Last week, NASA landed another robot on Mars, one with its own helicopter, using a sky crane, 131 million miles away, after a journey of a year and a half. Now, NASA has released a video that shows the Perseverance rover landing on the red planet. Even if you watched the coverage live, this is something special. The point of view is from several GoPro-type cameras installed on the various components.

The views include a camera looking down from the spacecraft's descent stage (a kind of rocket-powered jet pack that helps fly the rover to its landing site), a camera on the rover looking up at the descent stage, a camera on the top of the aeroshell (a capsule protecting the rover) looking up at that parachute, and a camera on the bottom of the rover looking down at the Martian surface.

Notice the graphics at the bottom to keep us up on what stage the descent is in. It also contains audio from Mission Control and a reaction shot when it's all said and done. If all that's not exciting enough for you, there's also a fan version with music.    -via reddit

British YouTuber Tom Scott takes his audience on tours of strange places, events, and historical relics. Every video is an adventure in new knowledge.

Scott, like a lot of Britons, is in lockdown. So he can't travel widely, especially to indoor locations. He has run out of ideas that he can carry out while still in lockdown.

So Scott asked the AI program GPT-3 to create titles for videos based on his previous work, as well as a complete script for one of them. At the 5:32 mark, he reads a completely fictitious script given to him by GPT-3 about a Russian utopia built in Yorkshire by Nineteenth Century eccentrics.

Artificial intelligence is increasingly providing content creation, management, and curation tasks. Our own resident AI, a program called "Miss Cellania" does an excellent job of automatically searching for neat content and posting it here. We should expect to see similar AI encroachments in the future.

-via The Awesomer

In the summer of 1959, polio swept across Canada, causing panic among parents who feared for their children's lives and health. In Quebec, there were thousands of cases, and 88 people died. Folks lined up for vaccinations, but the supply of vaccine could not keep up.

By August, Montréal was waiting desperately for more vaccines. It was a great relief when a huge shipment of the cherry-red vials arrived from Connaught Labs at the end of the month. The supply was enough to cover the city, and the surplus was planned for redistribution across the province.

Yet the redistribution never came to pass. One man by the name of Jean Paul Robinson, a temporary vaccine worker, had found the circumstances too enticing. Robinson had been tasked with running vials between the various clinics. He knew there was a shortage and that people were desperate. He also knew where the main supply of vaccine was stored: at the Microbiology Institute in the University of Montréal.

At 3 a.m. on Aug. 31, 1959, Robinson and two accomplices broke into the university armed with revolvers. They first locked the night guard in a cage with 500 lab monkeys. The thieves then broke the lock on the massive refrigerator, looted all the cases of the vaccine and stole the guard’s car as the getaway vehicle. In the end, they made away with 75,000 vials, valued at $50,000 (equivalent to almost $500,000 today). Robinson rented an empty apartment building and stashed his prize.

The crime shocked the country. The next day, the city announced it had completely run out of its vaccine supplies. Reporters seized on the situation, publishing reports of desperate mothers turned away from vaccine clinics in vain.

While the vaccine was infinitely valuable, one has to wonder what Robinson thought he was going to do with 75,000 vials of it. The vaccine had to be kept cold, or it would lose effectiveness. Selling it would only draw scrutiny. It turns out that Robinson hadn't really thought his cunning plan all the way through. Read the story of the polio vaccine heist at The Conversation. -via Damn Interesting

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Instagram's @zillowgonewild posted the other day that John Travolta's home came on the market for $5,000,000. The house is located in Islesboro, Maine, and has 20 bedrooms. Travolta and his wife who passed away last year bought the said house as newlyweds in 1991, as reported by Press Herald.

I find this news to be bizarre since personally, I wouldn't want to sell something that has sentimental value and is a place with many memories. But what do you think?

Image Credits to zillowgonewild / Instagram

"I wish sleeping was a lucrative job."

Say no more! This LA-based content creator streamed himself sleeping on Twitch for a night, and earned $16,000! The stream lasted for 7 hours and as it turned out, this is a new trend on Twitch.

The LA-based content creator hopped on a new trend on the streaming platform, Twitch. People have been filming themselves sleeping where viewers are able to tip them in order to leave messages that disrupt their slumber. Andy set up text-to-speech recognition for his audience to trigger his Alexa to play loud music, imitate a dog barking, or make his alarm clock go off.

