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[embedded content] It's monsoon season in the US state of Arizona and that brings some gorgeous storms along with it. Hallie Larsen, a park ranger at the Petrified Forest National Park, captured an unusual burst of lightning in a photo. The bolt arcs across the landscape and forms into what looks like a Tyraosaurus rex head, mouth agape, ready to take a bite out of a mesa.The US Department of the Interior posted the image to its Facebook page on Wednesday, gaering thousands of reactions. "Have you ever seen lightning make such crazy shapes?" the department asked. Facebook fans saw lots of things besides a dinosaur. Here's a brief list of other responses: the front half of a bear diving downw...

[embedded content] There's nothing more fun than spending a few hours playing the classic arcade game Pac-Man. Maneuvering your joystick to make Pac-Man race around a maze eating dots and fruit while colorful ghosts chase after him has always been a fun. While Pac-Man will remain a favorite among gamers, this video of Pac-Dog maybe even more charming than the original video game character himself. In the video Pac-Dog (Animal Arcade Ep. 1) -- posted on YouTube on Tuesday by HelloDenizen -- a tiny dog dressed as Pac-Man races around a real maze popping white balloons (that resemble dots) and tries not to run into googly-eyed ghosts on sticks who are in hot pursuit of the mighty mutt.The adora...

Behold, the first pizza delivery box that doubles as a working digital tutable, courtesy of Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut Pizza Hut wants you to play with your food. Or at least, the box it comes in. The restaurant just unveiled the "world's first playable DJ pizza box" that tus the folding cardboard container into a complete tutable setup, including two decks, volume sliders, pitch controls and a crossfader. Powered by an inteal battery and equipped with a Bluetooth sensor, it can even sync with a computer or smartphone to play and scratch tracks using digital mixing software like Serato. Sounds delicious. According to FACT Magazine, the pizza decks were designed by electronics specialist Novalia, w...

NASA hopes to launch a spacecraft next month that will essentially chest-bump an asteroid and swipe a sample of space rock to bring back to Earth for study in the process. The Osiris-Rex spacecraft is about the size of a small bus when its solar arrays are deployed. Right now, the plan is to launch it from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on an Atlas V 411 rocket as soon as September 8 at 7:05 p.m. ET. It's scheduled to reach the potentially hazardous asteroid Beu at some point in 2018. The craft's epic acronym name stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security - Regolith Explorer, which explains what NASA hopes it will do. Those goals include retuing and analyzing a...

Enlarge ImageParents can keep an eye on their child's workload. Google Sigh. Yes, the break is over and school awaits. But with a little luck you might be able to ditch class and go to the moon instead. With the new school year upon us, Google has souped up its Expeditions and Classroom apps for teachers and students. The Expeditions app, which lets students take virtual-reality field trips with the help of a phone and Google's Cardboard VR headset, now features more places to "go," the company said in a blog post on Wednesday. New Expeditions include a walk on the moon, a visit to the White House kitchen garden, a jaunt inside the human lungs, a stroll in the Himalayas in Bhutan, a meander ...

Here's something that's happened more than I like to admit. I stop at a convenience store to grab a Red Bull, diet soda or quick snack I don't need. I might linger to check out the bizarre new concoctions (I'm still waiting for gummy Mountain Dew to go on sale) or snicker at the excessively bejeweled iPhone cases.I buy a drink and head back to my car, and I notice on the floor of the passenger side another unopened soda that I purchased at a gas station earlier the same day. My compulsion for mindless convenience store purchases is so bad I once stopped at a store for a soda, only to realize when I reached for the door that I already had a still-cold Coke Zero in my hand.Enlarge ImageOld hab...

