Big Sky‘s Merrilee Legarski might want to hold off on planning a funeral for her husband, Rick… because, as we learn at the end of the series’ winter premiere, he’s not dead!
As viewers will recall, Cassie Dewell fired a bullet into the Montana state trooper’s forehead at the end of the fall finale, right after she found him with the three women he was planning to traffic to Canada. And that’s where Tuesday’s episode picks up, with Legarski bleeding out on the floor of the All In Bar’s basement. He’s transported to the hospital, where he flatlines but is revived yet comatose.
Cassie is incredibly shaken by what she’s done; throughout the episode, she (understandably) hovers on the edge of a panic attack. When Jenny arrives on the scene as emergency personnel are seeing to Jerrie, Grace and Danielle, she’s full of hope about Cody. But that’s quickly dashed when Sheriff Tubb’s officers excavate Cody’s truck, with the dead P.I.’s body inside. Jenny screams and falls to her knees in grief, while Cassie looks on and silently cries. (Side note: Even in her deep loss, this woman’s commitment to a detailed braid is commendable. At one point in the hour, even when she’s been sobbing her eyes out at home, Jenny is rocking a plait that would make Elsa jealous.)
At home, Ronald and his mom are freaking out. The police are going to search Legarski’s house to try to link him to the sex-trafficking, and if they find the hidden room where Rick kept all of his records, Ronald is toast. What’s more: Thanks to the recovered victims, the cops know that the other kidnapper is a long-haul trucker with a custom paint job on his vehicle. So Ronald repaints the cab of his truck and messes with the license plate, then hatches a plan to break into the Legarski home to eradicate anything tying him to the crime. (There’s still the rather huge part about Grace, Jerrie and Danielle being able to identify him, but ONE THING AT A TIME, MOTHER!)
Jenny and her son, Justin, hold a funeral and memorial service for Cody; the reception afterward includes some warm moments between the widow and Cassie, including when Cassie steps on stage to sing Neil Young’s “Harvest” — Cody’s favorite song — after a choked-up Jenny can’t make it through. Afterward, both women find themselves back at the office. “I never thought it would be you that would help me get through this,” Jenny tells her, and the bonding moment prompts Cassie to offer Jenny Cody’s spot in the private-investigator practice. Jenny scoffs, but eventually agrees — just until the Legarski case is put to bed.
Elsewhere, Jerrie is walking home when a man wearing a baseball cap calls her name and starts chasing her. Turns out, it’s just a guy she knows named Jimmy who “wanted to make sure you were OK.” The dynamic between them is a little unclear — it seems like he likes her, but she tells him the days she could talk to him “are over.” Still, she seems like she might actually like his concern. At her place, though, there’s a note reading “You don’t learn” on the door, harkening back to what Ronald often said to his captives.
Unbeknownst to everyone, over at the hospital, Rick’s fingers twitch, his heart rate monitor starts beeping faster, and then he opens an eye!
Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!
While NASA warns of another five space rocks headed towards the Earth, one Finnish astrophysicist is proposing human colonization of the asteroid belt itself within the next 15 years.
As the Earth lurches out of month one of 2021, NASA has issued a brief, advising that five more asteroids that are potentially between 25 and 100 meters (82 and 98 feet) in diameter are due for close flybys before the month is up.
On Tuesday, the 25-meter asteroid 2021 BD3, with a diameter roughly half that of the Arc de Triomphe’s height, will pass the planet at a safe distance of 3.9 million km (3.9 million miles). A short time later, an object dubbed 2021 AL, which measures 40m in diameter or roughly five London buses end-to-end, will whizz past at a distance of 4.1 million km.
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Next up, on Thursday January 28, will be the 40-meter space rock 2021 BZ, which will shoot past at 2.1 million km.
To round up a rocky start to the year, on January 29, asteroids 2021 AG7, which could be up to 100m in diameter or the same size as London’s Big Ben, and the 30-meter 2021 AF7 will pass the Earth at 4.2 million km and 6.8 million km, respectively.
