The new playstation console is expected to launch later this year, much to the anticipation of the gaming community. It seems that we have to save up almost $500 to get our hands on one, as the cost of producing the console is $450 per unit. The challenge is getting key components for the PS5 at a reasonable price, as Gizmodo details: 

DRAM and NAND flash memory appear to be the components Sony is having trouble getting cheap. Both are crucial if Sony wants to maintain the incredible load times its been bragging about for the PS5. Both are widely used in high-end phones and laptops. Given that it has reportedly been trying to beat Sony on raw power when it launches its next-gen console, the Xbox Series X, Microsoft may also be contributing to the shortage as it would likely be using similar materials.

The $450 number being thrown around in the Bloomberg piece isn’t the cost of the PS5 when it will be sold in stores—but the amount required to manufacture it. Typically this is a good indicator of what the actual device will cost too. The PS4 cost $381 to manufacture, according to IHS Markit, and retailed for $400. By that math, the PS5 would need to cost around $470 to maintain the same kind of profit.

image via Gizmodo

This Youtuber had two trucks filled with 50,000 roses each, so that they can be delivered in time to surprise his girlfriend for Valentines Day. That’s right, 100,000 roses in total, all for his special someone. Don’t worry about how wasteful this gesture is, as he shares that all the flowers will be recycled and will be turned into compost afterward. Watch MrBeast share the logistics behind making the grand gesture possible. 

NASA confirmed that an asteroid is travelling towards Earth at 34,000 miles per hour. The “potentially hazardous” asteroid is larger than the tallest man-made structure in the world, and could come close to intersecting with our planet’s path. IGN has the details: 

"Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroid's potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth," NASA said in a statement.

The colossal space rock, which is expected to pass over our planet from a distance of around 3.6 million miles, is estimated to have a diameter of around 3,250 feet, making it large enough to potentially "trigger a nuclear winter and mass extinction events" should it collide with Earth.

image via wikimedia commons

Don't try to drive on a flooded road; it can endanger your life. Even if you own a vehicle that is relatively higher than a regular SUV, it isn’t recommended that you try to cross a road clearly not open for crossing. A driver in South Carolina, however, tried to cross a clearly flooded underpass with their red pickup truck. To no one’s surprise, it didn’t work out. The Huffington Post has more details: 

The unnamed bystander who recorded the footage told video licensor ViralHog that the driver escaped the sinking vehicle via the back window. 

Weather officials use the phrase “turn around, don’t drown” for drivers approaching flooded roads as water levels can be deceptive ― and in some cases, vehicles can sink or get swept away. 

The National Weather Service says more than half of all flood-related deaths take place in vehicles. The agency said as little as six inches of water could cause loss of control. Cars can float in just one foot of water, while two feet can carry off even many SUVs. 

In addition, water damage can total a vehicle by ruining its electrical systems and flooding the engine.

Even if repaired, these vehicles can have problems with mildew, mold and rust, among other issues.

image screenshot via The Huffington Post

In their first six months, babies start babbling, and then speak their first words by their first year. Their minds develop at such a rapid pace so they can learn and interact with their world. How babies learn and develop their speaking ability is called language comprehension. The process isn’t comparable to how adults try to learn a new language, the process hardly needs the duolingo owl to (scarily) remind you that you need to answer new exercises. Psycholinguist Evann Kidd explores this elusive process, and shares his insights with Knowable Magazine: 

How do you know that infants can recognize words if they’re too young to speak?