Viewers clearly had a good time messing around with Andy because he ended up with a whopping number of donations by the end of the stream. A memorable moment from his 7-hour broadcast was when a user scared him by saying someone was at the window.

Very tempting...

Video Credit: Asian Andy / Youtube

Daft Punk released their first video in five years today. "Epilogue" is mostly a clip from their 2006 film Electroma, and it serves as a goodbye to everyone. This video may be disturbing to sensitive viewers. Yes, the duo have broken up, or maybe just retired after 28 years. Read more about it at Pitchfork.  -via Metafilter

A supercut of people using typewriter in film and TV.

"You Give Love a Bad Name" by Bon Jovi was a catchy song, but you know what it needs? A disco beat!  Shahar Varshal mashed it up with Boney M's "Rasputin." Oh, those Russians...  -via Metafilter

For some reason I've been offered my first covid jab and am now wondering whether I'm actually much older than I think I am

— Liam Thorp 💙 (@LiamThorpECHO) February 16, 2021

Liam Thorp, the political editor of the Liverpool Echo, got a notice from the National Health Service that he needed to come in for a COVID vaccine. Thorp is 32 years old and has no condition that would warrant a vaccine at this stage of the rollout. Why was he flagged to get one? He called to ask if it were really his turn, which led to some checking. His doctor later called back to say there had been a mistake and he wasn't due for a shot yet.

I mean I’ve put on a few pounds in lockdown but not that many

— Liam Thorp 💙 (@LiamThorpECHO) February 17, 2021

For reference, a BMI of 40 or more is considered morbidly obese - so I'm not sure what this would have made me.

The man's nervous tone cracked into a laugh when I joked about putting on weight and losing a significant amount of height during the lockdown.

If I had been less stunned, I would have asked why no one was more concerned that a man of these remarkable dimensions was slithering around south Liverpool.

Of course, the story went viral, and Thorp is now known as "the Morbidly Obese Pancake Man." You can read the entire story at the Liverpool Echo. -via Nag on the Lake

Who doesn’t love a good and intentionally set up tragedy in a story? Tragedies in storytelling are usually associated with the ending of a story. However, it makes readers emotionally invested when their favorite characters have a good ending. People will talk more though, if a story ends tragically. Overly Sarcastic Productions discuss the different aspects of the well-used trope we all enjoy to read in fiction or watch unravel in shows. 

‘It’s a monster,’ the fishermen claimed as they managed to reel a seven-foot-long Warsaw grouper. Joshua Jorgensen, founder and producer of BlacktipH Fishing Show, alongside Capt. Jason Boyll of SoNar Fishing was able to nab a Warsaw grouper after a four-hour trip to  Pulley Ridge. The ridge is home to the grouper breed and other fish species, and Jorgensen and his companions didn’t have to wait for more than five minutes to get a bite on one of their reels: 

"Within five minutes of fishing, Jason got a bite on his reel. He started reeling and the line got very tight," BlacktipH Fishing’s news release reads. "A giant Warsaw had taken the bait!"

Boyll reportedly reeled the fish 150 feet up in a span of 10 minutes while Jorgensen switched places and "continued cranking the fish all the way to the surface."

Both men reeled in the large fish, which Jorgensen estimated took between 15 and 20 minutes of "fight time" and more than 400 feet of hand-cranked line.

"It was a monster! The fish floated to the surface and we all started screaming," Jorgensen explained. "We didn’t realize how difficult it would be to bring this fish in the boat. It took four grown men to lift this fish over the gunnels and into the boat."

The caught grouper measured longer than seven feet and had sharp dorsal spines that measured over two feet in length.

Image via Fox News 

Black-footed ferrets were in danger of going completely extinct in the 1980s. Scientists collected the few ferrets they could find in Wyoming for a breeding program, which has been successful, but the species is still endangered and the gene pool is rather thin. In fact, all the black-footed ferrets in the US are descended from just seven individuals. But Elizabeth Ann could change that. She is the first cloned animal of an endangered species in the US. Elizabeth Ann was produced from a frozen cell of Willa, a black-footed ferret that died in 1988. Willa has no known descendants today, so her clone now has the potential to refresh the black-footed ferret gene pool.

