While current autonomous robots utilize rangefinders, cameras, and lasers to navigate, the addition of whiskers could be a cheap addition that prevents some seriously expensive collisions. Whiskers aren’t only wielded by cats and mice—hundreds of mammals have them, including all non-human primates, and many marine mammals like dugongs and seals. This biological diffusion can mean […] The post Hi-Tech Whiskers Give Working Robots More Ability to Move Safely and Read Environment appeared first on Good News Network.

News The Decameron Time to Get Debauched With Netflix’s The Decameron It’s all fun and games until someone brings up cannibalism By Molly Templeton | Published on July 10, 2024 Image: Netflix Comment 0 Share New Share Image: Netflix In 2020, people were talking about The Decameron a lot (relatively speaking). Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th-century tale about a bunch of nobles telling each other stories to pass the time while the Black Death raged seemed, well, somewhat more relevant than maybe most of us expected. Now, four years later, Netflix has a Decameron series—with a bit of a twist. According to Tudum, “as time goes on and social rules wear thin, the orgy of riches and liquor collapses into a struggle for survival. Wealthy citizens escaping a plague by engaging in a lavish and insular display of wealth? Doesn’t sound like this could be relevant at all!” The trailer for the series is an odd mix of actually funny and just mildly awkward, but with this cast, one can only assume that Netflix is saving the best bits for the show itself. Yes, that’s Arrested Development’s Tony Hale in a wig as Sirisco, who is described as “the affable, ill-prepared, and eager-to-please steward of Villa Santa.” Girls’ Zosia Mamet plays Pampinea, a lady who is “full of hope and absolutely lacking in self-awareness.” Amar Chadha-Patel (The Wheel of Time) is a “cocksure physician”; Jessica Plummer (The Girl Before) is “spoiled oddball” Filomena. Derry Girls’ Saoirse-Monica Jackson plays a codependent servant, and Harlots’ Douggie McMeekin an insufferable bachelor. The Decameron is created by Kathleen Jordan (the showrunner of Teenage Bounty Hunters), and produced by Jenji Kohan’s production company; Kohan created Weeds and Orange Is the New Black. Join the party July 25th on Netflix.[end-mark] The post Time to Get Debauched With Netflix’s <i>The Decameron</i> appeared first on Reactor.

Books new releases All the New Science Fiction Books Arriving in July 2024 Start a virtual family, visit a dangerous rainforest, and meet an immortal warrior in this month’s new releases. By Reactor | Published on July 10, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share Here’s the full list of the science fiction titles heading your way in July! Keep track of all the new SFF releases here. All title summaries are taken and/or summarized from copy provided by the publisher. Release dates are subject to change. July 2 The Down Deep — Catherine Asaro (Baen)A CITY DIVIDED: For centuries The City of Cries—one of the most desired locales in the Skolian Imperialate—has existed by the thinnest of threads. On the dying world of Raylicon, the “haves” live in great luxury in Cries while the “havenots” scrape by, eking out a marginal existence in the notorious Undercity beneath the desert. Major Bhaajan, formerly of the Pharaoh’s Army, knows both worlds. Born into the Undercity, she nevertheless has made a name for herself in the Imperialate. And now, she has the chance to help her people. HOPE FOR RECONCILIATION: For the first time, a member of the Royal class wants to extend an olive branch to the Undercity. Hoping to build bridges, Colonel Lavinda Majda recruits Bhaaj and her Dust Knights to act as guides and bodyguards on a mission of goodwill to those who live below the surface of their parched world. THE DOWN DEEP: But the problems of the Undercity run deeper than anyone knows. To help find peace, the Dust Knights must reach the most hidden rungs in that mysterious underground world, a place known only as the Down Deep, where the scars from centuries of distrust are greatest. There they will face an unseen enemy that may destroy the lives of everyone they know—and threaten interstellar civilization. The Icarus Changeling (Icarus #4) — Timothy Zahn (Baen)Gregory Roarke—former bounty hunter, former Trailblazer, current agent for the ultra-secret Icarus Group—has received a new assignment: locate a suspected but as-yet undiscovered teleportation portal on the backwater colony world of Alainn. The rival Patth are also searching for the device, and have considerably more resources at their disposal. Fortunately, Roarke has Selene and her incredibly sensitive Kadolian sense of smell. On paper, it should be a straightforward enough job. But that was before there was a murder in the small town of Bilswift… and another one… and the discovery that the Patth are already on the scene and have narrowed the search to a heavily forested area in the hills and mountains east of town. Most