Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<ul class="summary-list"><li>China has been hit by another major food scandal, this time involving cooking oil in chemical tanks.</li><li>State media found tank trucks were delivering chemicals and edible oil interchangeably without cleaning.</li></ul>A new cooking-oil scandal has erupted in China, about a decade after the country's infamous crackdown on restaurants reusing gutter oil and sewage grease.The furor follows a <a target="_blank" href="https://m.bjnews.com.cn/detail/1719878490168127.html">bombshell investigation</a> published on July 2 by the state media outlet Beijing News, which found multiple cases of tank trucks transporting edible cooking oil immediately after delivering chemicals used for coal-to-liquid processing.The report's author, Han Futao, found that none of the tank interiors were cleaned between loads.Han described one case in which a tank truck in Hebei province delivered chemicals in Qinhuangdao before rushing to Sanhe days later to be filled with soy oil.Several truck drivers told Beijing News the practice was a widespread cost-saving measure used by firms with thousands of trucks — an "open secret" in the industry, Han wrote.In some seasons, the truckers said, drivers would transport industrial wastewater before delivering edible oils.These chemicals aren't classified as flammable or hazardous, or else Chinese law would mandate that they be transported in special tanks.The report has since ignited outrage on China's social-media platforms, which have become inundated with viral topics discussing the scandal.<a target="_blank" href="https://std.samr.gov.cn/gb/search/gbDetailed?id=71F772D80340D3A7E05397BE0A0AB82A">National regulations</a> have been a key target for public anger. They recommend that oil companies use tank trucks dedicated to edible substances, but the guideline is only encouraged and isn't mandatory."Shouldn't a kerosene can be a kerosene can and a cooking-oil can be a cooking-oil can? Even if they are cleaned, they are not necessarily that clean," one top comment on <a target="_blank" href="https://weibo.com/2028810631/OmI2Y2ic0?refer_flag=1001030103_">Weibo</a>, China's version of X, said.The backlash ballooned even further when people began reposting <a target="_blank" href="https://weibo.com/1642512402/OmIzhaFJN?refer_flag=1001030103_">regulatory warnings from 2013</a> about the practice in Hunan province, indicating its use for more than a decade.A <a target="_blank" href="https://news.sina.cn/sa/2005-12-19/detail-ikknscsi9329300.d.html">2005 local news report</a> describing the mixing of edible oils with "hazardous chemicals" during transport went viral, too."They've been caught before, but the problem persists. Is the punishment harsh enough?" <a target="_blank" href="https://weibo.com/2197587727/OmJc3zD4g?refer_flag=1001030103_">one blogger wrote</a>."19 years ago, the media reported that the tanks were mixed with food. Why hasn't it been solved yet?" <a target="_blank" href="https://weibo.com/1582297713/OmIYQbP6u?refer_flag=1001030103_">another wrote</a>.Days after Beijing News' report, state media jumped in with scathing commentary."If this is an 'open secret in the industry,' where does it put the public's health and life safety? Where does it put the dignity and justice of the law?" the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_28008070">People's Daily</a> columnist Zhang Jingshan wrote on Monday evening.Sinograin, a state body that oversees China's grain and oil stocks, <a target="_blank" href="https://weibo.com/5042945896/OmhMEmWoZ">published a statement</a> on Saturday saying it had launched an investigation into the "mixed use of tank trucks."But the statement has been followed by calls online for a wider investigation involving higher authorities."Checking your own unit is like covering your ears while stealing a bell," <a target="_blank" href="https://weibo.com/7880066476/OmIuOt3z7?refer_flag=1001030103_">wrote one blogger</a> demanding an explanation. "This needs the attention of the relevant departments. Food is a major issue of people's livelihoods and shouldn't be underestimated!"Food safety in China has already been a sensitive topic for years in the wake of multiple scandals involving gutter oil and deadly chemicals in baby milk powder.The repeated controversies have contributed to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-food-scandal-middle-class-buy-direct-farms-2021-12">growing distrust in cities toward commercially sold foods</a> in supermarkets and grocery stores, sparking a campaign by the central government to <a target="_blank" href="https://news.cgtn.com/news/2019-09-04/Why-China-can-guarantee-food-safety-JIh4q7AQ6I/index.html">promote food safety</a> in the country.

China is freaking out over an 'open secret' that its cooking oil was ferried for years in chemical tanks that weren't cleaned

The next time you consider eating Chinese street food you might think twice. 
The use of <keyword id="770551" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="gutter-oil">gutter oil</keyword> it turns out is pretty common. This refers to a process of pulling waste oil from sewers, grease traps, waste from slaughterhouses, reprocessing it and then selling it as cooking oil.
This <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/10/28/you-may-never-eat-street-food-in-china-again-after-watching-this-video/">Radio Free Asia (RFA) video via Max Fisher at The Washington Post</a> shows a woman in Shenzhen pulling slop from a gutter which will be processed with other animal fat. The oil eventually make its way to "street vendors and hole-in-the-wall restaurants" that use it as "recycled cooking oil."

Gutter oil is reported to account for one-tenth of cooking oil in <keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword>, according to experts cited by RFA. Besides being downright disgusting, the oil is also said to contain carcinogens and other toxins.
China has been <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/09/13/arrests-made-in-gutter-oil-scandal/">fighting the practice for years.</a> Earlier this month a man from China's Jiangsu province was sentenced to <a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-10/09/c_132783008.htm">life in prison for making and selling gutter oil</a>.
China has long battled food safety concerns. But in a country where cooking oil is at a premium, it will be a long time before they can effectively crackdown on the practice.

This Video Of Chinese Street Food Made From 'Gutter Oil' Is The Most Disgusting Thing You Will See All Day

