People are taking a crap in the bathroom and not washing their hands:

Conducted in November by U.K. newspaper Metro, the study swabbed screens at eight different McDonald’s locations in London and Birmingham. All of the self-order kiosks tested positive for an array of harmful bacteria.

This will definitely keep the kids busy, interested and a fun bunch. Make your kids so much cooler with DIY bouncy ball!

A limited number of people observing social distancing in open venues for concerts? Sign me up for that! Here’s how the producers implemented social distancing in an outdoor concert in Newcastle, England: they set up five hundred pods with five people in each pod. This setup was done for Sam Fender’s gig at the Virgin Money Unity Arena. Will this be how future concerts look? 

image via Buzzfeed

Well, sort of. A washing-machine sized meteorite crashed into a village, but this particular space rock was unlike the others: it was practically alive! The fragments of the meteorite, called Aguas Zarcas, contain a remnant of the early solar system. The Aguas Zarcas has organic molecules as complex as amino acids, the building blocks of life. Science Magazine has more details: 

From the beginning, the inky Aguas Zarcas resembled a legendary carbonaceous chondrite that exploded in 1969 over Murchison, an Australian cattle town. Geology students helped collect about 100 kilograms of Murchison, and a local postmaster mailed pieces of it to labs across the world. To date, scientists have recognized nearly 100 different amino acids in it, many used by organisms on Earth and many others rare or nonexistent in known life. Hundreds more amino acids have been inferred but not yet identified.

Murchison also contained nucleobases, the building blocks of genetic molecules such as RNA, and in November 2019, researchers found a major component of RNA’s backbone: the sugar molecule ribose. This half-century parade of discoveries jump-started the now-flourishing field of astrobiology. “We’re not detecting life itself, but the components are all there,” says Daniel Glavin, an astrobiologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “I wouldn’t have a job without Murchison.”

image via Science Magazine 

I know most of us would say 2020 in a heartbeat, because of the Coronavirus and global unrest. But there are some who are willing to counter our answers and give insight into other terrible years. Check out Cheddar’s interviews with different historians who each pitched their pick for the "worst year to be alive".

image screenshot via Cheddar

The magic of tectonic plate movements, right? A recent study has found the Victoria microplate moving counterclockwise against the African plate (the tectonic plate holding most of Africa). While this gives insight into splitting processes, the movement will likely give birth to a new ocean, as QZ details: 

the “Y” shaped end of the rift at the Afar region is getting more attention, as to where an ocean will likely be formed if the splits continue. The “Y” shaped junction is where the African, Somalian, and Arabian tectonic plates meet near Djibouti and Eritrea and it is associated with active volcanos including the Erta Ale volcano.

Researchers believe the volcanic activity in the region suggests a rift-to-ridge transition. The Erta Ale has been erupting constantly for over 50 years and it is believed that as the Erta Ale continues to erupt, a new narrow ocean basin with its mid-ocean ridge will be formed.

However, researchers are uncertain about the future of the East African rift—whether the split will continue and an ocean will eventually be formed. At the rate at which the Afar rift is splitting, it will take tens of million years for an ocean to eventually be formed.

image via QZ

In a surprising turn of events, the developer of the well-loved game Fortnite has filed a lawsuit against Apple. Epic Games filed the lawsuit after Apple removed the iOS version of Fortnite from the App Store. Apple removed the game from its store after Epic Games implemented its own payment processing system into the iOS version of the battle royale hit. This move was an apparent violation of Apple’s App Store guidelines, as The Verge detailed: 

“Epic brings this suit to end Apple’s unfair and anti-competitive actions that Apple undertakes to unlawfully maintain its monopoly in two distinct, multibillion dollar markets: (i) the iOS App Distribution Market, and (ii) the iOS In-App Payment Processing Market(each as defined below),” the complaint reads.

“Epic is not seeking monetary compensation from this Court for the injuries it has suffered. Nor is Epic seeking favorable treatment for itself, a single company. Instead, Epic is seeking injunctive relief to allow fair competition in these two key markets that directly affect hundreds of millions of consumers and tens of thousands, if not more, of third-party app developers.”

image via The Verge

Often when discussing species that go extinct, someone will say that we could do without mosquitos, which not only bite but also spread disease. We wiped out smallpox, didn't we? There are plenty of other parasites that cause misery, like fleas, ticks, intestinal worms, and those horrible parasites that cause their hosts to become zombies. But like other species, they have their place in the ecosystem, and causing them, or even letting them, go extinct may not be in the host species' best interests.

“We need to reframe how we think about parasites,” says Kayce C. Bell, assistant curator of terrestrial mammals at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. “They are really important animals to keep around. They help host populations, and they are so under-studied that there’s the potential they can go extinct before we know what they are doing in the ecosystems.” Bell studies genetic diversity in ground squirrels, and over time has come to appreciate the role parasites play in keeping squirrel populations healthy. In fact, she says, specific species of parasites have evolved along with their squirrel hosts to help ward off other invading parasites that could kill them.

Find out about several ways parasites may be good for a host species, if not the individual animal, at Wired. -via Damn Interesting

(Image credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

In 1910, 17-year-old Beatrice Sanders went to a drug store in Newark, New Jersey, for an ice cream sundae and was entranced by the young soda jerk who served her, 17-year-old soda La Vere Tallman. She returned to the soda fountain again and again, and the two fell in love. Beatrice's parents objected to the romance, so much that they sent her to school at a seminary to keep the couple apart. But they corresponded by mail, and hatched a plan to run away together. La Vere knew of a cave in the Catskills where they could go live. He'd bring guns and fishhooks and utensils, and they would live off the land, away from their parents prying eyes.  

