Mexico City, one of the cities hosting the 2026 World Cup across the North American continent, is investing in improving public transit and security in the city ahead of the event.

According to an article by Alex Vasquez in Bloomberg CityLab, the city is increasing its mobility budget by 186 percent compared to 2024 and could make a record-high investment in its subway system. “The public works budget will increase 12.5% ​​to 13.5 billion pesos, and includes investments in the historic Tlalpan causeway to facilitate access to the games,” said finance minister Juan Pablo de Botton.

“The public works budget will also be spent on facilities known as ‘utopias,’ while the mobility budget also includes three additional Cablebus lines and a separate bus line.” The ‘utopias,’ public spaces that offer free amenities and activities in underserved communities, are the brainchild of Mexico City mayor Clara Brugada.

• Mexico City
• Mobility
• World Cup
• Public Transit

A new California law taking effect January 1 will offer renters at risk of eviction some respite, reports Felicia Mello for CALmatters.

Researchers estimate that roughly 40 percent of California tenants who face eviction lose their cases for not responding quickly enough. “The law doubles the time tenants have to respond after receiving an eviction notice from five business days to ten. Lawyers who work with renters say that what may seem like a minor procedural change could make a big difference in allowing people to stay in their homes.”

As Mello explains, “Access to legal services varies widely across California. San Francisco guarantees legal representation to any tenant facing eviction, and in other cities like Oakland and Los Angeles, robust networks of pro-bono lawyers help renters file responses. But Californians who live in so-called ‘legal deserts’ – often in rural areas – must travel many miles to meet with an attorney.” Nationwide, less than 5 percent of renters facing eviction have legal aid. Meanwhile, roughly 80 percent of landlords have legal representation.

• Eviction
• Renters rights
• Eviction Protections
• Tenants Rights
• Housing Costs

Stay tuned. pic.twitter.com/ph7k2Wh75G

A group of tribal communities in Washington state is suing to stop a massive wind energy project, “alleging that the decision-making process sidestepped state law and failed to mitigate potential damage to the tribe’s treaty-protected natural and cultural resources.”

As Natalia Mesa explains in High Country News, the project, which includes three solar arrays and over 200 wind turbines, extends into Yakama ceremonial sites and historically and culturally important areas. “Development would also impact the natural habitat of pronghorn and ferruginous hawks, a threatened species featured prominently in Yakama Nation ceremonies.”

The proposal has gone through several iterations after the state’s Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC) recommended that the developer downsize the project and take steps to mitigate any potential harms. “Tri-Cities C.A.R.E.S., a group of homeowners, and Benton County also filed lawsuits. The lawsuits are separate but similar, and they cite different concerns: Tri-Cities C.A.R.E.S. sued mainly to protect homeowners’ viewshed and property values, while Benton County contends that the project would significantly disrupt the area’s agricultural industry.”

The controversy highlights a flaw in the state’s permitting system, which doesn’t call for public and tribal consultation until after a project proposal is submitted. “Audubon, tribes and other stakeholders are currently in talks with developers and state officials, pushing for a new approach that requires consultation with tribes and local governments before projects are approved. Instead of having developers submit plans, tribal nations and local governments would establish “build-ready” sites — sites that are pre-vetted for clean energy buildout.”

• horse heaven hills
• Wind Energy
• Wind Power
• Renewable Energy
• tribal communities
• Native Americans
• Energy Production
• Cultural Resources

To keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, we need to cut emissions in half by 2035—even as we will likely hit another record for burning fossil fuels this year. Still, the brilliant engineering demonstrated in this year’s winning projects provides hope that we can rise to the challenge. A new kind of thermal battery will allow us to decarbonize the heat that powers the industrial processes behind everything from cement to chemicals. Newly inexpensive lasers are helping turn ore into pure iron for steelmaking using renewable electricity. Food challenges have generated different types of innovation: Instead of hauling agricultural waste to decompose in the dump, why not create a harvester-style robot that can process it into carbon-sequestering, soil-enriching biochar? To fight pests, a technique called mRNA interference allows bioengineers to create a precision poison for a particularly troublesome beetle. The most miraculous achievement in food this year may be an AI-formulated vegan cheese that is actually delicious.

(Editor’s Note: This is a section from Popular Science’s 37th annual Best of What’s New awards. Be sure to read the full list of the 50 greatest innovations of 2024.)

Though wind and solar costs are falling, battery costs remain a lingering roadblock to decarbonizing the economy. After all, the sun is not always shining, and the wind is not always blowing. This issue is particularly problematic for heavy industries like cement, steel, glass, and chemical production, which require very high temperatures and typically keep furnaces running 24/7. Burning fossil fuels to produce heat for heavy industry accounts for about 17% of the world’s CO2 emissions.

