The high-power laser is ten times more powerful than any laser-based devices currently sold on the market.
(Mirror Daily – United States) – If you’re a die-hard fan of science-fiction movies that involves plenty of lasers, then you will be absolutely thrilled to find out that a joint team of scientists from the Czech Republic and Great Britain has created the world’s most powerful laser.
Right now, re-creating the Deathstar’s powerful laser beam doesn’t seem so farfetched as it did ten years ago, thanks to a team of scientists who created the most powerful laser in the world. The device is called the High Peak Power Laser or Bivoj, after the mythological Czech hero.
According to the scientists who participated in this project, the Bivoj’s assembly weighs approximately 44,000 pounds (22 tons) and has an output of 1,000 watts. This may not sound as much, but keep in mind that a laser used to light a match has an output of 300 milliwatts, while common pointers, those annoying devices used during a presentation have an output of only five milliwatts.
Basically, the High Peak Laser is ten times more powerful than any laser-based devices currently available on the market and even more efficient that those designed by the United States and Japan.
While Austin’s Petawatt Laser and Japan’s Two-petawatt Laser for Fast Ignition Experiments have a higher energy output than the one designed by a British and Czech scientist, they can only be fired a couple of times before it needs to be recharged. Moreover, it seems that it takes them a while in order to get the juices flowing again.
By comparison, Bivoj can be fired time and time again and does not a have a long recharge time. Even though the device can surely be used as part of a military installation, the scientists involved in its creation have other things in mind.
One of the researchers declared that the High Peak Laser would be an invaluable asset in the production of semi-conductors or metallurgy, here it can be used to increase metal resistance. However, the device is still in the experimental phase, which means it is far from being ready to hit the market.
The scientists involved in the experiment said that when the device is ready for use, it will probably cost around $55 million and will require a substantial power source in order to be used.
By the looks of it, it would seem that we won’t have to wait that long in order to see a living, breathing Deathstar.
Image source: Flickr
With Amazon Dash Button you will be able to order a box of mystery sweets.
(Mirror Daily, United States) – Ever wondered what it would be like to receive assorted sweets at the press of a single button? Well, you will be absolutely delighted to find out that Amazon is touting its own mystery candy home delivery system. The service can be only be accessed by a few Amazon Prime clients.
It would seem that Amazon wants to expand its palette of services. Recently, the company declared that clients will be able to access the Amazon Dash Button service. So, what’s this all about?
Remember the last time you had a sugar rage and wanted to eat something else than the usual sweets? Well, you will be able to do that with Amazon Dash Button. Upon subscription, you will receive a physical button which can connect via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to any smart device.
The actual device is hidden inside a cute and brownish pillow. Once the button is pressed, an Amazon representative will bring you a box of assorted candy and sweets. But that’s only a small part of the surprise.
The beauty of using Amazon Dash Button is that you won’t know what kind of sweets you ordered until the package is opened. This means that you could be very lucky and order your favorite sweets or receive the sweets you dislike – one could say that it’s like a game of poker, with the chips being replaced by delicious treats.
With the Dash Button, Amazon also introduced a return policy, which means that if you don’t like the contents of the mystery box, you can always send it back. In return, Amazon can send you another box or give you a refund.
However, according to the company’s statements, all the sweets which go inside the boxes have been carefully curated. Furthermore, all treats have been produced by artisan chocolatiers, which means that they are significantly different from the stuff you usually pick up from the supermarket’s shelf.
Although Amazon refrained from disclosing the full list of partners enlisted in this new service, they’ve declared that some of the sweets shipped out to Amazon Primes users are from Whoopies, Chocolate Twist, Brandini Toffee, and Brigadeiro Fran’s.
In addition, it would seem that the mystery packs can also contain some stuff like homemade gummy bears, brownies, and even caramel. Each box includes a little leaflet which contains the story of how the sweets were made and a couple of fun facts about the company that produced them.
Image source: Amazon
Path of Exile is the one of the best free-to-play online RPGs.
