'Faith-based programs are key'

Other than the boost to experience points, Diablo 4 has introduced new and powerful Uniques for our favorite class, Necromancer – yes, I speak for everyone. Here is how to get the Ebonpiercer Necromancer Unique in Diablo 4 and its best build. How to get the Ebonpiercer Unique in Diablo 4 As you might expect after reading the title of this article, the Ebonpiercer is an exclusive Unique for the Necromancer class, recently introduced in Season 4: Loot Reborn. Similar to other Uniques, the Ebonpiercer amulet can be dropped by enemies or looted from treasure chests in the game. Since this is a new Ancestral Unique, it will only drop when playing in World Tier 3 or 4, and you can farm it by completing Legions, Nightmare Dungeons, or defeating World Bosses. Image: Blizzard However, you can also get the Ebonpiercer if you face and defeat Grigoire, the Galvanic Saint. He is one of the many endgame bosses you can find in the game and, among its loot pool, you will be able to f...

Ghost of Tsushima has finally arrived on PC, and while the game runs great on most hardware, some systems are struggling to keep up. If you’re having trouble running Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut on PC, then there are some settings that you can lower to make the game a bit smoother without sacrificing too much visual fidelity. High frame rates are achievable even on lower-end hardware, which is perfect for the co-op Legends mode. Best Graphics Settings for Ghost of Tsushima These are the best overall graphics settings for Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut on PC. Upscale Method: DLSS/AMD FSR 3.0 Upscale Quality: Balanced Texture Quality: Medium Texture Filtering: 8x Anisotropic Shadow Quality: Medium Level of Detail: Medium Terrain Detail: Medium Volumetric Fog: Medium Depth of Field: High Screen Space Reflections: Low Ambient Occlusion: SSAO Performance Bloom: Off Vignette: Off Water Caustics: On While you can...

As a fan of the classic Age of Empires, the idea of reviewing a modern war RTS was enticing to say the least. After all, how different of an experience can it really be, right? Well, in the case of Men of War 2 – and the Men of War franchise – it is substantially different, which ended up being an experience I found mildly perplexing yet somehow still incredibly fascinating. Let’s take a look at what Men of War 2 has to offer. Forget what you know about the genre Let’s start by saying that if your experience in RTS games is based on what Age of Empires has to offer – which was partly my case – then you are in for a wild ride. Men of War 2 is one of those games you want to play with a manual on your hands, all while replaying the tutorial missions to make sure I understood everything the first time. The game is massive, but not precisely due to the amount of content it offers, but in how different and complex the gameplay feels. From the get-go, I’ll say that thi...

Animal Well on the surface may seem like a simplistic game, but when you play and progress, things get super complicated very fast. The Slink showcases that depth early on and it only gets deeper from there. However, the F Pack in Animal Well may be a different story, and it’s a good idea to know how to find and use it.  Animal Well: How to find and use the F Pack The most important thing to note is that F. Pack is found later in the game. Specifically, in the final area of Animal Well. If you can get past the Manticore boss, which might be taken down the same way as the Bat boss, then you’re halfway there. The credits will roll after you beat the Manticore, however, that’s not the end of the game. During the credits, just wait around till a key drops. Once you’ve found the key, pick it up and head to the house on the right. Saving here is a good idea which can be done inside the house.  Screenshot: PC Invasion After that, look f...

There are many ways to play the Necromancer class in Diablo 4, but drawing blood from your enemies is especially brutal. Here is how to get the Cruor’s Embrace Necromancer Unique in Diablo 4 and its best build. How to get the Cruor’s Embrace Unique in Diablo 4 Similarly to other Uniques, you can find the Cruor’s Embrace gloves as a drop after defeating enemies and opening chests all across Sanctuary. This will work in either World Tier 3 or 4 since this is a new Unique, so get to level 50 and complete the Cathedral of Light Capstone dungeon. While drop chances have improved in Season 4: Loot Reborn, you are better off completing endgame content like Legions, World Bosses, and Nightmare Dungeons. Image: Blizzard However, if high risk and high reward are your way of life, then your chances will increase if you decide to face and beat Lord Zir, the Dark Master. He is an endgame boss that you can only encounter in World Tier 4, and you will have to summon him ...

