Andrew

Two years ago we dubbed photographer Thomas Shahan ‘the Bob Ross of bug photography.’ Today, we’re back with a video from the macro master in which he dives into his workflow in the field, dropping bits and pieces of useful knowledge as he goes through a daily shoot.

The video begins with a bit of a preface as to what he’ll be doing, after which Shahan dives into his workflow, explaining the techniques and approaches he uses to capture the fantastic up close and personal portraits of insects that he does.

In addition to showing his work out in the field, Shahan also gives us a brief glimpse into his post-production workflow, where he insists that ‘less is more’ — we certainly won’t argue with that.

Whether you’re a fan of macro photography or not, Shahan’s voice alone is enough to keep you listening. So click play and remember… happy trees.

1. In 2007, Congress passed a law requiring the US to use more and more ethanol and other biofuels in vehicles each year.
2. This is known as the Renewable Fuel Standard.
3. In recent years, gasoline refiners and biofuels producers have been bickering over how much ethanol American cars can safely handle, with refiners saying they can't take any more.
4. In response, the EPA is now proposing to reduce its biofuels quotas for 2014, 2015, and 2016. Refiners will have to use significantly less ethanol than the original law required — though the amount will still keep rising each year.
5. And ... lots of people are unhappy. Corn farmers and biofuels producers hate the new, lower quotas. Gasoline refiners say the quotas still aren't low enough. Meanwhile, environmental groups argue that corn-based ethanol is a poor alternative to gasoline — but it's been difficult to transition to even cleaner biofuels.

Why refiners and corn farmers are fighting over biofuels

Back in 2007, Congress passed a law that would push the United States to use more and more ethanol and other plant-based biofuels in its cars and trucks. This was called the Renewable Fuel Standard, and the hope was that it would help wean America off oil and help address climate change.

Under the original law, gasoline refiners and blenders were supposed to mix 16.55 billion gallons of ethanol into the gasoline they produced by 2013 (the vast majority of this was ethanol made from corn). That amount was supposed to keep rising until it hit 36 billion gallons in 2022.

(Congressional Budget Office)

There was just one problem: When Congress originally passed the law in 2007, lawmakers expected that US gasoline use would keep rising indefinitely, and all that ethanol would make up a small fraction of the total. Instead, the opposite happened. Americans started buying more fuel-efficient cars and driving less. US gasoline use has actually fallen in recent years.

That means biofuels now make up approximately 10 percent of the nation's gasoline supply. Refiners and automakers call this the "blend wall," arguing that cars will get damaged if we go above the 10 percent mark, because ethanol is more corrosive. Biofuels producers, for their part, argue that there are ways around the wall — oil companies are just blocking them. (More on this debate below.)

At the same time, many green groups argue that corn-based ethanol hasn't lived up to its promise of curbing greenhouse gas emissions. One worry with crop-based fuels is that it pushes farmers to plant more of these crops, which can indirectly exacerbate deforestation. In theory, the law was supposed to help create incentives for next-generation biofuels (like cellulosic ethanol) that didn't have this problem, but that technology is still in its infancy.

The EPA proposed tweaking the biofuels targets in 2013 — and everyone got angry

Ethanol plant, Milton, Wisconsin. (Education Images/UIG via Getty Images)

Faced with all these criticisms, the EPA took the unusual step in 2013 of proposing to cut the total amount of biofuels that refiners had to mix into their gasoline for 2014, in the hopes of avoiding that dreaded "blend wall" that would damage cars.

But that proposal set off a frenzy of criticism and recriminations. Ethanol producers and corn growers didn't want the EPA to relax its limit at all, since this would hurt the budding biofuels industry and screw over corn farmers who had already made planting decisions for the coming year (about one-third of the US corn crop now goes toward ethanol).

Meanwhile, oil refiners sensed an opening and began lobbying Congress to repeal the law entirely. After all, even the EPA was conceding that the original targets were unworkable. So why not just scrap the whole thing?

At that point, the EPA dithered for nearly two years on a final decision, leaving refiners to essentially guess how much biofuels they should use in 2014.

Now the EPA is proposing new targets for 2014-'16 — and everyone's still angry

So that brings us to today. On May 29, the agency proposed new biofuel targets for the 2014-'16 period. These targets will require refiners to use less ethanol than the original law required, although the amount will still rise each year. In essence, this is supposed to be a compromise measure.

More specifically, the biofuel quotas will be set at 15.93 billion gallons for 2014, 16.3 billion gallons for 2015, and 17.4 billion gallons for 2016. (By comparison, the original law passed by Congress had the mandate rising to 22.25 billion gallons by 2016.) In theory, these new targets will help refiners avoid the dreaded "blend wall."

The EPA also dealt with the question of advanced biofuels. When Congress enacted the law in 2007, it declared that a certain portion of biofuels eventually had to come from cellulosic materials or other sources. The idea was to slowly shift the nation's biofuels industry away from corn- and crop-based ethanol, so as not to put a strain on the food supply and to address those environmental concerns.

