At least some of the illnesses caused by putting tainted products into nicotine vaping devices has a source; synthetic marijuana, also called K2, Spice, and other things, sold in a product called Yolo and made by Janell Thompson, co-founder of the companies called Hookahzz and Mathco Health Corporation.

Marijuana oils, many illegal or of suspect origin, used in nicotine vaping devices ("e-cigarette" devices) have cause numerous health issues and even deaths recently, and so the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has told consumers who are putting marijuana juice into nicotine vaping devices to stop immediately.To help toxicologists narrow down what is causing these illnesses and deaths, and why so many occurred in a cluster this year, the EPA Computational Toxicology group has published a list of 37 chemicals found in the marijuana plant that give strains their aromatic and flavor profiles. 

Sure, a woman first walked in space 35 years ago but she didn't do that with another woman, and we are in a media culture increasingly desperate to create "firsts" and a NASA that needs to distract Congress from its decade of delays and budget overruns on the James Webb Space Telescope, so it makes sense that NASA would co-opt HERstory for what should be a non-event.Seriously. Some will try to frame that as #triggerwarning sexism, but it's just the opposite. We should want a culture where there is no gender mention, because it's irrelevant. You know what gets no attention? That the women are engineers and biologists. Because being a scientist astronaut is pretty routine.(1)

The E-6B Mercury aircraft, a Navy "doomsday" plane, was grounded after a "touch-and-go" training maneuver (just what it sounds like, they land on the runway and take off again) resulted in a misfortunate bird strike that took out an engine and $2 million in damage.The E-6B Mercury is a Boeing 747 modified to be shielded from EMPs (electromagnetic pulses) that would result in a nuclear strike, but more recently can also be directed to take out electronic systems. Like submarines, it also has low-frequency communications to communicate, which means it can launch Minuteman III ICBMs buried in mountain fortresses.

I've had "Frostpunk" on my Steam wishlist since early 2018 and though it has gone on sale numerous times I didn't buy it. The reason is not hesitance about the game itself; I work on a PC all day, the last thing I want to do is sit at a desk at night.But at the end of last week it went on sale for consoles and I was happy to literally pay twice as much just to sit on a couch and not use a mouse and keyboard. And it was worth the wait. Frostpunk is Steampunk, except when Global Cooling brings a new ice age

A scholar who spent five months at a cancer ward in a hospital that had roughly 5,000 employees studied how nurses use knowledge on the job and found something interesting;  they can smell infections.I don't mean leprosy, or something really obvious, they can smell a type of infection.“A urinary tract infection is very distinct. I can recognize that smell out in the corridor,” wrote one, while another said, "a urinary tract infection, or clostridium. It's super easy to smell!”

I just read an article about an Irish military vet who played a posthumous prank on his funeral attendees, which got a laugh out of them, exactly as he wanted.TIME put in the URL and I am going to click on it, because Irish people always sound funny to me, and at funerals I bet they are even funny.

Esports, competitive video game tournaments, have risen to prominence. You can watch an Apex Legends tournament on television and the commentary might make you dizzy, with the jargon and the rapid pace, but there is no denying the skill.Twitch and Mixer are overwhelmingly dominated by Fortnite, a loot and shoot game, to such an extent that online groups went into spasms when Fortnite took itself offline for two days (via an asteroid, which even blew up their Twitter feed) to generate some buzz for the new season. And it was already huge after Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf won the $3 million Fortnite World Cup this summer. Apex is rolling out Halloween characters for its upcoming event, Dracula and the Wicked Witch, among others.

Once upon a time theoretical physicists were regarded as smarter than their experimental brethren. Because they didn't need laboratories. Not everyone was convinced. Heisenberg, the uncertainty principle guy(1), only got his Ph.D. because his score was averaged out. He had to take an experimental physics course and part of the final grade was Q&A. He couldn't answer any of the questions one professor, Wilhelm Wien, asked, so Professor Wien threw him a bone; how does a battery work?

Worldwide, a billion people still use things like fire and wood for energy, and in more developed areas they may have gas or diesel generators.(1) Both are terrific sources of pollution but if it's all you have, you are going to use it.