If you are a gamer, then you know how much it means when your partner becomes interested in the game, or the games, that you play. It shows how much they want to know you. It’s an unforgettable moment.
(Image Credit: Viva La Dirt League/ YouTube)
Kuno is a Belgian Malinois who served in the British army. Last year, Kuno accompanied special forces on a night raid targeting al-Qaeda extremists in Afghanistan. Kuno saved the lives of his unit, but he was shot in both his back legs, leaving him severely injured.
Vets had to amputate part of one of his rear paws to prevent a life-threatening infection taking hold.
After returning to the UK on an RAF plane, he underwent extensive reconstructive surgery.
Just like injured soldiers, Kuno began a lengthy rehabilitation programme to restore function to his nerves and muscles, and is said to have particularly enjoyed his sessions on the hydrotherapy treadmill.
Within months, he was fitted with a custom-made prosthesis to replace his missing paw and an orthotic brace to help his injured limb.
Kuno, who was on his second deployment when he was injured, is the first UK military dog to be fitted with such devices, which allow him to run and jump unencumbered - giving him many more happy years in retirement.
The four-year-old dog will receive the Dickin Medal, the highest honor a military animal can receive, in a virtual ceremony in November. That's a good dog. Read how Kuno put his life on the line against al-Qaeda at BBC News. -via Strange Company
Dogs just might be the most wonderful creatures that have existed on our planet. They shower us with a lot of love and affection, and just through their presence they give us comfort and joy. Aside from that, they make us wonder about them. “What do they talk about with other dogs?” “How do they see us humans?” “What do they think about?” These are some questions that might be going inside our minds.
In these comic strips, Denise Natali-Paine gives us what she thinks goes on the minds of dogs. If you have a dog, then you might be able to relate to these strips.
See them at Bored Panda.
(Image Credit: Denise Natali-Paine/ Bored Panda)
Candy-making is already art in itself. But take it to the next level and you get this: treats that look like creatures, so beautifully made that you wouldn’t want a bite of them, let alone a lick.
These candies are made by Kurokazu, a wagashi (traditional Japanese sweets) chef.
See more of his creations over at his Instagram and Twitter accounts.
Via 9GAG
(Image Credit: kurokazu_45/ Twitter)
We know flamingos have upside-down beaks because they feed upside-down, but have you ever seen them do it? This underwater footage captures them in the act at the San Diego Zoo.
These pretty in pink birds feed by sucking in water and mud at the front of their bills, then pumping it out at the sides. Briny plates called lamellae act like tiny filters, trapping shrimp and other small water creatures for the flamingos to eat. Everybirdy loves seafood!
Read more about the flamingos at the zoo's website. -via Everlasting Blort
When we first saw the binary stars of Tatooine, it was hard to wrap our heads around how that worked. Since then, astronomers have found plenty of binary star systems, in which two stars revolve around a common center of gravity. The system called GW Orionis (in the Orion constellation) is a young system with three stars, two that form the normal binary and another revolving around the two a few hundred million miles away. There are three rings of dust surrounding GW Orionis, one with an unusual tilt.
Now, a closer analysis reveals that the rings may hold more than just dust; according to two recent studies, published today (Sept. 3) in the journal Science and May 21 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, there could be a young planet, or the makings of one, bulging up inside the rings and throwing off the whole system's gravitational balance. The presence of such a planet would not only help explain why the system's inner ring appears to be wobbling around wildly like a broken gyroscope — but, if confirmed, the distant world would also become the first known example of a single planet orbiting three suns at once, the researchers said.
"Our simulations show that the gravitational pull from the triple stars alone cannot explain the observed large misalignment [in the rings]," Nienke van der Marel, an astrophysicist at the University of Victoria in Canada and co-author of the May 21 study, said in a statement. "We think that the presence of a planet … has likely carved a dust gap and broken the disk [where the inner and outer rings meet]."
Read about the rare planet and how it was discovered at LiveScience. -via RealClear Science
(Image credit: Kraus et al., 2020)
Pictured above is a Robertson screw, invented by the Canadian Peter Lymburner Robertson and patented in 1907. It was brilliantly designed to avoid cam out and was far superior to other screws available at the time.
We Americans might still be using them widely if Robertson hadn't gotten into a dispute with Henry Ford. Road & Track magazine traces the history of the screw and the downfall of the Robertson:
But unless you’re Canadian, there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of Robertson screws. That’s because Henry Ford wanted to use Robertsons in all of his plants, and he wanted more control over how they were made. Robertson, by most accounts a stubborn man, wouldn’t agree. No deal was struck, and the Canadian lost an important part of his business. Meanwhile, other engineers worked on their own types of screw heads.
The eventual replacement for the Robertson was the now-ubiquitous Phillips:
A Phillips screw offers many of the benefits of a Robertson and can be driven by a traditional slotted screwdriver in a pinch. Phillips licensed his design to the giant American Screw Company, which got General Motors to use the screw in the 1936 Cadillac. Within the decade, almost all automakers were using Phillips screws.
A Phillips is, arguably, not a better screw than a Robertson. Consumer Reports once wrote that “compared with slotted and Phillips-head screwdrivers, the Robertson worked faster, with less cam-out.” However, cam-out was good for automakers increasingly relying on automation, as it meant screws wouldn’t be overtightened. Today the Phillips is the standard, except in Canada, where the Robertson remains popular, and in Japan, which has its own cruciform screw, the Japanese Industrial Standard.
