Pleasant

The game-as-a-service model can all too easily feel to players as though the title they love has been twisted into some sort of machine designed to extract money from them. While some are free-to-play, many games that had an upfront cost at launch have been irrevocably altered and require players to invest in each battle pass lest they be left behind in terms of gear, lore, or general progression. With Helldivers 2, Arrowhead Game Studios did what many would believe publishers would never do: it built a monetization…

During its nesting season, the marbled murrelet, known affectionately among bird watchers as a "strange, mysterious little seabird," lays a single egg in the thick mosses that grow on the branches of British Columbia's old-growth forest canopy.With some of those forests under threat from logging, the small black-and-brown mottled seabird is considered threatened, too.The marbled murrelet is among a growing number of migratory species animals facing a perilous future, a new UN report found.  "The solution for the marbled …

Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This weekly newsletter is part of a CBC News initiative entitled "Our Changing Planet" to show and explain the effects of climate change. Keep up with the latest news on our Climate and Environment page.Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Thursday.This week: From fashion to burials: How fungi can help fight climate change 2024 has barely started and is already threatening to set temperature records World's globetrotting animals at risk due to habitat…

NASA's newest climate satellite rocketed into orbit Thursday to survey the world's oceans and atmosphere in never-before-seen detail.SpaceX launched the Pace satellite on its $948-million US mission before dawn from Cape Canaveral, Fla., with the Falcon rocket heading south over the Atlantic Ocean to achieve a rare polar orbit.The satellite will spend at least three years studying the oceans from 676 kilometres up, as well as the atmosphere. It will scan the globe daily with two of the science instruments. A third…

By now, most people are well aware that 2023 was the hottest year on record, coming in at 1.48 C warmer than the pre-industrial average from 1850-1900. This beat out 2016's record of 1.25 C.  In climate terms, an increase in warming by 0.23 C is considerable and climate scientists are still trying to figure out why it happened.Was 2023 just a big blip on the upward trend of global warming? Perhaps. Scientists are trying to tease out all the potential contributors.But one of the things that is inarguably a contributor is…

We knew it was coming, and we knew what to expect from Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air. The company delivered the reveal early into the WWDC 2023 keynote, with the Mac segment taking only about 13 minutes. The new MacBook Air was one of the three new Macs that Apple introduced, but it only got about five minutes of screen time because it’s really just a bigger variant of the 13.6-inch model. But what really surprised me was the price of the 15-inch MacBook Air, as I was expecting it to be more expensive. I…

In addition to everything else that winemakers have to consider in the production of a perfect bottle is the smell of the drink: In certain types of winemaking processes, that smell can end up being rather undesirable.Aromas that you might describe as "rotten eggs", "rubber" and "canned corn" are often termed as 'reductive' and are created by volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) in the liquid. These compounds can affect both red and white wines, both large-scale and small-scale operations, and are a costly headache for the…

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. The City Section baseball and state track championships produced plenty of memorable moments with one week to go in the 2022-23 sports season.Goodbye Dijon Stanley (left) of Granada Hills and Rodrick Pleasant of Gardena Serra have a friendly embrace after Pleasant wins the 200 at state championships.(Nick Koza) It’s off to college for Rodrick Pleasant and Dijon Stanley, two of the best two-sport athletes in the nation. They’ve…

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. It’s a big weekend for high school track and field. The best meet of the season is set for Saturday at Arcadia High. The Arcadia Invitational has produced many outstanding performances through the years.Get ready for speed Rodrick Pleasant of Gardena Serra has used his blazing track speed to his benefit as a top cornerback.(Nick Koza) Saturday’s Arcadia Invitational has the makings of another memorable meet for standout track…

Professional wrestler turned-actor Dave Bautista is relieved that he would be exiting the Marvel Cinematic Universe following `Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3`, which marks his final performance as Drax the Destroyer, a role that has spanned nearly 10 years. According to Variety, an American media company, Bautista recently told GQ magazine, "I`m so grateful for Drax. I love him. But there`s a relief . It wasn`t all pleasant. It was hard playing that role." "The makeup process was beating me down. And I just don`t know…