Several complications and diseases can come from diabetes one of which is blindness. My aunt has been afflicted by this and it's great news to know that there are possible treatments that we can derive from certain plant compounds.

The research was conducted by the University of Surrey in partnership with Indiana University in America and Kingston University. The cause for these degenerative eye diseases is an abnormal growth of new blood vessels in the eye. So in order to prevent and hopefully treat these conditions, the researchers looked into compounds found in plants.

In a paper published by the American Chemical Society, the University of Surrey, together with experts from Indiana University in America and Kingston University, detailed their testing of naturally occurring homoisoflavonoids found in the Hyacinthaceae plant family and their synthetic derivatives.

The team tested how well these compounds were able to stop the growth of new blood vessels and isolated several active compounds. One synthetic derivative in particular could be used to develop future treatments. Further work is continuing to synthesize more related compounds.

(Image credit: John O'Neill/Wikimedia Commons)

These days, it's pretty easy to imagine what a city looks like from above, because we are used to aerial photography and satellite imagery. How could you accurately visualize a city from above without them? Leonardo da Vinci did so in 1502, in an age when most city maps were angled to show what they looked like to the artist. Vox takes a look at the tools da Vinci may have used to translate his 16th century "street view" to an accurate overhead city map. Just one more thing da Vinci squeezed into his prolific life. -via Laughing Squid

Yep. Don’t be surprised, though. This phenomenon began tens of thousands of years ago. And it isn’t a secret, at least on the circle of anthropologists. Based on skull measurements, the human (scientific name: Homo sapiens) brain in the last 40,000 years has decreased roughly around 10% in its average volume.

From Discover Magazine:

Based on measurements from 122 populations, modern adult brains range from 900 to 2,100 mL, with a global average of 1,349 mL, which is smaller than our Stone Age predecessors. However, we can’t reach meaningful conclusions from these species-wide global averages, in part because methods of skull measurement differ between datasets.

There are many theories that have been proposed for this phenomenon, like warmer climates being the reason for this event (this idea was countered, however), but the most convincing theory is that we humans underwent self-domestication.

Does a smaller brain mean that we are less intelligent? Find out more on the article at Discover Magazine!

(Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

"Photo of a man wearing a helmet landshape with light going out from his eyes." (from Sacha Goldberger's Facebook post)

Posted on Facebook on October 2014 to March 2015, Olivier Castaing’s School Gallery showcases images of popular characters and gives them a classic feel.

DC Comics characters like the Joker, Superman, Batman and Robin, Marvel Comics characters such as Iron Man, Spider-Man, and the Hulk, and Star Wars characters like R2-D2 and Chewbacca appear on this series of images.

Here are some of these amazing portraits!

See the full album at Sacha Goldberger’s Page!

(Image Credit: Sacha Goldberger/ Facebook)

After Makoto Shinkai's massive blockbuster hit "Your Name" in 2016, he comes up with a new film that is very characteristic of what I would say his surrealist take on storytelling.

Not that I didn't think "Your Name" was a good movie, it was, but something had always nagged at me, something that didn't seem to draw me into the movie as much, an indescribable feeling of reverse catharsis. And it seems that this new film, "Weathering With You", would follow in the same vein as his last one.

But as always, the animation is a visual spectacle and makes me reminisce about the first few anime films I've watched, which were from Ghibli. With the success of "Your Name", much is expected from the new film though with the trailer alone, it definitely has good prospects.

(Image credit: Takiguchi/Hiroshi Comix Wave Films/Wikimedia Commons)

Artist Toshihiko Mitsuya makes intricate creations using aluminum foil, proving that it is not the types of materials an artist uses that makes masterpieces, but it is how an artist uses that material to create great art.

From Beautiful Decay:

Mitsuya’s medium of choice is aluminum foil, which he cuts, shreds, and folds into astounding representations of medieval battles, mythical creatures, and undead warriors. Taking advantage of the foil’s malleability and reflective surface, the armor and weaponry look deadly; conversely, it also has been manipulated to convey the softness of feathers and hair. Mitsuya has brought to life an everyday, ordinary material that is often viewed as trash. In some of his installations, he has created epic battle scenes in ordinary rooms, so lifelike that you can almost hear the crash of miniature weapons. The foil, while appearing deceivingly formidable, represents the fragility of life.

Here are some of Mitsuya’s amazing creations! Visit his website for more of these!

