Author: Sean Patterson

NASA this week released an eight-page report detailing all its engineers have learned about a failed satellite launch that took place on March 4, 2011.

The launch of a Taurus XL T9 rocket, designed by Orbital Science Corporation, was meant to carry the Glory climate change monitoring satellite into orbit. The rocket instead failed to reach orbit, costing the agency around $388 million.

A “mishap investigation board” put together by NASA in the aftermath of the failure determined that the rocket’s fairing system failed to open fully, causing the destruction of the rocket and its payload.

Fairings are clamshell-shaped nosecone devices that surround satellites on their way to orbit. Normally, fairings are jettisoned soon after launch when friction heat from the Earth’s atmosphere is no longer a concern. When Glory’s fairing failed to open, the fairing’s mass altered the rocket’s trajectory. NASA states in its report that the launch vehicle “likely broke up or burned up, or both, because of reentry loads and aerodynamic heating.”

Though the fairing was determined to be the cause of the failure, the NASA board was unable to figure out exactly why the fairing had not opened. The board, though, did narrow down the possibilities to some sort of failure with the frangible joint components of the fairing’s side rail system. Both NASA and Orbital are continuing to investigate the fairing system, and will be making improvements to future designs based on their findings.

(Image courtesy NASA)

It takes quite a bit of work to reboot an MMO, but Square Enix is determined to make the business model work. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is slated to be released some time in the second quarter of 2013, and it appears that the project is nearly complete.

Today Naoki Yoshida, director of A Realm Reborn, took to the PlayStation Blog this week and announced that PlayStation 3 gamers will soon get a chance to try out the game through a phase of the beta test that is “about to commence.” Players can sign up for the beta at Square Enix’s website.

A Realm Reborn will feature homages from classic Final Fantasy titles such as Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy VII. From the blog post:

We consider it one of our missions to reacquaint gamers all over the world with the wonders of Final Fantasy. To this end, we’ll be incorporating the most memorable elements of the series into A Realm Reborn. Mind you, this won’t be limited only to the game’s launch; in subsequent patches, we plan to keep adding more great stuff from Final Fantasy’s 25-year history. For starters, adventurers will be able to take on the Crystal Tower (FFIII) raid dungeon, do battle with classic summons (such as Ifrit, Titan, and Leviathan), and ride magitek armor (FFVI). It goes without saying that there’ll be moogles and chocobos as well. Your trusty steed will fight beside you in battle, and can also be dressed up in neat costumes. Future patches will introduce series mainstay Gilgamesh, and also the fun and excitement of the Gold Saucer (FFVII).

In conjunction with the beta announcement, a new trailer for the game has also been released. Though it is labeled as an “Exploration Trailer,” it features plenty of battle footage.

The last month or so has been a bonanza for gamers following the DayZ standalone game project. The zombie survival game has received regular progress updates including a video presentation of several in-game systems and the announcement that

Today’s update isn’t a huge info-dump, but fans of the game will be pleased to see that DayZ creator Dean “Rocket” Hall is putting himself into the game. Literally.

A video was posted today to the DayZ development Tumblr blog that shows Rocket himself participating and creating animations in the Bohemia motion capture studio. He suits up and helps make some zombie animations for the game.

The video also shows exactly what ideas the DayZ team has for zombies, which includes a “rage” state similar to the infected seen in 28 Days Later.

This week conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh embarked on a tirade during his show and ended up admitting that he is “ashamed” of the U.S. The host blasted the issue of sequestration, calling it a repeat of other “crises” such as the auto bailouts or the fiscal cliff, and stating that the budget cuts are a “joke.”

“It is the same threats,” said Limbaugh. “It’s the same danger. It’s the same crisis. It’s identical. There’s nothing about it that changes, over and over. And everybody gets sucked into it.”

Limbaugh stated that he believes the sequestration issue is a “big joke on the country” and an “embarrassing spectacle.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time in my life, I am ashamed of my country,” said Limbaugh. “To be watching all of this, to be treated like this, to have our common sense and intelligence insulted the way it’s being insulted? It just makes me ashamed.”

Limbaugh argued that there are actually no budget cuts being made, and that this year’s share of the planned $1.2 trillion cuts is only $44 billion. He states that the cuts are on funds that were scheduled to be spent, and do not actually scale back the U.S. budget.

