The rarest bird in the world — a species of duck called the Madagascar pochard — has been given a new home in time for the new year. From a report: An international team of researchers released 21 of the birds at a lake in the north of Madagascar. It is a step towards the…

A super-material that’s non-toxic, highly flame resistant, and a good enough insulator, you can literally hold fire in your hand? Our interest was definitely caught by [NightHawkInLight] and his recent video about Starlite, embedded below the break. Starlite was the brainchild of English hairdresser, [Marice Ward]. The famous demo was an egg, coated in Starlite,…

Corn and soybean crops have been good to farmers in the American Midwest and Plains. But these staple crops have taken a toll on the very earth they draw nourishment from. Now, a new generation of farmers is looking underground to try to replenish their soils in a way that both restores nutrients and reduces…

New York City police will deploy a camera-equipped drone above Times Square, along with new “counter-drone technology” blocking other devices from the area, where they expect as many as 2 million New Year’s Eve revelers. From a report: The drone technology is the newest innovation developed by the largest U.S. police department as it prepares…

Most displays are looking to play things faster. We’ve got movies at 60 frames per second, and gaming displays that run at 144 fps. But what about moving in the other direction? [Bryan Boyer] wanted to try this out, so he built the VSMP, or Very Slow Movie Player. It’s a neat device that plays…

An anonymous reader shared a report: Sam Schreiber was mid-shampoo at a Drybar blow-dry salon in Los Angeles when someone from the front desk approached her stylist with an emergency: a woman was trying to pay for her blow-out with cash. “There was this beat of silence,” says Ms. Schreiber, 33 years old. “She literally…

Expansion aims to expand reach of its speedy two-hour grocery delivery service. …read more Source:: CNet

Here’s an analysis by OverOps on how shared accountability affects the delivery of reliable software in a DevOps environment, and what are some of the top challenges teams face when it comes to building and maintaining quality applications. Conclusion from the report [PDF], which relies on a survey of over 2,000 IT professionals around the…

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will visit a tiny and mysterious object in the Kuiper belt on Tuesday, seeking clues to the formation of our cosmic neighborhood. From a report: In June 1983, newspaper headlines declared that NASA’s Pioneer 10 spacecraft had left the solar system, crossing beyond the orbit of Neptune. It was the common…

In his year-end letter, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates says his to-do list for 2019 includes persuading U.S. leaders to regain America’s leading role in nuclear energy research and embrace advanced nuclear technologies such as the concept being advanced by his own TerraPower venture. From a report: “The world needs to be working on lots of…