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Rings Around the Ring Nebula There is much more to the familiar Ring Nebula (M57) , however, than can be seen through a small telescope. The easily visible central ring is about one light-year across, but this remarkably deep exposure - a collaborative effort combining data from three different large telescopes - explores the looping filaments of glowing gas extending much farther from the nebula 's central star. This remarkable composite image includes narrowband hydrogen image, visible light emission, and infrared light emission. Of course , in this well-studied example of a planetary nebula , the glowing material does not come from planets. Instead, the gaseous shroud represents outer layers expelled from a dying, sun-like star. The Ring Nebula is about 2,000 light-years away toward the musical constellation Lyra . July 15, 2018 via NASA https://ift.tt/2zFxy1x ...

Live Spectating: * You will no longer be removed from the matchmaking queue while live spectating. * Fixed a bug where you could get stuck in a Battle Cup match lobby. * Alt-Clicking on the death screen damage numbers no longer incorrectly broadcasts the message. * Fixed various bugs that would occur after changing the camera to Player Perspective and back to Free Camera (for example having to drag to select units, and still seeing that player's mouse cursor). * Chat can be now opened like normal by hitting Enter (live spectators still cannot send messages, but this allows them to bring up the chat history). * Enemies can no longer be selected by clicking their portrait on the top bar. * Fixed a bug where you'd see an error message if you tried to live spectate a game you were already live spectating. via Steam RSS News Feed "https://ift.tt/2LmSps0"

Movie studios often want computer-generated hair to have a specific effect, whether it's a seductive toss or a careless flick that knocks something over. But there's a problem: most rough-cut simulations don't realistically simulate hair, leading to a lot of guesswork and time-consuming edits. Disney (no stranger to hair-centric movies ) has a solution, though. It developed a new system that can produce more authentic-looking simulations without an impractical boost to computation power. The trick, it turns out, was to use just a few cleverly controlled sample hairs. The team first extracted central "guide" hairs to use for complex simulations, with the remaining "detail" hair following suit under one main rule: the centers of mass for each subset of detail hair had to maintain their positions relative to dynamic reference points on ...

Lockheed Martin has just finished the final series of quality control tests for an enormous titanium dome meant to serve as caps for satellite fuel tanks. It's not just any ordinary dome, though: the enormous component measures four feet in diameter and is the company's biggest 3D-printed space component to date. Its previous largest qualified space part is an electronics enclosure that's around the size of a toaster. This dome is large enough to seal fuel tanks bigger than humans and, according to Lockheed Martin, big enough to hold 74.4 gallons of coffee or 530 donuts. Glazed, of cou rse. Titanium is an ideal material for the industry, because it's lightweight and can withstand the harsh conditions of space travel. However, manufacturers end up wasting 80 percent of the material using traditional manufacturing techniques -- plus, each component...

When Tesla opened up Model 3 orders to everyone , it was easy to be jaded when delivery would take at least three months. Wouldn't the situation only get worse? Apparently, just the opposite is true: Tesla has dramatically shortened delivery times for new orders . If you order either the Long Range RWD or Performance du al-motor models, you're looking at wait times between one to three months. That's much, much better than the three to five months of before. Even Long Range dual motor buyers now face 'just' two to four months of thumb-twiddling. You're still looking at six to nine months before the standard battery models are available, although that isn't surprising. Tesla raced to make 5,000 Model 3s per week just to turn any kind of profit on its more accessible car, and it may be a while after that before the vaunted $35,000 trim is...

Honda has teamed up with Panasonic to start testing the swappable rechargeable batteries it debuted at CES this year. The partners are bringing Honda's Mobile Power Packs to Indonesia, where they'll be used to power electric mobility products, particularly electric bikes. Indonesia is the third largest motorcycle market in the world after India and China, and its government has been thinking of ways to reduce traffic and pollution brought by the rise of the two-wheeled vehicles. One of the solutions it came up with is to encourage the adoption of electric-powered vehicles, making the country one of the best places to test the batteries. Honda, Panasonic and a local Indonesian partner are hoping to prove that the Mobile Power Packs can address common issues associated with electric vehicles, such as range and charging time. The plan is to install chargin...

The US' indictment of Russian officers over the DNC hacks is having an effect... at least, on Twitter. The social network has banned accounts for both DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 in response to the indictment. In a statement explaining the suspensions, the company told Engadget that they were "connected to a network of accounts" that had already been shut down for violating rules. At the same time, Twitter was aware that the shutdowns were considered overdue -- DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 have long been linked to Russia , and the indictments just formalized the connections. "We're reviewing our policies in light of this and expect to make updates soon," Twitter said in an additional statement . "We recognize that to promote healthy conversation we need to be responsive to ways the platform is being misused and we are committed to that...

For the first time , France's military cyber command marched in this year's Bastille Day parade on the Champs Elysees in Paris, alongside other units in the nation's armed forces. The military noted that it's a recognition of the advances that the unit has made since its formation last year, and reinforces that "cyber defense remains a national priority." French defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced the formation of COMCYBER in December 2016, noting that the emergence of state actors operating in cyberspace was a new way to approach warfare. The command brought all of the nation's soldiers focused on cyber defense under one command, with three main tasks: cyber intelligence, protection, and offense. The timing of the creation of... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts https://ift.tt/2Lcra6g ...

The race to build a "flying car " has just become more crowded. This week, the Canadian company Opener revealed its new vehicle, called BlackFly. The one-person aircraft can travel up to 25 miles at a speed of 62 miles per hour. Because the operations are a simple joystick, according to the release BlackFly shouldn't require a pilot's license, though operators will require training. BlackFly is powered by "eight propulsion systems, spread across two wings," which will provide redundancy in the case of failure. The craft can take off from the water and is fully amphibious, but it's designed to work best over grassy spaces. The flying vehicle can Super Charge in less than 30 minutes and has an automatic-return-to home feature. Opener hasn't disclosed exactly what the BlackFly will cost, but according to the BBC , it will be comparab...

You don't have too long to wait to see how Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 fares as a multiplayer-only game. Activision and Treyarch have outlined the schedule for beta tests, and it's clear that some gamers will have better access than others. The first tests kick off August 3rd at 1PM Eastern, when PS4 pre-orders will have exclusive access until this initial run ends on August 6th at the same time. Xbox One and PC customers will have to wait until August 10th at 1PM Eastern to have their turn, although you won't need a pre-order if you're patient -- an open PC beta starts one day later. This second round of testing ends August 13th at 1PM Eastern. Whichever platform you'll use, the experience should be the same. There will be six maps on offer, two of which haven't been shown before. It'll include multiple modes, including Domination, Har...

VMware ESXi patches are released periodically to resolve issues or address security vulnerabilities – just like any other software product. These updates can either be downloaded automatically through VMware vSphere Update Manager (VUM) or manually by logging in to My VMware. Regardless of delivery means, the contents are the same: a collection of software packages, […] The post VMware: New Rollup Bulletins Simplify VMware ESXi Updating appeared first on VMpros . via Latest imported feed items on VMware Blogs https://ift.tt/2zEZB19 If New feed item from https://blogs.vmware.com/feed , then send me an email at kr ...