But so far, cellulosic ethanol has been slow to materialize, with a few plants opening only last year. As such, the EPA now wants to lower the target for advanced biofuels to around 3.4 billion gallons in 2016 (down from the original 7.25 billion gallons).

Few people seem happy with this new compromise. Oil refiners have won a partial victory by getting the EPA to agree that the "blend wall" is a real problem — the targets are written so that the total amount of ethanol in the gasoline supply will hover around 10 percent. Still, some refiners are worried that the 2016 target is too high and we'll run into that wall again.

Meanwhile, biofuel producers are irate at the changes, which essentially amount to less support for the industry. Here's what Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, told the Houston Chronicle: "The EPA plan fundamentally places the potential growth in renewable fuels in the hands of the oil companies — empowering the incumbent industry to continue to thwart consumer choice at the pump with no fear of consequence for their bad behavior."

Green groups, meanwhile, appear to be split. In an emailed statement, Jeremy Martin of the Union of Concerned Scientists argued that the most important thing here, from an environmental standpoint, is to shift away from corn ethanol and toward cleaner next-generation biofuels. And the EPA's new rule at least tries to do that by maintaining slowly rising targets for advanced biofuels. "This is really the only realistic path forward," he notes.

By contrast, other cellulosic ethanol manufacturers argue that the new, lower advanced biofuels targets are undercutting R&D just as the industry was finding its footing. In a different vein, the Environmental Working Group argues that the law still allows too much old-fashioned corn ethanol — 14 billion gallons next year — which, they say, is more destructive for climate change than gasoline. As such, they want the law revamped entirely.

How big a deal is the "blend wall," anyway?

Gas pumps with a sign indicating the gas is containing up to 10 percent ethanol are seen at Victory gas station on November 15, 2013, in Pembroke Pines, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Currently, biofuels make up about 10 percent of the gasoline supply in the United States. And one of the big debates here is whether we can go above that point.

Most cars and fuel pumps in the United States can easily handle gasoline with 10 percent ethanol or less, a blend known as "E10." But if we started mixing even more ethanol into that gasoline — moving up to 15 percent, or "E15" — things get trickier.

E15 is more corrosive, and it's not deemed suitable for cars built before 2000, heavy-duty vehicles, motorcycles, or non-road engines like boats or snowmobiles. Meanwhile, for newer cars, the government has declared the fuel safe after extensive testing, but even so, many automakers have said their warranties won't cover any damage caused by fueling with E15.

That's why that 10 percent number is often called the "blend wall." If the targets for biofuels keep going up and up each year, it's going to be increasingly difficult to mix ethanol into the gasoline. Blenders and refineries say they'll have to keep buying up renewable credits instead to comply with the law — and that will raise their costs.

In theory there are ways the wall could be knocked down. The country could find ways to use more E15, which is fine for newer cars. What's more, there are currently about 11 million "flexible-fuel" vehicles in the United States that can technically handle E85, or fuel that's 85 percent ethanol. The problem? There aren't many fueling stations that offer E85 outside of the Midwest.

Oil refiners and blenders say these stations aren't popping up quickly enough — and won't anytime soon. Renewable fuels advocates, for their part, claim the biggest obstacle is actually the oil industry itself, which (they say) has hindered the expansion of E15 and E85 fueling infrastructure.

Programming in general is a valuable skill when it comes to searching for jobs, but employers will pay more for some of them. If you're wondering what you should learn to broaden your horizon, here's a list of the top 12 paying skills right now.

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I will be honest, the nearest I think I have come to a square monitor is the 1024x768 panel I use as a tiny second screen on my main computer. When I first saw EIZO’s press release regarding this new 1920x1920 monitor it took me aback, imagining what it might feel like to actually use. The consumer monitor market is expanding to various screen sizes, usually following 16:9, 16:10 or 21:9 for the most part. But after a few minutes, I realized that non-standard monitor sizes are most likely abundant in various industries, such as medical, when they are designed for a specific purpose and quality. So while a 1:1 monitor is something interesting to see in the consumer space, perhaps it might not be so new when considering industrial use scenarios. That all being said, it would be interesting to see this one in the flesh.

1920x1920 means 3.7 megapixels, the same as 2560x1440. This compares to the regular desktop sizes of 1080p (2MP), 1200p (2.3MP), 3200x1800 (5.8MP) and 2160p (8.3MP), which indicates that if this monitor were to be used for gaming, performance would put it directly in the 1440p category. That being said, EIZO is not exactly targeting this monitor for gaming. The more vertical space provided is better suited to writers, coders or CAD who require many items on the screen at once, often side by side. As an editor, I often have an image on one side of my screen while writing my reviews on the other, so I can certainly see this marketing angle.

The basic specification list gives the IPS-based EV2730Q as a 16.8 million color display with 178 degree viewing angles, a 300 nit brightness, a 1000:1 contrast ratio and 5ms gray-to-gray response time. Video inputs are via DisplayPort and a dual-link DVI-D, with a maximum refresh rate of 60 Hz. Two 1W speakers are built in, along with a 2-port USB 2.0 hub. 100mm VESA is supported with 344º of swivel and 35º/5º of tilt. Height is also adjustable. 

