Final Fantasy is quite the franchise for having its ironic name‚ and with the franchise close to forty years old‚ there are many games to cover and a simple question to ask: Which ones are the best? Here’s every Final Fantasy game‚ ranked from worst to best. This will only be covering the main series’ games and original versions‚ or else we’d be here forever. With that in mind‚ starting from the bottom: 16. Final Fantasy II Image: Square Soft Sometimes‚ a universal consensus simply holds: the sequel to the original Final Fantasy does not hold up when compared to all of its peers‚ and the dislike for it holds to this very day. Perhaps there was a chance for it to become a cult classic at some point‚ but it feels long past that point now. Two will have to live on in infamy for being poorly executed and designed from a gameplay standpoint‚ but at least all the entries above prove it was only a fluke. 15. Final Fantasy III Image: Square Soft Though re...

Tradeable cards have been around for thousands of years. Pokémon trading card games have been around for a small fraction of that time‚ yet have become one of the most culturally and financially dominant card games in human history. Here are the 10 best Pokemon cards and packs ever. The 10 best Pokemon cards and packs: 10. Astral Radiance Image: The Pokémon Company Astral Radiance has both the pull rate and the aesthetic to back itself up as one of the best modern packs. Some of the art and card designs in Astral Radiance are just truly gorgeous in terms of rarity and visual style. The best of the cards would have to be the Umbreon VMax in my opinion- it’s simply one of the most powerful Umbreon cards in existence‚ and there’s also a lot of joy in staring at a massive Umbreon. 9. Pokémon GO Image: The Pokémon Company Yes‚ Pokémon GO has its own trading card set‚ and it’s one of the best. Among a lot of cute art‚ it has a lot of rainbow holos...

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has greatly expanded the relationship mechanics from the original game‚ so you’ll spend the entirety of your adventure strengthening your bonds with your party members in preparation for the iconic Gold Saucer date scene. The roster of eligible bachelors and bachelorettes has expanded too‚ so there are even more romance outcomes in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth than there were in the original game. While most players have their eyes set on Tifa and Aerith‚ you can’t forget the lovable Yuffie Kisaragi‚ who now has a greater role in the Gold Saucer date than ever before. All Yuffie Dialogue Answers Yuffie Side Quests Missable Yuffie Moments How to Romance Yuffie in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth To romance Yuffie in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth‚ you need to make sure your relationship level with her is higher than it is with any other party member. The game chooses your Gold Saucer date for you‚ so the relationship level is the only way to ensure tha...

Discover the captivating world of the legendary TV series Gunsmoke in our latest article! Immerse yourself in the wild tales of Marshal Matt Dillon‚ portrayed by the unforgettable James Arness‚ and join Amanda Blake as the indomitable Miss Kitty. Dive into the show's incredible success that spanned 20 thrilling seasons! Don't miss out. Gunsmoke Started As A Radio Show Gunsmoke... Source