Meanwhile, one forward-thinking astrophysicist proposes that, rather than asteroids coming to us, humans should instead colonize the asteroid belt, in as little as 15 years.
Dr. Pekka Janhunen, an astrophysicist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute in Helsinki, has proposed the construction of habitable floating “mega-satellites” orbiting the dwarf planet Ceres, some 523 million kilometers from Earth, among the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
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Like something plucked straight from modern science fiction series, these disk-shaped settlements, linked by powerful magnets, would boast thousands of cylindrical structures which could house a total of 50,000 people who would all benefit from artificial gravity generated via floating cities’ slow rotation.
Janhunen also proposes space mining from Ceres as a means by which to set up an economy and make colonization profitable and sustainable, making use of space elevators to carry resources back to the pods and potentially back to Earth for processing.
(Bloomberg) — Pony Ma got $6.9 billion richer on Monday after one of the companies his Tencent Holdings Ltd. backs revealed its IPO plans, while Jack Ma’s public reappearance Wednesday added $1.6 billion to his net worth.
Even though the Hong Kong market has proved particularly volatile lately — the benchmark Hang Seng Index gave up all of of its Monday gain on Tuesday — it’s been one of the world’s highlights this month.
Tencent and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., along with food-delivery giant Meituan and carmaker Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd., were among the stocks helping propel the rally. Their top executives have made a combined $32 billion this month through Monday, and they’re not the only ones benefiting, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The Top 10 richest moguls with companies that have a primary listing in Hong Kong have added more than $60 billion of wealth in January — or $3.8 billion for each trading day. This doesn’t include Jack Ma, whose Alibaba trades in Hong Kong but has its primary listing is in New York. His net worth is up $3.5 billion this month to $54.1 billion as he resurfaced in a video after weeks of speculation about his whereabouts following a Chinese government clampdown that had left his business empire in crisis.
Read more: Jack Ma’s Video Chat Prompts a $58 Billion Sigh of Relief
Even China Evergrande Group’s Hui Ka Yan, whose net worth sank more than anyone elese’s in Asia last year, has regained $2.6 billion in 2021. His electric-vehicle startup said Sunday it’s selling HK$26 billion ($3.35 billion) of shares, triggering a 52% surge in the stock.
While Hong Kong’s economy got badly hit from the coronavirus crisis and a political crackdown, money has kept flowing to the city. Mainlanders taking advantage of bargain prices after international investors were forced to dump some newly banned Chinese stocks have helped boost the market, just as concerns over stricter regulatory rules governing internet giants in China have eased. At the same time, companies linked to Chinese consumers — like Meituan — have benefited as the nation was one of the few able to control the Covid-19 pandemic and the government has pledged to increase consumption.
The Hang Seng Index soared 11% in January through Monday, when it hit its highest level since June 2018. It fell 2.6% on Tuesday.
Pony Ma’s $18.6 billion wealth surge this month is the biggest after Elon Musk’s, while Tencent co-founder Zhang Zhidong has gained $8.5 billion. Zhong Shanshan of bottled-water maker Nongfu Spring Co., who became Asia’s richest person at the end of 2020 and started the year by taking Warren Buffett’s spot as the world’s sixth wealthiest, has added $16.2 billion in 2021. Meituan’s Wang Xing has amassed $7.8 billion.
Xiaomi Corp.’s Lei Jun is the only major tycoon whose net worth has dropped in January. The U.S. blacklisted the smartphone maker in an unexpected move that sank its shares a record 10% on Jan. 15.
(Updates for market move in second, seventh paragraphs)
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With Jayson Tatum sidelined due to COVID-19, the Boston Celtics had a tough week that included back-to-back losses to their Eastern Conference rivals, the Philadelphia 76ers. But on Sunday, they bounced back in a major way, beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 141-103 to get back in the win column.
