TRB's “Tell Us ‘Our’ Story" challenge is now looking into the future. What impact do you hope to have on the world and how is the Transportation Research Board helping you make that impact? What is your vision for the Transportation Research Board 100 years from now? What are solutions that you have identified as a result of research you learned about through TRB? TRB welcomes all stories: small or large, profound or light-hearted, sobering or humorous. In addition to posting responses to these questions...

TRB's “Tell Us ‘Our’ Story" challenge is now looking into the future. What impact do you hope to have on the world and how is the Transportation Research Board helping you make that impact? What is your vision for the Transportation Research Board 100 years from now? What are solutions that you have identified as a result of research you learned about through TRB? TRB welcomes all stories: small or large, profound or light-hearted, sobering or humorous. In addition to posting responses to these questions...

One of the most important tips for protecting yourself from COVID-19 is to wash your hands for 20 seconds, or as long as it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” twice. British teen William Gibson decided he wanted the public to have more song options while fighting the spread of coronavirus.

Gibson created an online tool that allows a user to enter the title of their chosen song and artist to automatically generate a poster. The poster matches lyrics from the song to a 13-step washing routine. The UK’s NHS Health Secretary Matt Hancock has publically praised Gibson’s initiative as the posters have been shared extensively on social media. Gibson thought it would be popular, but has still been surprised to see some of his favorite celebrities posting about it. Visit the Wash Your Lyrics website to create your own poster for washing hands with your favorite song.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, face masks have been in high demand. One company decided to take an eco-friendly approach to manufacturing and supplying the public with protective masks. The Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) partnered with the sustainable sportswear company Rash’r to turn plastic pollution found in the ocean into face masks.

All proceeds from the masks go directly back into the manufacturing of more masks to help recycle plastics from the ocean. The masks feature a number of ocean-themed designs and include special sizes for kids. The company has received more than 15,000 mask pre-orders in just a few weeks—which has helped recycle more than 1,300 pounds (590 kg) of ocean pollution. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends that people wear cloth face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in public places. The masks made by PADI offer a sustainable alternative to the N95 respirator masks being reserved for health care workers.

Scientists published the first assessment of the impact that invasive hippos imported by drug lord Pablo Escobar are having on Colombian aquatic ecosystems. The hippos are changing the area's water quality by importing large amounts of nutrients and organic material from the surrounding landscape.

I'm lucky enough to own a decades old Nintendo 64 and a handful of games, including the classic Mario 64. My kids love that game. Still, the first thing they asked when I showed it to them the first time is why the screen was letterboxed, why the characters looked like they were made of lego blocks, and why I needed weird cords to plug it all into the flat screen television. The answer to these spoiled monsters' questions, of course, is that the game is super old and wasn't meant to be played on modern televisions. It's the story of a lot of older games, though many PC games at least have a healthy modding community that will take classics and get them working on present day hardware. Consoles don't have that luxury.

Well, usually, that is. It turns out that enough folks were interested in modernizing Mario 64 that a group of fans managed to pull off porting it to PC. And, because this is a port and not emulation, they managed to update it to run in 4k graphics and added a ton of modern visual effects.

Last year, Super Mario 64's N64 code was reverse-engineered by fans, allowing for all kinds of new and exciting things to be done with Nintendo’s 1996 classic. Like building a completely new PC port of the game, which can run in 4K and ultra-wide resolutions.

This is a very new and cool thing! Previously, if you were playing Super Mario 64 on PC, you were playing via emulation, as your PC ran code pretending to be an N64. This game is made specifically for the PC, built from the ground up, meaning it not only runs like a dream, but even supports mod stuff like ReShade, allowing for graphical tweaks (like the distance blur seen here).

As you'll see, the video the Kotaku post is referencing can't be embedded here because Nintendo already took it down. Instead, I'll use another video that hasn't been taken down at the time of this writing, so you can see just how great this looks.

In addition to videos of the project, Nintendo has also been busy firing off legal salvos to get download links for the PC port of the game taken down from wherever it can find them. Now, while Nintendo's reputation for IP protectionism is such that it would almost certainly take this fan project down under virtually any circumstances, it is also worth noting that the company has a planned re-release of Mario 64 for its latest Nintendo console. That likely only supercharged the speed with which it is trying to disappear this labor of love from fans of an antiquated game that have since moved on to gaming on their PCs.

But why should the company do this? Nintendo consoles are known for many things, including user-friendly gaming and colorful games geared generally towards younger audiences. You know, exactly not the people who would take it on themselves to get an old Mario game working on their PC instead of a Nintendo console. What threat does this PC port from fans represent to Nintendo revenue? It's hard to imagine that threat is anything substantial.

And, yet, here we are anyway. Nintendo, after all, doesn't seem to be able to help itself.

