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Celestial events are often temporary, which is why the most determined stargazers stay up at odd hours and even venture into uncomfortable conditions to catch a glimpse of the ephemeral wonders. But every summer the Perseid meteor shower sweeps the evening sky for more than a month, leaving even the lukewarm astronomy fans no excuse to miss the show that unfolds right over their heads.

The annual meteor shower is back, and as a nearly six-week procession of burning rocks screaming through the cosmos, we’re pretty lucky to have it.

What is the Perseid meteor shower?

The Perseids flash across the evening sky every year, usually between mid to late July and mid August. This year, the shower peaks between August 11th and 13th, when a cascade of meteors shoots through the ether at a rate of nearly 100 an hour.

This particular shower cannot be missed as it is widely hailed as the best sky show of the year. The Perseids are the remnants of Comet 109P / Swift-Tuttle, which takes a sluggish course around the Sun every 133 years. according to NASA. Every summer our planet crosses the trail of meteoroids left in the wake of the comet and creates the Perseid meteor shower. The Swift-Tuttle is a monster with a core 25 kilometers in diameter, which NASA puts into perspective: “This is almost twice the size of the object that is believed to have led to the demise of the dinosaurs.”

The shower is named for its closest constellation – Perseus – which is the radian of the Perseids, or the closest star to illuminate a meteor shower. This particular shower is known for casting long streaks that follow the meteoroids as they race through space (a meteoroid is called such when it is in space; only when it hits Earth’s atmosphere does it become a meteor classified). On average, about 60 space rocks fly by per hour, but the number can exceed 100 at the height of the shower.

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Another reason the Perseids are notable: fireballs. NASA explains how the shower creates these:

Fireballs are larger explosions of light and color that can last longer than the average streak of meteorites. This is because fireballs come from larger particles of cometary material.

Despite the spectacle they create, the Perseids are actually “about the size of a grain of sand”, according to Space.com. The tiny spots move at a staggering speed of 133,200 miles per hour and can reach a temperature of around 3,000 ° C.

How to see the Perseids

The viewing instructions are pretty simple as long as you are in the northern hemisphere. NASA is instructing the hopefuls to “go outside in the hours before dawn, although it is sometimes possible to see meteors from this shower as early as 10 pm”. Finding a clear sky with no light pollution is, of course, one of the best practices for optimal visibility.

While that shower technically starts tomorrow (July 14th), it won’t get better until July turns into August. Take some space on your calendar – it will be worth it.

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A recent study shows that color can be a big factor in a car’s resale value – with a three year depreciation rate that can vary by 25% between colors. Most surprisingly, weird colors like yellow or orange fare better overall compared to traditionally “safe” colors like black or gray. But should the resale value of a paint be an important factor in your purchase decision? Well, it’s not that simple – the depreciation margin is skewed by scarcity, model type, and changing consumer tastes.

Safe, boring colors won’t hurt or help you

After a iseecars.com study, the total range for the depreciation of cars within three years, based on the color alone, ranges from 20.4% to 45.6%.

Surprisingly, popular colors like white, black, and silver are right in the middle, while yellow, beige (yes, beige), and orange offer the greatest value. Why should that be so? As iSeeCars Executive Analyst Karl Brauer puts it:

There’s a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy here where a lot of consumers choose these mainstream colors not because they like them but because they assume everyone else will. This makes white, black and silver look very popular. However, our analysis confirms that darker colors tend to hold up their value better than common and popular colors.

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The idea is that people are more likely to play it safe with dull colors when the car is new, especially if they plan on selling it later. Used cars, on the other hand, are much cheaper, so it makes sense for people in this buying scenario to choose what they really like, especially if they don’t plan on selling it.

But even the lack of rarer colors on offer does not fully explain the discrepancy, as the results are quite different depending on the car brand and even between models. Orange, for example, is not a common color, but is popular with sportier SUVs or flashy coupes – but it loses an additional 10% in value if the vehicle is a sedan. (And just because a color is rare doesn’t mean it guarantees more value, since brown and gold are both rare and in little demand).

