Who would want to be a web-slinging superhero or an armed man in a village killing zombies and other monsters when he can be a cat trying to escape in a cybercity? That’s right. This game, titled Stray, will offer you a chance to see the world in the eyes of a cat. Now if that’s not an interesting premise, then I don’t know what is.

[The game] is set to hit PS5 and PC sometime in 2021, equipped with jaw-dropping graphics and a fascinating story to unravel.

The official synopsis for the game reads:

Lost, alone, and separated from family, a stray cat must untangle an ancient mystery to escape a long-forgotten city… see the world through the eyes of a stray and interact with the environment in playful ways. Be stealthy, nimble, silly, and sometimes as annoying as possible with the strange inhabitants of this foreign world.

If there was an upcoming game that I’ll have high expectations with, it would be this one.

See the teaser trailer here.

Well, what do you think?

(Image Credit: Annapurna Interactive/ PlayStation/ YouTube)

When Charlotte Morrison decided to strip all the wallpaper layers in one of her house’s rooms, she found something interesting — a decades-old message that was hidden on the wall. It was a wallpapering tip dated December 21, 1997, written by one “Jon”.

She uploaded a photo of the note to Facebook, which reads, “If you ever need to wallpaper this room again, it will take eight rolls of wallpaper. I bought just six rolls at $21.00 per roll. I didn’t have enough (it really pissed me off).”

She told Fox News that it “made the hours spent stripping the wallpaper worth it.”

The post quickly became viral, and it eventually reached Jon’s relatives. The man, however, was not fond of social media.

Morrison hasn’t spoken to Jon directly, she explained. “I have spoken to (Jon’s relative),” she said. “She asked him questions I had asked and he confirmed them, he also told us about features in the house that was here when we moved. She said he hates social media, and I told her social media thinks he is a legend.”

Morrison originally planned to paint the room, but ever since finding the room, she said that she would like to “test Jon’s math.”

Well, if ever Jon’s math was wrong, she could write another note on the wall for the next house owner.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: Charlotte Morrison/ Facebook)

Even if you never eat a Kit-Kat bar, you know the song. You'd have to be pretty young to not know it. Now we learn the story behind the ear worm from the man who wrote it. -via Digg

The Great Pyramid of Giza is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the oldest and the most intact of them all. Constructed in the third millennium BC, we marvel at all the labor and time it took to build it. We know it was constructed over a period between ten and twenty years, but the number of people who worked on it has been the subject of intense speculation for, well, forever. Since we don't know, maybe a better question would be how many workers would have been actually required to build such a massive pyramid.

We must start with the time constraint of roughly 20 years, the length of the reign of Khufu, the pharaoh who commissioned the construction (he died around 2530 B.C.E.). Herodotus, writing more than 21 centuries after the pyramid’s completion, was told that labor gangs totaling 100,000 men worked in three-month spells a year to finish the structure in 20 years. In 1974, Kurt Mendelssohn, a German-born British physicist, put the labor force at 70,000 seasonal workers and up to 10,000 permanent masons.

These are large overestimates; we can do better by appealing to simple physics. The potential energy of the pyramid—the energy needed to lift the mass above ground level—is simply the product of acceleration due to gravity, mass, and the center of mass, which in a pyramid is one-quarter of its height. The mass cannot be pinpointed because it depends on the specific densities of the Tura limestone and mortar that were used to build the structure; I am assuming a mean of 2.6 metric tons per cubic meter, hence a total mass of about 6.75 million metric tons. That means the pyramid’s potential energy is about 2.4 trillion joules.

Vaclav Smil crunches the numbers to come up with way fewer required laborers, in a very workable ratio of Egypt's population at the time. However, we all know that no work crew operates with 100% efficiency, because they are human. Read how the pyramids could have been built with smaller numbers than we assumed at IEEE Spectrum. -via Damn Interesting

(Image credit: L-BBE)

In 1945, an ambulance delivered a very ill man to Boston’s U.S. Public Health Service Hospital. The ambulance driver gave the patient's name as Charles Jamison, but then left. The hospital treated the man for a bone marrow infection, which left him a paraplegic. He also had amnesia, and could give no details about himself, his family, or his background. He has been a mystery ever since, but not because of a lack of investigation.

Jamison was around sixty years old, with graying hair and brown eyes. He was six feet tall and weighed about 200 pounds. There was a two-inch scar on his right cheek, the index finger of his left hand was missing, and both arms were covered with tattoos. His appearance was so distinctive that it was thought it might help identify him, but that failed to be the case.

