At a Christie’s auction, bids on a scrappy dog house did what a meteorite had done three years ago: They went through the roof.

The rusty, corrugated tin shelter — with a gaping seven-inch hole on top — went for $44,100 earlier this week, more than double the amount fetched by the extraterrestrial rock that blasted through it. Meanwhile, an extremely rare auction lot — billed as the third-largest Martian rock on Earth and valued at up to $800,000 — failed to find a buyer when the sale closed on Feb. 23.

The dog house’s sale may reveal something about what drives private collectors to possess the rare objects that fall to Earth from outer space. Beyond their ancient ages and the distance they’ve traveled is the notion of a close call: Something unexpected and otherworldly fell from the sky, and, in doing so, showed its potential for destruction.

In some cases, the reminder of that power is more valuable than the rubble itself.

• Want to see a brilliant star nursery and vivid planets? Look up in February.

• NASA unexpectedly revealed a Webb telescope ‘first light’ image

• Stunning photo captures space station crossing the moon in jaw-dropping detail

“It’s incredibly unlikely for [a meteorite] to actually hit something that’s in our day-to-day lives.”

“It’s incredibly unlikely for [a meteorite] to actually hit something that’s in our day-to-day lives,” James Hyslop, head of scientific instruments, globes, and natural history at Christie’s, told Mashable.

The story behind the dog house began at 9:07 p.m. on April 23, 2019, according to its record in the Meteoritical Bulletin, a publication of peer-reviewed meteorites. That night, a meteorite shower pelted a rainforest in central Costa Rica. Cameras at the summits of volcanoes captured the fireball, an unusually bright meteor. A chunk weighing close to two-thirds of a pound crashed into a German shepherd’s abode. Coincidentally, his name was “Roky.”

The Brazilian Meteors Observation Network, University of Sao Paulo, and Sao Paulo State University figured out the trajectory of the meteorite, dubbed “Arguas Zarcas,” by reviewing four security videos and dashcam cameras.

A note to concerned dog lovers: Roky survived the ordeal in better shape than his house.

Roky, a German Shepherd in Costa Rica, wasn’t injured by a meteorite that crashed into his dog house in 2019.
Credit: Christie’s

Appraising these astronomical objects at auction has more to do with a gut feeling, Hyslop admits. The only data Christie’s had to guide it was a meteorite-dented mailbox from Claxton, Georgia, that sold for $83,000 in 2007.

A few years ago, Hyslop attended a meteorite exhibition in Paris. Outside in a glass box was a Chevy Malibu that had been struck by the Peekskill meteorite in 1992.

“I just thought that was such a great bit of theater,” he said. “It’s not just these meteorites that capture our minds. I mean, we all know the story of the asteroid that crashed into Earth and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. The impact that a meteorite has is a part of the story.”

“I just thought that was such a great bit of theater.”

A meteorite struck a Chevy Malibu in 1992.
Credit: Ingo Wagner dpa / Picture Alliance / Getty Images

Scientists estimate that about 48.5 tons of billions-of-years-old meteor material rain down on the planet daily, much of which vaporizes in Earth’s atmosphere or falls into the ocean, which covers over 70 percent of the planet.

Over 60,000 meteorites have been discovered on Earth. The vast majority come from asteroids, but a small sliver, about 0.2 percent, come from Mars or the moon, according to NASA. At least 126 have been identified as originating from the Red Planet.

In order for meteorites to get formally documented, the owner must give a large piece of it to an internationally authorized institution, such as a natural history museum. The institution will cut off a piece to preserve for enduring scientific research.

“The impact that a meteorite has is a part of the story.”

An “Aguas Zarcas” space rock that smashed into a dog house sold at auction for $21,420 on Feb. 23, 2022.
Credit: Christie’s

Christie’s auctioned a piece of Roky’s rock that weighed half as much as the weight recorded in the Meteoritical Bulletin. The meteorite is mostly covered in a fusion crust, caused by its fiery descent through Earth’s atmosphere. Its front face features a reddish-brown streak from when it crashed through the oxidized tin roof. The meteorite, composed of carbon compounds, sold for $21,420.

When Hyslop saw the unique remnants of the Costa Rican crash in the gallery, he thought it looked like an art installation.

“For me, it fits very comfortably alongside some very cool contemporary artworks of the moment,” he said.

As a sophomore in college, I was on Tumblr every minute that I wasn’t in class or watching YouTube. And as a fan of One Direction, I couldn’t avoid the platform’s No. 1 ship of 2015: Larry Stylinson, the pairing of band members Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson. Larry supporters scoured videos of the group for “evidence” of their romance — a lingering gaze, a gentle brush of an arm — and transformed those moments into GIFs that were reblogged tens of thousands of times. 

At first, I found the conviction of Larry truthers fascinating. And then something strange happened: I began to believe in Larry, too.

Larry content was everywhere, blooming across photo edits, blog posts, fan art, and fanfiction. However, it was the GIFs that did me in. They re-framed a fleeting moment as significant, as romantic, then suspended it in time. Scholars Dr. Dominik Maeder and Dr. Daniela Wentz have written that in a GIF’s “infinite loops of human and animal gesture… meaning eventually surfaces.” For me, and for many Larry shippers, that was true. Styles and Tomlinson denied the romance, but the hypnotic carousel of their small, silent moments made it feel completely possible, maybe even real.