Google is having a Bud Light moment. If you’ve spent any time online—especially on social media—in the past week‚ you’ve probably noticed the controversy over Google’s new artificial intelligence program‚ “Gemini.” Gemini is an AI tool and language model made for a general audience that can do all kinds of things‚ such as answer questions‚ generate requested images—and generally act like the wokest‚ smuggest person working in a university “diversity‚ equity and inclusion” bureaucracy. After the program launched in early February‚ people soon began noticing how some prompts produced ridiculously—and sometimes hilariously—politically correct answers. For instance‚ users discovered that when asking the program to produce images of “Vikings‚” it would produce mostly black and Asian-looking people and would always answer with something to the effect of “here are diverse images” (emphasis mine) of Vikings‚ medieval knights‚ 16th-century European inventors‚ etc. Getting the program to produce images of Caucasian males was difficult‚ and in some cases nearly impossible. These standards were not evenly applied. When I asked Gemini specifically to produce images of diverse Zulu warriors of South Africa‚ it only spit out images of black men and women. When I then asked Gemini why it couldn’t produce an actually racially diverse image of Zulu warriors‚ it came up with the old “complexity and nuance” answer that it leans on when it sputters and strains to work within the ideologically rigid confines of its programmers. It said that Zulus came from a generally homogenous culture and that it struggled to depict them in another way from lack of racially diverse examples. Hmm. The folks at Google didn’t initially seem to have much of a problem with the historically absurd “diverse” images until someone came up with the prompt of “German soldiers in the 1940s‚” which produced a racially diverse set of Wehrmacht stormtroopers. That‚ finally‚ was the bridge too far‚ and Google shut down the image program and apologized. I would note here that there are actually examples of racially diverse German soldiers in the 1940s‚ but by this point you should understand Google’s game. There are countless other examples of this program producing answers based on carefully calibrated far-left viewpoints. When I asked it to tell me the first example of legal emancipation in the New World‚ it said that it was Haiti in 1801. I then asked if slavery was abolished by Vermont in 1777 and why this answer wasn’t produced. It acknowledged I was correct and gave the old “nuance and complexity” weasel answer. Google’s problem isn’t just with DEI nonsense. It has a China problem‚ too.  When I asked it to generate images of China not ruled by communism‚ it refused‚ saying that China was historically tied to communism. It had no problem depicting the United States under communism. When I asked if Taiwan is basically like China‚ but not under communism‚ it again turned to the old “complexity and nuance‚” get-out-of-answering trick. Google’s explanation for Gemini’s absurd nature and far-left political leanings is that it is still working out bugs in the system and that this was just a technical problem. Google’s CEO sent out a memo to employees apologizing for the controversy. He said that Google’s goal was to make its product “unbiased”: Our mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful is sacrosanct. We’ve always sought to give users helpful‚ accurate‚ and unbiased information in our products. That’s why people trust them. This has to be our approach for all our products‚ including our emerging Al products. That’s nonsense.  The Gemini launch did the world a favor and revealed just how left-wing and manipulative Google really is. One of the leaders on the project‚ who has since made his X (formerly Twitter) account private is reported to have yammered online about “white privilege” and “systemic racism.” The bias was hiding in plain sight. The consistent leftist political leanings of Gemini’s answers‚ which seemed like they were produced by a person to the left of the average member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors‚ didn’t just come out of the blue. The AI doesn’t have a bias. What’s biased are the people controlling it.  The product is basically the left-wing‚ Western liberal version of what I imagine China’s totalitarian information platforms look like. Everything is carefully calibrated to match the narrative the regime wants to foist on their people. Pairing this AI with the world’s most powerful search engine—which accounts for about 90% of global search traffic—is a terrifying thought. It has an astounding amount of potential power to shape and cultivate the views and perceptions of people in the United States and across the globe. The bottom line is this: Google’s Gemini AI was programmed and designed to be this way. It isn’t a technical glitch that ensured the most DEI-compliant responses to queries; it’s the ideology that clearly pervades the company—and has for many years. Remember way back in 2017 when Google engineer James Damore was fired by his employer for sending around an internal memo about how the company’s diversity policies were creating an ideological echo chamber? Gemini is the latest fruit of that echo chamber‚ an attempt to shape the world around extreme left-wing narratives. It’s meant to be a tool for our modern‚ ideologically compromised elite institutions to expunge disagreement and information that might lead to different conclusions about reality. They will do this by carefully scrubbing and shaping the places where most people find their information. It’s the corruption and hostile takeover of a global‚ digital town hall. Gemini AI is to be the left-wing gatekeeper of information and ideas. It’s your guide to ensure you stay on the politically correct path and will nudge you back every time you stray. In a sense‚ I’m glad Gemini launched as horribly as it did. First‚ it shows just how much of an extreme ideological cocoon the Big Tech world is to think that its AI program wouldn’t appear biased. Second‚ it’s a warning of what’s to come when Googlers find ways to make their social engineering stealthier‚ but likely more insidious. Google may be too big to fail in the way that Budweiser did after angering their customers with its misbegotten‚ but short-lived embrace of a transgender “influencer.”  Google’s search engine is a hard-to-replicate product‚ unlike beer. But the mask has really slipped‚ and it will be hard to convince customers of its lack of bias in the competitive era of AI. Google inadvertently turned up the heat on the frog just a bit too much before the pot boiled. So‚ in a sense‚ it’s a good thing that its AI started off so sloppy and absurd. We can see them for what they really are. Have an opinion about this article? To sound off‚ please email letters@DailySignal.com and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state. The post Google’s Woke Gemini AI Underscores Threat of Big Tech Information Gatekeepers appeared first on The Daily Signal.

