HONK HONK! Want to inhabit the body of a goose and wreak havoc in a village and taunt its people with your mighty honk? Well, look no further, for here is a game for you.

Welcome to “Untitled Goose Game,” the video game in which you are a goose and the worst nightmare of the people who live in a once-peaceful village.

As a goose, you can walk, run, pick up objects, flap your wings and honk. We’d say it’s improbable that such a simple game would go as viral as it has in recent days…

… but it did become viral, and, as a marketplace for memes, the game has also become a meme.

Find out more about the game and see the memes over at The Washington Post.

(Image Credit: House House)

Preliminary government data suggests that Japan’s fertility crisis is worsening, as the data from the first seven months of this year shows the sharpest drop in births in 30 years.

Data from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare show that births fell 5.9% percent from January to July year on year, and the number of women in their childbearing age are shrinking, not to mention the increasing number of women who decide to delay having children, or decide not to have any children at all.

During this period, the total number of births was 518,590. For the whole of 2018, the official tally of births was 918,397, a figure which however excludes babies born to foreigners in Japan and Japanese babies born abroad.

The decline in births is "happening faster than official projections had envisioned," said Yasushi Mineshima, a spokesman for the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.

Japan's birth rate has been falling since the late 1970s. In 2005, it reached a record low of 1.26, but then seemed to be on a path of recovery until it started to fall again in 2016, according to government figures. By 2018, it was at 1.42.

To maintain a stable population, countries need a fertility rate of 2.1. Last year, it was 1.72 in the United States but only 0.98 -- or less than one baby per woman -- in South Korea, where fertility rates have fallen to their lowest level since records began.

More details of this news over at CNN.

How do you think can this be solved?

(Image Credit: DanEvans/ Pixabay)

A 25-year-old woman went to the hospital the day after she took her medicine for a toothache, complaining of weakness and her blue skin. Not only did her skin turn blue, but also her blood. Dr. Otis Warren, the ER doctor who treated her explained that the woman’s skin and blood turned blue because the medicine she took contained benzocaine, and she took too much of the medicine. The medicine triggered a condition called methemoglobinemia, as The Cut detailed: 

Methemoglobinemia happens when not enough oxygen gets to your blood cells, and can be caused by certain antibiotics, drugs, toxins, contaminated well water, or genetics. Dr. Otis Warren, the emergency room doctor who treated the woman, told NBC News that it happened because the numbing medicine she took contained benzocaine, and she’d “used a whole lot of it.” (Must have been a terrible toothache.) The doctor also said he recognized her symptoms from a past patient whose methemoglobinemia was caused by an antibiotic. “The skin color looked exactly the same,” Warren said. “You see it once, and it stays in your mind.”

image credit: via wikimedia commons

A new part of The Tale of Genji was found in a house in Tokyo. The Tale of Genji was completed around the year 1010 by a woman later named by historians as Murasaki Shikibu, and is considered as the world’s first novel. The original manuscript of the work no longer exists, but the oldest transcribed copies of the story are believed to be done by the poet Teika. The work consisted of four parts until the fifth part was discovered on an oblong chest in a storeroom of the residence of Motofuyu Okochi (a descendant of a former feudal lord), as The Guardian detailed: 

The manuscript had been kept in an oblong chest in a storeroom at the Tokyo home of Motofuyu Okochi, a descendant of the former feudal lord of the Mikawa-Yoshida Domain in Aichi Prefecture, the Japan Times reported.

Experts at Reizeike Shiguretei Bunko, a foundation for the preservation of cultural heritage, have now confirmed its authenticity, with the handwriting of the text, and the cover of the manuscript, identical to other Teika manuscripts. The foundation said although the newly-found manuscript “mostly” matches the common version of the story, there are some grammatical differences.

image credit: via wikimedia commons

Margaret Nazon spent the past decade creating beadwork depictions of outer space, inspired by images taken in outer space. Nazon sets her work on black fabric backgrounds, to emphasize the beautiful and detailed depiction of galaxies, planets, and nebulae. Her expertise in her creative and detailed depictions of these celestial objects come from her long experience of beading, starting at the age of ten, as Colossal detailed: 

The artist explained to Glenbow that because she is retired, she is able to dedicate significant portions of time to beading, and often rises at 4:30 to begin working. Nazon plans to continue experimenting, including merging her abstract beadwork with her seamstress skills to create artfully embellished apparel.

Nazon’s artwork was most recently exhibited at Glenbow in a group show, Cosmos, and A Beaded Universe at Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre.

image credit: via Colossal

Don't you just love it when people on the internet take a joke and expand on it with their own creativity? A couple of months ago, comedy writer Keaton Patti wrote an artificial intelligence version of a Batman story, meaning he wrote it as if it were AI generated. It is bonkers.

I forced a bot to watch over 1,000 hours of Batman movies and then asked it to write a Batman movie of its own. Here is the first page. pic.twitter.com/xrgvgAyv1L

— Keaton Patti (@KeatonPatti) August 13, 2019

What was really generated were immediate memes. Drinking anarchy. Drinking bats. A coupon for parents. A tray of goth ham. Justin Davis produced an audio version of the script. Matt Shults did a four-page comic book.

You can read the whole comic here. And now Nerd Odyssey gives us the full animated treatment.  



