Lovin Dublin spliced the iconic voice of naturalist David Attenborough with scenes of people playing Pokémon Go. The result is a nature documentary in a magical world of pocket monsters. Listen to him describe the lifecycle and feeding habits of Charmander, Spearow, and other wonders of the great outdoors.
-via VA Viper
Explicit bragging and self-congratulation used to be a phenomenon of rap music. Now, according to a study conducted by University of Michigan-Dearborn psychology professors Pamela McAuslan and Marie, Waung it's pervasive in all popular genres. The Pacific Standard describes their research method:
McAuslan and Waung analyzed the lyrics of the top 100 songs from the years 1990, 2000, and 2010, as compiled by Billboard magazine. (Its ratings are based on sales, streaming, radio airplay, and “audience impressions.”) Coders looked for examples of eight categories of self-promotion, including referring to oneself by name and demanding respect.
More recent songs demonstrated increased narcissism:
“Compared with earlier years, songs in 2010 were more likely to include the singer referring to the self by name, general self-promotion, and bragging about wealth, partner’s appearance, or sexual prowess,” the researchers report. “A similar, albeit nonsignificant increase, was also seen for bragging about musical prowess and demands for respect. Overall, the most popular music from 2010 contained more self-promotion than music from 1990 or 2000.”
McAuslan and Waung assert that this trend reflects a cultural shift about the role of the self in society:
“Music both reflects and influences the values of the culture,” McAuslan and Waung write. The hit songs we listen to “both represent the increasing individualistic/narcissistic tendencies in the culture, but also further convey that promoting oneself through bragging, demands for respect, and self-focus is acceptable.”
-via Jonah Goldberg
Have you been walking around for hours gathering Pokémon? You may develop "gamer's arm" -- a medical condition incurred after holding up your arms for hours at a time.
Thankfully, the staff at Rocket News 24 has a solution! They invented the Poké-Han. It's a hands-free cell phone holder. All you need is a wire coathanger and a rubber band. You can make a frame for your phone that makes it readable, all while using your hands elsewhere.
This tutorial video shows you how to make your own.
(Photo: CNN Newsource)
This is Guy, a dog who lives in Hazle Township, Pennsylvania. On Thursday, he was hiking in the woods with 79-year old human, who fell and hit his head. The human lay there for 12 hours while Guy frantically tried to get the help of other nearby two-legs. WJLA reports:
The dog reportedly ran up the bank where the rescuers were, and would stop every 20-30 feet, barking until he led them to where the elder man was lying. […]
"It was like watching an episode of 'Lassie,'" says emergency responder, Matthew Mariscano.
Good boy.
-via Stephen Green
(Image: Voxelight)
Enjoy the summer sun, but make sure that it doesn't burn you! Put sunblock everywhere. Yes, even there.
Sunscreenr is a new device invented by the startup Voxelight to make sure that you get complete coverage from your sunblock. It's a pocket-sized camera that looks for ultraviolet light. When that ultraviolet light is blocked--which is what sunblock does--then it shows up black on the camera. Whatever isn't black didn't get covered with sunblock. Mashable explains:
Inside Sunscreener is a 1.3 mp UV camera that looks for reflected UV rays. If the sunblock is doing its job, it absorbs the rays. As a result, any place where you did apply the sunblock will look, through the viewfinder, black — because it's not reflecting UV light — and the uncovered spots will look pale. If you are alone, you can record up to 30 seconds of video in the device and then watch back inside Sunscreenr to see if you missed covering any spots. Voxelight representatives tell me that this method will work on darker skin complexions as well, though the contrast will be somewhat diminished.
-via Ace of Spades HQ
This German Shepherd feels for his comrades. When the wolves in the new Disney movie Zootopia howl, he joins in.
Appropriately, the scene is about a mass howling that started accidentally.
-via Pleated Jeans
It's called "graffiti hair." Like a lot of graffiti art, it involves stencils and a spray paint. Janine Ker, a hairstylist in Pasadena, California, makes her unique compositions by spraying a dye over stencils. By combining different layers of colors and shapes, she creates vibrant images on the hair of her clients.
(Photo: Underwater Criminal Investigators)
The diver is holding a holstered knife in one hand and a stolen handgun in the other. Perhaps the last criminal to possess them thought that they'd disappear in the murky water. But crime scene divers found them.
