Month: July 2023

Garfield: The Feline Psychopath? Startling Revelations About the Iconic Character

The terrible case of a character who was vital in comic strips and who, overnight, stopped appearing: Lyman.

Garfield looks as fresh as ever, but the truth is that the most famous cat in the world (and that’s saying something) is about to turn 50. Much has been written about him, his beginnings, where he was a secondary character in the strip ‘Jon’ or those Halloween strips where they leave the doubt of whether everything is in his head or not. But there is something that has not been invented. The terrible case of a character who was vital in the comic strips and who, overnight, stopped appearing: Lyman.

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Garfield and his friends sign up for kart racing

Creepygarfield

In 1976, ‘Jon’ began publication: the misadventures of a comic book artist who lived with his cat and a roommate, created exclusively so he would have someone to talk to. Lyman had his own dog, named Spot (we now know him as Odie), a profuse mustache, and was inevitably part of Jon Arbuckle and Garfield’s daily life. Until suddenly, he stopped.

From December 1981 to July 1982, Lyman stopped appearing in the strip. And little by little, his appearances became more and more sporadic until in 1983 he disappeared forever without any explanation after 69 gags. Fans have wondered for years what became of this secondary character without much charisma or importance, and Jim Davis, the author, has had enough of answering the question with jokes like “He joined the Peace Corps and no one ever heard of him again”, “He moved to San Francisco”, “He got fat and no longer fits in the cartoons” or the most widespread: “Don’t look in Jon’s basement”.

Is the protagonist of ‘Garfield’ a psychopath? Short answer: yes. Honestly. There are two web games that explain what happened to him, and they are downright creepy. In ‘Scary Scavenger Hunt’ he appears chained, precisely, in Jon’s basement, while in his second part, his head is in the kitchen oven. Wow.

If it weren’t for the fact that in 2012, the Garfield cartoon series provided a solution to the dilemma by becoming a spoiler in a quadruple episode explaining that he’s a nature photographer who went to Australia and disappeared looking for a mythological creature. If you want to believe it, sure. Isn’t this more of a smokescreen to keep us from thinking badly of Jon Arbuckle after all these years? Why did Odie, Lyman’s dog, stay with him all this time? Why aren’t more people investigating this? There we leave it. Pure cat mystery.

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Garfield and his friends sign up for kart racing

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The Wait is Over: Iconic TV Series Lands on Amazon Prime Video, Streaming from July

Takeshi Castle returns three decades later on July 10.

If you watched TV during the 90’s or even the first decade of the 2000’s, chances are that you have crossed paths with El Chino Cudeiro, Pinky-Winky or Mrs. Dolores. All of these characters, and many more, were recurring characters from the TV show Humor amarillo, localization of the Japanese show called Fūun! Takeshi Jō (Fun! Takeshi’s Castle). Well, we are here to give you fantastic news: this July 10, Takeshi’s Castle returns exclusively to Amazon Prime Video.

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Takeshi’s Castle in Spain will feature the voices of comedians Dani Rovira, Eva Soriano and Jorge Ponce, as well as the special collaboration of the famous streamer Mister Jägger.

The emblematic duo formed by Fernando Costilla and Paco Bravo, who participated in the program in its re-release in the 2000s, will return to the recording booth to participate as part of the cast of this new installment. Likewise, the musical duo Venga Monjas is in charge of the main theme song and will create an exclusive song for each of the show’s episodes.

This format was a hit when it premiered in 1986 in Japan, where it had up to 133 episodes until 1990. In Spain, precisely, it premiered in 1990 and lasted until 1995, a five-year period in which voices such as Juan Herrera, Miguel Ángel Coll, José Mota or Juan Muñoz were regulars. However, and as already mentioned, its real boom took place during its rebroadcasting in 2006 on the Cuatro television channel, a new life that lasted until 2007 and with countless rebroadcasts.

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Ad Appetite: YouTube’s Bold Strategy to Make Viewers ‘Eat’ Ads in Videos

The era of watching videos on YouTube without advertising thanks to ad blockers could come to an end. This is what the platform is testing.

If you’re a long-time Internet user, chances are you use an ad blocker in your browser. Yes, we know, you don’t have to hide it. Nowadays, the use of Ad Block, Ad Block Plus and other ad blockers is more than widespread, and even some mobile browsers include one as standard.

