Month: August 2022

Categories
US

Pentagon chiefs’ calls to China go unanswered amid Taiwan crisis

US military leaders strive to maintain open lines of communication even with potential adversaries such as China to prevent accidents and other miscalculations that could turn into a full-blown conflict.

But the last call Milley had with his Chinese counterpart, Chief of the Joint Staff Gen. Li Zuocheng, was on July 7, the Pentagon said. The two spoke by secure video teleconference about the need to maintain open lines of communication, as well as reducing risk, according to a readout from Milley’s office. Austin, meanwhile, met in person with Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Wei Fenghe in June on the sideline of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

“The secretary has repeatedly emphasized the importance of fully open lines of communication with China’s defense leaders to ensure that we can avoid any miscalculations, and that remains true,” Todd Breasseale, the Pentagon’s acting press secretary, told POLITICO in an email.

China on Friday announced that it was halting certain official dialogues between senior-level US military commanders, including the regional commanders, as well as talks on maritime safety. The announcement does not specifically apply to Austin and Milley’s counterparts, and officials said they are still open to communication between those leaders.

White House spokesperson John Kirby said while the announcement “does not completely eliminate the opportunities for senior members of our military to talk,” it increases the risk of an accident.

“These lines of communications are actually important for helping you reduce the risk of miscalculation and misperception,” Kirby said Friday. “You have this much military hardware operating in confined areas, it’s good, especially now, to have those lines of communication open.”

China is conducting military drills around Taiwan that have broken multiple precedents and fundamentally changed the status quo in the region. Beijing this week launched missiles into Taiwan’s territory, including at least one that appears to have flown over the island, and has sortied ships and aircraft across the median line separating Taiwan’s territorial waters from mainland China.

The US, which does not officially recognize Taiwan’s independence but sells weapons to the island, wants to avoid a situation such as on April 1, 2001, when a US Navy EP-3 signals intelligence aircraft and a Chinese J-8 fighter collided in mid -air, prompting an international dispute.

The risk of such an incident is increasingly high. China has recently ramped up aggressive activity in the Pacific, particularly the East and South China seas, alarming US officials. Chinese aircraft and ships have buzzed and harassed US and allied pilots, even conducting an “unsafe” intercept with a US special operations C-130 aircraft in June.

Yet canceling military dialogue is significant, but not unprecedented, experts said.

“Historically this is definitely part of the playbook,” Schriver said. “Thousand thousand [communications] historically it is on the chopping block when we have problems with China.”

But Kirby condemned the move as “irresponsible” at a time of escalating tensions.

“We find the shutting down of military communications channels at whatever level and whatever scope and at a time of crisis to be an irresponsible Act,” Kirby said.

Categories
Business

Smartphone app could alert you to cancer-causing chemicals in meat

Cured and processed meats, such as salami and bacon, are often treated with nitrite or nitrate salts to keep them looking and tasting fresh (file photo)

A new smartphone app could alert users to cancer-causing chemicals in processed meats like sausages, ham, bacon and salami.

Scientists in Spain have created a system that includes a colour-changing film called ‘POLYSEN’ that consumers can stick onto meat products.

The labels get darker when they detect high levels of nitrite – a meat preservative that can form potentially cancer-causing compounds.

Users can then snap a picture of the film with a smartphone, and a specially-developed app will analyze the color and give a nitrite concentration value.

Cured and processed meats, such as salami and bacon, are often treated with nitrite or nitrate salts to keep them looking and tasting fresh (file photo)

Cured and processed meats, such as salami and bacon, are often treated with nitrite or nitrate salts to keep them looking and tasting fresh (file photo)

Graphic from the researchers' paper shows the system works. Discs punched from the film are placed on meat samples for 15 minutes to allow them to react with nitrite. The discs are then removed and dipped in a sodium hydroxide solution for one minute to develop the colour. The higher the nitrite present, the deeper the film's yellowish hue. A smartphone app self-calibrates when a chart of reference discs is photographed in the same image

Graphic from the researchers’ paper shows the system works. Discs punched from the film are placed on meat samples for 15 minutes to allow them to react with nitrite. The discs are then removed and dipped in a sodium hydroxide solution for one minute to develop the colour. The higher the nitrite present, the deeper the film’s yellowish hue. A smartphone app self-calibrates when a chart of reference discs is photographed in the same image

HOW DOES ‘POLYSEN’ WORK?

