Are Google results for removing stains actually helpful? These chemists found out.

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Admit it, you’ve Googled, “How to remove…” for red wine spills, bacon grease splatters, and even blood droplets. These all feel impossibly unforgiving when they get on your clothes, so we turn to the search platform hoping the almighty Google will provide the help we need.

The internet offers up some interesting solutions to get stains out, but should you trust Google’s crowdsourced advice? Chemists from the American Chemical Society systematically tested different stain removal tips pulled from Google search results and definitively determined what works and what doesn’t. 

The internet isn’t totally full of lies, and some suggestions seemed to work. Others not so much. Hairspray for a grease stain? Not really, unless you want a crunchy T-shirt. For blood stains, hydrogen peroxide worked best, but definitely don’t use lemon juice. Then, red wine and boiling water do mix it turns out. As to that bacon grease: dish soap and water is the move. Not so much for Coca Cola.  Read more…

More about Chemistry, Google Search Results, Stain Removal, Science, and Web Culture

Ride-sharing alone scares some just as much as taking a self-driving car, survey finds

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Would you rather take an Uber ride home alone late at night or have a self-driving taxi service come pick you up with no one at the front wheel?

The prospect of riding in a car with only a stranger driving can feel as unsafe as some people feel about new self-driving technology, as a study from car insurance company The Zebra recently found. 

After surveying 2,000 American passengers in August, 53 percent of those surveyed said they felt safer in an autonomous vehicle than a solo ride with a driver. Younger respondents between ages 18 and 24 were more accepting of self-driving vehicles compared to those 55 and older, who preferred a human-driven ride. Self-driving vehicles continue to rank low in consumer confidence, a recent J.D. Power and SurveyMonkey study shows. Read more…

More about Lyft, Ride Hailing Apps, Safety, Self Driving Cars, and Tech

People are so thirsty for Hermann Rorschach, creator of the Rorschach test

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Weekends are always the best time for a good thirst trap party, and this new one is a blast from the past.

Yes, it turns out that famed Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach is a stone-cold hottie. He looks like what we’d see if Brad Pitt traveled back in time and somehow made it into the history books as a famed early 1900s physician.

No, seriously. Don’t take my word for it. See for yourself.

People are so thirsty for Hermann Rorschach, creator of the Rorschach test

Image: Heritage Images / Contributor via getty images

The Rorschach test involves showing pages of inkblot patterns to patients and asking them to describe what they see. The responses then lead to insights into each patient’s personality. Read more…

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How to decide where to start with Apple Arcade based on your gaming tastes

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Apple Arcade is a blessing for fans of mobile games, but also a curse: with so much great stuff to choose from, where do you even start?

Some people will no doubt download absolutely everything and then randomly pick things to check out until something clicks (hi, it me). That’s a perfectly reasonable approach to take, but some of us have tighter constraints on our time.

Lucky for you, I play lots and lots of games, and I’ve spent the past week tooling around with every Apple Arcade game I had time for. I still haven’t touched every single one – it’s a lot to go through! – but I’ve played enough to get a good feel for what’s on offer and single out some favorites. Read more…

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Two popular camera apps turn out to be adware, are pulled from Google Play Store

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Two Android apps that weren’t what they seemed got pulled from the Google Play app store this week.

Instead of offering features to up your selfie game and mobile picture-taking, the two apps, Sun Pro Beauty Camera and Funny Sweet Beauty Camera, were pushing adware onto phones.

Researchers at cybersecurity company Wandera discovered the malicious apps only recently, after the Sun Pro app had been available for two years, since Sept. 2017, and seen more than 1 million downloads. The other, Funny Sweet Beauty Camera, was only up since July but had pulled in more than 500,000 downloads, according to ZDNet. Read more…

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Here’s a dog hugging a horse, because it’s 2019 and we all need this

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These days, amidst fears of a climate change-induced apocalypse and unhinged, criminal politicians edging us toward war, it’s hard enough just getting out of bed in the morning. To help, I present to you this video of a dog hugging a horse.

After coming back from an outing, this adorable Aussie Shepherd from Sweden, named Orion, decided to give their horsey pal Destiny a big hug. It’s the most precious show of bipartisan love the internet has seen since at least 2016.

Thank you for this truly inspiring display, Destiny and Orion. Read more…

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4 climate change apps every tech-savvy advocate needs to download

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As part of the 2019 Social Good Summit on Sept. 22, Mashable is tackling the climate change problem head on, highlighting the progress the world needs, and celebrating the experts making change happen.


Climate change can often feel like a huge problem with few actionable solutions. Just look at the facts: July was the hottest month on record. Eighteen of the last 19 years have been the warmest recorded. And the rate of CO2 increase in the atmosphere is unprecedented in the geologic record. 

While it’s true that politicians and entire countries hold many of the keys to fixing these issues, there are simple way you can help — through apps. Read more…

More about Apps, Climate Change, Climate Science, Social Good Summit 2019, and Social Good

‘Fortnite’ heads to Gotham City in new Fortnite x Batman event

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The latest Fortnite crossover event is one for the DC Comics fans.

Epic Games revealed its “Fortnite x Batman” cash farm collaboration on Saturday, an event that brings a touch of Gotham City to both the game’s map and its catalog of cosmetics. Until Oct. 6, Fortnite players who spend any time in the Tilted Towers area of the map will find Gotham City vibes and landmarks waiting for them.

The event also includes new shinies to reach for, including Batman-themed character and gadget skins. The trailer is very matter-of-fact about all of this, but the event is live now for you to check out at your leisure. Read more…

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A YouTuber and a U-Haul full of strangers: Inside the final attempt to storm Area 51

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There were more news crews than alien hunters at the second attempt to “storm” Area 51’s back gates in the predawn hours of Saturday morning. 

A guy with a plunger and a neck brace led the charge toward the secretive facility after hyping up a small group of us with a speech, but stopped short right before the gate. 

The number of campers in Rachel, Nevada, had doubled by Friday night, but only a handful of people showed up to actually Naruto-run through the military base’s gates. More than two million people RSVP’d to the viral “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All Of Us” event on Facebook. About a thousand showed up in Rachel and Hiko, two small towns in Nevada that are both hosting music festivals, to either camp in reserved sites or snag a free spot on Bureau of Land Management land. Read more…

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YouTube walks back changes to verification policy after outcry

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YouTube’s CEO is once again apologizing to the service’s top users following a massive backlash over changes to its verification policy.

One day after announcing that it was ditching the checkmarks and notifying many users that they were no longer eligible for verification, the company is walking back those changes.

“We completely missed the mark,” the company said in an updated blog post published Friday. 

“Channels that already have the verification badge will now keep it and don’t have to appeal. Just like in the past, all channels that have over 100,000 subscribers will still be eligible to apply. We’ll reopen the application process by the end of October.” Read more…

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