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And it’s exactly the same when watching videos on YouTube. Instead of having to wait for the skip ad button to appear, with ad blockers you will never see any ads. A practice that has been going on for years and that YouTube now wants to eliminate completely.

As reported by the company to The Verge, it is currently running “a small experiment globally urging viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium.” Recently, some people alerted to the appearance of this new warning on the platform that says video playback could end if the user continues to use an ad blocker.

From now on, these warnings will be recurrent from YouTube, which will urge users to disable these extensions or tools, or pay YouTube Premium, the platform’s subscription model that, among its advantages, eliminates all advertising (even in the mobile app), while not harming content creators.

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“We take disabling playback very seriously, and will only turn it off if viewers ignore repeated requests to allow ads on YouTube,” Google spokesperson Oluwa Falodun tells The Verge. “In cases where viewers feel they have been falsely flagged as using an ad blocker, they can share this information by clicking on the link in the notice.”

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Game-Changing Revelation: Could Iron Man’s Closest Ally Actually Be a Skrull Spy?

Is War Machine a hidden Skrull? Find out in Secret Invasion, the Disney Plus series.

Secret Invasion is not being the success Marvel Studios is trying to make it. However, this new Disney Plus series has managed to generate interest in the Skrull invasion that will apparently conclude in the future Avengers: Secret Wars. And if there is something about the Skrulls is that they could be absolutely any character… even some we have known for a long time.

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Since the series premiered, many fans are wondering which characters could be a Skrull of all the ones we know. Some of them are already revealed directly as of this species, but many others could hide behind the most known faces of the studio. And, among all of them, there is one that has many ballots to belong to this species: War Machine.

Is War Machine a hidden Skrull?

James Rhodes is a character we have known since the first Iron Man, released in 2008. Although the character has been played by two different actors -Terrence Howard and Don Cheadle-, his role in the different Avengers movies has been essential. But neither has been explored in too much depth, which could be a clue that we are, indeed, in front of a Skrull.

There are a few clues the series has left that could lead to this. One is that James calls Nick Fury by his first name, Nick, during a tense conversation. In Captain Marvel, the 2019 movie, Fury made it clear that no one called him that… but maybe they could be more confident than we think being a Skrull.

Another clue is that James Rhodes already knew about the identity of some Skrulls that are revealed in the series, and that he ends up firing Fury, which leaves the Skrulls’ fight better. Also, considering that he has a great position in the White House, it could all be part of a strategy to help his species. Of course, we will have an answer to all this before the end of the series.

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Elon Musk saved from the fight? An unexpected Plea

Musk’s mother Maye also seems concerned that her 52-year-old son is busy planning a fight with the Facebook CEO.

Few things in life have excited me more than the prospect of seeing Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg duke it out in a bare-knuckle brawl in the ring. They are two individuals who are widely disliked, and watching them go at each other is something that anyone would love to see.

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If you haven’t heard about this, I urge you to click here and familiarize yourself with the strange dispute taking place between two of Silicon Valley’s most prominent executives.

If you’re too lazy to do that, here’s a brief summary: Zuck and Musk, two of the wealthiest and most eccentric individuals in the world, claim that they are going to throw down in front of a large audience, possibly in the Las Vegas octagon.

A real fight or is it just advertising?

It is impossible to say with certainty whether this is a strange publicity stunt or a genuine dispute between two grown men. All I know is that the idea of watching two billionaires who spend their lives in the office throwing poorly aimed punches is quite entertaining.

In fact, as far as I know, there are only two people who are not thrilled about this idea, and they are Elon Musk’s parents. In recent separate statements, both Mr. and Mrs. Musk expressed their respective disapproval of their son’s upcoming sporting event.

In an interview with The Sun, Elon Musk’s father, Errol Musk, admitted that he was not particularly thrilled about his son’s upcoming fight:

“The thing is, if this crazy fight goes ahead, if Elon beats this guy, Elon will be called a bully for being much heavier and taller… But if he loses, the humiliation would be total… Elon loses no matter what.”

In terms of height and weight differences, Elon does have some advantage. According to TMZ Sports, Musk stands at 6’3″ (1.90 m), while Zuckerberg is only 5’7″ (1.70 m) tall. Elon is also noticeably heavier, which is evident just by looking at them.

