Nebula-75, the improbable puppet drama produced entirely within the confines of lockdown and filmed in a small London flat, has released it's third episode. "Short Circuit" expands upon the world developed during Century 21 Films' debut story (a two episode epic), by introducing Rusty the space scrap merchant and his battered old space ship. Things also look bad for the crew's faithful Robot companion, Circuit, who seems to be suffering from one malfunction too many!

The Century 21 Films team began work on the Supermarionation series as a result of lockdown being imposed in the UK. Left with derailed projects, time on their hands, and a flat filled with puppets, props, and set elements from their previous projects, they decided to attempt to produce a unique "Superisolation" series for 2020. Having now released their third instalment of the show, the team have been encouraged by the reaction their creation is getting:

STEPHEN: Considering the fact that it was initially only publicised on our own social media pages, it has had extremely good reaction thus far. We've been inundated with messages across e-mail, Twitter and Facebook from people saying how much they enjoyed the show – especially during these difficult times. As we've seen with each of our releases – which have included the feature documentary Filmed in Supermarionation, a million pound advert for the Halifax, three new episodes of Thunderbirds and a guest spot on Endeavour ­– there's a real appetite to see a brand new show in this style. Nebula-75 is being made in very compromised circumstances – so it's a testament to the appeal of these puppets that so many can see past the limitations and be drawn into the drama of marionettes and space vehicles on strings. 

ELLIOT: A lot of people seemed to enjoy Circuit, our robot character, and the more retro aspects of the production. It clearly reminds a lot of people of the series they grew up loving as children, but they also enjoy the opportunity to meet new characters in a new selection of adventures. A lot of people seem to be enjoying watching it with their children as well and reaching that family audience means a lot to us. We're also started to receive fan art, which is amazing!

Can we expect to see further episodes from the series? "We've got lots of ideas for future episodes," says art department supervisor Géraldine Donaldson. "Our imaginations are unlimited, even if the same can't be said for the space in the living room!"

You can catch up with the adventures of Commander Ray Neptune and the crew of NEBULA-75 for free via Century 21 Films.

What happens when the media gets involved in legal cases? Will the hype affect the decision of the court? What are the comments of the people who get to follow the case? Will they find the court just or unjust?

Throughout time, some unsettling court cases have been documented and were published by the media. The people also had the opportunity to follow such cases. Now, we'll get to be in the shoes of these people through Trial by Media.

Trial by Media, whose executive producers include George Clooney, Court TV creator Steven Brill and longtime CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin (whose book on the Simpson trial inspired Ryan Murphy’s 2016 Emmy-winning drama The People v OJ Simpson) is a deeply researched, bitingly edited sprawl of a series that favors identifying America’s tentacled media and criminal justice system over one pointed argument. It revisits six cases – some famous, others less so – in which the media played an outsized role. “We wanted a mix of cases that were famous and recognizable, and cases that were … just bizarre and fascinating on their own terms,” Toobin, a New Yorker staff writer, told the Guardian.

Video Credit: Netflix

Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4 in its years has served a lot of games. Some of the notable games that have used this game engine are Tekken 7, Tetris Effect, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), and Street Fighter V. Aside from games, the engine is also used by filmmakers and advertisers. 

With Unreal Engine 4 already being six years old, it is about time that Epic Games released its successor, Unreal Engine 5, which pushes everything from lighting effects to realism towards the next level.

Check out this video and see it in your own eyes.

Via Engadget

(Video Credit: Unreal Engine/ YouTube)

Despite being over a decade old, the game Punch-Out!! for the Wii still looks good to this day. But more than its aesthetics, it’s really the gameplay experience that sells the game. With the different opponents that you will fight (with each of them having different personalities and their own tells when they punch), you’ll surely have a great time playing the game.

Dan from New Frame Plus tells in detail what makes Punch-Out!! For the Wii great, and why its animation is phenomenal.

(Video Credit: New Frame Plus/ YouTube)

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology developed a new camera that can take seventy trillion frames per second. That’s right, a whopping seventy trillion frames. The discovery is called compressed ultrafast spectral photography, or CUSP. Popular Mechanics has more details: 

Prior imaging developments based on silicon sensors have ushered in speeds up to millions of frames per second, Lihong Wang, a medical engineering and electrical engineering professor at Caltech, tells Popular Mechanics. But that still isn't nearly fast enough to observe and document some of the most fleeting curiosities in our physical world, from nuclear fusion, to ultrashort pulses of light on the order of picoseconds (10−12 second), to the fluorescent radioactive decay of molecules.

image via Popular Mechanics

#ICYMI Here is our image comparing #AsianGiantHornet to other flying insects. No, its name is not the #murderhornet pic.twitter.com/cwIgIPGC1t

— WA St Dept of Agr (@WSDAgov) May 3, 2020

With the arrival of an invasive insect species in Washington state, and with the New York Times publishing a story about them, the usage of the term “murder hornet” has rapidly increased in the last week. Entomologists, however, say that naming these species as “murder hornets” is irresponsible.

"It's a ridiculous name," said Akito Kawahara, an entomologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History who researches the evolution and diversity of insects. "I think it's totally misleading."

"Insects already have a bad perception," he added.

[...]