Paul Reiser knows that his advice for fellow actors is contradictory."Say yes to everything, except for the things you have to say no to," Reiser tells Business Insider.At first blush, his recommendation is baffling — but maybe he's onto something. After all, this is the actor who went from doing stand-up comedy at New York clubs to starring in films like "Diner" and "Beverly Hills Cop," and has been steadily racking up TV and movie roles since the '80s."Still, not every project Reiser has ever done has been a slam dunk like "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/every-alien-movie-ranked-best-worst">Aliens</a>," "Mad About You," or "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stranger-things-season-5-details-premiere-duffer-brothers-2022-7">Stranger Things</a>." But the actor says that's part of the process: You have to say yes to a lot to learn what to say no to in the future."There are career decisions, especially when you're young, you say yes to because you'll gain something from it," Reiser says. "But I think as I've gotten older, saying no is just as important."One role he couldn't say no to was playing a bowling commentator named Angelo Powers in "The Gutter,' written and directed by siblings Yassir and Isaiah Lester.The movie centers on Walt (Shameik Moore), a man who uses his unexpectedly sharp bowling skills to turn pro in the hopes of winning enough prize money to save a run-down local joint called AlleyCatz. As Walt gains notoriety on the bowling circuit, Angelo shares his tasteless jokes and comments through a segment called "Bowl Lives Matter.""It's a very rare thing that I respond quickly and positively," Reiser says of reading the movie's script. "I usually find some reason to not do something."Reiser's character feeds into the film's bold, boundary-pushing humor, and the actor relished playing a "clueless low-rent sportscaster.""The Gutter" is brash by design, and Reiser says that's the film's strength."It's not staying within the bounds," he says. "It's offbeat and it's just some colors that you don't always see and characters that you don't always see. And that's part of what appealed to me. It felt very fresh and different."For the latest interview in Business Insider's <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/role-play-series">"Role Play" series</a>, Reiser reflects on the success of "Mad About You," how his frugality ended up being one of his best business moves, and the one thing that baffles him about "Stranger Things" fans.<h2 id="6a36a54d-8505-4711-af23-8bd21ebd51da">On why playing Dr. Owens in 'Stranger Things' was an 'acting challenge'</h2><div type="image" title="Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven and Paul Reiser as Dr. Owens on &quot;Stranger Things.&quot;" height="1899" width="3839" msid="115387623" hostid="261" sizebytes="255412"></div>Burke in "Aliens" is one of your most notable performances. At the time, you were mostly known for standup and roles in "Diner" and "Beverly Hills Cop." Did being in "Aliens" lead you to be considered for more antagonist roles after that?I think it did open it up a bit because it was such a popular movie. I dunno about being an antagonist. Do I play the antagonist? I don't know. I like doing that. I mean, it's fun to be a sort of prickly guy.One of the things that was fun with "Stranger Things" was it was never clear to me, or maybe it wasn't even clear to the creators, if I was a good guy or a bad guy. And I thought, well, that's a really interesting thing to play if you yourself don't know where you're going with this. I thought it was an interesting acting challenge. He might be a bad guy, but he also might not be. Let's see.You're a seasoned actor, and in "Stranger Things," you get to work alongside younger up-and-coming talents. Did you have any preconceived notions about what it would be like to work with actors like Millie Bobby Brown and the younger generation? What was your experience like on set?It was almost the opposite. I had seen the first season and saw how good it was and how great everybody there was. So I felt like the new kid at school who doesn't know where to sit at lunch. I thought, I'm coming into their party.They didn't seem like kids. They were just all really sweet, young, nice people and David Harbour and Winona [Ryder]. So everybody was very embracing and welcoming, which is not always the case. Not that people are not nice, but sometimes people just don't have the time to make the new person feel welcome.I was always aware of that on "Mad About You" when we had guest stars. It's sometimes off-putting or challenging for somebody to come into a well-oiled machine and feel comfortable, so we would all try to make sure that our guests felt welcome. So it was nice to be on the receiving end of that on "Stranger Things."So no, I didn't feel intimidated, but I was relieved to see it's a very dark world, but it's a very light, fun set. They were just all really funny, goofy kids. And they're now all 47, so they're very different!It was funny to go back, because it wouldn't be a year, it'd be like a year and a half between seasons. And those were very growth-spurt years. And I was like, "Whoa, that little kid is now taller than me. What happened here?" It was a very fun, familial kind of feel.Netflix <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stranger-things-season-5-details-premiere-duffer-brothers-2022-7">announced</a> that the last season of "Stranger Things" is coming out next year. Your character Dr. Owens' fate was a little ambiguous last season, but people think he survives. Any update on whether you'll be returning?I'm not allowed to talk because they have my home address and they will hunt you down. No, they're like me, very secretive, and so I honor that. I'm not going to say nothing.You know, it's funny to me. I remember my first experience when I was on season two. It's a very complicated production, so the post-production took a long time. I had never experienced this thing where people would ask me, "When is it coming out? When is it coming out?" They couldn't wait because they were clamoring for season two.And then when it came out, finally this big huge premiere, and it was a global event. And then the next day people go, "All right, we watched all the episodes. What's next?" Boy, they're consuming it too quickly.We just spent all day making this meal. Chew your food slowly, don't watch it all in one sitting because it's consumed so quickly. Everybody was like, "Now what do we do?" Well, I didn't tell you to watch 'em all, did I?You've also guest-starred on "The Boys." Back in June, you <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/the-boys-paul-reiser-confirms-hes-returning-for-final-season/">said</a> that there were talks about you returning for the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-boys-season-5-release-date-cast-plot-2024-6">fifth and final season</a>, and I think season five should begin filming soon. Any update on where those talks landed?Have I seen any scripts? No, but they've indicated that I will be part of it somehow, so you'll know as soon as I know. I'm not being cautious, I actually don't know.<h2 id="e19bbd2c-3bc0-4beb-8b27-5beee49a98e5">On his big payday for the final season of 'Mad About You' and his smartest business move</h2><div type="image" title="Helen Hunt as Jamie and Paul Reiser as Paul Buchman on &quot;Mad About You.&quot;" height="1956" width="3000" msid="115387621" hostid="261" sizebytes="352266"></div>Going back to "Mad About You," by the end of that show, you and Helen Hunt were reportedly paid $1 million per episode, which was really rare for that time. How did being on such a successful show and earning a steadily growing paycheck influence how you viewed your career?It's a very weird thing to be on a successful TV show. You really enter a new world because you're suddenly, seemingly overnight, you're in people's living rooms on a regular basis. And then I know as a viewer, you watch something long enough, you feel close to these people. So I definitely felt the impact of going from basically zero to a hundred. Zero to, whoa, we're on a hit show that's in magazines and people are watching.But the reality is, I don't know if it changes your life because you're so busy in the moment, we're so busy making, it. And especially for me, and then Helen ultimately too, was the producing part of it and directing. And so it was a very labor-intensive thing. There wasn't a lot of time to go out and see the world or do stuff until we put it to bed.What's the best business move that you've made in your 30-plus years in the industry?I wish I had something to point to. I don't know. I've never had outrageous hobbies or expensive passions. So maybe being accidentally frugal was a smart move.I don't really put a lot of thought into it. I have people that advise me and say, "Do this, don't do that." I'm like, OK. And I usually get turned off if somebody goes, "Yeah, it was a great investment opportunity." My brain can only handle so much information, so I'm going to cut that stuff out.