The decision came on the heels of several prescribed burns that grew out of control in the Southwest US. The biggest of them, the combined Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak fires, have grown to more than 300,000 acres, the largest in New Mexico history. Hermits Peak began when high winds carried a prescribed fire out of bounds, while Calf Canyon grew out of the smoldering embers of a months-old burn....
And there was: Google Tasks. Although this tool has been around since 2008, it’s easy to overlook. It doesn’t even appear when you click on the Google apps icon (a three-by-three grid) at the top of your Gmail inbox in a browser. Despite this lack of fanfare, Tasks has quickly become an indispensable tool as I manage PopSci’s DIY section. Select or open any email in your browser, and you’ll see the Add to tasks icon at the top of the screen among the options that let you trash a message or mark it as unread....
If you’re looking for slappin’ bass in music, movies, and video game soundtracks, look no further than the Kube 10b, which features a custom-designed 10-inch woofer and 300-watt RMS amplifier to hit 24Hz depths. The Kube 10b also includes an easy-to-use input and control panel on the back. Three placement settings—free-standing, in-cabinet, or corner—allow for peak-performing sound wherever they’re placed, and Intelligent Bass Extension (iBX) digital signaling gives you dynamic bass at any volume level....
While it’s common for military aircraft to refuel in the sky, up until now, the planes giving them a top-off have always had human pilots. What sets this moment apart is that the refueling aircraft was a drone called the MQ-25. While there were two people in the Super Hornet, the drone was unoccupied—an unmanned aerial vehicle that schlepps and delivers fuel. The drone, the MQ-25, is also known as the Stingray....
Using a Ricoh Theta S camera, Popular Science assistant editor, Claire Maldarelli, filmed part of the inflation process, which takes place every year the day before the parade at a staging area near 77th street and Central Park West. This past month, Facebook introduced the ability to upload and watch 360-degree videos on all devices. Watch the video above, and then read about the calm chaos that occurs the day before parade day, and lookout for more 360-degree videos from Popular Science in the future....
The streaks of light appear to originate near the Gemini constellation, which is where the shower gets its name. That’s where you should look on Tuesday night to see shooting stars rain across the sky. This year, unlike 2015, the Geminid meteor shower will have some competition. Its peak tonight coincides with a supermoon—the full moon that occurs when our satellite is on its nearest approach to Earth. Bright light from the moon will make it harder to spot the flashes of shooting stars....
This article has been updated with new information from Washington Post reporter Brian Fung, who said that Bezos actually said “the Dutch” instead of Denmark.
The answer was standing right behind them. As the smoke grenades denoting artillery landed nearby, a supporting electronic warfare officer aimed a rifle-shaped antenna at the drone. The drone crashed to the ground instantly, its camera going fuzzy and then only showing the pilot a close-up of asphalt. The rest of the battle was a success for all involved: the defending squad of cadets successfully retreated, that attacking platoon took and held the buildings, and the Army Cyber Institute gave the Army’s next generation of leaders a taste of the complexity that cheap commercial technology can bring to modern war....
USC researchers Michael Proctor, Shrikanth Narayanan and Krishna Nayak wanted to document the range of sound effects a beatboxer produces, and examine the way performers use their vocal cords to change air flow and sound patterns. They made 40 recordings with the beatboxer, who has been an MC in a rap duo since 1995 and is a native English speaker with Spanish fluency. The subject was asked to demonstrate his skills while the team recorded him with a real-time MRI scanner, developed specifically for studying speech....
North Korea Claims Total Success This is the least helpful part of the whole process. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is a tightly controlled pariah state, where even modest improvements to submarine missile launch technology get buried in hour-long propaganda videos and recut to demonstrate a glorious success. The official statement from North Korea contains both technical information: And hyperbolic praise: This is from the video North Korean state television broadcast of the launch: The Satellite Is In Space And It Is Very Quiet Kwangmyongsong-4 appears to be in orbit, but it hasn’t yet transmitted anything detectable....
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What is ANC? Headphones are just earmuffs with a better soundtrack. Closed-back headphones, not to mention earphones, have delivered passive noise-cancelling—the simple act of covering the ear canal to keep out unwanted sound—since Day One. That’s most effective against high frequencies, however. Now technology is being leveraged to further improve the environmental extremes headphones and earphones can combat—no more continually jacking the volume and permanently damaging your hearing. But just because active noise-cancelling is in the news doesn’t mean it’s new....
No matter how you choose to get rid of your old laptop, smartphone, tablet, or other gadget (there are great options for recycling or reusing it if you don’t want to throw it away), you need to protect your private data before parting with your unwanted device. Are all your photos stored somewhere safe? Are you sure your laptop’s new owner can’t access your banking spreadsheets? Disposing of old hardware can be a privacy minefield, but staying safe isn’t difficult if you know what you’re doing....
The MAKS arms show is a chance for Russian industry to introduce the public to the next generations of its flagship vehicles, as well as for smaller players to shop prototypes and concepts to prospective buyers. Previous MAKS events have featured novel hybrid drones and demonstrated smaller alternatives to mainstay military workhorse uncrewed aircraft. While there have been a wide range of stealth fighter prototypes, production models have remained within a much narrower form factor, constrained by the limits of both useful stealth features and aerodynamics....
Delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol is a hemp-derived cannabinoid. Many people claim that it helps with anxiety, sleep, appetite, and even pain management. For more information on its properties, you can check out the National Cancer Institute. It’s important to mention that delta 8 is psychoactive, meaning it can alter your brain functions and will get you high. But, delta 8 is not as potent as its super strong cousin, delta 9. It’s known as “diet cannabis” and people believe they feel a light high when taking delta 8....
So before we head on to the difference, let us first understand what these products are and how they work. Hemp oil is also called hemp seed oil as it is extracted from the seeds of a cannabis plant which belongs to the same family as other marijuana plants. It was only recently that growing hemp was made legal in some countries and states due to the industrial purposes and benefits it provides....
Evolutionary biologist Joan Garcia-Porta’s team found that crows and ravens, both in the corvid family, expanded their range and evolved into various species quickly. After spanning almost the entire globe between 22 to 18 million years ago, the crows and ravens were exposed to new environments. To survive in these different niches, members of the genus Corvus experienced high rates of adaptation and species diversification roughly 10 million years ago....
The hemp plant is the same species as a cannabis plant, except it contains 0.3 percent or lower tetrahydrocannabinol or THC. New industries making products using the less-potent varieties of THC and tough fabric or plastic alternative materials from the plants fibers have popped up since the 2018 US Farm Bill allowed its production once again. And some scientists have stared to wonder if it could be useable cow feed....
America’s love for hamburgers has a pretty hefty cost on the environment. But to get a hamburger in your hands, you probably won’t have to look far, and it’ll only put you out a few dollars. Conventional agriculture has set itself up to be a massively efficient system for getting food in the bellies of Americans—particularly when it comes to processed food, grains, and meat. Processed food makes up more than half of Americans’ calories each year, including butter, cheese, and canned beans....
Bezos, one of the richest men in the world, penned an open letter to NASA, asking them to rethink the contract, offering to waive $2 billion dollars of costs. He also filed a complaint to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). “I don’t know if the public is paying attention to this, but the space community sure is and the space community is reacting very negatively,” says Laura Forczyk, owner of aerospace space consulting firm Astralytical....
