Your computer is making a clicking or grinding noise Let’s start with the most worrisome sound. If your computer is making a clicking or grinding sound, or any sort of low-pitched buzzing noise, you should stop what you’re doing and check the hard drive. This sound could indicate a dying disk—do not ignore it. Knowing how to tell different hard drive noises apart, and learning what they might mean, can save your computer....
No matter where you are, your voice is a product of how swiftly pressure waves move through your larynx and the frequency at which your vocal cords vibrate. But when shouted into different gases of varying densities, the same noises take on new forms. Here’s how a few extraterrestrial atmospheres could change your tune. Earth: Human vocal cords quiver at frequencies adapted to a Goldilocks atmosphere—not especially dense or light....
Although there may be a date on your mascara tube, neither the US Food and Drug Administration nor federal law requires expiration dates for cosmetics. There are also no rules that set specific shelf lives for these products. Exceptions include sunscreen and acne products, which the FDA considers drugs, and any personal care products with an SPF rating, which are regulated as both cosmetics and drugs. Many manufacturers, however, provide a “period after opening” (PAO) date as part of their standard business practices, says Suzanne Friedler, a dermatologist at Advanced Dermatology PC....
And since then, diamonds have stuck. Back in the early 2000s, 1,8 million engagement rings every year were sold across the United States with 96 percent of them featuring diamonds. In more recent years, after the worst of the COVID-19 lockdowns have passed, the demand for diamonds (and other marriage-associated luxuries) have shot up, and prices lovebirds are willing to pay have also risen. But, as lovely as a diamond ring can look, there’s sometimes a dark story behind it if it has been mined....
The oldest known joke dates back nearly 4,000 years, and it’s a fart gag. The fact that we’ve been crackin’ wise for so long suggests there’s something innate about the need to laugh. Heck—chimps, rats, and perhaps even dolphins do it. Neuroscientists and psychologists aren’t sure about the exact evolutionary reason for a chuckle, though its ability to pep us up and promote bonding provide pretty solid clues. Whatever its underlying purpose, here’s how a good ol’ guffaw manifests in your body....
Both modern and fossilized sperm whales sport distinctive “supercranial basins” (read: giant noggins) that take up around a third of its body length, which can reach around 60 feet. These massive heads house their incredibly complex sound-production organs, which enable them to make louder noises than any other animal on the planet. But most of the supercranial basin is filled with an extremely fatty substance called spermaceti. In the new study, which analyzed various sperm whale specimens held at the Natural History Museum in Lima, paleontologists found bite mark clusters that corresponded with the fattiest nasal regions....
Scientists at the University of Michigan used computer models to simulate how changing weather conditions and carbon dioxide levels will affect pollen emissions for common trees, weeds, and grasses across the United States. They found that the timing and duration of the spring and fall pollen seasons will shift by the end of the century, leading to substantial increases in the amount of pollen unleashed annually. The findings suggest that longer and more prolific pollen seasons in the country will aggravate asthma and hay fever, which currently plagues an estimated 10 to 30 percent of the world’s population, the team reported on March 15 in Nature Communications....
The IVAS, or Integrated Visual Augmentation System, is a headset adapted from the Microsoft HoloLens. By integrating processing power, cameras, and a heads-up display, the idea is that any soldier with a headset can perceive more of the world around them. It is a tremendous promise: that high-tech goggles can let soldiers not just see the battlefield better, but see more of it. It is, at least at present, too good to be true....
It’s a big event for fashion and the most popular part of it all isn’t even the event itself really, but rather when the stars dilly-dally on the red carpet, surrounded by swarms of photographers on either side furiously clicking away at their cameras. Read more: A.I. made this dress with ‘too much side boob’ for the Met Gala If you’ve ever bothered to scroll through photos the day after on the internet, you’ll notice they’re mostly full of women....
Converting and loading files onto a Kindle A better way to get websites on your Kindle is to install the official Send to Kindle browser extension for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. On your computer, click on the extension’s button, and the tool will simplify and reformat the current page, then send it to your personal Kindle account. To view it on your e-reader, tap the icon that shows up on the home screen and in your library....
