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2020/09/01

Neatorama

Neatorama


How Long Does It Take For A Hacker To Crack Your Password?

Posted: 31 Aug 2020 02:28 PM PDT

Websites always remind us to create a strong password, one that has numbers, upper and lowercase letters, as well as symbols. There are even some websites which measure the strength of a password, if it's very weak or very strong. And then there are sites who would not accept your password if it doesn't have the elements that make a strong password. But have you ever wondered why the constant reminder?

This infographic from Hive Systems shows how long it takes before a hacker can crack your password.

So how much time will a hacker take before he can crack your password?

Via Facebook

(Image Credit: Hive Systems/ Reddit)

The Acoustics of Stonehenge

Posted: 31 Aug 2020 02:27 PM PDT

Over thousands of years, Stonehenge has been used as a temple, a memorial, a burial ground, and plenty of other things. It may also have been an amphitheater of sorts. New research shows that acoustics of the original structure are such that sound produced inside the stone circle was amplified people inside, and barely audible to anyone outside the circle. A team of researchers reconstructed what is believed to be the original structure of the monument at 1/12 scale and put it inside an acoustic chamber.  

Despite many gaps between stones, sounds briefly lingered inside Stonehenge Lego, the team found. Reverberation time, a measure of the time it takes sound to decay by 60 decibels, averaged about 0.6 seconds inside the model for mid-frequency sounds. That effect would have boosted the ability to hear voices and enhanced sounds of drums or other musical instruments, Cox says. For comparison, reverberation time reaches about 0.4 seconds in a living room, around two seconds in a large concert hall and roughly eight seconds in a large cathedral.

Stonehenge Lego did not project sounds into the surrounding area or boost the quality of sounds coming from external speakers. And sounds did not echo in the scale model. Inner groups of simulated stones obscured and scattered sounds reflected off the outer sarsen circle, blocking echo formation.

Read more about the experiment at ScienceNews.  -via Boing Boing

(Image credit: Acoustics Research Centre/Univ. of Salford)

How Cats and Dogs See the World

Posted: 31 Aug 2020 12:59 PM PDT

You may have heard at one time or another that dogs are colorblind. It's more complicated than that; they see colors, but not all the same colors we see. It's the same with cats, and there's a reason for it.  

From a physiology standpoint, the unique view comes down to types of light receptors in the eye itself. "Because dogs and cats are predators, they don't have to be able to tell the difference between some similar shades," Houpt explains. "As primates, we have to know whether that persimmon is ripe or not. We're better at color discrimination in order to find the correct foods." In other words, a grey rabbit is just as tasty as a brown one.

When it comes to clarity, humans also have an advantage over our domesticated pals. If a dog can make out an object from 20 feet away, a human can see it from 60 feet. The difference is even more pronounced for cats—what a cat can see from 20 feet, a human can see from 100 or even 200 feet out. Our pets aren't built to process crystal clear images of the world around them.

But that doesn't necessarily handicap a dog or cat. They excel in other senses, and even other facets of their vision. Read about the differences between our vision and our pets' vision at Popular Science. -via Digg

(Image credit: Stan Horaczek)

Xiaomi’s New Phone Has A Nearly Invisible Display Camera

Posted: 31 Aug 2020 12:59 PM PDT

This might just be the end for camera notches and cutouts, as Xiaomi finally reveals a phone which has their 3rd generation Under-Display Camera Technology, which makes the display camera nearly invisible to the human eye. And the camera still captures high definition images!

The holy grail of front camera design is the under-display front camera. Why worry about the camera placement at all when you can just shove it behind the display? Manufacturers have been floating this idea in public since at least last year, with Xiaomi leading the charge. Today, the company is back with video footage of what it's calling its "third-generation" under-display camera technology, even though generations one and two never came to market.
With the caveat that this is highly biased promotional material, Xaiomi's new camera looks darn near invisible in all but one shot of the video. In the worst shot, which [Ars Technica] captured above, the display looks darker than normal over top of the camera area. 

Now this is phenomenal!

(Image Credit: Xiaomi/ Ars Technica)

Strange Animal Tongues

Posted: 31 Aug 2020 12:59 PM PDT

If you think your friend's tongue is already strange enough to creep you out, then this is what I have to say to you: your friend's strange tongue pales in comparison to these strange animal tongues. Some are insanely long, while others are really sticky. Some tongues are weirder than these, like the tongues of penguins, which have more bristles than your toothbrush.

