It's definitely not edible.Spooky Spaghetti

Last month, NASAs Perseverance rover spotted an mysterious noodle-like object on Mars.

Appearing to be some sort of messy bundle of string, the object was first captured by the Mars rovers camera on July 12 before mysteriously vanishing just four days later.

NASA was adamant that the stringy object was terrestrial in origin and not some Martians spilt ramen, speculating that its likely "a piece of cord from the parachute or from the landing system that lowers the [Perseverance] rover to the ground."

And now, as it turns out, the space agency wasnt that far off. In a statement on Monday, NASA declared that the unknown object is nothing but a piece of Dacron netting, putting this Mars mystery to bed.

Dacron is a polyester fiber used as netting in thermal blankets, and while it may look unrecognizable now, thats because it "appears to have undergone significant unraveling/shredding, suggesting that it was subjected to strong forces," according to NASA.

When the Perseverance rover landed on Mars in February of last year, its entry, descent, and landing (EDL) hardware flew off to crash a safe distance away. The EDL's impact scattered debris across the Martian surface, and thats where the Dacron netting came from.

Considering that it crashed some 1.4 miles away from the rover, the material has traveled impressively far, likely due to wind, NASA said.

For the most part, a bundle of polyester string blowing around Mars is pretty harmless and amusing, but NASA isnt messing around: team members are investigating photos of the material as it "may pose as a potential contamination source for the sample tubes" in the area where it was found, the space agency said but fortunately, there arent any "immediate concerns."

Theres also a risk of the shredded material becoming entangled with the Perseverance rover itself, but NASA engineers deemed the risk to be "low."

In short, NASA doesn't see the Martian spaghetti as too much of a threat. After all, space debris being discarded on the Martian surface is quickly becoming a pretty common occurrence.

More on Mars: NASA Says It's Sending Two More Ingenuity-Class Helicopters to Mars

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NASA Finally Figured Out What That Weird Spaghetti It Found on Mars Was - Futurism

David Houle| Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Columns here over the past few months have dealt with all the changes to Sarasota and Bradenton and that many of them are causing concern. Concern that paradise is no longer. Much of this change is the perpetuation of the way things have always been done.

Frequent readers of this column know the term I use for this is legacy thinking." Thoughts from the past. Meaning doing today what was done yesterday. Therefore today is never new but just a continuation of yesterday. New visions never get developed as the old ones are perpetuated.

That is why the climate crisis is such a good metaphor for how we should look ahead to the future we want.

The climate crisis, simply put, is something that has never happened since homo sapiens have been alive on Earth. The rate of CO2increase in the atmosphere occurring today has not happened for 50 million years. This means that we have no history or experience with what is going on. This provides the cover for both the people who used to be called deniers and all climate scientists. Neither group had any background for what was ahead.

The deniers, at least up to 2000, could be granted a partial pass as something that has never happened is hard to believe will happen. The scientists underestimated the rapidity of global warming, and the consequences as there has never been something that has happened so quickly.

The deniers couldnt understand something that had never happened, and the scientists were winging it on the speed that it would happen. We now know that global warming is incredibly and dangerously real, life-threatening, incredibly costly and that it is happening much much faster that even the top scientists had predicted.

Simply stated, what has happened to the Gulf Coast the past 100 years will not be what will happen this century. Actually, relative to Sea Level Rise, the amount that has occurred on the Gulf Coast since 1900 will be doubled by 2050.This means that new ideas, visions, plans, investments, initiatives and goals need to be new, for this new future.

The climate crisis was not something that had to be factored into future plans last century but is essential for the decades ahead. Whatever the reasons for denial, resistance, and the lack of initiative to face what is clearly ahead, must be set aside.

Unfortunately, people like to be led rather than think independently. For some reason, hard to fathom, the climate crisis has become a political issue.The climate crisis is about everything. Literally everything. There is not a species or a place that will not be affected. Yet so much of what could be done is not occurring, simply due to politics. At this time in our countrys history that is a disaster!

I have spoken about global warming all around the world for decades, mostly in the U.S. I have written a column for this newspaper for the better part of 10 years. Back in 2015, when I published the first of two books on climate and co-founded a Sarasota-based nonprofit to create crew consciousness, I started to write more columns in this space about climate, clean energy, sea level rise and what might be ahead. I received numerous emails from readers, the vast majority positive.

Yet I knew, and know, that anytime I write about some climate-related topic, I will get some highly negative comments that simply doubt both the reality of crisis and malign me personally. None that set forth any intellectual or scientific arguments. I have received a number of emails from readers stating that the only explanation of my comments was thatI was an ultra-liberal, a socialist, and one man called me a communist.

The point here is that communism and democracy have nothing to do with global warming, yet people still think that it does. We have to stop this politicization of what is simply the biggest challenge facing our species.

If we want Sarasota, Bradenton and the Gulf Coast communities near usto thrive, adapt, and continue to be places where we want to live, we must let go of what is clearly dated and replace with new visions that adapt to the new realities coming our way in the 2020s, 2030s and 2040s.

As I referenced in recent columns, will it not be better to accept that all barrier island beaches may be gone in the 2040s and plan for a redefined economy, than to simply do nothing and then panic, react and move when this becomes a reality?

To think that the next 30 years in Sarasota will be like the last 30 yearsis insanity. Do we want insane thinking to guide us? So far the answer seems to be yes.

Do we want our children, our grandchildren and all those yet unborn to look at us with disgust that we sleepwalked when we could have mobilized to create our paradise in the future? I dont think so.

Sarasota resident David Houle is a globally recognized futurist. He has given speeches on six continents, written 13 books and is futurist in residence at Ringling College of Art andDesign. His websites aredavidhoule.comand the2020sdecade.com. Email him at david@davidhoule.com.

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DAVID HOULE: Desperately seeking new ideas, visions, plans, and goals - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

"Were species agnostic."Kingdom Come

A group of researchers are looking to use machine learning to translate animal "languages" into something humans can understand and they want to apply it to the whole animal kingdom, a highly ambitious plan to say the least.

