Awe-inspiring science reporting, technology news, and DIY projects. Skunks to space robots, primates

[ad_1] LinkedIn also joined the sector as early as 2015, buying online education firm Lynda for $1.5 billion. Lynda has finance and technology courses, including ones that aim to help business executives implement tech into their firm. Meanwhile, South African start-up GetSmarter has capitalized on the uptrend and is the software and online campus provider for the Said Business School at Oxford University's new online fintech course. At the time of the program's mid-October start date, nearly 1,000 people from across 71 countries had enrolled, with the U.K. accounting for a third of sign-ups. Here's where the numbers get interesting. About three-quarters of participants are currently working in financial services, with half having more than 15 years' experience in the industry. ...

[ad_1] President Donald Trump has requested for a heightened vetting program following Tuesday's terrorist attack in New York. @realDonaldTrump: I have just ordered Homeland Security to step up our already Extreme Vetting Program. Being politically correct is fine, but not for this! Earlier, he tweeted that the attack in lower Manhattan was committed by a "sick and deranged person." @realDonaldTrump: In NYC, looks like another attack by a very sick and deranged person. Law enforcement is following this closely. NOT IN THE U.S.A.! His remarks came after a motorist drove onto a busy bicycle path near the World Trade Center memorial and struck several people on Tuesday, leaving at least eight people dead and a dozen injured. NBC News repor...

[ad_1] When the buildings you live in—along with your life support systems, creature comforts, and basic livelihood—all reside on a moving chunk of ice, you better hope that ice is solid. And if that ice is slightly less-than-solid, you had better be able to get out of there fast in the event of an emergency. That’s why the British Antarctic Survey has decided to shut down their Halley VI base during the next Antarctic winter. It’s the second year in a row that the organization made the decision to cease operations during winter months, thanks to two massive cracks in the research station’s home, the Brunt Ice Shelf. “What we are witnessing is the power and unpredictability of Nature,” says Professor Dame Jane Francis, Director of BAS, in a statement. “The safety of our staff is our priority in these circumstances. Our Antarctic summer research operation will continue as planned, and we are confident of mounting a fast uplift of personnel ...

[ad_1] Overall, residential insured losses for all the fires totaled just over $3.1 billion and commercial losses represented nearly $137 million. Auto losses exceeded $28 million and farm/agriculture losses from the fires exceeded $4.5 million, with most of it in Sonoma County but also some losses in Napa County. The wine country wildfires damaged or destroyed more than 14,700 homes, 728 businesses, and more than 3,600 private cars, commercial vehicles, farm equipment and watercraft. At least 43 people died as a result of the devastating fires, including a firefighter. The series of wildfires, which started the evening of Oct. 8, destroyed entire neighborhoods in the city of Santa Rosa. At least 5 percent of the housing stock in Sonoma County was destroyed in the fires. ...

[ad_1] Out there, beyond the anthropomorphic mice and never-ending queues is a man who is quietly trying to disrupt your next vacation to Disney’s Magic Kingdom. His name is Len Testa and his annual subscription-based service, Touring Plans, will predict how long you’ll wait at any ride, any time of day, any day of the year for $14.95—less than the price of a giant turkey leg and a Dole Whip. With statisticians, programmers and data scientists among its eight full-time staff members and dozen part-time employees, Touring Plan upends trips to Disneyland, Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando resorts with customizable itineraries centered around how to smartly skip the lines at every single theme park. In addition to optimizing which time to board each attraction with its Touring Plans itinerary guides, their free-with-subscription app, Lines, says how long you’ll actually wait in every line, and the freakishly accurate Crowd Calendar recommends the best times to...

[ad_1] When the land down the road from Lorraine Lewandrowski’s home in New York State’s Herkimer county was sold, it was bought by developers who turned the land into a subdivision. “The people who bought the lots from us were nice enough, and they all told me that they wanted to be out in the country,” says Lewandrowski a lawyer and a dairy farmer in Central New York. “But they couldn't grasp what they were doing. The meadows that were alive with little bird fledglings the developers were plowing under to make these 10 acre lawns.” It’s hard to argue that that was an ecological improvement over the land’s previous incarnation as a farm. For the past month, many Popular Science staff members have engaged in No Red October in which they eschewed eating beef. The reason was not masochism but environmentalism: livestock accounts for 12-percent of global climate change emissions. And beef—which requires 28 times more land and 11 times ...

