The honey bees of the world are fighting a battle that they are quickly losing. In the United States, for example, the number of honey bee hives have decreased from 6 million to 2.5 million. That is almost a 60% decrease. Up to now, they are still under threat from mites that kill their colonies, viral pathogens, and possibly pesticides.

Scientists may have found a way to improve bee survival through a bacterium that lives in its guts.

By genetically modifying the bacterium to trick the mite or a virus to destroy some of its own DNA, scientists have improved bee survival in the lab—and killed many of the mites that were parasitizing the insects.

The work, which has yet to be tested in whole hives or outdoors, promises to be effective over the long term, says Robert Paxton, a bee ecologist at Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg, who was not involved with the study. It could help end, he says, “the major plagues of the honey bee.”

More details about this exciting news over at Science Magazine.

(Image Credit: Alexander Wild/ Science Magazine)

Thanks to the advances in the field of natural-language processing (NLP), computers can now create sentences enough to convince a human that another human has written that sentence, all this with a push of a button. But does this mean that artificial intelligence can now understand the human language? A new paper from the Allen Institute of Artificial Intelligence says it doesn’t. In fact, they don’t really understand what they’re writing or reading.

This is a fundamental challenge in the grand pursuit of generalizable AI—but beyond academia, it’s relevant for consumers, too. Chatbots and voice assistants built on state-of-the-art natural-language models, for example, have become the interface for many financial institutions, health-care providers, and government agencies. Without a genuine understanding of language, these systems are more prone to fail, slowing access to important services.

Find out how they arrived at that conclusion over at Technology Review.

(Image Credit: GDJ/ Pixabay)

With those big eyes and pointy ears, only a few would be able to resist the power of Baby Yoda’s cuteness. Now, he not only can be seen on TV; you can also get a chance to have him at your home!

The guys at Sideshow teamed up with Legacy Effects to bring us this amazingly accurate, life-size version of The Child. The little guy measures 16.5″ tall, and looks exactly like its character in The Mandalorian. Every little detail is there, from the peach fuzz on its head to the subtly-hued irises we barely noticed even on our big 4K screen.

It is a bit expensive, however, costing $350, but at least it’s more affordable than the cost of developing the puppet used on the Disney+ series (which is $5 million).

The life-size figure is available on pre-order on Sideshow, with the figure expected to begin shipping this fall, between August and October.

(Image Credit: Sideshow/ Technabob)

Perfectionism can be a great ally when it comes to delivering quality work and service. Having this trait, however, can put you into a bad spot especially when things go south, because the perfectionist, in response to chaos, begin to ratchet up the perfectness.

But when there’s too much to make perfect, rigidity sets in, and the soul hardens. The perfectionist tries to disguise this, because they can’t appear vexed; happy and unbreakable are the hidden creeds of perfectionism. Meanwhile, vulnerability and flexibility keep knocking on the door of the perfectionist’s life. All in all, a recipe—you might even say a "perfect" recipe—for burnout. At least it was for me [Anthony T. DeBenedet].

When DeBenedet decided to explore spontaneity, he found out that this led to fun experiences.

But as I gathered more data, I also noticed something that I didn’t expect to find: spontaneity often reveals itself to us as psychological flexibility.

DeBenedet encourages us to be psychologically flexible, and he gives us two tips on how we can achieve this flexibility. Check out his article over at Psychology Today.

(Image Credit: comicvector/ Pixabay)

Doctors warn parents not to sleep with their babies because of the risk of death by accidental suffocation. Still, mothers who've carried those infants inside them want to be nearby, which is only natural. Surely, modern technology can find a way to do that safely. One idea is the device shown above by BellyBelly. Years later, it is not widely used outside of the Netherlands.

The truth is that parents in the United States want to sleep with their children, and many, in fact, already do. Between 1993 and 2015, surveys show that co-sleeping spiked from 6% to 24%, despite doctors’ warnings. There are also many bedside sleeping devices on the market for home use that allow you to attach a bassinet to the side of your bed so you can sleep close to your child, though the American Academy of Pediatrics declines to comment on their safety. On its website, the AAP says it “cannot make a recommendation for or against the use of bedside sleepers or in-bed sleepers until more studies are done.”

