If you have some of your old computers and gaming consoles boxed up somewhere in your home, don’t just throw them away! Some people are willing to pay a lot of money just to get their hands on some retro computers and consoles. Computers like the Apple-1 are worth hundreds or thousands times more than their original selling prices. Mental Floss has a list of some retro tech that will sell for hundreds of dollars, so check if you have these: 

1. Apple-1 // $458,711 (ROI: 68,707 percent)
2. Kenbak-1 // $41,946 (ROI: 5493 percent)
3. Scelbi-SH // $13,000 (ROI: 2500 percent)
4. Altair 8800 // $8125 (ROI: 1751 percent)
5. Elf II // $340 (ROI: 240 percent)
6. Jupiter Ace // $455 (ROI: 230 percent)
7. Imsai 8080 // $1782 (ROI: 197 percent)
8. Acorn Atom // $403 (ROI: 167 percent)
9. Heathkit HS // $668 (ROI: 76 percent)
10. ZX-80 // $348 (ROI: 74 percent)

image via Mental Floss

The usual messages attached to flowers are romantic, thankful, or sorrowful in nature. Some flowers are sent to celebrate an event, some are sent to offer condolences. But there are some flowers that are sent with outrageous messages that will leave you uncomfortable or laughing. Florists share the most outrageous card messages they had to deliver, with one florist sending a card that said, 'To my one and only — I'm sorry I didn't tell you I was married.’ Check out the other messages over at Buzzfeed. 

image via Wikimedia Commons

If you’re looking for a drink to mix up in your home during quarantine, why not check the trends? Check this list of the most Googled quarantine cocktails per state from Vogue for an inspiration for your next cocktail:

Alabama—Hurricane

Alaska—Whiskey Sour

Arizona—Paloma

Arkansas—Frozen Daiquiri

California—Paloma

Colorado—Hurricane

Connecticut—Margarita

Delaware—Screwdriver

Washington, D.C.—Old Fashioned

Florida—Cuba Libre

Georgia—Sazerac

Hawaii—Lemon Drop Martini

Idaho—Kamikaze

Illinois—Manhattan

Indiana—French 75

Iowa—Kamikaze

Kansas—Screwdriver

Kentucky—Lily

Louisiana—Bushwacker

Maine—Margarita

Maryland—Kamikaze

Massachusetts—Old Fashioned

Michigan—Cosmo

Minnesota—Oliveto

Mississippi—Painkiller

Missouri—Gin And Tonic

Montana—Blue Hawaiian

Nebraska—Old Fashioned

Nevada—Grasshopper

New Hampshire—Old Fashioned

New Jersey—Manhattan

New Mexico—Old Fashioned

New York—Manhattan

North Carolina—Bushwacker

North Dakota—Kamikaze

Ohio—Boulevardier

Oklahoma—Black Russian

Oregon—Old Fashioned

Pennsylvania—Whiskey Sour

Rhode Island—Cosmo

South Carolina—Tequila Sunrise

South Dakota—Screwdriver

Tennessee—Bushwacker

Texas—Paloma

Utah—Cape Cod

Vermont—Cosmopolitan

Virginia—Old Fashioned

Washington—Old Fashioned

West Virginia—Kamikaze

Wisconsin—Grasshopper

Wyoming—White Russian

image via Vogue

There was a time in France where windmills stood proud in the city of Paris. These windmills would grind up the grain from the Americas and turn it into fine flour — an essential recipe for making bread, which, at that time, was the staple food for the poor French families.

During period of abundance, the average wage earner in France spent as much as two-third of his income on bread alone. During shortages, prices could double, dramatically straining the finances of poor French families. As such, grain merchants were often detested and viewed with suspicion. They were accused of adulteration and hoarding grain to artificially raise the price of this vital commodity.

Some say that there were over 300 windmills that stood up in the city. These structures probably had lots of stories to tell, but unfortunately, most of them can no longer be seen in the present day, but there are a few that still stand.

Learn more about these windmills over at Amusing Planet.

(Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Russian cosmonauts are pretty tough. They always return from their space missions on land, which can be a pretty bumpy ride even when everything goes perfectly. They used to carry guns, to protect themselves from bears they might encounter before the search team reaches them. I looked up Boris Volynov, and he walked away from this crash with some broken teeth. He also went into space again after that incident. I also looked up Linda Morgan.

