The year was 1851. Gold was discovered in the city of Ballarat in the state of Victoria, Australia. Within just a few days, the sudden discovery immediately led to a gold rush which would last many years. This event would be known as the Victorian Gold Rush.

Aside from the city of Ballarat, gold was also discovered in the other cities in Victoria, such as in Beechworth, the city where many Chinese nationals would settle.

As the population in Beechworth grew, so [too] did the need for specialized services to cater to the cultural needs of the Chinese miners.

This was the reason why the burning towers, which were found in the northern section of the Beechworth cemetery, were built.

This site is complete with burning towers, altars, and footstones. The towers were constructed in 1857 and the altar in 1984. Mourners used the towers to burn offerings of paper prayers and gifts for the afterlife. 

It’s estimated around 2,000 Chinese gold-seekers and settlers are buried in this section of the cemetery.

(Image Credit: Gavin/ Atlas Obscura)

Ashley Graham is one of the most hated characters in the Resident Evil franchise. She appears as the character that Leon Kennedy has to rescue in Resident Evil 4, and she is very much disliked for her annoying plea (“Leon, help!”), her bad AI, and her uselessness as a partner. But she also has her share of positive and adorable moments in the game like in this one, where she does a little fist pump when you kill an enemy.

(Image Credit: u/Lekakeny/ Reddit)

It’s the winter break at the National Sun Yat-sen University, which means that there are very few to no people in the campus. And because the university is pretty much empty at the moment, one macaque took that opportunity and snuck inside to work on something (you and I will probably never know what).

… Chang Morgan decided to drop by an empty office on campus the other day — only to discover, to his surprise, that it wasn't quite empty after all.

There, sitting behind a desk, was a wild macaque. The monkey, apparently having gained entrance to the building somehow, now looked to be focused on some challenging task, his little brow furrowed as if in deep concentration.

As random as the monkey's presence may seem there, it's actually not unheard of. According to school officials, the campus is located near a macaque habitat, and the animals are known to explore the school, both inside and out.

What do you think was the monkey doing?

(Image Credit: Chang Morgan/ Facebook)

We produce tons of plastic waste annually. With this being the case, it is only normal for us to see plastic everywhere, and it is only normal that we feel the negative environmental effects that it causes. Fortunately, there are those who try their best to mitigate these effects, like Fernando Llanos and architect Oscar Mendez, the creators of Conceptos Plásticos (Plastic Concepts).

[Conceptos Plásticos] is based on the transformation of plastic residues and rubber in pieces like blocks, which are used for housing construction.

‘The objective of plastic concepts is to answer to different problematic that affect the community nowadays, contributing at the same time with the reduction of the pollution that plastic residues have on the environment and his incident on the global warming,’ said Ricardo Rico, business manager, Conceptos Plásticos.

Conceptos Plásticos empowers communities of recyclers around the world, starting in Colombia all the way to Africa. To create the LEGO-like building blocks, they use plastics that not everyone recycles and others that are difficult to dispose of. Each type of plastic gives the bricks a different property, so they are mixed in different ways to obtain the desired product. The resulting bricks are easy to assemble, durable and inexpensive. They are also stronger than traditional construction materials; are thermo-acoustic, meaning they can be used in both hot and cold weather; they are also anti-seismic; and do not spread flames.

Learn more about their project over at DesignBoom.

Awesome!

(Image Credit: Conceptos Plásticos/ DesignBoom)

Christoph Niemann shows us in these illustrations that everything, even random objects around us can be a source of artistic inspiration. A bulldozer truck and a street light could turn into the arms of a determined woman, and a colored pencil could turn into a megaphone. We just need to have a creative mind.

Although Niemann usually lives in New York for part of the year, he’s been working from his studio in Berlin since the onset of the pandemic. “I’m spending a lot of time just drawing—cityscapes, animals I saw at the zoo (one of the few places that are still open to visit), and turning these drawings into silkscreens and linocuts,” he tells Colossal.

Prior to lockdown, he was visiting cities like London and Tallin creating visual essays, and although he misses travel, he’s enjoyed the increased focus and routine of recent months. “Since March last year, I’ve been at my drawing desk almost every single day. The things I do depend on input and inspiration. But craft, attention to detail, and routine are hugely important, as well. These latter aspects benefit a lot from having such a plain and steady schedule,” he says.

See some of Niemann’s illustrations over at Colossal.

Clever!