Tired of playing the same Diablo 3 instances over and over again? Well, you may be surprised to find out that you will now be able to play a refreshing dungeon-crawling, loot-based, online RPG. Path of Exile is the name, and its purpose is to show you what playing a true RPG really means.
Although Path of Exile has been released for some time now, Grinding Gear Games, the game’s developer, declared that an Xbox One version of the game is on its way. According to the company’s official statement, Path of Exile is scheduled to land on Xbox One platforms in 2017.
So, what’s up with Path of Exile? As we’ve come to understand, Path of Exile is a free-to-play online RPG game which focuses mainly on raids, looting, and story. Set in the fantastic and dark world of Wraeclast, Path of Exile puts the players in the boots of an adventurer who has to explore nightmarish dungeons and battle hellish creatures.
As Grinding Gear Games wrote on the game’s website, the world of Wraeclast is as mysterious as it is dangerous. Devastated by countless wars and magic catastrophes, Wraeclast is not a realm for the faint-hearted.
All players who enter the realm must search for the item and skills necessary to destroy the toughest foes. Path of Exile’s skill system is quite different, which brings a certain freshness to the game. So, instead of earning XP by killing monsters or completing question in order to win points which can further be invested in different skills, Path of Exile relies on easy to grab and easy to learn skills.
Each item looted from monsters or NPCs will grant the player one or more skills. You can also chain up skills, by acquiring all items from a set. The game also features a passive skill tree, which further enhances the core abilities of each class.
On the subject of classes, Path of Exile features seven main classes: Duelist, Shadow, Marauder, Witch, Ranger, Templar, and Scion. However, as you earn more abilities and items, you can upgrade your character’s class. For example, the Duelist can be upgraded to Slayer, Gladiator, and Champion.
What’s even cooler is that the game is free-to-play, and you won’t have to buy stuff with real money in order to keep playing it. There are, of course, some microtransactions, but all them are either skins or larger pouches.
Image source: YouTube
After the war was over, Josef Mengele fled to South America
(Mirror Daily, United States)- The earthly remains of war criminal Josef Mengele, who conducted sadistic experiments in Auschwitz during the Second World War, are now being used by the University of Sao Paulo to teach medical students about how to apply forensic techniques in the field.
Also called the ‘Angel of Death’ Josef Mengele is notorious for his clandestine experiments performed on pregnant women, children, and war criminals in Auschwitz. Holocaust survivors recall how the sadistic doctor saw two children together in an attempt to study conjoined twins.
However, this experiment was just the tip of the iceberg as far as Mengele’s bloody career is concerned. Another Auschwitz survivor told the press during a heart-breaking interview, how the doctor poured inhumanly amounts of boiling water on her body to study its reaction.
As the survivor recalls, when he protested against the doctor’s treatment, Josef Mengele threatened to send him to gas chambers if he did not comply. And this is only one case which exemplifies to what lengths Joseph Mengele was willing to go to quench his need for knowledge.
After the war was over, Josef Mengele fled to South America, to elude the international authorities. All traces of him disappeared, and no one heard anything about the infamous Nazi doctor until his death in 1979.
Daniel Romero Munoz, a lecturer at Sao Paulo’s University and a pathologist, was the one who came up with the idea of using Joseph Mengele’s bones as teaching aids. Moreover, Munoz was the one who positively identified the earthly remain of Josef Mengele in 1985.
For more than 30 years, Mengele’s remains were placed under lock and key, until Munoz came up with the idea of using the doctor’s skeletal remains as teaching material for a medical student studying forensics.
The pathologist teaching at the Sao Paulo University said that the remains could hold many clues which can help a trained eye to establishing the identity of their owner. For example, one of the pelvic bones had a fracture which is consistent with Mengele’s motorcycle accident.
A closer look at a cheekbone reveals a small hole, which would indicate that the owner suffered from sinusitis, a fact also consistent with Mengele’s biography. Last, the condition of the teeth found in the collection would suggest that the owner suffered from tooth abscesses. As we know from history, during his South American exile, Mengele had multiple dental abscesses which he treated himself using sharp razors.
