The 1985 Mississippi public television production Tomes & Talismans is a wonder to watch.

As a librarian, I can really appreciate it. One of my principles of collection development is that it should be possible to rebuild human civilization up to the level of 19th Century America from the information contained in the print collection of any mid-sized library. I have used this principle to argue for retaining old, uncirculated books, such as general encyclopedias of science and engineering, which would be essential for the reconstruction of a destroyed human society.

Thus Tomes & Talismans strikes a chord with me. The 13-episode series, which you can watch for free here, depicts an Earth conquered by alien colonizers called the Whipers. Humanity has chosen to evacuate to another star system. One librarian has remained behind in order to ensure that her library's collection has been preserved and its organization scheme made comprehensible to future generations.

I have watched only the first episode, but it appears that the show tells a dystopian science fiction story while teaching viewers how to make find available information in typical public libraries.

-via reddit

Halloween may be a day where many of us wear costumes that make us look like monsters, zombies, witches, and ghosts, but for this group of people in Japan, they wear scarier costumes. What do they wear? Mundane costumes that reflect daily life and reality. And if reality doesn’t scare you, then I don’t know what will.

Learn more details about Jimi Halloween, and check out the costumes, too, over at Spoon & Tamago.

(Image Credit: memedsn/ chica_1107/ purin_hayasaka/ Spoon & Tamago)

Tadas Maksimovas, an artist and art director, used 10 years of his own hair growth to string a violin while the hair was still on his head. Then Eimantas Belickas, a violinist, performed on this somewhat cumbersome but creatively designed violin. At the end, rather than unstring the violin, Maksimovas sacrificed his locks for the good of the art and music worlds.

Now more than ever, a lot of people are looking at art as a means to help them retain their sanity during these troubling times. If you’re looking for other things to browse on the Internet to take your mind off your problems , why not stare at calming pieces of art? Check out Art Net’s list of calming art works, from paintings of the ocean to a sculpture of Buddha, hopefully these artworks can help you out! 

Image via Art Net 

Are these actually birds? While these birds share the basic characteristics of  birds, some of their features can make people take a second glance at them. Check out this list by Fodors that features the eleven weirdest birds on the planet. My favorite odd bird is the one with the mohawk. Which one is yours?

Image via Fodors 

Apple is the one tech company that almost everyone praises for its design and aesthetic prowess. But of course, the owners and managers of the company are human, and are sure to create something that the market won’t like. The company’s phone accessories for the new iPhone 12 range aren’t as popular as they thought they would be. One accessory in particular has been catching the Internet’s disdain: 

One of the main new features of the iPhone 12 is its magnet-powered MagSafe feature, which allows accessories to snap onto the back of the phone. These include chargers, cases and even card holders – but a serious design flaw with the latter suggests that even if it's one of the best camera phones, the iPhone 12 might not be the best choice of wallet.

A hands-on video by MacRumors has revealed that when it comes to protecting your credit cards, the iPhone 12 MagSafe wallet is anything but safe. While the magnets are strong enough to adhere to the back of the phone while it is "shaken vigorously," that changes when the wallet is tapped – it many cases it simply "pops right off".

Users have made their feelings known in the comments of MacRumors' video. "Could this be the worst idea for a product Apple has had in decades?" One user asks, while another adds, "That's a design failure. When did they come up with this? Two hours before the keynote?" One even goes so far as to call it the "biggest over-promise/under-deliver by Apple in a long time".

Image via Creative Bloq 

The term comfort food was used for foods that we eat in times when we want to feel better. We usually eat these when we are stressed, and when the going gets tough. Indeed, comfort food will be there for us in times of trouble. Why? Because they were themselves created during historic times of discomfort.

The periods of adversity that bred these scrappy dishes came and went, but the foods are here to stay. They’re ingrained in family recipes, local food lore, and regional menus, but not as relics of anguish or curios of hardship. They live on as beloved weapons, instrumental in the fight against despair, distress, and hunger. Born of discomfort they become, against all odds, our comfort foods—so ubiquitous and widely loved today that we lose sight of the fact that they emerged from utter destitution.

Atlas Obscura tells us the origin stories of the Goetta, the Ranfañote, the Tomato Soup Cake, as well as the Doodle Soup, the Hoover Stew, and the Crumble-In. Read their stories over at the site.

(Image Credit: David Berkowitz/ Wikimedia Commons)

While the post title seems quite normal for a Cyriak video, that's not what this is. Surrealist animator Cyriak Harris suffered heart attack a few days ago. He related the story at Twitter.

So, I had a heart attack the other day. It was horrible. Don't ever have a heart attack. If you want to know what one feels like, imagine an elephant standing on your chest until the pain spreads up through your jaws like you have toothache in all your teeth at the same time

— cyriak harris (@cyriakharris) November 4, 2020

For the second year in a row, despite many people agreeing, I have been the only one at work to dress up for Halloween pic.twitter.com/0IqXpKwunH

— Melanie Bracewell (@meladoodle) October 30, 2018

Have you ever had a dream that you wore an elaborate Halloween costume to school or work, and found you were the only one who dressed up? The reason you had this anxiety is because it happens a lot. The reason the other people didn't dress up for the occasion is probably because they had this same anxiety. This goes for "crazy hair day" and other promotions as well. If it happens, the best thing to do is have fun anyway and make sure to take pictures.

(Image credit: IKnowForAFactThatYouDontParty)

Don't ever let your anxiety, or the hangups of other people, keep you from being a pig or a carrot on the one day a year when it is totally appropriate to be something ridiculous. We will look forward to your posts about it someday after the trauma wears off. See 44 incidences in which only one person dressed up at Bored Panda.

