When tech company Intel launched their 11th gen core processor, they claimed that it was the “best processor in the market.” One of the many things that Intel boasts about their processor is their new Xe integrated graphics. It is known that the previous integrated graphics of the said company is good for general purpose, but not for gaming. But is it different this time?

Monica Chin from The Verge was able to get her hands on a Tiger Lake reference design that Intel sent to her. Here’s what she found out.

Good news for Intel: Xe graphics are the real deal. Overwatch was playable at 1080p on Ultra (averaging 89fps) and Epic (averaging 59fps). Let that sink in — a system with integrated graphics is running Overwatch, on its highest possible settings, at almost 60fps. That system beat the 4800U, which only managed 46fps on Ultra, and the 1065G7, which didn’t even pass 65fps on low settings in Engadget’s testing. Incidentally, this is also bad news for Nvidia — with integrated graphics like this available, there’s no reason anyone needs to pay for an entry-level GPU like the MX350.

She also pits Intel’s processor against AMD’s to see which outperforms which.

More details about this over at the site.

(Image Credit: Monica Chin/ The Verge)

It might sound unlikely, but data does have a potential to end the human race. To be specific, it’s not data itself, but data storage.

As societies increasingly rely on digital information and there's more and more of it, we'll one day reach a point where the number of bits being stored will outnumber the atoms that make up our planet. That's according to theoretical physicist and Senior Lecturer Melvin Vopson at the University of Portsmouth in the UK. A peer‐reviewed paper on his theory, called "The Information Catastrophe," was recently published in the journal AIP Advances.

According to the Jefferson Lab, there are about 1.33 x 10^50 atoms in our planet. That’s a lot.

"Currently, we produce ∼1021 digital bits of information annually on Earth," Vopson begins. This is based on an IBM estimate that humans produce 2.5 quintillion digital data bytes daily. With an assumed 20 percent growth rate, the number of bits we produce will outnumber the entirety of atoms on the planet in around 350 years. In a press release, Vopson said, "We are literally changing the planet bit by bit, and it is an invisible crisis."

There are a lot of variables to consider. For instance, the number of bits produced each year, data storage capacity, energy production and the size of the bit compared to the atom (mass distribution). There are human‐centered factors too, such as population growth and the rate of access to information technology in developing countries. "If we assume a more realistic growth rates of 5%, 20%, and 50%," the paper states, "the total number of bits created will equal the total number of atoms on Earth after ∼1,200 years, ∼340 years, and ∼150 years, respectively."

That’s scarier than the sun exploding. And to make matters worse, we also have to deal with climate change.

More details about this over at Big Think.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: TheDigitalArtist/ Pixabay)

Cows are known to have four stomachs. With that in mind, we expect them to chew food really well. But it turns out, when they eat corn, cows also poop corn kernels — the same experience that we humans have.

This is somewhat surprising, since cows are ruminant animals whose digestive systems can break down tough materials better than ours can. When cows swallow their food, it softens in a special digestive chamber called a rumen and then gets sent back up for another round of mastication. (This also explains why it seems like cows are always munching on something.) But scientists have discovered that corn sometimes manages to emerge partially unscathed from this process of “chewing the cud.”

Not entirely unscathed, though. As University of Nebraska-Lincoln ruminant nutritionist Andrea Watson told Live Science, it’s only the thin yellow exterior of each kernel that escapes digestion. This is made of cellulose, a durable fiber that helps shield corn from bad weather, pests, and other potential damage. Humans can’t break down cellulose, but cows usually do a pretty good job—a testament to corn’s resilience.

What are your thoughts about this one?

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Whether it’s a video call conference with our friends or co-workers, we always want to look good in front of the webcam. We figure out the right angle, and we remove the things that we don’t want to be seen in the camera. In other words, we don’t show what’s really going on in our homes. But scientist Gretchen Goldman was brave enough to post her real setup.

The caption stated: “Just so I'm being honest,” and the tweet amassed 282.5k likes and 30.6k retweets.

Many people followed Goldman’s example, and they, too, showed the things that cannot be seen by the people on the other side of the screen.

Check out the pictures over at Bored Panda.

(Image Credit: Gretchen Goldman, PhD/ Twitter)

Scoop: @NASA astronauts will soon film their first commercial in space - an ad for an @EsteeLauder beauty product on the ISS.https://t.co/07VhzGYmpe pic.twitter.com/UZKaSfCkLC

— Mark Harris (@meharris) September 16, 2020

Ever since its launch in 1998, the International Space Station, or the ISS, has served as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory for scientific research in various fields such as astrobiology, astronomy, physics, and others. But it seems that the ISS will not only be just a laboratory soon. It might also become a shooting location in the near future.

Estée Lauder, a multinational cosmetics company, has secured an out-of-this-world shooting location—the International Space Station.

A face cream called “Advanced Night Repair" will be part of the “first purely commercial activity in NASA's new regime,” according to reporter Mark Harris, who broke the news in New Scientist.

