awareness and education. Especially for vulnerable groups like seniors, the kids, who will start to understand the social media world and start to become exposed to AI technologies. They can easily fall for AI magic or start using AI without knowing the limits." RELATED STORY | AI voice cloning: How programs are learning to pick up on pitch and tone Both Lyu and CivAI believe in exposure and education to help combat any potential misuse of deepfake technology. "Our overall goal is that we think AI is going t impact pretty much everyone in a lot of different ways," Hansen said. "And we think that everyone should be aware of the ways that it's going to change them because it's going to impact everyone." "More than just general education — just knowing the facts and having heard what's going to happen," he added. "We want to give people a really intuitive experience of what's going on." Hansen goes on to explain CivAI's role in educating the public. "We try and make all of our demonstrations personalized as much as possible. What we're working on is making it so people can see it themselves. So they know it's real, and they feel that it's real," Hansen said. "And they can have a deep gut level feel for tthe impact that it's going to have." "A big part of the solution is essentially just going to be education and sort of cultural changes," he added. "A lot of this synthetic content is sort of like a new virus that is attacking society right now, and people need to become immune to it in some ways. They need to be more suspicious about what's real and what's not, and I think that will help a lot as well."is wild casino good 。

NEW YORK, Nov. 26, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Gross Law Firm issues the following notice to shareholders of Xiao-I Corporation (NASDAQ: AIXI). Shareholders who purchased shares of AIXI during the class period listed are encouraged to contact the firm regarding possible lead plaintiff appointment. Appointment as lead plaintiff is not required to partake in any recovery. CONTACT US HERE: https://securitiesclasslaw.com/securities/xiao-i-corporation-loss-submission-form/?id=113433&from=3 CLASS PERIOD: March 9, 2023 to July 12, 2024 ALLEGATIONS: The complaint alleges that during the class period, Defendants issued materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) defendants had downplayed the true scope and severity of risks that Xiao-I faced due to certain of its Chinese shareholders’ non-compliance with foreign investment enterprises established by way of round-tripping, including the Company’s inability to use offering proceeds for intended business purposes; (ii) Xiao-I had failed to comply with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in preparing its financial statements; (iii) defendants had overstated Xiao-I’s efforts to remediate material weaknesses in the Company’s financial controls; (iv) Xiao-I was forced to incur significant R&D expenses to effectively compete in the AI industry; (v) Xiao-I had downplayed the significant negative impact that such expenses would have on the Company’s business and financial results; (vi) accordingly, Xiao-I overstated its AI capabilities, R&D resources, and overall ability to compete in the AI market; (vii) as a result of all the foregoing, there was a substantial likelihood that Xiao-I would fail to comply with the NASDAQ’s Minimum Bid Price Requirement; and (viii) as a result, the offering documents and defendants’ public statements throughout the class period were materially false and/or misleading and failed to state information required to be stated therein. DEADLINE: December 16, 2024 Shareholders should not delay in registering for this class action. Register your information here: https://securitiesclasslaw.com/securities/xiao-i-corporation-loss-submission-form/?id=113433&from=3 NEXT STEPS FOR SHAREHOLDERS: Once you register as a shareholder who purchased shares of AIXI during the timeframe listed above, you will be enrolled in a portfolio monitoring software to provide you with status updates throughout the lifecycle of the case. The deadline to seek to be a lead plaintiff is December 16, 2024. There is no cost or obligation to you to participate in this case. WHY GROSS LAW FIRM? The Gross Law Firm is a nationally recognized class action law firm, and our mission is to protect the rights of all investors who have suffered as a result of deceit, fraud, and illegal business practices. The Gross Law Firm is committed to ensuring that companies adhere to responsible business practices and engage in good corporate citizenship. The firm seeks recovery on behalf of investors who incurred losses when false and/or misleading statements or the omission of material information by a company lead to artificial inflation of the company's stock. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. CONTACT: The Gross Law Firm 15 West 38th Street, 12th floor New York, NY, 10018 Email: dg@securitiesclasslaw.com Phone: (646) 453-8903Former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner has filed to run for a seat on the New York City Council, launching a potential political comeback after his once-promising career was destroyed by sexting scandals and later a criminal conviction for having illicit online contact with a child. Campaign finance records list a campaign committee that was set up on Friday for Weiner called Weiner 25, in addition to listing him as a candidate for a council seat in lower Manhattan. In a phone conversation Tuesday with The Associated Press, Weiner, a Democrat, said he is “still exploring” whether to actually campaign for the office. He said he opened the committee late last week so he could participate in a forum held by the Downtown Independent Democrats later this week. He referred additional questions to recent statements he made on his weekly radio show, “The Middle with Anthony Weiner,” where he said: “I haven’t decided if I want to do this yet” while considering the personal dynamics of a return to politics. Weiner represented a congressional district in New York City for about 12 years before he resigned in 2011 after sending lewd photos to several women. He tried to make a comeback in 2013 to run for mayor but was damaged by new revelations of explicit photos Weiner had sent under the online alias “Carlos Danger.” Weiner pleaded guilty in 2017 to having illicit online contact with a 15-year-old girl and was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison. He was released in 2019 and was ordered to register as a . ___ Izaguirre reported from Albany, N.Y.