An impressive solution to this problem is the Joule Hive, a 21st-century application of a technology that dates back to the Bronze Age: firebricks, which store heat in insulated structures. The Joule Hive uses clean electricity to maintain temperatures as high as 3,270 degrees Fahrenheit in a shipping container-sized box full of hot ceramic bricks. Channels in the box dole out heat to factory processes via a cold air stream, which the Joule Hive heats up to near-flame temperatures. Nearly ten years of research at MIT resulted in tweaking metal oxides to perform as the Joule Hive firebricks. These bricks consist of certain compounds that are electrically conductive interspersed with others that provide insulation to contain the heat. 

Unlike your old toaster, in which electricity combines with oxidation from the air to eventually burn out the heating element, the Joule Hive firebricks are already oxidized. This high-tech take on ancient technology lets the Joule Hive reach higher temperatures and requires less maintenance than competitors. A recent Stanford study found that if deployed widely around the world, firebricks heated via renewable electricity could eliminate 90% of the fossil fuels heavy industry burns for heat. For its first commercial-scale installation, ETS will deploy a Joule Hive at San Antonio’s Southwest Research Institute in 2025.

Nine of the ten companies that have removed the most carbon from the environment use modern versions of an ancient method known as biochar. Heating wood scraps or particularly dense agricultural waste like nutshells in oxygen-deprived environments—a process called pyrolysis—turns the biomass into black carbon, also called biochar, that bacteria and fungi cannot further decompose. But there’s a scale-up problem: There simply isn’t enough dense wood waste to sequester billions of tons of carbon.

Applied Carbon’s breakthrough was to develop a new pyrolyzing chamber that can handle the prodigious waste left after corn, wheat, and sugar harvests, even though the piles of stalks, husks, and leaves are not very dense. The Applied Carbon robot pyrolizes the waste in the field, producing synthesis gas as a helpful co-product that the robot scrubs and then burns to help maintain temperatures over 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit in the chamber. Making the biochar in the same field where it will be deposited saves additional emissions and costs of driving the material to a central facility and back. Over the summer, the company deployed four robots into corn fields in the Texas panhandle to process the waste into biochar and sell carbon credits. 

In the long term, the company plans to sell or lease larger versions of the robots, estimating that waste from the world’s row plants can sequester roughly 2 billion tons of CO2 as biochar each year. Co-founder Jason Aramburu half-jokingly likens his future vehicles to the Jawa crawlers from Star Wars—ones that scavenge for stalks and corncobs instead of dead robots.

The Colorado potato beetle is one of the most rapacious and pesticide-resistant bugs, feasting on tomatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, and, of course, spuds. The bug has developed resistance to dozens of chemicals and causes about $500 million in annual crop damage worldwide. Rather than escalate the arms race of stronger and higher-dose chemicals to kill it, Calantha, created by GreenLight Biosciences, is a precision poison guided to interfere with the reproduction of crucial proteins in the beetle’s body.  The precision-targeted pesticide is highly effective. Even better, the researchers at GreenLight Biosciences combed through bioinformatic databases to find just the right gene to disrupt to avoid collateral damage to honeybees and other harmless species.

An application of work that won the Nobel Prize in 2006, Calantha consists of double-stranded RNA that farmers can “drop in” to conventional sprayers, like a typical pesticide. The beetle ingests the RNA, triggering interference by binding to messenger RNA instructions for a gene called PSMB5, which is critical for the elimination of damaged proteins. These mRNAs are then targeted for degradation in the gut cells of the beetle, causing damaged proteins to build up to fatal levels in the insect.

Despite its success, Calantha is not immune to the threat of beetles evolving an immunity, so GreenLight recommends that farmers rotate Calantha with conventional pesticides. Still, the company is betting that any technology that reduces chemical use will be a major driver of consumer acceptance. Calantha has sold out its first two batches and now has taken over 10% of the market for potato beetle pesticide. 

Cheese has a worse greenhouse gas footprint than pork or chicken, but until now, vegan makers haven’t been able to crack the code for flavor, texture, and overall deliciousness. To tackle this, California-based Climax Foods built a training set of metrics for cheese characteristics such as scent and stretchability. Then, they used AI and educated guesswork by cheesemakers to develop plant-based formulations that hit the same benchmarks as dairy cheese. 

Michelin-starred chef Dominique Crenn said the resulting blue cheese, with top ingredients of pumpkin seeds, hemp protein powder, lima beans, and coconut oil, is “beyond imagination for a vegan cheese.” Climax became the first ever vegan cheesemaker to win a prestigious Good Food award—though dairy complaints caused the prize to be rescinded at the last minute, with shades of the protectionist, legal skulduggery faced by non-dairy milk products.  