Maye, Elon’s mother, also appears to be concerned about her 52-year-old son planning a fistfight with another middle-aged billionaire. In a series of recent tweets, Elon’s mother tried to steer her son away from violence.

“Fight with words only. In armchairs. At a distance of one and a half meters. The funniest wins,” tweeted Mrs. Musk last week. In another tweet, she also claimed that the fight had been “canceled” at her request. In other tweets, she scolded right-wing podcaster Lex Fridman for encouraging the fight.

The intervention of Musk’s parents is quite amusing because Elon has always resembled a tall third-grade kid with billions of dollars. It makes sense that his parents would talk about him as if he were still a little child who needs to be controlled.

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Changing the Game: Apple Vision Pro’s Simple Feature That’s Making a Big Impact

The world is already full of information, and the Vision Pro looks set to make that information even more accessible and usable.

The entire industry is looking at the new Apple Vision Pro. And not only the industry, but also us as future users and developers as the ones responsible for creating new experiences for this space computer. We still know very little about the Vision Pro, and with what we already know—such as its speed limit or guest mode—we have been amazed by its capabilities. Because there is one feature of the Apple Vision Pro that can change everything.

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Pokémon Go Nears its Final Evolution: Reflecting on Seven Years of Adventure as the Game’s End Looms

The media began to talk about how Pokémon Go was making people invade private spaces and even die from looking at the screen so much. And seven years later, what?

July 13, 2016. Pokémon Go‘ arrives on our cell phones and turns everything upside down. Overnight, we’re all out hunting for creatures in our city despite the mechanics being overly simple and the possibilities rather rickety. Yet there we are, alerting us with messages like “A Gyarados has appeared in Plaza de Castilla”. The media started talking about how ‘Pokémon Go’ was making people invade private spaces and even die from looking at the screen so much. And seven years later, what?

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Become a powerful trainer in Pokémon GO

Gotta catch ’em none

Niantic, the company behind ‘Pokémon Go’, was very happy. At last ‘Ingress’, that game based on geolocation that had failed a few years earlier, was making sense thanks to someone else’s saga. Everyone was making money hand over fist and it seemed that the moment of joy would never end. Until, in 2023, it is rare to find trainers on the streets: the app is at a low ebb but, at the same time, it is the only thing that makes them money. Get them all, big trouble.

Niantic became adept at ‘virtual reality gaming’ on mobile. ‘Harry Potter: Wizards Unite’ was basically a magical ‘Pokémon Go‘ that lasted a year and a half before shutting down. It was just the first of a few. ‘Catan: World Explorers’, based on the world’s most famous modern board game, barely lasted another year because, frankly, it was impossible to port ‘Catan’ to the MMO, let alone localization-based.

Ass I see, ass I want, everyone wanted their own game based on geolocation, without realizing that not even Harry Potter could work its magic to succeed. ‘Transformers’, ‘Pikmin’, NBA, Marvel… Niantic got lucky with one game (what’s the point of making a basketball ‘Pokémon Go’?) and since then everything has been simple repetition.

So much so that they have just fired 230 employees from their Los Angeles studio with the excuse that expenses are growing faster than profits. Although they want to make ‘Pokémon Go’ a game that lasts forever, the truth is that this is only the beginning of the end. As much as it is the only thing that makes them money, the figure is getting smaller and smaller, and a company cannot live all its life on the profits of a single game.

World of Warcraft’ was doing well for Blizzard, but next to it were ‘Overwatch’, ‘Diablo‘ or ‘Starcraft’. To close the doors and focus all efforts on a title whose time of glory has passed is to sign a contract for disaster. And is that the company’s own leaders have stated that they have a lot of work to do in terms of retention and benefits. Come on, I wouldn’t be too fond of your Pikachu and the gyms where you are eternal leaders. They may not last forever.

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Become a powerful trainer in Pokémon GO

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Blade Runner’s Legacy Continues: Unconventional New Installment Makes Waves in a Different Format

Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth develops the events that we saw in Blade Runner: Black Lotus and that would lead us to Blade Runner 2049.

Blade Runner has been expanding its universe in recent years even beyond the cinema. Although it has never really taken off, like the original film, all the works that have appeared have become cult works. And now, in an effort to expand its universe and perhaps break the curse of not being able to achieve a resounding commercial success, Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth has been announced. A Blade Runner videogame.

