In any urban area, one of the primary things that local governments should try to think about is the efficiency of its transport systems as the economy now relies heavily on them. With this in mind, proponents of the Tube for Greater Manchester have unveiled a proposed map of what they envision Manchester's transport network to be.

Andy Burnham has unveiled a map showing how he wants the conurbation’s transport network to look by 2029. The mayor also announced 1,000 new park-and-ride spaces by the end of 2020 and a bike hire scheme due to be launched next year.

Ambitions to have devolved control over ‘suburban’ commuter railway lines are on the map too, as well as Chris Boardmans' 'beelines' cycle and walking network. Calling the resulting vision ‘a tube map for Greater Manchester’, he said he would be publicly accountable to the public for the network.

(Image credit: Tube for Greater Manchester)

Playing inside Buckingham Palace doesn't feel right with its dignified aura and atmosphere but the Queen has approved a three-month period in which the art gallery inside the Palace will be transformed into an escape room with a Leonardo da Vinci theme.

The escape room coincides with the "Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing" exhibition, a display featuring 200 of da Vinci's original drawings to commemorate the 500th anniversary of his death.

While players don't require prior knowledge of da Vinci, those taking part should use "careful observation, creative thinking, and detective work" to follow the clues hidden in the gallery, according to the official website.

Teams of between four and eight people can play, and each game costs £150 ($191) per team. That works out at a maximum of £37.50 ($47.84) per player for a team of four people, and a minimum of £18.75 ($23.92) per player for a team of eight people.

(Image credit: Henry Layard/Wikimedia Commons)

Here's the interesting argument in this scenario: if the world will crash and burn ten years from now, would it matter for me to keep paying my loans since by then, everything will have been razed to the ground? It's an incredibly exaggerated thought and Mike Pearl asked several experts to give a sobering explanation as to why that won't be advisable to do.

If Earth really is about to stop being habitable, why pay your debts at all? If we’re literally talking about human extinction being inevitable in the next decade or so — and more on that in a minute — we’re free, and there’s no point in doing anything that doesn’t give us raw, hedonistic pleasure.

Now, the scenario assumes that by the given time, the world would go boom. But that's not exactly how things are predicted to play out. That is, the world won't just spontaneously combust and engulf everyone in flames as if hell had been raised from the ground and destroy everything.

Rather, the timeline only signifies the amount of risk we can take before things start getting serious. Furthermore, even if some type of colossal destructive event happens, it doesn't eliminate the scenario that it doesn't wipe everyone out. So there will still be people nagging us to pay our debts then.

(Image credit: The Digital Artist/Pixabay)

Infrared photography somewhat captures the opposite colors of what we see since it is more sensitive to thermal signatures so we would often find infrared photos in bright reds, pinks, and other warm colors while cool colors less pronounced.

Before, we've shown some photos done by Paolo Pettigiani. This time around, we get to see some of the works done by South African photographer Zak van Biljon who wanted to apply the same type of imaging on the Swiss Alps. Here are some of his photos:

-via Moss and Fog

(Image credit: Zak van Biljon)

Ever since the discovery of penicillin, antibiotics have been the answer to diseases caused by bacteria and for the most part, they worked. But as microorganisms encounter these antibiotics, they develop a resistance toward them which subsequently make our treatments useless. And the speed at which bacteria evolve is staggering and we can't keep up.

So scientists are turning to a different method that would hopefully reduce the need for producing new antibiotics for new diseases that emerge. They are engineering bacteria to kill themselves.

In April, a team of French scientists published a new kind of molecular trickery that selectively kills harmful and antibiotic-resistant bacteria without traditional antibiotics.

The research, led by genomicist Rocío López-Igual and colleagues at the Pasteur Institute capitalized on mechanisms of gene regulation to trick Vibrio cholerae into producing self-destructive toxins. This approach could be adapted to target other microbes and reduce the need for antibiotics.

(Image credit: Qimono/Pixabay)

Yes, the general consensus in the Hollywood film industry is that big mainstream studios are just squeezing their cash cows as much as possible because the audience loves it. So we see reboots, remakes, live-action adaptations, sequels, and all kinds of sloppy storylines being added or unraveled especially in big franchises because it brings in big bucks.

And sure, there are times when the audience as a collective would also feel fed up with these money-grubbing tactics, something they call "franchise fatigue", and it would show in their box office performances. But why is it that, despite a sequel being bad or obviously just trying to get us to throw our money at them, people actually still show up?