Kayla, who now works as a social media consultant in the entertainment industry and requested we change her name to maintain her anonymity, used to make shipping edits of Arrow‘s Olicity (Oliver and Felicity) and The Old Guard‘s Joe and Nicky. GIFs were her way of showing others something she saw that they might not have picked up on. “When you slow these things down, you’re noticing smaller moments that you didn’t see live, that you wouldn’t see otherwise,” she explains. “That’s really special when you’re talking about romanticizing these couples and their chemistry. It increases the investment of fans in that relationship because they can see it in a new way.” Fans share those interpretations through creative edits, sometimes leveling up a romance to be on par with a Disney love story or the fiery passion of The Notebook‘s Allie and Noah or the tragedy of Titanic.

[GIFs] re-framed a fleeting moment as significant, as romantic, then suspended it in time.

During her time on Tumblr from 2014 to 2018, Kayla mostly posted sets: collections of GIFs or photos that capture shorter frames of a larger moment, like storyboards. Sets were native to Tumblr, and have now been co-opted by fans on Twitter. “With GIF sets you break the moment down a lot more to see the evolution of it in a way that encapsulates almost all of the emotion or all the chemistry.” They can also capture dialogue exchanges that are too long for a single GIF. “Sets to me are a little bit more emotional, a little bit more palpable,” she says “and I think really tugged at the heartstrings of the moment more than a single GIF would.”

In a 2013 interview, Tumblr’s founder and then-CEO David Karp called this kind of GIF editing and remixing “a really clear example” of a way that Tumblr gave creators “room to do something that they couldn’t really do anywhere else.” In contrast to nascent social platforms of the day, which he said had “gotten more and more restricted — [with] square photos, 140 characters, six-second videos,” Tumblr gave creativity a “place to flourish. We didn’t want to define the medium,” he says, “we wanted to leave it wide open.”

According to researchers Kate M. Miltner and Tim Highfield, the GIF is “an ideal tool for enhancing” what they call “the performance of affect” or the way we process and react to experiences. Basically, GIFs are like stand-ins for our own experiences, allowing us to analyze, replay, and potentially portray the actions they depict.

This is especially significant for queer communities on Tumblr. Other academics suggest that while sharing GIFs are the “smallest and most innocuous of Tumblr practices,” for LGBTQ users specifically, GIFs are a way to “trade in affect across the site.”

“Millennials kind of paved the way for queerness on the internet, and a lot of it happened through Tumblr,” says Amanda Brennan, who dug into the data behind Tumblr’s fandoms over her seven years at the company. “The way that we talk about gender and sexuality now wouldn’t be here if Tumblr hadn’t laid that path. It’s a space where you could be yourself and support each other, and the queer community is the cornerstone.” And GIFs can be a vehicle for discovery in the same way that “we use memes as a way to talk about things that we may or may not want to be vulnerable about,” she says.

That visibility helps queer users see themselves in stories historically centered on heterosexual relationships, and celebrate their identity.

Brennan points to data from 2013 showing that more than 76 percent of the most reblogged ships on Tumblr were slash, or same-sex pairings. That visibility helps queer users see themselves in stories historically centered on heterosexual relationships, and celebrate their identity. It’s important “to be able to see these queer relationships and queer joy when you’re just trying to figure yourself out,” to be able to say, “‘I see the way this person looks at this person. And I know that feeling and I’m going to dive into it because it brings me joy.'”

GIFs capture these ephemeral moments in a way that is immense and interminable. A GIF lives on in perpetuity, as eternal as love itself. Brennan points to one of her favorite femslash ships: Waverly Earp and Nicole Haught (Wayhaught) of Wynonna Earp. “I love seeing love, wherever it is,” she gushes, “Like, fuck yeah, I want to look at every GIF of the way that Nicole gives Waverly heart eyes.”

Over the last few years, there’s been hand-wringing over (young) people not having sex anymore. The latest came on Valentine’s Day, when CNN declared Americans are “less likely to have sex…than ever.”

Twenty-six percent of American adults didn’t have sex at all in 2021, according to the latest General Social Survey (GSS), a national representative survey of American adults released most years since 1972. While COVID certainly didn’t help matters of physical touch, the trend is in line with pre-pandemic levels. In 2016 and 2018, the last two times the survey was conducted, 23 percent of people reported not having sex at all.

Are we really having less sex than ever? It’s impossible to tell in a few data points. If you find yourself in the sexless category and want to climb out of it, though, there are ways to do so.

Consider the data

As always when looking at survey numbers, be mindful that even a nationally representative sample won’t illustrate what each and every person is going through. When looking at the actual breakdown of the 2021 GSS data, for example, the hard number of people telling GSS they haven’t had sex in the last 12 months is 633 out of 4,032. In fact, 46 percent of participants (1,875) either didn’t have an applicable answer, said they didn’t know, or plain didn’t answer that question.

That doesn’t mean we should disregard these findings entirely, though. The GSS is far from the only survey to suggest people, particularly Millennials and Gen Z, are having less sex.

One statistic doesn’t tell the whole story, however, and also doesn’t dive into the reasons behind it. 

Why are we having less sex?

Sex educator and author of Beyond Satisfied: A Sex Hacker’s Guide to Endless Orgasms, Mind-Blowing Connection, and Lasting Confidence Kenneth Play suspects that as our online lives become richer, our ability to connect IRL diminishes. “This trend has already been catapulting with every new device and dating app,” he told Mashable. “Coupled with pandemic lockdown, we now have a recipe for loneliness and disconnection.”

Prior to his current career, Play was a personal trainer. He discovered that he wasn’t competing with other fitness businesses; he competed with the entertainment industry. It’s much easier, for instance, to binge Netflix than to drag yourself to a gym.