We put electrodes on their head to record electrical activity from the scalp. And then we just play them sentences. These are really simple sentences, such as, “The eagle is in the nest.” And 300 milliseconds later, we play “eagle.” And then we compare the response from the electrodes to “eagle” to the response to another word that they haven’t heard. If we get a deviation in the brain activity in response to the new word compared to the replayed word, we infer that they recognize the replayed word.

image via wikimedia commons

A holistic wellness center aims to make people younger with its programs and services. Altus Health gives its clients the skills that they need to correct unwanted behaviors,and instill muscle memory for positive habits. By analyzing a client’s biometrics, they set the client’s workouts and diets. While these services are great and can help one with instilling positive habits for their health and wellness, it doesn’t come cheap. One can avail Altus Health’s service for a whopping twenty-five thousand dollars. InsideHook has more details: 

After the assessment plan is set, the program starts with 60% chiropractic work and 40% exercise. Over time that flips. They also schedule one-on-one yoga sessions and massage therapy, all done within their facilities, which is housed in an industrial block in Santa Monica but has a very zen-like vibe. The gym is simple but feature state-of-the-art equipment. They have ice baths and showers. Sessions are roughly an hour, so your schedule isn’t taxed. 

I enter Altus Health wondering if they are one of these predatory places, but to me, their mission seems different. Altus helps folks looking for radical improvement, whether it’s from injuries caused by burnout or accidents, or from being too sedentary (80% of Americans), as well as athletes looking to excel. Their practice is part of a broader trend toward a more holistic approach to wellness, a strategy that may be too nascent to have any clinical efficacy but does merit consideration. 

“We were realizing that everyone was running into the same patterns in terms of forcing themselves into a program for a while, having some success, but then reverting back to their old ways,” says Paul Vincent, co-owner of Altus. He started the business several years ago with his brother, Chris, a sports chiropractor who has been working with professional athletes and actors for over 20 years. “We started looking a little more deeply into that, and realized that there are these patterns that most people have around health and a lot of things in their life.”

image via InsideHook

Kaoru Hasegawa left two kitchen knives on the desk of Japan’s Prince Hisahito. Hasegawa was arrested in April on the suspicion of illegally entering the school that the prince attends. The prince, thankfully, was not at school when the man placed the knives on his desk. Hasegawa has been sentenced for his crimes, as Yahoo News detailed: 

The man was handed an 18-month sentence, suspended for four years, a Tokyo district court spokesman told AFP.

He was also accused of violating Japan's firearms law.

Hisahito, 13, is the son of Emperor Naruhito's younger brother Akishino, who is first in line to the throne.

The presiding judge said Friday that Hasegawa "carried out the crime because of selfish thoughts that he wanted to get attention," according to public broadcaster NHK.

"There's no room for leniency," the judge said.

image via Yahoo News

Moving through a day on bare minimum hours of sleep, or none at all, is a torture and a challenge. Half of the time you’ll probably just doze off, or you get cranky, find it harder to finish tasks, or fall into a bad mood. While these are very common effects of lack of sleep, it turns out that there’s another overlooked effect of sleeplessness, which is anxiety. A team of scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, found that the longer people go without sleep, the more distressed they begin to feel. Erman Misirlisoy has the details: 

Sleep disturbances are also a common symptom of major mood disorders such as depression. Improving sleep quality is an early target for many approaches to therapy, because when people sleep better, they feel better.

It could be that sadness and worry are simply consequences of feeling tired, but it could also be that there are direct links between sleep and mood regulation systems in the brain. To answer this question, the Berkeley researchers surveyed people’s anxiety levels both after a normal night of sleep and after a second night of total sleep deprivation. In addition, they recorded each person’s brain activity while they watched videos that made them uncomfortable (for example, witnessing a young child cry).

As expected, people felt more anxious when they were deprived of sleep than when they were allowed to sleep. When the researchers looked inside people’s heads with a brain scanner, they found that a brain area known as the medial prefrontal cortex — an area linked to emotional control — reduced its activity when people were sleep deprived. More specifically, this area of the brain was less active in response to the stress caused by watching uncomfortable videos. This suggests that a sleep-deprived brain is less able to control its reaction to momentarily stressful events.

image via wikimedia commons

People tend to unwind and relax by doing things that they don’t usually do during their regular schedules. With the world’s fast-paced and tedious transportation system, sometimes we would like to step away from the daily rush towards work or school and just relax and enjoy the travel. India’s Kalka-Shimla ‘toy train’ is a perfect attraction for a relaxing tourist trip. The toy train is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and is a tourism magnet, as CNN details: 

There's no denying that having "toy train" in the name ensures the rail line is a tourism magnet, a catchy description for the narrow-gauge, small-sized locomotives tirelessly serving the route.

