Imagine being subjected to long days and years of basic science and see a teacher, who you deemed an expert in the basic sciences fail to answer such a simple question. Frustration (directed towards the player who failed to answer) is what people who watched Who Wants to be a Millionaire felt when retired science teacher Pat Lucas failed to answer a chemistry question. Mirror UK has more details: 

Pat Lucas from Lincoln left the show with just £1,000 as the pressure got the better of her when faced a question from host Jeremy Clarkson.

The retired science teacher was asked: "A skull and crossbones is a warning symbol that specifically indicates a material is what?"

The options were A) Toxic, B) Corrosive, C) Hazardous to the environment, and D) Flammable.

Okay... Being a science teacher I see a lot of this symbol, you'd think I would have paid more attention to it," said Pat.

"Erm, can i use my 50:50 please?" she asked, and Jeremy obliged so just A and C were left.

"I wish one of the others was gone, I am sure it means hazardous to the environment.

"So I will go for hazardous to the environment, final answer," she said.

"Well you are a science teacher, so you could have got that right... But I'm afraid you didn't," Jeremy broke the bad news to Pat.

"You've just lost £1,000, I'm sorry about that I really am, I hope you had a nice minute or two in the chair," he said

Image via Mirror UK 

As The Walking Dead universe expands, its flagship series has aged unevenly. The current story left us hanging, waiting for the final episode of season ten back in March. And now AMC has announced the end of the series, although it will take a while.

“The Walking Dead” will end after the upcoming Season 11 on AMC, with the network also ordering a spinoff series built around the characters Daryl Dixon and Carol Peletier, Variety has learned.

Season 11 of AMC’s flagship show, which was originally meant to air this year but was delayed due to the pandemic, will air over two years and consist of 24 episodes in total beginning in late 2021. It was previously announced six additional episodes that will be considered part of Season 10 will be shot and aired in early 2021, meaning 30 additional episodes of “The Walking Dead” remain to be filmed and aired through late 2022. The episode originally intended to be the Season 10 finale is set to air on Oct. 4 after being delayed in April, also due to the pandemic.

Okay, so The Walking Dead has two more years, but then will continue under a different name with the two most popular characters. So is it really ending? Meanwhile, there's Fear the Walking Dead, which changed into a whole different show last year, and the two-season limited series The Walking Dead: The World Beyond, and the planned trio of movies featuring the former main character Rick Grimes. There are also discussions of an anthology series for the future. And then there's The Talking Dead, of course. It appears that in a world where the dead rule, nothing really dies. -via Uproxx

The beginning of the development of plastic was to produce one particular little object that will surprise you, but yes, it did have something to do with the destruction of our natural environment. From there, people developed all kinds of plastic that have taken over the world. Learn about it in this new TED-Ed lesson.  

The United States was anything but united in the years leading up to the Civil War. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 threw the question of state's rights up in the air. The act obligated free states to return escaped slaves to their owners, which meant the federal law favored the rights of slave states over the rights of free states. This led to a battle that some consider to be the first of the American Civil War, which didn't officially begin for another ten years. William and Eliza Parker had escaped slavery in the south and settled in Christiana, Pennsylvania. In 1851, they were approached by four men who had escaped from Maryland. Slave owner Edward Gorsuch went to find them and demand the return of his "property."

Shortly before dawn on September 11, 1851, Gorsuch’s party arrived at the Parker house. They were met with William’s assertion that they would fight to the death before surrendering. When Gorsuch tried entering the home, Eliza repelled him by throwing a fishing spear his way. She then went to the window and blew a horn used to alert their neighbors of such trouble. Gorsuch’s party opened fire to stop her, but she kept up the alarm, encouraging all in the house to stand against recapture, no matter the cost. When one of the men in the Parker home suggested surrender, William replied, “Don’t believe that any living man can take you.”

Neighbors were quick to arrive, many armed for defense. The Gorsuch party thought the white neighbors had arrived to help them, and were shocked to discover their error. William Parker and others tried to persuade Gorsuch and his men to leave without violence, but the latter insisted on having “his property.” Both sides opened fire. Before long, the Gorsuch party was either injured on the ground or fleeing with empty guns. One of the men Gorsuch had tried to recapture beat him with a rifle until he collapsed. As for Gorsuch’s death, per William’s memoir, “The women put an end to him.”

The bigger part of the story is the trial that followed, in which 39 men were charged with treason. Read how that turned out at Mental Floss.