Interior decoration is a tremendously crucial element of any kind of dining establishment. If you are in the planning stages of opening up a dining establishment, if you already own one and also are thinking about making adjustments, you will… Continue Reading →

Disney has announced that it will be producing a new Robin Hood movie.

Yes, that Robin Hood.

read more

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders says he wants to offer tuition free at public colleges and universities, paid for with a new tax on Wall Street. Ed Schultz and Sanders discuss the senator’s proposal. Continue reading →

An Offer in Compromise is an agreement between the taxpayer and the government that settles a tax liability for payment of less than the full amount owed. The Internal Revenue Service will generally accept an Offer in Compromise when it … Continue reading →

NEWS 8 IS YOUR LOCAL ELECTION HEADQUARTERS…. AND TONIGHT…VOODOO ECONOMICS! CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT MARK DAVIS TELLING US HOW REPEALING THE STATE INCOME TAX IS THE LATEST HEATED TOPIC BETWEEN THE CANIDATES FOR GOVERNOR.   DEMOCRAT NED LAMONT IS OPENING A … Continue reading →

IBM today announced it is now offering ThinkData Works’ open data solution on IBM’s platform-as-a-service, Bluemix, to give application developers access to clean, open data from all levels of government in Canada.

I'm relatively new to the world of Instructional Design and the development of eLearning material, but I've had a LOT of experience as a trainee. Much of that experience has been pretty painful (this should be no surprise to anyone). If you, as an Instructional Designer or course developer, want to keep me engaged in […]

IBM Research scientists have achieved a new world record in tape storage – their fifth since 2006. The new record of 201 Gb/in2 (gigabits per square inch) in areal density was achieved on a prototype sputtered magnetic tape developed by Sony Storage Media Solutions. The scientists presented the achievement today at the 28th Magnetic Recording Conference (TMRC 2017) here.

Stacy and Angela painted the alphabet on the wall of their living room, hung lights, and it looks amazing. I built a web app that lets you compose and deliver a creepy message to a friend!

I put together a web app to send messages in semaphore, an archaic flag-based alphabet system.

In my ice-making adventures, I stumbled across these Ikea bowls which have a nearly spherical shape. They are great for making ice balls!

IBM has provided extra high performance computing (HPC) capacity to the Universities of Auckland and Otago within a new collaboration called the New Zealand eScience Infrastructure (NeSI) that makes large-scale scientific computing more widely available to New Zealand researchers.

IBM announced today it is making up to €2.2 billion ($3 billion) available to finance IT initiatives in key economic stimulus projects in Europe and Asia-Pacific through IBM Global Financing, IBM’s lending and leasing business segment. Today’s announcement follows the availability of up to €1.5 billion ($2 billion) announced by IBM on April 30 to help jump start US economic stimulus programs.

IBM announced today it is providing IBM Business Partners worldwide with $4 billion in financing for credit-qualified clients over a period of 12 months. This financing, through IBM Global Financing, can make obtaining credit easier and more accessible to enable IBM's global partner ecosystem and their clients to acquire advanced technologies such as cloud, analytics and PureSystems. As part of today's news, IBM is also launching a new mobile app as another step to simplify the way IBM's Business Partners can apply for and secure financing for their clients within minutes via any mobile device -- anytime, anywhere.

SAO PAULO and ARMONK, N.Y., Dec. 27, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- The city government and IBM (NYSE: IBM) signed an agreement to build a public information management center for Rio de Janeiro. The Rio Operations Center, which will be located in Cidade Nova, will integrate and interconnect information from multiple government departments and public agencies in the municipality to improve city safety and responsiveness to various types of incidents, such as flash floods and landslides.

Glimpses through Ginny Weasley's mind during the last months of her fifth years at Hogwarts. Missing scenes from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Co-founder and designer Erik Haldi discusses the company's first Star Wars enamel pin: Luke Skywalker on his tauntaun.

It used to be that people who owned a lot of things could protect themselves and their things by...

Designer Mathieu Caron, who has designed and manufactured outfits for figure skaters Tessa Virtue and Shoma Uno, is launching a line of high-end designer masks during the coronavirus pandemic.

I’ve been working a regular, 40-hour week since December now. Before that, I had Fridays “off”–I worked on client work, yes, but I also ran all the errands and did all the chores, leaving me both weekend days pretty much to myself.   What I’ve discovered, in the past three months, is that I resent […]

Line 1 is over capacity—adding more stops isn't the solution.

We need to talk about this idea to extend the Yonge line up to Richmond Hill. The Yonge line is already congested. Anyone who rides the subway regularly is aware of this. The immediate plans to address it are, shall we say, unimpressive. The Yonge Relief Network Study done in 2015 for Metrolinx [PDF] focused […]

The post Extending the Yonge line will only make crowding worse appeared first on Torontoist.

