Modern satellite technology lets us spot dangerous threats like extreme weather, giant icebergs, and even foreign militaries. But when it comes to sinkholes, all we can do is wait and hope that our cars won’t be swallowed by a sudden gaping chasm in a city street. So how do sinkholes form, and why is it so hard to…
Source: Gizmodo – Here’s What Causes Those Car-Swallowing Sinkholes to Form
This is a short video of a Fox 5 reporter asking a boy what kind of fireworks are the best when the kid turns on him with a, “Wouldn’t you like to know, weatherboy.” I’m not sure how long Under Armour had been standing there preparing for his moment to shine, but my guess is several minutes. Also, I’ve got the feeling there’s a Fox 5 news reporter out there right now hoping a certain somebody has a little fireworks mishap this 4th of July.
Keep going for the video, complete with a value-add laugh by the guy filming his TV at the very end.
Source: Geekologie – Oh Snap!: Local Reporter Gets Roasted By Kid Buying Fireworks
Source: Engadget – Troubled game reseller forces users to identify themselves
Spider-Woman is real! This baffling she-spider spins giant webs with fiber stronger than steel.
Source: TreeHugger – Watch this tiny spider shoot 80-foot long strands of silk across a river
Enlarge (credit: Getty | Spauln)
In the years after health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act unfurled in Multnomah County, Oregon, cardiac arrests among those newly covered fell 17 percent, researchers report this week in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
The pilot study, led by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University and the Heart Institute of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, is just an observational study—it can’t determine causation—and it only looked at the one county. But, the authors argue, the data begs for follow-up.
“Despite general agreement that expanded insurance coverage leads to positive health effects, the mechanism of this benefit and effect on health outcomes remains poorly understood,” they note. In past small studies, findings have been murky on whether health insurance significantly alters major health events—such as cardiac arrests.
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Source: Ars Technica – After ACA arrived in an Oregon county, there was a 17% drop in cardiac arrest
But don’t miss the forest for the trees: there is some very interesting urban design happening here.
Source: TreeHugger – Stefano Boeri reveals Liuzhou Forest City
Before the iPhone was released, there were very few iPhone takes on the internet. 10 years ago, that changed. Now there are lots of takes.
Source: Gizmodo – The iPhone Forever Changed How We Read Takes on the Internet
In honor of Canada’s 150th anniversary this weekend, these are the places that stand out most in my mind over three decades of camping in my home country.
Source: TreeHugger – From sea to sea: 11 of the most beautiful places I’ve traveled in Canada
The District 9 director’s next short is out for your viewing pleasure on YouTube and Steam. “Firebase” is set during the Vietnam war and follows American soldier “Hines” through an ever-deepening web of science-fiction madness. More assets are on the way, but a HQ video file with 5.1 surround sound, concept art booklet, and 3D models are available for purchase now.
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – Neill Blomkamp Releases Second Oats Studios Sci-Fi Short: “Firebase”
Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus, who was forced to leave Facebook (which purchased Oculus) for his right-leaning political views, has now joined forces with Revive. Revive is a “hack” that allows HTC Vive owners to play “Oculus only” VR content. It was birthed by Jules Blok who is currently funding the “CrossVR” program development through Patreon. Given Palmer’s past association with Facebook, and the circumstances that he left under, this certainly seems to be a thumb in the eye to some of his past business partners. CrossVR is hoping to use the funding to push his Revive project further by using some of the money to become a member of the Khronos Group’s OpenXR working group that is working on open standards for VR applications, which has a fairly impressive member list.
Finally, if we reach the last milestone on Patreon I will invest $3,500 to join the Khronos Group as an Associate Member and help shape the OpenXR standard. By joining the Khronos Group I can represent your interests to help ensure that the next generation of VR headsets will have a truly open standard. However, since this standard is being developed behind closed doors; progress on OpenXR cannot be discussed in the monthly progress report.
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – Oculus Founder Backs Revive
If you haven’t planned your summer vacation yet, have you thought about visiting one of the US’s national parks? Airbnb hopes you will; it’s partnering with the National Parks Foundation in an effort to encourage tourism in rural areas.
Source: Engadget – Airbnb helps you find a place to stay near remote national parks
There’s a crapload of debris orbiting our planet and potentially posing a hazard to our astronauts and our satellites. One estimate says there are 21,000 pieces of space junk larger than 10 centimeters, that could collide with other objects at velocities ten times faster than a bullet. How do we get it down? You can’t…
Source: Gizmodo – Can Gecko Feet Help Us Clean Up Space Junk?