“Cui bono?” asked the ancients, whose wisdom we’d be foolish to toss aside. For by answering the question “Who benefits?” we may ascertain who is committing the crime that ails us. The crime in question is the mayhem being visited on the college campuses and streets of America. Today the cause is Gaza, but our revolutionaries are nothing if not opportunists. This month they will disrupt graduations, but once campuses close for summer, they will head elsewhere and take up other causes. It could be climate change, or police defunding, or the low-hanging fruits of race and sex. These issues all roll into each other now with such ease that they have become an “all-encompassing omnicause.” That’s a term Mary Harrington used at UnHerd, after noting that Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who usually harangues us about the planet, has taken to donning a Palestinian-style keffiyeh. Like thousands of other Americans, I attended a university graduation this week (in my case, at Columbia). I can attest that the demonstrators who disrupted the proceedings were a small minority whose antics were generally met with shouts of “Sit down!” But a determined, small minority can tear society to pieces. The Bolsheviks were a small minority. So who benefits from this destabilization of America across several fronts? Its adversaries, of course. The list is long because of American power and unique (exceptional) attachment to liberty, and it includes foes both foreign and domestic. Unsurprisingly, they often work in tandem. The domestic enemies of the United States and its Constitution are well known. Any organization devoted to the big lie—i.e., that America is “systemically racist,” has a “regime of white supremacy,” or an “oppressive social order”—is by definition in opposition to America as it is presently constituted. Destabilization is one way to obtain the desired change. The above phrases all come from the introduction to “Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement,” the foundational textbook of critical race theory. The impact that the discipline of critical race theory has had on how the omnicause is articulated cannot be overstressed. Take Black Lives Matter. The different organizations operating today under that banner—the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (once the most powerful), BLM Grassroots (probably the most powerful now), the Movement for Black Lives (a vast umbrella), BLM Los Angeles (the first chapter), etc.—were spawned by individuals who were recruited by older, deeply ideological Marxists and trained on destabilizing society. BLM activists express their Marxian analysis of American society—their resentment of the U.S.—in the language of critical race theory. No other organization has done more to dismantle America as it is presently constituted than Black Lives Matter. And to the surprise of no one paying attention, BLM chapters were an early and enthusiastic supporter of Hamas’ terroristic and orgiastic attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Nor should it be surprising that the fiscal sponsors of the groups organizing today’s campus protests, such as Students for Justice in Palestine and Samidoun, are also philosophical and even fiscal backers of the different BLM entities. But U.S. enemies that support and benefit from the street mayhem are not all domestic. China, America’s rising 21st-century adversary, and Cuba, whose sclerotic revolutionary rulers have been consumed with anti-American resentment for more than six decades, are two communist outposts implicated in the protests. A new report by the Network Contagion Research Institute analyzed “the activities and foreign connections” of the Shut It Down for Palestine movement, “an anti-capitalist, anti-police, and anti-government protest movement that emerged after Oct. 7,” the day of the Hamas massacre in Israel. Organizations “operating under the SID4P umbrella are members of the ‘Singham Network’ donor portfolio,” the institute wrote. That network is tied to Neville Roy Singham, a half-Cuban, half-Sri Lankan tech entrepreneur who was born in the U.S. and resides in Shanghai. A former member of radical Marxist groups, he sold his software company for $785 million in 2017 and now donates generously to Marxist causes.  Various publications from The New York Times to The Free Press say Singham has close connections to the Chinese Communist Party—something he denies. But the NCRI report says that three of the Singham Network’s affiliates—the People’s Forum, the International People’s Assembly, and the ANSWER Coalition—“serve as the conduit through which CCP-affiliated entities have effectively co-opted pro-Palestinian activism in the U.S., advancing a broader anti-American, anti-democratic, and anti-capitalist agenda.” One of the leaders of the People’s Forum, the Dominican Republic-born Manolo De Los Santos, has received training in Cuba and meets regularly with the regime’s nominal president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, writes Mary O’Grady at The Wall Street Journal. De Los Santos gave a rousing speech to more than 100 “masked and keffiyeh-clad activists” at the Manhattan office of People’s Forum hours before those activists headed to Columbia University to take over Hamilton Hall, according to Washington Free Beacon reporter Joseph Simonson, who attended via Zoom. De Los Santos urged demonstrators to “give Joe Biden a hot summer” and “make it untenable for the politics of usual to take place in this country.” The activists then were trained on “new methods of resistance” in a breakout session. “A few hours later, activists smashed the windows of Columbia’s Hamilton Hall and barricaded themselves inside,” noted Simonson. We are constantly reminded that peaceful protests are constitutionally protected speech. But we should be equally reminded to ask of those subverting our peace and undermining our institutions: “Cui bono?” It’s not people who wish us well. Originally published by the Washington Examiner The post Who Benefits From Destabilization of America? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Has Anyone Noticed That Criticism of Hamas Has Vanished In the NY Times?

Mayo Clinic Apologizes For Allowing Professor Emeritus to Say There Are Only 2 Sexes

