No laptop is a true gaming machine unless it comes with a dedicated graphics processor

Metal detecting can be a pretty thankless task, with most enthusiasts lucky if they find a couple of quid or an old belt buckle. But for one man in Australia, the experience was out of this world. David Hole was out digging for gold in Maryborough Regional Park, near Melbourne, back in 2015 when his trusty detector alerted him to a strange, red-brown rock embedded in some yellow clay. Hole took the mysterious boulder home with him and did his utmost to crack it open, using a rock saw, a sledgehammer, a drill, and even dousing it in acid, according to Science Alert. And yet, nothing left so much as a dent. Admitting defeat years later, in 2018, Hole took his find to the Melbourne Museum, hoping someone there could explain its impenetrability; convinced it contained a golden nugget. However, the discovery was far more significant than a precious metal: it was a 4.6 billion-year-old glimpse at the birth of our solar system – a rare meteorite that had crashed down to Earth. The museum’s geologists, Dermot Henry and Bill Birch, said they grew excited as soon as Hole pulled the enigmatic rock from his rucksack. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald back in 2019, Henry recalled: "It had this sculpted, dimpled look to it. "That's formed when they come through the atmosphere, they are melting on the outside, and the atmosphere sculpts them." Meanwhile, Birch told the paper he knew the specimen was special as soon as he held it. “If you saw a rock on earth like this, and you picked it up, it shouldn’t be that heavy,” he said. Testing soon confirmed their suspicions, as well as the composition of this extraordinary chunk of history. In July 2019, the two colleagues published a scientific paper describing the meteorite, which they christened “Maryborough”, after the area where it was found. The space rock, which measures 38.5cm by 14.5cm by 14.5cm, weighs a staggering 17 kg, and after using a diamond saw to slice through it, the experts discovered that it is what is known as an H5 ordinary chondrite. This means that it contains tiny crystallised droplets (chondrules), that were created by flash heating of dust clouds in the early solar system. "Meteorites provide the cheapest form of space exploration. They transport us back in time, providing clues to the age, formation, and chemistry of our Solar System (including Earth)," Henry said in a statement published by Museums Victoria. "Some provide a glimpse at the deep interior of our planet. In some meteorites, there is 'stardust' even older than our Solar System, which shows us how stars form and evolve to create elements of the periodic table. "Other rare meteorites contain organic molecules such as amino acids; the building blocks of life." The scientist added that the Maryborough Meteorite was most likely formed in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Despite all of Henry and Birch’s work, plenty of questions surrounding the rock remain unanswered. They don’t know for sure when it landed on Earth, with carbon 14 testing it was between 100 and 1,000 years ago. Still, multiple meteor sightings were reported in the Maryborough district between 1889 and 1951, so it could have crashed down within this relatively recent time period. Whatever its precise origins, the researchers insist it’s worth more to science than its weight in gold. "This is only the 17th meteorite found in Victoria, whereas there's (sic) been thousands of gold nuggets found," Henry told Channel 10 News at the time. "Looking at the chain of events, it's quite, you might say, astronomical it being discovered at all." Birch echoed this sentiment, adding: “When you consider all the events this chunk of rock has experienced since its formation 4.6 billion years ago, it's really mind-boggling that we get the opportunity to hold it and study it today. How good is that?" Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings

PewDiePie hasn't been active on Twitch for a long time now

Wesleyan University is joining a select group of colleges that is ending preferences in admissions that favor children

A few years ago, a reader asked me a question I couldn't immediately answer. "I

SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 20, 2023--

Trisha Paytas says she feels “super disrespected” after it was revealed that Colleen Ballinger sent unsolicited nudes of Paytas to her fans. Paytas is the latest person to speak up amidst the ongoing allegations against the YouTuber also known as Miranda Sings. Ballinger has been embroiled in a wave of allegations in the past few weeks after previous fans have spoken up about their inappropriate relationship with Ballinger whilst they were minors. It was claimed that Ballinger made fun of YouTuber Trisha Paytas’ body to her fans and also sent minors nude photos of Paytas. On Monday Paytas uploaded a 21-minute YouTube video titled ‘colleen’ discussing her relationship with the fellow YouTuber. The pair had recently started a podcast together as two mums with young children titled Oversharing. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Paytas starts the video by saying: “These most recent things that are coming out, everyone knows that I have a very very very firm stance on talking to anyone underage, platonic or not, I’ve always been very very firm with this that I think it’s appropriate.” “When all this came out I was shocked, you know the group chats and stuff I was kind of shocked, and it’s such a difficult thing because Colleen is someone that I quickly, literally in the past month that we did this podcast, like I really really cared about and really related to.” Paytas, who has long been a controversial figure and often embroiled in scandals herself shared that prior to Ballinger’s now infamous apology video “we were staying in touch because again I know what it feels like to have the whole internet come down on you. Even if the whole internet is right.” “I don’t want anyone, guilty or not, to ever feel like they don’t have someone to talk to.” Speaking of the allegations made in regards to Ballinger sending Paytas’ nudes to her fans, some who were minors, Paytas said she was “waiting to see what would come out” because of the “serious” and “illegal” aspects of the allegations. “It’s a topic I don’t take lightly and I can’t take lightly,” she adds. colleen youtu.be Paytas is widely known as a sex worker as well as for her YouTube videos. Talking about the sharing of her nudes she said: “I do not condone, at all, sending unsolicited nudes to anyone of anybody, sex worker or not. I think using someone’s nudes as a way to hurt them, make fun of them, make light of them, be mean, is the lowest form of human, the lowest form of intelligence. I think that’s so inhumane, so disgusting for anyone.” Prior to Paytas’ video, Johnny Silvestri, a previous fan of Ballinger who had messaged and met Ballinger on multiple occasions, shared censored photos of Paytas that had been sent to him by Ballinger. “Last night the text messages were shown and it’s very clearly from Colleen to a fan, it has over half a million views on Twitter. I’m not embarrassed by [them], I’m embarrassed for her.” “And these weren’t a long time ago, this is someone well into their 30s who just gave birth sending nudes, and I, a month prior, I was in her house meeting her child, meeting her newborn, and doing a mukbang with her,” says Paytas, clearly hurt. “In these texts there’s also friends of hers, they showed the viewing parties that were talked about, to make fun of me, they did viewing parties of my adult content to make fun of me.” Paytas also revealed that before the text messages were posted online, she had privately asked Colleen if the accusations were true and that Ballinger “assured me that she had never sent photos of me, that this one fan who was underage at the time would send photos to her.” “She said everything is taken out of context, these are lies.” Paytas concludes the video by saying “I just had to make this video to say I don’t stand behind Colleen whatsoever. Her video was not an apology and it took away from the severity of her actions of talking to minors, bringing minors on stage at her show, these peoples are speaking up and they’re uncomfortable for a reason. Acknowledge it, change it, do better.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

"Twitter needs to become by far the most accurate source of information about the world,"

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 14, 2023--

Some people browse TikTok and Instagram for recipes, memes and colorful takes on the news. Erin Coleman says her 14-year-old daughter uses these apps to search for videos about mental health diagnoses.

Britain’s steel exports to the European Union risk being hit with a climate surcharge after the government made

As heavy rains pummeled South Korea last month, K-pop fans braved stormy conditions to stage a protest on