Otters are now the subject of scientists’ curiosity. Scientists are trying to find out why these cute creatures love to juggle pebbles. Researchers at the University of Exeter studied 48 otters across three wildlife parks and zoos. It seems that the answer to the scientists’ question will continue to evade them, as Mental Floss details: 

The otters were observed lazing around on their backs, tossing pebbles around. (For an otter, “juggling” means moving a stone around their chest, hands, and mouth.) While clearly adorable, the question for scientists was whether this was a form of play or a behavior tied to something else.

It could be an expression of hunger, as the otters tended to juggle more when they hadn’t eaten for two or more hours—the otter version of banging silverware on the table. It’s also possible the otters were playing with the rocks because it mimics the effort of foraging. The Asian small-clawed otter uses dexterity to find shellfish, while the smooth-coated otter eats fish. Both were observed to juggle, however. And after being given food in containers that needed to be tampered with, it didn’t appear that the otters were using the same skills exhibited in the rock-tossing.

image via Mental Floss

Mimi and Brownie served as Army nurses during World War II. They became best friends during their time in the army, and until now they managed to keep the friendship strong. Even now that they’re both 100 years old, they still manage to communicate with each other every day. It’s amazing that they maintained their friendship for seventy-four years! 

The contestants on Netflix’s new show The Big Flower Fight are introducing themselves on their respective Instagrams, showing their talents and capabilities as the show airs on the streaming service. The Netflix show introduces floral decoration as a competition, as ten teams of skilled floral artists fight for a chance to  display their sculpture at London’s Royal Botanic Gardens.

image via Bustle

These uncertain times call for a new brand of communication, filled with pithy slogans and banal platitudes. Behold Uncertain Times New Roman, a new font designed by Matt Hudgins, Josh Crandall and others at Cornett ad agency.

And what better way to illustrate the need for social distancing than with proper kerning?

How about a little classical music performed by the Cats & Friends Choir? Listen to Gymnopédies by composer Erik Satie, which you can hear in its human form here.

The three movements of this deep and soulful piece have been virtually recorded by more than 500 enthusiastic participants in isolation from their homes and farms.

Meow, baa, moo, meow!  -via Metafilter

If you really want people to notice your real estate ad, you might feature the seller -if the seller is Bigfoot. A five-bedroom home in Felton, California, is drawing attention more than other million-dollar houses because the photos are staged with Bigfoot enjoying his lovely abode. You can see him lounging in a bed, strolling through the woods, using his computer, chilling on the deck, and enjoying the magnificent view.

See more pictures at the real estate listing. -via Laughing Squid

Did you accidentally slosh coffee onto your desk? Don't worry about your important documents. Stefan Kuhnigk will spice up that brown splash mark with appropriate body parts for a mysterious creature. He calls the results Coffee Monsters.

Mark Frauenfelder found this puzzle in the book My Best Mathematical and Logic Puzzles. 

Imagine that you have three boxes, one containing two black marbles, one containing two white marbles, and the third, one black marble and one white marble. The boxes were labeled for their contents – BB, BW, WW – but someone switched the labels so that every box is now incorrectly labeled. You are allowed to take one marble at a time out of any box, without looking inside, and by this process of sampling you are to determine the contents of all three boxes. What is the smallest number of drawings needed to do this?

Don't look in the comments if you are still working on it, because I believe someone will post the correct answer soon. -via Boing Boing

Fifty-two years ago, on May 18, 1968, a U.S Army Medic serving in Vietnam, Specialist 5 John W. Bennett woke up and found himself sealed inside a body bag. Confused, Bennett looked for his knife and cut himself out of the body bag. He then sat up, took a look around, and was shocked when he realized he was pronounced dead.

Apparently, Bennett had been struck by lightning the day before.

He was resuscitated in the field by members of his platoon and then loaded onto the Medivac, but ten minutes later the flight crew lost him, and he was listed as dead when he arrived at the hospital.

He was zipped into a body bag, and a casualty tag was made out that read, "KILLED IN ACTION - STRUCK BY LIGHTNING."

The Chaplain for Bennett's unit even wrote a letter home to Bennett's parents informing them of his death (it took around a month for them to find out it wasn't true).

He remained in the morgue for about half an hour until someone found him there. But what’s more amazing than him surviving the lightning strike was his life being related to electric stuff.