Elizabeth Ann was born on Dec. 10, 2020, and resides at a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service black-footed ferret breeding facility in Fort Collins, Colo. The team waited several months to introduce her to the world.

"The first few weeks of their life can be really critical for any ferret, natural-born or clone, and so we wanted to know that she was going to be good," Novak said.

"She is thriving and growing and becoming more and more black-footed ferret-like every day."

Elizabeth Ann was born as part of a litter of domestic ferrets, which are a different species. There are plans to produce other ferret clones for the breeding program. Read more about this ferret and see more adorable pictures at CBC.  -via Damn Interesting

(Image credit: USFWS Mountain-Prairie)

The reason is more endearing than you’d believe! Erin Askeland, Animal Health and Behavior Consultant for Camp Bow Wow shared with Popsugar that there are different reasons as to why cats would choose to lie at the edge of the bed or on their owners’ feet. The reasons are based on instinct, such as for security and safety purposes. When a cat goes to sleep, Askeland answers, they are aware of their vulnerability, so they would prefer to sleep at the foot of the bed for security: 

"The foot of the bed also provides a quicker escape, which is part of a cat's instincts, whereas at the head of the bed or even within the blankets, that escape route is not as clear. Often the foot of a bed is semi-centered in a room, so it not only gives the cat a perch and view from higher up, [and a] comfy place to sprawl, but also the ability to move in any direction quickly as needed."

Another reason as to why these feline creatures would decide to sleep at their owner’s feet is both sweet and honestly, self-serving: 

"While cats may be independent creatures, they are keen on who provides for them and are still quite social. They are aware of who puts down their food, water, and treats, who plays with them, and who gives them attention, so they will seek out that person (or persons) to be near and offer affection in return, or appease you so you continue providing for them," she said, which I thought was a sweet — though appropriately self-serving — notion.

However, Erin completely brought me back to earth with her last note, which for sure tracks: "Cats may also use you simply for your heat! This may be why some cats will move to your head or body during the night and then return to the foot of the bed. As your own body's temperature changes, your cat may move to warmer (or cooler) spots depending on their own needs."

Image via Popsugar 

A video on Facebook of Turnip the tortoise dancing in the water has brightened people’s day. Posted by The Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Turnip ‘dances’ when it rains heavily in its native habitat. Turnip is a 12-year-old female radiated tortoise(don’t worry, they’re not full of radiation; the name refers to the yellow lines on its shell) is known to shake it off really well:  

"All of our radiated tortoises do this to some degree, but Turnip really 'turns it up,'" said Tennessee Aquarium Animal Care Specialist Maggie Sipe to IFLScience. "Our older female doesn't dance so much as she just raises up on to her tiptoes and stretches out. The two boys in the habitat with her chase me around when I have the hose out because I think they've learned what it means, so it's hard to get videos of them doing the dance because they come right up to me for showers."

Sipe added that the reason for the dancing behavior is unknown. "They do have feeling in their shells and will often seek out sensations, like raindrops or low hanging branches. Here at the aquarium we sometimes give them scrub brushes to rub against and they do this behavior, but not quite as enthusiastically as they do with the showers. This is what makes us believe that they do really enjoy it, because they actively seek it out."

Dallas resident Thomas Black posted an image to social media of icicles hanging off a ceiling fan in the hallway of an apartment building. If that doesn’t tell you how cold it was in Texas, then I don’t know what else could show that the winter weather has frozen much of Texas. From a frozen pool, to iced-over hallways, and to pipes bursting everywhere, the winter in the area is historically insane: 

"Pipes are busting everywhere,” said Black, whose apartment has lost water but mostly kept its power.

At least 20 people have died because of the intense cold and a series of storms that moved from coast to coast over the past few days. In Texas, about 3 million homes and businesses remained without power Wednesday.

The winter storm could be a "once in a generation" event for Texas when factoring in the brutally cold conditions, AccuWeather meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said earlier this week.

But the state is bracing for more winter weather in coming days, as over 100 million Americans are in the path of another winter storm tracking from the Plains to the East Coast, the National Weather Service said.

Image via USA Today