In context: A study on the Greenland Ice Sheet reveals alarming trends in crevasse formation, shedding new light on the potential acceleration of global sea level rise. The research provides insights into the widening of these massive ice fractures and their role in ice sheet melt. Crevasses can reach over 300 feet in width, thousands of feet in length, and hundreds of feet in depth. Research led by glaciologist Thomas Chudley from Durham University shows that these cracks in the ice form crucial pathways for meltwater drainage within the ice sheet. The study's findings indicate that between 50 percent and 90 percent of the water flowing through the Greenland Ice Sheet travels via these cracks, significantly impacting the ice sheet's movement and stability."Understanding crevasses is a key to understanding how this discharge will evolve in the 21st century and beyond," Chudley said.The research, recently published in Nature, used advanced three-dimensional imaging techniques to conduct the first-ever inventory of crevasses across the entire Greenland Ice Sheet. Using this approach, researchers created the most accurate estimate of crevasse volume, revealing a significant widening trend between 2016 and 2021."This is the first study to unequivocally say that the expansion of crevasse zones is ubiquitous across Greenland's outlet glaciers that have accelerated in recent years," William Colgan, a glaciology and climate professor with the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, told Inside Climate News.As crevasses widen, they facilitate increased water flow to the ice sheet's base, potentially accelerating its movement and discharge into the ocean. This process creates a feedback loop as glaciers speed up due to warming ocean temperatures, more crevasses form, further accelerating ice loss. This new understanding of crevasse dynamics has significant implications for ice sheet modeling. Current models may underestimate the melt rate and its contribution to sea level rise by not fully accounting for the impact of crevasses.Furthermore, estimating Greenland's annual ice discharge is an intricate process involving several interconnected factors. Paradoxically, as glaciers withdraw from coastal areas, models predict a decrease in direct iceberg calving into the ocean, potentially slowing the rate at which melting icebergs contribute to rising sea levels. However, this coastal retreat introduces new complexities. // Related StoriesThe ice sheet's edge becomes steeper as floating ice tongues recede landward, and increased melting at the lower margins erodes the ice sheet's foundation. This steepening creates additional stress on the ice sheet, exacerbating the formation and expansion of crevasses, as observed in Chudley's research.The potential consequences of accelerated ice loss in Greenland are staggering. Current estimates suggest that if Greenland's ice were to melt completely, it would raise global sea levels by approximately 23 feet. While a complete meltdown will take thousands of years, the current melting rate could contribute about 3 feet to sea level rise by 2100.

Reseller frenzy in 3, 2, 1: Although Nintendo has not set a solid release date for the Switch 2, we know it will be out this year. Regardless of when the handheld finally arrives, the looming threat of scalpers is an unwelcomed "new normal" that the company says it's ready to combat. On Tuesday, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa told Japanese News outlet Nikkei that the company has learned lessons from the first Switch release and that scalpers would not pose a problem with the Switch 2 launch. Furukawa-san promised there would be enough units to go around."We will take all possible measures based on the experience we have accumulated to date (regarding scalpers)," Furukawa said. "We will prepare enough products to meet the demand."We can only hope.Despite promising to double production of the original Switch shortly after release, Nintendo struggled to supply enough handhelds to satisfy the demand. Between scalpers and customers, there was never enough to go around, and the chip shortages during the Covid years didn't make it any easier. Even toward the end of 2021, over four years post-launch, Nintendo still struggled to keep up with demand.This time is different, though. Nintendo has been preparing to deal with high demand even before officially announcing the gaming device.The company's primary weapon against scalpers is to have a stockpile of units ready to ship on day one. It had initially planned to launch the Switch 2 in Q4 2024, but in February last year, it decided to push the launch into 2025 specifically to have a head start on production. It reiterated this plan last July. The idea is to have so many available units that it can satisfy consumer demand despite the scalpers."As a countermeasure for resale, we believe that it is most important to produce a sufficient number to meet customer demand. This idea has not changed since last year," Furukawa had said. // Related StoriesHowever, this philosophy only works if Nintendo has enough stock to satisfy consumer and scalper demand. Since Nintendo is not the only retailer selling units, this task is easier said than done.As we have seen in several past launch periods, outlets like Best Buy, Target, and others do little to keep their online sales in check. Even recently, we have seen online inventories sell out to scalper bots instantly. Resellers have tools that give them a considerable advantage over the average consumer.What would help is for Nintendo to ensure that brick-and-mortar stores have an ample supply. There were no physical sales during the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series launches. Outlets excused themselves from putting units on store shelves for fear of spreading Covid, even though they still had Black Friday sales that packed the house anyway. So, consumers were forced into online queues to try to beat the bots.Of course, that plan requires retailer cooperation, so it's still outside of Nintendo's control. What are the odds that the Switch 2 will have enough units at launch to beat the scalpers? Let us know in the comments.