POLYSEN, or ‘polymeric sensor’, is a film made of four monomers and hydrochloric acid.

Discs punched from the film are placed on meat samples for 15 minutes to allow them to react with nitrite.

The discs are then removed and dipped in a sodium hydroxide solution for one minute to develop the colour.

The higher the nitrite present, the deeper the film’s yellowish hue.

A smartphone app self-calibrates when a chart of reference disks is photographed in the same image.

The system has been created by experts at Universidad de Burgos in Spain and detailed in a new study, published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

‘There is a need to detect and control different chemical compounds added to processed food, such as processed meat,’ they say.

‘Our method represents a great advance in terms of analysis time, simplicity, and orientation to use by average citizens.’

Cured and processed meats, such as bacon, hot dogs, ham and sausages (including Mortadella, an Italian luncheon meat), are often treated with nitrite or nitrate to keep them looking and tasting fresh.

Nitrites are widely used in processed meats to extend their shelf life, by warding off bacteria that can cause diseases like salmonella, listeriosis, and botulism.

Crucially, they also add an alluringly tangy taste and a pink hue to products like bacon, making them appear more appetizing.

Though nitrate is relatively stable, it can be converted to the more reactive nitrite ion in the body.

When in the acidic environment of the stomach or under the high heat of a frying pan, nitrite can undergo a reaction to form nitrosamines, which have been linked to the development of various cancers.

For this reason, consumers want to limit consumption of these preservatives, but knowing how much is in a food has been difficult to determine.

Nitrites add an alluringly tangy taste and a shopper-seducing fresh-pink hue to products like sausages, ham, bacon and salami (file photo)

Nitrites add an alluringly tangy taste and a shopper-seducing fresh-pink hue to products like sausages, ham, bacon and salami (file photo)

Here, a worker packages slices of Mortadella, an Italian luncheon meat, in a factory (file photo)

Here, a worker packages slices of Mortadella, an Italian luncheon meat, in a factory (file photo)

So the researchers crated the new POLYSEN film – an abbreviation of ‘polymeric sensor’ – which is made of four monomers and hydrochloric acid.

First, to create a ‘reference chart’, discs punched from the film were placed on five different meat samples for 15 minutes, allowing the monomer units and acid in the film to react with nitrite.

The meat samples all had different nitrite concentrations, so the researchers knew the discs would vary in colour.

The discs were then removed and dipped in a sodium hydroxide solution for one minute to develop the colour.

The higher the nitrite present in the meat, the deeper each film’s yellowish hue became.

To calibrate the system, discs punched from the film were placed on five different meat samples for 15 minutes, allowing the monomer units and acid in the film to react with nitrite

To calibrate the system, discs punched from the film were placed on five different meat samples for 15 minutes, allowing the monomer units and acid in the film to react with nitrite

Next, the researchers created the smartphone app that uses colorimetry – which uses light to determine the concentration of particular compounds.

When photographed in the same image as the reference chart, the app can return a nitrite estimate for the sample disc.

The team tested the film on meats they prepared and treated with nitrite, in addition to store-bought meats.

They found the POLYSEN-based method produced results similar to those obtained with a traditional and more complex nitrite detection method.

In addition, POLYSEN complied with a European regulation for migration of substances from the film to the food.

While the team have only demonstrated the system for now, it could provide a user-friendly and inexpensive way for consumers to determine nitrite levels in foods in the future.

‘This study is intended as a proof of concept in which it has been demonstrated that the methodology is practical and works,’ they conclude.

NITRITES AND NITRATES: A FIRST

Nitrite and nitrate are commonly used for curing meat and other perishable produce.

They are also added to meat to keep it red and give flavour.

Nitrate is also found naturally in vegetables, with the highest concentrations occurring in leafy vegetables like spinach and lettuce.

It can also enter the food chain as an environmental contaminant in water, due to its use in intensive farming methods, livestock production and sewage discharge.

Nitrite in food (and nitrate converted to nitrite in the body) may contribute to the formation of a group of compounds known as nitrosamines, some of which are carcinogenic – ie, have the potential to cause cancer.

In 2015 the World Health Organization warned there were significant increases in the risk of bowel cancer from eating processed meats such as bacon that traditionally have nitrites added as they are cured.

The current acceptable daily intake for nitrates, according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), is 3.7 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day.

The EFSA’s acceptable daily intake for nitrites is 0.07mg per kilogram of weight each day.

