David Hole found a heavy, reddish rock during his trip to Maryborough Regional Park near Melbourne, Australia, in 2015. Thinking that there was a high chance that the rock could have a gold nugget inside, he tried to break open the rock with every tool at his disposal, from a rock saw, to an angle grinder, to a drill, and even acid. Hole failed to open the mysterious rock. 

Instead of throwing it away, he kept it. When the opportunity presented itself for him to take the rock to experts, Hole was informed that the rock he held on to all these years was a meteorite! "It had this sculpted, dimpled look to it," Melbourne museum geologist Dermot Henry told The Sydney Morning Herald.

Learn more about it here!

Image credit: Museums Victoria

Thank you, ma’am! Remember Spotify’s auto-shuffle feature on albums? Well, it’s gone now, thanks to Adele’s request. Instead of the application auto-shuffling an album every time you just press play, you now have to do it manually. Adele shared that it was her that made this possible in a tweet, “This was the only request I had in our ever-changing industry,” she said. “We don’t create albums with so much care and thought into our track listing for no reason. Our art tells a story and our stories should be listened to as we intended. Thank you, Spotify for listening.”

Now you can listen to Adele’s newest album, 30, by the official track listing order, and other favorite albums that are best enjoyed without shuffling! 

Image credit: Abhijith Venugopal

This was the only request I had in our ever changing industry! We don’t create albums with so much care and thought into our track listing for no reason. Our art tells a story and our stories should be listened to as we intended. Thank you Spotify for listening 🍷♥️ https://t.co/XWlykhqxAy

— Adele (@Adele) November 21, 2021

Commuting on public transport gets tiring sometimes. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t find entertaining things on our daily commute. Bored Panda compiled a list of 100 plus odd and funny things people chanced upon during their ride in the subway. From a woman who strangely looks like the Mona Lisa to a man faithfully engrossed in a book titled How To Talk To Your Cat About Gun Safety (not gonna lie I would read the hell out of that book) to a guy randomly holding a peacock, surely there’s something in the list that will baffle you or make you laugh. Check the full list here! 

Image credit: BookerDeWittsCarbine

What could have possibly happened to the colonists left in Roanoke in 1587? This has been a subject of multiple theories online and was featured in an episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved. When John White, governor of  Roanoke Island colony, sailed back to England to get some supplies and reinforcements, he didn’t expect to come back to an abandoned location. When he returned in 1590, aside from the ghost town he found himself in, there was a mysterious word carved on a palisade post. The fate of the colonists he left behind has remained a mystery ever since. 

Experts remain clueless as to where the colonists went. According to Charles Ewen, director of the Phelps Archaeology Laboratory at East Carolina University, “past archaeologists believed that the colony was located at what is now the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, but this idea has been called into question, because some of the artifacts found at Fort Raleigh date to after the colony vanished.” Real Clear Science delves deeper into this mystery. Check out their full piece here! 

Image credit: John White 

Do not underestimate doors. If you see a door in your favorite game, say, The Witcher 3 or Breath of the Wild, know that developers had a hard time coding that piece of wood you love to enter and exit from. Regardless of what game it is, developers have admitted that one of the most difficult aspects of a game to get right are doors. Watch Vox’s video on the topic to learn about the process (and the struggle) of making doors work properly in games. 

Genetic genealogist CeCe Moore managed to beat the police in finding the killer of Tanya Van Cuylenborg and her 20-year-old boyfriend, Jay Cook. 

The murder case was left open for more than 30 years, as investigators tried to solve the case. DNA evidence that was found on Cuylenborg’s pants was uploaded to the same website a matching DNA sequence, Chelsea Rustad’s, was uploaded. This coincidence led the authorities to the identity of the killer, as Moore identified the culprit in just two hours. "It's the web of matches," Moore said. "It's putting those pieces together little by little." 

Check out CBS News’ full piece on how the case was finally closed here. 

Image credit: Glenn Carstens-Peters/Unsplash 

It’s not priced at $1 million. The One Million Dollar Puzzle is a big jigsaw puzzle sold at $30. The catch with this particular puzzle is that upon assembling all the pieces, a QR code can be used by the buyer to see if they won something-- twenty-five cents, one hundred, one thousand, ten thousand, or one million dollars. Everyone wins something, regardless of the amount of money. The special puzzle is now on sale for 16% off, which is perfect if you’re looking for a way to have fun and get some prize money. In addition, it could also be a perfect gift for someone this holiday season!

image credit: MSCHF

Meet Oishii, a company created by MBA graduates Hiroki Koga and Brendan Somerville. The company specializes in providing restaurants in New York City with the highest quality of strawberries. Koga and Somerville initially tested out the reception for their berries by importing a suitcase of the fruits from Japan. They wanted to know if the chefs would pay for berries like theirs, which tasted like candy and melted on the first chew, and how frequently, if they were available year-round, from a farm less than an hour away. 

