By now, you probably have started thinking about the best thing that you can give to your dog. You probably already have one thing in mind. But it’s fine if you haven’t decided yet. You still have time to think about what to give your dog on Christmas Eve. And if you’re having a hard time deciding your gift for your doggo, you might want to consider checking the recommended gifts that The Dodo has listed  at their site.

(Image Credit: jwvein/ Pixabay)

You might have heard of man-made lakes such as the Lake Zakher in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, as well as the Dhebar Lake in India. But have you ever heard of a man-made waterfall? If you haven’t, then this will be the first time you hear of one. These are the Falls of Shin, a waterfall located on the River Shin, near the villages of Bonar Bridge and Lairg, Scotland.

They were designed when the area was dynamited to improve access during the summer months for spawning salmon returning from the ocean. There is a viewing platform at the side of the river, which is a great place to watch salmon leap past the rapids. 

The nearby visitor center has a wealth of information about the life cycle of salmon and what makes these fish so special. It provides an interesting read for visitors before venturing to the falls. 

Cool!

(Image Credit: KATIELOU106/ Atlas Obscura)

A man with a rooster head piggybacks his son whose head is that of a chick’s. A woman with a parakeet’s head does yoga. These are just some of the creations of Alessandro Gallo, which are included in Intersect Chicago 2020, an art fair which will run through December 5.

Based in Helena, Montana, the Italian artist likens the animalistic features to a mask or caricature. “I combine it with the silent language of our body and the cultural codes of what we wear in order to portray not only a specific individual, but also the larger groups and subcultures they belong to and, ultimately, the common habitat we all share,” he says.

Check out the anthropomorphic sculptures over at Colossal.

(Image Credit: Alessandro Gallo/ Colossal)

Located in the steep forest hillsides of Odda, Norway, is this treehouse designed by the Norwegian architecture firm Helen & Hard. The treehouse, called Woodnest, is suspended about 5-6 meters above the forest floor and is fastened to the pine tree with a steel collar.

To reach the woodnest cabin by Helen & Hard, visitors first need to take a 20-minute walk from the town of Odda through the forest via a steep winding path. Once you reach them, the tree houses are accessed via a small timber bridge that leads the visitor off the ground, into the structure and up in to the tree. Featuring just 15 square meters, the structure is organized around the central trunk where four sleeping places, a bathroom, and a kitchen area sit. From here one can lookout and experience the vast view out through the trees, down to the fjord below and across towards the mountains beyond.

Now this is what “dwelling in nature” really means.

Would you live in one when given the chance?

(Image Credit: Helen & Hard/ DesignBoom)

Partners rarely address each other by their first names. Usually, when one of them does that, it means he/she is angry with the other. When this woman decided to call her husband by his first name and asked him to give her a drink, his reaction was that of fear.

“What did you call me?” the surprised husband asked.

“David?” the wife answered.

“Am I in trouble? Was it today?” he asked again, then immediately looked at the calendar.

What are your thoughts about this one?

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You probably have seen Uncle Roger work at two places now, one at a restaurant, and one at a food truck. Unfortunately, he got fired from both after just a day of working for them. But Uncle Roger takes another job once again, this time at a bubble tea shop in Sweden.

Check out his first (and probably final) day at this bubble tea shop, through this video.

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Are cats really gods in our midst? I wouldn’t be surprised if the answer to my question is yes. And if that is the case, then it would only be fitting to serve these creatures and devote ourselves to them.

So why not take the next step with this cardboard Shinto shrine for cats, created by a Japanese cardboard company. From scratching pad and hiding spot to litter box cover, there are multiple ways to use the shrine to further your devotion.

The cardboard shrine was developed by Howay Industry, an Osaka-based manufacturer of cardboard and cardboard products. Unsure of how much demand there would be for a cardboard shinto shrine for cats, the company turned to crowdfunding site kibidango, where they quickly surpassed their goal of 500,000 yen (about $4800 usd) and have already raised three times the amount. The basic shrine is going for 4840 yen (about $46 usd).

It is only available in Japan, unfortunately, but talks are being made with the manufacturer.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: Spoon & Tamago)

This is Barnard 68, a dark absorption nebula found near the constellation Ophiucus. This molecular cloud absorbs practically all the visible light emitted by the stars near it, thus, the darkness.

It is not known exactly how molecular clouds like Barnard 68 form, but it is known that these clouds are themselves likely places for new stars to form. In fact, Barnard 68 itself has been found likely to collapse and form a new star system. It is possible to look right through the cloud in infrared light.

Cool!

(Image Credit: FORS Team, 8.2-meter VLT Antu, ESO)

Many of our physical movements can be telltale signs of who we are as a person. In this study, scientists have revealed that how a person moves a computer mouse can be used to reveal how much of a risk-taker that person is. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“We could see the conflict people were feeling making the choice through their hand movements with the mouse,” said Paul Stillman, lead author of the study who received his Ph.D. in psychology at The Ohio State University.