Source: EFSA

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Categories
Technology

Someone Spent Six Years Remastering An Unreleased Warcraft Game

Someone Spent Six Years Remastering An Unreleased Warcraft Game

Years ago, a never-officially-released warcraft point-and-click adventure game developed by Blizzard in the late ’90s was leaked online. While the game was completely playable back then, its cutscenes were low-quality, highly compressed, not perfectly synced to the audio, and a few were even just straight up missing from the leak. Now, after years of working on it, someone has remastered all the cutscenes, fixed them up, and made it easier to experience this bit of video game history.

As spotted by Indie Retro News and pc gamermodder DerSilver83 recently released the finished 1.0 release of WACRP (Warcraft Adventures Cutscenes Remastered Project). The mod contains 20 completely remastered cutscenes, including two which didn’t actually exist in the initial leak but appeared later on via a different DVD leak.

You can see an example of what this mod and its improved cutscenes look like in the video below:

A lot of work went into this release, according to the modder and the project’s website. Apparently, DerSilver83 hand-removed all the compression artifacts from all of the cutscenes. The modder also used Photoshop to painstakingly redraw entire frames and assets, frame-by-frame. Continuity issues have also been fixed and some new transitional scenes have been created entirely from scratch. All audio was also synced and everything now runs at the correct 12fps.

All told, DerSilver83 says they have been working on this mod for about six years, and this latest 1.0 release represents the end of the project. They explained in a post on July 31 that they have done all they can in what they call a “reasonable timeframe” and are happy with the end results.

“I want to remember this project as something fun before it transforms into some kind of a burden,” said DerSilver83 on the project’s site. “So this is it. The final release of my Cutscenes Remaster Project and I hope everybody who uses it can enjoy it as much as I do. I always wanted to create a substantial mod for a game I love and I can finally say that I have achieved (or at least tried) that.”

To actually play this, you’ll need to do some searching around the internet to find the appropriate files needed to play the full game, as this mod only contains the remastered cutscenes and nothing else.

In the meantime, you can read more about Warcraft: Lord of The Clans via this great story from our own Luke Plunkett.

Categories
Sports

F1 world reacts to McLaren sacking Daniel Ricciardo: ‘Done dirty’

F1 world reacts to McLaren sacking Daniel Ricciardo: 'Done dirty'

Daniel Ricciardo might sit well outside the top 10 in the F1 driver rankings but he remains one of the sport’s most popular figures.

And his army of supporters was out in full force after it was revealed McLaren plans to replace him with young Australian driver Oscar Piastri next season despite Ricciardo being contracted for 2023.

The 33-year-old’s career has been on some what of a downward spiral since his days of outdriving Sebastian Vettel and regularly challenging Max Verstappen at Red Bull. But no one wants to see it end this way.

All-Aussie F1 bombshell: Ricciardo ‘told he’ll be replaced’ by Piastri at McLaren

ESPN’s Nate Saunders reported four teams have sounded Ricciardo out recently to “see where his head is at” and slammed McLaren for its treatment of the Aussie.

“It reflects very poorly on Brown and McLaren how they have treated Ricciardo over the past six months,” Saunders wrote. “Ricciardo, the only McLaren driver to have won an F1 race since 2012, has been the first to admit his performances have not been up to the standards he set at Red Bull and Renault but it feels as though he has been made as a scapegoat to deflect away from deeper problems at the team.”

He wasn’t alone in hailing the Aussie’s class during a turbulent season.

“Amid all the rumpus and pressure you have to commend Ricciardo on his grace and professionalism over these last few months,” tweeted Tom Gaymor. “El Says everything about him as a man, he is a class act and I hope he keeps smiling and doing it his way.”

But others saw it differently, believing Ricciardo is a spent force and he’s replacement is part and parcel of the cut throat nature of F1.

“Ricciardo is getting a taste of his own medicine when he left Renault to join McLaren and this is proof that that was not right move for him,” tweeted Sahil Mohan Gupta. “Now, he will probably end up at Alpine if not leave F1. This is crazy.”

Daniel Ricciardo is out at McLaren. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)
Daniel Ricciardo is out at McLaren. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

“I’ll always be a fan of Ricciardo, but can you really blame McLaren?” added Gannon Burgett. “They’re paying him out the ass for a driver who’s scored only 20% of the team’s points so far.”

“Please Alpine don’t take him back!” Tiff Needell tweeted. “Love Daniel but he’s had 12 years in F1, stuffed a few million in the bank and there’s lots of other motorsport he could do. So give someone else a chance!”

