Have you watched a video in which the visual and audio tracks aren't synced correctly? Gracie Scullion can create that effect with her mouth. Her trick is to mouth the word silently before she voices it in her back of her throat. It only works well with words that don't require touching the lips together. But if you choose the right words, it can mess with people's heads very effectively.
-via Born in Space
Experts believe that the voice coming from living beings, such as animals and humans are powered by the lungs and emitted through the mouth. Technically, this is correct. But did you know that every voice (animal or human) comes from a common ancestor? The common ancestor is something we didn’t expect: primordial fish. Science Focus has the details:
To understand how this could possibly be so, we must travel to a time around 530 million years ago, when the first fish evolved. Like their living descendants, these ancient fish sustained life by extracting oxygen from the water and expelling CO2 with a specialised membrane that lines the inside of the throat: gills.
Some of these primordial fish, however, evolved in shallow lakes or swamps and during droughts would become stranded on land. Many suffocated to death, but at least one was lucky enough to undergo one of those random mutations that drive natural selection.
In this case, a possible copying error in one of the genes responsible for building gills, rendering the subtly altered membrane capable of pulling a little oxygen from the air – a tiny sip that kept the landlocked fish alive long enough, not only to survive the dry spell, but to mate and pass along the mutated gill gene and the tiny survival advantage it conferred to its offspring.
Over hundreds of thousands of years, and many other random mutations that improved the animal’s ability to survive on land, a new species evolved in these swampy, shallow-water areas, a transitional, hybrid animal that possessed both water-breathing gills and rudimentary air-breathing lungs, which had formed from the hollow swim bladders it used for flotation. These creatures are known as lungfish, and they are our oldest air-breathing, land-dwelling relatives.
Image via Science Focus
Old carved stone balls have been the subject of mystery and intrigue as to what they were actually used for. Found in Scotland, 500 Neolithic stone balls, some with intricate patterns, others with knobs and pyramids, leave people in endless debates trying to unravel the meaning behind these artifacts. The National Museum of Scotland has now renewed its efforts to settle the debates once and for all, as the Scotland Herald details:
It involves a fingertip search through hundreds of documents cataloguing their discoveries, virtual reality technology, citizen science and a hunt for at least two missing balls - and perhaps many more.
Most of the intriguing stones were discovered in Aberdeenshire, however, in many cases precisely where they were found was either not fully recorded or the spheres mistaken as either not being as historically important as they are now known to be.
As a result, it’s thought that some may not even have been handed over to authorities as archaeological treasures – meaning there is every chance that they are still kept by unsuspecting owners, have been sold, forgotten about or, indeed, stuck on a window ledge.
Now Dr Hugo Anderson-Whymark, Curator of Prehistory at the National Museum of Scotland, is at the forefront of a new strand of research which it is hoped will unlock the secrets of the intriguing Neolithic objects and possibly the whereabouts of at least two missing spheres.
Image via the Scotland Herald
Paul Stanley, aka Starchild from the rock band KISS, has a side gig - singing soul music. Since 2015, Paul has been singing soul music covers and original songs with his group Soul Station. A new Soul Station album, "Now & Then" was released earlier this month.
Paul developed a love for soul music in his teens, after seeing Otis Redding in concert. And that love even made it into some of KISS' music.
An excerpt of a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine:
Did your love of soul music ever work its way into Kiss’ music back in the day? When you create music, you’re using a recipe. You may be winging it, but the music is based on all its ingredients. Those ingredients may not be in equal proportions and some may be surprising, but that’s what helps with the uniqueness. When we wrote “Shout It Out Loud,” we were very clear: [Sings] “Well, the night’s begun and you want some fun/Do you think you’re gonna find it — think you’re gonna find it!” It’s the Four Tops.
The call and response, you mean? Absolutely. We knew it as we were doing it: “Oh, cool. This is Four Tops.” There’s a song on the Unmasked album called “What Makes the World Go Round.” It’s basically a Spinners song, but done in a different way.
I like this soul music version of Paul Stanley. Watch Paul and Soul Station perform the Five Stairsteps classic soul tune "O-O-O-H Child" above.