The button controls are on the front of the panel, and EIZO gives three profiles called sRGB, Movie and Paper along with two user customizable profiles. The Paper profile is designed to reduce the amount of blue in an image to prevent eyestrain while reading or coding against a white background. A feature called Auto Ecoview can detect the ambient light level and adjust the screen’s brightness to reduce eyestrain and power. This can also detect when a user leaves the desk to power down the monitor, with power on when the user returns.

We are contacting EIZO to find what markets the EV2730Q will be sold in as well as the prices. EIZO has announced that the monitor will be available from Q1 in 2015, but this will vary by country. With any luck, it will be on display at CES.

Source: EIZO via TFTCentral

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Photographer Rick Satureyes shares this tattoo he recently had inked onto his forearm. Rather than a standard design featuring a camera or lens, he chose to go with a cross-section diagram of a lens.

More specifically, Satureyes chose the diagram of a Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH lens. The technical illustration is “99% technically accurate as far as my research has shown,” he tells us. (He did add some black shading on certain elements for aesthetics.)

Here’s a clearer look at what the diagram looks like:

While the tattoo was being done, Satureyes snapped a few shots of the process with his other hand:

You can find more examples of photo-related tattoos we’ve shared here.

HughPickens.com writes Pat Garofalo writes in an op-ed in US News & World Report that with the recent drop in oil prices, there's something policymakers can do that will offset at least some of the negative effects of the currently low prices, while also removing a constant thorn in the side of American transportation and infrastructure policy: Raise the gas tax. The current 18.4 cent per gallon gas tax has not been raised since 1993, making it about 11 cents per gallon today, in constant dollars. Plus, as fuel efficiency has gotten better and Americans have started driving less, the tax has naturally raised less revenue anyway. And that's a problem because the tax fills the Highway Trust Fund, which is, not to put too fine a point on it, broke so that in recent years Congress has had to patch it time and time again to fill the gap. According to the Tax Policy Center's Howard Gleckman, if Congress doesn't make a move, "it will fumble one of those rare opportunities when the economic and policy stars align almost perfectly." The increase can be phased in slowly, a few cents per month, perhaps, so that the price of gas doesn't jump overnight. When prices eventually do creep back up thanks to economic factors, hopefully the tax will hardly be noticed. Consumers are already starting to buy the sort of gas-guzzling vehicles, including Hummers, that had been going out of style as gas prices rose; that's bad for both the environment and consumers, because gas prices are inevitably going to increase again. According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, taxes last year, even before the current drop in prices, made up 12 percent of the cost of a gallon of gasoline, down from 28 percent in 2000. And compared to other developed countries, US gas taxes are pretty much a joke. While we're at it, an even better idea, as a recent report from the Urban Institute makes clear, would be indexing the gas tax to inflation, so this problem doesn't consistently arise. "The status quo simply isn't sustainable, from an infrastructure or environmental perspective," concludes Garofalo. "So raise the gas tax now; someday down the line, it will look like a brilliant move."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

[Update: The site has been taken offline, but there’s a cached version hosted at Fireballed.org, which includes all the good stuff. It’s just missing an image or two.]

I tweeted this yesterday, and still can’t stop laughing about it. It’s a counterfeit iPhone 6 being for $250. So many gems on this web page:

This phone is the same as the Apple iPhone 6 without the Apple logo on the back of the phone or the iPhone 6 text on the white box (sometimes the phone comes with an Apple like logo). The internals of this phone are the same as the Apple iPhone 6.

And:

Do NOT pay $600, $700 or even $800 for the same phone.

The quality, finish & performance of this phone is the same as the Apple iPhone 6.

From the specs list:

• Video recording: Yes
• E-book format: Excel, PPT, Word
• Screen resolution: 854 × 480 pixels
• Gravity Sensing System

Who hasn’t enjoyed reading a good .xls novel? But it gets better: they embed an unboxing video from someone who specifically emphasizes in the video just how bad the performance of the phone is. The people selling this phone chose to embed that.

I think my favorite thing, though, is the photograph of a warehouse at the very bottom of the page. (Ripped-off, of course.) There are no words to accompany it, but the implication is that this enormous, airy, well-lit, clean warehouse is where they’re selling these phones from. Convincing!

I’m half-tempted to buy one of these on a lark.

