Astronomers have found for the first time that a white dwarf and a brown dwarf collided in a ‘blaze of glory’ that was witnessed on Earth in 1670.
A Long Goodbye to Baxter, a Gentle Giant Among Robots
Baxter is a legend in these early days of advanced robotics. But now its maker, Rethink Robotics, is folding.
The end of Telltale games: all the updates about the fall of the studio
OnePlus 6T: Removing the headphone jack was a tough decision, says CEO – CNET
In an exclusive interview, OnePlus’s CEO dishes on the 6T’s fingerprint sensor, lack of a headphone jack and a possible higher price.
iPhone XS beauty-gate: Here’s why your selfies look different on the new phone – CNET
Is there a so-called “beauty mode” on the iPhone XS?
This beautiful data visualization shows what Middle Eastern thinkers discovered long before the West
The history of scientific discovery is very focused on the discoveries of the West, so it’s wonderful to see this beautiful infographic from Information Is Beautiful, which visualizes what Middle Eastern thinkers discovered before their Western counterparts.
Drawing from books about Arab history, as well as Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Encyclopedia Britannica, the graphic plots the discoveries of East versus West, by year. For example, almost a thousand years before Copernicus, the Persian scientist Nasīr al-Dīn Tūsī believed that the Sun was the center of the Solar System. And, almost 500 years before Columbus, the Iranian scholar Al-Bīrūni proposed that there was a land to the West — America.
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Homeland Security backs Apple and Amazon’s denials of Chinese microchip hack
Following last week’s bombshell report from Bloomberg Businessweek that claimed that Chinese spies infiltrated commercial servers in the US with hidden microchips, the Department of Homeland Security says that it has “no reason to doubt the statements from the companies named in the story.”
The statement concurs with what UK cybersecurity officials said on Friday: that they were aware of the reports, but didn’t have any reason to doubt Amazon and Apple’s forceful denials that their systems were compromised. DHS notes that it is aware of the report, and said that it recently launched several “government-industry initiatives to develop near- and long-term solutions to manage risk posed by the complex challenges of increasingly global…
One of Banksy’s paintings self-destructed just after it was auctioned
On Friday, auction house Sotheby’s sold a painting by British graffiti artist Banksy for $1.4 million. The piece was a copy of one of the artist’s most famous works, an image of a girl releasing a red balloon, and moments after it was sold, the painting self-destructed, shredding itself while onlookers watched.
In a video, Banksy explained that he had secretly installed a shredder in the frame of the painting, titled “Girl with Balloon,” to destroy it if it ever went up for auction. The anonymous artist is known for creating satirical and subversive political art, and by shredding the painting, he essentially turned the auction itself into a work of art, quoting artist Picasso in an Instagram post: “the urge do destroy is also a…
Pixel 3, new Chromecast, Pixel Slate and more: Everything we expect from the Google event this Tuesday – CNET
Google’s fall hardware event promises to be one of its most jam-packed ever.
Skybound Games will finish the final season of Telltale’s The Walking Dead
The final season of Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead game will be completed. The failed studio reached a deal with Skybound Games to finish the season, the development of which was halted when the studio laid off most of its employees at the end of September.
At New York City Comic Con, Kirkman told a panel that his company had come to a deal with Telltale to complete the story. According to Variety, Skybound will work with “members of the original Telltale team to finish the story,” although that hasn’t been finalized yet.
In a tweet, Skybound Games — the gaming division of Skybound Media, which was founded by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, confirmed that it will wrap up Clem’s story, and that it will have more details soon….