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsIn the boxSetupDesign, build, and partsFeaturesHow does it sound?Compared to a lot of other devices that Digital Trends reviews on a regular basis, testing out the newest and best turntables can be capricious. While modern turntables have become much more user-friendly and plug-and-play compared to your dads old-school deck, many still have delicate moving parts that often require assembly and fine-tuning, which can make the review process tricky, but also a lot of fun. Theres also a bigger range of turntables available now than ever before some are well worth the money, some are not, and we dont want you to waste your hard-earned cash on the latter.From tonearms, headshells, and cartridges to plinths, platters, and styluses (styli?), heres how we put a turntable to the test.Recommended VideosDerek Malcolm/Digital TrendsTurntables of the lower-end, suitcase variety usually come completely assembled and more or less ready to drop a record on and go (and most sound accordingly). But modern turntables that consist of the major parts such as the plinth (the base), platter (the spinning platform), dust cover, tonearm, counterweight, headshell, and cartridge may come with several of these parts separately packed to protect them in the shipping process. When unboxing a turntable, we check to make sure everything is there, examine how well the parts have been packed, and how easy they are to unpack. We also make note of things like whether it comes with cables or little extras, and whether the packing materials are environmentally minded.RelatedMore on the testing processSee how we test other products and servicesWhen setting up a turntable before a review, we do it from a couple of points of view someone who has never set up a turntable before, and those who have. The first thing we look for is whether the turntable includes a setup guide, manual, or app that is well-designed and has step-by-step instructions that are easy to understand. This makes all the difference. Setting up a turntable can involve attaching delicate precision parts, finicky belts, and small motor spindles, and can include measuring correct weight force that, if done in error, can potentially cause damage to the turntable or your records.Derek Malcolm/Digital TrendsHas the manufacturer provided the tools necessary for these steps, such as a force gauge or alignment tool? We check this, too. Many turntables come with parts that have been preassembled and configured at the factory, which, on the one hand, can make things easier for beginners, but we double-check those for quality and accuracy so we can advise on whether you should too.With turntables, whats on the outside is just as important as whats on the inside, and we evaluate both. The basic aesthetic design of turntables hasnt changed much in decades, but the colors and finishes theyre available in have come a long way, as have the materials.One of the biggest challenges for any turntable manufacturer is designing a product that isolates and manages any external or internal vibrations that may be passed through the turntables parts to the amplifier, speakers and, ultimately, to your ears. These parts work together to deliver as clean and accurate a sound as possible, and their design and materials matter.Is the base made of wood (what kind?), MDF, plastic? Does it look good? How heavy and sturdy is it, and what are its resonance-absorbing properties? Is the platter aluminum or acrylic? Do the feet absorb sound and vibration? Is it belt-driven or direct drive? Whats the difference? Is the tonearm aluminum, carbon, graphite, magnesium, or some space-age material, and is it made of separate parts or a single sound-isolating molded piece? We could go on.Derek Malcolm / Digital TrendsLastly, does the turntable come with a quality cartridge? Housing the diamond-tipped needle that runs through the records grooves, the cartridge is what translates the music into a signal that can be amplified by a receiver/amplifier or set of powered speakers, and those available can be quite different.Cartridges range in their ability to translate nuance and detail, they can differ in soundstage, and some are adaptable no matter what kind of music you listen to or how well or badly it was recorded (some audiophiles have carts for different genres of music). Budget and entry-level turntables will often include budget, entry-level cartridges, and there are some that sound great. Higher-end turntables come with better-sounding cartridges (duh). But one thing that can make or break a turntable review is whether the cartridge can be changed or upgraded, because this is one of the best and most cost-effective ways to improve any turntable, no matter its price.When it comes to the common features of a turntable, as we mentioned above, things havent changed too much over the years. Through the lens of value and usefulness for what youre paying, we look at everything each turntable offers, from fully manual operation (you mean I have to actually lift the tonearm myself?) to push-button cueing, starting, and stopping, as well as features like speed selection (do you have to move a belt or flip a