MojoKid (1002251) writes One of the disadvantages to buying an Apple system is that it generally means less upgrade flexibility than a system from a traditional PC OEM. Over the last few years, Apple has introduced features and adopted standards that made using third-party hardware progressively more difficult. Now, with OS X 10.10 Yosemite, the company has taken another step down the path towards total vendor lock-in and effectively disabled support for third-party SSDs. We say "effectively" because while third-party SSDs will still work, they'll no longer perform the TRIM garbage collection command. Being able to perform TRIM and clean the SSD when its sitting idle is vital to keeping the drive at maximum performance. Without it, an SSD's real world performance will steadily degrade over time. What Apple did with OS X 10.10 is introduce KEXT (Kernel EXTension) driver signing. KEXT signing means that at boot, the OS checks to ensure that all drivers are approved and enabled by Apple. It's conceptually similar to the device driver checks that Windows performs at boot. However, with OS X, if a third-party SSD is detected, the OS will detect that a non-approved SSD is in use, and Yosemite will refuse to load the appropriate TRIM-enabled driver.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Dave Knott writes Raymond Almiran Montgomery, original publisher and author of the incredibly popular "Choose Your Own Adventure" book series for children, the 4th bestselling children's series of all time, has died at the age of 78. In 1975, Montgomery founded a small press and when, in 1977, Ed Packard submitted an innovative book for young readers, "Sugarcane Island", Montgomery immediately saw it for what it was: a role-playing game in book form. He leapt at the chance to publish it, and launched a series, writing the second book, "Journey Under The Sea", himself. When Montgomery went through a divorce and sold his stake in the press to his ex-wife, he took the series, renamed as "Choose Your Own Adventure", to Bantam. The books went on to sell more than 250 million copies across 230 titles in 40 languages. Montgomery's interests also extended to new technology, adapting the series to the Atari console in 1984. He was also responsible for the Comic Creator software on Apple's Macintosh computers. Montgomery died on November 9th. The cause of death was not disclosed.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

astroengine (1577233) writes "In the final hours, Philae's science team hurried to squeeze as much science out of the small lander as possible. But the deep sleep was inevitable, Rosetta's lander has slipped into hibernation after running its batteries dry. This may be the end of Philae's short and trailblazing mission on the surface of Comet 67P, but a huge amount of data — including data from a drilling operation that, apparently, was carried out despite concerns that Philae wasn't positioned correctly — was streamed to Rosetta mission control. "Prior to falling silent, the lander was able to transmit all science data gathered during the First Science Sequence," said Stephan Ulamec, Philae Lander Manager. "This machine performed magnificently under tough conditions, and we can be fully proud of the incredible scientific success Philae has delivered.""

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Anyone who used a cell phone for texting prior to the smartphone revolution knows how wonderfully magical typing out a message using just ten buttons can be. Once you got used to it and mastered its sometimes peculiar ways, typing in the T9 could be...

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Flowing Data has made an impressive series of maps documenting Americans' taste in burgers. The big one, documenting the closest of seven major burger chains for various points across the country, is above. Because there are so many burger chains in America, it's useful to look at the maps of burger chains individually to sort out regional preferences:

Hamburgers by chain across America (Flowing Data)

What's fun about this map is how many regional burger places there are. Look at all of those Texas Whataburgers (the best burger in all the land). Look at the California In-N-Outs. Look at how the Midwest loves those gross White Castle burgers.

This map shows the great divide between Dairy Queen and Sonic. There's no need to pick a favorite here because both Dairy Queen and Sonic are delicious.

This map shows how many Sonics and how many Dairy Queens our great nation has (Flowing Data)

New details have come to light regarding the iPad Air 2's graphics processing power since its launch last month, with a new report from AnandTech revealing the new tablet's graphics are even more powerful than previously thought.

Benchmarks and teardowns on the tablet revealed details on the inner workings of the iPad Air 2 in the days following its launch, but a new image of the A8X die provided to AnandTech reveals the layout of the Apple-designed chip. The die photo shows the A8X includes eight-core graphics, even larger than the 6-core GX6650 graphics from Imagination Technologies previously assumed to be in the chip.

To get right down to business then, the die shot confirms what we had begun suspecting: that A8X has an 8 cluster Series6XT configuration. All 8 GPU clusters are clearly visible, and perhaps unsurprisingly it looks a lot like the GPU layout of the GX6450. To put it in words, imagine A8’s GX6450 with another GX6450 placed right above it, and that would be the A8X’s 8 cluster GPU.

AnandTech was unable to share the source's actual image of the die, but Chipworks has just provided MacRumors with a similar image showing the eight graphics cores taking up a substantial portion of the A8X's die. The photo also shows the new triple-core CPU and a number of other features included on the chip.

A8X die photo from Chipworks
Uncertainty over the A8X graphics stems from Imagination's public list of Series6XT graphics offerings, which tops out with the 6-core GX6650, but the new die photo reveals that Apple has employed a semi-custom design essentially pairing two quad-core packages on the chip to yield eight-core graphics.

Thanks to its licensing agreements with Imagination, Apple is free to modify the GPU designs developed by the graphics company, and Apple's position as a key investor in Imagination almost certainly gives it advance access to Imagination's pipeline, allowing such custom designs to be launched just nine months after Series6XT was announced.

Other gathered information includes details about the A8X's size and design. The die shot places the A8X at roughly 128mm2, only a bit larger than the 123 mm2 A6X used the last time Apple developed a custom "X" chip for the iPad. Compared to other models on the market, the A8X is a bit larger than NVIDIA’s 118mm2 GK107 GPU but also smaller than Intel’s 130mm2 2C+GT2 Haswell CPU. Design-wise, the A8X otherwise appears to have not drastically changed much from the A8, besides slight tweaks to make the eight-cluster design functional and the addition of a third CPU core.

