Several years ago, when cryptocurrencies and blockchain erupted, many thought that these new technologies would be the solution to our current economic woes and the dawn of a new era in digital finance. However, analysts now say that majority of NFTs, one of the more promising blockchain creations, are worth nothing.

According to a recent report by crypto platform dappGambl called "Dead NFTs: The Evolving Landscape of the NFT Market," 95 percent of the tokens are practically worthless today. The company found that 69,795 of the 73,257 NFT collections analyzed now have a market cap of zero Ether.

Perhaps it's not surprising as crypto and blockchain only fueled people's greed without taking into consideration whether there is actual value there or not. Maybe in the future, people may find a means of making these technologies more ubiquitous and versatile, but as of now, they're worthless.

So, for NFT collectors, this may be bad news, but it might be best to rethink whether you should hold onto your NFTs or even invest in them at all. Read more about it on Futurism.

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Trying to inform members of the public about different products and the hazards of such products can be a tedious task, and more so, if you are trying to catch the attention of young people, whose attention spans nowadays are limited to perhaps a few seconds.

In response to the behaviors of teenagers and young adults today, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission has devised a new strategy of making the public aware about consumer products and the hazards that they pose, as well as the best practices and safety measures to employ to keep yourself out of harm's way. They have released an album:

We're Safety Now Haven't We packs in six genre-spanning, safety-focused songs (seven if you count the one that also got a Spanglish version). There's an EDM banger about wearing helmets, a K-pop number about firework safety, and even a reggaeton track about smoke alarms. The artists are officially anonymous, but more on that later.

The album is specifically targeted at teenagers and young adults, Social Media Specialist Joseph Galbo told NPR's Morning Edition over Zoom.

He says the CPSC aimed to address the products and hazards that are especially prevalent among people ages 13-24 based on its injury data — including bikes, ATVs, fireworks, cooking appliances and phones.

Read more about the new album on NPR.

Other Redditors chimed in and gave their own entry of movies missing the point they were trying to make:

Check out the complete list at Cracked.

(Image credit: Cracked)

It's true that we often don't take notice of the intricate details of things we see every day, especially those of the highly technical sort. Perhaps, it's just not in the purview of our interests. Have you ever noticed that there were different types of train railcars? Probably not, as we most often see only one type in our daily lives, if we use trains at all on our daily commute. But in this 15-minute video, Engineer Grady Hillhouse of Practical Engineering shows us the differences between every type of railcar and their respective design and functions.

A train is a simple thing at first glance: a locomotive (or several) pull a string of cars along a railroad. But not all those railcars are equal, and there are some fascinating details if you take minute to notice their differences. 

- via Laughing Squid

(Video credit: Practical Engineering)

Board games have been a great way for people to pass the time from as early as the ancient Egyptians and Romans. Even today, board games continue to evolve and incorporate new twists to tried-and-tested mechanics which give way to more fun and complex strategic or tactical battles of wit.

Even in the 16th century, such games occupied the idle hours of people's leisure as evidenced by a recent discovery of a board game carved on the ruins of the Cmielow Castle in Poland.

This latest discovery isn't quite as old as that in terms of the actual carved board, but the game could be just as ancient. According to archaeologist Tomasz Olszacki, it's a two-person strategy board game called Mill, also known as Nine Men's Morris, Merels, or "cowboy checkers" in North America.

A typical Mill game board is a grid with 24 intersecting points, and players must try to line up three of their nine men horizontally or vertically to form a "mill." When this happens, they can remove one of the other player's pieces from the board. There are also variations with three, six, and 12 pieces per player.

- via Ars Technica

(Image credit: Tomasz Olszacki)

It has been nearly 250 years since the gunboat USS Spitfire saw the fiery throes of war, when she brought a ragtag group of American soldiers, led by Brigadier General Benedict Arnold, against the British naval forces on Lake Champlain. It has remained intact since being shipwrecked after the American Revolution, but now she faces a new threat: the Quagga mussel.

This invasive freshwater pest loves to infest ship hulls, encrusting the delicate beams in as little as five years. Quagga have already overwhelmed many of the shipwrecks in the Great Lakes; the mussels’ eventual appearance in Lake Champlain is almost certain.

However, there is a possibility of recovering the Spitfire which will also shed more information on the events at the Battle of Valcour Island and on the Revolutionary War as a whole.The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum had announced a tremendous recovery effort that would haul the Spitfire out of the lake whilst preserving it. The plan is estimated to cost about $44 million and could take about 22 years to accomplish.

Learn more about the Spitfire and its battle against the Quagga at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: "Battle of Valcour Island", National Archives of Canada/Wikipedia Commons)

We all need to stay at home and avoid as much contact with other people as possible. But that doesn't mean that we can't have fun with our friends despite social distancing. With the technology that we have today, it is possible to hang out and have game night without physically meeting up. Huff Post's Elise Foley has made a list of some great games which you can play with your friends through your computer.

