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    Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is a new 4v1 game from Friday the 13th devs

    Peter Watson
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    Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is a new 4v1 game from Friday the 13th devs

    A new Ghostbusters game from the developer of Friday the 13th: The Game and Predator: Hunting Grounds is coming to consoles and PC later this year. On Tuesday, developer Illfonic announced Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, an all-ages take on its brand of four-versus-one asymmetric multiplayer games, where you play as your own original Ghostbusters team — or take on the role of a ghost hellbent on wreaking haunted havoc.

    As Ghostbusters, players will wield Proton Packs, Particle Throwers, Ghost Traps, and a PKE Meter in first-person in order to track, attack, and subdue ghosts as a team of four. As one of a variety of playable ghosts, players will also terrorize everyday citizens in a variety of locations, possess objects in the environment, and teleport across maps using rifts. Ghosts aren’t defenseless, either; they can slime and stun the enemy Ghostbusters team as they try to haunt each map to completion. (There’s no death in Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, just ’busters going into a downed state.)

    Your Ghostbusters team will set up shop in the original film’s firehouse, complete with the Ecto-1 in the group’s garage. Winston Zeddemore, voiced by Ernie Hudson, will offer guidance there, while Ray Stantz, voiced by Dan Aykroyd, will give insight into the spectral world from Ray’s Occult Books — conveniently located just across the street from the firehouse, for the purposes of the game.

    Image: Illfonic/Sony Pictures Consumer Products

    At the firehouse, players will customize their own Ghostbuster (and with the help of Tobin’s Spirit Guide, customize their ghost) and their loadouts. While the traditional Ghostbusters gear is available here in Spirits Unleashed, other unlockable weapons and equipment will also become available to further customize your team.

    Speaking with Illfonic co-founder Charles Brungardt and chief creative officer Jarred Gerritzen, Polygon learned that that the team wanted to make a family-friendly, not-ultra-violent game that would be accessible to Ghostbusters fans of all ages. Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed will support cross-platform play across consoles and PC, and features AI-controlled companions to fill up (or backfill) teams in an effort to make getting into games quicker. Matches should last no longer than 10 minutes, the creators said.

    Illfonic showed Polygon an extended gameplay preview of Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed last week, showcasing a team of Ghostbusters responding to a ghost infestation at a New York City museum. They battled a purple, minion-summoning slime, hunting it down and stunning it with a PKE Meter, then laboriously trapping it with their chaotic particle throwers. One teammate was in charge of the trap, throwing it and opening it at just the right time.

    Later, Illfonic showed a battle from the ghost’s perspective — which is played in third-person — where the specter created mischief by startling museum-goers and inhabiting a variety of objectives (a wheeled mop bucket, “Wet Floor” signs, etc.), turning the experience into a prop hunt-style game. The ghost will also have the advantage of Ghost Vision, an ability that lets it see human players and NPCs through walls.

    A ghost attacks a lone Ghostbuster in the museum in Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed

    Image: Illfonic/Sony Pictures Consumer Products

    The debut trailer for Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed shows at least four playable ghosts, including Slimer, coming to the game. Illfonic also promises multiple maps and hinted at unlockable ghostbusting tools that fans haven’t seen before.

    Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is set in the films’ canon, after the events of 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Spirits Unleashed will even borrow that film’s “it’s OK, good even, to cross the streams” to let players unleash a powered-up team particle beam. Players will not, however, get a chance to drive the Ecto-1 as part of their ghostbusting outings.

    Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed will launch on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC (via the Epic Games Store), Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

    Better Call Saul’s Bob Odenkirk reveals medics gave him CPR when he had a heart attack

    Peter Watson
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    Better Call Saul’s Bob Odenkirk reveals medics gave him CPR when he had a heart attack

    Bob Odenkirk has shockingly revealed medics had to perform CPR on him when he had a heart attack on the set of Better Call Saul, saying his co-stars helped to save his life.

    The American actor, 59, fell ill while shooting the final series of the Breaking Bad spin-off series last summer, saying the heart attack was caused by plaque breaking off and blocking an artery.

    He said his co-stars Rhea Seehorn and Patrick Fabian, who he was at the sound stage with at the time, helped to save his life by ‘screaming their heads off’, alerting the medic, who then performed CPR.

    Life-threatening: Bob Odenkirk has spoken out about having a heart attack on the set of Better Call Saul, saying medics had to perform ‘CPR’ on him

    Speaking on Tuesday’s Lorraine, he said: ‘I had a heart attack, I had some plaque break off and block the artery and they [Patrick and Rhea] were right there, they came over, didn’t know what to do but screamed their heads off and then the medic showed up and performed CPR. Thank god, very lucky, very lucky.’ 

    The Breaking Bad actor, who was hospitalised after the heart attack, said Rhea, 49, and Patrick, 57, were waiting on the side of the set at the time because of Covid-19 restrictions.