Just yesterday, Imagination announced its next-generation Series7XT designs, and given the timing of this year's announcements and releases, the new graphics are likely to make their way into Apple's A9-series chips for inclusion in its 2015 iOS devices.

At around 10:30 am EST Wednesday morning, a small probe named Philae made history— by becoming the first spacecraft to ever land on a comet.

The 220-pound, box-shaped lander was carried to the comet, called 67P/C-G, by a larger probe named Rosetta, launched and operated by the European Space Agency. In August, Rosetta became the first spacecraft to ever be put into orbit around a comet, and at 3:35 am EST on Wednesday morning, it released Philae.

philae successfully landed on comet 67p/C-G

Despite a rocky landing — Philae's gas thruster malfunctioned, so it had to rely solely on screws and a pair of harpoons to latch on to an uneven patch of terrain — the lander successfully made contact, with confirmation reaching Earth at 11:03 am EST. ESA scientists confirmed that the lander's harpoons have engaged and it is sitting on the comet's surface.

Philae will immediately begin taking close-up photos of the comet's surface — the first we've ever obtained. It has about 64 hours (the amount of time its battery power will last) to analyze soil samples and collect other sorts of data, telling us more about comets than we've ever known before.

The Rosetta mission

A rendering showing the Rosetta probe (top left) next to Philae (center) and the comet. (ESA/Rosetta/Navcam)

Rosetta was launched from French Guiana in March 2004, and has now traveled more than 3.5 billion miles in space.

The reason it's been traveling so long is that, to reach the comet, Rosetta had to loop around the solar system several times, passing by Earth and Mars so that it could use the planets' gravity as a slingshot. In 2008 and 2010, the spacecraft also flew by a pair of asteroids, allowing engineers to take photos and calibrate Rosetta's cameras before it approached its final destination.

In 2011, after Rosetta had traveled too far from the sun to sustain itself with solar power, it went into hibernation to conserve energy, and was woken back up at the start of 2014. Finally, in August, Rosetta successfully rendezvoused with the comet, a 2.5 mile-wide chunk of rock and ice that approaches the sun in an elliptical orbit, then goes back out once every six and a half years.

(LiveCometData.com)

Scientists had been expecting a nice, even, roughly spherical object, which would have hopefully provided several level landing areas. Instead, they found a lopsided comet that they've been calling "duck-shaped."

A close up of the comet, taken by Rosetta on August 6th. (ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA)

Two previous probes had flown by comets, and in 2005, NASA intentionally crashed a probe into a comet in order to analyze its interior. But putting a craft into orbit around a comet is much more difficult (it is, after all, a spinning, mountain-sized object orbiting the sun at about 84,000 miles per hour, millions of miles from Earth) and Rosetta is the first craft to ever achieve the feat.

Video taken by Rosetta as it approached the comet. (ESA/Rosetta/Navcam)

Over the past three months, Rosetta has orbited the comet, taking photos of the surface and searching for landing sites. The craft has also analyzed the gases given off by the comet as it nears the sun and warms up.

Rosetta will stay in orbit around the comet for the next year, tracking it as gets continually hotter and begins to vaporize. Data collected during this period will provide new information about the plume of dust and water vapor that forms a comet's tail as it passes by the sun. Then, in December 2015, Rosetta will break away from the comet, which will travel back out toward the outer reaches of the solar system.

Even without the lander, this is by far the most ambitious project ever attempted by the European Space Agency — it involved 10 years of planning and 10 years of travel just to reach this point, and cost an estimated $1.59 billion.

The Philae lander

A rendering of Philae landing on the comet. (ESA)

Despite the many firsts of Rosetta, the most remarkable part of this mission was landing Philae, a dishwasher-sized probe, on the comet's surface.

Much was rightfully made of the difficulty of landing Curiosity on Mars' surface in 2012. But some experts have said that Philae's landing was even more difficult: partly because we've mapped the comet much less thoroughly than we have Mars, and because the comet's uneven shape made it impossible to find a landing site that was entirely level.

The landing site. (ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA)

Undetected cracks or boulders could have caused the lander to flip, jeopardizing its ability to transmit data back to Rosetta. In terms of space landings, the speed of this mission — going from taking initial photos to landing three months later — was unprecedented.

Making matters even more difficult was the fact that, late Tuesday evening, scientists discovered that the lander's rocket thruster system was malfunctioning. The thrusters were originally designed with the expectation that Philae would be landing on a smaller comet with a weaker level of gravity (they'd be needed to help propel it downward), so they weren't essential for this mission, but it still limited scientists' ability to control the lander.

The first photo taken by Philae during its descent. The Rosetta spacecraft is at the top right, with a solar panel extending into the top center. (ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA)

Still, after a descent of about 19 miles over the course of seven hours, Philae successfully landed on the comet at a speed of about one meter per second (similar to that of a person walking). Upon impact, its leg screws and harpoons engaged, latching on to the comet's surface. The comet's relatively soft surface helped with the landing, allowing the probe to sink in slightly, rather than bounce off.

