Temujin Kensu was convicted of the murder of a college student in Port Huron and sentenced to life without parole. However, there was no physical evidence that connected him to the murder. He was still convicted partly because of a theory presented by the prosecutor at trial: that he was a cunning ninja. That might be the silliest sentence you and I both have read, but it’s all true, as NBC News details: 

Over the years, attorneys, journalists and independent investigators have challenged that theory and raised critical questions about Kensu’s conviction. High-profile supporters, including retired U.S. Senator Carl Levin, have pushed for his release. Since the conviction, a jailhouse snitch recanted his testimony that Kensu had confessed, and a federal judge overturned his sentence after finding, in part, that his lawyer provided ineffective counsel by never calling a crucial alibi witness.

Yet Kensu remains in prison.

Since the 1980s, more than 2,000 innocent people have been exonerated and released from prison, thanks to DNA testing and new evidence uncovered by advocates working on behalf of the wrongfully convicted. But Kensu's case illustrates the obstacles in undoing a questionable conviction when there is no forensic evidence absolving the defendant, such as DNA results.

The case “is a really frustrating example of how unfair our system can be,” said Imran Syed, Kensu’s attorney and the assistant director of the Michigan Innocence Clinic.

Kensu’s last shot at freedom lies with the state’s yet untested Conviction Integrity Unit. Modeled after efforts launched by local prosecutors to investigate innocence claims, Michigan’s CIU is one of only a handful of state-run units in the nation.

Image via NBC News 

If you’re one of those people who are waiting for the sequel to the 2017 game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, maybe this expansive mod could satisfy you for a while. Thanks to the Wii U version of the game being playable in the Cemu emulator, modders were given a chance to add more spice into the vast and breathtaking world of the game. The expansive mod, called Second Wind project, is a “large-scale story expansion,” as PC Gamer details: 

While development is still ongoing (it's apparently 60 percent complete overall, while a planned port to the Switch version is at one percent), according to the project breakdown among the things Second Wind plans to add are eight new areas, including a hub called Ordon Village, 15 sidequests, 38 meals, 28 animals including variants of existing ones, hand-to-hand martial arts, and the masks and gossip stones from previous Zelda games. There's also a shrine overhaul that will tweak all 120 shrines to make them look unique, and give some "new puzzles, alternative solutions, new enemy encounters and more."

Second Wind also aims to incorporate survival elements, crafting blacksmiths, rebalanced mechanics, changes to quivers and unique horses, all of which come from existing mods. And that's not all. There's a Second Wind wiki with more information, and a Discord server with the FAQ. 

Image via PC Gamer 

Old carved stone balls have been the subject of mystery and intrigue as to what they were actually used for. Found in Scotland, 500 Neolithic stone balls, some with intricate patterns, others with knobs and pyramids, leave people in endless debates trying to unravel the meaning behind these artifacts. The National Museum of Scotland has now renewed its efforts to settle the debates once and for all, as the Scotland Herald details:  

It involves a fingertip search through hundreds of documents cataloguing their discoveries, virtual reality technology, citizen science and a hunt for at least two missing balls - and perhaps many more.

Most of the intriguing stones were discovered in Aberdeenshire, however, in many cases precisely where they were found was either not fully recorded or the spheres mistaken as either not being as historically important as they are now known to be.

As a result, it’s thought that some may not even have been handed over to authorities as archaeological treasures – meaning there is every chance that they are still kept by unsuspecting owners, have been sold, forgotten about or, indeed, stuck on a window ledge.

Now Dr Hugo Anderson-Whymark, Curator of Prehistory at the National Museum of Scotland, is at the forefront of a new strand of research which it is hoped will unlock the secrets of the intriguing Neolithic objects and possibly the whereabouts of at least two missing spheres.

Image via the Scotland Herald 

Here’s a small fact: the Pokemon franchise isn’t devoid of spin-offs; other games besides their mainline entries have been published in most of the Nintendo consoles. Games such as Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Pokemon Snap, and Pokemon Go, and other titles are well-known to the fans, but what about the other spin-offs? Did you know that the franchise had a tactical RPG published? Check out Nintendo Life’s list of forgotten Pokemon spin-offs and see for yourself! 

Image via Nintendo Life 

Different creatures such as filterers, sea cucumbers, sea stars, mollusks, five fish species and two squid species were discovered by German researchers along the Antarctic seafloor. The discovery was made after a massive iceberg calved from the continent's ice sheet. Scientists from  the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and other international partners studied the iceberg, dubbed A-74:  

"Once-in-a-lifetime" photographs captured by the crew revealed an "amazing level of biodiversity and sediment samples taken from the seafloor are "expected to provide more detailed insights into the ecosystem."