disturbing of all is the discovery that one of Selene’s people, a Kadolian teenaged boy named Tirano, is working at one of Bilswift’s fish markets. A boy who may have lost his parents before his proper socialization was completed. A boy who may be connected to both the murders and the Patth. A boy who may be the potentially dangerous wild card that the Kadolians call changelings. July 9 Toward Eternity — Anton Hur (HarperVia)In a near-future world, a new technological therapy is quickly eradicating cancer. The body’s cells are entirely replaced with nanites—robot or android cells which not only cure those afflicted but leaves them virtually immortal. Literary researcher Yonghun teaches an AI how to understand poetry and creates a living, thinking machine he names Panit, meaning Beloved, in honor of his husband. When Yonghun—himself a recipient of nanotherapy—mysteriously vanishes into thin air and then just as suddenly reappears, the event raises disturbing questions. What happened to Yonghun, and though he’s returned, is he really himself anymore? When Dr. Beeko, the scientist who holds the patent to the nanotherapy technology, learns of Panit, he transfers its consciousness from the machine into an android body, giving it freedom and life. As Yonghun, Panit, and other nano humans thrive—and begin to replicate—their development will lead them to a crossroads and a choice with existential consequences. Exploring the nature of intelligence and the unexpected consequences of progress, the meaning of personhood and life, and what we really have to fear from technology and the future, Toward Eternity is a gorgeous, thought-provoking novel that challenges the notion of what makes us human—and how love survives even the end of that humanity. The Family Experiment — John Marrs (Hanover Square)Some families are virtually perfect… The world’s population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, the breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families, let alone raise them. But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality TV show called The Substitute. It will follow ten couples as they raise a virtual child from birth to the age of eighteen but in a condensed nine-month time period. The prize: the right to keep their virtual child, or risk it all for the chance of a real baby… July 16 The Backtrack — Erin La Rosa (Canary Street Press)Nearly twenty years ago, Sam Leto left her small hometown of Tybee Island, Georgia, to pursue her dreams of becoming a pilot. While she’d prefer to keep flying away from her painful childhood memories, her beloved grandmother Pearl decides it’s time to sell the family home. Reluctantly, Sam is summoned back to pack up the house. The 2000s nostalgia from Sam’s old bedroom hits immediately: Fall Out Boy posters, drawers of roll-on body glitter and even her favorite CD player with a mixtape from her best friend, Damon Rocha. Damon was always a safe place and Sam often wonders what if her teenage self admitted her feelings for him back then… Mysteriously, the CD player still works all these years later. And somehow it has the power to show Sam an alternate version of her life. Song by song, Sam receives flashbacks from her past—senior prom, graduation, leaving home. But the memories aren’t as she remembers them; they show what could have been. Suddenly, Sam knows exactly what would have happened if she’d taken a chance with Damon—and she can’t help feeling she made a terrible mistake leaving Tybee all those years ago.The Building That Wasn’t — Abigail Miles (CamCat)When Everly Tertium encounters a strange man in the park claiming to be her grandfather, she is invited to visit a mysterious apartment building. There, she finds herself in a constant state of déjà vu, impossibly certain that she’s already lived through these moments, already been introduced to these people, and already visited all of these rooms and floors. So why does she have no idea what’s happening to her? The longer she stays in the building, the more Everly becomes convinced there is more going on than meets the eye. Something is off, time seems to pass differently, and the people living there seem trapped. Slowly, Everly begins to wonder if she is trapped too. But would she even want to leave, if she could? July 23 Grand Theft AI — James Cox (Blackstone)San Francisco, 2051. Rising like neo-Shanghai over the Bay, a labyrinth of quantum accelerators, hologram dreams, and fiercely regulated androids. Forget powder, pills, or bud—kids get high slotting wafers of data under the ear, and they’ll pay fat ¢rypto for the best. At the hottest nightclub in the city… the Fang. Baz Covane is a battle-scarred thief who sticks to small-time bots. Ria Rose is the underworld “fixer” with a big-time score that could easily get ’em both killed. ‘Cuz the Fang’s psychotic kingpin Otto Rex has a vault with more security than a fusion reactor. And the glass inside is priceless—enough to set up Baz, Ria, and their crack team of cyber-misfits on the white sands of Tahiti