Now, Philae has less than three days' worth of battery life to tell us a ton of new information about both this comet and comets in general. It'll immediately begin using its panoramic camera to provide photos of the comets' surface of unprecedented detail.

It carries 10 scientific instruments in total, including a system capable of drilling up to nine inches down into the comet's surface and extracting soil samples. Other instruments onboard will analyze the contents of these samples, telling us far more about the composition of comets than we've ever known before.

Another instrument will emit radio waves that will travel through the comet's center, then get picked up by the orbiting Rosetta. Based on the time it takes for these waves to arrive, scientists will be able to map the comet's interior.

Why scientists want to put a lander on a comet

A photo taken by a camera aboard Philae of Rosetta, with the comet in the background. (ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA)

All this data will be especially interesting because the comet is believed to have formed 4.6 billion years ago, from material leftover as Earth and the solar system's other planets were coalescing. As a result, understanding the composition of comets could help us better model the formation of the solar system.

Moreover, many scientists believe that in the period afterward, when the solar system was still a chaotic, collision-filled system, comets and asteroids were responsible for bringing water and perhaps even organic molecules to Earth. If water ice is present on this comet, as scientists hope, Philae will calculate the ratio of different sorts of hydrogen isotopes present in it — information that could provide an important clue as to whether the hypothesis is correct.

In other words, data collected by a tiny robot on this lopsided, spinning comet, millions of miles away, could provide a window into the history of all life on earth.

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Update: This article has been edited to reflect ongoing developments.

Do you know MKBHD? You should. Over the past couple years, Marques Brownlee has become a huge force on the tech scene, using his passion and enthusiasm to entertain and inform his millions of YouTube subscribers. He's a true modern-day media success story — a kid in his bedroom who turned his love of tech into an empire.

We've been friends with Marques for a while now, and we just couldn't resist a chance to pair him up with the unstoppable Verge Video team. This is our first video together, but we're eager to do more — tell us what you'd like to see.

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iOS: If you have friends who speak a language you don't, communicating over text message is pretty impossible. Slated is an iOS keyboard that translates while you type, and can also translate what's sent back to you.

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Republicans just dominated Democrats in the midterm elections, and by all popular accounts Obama may become one of the lamest lame ducks in history — the GOP simply hates the guy and it seems unlikely he's going to get anything meaningful done before he leaves office. So we're now entering the presidential "say whatever you want" phase, marked today by the president's strong new stance on rigorous net neutrality regulation. Republican leadership was quick to respond:

"Net Neutrality" is Obamacare for the Internet; the Internet should not operate at the speed of government.

— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) November 10, 2014

This is an insanely cynical tactic that should worry all citizens regardless of political stripe, and it's...

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Memphis Grizzlies guard Tony Allen got a little carried away last week when, after committing his third foul, he decided to take out his frustration by smacking Bo Bradley’s camera as he was capturing the action — an act that is going to cost him.

Bo Bradley was working his freelance job as a cameraman when a frustrated Allen came over and took out his anger on the innocent camera (and its operator). The eyepiece of the camera managed to smash into Bradley’s eye a bit, but he tells WMC Action News 5 there were no cuts or bruises.

In fact, there were no hard feelings at all. Allen motioned an apology to Bradley later in the game, Tweeted an apology later that night, and the two even caught up in person on Tuesday afternoon for an official apology.

Both Bradley and Allen seemed happy with the results of the one-on-one meeting, with Bradley mentioning that he accepts Allen’s apology and realizes that it’s something that just happened in the heat of the moment.

Despite all this, NBA President of Basketball Operations Rob Thorn still decided to levy a pretty hefty fine on Allen. So if you’re wondering what it costs when an NBA player takes his frustrations out on a camera man, the answer is a cool $15,000.

For the past year I've been a terrible person. I've abused great power with great irresponsibility and savored every moment of it like the perfect last bite of a delicious meal. I abhor many aspects of trolling people, but I've given in and done it to other humans. Perhaps the only difference is that my motive has been to make them smile.

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Today's announcement that the White House now supports reclassification of ISPs has huge implications for net neutrality, but is obviously the beginning rather than the end of an intense political fight. Companies like Verizon, Comcast, and other owners of internet infrastructure really don't want this to happen and they'll have no trouble finding allies.

Ted Cruz even has a brand new slogan.

"Net Neutrality" is Obamacare for the Internet; the Internet should not operate at the speed of government.

— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) November 10, 2014

What, if anything, that phrase means is difficult to say. But it's political significance is easy to grasp. All true conservatives hate Obamacare, so if net neutrality is Obamacare for the internet all true conservatives should rally against it.

It was only a matter of time before CNN, the nation's trusted news network for cruise ships gone awry, plumbed the depths of catcalling and street harassment. The nation was talking about catcalling thanks to a now-viral video of a woman filming 10 hours of walking and being catcalled in New York City.

