Inventions That Will Make Your 2020 a Lot More Interesting

Each year there are countless new products and inventions on the market. Here are some of the most exciting products to come out over the year.

Xbox Adaptive Controller

The Xbox Adaptive Controller is here to make the gaming world more accessible. Microsoft developed the Xbox Adaptive Controller to help those with limited hand and arm mobility (移动的能力) play games. This device connects switches, buttons and joysticks (操纵杆) to create a unique custom controller experience. The product itself was inspired by previous efforts made by groups like the Cerebral Palsy Foundation.

Gravity Blanket

Gravity is in here to help you deal with your anxiety. Starting off as a Kickstarter campaign, the company Gravity has created a therapeutic (治疗的) weighted blanket engineered to be around 10% of your body weight. The super comfortable blanket helps those who have a sleeping problem, and those who may be stressed, or deal with anxiety.

Solar Charged Jacket

If you are a night runner, this one is for you. Created by UK-based sporting goods company Vollebak, the Solar Charged Jacket absorbs light during the day and gives off its “green energy” for those who need to be safe after dark.

LynQ

Getting separated from friends or family members at an event or a festival can be annoying. LynQ helps you find your loved ones when you get separated from the group. Unlike smartphones, this compass does not need any Wi-Fi to stay connected. It is a great tool for family vacations.

In the fall of 2017, when Paula Aldridge needed to get a job, she found herself at a crossroads. The 50-year-old wasn’t sure she would ever work again, due to health issues.

But Aldridge’s life and career journey started to turn around after she connected with Goodwill of Central Iowa’s skills training programs. These programs are tailored to help people develop the kind of specific, real-world skills they need to get and keep a job, through a combination of detailed instruction and hands-on experience.

When Aldridge first connected with Goodwill in September 2017, she was dealing with several barriers to immediate employment. Transportation was challenging, as she didn’t have a driver’s license or own a car. Aldridge also had a limited work history with long employment gaps (间断) , meaning she missed out on learning important skills, such as working a credit card machine. On top of that, her physical health issues were also a problem.

According to Kayleigh Duff, a career specialist at Goodwill of Central Iowa, the biggest barrier Aldridge had to overcome was from within. “She said outwardly that she had all of this confidence and that she knew how strong a worker she was, but I don’t think she truly believed it herself.”

Thankfully, Aldridge had plenty of people on her side to provide motivation and guidance. She originally started off in the food service training program but was eager to enter the retail (零售) skills program, since she had previously worked at the Salvation Army and Subway. When Aldridge mentioned her interest in retail, Duff recognized that her go-getting attitude would be a perfect match for the program.

The seven-week retail skills training is a systematic program combining classroom instruction with on- the-job experience at a Goodwill store. As Aldridge progressed and graduated from the program, she became more confident in her abilities.

Duff said it was great to see how Aldridge grew into the devoted, driven worker she is today. “She has this strong desire, this longing to succeed. And she knows that she’s able to do that, although she has fallen short in the past.”

Would you give your Social Security Number to the clerk at the grocery store? Of course not, right? Yet, if you’re like most people, you wouldn’t hesitate to give out a different, but equally important number to the same person.

Experts now say that your cellphone number may be more pivotal than any other personal information in the eyes of spammers (垃圾邮件发送者) and identity thieves. In other words, instead of handing it out, you should guard that cellphone number with your life.

Today, your cellphone number will likely be with you for a very long time. That means if spammers get your cellphone number, it will be much harder to get rid of them. It also means that over the years, your cellphone number will be linked to a lot of personal information—from contact lists to bank card numbers, all information that hackers (黑客) would love to get their hands on.

A few years ago, German security researcher Karsten Nohl showed in an experiment what he could obtain using only a person’s cellphone number. California Congressman Ted Lieu was given a new cellphone for a day and Nohl was given that cellphone number. Using just that number, Nohl was able to find Lieu’s location and movements throughout Los Angeles, read his emails and text messages, and record phone calls between Lieu and his staff. And Nohl did all of this from his office in Berlin using just a cellphone number.

Still think it’s a good idea to post your number on a noticeboard?

It’s safe to assume that Nohl is an expert when it comes to hacking, but even the ordinary thief can use your cellphone number to cause harm to you. When you sign up for an account online, you usually provide your email address and a password. But if you forget that password, many of these companies will send you a password retrieval code (检码) via your cellphone. Let’s say you post something for sale online and you include your name, email, and cellphone number. You’ve now given a potential thief everything he needs to hack into any of your online accounts. Therefore, it just makes sense to protect yourself by guarding that number as closely as you would guard any other personal information.

Researchers discovered a hidden continent on Earth, but it's not Atlantis. They found it while reconstructing the evolution of Mediterranean region's complex geology, which rises with mountain ranges and dips with seas from Spain to Iran.

The continent is called Greater Adria. It's the size of Greenland and it broke off from North Africa, only to be buried under Southern Europe about 140 million years ago. And chances are you've been there without even knowing it. “Forget Atlantis,” said Douwe, study author and professor at Utrecht University. “Without realizing it, vast numbers of tourists spend their holiday each year on the lost continent of Greater Adria.” This area is called Adria by geologists, so the researchers for this study refer to the previously undiscovered continent as Greater Adria.

Most of Greater Adria was underwater, covered by shallow seas, coral reefs and sediments (沉淀物). The sediments formed rocks and those rocks became mountain ranges in these areas： the Alps, the Apennines, the Balkans, Greece and Turkey. The researchers found that Greater Adria started to become its own continent about 240 million years ago.

This isn't the first time a lost continent has been found. In January 2017, researchers announced the discovery of a lost continent left over from the supercontinent Gondwana, which began breaking apart 200 million years ago. The leftover piece, which was covered in lava (岩 浆), is now under Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean. And in September 2017, a different research team found the lost continent of Zealandia through ocean drilling in the South Pacific. It’s two-thirds of a mile beneath the sea.

Greater Adria isn’t the first lost continent to be found. But if research in past years shows anything, it likely won’t be the last discovery.