This simple science experiment/DIY can be the perfect at-home activity (with or without company). If you have kids at home, this will be a great bonding time with them! ABC News’ Ginger Zee made a lava lamp with her kids at home, and was able to wow and entertain her kids without much of a hassle. The lava lamp recipe only requires four ingredients!
Image screenshot via ABC News
Have you ever wondered why your dog’s nose is cold and wet? Don’t rush your furry companion to the vet for this one, as it’s a normal trait! Most of the time, that’s how a dog’s nose is, and the only time it gets warm and dry is when it's asleep! Livescience talks about the possible cause of this odd but normal phenomenon in dogs. Check out the full piece here.
Image via Wikimedia Commons
There are two kinds of people in autumn: those who consume pumpkin spice in every form possible, and those who blow up pumpkins. Lauri Vuohensilta (previously) is squarely in the second category. Here he experiments to find out whether gunpowder or dynamite is better at making a pumpkin explode. Either will do the job, but these guys employ a high-speed camera to get a real good look at what they have wrought. -via Digg
JunsKitchen decided to teach his adorable cats how to ring a bell, and the hilarity that ensued brought joy to my heart. He shows us that training your pets to do a certain task is difficult, and takes a lot of effort and patience. His cats ringing the bell everytime they want something just makes Jun a big butler for his cats.
If genetically-engineered mice can keep their muscle mass in space, does that mean we don’t have to worry about our weight when we go up to space? Assuming we get a chance to do so, of course. Microgravity can make people’s muscle mass and bone density wither away. It can take months for astronauts to recover their muscle density after a six-month stay on the International Space Station. Bone density? It can take years to recover that. Ouch. In an experiment done to find a way that astronauts can avoid those problems, genetically-engineered mice, called “Mighty Mice” spent 33 days aboard the ISS and was able to retain more muscle and bone density than the control mice that were not tinkered with, as ScienceAlert detailed:
"These findings," the researchers wrote in their paper, "have implications for therapeutic strategies to combat the concomitant muscle and bone loss occurring in people afflicted with disuse atrophy on Earth as well as in astronauts in space, especially during prolonged missions."
The target of the engineering was a protein called myostatin, which plays a significant role in regulating muscle growth. Mutations in the myostatin gene can produce something called myostatin-related muscle hypertrophy, resulting in mega beefcake muscling: this has been observed in some cattle, and this viral whippet.
Image via ScienceAlert
Circulatory Systems is an experimental short film described as "The major highways, the arteries and veins of our cities." Busy streets are layered in beautiful kaleidoscopic, even fractal, patterns. It's traffic, but it's pretty! -via Boing Boing
Only two days after teenager James Hanger enlisted to serve in the Civil War, he was shot on the battlefield. To save his life, medics cut off his leg, making him the very first amputee of the war. He would not be the last- around 60,000 soldiers suffered limb amputation -most without anesthetic- before the war ended in 1865. Hanger went home and retreated to his bedroom, where his parents feared he was succumbing to depression. Meanwhile, the sheer number of soldiers coming home missing an arm or leg spurred improvements in prosthetic limbs. Dr. Douglas Bly developed America's first articulated prosthetics, designed to replace the standard peg leg of earlier times.
What made Dr. Bly’s prosthetic limb superior to earlier designs was his knowledge of human anatomy and specifically the way the leg works at the ankle. His limb allowed for side motion instead of simply forward and backward, and mechanisms at both the ankle and the knee allowed for more natural bending and flexing. In fact, Dr. Bly was credited with inventing the first curved knee. The ankle movement was obtained through the use of a polished ball inside a socket of vulcanized rubber. Unfortunately, Dr. Bly’s invention was considered too expensive for a government contract.
Entered James Hanger — the 18-year old engineering-student-turn-soldier who had his limb shattered after just two days. It turned out that when he retreated to his room, he was not wallowing in self-pity, as his parents had feared. Rather, he took to heart the oft-said phrase “necessity is the mother of invention” and went to work fashioning a practical prosthetic limb. Three months later, by November 1861, he had developed The Hanger Limb. Like Dr. Bly’s prosthetic, it contained a hinged knee and ankle that allowed for greater mobility.
