The Olympic Torch Relay is underway in South Korea, even though the Winter Games in Pyeongchang are still two months away. One of the torch bearers in Daejon on Monday was a Hubo robot from the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. The robot, wearing a stocking cap and nothing else in the cold weather, took advantage of its time in the spotlight to show off a little, by using a tool to cut through a wall and hand off the torch to the next runner.

(YouTube link)

According to Olympics news website Inside the Games, it’s not the first robot in history to carry the torch—or even the first one in the 2018 relay. Earlier this year, an “undersea robotic craft helped carry the flame” for a separate stretch of the months-long relay, which involves some 7,500 volunteers. Once the competition in Pyeongchang does kick off in February 2018, approximately 85 robots will be “deployed as volunteers.”

Read more about the robots of the 2018 Olympics at Sploid.

Every Christmas, the British Medical Journal turns away from dry-but-new scientific research and has some fun with tongue-in-cheek articles. This year, one of them looks at the existence of "man flu," that horrible disease that makes men take to bed and require constant care, while a woman in the same household with the same illness tends to him. You , no doubt, are familiar with the joke, but some media outlets reported on the article as a research breakthrough.

The man flu paper in particular has led to a chorus of media headlines and articles proclaiming with a straight face that “new research” shows that the man flu is real, and credulously quoting the paper’s author, Kyle Sue, a Canadian family doctor, as he advocated for “male-friendly spaces, equipped with enormous televisions and reclining chairs, to be set up where men can recover from the debilitating effects of man flu in safety and comfort.”

Sue’s paper isn’t a new study though, the kind where we imagine lab coats shuffling around the lab testing mice and men. It’s just a review of some interesting research, in both animals and humans, that suggests men generally have weaker immune systems than women and offers some reasons why. The reasons range from plausible—testosterone and estrogen could weaken and strengthen the immune system, respectively—to seemingly tongue-in-cheek: Sue suggests that men could have evolved their man flu response because it kept our surviving paleolithic ancestors better protected against predators. He also cringingly turns it back around on women for choosing these high-T men to mate with in the first place.

So, the research is real, but we aren't meant to take it seriously? Yes, the research is real, but its inclusion in the December BMJ means it had a lighthearted presentation. A review at Gizmodo takes issue with the BMJ holiday issue, particularly in the age of "fake news" and media distrust.

(Image credit: Wellcome Images)

Just before we all go see The Last Jedi, Screen Junkies found it necessary to take a look back at the third Star Wars film from 1983. After we waited for what seemed like forever between movies (at the time), we found out in Return of the Jedi how the Rebellion defeated the Empire once and for all -until they were resurrected as the First Order and the Resistance. The one that introduced us to the Sarlacc, Luke's twin sister in a bikini, and the Ewoks.  

(YouTube link)

Wait a minute- the special edition doesn't have the Yub-Nub song? It seems like the Star Wars you get is heavily dependent on your age, at least in the age of Lucas. Oh, well. Watch this and get a little more amped up for The Last Jedi, which is only three days away. If you count today. -Thanks, Lacey!

Let's take a look at the magical woodland creatures and how they prepare for Christmas! You've got the turkeys, and the candy cane-antlered deer, and the, uh, elusive Christmas pudding emerging from his den.

(YouTube link)

Not the way you expected that to end, huh? Birdbox Studio presents an animated Christmas greeting card for you. -via Tastefully Offensive

If you believe that a game of chess is just too simple, imagine the fun of keeping up with the strategy of two opponents at once! This 3 Man Chess board is circular, so you're all starting at the same disadvantage. From the product description:

Play chess with 3 people at the same time with this three player chess game. Without compromising any of the rules, strategy, or fun of Chess, this variant board has been developed that accommodates three players. The only changes from conventional chess are some protocol issues that must be followed to maintain order where the teams border each other, which is simple and necessary. The complexities of the third player are infinite. Your threatened piece may be allowed to maintain occupancy as your position is beneficial to the threatening player. But how long can it last? This scenario may exist all over the board. There are multiple trust and doubt situations among all players.

