Daily Archives: 2020-09-21

Microsoft is acquiring Bethesda Softworks parent company ZeniMax

Source: The Verge - All Posts

Article note: Microsoft did prop up the original XBox by scooping up Bungie and it worked out great for them, so maybe they're planning to repeat the trick.
Wolfenstein II: The New ColossusBethesda Softworks

Microsoft has agreed to acquire ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Doom and Fallout studio Bethesda Softworks, for $7.5 billion in cash. The acquisition follows earlier Bethesda games coming to Xbox Game Pass on console and PC, and it gives Microsoft control of upcoming games like the space epic Starfield. Microsoft says future Bethesda games, including Starfield, will launch on Xbox Game Pass the day they come to Xbox or PC.

The news arrives just as Microsoft is gearing up to launch two new consoles, the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S. The companies haven’t confirmed how this might affect the launch of specific future Bethesda games across different platforms, including the Bethesda-published Arkane game Deathloop, which was...

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CDC makes a ‘major change’ to guidance, saying COVID-19 can spread through the air

Source: The Week: Most Recent Home Page Posts

Article note: Finally. That's been the most likely case for quite some time.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a new guidance has acknowledged that COVID-19 can spread through the air, CNN reports.

The CDC's website as of Friday says that "airborne viruses, including COVID-19, are among the most contagious and easily spread" and that the coronavirus commonly spreads "through respiratory droplets or small particles, such as those in aerosols."

The CDC's latest guidance also says, "It is possible that COVID-19 may spread through the droplets and airborne particles that are formed when a person who has COVID-19 coughs, sneezes, sings, talks, or breathes. There is growing evidence that droplets and airborne particles can remain suspended in the air and be breathed in by others, and travel distances beyond 6 feet (for example, during choir practice, in restaurants, or in fitness classes)."

The guidance from the CDC, CNN notes, previously described COVID-19 as mainly spreading through "respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks" and within six feet. In the new guidance, when listing ways to protect oneself from COVID-19, in addition to steps such as social distancing and wearing a mask, the CDC also now says to "use air purifiers to help reduce airborne germs in indoor spaces."

The Washington Post notes that "scientists and public health experts have warned of mounting evidence that the novel coronavirus is airborne" for months, and University of Colorado at Boulder chemistry professor Jose-Luis Jimenez told the Post this acknowledgement from the CDC as a "major change."

"This is a good thing," Jimenez told the Post, "if we can reduce transmission because more people understand how it is spreading and know what to do to stop it."

Additionally, University of Maryland professor Donald Milton told CNN it's a "major improvement," adding, "I'm very encouraged to see that the CDC is paying attention and moving with the science. The evidence is accumulating."

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