AsThe Guardian reports, California-based nonprofit Earth Species Project (ESP) which was founded in 2017 with the help of Silicon Valley investorslike LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman plans to first decode animal communication via machine learning, and then make its findings available to all.

ESP co-founder and president Aza Raskin says that the group, which published its first paper in December 2021, doesn't discriminate and is looking to help humans communicate with, or at least understand, as many species as possible.

"Were species agnostic," Raskin told The Guardian, adding that the translation algorithms the ESP is developing are designed to "work across all of biology, from worms to whales.

In the interview, Raskin likened the group's ambitions to "going to the Moon," especially given that, like humans, animals also have various forms of non-verbal communication, like bees doing a special "wiggle dance" to indicate to each other that they should land on a specific flower.

Despite the seemingly insurmountable challenges the group is facing, the project has made at least some progress, including an experimental algorithm that can purportedly detect which individual in a noisy group of animals is "speaking."

A second algorithm reportedly can generate mimicked animal calls to "talk" directly to them.

"It is having the AI speak the language," Raskin told The Guardian, "even though we dont know what it means yet."

While there are certainly exciting implications to this kind of research, particularly when it comes to conservation and convincing skeptics that animals are worth saving, Raskin admits that AI likely won't be the only answer to saving them.

"These are the tools that let us take off the human glasses," he concluded, "and understand entire communication systems."

READ MORE:Can artificial intelligence really help us talk to the animals? [The Guardian]

More on animal AI:Smart Pet Door Uses Facial Recognition to Keep Strange Animals Out

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Ambitious Researchers Want to Use AI to Talk to All Animals - Futurism

Pink Sauce: the condiment thats trending for all the wrong reasons. Its a lesson in TikTok hype, hive mind kayfabe, and perhaps most of all, the importance of the FDA. And at the end of the day, its just bad mayonnaise with just enough pink dye to look like Pepto Bismol. Instead of hitting this horrible sauce, we recommend five condiments that are worthy of going viral. Viral in a good way, not the painful stomach bug way.

Key Selling Point: Get in on the next big condiment craze before everyone else does.

Are you familiar with chili crunch? The popular Asian condiment is having a bit of a moment right now, and its about to go big time. You know, the way Sriracha took over the hot sauce world around the early 00s. Its a blend of sesame seeds, chilis, shallots, garlic, and a bunch of other tasty stuff steeped in oil which makes for a bright red sauce thats fiery and flavorful without being too spicy. Its great on noodles, rice, and the best thing you could ever dip takeout gyoza into. This ones recipe was crafted by Chef David Chang, so you can pretty much guarantee that its going to be tasty as hell.

Key Selling Point: Taco-truck tastiness in a charming squeeze bottle.

Its so very difficult to find a bottle of salsa on a store shelf that hits quite as good as one made by your friendly neighborhood abuelita. For those of us who arent within driving distance of a taco truck, theres the Herdez Taqueria Sauce Verde. Like any great green taco sauce, its made from charred poblano and jalapeno peppers and comes in an easy squeeze bottle. Its great on tacos, nachos, and a plate of huevos rancheros, but it would work equally well as a marinade or even salad dressing. Its not as good as homemade, but its pretty darn close.

Key Selling Point: A flavor profile from Washington D.C. ready to make a 50-state sweep.

When salty meets sweet, some of the tastiest matches are made, from chocolate-dipped pretzels to the ever-reliable peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Capital City Mumbo Sauce is sweet, salty, and even packs a good bit of heat, for a condiment thats not just delicious, but damn near universal. While it is primarily a sauce intended for wings, its great as a finishing glaze, marinade, and anything and everything bound for the grill. Its also totally vegan, without an ounce of high fructose corn syrup.

Key Selling Point: An unnecessary, but deliciously innovative way to enjoy your next burger.

Have you ever stared at a burger and thought, I need to make this unhealthy meal downright hedonistic? The Heinz Dip and Crunch Burger Dip is a little extra, but not an altogether terrible idea. While you do need to supply your own burger, this package not only comes with a dip to dunk your sandwich in but a small pile of crushed potato chips. You know, for texture. Its not just a dipping sauce, its an experience. And it may just change the way you eat burgers forever.

Key Selling Point: Why choose between drinks and dessert when you can have both?

Fruit and wine go together like beer and cheese. Separately, they compliment each other, but together, some seriously tasty alchemy happens. These Wine-Infused Dessert Sauces are crafted in small batches, with an ingredients list you can actually read. Wine, fruit, sugar, and little else, so the flavor profiles within these sauces can truly shine. Available in three tantalizing flavors including Blackberry Merlot, Dark Cherry Zinfandel, and Mango Pinot Grigio, which are great one ice cream, yogurt, sourdough toast, or simply eaten with a spoon at 2 am in front of your fridge. No judgment.

This post was created by a non-news editorial team at Recurrent Media, Futurisms owner. Futurism may receive a portion of sales on products linked within this post.

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5 Tasty Condiments That Aren't Pink Sauce - Futurism

On a dark desert highway, dim Connecticut side street, cool wind in my hair over my helmet; Warm smell of colitas the shoreline, rising up through the air

I may have been on the other side of America, but The Eagles timeless take on California living drifted through my mind throughout my experience with NIUs KQi3 Pro scooter, a gadget that toes the line between wish fulfillment and the future of short-range transportation. As a 6'2" man, zipping through a beach town on an electric scooter was undeniably fun and attention-getting. But is the KQi3 Pro the future of transportation? Read my full review below.

Specs:

Dimensions: 20 x 9 x 42 inches Weight: 44.75 pounds Battery: 486.7Wh lithium battery Max Speed: 20 mph

Any 90s kid will feel instantly familiar with the KQi3 Pro, which looks like a tricked-out Razor scooter once it's fully assembled. The KQi3 Pro was the first electric scooter Ive tested, though it feels like Im late to the party. Electric scooters have become extremely popular in both urban and suburban locales. Even colleges have begun adopting scooters as a means of getting groggy students from one side of campus to the other without getting worn down. The popularity of electric scooters is due, in part at least, to the rising cost of gas and cars both new and used. Why should you circle parking lots or pay for space in a garage when you can zip from place to place?

