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20 Feb 17:38

You Can Now Buy Snapchat Spectacles Online

by Dave Parrack

Snapchat is now selling its Google Glass-style Spectacles online. This means anyone in the U.S. can buy a pair of Snapchat Spectacles, and start recording short videos of the world around them. Snapchat’s Spectacles are sunglasses with a tiny video camera built into them. Anyone wearing a pair of Spectacles can tap a button and shoot 10-second video clips of exactly what they’re seeing in front of them. These videos are then uploaded wirelessly to Snapchat. In September 2016, Snapchat officially unveiled Spectacles. In November 2016, Snapchat started selling Spectacles from vending machines called Snapbots. These were dropped into various...

Read the full article: You Can Now Buy Snapchat Spectacles Online

20 Feb 17:26

Here's how much space Nintendo Switch games take up

by Chris Carter

You're going to get access to roughly 26GB of the Switch's 32GB onboard space, so if you aren't planning on buying a memory card and want to go digital, pay attention to the file sizes of each game before you buy them (or better yet, spring for a card).

That's going to be a lot easier as of this week, as Nintendo's Japanese Switch site just obtained a bunch of new information, which thankfully confirms that many games are only going to be in the 1GB range.

That includes Snipperclips (1.60GB), I Am Setsuna (1.40GB), and Puyo Puyo Tetris (1.09GB). A few are on the higher side, like Dragon Quest Heroes 1+2 (32GB), Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (7GB), and Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence (5GB). As a reminder, Breath of the Wild is 13.4GB.

With a sizeable card, it seems as if it's not going to be as bad as a lot of other systems, where first-party releases approach 40GB. Not yet, at least.

Nintendo Switch [Nintendo]

Here's how much space Nintendo Switch games take up screenshot

20 Feb 17:25

Blizzard will be ceasing support for Windows XP and Vista this year

by Peter Glagowski

Windows XP was the defacto operating system for a very long time. I remember immediately upgrading in 2001 and not really thinking about changing until I eventually tried out Windows 7 in 2010. The removal of MS-DOS was pretty big, but the legacy support and general stability made up for some missing features. Surprisingly, a lot of people are still running XP, despite Microsoft ending support for the operating system eight years ago!

It looks like Blizzard is now following suit as they have announced that their newer games will be dropping support for Windows XP and Vista sometime this year. The games affected will be World of Warcraft, Diablo III, Starcraft 2, Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm. To be clear, anything not mentioned in this list will still function normally on any OS.

Blizzard issued a statement over the weekend that explains their decision behind this:

Blizzard will be ceasing support for Windows XP and Vista this year screenshot

Read more...
17 Feb 01:19

Organ Transplant Breakthrough: Scientists Create First Human-Animal Chimera

by Scott Hough

A needle is inserted into an egg cell.

Yesterday, the scientific journal Cell reported on the first human-animal chimera hybrid to be successfully created by scientists. The research, attributed to first author John Wu and dozens of scientists in a team led by the Salk Institute, is the first to create a chimera incorporating the genetic matter of both humans and pigs.

The Inquisitr has previously featured human chimera; instances where it is suspected that two initially separate fetuses became fused and grew into one developed person. Scientists and judicial workers have been faced with somewhat rare and baffling paternity and other DNA evidence, where one person appears to shed more than one type of DNA, thought, at least in some instances, to be the result of human chimera.

The Salk Institute group is the first to successfully create a human-pig chimera, the first that contains genetic material from both a human being and an animal.

Pigs run through straw.
[Image by Joern Pollex/Getty Images]

“In ancient civilizations, chimeras were associated with God,” Salk Institute researcher Wu was quoted by National Geographic, “and our ancestors thought the chimeric form can guard humans.”

National Geographic explains that there are two ways to go about creating chimera. Traditional recipients of organ transplants are a type of chimera. However, the risks associated with peoples’ bodies rejecting foreign tissue are significant. By combining genetic material at the embryonic stage, it appears that two types of DNA can work together more effectively, creating tissue that hosts may be less likely to reject.

Previously, scientists had successfully introduced the pancreatic tissue of a mouse into a living rat, where it grew successfully, was later removed, and then used to successfully treat mice with diabetes. Stem cells are seen as the key to making the new research a success.