Despite the rapid turn of events this week Ricciardo’s future could take a long time to settle because McLaren will likely face a challenge from Alpine over its poaching of Piastri.

The West Australian could spend a year with McLaren’s IndyCar team to see out his deal, or could receive a pay out and join another team. That team could even be Alpine if Piastri is able to leave.

Who is Oscar Piastri?

Born in Melbourne, Piastri joined Alpine’s academy after clinching the Formula Renault Eurocup title in 2019, securing seven wins.

He carried the form into the Formula 3 series in 2020, winning the opening race on his debut and holding his nerve to claim the title by three points in one of the most closely fought championships ever.

The following year he was on the Formula 2 grid, where he clocked six wins to unequivocally announce his arrival on the world stage, becoming just the third rookie champion after Charles Leclerc (2017) and George Russell (2018). They are both now in F1.

Despite his rapid rise Piastri was overlooked for a drive in Formula One this season because of a lack of available seats, instead lurking on the sidelines at Alpine ready to replace either Esteban Ocon or Alonso if they were forced to miss a race.

He’s managed by fellow Aussie and nine-time F1 race winner Mark Webber. “Does he deserve to be in F1? Absolutely, we all know that,” Webber says. “It’s not a question of if, but when.”

The Piastri family say they are “petrol heads” with his father Chris telling The Sydney Morning Herald that “Oscar’s bedtime stories were mainly car books”.

He started racing remote-controlled cars aged six and by nine had graduated to piloting go-karts.

Oscar Piastri is a star in the making. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

“I think he’s got the determination and the ability and the intellect,” his mother Nicole told The Age newspaper this year of her son’s progression to Formula One.

“I think he’s got everything that’s required to be able to get there and to do a good job, but that’s only one very small factor.

“There are a lot of other things that come into getting a Formula One seat – politics, money, availability of seats.”

Chris Piastri pinpointed Webber’s involvement from Formula 3 onwards as key to helping their son reach his goal, opening funding and sponsorship doors to help with the soaring costs that come with making it as a racing driver.

“Mark knows everybody,” he said. “It was at that point that he started taking over the reins, dealing with the teams, managing Oscar up into the visibility of the teams.”

Webber said it was a “no-brainer” to help out. “It’s hard to turn heads, especially in the F1 paddock, as they are pretty hard to please,” he said.

“But there’s not many people who haven’t mentioned him to me – how impressed they are with him, what he’s doing, the trajectory he is on.”

– with AFP

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Categories
Australia

Australian Border Force ship docks in Colombo to return 46 men

Australian Border Force ship docks in Colombo to return 46 men

The ABF said in its monthly report last week that it had stopped four boats from Sri Lanka in June with 125 people on board, the highest monthly tally of vessels intercepted in seven years.

A fishing trawler carrying 12 men from Negombo, north of Colombo, was earlier pulled up near Christmas Island on May 21, the day of the federal election.

Since May, there have also been 15 boats attempting to leave Sri Lanka illegally that have been stopped by its navy including some with children on board. A total of 701 people have been arrested on those boats and a further 210 arrested on land with the assistance of police, navy spokesman De Silva said on Friday.

Australia is providing tactical assistance and training to Sri Lanka’s navy, which already uses two retired Australian patrol boats that were given to it when Operation Sovereign Borders came into effect under Tony Abbott in 2013.

The Albanese government has also donated more than 4000 GPS devices to help Sri Lankan authorities in monitoring activity in their own waters.

The Sri Lankans attempting to make it to Australia have been escaping a devastating economic meltdown in the south Asian nation, which has run out of foreign currency reserves and where inflation last month rose to a record 60.8 per cent.

Months of shortages of fuel, food and other essentials, as well as surging prices, also triggered a political upheaval that led to the resignations of president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.

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Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country when thousands of demonstrators stormed the presidential palace last month and has since been in Singapore, which has permitted him to stay as a private citizen in the city-state until next Thursday.

New leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was elected by MPs to serve the rest of Gotabaya’s presidential term until 2024, has dismantled the sprawling protest camp that had been set up outside the presidential office for months.

He is negotiating a bailout with the International Monetary Fund but in a speech to parliament on Wednesday warned Sri Lanka was “facing an unprecedented situation” and there was much difficulty still ahead.

“We are in great danger,” he said.