I was pleasantly surprised with how efficiently this scooter was packed. The box, which measured about five feet tall, was light enough for one person to move around. The KQi3 was packaged compactly enough that I was able to open its box on my kitchen floor (no small feat considering I live in New York City), though this fits in with the eco-friendly nature of an electric scooter.

I was similarly pleased by how easy it was to set the KQi3 Pro up. NIU includes a set of printed instructions with the KQi3, which spell out each step of the installation process with clean images and easy-to-understand language. If youve never set up a scooter (like me), you wont have any issues. The entire procedure boiled down to sticking the top piece (containing the handlebars and steering column) into the bottom part (which houses the battery, other electronics, platform, and wheels). It's possible to assemble the KQi3 Pro alone, but asking a second person for help simplifies the process. Once the two pieces are connected, you attach them permanently by using a few screws provided in the box.

Setting up the KQi3 Pro's software was similarly simple. NIU's app walks you through the process of pairing your scooter with your phone over Bluetooth. Once the two are synced up, you can view information like your longest ride and the scooter's battery percentage on your phone. The latter is also represented on the KQi3 Pro's screen, but more on that a little later.

The NIU's most important features are its ability to lock your scooter (helpful when you leave it locked up in a public place), and downloading firmware updates. NIU constantly updated the KQi3 Pro's software over the course of my time with the scooter, which I appreciate greatly. This is a device I trust with my life (literally), so any tweaks to how it works are fine by me. It took about a half hour to assemble the KQi3 Pro, download the app, create an account, and finally get ready to ride. If I had to set one up a second time, that figure would probably be cut in half.

My first ride revealed my favorite feature of the KQi3 Pro: It requires you to be moving at a rate of 4kmh (2.4 mph) before you can engage its electric motor. This cuts down on the possibility of accidentally engaging it while moving the scooter around as you get ready to ride. A single push is enough to break through that low threshold, so you can start riding the scooter almost immediately. The chances of accidents are further reduced by the fact that you have to turn the scooter on before using it. This is accomplished by pushing the large power button on a small console built into the middle of the handlebars. It's the only button you'll see, so it's impossible to miss. Pressing it for a couple of seconds elicits a pleasant chime, and the screen immediately pops on.

The KQi3 Pro's display shows your current speed and a basic battery gauge that shows between one and five squares. I'd have preferred to get an actual battery percentage on the screen, but understand that NIU chose this system to avoid having multiple numbers on the screen at once. The display was easy to glance at briefly during rides, but never distracting. Mission accomplished.

While I live in New York City, I dont feel comfortable using any form of transportation besides walking, driving, and taking the subway, so my test rides were exclusively conducted in Connecticut. This has nothing to do with the safety features of the NIU KQi3 Pro or any other electric scooter, for that matter but rather my incredulity at the citizenry of the city that never sleeps. Electric scooters are commonplace here, and the KQi3s safety features would make it a great choice for riding in an urban environment, but where you ride comes down to your personal comfort level.

So, how does it feel to actually ride on the NIU KQi3 Pro? Incredible. The scooter is so fun to use that you'll almost forget you're using a form of transportation instead of a toy, but you'll need to resist that urge. After a quick, care-free ride down the block, I began my testing in earnest on roads full of beach-bound cars and people of all ages. I took my first rides just after dawn to get my sea (scooter) legs, and highly recommend riding around desolate areas while familiarizing yourself with the scooter. In my case, the KQi3 Pro's accelerator took some getting used to. There's a fine line between a smooth ride, and herky-jerky one full of mini stops and starts. You control the KQi3 Pro's motor by pushing an accelerator located below the right handlebar with your thumb, and finding the right amount of pressure took about an hour. It's not that the KQi3 Pro is hard to use, it's that everybody's hand strength is a little different, and it's easy to try punching it on your first couple of rides only to find yourself accelerating at a rapid pace.

It's worth noting that I never felt unsafe on the KQi3 Pro, even when I was going at full speed 30kmh (18.6 mph). That's due in large part to the effectiveness of the KQi3 Pro's handbrakes, located above the right and left handlebars. Again, it'll take a few rides to know how hard you have to squeeze to come to a full stop at different speeds, but the learning curve of trying a new electric vehicle. My biggest issue was with learning how to successfully make turns, which had nothing to do with the scooter, and everything to do with negotiating the physics of moving my tall frame in the appropriate directions. Knowing how hard to lean into a turn, and how much to twist the handlebar took about a day. I quickly learned to trust the KQi3 Pro, and took to the streets for multi-mile rides.

Riding an electric scooter is incredibly fun, but it's important to remember you need to respect the rules of the road. That means wearing a helmet, stopping at stop signs, clearly telegraphing your turns before you make them, and respecting the flow of traffic. Taking all of these things into account does take some of the fun out of riding an electric scooter, and I had to make several decisions about how to get around obstacles be they potholes or people as they came into my view. The KQi3 Pro's relatively slow speed means car drivers may make moves around you, and the scooter's lack of side mirrors means keeping your ears open if someone tries to overtake you. I never found myself in dangerous situations, but you should be mindful of where you plan on riding this scooter and make note of potential nuisances accordingly.

One of the KQi3s underrated safety features is its large wheels, which allowed me to drive over cracks in the road, small potholes, and a garden hose without causing the scooter to feel unstable. You should avoid large, deep potholes, which the scooters wheels could fall fully into, but the same is true when youre riding a car. If youre living in a place with bumpy roads gravel, unpaved streets, dirt the KQi3 is up to the task. In my limited experience driving off road, I never encountered any problems.

Thats important because you need to trust that the scooter youre riding isnt going to betray you the moment you move from one type of terrain to another. I mentioned earlier that I felt uncomfortable riding the KQi3 Pro in New York City but I need to reiterate again that my feelings had nothing to do with the scooter.

