Why it matters: Self-driving vehicles are typically loaded up with expensive sensor arrays such as lidar, radar, and high-res cameras. But one DIY builder has shown that for certain closed environments, you can ditch all the fancy gear and still get autonomous driving with just one camera. YouTuber Austin Blake is one of those people who just happens to have a self-built go-kart lying around at home. After christening it "Crazy Cart," he decided to convert it into his very own self-driving test platform. For this, he first designed a makeshift track laid out on the floor of his workshop using contrasting tape markers. As you can see in the image below, the space is pretty tight, but so is the cart's turning radius.Then came the hard part actually giving Crazy Cart its self-driving skills. For this, Blake employed a technique called behavioral cloning via a trained neural network model. First, he recorded around 15,000 images while manually driving the kart around the track, using the steering angles at each point as training labels. He then fed this data into a convolutional neural network, which learned to associate the image inputs with the corresponding steering directions.Getting a well-performing model took quite a bit of trial and error. Initial tests failed as the network had trouble distinguishing the track edges and navigating sharp turns. Blake tried data augmentation tricks, tweaking hyperparameters, using multiple cameras, and even adding wide-angle lenses to enhance the field of view.However, the real breakthrough came when he added bright blue tape as an outer border, increasing contrast.With the track clearly defined, his creation could autonomously zip around the floor track using just monocular vision no expensive sensors required.What it did take, though, was a total of three Arduinos. One relayed the steering predictions from the computer to the second Arduino, which combined that data with positional feedback to operate a motor controlling the steering angle. The third Arduino handled the throttle by feeding control signals to the kart's speed controller. // Related StoriesOf course, this is a fairly constrained use case compared to navigating real public roads with their complexities and unpredictability. Blake readily acknowledges the latter is an exponentially harder challenge that arguably necessitates richer sensor data beyond just cameras.Still, the project is an impressive demo of how capable modern machine learning can be at distilling driving intelligence from humble vision inputs. Scaling the project will likely require a lot more training data, but there's only so much one person can do.

DreamWorksTable of ContentsTable of ContentsMore than just a simple Star Trek parodyHow geek culture changed (for better and worse)The limitations of toxic fandomWith 25 years of hindsight, 1999 was the last breath of rarified air before Hollywood plunged headfirst into geek culture, the deep well of intellectual properties born of comic books, pulp novels, cult television, and video games. Though theaters were blessed with a variety of incredible films across genres from The Sixth Senseto 10 Things I Hate About You to The Matrix, the top-grossing film of 1999 was Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, which capitalized on a decade-long multimedia effort to create a new generation of Star Wars fans.At the same time, a gap in the 20th Century Fox release schedule fast-tracked production on the first X-Men movie. Warner Bros. bought the film rights to the first four Harry Potter novels, while in New Zealand, filming began on Peter Jacksons unprecedented three-part adaptation of the seminal fantasy novels of J.R.R. Tolkien.Recommended VideosStudios were going all-in on large-scale, effects-driven franchises, and everything any Gen X-er was ever bullied for enjoying was about to become a billion-dollar industry. In the midst of this, theres Galaxy Quest, a movie celebrating a culture of benign, starry-eyed misfits that no longer exists. In fact, maybe it never did.RelatedDreamWorksGalaxy Quest features Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, and Alan Rickman as actors who once starred on an optimistic space adventure TV series based very, very closely on Star Trek, down to the friction within the cast. To their shock, these actors discover that an alien civilization has mistaken their show for a documentary and patterned their entire culture and technology in its image. The cast must use what they remember from TVs Galaxy Quest to try to command an actual starship through actual cosmic peril.Of course, most of them dont actually remember that much about how the NSEA-Protector works. Galaxy Quest was just a gig after all, and not even one they were all proud to have on their resum. So, when they need a crash course on the inner workings of an imaginary spaceship and the intricate mythology around it, who else can they turn to but their die-hard fans, the Questerians.DreamWorksAs much as Galaxy Quest (the film) is a loving parody of Star Trek, its also a gleeful fantasy about fandom. On a literal level, its about validation. What if the silly thing that everyone makes fun of you for obsessing over was actually urgently important? What if you were actually cool and smart for caring about it, and now only you can save the day? (This is, essentially, the same fantasy offered by Ready Player One.)Tim Allens character, the pig-headed actor Jason Nesmith, loves the show and its fans as an extension of loving himself they adore him and made him famous, but he doesnt really get it. His