3 standout headphone designs

Ever since Beats headphones became a cultural icon, nearly every company on the planet has tried to capitalize on the trend by introducing their own headphones or earbuds. Consequently, distinguishing one brand from another can be nearly impossible. Nevertheless, three recent models I've been auditioning from Torque, Plantronics, and Motorola have managed to stand out from the crowd by offering unique features and designs. Torque t402v, $400 Music sources are more varied today than ever, from full-fledged high-res tracks to thin streaming music. Your headphones can significantly affect how these sources sound from too high-pitched to...

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A Facebook insult lands Thai man 30 years in prison

The frequency with which we've already seen Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton insulted across various social media platforms in the United States makes it difficult to believe that in some countries, this disrespect is met with severe consequences. A Thai man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after being found guilty of "posting messages and pictures defaming the monarchy" on Facebook. The three decade sentence is actually half of the original punishment of 60 years, which the government benevolently reduced after the naysayer, 48-year-old Pongsak Sriboonpeng, admitted to his "crime." The nation's strict lse-majest law,...

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Space Station astronauts make history, eat first space-grown veggies

Astronauts on the International Space Station made history Monday when they munched space-grown vegetables for the first time. Crew members, including American one-year astronaut Scott Kelly, sampled the delights of Red Romaine lettuce grown in the microgravity environment of space. The lettuce was grown on the ‘Veggie’ plant system in NASA’s orbiting lab on the space station. “Crew tastes red romaine lettuce with oil & vinegar for #NASAVeggie study and#JourneyToMars,” tweeted the International Space Station’s Twitter account. “Chomp! Our first veggies were harvested & consumed by astronauts in space!,” added NASA,...

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Hatfields and McCoys help pinpoint key battle site in feud

LOUISVILLE, Ky.  — The Hatfield and McCoy descendants came armed — with digging tools. Side by side, they worked together to help archaeologists unearth artifacts from one of the bloodiest sites in America's most famous feud. The leader of the dig says they have pinpointed the place where Randolph McCoy's home was set ablaze in the woods of eastern Kentucky during a murderous New Year's attack by the Hatfield clan. Two McCoys were gunned down in the 1888 ambush on Randolph McCoy's homestead. It marked a turning point in their cross-border war waged in Kentucky and West Virginia, led by family patriarchs William Anderson "Devil Anse"...

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Strange ‘figure’ spotted by Mars Curiosity Rover

The truth is out there … maybe. A mysterious woman-like shape in a picture taken by NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover is creating buzz on social media. In a post entitled “Alien Woman on Mars Watching Rover From Hill” the UFO Sightings Daily website said that the shape “looks like a woman partly cloaked.” Related: From a million miles away, stunning NASA images show the moon crossing Earth’s face Mashable is somewhat more circumspect in its analysis of the image. “Perhaps it's a cloaked ghost Martian woman, perhaps it's a statue left over from a once great society, perhaps it's a piece of dirt,” it said. (For the record,...

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Tiny glider could cruise through Martian skies

A tiny aircraft could be plying Mars' skies less than a decade from now. NASA researchers are developing a glider, called Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Land on Mars (Prandtl-m), for possible inclusion on a Mars rover mission in the 2022-2024 time frame. Prandtl-m would weigh a maximum of 2.6 lbs. here on Earth (1 lb in Mars' reduced-gravity environment) and feature a wingspan of just 24 inches, project team members said. The craft would fold up to fit inside a 3U cubesat — a spacecraft about the size of a loaf of bread — that would tag along with the rover. [History of Robotic Mars Missions (Infographic)] "The aircraft would...

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NASA's Curiosity rover eyes weird rock on Mars

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity went out of its way to investigate a rock the likes of which it has never seen before on the Red Planet. Measurements by Curiosity's rock-zapping ChemCam laser and another instrument revealed that the target, a chunk of bedrock dubbed Elk, contains high levels of silica and hydrogen, NASA officials said. The abundance of silica — a silicon-oxygen compound commonly found here on Earth in the form of quartz — suggests that the bedrock may provide conditions conducive to the preservation of ancient carbon-containing organic molecules, if any exist in the area, the officials added. So Curiosity's handlers sent...

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Archaeologists uncover clues in Roanoke Island mystery

The mystery of Roanoke Island may be one for the books. Two archaeological teams have dug up new evidence pointing to the fate of English colonists who mysteriously vanished from the North Carolina island 425 years ago, National Geographic reports. One collection of items appears to support the long-held theory that some colonists moved to Hatteras Island, about 50 miles southeast of Roanoke. "The evidence is that they assimilated with the Native Americans but kept their goods," says chief archaeologist Mark Horton. Among the Hatteras Island finds: a small bit of a slate writing tablet marked by the letter "M," a rapier hilt...

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Powerful El Niño could mean fewer Atlantic hurricanes, experts say

Scientists are carefully monitoring the development of El Niño, noting that the Pacific Ocean phenomenon could keep Atlantic hurricanes in check this year. “The big news this year is the continued development of a powerful El Niño event, which is well known to suppress Atlantic hurricanes,” explained Kerry Emanuel, professor of atmospheric science at MIT, in an email to FoxNews.com. “Thus, we expect an unusually inactive season this year.” “We are revving up a very strong El Niño and that should lead to less Atlantic hurricanes this year,” added Cliff Mass, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington, in an email...

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The astonishing 390-year old bonsai tree that survived the Hiroshima atomic blast

The history of a 390-year old bonsai tree at the National Arboretum that survived the Hiroshima atomic blast is being honored this week. Thursday marks the 70thanniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. The Japanese White Pine is in the Arboretum’s National Bonsai and Penjing Museum. The tree was donated in 1976 by bonsai master Masaru Yamaki as part of Japan’s Bicentennial gift to the American people. However, the tree’s astonishing tale of survival was only revealed to the museum in 2001 during a visit by the late bonsai master’s grandsons Akira and Shigeru Yamaki. The Washington Post reports that a walled bonsai nursery...

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Phenomenal temperatures slam Middle East, driven by extreme heat and humidity

The Middle East has been sweltering under some of the hottest weather conditions ever seen, driven by an unusual combination of extreme heat and humidity. The heat index in the Iranian city of Bandar Mahshahr soared into the 160s Friday and torrid temperatures forced the Iraqi government to declare a four-day holiday last week. AccuWeather reports that the actual temperature in Bandar Mahshahr was 115 degrees Friday, although a dew point temperature of 90 degrees pushed the city’s heat index to 163 degrees. The heat index, also known as the apparent temperature, describes what the temperature feels like to the body when relative humidity...

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