We haven't seen much of Boston Dynamic's four-legged self-balancing Big Dog robot since it was last spotted hurling cinder blocks in a lab. And that's maybe because the company's robotic geniuses have been hard at work building a smaller more agile version called Spot that weighs just 160 pounds so it can safely operate both indoors and out.
Life for Americans after World War II was supposed to be filled with open roads and open waters. The roads, more often than not, were for getting to work. And the water? That was pure leisure time. This "water-mobile" of 1947 was imagined to provide the best of both, with an enormous (and, one imagines, gas-guzzling) six-wheeled amphibious vehicle.
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In the most exciting entertainment news in the history of entertainment news, Netflix and Nintendo are working together to develop a live-action Zelda series. Obviously, I will be cast as Tingle the flamboyant map seller and aspiring forest fairy.
As it seeks writers to work on the show, Netflix is describing it as "Game of Thrones" for a family audience, this person said. As it is still seeking a writer to work on the series, Netflix has a long road to travel before a "Legend of Zelda" series actually becomes a reality. It's also possible that Netflix or Nintendo will kill the project before it gets off the ground.Wait -- they're looking for writers? I happen to know a guy. "Who?" Me, I was talking about me. I'm thinking a Cinemax style softcore skin-flick. "They said it's for a family audience." Fine, but Link is still gonna wield the Master Penis and there will be Zora nudity. Those are musts. Thanks to everyone who sent this, several of which seemed even more excited than I was.
Because there's nothing more terrifying and satisfying than watching two robots kill each other, ABC has announced they're bringing BattleBots back to television this summer for a whopping six episodes. Sadly, it appears they have no intention of also bringing back Dating In The Dark, which is a shame because I really liked it. I also like The Bachelor, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Vanderpump Rules, and all the other worst shows on television. *eating kitty litter like trail mix* I have weird taste.
Keep going for a butt-ass quality video of the top ten BattleBots moments.You know you're in trouble when your 'mis-remembering' becomes a meme...
Straight Outta Compton - Red Band Trailer with Introduction from Dr. Dre and Ice Cube (HD)(Official)
This looks pretty good.
"You have to make a lot of sacrifices if you want to be a polka legend."Previously from College Humor: How to Tell If You're a Basic Bro
The public, particularly on the internet, never lets a scandalized person forget their troubles. Par for the course, once NBC News anchor and managing editor Brian Williams was caught "misremembering" events, including when he was in Iraq in 2003, a meme was born. Hashtag BrianWilliamsMisremembers is on a roll and some amusing images emerged. A few examples are shown above and below. Visit here and here to see many more.
The net (i.e. the Facebook newsfeed of your Uncle Louie) is abuzz with reports that a tactical nuclear weapon was detonated in war-torn Donetsk, Ukraine, with videos showing a bright flash followed by a rising mushroom cloud in the distant. The videos appear to be real, but they're not showing a nuclear reaction.
One of the best reasons to be a PC gamer is modding. There is a passionate and dedicated community that helps to breathe new life into many PC games because of it. Yet while the scope and diversity of mods available are vast, we are focusing on mods that will improve a game’s graphics.
Of course, we can’t talk about mods without mentioning Bethesda’s popular game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Skyrim, and previous installments in the franchise, has a very large modding community and a plethora of mods that enhance its graphics. Because there are so many different mods, we are picking a small selection where the changes will be noticeable while keeping the game as stable as possible. We're also focusing on mods that improve the outdoor settings in the game rather than structures.
The mods we’ll be showcasing are Skyrim HD, Skyrim Floral Overhaul, Realistic Water Two, Enhanced Lights and FX mods, and Static Mesh Improvement Mod. These particular mods, we feel, will enhance the game in a noticeable fashion without too much fiddling, and should be easy for newcomers to implement. We'll be looking more at outdoor environments rather than towns, since we find that we spend more time travelling through the wilds than in towns. It made sense to focus our efforts on where we will be spending most of our time in the game.
For video capturing and screenshots, we went with the AMD Phenom II X4 965 processer, 8GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 with the game's settings set to Ultra.
Installation of mods is relatively simple, depending on how you do it. But before you begin to download and install any Skyrim mods, there are a couple of things you'll need. A Nexus Mod account, so you can download mod files, and WinRAR to extract the .zip files.
When you've taken care of that, you can install the mods manually in four easy steps.
1) Download the mod you want.
2) Extract the file using WinRAR, WinZIP, or 7-Zip.
3) Extract the contents to Skyrim’s data folder. In our case, it is located here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\skyrim\Data
4) Once done, just launch Skyrim and choose Data Files. When you do, you’ll see a list of the mods you extracted to the Data folder. Click the ones you want to use.
The other way to install mods is with the Nexus Mod Manager, which makes the process easier. However, not all of the mods available will work with the NMM program, which is still in open beta. For our purposes this is not an issue, as all of the mods used here work with NMM.
For those wishing to install a variety of mods, you should be aware that, depending on what you want to enhance, some mods will conflict with each other. In some cases, we've had to choose one mod over another because of incompatibility issues that caused game crashes. In other cases, we've installed some mods on top of others. For example, we wanted to have the best looking water possible (you know how much we love our water here). In order to do this, we installed Skyrim HD first, then we installed Realistic Water Two and replaced the water texture files that came with Skyrim HD. That way, the game still benefits from the HD textures Skyrim HD brings with it for landscape and flora, but with improved water from Realistic Water 2 (look at the comparison pictures in the gallery and you will see the difference).