In addition, geochemical analysis of the water samples collected will allow conclusions to be made regarding its nutrient content and ocean currents.

Video footage and an extensive collection of photos taken using the OFOBS (Ocean Floor Observation and Bathymetry System) exposed life deep below the surface and numerous organisms surrounded by a silty landscape.

Image via Fox News

Photographer Sally Davies has released a book about the different type of homes of New Yorkers. From frilly, pink, and wide apartments to small and industrial homes, Davies has documented (through her photographs) the homes of different city dwellers in “New Yorkers”, as the New York Post details: 

“I began to wonder who the hell lived in these buildings that I had always photographed,” Davies (inset) told The Post. “I decided . . . I would get off the streets after 35 years, and I would photograph New Yorkers in their apartments — in all their unusual, beautiful, strange, boring and ­authentic glory.”

There are 76 portraits and tales of cabbies, artists, doctors, Broadway denizens, tattoo artists and even avant-garde artist/musician Laurie Anderson.

“Everyone in the book tells a singular and amazing story,”  said Davies. But, just like a city, it’s everyone together that makes it special: “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.” Here are a few of her fascinating subjects.

Image via the New York Post

The notion that our ancestors could only communicate by beating their chests and grunting is false, according to scientists who have studied how Neanderthals talked to each other. The ear structures in Neanderthal skulls revealed that our ancestors could hear wavelengths related with human language. Maybe they couldn’t speak our current language, but they probably had a language of their own: 

 “The study of audition in fossil hominids is of great interest given its relationship with intraspecific vocal communication…[but] less is known about the hearing abilities of the Neanderthals,” said a multidisciplinary team of researchers who were able to prove that what may seem like as a brute prototype of a human being was smarter than most of us might have thought. Their study was recently published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. 

Neanderthals or Homo neanderthalensis are our closest predecessors. They are thought to have died out because they could not adapt to chasing smaller, swifter prey with their spears and growing vegetables after the megafauna (such as mammoths and woolly rhinos) they hunted died out. Some argue that because Neanderthals interbred with modern humans, they are not technically extinct because their bloodline never really died out. Many of us have a small percentage of Neanderthal blood running through our veins and don’t even know it.

Image via Syfy 

Saturn’s moon Titan is rich in two essential ingredients for life to flourish: hydrocarbons and liquid water. Just from these two components alone, we can already say that Titan could be the next pit stop for space travelers! However, the moon is so far from the sun and so cold that the water on the heavenly body is actually covered in ice. So how do we try to solve all the rising problems? Well, new research suggests that there is a way that these hydrocarbons and this liquid water could mix:

The international team of researchers from Brazil, Canada, the U.S., and France, looked at the impact craters which can be seen on Titan’s surface and investigated what would happen when an asteroid or comet struck the moon. They found that these impacts would generate heat which would melt a puddle in the icy crust and allow the organic compounds to interact with liquid water.

“If you have a lot of liquid water creating a temporary warm pool on the surface, then you can have conditions that would be favorable for life,” Titan expert Léa Bonnefoy said to Science Magazine. “If you have organic material cycling from the surface into the ocean, then that makes the ocean a bit more habitable.”

The researchers simulated an impact similar to the one which created the moon’s largest crater, Menrva, which is 264 miles wide. The liquid water generated by such an impact wouldn’t last forever, but would last for around 1 million years — which could be long enough for bacteria to evolve.

Titan does have other liquids on its surface, and if you popped by for a visit you’d see features that look familiar like lakes and weather systems including rain. But these aren’t composed of water — they’re composed of liquid methane. These features are still of interest to researchers though, as recent discoveries found that Titan’s largest sea of liquid methane, Kraken Mare, is at least 1,000 feet deep and could be explored by a submarine.

Image via Digital Trends 

Well, the gaming community is always finding new ways to enjoy a game that was released four years ago! The speedrun, called Butter Dog Dog Wit Da Butter on Him% (whoever coined this title, I give you my loudest applause, as it is funny as hell), times the player as he gets butter and places it on the first dog they see in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Watch PointCrow as he attempts the speedrun, and aims to at least reach the top five. I’m just there for the laughs, honestly (but the speedrun techniques are amazing)! 

What happens when you let the Internet decide how book covers should look like? Well, you get a lot of funny yet straight-to-the-point book covers - if you know the story and how the chosen photo plays into the story. Tumblr users have discovered a Penguin Classics cover generator, where it lets you pick an image, along with the matching title and author for it. The generated covers are both witty and hilarious. Check the other covers here and see for yourself! 

