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Researchers create first sensor package that can ride aboard bees | Farmers use drones to fly over huge fields and monitor things like temperature, humidity, and crop health. However, drones need a lot of power and can't get far without needing to charge. Now, engineers at the University of Washington have created a sensor system small enough to attach to a bumblebee. Bees can go about their day of foraging, and when they return to the hive, their backpack of sensors can upload all the data that has been collected (right now it can only store 30 kilobytes). The team would eventually like to develop backpacks with cameras that can livestream information about plant health back to farmers. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Ffsend (GitHub Repo) | Ffsend is a command-line tool that sends files via Firefox Send. It is currently still in an alpha development stage, however, it is fully featured and can upload/download, archive/extract, inspect, and stream password protected files up to 2GB over an encrypted connection. Future releases will allow users to add their Firefox account information in order to upload files that can have higher download counts and longer expiry times. Ffsend works on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS, and can be built from source for other architectures if required. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Second Life founder returns to revamp his original metaverse | Second Life's founder, Philip Rosedale, has formed a team to work on evolving the virtual space. Rosedale co-founded a company that worked on VR tech in 2013 but became disappointed with the state of the industry. He feels that the technology hasn't reached a form that is good enough for most people to use. While the VR headset industry waits for its iPhone moment, Rosedale will focus on Second Life, a metaverse platform that doesn't require headsets. Second Life still has around 900,000 active users, with 73 million accounts created since launch. | 4Miscellaneous
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Samsung is reportedly working on a double-folding phone | Samsung is working on adding a double-folding phone to its lineup. The phone will fold into three segments using two hinges. The design is still being finalized, but the screen will likely have a more standard aspect ratio compared to the Z Fold, making it easier for app makers to design for. Samsung might be skipping a new Galaxy Note this year. Chip shortages have affected the entire industry and may cause delays in device releases. | 4Miscellaneous
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DbGate (GitHub Repo) | DbGate is a database manager that supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, and MongoDB. It features multiple DB connections, NoSQL database support, plugins, a SQL generator, and more. DbGate works on all platforms and is based on standalone NPM packages that can be run without DbGate. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Samsung ends mobile phone production in China | Samsung has closed down its last phone factory in China. Other manufacturers such as Sony have also ceased phone production in China due to rising labor costs and the economic slowdown. Sony will now only be making smartphones in Thailand. Samsung's market share in China shrank to 1% in the first quarter from around 15% in mid-2013. People in China buy low-priced smartphones from domestic brands and high-end smartphones from Apple or Huawei, leaving little room for Samsung to grow. Samsung will continue to sell phones in China. The company currently produces smartphones in India and Vietnam. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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A rogue killer drone 'hunted down' a human target without being instructed to, UN report says | In March last year, a KARGU-2 quadcopter targeted and killed a soldier without instructions to do so. The drone was operating in an autonomous mode, hunting down the target as they tried to retreat. It is likely the first time drones have attacked humans without being directed to. The incident raises concerns about the future of autonomous drones. Scientists and human rights groups have called for restrictions on the technology. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Hungry? Lunch on us during the Digital Experience Summit virtual conference Aug 17-18 (Sponsor) | As a TLDR subscriber, you’re invited to the most influential technology and marketing event of the year! Register today for this digital CX conference to receive a free UberEats voucher to use toward lunch delivery of your choice. | 4Miscellaneous
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How Big Tech Runs Tech Projects and the Curious Absence of Scrum (25 minute read) | This article looks at survey results from a study of over 100 companies to see project management approaches across the industry. It looks at how big tech manages projects to see how smaller teams should be run. The study covered a wide range of management styles. Big tech generally did not mandate a single approach, but teams received a lot of organizational support to make the process work. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Linux version of RansomEXX ransomware discovered | RansomEXX is a new ransomware strain that has been used to target governments and businesses since June. It is being used by ransomware groups to target organizations that can't afford to stay down while they recover their systems. A Linux version of the ransomware has surfaced that targets core infrastructure rather than workstations. Linux ransomware has not been popular in the past due to its reliance on spam as an infection method. Newer generations of ransomware are more targeted so it is likely that the number of Linux ransomware strains will increase. Companies are advised to apply security patches to gateway devices and make sure they are configured properly. | 4Miscellaneous