… Bennett's nickname as a runner in high school was "Lightning", and after returning from Vietnam he became an electrician.

He later wrote a book about his experience called "Killed In Action - Struck By Lightning: A Vietnam Combat Medic's Story".

(Image Credit: Historia Obscurum/ Facebook)

One of the biggest hurdles to building the structures necessary for a moon base is the cost of sending the materials. It would be much better to use materials already at hand. The moon has plenty of rock and dust, and it might be possible to convert them into building materials using human urine.

“Thanks to future lunar inhabitants, the 1.5 liters (3.2 pints) of liquid waste a person generates each day could become a promising by-product for space exploration,” the ESA says in a statement.

Urea, the most abundant component in human urine after water, can break down hydrogen bonds and reduce the viscosities of fluid mixtures, per the Associated Press. Researchers mixed water, urea and lunar regolith—a powdery soil found on the moon’s surface—together and 3-D printed geopolymer cylinders of the mixture, Jake Parks reports for Astronomy. When urea was used in the mixture, the results were malleable and easy to shape.

Maybe that's what all those children's stories mean when they tell us the answers were always inside ourselves. Read about the lunar building material of the future at Smithsonian.

This is a parody of the MasterClass videos, so I was all ready to fall in love with the art of loading a dishwasher. But alas, this is just the promo for such a class. Still, it's funny, and the outtakes at the end are the best. -via Digg

Born on February 18, 1930, 90-year-old Hamako Mori still enjoys playing video games. In fact, this has been her hobby for the past 39 years. She has a YouTube channel (Gamer Grandma) with 150,000 subscribers.

After seeing her children enjoying them, she wanted a slice of the action, sparking a hobby that’d see her become a world record-holder later in life.

And while you might think, “Oh, I bet she only plays Tetris and Pacman!”, then the answer is no. She also plays modern games like Skyrim, Resident Evil 3 Remake, and Call of Duty.

Earlier this month, she was officially recognised by the Guinness World Records as the planet’s oldest gaming YouTuber. ‘After living for this long, I feel more than ever that playing games for this long was the right choice. I am truly enjoying my life – it’s rosy,’ she said.

Her gaming career began back with the Cassette Vision. In the decades since, Hamako has kept most of the consoles and software she’s acquired. At the moment, she’s hooked on the PlayStation 4.

Keep it up, grandma! 

(Image Credit: Guinness World Records/ YouTube)

It was around one in the morning, and four-month old Nova was sleeping peacefully. Suddenly, she was awakened by an intruder who planned to attack her in her bedroom.

And, like a brave watchdog, she sprang into action — alerting her owner, Taylor Eubanks, of the danger at hand.

Alarmed, Eubanks immediately checked the live surveillance video from her phone and she saw Nova staring at something and circling it.

“I figured it was either a bug or maybe even a snake to give her this much of a spook.”

Eubanks then went outside her room to Nova's bedroom, and…

"When I turned on the lights, there, lifeless on the ground, was a wad of yarn," Eubanks said. "Nova, herself, pulled it off her blanket that day. I couldn’t help but laugh."

Well, Nova would make a good guard dog for being very vigilant.

Good job, doggo!

(Image Credit: Taylor Eubanks/ The Dodo)

When should you drink moderately, and when can you waste yourself? Who should you drink with? These are essential for a wonderful drinking experience, and these questions are answered by a 500-year-old book titled How to Drink: A Classical Guide to the Art of Imbibing. The book was written in Latin by a man named Vincent Obsopoeus in 1536. A translated version of the book by Michael Fontaine was recently released by the Princeton University Press.

More details about this book over at Atlas Obscura.

(Image Credit: Michael Fontaine/ Atlas Obscura)

South Korea — What seems to be a large aquarium with violent waves created by the water inside it turns out to be just a huge anamorphic illusion designed by District. It doesn’t make a sound, however, which would have made the illusion more convincing. But I guess, considering that the illusion was set up in a busy area, the sound would have annoyed the people nearby.

The digital media company created the public project utilizing the world’s largest advertising screen that spans 80.1 x 20.1 meters. As shown in the video, the deceptive aquarium looms over the outdoor area and splashes repeatedly into the sides.

(Image Credit: Colossal)