Latest News - Page 1363

A rare sighting of an octopus that is so transparent that you can see its internal organs and digestive tract has been caught on video.

The video has been posted to the Schmidt Ocean Twitter account, and according to the post, the footage of the octopus is "extremely rare". Researchers suspect that the species of octopus is Vitreledonella richardi, or more commonly known as a Glass Octopus. The researchers managed to capture the amazing creature while on an expedition near the Phoenix Islands Archipelago.

Dr. Jyotika Virmani, executive director of Schmidt Ocean Institute, said, "Working with scientists and local researchers, this expedition is a remarkable example of the frontiers of science and exploration that we are able to support. Live-streaming the dives gives us a glimpse of rarely seen and fascinating creatures such as the transparent glass octopus. By providing this platform to further the understanding of our ocean, we trigger the imagination while helping to push forward scientific insights and the protection of our underwater world."

An interesting image has come out of a known UFO chaser, and the image was sourced from a video shot by the International Space Station (ISS).

The image has been posted on the MrMBB333 YouTube channel that almost has 500,000 subscribers and shows a screenshot taken from the ISS's onboard live camera on July 3, 2021, at 8:30 am EST. The YouTuber points out that the image shows ten small black objects that remain unidentified at this current time.

The YouTuber claims that the objects are "traveling with the space station above planet Earth", insinuating that they are unidentified flying objects (UFO). However, no proof has been provided if these objects are flying or officially declared "UFOs". It should also be noted that due to the current "hype" around UFOs, many images/videos are being posted all around the internet claiming "UFO encounters" - most of the time with very little proof or at least lack high-quality footage.

Sir Richard Branson has become the first billionaire to enter space aboard Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity, and in the video below, we can see a quick game of "human volleyball" being played.

The above video has been released onto the Virgin Galactic YouTube channel and shows the VSS Unity with two pilots and four mission specialists, including Richard Branson. The video begins with a quick look at the SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity reaching altitude, with the pilots announcing to the individuals on board, "welcome to space".

When the space plan reached an altitude of 50 miles, Branson begins a motivational speech aimed at "all you kids down there, I once was a child with a dream looking up to the stars. Now, I'm an adult in a spaceship." As Branson is giving this speech, the crew becomes weightless, and we can see the other passengers on the space plane to start to play a quick game of "human volleyball," with one passenger being the "ball" being passed backward and forwards.

Richard Branson has recently completed the first fully crewed spaceflight of Virgin Galactic's spaceplane called the VSS Unity.

The VSS Unity has successfully completed four flights, with the fourth flight having Virgin Group founder Richard Branson on board. Now, Branson has told The Sunday Times that he won't be the only billionaire to make it to space on the VSS Unity, as he revealed that Elon Musk has dropped a $10,000 deposit for a seat on the spaceplane.

A Virgin Galactic spokesperson later confirmed the news about Elon Musk flying on the VSS Unity to The Wall Street Journal. The most recent price of a ticket on the VSS Unity is $250,000, so it can be assumed that Musk will be paying the full price at a later date. Before Branson's flight, Branson posted a photo of him and Elon Musk, saying, "Elon's a friend, and maybe I'll travel on one of his ships one day." For more information on this story, check out this link here.

There are many factors that are contributing to the rising sea levels, but one that may not have been widely considered is lunar cycles.

A new study that has been published in the journal Nature Climate Change has suggested that the United States could experience widespread coastal flooding caused by climate change and the Moon's coming lunar cycle. The Moon plays a vital role in how often/severe floods can be, and what dictates the Moon's power is its orbital cycle at the time. For example, in 2030, the Moon's orbital cycle will "wobble", which may lead to amplified high and low tides.