A stroke changed a teacher’s life. How a new electrical device is helping her moveBOISE, Idaho (AP) — Freshman wide receiver threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Dane Pardridge on the first play of double overtime and ended the game on a fourth-down sack to give Northern Illinois a 28-20 victory over Fresno State on Monday in the Idaho Potato Bowl. Dimopoulos, who played quarterback in high school, also converted the two-point conversion when he passed it to quarterback Josh Holst for his second completion of the season. Holst, a freshman walk-on, was making just his third start at quarterback as NIU was without starter Ethan Hampton, who entered with 1,600 yards and 12 touchdowns to go with six interceptions. Holst completed 18 of 30 passes for 182 and two touchdowns for Northern Illinois (8-5). He was also intercepted on the first play of the game. Both teams missed a 35-yard field goal in the final three minutes of regulation, including Dylan Lynch's third miss of the game on the final play to send it to overtime. Fresno State started overtime with a touchdown when Bryson Donelson was left wide open out of the backfield to haul in a 9-yard touchdown pass. NIU needed five plays, and a defensive holding penalty, to score as Holst found Grayson Barnes for a 3-yard touchdown. Donelson finished with 15 carries for 82 yards and a touchdown for Fresno State (6-7). He added three catches for 28 yards and another score. Dual-threat quarterback Joshua Wood was 16 of 23 for 180 yards and a touchdown. Mac Dalena made six catches for 118 yards to help go over 1,000 yards for the season. Fresno State was without 14 players, including starting quarterback Mikey Keene after he transferred to Michigan. Two top-three receivers, Jalen Moss and Raylen Sharpe, also did not play as the Bulldogs were forced to use five new starters. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up . AP college football: and

Global stock markets mostly retreated Tuesday as traders eyed looming US inflation data and a key European interest rate call amid global political upheaval. After winning numerous records in the weeks since the November 5 US presidential election, US stocks fell for the second straight day as analysts pointed to profit-taking. But Alphabet jumped more than five percent after Google showed off a new quantum computing chip that it described as a significant breakthrough in the field, arguing it could lead to advances in drug discovery, fusion energy and other areas. The Paris stock market retreated as French party leaders gathered at President Emmanuel Macron's Elysee Palace office to chart a route towards a new government. The euro also fell ahead of the European Central Bank's monetary policy meeting on Thursday. The ECB is expected to lower interest rates by 25 basis points amid weak eurozone growth. Independent analyst Andreas Lipkow said traders were taking a cautious approach ahead of the ECB meeting. The main US indexes struggled as traders eyed US consumer price inflation (CPI) data due Wednesday, which could play a role in whether the US Federal Reserve decides to cut interest rates next week. On Wall Street, "tomorrow's CPI report is in full focus with a looming rate-decision from the Fed coming," analyst Bret Kenwell of trading platform eToro said in a note. Following recent spending and jobs data "traders have felt even more emboldened to bet on a December rate cut, while the Fed has done little... to quiet that expectation," he added. Earlier, stock markets weighed "concerns that China's economic stimulus measures might not have a long-lasting effect", noted Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell. The growth plan comes as Beijing contemplates Donald Trump's second term in the White House. The US president-elect has indicated he will reignite his hardball trade policies, fueling fears of another standoff between the economic superpowers. The Shanghai stock market ended higher but Hong Kong fell. Seoul's Kospi index rallied more than two percent after tumbling since President Yoon Suk Yeol declared short-lived martial law on December 3. On the corporate front, shares in Stellantis rose around one percent on the Paris stock exchange after the car giant and Chinese manufacturer CATL announced plans for a $4.3-billion factory making electric-vehicle batteries in Spain. Walgreens Boots Alliance soared 17.7 percent following reports that it could be acquired by private equity firm Sycamore Partners. Boeing jumped 4.5 percent as it announced it was resuming production at two Seattle-area plants that had been shuttered for nearly three months due to a labor strike. New York - Dow: DOWN 0.4 percent at 44,247.83 (close) New York - S&P 500: DOWN 0.3 percent at 6,034.91 (close) New York - Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 0.3 percent at 19,687.24 (close) Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 1.1 percent at 7,394.78 (close) Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 0.1 percent at 20,329.16 (close) London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.9 percent at 8,280.36 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.5 percent at 20,311.28 (close) Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.6 percent at 3,422.66 (close) Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.5 percent at 39,367.58 (close) Seoul - Kospi: UP 2.4 percent at 2,417.84 (close) Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0529 from $1.0554 on Monday Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2773 from $1.2757 Dollar/yen: UP at 151.92 yen from 151.21 yen Euro/pound: DOWN at 82.42 from 82.73 pence West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.1 percent at $68.59 per barrel Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.1 percent at $72.19 per barrel burs-jmb/nro

Former U.S. Rep. has filed to run for a seat on the New York City Council, launching a potential political comeback after his once-promising career was destroyed by sexting scandals and later for having illicit online contact with a child. Campaign finance records list a campaign committee that was set up on Friday for Weiner called Weiner 25, in addition to listing him as a candidate for a council seat in lower Manhattan. In an interview Tuesday, Weiner, a Democrat, said he is “still exploring” whether to actually campaign for the office, but said he opened the committee late last week so he could participate in a forum held by the Downtown Independent Democrats later this week. He referred additional questions to recent statements he made on his weekly radio show, “The Middle with Anthony Weiner,” where he said: “I haven’t decided if I want to do this yet” while considering the personal dynamics of a return to politics. Weiner represented a congressional district in New York City for about 12 years before he resigned in 2011 after sending lewd photos to several women. He tried to make a comeback in 2013 to run for mayor but was damaged by new revelations of explicit photos Weiner had sent under the online alias “Carlos Danger.” Weiner pleaded guilty in 2017 to having illicit online contact with a 15-year-old girl and was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison. He was released in 2019 and was ordered to register as a . ___ Izaguirre reported from Albany, N.Y. Anthony Izaguirre, The Associated Press

Govt committed to reviving economy: Muqam