Some doctors are pushing back on the AAP’s recommendations. They argue that the risks of infants dying because of co-sleeping are actually very low. Many of the studies about SIDS were conducted in the early 2000s and found that it often happens when parents sleep in the same bed as their children. But when you take a closer look at the data, the cases of sleep-related infant deaths mostly fell under a few categories: They involve parents who drink or do drugs, they involve premature babies or parents who smoke, and they involve babies sleeping on sofas with their parents and then getting trapped in the cushions.

Read about the struggle over co-sleeping at Fast Company. -via Digg

At one time, every ad for a car that you saw on TV showed a shiny vehicle being driven by a happy motorist, maybe highlighting some of its features, with onlookers admiring it. Then Volkswagen came along and had to get creative in explaining the joys of its unassuming Beetle. So Guillaume Martin's list of the best car ads ever is heavy with old (and recent) Volkswagen commercials, interspersed with more modern ads that are just as creative. And modern doesn't necessarily mean better, as the #1 television ad is 60 years old. You'll remember many of these -some of them are works of art. You can easily play the videos in the Threadreader version, or see them somewhat smaller at the original Twitter thread, where the responses have suggestions for honorable mentions. -via Kottke

This poor crocodile has been wandering around Indonesia with a tire around its neck for around four years now, and no one can figure out how to remove it. The situation pointedly illustrates the problems caused by dumping garbage into the sea. Authorities are concerned that the tire could strangle the crocodile as it grows larger.

Antara reported that the crocodile may be a Siamese crocodile, a species native to southeast Asia that's critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Fewer than 1,000 of the crocodiles are thought to be left in the wild.

Indonesian officials have now offered a reward to free the unnamed crocodile from its plight, according to Antara.

"A reward will be given to anyone who can release the hapless reptile," Central Sulawesi Natural Resources Conservation Office chief Hasmuni Hasmar said. Details of the reward were not given.

While all ideas are welcome, the person who would approach the croc to actually do the deed would probably want more details on what the reward would be before risking life and limb. Read more on the story at Insider.  -via Mental Floss

In 2016, astronomers were amazed when their discovered KELT-9b, the hottest planet in the known universe. And just when you thought it couldn’t get hotter, here it is ripping apart its own atmosphere.

New research shows that not only is this planet hotter than most stars, with vaporised iron and rare Earth metals in its atmosphere, its heat is so intense that it experiences planet-wide meltdowns that tear apart the molecules in that atmosphere.

No other exoplanet we've discovered gets anywhere close to being this metal.

Yes, you read it right. Clocking at 4,300°C (7,800°F), the exoplanet is said to be “hotter than at 80% of all known stars”.

More details of how hot it really is over at Science Alert.

Burn, baby, burn!

(Image Credit: NASA/ JPL-Caltech)

This looks for all the world like a TV prank, but it's real. In fact, it's a better take on the car that can communicate with a traffic signal. The Mumbai Police Department came up with a solution for one kind of noise pollution, using technology and old-fashioned psychology. But will installing this scheme at a few select intersections spread better behavior at the other 100,000 intersections in the city? -via Digg

Yes, the calendar is just a system for counting days, which has nothing much to do with the natural world, but it's a system we've used for a long time. That gives us an excuse to celebrate the way the numbers line up on certain dates. Today is special because it's Groundhog Day, Super Bowl Sunday, and also a pure palindrome when you write the numbers out, no matter which side of the pond you are on. There are other strange and rare things about this date which standupmaths will explain. However you decide to celebrate it, have a great day! -via Metafilter

They look like movie pirates, but these are electric toothbrushes dressed as pirates, performing "He's a Pirate" from Pirates of the Caribbean. Googly eyes can look unnervingly lifelike when attached to a machine that vibrates. YouTuber Device Orchestra makes music videos with toothbrushes, adding machines, and credit card readers. I haven't found an explanation of how he makes a toothbrush produce even one note, much less a range of notes, but you can find links to plenty of other toothbrush songs at the YouTube page. -via Geeks Are Sexy

Last year, the town of Fair Haven, Vermont, elected a goat as their mayor. Lincoln, a female Nubian goat, is the town's first mayor, as Fair Haven is run by a city manager. The election was a promotion to raise funds for a playground. But Lincoln's term is only one year, so she is up for election again, and is being challenged by a police dog.

