Latest news with #gamers
The Verge
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Verge
Oof.
Roblox: all the news about the popular social and gaming platform See all Stories Posted Jul 18, 2025 at 11:02 PM UTC
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Energy Drinks Seen Fuelling Cancer, But There's a Strange Catch
Energy drinks are big business. Marketed as quick fixes for fatigue and performance dips, energy drinks are especially popular among young people, athletes, sports enthusiasts, and so-called "weekend warriors" – people who pack their workouts into the weekend instead of exercising regularly. Gamers are now a major target too. But as the market grows, so do concerns about what's actually in these drinks – and what these ingredients might be doing to our bodies. Many energy drinks contain some combination of three familiar stimulants: caffeine, found naturally in coffee, tea and cacao; guarana, an Amazonian plant rich in caffeine; and taurine, a naturally occurring amino acid found in scallops, mussels, turkey and chicken. Related: Taurine, in particular, has drawn both hype and hope. It is credited with performance-enhancing properties and potential health benefits. But new research is raising important questions about how it behaves in the body – and when it might do more harm than good. In May 2025, a study published in Nature sparked headlines and unease in equal measure. It found that taurine may fuel the progression of leukaemia, a group of blood cancers that begin in the bone marrow. The study showed that while healthy bone marrow cells naturally produce taurine, leukaemia cells cannot. But they can absorb taurine from their surroundings and use it as a fuel source to grow and multiply. Research on mice and in human leukaemia cell samples demonstrated that taurine in the tumour microenvironment – the area around a tumour that includes blood vessels, immune cells and structural support – accelerated the progression of leukaemia. Crucially, when researchers blocked taurine uptake by leukaemia cells (using genetic techniques), cancer progression slowed significantly. The authors suggest taurine supplements could potentially worsen outcomes in people with leukaemia and propose that developing targeted ways to block taurine uptake by cancer cells might offer a new treatment strategy. Taurine: friend or foe? Taurine is one of the most abundant free amino acids in the human body, found in especially high concentrations in the heart, muscles and brain. In healthy people, it's mainly obtained through diet, but the body can also synthesise taurine from the amino acids methionine and cysteine, provided it has enough vitamin B6, which is found in foods such as salmon, tuna, chicken, bananas and milk. Most people consuming a typical western diet take in 40mg–400mg of taurine a day from food alone. This figure refers only to taurine that is directly ingested, not including the additional amount the body can synthesise internally, which may vary depending on age, diet and health. Taurine is listed on the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) generally recognised as safe (GRAS) database, and according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), it's safe to consume up to six grams per day. By comparison, a serving of Red Bull or Monster contains around one gram – comfortably below that threshold. Despite recent concerns about a possible link to blood cancer progression, taurine isn't inherently harmful. In fact, some people may benefit from supplementation, especially those receiving long-term parenteral nutrition, where nutrients are delivered directly into the bloodstream because the gut isn't working properly. People with chronic liver, kidney or heart failure may also have trouble producing or holding on to enough taurine, making supplementation helpful in specific clinical settings. Ironically, some research suggests taurine may actually help reduce the side effects of chemotherapy in leukaemia patients – even as emerging studies raise concerns that it could also fuel the disease. This contradiction underscores how much context matters: the effects of taurine depend not just on dosage and delivery, but also on the patient's underlying condition. What helps in one context, could harm in another. But here's the catch: taking taurine as a supplement for particular health reasons is very different from consuming large quantities through energy drinks, which often combine taurine with high levels of caffeine and sugar. This combination can put strain on the heart, interfere with sleep and increase the risk of side effects, particularly for people with underlying health conditions or those taking other stimulants. The latest research raises important questions about whether taurine-heavy products could be harmful in some cases, especially for people with, or at risk of, blood cancers. So, should you worry? According to the current evidence, if you're a healthy adult who occasionally sips an energy drink, there's little cause for alarm. But moderation is key. Consuming multiple high-taurine drinks daily or taking taurine supplements (without prior professional consultation), on top of a taurine-rich diet might not be wise, especially if future research confirms links between taurine and cancer progression. Until more is known, the safest approach would be to enjoy your energy boosts by consuming a nutritious diet rather than consuming energy drinks. If you have any underlying health conditions – or a family history of cancer – it's always best to consult a healthcare professional before diving into taurine supplementation or consumption of energy drinks. Gulshanara (Rumy) Begum, Senior Lecturer in Nutrition & Exercise Science, University of Westminster This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the . Related News Study of 1.2 Million Children Finds No Risk From Common Vaccine Additive Signs of Autism Could Be Encoded in The Way You Walk It's True: Soup Can Help You Recover Faster From Colds And Flus Solve the daily Crossword
New York Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Who Killed Love?' A Video Game Plays to Male Resentment in China.