Stock vs. Mod Comparisons:
We’ve provided a couple of pictures that show the stock version and final modded version so that you can see the differences the mods will make when combined together.
In the first picture, you'll notice an immediate change to the flora, with the pine tree becoming larger and more fleshed out (don't ask us for the specific variety of pine, botany is not our forte). Looking at the road in the modded version, you can see that the stones are dirtied up, or not as white, but can still be seen. The wall contains more rocks in its contruction, while the wood has been given a different texture.
Click on the image above to see an animated GIF comparison
We were psyched to mod the game's water. As you can see, RW2 reduced the wave's choppiness for this particular river, smoothing it out with a gentle flowing and ripple effect. You can also see the reflection of the trees better in the smoother water as well.
Click on the image above to see an animated GIF comparison
Installing these mods will take some patience and, depending on how ambitious you are with the amount of mods you want to install, plenty of trial and error. But in the end, it's worth it. Your "new and improved" Skyrim will look great.
What mods do you use for Skyrim?
Looking beyond 4K Ultra HDConsumers have yet to fully embrace 4K Ultra HD displays, but now that the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) has published the Embedded DisplayPort (eDP) 1.4a standard, it will only be a matter of time before 8K resolution panels end up on all-in-one PCs, laptops, and even mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. The new standard replaces eDP 1.4 published a year ago this month.
It also borrows from the previous standard by implementing its new higher HBR3 (High Bit Rate) link rate, which operates at 8.1Gbps per lane. Now part of the eDP 1.4a standard, HRB43 combines with the DSC (Display Stream Compression) v1.1 standard to support 8K resolution panels.
Another term you're likely to run into is Multi-SST Operation," or MSO. This supports a new type of display architecture that VESA calls "Segmented Panel Display." What it does is allow four high-speed eDP data lanes within the eDP interface to be divided up between either two or four independent panel segments. Lower resolutions will use two panel segments, while higher resolution displays will use four of them. Each segment can have its own timing controller and integrated source drivers.
"The Multi-SST Architecture enables greater design flexibility and power savings in new LCD panel technologies for embedded high resolution displays. Samsung proposed this feature in order to permit panel makers to make even broader usage of the eDP interface in advanced panels, as well as reduce panel thickness, reduce power draw, and reduce cost," said Bong-Hyun You, VP of Samsung Display Co.
This is a work in progress that will continue to evolve along with DisplayPort, though it won't be a particularly slow evolution. VESA expects to see systems using eDP 1.4a as early as next year.
Image Credit: documentary.net
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
By now, there have been so many banker-related suicides that it has become a moot point of i) tracking them all or ii) trying to find a pattern. And yet, one name continues to stand out: JPMorgan. The bank which has been most prominent among the list of "suicided" bankers notched one more casualty over the weekend when "a JPMorgan Chase & Co. employee strangled and stabbed his wife to death before turning the knife on himself, according to police who are treating the couple’s death in Bergen County, New Jersey as a murder-suicide."
Bloomberg reports the gruesome details according to which Michael A. Tabacchi, 27, and his wife, Iran Pars Tabacchi, 41, were found dead Friday about 11:30 p.m. in the bedroom of their Closter home after a 911 call placed by the husband’s father, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said in an interview. Closter is located in northern New Jersey, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from midtown Manhattan.
It wasn't a nail-gun this time. It was a knife:
Autopsy results on Sunday showed the wife died of strangulation and a stab wound to the chest while Michael Tabacchi died from a single self-inflicted stab to the chest, he said.
As his LinkedIn profile below shows, Tabacchi was an associate for JPMorgan in its global custody product unit.
This is how he pitched himself:
"Specialties: Excel and VBA is my bread and butter, I am very good and creative with data manipulation and reporting and can leverage my business knowledge to provide senior managers what is needed before asked to do so. I am also proficient with the remaining Microsoft office products (Word, Access, PowerPoint, and SharePoint)."
Full profile below:
But most eerie and disturbing is how comparable the Tabacchi double-death is to a comparable case from July of last year when as we reported not only did a JPM executive director shoot his wife multiple times before using the same weapon on himself (like now), but the tragedy also took place in New Jersey.
As IBTimes reports, Jefferson Township (New Jersey) police report that the Global Network Operations Center Executive Director, "Julian Knott, age 45, shot his wife Alita Knott, age 47, multiple times and then took his own life with the same weapon."
The silver lining: like back then, so now, the offspring of the dead couple survived the massacre.
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One of America’s most iconic condiment makers is embracing the “it” condiment of recent years: Sriracha. That’s right, H.J. Heinz Company is spicing things up with a new Sriracha-flavored ketchup.
The Associated Press reports that Heinz will begin selling the ketchup blend with Sriracha flavors at select supermarkets later this month.
The blended offering joins other Heinz flavors including Balsamic Vinegar, Tabasco and Jalapeño.
Officials with the company say in a statement that the new product was developed after consumers asked for more bold flavor combinations.
While the company suggests the new condiment be used with cheeseburgers, french fries, hot dogs, chicken and eggs, we all know that Sriracha goes with just about everything: Taco Bell, potato chips, Pizza Hut concoctions, and the list goes on.
Heinz launches ketchup flavored with Sriracha [The Associated Press]
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