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Watch how organic farmers use tractor-mounted flamethrowers on weeds and pests - Boing Boing

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Watch how organic farmers use tractor-mounted flamethrowers on weeds and pests Boing Boing Dennis Luettke, an organic dairy farmer near Wells, MN manufactured our flame weeder. We bought an old anhydrous bar, and brought it down to Dennis for the burner kits and set up. We are in the process of converting a used sprayer into a flame weeder, ...

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How to find and use the new shopping cart in 'Fortnite: Battle Royale,' whether you're playing solo or with your friends

This week, the ever-changing world of "Fortnite: Battle Royale" got a new feature that is the first of its kind for the world's most popular video game: a shopping cart.

While several competing battle-royale games have allowed players to zip across the virtual islands with fast-moving vehicles like cars, motorcycles and even boats, in an effort to be the last man standing, the Fortnite developers have taken a unique approach with the shopping carts, which players can use to cross gaps, get away from enemies, and perform incredible stunts with the help of the game's ramp-building features.

Here's how to incorporate the new shopping carts into your eternal pursuit for that sweet, sweet Victory Royale:

SEE ALSO: A 'school shooter' video game has been removed from the biggest PC gaming platform, along with the person who made it

First, for those who haven't been keeping up with every update to the Fortnite map, players can now ride around the map in shopping carts. This is the first introduction of any type of fast-moving vehicle in the game.

Fortnite's lack of vehicles had previously helped set it apart from many other battle-royale games like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds or H1Z1, which allowed players to ride around in cars, boats or motorcycles.

The shopping carts seem to be scattered all throughout the map, but streamers and hardcore fans have found that they can most consistently be found on the race track, in the J-6 region of the map.

They've also been seen in Retail Row and Junk Junction.

To drive the shopping cart, simply walk up to the back of it and press equip, the same way you would if it were a weapon or other item. When you've equipped the cart, a list of controls will pop up on the left hand side of the screen.

The actual buttons used to switch positions, push, and abandon the cart will be different depending on what platform you're playing the game with (ie. Xbox, mobile, PC, etc.).

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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The smartphone industry is slumping — and it may drag Apple and the iPhone down with it (AAPL)

• The smartphone market declined last year and research firm IDC expects it to slump again this year.
• In a new report, Maxim Group analyst Nehal Chokshi argues the declining overall market will decrease demand for Apple's iPhones.
• Thanks to falling iPhone sales, Apple's sales and earnings next year will fall far short of Wall Street's expectations, Chokshi forecast.

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Depending on whom you ask, the next year or two could be the best of times for Apple — or the worst.

The company has been struggling over the last two years to grow unit sales of the iPhone. Optimists see that as a golden opportunity, because they think it means there will be lots of pent-up demand for new models. But pessimists think it's a prelude for what's to come.

Count Nehal Chokshi in the latter group. In a research note on Wednesday, the Maxim Group financial analyst warned that Apple's iPhone sales will likely decline in its next fiscal year, which starts in September, dragged down by the contraction of the overall smartphone market.

"We believe the smartphone market has now reached the stage of what the PC market reached in 2012 of consistent [year-over-year] declines," Chokshi said in the note, in which he reduced his rating on Apple's shares to a "hold" from a "buy." He continued: "We see risk that [Apple] will only maintain to lose modest share in [fiscal 2019] and as such, we are reducing our iPhone estimates."

Echoing some of Chokshi's pessimism, IDC put out its own forecast Wednesday for Apple and the smartphone industry. The market research firm expects overall smartphone shipments to decline by 0.2% this year after falling 0.3% last year. Despite that, IDC expects Apple's shipments to grow by about 2.6% this calendar year.

Although it was once known for its Mac computers, Apple is now basically a phone maker. iPhone sales accounted for about 64% of its overall revenue over the last 12 months and, quite likely, the vast majority of its profits.