    Last month, Bob told the New York Times he shockingly didn’t have a pulse when he had the heart attack, which saw him ‘turning bluish-gray’ and it took three shocks to restart his heart.

    He explained: ‘I’d known since 2018 that I had this plaque buildup in my heart. I went to two heart doctors at Cedars-Sinai, and I had dye and an M.R.I. and all that stuff, and the doctors disagreed.’

    Shock: The actor, 59, fell ill while shooting the final series of the Breaking Bad spin-off series last summer, saying the heart attack was caused by plaque breaking off and blocking an artery

    Shock: The actor, 59, fell ill while shooting the final series of the Breaking Bad spin-off series last summer, saying the heart attack was caused by plaque breaking off and blocking an artery

    The two physicians gave different options with Bob ultimately choosing to wait out doing anything about it instead of starting medication. 

    The actor said everything was okay with his heart until ‘one of those pieces of plaque broke up’ when he was on set.

    He explained: ‘We were shooting a scene, we’d been shooting all day, and luckily I didn’t go back to my trailer.

    ‘I went to play the Cubs game and ride my workout bike [at a space where he and his co-stars regularly spent downtime], and I just went down. Rhea [Seehorn] said I started turning bluish-gray right away.’

    Bob said he was later transported to Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque and ‘around 5am the next morning they went through right [at my wrist area] and blew up the little balloons and knocked out that plaque and left stents in two places’.

    Help: He said his co-stars Rhea Seehorn and Patrick Fabian (both pictured far right) helped to save his life by 'screaming their heads off'. Also pictured: Bob and Michael Mando

    Help: He said his co-stars Rhea Seehorn and Patrick Fabian (both pictured far right) helped to save his life by ‘screaming their heads off’. Also pictured: Bob and Michael Mando

    In August, Bob gave fans an update on his health after his late July heart attack on set in New Mexico.

    ‘I am doing great. I’ve had my very own “It’s a wonderful life” week of people insisting I make the world slightly better, began the actor in a tweet.

    One month later, the talented star let his social media followers know he was back to work as he shared an image from the makeup room as he prepared to shoot a scene for his hit TV series.

    ‘Back to work on Better Call Saul!’ his note began. ‘So happy to be here and living this specific life surrounded by such good people. BTW this is makeup pro Cheri Montesanto making me not ugly for shooting!’

    Hospitalised: Last month, Bob said he shockingly didn't have a pulse when he had the heart attack, which saw him 'turning bluish-gray' and it took three shocks to restart his heart

    Hospitalised: Last month, Bob said he shockingly didn’t have a pulse when he had the heart attack, which saw him ‘turning bluish-gray’ and it took three shocks to restart his heart

    The star has since wrapped up filming the sixth and final season of his Breaking Bad spin-off, admitting on Lorraine that it was ‘very hard’ to say goodbye to the character and the ‘amazing’ crew’.

    He said: ‘We just finished the final season about a month ago, it was very hard to say goodbye to, I’ve been playing the character for almost 12 years now and the spin off for six years.’

    The series centres around lawyer Jimmy McGill [Odenkirk] who, over the course of several years, mishaps and questionable ethical choices rebrands himself as smarmy criminal attorney Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad.

    A prequel spin-off of the Bryan Cranston series, Better Call Saul managed to carve out a home for itself among televisions great dramas.

    The return: In September the star let his social media followers know he was back to work as he shared an image from the makeup room as he prepared to shoot a scene for his hit TV series

    The return: In September the star let his social media followers know he was back to work as he shared an image from the makeup room as he prepared to shoot a scene for his hit TV series

    Executive producer of Better Call Saul, Peter Gould, previously confirmed the show’s final season will consist of 13 episodes rather than the usual 10.  

    ‘From the beginning when we started this, I think all our hopes and dreams were to be able to tell the whole story,’ Gould said in a statement.

    He added: ‘And make it to be a complete story from beginning to end. We’re going to try like hell to stick the landing of these 63 episodes.’

    The sixth and final season of Better Call Saul begins airing Monday, April 18 on AMC.

    NASA confirms there are 5,000 planets outside our solar system

    Peter Watson
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    NASA confirms there are 5,000 planets outside our solar system

    NASA has confirmed that there are more than 5,000 known planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets. 

    The US space agency has added another 65 exoplanets to the online NASA Exoplanet Archive, bringing the grand total to 5,005.

    Exoplanets found so far include small, rocky worlds like Earth, gas giants many times larger than Jupiter, and ‘hot Jupiters’ in scorchingly close orbits around their stars. 

    However, NASA stresses that 5,005 is only ‘a tiny fraction’ of all the planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone, which could number hundreds of billions. 