For now, Climax is trying to scale up to capitalize on the good press, though it has faced furloughs while seeking additional investment “runway.” The company has a licensing agreement with the “Laughing Cow” maker Bel Group and a second, still-unnamed producer. In the meantime, the blue cheese is available online and at select restaurants in California, New York City, and Las Vegas. 

In 1985, a 1-watt laser cost about $1 million. Today, a laser of that same size costs just $1. Oakland-based Limelight Steel is capitalizing on this “Moore’s Law of lasers” to re-invent iron ore processing for steel to reduce emissions. After all, 75% of the world’s steelmaking industry still uses coal-fired blast furnaces, and the industry as a whole accounts for about 8% of global emissions. The Limelight Steel process directs laser light via mirrors and lenses onto the surface of ore, raising it to temperatures above 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit. The proprietary set of conditions created by the lasers breaks the bonds between iron and oxygen in the ore without needing carbon or expensive green hydrogen to act like a bouncer that carries the unwanted oxygen away. Limelight then follows standard steelmaking techniques to create a slag of impurities at the top of the brew, allowing dense pure iron to flow out through a channel below. Finally, steelmakers alloy the pure iron with small amounts of carbon and other elements to make different grades of steel. 

CTO and co-founder Andy Zhao says the lasers approach 70-80% efficiency in converting electricity into light energy. When powered by renewable electricity, the process produces 95% fewer emissions than traditional steelmaking. Having used a $2.9 million grant from ARPA-E to demonstrate proof of concept, Limelight is now planning a pilot-scale plant in 2025 capable of producing 100 tons annually.

The post 5 coolest engineering innovations of 2024 appeared first on Popular Science.

A database from the Eno Center for Transportation outlines each U.S. president’s transportation innovations, beginning with George Washington’s transportation safety efforts and ending with Dwight D. Eisenhower’s massive freeway building project.

Best known for his presidency during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was also a strong supporter of railroads, a nascent technology at the time. “Although President Lincoln was assassinated before the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific joined in Utah, he would be seen as the “Great Uniter” who not only kept the Union together, but also connected the two coasts by rail, cutting travel time from several months to less than a week.”

During the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs funded major construction projects around the country, setting up an early blueprint for the interstate highway system.

See the source article for the full list.

• Transportation History
• Transportation Policy
• Federal Transportation Policy

Would you believe that, in three weeks from now, you could be speaking a new language? Imagine ordering in Spanish at your favorite Mexican restaurant or being able to flirt with locals when you’re visiting France … Babbel makes it possible in only 10 minutes a day.

And we have a deal you don’t find anywhere else! With our New Year’s sale, you can get this best-selling language-learning app for $130, normally $599. But you only have through Dec. 31 when this offer expires for good.

Take your pick between 14 languages, including Spanish, French, Italian, and German, and set goals for how fluent you want to be and how much you want to practice daily. A little is certainly better than nothing, and the app will encourage you to come back every day with a learning streak (just like Snapchat).

Babbel lessons are nothing like those you had to take in high school. Start by matching words with pictures and stringing sentences together with basic grammar rules, then move on to practicing conversation skills. This is where you’ll get a chance to rehearse ordering mild (not extra hot) spicy, or get confident before approaching a French hottie.

AI-powered speech-recognition technology listens to your pronunciation, giving you the go-ahead if you’re correct or encouraging you to try again if you missed the mark. If you’re taking a lesson on the subway or a flight (with offline mode), you can opt out of speaking to avoid the obvious awkwardness.

If you practice daily, you can chat in Portuguese, Russian, or Danish in just a few weeks, though complete fluency will take years or a lifetime to achieve. 

Grab a Babbel lifetime subscription while it’s just $130 (reg. $599) until Dec. 31 at 11:59 p.m. No coupon is needed for this unbeatable offer.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

The post Last chance or you’re going to miss our unbeatable Babbel deal! appeared first on Popular Science.

Sale prices for mobile homes — historically a major source of affordable housing in the United States — are rising much faster than other types of homes, reports Jason Ma in Fortune.

“According to a study from LendingTree earlier this month, the average sale price of new mobile homes, or manufactured homes, jumped 58.3% between 2018 and 2023.” In Kansas, prices went up by 84.9 percent. The average sale price of other types of single-family homes rose by 37.7 percent in the same time frame. 

Although manufactured homes have been a steady source of affordable housing for decades, social stigma and prohibitive zoning regulations often keep them out of many neighborhoods. “Experts believe manufactured homes could be a solution to the housing crisis if federal law is amended to boost their appeal.”

