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RPGCast – Episode 510: “The Anna Marie Seal Of Mediocrity”

We hope you’re not sick of Fire Emblem: Three Houses from last week, because we’ve got even more this episode. We discuss strategies for raising professor rank and recruiting, in case you need some tips. We also cover a variety of games and their official release dates. Finally, our briefs are more like long underwear this week.




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RPG Cast – Episode 528: “I Demand An Explanation”

Whether it be about spanking sounds or male pasties, RPGamer has a long history of being an authoritative source of information. That said, we're still trying to figure out what version of EarthBound Kelley is playing.



  • News
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  • RPG Cast
  • Atelier Ryza
  • Cthulhu Saves Christmas
  • Earthbound
  • Path of Exile
  • Ring Fit Adventure
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC
  • Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE
  • World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth

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Scottish politics: Rebecca McQuillan: It’s one year to the election and all bets are off

 




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Nicola Sturgeon "considering" relaxation of lockdown exercise restrictions

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said the Scottish Government is looking into expanding the current guidance about exercise during the lockdown.




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Splashing out in Paris: Balenciaga floods venue for fashion show

Waters lap perilously close to audience as grand capes and latex trench coats are modelled

How to make the fashion industry engage with the climate crisis? Flood the venue, and submerge the front row.

Arriving at the Balenciaga show in Paris on Sunday morning, the audience found themselves entering at the periphery of what looked like a sports stadium, with banks of flip-up plastic seats around a central oval. In pitch blackness, it was hard to tell exactly, but attendants were on hand with torches, and strict instructions not to proceed beyond the third row.

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'It's a great look': jewellery follows clothing into genderless fashion

Zayn Malik and Virgil Abloh are among male celebrities decking out their ears, necks and wrists

There was a time when wearing a boyband-style dogtag was seen as the peak of male adornment, but now men are increasingly embracing jewellery, stacking rings and bracelets and adorning ears with multiple gems.

This week, the former One Direction singer Zayn Malik was announced as the face of the unisex jewellery label Martyre. Virgil Abloh, a weather vane for fashion’s direction of travel, this week launched more office supplies-inspired jewellery – paperclip bracelets, earrings and necklaces decorated with colourful diamonds – and was pictured wearing one of the collection’s bejewelled necklaces.

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DIY fashion: designers' tips on what to make from home

From a patchwork quilt to a crisp-packet necklace, learn new skills with the help of some top British designers

Creative director and star of Netflix’s Next in Fashion, Daniel W Fletcher has plenty to get on with while in social isolation, designing a collection for Fiorucci as well as one for his own brand. In his down time, he is taking up a DIY challenge to make a patchwork quilt based on a dress he made during the filming of Next in Fashion, using other designers’ leftover scraps. The design – inspired by concerns over the melting polar ice caps – is an arctic landscape.

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Fast fashion speeding toward environmental disaster, report warns

Study highlights industry failures and calls for shift in consumer attitudes

The fashion industry needs to fundamentally change in order to mitigate the environmental impact of fast fashion, experts have said.

Clothes rental, better recycling processes, pollution control technology and the innovative use of offcuts are among measures that could help, they said.

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John Lewis and Mother of Pearl mark Earth Day with joint fashion line

Sustainable fashion collaboration featuring only biodegradable fabrics will be sold online

John Lewis and the fashion brand Mother of Pearl have chosen Earth Day for the launch of their sustainable fashion collaboration, specifically for its geopolitical symbolism.

Earth Day, which celebrates its 50th anniversary on 22 April, seemed an appropriate day to launch a collection bringing rigorous standards of ethical design to mass market fashion. A launch date that pays homage to the planet rather than the artificial seasons of fashion, and dovetails with the concept of timeless, seasonless clothes designed for wardrobe longevity.

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H&M tops 2020 fashion transparency index as 10 brands score zero

C&A, Adidas/Reebok, Esprit and M&S round out top five as average scores increase year on year, but Max Mara, Pepe Jeans and Tom Ford fall flat

The H&M Group, C&A, Adidas/Reebok, Esprit, Marks & Spencer and Patagonia are the world’s most transparent major fashion brands, according to the 2020 fashion transparency index from the campaign group Fashion Revolution.

The annual report, now in its fifth year, ranks the amount of information companies disclose about social and environmental policies, processes and effects within their operations and supply chains.

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'Lockdown has been a wakeup call for the industry': what next for fashion?