The most important innovation of the Hanger Limb was that it was affordable for the veterans who needed it. Read that story and the development of artificial limbs both before and afterward at 3 Quarks Daily. -via Nag on the Lake
(Image credit: Flickr user National Museum of Health and Medicine)
One fan in the video says, "What are we doing?" It doesn't look like football.
But the complicated play does end in a touchdown that secures victory for Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa over Wetumpka (Alabama high school football teams) with only 2.9 seconds left on the clock.
Believe it or not, this is actually what the coach planned. AL.com reports:
The play “Bronco” is named after Adams saw Boise State run a similar scramble play years earlier.
The play started with quarterback Ethan Crawford passing in the left flats to running back Marcus Wilkins. Nine laterals later, Crawford picked up a fumbled ball and ran untouched the final 46 yards for the game-winning touchdown.
-via Dave Barry
Larry Harnisch has spent the past 24 years researching the Black Dahlia murder case, in which the body of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short was found nude and dismembered. That was in 1947, and the case has never been solved. While researching the story for the 50th anniversary of the murder, Harnisch ran into so many loose ends, he couldn't let the story go. He found that the published accounts were so rushed by the journalists of the day that they often filled in the blanks with speculation and titillation.
Some writers claimed she was lured to Hollywood from the East because she was an aspiring actress. She wasn’t. Others wrote that the newspapers gave Short the sobriquet. They didn’t. A few have intimated she was a hooker. She wasn’t. Or that, at the very least, she was promiscuous. She wasn’t. Some writers contended the original detective team was inept. They weren’t. She’d been called a war widow. She wasn’t.
Will Fowler, a reporter for the Examiner at the time, told Harnisch that he had been the first reporter at the scene and had arrived before the police. Fowler claimed there were no officers to prevent reporters and photographers from tromping through the crime scene and interfering with the evidence. Shortly before police arrived, Fowler, who wrote a memoir, Reporters, told Harnisch that he had closed Short’s eyes and later helped load the bottom half of Short’s body into the coroner’s vehicle. Later, Harnisch tracked down retired LAPD patrol officer Wayne Fitzgerald who, along with his partner, were the first cops on the scene. He contradicted almost every element of Fowler’s account. During an interview Fowler quoted Napoleon: “History is an agreed upon lie.” Fitzgerald contended that when he arrived there were no reporters or photographers.
Harnisch's research over the years led him to a suspect he is convinced was guilty. "Was" guilty, because almost all the principles of the story are now dead. Harnisch is still researching the murder of Elizabeth Short for a book that has yet to be finished, but you can get a taste of what he found at The Delacorte Review. -via Strange Company
(Image source: Los Angeles Police Department)
There's no doubt that Japan, as a whole, loves cats. That's where we see Hello Kitty, Maneki Neko, cat cafes, cat shrines, and young girls wearing cat ears without a special occasion. The earliest written account of a cat in Japan was from the Emperor Uda, who wrote about a gift of a cat in 889 CE, where he proclaims "I am convinced it is superior to all other cats.” But cats are also demons, shapeshifters, and tricksters, taking up lots of space in Japanese folklore.
Japan has long held a folk belief that when things live too long, they manifest magical powers. There are many old stories explaining why this is true of foxes, tanuki, snakes, and even chairs. However, cats seem to be somewhat unique in the myriad powers they can manifest—and their multitude of forms. Perhaps this is because they are not indigenous to Japan. Whereas Japanese society evolved alongside foxes and tanukis, cats possess that aura of coming from outside the known world. Combine that with cats’ natural mysterious nature, their ability to stretch to seemingly unnatural proportions, how they can walk without a sound, and their glowing eyes that change shape in the night, and it’s the perfect recipe for a magical animal.
The first known appearance of a supernatural cat in Japan arrived in the 12th century. According to reports, a massive, man-eating, two-tailed cat dubbed the nekomata stalked the woods of what is now the Nara prefecture. The former capital of Japan, Nara was surrounded by mountains and forests. Hunters and woodsman regularly entered these forests around the city for trade. They knew the common dangers; but this brute monster was far beyond what they expected to encounter. According to local newspapers of the time, several died in the jaws of the nekomata. Massive and powerful, they were more like two-tailed tigers than the pampered pets of Emperor Uda. In fact, the nekomata may have actually been a tiger. There’s speculation today that the nekomata legends sprang from an escaped tiger brought over from China, possibly as part of a menagerie, or it was some other animal ravaged by rabies.