[ad_1] Several casino stocks received a lift Tuesday after a report from Nomura suggested the Macau gaming market showed a "noticeable pickup in demand" in the last part of October. In early afternoon trading, Wynn Resorts stock was up just over 5.5 percent, Las Vegas Sands was up 2.8 percent, and MGM was ahead just over 2 percent. "Our latest consultant checks point to a noticeable pickup in demand following the 19th Party Congress in China, with VIP and mass revenue up about 30 percent and 9 percent year-over-year, respectively," Nomura analyst Harry Curtis said in a research note Tuesday. Macau, the world's largest gambling mecca, appears to have been spared any harsh new regulations during the recent Communist Party Congress in Beijing. A previous downturn in Macau was blam...

[ad_1] The fate of aquatic ecosystems in a warming climate may well rest upon the appetite of a tiny snail-like herbivore you’ve probably never heard of: the limpet. The behavior of the little limpet, in fact, is a perfect model for what scientists see as a defense strategy against the pressures imposed upon the environment by increasing temperatures. Because limpets eat plants, they actually make ecosystems stronger in the face of climate change. Among other things, they create space for other creatures, making ecosystems more diverse. “At first it might seem like an ecosystem untouched by consumers [herbivores and predators] is better, and, well, it would be better for populations of plants if that was all we cared about, but it’s not better for the ecosystem as a whole,” said Rebecca Kordas, who studied how plant-eating critters help aquatic communities cope with climate change in the rocky intertidal, the area of the shore between low and high tides. “E...

[ad_1] The internet is a big place overflowing with information—which makes it a great place to do research. However, as good as your Google skills might be, even the most well-known search engine doesn't always cut it. Sometimes, you just don't get the results you want—or any results at all—from Google. If that's the case, you need to take your researching to the next level. Here's how you can dig deeper into all of the other resources that the internet has to offer. Try alternative search engines The most obvious alternatives to Google are other search engines. in a pinch, these can throw up different results than Google might. For a general search, compare your Google results to those you find when you type the same terms into Microsoft's Bing or the privacy-conscious DuckDuckGo. Other tools focus on specific types of searches. For example, if you're looking for nuggets of information, rather than a long list of webpages, Wolfram Alpha excels at turning up co...

[ad_1] Shares of decking company Trex jumped 25 percent Tuesday after the firm reported quarterly earnings that beat expectations. The stock hit a record of $109.09. The company reported earnings per share of 68 cents compared with analyst expectations of 55 cents projected by FactSet. Net sales for the third quarter hit a record $140 million, up more than 32 percent from the same quarter last year. "It is clear that we are beginning to see the results of our influence with the consumer," CEO James E. Cline said on a conference call. Cline credited a national ad campaign launched two years ago for driving demand. The company said it expected...

[ad_1] For much of the past year, I have fought a one-sided battle with a popular fast casual restaurant chain that we’ll call “Ready.” Unlike most restaurants, Ready doesn't make sandwiches, assemble salads, or otherwise perform acts of cookery upon customer request. Instead they sell nominally healthy, whole-ingredient-based pre-made soups, salads, and sandwiches. Because I’m lazy and impatient, I’m Ready’s perfect customer and not just because Ready has a location in Popular Sciences’ building. They also have another four locations (including one that sells beer) along my commute. So you'd think that Ready sandwiches would be a regular part of my nutritional rotation. But they aren't, because Ready’s sandwiches are disgusting. The problem is that Ready saturates almost every sandwich with a miasma of mayonnaise. When Ready doesn't use mayonnaise, they use a yogurt dressing which is mayonnaise for people who are ashamed that they're ea...