By MICHELLE L. PRICE and ROB GILLIES NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s recent dinner with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his visit to Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral were not just exercises in policy and diplomacy. They were also prime trolling opportunities for Trump. Related Articles National Politics | Trump names Andrew Ferguson as head of Federal Trade Commission to replace Lina Khan National Politics | Biden says he was ‘stupid’ not to put his name on pandemic relief checks like Trump did National Politics | Biden issues veto threat on bill expanding federal judiciary as partisan split emerges National Politics | Trump lawyers and aide hit with 10 additional felony charges in Wisconsin over 2020 fake electors National Politics | After withdrawing as attorney general nominee, Matt Gaetz lands a talk show on OANN television Throughout his first term in the White House and during his campaign to return, Trump has spun out countless provocative, antagonizing and mocking statements. There were his belittling nicknames for political opponents, his impressions of other political figures and the plentiful memes he shared on social media. Now that’s he’s preparing to return to the Oval Office, Trump is back at it, and his trolling is attracting more attention — and eyerolls. On Sunday, Trump turned a photo of himself seated near a smiling first lady Jill Biden at the Notre Dame ceremony into a social media promo for his new perfume and cologne line, with the tag line, “A fragrance your enemies can’t resist!” The first lady’s office declined to comment. When Trudeau hastily flew to Florida to meet with Trump last month over the president-elect’s threat to impose a 25% tax on all Canadian products entering the U.S., the Republican tossed out the idea that Canada become the 51st U.S. state. The Canadians passed off the comment as a joke, but Trump has continued to play up the dig, including in a post Tuesday morning on his social media network referring to the prime minister as “Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada.” After decades as an entertainer and tabloid fixture, Trump has a flair for the provocative that is aimed at attracting attention and, in his most recent incarnation as a politician, mobilizing fans. He has long relished poking at his opponents, both to demean and minimize them and to delight supporters who share his irreverent comments and posts widely online and cheer for them in person. Trump, to the joy of his fans, first publicly needled Canada on his social media network a week ago when he posted an AI-generated image that showed him standing on a mountain with a Canadian flag next to him and the caption “Oh Canada!” After his latest post, Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Tuesday: “It sounds like we’re living in a episode of South Park.” Trudeau said earlier this week that when it comes to Trump, “his approach will often be to challenge people, to destabilize a negotiating partner, to offer uncertainty and even sometimes a bit of chaos into the well established hallways of democracies and institutions and one of the most important things for us to do is not to freak out, not to panic.” Even Thanksgiving dinner isn’t a trolling-free zone for Trump’s adversaries. On Thanksgiving Day, Trump posted a movie clip from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” with President Joe Biden and other Democrats’ faces superimposed on the characters in a spoof of the turkey-carving scene. The video shows Trump appearing to explode out of the turkey in a swirl of purple sparks, with the former president stiffly dancing to one of his favorite songs, Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” In his most recent presidential campaign, Trump mocked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, refusing to call his GOP primary opponent by his real name and instead dubbing him “Ron DeSanctimonious.” He added, for good measure, in a post on his Truth Social network: “I will never call Ron DeSanctimonious ‘Meatball’ Ron, as the Fake News is insisting I will.” As he campaigned against Biden, Trump taunted him in online posts and with comments and impressions at his rallies, deriding the president over his intellect, his walk, his golf game and even his beach body. After Vice President Kamala Harris took over Biden’s spot as the Democratic nominee, Trump repeatedly suggested she never worked at McDonalds while in college. Trump, true to form, turned his mocking into a spectacle by appearing at a Pennsylvania McDonalds in October, when he manned the fries station and held an impromptu news conference from the restaurant drive-thru. Trump’s team thinks people should get a sense of humor. “President Trump is a master at messaging and he’s always relatable to the average person, whereas many media members take themselves too seriously and have no concept of anything else other than suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome,” said Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director. “President Trump will Make America Great Again and we are getting back to a sense of optimism after a tumultuous four years.” Though both the Biden and Harris campaigns created and shared memes and launched other stunts to respond to Trump’s taunts, so far America’s neighbors to the north are not taking the bait. “I don’t think we should necessarily look on Truth Social for public policy,” Miller said. Gerald Butts, a former top adviser to Trudeau and a close friend, said Trump brought up the 51st state line to Trudeau repeatedly during Trump’s first term in office. “Oh God,” Butts said Tuesday, “At least a half dozen times.” “This is who he is and what he does. He’s trying to destabilize everybody and make people anxious,” Butts said. “He’s trying to get people on the defensive and anxious and therefore willing to do things they wouldn’t otherwise entertain if they had their wits about them. I don’t know why anybody is surprised by it.” Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

If you use the Newcastle Interchange, you may have seen Rob in his wheelchair, engaging with people as he sold The Big Issue magazine . Login or signup to continue reading But up until 2021, when the Stockton Centre closed, Rob had been in high-need care for 50 years, cut off from society, with the nursing staff attending to his needs. Rob was placed there at an early age because of his intellectual disability. This recent transformation of Rob's life has been supported by the work of Hunter Circles , which, through an innovative and inclusive pilot project, seeks to link people with an intellectual disability to a trained volunteer - a 'social connector' who shares similar interests. The social connector may expand the person's social network by getting them involved in community activities like art, sports, music, and cultural events. Each social connector is part of a larger team that forms a Circle of Support around each person with intellectual disability. This includes volunteer circle members who, together with the social connector, work to help the individual achieve their goals by creating opportunities for inclusion. A training program is provided to equip volunteers with the skills and knowledge needed for the role. The volunteering roles are flexible and tailored to the needs and aspirations of each person. Following the closure of the Stockton Centre, Rob was moved to a group home but wanted something other than this living arrangement. He was able to move into a unit in Wickham near the Newcastle tramline. With the aid of his wheelchair, life started to open for him. He could use his wheelchair and the tram to move around the CBD. Rob could do a certain amount with a smartphone, including seeking help, switching on lights, and opening doors. Through his electronic communication board, Rob says, "It felt great to be independent and be the king of my castle". However, he was still