This "wobble" in the Moon's orbit around Earth happens every 18.6 years, and at the moment, the Moon is amplifying our tides, hence the increase in the frequency of floods. In a NASA post, Phil Thompson, an Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaii, said, "It's the accumulated effect over time that will have an impact. If it floods 10 or 15 times a month, a business can't keep operating with its parking lot underwater. People lose their jobs because they can't get to work. Seeping cesspools become a public health issue."

Using the toilet is a menial task that everyone has to do at some stage, but what if you were paid for your time spent on the toilet?

Introducing, a new smart toilet that pays users for discarding their feces in it. While this story would make for a good joke, but that is hardly the case as this toilet 100% exists and very well could be widely implemented around the world if manufacturing costs are reasonable. The toilet was invented by an urban and environmental engineering professor, Cho Jae-weon, who currently works at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST).

The idea behind the toilet is to put people's feces to use, and to reward those who decide to deposit their feces in the toilet. The toilet uses a vacuum to suck the waste down into an underground bioreactor. Once the waste has entered the bioreactor, microorganisms located in the bioreactor begin to break the waste down into methane gas. The methane gas is then converted into a source of energy that can be used by the university building, powering things such as a gas stove, hot-water systems, and more.

I don't think many people believe the narrative fed to us that John McAfee killed himself, and now even his wife Janice McAfee doesn't believe he took his own life.

Janice explained: "I do not accept the 'suicide' story that has been spread. Words cannot describe how enraged I am at the fact that I had to hear the news of John's death via a DM on Twitter. And now it's being conveniently reported that there was a 'suicide note' found in his pocket, something that was not mentioned when I collected John's belongings from the prison".

"I blame the US authorities for this tragedy. Because of these politically motivated charges against him, my husband is now dead. His last words to me were 'I love you and I will call you in the evening. Those words are not words of somebody who is suicidal".

Valve published the second quarter Steam survey results, and the numbers reveal that Facebook is still gaining ground in the VR headset market. More than 60% of SteamVR users have Oculus headsets.

Facebook can thank the popularity of the Quest platform and its Quest Link technology for its recent dominance in the PCVR space. The Oculus Rift and the Rift S account for a sizeable chunk, with 5.4% of users running an original Rift and 18.48% have Rift S headsets.

Oculus didn't sell many Quest headsets (5.23% of SteamVR users), but it has sold a tremendous number of Quest 2 devices in the 9-months that it has been available. Quest 2 users account for an astounding 31.07% of SteamVR users. To put that into perspective, HTC and Valve combined account for 31.9% of all SteamVR headsets.

Elon Musk has just tweeted out a meme that shows a toddler car seat and a traditional, cheap racing car-inspired gaming seat saying that they are all the same.

Instantly, the price of DOGE went up with bots buying up Dogecoin with Musk's tweet -- secondly, within a single minute Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan tweeted, saying "Right - maybe we should make a toddler car seat too". We all know how it goes, Razer says or unveils something that we all think is stupidly overkill or insane -- like a Razer toaster, and then they do it.

So I guess we now live in a timeline where Razer could eventually release a toddler car seat... and maybe Musk will collaborate with Razer on a Tesla-inspired gaming chair? I mean, that would be freaking awesome and it's not something too out of the question.

GIGABYTE has just unveiled its latest AORUS Gaming Box, with a pre-installed GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card in the form of the new GeForce RTX 3080 Ti AORUS Gaming Box. Check it out:

GIGABYTE's new GeForce RTX 3080 Ti AORUS Gaming Box which is virtually identical to the existing RTX 3090 and RTX 3080 AORUS Gaming Box, but with the new RTX 3080 Ti and its 12GB of GDDR6X memory. We have an AIO (all-in-one) cooling solution with a 240mm radiator, with dual 120mm fans and the pump installed on top of a large copper base for the GPU, VRAM, and MOSFETs.

You will connect the RTX 3080 Ti AORUS Gaming Box through its Thunderbolt 3 connector, and on the outside you've got 3 x DisplayPort 1.4 connectors and 2 x HDMI 2.1 connectors. 4K 144Hz and 8K 60Hz supported, as well as new HDMI 2.1 gaming monitors and TVs driving up to 4K 120FPS and 4K 144FPS.