     NASA confirms there are more than 5,000 planets beyond our solar system including several ‘hot Jupiters’, ‘super-Earths’ and ‘mini-Neptunes’. An artist’s impression of the variety of different exoplanets are depicted here

    HOW MANY EXOPLANETS ARE THERE? 

    An exoplanet is any planet beyond our solar system. Most orbit other stars, but free-floating exoplanets, called rogue planets, orbit the galactic center and are untethered to any star. 

    5,005 exoplanets have been confirmed since the first exoplanet discoveries in the early 1990s, as of March 22, 2022.

    The majority of these exoplanets are gaseous, like Jupiter or Neptune, rather than terrestrial, according to NASA’s online database. 

    The closest exoplanet is called Proxima Centauri b, around 4.2 light years away from our Sun. 

    ‘It’s not just a number,’ said Jessie Christiansen, research scientist with the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech in Pasadena, California.

    ‘Each one of them is a new world, a brand-new planet. I get excited about every one because we don’t know anything about them.’  

    The majority of exoplanets are gaseous, like Jupiter or Neptune, rather than terrestrial, according to NASA’s online database.  

    The archive records exoplanet discoveries that appear in peer-reviewed, scientific papers that have been confirmed using multiple detection methods or by analytical techniques.   

    Among the most recently confirmed  exoplanets are K2-377 b, a ‘super Earth’ with a mass of 3.51 Earths that takes 12.8 days to complete one orbit of its star.  

    Another, called TOI-1064 b, is a ‘potentially rocky world larger than Earth, according to NASA. 

    Most exoplanets are found by measuring the dimming of a star that happens to have a planet pass in front of it, called the transit method. 

    Another way to detect exoplanets, called the Doppler method, measures the ‘wobbling’ of stars due to the gravitational pull of orbiting planets. 

    The more than 5,000 exoplanets confirmed in our galaxy so far include a variety of types - among them a mysterious variety known as 'super-Earths' because they are larger than our world and possibly rocky

    The more than 5,000 exoplanets confirmed in our galaxy so far include a variety of types – among them a mysterious variety known as ‘super-Earths’ because they are larger than our world and possibly rocky

    NASA’s milestone comes 30 years after the first exoplanets were discovered, back in 1992. 

    THREE ‘EXOPLANETS’ ARE ACTUALLY STARS 

    Scientists have been examining the thousands of exoplanet discoveries confirmed within the Milky Way Galaxy, and three of them have turned out to be stars. 

    A team from MIT in Cambridge looked through planets discovered using the NASA Kepler Space Telescope, double checking the measurements to see which match known planet sizes.

    They identified three objects that are simply too big to be planets, based on new, more accurate measurements taken by the European Space Agency Gaia telescope.  

    Read more: Three ‘exoplanets’ are actually stars 

    In January that year, Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail announced the discovery of two rocky planets orbiting PSR B1 257+12, a pulsar in the constellation Virgo. A further planet was discovered in the system in 1994.  

    Finding just three planets around this spinning star essentially opened the floodgates for exoplanets, said Wolszczan, who still searches for exoplanets as a professor at Penn State.

    ‘If you can find planets around a neutron star, planets have to be basically everywhere,’ he told NASA. ‘The planet production process has to be very robust.’     

    Some of the exoplanets that have been discovered since, such as Kepler 16-b, orbit two stars at once, like the planet of Tatooine in ‘Star Wars’. 

    Around 200 light years away, Kepler-16b weighs about a third as much as Jupiter and has a radius three-fourths that of Jupiter, making it similar to Saturn in both size and mass. 

    Another exoplanet called WASP-121b, around 850 light years from Earth, is an example of a ‘hot Jupiter’ – a Jupiter-like giant gas planet on a close orbit around its parent star. 

    WASP-121b has one of the shortest orbits detected to date, circling its star in just 30 hours. 

    It is tidally locked, meaning the same side always faces its star, while its colder ‘night’ side is turned forever toward space. 

    Gliese 486b, meanwhile, is an example of a ‘super Earth’ – a planet larger than Earth but smaller than the four gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. 

    Some exoplanets orbit two stars at once, like the planet of Tatooine in the 1977 film 'Star Wars' (pictured)

    Some exoplanets orbit two stars at once, like the planet of Tatooine in the 1977 film ‘Star Wars’ (pictured)

    Artist's impression of exoplanet Kepler-16b, the most 'Tatooine-like' planet yet found in our galaxy. Kepler-16b is depicted as a small black circle circling two stars. The largest of the two stars, a K dwarf, is about 69 per cent the mass of our sun, and the smallest, a red dwarf, is about 20 per cent the sun's mass

    Artist’s impression of exoplanet Kepler-16b, the most ‘Tatooine-like’ planet yet found in our galaxy. Kepler-16b is depicted as a small black circle circling two stars. The largest of the two stars, a K dwarf, is about 69 per cent the mass of our sun, and the smallest, a red dwarf, is about 20 per cent the sun’s mass

    Gliese 486b is the only planet so far detected orbiting the small star and has a radius 1.3 times larger than the Earth but is 2.8 times more massive.