Up to 10 bottles of the beauty product will be bundled into a cargo resupply run to the station this fall, so that NASA crew members can shoot videos and images with them in the microgravity environment.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: Mark Harris/ Twitter/ Vice.com)

It has been over nine years since the release of the Nintendo 3DS, and now it is time to say goodbye to one of the most beloved Nintendo consoles. It has been confirmed that “the manufacturing of the Nintendo 3DS family of systems has ended.”

The announcement comes a little over a year after Nintendo said the Switch Lite wasn’t going to replace the 3DS.

“We’ll continue to support our 3DS family of systems as long as there is demand,” said Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser at the time.

It looks like there is no longer enough demand.

It’s not a surprise that the end has come for the 3DS, and to some extent it’s not that surprising that it had as long of a run as it did—nearly 10 years! Its predecessor, the DS, was around for just as long, and remains Nintendo’s top-selling console with 154 million units sold.

Now it is time for the Nintendo Switch to shine. But the legacy of 3DS will live on.

(Image Credit: Evan-Amos/ Wikimedia Commons)

The recent wildfires in the western states of California, Washington, and Oregon are one of the biggest ever recorded. These fires bring hazy skies and smoke not only to those states, but also to states as far away as Toronto.

These hazy conditions are not mere annoyances. As Luke Montrose, an environmental toxicologist, wrote recently for Fast Company, air pollution from wood smoke is a serious public health concern. Smoke from large wildfires can travel thousands of miles, across states, countries, and even oceans… 

If you want to track the movement of the wildfire smoke, then you might consider looking into the interactive maps of AirNow, NOAA, Esri’s Active Wildfire Story Map, and NASA.

See the links to these sites over at Fast Company.

(Image Credit: Esri/ Fast Company)

Solmaz’s grandfather ran a lakefront hotel in the tourist port city of Sharafkhaneh — the city where Solmaz spent his childhood in. During summers, he would spend his days on the shore of the salt lake Urmia, the largest lake in the Middle East, and the sixth-largest salt lake on the planet. But things changed when the lake dried up. Tourism and agriculture in that town suffered. But it wasn’t the only town that suffered; other towns near the lake suffered, too. Eventually, those cities became ghost towns.

In its heyday, this lake was the largest natural habitat for Artemia brine shrimp, which are uniquely adapted to saline environments, as well as an essential stopover point for migratory birds such as flamingos and pelicans. It remains a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, but the lake has lost about 88 percent of its surface area during the past three decades. A recent study concluded that increasing temperatures and a changing climate helped to dry out the lake, combined with booming agriculture in the region.

But those who benefited from the lake would now want it to be taken away from them.

The vast consequences of this environmental catastrophe have finally triggered a coordinated effort to save the lake. The Iranian government has created a national lake restoration committee and aims to invest $5 billion over 10 years. In the past two years, above-average precipitation has helped to turn the tide.

Experts say it may take decades for the lake to return to its former glory, but the improvements are giving hope to residents living around the lake.

More about this story over at Atlas Obscura.

(Image Credit: Solmaz Daryani/ Atlas Obscura)

... that she filled the house with hamster photos!

When Laura Carns was asked by her daughter Susie to give her a hamster, she refused. But then Susie asked again. And then again. This went on all summer.

One day, when Susie asked once more, Laura, before leaving the house to visit a friend, answered her grumpily, “No, for real.” This could have been what triggered her 15-year-old daughter to take drastic actions. Enlisting the help of her little brother and her boyfriend, Susie launched her hamster campaign at home, while her mother was away.

When Carns arrived home that day, she was shocked to find her house covered in hamster photos. Everywhere she turned, she saw hamsters. From inside the freezer to up on the ceiling, Susie and her team didn’t miss a single spot. They’d even made a very well-thought-out PowerPoint presentation and left it open on a laptop for Carns to find. 

“Probably the strangest place I found a hamster picture was under the lid of the toilet,” Carns said. 

This wasn’t the first time that Susie launched campaigns, but according to Laura, this was the first time that she “came home to such a full-throttle attack”.

Carns posted a video of her house covered in hamster photos to TikTok, and as the internet pleaded with her to get that kid a hamster, she soon admitted defeat.

Not long after the campaign was launched, Susie brought home her new best friend, Snow. She is absolutely thrilled with her new hamster and couldn’t be happier with how things turned out. 

What dedication!

(Image Credit: Laura Carns/ The Dodo)

Last Monday, deputies from the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office attempted a traffic stop on a vehicle in Canton, Georgia. Unfortunately, the unidentified driver immediately left his vehicle and fled on foot. Upon doing so, however, he left something very important behind — his lottery ticket, which happened to be a winning one.

Deputies investigated the vehicle and discovered a winning scratch-off lottery ticket worth $100.

The sheriff's office posted a photo of the ticket on Facebook.

"To the suspect who ran on foot from our deputies on a traffic stop this morning on I-75, you left a winning $100 lottery ticket in your vehicle," the post said. "You can claim your ticket at 498 Chattin Dr. in Canton. It will be here waiting for you. Congratulations by the way."

