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At 563 carats, the Star of India is the world’s largest gem-quality blue star sapphire, and is approximately 2 billion years old. (Image credit: D. Finnin/Copyright AMNH) ================================================================== What does the legendary Star of India — a 563-carat star sapphire the size of a golf ball — have in common with a 35-million-year-old petrified redwood slab; a massive cluster of sword-like crystals that looks like it came from "Game of Thrones;" and a 5-ton (4.5-metric ton) stone pillar that can "sing?" You can see all of them, along with 5,000 other amazing stones, in the newly renovated Mignone Hall of...

Google on Tuesday released Chrome 100, an iteration of the popular browser that can trip up websites that weren't written to handle three-digit version numbers. It's a problem that, though rare, also affects people using Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge. The problem crops up because developers sometimes try to adapt their websites for particular browser versions. Browsers share their version number through a short text description called the user agent string, but website scripts sometimes extract just two of the three digits in the version number. Problems can include websites not working at all or showing a popup erroneously saying...

Anybody using Chromium 98.0.4758.102 (Official Build) snap (64-bit) My son upgraded it last night for me. There are things I need google search results for and ... When I type in search box I see the cursor move, and invisible typing occurs. The drop down suggestions appear incomplete. If I am searching for btc. I see an invisible position in the text box and the suggestions appear "itcoin, etc. The first character is invisible, even in the suggestion drop down. Upgrades: One step forward, three step back.

One question: Why Redmond, why? Ah, you need to meet developers wherever they are... Microsoft has delivered on its threat to inflict Chromium Edge on Linux. Completist tendencies aside, one would be forgiven for wondering, "Why?"Click to enlarge Edge on Linux had been lurking behind the bushes before its announcement at September's Build event. Indeed, Microsoft insiders had whispered to us that it had been running for a while, but booting it out of the door was not a top priority for the team. A good few months later and here we are: a Dev Channel version of Edge can...

Microsoft is replacing its Edge browser with the updated, Chromium-based version on January 15. Windows 10 users will be automatically transitioned over. From the linked article (https://www.inputmag.com/tech/microsoft-is-replacing-edge-with-its-new-chromium-browser-next-week): We already knew this was coming because Microsoft announced the new Edge's launch date last month, but it wasn't clear that users would be pushed to the new version. Thankfully it will look mostly the same as the existing Edge browser, with all the same proprietary Microsoft features, except for a slightly more Chrome-esque look. Since the new Chromium Edge will be based off the same browser as Google Chrome, Edge will now...

Doors on the Edge Insider Bounty Program flung open Having finally pushed out the first Beta preview of its Chromium-based browser, Microsoft has launched a bounty programme aimed at getting researchers to kick the tyres on its latest and greatest.Up to $30k is available to researchers who find what Microsoft deems "critical and important" vulnerabilities in the Beta and Dev channels of Chromium Edge. The Canary channel is excluded because, well, it seems hardly fair to poke holes in daily builds that are, by definition, not fit for public consumption.Interestingly, up to $15k is available to anyone who discovers critical...

Microsoft is unveiling a number of new features for its upcoming Edge Chromium browser today. The first big addition is a new “IE Mode” for Edge that will allow businesses to load old sites directly in the new Edge Chromium browser, using the Internet Explorer rendering engine. Microsoft is building IE directly into Edge for this purpose, so businesses aren’t forced to directly use IE for ancient internal sites. “What we’re going to do is make this totally seamless,” explains Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore, in an interview with The Verge. Currently, the existing version of Edge will open Internet Explorer 11...

Chromium base should ease porting pains substantially Microsoft may be closer to its first Mac browser in 14 years."We also expect this work to enable us to bring Microsoft Edge to other platforms like macOS," Joe Belfiore said last December, when he announced the move to a Chromium-based engine for the Edge browser. "Improving the web-platform experience for both end users and developers requires that the web platform and the browser be consistently available to as many devices as possible."Dialogue boxes touting support for macOS ("10.12 and above") have been spotted. The company has also invited interest in ports of...

Microsoft starts accepting beta testers for the new Edge Microsoft is currently working on building a new browser after its EdgeHTML experiment failed, so now the company is transitioning to Chromium for an approach that just can’t go wrong.The software giant has started receiving beta testers for the new browser, as it’s now likely finalizing the preview build due in early 2019.What’s important to know is that registering today doesn’t provide you with a download link, but only adds your name to the list of beta testers that will receive the preview build of the new Microsoft Edge when it...

