MPGH News - 203rd Edition

**[MPGH]Hova** · 05-17-2018

203rd Edition - May 17th, 2018
Snapple Fact: The average bolt of lightning contains enough energy to toast 100,000 pieces of bread.

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52 dead and over 1,200 wounded amid fury over opening of US embassy
Israeli forces opened fire on demonstrators in Gaza on Monday, killing dozens and injuring more than 1,200 people protesting the Monday opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem. As bodies fell on the border Monday, March 14th 2018 became the bloodiest day in Gaza since the 2014 war. But US and Israeli officials celebrated the opening of the embassy. The opening of the embassy has marked a crucial day in advancing peace between Israel and Palestine according secretary of the state Mike Pompeo. While the protests were on going the United Nations human rights experts urged Israel to halt excessive force against Palestinian protesters. The Amnesty International accused Israel of violating international Law. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) insisted, however, that is was following protocol. The IDF said it killed three “terrorists” and struck five probably saving countless of lives. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military was acting in self-defense. “Every country has an obligation to defend its borders,”. Protests are quieting down in Gaza but they are expected to return tomorrow, a significant day for the Great March of Return movement on Tuesday, March 15th 2018.

Ebola keeps coming back
It looks like Ebola is back and now It has popped up in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Ebola virus has been linked to over 30 cases and a number of deaths since the 4th of april, although only 2 of the deaths have been confirmed as Ebola. Everyone remembers what happened in West Africa a couple of years ago and that's why experts are trying their hardest to keep it from getting out of control again. Because even the smallest amount of bodily fluid can cause a rapid spread in the disease. It's said that the main host of the disease is the fruit bat, but it is also found in other animals and humans after they come in contact with bodily fluids from infected animals, that's why Ebola is so hard to get rid of. As long as there are infected animals then the disease could come back at any time.

https://bbc.com/news/health-44070470

Acram Digital games removed from Steam for review manipulation
Once again Valve booted off another developer who tried to game the system by submitting positive reviews for his own products. Steam is always trying to defend the legitimacy of its user reviews, which are very important in the world of PC gaming. Good reviews help raise good games visibility in a very crowded marketplace and ultimately help them sell more copies. Acram Digital , they make digital adaptations of board games for various platforms, have been removed from Steam along with two games they had published on Steam, Eight-Minute Empire and Steam: Rails to Riches because a member of Acram staff took it upon himself to post multiple positive reviews for their games. Valve have received a number of review manipulation reports on those two titles and upon investigation, they have found that the developer, Grzegorz Kubas, was guilty of trying to inflate the user review score for his titles. The developer announced an apology stating "It came from my frustration of a few bad, unfair reviews on Valve's Steam only" and he'd want to blame himself for that mistake as the team had nothing to do with it.

Google Duplex, the most lifelike Assistant yet.
During Google's annual developer conference, Google I/O 2018, viewers all around the world got to witness what Google had been working on the last couple of years. CEO Sundar Pichai demonstrated with a recording of two telephone conversations, what Google Duplex and the Google Assistant were capable of. In these two demos, the A.I. was able to handle tasks in a realistic, human manner without making any errors. Such as restaurant reservations and different types of bookings. It even used sub-vocals such as "mm-hm" and "er," and could match or even imitate real human voices. This certainly amazed the audiences worldwide but it failed to demonstrate what the legal issues were of the A.I. such as identifying that the caller was an actual robot. Many also saw Ethical issues with Google Duplex as it fools the other receiving end into thinking that they were having a human conversation. This summer, testing will begin for the Google Duplex and Google Assistant.

Sr3mm - Rae Sremmurd
Rae Sremmurd weren't really seen as the most talented or even noticed very much until their second album and their hit single "Black Beatles". In this album is evident what they duo was going for, they want to show they're capable of mastering their sound not only together but also as separate artists. While I can tell this project is made to be a development piece for the duo, I think it came at the wrong time. Not too long ago fans of the hip-hop community sat through the incredibly long Migos album "Culture II", and now we're delivered this 27 track, 3 tape album. Yes I said that correctly, there are 27 tracks on this monstrous hour and 45 minute triple album. While there were some tracks I throughly enjoyed, they were masked by the quantity of music on this thing. I understand that the duo threw the triple album together instead of separate so it would rack up better play records on Spotify and Apple Music, but from a musical stand point it's very frustrating. Now let's get into the music.
We'll start with "Sr3mm" which is the first of the 3 albums in this monster. "Sr3mm" is unique and stands out from the previous records from Rae Sremmurd. I think this album was the most well put together of the 3 and personally my favorite of the 3. The sound is crisp, there's great features including Travis Scott and The Weeknd. "Sr3mm" sounds like what we wanted the duo to produce and they've done it.

