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The Google Posts landing page.

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There's a weird new feature popping up in Google search results called "Google Posts." It seems to be a place for Google to directly host content in a post-Google+ world and to embed this content directly into search results. Imagine orphaned Google+ posts with the Google+ branding stripped out, and you're most of the way there.

Over at Google.com/posts, Google has a landing page for this feature, calling it "an experimental new podium on Google" that allows you to "hear directly from the US presidential candidates in real time on Google." It's a believable explanation until you see this Google Posts profile from "Andrew Jewelers" in Buffalo, New York, (spotted by Mike Blumenthal), which is definitely not a presidential candidate.

The landing page says the "experimental" feature is "only available to the 2016 US presidential candidates" (Andrew Jewelers for president!), but those of us not running for office can join a waitlist as Google plans to "make it available to other prominent figures and organizations."

Enlarge (credit: NASA, ESA, P. Oesch (Yale University), G. Brammer (STScI), P. van Dokkum (Yale University), and G. Illingworth (University of California, Santa Cruz))

When did the first stars and galaxies form? The earliest thing we can see in the Universe is the Cosmic Microwave Background, created about 400,000 years after the Big Bang. The event that created the CMB filled the Universe with neutral hydrogen, which efficiently absorbs most of the wavelengths of light we would normally use to detect the first galaxies. But their light gradually reionized this neutral hydrogen, bringing an end to the Universe's "dark ages."

By the time reionization was complete, however, there was already substantial population of galaxies (not surprising, since they were caused by the reionization). So, how do we find the earliest galaxies?

In the case of new results announced this week, the authors used a combination of the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes to identify a candidate galaxy that was exceptionally bright and distant. Then they used the absorption of light by all that neutral hydrogen to determine that it dates from only 400 million years after the Big Bang, when the Universe was only three percent of its current age.

(credit: Photo illustration by Aurich Lawson)

The Samsung v. Apple saga is headed toward a fourth jury trial that's slated to begin in San Jose federal court at the end of this month. Lawyers for both companies have been filing a rapid succession of briefs, seeking to hammer out the final details of a trial that will recalculate damages for some Samsung phones found to infringe Apple patents.

US District Judge Lucy Koh has now weighed in on the parties' requests, publishing an order (PDF) on Wednesday barring Samsung's most surprising request. The company had asked (PDF) for Apple to be barred from mentioning that Samsung is a Korean corporation.

"Throughout both of the prior trials in this case, Apple has taken every opportunity to remind the jury of Samsung’s 'foreignness' by consistently referring to SEC as 'Samsung Korea,' 'Korean Samsung,' the 'Korean parent,' 'the Korean company,' and the 'Korean bosses' of 'Samsung America,'" Samsung lawyers wrote. "In fact, Apple’s counsel has rarely referred to SEC without mentioning Korea." They pointed out Koh herself had cited research about jury bias against foreign patent litigants. "Apple has no legitimate basis to offer any evidence or argument that evokes racial or national origin prejudice." Samsung lawyers also asked for Apple to be barred from referencing "the nationality or country of employment of Samsung witnesses."

Update: It's Memorial Day weekend here in the US, and the Ars staff has a long weekend accordingly. As we all reflect on the sacrifice of the people bravely serving in the Armed Forces, we thought resurfacing this piece—an homage to some of the finest aviation ever deployed by the US—would be a welcomed accompaniment. This story originally ran on March 4, 2016, and it appears unchanged below.

Roughly 110 years ago, one of the world's greatest aircraft designers—Clarence "Kelly" Johnson—was born in Ishpeming, Michigan. And since we're gigantic aviation nerds here at Ars Technica, the week of his birthday (February 27) is as good a reason as any to celebrate some of his legendary designs. Johnson spent 44 years working at Lockheed, where he was responsible for world-changing aircraft including the high-flying U-2, the "missile with a man in it" F-104 Starfighter, and the almost-otherworldly Blackbird family of jets.

In his career at Lockheed, Johnson's engineering acumen won him two Collier trophies, the most prestigious award one can win in the field of aeronautics (Lockheed chief engineer Hall Hibbard once famously said about Johnson, "That damn Swede can see air!"). In addition to being an excellent engineer, Johnson was also a powerfully effective manager; his practices running Lockheed's Advanced Design Projects unit are commonly regarded now as a master-class on how small focused groups should communicate and manage projects.

CJ Wilson Racing/CPSDIABLO on Xbox Live

The CJ Wilson Cayman GT4: the team calls it Darth Cayman. It's seen here exiting VIR's rather tricky "climbing esses," a series of corners where you really need to commit, otherwise disaster (and a rather firm wall) awaits.

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On Tuesday, we reported that Microsoft is porting Forza to Windows with Forza Motorsport 6 Apex. That wasn't the only big Forza news this week, though. Tuesday also saw the release of the long-awaited Porsche expansion pack. A $19.99/£15.99 add-on to the Xbox One game, the Porsche pack adds 21 new cars and a new track—Virginia International Raceway—to Forza 6. Lamborghini also got in on the action with the announcement that its Centenario hypercar will be the cover star of the next installment of the franchise. And to celebrate that, there's a new Lamborghini Super Trofeo eSports series underway.

The selection of new Porsches is pretty good, although it's not as rich as the 2012 addition to Forza Motorsport 4—that one featured 30 models. Sadly, we've been told not to expect any further Porsches appearing as DLC in the coming months, so bad luck if you were holding out hope for the 993 GT2 or 917.

The return of Porsche to the Forza franchise has been much-awaited by fans, although if Internet comments are anything to go by, many of them are of the opinion that the marque should have been included from the get-go. That wasn't possible, as Electronic Arts still has an exclusive license with the German car maker. We think that exclusive license expires at some point this year, although an enquiry with Porsche regarding the exact date hasn't been answered at the time of writing.

"Destroy all carbon-based life forms" would be a very bad algorithm for autonomous killbots. (credit: US Army)

At the National Defense Industrial Association's Ground Robotics Capabilities conference on Thursday, Department of Defense officials discussed the possibility of the US military fielding autonomous armed robots to fight alongside troops or act on their own, particularly in "highly competitive, highly contested space" behind enemy lines. "We have to think about what autonomous kinetic options really look like," said Melissa L. Flagg, a deputy assistant secretary of defense in the DOD's Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Directorate.

That thinking is still in its early stages, Flagg said. But military officials are looking hard at the possibility of developing robotic systems that are capable of acting on their own if remote control is cut off and decisions must be made on when to deploy a weapon—whether it's an armed drone dropping a bomb or launching a missile or a ground robot firing weapons. "These are hard questions, and a lot of people outside of us tech guys are thinking about it, talking about it, engaging in what we can and can't do," she said. "That's important. We need to understand and know that it doesn't necessarily need to happen, but we also have to put the options on the table because we are the worst-case scenario guys."

So far, the military has largely steered clear of deploying remotely operated ground weapons of any kind, though it has heavily invested in the development of armed "unmanned ground vehicles." The military did deploy remote-controlled machine gun turrets in Afghanistan as stationary defenses. But Marine Colonel Henry Lutz, the DOD Joint Staff's robotics and autonomous systems team officer in charge, said that soldiers were reluctant to use them because of the safety risks—both to fellow soldiers and civilians. "Understanding that in a counter-insurgency environment you can do more harm than good, there was not a level of trust," Lutz said.