“The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has rejected the Oregon Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) request for $750 million in funding for the Rose Quarter Freeway Expansion,” according to an article in Roads & Bridges, signaling a shift away from highway expansion as the norm in transportation planning.

The contentious project is over $900 million short of its estimated $1.5 to $1.9 million cost. “ODOT now has a significant budget gap for the Rose Quarter Freeway Expansion and the Interstate Bridge Replacement. The Joint Transportation Commission is working to develop a bailout for ODOT, which says it faces a large funding gap for both operations and capital projects.”

Local environmental and transportation advocates oppose the project, which received a Reconnecting Communities grant earlier this year for its plan to bury the freeway and cover it with cap parks and other usable land, saying it doesn’t fully address the ongoing negative impacts of the interstate on surrounding communities.

• Portland
• Rose Quarter
• I-5 Rose Quarter Improvement Project
• Freeway Expansion
• Highway Expansion
• Cap Parks
• Freeway Caps
• interstate 5
• Reconnecting Communities Act

A gliding frog clings to twigs in its final minutes of life. A pit viper is latched to the frog that will soon be swallowed whole. This brutal battle took place in the rainforest of Agumbe, India where photographer Pavan Kumar T S captured the moment. The resulting image (seen above) made the shortlist in the Animal category at this year’s Close-Up Photographer of the Year awards.

Photographers from around the world submitted 11,681 photographs that 25 judges assessed to create the shortlist. The top 100 pictures and winners across 11 categories will be announced in January 2025. Tracy and Dan Calder founded the Close-up Photographer of the Year in 2018 and the competition has grown to be the largest dedicated to close-up, macro and micro photography.

(Click on the images below to expand to their full, incredible glory.)

The post 16 brutal and captivating wildlife images from the Close-up Photographer of the Year shortlist appeared first on Popular Science.

Washington, D.C.-area rents grew faster than those in any other major U.S. metro area, according to a new report from Redfin. As Aaron Wiener reports in The Washington Post, median rents rose by 12 percent in the last year. The highest median rents in the nation are in San Jose, California, where median rent is $3,269. 

This varies dramatically across the D.C. region: rents rose by 23.2 percent in the suburb of Laurel, Maryland, while they only grew by 1.8 percent in the District itself. “On the supply side, D.C. is on track to exceed its share of regional housing production targets, while most suburban jurisdictions are nowhere close to meeting their targets.”

“The Redfin report found the sharpest rent declines came in the Sun Belt region, where housing demand and prices shot up during the pandemic but have since cooled amid more housing production, according to economists.” The sharpest drops were in Jacksonville, Raleigh, San Diego, Austin, and Tampa.

• Rent
• rent costs
• Housing Costs
• Housing Supply
• Housing Crisis
• Affordable Housing

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Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announced a plan to extend free public transit for 13 agencies across the state starting this November, reports Kayleigh Thomas for WWLP.

“[Healey] said it will help connect all rural communities to economic opportunities and provide seamless travel. This means providing people better access to schools, jobs, groceries, or doctor appointments.” Healey added, “You need to make sure that transit is connecting to people all across the state.”

The $30 million initiative, which is funded through at least June of 2025, is part of the 2025 state budget. The budget also includes $250 million for the Commonwealth Transportation Fund, which lets the state access more than $1 billion in federal transportation funds.

• Transportation Funding
• Free Transit
• Fare-Free Transit
• Public Transit
• Free Fare
• Transit Funding

If there’s one thing that has the potential to make a day on the slopes even more fun than craving fresh tracks or sipping a hot beverage around the fireplace in a lodge, it’s the sight of dogs happily bounding over the snow. Outfitted in their classic red vests emblazoned with the white cross of ski patrol, they often look like the happiest creatures on the hill. But don’t be fooled; these are working dogs. Avalanche dogs help locate skiers and snowboarders buried in the snow.

Many ski resorts in the western U.S. employ a four-legged workforce alongside human ski patrollers for one reason: They’re excellent at search and rescue, says President of Wasatch Backcountry Rescue (WBR) Andy Van Houten. That’s the non-profit organization that oversees the training and certification of avalanche dogs for 11 ski resorts around Utah.

And being better at finding buried skiers just outside resort boundaries or in the backcountry can mean lives saved during rescues or recovery missions (when an avalanche-buried outdoorist is presumed dead) that end quickly and give loved ones closure in hours instead of days.

Indeed, most missions these dogs go on are unfortunately recovery missions. That’s due to the nature of backcountry skiing: resorts conduct extensive avalanche mitigation efforts on their properties, but in the backcountry, avalanches are much more likely, so exploring these areas comes with much greater risk.

What’s more, backcountry areas tend to be far from resorts and require a rescue team to assemble, take a helicopter to the site, and then locate not just where the avalanche took place, but where in the snow a skier or snowboarder might be buried. That can take up to 60 minutes, Van Houten says.

Fortunately, rescue teams are quick to respond, and if there’s a dog on that team, searches can be over in minutes instead of days. During one particularly deadly avalanche season in Utah in 2018, Van Houten recalls a recovery mission where one of the well-trained dogs found a body in two and a half minutes. “Finding them with just people would have been days of work,” he explains. 

That’s because the avalanche dogs who are certified by WBR are near-perfect search machines thanks to years of training, excellent on-snow agility, and an amazing sense of smell.

Training starts when the dogs—usually labs but occasionally other working dogs like German shepherds or border collies—are puppies. They arrive at the resort they’ll call home for much of their working life in September at just 49 days old and are entrusted to a handler, a fancy name for an owner who will take charge of their training but also care for them like a beloved pet.

That first winter they’ll spend the entire season getting acclimated to resort life and all the sights, sounds, and smells that come with being a rescue dog. Handlers will ski around with puppies in their jackets, ride lifts with them, introduce them to their fellow employees and resort guests, ride in helicopters, and introduce them to the sounds of explosives, the kind required in avalanche mitigation and rescue.

By the end of the season, they’ll begin obedience training and practice drills to build their drive to search and rescue. But if that sounds serious, don’t worry, there’s plenty of play involved. In fact, Van Houten explains that puppies are taught how to find hidden humans with a game: tug of war. 

First, the dog is familiarized with human scent thanks to plenty of time with their handler. Then, in what Van Houten calls “runaway drills,” the handler gets the dog excited, tells it to stay, runs away and hides, then, when the dog is given the command “search,” they must go and find their hidden handler. When they do, they get to play a game of tug of war with a toy in the handler’s pocket.

“For the dog it’s a big game of hide and seek,” Van Houten says. The training is similar to the principle of Pavlov’s Dog and classical conditioning: once trained, they hear the word “search,” which elicits a response (in this case finding a buried human) that they know results in a reward (a game they enjoy).

As the dogs improve at the game, handlers hide further away or in deeper holes, progressing to caves dug entirely under the snow. Which is where the animals’ next advantage comes in: their sense of smell.

Dogs have a tremendously impressive sense of smell, which makes them exceptional at finding people buried in the snow. While researchers can’t seem to decide on how much more sensitive dogs’ olfactory senses are than humans, it’s safe to say they’re better at locating drugs, bombs, and humans by scent alone than their bipedal companions, and that includes in snowy environments.

That’s because humans release something called skin rafts, Van Houten explains, which are the scent portion of skin cells, at a rate of about 30-40 thousand every minute. These skin rafts are lighter than air, so they percolate up through the snow and collect on top of it in a sort of pool, he continues. As long as handlers can get their dogs into the scent zone, the dog will ping pong around the area until they find the center of it, which is located directly above a buried skier.

“It’s impressive to watch,” says Van Houten. Even more impressive given how quickly dogs can move over snowy landscapes.

Indeed, dogs’ agility is what gives them their final edge. Because even if humans were capable of sniffing out these scent pools, they cannot deftly navigate deep snow, especially when paired with avalanche debris like downed trees, which is even harder to maneuver around. Even outfitted with snowshoes, it’s hard to move quickly when you’re sinking into soft powder. Dogs have little trouble bounding over and through it, as anyone who’s let their dog outside after the first snow of the season can attest to. 

As a bonus, dogs don’t require layers and layers of protective equipment or specialized gear like people do; they are durable and well-equipped for harsh weather. “This all makes them the ultimate avalanche rescue tool for those who don’t have a beacon,” Van Houten says.

Of course, if you’re heading into the mountains in the backcountry in the winter, whether that’s on skis, a snowboard, or on foot, don’t rely solely on these well-equipped and expertly trained animals to save your life. On the contrary, always carry a beacon, rescue tools like a probe and shovel, and consider gear outfitted with locater technology like that from RECCO. Paired with the friendliest, wet-nosed faces you’ll ever spot on the ski slopes, these will help ensure a safe and enjoyable season.

The post As winter approaches, avalanche dogs train for rescues appeared first on Popular Science.

You know the type: The outdoorsperson who treats themselves to every cool gadget known to man. It makes gift shopping for them next to impossible. Well, until this year, when you give them a pair of night-vision binoculars that take pictures and videos. Order this holiday gift now for $89.97 (reg. $159.99)—sale ends Nov. 3. 

We know it might seem like it’s too early to order gifts but think about it: These binoculars are on sale right now, so you can get ahead of the holiday shopping craze and avoid the stress of shipping delays. 

Your giftee probably already has a pair of binoculars, but these would be a major upgrade. For one, they’d be able to see in the dark like Batman—up to 1,000 feet away, precisely.

They may be sitting around a campfire, or on a midnight stroll through the woods, and hear an owl calling up in a tree. Normally, this is a sight they’d have to miss out on, but the night-vision binoculars would let them zoom in nice and close.

Even cooler, they can capture that owl in 12MP photos or 1080p videos. Everything they see with their eyeballs could be saved to the included memory card.

Yeah, this is something your giftee doesn’t have, alright. Head to checkout now to order their gift before this sale ends.

These digital binoculars might have grand features, but they can still be used like a plain old pair if need be. There’s still one big difference, though: Instead of traditional eyepieces, the viewer looks through a 2.4-inch HD screen. It’s a bit easier on the eyes when spotting birds, bucks, plants, or whatever else your giftee likes to do.

This year, give a thoughtful and practical gift. Skip right to checkout to order these binoculars for $89.97 (reg. $159.99) before the sale ends on Nov. 3 at 11:59 p.m. No coupon is needed to get this price.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

The post The gift for the outdoorsperson who already has everything appeared first on Popular Science.

• Writing Tools - Writing Tools lets you proofread, summarize, and rewrite text throughout the operating system.


• Siri - Siri has a new look, offers Apple device product knowledge, there's a Type to ‌Siri‌ feature, and ‌Siri‌ is able to maintain contexts between requests and understand when you stumble over your words.


• Smart Replies - In Mail and Messages, Apple can suggest replies to incoming messages.


• Summaries - ‌Apple Intelligence‌ can summarize email messages and notifications so you can see what's important at a glance. You can also get summaries of transcriptions in the Notes app, and websites in Safari.


• Photos - Memory Maker lets you create custom slideshows with just a description, natural language search is supported, and there's a Clean Up feature for removing unwanted objects from images.


• Focus - A Reduce Interruptions Focus Mode only shows you important notifications while filtering out everything else.

• Unplayed Podcasts episodes will no longer be marked as played.


• Videos recorded at 4K 60 fps and viewed in the Photos app will no longer stutter when scrubbing through the video.


• A bug that could cause digital car keys not to start or unlock a vehicle with passive unlocking after restoring from a backup or transferring from another iPhone has been fixed.


• ‌iPhone 16‌ and ‌iPhone 16‌ models should no longer unexpectedly restart.

• How to Record and Transcribe Phone Calls

• Fun new games to play


• Apps for learning new skills


• Apps to help with physics homework


• Games to compete with friends


• Cooking games for kids


• Best games in the world


• Apps with HealthKit integration


• Games with roguelike elements


• Games to play without Wi-Fi


• Apps to sell stuff


• Apps to watch movies for free

• Control Center - You can add standalone buttons for AirDrop and Satellite, plus there are Control Center controls for Measure and Level.


• Apple Music - You can share Apple Music songs directly to TikTok.


• Wallet - The Wallet app no longer shows your Savings account balance on the main Apple Card screen, and you need to tap into it to get that info.

• Podcasts - Unplayed Podcasts episodes should no longer be marked as played.


• Photos - When you're scrubbing through a 4K 60fps video in the Photos app, it will no longer stutter.


• Car keys - If you had a problem where your digital car key would not start or unlock your vehicle with passive unlocking, the update should fix it.

• Proofread text checks for spelling and grammar errors, including word choice and sentence structure. You can accept all suggestions with a tap or go through them one by one with explanations.


• Rewrite cleans up what you've written and shifts the tone without impacting your content. Options include Friendly, Professional, and Concise.


• You can select text and get a summary of it with Apple Intelligence. You can choose to create a paragraph, pull out key points, make a list, or create a table. Summaries are available in Mail, Messages, and more.

• There's a new glow around the edges of the display when Siri is activated, applicable to ‌iPhone‌, ‌iPad‌, and CarPlay. On Mac, the ‌Siri‌ window can be placed anywhere. The glow animates responsively to the sound of your voice so you can tell when ‌Siri‌ is listening without interrupting other things you're doing.


• A double tap at the bottom of the display brings up the Type to ‌Siri‌ interface so you can type requests instead of speaking them. On Mac, you need to press the Command key twice to bring up Type to ‌Siri‌. Type to ‌Siri‌ includes suggested requests so you can get your questions answered faster.


• ‌Siri‌ can maintain context between requests so you can ask a question and then reference it in a second reply. If you ask about the temperature in Raleigh, for example, and then follow up with "what's the humidity?" ‌Siri‌ should know you mean in Raleigh.


• If you stumble over your words when speaking to ‌Siri‌, or change what you're saying mid-sentence, ‌Siri‌ will follow along.


• ‌Siri‌ has Apple's product knowledge and support base for answering questions about your device's features and settings, and can even find settings when you don't know the exact name by using natural language search.

• There is a summarize button for summarizing any of your incoming emails, plus you will see a brief summary of an email in your inbox list rather than the first few lines of the email.


• Mail surfaces time sensitive messages first when applicable, putting them at the top of your inbox so you see what's important right away.


• Smart Reply provides quick-tap responses to emails that you've been sent, with contextual options based on what's in the email.


• Multiple notifications from Mail will be summarized on your Lock Screen so you can see what's in an email without opening the app.

• Messages has Smart Reply options for incoming texts, which analyze the content of messages to offer suggestions of what you might want to say.


• Multiple Messages notifications are summarized on your Lock Screen.


• You can use all of the Writing Tools features in the Messages app for proofreading and refining what you're planning to send.

• You can create a Memory Movie with just a description, such as "My cat in 2024," or "Orlando in the summer." The feature automatically picks relevant photos and chooses songs, but you can tweak through the Memory Mixes feature or choose a mood to guide the direction of the audio. You can also add in specific scenes and images you want to see throughout the memory when you're creating the prompt.


• Natural language search is available in Photos, so you can just describe what you're looking for, such as "Eric rollerskating while wearing green."


• Search can also find specific moments in video clips.


• Search offers up smart complete suggestions for narrowing down what you might want to find.

• All ‌iPhone 16‌ models


• iPhone 15 Pro and ‌iPhone 15‌ Pro Max


• All Apple silicon iPads


• A17 Pro iPad mini


• All Apple silicon Macs