As a mode of transportation for short-distance errands, the KQi3 Pro was hard to beat. Traveling three miles (my longest ride) took about 11 minutes. I never tried to artificially cut down my times by going as quickly as possible, and always balanced speed and safety. I learned how much to accelerate when going up hills, and how hard to squeeze the brake when going downhill. By the end of my tests, there wasn't a tight turn I couldn't handle. If you're thinking about getting a KQi3 Pro for quickly running errands around town, its mix of speed, ease of use, and portability makes it preferable to riding e-bike, bicycle, and walking. As a purely recreational tool, the scooter gets full marks for the same reason. I found myself asking "can I take the KQi3 Pro?" every time I wanted to spend time outdoors. I typically mixed it in with walks to get my steps in, but the scooter could easily become your primary form of transportation if you live in a suburban area.

One aspect of riding an electric scooter I hadn't considered before my time with the KQi3 Pro is the reaction from other people. Older folks who saw me riding gave me quizzical looks. Some middle-aged people seemed interested in what I was doing, while others were apathetic. Teenage girls laughed at me the way they would at a dad who pulled an iPhone with a home button out of his pants in front of their friends (the horror)! You have to accept that you'll become a point of interest to other people while riding an electric scooter because they're currently considered a novelty by the general population. The attention could also have been the optics of a tall man in shorts, high socks, helmet, and sunglasses whizzing by. Your mileage may vary here, but be prepared for some kind of reaction.

This post was created by a non-news editorial team at Recurrent Media, Futurisms owner. Futurism may receive a portion of sales on products linked within this post.

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If you're worried about NASA's plan to bring Mars rocks back to Earth to study them, you probably don't need to be.

In interviews with The Philadelphia Inquirer, scientists maintained that there's very little risk involved in bringing samples from Mars back home.

As Rutgers' Nathan Yee, a former NASA official who teaches astrobiology, reminded the Inquirer, Mars rocks have already fallen to Earth in the form of meteorites "without any adverse effects to our biosphere."

Yee noted that because Mars' current atmosphere is very inhospitable to life as we know it — not to mention that it lacks a magnetic field to deflect solar radiation, and is therefore bombarded constantly with harsh rays — it would be hard enough for life to survive on the red planet, much less make it alive to Earth.

"There has to be a long, long time of evolution for microbes to learn how to interact and attach onto animal cells, enter animal cells, and use the machinery of an animal cell to replicate," he told the newspaper. "That’s a very complex choreographed dance."

NASA itself has repeatedly reiterated that the Mars Sample Return Mission, which it's undertaking in tandem with the European Space Agency, is safe and that there is a "low likelihood of risk" given Mars' arid, UV-blasted climate.

Nevertheless, at least one ex-government official is hellbent on highlighting what he considers the safety concerns of the mission.

"We won’t know if it’s sterile or not," retired Federal Aviation Administration and Mars aficionado Thomas Dehel told the Inquirer of the samples. "We should know if we bring something back to Earth whether it’s sterile or not, to do some sort of crude test up front to see if there’s any kind of biological life."

Dehel, who runs a blog criticizing NASA and some news outlets for purportedly "covering up" Mars sample safety concerns, posited that a good way to figure out whether the rock samples contain lethal or dangerous pathogens would be to test them remotely on the International Space Station.

NASA, however, shot down that concept because, as the agency told the newspaper, the ISS doesn't have equipment sensitive enough to glean all necessary info from the Martian rock samples.

While Rutgers' Yee is not himself concerned about some sort of deadly pathogen from Mars running rampant from space rocks brought to Earth, he is curious to see what NASA will do if, as he told the Inquirer, the samples turn up "remnants of past life."

On our end, we'll definitely be watching closely, popcorn at hand.

READ MORE: NASA says its plan to bring Mars samples back to Earth is safe, but some people are worried [The Philadelphia Inquirer]

More on the Mars rock blues: Scientists Worried NASA Will Infect Earth With Deadly Martian Pathogens

The post Mars Rock Samples Probably Won't Infect Earth With Deadly Martian Plague, Scientist Says appeared first on Futurism.

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Mars Rock Samples Probably Won't Infect Earth With Deadly Martian Plague, Scientist Says

Getting Laid (Off)

A Tesla employee says the company mishandled his firing when it let him go while he was on vacation — and he's not the only one.

As Insider reports, Reno, Nevada's Roosevelt Jointer had been a Tesla maintenance supervisor from 2017 until last month, when he got a phone call from his boss while he was on vacation telling him he was "going to be let go effectively immediately."

"I did not receive any advance notice that I would be losing my job," Jointer wrote in a legal declaration seen by Insider. "Up to that point, no one at Tesla ever raised any issues with me regarding my performance"

The ex-Tesla employee added that he was told during the call that if he signed his severance offer, he would receive a mere one week of pay and two months of health insurance. He declined to sign.

Suit Supply

Jointer's declaration was filed as evidence in a lawsuit against the company by two other former Tesla employees, John Lynch and Daxton Hartfield, who are suing over allegedly mishandled terminations.

Along with Jointer's sworn declaration, five other former Tesla employees plus Hartfield and Lynch recounted in the suit, filed this week in Texas, the various ways the company allegedly mishandling their sackings.

The suit also claims that Tesla has attempted to control ex-employees using the language in their severance offers, which, if signed, bars former workers from suing the company.

"If left unchecked," their suit reads, per Insider, "Tesla may succeed in cutting off the rights of thousands of potential class members... without them even knowing about this case and their rights."

Trouble in Paradise

This lawsuit comes after the latest round of Tesla layoffs, which CEO Elon Musk said are due to a "super bad feeling" he had about the economic downturn. In an internal announcement about the layoffs, obtained by Reuters in early June, Musk said that he would be letting go about 10 percent of the company's salaried staff, accounting for roughly three percent of the company's total workforce.

In the Texas suit, the plaintiffs are asking that Tesla make laid off workers whole by providing them with at least 60 days of pay and benefits.

