PSA for anyone who might be dealing with robot gun dogs, from a farm robot specialist who wasn't really looking at robot wrangling from the public safety standpoint but here we are. https://t.co/PhQSmEnzOn

— Dr Sarah Taber (@SarahTaber_bww) October 17, 2021

You may have seen the "robot gun dog" on the internet in the last few days. Ghost Robotics, a company that makes quadruped robots for the military, attached a "special purpose unmanned rifle" to the robot to show off at an army conference last week. Its appearance is frightening, and so are your thoughts about what it can do.  

Crop scientist and industrial safety expert Dr. Sarah Taber is here to reassure you that there's no need to fear the latest lethal robot just yet. In a Twitter thread, she explains the troubleshooting challenges that await any new technology, particularly if it is designed to be used outdoors or in any unfamiliar environment. Her knowledge comes from working with hi-tech farm equipment, which is designed by very smart robotics engineers who have never worked on a farm. Taber lays out a list of problems these robots will face, which she admits is far from a complete list.

it's just really funny to me that these are supposed to be scary but probably can't stand up to a water balloon full of pickle juice

— Dr Sarah Taber (@SarahTaber_bww) October 17, 2021

See the original thread with replies at Twitter or at Threadreader if you prefer. -via Metafilter

These bottles of sand aren't decorated with colorful labels. The entire artwork is made of sand inside the glass bottle! This is the work of Andrew Clemens, who made these primarily between 1880 and 1886. Clemens was rendered deaf by a case of encephalitis in his infancy. During his summers away from the Iowa State School for the Deaf, he collected naturally colored sand from Sand Cave at Pikes Peak State Park and sorted the grains into various tints. Then he carefully layered the sand inside a medicine bottle, using tools he designed himself, with no glue or foreign substances to hold the design together.

While the most complex designs could take up to a year to produce, most of Clemens' bottles were completed somewhat faster. He suffered from poor health all his life, and died at 37. Of the hundred or so sand bottles Clemens completed, only a few survive today and sell for a pretty penny when they are put on the market. One of them went up for auction on September 30th. It was estimated to be worth $100,000, but eventually sold for $956,000! -via TYWKIWDBI

(Image credit: Wikifreaking)

When we think of jaguars, we picture them in the Central and South American rainforests, which is where 99% of them live. But at one time, jaguars roamed through the southern US, from California to Louisiana and even beyond. A government-backed campaign of eradication wiped them out in the first half of the 20th century. There are some jaguars in Mexico, where a preserve has been set aside for them, and occasionally one of the cats moves into the US. Solitary male jaguars wander a large territory, and there are two of them suspected of living north of the US border as of now.

Some conservationists believe the US should welcome jaguars back. We know from our experience with wolves that re-introducing apex predators will improve an ecosystem from the top down. Expanding the range of jaguars will also improve the species' chances of survival in the long run. One plan is to bring jaguars in from Mexico and Argentina to live in the Central Arizona/New Mexico Recovery Area (CANRA), a 20-million-acre area owned by Native American tribes and the federal government. Other conservationists believe it would be better to support the jaguar population in the Mexican preserve and encourage them to cross into US territory on their own.

There are people opposed to both plans. Some are concerned for livestock and other wildlife. Some believe it to be a waste of money and resources. And some jaguar fans believe that the US is just too dangerous for the cats in the 21st century, between fences, highways, hunters, and poorly-managed habitats. Read about the controversial plans for re-introducing jaguars to the US at Vox.

(Image credit: Leonardo Ramos)

Don’t worry, he was able to receive his order afterward! 

A Polish bakery was commissioned to make a cake that has a RTX 3080 FE print with the message, “one year together” in Polish with the pre-order number. The cake was sent to X-kom, a store that sells NVIDIA RTX 30s, as a light-hearted jab by a customer who preordered the graphics card and has been waiting for it for a year. 

Maybe next time you just have to send a special cake to the store you preordered from in order to get the item you reserved! 

Image credit: back2gaming

Bicicleta Sem Freio is a duo that paints large-scale murals that feature colorful plants and animals, alongside different cartoon characters. Their artworks can be found all over the globe, from New Delhi to Jerusalem to Fortaleza. 

Brazilian artists Douglas de Castro and Renato Reno, the people behind the brand, were influenced by the ‘80s and ‘90s global and Brazilian pop culture. Both artists enjoyed watching cartoons and television shows when they were younger. The artists immerse themselves in a community’s contemporary and historical aspects in order to create a custom mural for the area. Check more photos on their projects on Instagram!

Image credit: Bicicleta Sam Freio

Watching this footage is like taking a relaxing ride over Newark Pond in Vermont. Since I can’t really go outside and explore the different tourist spots around the world, living vicariously through content posted online will have to do. For now.

Photographer John Rowe captured the different trees near the water through his drone, showing the different colors of foliage due to the changing of the season. Check the full video here! 

-via Flipboard 

Image screenshot via Storyful 

It’s like the ancient Cirque du Soleil! 

The huppû is a term used to refer to professional acrobats in the Middle East, specifically, in Syria around 4,000 years ago. According to accounting records and letters unveiled from a royal archive, the troupes of huppû usually performed several times per month for special events, such as the arrival of visitors, religious festivals, and the celebrations made when the king safely returned to the city. The productions pulled together by these acrobats included music, dancing, and feats of acrobatic prowess, and they were admired enough to accompany the king during his diplomatic journeys to other kingdoms. 

