obelisk
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New York City is cleaning its ancient Egyptian monument with lasers
A 69-foot, 3,500-year old granite obelisk has stood in New York City's Central Park for 130 years, and it's never, ever, been cleaned. The ancient pillar is deceptively fragile, and conservationists have been hesitant simply to hose it down. The solution? Blast it with lasers, of course. After careful testing, the Central Park Conservancy determined that a gentle bath of infrared lasers is both the most sensitive and environmentally friendly cleaning method available. The non-profit organization plans to slowly vaporize the monument's modest dust collection over the next several months. Project planners have also uncovered several particularly fragile areas on the obelisk's surface, which will be patched up with granite adhesives. Looking forward to seeing NYC's oldest landmark at its best? You'll have to wait until fall: the restoration is going to take awhile. [Image credit: Cal Vornberger / Alamy]
Captain's Log: Star Trek Online's Sphere of Influence, Season Eight, and reruns
Just ask the Massively writers and they'll agree that writing about a specific game is a lot like chasing the tide; information about a game comes and goes in waves. It's been no different with Star Trek Online, but now the tide is rolling in. A lot is happening in Star Trek Online: release dates have been announced, a new beta Mac platform is coming, the new featured episode is live, old featured episodes have a rerun promotion, and a lot more is on the way, so let's just jump in because the water's fine! New featured episode Let's start with the most recent featured episode introduced into the game. Called Sphere of Influence, the mission involves the player being invited back to New Romulus to witness the power-up of the Iconian gate that he helped discover. Upon arriving, the player is informed that Klingon Ambassador Worf is also there to act as a consultant. Worf has had prior dealings with Iconian gates, and sure enough, when the player is introduced to the Ambassador, he will hear actor Michael Dorn's voice.
New ship and special items await STO players in 'Sphere of Influence'
With Star Trek Online's Season Eight: The Sphere content edging ever-closer to release, it's time for Cryptic to fire up the lore machine and start pushing players toward their destiny. Sphere of Influence, set to go live on October 31st, bridges the gap between current content and the upcoming Sphere additions. Starting Thursday, all players level 10 or above will be able to hail D'Tan from their mission journals and begin a new quest. This quest, which revolves around D'Tan's efforts to restore the Iconian Gateway, will take players into New Romulus to stand present at the gate's reactivation. Players who complete the quest will receive pieces of the ancient obelisk technology set as well as a special Obelisk ship that can be helmed only after the player reaches level 40. The quest will be available from October 31st to December 5th.
Asterix gives up on violence to train your brain
Asterix is one of the biggest badasses in comic book history. For those of you in the dark, buy this and go from there. There's no excuse, just scrounge up whatever money you can and start reading. After brushing up on the greatness of the Gauls, we can announce new screens and information on a brand new Asterix game, called Asterix Brain Trainer. This title brings instant disappointment. The quality pedigree of the comics lent itself to some phenomenal games, including Asterix and the Power of the Gods on the Genesis, which needs a Virtual Console release. Instead, we have a collection of mini-games in development, even when the DS is more than equipped to produce another stellar platformer or -- better yet -- an RPG.Asterix Brain Trainer features a young village boy named Justforkix, who must partake in numerous brainy activities to work through an apprenticeship, led by the titular hero himself. It may not turn out to be terrible, but the entire backlog of Asterix history has great games just ready for the taking. No word on a US release so far, but European gamers can pick this one up on June 27.%Gallery-24682%[Via press release]