Tesla's a huge company with, one would except, a veritable army of lawyers. But given that it's been sued dozens of times over at this point, a settlement may be in the cards.

READ MORE: A Tesla employee of nearly 5 years says he was sacked over the phone while on vacation [Business Insider]

More on Tesla layoffs: As Crisis Deepens, Tesla Rescinds Job Offers To People Who'd Already Accepted Them

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Ex-Tesla Employee Says He Was Fired by Phone Call, While on Vacation

PlAI Ball

FIFA — the international overlord of soccer-slash-football — has revealed that it'll be implementing a complex offsides-detecting AI system at the upcoming 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The assistive technology takes into consideration a dizzying array of data points. A dozen strategically-placed, AI-connected cameras continuously collect data from 29 specific points on players' bodies, while a sensor, which sits at the center of the ball, relays its exact location approximately 500 times per second.

The system alerts a control room team if it catches a player offsides, who then validates the AI "call" and relays the info back to the on-field refs.

FIFA is no stranger to referee-supporting tech, having introduced a controversial video assistant referee (VAR) at the World Cup back in 2018.

But this latest addition to the game is a lot more complex than that, with referees handing AI an unprecedented degree of control over the game — and, in the competitive and moneyed world of professional sports, it could well be a sign of things to come.

Robot Ref

The organization also really wants you to know that human refs aren't out of a job — yet.

"I know that someone called it 'robot offside;' it's not," said Pierluigi Collina, chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee, in a press release. "The referees and the assistant referees are still responsible for the decision on the field of play."

According the statement, FIFA believes that the integration will simply assist game speed and referee accuracy. Players won't have to wait around for decisions to be made, and refs will have plenty of supplemental information with which to make notoriously difficult offsides calls, as FIFA's trials have already proved.

Plus, with AI on their side, oft-heckled referees could face less sideline harassment from coaches and fans — though, of course, we'll find out at the upcoming World Cup.

It'll be fascinating to see how well the technology functions in real time. For better or worse, seeing the world's number one sport embrace this new degree of AI-integration — on the game's biggest stage, no less — feels like a significant step in the future of athletics.

More on robot refs: Robot Umpires Make Professional Baseball Debut

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AI Referee Will Track Players' Individual Limbs at World Cup

Lock Screen Ads

Google's Android smartphone platform could soon be getting flooded with ads — right on the lock screen.

According to TechCrunch, a Google-backed subsidiary of Indian advertising company inMobi Group called Glance is in talks with US-based wireless carriers to launch several smartphone models, which could feature ads on the lock screen.

If your reaction to that is "hell no," you're not alone. It's an unusually pervasive and intrusive ad strategy even by the already-heavy standards of the web. After all, the lock screen is the first thing we see when we pick up our phones. Let's just hope it's not a sign of things to come.

More Distractions

Glance's "dynamic" lock screen trickles content including news, videos, and games — and ads — to the user before they even unlock their phone, a feature that's already caught on in a big way overseas. The startup's services are already being used on 400 million smartphones in Asia, according to TechCrunch.

Fortunately, there are a couple of workarounds to disable Glance lock screen ads, as 9to5Google points out, but users will have to dig around deep in their phones' system settings to do so.

Even Apple is opening up to the idea of stuffing content on the lock screen. As part of an upcoming iOS software update, iPhone users will be able to customize their phone's lock screens with informational widgets — but there's no indication ads will be included as well.

At a glance, the plan isn't great. As if modern smartphones weren't distracting enough, stuffing the lock screen with even more dynamic content, let alone ads, is bound to make the experience of using a smartphone even more annoying and obtrusive than it already is.

READ MORE: Google-backed Glance to launch in US within two months [TechCrunch]

More on ads: Crypto Exchanges Lay Off Thousands, Months After Uber-Expensive Super Bowl Ads

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Cell Providers Are Apparently Gonna Put Ads on Your Phone's Lock Screen

Spooky Skies

Nothing quite says "apocalypse" like Melon Powerade-colored heavens. Case in point, before a bout of severe weather yesterday, the sky in Sioux Falls, South Dakota turned a shade of green akin to that of the gamma radiation that turned Bruce Banner into the Hulk.

The ominous occurrence took place as a massive thunderstorm system called a derecho swept through the region, injuring several people and wreaking havoc on the property and power supplies of thousands of others.

Derechos are powerful and destructive, known for hurricane-like winds, heavy rains, and a knack for traveling hundreds of miles. But while these mighty weather events have occasionally been known to cause this viridescent phenomenon, The Washington Post reports that the neon hue witnessed yesterday is extremely uncommon.

The approach. @NWSSiouxFalls @keloland @dakotanews_now pic.twitter.com/NOl35jIlpt

— jaden (@jkarmill) July 5, 2022

Green Machine

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Neuralink Daycare

An eyebrow-raising scoop from Insider found that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's brood of children is even larger than previously known, with two new twins having been born last November.

For those keeping score, the infants are not Musk's first secret offspring that have come to light. Back in March of this year, it emerged in a Vanity Fair profile that Musk had had a second baby with his on-again-off-again girlfriend, the acclaimed musician Claire "Grimes" Boucher — a revelation that came about accidentally when the reporter working on the story heard a baby crying upstairs. All in, the billionaire now has nine known children.

The mother of the latest infants, whose names have not been revealed, is also a notable individual. But in a fraught twist, according to Insider's reporting, it turns out that this women — by the name of Shivon Zilis — is a highly-accomplished employee of Musk who has worked at several of his ventures including OpenAI, Tesla, and currently Neuralink.

Ethical Minefield

Needless to say, it's very widely frowned on for executives to maintain romantic, sexual or parental relationships with their subordinates, a norm in the business world that Musk seems to be flagrantly violating here.

That transgression is especially noteworthy because of another notable Insider scoop, this one in May of this year, which quoted legal documents claiming that Musk had made improper sexual advances toward a flight attendant working in a SpaceX private jet. According to the documents reviewed by Insider, SpaceX paid the woman $250,000 in a severance agreement after the allegations came to light. And that's just the beginning of the criticism of Musk's treatment of women.