A spokesman for the ABF said it did not comment on operational matters.

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Categories
US

Minnesota pharmacist who refused to fill morning-after pill prescription did not discriminate, jury rules

Minnesota pharmacist on trial for refusing to dispense the morning after pill because of his 'beliefs'

A Minnesota jury ruled Friday that a pharmacist who refused to fill a prescription for a morning-after pill because of his “beliefs” did not violate a woman’s civil rights under state law but inflicted emotional harm and said she should be entitled to $25,000 in damages .

But the lawyer for pharmacist George Badeaux said Andrea Anderson is not likely to get a dime because the jury concluded she was not discriminated against because of her sex.

“We are incredibly happy with the jury’s decision,” attorney Charles Shreffler said in a statement. “Medical professionals should be free to practice their professions in line with their beliefs.”

Anderson, who filed the civil lawsuit against pharmacist George Badeaux in 2019 after she was forced to make a 100-mile round trip to get the contraceptive, said she intends to appeal the jury verdict to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

“I can’t help but wonder about the other women who may be turned away,” Anderson said in a statement. “What if they accept the pharmacist’s decision and don’t realize that this behavior is wrong? What if they have no other choice? Not everyone has the means or ability to drive hundreds of miles to get a prescription filled.”

Anderson was represented by lawyers for Gender Justice, which is based in St. Paul, Minnesota.

“To be clear, the law in Minnesota prohibits sex discrimination and that includes refusing to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception,” Gender Justice Legal Director Jess Braverman said. “The jury was not deciding what the law is, they were deciding the facts of what happened here in this particular case. We will appeal this decision and won’t stop fighting until Minnesotans can get the health care they need without the interference of providers putting their own personal beliefs ahead of their legal and ethical obligations to their patients.”

In what appears to be a first-of-its-kind case, Anderson filed the lawsuit against Badeaux and the pharmacy he works for three years ago under the Minnesota Human Rights Act.

A mother of five, Anderson sought the morning-after pill Ella in January 2019 at the only pharmacy in her hometown, McGregor (population 391), after a condom broke during sex.

But Badeaux, who had been dispensing drugs from the McGregor Thrifty White pharmacy for four decades and is also a local preacher, refused to fill Anderson’s prescription, claiming it would violate his “beliefs,” according to the complaint.

“Badeaux informed her that there would be another pharmacist working the next day, who might be willing to fill the medication but that he could not guarantee that they would help,” the complaint stated.

Badeaux also warned Anderson against trying to get the prescription filled at a Shopko pharmacy in a nearby town and refused to tell her where else she could try, as required by state law, the complaint stated.

Another pharmacist at a CVS in the city of Aitkin also blocked Anderson from getting the prescription filled.

Anderson wounded up driving for hours, “while a massive snowstorm was headed to central Minnesota,” to get the prescription filled at Walgreens in the city of Brainerd, according to the complaint.

During the trial, which was held in Aitkin County District Court, Badeaux insisted he “wasn’t seeking to interfere with what she wanted to do,” the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. “I was asking to be excused.”

While Aitkin County District Judge David Hermerding, in a pretrial order, ruled that Badeaux’s religious rights are not the issue at stake in the case, the pharmacist spent the bulk of his time on the stand explaining the religious reasons why he has refused to fill contraception prescriptions for Anderson and three other customers during his career.

“I’m a Christian,” he said, according to the Star Tribune. “I believe in God. I love God. I try to live the way he would want me to live. That includes respecting every human being.”

The Badeaux trial, which began earlier this week, came as the once-dormant debate over contraception was rekindled by the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade—and by prominent lawmakers like Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., openly questioning the constitutionality of birth control.

Two weeks ago, the US House passed a bill that would guarantee the right to contraception under federal law.

Badeaux currently holds “an active license with the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy,” agency spokeswoman Jill Phillips said in an email to NBC News before the verdict was announced.

Badeaux, in testimony, said he objected to dispensing Ella because it could possibly prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus.

“It’s my belief, based on lots of thinking and reading, that this [fertilized egg] is a new life,” Badeaux said. “If I do anything that prevents that egg from implanting in the uterus… the new life will cease to exist.”

But Ella doesn’t induce abortions. It is a prescription drug that prevents a woman from becoming pregnant when it is taken within five days of unprotected sex, according to the manufacturer.


Categories
Business

Gonski flies back to Sydney Airport

Gonski flies back to Sydney Airport

“He was right, because many more Australians have got direct and indirect interests into corporations.