Hi all.  Check out some of the really great party ideas some of you have added to my last post.  Watch the What’s New on the homepage.  Soon we’ll be doing some of them.  Continue to send me your party ideas – you guys rock. I have a challenge for you – how many NEW friends can […]

When this website was focused on post apocalyptic survival one of the topics I mentioned was how to create a “bug out bag”. These are ready made emergency packs that you would grab when staying in your home was not an option. A bug out bag or emergency bag can be used for more then the possible collapse of civilization as we know it. In the event of a natural disaster, or if your stranded in the middle of nowhere, having an emergency supply of necessities can save your life.

When it comes to getting your site indexed and noticed by search engines everyone unless you’re absolutely brand new to the internet knows that in order to get noticed you need other sites linking back to yours. One method you might not be aware of is to use a link wheel. So What is a link wheel? Unlike the traditional back link or reciprocal links from other sites, a link wheel is a collection of web 2.0 sites that you create. Link wheels can range in size from a small handful to several dozen, and each site has relevant content to either your main website or blog, or to a specific page you’re trying to promote within your main site. In short your link sites are being used to give your website more authority and trust for a specific topic. This in tern gives you a better SERP or search engine ranking position. It also helps drive targeted traffic to your website.

Most of the popular social book marking or networking sites have some form of social media share button. A little button that with one click allows you to share an article, video or web page on there site, in the hopes that it goes viral and gets you a tonne of hits. And while these buttons are usually easy to install, most sites only have either a limited number of choices, or a one size fits all approach. This is fine if you like what they offer, but if you want something that fits better with the theme and look of your website you have to do a bit of digging around.

When it comes to bug out bags one of the biggest overlooked areas is how to making a hygiene kit. Personally I find it strange considering cleanliness is a huge factor in overcoming a disaster or when the SHTF. The obvious reason is keeping clean helps keep away infection. It also plays a big role in morale; I mean who the hell wants to feel grubby and greasy for weeks on end? I know I don’t and I’m willing to bet you don’t either...................... While making a bug out hygiene kit isn’t complicated it still takes some planning to figure out what you’re going to need. So with that being said here are some things that I pack in my bug out bag so you can get some ideas of what to put in yours.

Everyone who knows anything about SEO (Search engine optimization) can’t stress enough the importance of trying to increase traffic to your website by ranking well in the search engines. I mean let’s face it if your site isn’t optimized your not going to get very much traffic, and those dreams of getting all the people in the world to visit your site isn’t going to happen. But while SEO is important to your site, there’s something else you should be doing as well and that’s SMO............

Making money online, it seems every day more people are looking ways to make money online either to boost their income as a secondary source of income, or as a full time job. But if you’re relatively new to this how do you make money online? I put together a list of 20 different ways you can make money on the internet. I’ve broken these down into two groups, ways you can make money without a website or blog, and ways you can with a website. These ideas aren’t listed in any order of importance as some of them will work better for you then others.

Knowing how to start a fire without matches is an important skill you need to know. Personally I recommend you never venture into the woods be it a camping or hiking trip without a means to start a fire, such as a magnesium fire starter, or wind and waterproof matches. That being said, in a disaster or emergency situation you might not have access to those emergency supplies you have stored in your bug out bag or emergency survival kit.......................

1. Dodging the flu shot doesn't make you an anti-vaxxer, says union  The Age
2. Shop owners in virus-free towns plead to reopen  The Age
3. UFC 249 preview - Ferguson v Gaethje, Cejudo v Cruz and…  BT Sport
4. Why the best team won't win in a year that will be mental as anything  Sydney Morning Herald
5. Wellbeing hit: modelling reveals huge cost of school closures  Sydney Morning Herald
6. View Full coverage on Google News

1. Barbaro family makes emotional plea as manhunt continues following death of Melbourne mum  9News
2. Ellie Price’s murder investigation ramps up as police from three states unite in manhunt for Ricardo Barbaro  7NEWS.com.au
3. 'Please come forward': Fugitive's step mum pleads for Ricardo Barbaro to make contact  The Age
4. Ricardo Barbaro’s stepmother pleads ‘please come forward’ as police continue manhunt  NEWS.com.au
5. Fugitive suspected of murdering Ellie Price, 26, in Melbourne had just got out of jail  Daily Mail
6. View Full coverage on Google News

Fake the look of additional space by subtraction! READ MORE...

"New England nautical vintage cottage" is the soothing style we all need right now. READ MORE...

John Sullivan, deputy chief of the Worcester Fire Department/vice chair of the IAFC health and safety section, discusses why it's so important for firefighters to get physical exams each year.  The average age of a first heart attack for the general