Part of traditional martial arts training is conditioning the body to withstand hard blows by building up bone and muscular density. One kung fu tradition from China calls for the sensitive and vulnerable male genitals to be prepared to take heavy blows. Training involves ramming a steel-capped log into a student's groin.
This video from Luoyang, Henan province, China features masters of this conditioning practice, as well as "iron throat", "iron back", and "iron stomach." Those training regimens are also demanding, if somewhat less terrifying to men.
DJ Earworm put together instrumental snippets of 52 hit songs, one for each year from 1970 to 2020 (there's two for 1985). It's like a timeline of pop music, accurately called Time of Our Lives. The part you will like best starts at whatever year you turned 12. I knew all of them until they got to the years when I was raising children, then my recognition got a little spotty. There's a list of the songs used at the YouTube page.
Hooray! Researchers have discovered a way to convert carbon dioxide into synthetic jet fuel. Researchers from Oxford University believe that if the new method becomes successful, the aviation industry could achieve net zero carbon emissions, as Newshub details:
"It's viewed as part of a suite of approaches to mitigate climate change. It won't be the end, won't be the final story, there will be many other things and it might be a bridging technology as well," says Massey University Professor in Chemistry Shane Telfer.
Eight companies are already working on recycling carbon, including a Swiss company that's building capture facilities to take CO2 out of the atmosphere and Kiwi start-up Lanzatech which has a different way to turn industrial waste gases into ethanol.
Now based in America, Lanzatech provided the fuel that partially powered Richard Branson's first biofuel flight.
"In the next decade these fuels may become competitive with our traditional fuels," Prof Brent says.
Prof Brent believes they could be made in New Zealand - perhaps at the Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter if it closes, or by repurposing the Marsden Point oil refinery, or capturing CO2 at a geothermal power plant.
The catch - it would use all of the electricity currently generated in New Zealand.
But that doesn't deter the scientists.
"These new technologies are much more efficient and recyclable and sustainable, so if they do make the grade then they will be a better solution," Prof Telfer says.
So when you do eventually take that overseas trip - you might be able to fly with a clean conscience.
If you’re tired of the usual pop songs or lo-fi beats, maybe it’s time to listen to sounds from nature. It’s okay if you’re stuck in a major city, because this radio station brings you nature ASMR with a simple click to a website. Tree.fm is an online radio station for tree songs in stereo, as Open Culture details:
Tree.fm “is a tool that gives you instant access to the sounds of the world’s forests,” Beth Skwarecki writes at Lifehacker. Many of those sounds, like the forests that produced them, are endangered, not only from the usual suspects but also the noise pollution of highways and housing developments. Listen to forest songs on repeat or hit “listen to a random forest” and be “transported to Madagascar to listen to some lemurs, or to Ghana to hear some peacefully rushing water, or to Russia, where a bird I’ve never heard of puts on a vocal performance.” This is good medicine. Discover the forest songs that best soothe your nervous system or delight ears at Tree.fm.
Imagine earning up to $29.5 million at the age of nine? Can’t relate! Forbes magazine has named the young Texan YouTuber named Ryan Kaji as the highest-paid YouTuber of 2020. Kaji has earned $29.5 million from June 2019 to June 2020. Just wow. The majority of his earnings actually come from licensing, as Mashable details:
But while Ryan's video content has earned him fat bucks, the majority of his earnings actually come from licensing deals on over 5,000 Ryan's World products that range from action figures to clothes to electronic gadgets.
Also, Ryan also has a series called Ryan's Mystery Playdate on the children's network Nickelodeon that sees him tackle physical challenges and mental puzzles to uncover the identity of his secret playdate.
On the latest list by Forbes, Ryan managed to beat other YouTubers such as newcomer Mr. Beast (US$24 million), Dude Perfect (US$23 million), Rhett and Link (US$20 million), and Markiplier (US$19.5 million). Even more impressive is the fact that Ryan was also listed as YouTube's top earner for the previous two years.
Interestingly enough, Ryan isn't the only under-10 YouTuber within the list's top 10 highest earners. In seventh place sits six-year-old Russian Nastya with US$18.5 million in earnings coming from over 39 billion total views on her videos of her and her father playing with LEGO, doing household chores, and explaining viruses.
Elaborating on the list, Forbes also revealed that the top 10 earners on YouTube made an estimated US$211 million in total over the year ending June 2020 – a 30 percent increase over the previous year. They attributed the COVID-19 pandemic as the major reason for the uptick, with people being forced to sit at home way more than usual.
Listen, these designs may be terrible, but they did try to convey what they wanted to say. It just didn’t happen in the way they envisioned. Each ended up being funny or ridiculous, and a lesson on what not to do when designing book covers, user interfaces, and logos. Creative Bloq shares 12 epic design fails that can make you question why they were approved in the first place.
While you're stuck at home, dreaming of warmer weather, you might want to take a tour of the beautiful town of Savannah, Georgia. Online, that is. Savannah is known for its classic Southern architecture, museums, Spanish moss, antiques, and ghosts. And the people there take hospitality seriously.
