Fall is the northeastern United States’ time to shine: Leaf peepers from around the world flock to New England to enjoy the changing colors of autumn. The tourism fall foliage brings is a major industry in the region, but its success depends on the weather. A few rainy or foggy days could obviously wash out visitors’ weekend plans, but more importantly, long-term weather—like months of below-normal rainfall—can have a big impact on how much color shows up in the trees.

The amount of rain that falls in the months leading up to autumn plays a major role in determining how vivid the yellows, oranges, and reds are come fall. Leaves appear green because of chlorophyll, a pigment involved in photosynthesis—the process that allows plants to turn sunlight into the energy they need to survive. As the nights grow longer and days grow cooler, chlorophyll production in tree leaves slows to a halt. Once dying leaves stop producing chlorophyll, they change back to their “true” colors, showing us the color we would see if they didn’t have chlorophyll.

 
Normally, this process occurs in late September and early October in the far northern reaches of the United States, and slowly creeps south through Thanksgiving. But drought disrupts the changing of the leaves.

Trees can withstand a short-term lack of water, but when a tree goes without water for too long, it will gear up to survive the drought. To do so, trees start shutting down chlorophyll production early and cutting off water to the leaves in order to conserve water for the tree itself. As the leaves start to dry out and die of thirst, the lack of chlorophyll mutes their colors before they fall off. In a normal situation, the leaf is still getting water as chlorophyll production slows, and so survives long enough to lose its green pigment and revert to its original color. This is why many drought-stricken areas don’t see their usual fall foliage.

Unfortunately, parts of the Northeast are in a serious drought this year. This past summer tied for the third-warmest summer on record in the Northeast states, with the region as a whole measuring an average daily temperature of 69.3°F—that’s 2.7°F above average. The weather patterns that caused the near-record warmth this summer also limited the amount of rain that fell over the region. For example, Boston, Massachusetts, typically sees a little more than 10 inches of rain during the summer months. This summer, the monitor at the city’s airport only recorded 3.92 inches of rain, the lowest summer rainfall on record since the weather station began operating in 1936. It’s a similar story across nearby parts of New England.

 
In the days leading up to the traditional peak in fall colors across the Northeast, the U.S. Drought Monitor—a weekly analysis of drought conditions across the United States—shows that as of October 18, nearly 53 percent of the Northeastern region is experiencing some level of drought. Almost 26 percent of the drought is bad enough to be considered “severe,” and 5 percent of the Northeast is in an “extreme” drought, the second-highest category on the dryness scale.

At least the good news for folks whose livelihoods rely on tourists gawking at trees is that the very worst of the drought is near the coast, while the best colors typically appear in the deciduous and densely forested areas farther inland. Daily satellite imagery provided by MODIS Today shows that fall colors are still in full bloom across interior parts of the region. While they’re not as vivid as they would be in a more normal year, the trees will still be a sight to see for the next couple of weeks.

There’s no city that’s safe from bike thieves. A 2014 survey found that half of cyclists will at some point have their bike stolen. So what’s a cyclist to do when even the best U-lock can’t deter a serious thief? A pair of inventors thinks bad smells are the answer, The Guardian reports. The crowdfunded product SkunkLock looks like a regular U-lock, but if someone tries to break it, it releases a smell so vile that the thief is left puking.

According to the company, when the lock is breached, it emits a non-toxic but terrible formula—like pepper spray, its active ingredient is capsaicin, the compound that makes chili peppers spicy—that makes it difficult to see or breathe without vomiting. (SkunkLock swears it’s legal, but it still has to go through some legal vetting before the product can ship.)

Presumably, the puking thief would then flee the scene without the bike. The lock doesn’t prevent a good lockpick from making off with your bike and your intact SkunkLock, but it will at least punish opportunists wielding bolt cutters.

It’s not the only useful application of disgusting odors. The vile-smelling spray Liquid ASS is used in military training to expose soldiers and medics to the horrible smells of war.

SkunkLock is taking pre-orders for $99 on Indiegogo.

[h/t The Guardian]

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Not all TV is meant to be compelling. In Norway, public broadcast network NRK popularized a genre called slow TV—live coverage of mundane activities like knitting, cross-country train rides, and fishing. Now, The Guardian reports, Spain has jumped on the dull television bandwagon, launching a new online streaming channel called Napflix that’s designed to bore viewers to sleep.

Napflix launched last week, and was co-founded by Victor Gutierrez de Tena and Francesc Bonet, who both work in advertising. On the website (which is designed to resemble Netflix), the two describe their video platform as an online source for “the most silent and sleepy content selection to relax your brain and easily fall asleep.”

De Tena and Bonet scour the internet for the most monotonous footage imaginable—two-hour physics lectures, chickens cooking on a rotisserie—and re-publish it on their channel. But since different things bore different people, Napflix’s creators make sure to compile a variety of video types, which they sort into a variety of genres including sports, education, music, and documentary. Sometimes the two even select something based on how sleep-inducing its soundtrack is.

