Ozzy Man treats us yet again to another clip, this time about a couple who came home drunk. As they walked through the door, the couple faced a very difficult opponent — the flight of stairs in their own home. Did this couple walk up successfully to the second floor? We never find out in this video. But what do you think?

(Image Credit: Ozzy Man Reviews/ YouTube)

Archaeologists in Jerusalem have discovered a small jug over 1,000 years old. The jug in question contained four gold coins, equivalent to four month’s salary for a common laborer at that time. Despite being over a thousand years old, the coins, according to a coin expert, were perfectly preserved, and did not even need to be cleaned to be identified.

Archaeologists discovered the hidden loot while surveying a site prior to the construction of an elevator to the Western Wall Plaza, a historic public square in Jerusalem's Old City. Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) inspector Yevgenia Kapil found the juglet, a clay vessel not much bigger than a coffee cup. Weeks later, excavation director David Gellman, an IAA archaeologist, upended the juglet into his hand and was shocked when a handful of coins came out with the dirt. 

"This is the first time in my career as an archaeologist that I have discovered gold, and it is tremendously exciting," Gellman said in a statement. 

The coins were exciting not simply because they were gold, but also because they made it easy to determine the age of the treasure cache. They all dated to between the years 940 and 970, according to the IAA. This era was one of major political change, when the Shiite Fatimid dynasty conquered Egypt, Syria and Israel, all which had previously been under the rule of the Sunni Abbasid dynasty.

More details about this discovery over at Live Science.

(Image Credit: Dafna Gazit/Israel Antiquities Authority/ Live Science)

After seeing an increase in bear sightings, and after suffering from dozens of bear attacks (two of which were fatal), officials from the town of Takikawa, Hokkaido have decided to install two “Monster Wolf” robots in order to scare off the bears.

The robots feature four “legs,” a fur-coated body, and glowing red eyes. Their motion detectors can alert them of any bears nearby, triggering one of 60 different sounds. The robot maker behind the wolves has sold 70 units of them already in just about two years, The Guardian reports.

[...]

“I hope it will help create an environment where people and bears can coexist,” Yuji Ota, president of the robot maker, told NHK last month.

Will these robot wolves prove to be an effective method in warding off bears? What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: nhk_news/ Twitter)

Why do walks in green spaces boost our mental health, and why do these places in nature calm us down? According to this recent study from researchers at various institutions, these benefits are results of psychological needs being met.

The study found that people’s attachment to the wilderness can be explained by their basic psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence. Additional research links place attachment, specifically to areas where trees are plentiful, to feelings of well-being, suggesting that spending time in natural areas can provide positive mental and physical health outcomes and improve healing.

More details about this study over at Neuroscience News.

(Image Credit: bertvthul/ Pixabay)

The next time someone asks you what color is the Moon, tell that person that it depends on the night. Sometimes the moon shines in shades of grey, and other times in shades of red and brown. The color also depends on where you view it.

Outside of the Earth's atmosphere, the dark Moon, which shines by reflected sunlight, appears a magnificently brown-tinged gray. Viewed from inside the Earth's atmosphere, though, the moon can appear quite different. The featured image highlights a collection of apparent colors of the full moon documented by one astrophotographer over 10 years from different locations across Italy.

Learn more about this over at NASA.

(Image Credit: Marcella Giulia Pace/ NASA)

War leaves many scars. A person who returns from war is no longer the person he used to be before. As a result of the many horrors that the veteran has experienced throughout his time in the battlefield, he might find it hard to talk about it with his loved ones.

Often family members are afraid of saying the wrong thing, pushing too hard, or worry that starting this conversation will open a Pandora's box of memories and harm the veteran.

While these conversations need to be handled with care, they do not have to be forbidden.

Regina Koepp from Psychology Today gives us some tips on how to talk with veterans about their experiences. Here is one of her tips:

Create a space to talk. Let the veteran know that all aspects of their life are important, the positive and the painful, and ask if they’d be willing to share about their military experiences. 

Don’t expect this conversation to happen in public. Military experiences can be emotional, and people don’t want to be vulnerable in public. Consider sharing a meal together and allow the conversation to happen naturally. Or, do an activity together, like a walk or a hike, or working on a puzzle together, and then ask if they’d be willing to share.

Check out more of these over at the site.

(Image Credit: centaur60/ Pixabay)

A program manager at the Surrey Wildlife Trust has spotted a spider thought to have been extinct in an undeveloped portion of a British military base. The spider, known as the great-fox spider (Alopecosa fabrilis), was last seen 27 years ago, in 1993.

"It's a gorgeous spider, if you're into that kind of thing," the program manager Mike Waite told The Guardian.

[...]

Waite found several male spiders, one female and possibly some immature spiderlings, though the latter were difficult to identify conclusively.

The adult spiders have gray-and-brown furry bodies. They can spin silk, but instead of making webs, they use that silk to line the burrows that they dig in order to hibernate over the winter. Great fox-spiders are critically endangered, but they are also found on the European mainland, particularly on coastal sand dunes in Holland and Denmark, according to The Guardian.

Know more about the great-fox spiders over at ScienceAlert.

(Image Credit: Mike Waite/ Surrey Wildlife Trust)

Someone who has no knowledge of the Dark Souls games might compare it to other action role-playing games, which are fairly easy. Those who have experienced the series, however, know how difficult the games are. Describing the games as “punishing” is an understatement.

If you want to know how difficult the game is, then watch this skit made by Viva la Dirt League.

