Month: July 2018

Enlarge / Neanderthals used stone hand axes, or bifaces, like these, along with chunks of pyrite, to light fires. (credit: Johnbod via Wikimedia Commons)

We know Neanderthals used fire because we have burned animal bones from several archaeological sites along with evidence that Neanderthals collected manganese dioxide, a black mineral powder the helps lower the combustion temperature of wood. But archaeologists haven't been convinced that Neanderthals kindled the fires themselves.

It's been suggested that the first humans to use fire happened to make use of convenient natural fires, such as those sparked by lightning strikes, and only learned how to set things on fire themselves later. Without clear evidence of firestarting, there's no way to demonstrate that Neanderthal technology had progressed to that stage by the time the last of them died off.

"While it is generally assumed that modern humans were proficient fire-markers, some researchers doubt Neanderthals knew how to make fire despite evidence that they used fire regularly," wrote Leiden University archaeologist Andrew Sorensen and his colleagues in a new paper. "Only by identifying the tools used to make fire can we know if Neanderthals possessed this skill."

Enlarge / Neanderthals used stone hand axes, or bifaces, like these, along with chunks of pyrite, to light fires. (credit: Johnbod via Wikimedia Commons)

We know Neanderthals used fire because we have burned animal bones from several archaeological sites along with evidence that Neanderthals collected manganese dioxide, a black mineral powder the helps lower the combustion temperature of wood. But archaeologists haven't been convinced that Neanderthals kindled the fires themselves.

It's been suggested that the first humans to use fire happened to make use of convenient natural fires, such as those sparked by lightning strikes, and only learned how to set things on fire themselves later. Without clear evidence of firestarting, there's no way to demonstrate that Neanderthal technology had progressed to that stage by the time the last of them died off.

"While it is generally assumed that modern humans were proficient fire-markers, some researchers doubt Neanderthals knew how to make fire despite evidence that they used fire regularly," wrote Leiden University archaeologist Andrew Sorensen and his colleagues in a new paper. "Only by identifying the tools used to make fire can we know if Neanderthals possessed this skill."

Enlarge (credit: Brian Turner)

A 60-something couple in Palo Alto got an unpleasant surprise on Sunday when they woke up in the middle of the night to find a masked intruder in their bedroom. He said he wanted to use the couple's Wi-Fi network.

The burglar didn't get the Wi-Fi password he was looking for, however. The man leaped out of bed and confronted the intruder, shoving him down the hallway and out the front door. He then immediately called the police. The troublemaker was arrested by police minutes later. No one was injured in the confrontation.

Palo Alto police declined to name the 17-year-old suspect because he was a minor. Palo Alto Online notes he was arrested for burglary—a felony—as well as misdemeanor charges of prowling. He was also arrested for providing false information to a police officer—according to police, he initially lied about his identity when he was apprehended.

Enlarge / The VSS Unity spacecraft makes a successful landing after its third powered flight. (credit: Virgin Galactic)

Virgin Galactic has been saying for some time that it will reach outer space this year, and on Thursday it came the closest it has ever gotten. During the third powered flight of the VSS Unity vehicle, the spacecraft reached an altitude of 52km (32.3 miles), just over halfway toward the Kármán line, which generally is regarded as the beginning of space. This is the first time that Virgin Galactic has flown into the mesosphere.

The company also released a few other details about the flight, noting that the spacecraft was released from its carrier aircraft at 14.2km, that its engine burned for 42 seconds, and that the vehicle reached a maximum speed of Mach 2.7. Pilots Dave Mackay and Mike “Sooch” Masucci flew the Unity vehicle on Wednesday morning from the Mojave Air & Space Port.

“It was a thrill from start to finish," Mackay said after the flight in a company news release. "Unity’s rocket motor performed magnificently again, and Sooch pulled off a smooth landing. This was a new altitude record for both of us in the cockpit, not to mention our mannequin in the back, and the views of Earth from the black sky were magnificent.”

Greetings, Arsians! Courtesy of our friends at TechBargains, we have another round of deals to share. Today's list is headlined by a deal on Dell's Inspiron 3670 desktop, which is down to $330 for a variant with an 8th-gen Core i3, 8GB of RAM, and 1TB hard disk drive.

The Core i3-8100 here is the entry-level model in Intel's (for now) current Coffee Lake generation of chips, so don't expect it to do much on the gaming or hyperthreading front. But it's still capable enough to get the basics done smoothly, roughly on par with a mid-tier chip from the generation that preceded it. That 1TB HDD won't be the fastest thing, either, but it does give plenty of space to start, and you can tack on up to 512GB of SSD storage if need be. The desktop itself is fairly compact at about 15 inches tall, and it comes with an optical drive and most of the expected ports (sans USB-C, unfortunately). All told, this isn't the sexiest piece of hardware, but if you're in need of a new desktop PC for common, not-super-intense tasks, it's a good price.

If you don't need that, we also have deals on Sony's PlayStation VR heads, Samsung SSDs and microSD cards, Roku's Streaming Stick+, and more. Have a look for yourself below.