Next time you strip out a Phillips, shake your fist at Henry Ford.
-via Instapundit | Photo: Safforest
Arnold Schwarzenegger (champion bodybuilder, actor, businessman, and politician) recently turned 73. To celebrate the occasion, Redditor /u/Radonlab carved this magnificent pipe showing the Governor in his most famous acting role: the Terminator.
Schwarzenegger is an active redditor known for his jovial interactions on that forum. He asked Radonlab to sell the pipe. Radonlab gave it to him, and Schwarzenegger responded with a photo of him using it!
-via Born in Space
In April of 2019, fire ripped through Paris' Notre Dame cathedral. Its magnificent pipe organ was not burned, but it was covered with smoke and toxic dust, and then exposed to the elements. So the organ and its 8,000 pipes are in the process of cleaning and restoration -which is expected to take five years.
To see an organ being dismantled is to watch men work in the belly of a colossal beast. Pipes of wood or metal come out like ribs and must be carefully placed and ordered in containers for storage and transport. At Notre Dame, the largest pipe is 32 feet long (representing the lowest bass note), and the smallest about half the length of a pencil. The organ is essentially based on medieval technology; the earliest incarnations at Notre Dame date as far back as the 14th century, though the current instrument dates to 1733 and has undergone a number of modifications since.
But the music that comes from such an organ is not only reliant on the pipes. The architecture around it, the organist who plays it, and even the care that goes into its maintenance all affect the sound. Read about the ins and out of the world's greatest pipe organs at Atlas Obscura.
From a man who can’t keep his forklift and boat in the place where he parked them, to a grandpa who is not afraid of fireworks, Ozzy Man compiles clips of men and women who have arrived at Destination F, and lived to tell the tale.
(Video Credit: Ozzy Man Reviews/ YouTube)
It’s not only humans who fear the unknown; animals fear it, too.
When his humans bought a new net to keep bugs from going inside their house, this dog named Sterling Newton thought that he was stuck inside the house. He always stops whenever he comes close to the net.
Can he ever overcome his fear?
Watch the video over at The Dodo to find out.
(Image Credit: Sterling Newton/ The Dodo)
One of the practices that is frowned upon in the gaming world is rage-quitting, or the event in which the losing player suddenly disconnects from the online match. But why do people disapprove of such practice? The answer is because “it results in difficult team experiences” (just imagine if someone from your squad decides to leave all of you), and the loss of rewards and time (such as in games in which a definite win grants you experience points).
Quitting games mid-match, typically when a player is losing, is a persistent problem in competitive games. In fighting games, developers have tried a variety of solutions to deter players from quitting matches, including putting them in quitter’s jail, shaming them with display badges, and making their heads explode (in game, of course).
An update for Bandai Namco fighting game Dragon Ball FighterZ is threatening players who… rage-quit… with extensive bans. In some cases, players who disconnect from matches may find themselves permanently banned from online play.
More details about this over at Polygon.
What are your thoughts about this one?
(Image Credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment/ Wikimedia Commons)
Rizwan Mithawala loved taking pictures of moths and butterflies in the many parks and forests in India. As a conservation writer, editor, and photographer for the Indian Wildlife Conservation Trust, he was sent to the national parks of India.
Most weekends, he can be found at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, a sprawling, 40-square-mile forest that boasts as many as 170 species of butterflies in the metropolis of Mumbai.
But then the lockdowns were implemented across the world, including India, and this confined Mithawala inside his home. But…
For Mithawala, there was one bright spot. “I had a 16-foot window,” he says cheerfully. His lockdown project was to tend to a butterfly garden, eight floors up and not far from the busy Mohammed Ali Road in South Mumbai.
The seed of the project was planted more than a year ago, when Mithawala and his mother Naeema were looking for ways to enjoy nature in the concrete jungle. As a photographer, Mithawala hoped to capture the life cycle of butterflies in colorful images. But he had a busy schedule, so the effort took a backseat until the [lockdowns]. Only then did Mithawala find the time to meticulously document the births of dozens of butterflies from his window.
And so he was able to turn his window into a safe haven for a red Pierrot butterfly, whose life cycle he was able to document. And this butterfly garden that he made only cost him 320 rupees — less than $5.
Know more about his project, and see the pictures, over at Atlas Obscura.
(Image Credit: Atlas Obscura)
Intel officially announced yesterday the launch of its 11th-gen mobile processors. Called Tiger Lake, the processor is said to make lighter and thinner laptops possible. The upcoming laptop, the Asus ExpertBook, for example, only weighs 1.9 pounds. The processor will be coming “‘with more than 150 designs’ from major manufacturers over the coming months.”
These new processors also sip on power, so expect up to nine hours of battery life, as well as improved performance across all areas like work productivity, gaming, and image and video processing.
Learn more details about this processor and its capabilities over at Gizmodo.
Cool!
(Image Credit: Intel/ Gizmodo)
There’s a new TikTok hack around, and it’s supposed to help you make your salad quicker than before. The hack is smashing the lettuce against the table, which would cause the leaves to fall out as if they’re flower petals. But is it true? LifeHackers Joel Kahn and Jordan Calhoun try out this hack so that we won’t have to. But I guess you already know the answer to the question.
See the video over at the site.
(Image Credit: LifeHacker)