DoctorSbaitso shot drone footage of San Francisco on September 9 around 11AM, when skies are usually blue and the sun shines on the buildings. But this is 2020, and the bay area fires have the city shrouded in smoke and ash with an orange tint. Zach Fett took that eerie footage and added the soundtrack of the movie Blade Runner 2049, which only seems appropriate. -via Geeks Are Sexy

Michael Kirk crunched the numbers to save money on food, big time. Here's his page containing a chart that ranks foods by calories per dollar, and by protein per dollar. Wheat flour tops both lists. Now, if you don't bake your own bread, the cost will go up for flour that is baked, and the cost for that varies widely, as does the quality. You might also be interested in the page that ranks nutrients per dollar, because man does not live on bread alone. To really understand the basics of eating better while spending less money, there's also a page on how to eat for $1.50 a day. Bon appétit!  -via Boing Boing

(Image credit: Flickr user ilovebutter)

A lot of the celestial objects in the sky that we call stars aren’t technically stars. If we define stars to be self-luminous objects, then a lot of the ‘stars’ in the sky are exceptions to that definition. To an astronomer, a threshold has to be met if a celestial object is going to be labeled as a star: it has to ignite nuclear fusion in its core. To be exact, it has to fuse hydrogen into helium or fuse the products of that reaction into still heavier elements. Without achieving this, astronomers cannot consider an object to be a star. Neutron stars, brown and white dwarfs don’t meet that threshold, as Forbes detailed: 

Brown dwarfs range in mass from about 13 times the mass of Jupiter up to about 80 Jupiter masses: about 7.5% the mass of our Sun. Although they’re often called brown dwarf stars, they’re not truly stars, because they don’t meet that critical threshold: they cannot undergo the fusion reactions that are required to become a full-blown star. If a brown dwarf ever merges with another or accretes enough mass from a companion to cross this mass threshold, it can raise its game to become a red dwarf star: fusing hydrogen into helium and becoming a true star.

These actual stars come in a wide variety of masses, colors, and brightnesses. The ones that range from 7.5% to about 40% of the Sun’s mass are the red dwarf stars: they will burn hydrogen into helium and that’s it; they will never reach higher temperatures to do anything else. Stars from 40% to 800% the Sun’s mass will eventually evolve into red giants, fusing helium into carbon when they do, before running out of fuel. And the even more massive stars will become supergiants, eventually going supernova when they reach the end of their lives.

Image via Forbes 

Teaching our kids how to cook may just be one of the best and most valuable things that we could pass down to them. In teaching them how to cook, we not only teach them how to prepare food for themselves; we also teach them the value of discipline and hard work. But it doesn’t stop there.

Cooking also gives kids a real-world application for the things they are learning in school, [like] the STEAM subjects: Science, technology, engineering, art, and math… When we make a salad dressing, we combine acid and oil to make an emulsion. When we bake, we can see chemical reactions happening in front of us. A skilled educator can find so many ways to connect cooking with various scientific concepts.

So not only do kids learn how to make, and then eat good food, they also learn something about the world around them.

More details about this over at QDT.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: webandi/ Pixabay)

Artificial intelligence has indeed become so advanced over the years that it’s become scary.

Whether it’s a great pencil sketch, or a not-so-great one, this software clearly doesn’t play favorites, as it can create photorealistic human faces from both types of sketches. This software, called DeepFaceDrawing, was developed by a group of researchers from China. This kind of technology could prove useful for the police force, such as when identifying suspects.

What do you think?

(Image Credit: Hongbo Fu/ YouTube/ The Awesomer)

Home is the place where a person can rest, de-stress, and have a moment of peace. But sometimes, the place in which we call “home” can be more stressful than any other place, including the office, because of the countless household chores that we have to do. Ever since this realization, we humans have tried to figure out ways that would make chores a little bit easier.

One of the concepts that has prevailed over the years is the concept of house automation, or a smart home. But for Cheng Zhang, it would be very difficult to have such a home.

"In order to have a smart home at this point, you'd need each device to be smart, which is not realistic; or you'd need to install separate sensors on each device or in each area,"

This is why Zhang and a group of scientists developed a device that could move the concept of a smart home closer to reality.

The device, called VibroSense, uses lasers to capture subtle vibrations in walls, ceilings and floors, as well as a deep learning network that models the vibrometer's data to create different signatures for each appliance—bringing researchers closer to a more efficient and integrated smart home.

[...]

The device showed nearly 96% accuracy in identifying 17 different activities across five houses—including dripping faucets, an exhaust fan, an electric kettle, a refrigerator and a range hood—in five houses over two days, according to the paper. VibroSense could also distinguish five different stages of appliance usage with an average accuracy more than 97%.

[...]

Among other uses, the system could help homes monitor energy usage and potentially help reduce consumption.

More details about this over at TechXplore.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: geralt/ Pixabay)

Mascot characters are usually depicted as smiling creatures whose purpose is to spread joy and happiness to people. But this mascot, created by the Osaki Station in Tokyo, is different, as it is always sad.

… Ousaki has a perpetually furrowed brow, revealing constant sadness.

Posters went up this week introducing passengers to Ousaki, and also explaining the reason for the melancholy design:

“Why does Ousaki look so sad?”