[ad_1] Among the countless situations autonomous cars must master before we see driverless vehicles giving us rides is a seemingly mundane one: Where do you pick up passengers? "Pickups can be one of the most stressful moments for passengers," said Juliet Rothenberg who oversees rider experience for Waymo, formerly known as the Google self-driving car project. "We're exploring features to recognize riders earlier." Here's the problem Waymo's self-driving minivans have encountered when picking up riders in a pilot program in Arizona. Sometimes the passenger is not at the exact location they indicated when calling for a ride on the Waymo self-driving car app. Other times, riders do not realize they need to be at the exact pickup location. The riders will walk toward the m...

[ad_1] The first book I read on an e-reader was Cryptonomicon , the Neal Stephenson epic. I kept falling asleep while reading the 931-page paper version, and it would hit me in the face. I read myself to sleep and that is what happens, but this massive tome would sometimes crack me in the face so hard that it would leave a mark. So I picked up an e-reader, one of the early Sony models. From that moment, I was in love with the tech. Your opinion is your own, and I respect it. Now that I’ve said that, I will abuse this website and broadcast mine: e-readers are better than books. They make it easy to bring multiple volumes with you anywhere, and a backlit e-ink screen is like a printed page that glows—as opposed to your phone or tablet screen, which is like reading on a TV. Many are even waterproof. Huzzah, I’ll be in the tub. Don’t bother me for at least two hours. Amazon’s 7-inch Kindle Oasis is the everything-giant’s first waterproof reader, which is ...

[ad_1] An online investment platform that allows Chinese investors to access a number of "alternative" U.S. investments officially launched Monday. Financial technology firm MarketX lets upper-middle class and institution Chinese investors to invest in tech firms that have not yet issued shares to the general public. These include such notable names as ride-hailing giant Lyft, music platform Spotify, bulletin board site Pinterest and workplace messaging app Slack. But they will also be given the opportunity to enter less tapped markets such as litigation finance and real estate, artificial intelligence, customizable portfolios driven by themes like health, and companies founded by Tesla's Elon Musk. "Our goal is to improve the access to U.S. financial products but also education for...

[ad_1] Pumpkins are, arguably, the least spooky part of Halloween. They are also the least contentious (see: candy corn), the most orange, and—scientifically speaking—the coolest. Humans tend to think of themselves as the genetically superior species, but plants have us beat when it comes to genomic promiscuity. And it turns out that the modern pumpkin evolved from a mash-up between two different species which created its mutant ancestor. This monster pumpkin had double the normal number of chromosomes and eventually became what we all like to put in our muffins during the fall. Frankenstein would be proud. Geneticists figured this out by sequencing the modern pumpkins genome and comparing it to other squashes in its family. They published their autumnal findings last month in the journal, Molecular Plant . Plants are genetically promiscuous, and we should be thankful for that Human fetuses are pretty delicate. One sperm meets one egg, and each developmental step follows fro...

[ad_1] Lee Jae Won | Reuters The plant of South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding is seen in Koeje island of South Kyongsang province, about 470 km southeast of Seoul May 15, 2001. North Korea probably stole South Korean warship blueprints after hacking into Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co Ltd's database in April last year, a South Korean opposition lawmaker said on Tuesday. North Korea has often been implicated in cyber attacks in South Korea and elsewhere but Pyongyang has either ignored or denied accusations of hacking. "We are almost 100 percent certain that North Korean hackers were behind the hacking and stole the company's sensitive documents," Kyung Dae-soo of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party told Reuters by telephone. Daewoo Shipbuildin...

[ad_1] "The region is recognizing the importance of the new cycle," Azour said, referring to a broader global economy recovery. "Yet they need to do more reforms in order to fully benefit from it." A key challenge facing the MENA region was complacency resulting from higher oil prices. "If the oil price will go up, then the appetite for reform will go down," Azour warned. Also pressing on decision-makers was conflict and geopolitical issues arising in the region, as well as global risks such as tightening monetary policy and "inward looking policies in the West." Azour cited Egypt as an example of a country that had begun to turn its economy around, with capital flows, exports and tourism — among other things — on the up. He described the need to "consolidate" reforms, "keep the discipline" and improve the c...