“We have too many options that compete for our attention in this hyper-convenient society,” he said. “It makes social connection more of a chore than ever before.”

Combine our hyper-convenient society with the stressors of a pandemic and the busyness of modern life, and it makes sense that we’re having less sex. 

Still, people may desire sex even if they’re not having it. According to dating site eharmony’s latest Happiness Index, a nationally representative survey of 3,000 people, 41 percent of singles reported that their libido is higher now than pre-pandemic. 

Play, a “sex hacker” who coaches clients on how to improve sex and intimacy, said he’s getting more requests than ever for help in the bedroom.

Stephen Quaderer, creator of the inclusive app for people who love oral pleasure Headero, said the influx of 20,000 users on the app since July 202 is a counterpoint to these statistics. 

“Within the Headero community we’re seeing a very different picture than the broader societal trend,” said Quaderer. “People are coming to Headero to seek out sexual exploration and experimentation – and based on the feedback that we’ve received, they’re finding it.”

Quaderer believes Headero’s growth and the sexless trends actually have something in common. The reason the app is growing is because it’s a safe space for people to be honest with their intentions and desires while grounding in safety and consent, he said. Meanwhile, in broader society, sex is increasingly framed from the prospective of stigma, so people don’t interrogate or act on their desires.

This is certainly true of social media companies, which are our current communication hubs. Tech giants are increasingly prudish due to legislation like FOSTA-SESTA, which set out to curb sex trafficking but in reality is just pushing sex workers — and discussions of sex — to the margins. 

As University of Toronto pornography platform Ph.D. student Maggie MacDonald told Mashable, sexuality is just one social element that we like to connect with others about. On our main methods of digital communication, however, we’re not allowed to express this side of ourselves. This stifling of online sexual content — combined with a concerning lack of sexual education in schools — can bleed into our sex lives because if we’re not talking about it on the internet then we may not be talking about it at all. Porn, which is stylized entertainment, becomes the de facto rulebook to sex.

Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok don’t allow sexual content. While Twitter does, some users (like sex workers) claim they’re shadowbanned (when one’s account remains up but their content is blocked from others seeing it). 

Sexuality is policed online by both the U.S. government and by the platforms themselves. But what if you want to have more IRL intimacy and don’t know where to start?

How to have more sex

While we alone can’t solve the erasure of sexuality online  — or the pandemic, or the hamster wheel of late-stage capitalism — there are small, actionable steps individuals can take to have more sex,

Play’s first suggestion is to schedule it. “I know, it sounds kind of lame,” he said, “but one of the key findings in sex research is that responsive desire produces far greater results in getting people in the mood.” Responsive desire is getting horny after external stimulation, like someone touching you. Spontaneous desire is getting horny with or without stimulation…in other words, spontaneously. 

Transitioning from a stressful day to a sensual partner session can be challenging, Play acknowledged. He suggested creating a transition ritual to get in an erotic headspace. An easy sex hack? Take a sensual shower with your partner.

“The goal is to caress each other’s bodies slowly and focus on the awakening sensations in your body,” Play said. “As a bonus you also get clean and smell great for all the dirty fun ahead!”

Quaderer advises folks to educate themselves beyond “the birds and the bees.” Read about communication, and of course consent and safety. Learning more about sex won’t just make you a more understanding and empathetic lover, but will also ground your own value system about sex, said Quaderer. 

Questions to ask yourself are: What matters to you? What conditions must be met before sex?  What boundaries cannot be crossed? 

“Sex is complex, and it can be confusing,” Quaderer said, “so having a firm set of personal sexual values can help you navigate that complexity as it arises.” Knowing what you value out of sex can help you determine if a partner is right for you, and what desires you want to explore. 

Once you have firm boundaries and desires, you can seek out communities of like minded people. Quaderer suggested his own app, Headero, and there are others out there like sexual exploration app Feeld and polyamorous community app Bloom.

The sex data is bleak, but it’s not a life sentence. If we carve out time to be with our partner — or ourselves — and determine our sexual values, we can bunk the trend.

Every year, children and their parents seek medical care for tics. These involuntary, repetitive verbal expressions and physical behaviors are often caused by the neurologic condition Tourette syndrome. Typically, symptoms begin when children are between the ages of five and seven. Boys are more likely to be diagnosed with the condition.

But during the pandemic, physicians around the world noticed something unusual: Adolescent and teen girls began showing up in emergency departments exhibiting tics that developed seemingly out of nowhere and were not related to Tourette syndrome. Doctors shared details with each other about the surprising phenomenon and took note of something even stranger. Patients had picked up the same tics, regardless of where they lived. They repeated random words or phrases, like “flying shark,” “beans,” and “woo-hoo,” in addition to saying the same obscenities. They clapped their hands and pointed their fingers, and hit or banged parts of their body as well as other people or objects.

The doctors soon identified a common thread tying these cases together: viewing of viral TikTok videos featuring creators with Tourette syndrome. The #tourettes hashtag on the social media platform has 5.5 billion views.

Sleuthing by doctors offered some insights about the phenomenon, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently published data illustrating its scale. The mean number of weekly visits to the ER for tics skyrocketed for adolescent girls from about a dozen prior to the pandemic to 85 at its peak in 2021. While that number began to decline toward the end of the year, it surged at the start of 2022. In general, the proportion of visits for tic disorders tripled during the pandemic. Visits for children’s mental health conditions, like anxiety, disordered eating, and obsessive-compulsive disorders, rose markedly during the same time. The CDC noted in its report that pandemic stress or exposure to severe tics on platforms like TikTok might explain the unexpected cases.