Apple's has already been struggling to grow iPhone sales

But the company has been struggling for years to grow the business, a task made all the more important by the stagnation of its computer and iPad businesses and its inability to develop another hit product able to boost its revenue in a meaningful way. Apple's unit sales of iPhones grew by just 1% over the last 12 months, while its iPhone revenue grew by 10% over the same period.

Chokshi is forecasting that Apple's struggles will continue. Apple's smartphone sales are likely to be dragged down by the overall market, because the company doesn't have another hot product that will likely boost them, Chokshi said. 

When the PC market went into decline, Apple actually grew its Mac business. But its Mac sales benefitted from the iPhone. Apple was able to convince many of its customers who loved its phones to buy one of its computers also, a phenomenon often referred to as the "halo effect." Don't expect history to repeat itself, Chokshi said.

We "do not expect a halo effect to support the iPhone franchise," he said.

Accordingly, while he expects Apple to sell about 223 million iPhones this fiscal year — up about 2.9% from fiscal 2017 — he thinks that number will drop to 208 million in fiscal 2019.

As a result, he thinks the company's sales and earnings will be significantly below Wall Street's current consensus estimates. He expects Apple to post $12.62 a share in earnings next year on $258 billion in sales. On average, analysts are projecting earnings of $13.27 a share on $272 billion in sales.

Chokshi's forecast stands in stark contrast to that of Daniel Ives at GBH Insights. Ives has argued that all the iPhone owners who have held off on buying recent models will be lured in by the next generation of phones, which are expected this fall. That will lead to a "massive" wave of some 350 million iPhone sales over the next 12 to 18 months, he forecast.

SEE ALSO: Apple has a 'massive upgrade opportunity' in front of it with the next iPhones

SEE ALSO: Apple is having a tough time persuading fans to buy new iPhones. These charts help explain why.

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China is building a brand-new space station, and it may be the latest move in a new space race

• China is building a new space station, and officials say the whole world is invited to participate.
• The move comes after President Donald Trump announced plans to scale back the US's funding commitments for the International Space Station earlier than originally planned. 
• China's new station could be operational as soon as 2022.

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China is building a new space station — the latest move in what some experts see as a brewing space race between China and the US.

China's UN ambassador, Shi Zhongjun, recently invited the whole world to participate in the new space station. 

"CSS belongs not only to China, but also to the world," Shi told Xinhua, a state news agency. "All countries, regardless of their size and level of development, can participate in the cooperation on an equal footing."

The new space station could become operational as soon as 2022, according to documents released by the UN's Office for Outer Space Affairs. 

The US has barred China's space agency from using the International Space Station (ISS) or sharing any technology over security concerns. 

But the ISS may come to an early end. President Donald Trump has said his administration is considering ending the US's involvement in the space station by 2025, which is three years ahead of the previously accepted schedule.

That change in plans is part of the Trump administration's larger push to privatize much of the US's space operations. 

NASA has already spent about $100 billion to keep the space station — which functions like an orbiting laboratory for astronauts and scientists — in top shape. The space agency pumps around $3-4 billion per year into the program, but those funds may dry up sooner than anticipated.

Meanwhile, many of the partners behind the ISS are already being courted to invest in China's new space station, according to hotel billionaire Robert Bigelow, who has his own plan to build an inflatable space station more than twice as big as the ISS. 

Europe's space agency, the ESA, has agreed to a partnership in which European astronauts would be able to use China's new station throughout the 2020s, reports Ars Technica. 

China hopes its future space station can be operational for around a decade and support up to six astronauts for 180-day stays, during which they would conduct research. 

Parts of the Chinese space station are already complete, including the core module, dubbed Tianhe-1 or "Harmony of the Heavens." That module is expected to be sent into orbit as early as 2020, with the rest of the station expected to be completed by 2022. 

China is planning to send a probe to study the dark side of the moon as well, in another move to expand its presence in space. The country is building a Mars simulation base deep in the Tibetan desert, too, where it hopes to train astronauts for a potential Mars mission.

China plans to launch a Mars probe in 2020.

SEE ALSO: Congress and Trump are running out of time to fix a $100-billion investment in the sky, NASA auditor says

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