Cecily Mak

China to again have one of the world's fastest bullet trains

BEIJING (AP) — After cutting back the speed of the Beijing to Shanghai bullet train following a deadly crash, China is set to again make it one of the world's fastest.<p>New generation trains will service the route starting next month, making the 1,250-kilometer (777-mile) journey from the capital to …

Hotel transforms airplane into deluxe suite in jungle

If you have ever wanted to spend the night in a vintage airplane- this hotel needs to be added to your bucket list.<p>This two-bedroom suite in Costa Rica was built from a 1965 Boeing 727 airplane, which was used to shuttle globetrotters on South Africa Air and Avianca Airlines.<p><b>BEST DEALS: U.S. News &</b> …

Compare your memory with an orangutan’s – quiz

Take our test to find out how effective you are at recall<p><b>Are you cleverer than an orangutan?</b><p><b>How good are you at strategic thinking? Study the list of items below, then look away, and try to list all seven (in any order):</b><p><b>Daffodil</b><b><br>Lizard</b><b><br>Fish</b><b><br>Apple</b><b><br>Seashell</b><b><br>Doctor</b><b><br>Rock</b><p>How did you do? Better than an …

South Tyrol Mid-Century

Meet The Futuristic Personal Transportation Vehicle Coming To China And U.S. Soon

Leo Liu still remembers the first time he saw a “personal transportation” machine.<p>“I was an industrial engineering student at University of Florida, and I saw a group of people ride around campus standing completely upright on giant wheels,” he recalls. “They were Segways. I thought to myself, …

Total solar eclipse: Things to know

<b>(CNN) —</b> On Monday, the sun will disappear -- for a short time -- across America.<p>For a brief moment, day will turn to night. Animals big and small will go into their nighttime routines. Stars and planets will be visible, and streetlights will turn on in the middle of the day.<p>Here are some of the …

Woman Loses Her Engagement Ring in Garden, Finds It 13 Years Later Wrapped Around a Carrot

Well, this is a new one.<p>In September of 2004, Mary Grams, an 84-year-old woman from Alberta, Canada, lost her engagement ring while doing some yard …

Squeezed by an India-China Standoff, Bhutan Holds Its Breath

HAA, Bhutan — India’s main garrison in the Kingdom of Bhutan sits only 13 miles from a disputed border with China. There is a training academy, a military hospital, a golf course — all testament to India’s enduring role defending this tiny Himalayan nation.<p>Earlier this summer, China began extending …

European regulators are about to kill the digital media industry

When we imagine an assault on free media, we often picture a despotic ruler seeking to consolidate power by silencing voices of opposition. Bangladesh, Egypt and Zimbabwe are but a few arenas where battles for media dominance by the ruling class have left news outlets censored, journalists in jail, …

Uber shareholder group asks Benchmark to step down from board following Kalanick suit

In what is rapidly devolving into an all-out brawl on the board of the world’s highest-valued private company, a group of Uber shareholders have asked the venture capital firm Benchmark to step down from the board of directors.<p>This move comes only a day after Benchmark took the aggressive step of …

Over 50,000 digitized pieces of vinyl can now be listened to on Internet Archive

Get familiar with the Great 78 Project<p>New York’s ARChive of Contemporary Music (ARC) has been preserving audiovisual materials since 1985, and a little over a year ago, it partnered with the Internet Archive to bring its Great 78 Project to the public. Along with audiovisual digitization vendor …

What Happened to Google's Effort to Scan Millions of University Library Books?

It was a crazy idea: Take the bulk of the world’s books, scan them, and create a monumental digital library for all to access. That’s what Google …

Uber hit with even more drama after scandalous lawsuit

Remember #DeleteUber?<p>So much has happened since people complained about Uber CEO ... err rather ... former CEO Travis Kalanick being on President Donald Trump's advisory council and Uber stopping surge pricing during Trump's travel ban.<p>It's like we can't go a day without Uber-related drama.<p>Case in …

What Those Weird Symbols on the Dollar Bill Actually Mean

The pyramid on the dollar bill represents strength and duration. Some interpret missing top as a sign that the country wasn’t finished yet. …

What a 13-million-year-old ape skull reveals

Researchers say the ancient fossil found in Kenya is the most well preserved ape skull ever discovered.

Cassini will take five victory laps before plunging into Saturn

Over the past few months, Cassini took the closest pictures of Saturn's rings we've ever seen that it was pretty easy to forget that the probe was nearing its end. It actually dove in and out of the rings to prepare for its poetic death, and now it's down to its last orbits around the planet. On …

This Is The Real Reason Ice Cream Gives Us Brain Freeze

It's worth it, but it's still annoying.<p>Brain freeze is an unavoidable risk when eating ice cream. It’s the painful consequence of eating something cold too quickly, and it’s an experience that most of us know very well. But <i>what</i> is it and <i>why</i> does it actually happen?<p>Brain freeze is a type of headache.<p>…

Is Apple solving the privacy and convenience puzzle?

When Apple in 2016 announced its interest in using "differential privacy" to gather useful information while preserving user privacy, critics panned …

The largest animal ever to walk the Earth gets a name

The biggest dinosaur ever to walk the Earth finally has a name.<p>It's called <i>Patagotitan mayorum</i>, according to a study published in <i>Proceedings of the Royal Society B</i>.<p>The titanosaur weighed 76 tons and stretched 122 feet long. To put that in perspective, <i>National Geographic</i> described the dinosaur as …

What Disney Parting With Netflix Tells Us About the Content Streaming Business

A competition of creativity, basically.<p>Disney just announced that effective 2019, its content will no longer be available on Netflix.<p>And not only will it no longer be on Netflix, but in 2019 Disney will also launch its own streaming service.<p>Here's why that's so much more revealing about the …

These 2 teens cold-called Sam Altman and became the youngest founders ever accepted to Y Combinator

When 14-year-old app developer Saroush Ghodsi cold-called famed Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sam Altman on a Friday night in January, he had no idea …

Watch how SpaceX imagines a perfect Falcon Heavy launch will go

Elon Musk has shared a new animation created by SpaceX to demonstrate the planned launch process for its Falcon Heavy rocket, which it hopes to test fly for the first time this coming November. The animation depicts launch of the three-booster heavy rocket, separation of the first and second …

What Really Happens When You Don't Turn Off Your Cell Phone on a Plane?

Cell phone use on planes has been heavily debated as the airline industry attempts to keep up with ever-changing technology. It’s standard practice …

9-year-old alien expert submits application for NASA job

If there's one population uniquely qualified to fight aliens, it's children under the age of 10 who love cable television.<p>After hearing that NASA was looking for its next "Planetary Protection Officer," 9-year-old Jack Davis decided to throw his name in the hat. Jack, a self-proclaimed "Guardian of …

The Best Train Ride in America Costs Only $97

All aboard!<p>Hands down, one of the best (and cheapest) ways to see America's vast beauty is by train. Don't believe us? Then allow us to introduce you to Amtrak's Coast Starlight, which has been called "one of America's most beautiful train rides" since the 1940s.<p>Starting in Seattle and ending in …

That incredibly well-preserved armored dinosaur is actually a new species

The discovery itself was amazing.<p>A dinosaur was found in Canada around 110 million years after it died. <i>National Geographic</i> covered the accidental discovery in its June issue and created a 3-D rendering to show how well-preserved the dinosaur fossils were in an ancient river bank.<p>The discovery was …

Tesla's new Solar Roof is actually cheaper than a normal roof

Good news for those who have been eyeing Tesla’s new Solar Roof – the company just announced pricing for its photovoltaic tiles, and they come in at …

The Tesla Model 3 interior doesn't look like any car you've ever seen

One 15-inch touchscreen panel — and that’s it<p>Tesla finally delivered the first 30 units of the Model 3 this past evening, and now that the production version of the company’s mass-market electric car is out in the wild, one key detail has finally been confirmed: the interior is going to look unlike …

This high school kid taught himself to be an AI wizard

If you're deep into the world of artificial intelligence, you certainly know Kaggle, the Google Cloud-owned platform where AI coders compete on projects, often with financial rewards for the winning solutions.<p>The platform recently passed 1 million members, a testament to what a hotbed the field of …