socially isolated until he connected with Hunter Circles. Rob now has a 'circle of support' - a group of family and friends who meet monthly to make plans with him and then implement them. Rob says, "My circle is very important to me because it believes in me and helps me". The circle helps Rob try new things and identifies and reduces risks. For instance, selling the Big Issue in Wickham has made Rob many new friends, including Darren, the owner of a nearby Foodworks shop. As his life continues to expand, Rob has ambitions to start a business. He now describes himself as "a man of ideas, ambition, love, and humour". Rob has been set free from institutional care and is living his best life with the support of Hunter Circles. Hunter Circles is looking for volunteers who are good at connecting with people and happy to share their local networks, think creatively, take the initiative, and are excited about creating a more inclusive community in the Hunter. Dan Galazowski, a Hunter Circles volunteer, said: "Being a social connector is an extremely rewarding experience. It has made my life so much richer". This Community for Everyone, a two-year pilot project, is being launched in Ryde and Parramatta with Side-By-Side Advocacy and in the Hunter region with Hunter Circles. These areas were chosen because many people with intellectual disabilities have transitioned in recent years from large institutions such as the Stockton Centre to group homes. The Disability Royal Commission found a particular need to build bridges for people with intellectual disabilities who do not have informal networks . Despite the wide coverage of the NDIS program, Hunter Circles believes more than money is needed for the intellectual disability group. "Money can't buy you belonging. Those freely given relationships make all the difference in the world. Relationships are everything. People do better in life when they have friendship and belonging," the executive officer of Hunter Circles, Jen Cush, says. If you would like to join the Hunter Circles pilot program as a volunteer email info@huntercircles.org or huntercircles.org DAILY Today's top stories curated by our news team. Also includes evening update. WEEKDAYS Grab a quick bite of today's latest news from around the region and the nation. WEEKLY The latest news, results & expert analysis. WEEKDAYS Catch up on the news of the day and unwind with great reading for your evening. WEEKLY Get the editor's insights: what's happening & why it matters. WEEKLY Love footy? We've got all the action covered. WEEKLY Every Saturday and Tuesday, explore destinations deals, tips & travel writing to transport you around the globe. WEEKLY Get the latest property and development news here. WEEKLY Going out or staying in? Find out what's on. WEEKDAYS Sharp. Close to the ground. Digging deep. 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Mayor and LAPD chief tout double-digit drop in homicides compared to last yearThe Gross Law Firm Reminds Humacyte, Inc. Investors of the Pending Class Action Lawsuit with a ...UPI – Google Doodle included a four-minute video revealing some of the website’s most searched-for topics of 2024. Subjects included the rise of country music, Canadian singer-songwriter Celine Dion’s triumphant return after a health scare, the 2024 summer Olympics, the accomplishments of basketball greats Caitlin Clark and Steph Curry, gymnast Simone Biles, K-pop band Stray Kids, pop star Sabrina Carpenter, Thailand’s adorable baby hippo Moo Deng, Inside Out 2, the solar eclipse and Northern lights and the re-election of Donald Trump, artificial intelligence and Hurricane Helene. “This animated Doodle celebrates some of 2024’s Breakout Searches – the moments that truly defined the year and had the whole world searching for more,” Google said. “From major breakthroughs in science and technology to unforgettable performances that captivated the world, these Breakouts reveal what captured our collective imagination. “They tell stories of triumph, surprise, and innovation, like the awe-inspiring Northern Lights displays, the rare cicada emergence, and the breathtaking eclipse that united skywatchers everywhere.”

Joonmo Kwon , a former CEO of Nexon, is an example of an established game developer who decided to march into the wilds of Web3 gaming. He started Delabs Games in South Korea back in 2020 and moved into Web3 at the end of 2021. He raised a round of funding March 2023 ($12 million to date) and then went to work on a variety of games. He is also chairman of 4:33 Creative Lab (parent company of Delabs Games), which saw 70 million downloads for its hit game Boxing Star. Earlier this year, his company launched Rumble Racing Star, a Web3 kart racer on both PC and mobile. The game has reached nearly 10,000 daily active players who have played 2.4 million races during that time, and I had a chance to catch up with him on the state of blockchain gaming. We had an interesting conversation, especially around why Web3 gaming is taking a while to catch on in the West. Rumble Racing Star is one of the games that bridges Web2 free-to-play gaming with Web3 player ownership. Kwon thinks of it as “challenge to earn” when it comes to Web3 gaming. Kwon said the company’s Metabolts NFTs sold out in May and the firm is working on Space Frontier. Key partnership include Ambrus Studio, Batching AI, Cow Cup, and Proof of Play. Delabs is building on the Arbitrum protocol and is working on the the Delabs Playable Layer. What has he learned? Web3 gaming has a loyal following but a relatively small community. The games need to be fun, have a sensible economy, and they also need marketing. And while it has taken a lot longer to reach the mass market in the West than imagined, there are bright spots like the viral nature of mini-games on Telegram, Kwon said. The company has 30 people, and it’s working on an RPG survival game, an anime game and updates to the racing game. The game has nearly 10,000 daily active users and retention is high. He expects real success will come in 2024 or 2025. And Kwon is pivoting to focus on games on Telegram using the TON blockchain, with launches coming for Ragnarok (not the same as Ragnarok: Monster World from Zero X/Gravity) and Boxing Star on Telegram, which has seen a surge in blockchain gamers in 2024 because of the success of other companies’ games like Hamster Kombat and Notcoin. Delabs Games’ titles will see beta tests soon. This past July, Delabs Games launched its first game on Telegram with the baseball game Giga Chad Bat . The idea is to take games to where gamers are already connecting. The company is planning to launch the Delabs Games Platform Mini App, designed as a gateway for Web3 integration in its games. This platform is set to debut in December, initially targeting Telegram users to build momentum before the official game launches. Here’s an edited transcript of our interview. GamesBeat: We spoke when you first announced Delabs Games. Joonmo Kwon: Yes, Delabs founded in May 2020. We started out in Web3 games at the end of 2021. This year we’re marketing aggressively. GamesBeat: What’s happened since you started? How much progress have you made since unveiling the web3 focus? Kwon: In Web3 gaming, the product is most important. You need sensible economics around NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and the game economy. But we also need marketing. We’ve been doing a lot of marketing and building community. We have a very solid, loyal community on Twitter and elsewhere. We launched our first game, Rumble Racing Star, last December and in January on PC and smartphones. We’ve had very good traction so far. The users are very engaged. We’ve seen good