“Sorry the quality of this sandwich is subpar, but I pushed our baby out of my vagina.”
“Avengers: Endgame” Has Shattered All Box Office Records
Marvel Studio’s 22nd film debuted with $1.2 billion worldwide. Yes, that’s billion, with a b.
Watch a debate over whether Pluto should get its planet status back
If you’re someone who is still upset about Pluto’s planetary demotion from more than a decade ago, then an upcoming debate about the definition of the word “planet” may be of interest to you.
One of Pluto’s biggest defenders, Alan Stern, will be debating Ron Akers, who used to be the president of the International Astronomical Union — the global organization responsible for redefining the term “planet.” It was ultimately the IAU’s decision to designate Pluto and other small worlds like it as “dwarf planets,” a title distinct from the term “planet.” The change triggered a lot of angst and upheaval over the loss of Pluto’s planet status. Perhaps the biggest critic of the new definition has been Stern, the principal investigator on NASA’s…
Taylor Swift’s ME! breaks YouTube and Amazon Alexa voice request records – CNET
“Alexa, play the new Taylor Swift!”
Comcast’s broadband customers are using more of their monthly data than ever before
Comcast has long said that a minority of its customers approach the limits of their 1TB data caps in their home internet plans, but that number is growing. In a recent call with investors (via Ars Technica) Comcast says that its median users are using 200GB of their 1TB data cap a month, thanks to streaming video.
In the last couple of years, Comcast has rolled out data caps to customers — first limiting users to 300GB per month back in 2015, and raising that limit to 1TB a month in 2016. In the past, Comcast has said that “more than 99 percent of our customers do not come close to using a terabyte,” with most using around “six percent” each month, and if they go over, they have to pay an additional charge — $10 per 50GB used.
But that…
These two city-building puzzle games play very differently, but share a grim outlook on the environment
It can be difficult to find time to finish a video game, especially if you only have a few hours a week to play. In our biweekly column Short Play we suggest video games that can be started and finished in a weekend.
Normally I only cover one game at a time on Short Play, but after playing 20 Minute Metropolis and Islanders back to back, it’s hard not to think of how they relate to each other. Both are puzzle games about building cities, with very different approaches to gameplay and style. Despite this, both feel like they have a similar outlook on humanity’s exploitative relationship with nature.
First, 20 Minute Metropolis is like a sped-up version of SimCity, where you try to build the best city you can in 20 minutes. Each building…
‘Madden 20’ Release Date and Cover Athlete Announced
During the NFL Draft in Nashville last week, EA Sports announced the cover athlete and release date for Madden 20 and made the game available for pre-order online. That’s good news for Madden fans and possibly great news for the athlete in question, Kansas City Chiefs superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who was the 2018 NFL MVP and Offensive Player of the Year. Hopefully Mahomes can avoid the dreaded “Madden Curse.”
It’s all a win for gamers, though, and pre-ordering is definitely a good idea—some serious bonus features make it worth the trouble.
Forbes has the deets on pre-order bonuses:
Fans who pre-order Madden NFL 20: Superstar Edition, which is available now, will receive a list of benefits. Among them are 12 Gold Team Fantasy Packs (for use within Madden Ultimate Team) a choice of 1 out of 32 core elite players from a favorite NFL team, a small training quick sell pack in MUT and a selection of a Legends Superstar ability for their created player in FOTF mode.
That’s a pretty sweet bundle of extras, in particular FOTF mode, which Forbes notes is “a single-player career mode that charges fans with creating a QB, taking him through the College Football National Championship playoff, the NFL Combine, the NFL Draft, and their subsequent NFL career.”
Here’s hoping that the fan-made QBs do half as well as Mahomes, who has been a juggernaut on the field. In 2018 he was only the third NFL quarterback to ever throw 50-plus touchdowns in a season and he threw over 5,000 yards altogether.
Seriously, though: Can he avoid the “Madden Curse?”
In posing the same question about Mahomes, Digital Trends gives a concise explanation of just what the hell that is:
Since Garrison Hearst broke his ankle in 1998, shortly after starring on the cover of Madden NFL 99, most of the players who starred on the game’s cover have suffered an injury the following season. Of the 22 players who have been selected to grace the cover of Madden games through this season, 16 have had troubling or abruptly shortened seasons following their cover debut — including several who suffered season-ending injuries shortly after their game hit shelves.
Sixteen players is a significant number, large enough to be a little spooky. Football may not be as full of weird superstitions as major league baseball, but there’s pretty good reason to be wary of the Curse.
Mahomes doesn’t seem too worried about anything. Speaking to The Undefeated, he said “When you’re a little kid, you dream about being on the cover of Madden … having your picture up there.” In fact, he sounded damn confident about the whole deal. Asked what he expected his player rating to be, he said, “I expect my rating to be 100. I’m thinking that’s what we should go with. I want a little 100 emoji by my name.”
More power to you, Patrick Mahomes.
Pre-order Madden NFL 20 by EA Sports here today. It will be available to play on Xbox One, PlayStation, and PC. Official release date: August 2, 2019.
Giants GM: 2 teams would pick Jones by No. 17
Giants general manager Dave Gettleman insists that New York couldn’t have waited until pick No. 17 to take Daniel Jones, saying two other teams intended to select the quarterback earlier in the first round of the NFL draft if he had been available.
What iPhone? Apple’s push toward services begins – CNET
Apple’s said its future isn’t just selling you an iPhone, but also streaming videos, music, news and even games.
Russian hackers were ‘in a position’ to alter Florida county voting records: Marco Rubio
Russian hackers were able to breach one Florida county’s voting systems during the 2016 Presidential Election, Florida Senator Marco Rubio confirmed in an interview, noting that that hackers not only accessed the county’s systems, but had the ability to change voter roll data, according to The New York Times.
The Times’ report details how hackers mimicked e-mails from VR systems, a company that sells electronic voting equipment to states. Some voting officials noticed something was off — it used British vocabulary and a Gmail account — but in at least one county, hackers were successful. Senator Rubio confirmed that hackers were able to gain access to a system, and that they were “in a position” to alter records.