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Výprava do Angguruku: Za civilizací nezkaženými Papuánci do neprostupné džungle

„Angguruk–Wamena–Angguruk!“ křičí do vysílačky mladík z kmene Jaliů v odletové hale pralesního letiště ve vesničce Angguruk, v srdci Západní Papuy, indonéské části Nové Guiney. Pravda, termín odletová hala je pro malou boudu s váhou, na níž se v Česku váží brambory, se stolem, židlí a jedinou vysílačkou poněkud nadnesený, ale tady, mezi Papuánci, není asi nic normální.




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Národní umělec a „prostě chlapák“ dostal na rozkaz do postele i vlastní tetu. Dnes by Vejražka slavil 105 let

V pražských Košířích má svou ulici. Národní umělec Vítězslav Vejražka  (1915–1973). Články, které se čas od času objeví, zdůrazňují jeho mužnost. „Prostě chlapák,“ tak pojmenoval svůj medailón Týdeník Televize. Ve skutečnosti byl Vítězslav Vejražka placenou štětkou Státní bezpečnosti a na rozkaz se vyspal s každým, koho mu tajná policie předhodila. Včetně vlastní tety. Přečtěte si bizarní příběh herce, který by dnes slavil 105. narozeniny.




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Myappsclub.net Redirect

Myappsclub[.]net redirect removal instructions

What is myappsclub[.]net?

Myappsclub.net is the address of a fake search engine. Such illegitimate web searching tools typically cannot generate search results and record information relating to browsing activity. Fake search engines are usually promoted by PUAs (Potentially Unwanted Applications), called browser hijackers. They do so by making modifications to browsers and often monitor users' browsing habits.




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Download Apps Now Browser Hijacker

Download Apps Now browser hijacker removal instructions

What is Download Apps Now?

Download Apps Now is a rogue application, categorized as a browser hijacker. It is endorsed as an easy access tool to a variety of content. For example, to popular email providers as well as weather, news and video streaming websites. This app operates by modifying browsers in order to promote hdownloadappsnow.app - a fake search engine. Most browser hijackers are able to track browsing-related data, and it is highly likely that Download Apps Now possesses such abilities as well. Since most users download/install it inadvertently, it is also deemed to be a PUA (Potentially Unwanted Application).




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Cosappzsearch.online Redirect

Cosappzsearch.online redirect removal instructions

What is cosappzsearch.online?

Cosappzsearch.online is a useless, fake search engine. As a rule, such search engines are promoted through potentially unwanted applications (PUAs), browser hijackers. Apps of this type promote fake search engines by changing certain browser's settings. It is common that they gather browsing data and/or other information as well. Quite often users download and install potentially unwanted apps unknowingly, accidentally.




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CapitaSearch Browser Hijacker

CapitaSearch browser hijacker removal instructions

What is CapitaSearch?

CapitaSearch is a piece of software, classified as a browser hijacker. Following successful infiltration, it modifies browser settings in order to promote search.capita.space - a fake search engine. Additionally, CapitaSearch adds the "Managed by your organization" feature to Google Chrome browsers. Most browser hijackers spy on browsing activity. Since most users download/install CapitaSearch unintentionally, it is also considered to be a PUA (Potentially Unwanted Application). One of the dubious methods used to distribute CapitaSearch is via illegal software activation ("cracking") tools. It is noteworthy that these tools are often used to proliferate malicious content as well (e.g. ransomware, trojans and other malware).




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National Organization of BSA files for Chapter 11

Boy Scouts of America (BSA) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to achieve two key objectives ...




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Kingshaped




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Lapis Lazuli




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A Capital Punishment




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Rapunzel




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Sensual Burlap




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Lair of the Trapmaster




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Chronotherapy




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Appeal to heaven




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lapidary




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this could happen




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Perhaps




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Apocrypha




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strip for April / 17 / 2020 - Attorney-at-Law




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strip for April / 22 / 2020 - Like and Subscribe




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strip for April / 24 / 2020 - Yes and...




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strip for April / 27 / 2020 - Quarks




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strip for April / 30 / 2020 - Thunderdome




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Ask A Librarian: Graphic Novels for Boomers?

I was wondering if you might give my little women’s (boomers) some guidance as to a beginning graphic novel for...