This board and 48 playing pieces (in ivory, black, and gray) is available at Amazon. Although I could see myself having a lot of problems with it, my first problem would be finding two other people who know how to play chess and who are willing to try it. -via Geeks Are Sexy   

In 1966, Robert Lawrence, Jr. had a PhD in physical chemistry and was an Air Force test pilot. That made him eminently qualified to be selected as an astronaut. And he was, making Lawrence the first black astronaut ever. However, the space program he was selected for was one you've probably never heard of: the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL).   

The Manned Orbiting Laboratory had an official mission nearly everyone could get on board with; conducting experiments in space. The program was approved in 1962 and assigned to the Air Force. A 1963 press release noted that the program’s aim was to “increase the Defense Department effort to determine military usefulness of man in space.” Astronauts were going to explore the cosmos, or, more accurately, figure out if the military even needed to be exploring the cosmos. In a space-race-obsessed America, this program was, at least publicly, another noble attempt at touching the stars.

However, what the press release left out was the program’s main mission; placing a manned surveillance satellite in space so that the U.S. could spy on the Russians. The MOL was less about star stuff than it was about spy stuff. The program’s real goal, according to NASA’s National Reconnaissance Office, was to “acquire photographic coverage of the Soviet Union with resolution better than the best system at the time.” Lawrence wasn’t just going to fly into space, he and his MOL brethren were tasked with photographing Soviet missile targets.

The MOL project ran into trouble, not the least of which was NASA's race to the moon, which overshadowed any other space project. Even though they went through training identical with NASA's, Lawrence and the other pilots selected for the MOL program were not officially recognized as astronauts until 1997. Read the story of Robert Lawrence, Jr. at Atlas Obscura.

The 1999 film Big Daddy stars Adam Sandler as a man learning how to be a father figure to a 5-year-old boy. It was his first truly adult movie role and as of today it is Sandler's most successful live-action film. Altogether, that means that if you're not an Adam Sandler fan, this would be his one movie you might like. Let's have some details of the making of Big Daddy.

8. Having Steve Buscemi do a cameo is a Sandler trademark.

If you notice he pops up in a lot of Adam Sandler’s movies and is almost always there and gone within a couple of minutes.

7. The twins that played Julian were losing their teeth and had to be fitted with fake teeth during the movie.

They lost their baby teeth while filming and the replacements kept falling out as well.

Learn more trivia about Big Daddy at TVOM.

Before it was called a kimono, which simply means "wearing thing," the Japanese garment was called kosode. As in other places around the world, it began as a very simple body covering that could be worn by everyone. How it changed from that point is what made it uniquely Japanese, just as clothing in other parts of the world were adapted for the cultures of their birthplaces. The Edo period (1603-1868) was when the kimono developed its most important cultural signifiers.

Like most societies, Edo period Japan was stratified. Since everybody wore kosode and the cut hardly changed during this period, messages were worked into the garment to announce its wearer. Style, motif, fabric, technique, and color explained who you were. They were also often subject to sumptuary regulations. This forged an intrinsic link between kosode and art and design.

Since the poorer classes wore their clothing to rags, almost none of their kosode remain intact. But the higher socio-economic levels of society were able to store and preserve theirs, and to commission new ones. And like other art forms—including painting, poetry, ceramics, and lacquerware — kosode adhered to aesthetic canons.

Those aesthetic canons were so rigid that they were documented in catalogs that dressmakers would consult to make sure the wearer was properly decorated. Read about the emergence of the kimono as a cultural icon at Jstor Daily. -via Digg

George Lucas made a little movie back in 1976. You may have heard of it. Star Wars was unwatchable to the few filmmakers who got to see it. But it was an important project for Lucas, one he'd already poured his best efforts into. So they went back and re-edited the entire thing. When I say "they," I mean the production team, but the magic that took place in the re-edit was due to the talents of Marcia Lucas, George's wife at the time.  

