Feedback is often both baffled and intrigued by the tricks advertisers will pull to try to sell things, but the latest gambit seems designed to wrong-foot: deliberately odd capitalisation and bad grammar.
During our time spent mucking around on our smartphone, Feedback has repeatedly seen ads for a mobile game that promises the “Hardest LEvel in the HisTory”. We have SPent days tRYing to Work out wHy it looks like thaT.
The game in question is called Go Climb! It is a puzzle game in which a group of mountaineers ascending a peak have got their safety lines tangled and the player must untangle them. So it is, essentially, the back of Feedback’s TV, except it has been gamified and is also at least somewhat possible to solve.
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Feedback initially wondered if this was a case of non-English-speaking developers skimping on translation costs. There is precedent for this: back in 1991, the Japanese space shooter Zero Wing was released in Europe with a notoriously shonky translation. As a result, in the introductory cutscene, an alien invader announced: “All your base are belong to us.” After this was rediscovered in the late 1990s, it became one of the most widely shared internet memes of the time.
However, a closer look at Go Climb! suggests something else is going on. It is made by a company called FOMO Games. The firm is based in Turkey, but its staff clearly have an excellent command of English, as evidenced by the information provided about all its other games, not to mention the gloriously corporate text on its website explaining that “FOMO stands for Fear Of Missing Out, which defines our product vision and culture.”
Instead, Feedback suspects the bad English is intentionally designed to get our attention. In line with this, the advert has other odd features that add to the off-kilter feeling. Notably, in it, the mountaineers from the game are replaced with astronauts in spacesuits drifting around against a starry backdrop, so the game’s title makes absolutely no sense. It was only when we looked at the game in an app store that the mountaineering theme was revealed and things became clear.
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This seems to be a new and devilish way to advertise a product online: purposely make a complete hash of your ad and hope this intrigues people enough to get them to click through.
And on some level it worked, because here we are. But Feedback hasn’t downloaded the game. On principle, we don’t believe in rewarding deliberately bad spelling.
Monkeys in politics
At the time of writing, the US presidential election is imminent and Feedback is trapped in an endless cycle of news stories reporting polls, pundits endlessly reinterpreting said polls, and then more polls. It is a terribly long-winded way of saying “we don’t know what’s going to happen”.
Now, our colleague Alexandra Thompson has highlighted an important new contribution to the field of psephological forecasting: a paper titled “Monkeys predict US elections“.
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Sadly, this doesn’t involve placing an infinite number of monkeys into voting booths. Instead, researchers showed monkeys pairs of photos of candidates from senatorial and gubernatorial elections.
The monkeys spent more time looking at the losers than at the winners. This seems like a peculiar form of torture for politicians: not only did you lose, it says, but monkeys stared at you judgmentally.
The study extended previous work showing that children can identify the winners and losers in elections based purely on photos of the candidates. Both the children and the monkeys were picking based on face shape, with square jawlines being the key sign of an improved chance of victory.
Who would do such a study? Three of the researchers are at the University of Pennsylvania, but the fourth is based at a Portuguese institution called the Champalimaud Center for the Unknown. Feedback isn’t quite sure what to make of that.
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It does seem that unconscious factors play into our voting decisions. It is often claimed that taller candidates tend to win US elections, and there appears to be some truth to this.
A 2013 study pulled data on all US presidential elections to date and found that taller candidates won more of the popular vote – although this didn’t translate to them being more likely to actually be elected. In what can only be described as double nominative determinism, one of the authors is a social psychologist called Abraham Buunk.
Readers who are invested in the outcome of the US election are hereby advised: whatever you do, don’t look up Donald Trump’s and Kamala Harris’s respective heights.
One more for the road
In such stressful times, like many people, Feedback has turned to the soothing alternative reality of The Great British Bake Off (The Great British Baking Show, if you are in North America).
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There are all sorts of fascinating and delicious things to learn about the materials science of breads, cakes and biscuits, but we just want to point out that the show’s home economist, who produces all the sample biscuits, tarts and desserts for the technical challenges, is called Hattie Baker.
Starting today, Google’s ChromeOS 130 update with Quick Insert, Focus Mode, Welcome Recap, and other features is rolling out. Chromebook Plus models with NPU also get exclusive special features in 130, such as the new recorder app with AI, enhanced mic, camera effects, and Gemini AI tools like “help me read” summaries.
There’s a long list of changes in 130, but here are some highlights. Quick Insert is a way to add emoji, GIFs, or links to recently visited sites and access AI features from a menu. On most devices, that means using the launcher or Google button plus f on your keyboard. The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus is the first Chromebook to replace the launcher key with a new button that activates Quick Insert with a single press, but more devices launching next year will have it, too.
Focus Mode lets you activate do not disturb and schedule time to reduce distractions while you work, while Welcome Recap is an opt-in feature that summarizes whatever you were doing last so you can reopen apps and tabs to get back to work quickly.
Strands is the NYT’s latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it’s great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
Your Strands expert
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Your Strands expert
Marc McLaren
NYT Strands today (game #243) – hint #1 – today’s theme
What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?