<h2 id="406a417e-7f68-4381-bf99-432314eaa9e5">On learning the power of saying no sometimes</h2><div type="image" title="Paul Reiser as Burker and Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in &quot;Aliens.&quot;" height="1546" width="2878" msid="115387624" hostid="261" sizebytes="84680"></div>What advice would you give yourself when you were starting out as an actor, given what you know now?Even dopey movies or dopey shows yield some fruit. I can look back and go, "Boy, that was a stinky show. That was a stinky movie." But sometimes even knowing that was helpful. It informs your decision-making next time. Like, all right, I'm going to be a little bit more discerning. Or the experience isn't great, but you meet a great producer or you meet an acting buddy who becomes a friend.I did this movie, "The Problem With People," which is out now on digital, and we screened it at USC film school. And I was actually skeptical. I was thinking, it stars me and Colm Meaney, two guys in their 60s, and I don't know how college kids are going to respond.They really dug the film and they were asking questions and they said, "What advice can you give us?" The only thing that I came up with that I really believe to be true is to say yes to everything. If somebody says, "We're making a small little movie and there's no money, but you'll get lunch and we just need you to move tables," just do it. Because you'll learn something, you'll meet people and you'll start focusing in on what you don't like, what you're inclined to do.If you want to be an actor, but somebody said, "Can you just be a part of this in some other capacity?" it's almost invariably going to be helpful to be doing something, to be part of a community.So that's what I would probably tell myself. But there are things that I have said no to that I'm glad I said no to. But again, you sort of learn from experience like, "Ooh, I don't want to do that again."What are some things that you're glad you said no to?I don't remember what I said no to. One thing that I wish I had said no to was I did a movie a couple of years ago and I had a really wonderful trip planned with my wife and we were going to go to Italy and meet some friends. And last minute I got offered this role, but I said, "I don't want to cancel. I have this really nice trip planned and I'm really looking forward to it."And I got persuaded by agents. It's like, "This is a really good film, really good people, and it'll be good for you." Next time I learned. I was like, "I'm not passing up on something." Family time becomes important. This film was lovely and it was fine, but I didn't get that experience that I was looking forward to.So yes, there are career decisions, especially when you're young, you say yes to because you'll gain something from it. But I think as I've gotten older, saying no is just as important.In that case, my lesson was that nobody's ever going to get to the end of life and go, "I went to Italy too many times."This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity."The Gutter" is now in theaters and on demand.

Paul Reiser says he still doesn't know if Dr. Owens on 'Stranger Things' is good or bad

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Wolfberry farmers in China were caught smoking their crops with industrial sulfur to preserve them.</li><li>Chinese state media aired clips of workers washing the berries in thick, foaming chemicals.</li></ul>Chinese state broadcaster CCTV has unveiled details of a second major food scandal to rock the country this year, this time involving wolfberries smoked and soaked in prohibited chemicals.In a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://tv.cctv.com/2024/09/02/VIDEdBIwDvj7LcJh8a7eH9Ys240902.shtml?spm=C52448022284.P5Ttlwv9L2md.0.0">report aired on Sunday,</a> the broadcaster spoke to wolfberry farmers and merchants in a region spanning 14 towns in Jingyuan County, Gansu province. The report also covered farms in Golmud, a city in Qinghai province.At least half a dozen farm workers and dealers openly described on camera how farms would soak the berries in sodium metabisulfite, a banned substance in the industry, and spray them with industrial sulfur to preserve their appearance."The ones smoked with sulfur are red and beautiful," one store owner told the broadcaster. "With the sulfur, you can store it longer, and pests don't grow. Its toxicity is high."CCTV <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://tv.cctv.com/2024/09/02/VIDEp9rMWUjeopakjL2wfnG8240902.shtml?spm=C52448022284.P5Ttlwv9L2md.0.0">aired footage</a> of farm workers preparing vats of thick, foaming sodium metabisulfite before washing the wolfberries in the hazardous chemical. Sodium metabisulfite is sometimes used in food preservation but is prohibited in the local wolfberry industry, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202409/02/WS66d5ae12a3108f29c1fc9ac8.html">per state media.</a>Some farms would also add in the step of smoking the wolfberries with industrial sulfur in place of sun-drying their crop, according to clips published by CCTV.Wolfberries, also known as goji berries, are popular in Chinese traditional medicine and dishes such as hotpot, and were marketed as a superfood in the West. In 2023, mainland China exported an estimated <a target="_blank" class="" href="http://www.forestry.gov.cn/c/www/lcdt/582002.jhtml#:~:text=2023%E5%B9%B4%EF%BC%8C%E6%88%91%E5%9B%BD%E6%9E%B8%E6%9D%9E%E5%87%BA%E5%8F%A3,%E5%85%83%EF%BC%8C%E5%90%8C%E6%AF%94%E5%A2%9E%E5%8A%A023.1%25%E3%80%82">14,000 metric tons of wolfberries.</a>"People like you who sell in other places all have no idea," one merchant told CCTV. "It just has a nice appearance."Many of the merchants and farmers spoke of the harms of consuming wolfberries tainted by the chemicals but said the practice was common."With sulfur, you sell at 17 yuan to 18 yuan per catty. Without smoking, it's 10 yuan per catty, 9 yuan per catty. That's not a good price," one rural farm worker said.CCTV said its staff tested the wolfberries and found them all unsafe for consumption.A day after the report was released, the Jingyuan County Food Safety Committee office announced that it had launched an investigation into local wolfberry production and sales."Those responsible for violations of the law and regulations will be severely punished according to the law," the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/DvTSegyCLIRguY1UukJSlw">office said in a statement.</a>The Golmud city government released a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Q7_LJW2fn9XOwe2IJ3L7fg">similar statement on Monday.</a>The wolfberry scandal comes just two months after another major food-related safety incident stunned the country.In early July, state outlet Beijing News said it had uncovered multiple instances of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-panics-open-secret-cooking-oil-fuel-chemical-tanks-2024-7">unwashed chemical tankers being used to transport cooking oil</a>. The practice had become so common that workers spoke of it as an industry standard, per the outlet.China has been plagued for decades by a history of food scandals — from contaminated milk powder to gutter oil being re-used in restaurants — that's whittled away <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-food-scandal-middle-class-buy-direct-farms-2021-12">domestic consumer faith in commercially sold foods.</a>Since his early days as China's top leader, Xi Jinping has promised to crack down on food safety breaches, saying they would be central to how people perceived the government."If our party, while governing China, cannot even ensure food safety, and cannot do so over the long term, then people will start to question whether we are qualified to govern," he said in 2013.Allegations of excessive sulfur fumigation in the Chinese traditional medicine industry have surfaced before, leading retailers to often sell wolfberries and other products as <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.amazon.sg/Navitas-Organics-Goji-Berries-Servings/dp/B0011DV71G/ref=sr_1_17?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.HVh8bnK8_IC8uNn8Dln163TK7bAVj1d1xI23neIf9Ol2WvrqAhsYO1pHfm5WeygPqPVzZheHkjrlKiIcjPictViMJibpkBM8ttiCrr3a0HgfQTOO6RrquzAvWESXMzQvkgWwQYgoWrb9mLGgFAotOkPQSD7ZKghZvi7uKzZWTdAsoM1yefAbzIrMxD-fw1ZRbPmlrdotrKGC4n7l3zwKzRJJr-hWiQeSrf8EfMF42Rbz35yVlqYGr4d0S5ZpDSlAWXW-Eot6yTpMnT7qgXVDL-ezzDE4RZB6WkckjruhKWI.fhQHJMO3J6mR1Da_icWJlNVaHNyVjBhLGrjJkkxEuj4&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=wolfberry&amp;qid=1725340991&amp;sr=8-17">"sulfite-free."</a>