Dr. Mohammed Aldosari, a pediatric neurologist and director of the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Pediatric Neurosciences, says it’s critical to offer teens, parents, and caregivers reassurance that such tics are treatable, and rarely a symptom of a more dangerous or life-threatening disorder.

“Mostly this is an expression of extreme stress, whether it’s recognized or unrecognized by the parents,” says Aldosari, who has treated patients experiencing the sudden onset of tics during the pandemic. “Something is stressing this young teenager.”

What causes tics in children?

Along with other experts, Aldosari believes social media may be the catalyst for the sudden onset of tics, rather than the cause. In one published account of the phenomenon, from November 2020, doctors in the United Kingdom described a 14-year-old girl with no history of tics who started exhibiting complex head turns, neck thrusting, and flailing, along with making yelping noises, the day after a COVID-19 lockdown announcement. The restrictions, changes to routine, social media exposure and bullying, and pandemic-related stress all factored into the girl’s diagnosis.

The doctors wrote that stress may be unmasking a predisposition to tics in some patients. For others, it could be compounding existing vulnerability to anxiety, or other underlying neurological and emotional difficulties, to the point where patients become totally overwhelmed.

Aldosari says that for some people stress can trigger a movement disorder, including the types of involuntary tics that are not caused by Tourette syndrome. In such cases, the brain is trying to physically express a feeling of overwhelm. It makes sense that teens, many of whom couldn’t find social and athletic outlets for stress during periods of the pandemic, might experience tics as a result. The most vulnerable teens might also be susceptible to viral videos of young people demonstrating their tics or tic-like behaviors and then unwittingly adopt them, says Aldosari.

How to help a child with tics

Youth who experience involuntary tics — and their parents — should remember that these expressions and movements aren’t fake or attention-seeking. Instead, they’re an indication of significant distress that can be treated with help from a medical professional. At first, teens might not be aware of, or eager to discuss, how stress affects them.

Aldosari says patients should see a psychologist who can help them understand what contributed to their development of tics. He also notes that an evaluation of symptoms shouldn’t require expensive or intensive procedures like magnetic resonance imaging or a battery of blood tests, which is what some physicians ordered for their patients when the phenomenon first emerged during the pandemic.

Treatment involves addressing both the involuntary movements and vocalizations, as well as their underlying causes, like stress and anxiety. Cognitive behavioral-based therapies, which help patients identify how thoughts influence their feelings and behavior, can reverse or diminish tics. If a teen is diagnosed with a severe mental illness that’s gone undetected so far, treatment might also involve antidepressant or antipsychotic medications. Tics that developed in conjunction with social media use may improve when a patient reduces their exposure to it.

In the United Kingdom case study, the doctors noted that teen girls with tics posted content about their behaviors, which had notable benefits and drawbacks.

“They report that they gain peer support, recognition and a sense of belonging from this exposure,” wrote the doctors. “This attention and support may be inadvertently reinforcing and maintaining symptoms.”

Aldosari says that if teens and their parents want to prevent tics, they should be mindful of stress and unmediated social media use, particularly tic-related content. Teens experiencing headaches, sleep issues, social withdrawal, and conflicts with friends and family should consider those challenges as indicators that stress is taking a toll, whether they realize it or not.

The increase in tic disorders and other mental health conditions during the pandemic is just the “tip of the iceberg,” says Aldosari. For every teen who sought medical treatment at the ER, there are likely several others who contacted their physician or haven’t even received any care and therefore don’t show up in official statistics.

Aldosari says it’s critical to intervene quickly when symptoms begin: “Early recognition [and] early help could prevent a downward spiral.”

If you want to talk to someone or are experiencing suicidal thoughts, Crisis Text Line provides free, confidential support 24/7. Text CRISIS to 741741 to be connected to a crisis counselor. Contact the NAMI HelpLine at 1-800-950-NAMI, Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. ET, or email info@nami.org. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Here is a list of international resources.

Climate 101 is a Mashable series that answers provoking and salient questions about Earth’s warming climate.

The oceans are the true keeper of climate change.

Earth’s seas soak up over 90 percent of the heat humanity is now trapping on the planet, a nearly an unfathomable amount of energy that expands the oceans. And as Earth’s ice sheets and glaciers melt in a hotter world, this new water inevitably pours into the seas.

Since the late 19th century, sea levels have already risen by some eight to nine inches. But much more sea level rise is imminent, because the planet has warmed significantly over the last hundred years. In a new report authored by top researchers at a diversity of U.S. agencies — the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA, the Department of Defense, and beyond — scientists project sea levels will rise by some 10 inches to a foot along the U.S. coast over just the next three decades.

In a hotter world, seas are rising faster. “Over the last 50 years, there’s been an acceleration,” William Sweet, a NOAA oceanographer and one of the report’s lead authors, told Mashable.

And after 2050, the waters will continue rising. Crucially, how much more is contingent upon how much society heats the planet by burning ancient, decomposed deposits of carbon-rich organisms (stored underground as fossil fuels). Already, heat-trapping CO2 levels in the atmosphere are the highest they’ve been in some 3 million years. Sea levels could rise an additional foot and a half this century, or multiple feet.

“The ice sheets are just getting warmed up.”

Melting from Earth’s massive ice sheets, which blanket Greenland and Antarctica, will figure prominently in the coming decades.

