Are we doing codpieces again? Yes, we are. The fashion world is demanding it of us and we must obey.

Don't scoff. They're a symbol of traditional masculinity--assuming one looks back to the Sixteenth Century, when codpieces were all the rage in Western Europe. Rachel Tashijan writes in GQ about a recent podcast discussion between fashion designer Thom Browne and fashion historian Michael Glover about the codpiece:

Like many objects sprung from delusional masculine grandeur, the codpiece is a punchline, yet so much more. “The codpiece is all about boastfulness and braggadocio, sad men pretending to be more than they could ever hope to be,” as Glover diagnoses in his book, and in a recent phone call, he shared the more pedestrian details: “It would have had to have a fairly hard exterior, probably made of leather. Inside, the padding would probably have been horsehair.” (Horsehair is very breathable—hence its starring role in the world of luxury mattresses.) It would have been measured, he confirmed, though a brief google search reveals that if there was once a special term for the profession of codpiece measurer, it has been lost to the sands of time. [...]

A runway fashion observer may not know “the history of it, but they know of a codpiece,” Browne explained in a recent interview. That vague sense of historicism gave the collection its edge of madcap humor, underscoring that the codpiece’s more familiar contemporary cousin, the cup, is far from immune to that same ridiculous interpretation. Rendered in seersucker and affixed to dresses, suits, and dresses that looked like suits, the codpiece, Browne said, was “somewhat for decoration, and for humor.”

Codpieces could be a nice addition to your wardrobe. But you could go even more retro with a New Guinea penis gourd.

-via Ian Miles Cheong | Photo: Etsy seller The Armored Dragon

What makes a presentation stand out in a good way? It’s all in the preparation and delivery, says this article on public speaking. Obviously nerves are inevitable, but 3 certain elements in presentation-giving that are often overlooked can make a huge difference on how receptive your audience is to you, achieving that perfect balance between rehearsal and genuineness.

Sometimes you might end up pulling a Ricky Bobby on your big day. Their suggestion for not knowing what to do with your hands? Just use them! Hand gestures can help make your presentation look more natural compared to keeping stiff at your sides or inside your pocket. Overall...

Don't underestimate the power of a great presentation. The ability to sell yourself and your ideas is more important than ever. If you can craft a good story and deliver it effectively, you'll stand out among a sea of business professionals striving to be heard. 

Why not give these tips a try the next time you have a presentation? Here’s the full article from Inc..  

(Image credit: Imgur)

This dog dancing to Reggaeton is the best thing you’ll ever see today pic.twitter.com/hRojKOJ5iP

— 🇧🇧 (@rahm3sh) December 11, 2019

Wendy Berenguer uploaded this video of herself and a dog named Bailey in what looks like them dancing along together to a beat playing in the kitchen. And soon enough, it went viral. I mean, c’mon, it’s a dancing dog!

she shared the video of the seemingly impromptu kitchen dance party on her Facebook page, so the world could see the dog’s impressive skills. In the video, the dog can be seen sitting up and twisting from side to side along with the beat. When Bailey notices that it’s being filmed, it pauses for a moment, adjusts its position like it knows its best angles, and resumes shaking its tail like its a back-up dancer for Rosalía or Romeo Santos.

Dancing and pets could make a great combo for a simple yet fun exercise and stress-relieving activity, according to this article:

Similarly, dancing has been found to reduce the risk of disability and dementia and an excellent form of exercise. That means that if you are lucky enough to have a dog that knows how to throw down to sweet tune you should be in pretty good shape.

Just watching this video of them having fun helps to lower my stress levels.

-via Time

(Video: Twitter)

Shower head not working as great as it was before? Here are some budget-friendly solutions that don’t require hiring a plumber or buying hardware equipment. What you’ll need: 

A zip-close storage bag, rubber band, water and either CLR [calcium, lime and rust-removing] cleaning solution or plain white vinegar -- plus one hour…

You might experience this problem because of natural wear and tear. 

The problem stems from hard water, which has high levels of dissolved solids -- primarily calcium and magnesium -- according to the Water Quality Association. Over time, these chemicals bond with the metal and plastic in your shower head, causing a buildup that appears as crusty bits around the water spouts.

As this plumbing plaque accrues over time, the holes start to close up and water has to work harder to shoot out. If ignored, eventually it can stop up your spout completely. Shower filters are one way of preventing the problem…

Alternatively, this quick hack can save you both time and money. You can read the full post over at cnet.

Have you tried this method before?

