The babies of a ferocious group of meat-eating dinosaurs, that included T-rex, were huge, fully toothed and clawed and “born ready” to kill, according to analysis of recently uncovered embryonic remains.
The fossils are from two species in the group called tyrannosaurs, the apex predators in Asia and North America during the Cretaceous Period toward the end of the dinosaur age.
The remains consist of a 3cm-long, 77 million-year-old jaw bone found in Montana that may have belonged to a species called Daspletosaurus and a roughly 72-million-year-old claw unearthed in Canada’s Alberta province that probably came from an Albertosaurus.
Both were slightly smaller cousins of the largest-known tyrannosaur, the Tyrannosaurus-rex, which was more than 12 metres (40ft) long and weighed around seven tonnes.
Image: T-rex was up to 12 metres long and weighed seven tonnes Pic: AP
The fossils indicated that these were bigger than any other known dinosaur babies – one metre (3ft) long, or the size of a medium dog – and hatched from what must have been enormous eggs, perhaps exceeding the 43cm (17inch) length of the largest dinosaur eggs currently known.
The jaw possesses distinctive tyrannosaur traits, including a deep groove inside and a prominent chin.
University of Edinburgh paleontologist Greg Funston, lead author of the research published in the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, said the scientists were amazed at how similar the embryonic bones were to older juvenile and adult tyrannosaurs and noted that the jaws boasted functional teeth.
“So although we can’t get a complete picture, what we can see looks very similar to the adults,” Funston said.
Image: The fossils suggest the babies were larger than previously thought Pic: Dr Greg Funston
It appears that tyrannosaurs, Funston added, were “born ready to hunt, already possessing some of the key adaptations that gave tyrannosaurs their powerful bites.
“So it’s likely that they were capable of hunting fairly quickly after birth, but we need more fossils to tell exactly how fast that was.”
Rate of loss rose from 0.8 trillion tonnes per year in the 1990s to 1.3 trillion tonnes per year by 2017, with potentially disastrous consequences.
The rate at which ice is disappearing across the world matches “worst-case climate warming scenarios”, UK scientists have warned in new research.
A team from the universities of Edinburgh, Leeds and University College London said the rate at which ice is melting across the world’s polar regions and mountains has increased markedly in the last 30 years.
Using satellite data, the experts found the Earth lost 28 trillion tonnes of ice between 1994 and 2017.
The rate of loss has risen from 0.8 trillion tonnes per year in the 1990s to 1.3 trillion tonnes per year by 2017, with potentially disastrous consequences for people living in coastal areas, they said.
“The ice sheets are now following the worst-case climate warming scenarios set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),” said Thomas Slater, a research fellow at Leeds University’s Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling.
“Sea level rise on this scale will have very serious impacts on coastal communities this century.”
Input from the United Nations’ IPCC has been critical to forming international climate change strategies, including the 2015 Paris Agreement under which the majority of greenhouse-gas emitting nations agreed to take steps to mitigate the effect of global warming.
The universities’ research, published in the European Geosciences Union’s journal The Cryosphere, was the first of its kind to use satellite data.
It surveyed 215,000 mountain glaciers around the globe, polar ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, ice shelves floating around Antarctica and sea ice drifting in the Arctic and Southern Oceans.
Losses in Artic, Antarctic
The survey found the largest losses in the last three decades were from Arctic Sea ice and Antarctic ice shelves, both of which float on the polar oceans.
While such ice loss does not directly contribute to sea rises, its destruction does stop the ice sheets reflecting solar radiation and thus indirectly contributes to rising sea levels.
“As the sea ice shrinks, more solar energy is being absorbed by the oceans and atmosphere, causing the Arctic to warm faster than anywhere else on the planet,” said Isobel Lawrence, a research fellow at the University of Leeds
“Not only is this speeding up sea ice melt, it’s also exacerbating the melting of glaciers and ice sheets which causes sea levels to rise,” she added.
An earlier study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal based in the United States estimated that global sea levels could rise by two metres (6.5 feet) by the end of this century due to global warming and greenhouse emissions.
The report also said that in the worst-case scenario, global temperatures would warm by more than five degrees Celcius (nine degrees Fahrenheit), causing the water to rise, displacing millions of people living in coastal areas.
