What is it about cooking bacon that makes it smell so good?
The Reactions teamed up with the Compound Interest blog puts its nose into everyone’s favorite breakfast food. They break down the science of that sweet smell. So what is the secret? It’s the Maillard reaction or the chemical reaction that causes foods to turn brown while baking…
SEE ALSO: The chemistry of cookies
You will learn more by watching this video.
The world in which we live is full of wonderful places and unusual weather events that most of us do not know they really exist. From majestic waterfalls to mysterious landmarks and natural wonders, this is stunning collection of diverse landscapes and weather events found across the planet.
SEE ALSO: The most beautiful and breathtaking places in the world
These pictures are worth to be looked on. Enjoy!
Frank Medrano is an expert at calisthenics; gymnastic exercises designed to develop physical health and vigor. In this video he’s taping his superhuman training in Long Beach California. Medrano started training a decade ago, and since then is the only way of practice that he prefers because he can practice everywhere.
Just admire his body and flexibility!
SEE ALSO: 24 most hardcore strength and flex moves
Everyone loves a good gif, but did you know they can get so much better? People have been combining old gifs to make then much more interesting. I must admit, they are good at it!
SEE ALSO: Science in fascinating GIFs
Check out these hilarious combined GIFs. Because one GIF is never enough.
This infographic is a visual comparison of the world’s most impressive man-made structures.
The Tallest, Deepest, Longest, Most Voluminous and Most Expensive buildings, structures and excavations on the planet.
Each one stands as a testament to the ingenuity of human beings.
SEE ALSO: World’s most unusual buildings
Should you believe your ears and the things they hear? Illusions don’t have to just trick your eyes but also your ears!
Following the popularity of optical illusions, we have put together an amazing array of sound illusions. In these illusions, your mind is tricked in to thinking it is hearing something when, in fact, it is not.
SEE ALSO: Eye: optical illusion that causes natural hallucination
To get the most out of this list you should have a set of stereo headphones and a stereo sound system. Unless otherwise noted (before each audio file), you should listen to these sounds with your stereo. Laptop speakers are not suitable for most of these illusions.
This illusion was discovered by Diana Deutsch, and is an example of our brains “grouping” similar notes together. Two major scales are played: one ascending, one descending. However, the notes alternate from ear to ear – for instance, the right ear hears the first note of one scale, and then the second note of the other.
There are several ways in which people perceive these sounds, but the most common is to group the high and low notes together. Rather than hearing the two scales, people hear a descending and re-ascending melody in one ear, and an ascending and descending melody in the other. In other words, the brain reassigns some of the notes to a different ear in order to make a coherent melody. Right-handed people tend to hear the high melody in the right ear, and the low one in the left, while left-handers show a more diverse response. You can read more about this illusion here.
Some pieces of music consist of high-speed arpeggios or other repeating patterns, which change only subtly. If they’re played fast enough, the brain picks up on the occasional notes that change, and links them together to form a melody. The melody disappears if the piece is played slowly.
Compare these recordings of Christian Sinding’s Frühlingsrauschen (“Rustle of Spring”). At the higher speed, the changing notes linger in your perception long enough to be linked into a melody, but at the lower speeds they’re too widely separated.
This is a recording of Shepard’s paradox synthesized by Jean-Claude Risset. Pairs of chords sound as if they are advancing up the scale, but in fact the starting pair of chords is the same as the finishing pair. If you loop this sample seamlessly then it should be impossible to tell where the sample begins and ends.
This is a recording of a paradox where bells sound as if they are falling through space. As they fall their pitch seems to be getting lower, but in fact the pitch gets higher. If you loop this sample you will clearly see the pitch jump back down when the sample repeats. This reveals that the start pitch is obviously much lower than the finishing pitch.
This recording is subtle. A drum beat sounds as if it is quickening in tempo, but the starting tempo is the same as this finishing tempo. Listen carefully.
