Extraction
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Netflix says 'Extraction' and 'Bird Box' are its two most popular original films
Netflix has revealed that the movies it commissions are really popular. Huh.
Researchers discover climate-friendly way of extracting hydrogen from oil
Scientists have discovered a way to extract hydrogen from oil without releasing greenhouse gases -- a move they've hailed as a "silver bullet" for climate issues. Hydrogen is already used by some car manufacturers to power vehicles and is also burned to generate electricity. However, most of this hydrogen comes from natural gas, which involves producing planet-warming methane during the extraction process. The large-scale roll-out of hydrogen tech has also been restricted because of the high costs involved in separating it from hydrocarbons.
Endless nuclear power can be found in the seas
Climate change is such an urgent issue that despite problems with radioactive waste, nuclear power is once again viable until renewable solutions like solar and wind are more widely adopted. The ocean is a good source of uranium fuel, but it exists in such small quantities that extracting it hasn't been economically feasible. However, Stanford researchers have developed a new technique that can capture up to three times more, meaning we might soon get a new source of uranium that could help keep CO2 in check.
Splash Damage plants a Dirty Bomb exclusively on Steam
Publisher Nexon has announced an agreement with Valve Software to release team-based free-to-play shooter Dirty Bomb (formerly known as Extraction) exclusively through the Steam digital distribution platform. The addition of yet another free-to-play shooter to Steam wouldn't normally be news, but Dirty Bomb is being developed by Splash Damage, a UK studio that got its start developing mods for games like Quake 3, but earned real accolades with the launch of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. That too was a team-based shooter (and one of the first of its kind offered to players at no charge), and despite being over a decade old, still commands a loyal following of players to this day. Before you click through to Steam to try Dirty Bomb for yourself, keep in mind that the game is currently only available as a closed beta test. It won't officially launch until "summer 2015." If you'd like to join the test, you'll need to register your pertinent information at the game's website. [Image: Nexon]
Splash Damage's Extraction reverts title to Dirty Bomb
Naming things you love is hard. We face a fresh dose of indecisiveness at the sight of every in-game character naming screen, and there are plenty of deleted, re-entered and deleted-again ideas that eventually get scrapped in favor of the default suggestion. Brink developer Splash Damage must be dealing with a similar style of indecision, because this week it switched the name of its shooter, Extraction, back to Dirty Bomb, the title it was originally revealed under. The related press release explains that switching the name back to Dirty Bomb was done to "better fit the game's unique personality." That's sort of fair if you consider that its firefights take place in a post-disaster London, rife with Private Military Companies fighting over the radioactive area's abandoned goods. Dirty Bomb is currently in closed beta on PC, but you can apply to get in on that if your interest is piqued. A release window for the public version has yet to be offered, but when Dirty Bomb does invite everyone to battle over territory and riches, it will offer dedicated servers in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. [Image: Splash Damage]
Extraction, formerly Dirty Bomb, starts closed beta in October
Splash Damage's Extraction, which you may know better as Dirty Bomb, is set to launch a closed beta on October 1, publisher Nexon America has announced. All interested parties looking to get in on the free-to-play PC shooter's closed sampler session can sign up over on the official site right now. Extraction was first announced as Dirty Bomb, an Unreal Engine-based competitive shooter set in a London shaken by attack. Extraction has been in development since 2010 at Splash Damage, best known for creating Brink and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory.
Cutting to the heart of extraction in The Repopulation
If you want to craft items in The Repopulation, you're not going to go down to the science fiction equivalent of Ikea and buy the Martin Plasma Rifle. You're going to get out into the wild and get the resources you need. There are two systems for gathering items in The Repopulation, and the newest development blog for the game discusses one of the ways to grab those resources: Extraction, also known as "digging useful components out of corpses." Since the game doesn't feature levels, there's a more organic system to gathering these resources. Players first decide how difficult the extraction should be, with higher difficulties resulting in higher-grade resources. More difficult extractions take longer, however, and as a result, players have a higher chance to fail unless they've practiced harvesting a particular species. For more details on the specifics, check out the full development blog on the official site.
