What are these tiny bits of rubber sticking out of tires?

Simon Hunt:

They have no purpose.

The tire is made in a big solid mold—those tiny bits of “flash” are the rubber that solidified in holes used to vent the mold, or pump the rubber into the mold.

When the tire is pulled out of the mold, the solidified rubber in the holes pulls out with it (thus clearing the holes for the next tire).

They are actually interestingly called “nubbins” and there are clever ways to eliminate them—which is why you don’t see them so often on expensive tires from manufacturers with more advanced equipment.

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

Recent sci-fi thriller series Stranger Things was an unapologetic homage to ‘80s pop culture, and if watching it inspired you to dig out your old Atari 2600 and revisit The Clash’s Combat Rock, you’ll love this 8-bit remake of the hit Netflix show, originally spotted by Vulture.

David and Henry Dutton—the team behind CineFix’s retro video game parody show, 8-Bit Cinema—imagined how Stranger Things would look as an old-school, pixelated computer game. Tiny animated figures fight monsters, explore The Upside Down, and recreate other key scenes, some of which are recast as “missions” (example: give Eleven frozen waffles and a blonde wig).

Watch the entire thing below, or visit 8-Bit Cinema’s channel to view other nostalgia-inducing clips. Sorry, gamers, Stranger Things isn’t actually playable, but maybe a developer will take a cue from entertainment website Newgrounds.com (which once created a hilarious 2D homage to 2003 cult movie The Room) and make Stranger Things: The Video Game a reality. 

[h/t Vulture]

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Lose anything lately? Perhaps it’s because your home is covered in clutter and you can’t motivate yourself to organize it. The average person spends 10 minutes a day looking for their stuff, according to Tile, an app that helps people find their misplaced items. That’s over an hour a week that you spend searching your house for your keys, wallet, and more.

If you’re tired of the frustration and are ready to finally make a change, follow these tips from organizational pros on how they motivate themselves to stop watching puppy videos and start organizing.

1. MAKE A TO-DO LIST.

Use a pen and notepad—or the notepad application on your computer—to keep track of tasks that might slip your mind, suggests Kelly Brask, a professional organizer with Less Is More. No task is too small to make it to the list; Brask’s currently includes: “Copy Girl Scout schedule from Mail to family calendar” and “Find out how late Salvation Army is open for donation drop off.”

2. DO ONE THING EACH DAY.

Tackling an entire organizational list may be intimidating, but simply doing one thing, such as cleaning out a desk, is reasonable. Then, set aside the time to get it done, says Monica Friel, owner of Chaos to Order in Chicago.

3. SET A TIMER.

Carve out a time in your calendar to organize for just 30 minutes. “You may find it easier than you thought,” Friel says, adding that it’s better to start than to never begin, as at least you’re making a dent in the project. And if you find yourself on a roll and decide to tackle the next few items on your list, all the better.

4. ASK FOR MORAL SUPPORT.

“Having someone that will check in and cheer you along in the process is a great motivator,” Friel says. For a group of sympathetic supporters, join a Clutterers Anonymous group. They aim to help each other stop cluttering, one day at a time.

5. TURN OFF DISTRACTIONS.

These may include the television, the radio, computer, or phone. And close the door of the room you’re tackling so you don’t wander away, says Jane Carroo, a certified professional organizer with Organizing Coach Company. Be alone with your project so that you can give it the attention it needs.

6. SET AN INTENTION.

This is your goal, and could be getting your desk organized, figuring out your calendar or your eating plan, writing a book, or even starting a business, Carroo says. “Your intention can be written down on paper or in your computer,” she says. “This is what will motivate you to get it done.”

7. CREATE STEPS.

If you are organizing your desk, what do you need to do to get it done? Do you need to sort the papers into categories? Do you need to make a file for each category, to create systems that can help you keep items organized more easily? Carroo recommends breaking your intention down into actionable steps in order to make the task feel less daunting.

8. DON’T SHOP.

Many people think they’ll magically become organized if they bring home new baskets, bins, or hooks. “While those items help sometimes, in some places, that’s not the best place to start,” says Amy Trager, a certified professional organizer in the Chicago area. She suggests starting by de-cluttering before you rush to the Container Store. “It will save you time and money in the end if you don’t have to return items or purchase containers that never get used,” she says.

9. MAKE A DATE (WITH YOUR PROJECT).

Schedule the time to organize, and put that time in the calendar, Trager says. “Don’t just decide that it’s a good time and assume you’ll remember,” she says. Choose that date and time after considering when you not only have a block of time open, but also when you’ll have the energy and mindset to tackle your project. This could be at 6 a.m. before work or at 3 p.m. when the kids are doing homework. “Knowing how you feel at different times of the day or days of the week will allow you to pick times that will maximize your progress,” Trager says.

Scientists recently made a huge stride toward finding a cure for HIV. A team of researchers from five UK universities reported the apparent disappearance of the virus from the blood of a trial subject. According to The Telegraph, the 44-year-old British man may be the first person fully cured of the disease using the new treatment.

The treatments currently available target active T-cells infected with HIV but do nothing to treat dormant T-cells. The team of scientists are currently running a trial of a different kind of therapy meant to tackle HIV in its dormant state. It goes a few steps beyond existing anti-retroviral therapies (ART) by training the body’s immune system to recognize HIV with a vaccine and awakening dormant T-cells so they’re easier to eradicate.

The therapy is currently being administered to 50 volunteers, and so far it seems to have been fully effective in at least one subject. The virus is no longer detectable in the blood of the unnamed patient. This might be due to the regular drugs he’s taking, but if the dormant cells are completely gone as well then the case represents the trial’s first full cure.

HIV has been eliminated from one patient before using a rather roundabout method: In 2008, Timothy Brown received a stem cell transplant from someone with a natural immunity to the disease and was effectively cured. If this new treatment is as promising as it looks, it could offer a more practical solution to the 2.1 million people infected with HIV each year. Researchers plan to move forward with medical tests for the next five years and may eventually look into the treatment as a replacement for current therapies.

[h/t The Telegraph]

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The accuracy of Google Translate can be hit or miss. It’s often a reliable tool for navigating foreign language websites, but occasionally the tech slips up and confuses terms as different as clitoris and broccoli rabe. In an effort to improve the program, Google has unveiled a new version of Translate called Google Neural Machine Translation or GMNT, Fast Company reports.

The major difference between GMNT and the former phrase-based machine translation system (PBMT) is the way it tackles text. In the past, Translate worked with the individual components of sentences, words, and phrases to translate them separately. The new system looks at whole sentences at a time, improving the technology’s accuracy by roughly 60 percent. This means that even languages as distinct as English and Chinese can be translated to a more precise degree.

GMNT is able to achieve these results by simultaneously running data through multiple cores in computer graphic chips. Each processing layer is allowed limited room for error, which means more layers can be running at once to increase the chances of producing more accurate results (you can read Google’s full paper on the technology here).

Google believes neural networks like this one can be used to expand more than just their translation tool. Researchers at Google Brain have used 11,000 novels to improve the technology’s conversational style and help products like the Google App communicate more fluidly with users.

[h/t Fast Company]

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