Night Sky Pix Solar Eclipse, SimRefinery & Promised Neverland

Never look at a solar eclipse. Unless you're wearing badass solar eclipse glasses and taking cool photos. Night Sky Pix sent us an article about photographing the upcoming solar eclipse, and it's so in depth we'll need to get it back from the Challenger Deep. So, if you live in the right places, get your camera and your solar filters and get snapping.

SimRefinery is the least well known Sim game of all time. That's because Maxis never actually finished it and it's been sitting in a box for decades. But now it's been temporarily released on Archive.org and around 20 000 people have downloaded it. SimRefinery was a training simulation commissioned by Chevron and designed to help introduce refinery workers and company staff learn about the operations of their facilities.

DJ is cautiously excited about Promised Neverland, an Amazon live action remake of the anime with the same name. A knock off version of the Eloi from The Time Machine find out what they're being kept for and try to escape. Don't get your hopes up though, what are the chances someone will actually make a good live action anime adaptation?

This week, Professor tries to drive across America in Overland and DJ takes a time machine to a medieval battle royale.

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Pegg, Dungeon & Hanabi

Welcome back for another amazing episode from the triplets of mayhem, the Nerds Amalgamated crew. This week we have an excellent show for you to enjoy with everyone in fine form and having fun. The first topic of the week is from DJ looking into Simon Pegg claiming that cinema appears to be dying. Now does this relate to the comments about thin margins in movies? Well, that is a good question and if you want to know more you will have to listen in to find out. But we are you will laugh when you listen to this section.

                Next up Professor unveils his darker side and lures us into a dungeon…. What, he doesn’t… oops sorry apparently that was supposed to be Professor tells us about a dungeon game made by an AI. My apologies, but it is a reasonably easy mistake to make, after all he is a bit of a mad scientist. But this is looking really cool and fun, some of the options in this are pretty outstanding. Once again this is not a warning about AI trying to take over the world…yet.

                Last up we have an AI system that is learning how to work co-operatively with people, and possibly manipulating them. Buck brings us a story about some research from Facebook’s AI team that is pretty darn well ground breaking in regards to the results being achieved. We are talking about an attempt to formulate a near perfect response to an imperfect problem. What does that mean, well listen in and you can find out.

                As usual we have the games being played, with Buck changing his at the last second which is kind of cool. Then this is followed by the regular variety of shout outs, remembrances, birthdays, and special events. We are offering a new service, if you are feeling a little pompous and wish to regain that sense of reality Buck is offering to develop a personal insult just for you. As always please remember to take care of yourselves, look out for each other and stay hydrated.

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Comets, He-Man & DayZ

Welcome back for another amazing episode from the Nerds, it is full of fun stuff, amazing science, and some crazy stuff. We hope as always that you enjoy it and perhaps by accident or intentionally learn something cool. I remember when I found out about chemistry, It was a long, long way from here, I was old enough to want it but younger than I wanted to be, Suddenly my mission was clear… All about chemistry. OK, I know that is the song Chemistry by Semisonic, but it relates to our first topic from Buck, which is all about chemistry and producing oxygen on Mars, Comets, and interplanetary space travel. That’s right we are one step closer to science fiction becoming reality once more. Honestly, where would the world be without science, science fiction, or Nerds to think up the impossible dreams? Although we must apologise for the zombie apocalypse resulting from the advancements in technology; otherwise known as reality television, social media, or just uncontrollable gaming. But, all that aside scientist have found a way to change carbon-dioxide (CO2) into beautiful oxygen (O2). That’s right, you heard us correctly, and it doesn’t involve a chemical scrubber like those currently used on submarines. No, this alters the very nature of the chemical bonds on a molecular level in a whole new way.

By the power of Greyskull, someone has the power. That’s right folks, He-Man is coming back to our screens in the near future it seems. DJ has brought us news that a new extension to the story of He-Man is in the works, he says it is an anime, but we aren’t sold. But it is exciting that it appears to not be a rebirth or re-imagining. But then again that is those weirdos over at Disney doing all the remakes, except for the unfortunate incident with She-Ra. Whoever is responsible for that fiasco is a greater villain than Skeletor and Hordak combined. Seriously, it was traumatic to see what had happened there. With the contentiousness of is it going to be able to claim the title of an anime aside, He-Man is looking promising.

Next we have the Professor bringing us news about the censorship of a few games in Australia and the impact that is having on the world. Now we normally don’t agree with a lot of the issues in censorship, or Material Ratings as they are referred to, but this time there is some merit. This topic is one in which the Nerds have a heated debate, and Buck really gets fired up, DJ gets angry and the Professor needs a whip and chair to keep them apart. So if you feel strongly about the topic of censorship this might be a poignant topic for you. We apologise if we offend anyone during this section (I know we don’t normally, but hey). Let us know what you think on the matter, is Buck an old fart that needs to be exhibited in a museum, is the DJ taking the matter too light, is it somewhere in between (like the Professor).

As always we have the games played this week, which is looking interesting. Also the weekly shout outs, remembrances, birthdays, and events of interest. As always stay safe, look out for each other and stay hydrated.

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