forever. But this crime doesn’t just carry infinite VR-Prison time—it’s Baz and Ria’s last shot at redemption. Forced to confess every last secret on their neurals, they’ll have to trust each other completely if they stand any chance of infiltrating Otto’s lair, raiding its spiraling rings of physical and virtual firewalls, to finally hack into his mind and crack his deepest layer of security, before the Blackhawks touch down with federal warrants—for Grand Theft AI. The Book of Elsewhere — Keanu Reeves & China Miéville (Del Rey)There have always been whispers. Legends. The warrior who cannot be killed. Who’s seen a thousand civilizations rise and fall. He has had many names: Unute, Child of Lightning, Death himself. These days, he’s known simply as “B.” And he wants to be able to die. In the present day, a U.S. black-ops group has promised him they can help with that. And all he needs to do is help them in return. But when an all-too-mortal soldier comes back to life, the impossible event ultimately points toward a force even more mysterious than B himself. One at least as strong. And one with a plan all its own. Gravity Lost (Ambit’s Run #2) — L. M. Sagas (Tor Books)After thwarting a space station disaster and planetary destruction, the Ambit crew thought turning Isaiah Drestyn over to the Union would be the end of their troubles. Turns out, it’s only the start. Drestyn is a walking encyclopedia of dirty secrets, and everyone wants a piece of him—the Trust, the Union, even the Guild. Someone wants him bad enough to kill, and with the life of one of their own on the line, the Ambit crew must jail-break the very man they helped capture and expose some of the secrets he’s been keeping before it’s too late. In the Spiral, everything has a price. In their fight to protect what they love, Eoan, Nash, Saint, and Jal will confront some ugly truths about their enemies, and even uglier truths about their friends. But nothing will come close to the truths they’ll learn about themselves. You can’t always fix what’s broken… and sometimes, it’s better that way. July 30 Navigational Entanglements — Aliette de Bodard (Tordotcom Publishing)Việt Nhi is not good with people. Or politics. Which is a problem when the Rooster clan sends her on the mission against her will, forcing her to work with an ill-matched group of squabbling teammates from rival clans, including one who she can’t avoid, and maybe doesn’t want to. Hạc Cúc of the Snake clan has always been better at poisoning and stabbing than at making friends, but she’s drawn to Nhi’s perceptiveness and obliviousness to social conventions―including the ones that really should make Nhi think twice about spending time with her. But when their imperial envoy and nominal leader is poisoned, this crew of expendable apprentices will have to learn to work together—fast—before the invisible Tangler can wreak havoc on a civilian city and destroy the fragile reputation of the clans. Along the way, Nhi and Hạc Cúc will have to learn the hardest lesson of all: to see past their own misconceptions and learn to trust their growing feelings for each other. Everything Good Dies Here: Tales from the Linker Universe and Beyond — Djuna, tr. Adrian Thieret (Kaya Press)The stories brought together in this collection introduce for the first time in English the dazzling speculative imaginings of Djuna, one of South Korea’s most provocative SF writers. Whether describing a future society light years away or satirizing Confucian patriarchy, these stories evoke a universe at once familiar and clearly fantastical. Also collected here for the first time are all six stories set in the Linker Universe, where a mutating virus sends human beings reeling through the galaxy into a dizzying array of fracturing realities. Blending influences ranging from genre fiction (zombie, vampire, SF, you name it) to golden-age cinema to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Djuna’s stories together form a brilliantly intertextual, mordantly funny critique of the human condition as it evolves into less and more than what it once was. Saturation Point — Adrian Tchaikovsky (Solaris)The Hygrometric Dehabitation Region, or the “Zone,” is a growing band of rainforest on the equator, where the heat and humidity make it impossible for warm-blooded animals to survive. A human being without protection in the Zone is dead in minutes. Twenty years ago, Marks went into the rainforest with a group of researchers led by Doctor Elaine Fell, to study the extraordinary climate and see if it could be used in agriculture. The only thing she learned was that the Zone was no place for people. There were deaths, and the programme was cut short. Now, they’re sending her back in. A plane crash, a rescue mission, a race against time and the environment to bring out the survivors. But there are things Marks’s corporate masters aren’t telling her. The Zone keeps its secrets, and so does Doctor Fell… The post All the New Science Fiction Books Arriving in July 2024 appeared first on Reactor.

