Amazon’s 1-day sale on blasters proves today is Nerf or Nothin’

Our friends at Thrifter are back again, so put down the game controller and shoot some blasters in real life!

When I was a kid the best Nerf blaster you could get was the equivalent of a Revolutionary War musket. It fired one ball at a time, not very far, and not very accurately. These days Nerf guns have enough firepower to start an international incident in your living room or workplace, and Amazon has taken to gun-running with a huge sale on Nerf ball and dart blasters. These prices expire at the end of the day.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the guns on sale:

• Rival Khaos MXVI-4000 Blaster for $33 (from $47) – This is the lowest price ever on this blaster, which has only dropped below $47 once before in the last year.
• Rival Apollo XV-700 for $13 (from $20) –
  This is the lowest price ever on this blaster.
• N-Strike Elite Retaliator Blaster for $19 (from $25) – This is the lowest price on this blaster since last year’s Black Friday sales.
• N-Strike Elite Stockade Blaster for $23 (from $31) – This is the lowest price in more than a year, beating last year’s Black Friday prices.
• 75 Darts for N-Strike Elite blasters for $9 (from $12)
• 100 Balls refill for Rival blasters for $18 (from $24.49) – Everyone knows the worst part about Nerf blasters is chasing down your expended ammunition. Buy these and you can stay safe behind your overturned table while your friend risks everything for one more dart.
• Lazer Tag Phoenix LTX for $48 (from $64) – For the sophisticated Nerf user who doesn’t need balls or darts. This 2-player laser tag system is at its lowest price ever.

All of these guns have great user reviews on Amazon. The Rival Apollo has 4.3 stars based on more than 360 reviews, for example. Check out the full list for more Nerf guns:

See at Amazon

More from Thrifter:

• How to get the most out of your Amazon Prime membership
• How to save money when driving

For more great deals be sure to check out our friends at Thrifter now!

Kickstarter commemorates Voyager with projects celebrating humanity

Forty years ago, the two Voyager probes were launched and to honor the anniversary, Kickstarter has created Projects of Earth — a group of campaigns inspired by the Voyager’s Golden Record that offer “unique perspectives on humanity, culture and life on Earth.” All of the projects will be launched between August 20th and September 5th — the two dates of each of the Voyager probe launches — and like the Golden Record, are meant to capture a portrait of our world as it exists today.

One of the projects included in the collection is a reflective sculpture created by artist Trevor Paglen in collaboration with the Nevada Museum of Art. The plan is to launch it into orbit around Earth where it will be visible in the night sky and exist as the only purely artistic satellite. Another project features a sequel to the Golden Record led by Jon Lomberg, the design director of the original. He wants to persuade NASA to upload it onto the New Horizons spacecraft. The PLANETS Foundation has a campaign for a new kind of telescope made with 16 five-meter mirrors in a ring that will be used to search for life on exoplanets. Other projects include documentaries, murals, digital paintings, a rover, a really cool lamp and eclipse-focused photography.

Some projects are up now and others will roll out over the next two weeks. You can find them all here.

Images: [Kickstarter/Trevor Paglen/Nevada Museum of Art] [Kickstarter/Bobby Genalo]

Source: Kickstarter

UK says online hate crime is as serious as offline offences

The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) today laid out a renewed commitment to tackling hate crime, including making sure that online offences are being dealt with appropriately. In its public statements, the CPS affirmed that cases of digital hate crime will be treated “with same robust and proactive approach used with offline offending,” and that there is no difference in the serious of such crimes.

The CPS announcement is particularly topical in light of the recent violence in Charlottesville in the US, and is part of a bigger-picture government push to address hate crime that began last summer. The CPS explains that its job isn’t just to pursue online instances, but to understand the potential for hate crime on social media and be aware of the different community policies and takedown procedures across platforms.

The CPS also considers the impact of hate crimes on the wider community as well as the individual, and recognises the importance of identifying “amplifiers or disseminators,” aka retweeters and sharers, as well as the original poster. Finally, it’s also important to note that children spouting inconsiderate remarks “may not appreciate the potential harm and seriousness of their communications.”

One of the roles of the CPS is to advise law enforcement and criminal prosecutors on how to approach certain cases and offences. Last year, the CPS updated guidelines to reflect the potential for social media and the internet in general to be forums for bullying, trolling and other types of harassment. These guidelines, including prosecution advice for hate crimes, are updated regularly.