“We’re just not gonna spend as much as was projected,” said Limbaugh. “It’s all baseline budgeting. There is no real cut below a baseline of zero. There just isn’t.”

Limbaugh went on to state that “we can’t afford any of this,” presumably referring to the U.S. budget deficit. He went on to excoriate the size of the U.S. government and the “dependency” that is being created.

A rant by Limbaugh is no surprise, but his stance does demonstrate the feelings of many Republicans in the U.S. Even when budget cuts are being made, for some conservatives it will never be enough.

Deadline this week is reporting that NBC is projected to fall to fifth place among adults ages 18 to 49 after a dismal sweeps showing.

While CBS raked in ratings for established shows such as The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men, as well as the its coverage of this year’s Super Bowl. Fox continued to ride the success of American Idol, but NBC averaged only a 1.2 rating in the key adult demographic from January 31 to February 19. As Deadline points out, that’s lower than the ratings Spanish-lauguage station Univision has seen over the same period.

New NBC shows such as Do No Harm and 1600 Penn have been ratings failures. The only shows NBC seems to have that garner even moderate ratings are The Biggest Loser and The Office.

Networks have the money and exposure to provide free TV entertainment to millions of Americans, but as the country becomes more connected those same networks are becoming less relevant. The NBC Facebook page, for example, has only around 400,000 “Likes,” while Netflix has over 3.7 million. Now that Netflix has demonstrated through House of Cards that it can provide popular premium TV programming without getting it from other content producers, networks should be scrambling to make themselves more relevant – and available – online.

When Will Wright designed the first SimCity all the way back in 1989, he founded an entire genre of games. Now that he’s out of the game design business (sort of), it would be interesting to see what the gaming legend might have to say about EA‘s and Maxis‘ newest SimCity. Would he appreciate the detailed building designs and intricate patterns of Sims interacting with cities, or would the game’s always-on DRM scheme and push toward a Sims 3-like micro-transaction system offend his creative sensibilities?

Luckily, we don’t have to wonder. EA today released a discussion between Will Wright and Ocean Quigley, creative director of the new SimCity. In the video the pair talk a lot about how the individual Sims depicted in the game can help players see the results of their decisions – and even cause them to feel guilt.

Jack Swagger, the WWE star who’s real name is Jacob Hager, was arrested earlier this week in Gulfport, Mississippi on DUI charges.

According to a TMZ report on the incident, the wrestler was arrested after leaving a taping of WWE Smackdown that was filmed at the Missippi Coast Coliseum. Hager was caught speeding (55 in a 45 mph zone) and was determined by an officer to be impaired. A search of the car allegedly turned up marijuana, and Hager has now been charged with DUI, marijuana possession, and speeding. The DUI charge is not alcohol-related.

The local Biloxi/Gulfport newspaper, the Sun Herald, is now reporting that Hager will have to appear in court to face the DUI charge, though the possession and speeding charges can be paid by mail. Though the charges are misdemeanors, Hager could have to pay fines and could lose his driving license for 90 days.

Hager, as Jack Swagger, is scheduled to face wrestler Alberto Del Rio at WrestleMania 29 for the World Heavyweight Championship belt on April 7. This arrest and probable court appearance put that match into question.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has announced that the Smithfield Packing Company is recalling around 38,000 pounds of pork sausage. In a statement, the FSIS said that the meat could contain “small pieces of plastic,” which “likely” come from gloves.

The recalled products are one-pound “chubs” of Gwaltney mild pork sausage roll that have a use-by date of March 12, 2013 and cases of the same type of sausage roll that have a case code of 78533109741.

The meat was packaged on January 11 of this year and have been shipped to 11 states and the District of Columbia. The states are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

Smithfield discovered the contamination after it received two separate complaints from customers. So far, there have been no reported injuries due to the plastic pieces.

Located in Smithfield, Virginia, the Smithfield Packing Company was founded in 1936. It has been shipping pork products since that time and is one of the largest meat companies in the U.S.

Earlier this week, the Respect for Marriage coalition, a pro-gay-marriage partnership between dozens of organizations (such as the AFL-CIO and the ACLU) committed to ending the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), released a short ad titled “Leadership.” The ad featured heavy american symbolism, such as the multiple U.S. flags and a family picnic. The ad also featured quotes that seem to support gay marriage from political figures such as former U.S. General Colin Powell, former Vice President Dick Cheney, President Obama, and former First Lady Laura Bush.