(Image Credit: Toshihiko Mitsuya/ Beautiful Decay)

Fort Montgomery sits on an island in New York, a the conjunction of Lake Champlain and the Richlieu River, withion spittin' distance of Canada. The three-story stone building, built over several decades including the Civil War era. It was decommissioned gradually around the turn of the 20th century, and was sold to a private owner in 1926. What was the purpose of Fort Momntgomery? To defend the US from Canada, of course.

The fort has the kind of wacky pedigree that might tantalize a history buff buyer. A previous fort built in 1816 on the same site was enough to launch a thousand face-palms: Because the engineers were a little murky on exactly where the border fell, a precursor meant to fortify the U.S. against northern invasion accidentally went up on the Canadian side. As James Millard, a historian who literally wrote the book on the moldering remains, has noted, that structure earned the nickname Fort Blunder. The highly visible, expensive mistake was eventually abandoned and plundered. Then, when the international border was redrawn in the 1840s, positioning the island in U.S. waters, Fort Montgomery went up in the footprint of the folly.  

Fort Montgomery has been on the market since the 1980s, and the price has dropped from nine million in 2006 to one million dollars today. The building is in poor shape, but it's on the historical register. Read more about this unique real estate opportunity at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Mfwills)

This is what happens when artificial intelligence tries to write a country song. Botnik Studios fed country music lyrics into a neural network to train it, and the algorithm came up with "You Can't Take My Door." This reminds us of something Bad Lip Reading would produce, but it has a catchy tune and is just silly enough to become a hit. I can tell you from experience, that it would be very possible to memorize the lyrics if you heard this enough. -via the Awesomer

The Awkward Yeti has a new and different series of webcomics called Medical Tales Retold. These are true stories submitted by readers. The first one begins above, and you can read the rest of it here. Also check out Episode 2: The Scar and Episode 3: The Needle. They might make you cringe a bit. If you have a medical story that would make a good webcomic, you can submit it here.

Roan Mountain, along the border of Tennessee and North Carolina, rises to 6,285 feet long its five cloud-capped peaks. There are numerous legends of the supernatural associated with the mountain, the most prevalent being the ghost choir. Since the early 1800s, people have heard etherial singing in the higher elevations, sometimes described as heavenly music and sometimes as demonic shrieking. People who live in mountainous areas know that a combination of strong wind, rocks, trees, and open spaces can produce natural music, and with a dose of imagination, it can sound like a ghost choir. But that's far from the only ghostly legend about Roan Mountain.  

If the choir really is ghosts, then they would apparently not be alone on Roan Mountain, as there are other tales of spectral residents as well. One of these stories revolves around a decrepit cemetery along a place called Dark Hollow Road, right up against Roan Mountain. The cemetery is small and unkempt, the majority of its graves overgrown, unmarked, and occupied by the unknown bodies of the forgotten, but one that is known is the grave of a man named Jankins. The story goes that sometime in around the turn of the century Jankins was having a rather torrid affair with a local woman named Delinda, who was known for sleeping around with pretty much anything that moved.

According to the legend, Jankins was killed one day after being shot, some say by his jealous wife who had uncovered the affair, and right after he was buried at the cemetery Delinda disappeared without a trace. Rumors spread that she had actually been in love with Jankins and had crawled into his coffin to be with him, allowing herself to be buried alive in order to stay with her lover even in death. Whether this is true or not, it has been reported ever since that cars that drive by or park here will be rocked or bumped by an unseen force, said to be the restless spirit of Delinda.

Oh, but there's more. Read about the zombie sighting, the ghost bull, and the dancing orbs, among other stories of Roan Mountain. -via Strange Company

We now return to the Fabulous Fifties, where we see one of the greatest TV series of all time AND the first TV spinoff, this being Jackie Gleason's The Honeymooners.

The Honeymooners began as a series of recurring skits on The Jackie Gleason Show and proved to be so popular that it soon spun off as its own series. From the IMDb:

This is one of the greatest TV shows of all time. If you have never seen this, you're in for a real treat. Ralph (Jackie Gleason) is a bus driver for the Gotham Bus Company. He lives in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn with his long-suffering wife Alice (Audrey Meadows). His best pal is the sewer worker who lives upstairs, Ed Norton (Art Carney). Ralph is always scheming to make money. His ideas never work. The things I like best about this show are a) the writing -- introduced phrases that are now part of the American language ("To the moon, Alice!") b) the directing -- look what they did with three cameras that never moved! c) the acting, esp. the improvisation when gags failed -- remember, this was live TV!