journey in the film is understanding what makes Galaxy Quest so important to other people, and his responsibility to protect its values of friendship, courage, and self-sacrifice. The Thermians the aliens who enlist Nesmith and company on their space mission are the ultimate fans, viewers who were so moved by Galaxy Quest that they completely remodeled themselves in its image. They believe in it like a religion. It gives them meaning and purpose, and shattering their faith is one of the cruelest things you could do to them.Theyre essentially hyperbolic extrapolations of the human Questerians, led by Justin Longs Brandon, who may lack the resources to make their fantasy a reality but who nevertheless draw strength and community from it. Its shaped their identity and given them something to believe in, even if they know that something isnt literally real.DreamWorksThe other thing that the Questerians and Thermians have in common is their status as their respective worlds punching bags. The Questerians are depicted, as sci-fi nerds often were at the time, as awkward social outcasts who have lost themselves in fantasy. They have no friends, unless you count the fellow weirdos they met on that newfangled internet in chat rooms or Usenet groups. (The film shows Brandon and his buddies communing via video chat, which was pretty rare in the 90s but is more interesting to watch in a movie.)Likewise, the Thermians are cringey and embarrassing to the human actors, and we learn that the interstellar community hasnt been kind to them, either. The Thermians commitment to Galaxy Quest may have ended war and strife on their planet, but theyve also gotten their ass kicked to the tune of an actual genocide. Theyve literally been bullied to death, with the crew of the NSEA-Protector being the only survivors of their race.To both the Questerians and the Thermians, the fact that theyre seen as pathetic doesnt seem to bother them. They know what makes them happy, they know what they believe in, and they value the community with whom they share it, even if no one else does.This is what geek culture used to be.and worse)DreamWorksFlash forward 25 years, and this culture is unrecognizable. Social media has surfaced just how popular these niche interests actually are, shattered stereotypes as to who enjoys them, and allowed them to organize. A generation of validation from sci-fi, fantasy, and superhero blockbusters has made them mainstream. It has also turned fandom into an extremely valuable economic force. Fan engagement drives marketing both within and outside of insular fan communities. The cottage industry of fan magazines has exploded into a massive and lucrative world of YouTube channels offering daily updates and analysis, algorithmically incentivized to be either uncritical cheerleaders or venomous haters.Organized fandom now has the ability to shape how the general public perceives a mass market release through review-bombing and social media campaigns. Fans have always made demands, but now theres an expectation that those demands will be appeased, and writers, actors, producers, and even other fans can expect harassment if the die-hards are not satisfied. The business behind the stories fans enjoy is more transparent than ever. Publicly-traded media companies, fearful of a bad quarter, are far more inclined to pander to a pre-invested, highly-engaged audience than to risk doing something new or different. Fans understand the leverage they hold over the corporations that produce those stories, and they intend to use it.But these arent the actions of fans. These are the actions of stockholders.Galaxy Quest is not a documentary, and its depiction of fandom is not complete or unbiased. In its own way, it too pandered to the egos of science fiction fans who ached to see themselves as heroic and powerful. But it is also a historical document, a snapshot of a period in culture when there was still something a little cute and pure about being a fan. Somewhere between Galaxy Quest and now, fandom became less about finding belonging in something and more about something belonging to you, something youve invested in and is therefore beholden to you.Toxic fandom is not a new phenomenon. Trekkies sent hate mail to Paramount over the then-rumored death of Spock in 1982s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. What they couldnt do was actually change the ending of the movie, and when they saw it, they loved it. The solution is also not relentless positivity or deference to the massive conglomerates who profit from the passion of fans. It is possible to enjoy something deeply without trying to exert control over it. It is healthy to love one chapter of a story while being disinterested in another, and to accept that someone with the opposite opinion is still one of you.DreamWorksWhat ultimately matters about your Star Trek, your Star Wars, your Lord of the Rings isnt the canon, the nuts and bolts knowledge that would help you save the day if Jason Nesmith ever called to tell you that its all real. Its not real. Even in Galaxy Quest, the thing that made it real for the Thermians wasnt the fact that they built the ship but that it helped them rebuild their lives. It made them better. Corporate profits be damned, thats where its value lies. If the thing that you love no longer does that for you, if its making you worse, you can let it go. It may be part of you, but it doesnt belong to you.Galaxy Quest is streaming for free on Pluto TV.Editors Recommendations