(Image Credit: Christoph Niemann/ Colossal)

YouTuber Linus Sebastian tests how fast the connection of Starlink is. You may remember last year from leaks that the download speeds of Starlink ranged from 11 to 60 Mbps. Now, it has doubled. However, it still is much slower than a fiber connection, but it is already a pretty decent speed. Linus even tries a few CS Go games using the Starlink connection, and finds out that it’s not that bad of an experience.

Well, what do you think?

(Image Credit: Linus Tech Tips/ YouTube)

Whether it is in the platonic or romantic setting, first impressions are important in making friendships and in building on a romantic relationship. Previous studies have already shown that we can make accurate impressions of new acquaintances, but is it the same in the romantic setting, where the stakes are higher? The answer, according to researchers, is yes.

To find answers, they invited 372 participants to partake in speed-dating events in Montreal in 2017 and 2018. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire assessing their personality and well-being. A close friend or family member also completed a questionnaire on the participant’s personality. Participants then had a series of brief, three-minute first dates; after each interaction, they rated their date’s personality.

On average, people did see their dates’ personalities accurately, but some dates were easier to read than others. “Some people are open books whose distinctive personalities can be accurately perceived after a brief interaction, whereas others are harder to read,” says co-author Lauren Gazzard Kerr, a PhD student in the Department of Psychology at McGill University under the supervision of Professor Lauren Human. “Strikingly, people who report higher well-being, self-esteem, and satisfaction with life tend to make the task easier,” she says.

More about this study over at Neuroscience News.

(Image Credit: geralt/ Pixabay)

The year was 1937. During a fete in Woodbridge in Suffolk, England, landowner Edith May Pretty talked to Vincent B. Redstone about the possibility of opening the peculiar mounds on her estate to see their contents. Redstone then called Guy Maynard, the curator of the Ipswich Corporation Museum, for a meeting with Pretty later that year, and then Maynard offered the services of Basil Brown, a self-taught archaeologist, as excavator. These events would then lead to the discovery of the Sutton Hoo ship burial.

The cemetery contains multiple burials, although many have been heavily robbed. The most famous burial, and one that robbers missed, is known as the "great ship burial" and contains the remains of a 88.6-foot-long (27 meters) ship that has a burial chamber filled with 263 artifacts.

These artifacts include an intricate gold belt buckle that depicts a mix of snakes, beasts and birds of prey. They also include silverware and coins from the Byzantine Empire, a sword that has a hilt made of jewels and gold dress accessories that have garnet minerals from Sri Lanka. 

With this many artifacts in the burial chamber, one would be curious as to who was buried there. Archaeologists seem to have an idea of the identity of the man buried at the site: Raedwald of East Anglia.

Archaeologists point to Raedwald because the date of the coins and other artifacts matches well with the time of his reign and because the burial does not seem to be fully Christian — something that jibes with what historical records say about him. Sutton Hoo's location in East Anglia and the richness of its artifacts link it to the East Anglian royal dynasty. 

Learn more about Sutton Hoo and King Raedwald over at Live Science.

(Image Credit: Michel Wal/ Wikimedia Commons)

Something around Alpha Centauri, the closest star in our Solar System, has caught the eyes of astronomers. They think that it could be a planet similar to Neptune but warmer, which is not “particularly remarkable”; what’s remarkable is the planet’s distance from its star.

… Even though it would be shrouded in gas and essentially bereft of any surface to stand on, its distance from its star would place it in the so-called “habitable zone” where liquid water could exist. No other planet has been directly seen in this starlight-drenched region around any other star, because of the associated glare.

[...]

The new findings were reported Wednesday in the journal Nature Communications. They come from an international consortium of planet hunters called Breakthrough Watch, via the inaugural science run of a one-of-a-kind “direct imaging” instrument called NEAR (New Earths in the AlphaCen Region), which operates on the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. The effort is named for its chief funding organization, Breakthrough Initiatives—the brainchild of the Silicon Valley billionaire Yuri Milner, who also sponsors related projects to search the heavens for signs of alien civilizations and to send pint-sized interstellar probes to the Alpha Centauri system.

Learn more about this potential discovery over at Scientific American.

Cool!

(Image Credit: Skatebiker/ Wikimedia Commons)

Common advice says that the best time for creative work is in the morning. Popular figures of the past, such as Benjamin Franklin and Margaret Mead, arose early in the day to do their work. But is the morning really the time when people are most creative? It turns out that it depends on the person’s chronotype (his preferred times of activity and sleep), according to new research published in the Academy of Management Journal.

The overall measure of creativity – composed of fluency, flexibility, and originality – showed that idea generation was most successful for late chronotypes at the end of the workday and for the early chronotypes at the start of the workday.

Head over at Psychology Today to learn more about this topic.

