Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have developed an artificial form of skin. It might be used in the future to give robots or people with prosthetic limbs the ability to feel:

The Berkeley group's synthetic skin can either be transferred to another material like a plastic or glass by either directly transferring it over from a flat substrate which is then “rubbed” onto a polymer film made of polyamide. It can also be “rolled” onto the surface using a device that works much like a lint roller in reverse; the fibers are deposited to a sticky surface rather than picked up.

The e-skin can detect pressure in the range from 0 to 15 kilopascals, or similar to the pressure needed to perform normal daily tasks. In other words, when your cyber-being goes to clean the wine glasses from last night's party, it won't break them, and when your robot goes to make you a sandwich, it won't flatten it to the size of your silicon microprocessor.

Link via Geekologie | Image: Paramount

A bill that would have imposed regulations and taxes on Romania's witches and fortune tellers failed to pass in that nation's legislature:

The witch bill would have cracked down on the industry by requiring witches and fortune tellers to keep and produce receipts (somehow "receipt" is not a word I've ever associated with witches), and would also have provided that fortune tellers could be held liable for getting predictions wrong.

Link | Image: EMI Films

Previously: Romanian Witches Go Online for Work

Twenty-five years ago today, the first Super Mario Bros. game was released in Japan. Keith Stuart of The Guardian has a round-up of 25 bits of Mario history trivia, including one on the origin of the titular character's name:

Mario was originally known as Jumpman. However, when Nintendo's US office were trying to think of a better name in time for the American release of the game, they were interrupted by their landlord Mario Segale, after whom they christened the character.

Link via Geekosystem | Image by deviantART user LabrenzInk

Every year, the National Maritime Museum of Britain gives awards in the field of astronomical photography. Prizes are awarded in five categories: Earth and Space, People and Space, Our Solar System, Deep Space, Young Astronomy Photographer and Best Newcomer. Pictured above is the grand prize-winning Blazing Bristlecone by Tom Lowe.

Link via The Agitator

The Museum of Soviet Arcade Games is a small basement museum in Moscow that houses vintage arcade games from the Soviet era. Anjel Van Slyke and Connal Hughes of A Dangerous Business visited the facility, played its games, and took many pictures.

Link via Fanboy

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Boyz N the Ring is a parody of The Lord of the Rings in which gangsta hobbits help Gandalf defeat the ambitions of Sauron. It was created by the comedy troupe Pistol Shrimps. Content warning: some foul language.

via Nerd Bastards

Flickr user A_Riddle perfectly duplicated the pose and costuming from a scene in Episode IV of Star Wars. Presumably Princess Leia has the grace not to get kicked out of the store for ordering this way.

Link via Popped Culture

deviantART user spaztikk designed this tattoo. It features Mr. Peanut, the advertising logo for Planters Peanuts, meeting an untimely but delicious end.

Link

In the old 1930s Fleischer Studios Popeye theatrical shorts, Jack Mercer was the voice of Popeye and Margie Hines the voice of Olive Oyl. They lived out the romance of the characters they played by getting married in 1939. The couple had spinach for their wedding breakfast. This information is making the rounds now because a rare publicity photo from the event is currently up for sale on eBay.

Link via Nerdcore | Photo: Paramount

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Remember the Eduard Khil music video from the 1970s that was a major Internet meme several months ago? It was chiptuned by YouTube user Robinerd so that it now sounds like a classic video game.

via Geekosystem

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Have you ever done anything truly extraordinary with your life? Well, whatever it is, I'm sure that it pales in comparison with this extraordinary feat by Randon Beasley of Fayetteville, Arkansas. The above video shows him stuffing thirty quarters into his belly button.

Yes, that's thirty quarters.

A couple of other impressions are discernible by the end of the video:
1. He's doing this to impress a girl (holding the camera)
2. It's working

via Urlesque

Korean designer Eungi Kim made this accessory that gives a bicycle the appearance of a horse:

horsey' is an attachable bicycle ornament/accessory which makes one's bicycle look horsey! the 'horsey' package includes wooden ornaments (horsey shape body), metal parts, and screws. the manual is very simple so that anyone can easily arrange it according to one’s needs. through this 'horsey' project. I wanted to give a special look to bicycles so that people would care about cycling not only as transportation but also as a lovely pet.

Link via Gizmodo | Photo by the artist

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This video is from a match between two Moroccan teams. Khalid Askri, the goalie playing for Rabat, thought that he had successfully defended his goal. But the spin that he placed on the soccer ball caused it to slowly travel into the net after he had already turned away.

Link via reddit

Abram Sauer of Esquire uncovered a disturbing truth: you haven't actually maintained a 36" inch waist all these years. Men's fashions, like women's, reflect vanity sizing:

I enjoyed many of these pants, as I mentioned, but I'm still perturbed. This isn't the subjective business of mediums, larges and extra-larges — nor is it the murky business of women's sizes, what with its black-hole size zero. This is science, damnit. Numbers! Should inches be different than miles per hour? Do highway signs make us feel better by informing us that Chicago is but 45 miles away when it's really 72? Multiplication tables don't yield to make us feel better about badness at math; why should pants make us feel better about badness at health? Are we all so many emperors with no clothes?

Link via Ace of Spades HQ | Image: Esquire

Naan is a type of Indian flatbread. Honeytop Speciality Foods in Britain recently created what may the largest single piece of naan in the world:

The record-breaking naan was 10ft by 4ft and has a total area of 40 sq ft - the equivalent of 167 normal size naan breads – and took bakers over five hours to make and 8 staff to carry.

The beast of breads was made using an authentic naan recipe including yoghurt, ghee and Kalonji seeds and weighing more than 40kg and cooked in a specialist tandoori-style oven with the capacity to cook an authentic bread of such magnitude.

Link via J-Walk | Photo: Publican