CNN decided that the best and most entertaining way to tackle this sensitive topic would be to book Steven Santagati, the author of The Manual: A True Bad Boy Explains How Men Think, Date, and Mate and have him explain catcalling to host Fredericka Whitfield and guest Amanda Seales.

That explaining consisted of Santagati telling the two women that he's "more of an expert" than they are in the subject of street harassment. And how women, including the ones he was speaking to, truly love compliments. According to Santagati, the only reason women find catcalls are annoying or offensive is if they come from non-handsome men.

While Santagati mansplains, you can see Whitfield and Seales mentally processing the unbelievable combination of words coming out of his man's mouth (you can actually see the audio delay), and side-eye accordingly:

CNN

While this is mildly entertaining, it's important to remember that there are better resources about catcalling than Santagati out there.

For a lot of Americans, trying to vote in Tuesday's midterms was frustrating.

To say the least.

These were the first elections since the passage of new, restrictive voting laws in many states.  Especially in North Carolina, Georgia, and Texas, voters reported confusion over the location of their polling places, the identification required to vote, and whether they'd even been added to the rolls. From the New York Times:

Some longtime voters in Texas reported on Tuesday that they were refused a ballot because they lacked newly required photo identification. In North Carolina, voters who showed up at the wrong precinct were unable to vote, reflecting a new policy. And in Georgia, hundreds of frustrated people called a hotline to say they were unsure if their voter registrations had been processed, some of the thousands of would-be new voters who reportedly faced uncertainty.

In many cases, the accounts seemed to reflect concerns raised by civic groups and civil rights leaders that new photo identification requirements in several states and cutbacks in early voting and same-day registration in others would deter significant numbers of people from participating in the elections.

Civil rights organizations monitoring the election for irregularities asked voters to report excessive lines, questionable conduct by poll workers, and any instances of citizens being turned away. They'll no doubt provide summaries of these reports in the coming days. But in the meantime, frustrated voters who weren't able to vote or witnessed others being prohibited from casting ballots took their complaints directly to Twitter:

Just saw a woman holding a baby turned away at the polls for having an expired drivers license. It's her on the picture. #VoterID

— Reginald Hardwick (@regihardwick) November 4, 2014

Saw a man being questioned because he just moved and his #VoterID and registration address didn't match.

— Reginald Hardwick (@regihardwick) November 4, 2014

On the phone with older African-American man being made to vote provisionally because 1 digit on his VR card is transposed. #TX #VoterID

— Sarah Slamen (@VictorianPrude) November 4, 2014

tried to vote and I can't cos my ID doesn't have my new address, so id have to drive 2 hours away to do it. What kind of shit is this?

— Ricky (@Sky_Bound) November 4, 2014

In line to vote today and already seen someone turned away. Texas's voter ID law is stupid

— Allison Taylor (@AllisonTaylor32) November 4, 2014

I tried to vote first thing this morning but was sent away. They had no voter "lists" at my poll site! http://t.co/qak0kURHRU

— Shelley D. Best (@RevShelley) November 4, 2014

Tried to vote at @UF and it was a disaster. Was sent to an hour long line and ended up walking out. Not one volunteer had a clue

— C T II (@UF_FRE_CTJR) November 4, 2014

Couldn't vote today because my landlord misspelled my name on my lease agreement.

— anna konda (@LEXiLAKE) November 4, 2014

Was told I couldn't vote today b/c voter my reg wasn't in system. Had them check, there was glitch! Wonder how many ppl left w/out voting.

— Pam Moore (@PamMktgNut) November 5, 2014

My husband and I are being told we can't vote at Jim Ward Community Center 301 NW 46th Ave Plantation , FL 33322 @wsvn @ABC

— Linda Benedict (@lindabenedict) November 4, 2014

@MarkUdall My man & I were turned away from the polling station, were denied our right to vote. Those were your votes the GOP just stole.

— Kye Sangha (@KyeSangha) November 5, 2014

Increased consumer interest in NFC mobile payments related to Apple's recent launch of its Apple Pay mobile payment service appears to be having benefits for other services as well, reports Ars Technica. A major beneficiary of this new consumer awareness of mobile transactions is Google Wallet, which reportedly has seen a marked increase in usage over the past few months.

NFC-based mobile payments have had a boost in recent months, possibly thanks to the launch of Apple Pay, which was announced in September. Now, a person with knowledge of the matter tells Ars that Google Wallet, which launched back in 2011 and saw tepid success in the ensuing three years, has had considerable growth in the last couple of months. According to our source, weekly transactions have increased by 50 percent, and in the recent couple of months, new users have nearly doubled compared to the previous month.

Apple launched its mobile payment service in October with the support of major retailers and credit card companies. The service logged over 1 million card activations in the first three days of usage with overall positive reviews.

The Apple Pay launch was not without controversy with both CVS and Rite Aid suspending their mobile payments shortly after the service made its official debut, moves that affected not only Apple Pay but all NFC-based payment services including Google Wallet.

