We had wild imaginations when we were still kids. Often we get scared and we tell our spooky experiences to our parents. Then they would check our rooms, assure us that our room is safe, and those experiences are only “our imaginations.” But this isn’t the case for the family of Caitlin Burch in Sunbury, Ohio.

… last summer her seven and 10-year-old daughters came into her bedroom one night and told her that there was something in their room. She said the girls used the words "creature" and "rat" to describe the animal.

…

Her husband Brian then checked the room but didn't find anything, and told their girls it was probably nothing.

A few days after her kids complained about a "creature", Burch said her 10-year-old daughter came into their room at two in the morning screaming that it was an opossum. Her husband got out of the bed to check things out, and that's when he discovered their girls were right. The "creature" that had been living in their daughters’ room was actually an opossum

Caitlin tweeted this unusual, but funny event.

Parents, please thoroughly check your kids’ bedrooms before dismissing the case.

(Image Credit: Caitlin Burch/ Twitter)

You’ve read it correctly. These are spheres that can “walk”, or rather, “glide” on water. Utah State University Splash Lab’s researchers discovered this new mode of water surface skipping.

In collaboration with scientists at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, R.I., and Brown University, Utah State University Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Tadd Truscott and his associates at USU's Splash Lab have unraveled the physics of how elastic spheres "walk" on water. Their findings were recently published in the prestigious research journal Scientific Reports.

Using high-speed cameras, Truscott recorded the elastomeric spheres as they skip over the tank of water.

"Although this has been a long study, the new modes we discovered make it easier for us to envision using the technology for practical uses like water-walking drones," Truscott said.

Do you think they might make water-walking shoes in the future?

(Image Credit: Utah State University)

Munira Abdulla, who was 32 years old at the time of her traffic accident in which she was seriously injured in 1991, woke up after 27 years from her coma.

… [she] suffered a severe brain injury after the car she was travelling in collided with a bus on the way to pick up her son from school.

Omar Webair, who was then just four years old, was sitting in the back of the vehicle with her, but was left unscathed as his mother cradled him in her arms moments before the accident.

Ms Abdulla - who was being driven by her brother-in-law - was left seriously injured, but last year regained consciousness in a German hospital.

Omar shared this story to give hope to the people who have family members or friends who are in a coma. He pleads that they do not consider the person dead yet.

Find out more about the miracle on BBC.

(Image Credit: Science Photo Library / BBC)

The discovery of the dinosaurs may have led to the “Loch Ness monster delusion”. The Loch Ness monster legend in 1933 when George Spicer, a Londoner, claimed to have seen ‘the most extraordinary form of animal’ as he drove along a new road at Loch Ness, cross the street.

Standing four feet tall, and with a long wavy neck slightly thicker than an elephant's trunk the creature lurched off into the undergrowth and vanished, leaving behind only a legend that has endured for nearly 100 years.

Full story at the Telegraph.

(Image Credit: Robert Kenneth Wilson / Daily Mail April 21, 1934)

Oh, the irony!

This whole story by a man named David Whitlock, a 54-year old man who spent every money he had just to get patent filings on a type of bacteria that he hypothesized “would improve skin disorders, hypertension, and other health problems.”

“It was the most important thing I could work on,” Whitlock says. “But I knew I needed patents, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get anyone interested.” 

He even transformed his Dodge Grand Caravan into his house by squeezing his queen-size bed inside. He stored his lab equipment, on the other hand, inside the barn of his good friend, Walter “Hilly” Thompson. Whitlock would later then depend on Thompson to look for investors willing to invest in his crazy ideas, since Whitlock suffers from autism spectrum disorder.

Now Whitlock now lives in an apartment, and his ideas turned into a $100 million fortune, through the form of a startup company AOBiome Therapeutics, Inc.

The company is seeking to become the first to get Food and Drug Administration approval for pharmaceutical-grade topical live bacteria, with six clinical trials under way to treat acne, eczema, rosacea, hay fever, hypertension, and migraines.

AOBiome’s cosmetics branch, Mother Dirt, already counts tens of thousands of customers for its products, including the spray Whitlock developed from his bacterial elixir; they’re sold online, at natural beauty and food retailers, at Whole Foods Market stores in the U.K., and, starting in June, in the U.S. Several of Whitlock’s early investors are so enthusiastic about AOBiome that they’ve adopted his hygiene habits. “I haven’t used soap or shampoo or antiperspirant or deodorant or toothpaste or mouthwash in five or six years,” says entrepreneur and venture capitalist Lenny Barshack.

And now, big companies also want to do the same.

See the full story at Bloomberg.