• manufactured housing
• Mobile Homes
• Affordable Housing
• Housing Costs
• Homeownership

One common argument against public transit expansions into suburbia is that better transit will enable urban criminals to visit suburbia more easily and commit more crimes; a related argument is that any non-sprawl development is crimogenic because compactness allows crime to migrate from neighborhood to neighborhood more easily.  The commonsense response to this argument is that there is no correlation between crime and transit use or density; the nation’s most dangerous cities are not the most transit-friendly or those with the best public transit.  For example, Boston (over 13,000 residents per square mile, 25 percent of commuters using public transit) had 4.7 murders per 100,000 residents and Oklahoma City (1145 people per square mile, 1 percent of workers using public transit) had 6.4. New York City had fewer murders than either city (4.3 per 100,000).

When I point these facts out, the common response I get runs something like this: “Yes, but [my spread-out Sun Belt city) only has its crime in a few bad neighborhoods, while cities like New York have crime everywhere”. Until recently, there was no way to judge the validity of this argument.

However, thanks to the creators of the American Violence (americanviolence.org) website, we do have a way to judge this argument to some extent.  The American Violence site lists homicides, fatal shootings, and nonfatal shootings for many American cities, and even has data by census tract for shootings (though not for homicides or other crimes).  So we can see whether shootings were more concentrated in a few neighborhoods for any particular type of city.

For example, Boston had 90 nonfatal shootings in 2023.* If crime was evenly spread out throughout Boston’s neighborhoods, we would find that each of these shootings was in a different tract.  On the other hand, if crime was all in one neighborhood, we would find that every single shooting was in one census tract.  As it happens, there were shootings in 42 of Boston’s census tracts (21 percent of its 207 tracts).  The worst 10 percent of these tracts (that is, the four with the most shootings) collectively had 29, or 32 percent of the city’s shootings.  The worst 20 percent (the eight with the most shootings) had 42, or 47 percent of the shootings. 

How does this compare to (for example) Oklahoma City?** Oklahoma City had 128 shootings, which occurred in 64 of the city’s tracts. The worst 10 percent (that is, the six tracts with the highest number of shootings) had 26 shootings, or 21 percent of the shootings.  The worst 20 percent (that is, the worst thirteen) had 53, or 40 percent.  In other words, shootings were actually slightly more spread out in Oklahoma City than in Boston- that is, the neighborhoods with the most shootings had a lower percentage of shootings than in Boston.

Similarly, Tulsa 100 or so miles away had 86 nonfatal shootings in 47 tracts.  The worst 10 percent of tracts (five tracts) had 22 shootings, or 26 percent- a number somewhere in between Oklahoma City and Boston.  The worst 20 percent had 38, or 44 percent of its overall shootings- also in between Oklahoma City and Boston.

Of course, Boston may be an aberration.  Is there another walkable, transit-friendly city with crime rates similar to those of Oklahoma City and Boston? San Francisco (where about 22 percent of commuters use public transit) comes to mind.  San Francisco had 79 nonfatal shootings in 45 census tracts (18 percent of its 240-odd census tracts).  However, 11 percent of those shootings were in only one census tract, and its worst four tracts (or its worst 10 percent)  had 20 shootings, or 26 percent of its shootings. In other words, San Francisco’s shootings were actually more concentrated in a few blocks than those of Oklahoma City.

What about New York City – a city with a reputation for crime worse than its actual crime rates? New York had 789 shootings in 467 census tracts (which, I note, is only about 20 percent of its tracts).  If I am counting correctly, New York had 179 shootings in its worst 46 tracts, which means its most dangerous tracts had 22 percent of its shootings, a number pretty comparable to that of Oklahoma City.  The worst 93 tracts (or worst 20 percent) had 305, or 38 percent- a number slightly below that of Oklahoma City, but not hugely below.

To sum up so far: in my three compact cities (New York, Boston, San Francisco) the worst 10 percent of tracts had between 22 and 32 percent of its nonfatal shootings.  In Tulsa and Oklahoma City, the worst 10 percent of tracts had between 21 and 26 percent of its shootings.  In other words, shootings were actually more concentrated in a few areas in the most compact cities, which sort of discredits the argument I raised above (i.e. that compact cities have crime everywhere).

So far I’ve been comparing cities that (by American standards) are relatively safe.  What about more dangerous cities?  Among the six cities that traditionally have the highest levels of density and transit use, Washington, Chicago, and Philadelphia have generally been far more crime-ridden than New York, San Francisco, or Boston.

Philadelphia had 1341 nonfatal shootings in 277 census tracts. This suggests that the greatest difference between Philadelphia and cities discussed above is that its tough areas are tougher: among census tracts with any shootings at all, the average tract in Boston, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, New York and San Francisco had between 2.2 (Boston) and 1.7 (New York) shootings.  By contrast, among census tracts with shootings in Philadelphia, the average tract had almost 5 shootings. 

Philadelphia’s worst 10 percent of tracts (that is, 28 tracts) had 453 shootings- about 34 percent of its shootings, far more than in any of the lower-crime cities discussed above.  In other words, violence in Philadelphia is actually more concentrated in a few tough areas than in any of the low-crime cities discussed above.   

