FACT: Echolocation might be a much more common human ‘superpower’ than you think By Rachel Feltman In 2015 the NPR podcast Invisibilia did an episode called “How To Become Batman.” That was my first real introduction to Daniel Kish, who’s arguably the most famous human echolocator on the planet. Even if you missed that NPR segment, you’ve probably seen viral videos of Kish. He lost his eyes to retinal cancer during infancy, but his ability to navigate the world rivals that of any sighted person....

It looks like that’s about all people will see of the Hyperloop for the conceivable future, as Bloomberg reports the prototype is being demolished to make way for a parking lot. According to their writeup, the Hyperloop prototype first announced in 2016 managed to eventually host some impressive student competitions to test out potential jet-speed train technology, but that was about it. Since then, the Boring Company appears to have shifted away from futuristic, revolutionary public transit options to overseeing small convoys of self-driving Teslas underneath locations such as the Las Vegas Convention Center....

GeoEye-1’s optics allow it to discern objects about 16 inches in size, or about the size of home plate. You might notice, though, that the people in these photos look smaller than they should at that resolution. That’s because current U.S. Licensing restrictions require that the GeoEye-1’s images be resampled to roughly 19.6-inch ground resolution. Boo that. Still, these images are fantastic. I have to wonder, though, what was the deal with the weird crowd shapes around the Washington Monument?...

Just one pound can produce energy equal to burning three million pounds of coal. To harness all that energy, the uranium must first be “enriched,” increasing the concentration of an unstable form of the element, U-235, which, when split, can release massive amounts of energy in what’s known as a fissile reaction. The configuration of the equipment most commonly used for this enrichment, called gas centrifuges, can tip inspectors to illicit intentions....

And the magazine gave Hamilton its first five-star rating, making it the first album to ever receive a Billboard perfect score. But those same Hamilfans might still be puzzled as to why they’ve been listening to the album non-stop since its release this past September. If you’re a diehard, you’ve probably played the 2 hour and 22 minute-long recording more times than you can count — and you have yet to take a break....

In a paper released in Scientific Reports today, researchers found that the odds of a string of record-setting years like this are very slim, somewhere between 1 in 5,000 and 1 in 170,000. And that’s after taking into account natural variations in the climate cycle, like El Niño, La Niña and warming due to volcanic eruptions. Earlier predictions overstated the improbability of the record-setting streak, setting the likelihood of our current streak somewhere between 1 in 27 million and 1 in 650 million, worse odds than your chances of winning the Powerball (1 in 292 million)....

Unlike hurricanes and tropical storms that can be tracked for days, a tornado lasts just a few minutes and can either cover a large area or stay somewhat stationary. The uptick of data that scientists have about tornadoes has a lot to do with population growth in tornado-prone parts of the Southeast and “tornado alley.” Jana Houser, an associate professor of meteorology at the University of Ohio, says that there are a number of variables that make it harder to connect tornadoes to climate....

Those without access to public transit or safe streets for walking or biking needed to rely heavily on private vehicles to get from point A to point B. Around 10 years ago, ride sharing apps were unveiled to the public and quickly became a large part of how commuters move today. According to a survey from the Pew Research Center, more than a third of adults in the US have used a ride sharing app like Lyft or Uber....

“This is a catastrophe,” my wife said—slightly horrified—as she swiped through page after page of apps on my phone. “Why do you even have most of these?” It’s a good question. It’s hard to believe that just 13 years ago, the App Store icon showed up on the iPhone. It debuted with just 500 apps total, but that number has grown to roughly 2 million. It’s an embarrassment of riches when it comes to applications, but some of them are, frankly, kind of embarrassing....

As The Wall Street Journal notes, however, the long sought-after concession can be withdrawn at any point following the introduction of state or federal right to repair legislation. The MOA between Deere and the farmer advocacy group includes a stipulation that allows both parties to terminate the agreement in the event that either state or federal right to repair laws go into effect. According to AFBF President Zippy Duvall, the new MOA “ensures that our farmers can repair their equipment and have access to the diagnostic tools and product guides so that they can find the problems and find solutions for them,” while setting up the opportunity “to really work with John Deere on a personal basis....