Chinese farmers across 14 towns are spraying industrial sulfur on wolfberries so they'd be 'red and beautiful:' state media

Prices are accurate at the time of publication.<ul class="summary-list"><li>There are ways to mitigate small roach invasions, but infestations should be handled by exterminators.</li><li>Close up any openings to a home and maintain a vegetation-free zone to keep roaches out.</li></ul>You probably know the feeling — the stomach-dropping moment when you hear a faint scuffle on your floor and look up to see a large, dark roach scuttling across your room or kitchen. No bug infestation is a particularly fun experience, but roaches somehow take things to a whole new level.Scot Hodges, vice president of technical services for <a href="https://www.arrowexterminators.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Arrow Exterminators</a>, says cockroaches fall into two categories: domestic or peridomestic. <ul><li>Peridomestic roaches live in our surroundings but will typically migrate indoors once the weather gets colder. </li><li>Domestic roaches, on the other hand, tend to coexist with humans in homes all the time.</li></ul>Because of this difference, Hodges likes to classify the arrival of peridomestic roaches as either an infestation or invasion. <ul><li>An invasion is when roaches have only just sought refuge in a house, like when you open your garage door and see a roach scuttle across the concrete. Invasions are easier to manage by identifying how and why they arrived in the first place, then closing up entry points to a house and eliminating the few that have already entered.</li><li>An infestation, however, is when the roaches are living and completing their entire life cycles in a house. "Once they move in, they do not move back out. You either have to kill them, or live with them," Hodges says.</li></ul><h2>How to identify types of roaches</h2><div type="image" title="Types of cockroaches explainer" height="834" width="1667" msid="92263118" hostid="261"></div>Hodges says being able to identify different roach species, as well as if they're domestic or peridomestic, will help you understand how and why roaches might be entering your house in the first place and which methods to try first. <ul><li>German cockroaches (Domestic): One of the easier cockroach types to identify according to Hodges, German cockroaches are a tannish color and have two parallel dark stripes, also known as rally stripes, that run from their heads down their backs. And if getting close enough to catch a glimpse isn't a possibility, Hodges says there's another way to tell if a home has German cockroaches: the smell, which Hodges likens to a diaper pail. Given German roaches are domestic and already live indoors, Hodges advises focusing on mitigating their presence by eliminating food, water, and harborage in rooms like the bathroom and kitchen.</li><li>Brown-banded cockroaches (Domestic): Similar to German cockroaches, brown-banded roaches also have two light brown stripes. However the stripes on a brown-banded roach go across their abdomen. These roaches like to occupy warm areas of a house, meaning you'll typically find them in high places. </li><li>Smokybrown roaches (Peridomestic): The bodies of these roaches, which are mostly a deep, dark mahogany with an almost black pronotum, which is the shiny shield-like covering on a roach's head, can get very large, sometimes 1 ½ to 1 ¾ inches. They can fly very well and typically enter a home via the surrounding vegetation. Because of this, Hodges recommends practicing good exterior maintenance and treatment to help control Smokybrown roaches from migrating indoors.</li><li>American cockroaches (Peridomestic): Like the smokybrown roaches, American cockroaches are large, can move through the air, and tend to get into houses through vegetation. However American cockroaches glide more than fly through the air, and are even bigger than smokybrown roaches, typically growing up to 1 ¾ to 2 inches. Hodges says one of their other more notable features is that their heads look a bit like a raccoon mask, with a mostly gold head and little darker brown spots.</li><li>Oriental cockroaches (Peridomestic): While it's pretty standard to see cockroaches scuttling across your floor, Oriental cockroaches likely won't move like that given they're not very agile. They're black and don't have the ability to climb straight up a wall, leading them to mostly infest in ground-level areas like sewage.</li></ul><h2>How to get rid of roaches</h2><div type="image" title="Roaches eating crumbs of food on the floor." height="1414" width="1885" msid="92263120" hostid="261"></div>Hodges says there's no singular silver bullet approach that will completely eliminate roaches from a house, but rather a combination of many to help deal with the problem. These methods help mitigate small invasions. An exterminator should be called in the event there's a larger issue.<h3>Exclude roaches from your home </h3>The first line of defense when combating roaches is to "use the pest's biology to outsmart it," according to Amy Cross, the project coordinator at the <a href="http://npic.orst.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Pesticide Information Center</a>. In other words: eliminate any causes for why they might be entering the house. Here are a few important roach resources to secure:Food: Roaches need food to survive, and if it's available in your home, they'll try to stick around. Wipe or vacuum up any crumbs on floors, tables, and counters. Don't leave food unsealed in your pantry. To ensure it's out of reach of <keyword id="12118786" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="pests" source="Orion">pests</keyword>, store open pantry foods in airtight containers. Roaches also <a href="https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef614" target="_blank" rel="noopener">eat substances</a> we don't consider food, such as hair, soap, and toothpaste. Try to keep your home clean and store away any potential items that roaches may try to feast on. Leaks: Water is another resource that supports roach life inside of your home. If you have any <a href="https://www.antaplumbing.com/blog/how-water-leaks-cause-cockroach-infestations/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">leaky pipes</a> or areas where water pools or drips, such as underneath sinks or in basements, roaches are likely to congregate there. To drive away roaches, fix any leaky pipes and replace leaky faucets. Repair any other places where outside water can enter your home, such as a leaky window or roof. If your basement is moist, try using a dehumidifer or sump pump.Hiding spots: During the day, cockroaches <a href="https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef614" target="_blank" rel="noopener">often hide</a> in dark areas. Stacks of cardboard boxes, newspaper, and other clutter can make perfect hiding spots for roaches. Break down the boxes and recycle them instead of harboring a potential roach hideout in your home. Points of entry: Close up points as many points of entry as possible. This could include affixing a door sweep to cover the crack between the bottom of a door and the ground, or sealing up any holes in the foundation of a house. Outdoor foliage: Hodges also says to maintain clean gutters, and to keep a vegetation-free zone with your landscaping by eliminating any foliage hanging over a house and not adding mulch when it's not necessary. <h3>Collect and dispose of roaches with glue strips</h3><a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.homedepot.com%2Fp%2FBlack-Flag-Roach-Motel-Insect-Glue-Traps-2-Count-HG-11020-1%2F204237338" target="_blank" rel="nofollow nofollow noopener sponsored sponsored">Glue strips</a> are one of the safest and most effective solutions for killing roaches, says Hodges. Glue strips are sheets or tubes covered in a sticky substance and they can quickly catch cockroaches within 24 or 48 hours. While Hodges says these won't work for large infestations, they can help with monitoring the severity of a roach situation and indicate the severity of an issue. Important: If the glue strips catch a bunch of roaches, you have a large infestation and should consider calling in a professional exterminator. <h3>Bait and kill with boric acid</h3>Boric acid is a stomach poison that roaches don't have any resistance to. A roach must consume the boric acid for it to work. However, it does come with a few caveats, as both Cross and Hodges point out. First off, Hodges explains it's a slow-acting agent and takes a while to actually kill roaches. On top of that, Hodges states people often panic and use more than necessary."The rule that we use when applying any type of a dust insecticide is that if you can see it, you've put out too much," Hodges says. "If the roach sees that big old pile [of boric acid], they're just going to walk around."To attract roaches to the boric acid, mix it with equal parts sugar and water. Put the mixture in an open jar and place it where you've seen roaches. After roaches consume the mixture, they'll eventually die.Hodges also encourages people to exercise caution, as boric acid can be toxic in large doses according to the National Pesticide Information Center, and to make sure they're following the instructions on the label when it comes to application.Note: If you can't find boric acid, you can also use <a href="https://www.insider.com/guides/home/borax-uses" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Borax</a>.<h3>Sprinkle some diatomaceous earth</h3><a href="https://www.insider.com/guides/home/diatomaceous-earth" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Diatomaceous earth</a> works as a scratching agent or abrasive meant to get spread out on a surface that insects will then run across. The diatomaceous earth will then damage or stick to the exoskeleton, causing them to dry out. Similar to boric acid, this option is slow working and oftentimes is applied by people in overly large quantities or incorrectly. According to Hodges, using too much can sometimes cause itchy or sore throats with homeowners, and Cross also points out that overapplication can render diatomaceous earth ineffective since the roaches will see it and just crawl around it.Important: Cross advises against using bug bombs or foggers. The mist often doesn't get into the small spaces and crevices where cockroaches are hiding. Additionally, some species of cockroaches are <a href="https://www.insider.com/cockroaches-are-evolving-to-become-almost-impossible-to-kill-2019-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">becoming resistant</a> to some insecticides in many roach foggers, such as <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31121031/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pyrethroids</a>.<h3>Add baking soda to your arsenal</h3>Baking soda is another common household substance that you can add to your pest-fighting arsenal.Mix baking soda and sugar to bait the roaches. When they eat the baking soda and consume water, it will cause their insides to bloat and expand, which kills them.However, baking soda alone is not as effective as boric acid. But you can combine them.A <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256495162_IMMORTALS_TO_MORTALS_-_HOME_REMEDIES_FOR_CONTROL_OF_INDOOR_PESTS_AND_THEIR_EFFICACY_JayaPrada_R_Chunduri_Siddharth_Sagar_and_Hemali_Marolia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2013 study</a> found that pellets made from a combination of three parts boric acid and one part baking soda were effective at killing roaches, with an average death time of 5 hours after ingestion.<h3>Repel roaches with essential oils</h3>Essential oils can be helpful if you're dealing with a few roaches entering your home from outdoors. You can create a spray with at least 2.5% essential oil mixed with water, then spray it around areas where roaches might enter or where you've seen them. Here are several essential oils proven to be effective against specific roach species.<ul><li>Citrus: A <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250020757_Repellent_activity_of_citrus_oils_against_the_cockroaches_Blattella_germanica_Periplaneta_americana_and_P_fuliginosa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2009 study</a> found that a variety of citrus essential oils — including grapefruit, lemon, lime, and orange — were effective at repeling several species of roaches. This is likely due to limonene, a chemical in citrus peels that is also used in <a href="https://www3.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/reregistration/fs_PC-079701_1-Sep-94.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">insect repellants</a>.</li><li>Kaffir lime: In a <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17883004/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2007 study</a>, researchers found that kaffir lime oil was 100% effective at repelling both the American cockroach and German cockroach. </li><li>Oregano: In a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5186743/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2016 study</a> focusing on the brown-banded cockroach, oregano oil was 96.5% to 99.1% effective at repelling the pest.</li><li>Rosemary: In the same <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28032105/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2016 study</a>, researches found that rosemary essential oil was toxic to brown-banded cockroaches, with 100% mortality after 24 hours of exposure to the oil at a concentration of at least 2.5%.</li></ul><h3>Try an insect growth regulator</h3>If you have domestic roaches, such as the German cockroach, or if you think roaches are reproducing in your home, purchase an <a href="http://npic.orst.edu/ingred/ptype/igr.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">insect growth regulator</a> product, such as a spray formulated with Pyriproxifen. These products focus on roaches at the egg and nymph stage, often rendering them unable to reproduce or mature into adults, and thus reducing the population. Insect growth regulators are best used in tandem with products that kill adult roaches, since they often do not work on fully grown roaches and can take several months to have any noticeable effect.<h3>Use a syringe to apply gel baits</h3>Products that bait roaches with a gel applied via syringe make it easier to cover a wider variety of hard-to-reach areas. Covering more surfaces also makes it more likely that roaches will come across the bait. <a href="https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef614" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Experts recommend</a> applying small dots of the gel in areas where roaches may forage or enter and leave, such as in corners, under cabinets, and near cracks and edges. It's better to use small dots in many areas, rather than large globs in just a few areas. Baits can take one to three days to kill roaches, allowing them time to potentially infect other roaches, as well.<h3>Step on it</h3>When you see a roach, step on it. That's one less roach you need to worry about in your home. After stepping on a roach, disinfect the area with antibacterial cleaner to avoid spreading any pathogens the roach may have been carrying. Quick tip: If you're afraid that stepping on a roach will release all the eggs being carried on its body, worsening a roach problem, then fear not. According to Hodges, the moment a roach is killed, then all the egg capsules will die along with it. <h3>Pull out the poison and traps</h3>Sometimes you have to pull out the big guns. Roach poison and roach traps are easy to come by and sometimes instantly effective. Here are some of our top recommendations for killing roaches:<h2>Best roach killer</h2><a href="https://www.insider.com/guides/home/best-roach-killer" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a><div type="image" title="Collage of Best roach killers, including Raid Ant &amp; Roach Killer" height="834" width="1668" msid="92263122" hostid="261"></div>We test and recommend the <a href="https://www.insider.com/guides/home/best-roach-killer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">best roach killers</a>. Find our recommendations linked throughout the story, or check out our favorite products here: <ul><li>Best roach killer overall: <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.homedepot.com%2Fp%2FOrtho-Home-Defense-1-gal-Insect-Killer-for-Indoor-Perimeter2-Ready-To-Use-Trigger-Sprayer-022081004%2F300569432" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noindex noopener sponsored nofollow sponsored nofollow sponsored">Ortho Home Defense Insect Killer, $7.97 at The Home Depot</a></li><li>Best contact spray roach killer: <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.target.com%2Fp%2Fraid-20oz-ant-38-roach-killer-twin-pack%2F-%2FA-76386530" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noindex noopener sponsored nofollow sponsored nofollow sponsored">Raid's Ant &amp; Roach Killer Insecticide Spray, $9.99 at Target</a></li><li>Best roach trap: <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.homedepot.com%2Fp%2FBlack-Flag-Roach-Motel-Insect-Glue-Traps-2-Count-HG-11020-1%2F204237338" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noindex noopener sponsored nofollow sponsored nofollow sponsored">Black Flag Roach Motel Insect Trap, $3.47 at The Home Depot</a></li></ul><h2>Insider's takeaway</h2>While it's better to leave large roach infestations to the professionals, there are certainly mitigation techniques that can be used to eliminate roaches and keep them from returning to a home. Closing up cracks in a house and getting rid of anything that might be attracting roaches in the first place is the best line of defense, and glue strips are also a highly recommended option when it comes to efficiently catching roaches.You can also try natural methods such as diatomaceous earth or essential oil sprays. But if you continue to see roaches in your home, you might need to invest in chemical methods such as syringe-applied gel baits, insect growth regulators, or roach-killing sprays.