In addition, some colors are in high demand in car type categories that are traditionally low in depreciation (like coupes) and can skew overall results and make it appear that a color is, on average, more popular than it really is. As Tyson Jominy, Vice President of Data and Analytics at JD Power, explains Autoweek:

The danger is to rely on averages for an attribute like color that is not normally distributed across vehicles and segments. We need to isolate a particular vehicle to determine the impact of color on depreciation. How does a yellow F-150 compare to a black F-150 or a silver 911 compared to a blue 911? Here we note that paint can add or subtract a nominal amount available, perhaps up to a few hundred dollars.

How much should you pay attention to color when buying a car?

It is possible to earn a few extra dollars reselling your vehicle by strategically choosing a color that is popular for that model. For example, you could buy a beige truck if you expect it to remain the most popular truck color there as the New York Times points out, many truck owners are small business owners who need a neutral color for their work truck signage. On the other hand, chasing a currently popular color like yellow, you will likely be less fortunate, as the taste can easily change when you are ready to sell it. (Do you remember how big teal was in the 1990s?)

“The reality is, you can buy any color you want without worry,” says Jominy. “Color should rank with other property factors like geography, vehicle maintenance, smoking, pets, young children, or long commutes. The differences are so small at the point of trade-in, and if a dealer isn’t bidding enough because you have a flashy color, list your car on a national used car sales channel to privately sell to another consumer who will . ”

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Some people who received the Johnson & Johnson / Janssen COVID-19 vaccine (the one-dose vaccine) have developed a disease known as Guillain Barre Syndrome. It has happened often enough that the FDA has asked them to add a note on the patient information sheet, but it is still not considered changing the risk / benefit balance of vaccination. (All COVID vaccines are much safer than an actual COVID vaccine.)

What is Guillain-Barré Syndrome?

First, because it’s not obvious: The first word is pronounced “GEE-yawn” and the second rhymes with “Hurray”. People sometimes just call it GBS.

GBS is not new: it is already known to happen in around 1 in 100,000 people each year, and 60-80% of cases follow a bacterial or viral illness, such as flu or food poisoning, they say GBS-CIDP Foundation International. GBS is also a known and rare side effect of the flu vaccine, though You are more likely to get GBS from the actual flu than from the flu vaccine.

In GBS, the immune system attacks the isolation of our nerve cells. (When you think of the rubber coating around an electrical wire, each of our long, thin nerve cells is like that wire, and there are cells full of an insulating substance called myelin As a result, you may experience weakness or numbness in your legs, or nerve problems in other areas of the body that may include difficulty breathing or movement of the facial muscles.

Guillain-Barré is usually not life threatening or permanent, but this can vary. According to the GBS-CIDP Foundation, 90% of patients survive the acute phase of the disease within four weeks. During this phase, there are treatments that can limit the amount of nerve damage that occurs.

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After the acute phase, it takes some time to regain strength and nerve function, possibly months to years. Most people make a full recovery, but in some cases weakness, pain, or fatigue are left that never go away completely.

GBS can be a rare side effect of a COVID vaccine

The CDC and FDA have identified several cases of GBS in VAERS, the database that allows anyone to submit reports of possible vaccine side effects. This is the same database that anti-vaccine activists search for reports of deaths or other frightening diseases; the information contained therein has not been checked. But if a worrying symptom shows up enough times, the CDC contacts the investigation to investigate reports.

That’s how we found out the blood clots serious enough to warrant a break when giving the J&J vaccine this spring. (The next time you see someone who suggests that deaths or serious illnesses are being ignored in VAERS, remember. Reports of serious side effects that actually stand up to investigation are taken seriously.)

