Elephants frolic in the snow at the Reid Park Zoo
Elephants at the Reid Park Zoo in Arizona were treated to a rare surprise snowfall
For the first time ever, NASA has captured video of a rover landing on the surface of Mars, plus audio of the wind whistling past it after the landing — and Amazon Web Services is playing a key role in making all those gigabytes of goodness available to the world. The stars of the show are NASA’s Perseverance rover and the hundreds of scientists and engineers supporting the mission to Mars at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and other institutions around the world. But the fact that thousands of images are being pumped out via NASA’s website with only a few… Read More
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture says it’s targeting the fourth quarter of 2022 for the first flight of its orbital-class New Glenn rocket — which marks a major schedule shift. The company had previously planned to conduct its first New Glenn launch from Florida by the end of this year, although it was becoming increasingly clear that timeline wouldn’t hold. In a blog posting, Blue Origin said its team “has been in contact with all of our customers to ensure this baseline meets their launch needs.” Blue Origin noted that the updated timeline follows the U.S. Space… Read More
But first, scientists need to see if it's ready.
The Postal Service just decided it's time to get weird.
The shapes of fossilized teeth from 65.9 million-year-old, squirrel-like creatures suggest that the branch of the tree of life that gave rise to us humans and other primates flowered while dinosaurs still walked the earth. That’s the claim coming from a team of 10 researchers across the U.S., including biologists at Seattle’s Burke Museum and the University of Washington. In a study published by Royal Society Open Science, the team lays out evidence that an ancient group of primates known as plesiadapiforms must have emerged before the mass-extinction event that killed off the dinosaurs. (Technically, modern-day birds are considered the… Read More
Stoke Space Technologies, the Renton, Wash.-based company founded by veterans of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture, has attracted $9.1 million in seed investments for extending rocket reusability to new frontiers. The first goal will be to develop a new kind of reusable upper stage, Stoke co-founder and CEO Andy Lapsa said. “That’s the last domino to fall in the industry before reusability is commonplace,” Lapsa told GeekWire. “Even right now, I think space launch is in a production-limited paradigm.” Rocket reusability is the watchword, to be sure — not only at Blue Origin, where Lapsa was an award-winning rocket… Read More
The bomber is bound for an early retirement in the Arizona desert.
Imagine charging your Apple Watch with ... yourself.
An evaporative or ultrasonic humidifier will defend you from winter’s dry air.
Because if it’s not a sharp knife, it’s not a good knife.
A new experiment shows it's possible to talk to dreaming people—and actually hear back.
Expert-tested essentials for hunting deer, elk, ducks, birds, and beyondFrom Popular Mechanics
Christopher Havens got his number theory problem published in a college-level mathematics magazine.
Here's the sneaky way to find out where practically any picture came from.
These compact table saws easily go where the work is: outside, in the garage, or to the job site.
Prefer pen and paper to a smartphone or tablet? These smart notebooks will let you take notes the old-fashioned way and easily digitize them.From Popular Mechanics
The House lawmaker who is chairing a hearing on the Jan. 6 riot says the U.S. Capitol Police’s acting chief failed to understand the threat facing lawmakers that day. (Feb. 25)
Qatar pledged $60 million on Thursday to help construct a natural gas pipeline running from Israel into the Gaza Strip, the Qatari government said, a project that aims to ease the energy crisis that long has afflicted the impoverished Palestinian enclave. Natural gas now flowing through a pipeline in Israel from the eastern Mediterranean will be transported via a new extension into Gaza, the Qatari Foreign Ministry announced on its website.
The militaries of India and Pakistan issued a rare joint statement Thursday (February 25), saying that they had agreed to observe a ceasefire along the disputed border in Kashmir.The nuclear-armed neighbors signed a ceasefire agreement along the Line of Control in the Kashmir region in 2003, but the truce has frayed in recent years, and there have been mounting casualties among villagers living close to the de facto border.The joint statement said: "Both sides agreed for strict observance of all agreements, understandings and cease firing along the Line of Control and all other sectors with effect from midnight 24/25 Feb 2021."The return to a truce was settled by the two armies director-generals of military operations.There has been a significant increase in ceasefire violations since 2014, leading to nearly 300 civilian fatalities, according to a source in Pakistan's military.Since the start of the year, India had counted 591 violations by Pakistan.Kashmir has long been a flashpoint between the neighbors, which claim the region in full but rule only parts.But tensions were renewed after New Delhi withdrew the autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir state in August 2019 and split it into two federally administered territories.Politicians in Indian Kashmir said they welcomed the commitment to return to a ceasefire, one of the few signs of cooperation in recent years between the neighbors who have fought three full-scale wars since gaining independence in 1947.
The Weasleys are the largest family in the series, so even the biggest fans may not have heard all these fun facts and hidden secrets about them.