One of the most highly-requested features for the Nintendo Switch is something that arguably should have been included from the beginning (and is already possible with previous Nintendo handhelds) — the ability to transfer game save data to another device. In its current state, if your Switch has a major hardware malfunction or your device
Source: Hot Hardware – Leaked Nintendo Switch SDK Reveals Save Data Transfers And Guest Login Incoming
In news that is sure to vindicate chemtrail truthers, NASA has finally delivered on its longstanding promise to produce a dazzling display of artificial clouds. And dang, was it cool.
Source: Gizmodo – NASA Created a Dazzling Artificial Cloud Display Last Night
Macau, the gambling capital of the world, is upgrading all 1,200 of its ATMs with facial recognition cameras. According to Bloomberg, any user looking to make a withdrawal will need to enter their PIN and then stare into a lens for six seconds to ver…
Source: Engadget – You’ll need to show your face to use ATMs in Macau
If you remember back at Google I/O, new sharing features were announced for Google Photos. Most of the features revolved around making sharing easier or more likely to happen, with features like “Shared Libraries” and “Suggested Sharing.” Google announced on its blog that those features are finally ready and are shipping now in Google Photos 3.0.
“Shared Libraries” lets you pick a Google Photos contact and automatically share your library with them, including new pictures. This can be either your entire library or just photos of specific people, powered by Google’s facial recognition. This feature sounds just a little bit scary, but the idea is to give parents an easy way to share pictures of their children. You can restrict this by date, giving people access to pictures taken after a certain date. The person you share with can pick and choose what photos they want in their library, too. Again, the recipient of a shared library can select options to save only specific people or all photos. To set this up, you should see a “Shared libraries” option in the side navigation panel.
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Source: Ars Technica – Google Photos 3.0 launches with shared libraries, suggested sharing
Josh Aas, the executive director of Internet Security Research Group (ISRG) writing for Let’s Encrypt: Let’s Encrypt, a free, automated, and open certificate authority has reached a milestone: we’ve now issued more than 100,000,000 certificates. This number reflects at least a few things: First, it illustrates the strong demand for our services. We’d like to thank all of the sysadmins, web developers, and everyone else managing servers for prioritizing protecting your visitors with HTTPS. Second, it illustrates our ability to scale. I’m incredibly proud of the work our engineering teams have done to make this volume of issuance possible. I’m also very grateful to our operational partners, including IdenTrust, Akamai, and Sumo Logic. Third, it illustrates the power of automated certificate management. If getting and managing certificates from Let’s Encrypt always required manual steps there is simply no way we’d be able to serve as many sites as we do. The total number of certificates we’ve issued is an interesting number, but it doesn’t reflect much about tangible progress towards our primary goal: a 100% HTTPS Web.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Let’s Encrypt Hits New Milestone: Over 100,000,000 Certificates Issued
Intel developers have begun prepping support for upcoming Cannonlake SoCs in Coreboot…
Source: Phoronix – Intel Begins Prepping Cannonlake Support For Coreboot
Because what’s an airplane if not a flying wishing well, a China Southern Airlines flight from Shanghai to Guangzhou was delayed more than five hours after an 80-year old passenger threw a handful of coins into one of the plane’s engines prior to boarding ‘to pray for safety’. Amazing. No word if she also poured salt in the fuel tank.
Police apprehended the passenger, and the maintenance crew conducted a thorough sweep of the plane’s engine just to make sure it wouldn’t burst into a million little pieces mid-flight. Somehow, the airline managed to convince everyone onboard they weren’t going to die, and sent the flight on its way a little before 6 PM–more than five hours after its scheduled departure. It touched down in Guangzhou at about 8:30 PM.
People: they’re full of great ideas. Like before I go on a road trip I like to loosen my wheel bolts and brake line so they don’t have as much strain on them during the long tip. *tapping head* I’m a thinker. “How are you not dead?” Neither God nor the devil wants me.
Thanks to Keith, who always rips his rearview mirror off for good luck.
Source: Geekologie – Smart Thinking: Flight Delayed After Passenger Throws Handful Of Coins In Engine ‘To Pray For Safety’
Today, AMC announced a new way to watch its programming — through a new service called AMC Premiere that allows subscribers to watch episodes of its current season shows without ads. However, unlike HBO’s and Showtime’s standalone apps, AMC Premiere…
Source: Engadget – ‘AMC Premiere’ will let you stream ‘The Walking Dead’ ad-free
