Posted by from MMO Champion
Dragonflight Season 4 - Awakened Raid Rotation
Dragonflight Season 4 brings back the "Fated Raids" system from
Shadowlands Season 4, with a new rotation that includes all 3 Dragonflight raids! Every week, bosses within one raid will be empowered and drop higher item level loot.
Dragonflight Season 4 - Awakened Raid Rewards
Raid Achievements
tbody>tr" data-default-sort-slug="name" data-default-sort-order="asc"> Name Reward Category
Awakening the Dragonflight RaidsComplete all three Awakened raids on Normal difficulty or higher in Dragonflight Season 4.
Mount Reward:
Voyaging Wilderling Feats of Strength
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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the unprecedented-situation department: According to a new study published in the journal Nature, timekeepers may have to consider subtracting a second from our clocks around 2029 because the planet is rotating faster than it used to. The Associated Press reports: "This is an unprecedented situation and a big deal," said study lead author Duncan Agnew, a geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. "It's not a huge change in the Earth's rotation that's going to lead to some catastrophe or anything, but it is something notable. It's yet another indication that we're in a very unusual time." Ice melting at both of Earth's poles has been counteracting the planet's burst of speed and is likely to have delayed this global second of reckoning by about three years, Agnew said.
"We are headed toward a negative leap second," said Dennis McCarthy, retired director of time for the U.S. Naval Observatory who wasn't part of the study. "It's a matter of when." It's a complicated situation that involves, physics, global power politics, climate change, technology and two types of time. [...] McCarthy said the trend toward needing a negative leap second is clear, but he thinks it's more to do with the Earth becoming more round from geologic shifts from the end of the last ice age.
Three other outside scientists said Agnew's study makes sense, calling his evidence compelling. But Levine doesn't think a negative leap second will really be needed. He said the overall slowing trend from tides has been around for centuries and continues, but the shorter trends in Earth's core come and go. "This is not a process where the past is a good prediction of the future," Levine said. "Anyone who makes a long-term prediction on the future is on very, very shaky ground."
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the consumer-rights-movements department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Oregon Governor Tina Kotek today signed the state's Right to Repair Act, which will push manufacturers to provide more repair options for their products than any other state so far. The law, like those passed in New York, California, and Minnesota, will require many manufacturers to provide the same parts, tools, and documentation to individuals and repair shops that they provide to their own repair teams. But Oregon's bill goes further, preventing companies from implementing schemes that require parts to be verified through encrypted software checks before they will function. Known as parts pairing or serialization, Oregon's bill, SB 1596, is the first in the nation to target that practice. Oregon State Senator Janeen Sollman (D) and Representative Courtney Neron (D) sponsored and pushed the bill in the state senate and legislature.
Oregon's bill isn't stronger in every regard. For one, there is no set number of years for a manufacturer to support a device with repair support. Parts pairing is prohibited only on devices sold in 2025 and later. And there are carve-outs for certain kinds of electronics and devices, including video game consoles, medical devices, HVAC systems, motor vehicles, and -- as with other states -- "electric toothbrushes." "By eliminating manufacturer restrictions, the Right to Repair will make it easier for Oregonians to keep their personal electronics running," said Charlie Fisher, director of Oregon's chapter of the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), in a statement. "That will conserve precious natural resources and prevent waste. It's a refreshing alternative to a 'throwaway' system that treats everything as disposable."
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the optimistic-thinking department: Neil Irwin reports via Axios: The dearth of productivity growth over the last couple of decades has held back incomes in the U.S. and other rich countries, according to a report out Wednesday from the McKinsey Global Institute, the research arm of the global consultancy. Productivity growth has been weak in the U.S. and Western Europe since the 2008 global financial crisis, but things looked better among many emerging markets. The McKinsey report finds that global labor productivity growth was 2.3% a year from 1997 to 2022, a rapid rate that has increased incomes and quality of life in large parts of the world. China and India account for the largest portion of that surge -- half of overall global productivity improvement, with other emerging markets accounting for another 25%, led by Central and Eastern Europe and emerging Asian economies.
