NASA announced plans to put 4G Internet on the moon. That’s right, the Internet is no longer an Earth-exclusive technology. NASA will partner with Nokia, designating the company as its official cellular provider. Maybe astronauts can now post selfies or statuses straight from the moon, as Paper Magazine details: 

Nokia is expected to upgrade to 5G from 4G over time, allowing astronauts to communicate through audio and video calls, among other things. The use of their internet and wireless communication will help with data transmission, including command and control functions, remote navigation of lunar robots, streaming high-definition video in space, exchanging biometric data, etc.

In a statement, Marcus Weldon, chief technology officer at Nokia, detailed the company's plans for moon mobile phone network technology: "Leveraging our rich and successful history in space technologies, from pioneering satellite communication to discovering the cosmic microwave background radiation produced by the Big Bang, we are now building the first ever cellular communications network on the Moon," he explains, "Reliable, resilient and high-capacity communications networks will be key to supporting sustainable human presence on the lunar surface."

Ultimately, according to Nokia, their and NASA's shared goal is to "deploy the first LTE/ 4G communications system in space" and "help pave the way towards sustainable human presence on the lunar surface."

Image via Paper Magazine 

Sure, perhaps a roach will be able to survive the radiation of a nuclear war. But can it take a 5.56 caliber round? Nope. Perhaps, though, this living tank can. It's called the diabolical ironclad beetle (Phloeodes diabolicus). You can drive a car right over it. The New York Times (sorry, but it's paywalled) reports:

In 2015, Jesus Rivera filmed a very unusual science experiment for posterity.

On the asphalt of a sun-soaked parking lot, he placed a mottled black beetle on a pillow of dirt and had a colleague run it over with a Toyota Camry. Twice.

Just about any other bug would have died. This one, a species called Phloeodes diabolicus, did not.

“Yeah, it’s still alive,” Dr. Rivera narrated matter-of-factly, as he prodded the still-intact beetle on the video. “It’s playing dead. But it’s still alive.”

Bashed beneath the wheels of a 3,500-pound sedan, the inch-long insect made it through without a scratch. It was a seemingly impossible physical puzzle that Dr. Rivera spent his doctoral career obsessively trying to solve.

Rivera's research revealed that this bug can withstand the force of 39,000 times its own weight. How? Through a multi-faceted armor system that would be an engineering marvel if it wasn't the result of evolution:

The ironclad’s exoskeleton, they found, was packed with proteins that seemed to enhance its durability.

It was also cleverly structured: Evolved from a pair of now-defunct forewings, the exoskeleton stretched across the insect’s back and hooked into a separate structure sheathing the insect’s belly, encasing the beetle in a shell with an airy buffer underneath.

Dr. Rivera compared the arrangement to an industrial-strength egg, with the yolk sloshing gently against a cushion of whites. “You can compress the shell without the yolk, or the organs, getting squished,” he said. Pressed from above, the exoskeleton would bow out slightly at the sides with just enough strength and flexibility to protect the delicate tissues within.

And where the two halves of the exoskeleton met atop the insect’s back, they interlocked like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. “That provides strength at this interface,” Dr. Kisailus said.

A closer look at the exoskeleton’s interlocking lobes also revealed they each had an internal Russian doll architecture — a series of concentric layers that faithfully mirrored the shapes that contained them.

“Having these layers helps toughen the joint,” said Talia Moore, a roboticist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Michigan who wasn’t involved in the study. “It allows some of the stress to be dissipated.” Any pressure put on the structure would get distributed throughout the labyrinth, rather than concentrating in a single weak spot.

“Even if it breaks, it wouldn’t significantly damage the beetle,” said Adriane Minori, a mechanical engineer at the University of California, San Diego, who wasn’t involved in the study. “It’s a fail-safe mechanism that nature has found — that’s something we can learn from.”

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Ken-ichi Ueda

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Best Friend's Forever❤️ #spongebob #patrick #spongebobsquarepants

A post shared by Maria/Conrad (@marialynnfamily) on Sep 21, 2020 at 11:51am PDT

Instagram user Maria Lynn has pioneered a performance art style that I've never encountered before. She carefully arranges painted rice on boards, then jumps off a chair so that the rice hangs in the air for a moment--just long enough to display a visual image when replayed in slow motion. I'd love to see "Starry Night" displayed this way.

