#BlockchainAfrica: The impact of blockchain on the global economy – Bizcommunity.com

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In 2020, many of the world's most influential business executives and policymakers are aware of blockchain's potential to turn the global economy around. But there was a time when it was not discussed in the same sentence as Bitcoin.

Ilija Acimovic

The practicality of blockchain has been gaining tremendous publicity. Let us dig into the mainstream adoption of this revolutionary technology.

Along with other forms of distributed ledger technology, blockchain could become the global decentralised source of trust. More and more thought leaders are getting convinced of its prowess to minimise business uncertainty and boost profit due to several reasons.

In 2018, $673bn was the estimated annual savings obtained through digital trade in the Asia Pacific region alone. On a global scale, the decrease in overhead could elevate the competitiveness of any businesses, especially those operating in the least developed nations, for going paperless could slash up to 30% of trading costs.

All records on a blockchain network are time-stamped. To be clear, such pieces of information are not completely tamperproof. But any fraudsters would fail against an entire army of fact-checkers with no vested interest other than maintaining data legitimacy.

Moreover, any blockchain-driven supply chains can make it easier to identify compromised items. The ability to retrace the journey of goods (from the source to the market) at a glance could prevent unnecessary product recalls and avoid similar problems from recurring.

Admittedly, not all companies must embrace this disruptive innovation. But at least 55 industries have found value in it. In fact, many of them have already tested different use cases for blockchain.

Facebook has announced its intention to establish a blockchain-powered P2P network using its own stablecoin called Libra. Considering the enormous social and financial clout of the company in many countries, Facebook could challenge the influence of central banks if the Libra ecosystem sees the light of day.

The potential of this decentralised distributed ledger to improve centralised management was not lost on many of the most loaded brands on the planet.

For instance, Amazon now offers tools to businesses that wish to climb on the blockchain bandwagon while Ant Financial has developed its own proprietary tech for many things, including tracking the countless goods changing hands on an Alibaba marketplace.

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#BlockchainAfrica: The impact of blockchain on the global economy - Bizcommunity.com

London leads the way as blockchain hub – The TRADE News

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The UKs capital city is the preferred hub globally for blockchain-related ventures, according to a report from private equity firm Outlier Ventures.

The report, authored by research analyst at Outlier Ventures Joel John, highlighted the benefits of basing blockchain projects in London, including its regulatory environment, simple corporate registration, as well as its proximity to Europe.

Many companies in the space have already established their roots in London, which maintains almost five times as many blockchain startups, compared to other established blockchain hubs such as Zug and Berlin.

One in three of the 450 blockchain companies headquartered in London are also able to raise funding, the research added, with a combined $503 million having been invested in London blockchain firms since 2013.

Last year, several firms heavily focused on blockchain technology expanded operations in London or won backing from major established institutions.Blockchain vendor R3 doubled its office spacein London to facilitate an aggressive hiring plan, as it looked to add 40 new hires to its main office.

More recently, the London Stock Exchange Group led a $20 million funding round in blockchain firm, Nivaura, which provides a digital investment banking platform for banks, exchanges and other firms to automate manual processes with the technology.

Various exchange operators including the Australian Securities Exchange and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, as well as larger banks, are also exploring implementing blockchain technology to post-trade, clearing and settlement processes.

Outlier Ventures report concluded that while almost 60% of all blockchain-related investments in London were in series A and B funding, the mortality rate is still high for startups. The conversion rate from seed stage to series A is 13% and only a mere 3% for series B.

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London leads the way as blockchain hub - The TRADE News

Blockchain may be the answer to marketers’ trust gap – Marketing Dive

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The following is a guest post from Matthew Lieberman, CMO at PwC U.S. and Mexico. Opinions are the author's own.

Precisely measuring and demonstrating impact are two of the biggest challenges marketers face. It's one thing to know that after a campaign took place, sales rose 5%. But can you prove to clients or the c-suite that your team's efforts directly caused that sales boost? Can you identify which part of the campaign reached which audience at what time in order to fine-tune efforts and make the next campaign better?

Sure, you have data to answer some of those questions, but this data is probably inexact, late or hard to verify, so it doesn't inspire much trust.

That's about to change. With the help of blockchain, it's now possible to track marketing campaigns in near real time, with verifiable, trustworthy metrics. To see how it works, let's take a look at one sector that currently suffers greatly from this trust gap: digital advertising.

What happens when we run digital ads? In many cases, the answer is unknown. Organizations measure clicks and impressions, but thanks to bots, click farms and ghost sites, fraud is rampant. It costs the industry an estimated $22.4 billion a year, or about 10% of total ad spend.

The digital ad ecosystem is incredibly complex. By one measure, 23 participants are involved in getting a digital ad from the marketer to the publisher to the consumer, then getting data on performance back to the marketer. All the changing of hands opens a lot of room for fraud, human error, data leakage, cybercrime or simple sloppiness to make measurements inaccurate.

The result? Buyers aren't sure they can trust data on ads' impact, both for making payments and for fine-tuning campaigns. Publishers have to spend a lot of money and time trying (and often failing) to manage this system and compile decent metrics. Consumers, meanwhile, may not be getting ads that interest them.

One of the main reasons why blockchain matters to business is that it can more securely verify, store and selectively share data across multiple parties, thereby lifting trust. For digital advertisers, there are already a number of efforts underway to create blockchain-based registries of authenticated digital outlets.

Once these registries achieve critical mass, smart contracts on a blockchain can automatically test measures of impressions against the registry for authenticity. Blockchain can store these verified measurements with a time stamp and securely share them through a digital dashboard as widely or as selectively as desired. Artificial intelligence (AI) can then scan for anomalies, creating an extra layer of protection against fraud, cyberthreats or error.

This combination may allow marketers to more reliably follow the progress and impact of digital ads and demonstrate that progress to clients or the c-suite in near real time. If desired, smart contracts on this blockchain can automatically determine payments based on these authenticated measurements.

This is not a pipe dream. On a small scale, it's already happening. Toyota, for example, rolled out blockchain to reduce fraud in its digital ad buying and saw a 21% uptick in visits to its website as a result. Several vendors are now offering blockchain-based solutions to increase transparency and fight fraud. Companies including Anheuser Busch Inbev, Kellogg, Kimberly-Clark, Pfizer, Unilever, McDonalds, Nestle and Virgin Media have participated in pilots. In a different part of the ecosystem, NYIAX is using blockchain to add transparency and traceability to the sale of digital ads.

None of these solutions are yet able to cover the entire advertising ecosystem, so none can yet give marketers full visibility into how all their ads are performing everywhere. Nor are they taking full advantage of AI's potential to automate much of the process of detecting fraud and maximizing traceability. But we're still in the early days.

For this system to really transform digital advertising, it will need more than a few companies' buy-in. But the more companies get involved, the trickier it becomes, as everyone must agree on standards for data as well as how to share costs and benefits.

Yet the reward demonstrably trustworthy metrics, easily and securely shared is worth the effort. And just as blockchain can slash fraud and provide reliable metrics for digital advertising, it can support digital marketing in other ways as well. By offering new tools for consumers to manage their own digital identities and exert more control over their privacy rights, it can help marketers comply with GDPR, CCPA and other regulations, while encouraging consumers to share more data.

This potential surrounding blockchain is yet another reason why a modern marketer needs to understand digital technology and be ready to lead its implementation.

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Blockchain may be the answer to marketers' trust gap - Marketing Dive

CBP successfully tested an ‘interoperable’ blockchain system for protecting intellectual property – FedScoop

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Written by Dave Nyczepir Mar 2, 2020 | FEDSCOOP

Customs and Border Protection recently completed an interoperable blockchain proof of concept to prevent the theft of intellectual property rights, the agency announced Friday.

Blockchains function as tamper-evident, digital ledgers implemented in a distributed fashion, and in this case the technology allows CBP to protect sensitive information on U.S. imports.

Personally identifiable information and trade secrets can be transmitted between the agency, manufacturers, retailers, rights holders, and importers via encrypted keys on a single platform.

We strongly believe blockchain will help the United States maintain a competitive edge in the worldwide competition to grow stronger, better, and more reliable ways of protecting our country from illegal imports and exports, a CBP spokesperson told FedScoop.

CBP completed its first-ever test of the technology in September 2018 within the North American and Central American free trade agreements proving multiple blockchain programs could integrate seamlessly. Since then, the agency has explored additional use cases with a total of seven unnamed companies.

No real products were tracked, companies instead submitting fictitious transactions during piloting. But using a single access point in the blockchain, CBP was able to connect data to products and licenses correctly necessitating fewer physical examinations.

The companiescommunicated with CBP and other transaction participants using unique blockchains, regardless of their software. That way new trade partners can be added to the interoperable system quickly without blockchains needing to be rebuilt, which saves everyone involved money.

The Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology Directorate funded the pilot run by the Office of Trade as part of its blockchain portfolio.

This pilot represents great potential for marrying new technology with our traditional trade mission: to protect the U.S. economy, said Brenda Smith, executive assistant commissioner of the Office of Trade, in a statement.

While many in government are eager to try blockchain to solve complex issues, many also resist that urger, worried that the technology doesnt fit well in the government context. FedScoop reported last year about what it is about blockchain in government that irks many people.

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CBP successfully tested an 'interoperable' blockchain system for protecting intellectual property - FedScoop

How AI, blockchain and IoT help finance boost operations – Consultancy.uk

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A new study suggests that organisations adopting emerging technologies in finance operations are growing their annual profits at a vastly accelerated rate. The international research asserts that artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and blockchain are finally passing the adoption tipping point to deliver a competitive advantage for businesses.

Digital technology has long been discussed as a potential game-changer in modern business, with artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT) all being labelled ways for companies to save large sums of money in efficiencies, and improve security, productivity and customer experience in the process. As a result, investors have been diving into various pilot schemes over the last two years. However, new technologys often expensive application has often been said to be over-hyped.

While it has seen a great deal of excited uptake, for example, the volume of trade through various blockchain schemes has been so negligible at time of writing that it is too early to tell how soon blockchain might reach a critical mass, if at all. Similarly, many firms are still finding that AI and automation are not yielding the benefits they expected something which is often blamed on firms merely applying it as a cost-saving exercise, but still throws up questions about the technologys true value. IoT meanwhile continues to struggle to drum up significant interest in the automotive market, among others.

However, while all these factors do merit closer inspection, a new study from Enterprise Strategy Group and Oracle claims that new technologies are finally having a big impact on business performance. According to a survey of 700 finance and operations leaders across 13 countries, AI,IoT and blockchain deployments are passing their adoption tipping point, creating significant competitive advantage for organisations. Respondents from organisations adopting emerging technologies in finance and operations told the researchers they were growing their annual profits 80% faster than those who did not.

Focusing on the financial sector, the study found that the highest number of solutions currently in use to improve financial systems came in the form of IoT at 43% of respondents. Meanwhile, 36% said AI and machine learning functions were fully operational, and 30% were fully using blockchain to that end. The highest number of respondents (38%) also said they had AI pilots in place, suggesting this will soon be the most common form of emergent technology used to improve financial systems.