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In a first, astronomers detect giant planet orbiting a dead star | WD 1856 is a white dwarf around 80 light-years from Earth that still has a giant planet in its orbit. The planet, WD 1856 b, is seven times larger than its star and completes one full orbit every 1.4 days. It is probably 14 times larger than Jupiter. When stars die, they enter into an expansion phase that usually destroys nearby planets. WD 1856 b could have been drawn in by the expansion or was formed as part of the process. It could be a type of failed star known as a brown dwarf. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Coinbase extends hiring freeze, rescinds some accepted offers | Coinbase has announced a hiring freeze and will revoke accepted offers from some candidates who haven't started their roles yet. The crypto exchange began slowing its hiring two weeks ago. It will still hire for roles necessary for security and compliance. Those with rescinded offers will be eligible for severance pay. The hiring freeze will persist as long as the macroeconomic downturn continues. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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PRESENTA Lib (GitHub Repo) | PRESENTA Lib is a JavaScript library for building web presentations from config objects. It focuses on letting people work on content while allowing customizations. Full documentation is linked. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Guide to Kotlin (GitHub Repo) | This is a beginner's guide to Kotlin for people who already know Java. I really like this idea, since most people thinking about picking up Kotlin will already know Java. It explains a lot of the differences between the two, and since the two are quite similar, assuming knowledge of Java actually helps a lot when teaching Kotlin. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Vine reboot Byte officially launches | Byte, a successor to the short-form video app Vine, is now available on iOS and Android. The app allows users to upload and share six-second videos. It comes with standard social features like a feed, an Explore page, notifications, and profiles. Byte currently lacks many features available in competitor apps like TikTok, such as augmented reality filters and transition effects. The app offers content creators a way to generate revenue early on, something that other micro-entertainment apps usually don't offer. Details for how content creators can generate income will be revealed soon. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Huawei reportedly helped North Korea build its wireless network | According to several sources, Huawei worked with the North Korean government to build and maintain a commercial wireless network. Documents show that Huawei partnered with a Chinese state-owned firm on several projects over eight years. Huawei states that it has no business presence in North Korea and that it is fully committed to complying with all laws and regulations in the areas where it operates. In the last few months, Huawei has been involved in several legal disputes, including trade sanctions from the US and criminal investigations by the Department of Justice. | 4Miscellaneous
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FlatList (Website) | FlatList creates fast and performant React Native lists. | 4Miscellaneous
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Digital Stick Serves Up the Real Taste of Virtual Food | Scientists have created a device called the Norimaki Synthesizer that is capable of recreating taste sensations when in contact with a human tongue. It uses electrolytes inserted into five gels, each controlling the intensity levels of five basic flavors. The sensation of taste is created when microscopic particles are activated via an electric charge in a process called electrophoresis. The synthesizer can recreate the taste of all flavors without the need for the actual food. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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LittleJS (GitHub Repo) | LittleJS is a 2D JavaScript game engine with fast WebGL rendering. It has everything necessary to make high-quality games. LittleJS features positional audio effects, a particle effects system, a very small footprint with no dependencies, and much more. Several example starter projects are available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Apple CEO Tim Cook Is Calling For Bloomberg To Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story | Last month, Bloomberg reported that Apple and dozens of other US tech companies had been victims of a Chinese hardware hack. Apple CEO Tim Cook is now calling out Bloomberg directly, saying "There is no truth in their story about Apple. They need to do the right thing and retract it." Apple has never done this before, even for stories that were demonstrably false. Tim Cook says that they went through email searches, data center records, financial records, shipment records, and each time came to the same conclusion: no hack occurred. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Airbnb has blocked tens of thousands of bookings in party crackdown | Airbnb blocked over 50,000 suspicious bookings across 15 US cities as part of a crackdown on parties during the pandemic. The platform introduced a total ban on parties last year, an expansion of existing rules prohibiting dedicated party houses. Airbnb automatically blocks bookings for certain types of customers in some locations. It provided discounted noise detection devices to hosts and created a 24/7 neighborhood support line as part of the crackdown. The ban on parties will continue until the end of summer 2021. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Smart Upscaler (Website) | Smart Upscaler can upscale images up to 3000x3000px. It uses artificial intelligence to predict a high-resolution image given a low-resolution image. It is free to use for the first three images. API integration is available for large batches of photos. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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AugLy (GitHub Repo) | AugLy is a library for augmenting data in model training and evaluating the robustness gaps of models. It was designed to include many specific data augmentations that users perform in real life. It also contains generic data augmentations. AugLy is useful for problems like copy detection, hate speech detection, or copyright infringement. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Coronavirus: 3D printers save hospital with valves | Two 3D-printing companies in Italy have designed and printed 100 respirator valves in 24 hours. A prototype for the respirator valves was created three hours after a hospital found out that it had run out of the part. The companies worked for free to print the parts, but the design will not be released to the public. A second hospital has contacted the companies requesting more valves. | 4Miscellaneous
