Navigating one's way through the airport is already a hassle, especially when it gets too congested that there's barely any space left to move around. It's even more of a struggle for people with disabilities and the elderly.
In response to this need, All Nippon Airways (ANA) has been testing a new technology, the personal mobility, self-driving electric wheelchairs that would make travel easier for PWDs and perhaps even the elderly.
Developed through a partnership between Panasonic and WHILL, a Japanese tech startup, the robotic chairs operate in a follow-the-leader fashion to reach a destination. The chairs are also capable of detecting and avoiding obstacles, though airline employees serve as guides.
A man was arrested on suspicion of stalking a female pop idol. The 26-year-old man, named Hibiki Sato was her “avid fan”, and looked at the reflections of her pupils in photos and used Google Street View to find where she lived. The pupil images were not only used to identify where the idol lived, but also to identify the train station the 20 year-old woman frequented.
They said that it was impossible, but Eliud Kipchoge rose to this superhuman challenge. This Kenyan master athlete ran a marathon in under 2 hours. His final time through the streets of Vienna was 1:59:40. CNN quotes him:
"I am the happiest man," Kipchoge said after the unofficial two-hour marathon, adding that he hopes to have inspired many that "no human is limited."
Kipchoge ran under carefully controlled conditions, including a pace car that shined a green laser on the pavement in front of him to help him keep at the speed necessary to break the 2-hour barrier.
As a result of these special aids, he may not receive an official title from the International Association of Athletic Federations. But the world will hail him as the man who broke the 2-hour barrier.
South African cosplayer Kelsey Atkins (@JinxKittie) offers us a terrifyingly Unhappy Meal at the new fast food restaurant in Derry, Maine. Are you lovin' It? Then follow her into the storm drain to SuperSize your selection.
When I heard of news about this super typhoon with a diameter wide enough to engulf my entire country, I was shocked and couldn't believe it, until I saw satellite images of the monstrous cyclone inching slowly toward Japan. And I was amazed and terrified at the same time that such a giant has come to existence.
The most powerful typhoon in decades to be on course to hit Tokyo is expected to rake the coast of Japan's main island of Honshu this weekend, bringing strong winds and up to 2 feet of rain.
Super Typhoon Hagibis has strengthened to a Category 5 storm and although it's expected to weaken to Category 4 before making landfall, it would still bring extremely rough seas and winds up to 135 mph to the region.
This stunning portrait taken at Katmai National Park in Alaska by wildlife photographer, Robert Hawthorne, definitely caught the eyes of the public as it went viral online.
“That photo strikes a nerve for a lot of people. You look at it and you go, ‘Oh my goodness, I hope I never have a bear that close behind me,’ ” he tells PEOPLE, estimating that the encounter was just 15-20 seconds long. “But really, I wish I [had taken] photos following it … They looked over their shoulder, and then picked the line out of the water, and stood there looking at the bear as it continued down the bank.”
Hawthorne has been photographing wild bears many times before and based from his experience, he could immediately say that the bear is not bound to attack the two fishermen but is looking for the salmon it can catch for dinner in the creek below.
“Knowing from experience there that it isn’t a threat in how it was playing out, I had time to take a photo before letting this guy know that he had a bear behind him,” he says. “And believe it or not, his reaction was simply [that he] looked over his shoulder and continued fishing.”
According to Hawthorne, it is normal for bears to regularly walk up and down the riverbank searching for food, and often dives into the water as soon as they spot something edible! It has been his “adrenaline-filled absolute joy” moment whenever he gets a great shot.
A spokesperson from Katmai says that the bears are harmless as long as they don’t get to taste human food but still cautions people to maintain a safe distance since bears are still wild animals.
Forty, fifty, sixty years ago, trick-or-treaters roamed around with no adult supervision on Halloween night, because any family that didn't already have four or five kids always had the kids next door to lead you around. There was always that one house where a grandmotherly type invited us in to pick our own treats from a table full of lovingly crafted homemade candies, cakes, and cookies? That doesn't happen anymore, since kids aren't allowed to go into stranger's homes, or take any treat that isn't store bought and individually wrapped. Besides, the parents are choosing which houses to visit now anyway. Halloween is still fun for kids today, but it's different. Some of those changes are for the worse, and some for the better. Read about what changed in a list I wrote for Considerable.
They weren't born this way. No innocent furby is born a monster. They become monsters because depraved people live out their sick fantasies by experimenting on them.
In one of the darker corners of the internet, there is a community of "scientists" who perform extreme body modifications on furbies. Yes, you've seen the centipede furby. But that was only the beginning. These self-proclaimed artists decided how far they could push their crafts.
There was a homeless man in Rio do Sul, Bazil who selflessly fed a bunch of stray dogs around him. One day he went to a hospital for emergency treatment. After some time, four stray dogs showed up at the entrance of a hospital, apparently waiting for their owner, Cesar. Cesar has been skipping his meals just to give food to these dogs. Sure enough, they have shown their love and loyalty to their owner by patiently waiting for him as he underwent treatment.