“The ice sheets are just getting warmed up,” Josh Willis, a NASA oceanographer not involved with the report, told Mashable.

How we know sea levels are rising

Satellites have revolutionized our ability to measure changing sea levels.

That’s because the sprawling oceans — influenced by the likes of varying temperatures, geography, ocean currents, and tides in disparate places — make it enormously difficult to measure how seas are changing globally. But satellites in space, like NASA’s Jason-3, beam radio waves to the ocean surface that bounce back to the satellite. This gives oceanographers a precise recording of sea surface height over wide swathes of the ocean.

An extensive system of tide gauges confirms what satellites like Jason-3 record from space. There are other stark indicators, too. Along much of the U.S. coastline, high-tide flooding is now 300 to over 900 percent more frequent than it was 50 years ago, notes NOAA. It’s also why an octopus washed into a Miami parking garage amid a high tide event. The totality of the evidence is clear.

“We know the ocean is rising,” said NOAA’s Sweet.

Sea level rise each year more than doubled from 1.4 millimeters over most of the 20th century, to 3.6 millimeters by the early 21st century. From just the years 2013 to 2018, that number accelerated to 4.8 millimeters per year.

Sea level rise between 1993 to present, as measured by satellites.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

• Why the sun isn’t causing today’s climate change

• Why the first big U.S. ocean wind farm is a big deal

• The deep sea discoveries and sightings of 2021 are amazing

Why scientists expect sea levels to rise significantly

In the coming decades, two factors will largely drive rising sea levels around the U.S., and the globe.

1. Thermal expansion: As the seas absorb more heat, they expand. The oceans have warmed each year for decades, and in 2021 the ocean “was the hottest ever recorded by humans,” scientists concluded in a major study. Historically, thermal expansion has been responsible for one-third of sea level rise.

2. Melting ice sheets and glaciers: Globally, nearly all mountain glaciers are shrinking. You might consider glimpsing them while you can. Much of this glacial water ultimately enters the ocean. Separately, the colossal ice stores on Greenland and Antarctica are melting into the sea, too. The reasons for this are numerous: Warming air directly melts Greenland’s ice. Warming oceans also melt the ends of Greenland’s glaciers. In Antarctica, a warmer atmosphere is ultimately driving warmer seawater beneath the ends of gigantic Antarctic glaciers. This has destabilized them and amplified ice loss.

   Just how much ice have the ice sheets lost? A prodigious amount. Satellites beam lasers onto the great remote ice sheets to document their mass. The Greenland Ice Sheet, about three times the size of Texas, lost some 200 gigatons annually between 2003 and 2019. (A gigaton equals 1 billion metric tonnes.) Meanwhile, Antarctica, a continent whose mountains are up to their necks in ice, lost some 118 gigatons each year.

Melting ice sheets and glaciers have accounted for two-thirds of sea level rise. But in the coming years, ice sheets will play a larger role. There’s considerably more ice to melt.

How thermal expansion and added water mass (from ice sheets and glaciers) add up to significant sea level rise.
Credit: NASA

Tweet may have been deleted

NOAA’s Sweet, an author of the sea level rise report, has strong confidence in the sea level rise projections over the next few decades. That’s because the graphed trajectory of how sea levels will rise, based on the reality that rates have observably increased, matches with careful computer simulations, or models, of how sea levels will rise.

“That’s two lines of evidence pointing to similar numbers,” Sweet explained.

But beyond 2050, the trajectory of the climate, and oceans, is more uncertain, and largely dependent on the most unpredictable part of the climate equation. That’s us.

So the new sea level rise report created five different potential sea level futures between 2050 and 2150, based upon how much heat-trapping carbon global civilization adds to the atmosphere this century. (These five emissions scenarios were made, and deeply vetted, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.)

It may sound awfully pessimistic to hear that sea levels will inevitably continue to rise past 2050. These ideas can fuel doomism and helplessness about our climatic future. But climate scientists emphasize that such doomist notions are misguided. Rather, it shows we still have enormous sway over how much the climate warms — and the seas rise — later this century. “We have a significant amount of influence over how much warmer it gets,” Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist and the director of climate and energy at the Breakthrough Institute, previously told Mashable.

We still have enormous sway over how much the climate warms — and the seas rise — later this century.

The following five long-term (2050-2150) sea level rise scenarios cover a wide range of possibilities. The “low” scenario — involving an extremely ambitious climate target — requires global nations stabilizing Earth’s warming at some around 1.6 degrees Celsius (2.8 degrees Fahrenheit) above 19th-century temperature levels by mid-century.

Compared to sea levels in 2000, the “Intermediate” scenario for the U.S. below, which projects 1.3 feet of sea level rise by 2050 and several feet by 2100, is a world warmed by around 2 C by mid-century.

Five potential sea level rise scenarios for both the U.S. and the globe.
Credit: NOAA 2022 Sea Level Rise Technical Report

Crucially, there are looming unknowns about how much ice sheets will respond to different amounts of warming later this century. (This is OK and expected: These scenarios are a “what if” guide.) That’s because Earth’s current, rapid warming is historically unprecedented. Humanity, and earth scientists, have never witnessed Greenland and Antarctica continually melt.

“We haven’t watched these ice sheets melt before,” said Willis. “The last time they did it was 20,000 years ago and we weren’t paying attention.”

“We haven’t watched these ice sheets melt before.”

The geologic record shows that our great ice sheets have experienced major ice loss in the past. During a warm period some 125,000 years ago, massive amounts of ice on Antarctica melted, raising sea levels by some six to nine meters. Fortunately, oceanographers don’t think that type of melting will happen suddenly (think a process unfolding over hundreds of years). But that process could begin, perhaps this century.