Photo: Pixabay

A research published by the American Psychological Association has shown that students who are better able to understand and manage their emotions effectively (which is a skill known as emotional intelligence) perform better at school compared to their peers who are less skilled, as measured by their grades and standardized scores.

"Although we know that high intelligence and a conscientious personality are the most important psychological traits necessary for academic success, our research highlights a third factor, emotional intelligence, that may also help students succeed," said Carolyn MacCann, PhD, of the University of Sydney and lead author of the study. "It's not enough to be smart and hardworking. Students must also be able to understand and manage their emotions to succeed at school."

The research was published in the journal Psychological Bulletin.

The concept of emotional intelligence as an area of academic research is relatively new, dating to the 1990s, according to MacCann. Although there is evidence that social and emotional learning programs in schools are effective at improving academic performance, she believes this may be the first comprehensive meta-analysis on whether higher emotional intelligence relates to academic success.

More of this over at EurekAlert.

(Image Credit: AbsolutVision/ Pixabay)

Could you be the first one to catch a signal from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) brand new experimental satellite?

On December 17, the space agency will be launching a new cubesat, called the OPS-SAT, on a Soyuz rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. The satellite will launch with ESA’s Cheops exoplanet-tracker. When it reaches space, the cubesat will deploy its solar panels and ultra-high frequency antenna, and will then begin to send signals back home to Earth.

It is then that radio amateurs will have an opportunity to catch the first signals from this small satellite and find it out in the cosmos, per a request from ESA’s mission control team in Darmstadt, Germany.

Now, not only is ESA inviting radio amateurs to get involved with OPS-SAT, the agency has also opened up the opportunity for anyone to apply to become an "experimenter." If you want to utilize OPS-SAT, you can apply and learn more here.

Find out more about the satellite over at Space.com.

(Image Credit: ESA)

Automobile manufacturer Porsche usually concerns itself with designing terrestrial vehicles, but for this project it collaborated with Lucasfilm designers to create a new starfighter for the Star Wars universe.

While it does not exist in full-scale flyable form, the starfighter, called the Tri-Wing S-91x Pegasus, is being built out as a highly-detailed sub-scale model, which is five feet in length. It will be unveiled at the “Rise of Skywalker” premiere in LA this month.

Note that the S-91x won’t actually be in the movie — it’s more of a design exercise and promotional thing than something that is actually intended to feature in narrative Star Wars universe content. But the collaboration is interesting because it combines Porsche sensibilities and direct design inspiration from that company’s 911 and Taycan real-world vehicles, with authentic Lucasfilm touches like an astromech slot behind the cockpit and the somewhat “lived-in” detailed industrial look of Star Wars universe technology.

(Image Credit: TechCrunch)

An international team of scientists has tried to calculate an estimated mass of the Milky Way galaxy using sophisticated models. They have written their efforts and results on paper, and have posted it on the arXiv preprint server.

Research before has led to estimates of the size of our galaxy, which is now thought to be 256,000 light-years across.

Now, in this new effort, the researchers have carried out work that has led to an estimate of our galaxy's mass—approximately 890 billion times that of the sun, or 3.9 tredecillion pounds.

Figuring out the size, shape and mass of our galaxy is no easy feat considering that we are measuring it from within. We cannot see much of it because of interstellar gases and occluding stars. Because of that, scientists have looked for other ways to map the galaxy.

Find out more about the model that they used over at PHYS.org.

(Image Credit: Pixabay)

Christmas in Japan is a relatively new phenomenon, and it is celebrated with the traditions of a romantic date, a strawberry cake, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. It's traditional. KFC for Christmas seems weird to us, but it's been that way since the 1970s, and the chain makes a big chunk of its yearly sales during Christmas. The company has long explained it as American expats looking for a substitute for turkey for the holiday, but we assumed that they just told Japanese customers that fried chicken was a traditional American Christmas food. But it turns out that it wasn't the company that did it. It wasn't even an American. It was a franchisee named Takeshi Okawara, who opened Japan's first KFC outlet. His store in Nagoya didn't go over well, and Okawara had to take side jobs, like playing Santa Claus. It was that job that inspired the lie.

Okawara promoted fried chicken as a substitute for traditional Christmas turkey, which the Japanese knew from TV and cinema was eaten for Christmas throughout the West. Selling chicken and sides together in Christmas-themed “Party Barrels” and decorating his store’s Colonel Sanders statue as Santa-san brought in enough customers to save his business.

With word of the Christmas “Party Barrels” making their way across Japan, the national broadcaster NHK interviewed Okawara about his role in bringing the Colonel to Japan and asked if KFC for Christmas was a common custom overseas. Unable to turn down such a glaring opportunity, the young entrepreneur said yes. “I still regret that, but people liked it because it was something good [they thought came] from the U.S. or European countries,” he told Household Name.