In the U.S., the report finds that the decline in capital investment following the 2008 financial crisis has resulted in a $4,500 lower per-capita GDP in 2022 than it would have if pre-crisis trends had continued. Rapid advances in manufacturing technology, especially for electronics, petered out in the same time period, subtracting another $5,000 from per-capita GDP. "Digitization was much discussed as the main candidate to rev up productivity again, but its impact failed to spread beyond" the tech sector, the authors write. The authors are optimistic that a confluence of factors will make the years ahead different.
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Posted by from MMO Champion
WoW Hotfixes - March 27, 2024
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Achievements
Fixed bugs causing mounts related to A World Awoken to be unavailable, including Bestowed Ottuk Vanguard, Bestowed Trawling Mammoth, Bestowed Thunderspine Packleader, Bestowed Sandskimmer, Bestowed Ohuna Spotter, Coralscale Salamanther, Stormtouched Bruffalon, and Taivan.
Player versus Player
Fixed an issue that prevented Splintered Sparks of Dreams from dropping from PvP sources while eligible for catch-up.
Plunderstorm
The Storm’s fury swells! Lightning strikes during the final stage of the Storm are faster and more dangerous than before.
There is now a delay of 20 seconds after being revived where players no longer drop collected Plunder.
Additional enemies now spawn at Witherbark Village, the wild area northeast of Go’Shek Farm, and the wild area between Witherbark Village and Boulderfist Hall.
Fixed an issue where swapping back to default sword and gun appearances were not saving correctly.
Fixed an issue so that now, picking up an additional rank 2 spell while the same rank 2 spell is equipped properly grants the rank 4 version of the spell.
The Captain’s Orders quest “X Marks the Spot” now requires 1 item to be picked up (was 2 items).
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the lawsuit-or-settlement-imminent department: TikTok is being investigated by the FTC over its data and security practices, "a probe that could lead to a settlement or a lawsuit against the company," reports the Associated Press. From the report: In its investigation, the FTC has been looking into whether TikTok violated a portion of federal law that prohibits "unfair and deceptive" business practices by denying that individuals in China had access to U.S. user data, said the person, who is not authorized to discuss the investigation. The agency also is scrutinizing the company over potential violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which requires kid-oriented apps and websites to get parents' consent before collecting personal information of children under 13.
The agency is nearing the conclusion of its investigation and could settle with TikTok in the coming weeks. But there's not a deadline for an agreement, the person said. If the FTC moves forward with a lawsuit instead, it would have to refer the case to the Justice Department, which would have 45 days to decide whether it wants to file a case on the FTC's behalf, make changes or send it back to the agency to pursue on its own.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the energy-intensive-computing department: Two Texas-based bitcoin miners have turned to the foothills of the Andes mountains in Argentina to mine bitcoin using flared natural gas. CNBC reports: Brent Whitehead and Matt Lohstroh, both graduates of Texas A&M University, have been mining bitcoin on the oil fields of East Texas since 2019. That's when they founded Giga Energy with the goal of taking flared natural gas and turning it into electricity to run bitcoin mines, which are notoriously power-thirsty. On Tuesday, Giga announced its first foray into Argentina, following expansion across the U.S. and into Shanghai. The company is partnering with Phoenix Global Resources, an oil and gas company with operations in Mendoza, and with IT services company Exa Tech to launch a two megawatt bitcoin mine on top of Vaca Muerta.
Giga's system involves placing a shipping container full of thousands of bitcoin miners on an oil well, then diverting the natural gas into generators, which convert the gas into electricity that's used to power the miners. The process reduces CO2-equivalent emissions by about 63% compared to continued flaring -- or burning -- of unused gas, according to research from Denver-based Crusoe Energy Systems. It also turns wasted energy into a valuable asset for oil producers.
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