-via reddit

With the many things happening this year, one can become easily stressed and find it very difficult to relax. But if there are creatures who can find time to relax amidst trying times, it would be animals, and I think we can learn from them.

Ozzy Man Reviews brings to us a compilation of animals relaxing.

See the video. It’s cute and calming.

(Image Credit: Ozzy Man Reviews/ YouTube)

Simone Giertz wanted to get her dog to take a photo using her smartphone. Unfortunately, smartphones aren’t designed for dog paws, and so the dog, Westie Scraps, wasn’t able to take her photo. But is there a way for dogs to take their own photos? Giertz thought about it, and then came up with a brilliant idea of creating a photo booth for Westie.

And it really, really worked.

The automated machine has a pedal which can be triggered by the dog's paw and takes a photo but also dispenses a treat - so everyone is happy.

Simone shared the cute photos on Twitter - where they cheered up everyone.

Genius!

(Image Credit: Simone Giertz/ Twitter)

Gibbons love to swing on treetops. It’s in their nature. Unfortunately, it has become hard for them to do that because of the landslide that formed a huge gap on their forest in Hainan, China. The landslide has made roaming across the region to find food and potential mates very difficult for the gibbons. Thankfully, conservation scientists came up with a temporary solution to address the problem: by making a rope bridge that reconnected the trees.

And scientists have filmed the ape, a type of gibbon, climbing or swinging across in seconds.

Some used the ropes as a handrail, others swung by their arms and the most daring walked the tightrope.

[...]

All nine in the group mastered the rope bridge, save one adult male, which made a mighty jump from one tree to another, sometimes accompanied by athletic teenage companions.

Conservation scientists say the 18-metre-long structure could be an essential lifeline for the endangered species, while the forests are restored to their former glory.

Wholesome!

Learn more about this story over at BBC.

(Image Credit: Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden/ BBC)

This actor is clearly scared on this roller coaster but does his best to endure the ride. The final commercial only shows a few clips from the harrowing ride but watching the whole thing you have to be impressed by his dedication. You can see the final ad below

Final video with a few clips from the actor's ride of terror. Best line, "There are some things you want to do again and again." I don't think that applies here.

She should not have stolen it in the first place. This Canadian woman decided to return the ancient artifacts she stole after fifteen years of bad luck. The woman, named Nicole, went to Pompeii in 2005 and took two ancient white mosaic tiles, a piece of a ceramic wall, and fragments of an amphora case. Nicole returned these artifacts along with an apology letter, as Vice details: 

“I was young and stupid. I wanted to have a piece of history that no one could have,” Nicole, now 36, says in the letter.

Nicole has since blamed her heist on years of terrible luck, including two battles with breast cancer, a double mastectomy, and her family’s financial struggles.

“We are good people and I don't want to pass this curse on to my family or children,” the letter says. “Forgive me for the gesture made years ago, I learned my lesson...I am asking the forgiveness of the Gods.”

Nicole then writes that she plans to visit Italy soon, so she can apologize in person.

Image via Vice 

Your dog probably knows you so well (by your scent or something else) that it can recognize you even when you’re disguised well, or not at all. This dog owner tried to see if his dog can recognize him even if his face is completely covered by some sunglasses and a face mask. Will the dog recognize his owner while happily strolling in the park? Watch to find out!

Hey, some people believe that crystals and other sparkly objects can get rid of some of our impurities, so maybe metals can also do that for us? Believe it or not, copper has a long history of being used as ornamentation. But it wasn’t until the late 1970s that copper bracelets were marketed as a treatment for arthritis pain. Check out Discover Magazine’s full piece on the long history of copper here.  