    It was just the finest cave imaginable, too. A great, big regular robbers’ cave. Why, Captain Kidd himself would have pounded upon it in glee as a bully hiding place from policemen, and might have hid a million dollars in bullion and diamonds in the big black hole that led off to—no one knows where—from the southeast corner.
    – The Spokane Press, December 12, 1910

Beatrice and La Vere fled to their cave in September and lived there for "many happy weeks." They both kept diaries of that time, which later made it into the newspapers. But the teenagers didn't plan for winter weather, and the cave eventually got rather cold. They would have to return to civilization, if not to their families. Read the story of the teenagers who lived in a cave, which was really just the beginning of their adventures, at Second Glance History, part one and part two. -via Strange Company

BJ Ross from Altoona, Pennsylvania, has a cat named Jordan. Jordan collects shoes. He doesn't buy them, though, he steals them from the neighbors! Jordan will often carry a shoe home and then go back to the victim's home and steal the mate as well. Ross employed technology to investigate Jordan's crimes: a surveillance camera, a GPS tracker, and a Facebook group to help reunite the shoes with their rightful owners. It's all made the cat burglar a feline celebrity. -via Bored Panda

When people get lost, they often become disoriented. In wilderness settings, this can lead to what John T. Coleman describes as “nature shock,” when "they scramble their brains along with their bearings." It's happened to experienced explorers and trackers, people close to their homes, and those whose confidence outstripped their abilities. In other words, almost anyone. There are plenty of historical accounts of lost people, including some whose survival could be described as miraculous.   

Paul Gasford got lost hunting for sarsaparilla on the shore of Lake Ontario in 1805. Eager to collect the sixpence reward his mother was offering the child who picked the most, he scurried through the brush, eyes peeled and legs pumping, giddy to be free of the small boat his family was using to move their belongings from the Bay of Quinté in Ontario to their new home in Niagara, New York. None of the bigger kids noticed that Paul was missing, a staggering oversight given that, according to The True and Wonderful Story of Paul Gasford, published in 1826, he was “a little over 4 years old.”

After a three-day search, Gasford’s parents gave him up for dead. Chances were slim that a child that young could survive multiple nights exposed in a strange place. But Paul Gasford was no ordinary kid. Instead of falling apart when he realized that he was lost, he remembered the adults saying that Niagara lay 40 miles away and decided to complete the final leg of the journey on his own. He found the lake and followed the coastline. He dug holes in the beach at night and snuggled deep into the sand to keep warm. He jammed a stick in the ground before he slept to stay oriented in the right direction in case he woke confused. He nibbled grapes when he grew hungry, but not too many, for he remembered his mother’s admonition not to gorge himself and sour his stomach. When he sauntered into town, the place exploded in celebration.

Others in this list were eventually rescued, but each account presents a different aspect of what can happen when you get lost in the woods. Read them all at Smithsonian.

Lauren Blumenthal told a story to her dog Hazel about a squirrel carrying a bone in its mouth. The story contained many words that Hazel was very familiar with, and upon hearing the word “squirrel”, Hazel dropped the ball that was in her mouth.

Who knew dogs could listen to our stories with enthusiasm if they knew the words?

See the video at Laughing Squid.

(Image Credit: lo_hayz/ TikTok)

Humans and other living creatures use many of their senses to survive, as well as understand the environment around them. However, unlike living creatures, robots mainly use one sense and that is their sense of sight. Some robots, on the other hand, also use touch alongside the sense of sight. But in order to greatly improve a robot’s perception, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University found out that adding a sense of hearing to the machine would do the trick.

In what they say is the first large-scale study of the interactions between sound and robotic action, researchers at CMU's Robotics Institute found that sounds could help a robot differentiate between objects, such as a metal screwdriver and a metal wrench. Hearing also could help robots determine what type of action caused a sound and help them use sounds to predict the physical properties of new objects.

"A lot of preliminary work in other fields indicated that sound could be useful, but it wasn't clear how useful it would be in robotics," said Lerrel Pinto, who recently earned his Ph.D. in robotics at CMU and will join the faculty of New York University this fall. He and his colleagues found the performance rate was quite high, with robots that used sound successfully classifying objects 76 percent of the time.

The results were so encouraging, he added, that it might prove useful to equip future robots with instrumented canes, enabling them to tap on objects they want to identify.

More details about this study over at TechXplore.

(Image Credit: Carnegie Mellon University/ TechXplore)

Hong Kong-based video production company VisualSuspect has got their hands on a 360° camera lens and took advantage of the warped footage that they had using it. After adding some distortion effects, the result is this surreal, dizzying, and hypnotic, video.

Well, what do you think?

(Image Credit: VisualSuspect/ The Awesomer)

One of the best things that we can teach our children is to do household chores. Not only do we teach them a part of family life necessary for the upkeep of the home, but we also teach them responsibility as well as other important life lessons as they learn to do these things. Cheryl Butler from Quick and Dirty Tips has this to say:

Today's kids are so involved with academic pressures, music and art clubs, AAU teams, competing to place on a school sports team, never mind figuring out how to juggle a part-time job, friends, and land in a decent college. Whew! It's more than a full plate.

Though we may want to coddle our overscheduled kids, we aren't doing them any favors by giving them a free pass when it comes to helping out with standard family chores.

If you're on the fence about enlisting your children's help with chores around the house, take comfort in knowing that duties are not only necessary, but they will have a positive impact throughout their life.

Consider this info from an article called The Benefits of Chores from the Center for Parenting Education.

Research indicates that those children who do have a set of chores have higher self-esteem, are more responsible, and are better able to deal with frustration and delay gratification, all of which contribute to greater success in school.

With these things in mind, how, then, would you lead your child to help out with the chores at home? Butler has tips over at the site.

(Image Credit: smtwastebrokers/ Pixabay)