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Antarctica hasn’t been doing so well lately. The continent is rapidly melting, and a large chunk of the snow and ice is held back from the ocean only by an array of glaciers and ice shelves guarding the coasts. None of these are doing well, but one of them—the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica—is rapidly crumbling. Now scientists have learned why it’s collapsing so quickly: There’s a giant underground cavern in the glacier almost as big as Manhattan....

Astronomers have identified a never-before-seen ancient galaxy 12.5 billion lightyears from Earth.The galaxy is a star factory⁠, producing stars more than 100 times faster than our own galaxy.More of these ancient galaxies may exist, astronomers say. A previously undetected type of ancient galaxy that rapidly produces stars is swirling at the edge of the universe.Astronomers have regarded these galaxies as the stuff of fairytales and folklore, as only the footprints of such galaxies have existed....

On Sale Date: Only two exist. Unlikely to make it into production. Price: Nissan wouldn’t say, but probably close to $250,000 Competitors: 2008 Toyota Aygo 1.8 VVT-i Crazy, 2003 Nissan Micra-RPowertrain: 3.8-liter, twin-turbo V-6, 485 hp, 434 lb-ft; 6-speed dual-clutch transmission, AWDEPA Fuel Economy (city/highway): Not available What’s New: Shoehorning a huge engine into a bog-standard sedan started way back with the California hot rodders after World War II. But in recent years, carmakers haven’t been able to resist the publicity of an outrageous transplant into something your granny takes to go shopping....

Russia is conducting “Thunder 2019” nuclear exercises throughout October.The Russian Navy sortied ten attack submarines in one week, a number not seen since the Cold War.Russian submarines attempted to launch at least three long range missiles, but only two firings were successful. The Russian Navy has conducted several high profile submarine exercises over the last two weeks meant to test the country’s ability to deter a nuclear attack. Moscow’s Navy launched a long range missile and sortied nearly ten attack submarines, proving that it can launch nuclear-tipped missiles and move to protect the submarines that carry them at sea....

Today, scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announced they’ve found evidence of the big bang that they’ve been seeking for decades: gravitational waves in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The research team at the BICEP2 facility in Antarctica made the discovery, which not only backs up the inflation theory behind the big bang in which the universe expanded rapidly right after its birth, but also will shape our understanding of physics and the origins of the universe for years to come....

California’s Oroville dam recently experienced spillway damage that could have (but hasn’t yet) lead to catastrophic failure of the dam itself. Meanwhile, about 100 miles south, the Monticello dam is holding up just fine. Last weekend, the waters of Lake Berryessa reached a high point, pouring through the dam’s 72-foot diameter spillway, known colloquially as the “Glory Hole.” One lucky drone pilot who goes by Evan K on YouTube got permission from dam officials and caught some truly stunning footage event from the air, filming the spillway by drone for the very first time....

“Smarter is better” seems like it should be a universal truth, but leave it to the brain geniuses of Silicon Valley innovate “smartness” into the most annoying thing you can possibly imagine. At this point it’s broadly clear that so-called smart appliances are, in large part, a simple ploy to upsell you on replacement appliances you don’t need and saddle you with the joys of upgrading your refrigerator’s firmware. But Frank May on YouTube is here to illustrate one of the most egregious examples yet: the smart water cooler....

The adrenaline rush that comes from piloting a sporty car or a hot-blooded motorcycle through a series of sinuous curves is a joy every gearhead craves. It’s not all about gunning for flat-out, maximum speed. Smoothly connect each corner with the perfect combination of velocity and precision and the experience becomes more than just a cheap thrill–it’s an accomplishment.Such mechanized fun doesn’t have to come with a sky-high price tag or an EPA fuel-economy rating in the single digits....

North Korea has yet again threatened to attack the island of Guam after a pair of U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers was sent to the Pacific island. Why is North Korea so infatuated with tiny Guam? The answer has to do with Guam’s symbolism as an American territory and its usefulness in any war against North Korea.In response to the B-1B bomber deployment, North Korea’s KCNA state news network stated, “The KPA (Korean People’s Army) Strategic Force is now carefully examining the operational plan for making an enveloping fire at the areas around Guam … in order to contain the U....

This morning Texas Instruments (TI) announced that it’s bringing the next generation of handheld displays to market with the Optoma Pico, a gadget it claims will be the tiniest projector ever made commercially available. Traveling salesmen everywhere, rejoice! When TI showed off its handheld projector technology at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in January, the company attracted wide eyes and big prizes alike for a prototype device stored in a mock cellphone (and a 3D TV)....