Image via Discover Magazine

AQUA, created by OG Design, is a contained and sustainable gardening system. The compost system lets people curate their own self-sustaining indoor garden. AQUA  is composed of a container for food waste, an elevated light structure, and three soil pots. The system turns food waste into fertilizer for the soil pots, as Yanko Design details: 

OG Design conceptualized AQUA in order to “[keep] food from entering landfills” and for users “to cultivate their own small vegetable garden,” because food accounts for 46.2% of combustible waste. The interest in gardening, especially indoor gardening, and sustainable living is rising with younger generations as city living becomes more popular. In urban spaces, ecologically conscious living is tricky as there’s less yard space and community gardens can be hard to come by. AQUA makes sustainable living possible for any city home, from the small efficiency studio to the three-story townhouse. As long as you’ve got a kitchen counter or windowsill, your personal vegetable garden awaits.

Image via Yanko Design

You could turn a severed human head into a lamp, but the flesh would gradually decay. That is why a replica is superior for long-term decorating considerations. Etsy seller Shrewd Ape has thus shrewdly made a faithful replica of Uncle Fester from The Addams Family.

As Morticia's brother frequently demonstrated in the show, he can power a lightbulb by placing it in his mouth, this model powers a lamp. Fester is lovingly recreated with hand-painted silicone over a foam core. You do have to plug it in, though.

This lamp has, I am sad to say, already been picked up by a buyer of refined taste at the bargain price of $2,696.51.

-via Technabob

Sora News 24 reports on a life-changing food innovation from Japan. Twitter user @yas_yuki0573 discovered that his sandwich press can use more than just slices of bread. He poured pancake batter inside and the result was a thick corrugated pancake. Here are his instructions:

1. Fill one side of the sandwich maker with pancake batter. With the sandwich maker still open, cook on medium heat for 1-2 minutes.

2. When the bottom edge starts to brown but the center is still uncooked, close the sandwich maker and flip it over.

3. Cook on low heat for 4-5 minutes.

4. At this point the center should be cooked too, so turn off the heat. If you want a crispier outer layer, let the sandwich maker sit (while still closed) for 2-3 minutes before removing your pancake.

These can themselves be used as the ends of a sandwich. I'd like to try a Reuben made this way.

‘We’re like athletes’: the secret lives of giant-vegetable growers https://t.co/ER3vkehrJo

— The Guardian (@guardian) October 20, 2020

Harvest season is when the giant vegetables come out. This year, due to the lockdown, more people than ever are dipping their toes into the sport of growing oversized vegetables. That led to a growing community of gardeners who display seemingly contradictory traits: Experienced growers are willing to help newbies and friendships and camaraderie grow among the gardeners, while they diligently compete with each other for local and world records -and the best photographs.

What motivates someone to grow vegetables so enormous they would destroy the suspension in an average family car? “When I first saw giant vegetables, I thought the people who grew them must be absolutely nuts,” says Gerald Short, 52, a record-company owner from Watlington in Oxfordshire. “What are they doing growing these huge things? But then something got stuck in the nerdy side of me.” Short has done quite the about-turn: this year, he grew a 706kg pumpkin, setting an Oxfordshire record. The pumpkin was so heavy that Short had to use a tractor to get it out of his allotment and hire a lorry to transport it. “I’m probably the biggest amateur grower on the allotment scene,” he says.

The appeal of growing these beasts is not hard to understand. Only the truly joyless would struggle to summon a smile at the sight of a marrow as big as a lawn mower or a cabbage as wide as a double bed. Giant-vegetable-growing is as life-affirmingly ridiculous as it is gloriously escapist. Plus, it is a technical challenge. “You can grow them bigger every year, so you’re always improving,” says Short. Fortey sees it more like a sport than a hobby. “We’re like athletes, absolutely,” he says. “We’re all aiming to get the world record. Usain Bolt runs the world’s fastest 100 metres and we’re aspiring to get the longest vegetables.”

Read about the people who spend their summers nursing their giant vegetables for glory and a sense of accomplishment at the Guardian. -via Metafilter

Nils Verberne, a makeup artist, describes himself as a "weird kid from the Netherlands doing his best with makeup and a camera." His best is amazing! Verberne's works include copies of famous paintings recreated by hand on his own body, such as Van Gogh's "Starry Night."