You can peruse the responses to the original Tweet for more. -via the A.V. Club

The team from the Chicago Genius Herald came up with a random idea to see what the aldermen from Chicago would look like if they were goth. It must be really surprising to see your representative donning the look one day out of the blue but it would also be quite interesting to see them take on the goth lifestyle. Check them out here. - via Google Maps Mania

(Image credit: The Chicago Genius Herald)

One of the greatest aspects of Sesame Street in recent years is that it directly addresses the emotional needs of kids who face problems that are bigger than themselves. One muppet character has HIV. Another is homeless. Another has autism. There's a muppet whose father is in prison.

No kid should have to deal with these ordeals. But they do, so Sesame Street steps up to help.

Most recently, the show introduced Karli. This muppet's parents are in recovery from drug addiction. Karli and her friend, the human character Salia, talk about their challenges. WTHR 13 reports:

In the segment, Karli and Salia each hold up hand-drawn pictures of flowers, with multiple petals representing "big feelings" — like anger, sadness and happiness. They offer ways to feel better, including art and breathing exercises.

The segment leans on carefully considered language. Creators prefer "addiction" to "substance abuse" and "recovery" to "sobriety" because those terms are clearer to children. Despite the subject, the mood was light in the room, largely thanks to Jenkins' calm and empathic manner.

"I know it feels awkward because people don't normally have conversations standing shoulder-to-shoulder," she told Salia between takes. "This is weird, but trust me, it looks good."

Karli had already been introduced as a puppet in foster care earlier this year but viewers now will understand why her mother had to go away for a while. The introduction of her backstory follows other attempts by entertainment companies to explore the issues of addiction, including "The Connors" on ABC and "Euphoria" on HBO.

-via Instapundit

Jared Leto thinks his head got lost. Not his actual head of course, but the head he brought to the recent MET Gala. The actor, in an interview with GQ, revealed that he has no idea where the replica of his face is. The head he brought to the event to tie in his Gucci look at the 2019 MET Gala costs about €25,000, as W magazine detailed: 

But when GQ’s Rachel Tashjian asked Leto what he did with the copy of his head after the Met Gala, he said that doesn’t know where it went. “Honestly, I have no idea,” said Leto. “I think someone may have stolen it. If anyone out there finds it, bring it in to your nearest Gucci store in exchange for a pair of dirty sneakers.”

If somebody really did steal the head, it doesn’t seem like Leto will get it back. Makinarium, the Italian special effects firm that made the heads for the original Gucci show, told The Cut that each head cost about €25,000, though they could swing it for €10,000.

(via Buzzfeed)

image credit: Angela Weiss / AFP / Getty Images via Buzzfeed

What's the difference between granulated sugar and brown sugar, anyway? Simon Whistler of Today I Found Out explains. On the way to finding out why brown sugar gets lumpy while regular everyday sugar doesn't, we learn an awful lot about sugar.

This gentleman (we are certain that he is one because he knows how to play the pipes and does so) performs "Scotland the Brave" while bungee jumping.

Doing so reveals, as he plunges to the crevasse below, that he has failed to dress regimental style and thus is no true Scotsman.

-via TYWKIWDBI

Two new studies by the American Heart Association have been recently published. The studies suggest that dog ownership is linked with an increased likelihood of a longer life, especially to people who have previously had a heart attack or stroke. This makes dog-owning even better!

In a study of dog-owning and non-dog owning survivors of heart attacks or strokes, researchers determined that dog owners across the board experienced lower rates of death from heart attacks or strokes. The study was conducted in Sweden between 2001 and 2012 using the country's National Patient Register.

Dog owners in the study tended to have a "better outcome after a major cardiovascular event," the researchers found, although the study did not prove cause and effect. The reason could be due to an increase in physical activity and decrease in depression and loneliness among dog owners, which previous studies have confirmed.

More details of this study over at CBS News.

(Image Credit: Mylene2401/ Pixabay)

The social housing estates of East London have been a great subject matter for the many writers and artists who explored the human stories that intertwine with their communities. However, in the paintings of this East Londoner artist, Frank Laws, there does not seem to be a human being in sight.

The only signs of life are curtains flapping at open windows and the luminescent glow emanating from inside a home. Blocks of flats that teem with life in, say, Plan B’s film and album Ill Manors, stand eerily quiet and vacant in Laws’s images.

Laws was born in a village in Norfolk but hated the rural quiet. “I was always scared of the dark in the countryside,” says the 37-year-old. “I’m still scared of it.” It’s this fear, and Laws’ love of film noir, that informs the dramatic, Edward Hopperesque lighting in Laws’ meticulously detailed watercolour and acrylic paintings.

But more than these being beautiful paintings, Laws wants to raise awareness to the people of what has happened, and what is happening to these estates.

Find out more over at The Guardian.

(Image Credit: Lucid Plane/ The Guardian)

Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano will cheer for his team from the International Space Station as it orbits some 400 km above the Earth. Parmitano will watch from space as they take on South Africa in their Rugby World Cup clash. It seems that this is not the first time Parmitano will break new grounds in space, as Reuters shares that he was the first person to DJ in space as he played a set from the ISS for an Ibiza club. 

image credit: via wikimedia commons

Comic book stories are usually set on Earth or fictional planets in the universe which have been inspired either by other planets and celestial bodies in outer space or an admixture of said planets and one's imagination.

In order to explore the many aspects and places within these fictional worlds, the site Comic Book Cartography compiles several maps and diagrams from the worlds which have been created in comic books. It includes such places as the Batcave, the World of Kamandi, and Titan where Captain Marvel originated.

-via Book of Joe

(Image credit: Jack Kirby; source)