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Juul stops selling its fruit-flavored vape products
Today, Juul announced that it's suspending the sale of its fruit-flavored vape products in the US. It will no longer sell its mango, creme, fruit and cucumber varieties. The decision comes as the Trump administration is preparing to ban flavored e-cigs in an attempt to curb teen vaping and as the CDC continues to search for the cause of a vaping-related lung illness.
McCormick hands over its spice R&D to IBM's AI
McCormick might be a brand name you recognize from its herbs and spices, French's Classic Yellow Mustard or even "edible" KFC-flavored nail polish. For more than 40 years, it's recorded reams of data on product formulas, customer taste preferences and flavor palettes. Now it's harnessing artificial intelligence in flavor development.
Japan's Suntory to conduct important space whisky research
We have a strong whisky bias, so when Suntory revealed that it would be sending products into orbit, we had to know more. The company will fire six samples of its beverages to the International Space Station (ISS), including its Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013, aka the best whiskey in the world. It costs about $10,000 to get a pound of cargo up there, so launching booze may seem a tad frivolous. However, the company hopes to aid humanity by learning how a zero-G environment affects the mellowness of whiskey as it ages, according to the WSJ.
Storyboard: How to say goodbye and mean it
So you know it's time to say goodbye. Your previous group of roleplaying companions just isn't filling that need you have for roleplaying, and that means it's time for you to pick up shop and move on. Great. Your metaphorical bags are packed, you're ready to pick up shop, and all that remains it to figure out where you're going to go. Right. That part. Where are you going to go? When you've been with one group of players for a while, it's tempting to see the game in pretty narrow terms because the focus narrows. The game is less about the whole server and more about the people whom you spend your time with in the game, naturally. But when you take away the group that you've been immersed in for so long, you're back to looking at an overall environment you hadn't considered. So here are some tips to make leaving as painless as possible.
Star Wars: The Old Republic looks at Makeb's movers and shakers
Star Wars: The Old Republic's expansion is sending players into a three-way warzone between the Empire, the Republic, and the Hutt Cartel. Winning that war will require getting the right friends and eliminating the right enemies. Whether you're an early order getting to jump in tomorrow or a player waiting until the official launch, you can benefit from a crash course on some persons of interest on Makeb, courtesy of Imperial Intelligence. Considering the focus on the Hutt Cartel, it's unsurprising that two of the most prominent figures are Hutts -- Szajin and Toborro. Szajin bucks the usual Hutt trend of self-serving greed, modeling himself as a partisan for his people across the galaxy without concern for profit. Toborro, meanwhile, sits at the top of all operations on Makeb, setting himself as a personal lord for the Hutts to rally behind as the Cartel expands its influence. Check out the full intel rundown for more details on the Hutts as well as other persons of note.
Blog Azeroth Shared Topic: Flavors of WoW
Each week, Blog Azeroth hosts a shared topic for bloggers to answer on their own blogs and then link to in the forum. Last week, Cymre from Bubbles of Mischief asked: It would not be uncommon to hear about the initial release of World of Warcraft as Vanilla or Classic. In terms of ice cream or gelato (which is my preference), Vanilla was once considered the most popular flavour of it's time. So if Vanilla represents Classic WoW, what flavours could represent the following expansions? Mmmm, ice cream. The crusade for deliciousness When I think of The Burning Crusade, I think of brightly colored to the point of garish. I also think of things that I wouldn't necessarily have thought would have gone together -- like outer space and Azeroth. While I really liked the expansion, being forced to go back there in order to get through to the next content gets a little old. Ice cream flavor: The Creamsicle. It has a garish orange outside and is vanilla ice cream on the inside. Orange and vanilla? I never would have chosen those two tastes together, but it was a favorite treat from the ice cream truck in days of yore. I eat one now and it tastes good, but I definitely don't want to fill the freezer with them.
Lichborne: Further death knight nerfs hit the patch 4.2 PTR
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done. While we've already talked a bit about some of the changes coming for death knights on the patch 4.2 PTR, it's been a few weeks, and we've seen more changes inbound. Not only that, some changes have slipped onto live servers a little bit early. A lot of these changes have some serious repercussions for PVP and PVE DPS death knights, so it's certainly worth it to take a look at these changes, not only for their immediate impact, but for what they say about the history and future of the class and Blizzard's attitudes toward the whole thing.
Final Fantasy XI shows off job emotes in a new trailer
Final Fantasy XI's multiple jobs present a unique problem -- how do you convince the rest of your party that you're the experienced one with a level 85 Red Mage if you're grouped up as a level 16 Dragoon? If you said "by being patronizing," well, you knew the old route. But the brand-new job emotes coming in the December version update offer you another option for showing off your favorite job for anyone to see. It also gives players a new way to express themselves visually, but we're sure that part is secondary. Square-Enix has just released a trailer showing off the 20 emotes available for characters to wield, with each unlocked via a quest at level 30. While level 30 isn't the apex of power, each emote can be wielded regardless of a player's job at the time, making them fun little visual toys that are at least more flexible than the frequently mocked bell emotes. Take a look past the cut for the trailer detailing the individual expressions for each of Final Fantasy XI's numerous but distinct classes.