Though all of the clips shown in the ad are from public appearances, it seems that not everyone is happy having their words used to promote marriage equality.

Laura Bush has requested that the organization remove her image and words from the ad. The Dallas Morning News has quoted a Bush family spokesperson as saying that Bush “did not approve of her inclusion in this advertisement.”

The coalition has responded quickly to Bush’s request, and issued a statement to Politico stating their disappointment that she did not want her words in the ad. The organization has instead released a new ad that depicts a former Marine Corporal and his wife speaking about their support for gay marriage, and how their thoughts were shaped by learning the Marine’s brother is gay.

If you couldn’t catch Sony‘s big PlayStation 4 announcement last night (or you fell asleep before it was over), you’re in luck. The full presentation – all two hours and five minutes of it – is now online and can be viewed below.

Can’t spare two hours to listen to game developers talk about how great things will be in the future? We’ve got you covered with quick run-downs of the PlayStation 4 hardware, the new DualShock 4 controller, and all the next-gen games that were announced for the console during the event.

If you don’t even have time to read the highlights and watch the trailers, you can check out the satirical 3-minute abridged version of the presentation created by VideoGamerTV. It’s surprisingly accurate for how funny it manages to be.

Following on the heels of Groupon, Google, Facebook, and even Nintendo, Angry Birds developer Rovio has released its own “Harlem Shake” video. Not only has Rovio released a Harlem Shake video, but it appears to take place outside during the Finnish winter, where the temperature was almost certainly well below freezing when the video was shot.

If there could be possibly be a clearer demonstration that the Harlem Shake meme needs to die, this writer can’t think of one. There are already tens of thousands of such videos up on YouTube, which is far more than enough. Of course, as we learned earlier this week from actual residents of Harlem, none of these videos even represent the real Harlem Shake.

Rovio claims that the video is a celebration of 1 billion views on its YouTube channel. The truth is, though, that the company is simply following the new unspoken rule that every office with a YouTube channel has to release a Harlem Shake video.

Nearly one year out from the release of Mass Effect 3, EA and BioWare have announced the final DLC installments for the Mass Effect Trilogy. Two new add-ons, Mass Effect 3: Reckoning and Mass Effect 3: Citadel will be coming soon to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

Reckoning will be released on February 26 and be free to download for one year. The content will offer new multiplayer characters, weapons, and upgrades.

Citadel will be released on March 5 and will cost $15 or 1200 Microsoft Points. EA‘s announcement stated that it will feature new single-player campaign content in which players will explore a “deep-space station” while “having the opportunity to reconnect with some of their favorite characters from all three of the Mass Effect games.”

“The team has poured heart and soul into Mass Effect 3: Reckoning and Mass Effect 3: Citadel,” said Casey Hudson, executive producer of the Mass Effect series. “As the launch of these chapters near, the feeling around the studio is bittersweet. We have always been humbled and driven by the passion of our fans for the Mass Effect trilogy. We hope fans will enjoy spending more time with some of their favorite characters – we have certainly enjoyed spending time creating them. We’re excited to release this final sendoff for the trilogy and move forward into the future of the Mass Effect universe.”

A new study by ocean conservation group Oceana has shown that one-third of the seafood sold in the U.S. could be mislabeled. Many of the mislabeled sea food products were a different type of fish than what was put on the label.

“The kind of mislabeling we’re talking about in this study is substituting one species of fish for the type that you ordered.” said Kimberly Warner, author of the report and a senior scientist at Oceana. “Say you ordered red snapper but you got a different type of snapper, or even another completely different species such as tilapia or rockfish.”

The study looked at 1,215 seafood samples from 674 different retail locations in 21 different states during the years 2010 to 2012. Of those samples, around 33% would be considered mislabeled by us. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines. Over 50% of the seafood tested from Southern California was found to be mislabeled.

Seafood samples labeled as snapper and tuna were the most likely types to be mislabeled. Of the 120 samples of snapper tested, 113 of them (87%) were found to be another type of fish.