So successful was the series, and it is indeed hilarious, that Hanna-Barbera copied the concept in their animated series The Flintstones, narrowly escaping a lawsuit by Jackie Gleason. The show's sponsors wanted at least two more seasons, but, incredibly, Jackie Gleason ended the show after just the one season. Why he did so is explained in the second video below. The first video is of the first episode, and YouTube seems to have them all, including the famous 'Lost episodes'.

The IMDb has many good anecdotes on the show, particularly its cast, which was perfect. How Audrey Meadows got the role of Alice is the stuff of legend, So take a break and watch Ralph and Ed in action, bearing in mind that this all took place almost 65 years ago now.

George Joseph Smith was not a wholesome character. Born in England in 1872, he did his first stint in a reformatory when he was nine years old, and never managed to straighten his act out.

He showed a knack for convincing weak minded women to do things they shouldn’t have. He had them steal for him, lie for him, and he was able to bribe them for money.

He had married a total of six women (some sources claim he had seven wives). Three of his wives turned up dead. He had also seduced a married woman, eloped with her, and when he was through with the adventure, he tied her down to the floor and kept her there for several days.

Among other crimes, he was present when three of his wives died, each one drowning in a bathtub, each death coming soon after they had signed life insurance policies. You have to wonder why it took three murders before Smith drew suspicion, but his life was more complicated than that. The women that drowned were wives number three, five, and six. At least three other women escaped his clutches, possibly because of a lack of money or insurance ...or maybe he really loved them. Read an account of the Brides' Bath Murders at Strange Ago. -via Strange Company

This picture shows Dr. Katie Bouman's glee as she saw the first image of a black hole rendered. She, more than anyone else, is responsible for it. As a grad student in 2016, Bouman gave a TED Talk about the possibility of photographing a black hole. She created the algorithm that enabled a network of eight telescopes to work together to take the image.

She started making the algorithm three years ago while she was a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

There, she led the project, assisted by a team from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the MIT Haystack Observatory.

What's next for Bouman? She has a job lined up at the California Institute of Technology as an assistant professor. Read more about Bouman at BBC News.  -via The Daily Dot 

(Image: Katie Bouman)

It wasn't long after Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space that the Soviets began considering women as cosmonauts. To be precise, it was Nikolai Kamanin, the manager of the Star City space squad, who pushed the idea in 1961. Soviet bigwigs were enthusiastic, as it was another opportunity to be "first," ahead of the US. America already had a squad of women ready to become astronauts, called the Mercury 13. But that was a privately-funded experiment, and NASA never seriously considered sending them into space.

When the idea of sending a female cosmonaut to space was officially approved by Soviet leadership, more than 800 women applied for the job. Fifty-eight were formally considered but only 23 candidates were selected for advanced medical screening in Moscow.

The ideal female cosmonaut candidate was younger than thirty, shorter than 5.5 feet, and no heavier than 154 pounds. A degree was a plus, but still optional. Much more attention was paid to the specific skills needed to perform her duties. But this was tricky.

Male candidates were selected from a pool of test pilots, but this career path was unavailable for Soviet women. Some, however, did have related qualifications. In the post-war years, it was not too difficult to find female aviators who had not only served during WWII, but also participated in aerial battles. However, all these veterans were older than the desired age.

Because of the small pool of qualified candidates, Soviet leadership decided to look for female cosmonauts at local skydiving clubs which had proliferated across the nation since the 1930s.

Ultimately, five women cosmonauts were selected for an all-female space unit at Star City. Only one of them, Valentina Tereshkova, would be launched into space. Once the Soviets claimed another "first," the powers-that-be lost enthusiasm for the women's program. The Soviets would not launch another woman until 1982, still a year ahead of Sally Ride, the first American woman in space. Meet the first women of the Soviet space program at Supercluster. -via Smithsonian

(Image credit: RIA Novosti archive, image #15491/Alexander Mokletsov/CC-BY-SA 3.0)

Samantha Rodriguez, a 20-year old woman was overwhelmed as a deputy uncovered a picture of a Nissan Versa and said that the car was hers.

The woman has been taking care of her 5 younger siblings for almost 3 years. She kept them fed, clothed, and going to school. Their parents died from cancer in the past 5 years.

From CNN:

"When they told me the car is for us, I remember thinking, 'They just took away all these worries and stresses.'" she told CNN. "It was such a big weight off my shoulder and will help so much."

Hop in and know more about the story on CNN!

(Image Credit: CNN)