• Today’s NYT Strands theme is… Strategy game
NYT Strands today (game #243) – hint #2 – clue words
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
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NYT Strands today (game #243) – hint #3 – spangram
What is a hint for today’s spangram?
• Grandmaster’s move
NYT Strands today (game #243) – hint #4 – spangram position
What are two sides of the board that today’s spangram touches?
First: top, 3rd column
Last: bottom, 5th column
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
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NYT Strands today (game #243) – the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today’s Strands, game #243, are…
QUEEN
KING
ROOK
TIMER
BISHOP
PAWN
KNIGHT
BOARD
SPANGRAM: CHECKMATE
My rating: Easy
My score: Perfect
I’d love to really get into chess one day, to learn the various openings and strategies to be able to hold my own. Until then, I’ll have to content myself with completing this chess-themed Strands game in record-quick time. It really was very easy. As soon as I found QUEEN it was obvious what the others words would be, and I’ve played chess often enough that I didn’t have to wrack my brains to recall KING, ROOK, BISHOP, PAWN and KNIGHT. CHECKMATE indeed.
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Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Thursday, 31 October, game #242)
GHOST
MUMMY
WITCH
CLOWN
PUMPKIN
PRINCESS
PIRATE
SPANGRAM: COSTUME
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT’s new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It’s now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT’s games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I’ve got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you’re struggling to beat it each day.
The messaging app Snapchat is the most widely-used platform for online grooming, according to police figures supplied to the children’s charity the NSPCC.
More than 7,000 Sexual Communication with a Child offences were recorded across the UK in the year to March 2024 – the highest number since the offence was created.
Snapchat made up nearly half of the cases where the platform used for the grooming was recorded by the police.
The NSPCC said it showed society was “still waiting for tech companies to make their platforms safe for children.”
Snapchat told the BBC it had “zero tolerance” of the sexual exploitation of young people, and had extra safety measures in place for teens and their parents.
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Becky Riggs, the National Police Chief’s Council lead for child protection, described the data as “shocking.”
“It is imperative that the responsibility of safeguarding children online is placed with the companies who create spaces for them, and the regulator strengthens rules that social media platforms must follow,” she added.
Groomed at the age of 8
The gender of the victims of grooming offences was not always recorded by police, but of the cases where it was known, four in five victims were girls.
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Nicki – whose real name the BBC is not using – was eight when she was messaged on a gaming app by a groomer who encouraged her to go on to Snapchat for a conversation.
“I don’t need to explain details, but anything that you can imagine happening happened in those conversation – videos, pictures. Requests of certain material from Nicki, etcetera,” her mother, who the BBC is calling Sarah, explained.
She then created a fake Snapchat profile pretending to be her daughter and the man messaged – at which point she contacted the police.
She now checks her daughter’s devices and messages on a weekly basis, despite her daughter objecting.
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“It’s my responsibility as mum to ensure she is safe,” she told the BBC.
She said parents “cannot rely” on apps and games to do that job for them.
That is “something that adults are likely to exploit when they’re looking to groom children,” says Rani Govender, child safety online policy manager at the NSPCC.
But Ms Govender says there are also “problems with the design of Snapchat which are also putting children at risk.”
Messages and images on Snapchat disappear after 24 hours – making incriminating behaviour harder to track – and senders also know if the recipient has screengrabbed a message.
Ms Govender says the NSPCC hears directly from children who single out Snapchat as a concern.
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“When they make a report [on Snapchat], this isn’t listened to, and that they’re able to see extreme and violent content on the app as well,” she told the BBC.
A Snapchat spokesperson told the BBC the sexual exploitation of young people was “horrific.”
“If we identify such activity, or it is reported to us, we remove the content, disable the account, take steps to prevent the offender from creating additional accounts, and report them to the authorities,” they added.
Record offending
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The instances of recording grooming has been increasing since the offence of Sexual Communication with a Child came into force in 2017, reaching a new record high of 7,062 this year.
Of the 1,824 cases where the platform was known last year, 48% were recorded on Snapchat.
The number of grooming offences recorded on Snapchat has risen each year since 2018/19.
Reported grooming offences on WhatsApp also rose slightly in the past year. On Instagram and Facebook, known cases have fallen over recent years, according to the figures. All three platforms are owned by Meta.
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WhatsApp told the BBC it has “robust safety measures” in place to protect people on its app.
Jess Phillips, minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, said social media companies “have a responsibility to stop this vile abuse from happening on their platforms”.
In a statement, she added: “Under the Online Safety Act they will have to stop this kind of illegal content being shared on their sites, including on private and encrypted messaging services or face significant fines.”
The Online Safety Act includes a legal requirement for tech platforms to keep children safe.
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From December, big tech firms will have to publish their risk assessments on illegal harms on their platforms.
Media regulator Ofcom, which will enforce those rules, said: “Our draft codes of practice include robust measures that will help prevent grooming by making it harder for perpetrators to contact children.
“We’re prepared to use the full extent of our enforcement powers against any companies that come up short when the time comes.”
