Are you satisfied with how fast you can process your data? What if it could be faster? Like a hundred times faster? A study suggests that laser-activated magnets could do just that.

Chemists have studied a new magnetic material that could boost the storage capacity and processing speed of hard drives used in cloud-based servers.

This could enable people using cloud data systems to load large files in seconds instead of minutes, researchers say.

The new process would also make our data storage more energy efficient.

See more details about this study over at EurekAlert.

(Image Credit: Dr Olof Johansson/ EurekAlert)

Around 4.5 billion years ago, the Earth was formed through high-speed collisions between dust and space rocks. Our planet, then, was only a molten sphere of magma thousands of miles deep. As it spun around and around, the Earth cooled, and after 1,000 to 1 million years, the first mineral crystals in its crust began to form.

Meanwhile, Earth's first water may have been carried here by ice-rich comets from outside our solar system, or it may have arrived in dust from the cloud of particles that birthed the sun and its orbiting planets, around the time of Earth's formation. 

When Earth was a hot magma ocean, water vapor and gasses escaped into the atmosphere. "It then rained out from the atmosphere as conditions got cool enough," said lead study author Benjamin Johnson, an assistant professor in the Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences at Iowa State University.

Over a billion years after the formation of the planet, around 3.2 billion years ago, the Earth became a vast ocean, with no continents. At least that’s what this new study suggests.

More details about this over at Space.com.

(Image Credit: PublicCo/ Pixabay)

Ever since the 1950s, scientists already knew that our galaxy, the Milky Way, is not flat. Our galaxy is somewhat curved upwards on one side and curved downwards on the other. For a long time, scientists have wondered why the Milky Way’s structure was like this. Various theories have been made throughout the course of time. Now, new data from the ESA’s star mapping satellite, Gaia, might hold the key to solving this mystery.

Data from ESA's star-mapping satellite Gaia suggest the distortion might be caused by an ongoing collision with another, smaller, galaxy, which sends ripples through the galactic disc like a rock thrown into water.

Check out the full story over at PHYS.org.

(Image Credit: European Space Agency, ESA/ YouTube)

After millennia have passed and archaeologists excavate the lost city of Bikini Bottom, what will they find? Which residents shall end up in laboratories and museums? Digital artist Filip Hodas answers that question with a series of images showing the fossilized skulls of SpongeBob SquarePants, Goofy, Scrooge McDuck, Popeye, and other famous cartoon characters.

-via Design Boom

If you order a pizza from the Just Pizza & Wing Company pizzeria in Amherst, New York, it will come with a flyer from an adorable pupper who just wants to love you. If you adopt him, the pizzeria will give you $50 gift certificate so that you and your new packmate have something to eat. CNN reports:

The unique idea came after Mary Alloy, who owns the pizza franchise with three of her children, began volunteering with the Niagara Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). Alloy worked with Kimberly LaRussa, an SPCA event coordinator, to come up with ways to help more shelter animals find their forever homes.

[...]

On Friday, customers of the pizza shop began receiving orders with photos of sweet pups who need to be adopted attached to boxes. Alloy said the reaction from customers has been the best part.

People are "absolutely loving" it, and after just a single day of putting the flyers on pizza boxes, a 6-month-old puppy named Larry was adopted on Saturday.

-via Geekologie

I gathered that The Witcher was based on a video game, but did not know that it was originally a series of books. Guess no one read them. Anyway, someone described The Witcher as Superman dressed as Legolas in Game of Thrones. Who wouldn't like that? Leave it to Screen Junkies to find the faults and flaws of the most popular Netflix series ever. This video is slightly NSFW.  

The Battle of the Hornburg at Helm's Deep begins at midnight. pic.twitter.com/3orDjTvwbv

— On This Day In LotR (@onthisdayinLotR) March 3, 2020

Susana Polo is serious about JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings saga. She's done the literary research, and has plotted a timeline of the events LoTR movie fans and those who've read the books are familiar with. 

From what my research can tell, the Breaking of the Fellowship (roughly the end of The Fellowship of the Ring) happened on Feb. 26. Frodo destroyed the One Ring on March 25. Half of the entire story takes place between those two points.

Right around midnight between March 3 and March 4, the battle begins at Helm’s Deep. This is one of the story’s only complete timestamps (along with 10 a.m. on Oct. 24, the moment that Frodo wakes up in Rivendell).

A little less than a week later, on March 8, the Battle of the Pelennor Fields will (have) unfold(ed) in front of Minas Tirith, with the Oliphaunts and “I am no man!” and all that.