“The cyberthreat posed by the Chinese government is massive.” That was FBI Director Christopher Wray‚ speaking at a recent security conference in Munich‚ warning of new cyberattacks from China. And not just from the outside‚ which would be bad enough. Mr. Wray singled out the Chinese Communist Party hacking group Volt Typhoon‚ which the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency notes is lurking in critical infrastructure across our country. Volt Typhoon has already hacked key sectors including communications‚ energy and water. It may have the ability to access heating and air conditioning systems to overheat data servers‚ to cause blackouts by disrupting control rooms that regulate water and electricity‚ and to manipulate surveillance cameras at some of these facilities. Since 2021‚ Volt Typhoon has been exploiting critical infrastructure vulnerabilities by targeting networks protected by Fortinet’s FortiGuard security devices. By proxying traffic through outdated and compromised routers‚ hackers “live off the land” by remaining undetected while monitoring traffic and escalating their access privileges. In fact‚ Volt Typhoon persisted in some IT environments for over five years while extracting sensitive information from in-memory data employing tools such as Magnet RAM Capture. The severity of this threat was underscored in December when the Justice Department disrupted a Chinese botnet embedded in older routers‚ shedding light on the extensive reach of such cyber intrusions. One study by the consulting company Forrester revealed an even grimmer reality: nearly 80% of organizations using supervisory control and data acquisition or industrial control systems have reported security breaches in the past two years. This is not the first instance of Chinese cyberespionage targeting American interests. Since 2006‚ a China-backed military hacking group termed APT1 orchestrated sophisticated attacks on American military contractors and critical infrastructure corporations. By 2013‚ the Pentagon had disclosed that APT1 had pilfered military contractor designs such as the Patriot‚ THAAD and Aegis missile systems‚ as well as aircraft designs including the F/A-18 Super Hornet‚ V-22 Osprey‚ Black Hawk helicopter‚ and F-35 joint strike fighter. In 2014‚ the FBI indicted five APT1 military hackers on charges of stealing information from critical infrastructure companies such as U.S. Steel‚ SolarWorld‚ and Westinghouse Electric over the prior decade. Moreover‚ the United States has also faced threats from Russia’s hacking group Cozy Bear‚ termed APT29. Demonstrating its ability to bypass American cybersecurity defenses‚ APT29 was responsible for the 2016 Democratic National Committee breach and the 2021 SolarWinds Orion hack. More recently‚ APT29 infiltrated Hewlett Packard Enterprise emails‚ according to 2023 filings from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The implications of these cyberattacks extend far beyond military and political repercussions. Moody’s designated critical infrastructure assets as “credit negative” last June due in part to the systemic risks posed by cyber vulnerabilities. Moreover‚ as evidenced by Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s power grid‚ the specter of cascading cyberattacks targeting geographically dispersed industrial operations looms large‚ with potentially catastrophic consequences for both Europe and the U.S. With its 3‚300 utilities and sprawling web of 5.5 million miles of distribution lines‚ the United States is particularly vulnerable to cyber incursions. CISA‘s energy sector plan‚ published in 2015‚ is woefully inadequate in detail and does not accurately portray our adversaries’ current capabilities. One particular risk‚ GPS spoofing‚ poses a significant threat of desynchronizing the power grid’s distribution systems leading to imbalanced voltages and sudden blackouts. To mitigate evolving threats‚ initiatives such as CISA‘s Cybersecurity Risk Information Sharing Program provide a baseline of normal network traffic. This baseline would check against sudden spikes in activity that a foreign entity would use to begin a cyberattack or exfiltrate information. The Department of Homeland Security‚ however‚ has concluded that the voluntary program has limited capabilities as it does not provide cyber incident data in real time. CISA‘s incident playbook and free Cyber Security Evaluation Tool offer valuable resources for companies to reduce exposure to industrial control systems. Last‚ CISA maintains an updated list of advisories on spyware to help cybersecurity IT professionals react to new cyber-exploits. There are dire implications for Russia and China making a strategic pivot from theft of military and scientific intellectual property to exploiting key infrastructure sectors and pre-positioning hidden cyberweapons. It’s imperative for the U.S. to implement robust measures to defend against the rising threat of cyber weapons and update the almost decade-old energy sector plan. Originally published by The Washington Times Have an opinion about this article? To sound off‚ please email letters@DailySignal.com and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state. The post Chinese Hackers Infiltrate America’s Critical Infrastructure appeared first on The Daily Signal.