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Math to Code (Website) | Math to Code is an interactive tutorial to teach engineers how to use Python's NumPy library. It is useful as a quick primer in NumPy syntax. There are 13 sections, each with an explanation of a NumPy function, a small exercise, and the option to show solutions if you become stuck. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Uber is trying to buy Grubhub | Uber has made an offer to buy Grubhub. Grubhub is currently valued at $4.5 billion. Uber Eats has around 20 percent of the delivery app market share while Grubhub has around 30 percent. The ride-sharing business has seen a steep decline in recent months, so Uber investing more into its meal delivery offerings is expected. Absorbing one of its largest competitors will remove a major source of competition for Uber while expanding its operations. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Android 13’s beta is no longer just for developers | The Android 13 beta is now available for anyone with a compatible Pixel device. It will feature a new photo picker for restricting app access to photos, new app icon theming options, a new notification permission, and support for Bluetooth Low Energy Audio. There are also some developer-focused changes. The full release of Android 13 is expected later in the year. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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DevSecCon24 is back for 2022! (Sponsor) | DSC24 is the only free, global conference dedicated to DevSecOps. Learn best practices and testing methodologies from the community to bridge the divide between developers, operations, and security. Register now for free! | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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SpaceX gets FCC license for 1 million satellite-broadband user terminals | SpaceX has received approval from the Federal Communications Commission to deploy up to 1 million Starlink user terminals in the United States. It applied for the license in early 2019, and the license is now valid for 15 years. SpaceX's user terminals will look like a UFO on a stick and will be able to self-orientate. The design of the terminals is simple. Users will only need to point it to the sky and plug it in for the device to work. The Starlink network currently consists of 362 satellites. SpaceX plans to grow the network, so it will likely apply for a license for more terminals in the future. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Police Are Using Drones to Yell at People for Being Outside | Many people are still not following social distancing policies. Spanish authorities are dealing with non-compliant citizens by using speaker-mounted drones to find and yell at people congregating on the streets. A video was released earlier this year showing a Chinese drone telling citizens to remain indoors and wear masks, but it is unknown whether the video is real or not. US authorities are unlikely to employ these tactics on home soil. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Suture (GitHub Repo) | Suture is a refactoring tool for Ruby that helps in refactoring legacy code by making it safe to change code that is not confidently understood. It can be used in local development, staging environments, and even in production. A 45-minute introductory video is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Floating Drone Captures First-Ever Footage From Inside A Hurricane At Sea | The Saildrone Explorer SD 1045 is an uncrewed surface vehicle developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the company Saildrone. It recently captured footage from inside a Category 4 hurricane from the ocean surface. The NOAA will use the collected data to improve forecast models and better predict when and how hurricanes undergo rapid intensification. The footage is available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Spotify comes for audiobooks | Spotify is aiming at audiobooks as its next target for industry domination. The company is in the process of acquiring audiobook platform Findaway, with the deal currently under review by the Department of Justice's antitrust division. Spotify will apply the freemium model to audiobooks with ad monetization. The model would be a massive change for the industry and will greatly expand the market. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Getting a phone number with 4 consecutive digits | It can be handy to have access to multiple phone numbers. Verizon's My Numbers service allows users to have extra numbers, but the UI is bad and the interface is slow. This article follows a developer's process of figuring out how to access the My Numbers service programmatically in order to automate the search for a number with four consecutive digits. It involves learning how to find out which API endpoints are used and then calling the APIs using Python. | 4Miscellaneous
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Surgeons at Duke University First to Implant New Total Artificial Heart Into Patient | Surgeons at Duke University were the first to implant a new generation of Total Artificial Heart (TAH) after receiving FDA approval for human trials. The TAH has a variable heart rate that adjusts based on patient activity and can be used as a complete replacement for living donor hearts. Each device costs around $190,000, plus the costs of critical care staff and other medications. The device could solve long waitlists and high costs so that a heart will always be available for any patient in need. | 4Miscellaneous
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Almond.CSS (GitHub Repo) | Almond.CSS is a collection of class-less CSS styles to make simple websites look better. The project uses only tags, and its themes and styles are easily customizable. Developers can combine HTML and Almond.CSS without JavaScript. A demo is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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RxDB (GitHub Repo) | RxDB, or Reactive Database, is a NoSQL-database for JavaScript Applications. It features multi-platform support, reactive data-handling, data encryption, import/export of the database-state, full TypeScript support, and more. It is useful for UI-based apps that always display the realtime state to the user. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Human Contact Is Now a Luxury Good | As technology develops and becomes cheaper, a growing trend is occurring where the poor are living increasingly digital lives and the rich are living lives where screens are becoming less common. A startup called Care.Coach makes a program for the poor and elderly to keep them company with a digital avatar who talks and interacts with them, while the rich are purchasing more experience holidays and private human tutoring for their children. In the not too distant past, technology was a status symbol, but now, being able to separate yourself from technology and having more human interaction is a luxury. | 4Miscellaneous
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A “halo drive” could accelerate interstellar spacecraft to close to the speed of light | In 2016, Stephen Hawking and billionaire Yuri Milner planned a project to send thousands of tiny spacecraft to visit a nearby star system, demonstrating technology that would allow for interstellar travel. This technology was based on laser propulsion, which is theoretically able to accelerate spacecraft to up to 20% of the speed of light. A new theory by Daniel Kipping from Columbia University may be able to accelerate spacecraft even more, approaching relativistic speeds. The idea is similar to NASA's gravitational slingshots, where a spacecraft uses the gravitational field of a planet to accelerate without using more fuel. Instead of using a planet, however, Kipping’s idea involves sending photons around a black hole and then using the extra energy to power a light sail, powering what he calls a ‘halo drive’. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Questions to ask to determine whether something is really urgent | Four questions to ask when being told to drop what you are doing and work on another 'urgent' thing. | 4Miscellaneous