Were in that exciting period leading up to the release of some of next years best graphics cards, and that means leaks and predictions are coming out every single day. The last few weeks have really brought into focus AMDs next-gen flagship, which is now said to be called the RX 9070 XT. But now, more than ever, were seeing a lot of conflicting information about the kind of performance we can expect from the top RDNA 4 card. The latest leaks see it falling within a stones throw of Nvidias RTX 4080.According to zhangzhonghao on the Chiphell forums (who is a frequent leaker in the CPU and GPU space), the difference between the RX 9070 XT and the RTX 4080 is just 5%. They didnt specify which card was the winner, though, and we dont know which games they were tested in.Recommended VideosThis falls in line with many previous predictions about the new AMD flagship. Many previous leakers compared it to the RTX 4080, but others placed it at around the level of the RX 7900 XT which is not at all comparable. The only leaked benchmark weve seen for the GPU is a Time Spy test that shows it performing slower than the RX 7900 XT, although a second test reveals that it can compete against the RTX 4070 Ti.Safe to say, its all a bit all over the place.Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming 9070XT Rumorbase2.8 boost3.0-3.1PowerReference 26xWcustom variant up to 330WGaming performanceReference ~4080-5%https://t.co/JOT3IqnWgo HXL (@9550pro) December 26, 2024RelatedAside from that vague performance prediction, though, zhangzhonghao also revealed some key specs for the card. The leaker believes that the AMD version of the RX 9070 XT will feature a total board power (TBP) of around 260 watts, but models made by AMDs partners may bump that up to as high as 330 watts. This kind of TBP is comparable to what we expect to see in the RTX 5070 Ti, but of course, that doesnt have to mean similar performance.The Chiphell tipster also expects the card to feature a base clock of 2.8GHz that can be boosted to anywhere between 3.0 and 3.1GHz. Those numbers are attainable with overclocking in the current generation, but are still on the higher end of the scale.Were just 10 days away from AMD announcing the RX 9070 XT presumably alongside other cards from the lineup so its important to take all of this with some skepticism. It wont be long until we know the exact specs, and thatll give us a good hint about possible performance figures.Editors Recommendations

The New York Times has plenty of word games on its roster today with Wordle, Connections, Strands, and the Mini Crossword, theres something for everyone but the newspapers standard crossword puzzle still reigns supreme. The daily crossword is full of interesting trivia, helps improve mental flexibility and, of course, gives you some bragging rights if you manage to finish it every day.While the NYT puzzle might feel like an impossible task some days, solving a crossword is a skill and it takes practice dont get discouraged if you cant get every single word in a puzzle.Recommended VideosIf youre having trouble completing todays NYT Crossword, were here to help. Weve got all the answers for todays clues down below.Please enable Javascript to view this contentNew York TimesAcross1 Targets of crunches, informally : ABS4 Smart guy : ALEC8 Vibes : AURAS13 Hawaiian dish with cubed fish : POKEBOWL15 Perceptive : ASTUTE16 End-of-year hope : PAYRAISE17 Lawyers, collectively : THEBAR18 Astronauts outpost, for short : ISS19 Like the last name of swimming legend Diana Nyad : APT21 Original N.Y.C. subway line : IRT22 Vampire hunters weapon : STAKE25 Well, thats just perfect : GREAT27 Telluride maker (thats 6,000+ miles away from Telluride) : KIA28 Faith Hill hit with the lyric Its perpetual bliss : THISKISS29 Slim-fitting bottom : PENCILSKIRT31 Humorist Bombeck : ERMA32 Spoiled : BAD33 Forgo a ring, maybe : KNOCK35 Fills in the gaps of, in a way : PUTTIES37 Futuristic zappers : RAYGUNS39 Samira Wileys role on The Handmaids Tale : MOIRA40 Pops : DAD41 A thing of the passed? : OBIT42 Wetland fuel source : PEATBOG44 Breaking the fourth wall, say : META45 Cartoon frame : CEL47 Snarkily disparaging : SNIDE48 Like a baby in need of burping : GASSY49 Dismiss abruptly : AXE50 Dutch banking giant : ING51 Get to 21 first in cornhole, e.g. : WIN52 Oscar nominee for Carrie : SPACEK55 Peak picker-uppers, as depicted three times in this puzzles grid : SKILIFTS60 Money talks : CASHISKING61 Unapproved, pharmaceutically : OFFLABEL62 Remained home for supper : ATEIN63 CBS drama with five spinoffs : NCIS64 In need of salt, say : ICYRelatedDown1 Home screen selection : APP2 Stole onstage : BOA3 Difficult area of a jigsaw puzzle, maybe : SKY4 Humble : ABASE5 Lane in DC? : LOIS6 Grossed-out cries : EWS7 Given the go-ahead : CLEARED8 Pizza oven residue : ASH9 Beehive State native : UTE10 Toys once marketed as having Over three billion combinations, but only one solution : RUBIKSCUBES11 Chess : check :: go : ___ : ATARI12 Tempur-Pedic competitor : SERTA14 Early 20th-century composer who introduced the typewriter as a percussion instrument : ERIKSATIE15 Negative campaign tactic : ATTACKAD20 Signature item : PEN22 Prefix with any family member : STEP23 Steady engine sound : THRUM24 Focus on making others happy : AIMTOPLEASE25 They might accompany SAT scores : GPAS26 Minute : TINY30 Slangy term for an obsession with branded fashion items : LOGOMANIA32 Coffeehouse poets : BEATNIKS34 Sweaters and such : KNITS36 401(k) alternatives : IRAS37 Short-lived fashion : RAGE38 Court-ordered delay : STAY40 Lewis Carrolls real last name, hence Lewiss last name in Jurassic Park : DODGSON43 Hamper, e.g. : BIN45 Caesars first stabber : CASCA46 One living abroad : EXPAT48 Bass organs : GILLS51 Something thats often free in airports but expensive on airplanes : WIFI53 Life force : CHI54 Kln one : EIN56 Fast-food chain with 30,000+ locations : KFC57 Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity org. : FBI58 Gumshoe : TEC59 Roguish : SLYEditors Recommendations