This is a demonstration of the stereo effect. Listening to it, you feel as though you are in a barber’s chair, with the barber moving around you, clipping away at your hair. As the barber “moves” to your right, the volume increases slightly in the right channel and decreases in the left. Similarly, increases in the volume of sound from the clippers give the impression that he is bringing them closer and closer to each ear. The illusion demonstrates our ability to locate sounds in space; by comparing the inputs to the two ears, we can work out where a sound is coming from.
NOTE: Listen through stereo headphones.
This, like the barbershop above, is another stereo illusion. In this illusion a man shakes a matchbox all around your body and lights matches occasionally.
NOTE: Listen through stereo headphones.
This illusion was also discovered by Diana Deutsch. In this recording, some people hear the two notes going from low to high, while others hear them going from high to low. The is a good one to listen to in a group so you can compare notes afterwards. The notes being played are called the tritone – it falls exactly in the middle of a standard musical scale. This note was once considered to be evil and was not used in music until modern times. You can read more about this here.
Wait! Do not play the clip above until you have read this text. When you play this clip for the first time, play it with your eyes closed. Listen to what the man is saying. Now, play it again with your eyes open. Do you hear BA-BA, GA-GA, or DA-DA? Most adults (98%) think they are hearing “DA” – a so called “fused response” – where the “D” is a result of an audio-visual illusion. In reality you are hearing the sound “BA”, while you are seeing the lip movements “GA”.
This illusion was first demonstrated by Diana Deutsch at the University of California, San Diego. The recording features overlapping sequences of repeating words or phrases, located in different regions of stereo space. As you listen to it, you’ll start to pick out specific phrases. However, none of the phrases are really there. Your brain is constructing them, in a bid to make sense of a meaningless noise. Indeed, you may find that the phrases you hear are related to what’s on your mind – for example, people who are dieting often hear phrases associated with food. This can be a very eerie experience.
NOTE: Listen through stereo separated loudspeakers, best placed some distance apart.
What is a CNC machine?
The abbreviation CNC stands for Computer(ized) Numerical(ly) Control(led), and refers specifically to the computer control of machine tools for the purpose of (repeatedly) manufacturing complex parts in metal as well as other materials, using a program written in a notation commonly called G-code. CNC was developed in the late 1940s and early 1950s by the MIT Servomechanisms Laboratory. CNC machines were relatively briefly preceded by the less advanced NC, or Numerical(ly) Control(led), machines.
Watch this Daewoo 2500 SY Cutting Demo from leading engineering firm Machined Component Systems.
Note! This video is mesmerizing!
Opening a bottle without the benefit of an opener is something that many aspire to, ideally suffering no chipped teeth. In fact, there are many ways to open a bottle. Almost anything, (from a household appliance to street furniture) can be used to get a bottle open. Here we explore different methods of opening bottles. All way better than a bottle opener.
SEE ALSO: 50 life hacks to simplify your world
Have a look at these examples of how to open a bottle of beer with just about anything. Safely, the right way. Enjoy and if you drink, don’t drive.
If you know any other method, please share it with us in comments.
What do you think about zoos? In my opinion there is many examples of ways in which zoos have failed the animals they claim to care about.
These sad and captivating photos tell the story of a Zoo like so many others. German photographer Elias Hassos perfectly captures the sadness of animals living in small cages – the boredom of spending every day of their entire life in the same spot and never knowing the feeling of freedom. The photos were published in German Greenpeace Magazine together with an article on the changing concept of zoos and their necessity.
For centuries, we’ve imprisoned animals in small cages just for our entertainment. Nowadays, more and more visitors feel compassion for caged animals – behavioral scientists criticize concrete enclosures and artificial light while radical animal rights activists call for an end to “life imprisonment.”
These photos raise questions about the necessity of zoos. The article in German Greenpeace Magazine states that we still need them for various reasons like education, research and the protection of endangered species, but the concept of what a zoo is has to change – and fast. Zoo directors in Germany have started a modern reform of zoos called “Zoos of the Future.” These modern zoos have more room for each animal, create an environment more similar to the animals’ natural habitats, and the animals spend less time locked up in cages. These zoos seem to transport exotic locations from Africa or Asia right into the center of Europe.