Image source: Wikipedia
Self-driving buses use many systems to move safely including GPS tech and radar.
(Mirror Daily, United States) -Las Vegas is now the first city that has self-driving buses riding on its streets. Visitors that are walking around Vegas now have the chance to ride a self-driving bus. These buses are being tested on the streets of Vegas until 20th January.
The company that was granted the right to test their autonomous buses in Las Vegas was Navya. This project is realized with the collaboration between Keolis, the city officials, and Navya. In order to test these buses the mayor of Las Vegas, Carolyn Goodman, used the bus on 11 January, on its first ride.
She mentioned that it was a nice ride and that people can use it without fear. The autonomous buses are going to be seen along the Fremont Street and it can be used by anybody. These buses can hold up to 12 riders. The bus can drive with 27mph but since it is in the trial period it is going to drive with 12mph.
Despite the fact that you won’t ride too fast with these busses, it is a great opportunity to test these autonomous buses by yourself. In order to make people feel safe during the ride, it was mentioned that the self-driving buses use many systems to move safely including GPS tech and radar.
If this trial period ends without any incidents, a permanent service might be introduced on the streets of Las Vegas in the fall. The costs for this type of service are going to be around $10,000 per month. Despite the fact that people can ride the bus for free this month, once the service becomes permanent people might need to pay a small fee.
The name of the self-driving bus is Arma and it is the first autonomous bus to ride the streets in the US. The city officials mentioned that this initiative was made in order to test technology in areas like alternative energy and transportation.
State officials are hoping that more car companies are going to test and offer permanent services in Las Vegas since the city hosts CES tech meetings. This is a great start for Navya and Keolis which might offer permanent services if the trial ends well.
What is your opinion about self-driving buses? Would you use one?
Image source: Wikipedia
This is why many tech experts believe that Nintendo Switch will be sold for $250
(Mirror Daily, United States) – Nintendo Switch is one of the most discussed devices. This is because it is going to be unveiled today. Nintendo Switch it is going to be unveiled during a special presentation which includes its price, release date, and specs.
In order to make it even better, Nintendo announces that the device can be preordered after it is unveiled. Their store in New York City wrote a post on Twitter mentioning that they preorders for Nintendo Switch will be available starting this Friday. After they preorder their console, customers will be able to get their hands on the console in two months from now.
The company mentioned that the devices will be received by the customers in March. This is only if they preordered the console. The post on Twitter also said that the devices are limited and preorders will be available only for a few people because there are not enough supplies yet. This means that if you want to have this device you need to act fast and pre-order it.
Despite the fact that they mentioned that there is a limited quantity of devices, the company did not mention how many Nintendo Switch consoles are available for preorders. In order to keep people excited about the presentation of the console, the company didn’t specify the release day or the price of the console in the post.
They only mentioned that this type of information is going to be specified at the presentation that is scheduled for January 12. The presentation is going to be in Tokyo. Those who are interested can watch the special presentation live on YouTube, Twitch, and Nintendo’s website. They are going to live stream the presentation that is going to start at 11 p.m. ET.
There have been a lot of speculations about the price of the devices due to some alleged leaks. In November a Canadian website put the price of CAN$329 for the console. This means US$245. In the U.K, the console had almost the same price speculations. This is why many tech experts believe that Nintendo Switch will be sold for $250 or maybe for $300 if it includes a game too.
This information is not from an official source and this is why we have to wait and see if this is really the price. All of the details are going to be unveiled today and then we will know for sure.
Image source: Flickr
2017 kicks off in force with the 8th Awesome Games Done Quick competition. Tune in for a week-long gaming marathon which features some of the greatest games ever created. All funds will be donated to the Prevent Cancer Foundation.
With 2016 far behind us now, we are looking forward to a great and productive 2017. And what better way to start a new year than with Awesome Games Done Quick, the ultimate gaming event.
