Fossilized remains of a disturbingly-big spider were claimed to be discovered earlier this year, and many people freaked out. It turns out, however, that the spider fossil was falsified and was actually a crayfish with extra legs painted on it.

The remains were initially discovered in northeast China's Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation, by fossil hunters who lived nearby. They sold their find to scientists at the Dalian Natural History Museum, located in the province of Liaoning. Those researchers proceeded to publish a scientific paper on the fossil, naming the spider Mongolarachne chaoyangensis, and declaring it to be a species previously unknown to science.

Scientists in Beijing had their doubts, though. Not only was the so-called spider suspiciously large – with a main body length of about 35 mm (1.4 in) – but it also looked rather odd.

How did the scientists figure out that the spider was actually a crayfish? The answer on New Atlas.

(Image Credit: Selden et. al/ New Atlas)

When Alexander Fleming left a petri dish out in the air, it led to his famous discovery of antibiotics. It was pretty much the same thing for Madeline Lancaster when she left stem cells in a shaker — it led to the discovery of a new model for neuroscience: brain organoids.

These blobs of tissue, grown from human stem cells, resemble some of the essential parts of the human brain. Although they are as small as apple seeds, brain organoids may hold the key to understanding one of life’s great mysteries: the human brain.

Growing them, however, raises some ethical questions.

Check out JSTOR Daily for more details.

(Image Credit: Vaccarino Lab, Yale University/ NIH/ Flickr)

The world has become an awful place to live in. We have elected incompetent leaders, choked our waterways with cup lids and chemicals, and we have technology that seem to bring us ever closer to blowing up the planet. How do we find a way out of this global maelstrom? Author and podcaster Christopher Ryan says that we should look closely how our early ancestors chose to live, and tear down the structure of values that we currently have, as well as innovations, and social hierarchies that support modern civilization.

Prehistoric life wasn’t always as short, nasty, and brutal as we assume, Ryan argues in “Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress,” and what we’re conditioned to call progress must be uprooted. “Civilization,” he says, “is like a hole our clever species dug and then promptly fell into.”

Ryan launches his argument with the caveat that he’s not interested in rewinding the clock. “I harbor no illusions about ‘noble savages’ or ‘getting back to the garden,’” he writes. But the bulk of the book suggests just the opposite: that hunter-gatherer societies should be emulated, despite vanishingly rare opportunities to do so in an urbanized world.

Check out Undark for more details about this.

Perhaps we really can learn a thing or two about our ancestors, but what are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: alexstrachan/ Pixabay)

Following the successful rematch between Logan Paul and KSI earlier this year, Logan Paul’s brother Jake is the latest YouTuber to get his own boxing special. The team behind Dazn, a growing sports streaming platform, believes that this will be more than a one-time event. They think that Jake is the next creator that can pull a sizable audience.

Jake Paul will fight YouTuber and boxer Ali “AnEsonGib” Gib in the penultimate match of a special boxing event on the eve of Super Bowl weekend in Miami, Florida. The full event has three world fights, including a headliner match between Demetrius Andrade and Luke Keeler.

If the event draws new viewers, Dazn has plans to team up with more YouTubers and make them fight each other in the boxing ring, and potentially in other sports as well, states Dazn’s executive vice president of North American content, Joe Markowski.

“Our appetite has been whetted to do more in this space,” Markowski said. “We are interested in longer term schedules with them and their community to help further engage this audience on a regular basis, and drive subscribers because we’re a subscription based service.”

More details about this one over at The Verge.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: Erik Drost/ Wikimedia Commons)

Every year, reddit hosts a Christmas gift exchange among users, sending gifts flying across the world to strangers. Thousands participate, including Bill Gates. So every year, one lucky participant is shocked, surprised, and delighted to find that Gates is their secret Santa. This year is was redditor szor. She told the story in a video, and also in text.   

Diane, It’s Tuesday, December 17 at 10:00 p.m. and I’m full-force in my getting-ready-for-bed routine. I check my phone one last time and I spy an email alert informing me that my RedditGifts Secret Santa package has shipped! I log in and am a bit taken aback that the package is being FedEx overnighted – sounds expensive. I also noticed that it was being shipped from Washington state, and as a seasoned RedditGifter, I remark to my husband, “Huh, wouldn’t it be something if my Santa was Bill Gates? LOLOLOLOL!” Cue bedtime.