SEE ALSO: Circuses: How animals are trained and treated
Many zoos around the world are trying their best to adapt to the new standards, but many lack financing, and others just don’t see the point. The aim of these photos is to show them that the public responds very strongly to this issue, and to encourage them to join the revolution.
The solution is easy: Instead of supporting zoos, support organizations that help protect the animals in their natural habitat.
For more photos please visit Elias Hassos’ website
New-Zealand artist Henry Hargreaves has worked with the stylist Caitlin Levin and the graphic designer Sarit Melmed for the series “Food Maps”. They turned culinary stereotypes of countries and continents into beautifully detailed, edible maps.
SEE ALSO: National flags made from traditional foods
When traveling, experiencing local cuisine immerses you into a region’s customs. These maps help show how food has traveled across the globe through the years, and how people associate those foods with certain cultures.
For more please visit artist website
Enjoying your Internetting session? Perhaps watching this video with lots of tabs open and full of interesting things to check out. The Internet is amazing and that’s because of the rules which govern how it works, an important one of which is Net Neutrality: treating all data equally.
But some Internet Providers want to ditch this rule to insert themselves betwixt you and your data as the most meddlesome middlemen in human history — to their benefit and our detriment.
How? Watch this video and find out.
It turns out that frighten the reader does not have to take a lot of time. Fright can be caused by several nicely composed sentences.
Do not believe? Sit alone in the room, extinguish the light, start your imagination, then read the following two propositional fifteen horrors.
SEE MORE: 15 horror stories you can come up with in two sentences
It is hard to be amazed by anything you see on the internet these days, when you know for a fact that any teenager with a computer and a copy of Adobe Photoshop or other photo manipulation software can put together a fake photograph in a couple of minutes.
In fact, some of the most unbelievable, jaw-dropping of those photographs are, in fact, real. 25 of them can be found here.
SEE ALSO: 23 mind blowing facts that will destroy your understanding of time
What did you think? Do you have any of your own unbelievable photos, or stories of pictures you could have sworn were photoshopped but discovered to be real? Feel free to share in the comments.
Everybody has a different definition for the word “home.” For some, it’s the house they live in. Looking from a wider perspective home is the planet Earth. But like an earthworm in a soccer field, we really live in something much larger than any of those, something so vast it’s impossible to comprehend in any meaningful sense. And we’re not even talking about anything as grandiose as the universe—we just mean the Milky Way, our own little puff of dust amid the infinite sandstorm of known reality. Our galactic home.
SEE ALSO: Stunning 360° time-lapse of the Milky Way
Floating round our galaxy are billions of stars, thousands of alien societies, and liters of er… alcohol.
Watch the video to find out more incredible discoveries about the Milky Way.
Base jumper Dean Potter has gone on many adventures in his life — and now there’s video of him taking his dog along for the ride. Whisper, a 4-year-old miniature Australian cattle dog, is believed to be the first dog to go Base Jumping.
Potter strapped Whisper onto a pack on the back of his wingsuit — along with a GoPro camera — and then completed a jump from the side of the 13,020 foot Eiger mountain in Switzerland.
SEE ALSO: Spectacular and terrifying underwater base jump
The video has of course sparked a mix of reactions from totally impressed to horrified over the treatment of Whisper.
The sight of a Zeppelin under construction must have been an awe inspiring experience.
The hangars that were constructed for this purpose are the largest structures ever created and the lightness required for the Zeppelin frames meant that their trusses consisted of sophisticated aluminum struts where each strut was in turn another truss. The overall effect is of incredible complexity and detail, like a gigantic high-tech whale set in a space that resembles a Piranesi engraving of a dungeon with enormous shafts of sunlight lit by dust.
