
Merlion is an end-to-end Python library for many different time-series tasks, including anomaly detection as well as forecasting.Read More
Merlion is an end-to-end Python library for many different time-series tasks, including anomaly detection as well as forecasting.Read More
Enlarge / Detail from an illustration of Genyornis (aka the “Demon Duck of Doom”) not looking so tough as it is chased from its nest by a Megalania lizard in prehistoric Australia. (credit: Peter Trusler)
Over 65,000 years ago, large flightless birds dubbed “Demon Ducks of Doom” roamed prehistoric Australia. The creatures stood over six and a half feet (two meters) tall, weighed over 440 pounds (200 kgs), and sported massive beaks. They also produced giant cantaloupe-sized eggs that may have served as a food source for early human inhabitants, eventually contributing to the extinction of the demon ducks, according to a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Technically known as Genyornis newtoni or mihirung paringmal (“thunder bird”), the species was first described in 1896 based on the discovery of a fossilized left femur excavated from a site at Lake Callabonna in South Australia. Further excavation yielded many more fragments of avian fossils and eventually mostly complete specimens, including the cranium. Similar specimens have since been found at other sites in New South Wales, Queensland, and Western Australia. The species went extinct within a few thousand years after humans arrived in the region.
There are two competing hypotheses for why Genyronis became extinct: climate change or the impact of the arrival of humans. For instance, there is some fossilized evidence that the Genyornis population at the Lake Callabonna site perished because the lake dried up due to climate change, depriving the birds of their water source. However, a 1999 study of more than 700 eggshell fragments concluded that the species’ decline and extinction occurred too rapidly to be attributed to climate change, suggesting that human activity was to blame. Specifically, early humans in the region may have gathered and consumed Genyornis eggs faster than the creatures could lay them and reproduce.
Mental Health Awareness Month is an ideal time to address the burnout happening in cybersecurity, though it should be addressed all year.Read More
Jay Prassl, CEO of Automox explains why enterprises need to start the ITOps to NoOps journey to keep up with the modern threat landscape.Read More
Enlarge / Ewan McGregor shines in Obi-Wan Kenobi. (credit: Lucasfilm)
While the Disney+-ification of Star Wars has mostly been good for fans, last year’s The Book of Boba Fett saw the franchise move into a coasting period. It landed somewhere between The Mandalorian and Clone Wars without either the compelling, Western-homage atmosphere of the former or the fist-pumping fan service of the latter.
The best thing I can say about Obi-Wan Kenobi, whose first two episodes debuted last night on Disney+ (out of a six-episode series), is that it feels like its own distinct Star Wars show, perhaps somewhere closer to a 1970s detective procedural. You know the kind: The haggard cop is tired of this crap, hangs up the badge, says he’s moved on, yet is still stuck on a lingering failure that keeps him one hair-trigger pull away from getting back into the fight.
That formula needs the right lead actor and world-building team to get fans to watch another attempt at the formula—which, let’s be clear, isn’t that many steps away from how The Mandalorian ropes its lead into a life-changing adventure. Thankfully, Ewan McGregor remains on board as the titular character in Obi-Wan Kenobi—and sees him steer his Obi-Wan performance closer to the charm and gravitas of the character’s original actor, Sir Alec Guinness.
PGA announced it’s launched a new mobile golf game called PGA Jr League Safari Par-Tee with animal avatars.Read More
Experts debate whether open source Twitter is a net positive or negative for security, and what enterprises can do to protect their data.Read More
Enlarge / This is not what a healthy lumbar vertebra is supposed to look like. (credit: Scorrano et al. 2022)
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried the Roman city of Pompeii in ash in 79 CE. Anthropologists recently sequenced ancient DNA from one of the victims, a man in his late 30s, providing a glimpse into the family background of a Roman citizen.
The results also suggest that he suffered from a tuberculosis infection in his lower spine. In one of the victim’s vertebrae, the study found DNA from the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, suggesting that the infection had traveled through the bloodstream from his lungs to his lower spine.
A team led by anthropologist Gabriele Scorrano of the University of Rome sequenced the genome of the victim, which revealed, unsurprisingly, that man was of central Italian descent. Although the ancient man’s genome didn’t yield much new information about life in Pompeii, it proves that bones from Pompeii may still contain enough DNA to sequence—and that could be exciting news.
The best software development timeline might not be the shortest, but it will be accurate and give your team time to finish a project.Read More