Another study, published in 2019 by the US-based Climate Central said that up to 300 million people may be affected by devastating flooding by 2050, about three times more than previously estimated. The number could go up to 630 million by 2100.
The study warned that key coastal cities such as India’s Mumbai, China’s Shanghai and Thailand’s Bangkok could be submerged over the next 30 years.
An estimated 237 million people threatened by rising sea waters live in Asia alone, the research said.
Former Kansas City Chiefs offensive lineman and Pro Football Hall of Famer Will Shields, who also won the Outland Trophy while at Nebraska, and Virginia Union athletic director Joe Taylor, one of the winningest coaches in HBCU history, headline five new College Football Playoff selection committee members announced Tuesday.
Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart, NC State athletic director Boo Corrigan and Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte, along with Shields and Taylor, will begin their three-year terms this spring on the 13-member committee.
They will replace Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione, former coach Ken Hatfield, former USC All-American Ronnie Lott, Georgia Tech athletic director Todd Stansbury, and Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin, whose terms have expired.
“Mitch, Boo, Chris, Will and Joe will continue the integrity that has been the committee’s hallmark through our seven seasons,” CFP executive director Bill Hancock said in a prepared statement. “Their knowledge, experience and character, along with their love of the sport of college football, will make the transition seamless.”
The CFP management committee, which comprises the 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick, also extended the term of Iowa athletic director Gary Barta as selection committee chair for a second season. Barta, who has been Iowa AD since 2006, joined the committee in January 2019 and was appointed its chair a year later.
“We are pleased that Gary will return as chair,” Hancock said. “He was a valuable leader as the committee navigated a unique and challenging year. We look forward to him working with the other 12 members in what we hope will be a more traditional season in 2021.”
Shields, a former consensus All-America guard at Nebraska, played for the Cornhuskers from 1989 to ’92 and is one of only 16 players in school history to have had his jersey retired. In 2011, Shields was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
He was a third-round pick of the Chiefs in the 1993 NFL draft, and he never missed a game in 14 seasons, starting 231 consecutive games at right guard and earning a team-record 12 Pro Bowl appearances from 1995 to 2000. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015.
Taylor, who has worked at Virginia Union since 2013, had a 41-year career in coaching, including 30 as a head coach. During his administrative tenure in Richmond, the school has won 15 divisional, conference and regional championships.
As a head coach, Taylor’s teams won five Black college national championships, 10 conference titles and made 10 playoff appearances. Taylor posted a lifetime win-loss record of 233-96-4, and ranks third in career victories in HBCU history. Taylor was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2019 and the Black College Football Hall of Fame in 2020. He also has served as president of the American Football Coaches Association.
Barnhart, who has been Kentucky’s athletic director since 2002, is the longest-tenured athletic director in the SEC and was named chair of the SEC athletic directors in 2017. He was also a member of the NCAA Division I basketball and baseball committees.
Corrigan, who spent eight years as athletic director at Army, has held the same position at NC State since April 2019. He was named a 2017 Athletic Director of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. While at West Point, Army won 20 Patriot League regular-season or tournament championships and sent 14 teams to the NCAA postseason.
Del Conte was hired as Texas athletic director in December 2017 after making a name for himself during his eight-year tenure as AD at TCU, where he oversaw the school’s entrance into the Big 12 Conference. He was also athletic director at Rice from 2006 to 2009.
It’s been a year since the devastating helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven other people on board.
On the anniversary of the NBA icon’s death, the cause of the tragedy is still a mystery — but it may not be for long.
The National Transportation Safety Board next month will hold a virtual hearing to determine the probable cause of the crash.
“The ‘probable cause’ is not assigning blame — it is more the most likely scenario that caused the accident,” Anthony Brickhouse, a former NTSB investigator, told The Post on Monday.
The NTSB has already ruled out engine and mechanical failure on the doomed chopper and, in May, released more than 1,800 pages of evidence collected during its investigation.
“What the NTSB does is they take all that data and they analyze it,” said Brickhouse.
“They look into the human element, they look into the machine — so the actual helicopter — and they look into the environment in which the helicopter was actually operating.”
Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna were killed in the crash a year ago, along with seven others.Getty Images
“I haven’t seen anything to suggest something mechanical went wrong with the helicopter,” Brickouse continued. “So what you do is your focus on the human element and the environmental element.”
“You piece that puzzle back together. You crunch that information.”
“That’s what we’re going to get on the 9th of February,” the day of the hearing.
A body is covered, left, while another is seen at right at the scene of a helicopter crash that killed former NBA basketball player Kobe Bryant and eight others in Calabasas, Calif.AP
Meanwhile, here’s what we know about the crash so far:
The flight:
On Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020, at around 9:06 a.m., Bryant, 41, his daughter and six other passengers took off in a twin-engine Sikorsky S-76B from John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California.
The legendary Los Angeles Laker was heading to a youth basketball tournament at his Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, about 85 miles away.
Others on board included assistant basketball coach Christina Mauser, Sarah Chester and her daughter, Payton, and baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife, Keri, and their daughter, Alyssa.
Ara Zobayan, who was at the controls of the helicopter that crashed in Southern CaliforniaAP
About 15 minutes after takeoff on the cloudy day, pilot Ara Zobayan — who was employed by Island Express Helicopters and had flown Bryant previously — requested permission from Burbank Airport air traffic controllers to enter its airspace.
Due to poor visibility, Zobayan had to request what’s known as “special VFR” permission to fly through, even under the conditions.
After circling for about 11 minutes because of air traffic, the chopper was granted permission to enter the Burbank airspace and then continued moving north toward the Van Nuys Airport.
The crash:
The pilot told air traffic controllers around 9:44 a.m. that he was “climbing” to 4,000 feet to avoid a cloud layer.
In reality, the chopper climbed slightly before suddenly veering left and descending rapidly — crashing into a hillside at approximately 9:45 a.m.
According to the NTSB, the pilot “could have misperceived both pitch and roll angles,” becoming spatially disoriented and sensing his aircraft was climbing when it wasn’t.
“When a pilot misperceives altitude and acceleration it is known as the ‘somatogravic illusion’ and can cause spatial disorientation,” the preliminary report said.
NTSB investigator Carol Hogan examines wreckage as part of the NTSB’s investigation of the helicopter crash.AP
Brickhouse explained: “When you have clear skies and good visibility, you can see what you need to see.
“But unfortunately, when you’re in clouds, sometimes physiologically, your brain, based on your inner ear, you kind of get confused.”
“We’ve seen it in accidents in the past,” he added, “where pilots get into those conditions and they have issues.”
The weather:
The weather on the day of the crash was another fact investigators pored over — with evidence compiled into a 394-page meteorological report.
Videos and photos “depict fog and low clouds obscuring the hilltops,” the report notes, adding that Zobayan struggled with a “low cloud ceiling.”
Lawsuits filed by Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, and the families of the other victims have argued that Zobayan shouldn’t have flown under the conditions.
Both the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Police Department had grounded their fleets that day due to the fog and low clouds.
The helicopter:
The ill-fated helicopter, meanwhile, had a strong safety record, and had even carried Bryant before — including after his last Lakers game in 2016.
“Nothing in this model’s history catches my attention as being negative,” Brickhouse said.
Firefighters work the scene of the helicopter crash.AP
However, the chopper did not have a “black box,” or flight recorder, and also didn’t have TAWS, a terrain awareness system that alerts pilots when they are flying too close to the ground.
It is required in medical helicopters but not in commercial ones like the one used by Bryant, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
At the Feb. 9 hearing, the NTSB will also be making recommendations “to try to prevent a similar event from occurring in the future,” Brickhouse said.
“I’m curious as to what the probable cause will be, what the contributing factors will be, and down the line what will happen to those recommendations.”
A new Battlefield (potentially called Battlefield 6) is in development at EA Dice and it’s set to arrive on PS5, Xbox Series X and PC in “Holiday 2021” (so sometime between October and December).
Details on Battlefield 6 remain thin on the ground at this point in development, but EA has teased that the new Battlefield will be a “true next-gen vision for the franchise” and boasts “never-before-seen scale,” with rumors pointing to potential 128-player maps and a modern-day setting.
EA has said we will learn more about the new Battlefield in the next few months, but we’ve managed to pull together everything we know about the next entry in the veteran FPS series for you right here. So, read on for everything we know so far about Battlefield 6.
