The infant character from the Disney+ series The Mandalorian doesn't yet have a name, but the internet has dubbed him/her/it Baby Yoda, and that tells you pretty much all you need to know. The meme has taken off, which means Parry Gripp (previously at Neatorama) had to sing a little song about Baby Yoda. The artwork is from Nathan Mazur. Here's his drawing process; click to the right for the video.
-via Geeks Are Sexy
Who cares about the Superbowl or the World Series? For really thrilling sporting action, you need to check out the annual National Beard and Mustache Championships. Only the beardliest of beards and other facial hair expressions could even enter the competition, held this year in Las Vegas.
Photographer Greg Anderson was there so see these world-class athletes at their finest moments. You can see more of these champions at My Modern Met.
A man in Port St. Lucie, Florida, got out of his car in a neighborhood cul-de-sac and left the engine running. He also left his Labrador retriever in the car. The dog somehow put the car into reverse gear and set it in motion, driving circles around the cul-de-sac. For an hour. The car finally hit a mailbox, which slowed it enough so that police could unlock it with a passcode. The dog, happy after his extended car ride, emerged wagging his tail. -via Gizmodo
I was caught by this arresting statistic:
Studies have found that Nobel Prize-winning scientists are about 25 times more likely to sing, dance or act than the average scientist. They are also 17 times more likely to create visual art, 12 times more likely to write poetry and four times more likely to be a musician.
There are many historical examples of geniuses in divergent fields. For example, Johann Goethe (1749-1832), who is pictured above, was a brilliant playwright, geologist, biologist, poet, and philosopher. How was he and a few others through history able to rise to the top of not only one field, but many very different fields?
David Robson explores the possibilities at BBC Worklife. Robson quotes researcher Waqas Ahmed:
Studies of students in many different disciplines – from academia to sport and music – have shown that, after a certain amount of practice or study, we stop learning so efficiently. We can therefore make better use of our time if we regularly switch between skills or subjects. The same goes for studies of problem solving – you will find more solutions to a task if you return to it after looking at something completely different, rather than simply spending ever more time on the same question.
“You can get into the zone and be very productive up until a certain point, then you need to change your activity in order to come back to it in an optimal state,” says Ahmed. “So I know, for example, that if I was exclusively an artist or a painter, then I wouldn't be as productive because I would experience diminishing returns – I'd require external stimuli in order to allow me to get over a block.”
[...]
Albert Einstein, who was an accomplished violinist and pianist as well as a physicist, apparently used this approach. According to his son and daughter, he would play music whenever he faced an intractable problem, and would often finish the performance by saying, “There now, I’ve got it”. It was a much better use of his time than continuing to fruitlessly agonise over the maths or physics.
-via Marginal Revolution (which is written by polymath Tyler Cowen)
Image: Painting by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, photo by Martin Kraft
Viktor Usov of Portland adopted his cat Sasha from the Oregon Humane Society about six years ago. One day Sasha went missing. After a week of searching, Usov assumed that Sasha had been killed by a coyote. That was in 2014. Then a few weeks ago, Usov got a call from an animal shelter that had found Sasha! They got Usov's phone number from Sasha's microchip. The animal shelter was in New Mexico. How did the cat end up 1300 miles from home?
“Cats are notorious for jumping U-Hauls, trains and cars. Somehow it hitched a ride and ended up here,” Murad Kirdar, a spokesman for the shelter, told the Sante Fe Reporter. “How [he] managed to survive to get here is the million dollar question. I can tell you [he] hasn’t missed a meal.”
Usov has his own theory.
“He went on a grand American adventure,” Usov told KGW. “He stopped by the Grand Canyon, Crater Lake, he saw the monuments, all the national parks, definitely Redwood Forest.”