The tattoos were a mixture of flags and hearts. Some of the flags were American, others British. One faded tattoo had a scroll that seemed to say “U.S. Navy.” This led to the assumption that Jamison had been a sailor in the naval and/or merchant service, a belief bolstered by the fact that he had been brought to the only hospital in Boston that specifically treated seamen. There was a theory that Jamison had been aboard a freighter that had been shelled and torpedoed by a German submarine, but that could never be verified. However, after being sent Jamison’s fingerprints, both the FBI and the military replied that they had no record of him, which would not have been the case had he served in either the Navy or the merchant marine. His photo was sent to missing persons bureaus across the country, but that proved to be just as futile as every other effort to identify him.

Over next 30 years, many possible leads were chased down. Jamison contributed some details he recalled, but they led nowhere useful. Read the story of Charles Jamison, or whoever he was, at Strange Company.  -via Nag on the Lake

(Image credit: Allan C. Green)

Japan puts a high standard on customer service. Much is expected from people who work as cashiers in stores; they should be “polite, well-groomed, and efficient.”

After all, if a store offers a sub-par shopping experience, Japanese shoppers are quick to go looking for a better one someplace else.

In other words, being a cashier is a stressful and draining job. And so it would only be appropriate to thank these people for their hard work. Unfortunately, many people forget even the most basic polite words: “please” and “thank you.” Twitter user @moroQma has these things to say:

“I think everyone should spend some time working as a cashier, to know what it feels like. That’s what I felt for the entire 15 years I worked part-time in a bookstore, and the things I desperately wish customers would do are:

• Say ‘Please’ when they bring their items to the register
• Say ‘Thank you’ when they receive their change

That’s really all I want. You can use whatever phrasing you feel like. If customers would just say these things, clerks would feel so much happier.”

SoraNews24 gives detailed instructions on how to say these two words in Japanese, as well as when to say these words. Check it out over at the site.

(Image Credit: SoraNews24)

As restaurants gradually re-open in countries affected by the pandemic around the world, patrons are noticing more and more that menus are more likely to be digital, accessed from your phone or a screen at the restaurant. Or maybe the menu is just a signboard at the restaurant entrance. Handing every diner their own menu listing what's for dinner may be going away forever. So Messy Messy Chic is taking a look at the history of the menu.

Menus actually got their start in special occasion events like weddings, graduations, or various anniversaries. They were costly and time-consuming to make, so it was only the fanciest restaurants that had the luxury of offering its patrons menus in the early days…

Some of the most beautiful 19th and 20th century menus recall times when travel was also considered quite grand. Taking the train? Hopping on an ocean liner, flying in a plane? These weren’t just a means of travel, but an event in themselves. Menus reflected that.

The article features a gallery of gorgeous and interesting menus from all over. You may be most impressed at the prices, which were not included in earlier menus. See them all at Messy Nessy Chic.

When animals look into a mirror, they are either frightened, or else they think that what they are looking at is the most beautiful creature in the world.

So relatable 😂

— Ann (@Titsup_Ramble) June 10, 2020

The same pet can be frightened at first, and then make friends with their image, and then fall in love with it (however, these two cats are not the same one). These occasions are all great photo opportunities, as you'll see in an amusing ranked collection of 30 pets looking into mirrors at Bored Panda.

(Top image credit: stationary_nomad)

Does cooldown really reduce muscle soreness after workout? Is body weight more important than resistance training? Are burpees the ultimate single exercise? Are planks better than crunches when trying to slim your waist?

Exercise scientist Sandra Hunter, physiologist Fabio Comana, and researcher Harry Dorell give a scientific and logical answer to these questions. Spoiler alert: the answers to the questions above are all no. The scientific reasons behind these answers could be found over at Discover Magazine.

For now, let’s look into the myth that cooldown reduces post-workout soreness.

“The research doesn’t support that a cooldown will reduce muscle soreness, because the muscle damage has already been done (during the workout),” says Comana.

Cooling down could have other benefits, though. For example, Comana says people with conditions such as high blood pressure may need to gradually taper their level of activity to avoid feeling light-headed. For others, cooldowns may be the perfect time to work on skills like flexibility.

But Comana admits he has been guilty of skipping them if he’s running short on time. “It’s not universal,” he adds. “It’s case-specific for every individual, though there are no downsides to doing a cooldown."

Check out the other debunked myths over at the site.