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Xdebug Update: April 2020 - Derick Rethans

Xdebug Update: April 2020

Another monthly update where I explain what happened with Xdebug development in this past month. These will be published on the first Tuesday after the 5th of each month. Patreon supporters will get it earlier, on the first of each month. You can become a patron to support my work on Xdebug. If you are leading a team or company, then it is also possible to support Xdebug through a subscription.

In March, I worked on Xdebug for about 60 hours, on the following things:

Xdebug 2.9.5

The 2.9.5 release addresses a few bugs. One of them was a follow on from the issue where Xdebug would crash when another extension would run code in PHP's Request Init stage, but only on a second or later request in the same PHP process. As this is not something that's easy to catch with PHP's testing framework that Xdebug uses, this issue slipped through the cracks.

The release fixes another bug, where throwing an exception from within a destructor would crash Xdebug. The fix for this was merely making sure that PHP's internal state is still available:

- if (!(ZEND_CALL_INFO(EG(current_execute_data)) & ZEND_CALL_HAS_SYMBOL_TABLE)) {
+ if (EG(current_execute_data) && !(ZEND_CALL_INFO(EG(current_execute_data)) & ZEND_CALL_HAS_SYMBOL_TABLE)) {

Beyond these two crashes, the release also addressed an issue where Xdebug did not always correct catch where executable code could exist for code coverage analyses. Over the last decade, PHP has been getting more and more optimised, with more internal engine instructions. Unfortunately that sometimes means that these are not hooked into by Xdebug, to see whether there could be a line of code that would make use of these opcodes. As this is often very dependent on how developers lay out their code, these issues are often found by them. Luckily, these issues are trivially fixed, as long as I have access to just the file containing that code. I then analyse it with vld to see which opcode (PHP engine instruction) I have missed.

Xdebug 3 and Xdebug Cloud

Most of my time was spend on getting Xdebug Cloud to a state where I can invite select developers to alpha test it. This includes allowing for Xdebug to connect to Xdebug Cloud. There is currently a branch available, but it still lacks the addition of SSL encryption, which is a requirement for allowing safe transport of debug information.

The communications between an IDE and Xdebug through Xdebug Cloud is working, with a few things related to detecting disconnections more reliably still outstanding.

As Xdebug Cloud needs integration in debugging clients (such as PhpStorm, and other IDEs), I have been extending the dbgpProxy tool to act as intermediate link between existing IDEs and Xdebug Cloud without IDEs having to change anything. This work is still ongoing, and is not documented yet, but I hope to finish that in the next week. Once that and SSL support in the Xdebug to Xdebug Cloud communication has been finalized, I will reach out to subscribers of the Xdebug Cloud newsletter to see if anybody is interested in trying it out.

Podcast

The PHP Internals News continues its second season. Episodes in the last month included a discussion on PHP 8's JIT engine and increasing complexity,

Truncated by Planet PHP, read more at the original (another 720 bytes)




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Appeals Court Says Prosecutors Who Issued Fake Subpoenas To Crime Victims Aren't Shielded By Absolute Immunity

For years, the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office in Louisiana issued fake subpoenas to witnesses and crime victims. Unlike subpoenas used in ongoing prosecutions, these were used during the investigation process to compel targets to talk to law enforcement. They weren't signed by judges or issued by court clerks but they did state in bold letters across the top that "A FINE AND IMPRISONMENT MAY BE OPPOSED FOR FAILURE TO OBEY THIS NOTICE."

Recipients of these bogus subpoenas sued the DA's office. In early 2019, a federal court refused to grant absolute immunity to the DA's office for its use of fake subpoenas to compel cooperation from witnesses. The court pointed out that issuing its own subpoenas containing threats of imprisonment bypassed an entire branch of the government to give the DA's office power it was never supposed to have.

Allegations that the Individual Defendants purported to subpoena witnesses without court approval, therefore, describe more than a mere procedural error or expansion of authority. Rather, they describe the usurpation of the power of another branch of government.

The court stated that extending immunity would be a judicial blessing of this practice, rather than a deterrent against continued abuse by the DA's office.

The DA's office appealed. The Fifth Circuit Appeals Court took the case, but it seemed very unimpressed by the office's assertions. Here's how it responded during oral arguments earlier this year:

“Threat of incarceration with no valid premise?” Judge Jennifer Elrod said at one point during arguments. She later drew laughter from some in the audience when she said, “This argument is fascinating.”

