Some people do it ever so often, while some don’t ever do it at all. So if the idea of losing a life’s worth of files, photos, videos, and other media is unbearable, backing up is key, and Degoo Premium can help by offering secure backup space. For a limited time, a 10TB backup plan is on sale for $69.99 (reg. $3,600) with code DOWNLOADNOW Rated 4 out of 5 stars on G2, Degoo offers supremely secured backup cloud storage space protected under ultra-secure 256-bit AES encryption....

That’s great information for recreational marijuana users looking to pick a good strain, but it’s not very helpful for, say, a fibromyalgia patient purchasing cannabis to treat chronic pain. When those patients visit a medical marijuana dispensary, they usually pick a strain they’ve heard of, or based on suggestions from the “budtender” behind the counter, usually based on anecdotes from past customers. But a new startup called PotBotics wants to make it even easier and more reliable for medical marijuana patients to know exactly what’s in their bud....

The time capsule had been buried by MIT students in 1957, during the dedication of building 26, which houses Compton Laboratories. The capsule contained papers and scientific odds and ends. The time capsule has been in the ground for 58 years, but it was supposed to be in place for much longer. Originally, the time capsule was supposed to stay put until 2957, and was constructed of glass in the hopes that unlike metal or wood, rust and rot would not affect the capsule or the items within....

Below, we’ve rounded up three of the best weekend backpacks for any outdoor adventure, with main draws ranging from carrying capacity to weight to weather durability. Perfect for a long weekend, the Osprey Farpoint 55 (available to fit the physiques of men and women) can accommodate up to 50 pounds of gear, so go ahead and pack that extra set of camp clothes. The pack features super comfortable carry thanks to Lightwire frame technology, and plenty of mesh paneling allows for increased ventilation....

The Kent State Neo Beam facility’s Dynamitron is a four-story-tall, five-million-volt particle accelerator much like a tube TV, only bigger. (Yes, tube TVs are domestic particle accelerators.) Both Dynamitrons and TVs use high voltages and magnets to slam electrons into a target. In a TV, that’s the phosphor screen; in this Dynamitron, it’s usually plastic plumbing components being hardened by the beam. But when I joined the team of retired electrical engineer Bert Hickman and physicists Bill Hathaway and Kim Goins, the product was Lichtenberg figures, lightning bolts permanently recorded in a block of clear acrylic....

There are thousands of commands you can use with Alexa—these are not only some of the most useful, but also some of the most fun. 1. Check commute times “Alexa, how is my commute?” “Alexa, how long will it take me to get home?” 2. Get advice for dinner “Alexa, what wine goes well with salmon?” “Alexa, how long does it take to cook burgers?” 3. Listen to the radio “Alexa, play KEXP....

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo last week completed its second successful test flight from Spaceport America in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, marking another important milestone toward the launch of Virgin Galactic’s commercial service. The company said in a news release that Mark “Forger” Stucky and Michael “Sooch” Masucci, both commercial astronauts, commanded SpaceShipTwo Unity’s flight. The test flight was conducted under a set of stringent operational protocols to ensure safety against COVID-19, including enforced social distancing as advised by state guidelines as well as universal mask usage....

One way to keep drivers safe is by ensuring their eyes stay on the road. Volvo’s newest investment in Spectralics, an Israel-based tech firm, looks to ensure that the driver’s eyes almost never need to leave the road by transforming the entire windshield into a dynamic display of information. Spectralics’ tech works by overlaying the windshield with a thin film called a multi-layered thin combiner. This effectively turns the entire windshield into a transparent display, enabling Volvo to superimpose graphics and other visual elements onto the driver’s view of the roadway, functionally transforming the glass and surrounding environment into an augmented-reality display....

That recent test began with a countdown and a roar of ignition, and then the torpedo-containing missile hurtled into the sky. Billowing a trail of smoke, the missile turned from vertical to horizontal, its ultimate destination far more aquatic than celestial. The weapon being tested was India’s Supersonic Missile Assisted Release of Torpedo, or SMART, weapon, and a reminder of the complexity of modern naval warfare. The December 13 test, announced by India’s Ministry of Defense, took place on Wheeler Island, about 140 miles southwest of Kolkata....

