Georgia Bulldogs photographer Chamberlain Smith was knocked unconscious at a college football game, after a player slammed into her as she shot from the sidelines. Brian Herrien, the Georgia running back who slammed into her was unable to stop himself in time after being pushed out of bounds, causing him to send Smith crashing backward into the ground. Don’t worry about Smith, as she’s doing well and she can’t wait to get back behind the camera! 

(via PetaPixel)

image credit: Marvin James on Twitter

The newest installation in the long-running Pokemon game series, Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield have been released for play. With the game’s vast lore, multiple new game mechanics, and the sheer nostalgia and satisfaction in being able to catch, train, and battle with Pokemon, TheAuraGuardian takes on a big challenge for this new game. Can someone finish Pokemon Sword and Shield in under ten minutes? Watch until the ten minute mark is up so you can know if you can finish the games in ten minutes or less! 

Chilean artist Victor Castillo reveals the dark truths of his country (under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet) masked by nostalgic propaganda through his work, “Hollywood Dreams”. In addition to Castillo’s own work, a documentary of the same title was created, where he explains his artistic ideas as his painting come to life in CGI animation, thanks to Loica and Barefoot Productions. KCET has the details: 

The paintings feature characters that have become his trademark: children (adults are rare in his universe) and animals with long, red noses and deep, dark and hollow eyes.

The short film features animated versions of his characters blown up to gigantic proportions. A little girl in pigtails, for example, stands many stories tall and starts excavating a newly industrialized region of the country. Meanwhile, CGI versions of his characters appear alongside him in real-life settings such as the annual Halloween party and parade in West Hollywood and inside a bar where Castillo enjoys playing pool.

image credit: Victor Castillo via KCET

Celebrities, influencers, and athletes often follow a vegan diet. Will this animal-based produce abstinence be of assistance to the common folk as well? According to David C. Nieman, a professor of health and exercise science and director of the Human Performance Laboratory at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, it’s a simple answer. It’s a “no.” Nieman understands the reasons why someone would want to become vegan, but it’s not really that helpful, as Ecowatch’s Healthline details: 

"The only possible way it [a vegan diet] may help some people is if they're involved in a sport that takes more than an hour," Nieman stated.

"And that's only if they were on a low carb, high fat diet and switched to a vegan diet, which would mean they'd be taking in more carbs. Those people would see improvement in endurance — not sports skill," he said.

"The results suggest that there are no differences in exercise capacity between vegan, lacto-ovo-vegetarians and omnivorous recreational runners," the study's authors wrote.

The bottom line: "All kinds of diets are compatible with performance," Nieman said.

That's if you make healthy choices compatible with whatever diet you want to follow.

Lewin agrees that any diet needs to include wise choices if you're eating for health or performance.

"If you're living on crackers, vegan cheese, and other processed foods, it's not a good choice. For a vegan diet to be healthy and to work for the elite athlete, it has to have a strong foundation in vegetables and fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds," she told Healthline.

image credit: via wikimedia commons

Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is now taking their campaign to prevent STIs to the galactic level by partnering with Sailor Moon creator Naoko Takeuchi to make Sailor Moon-themed condoms. The Sailor Moon-themed condoms have a package with a heart shape and a picture of Sailor Moon, with the text “prevention of STI.” These special condoms will be distributed for free at STI prevention events throughout Japan. 

(via Otaku USA Magazine)

image credit: Naoko Takeuchi via Otaku USA Magazine

Because Science settles the real question: does anime-style running make someone faster than regular running? Whether it’s any style of fictional running, or specifically, the Naruto-running style, can running that way make you reach your destination faster? Watch as the channel tackles the question with a gold medalist runner. Maybe this will help you decide whether you should Naruto-run when you’re running late! 

It would be helpful if we could retain word for word the reviews, lectures, and information we need. Whether it’s for an exam, a job interview, or a meeting, don’t you sometimes wish you could remember all the information you find? The truth is, we forget a lot of the things we read and learn. Research shows that within an hour, most people have forgotten about 50% of what they learned, and that percentage increases as time passes. While there isn’t a full scientifically proven step by step process for what we can do to remember information, Thomas Oppong shares some tips on how we can retain it the best that we can: 

Spaced repetition

One method is spaced repetition — repeating intake of what you are trying to retain over a period of time. For example, when you read a book and really enjoy it, instead of putting it away, reread it again after a month, then again after three months, then again after six months, and then again after a year. Spaced repetition leverages the spacing effect, a memory phenomenon that describes how our brains learn better when we separate out information over time. Learning something new drives out old information if you don’t allow sufficient time for new neural connection to solidify.

The 50/50 rule

Dedicate 50% of your time to learning anything new and the rest of your time to sharing or explaining what you have learned to someone or your audience.

Topic demonstrations

Another valuable method is to make the most of topic demonstrations to understand a topic inside out. Unlike simply reading or listening to an explanation, demonstrations show you how something works and help you visualize the concept. When learning photography, design, public speaking, negotiation, or a useful new technology, watching instructional videos that demonstrate what you’re trying to learn can improve your retention rate.