They did so in large part thanks to Jaylen Brown, who continued his breakout season with a game-high 33 points on a highly efficient 13-of-20 from the field. It’s impressive any time you score that many points, but even more so when you do it in just 19 minutes.
With the Celtics in complete control pretty much right from the opening tip, head coach Brad Stevens took advantage of an opportunity to get his starters some extra rest, so Brown didn’t even check in for the fourth quarter. As a result, he set a new record for the most points scored in fewer than 20 minutes in an NBA game since the start of the shot clock era began back in 1954.
Brown, who also set a new personal best with his fourth straight game of at least 25 points, is now averaging career-highs in both scoring and assists, and is putting up 27.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game on 53.2 percent shooting. He’s made huge strides in multiple aspects of his game, and his efforts are being recognized.
After Sunday’s game, he earned a shoutout from one of Boston’s all-time legends: Bill Russell. The 11-time champion took to Twitter — which he’s surprisingly active on for an 86 year old — to write, “Great playing tonight @FCHWPO keep it going.”
A win, a record and a message from a Hall of Famer. It doesn’t get better than that.
Valve co-founder and president Gabe Newell talks about Valve’s exploration of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) for gaming and beyond, in an interview with New Zealand’s 1 News. Although Newell admits that the idea of having your brain interface directly with a computer sounds “indistinguishable from science fiction,” he says developers would be making a “silly mistake” if they ignore the area.
Newell says that Valve is currently working with OpenBCI headsets to develop open-source software with the aim of making it easier for developers to understand the signals coming from people’s brains. At its most basic, this could allow software to understand whether a player is enjoying a game, and adjust the experience accordingly. For example, games could turn up the difficulty if they sense a player is getting bored. But Newell’s more ambitious ideas involve actually writing signals to people’s brains, rather than just reading them.
Newell suggests our ability to experience existing games is limited by our physical body — or “meat peripherals” as he puts it. But interfacing directly with a player’s brain could open up a lot more possibilities. “The real world will seem flat, colorless, blurry compared to the experiences you’ll be able to create in people’s brains,” Newell says.
Valve has spoken publicly about its work on brain-computer interfaces before. Back at 2019’s Game Developers Conference, Valve’s principal experimental psychologist, Mike Ambinder gave a talk on the company’s work in the area, VentureBeat reported at the time, covering many of the same possibilities and use cases that Newell outlines in his recent interview.
Beyond their use in gaming, Newell says that BCIs could help with other areas of human life like sleep. “One of the early applications I expect we’ll see is improved sleep — sleep will become an app that you run where you say, ‘Oh, I need this much sleep, I need this much REM,’” he says.
Despite the possibilities, Newell admits that brain-computer interfaces carry their risks. He says that the idea of a BCI making someone feel pain is a “complicated topic,” and adds that the interfaces will be susceptible to viruses like other technologies, suggesting that they’ll need similar safeguards in place.
“Nobody wants to say, ‘Oh, remember Bob? Remember when Bob got hacked by the Russian malware? That sucked — is he still running naked through the forests?’” Newell quips. “People are going to have to have a lot of confidence that these are secure systems that don’t have long-term health risks.”
Regardless, it sounds like Valve doesn’t have any plans to commercialize its research just yet. Newell says that they’re making such rapid progress that any device risks being outdated once it’s gone through the slow process commercialization. “The rate at which we’re learning stuff is so fast,” Newell says.
Other high-profile companies currently exploring brain-computer interfaces include Facebook, which is working on a way to allow users to type with their brains, and Elon Musk’s Neuralink, which is attempting to develop a less-invasive way of connecting a computer to the human brain.
You can check out more of Newell’s thoughts on the potential for brain-computer interfaces in the full write up from 1 News, who he also recently spoke with about Valve’s future game development plans.
