A new Japanese invention aimed at single men simulates holding a woman’s hand. https://t.co/djKqUmv35b pic.twitter.com/1NHKD3VrkM

— New York Post (@nypost) November 16, 2020

What's it like to have a girlfriend? For years, people on the internet have speculated about this hypothetical experience. Japan has long been at the forefront of attempting to simulate this fantasy with advanced technology by creating a kissing machine, a robotic girlfriend, augmented reality girlfriends, virtual reality girlfriends, a hugging coat, and DVDs in which a girl willingly engages you in conversation. Verily, Japan is a land of wonders where romantic encounters of a sort can actually happen to you and me.

Would you like to hold hands with a girl someday? Well, yes, of course, we all would. But let's be realistic: that sort of thing only happens in the movies. For the best alternative experience, we'll need this new hand holding robot. Sora News 24 reports about how responsive it is:

1. The outer covering is made from soft and pliable gel, to recreate “the tenderness of a woman’s hand.”

2. Osampo Kanojo contains an internal pressure sensor, so that when you squeeze its palm, motors activate and the hand squeezes you back.

3. When walking with a girlfriend, your strides may not perfectly mesh for each and every step. To replicate this, the Osampo Kanojo is mounted on a track that runs perpendicular to your wrist. Walk too quickly, and motors will cause it to slide back, creating a rearward tugging sensation on your arm. While this might seem like an inconvenience, it helps create the sensation that you’re walking with someone who’s taking their own steps next to you, and not just carrying a piece of baggage.

4. Osampo Kanojo has an internal heater, so that warmth will radiate out from its palm and fingers.

5. A human hand isn’t dry like a chunk of plastic or mound of rubber. While a hand that’s slick with sweat would be unpleasant, a certain amount of moisture is needed for an organic feeling. To achieve that, a piece of moistened fabric is placed inside Osampo Kanojo, and when the heater is activated, it causes trace amounts of moisture to be secreted through small pores in the outer covering.

6. As discussed above, two people walking hand-in-hand won’t necessarily have identically timed footsteps, so Osampo Kanojo plays the sounds of your virtual girlfriend’s steps through your smartphone’s speaker, along with the sounds of her breathing and the gentle rustle of her clothing.

7. Last, we weren’t kidding when we mentioned that the designers have included something for your sense of smell. The cloth inside Osampo Kanojo is treated with a women’s shampoo fragrance, so that the subtle aroma of freshly washed hair will waft up from it when the cloth is heated.

-via David Burge

This dog thinks the man on tv is playing fetch with him 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/xhf0gp98Q0

— Theo Shantonas (@TheoShantonas) November 15, 2020

This viral video of unknown origin shows a dog that is fortunate to not actually be playing fetch with darts. Like any sensible person, he leaves fantasy and reality undifferentiated. Or, perhaps, his televised companion is playing "fake throw", as dog owners are prone to do.

-via Geekologie

What's the funniest movie you've ever seen? Comedy is certainly subjective, but a well-crafted funny film that appeals to many is likely to become a hit, then a classic. It may even become a standard bearer for the humor of its era. This list of the 30 best comedies is in chronological order instead of rank, so you can read through the history of cinematic comedy, while reading what made each movie great and seeing a clip besides. It's over at Mental Floss.

Random Street View is a fun internet toy. When you click on the button marked "Next", the website will take you to a random location visible on Google Street View.

You get $5,000,000 but you are obligated to live 10 years in a randomly chosen place on earth.

What place did you get? https://t.co/d2PNQOdAGW

(Screenshot your results)

— Danny (@dahomes) November 12, 2020

One Twitter user suggests using Random Street View as a game. My first landing was a village in western Ukraine. I think that I'd be happier in Copenhagen.

-via Aaron Starmer

We know from our science classes that the universe is made up of “fundamental” particles, but have you ever wondered what exactly is a particle? When we ask the question “what is a particle?”, the usual answers that we get are “electrons”, “photons”, and “quarks”, which are examples of “fundamental” particles in the universe. But what, exactly, is a particle?

“We basically think of a particle as a pointlike object,” said Mary Gaillard, a particle theorist at the University of California, Berkeley who predicted the masses of two types of quarks in the 1970s. And yet particles have distinct traits, such as charge and mass. How can a dimensionless point bear weight?

“We say they are ‘fundamental,’” said Xiao-Gang Wen, a theoretical physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “But that’s just a [way to say] to students, ‘Don’t ask! I don’t know the answer. It’s fundamental; don’t ask anymore.’”

When Natalie Wolchover has asked some particle physicists about the definition of a particle, the physicists she asked gave “remarkably diverse descriptions”.

They emphasized that their answers don’t conflict so much as capture different facets of the truth. They also described two major research thrusts in fundamental physics today that are pursuing a more satisfying, all-encompassing picture of particles.

“‘What is a particle?’ indeed is a very interesting question,” said Wen. “Nowadays there is progress in this direction. I should not say there’s a unified point of view, but there’s several different points of view, and all look interesting.”