The two pharmacy chains, along with a number of other major retailers, are developing a competing service, CurrentC, which as currently implemented uses QR codes and an app to process transactions. The shutting down of NFC at these retailers has even resulted in an alliance between Android and iOS users on Reddit to boycott retailers involved in the CurrentC effort.

Chrome: If you've ever researched anything medical , you probably know what it's like to have a bunch of jargon thrown at you, only to feel just as confused as when you started. Iodine's Medical Translator translates confusing medical terminology into plain English when you hover over the word.

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We don't only have five senses. Napoleon wasn't actually short for an 18th-century Frenchman. Caffeine doesn't dehydrate you. Swimming after you eat won't cause cramps.

Basically, everything you think you know is wrong, as this fascinating graphic from Information is Beautiful shows. (Click through on the link for the full graphic, which has more than 50 debunked myths.)

You may even discover new myths you hadn't known about, like the widespread rumors that George Washington smoked pot.

In September, I talked with bestselling author AJ Jacobs about his plans to throw the world's first global family reunion. Sister Sledge was right, says Jacobs: we really are family.

Jacobs insists that everyone is cousins. He's not using the word the way we usually do, in the "first-cousin" sense (i.e. your cousin is the child of your aunt or uncle). Rather, what he means by "cousin" is a person who shares a common ancestor with you. Jacobs told me the farthest apart any of us are is 50th cousins.

One of his cousins he was most excited to find out about was Ellen DeGeneres. "She's my first-cousin-once-removed's-husband's-seventh-great-aunt's-eighth-great-niece. So there you go. Practically my sister."

But really, what is a once-removed or an eighth-great relative? How do you even track degrees of separation from a common ancestor? Can I maybe get a chart?

Actually, yes, reader, you can get a chart. Here you go.

(Flowing Data)

Here's how you use the chart, according to the website that designed it: "Figure out the common ancestor between two relatives. Then select the relationship of the first relative to the common ancestor in the top row. Move down to the row that corresponds to the relationship of the second person to the common ancestor. The result is the relationship of the second person to the first."

Crash Course Videos/John and Hank Green

Unless you’ve spent time in a high school classroom recently, you’ve probably never seen a “Crash Course” video.

These irreverent and fast-paced educational clips tackle a variety of topics, such as the 13.8 billion-year history of the universe, or the fading American Dream as depicted by F. Scott Fitzgerald in his Jazz Age novel, “The Great Gatsby.” All in about 10 minutes.

“Crash Course” videos, which have attracted 2.4 million YouTube subscribers, are about to get a larger audience through a partnership with PBS Digital Studios.

Creators John and Hank Green — known as the Vlogbrothers — agreed to distribute their educational video library through PBS’s YouTube network as well as into the classroom through PBS LearningMedia, an on-demand digital service that’s free to educators nationwide. The videos become available in January.

“Being able to reach people we haven’t been able to reach before — in many cases, it’s in the schools that need the most resources — is wonderful for us,” said Hank Green. “Having a legitimate way to broadcast into schools, that doesn’t include advertising, is really great.”

Hank and John Green are among a growing number of YouTube personalities to join the entertainment mainstream. John Green is also the best-selling young adult novelist, whose “The Fault in Our Stars” was turned into one of the highest-grossing films this summer. And Hank Green is chief executive of VidCon, a sprawling convention (in which his brother is involved) that showcases YouTube stars. Last year’s attracted 18,000 attendees.

Under the PBS agreement, “Crash Course” will launch two new series, one on U.S. government, to be hosted by YouTube personality Craig Benzine, also known as WheezyWaiter, and the other on astronomy, featuring astronomer and the author of Slate’s “Bad Astronomy” blog Phil Plait.

“We’re always looking to work with the best and the brightest,” said PBS Digital General Manager Ira Rubenstein, adding that through the partnership, “We gain great quality content.”

The “Crash Course” videos debuted in 2011 as part of YouTube’s original content initiative to underwrite 100 new channels. But after two years of financing, YouTube cut the cord. Hank and John had to search for alternative backing.

They solicited donations through Subbable, a subscription service they launched to coax viewers to contribute to their favorite channels and collect perquisites. It also received a funding from bgC3, a think tank created by Microsoft founder Bill Gates. The partnership with PBS, though, is a “substantially larger” source of revenue than either of those other funding sources, Hank Green said.

“It means we can create twice as much content, which is amazing,” he said. “We’re doubling the number of videos that will go on our channels, we’re doubling the number of courses we can do in a year.”

Eventually, the Greens hope to produce “Crash Course” videos to span the high school curriculum — offering a 10-minute introduction (or review) of world history, chemistry, psychology, literature and more. All done in a staccato style that’s designed to hold the young viewer’s attention.

“We’re making content for young people who are in the most distractible environment of all time,” Hank Green said. “We have to be entertaining.”

For the uninitiated, here’s a sample “Crash Course” video:

Updated at 9:50 a.m. The story originally reported that Crash Course videos received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  It received backing from a Gates think tank, bcC3.