Because of their age, this technological look is combined with distinctly archaic elements, such as the gas bags which were made from thousands of cows’ stomachs (it took more than 250,000 cows to make one airship!) or the scaffolding and ladders which are wooden and rickety.
SEE ALSO: Build your own Wright Brothers flyer
The great German airships flew the rich and famous around the world. But when Hindenburg catastrophe (May 6, 1937) struck in Lakehurst the era of luxurious travel by dirigible was over.
Each of us has their own preferences. We have your favorite drinks and food. We use selected brands of products. We are faithful to our liking so it’s hard to convince us to change our mind.
Some of these brand rivalry become legendary. Coca-Cola and Pepsi have been battling each other for more than a century. The similar goes on with Apple and Windows.
Here are couple of things of the same type. Choose one of the two.
Thanks to social media and digital communication, abbreviations and poor grammar are infuriatingly commonplace. Just stop! Or continue being the subject of humiliation.
SEE ALSO: English is very funny language
These people attempted to use the English language and failed spectacularly.
This posts contains some of the greatest ideas known to man. Why didn’t we think of them sooner?
SEE ALSO: 27 Crazy Inventions From The Past
Maybe you’ll recognize something that you’ve always wanted to see, or maybe the pictures will get your juices flowing and inspire you to come up with or even invent something new.
Google recently tested a new self-driving electric car, which is a complete passenger experience.
That’s right, no steering wheel, brake peddle or anything that might hint at a manual take over. It was manufactured by an unnamed Detroit automotive company and that’s all we know about it’s builder specs. The car is about as basic as you can get sporting a couple of doors, seats and navigation.
Google is setting out to produce around 100 prototypes while having engineers work out the issues along the way. Scary. The good thing is that the prototypes will have manual override fail-safe protocols. The cars can cruise up to 25 MPH now, using Google’s sensors, lasers, radars and cameras to guide it’s way, ultimately creating the perfect passenger vehicle for transportation.
Watch volunteers take a ride in Mountain View, California.
Eating meat is delicious, it brings people together and according to our government it is also healthy.
Dog fighting is also fun, it brings people together, and what is unhealthy about it? Nothing is, except for the dog. Why do we care so much more about dogs than we do about a pig, cow or chicken on a factory farm?
Johnathan Safran Foer wrote a book called “Eating Animals” where he explores the many ways that animals are farmed. He brings the audience into the hellish life and death of 98% of farmed animals. A favorite quote form his book:
“What the meat industry figured out is that you don’t need healthy animals to make a profit. Sick animals are more profitable…Factory farms calculate how close to death they can keep animals without killing them. That’s the business model. How quickly they can be made to grow, how tightly they can be packed, how much or how little can they eat, how sick they can get without dying…We live in a world in which it’s conventional to treat an animal like a block of wood.”
- Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals. Chew on that. [via]
Since man first started looking up into the skies he saw things he couldn’t explain. For the last fifty years or so these things have taken on the label “UFOs.”
Originally an abbreviation for the Air Force term “Unidentified Flying Object”, it has become a synonym to most people for “Alien Spaceship”. For the Air Force, though, it is simply a term to refer to something in the skies that the observer can see but not recognize. Usually the explanation is less extraordinary than a flying saucer manned by visitors from other worlds. Often a weather balloon or natural phenomenon is the cause. However, there are cases on record where no good explanation was ever found.
Ten unsolved UFO cases that will leave your jaw dropping…
Putting fear into the heart of the bravest sailor, the Bermuda Triangle has been claiming lives for centuries.
Everyone has heard of the Bermuda Triangle and the mysteries that surround it. Theories about this area range from reasonable to just plain ridiculous, but whether you believe it’s the site of time warps, alien abductions, or just plain paranoia, it certainly abounds with strangeness.
Find out more about the sinister patch of ocean with these 10 weird facts.
This guy has been pranking random strangers for years. His funniest moments are so evil but so darn funny.
Regardless of political stance, no one can deny the joy felt upon seeing our troops coming home safely. It’s even better when they get to meet their children for the first time ever.