Similarly, Chicago had 2513 nonfatal shootings in 523 tracts.  If I am counting correctly, the worst 10 percent (52 tracts) had about 790 shootings, or 31 percent of its shootings.  Washington had 698 nonfatal shootings in 134 census tracts. 202 of these shootings (or 29 percent) were in its thirteen most violent tracts.   

And like Philadelphia, Chicago, and Washington had about five shootings per census tract (among the subset of tracts with shootings). In sum, the three violent but compact cities had a higher percentage of its shootings in the most violent 10 percent of its tracts, compared to safer cities (whether those cities were as compact as New York or as sprawling as Oklahoma City).

How does this compare to more sprawling cities that also had lots of shootings? Is crime in those cities limited to just a few neighborhoods to a greater extent than in Washington or Chicago? Three large cities had shooting rates higher than Philadelphia and fewer than 3000 people per square mile- New Orleans, Memphis and Atlanta.  (Atlanta had 25 homicides per 100,000 residents, about the same as Philadelphia, and New Orleans and Memphis had twice that many).

In New Orleans, 118 of the 178 city’s census tracts had a shooting in 2023 and there were 450 shootings. The twelve most violent tracts had 157 shootings, or about 34 percent of the shootings.  In other words, shootings in New Orleans were about as concentrated in its worst areas as in Philadelphia.

In Memphis, there were 633 shootings in 150 census tracts, more than two-thirds of its 209 tracts. 183 of the shootings (or 29 percent) were in the most violent 10 percent of these tracts with shootings (that is, the fifteen with the most shootings)- a number comparable to that of Washington.

In Atlanta, there were 436 shootings in 113 census tracts. The most violent 10 percent of these tracts had 116 shootings, about 26 percent — slightly lower than that of Washington, but still more than in lower-crime cities. 

So to sum up: in my three high-crime sprawl cities, the most violent 10 percent of tracts had between 26 and 34 percent of the city’s shootings.  In my three high-crime compact cities, the most violent 10 percent of tracts had between 29 and 34 percent of its shootings.  So it does not appear that, among the subset of high-crime cities, shootings are any more concentrated in one group than another.

In sum, it could be argued that sprawling cities are safer because violence is more concentrated in a few bad neighborhoods than in less sprawling cities.  However, the data does not support this view.  

*I chose to focus on nonfatal shootings because they are more common than fatal shootings, which means we have more data to play with.

**I picked Oklahoma City because I saw it mentioned in a tweet comparing Boston and Oklahoma City rates.  Also, people who enjoy turning crime into a partisan issue might wish to note that Oklahoma City has had Republican mayors in recent years.

• Crime
• Sprawl
• Urban Planning

Rochester, New York adopted the “strongest possible version” of the state’s Good Cause eviction protections, reports Gino Fanelli for WXXI News.

“Prior to the vote, Council members amended the bill to exempt only those landlords who own a single rental unit– instead of those owning fewer than 10, as was initially proposed. That move matches other cities around the state that have voted to opt into Good Cause and vastly reduces the number of units exempt from Good Cause protections.”

The law caps rent increases at 10 percent and allows tenants to renew their leases except in the event of nonpayment, nuisances, and violations of a lease agreement. “Three companion bills were also approved Tuesday night: one to lead an education campaign for both tenants and landlords, one to issue a request for qualifications for an organization to study the effects of Good Cause, and another to create a taskforce to oversee the implementation of the law.”

• Rochester
• Tenants Rights
• Renters rights
• Rent
• Eviction
• Eviction Protections
• Good Cause Eviction

The end of the year typically brings with it an emotional look back at the days gone by. For archaeologists, looking back into the past is pretty much an every day thing. That said, here are 10 of the most interesting archeological findings that Popular Science covered this year. 

In January, a new genetic analysis of bone fragments from an archaeological site in central Germany found that modern humans had reached northern Europe 45,000 years ago. This new timeline means that their arrival overlapped with the Neanderthals who had been living there for several thousand years before going extinct. It also bolsters the theory that the movement of modern humans into Europe and Asia about 50,000 years ago helped drive Neanderthals into extinction. The findings were described in three separate papers published in the journals Nature and Nature Ecology and Evolution.

A team of archeologists from Italy and Switzerland found that animals buried alongside humans might have been intended to be a meal or companion in the afterlife. They also may have been part of a complex funeral rite during the Iron Age, according to their study published in February in the journal PLOS ONE.

Of the 161 people buried at the Seminario Vescovile site in Verona, Italy, 16 were buried alongside animals. Four of the people at this site were buried alongside the remains of dogs and/or horses. These animals were not commonly eaten and the presence of horses and dogs was significant to the team. Earlier Iron Age findings in France and Switzerland indicate that horses and dogs were symbolic at the time and were often present in what appears to be sacrificial rituals, funeral rites, and are frequently associated with specific deities from the time. For the team on this study, the characteristics of a plot called Burial 46 were particularly interesting.

