The Biden-Harris campaign has launched a ‘Build Back Better’ map in Fortnite

No Malarkey Station appears in the Biden-Harris campaign’s new Fortnite map | Biden campaign

With just a few days to go before the November 3rd presidential election, former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign has launched a new custom map in Fortnite. First reported by Mashable, the “Build Back Better with Biden” map is located in “Reboot City,” and is aimed at promoting the campaign’s message that the environment and economy are connected. The solo-player, adventure-type map takes about 20 to 30 minutes to play, and made its debut Friday night.

“Our digital program is built around how people spend time, and the most effective ways reach them in those places,” Christian Tom, the Biden campaign’s director of digital partnerships said in a statement to The Verge. “We see interactive, digital-first experiences like gaming as an opportunity to bring our campaign to a new place and platform.”

The custom Fortnite map is a “substantive, approachable, and fun way to reach and mobilize voters,” Tom added. Signs around the map encourage players to visit makeaplan.com, and players can text “Fortnite” to 30330 to learn how to early-vote in person, drop off a ballot, or vote on Election Day.

Biden campaign

The Biden Fortnite map encourages you to vote

It’s not the Biden campaign’s first foray into the video game realm. Earlier this month, the campaign launched a virtual Biden field office for voters to visit in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, “an entire island on the platform where supporters can further connect with the campaign.” And in September, the campaign introduced Biden-Harris yard signs in ACNH.

In the Fortnite map, after players arrive via train at No Malarkey Station, there are six challenges related to the Biden-Harris agenda for players to complete, the campaign told The Verge:

• Help Build a New Research Facility at Champ’s Construction site: “Build a new research facility at the local historically Black college. Build to the top, and stay inside the blueprints.”
• Install 3 Scranton Towers: “Help install these new 5G Broadband towers to ensure every American has access to broadband,” with a shoutout to Biden’s birthplace of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
• Restore The Aviator River: “Race to collect industrial waste and restore the river. This challenge highlights Biden’s plan to mobilize the next generation of conservation and resilience workers through a Civilian Climate Corps.”
• Visit Joe’s Famous Ice Cream Shop: “slide down the colors (flavors) to get as much ice cream as you can.”
• Help make Major’s Auto Factory Run Clean: “They modified the line to produce electric cars and are now retrofitting the offices before reopening. Install new high efficiency AC units and unwrap the solar panels on the roof.”
• Complete Kamala’s Sneaker Run: “Find all 10 of Kamala’s sneakers around the city.” Vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris is known for sporting Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers as part of her standard wardrobe.

Biden’s dogs Champ and Major both have homes in Reboot City, and there are also a number of Easter eggs in the map, including a boogie bomb, a flashlight, “chiller grenade,” and a boom box.

The code to access the Biden Build Back Better map is 0215-4511-1823.

Despite developer Epic Games’ ongoing legal battle with Apple, Fortnite has shown it can draw big numbers. As of May, Epic said the game had 350 million registered players. In April, a Travis Scott concert in Fortnite drew 12.3 million concurrent players, which Epic claimed was “an all-time record” for the battle royale game.

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Watch the AR concert that opened up the 2020 League of Legends World Championship

Once again Riot has turned the opening ceremonies of the League of Legends World Championship final into a technological showcase. This year at Pudong Football Stadium in Shanghai, the ceremony was split into a few different parts: it opened with virtual K-pop group K/DA performed via augmented reality, which was followed by a melody of anthems from past Worlds events. At the end, as the players were introduced, a virtual, towering version of League character Galio — known as the stone colossus — appeared on stage.

While the event wasn’t as visually impressive as last year’s holographic showcase, it was still an impressive feat considering the restraints created by the ongoing pandemic. The main cast of performers were virtual, but they were accompanied by a few dozen real-world dancers and musicians, including Chinese pop star Lexie Liu. (There was also a very cyberpunk-looking AR Ducati motorcycle that helped kick things off.)

