Posts

These tiny tree shrews can handle hotter peppers than you

Image
Animals And now we know why they can handle the heat Spicy food doesn’t hurt you directly–it’s not poison–but your body thinks it’s getting real burns and reacts accordingly. Mammals who aren’t us steer clear of the… via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2urdtXx"

CRISPR might cause more unintended DNA damage than we thought

Image
A new study published today in Nature Biotechnology warns that CRISPR may not be the ultra-specific gene editor we've believed it to be. With CRISPR-Cas9, researchers can find particular sequences in a cell's DNA and cut them at a specified spot. The cell can then repair the DNA where it was cut and scientists have been attempting to use this technique to treat all sorts of diseases and disorders including ALS, Huntington's disease , HIV and sickle cell disease . The method has been thought to be rather specific, allowing scientists to target and remove only certain sequences while leaving surrounding DNA intact. But this new study says that CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing might be causing more damage than previously reported. The researchers tested three types of cells -- mouse embryonic stem cells, mouse bone marrow cells and human retinal cells -- and observed...

Do you really need to properly eject a USB drive before yanking it out?

Image
Technology Short answer: Probably not. Just don’t do it while it is actively copying, and don’t do it within milliseconds after it has finished. via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2L0RL75"

Russian National Vulnerability Database Operation Raises Suspicions

Image
Recorded Future says Russia's Federal Service for Technical and Export Control has ability to find, weaponize vulnerabilities under cover of doing technology inspections. via Dark Reading: https://ift.tt/2LnYX9I If New feed item from http://www.darkreading.com/rss/all.xml , then send

Future earns highest-charting streaming-only album on Billboard 200

Image
Future's new album, Beastmode 2 , is now the highest-charting streaming-only album, Billboard reports, debuting at No. 3 on Billboard's Hot 200. With this album, Future has dethroned Chance the Rapper, whose Coloring Book became the first streaming-exclusive album to chart on the Bil lboard 200, peaking at No. 8. Coloring Book also went on to earn Chance the Rapper the first Grammy awarded for a streaming-only album. Beastmode 2 charted with 57,000 equivalent album units earned through 73.5 million on-demand audio streams. The Billboard 200 chart began taking streaming data into account in 2014 and last month, Billboard began weighting streams from subscription services more heavily than those from free and ad-supported services for its Hot 100 songs and Hot 200 albums charts. Beastmode 2 is Future's ninth album to reach the Billboard 200 top ...

'FIFA 18' correctly predicted France's World Cup win

Image
EA Sports has a pretty amazing record when it comes to predicting the outcome of major sporting events. The company used it's FIFA 18 game to correctly opine that Germany would win the 2014 World Cup, and has used the long-running Madden franchise to correctly guess the real winner of the Super Bowl nine out of thirteen times. Now EA wants you to know that it also correctly chose France as the winner of this year's World Cup. EA ran a simulation this past May that called France as the eventual winner of the real World Cup, using free Russia World Cup DLC available in April. The company also tallied up stats from the 406 million virtual games played by FIFA 18 owners, including one billion goals and 1.7 billion keeper saves. 170 million games were played for Brazil, 153 million with the French team and 81 million for Argentina. The most wins per coun...

Less Than Half of Cyberattacks Detected via Antivirus: SANS

Image
Companies are buying next-gen antivirus and fileless attack detection tools but few have the resources to use them, researchers report. via Dark Reading: https://ift.tt/2zKgmIf If New feed item from http://www.darkreading.com/rss/all.xml , then send

Nathan Fillion is a fitting star for an 'Uncharted' fan film

Image
Fans have been hoping for years that Nathan Fillion would play Uncharted protagonist Nathan Drake in a film adaptation, but now that the long-delayed official movie has refocused to a prequel story , that hope seemed less and less possible. For those stalwarts, here's a consolation prize: The Firefly actor appeared as the games' swarthy protagonist in a 15-minute fan film that does the cinematic adventure franchise justice. Okay, it's clearly shot somewhere in the California hills instead of the games' exotic locales, but it still touches the best of the Uncharted series: Quips, swashbuckling action and historical conspiracies. There's even a cute segment with an over-the-shoulder shot mimicking how the games look while playing. Expect a couple cameos from favorite characters and the most fun fan-film since the Tom Jane Punisher short . ...

Netflix's shows didn't pull in as many new customers as expected

Image
Netflix is spending billions of dollars on new shows and movies this year , with an expectation that this will add to its subscriber base. Unfortunately, over the the last three months that plan didn't work quite as well as it had predicted. In April the company notched 125 million subscribers , and predicted it would add 6.2 million more. Today it announced numbers ( PDF ) that CEO Reed Hastings called "strong but not stellar" growing by a hardly-shabby 5.15 million customers worldwide with about 670,000 of in the US compared to the 1.2 million it anticipated. Developing... Source: Netflix Q2 2018 Earnings Letter (PDF) via Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2LcdKHx If New feed item from http://www.engadget.com/rss-ful...

Virgin Orbit will be the first to fly rockets to space from the UK

Image
Today, Virgin Orbit announced that Cosmic Girl, its modified Boeing 747-400 launch platform for its Launcher One rocket, will take off from the UK . This will make Cornwall Airport Newquay the first site in the UK to support launches to Earth orbit. The company hopes that its first launch out of the UK will happen by 2021. Rather than launch a rocket traditionally, Virgin Orbit sends Cosmic Girl to a plane's cruising altitude before deploying the rocket LauncherOne, which is safely stored under its left wing. From that altitude, Launcher One will make its way to orbit. This means that Virgin Orbit doesn't need to build a launch pad and support infrastructure for its delivery system; that gives it more launch flexibility than other rocket companies. It's not the only spaceport in development in the UK, though. This week, the UK announced that its first ...

DJI drones are now $300 off

Image
Gadgets These are some of the best drones for photographers. Drones like the Mavic Pro and the Spark are on sale for the next 36 hours during Prime Day. via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2NVvkhK"

Burnt bread shows that our ancestors were baking 4,000 years before agriculture

Image
Science Charred flatbread found in a fireplace dates back to 14,400 years ago. A fire was burning in the circular stone fireplace when someone threw in bits of food—cruciferous vegetables, legumes, gazelle meat, and a flat bread. The leftovers from… via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2NkipVe"

First 'Stranger Things' season 3 teaser is a perfect '80s mall ad

Image
Thanks mainly to online shopping, malls are largely struggling nowadays unless they're willing to change with the times . But in the mid-1980s, they were everywhere, adorned with loud neon signs and welcoming consumers with even louder fashion choices and hairstyles. It seems fitting, then, that a silly ad for such a mall in the town of Hawkins, Indiana, is really the first teaser for the third season of Stranger Things. Other than the mall opening up in Hawkins and a brief glimpse of Steve and new character Robin (played by Maya Hawke) as ice cream store sales assistants, there's not much to directly tie the teaser to Netflix's hit show . There are a few other nods, such as the announcer claiming the mall is "one of the finest shopping facilities in America... and beyond," which perhaps is a reference to the Upside Down. And, given Stranger Things...