Scythe Mugen Max Review
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Everything You Need to Know to Play Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
With the release of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor approaching in just a few days, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE) has published an in-depth video to get you ready. Entitled "Everything You Need to Walk into Mordor", the video is divided into eight sections: Prologue, Ranger & Wraith, Cast, Weapons & Runes, Nemesis System, Creatures, Extras, and Epilogue.
Source: Press Release
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New Ways of Finding Gravitational Waves Discovered
One of the grander aspects of the General Theory of Relativity is that spacetime can be warped by objects and events. At the time, this was an unbelievable concept, but thanks to many experiments over the decades, we know it to be true and seek out some of the theory's consequences. Among them is the gravitational wave and now researchers, having reexamined the theory, have developed a new way to detect them, which has been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters.
Gravity, according to General Relativity, is the warping of spacetime around an object. Particularly energetic events, such as supernovae, binary neutron star systems, and the merging of neutron stars and black holes should create large ripples in spacetime, which will travel across the Universe. Using experiments on Earth and in space, we have been trying to detect these waves, to further prove Einstein correct, but have had no luck so far. The new method being proposed is to watch for stars to changes in brightness. The idea is that stars that oscillate could absorb energy from a gravitational wave, if the frequency of the wave were the same as the star's oscillations.
Another result of this research is that stars, including the sun, could interfere with gravitational waves, effectively eclipsing their sources. The researchers are now working to determine how long it would take to observe these effects.
Source: American Museum of Natural History
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Yahoo Plans to Shut Down Various Offerings
Yahoo, a company that is currently focused on making the world's daily habits inspiring and entertaining, has announced that it is shutting down three of its offerings. One of the offerings that is being shut down is Yahoo Education, a site designed to connect users with education providers and content. Another offering that Yahoo is shutting down is Qwiki, which automatically creates short movies based on photographs that users take. While the service and application are shutting down, the Qwiki team will remain integrated within Yahoo and will focus all of its efforts on other digital media experiences for Yahoo users. Yahoo Directory, the offering that Yahoo was launched upon nearly 20 years ago, is also being shut down. Yahoo’s business has changed substantially from the time Yahoo Directory was initially brought to early adopters of the Internet, and the shutdown of the offering boldly displays this.
Source: Press Release
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Focus Home Publishes Four "Making-of" Videos for Styx: Master of Shadows
Infiltraton RPG Styx: Master of Shadows is inching closer to release, so publisher Focus Home Interactive has decided to release not one, not two, but four(!) "Making-of" videos. The videos include: The Gameplay, The Sound Design, The Music, and The Team. You can use the links I've just provided to access each respective video, but I've embedded "Making-of: The Gameplay" below for your viewing pleasure, with English sub-titles forced on; because unless you know French, you won't be able to understand a word they're saying otherwise.
Source: Press Release
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The Alien: Isolation Extended TV Ad Has Been Let Loose
Taking a break from the #HowWillYouSurvive series of videos for a moment, Sega has released the 60-second extended cut of the Alien: Isolation television ad:
Source: Press Release
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DEEPCOOL Launches CAPTAIN CPU Cooler
DEEPCOOL has announced its newest CPU coolers, a trio of liquid coolers in the CAPTAIN series, released under the GAMING STORM sub-brand. The CAPTAIN series are all-in-one liquid cooling solutions in 120mm, 240mm, and 360mm configurations. The patented Separated Section design keeps the pump and cold plate in separate blocks and connects them with a "unique transparent connection system." The base is made of pure copper and contains precision-machined 0.2mm micro channels to help with the heat transfer. Also included are 120mm PWM fans that operate between 600 and 2200 RPM. The coolers will be available next month at an MSRP of $79.99 for the 120mm version, $109.99 for the 240mm, and $139.99 for the 360mm.
Source: Press Release
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Ubisoft Details What it Means to Be a Templar in Assassin's Creed Rogue
A couple weeks ago, we got a glimpse as to why Assassin's Creed Rogue protagonist Shay Patrick Cormac turns his back on the Assassin Brotherhood and joins the Templars. But what does it actually mean to be a Templar? How does playing as a Templar differ from playing as an Assassin? In a new video cleverly titled "Templar vs Assassin", Producer Ivan Balabanov explains how playing as a Templar is a completely different gameplay perspective than playing as an Assassin. Not only do you get access to the most advanced weaponry, but your former Assassin Brotherhood buddies can implement tactics you used to employ in previous games, such as getting the drop on you from above when you least expect it.
