17 articles from SATURDAY 4.1.2020

Y2K-type glitch is causing NYC parking meters to reject credit cards

A software glitch is causing parking meters throughout New York City to reject credit and prepaid parking cards, The New York Times reports. The payment software was set to expire on January 1st, and the vendor reportedly failed to update the software before the new year. According to the NYC Department of Transportation, crews are out reconfiguring the software meter by...

Wellbeing: six ways to put a smile back on your face in 2020

The best ways to improve your happiness and inner worth, from expressive writing to self-affirmation“Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbours, and let each new year find you a better man,” wrote Benjamin Franklin, a lifelong advocate of self-improvement, in 1755.As 2020 kicks off, many of us will be taking a leaf out of Franklin’s book. Unfortunately, many new year’s...

How I learned to love the real Neil Armstrong and embrace the space race | Maggie Aderin Pocock

The Apollo 11 commander taught me to look beyond the stereotype of astronauts as simply white, male daredevils• Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock is a space scientist and presenter of the Sky at NightThroughout 2019, many of us indulged in a sort of moon madness as we relived the historic moment, on 20 July 1969, when Neil Armstrong stepped out on to the lunar surface and uttered the now immortal words:...

The extreme life of a sloth

Sloths are the slowest mammal on the planet, but they are actually a lot more extreme than it seems. They even have a whole ecosystem on their...