(YouTube link)

David Welsh of RocketJump Film School goes through how the rough cut was changed into what we now know as Star Wars: A New Hope. You'll see a lot of the rough footage that was either deleted or changed -and even more important, why it was changed. You can see why Marcia Lucas won an Oscar for editing the movie (along with Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew). -via Metafilter   

Kjell Robertsen lives near the coast of Norway. He set out his GoPro camera to record seagulls eating bread off his railing, but one kleptomaniac bird helped himself to the camera as well as the bread. The camera kept recording.

(YouTube link)

It was five months later that Robertsen finally found his camera with the data intact. Robertson called the incident his "seagull drone." The footage won him a GoPro Award, even though it was technically the seagull who filmed it. -via Tastefully Offensive

This picture is from a Tweet by @juliettebaba. It's not clear whether this is a deliberate alteration to accommodate a cat-centric household, an art piece, or possibly the natural result of having cats around a normal Christmas tree. But a clue came into the comments underneath that Tweet.

I swear this must be the pic from the year before. Same floor, same tree stand. pic.twitter.com/MMovQp7ciY

— Bailey (@Mr_Bailey_Cat) December 10, 2017

The cats in the two pictures look like they may be related to each other, too. They must have a really destructive gene in the family. This was found in a collection of photos of cats in Christmas trees you can see at Mashable.

The 20th century had both storefront displays of goods and people walking around in sandwich boards; both proved to be effective advertising techniques. In the 19th century, these methods were combined in banner ladies. Vendors would show off their wares by hanging them all over a woman's dress and then taking her picture. Come for the pretty lady, stay for the spoons! Of course, it wasn't just spoons. Women were covered with candy, baked goods, photographs, bottles, toys, horseshoes, and even coffin parts, in a gallery of such images at Messy Nessy Chic. Do not miss the woman dressed as a Christmas tree.

Nineteen years after Viagra was made available to the public (by prescription), a generic version was released today. Viagra made a grand run during that time, becoming a household term even among those who never used it. The story behind the drug is told by those who were there, the scientists at Pfizer Inc., the doctors who prescribed it, the FDA that approved it, and the marketers that made it famous. It all started out in low-priority trials for sildenafil, which might have been a treatment for high blood pressure and chest pain.  

David Brown (Pfizer chemist) : It was so close to failure that people weren’t coming to the meetings. I mean, you know how people sort of smell failure and disappear? It was that close.

I think it was June 1993. I stood up in front of the clinical development committee—senior management—and, as in previous quarters, got crucified for wasting money. And I was given an ultimatum, basically: “Come back in September. If you’ve not got good data then, we’re closing it.

Literally days after that, we were doing a study in South Wales on miners. At the end, there’s always kind of an open question: Is there anything else you noticed you want to report? One of the men put up his hand and said, “Well, I seemed to have more erections during the night than normal,” and all the others kind of smiled and said, “So did we.” That was the breakthrough.

Ian Osterloh (Pfizer research and development): At the time, no one really thought, “This is fantastic, this is great news, we’re really onto something here. We must switch the direction of this program.”

Read how Viagra went from failed experimental blood pressure drug to the most talked-about pharmaceutical in the world at Bloomberg. 

(Image credit: SElefant)

Scarface the jaguar is after a tasty meal of meat, and since he's the apex predator of the Brazilian rainforest, it doesn't matter who you are when he's after you. Caimans are swift and natural immerse, but the jaguar is even better at it.   

(YouTube link)

This sequence from Nat Geo Wild shows the power and skill of he big cat, even against the crocodile's cousin. -via Digg

The 1991 holiday road trip movie Dutch starred Ed O'Neil as a working class man (Dutch) trying to bond with his girlfriend's son (Doyle), a spoiled prep school student still hurting from his parents' divorce. As they travel from Georgia to Chicago, a series of unfortunate events helps them get to know one another. The movie wasn't a hit, but if you have fond memories of Dutch, you'll want to read some trivia about it.

3. Dutch gets Doyle’s name wrong on purpose throughout the movie.

In fact the only time he gets it right is when Doyle stages a car wreck and he’s so mad that he gets into a confrontation with Doyle.

2. Dutch admits to being a truck driver at one point in his life.

This is kind of ironic since at one point they have to hitch a ride on a truck carrying concrete pipes so they can get home.

Learn more about Dutch at TVOM.