If you look at a map of lightning near the Port of Singapore, youll notice an odd streak of intense lightning activity right over the busiest shipping lane in the world. As it turns out, the lightning really is responding to the ships, or rather the tiny particles they emit.Using data from a global lightning detection network, my colleagues and I have been studying how exhaust plumes from ships are associated with an increase in the frequency of lightning.For decades, ship emissions steadily rose as increasing global trade drove higher ship traffic. Then, in 2020, new international regulations cut ships sulfur emissions by 77%. Our newly published research shows how lightning over shipping lanes dropped by half almost overnight after the regulations went into effect.Shipping lanes (top image) and lightning strikes (bottom) near the Port of Singapore. [Image: Chris Wright]That unplanned experiment demonstrates how thunderstorms, which can be 10 miles tall, are sensitive to the emission of particles that are smaller than a grain of sand. The responsiveness of lightning to human pollution helps us get closer to understanding a long-standing mystery: To what extent, if any, have human emissions influenced thunderstorms?Aerosol particles can affect clouds?Aerosol particles, also known as particulate matter, are everywhere. Some are kicked up by wind or produced from biological sources, such as tropical and boreal forests. Others are generated by human industrial activity, such as transportation, agricultural burning and manufacturing.Its hard to imagine, but in a single liter of air about the size of a water bottle there are tens of thousands of tiny suspended clusters of liquid or solid. In a polluted city, there can be millions of particles per liter, mostly invisible to the naked eye.These particles are a key ingredient in cloud formation. They serve as seeds, or nuclei, for water vapor to condense into cloud droplets. The more aerosol particles, the more cloud droplets.Water molecules condense around nuclei to form clouds. [Photo: David Babb/Penn State, CC BY-NC]In shallow clouds, such as the puffy-looking cumulus clouds you might see on a sunny day, having more seeds has the effect of making the cloud brighter, because the increase in droplet surface area scatters more light.In storm clouds, however, those additional droplets freeze into ice crystals, making the effects of aerosol particles on storms tricky to pin down. The freezing of cloud droplets releases latent heat and causes ice to splinter. That freezing, combined with the powerful thermodynamic instabilities that generate storms, produces a system that is very chaotic, making it difficult to isolate how any one factor is influencing them.A view from the International Space Station shows the anvils of tropical thunderstorms as warm ocean air collides with the mountains of Sumatra. [Photo: NASA Visible Earth]We cant generate a thunderstorm in the lab. However, we can study the accidental experiment taking place in the busiest shipping corridor in the world.Ship emissions and lightningWith engines that are often three stories tall and burn viscous fuel oil, ships traveling into and out of ports emit copious quantities of soot and sulfur particles. The shipping lanes near the Port of Singapore are the most highly trafficked in the world roughly 20% of the worlds bunkering oil, used by ships, is purchased there.In order to limit toxicity to people near ports, the International Maritime Organization a United Nations agency that oversees shipping rules and security began regulating sulfur emissions in 2020. At the Port of Singapore, the sales of high-sulfur fuel plummeted, from nearly 100% of ship fuel before the regulation to 25% after, replaced by low-sulfur fuels.But what do shipping emissions have to do with lightning?Scientists have proposed a number of hypotheses to explain the correlation between lightning and pollution, all of which revolve around the crux of electrifying a cloud: collisions between snowflake-like ice crystals and denser chunks of ice.When the charged, lightweight ice crystals are lofted as the denser ice falls, the cloud becomes a giant capacitor, building electrical energy as the ice crystals bump past each other. Eventually, that capacitor discharges, and out shoots a lightning bolt, five times hotter than the surface of the Sun.We think that, somehow, the aerosol particles from the ships smokestacks are generating more ice crystals or more frequent collisions in the clouds.In our latest study, my colleagues and I describe how lightning over the shipping lane fell by about 50% after 2020. There were no other factors, such as El Nio influences or changes in thunderstorm frequency, that could explain the sudden drop in lightning activity. We concluded that the lightning activity had fallen because of the regulation.The reduction of sulfur in ship fuels meant fewer seeds for water droplet condensation and, as a result, fewer charging collisions between ice crystals. Ultimately, there have been fewer storms that are sufficiently electrified to produce a lightning stroke.Whats next?Less lightning doesnt necessarily mean less rain or fewer storms.There is still much to learn about how humans