Pluto Is Secretly Hot And Other Facts
Pluto Could Be Burning From The Inside
On Tuesday, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft completed a historic flyby of Pluto and one it of its moons, Charon. A day later, the public gawked at a close-up image of Pluto's surface — a jagged, frozen land with peaks as high as 11,000 feet. What's more important, though, is that researchers also found evidence of frozen methane and nitrogen — which suggests that underneath Pluto's cold, rough exterior lies a molten sea of lava. In other words, Pluto, long considered to be an uninteresting speck on the fringes of the solar system, has become vastly more interesting after a few years and a closer inspection.1
Identity Theft Is An Art
How does a man from Russia steal your credit card over the phone? He pretends to be you. Here's how it works: Thief 1 buys something with a stolen credit card. The credit card company flags the charge as fraudulent. Thief 1 hands it off to Thief 2 who then calls the credit card company pretending to be the card owner, while Thief 1 supplies him with the relevant personal info. What's more surprising, however, is that for identity thieves like Dmitry Naskovets, he didn't chose the line of work, it chose him.
There Are Plenty Of Ways Hackers Can Kill Us
Soon we'll have self-driving cars, drones and computers running all that tedious nonsense like traffic lights and electrical grids. The future sounds awesome, right? Wrong. Just as 2007's summer blockbuster Live Free Or Die Hard2 predicted, the more we connect things to the Internet, the greater chance that some person typing on a keyboard can end your life. Let's just hope there are plenty of middle-aged divorced cops with a history of thwarting terrorists to save us.
Before Photoshop, Graphic Design Was Really Tedious
Using InDesign is just so satisfying. Hold shift, and draw a perfectly straight line. Photos and text boxes delightfully snap and align themselves. Before computers, however, graphic design took longer, required a great deal of precision and with the use of Exacto knives, was arguably more dangerous.3
For Some, Their Biggest Toe Isn't Their Big Toe
This summer, look at people's feet. You might notice that on some of those feet, the second toe4 is actually longer than the big toe. This is called Morton's toe. Then, like when buying a new car, you'll begin to see this phenomenon pop up on more feet than you would expect — at the beach, in line at the grocery store, the Statue Of Liberty and so on. Do not fear the Morton's toe. Point it out to your friends. They will be so impressed with your toe knowledge.5
Finding A Place To Come Is Stressful
When it comes to sex stuff, men have it pretty easy. The penis is not a complicated thing. And aside from the immense pain that comes with being hit in junk, owning a dick is a net positive. The only other issue with penis ownership is figuring out what to do when the dang thing is ejaculating. Discussing beforehand feels like talking strategy before a co-ed kickball game — while trying to figure it out at the moment of climax is akin to your friend telling you to take an exit that is way to close to safely take. If just thinking about this is stressing you out, don't worry, this is a problem you'll never have to deal with.
Professional Fingerboarders Exist
Out of all the things we learned this week, the most startling was that grown men make a living off of flipping a piece of plastic. Granted, I make a living by repeatedly pecking at the same 100 or so plastic keys, so who am I to say what's a viable career option?
You know, like Neville Longbottom or that first-chair trombone player at your 10-year high school reunion.
By far the best in the series.
I suppose you could say the same about a lot of things before computers, like paying your bills, or asking a girl out on a date.
Science calls it the 'second metatarsal,' but I prefer 'pointer toe' or 'index toe' if I'm amongst strangers.
Who doesn't want to be known as someone who 'really knows their toes?'