(Image Credit:Brea Souders for Bloomberg Businessweek)

Do parking enforcement enforcers use chalk to mark your tires? Did you know that they may violating the Constitution when they do that? No? Now you know.

A federal appeals court ruled Monday that "chalking" is a violation of the Fourth Amendment.

The case was brought by Alison Taylor, a Michigan woman whom the court describes as a "frequent recipient of parking tickets." The city of Saginaw, Mich., like countless other cities around the country, uses chalk to mark the tires of cars to enforce time limits on parking.

Alison already received 15 tickets in just a few years. As she received the 15th, she decided to go after the city, specifically to the one who issued her 15 tickets, the parking enforcement officer and “prolific” chalker, Tabitha Hoskins.

"Trespassing upon a privately-owned vehicle parked on a public street to place a chalk mark to begin gathering information to ultimately impose a government sanction is unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment," Taylor's lawyer, Philip Ellison, wrote in a court filing.

How did the proceedings go? Find out on NPR.

(Image Credit: Raban Haajik/ Unsplash)

Known as the “coal country”, the area under the town of Centralia burned suddenly. Nobody knew how the fire under their town started. Local legend says that somebody accidentally ignited the underground layer of coal or seam when he burned trash near the mine shafts. But there is one thing the townspeople are certain of. Shortly before Memorial Day in 1962, a fire broke out in the town’s coal mine of near the Odd Fellows Cemetery.

It soon became obvious that even the most aggressive methods wouldn’t stop the spread of the flames. Residents would simply have to wait for the fire to burn itself out. 

Unfortunately for the townspeople, the fire outlasted them for the area was full of underground material just waiting to be ignited. Eventually, the people went out of Centralia by their own choice (some of them were bought out by the government), as the fire caused the opening of sinkholes and the release of toxic gases, making the town too dangerous. Some families would still dare to remain in the town, though.

This phenomenon would later spark curiosity within the scientific community within Pennsylvania, and outside Pennsylvania.

Find out what makes this town interesting on Wired.

(Image Credit: Aaron Muderick/ Quanta Magazine)

Depression cases have been growing in number around the world these past years. According to the World Health Organization, depression affects 300 million people worldwide. Also, according to them, around 800,000 people die each year due to suicide. That would be one person every 40 seconds. Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death in 15-29 years old. Already scientists are conducting numerous studies regarding this and how it can be solved. Then comes this weird helmet from BrainsWay, popularized by the now living meme Bre Hushaw.

Hushaw has been hearing from people all around the world who want to try it, or at least want to know how it works. Her life as a meme began when she agreed to an on-camera interview with the local-news site AZfamily.com for a story headlined “Helmet Approved by FDA to Treat Depression Available in Arizona.” The feel-good tale of Hushaw’s miraculous recovery from severe depression was tossed into the decontextualizing maw of the internet and distilled down to a screenshot of a young woman looking like a listless Stormtrooper.

Learn more about this depression helmet and how it works on The Atlantic.

(Image Credit: Bre Hushaw)

In their aim to reach the deepest parts of the 5 oceans in the world, Victor Vescovo, a diver from the Five Deeps Expedition, along with his team, was exploring 23,596 feet deep in the Indian Ocean, which is believed to be the ocean’s deepest part, when they spotted what seemed to be a new species of jellyfish or an unknown sea squirt.

The Five Deeps team captured footage of the creature, from DSV Limiting Factor, the world’s deepest diving, currently operational submarine, calling it an “extraordinary gelatinous animal” which “does not resemble anything seen before.”

The creature is believed to be a tunicate, particularly a stalked ascidean, also known as a sea squirt.

“Amongst many other rare and unique observations, the stalked Ascidean was a really significant moment,” Alan Jamieson, the expedition’s chief scientist, said in a statement. “It is not often we see something that is so extraordinary that it leaves us speechless. At this point we are not entirely sure what species it was, but we will find out in due course.”

Find out more about this mysterious creature on Geek.com.

(Image Credit: Five Deeps Expedition/ YouTube)

Hiking is a thrilling experience. It makes you appreciate the amazing things in life found in nature. And when you reach your destination, it is as if your exhaustion disappeared magically, and you would whisper to yourself, “This was worth it. This was worth the trip.” But how do you maximize this thrilling experience if you don’t know where to go? Thankfully, these guys made a list of the best place to hike in every state — from Alabama to Wyoming.

Do you agree with their list?

(Image Credit: Fredlyfish4/ Wikimedia Commons)

Now THIS is a selfie.

These gorillas, standing on two feet and seemingly imitating humans, pose for a selfie with the rangers who rescued them as kids.

The park's deputy director told BBC Newsday that they had learned to imitate their carers, who have looked after them since they were found.