“These are pretty serious assertions of authority they did not have,” said Judge Leslie Southwick, who heard arguments with Elrod and Judge Catharina Haynes.

The Appeals Court has released its ruling [PDF] and it will allow the lawsuit to proceed. The DA's office has now been denied immunity twice. Absolute immunity shields almost every action taken by prosecutors during court proceedings. But these fake subpoenas were sent to witnesses whom prosecutors seemingly had no interest in ever having testify in court. This key difference means prosecutors will have to face the state law claims brought by the plaintiffs.

Based upon the pleadings before us at this time, it could be concluded that Defendants’ creation and use of the fake subpoenas was not “intimately associated with the judicial phase of the criminal process,” but rather fell into the category of “those investigatory functions that do not relate to an advocate’s preparation for the initiation of a prosecution or for judicial proceedings.” See Hoog-Watson v. Guadalupe Cty., 591 F.3d 431, 438 (5th Cir. 2009)

[...]

Defendants were not attempting to control witness testimony during a break in judicial proceedings. Instead, they allegedly used fake subpoenas in an attempt to pressure crime victims and witnesses to meet with them privately at the Office and share information outside of court. Defendants never used the fake subpoenas to compel victims or witnesses to testify at trial. Such allegations are of investigative behavior that was not “intimately associated with the judicial phase of the criminal process.”

Falling further outside the judicial process was the DA's office itself, which apparently felt the judicial system didn't need to be included in its subpoena efforts.

In using the fake subpoenas, Individual Defendants also allegedly intentionally avoided the judicial process that Louisiana law requires for obtaining subpoenas.

The case returns to the lower court where the DA's office will continue to face the state law claims it hoped it would be immune from. The Appeals Court doesn't say the office won't ultimately find some way to re-erect its absolute immunity shield, but at this point, it sees nothing on the record that says prosecutors should be excused from being held responsible for bypassing the judicial system to threaten crime victims and witnesses with jail time.




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Court Of Appeals Affirms Lower Court Tossing BS 'Comedians In Cars' Copyright Lawsuit

Six months ago, which feels like roughly an eternity at this point, we discussed how Jerry Seinfeld and others won an absolutely ludicrous copyright suit filed against them by Christian Charles, a writer and director Seinfeld hired to help him create the pilot episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee. What was so strange about the case is that this pilot had been created in 2012, whereas the lawsuit was only filed in 2018. That coincides with Seinfeld inking a lucrative deal with Netflix to stream his show.

It's not the most well known aspect of copyright law, but there is, in fact, a statute of limitations for copyright claims and it's 3 years. The requirement in the statute is that the clock essentially starts running once someone who would bring a copyright claim has had their ownership of a work disputed publicly, or has been put on notice. Seinfeld argued that he told Charles he was employing him in a work-for-hire arrangement, which would satisfy that notice. His lawyers also pointed out that Charles goes completely uncredited in the pilot episode, which would further put him on notice. The court tossed the case based on the statute of limitations.

For some reason, Charles appealed the ruling. Well, now the Court of Appeals has affirmed that lower ruling, which hopefully means we can all get back to not filing insane lawsuits, please.

We conclude that the district court was correct in granting defendants’ motion to dismiss, for substantially the same reasons that it set out in its well-reasoned opinion. The dispositive issue in this case is whether Charles’s alleged “contributions . . . qualify [him] as the author and therefore owner” of the copyrights to the show. Kwan, 634 F.3d at 229. Charles disputes that his claim centers on ownership. But that argument is seriously undermined by his statements in various filings throughout this litigation which consistently assert that ownership is a central question.

Charles’s infringement claim is therefore time-barred because his ownership claim is time-barred. The district court identified two events described in the Second Amended Complaint that would have put a reasonably diligent plaintiff on notice that his ownership claims were disputed. First, in February 2012, Seinfeld rejected Charles’s request for backend compensation and made it clear that Charles’s involvement would be limited to a work-for-hire basis. See Gary Friedrich Enters., LLC v. Marvel Characters, Inc., 716 F.3d 302, 318 (2d Cir. 2013) (noting that a copyright ownership claim would accrue when the defendant first communicates to the plaintiff that the defendant considers the work to be a work-for-hire). Second, the show premiered in July 2012 without crediting Charles, at which point his ownership claim was publicly repudiated. See Kwan, 634 F.3d at 227. Either one of these developments was enough to place Charles on notice that his ownership claim was disputed and therefore this action, filed six years later, was brought too late.