Musk, who along with the other people named in Insider's story declined to comment, is a fabulously powerful, wealthy and famous individual — and with a hairline that only money can buy. If he wanted to, there are almost certainly unfathomable number of people he could date who are not his employees. In fact, he's dated and been married to several in the past, including Boucher.

What this latest revelation underscores is a side of Musk that seems to emerge regularly, and perhaps more frequently as he ages: a talented executive who's accomplishing extraordinary things in the fields of space travel, electric vehicles, and beyond — but who has astonishingly poor impulse control.

More on Elon Musk: Elon Musk Deletes Sexist Tweets

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Elon Musk Reportedly Had Two More Secret Children This Year

Horror Struck

YouTube is once again screwing up its children's programming after designating a found footage horror video as "for kids" and not allowing the creator to change the erroneous rating manually.

The issue apparently began over the holiday weekend, when, as YouTuber Kris Straub tweeted, the social network sent him an email informing him that it had auto-designated a video from his horror channel, Local58TV, as being a "show for children."

As Straub noted, this bizarre change came "despite my having set it as inappropriate for kids," and he added that he couldn't "change it voluntarily" without an appeal, which he then filed.

18+

Local58TV is, as its creator maintains, decidedly not for children, though as Ars Technica noted in its write-up of the since-reversed decision, the company's AI moderators may have gotten their wires crossed because there is an episode called "Show For Children."

In spite of the title, it takes just a couple of seconds of watching the eerie episode to see that the title is tongue-in-cheek. It features a cartoon skeleton walking around a graveyard looking for love, only to encounter a number of much creepier monsters before laying down to "die" and become one of them.

Reversal

A couple days after Straub tweeted about the erroneous designation, and a day after Ars wrote about it, YouTube finally reversed the "for kids" designation. As the channel's creator noted, however, account owners should always be able to designate their videos as not for children. It also doesn't appear that YouTube has explained why the video's designation was switched to "made for kids" in the first place.

Given the major issues that YouTube has had with people labeling extremely-sketchy content as being children's programming, it's especially bizarre that the company wouldn't allow someone to change their own rating to being not for kids.

At the end of the day, it's just the kind of thing that happens when you employ AIs to moderate your content.

READ MORE: YouTube flags horror video as “for kids,” won’t let creator change rating [Ars Technica]

More YouTube shenanigans: YouTube Channel That Hunts Scammers Falls For Scam, Deletes Itself

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YouTube Marked Horror Video as "For Kids," Wouldn't Let Creator Reverse It

As the current testing grounds and launch site of SpaceX’s massive Starship — a fully reusable rocket that very well may be the most powerful in the world — "Starbase" near Brownsville in South Texas, attracts plenty of space enthusiasts that want to catch a glimpse of the titanic rocket in action.

But to their dismay, that privilege could soon end, National Geographic reports, with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk hinting that the space company could eventually move operations to the Florida Space Coast.

"Everybody down here, Brownsville and the whole valley, was expecting to see that this was going to be the Gateway to Mars," Louis Baldera, a local resident known to his tens of thousands of online followers as LabPadre, and who has closely been following SpaceX's operations, told the publication.

"As far as anything being launched directly to space to the moon or Mars, that’s more than likely not going to happen here," he added. "I think that’s going to bum some people out."

Employees at the facility, who chose to remain anonymous, also told Dallas Express News this week that they no longer believe that Starbase will be the "Gateway."

That's in large part because SpaceX and the Federal Aviation Administration have been embroiled in an ugly battle over granting approval for orbital test flights for Starship, with the FAA citing environmental concerns and delaying their decision on multiple occasions.

"I guess our worst-case scenario is that we would be delayed for six to eight months to build up the Cape launch tower and launch from there," Musk said at a February press conference, when asked what would happen if the FAA required a more extensive environmental review.

Permission was eventually granted last month to carry out the inaugural orbital test flight — as long as SpaceX complies with over 75 environmental provisions.

If operations were to move to Florida, that's not a prospect that’s likely to sit well with Brownsville residents, especially given the potential consequences on the local economy such a decision could have.

After all, SpaceX is the biggest employer in the city.

"I didn’t know any of those plans beforehand," Jessica Tetreau, the Brownsville city commissioner, told National Geographic. "What startled us was when we heard the timeline and how they would have to start moving things to Florida."

SpaceX already started building a Starship launch tower in Florida last December and more recently added its second segment in June.

With the FAA breathing down their neck and dismay from local environmental groups growing, Starbase could be losing its desirability as a launch location.

Of course, that wouldn't mean a complete pull-out. The facility would most likely be used for less glamorous research and development purposes, as Musk stated at the February conference.

While it's still mostly speculation at this point — it's still not a given that SpaceX will move operations — hopefully it won't have too much of an economic impact on the region.

More on SpaceX: SpaceX Slaps Logo On Starship, Drags Prototype to Launchpad

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Cosmic Collapse

Have you ever indulged the depths of your intrusive thoughts and wondered how the universe is going to smash and chew up our little planet over billions of years?

Well, that’s more or less what scientists Garett Brown and Hanno Rein at the University of Toronto have done for their recent study on what would happen if a neighboring star flew just a little too close to our solar system.

While they're not expecting a neighboring star to come cruising through the middle of our system, they looked at the potentially devastating effects of minor shifts in the orbits of the solar system's planets, triggered by a star getting a little too close to comfort — some billions of miles away.

Solar Simulations

Brown and Rein ran nearly 3,000 simulations with varying degrees of perturbation caused by a possible stellar fly-by, examining the subsequent effects up to 4.8 billion years later.

"Up to," because some simulations ended early when a planet was jettisoned from the solar system or was destroyed. Yikes!

The results are pretty shocking. The scientists found that just a 0.1 percent change in Neptune’s distance to the Sun could plunge the entire solar system into complete chaos — all because a star came within 23 billion miles of the Sun.

