Electric cars are becoming popular lately because they are better for the environment compared to gas-powered cars. But a team from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands decided to take the concept of environment-friendly cars to the next level — by creating an electric car that’s mostly made out of recycled waste.

“With this car, we want to show that waste is a valuable material, even in complex applications like a car,” team member Matthijs van Wijk said in a statement.

The car, nicknamed “Luca,” features an electric powertrain, with two electric motors allowing it to reach a top speed of 90 kmh (56 mph).

Now that’s cool.

Learn more details about this car over at Eindhoven University of Technology.

Via Futurism

(Image Credit: Bart van Overbeeke/ Futurism)

We adults build unconscious bias as we decide and make choices in our daily lives. However, it seems that this phenomenon happens to babies, too, according to a new study published in the journal Psychological Science. The moment a child picks up a toy from a room full of different toys, bias is formed, and he just decided that he doesn’t like the other toys that he didn’t choose.

"The act of making a choice changes how we feel about our options," said co-author Alex Silver, a former Johns Hopkins undergraduate who's now a graduate student in cognitive psychology at the University of Pittsburgh. "Even infants who are really just at the start of making choices for themselves have this bias."

[...]

People assume they choose things that they like. But research suggests that's sometimes backwards: We like things because we choose them. And, we dislike things that we don't choose.

"I chose this, so I must like it. I didn't choose this other thing, so it must not be so good. Adults make these inferences unconsciously," said co-author Lisa Feigenson, a Johns Hopkins cognitive scientist specializing in child development. "We justify our choice after the fact."

More details about this study over at Science Daily.

(Image Credit: thedanw/ Pixabay)

For over a year, the YouTube channel Muse Asia has been delivering legal anime that people online can watch for free. Now, the hard work of the team behind the channel is paying off. Over a week ago, the Muse Asia team received their Gold Play Button, after reaching a million subscribers back in August.

“We are still working on trying to bring more titles to the channel, so please continue to stay with us,” says Jing (also called the Muse Lady).

(Image Credit: Muse Asia/ YouTube)

We have many definitions of the word “home.” But what is a home? Through his 2019 piece, titled “Home Within Home”, Korean artist Do Ho Suh explores both the physical and the metaphorical understandings of the word. His piece, which can be seen suspended from an atrium in Incheon International Airport in Seoul, is similar to his 2013 piece, titled “Home Within Home Within Home Within Home Within Home”.

“The spaces we inhabit also contain psychological energy, and in his work, he makes visible those markers of memories, personal experiences, and a sense of security, regardless of geographic location,” a statement about his practice says.

Suh is represented by Lehmann Maupin, and you can explore more of the artist’s architectural sculptures, installations, and smaller works on the international gallery’s site.

See some photos of the suspended piece over at Colossal.

(Image Credit: Do Ho Suh/ Lehmann Maupin/ Colossal)

Australia — This woman was traveling down the mountain from Maleny in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland when she suddenly saw a terrifying figure in the rearview mirror: a spider. A huge spider. The woman immediately pulled over and asked a tradesman to swipe the spider off, to which the tradesman replied “Hell no!”

I kept driving hoping to send it flying, but it just kept wandering about the back window. I got out and turned on the camera, in case everything went pear-shaped, and as I worked up the nerve to do the swipe, then in flew my unlikely 'hero.' A Magpie, the torment of cyclists across the nation, dove in front of me and snatched the spider for his midday snack. I love birds.

Thanks, random magpie!

(Image Credit: ViralHog/ YouTube)

Home to over 49,000 people, Pripyat was once a thriving city, full of schools, gyms, playgrounds, malls, and cafés. But over 30 years ago, tragedy struck, and Pripyat became a ghost city.

The disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which took place near the city of Pripyat in the Ukrainian SSR, was one of the worst of its kind in history, causing 132 people to be diagnosed with acute radiation sickness.

Pripyat was completely evacuated within two days of the disaster, and the surrounding 4,000 square miles of the power plant have been abandoned ever since.

The city was also home to the Pripyat Music School.