“But where he was wrong on that is that democracy usually gives you a vote – and the thing that’s been lost is the vote.”

Gonski says the big plus in having wider ownership of companies through super funds brings with it a challenge of how to keep people informed without the regular updates to the ASX under continuous disclosure rules.

Sydney Airport has continued to publish annual reports that are lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, but the level of information sharing is severely diminished.

Playing the long game

Gonski says the single biggest advantage of a private company compared with a public one is the ability of the board and management to think long-term.

He says his experience on the boards of Singapore Telecommunications and Singapore Airlines gave him a new perspective on strategic thinking at board level.

“Coming back from working with those Asian companies… I was stunned how short-term we were in our thinking.

“We had, in many of the companies I was involved in, dividend policies which often affected the long-term investment horizon of the company. But … companies in Asia, and often in America as well, don’t pay as big dividends and therefore can reinvest and build for the longer term.”

Sydney Airport’s move to appoint Gonski follows the decision by the Blackstone-owned Crown Resorts to appoint Ian Silk chairman of Crown Melbourne, John Borghetti chairman of Crown Sydney, and John Van Der Wielen chairman of Crown Perth.

Blackstone said these appointments were part of the transformation of Crown to “operate at the highest standards of compliance, governance, and integrity”.

Silk, Borghetti and Van Der Wielen are filling roles that are very different from the roles played by chairmen of public companies.

The chairman of a public company, for example, must primarily consider the interests of the shareholders, followed by the interests of other stakeholders.

It is arguable that Gonski at Sydney Airport and Silk, Borghetti and Van Der Wielen at Crown must consider the interests of all stakeholders ahead of the interests of the shareholders.

The chairman of the Crown Resorts head stock is Blackstone representative Bill McBeath.

The owners of Sydney Airport and Crown Resorts have taken a different approach compared with the owners of other high-profile, ASX-listed companies that have been taken private.

Electricity and gas network owner AusNet, which was bought by Sunsuper and four Canadian pension funds in October 2021, does not have an independent chairman.

The chairman of Virgin Australia is Ryan Cotton, who works for Bain Capital, the private equity group that bought Virgin in September 2020.

The Japanese-owned Toll Holdings, which used to have an independent chairman in Ray Horsburgh, now has a former managing director, Thomas Knudsen, filling the chairman’s role.

Categories
Technology

Activision Blizzard’s mobile revenue rises above console and PC says financial report

Activision Blizzard's mobile revenue rises above console and PC says financial report

Activision Blizzard, previously known for its high-profile console and PC games, is now primarily a mobile game publisher. Recent success Diablo Immortal combined with Candy Crush and Call of Duty Mobile helped the mobile earnings reach 51% of total revenue for Q2 2022.

Most gamers do not think about Activision Blizzard as a mobile company. Hearthstone and Candy Crush have been popular mobile games for several years, and Call of Duty Mobile made a huge splash when it launched, with a total of nearly 88 million downloads in the first month of its release.

Activision Blizzard used to be known only for PC and console games — primarily Call of Duty, Starcraft, and World of Warcraft. It’s been a rough year for the company overall: in addition to the numerous ongoing cases against the company regarding sexual harassment and abuse, as well as the furore surrounding its massive buyout by Microsoft, to the tune of nearly 100 billion AUD.

In Q2 2022, Activision Blizzard’s mobile games generated approximately $1.2 billion AUD, accounting for 51% of the company’s total quarterly earnings. Console games comparatively made only $540 million AUD, and PC games took in just shy of $500 million AUD. In the mobile games section, the biggest winner was King, with 82% of all mobile revenue profit at just shy of $1 billion AUD.

Embattled Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick had this to say during the earnings report: “In addition, we expect to continue to deliver ongoing content for various of our franchises. We will also continue to invest in opportunities that we believe have the potential to drive our growth over the long term, including continuing to build on our advertising initiatives and investments in mobile titles.

Activision Blizzard is facing no shortage of troubles despite this massive growth. The company is accused of anti-union behavior towards one of its studies, hiring union-busting firms in the process. Activision Blizzard also recently scrapped a World of Warcraft mobile game after some financial disagreements with its Chinese partner, NetEase.

Written by Junior Miyai on behalf of GLHF.

