Transcript:Lexus’ digital side-view camera and monitor. The digital side-view camera and monitor provide the driver with a high-definition view. When turns are activated, the monitor goes into “extended view” eliminating blind spots. The system has adjustable brightness, the option for automatic camera retraction, and it’s designed with weather-proofing features. It even includes a built-in heater to prevent freezing so it can work in all weather conditions. The futuristic tech is currently available as an option on the ES 300h Takumi. U.S. regulations do not allow this tech.
Note: The visual is cool, the audio not so much. Do with that info what you will.
This is a short video of a helicopter coming in for a landing with its rotor’s rotation speed synced with the filming camera’s framerate, making it appear to not be rotating at all. Or, who knows, maybe the helicopter is just broken. Do I look like some sort of helicopter mechanci to you? Or maybe — just maybe, helicopters are actually powered by magic like I always suspected but was afraid to ask for fear of getting bumped off by the government. You have to admit how they’re able to fly doesn’t actually make much sense unless you’re some sort of nerd.
Keep going for the full video while I demand anybody in the office who claims to understand how helicopters fly to explain it to me like you would a third grader.
Thanks to AP, who agrees magic is everywhere.
via Geekologie – Gadgets, Gizmos, and Awesome https://geekologie.com/
The global response to the novel coronavirus pandemic is so intense that it’s visible from space.
As people around the world are staying at home and practicing “social distancing,” satellites have captured incredible views of what used to be some of the most crowded places on Earth, which have now become desolate in the face of the coronavirus.
From deserted airports and tourist destinations to empty highways and abandoned shopping malls, these images from Maxar’s WorldView satellites offer an eerie glimpse of the large-scale effects of the global pandemic, which has turned even the most densely populated cities into ghost towns.
While these images from space show how crowds and traffic have seemingly vanished from the face of the Earth, they also reveal several new structures popping up around the world: makeshift hospitals that are being built to deal with the influx of critically ill patients.
Maxar’s images show two “pop up” medical facilities that were built in Wuhan, China, where the novel coronavirus originated. The satellites also captured views of a coronavirus testing facility in Germany and a soccer stadium in Sao Paolo, Brazil, that is being converted into a hospital.
“Maxar is scanning our recent satellite imagery for the construction of medical facilities in response to the coronavirus. These seem to be popping up slowly at hospitals, in/around sports facilities and other places,” Maxar officials said in a statement. “We expect to find more of these facilities being creating in the coming days/weeks.”
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Did you practically grow up with BioWare games? If so, there will soon be a book to help you reminisce. The studio is preparingBioWare: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development, a retrospective book that will discuss "key moments" in the company’s history while showing previously unseen artwork and photos. You can also expect tidbits regarding "secret, cancelled" game projects. This might shed light on how Mass Effect characters came to be, or help you wax nostalgic about playing the original Baldur’s Gate or MDK titles ("good gravy, that’s Edmonton!").
The hardcover book should be available from Dark Horse Books on October 13th for $40.
Some species are named after beloved teen activists or Lady Gaga. Others are named after plastic. Before science even discovered this deep-sea crustacean, plastic had infiltrated its stomach. So scientists named it accordingly. Meet Eurythenes plasticus.
This newly discovered species lives some 22,637 feet underwater in the depths of the Mariana Trench. It’s a shrimp-like creature, and researchers have so far found only one of these crustaceans with plastic inside its stomach. This was still concerning enough, however, that the team decided to incorporate “plastic” into the species’ name. This is the inaugural moment plastic joined the taxonomic ranks of biological classification.
“We decided on the name Eurythenes plasticus as we wanted to highlight the fact that we need to take immediate action to stop the deluge of plastic waste into our oceans,” said Alan Jamieson, the head of the research mission to discover the species, in a World Wildlife Fund statement.
One amphipod specimen was found with a microfiber 0.65 millimeters long. Analysts determined that the microfiber was likely polyethylene terephthalate, which can be found in polyester clothing and water bottles. Plastics are taking over, man. They’ve been found on mountaintops, in oceans, and even in the Arctic. That’s because of all the plastic we humans consume and eventually discard.
Plastic pollution is seemingly impossible to avoid, studies have found. A recent paper found that just opening a plastic bottle can throw microplastics into the air. Wearing polyester clothing helps spread microplastics around, too. It’s an unfortunate reality, and the natural world is having a tough time escaping this manmade mess.
With only one crustacean found with plastic, the species still has a chance of staying plastic-free at large, if humans can find a way to end our addiction to plastic.
Yelp is hoping to help struggling business stay afloat while COVID-19 restrictions are in place by teaming up with GoFundMe. Since a lot of businesses have to shut down unless they’re classified as "essential retail," the two companies are making it easier for them receive direct donations from loyal patrons and people in their community who may want to help. Yelp pages for restaurants, nightlife, beauty and fitness, as well as active life businesses can now display GoFundMe fundraisers. Eligible business’ pages will show a Donate button right on their profile.
Since the program focuses on small, independent businesses, they’ll need to have five or fewer locations in order to take advantage of it. The Donate icon will start showing up on Yelp pages for some of the hardest hit areas starting today, but the feature will be available to more eligible businesses nationwide over the next couple of days. Yelp and GoFundMe also pledged to match up to $1 million in donations, with more companies promising to match even more donations in the coming week.
Other tech companies taking steps to combat COVID-19 and to help people affected by the outbreak include Amazon, which teamed up with the Gates Foundation to deliver and pick up at-home COVID-19 testing kits as part of a trial. GrubHub recently deferred commission fees for independent restaurants nationwide, while Facebook pledged $100 million to small businesses impacted by the pandemic.
USP has announced a new partnership with Wingcopter, a German aircraft manufacturer, to develop new types of delivery drones. The two companies will work together to certify Wingcopter’s existing aircraft for use in commercial delivery flights in the US. They say certification is the first step toward developing drones that can complete a variety of delivery jobs.
According to UPS, a couple of factors attracted it to Wingcopter’s drones. The first one was technological. Wingcopter’s drones feature a tilt-rotor mechanism that allows them to switch between multi-copter and fixed-wing flight modes. Thanks to this capability, they’re able to vertically take off and land in tight spaces and then fly quickly and quietly to their next destination. The latter ability also makes them better suited to flying over populated areas like cities than traditional multi-copter drones. The second factor was that the company’s drones have already completed deliveries under challenging circumstances. As one example, one of Wingcopter’s aircraft was able to deliver insulin to a remote Irish village in the North Sea that is frequently inaccessible thanks to bad weather.
At the moment, UPS has mostly trialed drones to transport medical samples and prescriptions. The company’s ultimate goal here is to develop aircraft that would allow it to shuttle items to companies in a variety of different industries. It may be a while yet before we see Wingcopter’s aircraft delivering parcels to consumers in US and other parts of the world, but this is still a significant milestone for both companies.
