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Review: ‘Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR’ brings players closer to franchise’s iconic experiences

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:22:43 GMT

“Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR” has a certain synergy coursing through it. It’s a game where the virtual reality medium and the narrative meld together to create seamless fiction. In the video game franchise’s lore, a shady company called Abstergo uses a device called the Animus to let people experience the lives of people in the past using information from their DNA.The Animus is essentially a VR device and Ubisoft cleverly uses that as a vehicle for a compelling adventure on the Meta Quest platform. In the 16-mission campaign, players take on the role of an unnamed hacker whom the Assassin Brotherhood hires to infiltrate Abstergo, which is working on a project called the Nexus Eye.Led by Dominika Wilk (played by Morena Baccarin), the program is after pieces of the Antikythera mechanism, aka “The Dial Destiny” for Indiana Jones fans. Using the Animus, Abstergo has traced parts of  the device to the experiences of three assassins from the past: ...

Inflation is slowly coming down and no longer outweighing Americans’ wages

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:22:43 GMT

By Alicia Wallace | CNNNew York  — Sometimes boring and predictable can be good things.The latest Consumer Price Index report wasn’t flashy by any means: The inflation gauge that measures price changes for a basket of goods and services ticked down slightly to 3.1% for the 12 months that ended in November, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Tuesday.Stripping out the more volatile components of food and energy, the core index held pat at a 4% year-over-year growth rate, staying at its lowest level since September 2021.The latest CPI report largely came in exactly as economists had expected and served up another piece of evidence that high inflation is (very) slowly, but surely, abating.That’s welcome news for the Federal Reserve and for Americans, who are finally starting to not have their earnings completely eaten away by rising prices.Real average hourly earnings increased an estimated 0.8% annual rate in November, the eighth consecutive month of growth after 24 ...

Huge San Jose residential development will be 100% affordable housing

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:22:43 GMT

SAN JOSE — All the residences in a huge housing development proposed in San Jose are slated to be affordable apartments, city documents show.The project of several hundred homes is being proposed on empty land in north San Jose’s Alviso district, according to documents obtained by this news organization.Hotel development site at 7 Topgolf Drive in north San Jose’s Alviso district, shown within the outline. Boundaries are approximate. (Google Maps)The 804-unit housing development is being proposed on a 3.2-acre site at 7 Topgolf Way in San Jose, documents on file with city planners show.A 200-room hotel was once envisioned for the current project site. A hotel at that location, near tech hubs and adjacent to the bustling Topgolf entertainment, dining and sports venue, was deemed to be a good bet when it was first proposed.The onset of the coronavirus and the resulting business and travel shutdowns spawned by the outbreak of the deadly bug helped to torpedo the ...

Pac-12 basketball power ratings: Arizona on top after the conference’s best weekend in eons

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:22:43 GMT

After a desultory opening month, the Pac-12 produced its best weekend of the season.Check that: Its best weekend in years.Actually, its best weekend in decades.The conference recorded three non-conference victories over ranked opponents on Saturday as Washington stunned No. 7 Gonzaga, Utah toppled No. 14 Brigham Young and Arizona blasted No. 23 Wisconsin.The last time the Pac-12 toppled three ranked foes on a single day? Way back on March 15, 1997, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.Colorado added a fourth upset to the weekend ledger on Sunday with a blowout of No. 15 Miami.According to the conference office, that same 1997 NCAA Tournament marks the only other time since 1981 that the Pac-12 has defeated four ranked opponents in a two-day span.By any measure, it was a stellar weekend for the conference. The success will help offset a series of suboptimal results in November.But there are 10 crucial days remaining in non-conference play, and progress can be fleeting.To the po...

Review: Superstars share stage to ‘Celebrate Christmas’ at Bay Area concert

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:22:43 GMT

Natalie Grant had just soared through “O Holy Night” in awe-inspiring fashion, sending fans to their feet in rapturous applause and prompting the evening’s other co-headliner, Danny Gokey, to marvel at the Grammy-nominated vocalist’s incredible talent.“Listen, if you aren’t in the Christmas Spirit yet,” Gokey remarked to the crowd, “there’s something wrong with you.”Nope — nothing wrong with this audience, which definitely turned out ready to celebrate the reason for the season as the two talented vocalists brought their holiday show to 3Crosses Church in Castro Valley on Monday night (Dec. 11).The concert — which sold out well in advance — was attended by some 1,400 fans, who were in joyous spirits as they witnessed two of contemporary Christian music’s most popular artists mine the Christmas songbook as well as perform other similarly themed material.One of the best things about the show was the ch...