The public statements issued today aren’t quite the same thing. Online hate crimes aren’t only now being considered serious offences and subject to prosecution. Public statements communicate intent, showing that the CPS considers hate crime a priority — particularly considering prosecutions of these offences are at an all-time high — and a policy area that demands specific attention.

These statements also serve as a warning of sorts — the message for potential offenders being your online activity doesn’t fall outside the scope of the law. It’s also a call for victims to report any and all forms of hate crime. Just because it happened on Facebook doesn’t make it any less serious an offence.

Source: Crown Prosecution Service

The solar eclipse hype is annoying, but the event is worth it

By now, it’s possible that you are completely fatigued by the August 21st total solar eclipse and all the media hype surrounding it — and it hasn’t even happened yet. It seems as though every outlet is talking nonstop about this event. But this actually is a big deal, which is why it’s gotten so much coverage. Let us break it down for you; this is one of those rare cases where the actual event is worth all the hype around it.

Total solar eclipses occur when the moon moves between our planet and the sun, and our satellite casts its shadow on the Earth. The moon appears to fully block out the sun, which only happens because of a remarkable coincidence. The moon is 400 times smaller than the sun, but the sun’s distance from us is 400 times that of the Earth to the Moon, so they appear to be the same size in our sky. Therefore, during a total solar eclipse, the moon completely blocks out the sun and the star’s corona (the surrounding halo) is visible. These events don’t occur often; they happen roughly every one and a half years somewhere on Earth (often in difficult-to-reach places such as the middle of an ocean or Antarctica). But it’s usually rare to see them more than once in the same location in a short period of time.

There hasn’t been a total solar eclipse viewable from the continental United States since the 1970s. An event on February 26th, 1979 covered Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and North Dakota, but it was a pretty cloudy day. The last eclipse most people remember seeing was on March 3rd, 1970. The path of totality (or where the moon fully covers the sun) traveled up the Eastern seaboard of the United States, from Florida through Virginia.

But why has this solar eclipse gotten so much coverage? There are a few reasons. First, it hasn’t happened in 40 years in the US. That alone is enough to get people excited. Second, it travels a path that barrels across the country, from Oregon to South Carolina. Third, what happens during a total solar eclipse is, quite frankly, cool. As the moon begins to cover the sun, the star will become a crescent. You can watch this process through eclipse glasses (do not try to watch through sunglasses or unprotected eyes).

It takes a long time, about an hour and a half, for the moon to fully obscure the sun, but when it does, you’ll experience totality. Day will instantly become night, as if a curtain has dropped over the Earth. The temperature will drop 10 to 15 degrees F. The stars and planets will come out. Animals and insects will act as though night has come. The sun’s corona (the fiery halo around the star) will be visible to the naked eye. It will only last for roughly two minutes, but it’s such an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime experience that people have taken to chasing solar eclipses all around the world. This one just happens to be right in our backyard.

If you’re reading this and lamenting the fact that you won’t be in the path of totality during the 2017 eclipse, never fear. There’s another total solar eclipse occurring in the US on April 8th, 2024. (This explains why so many of us are amused that people have taken to calling this “The Eclipse of the Century” and “The Great American Eclipse. No, it’s really not.) It will cut a narrower arc across the country, traveling from Texas to New Hampshire. This will be just as spectacular of an event, and totality will last a bit longer that time around (four minutes at its peak). After that, you’ll have to wait until 2045 for the next one to hit the US.

If you’re going to miss the 2024 eclipse as well but still want to see one, you’ll have to travel to the middle of the Pacific Ocean (July 2nd, 2019), Chile and Argentina (December 14th, 2020), or Antarctica (December 4th, 2021). After that, the next major total eclipse to travel over land will be on August 2nd, 2027, mainly over northern Africa.

If you aren’t in the path of totality, but still want to follow along with the 2017 eclipse, we have a guide on how to do just that. You may be able to view a partial eclipse from where you are (with proper glasses and filters, of course) or you can follow a livestream from one of many sources. The nonstop chatter surrounding the eclipse is a bit annoying, but even if the hype has made you jaded, it’s not worth missing this genuinely cool event.

