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io9A vast magma ocean is bubbling beneath the Earth’s mantle
1800 miles underground lies a mysterious zone between the Earth’s mantle and core. Nobody is quite sure what’s down there, but new evidence suggests the area reaches temperatures of 7000 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning it could be a vast magma ocean. Geophysicists have a pretty good handle on the Earth’s overall internal composition. At the center, … Continued
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Tech News
Scientist and Wife Busted Trying to Sell Nuke Secrets to Venezuela
Want a ticket for the express line to federal prison? Try selling nuclear tech to another country. A husband and wife duo—former contractors at the nuke-specializing Los Alamos National Lab—are indicted on charges of exporting secrets to Venezuela. MSNBC reports the couple—Pedro and Marjorie Mascheroni—formed a relationship with an undercover American agent posing as a … Continued
By Sam Biddle -
io9
Is M. Night Shyamalan blaming 3D for the bad storytelling in “Last Airbender”?
This week was the 3D Entertainment Summit in Los Angeles, a large industry shindig that draws corporate types together with creatives to talk about the future of 3D technology in movies, games, and more. According to a release about the conference, not everybody there was happy about 3D: But there were also words of caution, … Continued
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io9
Adopt a Splotch Monster!
We love Steve Loya’s Splotch Monsters, for the personalities that emerge from their seemingly formless shapes. Loya has been posting these lovable stains on his blog A Splotch Monster A Day every day since April. Loya explains over on his Flickr page: This is part of an ongoing series of “splotch monsters” made from paint … Continued
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Tech News
Gadget Deals of the Day
Don’t walk, RUN to today’s #dealz on a 47″ Vizio RazorLED HDTV, Verizon’s Samsung Fascinate Android Smartphone, or a free sample of Cold-EEZE for your sniffles. Sadly, it is that time of year again. Top Deals: • 47-inch Vizio RazorLED LCD HDTV with Internet Apps $929.99 with coupon JD4XF9VGNF?MLR (normally $1279.99) • Samsung Fascinate Android … Continued
By Adam Harris - Tech News
We Must Boil This Wine To Save It
Oregon’s Willamette Valley produces some of the country’s best wines. But it’s also subject to the infamous “Pineapple Express”—heavy rains blowing in from the Pacific that can ruin grapes. Unless you’ve got a vacuum. Ken Wright has been making wine since 1978, moving in 1986 to Oregon, ending up in the heavy-lidded town of Carlton. … Continued
By Joel Johnson -
Tech News
iPhone Monkey Island Special Editions Just a Dollar (Plus iPad Love!)
They’re not quite Guybrush Free-pwood (Hiyo!), but The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition and Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge are both on sale for just $0.99. What’s more, the awesome iPad version is half off, at $4.99. [Joystiq] https://gizmodo.com/monkey-island-2-is-what-all-ipad-gaming-should-be-5584814
By Sam Biddle -
Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
HDCP Master Key Is Real, But It Won’t Do You Much Good
Intel confirmed that the HDCP “master key” posted anonymously last week is indeed real. But while it’s always fun to see restrictive security measures get picked apart, this particular crack probably won’t do you a whole lot of good. https://gizmodo.com/hdcp-copy-protection-unlocked-by-master-key-5638085 CNET talked to all types of security folk to get the scoop on the implications … Continued
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io9
Some people’s brains are better-suited to introspection than others
A specific area of the brain, located near the front of your head in the prefrontal cortex, is responsible for introspection. People with with more microstructures in this region are better at “metacognition,” and possibly better decision-makers too. In a paper published this week in Science, neuroscientist Stephen Fleming and a team of UK researchers … Continued
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io9
All new animal species discovered in Africa
This little fellow is a sengi, or giant elephant shrew, but his particular species has never been seen before. Photographed in eastern Kenya, this newly discovered creature is one of perhaps many undiscovered species hiding in Kenya’s remote coastal forests. As a genus, the elephant shrews are small, insect-eating creatures found only in Africa, but … Continued
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Tech News
Pi Calculated to Five-Trillionth Number by Yahoo! Employee
So, this is what Yahoo! employees do during work hours? Crack Pi records, using 1,000 of Yahoo!’s computers over 23 days? Glad to see they’re working hard on simplifying what their company actually does… https://gizmodo.com/what-the-f-ck-is-yahoo-again-5640108 Last time we heard of the Pi record being broken, a Japanese man calculated the five trillionth digit as being … Continued
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io9
How to succeed at making a nuclear reactor without really trying
The earth formed a nuclear reactor by chance. Two billion years ago. Really. Most programs about nuclear reactors stress what a difficult and intricate process it is to make one. The right elements have to be obtained and enriched. The whole thing has to be concentrated. And to top it off, the entire system has … Continued
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ReviewsSony Move Review: Don’t Be Wii 2.0
As expected, Sony’s Move is perfectly competent, hardware-wise, because Sony is a hardware company. But making games that mimic Nintendo’s casual-friendly Wii party games is the wrong move. Instead, they need to focus on their true fanbase: The hardcore fans. Of the three current-gen consoles, Sony has done the most to appeal to the hardcore … Continued
By Jason Chen -
Tech News
An iPhone Fart App Release History
The ever-clever McSweeney’s takes a look at 12 releases in the life of an iPhone fart app today. It’s satire! But scary how close it hits to home: Version 1.3.1 (Apr 10, 2009) – “Gross Fart” will now last the standard 7 seconds, as opposed to the 4 hour non–stop continuous fart. Version 1.4.0 (Jun … Continued
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Tech News
Why No Warner Bros. On Apple TV? Not Enough Dough
Warner Bros. exec Barry Meyer admits the obvious: their content won’t show up on Apple TV’s because the price wasn’t right. WB scoffs at the new, cheaper rental plan—not the first time they’ve thrown their weight around online. [All Things D] https://gizmodo.com/netflix-delays-fox-and-universal-releases-too-5513343
By Sam Biddle -
Tech News
11 Surreal Antarctic Structures
That humans can build anything on the world’s most extreme continent is a marvel, but these 11 designs—ranging from ramshackle huts to zero-carbon moonbases—show that adversity only brings out the best in us. And possibly the psychedelic drugs. If you are now left with an insatiable craving for the extreme, the snowy, or the futuristic, … Continued
Oobject.com -
io9
The Genesis Effect, the Liquid Metal Terminator, Davy Jones and Jurassic Park’s dinos: How ILM transformed movies
It’s the 35th anniversary of Industrial Light & Magic, the company George Lucas founded to help create Star Wars’ ambitious special effects, and there’s a new documentary. You may never have appreciated how much ILM changed the look of movies. Encore commissioned a one-hour documentary about ILM, made by Oscar- and Emmy-winning director Leslie Iwerks, … Continued
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Tech News
This Is How Angry Birds Would Look On a BlackBerry
Angry Birds looks exactly how I imagined it would be on a BlackBerry. A whole load of fun. Too bad it’s not the real thing. Actually, aside from Breakout, the only game that I think could work on Blackberry is a port of The Hobbit for ZX Spectrum. [Twitpic via Alberto Calvo via Felipe Ribeiro … Continued
By Jesus Diaz
