You’ve seen them in films, museums, picture books, toy stores, illustrations-- the Triceratops, with its well-known three horns and massive size, is one of the best known dinosaur species. While its existence in pop culture is interesting, it’s also important to note that even a well-studied species such as the Triceratops presents a lot of intriguing questions up for debate. Science Focus details  some cool facts about the dinosaur: 

“It’s a fabulous looking animal,” says Prof Paul Barrett, a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London. “It’s kind of like a cross between a rhinoceros and a unicorn. For me, one of the reasons I like it is it almost looks like a heraldic beast. You can imagine having a Triceratops skull on your coat of arms.”

Triceratops had a big head. Its skull was one of the largest of any land animal known to science and particularly big relative to the size of its body. “It took up about a quarter of its whole body length, which is an unbelievably big skull,” says Barrett.

The skull is also what makes Triceratops so memorable, with its bony frill and three dramatic horns. It’s easy to assume that its fearsome features were used in prehistoric battles with predators like the T. rex and while that may be true, their function is more complicated, says Barrett.

“As with many of the things we see in the natural world, there was probably more than one use of the horns,” he says. “I suspect they are something to do with signalling, for showing off to other Triceratops and potentially for shoving or battling contests over territory or mates or food resources.”

To learn more about this gigantic creature, check out the full guide here! 

Image credit: wikimedia commons 

Not only do you get extra cash, you also get a chance to move to a beautiful village! Understandably, uprooting your life and moving to a new place is difficult and nerve-wracking. That’s why, as part of the offer, the Southern Italian village of Calabria is offering a hefty sum of $33,000 to people who are willing to move to their beautiful region. There’s no catch in this incredible offer, as Calabria just aims to reverse their population decline: 

The program is open to anyone under the age of 40. Then, all you have to do is take up residency and commit to starting a local business or even just work professional roles. It honestly sounds like the premise of a light-hearted comedy movie.

"We want this to be an experiment of social inclusion," says Gianpietro Coppola, mayor of Altomonte. "Draw people to live in the region, enjoy the settings, spruce up unused town locations such as conference halls and convents with high-speed internet. Uncertain tourism and the one euro houses are not the best ways to revamp Italy's south."

"The goal is to boost the local economy and breathe new life into small-scale communities," says Gianluca Gallo, a regional councilor. "We want to make demand for jobs meet supply, that's why we've asked villages to tell us what type of professionals they're missing to attract specific workers."

The active residency income project will be open for applications soon.

Image credit: La So (Unsplash) 

They look like mini tortoises at first glance, but they’re not! The golden tortoise beetle, aside from its uncanny resemblance to its namesake, also looks like a walking gold piece with legs. That doesn’t mean they’re actually made of gold though, absolutely not! These beetles can change their color according to the season. In addition, their mood can also alter their current color or appearance. 

Image via Imgur

British artist Matt Small utilizes chunks of scrap metals, from oxidized hunks of iron to bits of patinaed copper to crinkled aluminum strips-- Small gravitates towards these materials to construct his works of art. His corroded portraits, as Colossal describes, are ‘expressive and emotionally charged,’ and question the societal notions of value: 

[...]“Because of the social backgrounds they come from, young people find themselves overlooked, disregarded, and left uninvested in,” the artist says. “Marrying the discarded item and painting a portrait of a young person on it or utilizing the material to construct a mosaic face, I hope that the viewer sees that everybody and everything has a right to be viewed as valuable and of worth. It’s just up to us to see that.”

In a conversation with Colossal, Small references Marcel Duchamp’s urinal and the way that readymade sculpture upended long-standing notions of worth as a foundational concept he draws on his own practice. By turning debris and seemingly useless materials into works of significance, he hopes to prompt questions about the arbitrary values assigned to objects and people alike, explaining:

The scrap metal has worth because of what I did with it, not because I say it is of worth. The rusted tin can becomes a tone in the face. The shiny metal brings out a highlight on the forehead. All these worthless items have been incorporated into something that someone may now appreciate, and the potential of this scrap item can now be realized.

