New Thinking: The men’s pole-vault record—6.14 meters, or 20 feet and 1.75 inches—was set by the legendary Ukranian vaulter Sergey Bubka in 1994; no one else has ever cleared 20 feet (twice the height of a basketball hoop). But this might be the year the record falls, thanks to new light-weight poles made from carbon fiber and fiberglass (the old poles were pure fiberglass). The materials not only save almost a pound of heft but also provide faster recoil, transferring more of the energy stored in the bent pole back to the vaulter

Myrick, a professor of communications at Pennsylvania State University, started thinking about how memes about this stressful time period were percolating through the internet and our collective consciousness. She and her colleagues set up an experiment to study whether these pandemic memes helped us cope with stress during quarantine—and their results were published in the American Psychology Association journal Psychology of Popular Media this week. “We found that viewing a meme made people feel good,” Myrick says....

The key to survival is preparation. Knowing the inherent dangers that come with spending time outdoors, the ways you’re most likely to bite the big one, and how to protect yourself and your loved ones will go a long way toward ensuring you make it home with riveting stories to tell. Men suffer the most unintended deaths in parks—79 percent of the 990 deaths in the above date range, in fact—and the most likely way to go depends heavily on the park in question....

The plug, known as an on-board diagnostics (OBD) port, lets external devices talk to and gather data about your car. You can use it for mundane stuff like diagnosing check engine lights or gauging your fuel efficiency, but you can also do fun, fancy stuff, like tracking your car with GPS or automatically turning on the smart lights inside your house when you park at home. What OBD is and how it works Every car manufactured since Jan....

The coronavirus pandemic has understandably spurred millions to think about how they protect themselves—and others—in public spaces. And now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is advocating for people to wear cloth masks to help stop anyone who might be infected, but asymptomatic, from transmitting the virus. Meanwhile, the type of masks that can halt viral particles from getting through should be reserved for healthcare workers. But other first responders have drastically different levels of protection at their disposal—from gear that would be overkill for COVID-19 but appropriate for, say, sarin gas, to equipment that’s a better fit for the current disaster....

For testing, the Pike is brought to the Detachment’s Intermediate Scale Measurement System Range, an array of 158 hydrophones and 36 projectors mounted underwater. “The purpose of that range is to evaluate target strength and structural acoustics,” says Seth Lambrecht, who directs ARD. (Target strength is a metric used to determine the area of an underwater object on sonar). To make the Pike stand in for the Columbia class, researchers added a Columbia-specific stern to the model....

Companies like Nest claim you can save you up to 15% on cooling, and ecobee bets for an even higher 23%. But these savings highly depend on factors such as the size of your house, the type of insulating materials it was built with, your particular usage, and the kind of thermostat you’re replacing. Ecobee’s estimate comes from comparing smart thermostats to a straight temperature hold, while Nest’s values are based off people who did at least some programming to their thermostats....

Fortunately, Google allows users to delete the last 15 minutes of their search history with just one tap. Whether you live in fear of someone snooping around your devices or just saw something you’d like to forget, this option will erase all traces of any fleeting lack of judgment, while retaining the benefits of keeping a search history. Although the big G announced this feature in May 2021 and made it available to iOS users only two months later, Android users were left without....

Why do movies do this? It all has to do with dynamic range—the difference between the loudest and softest parts of a soundtrack. The wider the range, the larger the dramatic impact, explains Scott Wilkinson, audiovisual technology journalist and consultant (and the “Home Theater Geek” on TWiT.tv). In other words, they mix it that way so when that explosion finally happens, it kicks you in the gut and rocks your world....

This article will introduce you to some foundational modeling concepts, but in an effort to make the basics a little more fun, we’ll do so by creating a cylindrical figure with a cartoonish face. Install design software To make a model, you’ll need some sort of 3D computer-aided design (CAD) program. While commercial options can cost thousands of dollars, there are a variety of budget-friendly, even free, consumer applications. Such options include OpenSCAD, FreeCAD, Tinkercad, and others, but for this demonstration we’ll be using a modeling platform called Autodesk Fusion 360....