Cut to the chase
What is it? The next installment in the Battlefield game series
When can I play it? “Holiday 2021” (between October and December)
What can I play it on? PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC confirmed
Battlefield 6 release date
(Image credit: Electronic Arts)
Battlefield 6 is due to release “Holiday 2021” for PS5, Xbox Series X and PC. This release window was confirmed by EA CEO Andrew Wilson in an earnings call in November 2020.
“The next Battlefield is set to launch in holiday 2021, and we are excited to share a lot more about the game in the spring,” Wilson said during the call. That means we can expect the game to release between October and December this year, with more news to come sometime between March and May.
However, with the Covid-19 pandemic still ongoing, it’s possible we could see this release date delayed.
Battlefield 6 trailers
While EA Dice hasn’t released any Battlefield 6 trailers yet, the upcoming Battlefield was featured in a tech trailer during EA Play 2020. We only caught a glimpse of some “work in progress” footage, which showed facial animations and a large number of soldiers running into battle.
From the brief glimpses we’ve seen, it looks like facial animations will be more realistic than previously and that we’re going to see battlefields getting even larger this time round – potentially with more players (as rumored).
“We are creating epic battles at a scale and fidelity unlike anything you’ve experienced before”, EA’s chief studios officer Laura Miele said during the video. It may not be much to go on, but it suggests Dice plans to utilize the power of the new consoles to its utmost. Check it out for yourself below:
Battlefield 6 news and rumors
It could be cross-gen, feature 128-player maps and be set in the modern era Firm details on Battlefield 6 may be thin on the ground, but a report by leaker TheLongSensation (AKA Tom Henderson) may give us some idea of what to expect from the next Battlefield game.
According to a video by Henderson (via VGC), Battlefield 6 will be a “soft reboot” of Battlefield 3, set in the modern era. The new Battlefield is allegedly also set to come to PS4 and Xbox One, in addition to the already-confirmed release on Xbox Series X and PS5.
What’s more, Henderson claims that developer Dice has designed some maps with 128 players in mind – a volume made possible by the power of newest-gen consoles. The leaker claims that while these 128-player maps will be available, his sources have clarified that Battlefield’s 32 v 32 standard game modes (64 players) will still be available, with players having the option to partake in game modes with a higher player count.
Unfortunately, according to Henderson, these 128-player maps won’t be available on last-gen consoles. In addition, PS4 and Xbox One players will also see visual downgrades from the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions, and limited destruction.
Despite this, Henderson claims that his sources have said that there’s a separate part of the studio working on these last-gen versions and players “shouldn’t be worried.”
The leaker also says that EA Dice has had a Battlefield Battle Royale in the works at some stage, with the studio wanting to create their own version of Activision’s successful Call of Duty Warzone. However, it remains unclear as to whether it is still developing this.
It’s always worth taking leaks with a pinch of salt, but Henderson has previously been accurate, with his claim that Battlefield 6 will be set in the modern era corroborated by VentureBeat reporter Jeff Grubb.
Battlefield 3, which apparently is a major influence on Battlefield 6, was set during the fictional War of 2014 – so we’re expecting, if Dice is aiming for a modern era, that we’ll be looking at something a bit more up to date.
We’ll find out more soon During an earnings call in November 2020, EA CEO Andrew Wilson confirmed that more information on Battlefield 6 will be revealed “in the Spring”, which means we’ll likely hear more official info between March and May 2021. Of course, we could hear more rumors before that.
The power of the PS5 and Xbox Series X is key to its development During the November 2020 earnings call, EA CEO Andrew Wilson revealed the power of the new PS5 and Xbox Series X is allowing the team to make the new Battlefield “with never-before-seen scale.
“The technical advancements of the new consoles are allowing the team to deliver on a true next-gen vision for the franchise,” Wilson said.
Battlefield 6: what we want to see
(Image credit: EA)
Free Battle Royale mode If Dice is working on a Battlefield Battle Royale in a similar vein to Warzone, then we hope it’s a free standalone game like Warzone. Battlefield 5 included the Firestorm mode which was essentially a battle royale mode, seeing players fighting it out in a play zone surrounded by a ring of fire that gradually grew smaller and smaller.