Software is eating the world and I have snacks for it I keep turning my Google Sheets into phone-friendly webapps, and I cant stop How I tackled takeout, spices, and meal ideas with spreadsheets and Glide. Kevin Purdy Dec 26, 2024 7:40 am | 13 Credit: Aurich Lawson Credit: Aurich Lawson Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreIt started, like so many overwrought home optimization projects, during the pandemic.My wife and I, like many people stuck inside, were ordering takeout more frequently. We wanted to support local restaurants, reduce the dish load, and live a little. It became clear early on that app-based delivery services like DoorDash and Uber Eats were not the best way to support local businesses. If a restaurant had its own ordering site or a preferred service, we wanted to use thator even, heaven forfend, call the place.The secondary issue was that we kept ordering from the same places, and we wanted to mix it up. Sometimes we'd want to pick something up nearby. Sometimes we wanted to avoid an entire category ("Too many carbs this week, no pasta") or try the newest places we knew about, or maybe a forgotten classic. Or just give me three places randomly, creative constraints, pleaseit's Friday.At its core, this is a shared list, i.e. spreadsheet. But my spreadsheet maintenance enthusiasm greatly outweighs that of my spouse. More than that, have you ever pulled up a Google Sheet or online Excel file on your normal-sized phone to make changes? I do so only in moments of true desperation.For things that are bigger than a note or dry-erase board but smaller than paying for some single-use, subscription-based app, I build little private webapps with Glide. You might use something else, but Glide is a really nice entry into the spreadsheet-to-app milieu. The apps it creates are the kind that can easily be shared and installed (i.e., "Add to Home Screen") on phones, tablets, or desktops, from a browser. Here's how it worked for me.Why you might want to make a little personal webappGlide is technically a no-code tool aimed at businesses, but you get one user-based published app for free, and you can have more "private" apps if you're truly keeping it to your household or friend group. Each full-fledged app can have 10 users and up to 25,000 rows, which should probably be enough for most uses.I do wish there was a "prosumer" kind of account that billed for less than $828 per year. If you want more than one (relatively) small-scale apps, there are alternatives, like Google's AppSheet (included in most paid Google Workspace accounts). But most are just as business-oriented, and none have struck me as elegant a tool as Glide.As mentioned, my primary use for a sheet-based app is to make searching, filtering, reading, and editing that sheet far easier. In the case of my takeout app, that meant being able to search anythinga specific restaurant, "tacos," a quadrant of the District of Columbia. And a sorting option for when I added a restaurant, so I can find the place I added while a friend was recommending it.Lets whip up a webapp The spreadsheet behind my "DC Takeout" app. Credit: Kevin Purdy The spreadsheet behind my "DC Takeout" app. Credit: Kevin Purdy Throwing that sheet fresh into Glide, it's not off to a bad start. The main view of Glide is a usable version of your app, and I can see that I can already type whatever I want into the search bar, and it will search across fields.I could honestly stop here if I wasn't picky about some of the quirks I'm seeing. The app is showing screens, "Public" and "Users," and I want to hide them. In the upper-left corner, in Navigation, I'll click an eye icon to hide the "Users" section. With "Public" selected, I'll change the Label in the upper-right to "DC Takeout," and, if I was going to have more than one screen, give it an icon.The app already provided a "+" button for adding restaurants, just a simple vertical stack of entry boxes, along with a date picker for Date Added. If you prefer something static, toggle off the options in the "Actions" field in the bottom-right.Searching is pretty robust, but what if you want to browse a broad category or just see stuff that's nearby? In the "Options" section to the right, you can add in In-App Filter, which creates a familiar arrow-shaped three-bar button to the right of the search bar. I've added Quadrant and Category filters. If I want to go further here, it's on me and my spreadsheet. Open on Mondays? Offers pick-up? Has a bar? The possibilities are endless, even if my weekend spreadsheet time is not. Simple filter for my takeout app. I need to get the category to be comma-separate values, not a single pile of descriptors. Credit: Kevin Purdy Simple filter for my takeout app. I need to get the category to be comma-separate values, not a single pile of descriptors. Credit: Kevin Purdy What happens when you click on a restaurant? Right now, you see, essentially, a vertical readout of everything in that spreadsheet row. What could you see? Well, you've got an address there, so how about a map?Click on a restaurant in the fake phone, and on the left you can see "Components," one of which is our map. Set the address to equal the address column in your sheet, and, in "Options," set