Meanwhile, as Helm’s Deep is besieged, Frodo and Sam have not even gotten to the part where Gollum talks to himself, which was why Peter Jackson et al. had to write a large plot detour into The Two Towers, with the side effect of throwing Faramir’s entire characterization under a bus so Frodo would have something to do. Adaptation!

Polo has a Twitter account that follows all those events on the calendar date they happened. It's going to get seriously exciting now that the battle of Helm's Deep has begun.  -via Metafilter 

Link

It's the season for Easter candy, and the season for the many ways people have altered Easter candies for either flavor or internet points. I once wrote a list of weird ways to enjoy Cadbury Creme Eggs, but now there's a new one-setting them on fire!

As with any other cloying confection (and eggs in general), the best course of action is to set it on fire. The char and caramelization gives your tongue something to explore besides straight up sugar, which is fun. Thanks to the fondant filling and the melt-prone milk chocolate, a torched creme egg has major s’mores vibes. Put it on a graham cracker and be happy.

So what you end up with is a sort of Easter-themed s'more, which not only sounds delicious, but gets you in the mindset for summer campfires. But there's some tricks involved, so get the complete instructions at Lifehacker.

(Image credit: Claire Lower)

In anticipation for the full release of the remake for Final Fantasy VII, a demo version has been released on the Playstation. If you are a big FFVII fan, quench the anticipation with the free demo version on the Playstation store! Fans were stoked to find out that the demo has been released, and some were even more excited for the full version of the game. With its stunning visuals and nostalgic gameplay, Final Fantasy VII Remake is one of the most anticipated games this year

We've just released the free #FinalFantasy VII Remake demo on PlayStation Store.

What are you waiting for? Download it now and experience the beginning of the story for yourself! #FF7R

👉 https://t.co/Gi4onqN0Cb pic.twitter.com/rX0ELUINHO

— FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE (@finalfantasyvii) March 2, 2020

image via Twitter

The World Health Organization has joined Tiktok to stop misinformation about coronavirus. People have shared false information through various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok. WHO decided to join Tiktok to provide reliable and public health advice. USA Today has the details: 

“We are joining @tiktok to provide you with reliable and timely public health advice! Our first post: How to protect yourself from #coronavirus,” the public safety organization wrote in its first post on the platform.

Allegranzi tells viewers to wash their hands, cough and sneeze into their elbows and avoid close contact with sick people. WHO previously announced social media efforts to combat what it calls an "infodemic" or "an over-abundance of information ... that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it."

The organization uploaded a second video over the weekend explaining how to properly wear a respiratory mask. The agency doesn't advise most people to go out and buy them. 

image screenshot via Tiktok

Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild is one of the longest and biggest (in terms of content) games on the Nintendo Switch. With its massive open-world exploration mechanic, it would take days, weeks, and months to fully complete the game from top to bottom. Limcube however completes the game in 35 minutes only, and shows you how to do so. Take note of that he only finishes the main quest the player needs to do to finish the game.

On the one hand, blaster beams and lasers don't work like they do in Star Wars. You knew that. On the other hand, you can recreate those effects for film without going CGI. Tom Scott explains, or actually, laser artist Seb Lee-Delisle explains.

Russian artist  Vyacheslav Pakhomov created the perfect chair that one can sit on to instill fear in people. Kidding, it’s an elegant chair that features a scorpion design. The chair is made from premium oak wood with leather-covered cushions for the seat. Each chair costs around $4,700, as Awesome Inventions detailed: 

The scorpion’s claws serve as the armrests, the back as the seat, and its curling tail as the massive headrest. Furthermore, the backrest has segmented cushions to resemble the eight-legged crawler’s narrow, segmented tail. It also features the venomous stinger at the end of its curved tail.

The chair is made from premium oak wood with leather-covered cushions for the seat and the high backrest. It measures 6.5 feet tall, 2.6 feet wide and 3.4 feet deep. 

image via Awesome Inventions

Students at the Pennsylvania State University are grieving the loss of their beloved local Taco Bell. It was much loved, as it was one of the few eateries open at two o'clock in the morning. Student Prajesh Patel, who organized the vigil and conducted the service while dressed in a giant taco costume, described in the Daily Collegian the sadness that he and his colleagues felt.

“We were all shooketh after hearing about the closing of this beautiful, beautiful State College establishment,” Patel (senior-computer science) said to the crowd. “Taco Bell was our home away from home, and added spice to our life."

[...]

Miller, who was a manager at the location, was the person who closed the doors for the final time.

“My reaction was honestly surprised, and it didn’t really affect me until I, as a manager, closed the doors for the last time,” Miller said. “I think [the vigil] was necessary, because I think it had a place in many people’s hearts, to see the store closing it felt as if somebody that was loved, died.”

-via David Burge