Coronavirus has brought fashion to a halt. To mark Earth Day, we asked sustainable fashion designers, writers and advocates what changes they would like to see

Over the past few years, sustainable fashion has been inching towards the mainstream. Now, given the pandemic crisis, discussion of how to create a more ethical and less environmentally damaging model for an industry that is responsible for 10% of global carbon dioxide emissions every year is more relevant than ever.

With much of the usual churn on pause because of coronavirus and many of the cracks of the industry coming to the fore – not least in Bangladesh, where garment workers are facing destitution as big-name brands cancel their orders – some people in the industry are taking this hiatus as an opportunity to reassess fashion’s direction of travel.

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A round of applause: 10 fashion brands supporting the health services – in pictures

From Stay at Home T-shirts to NHS baseball caps, here’s a selection from small labels donating some or all of their profits to charities helping healthcare workers and the Covid-19 response

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Planet fashion: the 10 coolest ethical fashion brands

Some labels are showing how fashion can put the planet first. To celebrate Earth Day, here are a few of our favourites

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Trial questions benefits of organic nitrates for bone health

A new study found that organic nitrates do not have clinically relevant effects on bone mineral density or bone turnover in postmenopausal women, and the medications caused significant side effects.




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New computational method unravels single-cell data from multiple people

A new computational method for assigning the donor in single cell RNA sequencing experiments provides an accurate way to unravel data from a mixture of people. The Souporcell method could help study how genetic variants in different people affect which genes are expressed during infection or response to drugs, and help research into transplants, personalized medicine and malaria.




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Sewage poses potential COVID-19 transmission risk, experts warn

Environmental biologists have warned that the potential spread of COVID-19 via sewage 'must not be neglected' in the battle to protect human health.




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Regularly attending religious services associated with lower risk of deaths of despair, study finds

People who attended religious services at least once a week were significantly less likely to die from 'deaths of despair,' including deaths related to suicide, drug overdose, and alcohol poisoning, according to new research.




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Obesity is linked to gut microbiota disturbance, but not among statin-treated individuals

Scientists set out to investigate a potential role of the gut microbiota in the development of cardio-metabolic diseases. They ended up identifying the common cholesterol-lowering drug statins as a potential microbiota-modulating therapeutic.




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Cholesterol lowering drugs linked to improved gut bacteria composition in obese people

Obese Europeans who are treated with cholesterol lowering drugs have not only lower values of blood LDL cholesterol and markers of inflammation but in addition a more healthy gut bacteria profile than those obese who are not prescribed statins.




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Focused ultrasound opening brain to previously impossible treatments

Focused ultrasound, the researchers hope, could revolutionize treatment for conditions from Alzheimer's to epilepsy to brain tumors -- and even help repair the devastating damage caused by stroke.




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Position statement addresses difficult issue: allocating scare resources in COVID-19 era

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented pressure on societies worldwide, given the pandemic's rapid, often deadly spread. In health care, the pandemic has raised the pressing question of how society should allocate scarce resources during a crisis.




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Clay layers and distant pumping trigger arsenic contamination in Bangladesh groundwater

To avoid arsenic contamination, many Bangladeshi households access water via private wells drilled to 300 feet or less, beneath impermeable clay layers. Such clay layers have been thought to protect groundwater in the underlying aquifers from the downward flow of contaminants. However, a new study suggests that such clay layers do not always protect against arsenic, and could even be a source of contamination in some wells.




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Accumulation of gene mutations in chronic Graft-versus-host disease

Mutations in white blood cells can contribute to abnormal immune profile after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.




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Fighting autoimmunity and cancer: The nutritional key

Scientists have revealed a novel mechanism through which the immune system controls autoimmunity and cancer. In the special focus of the researchers were regulatory T cells -- a type of white blood cells that act as a brake on the immune system.




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China to reform disease prevention system




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Rights group says Saudi Arabia is holding a senior prince incommunicado since March




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EU Commission calls for state guarantees for vouchers for cancelled travel




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Seven killed in protests over food distribution in Afghanistan, local MP says




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Algeria approves 2-7% increase in retirement pensions




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FDA grants emergency use authorization to Quidel for first antigen test for COVID-19




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Sierra Leone's president accuses main opposition party of inciting violence




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If we want better conditions for Amazon staff we need to be patient…

The tech giant has often been accused of mistreating workers, but our desire for instant gratification is part of the problem

Tim Bray resigned as an Amazon vice-president last week. “Who he?” I hear you say. And why is this news significant? Answers: first, Bray is an ubergeek who’s an alumnus of many of the outfits in tech’s hall of fame (including DEC, Sun Microsystems, the OED project at the University of Waterloo, Google’s Android team and, eventually, Amazon Web Services); and second, he resigned on an issue of principle – something as rare as hen’s teeth in the tech industry.