Visibility so that it only shows up when the address field is not empty. In "Actions," you can set it so that clicking the map opens the phone's default mapping app, set to the proper address. (If you're struggling to get the right place to show up, you might want to check out a sample address in Mapbox's API; it can be a little finicky about how it parses them.) Take me to the slightly different pizza! Credit: Kevin Purdy Take me to the slightly different pizza! Credit: Kevin Purdy Glide offers dozens more ways to customize every little thing about your app.That's about all I need from a "mix up your takeout and use the right apps" app, one made mostly for me, my spouse, and nearby friends and visitors. Pretty much anything you'd find useful while sitting down at a spreadsheet, you can also make useful through a little phone webapp.Joyful overkillI went a good deal further with my "DIYRoot" app. After using a couple meal delivery services, I sussed out the kinds of recipe formulas they were mixing up each week, plus the items or equivalents I had found at nearby stores. Knowing that I could figure out the basic cooking, I made an app that listed as many recipes as I could find, broke them into components, let me add them to an erasable menu plan and shopping list, and even had some pictures. The best version of an entry has an image, ingredients, and recipe. There's a button to add it to the menu and all the items to a list. Credit: Kevin Purdy The best version of an entry has an image, ingredients, and recipe. There's a button to add it to the menu and all the items to a list. Credit: Kevin Purdy I didn't quite master this app (the shopping list is plagued by blank items/rows), and it's now technically an outdated "Classic" Glide app; maybe I'll give it another shot. More successful is my most recent effort, "Pantry Items," which is just a searchable list of spices and sauces, a note about how much I have left of each, and, through a webhook, add anything I see missing to a shopping list on Bring.I can feel some people reading this article demanding that I just learn Swift or some mobile-friendly JavaScript package and make some real apps, but I steadfastly refuse. I enjoy the messy middle of programming, where I have just enough app, API, and logic knowledge to make something small for my friends and family that's always accessible on this little computer I carry everywhere, but I have no ambitions to make it "real." Anyone can add to it through the relatively simple spreadsheet. Heck, I'll even take feature requests if I'm feeling gracious.I use Glide, but you might have something else even simpler (and should recommend it as such in the comments). Just be warned that once you start thinking (or overthinking) along these lines, it can be hard to stop, even without the worldwide pandemic.Kevin PurdySenior Technology ReporterKevin PurdySenior Technology Reporter Kevin is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering open-source software, PC gaming, home automation, repairability, e-bikes, and tech history. He has previously worked at Lifehacker, Wirecutter, iFixit, and Carbon Switch. 13 Comments

Feedback was not all that surprised to learn that we tend to only see major rituals as positive experiences once they have finished 23 December 2024 Josie FordHappy now?Assuming you are reading this issue promptly, its the post-Christmas lull: the weird interregnum between Christmas and the New Year when nobody is quite sure what to do with themselves (unless they are keen shoppers, in which case the January sales have you covered).Anyway, Feedback recently learned something new about Christmas. This snippet came courtesy of freelance writer Michael Marshall, who wrote a story about a study of whether children behave better in the run-up to Christmas. If you didnt read it, the short answer is no, they dont. Parents, feel free to take a moment to grieve that one of your best levers to get the little blighters to behave apparently does literally nothing. We will add that the data did suggest that some types of behaviour improved if children were exposed to a lot of Christmas rituals, like putting up a tree and going carolling, and that these rituals might act as a kind of social glue encouraging kids to be kind and cooperative. Maybe try doing more of that? But we wouldnt count on a miraculous transformation.That wasnt the new thing, though. Michael, we understand, had to leave something out of the story for lack of space. So, since were in the post-Christmas period, lets have some leftovers.AdvertisementThe study found that parents became more stressed as Christmas approached. In the run-up, they were often worried that it would be a disaster, that key presents wouldnt turn up or that Great-uncle Ted would get drunk and say some slurs at the dinner table. This got worse in the week of Christmas, perhaps because they were working so hard preparing that they couldnt relax and enjoy themselves.Apparently, its common for people to only see major rituals as positive experiences once theyre over. Its certainly true of weddings, which people describe as the happiest day of their lives when they look back, but if you ask them on the day, they will say they are so nervous they feel like throwing up. Feedback and Mrs Feedback can both attest that, yes, thats what their wedding day was like (Feedback was fortified by a bacon-and-egg sandwich eaten in the bath and a stiff whisky).Its a curiously human thing to do something that you absolutely hate in the run-up and while its happening, and subsequently declare it the