This is the world of underwater criminal investigation, a criminal justice specialization described at length in an article at Atlas Obscura. These divers know how to search bodies of water for evidence and how to handle that evidence so that it can be used in the criminal justice system. Mike Berry, an underwater criminal investigator, describes the hazards of his profession:
The taxing conditions don't just involve muck and pitch blackness. “The water that we dive in, a lot of it is contaminated," Berry says, "so just ingesting some of that water could kill you.” Divers can step on broken glass or injure their hands on nails. And then there are the creatures of the deep, some of whom make their presence known at highly inconvenient moments. Depending on the location of the investigation, divers may have to contend with turtles, poisonous snakes, alligators, or inquisitive fish.
“The worst I’ve been bit was from a snapping turtle," says Berry. "You know, you can’t see them, so as your hand is moving along the bottom, feeling, you hope you get the rear end of the turtle instead of the front end. I got the front end one day ... it went right through my hand, from one side to the other.” The pain, he says, was "like a lightning strike.”
Vicki and Brooke are a mother-daughter team of artists. They operate Sister Golden, an online boutique of their marvelous crafts. The most fascinating among these works are their compositions made with pieces of flowers and other plants.
(Photo: David Ngo)
For the San Diego Comic Con, the famous cosplayer Leeanne Vamp dressed as Dark Helmet, the Darth Vader analog from the Mel Brooks parody film Spaceballs. I doubt she'll find the suit as suffocating as Rick Moranis did.
(Image: TBIT)
Does your semen contain a sufficiently large number of sperm cells to make fertilization likely? You may no longer have to visit a doctor's office to find out. Researchers in Japan have developed a process that permits a man to examine a sample with a cell phone and get an accurate sperm count. It takes the form of a tiny lens that turns a cell phone camera into a microscope. New Scientist talked to researcher Yoshitomo Kobori about the procedure:
To do a home test, a man would have to wait for around five minutes after ejaculation for the semen to liquefy, then apply a small amount to a plastic sheet and press it against the microscope for inspection. This can be done without getting semen on to the phone, says Kobori.
The process uses the camera to take a 3-second video of the semen, then sends the recording to a lab for analysis. The system is as effective as what's used in fertility clinics:
Kobori says the system works as well as the software used in fertility clinics. In a test, the team ran 50 semen samples through both systems, and got almost identical results.
-via David Thompson
It could be cool if the Earth was a Poké Stop. But there's too much risk. It could attract potentially hostile and dangerous alien civilizations to Earth. As Stephen Hawking warned us last year, that's something that we don't need.
(Unrelated photo by waferboard)
In the future, sutures won't just hold pieces of your body together. They'll also monitor your healing and send information to your doctor.
Researchers at Tufts University have developed sensors that fit into durable threads. These can wirelessly transmit data to outside devices. A press release from Tufts explains:
The researchers used a variety of conductive threads that were dipped in physical and chemical sensing compounds and connected to wireless electronic circuitry to create a flexible platform that they sutured into tissue in rats as well as in vitro. The threads collected data on tissue health (e.g. pressure, stress, strain and temperature), pH and glucose levels that can be used to determine such things as how a wound is healing, whether infection is emerging, or whether the body’s chemistry is out of balance. The results were transmitted wirelessly to a cell phone and computer. […]
“The ability to suture a thread-based diagnostic device intimately in a tissue or organ environment in three dimensions adds a unique feature that is not available with other flexible diagnostic platforms,” said Sameer Sonkusale, Ph.D., corresponding author on the paper and director of the interdisciplinary Nano Lab in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Tufts School of Engineering. “We think thread-based devices could potentially be used as smart sutures for surgical implants, smart bandages to monitor wound healing, or integrated with textile or fabric as personalized health monitors and point-of-care diagnostics.”
-via Lawrence E. Forbes
(Photo: Transport Accident Commision of Victoria)
If, during the course of human development, the ability to survive a car crash would be a major evolutionary advantage, the human body might look like this guy. His name is Graham, and he's a sculpture made by the Transport Accident Commission of Victoria, Australia.
The agency is using Graham to express the importance of car safety. A normal human body can't shrug off a major collision. Graham, however, could do pretty well. The Guardian describes him:
He has no neck, meaning he cannot break it; a flat, fatty face to protect the nose and ears; airbags in between each rib; and thicker and tougher skin. His knees bend in all directions. […]
The commission says Graham is informed by “the science of human vulnerability” – not-quite-living proof of how susceptible we are to injury.
You can see a 360º, interactive presentation of Graham here (auto-start audio).
-via Gizmodo
(Infinite Monkey Business/Demitrios Haldes)
And if you want it back, you'll have to pay. Leave $50,000 in unmarked, non-sequential $100 bills by the potty at naptime. And if you go to Mommy or the police, you'll never see the nose again.
-via Tastefully Offensive