The open container policy is a unique characteristic of the city, meaning it is 100% legal and 100% part of the Savannah experience to sip and savour while wandering the streets of the Historic District (provided you’re drinking from disposable cups). Throughout the historic district, there are hundreds of centuries-old live oak trees which are the true jewels of the city. Visiting in the mid to late fall is quite lovely with cooler temperatures and less humidity. It’s said that Savannah was spared from the destruction of the Civil War because of her beauty. There are numerous secret gardens to discover and wandering the many squares (all 22 of them) can fill an entire day – don’t miss the picturesque Wright Square one of the original four, where the city’s first burial ground lies beneath your feet.
Happy holidays indeed! These elephants wearing Santa hats are spreading holiday cheer, and making sure everyone stays safe during the pandemic. The animals handed out face masks to primary school students in central Thailand. Now this is also a reminder to us : wear a mask! Practice the necessary health protocols! But also, happy holidays!
If your country had a space force, what would you call the personnel of that force? For the United States Space Force, they decided to call their personnel “Guardians”. Yes. Guardians. Let that sink in.
"Henceforth, the men and women of the United States Space Force will be known as Guardians," U.S. Vice President Mike Pence announced today (Dec. 18) during a ceremony marking the branch's impending first anniversary.
"Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Guardians will be defending our nation for generations to come," Pence added, also invoking the terms that refer to people who serve in the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. (Service members in the nation's other military branch, the Coast Guard, are called "Coast Guardsmen.")
But what does the United States Space Force do? Learn more about the country’s newest military branch over at Space.com.
Humans are able to do great things when they have mastered the laws of physics. This ring made out entirely of Pringles is proof of that statement. But what holds the pieces together? According to the one who posted this, it’s friction and gravity.
Is it just me or does the hand soap kind of solidified? I think it’s too cold in this bathroom. Might be best to turn the heater on, or else someone might suffer from hypothermia.
When it comes to modern horror video games, there is one element that gets used a lot, and that element is jumpscares. But jumpscares aren’t the only thing that can make a video game scary. In fact, you can make a video game scary without using them. But how? The answer lies in great sound design and storytelling.
In this video, YouTuber Bricky reviews Darkwood and explains why it is the best horror game with no jumpscares.
Science says that having an alter ego, a different persona than the one you inhabit every day, can boost confidence and reduce anxiety. I can attest to that, as I used a stage name on radio and another on the internet. Batman probably got a lot of courage in hiding behind a batsuit. And others have tried that method of overcoming stage fright.
Beyoncé’s was the assertive and empowered ‘Sasha Fierce’, who allowed her to perform with extra self-confidence and sensuality. “Usually when I hear the chords, when I put on my stilettos, like the moment right before when you’re nervous… then Sasha Fierce appears, and my posture and the way I speak and everything is different,” she told Oprah Winfrey in 2008. It was a strategy that she continued to use until 2010, when she felt she had matured enough to avoid the psychological crutch.
Inspired by an emotional meeting with Beyoncé herself, Adele followed suit, telling Rolling Stone magazine in 2011 about her creation of ‘Sasha Carter’. The persona was a combination of Beyoncé’s Sasha Fierce persona and the (real) country music star June Carter. Adele said the strategy helped her give her best to every performance during her breakout year.
Although the embodiment of a fictional persona may seem like a gimmick for pop stars, new research suggests there may be some real psychological benefits to the strategy. Adopting an alter ego is an extreme form of ‘self-distancing’, which involves taking a step back from our immediate feelings to allow us to view a situation more dispassionately.
“Self-distancing gives us a little bit of extra space to think rationally about the situation,” says Rachel White, assistant professor of psychology at Hamilton College in New York State. It allows us to rein in undesirable feelings like anxiety, increases our perseverance on challenging tasks, and boosts our self-control.
John C. Worsley does a Star Trek Christmas song every year. We've seen them here! He edits Star Trek clips to fashion 23rd-century versions of classic Christmas songs. This year Worsley took on the challenge of recreating Mariah Carey's mega-hit "All I Want for Christmas is You," sung by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (and friends). The entire song is covered, the editing is the best he's done, and there are some lyrical surprises to make you grin.
It's the age old problem: how do you keep your snacks warm while keeping Agent 47 busy on his killing spree? Kentucky Fried Chicken has now solved that conundrum by designing a console with a built-in chicken warmer.
It's not exactly an original idea. Gamers have been heating food on overly-hot consoles for years. But what the KFConsole does is conveniently and intentionally conduct the machine's heat to the food. CNN reports:
Your chicken will be kept hot thanks to a custom-built cooling system that keeps the console hardware at a regular temperature while using heat produced by its components to warm the chicken chamber. [...]
The console can handle virtual reality games and offers smooth gameplay thanks to 240 frames per second frame rate and 4K display compatibility, according to details published by Cooler Master.