Live Science compiles 20 strange tongues that can be found across the Animal Kingdom. Check them all over at the site.

(Image Credit: Pixabay)

Check Out These Robots That Can Store Energy Just Like Humans

Posted: 31 Aug 2020 12:59 PM PDT

With this kind of design, robots will have their battery capacity increased significantly. The design, called "biomorphic batteries", was developed by scientists at the University of Michigan. It was inspired by how living beings like us humans store energy inside their bodies, which is through the fat reserves.

"Robot designs are restricted by the need for batteries that often occupy 20 percent or more of the available space inside a robot, or account for a similar proportion of the robot's weight," Nicholas Kotov, professor of engineering at the University of Michigan and lead researcher on the project, said in a statement.
According to the team, their new zinc battery could greatly increase energy density.
"We estimate that robots could have 72 times more power capacity if their exteriors were replaced with zinc batteries, compared to having a single lithium ion battery," Mingqiang Wang, first author of a paper about the research published in the journal Science Robotics today, said in the statement.
They're also more flexible in terms of where they can be mounted to a robot, and can serve multiple functions at once.

More details about this over at Futurism.

Awesome!

(Image Credit: University of Michigan Engineering/ YouTube)

How Climate Change Affects The Human Body

Posted: 31 Aug 2020 12:59 PM PDT

Our planet is now altered due to climate change. And it's not just the planet that's affected by climate change; the creatures that live in it are affected, too, and that includes us. This is what ENT physician Neelu Tummala noticed on her patients.

I vividly remember a patient who came in late for her appointment during a July heat wave. When I walked in, she said, "I'm so sorry I'm late, I was up all night walking my grandbaby around the train station." Without air conditioning at home, the child was sweating through her clothes in the heat of the night, putting her at risk for dehydration.
[...]
Heat affects every part of our body. It can lead to heat exhaustion, heat stroke, anxiety, impaired cognitive function and even premature death from heart and lung disease. Across the country, the health concerns of the climate crisis are increasingly being recognized, pushing thousands of medical providers—doctors, nurses, pharmacists, therapists, medical students—to become advocates for change.

Tummala believes that this current climate crisis that we're dealing with will soon lead to a public health crisis, and the poor will be the ones to suffer the most.

More details about this over at Scientific American.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: Pixabay)

To Fend off a Polar Bear, Get Naked

Posted: 31 Aug 2020 12:58 PM PDT

There are so many reasons to get naked (or, as we bloggers call it, "in dress uniform"). One is to avoid polar bear attacks.

Polar bears are dangerous, aggressive predators that view humans as food. That's why, in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago, carrying a gun is not only allowed, but mandatory. It's why people in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada leave their car doors unlocked and have built a polar bear jail.

There's something else that you can do: strip. The New York Post reports:

"Polar bears are very curious," Sarah Woodall, a tourism destination manager for Visit South Greenland told me during my first trip to the country in 2015. To that end, if you should come face-to-face with one, back away (slowly at first), while peeling off your clothes one item at a time. The bears are very curious so they should stop, sniff, and perhaps play with each item as they come across it, leaving you free to run somewhere across the Arctic buck naked. 

Suddenly taking your clothes off can also shorten the line at store cashier lines or the DMV.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Anita Ritenour

Runaway Kite Takes Toddler on a Flight

Posted: 31 Aug 2020 12:56 PM PDT

At an annual kite festival in Taiwan, participants lost their grip on a long kite named "Joy Falls from Heaven." But the tail of the kite wrapped around the neck of a 3-year old girl and carried her aloft. The terrifying part begins at the 0:47 mark in the above video. Thankfully, the New York Times reports, she's okay:

The girl, who was identified by news outlets only by her last name, Lin, landed mostly unscathed at the Hsinchu International Kite Festival. She suffered abrasions around her neck and face, the mayor of Hsinchu, Lin Chih-chien, wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday. She was admitted to a hospital for a medical examination, he said.

-via Nag on the Lake

Measure Ingredients With This 3-D Printed Cube

Posted: 31 Aug 2020 08:31 AM PDT

If you're someone who loves to stay in the kitchen and cook food, then you know how difficult it is to measure ingredients using different measuring tools such as cups and spoons. But it doesn't have to be that way anymore, thanks to this measuring cube that has a variety of measurement sizes.