After he had to clean up the mayor's crap, literally, during her inauguration last year, Police Chief Bill Humphries is hoping for a change in leadership on Town Meeting Day.

Lincoln the Goat, who won Fair Haven's first mayoral election ever by a landslide in 2019 has her first challenger: K-9 Officer Sammy.

And Officer Sammy promises to cut the crap.  

Sammy, a female German Shepherd, boasts a distinguished career with the Fair Haven Police Department. However, a third party has entered the race, with a kinder, gentler, background as a therapy dog. The election will take place during a town meeting in March. Read up on the race at the Burlington Free Press. -via Boing Boing

(Image credit: Town of Fair Haven)

Meet Eugene Blair, one of Well Fargo's bravest coach guards...he never backed down from a challenge. Many would try to rob his coaches, but they quickly found he'd not only stand his ground and return fire...but track them down after they'd fled the scene.

Well heralded and recognized for his bravery, he was assigned riskier guard duties that would include sizable sums of money. With that, it attracted those who wanted to take it, including outlaws such as Gentleman Jack and the infamous “Big Jack” Davis. The outlaws found out the hard way Blair was not a man to be trifled with.

One route included guard duty to the outlaw Richard “Idaho Bill” Sloan, and when Blair heard his friends would try to free him, Eugene told Sloan, "Bill, I’ve heard that your friends are going to get you away from me between here and Carson if they can. Likely enough they will, but it’s fair to tell you that it’ll never do you any good, for I shall shoot you dead at the first break they make. It’s as well to have the matter understood between us."

Blair garnered such a reputation that Wells Fargo decided his career should end, being singled out by name and fear that someone would kill him in revenge. That, coupled with poor health from riding the coaches in poor weather, saw him retire from the stagecoach messenger business.

He married, had a child, but a wagon accident and consumption took its toll on Eugene. He died June in 1884 at the age of 37. Wells Fargo paid for Blair’s funeral and had a tombstone erected on his grave in the Old Auburn Cemetery, California.

“I have no regret for killing or maiming a highwayman, but I should never forgive myself for firing on an innocent man.”

Since we were kids, we were warned by our parents not to eat too many sweets, as it can promote cavities in our teeth. But it seems that that’s not the only bad thing that sugary food and drinks promote. According to a research from Aarhus University, they also promote periodontal or gum diseases.

The results have been obtained in connection with a critical review of the literature over the past fifty years, and have just been published in the international scientific journal Journal of Oral Microbiology.

"Sugar hasn't traditionally been associated with the development of periodontal diseases. It's true that back in the 1970s two American researchers suggested that a diet which was high in carbohydrates could be a common risk factor for both dental diseases and inflammatory diseases such as diabetes, obesity and heart disease, but this knowledge was largely forgotten again," says Professor, Dr. Odont. Bente Nyvad from the Department of Dentistry and Oral Health at Aarhus University, who has headed the research.

More information about this study over at EurekAlert.

(Image Credit: Pixabay)

Smallpox is a deadly disease which killed over 300 million people in the 19th century. Thankfully, it was declared to be eradicated in the United States in the 1950s, and globally in 1980. This brings a question, however: With the infectious disease declared gone, do the risks of the smallpox vaccination finally outweigh the benefits? Is smallpox vaccination still justified in the country? For many specialists, it is no longer justified.

Routine smallpox vaccinations in the United States ended by 1972 and globally by 1980, when the disease was declared eradicated. But the world isn’t totally safe from smallpox. Russian and U.S. labs keep samples of the disease-causing virus for research, and weaponized versions may exist.

In 2003, the U.S. government pushed to restart vaccinations for health workers and first responders as a precaution against potential bioterrorist attacks. That effort failed, partly because people feared the possibility of health complications from the vaccine. But U.S. officials have stockpiled smallpox vaccines, along with the first smallpox treatment, which was approved for use in 2018.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)