(Image Credit: Viva la Dirt League/ YouTube)

This is Norm, a pug who loves traveling with his hooman Jeremy Veach. In each of their travels, Veach always makes sure to take photos of Norm, some cool, and others silly, if not hilarious.

Check out some of the photos over at Sad and Useless. You may also check Veach’s Instagram account if you want to see more.

(Image Credit: Jeremy Veach/ Sad and Useless)

Even if we spend most of the day staring at our computer screens and our smartphones, where digital clocks are readily available, there’s still something very attractive about clocks of old. And if you’re the type of person who loves retro stuff, then you will surely love this retro-styled flip clock.

Midclock’s TV clock combines two different old school devices in one: a retro flip clock, and a retro television set. Unlike the flip clocks of yore, Midclock says theirs operates silently, so it won’t wake you up ticking away. Plus it’s got a built-in night light which makes reading the time easier, and adds a gentle glow.

Unfortunately, this clock does not have an integrated alarm. Nevertheless, it looks pleasing in the eyes.

What do you think?

(Image Credit: Midclock/ Amazon/ Technabob)

If you’re someone who likes spicy food, then you might just live longer than me. According to this preliminary research which will be presented this week at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2020, eating spicy food (those with chili peppers) may help you live longer.

Chilli eaters may have a “significantly reduced risk of dying from cardiovascular disease or cancer”...

While previous research has found consuming chillies has an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticancer and blood-glucose regulating effect due to capsaicin – which gives chilli its characteristic hot taste, the study is the first large scale effort to compare reported consumption of chilli with disease mortality.

Learn more details about this over at Independent.

(Image Credit: Hans/ Pixabay)

Because penicillin is so good against various bacterial infections, it is often used as the first line of defense against such infections. However, not all people can benefit from penicillin, as they are allergic to it.

Around 10 percent of people say they’ve had an allergic reaction to penicillin, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The question is, why is this the case? It seems the answer can be found in the genes of these people.

… researchers have found a genetic link to the hypersensitivity, which, while rarely fatal, can cause hives, wheezing, arrythmias and more.  

People who report penicillin allergies can have a genetic variation on an immune system gene that helps the body distinguish between our own cells and harmful bacteria and viruses. That hot spot is on the major histocompatibility complex gene HLA-B, said Kristi Krebs, a pharmacogenomics researcher for the Estonian Genome Center at the University of Tartu. She presented the finding October 26 at the American Society of Human Genetics 2020 virtual meeting. The research was also published online October 1 in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

However, while we might have identified a gene linked to penicillin allergy, Krebs states that it’s too soon to say that additional studies will “lead to better understanding of penicillin allergy and also better prediction.”

More details about this over at ScienceNews.

(Image Credit: Cacycle/ Wikimedia Commons)

One of the leading causes of preventable deaths is cigarette smoking. In the United States alone, cigarette smoking causes over 480,000 deaths annually, and 41,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure.

Over the years, cigarette smoking in adolescents has declined, but it seems that the numbers would soon be increasing again due to e-cigarettes, according to this study.

A new study, published Nov. 9 in the journal Pediatrics, finds that e-cigarette use is associated with a higher risk of cigarette smoking among adolescents who had no prior intention of taking up conventional smoking. These findings have strong implications for practice and policy, researches say.

"Research is showing us that adolescent e-cigarette users who progress to cigarette smoking are not simply those who would have ended up smoking cigarette anyway," says Olusegun Owotomo, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., the study's lead author and a pediatric resident at Children's National Hospital. "Our study shows that e-cigarettes can predispose adolescents to cigarette smoking, even when they have no prior intentions to do so."

Learn more about this over at EurekAlert.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: sarahjohnson1/ Pixabay)

A team led by Cornell University has developed a technique called “cold spray.” This technique could produce “mechanically robust, porous structures that are 40% stronger than similar materials made with conventional manufacturing processes.” Aside from that, they can also make these structures much faster.

The structures' small size and porosity make them particularly well-suited for building biomedical components, like replacement joints.

The team's paper, "Solid-State Additive Manufacturing of Porous Ti-6Al-4V by Supersonic Impact," published Nov. 9 in Applied Materials Today.

The paper's lead author is Atieh Moridi, assistant professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

[...]

The particles were between 45 and 106 microns in diameter (a micron is one-millionth of a meter) and traveled at roughly 600 meters per second, faster than the speed of sound. To put that into perspective, another mainstream additive process, direct energy deposition, delivers powders through a nozzle at a velocity on the order of 10 meters per second, making Moridi's method sixty times faster.

More details about this over at PHYS.org.

This is awesome.

(Image Credit: Cornell University/ PHYS.org)

England, 1796. It was a year when the incurable smallpox became rampant across the country, and the only method that physicians employed back then to deal with the infectious disease was variolation. In this method, people were deliberately infected with a small dose of smallpox pus, in hopes that they will become immune to the disease.

That's a nice way of putting it. The process that physicians had developed – likely as a method of generating more income – involved semi-starvation, bleeding and purging, before deliberate infection (in Jenner's own case, at the age of 8 being thrown into a stable with other infected boys) in a game of Russian roulette for survival and immunity.

One of the men who experienced this rather horrifying method when he was a kid was Edward Jenner. However, despite going through this, Jenner still walked the path of a physician. Little did he know that, through his work developing the world’s first vaccine, he would be the man who would save millions, if not billions, of lives.

Learn more about how the vaccine was created over at IFL Science.

(Image Credit: Wellcome Images/ Wikimedia Commons)