revenue. We launched a mini-game on Telegram. We’ve been polishing that. We plan to launch more games this year and early next year, including more Telegram games in the fall. ( He explained this move in a recent tweet). GamesBeat: In the spring of 2023 you mentioned a racing game, an RPG survival game, and an anime-style game. Kwon: Right, those are our three major games. Rumble Racing Star is an arcade racing game. It’s good for streaming, tournaments, and esports. The second game, Space Frontier, is a survival MMORPG game, and the third game is also an MMORPG. They’re in good shape and ready to be launched soon. GamesBeat: How many people work for you now? Kwon: We have 30 people in-house now. We outsource some graphics work, but 90% of the work is done in-house. GamesBeat: How much money did you raise altogether? Kwon: It was about $12 million. GamesBeat: The Web3 element, how does that work? You mentioned NFTs. What do people get that they can use in a racing game? Kwon: We like sport value tokens (SVTs) and achievements. They get SVTs and NFTs. We have the genesis NFT for Delabs called Adventure Pass. If you have this Adventure Pass, you get special parts for the racing game. You also get multipliers for boosting your points. It’s like a pass in Disneyland. Every game will have benefits for the Adventure Pass. GamesBeat: Part of the game is free to play, and then part of the game relates to the Web3 purchases? Kwon: It’s mostly free to play. That’s much more easily accessible to users. We have three billion gamers around the world. We wanted to make it much easier to access. A smooth experience for gamers is the most important thing. GamesBeat: When did Rumble Racing Star first launch? Kwon: Last November we launched the PC version. The mobile version followed in January. GamesBeat: How many races have you had now? Kwon: It keeps growing. We’re at (2.4 million) now. GamesBeat: In what context do you consider that to be a success? Is it the engagement? Kwon: Not only engagement, but also the core gameplay loop. This is our first web3 game. We have about 10,000 DAUs, which is very satisfactory. Our users enjoy playing the game. Retention is pretty high. A lot of them stream. In terms of revenue, we’re not super successful yet, but in terms of gameplay and user satisfaction and community satisfaction, we’ve been very successful. We’ve gained a lot of experience and learned a lot on this game. GamesBeat: How widely available is the game now? Is it worldwide? Kwon: It’s worldwide on both mobile and PC, except for a few countries that prohibit Web3 gaming. In those cases we just block the web3 parts. You can still enjoy the game without any Web3 elements. GamesBeat: How large a market cap does the game have, the token market cap? Kwon: We plan to have more than five games, but we won’t launch them all until early next year. We use only one native token. But the token isn’t out yet. GamesBeat: How are you able to get on the app stores? Are there limitations related to the Web3 functions so you can get on the app stores? Kwon: Yes, we don’t include the Web3 elements on the iOS App Store or the Google Play Store. You have to connect through our website, Star Garage. Then you can play with the Web3 features – connect your wallet, access NFTs, get the SVTs and so on. GamesBeat: I talked to the folks who do the NFL Rivals game. It’s another Web3 game on iOS and Android. Apple lets them on the App Store because the functionality stays the same between Web2 and Web3. Players don’t get a different game or more features in the Web3 version. That gives them access to the App Store, but it’s a limitation on what the Web3 game can be. Is it the same with what you have to do with your Web3 version? Kwon: Exactly. We separate the Web3 and NFT elements. To connect your Web3 wallet you have to use our separate website. It’s not a very smooth experience for users. GamesBeat: The way this stays within the rules of the app stores, you have to buy a virtual currency with a credit card or some other way that allows Apple and Google to get their 30%? Then you can use that currency in the web3 game if you want. Kwon: Yes, that’s right. GamesBeat: Are you satisfied with this? Do you think being able to access the app stores this way will help you have successful games in the longer term? Kwon: No, I don’t think so. Gaming is all about experiences. We analyze our data and look at the funnel our users enter. When there’s any kind of friction around login or payment, or something like a tutorial that players feel is too long, they just leave. It’s free to play. It takes about a minute to download a new game. If players aren’t satisfied after a few minutes, they can just delete it and move on. Added friction is not good for the user experience. There’s still a lot of friction in Web3 games. That’s why the Telegram platform is getting a lot of attention from web3 game developers. They find much less friction there. GamesBeat: I’ve heard that about Telegram, that it feels like the old Facebook with how frictionless it is. Games can spread very easily. Kwon: Exactly. There’s much less friction. They have more than a billion users. Chat apps like WeChat, Kakao, the old Facebook, or LINE have been very successful platforms for games. In terms of friction, it’s easy to log in. It’s easy to make and connect a wallet. It’s a social platform. It has that virality. You can do things like set up leaderboards with your friends. GamesBeat: How far along are you with Telegram? What have you done there so far? Kwon: We launched a game called Giga Chad Bat, a Pokemon-like battle game. There’s a PvP element with scoreboards and guilds. The important part is the virality. You can invite your friends and play together. It’s just a test launch so far. We’ll keep polishing the game. We got a new build yesterday. We’re going to launch a major future project in Telegram. What we’re doing right now is very simple, but we’ve been watching the evolution of these chat app games. They started with hypercasual, but the user base has expanded. With mass adoption, they’ve slowly evolved into casual and mid-core games. GamesBeat: Do you expect Telegram games to progress in terms of the kind of gameplay you can create? Or do you think it will still stay relatively casual? Kwon: It’ll definitely evolve. If you look at what’s happened with WeChat, which is the largest chat app in China with 1.3 billion users, or Kakao, which has something like 99% adoption in South Korea, it’ll definitely evolve. We’re looking at the next generation of Telegram games. They’re going to be more like mid-core games, but with very short game loops, around five minutes, and very social. You can invite your friends, collaborate with your friends, play with your friends. GamesBeat: How large do you think Web3 games can get in terms of audience size, given the friction involved for new players? Do you think it’s still possible for them to grow to very large sizes through the mobile app stores? Kwon: Web2 gamers aren’t very happy right now. The Web2 industry is shrinking. We’ve seen about a 10% minus trend in the Korean market. Games have been commodified by the platforms, and there are so many games. We’re seeing as many as 250,000 or 300,000 new games every year. Games are becoming more and more aggressive with their monetization because the platforms take too much, and because they have to spend so much on marketing. They need to find ways to make more money. We see broader changes in media consumption, too. A younger generation is used to things like TikTok and YouTube shorts. When I ride the subway in Korea, I used to see people playing smartphone games, but these days I feel like 80-90% of