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... take care of yourself, protect your heart, love yourself. Do not lose hope. Art by Swed Oner #StreetArt #Art #Heart #Love #Coronavirus #Hope #Graffiti #Poetry #beauty pic.twitter.com/mC2jxIJ6iK

— One World Street Art (@StreetArtDream) April 4, 2020

People have found various ways to express how they have been feeling about the coronavirus situation in the world. Most have used social media as their outlet given that people are strongly urged to stay home and avoid going out as much as possible. But there are street artists who used this opportunity to reflect the current reality of the world through their art.

Researchers have developed a system that could parse meaning from brain activity and translate it into text. Through a machine-learning algorithm, they have trained an AI by letting it listen to people as they speak. From the data they collected, the AI will be able to predict what the people were actually saying.

It's just a start, but it's pretty exciting: a system that translates brain activity into text. For those unable to physically speak, such as people with locked-in syndrome for example, this would be a life-changer.

To train their AI, Makin and co-author Edward F. Chang "listened in" on the neural activity of four participants. As epileptics, each participant had had brain electrodes implanted for the purpose of seizure monitoring.

The participants were supplied 50 sentences they were to read aloud at least three times. As they did, neural data was collected by the researchers. (Audio recordings were also made.)

Though the algorithm isn't able to translate with 100% accuracy yet, the researchers believe that this could form the basis for speech prosthesis in the future.

Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

Scientists have recently discovered that deep-sea worms Laminatubus and Bispira have been feeding on bacteria found in deep-sea methane seeps as a means of meeting each other's needs in a symbiotic relationship.

[The scientists] found that bacteria belonging to the Methylococcaceae family have been hitching a ride on the feathery plumes that act as the respiratory organs of Laminatubus and Bispira worms.

As it turns out, the worms slowly digest the hitchhiking bacteria and thus absorb the carbon and energy that the bacteria harvest from the methane. That is to say, with a little help and some extra steps, the worms have become methanotrophs themselves.

(Image credit: Alvin/WHOI)

Times have been rough for all of us and in the midst of this whole crisis, we want to make sure that we and our families are safe and secure. So there's no wonder why many people went out to supermarkets and bought so much of a few particular items which could possibly last them for months. And many have received backlash for this hoarding behavior. But the thing is, it seems that this was the way our brains were wired by evolution.

The word “hoarding” might bring to mind relatives or neighbors whose houses are overfilled with junk. A small percentage of people do suffer from what psychologists call “hoarding disorder,” keeping excessive goods to the point of distress and impairment.

But hoarding is actually a totally normal and adaptive behavior that kicks in any time there is an uneven supply of resources. Everyone hoards, even during the best of times, without even thinking about it. People like to have beans in the pantry, money in savings and chocolates hidden from the children. These are all hoards.

Outside of ethical discussions, hoarding is normal behavior. Of course, that is not to say that in a crisis such as the one we are in now, engaging in excessive hoarding is justified. But with how uncertain things have become, one cannot blame them for doing what they can to survive.

(Image credit: Flickr user periwinkle61)

Before self-driving cars become the main form of transportation, we need to find solutions to make roads safer for everyone from motorists to cyclists and pedestrians.

That is the aim of a research team comprised of professors from the University of Queensland, the University of British Columbia, and the Queensland University of Technology. With the help of video technology, deep learning, artificial intelligence, and advanced econometrics, they developed an algorithm and gathered data to predict crash risks.

“Using advanced video analytics technologies, we’re able to measure and detect interactions among road users that are reliable predictors of future crashes,” Professor Simon Washington said.

“We’ve already implemented this technology in 20 cities in eight countries around the world, resulting in improvements to a number of intersections,” Professor Washington said. "We've also partnered with the Department of Transport and Main Roads to roll out a pilot of the technology locally."

(Image credit: John Arano/Unsplash)

I just found out that different states in America have their own railways, each having their own logos specific to them. In my country, we don't really have a lot of railways so there isn't much room for creating unique logos. I guess it's similar to different airlines having their own logos. In any case, here's a collection of railway logos in America at Reagan Ray.

(Image credit: Ankush Minda/Unsplash)

When I was in grade school, it was usually during the fall season when our school held a book fair. I was always pretty excited to see what kinds of books they would have.

I usually went with books about animals, since I really liked reading about animals back then. There were other books as well ranging from comic books to science books and even some novels and YA lit. My parents would give me the money to buy the books, bring them home, and read them.

As a parent, there are certain types of books you want your children to read. However, most of the time, children would just buy whatever is most interesting to them, often very different from parents' expectations. So here's a list of books parents' want their children to buy versus what children actually buy.

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With new models of smartphones released every six months, developers continue to add new features and increase the devices' specifications to make them more powerful and efficient.

We've already seen how the iPhone can be used to make an entire movie. Despite having just an iPhone, filmmakers such as Sean Baker and Steven Soderbergh were able to experiment with the scope and limits of making films with these smartphones.

So in this regard, Joey Daoud of Filmmaker Magazine got a chance to interview FiLMic Pro's creator Neill Barham and discuss how the future of filmmaking can be shaped by the use of smartphones.

(Image credit: Hermes Rivera/Unsplash)