The vehicles using those engines in the United States number about 10,000—compared to the 482,000 of the smaller 2.0’s already known to be affected, and 11 million worldwide. But the finding smears more of the upscale brands under VW’s umbrella. Not only are the V6’s affected in the 2014 Volkswagen Touareg TDI (a pricey luxury SUV), they also show up in the 2015 Porsche Cayenne Diesel SUV, as well as in five 2016 Audi models (the A6, A8, and A8L TDI sedans; the A7 TDI hatchback; and the Q5 TDI sport crossover)....

Entrepreneur Harpal Singh financed the construction of the building, known as Instacon, and enlisted more than 200 people for the project, which he told The Times Of India was the first of its kind in the country. Even more impressive: The building was approved for the highest-risk earthquake zone in the country, he claims. For those of you unfamiliar with the prefab process, here’s a simplified version of how it works: big parts of a building called mods–parts of rooms and pieces of floors–are made whole in a factory, then added onto a steel skeleton....

A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) created a computer algorithm that spurs this artificially intelligent robot to maximize its speed, thereby breaking its own sprint records. In several demonstrations, Mini Cheetah can still go turbo as it spins in a circle or darts across ice, loose gravel, and inclines. “What we are interested in is, given the robotic hardware, how fast can [a robot] go?...

However it appeared, it’s likely you received at least one robocall in recent weeks if you’re in the United States, due to the sheer volume being made each month. Experts agree it’s not hundreds or thousands of calls we’re talking about here but somewhere in the billions, although it gets a bit more complicated when you try to narrow that down to an exact number. Here’s what to know....

That number has been climbing again–it reached 70 percent this past September–but the number of Americans who say they are worried about climate change is still seven points lower than it was in 2008 (63% of Americans were “very” or “somewhat” worried about climate change in 2008, compared with 58% in 2012). It’s also significantly lower than in Iran, where 80% of the population is worried about global warming, according to today’s infographic....

But like CBDCs, it’s meant to be a digitized form of money that works in the same way that paper money does currently. However, unlike CBDCs, which requires people to have a direct account with the government that they can access and draw funds from at any time, ECASH values would be stored on secured, government-authorized hardware devices locally, and peer-to-peer transactions are conducted between devices directly (possibly through radio waves)....

This year’s forecast is around normal, based on records dating back about 70 years, says Todd Crawford, chief meteorologist at the Weather Company. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an average hurricane season has 12 named storms, six hurricanes, and three major hurricanes. Hurricanes are tropical cyclones in which winds reach 74 miles per hour, and they’re rated on a category 1 to 5 scale based on wind speeds....

Why is a Wisconsin scientist using science fiction-like stories to talk about global warming? According to Quest, the public broadcasting science series, the goal of “Yahara 2070″ is to get local communities in the Yahara watershed, a 386 square-mile (1,000 square-kilometer) area surrounding Madison, into constructive discussions about adapting to the effects of climate disruption. Rather than do it solely via the usual high-level scientific lingo, however, limnologist (fresh water scientist) Steve Carpenter worked with a writer and an illustrator to create four human-scale visions of the region’s future, based on the best current scientific data and trends, as well as interviews and workshops with people living in the watershed....

As the number of products has increased, the Food and Drug Administration has been working through the best way to oversee the products. Figuring out which software programs are considered medical devices—and are therefore subject to regulation by the agency—and which are not has been crucial. So many new products are reaching the market that it’s hard for the agency to keep up, says Daniel Rubin, professor of biomedical data science at Stanford University....

This past weekend, the Peugeot team lost a racecar, though thankfully not a race driver, when it spun out of control, catapulting across the tarmac during a practice session. It’s is the fourth lift-induced crash among the flattish-bottomed LeMans Prototype 1 (LMP1) cars in just four weeks, according to Racecar Engineering, which reports on concern among LeMans watchers that regulations regarding underbody airflow are no longer relevant. In what is perhaps the most famous of these lift, or “blowover” accidents, a Mecedes Benz CLR-GTR went airborne in 1999....

