Massachusetts-based amateur historian Jim Hamilton, who developed the Free Fall Research Page — an online database of nearly every imaginable human plummet, documents one case of a sky diver who, upon total parachute failure, was saved by bouncing off high-tension wires. Contrary to popular belief, water is an awful choice. Like concrete, liquid doesn’t compress. Hitting the ocean is essentially the…
Tag: theme
Google’s Annual Spectacle at CES is No More, With Tech Show Going Virtual
One of the biggest disappointments from CES 2021 going virtual will be the lack of a splashy booth by Google. Whether you cared about the company’s bevy of Google Assistant-related announcements, it was hard to deny the stagecraft employed by the tech giant. From a report: For the last few years, Google boasted some of the most eye-catching CES booths, from…
‘Super Nintendo World’ Amusement Park Previewed By Mario’s 68-Year-Old Creator
“On Friday, Nintendo and Universal Studios Japan took the veil off a years-in-the-making project: the very first Nintendo-themed theme park,” reports Ars Technica (in an article shared by long-time Slashdot reader mprindle): And who better to introduce the world to this life-sized walk through of all things Mario than the character’s creator himself, longtime Nintendo developer and designer Shigeru Miyamoto… Many…
Disney Stock Skyrockets 13% Friday to New All-Time High
CNN reports:
If it wasn’t abundantly clear that content is king, especially in the Covid-19 era, Disney hammered that point home Thursday when it previewed dozens of new series and movies for its Disney+ streaming service. And investors are loving it. Shares of Disney jumped 13% Friday to a new all-time high. The stock is now up more than 20% this year,…
Microsoft’s Latest Windows 10 Test Builds Includes Promised x64 Arm Emulation
Microsoft has made available two different Windows 10 test builds today, one of which includes the promised x64 app emulation for Arm, among other features. ZDNet reports: The RS_Prerelease build 21277 — which ultimately is expected to be designated as the “Cobalt” branch — includes the features Microsoft had previously been testing but removed at the end of October. This includes…
The Pope Praises Medical Workers, Criticizes ‘Personal Freedom’ Protests
More Americans travelled Wednesday than on any other day in the last eight months — 1.1 million Americans — continuing the country’s long-standing annual tradition of gathering to give thanks. The same week the Pope apparently felt compelled to publish an opinion piece in one of the country’s largest newspapers to share his own thoughts about the pandemic. First, the Pope…
Doctor Who’s Sonic Pioneers Will Turn the Internet Into a Giant Musical Instrument
“The Radiophonic Workshop has always broken new sonic ground, from the Doctor Who theme to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Now they’re at it again — this time using the internet as a musical instrument,” reports the Guardian. “The band includes composers from the original BBC Radiophonic Workshop, which created soundtracks for most BBC shows from the 60s to the…
Netflix Targets Critical ‘Cuties’ Tweets With Copyright Takedown Requests
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: Every week, Netflix sends out thousands of takedown requests, most of which target pirated copies of its movies and TV-shows. Yesterday, however, we spotted a series of copyright infringement notices with a different and rather uncomfortable theme. The streaming giant asked Twitter to remove dozens of tweets that included footage from the French…
Amazon Launches Program To Pay Consumers For Their Data On Non-Amazon Purchases
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Amazon has launched a new program that directly pays consumers for information about what they’re purchasing outside of Amazon.com and for responding to short surveys. The program, Amazon Shopper Panel, asks users to send in 10 receipts per month for any purchases made at non-Amazon retailers, including grocery stores, department stores, drug stores…
Stupid Russian Disinformation Campaign Targets Oxford Vaccine
The Times of London reports that “a Russian disinformation campaign designed to undermine and spread fear about the Oxford University coronavirus vaccine has been exposed by a Times investigation.” Pictures, memes and video clips depicting the British-made vaccine as dangerous have been devised in Russia and middlemen are now seeking to “seed” the images on social media networks around the world….