Cooler Master has just unveiled the ultimate gaming setup with the introduction of the multi-purpose, semi-enclosed workstation for gamers and professionals... and I need it in my life, ASAP.

The new Cooler Master ORB X GamePod was built through community-driven innovation and collaboration, with a futuristic design, hardware and software integration, and supports next-gen VR, AR and haptics that'll deliver gaming experiences unlike anything else you've experienced in your home.

Cooler Master supports up to 3 x 27-inch monitors, or a single huge 49-inch monitor depending on your taste. There's built-in 2.1-channel sound with spatial audio support, a hidden compartment with a built-in sliding tray to easily install and house your gaming PC or next-gen console.

Intel has announced that it will be updating us on their process and packaging roadmaps, with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger set to provide more details on July 26 during the just-announced Intel Accelerated webcast.

The upcoming Intel Accelerated webcast will have Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger joined by Senior Vice President and General Manager of Technology Development, Dr. Ann Kelleher, where we'll find out about Intel's process and packaging roadmaps. Intel will have its next-gen 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs on its in-house 10nm Enhanced SuperFin technology, but we'll know more details on this on July 26.

Intel's first 7nm CPU will be its next-gen Meteor Lake, which is the 14th Gen Core CPU -- we're at the 11th Gen Core CPU right now (with the flagship Core i9-11900K) while the Alder Lake architecture drops with the 12th Gen Core and then 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" will drop before the 14th Gen Core "Meteor Lake" CPUs on 7nm.

AMD launched the flagship Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3995WX processor earlier this year, with its 64 cores and 128 threads of CPU power costing $5489 -- but there's the new Ryzen Threadripper 5000 series "Monster Truck" CPUs now launching in August 2021 -- just weeks away.

The latest rumor teases AMD will launch the Ryzen Threadripper 5000 series codenamed "Chagall" CPUs in August, based on the new Zen 3 (possibly Zen 3+) architecture and some tweaks to its xGMI (Inter-Chip Global Memory Interconnect) speeds from 16GT/s to 18GT/s.

Other than that, we're still looking at the same CPU core count, the same N7 node over at TSMC, the same DDR4 memory support and TDP (280W max).

We know it's coming, but now it's a big step closer -- EVGA's new X570-based DARK series motherboard, which will take an AMD Ryzen CPU.

It has been 5 years since AMD unleashed the AM4 socket and now EVGA is crafting what should be one of the very best X570 motherboards ever made. A new teaser photo was posted by Vince "KINGPIN" Lucido, and I'd dare say if Vince is posting pictures of the EVGA X570S DARK motherboard, then we're not far from the announcement of the board.

But then there's a far bigger issue -- EVGA announced its Intel Z590-based DARK and FTW motherboards over 6 months ago now and they're still not available. So sure, EVGA could reveal its new X570S DARK motherboard any day or week now, but it could be the end of 2021 or even into 2022 before we see it in the flesh.

I don't know why you'd try to bother doing this thinking no one would see the 308 processors physically strapped to your body, but a Chinese citizen has been caught trying to smuggle Intel CPUs out of the country.

In total, the man had 308 processor strapped to him -- Intel's own 10th Gen Core i7-10700 and Intel Core i9-10900K processors. Chinese customs officials caught the person smuggling Intel CPUs over the Hong Kong-Macau border, with a suspicious-looking driver busted.

Chinese custom officials have had one driver attempt to smuggle 256 processors strapped to their legs and chest, while two weeks ago a separate CPU smuggling attempt had 52 hidden processors between seats -- this person was arrested. The two-week operation has at least 308 smuggled CPUs recovered, worth over $123,000+ but it could be much bigger than this -- we just don't know yet.