(Image Credit: geralt/ Pixabay)

Is it just me or are cyberattacks becoming common lately? The video game developer who created The Witcher game series, as well as Cyberpunk 2077, has “become a victim of a targeted cyberattack” just recently.

In a message the developer shared on Twitter Tuesday morning, the hackers allege that they stole the closely guarded source code for Cyberpunk 2077, Gwent, and The Witcher 3 (including an unreleased prototype of the last). Documents "relating to accounting, administration, legal, HR, investors relations and more" were also allegedly compromised.

CD Projekt Red assures people, however, that “to the best of our knowledge, the compromised systems did not contain any personal data of our players or users of our services.” The company also stands firm that they “will not give in to the demands nor negotiate with the actor, being aware that this may eventually lead to the release of the compromised data.”

CAPCOM and Nintendo have also been victims of cyberattacks in the previous year.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: CD Projekt Red/ Ars Technica)

Fluoxetine, which is sold under brand names like Prozac and Sarafem, is an antidepressant used to treat various disorders such as OCD and bulimia. While it is a medication helpful to humans, fluoxetine can be damaging to guppies.

Researchers have found that long-term exposure to the drug makes guppies act more alike, wiping out some of the typical behavioral differences that distinguish them. That could be a big problem when the medication… washes into streams and rivers, potentially making fish populations more vulnerable to predators and other threats.

[...]

Fish raised in drug-free water displayed a wide range of behaviors. Some darted about, whereas others were much “lazier.” But fish exposed to fluoxetine showed fewer differences; most were moderately active, making them all more like an average fish, the team reports today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The drugged guppies were like zombies who did “not have their individuality anymore,”...

Now that’s some scary drug.

Learn more about the study over at Science Magazine.

(Image Credit: Benjah-bmm27/ Wikimedia Commons)

Get ready to go fast as the Sonic the Hedgehog LEGO playset will be an actual product soon! The concept, which was proposed by 24-year old Viv Grannell, recently just got 10,000 supporters in the LEGO Ideas website. Grannell’s concept also had won the approval of LEGO.

LEGO is still finalizing the set’s design, although I hope it’s as close to Viv’s original “Green Hill Zone” submission as possible because that looks like a fun playset. Just not to step on – especially not Doctor Robotnik’s drill hands. My toes curled in pain just thinking about it.

Are you excited for this one?

(Image Credit: toastergrl/ LEGO IDEAS/ Technabob)

Katie Wickens wanted to prove that Dave (probably her friend) was wrong when he stated that the most famous computer in the world would probably be an Apple device. But in order to disprove his claim, Katie has to do some research. Thankfully, she…

just stumbled upon StarringtheComputer. It's a brilliant resource for anyone wondering where each of their favourite computers starred in media productions.

Not only does the site include endless lists of shows and movies with computers in them, for each one there are also screenshots of its airtime, and a short overview of its role in the production. The site also gives each feature ratings that relate to the devices importance, realism and visibility. 

They even have a twitter account if you want to keep track of when the site gets updated, or even help out in identifying some of the more esoteric models that have been spotted on screen.

In the end, Katie was able to prove that the most famous computer of all time (based on the amount of air-time) is not an Apple device. The most famous is the one pictured above: the IBM AN/FSQ-7.

More about this over at PC Gamer.

(Image Credit: United States Air Force/ Wikimedia Commons)

January 2, 1900. After thirteen years of planning and construction, the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal was finally opened. The said canal, which was 45 kilometers long, was built in order to reverse the flow of the Chicago River, as well as to redirect the waste away from Lake Michigan, the city’s source of drinking water. It was great, but something unexpected happened.

… it also connected the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins, two of the world’s largest — and until then, isolated — freshwater ecosystems, allowing invasive species to pour through the opening and wreak ecological havoc.

The result was the alteration of the hydrology of two-thirds of the United States.

This brings us to think: Should we tinker with nature? Should we continue attempting to control it? These are the questions that Elizabeth Kolbert asks to her readers in her book titled “Under a White Sky.”

We’ve put our minds toward damming or diverting most of the planet’s rivers, replacing vast tracts of natural ecosystems with crops, and burning so much fossil fuel that 1 in 3 molecules of atmospheric carbon dioxide came from human action, she writes. We’ve warmed the atmosphere, raised sea levels, erased countless species and forged an uncertain future for humankind and the planet.

Our collective ingenuity got us into this mess, and Kolbert explores whether that same ingenuity can get us out. This is “a book about people trying to solve problems created by people trying to solve problems,” she writes.

Learn more about Kolbert’s book over at ScienceNews.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: jpeter2/ Pixabay)