A deliveryman falls for a female livestreamer. She seduces him, drains his savings, then vanishes. Heartbroken, he reinvents himself as a successful businessman seeking revenge on women like her. This is the plot of Revenge on Gold Diggers, one of the most popular and contentious video games in China. The interactive game, which debuted in June to enormous success, temporarily topped the charts on Steam China, the local version of the global gaming platform. Its tagline, 'Who killed love? It's the gold diggers who killed love,' has electrified Chinese social media. Players, cast as 'emotional fraud hunters,' navigate romantic relationships, searching for deception while guarding their wallets — and their hearts. One of the most liked comments on the game's community board calls it 'an elegy for our generation of Chinese men.' Another declares, 'Men must never retreat — this is a fight to the death.' The game has drawn the enthusiasm of disaffected young men, and fierce criticism from other corners. It has been decried as misogynistic. Some male gamers complain it panders to the Chinese government's concerns about plummeting marriage and birth rates. The debates surrounding Revenge on Gold Diggers reveal deep-seated male resentment and the broader socioeconomic anxieties about love, marriage and financial security in China. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Forbes
6 days ago
- Automotive
- Forbes
‘Cyberpunk 2077' Reveals Update 2.3 Release Date, Everything It's Adding
Cyberpunk 2077 CDPR has finally deemed it time to preview its latest post-launch Cyberpunk 2077 update, despite saying many, many times it was doing adding things. Well, guess what? Even more things are coming. The stream gave us a release date for Update 2.3, which mercifully, is tomorrow, Thursday, July 17, so no more waiting. They also broke down what exactly to expect, which feels like less than the 2.1 and 2.2 updates in terms of what they added. Here's the list: Main Goal– More 'novelty' and 'fresh air' in order to make you want to replay the game. Also a lot of fan-requests added. A big vehicle focus. Crystal Coat/Twin Tone – This is the car color system that was introduced in past patches. This has been expanded to a lot of new cars in 2.3, including lower-end vehicles. Almost all the cars are now usable minus a few exceptions. 32 vehicles now can use the system. There are 205 generic colors and 168 unique paint jobs for cars now. Cyberpunk 2077 New Vehicles Being Added – New sports car from a Cyberpunk comic book added. New heavy truck covered in graffiti and is the first weaponized truck. There are actual quests you need to complete in order to get some of the new vehicles, but these appear to be existing quests you play in the game as you go. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Autodrive – All vehicles can use this. It will automatically drive you around without touching the wheel, heading to each quest destination or custom points. However, this is rather slow and will follow normal traffic patterns. You can also just set the vehicle to drive totally randomly for I suppose, some sort of chill ASMR relaxation system. Delamain Taxi – New car service you can call to take you anywhere after you complete that side quest. Same autodrive if for whatever reason you don't want to drive your own car. Photo Mode - New tab to change time of day and weather. New NPCs being added to the system, 27 you can now add to pose with you. Almost all NPCs have alternate outfits (just in photo mode). Lots of new stickers and frames. New poses, new lighting, ability to pick where someone looks, which changes the pose itself in a natural way. Three new hue bars for color balance. They say it's now the most feature-heavy photo mode in gaming. Cyberpunk 2077 Tech – Better HDR Settings, AMD FSR 4, AMD FSR 3.1 Frame Generation, Intel XESS 2.0 with XESS Frame Generation, Intel HDR10+ Gaming Support, VRR on consoles. So this is probably the smallest patch we've seen out of the 2.1/2.2/2.3 batch, which I'm guessing some players may be a touch disappointed with. I'm not exactly seeing the stated idea of 'we want people to play the game again' based on these cool but small additions, but hey, it's free, it's neat, it's something. But if they are going to do this, I wish that they would expand beyond the concepts they've already done a lot of work on (cars, photo mode). Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Hurdle hints and answers for July 3, 2025
If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine. There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown. An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle. If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered. Hurdle Word 1 hint Not a winner. Hurdle Word 1 answer LOSER Hurdle Word 2 hint A device used on fruit. Hurdle Word 2 Answer CORER Hurdle Word 3 hint Useful. Hurdle Word 3 answer UTILE Hurdle Word 4 hint A home. Hurdle Word 4 answer ABODE Final Hurdle hint Rapid fire. Hurdle Word 5 answer SALVO Check out our for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