Deciding who’s right and who’s wrong depends on what type of person you are, but we’re here to tell you there is a scientific answer to the burning question: Is this ok to eat? Spoilage vs. safety All food can be classified in three large groups: perishables, semi-perishables and non-perishables. The first category has a limited shelf life and must be stored in a temperature-controlled environment. Foods such as meat, milk, vegetables, and some cheeses fall into this category....

An Ohio woman recently contracted a rare infection after her German Shepherd gave her kisses that swept over an open wound. Days later she ended up in the emergency room, delirious, and had such a serious case of Capnocytophaga that doctors amputated her legs and hands. Capnocytophaga bacteria live in dogs’ mouths naturally, causing no harm to the canine hosts, but they’re pathogenic to humans. There are plenty of these types of bacteria, and yet the majority of dog bites aren’t hazardous, apart from the puncture marks themselves....

Probably not. The idea of ancient humans as persistence hunters, possessed of superior physical capability, has a certain romance about it and has become very popular with running enthusiasts. Some scientists suggest it can explain several of the evolutionary traits humans have acquired over the past two million years. There may be some groups who practice it even today, though that’s hotly debated. Despite the idea’s foothold in popular culture, however, there is no hard evidence that ancient humans were persistence hunters, much less that persistence hunting shaped evolutionary traits....

There is a huge diversity of bees and wasps out there—all fall under the scientific order of Hymenoptera, which also includes ants and the less familiar sawflies. Bees are technically one subgroup of the diversity of wasps (in a square/rectangle sort of way). Within this dizzying array of insects, it’s true that lots of them can’t sting—but it’s probably not the ones that you think. And among those that can sting, only a small minority are responsible for the bulk of human stinging encounters....

Mark Kelly, brother of fellow astronaut Scott Kelly posted the short and fun video on Twitter earlier today, showing the gorilla’s hijinks set to the tune of Yakety Sax. Mark Kelly couldn’t resist ribbing his twin brother, who is about to complete his year-long stay on the International Space Station. Tech Insider reports that the gorilla suit was a gift from Mark to Scott, part of a care package sent to the space station during one of the re-supply missions to the space station....

Our team of researchers from the universities of Bath, Edinburgh and Oxford have been working to unlock the mystery of how these animals get their distinctive patterns. We have discovered that the way these striking pigment patterns form is far more random than originally thought. Our findings have implications for the study of a wide range of serious embryonic disorders in humans, including diseases affecting hearing, vision, digestion, and the heart....

In early 2020 I developed a disabling case of long COVID, which sent me on a never-ending search for adequate care. Three of the most prominent long COVID clinics in Los Angeles turned me away because I wasn’t able to obtain a test for the virus when I fell ill, an experience shared by many patients who were infected early in the pandemic, when resources were still nonexistent or scarce....

Still, there are plenty of high-quality alternatives for Windows that might suit you better. In fact, if you need to play music or movies, you’re spoilt for choice when picking software. The Play queue link will show you the audio and video files coming up next, while you can use the Playlists tab to create customized lists of files for playback. At least for now, the Windows 11 Media Player doesn’t incorporate any streaming services—everything you play has to be stored locally on your computer....

This isolation can trigger cabin fever, an extremely unpleasant state of mind. But you can fight it off if you know what to do. What is cabin fever? Cabin fever is a folk term, not an official medical diagnosis. In fact, even people trained in psychological analysis have overlapping but not precise definitions of this term. Still, researchers have determined some common symptoms that tend to go along with being trapped in the house during a winter storm (or otherwise stuck indoors)....

The second-generation AirPods are a very solid pair of true wireless earbuds, especially if you pair them to another Apple device. The buds have hardshell tips, so they’ll fit in almost any ear, offer up to five hours of music playback per charge, and are compatible with devices running iOS, Android, MacOS, and Windows. If you connect the earbuds to an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, the earbuds will automatically be linked to your AppleID, which means they’ll immediately be available on any Apple device....