Nearly eight years ago, Disney gave George Lucas $4 billion for what is arguably the biggest film franchise in the world. Since then, Disney has released an additional five Star Wars films, raking in almost $6 billion worldwide at the box office. In those intervening years, the Mouse House also launched its own streaming service,…
DetailsLast Thursday, the US announced a record-setting, economy-wreaking 3.3 million jobless claims, numbers that shattered the worst periods of the 2008 financial collapse or even the Great Depression. Sometime on Sunday, somewhere in the United States, the 2,404th person died from Covid-19, surpassing the death toll of Pearl Harbor. Sometime on Monday, the 2,982nd American…
DetailsWith hundreds of millions of people sheltering in place and quarantining around the world due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, and many brick-and-mortar stores temporarily closed, online shopping has become even more of a lifeline. As consumers ramp up their online spending, though, the criminals who hack websites to digitally “skim” credit card numbers are…
DetailsPresident Trump on Friday signed the largest relief bill in US history, a $2 trillion lifeline to businesses, hospitals, and workers hit hard by the explosive spread of the coronavirus. More than 160,000 Americans have tested positive for the virus, according to the John Hopkins Coronaviurus resource center, more than any other country. But some…
DetailsOver the past week, as countless stressed-out people have found themselves cocooned on their couches with a Netflix subscription and no place to go, one miniseries has grabbed viewers more than others: Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness. Twitter these days is largely dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, but in the moments when people’s attention…
DetailsIn August of 1905, a strange ship set sail from San Francisco Bay. The wooden brig, called Galilee—also the name of the sea where Jesus, riding in a boat himself, once allegedly soothed a storm—had been retrofitted for a new job: The Carnegie Institution’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism wanted to sail it around the Pacific…
DetailsApple’s next cheaper iPhone is expected to keep a design similar to the iPhone 8. James Martin/CNET Apple’s cheaper 4.7-inch iPhone 9 (its current non-official name) has been rumored for months. And while the coronavirus pandemic has added an extra layer of uncertainty to whether it will arrive his spring, images of a new case…
DetailsNow that we’re all stuck at home thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, video calls have gone from a novelty to a necessity. Zoom, the popular videoconferencing service, seems to be doing better than most and has quickly become one of, if not the most, popular option going. But should it be? Zoom’s recent popularity has…
DetailsIf you’ve been wanting to support organizations that are helping to supply those fighting on the front lines against the novel coronavirus, the latest Humble Bundle is a good opportunity to do just that. You can pay anything you want, but you’ll need to pay $30 in order to get the full bounty of PC…
DetailsOne of the casualties of coronavirus-related social distancing measures has been public libraries, which are shut down in many communities around the world. This week, the Internet Archive, an online library best known for running the Internet’s Wayback Machine, announced a new initiative to expand access to digital books during the pandemic.ARS TECHNICAThis story originally…
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