switch?), pitch adjustment, and reverse play (mainly on DJ decks).Connectivity options are where things have changed quite a bit, though. From an analog point of view, a lot of modern turntables come with built-in phono preamps (the component that prepares the signal for amplification) that make it easier to connect to the wide variety of devices now available, such as powered speakers and receivers/amplifiers with line-in AUX inputs. Some phono preamps are better than others, though, so we evaluate how these perform and compare them to quality external phono preamps we know well.Derek Malcolm / Digital TrendsThe recent resurgence of vinyl has also crossed the once-vintage technology over into a world full of wireless connectivity, creating a new market for turntables and record players that play nice with Bluetooth speakers and headphones, and that can connect over Wi-Fi to network products like those from Sonos. When testing these abilities, we evaluate the ease of connectivity, the tools that are provided to do it (like an app, in the case of Made for Sonos turntables, for example), and how good they sound, while trying not to get bogged down in the vinyl-versus-digital debate in the process to us, if it sounds good, works well, and has value, were all for it.Derek Malcolm / Digital TrendsThis is the fun part. Just as we would do when testing speakers or other audio gear, when reviewing turntables, we listen to a lot of music on vinyl, of course (we have a helpful explainer of how to do that, too). While every reviewer is different, we try to start with a record that we know inside and out (for me, its Radioheads OK Computer) to set a base, as its often easy to identify if anything obvious is off, like speed (are the RPMs too fast or slow) or balance (this could mean that the stylus isnt tracking properly).Over days or even weeks, well spin records that showcase a range of frequencies, from low-end Billy Eilish tracks and mid-loving Queen and Miles Davis to anything with crispy cymbals and esses to test out the trebles. Along the way, well evaluate for the cleanliness of the sound at various volumes, listening for distortion, sibilance, and any noise that might be picked up through the stylus or other parts of the turntable (how present is a light tap on the plinth or even the table its sitting on?).As we mentioned, many modern turntables offer new connectivity options. To give us a wide assessment of how they sound in multiple setups, we try our best to listen to each turntable through various systems, including receivers/integrated amplifiers and their phono and AUX inputs, with and without phono preamps, and through any wireless connections they have like Bluetooth. We also try them through several kinds of speakers (old, new, big, and small), headphones, and even side by side against other turntables and cartridges, either our own or on loan from manufacturers, to help us stay current.Taking all of this into account, we give each turntable a ranking out of five stars and determine whether it should be a recommended product or even an Editors Choice product. We love putting the latest and greatest turntables to the test, and we hope they help readers make informed decisions about what they choose to spend their money on as they start to get into the big world of vinyl.Editors Recommendations

A support document showing users how to install Windows 11 on unsupported PCs was deleted sometime in the past two months. Its disappearance, noticed by Neowin, echoes Microsofts recent year of the Windows 11 PC refresh rhetoric, encouraging (or forcing) users to buy new PCs that meet Windows 11 hardware requirements.When Windows 11 launched in 2021, Microsoft announced that it was adding TPM 2.0 as a hardware requirement a move that was met with plenty of resistance. To soften the blow, Microsoft also published a support document detailing how users could edit their registry key values to bypass the TPM 2.0 check.Recommended VideosIt had always been laden with warnings, making it clear that users who used the workaround did so at their own risk, but now, by deleting the document, it appears that Microsoft doesnt endorse the registry key trick at all anymore. Meanwhile, the requirement itself is still controversial and with support for Windows 10 coming to an end this year,Microsoft had to clarify that this would not lead to any changes to the Windows 11 hardware criteria.Once support ends, there will likely be a large number of people who will continue to use Windows 10 on older PCs. Without critical security updates, these machines will become vulnerable to viruses and malware, and unfortunately, this could lead to a much higher risk of older users falling victim to cybercrime.If you still want to try the TPM 2.0 bypass trick, you can access the old support article with the Internet Archives Wayback Machine. Its not clear whether the trick has been disabled or if Microsoft just wants to stop advertising it, but its worth a try.Editors Recommendations

The owner of Tinder, Hinge and OkCupid apps said CEO Bernard Kim would step down and be succeeded by board member Spencer Rascoff, a co-founder and former CEO of home-listings portal Zillow Group.