Know more about the different points of view of what a particle is over at Quanta Magazine.

(Image Credit: Pixabay)

I remember being amazed as a kid when my classmates brought one of these bad boys into the school one day. Back then, I used to wonder what material the slap bracelet was made of. Now, I know the answer. I finally know the secret of the slap bracelet.

(Image Credit: u/craigzerz/ Reddit)

You might not ever get the opportunity to take jetpack lessons, so Tom Scott went through the experience to show us what it's like. Gravity Industries won't let you go off on your own in the first lesson, which is honestly a good call. Just don't aim those jet engines at your feet!

There may be a Harry Potter fan, or five, in my household. I don’t know if that makes me biased in a good way or a bad way against all things Harry Potter. Let’s just say that my expectations are high when it comes to this extraordinary world created by the legendary J.K. Rowling.

Moreover, I also might have a warped sense of what makes for a good pop-up book. You see, I actually inherited a vast collection of pop-up style books. Some are actually done in collaboration with paper engineer Matthew Reinhart. Those books now sit in a beautifully color coordinated row on my bookshelf thanks to a certain show that I binge watched at the end of summer. Some of those pop-up books are exceedingly complex. Some of the books in my collection are more simple, but feature beautiful illustrations. All of these pop-up books hold a special place in my heart for the varying ways that they are engineered to deliver information.

Given my inherent leanings and predispositions I promise to “try” to still give my fair assessment of Harry Potter A Pop-Up Guide to Diagon Alley and Beyond by the incredibly talented Matthew Reinhart. I will also try to keep my Harry Potter fan-girling to a minimum.

Harry Potter A Pop-Up Guide to Diagon Alley and Beyond definitely makes an extraordinary first impression. The book is large and weighty. It is probably one of the bigger pop-up books I have seen. The front, back, and spine of the book are covered with gorgeous illustrations. The title of the book and a few other details are printed in metallic gold which provides a bewitching contrast to the more muted and earthy colors of the illustrations.

When you first open the book the amount of detail is almost overwhelming. You are immediately transported to Diagon Alley. There you will find Flourish & Blotts and Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. Here I counted no less than 5 pull tabs. Each tab opens up to expose elements and images from the Harry Potter films. As you pull the tabs you really need to make sure the book is fully opened as many of these hidden images and dimensional effects need room to emerge.

As you continue on through the book you will find Gringotts and The Vaults. The Gringotts Bank actually opens vertically to reveal the vault. The page extends well above, and slightly below,the confines of the book. The image pop-up engineering here is quite impressive. The only slight downside being that it is hard to close. I definitely struggled to get everything back into place and worried that I would rip something in the process. Pop-up books as most everyone knows are notoriously delicate.

In the book you will also find pages dedicated to Knockturn Alley and Ollivanders, Hogwarts Express and Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, and The Ministry of Magic. All are equally stunning. All the pages feature hidden surprises, hauntingly beautiful imagery, and lovely sections of text.

What’s most impressive about this pop-up book, however, is that the entire book is designed to unfold out into a table top pop-up diorama that is approximately 48” x 21.” Thankfully instructions are provided for this process. I only wish, however, that more instructions were provided for the Gingotts Bank and Vault section of the book. I really struggled with putting that section back together.

The book is illustrated by the marvelous Kevin M. Wilson. Likely you have seen his work before, but just don’t know it. Kevin Wilson has done work for Universal Studios, Disney, Paramount Pictures, Marvel, and more. Kevin Wilson does not disappoint. His illustrations here are hauntingly beautiful and really transport you to all these locations.

I don’t think that any Harry Potter fan or pop-up book collector would be disappointed to add Harry Potter A Pop-Up Guide to Diagon Alley And Beyond to their collection. The book's unique ability to turn into a 4ft long 3D model with additional paper characters makes the book truly one of a kind. I think it’s fair to say that this would be a treasured, albeit delicate, gift for those who love the Harry Potter film franchise or pop-up books.

Get the book here: Amazon (affiliate)

The first manned space flight by a private company began on Sunday when the SpaceX Crew Dragon lifted off with four astronauts bound for the ISS. The astronauts are Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Soichi Noguchi, plus a very special little fella, The Child that we call Baby Yoda.  

The Baby Yoda plush had a very important role to play during the flight: he was acting as the “zero-gravity indicator,” an object that is brought on board to determine when a microgravity environment has been reached.

See a video of Baby Yoda floating in microgravity, plus a related clip from The Mandalorian at Geeks Are Sexy.

Lightning is the most frequent natural cause of fires. According to the National Fire Protection Association, during 2007-2011, the local fire departments in the United States responded to about 22,600 lightning-caused fires annually. Lightning strikes have also caused many of the bushfires in Australia both last year and this year. With this being the case, scientists wonder: can we tame lightning? Turns out, we might.

A new laser tractor beam technology, described in a paper in the journal Nature Communications, may be the answer.

In a laboratory experiment, the team used a laser beam to trap and heat microparticles of graphene in the air between two metallic plates. This created a heated channel that induced lightning and allowed the electrical discharge to flow towards a pre-defined target.