KISS - "Rock & Roll All Nite"
People understood hot and cold a long time before we had what we call temperature, which is the way we measure heat. While other scientists had tinkered with the idea of measuring temperature, it was not until 1714 that Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit gave us a practical and fairly accurate thermometer.
Fahrenheit had based his invention on Danish scientist Ole Roemer's alcohol-based thermometer. Roemer labeled his temperature scale with zero marked at the temperature where brine (salt water) froze and 60 as the point at which water boiled, wrote Ulrich Grigull, the late director of the Institute for Thermodynamics at the Technical University of Munich in Germany, in a 1986 conference presentation. Ice melted at 7.5 degrees on the Roemer scale, and a human body registered at 22.5.
Fahrenheit's thermometer, though, was much more accurate. He used the same freezing and boiling reference points as Roemer's scale — referred to in his writings as "Extream Cold" and "Extream Hott" — but roughly multiplied the scale by four to divide each marker on the scale into finer increments. On Fahrenheit's scale, wrote Grigull, the four reference points were: 0 (at the combined freezing temperature of brine), 30 (the freezing point of regular water), 90 (body temperature) and 240 (the boiling point of water).
These points were recalibrated after Fahrenheit's death. But there was room for improvement, so Anders Celsius made a temperature scale that was more math-friendly and Lord Kelvin made another that expanded the scale for scientific use. An article at LiveScience explains how the concept of temperature evolved and how we got our scales. The question of which measurement scale is best still depends on where you are and exactly what you are measuring. -via Digg
(Image credit: Flickr user barbbarbbarb)
In the late 19th century, there was a slew of unexplained maladies among people who were involved in train accidents. After a series of crashes in Britain in 1867, so many victims came forward that the syndrome was dubbed "railway spine." While spinal difficulties were prominent, the effects were varied, from anxiety to hearing loss to paralysis, and some even died. But doctors could find no injury or source for those symptoms.
The problem was, there was no way to really verify these claims, since medical science at the time was limited largely to what doctors could see. And they couldn’t see anything wrong with these victims—there was no obvious spinal injury, and traditional concussion symptoms were known to disappear after a while. But these people were reporting injuries for years.
The railroads called bullshit. They said these people were just malingerers who wanted money. John Eric Erichsen coined the term and wrote a whole book about these people. The craziest part was, some of the folks complaining of physical or mental problems were witnesses. They hadn’t even been in the crash.
Railway spine remained a mystery to those who suffered from it and their doctors, but we have an explanation in the present. Read what we know now at Jalopnik. -via Damn Interesting
Many cities have extensive underground layers for various reasons. These subterranean spaces often begin with separate basements and tunnels that eventually become connected to each other, or possibly the area was once above ground, and was just built over. The capital of Finland is a different story. Helsinki built its underground city in one fell swoop. Underneath the ground level streets, you'll find shopping centers, a church, a museum, sports venues, and more.
Thought to be the world’s only city with an underground master plan, Helsinki began excavating tunnels through bedrock in the 1960s to house power lines, sewers and other utilities. City planners quickly realized that the space could also be home to retail, cultural, and sporting attractions—and that it could shelter the city’s population of 630,000 in the event of another invasion from the East. The building of the tunnels expanded with new purpose.
Tomi Rask, a preparedness instructor for the city of Helsinki’s rescue department, says the alternative purpose of the tunnels is to “save people against the actions of war.” No Finnish government official would ever mention Russia as the reason for such defensive preparations, but they don’t have to.
Read about both sides of Helsinki's underground at Atlas Obscura.
The YouTuber who goes by EverywhereMax has been to all 92 places named in the Johnny Cash song "I've been Everywhere." He's been a lot of other places, too, as you'll see in the video he constructed around the song.
As far as I know, only two people including me have been to all 92 places. The other person is with me in the ''Nebraska'' picture.
