Automatic car washes are an experience and a convenience. There are certainly cases where you can hire somebody to wash your car for you, or drive them straight to a machine that will quickly and easily clean your vehicle without any hassle. 

Many people tend to lean towards these services as manually washing these big devices can be a chore, and be quite time-consuming. Additionally, not everyone has enough space where they can happily splash away their car’s grime and dirt. 

While convenience can be offered by these automatic car washes, it still begs the question: are they really good for your car in the long run? Well, Slash Gear has looked up the potential side effects of frequently running a vehicle into any of these establishments. 

One of the most notable things is that these services can break up the paint in your car. This is because the machines will slap and have contact with the car’s paint. Also, automatic car washes tend to increase friction while removing dirt, so what happens is they tend to cause scratches and swirl marks. 

Car Magazine UK also shared that the big rotating brushes you can see inside are usually poorly maintained and can cause cross-contamination of dirt from other cars, which can lead to car paint becoming dull. 

Image credit: Pixabay 

Scientists have discovered a new set of minerals in a meteorite that landed in Somalia in 2020. These new resources were found in a 70-gram slice from the said celestial object, which was called the El Ali meteorite. 

Taking a slice from the El Ali, experts have classified it as an Iron IAB complex meteorite, thanks to the meteoric iron and tiny chunks of silicates that compose it. 

Aside from discerning its type, they have also discovered the new minerals by comparing them with versions of them that had been previously synthesized in a lab, discerning that they were quite new from what the records the researchers had. 

These minerals were named elaliite after the meteor and elkinstantonite after Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the managing director of the Arizona State University Interplanetary Initiative. 

She is also the principal investigator of NASA’s upcoming mission Psyche, which aims to investigate the mineral-rich Psyche asteroid for evidence of how our solar system's planets formed.

These resources will be further investigated by experts to understand how El Ali was formed. Aside from that, they are also looking at how minerals can be applied to material science.   

If you’d like to learn more about the meteorite or the new minerals, check out Live Science’s full report here! 

Image credit: University of Alberta Meteorite Collection

I had never heard of the Turntable Paradox until just now, but it makes me want to search through the basement for a working turntable and a billiard ball. Steve Mould explains how a solid ball set on a turntable will just roll along and chill for quite some time before eventually leaving off the side. Other objects are affected by centripetal force and get slung off pretty quickly. What's going on here? Mould explains the physics behind the Turntable Paradox, but it still looks like magic to me.  -via Laughing Squid

You might look at these maps and think, "come on now, there couldn't be that much variety in which toys each nation likes best." And you'd be right. The clue is in the title here. Last year, ToyZone made maps of each nation's most popular toy, and the results were about what you'd expect- game consoles ruled the world, with a few places preferring Barbies or LEGO. That might be accurate, but it makes for a boring map. In their map this year, they gathered the data on the toys with the most Google searches in each country, and then compared each answer with the popularity of toys in surrounding nations. So while these toys are popular, the "uniquely" part comes in when a toy is searched more in one nation than the others. That's why Lincoln logs are the toy mapped for the US. It's not that Lincoln Logs are all that popular; it's that no one else in the world plays with them. The rest of the world buys LEGO, Duplo, or Nanoblock building toys.

Personally, I think these maps would be more useful if they were broken down into age groups, but that's difficult when your research consists of analyzing Google searches. There are world maps of toys broken down into categories, such as dolls, building blocks, board games, and video game consoles. See the maps for each continent, category, and the world at Toy Zone. -via Metafilter

A drug transport went bad in 1985 and led to a plane ditching $15 million dollars worth of cocaine, which landed over the woods of Georgia. A bear found some of the cocaine and ate 75 pounds of it. The story became a legend in Kentucky, where the drug smuggler was from (he died parachuting from that flight). The bear is even on display in Lexington! Ever since the story came out in the papers, people have been talking about the movie that should be made from the story. For a long time, it fell into that category of "not believable enough." But times have changed. Now, Cocaine Bear has become a reality.

Watch the first trailer above, which contains several F-bombs. The movie appears to be a bloody gore-fest that is also a comedy. It has been highly fictionalized, since no one actually encountered the bear before it died, but can you blame them for bringing us an extra-large bear in a cocaine rage? Cocaine Bear will be in theaters February 24th. -via reddit

Before, archaeologists probably relied on artists to create reconstructions of the remains they found on sites of interest. Or maybe they did the sketches and recreations themselves.