The gorillas, he added, think of the rangers as their parents.

Innocent Mburanumwe, deputy director of Virunga, told the BBC that that the gorillas' mothers were both killed in July 2007.

The gorillas were just two and four months old at the time.

They were found shortly afterwards and taken to Senkwekwe Sanctuary in Virunga, where they still live up to this day.

Because they've grown up with the rangers who rescued them, Mr Mburanumwe added, "they are imitating the humans" - and standing on two legs is their way of "learning to be human beings".

"I was very surprised to see it... so it's very funny. It's very curious to see how a gorilla can imitate a human and stand up."

Fun as it may seem, the life of a ranger is not always fun. Sometimes a ranger’s life is greeted by death.

(Image Credit: Ranger Mathieu Shamavu/ BBC)

Why is the sun’s outer atmosphere hotter than its surface? This phenomenon may be explained by the “plasma rain” found pouring down on the surface. Fancy dancing in the (plasma) rain?

Compared to rain on Earth, plasma rain on the sun is millions of degrees Fahrenheit hotter. Also, plasma, which is an electrically charged gas, doesn't pool like water on Earth. Instead, the plasma traces the magnetic field lines, or loops, that emerge from the sun's surface, according to the statement.

In addition, the researchers found that plasma where the magnetic loops attach to the sun's surface is superheated, reaching over 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit (1 million degrees Celsius). This superhot plasma expands up the loop and gathers at the structure's peak. As the plasma cools, it condenses, and gravity pulls it back down the loop, creating coronal rain, according to the statement.

More of this literally hot news in Space.com.

(Image Credit: NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory/Scientific Visualization Studio/Tom Bridgman, lead animator)

Released back in the year 2016 for the promotion of the new movie entitled “Shin-Godzilla”, these Kaiju (meaning “giant monsters”) figurines were sold as gachapon (meaning “vending-machine dispensed capsuled toys”) for ¥300 (around $2.68) each.

The art of the apology – it’s an integral part of Japanese culture that helps maintain balance and harmony in society. Combining that with kaiju figurines is this brilliant little set of toys that feature the likes of Godzilla and Mechagodzilla apologizing at a press conference, head hanging solemnly, for the destruction they’ve caused.

They included Godzilla apologizing for destructive vandalism (破壊行為), Mechagodzilla for imitation and copyright infringement (模倣行為) and King Gidra for aggressive invasion (侵略行為).

The said kaiju have been pulled out from the mainstream market, but enthusiasts can still buy them via secondary markets such as Amazon, but for a higher price, of course.

(Image Credit: Spoon & Tamago)

Before humans was nature. Without the natural environment, humans would not have lived and had no chance roaming the Earth. But now, we humans have populated the Earth and we have made technological innovations through the course of time. But all of those technological innovations, breakthroughs, and inventions have a heavy price, and that price would be the Earth’s one and only Mother Nature — the very environment who freely gives us its plants and animals. This brings us to a question: can human beings and nature co-exist? Do we humans protect nature, or are we destroying it?

That’s the conceit of Atmos, a new magazine launched this month that’s an “exploration of climate and culture.” The first issue focuses on the theme of neo-natural—an idea about how (or even whether) humanity and nature can co-exist anymore—and among the features is a series of photographs of the Amazon rainforest by Daniel Beltrá. The Spanish-American photographer’s work reveals how nature is ceding ground, both literally and figuratively, to the built environment.

The images show the stark lines of farmers’ fields pushing against the unruly Amazon rainforest, mines carved into hillsides, logs stacked in a manmade clearing, or a pancaked brazil nut tree outlined by tractor tracks like chalk outlining a murder victim. They also show how the divide between the built and natural environment can sometimes smear together, with trees popping out raw dirt or a flock of scarlet ibises crosses the flooded Amazon lowlands.

Below are some of the stunning images by photographer Daniel Beltrá.

We have only one Earth. Let us not abuse it.

More of these at Earther.

(Image Credit: Daniel Beltrá / Atmos)

Like any other camera, it snaps photos. However, its outputs are not photos, but sketches. Depending on the complexity of the photo, the developing time lasts approximately 15 mins to an hour. Still faster than film, though.

Photos are processed down to 240x144 pixel 1-bit (black & white) line drawings using “Pillow” and “OpenCV” and then translated into plotter commands by building a network graph representation with “networkx”. The Etch-A-Sketch wheels are driven by two 5V stepper motors mounted into a custom 3D printed frame. The Etch-A-Snap is entirely portable and powered by 4xAA batteries & 3x18650 LiPo cells.

Check the other video examples at Two Bit Arcade.

(Video Credit: Two Bit Arcade / YouTube)