These days, carrying a battery pack is almost as important as carrying your smartphone. And if you’re the type of person who relies on multiple devices on the regular, toting a portable battery that can only power up your phone isn’t going to cut it. To ensure that you’ll never run out of juice, you would need something as powerful as AlsterPlus. View full post on YoutubeFully funded on Kickstarter, this powerful battery pack boasts an impressive capacity of 27,000mAh....

The Airbus A380’s days of ferrying more than 500 passengers through the sky are numbered. On Thursday, Airbus announced it would not manufacture its venerable superjumbo airliner beyond 2021, with its main contractor, Emirates Airlines, uninterested in further orders. Emirates, the Dubai-based carrier, decided to reduce its A380 fleet from 162 to 123 aircraft, which spurred this move by Airbus. The plane manufacturer will deliver 14 more jets to Emirates by 2021, but cease manufacturing the giant four-engine, double-decker aircraft afterward....

In a blog post published on Monday, Facebook said it would ban all “misleading manipulated media,” including deepfakes, prior to the 2020 presidential election.Deepfakes are a type of media, usually in video form, that use artificial intelligence to make the subject appear to do or say something that, in reality, they did not. During a House Energy and Commerce hearing on Wednesday that addressed manipulated media, Monika Bickert, vice president of global policy management for Facebook, fielded questions....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe gTar by Incident Tech, the funky instrument that began life as a Kickstarter project last spring, certainly looks the part of an electric guitar. Our white test unit echoes the iconic shape of a , complete with strings, tuning pegs, and even a pick guard. But the similarities end with the appearance. This is no traditional axe, but a hybrid of an electric guitar and a purely digital device—something you play like a guitar but that makes sound via MIDI processed through an iPhone....

The Supermarine Spitfire is one of World War II’s iconic planes. With its low wings and remarkable dexterity, the plane etched its name in the history books during the Battle of Britain between 1940 and 1941. But, as the YouTube channel Real Engineering explains, the aircraft was almost done in by an engineering flaw. View full post on YoutubeThe Spitfire’s original engine couldn’t handle barrel rolls. The throttle valve would get flooded with fuel as the plane turned upside-down....

Until now, Arctic ice models have only had data going back to 1979. While accurate, they lack historic context. A new project adds over a hundred years of data to current models.The study used historic records kept by a precursor to the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S Revenue Cutter Service. These records have been digitized by a team including citizen scientist volunteers.The records confirm what scientists have believed: the Arctic is experiencing historic thinning due to man-made global warming....

Media Platforms Design TeamImagine trying to hit a 20-inch hole in the ground while flying in an airplane and you might have some idea of what the scientists and engineers on the Japan Trench Fast Drilling Project (JFAST) had to deal with. Last year the 27-member team, representing 10 countries, spent weeks working 12-hour shifts around the clock to study the Japan Trench. It’s one of the deepest in the ocean, and the site where one day in March 2011, one of the earth’s plates dove under another and slid for 50 meters, triggering a magnitude-9 earthquake and ....

In the wake of Cambridge Analytica, Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and other Facebook scandals, cries to regulate the tech giant have risen. Virginia Sen. Mark Warner has composed a white paper, published by Axios, suggesting 20 different ways tech behemoths like Facebook, Google, and Twitter could potentially be regulated. At least one of them could help tear down the walls they’ve built to keep you trapped inside, and give us a freer internet like the one we used to have....

Media Platforms Design TeamI love my new 2005 Ford Mustang coupe, but stock radio’s flat, bass-less sound and distortion at high volumes left the audio enthusiast in me wanting more. Sure, I could have opted for the dealer upgrade when I bought the vehicle, but I wanted to choose my own components instead of leaving the decision up to Ford.I wanted my dashboard to look like a console from the Starship Enterprise....

On New Year’s Day, when everyone was celebrating—or recovering from celebrating—NASA’s New Horizons accomplished something incredible. The spacecraft flew past Ultima Thule, a small asteroid on the outer edge of the solar system. At 12:33 a.m. Eastern on January 1, New Horizons passed just 2,200 miles from its target.This is the second time New Horizons has managed a delicate flyby of a distant solar system target. The first, of course, was its historic visit to Pluto in 2015....