In light of their findings, Oceana has called for a transparent national tracking system for seafood that tracks fish from boats all the way to consumers. It has also called on federal and state governments to ramp up inspections and enforcement of labeling violations.

Last night’s announcement of the PlayStation 4 console, to Sony’s credit, focused largely on games. The next games in established franchises such as Killzone were announced right alongside new IPs such as Knack. When the third party publishers began to make an appearance, it wasn’t surprising that Ubisoft, a publisher that loves console launches, showed up to officially announce Watch Dogs for the PlayStation 4.

“Ubisoft has a strong history of supporting new technologies with unique and creative offerings,” said Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft. “The power and capability of the PS4 allows the Watch Dogs team to further push the boundaries of what was previously thought possible in interactive entertainment.”

Announced during Ubisoft’s big E3 presentation last year, Watch Dogs is a near-future cyberpunk game set in a Chicago full of interconnected technology. Players, through protagonist Aiden Pearce, will be able to hack and control all of this technology, as well as spy on passersby, learning their darkest secrets. It’s an open-world game in the style of the Grand Theft Auto series, and players will use their abilities to become a technology-powered vigilante.

Along with the announcement, Ubisoft demoed gameplay of the title directly on-stage. Though the game may not have been running on the final PlayStation 4 console, it’s clear that Ubisoft has much of Watch Dogs completed.

The gameplay footage from last night can be seen below, along with another video of the same footage that features commentary from Jonathan Morin, the creative director for Watch Dogs.

Sony’s PlayStation 4 unveiling was over two hours long, and if you stayed up for the entire thing you might have forgotten how it began.

The meeting began right on time and opened with a video montage featuring fast-cuts Sony consoles and the games that defined them. It also has short clips from memorable PlayStation ads, including one of those old Crash Bandicoot mascot ads.

The video sure to induce a strong case of nostalgia in anyone who grew up playing a PlayStation or PlayStation 2. It’s also a good reminder to gamers of why they took up the hobby in the first place – games.

The music, in case you’re interested, is a heavily re-mixed version of the song “Monster Hospital” by the band Metric.

Now that Sony has finally unveiled its PlayStation 4 console, developers can finally reveal their next-generation projects. Many new games, including some new IPs, were revealed at the conference and some impressive claims were made.

However, one developer that wasn’t at the conference last night didn’t wait for Sony or Microsoft to unveil its next-generation game. Earlier this month, CD Projekt RED (CDPR) announced that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be released for all “top-of-the-line consoles,” a thinly veiled reference to next-generation consoles. Now that the PlayStation 4 is public, the developer has followed up by making it official that Wild Hunt will be coming to Sony’s new console.

“We were thrilled when asked, several months ago, to be one of the developers who were granted early access to the PlayStation 4,” said Adam Badowski, managing director of CDPR. “It was an exciting moment to be invited to be in the company of other legendary developers like Bethesda, EA, LucasArts, Ubisoft or Activision as one of the teams working on titles shipping early in the PlayStation 4′s lifecycle. Of course, we couldn’t reveal any specifics about this to our fans, even though many journalists and forum members asked about when and how The Witcher might show up on Sony’s console. After yesterday’s PlayStation Meeting we can finally promise: The Witcher 3 is coming to the PlayStation 4. The new hardware gives us the opportunity to create something great. We are able to work with the new console from its birth and this allows our in-house REDengine 3 to push the graphical limits of what the PlayStation hardware can display. The console is fresh and has some innovative solutions that we’re looking forward to using in our game”

The Witcher 3 has been announced as a “fully open-world game with an intense story.” Gamers will be placed in a world larger than Skyrim and let loose to slay monsters, play politics, and craft gear.

One of the most surprising moments of last night’s big PlayStation 4 unveiling was when Chris Metzen, SVP of story and franchise development at Blizzard Entertainment, took the stage. Though he wasn’t at the presentation to announce a new franchise, since Blizzard has been producing PC-exclusive content for years now, his announcement was one that is sure to shake-up the gaming community.

Diablo III will be coming to both PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 consoles. Metzen mentioned that the game is already up-and-running on the PS3, and that a playable version will be featured at PAX East.

“Diablo III looks and plays great on the PlayStation,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard. “We put a lot of care and thought into the PlayStation version to make sure it would deliver an authentic Diablo gaming experience, and we’re really pleased with the results. We can’t wait for players to try it out at PAX East.”