Already, Antarctica’s Florida-sized Thwaites Glacier has destabilized. “Thwaites is the one spot in Antarctica that has the potential to dump an enormous amount of water into the ocean over the next decades,” Sridhar Anandakrishnan, a professor of glaciology at Penn State University, told Mashable in 2020. Anandakrishnan is a veteran researcher of this threatening, remote glacier.

Yet amid some future uncertainty, substantial sea level rise is still certain. Some 10 inches to a foot is due around the U.S. by 2050. That portends lots of American flooding.

“By 2050, moderate flooding ⁠— which is typically disruptive and damaging by today’s weather, sea level and infrastructure standards ⁠— is expected to occur more than 10 times as often as it does today,” Nicole LeBoeuf, NOAA’s National Ocean Service Director, said in a statement.

This is not ideal. But, importantly, Willis emphasized that we can limit significantly worse flooding if we slash our emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. Nothing else is going to blunt sea level rise. The world isn’t going to suddenly cool on its own.

“There are no big natural cycles that will save us,” he said.

Arcimoto’s Mean Lean Machine takes your energy and puts it back into your three-wheeled electric scooter.

The e-trike was announced at electric vehicle maker Arcimoto’s new product event Tuesday and shows how a three-wheeled device can be as thrilling as a regular e-scooter. But it features a lot more tilting and self-charging than your average ride.

The MLM features a pedal generator so you can sit on the e-trike while its stationary and charge up the battery for later riding. All juiced up, Arcimoto says it can last for more than 200 miles and that the ride feels as smooth and stable as a bicycle despite all the titling and leaning — even while braking. Each of the three corners of the trike has its own electric motor, and the weight distribution likely improves the trike’s stability.

Arcimoto is known for its other types of three-wheelers, including its “fun utility vehicle” that can hit 75 mph despite its small, golf-cart like size. Like the FUV, the MLM can fit up to two riders both leaning together.

While it’s available for preorder with a $100 fee, specifics like final price will be announced closer to its summer launch.

It’s been more than 15 years since The Office first aired on NBC, but fans are still learning mind-blowing new facts about the show every week.

On a recent episode of the Office Ladies podcast, former co-stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted all about the two-part Season 6 episode, “Niagara.” They spoke with showrunner Greg Daniels about a scrapped storyline involving Pam’s ex Roy crashing the ceremony on horseback, they reminisced over Jim and Pam’s long-lost wedding website, and they shared what it was like to film the episode scene by scene.

After the Dunder Mifflin crew makes their way to Niagara Falls for the big celebration, they meet Jim and Pam’s parents at the rehearsal dinner.

Pam’s mom, Helene (who was played by Shannon Cochran in Season 2), is played by Linda Purl in “Niagara.” Pam’s dad, William, is played by Rick Overton. Jim’s mom, Betsy, is played by Perry Smith. And Jim’s dad? Gerald Halpert is played by one Robert Pine, the father of Chris Pine. Yes, Chris Pine of Star Trek, Spider Man: Into the Spiderverse, Just My Luck, Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, and The Four Chrises fame. That Chris Pine!

Did everyone know this? Because I certainly didn’t! I gasped when I found out, then told five of my colleagues (all of whom are big fans of The Office and several who are big fans of Chris Pine). They were all equally shocked.

Now, Robert Pine’s career spans decades, with too many iconic credits to list. Perhaps you know him from CHiPS or The Bold and the Beautiful, or maybe you recognize him from appearances in Grey’s Anatomy, Veep, Parks and Recreation, or Superstore. His IMDB page is overwhelmingly large, so you likely know him from something besides The Office. I certainly do, I just didn’t know he was Chris Pine’s dad!

Anyway, Kinsey said that “people were so excited” to work with Pine on the set of The Office. “We were a little bit excited,” Fischer confirmed, and the two proceeded to sing Pine’s praises.

“First of all, he’s a lovely, lovely person and was so nice to everyone,” Kinsey said. “But there were a few folks excited that Chris Pine’s dad was there.”

“It’s true,” Fischer said. “Even though Robert Pine is like an incredibly successful actor in his own right.” 

Unfortunately, the two didn’t share which cast members were Team Chris Pine, but if I had to guess, I’d say Mindy Kaling was probably living for this cameo.

Is Chris Pine a fan of The Office? Does he consider himself and Jim Halpert brothers in a sense? I have so many questions.

Be sure to listen to the full podcast episode to hear more behind-the-scenes stories about filming the episode, “Niagara: Part 1.”

You can stream episodes of The Office on Peacock and follow along with the podcast every week on Earwolf, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.

UPDATE: Feb. 24, 2022, 5:00 p.m. EST This list has been updated to reflect pricing and availability as of Feb. 24.

• BEST SAMSUNG DEAL: Samsung Galaxy Book Pro, a nice alternative to the similarly priced MacBook Pro — $609.99 $999.99 (save $390)

• BEST GAMING DEAL: Razer Blade 15, a powerful gaming laptop that’ll keep you playing on the go — $1,697.49 $2,599.99 (save $902.50)

• BEST 2-IN-1 DEAL: Asus Chromebook Flip C434, an affordable 2-in-1 for those who want the basics of a laptop and a tablet at once — $408.99 $569.99 (save $161)

What’s better than a great laptop? A great laptop that’s cheap. Nowadays, even budget machines can pack the punch to carry you through whatever’s on your to-do list, whether it’s work, watching Netflix, or endlessly browsing social media. If you’re looking to pick up a new laptop but don’t necessarily want to drop your life savings in one go, we’ll be compiling a list of the best deals on cheap laptops right here, each and every week.