(via Tumblr)

Image via Tumblr  

It’s not really a big secret, but it’s a feature that is usually overlooked. Hell, I didn’t even know it existed until a friend pointed it out for me when I needed to submit a document online. Add that to the fact that I’ve owned an iPhone for two years now! CNET gives a step by step process on how to scan documents from the phone’s notes app. Check the full piece here. 

Image via CNET 

An artistic depiction of it at least. It also serves as a great decorative piece for your space! Multiple variations of these galaxy orbs are sold in shops. Encapsulated in blown glass, some are small enough to be worn as a pendant for a necklace, or big enough to decorate your desk. My Modern Met lists some of the different variations of the galaxy orbs. Check them here! 

Image via My Modern Met 

You’ve heard of generating oxygen on Mars, now get ready for a sustainable city on the Martian planet! Plans for the first ‘Martian sustainable city’ have been unveiled, and construction is estimated to begin by 2054 and finished by 2100. While that is still a long time to come, the designs for the city are already finished, as Euronews details: 

The new design overall contains five cities - the capital is called Nüwa. The vertical city has homes, offices and green spaces, all built into the side of a cliff to protect inhabitants from atmospheric pressure and radiation.

The oxygen is largely produced by plants, food is 90 per cent plant-based and the energy comes from solar panels.

However, the circumstances on the Red Planet are far from friendly. The atmospheric pressure is not suitable for humans and the radiation is lethal on the surface without any shelter.

"We had to do a lot of analysis based on computing and working with the scientists to try to understand what are the circumstances that we will face," says founder of architecture studio ABIBOO, Alfredo Muñoz, adding "we have to face challenges that are very specific to the conditions of Mars, one of them is gravity, which is only one-third of the gravity on Earth."

On the other hand, CO2 and water can be obtained on the surface.

"Water is one of the great advantages that Mars offers, it helps to be able to get the proper materials for the construction. Basically, with the water and the Co2, we can generate carbon and with the carbon, we can generate steel," says Muñoz. The architecture company plans to use exclusively Martian materials for the construction.

Image via Euronews

It’s not real, don’t worry. Let’s take the time to appreciate the craftsmanship in these hand blown glass spider sculptures! Created by Lampwork artist Nikita Drachuk, these glass spiders come in different species, each so stunningly realistic that it could strike fear at first glance. Laughing Squid has more details: 

Glass Symphony is a three-generation family business dedicated to an art that takes years of training.

Glass Symphony» is a small family private studio. We’ve been engaged with glass figures for three generations. My grandpa taught this craft to my father who in turn taught me. …We deal with art called ‘lampwork’. It is the art of making glass figurines melted in the flame of a gas burner glass. This is the process of creating exclusive glass figurines and compositions. They are exclusive because all the compositions are handmade.

These and other glass creatures are available for purchase through Drachuk’s Etsy shop.

Image via Laughing Squid

The METL tire, developed by Smart Tire Company, utilizes the technology that NASA developed for its lunar missions. The airless bike tires are made of the Shape Memory Alloy Radial Technology (SMART), a lightweight and ultra-elastic material that “rearranges its molecular structure when you bend it, but instantly goes back to its original shape, perfectly” which could make you not worry about flat tires at all: 

They are basically, shape-memory tires that have almost 30 times the recoverable strain limit of the steel, thereby making them ideal for any kind of rough terrain. The metal of these tires will not come in contact with the tarmac as they will be coated with a new kind of rubber-like material called Polyurethanium, which’s crafted for all king of weather conditions and has a long-lasting tread and grip for superior handling.

Since the tires are going to be targeted towards next-gen buyers, the design is as important as function. Therefore, Smart Tire Company has made it a point to embellish them in white, gold, silver, and metallic blue colorways. They plan to bring the METL tires to the consumer market in early 2022, but there is no word about the cost of these tires yet. As per Earl Cole, CEO of The Smart Tire Company, “The unique combination of these advanced materials, coupled with a next-generation, eco-friendly design make for a revolutionary product.” This shape memory alloy technology looks promising and will make it beyond just the bicycle tires for sure.

As Santo Padula, a materials science engineer at NASA pointed out, “Shape memory alloys look extremely promising in revolutionizing the entire terrestrial tire industry.” In fact, that’s just a starting point and these could make it to the four-wheelers and commercial vehicles – changing the landscape of commuting to another dimension. After all, who doesn’t want to fit their bicycle, car, or truck with wheels that will never go flat or need to be changed in a lifetime!

Image via Yanko Design