The FDA added this information the data sheet administered with the J&J vaccine:

Guillain-Barré syndrome (a neurological disorder in which the body’s immune system damages nerve cells, causes muscle weakness, and sometimes paralysis) has occurred in some people who received the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine. Most of these people experienced symptoms within 42 days of receiving the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine. The likelihood of this occurring is very small. You should see a doctor immediately if you develop any of the following symptoms after receiving the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine:

* Weakness or tingling, especially in the legs or arms, which get worse and spread to other parts of the body

* Difficulty walking

* Difficulty making facial movements, including speaking, chewing, or swallowing

Double vision or inability to move your eyes

* Difficulty controlling your bladder or bowel function

Should this change my decision about vaccination?

The risk of GBS after the J&J vaccination is still very low, and it’s just a little bit higher than the risk of GBS that you have as a person in this world right now. (Three to five times higher, but that means about three to five people per 100,000 instead of one per 100,000.)

The risks of the J&J vaccine or any other COVID vaccine are far lower than the risks of an actual COVID infection. Almost all COVID deaths in the US are from people who have not been vaccinatedSo if you are concerned about your health it is still better to get vaccinated than not to get it.

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The Windows 11 beta recently got its first major version update, but it brought a big change that some users aren’t happy with: they can’t revert to the classic Windows Start menu layout. Instead, they are Windows 11 users now forced to use the redesigned start menu and taskbar, which is centered at the bottom of the screen. The update even corrects a registry editing trick that restores the old layout. The new Start menu doesn’t look bad in itself, but many users are dissatisfied with the change.

Now, it’s possible this is just a temporary change, and the old Start menu will return in a future update – but it’s not the only problem Windows Insiders have encountered. Windows 11 is still in the early testing phase, so bugs, missing features, and compatibility issues are common. While the final version of Windows 11 might be worth upgrading, some users may regret upgrading to beta.

If that is you, don’t worry, you can go back to Windows 10 (and its Start menu layout). There are two rollback methods:

• Revert to an old version of Window via the Windows 11 Settings menu.
• Reinstall a clean instance of Windows 10 using an installation CD or USB drive.

Returning to Windows 10 from Windows 11 Settings is the fastest and easiest option as it will keep your personal files intact. However, it is only available for 10 days after installing Windows 11. After that, your old system files will be permanently deleted and cannot be restored, so it will no longer be available to beta testers who have been using Windows 11 for a few weeks.

Fortunately, you can still reinstall Windows 10 using installation media, but this will reset your PC to factory settings, erasing your files and apps.

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In either case, you should back up your files before proceeding. Even if the recovery method keeps your files, there is always a possibility that something could go wrong. We cover several methods for Back up your Windows PC herebut the best thing to do is to just copy whatever you want to save to an external hard drive.

Here’s how to return to Windows 10 from the Windows 11 Settings menu

1. Go to Settings> System> Recovery.
2. Scroll down to Recovery Options> Previous Version of Windows, and choose “Go back” when it is available. If it doesn’t, move on to Method 2 below.
3. You will be asked to provide a reason for uninstalling Windows 11. Then, if you want to check for updates instead of uninstalling Windows 11, click “No thanks” to proceed with the rollback.
4. Follow the remaining instructions on the screen, and then select “Back to the previous build” to finally start the process.
5. Let the rollback process complete. This may take a while, but once it’s done you’ll be safely back on Windows 10 with your files intact.

How to uninstall Windows 11 and reinstall Windows 10

Reinstalling Windows 10 requires some form of physical installation media. If you have a Windows 10 installation CD (and your PC has a CD drive) insert this vacuum cleaner and follow the on-screen installation instructions.

If you don’t have an installation CD – and I assume most people don’t – you can make your own installation CD or USB stick. You need to download the Windows 10 Installation Media Creator Tool (available here), a blank disc or a USB stick with at least 8 GB of storage space.

Run the program, and then follow the on-screen instructions to create your installation media and complete the Windows 10 installation process. This will take a while. You’ll also need to install Windows updates, reinstall your apps, and restore your backup files. So, take a good chunk of the time before the update.

[Windows Central]