10 ways to get rid of roaches and keep them out permanently

<ul class="summary-list"><li>These <keyword id="34617" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="construction">construction</keyword> <keyword id="6362653" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="machines">machines</keyword> are all working hard to get the job done. </li><li>From a machine that digs up tree trunks to a tunnel-washing truck that looks like a car wash on wheels, we're highlighting 20 machines.</li></ul>Following is a transcript of the <keyword id="21654" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="video">video</keyword>.#1 The Ponsse Beaver is an industrial tree-harvesting machine.It cuts the tree at the base.Then in one motion, it removes the limbs and cuts the tree into logs. #2 This <keyword id="131455" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="monster">monster</keyword> machine can dig trenches in seconds.It digs holes up to 5.5m deep and 1.5m wide.Used on large trenching projects like water pipes, it can also be used for sewage, oil, and gas projects.#3 The 5700-C machine continuously forms and pours concrete.It makes curbs, gutters, sidewalks, and barrier walls.It can even handle irrigation ditches and bridge walkways.#4 These machines can paint road markings in seconds.The paint is made up of thermoplastics.It also uses reflective glass beads.This makes the markings more visible and long-lasting. #5 This truck could save 90% of construction time.The arched rollers on the back function as the structural frame.Supporting the blocks while they're set in place.The blocks fit together like LEGOs.#6 The rotor stump grinder can dig up a tree trunk in seconds.Each grinder is powered by hydraulics.#7 The ScreedSaver BOSS 240 smoothes out concrete with rollers and blades.It uses a boom instead of wheels that damage concrete.A GPS ensures accuracy. #8 The Hunklinger makes bricklaying much quicker.It lays 1,000 bricks of any size and shape per hour.#9 The Moty KE 3000 harvests pumpkin seeds.It picks up the pumpkins using a spike wheel and sends them down a conveyor belt.The pumpkin seeds are then separated, cleaned and easily transferred.#10 The Roadrunner machine places and retrieves street cones.The cones are loaded into the machine from the bed of the truck.This makes placing cones safer and more efficient. #11 The BMM300 truck rolls out 300 bricks a minute.Raw clay is loaded into the back.Where it's compressed into molds.The brick is pushed out once the mold is facing the ground.Leaving a clean trail of perfect bricks.#12 SAM is a bricklaying machine.It picks up bricks, adds mortar, and places them in order.#13 This machine replaces railway ties, also known as sleepers.It does it without removing any of the railway track. The machine is fitted with a tie changer.Which grabs the railway ties and replaces with a new one.#14 This Splitmaster machine splits logs with a hydraulic press. The machine picks up heavy logs.The press then feeds the log into a splitting knife.And voila! Smaller pieces.#15 These scraping machines remove floor coverings. It can handle ceramics, linoleum, vinyl, carpet, and even glue.#16 The Spartan Leaf Pro Plus sucks up thousands of leaves per minute.It works on wet or snowy leaves. It's controlled by a remote.#17 This road-building machine rolls out bricks like a carpet. As the RPS6 RoadPrinter rolls backward, gravity brings the bricks flat to rest on the ground. This creates a perfect brick road.#18 The Golden Series Six Shooter machine is used to remove manhole frames. It's braced to the center of the manhole. It then cuts a perfect circle around the hole. #19 This machine cleans tunnels. It uses the same rollers as a car wash. It can easily adapt to different tunnels.#20 The LSM 740 machine can mow around signposts. It uses two mower disks that automatically turn the mower when near a post. Avoiding any damage to the mower.EDITOR'S NOTE: This video was originally published in March 2019.

20 construction machines getting the job done

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The writer <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-writer-went-undercover-to-investigate-white-supremacists-online-2020-10">Talia Lavin</a> reflects on emerging from our <keyword id="8764262" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid">Covid</keyword> quarantines with the same perceived flaws and insecurities as before. </li><li>What if the coming season is less "Hot Vaxxed Girl Summer" and more "Blob Girl Summer"? </li></ul>As the petals drop to the pavement and shots slip into arms, we're rolling inexorably toward Hot Vaxxed Girl <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sextech-startup-summer-market-booming-2021-4">Summer</a>. We, the immunized, survivors of the plague, are supposed to emerge from our Covid quarantines without hesitancy. The problem with this is that I was never Hot in the first place and this Summer is no different. It's still just me, blinking hesitantly and shaking a little, sweating under my shapeless clothes and knowing that there are still people dying at war with their own lungs. The truth is I am a <a href="https://twitter.com/chick_in_kiev/status/1187113670603661313?lang=en">Blob Girl</a>. I am part of a vast middle sector of womanhood who are pretty bad at Being <keyword id="624" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Women">Women</keyword> in the way that involves an arsenal of products and a wealth of knowledge to address every detail of our femininity with attention and care and perform it with the practiced grace of dancers. My je ne sais quoi is a literal translation: I don't know what it would take to have such a quality. This summer, the humid air will press down on me like a sweaty hand and I, in the middle of it, will be as limp and unluscious as a two-day-old funnel cake. In a world of curation through layers of screens-in which even I, stale dough pinched into the rough approximation of a human woman, know my best selfie angles-it is difficult to admit it and still more difficult to hope that somewhere I have a tribe. There is so much expectation, after more than a year locked inside. We were supposed to improve ourselves during our time away from the world. In a social milieu shaped by the bright relentless self-optimization of capital we are supposed to come out of our bedrooms-slash-workspaces thinner and shinier. Except I didn't. For me, what's coming is Blob Girl Summer.I know I am not alone, that there's a secret legion of grieving and unimproved femmes who have tried and failed to enter the halls of a kind of womanhood that is locked off to us. Somewhere there is a place, I imagine it to be not unlike the <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/547802">Temple of Dendur</a> in the Met, where the Hot Girls sleep at night in their sarcophagi. I could get my ticket my <keyword id="6360041" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="life">life</keyword> would change, and since I can't, I live an unchanged life. The last time I tried to sit on a stoop on a sunny day I sat in dog piss and I didn't even know, for hours. For years I have tried to enter the temple, but I haven't tried hard enough, and I have a big furrow in my brow and wrinkly hands. So much of what Being A Woman is supposed to be is the ability to transfix and enchant, glances sticking to you like cobweb.<div type="image" title="Talia Temple" height="3451" width="5207" msid="82314004" hostid="261"></div>I was built for gazes to pass over, an awning is more exciting than me, a hot dog cart is more exciting than me, the little creatures in the rainwater coming out of the gutter that you can't see with the naked eye are nonetheless more visually arresting than I am. Am I a woman still? I have tried to be. So <a href="https://projects.thecity.nyc/covid-19-deaths/">many people</a> have died this year, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/global-covid-deaths-3-million-surges-us-brazil-india-2021-4">millions,</a> and I have survived to take into my body a miraculous shot that is the very flower of medical science, a code written in my genome to lock out the great threat. And I, imbibing this, have the temerity to not even be sexy. If Vaxxed Girl Summer is meant to be a kind of pan-cultural Rumspringa I ought to be someone that transcends schlubhood under its thrilling aegis. And yet.<h3>A SUGGESTED RITUAL</h3>The proof of my failure is all around me, entombed in the room I rent. Somewhere in my possession is a pale blue container of Tatcha's The Water Cream, a moisturizer that goes for $68 for 1.7 fluid ounces. Within the pale unguent, the advertising copy states, are wild roses, and leopard lilies found "on the cool hillsides of Japan." The cream is thick and white, and the luxuriant vessel that holds it is accompanied by a gold-colored spoon, with which to smooth the pricey goop onto your face. There is a "suggested ritual" to accompany the cream: Camellia Cleansing Oil, Rice Polish, The Essence - $286 worth of salves and scours meant to alchemize one's face and decolletage into youthful, glowing perfection. I bought it, all of it, in a manic phase in the last year of my twenties.I was a Blob Girl convinced I could be a Hot Girl and so I was attuned to the chatter all around me about skincare routines. There were articles about it - The Cut runs a repeating feature interrogating how various women "Get Her Skin So Good" (most are very rich or very young or both). I wanted in, and I read the articles, bought the best, as far as I could determine, among a blizzard of beauty guides laden with an intricate web of affiliate links. For a few nights I bathed my skin in these things, titrated them drop by drop onto the bags under my eyes, the sallow tops of my breasts, my unspeakable neck. But I had no discipline; it was just another dilettante's sally into a kind of femininity I had no real business taking part in.By now I've mostly mostly hidden the serums away, feeling a vague shame about the whole thing. I'm now 31, and I grew up when Heroin Chic was still the ideal of womanhood, hipbones protruding from low-rise jeans. The belated acknowledgement that flesh belongs adjacent to bones came late in my twenties, too late for me, and I continue to await a great cultural reset that hallows a body that looks like mine--an overstuffed couch dropped from a great height, a knockoff Venus of Willendorf made of plasticine. Somehow and somewhere (many somewheres, or everywhere) I learned that a perfect woman is a mirror that shows you precisely what you desire. Nonetheless I stand in my sack dress and Walmart sandals and tilt up my bare, pore-heavy face with its incipient jowls and admit with chagrin and little grace that I am not among the blessed. I am a Blob Femme, a creature half-made of envy and shame, whose breasts are incidental and pendulous. A woman sure she is a woman, but sure of little else.To be a woman and do it properly is a job that requires both effort and skill. It can involve cash, yes, but also work - testing and curation, a keen awareness of audience and effect. Much can be done with simple and cost-effective material, and while its primary cultural exemplars are wealthy, looking fantastic isn't solely the provenance of the bourgeois. There is value to this work: learning the mysteries of the contour, differentiating foundations, finding the just-right nook of bone that blush ought to be applied to; assessing one's palette, knowing hair milk from hair gel from hair cream. There is work in building looks each day out of the raw material of simple clothing, and it is work I admire, and at which I lack talent and initiative. There is unimaginable amounts of work involved in sculpting a beguiling figure out of simple flesh. I do not denigrate it; I long for it, strive for it when I'm flush in mad dashes of acquisition. <div type="image" title="Talia Makeup school" height="3006" width="4008" msid="82314013" hostid="261"></div>I never learned how to be flat enough, silent enough, to be all winking, passive chrome. During the pandemic I was lucky enough to be cloistered; this privileged solitude left me alone with a mind that wouldn't stop buzzing, alone with a body that kept manufacturing its own insistent and extraneous desires. I know that there are many women who excel at both the labor of performed femininity. Who lust and take with grace, and who are as skilled in attaining their own pleasure as they are at giving pleasure away. Still, after this wearing year, a year of morgue-trucks and uncertainty and pain, I am still a woman unskilled at womanhood, not new to its arts but still humbler than an apprentice: A supplicant at the door of the temple.The world calls me out into the light of Hot Vaxxed Girl Summer, to be warm and poised and lush, but the spring is still cold and I am frightened and frozen at the threshold. Each step I take from an isolation in which my body, being alone, had no locus of comparison, is a step back into a world of all-too-familiar shame. Forgiving myself for every untoward fold and hair, every lemurish attempt at eyeliner, every clumsy waddle on thighs like boiled dumplings, forgiving myself for being me, or even just for being, is its own ongoing labor. Having survived through a plague I want to live every inch of my survival, the world my oyster and I, its irritant little pearl, the gem at the lip of the mantle, to be plucked out and buffed to shining nacre. Instead I'm the oyster, all slime in the throat, eating grit. Still, I lived. My body allowed me to hide and survive and, surely, for this it has earned a little grace.Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, undid her weaving each night to ward off suitors and buy herself time. I too have much to unthread each time I close my door on the world. From the poor material of myself, I have to spin patience and a little kindness. Hot Vaxxed Girl Summer is coming, and all I can do is set my fat hands to the loom.Talia Lavin is a freelance journalist and author of the recent book "<a href="https://bookshop.org/books/culture-warlords-my-journey-into-the-dark-web-of-white-supremacy/9780306846434">Culture Warlords: My Journey into the Dark Web of White Supremacy</a>."

