The live-action Beauty and the Beast movie has made over $1-billion, meaning a sequel is probably a near-guarantee. Disney probably won’t use their direct-to-video animated movie sequels (e.g. Enchanted Christmas or Magical World) as templates. Luckily, Emma Watson has a sequel idea of her own— unfortunately, it…
Source: io9 – Sorry, Emma Watson, But Beauty and the Beast 2 Should Be About Belle Getting Guillotined in the French Revolution
This is a video of Chester the dog (pronounced Chestah by his owner) repeatedly turning off a Roomba by hitting the power button with his nose. Clever boy. Similarly, my dog has learned how to push the disk eject button on my Playstation whenever I’m playing a game, and usually during a boss battle when I haven’t saved in over an hour. *puppy dog eyes* Oh no you don’t, that’s not working this time! *even puppier dog eyes* Stop, you know I’m weak! *licks hand* Must…resist. *whimpers* Gaaaaaah, you got me! *empties entire bag of dog treats on the floor* Fine, but that’s all you get though until your steak is ready.
Keep going for the video.
Source: Geekologie – Good Boy!: Dog Learns How To Turn Off Roomba
Few video game systems have had as strange a journey as Nintendo’s 3DS. The spunky portable console flopped, got a massive price cut, gradually built up a spectacular library of games, and received several bizarre (and confusing) hardware models throughout its six years on store shelves. And now, it’s ditching its…
Source: Kotaku – Nintendo Finally Says Goodbye To 3D
The United States Postal Service is no stranger to letting its nerd flag fly with special edition stamps. The latest in its space series is a little different, though. Rather than just showing off celestial bodies or NASA spacecraft, the new stamps a…
Source: Engadget – USPS solar eclipse stamps use body heat to reveal the moon
The NSA is stopping one of the most disputed forms of its warrantless surveillance program (alternative source), one in which it collects Americans’ emails and texts to and from people overseas and that mention a foreigner under surveillance, NYTimes reports on Friday citing officials familiar with the matter. From the report: National security officials have argued that such surveillance is lawful and helpful in identifying people who might have links to terrorism, espionage or otherwise are targeted for intelligence-gathering. The fact that the sender of such a message would know an email address or phone number associated with a surveillance target is grounds for suspicion, these officials argued. […] The N.S.A. made the change to resolve problems it was having complying with special rules imposed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in 2011 to protect Americans’ privacy. For technical reasons, the agency ended up collecting messages sent and received domestically as a byproduct of such surveillance, the officials said.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – NSA Halts Collection of Americans’ Emails About Foreign Targets
Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9’s roundup of the sweet toys and merchandise we’ve seen this week. We’ve got a magical Doctor Strange figure, a rather large Homecoming Spider-Man, and a miserable way to treat your favorite astromech unit. Also: Legend of Zelda Clue. No, really!
Source: io9 – An Incredibly Shiny Optimus Prime, and the Rest of This Week’s Coolest Toys
At first glance, it’s easy to mistake the Surface Pro 4 for the Surface Pro 3.
Microsoft’s third-quarter financial results were published yesterday, and they had many high points: cloud revenue is growing well (though we have some misgivings about how the numbers are reported), Windows outperformed the PC market, and Office 365 passed 100 million corporate seats. But there were a couple of significant black marks: Phone revenue has dropped to effectively zero, and Surface revenue was down sharply year on year, with a 26-percent drop in revenue.
The phone revenue is no big surprise: Microsoft has all but abandoned the market, and the last phones to sport a Microsoft logo—the Lumia 950 and 950 XL—are no longer sold. The company has been winding down its phone operation, writing off the entire value of the phone business it bought from Nokia and laying off thousands of former Nokia employees in the process.
But the story with Surface is more unsettling. In its analyst call, Microsoft ascribed the drop in Surface revenue to “product end-of-lifecycle dynamics,” whatever that means. The company’s 10Q filing used rather clearer language: Microsoft simply didn’t sell as many Surface systems.
Read 22 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Source: Ars Technica – Why is Microsoft trying to turn its Surface business into the next Nokia?
Courtrooms are the place where we find Truth. We know that from many fine movies and television shows, such as Law and Order: Criminal Intent and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. Over the last two weeks, the custody trial of radio provocateur Alex Jones, in Austin, has been cast as an opportunity to find the truth…
Source: Gizmodo – New World Order in the Court: A Dispatch From the Alex Jones Trial
Arranged to suggest the movement and chaos seen in nature, these lovely artworks are actually made with human-made materials.
