In what’s become a yearly tradition, the Madden ’09 simulator predicted the Steelers would win Super Bowl XLIII. As seven-point favorites, it was hardly a stretch, but the predicted score was 28-24. Actual score? 27-23. Not bad for a video game. While Santonio Holmes walked away with the real MVP, many pundits could argue that quarterback Ben Roethlisburger, who received the simulated honor, deserved it just as much. Who says video games aren’t educational?...
Aside from the pseudonym’s reference, multiple outlets note there are already some similarities between this jaw-dropping hack and last week’s debacle at Uber. A purportedly 18-year-old teenager pulled one of the oldest tricks in the book to gain access to essentially all of the ridesharing company’s data stores and Slack channels just days ago. “We recently suffered a network intrusion in which an unauthorized third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems, including early development footage for the next Grand Theft Auto [sic],” Rockstar Games posted to Twitter this morning....
There are multiple ways you can protect your privacy from within your various accounts (including these guides on how to limit tracking on your phone and on the web), but sometimes, that’s not enough. If you want to go the extra mile, a more drastic option is to start fresh. That could seem especially scary if you started your accounts back when the very concept of online privacy and security were non-existent, but new accounts have nothing attached to them, and that gives you a chance to be more careful about the data you give away....
Scientists examined layers of sediments and rocks lodged in the sides of the crater, and determined that it was once a placid lake and river delta. That ultimately changed when powerful flash floods struck the crater, pummeling it with boulders swept in from the rim or beyond. The geological history of the Jezero crater could help scientists understand how the Red Planet changed from being wet and possibly habitable into a harsh desert world....
Licensed LEGO sets have opened up worlds of new possibilities, and have made movie tie-in toys more imaginative and endlessly re-playable. Here are some recent entries that skirt the line between plaything and monument. LEGO understands probably better than any toy company the fine balance between “playing with” and “displaying.” While there are other Marvel offerings that might score a little higher on the play factor, you won’t find many that can compete with this one on the display scale....
If you’re doing a lot of home renovation projects or have a serious woodworking hobby, using an air compressor to operate your tools likely makes sense. Pneumatic power—essentially running pressurized air through a hose to your tool—can give nail guns more force than electric nail guns. This low-priced pneumatic finish nailer is great for cabinetry, baseboards, and molding, and uses 16-gauge nails from 1 inch to 2.5 inches in length....
On April 28, the probe passed the Alfvén critical boundary, which marks the outer edge of the sun’s corona, where solar material ripples out in space after breaking free from the sun’s gravity and magnetic force. The Parker Solar Probe broke records by crossing that border, about 8 million miles from the visible surface of the sun. The probe’s passage into the sun’s atmosphere was confirmed in later analyses, and the findings were published December 14 in Physical Review Letters....
The plane could make its first flight this year in the late summertime out of Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility back in Palmdale, California. In two years, NASA says that their test pilots will fly it around and measure the noise it makes and how communities below react to it. Ideally, when it breaks the sound barrier, it will create a sound that the space agency refers to as a “thump,” and not a boom....
There is. Brian Muirhead, chief engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Wired he would recommend building it out of materials that are already in space, like asteroids, because launching stuff from Earth can be really expensive. At Popular Science, we did some rough math to figure out how much of the total $193 quintillion cost of the Death Star was attributable to launches, assuming the costs are similar to those on Earth....
On March 4, 2022, a lonely, spent rocket booster will smack into the surface of the moon at nearly 6,000 mph. Once the dust has settled, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will move into position to get an up-close view of the smoldering crater and hopefully shed some light on the mysterious physics of planetary impacts. As a planetary scientist who studies the moon, I view this unplanned impact as an exciting opportunity....
Dean Armstrong said his brother invited him to play a round of the game, then casually slipped him a note to get his opinion on the subject. The note said, “One small step for A man, one giant leap for mankind.” People have long debated the missing “a” in that first clause–“It should be A man,” someone is saying to someone else somewhere right now, probably–and there’s speculation Armstrong either messed it up or, as the man said himself, the message didn’t come through clean back on Earth....
According to a new statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), 72,000 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in children in the US. That’s about an 85 percent increase from the 39,000 new cases reported in kids the week before. Nearly 4.2 million children in the country have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic, and recent figures show that youth now represent 19 percent— or nearly one in five of all new cases....
The testing included an endurance test in which JLENS was airborne for 20 days, though the production version should be able to stay aloft for 30 days. Soldiers also tested the control system. (Those with video game and Xbox experience seemed to have an easy time of it.) The next major step for the JLENS program is testing at proving grounds at Aberdeen, Md., from 2014 to 2017. The system consists of two 243-foot-long blimps....
What’s New Well, there’s the Wii U GamePad controller. It has a screen right in it–like a portable console that you also use to control a home console. Down there could be a list of items, weapons, a map, a minigame, or a clever way to hide something away from your opponent during a multiplayer game. You poke or swipe at it with a stylus or finger to make movements on screen, and the controller itself is also sensitive to a movement, so you might look around the room by moving it from side to side or motion it up to do a jump....
First, the why: People post everything on social media. Much of social media is, by its very nature, public and searchable. Which means that when people get new gifts, they’re often eager to share them online with their friends but also with complete strangers. On Christmas morning, 2015, Iraq war veteran Brandon Friedman started retweeting pictures of people showing poor trigger discipline. That is, pictures people post with their finger on the trigger, in situations that aren’t life-or-death....
Science helped me run my first marathon in 3 hours and 21 minutes You always hear stories about the latest gear and training techniques: that they will help you maximize your potential and achieve unreal results. Do they work? Click click click click here. —Joe Brown, Editor-in-Chief Meet the hero who saved everything you love about modern cities This deeply reported, smartly written story puts architectural and neighborhood preservation, and the rise of mixed-use urban development, in historical context by highlighting the life and work of one of its staunchest allies....
Although there are plenty of options already on the market, Peak Design wanted to make something that was more compact and had a quicker setup time than the gear that is currently out there. We had a chance to checkout a pre-production model prior to launch and so far we’ve been impressed by these two aspects. To cut down on bulk the engineering team eliminated the dead space between the tripods legs, so the legs nest snugly in with the center column....
On Wednesday morning, the FDA issued the first emergency use authorization for a COVID treatment pill. In a phase III trial, Pfizer’s Pavloxvid was 89 percent effective at stopping high-risk COVID patients from becoming severely ill. The treatment could keep people out of the hospital during the Omicron wave, reducing strain on a crumbling healthcare system. But shortages, both of Paxlovid itself and of COVID tests, could limit its impact during crucial weeks....
The BepiColombo craft is actually made up of three component parts that will separate upon arrival: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter, Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, and the Mercury Transfer Module. In the new image, you can see the Mercury Planetary Orbiter’s antenna and part of the spacecraft body peeking out in front of Venus. The photo was taken yesterday, at 13:57:56 UTC, via the third monitoring camera on the Mercury Transfer Module and has been lightly processed to boost contrast, according to a news release from ESA....
Also in today’s links: a new theory about infertility, solace in God, and sea sponges in Oman. A new study finds that women who had more difficulty getting pregnant had higher levels of nonstick chemicals in their blood. These chemicals are found in pots and pans, as well as popcorn bags and products treated with stain guards, and now in many people in the developed world.Is religion an evolutionary adaptation?...
