With the imposed quarantine due to the pandemic, the sales for the Nintendo Switch skyrocketed. However, this meant that its stock ran out. In Japan, one local retailer had to run an online lottery just to purchase the console. The Nintendo Switch is now out of stock in Japan, and some people are looking at older consoles instead, as NintendoLife detailed: 

According to price tracker Kakaku, local retailers have gone from selling the New 2DS XL for as low as 10,000 yen (about $93 USD) in January to 13,775 yen (roughly $129 USD) this month. While it's nowhere near as bad as what scalpers are asking for certain systems, it's still enough to illustrate the increased demand. This follows on from Japanese retailers reducing the price of the dedicated handheld in 2019, due to a drop in sales.

image via NintendoLife

Imgur user sarbaaz37 shared a step by step procedure on how to build a Nintendo Switch from scratch. When sarbaaz37’s friends were unable to find a console for themselves from different retailers, they turned to online listings. The prices were ridiculous, with some selling a used Nintendo Switch for $450 to $600. This enraged (and motivated) sarbaaz37 to build the console from scratch. If you’re curious on how they built it, or you actually want to build one, head over to the tutorial on Imgur.

image via sarbaaz37

Some zoos in Germany may have to use some of their animals as feed (for the other animals) for their establishments to survive. Neumünster Zoo has listed the animals they’ll slaughter first. Killing some animals so that the others could live is the zoo’s last resort. However, this last resort wouldn’t solve the zoo’s financial problem, as Ms Kaspari at Neumünster Zoo told BBC: 

Ms Kaspari at Neumünster Zoo said killing some animals so that others could live would be a last resort, and "unpleasant", but even that would not solve the financial problem.

The seals and penguins needed big quantities of fresh fish daily, she pointed out.

"If it comes to it, I'll have to euthanise animals, rather than let them starve," she said.

"At the worst, we would have to feed some of the animals to others."

image via BBC

There’s an unmistakable scent people associate with springtime. The description for the scent varies, but most would agree that the smell is a mix of dirt and something else. The ‘something else’ is the part that varies. Scientists at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, the John Innes Centre, and Lund University have determined the compound responsible for the indescribable scent of spring. Popular Mechanics has the details: 

The secret? Geosmin, the soil-based compound responsible for those hard-to-describe olfactory sensations. Our noses are so finely attuned to the organic compound, in fact, that we can detect it better than sharks can recognize blood.

For the first time, scientists at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, the John Innes Centre, and Lund University have identified why this distinct scent has persisted: a symbiotic relationship between a six-legged worm, known as the springtail, and Streptomyces, a type of bacteria commonly found in soil.

"In field experiments, springtails were attracted to odours emitted by Streptomyces colonies," the authors say in their paper, which appeared earlier this month in the journal Nature Microbiology.

Streptomyces, for its part, produces organic compounds used in everything from chemical weapons to antibiotics. It also produces geosmin and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that easily become gases or vapors.

image via Popular Mechanics

NASA has released an infrared image of the “Pillars of Creation”, showing the radiating glow off the pillars. The newest image of the Eagle Nebula gave the iconic pillars a spectacular blueish shadow. The Eagle Nebula is 7,000 light-years from Earth. Futurism has more details: 

The earliest image of the pillars, a composite of 32 different images compiled using visible light, shows the pillars located in the Eagle Nebula throwing off cool hydrogen gas and cosmic dust.

First discovered in 1745 by Swiss astronomer Jean-Philippe Loys de Chéseaux, the Eagle Nebula is roughly 7,000 light-years from Earth, a nursery for stars in the Serpens constellation.

The pillar structure is immense. Just the largest pillar on the left is about four to five light-years long.

image via NASA

LASVIT (a glass making company) installed a sculpture featuring two flying dragons in a casino resort in Saipan. This project aimed to create ‘the largest piece of jewellery ever made’. The sculpture is huge, spanning 200 feet and weighing 40 metric tons! More than 2.5 million swarovski crystals were used to decorate the dragons’ scales. 

image via LASVIT

Paul McCartney’s scribbled notes for a studio recording of “Hey Jude” was sold for $910,000 at an auction by Julien’s Auctions. The auction was to mark the 50th anniversary of the band’s breakup. There were other items sold in the online auction, totaling 250 items, as Reuters detailed: 

A vintage bass drumhead with The Beatles’ logo that was used during the English band’s first North American tour in 1964 was another top item, selling for $200,000.