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Engineering metrics for high-performing teams (Sponsor) | Engineering metrics for high-performing teams . Swarmia gives engineering teams metrics and visibility into their workflow and possible bottlenecks.“Swarmia gives us the perfect overview of engineering productivity. I can quickly see how we're doing in terms of cycle time and pull requests, which helps me report back to the business.”Roland Fiala, SVP of Engineering at ProductsupStart shipping faster today! | 0Sponsor
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Can you tell a fake video from a real one? | Artificial intelligence is allowing us to make shockingly believable fake videos. This will make it even harder to tell what is fake news and what is real in the future. This article contains a series of videos of world leaders like Obama, Trump, and Putin, and you have to guess if they're real or fake. The first couple are pretty easy, but the last few are shockingly hard. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Nike acquires NFT collectibles studio RTFKT | Nike has acquired NFT studio RTFKT for an undisclosed amount. RTFKT was valued at $33.3 million in May after a seed funding round. The company is behind CloneX, one of the most talked-about NFT project drops of the month. CloneX has seen nearly $65 million in transaction volume since its initial drop less than three weeks ago. RTFKT also collaborates with crypto creators to design physical items that utilize imagery from NFT projects. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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I went to Amazon's high-tech hair salon and virtually dyed my hair pink — then got the best haircut I've ever had | Amazon's first hair salon in London opened to the public at the end of May. The salon uses an augmented reality app that lets customers experiment with different hairstyles and colors. Customers can select products in the salon to be delivered to their homes. Haircuts cost $US72. This article details the experience of getting a haircut at the Amazon Salon. It includes pictures of the salon and shows how the AR app's virtual hair color system works. | 4Miscellaneous
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Salesforce enters the streaming wars | Salesforce+ is a new video streaming service aimed at business professionals. It will debut at Salesforce's annual mega-conference Dreamforce in September. The free service will show original content from Salesforce and its clients. There will be 6 original series premiering at launch. Salesforce has built its own in-house studio and hired around 50 editorial leads to help launch the service, with plans to hire more as it builds up its programming slate. The company has no plans to sell ads or charge for the content. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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GitHub CLI 2.0 includes extensions! | GitHub CLI 2.0 supports extensions. Creating extensions is simple, and anyone can make custom commands and extend the core functionality of GitHub CLI. Links to documentation on how to create extensions, as well as several examples, are available in the article. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Uber just added public transportation to its app | People in Denver will start seeing public transport options when they open their Uber app, in an experiment to see whether the app will boost public transport usage. Uber aims to be the ‘all-in-one’ app for transportion needs and is testing to see whether more people will use public transport systems in this new system. This change comes after Uber has been criticized for causing a decrease in public transport use. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Robots learn to sweat to stop overheating | Material scientists have created a robot hand that is designed to sweat when overheated in order to cool down. The three-fingered machine has pressurized reservoirs filled with water inside its fingers which are connected to the surface via ducts made of heat-reactive plastic. When the plastic reaches a certain temperature, the pores open and water is released onto the surface, evaporating and cooling the machine down. Most robots are made of metal, which is good at dispersing heat, but soft robots designed for delicate tasks like medical procedures and packing fruit are made from rubber, which is a good insulator. One of the downsides to sweating is that it reduces friction, which could be an issue for gripping-type robots. There are GIFs in the article showing the sweating robot in action. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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CalDOM (GitHub Repo) | CalDOM is a 3kb JavaScript UI library with direct access to native DOM. It can fully access the DOM directly while keeping reactivity. Benchmark results are available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Robinhood says a hacker who tried to extort the company got access to data for 7 million customers | Personal data for more than 7 million Robinhood customers was accessed during a data breach on November 3. The attacker attempted to extort the company after the attack was contained. No social security, bank account, or debit card numbers appear to have been exposed and the affected customers didn't lose any funds in the incident. The attacker obtained a list of emails for around 5 million people. Around 310 people had additional personal information exposed, and about 10 customers had more extensive account details revealed. The company is in the process of notifying those who have been affected. | 4Miscellaneous
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Ikea is going to sell robotic furniture to maximize space for city dwellers | Ikea has announced the release of a new storage system which can transform into different types of furniture depending on what is required. ‘Rognan’ is controlled by a touchpad and is designed to allow people to make the most of the space they have in their apartments. It will launch first in Hong Kong and Japan, where apartments are famously limited in space. No announcements have been made yet about the price. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Waymo and Lyft partner to scale self-driving robotaxi service in Phoenix | Waymo will be bringing on 10 vehicles onto the Lyft platform over the next few months in Phoenix as part of a new partnership agreement. Waymo’s self-driving vehicles have been operating in Phoenix since December under the Waymo One app. Lyft users will be able to select between normal ride-sharing vehicles and Waymo self-driving vehicles once the cars are in service. In Las Vegas, Lyft has partnered with self-driving vehicle supplier Aptiv, and have provided more than 40,000 paid autonomous rides. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Meet Cosmo, a Bull Calf Designed to Produce 75% Male Offspring | Cosmo is a genome-edited bull calf produced by scientists at the University of California, Davis. It was created by inserting the gene responsible for initiating male development into a bovine embryo. Any embryo treated with this process will grow and look like a male, regardless of whether it inherited a Y chromosome. Cosmo's offspring that inherit the gene will also grow to be males. Male cattle are about 15 percent more efficient at converting feed into weight gain and tend to be heavier, making them more efficient for farming. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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The First Battery-Powered Tanker is Coming to Tokyo | The e5 is a new tanker ship powered only by lithium-ion batteries. It will be the first all-electric vessel of its kind. The 60-meter-long tanker will launch in Tokyo Bay next year. Asahi Tanker will own and operate the vessel, which will carry marine diesel fuels to refill the tanks of other cargo ships in the Bay. Its 3.5-megawatt-hour energy storage system is about the size of 40 Tesla Model S battery packs. Battery storage and cargo capacity are large factors for ocean-crossing cargo ships, so companies like Corvus are starting to develop large-scale hydrogen fuel cell systems for ships. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Memray (GitHub Repo) | Memray is a memory profiler for Python. It can help developers discover the cause of high memory usage, find memory leaks, and find hotspots in code that cause a lot of allocations. Memray can be used both as a command-line tool or as a library. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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'Reconstruction' begins of stone age lands lost to North Sea | A lost country called Doggerland, covered by the North Sea, will be remapped in 3D using seabed mapping data. Scientists also plan to take samples from the seafloor to hopefully extract samples of remnants from the lost civilization. It is believed that the country was destroyed due to catastrophic flooding. The civilization covered about 260,00p sq km but after the ice age ended, the coastal zones became increasingly ravaged by flooding and eventually the whole area was lost. | 4Miscellaneous
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Nuclear fusion breakthrough creates "burning plasma" for the first time | Scientists at the National Ignition Facility have achieved burning plasma for the first time. Burning plasma is a state where more fusion energy is emitted from fuel than was required to initiate the fusion reaction. While the lifetime of the burning plasma was measured in just milliseconds, it is a key milestone on the way to higher levels of fusion performance. The technology is likely still decades away from being viable. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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MIT is building a ‘one-stop-shop’ for 3D-printing robots | MIT's CSAIL department recently showcased a new project for developing robotics, drones, and other machines in a 'one-stop-shop'. LaserFactory is a system consisting of a software kit and a hardware platform that can create structures and assemble circuitry. It is still in its very early stages of development. A 2-minute video showing LaserFactory in action is available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Google Engineering Practices Documentation (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains documents that detail the best practice guidelines that Google has developed. There are two documents, the Code Reviewer's Guide and the Change Author's Guide. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Refactor (GitHub Repo) | Refactor is an AST-based source code refactoring framework. It uses a script rather than regex to replace patterns. Refactor is designed for small projects. CST-based solutions are recommended for full program transformations. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Apple Pay is coming to Target, Taco Bell, Speedway and two other US chains | Apple Pay is coming to Target, Taco Bell, Jack in the Box, Speedway, and HyVee. Now they are in 74 of the top 100 merchants in the US and 65% of all retail locations. Apple Pay is now rolling out overseas, launching in Germany last December. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Python-Mini-Projects (GitHub Repo) | This repository contains a collection of simple Python mini-projects to enhance your Python skills. Completed projects are reviewed by a team of contributors. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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DeepMind's AI agents conquer human pros at Starcraft II | DeepMind has created an AI called AlphaStar that has beaten a team of human pros at Starcraft II 10 games in a row. The humans managed to take one match at the end. While the AI was technically restricted to performing the same number of clicks per minute as a human, it did have some unfair advantages in being able to view the whole map at once, and it was able to move its units with inhuman precision. The AI was built using reinforcement learning, starting out by copying human players and then playing against itself. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Disney Plus to Add a Cheaper Tier With Ads Late This Year | Disney Plus is introducing a cheaper, ad-supported subscription in the US this year and internationally next year. It has not specified the new tier price or launch date. Many other streaming services offer tiers that include ads for a lower subscription price. Disney aims to reach 230 million to 260 million subscribers by 2024. It had almost 130 million subscribers at the beginning of this year. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Meet the musicians who compose in Mario Paint | 'Mario Paint Composer' is a genre that you can search for on YouTube. Using Mario Paint to create songs involves having to use a very unusual set of in-game tools. Starting in 2013, the trend has now evolved so that most composers aren't even using the original music maker anymore. Instead, they are using a custom program that mimics Mario Paint's compositional capabilities with a few extra features added. Early players had to find creative methods to create specific sounds in the original game. The trend died down soon after it began, and most videos and resources are old. There are still small, active Mario Paint communities on Discord. Members of the community feel that the restrictions that the game imposes on its players force them to be more creative, making composing songs inside the game fun and challenging. | 4Miscellaneous