best thing you ever did. Feedback is not sure what to make of this, but this morning we noticed Feedbacks Felines sleeping peacefully in warm spots around the house, and we thought they might possibly be smarter than us.Fake fake syndromeSpeaking of not being very smart, Feedback is launching a new recurring segment. Were calling it generative AIs say the stupidest things. We suspect it will be a bottomless well of material, on a par with nominative determinism, and we hereby invite reader submissions to the usual address.To kick things off, the anonymous neuroscience blogger Neuroskeptic recently saw something odd in the AI Overview that now appears at the top of Google Search. For readers unfamiliar with Neuroskeptic, they have written about the limits of functional brain imaging especially when its wildly overinterpreted as revealing peoples thoughts and about bad scientific publishing practices.Neuroskeptic was surprised to see an AI Overview describing kyloren syndrome: a disease caused by mutations in mitochondrial DNA that is often passed down from a force-sensitive woman to her children. This is immediately and obviously nonsense: Kylo Ren is the baddie in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and force-sensitive people only exist in the fictional Star Wars universe.But its actually worse than that. Neuroskeptic invented kyloren syndrome in 2017, as part of a sting to expose predatory scientific journals that dont properly review studies. They wrote an entire fake paper filled with Star Wars references, attributed to Lucas McGeorge and Annette Kin, and submitted it to nine journals. Three of them published it and another accepted it but didnt publish because Neuroskeptic refused to pay a $360 fee.Apparently Googles generative AI has not fully grasped the concept of context.SwiftquakesFeedback is sad to see the end of Taylor Swifts world-spanning Eras tour. This is partly because we didnt get to go, because we failed to use our understanding of probability and only registered interest in one concert severely limiting our chances of getting to the top of the ballot. Maybe Feedback isnt as clever as a generative AI.But also, the concerts have been so huge that they have produced detectable seismic events. In June, geophysicists at University College London installed nine seismometers near Wembley Stadium in London and recorded the ensuing tremors. Love Story produced the biggest earthquake, although, to be clear, it was a magnitude 0.8, so really quite small, followed, appropriately enough, by Shake It Off.Now that Taylor has gone home to (presumably) work on another surprise album, Feedback looks forward to earth movements triggered by other tours. We cant help but suspect that the upcoming Oasis reunion tour might be worth a seismometer or two if only to detect the precise moment when Liam Gallagher loses his temper and stomps offstage never to return.Got a story for Feedback?You can send stories to Feedback by email at feedback@newscientist.com. Please include your home address. This weeks and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website.

Longtime Elon Musk loyalist Steve Davis is ready to help out at DOGE.Davis has worked at Musk' companies for over 20 years, having first joined SpaceX in 2003.Since then, he has become a close advisor of the world's richest man.From SpaceX to Twitter, Steve Davis has been a vital point person for Elon Musk. His next act is to help the billionaire sort out the government.Longtime Musk loyalist Davis has been enlisted to recruit staff for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Donald Trump has tasked Musk with overseeing the new department, the authority and jurisdiction of which is still unclear, alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, according to a new Bloomberg report.Davis's appearance in operational planning at DOGE, a project proposed to drive $2 trillion in cuts to federal spending, is not surprising. Davis and Musk's working relationship stretches back more than two decades.Davis first entered the Musk sphere in 2003, when he joined his rocket company, SpaceX, just one year after its founding. While working for the company in Washington, D.C., he decided to launch a dessert shop called Mr Yogato, a 2019 Bloomberg report said.Davis' ties with Musk have only deepened since then. The Stanford University-educated aerospace engineer helped Musk launch the Boring Company, a tunneling and construction business, in 2016. He was later appointed president and CEO. He was also reported to have advised the billionaire in the early days of his Twitter takeover, where Musk initiated a sweeping layoff plan that reduced head count by almost 90% in first six months. Steve Davis helped Elon Musk in the early days of the billionaire's Twitter takeover. LEON NEAL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images Bloomberg reported that Davis was so willing to help Musk during the takeover in October 2022, he slept at Twitter's offices with his partner and newborn baby.It is not yet clear how Davis will help steer Musk's cost-cutting ambitions when Trump's second term in the White House begins, though Bloomberg's report offers some clues based on Davis' activities at other Musk companies.According to the report, Davis' leadership responsibilities at The Boring Company involves "signing off on costs as low as a few hundred dollars." The report also said he "drives hard bargains with suppliers."Meanwhile, during his stint at SpaceX, Davis was reported to have helped Musk find a $3,900 alternative to a part that cost $120,000.