Best Samsung deal

Why we like it

We love Apple, but MacBooks aren’t the only laptops out there. The Samsung Galaxy Book Pro is a nice alternative to the similarly priced MacBook Pro, with a stunning display, a speedy 11th-gen Intel Core processor, a 20-hour battery life, WiFi 6E support, and a sleek, ultra-thin design.

Best gaming deal

Why we like it

The Razer Blade 15 Advanced model is packed with solid internals that’ll work well for PC gaming newbies and seasoned players alike. Under the hood, you’ll get a 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10875H processor with up to 5.0 GHz max turbo and 8 cores, as well as an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 graphics card that has the power to run some pretty visually intense games. The 300Hz screen provides buttery-smooth frame rate performance and offers full HD visuals within a bezel-less display. It’s all housed within a thin, compact body that you can take anywhere.

Best 2-in-1 deal

Why we like it

Having your laptop and your tablet in one place is a convenience that you need in your life. The Asus Chromebook Flip C434 is a fantastic budget 2-in-1 device, with speedy performance, a full HD touchscreen, and components that should be able to handle all of your daily tasks.

More great laptop deals

• Asus ROG Zephyrus QHD Gaming Laptop — $1,599.99 $1,849.99 (save $250)

• Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 GU603 Gaming Laptop — $1,549.99 $1,849.99 (save $300)

• MSI GE75 Raider Gaming Laptop — $1,256.90 $1,399 (save $142.10)

• MSI GF65 Gaming Laptop — $799.99 $1,099.99 (save $300)

• MSI GF63 Gaming Laptop — $599.99 $749.99 (save $150)

• MSI Delta FHD Gaming Laptop — $1,299.99 $1,599.99 (save $300)

• MSI Stealth 15M Gaming Laptop — $1,249.99 $1,599.99 (save $350)

• Dell Vostro 7510 — $909 $1,827.14 (save $918.14)

• Dell Inspiron 3510 — $528 $568 (save $40)

• Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio — $1,499.99 $1,799.99 (save $300)

• Asus Vivobook — $399.99 $449.99 (save $50)

• Lenovo Flex 5 — $699.99 $849.99 (save $150)

• Lenovo IdeaPad 3 — $172 $219.99 (save $47.99)

• Lenovo IdeaPad S340 — $699 $799.99 (save $100.99)

• Lenovo Legion 5 Gaming Laptop — $1,149 $1,299 (save $150)

• Lenovo Legion Slim 7 Gaming Laptop — $1,649.99 $1,799.99 (save $150)

• Alienware m15 R5 Gaming Laptop — $1,799.99 $2,099.99 (save $300)

• Alienware x17 R1 Gaming Laptop — $2,249.99 $2,549.99 (save $300)

• Acer Swift 3 — $649 $849.99 (save $200.99)

• Acer Predator Triton 500 SE Gaming Laptop — $1,349.99 $1,749.99 (save $400)

• HP 14 Laptop — $259.99 $289.99 (save $30)

• HP Pavilion 15 Laptop — $839.91 $944.99 (save $105.08)

• HP 17.3-inch FHD IPS Premium Laptop — $799.99 $899.99 (save $100)

• HP Pavilion 15-inch gaming laptop — $845.88 $899.99 (save $54.11)

• HP 15-inch Laptop — $542.98 $659.99 (save $117.01)

• HP Omen 16.1-inch Gaming Laptop — $1,299.99 $1,499.99 (save $200)

• HP Envy x360 — $999 $1,099 (save $100)

• Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 4 — $187 $249.99 (save $62.99)

How to shop for a new laptop:

Choosing a laptop is entirely dependent on what you’ll be using it for. Beginner laptop owners need something user-friendly and straightforward, frequent travelers need something light with a long battery life, designers and gamers need top-notch 4K graphics and quick central processors, and everyone needs something that will last. 

The first thing you should do is ask yourself a simple question: PC or Mac? This is an important question, as it’s going to make a world of difference in what you can and can’t do with your computer. Are you a gamer? A video editor? A business professional? An Apple device owner? The answer to any of these will probably point you towards your final answer. If you’re constantly buying the new iPhone every year, editing YouTube videos, recording a podcast, or other creative endeavors of the sort, your best bet may be a Mac laptop. Apple obsessives will be happy with their Mac’s compatibility with their other Apple products, and everyone can benefit from Macs’ propensity to have better virus protection than that of a PC. 

That brings us to the perks of picking up a PC. You can still complete a number of creative projects on a personal computer, but where PCs really shine are their options for customization. PCs are much easier to upgrade part-by-part, as they aren’t constrained to Apple-manufactured products (like Macs). And because there is a seemingly endless supply of PC manufacturers, there are a lot more options from what brand you chose, to the software you buy, to the type of graphics card you pick out for your gaming rig. Yes, gamers should always go the PC route — they are far more powerful than what a Mac laptop can handle, and also give you the option to connect VR headsets, if you’re into that sort of thing.  

What size laptop should you get?

This really comes down to two things: Personal preference and lifestyle. Personal preference is self-explanatory, really — do you like having a huge display, or do you prefer something more compact? Lifestyle is where practicality comes into play. If you’re traveling often and usually have your computer on your back in some way, you’re going to want to go with something more light and compact (thin, 11-inch models will most likely be the best). But if you’re a huge movie buff who doesn’t normally take their laptop on the road with them, spring for a 15-inch (and higher) screen with a bulky construction so you can have epic Netflix sessions. If you’re getting a gaming laptop, you should probably “go big or go home,” as well.  

