Latest News - Page 1379

Elon Musk has been great at totally disrupting entire industries with his companies, like PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla just to name a few.

SpaceX is currently building out its next-gen Starship launch vehicle system, with Elon teasing an upcoming test flight of the new platform. SpaceX will be using Starlink to blast off into space, onto the Moon, and onwards to Mars -- but what about the benefits of the hypersonic rocket technology here on Earth?

That's where SpaceX could revolutionize the airline industry with a hypersonic rocket blasting passengers across the world at speeds simply impossible right now. Back in 2017, SpaceX teased that its Starship vehicle could deliver 100 tons to Lower Earth Orbit (LEO) between LA and New York in just 25 minutes... compared to 5 hours and 25 hours with a commercial airline.

Tesla has completely modernized the New Silk Road in China, with the installation of 27 Supercharger stations spread out across 5000 kms between east and west China. Check it out:

The official Tesla China Twitter account posted the video, with the now largest Supercharger route in the world that spans across the Silk Road. The Silk Road came about during the Han Dynasty all the way back between 206 BC and 220 AD -- with Silk Road spanning to the west and building a trade network with Central Asian countries and connected the empire with Europe.

This was integral for China, as they used Silk Road to transport things like jade, silk, and spices for things like glass, gold, and other metals. Silk Road was an ancient trading route that was how China connected itself with Western nations, trading not just items and minerals, but traditions and history, and everything in between.

Texas supermarket giant H-E-B is deploying crypto ATMs at its grocery stores in Texas, with 29 new Coin Cloud ATMs to be setup at H-E-B stores across Texas.

The new Coin Cloud ATMs will allow Texans to buy and sell over 30 different cryptocurrencies, including major cryptos like Bitcoin and Ethereum -- as well as another big crypto: Dogecoin. Coin Cloud is a digital currency provider, which will be providing H-E-B stores with its 29 new crypto ATMs.

Not only will the new Coin Cloud ATMs allow people to buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin -- among other cryptocurrencies, but it will also offer multiple US dollar stablecoins, as well as a variety of DeFi tokens.

The price of virtually every single cryptocurrency has dropped dramatically, with fan favorite Dogecoin plummeting from $0.30 down to $0.17 and there's no stopping it yet -- everything is bleeding right now.

Dogecoin hit a peak of just over $0.44 on June 4 and since then has been tumbling down, finding support between $0.32 and $0.34 over the last few days -- but then the entire market bottomed out and Dogecoin went into freefall.

In the last week Dogecoin has lost over $20 billion market cap, where it was sitting at around $42 billion market cap on June 16 before the steady downhill drop to $23 billion market cap at the time of writing. Dogecoin is down 36% over the last 24 hours at the time of writing (this will change depending on when you read this).

The continued Bizarro world of GPU prices continues, with graphics cards on both sides -- NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 30 seires and AMD's new Radeon RX 6000 series costing double the listed MSRP price, worldwide pretty much.

Hell, even previous-gen and second-hand GPU prices are insane.

But according to a new report from 3DCenter, GPU prices and availability are beginning to improve. The site tweeted out that NVIDIA GPU availability has increased "greatly" while "prices go down" from over 133% the MSRP, to now only 91% over MSRP... but as they said, and I want to emphasize: there's still a long way to go.

Quake was influential on the entire gaming market, and while the original game came out 25 years ago now... a Quake reboot is reportedly in development.

The new Quake reboot is rumored to have a female protagonist, which would be a big change for the franchise. It was rumored that during the development of DOOM Eternal that id Software was going to use a female lead character, but now the Ranger from Quake looks to be female.

The news is coming from the latest Xbox Era podcast, where Shpeshal Nick says that there is a Quake reboot in development, and that MachineGames is "helping out" id Software. The new Quake reboot would offer both single-player and multiplayer.

Square Enix's latest financials hint at big projects releasing in its fiscal year ending March 2023.

In its recent FY2021 earnings report, Square Enix President Yosuke Matsuda outlined an ambitious plan for company earnings. Square Enix expects to make up to 500 billion yen in sales by March 2024. A big part of this growth will be driven by a slate of games releasing in the FY2023 period.

Square Enix's content production account, which funds games development, is bigger than ever before. By March 2021, the account swelled to 78.1 billion yen. This clearly indicates a slew of big games are in development; as the spending grows, so too does the number of games or the scope of the projects therein. Square Enix has announced projects like Final Fantasy 16, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2, and Dragon Quest XII.

Square Enix tells shareholders that one game's sales miss won't affect other titles that're in development.

While scouting Square Enix's FY2021 earnings report I noticed something interesting. Company President Yosuke Matsuda recently discussed write-downs and assuaged investors that one game underperforming in sales doesn't hurt Square Enix's production account.

