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Infrared enabled contact lenses
Every day we get a little closer to the future, and recently, Chinese scientists have created contact lenses that can see infrared light.
The team screened various biocompatible polymeric materials (used to make commercial contact lenses) to find just the right refractive index and optical and mechanical properties, and integrated them with the aforementioned nanoparticles to make upconversion contact lenses (UCLs). Then they tested their lenses on mice, giving them a choice between a dark box and a box illuminated with infrared light. Mice wearing the contacts chose the dark box; those without augmented vision showed no preference. And the pupils of the contact-wearing mice constricted in response to infrared light, while brain imaging showed the visual processing centers reacting to it as well. -
Growing Sequoias in Detroit
An effort started in 2020, seeks to grow an urban forest of sequoias in Detroit.
Giant sequoias are not native to Michigan. And, yet, they’re somehow thriving in the state, which has a much cooler and wetter climate than their native California.
The biggest giant sequoia east of the Rockies is a 77-year-old specimen, called the Michigan Champion, that was planted in 1948 on the eastern shores of Lake Michigan. The tree measures roughly 116 feet tall and 5 feet in diameter.
“They’re safer here … we don’t have wildfires like [California],” Kemp tells the Associated Press. “The soil stays pretty moist, even in the summer. They like to have that winter irrigation, so when the snow melts they can get a good drink.”
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DoorDash driver sparks security alert at major airport after entering ‘unauthorized’ area
DoorDash driver sparks security alert at major airport after entering ‘unauthorized’ area.
Despite the strict rules at the Chicago airport pickup and drop-off areas, the delivery person entered the secured areas before a worker realized he wasn’t supposed to be there.
According to the outlet, a source noted that the driver drove miles along the interior and restricted roads at the airport and possibly even crossed runways — before someone in the air traffic control tower saw him.
It shouldn’t be this easy to *potentially* do terrorism.
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Discontinued food
There’s an entire BlueSky account dedicated to discontinued food.
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Critic asked to leave French Laundry
It sounds like the setup for an SNL skit, big time chef (Thomas Keller) confronts a food critic (MacKenzie Chung Fegan) off the clock who just wanted a night out with friends. The critic is asked to leave, but instead partakes in an hour plus conversation about food criticism and the fine dining.
Keller does not know what I want from him, he says, or what I am doing at his restaurant. I’m not here to write a review, I tell him honestly. My predecessor, Soleil Ho, weighed in 2½ years ago, and it’s not customary to reassess so soon after. But I eat at restaurants I’m not planning on reviewing all the time, and my credibility demands that I visit one of the most celebrated and enduringly popular restaurants in the country — helmed by one of the most powerful chefs in the world.
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Knitting Chickens
Crochet folks are a tight knit group, and over the last couple years, a chicken pattern exploded in popularity. So popular to the point that the knit results have turned into emotional support stuffed animals.
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Zines, the anti-AI
Zines. Freaking zines. You put a zine in an undergraduate’s hands and say “Someone like you made this. You could make this. All you need is some found images, paper, scissors/glue, and your own imagination. No chatgpt necessary.”
They light up, every single time, without fail. They start to recognize how little Generative AI serves them in the long run. They’ve called zines “Anti-AI” to my face and gleefully showed me their first zines with thought, intention, and inventiveness.