    The planet has an iron-silicate composition similar to the makeup of Earth but is much hotter, with a surface temperature of 802°F (428°C), according to a 2021 study.

    GJ 367 b, meanwhile, is exposed to a huge amount of radiation, due to its small distance to its star – about 620,000 miles – which it orbits in just eight hours. 

    With a diameter of 5,560 miles, GJ 367 b is slightly bigger than Mars (4,200 miles) but has the makeup of Mercury. 

    NASA said its James Webb Space Telescope (depicted here in space) will capture light from atmospheres of exoplanets to read which gases are present to potentially identify tell-tale signs of habitable conditions

    NASA said its James Webb Space Telescope (depicted here in space) will capture light from atmospheres of exoplanets to read which gases are present to potentially identify tell-tale signs of habitable conditions

    Scientists are still trying to learn more about what exactly exoplanets and their atmospheres are made up of. 

    NASA said its James Webb Space Telescope will capture light from the atmospheres of exoplanets to read which gases are present to potentially identify tell-tale signs of habitable conditions. 

    The $10 billion (£7.4 billion) observatory, which launched on Christmas Day, will explore the universe in the infrared spectrum, allowing it to gaze through clouds of gas and dust where stars are being born. 

    EXOPLANETS HAVE ‘EXOTIC’ ROCKS THAT CAN’T BE FOUND IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM 

    Rocky planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets, are composed of ‘exotic’ rock types that don’t even exist in our planetary system, a 2021 study shows. 

    Researchers have used telescope data to analyse white dwarfs – former stars that were once gave life just like our Sun – in an attempt to discover secrets of their former surrounding planets. 

    Roughly 98 per cent of all the stars in the universe will ultimately end up as white dwarfs, including our own Sun. 

    The experts found that some exoplanets have rock types that don’t exist, or just can’t be found, on planets in our solar system.

    These rock types are so ‘strange’ that the authors have had to create new names for them – including ‘quartz pyroxenites’ and ‘periclase dunites’. 

    Some 4,374 exoplanets have been confirmed in 3,234 systems since the first exoplanet discoveries in the early 1990s.

    The majority of these exoplanets are gaseous, like Jupiter or Neptune, rather than terrestrial, according to NASA’s online database. 

    Read more: Rocky exoplanets are even stranger than we thought, study suggests

    Politics, Science, and Trans Youth

    Peter Watson
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    Politics, Science, and Trans Youth

    Transgender youth need our help.

    PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS

    After over 3 weeks of daily columns on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is time for another topic. Or, is it? The underlying issue in today’s column seems similar to the process going on in Ukraine, that being the use of political power to control those with less power. This process seems to be escalating in the world. In today’s case, the less powerful are trans and nonbinary youth.

    Coming to Texas for a visit in the middle of February, I was struck by the news on February 22nd, which was right before the Texas Republican primary, that the Texas Attorney General Governor announced that affirming a transgender young person’s gender identity could be considered “child abuse” under Texas law. Many other states, especially in the South, drew up similar bills in 2021. Seems more like the other way around to me, that such politicians are abusing these youth.

    This news hit home both personally and professionally. We have a trans youth in our family and I was Medical Director of a Milwaukee clinical specializing in gender identity from about 1992-2012.

    Our clinic experience at Pathways was clearly that most trans adolescents had improved mental health when their perceived gender identity was confirmed. Our subjective impressions were scientifically confirmed only a couple of months before the Texas announcements. The research from the Trevor Project, the largest suicide and crisis prevention organization for LGBTQ youth, had a new study published that found that gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) was significantly related to lower rates of depression and suicidality.1 And, yet, Texas and other states are not only going against such science, and potentially putting parents and clinicians at risk, but also increasing the stigma and homicidal risks toward trans youth. Thankfully, the Texas endeavor seems to be on hold after a judicial response.

    More specifically related to the Ukraine invasion, Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church has deplored transgender identity.

    However, we also should not ignore that there might be a grain of truth involved in their concern. When gender fluidity reflects social experimentation, rather than a hardcore identity issue, there can be misinterpretation about what is needed or not needed to help, such as permanent physical alterations.

    Responding with concern to this societal risk to the mental health of trans youth is a prevention opportunity for psychiatrists and organized psychiatry. We should not let it go by.

    Dr Moffic is an award-winning psychiatrist who has specialized in the cultural and ethical aspects of psychiatry. A prolific writer and speaker, he received the one-time designation of Hero of Public Psychiatry from the Assembly of the American Psychiatric Association in 2002. He is an advocate for mental health issues relate to climate instability, burnout, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism for a better world. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric TimesTM.