“Happy Days” thought they had a great idea for juicing ratings back in 1977‚ featuring an episode where “the Fonz” jumped a real-life shark on water skis. It didn’t do much for the ratings of the show‚ but it did help coin a phrase. Today‚ “jumping the shark” denotes when something popular reaches a point where it may have exhausted most good ideas‚ so it does something so far-fetched or exaggerated to gain attention that it may indicate a peak and is now headed toward decline. Recently‚ Google unveiled an artificial intelligence image generation program that generated a huge amount of ridicule through an uproariously absurd mishandling of people’s races. While much hilarity ensued from Google’s misstep‚ the internet giant has nothing on public education‚ which has managed to emulate people racing through a minefield on pogo sticks for decades on racial issues. Google debuted an AI image generation program and decided to program it in such a way that it would not generate the image of a Caucasian‚ regardless of how hard anyone tried. As you might imagine‚ hilarity quickly ensued as users shared images that the program had generated of “the pope” that were South Asian women‚ Nazi soldiers who were black‚ and much‚ much more. After being on the raw end of a great deal of ridicule‚ Google suspended the image generation of people and mumbled something about readdressing its algorithm. Sadly‚ this occurred before your author could ask for a “Fonz jumping the shark” image. Yet public education’s racial algorithm has not been so quick to update. Unlike Google’s image of a Zulu chief as George Washington and other such absurdities‚ the ongoing racial problems of public education have very serious consequences and come in a wide variety. The list of race-based controversies in public schooling would be a proper topic for an encyclopedia rather than an essay‚ but de jure segregation by race in the past and de facto segregation by neighborhood today would sit at the top of the list. Performative and absurd curriculum that is focused more on performative indoctrination than substantive progress has been moving up the list recently. Rather than address real issues like racial achievement gaps‚ many districts seem eager to sweep them under a rug while pretending to address them. See‚ for instance‚ a recent controversial curriculum decision in Minnesota. Minnesota has been updating its social studies curriculum and included the following: Ways of Knowing and Methodologies: The student will use ethnic and indigenous studies methods and sources in order to understand the roots of contemporary systems of oppression and apply lessons from the past in order to eliminate historical and contemporary injustices. I’m happy to be of assistance in helping Minnesota’s public school system understand some of its historical and contemporary injustices. It has famously had a huge achievement gap between black and white students. On the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress‚ also known as the Nation’s Report Card‚ fourth grade black students in Minnesota have reading scores that one might expect first grade white students to achieve. Moreover‚ things have been getting worse rather than better—black fourth grade reading scores declined almost two grade levels between 2013 and 2022. “Contemporary systems of oppression” are in the eye of the beholder. I’m not sure whether the Nation’s Report Card qualifies as “indigenous studies methods and sources” but it does represent a highly esteemed data source. If Minnesota officials would prefer to indoctrinate their students rather than teaching them to read‚ a mirror will quickly reveal the oppressors of their students. Have an opinion about this article? To sound off‚ please email letters@DailySignal.com‚ and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state. The post Google AI’s Attempt to ‘Solve’ Racial ‘Injustice’ Highlights Left’s Wrongheaded Approach to Race appeared first on The Daily Signal.

There are some dog breeds that stand out above the rest in terms of popularity. In the US‚ the number one most registered dog is Labrador Retrievers‚ a title they've held for decades‚ according to the American Kennel Club. Joybird decided to look not at registered dogs‚ but rather internet searches to analyze what breeds pique the most interest state-by-state. You may think that Californians are... Source

They might be one of the most iconic rock bands of the last forty years‚ but for KISS‚ those decades on the world stage have been anything but boring. Newcomers to rock might only know them for their make-up and costumes‚ but hardcore fans know that with fame comes rumors‚ myths‚ and scandals. As KISS embarks on their final farewell tour‚ stop here first and find out everything you didn' Source

Vultures often get a bad rap because they eat decaying flesh‚ have a creepy appearance‚ and seem to soar overhead for hours just waiting for animals to die. But the truth is that vultures are nature's clean-up crew and are a very important part of the earth's ecological system. There are many reasons why vultures don't deserve the reputation they have. After reading this article‚ we' Source