Tom Hanks has been one of the biggest movie stars on the planet for as long as most of us have been alive. He’s won Oscars, grossed billions at the box office, and worked with all the best directors (he’s even directed himself). Basically, he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to movies, and in a new…
Source: io9 – Tom Hanks Believes Franchises Will Save Movie Theaters
A man’s habit of hunting feral pigs exposed him to a rare brain infection, doctors in Florida say. In a recent case report, they detail how the man developed a serious kind of infection that’s mostly disappeared in the U.S., caused by Brucella bacteria.
Source: Gizmodo – A Hunter in Florida Got a Rare Brain Infection From Feral Hogs
When the universe was a fledgling billion years old, a galaxy spewed a ginormous, fast-moving jet of radiation and plasma into the cosmos. Nearly 13 billion years later, that jet is visible to humans in the form of a blazar. The jet was recently imaged and analyzed by a team of Italian astronomers. Their findings,…
Source: Gizmodo – A Massive Radioactive Jet From the Early Universe Has Been Spotted
Enlarge / Danish explorer Jørgen Brønlund’s petroleum burner was found in 1973. Brønlund and two compatriots died in 1907 during an expedition to Greenland. (credit: Jørn Ladegaard)
Over 100 years ago, a Danish explorer named Jørgen Brønlund perished during an expedition to northeast Greenland, along with two members of his expedition. He left behind a diary detailing his last moments, with a black spot underneath his final signature. Scientists have now analyzed that spot using a variety of techniques to determine its composition, thereby shedding fresh light on Brønlund’s final hours, according to a November paper published in the journal Archaeometry.
Northeast Greenland is still one of the most hostile regions of the Arctic, with only the Sirius Patrol of the Danish Army occasionally crossing the frozen expanse on dog sledges during the coldest part of the year. Back in 1906, when the Denmark Expedition launched, many parts of the region had not yet been mapped; that was a primary objective of the expedition, along with various scientific studies. (Alfred Wegener was among the scientists in the expedition.)
The expedition sailed to Greenland on board the SS Danmark, landing in August 1906 and establishing a base camp (depot) called Danmarkshavn. Members were assigned to sledge teams to head northward. Jørgen Brønlund was part of Sledge Team 1, along with expedition commander Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen and Niels Peter Høeg Hagen. A significant part of their mission was to discover whether the so-called Peary Land (discovered by Robert Peary in 1891) was a peninsula—in which case it would remain part of the Danish Kingdom—or an island, in which case the US would claim it as a US territory.
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Source: Ars Technica – Study sheds new light on polar explorer’s final hours, 100+ years later
A group of Japanese speedrunners have discovered that the key to getting faster times in all-time RPG classic Dragon Quest III is to literally control the temperature of their Famicom systems with hot plates and ice packs.
Source: Kotaku – Dragon Quest Speedrunners Are Roasting Their Classic Consoles To Trigger Glitches
In theory, New Year’s resolutions should make your life less stressful, or at least give you a means to address things about your life you’d like to change. In reality, however, a lofty New Year’s resolution can often loom over you, forming a nagging reminder of your supposed failure to reinvent yourself just because…
Source: LifeHacker – The Only Kind of Resolutions You Should Make for 2021
Libmicrohttpd as the GNU project’s embedded HTTP web server library is out with a final release of 2020…
Source: Phoronix – GNU’s Embed-Friendly Web Server Updated With Better OS Portability, Performance
Most rumors suggest Samsung will launch its new Galaxy S-series lineup earlier than usual this year. But even with a supposed January 14th reveal date, the S21 won’t be the first phone to come out with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 888 processor. That di…
Source: Engadget – Xiaomi’s Mi 11 is the first Snapdragon 888 phone
Top Product: Hair & Beauty Little Kit by Drunk Elephant | $49 | SpaceNK
Source: LifeHacker – These Unique Beauty Sets Will Keep You Looking Flawless Through 2021
Let’s say you used a credit card to buy framed wall art from Urban Outfitters, and it turns out to be a little too store-bought for your spouse’s taste (this may or may not be a true story). What happens to your card’s rewards points if you ask for a refund? Are store credits a better option?