Updated July 10, 2024: Added new codes! Side with the Pirates or the Marines, sail across the seven seas (or five in this case), and experience a One Piece adventure like no other! As you roam the waters in search of quests, you’ll do good by redeeming New Seas codes and preparing for battles ahead. All New Seas codes list Active New Seas codes 5HundredLikes — Free rewards (New) WPlayerCountChat — Free rewards (New) Expired New Seas codes welcomebackagain SORRYFORWIPE whyuhateparry jeffyfixingeverything TestingInProgress! PartWays! TheWorldWillKnowMe! NewSeaisOnTheLine! 200KVISITS! 100KVISITS! Compensation500 NewSeas SorryForShutdowns HelloNewPlayers! thxforplayercout hereisyourcodeyoufiends twohunnid TimeForDivine IHATEYOUMORETHENYOUHATEME! #fizhasmod kickboxingPOWPOW UPDATETIME!!! ItsTime!!! LetMeCook! NoMoreCodesForaWhile Sorry! Compensation3! Compensation4! CARTIF...

Updated July 10, 2024: Added a new code! Jump into a free-for-all arena and showcase your skills against numerous other players for the title of the most powerful magic wielder. Your goal is to train your warrior to use every mystic element, channeling your magic powers and decimating enemies left and right. With Element Battles codes, you’ll become unstoppable! All Element Battles codes list Active Element Battles codes 18KLIKES — 500 Cash (New) 8MVISITS — 500 Cash UPDATE3 — 500 Cash 17KLIKES — 500 Cash  UPDATE2 — 500 Cash UPDATE1 — 250 Cash 9000LIKES — 500 Cash 4MVISITS — 500 Cash 16KLIKES — 500 Cash 11KLIKES — 500 Cash 6000LIKES — 500 Cash 7MVISITS — 500 Cash 15KLIKES — 500 Cash 2MVISITS — 500 Cash 1000LIKES — 500 Cash 3MVISITS — 500 Cash 1MVISITS — 500 Cash 500LIKES — 500 Cash 8000LIKES — 500 Cash 10KLIKES — 500 Cash 6MVISITS — 500 Cash 250LIKES — 500 Cash...

You may have encountered a Rift Anchor in Once Human, just to get notified that you cannot access it. We have the solution for you in this guide as it will explain how to access Rift Anchors in Once Human. Once Human: How to access and activate Rift Anchors To gain access to Rift Anchors in Once Human, you have to naturally progress the main story of the game. More specifically, unlocking Rift Anchors boils down to defeating the certain bosses within the Monolith. To actually activate the Rift Anchor, players must find the region’s Realm Coordinate Segment which sometimes can be dropped by elite enemies or found within rare chests. Once you have progressed through the main quest, defeated the main boss connected to the Rift Anchor, and collected the Realm Coordinate Segment, you will be able to use the Rift Anchor. Image: OG Kirito / YouTube Once you reach a Rift Anchor in Once Human, interact with it and head into the Specials tab in your inventory. Lastly, select...