Diane, It’s morning on December 18. The work holiday party is today, so I’m expecting a pretty lax day. I check the shipping page to make sure the package is still on track, and something curious catches my eye- 81 pounds. 81 POUNDS. 81. POUNDS. MY PACKAGE IS BEING OVERNIGHTED ACROSS 8 SHIPMENT ZONES AND IT WEIGHS 81 POUNDS. This is when it hits me that this is something truly special. It’s only 9:30 a.m. and I can’t just ditch to go home to accept this surely gigantic package.

The package did not fit into her car, nor her husband's car, so they had to open it at the FedEx office, to the delight of the staff. Gates always checks the reddit history of the person he draws as well as their gift preferences, so that the gifts are personal and meaningful. Read what szor received in the gift exchange forum. -via reddit

When Dr. David L. Goldstein of the California Institute of Technology began his book States of Matter, he desired that readers be fully aware of the risks they were undertaking. Ludwig Boltzmann and Paul Ehrenfest met unpleasant ends. It is indeed "wise to approach the subject cautiously."

Note that Dr, Goldstein is, at 80, still alive. Statistical mechanics has not killed him yet.

-via Ace of Spades HQ

What a time to be alive, especially for avid comic book fans, sci-fi geeks and tech enthusiasts. A human flying in a 3D-printed jet suit at speeds of up to 80 kph is not just some character idea for an action blockbuster, but now a reality thanks to British inventor Richard Browning. 

Browning recently broke his own Guinness World Record by earning the title for “the fastest speed in a body-controlled jet engine powered suit (wind-guided) at 85.06 mph (136.891 km/h)” just 2 years after setting the previous record. 

Browning  is the founder of Gravity Industries, which makes the suits. He set the previous world record at 32.02 mph (51.53 kph). He said the suit has changed completely since he set the last record, and that it now is "entirely 3D-printed, lighter, stronger and much smarter," and that it gives the flyer the ability to fine-tune the power level mid-flight.

The suit looks like something closer to a crash test prototype than a highly advanced Iron Man suit, but it’s exciting to think how that could change in the next fifty years.  

-via CNet. 

Photo: Jaime Reimer / Pixabay

Off-White, a popular clothing label has announced a collaboration with the Louvre museum. This collaboration yields a collection inspired by the museum’s Leonardo da Vinci’s exhibit, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the famed artist’s death. This surprising collaboration is the culmination of fashion and high art, as Virgil Abloh, the man behind Off-White, told Paper magazine; 

"I want to crash together these two worlds that are seemingly different: fashion and high art," Abloh said in a statement. "It's a crucial part of my overall body of work to prove that any place, no matter how exclusive it seems, is accessible to everyone. That you can be interested in expressing yourself through more than one practice and that creativity does not have to be tied to just one discipline. I think that Leonardo da Vinci was maybe the first artist to live by that principle, and I am trying to as well."

image via Off-White

Sometimes, we think that our voice sounds terrible. We refuse to record ourselves speaking, and also refuse to hear other people’s recording of our voice. This hatred we have towards the sound of our voice isn’t exactly unusual, as Rebecca Kleinberger explained: 

According to Kleinberger, because our own voice is one of the sounds we hear most in daily life, we actually perceive it at a lower frequency than we do other sounds, in what is called a habituation effect. In other words, we hear our own voice but we don’t hear it the way people around us do—so it’s jarring when we hear the way it does actually sound to others.

image credit: via Pixabay

Dero, a bicycle rack manufacturer in Minneapolis, designed the FixIt. This is a bicycle repair station designed to be open to the public whenever needed. To facilitate simple repairs for people without the necessary tools, the FixIt allows a bicyclist to hang a bike in the air while using tools which are attached with steel cables. An optional air pump is also available.

The tools include Allen wrenches, metric wrenches, tire levers, and screwdrivers. If a bicyclist is unsure how to use them, s/he can just scan the QR code to find a general bike repair manual online. You can watch a demonstration video here.

The website includes an interactive map (keep scrolling down) of FixIt locations. There's one near me, so I may check it out soon. I don't have a hanging rack for my bike, so it could come in handy.

