But there is a cost to all that fun, and we all must pay. The bugs are back in town. Cue screams of horror. The National Pest Management Association (an organization of pest management companies) just released its annual forecast for how bad pests might get this spring and summer, and unfortunately the news is not great. Most of the country experienced a mild and wet winter, which could give pesky populations of insects a boost....
It can see a knife hidden inside a teddy bear, like the image above. It can even determine the fat content of a piece of chicken, apparently. Terahertz scanners have long been touted as the future of security–electromagnetic waves in that frequency range can penetrate where other forms of radiation cannot, but they don’t produce the damaging ionizing radiation of X-rays. T-rays can sense every molecule, so they could theoretically detect illicit drugs or explosives, or even hunt for cancer cells....
Do you love the planet, but also love a big, juicy steak? You’re certainly not alone. But, if you’re looking for ways to cut down on your personal climate change impacts, countless studies and reports point toward making your diet less carnivorous. Even the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report shows that reworking our agriculture systems and adopting more sustainable diets could provide as much as 20 to 30 percent of the emissions reductions needed to keep the climate below 1....
The company installed lights at 30 Umeå bus stops last week, removing the normal bus-stop lamps and replacing them with specially designed phototherapy tubes. Light therapy is a common treatment for seasonal affective disorder. “Winter is in many ways a fantastic season, with the darkness and the cozy atmosphere. But when the sun appears as a minimum, [we] need the energy the most,” Umeå Energi explains on its website (translated by Google)....
Aerial and satellite photos show the dramatic size and progression of the eruption, which bloomed with alarming velocity. The volcano, which last erupted in 2014, had been “puffing away for about a month before rising magma, superheated to around 1,832°F, met with 68° seawater, causing an instantaneous and massive explosion,” NBC News reports. Photos of the Tongan islands show thick layers of ash blanketing the nation. The disaster reduced buildings to debris, felled trees, and pummeled much of the coastline in violent waves....
Almost one year later, researchers in the University of Oxford’s Department of Physics and RAL Space published research on satellite imagery confirming that this eruption produced the highest-ever recorded volcanic plume. It was also first to have been directly observed going into the mesosphere. The results of the study are published today in the journal Science. “I actually come from a weather rather than volcanology background and the fact this eruption was caught so clearly by multiple weather satellites drove me to begin the study,” lead author and research fellow Simon Proud says in an interview with PopSci....
In a new, first-of-a-kind study, researchers surveyed and followed 317 transgender kids across the United States and Canada who underwent social transitions. The children were 3 to 12 when the study started, and they began identifying as trans, on average, at around age 6. The research team found that 94 percent of participants stood firm in their trans identity five years later. Many had begun taking hormonal medication to prompt biological changes and affirm their gender identities....
Hurricane conditions could become a reality within a matter of two days, according to the National Hurricane Center. Currently, maximum sustained winds are at 60 miles per hour, whereas Ida hit around 150 mph at landfall. Areas around Galveston Bay and Matagorda Bay are at risk for “excessive rainfall,” according to CNN. This comes with risks of severe flash flooding. “Rainfall amounts in excess of 10-15 inches with isolated higher totals are expected through the end of the day on Tuesday in some locations,” wrote the National Weather Service in Lake Charles, Louisiana....
According to legal paperwork submitted on November 11, Boston Dynamics is accusing their competitor of blatantly copying seven patents for “core technology” related to Spot, the plaintiff company’s four-legged, dog-like robot. “Boston Dynamics’ early success with the Spot robot did not go unnoticed by competitors in the robotics industry, including Ghost Robotics,” argues a portion of the filing, specifically calling out Ghost Robotics’ Vision 60 and Spirit 40 quadruped products....
There are a lot of deals this year, and it’s easy to feel inundated. For that reason, I’m keeping a live tally on the best bargains below to make sure you know about the best deals on the world wide web. We’ll be posting updates on our Facebook group dedicated to finding deals, too. Some of these deals may only last for a limited time or sell out. I do my best to remove those once the sales are over, but I am only human, and humans can get a tiny bit behind....
In 1941, a Naval Air Station was located at Kaneohe Bay, and unlike some of the neighboring military installations, it had planes that were kept directly on the water. There were 36 Catalina PBY-5s , a kind of amphibious aircraft, at the base, some stationed on land and some in the water. 27 of those planes were destroyed in the attack, including some that sank quickly into the bay. Six others took damage....
And Donhou did this not on some absurdly over-engineered bike; Donhou just consulted a few friends in the business, built the bike, turned his old Ford Zephyr into a pace car/wind screen, and pedaled hard. “This is all new to me. It’s been a total learning curve,” he says. Here’s how he did it: Power: Normal bikes typically have chainrings with 20-50 teeth. A larger chainring makes it harder to get going initially, but allows you to reach much higher speeds....
Read more in The Language of Butterflies by Wendy Williams, published by Simon and Schuster on June 2, 2020. Several years ago, Clemson University’s Konstantin Kornev accompanied his young daughters as they chased butterflies around a sunny South Carolinian field. The girls found the insects’ ebullient colors and fitful flight behavior irresistibly alluring. Soon Kornev too fell under the insects’ spell. Flitting from rock to mud to flower, the butterflies repeatedly uncurled and re-curled a long, thin tube-like appendage that protruded from the mouth area....
It’d be nice if we could do all that without a horrible, head-wracking hangover, though. Before you start scheduling some recovery time on your calendar, know you can try to avoid them, and but if things get rough, you might be able to make that bottle-ache a bit milder. But that’s the best-case scenario, because we’re sorry to tell you one cold, hard fact: there is no cure for hangovers....
But just how do those tooth-cracking kernels transform into a fluffy movie snack? A popcorn kernel has three key components: The tough outer shell known as the pericarp, a middle layer known as the endosperm, and the innermost portion known as the germ or seed embryo. Packed inside each popcorn hull is water and starch. When popcorn kernels heat, the water turns into steam. This vapor creates pressure inside the seed....
Button batteries are in everyday household items that kids can quickly get their hands on, from watches and key fobs to toys and sing-along books. Mark Chandler, a research scientist at Safe Kids Worldwide and lead author of the study, says children are naturally curious to explore and understand their environment, often placing objects in their mouths, noses, and ears. “Parents often aren’t aware of the ingestion dangers posed by button batteries and how they can often be easily removed from devices,” Chandler explains....
That’s because fecal transplants, despite having been around in some form for millennia, are a relatively recent foray for modern medicine. In recent decades, they’ve gone from fringe treatment to perhaps the gold standard for treating Clostridium difficile infections, which are difficult to tackle with antibiotics and cause persistent, often excruciating, and sometimes life-threatening diarrhea. Giving these patients a fecal transplant from a donor with a healthy gut microbiome seems to replace the overgrowth of C....
That projectile and explosion occurred some 984 feet, or about 300 meters, from the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant “industrial site,” the IAEA said. The event temporarily disconnected three power lines and broke windows nearby. Meanwhile, the Zaporizhzhia plant continues to be in the news, mostly in regards to the status of its connection with the external power grid. Below is a brief update with what’s been happening with the two plants, and what the stakes are....
President Donald Trump recently appointed Vice President Mike Pence to lead the government’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak and control public statements by government health officials about the crisis. In the days since, health departments throughout the country have investigated potential cases, announced new cases and declared public health emergencies, all without the approval of the vice president. So who really is in charge of the outbreak response? As with most things in American government, the answer is complicated....