Image credit: Matt Small

Duke Alessandro de Medici is leaking. Well, to be exact, his corpse, buried in his father’s tomb, which is now the Medici Chapel, is leaking bodily fluids along with other compounds accumulated over time from glue and plaster. The grime is now evident in the marble statues that adorn the area, which were created by Michelangelo: 

Anna Rosa Sprocati, a biologist at the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, hand-picked from her catalog of more than 1,000 bacteria to test against the stains. They had successes and failures, with some of the bacteria eating not just the human remains, but the delicate Carrera marble, too. But the chapel's museum believed that bacteria would be more effective than harsh chemicals or abrasives.

Sprocati's all-female team picked the eight most promising bacteria and tested them on a gridded section behind the altar of the church. The ones that worked were then put on the tomb of Giuliano di Lorenzo, specifically the statues of Night and Day. The bacteria successfully cleaned Night's hair and eyes of accumulated residue.

Image credit: wikimedia commons 

Researchers have discovered that children with daily exposure to woodland areas can have better cognitive development and a lower risk of emotional problems. The study, published in Nature Sustainability, studied adolescents aged 9 to 15 across London for over four years. Exposure to green spaces, such as woodlands, were found to have higher scores for cognitive development, as CNN details: 

Exposure to green space was associated with a beneficial contribution to young people's cognitive development, researchers explained. The same associations were not seen with exposure to blue space -- though the sample of children studied generally had low access to it, researchers noted in the study published Monday.

Lead author Mikaël Maes said that, while the team had established an association between woodlands and better cognitive development and mental health, there is no causal link between the two -- something that could be studied in the future.

"Currently, the mechanisms why humans receive mental health or cognition benefits from nature exposure is unknown. Scientific research on the role of the human senses is key to establish a causal link," Maes, a PhD researcher at University College London's school of Geography, Biosciences and Imperial College London School of Public Health, told CNN.

image credit: Pascal van de Vendel(Unsplash) 

Different kinds of fanart have been around for a long time. From the rise of ‘alternate universes’ created by the fans for the fans, it isn’t surprising that even superhero characters get their own fair share of fan-made content. Artist JP ‘Pat’ Huddleston showcases his own take on the well-loved superheroes of today: how they might use the bathroom, as Creative Bloq details: 

There's no denying the illustrative skill here from Huddleston, but what makes the series stand out is the level of attention to detail and humour weaved in. Each character’s personality traits have been explored just the right amount (these images are safe for work, thankfully), and put to good use. Just a glimpse of Wolverine's claws while he's sitting on the toilet was enough to make us shudder (imagine those slipping out at the wrong moment, yeesh), but that reaction quickly turned to laughter when we noticed the Deadpool-themed pants. Genius. 

Speaking of Deadpool, we weren't surprised to see the anti-hero engrossed in Playboy while doing his business, and the unicorn plushie has made us love him all the more. Batman, it seems, prefers to spend this private time flicking through an issue of Wonder Woman. Never going to happen, Caped Crusader.

This whole series has hit on a winning recipe by combining a bucketload of talent and fun. You can see the full series of cheeky prints, which are also available to purchase, over on the Huddlestaff store. The question is, which character will soon be gracing your bathroom wall?

Image credit:  JP "Pat" Huddleston

Looking for some good bling without the expensive price tag? One artist in China is creating colorful gemstones from broken glass bottles! The artist uses their creativity to turn shards of broken glass into imitation sapphires and emeralds that look like the real deal. Using a rotary tool, the artisan reshapes and polishes the shards, and then sets the new gemstone into a metal band: 

While there are still people who prefer real gemstones, others online are championing the alternative, upcycled material. One Redditor even shared an entire list as to why they would choose the glass bottle gemstone over any other. They wrote, “It's pretty, it sparkles, no one had to die to make that, no one had to slave over it, either, [and] no one had to go into debt for it.” They add, “Also, if someone made rings and earrings out of recycled glass bottles and sea glass, I'd buy that sh*t, in every color. All the colors.”

image credit: Jacek Dylag

If you’ve played The Sims 2 on the Nintendo DS, then you might share your opinion on this odd take: the game is ‘very, very weird,’ as Kotaku’s Leah Williams writes. Aside from its odd and lowkey scary story and characters, the game is actually good in terms of quality and technical prowess. However, that does not stop fans from pointing out that the game is creepy as hell: 

It’s not exactly a normal game, and the vibes it gives off has given people the heebie-jeebies.

