Juno is NASA’s project focused on bringing a deeper understanding to Jupiter and the processes that might have governed our solar system’s creation. The spacecraft was launched in 2011 to explore several facets of the planet’s composition, including its atmosphere, magnetic force field, and dense cloud coverage.
This series of close-up photographs was taken by Juno within the last year, and is a dazzling diverse display of the planet’s gaseous composition. Swirling blue and brown clouds appear like impressionist paint strokes across Jupiter’s atmospheric surface, a spectacle which is constantly shifting into new optically charged formations. More

For some time, France has been determined to overtake London as the leading center of European finance. This latest move could end up helping them do just that. France has traditionally taken a very hard stance when it comes to the trade and advertisement of leveraged financial instruments such as CFDs and Forex pairs. It still wants to be a leading blockchain financial center, however, a decidedly untraditional move.  In a statement to the press,

The post France to Allow Blockchain-Based Trading of Unlisted Securities in Bid to Become Leading Finance Center appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.

Regular visitors to Bored Panda will no doubt be familiar with the incredible artwork of Thomas Romain. He’s a French anime artist living in Tokyo who’s worked on various popular series including Space Dandy, Basquash!, and Aria, but his best ideas are the ones that come from his sons.

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The headlines could hardly be scarier and more apocalyptic. In a speech delivered by the head of Britain’s military last week, the world learned that Russian President Putin could bring about global financial collapse and return civilization to a communications dark ages by a mere snip-snip of underwater transatlantic internet cables!

Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach warned Russia could in an instant end 97% of global communications capabilities and disrupt trillions in daily financial transactions, ushering in a "catastrophic" economic collapse, as the roughly 200 international undersea network cables are under imminent threat. Peach said that Russia’s modernized Navy constitutes a “new risk to our way of life.”

Putin engaging in undersea collusion with Trump. Image source: AFP/Getty

The speech from a lone British military chief generated endless fear-inducing headlines and thousands of lines of anxiety and panic-driven commentary, a mere sampling of which is below…

• Russia could cut off internet to NATO countries, British military chief warns (NBC)
• Russian Navy ‘could cut underwater cables and devastate UK economy’ warns UK Armed Forces chief (IBT)
• UK defense chief says Russia poses risk to undersea cables (AP)
• Top British Officer: Russia May Be Able To Cut Undersea Cables (NPR)
• How Russia could use drones armed with explosives to destroy vital underwater cables linking Britain’s phone and internet to rest of the world (UK Mirror)
• Russia’s naval updates threaten undersea comms network, says top British military officer (Defense News)
• Russian Ships Could Cause ‘Catastrophe’ for West by Cutting Transatlantic Internet Cables (Newsweek)
• Could Russia cut undersea communication cables? (BBC)
• Russia could cut off internet to Nato countries, British military chief warns (The Guardian)
• Russia ‘could cut UK’s undersea internet cables’, defence chief warns (The Independent)
• Russia ‘could CRIPPLE Britain by cutting undefended undersea internet cables’ (The Sun)
• Senior British Officer: Russia Could Cut Undersea Cables (Newsmax)
• Top UK military official says NATO must protect underwater cables from possible attacks by Russia (EuroNews)
• Russian navy ship Yantar can sever internet cables (Sunday Times)

Meanwhile, Defense News included in its coverage the following casual and passing reference:

“In addition to new ships and submarines, Russia continues to perfect unconventional capabilities and information warfare. Therefore, we must continue to develop our maritime forces with our allies to match Russian fleet modernization,” said Peach, who will give up his job as Britain’s top military commander next year to become chairman of the NATO Military Committee.

So NATO’s future military chief needs to increase those budgets before sliding into his new position you say? His speech also emphasized how member countries need to ensure their own fleet modernization keeps pace with the oh-so-scary ‘Russian threat’. Budgets, budgets, budgets people! Cause the Russians are coming!

But we’ve seen those headlines before – they are essentially the same as a barrage of stories that came out in 2015, also based on military officials speculating and ruminating on all the possible scariest Russian threats.  

Oops! Though it sounds like a fresh new Russian threat the media had yet to tap into, it turns out the British commander is merely channeling these old headlines, most from October 2015 after a New York Times story ran which relied on the usual "anonymous officials". Well, perhaps it just sounds more legit the second time around when delivered through a British accent?

RUSSIA COULD CUT UNDERWATER INTERNET CABLES. If my aunt had balls, she’d be my uncle. #mediahysteria #whatif

— aLleluia (@DumbJam) December 16, 2017

The 2015 NYT story cited the Russian underwater cable threat as "raising concerns among some American military and intelligence officials that the Russians might be planning to attack those lines in times of tension or conflict." Below is a small sampling of the headlines generated from that more than two year old reporting originally based on "some American military and intelligence officials":

• Russian Ships Near Data Cables Are Too Close for U.S. Comfort (NYT, Oct. 2015)
• Why Is Russia Interested in Undersea Internet Cables (VOA News, Nov. 2015)
• Fears over Russian submarine and spy ship patrols near vital undersea internet cables (Daily Mail/Reuters, Oct. 2015)
• How Bad Would It Be If The Russians Started Cutting Undersea Cables? Try Trillions In Damage (Forbes, Nov. 2015)
• We Asked an Expert What Would Happen if Russia Cut the Pipeline to the Internet (Vice News, Oct. 2015)
• US fears Russia could sever undersea internet cables (The Verge, Oct. 2015)
• Russia, the Internet and a new way to wage war? (CNN, Oct. 2015)
• US fears that Russia is plotting to sever its undersea internet cables (The Inquirer, Oct. 2015)
• Russia possibly mapping underwater internet cables in Mediterranean (Washington Times, Oct. 2016)
• Undersea Cables: How Russia Targets the West’s Soft Underbelly (Oct. 2015)
• In Case Of Nuclear War, Cut Internet Cables (Oct. 2015)

Naturally, Congress should impose new sanctions on Russia, banning all bolt and wire cutters from being shipped to the country… Before it’s too late!