Source: Ubisoft
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Meet Far Cry 4's Pagan Min, the Self-appointed King of Kyrat
Last week, I claimed that the real stars of Far Cry 4 are the elephants. While I still stand by that claim, I must say that Pagan Min is shaping up to be one of the best antagonists in video game history. "Sadistic dictator. Psychopath. Best dressed man in Kyrat." Those are just some of the ways to describe the self-appointed King of Kyrat. It also helps that he's perfecly voiced by veteran voice actor Troy Baker. If you'd like to learn how Pagan Min rose to power, check out the description after the video, pulled straight from the press release.
Far Cry 4 is set to release on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 on November 18.Pagan Min was born in Hong Kong, the son of a mid-level drug boss in the Golden Triangle. His father was a small fish in a big pond and even as a young man, Pagan was as ambitious as he was flamboyant. This peacocking drove a wedge between them. Pagan worked for his father, hated him, and was frustrated as a lieutenant, seeing his father as a dinosaur. Nobody knows how his father died, but it wasn't natural causes. After his father's unfortunate passing Pagan inherited his small piece of the pie. He then left his old identity behind and adopted the moniker "Pagan," naming himself after an old Burmese king who murdered his family to take control. Of course, he changed the pronunciation to be western so that he'd be more unique. Pagan quickly started carving himself more of the pie he believed that he deserved. He built considerable assets, a small private army, and started angering his allies in the heroin trade. He didn't fit in and he knew he couldn't kill them all; it was only a matter of time before the old guard decided to have him killed.
This is when his eyes fell upon Kyrat, a small failed state with multiple warring factions in the wake of the collapse of its monarchy. He allied himself with the Royalists, propping up a distant heir to the throne who he used to swell his ranks and to remove all opposing faction in the country. After a few bloody months, Pagan and the united Royalists took the palace by storm, but Pagan betrayed the Royalists by murdering the heir and seizing the throne for himself. He then started a purge of anyone who didn't fall in line, executing his opposition. The betrayal led to the formation of the Golden Path, a small resistance movement dedicated to overthrowing Pagan.
Source: Press Release
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The Solar System's Water Predates the Sun
Water is one of the most important materials on Earth for the role it plays in supporting life. For this reason we try to look for it when searching for other planets that potentially also have life on them. To help with the search, knowing where the Solar System's water originated would be useful, and now researchers at the Carnegie Institution think they know the source.
There are only two options for where the water could have come from and those are the planetary nebula that the Solar System developed from, or chemical processes the Sun triggered, after it came to life. To determine which is correct, the researchers had to find out the ratio of hydrogen isotopes in water on Earth and in comets and asteroids. Unlike the dynamic Earth, the water (as ice) held by comets and asteroids has been in unchanged since the beginning of the Solar System, and is, in effect, a time capsule of that earlier time. The researchers also created a model to see if a newly formed star could produce the ratios observed today.
The results of the model do not match what has been found in the Solar System, which indicates that much of the water in the Solar System actually predates it. This conclusion is of immense importance as this option would put more water on other planets than if the local stars had to produce it all. Also the water and ices contained in planetary nebulae have organic molecules with them, which could impact life forming.
Source: Carnegie Institution
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iCloud Vulnerability First Reported in March
The Apple iCloud service has been in the news recently due to the reveal of a brute force exploit that was patched with the implementation of two factor authentication. It is now being reported that software developer Ibrahim Balic reported the vulnerability to Apple on March 26 and Balic claimed he was able to brute force a single account with up to 20,000 passwords. Balic also notified Apple of the bug using the official bug submission platform. Apple responded on May 6 and Balic believed that the issue was still in place and the company appeared to have discounted his findings as being a threat, stating "Based on the information you provided, it appears that it would take an extraordinarily long time to find a valid authentication token for an account."
Source: Daily Dot
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New Method for Faster Nanoparticle Production
Nanoparticles are interesting materials with many applications from energy storage to medical uses, but can be a little tricky to make. Chemical reactions must be used and they are not always the fast or efficient. Researchers at the Naval Research Laboratory have recently discovered a new process for synthesizing oxide nanoparticles that can produce very large quantities, very quickly.