    Reference

    1. Green AE, DeChants JP, Price MN, Davis CK. Association of gender-affirming hormone therapy with depression, thoughts of suicide, and attempted suicide among transgender and nonbinary youth. J Adolesc Health. 2022;70(4):643-649.

    5 things to know before the stock market opens Tuesday, March 22

    Peter Watson
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    5 things to know before the stock market opens Tuesday, March 22

    Here are the most important news, trends and analysis that investors need to start their trading day:

    1. Wall Street looks higher after breaking multiday win streaks

    Traders on the floor of the NYSE, March 18, 2022.

    Source: NYSE

    2. Ukraine retakes Kyiv suburb; Biden says Putin ‘against the wall’

    Service members of the Ukrainian armed forces are seen atop of a tank at their positions outside the settlement of Makariv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, near Zhytomyr, Ukraine March 4, 2022.

    Maksim Levin | Reuters

    Ukrainian forces said early Tuesday they retook a strategically important suburb of Kyiv. However, Russia continued to squeeze other areas near the capital and its attack on the embattled southern port of Mariupol raged on unabated.

    • U.S. President Joe Biden, who’s heading to Europe later in the week to meet with allies, said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “back is against the wall” and could resort to using chemical weapons.
    • The White House also warned of potential cyberattacks, urging American companies to “immediately” harden their defenses.

    3. Dow stocks: Nike earnings, Boeing crash probe, Disney walkouts

    Dow stock Nike rose roughly 5% in Tuesday’s premarket, the morning after reporting fiscal third-quarter earnings and revenue that beat estimates. Nike cited robust demand in North America but opted not to provide forward guidance against a backdrop of uncertainties around inflation, Russia’s Ukraine war and clogged supply chains.

    Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun told employees the aircraft maker offered the full support of its technical experts in the investigation of the crash of a China Eastern Airlines 737-800 with 132 people on board. The jet crashed in mountains in southern China early Monday. Boeing, a Dow stock, advanced modestly in premarket trading, one day after dropping 3.6%.

    Dow stock Disney, down more than 6% in a month, was steady in the premarket ahead of a week of planned employee walkouts, starting Tuesday, in protest of CEO Bob Chapek’s delayed denunciation of Florida’s so-called Don’t Say Gay bill. Chapek said Monday that the company made a mistake by previously remaining silent on the legislation in the state home to Disney World.

    4. Alibaba boosts its stock buyback program to $25 billion

    The Alibaba Group logo is seen at Alibaba Xixi Campus on August 8, 2021 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province of China.

    Shen Longquan | Visual China Group | Getty Images

    Alibaba shares jumped more than 9% in U.S. premarket trading Tuesday after the Chinese e-commerce giant said it would increase the size of its share buyback program by 66% to $25 billion. Alibaba has repurchased about 56.2 million American depositary receipts, worth about $9.2 billion, under the previously announced buyback program. ADRs are shares listed in the U.S., and they act as proxies for foreign companies. Alibaba is looking to boost investor confidence as its stock has lost around two-thirds of its value since hitting an all-time high in October 2020.

    5. Elon Musk to open Tesla’s long-delayed new Berlin factory

    BERLIN, GERMANY – SEPTEMBER 02: Tesla head Elon Musk arrives at a retreat of the German Christian Democrats CDU/CSU Bundestag faction on September 02, 2020 in Berlin, Germany. Musk is currently in Germany where he met with vaccine maker CureVac, with which Tesla has a cooperation to build devices for producing RNA vaccines, yesterday. Today he is rumoured to also the site of the new Gigafactory under construction near Berlin.

    Maja Hitij | Getty Images News | Getty Images

    Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday is set to open the electric auto maker’s first manufacturing facility in Europe, cutting the ribbon at the Berlin factory. Tesla sees the plant producing up to 500,000 vehicles annually. A lengthy delay in licensing the facility meant Tesla had to service earlier European orders from its Shanghai factory, which increased logistics costs. Select clients on Tuesday will get Model Ys made in Berlin. Musk said new orders from the plant could be delivered as soon as next month.

    — CNBC reports Arjun Kharpal, Sam Shead and Lauren Thomas as well as The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

    — Sign up now for the CNBC Investing Club to follow Jim Cramer’s every stock move. Follow the broader market action like a pro on CNBC Pro.

    World Water Day 2022: History, theme and significance of the day

    Peter Watson
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    World Water Day 2022: History, theme and significance of the day

    Water is a quintessential part of everyone’s life as it has enormous and complex value in our households, food, culture, health, education, economics and natural environment. However, due to its injudicious consumption and pollution, billions of people are deprived of access to safe water, risking their lives.

    Observed on March 22 every year, World Water Day is, therefore, a significant celebration, aimed at focusing on the importance of water and raising awareness about more than 2 billion people living without access to safe water. “It is about taking action to tackle the global water crisis. A core focus of World Water Day is to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030,” according to the United Nations.