have changed storms and how we might change them in the future, intentionally or not. Do aerosol particles actually invigorate storms in general, creating more extensive, violent vertical motion? Or are the effects of aerosols specific to the idiosyncrasies of lightning generation? Have humans altered lightning frequency globally?My colleagues and I are working to answer these questions. We hope that by understanding the effects of aerosol particles on lightning, thunderstorm precipitation and cloud development, we can better predict how the Earths climate will respond as human emissions continue to fluctuate.Chris Wright is a fellow in atmospheric science at the Program on Climate Change at the University of Washington.This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The design of handheld gaming devices is finally starting to diversify a bit. Although originally inspired by the success of the Nintendo Switch, most followed the unibody design of the Steam Deck. Given the complexity of having removable controllers paired with the complexity of computers themselves, its understandable that not many manufacturers dared to take the risk in such a niche and still unproven market.Thats not to say there havent been attempts, like the first Lenovo Legion GO, for example, but theyre few and far between. Recently, weve been seeing some rather curious interpretations of that design, including one with a gigantic 10-inch screen. Thats what this peculiar handheld gaming PC design obviously tries to pull off but it seems to make a mistake in the one part that matters the most.Designer: CRELANDERWhen it comes to gaming computers, there are many elements that determine their success or failure, but handheld devices boil that down to two important things: the form factor and raw power. After all, it has to be comfortable to hold to even be considered a handheld device, and it has to have enough processing power to handle gaming. The CRELANDER laptop teeters on the former but seems to completely flop the latter.Technically speaking, you could consider the CRELANDER as more of a tablet than either a laptop or a handheld PC. Its 10.5-inch touch screen pretty much makes sure of that, but its rather thick 20mm body takes it out of the competition in the slim and sleek department. What earmarks it for gaming, however, are the detachable controllers that seem to physically connect to the sides of the tablet, exactly like the Nintendo Switch Joy-cons. With a weight of at least 2.2 lbs (1kg), however, its probably not going to be a comfortable gaming session while youre standing up.Its biggest flaw, however, is the Intel N95 that drives the whole thing, a low-power processor that wont be able to handle any AAA or graphics-intensive games. The rest of the specs, which includes 16GB or 32GB of RAM and up to 2TB SSD definitely fit the bill of a gaming PC, but the processor will be the bottleneck that ruins the experience. Not unless all you want to do is play retro or emulated games, as well as a few casual PC games, then this multi-purpose portable PC might look attractive.Its highly likely that the $350 price tag is the driving factor behind the choice of an Intel N95, though its a sacrifice that asks too much even for that price. There are some, like the OneXPlayer X1, that make the same proposition with better design and specs though at three times the cost. Given these factors, you might start to ask whether such a novel design on a large 10-inch tablet is worth it at all.The post Gigantic handheld gaming PC fails to check the most important box first appeared on Yanko Design.

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Promotional art for the 1997 movie Starship Troopers.Columbia Pictures has tapped District 9 director Neill Blomkamp to write and direct a new Starship Troopers film, according to The Hollywood Reporter, giving the franchise its first live-action entry since 2008s Starship Troopers 3: Marauder.The movie will be based on Robert A. Heinleins 1959 book of the same name, not a remake of or sequel to 1997s Paul Verhoeven-directed Starship Troopers, say the outlets unnamed sources. In that movie, characters played by Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Neil Patrick Harris, and Michael Ironside are part of a comically jingoist militaristic society at war with space bugs. Blomkamps wife, Terri Tatchell, will reportedly co-produce the new Troopers movie. The outlet does not say when its expected to debut.Heinleins book has been criticized for celebrating military fascism criticism that extended to Verhoevens movie when it was released, as The Hollywood Reporter notes. These days, its generally accepted that his movie was meant as a send-up of the book. In a Kennedy Center interview, Verhoeven said hed hoped to show those who applaud the kind of over-the-top jingoism it presents that what you have been admiring might be evil. Blomkamp has unsuccessfully tried to make movies in other sci-fi franchises, including a sequel to the Verhoeven-directed RoboCop called RoboCop Returns. Hed also planned a new Alien franchise film, but that was put on hold in favor of Ridley Scotts Prometheus follow-up, Alien: Covenant. Most recently, he directed Gran Turismo.

