Inside this establishment is a magical forest and a cave for children where they can spot a Sasquatch sleeping. The establishment also offers a variety of accessories, as well as guided Bigfoot-themed expeditions. Whether you’re a skeptic or a believer, you’re sure to have a fun experience in one of the top 10 wackiest places in Colorado — the Sasquatch Outpost.
[The owner of the establishment, Jim Myers,] originally opened a general grocery store at the location, but after talking with locals about Bigfoot sightings in the area, he decided to convert his store into what it is today.
Nike has developed the GO FlyEase, a new shoe that permits someone to put them on without using hands. The premise of this novel design is the hinge in front of the ankle that snaps in and out of place with a flexible strap that wraps around the outside of the shoe.
The design team originally focused on the needs of people with physical limitations, but realized that many people could enjoy shoes that don't require handling.
Found in the rainforests of northern Madagascar is the Brookesia nana, the world’s smallest reptile. Scientists say that the fully grown male only measures half an inch from its snout to cloaca, which makes it the smallest adult reptile ever described.
In fact, the male B. nana measured even smaller than his female counterpart, which had a length of 0.75 inches (19.2 mm) from snout to cloaca. (Not only is she longer than her mate, but she is also slightly longer than the Caribbean gecko Sphaerodactylus ariasae, which currently holds the title for smallest female reptile, the researchers wrote.)
"Given that the general body plan of reptiles is rather similar to that of mammals and humans, it is fascinating to see how miniaturized these organisms and their organs can get," lead study author Frank Glaw, a herpetologist at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology in Munich, told Live Science in an email.
This female form is dressed in a fanciful yet quirky outfit and appears to be partially made from pink and purple frosting around the head and neck. Still, long colored braids hang down from her pink-covered head. Among art ideas for sculptures, creating your own small installation at home is a dramatic display option.
In ancient times, the color purple was reserved for royal clothing, because the dye was so rare and expensive. Purple dye was harvested from the tiny glands of certain mollusks, and had to be processed by experts. Archaeologists had found evidence of the dye in the remains of ancient mollusks and in ceramics, but now for the first time, they've uncovered 3000-year-old royal purple dye on wool fibers. In Israel.
Biblical stories describe King David and King Solomon clothed in garments of purple—a color long associated with royalty. Now, reports BBC News, archaeologists in Israel have discovered fragments of purple fabric dated to around the time of these ancient monarchs’ purported reigns.
The team discovered the material in the Timna Valley, at a site known as Slaves’ Hill. Carbon dating places its creation around 1000 B.C. Religious lore suggests that David’s reign spanned roughly 1010 to 970 B.C., while Solomon’s lasted from 970 to 931 B.C.
The time period is right, but there is no evidence that the purple wool belonged to either David or Solomon. There were other kings in the Levant, and the Timna Valley was part of the kingdom of Edom at the time. But the find is intriguing, whoever wore the dyed wool. Read more about it at Smithsonian.
Unlike house cats, wild animals can't be too picky about their next meal. This encounter between a bobcat and a rattlesnake was caught on a trail cam in the Angeles National Forest. Notice how the cat stops to celebrate her victory before carrying off her lunch. -via Boing Boing
Who doesn’t want a remake of older Pokemon games? I would! Some accurate predictions from a huge Pokemon rumor from 2019 came true. The rumor accurately predicted the existence of Galarian Mr. Mime and how fossils would work in the franchise’s latest game, Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield. The last of the predictions from the rumor is that after the latest mainline games, the next would be a remake of Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl:
That's not all the rumor said about the next mainline games. It also mentions it will have Pokemon Let's Go's catching mechanics, which would prove to be controversial if true.
It's worth noting the short-and-sweet rumor mentions that these remakes would be out in 2020, which would normally be a red flag, because obviously, this didn't happen, however, this being wrong doesn't automatically mean the whole thing is wrong. Further, for all we know, that could have been the plan until the pandemic hit and disrupted everything.
It’s not literal liquid, of course, it’s an algorithm! MIT researchers have successfully created a neural network that adjusts to changes experienced by real-world systems. This network could improve decision-making in self-driving cars and medical diagnosis. Ramin Hasani, the study paper’s lead author, said that it is a way forward:
Hasani said the system is inspired by a tiny worm — the C. elegans:
It only has 302 neurons in its nervous system yet it can generate unexpectedly complex dynamics.
The code was influenced by the way the C. elegans’ neurons activate and communicate with each other through electrical impulses.
Hasani structed his neural network so that the parameters can change over time based on the results of a nested set of differential equations.
This allows it to continue learning after the training phase, making it more resilient to unexpected situations, like heavy rain covering a camera on a self-driving car.
Avian enthusiasts were excited to hear that a magnificent snowy owl has visited Central Park in Manhattan. Spectators flocked to the park to catch a glimpse of a rare bird that has not been seen in the area since 1890. This is because snowy owls prefer colder and more rural environments, such as upstate New York and Long Island, as My Modern Met details:
Thanks to a long history of birding in Central Park, records of avian encounters could be consulted to date the last known sighting to 130 years ago exactly. Supposedly, 1890 was a banner year for sightings of this member of the raptor family all along the east coast.
