TOTAL AWESOME VIKING POWER: The Short Film [Video]

This will be most likely the most entertaining thing you’ll watch today. You’re welcome.

A comedy short film from director Morten Forland celebrating Vikings, LARPing (Live action role playing), and finding the hero within. When Viking role player Vidar is sidelined to “the land of the dead” he seeks help of the god Odin, who agrees to teach Vidar the ways of the Vikings if he takes him to a mystical Runestone. Together they embark on a journey that will test Vidar’s wits, bravery and his ability to go completely berserk.

Warning: The following presentation may induce an urgeng need to pillage like a real Viking.

[Vikings & Pirates]

Apple Sparks Conversation After Revealing Its Interest in Self-Driving Cars

Apple is usually a name that we associate with sleek phones, trendy computers, and poor design choices (rest in peace, headphone jack…) but most of us don’t associate it with cars. That might change in the near future, and Tesla might find some serious competition as Apple die-hards set their sights on an Apple-brand autonomous car to go with their iPhone. Yes, you heard that right; Apple has finally thrown their hat into the ring and may have admitted that they are working on autonomous cars.

New Rules, New Toys

The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) is the governing body that gets to enjoy the important job of determining when and where autonomous cars are safe enough for everyday use. The office actually views the introduction of these cars as the next great leap in automotive safety, something like this century’s seatbelt. According to the NHTSA, there are more than 30,000 deaths every year due to motor vehicle accidents, with a whopping 94% of those accidents being due to human error. By removing the possibility of human error, theoretically the introduction of self-driving cars could save those 30,000 lives.

That is why the idea of Apple moving into the autonomous car game is so exciting. The industry is advancing at a snail’s pace, so bringing in new blood like the amazing minds at Apple could potentially jump-start the self-driving car race.

Grasping at Straws

On November 22nd, 2016, Apple sent a letter to the NHTSA discussing a variety of topics.  The most exciting of these topics is, of course, the “potential of automated system in many areas, including transportation.”

While this isn’t a direct confirmation from Apple that they are indeed working on an autonomous car, most industry experts are taking it as a signal that Apple will be tossing their hat into the autonomous car ring sometime in the near future.

It’s entirely possible that we’re all reading this wrong and Apple isn’t planning on branching out into the automotive industry, but the company hasn’t done anything to quash the rumors, even throwing virtual fuel on the fire by doing things like buying up the apple.auto and apple.car URLs at the beginning of the year.

Apple’s ‘Project Titan’ has also long been a source of great speculation. It’s taunting Apple fans around the world with the idea of their very own Apple Car. However, with this new information that’s come to light, it looks like Titan is less about building an Apple Car and more about creating the software that will be necessary to bring the idea of a fully autonomous car to fruition.

What most of these companies, Apple included, need to focus on is the importance of driver safety in autonomous cars.  No one needs a car without a steering wheel, no matter how much legroom it adds.

Bringing to the Table

The real question for Apple, if they do decide to jump feet-first into the world of autonomous cars, is what do they bring to the collective table, when most of the hurdles have already been cleared?

Two major topics: crash data and information privacy.

First, as mentioned in their letter to the NHTSA, Apple believes that all crash data, near crash data, and any identified scenarios that could cause the crash of an autonomous car should be shared with everyone in the industry. They’re not wrong.  The sharing of this data could help anyone who’s building an autonomous car to make it that much safer.

Second, whenever you bring up the topic of sharing information someone inevitably brings up the problem of information privacy. Collecting data, even the crash data that we mentioned a moment ago, presents the potential for data theft. Luckily, Apple has some of the industry’s greatest experts in data protection, so if we’re looking into the future of autonomous cars, Apple could be a great addition to the industry.

Right now, this is all still speculation. Is Apple planning to stun the world with their very own Apple car? We can only wait and see, and keep our fingers crossed that we’ll finally be able to pick up a car to match our iPhone.

Megan Ray Nichols is a science freelancer and editor of Schooled By Science, a blog dedicated to making scientific news understandable and engaging. Megan is an amateur astronomer and environmentalists. Subscribe to her blog here for weekly updates and follow her on Twitter @nicholsrmegan.

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Samsung Reigns Supreme In Latest iPhone Patent Battle

Samsung has won a key Supreme Court victory in its battle with Apple over iPhone patent infringements. It could make for what some see as a fairer system for tech patent disputes.

Way back in 2012, a jury concluded that Samsung phones had copied key design elements from the iPhone. That ruling has been upheld and the dispute since then has been about how to calculate the appropriate damages. One significant point is that the patents involve design elements rather than the technology itself.

At the end of the original set of arguments, Samsung handed over $548 million in damages. However, it later said this was unfair because the amount was based on all of Samsung’s profits from the relevant handsets. According to Samsung the damages should instead have been $399 million lower to take into account that the design elements in questions weren’t the sole reason customers chose to buy the phones.

The case went to the Supreme Court as the two sides couldn’t agree on how to interpret the law that allows for an award of all profits. It dates back so far that one of the cases cited in the argument involved carpets at a point when the design was the only significant difference between models.

The Supreme Court has now agreed with Samsung’s argument. It’s set aside the relevant section of the damages award and told the appeals court that came up with the $548 million figure to make a fresh calculation.

The impact of the ruling on future cases isn’t as clear-cut as normally happens with the Supreme Court. The decision does establish a precedent that design patent damages don’t have to be done on an “all profits” basis. However, the justices made clear they were not recommending a particular system or scale for deciding when companies should only pay a proportion of profits, or how much those profits should be.