Here’s something to brighten up your day! The video of a small group of dolphins playing with a dog went viral on the Internet. The clip, filmed by Anastasia Vinnikova on a beach near Opuk Cape in Crimea, featured her two-year-old dog excitedly interacting with the group of dolphins. The dog, named Patrick, was happily playing a game of chase up and down the beach with the other animals. It’s a wonder how these two different kinds of animals are joyfully playing with each other: 

"When they come across something novel, they want to check it out," Professor Lars Bejder from the Murdoch University Cetacean Research Unit told 9NEWS when asked about a similar interaction back in 2017.

Dolphins and dogs are both intelligent, curious animals. So when they're confronted with something they might never have seen before, that curiosity takes over. And when the New Thing You're Looking At turns out to be a Fun Thing Looking At You, Too, a little playtime might just be in order.

Add it all together, and this video ticks all the right boxes. Incredible sea creature? Check. Fun-loving pupper? Check! It's a fascinating look into the animal world and an adorable inter-species play date. What more could you need?

Ah, well, not to put spoilers on this article, but this AI believing it's a god is reminiscent of the main conflict of a particular Persona game (no I will not elaborate on which it is).  Lab technician Travis DeShazo has created a bot that was trained to generate pseudo-biblical verses. The AI, called GPT-2 Religion A.I., learns from its massive inventory of religious training texts and churns out new bible-esque verses. The results from the AI is posted on the Twitter account for the AI: 

The results are fairly convincing, too, at least as far as synthetic scripture (his words) goes. “Not a god of the void or of chaos, but a god of wisdom,” reads one message, posted on the @gods_txt Twitter feed for GPT-2 Religion A.I. “This is the knowledge of divinity that I, the Supreme Being, impart to you. When a man learns this, he attains what the rest of mankind has not, and becomes a true god. Obedience to Me! Obey!”

Another message, this time important enough to be pinned to the top of the timeline, proclaims: “My sayings are a remedy for all your biological ills. Go out of this place and meditate. Perhaps some day your blood will be warm and your bones will grow strong.”

Image courtesy of Travis DeShazo 

Meet the ‘King’ cello, the oldest known cello in existence. The instrument was created by Andrea Amati in the mid-1500s for the court of King Charles IX of France. The violin was part of a set of stringed instruments painted in the style of Limoges porcelain. In addition, it also one of the few Amati instruments in existence: 

The instrument remained in the French court until the French Revolution, after which the basso fell out of favor and the “King” was “drastically reduced in size” through an alteration process that “stood at the forefront of musical instrument development during the last quarter of the 18th century and throughout the 19th,” a way transform obsolete forms into those more suitable for contemporary music. “By 1801,” Zeller writes, “the date that the ‘King’ might have been reduced, large-format bassos were obsolete, discarded in favour of the smaller-bodied cellos.”

Image courtesy of National Music Museum

Imagine the hours the artist spent in carving or cutting out the small details for this intricately-detailed octopus paper art! Japanese artist Masayo Fukuda has been practicing the traditional art of paper cutting, also known as Kirie for 25 years. The art form involves cutting detailed pieces from a single sheet of white paper and contrasting it against a black background: 

At first glance, the beautiful artwork looks as though it was rendered using fine-tipped pens, but Fukuda carefully cut every detail from one sheet of paper. The elaborate depiction details the majestic sea animal’s rounded body, bulging eyes, and 8 long arms. Various textured sections look like pieces of delicate patterned lace, such arm suckers that resemble ornamental doilies and decorative swirling patterns on the head. The mesmerizing artwork celebrates the beauty of the fascinating species, who are known to change their skin color and texture within seconds to match their surroundings.

You can see Fukuda’s stunning Kirie designs up-close at Miraie Gallery in Osaka from April 24 through April 30, 2019. If you can’t make it to Japan, you can check out more of the artist’s impressive creations on Instagram.

Image credit: Masayo Fukuda  

If it was just a random reference, for example, a name mentioned on a math problem, it’s probably not that surprising. Teachers often put cultural references in their questions by using names of celebrities or fictional characters in their problems. However, when Hatsune Miku, the popular digitally-created musician, appeared in Ireland’s exam for students graduating from high school, it was less of a casual reference and more of a full-on exam question about the vocaloid herself: 

As first pointed out by a thread on ResetEra, the English section of Ireland’s 2021 Leaving Certificate Examination includes two sections on Hatsune Miku. The first tests participants’ comprehension by having them read a short essay on the blue-haired vocaloid’s fame and then answer questions about the text, including, “Would you prefer to attend a concert that featured a real-life performer, like Lady Gaga, or a virtual performer, like Hatsune Miku?”

