explained

In Star Wars, when you see a creature that reminds you of a specific character, it might not actually be that character. Grogu, for example, is not Yoda, despite what some people originally thought. The Kowakian monkey-lizards hanging around on The Mandalorian aren’t Salacious Crumb. Not every astromech droid is R2-D2.The Rings of Power | First FandomsSo, on this week’s episode of The Mandalorian, when a certain familiar-looking character from Star Wars animation arrived, your first instinct may have been to assume that…

Screengrab via YouTube/Paramount Pictures Everyone from crossbow experts and heavy armor masters to game masters and arcane tricksters are gearing up to flock to theaters to watch the cinematic adventure that is Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Gamers have been playing Dungeons & Dragons for decades, and the upcoming movie is taking gameplay and transforming it into a theatrical experience. What could make the movie-going experience better for longtime fans of the game? Collectibles, of course,…

A simple way to interpret UMAP componentsUMAP computed on MNIST black and white images of handwritten digits. Image by authorThis is the twenty fifth post from my column Mathematical Statistics and Machine Learning for Life Sciences, where I use plain language to discuss analytical methods from Computational Biology and Life Sciences. UMAP is a dimensionality reduction technique that together with tSNE became increasingly popular and de-facto a standard tool for analysis of single cell genomics data, where traditional…

March 28, 2023 5:35 am ET The train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, was just one of over 1,000 that happen every year. NTSB’s Michael Hiller explains the most common reasons trains come off the tracks and what can be done to prevent them. Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8 March…

Capcom’s excellent Resident Evil 4 remake isn’t a 1:1 copy of the 2005 action-horror classic. The 2023 version departs from the original in some key ways, fleshing out characters and completely reimagining some plot beats. Some of those changes help better connect it to Capcom’s previous remakes, while others rid the game of some of its crass humor. Some of the biggest changes happen in the remake’s ending — though you may not notice them at first glance. The general plot beats aren’t too far off from the original,…

Screengrab via YouTube/Lionsgate Movies Warning: The following article contains spoilers for John Wick 4. John Wick: Chapter 4 just released in theaters on Friday and is killing it with an 8.5/10 IMDb score and a 95% Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer rating. What potential viewers would like to know before they go to see the movie concerns the part Scott Adkins plays, Killa. Keanu Reeves is kicking and shooting his way through the bad guys again as the bounty on his head keeps getting bigger and more enticing for…

Each data has different importancePhoto by Kier in Sight on UnsplashCluster analysis (or clustering) is a data analysis technique that explores and groups a set of vectors (or data points) in such a way that vectors in the same cluster are more similar to one another than to those in other clusters. Clustering algorithms are widely used in numerous applications, e.g., data analysis, pattern recognition, and image processing.This article reviews a new clustering algorithm based on the method of Projection onto Convex Sets…

An interstellar object that is currently on its long journey back out of our Solar System has a completely natural explanation, in spite of its odd quirks.The peculiar acceleration of 'Oumuamua, new research confirms, can be fully attributed to the release of molecular hydrogen gas.This, according to astrochemist Jennifer Bergner of the University of California, Berkeley and astrophysicist Darryl Seligman of Cornell University, is further evidence that the cigar-shaped chunk of rock started off as a planet seed before…

When music executive Steven Abdul Khan Brown was making his way to the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, he was blown away by the beautiful sound he heard as he walked closer to the parish. One of those voices? A teenage Whitney Houston. “That’s scary — whoa,” he thought, recalling the moment more than 40 years later in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “Why haven’t I ever been here before?” Khan Brown, also a Newark native who had been working with Kool & the Gang…

“VO2 Max.” It sounds like an 80’s “teen meets machine,” cartoon superhero. Like, some kid named Max says some catchphrase, “VO2 Max..ax…ax…ax,” and his motorcycle transforms, becoming a part of some super suit he wears to dispatch some corny cadre of super villains. Well, that description IS somewhat accurate. Having a solid VO2 Max may make you feel like you are in fact, superhuman. And Apple thought enough of Max and his VO2-ness to include it as a standout metric in Apple Health, even notifying you if you have “low…