Every year, schools in China must administer jump-rope tests for kids. If students want to be eligible for scholarships, they have to score well. Failing to get a top score can mean a future of academic and, consequently, career mediocrity. Because the stakes are so high, some parents hire special tutors to coach their kids jump-rope skills.

The Wall Street Journal (paywall link) describes the testing standards. First graders must skip 17 times a minute. That goes up with age. At the fourth grade, boys must skip 99 times a minute and girls 103 times. Moving slowly or tripping a single time can result in a very low grade. This is why parents are willing to pay professional coaches as much as $50 an hour to train their children to be top competitors. These coaches have studied the body mechanics of jump-rope carefully and can spot minor errors that throw kids off of their full athletic potential.

-via Super Punch | Photo: Pixabay

I have a well-rounded appreciation for art, especially that which is inspired by past events. The arc of history bends toward justice, taut against the thin confines of social expectations.

And so I am perplexed as to why some women in Italy think that this newly unveiled statue by Emanuele Stifano does not do justice to the subject, which is the 1857 poem "The Gleaner of Sapri." That poem, by Luigi Mercantini, honored the revolutionary Carlo Pisacane and his companions, who launched a failed expedition to overthrow the Kingdom of Naples.

We can only surmise, as the sculptor did, that what is pictured above is what those brave men fought and died for. The maiden beckons us to walk behind her and follow her. Who could not accept such a call to adventure?

The Guardian reports that Italian politician Laura Boldrini and her colleagues claim that the gleaner has been sexualized. The sculptor denies the allegation, claiming that he originally planned to render the subject nude. Stifano was determined not to waste too much time debating critics "who absolutely only want to see depravity."

-via Super Punch | Photo: Italia 2 TV

Perhaps you've grown used to a very simple relationship with your toilet. Perhaps you use it for only one purpose. But that will change in the future. Competing research teams across the United States are developing "smart toilets" that, with cameras, can identify each user by their "anal print" and diagnose health problems.

The Wall Street Journal (paywall link) reports about various emerging smart toilet designs that will closely monitor your urine and feces. Stanford University's design will chemically test all urine. Duke University's will take stool samples to test for blood and proteins. Other designs will measure blood pressure and heart rate.

Who needs these toilets? Perhaps not you, but the start-up companies working on health-monitoring smart toilets see future markets in assisted living facilities, where staffs could appreciate early warning signs about patient illness.

-via Dave Barry

In the olden days, the homes of poor Irishmen would not have wooden floors--just dirt ones. They were thus inappropriate for dances that require a clacking sound. So the residents would remove the door--the largest piece of wood available--and place it on the floor. They placed four cups filled with water on the corners. Whoever spilled the least water won the dancing competition.

-via Laughing Squid

Weird Universe alerted me to this unusual book, which I acquired through interlibrary loan. The Bear Facts by Polly Culbertson and Paul J. Fennell was published in 1948. It addresses three specific political phenomena of the late 1940s: the threat of communism to the free world, the lack of a consensus among Americans as to the need to mobilize against that threat, and the belief that air power would be the primary means of securing freedom from communism.

Does this image look familiar? It's a unique take on Francisco Goya's famous and gory painting Saturn Devouring His Son. DJ Morrow, a balloon artist in Houston, rendered this amazingly realistic sculpture.

The sculpture is one of a series of balloon recreations of famous paintings, including Judith Beheading Holofernes by Caravaggio and The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli.

This video from Ohio shows a classic method of toad hunting. Just draw a circle with chalk around the animal and it will be convinced that it's trapped inside.

What other species do you think might be susceptible to this trickery?

Etsy seller Anisa Liang carves tiny, fragile pearls into unique pieces of jewelry. She's especially fond of skulls (who isn't?) and much of her work focuses on that body part. They're beautiful pieces that make we regret not knowing this was an option before I purchased an engagement ring because this is exactly the right way to pop the question.

I know what you're thinking: it's one more job that robots are taking away from humans. But consider that this robot's job requires access to humans. So when the robopocalypse happens, it will be necessary to keep at least a few of us around to provide employment for the EMMA. This robot, developed by the Singaporean startup company AiTreat, can customize a massage to reflect the needs of each client. CNN reports:

Using sensors and 3D vision to measure muscle stiffness, EMMA (which stands for "Expert Manipulative Massage Automation") identifies pressure points and delivers massages to patients to help offer pain relief and relaxation.

AiTreat CEO Albert Zhang describes a future dominated by these robots:

With soft-touch treatment modules warmed to a temperature of 38 to 40 degrees Celsius (100 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit), patients lying on the table might not even notice the difference between EMMA and a real-life masseuse -- but Zhang doesn't want robots to replace masseuses. Instead, he says that they can help by taking away the back-breaking work massage therapists do every day, and enable them to "focus on the 10% highly skilled part," which can increase their productivity and income while reducing the cost for patients.

-via Dornob | Photo: AiTreat

This cabinet of mysterious origin, now housed in the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam, is a miniature apothecary's workshop and collection of natural curiosities. It's a masterpiece of woodworking, as it contains perfectly fitted spaces and an almost countless number of drawers, many of them with secret openings. Scholars don't know who made it, but they do know that it was made for a wealthy physician who wanted a place to display scientific samples.

-via Messy Nessy Chic | Photo: Rijks Museum

Inventor Ralph Woltstem doesn't call them shock absorbers, but that's basically what he had in mind when he filed this patent in 1928. In order to provide breasts with the support that they need during vigorous movement (e.g. anime), he proposed installing springs that support each breast from the bottom:

Another object of the invention is to provide a breast supporting device in which the breast supporting member is normally held in a vertical position by equalizing springs which allow lateral movement to be imparted thereto upon side bending body movement of a wearer so that upon the return to an upright position, the said breast supporting member will automatically return to normal position, thus readily adapting itself to the said body movement of the wearer.

I see no historical evidence that Woltstem's invention entered mass production.

-via Weird Universe

You may have seen people build skateboard ramps and pipes in their backyards. But Macu Bulgubure, an architect, has incorporated that convenience into the design of this house in Rosario, Argentina.

Writer Hillary Kelly comments, "This is how you do it." Agreed. None of this nonsense about 'Let's stay friends and prolong the agony.' End a relationship with finality and move on, as demonstrated by Helene Schjerfbeck, a Finnish painter who died in 1946.

We learn this lesson thanks to Jennifer Higgie, who arrived at this research dead end while writing The Mirror and the Palette: Rebellion, Revolution, and Resilience: Five Hundred Years of Women's Self Portraits.

-via Lawrence Everett

This sport is called Polish Dragon Boat Racing. It's the aquatic equivalent of tug-of-war. Sometimes rowers are in the same boat, pulling in opposite directions. In other competitions, there are two boats separated by a towline. This video from 2015 shows two highly trained teams throwing themselves completely into the task.

-via Super Punch

Every year, the beautiful countryside around Nishikan ward, Niigata Precture, Japan holds the Wara Art Festival. Artists gather to carefully assemble huge, vibrant sculptures of animals made from straw wrapped around wooden frames. Colossal describes the origin of this captivating event:

Traditionally, the byproduct is used as livestock feed, for compost that revitalizes the soil, and to craft household goods like zori sandals, although farmers increasingly have found themselves with a surplus as agricultural technology and culture changes. This shift prompted a partnership between the people of the former Iwamuro Village, which is now Nishikan Ward, and Tokyo’s Musashino Art University (known colloquially as Musabi) in 2006. At the time, Department of Science of Design professor Shingo Miyajima suggested that the unused straw be used in a collaborative art project between the university and local farmers, resulting in the first Wara Art Festival in 2008.