Latest news with #Squall
New York Post
4 days ago
- Climate
- New York Post
Denali National Park introduces adorable new sled dogs, live Puppy Cam
Sled dog puppies at Denali National Park and Preserve can now be watched through their live Puppy Cam, National Park Service (NPS) officials announced on Thursday. Raised at Denali Sled Dog Kennels, this year's litter includes five Alaskan husky puppies that were born less than a month ago on May 3. Two of the pups are females named Squall and Storm, while the other three are males named Graupel, Dew and Fog. They were recently spotted via their Puppy Cam during their feeding time on Saturday. Park officials said the pups' weather-themed names come from the diverse and dramatic ways water affects the weather. As sled dog pups in every litter are named after a theme, the NPS noted that the names for this year's 'Weather Litter' are in honor of a 100-year partnership between the National Weather Service (NWS) and the Kennels, in which mushing rangers of Denali collected and shared weather data with the weather agency. Why Denali National Park has sled dogs The Denali Sled Dog Kennels is one of the oldest sled dog kennels in the U.S., the only sled dog kennel in the NPS for more than a century and the only dog sled kennel within the federal government, according to park officials. 'This special group of dogs is tasked with preserving unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations,' the NPS said on their website. It noted that the sled dogs perform necessary wintertime duties throughout Denali, such as giving park rangers the most effective means of patrolling the Alaskan wilderness during the long winters. National Park Service (NPS) officials announced that sled dog puppies at Denali National Park can now be observed through the live Puppy Cam. NPS How sled dogs are selected for breeding To provide the best sled dogs for these duties, the NPS said the Kennels look for certain qualities as they create each year's litters. For example, some physical characteristics include long legs to help the pups move through the snow, compact paws to help prevent ice from building up between their toes and robust coats and tails to keep them warm. Ideal characteristics also include personality traits, such as tenacity, love for pulling and working as part of a team and social skills that allow them to thrive when given attention by thousands of people who visit the kennels every summer. The raised dog kennels feature five Alaskan husky puppies that were born less than a month ago. NPS The pups of the Weather Litter seem destined to have such ideal characteristics for being sled dogs, given their lineage. Their mother, Merlyn, exhibited such traits. Part of a litter named after 9/11 Search and Rescue dogs, Merlyn has a sweet disposition and shows strong leadership with her team, the NPS said. They also added that she is most likely to smile with teeth. Officials said their father, Drumlin, came from a well-respected kennel in Lake Minchumina, which lies north of Denali National Park. How to watch the sled dog puppies The pups can be watched every day through their live Puppy Cam. Of note is their feeding times, which are displayed in their kennel at 11:45 a.m. and 4:45 p.m. Alaska Standard Time. Park officials said the Puppy Cam is made possible through their partnership with Alaska Geographic. For those who might want to care for their own sled dog, retired sled dogs from the Kennel can be adopted.
CNET
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CNET
I Can't Not Be Excited About the New Final Fantasy Magic: The Gathering Cards
Final Fantasy is one of the most successful game series of all time, with more than 200 million copies sold across the 16 mainline games and various spinoffs. So you can imagine the hype when Wizards of the Coast announced last fall that Magic: The Gathering -- a trading card game that pulled in $1 billion in revenue last year -- was releasing a Final Fantasy set. At PAX East on Saturday, we got the latest glimpse at some of the cards in the Final Fantasy Magic set, which will be released next month. The Final Fantasy panel took us through cards from every mainline Final Fantasy game, giving us our first looks at protagonists like Final Fantasy 8's Squall and 13's Lightning, plus glimpses of recurring characters like chocobos and Cid. We also got to see multiple versions of Final Fantasy 7 icon Cloud Strife -- one card in the main set, another card leading a Commander set. Wizards of the Coast We saw Final Fantasy staples like crystals, summons, villainous transformations (in the form of double-faced cards) and towns. We also got our first look at a new Magic mechanic: Tiered, which allows players to pay more mana for bigger effects, like a more versatile version of the Kicker mechanic. By paying more mana when you cast Fire Magic, you get better effects, similar to the magic systems in most Final Fantasy games. Wizards of the Coast Magic: The Gathering has been experimenting with other properties via its Universes Beyond series, which effectively started with limited-edition drops of cards featuring characters from The Walking Dead, before being officially introduced with a similar drop for Stranger Things. Prior to Final Fantasy, the biggest Universes Beyond set was The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, the first full-fledged Universes Beyond set, released in 2023. When Universes Beyond was first announced, Wizards of the Coast said the mechanically unique cards would be restricted from the game's Standard format, which generally allows cards from the most recent sets. (Tales of Middle-earth was legal in the Modern format, but not Standard.) The Final Fantasy set is a big deal for Magic because it brings Universes Beyond into Standard, helping to usher in Spider-Man and Avatar: The Last Airbender sets later this year that will also be Standard-legal. Collectively, these sets are a huge change to how Magic looks, and Final Fantasy is the start of that change. Wizards of the Coast I started playing Magic back in 2014 when a group of former players from the game's early days got back into it and dragged me along with them. I've played inconsistently since then, ranging from tournament entries and being a regular at Friday Night Magic to "I last played a single game of Commander several months ago." But the Final Fantasy announcement -- which came shortly after I finished Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth -- has me hopping on my chocobo to get back into the game. Tifa, like Cloud, appears in both the main set and the Commander set. Wizards of the Coast I fired up old Final Fantasy favorites again. I jumped back into Arena, Magic's slickest digital version (sorry, Magic Online). I put TCGPlayer gift cards on my Christmas list because I knew there would be some wildly expensive versions of characters that I needed to have. Case in point. Wizards of the Coast The PAX panel has deepened my desperation for this set, but it also made me pretty optimistic for it. In media interviews before the panel, the game designers spoke about the imperative they felt to get things right -- to design cards that felt authentic to the games and series, cards that felt meaningful to the fans, instead of just constructing them based on business goals. Wizards of the Coast "We had the rule of cool," Principal Magic Designer Gavin Verhey said. "Like, if something was an awesome idea, we did it." He pointed to having a card that showed off 15 different versions of the character Cid, or having just one pair of cards with the Meld mechanic because it mechanically and emotionally fit the characters on those cards as examples. "Every single card in this set is like a carefully hand-crafted gift." The Final Fantasy set will be released on June 13, with preorders technically available now, but out of stock most places.