Traditionally the synthesis of oxide nanoparticles relies on an oxidizing agent like hydrogen peroxide. While these agents work, they are somewhat weak and slow at reaction with solutions of metal salts. What the NRL researchers have done though is demonstrated that potassium superoxide (KO2) could be used instead. Its use results in a rapid exothermic reaction that produces insoluble oxide or hydroxide nanoparticles. The researchers have already managed to produce over 10 grams in a single step, which is 10,000 times more than many other methods after four steps.
One catch to this KO2 method is that the concentration of metal in the solution cannot be too great, or else large clusters of the nanoparticles will be made. It is able to create more complex materials though, including a cathode used in lithium batteries, a multiferroic material, and even a superconductor.
Source: Naval Research Laboratory
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MLG Opening Professional Gaming Arena in October
Major League Gaming is planning to open the first eSports arena in the United States in late October in Columbus, Ohio. MLG has hosted a number of events in Columbus over the years and Adam Apicella of MLG described the location choice saying, "With 62 colleges in the Columbus region, hundreds of thousands of university and high school students in the 11-county area, and close proximity to our audience on the East Coast, Columbus is a great location for our MLG.tv Arena." Katie Goldberg of MLG gave a description of the planned layout of the arena which will have, "a main stage set up, sound proof booths, lights, video screens, bleachers, monitors, IT and video equipment to broadcast via MLG.tv." The first event to be hosted will be the Call of Duty: Ghosts pro league playoffs and according to Adam's Twitter account, there will be roughly 200 seats for spectators at the event.
Source: SB Nation and Twitter
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Prepare for the Hunnic Invasion in Total War: ATTILA
The Dark Ages approach. A time of famine, disease and war, where refugees in their thousands flee from a sweeping tide of destruction and death. Desperate barbaric tribes rally against the ailing might of a dying and divided Roman empire; the light of civilization gutters and dims. In the great steppes of Scythia, a vast and terrifying force gathers, led by a warrior king whose thirst for conquest is utterly unequalled.
The Scourge of God, the very herald of the apocalypse, Attila the Hun.
That is how the press release for Creative Assembly's next game in the venerable Total War series begins, and it paints quite the picture. Total War: ATTILA starts in 395 AD, 367 years after the official end of Total War: Rome II's campaign. The Roman Empire has been split into two, with the Western Roman Empire on its last legs and the Eastern Roman Empire (or Byzantine Empire) rising to power. The unique landscape of the time allows Creative Assembly to introduce what it's calling a "legendary start position": "Playing as the Western Roman Empire you will begin with vast territories under your control, but weakened by political in-fighting and threatened on all sides by enemies, your dominance will quickly become a struggle to survive."
Total War: ATTILA is scheduled to arrive sometime in 2015 for Windows PC and Mac, and will be running on a modified version of Rome II's Warscape engine; hopefully without all the technical issues that continue to plague that game.
Source: Press Release and Official Site
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Improving LEDs with Plasmonic Nanotechnology
I am not actually sure about how many LEDs there are around me presently, but there are definitely many. While these light sources are all fairly efficient, compact, and have a long lifespan, they do have an emission problem. Most of the light an LED actually produces can be trapped inside of it, but researchers at Princeton University have recently developed a new LED design that lets the light out.
Believe it or not, but some simple LEDs only emit 2-4% of the light they create. The remainder of the light stays trapped within the LED, producing heat that will actually shorten the light's lifespan. By adding reflectors, lenses, and other structures, more of the light will be emitted, but a display using such LEDs could then reflect ambient light, reducing its contrast. The solution to that has been to add a light-absorbing material to the display, which cuts the brightness by as much as half. The Princeton researchers have a new design in mind though that uses a nanotechnology structure called plasmonic cavity with subwavelength hole-array (PlaCSH). This puts a metal mesh on top of the LED that guides photons out of the LED and to a viewer.
The researchers predict that this system, which will work with both organic and inorganic LEDs, could increase efficiency by 58% and display contrast by 400%, while also being flexible. Producing organic LEDs with the PlaCSH is also a simple affair with nanoimprint technology, which allows the structures to be produced like printing newspapers.
Source: Princeton University
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