However, every one of these 21 pictofacts about amazing survival stories comes with a link to the original Cracked article they came from, so you have some extra reading ahead if any of them intrigue you.   

There are life situations that call for certain items. For example, if you’re outside and nature calls, not all public bathrooms have the items you need for the job, so if you’re carrying some wet wipes and alcohol, you’ll be patting yourself in the back for bringing those items with you. Being prepared isn’t a bad trait, but you can only carry so many items with you everyday, so how can you manage to squeeze in, say, a full first aid kit? The Daily Beast recommends a sleek first aid kit that can fit right in your everyday bag: 

For starters, the VSSL is extremely cool looking, which makes it way more incentivizing to be prepared. It’s a red tube that offers no signs of being a first aid kit. Instead, it looks like a flashlight. Because it is a flashlight. It has a four mode LED light, which unscrews as well so you can see what you’re doing in the dark if need be. The other end is a compass, which is a nice touch. Inside the tube there is a roll filled with all forty six first aid essentials: from Steri wound closure strips, disposable thermometers, bandages, antiseptic wipes, a hemostatic agent, gloves, tweezers, and plenty more, you’ll be prepared for every situation. Best of all, the roll folds up easily so you don’t have to worry about cramming it back into the tube when you’re done using it. 

While the VSSL doesn’t have Spaghetti O’s in it (sorry, mom), it does have everything else you might need. Thanks to VSSL, I’ll never forget to bring a first aid kit along with me again. 

image via The Daily Beast

For many, prairie dogs are pests that are to be driven away. But for scientists, these creatures are worthy of praise and recognition. With their tiny paws, they shape the landscape in which they live.

Prairie dogs are not big and charismatic like bison, grizzly bears or pandas, but they are just as important and perhaps even more controversial. The cause for their controversy is the same reason that they are so important: these burrowing rodents make a unique and significant impact on the prairie landscape.

Prairie dogs live in huge colonies composed of countless small family groups, called coteries. They are prolific diggers, constructing complex burrow systems with specific areas for sleeping, nursing young, storing food and even disposing of their dead. A single colony’s burrow system can cover thousands of acres, with an average of about 20 prairie dogs per acre in the summer after the young emerge. That’s why these burrow systems are sometimes called prairie dog towns.

And these burrow systems not only house prairie dogs, but also other animals such as black-footed ferrets (which eat prairie dogs), and animals that can’t dig on their own such as rabbits, salamanders, and rattlesnakes.

Know more details about these little creatures and the reason why they’re essential to the environment over at Smithsonian Magazine.

(Image Credit: Joe Ravi/ Wikimedia Commons)

It is known that the brain is the central command of the body. It is the part of the body responsible for controlling every move that we make, and the one responsible for processing the thoughts that we have. But just as the other parts of the body depend on the brain, the brain also depends on the body. The connection goes both ways.

If certain internal receptors indicate hunger, for instance, we’re driven to eat; if they indicate cold, we dress more warmly.

However, decades of research have also shown that those sensations do much more than alert the brain to the body’s immediate concerns and needs. As the heart, lungs, gut and other organs transmit information to the brain, they affect how we perceive and interact with our environment in surprisingly profound ways. Recent studies of the heart in particular have given scientists new insights into the role that the body’s most basic processes play in defining our experience of the world.

More about this over at Nautilus.

(Image Credit: Patrick J. Lynch, medical illustrator/ Wikimedia Commons)

That’s right. Computers aren’t really random. What you get from Google’s random number generator (RNG) is not pure randomness. 

Computers aren’t supposed to generate randomness. The reason for this is software and hardware, both of which run on Boolean logic, and not probability, and this makes deterministic, and not random, outcomes. However, some computer systems have tricks up their sleeves in order to “use and manipulate randomness.” In other words, there may be ways with which we can make deterministic machines generate randomness.

One of the most recent efforts comes from Mansinghka’s group at MIT, which will present an algorithm called Fast Loaded Dice Roller, or FLDR, at the online International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics this August.

More details about this over at Quanta Magazine.

