Month: November 2018

20th Century Fox

How is Ryan Reynolds going to successfully transition from voicing the filthiest superhero of the past few years (Deadpool) to the fluffiest (Detective Pikachu)? The answer will arrive in theaters this December in a re-release we never saw coming: a PG-13 edit of Deadpool 2, complete with new scenes.

Once Upon a Deadpool arrives on December 12, only seven months after Deadpool 2's debut, but it appears to include just enough new content to entice series fans to hit theaters one more time. The biggest difference is an apparent storytelling wrapper starring none other than Fred Savage—who has been tied down by Deadpool and trapped in a Princess Bride-style bedroom. The timing of this announcement is certainly quite bittersweet, after fans mourned the loss of screenwriter William Goldman last week.

USPTO

If virtual reality is ever going to become the immersive, holodeck-style platform that we all dream of, someone is going to have to figure out locomotion. Today, you can strap on a Vive or Oculus headset and more-or-less be visually transported to a virtual world, but the reality of, well, reality, means you can usually only take a few steps before you bump into your coffee table.

So far, we've seen a few solutions that take aim at VR's "limited space" problem. On the simpler side of the spectrum, one option has you stick a motion tracker in your pants and jog in place. On the more complicated end, there's the "VR treadmill" solution, which has you strap into a big plastic platform and keeps you in place with slippery footwear and a waist harness. Neither option is quite the same as natural walking, but a new patent from Google puts forth an interesting idea: what about motorized VR shoes?

Enlarge / Cyclists hit the 18th stage between Trie-sur-Baise and Pau, southwestern France, in the 2018 Tour de France. (credit: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Images))

Check out the aerial footage of bicyclists competing in the annual Tour de France and you'll notice that riders tend to spontaneously group themselves into a diamond-shaped pattern. Jesse Belden, a researcher at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, says such patterns emerge because riders are trying to stay close to their competitors while avoiding collisions.

Belden, an avid cyclist himself, described his work at a meeting of the American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics in Atlanta, Georgia. While watching coverage of the Tour de France, especially the aerial footage, he became fascinated by the formations of the group of cyclists. They resembled flocks of starlings or schools of fish—both examples of so-called "collective behavior" in nature. And he found himself wondering how one might model the behavior of riders in a peloton.

The study of swarming and other collective behavior in animals is a booming field, with scientists studying the group dynamics of murmurations of starlings, ubiquities of sparrows, swarms of midges, armies of fire ants, and schools of fish, among other examples in nature. The aim is to better understand the underlying mechanisms, with an eye toward identifying possible universal laws governing such behavior—a task made more difficult by the fact that there are slightly different mechanisms behind the collective behavior of each of the aforementioned groups.

Enlarge (credit: Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Every major cryptocurrency was down sharply on Monday morning, with many hitting levels not seen since 2017.

Bitcoin fell below $5,100, a low not seen since October 2017. Ethereum's currency, ether, fell below $155—down 25 percent over the last week. Ether's value hasn't been this low since July 2017.

The weekend's losses are a continuation of last week's selloff.

Enlarge / A few gadgets we liked using in the home this year. (credit: Jeff Dunn)

The first entry in our holiday gift guide dealt with gear your loved ones could use on the go. In contrast, today's edition centers all on tech that's more suited for the house—be it gadgets for improving a desk setup or an A/V upgrade for the living room. Like with all our guides, we've put in a year's worth of testing in order to make a handful of recommendations that may actually delight or prove useful to your favorite people. Have a look for yourself below.

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Creative Pebble