Maps and quest levels explained for Final Fantasy XIV
Since the earliest days of MMOs, players have asked a very simple question: "Where the heck am I?" And thankfully, the ubiquitous in-game map is there to provide an answer to the question. Of course, it's all too easy to feel a bit lost anyway with Final Fantasy XIV's maps, which are long on flavor and in-game writing and a bit short on what the various symbols actually mean. So the most recent developer dispatch on the official player site has clarified the symbols on the map and helped explain where to find crucial information. In addition, the dispatch covers the game's strength-indicating icons for monsters, as well as the intervals for new quests. There are also unlocking intervals for new class-specific guildleves, both regional and local. It's a good incentive to continue leveling a few classes instead of dabbling too broadly, something that's a definite possibility with Final Fantasy XIV's permissive cross-class system. Take a look at the full dispatch for more details on the most recent round of developer-answered questions.
The Daily Grind: Are you buying Final Fantasy XIV?
In the relative drought of new releases for 2010, Final Fantasy XIV may look to some like a shining beacon. Beyond even that, it might look like a beacon even if the year was filled to bursting. Crafting classes, active combat, and the unique flavor that Square-Enix puts into a game all wrapped up in one system-intensive package. Of course, there are several people who look at the indisputably uncommon control scheme, early-game bugs, or even just the flavor of the game and see it as the exact opposite of a beacon. Today isn't the full release of the game, but anyone who purchased the collector's edition will get to log in starting today with an eight-day head start. Whether or not you decided to spring for the pricier edition, we have to ask -- are you planning on buying Final Fantasy XIV? Are you going to buy at launch, or do you plan to wait until more of the kinks have been ironed out? Or are you holding out for the PS3 release early next year?
Disappointment with the patch 3.1 game world
The last few days I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out why I'm not particularly enjoying Patch 3.1 when I'm doing something besides raiding Ulduar. I should be enjoying it! When I first checked it out on the PTR, I was extremely excited about it. The Argent Tournament especially. The whole jousting deal, the Arthurian themes, the potential for story progression, the whole thing. It looked great! Unfortunately... I'm finding it pretty boring.The Argent Tournament feels lifeless. Completely and utterly lifeless. I say it all of the time, but patch 2.4 was my favorite patch of World of Warcraft thus far, no contest. Patch 2.4 brought me more joy than even the Wrath launch. Not only did it have content for absolutely every aspect of the game, but it also actually changed the world. Storylines progressed in an in-your-face way. Sure, patch 3.1 moved the Ulduar and Yogg-Saron story forward, but would you know it if you didn't read fansites or watch the patch 3.1 cinematic? What's different? What indicator is there that something new is happening in the Storm Peaks?
Philips introduces Flavors LCD TVs with interchangeable frames
Look out, tweens -- Philips has a new line of LCD TVs aimed squarely at your wall / bedroom pedestal. Introduced over in Italy, the Flavors family will initially consist of a 22-, 32- and 42-inch set, the latter of which packs a 1080p panel, 30,000:1 contrast ratio, 5-millisecond response time, 500 cd/m2 brightness and a pair of HDMI ports. The concept here is pretty easy to grasp -- each set comes bundled with two interchangeable frames which are reportedly held up by good ole magnetism, and if two just aren't enough, more can certainly be ordered. Currently, Philips simply has a placeholder page up for the new crew, so we'll just let you simmer on the prices for now: they'll be €549 ($803), €799 ($1,168) and €1,199 ($1,754) in order of mention.
Forum Thread of the Day: Quest text that makes you laugh
Relyndrel sets us off on a hilarious ride through Blizzard's real genius: turning something as straightforward as playing a videogame into a rich, entertaining, and sometimes even meta experience. He starts off a collection of the best quest text in the game, including the various letters, yells, and whispers that float around while doing said quests. All the best stuff is here: Fruit vendor, do you not value your life?! Rend Blackhand's note to a stupid orc: "Destroy this letter, idiot!" Blizzard's sly reply to AV whiners And the terrific Digging Through Bones dialogue I don't see my favorite mentioned in the first few pages-- as I've said before, my favorite quest in the whole game is probably the Absent Minded Prospector, in which a dwarf leisurely browses through a dig while you're left to fight off all kinds of huge golems.Really, this game is just all about clicking buttons-- you click a button to start a quest, you click some buttons to kill things (or do some thing), and then you click another button to end a quest. But it's the flavor that Blizzard adds-- all of these weird characters, strange stories, and references to everything else we know-- that really make the experience what it is, and show off just how good Blizzard is at making clicking buttons interesting and fun.
Wii Warm Up: Wii flavor
So, we've seen quite a few Wii cakes, but only from the outside ... so we thought it necessary to ask you, dear readers, this very important question: what flavor should a Wii cake be? JC (who should apparently be beaten) suggested lemon. We heartily disagree (we love the flavor, but not with buttercream or vanilla icing) and would like to see a good ol' plain white cake, though we'd offer props if it were tinted blue. Chocolate might be a nice surprise -- and hey, it's dark in there. p.s. don't worry, vidGuy, we listened to your suggestion in the comments yesterday, but we have to take a day off from the heavy topics!