(Image Credit: Pixabay)

Bees and other insect pollinators such as moths and butterflies are important to our environment because of their major role in plant reproduction. Unfortunately, many of these insects are now endangered because of many factors such as climate change, pathogens, and pesticides. But they don’t have to go extinct, and we can help in our own little ways to prevent that from happening.

Discover Magazine lists six citizen science projects that you can join to help protect these pollinators. See them all over at the site. For now, here are some of them.

• Spot-A-Bee Project
• Bumble Bee Watch

(Image Credit: PollyDot/ Pixabay)

Researchers from Caltech have developed a machine-learning algorithm which allows drone swarms to navigate in tight spaces without bumping or hitting into each other. This algorithm, called Global-to-Local Safe Autonomy Synthesis (GLAS) could be useful in fancy drone light shows, as well as vital operations, such as search and rescue operations.

Instead of relying on existing maps or the routes of every other drone in the swarm, GLAS has each machine learning how to navigate a given space on its own even as it coordinates with others. This decentralized model both helps the drones improvise and makes scaling the swarm easier, as the computing is spread across many robots.

An additional tracking controller, Neural-Swarm, helps the drones compensate for aerodynamic interactions, such as the downwash from a robot flying overhead.

Wow!

(Image Credit: Aerospace Robotics and Control at Caltech/ YouTube)

A puzzle recently posted at 3 Quarks Daily will make you think. Or at least it should make you think.

There are two boxes on a table, one red and one green. One contains a treasure. The red box is labelled “exactly one of the labels is true”. The green box is labelled “the treasure is in this box.”

Can you figure out which box contains the treasure?

Now, before you decide that you know, pay attention to how the question is asked. The answer and an explanation is at The Universe of Discourse. The author also addresses the many ways you could ague that you are right, even if you aren't. -via Nag on the Lake

Early in 2019, reddit artists got hooked on a painting and made a spontaneous recursive project of painting the previous artist holding the painting. One of those artists was seamuswray. This past weekend, he's found himself stuck in another recursion loop, this one of his own making. First he did the self-portrait above, and submitted a photo of himself painting it. That was Friday. Saturday, he posted another, of himself painting the top photo.

Sunday, he couldn't help but post another photo, this one again showing himself drawing the previous photo. I guess he was in too much of a hurry for paint.

Will he have another picture ready for Monday, or will he have to stop and sleep or maybe even change clothes? You can check seamuswray's profile to find out. Or Instagram.

Update: Yep, there he is.

Well this ever end?

If you're going to install a light in your workshop, you may as well make it interesting. Storyboard artist Mark Simon did so with a tribute to Bruce Willis' Die Hard character climbing through a vent. While many DIY videos are way too long, this one gets right to the point, and it's tres cool. -via Digg

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And here's my biggest project of this year so far published! Body painting illusions for @apetitruoka commercial! 😎 . Can you see them? 😉 . My input shows in design and, of course, in the body paintings, it was great to be involved in cooperation with the client right from the beginning. This project was a test for my skills and thus it feels so great that I was able to stretch and exceed the client's expectations. Thank you Apetit for this opportunity and trusting me! Body painting artist: Riina Laine @riinabodyart Assistant: @minjakonttori @marikristinaaa Production & concept: @hasanmotion @hasanpartners Director: @aleksikoskinen #Repost @apetitruoka (@get_repost) ・・・ Innostaako filmimme lisäämään kasvisten käyttöäsi? Katso filmi, lue sen tekijöistä, kuvauspäivästä ja poimi DIY body painting -vinkit! Linkki biossa! #52kasviksiapäivään #52kasvispäivä #apetitruoka #ainavoisyodahyvin #bodypainting #bodypaint #bodyart #illusionpainting #illusion #adcampaign #ads #greatconcept #commercial #branding #brandvisuals #vegetables #apetit #eatveggies #broccoli #illusionart #mainostuotanto #creative #artinadvertising #amazingmakeupart #happyartist #worldchampion #riinabodyart #riinalainebyduroy

A post shared by Body Paint Artist Riina Laine (@riinabodyart) on Apr 8, 2018 at 8:05am PDT

By concealing her models in blackout paint and arranging them precisely, artist Riina Laine (content warning: artistic nudity) turns them into living vegetables. She made three as advertisements for the Finnish food company Apertit.