Perhaps the most noticeable feature, especially in comparison to other esports events in 2020, was the presence of fans: around 6,000 people were in attendance to watch Korea’s Damwon Gaming defeat Suning Gaming of China in the championship match. Later on, after the games actually started, Riot also announced a release window for the first League spinoff, which launches next year.

@DamwonGaming pic.twitter.com/fNfbNW7GbK

— LoL Esports (@lolesports) October 31, 2020

Ahead of the finals, the early stages of this year’s edition of Worlds looked a bit different due to the pandemic. Prior to the finals, the month-long tournament was played out of a high-tech studio in Shanghai, one that utilized an Unreal Engine-powered backdrop to create some astonishing mixed reality effects. The technology was similar to what Disney used to create The Mandalorian.

These kinds of spectacles are becoming the norm for Riot. At last year’s Worlds in Paris, a holographic hip-hop group performed (with an assist from Louis Vuitton), while the year before K/DA debuted via an augmented reality concert in Incheon. There’s also more to come from the virtual K-pop group. K/DA will be releasing its first EP on November 6th, and just this week Riot released an animated video for the single “More.”

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Walmart will drop the best AirPods deal tonight — but there's a catch

SAVE $91: Apple's second-gen AirPods (with a wireless charging case) will be on sale at Walmart for just $108 starting Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. ET, but only in select U.S. states.

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This is not a drill: Walmart's about to drop the hottest AirPods deal we've ever seen.

Starting Thursday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. ET, the Mashable's Choice Award-winning earbuds (the second-gen version with a wireless charging case) will go on sale for just $108 as part of a "Limited Time Event" the retailer is hosting ahead of Black Friday. (A 64% markdown on a 32-inch Philips TV will go live at the same time — don't miss out.) Read more...

More about Apple, Airpods, Black Friday, Mashable Shopping, and Tech

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Even Peloton is cracking down on QAnon

It’s not just social networks and digital marketplaces cracking down on QAnon. Peloton has confirmed to Business Insider that it has pulled QAnon hashtags that supporters of the conspiracy theory were using to connect to each other on the fitness platform. A spokesperson said Peloton removed the content due to a “zero-tolerance” approach to “hateful content.”

Peloton removes anything that “does not reflect our company’s values of inclusiveness and unity or maintain a respectful environment,” the representative said.

QAnon has revolved around unsupported claims that parts of the US government are involved in human tracking and pedophilia, and that Donald Trump would ultimately take those offenders down. Some of the theory’s more extreme devotees have been involved in violence, hate and harassment, with the FBI going so far as to declare QAnon a domestic terrorist threat.

The tags didn’t appear to have large followings — a Q tag spotted by Washington Post opinions editor Drew Goins had 63 members shortly before it became unusable. Still, this shows just how difficult it can be to contain potentially harmful online movements, especially for Peloton and others that don’t normally have to aggressively moderate their services.

getting radicalized on Peloton pic.twitter.com/kh9UvfQKg7

— Drew Goins (@drewlgoins) October 6, 2020

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Researchers built a robot squid that propels itself with a water jet

To help explore underwater environments without damaging coral or sea life, engineers from UC San Diego created a robot squid (via Hackster.io). Soft robots are less likely to harm aquatic life than rigid ones. Researchers used mainly soft materials like acrylic polymer to build the device, along with a few 3D printed and laser-cut rigid parts.

The team drew inspiration from the jet propulsion mechanism of real squid to help the robot swim by itself. It takes some water into its flexible body, where it also stores elastic energy. The robot can compress its body to release that energy and use a water jet to propel itself. The device can adjust the nozzle’s position, so it can swim in any direction.

The engineers claim the robot can travel around half a mile per hour, which is faster than most soft robots. The robot also has a waterproof compartment that can house a camera or other sensor, which is vital for recording data.

“Essentially, we recreated all the key features that squids use for high-speed swimming,” said Michael T. Tolley, a professor at the university’s department of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and a senior author on a paper about the robot. “This is the first untethered robot that can generate jet pulses for rapid locomotion like the squid and can achieve these jet pulses by changing its body shape, which improves swimming efficiency.”

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