Franchise fatigue, on any given week, may be all too real, but one of its underlying aspects is collective amnesia. What it allows us to forget, each and every time, is that rehashing the same old crap, over and over, and expecting people to show up for it is what Hollywood has done for 40 years. And — news flash! — it works. More often than it doesn’t. And more consistently than originality.

But what’s left out of this equation, too often, is the dynamic that fuels my franchise-fatigue fatigue. Namely: If you’re going to interpret box-office numbers, especially when a movie tanks, as a sign of what the audience rejects, then you can’t do it with a double standard.

Yes, they didn’t want a new “Shaft,” and they didn’t want “Men in Black” with new stars. But here, measured by the numbers, is what they have wanted: the George Lucas “Star Wars” prequels, Disney strip-mining its holy animated catalogue for live-action remakes, the incredibly shoddy dinosaur sequel “Jurassic World”, and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Suicide Squad”.

(Image credit: Krists Luhaers/Unsplash)

The word "blog" is a shortened version of the word "weblog" which makes sense because blogs are simply articles or other text and media documents that get logged onto the web. But it all started with one person, Peter Merholz's curious fascination with words and word play. Here's the story.

"For What It's Worth, I've decided to pronounce the word "weblog" as wee'- blog. Or "blog" for short."

I didn't think much of it. I was just being silly, shifting the syllabic break one letter to the left. I started using the word in my posts, and some folks, when emailing me, would use it, too. I enjoyed it's crudeness, it's dissonance... As I wrote Keith Dawson after he added "blog" to Jargon Scout.

'Blog' would have likely died a forgotten death had it not been for one thing: In August of 1999, Pyra Labs released Blogger. And with that, the use of "blog" grew with the tool's success.

And it's been 20 years since the word was coined. It has invited many other word play to describe various types of blogs like the word "vlog" for videos. Only time will tell how things will evolve and what other terms we can coin to describe the stuff we do online.

-via Kottke

(Image credit: Glenn Carstens-Peters/Unsplash)

Mario is one of the most iconic video games of all time and it has inspired several iterations and spinoffs, as well as cameo appearances in various other games. But somebody took it one step further with Mario Royale (now named DMCA Royale, for IP reasons).

Mario Royale, which can currently be played in web browsers, is the creation of a YouTuber and programmer named InfernoPlus and pits 75 players against each other in a race through one world of Super Mario Bros. or The Lost Levels.

Players can’t directly interact with each other⁠—a Mario can’t stomp on another Mario⁠—but power-ups like fire flowers and invincibility stars do allow players to take each other out.

That’s not really the point, though; Mario Royale is a sort of collective race to the finish. Only the first three players to make it to the end of four levels will end up on the winner’s pedestal.

The real challenge is making sure your platforming skills are up to par and that you can avoid goombas and clear jumps amidst all the chaos.

-via Kottke

(Image credit: Kotaku)

The tree that people say inspired one of Dr. Seuss's classic tales 'The Lorax' has died and a lot of Dr. Seuss fans are mourning over its death.

According to the story, the Lorax was supposed to be the voice of the trees because the trees can't speak for themselves. But, as with all things, we cannot avoid the natural course of life, and the Monterey Cypress standing on La Jolla California has gone the way of the world. However, the city of San Diego will still investigate on the possible causes of the tree's untimely death.

"The city is still trying to determine the cause and the Monterrey Cypress was estimated to be between 80 and 100 years old," Graham said. The city hopes to plant a replacement tree nearby, he said.

Seuss fans far and wide are devastated to hear the news not only because of the connection to their childhoods, but because the themes of The Lorax still ring so true. With shows like Netflix’s Our Planet being produced left and right, it’s clear that the battle for environmental protection is on, and at higher stakes than ever.

(Image credit: City of San Diego)

Rome was not built in a day, and just as it took as long to build it, it crumbled just as quickly in a short span of time. The Visigoths are famously known to have sacked Rome just before the Middle Ages and they established a kingdom in modern-day Toledo in Spain. Later on, they also built Reccopolis, on the outskirts of Madrid.

Excavations have been ongoing at Reccopolis for a few decades, but so far, archaeologists have uncovered only about 8% of the area inside the city walls.

The researchers and a few other colleagues teamed up the next year to perform the first geomagnetic survey of the site. Their results quickly showed that empty spaces inside the city walls of Reccopolis were full of hidden streets and buildings. There was even a suburb outside the city's monumental gate.