The issue with Firestorm was that it was a mode within Battlefield 5, so to play the mode you had to purchase the full Battlefield 5 game. We’re hoping that this time, Dice will offer a free-to-play battle royale mode that can sit separately from the main game, like how Activision has done with Call of Duty: Warzone.
Huge battles Again, it’s rumored that this will be the case – with 128-player maps rumored – but we hope that comes to fruition. Battlefield’s 32 vs 32 player maps are great and all, but more players would really see these battles become epic.
Crossplay Battlefield 5 lacked this important feature, meaning that PS4, Xbox One and PC players couldn’t play together. We’re hoping that Battlefield 6 will bring cross-play in, allowing everyone to play together – no matter what platform they’re on.
Plenty of modes at launch In our Battlefield 5 review, one of our biggest issues was that there weren’t many modes available at launch – including the practice range – making the game feel a bit bare bones. We’re hoping Battlefield 6 addresses this issue and gives us plenty to jump into straight off the bat.
Dolby Atmos While you can use Dolby Atmos with games that don’t support it, it’s undeniably better when games are developed with Atmos in mind. We feel that Dolby Atmos support for Battlefield 6 on PC and Xbox Series X (PS5 doesn’t support it) would help to immerse us in the action – and sound incredible.
Local co-op Playing online is great and all, but we would love the option to play Battlefield offline multiplayer, so we can mess around with friends without the interference of online players.
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.
It had been more than two years since LeBron James played a game in Cleveland, due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Los Angeles Lakers star certainly made up for lost time on Monday, turning in perhaps his greatest performance against his former team.
James scored a season-high 46 points in the Lakers’ 115-108 win over the Cavaliers, extending L.A.’s road winning streak to 10-0 to start the season, a franchise record, and he did it in style back in his home state of Ohio.
“Home cooking,” he said afterward on a videoconference with reporters. “It just felt good to be back in my haven, my rest haven, and that’s being home.”
For much of the trip, it was all warm and fuzzy feelings for the 18-year veteran. He spent time with his mother and uncle. He greeted former teammate Cedi Osman with a big hug during warm-ups, skirting the league’s health and safety protocols to show some love. He shouted out longtime Cavs employee Mark “Cobra” Cashman, dubbing him “the greatest equipment guy in the world.”
But heading into the fourth quarter trailing the Cavs 89-87 after he missed a turnaround shot at the buzzer that would have tied things up, James found a reason to quit the nice-guy routine and bury his former team.
After his 14-footer over Taurean Prince bounced twice on the rim and out, James noticed Jason Hillman, the Cavs’ basketball chief of staff, sitting in a group by the baseline with the rest of the Cavs’ front office and clapping to celebrate the errant shot, sources told ESPN.
“I felt like he was just a little bit too excited about seeing me miss,” James said afterward, declining to name Hillman when asked who caught his attention. “He was really excited about me missing that shot. A little bit more extra than I would have liked. But he’s got to root for his team, obviously. And he was, he showcased that.
“So I knew I had another quarter, and the fourth quarter’s my favorite.”
And what a fourth quarter it was. James single-handedly outscored his opponent — the team he once helped deliver its lone championship in 2016, mind you — 21-19 in the fourth to push the Lakers past a plucky Cavs squad that beat the Brooklyn Nets twice on their home floor just last week.
After the carnage was over, with James going 9-for-10 from the field, hitting a 3 from the Cleveland “C” logo at center court and a couple more daggers from the outside while adding two assists, two steals and two blocks, all his former team could do was acknowledge James’ greatness.
“Doesn’t take much to get Bron going,” one Cavs source told ESPN of the brief exchange James had with Hillman, with the four-time MVP shooting an icy stare in Hillman’s direction before making his way to the Lakers’ bench. “He was unreal tonight.”
Added Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff, “You take your hat off to him. There’s a reason why he is who he is and he’s accomplished all the things that he’s accomplished. If he’s making shots like that you pat him on the butt.”
It was the most points James has ever scored against Cleveland as he ran his career record to 15-1 in games played against the team he suited up for over 11 seasons. And he was as accurate as he has ever been by one measure — his 73.1% from the field on 19-for-26 shooting was tied for the best he has ever shot out of the 240 career games in which he attempted at least 25 shots (regular season and playoffs combined). The only other time he went 19-for-26? Game 6 of the 2012 Eastern Conference finals in Boston, which many point to as the most important win of his career.
James, at 36 years and 26 days old, became the oldest Lakers player with a 40-point game since Kobe Bryant scored 60 at the age of 37 years, 234 days old in the final game of his career.
“I’ve just never put a ceiling on my potential,” James said. “I always wanted to continue to get better and better and better to a point where I also now can dictate [what] the defense can do. And the defense can’t dictate what I’m supposed to do.”
James finished 7-for-11 from 3, upping his shooting mark to 41.2% from the outside this season, which would be the best percentage of his career should he keep it up.
“The shot-making,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said, “was just ridiculous, and just one of those nights for the ages for him.”
Johren starts pre-registering on Tuesday for game anthropomorphizing historical Japanese swords
Game platform Johren announced on Monday that it is releasing Nitroplus and DMM Games’ Touken Ranbu Online game in English. Players can pre-register for the game beginning on Tuesday.
Johren describes the game:
Revisionists seeking to change history have begun to attack the past. To prevent such threats, the Chronos Ministry has sent Saniwa to each age. Saniwa, with the power to arouse an objects’ hearts and emotions, could bestow powers to fight and wield themselves. Thus, created as the Tsukumogami, Saniwa flies in the past with Touken Danshi to maintain the true history. The players become the Saniwa, and will materialize the Touken Danshi, the famous swords taken the forms of honorable warriors. Gather eight types of Touken — Tanto, Wakizashi, Uchigatana, Tachi, Otachi, Naginata, Yari and Tsurugi. Create your own unique battalion and prevent the history revisionists from changing the past. Touken Ranbu Online is a collect-and-raise simulation game featuring Touken Danshi, the historical swords. Don’t miss the conversations between Touken Danshi, too! Head into battle with Touken Danshi at your side!
The “sword personification training game” takes famous swords from Japanese history and interprets them as bishōnen. Nitroplus designed the characters and scenario. The game launched in Japan in January 2015. The franchise has inspired the Katsugeki: Touken Ranbu television anime series and an upcoming anime film, the two Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru spinoff anime series, and a compilation anime film. A live-action film opened in Japan in January 2019, and a sequel film will open this year. The franchise has also inspired a series of stage musicals and a series of stage plays, as well as various manga.
Sources: Press release, Touken Ranbu Online English version’s official Facebook page and Twitter account
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Coronavirus deaths and cases per day in the U.S. dropped markedly over the past couple of weeks but are still running at alarmingly high levels, and the effort to snuff out COVID-19 is becoming an ever more urgent race between the vaccine and the mutating virus.
The government’s top infectious-disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said the improvement in numbers around the country appears to reflect a “natural peaking and then plateauing” after a holiday surge, rather than the arrival of the vaccine in mid-December.
The U.S. is recording just under 3,100 deaths a day on average, down from more than 3,350 less than two weeks ago. New cases are averaging about 170,000 a day after peaking at almost 250,000 on Jan. 11. The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has fallen to about 110,000 from a high of 132,000 on Jan. 7.
States that have been hot spots in recent weeks such as California and Arizona have shown similar improvements during the same period.
On Monday, California lifted regional stay-at-home orders in favor of county-by-county restrictions and ended a 10 p.m. curfew. The shift will allow restaurants and churches to resume outdoor operations and hair and nail salons to reopen in many places, though local officials could maintain stricter rules.
Elsewhere, Minnesota school districts have begun bringing elementary students back for in-person learning. Chicago’s school system, the nation’s third-largest district, had hoped to bring teachers back Monday to prepare for students to return next month, but the teachers union has refused. Illinois announced that that more counties will be able to offer limited indoor dining.
“I don’t think the dynamics of what we’re seeing now with the plateauing is significantly influenced yet — it will be soon — but yet by the vaccine. I just think it’s the natural course of plateauing,” Fauci told NBC’s “Today.”
Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington, said that a predicted holiday surge was reduced by people traveling less than expected, and an increase in mask wearing in response to spikes in infections has since helped bring the numbers down.
Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said too few people have been vaccinated so far for that to have had a significant impact on virus trends. She said she can’t predict how long it will take for the vaccines’ effects to be reflected in the numbers.
Rivers said she is concerned that the more contagious variants of the virus could lead to a deadly resurgence later this year.
“I think we were on track to have a good — or a better, at least — spring and summer, and I’m worried that the variants might be throwing us a curveball,” she said.
Nationwide, about 18 million people, or less than 6% of the U.S. population, have received at least one dose of vaccine, including about 3 million who have gotten the second shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Only slightly more than half of the 41 million doses distributed to the states by the federal government have been injected into arms, by the CDC’s count.
The virus has killed over 419,000 Americans and infected more than 25 million, with a widely cited University of Washington model projecting the death toll will reach about 569,000 by May 1.
And health experts have warned that the more contagious and possibly more deadly variant sweeping through Britain will probably become the dominant source of infection in the U.S. by March. It has been reported in over 20 states so far. Another mutant version is circulating in South Africa.
The more the virus spreads, the more opportunities it has to mutate. The fear is that it will ultimately render the vaccines ineffective.
To guard against the new variants, President Joe Biden on Monday added South Africa to the list of more than two dozen countries whose residents are subject to coronavirus-related limits on entering the U.S.
Most non-U.S. citizens who have been to Brazil, Ireland, Britain and other European nations will be barred from entering the U.S. under the rules re-imposed by Biden after President Donald Trump had moved to relax them.
Fauci said scientists are already preparing to adjust COVID-19 vaccines to fight the mutated versions.
He said there is “a very slight, modest diminution” of the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against those variants, but “there’s enough cushion with the vaccines that we have that we still consider them to be effective” against both.
Moderna, the maker of one of the two vaccines being used in the U.S., announced on Monday that it is beginning to test a possible booster dose against the South African variant. Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said the move was out of “an abundance of caution” after preliminary lab tests suggested its shot produced a weaker immune response to that variant.
The vaccine rollout in the U.S. has been marked by disarray and confusion, with states complaining in recent days about shortages and inadequate deliveries that have forced them to cancel mass vaccination events and tens of thousands of appointments.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said shortages are preventing the city from opening more large-scale vaccination sites.
“Here you have New York City ready to vaccinate at the rate of a half-million New Yorkers a week, but we don’t have the vaccine to go with it,” de Blasio said. “A lot of other places in the country are ready to do so much more.”
Associated Press writers around the U.S. contributed to this report.
Find AP’s full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
South Korean actress and model Song Yoo Jung died over the weekend, reports said Monday.
The 26-year-old star died on Saturday and was laid to rest during a quiet, private funeral, her management company Sublime Artist Agency confirmed to Newsweek.
“Actress Song Yoo Jung departed this life on January 23, 2021. In accordance with the wishes of her family, the funeral was held quietly and the funeral procession takes place on January 25,” the agency wrote in the statement, according to the outlet.
“Song Yoo Jung was a friend of ours who always gave us joy with her bright smile, and she was a wonderful actress who acted with heated passion. Please pray for the repose of her soul so that she may rest in peace in a warm place.”
The funeral was held at a branch of the Seoul Medical Center in the capital’s Gangnam district, the outlet reported, citing Yonhap News.
Another local outlet, yclick.co.kr, said the woman’s cause of death could not be revealed, Newsweek reported.
“It’s impossible to know exactly what kind of worries she had,” an unnamed close friend of Jung told Osen, according to Newsweek.
“It had been quite a while since she debuted in the entertainment industry and she worried that she didn’t get to properly shine in the spotlight of it. She also previously talked about her difficulties in life.”
Jung, who’d appeared in a number of Korean dramas and was also featured in a music video for the K-pop group iKON, spoke to local media in 2019 about the challenges she faced with acting.
“I tried to do my best given the situation I was in,” Jung told yclick.co.kr at the time, according to Newsweek.
“I think this waiting period was necessary for me as well.”
Jung made her debut on the big screen when she appeared in Golden Rainbow in 2013, the outlet reported. She has since appeared in Tell Me Your Wish in 2014, School 2017 in 2017 and the online series To My Name in 2019. She has also been featured in advertisements for home appliances, coffee and cosmetics and her Instagram includes dozens of modeling photos.