The game is being developed by Annapurna Interactive and is being developed by Chelsea Hash, who has previously worked on games such as Solar Ash or What Remains or Edith Finch, as well as the virtual art exhibition Kid A Mnesia Exhibition. The trailer shows a character manipulating a cylindrical memory orb, similar to the ones we saw in Blade Runner 2049, which are used to create artificial memories in the Replicants. Afterwards, this character flips between different spaces that are blurring into each other.

Clearly associated with Blade Runner and particularly Blade Runner 2049, this is the first Blade Runner game in 25 years. The previous one was a game called Blade Runner, released in 1997, which was a point-and-click adventure game that had a remastered version in 2022 that can only be described as disastrous.

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With no release date announced at the moment, we only know that it will be released on PC and consoles and that the events of the game will take place between the original Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049 and the anime Blade Runner: Black Lotus, from 2021, which takes place just a year earlier, in 2032, and whose main event, the great blackout, is named in the synopsis of the game. Because thanks to the synopsis appearing on the game’s Steam page, we know a specific detail of what Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth will be about – what does a Blade Runner do when there are no Replicators left to hunt? And whatever the answer, at least the question, it intrigues us enough to want to know more.

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Mark Your Calendars: The Evening of Year 3 Weigh-In Details – Location, Date, and Time

The different fighters will have the official weigh-in of the organization today.

The wait is over. Today, Friday, the important hours for The Evening of the Year 3. begin. Although the big event will take place tomorrow, today is the first step on the way, a very important one that has to do with the weigh-in of the different fighters.

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According to the information provided by the organization itself, the weigh-in will take place today, Friday, June 30, at 7:00 p.m. Spanish time. The schedule for the rest of the countries will be as follows:

  • Spain: 7:00 pm.
  • Argentina: 2:00 pm.
  • Chile: 1:00 pm.
  • Venezuela: 1:00 pm.
  • Ecuador: 12:00 hours.
  • Colombia: 12:00 hours.
  • Mexico: 11:00 am.

From here on, everything related to the weigh-in can be followed live on Twitch. Where? Well, as it could not be otherwise, from Ibai Llanos’ channel.

https://www.twitch.tv/ibai

It is not known how long the weigh-in will last, but everything points to a minimum of two hours, especially if we take into account the time it lasted last year in La Velada del Año 2.

The weigh-in serves to calculate the weight of each fighter before the fight, so that both are on equal terms and within the marked values. The order of the weigh-in is not known, but following the poster it would be the following:

  • Ampeter vs Abraham Mateo
  • Samy Rivers vs Marina Rivers
  • Mayichi vs UNKNOWN (was Amouranth, but has withdrawn due to illness)
  • Fernanfloo vs Luzu
  • Misho vs Shelao
  • Coscu vs Germán Garmendia

The fighter that remains to be known will not be known until tomorrow when the fight arrives. Ibai Llanos has already commented that it will be a total surprise and that he does not plan to reveal it so that the public knows it all at once.

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Amazon Under FTC’s Watchful Eye: Implications and Possible Outcomes

The US Federal Trade Commission would be about to denounce Amazon. We tell you what the reasons are.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has another major technology company in its sights: Amazon. The US agency is currently immersed in a judicial process in which it is trying to prevent Microsoft’s purchase of Activision, but, at the same time, it is also investigating the e-commerce platform led by Jeff Bezos.

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According to Bloomberg, the FTC is close to finalizing its biggest antitrust case against Amazon and could file a lawsuit in the coming weeks. The future lawsuit will allege, according to documents consulted by the media, that Amazon has systematically harmed sellers who do not use some of the platform’s optional services such as “Fulfilled by Amazon”.

Should the FTC be able to prove that Amazon, which has near-monopoly power in its sector, is maliciously manipulating the market, the agency could request at trial that the tech giant be restructured or even dissolved altogether.

The main problem for the FTC is that it would not exactly be an easy task, as U.S. law has so far allowed Amazon to continue to grow, despite its “monopolistic appearance”, due to the absence of daily consumer harm. Against this backdrop, Amazon would have almost everything in its favor to win the lawsuit or, at most, pay a (hefty) fine, without needing to change anything in its structure or the way it conducts its business.

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This future lawsuit against Amazon would join the one filed just a week ago in which the FTC alleges that the company has been misleading its customers to subscribe to Prime, and that it has made it difficult for them to cancel the subscription, which renews automatically.

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