The school had several practice rooms, and a big auditorium with a grand piano. Most of the rooms are now completely empty, providing an eerie landscape where only two lonely instruments remain.

All photos were taken by photographer André Joosse, who visited the Zone several times to document the abandoned villages, the city of Pripyat and the Nuclear Power Plant Site. Have a look at his website for more photos.

Check out some of the photos of the Pripyat Music School over at Classic FM.

(Image Credit: Andre Joosse, urbex.nl/ Classic FM)

This might look like a computer-generated photo of the Milky Way over a strange planet, but this actually is a real photo taken from the Pinnacles in Nambung National Park, Australia.

In the background, just past the end of the central Pinnacle, is a bright crescent Moon. The eerie glow around the Moon is mostly zodiacal light, sunlight reflected by dust grains orbiting between the planets in the Solar System… The featured 29-panel panorama was taken and composed in 2015 September after detailed planning that involved the Moon, the rock spires, and their corresponding shadows. Even so, the strong zodiacal light was a pleasant surprise.

Awesome.

(Image Credit: Michael Goh)

By combining sculpture, electronics, and software, artist Neil Mendoza is able to recreate famous paintings with an interesting twist: you can interact with them.

Optimized for short attention spans, it allows viewers to poke, inflate, add water, or even a disco ball to their heart’s content. The interactive work was created for the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh as part of it’s ‘tough art’ residency.

This is a dream come true for kids... and the kids-at-heart who wanted to mess with museum paintings when they were young. 

See the short clip over at DesignBoom.

Well, what do you think?

(Image Credit: Neil Mendoza/ DesignBoom)

This happened one day, two years ago. Murphy’s family had just finished filling his dog bowl with food, and then, like always, the family went into the other room to watch TV as they ate on the couch, leaving the dog in the kitchen. But Murphy wanted to be with his family. And so he did.

"My daughter and I were sitting at opposite ends of the couch eating our dinner when he brought his bowl in and hopped between us, gently placed it down and began to eat," Audrey Waito, the dog's owner, told The Dodo.

And so, Murphy discovered how to eat while chilling on the couch.

Murphy's done the same thing ever since.

Waito and her family hardly mind having Murphy eat with them on the couch — in fact, it's something they welcome.

By dining on the couch like everyone else, it's clear that Murphy considers himself to be a bona fide member of the family. And he's not the only one who thinks so.

"He is my other child," Waito said. "He's quite spoiled."

Smart doggo.

(Image Credit: Audrey Waito/ The Dodo)

In 2013, Japanese Twitter user @Kya7y discovered something that is nothing short of magnificent. It was a highly-detailed maze created on an A1 size paper (a 33 x 23 in paper). It was dated 1983. When she asked her father about the hand-drawn maze, her father, Papa, explained that it was his masterpiece, which he made for 7 years.

In 2015, Spoon & Tamago decided to partner with her and her Papa, and now full-scale replicas are on sale over at the site. The maze was also featured in the comic One Punch Man. Because of the site’s partnership with him, Papa was also able to create another maze in 2017. Now, Papa, who we only by the name K. Nomura, releases yet another mind-boggling maze — Papa's Maze 3.0.

 … he once again picked up his pen in an attempt to outdo himself. Using only his hand and a ballpoint pen, the artist began the daunting daily task of transferring the image from his brain, onto canvas.

The maze was supposed to take much longer but the global pandemic-induced lockdown allowed Papa to work uninterrupted, speeding up its completion. The result is easily the most dense and challenging yet beautiful maze we’ve ever seen.

See the photos over at the site.

(Image Credit: Spoon & Tamago)

Isn’t it a wonderful thing when your partner in life also has the same job as yours? One of the best things in that scenario is that you get to be with your partner all the time. You also get to do the same thing with him/her. For Andrea Eldridge and her husband, they get to pilot airplanes.

My husband and I both fly for American Airlines. Passengers are sometimes shocked that a husband and wife are the captain and first officer of their flight. “Who’s in charge?” “Is that allowed?” “You’re not fighting today, are you?” Despite their professed alarm, no one has turned around and run back up the jetway to the terminal…yet.

