For most of us laypeople, it’s an accepted truth the dinosaurs were wiped out by a big ol’ asteroid that smashed into the Earth, easy as that. For scientists, however, there’s always been some question as to whether or not that was actually the case. But some new revelations have proven that we dummies were right in our gross over-simplification all along. More »
In the wake of Aaron Swartz’s suicide, your friendly neighborhood cyber-vigilantes Anonymous have been lashing out. It’s mostly been DDOSes and cyber-vandalism, but their most recent project is a bit more fun, and lets you play Asteroids with a Nyan Cat spaceship that blasts up sites. More »
Scientists have given some thought as to how we’ll defend ourselves when a giant asteroid inevitably heads our way and solutions range from paintballs to nukes. A team at Iowa State University has settled on the latter, and they’ve got plans for a ship that can do it waiting in the wings. More »
It almost sounds as implausible as sending an oil driller to plant a nuclear bomb inside an asteroid over an Aerosmith soundtrack but MIT researchers say shooting paintball pellets at an asteroid could bump an asteroid off its course. More »
If you had more diamonds than the rest of the world combined hiding under an asteroid crater, would you tell anyone? Russia was happy to keep that knowledge a secret until now, finally revealing plans to begin tapping into a reserve containing trillions of carats worth of diamonds. More »
Multiplayer modes are a big part of today’s games, but what would it have been like if we had an MMO of a classic arcade game back in the day? With mmoAsteroids you can find out. That’s right, you can now play Asteroids as a massively multiplayer online experience. Yes, it does sound intriguing.
The game is a project by Paul Firth, who has been working on it for some time and right now it’s in “pre-alpha” state. That means you can play it right now, but it is by no means complete.
As it stands, the game consists mainly of flying around in your ship, shooting other little ships that are on the opposing team, shooting asteroids, or teaming up to control a large mecha ship. Eventually the plan is to have all kinds of missions and quests, but right now Firth is hoping to make some money so he can continue to finish it. So you can buy special skins for your ship too, if you want to customize it. With every little purchase, you are helping to finish the game.
[via Rock, Paper, Shotgun via Geekosystem]
Let’s face it, Bruce Willis is getting old. We can no longer rely on the option of simply strapping him to a rocket, shooting said rocket towards an oncoming asteroid, and hoping for the best. Luckily, the Silicon Valley-based B612 foundation is developing the world’s most advanced asteroid early warning system. More »
Just when you’re numbing to robot, zombie and nuclear apocalypse scenarios, some old-fashioned asteroid paranoia pops up to surprise you. The B612 Foundation, which gets funding from, well, anyone, has just announced plans to launch Sentinel, a space telescope which will wander the vacuum cataloging asteroids in our inner solar system. Their goal is to track asteroid orbits and predict large impacts up to 100 years in advance, giving us plenty of time to find a solution (or enjoy our final days). Construction doesn’t start til late fall, with the launch expected in around five years, so it won’t be any use in disproving the 2012 doomsday believers out there. You can find out more about the project and donate to the foundation at the source link, or jump past the break for a video explanation, Aerosmith not included.
Continue reading Crowd-funded group building asteroid-mapping telescope, saving Earth (video)
Crowd-funded group building asteroid-mapping telescope, saving Earth (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jun 2012 17:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Forty years. That’s a long time in the tech industry and Atari knows it. Today it celebrates four decades in the game, and quite the tale it is. Highs, lows and everything in between, Atari has been there. As one of the most influential brands both in gaming and technology, it only seems right to take a look over the company’s history and chart some of the more significant twists in its less than straightforward journey. After the break we speak to the man that started it all and the one currently at the helm, as well as some of the many people whose lives were irreversibly changed by its influence. Happy birthday to you, Atari!
Continue reading Atari: celebrating 40 years on the dots
Atari: celebrating 40 years on the dots originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 17:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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