The user interface for the game will be very different in the PlayStation versions, adapted to suit a console controller. The game will also feature a “new dynamic camera perspective” for console gamers. The local and online co-op will be available and some of the newest additions to the PC game, such as the Paragon leveling system and epic Legendary items, will be included.

Last week, Mars rover Curiosity, after months of meticulous planning, finally used its hammering drill to collect a sample of Martian rock dust.

Today, NASA scientists have released images confirming that the first-ever sample of drilled rock dust is safely in one of Curiosity’s sample scoops.

“Seeing the powder from the drill in the scoop allows us to verify for the first time the drill collected a sample as it bore into the rock,” said Scott McCloskey, drill systems engineer for Curiosity at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “Many of us have been working toward this day for years. Getting final confirmation of successful drilling is incredibly gratifying. For the sampling team, this is the equivalent of the landing team going crazy after the successful touchdown.”

In the coming days, the rock sample will be enclosed in Curiosity’s Collection and Handling for In-Situ Martian Rock Analysis (CHIMRA) instrument and sieved to remove particles larger than 150 microns (0.006 inches). Small portions of the sample will then be placed inside the rover’s Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instruments to determine its mineral and chemical make-up.

The historic drilling took place on February 8, when the rover used its drill to bore a 6.4 centimeter (2.5-inch) hole into a rock named “John Klein.” Researchers hope the rock dust will provide information about Mars’ wet past, and possibly about whether life could have once existed on the red planet.

(Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

Over the past year, NASA’s Kepler mission has found hundreds of possible planets outside of our solar system, and even a few candidates for Earth-like planets.

This week, astronomers revealed that a new system has been found that contains planets smaller than Earth. The new data has been presented in a paper published recently in the journal Nature.

The planets orbit around a star called Kepler-37, located around 210 light-years from our solar system. The smallest of the planest found, known as Kepler-37b, is only one-third the size of Earth – smaller than the planet Mercury and just slightly larger than Earth’s moon. The planet is not presumed to have an atmosphere, and scientists predict that life on the planet isn’t likely.

“Even Kepler can only detect such a tiny world around the brightest stars it observes,” said Jack Lissauer, planetary scientist at NASA‘s Ames Research Center. “The fact we’ve discovered tiny Kepler-37b suggests such little planets are common, and more planetary wonders await as we continue to gather and analyze additional data.”

Two other planets were found in the Kepler-37 system. Kepler-37c orbits further out and is slightly smaller than Venus, or around three-quarters the size of Earth. Kepler-37d is the furthest planet out, and is around twice the size of Earth. Kepler-37 itself is slightly smaller and cooler than the sun.

All three of the planets orbit Kepler-37 at less than than the distance between the sun and Mercury. They each also orbit their star in 40 days or less. The surface temperature of Kepler-37b is estimated to be higher than 800 degrees Fahrenheit.

“We uncovered a planet smaller than any in our solar system orbiting one of the few stars that is both bright and quiet, where signal detection was possible,” said Thomas Barclay, lead author of the paper and a Kepler scientist at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute. “This discovery shows close-in planets can be smaller, as well as much larger, than planets orbiting our sun.”

(Image courtesy NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

Mere hours remain until Sony is expected to unveil its next-generation video game console at a major event in New York. The excitement is building while the rumors and leaks surrounding the console have filled gamers’ imaginations this past week. Sony itself has even added to the hype with a series of retrospective videos on past consoles and games that have been posted to the event’s web page.

This evening the speculation will end and Sony will either usher in a new era of video games or disappoint millions of gamers across the world. The company is obviously confident, as the presentation will be streaming live online. Sony clearly wants the entire world to be watching.

The presentation will be streaming in several different locations. The event website will, of course, host the stream, as will the latest PlayStation Blog post about the event. The PlayStation Facebook page will also have a stream available, and PlayStation 3 owners can watch the presentation live on their consoles through the PlayStation Home app or through the “What’s New” section of the PS3 Media Bar.

The presentation begins at 6 pm EST / 3 pm PST / 11 pm GMT, which is also 10 am in Sydney and 8 am in Tokyo on February 21, for those gamers on the other side of the world.

Don’t be late. Console announcements don’t come often.