Images: Getty Images (Solar eclipse); Jose Manuel Ribeiro / Reuters (Eclipse sequence)

‘Final Fantasy XV’ coming to PC early next year

Square Enix has milked Final Fantasy XV, offering not only PS4 and Xbox One console versions, but also a (bad) free mobile game, branded Sony Walkman and even a cookbook. What it doesn’t have yet, surprisingly, is a Windows version of the game, but that’s going to change soon. Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition is coming in early 2017, NVIDIA announced during its Gamescom press conference, and is of course loaded with NVIDIA tweaks and features.

Square Enix and NVIDIA didn’t say whether there’s any new material, but the game is bound too look good on Windows, thanks to Square Enix’s next-gen Luminous Engine and an alphabet soup of NVIDIA GeForce features. That includes NVIDIA Flow, Hairworks, ShadowWorks, Turf Effects and VXAO (voxel ambient occlusion), offering more realistic fluid and fire, hair and fur, shadow-casting, vegetation and light occlusion physics.

It’ll also support GeForce Experience sharing tech, along with NVIDIA Ansel, a screen-capture tool that lets you do in-game photography complete with filters, HDR, and 360-degree VR images. Finally, it’ll use NVIDIA’s ShadowPlay Highlights, letting you create highlights of the best action during gaming sesssion.

There’s no specific date, but the San Francisco Game Developers Conference (GDC) in March, 2018 seems a promising time frame. During NVIDIA’s press conference, director Hajime Tabata said Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition would be the highest quality version of the game yet, and it shows in the video below.

Source: NVIDIA

Formula One’s eSports racing league seeks the best ‘F1 2017’ driver

Traditional sports squads and eSports teams partnering has been happening pretty frequently recently. But now we’re seeing it happen in a big way with motorsports. Specifically, Formula One is pairing with developer Codemasters and Gfinity to find the best F1 2017 driver. Per Reuters, the semi-final races will be held in London at the Gfinity Arena in October, and the best 20 racers will proceed to the last round of competition the next month.

The first Formula One virtual world champion will be crowned in Abu Dhabi this November, following the close of the 2017 season. In addition to fame and prizes, the winner will also automatically be entered into the semi-final round for the following season.

McLaren says that it might not be long before all racing teams have their own virtual counterparts. Like the Formula E simulator competition from CES earlier this year, this is another case of eSports going mainstream. Gfinity, for instance, has an arena in London that’s open for competition year round. That’s to say nothing of the pushes traditional broadcast companies like NBC and ESPN are making into putting competitive video-gaming on TV, either.

Source: Reuters, ADVFN

Watch the trailer for Amazon’s answer to ‘Black Mirror’

Amazon Prime viewers in the US will soon be treated to the new anthology series Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams. As you may have guessed from its title, the show is based on the work of the illustrious sci-fi author, who continues to influence pop culture long after his death in 1982. To whet your appetite, you can now feast on the programme’s first trailer, which comes by way of Australian streaming service Stan.

Jam packed with surreal imagery, it seems Amazon has a real Black Mirror rival on its hands. The first season boasts 10 standalone episodes, each taking its inspiration from one of Dick’s short stories. The starry cast includes Bryan Cranston (who is also exec producing), Anna Paquin, Steve Buscemi, Juno Temple, Greg Kinnear, and Janelle Monáe. Judging from the trailer, the show’s retrofuturism sets it apart from other Dick adaptations (such as Minority Report). Instead the visuals bring to mind everything from Doctor Who to The Shining, by way of Stranger Things. Not a bad palette to pick from, that’s for sure.

Black Mirror disciples should also lap up the series’ philosophical explorations of technology and its impact on humanity (themes that run throughout Dick’s work). The show will sit alongside another Dick adaptation (The Man in the High Castle) when it hits Amazon Prime soon.

Of course, this year Hollywood will also attempt to sequel-ize arguably the most celebrated take on the author’s work in the form of Blade Runner 2049. Let’s just hope producer Ridley Scott doesn’t cock that up like he did Alien: Covenant.

Source: Stan Australia

Elon Musk urges the UN to limit AI weapons

Elon Musk has signed his name alongside more than 100 others to ask the UN to regulate the use of autonomous weapons systems. The group of concerned engineers, many of whom are respected in the field of AI, is asking the global body to “protect civilians” from “misuse” of AI-driven weapons. They believe that smart, self-guided kill bots would become the tool of choice for despots and tyrants.