Streaming Wars is a weekly opinion column by IGNs Streaming Editor, Amelia Emberwing. Check out the last entry Daredevil: Born Again An Unexpected Connection to the Netflix Series Could Right a Decade-Old Wrong.This column contains spoilers for Severance Season 2.Earlier this week, I wrote about Severance Season 2s penultimate episode being a lot darker than it seemed. Dylan Gs decision to effectively die by suicide is a pretty jarring moment, even if its difficult to wrap our heads around due to him (presumably) continuing on in the series as his outie. Theres a lot more to the episode, with our boys Burt and Irving having what feels like but probably isnt a last farewell and Mark dealing with everything going on with his brain at the moment. But theres something outside of all of that that I actively cannot stop thinking about.WTF is going on with Helena and Helly R.?We start the episode with a brief swim before Helena (Britt Lower) heads to her fathers estate for breakfast. As is always the case with the Eagens, literally every second of their encounter is weird. Helena eats a hard-boiled egg, to which her father says I wish you would take them raw in the creepiest way humanly possible. This is followed later on in the episode by an equally unnerving encounter, this time on Lumons severed floor. As Helly R. tries to memorize the directions left by Irving to get to the dark hallway, she is interrupted by Jame (Michael Siberry). He tells his daughters innie that she tricked him, and calls her My Helly. True to character, Helly responds with a simple WTF? But, dear reader, WTF is somehow not enough for whatever the hell is going on here. There is something wrong going on with both versions of Helly in this episode, I cant put my finger on it, and it is driving me mad. The likelihood of all of this being easily explained is not small, but for some reason I need that answer. The goats dont even drive me into this kind of hyperfixation spiral. PlayAs mentioned, meetings with any Eagan are always on the unnerving side. But there is something different about Helena at the beginning of this episode. At first, I thought the episode title The After Hours was a hint toward the overtime contingency rather than just the cabin Cobel (Patricia Arquette) was taking Mark (Adam Scott) to, implying that Helly R. somehow found a way to take over her outies body for the morning. Id talk myself out of it one moment, and then talk myself right back into the theory the next. But this proverbial brain tennis eventually took me in a completely new direction. What if it isnt Helly R. pretending to be Helena? Theres something too simple about that theory. It feels too clean. What if, instead, theyre not flipping the earlier story of Helena taking Hellys place on the severed floor, but coming back to it? Stick with me here. At first, this line of thinking seems absurd. Nothings happened to nudge the woman who was literally homegrown inside a cult outside of her loyalist tendencies, right? Wrong! Two inciting incidents have occurred that may have snapped Jame Eagans daughter out of her Lumon fugue state. The first is the aforementioned overtime contingency. A woman who has, as far as we know, never rebelled a second in her life got the opportunity to be free. To dissent. To speak up and speak out about something she didnt support. We also know that she was following Helly R.s rebellion in Season 1. How refreshing (and possibly terrifying) that must be for someone who grew up an Eagan! The second inciting factor was getting to live as Helly when she was masquerading as her innie. Adventures, rebellions, sex?! Helena has grown up in a world that looks down on laborers, but doesnt seem like the type of person who has ever been confronted by the idea of being free, even if that freedom was occurring while trapped in a dead-end job.Two non-Eagan focused scenes in The After Hours seem to corroborate this line of thinking. All Helly R. has done from the moment we met her is stand up and/or defy every authority figure she encounters. Still, there was a strange spark in her when she looked Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) in the eye after he accused her of insubordination and she responded yeah, no shit, with a grin before slamming the door to his office. Additionally, Dylan G. (Zach Cherry) may have been unnecessarily mean to his friend during his heartbreak, but he has a line during their conversation where he brings up the fact that no one can tell when Helena takes over her body, not even Mark.The final salvo in this strange line of theorizing comes by way of Jame Eagan himself. At first, Hellys WTF? to her dad (who she had never met) convinced me that Helly and Helena were each where they belonged, Helena with her father in his compound, and Helly on the severed floor. But, once I realized the possibility that we spent the whole episode with Helena rather than Helly, it all made sense.What the fuck seems like a strong response from Helly R. However, what the fuck is a completely reasonable response to seeing your father in a place where he absolutely does not belong. James little you tricked me confounded me for days, but it seems Daddy dearest may have cracked the code on Helenas little game. If it is Helena living her alternate life as a woman unbeholden to anyone and on a newfound mission to say eff the man, then the follow-up question becomes to what end? Has Helena had a change of heart after experiencing a brief taste of what its like to live outside of her familys monotone cult, or is it just a phase? To that, I dont have an answer just yet. But I can say that it all has me damn excited for next weeks Season 2 finale. What are your Helly R. theories? More from the Severed Floor