Will the suspect claim it? What do you think?

(Image Credit: Cherokee Sheriff’s Office — Georgia/ Facebook)

As part of an “ad experiment” which started this month, streaming website Twitch stated that some viewers might experience ads during streams in the near future. “Like pre-rolls, these are ads triggered by Twitch, not by the creator,” the company stated at their website. Unsurprisingly, streamers of the site are not happy with this development.

Crucially, these ads utilize Twitch’s “picture-by-picture” functionality, which basically means that the stream you’re watching pops out into a smaller window while the ad rolls in the main window. However, ads will still steal the show from some viewers, with streamers none the wiser as to who can hear what they’re saying (picture-by-picture mutes streams) and, therefore, understand what’s happening on stream while ads are playing.

[...]

On a platform where amassing viewers is everything—a statement Twitch has definitively made through the way the site tracks metrics and, therefore, success—the last thing streamers want is for prospective fans to get fed up and depart in the middle of an ad. Streamers are, predictably, furious about Twitch’s new initiative, even if it’s just an “experiment” for now.

“You’re not YouTube,” said Twitch partner ThatBronzeGirl on Twitter in response to Twitch’s announcement. “When ads play in the middle of the stream, viewers actively miss out on content (muted or not). Add this to the fact that viewers are hit with an ad as soon as they enter a stream, so channel surfing is cumbersome. Idk why y’all hate viewer retention.”

The problem is, streamers earn most of their money from subscriptions, donations, and brand deals, while the site earns from ads.

More details about this over at Kotaku.

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(Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

When it comes to sending great waves of carbon into the ocean, ancient volcanoes get the job done. For thousands of years, they have contributed most carbon emissions. But if you want someone who can do more than these volcanoes, and at a much faster pace, then call in the humans, who can introduce the material 3-8 times faster than these landforms.

The consequences for life both in the water and on land are potentially catastrophic. The findings appear this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory examined ocean conditions 55.6 million years ago, a time known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). Before this, the planet was already considerably warmer than it is today, and the soaring CO2 levels of the PETM drove temperatures up another 5 to 8 degrees C (9 to 14 degrees F). The oceans absorbed large amounts of carbon, spurring chemical reactions that caused waters to become highly acidic, and killing or impairing many marine species.

[...]

The research is directly relevant to today, said lead author Laura Haynes, who did the research as a graduate student at Lamont-Doherty. "We want to understand how the earth system is going to respond to rapid CO2 emissions now," she said. "The PETM is not the perfect analog, but it's the closest thing we have. Today, things are moving much faster."

Head over to ScienceDaily to know more about the study.

(Image Credit: skeeze/ Pixabay)

The person who has enough sleep typically feels happy when they receive a hug or when they spend time in nature. The person who sleeps less, however, doesn’t get that much of a boost of positive emotions from positive events such as the ones mentioned above. What’s more, people deprived of sleep become more stressed as they respond to stressful events. These are the findings of the research led by health psychologist Nancy Sin.

Using daily diary data from a national U.S. sample of almost 2,000 people, Sin analyzed sleep duration and how people responded to negative and positive situations the next day. The participants reported on their experiences and the amount of sleep they had the previous night in daily telephone interviews over eight days.

“The recommended guideline for a good night’s sleep is at least seven hours, yet one in three adults don’t meet this standard,” says Sin. “A large body of research has shown that inadequate sleep increases the risk for mental disorders, chronic health conditions, and premature death. My study adds to this evidence by showing that even minor night-to-night fluctuations in sleep duration can have consequences in how people respond to events in their daily lives.”

More details about this study over at Neuroscience News.

(Image Credit: congerdesign/ Pixabay)

One of the most fascinating things about stars is how they create their finest work of art as they die. The M2-9, also known as the Butterfly Nebula, is a good example of this phenomenon.

As stars die, they “transform themselves from normal stars to white dwarfs by casting off their outer gaseous envelopes.”

The expended gas frequently forms an impressive display called a planetary nebula that fades gradually over thousands of years.

How lucky we are to see such a spectacle.

(Image Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, NASA, ESA - Processing: Judy Schmidt)

To hype up their new graphics card, which will be fully revealed in an event over a month from now on October 28, AMD decided to tease us with a first look of the RX 6000.

Normally, the first look would be a teaser trailer that is usually posted on YouTube, but it seems that AMD deviated from that. They wanted people to see and examine their new product for themselves… literally, or virtually, at least.

On Monday, AMD tweeted a teaser image of the new graphics card along with a message that let players knows [sic] that they could hop into Fortnite’s Creative mode and check the card out for themselves on AMD’s Creative Island.

For players who want to hop into the game and check the card out, you’ll need to start a Creative mode game. Once you’re in the game, find the console in the level select area and put in AMD’s code — 8651-9841-1639 — and hop into the level. You’ll load into AMD’s custom graphics-card-inspection level.

Through the level, players could examine the graphics card from up close and from all sides and angles.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: Epic Games/AMD via Polygon)