(Image Credit: Keifit/ Pixabay)

Animals who can hibernate or go to a hibernation-like state are amazing animals. These creatures can significantly reduce both their metabolic rate and drop their body temperature in order to survive in harsh environment conditions and in periods of food shortage. But how is this state of “suspended animation” triggered? Scientists may have figured out the cause of this phenomenon.

Two studies published in the journal Nature have independently zoned in on the brain circuitry that triggers a hibernation-like state in rodents, which they say could have implications for humans.

[...]

Although studies have pointed to the central nervous system’s involvement, the precise mechanism for this state has been elusive.

The two studies, which had different methods, both showed that a group of neurons found in the hypothalamus is what causes hibernation-like states in rats.

If humans have similar neurons, [the researchers] speculate this could help control fever or induce hypothermia and slow down metabolism after events like a heart attack or stroke to reduce tissue damage.

More details about these two studies over at Cosmos Magazine.

(Image Credit: Shutterbug75/ Pixabay)

Inside a bright room at Harvard Medical School, a series of tubes can be seen. Inside these tubes are fruit flies, all of them deprived of sleep. Inside one tube were flies who were genetically tweaked which kept them awake all the time. On the other tube were normal flies who weren’t able to sleep because of the constant vibrations in their tube. Both groups of flies ended up dead, with the genetically tweaked flies surviving only half as long as the shaken group of flies. But why would someone dare do this, you ask? For science, of course.

We all know that we need sleep to be at our best. But profound sleep loss has more serious and immediate effects: Animals completely deprived of sleep die. Yet scientists have found it oddly hard to say exactly why sleep loss is lethal.

What does sleep do that makes it deadly to go without? Could answering that question explain why we need sleep in the first place? Under the pale light of the incubators in Dragana Rogulja’s lab at Harvard Medical School, sleepless flies have been living and dying as she pursues the answers.

Rogulja is a neuroscientist and a developmental biologist by training, but she is not convinced that the most fundamental effect of sleep deprivation starts in the brain. “It could come from anywhere,” she said, and it might not look like what most people expect.

So where does the deadliest change happen? It happens where one might not expect: in the gut.

The indigo labyrinths of the flies’ small intestines light up with fiery fuchsia in micrographs, betraying an ominous buildup of molecules that destroy DNA and cause cellular damage. The molecules appear soon after sleep deprivation starts, before any other warning signs; if the flies are allowed to sleep again, the rosy bloom fades away. Strikingly, if the flies are fed antioxidants that neutralize these molecules, it does not matter if they never sleep again. They live as long as their rested brethren.

Check out Quanta Magazine for more details about this study.

(Image Credit: JACLOU-DL/ Pixabay)

Runner and filmmaker Kiplin Pastor wanted to have a rim-to-rim-to-rim hike in the Grand Canyon last April. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to because of the virus that hit the world. And so, Kiplin just did this stop-motion video of him hiking in a much smaller cartoony version of the Grand Canyon instead.

See the short video over at Outside Online.

(Image Credit: Outside Online)

With fitness enthusiasts unable to go to local gyms, people afraid of taking public transportation, and families going nuts inside their respective homes, the world has seen a sudden increase in bicycle demand, one that is unseen not just in years, but in decades.

In the United States, bicycle aisles at mass merchandisers like Walmart and Target have been swept clean, and independent shops are doing a brisk business and are selling out of affordable “family” bikes.

Bicycle sales over the past two months saw their biggest spike in the U.S. since the oil crisis of the 1970s, said Jay Townley, who analyzes cycling industry trends at Human Powered Solutions.

More details about this over at AP News.

As bicycles are eco-friendly, and more affordable than other vehicles (not to mention that biking is healthy), I don’t see a downside to this one.

Well, what do you think?

(Image Credit: Pixabay)

When a golf club is swung, you would expect that the next thing to happen is the ball flying across the golf field. But sometimes, beginners swing their clubs too low, and they hit the tee instead of the ball, and the result is this. Despite this happening all the time, it’s amazing to see this for someone who doesn’t play golf.

See the slo-mo video on Reddit.

(Image Credit: MaxwellIsSmall/ Reddit)

Imperator Cuts took the 2002 film Attack of the Clones and edited it into a trailer for a Star Wars movie in the style of the 2016 movie The Nice Guys. Or that is the idea. I am not familiar with that movie, but even so, this re-edit makes Attack of the Clones seem like a movie you might actually want to see, which is quite a feat. The soundtrack music is particularly satisfying.