In his blog, he wrote: “I quit in dismay at Amazon firing whistleblowers who were making noise about warehouse employees frightened of Covid-19.” It was an expensive decision. Bray said the decision to resign would probably cost him more than a million dollars in salary and shares, and that he regretted leaving a job he enjoyed, working with good colleagues. “So I’m pretty blue.”

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French president persuaded to give approval to resumption of racing

  • France Galop lobbied Emmanuel Macron for go-ahead
  • Longchamp one of three meetings to take place on Monday

France Galop, the ruling body of French racing, confirmed on Saturday it will resume with meetings at Longchamp, Toulouse and Compiegne on Monday, but only after what is believed to have been urgent behind-the-scenes lobbying by Edouard de Rothschild, FG’s president, late on Friday night that persuaded Emmanuel Macron, the French president, to finally give his approval to the resumption.

De Rothschild thanked Macron and Édouard Philippe, France’s prime minister, for their efforts in a tweet in the early hours of Saturday morning that confirmed racing had seen off last-minute objections to its return.

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Expansion debate rumbles on amid hush over Britain’s biggest airports

To campaigners’ dismay, the UK’s biggest hubs, Heathrow and Gatwick, are pushing on with plans to increase capacity

Christine Taylor has lived her entire life in the shadow of London’s Heathrow airport, her childhood bedroom affording a view of one of its two runways. She grew up in Sipson, a village that can trace its history back more than 1,000 years, but now sits immediately north of Britain’s busiest airline hub.

Now living a mile to the east in Harlington, Taylor, 62, is experiencing a rare moment of quiet, thanks to the dramatic reduction in air traffic caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

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‘Of course I smoked marijuana!’ Elliott Gould on stardom, Streisand and Elvis Presley

The star of M*A*S*H, The Long Goodbye – and more recently, Friends – talks about drugs, his fiery marriage to Barbra Streisand and getting his best reviews from Groucho Marx and Muhammad Ali

The best review ever received by Elliott Gould – renowned actor and star of M*A*S*H and The Long Goodbye; not to mention, Ross and Monica’s dad on Friends – was from Groucho Marx. The two of them had become close in the comedian’s latter years – so close, Gould says, “he used to let me shave him”. One day Marx asked Gould to change a lightbulb in his bedroom. Gould took off his shoes, stood on the bed and replaced the broken bulb. Marx told him: “That was the best acting I’ve ever seen you do.”

Gould, now 81, has been telling the story for decades – but it is clear even in our pixelated video call that it still delights him. “Isn’t that great?” he says, his distinctive nasal, New York baritone now deepened with age. As we speak he is sitting at a computer at a friend’s house in Los Angeles, relaxed in a blue hoodie, with a seemingly bottomless mug of coffee before him. In isolation on either side of the Atlantic, neither of us has anywhere to be. And after more than half a century in Hollywood, in which he went from leading man to exile and, eventually, fixture – Gould could fill days, not just hours, with his stories. Even without his eight-year marriage to Barbra Streisand.

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Giving millionaires the boot: why Cahiers du Cinéma editors quit en masse

Staff of the magazine that kicked off the French New Wave say its new elite owners pose a threat to editorial independence

The mass resignation of the staff of Cahiers du Cinéma, the film journal that launched the French New Wave, has reignited debate in France about the possibility of critical independence in a society whose major stakeholders frequently operate in several spheres.

On Thursday, the 15 staff writers and editors announced their resignation, saying they believed its new owners posed a threat to the magazine’s cherished independence.

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Why are period dramas so white? - video

Have you ever noticed that in film and on TV, period dramas tend to have almost entirely white casts? It’s almost as if, at least in film and TV land, black people do not feature in British history at all. The Guardian’s Josh Toussaint-Strauss finds out how accurate costume dramas are in terms of racial diversity, and looks into the reasons why period dramas might get whitewashed

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Sergio review – fact-based Netflix UN drama opts for old school romance

Wagner Moura and Ana de Armas give strong performances in a mostly effective retelling of the life and tragic death of a celebrated Brazilian diplomat

There’s an old school charm to Sergio, documentarian Greg Barker’s narrative portrait of UN diplomat Sérgio Vieira de Mello, a dramatic retelling of a life he already brought to the screen in a 2009 documentary of the same name. Barker’s knowledge of Sérgio’s life and accomplishments is backgrounded by a clear respect for who he was and so while the film is factually detailed, as one would expect, it’s also rooted in a desire to showcase his humanity, both in and out of work, with Barker deciding to lean into full-tilt romantic tragedy, perhaps also as a way of differentiating his two Sergios.