Swaecation - Swae Lee
Moving on to the second album in the triple album, "Swaecation". "Swaecation" is the solo project for Swae Lee. I went into this very hopeful, and was expecting this to be the best of the 3 albums seeing as I prefer Swae Lee of Slim Jxmmi anyday, but I was disappointed. "Swaecation" is anything but interesting. Spacey beats mixed with Swae harmonizing and almost whining the whole time just didn't do it for me. It becomes hard to listen to after a while. The same elements being used and focused on for around 6 of the tracks used in this 2nd album. I will give it to Swar though, "Guatemala", the 5th song on "Swaecation" is nice and I took it as a part 2 to the popular song "Unforgettable" by French Montana and Swae.

Jxmtro - Slim Jxmmi
Now on to the final album of the 3. "Jxmtro" as expected is Slim Jxmmi's solo project. Personally I have never been a fan of Slim Jxmmi's flow, but I like this album. I could see the progression of an artist and it made me enjoy the album more than I thought I would have. One mega issue with "Jxmtro" is the Pharrell feature.. I don't think Pharrell has made a worse appearance in his life than he did in this track. As Anthony Fantano (youtube's music nerd) said, if you're a Pharrell fan and would like to stay a Pharrell fan do not listen to the song featuring him.

Overall I give Sr3mm a 6 / 10
Swaecation a 3 / 10
Jxmtro a 5 / 10
Not the best albums I've ever heard, but far from the worst. You can listen to Sr3mm here.

Lewis Hamilton wins Spanish Grand Prix to stretch lead in F1 title race
After four races to open the Formula One season that have at times ebbed and flowed with a glorious unpredictability, it is not entirely surprising that it should be the sport’s long-standing test track that should return a flawless and dominant processional victory for Lewis Hamilton. But it was a win his team identified as crucial to his self-belief and confidence for his title defence. For the British driver and Mercedes this was the controlled and perfectly orchestrated race they have craved all season. It was in stark contrast to Ferrari, whose tactics proved costly, with Sebastian Vettel’s fourth place dropping him 17 points behind Hamilton in the title fight. Valtteri Bottas backed his team-mate up in second, concluding Mercedes’ first one-two of the season, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen taking his first podium of the year in third. After dominating in the season opener at Melbourne but failing to win after Vettel took advantage of a late virtual safety car, Mercedes admitted a software error had caused the miscalculation that had cost Hamilton. Since then they have struggled, largely with optimising the tyre temperature operating window but in Barcelona it clicked perfectly, especially for Hamilton who finished 20 seconds up the road from his team-mate. Hamilton leaves Barcelona with the assured calm he has been looking for since reeling from that shell-shocked second in Melbourne.

Daniel Ricciardo was fifth in the second Red Bull; Magnussen in the Haas in sixth; Renault’s Carlos Sainz in seventh. Fernando Alonso managed further points in eighth, with Force India’ Sergio Pérez in ninth. Sauber’s Charles Leclerc put in another sterling performance to claim a point in 10th. Kimi Raikkonen was forced to retire his Ferrari with an engine problem on lap 25.

NBA playoffs 2018: Kevin Durant drops 37, Warriors take down Rockets in Game 1 of Western Conference finals
The Golden State Warriors began a playoff series on the road for the first time since 2014, but they had no trouble getting a win, as they took down the Houston Rockets, 119-106 in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals. It was an exciting, entertaining first half that featured both teams going back and forth before entering the break tied at 56-56. But coming out of the locker room, the Warriors used one of their patented third-quarter bursts to take control of the game. The Rockets kept things from getting out of control, and had things within striking distance for much of the rest of the way. But the Warriors were never really in danger of losing their lead, and held on for the win.
Kevin Durant was simply unstoppable in this one, finishing with 37 points on 14 of 27 shooting, while Klay Thompson added 28 thanks to six 3-pointers. As for the Rockets, Harden led the way with 41 points and Chris Paul scored 23.

