Activision-Blizzard refuses to formally recognize the Game Workers Alliance, the proposed union of Raven Software's QA team, forcing a National Labor Relations Board election process.

Days ago, 34 people at Raven Software's QA team formally asked Activision-Blizzard to recognize their newly-formed union. The Game Workers Alliance, the QA testers became collectively known, would be the first video games union in the United States.

Activision-Blizzard refused to recognize the union through this initial declaration. Now The Game Workers Alliance has to go through the NLRB election process in order to be legally certified as a union.

Halo Infinite could get crossover content from the Halo TV show, possibly new weapons, vehicles, and cosmetic armor sets.

Today 343 Industries revealed a ton of new info about the upcoming Halo TV show, which is set to premiere on Paramount+ sometime soon. The post mentions a lot of interesting points like confirming the SPARTAN-II programs grisly, dark origins will be a part of the show, and also touches on the show's new divergent timeline.

The Halo TV show takes place in the "Silver" timeline, which is a separate and parallel timeline that exists outside of the base Halo canon. (Silver is also the name of the show's fireteam--Chief was part of Blue Team in the original canon). This gives 343i lots of room to bend and manipulate timelines and events to make things more show-friendly.

AT&T added over 13 million subscribers to HBO Max and HBO throughout 2021, close to Netflix's adds.

AT&T just reported its Q4 and full-year financials that outline revenue and subscription growth across the company. Throughout its WarnerMedia entertainment branch the company added a combined 13.1 million subscribers across HBO and HBO Max--the largest surge in paid premium subscribers in the history of the service.

"We also surpassed our high-end guidance for global HBO Max and HBO subscribers, adding 13.1 million subscribers in 2021, more than any year in HBO's history. HBO Max and HBO now reaches a base of 73.8 million subscribers globally. WarnerMedia is well positioned as a dynamic global business," AT&T John Stankey said in the Q4 earnings call.

Valve's Steam Deck hasn't been delayed again, and will start shipping to buyers and the very end of February.

Today Valve announced Steam Deck reservations will start redemption on February 25. Users who pre-ordered a first wave Steam Deck will have 3 days to complete the purchase. If you don't pay for your reservation it will be passed down to the next person.

The first wave of Steam Deck handheld PCs will start shipping out on February 28, 2022 and open up a new dimension of PC gaming on-the-go experiences powered by a custom AMD Zen 2 + RDNA 2 SoC capable of serious handheld performance and compatibility with practically every Steam game on the market.

It's happening... it's finally happening -- Crytek is making a next-gen Crytek game, right in the middle of a pandemic-fueled GPU shortage.

Crytek announced Crysis 4 out of nowhere, saying: "It's something you have been asking us for a long time, so it's now finally time to confirm - yes, the next Crysis game is happening! We are so pleased and excited to bring this news to you, and we really can't wait to reveal more details about what lies ahead".

The developer continues: "Right now the game is in the early stages of development so it will be a while yet, but we wanted to bring you the news at this time as we are so hyped for the future, and to let you know that we will be listening to our community".

A new study describing the link was published in the journal Genome Research.

The genes that could extend the lifespan of small organisms, such as fruit flies living ten percent longer, have now been found by the University College London (UCL) researchers to demonstrate a similar effect in humans. The genes are related to the creation of proteins in our cells and appear to be an example of antagonistic pleiotropy, where genes that help us in early life and through to child-bearing are selected for by evolution, despite ultimately shortening our lives.

"We have already seen from extensive previous research that inhibiting certain genes involved in making proteins in our cells, can extend lifespan in model organisms such as yeast, worms and flies. However, in humans, loss of function in these genes has been seen to cause diseases, such as developmental disorders known as ribosomopathies. Here, we have found that inhibiting these genes may also increase longevity in people, perhaps because they are most useful early in life before causing problems in late life," said co-lead author Dr. Nazif Alic from the UCL Institute of Healthy Ageing.

The fetus was found inside the "Mysterious Lady" mummy from the Warsaw Mummy Project.

The fetus was discovered last year using a CT scanner, with the research team's findings being published in Journal of Archaeological Science, with a follow-up study now being published as well. The mummy was a member of the Theban community and was estimated to have died between 20 and 30 years of age while pregnant with a fetus between 26 and 30 weeks old. It is the only case ever found of an embalmed pregnant mummy.

The mummy was originally moved out of Egypt in 1826, but its true origins are unknown. The researchers found the mother did not die in childbirth. The fetus was remarkably well preserved but was not immediately found using X-rays during prior research, as its bones had mineralized. The mummification techniques used resulted in dropping blood pH levels, making the blood in the fetus more acidic, which led to the mineralization of the bones.

Canada has had a federal carbon tax since early 2019.

According to many politicians, economists, and activists, taxing corporations and consumers on their carbon emissions can effectively tackle climate change. Implementing these policies doesn't come without controversy, however, leading to revenue from the tax often being relayed to citizens in the form of income-tax credits or rebates.

Published in Nature Climate Change are the findings of a new survey of citizens of Canada, where these carbon-tax credits are issued. 17% of those surveyed across Ontario and Saskatchewan, and between 33 and 36 percent in B.C. and Quebec were unaware if they'd received any rebates. The rebates won't affect the perception of the carbon tax policies if it isn't apparent to the public they are receiving any benefits.

A new study published in the journal AVS Quantum Science describes the necessary conditions.

The research team created a tool to determine how big a quantum computer needs to be to solve two different problems: breaking the encryption of Bitcoin and simulating the molecule responsible for biological nitrogen fixation. Such a quantum computer would also need to be error-corrected, allowing for longer algorithms to be run at the cost of requiring more physical qubits.

"Our tool automates the calculation of the error-correction overhead as a function of key hardware specifications. To make the quantum algorithm run faster, we can perform more operations in parallel by adding more physical qubits. We introduce extra qubits as needed to reach the desired runtime, which is critically dependent on the rate of operations at the physical hardware level," said Mark Webber of the University of Sussex.

A new report from the United Nations (UN) analyses the E-waste situation in Latin America.

The report found that across 13 Latin American countries, electronic waste rose by 49% between 2010 and 2019, roughly equivalent to the world average, but only 3% of it was collected and safely managed compared to the 17.4% global average. In 2019, 206 million citizens in the 13 countries generated 1.3 megatonnes of e-waste, with roughly 30% coming from plastic.

"E-waste constitutes one of the fastest-growing streams of physical waste in today's global environment and is a threat to sustainable development," the report says.