As it continues its painstaking search for microbial life on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover has also been reporting other other-worldly happenings occurring during its adventures.
Just recently, for example, one of its many onboard cameras captured some remarkable footage of a solar eclipse as Phobos — one of Mars’ two moons — passed between the red planet and the sun.
“Ever feel like someone’s watching you?” Perseverance said in a post on social media that included the video of Phobos. “That’s how I felt when I observed this transit of the martian moon Phobos! The pupil in this ‘googly eye’ is the potato-shaped moon, and the iris is our sun.”
Ever feel like someone's watching you?
That's how I felt when I observed this transit of the Martian moon Phobos! The pupil in this "googly eye" is the potato-shaped moon, and the iris is our Sun. Learn more: https://t.co/jUYoXY1jpKpic.twitter.com/7izVWOHEPH
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— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) October 30, 2024
“Captured by the rover’s Mastcam-Z on September 30, the 1,285th martian day of Perseverance’s mission, the event took place when the potato-shaped moon passed directly between the sun and a point on the surface of Mars, obscuring a large part of the Sun’s disc,” NASA’s JET Propulsion Laboratory, which is overseeing the rover mission, said in a post on its website. “At the same time that Phobos appeared as a large black disc rapidly moving across the face of the sun, its shadow, or antumbra, moved across the planet’s surface.”
Named after the god of fear and panic in Greek mythology by astronomer Asaph Hall in 1877, Phobos is about 157 times smaller in diameter than Earth’s moon, and is only about 17 miles (27 kilometers) at its widest point, compared to the 2,159.2 miles (3,475 kilometers) of Earth’s moon.
NASA’s Mars rovers have been capturing footage of Phobos since 2004, providing scientists with plenty of data to learn more about it. For example, it’s been found that Phobos’ orbit is almost perfectly in line with Mars’ equator and relatively close to the planet’s surface, causing a fast orbit in which it loops around Mars in a mere 7.6 hours. Phobos is moving closer to Mars by about six feet every 100 years, a descent that suggests it will collide with the planet — or break up due to gravitational stresses — in about 50 million years’ time.
There are a variety of email apps for Android on the Play Store. Several developers of the major desktop email clients have developed versions for mobile devices. However, there is one in particular from Mozilla that, after more than two decades, was still lost from the ecosystem. That just changed with the release of an official Thunderbird app for Android.
After a long wait, Thunderbird receives an official app for Android
The name Mozilla probably sounds familiar to you, as it is the developer of the popular Firefox web browser. The nonprofit foundation is also responsible for other useful open-source tools. In addition to Firefox, Mozilla offers Thunderbird as a fairly popular email client. The primary focus of the app was desktop computers and laptops. Now, Mozilla is changing its strategy by releasing an official version of its email client for Android.
Interestingly, Firefox has had a mobile app for years, so it’s intriguing that it took so long for Thunderbird to have one. Anyway, the wait is finally over. Mozilla had already released a beta version of the official Thunderbird app for Android in early October. It seems that everything went well during the beta, as it didn’t take Mozilla long to roll out a stable version for everyone.
App developed on the K-9 email client code
It’s noteworthy that Thunderbird isn’t exactly a development from scratch. Its developers built it on the open-source code of K-9, a veteran email app that Mozilla acquired. Mozilla has been working on the Thunderbird app for Android since 2022 with direct collaboration from the original K-9 team. So, if you were a K-9 user back in the day, you might see some similar features. However, everything looks much more modern, and the new client includes a plethora of new options inherited from the desktop client.
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If you want to give Thunderbird a try, you can download it from the Play Store right now.
Hydrogen-powered vehicles haven’t really caught on as an alternative means of eco-friendly transportation. Hyundai, however, hopes to fix that with a bigger investment in the technology and its newest hydrogen-powered concept SUV called the .
Hyundai announced it plans to start production on the hydrogen SUV in the first half of next year. The Initium can run approximately 404 miles on a single refueling and can also run on electric power as a backup that can be recharged from a household electricity supply. The vehicle will also make its public debut at the LA Auto Show and Auto Guangzhou in China next month. It’s not yet confirmed where the cars will be available when they go on sale so a US launch isn’t guaranteed.
The Initium may just be a concept car for now but Hyundai seems committed to bringing its newest hydrogen car to drivers quickly, even if the fuel source hasn’t made nearly as many strides towards widespread acceptance as electric options. The South Korean carmaker is planning on investing $4 billion to develop its hydrogen vehicle technology and infrastructure to meet its complete carbon neutrality goal by 2045 with cars like the Initium and unveiled last year.
Hydrogen may be an efficient alternative to gasoline but it still has a ways to go to be competitive with electric vehicles (and that’s without acknowledging the continued prevalence of gasoline-powered cars). There are only 59 hydrogen charging stations in the US with most of them in California, according to the . There are only a handful of carmakers who still offer a hydrogen powered option including Hyundai () and Toyota (). Honda used to offer a hydrogen car with The Clarity but it ended production in 2021, according to .
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