Indian Temple Uses Robot Elephant to Curb Animal Cruelty

A robotic elephant was donated to an Indian temple to replace having a wild creature living in captivity. PETA India donated the elephant named Irinjadappilly Raman, to the Sree Krishna Temple in Kerala to “help conduct ceremonies at the temple in a safe and cruelty-free manner,” the animal rights organization said in…

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Nintendo Details MAR10 Day Deals, Including A 'Choose One' Mario Switch Bundle

Nintendo is keeping with the tradition of celebrating MAR10 day and has a number of deals, specials, and events coming to get you in the spirit.

Could NASA's Electric Airplane Make Aviation More Sustainable?

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Spaceflight Shakeup: Leading Rocket Company ULA Is Reportedly Up for Sale

Ars Technica spaceflight reporter Eric Berger writes that prominent launch provider ULA is up for sale and that investment firm Morgan Stanley and consulting firm Bain & Company are overseeing the transaction. As to ULA’s potential suitor, we can only speculate.

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Florida Man Dies from Rare Brain-Eating Infection Caught From Tap Water

Florida health officials say a man recently died from a brain-eating amoeba called Naegleria fowleri—an infection likely caught from rinsing his sinuses with tap water. These infections are incredibly rare but almost always lethal, and they have been previously linked to nasal rinsing, such as through the use of neti…

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Doctor Apple Wants to Scan Your Entire Body Now

Apple is already big on biometric data for letting users unlock their phones, but a new patent shows the Cupertino company is looking ahead to the day when it can scan a user’s face, neck, chest, arms, legs—AKA your full silhouette—to let you access a device, or else allow your phone to tell you if you should be…

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Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard purchase will reportedly be approved by the EU

Microsoft has reportedly cleared a major regulatory hurdle as it tries to move toward finalizing its Activision Blizzard purchase. The company’s licensing offers to competitors are expected to appease European Union (EU) antitrust concerns about the $69 billion acquisition, according to Reuters. The EU previously said it believed the deal could “significantly reduce competition” in PC, console and cloud gaming.

The EU isn’t expected to demand asset sales to approve the deal. However, the potential sale of Call of Duty has been a point of contention; Microsoft wants to hang onto the property while using the licensing agreements to quell regulators. The company has pledged to keep the franchise on competing platforms for at least 10 years if the purchase closes; it’s even bringing Call of Duty to Nintendo’s consoles.

Microsoft says it’s “committed to offering effective  and  easily  enforceable solutions  that address the European Commission’s concerns.” “Our commitment to grant long-term 100% equal access to  Call of Duty to Sony, Steam,  NVIDIA and others preserves the deal’s benefits to gamers and developers and increases competition in the market,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Reuters.

The company announced the deal in January 2022 to help it compete against industry leaders Tencent and Sony while developing its take on the metaverse. “Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said at the time.

Microsoft will still need to appease the US Federal Trade Commission and UK regulators before the deal can be finalized. The company only has until July to sort out the antitrust concerns, or it will need to renegotiate or abandon the purchase (which would mean paying a breakup fee of up to $3 billion).

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsofts-activision-blizzard-purchase-will-reportedly-be-approved-by-the-eu-174012371.html?src=rss

G20 Talks End In India With No Consensus On Ukraine War

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said there were “divergences” on the issue of the war in Ukraine “which we could not reconcile as various parties held differing views.”

These 'Headphones' Are Actually For Clearing Out Excess Earwax

Struggling to keep your wireless earbuds clean? You can buy cleaning kits for AirPods that come with purpose-built tools for getting rid of earwax, or you can deal with the problem at the source with a device that looks like an over-sized pair of headphones, but is actually a washing machine for your ears.

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Paizo Takes a Stand Against AI-Generated Art

As the fight over licensing rights in the tabletop industry begins to die down, Paizo has turned its attention to another issue of contention: AI-generated art. Talking broadly about both generated text and images, Paizo has stated on its blog that it will not employ the use of such tools because of the “ethical and…

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