Hasbro has teamed up with the 3D-printing company Formlabs back around the time of San Diego Comic Con to offer attendees a limited availability experience: to have their likeness turned into a custom action figure. Today, Hasbro announced that anyone can order their own "Selfie Series" figure starting on September 30th. Marketing action shots aside, I think these are pretty darned cool. A little self-indulgent, maybe, but it's definitely like a childhood dream come true. Although the price i...
I just got back from an unexpected week's stay in the hospital. It isn't good news. I'm still capable of independent living for now. That may likely change in the future. I wish I could share more but it's kind of tough.
In the age of streaming, I admit I'm rather spoiled. I subscribe to Disney+ and Netflix and don't think twice about commercials anymore. I dropped traditional cable ages ago and have never looked back. Recently, since Netflix discontinued a show I was watching and it moved to Hulu, I signed up for a free trial so that I could blitz my way through it. The free trial, unfortunately, is the subscription tier that includes ads. I figured, sure, it's annoying, but I can live with my episodes...
Sadly, guys, I do think this may be my Mom in law's last night with us. Her daughter, a nurse of 30 years, seems to think so. Yall do me a solid? Please send prayers and well wishes out for Mildred Williamson. Age 90. A sweet soul. Thanks.
Want a chance to meet (or meat, I guess, depends on how terrified you are of the concept of Jaws) a Great White Shark? The shark-tracking organization OCEARCH is here to give one lucky person and a guest that opportunity. They're launching a sweepstakes that closes on September 30th where the grand prize is a 5-day ocean research voyage that will let you get up close and personal with a Great White Shark. One of the primary methods of researching sharks is to tag them, and OCEARCH's nonp...
One of the first things I do most mornings as I'm settling into my routine is sip my coffee and take a look at recent gaming and tech news. Sometimes I find some really interesting articles that send me down rabbit holes of curiosity or simply leave me thinking, "dang, really?" Today happened to be one of those days. Since I found a few things of interest to me, I figured I'd share all of them and let you all run down your own rabbit holes of curiosity via the article links. Let's st...
On July 12th, NASA shared the debut images from its fully operational James Webb Space Telescope. The most powerful space observatory ever built, the JWST provided impossibly detailed images of shimmering stars, warped light trails, and thousands upon thousands of gem-like galaxies twinkling against the vast black of space. Now, I could go into why this is an incredible leap for science and how the JWST is far and away better than telescopes that are its predecessors, but...why would I ...
My good friend Jim (RedneckDude) found out today that he has been diagnosed with an Aortic Aneurysm. Please send him love and prayers in this post, he definitely has mine!
It's a widely known fact that we love an array of animals here at Stardock, and frogs are certainly among them. Our CEO Brad in particular is especially fond of the amphibians, even going so far as to sport the name Frogboy on our forums and in other places. So, when I saw this video of a tiny, barely dime-sized frog called the Pumpkin Toadlet, trying to land a jump and failing spectacularly, I felt compelled to share it so that everyone might also have the same opportunity for a belly...
Who doesn't love dinosaurs? ...If you've got your hand up, put it down and run away - this isn't the article for you. I love dinosaurs and all things adjacent to them, so when I came across an article yesterday that detailed the life and death of a male mastodon from about 13,200 years ago I had to pause to give it a read. Researchers studied the chemical composition of its tusks and were able to determine that the mastodon grew up in the Great Lakes area and made annual trips to a mating gro...
More than 20 types of amino acids were detected in samples of an asteroid brought to Earth in December of 2020, according to Japan's education ministry. The Japan Times reported that this detection is the first evidence that amino acids exist on asteroids in space and could hold the key to understanding how such vital organic molecules arrived on Earth. The Hayabusa2 spacecraft collected the samples from an asteroid called Ryugu. JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) landed a probe on Ryu...
Two torsos, nicknamed Helga and Zohar, are bound for the Moon aboard the Orion capsule in order to measure radiation risks for female astronauts for the first time.The mannequins are modeled after the body of an adult woman and one of them is outfitted with a newly developed radiation vest. For the Artemis 1 mission, the un-crewed Orion capsule will travel to the Moon and back in order to test radiation safety and collect data about flight accelerations and vibrations. Artemis 1 is scheduled to ...
One of my favorite things to do (although it baffles me on a regular basis) is to witness concepts and technologies emerge that humans only dreamed about 40 or 50 years ago. Sometime last year, a company called Space Perspective announced their plans for a state-of-the-art luxury "space balloon" that would take people on a calm ascent into space. Last year, the Florida-based company began taking reservations for the coveted trips, which last 6 hours and come with a price tag of $125...
I rarely post about new pharmaceutical technology...but this is nothing less than miraculous. Read the article linked above. This new technology enables researchers to synthesize and analyze 40,000 molecules in a bubble smaller than the head of a pin. This will accelerate vaccine and pharmaceutical development by a factor of one million. This should also make the R&D cheaper, and far less wasteful of energy, materials, time and labor and therefore the cost of medicines should dro...