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Categories
Sports

Daniel Golubovic and Cedric Dubler win silver and bronze in Commonwealth Games decathlon

Daniel Golubovic holds up his hands

Australian Daniel Golubovic has come within three seconds of winning a gold medal in the decathlon at the Commonwealth Games.

Golubovic finished with silver, and countryman Cedric Dubler nabbed bronze, after a sensational 1,500m race wrapped up the 10-event competition.

Coming into the final event sitting in third place behind Dubler and defending champion Lindon Victor, Golubovic needed to win the 1,500m by a whopping 23 seconds to claim gold.

The 28-year-old gave himself every chance, setting a furious pace for three and three-quarter lapses, but fell agonizingly short, establishing a 20.62-second gap.

Just 12 days after competing in the World Championship in Eugene, all the decathletes looked absolutely spent during the final lap, with Dubler and Victor in particular both tiring badly in the final stages.

However, both just held on to win gold and bronze respectively.

Dan Golubovic and Cedric Dubler hold the flag
Australia secured two medals in the decathlon.(Getty Images: Michael Steele)

“I had a dig for that gold,” Golubovic, who finished 14th in last month’s World Championships, told Channel 7 after the race.

“But it’s cold out here [and] there was just nothing in the legs.

“Two decaths in 12 days total, 10 days rest, I don’t recommend it.”

The thrilling finale provided a fitting conclusion to what was a superb contest over two days at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham.

Victor, who came fifth to Dubler’s eighth in Eugene, led at the halfway stage from Dubler.

The pair alternated the lead throughout the second day, with the Aussie’s superior sprint hurling and pole vault countered by the Grenadian’s discus and javelin prowess.

Cedric Dubler raises both hands after the pole vault in the decathlon at the Commonwealth Games.
Cedric Dubler won bronze in the decathlon in 2018.(AP: Alastair Grant)

Golubovic was always there or thereabouts though, steadily improving his position from fifth at the end of day one before leaping into medal contention on day two.

“I think it just comes down to consistency,” Golubovic said, before paying tribute to the Australian backroom team.

“It’s been a wild few years and it’s a long, long process to get here but, oh man, it feels so good to be on this stage right now.”

Fellow Aussie Alec Diamond finished in fifth spot overall.

Australia’s Olympic bronze medalist, Ash Moloney, missed the Games through illness.

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Categories
Australia

Castlecrag’s Salteri family buy their neighbour’s house for $11.6 million

Castlecrag's Salteri family buy their neighbour's house for $11.6 million

When Sydney’s rich list and their heirs are not busy on large-scale home rebuilds, it seems many are buying their neighbours’ houses in the pursuit of ever more space.

Take Adriana Gardos, the daughter of the late Transfield/Tenix boss Carlo Salteri, who with her husband Robert has bought a Castlecrag house with tennis court and a pool on a double block of waterfront reserve for $11.6 million.

The seven-bedroom, five-bathroom house with tennis court and pool was bought for $11.6 million.

The seven-bedroom, five-bathroom house with tennis court and pool was bought for $11.6 million.

The couple is currently building a two-storey residence with a pool on the double block next door, and in which they no doubt plan to live without the fear of living next door to someone else’s home rebuild job.

Amassing the parcel of what now totals 2900 square meters didn’t come cheap. Atlas’ Michael Coombs started with a guide of $9 million to $9.9 million, but with 14 contracts out the Gardos family were forced to dig deep to secure it the day before auction.

The Salteri family co-founded Transfield in 1956 with the Belgiorno-Nettis family, before the company was split and the Salteris took the defense contracting operations into Tenix. Tenix Defense was sold to BAE Systems in 2008 for $775 million, and the rest of the company’s assets sold to Downer EDI in 2014 for $300 million.

The Salteri family already lay claim to the Castlecrag suburb high, set in 2015 when brother Paul Salteri, the former chairman of Tenix, sold the nearby Penhallow estate for $12.8 million.

The Salteri family from left: Robert Salteri, Adriana Gardos, Carlo Salteri, Mary Shaw and Paul Salteri.

The Salteri family from left: Robert Salteri, Adriana Gardos, Carlo Salteri, Mary Shaw and Paul Salteri.Credit:

Sister Mary Shaw is still in the neighborhood, having bought two waterfront houses in the mid-1980s, knocking down one to make way for a tennis court, and snapping up a third house next door in 2003 for $4.3 million.

Shaw and her husband Alexander bought again locally from neurologist and Rhodes scholar Professor John Watson, paying $4.075 million.