Get ready for Blob Girl Summer

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div>Things escalated quickly in Louisiana <keyword id="6358883" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Politics">politics</keyword> on Friday.John Bel Edwards, the Democrat running in the November 21 gubernatorial election there, released a no-holds-barred attack ad against his opponent, Sen. David Vitter (R-Louisiana)."The choice for governor couldn't be any more clear. John Bel Edwards, who answered our country's call and served as a Ranger in the 82nd Airborne Division," the ad's narrator began, innocently enough.But then&#xa0;the narrator tore into Vitter, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/17/us/17vitter.html">who apologized in 2007</a> for being linked to the so-called DC Madam scandal."Or David Vitter, who answered prostitute's call minutes after he skipped a vote honoring 28 soldiers who gave their lives in defense of our freedom," the ad continued. "David Vitter chose prostitutes over patriots. Now the choice is yours."<h3>Watch below:</h3><div></div>"Voters have a right to know who the candidates really are," Mary-Patricia Wray, an Edwards campaign spokesperson, said in a statement announcing the ad. "David Vitter's hypocrisy should not go unchecked, and this is yet another reason why Louisianans can't trust him."The News-Star, a Louisiana newspaper, <a href="http://www.thenewsstar.com/story/news/2015/11/06/edwards-ad-vitter-chose-prostitutes-over-patriots/75310784/">provided some of the context of the ad</a>, which it reported will begin running Saturday:The vote to which the ad refers was on House Concurrent Resolution 39 in the 107th Congress on Feb. 27, 2001 when Vitter was a U.S. representative. It honored soldiers killed by an Iraqi missile attack on Feb. 25, 1991, during Operation Desert Storm. Records do show Vitter missed the vote.Edwards campaign also provided the previously published list of alleged "D.C. Madam" calls, one of which was to Vitter that day, although the call didn't come during the vote.In 2007 Vitter confessed to a "serious sin" after the "D.C. Madam"&#xa0;scandal broke, but he has never provided details about the serious sin.For its&#xa0;part, Vitter's campaign blasted Edwards for sending the race into the "gutter."&#xa0;"John Bel Edwards is resorting to gutter personal attacks because he does not want anyone to know his liberal record - raising taxes, supporting Obamacare, opposing oil and gas industry, opposing school choice and on and on," Vitter spokesman Luke Bolar said."David Vitter, a Louisiana conservative, is completely focused on leading and building a brighter future for Louisiana and he's done more to help veterans in Louisiana than anyone."<h3><a href="http://www.thenewsstar.com/story/news/2015/11/06/edwards-ad-vitter-chose-prostitutes-over-patriots/75310784/">Check out the full News-Star report on the increasingly nasty Louisiana gubernatorial race &gt;</a></h3> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dash-cam-shows-officer-shooting-teen-2015-10">New dash-cam video shows officer shooting unarmed teen in drug-sting operation</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="R4c2RneDqdkQW4hTnZeVC9cio-7AZy_h" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

The mother of all attack ads just landed in the Louisiana governor's race

More than 10,000 fish were found dead near a sewage drain in a lake in the southern Chinese city of <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=shenzhen+cn&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;hq=&amp;hnear=0x3403f408d0e15291:0xfdee550db79280c9,Shenzhen,+Guangdong,+China&amp;gl=us&amp;ei=ROl4UtKVEqPfsATqmoKQDw&amp;ved=0CLIBELYD">Shenzhen</a>, .
This is not the first time this has happened in Shenzen - <a href="http://english.cri.cn/6909/2012/05/03/2821s697139.htm">last year</a> 50,00 fish were found floating in a pond near an industrial area last year - and it won't be the last as long as sewage and industrial waste are <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/china-water-pollution-2013-3">routinely dumped</a> into Chinese rivers and lakes.<div class="KonaFilter image-container no-rightrail"><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/China DailyWorkers collect dead fish at a park in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, November 5, 2013. </div></div><div class="KonaFilter image-container no-rightrail"><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/China DailyWorkers collect dead fish at a park in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, November 5, 2013.</div></div><div class="KonaFilter image-container no-rightrail"><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/China DailyDead fish are seen at a park in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, November 5, 2013.</div></div>Shenzen is also the site of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-street-vendors-use-gutter-oil-2013-10">"gutter oil" street food</a>.

These Disturbing Photos Of 10,000 Dead Fish Show What Happens When Waste Is Dumped Into A Lake