The Tarantula Nebula is about 161,000 light-years away from Earth in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy and is home to some of the hottest and and biggest stars known to astronomers. It is also the biggest and brightest star-forming region in the Local Group, or the galaxies located closest to our own Milky Way. In addition to the baby stars, the images captured by JWST’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) reveal distant background galaxies and a closer look at the detailed structure and composition of the nebula’s gas and dust....

All In The Timing Michael Phelps has the Swiss to thank for what was his seventh of eight gold medals. To spectators and swimmers alike, it appeared that Phelps fell just short of catching Serbian Milorad Cavic in the 100-meter butterfly. Even Phelps’s mother held up two fingers, thinking her son had finished second. But technology provided by the notoriously neutral Swiss (a coincidence, we’re sure), showed that the impressively long fingers of Phelps had touched the pool wall 0....

Listen to our podcast! You may have noticed that Last Week in Tech showed up in your podcast feeds last Friday instead of this Monday. We’re switching up the schedule a little as we move offices. This week’s episode has a rundown on the iPhone XR and its new position as the default iPhone. We also talk about the Facebook Messenger redesign which focuses on simplicity, as well as the future of internet privacy....

So, while Apple will dominate next week’s tech news cycle with its new iPhone and whatever else it has planned for its event on Tuesday, this week, we can sit back and imagine what it’s like to break speed records on meticulously manicured German race tracks and catch up on this week’s big stories. Listen to the latest episode of the Techathlon podcast This week started off on the Labor Day holiday here in the U....

Or, in other words, the NSA did its job. When President Truman authored a memorandum creating the NSA in 1952, its stated mission was “to provide an effective, unified organization and control of the communications intelligence activities of the United States conducted against foreign governments, to provide for integrated operational policies and procedures pertaining thereto,” with communications intelligence defined as “all procedures and methods used in the interception of communications other than foreign press and propaganda broadcasts and the obtaining of information from such communications by other than the intended recipients....

This expert-led instructional bundle features ten jam-packed courses, all of which are designed to help you gain familiarity with the language. It fills you in on how the syntax works, the fundamentals of creating various scripts and software, how to scrape websites, build automation programs, and more. It also includes real-life application courses, where you’ll get the chance to complete projects including card games and web scraping tools. An introduction to data science and visualization is also included, in case you want to explore how to use Python in AI projects....

No matter what draws you to the skies, it’s worth learning how to capture them properly. You can do just that with The All-In-One Phantom DJI Drone & Mavic Film School Bundle, which you can get for just $23.98 (reg. $1,400) with code VIP40 at checkout. Comprehensive and thorough, this bundle contains 7 courses and over 220 different lessons on flying drones and shooting footage with them. At the top of the course list, you have the Phantom & Mavic Film School for DJI Drones 1, which shows you how to shoot like a pro the easy way with 7 killer shots, a photography class, and much more....

The M10-R will cost $8,295 when it’s available later this month. That’s a hefty price tag that towers over even modern professional cameras like Canon’s beastly EOS R5, which will shoot 8K video and check in under $4,000 when it hits shelves later this month. The Leica, on the other hand, doesn’t shoot video at all. The 40.89-megapixel sensor—up from just 24 megapixels in the previous model—is just for still photography....

We haven’t seen the TV yet, but a few months ago, SiBeam brought by a prototype WirelessHD transmitter and receiver that worked virtually flawlessly. Only when John Marshall from SiBeam cupped his hands over the transmitter, completely covering it, did the stream cut out. Even walking right in front of the transmitter had no effect — which is impressive, since 60-GHz waves can’t pass through the water that humans are mostly made of....

The issue—which has sparked 13 fires in vehicles, CNBC reported—lurks in the small cells that comprise a vehicle’s battery pack, and two problems that need to coexist in one cell to be a potential hazard. Those two problems are a “torn anode and a folded separator,” GM says. Late last month, GM said that LG had already started producing cells again at two facilities in Michigan. That timeline suggests good news, according to Greg Less, the technical director of the University of Michigan Battery Lab....