Related: Love Wedding Repeat review – laboured Netflix romcom farce

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Extraction review – hokey, high-octane action thriller

Chris Hemsworth plays a super-tough mercenary on an all-guns-blazing mission to rescue a crime lord’s kidnapped son

Sadly, this has nothing to do with dentistry. Extraction is a made-for-Netflix action thriller from veterans of the Marvel Comic Universe – screenwriter Joe Russo, stunt-specialist-turned-director Sam Hargrave and star Chris Hemsworth. It’s based on the graphic novel Ciudad (which Russo co-authored), transferring the action from the Paraguayan city of Ciudad Del Este to Dhaka in Bangladesh.

Extraction is a little bit hokey and absurd, and the very end has an exasperating cop-out – but it has to be admitted that, in terms of pure action octane, Russo and Hargrave bring the noise, and there are quite a few long-distance “sniper” scenes in which people get taken out from miles away as the bullet travels through their skulls with a resonant thoonk.

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Ice busy signing draft selections to contracts

It’s that time of the year in the WHL. News of player signings are a daily occurrence and the Winnipeg Ice’s management team has been busy. On Monday, the club announced ...




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Tennis, golf swing into action

It’s only the beginning of May, but for local golfers and tennis players, Monday felt like Christmas. Golf courses and tennis courts were officially allowed to open Monday as a part ...




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Mega Millions Results, Numbers for 5/8/20: Did Anyone Win the $231 Million Jackpot Prize Last Night?

The winners and results of last night's Mega Millions lottery, plus how to avoid falling victim to a lottery scam.




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Bill Maher Says Republicans 'Don't Care' About Tara Reade's Biden Allegations, Challenges Timing of Sexual Assault Claims

Bill Maher said Republicans "don't care" about Tara Reade's sexual assault allegations, saying such claims are simply used as a "unilateral weapon" against Democrats.




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Apple’s iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard Are a Good Start — But I Can’t Wait for the Next Version

The Magic Keyboard isn't perfect, but it pushes the iPad toward the inevitable future of computing, writes TIME's tech critic




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Martian Dynamo was Active between 4.5 and 3.7 Billion Years Ago, Study Says

A planet’s global magnetic field arises from a so-called dynamo — a flow of molten metal within the planet’s core that produces an electrical current. On Earth, the dynamo is what makes compass needles point north. In a paper published in the journal Science Advances, a team of researchers from Canada, the United States and [...]




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Early Devonian Fossil Provides Earliest Evidence for Advanced Reproductive Biology in Land Plants

A species of plant that grew about 400 million years ago (Early Devonian period) produced a spectrum of spore sizes, which is an essential innovation necessary for all advanced plant reproductive strategies, including seeds and flowers. The Devonian period is one of the most important time periods for the evolution of land plants. It witnessed [...]




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SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein’s Structure Hints at Key to High Infection Rate

An analysis and structural modeling of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, the area of the virus that facilitates entry into a cell, reveals a unique feature that could explain why the COVID-19-causing coronavirus is so transmissible between people. The study also shows that, aside from primates, cats, ferrets and minks are the animal species apparently most [...]




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Jurassic Fossil Reveals Violent Squid Attack in Progress

An international team of paleontologists from the University of Plymouth, the University of Kansas and the Forge Fossils has found a specimen of the squid-like cephalopod Clarkeiteuthis montefiorei preserved with the herring-like fish Dorsetichthys bechei in its two arms; the bones in the head of the fish are broken in a manner that suggests a [...]




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Neuroscientists Create High-Resolution 3D Atlas of Mouse Brain

Neuroscientists at the Allen Institute for Brain Science have released the third version of their Allen Mouse Brain Common Coordinate Framework (CCFv3). A mouse brain contains approximately 100 million cells across hundreds of different regions. As neuroscience datasets grow larger and more complex, a common spatial map of the brain becomes more critical, as does [...]




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Astronomers Crack Mystery of X-Shaped Radio Galaxies

Astronomers using the MeerKAT telescope at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory in Cape Town, South Africa, have solved a longstanding mystery of X-shaped radio galaxies. Many galaxies far more active than the Milky Way have enormous twin jets of radio waves extending far into intergalactic space. Normally these go in opposite directions, coming from [...]