Snapchatters, how do you like the sound of unskippable video ads?
Hey, Snapchatters, how do you like the idea of six-second ads that you can’t skip through?
Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is looking for ways to finally turn a profit, and so on Monday, it started running unskippable ads in a selection of Snapchat Shows. The first ones are promoting movies such as “Deadpool”...

Snap apparently considers six seconds as a sweet spot for both users and advertisers, giving the latter enough time to get their message across before the average user becomes disengaged. And the longer the ad runs, the more Snap can charge. With Snap currently struggling with user growth, the company will be watching carefully to see how its community responds to unskippable ads. Following the outcry over more substantial changes to the platform in recent months, it really can’t afford another rebellion among its user base.

If you ask me 6 seconds is very long..

Facebook's dating app
Mark Zuckerberg finally announces a dating app for Facebook at an F8 conference. It will be optional
in the near future to make a free dating profile on your already existing profile, you won't be suggested
to people that you are friends with and your friends won't be able to see your dating profile.

“This is going to be for building real, long-term relationships, not just hook-ups”, Mark Zuckerberg said.

It seems odd that Facebook is making a dating feature just now even though they are fully aware that
a lot of people have begun relationships from Facebook and they have the analytics and data to
connect you to these people that you could have long-term relationships with,
it's almost like they had it as a trump card and used it for the Cambridge scandal.

Hasta la vista Tinder

Realm of the Mad God Hacks & Cheats
Are you banned from running organized lost halls for hacking? Are you unable to obtain the location of the floof train? Do you not have a single dime to spare on buying keys? With this issue's Hack of the Week, you shall be able to do all three of them! The newly released RealmTrack is a plugin made for N-Relay, that allows you to tracks both players and items in players' inventory. Using this, you are able to easily able to obtain the location of fame trainers, shatters or lost halls run organizers, or anyone with a key in their inventory. A simple and easy to follow explanation on the set up is provided as well. Instructions on how to minimize your chances of getting banned while using this is provided as well. As always, we must remind you to use these hacks safely, and be sure to check this hack out and happy hacking!

Thread

Woman pays $5k to put piercing in eye ball.
A doctor has recorded the tense moment he surgically implanted a platinum piece of jewellery into a patient's eyeball. Emil Chynn filmed himself performing the nail-biting procedure, which required the insertion of a 3mm-by-4mm-wide platinum heart into the patient's eyeball, at Park Avenue LASEK Surgery, New York. The five-minute procedure is said to be rather pain-free and takes only three days to heal after the conjunctiva seals. After three days the patient can't feel the less-than 1mm thick jewel, as it is carefully smoothened, polished and curved to conform to the natural shape of the eye. Dr Chynn firsts preps the patient by giving them a topical anesthetic and sterilizing the surface of the eyeball, lining a crosshair up to the part of the membrane the jewel is to be placed. With the crosshair in place, the doctor then cuts a small incision 3mm wide, which the jewel will slide into. The doctor, who has 20-years of experience under his belt, insists the jewel is almost impossible to have an allergic reaction to, as the body is able to accept this medical-grade of metal. The surgery offers different shapes of jewellery, such as hearts and stars, and can also be removed through a procedure that lasts around five minutes. Dr Chynn said: "This is a purely cosmetic surgery . There are only two or three people in the whole of the United States of America that have undergone this. "It is not widely sought and I'm performing less than one surgery per year, out of a population of over 325 million. "Eye jewellery was developed in Holland over a decade ago and has been successfully implanted into hundreds of patients' eyes in Europe without a single major complication or adverse event."

There's a snake in my pants!
South Carolina man was caught by police after running down a street naked at around 4:20AM. The 56 year old man claimed he was being chased by snakes. Police said “He advised that the snakes began to bite him while he was walking down the roadway,” “Due to the snakes biting him, he began to undress on the side of the road in plain view of motorists. He advised he then began running away from the snakes that were in his clothing.” The police report claims they could not find any snakes at the scene.