But thanks to numerous advances in modern science and technology, researchers are now able to reconstruct the visages of people who lived in the past with great accuracy and extreme attention to detail.

Live Science compiles 30 facial reconstructions of people from varying periods, from the Stone Age to the early modern period. Check out the many pictures at the site, and see what these people might have looked like as they lived on Earth.

(Image Credit: archiv MZM/ Live Science)

(Image Credit: Chris Rynn/ Live Science)

There has been immense growth in artificial intelligence in the decades that have gone by. It has grown to a point where it could beat us at our own games. Literally! Now, it seems that AI has developed even further.

Chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov was beaten by an AI called Deep Blue. In 2015, the AI called AlphaGo defeated 9-dan Go master Lee Sedol. This time around, it's different, as Meta AI recently announced Cicero, claiming that this is the first "to achieve human-level performance in the strategic board game Diplomacy."

While Diplomacy is also a board game similar to chess and Go, Diplomacy has something more than a set of rules. In this game, players need to talk with each other. In other words, playing this game requires good communication skills. And according to Meta, Cicero has those.

Meta trained Cicero using an online version of the board game via webDiplomacy.net. Over time, Meta reported that Cicero have achieved "more than double the average score" of the top 10 percent of human players.

But why is Cicero successful in the game? The answer lies in its programming. Meta combined AI models for strategic reasoning (like AlphaGo) and natural language processing (like GPT-3) to create the AI. Using these models, Cicero can coordinate with other players.

Meta notes that this technology could be a way to "ease communication barriers" between us and AI. However, the same technology could also be used for harm by impersonating people to manipulate individuals. And so, Meta hopes that other programmers build their codes "in a responsible manner."

More about this over at Ars Technica.

(Image Credit: Meta AI/ Ars Technica)

You've probably heard people say that you need to drink at least 8 glasses of water daily. But while there is clearly a benefit to keeping yourself hydrated, there is, unfortunately, no definitive rule on how much the recommended daily water intake is.

In an attempt to shed light on how much water the average person needs, researchers conducted a metabolism experiment on over 5,600 people from 23 countries. These participants were given a 5% "doubly labeled water" — a type of water with an unusual isotope of hydrogen called deuterium. This water, which is 10% heavier than regular water, is used in experiments to determine how fast chemicals move through the body.

The study found that water turnover (the total amount of water input and output) varied depending on factors such as age, sex, and body size, to name a few. Men aged 20-30 had the highest water turnover level, and this decreased after age 40. On the other hand, women aged 20-55 had the highest water turnover levels, and levels decreased after 65. The study noted that newborns had the highest water turnover, which is 28% daily.

To sum things up, the research states that "one size does not fit all for drinking water guidelines."

More about this study over at ScienceAlert.

(Image Credit: congerdesign/ Pixabay)

This is Golfi. As you can see, it is a robot, and as you can infer from its name, it is something related to golf. Golfi is, indeed, a robot designed for golf. Well, currently, only for mini-golf.

From its features, like its wheels and the putter that sticks out from its side, one could tell that this robot is made to try and putt a golf ball into a golf hole. So, can it putt? The answer is yes. Yes, it can. And like a professional, even.

With a Microsoft Kinect 3D camera, Golfi can create a depth map of the putting field. This depth map is then sent to a physics-based model. The model then calculates the factors involved in the swing, such as the turf's rolling resistance, the ball's weight, and its initial velocity. Based on the calculations, some 3,000 random shots are then simulated. These make Golfi swing like a professional golfer.

(Image Credit: IEEE Spectrum/ YouTube)

Some 270,000 miles from Earth, NASA's Orion — the spacecraft currently used in the Artemis moon-orbiting mission—quietly observes the Moon. Of course, our planet can also be seen from the spacecraft's point of view. As it flies in a path opposite the Moon's (called a retrograde lunar orbit), Orion sees both heavenly bodies glide. And Orion's not the only one who can see this happen. We can see it, too, because NASA is streaming live footage captured from the Orion cameras. The live views of the moon mission can be seen in real-time through this link. 

This is not the first time a spacecraft has broadcast from that region in space. The Apollo missions also did that decades ago, like the special Christmas broadcast from Apollo 8 on Dec. 24, 1968. This recent broadcast, however, is said to be the highest-definition live view to date.

The photos and videos captured by Orion will be used as a knowledge base for the Artemis programs that will follow the current one (Artemis I). As in NASA's timeline, Artemis 2 is expected to launch and loop around the Moon in 2024. Artemis 3, on the other hand, is expected to land people on the Moon's surface in 2025 or 2026.

(Image Credit: NASA)

Kitchen appliances that do one thing only have to be very useful to stick around for hundreds of years. The waffle iron is an exception. Sure, we can do without waffles, but who doesn't love the taste of hot fried batter with extra crust and little spots that hold syrup? Waffle irons were a part of medieval kitchens long before the use of electricity. People found it well worth the effort to heat up a heavy iron device over the fire for a plate of waffles. The oldest known waffle recipe was recorded in 1393, although we have found waffle irons that are even older. Today we are just as likely to pop waffles into a toaster as to mix up the batter ourselves. Or even order them at a restaurant. Atlas Obscura takes us behind the scenes to explain three different aspects of waffles: the history of the waffle iron, how Eggo waffles came about, and the origins of San José’s delicious green waffles.

(Image credit: Georg Flegel)

It would be nice to have some oversized Christmas decorations for your yard that aren't the same as everyone else's, but that means spending a lot of money. Unless you make them yourself! Jen and John Yates of Epbot created a variety of decorations that turned their neighbors' home into a giant gingerbread house! The gingerbread man you see here is cut from a panel of pink foam insulation, and his eyes and buttons are tree ornaments cut in half. They also explain how they made peppermint stick columns, a giant mint lollipop, starlight mints, and these huge wrapped candies, which ended up in a tree.

The wrapped candies are the easiest to make, requiring only a trip to Dollar Tree and a few minutes to assemble, plus you can take them apart and reuse them next year. The rest of the projects involve some painting, but nothing that requires specialized power tools or a workshop. See a video of the finished house here. The process of making all these decorations is explained and illustrated at Epbot.

If you're wondering why the post is titled "part 2," it's because part 1 is about decorating the same house last year.

Ah, the joy of dancing as you rapidly try on a series of toupees. Yeah, and you thought at first this guy was wearing tribbles on his jacket. It's astonishing how good each of these toupees look, even when slapped on in a hurry. Sure, it's advertising, but it's also fun to watch! Stay with it; there's a surprise later in the video. This is asiantoupeedude, also known as asianwigman on TikTok. He has an extensive gallery of videos showing how he helps people have hair where was was no hair there, including himself. He is not bald, but shaves his head to make these demonstrations easier. That hairless spot sure makes it easier to change styles every few seconds! The fact you can dance in them is another selling point. He says he is working on launching an online store. In case you're wondering, the song is 家财万贯 (DJ版). That's "Rich Wealth" in English.  -via reddit

Live the life of a rich landlord in Scotland– that is if you have $2 million on hand. 

Compared to the prices of lavish mansions and luxurious real estate properties in cities, getting a castle, along with its vast lands is quite a good bargain for that amount of money. It turns out that the Isle of Vaila in Scotland is looking for its next owner for that price! 

The isle is one of the 100 islands in the Shetland Islands archipelago near Scotland. The property on sale once belonged to Richard Rowland and his wife for about 30 years. He shared that it is now the right time for new people to follow their dreams on the beautiful island. 

The most eye-catching aspect of the property is the 17th-century manor house that was built to mimic a caste. It is a 6-bedroom unit, with modern amenities for the ultimate comfort. Aside from that, the home also has some secret areas, such as hidden gardens and rooms, perfect for mystery lovers at heart. 

Future tenants of the property will also get to tend an entire flock of sheep that comes with the home. If you also want to own a whale skeleton, then this area is the perfect match for you, as the bleached remains of a 42-foot sperm whale are on the island. 

Learn more about the beautiful property here! 

Image credit: Savills

Well, it looks like tourists will have to allocate more money for their museum visits. One of the most well-known locations in the world, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) will be raising its ticket prices by $5. 

This means that entry will now cost $30 for adults, $22 for seniors, and $17 for students. The museum previously had a “pay-as-you-wish” policy for their tickets until 2018. They did introduce strict entry fees after that. 

According to the museum, the $5 increase is modest for out-of-state and international visitors, seeing that it is the first price hike in 11 years. “For out of state residents, the Museum is always seeking a balance between ensuring we are providing as wide access as possible, and generating critical support for our programming,” a Met spokesperson shared in a statement regarding the price increase. 

The Met now joins Seattle’s Chihuly Garden and Glass museum ($30 admission) and London’s Churchill War Rooms (approximately $31.60) as one of the most expensive museums in the world. 

Image via Wikimedia commons