Peter Goicouria loves cats, and he would always talk about adopting a black cat. So when his roommate found a litter of black kittens, the roommate picked out one of them for himself, and another one to give to Peter as an early birthday gift. When Peter saw the black kitten, he couldn’t help but burst into tears.

And, as you’ll see, she was the greatest gift of all:

Meeting the kitten for the first time felt "overwhelming and genuine," Goicouria told The Dodo.

He named her Monday.

Wholesome.

(Image Credit: u/peglegpete/ Reddit)

(Image Credit: Peter Goicouria/ The Dodo)

Scientists have recently identified a bacterium which could pave the way towards new treatments to Alzheimer’s disease. The bacterium, called rhizolutin, is produced by a Streptomyces strain, and grows in the root zone of ginseng plants, a plant used as traditional medicine in Asia.

Through cultivation in a medium fortified with ginseng powder, the researchers were able to increase the rhizolutin production of the bacterium by a factor of ten. This allowed them to determine the structure of this novel compound, which turns out to be a unique framework made of three rings bound together (a 7/10/6-tricyclic dilactone flanked by a seven-membered and a six-membered lactone ring).

A screening of natural product libraries indicated that rhizolutin is a drug lead that can dissociate amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques and tau tangles (fiber-like aggregates of tau proteins), both of which are typical hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease.

Exciting!

Learn more details about this study over at Neuroscience News.

(Image Credit: Neuroscience News)

I really am amazed with artists. Their imagination knows no bounds, and they can make their visions come true thanks to their incredible skills, which they honed for hundreds, or even thousands of hours.

This person has made a tiny car out of mostly popsicle sticks, and did so without using power tools! Look at all those grooves and curves, as well as the tiny details, like the cargo carrier on the roof.

You can also watch how the car was made here.

(Image Credit: u/ReighDoren/ Reddit)

If I get a master's degree in this subject, will I become a hokage (you know, the head of the ninja village from Naruto)? All jokes aside, it’s a surprise that a university actually offers a ninja studies program! Genichi Mitsuhashi, the first graduate of the ninja studies degree program at Mei University in Japan, was recently awarded his masters in ninja studies, as My Modern Met details: 

As one of their earliest students, Mitsuhashi had to pass examinations in Japanese history and reading tests in ninja documents for admission. The course of study is primarily historical, although strategies of stealth and survival are also taught. Students are not required to be ninjas, but Mitsuhashi has devoted his life to the study and practice of the ancient art. While he hopes to complete his PhD in ninja studies, he lives the day-to-day life of many past ninjas. In the morning, he farms, followed by training and martial arts in the afternoon. He also runs a local inn using the produce he grows.

If you would like to learn more about the history of ninjas, International Ninja Research Center provides a number of online resources. And for more quick snippets of ninja history, ThoughtCo wrote an informative piece on famous ninjas (including women) who made history.

Would you apply to the program if you were given a chance?

Image via My Modern Met

With the arrival of next-generation consoles such as the PS5, people will always seek features that can make gaming more accessible for all types of gamers. Sony has revealed their next gen console’s accessibility features, including old features from the PS4 such as  text to speech, inverting colors, and enabling custom button configurations. New features include one of the new console’s biggest innovations, speech to text, as NME details: 

Users will be able to use speech to conjure messages on screen with the DualSense’s built-in microphone, negating the need to use the controller to manually type.

For those who are visually impaired, a screen reader is said to provide “blind and low vision users with options to hear on-screen text”, whilst also ensuring that “deaf and hard of hearing users can type text messages, which will be spoken out loud to other party members”. Both of these functions will support a range of languages.

With the custom button configurations and closed caption features of the PS4 making a return, the PS5 will now also be able to support colour correction, which Sony has said will give owners the ability “to adjust colour, and in supported games, game presets will allow users to customize their common settings in advance.”

Image via NME 

If you haven’t seen all the videos, articles, and tweets about the new free-to-play RPG called Genshin Impact, consider yourself saved. I’m kidding. If you like playing open world games, maybe this game is right up your alley. Here’s a warning though : this game has gacha (a system where the player needs the in-game currency to get a chance to roll for an in-game character). Gacha gets addictive the more time, money, and prayers you’ve given it just to get your favorite character. This YouTuber spent a whopping $2,000 to get the game’s new character named Klee. But that was just a start of a long discussion and commentary concerning Genshin Impact’s gacha system: 

Not long after spending those thousands of dollars, the Canadian YouTuber uploaded another video stating he regretted all of it and, adding salt to the wound, he now believed the character “sucks.”

The thumbnails, while provocative when lined up to one another, didn’t tell the whole story. You can’t get the entire tale from watching the videos now, either, because he’s deleted some of them following backlash from viewers. Speaking to Polygon over Discord, Tash says that the money had all come from his YouTube earnings from covering Genshin Impact. It was, in other words, a business expense that did not reflect on how deeply the gacha game cut into his wallet.

But this series of events sparked heated discourse over Genshin Impact, its business practices, and how exploitative a gacha game can be when there’s less than a 1% chance of winning any given powerful character. In follow-up videos, Tash claimed that viewers warned him that he may have a gambling addiction, though he denied to Polygon that this was the case. Instead, Tash says he felt the game was “scummy” from the start, though he failed to reconcile during our conversation why he chose to move forward with the game anyway.

Image via Polygon