But it's also got an interesting backstory too, its history interconnected with British colonial rule in India.

Ever since the beginning of the Raj -- the period of British rule on the Indian subcontinent from 1858 and 1947 -- the new rulers were searching for an "English climate," a place that would offer refuge from the unbearable heat of the Delhi and Kolkata summers.

They found it in Shimla, which, before the second half of the 18th century, was nothing but a remote forested area with a few temples.

British travelers who visited the area noted the climate's resemblance to their homeland and in 1863 the Viceroy of India, John Lawrence, decided to move the summer capital to Shimla.

It soon became a travel hotspot, its Neo-Gothic architectural core welcoming a colorful crowd of high-ranking officials, British soldiers and adventurists.

image via CNN

Some people bite their nails out of habit, to ease anxiety, or just to calm themselves down. But biting your nails can cause injury, and in some cases, get you straight to the operating room. If you’re a nail biter, here’s one story that can hopefully convince you to stop the habit. Lauren Nichols stopped biting her nails after a cuticle infection, when she almost had to get her fingertip amputated. Buzzfeed has more details: 

she woke up one morning with red swelling around a green spot on her cuticle. She went to the doctor and found out she had paronychia, aka a cuticle infection.

Nichols eventually had to have a type of surgery called a therapeutic washout to remove the infection. Her doctor told her that she needed to stop biting her nails. "He told me that he has to amputate the tips of people's fingers because the infection gets too bad, and that I'm lucky I came when I did," she told BuzzFeed.

image via Buzzfeed

When people have a lot of free time on their hands, they seem to go out of the way to try to satiate their boredom, or just to pass the time. This girl’s boyfriend locked her outside to see if she can actually unlock a chain door from the outside. See her successfully unlock the door at Rumble. 

image screenshot via Rumble

Israeli designer Yaara Nusboim has created a set of dolls to help children with therapy through play. Alma Dolls are handcrafted by the designer herself. The dolls are a collaboration between Nusboim and child psychologists, and represent particular emotions. Plain magazine has more details: 

Their shapes, weight and textures differ according to the feeling they symbolize, helping the child interpret a range of emotions during therapy, and giving the therapist clues to the child’s mental and emotional state. “The dolls are meant to facilitate a child’s connection to his inner world, and to improve and heal his condition,” the designer says. She hopes that the Alma Dolls can be internationally marketed to reach other children in need.

image via Plain magazine

Have you ever binged Netflix shows until 5am because the episodes just keep on coming? Well worry no more as the streaming platform now allows you to turn off their autoplay feature. In Netflix’ continuing campaign to make their platform more user-friendly, you can now turn off autoplay by simply signing into your account and unchecking the box for autoplay previews in the manage profiles menu. 

(via Popsugar)

image via wikimedia commons

Gibson’s Gourmet Burgers and Ribs  is a restaurant in Cape Town that serves a variety of milkshakes. With over 207 in their menu, it’s no wonder that they achieved the world record for ‘most variety of milkshakes commercially available’. The restaurant offers vegan, fat-free, and alcoholic beverages, as Reuters details: 

“When we initially opened up the restaurant, we had about 40 milkshakes. Because they were so popular, it became 100, 150 then 200, then 207. So it happened over a period of five years,” said co-owner Ian Halfon.

“We’ve always sold a lot of milkshakes, and we’ve always come up with cutting-edge flavours,” he added.

Mainly served in a standard 330 millilitre glass reminiscent of the American soda shop era of the 1930s, the double-thick cold beverages are also garnished with a variety of toppings depending on the order.

image via Gibson’s Gourmet Burgers and Ribs 

The South Korean film that made huge noise in the film industry all over the world just bagged its well-deserved Oscar win. Parasite won four Oscars, including the biggest award in the famed ceremony. It is the first foreign-language film (and to only have English subtitles) to win the major prize. A well deserved win for such a cinematic masterpiece!