Month: September 2017

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Bungie, the designers behind last week's massive game Destiny 2, publicly acknowledged and apologized on Tuesday for what is a bizarre coincidence at best and a troubling decision at worst: the use of a prominent neo-Nazi flag symbol in the game.

"It's come to our attention that a gauntlet [an armor item] in Destiny 2 shares elements with a hate symbol," Bungie wrote on its official Twitter channel. "We are removing it. Our deepest apologies. We renounce [sic] hate in all forms."

The item in question, which was still live on the game's official site as of press time, is a piece of arm-and-shoulder armor named "Road Complex AA1." Its lime-green color and iconography, with solid lines offset by opposite-facing letter K shapes, look quite similar to elements on a flag for a fictitious nation dubbed "Kekistan." The full flag design, which has flown at recent neo-Nazi rallies across the United States, looks very similar to a German Nazi flag. Differences include the color swap to lime green and a mix of Ks and lines instead of a swastika. (The flag also commonly includes 4chan's heart-shaped logo.)

NOAA's 2016 temperature data. The thermometers aren't conspiring via e-mail. (credit: NOAA)

Once upon a time (in mid-2015), some climate scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published a study in the journal Science. This sort of thing happens all the time. Yet, in this case, all hell broke loose.

The problem was that this study put yet another nail in the crowded lid of a coffin housing the claim that global warming had somehow suddenly ceased in 1998. Because the study involved an update to NOAA’s global temperature dataset, some who disliked its conclusion—like US House Science Committee Chair Lamar Smith (R-Texas)—alleged without evidence that the scientists had improperly manipulated data.

This began a long fight between NOAA and Rep. Smith, who issued subpoenas for the scientists’ e-mails and early drafts. NOAA scientists met with Smith to carefully explain the study’s methods and point out that all the relevant data and research was already publicly available. But the agency refused to hand over the scientists’ communications and drafts.

The “monster fatberg.” (credit: Thames Water)

A 250-meter-long mass weighing 130 metric tons has blocked a Victorian-era sewer tunnel in the east side of London, the BBC reports.

To put the size and heft of the clog in perspective: it’s longer than two American football fields and as heavy as 11 double-decker buses. The mass is a concrete-hard amalgamation of flushed items, including condoms, diapers, and—most notably—wet wipes that have all been cemented together with oils and fats that were also washed down drains. For that reason, these types of clogs are sometimes called “fatbergs.”

Authorities expect it will take three weeks to remove.

You'll be whacking a lot of charging enemies with well-timed melee attacks in this game.

Remaking a popular portable game from more than two decades ago is a delicate balancing act. If you're too faithful to the original, the new game will likely look and feel a bit dated after years of hardware and game design advances. Change too much, and fans of the original classic will wonder why you even bothered using the established template in the first place.

Metroid: Samus Returns on the Nintendo 3DS manages this balancing act pretty ably. Developer MercurySteam's ostensible remake of the original Game Boy's Metroid 2: The Return of Samus plays pretty loose with its source material, layering on new abilities, enemies, and features from later in the Metroid series as well as quite a few that are completely new to the franchise. Despite all the differences, though, the game shares a certain thematic familiarity with the very first portable Metroid that should please retro-minded fans.

The more things change...

Like the original Metroid 2, the overarching goal of Samus Returns is to track down all of the floating, amoeba-like, life-sucking Metroids hiding below the surface of planet SR388. Like almost every other Metroid game, this involves searching the maze-like underground caverns for suit upgrades that let you get past otherwise impassable barriers and enemies to find the Metroids' hiding places.

The design of those caverns and barriers makes Samus Returns a joy to get lost in. Even when you've found the new ability you need to make progress, it takes careful observation and strong map-reading skills in the best Metroid tradition to figure out exactly where to go next or to find hidden upgrades peppered throughout the world.

CUPERTINO, Calif.—Amid a bevy of new product releases—the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, Watch Series 3 with built-in LTE—Apple quietly presented a new way to power these iDevices all at once. Called "AirPower," Apple's new charging pad will let users reduce the need for many cords and outlets and instead rely on this multi-device charging station.

Many of Apple's newly announced devices have glass backs and rely on Qi (sounds like "chee") wireless charging technology, a standard favored by the Wireless Power Consortium. This means devices can charge wirelessly (and that Belkin and other companies will be offering chargers for new products like the iPhone 8). Given those capabilities, Apple's AirPower charging mat will eventually allow users to place an iPhone 8, Series 3 Apple Watch, and AirPods on the same surface in order to charge them all at once.