    Theme

    Every year, UN-Water sets a special theme to observe the day. This year, the day is celebrated with the theme – Groundwater, making the invisible visible.

    “Groundwater is invisible, but its impact is visible everywhere. Out of sight, under our feet, groundwater is a hidden treasure that enriches our lives. Almost all of the liquid freshwater in the world is groundwater. As climate change gets worse, groundwater will become more and more critical. We need to work together to sustainably manage this precious resource. Groundwater may be out of sight, but it must not be out of mind,” worldwaterday.org wrote, stressing the importance of groundwater.

    This year, the day asks everyone to protect groundwater from overexploitation – abstracting more water than is recharged by rain and snow – and the pollution caused to it. To survive and adapt to climate change and meet the needs of a growing population, exploring, protecting and sustainably using groundwater will be central, the United Nation stated.

    History

    In 1992, when the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro took place, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to celebrate March 22 as World Day for Water every year, starting in 1993.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked everyone to “save every drop of water”.

    Sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik created a stunning sand artwork on the theme at Puri Beach.

    Ministry of Railways focused on the importance of taking “preventive measures and adopting a focused approach to conserve and save water resources”.

    📣 For more lifestyle news, follow us on Instagram | Twitter | Facebook and don’t miss out on the latest updates!

    UConn women win physical matchup with UCF to lock up spot in record 28th consecutive Sweet 16

    Peter Watson
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    UConn women win physical matchup with UCF to lock up spot in record 28th consecutive Sweet 16
    3:18 AM ET

    • Alexa PhilippouESPN

      Close

      • Covers women’s college basketball and the WNBA
      • Previously covered UConn and the WNBA Connecticut Sun for the Hartford Courant
      • Stanford graduate and Baltimore native with further experience at the Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times and Cincinnati Enquirer

    STORRS, Conn. — UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma said he thought he’d seen it all this season, with his team riddled with injuries most of the campaign and dropping the highest number of pre-NCAA tournament games the program had seen since 2004-05.

    But Monday’s slugfest against former conference foe UCF in front of one of the rowdiest Gampel Pavilion crowds in recent memory, with a spot in the Sweet 16 on the line?

    “This was a rather new experience for me,” Auriemma said.

    Despite shooting a season-low 29.2% from the field, the Huskies eked out a 52-47 victory in which they trailed early by eight, stormed back to go up 12 midway through the fourth and then allowed the Knights to pull back within three with less than a minute to go.

    In a season when many of UConn’s historic streaks have been snapped (consecutive games without falling to an unranked opponent, years since dropping a conference game), one of the program’s most impressive runs remains intact: The Huskies have now advanced to the Sweet 16 in a record 28 consecutive NCAA tournaments. They’ll play Indiana, the first meeting in the programs’ history, on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET in Bridgeport, Connecticut, for a spot in the Elite Eight.

    “Not just the tough games, but I think the adversity we faced off the court, as well, has helped prepare us [to battle Monday],” said Huskies freshman guard Azzi Fudd, who hit four 3s and finished with a team-high 16 points.

    UCF (26-4), meanwhile, concluded a historic season in which it earned its first AAC regular-season and tournament titles and won its first NCAA tournament game, over Florida in the first round.

    The Huskies left a slew of points on the board across the contest, making just two of 12 layup attempts.

    But UCF also let the game slip away with poor free throw shooting (10-for-20). That included a pair of misses from the charity stripe with 2:21 remaining that could’ve cut the deficit to three and another set with 22 seconds left down just three (with the second foul shot called off due to a lane violation).

    UConn’s 52 points were the fewest it has scored in a NCAA tournament win in program history.

    The Huskies were very familiar with the UCF’s physical style of play from their time in the American Athletic Conference from 2013 to 2020, when Auriemma’s squads prevailed 13-0 in the series. But the intensity was ratcheted up a notch on Monday in front of a boisterous, sellout Gampel crowd that was packed with students recently returned from spring break and fans just as eager to watch what more closely resembled a boxing match than a basketball game.

    The Knights punched first to go up 17-9, before UConn countered with some edge of its own. On one play early in the first quarter, reigning national player of the year Paige Bueckers and Tay Sanders kept tussling over a jump ball even after the refs blew the whistle, before Bueckers turned toward the crowd and rose her arms to amp up the fans.

    Three players fouled out (Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Aaliyah Edwards from UConn as well as Alisha Lewis from UCF) before the end of the night, with multiple others committing four apiece.

    “We were expecting to be physical, but I don’t think they were expecting us to be as physical,” said UCF guard Diamond Battles, who finished with a team-high 12 points. “We came out and did what we do best. The toughness, that’s what we are. UCF is a tough, gritty team, and we’ll always be that way. From the beginning, we knew how we had to play, and we played that way for 40 minutes.”

    Auriemma offered his take.

