Month: July 2023

Enlarge / A World of Warcraft illustration from the Zleague.gg article on "Glorbo." (credit: Zleague.gg)

On Thursday, a Reddit user named kaefer_kriegerin posted a fake announcement on the World of Warcraft subreddit about the introduction of "Glorbo" to the game. Glorbo isn't real, but the post successfully exposed a website that scrapes Reddit for news in an automated fashion with little human oversight.

Not long after the trick post appeared, an article about Glorbo surfaced on "The Portal," a gaming news content mill run by Z League, a company that offers cash prizes for playing in gaming tournaments. The Z League article mindlessly regurgitates the Reddit post and adds nonsensical details. Its author, "Lucy Reed" (likely a fictitious name for a bot), authored over 80 articles that same day.

A screenshot of the bot-written article about "Glorbo" that appeared on Z League's website before being taken down. (credit: Ars Technica)

Members of the World of Warcraft subreddit recently noticed that this kind of automated content scraping of Reddit has been taking place, prompting several of them to try to game the bots and get their posts featured on sites like The Portal.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty Images)

Russian gamers were not introduced to piracy by the backlash to their country's invasion of Ukraine—far from it. But piracy is ramping up, and it likely won't back down any time soon.

That's the takeaway from a survey by Russian game development training platform School XYZ, covering the whole country and all game formats. Sixty-nine percent of gamers surveyed said they'd played at least one pirated game copy in 2022, while 51 percent said they're pirating more games now than they did in 2021.

Piracy as a whole may be up, but enthusiasm and motivations differ somewhat. Roughly 20 percent of those surveyed said they had pirated more than 10 games, and 27 percent had grabbed at least three in 2022. But 31 percent said they had pirated nothing, and nearly the same responded that they were opposed to piracy. And only 7 percent said they had not purchased anything through official channels, suggesting that 93 percent of surveyed Russian gamers, even admitted pirates, had bought at least something last year.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty Images)

Russian gamers were not introduced to piracy by the backlash to their country's invasion of Ukraine—far from it. But piracy is ramping up, and it likely won't back down any time soon.

That's the takeaway from a survey by Russian game development training platform School XYZ, covering the whole country and all game formats. Sixty-nine percent of gamers surveyed said they'd played at least one pirated game copy in 2022, while 51 percent said they're pirating more games now than they did in 2021.

Piracy as a whole may be up, but enthusiasm and motivations differ somewhat. Roughly 20 percent of those surveyed said they had pirated more than 10 games, and 27 percent had grabbed at least three in 2022. But 31 percent said they had pirated nothing, and nearly the same responded that they were opposed to piracy. And only 7 percent said they had not purchased anything through official channels, suggesting that 93 percent of surveyed Russian gamers, even admitted pirates, had bought at least something last year.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Mazda)

The fifth-generation Mazda MX-5 Miata may well be a battery-electric vehicle. Motortrend reports that the Japanese automaker, builder of one of the Internet's most beloved vehicles, has decided the next version will be electrified, although it's still deciding to what extent. Mazda is on the way to electrifying its entire product range by 2030, but the next MX-5 is due sooner than that and should be in showrooms in 2025.

Since 1989, the MX-5 has reminded drivers worldwide that you don't need masses of power and torque to enjoy driving. Across four generations of cars, the recipe has remained constant: two seats, with an engine in the front driving the wheels at the back—preferably via a manual gearbox. Low mass has always been a Miata virtue, endowing the car with not just precise handling but also an abstemious appetite for tires and fuel.

As the former owner of a first-gen (aka NA) Miata, I am always amazed upon driving a new one (currently the ND or fourth-gen) to find that Mazda's engineers have kept the ride and handling so similar. Wheels and brakes have gotten larger, and the gearbox has added an extra forward ratio, but the only unfamiliar bit to someone from 20 or 30 years ago would be the infotainment screen, which now brings the welcome addition of CarPlay.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Mazda)

The fifth-generation Mazda MX-5 Miata may well be a battery-electric vehicle. Motortrend reports that the Japanese automaker, builder of one of the Internet's most beloved vehicles, has decided the next version will be electrified, although it's still deciding to what extent. Mazda is on the way to electrifying its entire product range by 2030, but the next MX-5 is due sooner than that and should be in showrooms in 2025.