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Multidisciplinary artist and architect Philip Beesley weaves together such a broad array of technologies and systems in his artworks that they legitimately defy description, but the immediate impact of encountering these sprawling interactive installations is visceral and awe-inspiring. His latest work, Astrocyte, connects chemistry, artificial intelligence, and an immersive soundscape to create a living piece of architecture that responds to the presence of viewers. Comprised of 300,000 individual components, the piece was on view against the industrial backdrop at Toronto’s port lands for EDIT: Expo for Design, Innovation & Technology last October. More

Psst! Hey, writer! Yes, over here, around the corner. We’re going to let you in on a little secret. There’s more than one way into the Story Grid. Let us show you a side door, and help you break into the Story Grid vault to find your story’s emotional core while the Analytical Mind is […]

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The post Discover Your Story’s Core appeared first on Story Grid.

Tonight in Los Angeles, a bunch of game developers won well-deserved honors for the games they released in 2017. A bunch of other people showed off games that won’t be out until 2018 or later.

If you want to read who won what, go here. If you want to get super hyped for games that will probably get cancelled and/or be filled with shitty microtransactions or whatever, you’re in the right place!

I kid, I kid. Well… I don’t kid, actually, but I do still like getting excited about big upcoming games despite all that. Let’s get excited together.

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There’s a World War Z game on the way.

It looks like it’s based more on the movie than on the book, which, of course it is. I want a World War Z game based on the book, where we go around interviewing people who survived the zombie almost-apocalypse.

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The studio behind Job Simulator is making Vacation Simulator.

Seems like it’ll be another fun, wacky time in VR. It’s coming to all three VR systems in 2018.

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From Software had an extremely vague tease for their next game.

Let’s be real, they could’ve just put the From logo on the screen for 30 seconds and people would’ve lost it anyway. “Shadows Die Twice,” eh? I’m just guessing here, but this game is probably going to kill me more than twice.

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The creators of Firewatch are making a game about exploring tombs in Egypt.

It’s called Into The Valley of Gods and unlike Firewatch, it’s got a fully animated partner character you explore alongside. It’s coming in 2019. I hope you get to find Bayek and Aya’s tombs…

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The second Breath of the Wild expansion is coming out… tonight!

That is the most I’ve ever been psyched about one of those “and it’s available now!” surprises. I wish I was currently playing this instead of writing this post. What am I doing? It has a motorcycle. I’m going to publish this and go play.

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Soul Calibur VI is coming in 2018

It’s got swords, and fighting! I’ve never actually gotten into Soul Calibur, so maybe this will finally be the one.

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Bayonetta 1 and 2 are coming to Switch on February 16.

Okay never mind about the Zelda thing, this is the only Game Awards announcement that mattered. Yep, yes, cool.

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Also, Bayonetta 3 is in the works for Switch.

Nevermind what I just said, THIS was the only announcement that mattered. Actually, you know what, I’m gonna stop saying that about announcements. All of these announcements matter equally. Bayo 3 will be a Switch Exclusive. No release date, but I’m very happy that this game is happening.

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We got a long, weird look at Death Stranding.

Hideo Kojima’s in-development PS4 game sure does look like a Hideo Kojima game. It’s got guys in hazmat suits, invisible monsters, disintegrating bodies, and all sorts of other sci-fi junk, including fetuses in tanks and earth-shakingly massive nightmare creatures. I have no idea if this will be a good video game, or if this will ever actually be a finished video game, but… cool trailer.

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Witchfire is a new shooter from the people who made Bulletstorm.

Pretty funny joke at the beginning there. I love Bulletstorm, and I will play this game where you shoot lots of monsters.

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We saw more of the co-op prison break game A Way Out.

I am psyched about this game, but probably not as psyched as its director Josef Fares, whose unhinged enthusiasm (and Oscars dragging) was an undeniable show highlight.

Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds showed off its new desert map.

The new desert map hits the test servers at midnight Pacific time tonight, and comes to Xbox in 2018. The PC 1.0 launch is coming on December 20.

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Couple Other Things: The bizarre VR game Accounting+ is coming to PSVR on December 19, THQ Nordic’s survival game Fade Into Silence hits Steam early access on December 14, Fortnite: Battle Royale is getting a 50v50 mode, we got some new gameplay from the Payday studio’s upcoming shooter GTFO, a new story trailer for Metro: Exodus, and a new trailer for MediaMolecule’s Dreams.

And that’s that! I’m gonna close out with this screenshot of Hideo Kojima fist-bumping Guillermo Del Toro, because I like how those two dudes seem to genuinely enjoy one another.

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As the year wraps up we’ve got a host of new products in The Colossal Shop. Fun new additions include affordable signed artist prints by Chicago-area poster maker Jay Ryan, a new cohort of Series Two Yoga Joes, imaginative bedding that turns your kiddo into an astronaut, and handmade ceramics by Philadelphia artist Brian Giniewski (who might sound familiar). Plus great host gifts like hand-painted Mexican chocolate truffle sets and TODAY, a new clock that redefines time. More

Brilliant!

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