Experts identified the snowy owl as a young female based on her black markings. The species hunts small rodents, but can also prey on larger mammals such as rabbits. Although the young owl appears to have just stayed briefly in the park, she was never lacking for company. Excited New Yorkers observed her from a distance, kept back by the winter fencing around the baseball field. According to the The New York Times, the Parks Department only had to interfere once to prevent the owl being disrupted.
The elegant owl had no such luck with her fellow birds. A territorial red-tailed hawk flew close to attempt to chase off the arctic intruder, but her feathers were only a little bit ruffled. She had to flap her wings to shoo away a group of crows who similarly took exception with her presence. Raptors such as snowy owls sometimes hunt crows, leading to a natural animosity.
I can tell you what it was like, because 1977 is when I first saw Star Wars. I had missed the hype, because I was in college and saw no TV all that year. But some friends I worked with during the summer back in Kentucky insisted I go with them to see Star Wars. I had no particular expectations, but when the Imperial Star Destroyer filled the big screen during the opening scene, and got bigger, and bigger, and bigger, I knew it was something special. We went back to see it again and again, even though that meant an hour-long drive to the theater each time. I was hooked. This video gives the perspective of different people who recall their first impressions.
Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Ultra has been getting a lot of attention for its very detailed moon photos thanks to its 100x ‘space zoom’ feature. While some are impressed, some are also skeptical as to the authenticity of the photos taken with the phone. Comparing the phone’s performance with the iPhone 12 Pro Max, the Galaxy S21 Ultra got the details of the moon’s surface, while the iPhone produced a blown-out orb. The stark difference in quality makes people question the authenticity of the photos taken with the Samsung model. Input magazine’s Raymond Wong investigates whether or not Samsung was faking the 100x Moon photos from the S21 Ultra.
An Aztec sculpture depicting a golden eagle has been discovered in Mexico. The 600-year-old sculpture, which measures 41.7 inches by 27.6 inches (106 by 70 centimeters), was carved into the floor of a structure at the foot of Templo Mayor, the temple that was built at the heart of Tenochtitlán, as Live Science detailed:
Artists created the bas-relief — a type of sculpture with raised images carved out of a stone background — in the mid-15th century during the reign of Moctezuma I.
Archaeologists from INAH discovered the carving in February 2020 as a part of the ninth season of the Templo Mayor Project, an ongoing excavation of the sacred site.
"It is a very beautiful piece that shows the great secrets that the Templo Mayor of Mexico Tenochtitlán has yet to reveal to us," Alejandra Frausto Guerrero, Mexico's secretary of culture, said in a statement. "Thanks to their [the archaeologists'] effort and dedication, we can continue to recover our history and our memory."
Sienna is 18 years old. That's very elderly for a dog. She's blind, but still eager to move around. How did owner Chad Lalande prevent Sienna from bumping her head into things? He designed and 3D printed this hoop.
Yes, there are headhoops for blind dogs on the market. But they're far too big for the little Pomeranian and Sienna is intolerant of anything that mounts on her head. So Lalande designed one that fits Sienna's little size and rests on a harness. Gizmodo reports:
In his design, your pet’s head goes through the center hoop, which is surrounded by a larger hoop held in place by an arm that goes over the top. The rest of the device fits over the back of your pet and has three slots to slide harness straps through to attach it.
Sienna mostly approves, too:
The finished product successfully protects her from bumping into things while still allowing her to prance about as she pleases. The only downside is that it works a little too well—she can’t get to her food or water bowl with the safety hoop on, so it needs to be periodically taken off throughout the day, Lalande said. Oh, and the jury is still out as far as Sienna herself is concerned.
“Sienna is still getting used to wearing it, but she complains less about it now,” Lalande said. “She’s 18 years old so she may not be around much longer, but if I can make her more comfortable in the time she has, all the better.”
Almost all the US presidents had pets in the White House of one kind or another. As you might expect, dogs and cats are the most common, but over the years, presidential pets have included cows, horses, goats, pigs, sheep, rabbits, bears, a hippo, a hyena, a raccoon, all kinds of birds from a macaw to a mockingbird, mice, and silkworms. At least two presidents had pet opossums.
No pet in presidential history embodies America in all its disgusting glory quite like Billy Possum, Herbert Hoover’s possum. A few years before Hoover’s arrival in D.C., pet superfan Grace Coolidge saved a raccoon on its way to the Thanksgiving table, named it Rebecca, and built it a treehouse, where it happily lived out the Coolidge administration. When the Coolidges left the White House, so did their pet racoon, leaving an empty racoon-sized treehouse on the White House lawn.
Enter Billy Possum. In some accounts, he was caught by White House staff on the grounds and then deliberately allowed to live in Rebecca’s treehouse; in others, he just asserted squatter’s rights, possum style.
But even the more mundane pets had their days.
George Washington had several dogs with memorable names—Sweetlips, Drunkard, Tippler, and Tipsy, to name a few—but only one dog who stole an entire ham, making Vulcan the obvious leader of the pack. An account of Vulcan’s heist is found in the memoirs of George Washington’s son George Washington Parke Custis.
Douglas Hughes built a kinetic sculpture of the TV game show Jeopardy! featuring the late host Alex Trebek. Three notable contestants work their buttons while Trebek moves around reading the questions. Add a little audio track from a real Jeopardy! game, and the whole thing comes to life. You can read the specifications of the build at BrickNerd. -via Boing Boing