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The pandemic forced cities to remold their streets to give more room to pedestrians and <keyword id="24462" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="bikes">bikes</keyword>, but it also thrust their longstanding lack of good <keyword id="6359227" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="biking">biking</keyword> infrastructure into the spotlight. </li><li>A natural ebb and flow in <keyword id="6366594" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cycling">cycling</keyword> popularity, car-centric and unsustainable planning practices, and the auto industry's effort to claim streets for cars all made US cities fall behind some of their bike-friendly European counterparts, experts said. </li><li>Cities have been making progress, however, and some of the temporary measures put in place during the pandemic are becoming permanent. </li></ul>Walk the streets of many major US cities today and you'll find cones, bollards, and barricades creating space for pedestrians and cyclists that, before the pandemic, belonged to cars. It's an urbanist's dream, but it's come at an immense cost. When COVID-19 hit last spring, cities from Oakland to Philadelphia scrambled to meet the needs of a public abruptly uprooted from its daily routine and forced to physically distance. Taking advantage of a steep drop-off in car traffic, <keyword id="34991" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="transportation">transportation</keyword> departments began closing streets to give people more space to roam while designating temporary bike lanes to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bicycle-lanes-cycling-pandemic-coronavirus-2020-10">accommodate a pandemic-era surge in cycling</a>. And although the pandemic highlighted some cities' ability to innovate, it also forced the US' longstanding lack of good biking infrastructure into the spotlight.After all, people didn't start biking when the pandemic began; it's been on the rise for years. And although lots of American cities have decent bike lanes, scores of cities outside the US - most famously European metropolises like Copenhagen and Amsterdam - have spent decades building out highly developed and widely utilized biking networks. <div type="image" title="Oakland streets closed" height="1333" width="2000" msid="79968199" hostid="261"></div>It's a wonder, then, that those ways of thinking haven't taken hold in the US, forcing the country's major cities to step up their efforts amid the crunch of a pandemic instead of remolding themselves over the course of many decades. But it's actually by design. Mobility and urban planning experts say that cycling's relatively brief periods of popularity, transportation departments' reactionary and car-centric planning habits, and the auto industry's war to cement cars as the primary way of getting around - both on streets and in the American cultural consciousness - made the US fall behind many of its European counterparts. <h2>The boom and bust cycle of cycling</h2>The current obsession with biking - extraordinary as its backdrop may be - is just the latest in a more than two-centuries-long boom and bust cycle, Dr. Evan Friss, a historian at James Madison University, told Business Insider. As biking saw brief surges in popularity followed by decades-long drops in public interest, Friss said, there was rarely enough sustained enthusiasm and momentum for lasting infrastructure improvements to take hold. Friss said the first major boom came in the 1890s, when the modern bicycle as we know it hit streets. The newly developed "safety bicycle" - as opposed to the high-riding and riskier pennyfarthing - exploded in popularity and led well-to-do cycling enthusiasts to push for paved roads and other ambitious infrastructure projects to make biking easier."Americans in cities across the country began dreaming up these cycling cities and thinking about how their lives, their culture, their society [would] be altered by having an affordable - eventually - private form of transportation, which never really existed before," Friss said. During the late 19th century boom, a 3-foot-wide path of asphalt was built along the gutter in Manhattan for commuters going down to Wall Street, some hundred miles of lanes were constructed in St. Paul, Minnesota, an elevated wooden path was erected in Pasadena, California, and a dedicated bike lane was established from the middle of Brooklyn down to Coney Island, to name a few initiatives.<div type="image" title="GettyImages 514881876" height="1856" width="2500" msid="79968205" hostid="261"></div>Interest faded around the turn of the century. By the Great Depression, when people flocked to bikes in large numbers again, the infrastructure of the 1890s had vanished. In the early 1970s, the oil crisis drove car owners to bicycles yet again, spurring a new emphasis on building bike lanes and bike-safety publicity campaigns. But, Friss said, that all died out in short order as well. "In many of these boom periods, bicycles are witnessing an explosion of popularity despite, ... not because, of the infrastructure in place," Friss said. "They start to build infrastructure, but usually the periods of popularity are so brief that there's not much staying power to them."Historically, US cities scrambled to catch up with demand rather than leading with infrastructure - and Friss said that, coupled with the natural ebb and flow of cycling popularity, is one of the chief reasons that major biking infrastructure projects never stuck.<h2>US transportation departments, in large part, don't prioritize bikes or sustainability</h2>Many European cities famous for their strong cycling networks were able to develop them because their transportation departments think top-down rather than bottom-up, Tabitha Combs, a researcher of transportation planning and policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told Business Insider. If you build it, they will come, the European planners say.But that's not so in the US, Combs said. US transportation departments take into account anticipated demand when planning and funding new roadways, but they're much more reactionary when it comes to pedestrian and bike projects, Combs said. "When it comes to walking and bicycling, most state DOTs and most local DOTs wait until there is a demonstrated demand, meaning there's a worn path on the side of the road where people are walking, or - as dark and morbid as it sounds - enough people are killed crossing a multi-lane road that eventually action is warranted," Combs said. <div type="image" title="Temporary covid bike lanes in boston" height="1418" width="2500" msid="79968207" hostid="261"></div>Many cities that have succeeded in building out biking infrastructure overseas did so as part of a concerted move to get people on bikes and push their cities in a more sustainable direction - not just to meet existing demand, multiple experts said. European transportation officials, Combs said, understood the negative environmental impact of car dependence much earlier than their US counterparts, and they began shaping city streets accordingly.The key difference between US and European transportation authorities, according to Sam Schwartz, a transportation consultant and former New York City traffic commissioner, is that the latter "believe in science.""Amsterdam and Copenhagen are fabulous examples of cities that looked at their horizon and saw where automobile dependence was taking them - in terms of the environment, in terms of access to opportunity, in terms of financial cost, the financial burden of providing streets for cars, and they said, 'We need to do something different,'" Combs said. "Places like that built out their bicycling networks and their walking networks in advance of the demand, and they're still building out those networks."What US transportation departments historically missed, experts said, is that biking infrastructure can create demand by giving people more options. European cities have incentivized people to ride by leading with infrastructure for some 50 years, Friss said. The result is that biking there isn't so much a niche activity with a particular demographic - as it is in the US - as an established way of getting around that's embraced by all genders and ages, Friss said.<div type="image" title="biking in amsterdam" height="1583" width="2500" msid="79968209" hostid="261"></div>But the philosophy surrounding bike infrastructure has evolved somewhat in recent years. Friss said the latest bike boom - which began in the mid 2000s and continues to this day - has seen a substantial push for initiatives that don't just meet demand, but also promote sustainability and get more people to ride. That's partially why it has lasted more than a decade, he said, while previous booms tended to fizzle out after six or eight years. Although a lot has changed since Schwartz oversaw the construction of New York's first protected bike lanes in 1980 - which were met with huge opposition and were quickly torn out - the general attitude within government that road projects take precedence over biking or pedestrian initiatives persists, he said. "We have a budget in New York State and New York City over the next 10 years of about $25 billion for roads and bridges," Schwartz said. "The Queens Ribbon [Schwartz' proposed pedestrian and cycling bridge going into lower Manhattan] would be about $100 million. And I can't find anyone in government willing to take it seriously." <h2>Automotive interest groups worked tirelessly to claim city streets for the car</h2>The story of how bikes wound up sidelined from city streets is inextricably linked to the parallel tale of how cars came to dominate them. "As automobiles got prioritized on streets, they became hostile environments for everybody else," Peter Norton, a historian at the University of Virginia and the author of Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City, told Business Insider.The prevailing historical narrative would have you believe that cars were so useful and attractive that they were destined to rule US roads, but Norton said that narrative was largely propagated by the auto industry itself. "The version of history that we've been told primarily comes from automobile businesses," Norton said. "They were the first historians of the car, and they're still the most vocal historians of the car today." In reality, Norton said, there was always strong opposition to the automobile - even from its earliest days - and auto industry groups have spent the last century reshaping roads and molding public opinion to better accommodate them. <div type="image" title="New York Street 1915" height="1875" width="2500" msid="79968211" hostid="261"></div>When cars first hit the road in significant numbers in the early 1920s, Norton said they faced a severe backlash as they disrupted the formerly pedestrian-friendly streets and began killing <a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1924/11/23/104162618.html?pageNumber=179">thousands of people annually</a>. The laws, social norms, and planning standards of the time all put pedestrians first, and most major institutions agreed that motorists - not pedestrians - would need to make concessions to keep streets safe. Threatened by the budding anti-car movement of the 1920s, auto manufacturers, dealers, and enthusiast groups set out to redesign laws and engineering standards to claim streets for the car, Norton said. Around that time, automakers popularized the term "jaywalking" and lobbied to make it a crime across the country, Norton said - both as a strategy for keeping the roads free of pedestrians, and for <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/1/15/7551873/jaywalking-history">shaming those who dared overstep that boundary</a>. "Jay" was contemporary slang for someone from outside the city - a close approximation today might be "hayseed" or "hick." The industry also helped craft the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/1/15/7551873/jaywalking-history">1928 Model Municipal Traffic Ordinance</a>, a federal guideline cities could use to manage traffic that said pedestrians could only cross streets at designated crosswalks. <div type="image" title="GettyImages 804477496" height="2047" width="2500" msid="79968214" hostid="261"></div>In the early 1930s, the National Highway Users Conference - a lobbying group formed by General Motors, the American Automobile Association, and other industry groups - began a wildly successful campaign to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/5/14/8605917/highways-interstate-cities-history">make highway construction a public responsibility</a>, and the <a href="https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/96summer/p96su10.cfm">1956 Federal Aid Highway Act</a> cemented that responsibility. It heavily subsidized highway construction and laid the groundwork for the current, near-50,000-mile interstate highway system that runs through nearly every major central business district in the country.<h2>A cultural offensive</h2>The industry also waged a pervasive cultural offensive to shift public perception of the automobile and, eventually, cement cars as an immutable fixture in the American way of life, Norton said. The notion of the US' love affair with the automobile, Norton argues, isn't so much an organic attraction, but rather the result of a concerted, decades-long public opinion campaign. That very turn of phrase - "America's love affair with the automobile" - first appeared in the late 1950s as a GM marketing slogan, Norton said, and then was used to promote a 1961 television special on the early history of the car called "Merrily We Roll Along," hosted by Groucho Marx and sponsored by DuPont, which had a 23% stake in the automaker at the time. By the late 1920s, Norton said practically every public school in the US had traffic-safety education, and most of the materials were provided at no charge by AAA. That too was instrumental in teaching an entire generation - and those that followed - that streets were primarily a place for cars, not for pedestrians or cyclists. <h2>Where do we go from here?</h2>Despite the bike-friendly initiatives some cities have introduced in recent years, they still have a long way to go. Nearly 860 cyclists were killed by drivers in the US in 2018, making it the deadliest year for bikers since 1990, according to <a href="https://www.outsideonline.com/2409749/outside-cycling-deaths-2020">Outside Magazine</a>. Many urbanists think city dwellers would be better off if some of the temporary changes made to streetscapes became permanent. And at least in some cities, that's happening. Seattle <a href="https://sdotblog.seattle.gov/2020/05/07/2020-bike-investments-to-accelerate-including-20-miles-of-stay-healthy-streets-to-become-permanent-in-seattle/">announced in May</a> that at least 20 miles of its Stay Healthy Streets would remain closed to car traffic permanently. Austin City Council decided in September to <a href="https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/local/austin-congress-temporary-bike-lanes-approved/269-9ca3b110-af52-40bd-836c-0e4125438944">keep protected bike lanes</a> established in the city in June, and <a href="https://www.wcvb.com/article/boston-announces-plans-for-permanent-bike-bus-lanes/34040602">Boston is doing the same</a>, replacing traffic barrels with permanent posts on several downtown streets. But temporary measures don't need to become permanent to be successful. Whereas before, any new project had to surmount all types of hurdles and secure funding before becoming a reality, this moment has introduced experimentation - affording cities and residents the ability to test-drive infrastructure overhauls without committing completely. To Combs, the US has always been a follower rather than an innovator in planning, and this new era of experimentation may finally change that. "There are some very important lessons for the field of transport planning and engineering in that we can actually learn by doing - we don't have to wait for there to be a standard and a precedent," Combs said. "We can actually experiment."And that, I think - I hope - is part of the paradigm shift for transport planning."

The US wasn't equipped for 2020's cycling boom. Its failures stem from a century of leaving bikes behind.