Deviants in Once Human can be the difference between winning or losing. However, to make the most of their effect, you need to know how to keep them happy, and also what location you can find each of the Deviants in Once Human. All Deviants in Once Human Deviations can be worn in your backpack or employed in your base. They have various effects on everything from sanity to damage output. Each needs to be kept happy in their own way, via various environmental effects. It may seem like a lot of effort to track down the locations of all of these Deviants in Once Human, but they can really boost your character and also make a house a home. This is still a work in progress. There are so many Deviants to find and collect in Once Human, and I am just a man. Just a mortal man. Screenshot: PC Invasion Deviant nameHow to unlockLocationEffectHappinessButterflies EmissaryThe first Deviant given during the intro missions of Once Human.Dayton WetlandsFatal Flaw Auto AttackGreen Light...

As someone who was involuntarily used as a poster child for Asian American and Pacific Islander month by my university, yet listened to some classmates rant that Asian Americans “would be nowhere without black people,” take it from me: Diversity, equity, and inclusion offices make racism worse, not better. Nobody should wonder whether circling their race on an application form would harm his or her chances of being accepted, yet I would be lying if I said that was not my first thought every time I reached the dreaded racial question. What else can you expect when your racial identity—an immutable trait that is literally skin-deep—signals to a university or workplace that you are “too privileged” or less deserving to have a seat at the table? Conversely, how could one’s race alone fairly make someone more deserving of admittance? I will never forget my senior year of high school, when I consulted a pro-DEI teacher about my essay topic for the Common App to colleges. She squinted at my face before asking, “Have you given much thought to writing about your race in your college essay? I mean … ’cause you’re clearly not white.” My heart sank. Suddenly, I went from being an impressive writer to another non-white person whose race needed to be exploited for sympathy. Little did my teacher know that I am half white and half Asian, two of the DEI scorecard’s least favorable boxes to check. To this day, classrooms preach inclusivity in the same breath that they write white people off as privileged and cultureless. The more an individual is “white-passing,” the less interesting they become. This narrative is poisoning minds in grade school and higher education. Take the “model minority” stereotype about Asians, which asserts that Asians are successful because their culture uniformly pressures them to perform well. Stereotypes such as these have been perpetuated by DEI under the guise of being inclusive when it is anything but. It treats people as groups defined by distinct levels of oppression, instead of rewarding people based on merit. In late May, former Harvard University President Claudine Gay was honored with a Faculty Award and called “our forever president” at a separate graduationfor black students, not due to her research, but because of her “commitment to social justice.” Meanwhile, Harvard’s DEI office, which Campus Reform reports sponsored the ceremony, has not commented on Gay’s inability to state unequivocally before Congress that calling for the genocide of Jews violates Harvard’s policies. I may be biracial and have Asian heritage, but that identity has no bearing on my most important and fulfilling identities: child of God, daughter of two great parents, proud sister, and friend to many. It certainly has no bearing on my ability to seek opportunities and try my best. Anyone who says otherwise is evidence that DEI offices profit from teaching people to judge others by their skin color, rather than their character. Character cannot be built by meeting  racial quotas. It’s developed through taking risks and working hard. Contrary to what the Left would have you believe, the ability to grit your teeth and work hard to pursue your dreams is not exclusive to “white-passing” people. This fact is liberating, and anything but oppressive or racist. What is unacceptable is impeding someone’s potential to learn or succeed because they do not check a favorable racial box, not to mention doing so under the guise of being against racism. Last year, the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn race-conscious admissions to colleges and universities marked a celebratory step for fairness. But it isn’t enough. State lawmakers in Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Texas, and more are prohibiting the use of taxpayer spending on racist DEI programs at colleges. Policymakers around the country frustrated by the student “encampments” on campuses this spring that claimed to be for peace, but were really antisemitic activists, would do well to follow suit. DEI is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and it’s time we exposed it as such. Like racial preferences, it too must go. The post As an Asian American, I Say DEI Must Go appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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