Monthly Archives: October 2023

NASA is launching a rocket on Sunday to study a 20,000-year-old supernova

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A sounding rocket toting a special imaging and spectroscopy instrument will take a brief trip to space Sunday night to try and capture as much data as it can on a long-admired supernova remnant in the Cygnus constellation. Its target, a massive cloud of dust and gas known as the Cygnus Loop or the Veil Nebula, was created after the explosive death of a star an estimated 20,000 years ago — and it’s still expanding.

NASA plans to launch the mission at 11:35 PM ET on Sunday October 29 from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The Integral Field Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Experiment, or INFUSE, will observe the Cygnus Loop for only a few minutes, capturing light in the far-ultraviolet wavelengths to illuminate gasses as hot as 90,000-540,000 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s expected to fly to an altitude of about 150 miles before parachuting back to Earth.

The Cygnus Loop sits about 2,600 light-years away, and was formed by the collapse of a star thought to be 20 times the size of our sun. Since the aftermath of the event is still playing out, with the cloud currently expanding at a rate of 930,000 miles per hour, it’s a good candidate for studying how supernovae affect the formation of new star systems. “Supernovae like the one that created the Cygnus Loop have a huge impact on how galaxies form,” said Brian Fleming, principal investigator for the INFUSE mission.

“INFUSE will observe how the supernova dumps energy into the Milky Way by catching light given off just as the blast wave crashes into pockets of cold gas floating around the galaxy,” Fleming said. Once INFUSE is back on the ground and its data has been collected, the team plans to fix it up and eventually launch it again.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasa-is-launching-a-rocket-on-sunday-to-study-a-20000-year-old-supernova-193009477.html?src=rss

LEGO meets Mario with this retro and iconic Super Mario Piranha Plant

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I am a huge fan of Legos in the sense that I like looking at the finished products, especially if they’re pop culture-related. But I basically don’t have the patience to put those elaborate sets together so I actually am not tempted to buy any of these sets (aside from the fact that they can be really expensive). But I do like seeing videos of how they’re put together or looking at pictures of what it looks like upon its final build. If you’re a Super Mario fan, this upcoming new product to add to the LEGO Super Mario sets may be of interest, or for people like me, may be of interest to read about.

Designer: LEGO

The LEGO Super Mario Piranha Plant is made up of 540 pieces and when put together, you get exactly what its name says. The sharp-toothed Piranha Plant is one of the most annoying things you can get when you’re playing the game. Now you can commemorate this “villain” by putting together the LEGO set which is also camera-ready since you want to show off that you were able to finish this masterpiece.

The plant has most of the details and chracteristics that you see in the game, including spiky leaves, the polka-dot head, and the green pipe from which it grows. You even get two gold coins as well similar to the game and you can store it in the pipe. Once you finish it, it’s perfect for displaying in your desk, bookshelf, or if you’re a serious LEGO collector, add it to your display case. It’s just 9 inches in height so it won’t take up much space.

The LEGO Piranha Plant will be available this coming November and is priced at $59.99. It’s pretty affordable compared to the more elaborate hundreds or even thousands of dollar sets that LEGO has released. You can add it to other Super Mario themed sets like The Mighty Bowser and the Super Mario 64 Block.

The post LEGO meets Mario with this retro and iconic Super Mario Piranha Plant first appeared on Yanko Design.

How AI is transforming the music industry with voice cloning, lyrics, beats and more

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How AI is transforming the music industry

Whatever your opinion of artificial intelligence might be—whether you consider it a tool to enhance innovation or believe that AI is destroying creativity—large language models (LLMs) and diffusion-based generative models are here to stay. They are developing and expanding on a daily basis, being used in a variety of ways to create music, song lyrics, […]

The post How AI is transforming the music industry with voice cloning, lyrics, beats and more appeared first on Geeky Gadgets.