    “There’s times when you’re just in a rock fight and you just gotta figure out a way to get through it,” he said. “And there’s other times where it feels like you’re at a ballet and nobody’s touching nobody.”

    Monday’s performance was certainly not a ballet.

    The Knights, who entering the game boasted the top scoring defense in the nation, didn’t turn UConn over exorbitantly, but their press and aggressive defense slowed it down and disrupted its offensive flow. And when the Huskies managed to get good looks, which they did more and more as the game went on, they missed shots they typically make. They also were completely neutralized in the paint, where they scored just 10 points.

    For a team that tends to win with finesse, UConn had no option but to out-tough the Knights if it wanted to advance to Bridgeport. The Huskies settled in defensively and found a bit more of a groove on offense, slowly but surely crawling ahead by double figures early in the fourth.

    “We just fought back,” said UConn senior Christyn Williams, who finished with 12 points. “That was the only thing we really could do was just hold our own and fight back. And that’s exactly what happened: We just kept on throwing punches, and eventually they backed down.”

    UCF had one more burst in it, though, using nine unanswered points to make it a one-possession game with a minute to play, but between its missed free throws and UConn’s 4 for 4 finish from the foul line thanks to Williams and Fudd, the Huskies would live to play another game.

    “Toughness is making all those free throws at the end,” Auriemma said. “Toughness is getting a huge rebound at a big time. Toughness is Christyn making that 3 [early in the fourth to put UConn up by 11] when she had to make it. And I think we showed that. I think all the other stuff was just fluff.”

    The road won’t get easier for the Huskies from here on out; Indiana awaits, and then should they advance, the winner of ACC champion NC State versus Notre Dame with a trip to Minneapolis within reach.

    The Huskies will have to play closer to the best version of themselves to get through that gauntlet, though to the team, managing to overcome yet another bout of adversity offers a lesson nonetheless.

    “There’s something to be said for that you can win a game that you probably would look back and say I’m not sure how we won that game, but we did,” Auriemma said.

    New screening tool IDs 95 percent of stage 1

    Peter Watson
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    New screening tool IDs 95 percent of stage 1

    image: Scott Lippman, MD, is director of the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center and co-senior author of a new <em>Nature Communications Medicine</em> paper about a study showing that high-conductance di-electrophoresis detected 95 percent of early pancreatic cancers.
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    Credit: UC San Diego Health Sciences

    A novel screening platform has flagged more than 95 percent of stage 1 cancers, according to a pilot study published in Nature Communications Medicine. If validated by future studies, the approach offers a new way to detect the third-leading cause of U.S. cancer deaths in 2020.

    The study of 139 stage 1 and 2 cancer patients and 184 controls is the first clinical test of a platform technology called high-conductance di-electrophoresis, developed at Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health 12 years ago. It detects extracellular vesicles (EVs), which contain tumor proteins that are released into circulation by cancer cells as part of a poorly understood intercellular communication network. Artificial intelligence-enabled protein marker analysis is then used to predict the likelihood of malignancy.

    In addition to detecting 99.5 percent of stage 1 pancreatic cancers, the approach flagged 74.4 percent of stage 1 ovarian cancer and 73.1 percent of pathologic stage 1A lethally aggressive serous ovarian adenocarcinomas — all with more than 99 percent specificity — illustrating the potential value of this technology for early cancer detection.

    “The pancreatic cancer result is particular promising,” said Scott M. Lippman, MD, director of Moores Cancer Center, principal Investigator of the Stand Up To Cancer–Lustgarten Foundation Pancreatic Cancer Interception Dream Team, and co-senior author of the paper. “These results are five times more accurate in detecting early-stage cancer than current liquid biopsy multi-cancer detection tests.”

    Liquid biopsy tests produce promising results for cancer therapy monitoring and disease relapse, Lippman said, “but they can cause real harm to otherwise healthy people when used for early-disease screening due to unacceptably high false-positive rates that lead to diagnostic tests that are not only expensive, but often dangerous.”

    Early cancer detection research has yielded tremendous health benefits, Lippman said, resulting in screening methods that detect cancers of the cervix, breast, colon and rectum when they are highly curable. Currently, however, only 5 percent of pancreatic cancers are diagnosed in stage 1 and only 10 percent in time for effective surgery. In 2020, 46,774 Americans died of pancreatic cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    “Pancreatic cancer has the lowest five-year relative survival rate of all major cancer killers and is the only one for which both the incidence and death rates are increasing,” said Andrew Lowy, MD, clinical director for Cancer Surgery at UC San Diego Health Moores Cancer Center, and chief of Division of Surgical Oncology at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “Pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult to detect early, at a stage when surgical resection, the only curative therapy, is possible. At this stage, patients typically have few if any symptoms.”

    If study results are validated, Lippman said, “we can greatly reduce the mortality from this disease which will soon become the second-leading cause of cancer mortality in the U.S.”