-via Core77

Scientists have found a slice of the world’s oldest fossilised forest. The slice was found in an abandoned quarry in Cairo, New York. These rare webs of fossilised roots are nearly 11 meters wide, and mark the spot where the first trees once stood. While the discovery of these fossils weren’t exactly that recent, as they were discovered by chance in 2009, scientists of today believe that these fossils are actually part of the first plants to capture and store carbon dioxide, as ScienceAlert detailed: 

Many of these long woody roots are thought to belong to plants of the Archaeopteris genus, an ancestor of today's modern trees and one of the first to capture and store carbon dioxide from the air with its flat green leaves.

This sort of activity would have dramatically shifted our planet's climate, potentially adding more oxygen to the atmosphere and providing lush habitats for primitive insects and millipede-like creatures. It would be many more years before birds and other large animals made their home in the trees.

"By the end of the Devonian period [360 million years ago], the amount of carbon dioxide was coming down to what we know it is today," explained Berry to New Scientist.

The international team of researchers has so far mapped over 3,000 square metres of this fossilised forest (over 32,000 square feet), which includes two other types of ancient tree; one of them belongs to a fossil plant group known as cladoxylopsids, and the other is yet to be identified.

image via ScienceAlert

Nir Meiri Design Studio has launched a lamp collection shedding light on the possibilities of materiality and sustainability. The collection, named veggie lights, used a material called fiber flats. Fiber flats are developed from thin layers of red cabbage, soaked in water-based adhesives and sustainable color preservatives. Plain magazine has the details: 

Shaped into a lampshade, the cabbage’s translucent material lends its amazing depth and texture to the object. Warm hues of oranges and reds are filtered through the lamp, the light exposing the organic material’s visible membranes. This innovative project delves into the creative boundaries between form and function, successfully explored and executed by the designers. 

image via Plain magazine

Here’s an alternative way on how Pokemon card collectors can make use of the items in their collection. While some would not want their cards to be touched and edited, Instagram user pokesats takes these cards and repaints them, adding details to the art placed on each card. From adding new surroundings on the Pokemon art to just expanding the details from the original art, the creations breathe new life and detail into these beloved cards!

image credit: pokesats on Instagram

Katie McBride Newman of Newman, Georgia, tells the story of the Christmas owl. Her family bought a cut Christmas tree, brought it home, set it up, and began putting ornaments on it. Coincidentally, they were hanging owl ornaments when they found a real owl had come with the tree! The owl did not show any desire to leave.  

In the days that followed, Newman and her husband, Billy, posted videos, shared details of trying to feed the bird, and added a bit of mystery by noting it would vanish and reappear in the tree.

“Last night we shut all the interior doors, turned off all the lights and came to initiate owl removal – and he was NO WHERE to be found. Gulp,” the family posted Dec. 13. “At 1:30 am, Billy came out to check, and was roosting on the tip top of the star.”

On Dec. 14, the couple sought professional help from the Chattahoochee Nature Center, which sent a wildlife tech to examine the bird for injuries (it was unhurt) and get it into a crate.

Read the story of the owl in the Christmas tree at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. -via Boing Boing

Department stores will try any promotion to get people inside to do their Christmas shopping. After all, that's how we got the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Wannamaker's, one of the earliest department stores in America, had a foolproof Christmas promotion in 1897. They had a "bargain day for cats," in which they displayed and sold the hot Christmas gift of the year, angora cats, priced from $10 to $40.  

According to an article in the Buffalo Evening News, each cat had a pet name tagged onto his or her cage, such as Peggy, Tammany, Romeo, Hamlet, Juliet, Maggy, Jack and Jill, and Fedora. Above the cats’ wire cages hung smaller cages filled with singing birds. A cat doctor was in constant attendance to ensure their well-being.

“What is the price of Tammany?” one news reporter asked the cat clerk. “Tammany’s sold,” the clerk replied. “He brought $20, and we can’t keep supplied with Tammany cats.”

The clerk continued, “Here’s Peggy. She’s marked $10, but if you want her I will let her go for $9.99. Jack and Jill together are worth $30, but as an inducement we will sell them for $29.99.”

The cat clerk had a sense of humor. The news reporter had $29.99, which he gave the clerk to purchase Jack and Jill.

It must have worked, as Wannamaker's repeated the promotion in 1898 and 1899. Read about the craze for Christmas angora cats at The Hatching Cat.  -via Strange Company