Jeff Bezos’ space transportation company Blue Origin on Sunday (June 19) successfully launched and landed for the fourth time a suborbital rocket capable of carrying six passengers. The New Shepard rocket and capsule blasted off from a launch site in West Texas and landed minutes later back at a landing pad. The capsule, which was flying autonomously, parachuted to a nearby site. “Successful mission,” Bezos declared on Twitter. The founder of Amazon.com has said that […]
Sci-Tech
Three astronauts touch down after 6 months in space
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — A three-man crew, including British astronaut Tim Peake, landed in the Kazakh Steppe on Saturday after completing a six-month mission at the International Space Station (ISS). Peake, the first British astronaut on the ISS, Russia’s Yury Malenchenko and NASA’s Tim Kopra parachuted down to Earth in their Soyuz capsule at 0915 GMT after spending 186 days in orbit. Video footage from the landing site, southeast of the Kazakh city of Zhezkazgan, […]
Soyuz capsule undocks from ISS to begin descent back to earth
REUTERS — A Soyuz TMA-19m capsule with three Expedition 47 crew members aboard undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) and began its return to earth on Saturday (June 18). The separation occurred at 0552 GMT Saturday and the capsule slowly moved away from the space station. The Soyuz capsule contained Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, NASA’s U.S. astronaut Tim Kopra and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, Briton Tim Peake, and is expected to touch down […]
Desert telescope stakes out supermassive black hole
by Laurence COUSTAL Mariëtte Le Roux PARIS, France (AFP) — First postulated more than 230 years ago, black holes have been extensively researched, frequently depicted, even featured in sci-fi films. We’ve all seen the artists’ impressions and read of their ravenous star-gobbling feasts. But here’s the thing… science is still not 100 percent sure what they look like, how they behave or even that they exist. Telescopes have never seen a black hole, and the […]
Olli, a 3D printed, self-driving minibus, to hit the road in US
by Rob Lever NATIONAL, HARBOR, United States (AFP) — A new maker of self-driving vehicles burst onto the scene Thursday in partnership with IBM’s supercomputer platform Watson, and it’s ready to roll right now. The vehicle — a 3D-printed minibus called “Olli” capable of carrying 12 people — was unveiled by Arizona-based startup Local Motors outside the US capital city Washington. Olli was designed as an on-demand transportation solution that passengers can summon with a […]
Video game makers finding their way in virtual worlds
LOS ANGELES , United States (AFP) — Wizards duel and players transform into tribal warriors and fierce jaguars — welcome to the world of virtual reality at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) video game industry gathering. Virtual reality games got very real at E3 this year as studios show off titles tailored for Rift, HTC Vive, PlayStation VR, and Galaxy Gear VR headsets. “It feels like VR is everywhere and dominating the industry right […]
Uberpool launched in the Philippines
App-based ride-hailing service Uber on Wednesday launched its carpool version, Uberpool with the intention to ease traffic in Metro Manila by taking more cars off the road. Uber Philippines general manager Laurence Cua during Uberpool’s soft launch said that the service can accommodate up to three passengers who happen to ride along a similar route at the same time thus sharing fare. Uberpool is also 25 percent cheaper than its cheapest service UberX, whether passengers […]
Desert telescope stakes out supermassive black hole
by Laurence COUSTAL Mariëtte Le Roux PARIS, France (AFP) — First postulated more than 230 years ago, black holes have been extensively researched, frequently depicted, even featured in sci-fi films. We’ve all seen the artists’ impressions and read of their ravenous star-gobbling feasts. But here’s the thing… science is still not 100 percent sure what they look like, how they behave or even that they exist. Telescopes have never seen a black hole, and the […]
Researchers detect gravitational waves for a second time
by Jean-Louis SANTINI WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A team of international scientists said Wednesday that they had detected gravitational waves — ripples in space and time, which Albert Einstein predicted a century ago — for the second time. Einstein predicted the existence of the waves in his theory of relativity a century ago, and scientists have been able to detect them with an instrument known as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO. The […]
Nintendo focuses on Zelda for E3 success
E3 is all about making a lot of exciting announcements but Japanese company Nintendo, which is one of the oldest video gaming companies, decided to focus on just one. The company dedicated a large area nicknamed the ‘Nintendo Treehouse: Live’ solely to “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’. Reggie Fils-Amie is the president and chief operating officer (COO) of Nintendo of America, who oversaw the company’s presence at E3. “So the Legend of […]
E3 video game show comes with rise of celebrity player
by Glenn CHAPMAN New consoles and blockbuster games always make a big splash at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, but this year the undisputed winners are online stages for video game play and commentary. And with them comes the rise of the celebrity player. The appetite on sites like Twitch and YouTube Gaming for play video, commentary, trailers, and more seems insatiable, industry insiders say. “There are hundreds of millions of users watching gaming content […]
French killer’s Facebook broadcast underscores live video challenges
(REUTERS) After Larossi Abballa killed a French police commander and the commander’s partner on Tuesday, he took to Facebook Live to encourage viewers in a 12-minute video to follow his example: Kill prison staff, police officials, journalists, lawmakers. The incident underscores the immense challenges companies such as Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc and Google’s YouTube face as they push live video streaming to hundreds of millions of people. Facebook in recent months has made its […]