“There was definitely something eerie about that game,” wrote Redditor LazerGuidedMelody in the thread. “There was something almost post-apocalypse about it… Despite there being people around the hotel, the saloon, the street, it always feels so empty.”

“One of the first stages of the game you had to do jobs for Frankie Fusilli who was like a mobster, who made you try and blow up the mayor,” wrote Lucaienn. “Later he would make you bury a wriggling suitcase in the desert and after that the mayor was no where to be found.”

“The part that would make me start a new game entirely would be when the alien invasion happened with ‘the music’,” Ginkos-lover wrote. “It would have me so shook that I would start a whole new save and make sure I never got to that point.”

The aura of the game was too much for Redditor Vio-lex. “I’d say I’m pretty interested in weird and creepy stuff, but Sims 2 on DS was too out there for me as a kid,” they wrote in the thread. “Strangetown looked deserted and it had a really derelict, abandoned atmosphere… The cult plot was especially creepy for me when I was younger and still is.”

Image credit: EA

He hasn’t noticed at all! Snoop Dogg has started streaming on Twitch over the last few months, and has brought happiness to his viewers by smoking spliffs and playing through Madden NFL. His streams on the platform had a lot of memorable instances, from the one time he rage-quitted and left his camera open for seven hours, to now not realizing that he’s on mute: 

Recently, it looks as if Snoop moved his gaming setup and streaming gear to a new location - and that move may have brought with it some technical issues. In a broadcast earlier this week, it quickly became apparent that Mr Dogg had muted himself on his end. Because he has the chat function disabled, his viewers were unable to tell him what was going on and he streamed for over an hour in complete silence.

The assumption was that word would reach him after this stream, and that he'd fix whatever issue had contributed to his involuntary vow of silence. Not so. Over on Reddit, one viewer gently pointed out that "Snoop Dogg has now streamed without audio three times in the last four days," and still doesn't seem to have any idea.

On the one hand, I find it incredibly easy to believe that Snoop has no idea his streams are muted. I find it even easier to believe that he does know and just doesn't care enough to get it fixed. Meanwhile, some fans conspiratorially believe that these last three streams have been muted because Snoop isn't actually the one playing them - he's simply spectating another stream while on camera enjoying some of the devil's lettuce.

mage Credit: Snoop Dogg Via Twitch

This is just too cute! Lori Knoble’s German shepherd Anya has a very cute morning routine: she brings toys to their newly-adopted kitty, Munchie. Anya made Munchie feel welcome at their home when she tried to get Munchie to chase her toy. When the cat relented, Anya started playing with her. From there, the two animals have formed an adorable friendship: 

"Anya is the one who truly helped Munchie not be afraid and helped her to adjust to her new life of living with us." "She usually plays with her every morning, or whenever we leave the toy out laying around." "Munchie has grown from a tiny, scared kitten living in a dumpster all alone, to becoming a member of our family who is loved and cherished." "It melts our hearts that Anya instinctively knew how to help Munchie to not be afraid." "You can't help but smile when you see them playing together." "They play lovingly and they love to tease each other, too!" "Not all angels have wings, some have four paws and fur."

Image screenshot:via Flipboard

Local origami artist Joseph Wu has been commissioned to decorate different projects with his paper creations. From installations and advertisement campaigns, Wu is also known on the international origami scene. The Vancouver-based artist initially made origami when he was three years old, and continued his passion even while completing his studies at the University of British Columbia. When he lost his job during the early 2000s, he turned to his lifelong passion as the new source of income: 

His original designs vary from quaint and seemingly simplistic objects, like a feather or a ball, to the incredibly complex—a white rhinoceros, a life-sized tree, or the 44-foot-long Japanese dragon he created for a theatre project last year. To explain his creative process, Wu references Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink which delves into the idea of subconscious cognition. “Gladwell explains how we can very, very quickly process things that might take a long time if we were to sit down and think about it,” Wu says. It is in this way he processes his origami. “I do the research I need, come up with the parameters I want for my design, and then in the span of about a minute, the design just appears in my head.” At that point, he knows that he can take a flat piece of paper sitting in front of him and form it into the finished object. Typically, it takes between 10 and 20 revisions before he’s fully happy with the piece.

