We live on a big snowball

Plus, brain detangling. Your dream vacay is finally possible »]( [StackSkills]( [Advertise]( | [Talk To Us](mailto:letschat@getthefuturist.com) | [Shop]( | [Unsubscribe]( [The Futurist is your daily tech, cosmic, and science (both weird or otherwise) newsletter with articles and content curated just for you.]( [/throwback] [Geologists find solid evidence of ancient ‘snowball Earth’ | Popular Science]( [Geologists find solid evidence of ancient ‘snowball Earth’]( “Our planet used to be a snowball. Roughly 635 and 720 million years ago, Earth was completely covered in thick ice. While somewhat barren at the time, this period eventually proved to be crucial for hosting complex life on Earth. Now, an international team of scientists believes that they have found the most complete geological record of ‘snowball Earth’ in Scotland and Ireland’s Port Askaig Formation. This enormous rock group was likely laid down between 662 and 720 million years ago, just before a big boom in life. The findings are detailed in a study published August 15 in the Journal of the Geological Society of London.” [// Popular Science »]( [/art] [StackSocial - The secret behind influencer photos | [Partner]]( [The secret behind influencer photos]( How do influencers get such good lighting and high-quality photos? They don’t use professional photographers. They just know how to edit photos like them. And you can, too, with an AI-powered software as user-friendly as Luminar Neo. This bundle includes six overlay add-ons to enhance everything from selfies to landscapes and a quick video course in case you get started and realize you have no idea what you’re doing. Get your Insta posts up to par for way less than most other pro-grade editors at just $150 for life. [Ad] [// Edit pics »]( [/epic] [MIT scientists 'detangle' the brain with new open-source AI | Extreme Tech]( [MIT scientists 'detangle' the brain with new open-source AI]( “The connectome (the network map of connections between cells in the brain) is an exquisitely complex tangle, huge numbers of connections between huge numbers of cells. It's what you might call a target-rich environment. However, a team of computational neuroscientists working to construct a 3D atlas of the human brain announced this week that they have slashed compute overhead and significantly increased their project's axon-mapping throughput using an open-source AI tool called NeuroTrALE.” [// Extreme Tech »]( [/glitch] [Feeds full of junk? How to reset your social media algorithms | PCMag]( [Feeds full of junk? How to reset your social media algorithms]( “Algorithms are far from perfect. Sometimes, they pick up on the wrong signals and start to stuff your feed with things you don't care about. If you find yourself increasingly uninterested in the posts you see in your feed, it's often possible to reset those algorithms. If you do it correctly, this can completely change what your social networks show when you log in. Here’s how to take back control of your social media.” [// PCMag »]( [/cheer] [StackSocial - Small phones are making a big comeback | [Partner]]( [Small phones are making a big comeback]( First the goal was to make phones portable and smaller. Then, we started making them bigger again. In a world of plus-sized and foldable smartphones, NanoPhone brings cellphones back to exactly what they were designed for: simplicity and portability. It has 4G connectivity, video chats, and even social media apps — all in a credit-card-sized device. For just $110, it’s making us think that bigger doesn’t always mean better. [Ad] [// Go nano »]( [/design] [The 20 most iconic sets at the legendary 1969 Woodstock music and art fair | Billboard]( [The 20 most iconic sets at the legendary 1969 Woodstock music and art fair]( “When we think about the first Woodstock Music and Art Fair we think about the hippies. The mud. The brown acid. The helicopters. The chaos that became a utopia and a definitive statement for the ideals of the 60s counterculture. And, oh yeah, the music… We’ve come to know their sets well, which has kept a little whiff of The Garden fresh during the ensuing decades. They demonstrate that even amidst turbulent conditions, there were amazing — and also, again, historic — performances all the way through the extra, unplanned Monday morning. [With last week marking 55 years since Woodstock,] these are our picks for the 20 most iconic sets on that fateful weekend…” [// Billboard »]( [/bites] [// Whatever your weird podcast niche is, you won’t get tailored recs from standard platforms. Podurama’s AI can help. Explore 30+ million new shows on the #1 podcast player »]( [// Teach yourself guitar. Impress your friends. Write a love song. Or just move on from Guitar Hero (seriously… it’s time…) »]( [// Investing? Stocks? What?! Don’t let the stock market scare you away. Get help making decisions with Tykr’s stock screener and investing education platform »]( [/vibes] [@paugalk on Instagram]( [@paugalk]( Interested in having one of your social posts featured in The Futurist? [// Get in touch »](mailto:letschat@getthefuturist.com) Powered by StackCommerce 73 Market Street | Venice, CA 90291 Copyright © 2023 StackCommerce All rights reserved [Unsubscribe.]( [View this email in your browser.](