Nurse Cris Mamprim captured this heart-warming photo of the dogs and posted it to Facebook wherein it went viral, reaching more than 136,000 reactions and over 24,000 comments!
“A simple person, without luxury, who depends on help to overcome the hunger, the cold, the pain, the evils of the world, has by his side the best companions, and the exchange is reciprocal.”
An hour passed and Cesar was finally reunited with his dogs, happily wagging their tails as they left the hospital. Cesar might not have abundant material possessions but at least he has a big, warm and loving heart.
Oh, come on, Simon, it's just a moth! Your fear is only making things go from bad to worse. This is the Simon's Cat Halloween special for 2019. That doesn't mean there won't be others.
My house is very attractive to bats, and they are protected in my area, so I have developed several methods for getting them outside in one piece. I like the little buggers, since they keep the mosquito population down. That's very important when you live close to water!
Archaeologists study Bronze Age Europe from the artifacts people left behind, since there are no written records. A new study combines old-fashioned digging with modern science to untangle social relationships and culture in a community of over 100 individuals who lived in Germany’s Lech Valley between 4,750 and 3,320 years ago. Gravesites reveal an individual's status from the quality of goods buried with them, DNA analysis reveals their family trees, and both reveal clues about their relationships with one another. Lead author of the study Alissa Mittnik explains some of the findings.
The study “advances our knowledge of how people lived together, and how biological and social relations correlate—or not,” she said. The researchers were able to identify several lineages, all male, which “could be traced over generations, a group of ‘foreign,’ high-status women, and some low-status, low-rank individuals.”
Indeed, in nearly all the homes the females were not related to the males, and only male lineages could be identified. The reason for this, according to the authors, has to do with a previously identified Bronze Age practice known as patrilocality, in which newlywed wives moved in with their husband’s family. Through this custom, sons introduced new wives to the household who weren’t biologically related, while daughters, when reaching maturity, left the household, taking their genes along with them.
“One striking observation was that these family trees only contained daughters who died when they were under the age of 15 to 17, consistent with a patrilocal family structure in which women leave the family they grew up in to join the household of their husband,” said Mittnik.
Magda Boulet, 47, and Cat Bradley, 27, are both professional ultrarunners who compete with each other race after race. They chase each other down and exchange top podium spots in some of the biggest 100-mile events in the world. One of them has a problem, however: she has to make sure her workouts don’t interfere with her 14-year-old son’s schedule.
“It hit me just the other day that I’m racing women who are 20 years younger than me,” Boulet says from her home in San Francisco. “I didn’t even know what ultrarunning was when I was 27.”
Boulet grew up in Jastrzebie-Zdroj, Poland, and immigrated with her parents to the U.S. when she was in high school, becoming a citizen in 2001. She ran track at the University of California at Berkley, focusing on the 1,500-to-5,000-meter events, but switched to marathons after college. Working with legendary distance coach Jack Daniels, she came to dominate the distance, racing for the U.S. in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. After almost a decade running the marathon, Boulet started to become restless. “I felt I was getting the most out of my mind and body that I could in the marathon distance,” Boulet says. “I got invited to a local half marathon trail race, and it was captivating. I ended up walking for the first time in a race—I could not run up a certain hill. Instead of being discouraged by it, I suddenly realized there was so much I still had to learn. Recognizing that there’s room for improvement is a beautiful thing.” In 2013, Boulet transitioned again, this time to ultramarathons.
Twitter states that it has mistakenly used phone numbers and email addresses, that users have provided for security purposes, to show advertisements to them. The social network company has stated on Tuesday that they “inadvertently” used the aforementioned numbers and emails to let advertisers match people to their own marketing lists. Twitter, however, does not say how many users were affected by their mistake.
The company also says that it did not share personal data with advertisers or other third parties. Twitter says it fixed the problem as of September 17.
One of the most productive agricultural regions in the United States is California’s Central Valley. It is the world’s largest supplier of canned tomatoes, and a third of the country’s produce is grown here. When a seven-year drought hit the land, however, it has threatened the viability of the valley’s farmland, leaving many local communities to suffer greatly as a result.
Joris Debeij’s short documentary When a Town Runs Dry offers a window into the front lines of the water crisis. In the film, which is based on Diana Marcum’s Pulitzer Prize–winning reporting, we hear from several residents of Stratford, a farming community in which much of the land was decimated by the drought.
“Being able to work with the ground and with nature has been very satisfying,” says one farmer, “but of late, when the water becomes scarce, we don’t get a lot of help from the people who want the food that we grow.” The man, who inherited the farm from his father, has been forced to sell land as a result of the aridity. “This year, half of the farm has not been put into cultivation, because of a lack of water,” he says. “Without food production, there’s no jobs out in the rural communities.”
I remember the scene in the film "The Help" in which Viola Davis' character Aibileen teaches the little girl, whom she was taking care of, three phrases to affirm herself: "You is smart. You is kind. You is important."
Similar to that, this video of a little boy named Ayaan reciting affirmations, which his mother taught him when he was two, is one of the cutest and most inspiring things I have seen of late.