[ad_1] China reiterated its opposition to the deployment of THAAD, but took note of South Korea's position and hopes South Korea can appropriately handle the issue, it added. South Korean companies operating in China have suffered since the spat erupted last year, although Beijing has never specifically linked its actions to the THAAD deployment. Lotte Group, which provided the land where THAAD was installed, has suffered most. It faces a costly overhaul and is expected to sell its Chinese hypermarket stores for a fraction of what it invested. Hopes have been growing for a thaw in the frosty bilateral ties following China's all-important Congress Party conclave, during which President Xi Jinping cemented his status as China's most powerful leader after Mao Zedong. ...

[ad_1] Digital currencies issued by central banks will make transactions more efficient while cryptocurrencies serve as a vehicle for illicit activity, economist Barry Eichengreen told CNBC Monday. Asked whether he thought cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether would play a major role in the economy, he said: "Not really." "I think there is a role for central bank-issued digital currencies which are a very different thing than crypto, anonymous currencies," he said. "The first alternative central bank digital currencies will make transactions more efficient. The second one is a vehicle for money laundering, tax evasion and the like." Cryptocurrencies have come under fire from a number of economists, regulators and bankin...

[ad_1] Glowing high in the atmosphere, the northern and southern lights shine softly, brilliantly—and on Jupiter, weirdly. Jupiter, like our own planet, has distinct auroras (northern lights by another name) near its poles. An aurora forms when charged particles are accelerated by a planet or brown dwarf’s magnetic field and slam into the atmosphere, creating beautiful lights in the night sky. In the case of Jupiter, many of the electromagnetic waves thrown off by its auroras are x-rays—invisible to human eyes, but key to understanding more about how auroras on Jupiter form. In a study published in Nature Astronomy this week, astronomers announced that they’d finally been able to observe Jupiter’s southern x-ray hot spot in detail using data from the XMM-Newton and Chandra space observatories in 2007 and 2016. Surprisingly, Jupiter’s x-ray hot spots weren’t exactly in synch across the hemispheres. In the southern half of the planet, the x-ray r...

[ad_1] The holidays are right around the corner, and some of retail's biggest names are being called out by Wall Street. Macy's and J.C. Penney were both downgraded by Citi Research on Monday, to sell from neutral ratings. Citi analyst Paul Lejuez is calling for "another promotional holiday season" ahead for an already challenged department store industry. Too many deals and discounts throughout the November and December months could eat into company profits if retailers aren't able to rack up dollars elsewhere. Macy's shares were falling more than 5 percent by Monday afternoon on the news, while Penney's shares were trading 10 percent lower. Retail rivals Sears, Kohl's, Nordstrom and Dillard's were also each dipping lower, dragging the S&P 500 Retail ETF (XRT...

[ad_1] The New Jersey-based costume company suing Kmart for stealing its banana costume has reached a settlement outside the court, said Rasta Imposta CEO Robert Berman. "We're going to continue selling to Kmart in the future," Berman told CNBC. Berman declined to provide details of the settlement. For almost a decade, Kmart had purchased Rasta Imposta's banana suit costume, a full-body yellow peel with a black stem at the head and foot. But this Halloween season Kmart didn't order the banana costume after "the parties had some difficulty reaching an agreement," and Kmart decided to buy its banana costume from another vendor, according to the court filing. Kmart declined to comment. ...

Oakley Crosslink Temple Replacement Arm Detachable USA   Oakley Crosslink Temple Replacement Arm Detachable   The range of temple kits to offer further color variations for the Crosslink and Crosslink Sweep. The temples are one size and fit either 53 or 55 eye size. Please note these kits do not fit the Crosslink Switch or Crosslink Pro.   Oakley Rx frames give you all-day comfort for life beyond sports. Our breakthroughs in precision fit offer a personalized feel leveraging the premium materials and technologies from our innovations in sports performance. With our revolutionary new frame fitting system, a perfect fit is easy, so you can choose whatever style you want and not worry about how it will feel. TruBridge™ Technology adapts the frame to the width and depth of your nose bridge, so you never have to pass up a style you love. Explore the wide range of Oakley Rx frame styles and see how form and function blend seamlessly to create industry-leading ...