“The experiment simulated similar atmospheric conditions to those found in real lightning,” says Vladlen Shvedov, co-author of the study from the Australian National University.

“We can imagine a future where this technology may induce electrical discharge from passing lightning, helping to guide it to safe targets and reduce the risk of catastrophic fires.”

More details about this over at Cosmos Magazine.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: WKIDESIGN/ Pixabay)

Verona, Italy, is the setting for Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet. In normal times, the city welcomes flocks of tourists who come to soak up the romantic atmosphere and visit the famous balcony to imagine Romeo declaring his love for Juliet. People also write letters to Juliet, 50,000 or so a year. These letters end up at a small archive called the Juliet Club, which is not as well publicized as the balcony, but still welcomes visitors. A group of volunteers answer the letters, with the help of crowdsourcing.  

Through a doorway under a sign for The Juliet Club and up a flight of stairs, the Secretaries of Juliet work out of a room filled with boxes and boxes of letters, the vast majority of which are handwritten and sent via post. Secretaries respond on official Club di Giulietta stationery and sign off as “Secretary of Juliet.” Anyone can drop in for a day to read and reply to letters as Juliet’s Secretary. Upon arrival, you’ll be led to the workroom and given a box of letters in the language of your choice to sort through until you find one that you want to respond to.

Reading through these notes is a veritable portrait of love in the world. There are letters about school-girl crushes and heartbreaking divorces, long-lost loves, indecision about staying or leaving, pregnancy, marriage, death, and everything in between. The tradition of answering them began in the 1930s when the keeper of Juliet’s tomb began collecting the letters left by visitors, and felt so moved by some of then, he decided to start responding.

Read about the Juliet Club and how it works at Messy Nessy Chic.

We know that there are millions of animal species in the world, and we know that species differ from one another, physiologically and anatomically speaking. With that in mind, it is unsurprising that we observe some species sleeping less, and others sleeping more, than others. But which animals sleep the least, and which animals sleep the most?

Learn the answers over at Discover Magazine.

(Image Credit: Pixabay)

Thanks to their fur, camels don’t sweat quickly, and they don’t easily run out of water. This is why these animals last long in the scorching desert. Inspired by this scientific fact, engineer Jeffery Grossman wondered if he could imitate the camel’s sweat glands and the insulating fur. As it turns out, he could, and the result is this new technology which “could be used to keep food and medical supplies chilled without requiring additional energy.”

For the bottom layer of the camel-inspired system, Grossman used hydrogel, a highly absorbent network of polymers that is super-charged with water. As water evaporates from hydrogel, the liquid cools the surface it’s on. The top layer Grossman created was composed of aerogel, a hydrophobic silica structure filled with tiny pores that make the material more than 90 percent air—earning the substance the title of “the world’s lightest solid.” Aerogel acts like the camel’s fur, insulating the hydrogel from warmer ambient temperature and slowing water evaporation for sustained cooling power.

[...]

To measure how the two-layer approach performed, Grossman and his team placed a heat sensor beneath the layers and placed the system in a humidity and temperature-controlled chamber. The sensor monitored the temperature beneath the hydrogel over time as liquid evaporated into the 86-degrees Fahrenheit chamber. The team compared their camel-inspired creation to a single layer of uncovered hydrogel. The two-layer system dropped the temperature near that of the hydrogel alone, but the duel layer kept that cooling power for much longer. Grossman found that the layered materials extended cooling time by 400 percent.

Learn more details about Grossman’s system over at Smithsonian Magazine.

Now that’s literally cool.

(Image Credit: Manuela_Burkhalter/ Pixabay)

Even though this is an ad, the Ghanian Coffin Dancers have the same message as always:

Wear a mask... or dance with us!

They have teamed up with Afrisocks to promote mask wearing, specifically masks that match your cool socks! They feature patterns named after Ghanian slang terms.

Boga: A Ghanian living abroad. 

Dumsor: A persistent, irregular, and unpredictable electric power outage.

Tro-tro: Privately owned minibus taxis.

No Wahala: No trouble.

You can order the masks, or matching masks and socks, here.  -via Digg

New Zealand's organization Forest & Bird takes their Bird of the Year (Te Manu Rongonui o Te Tau) competition seriously. When voter fraud was detected in the online poll to crown the winner, the organizers went to work immediately. In just two hours, 1500 votes for the the little spotted kiwi (kiwi pukupuku) came from the same email address.

The illegitimate votes briefly pushed the kiwi pukupuku to the top of the preferred bird leaderboard, but the votes have since been removed from the competition.  

“It's lucky we spotted this little kiwi trying to sneak in an extra 1500 votes under the cover of darkness!” says Laura Keown spokesperson for Bird of the Year.  

Emma Rawson, campaign manager for the little spotted kiwi disavowed the fraudulent rush of votes, saying, "Voter fraud is not the kiwi way." After the votes were counted (and discounted), the critically endangered kākāpō emerged as the winner. Still, they are all good birds. -via Mashable

(Image credit: Flickr user Jake Osborne)