My husband and I lived in Canada in our 20s, and we brought our young kids there a decade later.Our children were 4 years old and 8 months old, so they don't remember any of the overseas trip.With two young kids, we had to skip or adjust a lot of the activities we'd planned or hoped to do. My husband and I lived in Canada in our 20s, and couldn't wait to return a decade later. Some of our happiest memories were of living in Banff in the Rockies, meeting other young people, going on epic outdoors adventures, and exploring Canada's national parks.This time around, though, we had our 4-year-old and 8-month-old kids to take with us. On our overseas adventure, we planned to visit my brother in Vancouver for his 50th birthday and road trip across British Columbia and Alberta.After our grueling 17-hour flight from Melbourne, Australia, to Vancouver, we hit the ground running. In total, we spent 10 days exploring Banff National Park in an RV and went on a road trip throughout Hope and other parts of Canada. We had great moments along the way but we learned some tough lessons, too.We couldn't do the same things we used to We didn't end up bringing our kids on the hikes we'd usually do in Banff National Park. Santiago Urquijo/Getty Images On our first trip to Banff, we had zero responsibility. This time, we had two little people to care for and they came first.I realized pretty quickly that having young children hindered us from doing some of the things we used to love in the area.Before we arrived, I had nave visions of being able to go on epic hikes with the kids strapped to our backs. In reality, they didn't want to traipse up a mountain (on my back or otherwise). Instead, we took short walks with a stroller and made lots of stops along the way to look at butterflies, pick flowers, and eat snacks.One night, our housemates kindly offered to look after the kids, so my husband and I snuck away for a cocktail at the restaurant I'd worked at a decade earlier. Two sips in, they called to say our baby girl wouldn't stop crying, so we rushed back to their place as fast as we could. All in all, having young kids meant we had a very different kind of travel experience.Next time, we'll wait until our kids are older to travel overseas Banff wasn't quite the same the second time around, largely because we were in a new stage in life with different priorities: our young kids.Looking back, it would've been better to wait until our children were both older to take them overseas. I'd hoped that our 4-year-old son would at least remember this trip, but he's now 9 and a lot of those memories have faded. Sometimes I'll ask him about Vancouver or a particular lake we visited in Canada, and he'll just give me a blank stare. He was just a little too young to appreciate the privilege (and expense) of traveling to another country. I'm confident if we took him overseas today, he'd remember it far better, as I still recall trips I took abroad with my family when I was around his age. We now have three children and our youngest is a toddler. So, at this time, we're just focusing on exploring our backyard and taking domestic vacations in Australia.In a few years, though, we'd like to take the kids on another overseas expedition ideally one they'll remember.

An Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people.Analysts said Russian air defenses, not a bird strike, may have caused the plane to go down.An aviation safety firm plans to raise its risk rating for the nearby airspace after the incident.An Azerbaijan Airlines flight crash-landed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, with Russia's civil aviation authority quickly pointing to a bird strike as a possible cause.However, analysts said that Russian air defenses may have been behind the incident, which killed 38 of the 67 people on board, including both pilots.Ukraine was quick to put the blame on Russia.On Wednesday, Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation, said in an X post that the plane was "shot down by a Russian air defense system."But others have also suggested that Russian air defenses may have played a role.Osprey Flight Solutions, an aviation security firm, said in a critical alert sent to its clients and shared with Business Insider that the flight was "likely shot down by a Russian military air-defense system of unspecified type/variant over the North Caucasus Federal District."The firm cited video of the wreckage, Ukraine's official statement, and the "circumstances around the airspace security environment in southwest Russia."It also said that "incidents of civilian airliners being misidentified and shot down by air-defence systems are not unprecedented in the region."It pointed to examples such as Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, which crashed in eastern Ukraine in 2014 after reportedly being hit by a Russian-made missile.Matthew Borie, Osprey's chief intelligence officer, told BI that the firm was in the process of raising its risk ratings for that portion of Russian airspace to its highest level."We have a portion of Russian airspace within 300 kilometers of the Ukrainian border, we have at extreme, we'll be expanding that out to about 600 kilometers from the Russian border now," he said, equivalent to 373 miles.The Azerbaijan Airlines flight was en route to Grozny, which Ukrainian drones have targeted in recent attacks.The governor of the Russian region of North Ossetia said in a Telegram post that there were Ukrainian drone attacks carried out on Wednesday in a number of regions of the North Caucasus Federal District, which includes Grozny and the surrounding area.The governor's post specifically mentioned a drone being taken down in Vladikavkas, which is about 70 miles away from Grozny.Oliver Alexander, an independent OSINT analyst, told BI