For those of you who don’t know, Awesome Games Done Quick reunites gamers from all over the state eager to compete in a friendly and charitable competition. The goal of the event is to complete a game as fast as possible and on all difficulty levels.
The gamers’ performance will be broadcasted live on Twitch 24 hours per day. In addition, all money gathered from the competition will be donated to the Prevent Cancer Foundation.
2017’s Awesome Games Done Quick is scheduled to debut on the 8th of January, at high noon, and will end on the morning of the 15th of January. Note that this is the 8th edition of the gaming competition and the list of game titles is quite long.
If you did not participate in this kind of competition before, then you should probably do yourself a favor and enlist. Even if you’re not a hardcore gamer, you will at least have the chance to do some good.
Furthermore, if you’re that type who likes to sit on the couch while one of your friends plays a video game, you can always tune into the competition’s Twitch channel and see what’s going on.
As for the games you can watch, as we’ve mentioned before, there are quite a lot of them, and enumerating them will be an exercise in futility. However, we are more than happy to present some the competition’s highlights.
So, the 8th Awesome Games Done Quick will debut on the 8th of January at 7:00 pm with a session of Ape Escape 2, played by iongravirei, followed by immortal The Legend of Zelda – Ocarina of Time 3D at 8:08 pm and Borderlands 2 at 10:23 pm.
Some other highlights include Mega Man, Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty, Silent Hill 4 The Room, Devil May Cry, and F.E.A.R Extraction Point which are scheduled for Monday.
For those of you who are into role-playing games, be sure to check out the Fallout New Vegas speed play, scheduled for Tuesday at 11:29 pm.
Image source: Wikipedia
A team of researchers from the Lancaster University showed how humanity fares against zombies.
(Mirror Daily, United States) – They are mean, they are menacing, and they are ready to bring forward the end of the world, as we know it. Who are they? Zombies, of course. The undead or the living dead, as we like to call them, have been the source of inspiration for many horror movies, video games, and novels. And the idea of being turned into a mindless creature, who instinctually seeks to eat brains, is quite frightening.
Of course, it wasn’t long before the subject caught the attention of scientists. Recently, a team of students from the Lancaster University wanted to determine if humanity can survive a cataclysmic event involving hordes of brain-eating zombies.
The students started from the assumption that a highly dangerous and virulent pathogen is the cause of people rising from the grave to torment the living. Using the SIR model, an epidemiological mathematical model, which explains how a virus infects a population, the students from Lancaster predicting that humanity could disappear in less than 100 days.
To arrive at this conclusion, the team of students used the following assumptions: a zombie can infect only one person per day. Moreover, the risk of contracting the pathogen after being bit by a zombie is higher than 90 percent. And last, but not least, a zombie cannot live more than 20 days (more than likely due to their accelerated metabolism).
As for the projected rate of survival, the students declared that no more than 100 or 200 human being would survive should a zombie apocalypse occur. However, there’s a chance that we may still survive a zombie plague.
When they first applied the SIR model to study the disease’s dissemination, the students failed to account for other variables such as rate of birth or about us fighting against the zombies. After introducing these new variables into the model, the group has discovered that our chances of survival would increase by a factor of ten.
Bottom line: what should humanity do when the zombie plague arrives? Obviously, pick up something resembling a weapon and start hacking. In addition, there is another thing that might give us an edge against the zombie plague, a factor which was overlooked by the research team – a cure.
Although the probability of finding a cure before extinction is marginal, it’s still a possibility, one that should not be overlooked.
Image source: Pixabay
A team of student from the Lancaster University showed what would happen during a zombie apocalypse.
(Mirror Daily, United States) – If you are a fan of zombie movies or perhaps zombie apocalypse survival video games, perhaps you have sometimes wondered about the outcome of such a cataclysmic event. In that case, you will be delighted to find out that a few students from the Lancaster University (UK) have studied what will happen during a zombie apocalypse and how will we survive.