A new Red Dead Online leak is making the rounds that possibly reveals what is coming to the popular video game later this year. Since it released Red Dead Online in Beta a month after Red Dead Redemption 2, Rockstar Games has been relatively slow to support it, especially compared to GTA Online, which clearly has priority due to its larger number of players. However, it looks like Rockstar may be cooking up some big things for the online western such as bank robberies and more
Over on YouTube, Silentc0re relays word of some new files added to the game with the recent update. Of course, this by itself isn’t notable nor exciting, but the content of these files have players talking. For one, brand new files for various driveable boats have been found in the files. Meanwhile, there are files that range from new to newly updated that point to bank robberies coming to the game, including files with assets for money bonds, jewelry bags, safes, strong boxes. Of course, bank robberies are something players have been begging for since launch, and it’s something you’d assume Rockstar Games will eventually add, especially considering how popular heists are in GTA Online.
Lastly, there are files that seem to indicate that Rockstar Games has been doing work involving Guarma, the island from the game’s campaign. Right now, the speculation is that a legendary bounty could take players back to the island, much like the Cayo Perico update takes players to an island that is locked to just the mission.
That said, right now, there’s some contention over the leak, with some suggesting these files have been in the game since before launch, which in turn suggests they are nothing more than cut content. However, this wouldn’t explain why Rockstar Games is updating them.
For now, take everything here with a grain of salt. While datamining leaks are typically quite reliable, they can routinely spawn false conclusions and misconceptions.
At the moment of publishing, Rockstar Games has not commented on this leak in any capacity nor has it revealed what it has in store for the game for this year. If either of these things change, we will be sure to update the story. In the meantime, for more coverage on all things Red Dead Redemption 2, click here.
Direct investment in the US by foreign companies plummeted 49% to $134 billion last year, according to a report released Sunday by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. By contrast, foreign direct investment in China grew by 4% to $163 billion in 2020.
2020 marked the first year in history that foreign direct investment in China overtook that of the US, according to the UN. China is now the world’s largest recipient of foreign companies’ investments.
Although Covid-19 was a large factor in foreign direct investment tumbling in the US — and most places around the world — the drop-off in foreign companies’ American investments began well before the pandemic.
After hitting a high of $440 billion in 2015, according to the US Commerce Department, foreign investment in the US has been on a sharp downward slide. Former President Donald Trump’s go-it-alone trade policies hurt foreign investment — particularly from China, which represented the sharpest drop in US investment over the past several years. Growing economic uncertainty around the globe also contributed to the decline.
Last year, decline in foreign direct investment into the US was most prominent in wholesale trade, financial services and manufacturing, the report said. International mergers and acquisitions, as well as sales of US assets to foreign investors, fell by 41%.
Meanwhile, China’s explosive economic growth — and quick recovery from the pandemic — helped foreign investment there soar. China’s economy grew 2.3% last year, when most of the world’s major economies shrank. The country enforced stringent lockdown and population tracking policies intended to contain the virus, and set aside hundreds of billions of dollars for major infrastructure projects to fuel economic growth.
China’s ability to control the spread of the virus “helped stabilize investment after the early lockdown,” the report noted.
Foreign direct investment to India has similarly skyrocketed, from less than $25 billion in 2014 — before Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power — to $57 billion last year, according to the UN report. Much of that growth was brought about by policies that enabled global brands like Ikea and Uniqlo to open up stores, as well as Modi’s signature “Make in India” campaign to grow the country’s manufacturing base.
That helped India’s foreign direct investment soar 13% last year.
Most economies weren’t so lucky. Foreign direct investment in the United Kingdom and Italy fell by almost 100%. Russia’s foreign direct investment fell 96%, Germany’s sank 61% and Brazil’s plunged by 50%. Australia, France, Canada and Indonesia — all among the top foreign direct investment recipients in 2019 — also fell by double digits.
Overall, foreign direct investment tumbled 42% last year to the lowest level since the 1990s — and 30% below the lowest level reached during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.
The attractiveness of the US as a safe and robust place for foreign companies to invest has been one of the more powerful driving forces behind America’s economic growth over the past several decades. But the UN said the circumstances stopping the flow of foreign direct investment to the US and other countries will remain in place this year.