And that should bring this all to a close, hopefully. This seems like a pretty clear attempt at a money grab by Charles once Seinfeld's show became a Netflix cash-cow. Unfortunately, time is a measurable thing and his lawsuit was very clearly late.




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From Playing Games to Committing Crimes: A Multi-Technique Approach to Predicting Key Actors on an Online Gaming Forum

I recently travelled to Pittsburgh, USA, to present the paper “From Playing Games to Committing Crimes: A Multi-Technique Approach to Predicting Key Actors on an Online Gaming Forum” at eCrime 2019, co-authored with Ben Collier and Alice Hutchings. The accepted version of the paper can be accessed here. The structure and content of various underground … Continue reading From Playing Games to Committing Crimes: A Multi-Technique Approach to Predicting Key Actors on an Online Gaming Forum




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Three Paper Thursday: Sanitisers and Mitigators

In this reboot of the Three Paper Thursdays, back after a hiatus of almost eight years, I consider the many different ways in which programs can be sanitised to detect, or mitigated to prevent the use of, the many programmer errors that can introduce security vulerabilities in low-level languages such as C and C++. We … Continue reading Three Paper Thursday: Sanitisers and Mitigators



  • Three Paper Thursday

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Three Paper Thursday: The role of intermediaries, platforms, and infrastructures in governing crime and abuse

The platforms, providers, and infrastructures which together make up the contemporary Internet play an increasingly central role in the business of governing human societies. Although the software engineers, administrators, business professionals, and other staff working at these organisations may not have the institutional powers of state organisations such as law enforcement or the civil service, … Continue reading Three Paper Thursday: The role of intermediaries, platforms, and infrastructures in governing crime and abuse



  • Three Paper Thursday

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Three Paper Thursday: Adversarial Machine Learning, Humans and everything in between

Recent advancements in Machine Learning (ML) have taught us two main lessons: a large proportion of things that humans do can actually be automated, and that a substantial part of this automation can be done with minimal human supervision. One no longer needs to select features for models to use; in many cases people are … Continue reading Three Paper Thursday: Adversarial Machine Learning, Humans and everything in between



  • Three Paper Thursday

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Three Paper Thursday: Attacking the Bitcoin Peer-to-Peer Network

People have tried to develop many different attack vectors on cryptocurrencies, from codebase flaws, cryptographic algorithms, mining processes, consensus protocols and block propagation mechanisms to the underlying network layer. Most attacks could be patched quickly by modifying the source code, but preventing attacks that exploit the network layer remains a non-trivial problem as the network … Continue reading Three Paper Thursday: Attacking the Bitcoin Peer-to-Peer Network



  • Three Paper Thursday

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Three Paper Thursday: Exploring the Impact of Online Crime Victimization

Just as in other types of victimization, victims of cybercrime can experience serious consequences, emotional or not. First of all, a repeat victim of a cyber-attack might face serious financial or emotional hardship. These victims are also more likely to require medical attention as a consequence of online fraud victimization. This means repeat victims have a … Continue reading Three Paper Thursday: Exploring the Impact of Online Crime Victimization




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Three Paper Thursday: What’s Intel SGX Good For?

Software Guard eXtensions (SGX) represents Intel’s latest foray into trusted computing. Initially intended as a means to secure cloud computation, it has since been employed for DRM and secure key storage in production systems. SGX differs from its competitors such as TrustZone in its focus on reducing the volume of trusted code in its “secure … Continue reading Three Paper Thursday: What’s Intel SGX Good For?