(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Sometimes when we get overwhelmed by our emotions, we say some stupid things. At times, we just say the first thing that comes to mind without even thinking twice about it so it comes off as really dumb. And there are times, when we just don't know what we're talking about. Here are a few of the dumbest things that people have ever heard:

>My brother used to be a park ranger. One time a lady asked him how long it took for a deer to become a moose. He said about 7 years. -TryThis21

>Oxygen doesn’t come from trees, it comes from the air! -GarfieldGauntlet

>My friend thinks that hibernation is a hoax because she’s seen pictures of bears in the snow.

The first picture she showed me was of a polar bear. -ruyroy12

Check out more on Knowable.

(Image credit: Ryan McGuire/Pixabay)

With the help of 3D printing technology, we've produced tissues, a heart, and an air sac to help advance medical procedures and provide treatment for patients. But there are other uses for 3D printing in the medical field such as having them print replicas of organs for surgeons to demonstrate how to operate.

Cleveland Clinic gastroenterologist Nizar Zein first considered the idea of printing organ models in 2012 after reading about people constructing houses with 3-D printers and the technology’s potential uses in space exploration. He wondered if the method could make liver transplants from living donors safer.

The first prototype was crude — “really like a child playing with Play-Doh,” Zein recalls. Zein refined the model, and in 2013 started studying how a life-size 3-D liver model, in addition to 2-D scans, would change how surgeons planned operations. Zein’s team has gone on to print 3-D models of complex liver tumors to understand how they are connected to the organ, and thus inform surgical planning.

(Image credit: N.N. Zein et al)

Humans seem to get easily angry at some of the pettiest things. When you look at social media, you see a lot of people ranting about, well, just about anything. And it seems to be ingrained in our need to find solidarity with other people.

“Broadcasting threats may have the effect of forcing people to provide information…people who agree with you signal that they are ready to follow your cause… By contrast, those who ask for evidence, or debate the plausibility of your claims, signal that any solidarity with you would be conditional, which is of course not what we want of allies.”

In short, we sometimes use controversial events as litmus tests to see who is really on our side. If you express the right amount of outrage, then I know you’re part of my group. But if you don’t, then maybe I need to question where your loyalties really lie.

But this can also go haywire real quick, especially when it already involves prejudice. Now, on the flip side, the energy from this outrage could be channeled to address and resolve issues that would benefit many people without stepping on other's toes or infringing on their rights.

(Image credit: Tim Gouw/Unsplash)

There have been ideas of floating solar panel islands in order to produce energy without having to take up too much land space. Now, we hear of another alternative energy solution, the floating wind turbines. These turbines have been operated by Scotland's Hywind since 2017.

Proving out the business case had until now deterred most companies. “The time needed to attain profitability is long, and the sums of money required are large, considering the uncertainty in the eventual market,” states the International Renewable Energy Agency. But Hywind Scotland, located 15 miles (24 km) from shore in 345 ft (105 m) of water, appears to have proven out the case.

Over a stormy three-month period from November 2018 to January 2019, the turbines survived extreme conditions while churning out 65% of their maximum capacity as a North Atlantic hurricane sent swells topping 27 ft.

This project which has become a business started 15 years ago. Today, they are the first floating wind farm in the world.

(Image credit: Joshua Bauer, National Renewable Energy Laboratory/US Department of Energy)

When the Industrial era boomed in England, everything started to run at a fast pace. Developments were happening wherever you go and people started to adapt a mindset of efficiency because things became more timebound. It's either you keep up with how things went or you get left by the wayside.

The steam engine was the first invention that kickstarted the whole industrial revolution but it was the later developments that provided the necessary elements to boost the speed of industrialization. One such is natural gas.

Coal and gasoline have earned their reputation as fossil fuel boogeymen. Both have played extremely visible roles as the principal feedstocks for electricity generation and automobiles, respectively. But, scholar Leslie Tomory writes, methane gas was actually the first fuel to be delivered in an integrated network that provided hydrocarbon energy to the masses at the flip of a switch, back in Regency-era London.

In the process, the Gas Light and Coke Company (GLCC) confronted and solved problems of industrial politics, time coordination, machine standardization, contractor management, and even customer relations that have often been attributed to the later railway or electricity industries.

It was even once called the "green" fossil fuel but now, of course, times have changed and we know that fossil fuels all contribute to the pollution of our atmosphere and the destruction of the environment. Still, they have provided us with fuel for much of the machines we use to make our lives more convenient today.

(Image credit: Ethan Chan H C/Flickr; Wikimedia Commons)