20 Handyman Skills That Everyone Should Have

<div style="padding: 15px; border: 1px solid #999999; margin-bottom: 10px; font-size: 15px!important; line-height: 25px; overflow: auto; vertical-align: middle;"> This is part of the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/tech-360">"Tech 360"</a> series offering a 360-degree view of the tech industry, from in-depth reporting to weekly posts on what you need to know. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/tech-360">"Tech 360"</a> is sponsored by Delta. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/tech-360">Read more in the series »</a><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/tech-360" target="_blank"></a></div><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image">iRobotiRobot CEO and co-founder Colin Angle</div></div></div>iRobot's autonomous housecleaning robots are already in millions of homes around the world. Spare your sci-fi dreams of humanoid robots fetching your beers for now - this is the only consumer robotics company that matters today.
If you don't know the company name, you certainly know its products. To date, iRobot has sold 10 million housecleaning Roomba vacuums, saving its customers time and effort in one aspect of that thing we all hate so much: housework.
The company is built on much more than vacuums, however - its other consumer offerings will wash your floors, clean your pool, and even clear out your gutters.
iRobot also has an impressive business selling battle-tough bots to military and police - <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/irobot-defense-contractor-2014-4">we profiled that side of its business here</a>. These bots are used for a variety of applications, having been put to work in Afghanistan at the height of the war, and even in Fukushima, Japan after the reactor meltdown.
One of the people at iRobot's helm is its CEO and co-founder, Colin Angle, 46, who recently gave us some time for questions. Here are some takeaways from our conversation, and the full (lightly edited) interview appears below that.
<ul>
<li>iRobot is interested in eventually building robots to help the elderly lead more comfortable lives. We're rapidly aging as a society, so robots might be just the thing to step in and help us out in our twilight years.</li>
<li>Humanoid robots are not practical. Function is more important than form, so a robot's utility needs to come first.</li>
<li>The idea of a "robot uprising" is not really something to worry about. Long before humanity needs to worry about that, we're going to need to solve much more interesting problems. One is to answer the question "What is 'human?'"</li>
<li>The next generation of Roombas will use a superior navigation technology called vSLAM. They're going to navigate around your house more efficiently with help from low-cost cameras that will help them keep track of where they already have and haven't yet cleaned.</li>
</ul>
BUSINESS INSIDER: What got you interested in robotics?
COLIN ANGLE: A passion for building things, and to have those things be more than just a fantasy - to be quite practical.
"Star Wars" was the right movie for me. I watched the <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/MSE-6-series_repair_droid">MSE-6 droid</a> leading the stormtroopers where they needed to go when they were under attack, and that got my attention much moreso than C-3PO and R2-D2 because we could actually build that.
Robots had so much potential but none of it had been reduced to practice. We were going to make the robot industry real by ignoring all notions of what a robot was "supposed" to be - form that met function. It wasn't about the "cool demo." I had lots of experience around cool demos, especially at MIT. I was interested in the longer term, playing in the space where robots could be in the consumer or commercial world.
BI: Your company's name is a reference to Isaac Asimov's "I, Robot", I assume?
CA: It is, but at the time, the "i" stood for "internet." The original name of the company was Artificial Creatures Inc. Around the late 1990s, I'd become convinced that one of the killer applications of robotics came from connecting robots to the internet. The idea of solving generalized artificial intelligence was still far away, but heck, I could rent brains by hiring operators. iRobot was the name of the company and one of our most ambitious projects, <a href="http://www.irobot.com/filelibrary/ppt/corp/cool_stuff_ppt/img13.html">iRobot LE</a>. It was an internet-connected robot, but it was ultimately not launched.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image">iRobot</div></div></div>
BI: Do you have any favorite robot books or movies?
CA: There are many of them. "Star Wars" was an early inspiration. Johnny Five from the "Short Circuit" movies. "WALL-E" is a movie about a trash-collecting robot, so how can I not love that? It celebrates a practical, mundane robot that goes about its life.
BI: In the time since you and your co-founders started iRobot, what have been the most impressive developments in the field?
CA: It's hard not to love Roomba. Roomba had such an amazing impact on the field. When we launched, we asked people, "Is it a robot?" and got an overwhelming no - "robots" have arms and legs, they command data. There was a very strong perception that robots had to look like people. Roomba didn't use the word "robot" other than in the company name on the packaging. The press called it a robot. Now here we are 10 years later. I think, as a result, people are generally willing to imagine robots of all shapes, as humanoid robots are not practical.
The other thing Roomba did was to demonstrate that if you can crack the code and make a robot that delivers more value than it costs, you can sell 10 million of them. The utility of the robot needs to come first. It's business model over technology.
When I was building robots in the early 1990s, the problems of voice recognition, image understanding, VOIP, even touchscreen technologies - these were robotics problems. Now a robot company would be crazy to be working on those types of challenges. The gaming industry has stepped in to solve those problems. The Kinect sensor is perfect for gesture recognition, for example. These advances from the technology side have opened up room for advancement in the robot space. That's exciting because to create new value in the robot space quickly, you need to stand on the shoulders of other technological developments. Starting from scratch can be a five- or ten-year project. If you can leverage a growing infrastructure of rich technologies, you can start to build more useful robots with less capital investment, and that's what's required to succeed.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image">iRobotThe 310 SUGV, one of iRobot's military and defense robots.</div></div></div>
BI: This is such a clichéd question, but where do you stand on the robot uprising?
CA: Long before we have a robot uprising, we're going to deal with much more interesting problems. This idea that we're going to build a robot that has human cognition and appreciation for morals and values, that's super-hard stuff. If you think about the incorporation of robotic technology in our bodies, that's much nearer at hand.
There are implants with robotic technologies can restore hearing, and we're starting to have more routine surgery facilitated by robots. We have people who have lost their limbs in tragic situations who now have thought-controlled arm, legs, or ankles incorporated directly into their bodies.
Thus far, this technology is being used in response to traumatic injury, but it's easy to imagine your daughter coming to you one day and saying, "Hey Dad, I was thinking of having my eye removed. An artificial eye is going to give me better sight. Forget Google Glass, let's have the technology built in."
This is plausible and will create new challenges in the world. Having access to this technology gives you advantages over people who don't. The more important question is "What is human?"
BI: How does iRobot decide on what to work on next? Anything cool in the works you can talk about?
CA: We obviously continue to work on extending our leadership in markets we currently serve, but the impact of mobile and gaming asks the question "What is robot technology?" The answer is navigation, manipulation, and implementation of more sophisticated intelligence. The idea that a robot will become more aware of its environment, that telling it to "go to the kitchen" means something - navigation and understanding of the environment is a robot problem. Those are the technological frontiers of the robotics industry.
Where are we going? Extending independent living for our elderly is certainly not the only market for robots - there are robots in oil wells and many other things - but it's in that direction. We are rapidly aging as a society and most developed nations are suffering from the same challenges. In the U.S., there is an 18% gap on healthcare services for those in later life and the average cost of assisted living is well over the cost of a mortgage on a home.
BI: I read that the next generation of Roombas will implement something called "vSLAM." What can you tell me about vSLAM, and how much better will a vSLAM Roomba be than one that relies solely on bumpers and sensors? 
CA: Navigation is a key robot technology so vSLAM is about map-building and visualizing yourself on a map. "SLAM" stands for "simultaneous location and mapping" - the robot drives through an environment and builds a map of its environment. At the same time it keeps a running estimate of its position within that map, and to do it well right now is relatively expensive. It requires long-range laser rangefinders to build this map effectively. It works great in commercial setting, but the big challenge is cost.
vSLAM stands for "visual" SLAM. Instead of lasers, we're using low-cost cameras. The robot moves around just like with SLAM, but the map it makes is based on cameras finding landmarks in its environment that it can recognize from a variety of angles and lighting. Tracking three landmarks means you can triangulate your position very accurately.
The cost of the hardware decreases from thousands of dollars to tens of dollars, and that opens up many new applications for the technology and robots in general. At our <a href="http://investors.irobot.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=193096&amp;p=irol-newsArticle&amp;ID=1924345&amp;highlight=">Analyst Day</a> we demonstrated a system in the lab and used it to move around a building. We're very excited about it.
In practical consumer terms, Roomba will have an understandable map of what it's doing. This means it can spend more time where the dirt is and less time where it isn't. It can cover more square footage in the same amount of time, or the same square footage in less time. You can stop and recharge, then continue where you left off. It's about having the knowledge about what's been done where.

You Searched For "gutter oil" and got 12 results

China is freaking out over an 'open secret' that its cooking oil was ferried for years in chemical tanks that weren't cleaned

Matthew Loh

This Video Of Chinese Street Food Made From 'Gutter Oil' Is The Most Disgusting Thing You Will See All Day

Mamta Badkar

Paul Reiser says he still doesn't know if Dr. Owens on 'Stranger Things' is good or bad

Olivia Singh

Chinese farmers across 14 towns are spraying industrial sulfur on wolfberries so they'd be 'red and beautiful:' state media

Matthew Loh

10 ways to get rid of roaches and keep them out permanently

Megan Wahn

20 construction machines getting the job done

Alexandra Appolonia

Get ready for Blob Girl Summer

Talia Lavin

The mother of all attack ads just landed in the Louisiana governor's race

Colin Campbell

These Disturbing Photos Of 10,000 Dead Fish Show What Happens When Waste Is Dumped Into A Lake

Michael Kelley

The US wasn't equipped for 2020's cycling boom. Its failures stem from a century of leaving bikes behind.

Tim Levin

20 Handyman Skills That Everyone Should Have

AskMen

A Q&A With iRobot's Colin Angle, The CEO Of The Only Consumer Robotics Company That Matters

Dylan Love

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides