Geek News

Extraordinary Solar Halos Welcome to the December Solstice, the first day of winter in planet Earth's northern hemisphere and summer in the south. To celebrate, consider this extraordinary display of beautiful solar ice halos! More common than rainbows , simple ice halos can be easy to spot, especially if you can shade your eyes from direct sunlight. Still it's extremely rare to see anything close to the complex of halos present in this astounding scene. Captured at lunchtime on a cold December 14 near Utendal, Sweden the image includes the relatively ordinary 22 degree halo, sundogs (parhelia) and sun pillars. The extensive array of rarer halos has been identified along with previously unknown features. All the patterns are generated as sunlight (or moonlight) is reflected and refracted in flat six-sided water ice crystals in Earth's atmosphere. In this case, likely lo...

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Updated cp_gullywash_final1 to fix func_rotating entities not working in the skybox Updated some of the cosmetic items from the Winter 2018 Cosmetics Collection to fix missing styles via Steam RSS News Feed "https://ift.tt/2EARrYj"

Science ‘Tis the season for conception. It turns out reproduction is seasonal across all living organisms, from plants, to insects, to reptiles, to birds and mammals—including human beings. via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2RgY5dj"

Gift Guides Because nothing else will make it in time for Christmas. You're out of time. Here are the gifts you can order now and still have arrive before Christmas—without paying an arm and a leg for shipping. via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2Bpc1Lb"

Technology Your Facebook account is spraying your personal info onto the internet like a hose. Here's how to stop it. You don't need to stop using Facebook, but you should stop using it so poorly. via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2puSU9G"

Technology Autonomous cars seem futuristic, but they’re already on the streets. A roundup of what's going on, and where, in the world of autonomous vehicles. via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2QLInWZ"

Animals Watch Nora the polar bear swim for science. The endlessly patient creators of the bear treadmill are bringing you another animal research invention: the polar bear swim chamber. via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2Sfz3IK"

Technology Aircraft windows affect everything from a plane's weight to how passengers perceive cleanliness. Everything you ever wanted to know about bathroom windows on airplanes. via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2A85H8a"

Health It’s already getting bad in some parts of the country. Most of the time, you probably don’t care much at all about what the flu looks like in other states. But this time of year you should. via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2CqS8Cb"

Science To Baldomero Olivera, venom is nature's drug industry. Olivera is the lead scientist at a 25-person lab that studies cone-snail venom. His job is to figure out how it works, and transform it into drugs that could soothe and… via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2A8dORM"

A Century of Air Travel in Pictures By Melissa Lindberg It's that time of year when many of us are getting ready to head to the airport and hop on a plane en route to family and friends for the holidays. Air travel, like many modern conveniences, is a perk easy to take for granted despite its relatively short history. A visual trip through the collections of the Prints & Photographs Division illustrates some of the developments in air travel over the past century. Tony Jannus & Albert Berry , between 1910 and 1915. Photo by Bain News Service. https://ift.tt/2UYLaeP In 1914 Tony Jannus became the first person to pilot a scheduled passenger flight, from St. Petersburg to Tampa, Florida. Taken sometime between 1910 and 1915, the photo above shows Jannus on the left, seated next to Albert Berry. Berry incidentally takes some credit for another first – he was by many accou...

DIY Cheaper television and internet are just a phone call away. Since you signed up for television and internet, your bills have been skyrocketing. Here’s how to talk the cable company back down to a more reasonable price. via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2CpgPid"

Environment What next? In Brussels on Wednesday, EU leaders signed a provisional agreement to ban 10 major single-use plastic products and mandate cleanup of other items. via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2UYf1Ed"