To put that number into perspective, Proxima Centauri, our closest neighboring star, is about 24.8 trillion miles away.

Reining It In

While a complete collapse of the solar system sounds like a pretty catastrophic event, that kind of demise could stretch out over billions of years.

"These weak perturbations don’t destroy the solar system immediately, they just wiggle it around a little bit, and over the next millions or billions of years something goes unstable," Rein told New Scientist.

Perhaps a little more optimistically, 960 of the simulations resulted in insignificant changes.

Besides, as the researchers themselves concluded, this kind of stuff only happens in our corner of the universe once every 100 billion years or so, with the effects taking millions of years to come into play.

In short, it's an interesting scenario to think about, but not one you'll have to worry about —unless you plan on living forever.

READ MORE: A passing star shifting Neptune’s orbit could wreck the solar system [New Scientist]

More on neighboring stars: Scientists Spot Dying Star Brutally Tearing Up Its Unfortunate Planets

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Deep Deep

Scientists behind NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have given us a first glimpse into the awe-inspiring power of the images it will produce — and what we're seeing is only a test run.

As NASA proudly notes on its website, the calibration test image that was composited together from 32 hours and 72 exposures,  "is among the deepest images of the universe ever taken" — and the telescope is only getting started.

Talk about an overachiever!

Gaze at this test image — an unexpected & deep view of the universe — captured by Webb’s Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) in May. Built by @csa_asc to point Webb precisely at targets, taking glamour shots isn’t even FGS’s main job: https://t.co/aQUAFHcNV5 pic.twitter.com/uYoh4t8PX2

— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) July 6, 2022

Testing 123

Almost as fabulous as the image itself is the fact that this photo was taken as part of an early test of the telescope's Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS). Its task is to make sure the cameras and mirrors are all aligned correctly.

"Even when capturing unplanned imagery during a test," NASA wrote with a flourish on its blog, "FGS is capable of producing stunning views of the cosmos."

Originally taken in May and not released to the public until now, this stunning image is just a precursor for the real thing. In about a week's time, NASA will release the first full-color images of deep space taken by the JWST.

Until then, we're waiting with bated breath to see how the telescope, two decades in the making, can outdo itself.

READ MORE: Webb’s Fine Guidance Sensor Provides a Preview [NASA]

More on the JWST: Scientists Say New James Webb Images Are So Powerful That It Was Emotional Just Looking At Them 

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NASA Shows Off Mesmerizing First Images From James Webb Telescope

Swedish firm Myrkl claims to have developed a new pill that breaks down the alcohol in your blood to stop you from experiencing a deadly hangover after a wild night out.

But on closer inspection, the company's ostentatious claims start to look a little suspect — not only is the company's study, on which it bases its claims, dubiously researched — the pill could also take all the fun out of drinking alcohol in the first place.

That is, if it works at all.

The purported hangover cure, advertised as "the pre-drinking pill that works," just went on sale in the United Kingdom.

But as University of Plymouth clinical scientist and hepatologist Ashwin Dhanda points out in a new piece for The Conversation, there are some serious caveats to the company's claims.

Myrkl claims that if you take two of its pills 12 hours before drinking, it will prevent a hangover by absorbing up to 70 percent of the alcohol before it enters your bloodstream and subsequently dehydrates you — which is a major source of hangovers.

The pill makes use of two types of probiotics commonly found in the health food aisle called Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus coagulans to break down the alcohol.

But there's one huge catch.

As Dhanda wrote in his piece for The Conversation, "this reduction in the amount of alcohol absorbed by the body is mirrored by a reduction in the short-term effects of alcohol, such as euphoria and reduced anxiety."

Translation: this pill claims that it will stop you from being drunk — which is the general point of drinking alcohol — to prevent a hangover.

Beyond the simple fact that probiotic supplements are already for sale under different labels in the UK, Dhanda notes that the single peer-reviewed study backing this alleged hangover cure has issues, too.

Published in the journal Nutrition and Metabolic Insights last month, the study tracked blood alcohol levels following either active or placebo dosage of 24 white adult subjects. But only 14 of those subjects' results were included in the study, because the other ten had lower blood alcohol levels at the beginning of the study.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, "results varied between different people, which reduces the accuracy of the study," as Dhanda notes. Additionally, the timing and dosing was off, too, given that " the researchers tested seven days of treatment before a single drink of alcohol, but the company recommend only two pills one to 12 hours before drinking any amount."

These results leave a number of questions, from whether the results were different for men and women, which the study did not denote, how non-white people respond to the probiotic cocktail, and, perhaps most importantly, whether people with gastrointestinal issues can take it given that many who suffer from GI issues get sick from probiotics.

This is far from the first pill claiming to be a hangover cure and it certainly won't be the last.

While it's not an overall bad idea to take probiotics, the best way to avoid a hangover is to rein in your binge drinking — or at least staying hydrated while drinking alcohol.

READ MORE: Myrkl: new anti-hangover pill said to break down up to 70% of alcohol in an hour – what you need to know [The Conversation]

More on snake oil: Hangover "Cures" Are Total Nonsense, According to Science

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"Anti-Hangover" Pill Could Take All The Fun Out of Drinking — If It Actually Works

According to a new study by a team of psychologists, being "hangry" — hungry and angry — is a very real thing, something anyone who's ever substituted breakfast with coffee before heading to work has known for years.

While it's not the first study on being hangry, it's the first to examine the effects of being hangry in a real world environment instead of a lab.

Professor Viren Swami of Anglia Ruskin University in the UK, the study’s lead author, was inspired to conduct the study after repeatedly being told that he was acting "hangry," Swami told The Guardian.

So he decided to investigate if being hangry is a scientifically verifiable phenomenon.

In a study, Swami and his colleagues looked at 64 adults in Central Europe between the ages of 18 and 60. For three weeks, the subjects recorded their hungriness and emotional states in a smartphone app five times per day.

While it may not be the largest sample size, the researchers were able to get over 9,000 responses thanks to the frequent logging of the study’s participants.

