The MLS Cup 2014 is taking place this Sunday, December 7th at the StubHub Center in Los Angeles, where the LA Galaxy will play host to the New England Revolution. Obviously, one of the main stories around the final match of the season is the retirement of Landon Donovan, who is expected to hang up his cleats after the game -- win or lose. On the technical side, ESPN is going to be using its program to introduce set of live player-tracking graphics, which were developed by ChyronHego, a New York-based company that makes visuals broadcasters. As you can see in the video below, these will be shown on screen live, highlighting key players as the play is developing or in a replay.

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It's incredibly likely that we aren't alone in the universe, but the chances of us making contact with extra-terrestrials aren't nearly as high. Astrobiologist Amri Wandel seeks to expand on the Drake equation (a formula used to encapsulate the variables scientists looking for E.T.s should consider) by factoring in some of the recent Kepler data. According to Wandel's research (PDF), there are possibly billions of life-sustaining planets in the galaxy, but planets where organisms could exist and planets where life does exist are two different things. These findings come from an advance-release of the International Journal of Astrobiology that should see publication next year.

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We're keen on checking in with the folks at Disney Research from time to time to see what crazy projects its been working on. At SIGGRAPH Asia this week, the outfit is presenting recent work in crafting more detailed 3D-rendered eyes. In order to properly capture all the details needed to make things appear realistic for things like character generation, the studio has crafted a method for nabbing those intricacies based not only on appearance, but taking into account how the eye responds to light, too. "Generically modeled eyes may be sufficient for background characters, but it now takes significant effort to manually create realistic eyes for heroes and other leading characters," says Disney Research Zurich's Pascal Bérard. The project is nothing new for Disney's experimental arm, as the folks there have been looking into a method for more detailed ocular representation for quite some time. The method not only cuts down on the work required to manually produce believable results, but the tech could also drastically improve modeling in ophthalmology as well.

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We got a chance to go hands on with Mario Maker at E3 this past June and it was pretty awesome even if it felt a little bit, well, safe. New footage that premiered at tonight's The Game Awards in Las Vegas blew our previous conceptions out of the water, though. From the looks of the video below, you can alter levels on-the-fly in ways we didn't previously know were possible. We're talking creating a platform to land on mid-jump and turning otherwise fatal bullet cannons into coin-spewing fountains. Not crazy enough? How about swapping in art styles from the past 30 years of the Italian plumber's career as you see fit while running through what starts as level 1-1 from Super Mario Bros. in real-time? Exactly. Hit the jump for a peek at the madness.

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Tweeting, texting, and other forms of messaging have rapidly taken over our communications, but sometimes even 140 characters is too much. A slew of new apps are pushing to slim conversations down to little more than an acknowledgement or quick drawing. This race started with the introduction of Yo in April, and it doesn't seem to be slowing down -- actor Aaron Paul and AOL (the owner of this site) just dropped new apps this week. So which ones should you choose? (Or not choose -- just give your family/friends/pizza guy a call already, they miss you.) We have a few candidates lined up.

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Flying first class is a wonderful experience, but for most it's simply too expensive. JetBlue's new premium "Mint" cabin, however, is fresh, accessible and affordable. That's not all we have on deck, though -- read on for the rest of our news highlights from the last 24 hours.

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After a number of extensions, negotiations on a new contract between Dish Network and CBS have fallen apart, and the broadcaster's signals are no longer available on the service in several major markets. That accounts for markets where CBS owns the stations, including New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Dallas, Denver, Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh and "several others." In a statement, CBS pointed the finger at Dish blaming the satellite broadcaster for dragging its feet, but we're wondering if CBS' plan for a streaming "All Access" service or the quirks of Dish's Hopper DVR and its own internet TV plans are really responsible for the hold up.

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Ever since we heard that The Wire would be coming back -- and this time in widescreen HD -- we've felt equal parts joy and unease. Who could turn down another trip through the streets of Baltimore, reformatted for modern televisions? On the other hand, even with a careful hand at the dial -- or not so careful -- suddenly switching aspect ratios could ruin what the director originally intended for viewers to experience. Luckily, none other than series creator and executive producer David Simon has chimed in about what we can expect to see this time around. Surprisingly, according to his blog post he hadn't even seen the reformatted version until after the promo started running in September. While he was aware work was under way, he still needed time to review the new version, which may explain some of the confusion about when it would actually air. Check out the blog post for extensive examples of what he means, including video clips (some are embedded below) showing the video as it originally aired, the initial HD cut, and then a second revision undertaken to help preserve the vision of the original shot.

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There's still a dispute as to whether or not North Korean hackers broke into Sony Pictures' network, but one thing is clear: the country spoils its cyberwarriors rotten. A defector tells Reuters that Bureau 121, the spy division responsible for at least some state-sponsored internet attacks, gives hackers "very strong" financial incentives. They get giant apartments in posher parts of town, and they're relatively wealthy; one Bureau member could pay to move his entire rural family to the capital if he wanted. Many North Koreans see one of these jobs as an honor.

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After watching early footage of Microsoft's virtual assistant Cortana in Windows 10 (below), its impending takeover of the Microsoft Borg seems inevitable. There's a lot riding on Cortana, after all. After being released in the U.S. earlier this year, it's now slowly rolling out across the globe. While an obvious response to Apple's Siri, Microsoft's devotion to Cortana is also a reminder of just how important these virtual assistants are becoming. It's as if Siri, Google Now, and Cortana will end up personifying the operating system wars.

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