The daily shower is a more controversial thing than you might think. Are we showering too much? Too little? Is the water too hot, or too cold? What is that rat doing in here anyway?But for some reason, the one that really gets people grimacing is the question of when to shower. If you’re a morning showerer, chances are you couldn’t imagine waiting until bedtime to scrub off the night’s sweat and grime; if you habitually shower in the evening, on the other hand, you likely recoil at the idea of crawling into bed still covered in the dirt and dust of the day.So, who’s in the right? Is it better to start the day sparkling, or wind down with a wash? We looked into the science – and the answer may surprise you.The case for a morning showerAccording to a 2022 Sleep Foundation survey, 42 percent of US adults start their day with a bath or shower. That’s noticeably more than the 25 percent who wash up just before bed, and it even overshadows the 38 percent who report showering or bathing at just some point in the evening.So, there must be something to it, right? “I shower in the morning to really wake up, to feel alive,” Cleveland Clinic dermatologist Alok Vij commented in 2023. “I just don’t feel like myself if I’m starting my day without having a clean, freshly scrubbed face.”There are biological reasons behind this morning boost. Your body relies on certain cues to regulate its circadian rhythm, and a regular shower can serve as a signal that it’s time to wake up and become more alert. The effect may be especially strong if you opt for a cooler shower rather than a hotter one – good advice at any time of day, actually – as colder water can trigger the body to release neurotransmitters such as serotonin, cortisol, dopamine, and norepinephrine, which all play crucial roles in regulating emotions and reducing stress levels.More than that, a daily morning shower – of any length and temperature, so long as it ended with up to 90 seconds of cold water – has been shown in at least one study to reduce a person’s number of sick days by nearly one-third, along with improving reported quality of life and energy levels. And we know: spending a minute or two under the frigid spray first thing in the morning doesn’t sound that fun – but apparently, it’s worth it, since “even though the vast majority of participants reported a variable degree of discomfort during cold exposure, the fact that 91 percent of participants reported the will to continue such routine […] is perhaps the most indicative of any health or work benefit,” the study reported.And then, of course, there’s the ick factor. For many of us, a morning shower is less about hack our biology to harness optimum efficiency in the workplace, and more about feeling less, you know… grimy. “Humans tend to perspire at night,” Gary Goldenberg, a dermatologist in New York and a professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told the New York Times in 2017. “When you wake up in the morning, there’s all this sweat and bacteria from the sheets that’s just kind of sitting there on your skin.”And that’s just the safe-for-work stuff. There’s another major activity that we tend to use a bed for at night, Goldenberg pointed out – and a quick morning shower is perfect “to wash all of that gunk and sweat off that you’ve been sleeping in all night.”“There are so many reasons to shower in the morning,” he said.The case for a nighttime showerDespite being less popular than its earlier cousin, there are quite a few very good reasons to shower in the evening – not least of which is the feeling of washing away the various oils, pollutants, and basic grime that has built up on your skin throughout the day.“A shower helps to wash off all the grit and grime, environmental toxins and pollutants that might negatively impact your skin,” Vij pointed out. “It helps you get in bed with a clean slate.”That’s doubly true if you’re exercising after work or spending your day in physically demanding situations. Then, “obviously you want to shower before you go to bed,” Goldenberg said, “because there’s a lot of sweat – bacteria can cause acne […] And it stinks.”Plus – and perhaps surprisingly, given their reputation for waking us up in the mornings – an evening shower can actually be very beneficial for our sleep hygiene. That’s partly for the same reason as the early showers: it acts as a circadian marker to signal to our bodies to start winding down for the day – this is actually one reason why your parents used to insist on you having bathtime before bed when you were little.But actually, the physiology goes deeper than that. “The body naturally cools down as bedtime approaches, in sync with the circadian rhythm,” clinical psychologist and sleep expert Janet K. Kennedy told the Times. “Showering artificially raises the temperature again and allows for a faster cool down, which seems to hasten sleep.”You don’t want to do it too soon before getting into bed, she clarified – about 90 minutes before should do it. That’s borne out by other research, too: one systematic review of the benefits of warm baths found that soaking for as little as ten minutes an hour or two before bed was related to improved sleep quality and efficiency, as well as significantly quicker dropping off times. In other words, if you’re a bit of an insomniac, try a nice warm bath or shower before bed.“An evening shower can be a relaxing part of a pre-bed routine,” Michael Grandner, director of the Sleep and Health Research Program at the University of Arizona, told Time Magazine in 2017.“[It] might also have the benefit of giving you some time to think and wind down before bed,” Grandner added, “rather than distract[ing] yourself in front of the TV.”The verdictListen: if showering in the morning or evening made that much of a difference, we wouldn’t need an explainer article to decide which was better. The truth is, there’s not all that much in it either way.“There’s no definitive answer for the global population on whether to take an evening vs. morning shower,” Vij said. “But for each individual, there tends to be a right answer. And it’s all based on preference.”Of course, there may be specific reasons that convince you one way or the other: if you need to wash your hair, for example, and can’t dry it in the hour or so before bed, then you may prefer a morning shower, since sleeping on wet hair genuinely isn’t good for your barnet. If, on the other hand, you suffer from eczema or dermatitis, you might want to wait until the evening to scrub up: “it’s recommended that you apply your daily moisturizers and any topical prescription or over-the-counter products twice a day,” Vij explained. “It’s not necessarily better to shower at night or morning, as long as you’re using gentle cleansers, moisturizers and prescription products as recommended,” he confirmed – but the fact is that most of us have less time for this kind of routine in the morning than the evening.Overall, then, what’s the verdict? Well, if we had to come down on one side or the other, we’d say the nighttime showerers have the edge – but ultimately, it’s up to you. As long as you’re clean, it doesn’t really matter when you’re washing: “Experiment to find your favorite version of yourself – if you’ve always showered in the morning, maybe try the opposite for a week and see how it makes you feel,” Vij suggested. “And if it makes you feel awesome, then stick with it. And if not go back,”“There’s no right time to shower,” he concluded. “It’s whatever makes you feel your best. It’s such a personal choice that you should do what suits you and do what makes you happy.”