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You might have seen headlines this week about the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra taking so-called “fake” moon pictures. Ever since the S20 Ultra, Samsung has had a feature called Space Zoom that marries its 10X optical zoom with massive digital zoom to reach a combined 100X zoom. In marketing shots, Samsung has shown its phone taking nearly crystal clear pictures of the moon, and users have done the same on a clear night. But a Redditor has proven that Samsung’s incredible Space Zoom is using a bit of trickery. It turns out that when taking pictures of the moon, Samsung’s AI-based Scene Optimizer does a whole lot of heavy lifting to make it look like the moon was photographed with a high-resolution telescope rather than a smartphone. So when someone takes…

Through a steady London rain on the morning of May 6, the pomp and ceremony of King Charles III’s coronation began with a ride in the Diamond Jubilee State coach. The carriage, first used in 2014 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the accession of his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, departed from Buckingham Palace at 10:20 a.m. Escorted by more than 150 members of the British armed forces and cheered on by thousands of damp but decidedly enthusiastic well-wishers, the enclosed horse-drawn coach rolled its way to Westminster Abbey. For Charles, 74, accompanied by his wife of 18 years, Queen Camilla, 75, the ride followed a carefully charted course, winding past landmarks like Trafalgar Square, the Palace of Westminster and Big Ben. At only 1.4 miles, the King’s procession…

This is a story about a dog called Ouka who loves to fly with his owner, the French adventure filmmaker Shams. It is also a story about the healing powers of humankind’s oldest friend, and their unique ability to get us back on our feet when we’re feeling low. “Ouka changed my life for sure,” Shams tells me when we talk over video call. “It’s a long story,” he adds, “but I’ll try and keep it short.” Chances are, you will have come across the pair’s flying exploits via their popular Instagram feeds @ouka.sam (174,000 followers) and @ shamsfilmmaker (39,000). They’re the kind of videos that often get shared over beers at the end of a day’s flying. In one, Shams seems to be riding Ouka, whose fluffy white hair is swept…

It’s a new year, and if you’re looking for a fresh start, you can begin with your iPhone. Just by changing a few settings you can vastly change and improve your overall user experience. Even if you’ve been using your phone for years, these often-overlooked toggles and tweaks can make your iPhone feel brand-new again. 1. SILENCE UNKNOWN CALLERS If it seems like robocalls have increased exponentially over the past year, it’s because they have. Spam callers have gotten more sophisticated and plentiful since the start of the pandemic, and they’re a regular nuisance on our iPhones. But you can put a stop to them without needing to block every number that comes in. In the Phone settings, you’ll find a toggle to silence unknown callers, which will stop your iPhone from…

DATABASE REVEALS OVER 200K PEOPLE INVOLVED IN POSTING FAKE REVIEWS ON AMAZON I actually reported some sellers attempting to buy my good review directly to Amazon. Amazon was extremely slow in actually being able to take down the vendors. The process was so painful, in fact, that I probably would never bother to do it again. I’m sure those same vendors are back up on Amazon as some other name, as Amazon does zero vetting of marketplace vendors. Amazon has serious issues with credibility and many of the Chinese vendors on their platform are very underhanded and don’t follow the Amazon Marketplace rules at all. I stopped reading anything other than the bad reviews, really. I do check the questions from time to time … but I never read the good…

Au volant d’un camping-car, une longueur supérieure à 7,00 m et un porte-à-faux important sont des facteurs à risque en cas de manœuvre en marche arrière. Dans ces conditions, la caméra de recul est une aide précieuse. Ce troisième œil, est le complément idéal de ce que vous voyez dans les rétroviseurs. Le dispositif se compose d’un émetteur (la caméra) placé à l’arrière et d’un récepteur (l’écran) placé dans le poste de conduite. Les informations (image et son) sont transmises par liaison filaire puis restituées à l’écran. Les avantages d’une telle installation sont multiples. On a une vision à l’aplomb de la face arrière et une belle perspective, tant en longueur qu’en largeur, pour manœuvrer en toute sécurité. On peut également entendre ce qui se passe grâce au micro intégré,…

I’ll admit, I was pretty skeptical before unboxing the first smartwatch from OnePlus, aptly named the OnePlus Watch. At $159, it’s less than half the price of our Editors’ Choice winner, the Apple Watch Series 6 (which starts at $399). And while it doesn’t work with iPhones, it offers many of the same features as Apple’s market-leading wearable. So far, my skepticism appears to have been unfounded. The OnePlus Watch offers a large color touch screen, built-in GPS, 2GB of storage, a 402mAh battery that promises two weeks of power, and the ability to make and receive calls. It also has plenty of health and fitness features, including support for more than 110 workout types, automatic workout detection for jogging and running, rapid-heart-rate alerts, guided breathing exercises, stress detection, and the…

After releasing the relatively affordable Studio Buds ($149.99) earlier this year, Beats is back with a new pair of noise-cancelling true wireless earphones, the Beats Fit Pro. Aptly named, the focus here is on in-ear fit security, with built-in earfins made of a pliable material that truly helps create a more secure seal in your ear. They’re also armed with active noise cancellation (ANC), and since Beats is owned by Apple, you get the company’s H1 chip, which enables features including Spatial Audio with head tracking, Adaptive EQ, hands-free Siri, and one-touch iOS pairing. The sonic performance is classic Beats, with intense bass, boosted highs, and a scooped-out midrange. The ANC is better than average, with effective low-frequency noise elimination. For the price, there’s plenty to like, but the Beats…

Pocket mice are typically associated with productivity, given their portable, lightweight designs that let you work in an airport, coffee shop, or office. The Razer Orochi V2 offers that same capability, but for gaming. It’s a small, wireless mouse, but with the sensor and software support of a Razer gaming mouse. The Orochi V2 isn’t a full-on replacement for a standard-size gaming mouse, but it’s convenient as a backup input device for your laptop bag. PROS: Lightweight. Bluetooth and 2.4GHz wireless support. Has HyperSpeed multi-device support. Supports AA and AAA batteries. Dongle storage. CONS: Can’t add a AA and AAA at the same time for max battery life. Small design is still less comfortable than a regular-sized mouse. Lacks RGB lighting. BOTTOM LINE: Featuring a lightweight design and HyperSpeed multi-device wireless support, the…

Portable mountains. The long mountainsides that line the double-track main line around the basement walls are lift-out sections up to four feet long and two feet high. The sections have a tempered hardboard base with carved extruded-foam insulation board creating the slope. The ground cover is layers of earth, rock, ground foam, and static grass. The trees are Scenic Express SuperTree material. The trees aren’t always tightly clustered, allowing bare earth and rock outcroppings to show through. The movable scenery sections provide quick access options for layout repairs and changes. Recently, when a service person had to get to an air-conditioner component, the mountainside was simply moved out of the way. Control panels. As Chris installed the switch machines in the bottom-deck staging yard, he couldn’t decide on the best place…

Fifteen years ago, on January 9, 2007, I sat on the floor of a Las Vegas Convention Center entryway and pondered the iPhone. While I was running around the Consumer Electronics Show looking at the latest LG Chocolate, Steve Jobs was over at Macworld changing the world. I’d been covering smartphones for three years by then, and they were complex gadgets for road warriors. With the iPhone, Apple simplified the smartphone and made it a must-have for everyone. This wasn’t solely about Steve Jobs’ brilliance. He struck when several other technologies were becoming available—3G for the mobile web and capacitive touch screens for finger-friendly interfaces. And he worked without the legacy-software hangovers that Microsoft, Nokia, and Palm all struggled through from the first generation of proto-smartphones. The iPhone has made a huge number…

With the Apple Watch Series 8 and the Apple Watch Ultra, Apple has introduced features designed to help women take charge of their reproductive health. Except in the United States, women are no longer in charge of their reproductive health, and there is a risk that those who now are could get hold of the data from an Apple Watch and use it against women who use these features. At the Apple Event in September, Apple introduced a feature that it said, “takes our commitment to women’s health even further.” The Apple Watch Series 8 and Apple Watch Ultra each have two temperature sensors, one on the back and one below the display. Data from these sensors is added to Apple’s existing Cycle Tracking app to indicate and track ovulation. Users…

Movavi’s goal for its video-editing software is to enable simple movie and clip creation, avoiding the sometimes needless complexity of the competition. That sounds great, but does it pan out in practice? After all, creating compelling videos often requires lots of advanced tools and capabilities. You also want a program that’s responsive and renders the final product quickly. The short answer? Yes. Movavi Video Editor Plus is one of the best we’ve seen at packing a lot of capability into a non-intimidating interface. PROS: Easy-to-understand user interface. Transitions with sound. Motion tracking and picture-in-picture tools. Chroma keying. Quick movie-creation tool. CONS: Lacks advanced trim modes and clip pre-trimming. Rendering on the slow side. Not compatible with Apple Silicon M1. BOTTOM LINE: Movavi packs a lot of video editing power into a clear, simple…

MUCH IS MADE by companies of their collective responsibility to sustainability, but at BMW a fresh call-to-action, centred on the individuals who make up its 8,000-strong UK workforce, is innovatively turning the wheels of change. This new approach started with five workers from across the BMW Group who were sent as a delegation to the One Young World global forum when it touched down in London in 2019. The summit – with representatives from every country in the world and a programme of inspirational speeches, panels, networking and workshops – lit a fire. “You have people of note: celebrities, Nobel Peace Prize winners, people who have dedicated huge parts of their lives to try and make the world more sustainable,” explains Emily Latham, BMW UK’s social media marketing manager. “I think…

With people spending more time than ever in their kitchens, they have become as fashionable as they are functional. “People want a kitchen that doesn’t look like a kitchen, but like a beautifully designed room,” says Greg Natale, a designer in Sydney. Homeowners are moving away from white and stainless-steel schemes. They’re embracing color beyond traditional nautical navy and designers are redefining the meaning of neutral, drawing references from the surroundings in unexpected ways. “Your kitchen should be the clearest expression of yourself,” asserts Matteo Gullo, head of luxury kitchen and appliance company Officine Gullo. “It shouldn’t look like anyone else’s.” IT HAD TO BE BLUE The perennial all-white kitchen has fallen out of favor, although homeowners still insist on light and bright. Designers are infusing a sense of place with splashes…

“Understated, beautiful, and comfortable while remaining authentic to the land.” This is how a Martha’s Vineyard homeowner describes the vision she had for a new house on a large, secluded tract in the peaceful up-island town of Chilmark. What began as a vacation retreat became in short order the year-round residence for her, her husband, and their three young children. “When COVID-19 put a stop to work travel for my husband and me,” she says, “we asked ourselves, ‘Why don’t we live here?’” Nestled at the end of a dirt road, the modern home settles comfortably into topography typical of the island—a combination of seascape, woods, cliffs, fields, and moor. Remarkably, about 40 percent of the island is permanently protected open space. In this environment, it’s easy to understand that fishing…

Santa Fe’s NCX: A freight you can model Q I’ve heard about a freight train the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Q operated in the early 1970s and earlier in California called the NCX. The few references I’ve seen indicate it was a hotshot intermodal train. This train sounds interesting, especially since it ran at the same time as the famous Santa Fe Super C. There’s not much information on this train on the internet, but it sounds like a good train to model. Please share anything you have. Steve Novotny, South Pasadena, Calif. A Northern California Express, or NCX, was an eastbound regular manifest running from Los Angeles to Richmond, Calif. (Although it ran north, in Santa Fe parlance, anything away from Los Angeles was considered timetable east.) Its westbound counterpart was…

The Fast Tracks turnout system is one of the more notable innovations in the hobby in the last few decades. In just a couple of hours modelers can build a turnout that’s reliable, good looking, and if you’re building more than a handful, economical. I built over 60 of them for my former Bona Vista layout, and now have almost 70 on my current BV. They’re the only turnouts I use. Over the years of building these turnouts, I came up with several tips that make their construction a bit faster and more trouble-free than they already are. But no matter if you’re building your first or your 100th, the best tip anyone could give you is to watch the construction videos on the Fast Tracks Channel on YouTube. Carefully follow the…

Bob’s recent book, Earth-Shattering (Little, Brown and Company, 2019), explores the greatest cataclysms that have shaken the universe. It may seem cruel and unusual that days get shorter the moment summer begins. But this expansion of night is ideal for exploring the shadowy topic of darkness. Actually, the only convenient way to experience full darkness is to lock yourself in a closet. The night certainly isn’t black; even in the most rural regions, the heavens aren’t truly dark. The source of this illumination is the sky itself. The name for the sky’s natural fluore-scence is airglow. It was discovered by Swedish physicist Anders Ångström in 1868, and it’s caused by incoming solar particles exciting our atmosphere’s gases to produce an effect like constant miniature, widespread aurorae. This background glow varies greatly, but can…

Groundhandling. Pull up, stabilise, turn around, tilt the wing to one side, collapse it, control it, move with it, stay centred, move forwards, feel the wind, balance on one foot, feel the pressure, play with the brakes, turn, pull, collapse, control. These, and much more, are a standard part of any good paragliding groundhandling training day, and over time will result in giving the pilot a high level of confidence both on the ground and in flight. Sometimes though it takes a little effort to practise these exercises after a great day’s flying, or to look for the best place to unpack the glider just for groundhandling when the weather is not right for flying. But what if you could do these training exercises at speed on skis on the snow…

Toontrack seem to be fond of their month-long events where all their new releases fall into a particular musical genre. Following on from a recent ‘Metal month’, March 2021 has been a ‘Gospel month’. While some might consider Gospel a niche musical style, lots of other musical genres have either evolved from, or been influenced by, traditional Gospel. It’s therefore easy to understand the rationale behind Toontrack’s latest musical target as those working in Soul, Funk, Fusion, R’n’B, Hip-Hop, Pop and the lighter shades of Rock could undoubtedly find something of interest within the Gospel-themed content. Within the month of Gospel there are MIDI pattern packs for EZdrummer/Superior Drummer, EZbass and EZkeys, providing the user with extensive collections of drum, bass and piano performances that they could use with whatever Toontrack…

Bob’s recent book, Earth-Shattering (Little, Brown and Company, 2019), explores the greatest cataclysms that have shaken the universe. In 1969, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross introduced her five stages of grief experienced by people who are facing life’s tragedies. But those five now-famous stages — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance — have been overlooked by backyard astronomers. Say you’re an observer in a typical suburban location. You’ve spent a small fortune on a telescope that looks so cool, you gaze at it like it’s a Rembrandt. Tonight, you’ve invited over an old friend you’d like to impress; you’ve heard she owns some mountaintop acreage, and you fantasize she’ll let you build an observatory there. So you aim your telescope at Saturn, arguably the universe’s greatest crowd-pleaser. But to your horror, it’s not there. In its…

Apple’s relatively new M1 Macs that rely on Apple silicon have a number of usability differences from previous Intel-based Macs. One difference that’s tripped up some readers is how to start up or boot the M1 Mac from an external drive. Intel Macs generally make this easy. You might want to use a bootable external drive to have a higher-capacity SSD than is offered or affordable via Apple’s pricing. Or you may want one for backup in case something goes very pear shaped with your M1 Mac. Testing indicates that the following are required to start up from an external volume: > A Thunderbolt 3 drive. That’s not just one that uses the USB-C connector, but one that is a native USB 3.1 or 3.2 drive. Nor can you use a Type A…

I’ve been shot at,” says Emily Hikade, explaining life as a counterterrorism case officer in the Central Intelligence Agency. “People would shoot rocket-propelled grenades at your vehicle.” Tasked with collecting information overseas, Hikade, 46, put her life on the line every day. “I’ve been so close to explosions that I’ve been knocked off my feet, where it rings in your ears, and everything goes into slow motion,” she continues. “I was invincible; I felt fearless before I had kids.” Still, she had four boys while serving—Camden, now 15, Beckett, 12, Shaw, 10, and Gable, 7, with her husband, Christopher, 51, also a retired CIA officer—and by 2015 was longing for security and stability. “When you’re home, and you’re safe, that’s when you put on your pajamas,” she says. That idea inspired…

Lamborghini Countach That the Piedmontese word countach translates roughly to “holy shit!” tells you all you need to know about the impact of this quintessential Lamborghini. Unlike earlier supercars, whose sensuousness was often compared to reclining nudes, designer Marcello Gandini’s brutal masterwork looks more like a deadly weapon, a flying ax-head. This is the Countach’s legacy: It defined a level of outrageousness against which all future supercars would be judged. But the Countach itself is defined by its mechanical packaging. Mounting the radiators at the sides meant the nose could plunge to a honed edge. The huge, longitudinally oriented V-12 faced rearward, its transmission pointed toward the front, centralizing the car’s weight and pushing the passenger compartment forward, inverting the typical sports-car proportions. Also, in the post-Countach era, a supercar without…

The public beta of macOS Monterey, released by Apple in early July, doesn’t look surprisingly new. Exceptions include Safari, which gets a dynamically resizing tab bar and other conveniences, and FaceTime, which gets a background-blurring portrait mode and screen-sharing features. As you get more familiar with Monterey, however, you’ll find improvements and conveniences everywhere and may wonder how you managed without them. This is because Apple’s annual updates to the Mac operating system tend to have a regular rhythm. Massive updates arrive on even-numbered years: Big Sur, for example, the 2020 update to macOS that was also the first version that ran on Apple Silicon hardware. Updates in odd-numbered years, such as Monterey, look more or less like the previous version but come with under-the-hood improvements that may do more for…

Maintaining smooth Wi-Fi performance and throughput for gaming, video streaming, and smart home devices is important, but now that so many folks are working from home with no end in sight, you’ve also got to consider important work applications and different modes of work communication, especially video conferencing. This is where whole-house coverage becomes more than a nice-to-have. Many of the latest wireless routers can provide strong coverage to most rooms of a typical medium-size house, but larger homes and dwellings with dense walls, multiple floors, metal and concrete substructures, and other structural impediments may require additional components to bring Wi-Fi to areas that the router can’t reach. Range extenders do a good job of filling in dead zones but typically provide only half the bandwidth that you get from your…

So you’re in the market for a detachable 2-in-1—a tablet you can use either by itself or with a keyboard and stylus? The Apple 10.9-inch iPad Air is a good choice—in fact, a PCMag Editors’ Choice winner—at $599. But if you’re willing to think different, HP’s 11-inch Chromebook x2 costs the same—including twice the memory as well as the keyboard and pen that Apple will charge you an extra $428 for. Tablet shoppers rarely consider Chromebooks, but the HP x2 favors the bold. It doesn’t perform as well as comparably priced Chromebook laptops (and we still consider our Editors’ Choice favorite, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet, a better value among Chromebook detachables), but it fills a nifty niche. PROS: Affordable price includes pen and keyboard cover. Available 4G mobile broadband. CONS: Tepid performance.…

Heard the one about how charging your phone overnight destroys its battery? How about this whopper: Macs can’t get viruses? There’s plenty of fake tech news floating around; each new generation of technology products and services begets even more false beliefs. A lot of those are pretty easy to discredit, but we found a few for this story that might make even our readers do a double-take! It’s possible you’re worried about something that isn’t true—or maybe something that used to be true but isn’t now, as new discoveries and updates cleared up the problem. Go through our list below and see if there’s something you thought was true but, well, isn’t. Then pass on the real deal to your friends, family, and social following, so they won’t fall prey to tech…

Your hard drive hasn’t been acting the same lately. It’s starting to make clicking or screeching noises, it can’t seem to find your files, and it’s moving really slowly. Every hard drive dies eventually, and when it’s near death, you’ll see the signs: Strange noises, corrupted files, crashes during boot, and glacial transfer speeds all point to the inevitable end. This is normal, especially if your drive is more than a few years old. On older spinning drives, moving parts such as the motor can degrade over time, and a drive’s magnetic sectors can go bad. “Your computer can notify you before data loss occurs, and the drive can be replaced while it still remains functional.” Newer solid-state drives (SSDs) don’t have moving parts, but their storage cells degrade a little every…

ONE DAY IN April 2020, just 87,500 passengers passed through TSA checkpoints across America, a jaw-dropping low that represented a roughly 95 percent dip from 2019. By this spring, air travel had bounced much of the way back: TSA screeners were checking more than 1.5 million people a day in April 2021, with the trend line pointing sharply upward. That lift hints at a bright future for flying in the U.S. and beyond. Here’s a closer look at what’s in store. ENJOYING NEW PLANES Delta Air Lines (delta.com), JetBlue (jetblue.com), and Southwest Airlines (southwest.com) are all flying two new aircraft types, the Airbus A220 and Boeing 737 Max; United Airlines (united.com) has the Max, too. (The Boeing jets are flying again after a nearly two-year safety review by the FAA.) Both models…

SOUTHWEST AND the Boeing 737 are so closely associated that most people think theirs is an exclusive relationship. After all, one of Southwest’s well-established business rules is to operate only one type of aircraft. And that one aircraft has always been the 737. Right? Wrong. During two periods, Southwest supplemented the 737 with its bigger sister, the 727 trijet. The first such occasion came about when Braniff and Southwest buried the hatchet after years of bitter conflict. Under the terms of their agreement, made public on August 3, 1978, Braniff leased a 727-200 to Southwest for two years and provided training and maintenance on the aircraft. Entering service on March 5, 1979, the 727 wore an unusual variation of the standard Southwest colors. Instead of white block titles on the tail, it carried a…

Dust, coffee stains, oil from your fingertips, food particles, plain old grime: If your laptop shows any of those, it’s time to clean and disinfect. Basic cleaning supplies and 15 minutes of time can make your laptop look brand-new again. This guide goes through all aspects of laptop cleaning, including how to deal with its screen, the keyboard, the outside surfaces, the vents, and the ports. We show you what to do and what to avoid, as well as share some handy tips on keeping your laptop looking clean all the time—not just when it achieves grungy critical mass. GET YOUR CLEANING SUPPLIES Most of the cleaning supplies you need might already be in your home. A proper cleaning cloth is first priority. Instead of a cotton rag or paper towels, which can…

In February 2020, Marianne Faithfull – singer-songwriter, actor, author, legend of 1960s London – took a flight to Paris to sit front row at the Chloé show. Google photographs of her there and you’ll see the now 74-year-old smiling and chatting with Lucy Boynton, the actor set to play her in an upcoming biopic. By then, Faithfull believes, she had already contracted Covid-19, but looking at those images it’s difficult to imagine what was to follow: weeks later, she was taken to intensive care with the virus. It almost killed her but, miraculously, she came out the other side. As she began her – ongoing – recovery, she found a doctor’s note that read: “Palliative care only.” “It was a bit of a shock – but that’s life, isn’t it?” she…

Tyler Jones, CEO and founder of Las Vegas–based Blue Heron, is an architect and developer with a passion for designing homes that make his clients feel good. He believes in the concept of biophilic design—connecting people to their environment and helping them focus on the natural world. “This design impacts everything we do. As you enter the home, we wanted to invoke an immediate emotional response from how the architecture flows with the surrounding landscape,” he says. Founded in 2003, Blue Heron developed its signature Vegas Modern™ design philosophy to do precisely that. Its newest iteration is the Ora House—not in Las Vegas, but in the Bird Rock Waterfront enclave in San Diego’s La Jolla area. “What I learned in Las Vegas, I applied to this home in California,” he says. “This…

It’s a slice of paradise in the northeast Bahamas. Only accessible by boat—or a plane with floats—Baker’s Bay Golf & Ocean Club is one of the Bahamas’ most exclusive residential communities. Set on a private stretch of beach on the island of Great Cuana Cay, Baker’s Bay is known for its waterfront golf (with celebrity sightings), whispering palms, head-turning sunsets, and well-guarded privacy. For one particular oceanfront parcel overlooking the Atlantic, the owner worked with Florida-based Cronk Duch Architecture to design a contemporary, family-oriented retreat. However, he wanted a separate team to steer the home’s position on the land and develop its outdoor living features. Florida-based landscape architects Ladd Roberts of Landwise Design and Craig Reynolds of his own eponymous firm collaborated on the joint design. “I was brought in by Ladd…

More than any other man on TV, Jeff Van Gundy exudes a raw punctuality. In 16 years traveling North America to call NBA games on ABC and ESPN, he’s never missed a flight, arriving at the airport two hours before departure like a character in a Progressive don’t-become-your-parents ad. “Those commercials are brilliant, because you see yourself in them,” he says. “Like the guy who’s trying to get the line straightened out?” That’s Jeff, wanting to tighten up the boarding queue. His older brother, Stan Van Gundy, who calls games on TNT and NBA TV, also leaves for the airport several hours in advance. “What if there’s an accident on the way there?” he asks, unmoved by the mockery of his wife, Kim, who said at 7 on a recent morning:…

Jane Dressel is so excited that she cannot sit still. The favorite man in her life is 20 feet away, standing on a starting block and posing for pictures at the University of Florida’s indoor pool. He’s the embodiment of athletic excellence, strong and sleek, with an array of arresting visual elements: bronze skin covering rippling abs and obliques, a sleeve of tattoos on his left arm, liquid-blue eyes and perfectly white teeth. ¶ The photo shoot goes on and on, and Jane is losing patience. When it finally ends, Caeleb Dressel walks Jane’s way—the moment she has been waiting for. Grabbing two white towels and tying them in a knot, he throws them into the pool. Tail wagging furiously, Jane the black Labrador retriever belly-flops into the water, briskly…

Good news! If your lifeless locomotive has ever run under Digital Command Control (DCC), chances are good that you can get it running again without having to send it off for repair. The solution is easy, too! More good news! If you have a new steam locomotive that doesn’t run or only partially works, maybe all that’s wrong is that the connector between the engine and tender isn’t seated correctly. Make sure the connector is oriented correctly and pushed all the way in. Just be careful not to damage the wires when doing this. Let me be specific about which locomotives can easily be brought back to life. A locomotive that ran on address 3 out of the box has hope. A locomotive that you or someone else put a decoder in…

One appeal of astro-observing is that we’re inspecting a vast realm where nothing is sloppily arranged or in need of vacuuming — though the Moon’s southern highlands are admittedly a crowded mess, with many craters piled partially atop others. Then there’s Mars, whose dry and dusty landscape has terminated numerous martian missions, albeit long past their expected use-by date. Dust caked on the solar panels of the InSight lander recently brought that mission to an end, and while the Spirit and Opportunity rovers were lucky enough to have dust devils give their solar panels quick and timely scours, dust eventually did them both in. But rather than sloppiness imposed by nature, let’s talk about whether it matters if you’re a Class 3 slob after you spent your savings on a telescope. It’s…

Standing Room Only It’s illegal to spontaneously dance in a bar or restaurant in Sweden. Owners must adhere to a bygone law and get a dance licence. The Swedish parliament announced its intention to repeal the law in 2016, yet a restaurant owner in the province of Härjedalen was prosecuted as recently as 2020. Lights Out No light must be visible within five kilometres of the king’s bedroom in the Palace of Versailles in France. This 18th-century law means the Versailles football club doesn’t have floodlights and, as a result, can’t host all of its home games – including one against Toulouse in January 2022. It had to move the match to its opponent’s pitch nearly 700 kilometres away. Rodent Repellent Rats aren’t allowed to enter the province of Alberta in Canada, not even as…

UTAH, USA Bryce yourself Earlier this year I decided to retrace a road trip I took with my parents through America as a child. Starting in Los Angeles, I finished up near the Grand Canyon five weeks later. One of the highlights was a return to Bryce Canyon. The vertical hoodoos, some as high as 10-storey buildings, were as impressive as I had remembered. I woke while it was still dark to wait for the sunrise. When it crept over the horizon, the rock warmed to orange, casting long shadows. It was a breathtaking morning. It’s rare that a childhood travel memory revisited in adulthood matches the awe of seeing something for the first time. Bryce Canyon more than did this. ABU DHABI, UAE Faith in the future I had seen the Sheikh Zayed Grand…

1 PANTHERS C.J. STROUD QB OHIO STATE Stroud throws with accuracy and touch from the pocket. The improvisation skills he showed in the national semi were a glimpse of what he can do when plays break down. 2 TEXANS BRYCE YOUNG QB ALABAMA Despite his size, Young is my top-ranked QB. He’s always composed, processes information quickly and is accurate to all three levels. 3 CARDINALS WILL ANDERSON JR. EDGE ALABAMA Anderson was elite at Bama—34.5 sacks, 62 TFLs. Power, length and burst give him impact as a pass rusher or run stopper. 4 COLTS ANTHONY RICHARDSON QB FLORIDA Richardson is relatively inexperienced as a one-year starter, but he has the most upside of any QB in the draft due to his size, speed and arm strength. 5 SEAHAWKS TYREE WILSON EDGE TEXAS TECH Despite a foot injury, Wilson had his most productive year (seven sacks, 14 TFLs). He’s an excellent combo of length…

E-TYPE UK is a company known for its restorations, but it is now branching out into something a little more specialised. Via its Unleashed sub-brand, it is taking Series 3 E-types down the ‘restomod’ route. Octane arrives in deepest Kent to be greeted by the first car that truly demonstrates what Unleashed is about. By the time you read this it will have been shipped to its new owner in California, after a process of several months during which its final specification has evolved. What strikes you is how clean it looks, with some of the fussier elements of S3 bodywork – not typically regarded as a high point for the E-type – resolved. There are new bumpers – without the clumsy overriders – which hug the nose and tail. The front…

Last year, I moored my narrowboat at the Dundas Aqueduct just outside Bath. The valley around the River Avon is known for its wild garlic, which carpets the woodland floor and raises such a powerful perfume you can smell it from your car, driving down the A36. But since the permissive paths that cut through some of the woods go nowhere near the wild garlic, to forage for my dinner I had to trespass. Conkwell Wood was initially enclosed in the early 19th century, when the manor was built at the top of the hill. Because we, in modern times, have been born into a nation of exclusion, and so take it for granted, it is hard for us to imagine the anger of a community suddenly evicted from such a…

MOVIE | Book Club: the Next Chapter Forget about reading—these women are ready for love COMEDY This follow-up to the 2018 hit begins with a gracefully done segment that acknowledges real life: It’s the pandemic, and Zoom is the only option for book-chat besties Vivian (Jane Fonda), Carol (Mary Steenburgen), Diane (Diane Keaton) and Sharon (Candice Bergen). Then the pandemic goes away, and we escape to happy fantasy. Vivian announces that she’s engaged to boyfriend Arthur (Don Johnson), and the ladies—none of whom suffers from a life-threatening condition that requires masks or extra vaccinations—fly off to Italy for an extended bachelorette party. They hop from one beautiful tourist destination to another, meet attractive foreign men and amuse themselves with cheesy-risqué jokes about the anatomical details of statues that date back to antiquity. All in…

2020 brought a redesigned iPhone, but in 2021 the iPhone was fairly static, while the iPad Pro took a big step forward. Given Apple’s longer cycles for iPhone redesigns, I don’t expect a revolutionary new iPhone to spur sales ever higher. But Apple will tinker around the edges with the iPhone, spending most of its time upgrading the iPad and launching new products the likes of which we’ve not seen before…from Apple, anyway. These are my predictions for 2022 for the iPhone, iPad, and the rest of Apple’s non-Mac product line. I’m doing this with the risk of being dead wrong in public, but I’ve been there before, and what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. iPHONE GETS TWEAKS AROUND THE MARGINS The iPhone of 2023 will probably look dramatically different from what we’ve…

Dans le domaine des équipements connectés sur le marché de la première monte pour l e s c a m p i n g - c a r s , Truma a ouvert la voie en proposant le Truma iNet System. Avec ce dispositif, il est possible de commander les appareils de chauffage et de climatisation de la marque, mais également d’allumer et éteindre l’interrupteur 12 V principal ainsi que celui de la pompe d’eau. Cette application donne aussi certaines informations sur les équipements. Ainsi les utilisateurs peuvent notamment connaître la température extérieure, savoir si le véhicule est correctement connecté au réseau électrique terrestre ou encore connaître en temps réel l’état de charge de la batterie cellule et celle du porteur. Le marché de la seconde monte est aussi concerné…

The Hisense 350-sq. ft. Window Air Conditioner is a reasonably priced Wi-Fi-enabled window AC unit that you can control with your voice, your phone, or the included remote. It’s easy to install and did an admirable job of cooling in our tests. It doesn’t offer power usage reports or compatibility with Apple HomeKit and IFTTT like some other smart air conditioners we’ve tested, but it also costs less than many 8,000-BTU models, making it an affordable option for small to medium spaces. PROS: Reasonably priced. Easy to install. Fast cooling. Voice control. Relatively quiet. CONS: Lacks usage reporting. Doesn’t support HomeKit or IFTTT. BOTTOM LINE: The Hisense 350-Sq. Ft. Window Air Conditioner is a smart AC unit that can be controlled by your phone, voice, or remote, and does a fine job of…

As a six-core, 12-thread processor with great integrated graphics, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600G is the CPU that 2021 has been waiting for. A strong successor to older, budget-friendly, gaming-focused CPUs such as the AMD Ryzen 5 3400G, it puts up some of the fastest game frame rates to date from an integrated graphics processor (IGP). Cheaper than the IGP-less Ryzen 5 5600X ($299) and layered in with the highly capable Radeon RX Vega 7 graphics engine, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600G is a serious threat to Intel’s competing Intel Core i5-11600K on CPU grunt and really puts the hammer down once you factor in its gaming results and Radeon Software compatibility. Whether you’re an esports hopeful aiming to get a gaming PC built for cheap or just want a…

Canon Pixma G620 $299.99 EXCELLENT It’s easy to find a bulk-ink printer with the familiar cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) quartet, but finding an ink-tank-rather than cartridge-based inkjet with six inks for superior photo quality has been difficult, prohibitively expensive, or both. Canon aims to change that with the Pixma G620 Wireless MegaTank Photo All-in-One Printer, which gets its tank refills from bottles. At $299.99, it’s half the price of the Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8500 Wireless Color All-in-One Supertank. Versus that Epson, the Canon is slow and short on features, so it doesn’t join it (or the wide-format EcoTank Photo ET-8550) as an Editors’ Choice award winner. But the Pixma prints terrific-looking borderless photos at sizes up to 8.5 by 11 inches for pennies, making it a great value for families and…

Been shopping for a tiny desktop around the internet? The ECS Liva Z3 is going to look pretty familiar. These days, mini PCs from many different manufacturers look like they all come off the same assembly line. Similar boxy profiles and basic black panels look like somebody copied-and-pasted the Intel NUC over and over again, with minor cosmetic changes here and there. The ECS Liva Z3 doesn’t stray from that template, looking just like the recently reviewed Beelink GK Mini and other NUC-like systems. But it still has something to offer: a low price that makes it a great budget choice. That’s provided, of course, that you can accept the performance limitations that come with the Liva Z3’s Pentium processor and eMMC storage. PROS: Small, easy to hide. Included mounting gear.…

When my wife, Jenny, and I decided in the fall of 2017 to sell our house of 47 years and move into a retirement community, that meant the Argentine Industrial District Ry. would be dismantled. At age 80, I had no plans to build another railroad. I decided to give away or sell everything. Some 700 freight cars, 25 locomotives, and numerous structures and all support materials were disposed of in about two months. We moved to the retirement community in January 2018. By then, I’d accepted the reality that I’d built my last railroad. But then something surprising occurred when in July, Jenny asked me whether I thought we could find a house in Prairie Village, as she missed living in our own home. We began looking, and to our…

Apple’s 2022 iPad Air is the epitome of a mobile tablet, with a nearly perfect balance of features and performance. The company’s M1 chip is impressively powerful, and support for the second-generation Apple Pencil makes the new Air a better creative tool than its predecessor. While battery life could be better, it’s not bad, so that’s a relatively minor complaint. If you’re looking for a do-it-all tablet with top-notch accessories, the 2022 iPad Air is the best choice in Apple’s tablet lineup—and a better bet than any Android tablet—earning it our Editors’ Choice award. PROS • Excellent performance • Works with second-gen Apple Pencil • Fits existing iPad cases and keyboards • Light and easy to carry CONS • Battery life could be longer • No millimeter-wave 5G support BOTTOM LINE The 2022 iPad Air offers many of the benefits…

Tablets in Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S8 series are Android’s answer to Apple’s pro-level iPads, and they’re the best devices for professional creative work on that platform. The Tab S8 is the smallest model in the lineup, but it still has plenty of power, sports a beautiful 11-inch screen, and comes with Samsung’s excellent S Pen stylus. We’re also fans of Samsung’s productivity-focused Dex mode, which bridges the gap between Android and Chrome OS. But at $699.99, the Galaxy Tab S8 costs more than comparable iPads and Windows tablets, while offering fewer pro apps than those devices. Until Android’s tablet experience catches up to the competition, all high-end Android tablets, no matter how impressive the hardware, remain at a disadvantage. PROS • Fast, smooth performance • Includes an S Pen • Dex mode enables a…

The Apple Watch Series 8 looks exactly like its predecessor, but it offers some notable health and safety improvements that weren’t available on last year’s model. Its biggest upgrade is the ability to measure and track changes in your body temperature while you sleep, with a dual-sensor design for more accurate readings. If you have a menstrual cycle, the Series 8 can use your body-temperature data to estimate the date of your last ovulation. And on the safety front, the watch can detect whether you’ve been in a car crash and automatically call for help. With these upgrades, plus an already unrivaled user experience and app selection that’s further enhanced by watchOS 9, the Apple Watch Series 8 is still the best iPhone-compatible smartwatch for most buyers and remains our…

The newest 992-generation Carrera Cup race car is the fastest in the Porsche single-make series’s 30-year history. It is, therefore, the best Cup car ever. Exactly how “best” is it? That’s the murky part. Objectively, it is about 1 percent faster around any given racetrack than the outgoing 991-generation car. To an engineer, a race-team owner, or a pro-level driver, that’s the difference between first and fifth. To almost everyone else, it’s inconsequential. According to Leh Keen, the lanky Atlantan who regularly puts this 311RS Motorsport Cup car on the podium, the new model is not just objectively superior; it’s also subjectively better. It’s easier and more comfortable to race, and more fun, too. And with service intervals for the engine and gearbox long enough to squeeze in two full seasons,…

Blanco y azul son la combinación ganadora para decorar el porche y el exterior La entrada tiene mucho encanto con muebles antiguos y puertas recuperadas Muebles blancos y de fibras se alían con la luz y la calidez. Son una base atemporal y serena James es gibraltareño. Y su mujer, Tessa, es inglesa. Por trabajo, han tenido que viajar a múltiples destinos.“Esta es la razón por la que era tan importante para nosotros encontrar un lugar al que poder llamar ‘hogar’, un refugio seguro”, explica James. Y continúa: ”Especialmente desde que nacieron nuestros tres hijos, de entre 12 y 6 años, ya que nos gustaría que puedan enraizarse aquí”. El resultado es esta maravillosa finca en Sotogrande, una casa donde les apetecía disfrutar del buen clima andaluz y poner su propio…

You’ll get plenty of sound career advice during your lifetime. Much of it will be valuable, but some of it will come at the wrong time or be the opposite of what you need to hear at that moment. Depending on your immediate needs and long-term desires, good career advice can turn out to be wrong for you. Curious to hear other people’s experiences, I asked around and collected ten pieces of career advice that don’t always hold up. 1. GO WHERE THE MONEY IS There are high-paying jobs, and then there are jobs that come with lower base pay but generous compensation packages that lead to more guaranteed money in the long term—and sometimes a happier life. The classic example: any job with a pension. If you collect a full pension for…

Spend enough time online, and eventually, someone will ask you to rate something. In particular, a company might want you to rate it or the products and/or services it provides. It’s entirely likely you’ll be asked to grade these things on a scale of zero to 10, for how highly—or not—you’d recommend them. Such grades are used to create a Net Promoter Score, or NPS. (Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, and NPS metrics are registered trademarks of NICE Satmetrix, Bain & Company, Inc., and business strategist and author Fred Reichheld.) An NPS tells a company or brand how the general public perceives it. The bigger the number, the more positive feedback the brand has received. All year, in our monthly Readers’ Choice Awards and Business Choice Awards surveys, we ask our readers…

Even within the luxe aura of California’s Golden Coast, Malibu is a starry place. One of the town’s most desirable enclaves is Malibu Colony, a quiet nexus of culture, natural beauty, and sophisticated architecture. One thing the neighborhood doesn’t have is lots of space. No surprise, then, that when landscape designer Scott Shrader, principal of Shrader Design in West Hollywood, was asked to look at a property whose homeowners hoped for a new landscape, he saw potential—including spectacular ocean views—but not enough space to create something special. “When I first arrived, there was the house in the beginning stages, a pool, and a tennis court, with limited landscaping around them,” Shrader recalls. “I told the owners there was nothing I could do but put a hedge in.” Then he noticed an underused 1920s…

Outdoor living: Just the words bring a rush of pleasure. Creating a sweet spot where you can inhale fresh breezes and gaze at nature while enjoying your home has never been more coveted. Whether it’s a moment of solitude or a let-loose gathering of friends you crave, furniture designers are ramping up options to furnish your space. GamFratesi, the design duo established in 2006 by Stine Gam and Enrico Fratesi, is stepping up with furniture designs that combine the ring of tradition with the light touch of innovation. The Danish-Italian team takes full advantage of both European cultures, weaving together robust Danish craft traditions with a poetic nod to Italian conceptualism, in a new line of outdoor furniture for Minotti. Ocean Home asked the Copenhagen-based team to forecast this season’s five biggest trends…

NAME: NATALIE SIMON EMPLOYER: PRO AS A FORWARD at Stetson, Natalie Simon wasn’t exactly the most respectful player toward the game’s officials. “I was a referee’s worst nightmare,” she says. “I was a handful. If I made it through a game without a yellow card, it was a good day.” But after her career with the Hatters ended, playing—and yelling at refs—was no longer an option. “My playing years were behind me,” Simon says. “It’s a hard reality. I was just trying to find a way to stay close to the game.” She tried coaching youth teams. “It was fun, but it just wasn’t as rewarding as being out on the pitch,” she says. So to get herself back onto the field, Simon did the unimaginable. She went to the dark side: officiating, which…

A FIT TING FINISH? Donald blew into the backfield and slung Joe Burrow to the turf on a fourth-and-1, clinching his first Super Bowl victory. The championship parade covered only 1.1 miles. But as Aaron Donald danced, drank, roared, blew kisses and flexed his cartoonish muscles, his mind drifted beyond the raucous celebration. As thousands screamed and chanted at the six double-decker buses carrying the jovial superstar and his Rams teammates, they rolled away from the Shrine Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles, snaking along Figueroa Street, inching toward the Coliseum. Donald bounced and sipped and hugged along the route, his gold chain and diamond-studded “99” pendant flopping from neck to chin. So much had aligned to make the party possible. Stay in the moment, he reminded himself. He wished to remember the details…

Junctions have always been interesting places on any railroad. Some could be very busy, while others saw only sporadic action. My HO scale Reading Co. Shamokin Division depicts the anthracite (hard coal) mining region of eastern Pennsylvania, where numerous junctions branched off to serve distant mines during the steam-to-diesel transition era. The junctions on my layout represent such places found along the 40-mile main line between the Pennsylvania towns of Tamaqua and Shamokin. I’ve always been fascinated with the history and operating patterns of railroads in this region. As a longtime member of the Anthracite Railroads Historical Society, I appreciate the many resources they offer, especially their publication Flags, Diamonds, and Statues. One article from 1984 written by the late professional railroader Robert Malinoski has been a tremendous resource to me.…

As general manager of the Columbia, Kootenay & Pacific Ry. (CK&PR), a freelance HO scale model railroad, I decided to add a three-track staging area in a return loop at the west end of the main line. Since my construction crew isn’t very good at cutting arcs freehand with a jigsaw, I asked the engineering department to design the staging loop as a series of trapezoid-shaped panels. The engineering department wanted to fabricate the panels off-site as they had a number of smaller pieces of material left over from previous projects that they wanted to use. With the plan in place, the engineering department started work on the loop. How it works The loop consists of a series of equally sized trapezoidal panels joined on the angled edges to complete the curve. Since…

Mac Para’s previous mountain wing, the Outback, came in one size only but with a huge weight range. Its replacement, the Aravis, comes in six sizes covering weights from 55kg to 115kg. We took the 19m² XS into the mountains of the southern French Alps to try it in hike-and-fly and thermalling modes. The size issue Unrolling it, you quickly realise this is a much more sophisticated wing than the Outback. The cell count has gone up from 36 to 50 and the aspect has risen from 4.7 to 5.16. It looks like a higher performance wing. Those extra cells mean the weight has risen too: the original Outback came in one size, 21m², weighing 2.7kg; the Aravis in 21m² weighs 2.97kg. This is a bit heavier than some of the other mountain…