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Vilnius, Lithuania built a ‘portal’ to another city to help keep people connected | The city of Vilnius, Lithuania has built a portal that connects it to Lubin, Poland, a city about 600 kilometers away. Five years in the making, the portals have large screens and cameras that broadcast live images between the two cities. The portals were created to encourage people to rethink the meaning of unity. Pictures of the portals are available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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No Ageism in Tech (Website) | According to several news sources and personal anecdotes, older tech professionals are finding it increasingly hard to find employment, even though they are well-qualified for many positions. The tech environment appears to attract younger people, and older, more experienced professionals are being left behind. This website provides links to a range of tech companies that are fighting against ageism in tech by offering job roles specifically for older professionals. Job seekers can browse employment listings, and age-friendly employers can list their company and job openings on the website. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Hush (Website) | This site contains an introductory guide to Hush. Hush is a modern shell scripting language. It aims to enable the development of robust and maintainable shell scripts. Hush is a good fit for scenarios where external programs need to be put to work together. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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iPhones with 'Fortnite' installed are being sold for as much as $10,000 after Apple pulled the game from the App Store | Fortnite was removed from Apple's App Store last week due to terms-of-service violations. While users can't install the game on their devices anymore, Apple has no way of removing existing installations. Some iPhone owners who already had the app installed listed their devices on eBay with listing prices as high as $10,000. Apple is working with Epic to resolve the issue, so it is unlikely that Fortnite will stay banned forever. | 4Miscellaneous
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NASA Has Created Oxygen on Mars In a Major Milestone for Space Exploration | The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) is a machine that can extract breathable oxygen from carbon dioxide on Mars. It heats Martian air to about 1,470 degrees Fahrenheit and then extracts oxygen from it using a process called solid oxide electrolysis. MOXIE successfully produced about five grams of oxygen on April 20, enough to keep an astronaut alive for 10 minutes. Its peak production rate is 10 grams of oxygen an hour. Oxygen will be needed to fuel a return trip to Mars. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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A Snapchat-owned location app just added a leaderboard comparing who stays home the most | Snapchat-owned location app Zenly is gamifying social distancing with a leaderboard for people who have spent the most time at home. Zenly usually encourages people to share locations to meet up with friends, but it has switched up its incentives and is now encouraging people to stay at home. The app also shows an overlay that shows the number of coronavirus cases in a state or country. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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How I hacked modern Vending Machines | A hilarious story (with step-by-step code examples!) about how hacker Matteo Pisani hacked his university's smart vending machine (seriously this a vending machine with an app). The article ends with video proof of him using his hack to get a free drink. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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BioNTech mRNA Cancer Treatment Moved To Human Trials After Huge Success In Mice | BioNTech has been testing the use of mRNA vaccines against cancer. Animal trials have shown great promise, so the technology is now in human trials to see if they can bring the same success. Cytokines are proteins with anti-tumor effects. Research has shown that they can shrink tumors and even eradicate them, but they have a short half-life, and high levels of cytokines in the body results in adverse effects. The experimental vaccines encode cytokines directly into the tumors, creating them in large quantities without adverse effects. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Hatsune Miku is the most exciting addition to Coachella’s 2020 line-up | Coachella is bringing in Hatsune Miku, a blue-haired CGI idol that was created as part of a software that generated songs that was made in 2007. The software was released around the same time YouTube arrived in Japan, and Miku became popular as people began sharing videos of her songs. Some of these videos became so popular, her songs entered the charts in Japan. Miku has since collaborated with Pharrell and Lady Gaga and has toured around the world. Holographic performances still involve a lot of work for everyone in the team. Miku's songs are all fan-made. Creators own the rights to their work, but Crypton, the company behind the software, gets usage rights. Coachella has previously had virtual performers, such as a holographic Tupac in 2012. | 4Miscellaneous
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Secretive Seattle startup Picnic unveils pizza-making robot — here’s how it delivers 300 pies/hour | Picnic, a Seattle startup, has created a system that makes custom pizzas with little human intervention. The device looks simple, but it is able to assemble up to 300 12-inch pizzas per hour. While machines have been making frozen pizzas for years, Picnic's robot is different in that it is small enough to fit in most kitchens, the recipes are easily changed, and the ingredients it uses are fresh. It still requires humans to prepare the dough, make sauces, and to bake the finished pizza. Picnic uses a camera to make sure that the ingredients are distributed evenly across the pizza. Restaurant owners can rent the device. Technology changes quickly, so many people don't want to buy a whole device only for it to be obsolete within a few years. While the machine has the potential to take over fast-food workers' jobs, restaurants have been having trouble filling in these positions anyway. More than 80 percent of workers in fast-food positions change jobs each year, requiring employers to constantly train new recruits. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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blackbird (Website) | blackbird is a color theme. It is available for VSCode, VIM, terminal, and websites. An example is available on the website. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Pwning Ebay - How I Dumped Ebay Japan's Website Source Code | So this guy was basically scanning for vulnerabilities in Alexa's Top 1 Million websites. He found that Ebay Japan ran a version control system that wasn't properly secured, so he just went to www.ebay.co.jp/.git/HEAD and used GitTools to dump their entire codebase including production database passwords. He informed them of the bug, and Ebay didn't have a bug bounty program, but one employee was nice enough to donate $500 to Doctors Without Borders in his name. Happy ending all around, yay! | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Apple will let Shopify store owners use iMessage customer support | Apple is extending its Business Chat service to all Shopify store owners via iMessage. Business owners will now be better equipped to provide real-time support, especially if they are running their business entirely on mobile. Apple Pay has also been added to the payment options for Shopify. Research shows that many people now use social media to contact businesses. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Epic 2019 Cross-Platform Online Services Roadmap (Announcement) | Epic Games (the company behind Fortnite) has built a bunch of internal tools in order to bring Fortnite to 200 million players across 7 platforms. Over the next year, it is planning on opening up all of this cross-platform functionality for free to other game developers (stuff like cross-platform voice comms, matchmaking, saved games, achievements and trophies, logins, profiles, etc.). If you're a game dev you should definitely check this out. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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A Single Laser Fired Through a Keyhole Can Expose Everything Inside a Room | Researchers at Stanford Computational Imaging Lab have expanded on a technique called non-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging so that a single point of laser light entering a room can reveal what objects might be inside. NLOS imaging uses algorithms to generate images based on reflected light, usually from lasers. The new technique's results are lower quality than other NLOS methods, but it still provides enough details to make guesses on the size and shapes of hidden objects. The research could one day result in a way for police or military to assess the risks of entering rooms. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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All of the biggest announcements from Samsung’s Galaxy S20 event | Samsung unveiled the Samsung Galaxy S20, S20 Plus, S20 Ultra, and Z Flip foldable phone at its Unpacked 2020 event recently. New Galaxy Buds Plus were also announced, with speakers that are 40 percent bigger than the previous generation. Voice quality has been improved, with three microphones built into the buds. They will have 11 hours of battery life. Google Duo will be available on the S20 and Z Flip devices. The Galaxy S20, S20 Plus, and S20 Ultra will all support 5G, feature a Snapdragon 865 processor, and will be able to record in 8K. Samsung's new Z flip foldable phone will feature a 6.7-inch foldable AMOLED display and will launch on February 14 for $1,380. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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First human trial of Alzheimer's disease nasal vaccine to begin at Boston hospital | Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston is starting a Phase I clinical trial of a nasal vaccine aimed at preventing and slowing Alzheimer's disease. The trial is designed to establish the safety and dosage for the medication. If the trial is successful, a much larger trial will be needed to test its effectiveness. The vaccine uses Protollin, a substance that has been found to be safe in other vaccines. | 4Miscellaneous
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Researchers Fix Cholesterol in Monkeys Through CRISPR Gene Editing | Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol is the bad kind of cholesterol that results in a greater risk of cardiovascular disease. Scientists have successfully used CRISPR base editors to turn off the gene that produces LDL in monkeys. It will still be a while before the treatment can be tested in humans. If successful, this could result in a single treatment approach for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Ordering CSS Declarations | Most developers don't use any CSS declaration organization techniques. That can result in a lot of time wasted trying to figure out someone else's code. Some code editors can automatically order properties alphabetically, but this can cause issues as the ordering of properties in CSS matters. This article presents cases where using automatic ordering can result in issues to better understand the inner workings of CSS. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Elon Musk wants SpaceX to launch the next generation of space telescopes | Elon Musk announced in a meeting with scientists on Monday that he'd like to collaborate with astronomers on developing the next generation of space-based telescopes. Musk was speaking at the meeting to address concerns about interference from large satellite constellations like Starlink. The Starlink constellation has interfered with some astronomical observations over the past year. A potential fix was suggested that used sunshades to block reflections from the sun. Musk suggested using an orbital planet-imaging observatory to avoid the issue of interference from Starlink satellites. The Starlink network has grown to over 400 satellites, and SpaceX has permission from the FCC to launch over 12,000. Musk has previously stated that he sees 20,000 to 30,000 as the ideal number of satellites to blanket the planet in low-latency broadband internet access. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Using TensorFlow.js to Train a “Rock-Paper-Scissors” Model | It is possible to create a machine-learning algorithm to detect whether a hand is making the symbol for rock, paper, or scissors within 10 minutes in a browser. This tutorial uses a website that implements TensorFlow.js so that all the processing happens within the browser. Picture data from a pre-made dataset is used to train the model, and then the model is tested using a webcam. The full source code for the website is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Eternal Terminal (Website) | Eternal Terminal is a remote shell that reconnects without interrupting the session. It is heavily inspired by ssh, autossh, and mosh. While mosh provides the same core functionality as ET, it doesn't support native scrolling nor tmux control mode. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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How to Create Neon Text With CSS | Neon text can add a futuristic touch to any website. This article explains how to add glowing effects to text using CSS. It also explains how to add flickering, pulsating glow, and other extras to add to the effect. The article discusses how to remove the animation effects to make the text more readable for those with accessibility preferences. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Branson's Virgin Galactic successfully reaches space | Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo passenger rocket reached a height of 82.7 km on its test launch Thursday. It was carrying two pilots and a fake passenger mannequin, as well as four research experiments for NASA. They plan on charging $250,000 for a 90 minute flight for tourists starting in March of 2019. Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Galactic, says "Today we have shown Virgin Galactic can open space to the world." | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Sinuous (GitHub Repo) | Sinuous is a small, blazing-fast, reactive UI library. It uses declarative views, making code clear, more predictable, and easier to debug while matching the performance of direct DOM manipulation. Sinuous is currently ranked in the top 80+ of UI libraries. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Zoom is releasing a new tool to let paid users charge for admission to online events like conferences or fitness classes | OnZoom is Zoom's new online event hosting platform. Hosts can organize free and paid events on OnZoom, with PayPal integration for ticket sales. It will only be available to paid subscribers in the US at launch. There are no additional fees for paid users to use OnZoom, but Zoom may take a cut of ticket sales next year. A new feature called Zapp allows Zoom users to open apps like Dropbox, Slack, and Asana directly inside a Zoom meeting. Zoom is also focusing on integrating online education tools. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Brandless, the pioneering Amazon alternative, shuts down | Brandless is shutting down, just two and a half years after it launched. It had an original idea designed to disrupt the traditional grocery industry, but it could not perform under the pressure of its investors. Brandless blames the crowded e-commerce market, as the competition in the direct-to-consumer market is fierce. SoftBank poured $240 million into the company in mid-2018, a year after it launched. After it received the cash infusion, Brandless underwent major leadership changes, partly due to the fact that SoftBank was pushing Brandless to quickly turn a profit and meet steep financial targets. The company board decided to shut down the company while there was still enough money to provide severance packages to employees. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Architects are planning a beautiful Martian city in the Dubai desert | A group of architects in Dubai were commissioned to design an experimental Martian city that covers 176,000 square meters of desert. The United Arab Emirates government budgeted $135 million for the Mars Science City project. It will help engineers and scientists understand how we can best mitigate risks associated with living on Mars. Renders of the design are available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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WhatsApp Launches Instant Cryptocurrency Payments in the US | WhatsApp has launched a cryptocurrency payment feature with Novi integration for a limited number of users in the US. Novi is a digital wallet owned by Meta. The feature allows users to send and receive money using the Paxos Dollar stablecoin in a similar way to sending regular attachments in a conversation. Funds can be withdrawn to a bank account in their equivalent value in US dollars. There will be no fees for withdrawing funds or keeping an account. The integration will not affect the end-to-end encryption of personal messages. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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One Fastly customer triggered internet meltdown | An internet blackout hit many popular sites for about an hour on Tuesday. The outage caused 85 percent of Fastly's cloud computing network to return errors. It was caused by a customer legitimately changing their settings. Fastly has promised to investigate the incident and figure out why the bug wasn't picked up during its software quality assurance and testing processes. | 4Miscellaneous
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Stadia lets you play people's screenshots, and it feels kinda like the future | Stadia's State Share is a feature that allows users to share links to screenshots or video clips of their games which other players can click on to play on the captured level. Some games that feature procedural generation use this feature to allow others to share the same experience. Players have been using the feature creatively to help each other. Only a few games support the feature at the moment. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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eBay to take a shot at Amazon with end-to-end fulfillment service next year | eBay will be launching a Managed Delivery service in the US next year. The service will use a network of third-party partners to supply warehousing, packing, and delivery services. Around half of the items listed on eBay will qualify for the new service. Managed Delivery will aim to deliver packages in two to three days. Sellers will be able to focus more on their businesses rather than packing products. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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3d-photo-inpainting (GitHub Repo) | 3d-photo-inpainting is a method for converting single RGB-D input images into 3D photos. The resulting 3D images can be rendered with motion parallax using standard graphics engines. Installation instructions and example images are available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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How a Carnivorous Mushroom Poisons Its Prey | Oyster mushrooms are carnivores, eating nematodes by using a poison that paralyzes them within minutes of contact. There are many mechanisms for delivering the poison, including hunter cells, harpoon cells, food traps, glue nets, and more. The poison targets calcium gates in the muscles, inducing a rigor mortis that results in death. Worms that lack genes for making cilia, antenna that the worms use for sensing their environment, can resist the poison, but they can't survive long in the wild. The poison is different from all current nematicides, and its effectiveness makes it intriguing for researchers. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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SpaceX Flexes Giant Starship-Catching “Chopsticks” for the First Time | SpaceX flexed the 'Chopsticks' arm of its Mechazilla tower for the first time recently at the company's testing facilities in South Texas. The tower is designed to catch Starship and its accompanying Super Heavy booster to ensure a soft landing. SpaceX successfully completed a static fire test on a Starship prototype last week, indicating that the company may soon be ready for its first orbital test launch. A link to an animation showing how Mechazilla will likely work is available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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