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment on Wednesday aounced its first titles to be streamed in Dolby Vision: "The Huntsman: Winter's War," "Lucy," "Oblivion," and "Lone Survivor."The four titles will be available for rental or for purchase on the Vudu streaming service and require a 4K TV with Dolby Vision capabilities in order to experience the HDR effects.Following the aouncement, there are now almost 50 Dolby Vision titles available on Vudu from Universal, MGM, and Waer Bros. Meanwhile, Amazon has 10 titles and Netflix offers three: "Marco Polo," "The Do-Over" and "The Ridiculous 6."In CNET testing, HDR sources can deliver brighter highlights, improved details in some areas and more vivid ...

[embedded content] Blizzard unveiled a new map for its team-based shooter Overwatch at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany this Tuesday. Eichenwalde, set in Stuttgart, Germany, joins the 12 other inteational destinations that serve as arenas for players to explode each other over control points and payloads.Eichenwalde is an Assault and Escort hybrid map, which looks like it will have the attacking team escort a battering ram up to the castle gates before storming the keep. Prepare your best Reinhardt laugh (and your excuses for when you charge the German knight directly off the edge of the map).Overwatch recently surpassed 15 million players and is currently in the middle of an Olympic-themed even...

Enlarge Image Sony Pictures (left), Sidney Paget (right) Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly will be joining forces again in "Holmes & Watson", the comedy duo joining forces again to put their usual highly quotable, lowbrow spin on the Sherlock Holmes legend, reports Deadline. The pair previously worked together on "Step Brothers" and "Talladega Nights". Directed by Etan Cohen, who previously scripted comedies "Idiocracy" and "Tropic Thunder" and directed Will Ferrell in "Daddy's Home," the new film will start shooting late this year.The market is a little saturated for Sherlock adaptations, with Johy Miller, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ian McKellen and Robert Downey Jr all playing the character in th...

Enlarge Image Vantas Drones are increasingly becoming a go-to for both hobbyists and the workforce, with racing and aircraft inspection being two prime examples of how this technology is becoming a big thing.Tokyo's Vantan High School is now ensuring the next generation is abreast of this burgeoning tech by offering a three-year course on drones.The course offers more than just an understanding of how to pilot a drone, also providing lessons in maintenance, aviation laws and computer programming when the need arises for firmware updates. While hobbyists may feel this is the perfect opportunity for them, Vantan is offering it to students who have legitimate UAV vocation aspirations. It'll tea...

[embedded content] If you miss seeing the adventures of Capt. Mal, Jayne, Kaylee, River, Simon, Wash, Zoe and Inara on Joss Whedon's beloved TV series "Firefly," then sit back and watch this beautifully animated trailer by artist Stephen Bye. The short clip "The Animated Adventures of Firefly Teaser"shows the Serenity in action, Jayne shooting his favorite weapon, Zoe and Wash in love and monsters lurking in dark coers. For fans who want to see how this video was made, Bye posted a production video way back in 2014. The video already has 115,788 views, but more importantly it also has the approval of the "Firefly" actors Adam Baldwin, who made it his new Twitter avatar, and Nathan Fillion wh...

Enlarge ImageThe message Ivan Kwiatkowski's parents received waing them of the (fake) infection. Ivan Kwiatkowski Have you ever gotten a phone call, email or pop-up from someone trying to scam you with an obviously non-existent problem with your computer that will be expensive to solve?French security researcher Ivan Kwiatkowski knows how you feel, but he wasn't content with hanging up or uttering a few choice words of reprimand. He decided to give them a taste of their own medicine, as he described in a blog earlier this month.The tech support scam has been around for the better part of a decade, bilking an estimated 3.3 million people in the US out of more than $1.5 billion in 2015, accord...

Enlarge Image Xinhua Apple has been losing momentum in China as of late, but CEO Tim Cook hopes to tu that all around.Cook is currently in Beijing, his second visit to the city in three months, meeting Tuesday with China's Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli, reports the state-run Xinhua. At the meeting, Gaoli invited US companies like Apple to boost investments into the country, saying that doing so strengthens the global economy, according to the publication. Those words from a Chinese official would be music to Cook's ears. The country's govement has a reputation for being tough on foreign companies, something Apple knows something about. The govement in April shut down Apple's iTunes Movies and iBo...