So what’s it like to have your spouse as your co-pilot? Andrea shares her story over Air & Space Magazine.

(Image Credit: Andrea Eldridge/Air & Space Magazine)

Eva Perón was a movie star who went on to serve as First Lady of Argentina from the inauguration of her husband Juan Perón in 1946 until her death in 1952. She was extremely popular with everyday Argentinians, and is revered there to this day. Evita was only 33 when she died of cancer. But few people know that Perón underwent a lobotomy only a few weeks before her death, which was most likely done without her consent or possibly even her knowledge.

Perón made her last public appearance at her husband's second inauguration in June 1952. Though the surgery she received possibly calmed her anxieties, it also may have worsened her physical health. After the lobotomy, she stopped eating, and by the time of the event she weighed just 78 pounds. She was so frail that she needed a cage-like contraption made of plaster and wire to stand.

The lobotomy was said to have been a treatment for pain, or it may have been to relieve anxiety over her impending death. Or was it to calm her ever more erratic political pronouncements? Read what we know about Eva Perón's lobotomy at Mental Floss.

(Image credit: Iberia Airlines)

I didn’t know they crown the best museum every year. This museum was one of the five museums picked by the Art Fund charity. Only a year after the Gairloch Museum in Wester Ross opened, it was hailed as UK’s museum of the year. The twist here is that it isn’t your regular museum, it’s a nuclear bunker. Well, formerly a bunker. The museum was renovated over eight years, which cost around £2.4 million, as the Scotsman details: 

The library at the museum features an archive of more than 4000 photographs depicting life in and around the north-west Highland village.

It is one of five UK museums which will secure a £200,000 prize pot, after the cultural charity decided to share its annual “Museum of the Year” title for the first time due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the sector.

The Art Fund judges hailed the restoration project as “a tale of people-power, determination, and local pride.”

They added: “The museum’s move in 2019 to a new home – not a grand new build but a repurposed nuclear bunker – transformed a village eyesore into an important visitor attraction.

"The redisplay of its collection, which encapsulates the history, culture, beauty and character of Gairloch, and its new home have reanimated the village’s pride in its heritage, created a buzzing new community hub, and produced a sustainable cultural landmark for generations of visitors to enjoy.”

Image via The Scotsman

Colorful and well-preserved Egyptian coffins have been discovered at the necropolis of Saqqara, just south of Cairo. Even if the wooden coffins are around 2,600 years old, the coffins still display painted decoration and hieroglyphic inscriptions. Preliminary investigations suggest that the individuals buried in these coffins were priests and high officials, as The Art Newspaper details: 

The Egyptian team, led by Mostafa Waziry, secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, began excavating the burial shafts two months ago. The three shafts so far uncovered are between 10 and 12 metres deep, with the coffins found divided between them. Among the finds were 28 wooden statuettes of Ptah-Sokar, a god of the necropolis, and a bronze statuette of Nefertum, a god who represented the lotus blossom from which the sun god rose, which had an inscription on its base identifying its owner as the priest Badi-Amun. There were also amulets and shabtis—small figurines believed to magically perform agricultural work for the dead in the afterlife.

“We know from geophysical surveys that there was a vast network of temples, in addition to tombs, here, and [the discovery of the coffins] will be valuable to expand our knowledge of the cults that operated at Saqqara based on the inscriptions,” says Campbell Price, the curator of Egypt and Sudan at the Manchester Museum. “Coffin caches of this type are far from exceptional, but they tend to come from Luxor in the south. The real value of the recent find is the light these examples throw onto northern coffin styles, and no doubt also names and titles that previously have not been firmly associated with the Saqqara area,” Price adds.

Image via The Art Newspaper 

An old tree lives in front of the house of Reddit user SeanCole2. But unlike any other tree, this tree, for some reason, produces leaves with various colors. A reddit user commented that the tree is a red maple and likely suffers from chlorosis, and is lacking in iron or manganese.

Well, what do you think?

(Image Credit: u/ SeanCole2/ Reddit)