Here's the gist: Square Enix has a content production account that's kind of like a big piggy bank that stores all the money used for game development. This account expands as needed; when the teams need more money for a game, Square Enix funnels more cash into the account.

Cyber Group Studios, the company behind shows like the 1990s beloved ReBoot series, is producing a new animated series based on Final Fantasy IX.

Square Enix is teaming up with French TV giant Cyber Group Studios to make a new Final Fantasy IX animated show, sources tell Kidscreen. The show is being made for 8-13 year-olds and probably won't have adult themes like Vivi's rather depressing backstory and existential crises--expect more swashbuckling heroism set in a colorful fantasy world.

Cyber Group Studios is set to produce and distribute the show. Square Enix hasn't mentioned anything about a possible Final Fantasy TV show, however it's possible the deal was coordinated by Mitsuko Okamoto, one of Square Enix's new directors that has a background in television.

Every so often gamers ask: "What happened to Dead Space?" Now there might be an answer. It looks like the IP could be coming back to life.

Rumor has it that EA Motive is leading a revival of an established Electronic Arts IP, and there's reason to believe it's Dead Space. The tip comes from GamesBeat's Jeff Grubb, who mentioned it during a recent podcast. The info was later corroborated by Eurogamer, however EA hasn't announced anything just yet. The publisher is apparently saving that for the EA Play event on July 22.

EA Motive is mostly known for its excellent vehicular prowess and created the ship combat in Star Wars Battlefront II, and more recently it made a big splash with Star Wars Squadrons. A revival of Dead Space would be a departure for Motive.

Sabrent is about to unleash its huge 16TB external SSD, which will arrive to us in the form of the Rocket XTRM-Q 16TB external speeds. Check it out:

The new Sabrent Rocket XTRM-Q 16TB external SSD has dual 8TB SSDs installed, and lets you use the 16TB external SSD as a single huge 16TB SSD... or an external SSD with dual 8TB SSDs inside. The choice is yours, although if you use it as a single 16TB SSD the SSDs will be used in RAID 0 for some serious speeds.

In RAID 0 mode, the new Sabrent Rocket XTRM-Q 16TB external SSD boasts read speeds of up to 2.8GB/sec (2800MB/sec) and up to 1.4GB/sec (1400MB/sec) reads. This is more than enough for most people, and it's all driven through Intel's super-fast Thunderbolt 3 connectivity.

Cyberpunk 2077 is now back on the PlayStation Store and can be purchased, but Sony warns gamers to expect performance issues.

Today CD Projekt's long digital PS4 drought is over. Cyberpunk 2077 is now re-listed on gaming's biggest console storefront after being blocked for six months. The game has been discounted from its $59.99 MSRP down to $49.99, but it's currently on sale for $19.99 at Best Buy.

Although CD Projekt rolled out a new v1.23 patch just days ago, both Sony and the developer warn the game still isn't completely fixed and players will still experience some performance issues. The game is only now fixed enough for Sony's liking but it still plays best on PS4 Pro and PlayStation 5 due to each console's higher horsepower--performance on the base 2013 PS4 is still expected to be impacted.

NASA astronaut and European Space Agency astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet have completed a second spacewalk to install an ISS solar array.

The completed spacewalk marked the second spacewalk in four days. Both missions were to install a new solar array the International Space Station (ISS) is being equipped with. The astronauts were required to install a 60-foot-long and 10-foot-wide solar array that will be upgrading the ISS's satellite power systems. As with most interesting things aboard the ISS, NASA recorded the entire spacewalk and published a timelapse video showing the process.

A NASA report explained that both of the astronauts successfully completed bolting in the solar array and connecting it to the station's power supply. The solar array installations won't stop here as NASA is planning on equipping another solar array very soon. Kimbrough and Pesquet are scheduled for another spacewalk to begin the progress of the second solar arrays installation on June 25. In total, NASA plans on equipping the ISS with six new solar arrays, which are all being transported to the floating laboratory via SpaceX's Cargo Dragon spacecraft.

Most people have experienced hiccups at some point in their life, and in some cases, they can be quite discomforting, depending on how long the experience goes on for.

What if researchers told you they had developed a new straw that cures hiccups instantaneously? Well, according to the Mayo Clinic, that straw has been invented, and according to recent tests, 92% of people were cured of their hiccups after using the straw. The new straw has been patented as HiccAway and is called "the forced inspiratory suction and swallow tool" or FISST for short.

So what is it? The design of the straw is fairly standard, it's an L-shaped device that features a mouthpiece located at one end and a pressure valve at the other end. The straw is also equipped with an adjustable cap that goes into the end of the straw. As for the science behind it, the straw activates two nerves that are responsible for hiccups occurring, the phrenic nerve responsible for the activation of the diaphragm and the vague nerve for the swallowing action.

