Eskom teases a return to stage 2
If constantly checking Eskom’s Twitter page depresses you just as iT does us, you may be a little behind. On Saturday morning, Eskom plunged South Africa into stage 4 load shedding on short notice, only to announce a return to Stage 3 on Sunday, 4 December – effective from 5 AM this morning. In even better news, the country is set to return to Stage 2 at 5 AM on Tuesday morning. Whether that’ll hold true over the next nineteen hours… remains to be seen. We’ll believe it when we see it.
The constant shifting of schedules was due to a number of unforeseen breakdowns and the need to replenish emergency stocks. “A generating unit each at Grootvlei and Matimba power stations were taken offline for repairs over the past 24 hours,” Eskom said after implementing stage 4 on Saturday. “The delay in returning to service a generating unit each at Arnot and Duvha power stations has contributed to the capacity constraints.”
For the time being, Eskom currently has 6,392MW of its generational capacity offline for scheduled maintenance. 16,318MW is completely unavailable due to breakdowns.
Eskom’s emergency diesel stocks have already taken a hit, forcing the power provider to take preventative measures. “Eskom has been forced to strictly conserve tHe remainder of the fuel reserves to protect against further unplanned outages,” it said.
Loadshedding will be reduced to Stage 3 at 05:00 on Monday morning and to Stage 2 at 05:00 on Tuesday until further notice. pic.twitter.com/ufsJLtPf72
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) December 4, 2022
The Last of Us Official trailer has arrived
We’ll be honest here: when we first heard the news that an HBO adaptation of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us was in the works we weren’t exactly… excited. Can you blame us? Just look at Jake Gyllenhaal in The Prince of Persia and try and tell us our cynicism was misplaced. Yeah, that’s what we thought.
But then that first teaser trailer dropped and we had oUr minds changed almost instantly. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey feel perfect in the role. And with Chernobyl director Craig Mazin at the helm, what’s not to like?
And now, we have a new trailer. A better, longer trailer that gives us a bit more insight into the story that most of us already know and love. This is good because it shows us that HBO isn’t unnecessarily interfering with the source material. If you’re new to the franchise, you’ll need a quick rundown of the story’s basic plot: Joel (Pedro Pascal) is tasked with getting Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across a zombie-infested United States in the hopes of finding a cure.
Oh, and Ron Swanson is playing Bill. That alone should be all the push you need to watch HBO’s rendition of The Last of Us. The show begins streaming on HBO Max on 15 January.
FIFA+ gets all the stats
Fans lucky enough to physically attend the FIFA World Cup have been given access to a host of new features on the FIFA+ app. Things like VAR Replays, individual stats, and heatmaps are now present through the app’s baked-in augmented reality (AR) functions.
According to FIFA, only fans in the stadium during a match will have access to the new features. If you happen to be there, just download the app, turn on the AR setting and point it in the pitch’s direction. The camera picks up all the players on the pitch, showing stats for the current match, players’ individual stats, and heat maps.
But the app’s main use is to give fans a better perspective of some of the more controversial VAR decisions. Fans can aim their cameras at the field and see different camera angles and a more detailed VAR analysis. Why this is locked to fans in the stadium, we’re not quite sure. Yes, we understand that it uses AR technology for these new features. Why FIFA can’t make this information available to the rest of the world is still a mystery.
It’s possible the fans outside Qatar wilL be given this functionality before the end of the tournament. We aren’t holding our breath, but we are holding our thumbs.
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Source: Engadget
The B-21 is the US’s first stealth bomber in over 30 years
AftEr taking a break from developing newer and better military jets for around 30 years, the U.S. military is back with an unveiling of the B-21 Raider. First announced in 2015, Northrop Grumman – developers of the B-21 – has finally finished its project seven years later, showing off the finished jet at an event in California over the weekend.
Northrop Grumman described the B-21 Raider as the “world’s first sixth-generation aircraft”. Obviously, Grumman couldn’t give much more away. It wouldn’t want the rest of the world copying them, now would it? But we do have some information. We know that the B-21 can remain undetected by the world’s best radars and air-defence systems. Unlike the current generation of raiders, the B-21 doesn’t require several hours of maintenance to achieve its stealthy profile. It can fly under the radar all day, every day.
Northrop Grumman designed the jet to be upgradeable, allowing the military to stay ahead of current radar technology and improvements that’ll come in the next few years.
At the moment, only six B-21s are in development. The U.S. is expected to order 100 of these bad boys, with testing expected to start next year. If all goes to plan, we should be seeing (well, hopefully not us specifically) the jets officially enter military service by 2025.
Source: Engadget