Musk is, by far, the most famous signatory on the letter, but there are plenty of other impressive names, including DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman. The group believes that smart weapons, that don’t need a human to control them, are a step too far in how we wage wars with each other. Self-guiding drones, tanks and future soldiers risk becoming a “pandora’s box” that humanity will struggle to close.

This is not the first time that the South African billionaire has come out swinging against artificially intelligent weapons. Back in 2015 Musk, along wish Stephen Hawking and Steve Wozniak, called for a ban on machines that could kill without any human input. Similarly, Musk has had a very public fight with Mark Zuckerberg over the potential for artificial intelligence to wipe us all out.

The letter also offers plenty of expertise to the UN in the hope of creating a framework to prevent this tech from being created. Let’s just hope that officials take them up on it, and prevent some dodgy authoritarian from suppressing protests by unleashing an army of urban pacification droids.

Via: Phys Org

Source: Future of Life

Engadget is testing all the major AI assistants

Hardly a day goes by that we don’t cover virtual assistants. If it’s not news about Siri, there’s some new development with Alexa, or Cortana or Google Assistant. Perhaps a new player, like Samsung, is wading into the space. Even Android creator Andy Rubin is considering building an assistant of his own. And his company probably isn’t the only one that thinks there’s room for another AI helper.

With virtual assistants becoming such an integral part of our lives (or at least our tech-news diets), we felt it was time to stop and take stock of everything that’s happening here. For one week, we asked five Engadget reporters to live with one of the major assistants: Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, the Google Assistant, Microsoft’s Cortana and Samsung’s Bixby. What you’ll see on Engadget throughout the week aren’t reviews, per se, nor did we endeavor to crown the “best” digital assistant. Not only is that a subjective question but, as it turns out, none of the assistants are as smart or reliable as we’d like.

In the absence of a winner, then, what we have is a state of the union: a picture of where AI helpers stand and where they’re headed. Follow our series here. And, at the rate each of these assistants is maturing, don’t be surprised if we revisit them sooner than later.

This week Engadget is examining each of the five major virtual assistants, taking stock of how far they’ve come and how they still have to go. Find all our coverage here.

Scientists find a much faster way to classify our cells

Researchers have created a new technique for identifying cell types much quicker than ever before, a finding that could improve disease diagnoses and treatments. While there are many types of cells in our bodies (red blood cells, spindle neurons, etc.), scientists don’t know the exact number, because current microscope techniques are slow and laborious. By tagging cells with molecular markers, however, the team was able to read their unique RNA combinations like a bar code at exponentially higher speeds.

Here’s how it works: Cells are first placed into wells, where molecular markers attach themselves to each RNA strand. The process is repeated, and eventually each cell type has a unique combination of tags on its RNA molecules. The team can then break the cells open chemically and read back the sequences of tags. “We came up with this scheme that allows us to look at very large numbers of cells at the same time, without ever isolating a single cell,” Dr. Jay Shender told the New York Times.

The team tested it using 150,000 cells from Caenorhabditis elegans (roundworm), a tiny worm that has been model for biological research since the 1960s. They not only identified the 27 known cell types, but were able to break them down into groups with mildly different gene arrangements. That includes 40 different neuron types, including a rare example that only forms one cell in very few worms.

We came up with this scheme that allows us to look at very large numbers of cells at the same time, without ever isolating a single cell.

Those results are exciting, but the system doesn’t work all the time. With roundworms, for instance, it failed to identify 78 different types of previously identified neurons. “Of course, there is more to do, but I am pretty optimistic that this can be solved,” said Rockefeller University’s Cori Bargmann, who wasn’t directly involved in the study.

The research also must be adapted to the complexities of the human body. Nevertheless, it’s very promising, particularly for the Human Cell Atlas initiative being funded in part by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. That aims to map every cell in the human body, providing a baseline to compare healthy cells with diseased ones.

The study could reveal signature for pathology, better record cell-to-cell interactions and help scientists interpret genetic variants. The ultimate goal is to “discover targets for therapeutic intervention and … drive the development of new technologies and and advanced analysis techniques.” Much like with new gene sequencing techniques, it could help push medicine and treatments to a new level.

Source: Science