EA has adjusted its Dual Entitlement program to only cover $99.99 versions of its games, not its standard $59.99 versions.

Last year, EA announced Dual Entitlement, an alternative to Xbox's Smart Delivery program that offered free next-gen upgrades. If you bought the standard $59.99 versions of Madden NFL 21 or FIFA 21 on PS4 or Xbox One, you could download a copy of the next-gen version for free.

Now EA is adjusting its Dual Entitlement program to be exclusive to the $99.99 SKUs of its new games. FIFA 22, Madden NFL 22, and Battlefield 2042 all have $99.99 cross-gen bundles. Dual Entitlement is no longer offered with the base $59.99 standard editions.

With FIFA 22, Electronic Arts has sent a clear message that free next-gen upgrades are over, and $69.99 is the new pricing of its mainline games.

FIFA 22 is the latest EA game to cost $69.99 on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles, solidifying the publisher's move towards a more premium pricing scheme. Like Madden NFL 22 and Battlefield 2042, the annual soccer game won't have a free next-gen upgrade. Instead, gamers can get both the PS4 and PS5 version for $99.99, which has become par for the course ever since NBA 2K21's release.

Next-gen versions will also have exclusive features, modes, and content not available on PS4 or Xbox One to help justify the price hike. Battlefield 2042, for example, has a 128-player Conquest/Breakout mode that's exclusive to newer hardware, whereas PS4 and Xbox One are locked to 32v32 play. Madden NFL 22's new dynamic gameplay is also locked behind new systems, and FIFA 22's advanced machine learning-powered animations can only be utilized on PS5 and Series X/S thanks to their ML capabilities.

EA's years-long AI and machine learning research is starting to push its games to the next level.

EA is using advanced AI and ML in all of its new games, including Battlefield 2042 with its 128-player multiplayer and AI lobbies, Madden 22's new dynamic gameplay features, and now with FIFA 22.

The publisher recently announced FIFA 22 will use a powerful ML Flow algorithm that trains 8.7 million frames of real-time motion capture footage. 22 soccer pros wore high-end Xsens motion suits to completely and totally capture every movement in FIFA 22's new 11v11 mode. The footage is then uploaded to a server and trained by ML Flow and sent back to the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 as inferenced data.

A US Navy Gunner's Mate has come forward to talk about his experience with a "Tic Tac" object that was spotted moving under the water.

John Baughman, who served in the U.S. Navy from 2008 to 2013, was stationed on the Carl Vinson in 2010 when he spotted something peculiar in the water below him. At the time, Baughman was taking a short break and was dangling his legs off the SAM Launcher Deck, looking into the ocean, which wasn't an odd occurrence for him. "I'd often see all kinds of wild stuff swimming and floating under and on the surface. Everything from sharks, dolphins and whales to giant squids, sea turtles, and swordfish."

Baughman expressed that he has developed significant knowledge of identifying objects that are in the ocean, as well as the depths they are spotted at. "I had a pretty good reference point on how big or deep something was in the water, especially when you can see the water line on the side of the ship." However, Baughman says he saw something that he couldn't identify.

A new report from SpaceWeather has indicated that high-speed solar winds are on track to hit Earth very soon.

The solar winds are reportedly traveling at a speed of one million miles per hour, and when they hit Earth, it's expected that it could cause geomagnetic storms in Earth's magnetosphere. The solar wind can also cause problems for satellite signals, radio signals, mobile devices, TVs, GPS navigation, and currents in power lines. Researchers aren't sure if this particular burst from the Sun will cause short-lived problems, but it wouldn't necessarily be surprising.

NASA has classified this solar flare as an X1.5-class flare, which means it's in the category of the most intense solar flares. Additionally, the "1.5" added to the name of the flare represents its strength. For example, an X2 solar flare is twice as intense as an X1. Reports are indicating that the solar storm is expected to hit parts of Earth between July 11/12. For more information on this story, check out this link here.