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Halloween video game roundup: ‘Alan Wake II’ and ‘Dead Space’ bookend a horror-filled year

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:24:07 GMT

Although this is the year of the big role-playing games, the horror genre shouldn’t be overlooked. The “Dead Space” remake started off the year strong and as 2023 winds down, “Alan Wake II” is injecting another strong dose of scares.The two titles are fantastic bookends for a strong year in horror. Fans should have no shortage of frightening games to thrill them over the weekend and through Halloween. Here are the ones that should be at the top of your list:“Alan Wake II” — It has been 13 years since Remedy Entertainment released its cult classic, and the sequel is worth the wait. Told almost like a TV serial, the game follows Saga Anderson and the titular hero who makes his return.The familiar action returns as light becomes one of the defenses against the mysterious Dark Presence that takes over humans, animals and other parts of Bright Falls. At the same time, the developers add a heavier mystery element as Saga and Alan try to solv...

Larry Magid: Smartphone essentials for traveling abroad

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:24:07 GMT

I just returned from two weeks in Japan, a combination business trip to speak at the UN’s Internet Governance Forum in Kyoto, followed by a week of touring some of Japan’s interesting smaller cities and their surroundings: Kanazawa, Matsumoto, Nakatsugawa and Osaka. The smartphone I brought was a brand-new Pixel 8 Pro review unit that was officially released while I was in Japan. And in ways that may not seem obvious, the phone was extremely useful during the trip.Related ArticlesBusiness | Magid: UN Internet Governance Forum focuses on AI Business | Magid: Pixel Watch 2 adds health features, improves performance Business | Magid: Polly Klaas tragedy changed how we look for missing children Business | Magid: EV range anxiety is real, but is it based on reality? Before I left the United States, I made sure I had an international plan. Otherwise, I might have spent more on calls and data than on airfare.I use AT&T, an...

Wildfires, other ravages jeopardize California’s prized forests

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:24:07 GMT

By BRIAN MELLEY | Associated PressKYBURZ, Calif. — On a steep mountainside where walls of flames torched the forest on their way toward Lake Tahoe in 2021, blackened trees stand in silhouette against a gray sky.“If you can find a live tree, point to it,” Hugh Safford, an environmental science and policy researcher at the University of California, Davis, said touring damage from the Caldor Fire, one of the past decade’s many massive blazes.Dead pines, firs, and cedars stretch as far as the eye can see. Fire burned so hot that soil was still barren in places more than a year later. Granite boulders were charred and flaked from the inferno. Long, narrow indentations marked the graves of fallen logs that vanished in smoke.Damage in this area of Eldorado National Forest could be permanent — part of a troubling pattern that threatens a defining characteristic of the Sierra Nevada range John Muir once called a “waving sea of evergreens.”Forest like this is disappearing as increasingly inte...

‘I killed him,’ an East Bay man told police. Here’s why a jury acquitted him

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:24:07 GMT

OAKLAND — As far as confessions go, James Richards’ statement to police couldn’t have been crisper.“I killed that man. The one they tried to arrest me for,” Richards told a group of California Highway Patrol officers who had detained him in August 2020. “I killed him. I, James Richards, confess to the f—in’ murder they tried to arrest me for.”In murder investigations, a confession of that clarity is usually a guarantee for a guilty verdict or a no contest plea. But Richards’ case was far from it. At the end of his trial this month, an Alameda County jury acquitted him of murder, allowing Richards — who’d been in jail awaiting trial for three years — to walk away a free man.How did such a confession lead to a not guilty verdict? Richards’ lawyer, William Welch, argued to jurors that his client was hallucinating and panicking when he gave the statement, literally screaming for someone to call the polic...

Marin County working to create shoreline resiliency plan to protect from sea level rise

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:24:07 GMT

(BCN) -- Marin County could see its entire shoreline flooded during an extreme storm before the end of the century unless coordinated measures are taken to address sea level rise in the Bay Area.As part of a state-mandated effort to create a shoreline resiliency plan, the county Board of Supervisors got a glimpse Tuesday of what the consequences of inaction could be if efforts are not made to protect the shoreline from rising sea levels.The board received a report from the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, known as BCDC, a regional state regulatory body that has created a regional strategy dubbed "Bay Adapt" to coordinate the mitigation efforts.Two websites were introduced at the meeting that can keep the public informed about the planning process, bayadapt.org and adaptingtorisingtides.org.Sea levels along the United States coastline are projected to rise by between 10-12 inches by 2050, matching the amount of sea level rise from 1920-2020, and rise by as m...

Maria Corina Machado declared winner of a Venezuelan opposition primary denounced by government as illegitimate

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:24:07 GMT

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Maria Corina Machado declared winner of a Venezuelan opposition primary denounced by government as illegitimate.Source

Scrutiny on Curry overshadows England vs Argentina in Rugby World Cup third-place game

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:24:07 GMT

It’s a match no team wants to play, no matter what the players or coaches say in public.Yet the Rugby World Cup third-place game between England and Argentina on Friday might feel even more insignificant for the English, given an uncomfortable build-up centered almost entirely on Tom Curry and his allegation of racial abuse by an opponent that has been dismissed by the sport’s governing body.World Rugby said on Thursday it found no evidence that South Africa hooker Bongi Mbonambi directed discriminatory remarks at Curry in the teams’ semifinal on Saturday.England’s Rugby Football Union reacted with fury at the decision, expressing its deep dismay that World Rugby decided against putting the evidence before an independent disciplinary panel.England’s players have rallied around Curry all week, especially with the flanker and his family having received a deluge of abuse on social media.Curry has been picked in England’s starting lineup for the game ...

Última hora de los tiroteos en Lewiston, Maine, en vivo: muertos, noticias del sospechoso y más

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:24:07 GMT

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Defending champion England loses again to Sri Lanka at Cricket World Cup

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:24:07 GMT

BENGALURU, India (AP) — Defending champion England endured yet another abject loss at the Cricket World Cup as an eight-wicket defeat to Sri Lanka on Thursday left its hopes of advancing hanging by a slim thread. England crashed to 156 all out after opting to bat — its lowest World Cup total since 2003, and the lowest ODI score ever recorded at the batting-friendly M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. Sri Lanka pacer Lahiru Kumara led the rout and took 3-35 in seven overs. Ben Stokes was the top scorer for England with 43 runs.Sri Lanka then coasted to victory with 24.2 overs to spare, finishing with 160-2. Pathum Nissanka (77 not out) and Sadeera Samarawickrama (65 not out) scored attacking half-centuries.It was Sri Lanka’s fifth consecutive victory over England in World Cups.England has just one win — against Bangladesh — from its opening five games at the tournament following heavy losses to New Zealand and South Africa and an upset defeat to Afghanistan.Its third successive loss means Englan...

US economic growth accelerated to strong 4.9% rate last quarter as consumers shrugged off Fed hikes

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:24:07 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s economy expanded at a robust 4.9% annual rate from July through September as Americans defied higher prices, rising interest rates and widespread forecasts of a recession to spend at a brisk pace.The Commerce Department said the economy expanded last quarter at the fastest pace in nearly two years — and more than twice the 2.1% annual rate of the previous quarter.Thursday’s report on the nation’s gross domestic product — the economy’s total output of goods and services — showed that consumers drove the acceleration, ramping up their spending on everything from cars to restaurant meals. Even though the painful inflation of the past two years has soured many people’s view of the economy, millions have remained willing to splurge on vacations, concert tickets and sports events.“This is just a very resilient economy that continues to take hit after hit and keep on,” said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, a tax and consulting firm.Yet the robust gro...