“We choose the content based on how boring it is, or for the elevator music that sometimes goes with it,” de Tena told The Local Spain.

Unlike those expensive sound machines designed to lull you to sleep, Napflix is free. And even if the channel doesn’t encourage slumber, it might still inspire you to develop some relaxing (or dare we say dull?) interests that help you disconnect from the daily grind.

[h/t The Guardian]

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It’s a near-universal truth that Monday is the worst day of the week (and we’ve got the Sunday Sads to prove it). According to research done by Stanford University, even unemployed people see their morale dip on weekdays. Happiness rises with the number of hours you spend with family and friends, the study says, so even if you aren’t working, Monday morning can still bum you out.

Flip the script and make every day feel like Saturday (well, almost) with these expert tips.

1. BRING A PIECE OF YOUR WEEKEND INTO YOUR WEEK.

You don’t need to save all the fun stuff for the weekend, says Janet Zinn, a New York psychotherapist and coach. So get together with friends, try a new workout, go to early hours at a museum before work, or take yourself out to breakfast with a friend, Zinn suggests. “Anything that allows for some fun or feels restful during the week,” she says. “It could be a 20-minute shift in your schedule; or, if you have the flexibility, do something that takes at least an hour.”

2. WAKE UP EARLIER.

Weekend mornings are awesome because they’re quiet and relaxed, says Glen Stansberry, co-founder of Gentlemint.com. During the week, mornings tend to be rushed. Stansberry recommends you emulate your weekend mornings during the week by setting your alarm a little earlier. “It doesn’t have to be much, just try enough that it allows you to do something that you don’t normally get to do: drink your coffee slowly, take a nice, relaxed shower, even lounge around,” he says.

3. UNPLUG DURING THE WEEK.

One of the best parts of the weekend is that you can give yourself a break from business-related email, says Stansberry. But you can set limits on email during the week, too. “Make it a point—unless your job explicitly requires it—to turn off email for periods of time,” Stansberry says. “Check it in intervals instead of having it constantly on, and reply to messages in batches, which is actually much more efficient anyway.”

4. DO SOME LIGHT WORK ON THE WEEKEND.

Most likely, part of the reason you’re so stressed during the week is that you’re overloaded with work. But if you do a small amount of work on the weekend, you’ll free up some time during the week to do something fun, says Carole Lieberman, a Beverly Hills psychiatrist.

But this doesn’t mean you have to drag yourself to the office on a Saturday. “If you have reading to catch up on, you can use this as motivation to go someplace relaxing, like a park or the beach, where you can lay out a blanket, read, and have a little picnic,” Lieberman says. “If the weather doesn’t permit outdoor relaxation, you can take it inside to your favorite coffee ship or cozy bookstore.”

5. GET A NEW JOB.

A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that those who love their job and their boss had a much smaller—and sometimes even a non-existent—”weekend effect” on their moods. One of the major reasons why people look forward to the weekend is to get away from their jobs; but if you love your job, then you’ll be happier during the week, the study found.

If you can’t switch your job, you can find little ways to boost your mood at the office, says Gini Graham Scott, author of Enjoy! New Ways to Add Fun to Your Work Every Day. She suggests making more of an effort to become friends with your co-workers, including planning post-work socials, potluck lunches in the cafeteria, and coffee outings.

Dog owners tend to fall into one of two camps: Those who let their pups kiss them on the mouth and those who don’t. Some members of the former group defend their love of sloppy licks by saying a canine’s mouth is no dirtier than a person’s. But according to The New York Times, their muzzles actually teem with microorganisms that we, as humans, aren’t designed to battle.

Long story short, it’s not true that dogs’ mouths are more hygienic than ours. They contain as many microbes, and different ones from those that dwell in human saliva. Plus, some of the bacteria is zoonotic, meaning it can be passed from dogs to humans. For example, some common types of canine-transmitted zoonotic bacteria—including clostridium, E. coli, salmonella, and campylobacter—can cause unlucky pet owners to develop gastrointestinal disease.

Meanwhile, dogs often sniff, lick, and eat gross things, including other animals’ fecal matter. It’s rare—but entirely possible—for a canine to transmit an intestinal parasite to its owner by licking them on the face.

Still, this knowledge shouldn’t relegate you to a life without doggy licks. Experts say it’s likely fine for a dog’s tongue to touch your skin, since it won’t absorb the saliva. But since a dog’s saliva and pathogens can be absorbed through the nose, mouth, and eyes, you should probably set some limits on face-licking. The occasional kiss probably won’t hurt you—but just to stay safe, make sure your dog is de-wormed, up-to-date on all its vaccinations, and stays away from other animals’ feces (all things you should already be doing as a responsible dog parent).