RIP: The Edge is dead... as in the EdgeHTML layout code Microsoft on Thursday said it intends to use the open-source Chromium browser engine in the desktop version of its Edge browser, promising the two per cent of global internet users who favor Edge an improved web experience.Joe Belfiore, corporate veep of Windows, announced the plan, which was reported earlier this week. "Ultimately, we want to make the web experience better for many different audiences," he said. One of those audiences may be macOS users, who despite not clamoring for Edge should have access to Microsoft's browser at some point:...

Solar panels create 300 times more toxic waste per unit of electricity generated than nuclear power plants, according to a Thursday report from the pro-nuclear group Environmental Progress (EP). The report found that solar panels use heavy metals, including lead, chromium and cadmium, which can harm the environment. The hazards of nuclear waste are well known and can be planned for, but very little has been done to mitigate solar waste issues.

“Toxic chromium” fear-mongering Detecting Cr-6 droplets in Olympic-sized swimming pool doesn’t equal health or cancer risks Paul Driessen Erin Brockovich became rich and famous by promoting the notion that people in Hinkley, CA got cancer because of hexavalent chromium (Chromium-6) in drinking water. Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) settled a 1993 lawsuit for $333 million, rather than risk trial by a jury frightened by a steady drumbeat of horror stories from lawyers, activists, celebrities, “journalists” and hired “experts.” The lawyers got $134 million in fees, and Ms. Brockovich pocketed a cool $2-million bonus – plus movie royalties and other cash....

Google has called out prominent digital certificates and security vendor Comodo for disabling web security with its web browser, putting users at risk of having their systems compromised by attackers. Comodo markets several web browsers, aimed at boosting security, speed and privacy. The company also offers other security software such as firewalls and anti-virus utilities. Google's Project Zero researchers found the Chromodo web browser, installed as part of the Comodo Internet Security suite and based on the open source Chromium software, dsiables the same-origin policy. Same-origin policy is a cornerstone in web security that stops code on untrusted web sites...

Ex-Opera CEO Jon S. von Tetzchner has revealed a technical preview of Vivaldi, a new Chromium-based browser for Windows, Mac and Linux. As this is a first release, the big features are mostly "coming soon". There will be extensions support, a built-in mail client, syncing across your devices, but they’re not here yet. The Technical Preview does provide some smaller practical features. Tab Stacks are a handy way of grouping browser tabs, and work much like buttons on the Windows taskbar. Hover your mouse over a tab, thumbnails appear for each site it represents, and you simply click the one...

A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the Environmental Protection Agency's first emission standards for mercury and other hazardous air pollutants from coal- and oil-fired power plants. In its ruling, the court rejected state and industry challenges to rules designed to clean up chromium, arsenic, acid gases, nickel, cadmium as well as mercury and other dangerous toxins. The EPA’s determination in 2000 that regulating emission standards is appropriate and necessary, and the agency’s reaffirmation of that determination in 2012, “are amply supported by EPA’s findings regarding the health effects of mercury exposure,” said the court. Congress did not specify what...

Coffee, that morning elixir, may give us an early jump-start to the day, but numerous studies have shown that it also may be protective against type 2 diabetes. Yet no one has really understood why. Now, researchers at UCLA have discovered a possible molecular mechanism behind coffee's protective effect. A protein called sex hormone–binding globulin (SHBG) regulates the biological activity of the body's sex hormones, testosterone and estrogen, which have long been thought to play a role in the development of type 2 diabetes. And coffee consumption, it turns out, increases plasma levels of SHBG. Reporting with colleagues in the...

Lisa Jackson, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, briefed a bipartisan group of senators Tuesday after a report found that Washington and other cities have elevated levels of chromium-6, a probable carcinogen, in their public drinking water. Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) met with Jackson in Durbin’s office on the third floor of the Capitol Tuesday afternoon. They convened the meeting after the Environmental Working Group, an organization headquartered in Washington, released a report this week that found chromium-6 in the tap water of 31 cities across the country. “Administrator...

An environmental group that analyzed the drinking water in 35 cities across the United States, including Bethesda and Washington, found that most contained hexavalent chromium, a probable carcinogen that was made famous by the film "Erin Brockovich." The study, which will be released Monday by the Environmental Working Group, is the first nationwide analysis of hexavalent chromium in drinking water to be made public.

Just wondering... My EeePC needs an updated browser and I was wondering how this would work. I'm Linux challenged, and don't even know how to install it.

Researchers may have found a sugar-coated answer to a toxic waste problem. At a presentation yesterday at the semiannual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Chicago, Illinois, a team of chemists reported that a sugar-based solution effectively reduced the threat of the heavy metal chromium, without creating new pollution headaches in the process. Chromium, like some of its chemical cousins, can be either beneficial or harmful to living things, depending on its form, concentration, and method of absorption. Chromium III, for example, the metal's natural state, is stable and an essential nutrient. On the other hand, hexavalent chromium--or Cr(VI)--is...