Enlarge ImageThe Intel Developer Forum takes place in San Francisco. Stephen Shankland/CNET One venerable computing technology, USB, could be about to help kill off an even older standard, the 3.5mm audio jack. The 3.5mm audio jack was popularized as the way to plug headphones into Sony's portable Walkman tape player and got a new lease on life as a way to handle audio on virtually every mobile phone and PC. But if Intel and its allies get their way, the new USB Type-C coector that's spread to some high-end PCs and phones will replace it in coming years. One big problem with removing the 3.5mm jack is that countless sets of earbuds and headphones become suddenly useless unless you buy an eas...

As Respawn recently teased, Titanfall 2's upcoming open beta--or technical test, as EA is choosing to call it--will take place over the next two weekends on Xbox One and PS4.The first of the two weekend betas starts this Friday, August 19, with two modes and two maps available. The following weekend will still offer that same content, but with an additional map and mode added to the mix.Two new Titans, Ion and Scorch, will be available for use, along with Pilot abilities like Grapple, Holo Point, and Pulse Blade. A press release also mentions two of the weapons you'll be able to use: the Mastiff (a "horizontal spread shotgun") and the Alteator (a "dual-barrel SMG"). You can see some of this ...

Close Google's Hangouts on Air heading to YouTube Drag Hangouts on Air is a pretty good live-streaming app within Google's social network, Google Plus. However, Google is pulling the feature from Google Plus and a new version will head to YouTube Live. In mid-September, Hangouts on Air will no longer function on Google Plus. Oddly, some older features will not make its way to the YouTube Live version. Subscribe: CNET Update delivers the biggest tech news of the day, breaking down trends, hot devices, new apps and what's a...

Close Intel tus to Overwatch to show off seventh-generation core Drag The PC industry's glory days, when people snapped up new computers powered by steadily faster chips, are over. But Intel thinks its newest PC processor will get some hearts racing in a few months. At its Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco on Tuesday, Intel Chief Executive Brian Krzanich showed PCs powered by a seventh-generation Core processor in PCs handling some demanding chores -- editing high-resolution 4K GoPro video and playing a hot ne...

Alexa, Amazon's virtual, voice-powered assistant, is a certified hit, and the list of gadgets she can control with spoken commands keeps on growing. Today, it's Ledvance (known until recently as Osram Sylvania) that's joining the mix, with new Alexa controls for Lightify smart LEDs. The controls are the same as you'll get with other Alexa-compatible smart lights, which include bulbs from Lifx and Philips Hue. Sync your Lightify lights up with Amazon in the Alexa app, and you'll be able to dim them or tu them on and off using commands like, "Alexa, dim the living room lights to 20 percent." Close...

Enlarge ImageJustin Bieber's nearly 80 million Instagram followers get a rude awakening. Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images Pop star Justin Bieber has deleted his Instagram account, following negative comments from fans and a high-profile series of terse exchanges with ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez. Bieber, who had nearly 80 million followers on the popular photo-sharing service, was recently embroiled in an online row over his Instagram account. Bieber had posted photos with 17-year-old Sofia Richie. But when fans reacted badly (reportedly posting snake emojis to express their dislike of Richie, according to Global News), the 22-year-old star posted the message: "I'm goa make my Instagram private i...

NASA Goddard Institute of Space Science Three independent agencies have confirmed July 2016 as the warmest month since they started keeping temperature records, the Weather Chael has reported. July is usually the warmest month globally, since the northe hemisphere has more land mass, and land heats up faster and retains more heat than the oceans.NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies found it topped the previous warmest July on its record, 2011, by 0.1 of a degree Celsius, 0.84 degrees Celsius above average, making it the warmest since 1880. The Japan Meteorological Agency's found that it was the warmest since 1891, and the Copeicus Climate Change Service in Europe found that it was the w...