Designed by iomaa, the 3D-printable Bakercube measures everything from a 1/2 teaspoon up to a full cup of ingredients, depending on which side you place it on, and which cubby you fill in.
[...]
… The design is available for download over on Thingiverse for free, though I recommend giving a tip to the designer if you decide to print one for yourself.

Cool!

(Image Credit: iomaa/ Technabob)

Using Genetically Modified Mosquitoes To Fight Disease-Spreading Mosquitoes

Posted: 31 Aug 2020 08:31 AM PDT

With the number of dengue cases growing in Florida Keys, and with authorities having a hard time controlling the mosquitoes that cause this disease, officials of the said area have voted to allow the testing of free-flying, genetically modified mosquitoes as pest control devices.

The decision came after about two hours of contentious testimony in a virtual public hearing on August 18. Many speakers railed against uncertainties in releasing genetically engineered organisms. In the end, though, worries about mosquito-borne diseases proved more compelling. On the day of the vote, dengue fever cases in Monroe County, where the Keys are located, totaled 47 so far in 2020, the first surge in almost a decade.
[...]
Sometime after January 1, 2021, Florida workers will set out boxes of eggs of specially bred male yellow fever mosquitoes (a recent version called OX5034) in a stretch of Monroe County still to be chosen. The eggs, shipped from the biotech company Oxitec based in Abingdon, England, will grow into normal-looking males. Like other male mosquitoes, they drink flower nectar, not blood.

This method of releasing genetically modified mosquitoes is no longer a new one. It has been done before in Brazil, and Oxitec states that this has lowered the number of dengue cases there. I hope that the same thing will happen in Florida Keys.

More details about this story over at ScienceNews.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: Oxitec/ ScienceNews)

Biologists Attempt To Restore This Atoll By Destroying Its Trees

Posted: 31 Aug 2020 08:29 AM PDT

Palmyra Atoll, Central Pacific Ocean — Perhaps this will be the strangest story that you will come across today: biologists cutting and poisoning mature trees using herbicide. But don't take their action the wrong way, as these people do this in an attempt to restore the atoll.

The slashing and poisoning is part of an unprecedented endeavor to rid this remote atoll of all but a few coconut palms (Cocos nucifera). The gangly tree is an icon of idyllic tropical islands, but also an aggressive invasive species that crowds out native plants and animals. By removing 99% of Palmyra's millions of palms, biologists hope to create more room on the atoll's three dozen islets for indigenous forests and seabirds, including the world's second largest colony of red-footed boobies. If all goes as intended, the restoration effort could help make this coral-ringed atoll, which has an elevation of just 2 meters, more resilient to sea-level rise and other ravages of climate change.

Thankfully, there are no human inhabitants on this island, and so the biologists can reshape the landscape and ecosystem to their will.

If the restoration methods work, they could ultimately be replicated on other islands with abandoned coconut plantations run amok.

More details about this over at Science Magazine.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: Dana Edmunds/ Science Magazine)

Ensuring Survival By Not Mating

Posted: 31 Aug 2020 08:28 AM PDT

Droughts have now been expected to occur more often because of climate change, and scientists expect that survival of species would decrease to some degree because of these droughts. But life always finds a way.

Songbirds in tropical rainforests curtail their reproduction to help them survive droughts, according to a study Monday.
Species with longer lifespans were better able to cope with this environmental volatility than previously thought, researchers found.
[...]
... the study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, found that instead of trying to juggle the demands of new offspring and harsh environmental conditions, most of the songbird species studied opted to reduce their reproduction during drought.

Check out ScienceAlert to know more about this research.

(Image Credit: Caroline Granycome/ Wikimedia Commons)

What Makes A Lie Convincing, And How To Fight That Lie

Posted: 31 Aug 2020 08:28 AM PDT

One of the oldest tricks in the book that advertisers employ to sell a product is repetition. One of the best examples of this is Head On's campaign in 2006, which just repeated the phrase "Head On. Apply directly to the forehead, over and over." This tactic is called "effective frequency" in marketing, but is known in psychology as the "illusory truth effect".

… the more you hear something, the easier it is for your brain to process, which makes it feel true, regardless of its basis in fact. 
"Each time, it takes fewer resources to understand," says Lisa Fazio, a psychology professor at Vanderbilt University. "That ease of processing gives it the weight of a gut feeling."

This is what makes a lie effective, but how do we fight back against that lie? Jennifer Latson provides us with some tips over at Psychology Today.

(Image Credit: Schwerdhoefer/ Pixabay)

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