Instagram head says Threads is working on an API for developers

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Threads was missing a lot of features users would expect from a service similar to Twitter's (now X's) when it launched. Over the past few months, however, it has been been rolling out more and more new features to give users a more robust experience, including polls, an easy way to post GIFs and the ability to quote posts on the web. Still, since it doesn't have an API, third-party developers can't conjure features specific to their services that would make the social network a more integral part of people's everyday lives. An example of that is local transportation agencies being able to automatically post service alerts when a train is delayed. According to Instagram chief Adam Mosseri, though, Threads is working on an API for developers — he just has concerns about how it's going to be used. 

As first reported by TechCrunch, Mosseri responded to a conversation on the platform about having a TweetDeck-like experience for Threads. In a response to a user saying that Threads has no API yet, the executive said: "We're working on it." He added that he's concerned that the API's launch could mean "a lot more publisher content and not much more creator content," but he's aware that it "seems like something [the company needs] to get done."

Mosseri previously said that Threads won't amplify news, which may have been disappointing to hear for publishers and readers looking to leave X. Instead, he said, Threads wants to "empower creators in general." More recently, in an AMA he posted on the platform, Mosseri said that that his team's long-term aspiration is for Threads to become "the de facto platform for public conversations online," which means being both culturally relevant and big in terms of user size. He said he believes Threads has a chance of surpassing X, but he knows that his service has a long way to go. For now, he keeps his team focused on making people's experience better week by week. 

Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that Threads has "just under" 100 million monthly active users. Like Mosseri, he is optimistic about its future and said that there's a "good chance" it could reach 1 billion users over the next couple of years.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/instagram-head-says-threads-is-working-on-an-api-for-developers-140049094.html?src=rss

iRobot’s Roomba Combo vacuum-and-mops are up to $300 off right now

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The iRobot Roomba Combo j7+ is the top 2-in-1 pick in our guide to the best robot vacuums, as it adds a retractable mop for cleaning hard floors onto a powerful robovac for carpets and other surfaces. It's expensive at its usual list price of $1,000, but right now you can get it for $699 at Wellbots. Just use the code ENGROOMBA300 at checkout. While that's still far from cheap, it does mark the largest discount we've tracked.

The Roomba Combo j7+ is undoubtedly a luxury purchase, but we found its vacuuming and mopping capabilities to mostly work as advertised. As a robot vacuum, it offers strong suction power, accurate home mapping and intelligent obstacle avoidance, including a strong knack for avoiding pet waste. In its "vacuum and mop" mode, it's smart enough to know when it's rolling over hard floors instead of carpet, then only mop the former. The battery generally lasts between 90 to 180 minutes depending on how often you mop, and the whole thing works with Alexa and the Google Assistant. This model also comes with a (noisy) self-emptying base station, which the vacuum automatically retreats to when it's done cleaning.

It's not perfect: You'll have to refill the water tank fairly often, there's no mop-only mode and the mopping functionality isn't as efficient as just using a Swiffer. iRobot's Home app remains easy to use, but all robovacs require the occasional maintenance and intervention. Still, a device like this makes cleaning more hands-off than it'd be otherwise, so the Combo j7+ could be worth it if your home has a mix of carpet, hardwood, laminate and other surfaces. For more details, check out Engadget Senior Editor Daniel Cooper's write-up of his experience with the device. Just note that, like many robot vacuums with obstacle avoidance, the j7+ comes with a built-in camera. That may raise privacy concerns for some, particularly with Amazon in the process of acquiring iRobot.

A couple of less expensive Roomba 2-in-1s are also on sale. The Roomba Combo j5+ is down to $499 with the same ENGROOMBA300 code, while the standard Roomba Combo j5 is available for $349 with the code ENGROOMBA250. Those are $300 and $250 discounts, respectively, and both represent all-time lows. The Combo j5+ is a newer midrange alternative to the Combo j7+: It has most of the same features, but it lacks the j7+'s retractable mop arm and ability to automatically avoid carpets while mopping. Instead, you have to swap in a vacuum-only bin (or just move your rugs) when you want to clean a carpeted room. You also have to empty its vacuum/mop combo bin manually. The standard j5 is essentially the same device but doesn't come with a self-emptying base station.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/irobots-roomba-combo-vacuum-and-mops-are-up-to-300-off-right-now-130031081.html?src=rss