Following the Thursday announcement, Google is widely rolling out the latest Gemini models, including 2.0 Flash Thinking (experimental), to the web, Android, and iOS apps.As always, Google first rolls out new models to gemini.google.com, with the mobile apps following a few days later. As of Saturday afternoon, were seeing much wider availability across several Gemini accounts.All Gemini (free) users have access to 2.0 Flash Thinking (experimental). With this round of models, the company started lowercasing experimental and placing in parentheses. As such, its also now 2.0 Pro (experimental), with Google not announcing any other changes to the high-end model. Compared to the previous version introduced in early February, the new Flash Thinking offers better efficiency and speed.It lets you access Gemini Apps like @Gmail, @YouTube, etc., with Google consolidating and getting rid of the separate with apps model from last month. File upload is also now supported for everyone, with Advanced subscribers getting a 1M token context window. Meanwhile, Deep Research is available for all Gemini accounts. Its powered by Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking (experimental), but Google no longer explicitly notes what model is being used. On the web, theres a new Deep Research button in the prompt bar, or you can continue using the model picker. Free users have lower research limits than Advanced customers.Finally, Google announced a new Personalization (experimental) model thats available for all users to test. Powered by 2.0 Flash Thinking (experimental), prompts you enter will be analyzed to see if your past Search history can make the answer better. This is useful for brainstorming and personalized recommendations, with example prompts like:Where should I go on vacation this summer?I want to start a YouTube channel but need content ideas.What would you suggest I learn as a new hobby / job?In the future, Google will be using more than just Search, with YouTube and Photos touted. This is part of Googles work to make a personal AI assistant that doesnt just answer general questions, but understands you.On that front, Saved info is now widely rolled out, while the Advanced capability that lets Gemini recall and reference past chats when answering prompts will soon be available in over 45 languages.These are the latest 2.0 models available to users in the Gemini app:2.0 Flash: For everyday tasks, plus more features2.0 Flash Thinking (experimental): Uses advanced reasoningDeep Research: Get in-depth research reportsPersonalization (experimental): Help based on your Search history2.0 Pro (experimental): Best for complex tasksFree vs. AdvancedAdd 9to5Google to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Google experts who break news about Google and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Google on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Welcome toIndie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If youre a developer and would like your app featured, getin contact.Remind Me Faster is a nice companion app for Apple Reminders, helping you transcribe your thoughts into reminders as quickly as possible. It doesnt replace Reminders, but instead makes it more intuitive to use.Top featuresFirst things first, Remind Me Faster supports natural language recognition. You can type things like times, location names, priority, or list names all while youre writing your reminder and the app will automatically recognize and input those factors. It saves you the hassle of having to register those things manually.Additionally, it offers lock screen live activities, providing you a nice little nudge in case you dont finish inputting a reminder you were writing out.It also supports iOS 18 controls, allowing you to map the app to your Lock Screen buttons, Control Center, or Action Button on iPhone 15 Pro and later. This makes it as easy as possible to just start writing.Remind Me Faster is available for free on the App Store with some of the features. Its also subscription-free, so any feature add-ons, such as natural language processing, are available as a one time purchase. It supports iPhones and iPads running iOS 17 and later. Its also available on Apple Silicon Macs and Apple Vision Pro as an iPad app.My favorite Apple accessories on Amazon:Follow Michael:X/Twitter,Bluesky,InstagramAdd 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Splash.Cybertrucks can truly do it all. The bulky electric pickups can produce fire at a moment's notice, excel at collecting trash, and have even been known to shed body panels for Bond-style getaways.Are they also amphibious? In an off-the-cuff post during the runup to the vehicle's launch, Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised that "Cybertrucks will be waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat, so it can cross rivers, lakesand even seas that arent too choppy."Now we've got a perfect test for Musk's bombastic claims. During a botched jet ski launch, one Ventura, California man accidentally threw his luxury truck into reverse, rolling down a ramp and into the harbor's cold waters.Did the vehicle thrive as a watercraft, as Musk would have buyers believe? No: the driver made it out okay, but his prized Cybertruck ended up waterlogged.In fact, the recovery effort drew the Ventura Fire Department, Harbor Patrol, Coast Guard, and California Department of Fish and Wildlife, along with a towboat company and a Tesla engineer.Since the Cybertruck has never been tested by the National Highway Safety Administration, the risks that come with the truck's proprietary battery are pretty much unknown. Fearing a battery fire, responders took their sweet time discussing how to pull the EV out without risking further damage to the harbor."We purposely did not rush into the response to allow time to research all potential hazards and ensure contingency plans were in place," Captain Carson Shevitz, a spokesperson for therespondingtugboat firm told the Ventura County Star.After marinating in the ocean for at least two hours, the now-bricked Cybertruck was hauled out of the water without incident.Though Tesla vehicles around the world are going up in flames at an alarming rate, this is probably the first incident of a Cybertruck falling into a body of water. As such, the incident seems to confirm what everyone suspected all along: these things aren't floating.Meanwhile, Tesla's Chinese rival EV manufacturer, BYD, has actually demonstrated a water-safe vehicle, the U8 luxury SUV. Touted as an emergency feature to survive floods, the U8 can stay afloat for about 30 minutes, and move at a slow but steady 1.8mph.It might not be much, but at least it'll save your ego if you get confused between forward and backward at the harbor.Share This Article

Hints and answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 174, for Sunday, March 16.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 378 for Sunday, March 16.