“The effects of the pandemic on investment will linger,” James Zhan, director of UNCTAD’s investment division, said in a statement. “Investors are likely to remain cautious in committing capital to new overseas productive assets.”
Paul Kevin Jonas Sr shared this image. (courtesy papakjonas)
Highlights
“Starring our wonderful daughter-in-law,” wrote Kevin Jonas Sr
‘The White Tiger’ is streaming on Netflix
The film has been produced by Priyanka Chopra
New Delhi:
After her husband Nick Jonas, Priyanka Chopra got a big shout out from her father-in-law Paul Kevin Jonas Sr. On Saturday, Paul Kevin Jonas shared a picture of Priyanka Chopra’s recently-released film The White Tigerand he asked his Instafam to go and watch the actress’ film, in which she stars with Rajkummar Rao and Adarsh Gourav. Paul Kevin Jonas Sr wrote in his caption: “Everyone go see this powerful movie starring our wonderful daughter-in-law.” Priyanka Chopra replied to her father-in-law’s post and dropped a heart-eyed emoji in the comments section of her post. The White Tiger has been directed by filmmaker Ramin Bahrani and it has been produced by Priyanka Chopra. It released on streaming giant Netflix globally.
Take a look at Paul Kevin Jonas Sr’s post here:
Meanwhile, Nick Jonas praised the film and wife Priyanka Chopra’s performance with these words: “The White Tiger is out now on Netflix! So incredibly proud of my wife Priyanka Chopra for her work as both an actor and a producer on this movie. Everyone do yourself a favor and go watch this movie right now! Congrats to the entire cast and crew and creative team.”
The White Tiger is based on Aravind Adiga’s Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name. It showcases the rags to riches story of Balram Halwai. The film received mixed reviews. Film critic Saibal Chatterjee, in his review for NDTV, gave the film 3 stars out of 5.
Priyanka Chopra married Nick Jonas in a Christian and a Hindu ceremony in Jodhpur’s Umaid Bhawan Palace on December 1 and 2 in 2018. The couple later hosted receptions in Delhi and Mumbai.
PewDiePie has announced a big change to his YouTube channel, inspired by the likes of Corpse Husband, Dream, and a growing trend amongst popular streamers on Twitch and YouTube. After a two-week break from YouTube, the platform’s most popular content creator is back. In the build-up to his return, the king of YouTube teased a “big reveal.” Following up this tease, today, PewDiePie released a new YouTube video titled, “I’m Back With A Huge Announcement.” And as you would expect, the video is already trending and has nearly two million views. Of course, every PewDiePie upload achieves wild engagement, but this video, in particular, is garnering extra attention for the aforementioned announcement.
For those that haven’t seen the video, PewDiePie is taking a page out of the playbook of Dream, Corpse Husband, Pokimane, and other streamers and YouTubers and will now hide his identity behind an avatar. According to PewDiePie, he’s getting rid of his self-facing camera and doing the “reverse face reveal” to stay relevant.
“I’ve realized that the only way for me to stay relevant at this point… it’s necessary for me to do this,” said PewDiePie, clearly joking. “Corpse Husband… no face cam, no face reveal, massively popular. Dream… no face cam, no face reveal, massively popular.”
Right now, the YouTuber hasn’t decided on a final avatar, but for most of the video, he did use a temporary one, or more specifically, the avatar below:
(Photo: PewDiePie)
For now, it remains to be seen how permanent this change will be. In the video, PewDiePie asks fans for help in finding and choosing an avatar, suggesting at the very least the avatar above won’t be around for long. Again though, it’s hard to gauge how long PewDiePie will keep this going. In the video, he’s clearly joking around and perhaps poking fun at the trend, but it also seems like he’s going to keep the avatar at least for a little while.
For more coverage on all things gaming — including all of the latest on PewDiePie — click here or check out some of the relevant links listed below:
