If you’re desperate to salvage those drifting Nintendo Switch Joy-Con, have watched all the videos online (including our own), and still haven’t had any luck, then why not try this new fix that’s surfaced on YouTube, which is claiming to have solved Joy-Con drift problems once and for all.
VK’s Channel on YouTube identified how the Joy-Con realigns when pressure is applied to the surrounding area of the analog stick. Therefore increasing pressure within the Joy-Con (which loosens over time), makes the drift disappear.
Surprisingly, this fix doesn’t require any technical know-how, but it will require the right tools. All you have to do is open the case and insert a small piece of paper or cardboard (around 1mm) where the analog is located. Yes – it’s that simple. It’s further explained how the prongs inside the controller lose contact with the pads over time and the paper fills the gap and restores pressure.
The YouTuber also notes how their own drifting Joy-Con have been working fine for around two months now, and that the same fix can be applied to the Nintendo Switch Lite. Skip to 5:55 to see the main fix in action.
Keep in mind, inserting things into your controllers (even pieces of paper) is at your own risk, and will likely void any warranty. Will you be giving this incredibly simple fix a go? Leave a comment below and tell us if you’ve had any luck with this fix yourself.
A group of scientists this week announced that they had confirmed a theory proposed years ago by eminent physicist Stephen Hawking regarding the physical properties of black holes.
The U.S.-based physicists in the journal Physical Review Letters said they had discovered “observational confirmation of Hawking’s black-hole area theorem.”
That theorem, first proposed by Hawking five decades ago in 1971, holds that the “event horizon” of a black hole—the boundary within which nothing in the universe can escape the gravity of the astronomical object—can never shrink and can only grow larger.
The scientists to test that theory examined the data of gravitational waves, a long-postulated phenomenon first detected in 2015 from the merger of two black holes; they reported confirmation of that finding with 95% confidence.
The researchers also said the data from the gravitational waves was “consistent with the same remnant mass and spin” in the merged black hole, an observation “in agreement with general relativity.”
Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Chris Nassetta worked from home in Arlington, Va., with his wife, six daughters and two dogs for two weeks before returning to the hotel chain’s nearly empty headquarters for the rest of the past year. Sharmistha Dubey has been leading Match Group Inc. from her dining room table near Dallas. Herman Miller ’s Andi Owen has her dog Finn to keep her company while working from her home office in Grand Rapids, Mich. Moderna Inc. CEO Stéphane Bancel relishes twice-daily 30-minute walks between his home in Boston and the vaccine maker’s Cambridge offices, where he resumed working in August, so he can crystallize his priorities and reflect on the day. The Wall Street Journal photographed them and 11 other business leaders in their pandemic office spaces as they discussed the past year and what’s to come.
More than a year after the coronavirus upended the way we work, the business leaders said they have found that more communication, flexibility and transparency have been crucial in staying connected to their employees.
Heads of companies across sectors including finance, hospitality and technology spoke from their current workspaces about what they’ve learned from the largely remote year, what challenges they faced and what changes they plan to leave in place during the next phase of work.
Brad Karp, chairman of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, predicted his schedule will remain less hectic after the pandemic is over: “Personally, I can’t see myself reflexively flying cross-country for an hour-long presentation or meeting.”
Just before Zach Wilson took the field to throw at BYU’s Pro Day, word broke of a trade between the 49ers and Dolphins involving the third overall pick in the draft.
The 49ers traded the 12th pick and two more first rounders to move up for what most people believe will be a quarterback. Given the fact that the Jets have the No. 2 pick and getting to that spot would guarantee the 49ers their choice on non-Trevor Lawrence quarterbacks, it’s reasonable to think they called the Jets before agreeing to the Dolphins deal.
It is also reasonable to think that the Jets would have taken that deal if they were going to pass on a quarterback at No. 2, so the way things played out certainly point to the Jets taking a quarterback. Wilson is generally thought to be the second best one in this draft class and Jets General Manager Joe Douglas was in Provo to check him out on Friday.
After the workout, Wilson said he’ll be happy to go anywhere in the NFL and had some positive things to say about the Jets and Douglas.
“Great staff. Love those guys. Joe Douglas is a great guy. It was good to see him out here. They’ve got a good thing going,” Wilson said, via Ralph Vacchiano of SNY.
The Jets didn’t have too much going well when they went 2-14 in 2020, but they’ve hired a new head coach in Robert Saleh and made some moves to address weaknesses in free agency. We’ll know in about a month if Wilson is the next part of the plan to bring better results in the future.
A chunk of a meteorite found in Algeria could be a part of an ancient planet that never fully formed.
According to an analysis of the rock, its composition and age suggest that not only is it older than planet Earth, but it also could have been formed volcanically.
This is important as it means that it could have been part of the crust of an object called a ‘protoplanet’.
The meteorite – called Erg Chech 002 – is an insight into the early stages of planet formation.
It was found in May 2020, and the several chunks of rock discovered weighed about 32 kilograms (70lbs) altogether.
Credit: A. Irving/www.lpi.usra.edu
The makeup of the rock showed that it must have come from a body that had an internal melting system – one of the middle stages of when a planet is formed.
Erg Chech 002, which goes by the nickname EC 002, was studied by a team of scientists, led by geochemist Jean-Alix Barrat of the University of Western Brittany in France
The team’s analysis found that the rock is really, really old. In fact, the radioactive decay of the elements in the rock suggests that they crystallised about 4.565 billion years ago.
“This meteorite is the oldest magmatic rock analysed to date and sheds light on the formation of the primordial crusts that covered the oldest protoplanets,” the paper reads.
The study added: “The crusts of the oldest protoplanets are virtually unknown due to the scarcity of samples.
“Here, we describe the oldest known lava that crystallised ca. 4,565 Ma ago and formed by partial melting of a chondritic parent body.
“26Al-26Mg systematics suggest that the elapsed time between melting and crystallization was significant, on the order of several 105 y, probably due to the viscosity of the magma.
“Although the first protoplanetary crusts were frequently not basaltic, their remains are not detected in the asteroid belt because their parent bodies served as the building blocks for larger rocky bodies or were nearly totally destroyed.”
EC 002 gives scientists a chance to develop our understanding of how the solar system emerged.
And while we’re getting closer to finding more about the origins of our own planet, scientists have also spotted a planet that could provide them with the opportunity to study the atmosphere of an Earth-like alien world.
It is thought that the super-Earth – which is being referred to as Gliese 486 b – could hold the key to finding extra-terrestrial life.
It was the brightest supernova in nearly 400 years when it lit the skies of the southern hemisphere in February 1987. Supernova 1987A – the explosion of a blue supergiant star in the nearby mini-galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud – amazed the astronomical community. It offered them an unprecedented opportunity to observe an exploding star in real-time with modern instruments and telescopes. But something was missing. After the supernova faded, astronomers expected to find a neutron star (a hyper-dense, collapsed stellar core, made largely of neutrons) left-over at the heart of the explosion. They saw nothing.
In the 34 years since, astronomers have been searching, unsuccessfully, for the missing neutron star. Various theories arose. Perhaps it hadn’t had time to form yet. Or perhaps the blue supergiant’s mass was larger than expected, and the supernova created a black hole instead of a neutron star. Perhaps the neutron star was hidden, obscured by dust from the explosion. If the missing star was there at all, it was really hard to see.
But persistence pays off. Astronomers may have finally found it.
The first hint came from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile last summer. The radio telescope observed a hot ‘blob’ within the core of the supernova. The ‘blob’ itself is not a neutron star, but rather a heated mass of dust and gas which may hide the neutron star behind it: after all, something is providing the heat. But to confirm the presence of a neutron star would require further observations.
With ALMA’s promising radio signal results in hand, a team of researchers followed up by observing the supernova in X-Ray wavelengths, using data from two different NASA spacecraft: the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). Their results are being published in the Astrophysical Journal this month. What they’ve found is an X-Ray emission near the core of the supernova explosion, with two possible explanations.
Supernova 1987A with a pulsar wind nebula at its center. Credit: Chandra (X-ray): NASA/CXC/Univ. di Palermo/E. Greco; Illustration: INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo/Salvatore Orlando
First, the emission could be the result of particles being accelerated by the explosion’s shock wave. This shock wave theory cannot be ruled out entirely, but the evidence seems to point to a second, more likely explanation – a Pulsar Wind Nebula.
Pulsars are a type of energetic neutron star that rotate rapidly, flashing radiation outwards like a lighthouse as they spin. Pulsars can sometimes create high-speed winds which blow outwards and create nebulae, shaped by charged particles and magnetic fields. This is what the researchers think they are seeing.
The Chandra and NuSTAR data support the ALMA detection from last year. Somewhere within the center of Supernova 1987A lies a young pulsar. It may be a decade or more before the core of the supernova clears out enough to observe the pulsar directly, but for the first time in 30 years, astronomers can be fairly confident that it is there.
Supernova 1987A, as seen by NuSTAR and Chandra. Credit: Chandra (X-ray): NASA/CXC/Univ. di Palermo/E. Greco; Illustration: INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo/Salvatore Orlando; NuSTAR (X-ray): NASA/JPL-CalTech
The discovery is exciting. “Being able to watch a pulsar essentially since its birth would be unprecedented,” said Salvatore Orlando, one of the researchers involved in the detection. “It might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study the development of a baby pulsar.”
So with a 30-year-old mystery solved, and plenty of new science to do in the years and decades ahead, Supernova 1987A promises to keep our attention. After all, it’s the closest and brightest supernova we’ll ever see.
Unless Betelgeuse explodes…
(Betelgeuse is not likely to explode anytime soon)
Created in 2016 as a portal for short, humorous clips, TikTok has recently become synonymous with something far more sinister: viral internet challenges.
Pull up the video-sharing app and you’ll inevitably see opportunistic bozos risking their reputations and even bodies on camera for social media clout — like if Snapchat was created by the “Jackass” guys.
In the most notorious stunt recently, a female TikTokker wound up in the hospital after trying to style her hair with gorilla glue.
Unfortunately, the app’s eyeball-seeking algorithm makes it extremely difficult for these oft-harmful trends to be nipped in the bud before they metastasize across the internet.
To help readers know what to avoid, we’ve compiled a list of challenges so ludicrous we might want to reconsider a TikTok ban.
1. Gorilla Glue girl
This might not be a challenge per se. However, Louisiana’s Tessica Brown undoubtedly cemented her place on TikTok stupidity’s Mount Rushmore after slathering her hair with Gorilla Glue and having to get it surgically repaired during a four-hour procedure.
Unfortunately, this cautionary tale might not stick as Brown’s adhesive mishap landed her $20,000 dollars in donations, hundreds of free hair products and even a full-time agent — not to mention an unfortunate imitator.
2. DIY vampire fangs
Speaking of Super Glue fiascos, holiday revelers went viral this past Halloween after supergluing costume vampire fangs to their teeth. The cringe-worthy clips — which, using the hashtag #VampireFangs, amassed over 9 million views — depicted various bozos struggling to remove the faux chompers after fastening them to their incisors using Super Glue, nail glue and other adhesives.
Go figure: Dentists advised against this practice, citing the fact that nail glue “is poisonous and won’t come off.”
3. Tooth filing
In the realm of toothless TikTok challenges, DIY vampire fangs pale in comparison to these amateur cosmeticians remodeling their chompers with nail files.
For the uninitiated, the challenge involved various knuckleheads attempting to fix their uneven smiles by using a nail file to sand their snack-slicers down to size. It was basically the bargain-bin equivalent of an enameloplasty — a reshaping procedure involving enamel removal that one would receive from a cosmetic dentist.
However, unlike the latter, these freelance molar makeovers sparked an outcry from the dental community.
“You’re doing irreparable damage and destruction to your teeth,” Dr. Chad Evans, co-founder of Texas-based Smile Magic Family Dental, said.
4. Face wax challenge
Full facial waxing is the hot new beauty fad with vids of the procedure collectively amassing millions of views on TikTok.
The procedure, demonstrated here by Kapsalon Freedom barbershop in the Netherlands, involves caking a patient’s face — including their eyes — with gloopy green wax as if casting a mold for the “House of Wax” horror movie. They even have wax-dipped Q-Tips stuck in their noses to extract pesky nasal hairs. When finished, the rogue beautician peels the beauty batter off the subject’s face in one piece like a slasher villain mask.
Skin experts are calling the process traumatic “for the skin, especially sensitive areas such as those found around the eyes.”
5. Erection cream pout plumper
TikTok cosmeticians redefined maintaining a stiff upper lip after trying to plump their pouts with erection cream on camera. While one influencer did succeed in fluffing his flappers to life raft proportions, he had to stop the stunt early due to the burning sensation.
Meanwhile doctors said that the hack is “utterly ridiculous and can be extremely dangerous,” adding that the “temporary” procedure could lead to adverse reactions including soreness, swelling and blisters, as well as blood pressure fluctuations and “possible heart problems.”
6. Corn cob challenge
As part of a series of viral lifehacks, enterprising TikTokkers tried to accelerate their corn consumption by eating a cob affixed to a spinning drill bit. This Loony Toons-evoking feat gained international attention after rapper Jason Derulo chipped a tooth while performing the stunt.
However, Anaconda’s cracked kernel didn’t deter him from trying to inhale 22 hamburgers a month later to commemorate reaching 22 million TikTok followers.
7. Cereal challenge
This one just seems nasty from the outset, but it also could have a potentially dangerous end result. In this test of wills, a person pours milk and cereal into the open mouth of a person lying down and then eats breakfast from the human “bowl.” Needless to say, things can get super, super messy, not to mention become a choking hazard for the volunteer vessel.
TikTok provides an extensive list of “community guidelines” that state the company does not allow “content that is excessively gruesome or shocking, especially that promotes or glorifies abject violence or suffering.” It also outlines “risky activities or other dangerous behavior” that are not allowed, including activity that “encourages, promotes, or glorifies such behavior, including amateur stunts or dangerous challenges.”
8. Skull breaker challenge
The title says it all.
This viral craze — reportedly originating in Venezuela as “rompcráneos,” or “skull breaker” — depicts three friends (we use the term loosely) jumping next to each other as the bookending buds kick the middle guy’s feet out from under him. The action sends the person crashing to the ground, landing on their back and hitting their head in the process.
Not only has the alarming trend led to injuries in Miami, New Jersey and Arizona, but Daytona Beach, Florida police have charged two high school teens with misdemeanor battery and cyberbullying following an incident there. In addition, two students in Mexico did their own version of the “skull breaker,” but reportedly used a sweater instead of their feet to trip a girl into doing a face-plant.
Doctors have unsurprisingly condemned the practice for its potential to cause “serious and life-threatening injuries,” ranging from “skull fracture to paralysis and death.”
9. Penny challenge
This shocking fad involves sliding a penny behind a partially plugged-in phone charger, as seen in multiple viral videos circulating on YouTube and TikTok.
While the prank may seem innocuous, the coin can strike the metal prongs, causing “sparks, electrical system damage, and in some cases, fire,” warned Massachusetts Fire Marshall Peter J. Ostroskey in an advisory issued last year.
Case in point: The marshal obtained a photo of a scorched outlet in Holden reportedly caused by the viral prank. In another incident, a student at Plymouth North High School allegedly started a fire after performing the challenge in what Plymouth Schools Superintendent Dr. Gary Maestas called an “irresponsible act. Fortunately, no one was injured — but the accidental arsonist was charged for the crime.
10. Benadryl challenge
This inflammatory challenge, which involves taking enough Benadryl to hallucinate and posting the footage on the video-sharing platform, resulted in the death of a 15-year-old Oklahoma girl last year.
This, along with several other near-fatal incidents, prompted pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson and the FDA to issue PSAs warning teens not to abuse the antihistamines.
The latter warned, “Taking higher than recommended doses of the common over-the-counter (OTC) allergy medicine diphenhydramine (Benadryl) can lead to serious heart problems, seizures, coma or even death.”
11. ‘Cha-Cha Slide’ challenge
This ridiculous TikTok trend involved teen drivers swerving all over the road like maniacs in time with the stunt’s namesake dance anthem, first released 20 years ago by DJ Casper, a k a Mr. C The Slide Man.
Despite the obvious risks, the trend has taken TikTok by storm, reportedly causing several near-accidents by participants. “The car almost flipped,” reads the caption to a video of one TikTokker performing the stunt with friends.
TikTok warns viewers on several clips that “the action in this video could result in serious injury.”
12. Pee your pants challenge
Nothing to ward off the coronavirus doldrums like a viral video leak, right? At least that’s what one bored livestreamer thought when he heeded nature’s call on camera, inspiring scores of other lonely TikTokkers to follow suit like a Pied Pee-per.
The #peeyourpantschallenge hashtag currently quickly racked up 3.9 million views on TikTok, as well as a flurry of criticism from horrified commenters.
“People seriously need to get back to work soon . . . everybody has gone insane,” sputtered one.
13. The poop challenge
In an even sicker stunt, these parents in lockdown smeared excrement on their progeny and filmed their aghast reactions. “WTF” seemed to be the overwhelming response.
14. Verbal abuse challenge
These moms and dads crapped on their kids figuratively by calling them a “mistake” and in some instances mentioning the word “abort.”
15. Flash mob
These moms bided the lockdown in titillating fashion by exposing their breasts to their babies and recording their enticed reactions.
Called the #DropEmOutChallenge, these jokester mamas post their videos with Wheeler Walker Jr.’s song “Drop ‘Em Out” playing in the background. The country tune’s lyrics are particularly fitting for this game.
“Drop ’em out, let me see them ti - - ies,” the 2015 country song goes. “Gonna take a long look at those tig ol’ bitties.”
Seemingly from behind the camera, the moms bare it all to their hungry, breast-fed babies, filming the excited expressions.
16. The “dipping” challenge
Sauciness takes a turn for the worst courtesy of this salty social media swag.
After months of being bored in the house owing to the pandemic, in June, men voluntarily slam-dunked their junk into small containers of soy sauce in hopes of tasting the savory Asian condiment — typically used to boost the taste of sushi — on their tongues.
And it wok’d!
The tasty testes trend stemmed from a resurfaced 2013 study which found that mice can determine taste through their testicles.
Once the challenge hit digital timelines, guys everywhere were unzipping their flies and using their goodies as saucy napkins in the name of science.
17. The black-out challenge
Also known as the “passout challenge” and “the fainting game,” participants of the deadly, albeit popular black-out challenge were dared to choke themselves until they passed out for several seconds.
A 10-year-old girl in Italy tied a belt around her neck and accidentally asphyxiated herself in January. She was rushed to a hospital in Palermo where doctors ultimately pronounced her brain-dead.
TikTok encouraged users to flag any account holders engaging in the dangerous trend.
18. The “coronavirus challenge”
Crap’s got your tongue??
Ava Louise, a regular attention-seeker on Dr. Phil, took her clout-chasing to the clouds in March when she went viral for licking airplane toilet seats.
Insensitively dubbing her disgusting digital demonstration the “coronavirus challenge,” Louise, 22, caught cyberspace hell for her tone-deaf antics.
19. The silhouette challenge
Small-screen seduction hit a hard stop after perverts found a way to bring a cheeky trend to a creepy end.
Originally, hotties were taking to TikTok to show off their amazing bodies behind a red filter that covered up their private parts. But, geeky freaks found a way to remove the filter and get an eyeful of the women’s unmentionables.