“When scientists discovered stem cells, the master cells that can produce any kind of body tissue, they seemed to contain infinite scientific promise,” National Geographic writes.

“But convincing those cells to grow into the right kinds of tissues and organs is difficult.”

A nine-week old human fetus.
[Image by selvanegra/iStock]

One area of research into the promise of stem cells involves growing organs suitable for transplant in petri dishes. Drawbacks of this procedure include invasive surgical procedures to harvest host tissue to begin growing new organs with and challenges ensuring that organs take the form expected.

Researchers at the Salk Institute discovered that the age of the stem cells used to start growing organs for transplant was a key factor in their success. Perhaps surprisingly, the youngest stem cells, previously seen with the most potential, were less effective than slightly older ones.

The scientists were able to inject human stem cells into both pig embryos and live pigs, allow them to grow for a period, and then remove them. One-hundred-and-eighty-six embryos survived, with John Wu estimating their makeup being one human cell per 100,000 pig cells.

At the moment, this low human/pig cell ratio is seen as the next major hurdle to overcome toward creating a viable process to grow organs that human bodies will not reject. Organs containing one in 100,000 human cells are thought to be too much for humans to tolerate.

The key to growing organs that human bodies will accept is suspected to potentially be increasing the ratio of human cells to animal cells, which could take years to successfully accomplish. However, Ke Cheng, with North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina, described the breakthrough as “intriguing” and Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte with the Salk Institute stated that the new method provides an avenue to “study human embryo development and understand disease,” which may turn out to be “just as valuable as the ability to grow an organ.”

[Featured Image by man_at_mouse/iStock]

Organ Transplant Breakthrough: Scientists Create First Human-Animal Chimera is an article from: The Inquisitr News

14 Feb 04:36

Genius Behind Suicide Squad Now Fifth in Line For the Presidency

by Eve Peyser

On Monday night, the United States senate confirmed the executive producer of Suicide Squad, Steven Mnuchin, as Treasury Secretary. This is, perhaps, the most twisted presidential cabinet in our nation’s history.

Read more...

13 Feb 18:19

Welcome to the Neighborhood

bill nye,mr rogers

Submitted by: (via Ob3ron)

Tagged: bill nye , mr rogers
13 Feb 17:15

A Great Way To Connect To Usenet

DIY,dual use,ethernet,internet,retro

Submitted by: venom.obscurus

Tagged: DIY , dual use , ethernet , internet , retro
13 Feb 17:08

No Sheepdog? No Problem!

Here we see a guy using PA system to herd cattle. Not all fixes are duct tape and zipties!

Submitted by: Unknown

13 Feb 17:05

Not Everyone Can Balance Over a Squat Toilet

13 Feb 14:48

Watch an Engine Be Stripped and Replaced in 3000 Stop-Motion Pictures

Set to the tune of Edvard Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain Kludge King.

Submitted by: Unknown

13 Feb 14:38

Coffee…

by Jonco

Thanks, DC
 

The post Coffee… appeared first on Bits and Pieces.

13 Feb 14:37

TP Protection

by Jonco

 

The post TP Protection appeared first on Bits and Pieces.

13 Feb 06:27

White House Blocks Listing of Bumble Bee As Endangered Species

by Rhett Jones

The rusty-patched bumble bee was scheduled to be added to the endangered species list on Friday but The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that process will need to be reviewed due to an executive order from the president. Lobbyists who oppose the Endangered Species Act have celebrated the decision.

Read more...

13 Feb 06:26

Walmart Injects People with WRONG Vaccine

by jason

13 Feb 06:22

Wanna bet?

by Jonco

Thanks, Rad
 
 

The post Wanna bet? appeared first on Bits and Pieces.

13 Feb 05:36

Chap scripts remote Linux takeover for sysadmins

Use this for good, not for evil. But not if you care about your penguins

Linux sysadmins with a sense of adventure: Tokyo-based developer Hector Martin has put together a set of scripts to replace an in-use Linux system over SSH.…

13 Feb 05:27

That guy using a Surface you keep seeing around town could be a spy

Surface devices and Windows 10 are now NSA-approved for use by US government workers

Microsoft's pointed out that the United States' National Security Agency has added some Surface devices to the nation's okay-for-accessing-secure-information list.…

13 Feb 04:58

page-of-confidence: That’s the last time i book a hotel in...



page-of-confidence:

That’s the last time i book a hotel in Night Vale

13 Feb 04:55

vrabia: shorm: ‘nasa just emailed a wrench to space’ i...



vrabia:

shorm:

‘nasa just emailed a wrench to space’ i genuinely, unironically love how i’ve come to a point where i just take this stuff in stride, like i was in 3rd grade when we got our first vcr and now we’re here. emailing wrenches to space. i love it so much.

13 Feb 04:51

undercover-josephina-biden: Here it is. The Best Tweet.



undercover-josephina-biden:

Here it is. The Best Tweet.

13 Feb 04:28

superpimplatin69: chief0keefe: fanboy-trav: mooserattler: cham...



superpimplatin69:

chief0keefe:

fanboy-trav:

mooserattler:

championofmediocrities:

chief0keefe:

chief0keefe:

chief0keefe:

chief0keefe:

IM SCREAMING

IT CAME FULL CIRCLE IM HOLLERIN

IT JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER

IS HE GOING TO BE DRAFTED NEXT???!!!??

This is so sweet and pure. Lol.

I’m crying. I’m also rooting for the Blues now.

@kvnbksa have you seen the updates?

more updates

I love when he says “I want the jersey of someone who’s literally the worst” and Tarasenko is like “This is my moment”

13 Feb 04:15

Photo



13 Feb 04:13

hmasfatty: (x) Some light in the darkness that is Gaming news...





















hmasfatty:

(x)

Some light in the darkness that is Gaming news right now

10 Feb 13:10

stand-up-comic-gifs: He’s just mad because he can’t acquire all...



















stand-up-comic-gifs:

He’s just mad because he can’t acquire all the apple juice that I’m acquiring. (x)

08 Feb 19:32

A Scary New Kind of Malware Is Invading Banks All Over the World

by Adam Clark Estes

Few terms in the security world instill more fear than Stuxnet. But seven years after the infamous computer worm that targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities was discovered, an ugly descendant of the software is showing up in banks and other organizations around the globe.

Read more...

08 Feb 18:54

Hugs

by Jonco

Thanks, Sandie
 
 

The post Hugs appeared first on Bits and Pieces.

07 Feb 14:15

Review: Analogue Nt mini

by Chris Carter
Fatbob

want

When I first got wind of the Analogue Nt mini, I immediately went into shock after seeing the price. $450 for an NES re-creation? I had to find out if it was worth the scratch.

While many of you will probably never be able to justify the cost, this collector is more than satisfied with the results.

Review: Analogue Nt mini screenshot

Read more...
07 Feb 13:55

TimeSplitters Rewind now targeting a 2017 release

by Jordan Devore

A fan-made, Crytek-approved TimeSplitters project is the stuff of dreams. That's what we're meant to get with TimeSplitters Rewind, the long-talked-about multiplayer-only mashup of Free Radical's zany first-person shooter series. Yep, the game is still coming, and now it's due out this year.

That tidbit -- a date change from "2018" to "2017" -- is all we're getting out of this teaser. You aren't going to see any footage of shotgun-wielding ducks or skeleton men wrapped in green flames. Rather, it's crystals. Just crystals floating around in space for well over a minute. Yeah, I don't know either.

I'm filing this project in my mind under "Hope it comes to fruition." And if it does, I also hope it's good on its own merits and accurate to the source material, which is no easy task. If all else fails, I'll continue digging out my copy of TimeSplitters 2 about once a year or so and cherishing the heck out of it.

TimeSplitters Rewind now targeting a 2017 release screenshot

07 Feb 12:05

Take a Quick Tour of the Mind-Boggling Universe of Mathematics

by Rhett Jones on Sploid, shared by Rhett Jones to Gizmodo

Math is often considered synonymous with pain, boredom and frustration. It’s not uncommon to hear someone say, “ugh, it’s like doing math.” But math is beautiful in theory, miraculous when applied, and awe-inspiring at every turn.

Read more...

06 Feb 16:01

tastefullyoffensive: Is your dad Ron Swanson? (via blooper2112)





tastefullyoffensive:

Is your dad Ron Swanson? (via blooper2112)