Although the idea of the living dead coming to eat our brains might seem somewhat implausible, a highly virulent pathogen that can infect every living tissue is a frightening reality. To determine how fast can such as virus spread and the odds of us surviving a new plague, a team of students from the Lancaster University create two doomsday scenarios.
Their zombie apocalypse study had two stages, each of them accounts for different variables. The students aimed to show how such a contagion would spread using the SIR model, a simple epidemiological model, used to describe how a disease can spread.
They’ve started with the assumption that shortly, a viral outbreak will transform people into zombies. Assuming that a zombie can feed only once per day and that it has a 90 percent chance of infecting a living person, a zombie plague can thin out the human population in just one hundred days.
The estimated rate of survival would be in the hundreds, assuming for a moment that a zombie’s lifespan does not exceed 20 days. This was the first stage of their study, in which the students wanted to determine pathogen dispersion rates. However, they did not account for other variables such as birth/death ration and, of course, the survivors killing zombies.
They said that the rate of birth is inconsequential for the first part of the study since the virulent pathogen can wipe out most of the world’s population in 100 days. For the second stage of their zombie apocalypse project, the team took into account the two variables and discovered that humanity’s chances of survival would greatly improve if the survivors decide to thin out the brain-eating beasts.
However, there are other variables which they did not account for such as a cure for the zombie plague, or more radical measure like nuking contaminated area. In the end, the study proved that although all life on Earth can disappear in approximately four months, we will be able to even the odds by fighting back.
Image source: Pixabay
Boost will be Lego’s newest child-oriented kit that will offer a basic programming and robotics set.
(Mirror Daily, United States) – Boost will be Lego’s newest child-oriented kit that will function as a sort of basic programming and robotics set without losing its playful nature.
Lego is no stranger to playful but educative technology. Lego building blocks in themselves have sparked numerous future projects. The company is behind the Lego WeDo, an education tool that helps kids learn the basics of coding.
It is also the developer of Mindstorms, its Lego robotics platform. The more advanced tech can help build other clever tools.
Now, it seems that Lego has released a product that might connect the two aforementioned tools. This would come in the form of Boost.
Boost is a kit which can help its user learn the basics behind programming and coding. However, it is somewhat more playful, without a specifically didactic nature.
The kit is built based on a Move Hub. This latter is a motorized block that sports a tilt sensor. It’s a special Lego brick, that will also sport a series of sensors. The Move Hub can take up quite some power. It works with help from six AAA batteries.
The Boost kit comes with a number of already included elements. Move Hub and 843 traditional Lego parts will be readily available. It will also contain another motor as well as a sensor. This will detect distances and color combinations.
Boost will also come accompanied by an app. This can be used from any supported smartphone or tablet. The Boost app will have two potential main functions.
It could work as a building guide. At the same time, it might also be a drag-and-drop type of programming tool. The app and the kit provide the necessary instruction for five robotics projects.
These will all be different and will include the following. A robot, a vehicle, a guitar, a 3D printer, and a cat.
The cat, robot, and vehicle are not unique to Boost. These seemingly standard projects can also be found in the Mindstorms kit.
Still, the guitar project has quite some potential. It will have a color and visual sensor that will respond to the fret’s colored bricks. As such, it could signal the connected device. This latter, would, in its turn, produce various tones.
The 3D printer project is possibly even more unique. It will be able to potentially assemble its own Lego creations. A hopper assembly and a conveyor belt would be the technology behind such creations.
The Boost app will help interconnect blocks. These latter will be programmable and will be the base for the kit’s creations.
As such, it will be similar to Mindstorms. Still, the Boost interface will be more simple and will be targeted at younger users.
However, it will still function and provide logic input and output functions. Kit users will also be able to develop their own ideas. Besides the five premade plans, Boost will also include the Creative Canvas.
A Creative Canvas mode will offer all the necessary programming and coding tools.
According to CES presentations, the new kit will start being shipped later in 2017. It will most likely start being delivered in the second half of the year. The Boost Kit will reportedly have a retail price of about $159.99.
Image Source: Wikimedia