Read a history of Japan's magical folklore cats at Smithsonian.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, closed-room rehearsals aren’t feasible. Luther College’s choir opted to rehearse in a pool instead of cancelling all practices. The choir are using an empty Decorah Municipal Pool for rehearsals, as KCRG details:
“I was driving past the city pool trying to contemplate where we were going to rehearse outdoors,” Mark Potvin, instructor of music and conductor at Luther College, said. “I noticed they were draining the pool so I called our friends at Decorah Park and Rec and said ‘Hey any chance that once that pool is empty we can start using it for choir rehearsals?’ and without a second thought they said absolutely, no problem.”
The outdoor pool is easily accessible for the college due to its location next to campus.
Luther College’s COVID-19 precautions include using outdoor venues and having conductors and singers wear face coverings at all times. The conductor uses a personal amplification device to be heard by all the choir members.
Additionally, singers are spread out 7.5 to 12 feet and some of the larger choir ensembles are split into smaller groups during rehearsal.
Image via KCRG
Now, don’t go and face the actual tornado head on, no! It’s possible for us (with the right precautions) to shadow or follow a tornado’s movement. In fact, some have made it into a business. Outside’s Linda Logan spent a week with Extreme Chase Tours to see if she can actually spot a tornado from up close. Check her full piece on her storm chasing experience here.
Image via Outside
Singapore Airlines has been financially devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. Working with the Singapore Tourism Board, it plans to, by the end of October, launch a series of flights that will take off from Changi Airport, stay airborne for about three hours, and then return home.
It's a government subsidy program. The Singaporean national government will give tourism credits to passengers. The Straits Times reports:
Mr Stefan Wood, director at aircraft charter firm Singapore Air Charter, told ST that he had approached SIA about the possibility of setting up a joint venture to provide such flights to nowhere using the Airbus A-350 planes from SIA. [...]
"We will make an announcement at the appropriate time if we go ahead with these plans."
Several airlines worldwide, including EVA Air in Taiwan, have piloted flights to nowhere in an attempt to cope with the drastic fall in demand for air travel due to the coronavirus pandemic.
-via Marginal Revolution | Photo: Steve Lynes
No, it’s not like the cannibal show you see on TV. Carl Emil Pettersson, an average Swedish sailor, was shipwrecked and washed ashore on an island called Tabar (now part of New Guinea's New Ireland province) in 1906. Upon waking up on the shore, he and other survivors were met by a group of hostile cannibals. Don’t worry, Pettersson didn’t end up becoming dinner, as Cracked detailed:
They took him to meet the ruler of the island, King Lamry, and when Carl was asked to justify his existence, he said that he had plenty to offer. He could bring Tabar great wealth, he said, if they just gave him a chance. He had some knowledge from his education in Sweden that could be of use to them. Carl wasn't able to, say, wire a working phone network for the island, or build a steam engine from scratch. But he did know a thing or two about orchards. So he dug up and moved some palm trees in a way that produced a lovely bunch of coconuts.
Promise delivered! This went a long way toward pleasing King Lamry, and also toward earning the favor of the king's daughter, Princess Singdo. She and Carl fell in love. A few years after he'd arrived on the island as a Grubhub delivery, Carl and Princess Singdo got married and had nine children. When Lamry died, Carl Pettersson became King Carl. His subjects gave him the nickname "Strong Charley," and he made good on his promise to bring wealth to Tabar again, after discovering a gold deposit on the nearby island of Simberi.
Image via Cracked
Watching this video can make you scrunch in pain seeing the cat claw at the screen, or admire the cat for perfectly slicing the falling fruits in Fruit Ninja. Hopefully, its claws are not sharp enough to scratch the iPad’s screen, or maybe the owner has a screen protector on it. At least a screen protector is a cheaper option than a new iPad! What do you think about the cat’s masterful swipes?
— out of context cats (@catoutofcontxt) September 11, 2020
Image screenshot via Twitter