This footage was compiled between 2016 and 2019. Now that Max has conquered the Western Hemisphere, we he venture out into the other continents? -via Digg
Oh, so you want a goth look? It's been done long before you first walked into a Spencer's Gifts. The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, UK owns this impressive pocket watch that dates back to about 1690 from a workshop in Paris. It's made of silver, gold, and enamel. The use of a deathly image refers to the inevitable loss of time and life:
[...] which recalls the verse from Psalm 89, ‘Remember how short my time’. Recording the passage of time, and thus serving as memento mori, watches were often associated with skulls in other artforms, such as still-life vanitas paintings, or portraits.
Mariah Reading is a professionally trained artist who works as a ranger with the National Park Service. She takes the trash that people leave behind in these scenic wonders and transforms them into beautiful landscapes.
You’ve heard of generating oxygen on Mars, now get ready for a sustainable city on the Martian planet! Plans for the first ‘Martian sustainable city’ have been unveiled, and construction is estimated to begin by 2054 and finished by 2100. While that is still a long time to come, the designs for the city are already finished, as Euronews details:
The new design overall contains five cities - the capital is called Nüwa. The vertical city has homes, offices and green spaces, all built into the side of a cliff to protect inhabitants from atmospheric pressure and radiation.
The oxygen is largely produced by plants, food is 90 per cent plant-based and the energy comes from solar panels.
However, the circumstances on the Red Planet are far from friendly. The atmospheric pressure is not suitable for humans and the radiation is lethal on the surface without any shelter.
"We had to do a lot of analysis based on computing and working with the scientists to try to understand what are the circumstances that we will face," says founder of architecture studio ABIBOO, Alfredo Muñoz, adding "we have to face challenges that are very specific to the conditions of Mars, one of them is gravity, which is only one-third of the gravity on Earth."
On the other hand, CO2 and water can be obtained on the surface.
"Water is one of the great advantages that Mars offers, it helps to be able to get the proper materials for the construction. Basically, with the water and the Co2, we can generate carbon and with the carbon, we can generate steel," says Muñoz. The architecture company plans to use exclusively Martian materials for the construction.
Image via Euronews
I’ve seen people “go superman” on motorcycles before, but this is my first time seeing a guy stand up on one. Was this guy bored? Or was he just crazy? Maybe the answer was both. We can only guess.
One thing is sure, however. What I’m seeing now is amazing.
(Image Credit: gaa1997/ TikTok via Facebook)
You were very excited at the release of Pokemon Go, which utilized augmented reality. You were thrilled when you wore VR goggles for the first time and felt like you were inside the game. But far more superior than augmented reality and virtual reality is actual reality. With its ultra-immersive gameplay, stunning 360° environments, and very responsive controls, one wouldn’t be able to stop playing the game that will utilize this technology.
(Image Credit: GreenTV/ YouTube)
Playing Phasmophobia on the computer is already a nerve-racking experience. Playing it on VR is much worse. But if you want to suffer from a heart attack and die early, you might want to buy a bHaptics suit, which will let you fully experience the horror game, as the game’s latest update now supports the full body haptic suits and face covers of the said company.
Essentially, these will let the game trigger vibrations across your [body], presumably to send actual shivers down your spine when a spook shows up.
In other words, the virtual ghosts from the ghost hunting video game can now touch your real body.
Granted, bHaptic's suits don't come cheap. The simplest of the company's tactical haptic vests will set you back $300, with a more expensive version containing over double the number of vibration points going for a spicy $500.
(Image Credit: Kinetic Games/ PC Gamer)
It’s not real, don’t worry. Let’s take the time to appreciate the craftsmanship in these hand blown glass spider sculptures! Created by Lampwork artist Nikita Drachuk, these glass spiders come in different species, each so stunningly realistic that it could strike fear at first glance. Laughing Squid has more details:
Glass Symphony is a three-generation family business dedicated to an art that takes years of training.
Glass Symphony» is a small family private studio. We’ve been engaged with glass figures for three generations. My grandpa taught this craft to my father who in turn taught me. …We deal with art called ‘lampwork’. It is the art of making glass figurines melted in the flame of a gas burner glass. This is the process of creating exclusive glass figurines and compositions. They are exclusive because all the compositions are handmade.
These and other glass creatures are available for purchase through Drachuk’s Etsy shop.
Image via Laughing Squid