“It includes the complete skeleton of a horse positioned above a woman, along with the cranium of a dog and the remains of additional horses,” Marco Milella, a co-author of the new study and anthropologist at the University of Bern in Switzerland, told Popular Science. “This discovery provides a glimpse into a remarkably complex funerary ritual. While drawing scientifically robust conclusions from just two cases is challenging, we are prompted to consider whether this occurrence is merely coincidental or indicative of a deeper pattern.”

Ancient Mayans may have made ceremonial offerings during the construction of the ballcourts that they used for sporting events. Advances in environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis helped a team of scientists detect evidence of several plants that are known for both medicinal and religious purposes. The team found evidence of four different plants that are associated with ancient Maya medicine and divination rituals. 

These microscopic fragments of ancient plants were found beneath the floor of a Mayan ballcourt in present day Mexico and collecting them was likely purposeful. The findings were described in a study published in the journal PLOS One in April.

The ball courts in this study were used for several ball games, including pok-a-tok. This combination of soccer and basketball is also undergoing a present day revival. Players likely tried to get a ball through a ring in a hoop affixed to a wall. Ballcourts were considered significant places within cities and even built near some of the largest temples, including in ancient Maya cities like Tikal in Guatemala. 

[Related: Tooth powder unlocks clues to an 800-year-old mystery of man thrown into well.]

In the spring, the largest known Roman dodecahedron went on display in England.The cast bronze object was uncovered in the village of Norton Disney in the Midlands of eastern England It is hollow at its middle and roughly the size of a clenched fist and has 12 flat faces are shaped like pentagons. At roughly three inches tall and weighing half a pound, it is one of the largest of these strange Roman objects ever discovered. 

The dodecahedron was sitting among the ruins of a Roman pit and was likely placed there about 1,700 years ago. It was found “in situ,” or deliberately placed among 4th Century CE Roman pottery in some sort of hole or quarry. More archeological excavation is needed to clarify exactly what this pit was used for.

“Roman society was full of superstition, something experienced on a daily basis,” the Norton Disney History and Archaeology Group wrote in a statement. “A potential link with local religious practice is our current working theory. More investigation is required though.”

The icy cold reaches of space is not exactly the first place to come to mind for archaeological discoveries. That didn’t stop a team from California’s Chapman University to see what they could find on the International Space Station (ISS). The team applied a traditional field strategy aboard the ISS for the first time. They applied the shovel test pit to analyze how the ever-changing “microsociety” aboard the ISS has adapted and changed over time.

Back here on Earth, these projects typically involve digging small excavations at regular intervals across a site to gather information on how artifacts are distributed, then pick particularly promising pits for more thorough study. Since there really isn’t anything to “dig” on the ISS, the team selected six locations throughout the space station and tasked astronauts to take daily photos of each space over roughly two months in 2022.

Their study published in August in the journal PLOS ONE identified 5,438 examples of “artifacts” including an augmented reality headset, Post-It notes, gloves, tools, and writing tools like Sharpie pens. While it is only an initial survey into this subject matter, it’s the first of its kind to document how humans adapt to a novel environment completely removed from what we as a species evolved to handle.

In August, a new hypothesis for where Stonehenge’s six-ton Altar Stone originated was published in the journal Nature. It likely originated 400 miles north in Scotland and not from Wales or other closer areas of southern England as scientists previously thought. This long trek points to the possibility that more advanced transportation methods and societal organization existed here about 5,000 years ago. 

The Altar Stone is about 16 feet long and 19 inches thick and sits at the center of the circle. While it is not currently standing upright like the other stones, scientists are still uncertain if it stood vertically at some point. It arrived in the area sometime around 2,500 BCE, but its exact arrival date is still a mystery.

Chemical fingerprints within the grains matched rocks from northeast Scotland and were very different from Welsh bedrock. Specifically, with the age of the zircon minerals in the stone, the team is over 95 percent certain that it came all the way from northeastern Scotland. 

At least three embalmed bodies buried with some cheese on them were discovered at an ancient burial site in Xinjiang in northwestern China. The small lumps of fermented dairy, laid around the necks of the deceased, represent the longest-aged cheese ever discovered–at roughly 3,500 years old. 

The ancient cheese was incredibly well-preserved, but a new assessment of the chunks reveals some long-obsecured knowledge about human culture and a potential path for how dairy may have spread across Asia. The findings were published in the journal Cell in September. 