As I ate, it turns out, biologists in the United Kingdom were answering that question. Two decades of experiments have shown lobsters, hermit crabs, and their cousins experiencing something that looks a lot like pain. Laws have been written based on those findings. Now, if you want to eat a lobster in Switzerland, you can’t boil it alive. The crustacean can only be legally cooked if it’s stunned with electricity—or knifed in the head....
That’s not to say things haven’t been worse. Despite record ridership in 2017—during what many New Yorkers dubbed the “Summer of Hell“—the inflation-adjusted budget for the MTA was roughly the same as in 1994. Persistent mismanagement by the state, which operates the MTA in the city and a dozen other counties, meant outstanding debts ate up almost 17 percent of those funds. Performance plummeted, with just 65 percent of weekday trains arriving on time—the worst such statistic from any subway system in the world....
If you put words together on macOS, these 38 keyboard shortcuts will help you forget your mouse or trackpad, and transform you into a badass Mac super-user. Some of these you may already know, but writing the ones you don’t on a handy sticky note to use as a cheat sheet is a great idea. You can use a paper one and have it somewhere around your work station, or you can use Apple’s Stickies app to create a digital one and keep it on your desktop at all times....
Roll-y droid The spherical soccer-ball-looking droid from the trailer has already become an Internet favorite, but you don’t have to venture to Tatooine to find something similar. The $100 Sphero is a robot ball that you can control from your smartphone or tablet. It can navigate obstacle courses and change colors, and it’s even programmable. And while it might not be able help you with your next jump to hyperspace, it’s not likely to cause quite as much trouble as your average R2 unit....
On January 5, 1967, that single space belonged to Ray, a quiet, clean-cut 33-year-old who spent his workdays inside Area 51, then the CIA’s advanced-aviation research facility. Set atop the dried-up bed of Groom Lake in the Nevada desert, the now-infamous spot made for good runways, and was remote enough to keep prying eyes off covert Cold War projects. On the books, Ray was a civilian pilot for Lockheed Martin....
But a tear doesn’t have to mean tears. In recent years, a handful of pros have gained online acclaim by showing that it’s possible to re-weave denim, thereby healing a rip instead of just patching it. “Pretty much anything can be fixed,” says Kattya Torres, owner of New York City-based Denim Therapy. Torres’ company has become famous among jean lovers for seamlessly repairing even the most dramatic rips. “It’s like a puzzle....
All assembled in creepy, Nuremberg-esque ordered ranks. As the flash of light near the end reveals, marching columns of soldiers are a terrible idea in modern war. What is the weapon attacking them? We might find out in just a week! Much of the footage released so far from Force Awakens focuses on war on the ground, which leads one to wonder if war in the stars is getting the short end of the stick in the latest Star Wars....
The collaboration, given the project name Callisto, has been four years in the making. It was announced to the public earlier this year. This demo will test whether Alexa could be used to control certain spacecraft functions like lights, or fetch telemetry data hands-free, and whether Webex could be used to establish a secure and stable connection for video-conferencing and more. Here’s a peek at how the companies got their Star Trek-inspired tech space-ready....
Bezos responded on his recently activated Twitter account with the humorous claim that he wanted to send The Donald to space aboard a Blue Origin rocket. Blue Origin is of course yet another separate company Bezos owns, which recently made news for performing the first successful, vertical landing of a reusable rocket, after flying to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere. As Bezos tweeted (along with a link to a video of the rocket flight): “Finally trashed by @realDonaldTrump....
“We are absolutely fired up to see Zumwalt get underway,” said Kirk, according to the Tampa Bay Times, “For the crew and all those involved in designing, building, and readying this fantastic ship, this is a huge milestone.” The Zumwalt is a strange ship. Classified as a destroyer, it’s built to escort larger ships and protect them from small, deadly threats. The U.S. Navy currently has 62 Arleigh Burke class destroyers, with thirteen more in the works....