that "all the evidence I have seen points to the aircraft being hit by shrapnel from an air defense missile, which severely damaged the elevator and rudder controls."In a thread on X, which cited post-crash footage, he wrote that "every single piece of debris that hit the aircraft had enough kinetic to punch through the skin and not just dent it."Alexander also dismissed the preliminary information from Russia's civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, which suggested that the plane diverted after a bird strike, causing an onboard emergency.He told BI that a bird strike would produce "a lot of blood" and "a lot of denting," neither of which seemed apparent in footage and images from the crash site."The location of the damage is all focused around the tail section," he added, "which would be very unlikely for a bird strike."Russia has cautioned against drawing conclusions.On Thursday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it "would be wrong to put forward any hypotheses" until the investigation into the crash is concluded."We, of course, will not do this, and no-one should do this," he added, per a translation by the BBC.Azerbaijan Airline's president, Samir Rzayev, told reporters Wednesday that the plane's black box had been recovered and its analysis was being "conducted in line with international aviation standards."The country's president, Ilham Aliyev, said in a statement that while there are videos of the crash online, the cause was still unknown.However, on Thursday, unnamed Azerbaijani government sources told Euronews that a preliminary investigation had found that a Russian surface-to-air missile caused the crash.According to Euronews, the sources said that shrapnel from the missile hit the plane after it exploded during drone activity above Grozny.Azerbaijan's Foreign Affairs department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

When I was about 7, Los Angeles public schools shifted to a year-round schedule. The effect, for my elementary school, was a shorter summer break (boo), and an extra-long winter break (also, it turned out, boo). That year, my parents enrolled me in winter camp, which was like summer camp but less fun. It was an El Nio year, and the constant rain turned the swimming pools into an unwholesome shade of green. I honestly dont remember what we did with most of our days; probably we made a lot of lanyards and argued with one another. In an effort to mix things up, the camp arranged a whale-watching trip for us (January is gray whale season in Southern California). But as soon as we got out to sea, an enormous storm kicked up, buffeting our boat to such a degree that every camper except for me threw up. Lest you think I was spared: My clothes became so waterlogged in the rain that my pants fell down in front of everyone. We did not see any whales.All of this is to say that winter break can be weird for kids: There are often family visits and holiday celebrations, but its also a time when school is out, the weather is bad, and theres not always much to do. In a lot of places, theres no longer enough snow for the winter activities of yore you really cannot build a snowman out of wintry mix. One year, I took my older kid on a desperate trudge to the dollar store in subfreezing temperatures just to get out of the house. Things can get rough.I have no advice for the short, strange days at the end of the year other than to honor them in whatever way you can. We celebrate Christmas in my family, so my kids will be opening presents this week, and then probably strewing pieces of them liberally about the house. My 2-year-old keeps exclaiming, Its Halloween! and then, when corrected, quietly lamenting, Halloween all done. I get it I like Christmas fine, but I kind of prefer Halloween, too.Whether youre celebrating anything or not, remember that these are the darkest days of the calendar, and whatever happens with the weather or everything else, the days are already getting longer. Maybe get some sleep, if you can. Take your kids out to look at the night sky Venus is really good this month and is not a drone. If they are reasonably quiet, take them birdwatching. Ill be skipping Thursday, January 2, but Ill be back with you on January 9. A big thank you to everyone whos been reading (and sending in questions, podcast recommendations, and stories about kids hibernating in nests of toys) these last few months, and Ill see you in the new year!What Im readingSchool districts are preparing for potential immigration crackdowns from the Trump administration, by hosting seminars for families on their legal rights and training staff on how to respond if ICE agents show up at school.The 74 has a roundup of charts that defined education in 2024, including data on pandemic learning loss and kids smartphone use.Ulta Beauty has started selling mystery balls with toy versions of beauty products inside, possibly as a way of courting the coveted Sephora tween demographic.We are contractually allowed to continue reading our Christmas books until December 31, at which point my husband will sequester them for the next 11 months. My little kid especially enjoys Pick a Pine Tree, a sweet rhyming story about tree decorating, and How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney?, which (spoiler) fails to answer that age-old question.From my inboxIve gotten a lot of questions about Australias move to ban kids from social media, and in the new year, Ill be looking into the pros and cons of such bans. As I report on that, Id love to hear from you: Have the kids in your life experienced any positive effects from social media? We hear so much about the negatives that Im very curious about the flip side. Get in touch at anna.north@vox.com.Youve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More: Life