S’mores, those delicious campfire treats most of us enjoyed during our childhood, are just as popular as ever. In fact, s’mores aren’t just for kids—they’re for anyone who loves chocolate, marshmallows and graham crackers. But if you just happen to pull out those ingredients the next time you’re sitting around a campfire with your family, you’re sure to put a big smile on some small faces. Whether you call them s’mores or their original name, “some mores,” one thing’s for certain: Roast a marshmallow and put it and some milk chocolate between a couple of graham crackers, and you’ll likely want “some more” after the first one is gone!...

I recently watched an episode where the contestants had to make rum butter, and I wondered how easy it would be to make regular butter at home. My mind flashed back to the 1800s, and I pictured myself having to purchase a wooden butter churn, clogs, and a bonnet in order to make my own spread. Newsflash: It’s actually a simple process. No churn required; clogs and bonnet: optional. And now that I’ve learned how to stick it to Big Butter, I’ve decided to become more than just an amateur baker....

But before we start, a clarification: Since any smart device you buy will come with an app to control it, you don’t have to have a hub at the center of your smart home. However, if the idea of an (even more) app-crowded phone makes you shiver and you’d rather manage all your devices from a single app, then getting a home hub is a smart choice. Apple HomePod A smart speaker with superior audio capabilities is already cool enough, but when you get a HomePod you get more than that....

It’s not obvious, but there are hidden shortcuts that make the change between editing and suggesting mode as easy as 1, 2, 3, 4. Suggesting mode, on the other hand, marks everything you do so other people know exactly what you did. Pieces of text you remove will appear with a line through them, while the text you add will be underlined. The platform assigns different colors to different users—so you know who did what—and every change is accompanied by its own sidebar comment detailing what was there, and how it is now different....

Sky gazers got stellar views of the conjunction on the mornings of June 23 and 24 with the moon neatly positioned between Venus and Mars. The moon will remain near that spot until June 27, catching Mercury in its glow even as it wanes into a sliver. The procession is visible with the naked eye, but binoculars or a small scope can make it easier to identify the different planets and their features....

Get rid of the manufacturer’s bloatware When you think of a new PC, you probably imagine a perfectly clean desktop, free of all the junk icons you’ve stuffed in there over the years. But that’s not really how the world of Windows works. In order to lower the cost of the machine, manufacturers often include bloatware like antivirus trials, media suites, and games—not to mention the manufacturer’s own tools that can be less than useful....

Some apps, such as Netflix, have built-in support for user profiles to make this less of an issue. But the feature is not available on every video and audio streaming app out there, and it doesn’t cover other personalized aspects of the experience, like home screen layouts and watchlists. The real solution is to create user profiles for the streaming device itself. These work just like the different user accounts you might have set up on a shared Windows or macOS computer, and you can create one for each person in your home....

Safety first! Wear safety glasses to keep flying chips out of your eyes, and thin rubber gloves to prevent friction burns on your hands. Never wear heavy gloves around rotating equipment, as they may catch on spinning parts and pull your fingers in with them. If you have long hair, keep it up, back, and out of the way. Project overview Time: 45 minutesCost: $15 for partsDifficulty: Easy Tools needed HacksawSandpaperDrill press with 1/2″ chuckDrill press vice (or C-clamps)5/16″ twist drillScrewdriver...

Siri got another upgrade Apple’s voice-activated virtual assistant Siri got a boost in iOS 10, but it doesn’t stop there. After updating your Mac to the latest version of the new operating system, macOS Sierra, Siri appears automatically on your home dock. You can remove it from the dock if you want, but Siri is fun to use and can actually help you out. To get Siri to pop up, all you have to do is click the icon on the dock....

Appearing as a pulsating orange circle with a bar graph inside it, Area Busyness is an extension of the details Maps already provides when you investigate public transit options or tap on certain stores while inside the mobile app. And just like those other data displays, this feature does more than simply inform you of how many people you can expect to encounter when you go out. Finally, scroll down and you’ll see a “plus code,” which is a string of six or seven numbers and letters, as well as the town or city name, that acts as a street address for a general area....