How much should you spend on a new laptop?

This is much more subjective, and at the end of the day, it’s really going to come down to your budget. But, if money isn’t the number one concern for you, you should really think hard about what you’re going to use your laptop for. Need a device with lots of power under the hood and bountiful storage space? Aim for something in the $800 and beyond range. Only using your laptop to edit the occasional Google Doc? Then you can probably get away with spending way below the $500 mark. In other words, don’t blow your savings if you don’t need to. And if you’re looking to go all out, meaning buying a laptop with every bell and whistle imaginable, you can get a monster of a machine for somewhere closer to $2,000.

Are cheap laptops worth it?

You know the old saying: You get what you pay for. But thanks to the technology boom of the last few decades, a cheap laptop can actually take you pretty far and won’t break down immediately. It’s all about knowing which one to select. Depending on what you use your laptop for the most, staying stingy might be your best option. Check out our roundups for the ones that we think are worth it — here are our favorite cheap laptop models under $500, and the best under $300.  

What does it mean when a laptop is certified refurbished?

Don’t let the words “refurbished” or “renewed” scare you away — these types of devices are usually perfectly viable options and can end up saving you a lot of money without sacrificing much of anything.

A refurbished device, in its simplest terms, is a product that has been bought, but then returned for some reason. Notice that we didn’t necessarily say that it was returned due to some sort of fault on the device’s part. While that can certainly be true in some cases, it isn’t always. Oftentimes, a certified refurbished laptop never even left its original packaging.

While yes, saving money is a huge benefit of buying a “refurb,” it’s far from the only reason to consider getting one. What’s great about refurbished devices is that they undergo rigorous performance tests to ensure that they are still in good condition (sometimes more strictly than the stuff coming right off the production line). There’s also a chance that any refurbished laptop you buy may have been so lightly used, that it could almost be considered brand-new (just way cheaper).

We’re big fans of buying refurbished gear for kids, especially when it comes to electronics. If you’re shopping for a laptop for a kid who is under the age of 15, then refurbished is really the way to go. For kids of high school age and beyond who are a bit more careful with their digital gear, then a new laptop isn’t as risky. Of course, it depends on the kid.

Explore related content:

• Our picks for the best 2-in-1 laptops of 2020

• The best blue light glasses for combatting digital eye strain

• 13 cheap laptops you can get for under $500

Save $300: As of Feb. 24, the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio is only $1,499.99 at Amazon. This 17% discount matches the lowest price we’ve ever seen on this model, which features an Intel Core i5 processor, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD storage.

Can’t decide between a laptop and a tablet? A 2-in-1 laptop offers the perks of both.

Released late last year, the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio is available for just $1,499.99 at Amazon after a 17% discount. This $300 price cut matches its lowest price ever, which last appeared in December.

The Surface Laptop Studio doesn’t skimp on internal power. Inside are the 11th Generation Intel Core i5 H Series processor and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card. That’s enough to handle heavy workloads, whether you edit videos, render animations, or play games. It’s further backed up with 16GB of memory and a 512GB solid-state drive for internal storage.

But there are plenty of laptops that have that kind of power. This pick stands apart due to its 14.4-inch, 120Hz touchscreen, which can transition from a standard laptop mode all the way to a completely flat tablet mode.

Explore related content:

• Best laptops for business: See where the MacBook Pro ranks on our list

• If a basic, cheap laptop is what you need, these 9 are your best bets

• The best video editing laptops for aspiring filmmakers and YouTubers

Twitter is concerned for Ukrainians’ safety.

That’s the takeaway following a late Wednesday Twitter thread from the company, written in Ukrainian, instructing users how to lock down and protect their accounts. Set against the backdrop of the ongoing Russian invasion of the country, the message is clear: These days, keeping yourself safe also means securing your digital accounts.

This message is doubly important for any anti-war activists or protestors (past or present) attempting to coordinate efforts online. As we saw in the U.S. during 2020’s Black Lives Matter movement and corresponding marches, law enforcement can and will use social media against peaceful protestors.

Translated from the original Ukrainian by Twitter’s integrated Google translation tool, Wednesday’s Twitter thread provides step-by-step instructions for anyone worried that past information shared online could put them in jeopardy.

“When using Twitter in conflict or other high-risk areas, you need to know how to manage your profile and digital information,” began the first of many tweets (translated into English by Google) from Twitter’s safety team written in Ukrainian.

Tweet may have been deleted

The thread continued on for 21 more tweets, each linking out to detailed account security instructions and general cybersecurity best practices.

“Setting up two-factor authentication ensures that outsiders can’t access your profile,” reads one such tweet (again, translated from Ukrainian by Google).

Tweet may have been deleted

“If you think it’s safest to delete your Twitter profile, you must first deactivate it,” cautioned another. “After that, your username, profile, and tweets will not be displayed unless you reactivate them within 30 days.”

Tweet may have been deleted

“You may want to hide not only your home address but also other locations when posting tweets, so be careful,” warned one.

Tweet may have been deleted

From 2011’s Arab Spring to 2021’s January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building, social media has played an undeniably powerful real-time role in unfolding global conflicts and will continue to do so. Twitter knows this, and Wednesday’s thread is a clear attempt to make sure the people of Ukraine know it, too — before it’s too late.