The exam later tasks students with writing a composition based on a variety of topics, each of which call back to previous parts of the test. The prompt referring to Hatsune Miku basically amounts to fanfiction, asking participants to compose a story about the artificial singer breaking free from her digital confines and escaping into the real world. After seeing how some folks react to Hatsune Miku online, I probably would have included some restrictions on explicit content here if I were the one putting these tests together for the Irish government, but alas. 

Image courtesy of Crypton Future Media, Inc. via Miku Expo  

The cost to fully realize the idea is just way too big for me to process right now. Business Insider discusses the solution NASA scientists came up with to prevent the eruption of Yellowstone’s supervolcano. While experts believe that there won’t be any catastrophic supervolcano eruptions this century, there is no harm in thinking ahead right? To learn more about this billion-dollar idea, check the full video here!  

(via Flipboard) 

Image credit: Aaron Thomas

The question is: could it be the next planetary home for humanity? Experts don’t have the answer to that yet. However, they have pointed out some interesting similarities between the newly-discovered exoplanet and our planet. The celestial body, named TOI-1231b, is located 90 light years from Earth, and its atmosphere suggests that it may bear some resemblance to our own: 

Most notably, TOI-1231b has a similar temperature to Earth, at around 57 degrees Celsius, making it one of the coolest small exoplanets discovered by NASA so far. CNN reports that scientists think studying the planet could help them understand how common it is for Earth-like atmospheres to form, and could also reveal clues as to the likelihood of similar planets capable of creating water clouds being able to host life.

Diana Dragomir, an assistant professor in the University of New Mexico’s department of physics and astronomy and co-author of a new study into the planet, said:

Even though TOI 1231 b is eight times closer to its star than the Earth is to the Sun, its temperature is similar to that of Earth, thanks to its cooler and less bright host star.

However, the planet itself is actually larger than earth and a little bit smaller than Neptune – we could call it a sub-Neptune.

Scientists are especially excited by the possibility of being able to analyse TOI-1231b’s atmosphere, as the majority of similar planets are inaccessible and clouded by interstellar gas. However, scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory believe they may be able to find evidence of hydrogen and helium atoms escaping this newly-discovered planet, which they say are typically ‘almost impossible to detect’.



Image credit: NASA JPL

This slime mold can solve puzzles, and make decisions even if it doesn’t have a brain. How the hell? The Physarum polycephalum has scientists befuddled. This little organism does not have a brain or a nervous system, and yet it is able to thrive undisturbed in the environment for years. In addition, it’s able to do things that requires thinking, even with the lack of the organs needed for the action: 

"I think it's the same kind of revolution that occurred when people realized that plants could communicate with each other," says biologist Audrey Dussutour of the French National Center for Scientific Research.

"Even these tiny little microbes can learn. It gives you a bit of humility."

P. polycephalum – adorably nicknamed "The Blob" by Dussutour – isn't exactly rare. It can be found in dark, humid, cool environments like the leaf litter on a forest floor. It's also really peculiar; although we call it a 'mold', it is not actually fungus. Nor is it animal or plant, but a member of the protist kingdom – a sort of catch-all group for anything that can't be neatly categorized in the other three kingdoms.

It starts its life as many individual cells, each with a single nucleus. Then, they merge to form the plasmodium, the vegetative life stage in which the organism feeds and grows.

In this form, fanning out in veins to search for food and explore its environment, it's still a single cell, but containing millions or even billions of nuclei swimming in the cytoplasmic fluid confined within the bright-yellow membrane.

To learn more about this unique and intriguing little fella, check out ScienceAlert’s full piece here! 

Image credit: (Audrey Dussutour/CNRS)

A thousand is a lot. How about fifty thousand? That’s a lot of photos right there! Göran Strand captured 50,000 still images of last week’s solar eclipse from his backyard in Sweden. Strand used over 250 gigabytes of images to condense the two-and-a-half hour solar eclipse into just ten seconds! PetaPixel has the details: 

To add to the remarkable achievement of capturing the movement of the eclipse itself, Strand also captured all of the solar prominences. A solar prominence is a large, bright feature extending outward from the Sun’s surface. Strand also shows a close-up of the largest prominence with a scaled earth graphic beside it. With this remarkable graphic, it’s easy to see how roughly one million Earths could fit inside the massive star.

With so many frames captured, Strand told PetaPixel about how he went about editing the solar eclipse timelapse.

“To capture the timelapse, I took a series of 200 frames every 30 seconds for 2.5 hours,” he explains. “From each 200-frame clip, I stacked, aligned, and calibrated the best 50 frames. In total, I ended up with 250 calibrated still images that I then did further processing with. First, I aligned all of the 250 images, sharpened the details, and then extracted the data that showed all the prominences. Then I had my finished images for the timelapse.”

As eclipses and other notable astro events occur rarely, less than ideal weather is always a challenge for those photographers hoping to catch the action.