These days, commissioned work such as installations and advertisement campaigns keep him busy. A recurring job with Canadian Business magazine has him creating origami out of money for each issue (“When I’m done a piece, I just unfold it and spend it,” he says). Thus far, his favourite ad campaign was for Stolichnaya vodka, for which he made a series of origami animals and butterflies. When he travelled to New York one summer to attend an origami convention, the ads were all over the city. “Telephone booths, billboards, subway entrances, all with my origami on it—it was totally unexpected.”

Image credit: Joseph Wu.

Science is a means to explain the reasoning behind different phenomena. Surprisingly, scientists are now trying to explain even the most unprompted occurrences in our daily lives! Researchers have tried to explain the science behind near-death experiences, believing that these scary experiences are a biological mechanism called thanatosis. Daneil Kondziella explained that this mechanism is ‘the acquisition of language enabled humans to transform these events from relatively stereotyped death-feigning under predatory attacks into the rich perceptions that form near-death experiences and extend to non-predatory situations.’ While this explanation seems sound, Mind Matters raises two problems: 

➤ Implausibility: Most of the people who have survived to tell of near-death experiences are not “death-feigning.” They are clinically — and, in most cases, involuntarily — dead.

Modern medicine can bring people back from actual states of death or even induce such states, for surgical purposes. That’s why we hear so many reports of near-death experiences these days. There is no physiological basis for the belief that, in general, humans can just “play dead” when it suits us, as can marsupials like opossums. Many might wish we could but we can’t.

➤ What does “the acquisition of language” mean? Human language, as opposed to animal signal systems, is only possible due to the ability to reason abstractly. There is no plausible evolutionary explanation for that at present. It appears to come from something that is not part of the animal world at all. It is not directly related to survival chances because all other life forms thrive without it. It may be part of a non-animal world in which near-death experiences are possible.

Image credit: Evgeny Tchebotarev (Unsplash)

I’ll leave the judging to you. Art, to some extent, is subjective. Julia Ducournau’s Titane won the Palme d’Or (the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize). The film follows a young woman who survives a car crash when she was a kid, and that instance changes her perspective on cars until adulthood. Then she gets impregnated by a car. Personally, watching the trailer lets me know this film is artsy, yes, but at this point I’m just confused. She was even lactating black oil at one point! Thankfully, I’m not the only one. Hell, even the most educated art critics are divided about the film.  

image screenshot: UniFrance / Julia Ducourneau

Wait… what? Initially reported as a cryptocurrency farm, an area full of PlayStation 4 consoles that was shut down by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) was actually a FIFA Ultimate bot farm. Sparked by the scepticism of the official claim, as well as game discs being spotted in the official photos, business newspaper Delo launched an investigation into the matter: 

Delo said the Security Service of Ukraine has so far refused to comment on the revelation, citing the secrecy of the investigation. But the suggestion is these PS4 Slims, all controlled by PCs running bots, farmed Ultimate Team for profit.

Ultimate Team is the perfect game for this kind of operation, given how it's structured. You can spend real-world money on loot boxes in the hope of obtaining high-value cards, but the odds of getting one of the best players is soul-destroyingly slim. Or, you can play the game for months on end in a bid to save up enough of the in-game currency to splash out on the auction house. Or, you can buy FUT coins on the black market (expect 40,000 FUT coins to cost you a couple of quid). To put that into context, Lionel Messi's 99-rated Summer Stars card currently costs around 1.5m FUT coins on the PlayStation auction house.

Image credit: The Security Service of Ukraine.