Learn more about the huppû here!

Image credit: J. Álvarez-Mon via Alvarez-Mon et.al 

The “Wizards Hollow” is a Harry Potter-inspired treehouse that serves as an Airbnb. Located in the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains, the treehouse is close to 600 square feet, and has one bedroom with “a spiral staircase that leads to a loft with an additional bed”. 

The treehouse, which resembles a magical castle from the outside, has velvet wall hangings, colorful flags, Hogwarts-style pillows, and other Harry Potter decorations that will completely capture the senses of every fan. Wizards Hollow is unfortunately booked until October 2024, so if you want to get a chance to stay in the Airbnb, you need to wait for quite some time.

Image via Centre Daily Times

A recent post at AskReddit said, "Autopsy Doctors of Reddit, what was strangest discovery you’ve made while preforming an autopsy?" (sic) Responses came in from medical examiners, autopsy techs, EMTs, pathologists, embalmers, med students, and plenty of other folks who have seen. Some. Stuff. Here is one example.

6. "When I was in my intro to EMS class, my teacher brought in a death investigator and former autopsy examiner to speak to our class. She told us while she worked as an autopsy examiner, she got this woman who, at the time, mysteriously suffocated after a car accident. Apparently, while she was driving, she grabbed her lighter from her purse and was holding it in her mouth while she fumbled through her bag for her cigarettes. While doing this, she got T-boned."

"The airbag went off and on the way to the hospital, they kept trying to put tubes down her throat to open her airway cause she was having trouble breathing. But no luck. She said when they cut open her throat during the autopsy they found her lighter jammed down there. Apparently, when the airbag went off, it got jammed down her throat and no one knew."

—u/I_Feel_Dizzy

You can read more weird causes of death in the original thread, or the 13 best stories at Buzzfeed.  Some of them may be disturbing.

When the red delicious apple was developed a hundred years ago, it was supposedly the best-tasting apple around. But the variety became a victim of its own popularity, as the apple was altered to suit the industry. By the time you and I came along, we were unimpressed and made jokes about the use of the word "delicious." Oh yeah, the red declicious apple stayed popular for a long time after it lost its taste, mainly because it was all you could find at the grocery store. Then just in the last few decades, better apples were developed to replace it.

What we have in this video is really a history of apples that leads up to the rise and fall of the red delicious. A neat story altogether, but it bothers me that the host cites Charles Darwin to explain crossbreeding of plants to develop new varieties when it should have been Gregor Mendel. -via reddit

Veijo Rönkkönen worked in a paper mill in Parikalla, Finland. He was also an artist, but never sold his works. He made concrete sculptures that over time numbered about 500 figures, all secluded in the woods around his home. Rönkkönen's sculptures are not altogether lifelike, but neither are they abstract. They portray people doing all kinds of everyday activities. The biggest number of them resemble a young Rönkkönen doing yoga poses. The artist would sometimes add quirky things to the sculptures, like speakers inside so they could produce sounds, or human teeth. Rönkkönen worked on these sculptures for 50 years until his death in 2010. He never exhibited them or sought fame for his artworks. In fact, he was quite shy as well as eccentric, but if someone came to visit he would show them around.



The Veijo Rönkkönen Sculpture Garden is now open to the public. The 500 or so human figures impress up to 25,000 visitors a year as creepy, funny, scary, whimsical, mysterious, or haunting. Rönkkönen is one of five people featured in a Cracked article who went all in on hobbies that others would consider downright creepy.

La Madeleine is a landmark of the French capital. The structure, also known as  L'église Sainte-Marie-Madeleine (the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene) is a Neo-Classical masterpiece that was finished during the 19th century after being delayed by the French revolution. The building features majestic sculptures all around, along with magnificent columns. 

Learn more about this building’s massive history here! 

Image via wikimedia commons 

Tesla now has a beer. It also comes in a futuristic-style bottle. 

This isn’t a new venture for the company, as it released its own tequila last year. However, this is the first time that Tesla has produced beer. Their beer, called ‘Gigabeer,’ comes with a Cybertruck-inspired bottle. Check electrek’s full coverage on the announcement here!

Image via electrek 

Space weather is associated with solar flares and solar wind that can affect our planet’s ionosphere. This specific part of our atmosphere is a layer of charged particles, which has an impact on long-distance radio communications, and orbits of some satellites. In addition, the layer can create fluctuations in the electromagnetic field that can wreak havoc with electronics in space and down to the ground. 

In order to take precautions against any interruptions from the changing weather in space, the Australian-made space weather satellite CUAVA-1 was deployed into orbit from the International Space Station in order to help experts forecast space weather easier. 

Image credit: JAXA

We’re familiar with piñatas-- the bright and colorful sculptures made from paper used in celebrations. However, piñatas can now be used to tackle different world issues today. Take, for example, Giovanni Valderas’ work. The artist uses colorful sad-face piñatas in order to comment on the gentrification and the displacement of Latinx communities. 

Hyperallergic dives deep into the craft and politics behind the bright artform. Read their full piece here. 

Image credit: Samanta Helou Hernandez