A drawing by John Lennon and wife Yoko Ono called Bagism, a term they coined to satirize stereotyping, sold for $93,750, while an ashtray used by the Fab Four’s drummer Ringo Starr at the Abbey Road recording studios in London fetched $32,500.

The wooden stage of the small Liverpool venue where the band performed before they rocketed to fame went for $25,600.

image via Reuters

Sudeep Khetani called pizzerias and restaurants and placed large orders intended for the local police department. However, the 34-year-old never paid or picked up his orders. The scam cost businesses thousand dollars, according to the South Brunswick Township Police Department. It seems that the scam wasn’t done just out of boredom, as Khetani apparently made statements about Italians and wished they would be affected with coronavirus. 

image via Yahoo! News

If you’ve got nothing else to do, try taking this Buzzfeed quiz! See if you remembered anything from your initial years in school, or (for those who are in lower years) if you’re knowledgeable enough to answer twelfth-grade questions. All I remember from my initial years in school is that mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. I’m not sure if I’ll fare well in this quiz. 

image via wikimedia commons

A man from Windsor, Connecticut, decided to create massive cat towers for his cats. Rob Coutu created two massive towers providing his cats, a red tabby and a Savannah cat, both entertainment and comfort. Coutu shared with Bored Panda that his Savannah cat likes the towers so much that she doesn’t want the tabby cat to use them. The Internet is loving his design, as some are willing to pay for the cat towers’ building plans! 

image via Bored Panda

Rest for awhile is a helpful design concept that adds a small perch for people to sit on as they ascend or descend the stairs. Created by Chinese design firm Shenzhen Jinwei Innovation Design Company (SJDC), the project allows people with mobility issues to have a break as they climb the stairs. The company plans to market the project in Asia, Australia, and Europe, as My Modern Met detailed: 

Though Rest for awhile was designed with the elderly in mind, it’s also a welcome pit stop for someone with a physical disability that might require frequent rests or simply anyone who doesn’t have the stamina for climbing. Anyone who has had to go up and down a few flights can attest to the fact that even those who are in decent shape would be happy to take advantage of the bench if it were provided.

image via My Modern Met

David Przybyla owns about 2,000 board games, and aims to get a Guinness World Record for his massive collection. The Utah Valley University professor started collecting board games in 2008. He was introduced by a coworker to playing Carcassonne, a tile building board game. After playing his first board game Przybyla was hooked and started collecting more board games, as UPI detailed: 

Przybyla said his collection now includes about 2,000 games, but he has only actually played about 2 percent of his collection.

"So very little have actually been played," he said. "A lot of them are unopened. A lot of them are just -- I really want to play them someday, but I also have that kind of FOMO, I guess, that if I don't buy it now, I'll never be able to find it again because that's happened.

"We've got a long ways to go to play them all, but we do what we can," he said.

Przybyla said he is looking into getting a Guinness World Record for his collection. The current record of 1,531 different games was set by Jeff Bauspies of Illinois. Przybyla said he owns about 2,000 games, but some are doubles of games he already had, so the number of unique games in his collection is probably closer to 1,500.

image via wikimedia commons

An arcade in England decided to put sanitary products in their claw machines instead of the usual toys. Rob Braddick, the owner, swapped out the toys with toilet paper and sanitizers after seeing how fast these products fly off their local store’s shelves. Oddee has the details: 

“We also have a large machine that used to have a Spider-Man doll, but now there is a large Curex soap in there and that’s the Rolls-Royce of hand sanitizer,” Braddick said according to Fox News . “We test it, it’s possible to win them but it is hard. We’ve had people coming in to have a go but I don’t think anyone has won yet. It’s been a bit quiet so far but I think people will start coming in to have a look. There are still some toilet rolls on the shelves around here so I guess people aren’t that desperate yet.”

image via Oddee

Did you know that the CIA tried to use cats to spy on foreign leaders during the Cold War? The CIA was looking for a way to conduct surveillance on a foreign heads of state, and they were inspired to use cats. The feline creatures were allowed to do as they pleased during a specific foreign leader’s strategy meetings. Watch the video to find out if the CIA was successful in using their spy cats! 

With the world’s current situation, it’s a surprise that there’s a new diet craze in town. The new diet craze is called the Pegan diet, created by functional medicine doctor Mark Hyman, MD. The diet is a cross between paleo and vegan. The diet suggests you stick to eating organic, no or less GMO foods, food without any preservatives or MSG, and no dairy products on your diet. Honestly, I'm good with eating whatever’s available.  But if you’re curious about the Pegan diet, check out Grateful’s full piece on the topic. 

image via wikimedia commons