    Co-authors include: Razelle Kurzrock, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; Nicholas J. Schork of The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), Phoenix, AZ, USA and City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA; Ashish M. Kamat of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; Ramez N. Eskander UC San Diego;Mark J. Adler of the San Diego Cancer Research Institute; Pablo Hinestrosa, Jean M. Lewis, Gregor Schroeder, Orlando Perrera, David Searson, Kiarash Rastegar, Jake R. Hughes, Victor Ortiz, Iryna Clark, Heath I. Balcer, Larry Arakelyan, Robert Turner, Paul R. Billings, and Rajaram Krishnan, all of Biological Dynamics, San Diego, CA.

    # # #

    Journal

    Communications Medicine

    Article Publication Date

    17-Mar-2022

    Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

    Russian court finds Kremlin critic Navalny guilty of fraud

    Peter Watson
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    Russian court finds Kremlin critic Navalny guilty of fraud

    Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny takes part in a rally to mark the 5th anniversary of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov’s murder and to protest against proposed amendments to the country’s constitution, in Moscow, Russia February 29, 2020. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov/File Photo

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    • Prosecutors seek to add more jail time for Navalny
    • His opposition network is already outlawed in Russia
    • Prosecutors request a further 13 years
    • Navalny has urged Russians to protest against Ukraine campaign

    March 22 (Reuters) – A Russian court found jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny guilty of large-scale fraud on Tuesday, a move likely to see the time that President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic spends in jail extended by years.

    Navalny is already serving a two-and-a-half sentence at a prison camp east of Moscow for parole violations related to charges he says were fabricated to thwart his political ambitions.

    In the latest criminal case against him, which he has also dismissed as politically-motivated, he could have up to 13 years added to that sentence.

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    A gaunt Navalny stood besides his lawyers in a room filled with prison security officers as the judge read out the accusations against him. The 45-year-old seemed unfazed, looking down as he flipped through court documents.

    Prosecutors had asked the court to send him to a maximum-security penal colony for 13 years on charges of fraud and contempt of court. A ruling is expected later on Tuesday.

    Navalny was jailed last year when he returned to Russia after receiving medical treatment in Germany following a poison attack with a Soviet-era nerve agent during a visit to Siberia in 2020. Navalny blamed Putin for the attack.

    The Kremlin said it had seen no evidence that Navalny was poisoned and denied any Russian role if he was.

    After the last court hearing into his case on March 15, Navalny struck a typically defiant tone, writing via Instagram: “If the prison term is the price of my human right to say things that need to be said … then they can ask for 113 years. I will not renounce my words or deeds.” read more

    Russian authorities have cast Navalny and his supporters as subversives determined to destabilise Russia with backing from the West. Many of Navalny’s allies have fled Russia rather than face restrictions or jail at home.

    Navalny’s opposition movement has been labelled “extremist” and shut down, although his supporters continue to express their political stance, including their opposition to Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine, on social media.

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    Writing by Kevin Liffey/Reuters reporters;
    Editing by Reuters editor

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

    Dying Light 1’s next-gen upgrade patch is now available on Xbox Series X/S • Eurogamer.net

    Peter Watson
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    Dying Light 1’s next-gen upgrade patch is now available on Xbox Series X/S • Eurogamer.net

    Brings Xbox One X enhancements too.

    Techland’s next-gen spruce-up of the original Dying Light is, following its recent PS5 release, now available on Xbox Series X/S, with enhancements available for Xbox One X too.

    As was the case on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X owners will be able to switch between one of three different video modes once today’s Dying Light patch is downloaded. Performance mode looks to deliver 60fps in full HD resolution, while Quality mode supports 30fps in 4K. Coming in somewhere between the two is Balanced mode, targeting 60fps in QHD resolution.

    Over on Xbox Series S and Xbox One X, players will find two different video modes. Performance mode delivers 30fps at full HD, while quality mode targets 30fps at QHD. Additionally, Techland says to expect “new networking utilising the EOS solution”.

    Dying Light 2 Review Chat – Spoiler-Free!

    Techland has had a busy few months, of course; not only was it busy fancying up its original 2015 zombie survival adventure, the developer also finally released the long-awaited Dying Light 2 into the world, delivering a thoroughly enjoyable follow-up experience, despite its troubled development – unless you were hoping to play on Switch, where it’s been delayed.

    “I can’t pretend to be an expert in big blockbuster games”, wrote Martin Robinson in his Recommended review back in February, “but Dying Light 2, with its varied systems lifted wholesale from elsewhere, is a welcome reminder of how hugely entertaining they can be. There’s a brutality to its breadth, to the vastness of its world – this is the triple-A experience served up with the subtlety and grace of a modified hammer to the head. It’s rarely elegant, but it is most definitely enjoyable.”

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