The tech giants fast-growing cloud-computing business decelerated last quarter.

Frances Perkinss agenda for the Labor Department put her at odds with the countrys tradition of restrictive immigration legislation.

On what might be his last album as the Weeknd, Abel Tesfaye revisits much of the sonic and thematic territory that has defined his career, singing of his darker impulses and debauchery over moody synth-pop beats.

"Deletion disobedience" Internet Archive played crucial role in tracking shady CDC data removals Internet Archive makes it easier to track changes in CDC data online. Ashley Belanger Feb 4, 2025 4:18 pm | 30 Credit: alengo | E+ Credit: alengo | E+ Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreWhen thousands of pages started disappearing from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website late last week, public health researchers quickly moved to archive deleted public health data.Soon, researchers discovered that the Internet Archive (IA) offers one of the most effective ways to both preserve online data and track changes on government websites. For decades, IA crawlers have collected snapshots of the public Internet, making it easier to compare current versions of websites to historic versions. And IA also allows users to upload digital materials to further expand the web archive. Both aspects of the archive immediately proved useful to researchers assessing how much data the public risked losing during a rapid purge following a pair of President Trump's executive orders.Part of a small group of researchers who managed to download the entire CDC website within days, virologist Angela Rasmussen helped create a public resource that combines CDC website information with deleted CDC datasets. Those datasets, many of which were previously in the public domain for years, were uploaded to IA by an anonymous user, "SheWhoExists," on January 31. Moving forward, Rasmussen told Ars that IA will likely remain a go-to tool for researchers attempting to closely monitor for any unexpected changes in access to public data.IA "continually updates their archives," Rasmussen said, which makes IA "a good mechanism for tracking modifications to these websites that haven't been made yet."The CDC website is being overhauled to comply with two executive orders from January 20, the CDC told Ars. The Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Governmentrequires government agencies to remove LGBTQ+ language that Trump claimed denies "the biological reality of sex" and is likely driving most of the CDC changes to public health resources. The other executive order the CDC cited, theEnding Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing, would seemingly largely only impact CDC employment practices.Additionally, "the Office of Personnel Management has provided initial guidance on both Executive Orders and HHS and divisions are acting accordingly to execute," the CDC told Ars.Rasmussen told Ars that the deletion of CDC datasets is "extremely alarming" and "not normal." While some deleted pages have since been restored in altered versions, removing gender ideology from CDC guidance could put Americans at heightened risk. That's another emerging problem that IA's snapshots could help researchers and health professionals resolve."I think the average person probably doesn't think that much about the CDC's website, but it's not just a matter of like, 'Oh, we're going to change some wording' or 'we're going to remove these data," Rasmussen said. "We are actually going to retool all the information that's there to remove critical information about public health that could actually put people in danger."For example, altered Mpox transmission data removed "all references to men who have sex with men," Rasmussen said. "And in the US those are the people who are not the only people at risk, but they're the people who are most at risk of being exposed to Mpox. So, by removing that DEI language, you're actually depriving people who are at risk of information they could use to protect themselves, and that eventually will get people hurt or even killed."Likely the biggest frustration for researchers scrambling to preserve data is dealing with broken links. On social media, Rasmussen has repeatedly called for help flagging broken links to ensure her team's archive is as useful as possible.Rasmussen's group isn't the only effort to preserve the CDC data. Some are creating niche archives focused on particular topics, like journalist Jessica Valenti, who created an archive of CDC guidelines on reproductive rights issues, sexual health, intimate partner violence, and other data the CDC removed online.Niche archives could make it easier for some researchers to quickly survey missing data in their field, but Rasmussen's group is hoping to take next steps to make all the missing CDC data more easily discoverable in their archive."I think the next step," Rasmussen said, "would be to try to fix anything in there that's broken, but also look into