“People are always saying things like ’There’s nothing interesting in Osaki,’ ‘Osaki doesn’t deserve to be a stop on the Yamanote Line,’ ‘I only got off there by accident,’ and it’s starting to emotionally weigh Ousaki down.”

But the train station will not give up on Ousaki, as its staff is “working hard to make Osaki Station a more attractive place to be.” Hopefully, we might see this bunny mascot smile in the near future.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: compass_sigure/ Twitter)

Ever since he turned three last June, Fuxing has become “particularly active.” His favorite activity was to roll around the zoo, but he might have rolled too much, as the zoo states that he has developed two bald patches on his head for doing so.

A report from Beijing Youth Daily said that Fuxing began to lose hair in late July, and the bald patches appeared in August. 

When the panda in question was featured on Chinese social media websites, people were quick to speculate on the cause of his hair loss.

One user of Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter, suspected that Fuxing had got his fur plucked out 'while fighting'.

Another person wondered if the panda had hit a midlife crisis.

A third commenter joked if Fuxing had been worrying about not being able to find a partner.

[...]

Zhang Chenglin, the vice director of the Zoo, told Beijing Youth Daily that Fuxing's bald patches were caused by the fact that he rolled around 'frequently'.

He said that the bear often rubbed his head against the ground. 

'We think Fuxing's bald patches aren't external injuries, nor has he suffered bacterial infections. [The hair loss] is caused by his action of rolling,' Zhang told the outlet.

The zoo, nevertheless, gave Fuxing some medication, and his hair has started to grow back ever since.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: People’s Daily/ Weibo/ Daily Mail)

Laptops come in varying … monochromatic shades. It’s rare to see other colorful variations of these devices sold in stores. Sometimes we’d want a splash of color in the items we own, right? If so, why do the available variants for these gadgets come in the same set of colors that are ‘formal’ and ‘elegant’? It turns out that buyers actually turn away from color choices that are perceived as flashy and might end up feeling dated later. But if you are looking for more colors aside from the usual black, white, grey, and blue laptops, there are companies that are selling them in brighter palettes: 

It turns out there are several major manufacturers that produce laptops with a much broader array of color than we are used to seeing on the shelves of big-box stores and large online retailers. Want a pink that pops? Razer and MSI have that. More of an outdoor person who prefers a misty green? Acer has you covered. Asus, who once pushed the envelope with scented laptops, offers the VivoBook S15  in coral, teal, and red, among other finishes.

Design teams do consider color as part of “CMF” or Color, Materials, Finish—a concept in industrial design that speaks to the chromatic, tactile, and decorative aspects of a product. “We analyze how trends affect people's emotions, as well as the imagination of colors and materials,” said Ester Suh, Technical Marketing Manager at Asus. “Our color decisions are based on product design and where we think the market is headed.”

Brandon Warren, Industrial Design Director at Razer agreed. “From a design standpoint, our choice of color is an expression of both our community and our brand.”

“Color is never viewed individually as a surface treatment,” said Khanani. “The design process always starts with obsessing over the customer, but I would shift the conversation from being color specific to a total CMF experience.”

Image via Laptop magazine

The newly-opened Marina Bay Sands Apple store is an architectural marvel. The company calls the opening of the Singapore store its “most ambitious retail project,” and it shows. The structure is a geodesic dome that resembles a floating lantern on water. Cult of Mac shares the company’s press release about the new store: 

Here’s what Apple says in its marketing spiel:

“Entirely surrounded by water, Apple Marina Bay Sands offers uninterrupted 360-degree panoramic views of the city and its spectacular skyline. The sphere is a first-of-its-kind, all-glass dome structure that is fully self-supported, comprised of 114 pieces of glass with only 10 narrow vertical mullions for structural connection. As Apple’s third retail location in Singapore, the new store creates an unforgettable space for customers.

An oculus at the apex of the dome provides a flooding ray of light, with custom sunshade rings lining the interior glass. Inspired by the Pantheon in Rome, an oculus located at the apex of the dome provides a flooding ray of light that travels through the space. The interior of the glass is lined with custom baffles, each uniquely shaped to counter sun angles and provide a nighttime lighting effect. With trees lining the interior of the dome, the green garden city of Singapore flows into the store, providing additional shading and soft shadows through the foliage.”

Image via Cult of Mac 

People buy luxury cars to show how much they can spend, so the special edition of  Lamborghini Veneno priced at eight million dollars does not come as a surprise. The luxury vehicle is a profoundly elegant supercar created for its automaker’s 50th anniversary. The Veneno was one of the most expensive cars in the world when it was sold for $8.27 million in 2018. Currently, the car is now listed for a whopping $9.5 million. Hot Cars tells us about the luxury car’s specific features to see if it is worth the price. Check their full piece here. 

Image via Hot Cars