TUAW's Daily Mac App: Decompose
Cutting out people, objects or even text from images for creation of new ones is an old-photoshopper's favorite. But it's not as easy as it looks and, for the most part, requires a steady hand and some pricey software. Decompose is a program that does one thing -- it extracts foreground objects for overlaying on other images. Now, for those of you who are proficient with Photoshop, you're not going to find much value in a US$29.99 app that extracts elements in this way. But for those of us who don't own Photoshop, or even Pixelmator, having a program that allows you just to roughly draw around your target object letting the computer take care of the rest is great. In testing, I was a little skeptical, but on several, admittedly plain images, I was really impressed with the ease of use and end result of using Decompose. You simply outline the object within the "Contour" mask, fill in the rest of the image within the "Front" mask, and hit "Result." Decompose then does its thing, using Grand Central Dispatch as of a recent update, and shows you the result for fine tuning or saving as a color-corrected TIFF. It was fast, simple and a great alternative to much higher priced packages. The problem is that Decompose is a single use program, and therefore, however clever the programming behind it may be, $30 could be asking a little too much. Still, if you're looking for a program that will quickly and easily extract objects out of photos, Decompose certainly gets the job done. If you've got a quick and handy image extraction alternative to Decompose, help your fellow TUAW readers out and let us know in the comments.
Army of Two: The 40th Day trailer previews 'Extraction Mode'
Curious whether Army of Two: The 40th Day's co-op "Extraction Mode" makes pre-ordering the game (thereby getting a one-month head-start with the new game mode) worthwhile? We suggest checking out the first glimpses of the co-op offering in the video above. Following in the vein of Horde Mode or Firefight, Extraction pits four players up against wave after wave of masked, gun-toting enemies as they move from checkpoint to checkpoint, attempting to escape the warzone. Teamwork is encouraged -- apparently, it's better to act as an Army of Four rather than Four Armies of One. Remember, one month after the game launches on Jan. 12, Extraction Mode will be free to download for anyone who didn't pre-order the title. This head-start may be enough to get your ire up, but can't we just be grateful they're not charging for this extra content? C'mon, we're already drowning in petitions over here. %Gallery-76274%
Leopard Love: Advanced Selection in Preview
Over at MurphyMac, Murphy has posted a great tutorial about the new Leopard selection tools for Preview.app. As usual, there's an excellent screencast that walks you through the entire process. The new "Extract Shape" tool lets you draw a rough outline around an object and then use selection handles to fit the outline to the shape. The screen cast then goes on to describe how you can matte around the selection to control the edge texture. It's a tidy and easy-to-follow technique that seems to produce nicely trimmed results.
Aqua Sciences extracts water from thin air
It's no secret that there's water galore in our atmosphere, but prior attempts to harvest that moisture in any sort of efficient manner have been rather unsuccessful. Well, now a Florida based company, cleverly titled Aqua Sciences, has busted out a 20 foot machine that can harvest 500 gallons of water per day, and is currently showing it off to the US government for the use by military types in Iraq, for disaster relief and for other humanitarian purposes. The machine can operate on a minimum 15 percent humidity, and brings the cost of getting water to Iraq down from $30 per gallon to 30 cents per gallon. They're reluctant to reveal their "secret sauce," which they liken to the KFC recipe, suddenly making us rather hungry, but they do mention that their process uses salt to extract water and act as a natural decontamination method, similar to how nothing grows near the Dead Sea because the salt dehydrates everything. While taking a brief respite from their out-of-control metaphor usage, Aqua Science also mentioned a 40 foot version of their machine which can produce up to 1,200 gallons per day of water, depending on conditions, and can purify an additional 8,000 gallons per day of existing contaminated water using an "integrated reverse osmosis module." We kind of wish they had a nifty metaphor for that one, because the Wiki article on the subject is little help, but we suppose we'll live. No word on when exactly this thing will be put into action, but it doesn't sound like they've entered into any sort of mass production of their machine yet.[Via Wired News]