Read Sasha's story at Oregon Live. See a video of Sasha's trip home at Facebook. -via Mental Floss
(Image credit: Santa Fe Animal Shelter)
ours is a wild creation called seafoam salad. i thought this was a normal thing every family made and served for thanksgiving next to the turkey and the stuffing until i was 18. pic.twitter.com/xE7mQ8W99R
— maya kosoff (@mekosoff) November 23, 2019
Maya Kosoff asked Twitter users about their traditional family recipes that are always served at Thanksgiving. She particularly wanted to know about the weird ones that were served only because it was a tradition going way back. She got plenty of wild answers.
i read the recipe, thought “weird, but okay,” and THEN i got to “the creamy chocolate frosting”
— maya kosoff (@mekosoff) November 23, 2019
My Kentucky raised step-Grandma made these. I was 15 when I bit into one thinking it was banana dipped in cool whip..... foul
— ArmyWomanVet (@ArmyWomanVet) November 23, 2019
My dad liked it
— HOMODEMON (@jaymesPRS) November 23, 2019
The recipe for Bologna Cake is at YouTube. The entire Twitter thread is worth reading, if just for the many variations of "salad" made with Jell-o and marshmallows. -via Buzzfeed
The title of this article made me laugh, because it brings up a picture of someone with trash on their floor trying to convince a roommate or visitor that it's the latest style in home decorating instead of an aversion to cleaning up. And it hits home to anyone who has ever insisted on a woodgrain or cobblestone motif in vinyl flooring because it's harder to see dirt on it. But a floor on display at the Profane Museum at the Vatican is a finely-crafted mosaic that once graced the home of a wealthy Roman. It displays animal bones and feet, shellfish, bits of salad, and other food scraps, as if they were dropped there.
Mosaics like this one formed the floors of triclinia, dining rooms in ancient Rome where party guests lounged on couches, picking at delicacies. This one was unearthed among the remains of a villa on Aventine Hill, and even now it emanates some of the atmosphere of one of those long, dim, boozy Roman banquets. The scraps of food cast long, erratic shadows in different directions, as if lit by the dancing flicker of oil lamps, and even the little mouse, nibbling on a nut in the corner, carries a white glimmer of reflected lamplight in its eye.
This motif is a surprisingly common one, enough so that it has its own name: asarotos oikos, or “unswept room” in Greek. Although Greek artists made the first “unswept room” mosaics, we have only later Roman copies, which were constructed during a craze for Greek culture. But why would an elite Roman go to such effort and expense to make their dining room floor look like it was covered in trash?
The obvious guess is camouflage, so when guests got inebriated and dropped their food, they could pretend it was supposed to look that way. But the real answers are more interesting, if less comical. Find out what those reasons were at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: Livioandronico2013)
On November 21, Tesla’s Cybertruck was unveiled. The Cybertruck is said to have an “armored” glass. However, the unveiling went horribly wrong when an assistant managed to break the truck’s window with a rock. So much for Elon Musk’s big claims. Still, it might be that the Cybertruck truly is a revolutionary truck in more ways than one.
That angular body—already massively controversial in truck nerd circles—is actually the exposed stainless steel monocoque frame of the Cybertruck. That promises to be enormously strong, incredibly safe, and resistant to dents and corrosion. It should also prove to be very lightweight, which is good because those angular lines are disguising the dimensions of what’s actually a very large vehicle.
Production on the first versions of the Cybertruck won’t begin until 2021, and last’s night’s reveal was thin on details like exact size or weight. But Motor Trend suggests that the truck’s wheelbase is at least 150 inches long, and we know the bed—err “vault” in Teslaspeak—is 6.5 feet in length. So this thing is at least as large as a full-size truck like a Ford F-150.
More details about the truck’s features over at Outside.
What are your thoughts about the truck?
(Image Credit: Tesla)
Imagine touching your sweetheart’s face on the screen of your laptop and you see her react in real time. You also feel a touch, suddenly, on your face. This scene might be coming from a science fiction story, but it seems that this just might be a reality in the near future.
"Physical touch, human touch, is probably the deepest, most significant emotional connection that you can establish with a loved one or friends," said nanoengineer John Rogers, a professor of bioengineering at Northwestern University.
For years, science has been scrambling to add tactile sensation to our virtual experiences. Various types of electronic skins have been developed, typically reliant on clunky wired electrodes that provide less than instantaneous response and a lack of two-way feedback.
In a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature, Rogers and his team at Northwestern report a new wireless and battery-free smart skin that could shift the course of this technology. Through a fast, programmable array of miniature vibrating disks embedded in a soft, flexible material, this smart skin can contour to the body and deliver sensory input -- what you'd feel when using it -- that Rogers says is quite natural.
This technology could be applied in social media, virtual reality, and even telemedicine.