So tearful and beautiful to see this heartwarming reunions. Great moments!
The exoskeleton gives firefighters increased strength. The suit is designed to help with the huge amount of equipment firefighters need to carry. It allows firefighters to easily climbs dozens of flights of stairs without exhausting themselves. Researchers say the kit could be adapted for different missions and types of firefighter.
Joystick controls allow the firefighter to control the system, while a computer mounted on the back sends commands to the arms and legs. The device transfers its weight and oad directly to the ground, so firefighters dont bear the weight.
When not in use, the suits are relatively small are can be kept in a fire truck.
Civilians don’t miss war. But soldiers often do.
Journalist Sebastian Junger shares his experience embedded with American soldiers at Restrepo, an outpost in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley that saw heavy combat. Giving a look at the “altered state of mind” that comes with war, he shows how combat gives soldiers an intense experience of connection. In the end, could it actually be “the opposite of war” that soldiers miss?
SEE ALSO: Homeless army veteran timelapse transformation
A shocking new study across 100 countries showed that 1 in 4 people are anti-Semitic! In addition, almost half the world doesn’t know that the Holocaust happened!
SEE ALSO: World War 2 death count
Join Tara as she reports on this surprising news.
You can never be too sure with the products you’re using for your home, so it is always important that you should know whether the products you’re buying for your home are not only great for your bathroom, but also hazard-free for the environment. Forget the smell of harh chemicals when cleaning – you can clean just as effectively by combining just a few natural ingridients.
Here is an unique infographic guide to natural cleaning products, to help you make your own cleaning ones, simple and easily.
The Chaos is a poem by the Dutch writer and traveler, Gerard Nolst Trenité, which is meant to demonstrate the extreme irregularity of the English language. This classic English poem contains about 800 of the worst irregularities in English spelling and pronunciation.
See if you can pronounce the entire poem. If so… you’re doing better than 9 out of 10 people out there!
Read it aloud (good luck!):
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation — think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough –
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!
If you’re expecting a baby, then this post is for you. And for all of those, who already have a small baby at home … maybe you should go through this instructions again, just to make sure. Here is a few good suggestions and do’s and don’ts that will make you a better parent.
SEE ALSO: Dark side of having children
The pictures seem to be from a book by David and Kelly Sopp. If you like it, you can buy it on Amazon.
Melter 3D, an impressive liquid metallic sculptural animation by Takeshi Murata at Frieze New York 2014.
Presented as a single object under controlled lighting, Melter 3D by Takeshi Murata is a metallic sphere that produces the illusion of perpetual liquid flow across its surface. Combining Murata’s recent three-dimensional rendering (OM Rider, 2013) with his ongoing series of animations of hypnotic liquidity (Melter 1, 1997; Melter 2, 2003), Melter 3D blends Murata’s unique animation aesthetic with classical sculpture, creating an entirely new experience of animation in the round.
Tigers are fearsome jungle cats that are near-universal symbols of ferocity, strength and courage, but 57-year-old Janice Haley of Orlando, Florida has a different perspective on the matter. To her, they’re also cuddly kitties. When you see her play with her two pets, 400-pound Bengal tiger Janda and 600-pound white Bengal tiger Saber, you’ll understand why – they’re about as loving and playful as their tiny domesticated cousins.
“As far as they’re concerned, I am mommy,” explains Haley. “They rub me in the face, they’ll let me kiss them on the nose.” The two tigers live in an enclosure in her backyard and are fed by hand 3 times a day.
SEE ALSO: 7 weirdly awesome pets you can own
It all began in 1995, when Haley decided to quit her boring desk job and, at her husband’s advice, begin working with exotic animals. She has had quite a few different big cats since then, and plenty of volunteers to help take care of them and play with them as well.
“People who consider it cruel to keep them in captivity have a point, to a point,” conceded Haley. “It is not the ideal place for a tiger to be, in a cage. But at this point, in the wild, there isn’t a lot hope out there for them anymore, and if there aren’t some of them left in cages there aren’t going to be any left at all in a couple of years from now… They are provided for and loved here. In my opinion, I wouldn’t mind being a tiger in my backyard.”
This unusual “drill” is perfect gadget for summer. It solves the problem with hiding valuables when you are on the beach to protect them from sand and sun.
Simply screw the device into the sand, hide all valuables inside and then spin it. Then just cover it with beach towel. Your stuff will be safe.
North Korea isn’t a country. It’s an experience. The museums are so vast that they could engulf cathedrals; the immensely wide avenues give a new meaning to the word perspective and above all, the conversations with your North Korean guides are beyond anything Ionesco could’ve imagined.
It’s this amazement of the absurd that Eric Lafforgue was able to capture during his visits to the hermit state. His photos document an everyday life that seems to be split between the staggering and the downright scary when you consider how the citizens are caught beneath the weight of a family-run dictatorship, reigning without sharing since 1948.
This book is available for download here
How many times have you read that procrastination is just a characteristic of a lazy person? That people try to be “busy” rather than “productive”? That only happy-go-lucky hippies get to take a brain break from life?
For a few people, this may be true. But if we look a little deeper into why it happens, we can begin to see that it is actually our “smart” brains that make it happen. Learn more and understand the true nature of the problem.
The Science of Procrastination [Infographic] by the team at Agil8
The contest is a celebration of the ingenuity and creativity of the world’s premier visual illusion research community. Visual illusions are those perceptual experiences that do not match the physical reality. Our perception of the outside world is generated indirectly by brain mechanisms, and so all visual perception is illusory to some extent. The study of visual illusions is therefore of critical importance to the understanding of the basic mechanisms of sensory perception, as well as to cure many diseases of the visual system.
The visual illusion community includes visual scientists, ophthalmologists, neurologists, and visual artists that use a variety of methods to help discover the neural underpinnings of visual illusory perception.
These are the best illusions of the year 2014 Contest. The winner is Dynamic Ebbinghaus, a central circle, which stays the same size.
1st prize winner of the 2014 Best Illusion of The Year Contest
The Dynamic Ebbinghaus takes a classic, static size illusion and transforms it into a dynamic, moving display. A central circle, which stays the same size, appears to change size when it is surrounded by a set of circles that grow and shrink over time. Interestingly, this effect is relatively weak when looking directly at a stationary central circle. But if you look away from the central circle or move your eyes, or if the entire stimulus move across the screen, then the illusory effect is surprisingly strong — at least twice as large as the classic, static Ebbinghaus illusion.
Christopher D. Blair, Gideon P. Caplovitz, and Ryan E.B. Mruczek
University of Nevada Reno, USA, USA
2nd prize winner of the 2014 Best Illusion of The Year Contest
One colored image can lead to several color perceptions, depending on the position of black outlines that are presented on top of the colored image. The shape of a surface depends more on changes of luminance in the visual scene than on specific colors themselves. By presenting black outlines on top of colored images, the whole area between outlines is seen as having one single color. Instead of seeing the actual colors presented at each location, our brain prefers to see one homogenous color, as surfaces in real life are usually also perceived with one single color.
Mark Vergeer, Stuart Anstis, and Rob van Lier
University of Leuven, UC San Diego, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands
3rd prize winner of the 2014 Best Illusion of The Year Contest
Short description of our illusion: When we look at two pictures that are physically the same, they usually look the same. When they are different, they look different. Our illusions show the opposite: two images that are different but look the same — those are called “metamers”; — and two images that are identical but look different — we call those “anti-metamers.” Our main illusion mixes the two: it shows three images, two of which match with a third one mismatching. Viewers see one image as odd, but it’s one of the two identical images they see as different, an illusion we call “false pop out.”
Kimberley D. Orsten and James R. Pomerantz
Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
There’s something stunning about seeing Yao Ming next to an average-sized person. He’s not just taller (at 7’6 / 2,29 m.), he’s also just bigger in every way. He’s well over 300 pounds but doesn’t look even a tiny bit chubby.