Almost three-quarters of respondents using AI said it was most commonly benefitting finance teams by delivering an improved understanding of why a business is performing at its current level. This was followed by more than seven-in-ten of those quizzed, who said AI was enabling for faster analysis and insights a key advantage in the rapidly changing businesses environment. The other stand-out response was that 68% of the sample said AI had helped reduce errors in automated tasks.

In terms of IoT, meanwhile, respondents suggested the technology is now surpassing expectations of it on most fronts. While only 40% of those not currently enhancing their finance systems with IoT expect it would lead to better inventory and asset management, a majority of 51% among those using it reported it had done just that. Similarly, while 42% said they thought IoT might improve their forecasting of demand, income, and costs, 50% reported it was fulfilling that role. While it would be wrong to say that means IoT is 11% more useful than expected, it does suggest that at least a portion of firms are missing out by not applying it.

Similarly, blockchain seems to be beating expectations in this manner. As data security is noted as one of blockchains key strengths, its not particularly surprising that a similar number of firms thought it would improve their ERP systems safety to the number saying it had done so. Elsewhere, however, a scarce 22% of non-users said they thought it would enhance their ERP systems ability to reduce reliance on manual processes if deployed, but 37% of those using it said that it had done so. On top of this, 26% said they thought it might improve corporate governance, whereas 37% asserted that it had helped achieve this.

Speaking on the findings, Juergen Lindner, Oracles Senior Vice President in SaaS product marketing, said, AI, IoT, blockchain capabilities enable organisations to innovate faster, creating significant competitive advantage and driving increased profit for companies embracing those technologies more decisively than their competitors The research finds that these technologies have become mainstream and organisations that sit on the sidelines risk their business relevance.

This study makes it clear that emerging technologies have passed the trial phase and are moving toward a state of widespread adoption, added John McKnight, EVP of Research and Analyst Services of Enterprise Strategy Group. The business case for these technologies in areas such as finance and operations is maturing at a rapid pace and in most cases benefits exceed expectations. Furthermore, the research shows that emerging technologies complement and amplify the benefits of one another, which underscores the importance of taking a holistic approach.

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MIT Professor: Blockchain Is Good on Its Own but Not Good for Voting – Cointelegraph

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Computer scientist Ronald Rivest has said that blockchain is not the right technology for voting, although it can find proper application in a number of other areas.

Rivest delivered his opinion at the RSA Security Conference, held in San Francisco earlier this week, technology-focused news outlet ITWire reported on Feb. 28. Rivest who is a cryptography expert and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology called voting an interesting problem that requires a more stricter approach compared to many existing security applications. He said:

According to Rivest, voting is an area that does not require hi-tech to work, and anonymity and secret ballots only complicate the process of audit. "Blockchain technology really doesn't fit for a couple of reasons. One is that we have learned we need software independence, Rivest said and further added:

Elaborating further on the matter, Rivest compared blockchain with garbage stored in forever. Once they've had the chance to manipulate your vote, it goes on the blockchain and never gets changed again," he concluded.

Rivests speech came on the heels of the Iowa Democratic Caucus scandal, when a mobile software application that had been devised to help calculate the total number of votes in the voting reportedly malfunctioned, resulting in the Democratic Party having to delay its public reporting of the results.

Following the event, blockchain-based applications were heavily criticised by regulators, with many political commentators and media analysts speaking out against mobile- and blockchain-based voting technology.

In the meantime, companies on the forefront of blockchain technology realize the potential of the products they are developing to not only transform the global economy, but also the way voters cast their ballots. Most recently, cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab unveiled a new type of a blockchain-based voting machine using Polys, the system released back in November 2017 designed to be an effective and secure way to vote online.

Earlier in February, Indias Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said that the country will soon be able to cast votes from outside their city of registration thanks to a blockchain-based system. With this move, the government hopes to increase voter turnout.

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Basic Blockchain: The Organization of the Future – Crypto Daily

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Part 4 of 4

As the world (and the markets) grapple with the implications of coronavirus COVID-19, events are being cancelled, and online enrollments in digital classes are spiking. Amazon has cancelled travel globally for 750,000 employees. Around the world, people are being ordered to work from home.

If you missed Part 3, you can find it here!

Beyond a short-term stopgap, are we seeing a more profound shift to a distributed organization, where people are separated by geography but united in common purpose and activity? How can blockchain enable this future?

In our final excerpt from Basic Blockchain, well take a closer look at these questions.

* * * * * *

Adapted from Basic Blockchain 2020 Visionary Future LLC, published by Robinson, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group

Perhaps one of the more novel applications proposed for blockchain is the reimagining of organisations through the lens of highly distributed decision making.

The heritage of open-source computing and highly distributed community projects provides robust DNA for an expansion of blockchains potential from the organisation of facts and figures to the shaping of human systems to new, flexible, creative and rapidly changing forms. The burgeoning needs of organisations to quickly respond to changing circumstances and markets provides the impetus for adopting new and different approaches to getting groups of individuals to move in a coordinated fashion.

Open-source computing was born out of frustration over the growing corporatisation of computer software development. A number of the original hackers who helped shape computer technology came from a laid-back, almost hippie counter-culture of the United States of the 1960s and 1970s. One such figure, computer scientist Richard Stallman, wanted to implement a simple workaround for a common problem: a shared printer that jams sending a message to everyone in the group, so someone could fix it. He discovered that the software for their new laser printer was closed and was proprietary prohibiting modification. This and other efforts to restrict information led him to create an open operating system, and help birth a movement towards collaborative systems.

Stallman was followed in the 1990s by Eric Raymond, whose essay The Cathedral and the Bazaar served as a call to arms for what he began to term the open-source software movement, accompanying the release of his open-source operating system Linux. With open source, the source code (written instructions) of the software is openly published for anyone to use for free. The socially understood price, however, is that if you make improvements, you need to publish those improvements back to the code so that others can take advantage of them. Instead of the proprietary software licensing model of companies like Microsoft, open-source companies like Red Hat made their money from selling services and solutions to enhance the open-source software implementation.

This has led to some large-scale projects, hosted on shared repositories like Github, with thousands of software developers around the world adding to the code and enhancing the code base for the benefit of the many. The MIT License is one of the most popular open source software licenses extant today a commonly understood legal framework for how to manage intellectual property rights that accompany software projects.

Decisions about what gets accepted into an open-source code library are determined by the project creators. The three most common models, according to the Open Source Guide, are:

These different models of managing open-source projects are often considered and applied to blockchain projects, themselves often open-source.

Variations on meritocracy and liberal contribution have been used in numerous blockchain projects, including bitcoin. Both resulted in the unexpected consequence of the hard fork as an output of the democratic decision-making behind blockchain governance, as we discussed earlier in Chapter 1.

Indeed, if we look at Bitcoin versus Bitcoin Cash, the former has a considerably larger market share than the other.

As we apply the lessons and formulae from open source and blockchain to the management of organisations, we see an outline emerging of what a responsive organisation of the future might look like.

Why is this organisation needed?

Technology adoption has been accelerating on a power law curve (basically, its getting faster and faster with each new technology). It took a century for the telephone to reach 80 per cent of the US market. It took about two decades for the World Wide Web to get to similar levels. It took only a couple of years for mobile internet to achieve the same penetration. By some measures, the ascent of bitcoin was even faster.

As the pace of change accelerates, we run into the fundamental challenge that the way we organise ourselves, in groups and companies, isnt keeping up with the kind of decision making, creativity and flexibility that is needed from such structures in the face of a rapidly evolving technological environment. If a large organisation takes a year to study how to reorganise itself around a new opportunity, a year or two to act on those changes, and a year to absorb how to operate in the new structure three or four years in total how can it possibly address the next technology that might achieve widespread adoption in as rapidly as twelve months? In three months?

Many companies have adopted matrix management systems whereby the formal organizational chart is set aside, and functional teams are formed drawing from people across the enterprise to solve a particular problem. People would be recruited and put under the direction of an individual who did not necessarily write their annual performance review, but was tasked with guiding their work for that particular project. This enabled a business to more readily adapt to a new need and focus the necessary skills and talents required to address that need. Some matrixed teams endure for months or years; others are more ephemeral, existing merely for a matter of weeks.

Information systems struggle to keep up with human systems and the perversity of human behaviour. This informational friction has led to a number of cybersecurity failures, because it was more convenient for people to share passwords and logins than it was to go through the process to assign someone formal access for a short-term project. Edward Snowdens breach of the National Security Agency data systems was enabled in large part by his ability to convince more than two dozen colleagues to provide him with their security credentials under the guise of collaboration, stating he needed their credentials in his role as computer administrator. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Startup companies have to deal with an exceptionally rapid rate of change and respond accordingly. Many tend towards a loosely coupled management model with a high degree of individual autonomy and decision-making. Trying to apply conventional data models to a rapidly-evolving startup creates a host of challenges.

Holacracy is a form of management popularized by an American ecommerce company Zappos. Led by Tony Hsieh and still operated at the time of this writing with a high degree of independence even though owned by Amazon, Zappos trialled going a step further than matrix management. Tony wanted to do away with layers of management and coordination entirely. He proposed using something called holacracy, where self-organising teams and groups would attack challenges.

The advantage of a truly empowered individual is a greater sense of ownership and personal responsibility for work and outcomes. Particularly for the millennial generation, who seek recognition and meaning in their work, the new concept of holacracy holds a beguiling promise of relieving the drudgery of acting as a small cog in a very big machine.

A completely democratic organisation that seeks to move with common purpose in a competitive environment will face severe challenges, particularly in times of crisis or stress. At the same time, large organisations are seeking to reinvent themselves for the high velocity future by decentralising authority, granting greater decisional autonomy to individual business units and individuals, and using intelligence computer systems to tie together activity and action into a coherent whole.

In Zappos holacracy, an internal jobs board lets teams post tasks and individuals post skills, creating an ability to dynamically allocate labour and empower people to highlight the training they require to broaden or deepen their capabilities. When I visited Zappos a few years ago and met with Tony, I saw both an organisation made up of people who exuded purpose and enthusiasm, and a leader who could see beyond the edge of the map.

Holacracy is well suited to the open-source-inspired world of blockchain. And blockchain, in turn, can help make holacracy more viable. Now that information systems and data governance structures can adapt themselves thanks to smart contracts and DApps and AI integration with distributed ledgers to the dynamically changing needs and organisational structures of the institution.

Properly constructed AI agents could help mediate this reconfigurable organisation across a blockchain, automatically adjudicating what today requires human intervention. Ordinarily, when you move from one group to another, or get assigned temporarily to a project team, IT needs to change the permissions information that determines what data you have access to and how you access it. This can sometimes take longer than the duration of the project you are working on. The right kind of AI engine can make this automatic. Data permissions can accompany this reconfiguration on the fly, allowing for better data security and better data utility at the same time. And in an era of distributed teams, widely dispersed across many geographies, tightly linked networked communications can facilitate nimbleness and smooth functioning.

The organisation of the future may or may not live on a blockchain, but without question blockchain holds the potential to make that future organisation more effective. One of the challenges of decentralised decision-making is the loss of coordination of activities. In complex systems this can lead to gridlock and chaos, as nobody knows what the rest of the organisation is doing or how their work fits in with the greater whole, sometimes leading people to working cross-purposes.

The relatively rapid coordination and dissemination of information that blockchain enables can help address some of this chaotic behaviour and better conform it to a desired goal or outcome, such as completing a particular project on time and in synchronisation with a larger strategy. It can make organisations more nimble and respond more effectively to the challenges of a rapidly-changing, rapidly-reconfiguring business climate.

* * * * *

This concludes our series on blockchain past, present, and future excerpted from the new book Basic Blockchain. We look forward to continuing our journey into the future of technology and distributed systems in the coming weeks and months.

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Basic Blockchain: The Organization of the Future - Crypto Daily

Global Face and Voice Biometrics Market expected to grow USD XX.X million by 2025- 3M Cogent (USA), NEC Corporation of America (USA), AcSys Biometrics…

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Global Face and Voice Biometrics Market 2020-2025

The report covers complete analysis of the Global Face and Voice Biometrics Market on the basis of regional and global level. The report comprises several drivers and restraints of the Global Face and Voice Biometrics Market. Likewise, it covers the complete segmentation analysis such as type, application, and region. This report provides Face and Voice Biometrics Market key Manufactures, industry chain analysis, competitive insights, and macroeconomic analysis. Global Face and Voice Biometrics Market reportprovides the latest forecast market data, industry trends, and technological innovations. The in-depth view of Global Face and Voice Biometrics Market industry on the basis of market size, market growth, opportunities, and development plans offered by the report analysis. The forecast information, SWOT analysis, and feasibility study are the energetic aspects studied in this report. Along with that PESTEL analysis is also considered to be another major aspect in the market study.

Top Players Included In This Report:3M Cogent (USA)NEC Corporation of America (USA)AcSys Biometrics Corp. (Canada)AGNITiO S.L. (Spain)Cognitec Systems GmbH (Germany)Nuance Communications, Inc. (USA)Eurotech S.P.A (Italy)Ivrnet Inc. (Canada)Kimaldi Electronics, S.L. (Spain)National Security Resources (USA)Neurotechnology (Lithuania)PSP Security Co. Ltd (Hong Kong)SAFRAN Group (France)Sensible Vision (USA)Sensory, Inc. (USA)Suprema, Inc. (Korea)VoiceTrust eServices, Inc. (Canada)VoiceVault, Inc. (USA)

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For the study of the Face and Voice Biometrics Market is very important the past statistics. So, the Global Face and Voice Biometrics Market gives the in-depth analysis of the past records along with the predicted future data. One of the most important aspects focused in this study is the regional analysis. Regional breakdown of markets helps in thorough analysis of the market in terms of future predictions, business opportunities and revenue generation potential of the market. For Face and Voice Biometrics Market report, the important regions highlighted are Middle East, South America, Asia, North America and Europe. Another important aspect of every market research report is the study of the key players or manufacturers driving the market forward. This study can benefit investors and business owners in many ways. In order to make business predictions and fetch good results, business models, strategies, growth, innovations and every information about manufacturers that can help are studied by it. Making right business decisions is an undeniable measure that needs to be taken for market growth. There are manufacturers, vendors and consumers in every that defines that market. These marketers become the subject to study for every stakeholder and market researcher.

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Types Covered In This Report:Face BiometricsVoice Biometrics

Applications Covered In This Report:Banking, Financial Services & Insurance (BFSI)Government & Law EnforcementMilitary & DefenseHealthcareCommercialIT & TelecomOthers

This report on Face and Voice Biometrics Market also has the market analyzed on the basis of end user applications and type. End user application analysis can also help understand consumer behavior. Its important to study product application to predict a products life cycle. Segment type is also an important aspect of any market research study. Reports are product based, they also includes information on sales channel, distributors, traders and dealers. This helps in efficient planning and execution of supply chain management as it drastically affects the overall operations of any business. Thus, a market research report can be called a comprehensive guide that helps in better marketing and management of businesses.

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Few Points From TOC:1 Scope of the Report2 Executive Summary3 Global Face and Voice Biometrics by Players4 Face and Voice Biometrics by RegionsContinued

About Us:With unfailing market gauging skills, Orbis Market Reports has been excelling in curating tailored business intelligence data across industry verticals. Constantly thriving to expand our skill development, our strength lies in dedicated intellectuals with dynamic problem solving intent, ever willing to mold boundaries to scale heights in market interpretation.

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Mind-reading technology is everyone’s next big security nightmare. – Techiexpert.com – TechiExpert.com

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For lots of decades, scientists have worked on decoding the secrets of the brain. No matter whether via tracking of peaks and troughs of electrical activity with the help of electroencephalography or even examining the structure of the brand with the help of computerized tomography and MRI scans, neuroimaging has also helped us to be gleaned at a greater understanding of the inner working of the mind.

Now, finally, thanks to the rapid development of the AI and Machine Learning of reading thoughts brain imaging, we are much closer to the ever to unlocking new methods of communication with the so-called by the name as mind-reading technology. There are lots of mind-reading technology ppt available over the web. Well, everyone has a query in mind, that how to block mind-reading technology 2020?

With the help of the government mind-reading technology, brain-computer interfaces, scientists can read an individual mind by opening a pathway for the communication between the brain and computer. According to the report, an AI industry fellow at the University of the Essex who studies the BCI technology could even lead to a significant catalyst for the changes in the lives of the people who are now not able to communicate. There are lots of mind-reading device for sale available into the market.

Action that should be taken now to make sure the powerful corporations, governments, and hackers cannot exploit the people with the help of a BCI when the technology becomes much more sophisticated.

By integrating and analyzing the BCI technology with the smart home devices, for example, we could, as of now, only give day those who are fully paralyzed with a locked-in syndrome a renewed sense of freedom and independence. But even in the face of these latest potential life-changing benefits, the ethical implications of the latest mind-reading technology are immense.

David Moses invented the mind-reading machine.

Well, everyone has a point in mind that how does wireless mind-reading technology work?

Well, go through it and know more.

Getting in your head

Both the private and public groups have thrown money at the research projects and are now in a bid to get nascent of the mind-reading industry off the ground. In the year 2018 alone, the US government mind-reading technology invested around $400 million in the development of the neurotechnology with the help of its BRAIN initiative, while in the year 2017, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency funnelled $65 million into the development of the neural implants. Moreover, the European Commission has even put the $1 billion towards a ten years program that also aims to model the entire human brain reading games which are known by the name as the Human brain reading test. Well, there are lots of mind-reading device for sale available.

Companies nowadays are also working to push the limits of BCI Technology. In the year 2017, an article which is published by the science journal, with a team of neuroscientists, machine intelligence engineers, and ethics called by the name as Morningside Group, estimated that for the profit entities were already spending around $100 million per year on the development of neurotechnology. Allied Market Research, meanwhile, has also predicted the global market for the BCI that will reach as much as $1.46 billion by the end of 2020.

Facebook, which is also one of the prominent companies as of now experimenting with the mind-reading technology 2019. At an annual developer conference in the year 2019, Regina Dugan, then the head of the Facebook division for the new hardware projects, building around 8, said the users would one day be able to type on the platform with the help of their minds. It sounds much more impossible, but its closer than you may realize, Dugan said.

Moreover, brain-reading device and the Dugan left the Facebook after 18 months and building eight was dismantled at the end of the year 2018, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recently has also reiterated his interest in the BCI technology at the time of an interview with the Jonathan Zittrain, a professor of the international law at the Harvard Law School. Zuckerberg had also previously called by the name of telepathy technology the ultimate communication technology. Some other prominent names exploring the BCI includes the Elon Musk and the Japanese Car maker Nissan. The former is also working on a secretive project called by the name as Neuralink, which seeks to make the humans symbiotic, with the IA with an implant in the brain, while the latter revealed the plans for its mind to the vehicle, technology in mind-reading computer technology 2020. There are lots of wireless mind-reading technology 2019.

Apart from these though-provoking plans, Matran Fernandez even pointed out several flaws and hurdles to the commercial development of the BCI, principally the cost. Moreover, most of the research being conducted into the BCI is even currently confined to laboratories because the necessary equipment is so much expensive. But even if this latest technology wads cheap enough for the production of the mass market. It also believes that the proprietary underlying brain-reading device as still not up to scratch. In practice the headsets that we have seen that will be much more cheap enough for anyone, I am taking around $100 that would make bee even affordable enough to buy for the personal use, they are not good enough, this is also due to the fact that each and every brain is different, and the minds of those with the conditions like the locked-in syndrome that have an added layer of complexity.

Matran-Fernandez told The New Economy: I think that the latest technology is getting there, and the algorithms are much more getting there. Its just a matter of fact that putting it all together and finding someone willing to work on that part and even make it open-access.

While most of the industry must tackle these practical concerns to boost up the widespread adoption of the latest mind-reading technology, severe ethical concerns about the newest practice continue to threaten its viability. For now, BCI technology remains relatively rudimentary, and it could even be decades before it comes advanced with every day to day life. But the Morningside group has also argued to that action which should be taken now to make sure powerful corporations, government, and hackers cannot be influenced or also exploit people with the help of a BCI when the technology becomes much more sophisticated.

The group warned that we are on a path to a globe in which it will be to decode the people mental processes, and directly manipulate the brain mechanism underlying their emotions, intentions, and decisions, where the individual could communicate with some other only by thinking and were also mental and physical abilities are greatly enhanced. In some of the scenarios, the group believes the existing ethical guidelines on human testing and research, which is mainly the declaration of the Helsinki and the Belmont Report, would be much more insufficient.

The matter of security and privacy is further complicated by the unique fragility of the human mind. In some cases where the people received a deep brain stimulation with the help of an electrode implant, for example, participants reported that feeling a loss of agency and identity towards. As researchers, Laterine Pratt and Eran Klein pointed out in an article which is penned for the neural conversation data is just like other forms of the personal data because it is intimately connected to the mind and who were take ourselves to be.

Matran Fernandez moreover is not particularly concerned about some of the issues of security and privacy and identity just yet. As she revealed, no mind-reading activity takes place, instead of off the process, which is even likely to door of an auditorium when an orchestra is playing. In Matran Fernandez, analogy, the band is the brain with the help of a different instrument, which makes up the various neural activities. From the outside, you can hear in general the music she said, that it even going to be distorted that you dont listen to it as if you are sitting inside, you cannot distinguish the different instruments.

It is similar for thee researches with the help of a BCI technology. If two categories are created with a yes or no answer, then, for example, researchers can study the brain response to each option and distinguish between the two, but they cannot pinpoint what a participant is actually thinking about.

Moreover, mind-reading technology prompts some of the numerous ethical debates; there are some of the promising practical uses for the BCIs, especially in the healthcare sector, where it has already had a degree of success. A consortium of leading scientists called by the name as BrainGate, for instance, is using the technology of BCI to help provide with the neurological diseases, injuries, or lost limbs regain movement the ability to communicate.

In a one-off, the group case studies, paralyzed individuals with the sensors implanted in their brains were able to type around eight words per minute on the tablets and smartphones. In another proof of concept demonstration, BrainGate showed how people with Chronic tetraplegia resulting from the injuries of the spinal cord regain the limb movement, with the help of technology of BCI.

A separate group of the researchers at Columbia University moreover was recently able to construct the synthetic speech with the help of a brain-reading test device called by the name as a vocoder, which was deciphered what people wanted to say with the brain activity alone. With some research, it is even hoped the BCI devices will also allow people to control wheelchairs, paralyzed limbs, and robotic prosthetic, as well as enabling those with the help of a severe locked-in syndrome to communicate.

So, in today scenario, the very first step is being made into some of these areas of research. As we develop a much better understanding of the brain, there is an excellent potential for further improvements in medicine and healthcare. While some of the researchers must read carefully with the ethical dilemmas, these technologies pose the adoption of mind that is reading technology in the entire society that appears to be a question of when not if.

Imagine if not being able to speak your mind, not even to ask for a glass of water. Now the scientist has revealed the technology that could one day speak it for you.

Some of the researchers at the Columbia University in New York have dropped with a vocoder, that could eventually decipher purely from the activity of the brain, what a person to ay and channel it with the help of a speech synthesizer. The primary aim is to give with an artificial voice of the patients who, with the injury or disease, have lost their own. The research is at an extremely early stage, but according to the project leader Nima with the right technology, these peoples thoughts could be decoded and understood by any of the listeners.

The latest technology might one day be right, but there is no such guarantee that user intent will stay begin. While on the other brain-computer interfaces are mainly designed to help the sick, they have the potential to be misused on the healthy. As the interest also lies in the mind-reading technologies expand, we should even turn our own grey matter to be overlooked the ethical issue of neural privacy.

The research of Columbia is one of the various projects that aim to uncover how internal thought becomes an action. Early attempts focused on using the latest technology power of thinking to move a cursor across the computer screen. In the year 2018, the scientist in the Beijing progressed to the further down the mind-reading road, they were able to tell, at a vert faster pace that would be looking at only by analyzing the neural signals.

All work works on the same principle; every human utterance perception and action has its beginnings in the essay crossfire of the brain signals. The goal of a BCI is to detect the high signs, decode the with the help of the latest algorithms, and then even send some of the relevant commands to a device that acts on the patients behalf. The proxy might also be an artificial voice or just like a prosthetic limb.

Some of the current projects which target the patients with conditions such as the neurological and paralysis disease. The same techniques, moreover, provide with the means of invading someones mind and breaching the final frontier of personal privacy.

Imagine such power in the hands of the unscrupulous, Advertisers might not even spot the potential for mind-reading technology to gauge the consumer disgust and delight, all the better to snare the valuable commodity of attention. An employer may also wish to measure the dissent and compliance among the company faithful more accurately.

We should not even dismiss such types of dystopian projections as fanciful: some of the latest technology has an unfortunate habit of the unintended serving causes. Courses in the neuromarketing, which uses the techniques from the neuroscience to deduce the consumer preferences, that already exists. Some of the employers are surgically inserting the RFIDS chips, the technology which is being used in the contactless payment cards, in their main understandings. The clips even allow the employees to access the building and computers, but they also could permit the unprecedented granularity in the workspace surveillance.

Eran Klein, who is a philosopher and neurologists, and Katherine Pratt, a graduate from the University of Washington, are moving those who have surrounded the alarm. In the year 2018, wireless mind-reading technology was so much famous among scientists to develop. As some of the people even argued that the ethical issue raised by the BBCI deserved special attention.

One main focus of concern is a well-studied electroencephalography signal called by the name of P300. This aha spike, distinct for each person, is even generated when the brain registers something which is wrong paying attention to, such as familiar with the face in a crowd, a discordant note in a piece of music, or a PIN number, once the anomaly is revealed and unveiled, then it takes around 300millisesconds for the brain to notice it at high level, hence the name of the signal. It forms the basis of the brain fingerprinting, a highly contentious technique that purports to identify, for example, no matter whether a suspect recognizes a weapon or a crime scene.

While mind-perusing innovations might be awkward for the present, requiring the utilization of cerebrum filtering machines or wire-perplexed tops, just as express assent, things can change. Cutting edge gadgets may procure the limit with regards to secretive location. Who might wager against the ascent of neuroscamming?

Neural security may turn into an advantage to be exchanged, similarly that we surrender advanced protection to utilize online administrations. In a future undermined via mechanization, it could likewise turn into the expense of keeping a vocation. Reports developed a year ago that a few representatives in China had their feelings and mindsets checked utilizing mind-perusing head protectors.

Such is the binary outcomes of mind PC interfaces: an opening that enables destitute patients to associate with the outside world can turn into a peephole for voyeurs looking the other way.

A developing number of organizations enormous and little are creating what could be all in all named cerebrum PC interfaces, or gadgets that can interpret the electrical flag in individuals minds into perceivable words and now activities.

Those resultant words can also be displayed on a screen or electronically synthesized and voiced, and the actions which can also be quickly taken by a prosthetic limb, that is so attached to the person whose thoughts are mostly being read, or be taken b a robot that may or may not much is more physically connected to anything at all.

The dangers, of course, are apparent, but not so far, the people who have also enjoyed access to such types of advanced technologies have not exactly covered themselves in the piece of glory.

The entry point into the light for the BCI was always going to be the military, but that does not count because that is still being restricted to people who are very much under the direct oversight of the natural forces of the entire darkness who think that they can do anything they want and get an away with it.

No one, as of now, exactly know how long the BCI technology has exited, nor all the various forms it might even take. Are they all like glasses or helmets? Or are there some of the BCI system which does not require any of the physical hardware to be worn or even otherwise implanted on the person part?

In any of the above cases listed, there are, as of now, at least two ways in which the latest technology is entering the public domain quickly.

One of those ways is still with the help of the military, which is used in the prosthetics, manufactured limbs that are even connected to and controlled by the brain. Such types of prostheses are clearly helpful to those who have already lost the various theatres of war around the globe, low intensity, or otherwise.

Some other way is with the commercial enterprises of various sizes at various stages of their development cycle, although the most active are universities often working with the technology leaders in the healthcare sector.

Facebook and Microsoft are the most well-known companies that are developing such type of technology into the market, although it dies not to look like their usual mindless, boring, getting to know you chit chat, or in keeping with their products.

Facebook is also working on the how-to block mind-reading technology that is said to be financing a project which even leads by a former John Hopkins neuroscientist who helped develop a mind-controlled prosthetic arm.

The social networking giant company with a user base to rival the total population of the world has a secretive business unit called by the name as Building 8, rather like the Google X, where they try out the things called as moonshots, exciting ideas which involve the advanced latest technologies which may or may not have a commercial application.

According to the report, Facebook has also hired former executives from the Defense Advanced Research Projects to manage the buildings 8.

Microsoft is, of course, a prominent inventor on Facebook. The windows company has already invested $240 million for a mere 1.6% stake in the year 2007, which already implied that the value of Facebook was $15 billion, something that may have shocked a lot of those people at the same point in time.

Now, the market capitalization of Facebook is around $400 billion.

In spite of the fact that there are the two organizations that are not thought to work firmly together, both Microsoft and Facebook are creating computer-generated reality headsets, which would be perfect vessels for whatever wizardry or devilry relying upon your perspective is contained inside the product. At the end of the day, VR headsets are BCIs of sorts.

The quickening improvements in the field of human-made consciousness will unavoidably unite with those headsets inside the following decade or two, and the exponential development in worldwide processing force and memory stockpiling, just as ever-more excellent video recording quality will begin to bode well, by one way or another.

BCIs will very likely turn into an open piece of regular day to day existence for everybody, not merely early adopters of innovation.

One anticipates most likely worth referencing in this setting is OpenBCI, which, as the name suggests, is an open discussion where individuals intrigued by the innovation can work together on improvement.

In the interim, to pursue on from a week ages article, You never need to type anything ever, Stanford University has built up a BCI which empowered a client to type in excess of six words per minute without contacting a console.

The guineas pigs were three individuals who experience the ill effects of incapacities, which keep them from some physical exercises, including composting.

The researchers associated with the Stanford try just talked about the BCI which seems to include embedding a PC contribute the cerebrum with regards to wellbeing applications.

These high performing BCI algorithms use in the human clinical demonstrations that the potential for this class of latest technology to restore communication to people with the paralysis, according to the report revealed. We are even working on approaching the speed at which you can type text on your cellphone.

The device is also preset with a federal warning, a health warning of sorts, caution that the investigational device. You are limited to the Federal law to experimental use.

Most of the people have in mind that who invented mind-reading the machine, but it looks like much more apparent where this could be going, especially if the technology can be made to type at the 50 to 150 words a minute: how much would you even pay for a device or gadget which could save you from typing anything?

Accurate, you could use it with a wide range of applications already available on the web and merely if you want some of the dictation services, but the potential for this technology is much more than that.

And the amount of computing power which is required to deal with that potential is currently incalculable, but it is certainly beyond the big data.

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Mind-reading technology is everyone's next big security nightmare. - Techiexpert.com - TechiExpert.com

cyborgs, robots, and biohackers: the first-ever survey of transhumanism – Designboom

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london-based photographers david vintiner and gem fletcher document individuals who form part of the transhumanism culture throughout europe, russia and the united states in their latest collaborative photo series, I want to believe an exploration of transhumanism. the five-year-long project explores the core idea behind transhumanism the belief that human beings are destined to transcend their mortal flesh through technology.

neil harbisson hears color neil harbisson was born with achromatism, a rare disease that renders him colourblind. rather than overcome achromatism, harbisson created a new sense to go beyond the human visual spectrumin 2004 he had an antenna implanted into his skull. the antenna allows him to perceive visible and invisible colours as audible vibrations, including infrareds and ultraviolets.

the photo series by vintinerand fletcher illustrates three gradual stages of transhumanism from testing ground, patient zero to humanity 2.0. at the lowest tier, testing ground looks into individuals who have created wearable technology to expand their human abilities, improving everything from concentration to mental health.patient zero studies those who have taken permanent action to become half human and half robot. in the final chapter, humanity 2.0, the transhumanist subjects focus on life extension and immortality.

the work of the individuals in this book demonstrates how optimizing our brains and bodies could revolutionize and redefine humanity. as human architects, we are only limited by our imagination, explains vintiner and fletcher.

kevin warrick widely considered as one of the first cyborgs.kevin warrick is a pioneering professor in cybernetics and considered by many as the worlds first cyborg. kevin instigated a series of experiments involving the neuro-surgical implantation of a device into the nerves of his left arm in order to link his nervous system directly to a computer. this enabled him to have a symbiotic connection with a robotic hand. he could control the hand using his own brain signals from anywhere in the world, as well as sense what the robot hand was feeling.

humans are now gods. we are now able to create and design humans, but do humans have the foresight to do it in the right way? questions the photographers.

cyborg arm

for many transhumanists, life extension and immortality is the goal. transhumanism started as early as 1923 and has developed over recent years through the rise of sci-fi themed books, movies and the democratization of technology. as studies on experimental genetic engineering, tissue regeneration and stem cell treatments are also becoming more apparent in todays world, transhumanists hope to extend the life of the human body anywhere from twenty to 500 years longer than the average lifespan.

vintiner and fletcher are working together on releasing the photo series as a book, which can be funded on crowd-funding platform kickstarter, here.

moon ribas sensing earthquakesmoon ribas is connected to online seismographs allowing her to perceive the seismic activity of the planet through vibrations in her body. the vibration she feels depends on the intensity of the earthquake. if she is standing in newcastle, she can sense earthquakes happening everywhere from japan to greece. she describes the sensation as having two heartbeats, her biological heartbeat and the earthbeat, which has its own rhythm inside her body.

dr natasha vita-more a leading expert on human enhancement and emerging technologies

dr. aubrey de grey biomedical gerontologist and the chief science 0fficer of SENS research foundation

liz parrish founder of bioviva

dr max more president and CEO of the alcor life extension foundation

patient zero - james young after an accident that left him a double amputee, james young turned to bionics to redesign his body. obsessed with the metal gear solid, he worked with gaming giant konami and prosthetic sculptor sophie de oliveira barata to develop an advanced bionic arm inspired by the computer game.

carbon fibre bionic limb

patient zero - rob spence known as the eyeborg, rob spence lost an eye as a child while playing with his grandfather's shotgun. inspired by a love of the bionic man and his interest in documentary filmmaking, spence created an eye with a wireless video camera inside. the camera is not connected to his optic nerve but sends footage to a remote receiver. over the years, he has created several different aesthetics for the eye, from a realistic 'hidden camera' version to a terminator inspired glowing red version.

patient zero - neil harbisson neil harbisson was born with achromatism, a rare disease that renders him colourblind. rather than overcome achromatism, harbisson created a new sense to go beyond the human visual spectrumin 2004 he had an antenna implanted into his skull. the antenna allows him to perceive visible and invisible colours as audible vibrations, including infrareds and ultraviolets.

image out of rob spence's eyes

new ways of seeing - EYEsect the experimental device aims to recreate the experience of seeing the world like a chameleon, with two single steerable eyes. in changing the way we perceive the world around us, eyesect alters our version of reality enabling new ways to sense and experience our environment.

new ways of seeing - north sense created by liviu babitz and scott cohen, north sense is a small matchbox-sized artificial sense organ that delivers a short vibration every time the user faces north, similar to the biological abilities of migratory birds, extending the human perception of orientation.

new ways of seeing - aisen caro chacin / echolocation the echolocation headphones are a pair of goggles that aid human echolocation. it is designed to substitute the users vision augmenting our spatial awareness with sound, similar to the abilities of bats and whales. the device has both the potential to aid the visually impaired and provide sighted individuals with a new sense.

project info:

title:I want to believe an exploration of transhumanism

artistic director: gem fletcher

photographer: david vintiner

kick starter page: I want to believe

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cyborgs, robots, and biohackers: the first-ever survey of transhumanism - Designboom

I turned a psychopath into a noble and rescued drunk royalty in the new RimWorld expansion – PC Gamer

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I've been playing RimWorld for the better part of a decade now, since 2013, when it was an alpha you could only get from the developer's website. Much of RimWorld's successas of 2018 it had sold a million copiescomes from its power as a story generator. It builds a procedural arc using an AI director that forces interesting outcomes and interwoven relationships. That arc is stapled to a greater backbone with a single goal: escape the RimWorld. There are a couple ways to do that, like trekking overland or building a new spaceship to escape. The new expansion, Royalty, adds a third escape path to RimWorldwith attendant increase in characters, technologies, and a slew of new quests based on them. The AI storyteller interweaves this new material seamlessly with the old.

Here's the tale of how three crash survivors were marooned on an alien world, made their psychopath leader into space-empire nobility, and got hoodwinked into rescuing a terrible drunk who was far, far more useful than they realised.

In the Royalty expansion, the remnants of an ancient stellar empire have fled to the RimWorld. Where previously the only other inhabitants were regressed tribals, other scattered survivor factions and vicious pirates, there's now a certain civilized air upon the backwater planet. While it was once immeasurably powerful, the shattered empire has lost its home worlds, but the remnants of its military fleet in orbit and its advanced technology make its members the top dogs on the rim. If you can make friends with them and rise through their ranks they might just help you get off this rock and give you sweet psychic powers to boot. This is the kind of stuff that has been implicit in RimWorld's lore for years, but is just now appearing in the game proper.

After a space accident, colonists Onesan, Faina, Xiaohan, and their cat Mr. Boots crash-land on an unknown rimworld. They're in the far south of the Sendor Forest at the crux of a dirt trading road and a river, just west of uninhabited White Sparrow Plateau and east of the sprawling desert of the Stingray Mountains. Mr. Boots is eaten by a bear a few days after landing.

Faina is a beautiful drifter who grew up in a cult. Xiaohan is just 21, but he's brillianttoo brilliant for his own good, and annoying because of it. And then there's Onesan. She's good at manipulating thingsand peoplebecause she grew up on the street and then became a successful merchant. She wants to be eternally better, stronger, faster, and is a transhumanist because of it. She's fascinated with body augmentations.

She's also a psychopath.

A few days into their trials, as they establish a few small stone buildings beside the river, they receive a message: the Empire of Eternity wants to talk. They've offered a position in their society for one of the new colonists if they can shelter a nearby hapless nobleman who's being pursued by an angry, vicious snow hare. (Did I mention the nobleman is hapless?)

Naturally, I choose vicious, amoral Onesan as the colony's new de jure noble leader. I welcome in the Baron and Onesan point-blank executes the rabbit with a revolver.

There are some advantages to having a psychopath as a leader. No matter what happens to the others, Onesan won't lose her cool. She won't get mood penalties when others die along the way which is good because the expectations of an imperial noble are hard to meet on the rim, and that causes mood penalties. Stacking these penalties can lead to colonists going a bit over the edge: throwing tantrums, binge drinking, murdering their rivals. These are not desirable behaviors in a leader. The new path to escape via nobility is hard because I need the wealth to satisfy our noble's desires. But if a character progresses too quickly up the ranks, they will, to put it plainly, lose their shit at the disconnect between expectation and reality. So I put the most predictable person in charge.

In the immortal words of reality TV show contestants the world over: I am not here to make friends, I am here to win.

There are some advantages to having a psychopath as a leader.

Things go well for a while. The nobility wants us to let their pets get a break from the space station life, so they send down a pair of foxes for us to care for. In exchange, Onesan gets promoted high enough in the imperial nobility that they send down a psychic enhancement device for her to plug in. She carves herself a throne out of solid jade and I spend a week building a grand marble hall for it to sit in. Over the next year, she never once sits on the throneshe doesn't even enter the throne room. She is very pleased by its grandeur nonetheless. I guess she just likes to know it's available? The mind of the blessed nobility must operate on a much higher level than my own.

Finally, the imperials turn over the quest for the endgame: if Onesan can reach the rank of Countess, imperial Stellarch Adeodata will come visit us. If I keep her happy she'll fly my colonists off-world.

Royalty presents a new twist on RimWorld for me. Previously the game really focused on building up a base of supplies for an overland trek to an established ship, or on a defensible technological base so you could build a new ship of your own. Royalty wants you to thrive rather than simply survive. The colony must become a lucious, luxurious palace. You must accumulate wealth, and the power to defend it, in a sustainable way.

I'm given several more pets to babysit. I apparently now run a doggie daycare for the miscellaneous animals of the eccentric, bored space nobility. A labrador. An arctic wolf. A pig named Carlos. All of the animals arrive injured in some way. I begin to wonder if the good Baron, fleeing from a snow hare, was not simply fleeing retribution for animal abuse of his own. Another noble asks us to build a monument to the power of his muscles. Onesan rises high enough in the ranks that, when attacked by an overwhelming force of the local tribals, she's able to call down a contingent of imperial shock troops to see them off.

I get a message from the leader of a nearby industrialized settlement, begging us to go out and help a wounded friend. It's a two-day trek, requiring all our supply of travel foods. I saddle up a donkey and go, but am dismayed when the colonists arrive two days later. The man I've been sent to rescue is little more than a wounded drunk lost in the desert. He's heavily alcohol-dependent, with cirrhosis and a cancerous tumor on his liver. His only real skill is cooking, and that offers little to our colony. He'd be more of a drain on resources than he's worth. I consider leaving him for dead or having Onesan put him out of his misery rather than trying to stabilize him and carry him home.

Before I do, I absentmindedly click over to his social tab, curious if the game has given him a relationship with the settlement leader I want to please. It hasn't, but the storyteller has kicked up a relationship for him: he's the father of someone called Adeodata Kosmatos. It says she's a faction leader, but not which one it is. Is he the father of the person who sent me here? Why does that name sound familiar?

I burst out laughing as it strikes me: that's the Empire of Eternity's Stellarch. This wandering drunk fathered the empress herself. Suddenly, making it to orbit doesn't seem quite so hardI just have to reunite a drunken old man with his long-lost daughter.

Royalty is one of those expansions that on the face of it might seem very simple. It adds a bunch of procedural quests, some cool new technological toys, and an interesting new NPC faction. But it's due to RimWorld's nature that I enjoyed it so much. Like a fractal design, these slight increases in complexity lead to entirely novel stories and bizarre new characters. It's a whole new style of game to play with, and I want to play a hundred more hours of it.

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I turned a psychopath into a noble and rescued drunk royalty in the new RimWorld expansion - PC Gamer

Core Decay is a retro-shooter immersive sim about a cyborg on a dying Earth – PC Gamer

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The retro-shooter genre has mostly focused on being like Doom or Quake. Fast-paced games with an emphasis on twitch reflexes and knowing the enemies rather than outsmarting them. Thats not badit gave us games like Dusk. But how about the other late-90s shooters like Deus Ex or System Shock? Theres a lot of nostalgia for those, and Core Decay is a game that looks to replicate that look and style of play, but with 21st century sensibilities.

The developers say its a slower-paced game focusing on understanding environments and knowing how to conserve your limited resources rather than flying through levels blasting everything you see. Theyve just released an announcement trailer.

Core Decay is the story of an amnesiac cyborg exploring facilities left behind by a mysterious Contingency Accord. This takes place against the backdrop of a resource-starved Earth ruled by despotic corporations and on the verge of complete ecological collapse. The player can attempt to either retain their humanity, or reject it and become something more, with increasing numbers of cybernetic upgrades to themselves. Along the way, youll also collect and upgrade weapons as you explore the games levels. Core Decay is set to release an open beta later this year. You can keep track of it via the Core Decay official website or developer Ivar Hills Patreon.

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Core Decay is a retro-shooter immersive sim about a cyborg on a dying Earth - PC Gamer

This is What the Cyborg Movie in the DCEU Can be Like – TVOvermind

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The DC Cinematic Universe still has a plethora of projects that are still in the development stage. Just in case anyone forgot, one of them is the Cyborg movie. Yes, I am talking about the ninety-nine percent CGI character from Justice League. The character made his debut as a cameo in Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, but became a central character in Justice League. If you remember the old Teen Titans cartoon fro the early 2000s, that version of Cyborg is what fans wanted to see. That Cyborg was an optimistic, pizza-loving joyride of a character with the famous catchphrase, Booyah! coming out of his mouth consistently. Unfortunately, the Cyborg we got in the Justice League movie paled in comparison to that version that we all loved. The DCEU version we got was moody, barely smiled, and spent most of his time hacking things.

Even at the end of the film, his one and only Booyah! felt kind of flat. When he said it in the cartoon, it was meant to literally be his war cry. Whether he was fighting bad guys or even kicking butt in video games, that was his line. His delivery of that line in Justice League barely had any enthusiasm behind it, making it feel a bit forced. Lets once again go over how he was primarily a CGI character, with the exception of the right side of his face. Ill just say it, because I seriously think he was a bit too CGI-ish. It honestly looked incomplete and he didnt look completely real as a result. That was disappointing, especially since most of the film suffered from that issue.

Cyborg was an underwhelming character in Justice League, but despite that, he was confirmed to be getting his own solo film. Ray Fisher was set to return to the role, a release date in April of this year was set, and that was it. Literally, no other details every emerged about the film. No director, no other cast members, no plot details, nothing. Lets just be straight and ask the big question: is the Cyborg movie still happening? Well, nothing has really been confirmed or denied yet, so the chances of the film seeing the light of day is still up in the air. I really mean way up in the air, so if you want to see more live-action Cyborg, stick to the Doom Patrol show for now.

A Cyborg movie in limbo only means more time for speculation. I always thought the idea of a solo Cyborg movie was strange, but given the right director and vision, anything is possible. That being said, there is some potential to a Cyborg movie and the number of directions it can take. Lets begin with the other DC characters he is primarily associated with. No, it is not the Justice League, but the Teen Titans. Before he became a member of the Justice League, he was one of the Teen Titans, a group of young and ambitious superheroes.

Unlike most of the other Titans, the young Victor Stone wasnt a sidekick to a popular superhero. He also didnt received his powers by choice, as his robotic body was made as a result of a horrific accident. His powers of technopathy were considered by him to be a curse, literally claiming that death would have been the better alternative. He began as a tragic character, but in time, he became more content with his new body and used it for the greater good. It was during this time that Cyborg became more like the cartoon version we fans recognize. He learned to control his powers and he actually became happy.

The ending of Justice League showed Cyborg transforming his body and even accepting it. This would serve as a great set up to his solo movie, because he can be fully committed to learning more about his powers. His arc would be set up, but who would he interact with? The answer is the one and only Teen Titans.

I know, it sounds like Im basically proposing a Teen Titans movie. Well, thats because I pretty much am, and thats because it would be exciting. If were talking about specific members, all you have to do is look back at the old cartoon. Cyborg developed a close relationship with his teammates, which included Robin (Dick Grayson), Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy. The lineup was small, but they proved to be an effective team and became close friends.

This is the kind of dynamic the DCEU really needs. Its most successful movies, like Shazam and Aquaman, had a believable family element to them. Not only did it take away the dark gloominess the DCEU originally thrived on, but it actually worked well. The relationship between the Titans is all about young people learning to work together and become more mature and experienced heroes along the way.

This kind of premise would serve well for Cyborgs movie. He can spend most of the movie learning to adapt to his body even further while making new friends in the process. An older Batman heavily implies that an older Dick Grayson as Nightwing exist in the DCEU, and he would act as Victors greatest ally. The list of heroes doesnt stop there, as the addition of Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy would provide for useful supporting characters. Introducing the Teen Titans to the DCEU sounds like a fun idea to me.

Now that that I talked about the heroes, its time to talk about the villain. Cyborg has a history dealing with some bad apples, but the baddest of the bunch would be Brother Blood. Sebastian Blood has made appearances in the old cartoon and the CW Arrow show. The comic version has been usually shown as a manipulating cult leader backed by many fanatical followers. Hes a creepy and sadistic villain who has a knack for controlling others. His particular rivalry with Cyborg is shown in the old Teen Titans show. This led to some brutal fight scenes between the two with Brother Blood often dominating them.

Brother Blood would be a different kind of villain to introduce to the DCEU. Not only is he scary, but oddly real as well. A cult leader vs. teenage superheroes? Give it a shot.

There are other supporting characters who can appear in Cyborgs film, including his father and other Justice Leaguers. I personally care more about making the Teen Titans work and setting them up for the DCEU. It would introduce a new team to the DCEU and expand on Cyborgs character development, something thats very needed. If the Cyborg movie is still happening, then this is the best route it can take.

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This is What the Cyborg Movie in the DCEU Can be Like - TVOvermind

Cyborg | Teen Titans Wiki | Fandom

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CyborgVoice

Victor "Vic" Stone

A body made up of entirely robotic systems granting him superhuman strength, resilience to damage, capability to fix many appliances, unsurpassed knowledge of technology and robotics, a cannon built into his arm that can shoot sonic blasts, and numeral other gadgets built into his body

Sonic Cannons built into his arms and numerous other gadgets installed throughout his body

Cyborg (sometimes "Cy") is the half-cybernetic half-man, chief technological expert and one of the five founding members of the Teen Titans.

Cyborg was a promising strong teenage athlete named Victor Stone, before an accident killed his mother and injured him so severely that his father replaced the damaged body parts with cybernetics to keep his son alive. But since these mechanical parts were not inconspicuous, he was shunned by his home environment and his friends, which frustrated him greatly. This caused him to have resentment and hatred for his father.

One night, wanting to get away from his father, Cyborg took to the streets wearing a hoodie to cover his cybernetic parts, where he ran into the new arrivals Robin and Beast Boy fighting a rather violent alien girl, who was actually a fugitive from a prisoner transport. Soon, Cyborg joined by the mystery girl Raven, the youngsters teamed up to defeat the girl's alien captors and formed a permanent team to combat villainy. Cyborg constructed the Titans Tower and its systems from a Gordanian landing ship, and the team moved into its new headquarters. From that point on, Cyborg served as the team's chief technician, constructing their primary vehicles such as the T-Car and T-Ship.

Cyborg wearing a hoodie to hide his cybernetics.

In the series' third season, Cyborg used the alias of Stone and a pair of holographic rings to infiltrate the H.I.V.E. Academy, which was at that time administered and mind-controlled by Brother Blood.

The Titans exposed and foiled his scheme to utilize a new superweapon called the Ion Amplifier, but in the process, Cyborg unknowingly had the construction plans for his cybernetics copied by Blood, who used them to build new superweapons. Outraged, Cyborg declared a personal vendetta on Blood and confronted him personally when he attempted to employ a gigantic sonic cannon from an undersea base. However, Blood's martial arts skills got the better of him, and he won only with Bumblebee's assistance, who was at that time infiltrating the H.I.V.E. with the help of Aqualad. In order to hunt down Blood and other supervillains more efficiently, Cyborg helped Bumblebee and Aqualad establish and outfit an Eastern branch of the Titans, with Speedy and Ms y Menos joining the ranks. Soon, they were attacked by Blood and an army of modeled robots, but apparently, Cyborg managed to repel them all. Met with a proposal to remain and become the leader of the Titans East, Cyborg decided to stay with his new team.

Cyborg as his original "human" self

At one point, Cyborg attempted to upgrade himself by installing a super-processor chip called Maximum-7 (or Max-7) into his cybernetic brain. Initially, it did work for his benefit, boosting his physical and mental processing speed well beyond his former capacities. But when the Titans first engaged Billy Numerous and were unable to catch him, a frustrated and obsessive Cyborg began shutting down his human personality in order to increase the Max-7's efficiency, which had the detrimental effect of making him more and more a robot, and eventually, this conflict between human and cybernetic nature led to a short-circuit which nearly killed him. The other Titans managed to remove the chip before this could happen, and now, Cyborg restored to his true self, devised a successful plan which brought down Numerous for good.

In the comic series based on the TV show, Cyborg meets a young teaching volunteer by the name of Sarah Simms. Despite several rocky times they have since formed a very close romance.

Cyborg eating meat

Cyborg is a very outgoing, cool, and fun-loving character who likes to enjoy life, especially since he found friends who consider him a person, not a freak. He is upbeat, smart, funny, and cheerful, but serious and heroic when he needs to be. He likes to enjoy playing video games, tinkering with technological gizmos and eating. He also tends to be stubborn at times and has had some serious arguments with Robin in the past, but he does make a capable second-in-command in Robin's absence. He also frequently bickers with Beast Boy, mostly about the latter's culinary taste and habit of misplacing all manners of personal items, though the two entertain a close friendship.

Cyborg often plays the protective big brother role of the team, getting quite serious when they are upset and does whatever he can to make them feel better. He is never hesitant to put Beast Boy in his place when he thinks the younger Titan is being inconsiderate of Raven's or Starfire's feelings. Likewise, Raven and Starfire also do the same for Cyborg, evident in "Car Trouble" and "Deception".

Much like the other Titans, Cyborg does not take betrayal lightly. He hates losing battles, especially to seemingly insignificant opponents. Their first defeat from Terra made him extremely angry with himself, because he had a chance to take a shot but didn't. He has been known to display emotions of anger (which he often takes out on his friends), frustration, and becoming depressed.

Cyborg's replacement robot dressed up

One facet of personal vulnerability is Cyborg's great personal pride in his inventions and constructions. For this reason, he tends to foster an immense dislike for anyone abusing his technology for selfish reasons, especially Gizmo and Brother Blood, and to be overprotective of his most personal projects, like the T-Car.[1][2][3][4]

He also possesses a tremendous appetite, and he will consume any edibles within his reach when hungry. His favorite food is barbecue and he also especially enjoys other meat, milkshakes, pizza, and waffles. The only food he would not voluntarily touch is Starfire's cooking and tofu (especially since Beast Boy goes to great lengths to try and make him eat it) although he once mistakenly ate the alien meat substitute.

As revealed in "Troq", Cyborg has a personal dislike for bigots as shown when he became disgusted with Val-Yor when he found out what he had really been calling Starfire to the point where he felt the need to tell the others what "Troq" really means..

However, he can be surprised when Beast Boy adopts a more serious persona as shown when he took note of the latter's behavior when reuniting with the Doom Patrol. He was even more surprised Beast Boy went with them to defeat their old enemies. This likely showed him Beast Boy merely puts up an act, as he had no problem with Beast Boy's leadership when fighting the Brotherhood of Evil.

Despite this, Cyborg can sometimes show his immature side with Beast Boy as they also enjoy playing their favorite game they made up "Stankball".

Cyborg and Raven fixing the T-Car

Raven and Cyborg have a fairly stable and healthy relationship. They had very few episodes dedicated to mostly the two of them, but this is likely because the two of them have always been fairly close and comfortable around each other. Cyborg, despite being the Titan most similar to Beast Boy, is more mature than he is and is more considerate of Raven's preferences. Raven, for her part, reciprocates this, as she is more patient with Cyborg than she is with Beast Boy.

Cyborg often looks out for Raven, making sure that Beast Boy does not go over the top to annoy her or hurt her feelings. In "Nevermore", Cyborg is especially serious with Beast Boy, reminding him that he shouldn't be messing with her, following the prior night's events, and made sure he went to apologize. Even though he tried to get Raven to play Stank Ball with him and Beast Boy, she clearly stated she doesn't want to play, which made Beast Boy angry. He called her creepy, with Raven still listening, and told him to leave her be, knowing she wanted to be alone.

In the Teen Titans Go! comics, Cyborg, on Christmas, bought Raven an antique bookcase he knew what she wanted, causing Raven to become uncharacteristically elated and showing an appreciation for her tastes and hobbies.

When they first met, Raven felt as if she did not fit in, but Cyborg reassures her that she fits in just fine. Even though they fight occasionally, they maintain a healthy friendship.

Despite sometimes being a bit inconsiderate of Cyborg's feelings, Raven never intends to hurt him emotionally. This is evident in "Car Trouble", where she initially dismissed 's dismay over his stolen T-Car by telling him "Calm down, it's just a car." which made him rather angry. However, she ultimately realizes it's her fault, and goes to comfort him and help him get his car back. Although Cyborg was forced to destroy it, Raven goes as far as to help him rebuild it, further proving their close friendship.

When Cyborgis the only one left with Raven in "Fear Itself", he likely knew she was afraid, and tried to reassure her that they'll get through the ordeal. being the last Titan to disappear that night may further hint at his big brother role to Raven, being protective of her when she wanted to save Starfire when there was no possible way to.

Cyborg is shown to often be more understanding of Raven than the other Titans, as he respects her desires to be alone but still tries to include her when he can. Raven, in turn, seems to accept as he is without question and accepts his enthusiasm for his hobbies, even if she does not share it.

Cyborg makes Raven smile more than anyone else in the series. Her biggest smiles, at least, two episodes centering around Cyborg's troubles.

Cyborg and Robin fighting

It is revealed that Cyborg is Robin's second-in-command.

Cyborg had helped Starfire greatly in "How Long is Forever?" when she was pushed forward in time. Even after so many years, Cyborg cared deeply for Starfire's well-being. In the series, Cyborg seems to act like the big brother to Starfire, and Starfire looks up to him.

The two often like to lift weights together, and despite countless times having witnessed Starfire's impressive strength, is still shocked when she is able to lift heavier weights than he is with relative ease. They are the strongest in the team physically, as their physical prowess far outmatches Robin's, Raven's, and even Beast Boy's.

Cyborg and Starfire have a practically mirrored personality, both being cheerful yet considerate of others' feelings, and they seemed to get along well from the very beginning.

In the episode, "Troq", Cyborg was the first one to learn the meaning of the word Val-Yor had been calling Starfire, (Troq, which is a slur for literally "nothing"). Because he initially misinterpreted Starfire's explanation that it meant nothing, he went to call her that, which hurt her deeply. But after learning that it literally meant nothing, went to comfort her. Being half-robot, knows exactly what it is like to be mistreated just for how you look, and completely empathized with her. He then told Robin, who was equally outraged.

Cyborg also makes note of Starfire's close relationship with Robin, and in "Stranded", he even teased Robin, calling Starfire his girlfriend. And when Starfire and Robin had their first real kiss in the final movie-episode of the series, Trouble in Tokyo, he voiced his approval, saying, "Well, it's about time."

Cyborg with cannons

This ability has its own cons though. His entire power cell and the whole power of Titans' Tower is only just enough to make one blast. This is why he only uses it in desperation, and it is much like an ultimate form, much like Beast Boy's Werebeast form and Raven's white form.

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Core Decay is a retro-shooter immersive sim a couple of cyborg on a dying Earth – BingePost

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I am unable to fairly get a learn on Days of War, which got here out of Early Entry a couple of weeks in the past, as a result of the US servers are principally empty at any time when I am on. That is the hazard of releasing a multiplayer-only recreation as we speakit is so arduous to drag individuals away from the entire different multiplayer video games they might be enjoyinghowever at the least there are bots to kill, and so theyre fairly enjoyable to kill. They do an excellent job of standing nonetheless or operating straight towards gamers in order that we will plunk them filled with M1 Garand holes.

Days of Struggle clearly takes some inspiration from Day of Defeat, the Half-Life mod turned standalone collection, and it additionally jogs my memory of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. (At this level, I believe it is time to cease utilizing the day of naming conference. With Day of Infamy as properly, we have now sufficient.)

Within the one at present accessible mode, groups spawn at reverse sides of easy maps and run towards seize factors, that are usually positioned in open areas accessible via alleys and hallways, generally with overlooks for sniping. No less than when enjoying in opposition to bots, it is easy to cover together with a hallway ready for enemies to jog in entrance of me, or to hold again and stare at a choke level till a physique seems in my sights. Pushing some extent via a number of entryways is theoretically the proper transfer, however I do not know that I might name Days of Struggle tactical even when that works out. It is about taking pictures first.

As anticipated of a shooter that goals to duplicate the WWII video games of the early 2000s, it takes no a couple of to 3 hits to kill relying on the gun. The rifles are laser-accurate down the sights, and fairly correct from the hip at shut vary. The automated weapons are additionally straightforward to spray in shut quarters, apart from the heavy machine weapons, which have hilariously highly effective recoil when not mounted (see the gif above).

The fundamental Allied rifle is the M1 Garand with its ping, in fact, whereas the German riflemen wield bolt-action one-hit-kill Ok98s. You have additionally obtained your scoped Springfields, your BARs, your MP40s, your Mosin-Nagants, and so forththe People, British, Germans, and Soviets are all concerned and over 60 weapons can be found. The animations meet the minimal requirement of current, however arent something particularweapons vibrate such as youd anticipate, and a meaty hand inserts clips with unnatural pace.

The whole lot is quick in Days of Struggle: sprinting, time-to-kill, respawns, and wins. Within the one accessible mode, capturing all of the management factors immediately wins a spherical, so if the opposite group is goofing off (or is principally bots), you possibly can sneak onto the ultimate level and win a spherical a minute after it began, as seen within the gif beneath.

Days of Struggle doesnt ship on all of its guarantees simply but. The old trailer depicting a dramatic Omaha Seaside touchdown is not one thing you possibly can play. That map is deliberate for the upcoming Detonation mode, and a 3rd mode, Groundwar, additionally stays locked for now.

There are at present some good accouterments to go together with the one mode, although: There is a separate devoted server executable, in addition to a map editor that may be obtained through the Epic Launcher (it requires Unreal Engine 4.20).

The developer will be running a free weekend in some unspecified time in the future within the coming weeks, and I will youll want to level it out when it occurs. Pushed Arts intends to have the Detonation and Groundwar maps prepared by then, and extra modes plus a trial interval might make a giant distinction for Days of Struggle.

For now, Days of Struggle is enjoyable, however like so many low-population multiplayer video games, it is arduous to suggest until its fortunes change. It is obtained potential, although, and I have been leaping in at times to benefit from the nostalgia, though most of my opponents simply stand and stare at me earlier than I shoot them. Poor bots. They do their greatest.

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Core Decay is a retro-shooter immersive sim a couple of cyborg on a dying Earth - BingePost

This YouTube time traveler says hes a cyborg from 2050and he wants you to buy merch – The Daily Dot

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A man named Orrin who said hes a cyborg from the future already made his claim on a recent episode of the Dr. Phil show. Dr. Phil showed he was a skeptic, but now Orrin has received a second chance to explain himself on the YouTube time travel channel ApexTV.

Hardly any commenters on the channel are buying his story either. In fact, theyre mostly laughing at him.

According to his interview with ApexTVthe YouTube channel that mostly features so-called time travelers making predictions about the futureOrrin said hes a collective conscience and cyborg sent by a higher civilization to warn humans of the incoming apocalypse. Humans, he said, are writing their own destruction with disease, famine, environmental disaster, and technological singularity.

Orrin said he used to be a normal person but that we have taken over his body and are speaking through him to you, thanks to an implanted chip in his head.

In 2050, Orrin said the rivers are poisoned with mercury and that humans are enslaved by artificial intelligence. Asked by ApexTV if theres such a thing as the Matrix, like the movie, Orrin confirmed it was true, saying we are being kept down by the corporation. Theyre lying to us through marketing schemes and propaganda to get us to hate ourselves, to hate our brethren, to divide us based on gender, race, sexuality, identity, and preference. Were being divided through our individuality. This is all a simulation.

Orrinwho said he doesnt feel the need to prove any of his claims or that hes actually a cyborg time travelerthen called for a revolution to change the institution and framework to value the greater good and the environment.

He also plugged his website where you can buy merchandise and his Instagram account, where you can find content like this.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4OA0HbFDO8/

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8CD1nvFSlf/

Though some ApexTV viewers tend to believe the supposed time travelers that show up on the channel, most of the commenters on Orrins video are simply laughing at him.

If hes warning about environmental disaster, than (sic) why does he have 2 plastic bottles in the back ground? wrote one.

Wrote another: The first cyborg that Ive seen trip overhis words. Must be a glitch in his operating matrix.

Said another: Its refreshing to know that The Matrix movieis still common knowledge in 2050. Great flick. Great frickin flick!

But people really enjoyed it when Orrin transformed himself into a cyborg salesman.

Was almostbelievable till the mech pitch at the end.LOL, wrote one.

Commented another: Hes gotmerchandise because hes a broke cyborg.

And another: And Ive come to save you from a greatdisaster by the way I have tshirts for sale.

Maybe Orrin is right and maybe the apocalypse is coming inthe next 30 years. If thats the case, who really cares if you spend $50 on anOrrin hoodie. That way, when the robots are enslaving you, at least youll bewarm.

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This YouTube time traveler says hes a cyborg from 2050and he wants you to buy merch - The Daily Dot

DC: 5 Superheroes We’d Want On Our Team In The Zombie Apocalypse (& 5 We Wouldn’t) – CBR – Comic Book Resources

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The DC universe contains a lot of amazing superheroes who have faced multiple threats of both alien and Earth origin and managed to defeat them. But what would happen if our planet got torn apart by a zombie apocalypse?

RELATED: The 25 Strongest DC Superheroes, Officially Ranked

Films and TV shows have been working with this scenario for years, but there's one thing they hadn't really shown us yet - and that's how would our beloved superheroes react to the apocalypse and whether they'd focus on fighting zombies or protecting civilians. While they all have their strengths, there are some heroes you'd do well to have on your team in a zombie apocalypse... and some you could do without.

When he's not struggling with his new identity, abilities, and body, Victor Stone aka Cyborg is one of the most talented and dangerous young superheroes of the whole DC universe.

Not only does he possess great, inhuman strength, excellent for tearing zombies apart, he also has an impressive set of weaponry available and can, therefore, excel both at hand to hand combat and at fighting from a longer distance. Plus, his body is mostly machine so if the zombies tried to feast on Cyborg, they probably wouldn't be able to do it. And finally, if something unsavory happens, Cyborg is fast enough to get you out of immediate danger.