Since 1989, the MX-5 has reminded drivers worldwide that you don't need masses of power and torque to enjoy driving. Across four generations of cars, the recipe has remained constant: two seats, with an engine in the front driving the wheels at the back—preferably via a manual gearbox. Low mass has always been a Miata virtue, endowing the car with not just precise handling but also an abstemious appetite for tires and fuel.

As the former owner of a first-gen (aka NA) Miata, I am always amazed upon driving a new one (currently the ND or fourth-gen) to find that Mazda's engineers have kept the ride and handling so similar. Wheels and brakes have gotten larger, and the gearbox has added an extra forward ratio, but the only unfamiliar bit to someone from 20 or 30 years ago would be the infotainment screen, which now brings the welcome addition of CarPlay.

Enlarge / (From L) Plaintiffs Damla Karsan, Austin Dennard, Samantha Casiano, Taylor Edwards, Center for Reproductive Rights attorney Molly Duane and Amanda Zurawski attend a press conference outside the Travis County Courthouse in Austin, Texas, on July 20, 2023. (credit: Getty | SUZANNE CORDEIRO)

Deaths of babies born in Texas increased 11.5 percent in 2022, the year after the state banned abortion after six weeks, a period before most women know they are pregnant.

In 2022, some 2,200 infants died, according to data obtained by CNN through a public information request. That is 227 more deaths than the state saw in the previous year, before the restrictive law went into effect.

Infant deaths due to severe genetic and birth defects rose 21.6 percent.

Enlarge / (From L) Plaintiffs Damla Karsan, Austin Dennard, Samantha Casiano, Taylor Edwards, Center for Reproductive Rights attorney Molly Duane and Amanda Zurawski attend a press conference outside the Travis County Courthouse in Austin, Texas, on July 20, 2023. (credit: Getty | SUZANNE CORDEIRO)

Deaths of babies born in Texas increased 11.5 percent in 2022, the year after the state banned abortion after six weeks, a period before most women know they are pregnant.

In 2022, some 2,200 infants died, according to data obtained by CNN through a public information request. That is 227 more deaths than the state saw in the previous year, before the restrictive law went into effect.

Infant deaths due to severe genetic and birth defects rose 21.6 percent.

Enlarge (credit: fatido | iStock Unreleased)

Yesterday, the US Federal Reserve officially launched FedNow, a new system rolled out to 35 early-adopting banks and credit unions for processing instant payments between financial institutions. The Fed's goal is to eventually connect more than 9,000 banks and credit unions nationwide, tossing out the old payments system and supporting faster payment processing between all US institutions.

If FedNow becomes popular enough, it could one day make trouble for apps like PayPal and Venmo, which serve as intermediaries to make fast payments between banks. Cash apps could eventually seem so slow or unnecessary that they become obsolete. For now, peer-to-peer payments apps seem safe, though, as analysts told NBC News that FedNow is "likely to benefit consumers and small businesses the most."

"The Federal Reserve built the FedNow Service to help make everyday payments over the coming years faster and more convenient," Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said in a press release. "Over time, as more banks choose to use this new tool, the benefits to individuals and businesses will include enabling a person to immediately receive a paycheck or a company to instantly access funds when an invoice is paid."

Enlarge (credit: fatido | iStock Unreleased)

Yesterday, the US Federal Reserve officially launched FedNow, a new system rolled out to 35 early-adopting banks and credit unions for processing instant payments between financial institutions. The Fed's goal is to eventually connect more than 9,000 banks and credit unions nationwide, tossing out the old payments system and supporting faster payment processing between all US institutions.

If FedNow becomes popular enough, it could one day make trouble for apps like PayPal and Venmo, which serve as intermediaries to make fast payments between banks. Cash apps could eventually seem so slow or unnecessary that they become obsolete. For now, peer-to-peer payments apps seem safe, though, as analysts told NBC News that FedNow is "likely to benefit consumers and small businesses the most."

"The Federal Reserve built the FedNow Service to help make everyday payments over the coming years faster and more convenient," Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said in a press release. "Over time, as more banks choose to use this new tool, the benefits to individuals and businesses will include enabling a person to immediately receive a paycheck or a company to instantly access funds when an invoice is paid."