More details over at CNN.
(Video Credit: NPG Press/ YouTube)
After spending several months working as a sous chef in the Antarctic, Rose McArdoo got back to New York. There, she was welcomed with many questions by her friends. Are there penguins in the Antarctic? How does she get her supplies? Is she on an iceberg?
McAdoo set about answering their questions the best way she knows how: with cake.
"Cake is my canvas," she says. "It's my way of making big ideas literally digestible."
The result was a series of descriptive desserts McAdoo developed to tell the story of life and work at McMurdo Station, a U.S.-run research station in Antarctica. She says she chose projects that showcase the diversity of the research that's happening on the continent. She is now releasing photographs of the cakes, and the stories and science behind them, on her Instagram page.
Know more about the story over at NPR.
(Image Credit: Rose McAdoo/ Instagram)
It is recommended for adults to consume no more than 6g salt (roughly 1 teaspoon) per day, according to the NHS. However, the average salt intake for adults is 8g per day, which is 33 percent higher than the recommended intake, according to the National Diet and Nutrition Survey.
The dangers of eating too much salt are thought to be considerable. It raises blood pressure (a major cause of strokes) and increases the risk of stomach cancer and osteoporosis. The World Health Organisation says managing your salt intake is as important as stopping smoking when it comes to reducing heart disease.
If you’re eating too much salt, what can you do to reduce your intake?
Check out BBC for more details about this topic.
(Image Credit: kropekk_pl/ Pixabay)
Mokopane, South Africa — Weak and dehydrated. That was how Jazz the giraffe looked when a farmer found him in the wild. The farmer immediately called The Rhino Orphanage for help. The abandoned giraffe was only a few days old when he was taken to the orphanage.
At the orphanage, however, is a resident watchdog named Hunter, who quickly began to care and befriended the newcomer.
Caretaker Janie Van Heerden says they bonded immediately.
She says the baby giraffe had been given IV fluids and is doing much better. He is being fed milk and is trying to eat leaves.
“Possibly soon he will be able to go home,” she said Friday.
How adorable.
(Image Credit: AP Photo/ Jerome Delay)
The newest installation in the long-running Pokemon game series, Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield have been released for play. With the game’s vast lore, multiple new game mechanics, and the sheer nostalgia and satisfaction in being able to catch, train, and battle with Pokemon, TheAuraGuardian takes on a big challenge for this new game. Can someone finish Pokemon Sword and Shield in under ten minutes? Watch until the ten minute mark is up so you can know if you can finish the games in ten minutes or less!
Georgia Bulldogs photographer Chamberlain Smith was knocked unconscious at a college football game, after a player slammed into her as she shot from the sidelines. Brian Herrien, the Georgia running back who slammed into her was unable to stop himself in time after being pushed out of bounds, causing him to send Smith crashing backward into the ground. Don’t worry about Smith, as she’s doing well and she can’t wait to get back behind the camera!
(via PetaPixel)
image credit: Marvin James on Twitter
An astronaut carrying out an ultrasound on their own body as part of a new study on different well-known side effects of space travel, found a previously unknown side effect, a blood clot. A similar test performed before the unidentified astronaut launched into space had come back as normal.
“We were not expecting this,” says Karina Marshall-Goebel, a senior scientist at NASA and the author of the study, published earlier this month. “This has never been reported before.”
NASA doctors took over. The astronaut wasn’t showing any symptoms stemming from the clot, but was still pulled out of the study and treated with blood-thinning drugs for the rest of their time in orbit. The researchers had discovered a new risk in human spaceflight.
The researchers warn that their findings may have implications for women who use birth-control pills, which increase the risk of developing blood clots, to suppress their period during their missions. (Menstruating in space, contrary to suggestions in early spaceflight history, is not dangerous, but some women avoid it out of convenience.) “There are an awful lot of effects of space on the human body that we’re not aware of yet,” says Virginia Wotring, an associate professor of space medicine at the International Space University, in France.
After nearly 60 years of human space exploration, researchers have gained a lot of knowledge on how the body of an extremely fit astronaut behaves in space. With commercial space travel on the horizon, the unknowns remain, and risks of space travel on the body of the average space traveler may be concerting. Read more about the study at The Atlantic.
Image Credit: NASA via Wikimedia Commons