PSAs warning lusty ladies about the pervy privacy breach went viral. And naturally, the sexy challenge slipped into the shadows.
More than 97,000 patients remain hospitalized with the virus — a far cry from the country’s peak of more than 132,400 on January 6. The last time this number fell below 100,000 was December 1.
“Right now it’s the worst of possible worlds. It’s the winter. It’s getting cold out, people are together more, there’s still a critical number of people in the United States who don’t wear masks, who don’t social distance,” Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee, told CNN Saturday. “I think the next six weeks or two months are going to be rough. I think we could have another 100,000, 150,000 deaths.”
According to projections from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, nearly 120,000 more Americans could lose their lives to the virus over the next two months.
A rapid variant spread could push that projection even higher. That’s why experts have urged doubling down on safety measures like masks and social distancing and called for accelerated vaccinations across the country.
On Saturday, Maryland became the second state to report a case of a Covid-19 variant first identified in South Africa. And officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say cases of another variant — first identified in the UK — have been detected in at least 30 states. Experts have said both strains appear to be more transmissible.
29.5 million doses administered
But there’s good reason for hope.
Two vaccines have already gotten the green light for the US market and more could be on their way.
More than 29.5 million vaccine doses have so far been administered nationwide, according to CDC data. About 5.2 million Americans have received both doses of a vaccine.
Hindered by weeks-long allocation and distribution problems, the numbers are lower than where experts once hoped the US would be by now. But health and state officials hope vaccinations will ramp up in the coming months.
In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office said Saturday morning the state had administered 91% of the first vaccine doses it received from the federal government and urged for more supply.
“New York’s vast distribution network is capable of handling more than 100,000 vaccinations per day, but to actually do it, we need more doses from the federal government,” Cuomo said in a statement.
The governor previously announced the state will receive 16% more doses for the next three weeks. In his Saturday statement, Cuomo said that while the bump is a “welcome increase, the reality is that we simply need more supply.”
In Washington state, health officials announced more than 10,000 people had been vaccinated at the state’s mass vaccination sites with the help of the state’s National Guard and other partners.
“The goal of mass vaccination sites is to increase access to vaccine across the state, ensure our plans are equitable, and protect those most at risk,” a statement from Washington state’s health department said.
Transit authorities implement CDC guidance
Meanwhile, an order issued by the CDC requiring people to wear masks while using any form of public transportation in the US will go into effect Monday night.
The agency said public transportation operators must use best efforts to enforce the mandate, including only boarding those wearing masks and disembarking passengers who refuse to comply.
Transit authorities across several major US cities and states — including New York, New Jersey, Washington, DC, San Francisco, Chicago and Atlanta — told CNN they are already in compliance.
In Washington, DC, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority told CNN “face coverings have been required on Metro since May.”
“We welcome any policy that further promotes compliance on Metro and in all public spaces to combat the spread of the virus, and welcome the ability of TSA and other federal authorities to enforce this mandate when appropriate,” a spokesperson said.
In California, a Bay Area Rapid Transit spokesperson said the Bay Area’s public transportation system has had a face covering mandate in place since April.
And in Atlanta, a spokesperson said the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority began requiring masks in July.
Trying to understand more about the virus
And now more than a year since the world first learned about the virus, a team of World Health Organization investigators examining the origins of the pandemic will head to a seafood wholesale market in Wuhan, China, on Sunday — the market that’s believed to be where the first Covid-19 infections were detected.
The team of experts were released from a two-week quarantine on Thursday, one member told CNN.
The investigation comes about a year after the Chinese city went into lockdown because of the pandemic, and there is skepticism about just how much the team of scientists will be able to uncover.
An earlier report by a WHO team in China, published in February 2020, found that “key knowledge gaps remain” about the virus, though it endorsed previous findings that the virus appeared to have originated in animals, with the likely first outbreak at the seafood market in Wuhan.
CNN’s Alta Spells, Sandi Sidhu, Lauren Mascarenhas, Laura Ly, Amanda Watts and Hollie Silverman contributed to this report.