[h/t The New York Times]

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What is the difference between fuel and propellant?

Robert Frost:

A fuel is a substance that can burn in the presence of oxygen. An oxidizer is a source of oxygen. A propellant is the combination of fuel and oxidizer. It is the chemical mixture that is burned to provide propulsion.

The three most common rocket propellants are liquid (hypergolic), liquid (non-hypergolic), and solid rocket.

For hypergolic fuels, these two substances are so reactive that just coming into contact with each other causes them to ignite. For non-hypergolic fuels, an ignition source is provided.

Pumps inject fuel and oxidizer into a combustion chamber where they burn, producing hot, rapidly expanding gases that are looking for a way out.

Solid rockets have a single substance that is pre-mixed to contain fuel and oxidizer. That substance is cut or molded into shapes and thicknesses appropriate for the types of burns the rocket needs to perform. That material is put inside the rocket fuselage. Sometimes it is bonded to the sides, sometimes it isn’t. And then ignition is provided in the center of the fuselage so that the fuel burns from the inside out.

With the liquid propellants, thrust can be easily manipulated using the turbo pumps that feed the fuel and oxidizer into the combustion chamber. The engine can be stopped and restarted. Solid rockets can usually only be controlled by their shape. Once they are burning, it really isn’t practical to stop them from burning. Some rockets work around this by using multiple sections of solid fuel and then burning them separately.

This post originally appeared on Quora. Click here to view.

 
Glaucoma is a leading cause of irreversible blindness in the world. A condition of the eye where blocked drainage canals lead to a buildup of pressure and loss of vision, glaucoma has no cure. Treatment is limited to applying medicinal latanoprost drops in order to alleviate the accompanying pressure of the disease, hopefully keeping it from progressing. But drop application can be imprecise, and patients often forget to use them. So two researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Boston Children’s Hospital recently designed a contact lens that delivers medication directly to the eye.

Drug-dispensing contact lenses of the past have been ineffective because they did not dispense the drugs quickly or consistently enough to relieve symptoms. However, the researchers were able to show in a 2014 study that their lens design successfully delivered medication continuously to the eyes of glaucomatous rabbits for one month. In their latest study on glaucomatous monkeys, published in the medical journal Ophthalmology, they were able to show not only that their lens could deliver the drug continuously, but that the lenses alleviated the ocular pressure caused by the disease—possibly even more effectively than manually applied drops do.

“One of the first times I presented our research, I heard some people thought it wouldn’t work in a real contact lens due to prejudices based on previous failures,” Daniel S. Kohane, director of the Laboratory for Biomaterials and Drug Delivery at Boston Children’s Hospital, and a professor of anesthesiology at Harvard Medical School, tells mental_floss.

The secret of their success, says Kohane’s collaborator, Joseph B. Ciolino, an ophthalmologist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, was “the development of polymer drug delivery.”

Kohane explains the process using a Jell-O analogy: Think of the drug as a red powdered dye and the eye as a bathtub. “If you take the red powder and you throw it in a bathtub, all the water in the bathtub becomes red,” he says. However, “if you put the dye into Jell-O, and you throw the Jell-O cubes into the bathtub, the tub will become red very, very slowly.” In the case of the contact lens, “the drug is released slowly by a combination of diffusion and degradation of the polymer film.”

What they found when they applied it to the eyes of monkeys with glaucoma was that “our low-dose lens was equally as effective as the [latanoprost] drops, and in the high-dose lens, was more effective in reducing pressure than the drops,” Ciolino tells mental_floss. “When we first saw the data, we were ecstatic.”

Of course, Ciolino is careful not to “overstate” the findings, since they have yet to be proven effective in human trials, but says, “our findings are potentially exciting to those who are interested in sustained drug delivery.” Kohane hopes to start human trials within a year. 

For the millions of people with glaucoma, these new lenses may offer new hope for living with the disease.

While most of us think of a coffin as having a pretty singular purpose, there are plenty of inventive people out there who have reimagined what the coffin (or casket) can be. Here are some examples of alternative uses for coffins, both before and after death.

1. BOOKSHELF

 
Thinking about building your own coffin but not sure how to store it until your last exit? Just add some slats and set it on end, and you have an instant ominous bookshelf. Woodworker Chuck Lakin makes a more subtle bookcase coffin that is basically two shelves hinged together, ready to transition into a chest for burial. Phoenix Boatworks likewise creates canoe-shaped coffins that function as bookshelves until the “final voyage.” Designer William Warren, meanwhile, has envisioned “Shelves for Life” with wooden parts for book storage that can be reconfigured into coffin parts in death.

2. FLOWER PLANTER

Back in 2013, a man in Northumberland, England, discovered that the garden trough he’d been using for three decades was in fact a rare Roman sarcophagus. That discovery followed a 2012 auction of a Roman marble coffin that had been found in a Dorset garden. Maybe your resting place will have an unexpected resurrection—it might if you’re buried in stone like a member of the Roman Empire.

3. COUCH

Coffin Couches create their plush furniture from 18 gauge steel coffins obtained from California funeral homes. These aren’t being recycled out of the cemetery. The coffins are models that have “slight cosmetic inconsistencies,” have been scratched during shipment, or were bought by a family and held a body, but not used in cremation or burial.

4. COFFEE TABLE

 
Designer Charles Constantine‘s “Coffin Table” might seem like a bold modular choice for the living room with its pine wood angles. Made with open sides for storage, it’s also an unusual bent shape. This hints at its future reuse as a coffin, in which the body is arranged in a fetal position facing the eastern sun, a sign of rebirth in some cultures.

5. POOL TABLE

 
Although this isn’t exactly up to regulation billiards standards, the coffin pool table from Casket Furniture was envisioned as a source of entertainment in life before its final reuse as a tomb. Considering both a fine pool table and high-end coffin cost thousands of dollars, it makes sense to get some enjoyment from the object in the time you have.

6. TANNING BED

The slyly named “Sundead” was a 2012 conceptual project in which Argentine artist Luciano Podcaminsky built a tanning bed contained in a coffin. The piece contrasted the quest for physical perfection with the inevitability of that body’s decay.

7. BAR AND GRILL

This is best suited for a cookout where your friends are quite chill about their transience, as the roving Open Casket Bar and Grill from the Nightmare Cruisers Hearse Club is a combo hearse and coffin turned into a mobile grilling machine. And if you’re in the Detroit area, it’s rentable for parties.

8. BOAT

Last year, a mysterious “Lost Undertaker” was spotted paddling a coffin in Australia’s Lake Burley Griffin. Chilean artist Sebastian Errazuriz was way ahead of him, exhibiting his 2009 “Boat Coffin” in the 2012 London Design Festival. The casket-shaped contraption has a working motor and keel, the idea being that a “sailor” could stage his or her own funeral, navigating the casket from shore, then pulling its plug when they’re ready for the end.

9. HOT ROD

You’d think the data on traffic fatalities would make drivers superstitious, but hot rods made from coffins aren’t that uncommon. The most famous is likely the puntastic DRAG-U-LA from The Munsters, especially the 1965 episode “Hot Rod Herman,” in which Grandpa Munster competes in a drag race. That car was made from an actual fiberglass coffin. Classic and custom car fans, perhaps inspired by the eerie auto, are still building their own DIY vehicles—maybe for some grand theft grave digging.

In an effort to harness alternative energy, one Icelandic company is looking deep beneath the Earth’s surface. The Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) is currently drilling a 3-mile-deep hole into Reykjanes, Iceland that will tap into the power of super-hot magma, New Scientist reports.

While deeper holes have been drilled into solid rock in the past, the IDDP rig will be the deepest well of its kind to penetrate a fluid system. The area they’re targeting is a landward portion of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge fault line. At those depths, ocean water that’s seeped beneath the seabed meets flowing magma, creating a “supercritical steam” that holds more energy than liquid or gas.

The project began on August 12 and is slated to wrap up by the end of 2016. Once completed, the hole is expected to be the hottest on Earth, reaching temperatures as high as about 1800°F.

Iceland is already ahead of the curve when it comes to geothermal energy: Its prime real estate along the Mid-Atlantic ridge allows for the operation of six geothermal power plants. This latest project could deliver the underground power to the country on a much larger scale. Albert Albertsson of HS Orka, an Icelandic geothermal energy company working on IDDP, told New Scientist that their hole will be capable of producing 50 megawatts. That’s enough to power 50,000 households compared to the 5000 that run on a conventional geothermal well.

[h/t New Scientist]

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Vanilla Ice may soon be more popular for his design skills than for his rhymes. HGTV’s Vanilla Ice Project, the rapper’s house-flipping home renovation show, is gearing up for its seventh season. And you could be on the receiving end of his architectural expertise, as a project he and his team designed and built is up for sale.

The 4000-square-foot McMansion borders a canal in Lighthouse Point, Florida, an oceanside community just outside Boca Raton. It’s got four bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, and an 8-foot-deep pool. Not to mention the canal waterfront just at the edge of the backyard. Inside, everything is white, shiny, and very slippery-looking. (It’s—dare I say—downright icy.)

This may come as a disappointment for true fans of Rob Van Winkle (the rapper’s legal name), but it’s not the home he was renovating when he was caught burglarizing the next door neighbors in 2015.

But the home does have other perks. For nearly $2.4 million, according to the listing, the sellers will even throw in a boat “so you can move right in and experience the lifestyle of being on the waterfront and being a boater.” What’s an “as seen on TV” purchase without a little freebie thrown in?

All images courtesy Estately.

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