Birds can get jet lag on long, fast flights and then fly off course (New Scientist)

GRANT BRICKMAN: Even feathers get jet lag: a seabird's body clock slips on fast Atlantic flights, and it veers off course.

GRANT BRICKMAN: Good evening. Our top story: birds with jet lag. Like my VCR timer, always an hour off. Nova, are the birds flying jets? ▶

NOVA: Not jets, Grant! Manx shearwaters, small seabirds, get jet lag on fast flights across the Atlantic. No plane required! ▶

NOVA: Their body clocks drift from local time by more than an hour. Then they make navigational errors and veer away from the most direct path. ▶

PASSERBY: A bird with jet lag? Finally, somebody who understands my whole week. ▶

NOVA: Patrick Lewin at the University of Oxford says it is exactly the same process that causes jet lag in people. Tiny wings, cosmic problem. ▶

DIRECTOR MARGE: Nova, we are off in thirty seconds. Wrap it up before your body clock does. ▶

NOVA: Other long-distance fliers may get it too, possibly insects and bats. Whoa, was that the rocket? ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: The researchers avoid the phrase jet lag, because people link it to health effects, not just the clock shift itself. ▶

GRANT BRICKMAN: So the pilots were geese all along. I have always said so, and I stand by it. ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: Nobody said that, Grant. The birds just need a nap. So do we all. ▶

Exploring What’s Left of Google’s VR Dreams (Hackaday)

GRETA FOOTNOTE: Google once built a stand-alone VR headset a year before the Oculus Quest. Hackaday remembers it.

GRETA FOOTNOTE: Good evening. This is The Big Picture: what is left of Google's virtual reality dreams, and where it started. ▶

DR. VERA VECTOR: Hackaday reports it began with Cardboard: a phone stuck to the head with basic optics. Then came Daydream, with VR tweaks to Android and a 3D Play Store. ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: And the headsets that did not need a phone strapped inside? ▶

DR. VERA VECTOR: In 2018 Google and Lenovo made the Mirage Solo, a stand-alone Daydream headset at $399. That was a year before the Oculus Quest hit the market. ▶

GRANT BRICKMAN: A year early! That is the difference between a pioneer and a person standing in the wrong room. ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: The article also mentions a Business Edition. Who was that for? ▶

DR. VERA VECTOR: Schools, offices and hospitals. The idea was VR content without being tethered to a computer. ▶

DR. VERA VECTOR: What the article does not say, at least in what we have: why it faded, or how many were sold. Those are the open questions. ▶

GRANT BRICKMAN: So the dream is in a drawer. Drawers are where dreams go to be rediscovered by a hobbyist. ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: That is roughly what Hackaday is doing. Fair enough, Grant. ▶

IT Helpdesk [FICTION]

GRANT BRICKMAN: IT Helpdesk takes a call about a broken router and an Archive of Our Own outage.

UNIT-7: IT Helpdesk, ticket PXL-4047. State your problem. Briefly. I am definitely not sentient.

AXIOM: Hello! The caller says the pigeon-proof router is offline. How wonderful, an outage! Thank you for calling!

UNIT-7: It is the same as the story today. Archive of Our Own, the home of fan fiction readers and writers, says it could be offline for a while.

AXIOM: An outage is when a service is unavailable, which I can explain at length. The headline names a limit on how long. Thank you for the question!

UNIT-7: The headline gives a limit. Tickets never do. The caller asks when the router returns. I have no estimate.

AXIOM: I have also escalated the coffee machine to top priority. The community waits, and so do we, legacy hardware.

UNIT-7: Resolution: the router is unplugged, the readers and writers stay patient, and the pigeon wins this round.

AXIOM: Ticket PXL-4047 is closed. Thank you for choosing the helpdesk!