A team from Chicago’s Field Museum used a CT scanner to determine Ancient Egyptian Lady Chenet-aa’s burial procedure. Lady Chenet-aa lived roughly 3,000 years ago amid the 22nd Dynasty during Egypt’s Third Intermediate Period. Soon after her death, one of the ways funerary experts prepared her for the afterlife was by constructing a cartonnage—a paper mache-like box housing a deceased person’s body. 

However, Chenet-aa’s lacks any hint of a visible seam, leaving Egyptologists to wonder for years exactly how embalmers placed her inside the casing. Field Museum senior conservator JP Brown likened the mummy and its cartonnage coffin to a model ship inside a bottle.

“It was clearly important that the inner coffin appeared whole and smooth without any external seams (unlike the outer coffin which was made of wood),” Brown explained to Popular Science. “… [and] if you look at the shape of cartonnage, the opening at the foot is too narrow for the mummy’s shoulders to fit through.”

A new genetic analysis of 14 bodies recovered from Pompeii shed doubt on some of the initial interpretations of who these people were before the cataclysmic volcanic eruption. Using a new genomic analysis, a team of scientists found that their biological sexes and family relationships don’t match up with the initial interpretations. The findings were published in November in the journal Current Biology. 

One notable example is an adult wearing a golden bracelet found holding a child. This was traditionally interpreted to be a mother and child, but the new analysis found that it was an unrelated adult male and child. Additionally, a pair believed to be sisters or mother and daughter, included one genetic male.

[Related: Focaccia likely originated in Mesopotamia, not Rome.]

The act of collecting objects may stretch at least as far back as our Neanderthal ancestry, according to relics uncovered in a cave in Iberia, Spain.

An archeological team analyzed 15 small marine fossils found in the fourth level of the Prado Vargas Cave system. While one artifact showed physical evidence of use as a hammer, the other 14 fossils displayed no obvious physical wear or utilitarian value. Additional evidence in the caves also points to the site serving as a semi-permanent Neanderthal encampment likely used for toolmaking, hunting, or perhaps even ritualistic activities.

Earlier research shows Neanderthals engaged in cultural rituals such as ornamental crafting, cave wall art, and even familial and social funeral burials. Due to these rituals, experts argue that it stands to reason the human ancestors likely participated in pastimes such as collecting items they thought were interesting or special in some way.  

In November, a team in Wyoming proposed the idea that Paleolithic North Americans likely made needles using the bones of foxes, hares, rabbits, bobcats, mountain lions, lynx, and even the now-extinct American cheetah. 

Bone needles like the ones from this study are common during this period in the North American archaeological record because sewing complex weather garments for freezing weather was a necessity in response to the cold climate shift brought on by the last ice age. There has been little direct evidence of such garments, but bone needles and the bones of the fur-bearing animals used to make pelts provide some indirect evidence of this early tailoring.

“They were complex garments fringed with the furs of red fox, hare, and cat, some of which with feet still attached as is common among modern trappers,” study co-author and Wyoming State Archaeologist Spencer Pelton told Popular Science. “They were likely comparable to similar garments worn by the Inuit, able to withstand the cold and windy conditions of Wyoming’s last Ice Age.”

The post 10 fascinating archeological discoveries of 2024 appeared first on Popular Science.

• iPhone 16 Camera Control: Everything You Need to Know


• How to Adjust Camera Control Button Pressure


• How to Prevent Accidental Camera Control Presses


• How to Adjust Double-Click Speed of Camera Control


• How to Disable Camera Control Clean Preview Mode


• How to Disable Camera Control Light Press Adjustments


• How to Lock Auto Exposure and Focus With Camera Control


• How to Use the Camera Control Button as a QR Code Scanner


• How to Use the Camera Control Button as a Magnifier


• How to Take a Selfie With the Camera Control Button


• How to Disable the Camera Control Button


• How to Customize the Action Button


• How to Switch Between Mute/Silent and Ring Mode


• How to Hide the Silent Mode Bell Icon in the Status Bar


• Adapt Your Shots in Real-Time With New Photographic Styles


• How to Adjust Photographic Styles After Shooting


• How to Capture Spatial Photos and Video


• How to Shoot Macro Photography and Video


• Edit Spatial Audio in Videos With Audio Mix


• How to Hard Reset or Force Restart All iPhone 16 Models

• How to Use 5x Optical Zoom


• Using the New ProRAW Shooting Formats


• How to Shoot 4K Video at 120 fps to Slow Down Reality

• Ultimate iOS 18 Walkthrough: Guides and How Tos for New Features


• iOS 18.1 Features: Everything New in iOS 18.1


• iOS 18.2 Features: Everything New in iOS 18.2


• Using the New iPhone Charging Limit Options for iPhone 15 and iPhone 16


• Six New Features iOS 18 Brings to the AirPods Pro

Traffic deaths in Portland, Oregon reached 69 with a pedestrian death last week, according to a report from KATU.

As the article explains, “In 2016, 42 people died in traffic accidents. In 2018, that number went down to 35 deaths after the debut of the Portland Bureau of Transportation's ‘Vision Zero Action Program.’ However, starting in 2019, the numbers began to steadily rise again.” The city saw 68 traffic deaths in 2022 and 78 in 2023, according to data from the Portland Police Bureau.

Traffic deaths continue to be a public health crisis around the country, though recent numbers show that road deaths are dipping slightly after rising sharply during and after the pandemic. 

• Portland
• Traffic Deaths
• Road Deaths
• Traffic Fatalities
• Pedestrian Deaths
• Road Safety
• Traffic Safety
• Vision Zero
• Crashes

Your VPN sucks. Well, it may have got Friends back on your Netflix, but it’s charging you a fortune in fees for something this router can do without recurring payments. You’re throwing money down the drain!

Don’t fall victim to subscription fees ever again in 2025; just hook your devices up to this VPN router like you would Wi-Fi and use its 150,000+ servers as much as you need. You’ll pay more upfront but save down the line. It’s also on sale right now—check out now to grab it for $149.97 with free shipping (reg. $219)!

This VPN router will protect you as well as the National Guard does (well, almost). Your network is completely decentralized, so your information is stored in your personal devices with military-grade encryption, unlike what your digital VPN was offering.

And, if you’re unblocking content on your streaming services, this router will even filter out ads. No more interruptions in the middle of your favorite Friends episodes or during the season finale of Yellowstone—and there’s no need to pay a fortune for subscription tiers without ads.

Ready for subscription-free protection and ad-blocking? Go directly to checkout to make this VPN router yours!

You’ll also appreciate 300Mbps speeds when you’re streaming the Olympics or gaming online, though nobody appreciates buffering when just scrolling through their phone. This VPN router allows up to five simultaneous connections and supports all device types.

A 1-year manufacturer’s warranty covers your first year of freedom from subscription fees. By then, the router will probably be paying for itself.

Head straight to checkout to get your VPN router for $149.97 with free shipping (reg. $219) ahead of the new year. Supplies are limited, and this price goes back up Dec. 29 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

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The post Your VPN is ripping you off while this router pays for itself appeared first on Popular Science.

The North Texas Regional Transportation Council is asking state legislators for funding to improve transportation infrastructure and public transit in the region, reports Eric E. Garcia for Fort Worth Report. “The council also is advocating for innovative funding methods to expand rail and transit options with the North Central Texas Council of Governments representative area. Those efforts would include requiring expenditures from a portion of the Texas Mobility Fund for regional commuter rail and Class I railroad improvements, supporting dedicated funding for transit and rail via the Texas Department of Transportation’s budget rider and allocating money to the existing Texas Rail Relocation and Improvement Fund.”

The Dallas-Forth Worth area is seeing strong ridership on the rail lines that offer service in the region. The council is calling for a statewide high-speed rail authority to help coordinate planning efforts for future HSR projects. ““The council advocates lower excessive speed limits, including automated speed enforcement over 90 mph or in construction zones, reducing aggressive driving, increased enforcement of seat belt requirements and improved messaging in construction zones.””

Meanwhile, a proposed state bill would ask voters to decide whether the Texas Department of Transportation, which is currently constitutionally obligated to spend most of its funds on highway building and expansion, should spend a larger percentage on other transportation infrastructure.

• North Texas
• Fort Worth
• Dallas
• High-Speed Rail
• Transportation Funding
• Complete Streets
• Road Safety
• Traffic Safety
• Public Transit

What steps could cities take to make multi-use greenways more user-friendly? According to Boston University lecturer Anne Lusk, adding amenities like restrooms, benches, and playgrounds can make greenways more inviting and comfortable for families and seniors, among others.

In a piece for Time, Micheline Maynard outlines Lusk’s research, which focuses on greenways and how people use them. In many cases, greenway projects are located along formerly industrial corridors with few existing shade trees. “Lusk says she would also like to see cities build more protected bike lanes on their streets leading to greenways, turning them into seamless transportation systems.”

These steps would help integrate greenways into the broader mobility options a city offers and make them a viable, functional part of the transportation network.

• Greenways
• Bike Trails
• Bike Paths
• multi-use trail
• Trails

• The development of a search engine would cost Apple "billions of dollars" and "take many years," and this would divert investment money and employees away from "other growth areas" that the company is focused on.


• The search business is "rapidly evolving" due to artificial intelligence, so it would be "economically risky" for Apple to create a search engine.


• In order to create a "viable" search engine business, Apple would be required to "sell targeted advertising," which is "not a core business" for the company and would go against its "longstanding privacy commitments."


• Apple does not have enough "specialized professionals" and "operational infrastructure" needed to build and run a successful search engine business.