Source: TreeHugger – Beguiling nature-inspired sculptures are formed from industrial strength metals
The Battlefield series is renowned for intricate easter eggs. In the latest, a series of clues added in the recent They Shall Not Pass DLC allows players to summon a terrifying giant shark from the depths.
Source: Kotaku – Battlefield 1 Easter Egg Hunters Find Giant Shark
Our photo of the day comes from Middle Head, Sydney Harbour.
Source: TreeHugger – Photo: Sponge and sea tulip make nice
The National Security Agency has enjoyed relatively broad authority to monitor communications among suspected terrorists and their associates, even when those people happen to be American citizens and even without a warrant. However, The New York Tim…
Source: Engadget – NSA will stop illegally collecting American emails
Enlarge / Walruses on floating ice, Chukchi Sea. (credit: Keren Su/Getty Images)
In an executive order signed on Friday, President Trump directed his secretary of the interior to review current rules on offshore drilling and exploration. This review is likely to result in a relaxation of the strict protections the previous administration put on offshore oil drilling in the Atlantic and in the Arctic.
According to the Washington Post, a review of the rules is likely to “make millions of acres of federal waters eligible for oil and gas leasing.”
At the same time, Trump’s executive order directed the secretary of commerce to cease designating new marine sanctuaries or expanding any that already exist. According to USA Today, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is also “directed to review all designations and expansions of marine monuments or sanctuaries designated under the Antiquities Act within the last 10 years.” The Post says this “includes Hawaii’s Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, which Obama quadrupled in size last year, and the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts off Massachusetts.”
Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Source: Ars Technica – Trump order helps offshore drilling, stops marine sanctuary expansion
Windows 10 Creators Update was released earlier this month by Microsoft as the latest installment to Windows 10. Since it’s been a few months since last benchmarking the “Windows Subsystem for Linux” (WSL), a.k.a. “Bash for Windows”, here are some fresh benchmarks of Ubuntu atop Windows 10 Creators Update vs. Intel’s Clear Linux vs. Ubuntu 17.04.
Source: Phoronix – Windows 10 Creators WSL vs. Clear Linux vs. Ubuntu 17.04
Medical researchers have been able to create certain kinds of living cells with 3D printers for more than a decade. Now a few companies are getting closer to mass production of higher-order tissues (bone, cartilage, organs) and other individually tailored items, including implants. From an article: Organovo has successfully transplanted human liver tissue into mice to cure chronic liver failure. Pending the success of human trials, possible applications include the $3 billion market for inherited conditions such as hemophilia. […] Aspect prints tissue cells to create structures that resemble parts of the human body, such as an airway or meniscus, to spur easier research on treatments for, say, asthma or muscle tears. By taking muscle cells from a lung, for example, the company built respiratory tissue that responded to common asthma inhalers as a person’s body should. […] Materialise designs custom 3D-printable implants, surgical guides, and other medical devices. It’s waiting on approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for implants designed to fuse bones.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – We’re Getting Closer To Mass Production of Bones, Organs, and Implants
The first three episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale are now available on Hulu; we’ve already given our thoughts on the series, which remains mostly faithful to Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel of the same name, but there are some changes, some big, some small, that separate the two—and we’ve broken them down for you…
Source: io9 – All the Major Changes The Handmaid’s Tale Has Made From the Book
While fishing for giant grouper in Florida, kayak fisherman Ben Chancey managed to land a 7-foot bullshark, which was not thrilled about the prospect of being caught and flipped Ben’s kayak in an act of defiance. That…might be my worst nightmare. I don’t like wading in the ocean past my ankles because of sharks, the last thing I want is to be in the deep hanging out with one who’s pissed at me. Although I did I like Ben’s pathetic effort to prevent being capsized by splashing the water with his hand a little bit, the same way you’d make waves when you’re playing in the bathtub. That was cute. “Still has bigger balls than you.” Oh, at least 20X for sure.
Keep going for the video.
Source: Geekologie – Nope: Kayak Fisherman Lands 7-Foot Bull Shark, Shark Isn’t Having It, Flips His Kayak
Can a crab become a hero? In both Hearthstone and in the animal kingdom at large, the answer has long been a resounding “no.” But now the answer is: maybe.
Source: Kotaku – Hearthstone’s Formerly Garbage ‘Hungry Crab’ Is Making a Comeback
On Friday, a team of Chinese scientists used the cutting-edge gene-editing technique CRISPR-Cas9 on humans for the second time in history, injecting a cancer patient with modified human genes in hopes of vanquishing the disease.
Source: Gizmodo – China Is Racing Ahead of the US in the Quest to Cure Cancer With CRISPR
Source: Engadget – Vibrating utensils won’t stop you from stuffing your face