Sleep

Finally, use sleep as a powerful aid between learning sessions. Sleep after learning is a critical part of the memory-creation process, and sleep before learning strengthens your capacity.

image credit: wikimedia commons

Most of the dinosaurs roamed Earth when the planet was in a different part of the Milky Way, as NASA scientist Jessie Christiansen showed in her animation of our solar system’s movement through the Milky Way. Christiansen also showed how long the dinosaurs existed, and what a short time humans have been living on Earth in comparison. ScienceAlert has the details:

Christiansen got the idea to illustrate this history when she was leading a stargazing party at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Attendees were astonished when she mentioned that our Solar System had been across the galaxy when dinosaurs roamed.

"That was the first time I realised that those time scales – archaeological, fossil record time scales and astronomical time scales – actually kind of match along together," Christiansen told Business Insider. "Then I had this idea that I could map out dinosaur evolution through the galaxy's rotation."

even as our solar system travels through the Milky Way, it doesn't approach the inhospitable centre, where life probably wouldn't survive.

"There's a lot of stars, it's dynamically unstable, there's a lot of radiation," Christiansen said. "Our Solar System certainly doesn't pass through that."

That's a huge part of why dinosaurs, mammals, or any other form of life can exist on Earth.

image credit: via wikimedia commons

Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk was the bop that made everyone dance and groove to it during its release back in 2014. The track also dominated for 14 weeks in the Billboard Hot 100. With that reception, who would be surprised that Billboard hails the song as the song of the decade? I personally am more surprised that ten years have gone by so fast rather than Uptown Funk being the song of the decade. CBS News listed the top 10 songs of the decade from Billboard as well, if you want to check to see if Adele's Rolling In The Deep made the cut!

In a few weeks, 2019 is going to be over, and another decade is closing as well. If someone comes to you and makes you list all the events, inventions, and memorable memories you know that happened during the 2010s, can you name them all? I can’t, but Buzzfeed’s Katherine Miller sure did, and reading through her rundown of the 2010s made my brain melt and made me ask, “All of these happened in the 2010s?” See her whole rundown of the decade at Buzzfeed, and maybe she can make your brain melt as well. 

image credit: via Buzzfeed

The Guardian’s Megan Nolan turned to Spotify’s White Noise For Infants after she moved to London, wanting to drown all the unnecessary noises of her surroundings during her downtime. The heterogeneous mixture of sound waves extending over a wide frequency range, or the sound that drowns out other sounds, white noise can improve functioning in adults, as Nolan details: 

A 2018 study published by Oxford University Press showed white noise can improve functioning in adults with attention deficit disorder. Another in the same year in South Korea suggested weighted white noise – which attempts to account for the particular wave frequencies found in sufferers of depression – can have a positive effect. In Taiwan, a 2018 survey of people living with dementia showed it can provide a simple way to reduce their agitation.

White noise itself is simply a random mixture of sound frequencies, but what it’s used for by me and others like me is often an attempt at a kind of augmented auditory life. It’s a modern, western habit that is too new in general populations for there yet to be much solid research on its effects. But adapting to a stressful environment by creating a personal soundscape is nothing new.

image credit: via wikimedia commons

Spanish artist Maximo Riera paid homage to the animal kingdom with his lifelike rendering of different animals in his Animal Chair collection, made in polyurethane and leather. The collection is composed of chairs in different designs such as hippos, octopus, rhinos, and elephants, getting attention in any room they’re placed in, and quite a good conversation starter with their eye-catching details, not to mention their life-like size. If you have the £35,000 to £65,000 ready to spare, you can have one chair made to order!  

(via Plain magazine)

mage credit: via Plain magazine

The legend of the Bloody Mary is one of those scary stories with a spirit that we’ve either tried to actually summon, or just plainly ignored as a scary urban legend, and nothing more. Whether you’ve tried actually summoning Bloody Mary in front of the mirror, or just laughed at the people trying to perform the bathroom ritual, the origins of the legend and that familiar summoning ritual might pique your interest. Watch as Buzzfeed Unsolved Network details the origins of the famed legend, along with the equally famed (and if not, more well known than the story itself) bathroom ritual.

Highschool students, Twitter user Tosshii and some classmates worked for two years on a cardboard replica of the RX-O Unicorn Gundam for their school’s cultural arts festival. The RX-O Unicorn Gundam is the titular mobile suit of the Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn series. The intricate and well-detailed cardboard replica is a sight to see, and very near the illustrated fictional mech unit! See Tosshii’s tweets below as he proudly shares the creation!  

文化祭で2年近くかけて作ったダンボール製のユニコーンが多くの人に見てもらえて嬉しかった
頑張ったかいがあった pic.twitter.com/dCo6Gony1u

— トッシー (@szli8sDrLNTShtR) November 9, 2019

(via Kotaku)

image credit: Tosshii

Dia de Muertos, or the day of the dead, is a Mexican multi-day holiday where friends and family members gather to pray for and remember those who have died, and help support their spiritual journey. Dia de Muertos is not a sad holiday at all, but a time to celebrate because their loved ones that died have awakened to be with them again. Raymundo Medina takes this tradition and belief to a huge scale as he built a massive skeleton that seems to be rising up from the pavement of a street in Santa Cecilia Tlahuac, Mexico. The skeleton, built with papier-mâché and painted with starkly delineated black and white areas, appears to be smiling, proving that Dia de Muertos is not a sad holiday, but a time of celebration.

(via Colossal)

image credit: Felipe Esteban Paredes Padrón via Colossal