Image credit : Göran Strand

Is this the modern adaptation of the bible story of Jonah and the whale? US lobsterman Michael Packard was diving when he was swallowed by a humpback whale in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Luckily, the marine giant spat him out after 30-40 seconds, which only left him with a dislocated knee, and a hell of an unique story to tell: 

Despite his wife's pleas to get another job, he has no plans of giving up a 40-year career diving off Cape Cod.

Humpback whales can grow to as long as 50ft (15m) and weigh about 36 tons. According to the World Wildlife Fund, their global population is about 60,000.

Mr Packard, 56, told the Cape Cod Times he and his crewmate took their boat, the Ja'n J, off Herring Cove on Friday morning where conditions were excellent, with water visibility at about 20ft.

He told WBZ-TV News that after jumping off the vessel in scuba gear into the water, he "felt this huge bump and everything went dark".

He thought he had been attacked by one of the great white sharks that swim in the area, "and then I felt around and I realised there was no teeth".

"And then I realised: 'Oh my God, I'm in a whale's mouth and he's trying to swallow me. This is it, I'm going die'."

Mr Packard says he thought about his wife and two boys, aged 12 and 15.

"Then all of a sudden he went up to the surface and just erupted and started shaking his head.

"I just got thrown in the air and landed in the water. I was free and I just floated there. I couldn't believe… I'm here to tell it."

Image credit: Cameron Venti

Well, this could be handy! It usually takes me a long time to paint my nails. Clockwork has created their self-proclaimed first ever nail painting robot, which can paint nails in just ten minutes. For $8, you can now commission the robot, which is doing manicures in San Francisco to do your nails: 

Right now, the robot doesn’t cut or shape nails, but the website hints those features could be coming soon.

TikTok user Elissa Maercklein posted a video of the robot with the caption “living in the future.”

The company behind the bot says they design robots that “liberate people from everyday mundane tasks.”

Image credit: Clockwork 

Oh, that’s just the kid’s name for short, don’t worry. Meet Hypertext Markup Language R. Pascual, a newborn baby from Bulacan, Philippines. According to the baby’s parents, the name was inspired by the father’s web developer job. However, this naming convention is not new for the family, as other members also have unique names such as Sincerely, Macaroni, Spaghetti, and Cheese Pimiento.

(via Rappler) 

Photo courtesy of Sincerely Pascual

As much as I would like to say that this is kinda sus, it’s a legit transaction on eBay. What’s special about this nugget is that not only is it from the newly-released McDonald’s collaboration, the BTS Meal, it’s also shaped like the avatars in Among Us. Esquire states that people are selling their Among Us nuggets from $9,000 to $30,000: 

Of course, the only listings reaching tens and thousands of dollars are Chicken McNuggets. Not just any old piece of nuggets... Among Us-shaped ones from the BTS Meal. There are currently three BTS Meal Chicken McNuggets up on eBay selling for $9,000, $20,000, and $30,000. But, the bids are climbing fast.

Not to worry, though. If you have a spare couple of millions lying around, you can bid until Friday for the most expensive one of the bunch which, in our opinion, looks best like an Among Us character.

The highest eBay posting reads: "Authentic Among us shaped Chicken McNugget that originated from a BTS Combo meal. McDonald’s Among us shaped chicken nugget. Condition is "Used". Shipped with USPS First Class."

According to the listing, the item will also be frozen and air sealed in order to ensure freshness. Sounds like the seller knows a thing or two about selling rare and potentially collectible food items. A very serious question: Does it come with the Ikea baggie?

image credit: eBay 

But ...how? Don’t we need heat when we cook meat? Louis Weisz  proves that you can slap a chicken hard enough to cook it! Watch the long process involved in making this particular project successful. It’s fun to watch, definitely --but it’s not something I’d do everyday. 

If you have a copy of the 1997 game Goldeneye 007 for the N64, rejoice now because you could sell that game for almost $15,000!  If you’re interested in selling it, of course. A copy of the game was sold in 2020 for a whopping $14,999, as Fatherly details: 

According to the data collected, a copy of Goldeneye 007 for N64, first released in 1997, sold in 2020 for $14,999. “If you somehow resisted unpackaging the cartridge it took you half a year to save for in 1993, now could be the time to act,” the site reports. “The biggest sale on Mavin was for Goldeneye 007 for Nintendo 64. It sold in the fall of 2020 for a dollar under $15k.”

Goldeneye 007 was the only toy in the top 10 priciest ’90s toys that wasn’t a Beanie Baby and by far the video game that is worth the most. The second priciest N64 game was the 1999 N64 version of Super Smash Bros, which sold for $ 9,976, and Yoshi’s Story, released in 1998, sold for $5,500.

Overall, the Beanie Babies line is where most of the money can be found in old toys we used to play with. Some people spend money on the old-school Furbies and American Girl dolls, too.

Image credit: Alexander Jawfox