The insects are not even commonly called "murder hornets" in Japan, where they're native. "No one calls them 'murder hornet,'" explained Kawahara. "People there often call them a 'large hornet' or a 'giant hornet,'" he said.

While these hornets are not aggressive to humans (except when you poke their nests), they could, however, be a threat to Western honey bees. But Kawahara assures the people.

"Don't freak out," cautioned Kawahara, noting it's unknown how many hornet colonies there are in the U.S. "Lots of things come to the country and they aren’t able to survive. Just be aware."

More details about this over at Mashable.

In summary, just call it a large hornet.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: WA State Dept. of Agriculture/ Twitter)

If you haven't got any hot water and your heating isn't working then you'll need an engineer. Ringing 999 and asking for the police won't help you. #Not999

— WYP Contact Management Centre #StayHomeSaveLives (@WYP_Contact) May 10, 2020

A few days ago, the West Yorkshire Police Contact Management Center of England reminded the public to not call them for non-emergency situations. Apparently, someone called 999 (Britain’s equivalent to 911) and reported that their hot water wasn’t working.

"If you haven't got any hot water and your heating isn't working then you'll need an engineer. Ringing 999 and asking for the police won't help you," the police department tweeted.

A similar reminder was also issued last month by the Essex Police when someone phoned 999 to report that their neighbor was snoring loudly.

(Image Credit: @WYP_Contact/ Twitter)

Check out this crocheted aquarium made by Italian artist Lindadi of Le Creazioni Di Lindadi. The said aquarium features various aquatic creatures, such as clownfish, jellyfish, octopus, and turtles. She even crocheted the seagrass! If that’s not dedication and passion, then I don’t know what is. Just look at this. It’s amazing!

Some of her creations are available at her online store.

Via Laughing Squid

(Image Credit: Le Creazioni Di Lindadi/ Facebook)

Chelsea, from the staff of the Seattle Public Library, rules over the known universe as its tyrant who controls and embodies the spice. She is Leto II Atreides, the God Emperor of Dune.

This cosplay is part of a cosplay challenge conducted by that public library system. It makes me ponder that I should do something similar for my own closed library. But as I work for an academic library, perhaps my colleagues and I should dress as subscription databases like JSTOR.

-via Super Punch

At a glance from afar, two buoys can be seen floating next to each other. However, as they go near the shore, one would notice a strange detail from the pair of buoys: both of them have a pair of hands. Clearly, those aren't buoys at all! As the two men emerge from the sea and go to the shore, suddenly, a whistle can be heard from the background, and both panic.

Find out what happened next over at DailyMail.

“Boys will be buoys” indeed.

(Image Credit: DailyMail)

Many of us now probably just spend most of our time sitting down in front of our computers at home to work or to communicate with friends. Too much sitting down, however, is bad to our body and our overall health.

In addition to being a risk factor for many life-threatening cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, excessive sitting can lead to depression, chronic pain and increased risk of physical injury, according to research. That's why it's important for us to become aware of our sitting habits and do what we can to counteract them.

A way to counteract the effects of excessive sitting is exercise, and CNN gives us five exercises that address the poor posture problem and others. See the exercises over at the site.

(Image Credit: Dana Santas/ CNN)

Facebook will pay $52 million in a settlement for failing to protect its moderators. A court case alleged the company failed to protect its moderators from the mental health impacts of their job. Moderators will get a minimum of $1,000 each from Facebook, as The Guardian details: 

As part of the settlement, which was announced Tuesday, moderators will get a minimum of $1,000 each from Facebook with the potential for additional compensation if they have been diagnosed with mental health disorders, including PTSD.

Moderators, who are generally contracted by third-party firms, are constantly exposed to graphic content including child sexual abuse, beheadings, terrorism, animal cruelty, and “every other horror that the depraved mind of man can imagine”, Steve Williams, a lawyer for the plantiffs, told the Guardian.

Workers may be eligible for additional damage awards of up to $50,000, lawyers for the plaintiffs said, and Facebook will change a number of policies to better address mental health.

More than 11,000 people who have worked as moderators for Facebook in California, Arizona, Texas, and Florida from 2015 until now will qualify for compensation under the settlement.

image via The Guardian

Fugetsu-Do Confectionery is home to LA’s legendary mochi. The shop opened in 1903, making it the oldest shop in LA’s Little Tokyo. The Fugetsu-Do Confectionery is also the oldest Japanese-American business in the country. In this episode of Legendary Eats, Food Insider shares the history of the shop and how the current owner took ten years to master the art of making mochi. 

The pandemic has caused a lot of establishments to close. Gatherings, events, concerts, and graduations have been postponed as well. The current situation did not stop this Texas principal as he drove over 800 miles to visit all the graduating students of his high school. Check the full story on CBS News. 

image screenshot via CBS News

Marcus Hutchins single-handedly put a stop to the worst cyberattack the world had ever seen. Hutchins saved the internet from a piece of malware called WannaCry, which destroyed data on hundreds of thousands of computers. Hutchins was able to find and trigger the kill switch in its code, stopping WannaCry from wreaking havoc on the world. To learn more about Hutchins life, including how despite saving the world from the cyber threat, he was still arrested by the FBI, head on to Wired.

image via Wired