“How much their hand is drawn to the choice they didn’t make can reveal a lot about how difficult the decision was for them,” said Stillman, who is now a postdoctoral researcher in marketing at Yale University.

Stillman conducted the study with Ian Krajbich, associate professor of psychology and economics at Ohio State, and Melissa Ferguson, professor of psychology at Yale...

The researchers were surprised at how accurate mouse tracking was at predicting how people would react to other similar risk choices.

“In many cases, we could accurately predict how people would behave in the future after we observed them just once choosing to take a gamble or not,”...

“It is rare to get predictive accuracy with just a single decision in an experiment like this.”

Learn more about how the researchers measured risk-taking, and what type of test they made participants take, over at Neuroscience News.

(Image Credit: Pixabay)

When this corpse of a thresher shark was found washed up onshore, it didn’t take researchers that long to figure out the cause of the shark’s death, as a “sword” was found sticking out of its body. It was clear enough that a swordfish was this shark’s killer, but it is still unclear why it stabbed the shark. According to the researchers, it was possible that, at that time, the two ocean predators were competing for prey.

"The most likely scenario is that both species were hunting on a school of fish or on squids in the deep," said study lead researcher Patrick Jambura, a doctoral student in the Department of Paleontology at the University of Vienna. 

It's also possible the two ocean predators were fighting over territory, or that the swordfish accidentally stabbed the thresher shark and left nearly 12 inches (30.1 centimeters) of its "sword" in the victim, he said. 

News of the fight's deadly aftermath spread when the shark's body washed up on the Mediterranean coast of Libya, near the town of Brega in April 2020. A local citizen scientist group learned about photos and video taken of the 14.5-foot-long (4.5 meters) dead shark, and after seeing the evidence "I was just stunned for a few moments," Jambura told Live Science in an email. Swordfish (Xiphias gladius) are known to defend themselves against blue sharks (Prionace glauca) and mako sharks (Isurus oxyrinchus), as these sharks prey on swordfish. 

However, Jambura states that the thresher shark preys upon small food, and it may not have been a threat to the swordfish. So why did the latter stab it? It is still quite puzzling.

More details about this story over at Live Science.

(Image Credit: The Ichthyological Society of Japan 2020/ Live Science)

Some products are made for many purposes, while others are made for just one. And for the latter, it is only right to use them for their only intended purpose, because it honors both the product and the creator.

Well, what do you think? Should we really just use this sponge with body shampoo?

Image via Engrish.com

In this video, YouTube channel GameRiot compares the original release version of Marvel’s Spider-Man (for the PS4) with the PS5 remastered version of the game. Many differences can be seen in the version, such as the lighting and environment details. But perhaps the greatest difference that can be seen is Peter Parker’s face, which many people have criticized, because in this game, Peter Parker is already 23 years old, and has been Spider-Man for about eight years.

Which version do you think is better overall?

(Image Credit: GameRiot/ YouTube)

Bakery products distributor Hostess Brands knows that we can’t get enough of their regular-sized Twinkies. To address that, the company released the “Hostess Party Size Twinkies Baking Kit”, which allows one to create a gigantic version of the sponge cake.

Available from Walmart for $15, the kit includes a yellow cake mix, creme filling mix, baking pan, and instructions. You just need to provide vegetable oil, eggs, water, and heavy cream, and you’ll have yourself a 2,600-calorie Twinkie in no time! I can already feel my pants tightening.

Well, what do you think?

(Image Credit: Walmart/ Technabob)

How much influence does plastic have over the world? Perhaps you would be unsurprised if I said that it has a great influence. But how great is it? Well, great enough to show up in the unlikeliest of places, like in the deepest depths of the ocean, in the Arctic ice, in our guts, and even on the tallest mountain on the face of the earth — Mount Everest.

Plastic plays an increasingly large role in our lifestyles: Globally, the use of plastics has shot up from around 5 million metric tons in the 1950s to more than 330 million metric tons in 2020. As they’re used and cast away, these plastic products shed tiny particles. The broken-down bits of bags, bottles and other consumer plastics, each smaller than 5 millimeters, can harm animals, such as marine crabs that get plastics stuck in their gills … They may also mess with ecosystems...

Learn more details about this over at Science News.

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Because we only have a limited amount of energy and resources in the universe, scientists are always developing devices that can run for a longer period of time while using less energy. This sensor is an example of such devices.

The latest sensor to be invented in the lab can go for a whole year on a single burst of energy, aided by a physics phenomenon known as quantum tunnelling.

The tunnelling aspect means that with the help of a 50-million-electron jumpstart, this simple and inexpensive device (made up of just four capacitors and two transistors) can keep going for an extended period of time.

The quantum rules of physics, applying at the smallest atomic scales, means that electrons can behave both as particles and as waves, and the scientists were able to tap into that behaviour to precisely control electron flow from one side of a circuit to the other.

Learn more details about this device over at ScienceAlert.

Cool!

(Image Credit: Chakrabartty Lab/ ScienceAlert)