ways that we could maybe make it more browsable and user-friendly for people who may not know what they're looking for or may not be able to find what they're looking for."CDC advisers demand answersThe CDC has been largely quiet about the deleted data, only pointing to Trump's executive orders to justify removals. That could change by February 7. That's the deadline when a congressionally mandated advisory committee to the CDC's acting director, Susan Monarez, asked for answersin anopen letterto a list of questions about the data removals."It has been reported through anonymous sources that the website changes are related to new executive orders that ban the use of specific words and phrases," their letter said. "But as far as we are aware, these unprecedented actions have yet to be explained by CDC; news stories indicate that the agency is declining to comment."At the top of the committee's list of questions is likely the one frustrating researchers most: "What was the rationale for making these datasets and websites inaccessible to the public?" But the committee also importantly asked what analysis was done "of the consequences of removing access to these datasets and website" prior to the removals. They also asked how deleted data would be safeguarded and when data would be restored.It's unclear if the CDC will be motivated to respond by the deadline. Ars reached out to one of the committee members, Joshua Sharfsteina physician and vice dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at Johns Hopkins Universitywho confirmed that as of this writing, the CDC has not yet responded. And the CDC did not respond to Ars' request to comment on the letter.Rasmussen told Ars that even temporary removals of CDC guidance can disrupt important processes keeping Americans healthy. Among the potentially most consequential pages briefly removed were recommendations from the congressionally mandated Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).Those recommendations are used by insurance companies to decide who gets reimbursed for vaccines and by physicians to deduce vaccine eligibility, and Rasmussen said they "are incredibly important for the entire population to have access to any kind of vaccination." And while, for example, the Mpox vaccine recommendations were eventually restored unaltered, Rasmussen told Ars that she suspects that "one of the reasons" preventing interference currently with ACIP is that it's mandated by Congress.Seemingly ACIP could be weakened by the new administration, Rasmussen suggested. She warned that Trump's pick for CDC director, Dave Weldon, "is an anti-vaxxer" (with a long history of falsely linking vaccines to autism) who may decide to replace ACIP committee members with anti-vaccine advocates or move to dissolve ACIP. And any changes in recommendations could mean "insurance companies aren't going to cover vaccinations [and that] physicians will not recommend vaccination." And that could mean "vaccination will go down and we'll start having outbreaks of some of these vaccine-preventable diseases.""If there's a big polio outbreak, that is going to result in permanently disabled children, dead childrenit's really, really serious," Rasmussen said. "So I think that people need to understand that this isn't just like, 'Oh, maybe wear a mask when you're at the movie theater' kind of CDC guidance. This is guidance that's really fundamental to our most basic public health practices, and it's going to cause widespread suffering and death if this is allowed to continue."Seeding deleted data and doing science to fight backOn Bluesky, Rasmussen led one of many charges to compile archived links and download CDC data so that researchers can reference every available government study when advancing public health knowledge."These data are public and they are ours," Rasmussen posted. "Deletion disobedience is one way to fight back."As Rasmussen sees it, deleting CDC data is "theft" from the public domain and archiving CDC data is simply taking "back what is ours." But at the same time, her team is also taking steps to be sure the data they collected can be lawfully preserved. Because the CDC website has not been copied and hosted on a server, they expect their archive should be deemed lawful and remain online."I don't put it past this administration to try to shut this stuff down by any means possible," Rasmussen told Ars. "And we wanted to make sure there weren't any sort of legal loopholes that would jeopardize anybody in the group, but also that would potentially jeopardize the data."It's not clear if some data has already been lost. Seemingly the same user who uploaded the deleted datasets to IA posted on Reddit, clarifying that while the "full" archive "should contain all public datasets that were available" before "anything was scrubbed," it likely only includes "most" of the "metadata and attachments." So, researchers who download the data may still struggle to fill in some blanks.To help researchers quickly access the missing