Wednesday 5th June 2024
  • Thailand's cooling rice dish to beat the heat

    The sweltering heat during Buddhist New Year calls for Thailand's cooling khao chae, a fragrant and refreshing bowl of rice delicately scented with flowers.

    By the time Songkran, Thailand's new year based on the Buddhist calendar, arrives in April, the temperatures in the Southeast Asian country are soaring. The sky is typically blue and spotless, so reprieve under the shade of a passing cloud is non-existent while the humidity is as thick as a fleece blanket. One way to cool off is in the country-wide water fights that take place during the annual celebrations (this year from 13-15 April), which include water guns, buckets and coloured powder smeared onto the face like war paint. Another way to celebrate and cool off is to eat khao chae.



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  • Engineer Your Own Luck

    Prediction is hard. The longer the time range — six months, three years, a decade — the less reliable any forecasting becomes. And yet, some companies prosper through extreme uncertainties.

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  • Look! NASA's Lucy Mission Stumbled Upon An Asteroid With Planet-Like Features

    NASA's Lucy mission, which is a first of its kind mission to study a population of mysterious relics from the formation of the Solar System near Jupiter. And, as mission photos suggest, it’s not always about the destination, but the rocky encounters you make along the way.

    The Lucy mission, named after the famous 3 million year old hominid fossil, is slated to visit the Trojans, a swarm of asteroids stuck in Jupiter’s orbit that may be relics of the Solar System’s formation. But the spacecraft made a pitstop at asteroid Dinkinesh on November 1, 2023 for what was meant to be a simple test subject for the spacecraft's navigational systems.

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  • 'Elden Ring's DLC Is a Brutal, Beautiful, and Massive New Expansion

    Even after 200 hours with Elden Ring, setting foot into the Land of Shadow was enough to take my breath away. You enter the shadowy realm through a decrepit cocoon and your first sight is a visual feast of rolling black hills adorned with swarms of ghostly tombstones. Misty castles loom in the background, and a ghastly fiery beast stalks the ethereal cemetery. Three hours of playtime later it was clear that Shadow of the Erdtree is the biggest expansion FromSoftware has ever made. I’m also hopeful that it could be its best too.

    The story of Shadow of the Erdtree is fittingly cryptic, and I only had the faintest idea of what was going on with my initial visit. The expansion will largely expand on the story and lore of the main game, with a particular emphasis on Miquella the Kind, an Empyrean and son of Marika who mysteriously vanished. In The Land of Shadow, Miquella and his followers seem to be locked in a brutal conflict with a fiery godlike being named Messmer.

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  • Star Wars' Most Experimental New Show is the Shot in the Arm the Franchise Needs

    On Dec. 10, 2020, Kathleen Kennedy announced 10 Star Wars series as part of Disney’s 2020 Investor Day presentation. Some, like Andor and Ahsoka, actually managed to make it to the platform. Others, like Rangers of the New Republic and A Droid Story have been either canceled or indefinitely delayed. Some, like Lando, were transformed into future movies. Now, four years later, the last of these series is set to premiere — and it’s the most experimental and galvanizing of the lot.

    Helmed by Russian Doll co-creator Leslye Headland, The Acolyte finally explores a previously unseen time period in the franchise: the High Republic, which is set a century before everything else we’ve seen in Star Wars canon. The result is a noir-esque series that paints an entirely different light on the parts of Star Wars that seemingly had been unquestioned and redefines the very standards by which we define what makes Star Wars so good in the first place. It may be the last series in that presentation to come to fruition, but it’s the start of a new Star Wars era — and one that’s more than welcome.

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  • 40 Years Later, An Immortal Sci-Fi Hit Is Back In Theaters -- But There's a Catch

    Nobody ever made them like this! On June 8, 1984, the genres of science fiction, horror, and comedy were forever blended when writers Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis teamed with director Ivan Reitman to create Ghostbusters. Although the franchise has produced several sequels and spin-off animated TV shows, the only thing fans can agree on when it comes to bustin’ is that the original film, more than any of the others, is the one that makes us feel good. Some might have a soft spot for Ghostbusters II, and the newer sequels have their merits, but the first movie has never been topped.

    Now, on its 40th birthday weekend, the film that started it all is back in movie theaters for a very limited time. Here’s why Ghostbusters was such a huge summer blockbuster hit, and how to catch it in theaters again.

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  • Netflix's Best Vampire Thriller Will Never Get a Physical Release, Creator Reveals

    Just as vinyl records made a comeback in the Spotify era, physical media is returning amid the success of streaming. Blu-ray collectors are getting the last laugh: while streaming is convenient, libraries are constantly shifting, and streaming originals are erased whenever a platform needs to save money. Even purchasing digital content can leave your ownership of that media up for debate. The only way to have guaranteed access to media is to own a physical copy. Netflix and Warner Bros. can erase a streaming title, but they can’t take a Blu-ray from your bookshelf.

    Naturally, physical releases are attractive to creators too. In a 2023 Tumblr post responding to a fan question, prolific horror director Mike Flanagan said that while he wanted to release physical copies of his complete works for Netflix, getting the streamer onboard was an uphill battle.

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  • 45 Years Later, an Iconic Sci-Fi Thriller Franchise is Finally Resetting Its Convoluted Timeline

    A group of desperate humans in space are stalked by vicious aliens who reproduce by infiltrating bodies, and bursting out through the chest. In the end, it looks like one woman (Cailee Spaeny) is the last hope of exterminating these creatures, who are as relentless as they are terrifying. If this all sounds familiar, it should. The new trailer for Alien: Romulus is aggressively paying homage to both Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986), and, in the process, utterly sidestepping the confusing continuity questions raised by the last two movies in the franchise.

    With Romulus, the Alien franchise isn’t doing a full reboot, but in terms of vibe, there does seem to be a massive reset button getting pressed here. Here’s why the next Alien movie looks terrifying, and a little bit safe at the same time.

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  • One of the Most Affordable Folding E-Bikes Is Getting a Big Overhaul Without a Price Hike

    Take Lectric’s new XP Lite 2.0 e-bike. It upgrades one of the most popular entry-level folding e-bikes with an improved motor, a color display, and an optional battery boost while still keeping the original $799 starting price tag. Pound for pound, this combination of improved features and affordable pricing is why people are choosing Lectric over other e-bike brands.

    The standard version of the Lectric XP Lite 2.0 gets 45 miles with its 7.8Ah battery, but there’s a long-range option that uses a 14Ah battery for up to 80 miles of range.

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  • Summer Game Fest 2024 Will Be 'Quieter' For One Depressing Reason

    Don’t get too excited about Summer Game Fest. I’m not just sharing my opinion — though it’s also that — this is coming straight from host Geoff Keighley himself. Ahead of this week’s games showcase, Keighley hosted a live Q&A session on Twitch to answer questions about the show and tried to set audience expectations a little lower in the process.

    In the hour-long Twitch stream, the former journalist turned event host took questions from fans about Summer Game Fest, covering everything from the show’s history to the minute details of this year’s presentation. Before diving into questions from chat, Keighley laid out a more general overview of the show, noting that it isn’t going to be a year full of groundbreaking reveals. Keighley noted that it will be a “lighter” year for announcements. When asked how high he’d rate his excitement for the event on a scale from one to ten, measuring gamer-friendly hype, he said an eight out of ten. It’s a far cry from most similar showcases, which try their best to build up anticipation beforehand, rather than deflating it.

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