TikTok Was a Wasted Opportunity

By BY SHIRA OVIDE from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/3iuIalR

TikTok Owner’s Big Reason to Strike a U.S. Deal: China Is Slowing

By BY RAYMOND ZHONG from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2ZB2ieN

Nvidia Buys Arm From SoftBank for $40 Billion

By BY DON CLARK from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/35z0whO

Wikipedia article of the day for September 14, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for September 14, 2020 is U.S. Route 141.
US Highway 141 is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs for about 169 miles (272 km) in the states of Wisconsin and Michigan. The highway runs north-northwesterly from Bellevue, Wisconsin, near Green Bay, to an intersection near Covington, Michigan. In between, it follows city streets in Green Bay and a freeway section north of that city. Most of the remainder of US 141 is a rural two-lane highway that crosses into Michigan, back into Wisconsin and then finally back into Michigan again. Originally on creation in 1926, the northernmost section in Michigan was numbered US 102, and US 141 extended farther south from Bellevue to Milwaukee. Two years later, US 141 was extended north into Michigan to replace US 102. Since then, parts of the highway have been converted to freeway; the highway has ended southeast of Green Bay in Bellevue since the 1980s—the southern segment was redesignated as I-43. (This article is part of a featured topic: U.S. Highways in Michigan.)

Microsoft Says Its Bid for TikTok Was Rejected in U.S.-China Standoff

By BY DAVID E. SANGER, DAVID MCCABE AND ERIN GRIFFITH from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/3hurWrz

Wikipedia article of the day for September 13, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for September 13, 2020 is Super Mario All-Stars.
Super Mario All-Stars is a 1993 compilation of platform games for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It contains remakes of Nintendo's four Super Mario titles released for the Nintendo Entertainment System and its Family Computer Disk System add-on: Super Mario Bros. (1985), Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (1986), Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988), and Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988). They are faithful recreations that adapt the games' original premises and level designs with updated graphics and music. Parallax scrolling was added, physics simulations were modified, and some glitches were fixed. Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto (pictured) suggested that Nintendo develop the compilation. It received critical acclaim and is one of the bestselling Super Mario titles, with 10.55 million copies sold by 2015. Reviewers praised the effort that went into remastering the compilation's games and appreciated the updated graphics and music, but criticized its lack of innovation.

Wikipedia article of the day for September 12, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for September 12, 2020 is Qibla.
The qibla is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Sacred Mosque, Mecca, Saudi Arabia, which is used by Muslims in various religious contexts, including ritual prayer. Muslims believe the Kaaba to be a sacred site built by the prophets Abraham and Ishmael, and that its use was ordained by God in several verses of the Quran revealed in the second Hijri year. Prior to this revelation, Muhammad and his followers in Medina faced Jerusalem for prayers. Most mosques contain a mihrab or a wall niche that indicates the direction of the qibla. Before the development of astronomy in the Islamic world, Muslims used traditional methods to determine the qibla. These methods included facing the direction that the companions of Muhammad had used when in the same place or using the setting and rising points of celestial objects. In the late 9th and 10th centuries, Muslim astronomers developed methods to find the exact direction of the qibla, and today it can be calculated using a trigonometric formula.