Todays

It’s the day before The Game Awards, and Day of the Devs is here with a plethora of neat-looking trailers ahead of it. The Day of the Devs – The Game Awards Edition showcase showed off a ton of new and upcoming indies today, and quite a few have already gone on my wishlist. From new footage on announced projects, to brand-new world premieres, Day of the Devs is usually a pretty good resource for seeing what’s up in indie development spaces. I always seem to walk away from these showcases with at least a few new games to…

Yesterday in Helsinki, this editor interviewed four of the six general partners at Benchmark, the nearly 30-year-old, Silicon Valley firm that’s known for some notable bets (Uber, Dropbox), paying each general partner exactly the same way, and for continuing to raise similar-size funds over its many years rather than balloon in size.  We were speaking at Slush, a major event for the European startup ecosystem, so I naturally asked why the firm was making such a big showing, given that it’s hard enough getting the…

A study in Nature Geosciences reveals that oceanic anoxia significantly contributed to marine extinctions during the Triassic–Jurassic period, with current levels of deoxygenation mirroring those of the past. This discovery highlights the sensitivity of marine ecosystems to local and global environmental changes. Scientists have discovered a pivotal role of oceanic anoxia in the Triassic–Jurassic mass extinction, indicating that even localized deoxygenation can lead to widespread ecosystem collapse. This research…

A core sample of ~201 million year old sediments obtained from the Carnduff-2 core, drilled in the Larne Basin (Northern Ireland), showing the shell of an animal that lived on the seabed shortly after the Triassic–Jurassic global mass extinction. Credit: Prof. Micha Ruhl, Trinity College Dublin Scientists have made a surprising discovery that sheds new light on the role that oceanic deoxygenation (anoxia) played in one of the…

Recent research indicates that parts of the central and eastern United States may still be experiencing aftershocks from significant 19th-century earthquakes. The study analyzed seismic data from three historic quakes, concluding that some modern seismic activity in these areas could be long-lived aftershocks, mixed with background seismicity.Aftershocks follow large earthquakes — sometimes for weeks, other times for decades. But in the U.S., some areas may be experiencing shocks from centuries-old events.In the 1800s,…

Spatial distribution of M ≥ 2.5 earthquakes in stable North America. Blue circles are events between 1568 and 1979 (incomplete records). Red circles are events between 1980 and 2016 (complete records). The data source is provided in the text. Credit: Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth (2023). DOI: 10.1029/2023JB026482 In the 1800s, some of the strongest earthquakes in recorded U.S. history struck North America's…

Grab your popcorn and sit around the campfire Blizzard will be addressing all the current Diablo 4 drama today in an aptly-timed Campfire Chat stream. The team confirmed that they plan to talk about the recent 1.1.0 patch that left fans unhappy with the current state of Diablo 4 and led to questions regarding the future of the popular Action RPG. I’ve read over your comments on various D4 posts in the last few days and want to welcome you in joining me around the campfire! The Diablo 4 Campfire Chat will go live…

The Xbox Game Pass catalog continues to grow, with the latest addition being a game that is releasing on Xbox for the first time. Maquette, a first-person puzzle game developed by Graceful Decay and published by Annapurna, is out now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Windows Games through Game Pass.Maquette released in March 2021 for PS4, PS5, and PC, before heading to Switch in May this year. It's now available on Xbox for the first time, and Game Pass members can play it as part of their subscription.…

Microsoft is reportedly negotiating an extension of its acquisition contract with Activision Blizzard, as of July 17. The contract is set to expire Tuesday, July 18.According to a report from Reuters, the two companies will continue to negotiate the extension, even if a resolution is not reached by the end of day July 18. To be clear, the expiration of the contract does not necessarily mean that acquisition will not occur; it simply means either company has the legal power to walk away from the deal.…

There was a wonderful, revelatory moment in Adam Nicolson’s last book, Life Between the Tides, where he suddenly telescoped out from the Scottish rock pool he was describing in order to meditate on the work of the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus, demonstrating how much we can still learn about our present-day world by turning to the great minds of the past. This dazzling passage of writing argued that engagement with the environment is always a philosophical act, and that the close looking of the naturalist is more…