Technology and Computing
In an attempt to make its app less awful to use, Instagram announced this week that it will redesign the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen next month. From February, instead of Reels being at the center of the navigation bar, the shortcut to create content (the + button) will be back where it belongs. Reels will shift to the right and the Shop tab will be removed entirely. Instagram originally changed the navigation bar in 2020 in…
Flights are slowly resuming across the country following the Federal Aviation Administration’s nationwide grounding of all air travel early Wednesday morning, the first of its kind since 9/11. Experts indicate there is currently no evidence of cyberterrorism, with the FAA instead pointing towards what appears to be a widespread failure of its Notices to Air Missions (NOTAM) system. The internal service for flight personnel is used to convey timely, unclassified safety information regarding issues such as facility outages, airspace restrictions,…
WHEN ACTION PARK first opened its gates on a New Jersey ski mountain in 1978, people probably showed up expecting run-of-the-mill amusements: go-karts, a lazy river, maybe a casual wave pool or two. But the 2,700-foot Alpine Slide, a track made of concrete, fiberglass, and asbestos that zigzagged through the funfair, was something else entirely. Riders plopped down on a little sled at the top—no helmets, no straps, no guardrails—and went wherever gravity took them at alarming speeds. Eventually a park-goer…
Hurricane Ian caused billions of dollars in damage when it hit Florida in the fall of 2022. Along with $112 billion in damages, 152 fatalities, and countless uprooted lives, the fallout included at least 12 electric vehicle fires caused from lithium-ion batteries coming into contact with saltwater flooding in from the ocean. Unlike standard fires, however, these battery blazes require a significant amount more water to quell them due to their unique chemical reactions, with the International Association of Fire…
On January 6, the Department of Defense announced it was going to send 50 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine. The long-awaited move comes amidst a flurry of announcements from NATO nations about sending armored vehicles to Ukraine, as the country’s fight against the Russian invasion lurches inevitably towards its second year. The Bradley is an armored transport, with tracks and a small turret. It is tank-like in appearance, though the Bradley’s gun is much smaller than what’s mounted on…
THE MOST IMPORTANT moments of a day on Hōkūleʻa, a 62-foot-long deep-sea canoe, are sunrise and sunset. That’s when the navigator can know for sure where the sailboat is headed. In between, the swell—the direction of the waves—helps hold course, but “you have to have known what direction it’s coming from based on where the sun rose,” says Kaʻiulani Murphy. At night, the stars are an important guide: “The sky kind of gradually changes with your latitude,” Murphy says. But on cloudy…
The Doomsday glacier has been on everyone’s minds lately. And it should be. With estimates that by 2100, sea levels will rise by 10 feet due mostly to meltwater from it, there’s much to worry about. Because of the precarious location of this Florida-sized ice shelf, when it goes, it will set off a chain of melting events. In the past few years, teams of researchers have been racing against time to study and understand the Thwaites Glacier—the formal name…
Modern science is a relatively new phenomenon that dates to the early 1900s. So says Russell Funk, a professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota, who notes that scientific thought progressed dramatically through the mid-20th century. Marie Curie won her first Nobel Prize for her work on radioactivity in 1903, Einstein’s theories of relativity date to 1905 and 1915, and Watson and Crick published their paper on the structure of DNA in 1953. But in the last 65 years,…
GENERALLY SPEAKING, humans will try to eat anything at least once. Some anthropologists theorize that prehistoric people sussed out what was edible by trial and error, but we haven’t stopped pushing our palates in new, sometimes dangerous directions. The risk of illness and even death is often baked into our favorite flavors and fares. Here are some beloved bites that can kill—if things go awry. Fugu A dash of danger is part of the appeal of this lean and mild whitefish,…
According to Virgin Orbit, yesterday’s historic orbital launch attempt from its Cornwall Spaceport— a first within the UK—made “numerous significant first-time achievements” and represented an “important step forward” for the small satellite launch service. Many viewers of the private company’s launch livestream beg to differ, however, noting the LauncherOne rocket system’s wholesale failure to reach its low Earth orbital goal to deliver its nine payloads. In fact, Ars Technica described Virgin Orbit’s mishap as not only wholesale communications and logistical…
After years of unfulfilled promises, presidential pressure, and jailbreaking workarounds, it appears John Deere is finally opening up its high-tech farming equipment to farmers’ right to repair—with a major caveat. Per a joint announcement released Sunday alongside the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), the machinery maker has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOA) that opens up its software, documentation, and tools to farmers and third-party repair providers. As The Wall Street Journal notes, however, the long sought-after concession can…
DAN BLOCK has an easy charm and a twinkle in his eye—a natural charisma that would surely serve him in all manner of glamorous professions. That makes it all the more jarring to see him stick a power drill up his nose in front of a cringing crowd of onlookers. After taking a moment to angle the machine just so, he turns it on, the bit rotating at dizzying speeds inside his head. The terrible whirring sound is enough to make even…