They used an external camera system to track the balls and an algorithm to predict where and when the ball would fall. When the robot misses a catch, it looks back or down at where the ball fell, shrugs, or shakes its head. This guy was designed for theme parks, but one day it will be playing catch with our children and fetch with our dogs. Next they should program it to make dad jokes....

On the eve of the release of Star Wars Episode VII Youtube user and perennial prop recreator “Sufficiently Advanced,” a.k.a. Allen Pan posted a video of his homemade saber lighting a cigarette and burning through balloons and paper with its fiery, sputtering, Kylo-Ren-like blade. The entire thing was built and modified from existing components, using a replica Skywalker lightsaber shell, a section from a turkey marinade injector, and several 3D printed parts to make it all work together....

It’s not a revelation that came cheaply. Published in Nature, this latest evidence is the product of over twenty years of work. Auroras appear when solar storms, outbursts of radiation and charged particles from the sun, strike the Earth’s magnetic field in the upper atmosphere. But then what happens? Scientists had a theory: Alfvén waves. Picture a magnetic field as a web of lines. If you stretch and pull at those lines, an Alfvén wave is what spawns when the lines attempt to snap back into place....

What are you eating and/or cooking for Thanksgiving? Generally I go out and have an orphan’s Thanksgiving with a bunch of friends in New York since we’re all transplants and don’t have a lot of family nearby. We go to a place called Congee Village, and eat around a big table with a lazy Susan, which actually does family-style Thanksgiving better than a traditional Thanksgiving in some ways. We always get jellyfish salad, and sometimes we’ll get clam sashimi or pig’s blood porridge....

If you just want to take a quick picture, use automatic mode—push the shutter and you’re done. On the other hand, if you want a great shot of the blood moon, you’ll need all the control manual mode offers so you can dial in every setting. But there are other modes too, and taking great photos means knowing what they do and when to use them. What matters most Shutter speed (measured in seconds or fractions of a second) and aperture (measured in f-stops) are your camera’s two most important settings....

So what is “Spatial Audio”—how can audio be 3D? Is this supposedly multidimensional experience worth paying to subscribe to a specific service? Do you need specific gear to try out virtual surround? Let’s take a look at these questions and more. Space is the place In its marketing blitz, Apple likened Spatial Audio to the leap from standard definition to 4K video, but that analogy falls, well, flat(screen). It’s really better to call it what it truly is, which is a way to simulate the movie theater experience we’ve come to know since the introduction of the Dolby Atmos and DTS:X formats in 2012....

Our driver slammed on the brakes. We braced ourselves for impact. We were on a collision course, all of us certain the massive creature barreling toward us in the dark would slam into the side of our truck at any second. The vehicle couldn’t stop fast enough. We were in trouble. The cab filled with our panicked cries, and I clutched the dashboard, bracing for impact. Our rim-to-rim Grand Canyon backpacking trip was about to end before it began, shattered by a bison on a lonely road along the North Rim....

With the release of a new app, Apple hopes to collect health information to conduct research and possibly develop new products. The company hopes to gather info from hundreds of thousands of people—and you can be one of them, if you consent. Here’s what to know about the new Research app out of Cupertino, which is available as of today for people in the United States. The app is a hub for three new studies: one focused on women’s health, one on noise and hearing, and another on heart health and movement....

Many parents look to bring a furry pal into the family as a companion for their children, but also as an opportunity for the younglings to learn how to take responsibility for another being. Caring for a dog, especially a puppy, however, is not easy. Before you bring one into your home, there are some things you need to consider to make sure that it’s right for your lifestyle. Make the decision as a family Before adopting a puppy, you and everyone in your household should have a conversation about whether doing so is right for you....

Unfortunately, the answers are all over the map. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) allows you to get a shot as soon as your symptoms resolve, but the agency says that “current evidence about the optimal timing between SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination is insufficient to inform guidance.” Chicago’s public health commissioner recommended waiting 10 days after a positive test. The UK recommends 28 days. And at the far end of the spectrum is the World Health Organization, at 90 days....

We must be the only fledgling fliers in the cosmic neighborhood, as various astrophysicists have suggested for decades. But a new analysis from a team led by University of Rochester astrophysicist Adam Frank suggests a more nuanced resolution to the old paradox. Sweeping across the Milky Way and establishing a unified galactic empire might be inevitable for a monolithic super-civilization, but most cultures are neither monolithic nor super—at least if our experience is any guide....