Source: LifeHacker – How to Keep Your Rewards Points When You’re Returning Something
Today we are resuming our “Hacking with Kali Linux” series. So far we have covered the content of the series and how to install Kali Linux. There are various ways we can install & use Kali Linux and we have included them all in the last article.
Source: LXer – Things To Do After Installing Kali Linux
The Finnish Parliament said on Monday that hackers gained entry to its internal IT system and accessed email accounts for some members of Parliament (MPs)fin. From a report: Government officials said the attack took place in the fall of 2020 and was discovered this month by the Parliament’s IT staff. The matter is currently being investigated by the Finnish Central Criminal Police (KRP). In an official statement, KRP Commissioner Tero Muurman said the attack did not cause any damage to the Parliament’s internal IT system but was not an accidental intrusion either. Muurman said the Parliament security breach is currently being investigated as a “suspected espionage” incident. “At this stage, one alternative is that unknown factors have been able to obtain information through the hacking, either for the benefit of a foreign state or to harm Finland,” Muurman said. “The theft has affected more than one person, but unfortunately, we cannot tell the exact number without jeopardizing the ongoing preliminary investigation.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Finland Says Hackers Accessed MPs’ Emails Accounts
In the era of the ongoing covid-19 pandemic making it difficult for many Hollywood productions to take place safely with everyone together physically, animation presents a number of unique advantages, as creative teams don’t have to be in close proximity to one another in order to make new things. Lazor Wulf is one of…
Source: io9 – Lazor Wulf’s Space Ghost Riff Needs His Own Talk Show
Working out at home has always been a hack, but this is the year home workouts really shone. We bought the equipment we could, improvised what we couldn’t, and learned how to turn our living room or driveway into the next best thing to a fitness center. Here are our best tips for fitness from this year.
Source: LifeHacker – Our Best Home Workout Advice of 2020
Enlarge / That’s the book shut on one unsavory corner of the Internet… (credit: LdF | Getty Images)
Reddit alternative Voat shut down on Christmas Day, citing a lack of operational funding, and casting doubt on the abilities of other similar almost-anything-goes, “free speech” platforms to stay online in the long run.
“I just can’t keep it up,” Voat cofounder Justin Chastain said in the shutdown announcement. Investment dried up in March 2020, he explained. “I personally decided to keep Voat up until after the U.S. election of 2020. I’ve been paying the costs out of pocket but now I’m out of money.”
Voat first launched in 2014 as a smaller Reddit alternative dedicated to “free speech,” including explicit hate speech, extreme right-wing content, racism, and other content limited or prohibited on other sites. It gained traction in 2015, when Reddit finally banned several explicitly racist subreddits from its platform in a bid to limit harassment, and some discontented Reddit users decided to migrate over.
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Source: Ars Technica – Reddit clone Voat, home to hate speech and QAnon, has shut down
When I’m using Wikipedia, I’m usually spending hours getting lost in the site’s bottomless pit of random factoids for hours on end. Apparently though, this puts me in the minority. If you look at the most popular pages on the platform from this year, you’re most likely to find pages discussing politics or the global…
Source: Gizmodo – 2020’s Most Popular Wikipedia Pages: Pandemics, Politics, And Parasite
Maybe it’s the 2020 pandemic blues, but I can’t get enough of Black Ops Cold War’s retro shopping mall map. “The Pines” is a standard 6v6 multiplayer map that was added earlier this month with the launch of Cold War’s Season One. It’s a New Jersey-based mall filled with retail flashbacks. I’ve gotten so distracted by…
Source: Kotaku – Call Of Duty’s 1980s Shopping Mall Map Gets The Little Details Right
The immersion circulator is no longer the “it girl” she once was. Her status as the most buzzed-about and sought-after appliance has faltered, and some might say she’s been replaced by the Instant Pot and air fryer (even though they do completely different things). But I’d bet more than a few foodies (sorry) received…
Source: LifeHacker – The First 9 Unexpected Things to Make With Your New Sous-Vide Circulator
The Apple Watch has become an iconic smartwatch, but things could’ve turned out very differently. Leaked images of what appears to be an Apple Watch prototype show just how far it has come since its early days in development.
Source: Gizmodo – Leaked Prototype Photos Offer Rare Glimpse at Early Apple Watch
Monday’s Best Deals | Kinja Deals
Source: LifeHacker – The 10 Best Deals of December 28, 2020