The app provided the participants with a Visual Analogue Scale, which is commonly used for evaluating pain, of 0 to 100 to log their emotional states. In effect, this translated to a scale of "not hungry at all" to "very hungry" for their hungriness, and "not at all" to "very" for angriness and irritability.

The results showed that "greater levels of self-reported hunger were associated with greater feelings of anger and irritability," according to the study.

In other words, as you get more and more hungry, you tend to get more angry, too.

There are plenty of other interesting observations in the study, like only 58 percent of participants eating breakfast, or only 23 percent knowing when they were full.

"It’s really important to be able to identify emotions like being hangry so we can mitigate against the negative effects," Swami told The Guardian, expressing concern about children going to school hungry.

So while the findings of this study seem like a no-brainer, it could help us address "hangriness" more productively. Don't underestimate the power of getting a good meal in first, folks.

More on psychological studies: Dyslexia Actually Grants Special Powers, Researchers Say

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It's looking more and more like, above all, a Hot Zone Summer: On Thursday, the World Health Organization reported the number of confirmed monkeypox cases to be skyrocketing — to the tune of a whopping 77 percent increase week-over-week worldwide, CNBC reports.

There are now over 7,000 cases of the mysterious disease, spanning 60 countries — while the world continues reeling from a resurgence of COVID-19 cases. While monkeypox has been circulating in parts of Africa for decades, outbreaks across much of the rest of the globe are causing officials to ring the alarm bells.

In an official statement this week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that he continues to be "concerned by the scale and spread of the virus." Over 80 percent of these cases were observed in Europe, making it the epicenter of the new outbreaks.

And the number of actual cases might be even worse than what we know. "Testing remains a challenge and it’s highly probable that there are a significant number of cases not being picked up," said Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The symptoms of the disease include fever, body aches, fatigues, and itchy lesions that can spread over the body. Fortunately, there's already a tested, proven, and manufactured vaccine to protect against monkeypox, with US president Joe Biden announcing last week that his administration will make the vaccine broadly available.

New York City officials started administering thousands of doses today, with appointments filling up almost immediately. But there's only a limited supply of shots, undermining future vaccination efforts.

Meanwhile, scientists are racing to understand what's driving these outbreaks, precisely. Their efforts will hopefully produce methods to circumvent further contagion — methods that don't exclusively involve an already short-stocked vaccine supply.

READ MORE: Monkeypox cases rise 77% in a week, WHO reports: "Concerned by the scale and spread of the virus" [CBS]

More on monkeypox: Scientists Warn of International Monkeypox Outbreaks

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Gold Rush

One billionaire's "super bad feeling" about the global economy is another billionaire's hiring spree.

In the wake of Tesla's latest round of widespread layoffs, several big tech companies — including both Microsoft and Amazon, led respectively by vocal Tesla CEO Elon Musk nemeses Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos — are snatching up ex-Tesla employees left and right, Business Insider reports.

OMW

According to LinkedIn data sourced by a private network of Fortune 500 executives called Punks & Pinstripes, rival electric vehicle manufacturers Rivian and Lucid picked up 90 of 457 recent Tesla departures between them.

Amazon and Apple — the latter of which has been trying to get a secretive and cursed autonomous car project off the ground for years — snagged 51 former Tesla employees each. Others migrated to other tech giants including Meta and Microsoft.

WFH

The hiring sweep comes on the heels of Musk's anti-remote work decree, after which several companies — Amazon and Microsoft in particular, according to Insider — began to cast some pretty targeted recruiting nets.

"If the Emperor of Mars doesn't want you, I'll be happy to bring you over to [Amazon Web Services]," read a simmering LinkedIn post by Zafar Choudhury, a recruiter at Amazon, in response to the work from home drama, as quoted by Insider.

The surprise Tesla layoff announcement came just a few days later.

The EV company has had a rotten year so far. Tesla's controversial, semi-automated driving tech is facing a massive government recall, while Musk is trying to rein in spending, referring to the company's factories as "gigantic money furnaces."

Clearly, Tesla's got plenty of stuff to figure out — and its competitors are reaping the benefits.

READ MORE: Rivian, Amazon, and Apple are snapping up laid-off Tesla employees amid Elon Musk's workforce-reduction plans [Business Insider]

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All Figured Out

Scientists at NASA let out a huge sigh of relief yesterday when NASA was able to successfully restore contact with its CAPSTONE satellite after it unexpectedly plunged into radio silence on Monday.

And fortunately for NASA scientists, CAPSTONE "is looking happy and healthy."

Now, thanks to their tireless efforts, we finally know what caused the dropout: a bad command and a software error.

Faulty

According to a NASA update, the issue arose during the commissioning of the CAPSTONE satellite, which typically entails establishing contact with the satellite and checking its systems, among other procedures.

While attempting to access diagnostic data to investigate an issue with CAPSTONE's ranging data, an "improperly formatted command" was sent to the satellite, rendering its radio inoperable, according to the update.

The onboard fault detection system failed to fix and reboot the radio, something it was designed to do, because of a "fault in the spacecraft flight software."

"And still, the small spacecraft survived," Ars Technica senior space editor Eric Berger tweeted in response to the news. "Hard not to root for the little guy."

Flying Solo

There are some positive takeaways from this brief blunder. Despite the delay, CAPSTONE's autonomous flight software was able to fix things on its own and bring the satellite back into contact, at which point the ground team were able to re-assume control.

It also managed to keep its antenna pointed towards Earth the entire time while simultaneously topping off its battery charge by keeping its solar panels oriented. Pretty impressive!

The Moon-bound satellite represents a major step forward in NASA's Artemis program, an ambitious program which aims to return humans to the lunar surface.

Assuming there aren't any other hiccups, the satellite will be the first spacecraft to perform a special kind of elliptical orbit around the Moon, laying the groundwork for NASA's Gateway station in the Moon's orbit.

More on CAPSTONE: There's a NASA Satellite Headed Toward the Moon Right Now

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