It's called the Gushing Water Tree. This mulberry tree in Montenegro has cracks in its trunk. When the area floods with rains, pressure from underground springs forces water up through the cracks and out a hole midway up the trunk.
Radio Free Europe says that the water pressure pushes the water through the roots, but I'm skeptical that roots work that way.
The Pegasus Luggage line offers this new handbag styled like a disposable facemask, complete with a nose clip. Depending on how people react to your fashion choice, it may actually improve your social distancing capabilities.
-via Super Punch
A new Japanese invention aimed at single men simulates holding a woman’s hand. https://t.co/djKqUmv35b pic.twitter.com/1NHKD3VrkM
— New York Post (@nypost) November 16, 2020
What's it like to have a girlfriend? For years, people on the internet have speculated about this hypothetical experience. Japan has long been at the forefront of attempting to simulate this fantasy with advanced technology by creating a kissing machine, a robotic girlfriend, augmented reality girlfriends, virtual reality girlfriends, a hugging coat, and DVDs in which a girl willingly engages you in conversation. Verily, Japan is a land of wonders where romantic encounters of a sort can actually happen to you and me.
Would you like to hold hands with a girl someday? Well, yes, of course, we all would. But let's be realistic: that sort of thing only happens in the movies. For the best alternative experience, we'll need this new hand holding robot. Sora News 24 reports about how responsive it is:
1. The outer covering is made from soft and pliable gel, to recreate “the tenderness of a woman’s hand.”
2. Osampo Kanojo contains an internal pressure sensor, so that when you squeeze its palm, motors activate and the hand squeezes you back.
3. When walking with a girlfriend, your strides may not perfectly mesh for each and every step. To replicate this, the Osampo Kanojo is mounted on a track that runs perpendicular to your wrist. Walk too quickly, and motors will cause it to slide back, creating a rearward tugging sensation on your arm. While this might seem like an inconvenience, it helps create the sensation that you’re walking with someone who’s taking their own steps next to you, and not just carrying a piece of baggage.
4. Osampo Kanojo has an internal heater, so that warmth will radiate out from its palm and fingers.
5. A human hand isn’t dry like a chunk of plastic or mound of rubber. While a hand that’s slick with sweat would be unpleasant, a certain amount of moisture is needed for an organic feeling. To achieve that, a piece of moistened fabric is placed inside Osampo Kanojo, and when the heater is activated, it causes trace amounts of moisture to be secreted through small pores in the outer covering.
6. As discussed above, two people walking hand-in-hand won’t necessarily have identically timed footsteps, so Osampo Kanojo plays the sounds of your virtual girlfriend’s steps through your smartphone’s speaker, along with the sounds of her breathing and the gentle rustle of her clothing.
7. Last, we weren’t kidding when we mentioned that the designers have included something for your sense of smell. The cloth inside Osampo Kanojo is treated with a women’s shampoo fragrance, so that the subtle aroma of freshly washed hair will waft up from it when the cloth is heated.
-via David Burge
Random Street View is a fun internet toy. When you click on the button marked "Next", the website will take you to a random location visible on Google Street View.
You get $5,000,000 but you are obligated to live 10 years in a randomly chosen place on earth.
— Danny (@dahomes) November 12, 2020
What place did you get? https://t.co/d2PNQOdAGW
(Screenshot your results)
One Twitter user suggests using Random Street View as a game. My first landing was a village in western Ukraine. I think that I'd be happier in Copenhagen.
-via Aaron Starmer
Sora News 24 illustrates what a proper single serving Pringles container really should look like. The Japanese division of the Pringles potato chip brand declared November 11 to b Pringles Day and celebrated by distributing these extremely long cans to selected gourmands. Each one is 5 feet and 3 inches tall, which is the height of Fuwa, the brand's spokeswoman. Perhaps, in the future, you will be able to order Pringles by the Fuwa.
Photo: Sora News 24
Yes, that's a tiny version of the Intrepid-class Voyager from Star Trek: Voyager. Captain Janeway's projected 75-year trip back home might have taken a bit longer if her ship was reduced to the size of this model made by physicists in the Netherlands. The scientists 3D printed microswimmers, which are particles that chemically react to their surroundings in order to move, into the iconic shape. CNN reports:
The miniature Voyager, which measures 15 micrometers (0.015 millimeters) long, is part of a project researchers at Leiden University conducted to understand how shape affects the motion and interactions of microswimmers.
Microswimmers are small particles that can move through liquid on their own by interacting with their environment through chemical reactions. The platinum coating on the microswimmers reacts to a hydrogen peroxide solution they are placed in, and that propels them through the liquid.
-via Dave Barry
Do you enjoy looking at great tits (Parus major)? Well, then, we'd better take action to ensure that our and future generations get to enjoy the company of great tits. The Independent reports that scientists think this bird species could become extinct due to global warming:
Great tits are among many species which depend on an abundance of larvae available when their chicks are newly hatched and growing.
Among populations of great tits, some birds’ young hatch earlier than others, and in a rapidly warming world with earlier springs, to begin with, these families of tits could survive.
-via Instapundit | Photo: Pixabay
Previously on Neatorama: Great Tits Use Syntax
Rob the Original, an artist in San Antonio, Texas, works with hair, salt, dollar bills, wood burned tortillas -- well, there aren't many media that he doesn't use. Much of his work is on the heads of people in San Antonio, as he operate a barbershop there. Or perhaps it should be better called a hair art studio, considering what he can do with your locks.
Karate jenga is like regular jenga, but the blocks are huge, consist of hollow cardboard boxes, and you can only use your feet to move them. Here, Master Elizabeth Lindsay, who holds a fifth degree black belt in Tang Soo Do, uses an extremely high jumping hook kick to remove the first block.
Are you masking up when you go out of your home? In many places, it can be socially and legally mandatory. The protective face mask has come to represent life in 2020. A variety of artists offered their fresh takes on masking at the Vicki Myhren Gallery in Denver, Colorado, including this papier-mâché blowfish by Liz Sexton.
おもしろい pic.twitter.com/0mON48Gt2H
— 中国最新情報(xChina) (@xChina4) November 9, 2020
This video from China shows kids playing a novel game. The two teams do shuttle runs back and form to a giant gameboard, where they take turns playing tic-tac-toe. Because it's both a physical and mental challenge, you could describe it as chessboxing for kids.
-via Super Punch
Île de Ré is an island off the western coast of France. It is often plagued by mosquitoes which bite the legs of the asinine residents. To protect them, the local humans dress the donkeys in pants. BBC News informs us that donkey caretakers in other parts of the world, including Greece and Canada, have adopted this clever practice in their own nations.
-via Messy Nessy Chic | Photo: Jiel Beaumadier
The famous toy artist Dan Polydoris is back with more funny action figures inspired by unexpected sources. Most recently, at Gallery 1988, he exhibited several mint on card figures with characters from The Simpsons. With each one, there is one needful element missing. For Mr. Burns, it's his lifelong companion Waylon Smithers.
Here is entrepreneur Emani Outterbridge of Philadelphia. She's standing in front of her invention, the yarn vending machine. Outterbridge is a master crochet artist and offers professional consultations in that craft. While recovering from a broken foot, developed the idea of a vending machine that dispenses yarn skeins. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:
While recovering, Outterbridge used the time to consider ways to earn money. A vending machine wouldn’t require her to pack orders and deliver in a cast. So she set out to raise money to finance three vending machines. She spread word of her campaign on social media, inviting people to shop from her site or to donate. It worked. Outterbridge raised $10,000 and launched her first machine last week, selling about 100 skeins of multicolored yarns.
-via My Modern Met | Photo: Emani Milan
