September 2014

Markus "Notch" Persson at GDC 2011

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After many rumors in recent weeks, the official announcement came that Microsoft acquired Mojang, an independent video game developer, known in particular for the famous Minecraft. The terms of the agreement exceed even those already very high from the rumors because Microsoft provides the figure of $2.5 billion. The owner of the majority of the Mojang shares, Markus “Notch” Persson, decided to leave its creature along with co-founders Carl Manneh and Jakob Porsér.

Philae's primary landing site on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (Image ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA)

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In a press conference held yesterday, ESA announced the choice of the primary site on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko where the lander Philae will land, according to the plans on November 11. Among the five sites that were selected as candidates, the one selected was indicated by the letter J and was voted unanimously. As a backup site the one that was indicated by the letter C was selected.

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The novel “The Day of the Triffids” by John Wyndham was published for the first time in 1951.

Bill Masen wakes up in the hospital where he was taken after he was poisoned by a triffid. He’s blindfolded because the poison came into contact with his eyes and the moment should have come to see if there’s any permanent damage but something’s very strange. There seems to be neither nurses nor doctors around and Bill is forced to take off the bandages on his own and when he goes to look for someone he realizes that something really bad happened.

Because of the bandages, Bill couldn’t see the strange meteor shower the night before but soon discovers that it blinded everyone who watched it. In London there’s total chaos with a majority of people who remained blind and a small minority of sighted people. The society disintegrated immediately after the catastrophe and the triffids have already started taking advantage. After meeting Josella, a young writer, Bill tries to organize the survival among many dangers.

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IBM and Mayo Clinic have announced a project to use the Watson cognitive computing system in medical research in order to find more quickly the most appropriate clinical trials, especially for cancer patients. Those tests that provide patients suffering from various forms of cancer access to new types of treatments. The use of Watson is also expected to be extended to clinical trials concerning other types of diseases.

The route of the Mars Curiosity rover up Mount Sharp. In white the original route, in yellow the new revised one (Image NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona)

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Just over two years after landing on Mars, the Mars Rover Curiosity has reached Mount Sharp, a mountain in the center of Gale Crater where the Rover landed. This is the first target to be achieved in the Curiosity mission but it took a long time to get there because of the limited speed of the rover and the many stops made ​​to carry out scientific research. The management of the mission has recently drawn criticism from NASA’s Planetary Senior Review.