SETI scientists spot 72 signals ‘from alien galaxy’ 3bn light years away
The researchers at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute discovered the unusual signals when examining 400 terabytes of radio data from a dwarf galaxy three billion light years away from Earth.
Almost all artificial intelligence technology involves automating data analysis, combing through huge data sets to identify patterns or unusual occurrences.
The signals they spotted – fast radio bursts (FRBs) – are bright and quick pulses which were first discovered in 2007 and are believed to come from distant galaxies, although it is not yet know what causes them.
“The nature of the object emitting them is unknown,” SETI said, adding: “There are many theories, including that they could be the signatures of technology developed by extraterrestrial intelligent life.”
You know, it’s probably just spam. Three billion-year-old spam about tentacle extension creams.
Amazon Removes 9 Books By Notorious Rape Apologist ‘Roosh’
For more than a decade, America’s tech giants have helped author and self-described “pickup artist” Daryush “Roosh” Valizadeh earn a living from writing and selling books that denigrate women and glorify sexual assault.
Amazon sells Valizadeh’s self-published books, which detail his confessions of rape. Twitter verified his account, which he uses to promote them. YouTube has allowed him to publish videos and livestreams where viewers can donate money to him. Altogether, Valizadeh’s empire of hate brings in more than $60,000 a year, he claims — money that allows him to continue publishing books the Anti-Defamation League described as how-to manuals for sexual predators.
Now that’s finally starting to change.
On Monday, Amazon took the rare step of removing nine of more than a dozen books written by Valizadeh from its website, including his most recent one, published Friday. Amazon banned the books after HuffPost reached out to ask whether Valizadeh’s content was in violation of the company’s content guidelines for self-published material — but not before it hit the top 1,000 books sold on Amazon that day. Valizadeh sold more than 2,000 copies at $23 each before Amazon knocked the books off its site, he claimed later.
HuffPost repeatedly attempted to talk to Valizadeh, who declined a female reporter’s interview request (he instructs all women who want to communicate with him to first show him a photo of themselves). He blocked another HuffPost reporter on Twitter after ignoring his emailed requests for comment. But on Twitter and his website, Valizadeh has expressed shock that his newest book has been taken off Amazon.
The Cleansing proceeds apace. Soon America will be perfect.
This Guy Watched an Adam Sandler Movie Every Day for an Entire Year
To some, a yearlong marathon of the Sandman’s considerable oeuvre brings to mind questions of why? And how? And what? (And WTF?) To Los Angeles music publicist and avowed Sandlerhead Eloy Lugo, however, it simply was the #YearOfSandler, a quest most honorable whose purpose has been to prop up his hero and perhaps encourage a reevaluation of Billy Madison’s extensive body of work. This isn’t the first time Lugo has paid homage to Sandler, this January he hosted the third annual SandlerCon, a 24 hour movie marathon complete with cosplay and themed menus that received Twitter shoutouts from members of the Sandlerverse.
Lugo’s yearlong cinematic pilgrimage began on a day most holy, September 9th (Sandler’s birthday) of last year and came to its conclusion with a well-attended screening of the underrated (Lugo’s words) Little Nicky at LA’s Downtown Independent Theater exactly one year later.
This fall’s hottest game guides you through a duck’s labyrinthian vagina
As a society, we spend an absurd amount of time talking about penises. Even at this very site, we’ve shared childhood-ruining studies confirming the existence (and size!) of Mario and Luigi’s animated members. Last year, however, our interest was piqued by a story about the difficulties of bringing a dolphin vagina onto an airplane, and now, with the release of the VR Duck Genitalia Explorer, our gaze has officially pivoted. Sure, it’s weird and kind of cool that pigs have corkscrew dicks, but the vaginas of muscovy ducks are as twisty and claustrophobic as a Doom level. As writer Samantha Cole puts it in this Motherboard article, the new app wandering these dank, fertile halls is “like the Magic School Bus, but for the inside of a waterfowl.”
VR Duck Genitalia Explorer, an Android app that whisks you on a whimsical journey through a muscovy duck vagina, was designed by science educator Jules Howard and biological sciences professor Patricia Brennan, the latter of whom also narrates the proceedings. “I think apps like this one can really serve two functions: one is to really allow folks to visualize complex structures that may be too difficult to grasp with 2-D, and two, to get people who normally may not be interested in science, to start asking questions about interesting biological phenomena by stepping in the VR novelty,” Brennan told Motherboard, making the obvious, yet understated, point point that, yes, folks are much more likely to pay attention when genitalia is involved.
The game doesn’t seem to answer the question: Can ducks queef? I guess they are saving that for a DLC.