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#440997 - Roasted Grapes Cheesecake Recipe



A simple and easy dessert that is perfect for individual snacks or can be made as a whole cheesecake.

craving more? check out TasteSpotting




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#441016 - Hibiscus Jalapeno Kargarita Cocktail Recipe



Hibiscus tea mixed with tequila, lime, jalapeno, and pineapple makes this one delicious cocktail!

craving more? check out TasteSpotting




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Fake crypto-wallet extensions appear in Chrome Web Store once again, siphoning off victims' passwords

'Seriously sometimes seems Google's moderators are only optimized to respond to social media outrage'

Three weeks after Google removed 49 Chrome extensions from its browser's software store for stealing crypto-wallet credentials, 11 more password-swiping add-ons have been spotted – and some are still available to download.…




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The iMac at 22: How the computer 'too odd to succeed' changed everything ... for Apple, at least

Very '90s kit was everywhere – and it saved Apple's ass too

On this day in 1998, Steve Jobs took to the stage of the Moscone Center in San Francisco for a product launch that would indelibly change the face of computing and arguably save the firm he founded almost 22 years earlier.…




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Australian contact-tracing app sent no data to contact-tracers for at least ten days after hurried launch

Doesn't play well on iPhones, but bureaucrats rushed it out rather than wait months for perfection. Meanwhile serious bug reports have emerged

Australia’s “COVIDSafe” contact-tracing app was rushed to market in the knowledge it would perform poorly on some devices and without agreements in place to let actual contact-tracers use the data it collects. As a result, no collected data has been used in at least 10 days since its launch.…




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Forever mothballed: In memoriam Apple Butterfly Keyboard (2015-2020)

At last, we can write headlines with all the letters intact

For a company defined by design and attention to detail, the Butterfly keyboard was a tremendous humiliation for Apple. Conceived in 2015, it replaced the previous scissor-switch mechanism for one with a smaller profile, allowing Cupertino to continue shrinking already-svelte laptops.…




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MongoDB and Rockset link arms to figure out SQL-to-NoSQL application integration

NoSQL, no problem for Facebook-originating RocksDB

MongoDB and fellow database biz Rockset have integrated products in a bid to make it easier to work with the NoSQL database through standard relational database query language SQL.…




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Zoom bomb: Vid conf biz to snap up Keybase as not-a-PR-move move gets out of hand

Things will change forever, nods ex-Facebooker Alex Stamos

Video conferencing software biz Zoom has bought Keybase in a surprise move just weeks after hiring Facebook's one-time CSO.…




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BT suspends shareholder payments as folk forgo pricey sports TV deals for matches that won't happen anyway

We all need to tighten our belts

For the first time in over three decades, BT has suspended its dividend scheme as the former state-owned teleco grapples with the fallout from the novel coronavirus pandemic, and the financial uncertainty that'll inevitably ensue.…




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Surge in Zoom support requests was 'unexpected', says tool team as it turns taps down

John Cena!* Online resources only for free and end users due to the 'unprecedented period'

Video conferencing darling of the hour, Zoom, has tightened up support rules in order to "better serve" users.…




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If it feels like the software world is held together by string and a prayer, we don't blame you: Facebook SDK snafu breaks top iOS apps

Update used wrong data type, causing Tinder to Spotify to fall over

A change in the Facebook SDK backend managed to crash many popular iOS apps that integrated the code library, used for implementing various Facebook services.…




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Source code for seminal adventure game Zork circa-1977 exhumed from MIT tapes, plonked on GitHub

Revisit what it’s like to run a PDP-10 and be eaten by a grue

Source code for seminal adventure game Zork, dating back to 1977 and recovered from MIT tapes, was published this week on GitHub.…




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If you miss the happier times of the 2000s, just look up today's SCADA gear which still has Stuxnet-style holes

Schneider Electric patches vulns after Trustwave raises alarm

Two Schneider Electric SCADA products had vulnerabilities similar to the ones exploited in the Iran-bothering Stuxnet worm, an infosec outfit has claimed.…




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Apple owes us big time for bungled display-killing cable design in MacBook Pro kit, lawsuit claims

iGiant not only screwed up the wiring, it knew it was shipping dodgy gear, it is claimed

Apple is potentially facing a class-action lawsuit over the failure of displays on its MacBook Pro line.…




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We dunno what's more wild: This vid of Japan's probe bouncing off an asteroid to collect a sample – or that the rock was sun-burnt

Hayabusa 2 expected to return with out-of-this-world material in December

Video Close-up footage of asteroid Ryugu, taken by the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft as it touched down to retrieve a sample, reveals the near-Earth object’s surface may have been torched by the Sun as its orbit changed over time.…