what I see is people watching short videos on their phones. Their attention spans are very short, and they want to engage with socially interactive media. GamesBeat: In South Korea, what is the Web3 audience like? Can you compare it to the western or American view of web3 gaming? Is it more accepted in South Korea? Kwon: Koreans are always early adopters of technology. In terms of the crypto market, Korea is the second-largest individual country in the world. The Korean won is the second-most traded currency on crypto exchanges. We have about six million active crypto investors. That’s about 20% of the voting population in Korea. There have been times, during a bull market, that the daily trading volume of the crypto market in Korea was bigger than the stock market. At the same time, South Korea is the fourth-largest gaming market. There was a backlash around the collapse of Terra, though. Investors lost a lot of money on Terra and Luna in Korea. The government tried to create more clarity through regulation. I think that’s a good thing in the long term. GamesBeat: Are there things that you can or can’t do in the Korean market when it comes to Web3, compared to other markets like the U.S.? Are there restrictions you have to work around? Kwon: Right now, play-to-earn games are not allowed. But I think this is going to change. The government’s outlook right now is pretty harsh about crypto games after the Terra experience and some other scam tokens. Again, though, we expect it to change. GamesBeat: Where are most of your Web3 players, then? Are they in the U.S. or elsewhere? Kwon: They’re all over the world. We have players in the U.S., Russia, southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Europe. We have some in Japan. A few Chinese users come in through VPNs as well. GamesBeat: What’s your expectation as far as how your company can grow and how this market can grow? What do you see in the coming years when it comes to web3 games? Kwon: I’m bullish on Web3 games. In Web2 games, the market is already a red ocean. Users aren’t satisfied. A lot of Korean game companies are spending a lot of money on security, real-world security, because of angry users. We’ve had users coming to companies to demonstrate. Web3 feels like the direction that the game industry will go. But we need good products. We need fun games. We need smart economics to make these economies work, inside and outside of our games. We need the right marketing for web3. I’ve been through many years of innovations in the game industry. I’ve experienced stand-alone online games, paid downloadable games, free-to-play games. The innovation around web3 can be much bigger than those combined. GamesBeat: There are some very interesting features web2 games can’t match, like player ownership and the ability to resell items. Wreck League had a very interesting structure, where the Web2 players needed the Web3 players, because they could buy more special mechs from the Web3 players, while the Web3 players had that ability to create their own mechs and sell them, but also enter those mechs into esports tournaments. They could fight for pink slips, essentially. But each side benefited. There was a symbiotic relationship between both groups of players. (Editor’s note: The game did not quite go as expected). Kwon: It’s a smart way to structure a game. I believe that in the near future, though, players won’t necessarily even know that they’re playing a game that’s Web2 or Web3. They’ll engage with a game, and they won’t look at an item as an NFT. It just won’t be a rental from a company. They’ll truly own it, and they can trade it or use it to participate in a community, in a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization). I believe in user-generated content as well, and in interoperability, where items from one game can be used in other games. That’s how the ecosystem of Web3 gaming as a whole can expand. GamesBeat: Are there other successful Korean Web3 game companies so far? It feels like Koreans have been much more aggressive at moving into Web3. Kwon: Korea is a small country, with only about 50 million people, but it’s been leading innovation in the game industry for years. Free-to-play was invented here. The first esports competitions here were in 1998. We had some of the first pro gamers. Parents were freaked out at the time. We had the first 24-hour cable TV gaming channel. We had some of the first internet cafes, 30,000 internet cafes by 2000. Japan is still big in animation and in console games, but in terms of online games and free-to-play games, Korea and China have been innovating much faster. There’s been a leapfrog effect. When you look at the hit rate in games, the chances of making a blockbuster, it’s very low. Even with the best team, the best developers. With a web3 game there are more things you have to do right. You have to get the economics right. You have to get the Web3 part right. It’s a much bigger challenge. GamesBeat: I wonder if something like Hamster Kombat could end up being the biggest Web3 game. Kwon: It’s an interesting movement. Those kinds of games–can you even call it a game? But it’s off to a good start. I’ve looked at the data on one of the biggest Telegram games. I heard from the founder that 40% of their new users have never experienced Web3 games. That’s a very interesting, exciting data point. That might be a platform where mass adoption can happen. GamesBeat: Do you see a major benefit to having that adoption happen on mobile or PC instead of Telegram? Kwon: I don’t really care where that mass adoption happens, which platform. Once players experience Web3 gaming, then it’s hard for them to go back. It’s like free-to-play. Once players experienced that, once they didn’t have to pay, the market just got bigger and bigger. You can truly own your in-game items. You can participate in governance. You can make your own content, your own skins and costumes, and sell those items. Why would you go back to centralized games? Once people experience Web3, whether it’s through browser or PC or smartphone or Telegram, they’ll keep looking for Web3 games. GamesBeat: Looking back at the history of free-to-play, what was the moment when that succeeded? When did that overcome the friction, or the fear of change? Kwon: The first free-to-play game was invented by Nexon. That was QuizQuiz. It was very small at first. I think the monthly revenue was maybe $10,000. But everyone could access it without any payment. They could play it and decide whether they wanted to keep going or stop. Online games grew alongside free-to-play. With online games, you needed more users, more concurrent users. It’s a virtual society, or a virtual party. The more, the merrier. Everyone enjoys these games in a different way. A doctor, one hour of his time is worth more to him than, say, a high-school kid. Spending some money to reduce your grinding time just creates a more fair competition. I like spending an hour or so playing a game, but I don’t have the time to grind. An earlier generation of gamers, especially console gamers, they criticized free-to-play at first. They said that it was just paying to win, that it wasn’t fair. But look at it now. Three-fourths of the market is free-to-play. GamesBeat: Do you expect a similar moment for Web3 games any time soon, when we can say this is clearly successful? Kwon: I think it will be this year or the next. Once we have a huge, successful game–that’s what happened in Korea. The first free-to-play games was very small in terms of revenue. But when Maple Story launched, when all the FPS games launched in 2003 to 2005, they built a critical mass of users. The paradigm shift happened very