Read the story of how Christmas in Japan came to include Kentucky Fried Chicken at Atlas Obscura.

Yeah, it's easy to mess up a word or two when you're live on air, but it's hard to just correct and go on when the entire studio is laughing at you. This is a long video, but you don't have to watch it all at once. Unless you want to spend 15 minutes giggling.  -via Digg

Why are whales so big? And why aren’t they bigger? Those are two long-standing questions for biologists, and it seems that they might have answers now thanks to sophisticated sensors which were suction-cupped onto the backs of whales.

Being large in size boosts a whales’ ability to reach more food for less effort. It helps them exploit the riches of the deep sea that other creatures can’t reach.

By estimating the energy used — and gained — when foraging for 13 species of whales and porpoises, scientists have shown that how big the creatures get is influenced by feeding strategy and prey availability.

The sizes of toothed whales like orcas, which use echolocation to hunt for individual prey, appear to be constrained by how much food they can grab during a dive, researchers report. That’s not the case, however, for blue whales and other filter feeders, which tend to be much larger than their toothed cousins. Filter feeders alive today aren’t constrained by food availability, which may mean they might be limited by their biology. Or the animals could be on their way to evolving to be even bigger, according to a study in the Dec. 13 Science.

“This is a fascinating study,” says Samantha Price, an evolutionary biologist at Clemson University in South Carolina who wasn’t involved in the research.

Check out ScienceNews for more details.

(Image Credit: rmferreira/ Pixabay)

View this post on Instagram

Happy 4th of July! Who’s getting a workout in?! #fatgripz #happyfourth

A post shared by Fat Gripz (@fatgripz) on Jul 4, 2019 at 7:34am PDT

You might have seen this heavy rubber handles before, but you might not have taken notice of them. Called FatGripz, you can use these handles to wrap around barbells and dumbells.

Their main job is to make the bar harder to hold onto, which can be a good thing.

(Fat Gripz is one popular brand, but it’s often used as a name for the whole category of object. There are multiple sizes of Fat Gripz, plus other brands, like Alpha grips.)

But what are they really for? They are for when you want to give your gripping muscles an extra challenge.

It’s harder to grip something wide than something narrow. If you’re lifting a normal sized barbell or dumbbell, your fingers and thumb wrap around it. But if you’re lifting something bigger, you need to squeeze with your hand just to be able to hold on. That requires your hand and forearm muscles to work harder.

I believe I can handle lifting them up… Without the dumbbells, of course.

(Image Credit: Fat Gripz/ Instagram)

When the first Baby Yoda merch was unveiled, most of us said that it stunk. Then came Funko and Disney’s stuff, about which we complained again. Now, it’s Hasbro’s turn at creating the Baby Yoda merch, and it might be the best one yet.

Hasbro has released some merch, but at the moment, the talking plush is the only actual physical toy, and the rest seem to be computer-generated images.

Check them out over at Gizmodo.

(Image Credit: Hasbro/ Gizmodo)

Technology company Nvidia has always been the best when it comes to delivering high-quality graphics. Now, they try to surpass their limits as they change 2-D images into 3-D models through the use of encoder-decoder architecture.

Paul Lilly in Hot Hardware was among the tech watchers who made note that the way they went from 2-D-to-3-D was news. It's no big surprise when the path is the reverse—3-D into 2-D—but "to create a 3-D model without feeding a system 3-D data is far more challenging."

Lilly quoted Jun Gao, one of the research team who worked on the rendering approach. "This is essentially the first time ever that you can take just about any 2-D image and predict relevant 3-D properties."

Why is this technology “news”? Because it is insanely fast. The renderer can produce a 3-D object from a 2-D image in less than 100 milliseconds. If that is not impressive, I don’t know what is.

The technology also has real-world applications such as in security and autonomous cars.

More details over at TechXplore.

(Image Credit: Nvidia)

When Nichola Mullen-King from Newcastle returned home on Monday, December 2, she was extremely surprised when she found her whole kitchen under wraps… literally! Her husband Carl had covered the entire room and almost everything in it in Christmas wrapping paper, including the fruit, the chopping board, as well as the utensils. Talk about dedication!

The amusing act took him around two hours to complete and it's fair to say Nichola wasn't all that impressed with his work.

Sharing snaps of her 'new' kitchen on Facebook , she wrote: "My a******e of a husband came up with the bright idea to wrap part of the kitchen for elf on the shelf…

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: Caters News Agency)