This article was originally published by Christopher Carey on Cities Today, the leading news platform on urban mobility and innovation, reaching an international audience of city leaders. For the latest updates, follow Cities Today on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube, or sign up for Cities Today News. The Urban Transport Group is calling for a new national framework to give local transport authorities the option to regulate key aspects of micromobility services in line with th
You probably know what a crystal is. We’ve all seen one, held one in our hands, and even tasted one on our tongue (for instance sodium chloride crystals, also known as “salt”). But what on earth is a “time crystal”, if not a sci-fi gadget in the latest Marvel movie? Why do we need a quantum computer to make one? And what is aquantum computer anyway? Bits and qubits Let’s start there. Computers are all around us. Some are compact, portable, and primarily used to stream Netflix, while others fill
Whether you’re using your sweet EV to commute, drive around town, or plan a road trip, there’s probably something always on your mind: keeping your battery juiced up. Fortunately, there’s a whole range of apps that can help you locate charging stations — and even establish driving routes that fit them in along the way… Free, convenient, and user-friendly, here’s our list of the best charging apps available today. PlugShare PlugShare helps you browse nearby charging stations, or bookmark them al
Let’s face it, design plays a huge part in all our lives. It affects everything from the bed we sleep in to the car we drive, and the magazines we read to the websites that we visit. Simply put, design shapes the world we live in. It’s importance really can’t be underestimated. But how much do you really know about this exciting sector? It would be silly to lump all designers together. If you asked a product designer to create a user pathway they wouldn’t know where to begin. Likewise, if you ta
These days, polls seem to be everywhere. Hell, you just need to check out our Twitter account to see how much we love them. But there’s one place polls don’t exist: WhatsApp. Well, this won’t be for much longer. According to a report by WABetaInfo, the company is working on a polls feature for groups. As per the screenshot in the report (and below), the function is still in its early stages, and we don’t have many details about what it’ll look like. The screenshot doesn’t tell us much about th
For years, Samsung and Apple have traded punches for the mindshare of phone buyers around the world. Once upon a time, Huawei was a contender for the top phone maker as well, but the US blacklist has left the company fighting for scraps. In the last couple of years, Oppo has vied to occupy the space once held by Huawei, and the company’s newest flagship, the Find X5, is an indication it’s fighting harder than ever for wider recognition. Truthfully, the company is already in a pretty comfortable
Deep neural networks have a huge advantage: They replace “feature engineering”—a difficult and arduous part of the classic machine learning cycle—with an end-to-end process that automatically learns to extract features. However, finding the right deep learning architecture for your application can be challenging. There are numerous ways you can structure and configure a neural network, using different layer types and sizes, activation functions, and operations. Each architecture has its strength
The Earth exists in a dangerous environment. Cosmic bodies, like asteroids and comets, are constantly zooming through space and often crash into our planet. Most of these are too small to pose a threat, but some can be cause for concern. As a scholar who studies space and international security, it is my job to ask what the likelihood of an object crashing into the planet really is – and whether governments are spending enough money to prevent such an event. To find the answers to these question
On Feb. 4, 2022, SpaceX launched 49 satellites as part of Elon Musk’s Starlink internet project, most of which burned up in the atmosphere days later. The cause of this more than US$50 million failure was a geomagnetic storm caused by the Sun. Geomagnetic storms occur when space weather hits and interacts with the Earth. Space weather is caused by fluctuations within the Sun that blast electrons, protons and other particles into space. I study the hazards space weather poses to space-based asset
War is expensive. The United States spent about US$1.1 trillion (£830 billion) on the 2003 Iraq war in today’s money, while the Falklands war cost the UK the equivalent of about £2.6 billion. Funding is, therefore, an important resource in any conflict, similar to that of artillery, fuel and boots on the ground. The burden of finance traditionally falls to governments, often in the form of issuing war bonds. Ukraine is currently issuing US$270 million in war bonds for that very purpose. Interest