Upon realizing that there was a potential market for the strawberries they imported, the two decided to find a way to farm these berries for their business. They used the method of vertical farming, which employs carefully controlled artificial environments that are mostly used for growing leafy greens. As to why the media calls Oishii ‘the Tesla of strawberries,’ it’s because their business model resembles the popular electronic company’s: they start with a luxury product before moving to mass market. Learn more about Oishii here. 

Image credit: Oishii 

It was all an accident too! NASA’s Curiosity rover was on Mars’ Vera Rubin ridge collecting samples when it suffered from a slight malfunction. The robot dropped one of the samples into a cup with a chemical mixture instead of one of the containers in the sample carousel. This accident caused molecules to rise from the combination. Upon analysis, scientists discovered organic molecules on Mars that no space agency had previously detected. Check Inverse’s full piece on the discovery here. 

Image credit: NASA

Nazaré is a municipality located in Portugal. The area, filled with beautiful tourist spots for visitors to take advantage of, has encountered a problem that became a threat to their local economy. The problem is the huge waves that were too high to be tamed by surfing enthusiasts. The once-popular summer holiday became a ghost town, as tourists tend to avoid the huge waves that spawned in the area. Learn how the municipality turned their big problem into a big tourist event here! 

Image credit: Jeremy Bishop

Archeologists have discovered human bodies at Huaca Santa Rosa de Pucalá, northwestern Peru. Out of the total 29 bodies, four of them were reported to represent the region’s first examples of human sacrificial offerings. According to Edgar Bracamonte Lévano, the excavation's director and research archaeologist with the Royal Tombs of Sipán museum, the ‘offerings’ were two children, one teenager, and one adult-- which were estimated to have been entombed approximately 1,000 years ago. 

In addition to human remains, the excavation unearthed skeletons of different animals-- eight guinea pigs, several alpacas, and llamas, all believed to have been sacrificed along with the human bodies. Learn more about the discovery here. 

Image credit: Edgar Bracamonte Lévano

People who work from home and have very, very clingy pets, the days when our furry companions take over our work table, our laps, or our laptops is now over! Swedish inventor and YouTuber Simone Giertz created a perfect chair that accommodates you and your pet. Her creation allows our fluffy friends to sit beside us as we work throughout the day. This chair would definitely be ideal if you’re a pet owner!  

image credit: Twitter/SimoneGiertz

No need to risk your skin in case of oil splatters when getting close to the deep fryer! Whether you’re using a pot or a deep fryer, it’s pretty scary to get near a container full of hot, boiling oil, right? So how do you know when the oil is ready? Researchers from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia and their colleagues suggest that we use our ears. 

The experts from the field of fluid dynamics were inspired by the kitchen hack used to test tempura-frying oil where you wet the end of a chopstick, stick it into the oil, and listen. According to Tadd Truscott, one of the researchers in the study, “if you hear really loud popping or crackling, it's probably too hot.” The oil is ready if “ there's sort of this nice bubbling sound. [It] almost feels like a song to some people, as it was described to me once." he added. 

Image credit: Rani George /Unsplash 

Is it full of treasures for us to discover? The long-lost area, called the ‘island of gold,’ was discovered in Musi River, located near Palembang, Indonesia. True to its moniker, the land has gold oozing from the river bottom. In addition to the eye-catching mineral deposits, divers found hundreds of figurines, temple bells, tools, mirrors, coins, and ceramics. Other interesting artifacts found at the site are golden sword hilts and gold-and-ruby rings, carved jars, and wine jugs and flutes shaped like peacocks.

Thanks to all the artifacts, scientists were able to discern that the ‘island of gold’ was actually the lost city of Srivijaya, a wealthy and powerful port that controlled the Straits of Malacca between the mid-600s and 1025. "We're starting at ground zero," Kingsley told Live Science. "It's like walking into a museum wing, and it's completely empty. People don't know what clothes the people of Srivijaya wore, what their tastes were, what kind of ceramics they liked to eat off, nothing. We don't know anything about them in life or in death."

Image credit: Rio Helmi/LightRocket via Live Science 

Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto by Caravaggio will be sold at auction for an estimated $54 million. That’s a lot of money involved! The artwork is the only ceiling mural made by the Italian artist and features three Roman gods and their corresponding symbolic animals. The mural is part of the sale of the Villa Aurora in Rome, the last surviving location of the 16th century Villa Ludovisi estate. Learn more about the painting and the auction here! 

Image via wikimedia commons