A team of paleontologists has discovered fossils of what they claim to be the largest mammal to have ever lived on Earth.

The discovery leads scientists to believe that the animal was actually a new breed of rhinoceros, but this one, in particular, was a giant rhinoceros dubbed Paraceratherium linxiaense (Linxia Giant Rhino). The skull of the Linxia Giant Rhino measured in at a whopping length of three feet, and if the rhino were alive today, it would be taller than 23 feet, weighing approximately 24 tons.

Using genetic analysis, the researchers were able to find out that the rhino would have lived around 31 million years ago in China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan. Additionally, the researchers mention that the Linxia Giant Rhino is related to the rhinos that are living in Pakistan, and for the rhino to be discovered in Linxia, it would have had to cross the Tibetan plateau, leading researchers to believe the plateau was much lower in the past than it currently is.

Since June 13, NASA has been attempting to get its Hubble Space Telescope back online after a problem caused the telescope to enter safe mode.

The Hubble Space Telescope has been in service for more than 30 years, and to say that the technology inside Hubble is old is an understatement. Now that old technology is beginning to show its age as NASA attempts to fix a glitch in Hubble's payload computer. NASA either tried to restart the computer on June 14 or to switch the telescope to its backup memory module. Both attempts failed on June 14 and June 17.

This isn't the first time Hubble has experienced an issue like this before. Back in March, NASA had to deal with getting Hubble back online after an error was spotted in the telescope's main flight computer. The payload system used in Hubble was created in the 1980s, and if failing such as the one that NASA is experiencing now continues, we could see a much greater need to get the telescope's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, up into space.

Approximately 85% of the known universe is dark matter, or at least that is what scientists believed until a new galaxy was discovered.

Previously it was difficult to believe that galaxies being conceived without any dark matter would be impossible, or at least incredible rare. But, the Hubble Space Telescope has been used to make a discovery of a galaxy that lacks dark matter, confusing scientists more about how galaxies are exactly born.

Zili Shen and Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University and Shany Danieli, a NASA Hubble Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, was the team behind the study, and according to the study, the team measured the distance of NGC1052-DF2 (DF2) and found that it was 22.1 +/-1.2 megaparsecs. The results indicated that the galaxy lacked dark matter. Additionally, results from another study published back in 2019 found that a neighboring galaxy called NGC1052-DF4 (DF4) also lacked dark matter.

The United States Postal Service are issuing a new collection of stamps that feature NASA imagery of our Sun.

The new collection that will be released on June 18 are called "Sun Science", and all of the ten stamps feature imagery from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The stamps were released in celebration of the study of heliophysics, and showcase the Sun at different wavelengths.

All of the stamps were designed by USPS art director Antonio Alcala, and the stamps showcase some of the most common events on the Sun such as solar flares, coronal magnetic ejections, sun spots and more. USPS explains on its website, "The Sun is the only star that humans are able to observe in great detail, making it a vital source of information about the universe. The Solar Dynamics Observatory lets us see the sun in wavelengths of ultraviolet light that would otherwise be invisible to our eyes. Each black-and-white image is colorized to the bright hues seen here."

Many people expect a massive unclassified report on UFOs or UAP's as personal military calls them to be presented to the Senate in the coming days.

We have been covering this story extensively, and the first journalist to break the story in The New York Times was Ralph Blumenthal, who has recently appeared on the Fade to Black radio show with Jimmy Church ahead of the report. According to Blumenthal, "Congressional committees were briefed on the issue of materials recovery", and that the "Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee" were briefed with slides that referenced "off-planet vehicles."

Some members of the Congressional committees that have been a part of this briefing have said that the information contained in the report isn't very exciting but does raise big concerns for national security. As I have outlined in a previous post, it seems the report will heavily lean towards emphasizing that these sightings of UAP's are a national security risk and that government bodies more so consider them to be constructed by some other nation rather than confirming extraterrestrial life existence prematurely.

Amazon CEO and billionaire Jeff Bezos will be leaving Earth on July 20 in his New Shepard rocket, marking the first tourist trip with his spaceflight services company Blue Origin.

Bezos will be joined with his brother Mark Bezos and another person who bid $28 million to acquire the seat on the New Shepard rocket and has also kept their identity anonymous. While this launch will be a monumental achievement for Blue Origin, many people have signed petitions showing their support for Bezos to simply not return back to Earth.

One petition featured on Change.org has gathered more than 30,000 signatures and is still quickly growing. The petition's description reads as follows; "Billionaire's should not exist...on earth, or in space, but should they decide the latter they should stay there." Another petition that is basically the same as the first one that was created states has nearly reached 20,000 signatures and states, "Earth don't want people like Jeff, Bill [Gates], Elon [Musk] and other such billionaires."