quickly. It’s all about user experience. The big challenge for Web3 is that smooth experience, a frictionless experience. I think Telegram can be one of the platforms that provides a catalyst to create that. GamesBeat: I caught up with the nWay people recently when they launched a new game, and I asked them about Wreck League. They felt like the Web3 players right now are not as hardcore. They like more casual games. It’s more difficult to make a hardcore Web3 game succeed. That was one of their interesting observations about launching Wreck League. They haven’t given up on it, but they feel like it might be too early for that style of game in Web3. It takes a lot of skill. It’s not a super easy game to play. What do you think? Kwon: Yeah, I agree. I know the founder of nWay (Taehoon Kim, who is now former CEO) very well. He’s a very insightful developer. Web3 gamers are not highly committed gamers yet. They don’t necessarily want complicated games. The big difference in Web3 is about true ownership of in-game assets. If it’s too casual a game, there isn’t an opportunity to own those assets. We need games that involve progression, like RPGs, where you grow and collect items and upgrade equipment and level up your characters. But it should start very casually. As you progress and own more assets, you’re likely to settle down in a game. In real life, you’re more likely to stay someplace once you have more assets there – a car, an apartment. It’s the same in a game. Once you’ve invested more of your time and energy, you’re going to stay with it. A lot of Web3 gamers aren’t necessarily even gamers at all, in a way. They’re grinders. It’s not a game. It’s more like a job for them. That’s okay. They’re just extrinsically motivated users. As they grow and progress and gain more items and so on, they’ll settle down as well. That extrinsic motivation can convert into an intrinsic motivation. It happened to me when I was young. My mom wanted me to read books, so she’d give me some money every time I read a book and told her about the story. Later on she stopped giving me money, but I still loved to read. It’s just about finding that primary motivation. It can be extrinsic, earning money and trading items, and intrinsic as well, enjoying that activity more than other ways of making money. It’s a primary and secondary thing, not 100% one way or the other. GamesBeat: We had a lot of Web3 game companies that got started, and they found a lot of funding. When I looked at that funding, at one point 50% of all the companies receiving venture capital were Web3 game companies. It hasn’t taken off as fast as some of those companies and investors expected, though, and a lot of those companies just went out of business. The market has taken off too slowly. How many successful Web3 game companies do you think we’re going to see? Kwon: Number one, when you look at Web2, it’s really tough, as I say, to launch a game and be successful. The same is going to be true with Web3 games. You need a good product, a fun game, and that’s tough. Plus, with Web3 you have to have smart economics, inside and outside the game. You need to build a community. You have to maintain that decentralized governance. There are so many more things you have to do. A lot of the Web3 game projects I see — some of them don’t have the product. They just have hype and speculation. For a time it was easy to draw investment that way. Some companies have a good product, but they don’t know how to make it a good Web3 game. But once one of these games hits big, the returns will be huge. This can be a perpetual game, an autonomous world. Stay in the know! Get the latest news in your inbox daily By subscribing, you agree to VentureBeat's Terms of Service. Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here . An error occured.None

LOS ANGELES , Nov. 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Appotronics, the inventor of the ALPD® laser display technology, recently participated in the Laser Illuminated Projector Association (LIPA) Annual General Meeting held in Los Angeles , United States . During the event, the company showcased its optics solutions designed for both the interior and exterior of vehicles, emphasizing their versatility in functions such as illumination, entertainment, and V2X (Vehicle to Everything) communication. Meng Han , senior director of Appotronics, addressed the attendees, which included laser illumination and display technology experts, market analysts, and trend observers. He emphasized that the automotive industry is undergoing a transformation from internal combustion engines to autonomous electric vehicles, creating ample opportunities for laser projectors. This shift typically results in more internal space for entertainment features, such as in-car theaters and laser display-enabled human-vehicle communication both inside and outside the vehicle. "We have done the study, finding many people like it, " said Han, citing the example of Appotronics' rollable giant laser display screen, which is equipped on the Seres AITO M9, a top-selling SUV priced above RMB 500,000 in China . The SUV has received over 170,000 orders since its debut late last year, indicating a strong market demand for such innovative features. Han further pointed out that more laser display technology will be applied within the cabin as a supplement to the current LCD panels, transforming the cabin into an immersive and comfortable third living space. "As for the long future, the future isn't more screens—or even screens at all." Han cited Alfonso Albaisa , Design Chief of Nissan, emphasizing that laser display offers numerous advantages, such as easy modeling, free-form surfaces, design flexibility, safety, and sustainability and can be utilized for projections inside the cabin, on the sunroof, side windows, or even on the windshield. Afterwards, Xin Yu , vice president of Appotronics, introduced the company's intelligent digital colorful laser headlight as an example of immersive exterior display . This innovative light is equipped on the newly-released Smart #5 vehicle, enabling car users to enjoy movies while camping. Yu announced that the product is currently available in China and will soon be launched in Europe and Australia . Yu also demonstrated the company's All-in-One laser headlamp, which fulfills multiple functions, including intelligent signaling displays (ISD), adaptive driving beam (ADB) systems, V2X communications, and entertainment. He revealed that the multi-functional headlamp will soon enter mass production and will be showcased at CES 2025, which is scheduled to be held in Las Vegas between January 7 and January 10 . Other automotive optics solutions from Appotronics will also be displayed at the event. "So hopefully in the future, we have more friends together in this industry to make more interesting applications and build up more markets for laser innovation." Yu concluded, adding that he expects more "concepts" of laser technology to turn into "reality" in the automotive sector, just as laser technology has revolutionized the cinema industry. In addition to Appotronics' updates, representatives from Texas Instruments, Epson, Panasonic, Seibersdorf Labs, OMDIA, PMA Research, Nordisk Cinema, Nichia America Corporation, Barco, Oxford University , LUMAfestival.com , and RSL Fiber Systems also shared insights on current laser-related regulations, technological advancements, and future trends at the annual meeting. View original content: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/appotronics-highlights-role-of-laser-technology-in-automotive-industry-at-prestigious-us-trade-conference-302315609.html SOURCE Appotronics Corporation Ltd.

Ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner, jailed for sexting child, eyes political comeback in New York City Council

Make food not war: Ukrainian chefs train in FranceTrump brings back government by social media

NEW YORK , Dec. 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Why: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, announces an investigation of potential securities claims on behalf of shareholders of Macy's, Inc. (NYSE: M) resulting from allegations that Macy's may have issued materially misleading business information to the investing public. So What: If you purchased Macy's securities you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement. The Rosen Law Firm is preparing a class action seeking recovery of investor losses. What to do next: To join the prospective class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=31645 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email case@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action. What is this about: On November 25, 2024 , The New York Times published an article entitled "Macy's Discovers Employee Hid Millions in Delivery Expenses." This article stated that "Macy's said on Monday that an employee had "intentionally" misstated and hidden up to $154 million in delivery expenses over the past few years, forcing the retailer to delay a much-anticipated earnings report that Wall Street uses to gauge the strength of holiday shopping." On this news, the price of Macy's, Inc. stock fell 2.2% on November 25, 2024 . Why Rosen Law: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company at the time. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm , on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/ . Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Contact Information: Laurence Rosen, Esq. Phillip Kim, Esq. The Rosen Law Firm, P.A. 275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor New York, NY 10016 Tel: (212) 686-1060 Toll Free: (866) 767-3653 Fax: (212) 202-3827 case@rosenlegal.com www.rosenlegal.com View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rosen-law-firm-encourages-macys-inc-investors-to-inquire-about-securities-class-action-investigation--m-302327927.html SOURCE THE ROSEN LAW FIRM, P. A.NSW Premier Chris Minns has rejected the comments of Foreign Minister Penny Wong after she equated the democratic state of Israel with the authoritarian regime in Russia. The Foreign Minister put Israel in the same basket as Russia and China during her recent address to the University of South Australia for the Bob Hawke Lecture. When asked about Ms Wong’s comments on Wednesday, Mr Minns told Sky News he did not accept the comparison but admitted he had not read the speech. “If you're asking me directly, would I equate the actions of Russia with the democratic actions of the state of Israel? The answer is no,” Mr Minns said. “I'm not going to... equate the democratic state of Israel with the actions of Russia. I'm not going to do that. And I don't believe that's the case. “It's difficult for me to comment about a speech that I haven't read.” The Foreign Minister has been criticised by Jewish leaders for a supposed campaign against Israel amid Australia’s spiralling relationship with Jerusalem. “We expect Russia to abide by international law and end its illegal full-scale war on Ukraine,” Ms Wong said in her speech on Monday night. “We expect China to abide by international legal decisions in the South China Sea. We also expect Israel to abide by international law.” The Foreign Minister also said it was “not antisemitic to expect that Israel should comply with the international law”. The comment appeared to be in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has blamed the Albanese government for enforcing antisemitic policies. “Anti-Israel sentiment is antisemitism,” Mr Netanyahu said on Saturday after Australia voted against Israeli’s occupation of Palestine at the United Nations. The Israeli Prime Minister also accused the Albanese government of an “extreme anti-Israeli position”. Ms Wong used her Hawke Lecture to defend Labor's stance on Israel as the Coalition has blamed the Prime Minister for “ emboldening and enabling ” antisemitic crime. “Australia and Israel are democracies where our citizens can agree or disagree with individual policies or actions of their governments,” Ms Wong said. “The fact that we are both democracies should mean that there is respect for disagreement. Respect and tolerance.” Asked at a press conference whether it was appropriate to compare Israel with Russia and China on Tuesday, Ms Wong defended her remarks. “The point I was making in this speech is that international law applies to all of us. It applies to Australia, it applies to all nations,” Ms Wong said. Despite this, the opposition has condemned the Labor for failing to repair ties with the Israeli government. “For the Foreign Minister to compare Israel, a friendly liberal democracy, to two authoritarian states, is an outrageous slur,” shadow home affairs minister James Paterson told Sky News. “It continues Labor’s campaign of vilification against the Jewish state and contributes to the climate of fear Jewish Australians are feeling right now. “The Foreign Minister should tone down her attacks on Israel before it gets even worse.” The Jewish community has endured a devastating rise in antisemitism, including a terrorist attack in Melbourne on Friday and a hate crime in Sydney on Wednesday .