data, anyone can help the IA seed the datasets, the Reddit user said in another post providing seeding and mirroring instructions. Currently dozens are seeding it for a couple hundred peers."Thank you to everyone who requested this important data, and particularly to those who have offered to mirror it," the Reddit user wrote.As Rasmussen works with her group to make their archive more user-friendly, her plan is to help as many researchers as possible fight back against data deletion by continuing to reference deleted data in their research. She suggested that effortdoing science that ignores Trump's executive ordersis perhaps a more powerful way to resist and defend public health data than joining in loud protests, which many researchers based in the US (and perhaps relying on federal funding) may not be able to afford to do."Just by doing things and standing up for science with your actions, rather than your words, you can really make, I think, a big difference," Rasmussen said.Ashley BelangerSenior Policy ReporterAshley BelangerSenior Policy Reporter Ashley is a senior policy reporter for Ars Technica, dedicated to tracking social impacts of emerging policies and new technologies. She is a Chicago-based journalist with 20 years of experience. 30 Comments

risc-v business Framework Laptops RISC-V board for open source diehards is available for $199 With soldered RAM and eMMC storage, this is not "a consumer-ready experience." Andrew Cunningham Feb 4, 2025 3:31 pm | 9 Framework and DeepComputing have collaborated to create a RISC-V motherboard that fits in the Framework Laptop 13's chassis. Credit: Framework Framework and DeepComputing have collaborated to create a RISC-V motherboard that fits in the Framework Laptop 13's chassis. Credit: Framework Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreWe've covered the Framework Laptop 13 primarily as a consumer Windows laptop, reviewing versions with multiple Intel and AMD processors. But the system's modular nature makes it possible to expand it beyond Windows PC hardware, as we've seen with experiments like the (now-discontinued) Chromebook Edition of the laptop.Today Framework is expanding to something even more experimental: a DeepComputing RISC-V Mainboard targeted primarily at developers. RISC-V is a fully open source and royalty-free instruction set, making it possible for anyone to adopt and use it without having to license it (unlike x86, which is a maze of cross-licensed Intel and AMD technologies that other companies can't really buy into; or Arm, which is licensed by the company of the same name).First announcedin June 2024, the board is available to order today for $199. The board is designed to fit in a Framework Laptop 13 chassis, which means that people who would prefer a desktop can also put it into the $39 Cooler Master Mainboard Case that Framework offers.Made in concert with DeepComputing, the board uses a StarFive JH7110 processor with four 1.5 GHz SiFive U74 CPU cores. The board can officially run either Ubuntu 24.04 LTS or Fedora 41, with tech support provided by DeepComputing.The RISC-V board isn't being offered in a pre-built laptop, but Framework is also introducing a barebones boardless $399 laptop chassis with a screen, 55 WHr battery, speakers, and a keyboard for $399. It can be used for the RISC-V Mainboard or any other Framework Laptop 13 motherboard model.RISC-V is currently used more extensively in low-level chips like microcontrollers rather than consumer-grade PCs or phones, and Framework's positioning of the new board makes it clear that it's still targeted primarily at a developer audience. Framework CEO Nirav Patel says the board"is focused primarily on enabling developers, tinkerers, and hobbyists to start testing and creating on RISC-V," and processor limitations mean it uses soldered-down RAM and eMMC storage rather than the user-replaceable RAM and storage that the other Framework boards use. Framework doesn't list detailed specs on its product page, but the DeepComputing specs page indicates that it includes 8GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.Most other mainstream operating systems don't support running on RISC-V processors, at least not yet. Microsoft has yet to publicly display any interest in running Windows on RISC-Veven Windows on Arm has only become truly viable as a mainstream x86 Windows replacement within the last year or so. Google was briefly talking about making RISC-V a "tier-1" architecture for Android in 2023, but RISC-V support was then removed from the kernel in a series of patches in April 2024. For people interested in tinkering with the promising but relatively nascent CPU architecture, the Framework board will at least make it easier, even if it's not ready for mass-market adoption just yet.Andrew CunninghamSenior Technology ReporterAndrew CunninghamSenior Technology Reporter Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS. Andrew lives in Philadelphia and co-hosts a weekly book podcast called Overdue. 9 Comments