Pro-Palestine rally at Meta headquarters in response to alleged shadow banning 

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:22:43 GMT

(KRON) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations San Francisco Bay Area is sponsoring a rally outside Meta headquarters in Menlo Park on Tuesday at 3 p.m.The CAIR-SFBA is rallying against reports of alleged shadow banning on Meta’s Instagram and Facebook platforms.  Workers at Oakland coffee shop at center of antisemitic graffiti incident slam owners Shadow banning is a practice used in online moderation that consists of preventing a user’s content from being seen by others—either partially or totally—without the user being notified or aware of it, according to dictionary.com.The organization says its purpose of “Let Palestine Speak: End Meta Censorship” is for Meta “to end its practices of suppressing and restricting content from the Palestinian perspective.”  "As advocates for justice, we are deeply concerned about the reports of 'shadow banning' affecting Palestinian voices on Meta's platforms,” said CAIR-SFBA Executive Director Zahra Billoo on Monday. “Tomorrow's r...

Ex-First Republic Bank employee sentenced for sabotaging former employer's computer network

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:22:43 GMT

(BCN) -- A former bank employee from San Francisco was sentenced to 24 months in prison on Monday for intentionally damaging his former employer's cloud system and stealing valuable computer code, federal prosecutors said. Miklos Daniel Brody, 38, pleaded guilty in April 2023 to two charges that he violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by obtaining information from a protected computer and by intentionally damaging a protected computer and one charge of making false statements to a government agency, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California said in a statement. Workers at Oakland coffee shop at center of antisemitic graffiti incident slam owners According to prosecutors, Brody worked as a cloud engineer for First Republic Bank, which is headquartered in San Francisco, until March 2020 when he was fired for violating company policy.Based on a superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury in December 2022, he used his company-issued laptop -- ...

Thousands gather to honor Mexico’s Virgen of Guadalupe on anniversary of 1531 apparition

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:22:43 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Thousands of people sang the traditional Mexican birthday song “Las mañanitas” at Mexico City’s Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe Tuesday to honor the virgin on the 492th anniversary of her apparition in 1531.Authorities estimated that over five million faithful visited the Basilica during the days leading up to the annual celebration of the country’s patroness.Many had walked from distant villages, others had ridden bicycles or buses to reach the Basilica’s enormous patio, where a sea of tents held pilgrims who had slept overnight to greet the virgin in the morning.The journey was not without dangers and risks. Mexico City prosecutors said Tuesday that three pilgrims, who were among a group on motorcycles, had been run over and killed on a highway leading from Mexico City east toward the city of Puebla.Ten others were injured when a pickup truck ran into the group late Monday. The driver was arrested at the scene. Such groups of pilgrims walking or ri...

Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen takes offense to comments from teammate’s dad, breaks out of slump

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:22:43 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Colorado Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen said he had added incentive for his big game Monday night after taking offense to comments from the dad of one of his teammates concerning his offseason work ethic.Ismo Lehkonen, a hockey analyst and the father of injured Avalanche forward Artturi Lehkonen, told Finnish public broadcaster YLE earlier Monday that Rantanen’s recent slump may be because “he didn’t have a terribly swell summer.” Rantanen responded with a goal and two assists, including a pass that helped set up the winner by Nathan MacKinnon in a 6-5 comeback win over the Calgary Flames.“It feels good. It’s actually one thing where I got a lot of extra energy,” Rantanen told media after the game. “One of our Finnish NHL player’s dad was talking (expletive) about me in the media, that I didn’t train last summer like I used to do. (He) was making things up. That was for him. If you talk (expletive), it’s going to come back at you.”Rantanen’s teammate and fellow...

Poll: Md. voters fairly content, seek a bold agenda in upcoming legislative session (if it’s not too expensive)

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:22:43 GMT

On the eve of a new year — and a new General Assembly session — Maryland voters are generally optimistic about the future, though many have jitters about inflation and crime in Baltimore. They are also looking to their government leaders for bold solutions — though it isn’t clear whether there’s the political will or the desire by taxpayers to pay for the initiatives that may be needed to move the state’s economy forward.Those are some of the conclusions of a recent issues survey for Maryland that was taken by a Democratic pollster and commissioned by a leading Annapolis lobbying firm and a politically wired public affairs strategist.The poll showed that many voters are comfortable in their own lives and are enthusiastic about several proposed measures that could improve Maryland’s economy and create more opportunity and equity for residents who are struggling financially.“I think one of the takeaways is, particularly with budget cuts on the horizon and so much focus on them, that M...