Speaking of young impressive superheroes... Dick Grayson started out as the first Robin and when he grew up, he formed his own superhero identity. He's highly skilled at hand to hand combat since Batman taught him pretty much everything he knew. That said, the biggest disadvantage of having Nightwing on your team is that he's still only human and has no actual superpowers he could use against the zombies.

Of course, there are other non-powered superheroes in the DC universe, but unlike them, Dick hasn't been a superhero all that long, so in this case, he's going to have to sit the fight out.

Arthur Curry aka Aquaman may not seem like the most obvious choice for your team in the case of a zombie apocalypse but his presence would have one great advantage. Unless you're facing special, or mutated kinds of zombies, it's highly likely that the zombies can't swim. And since Aquaman can control water and communicate with the living creatures in it, he could send the zombies to the afterworld with one strong wave.

You also shouldn't forget that Aquaman also possesses super strength, can swim really fast, and was even able to send the Superman himself flying with one punch, which is definitely impressive.

Poor Atom. He simply can't seem to catch a break. While this case was a tie, he's not going to make it into your superheroes vs. zombies team after all. Why? Well, Ray Palmer is a super-intelligent scientist and inventor whose greatest power lies in his powerful brain and the fact that he has a super-suit that allows him to shrink and become really, really small (but he doesn't drive on ants).

RELATED: DC: The 10 Strongest Characters In All Of The Multiverses

His powers might be good for reconnaissance but there are other heroes in your team who can take care of that, and if Ray lost his suit, he'd be without any actual powers.

Originally known as Captain Marvel, in his real form, Billy Batson is just a young kid. But unlike most children, he has the ability to transform into one of the strongest DC superheroes by just saying the word: "Shazam!" Talk about a neat trick.

Shazam is fast, strong, intelligent, resilient, courageous, simply powerful, similarly to Superman. Plus, he also has a wicked sense of humor which could definitely be useful in a zombie apocalypse to help you cheer up when the situation seems grim. And if anything bad happens, Shazam can pick you up and fly you to safety, just like other superheroes on this list.

You simply have to love superheroes whose names directly suggest what they can do best. In Green Arrow's case, it's shooting arrows. And while he's really good at that, it's doubtful whether arrows would be much help in the fight against zombies.

To get rid of the zombies, you might need bigger guns than mere arrows. Not to mention that arrows also have the unfortunate tendency of running out in the middle of a fight. And finally, Oliver Queen is once again only human, who's well-trained but doesn't have real superpowers, so it'd be better if he sat this one out, just like Nightwing.

As her name itself suggests, Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman is simply... well, wonderful. Another magic user on your team, alongside Shazam, could definitely turn the fight against zombies around. Also known as the strongest of Amazons, Wonder Woman is not only beautiful but also highly intelligent, good at strategy, fast and strong.

RELATED: Every DC Movie Superhero, Ranked From Weakest To Strongest

She's also naturally kind so she's the most likely person on your team to talk to you like a friend. She's trained in combat since her childhood and was able to hold her own even in a fight against Superman. Not to mention that she defeated Batman pretty easily.

There's no doubt that Supergirl is a capable hero. After all, she does come from Krypton and has the same basic powers as her more famous cousin Superman. But in some versions of the comics, she's still a young woman, almost a teenager, and it'd probably be for the best to leave the kids out of the fight.

Plus, Supergirl still sometimes struggles with her powers, which could potentially present a problem in a battle. She's been known to accidentally destroy her surroundings, and you don't really want a loose rocket when you're facing zombies. Finally, there are other Kryptonians you could use in the fight.

Has someone mentioned Superman? This one is a no-brainer, really. Superman is not only the oldest DC superhero, the one who started the whole ride, but also one of the most powerful ones. Unless the zombies can manage to get their rotting hands on some kryptonite, they're pretty much done for.

Superman probably doesn't need much introduction, but just to summarize: He's strong, fast, has the heat vision, super hearing, and other super senses, and, most importantly, he genuinely cares about human lives. And even if all that fails, he can always turn back time by moving really fast and then he can fix whatever happened.

You might not consider Mera a genuine superhero at a first glance but she did fight against multiple villains, so she deserves a spot on this list... but not in your team.

Mera is strong, fast and powerful, but she has a set of skills similar to Aquaman, and just like in the case of Supergirl and Superman, one Atlantean on your team is more than enough to cover the waters. Mera also doesn't seem so keen on the entire human race, at least at first, and she mostly helps to humor her king and later boyfriend Arthur when he wants to assist humanity and be a part of the Justice League.

NEXT: 15 On-Screen Versions Of Superman Ranked From Weakest To Most Powerful

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Energizer Hard Case H280S: A KaiOS-powered blower that can withstand a few knocks – The Register

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Energizer is best known as the battery maker that isn't Duracell. Few, however, are aware of the Energizer phone brand, which today announced its latest effort the KaiOS-powered Hard Case H280S.

Although the Hard Case H280S sounds like it could be a cyborg Millwall supporter, it's actually a rugged handset resembling a beefed-up feature phone with a 2.8-inch QVGA display. KaiOS a fork of Firefox OS, Mozilla's abortive attempt at a mobile operating system comes with a fleshed-out app store and an active developer ecosystem.

Under the hood, it uses a Unisoc SC9820E platform, which packs two Arm Cortex-A53 cores, as well as a Mali T820 GPU. There's 512MB of storage, and a generous (given the context) 4GB of storage. It also supports microSD cards up to 64GB.

On the connectivity front, the Hard Case H280S ships with a 4G VoLTE-capable modem, as well as Bluetooth (albeit the older 3.0 standard), Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), and GPS.

And while KaiOS supports the usual social media time-sinks, you probably won't want to upload any footage or pics from the Hard Case as it ships with a puny 2MP rear shooter and a VGA selfie camera. That in itself isn't surprising, given that the Unisoc chip used only supports sensors up to 5MP.

The Energizer marque conveys a sense of battery longevity, and the Hard Case H280S lives up to that with a 2,000mAh battery that lasts up to five days on standby.

While that doesn't sound much (most Android phones nowadays have between 4,000mAh and 5,000mAh), it's not bad considering the average user won't be using this phone for any juice-draining tasks like gaming.

Energizer's phones are manufactured by French firm Avenir Telecom ("avenir" being the French word for "future"), which has somewhat of a reputation for designing interesting if not slightly impractical phones.

A personal favourite is the Energizer Power Max P18K Pop. This blower was unusual for a host of reasons chiefly because it came with a 18,000mAh battery, which resulted in the phone having a thickness of 18mm.

Making the phone even weirder was the fact that it came with a nearly borderless display, as well as a pop-up selfie camera. Because if you're carrying around a phone thicker than a paperback copy of Pride and Prejudice, the last thing you want is to be distracted by bezels, right?

Predictably, the phone-buying public wasn't enthusiastic. Avenir decided to test the waters by listing the Power Max P18K Pop on Indiegogo, where it only reached 1 per cent of its $1.2m funding goal.

Fortunately, the Energizer Hard Case H280S is a bit more sensible. There's an appetite for rugged devices, largely from those working in rougher industries, like energy and construction. And not all of those will want a phone running the full Android OS, or something as wide as a standard touchscreen blower.

Distributors can order the Hard Case H280S now although consumer pricing and availability is yet to be announced.

Sponsored: Quit your addiction to storage

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Energizer Hard Case H280S: A KaiOS-powered blower that can withstand a few knocks - The Register

Apple to pay up to $500M over battery-related phone slowdown – ABC 4

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Posted: Mar 3, 2020 / 10:37 PM MST / Updated: Mar 3, 2020 / 10:38 PM MST

SAN FRANSICO (AP)- iPhone owners could get $25 from Apple after the company agreed to pay up to $500 million to settle claims over intentionally slowing down older phones to preserve older batteries.

Apple and lawyers representing iPhone consumers agreed to a deal stemming from Apples2017 admissionthat it was slowing down phone performance in older models to avoid unexpected shutdowns related to battery fatigue.

That admission led to Apple offering discounted battery replacements at $29, but many people claimed they had already spent hundreds of dollars to buy new phones because Apple didnt reveal the cause of the problem. If they had known they could just buy new batteries, they might not have bought new phones, some consumers in the case said.

Apple did not admit wrongdoing. As part of the settlement, the company will pay $310 million to $500 million, including about $93 million to lawyers representing consumers.

iPhone users who were named in the class-action lawsuit will get up to $3,500 each. The rest of the settlement money will be distributed to owners of iPhone 6, 6S, 7 and SE models who meet eligibility requirements related to the operating system they had running. They must file claims to get the award. If too many people file, the $25 amount could shrink.

A federal judge in San Jose, California, still needs to approve the settlement.

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Apple to pay up to $500M over battery-related phone slowdown - ABC 4

The Mysterious Meaning of the Second Amendment – The Atlantic

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Joshua Feinzig and Joshua Zoffer: A constitutional case for gun control

Was Stevenss linguistic intuition correct? No. The phrase keep and bear arms was a novel term. It does not appear anywhere in COEMEmore than 1 billion words of British English stretching across three centuries. And prior to 1789, when the Second Amendment was introduced, the phrase was used only twice in COFEA: First in the 1780 Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, and then in a proposal for a constitutional amendment by the Virginia Ratifying Convention. In short, keep and bear arms was not a term of art with a fixed meaning. Indeed, the meaning of this phrase was quite unsettled then, as it had barely been used in other governmental documents. Ultimately, a careful study of the Second Amendment would have to treat keep arms and bear arms as two separate linguistic units, and thus two separate rights.

We performed another search in COFEA, about the meaning of keep arms, looking for documents in which keep and arms (and their variants) appear within six words of each other. The results here were somewhat inconclusive. In about 40 percent of the hits, a person would keep arms for a collective, military purpose; these documents support Justice Stevenss reading. And roughly 30 percent of the hits reference a person who keeps arms for individual uses; these documents support Justice Scalias analysis. The remainder of the hits did not support either reading.

We could not find a dominant usage for what keep arms meant at the founding. Thus, even if Scalia was wrong about the most common meaning of bear arms, he may still have been right about keep arms. Based on our findings, an average citizen of the founding era would likely have understood the phrase keep arms to refer to possessing arms for both military and personal uses.

Finally, it is not enough to consider keep and bear arms in a vacuum. The Second Amendments operative clause refers to the right of the people. We conducted another search in COFEA for documents that referenced arms in the context of rights. About 40 percent of the results had a militia sense, about 25 percent used an individual sense, and about 30 percent referred to both militia and individual senses. The remainder were ambiguous. With respect to rights, there was not a dominant sense for keeping and bearing arms. Here, too, an ordinary citizen at the time of the founding likely would have understood that the phrase arms, in the context of rights, referred to both militia-based and individual rights.

Based on these findings, we are more convinced by Scalias majority opinion than Stevenss dissent, even though they both made errors in their analysis. Furthermore, linguistic analysis formed only a small part of Scalias originalist opus. And the bulk of that historical analysis, based on the history of the common-law right to own a firearm, is undisturbed by our new findings. (We hope to publish this research, which also looked at other phrases in the Second Amendment, such as the right of the people, in an academic journal.)

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The Mysterious Meaning of the Second Amendment - The Atlantic