Even though the NBA universe is populated by seven-footers, but there’s a sizable (pun intended) difference between being seven feet tall and being seven feet plus six inches, like Yao. Injuries ended his career much too soon in 2011. Since retiring, former Houston Rockets center, Yao Ming is still very much in the public eye.
Interesting fact: Did you know that it was one of the remarkable Yao’s face expressions became the inspiration for the well-known meme? See the last picture in the gallery.
The use of air power in the Vietnam War would change the way wars were fought for the Twentieth century and beyond. New technological advances and more sophisticated weapons made the Vietnam War a testing ground for the U.S. military. New tactics and approaches were used and to varying degrees of success.
This is unedited footage of Mark 47 napalm bombs and white phosphorus bombs dropped in low aerial attack on Vietnamese villages and jungle in Vietnam.
Operation Rolling Thunder was the title of a gradual and sustained US 2nd Air Division (later Seventh Air Force), US Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force (VNAF) aerial bombardment campaign conducted against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) from 2 March 1965 until 2 November 1968, during the Vietnam War. The operation became the most intense air/ground battle waged during the Cold War period; indeed, it was the most difficult such campaign fought by the U.S. Air Force since the aerial bombardment of Germany during World War II. [read more]
One of the greatest miracles of nature is the transformation of the egg into the chick. A chick emerges after a brief three weeks of incubation.
Ever wonder what happens inside the egg between the day it’s laid and the day the chick pecks its way out? You’re in luck. Thanks to these photos, you can see every stage of the chicken embryo’s development.
SEE ALSO: Wonderful images of animals in the womb
The development of photography has helped humanity capture important events for posterity. Thanks to them we have and ability to look at the times of our ancestors.
We know that life is not only beautiful moments, it’s also sad and difficult time. But it’s still hard to imagine just what horrors people had to experience in their lives… These shocking photos show us just how awful things have been for people. It doesn’t matter their age, creed, race or religion… this will make you feel.
Share these photos with others. More people should realize some of the things that have happened in the world (and how terrible they were).
Located on the River Thames, London is one of the largest cities in Europe and the world. The first traces of settlement activity in the London area are the remains of a Roman colony founded probably in the 43 years of our era, that is, during the invasion of the Roman Emperor Claudius to Britain.
The London Evolution Animation shows the historical development of London from Roman times to today, using georeferenced road network data brought together for the first time. The animation also visualizes (as enlarging yellow points) the position and number of statutorily protected buildings and structures built during each period.
As time goes on, we’re learning more and more about dinosaurs. Last week, dinosaur fossils were discovered in South America, and it’s believed that these dinosaurs died long after the great extinction!
“Dinosaur fossils found in Patagonia provide the first evidence that long-necked, whip-tailed diplodocid sauropods survived well beyond the Jurassic period, when they were thought to have gone extinct” said Argentine paleontologists.
SEE ALSO: The largest dinosaur ever gets discovered in Argentina
Join Tara as she discusses the Leikupal Laticauda and why this discovery is so significant.
As one of the world’s last closed societies, North Korea has attracted global curiosity to what is sealed off between it’s borders. Despite an ongoing food crisis that has spanned two decades and the cascading paranoia of the political leadership, life manages to go on in the Hermit Kingdom.
SEE ALSO: North Korea: 20 things you didn’t know
Let’s take a fascinating look at everyday life in North Korea.
Some people think lenticular clouds look like a stack of pancakes, but most people think they look like “saucer clouds.” It’s been said that these clouds are a possible explanation for some reported UFO sightings.
These clouds are more dense, colder, than the surrounding air, so if the ambient weather doesn’t change then it just appears to hover without moving. If conditions are “just right,” lenticular clouds can form about anywhere. Yet this meteorological phenomenon most often appears over mountain peaks and extinct volcanoes.
SEE ALSO: Beautiful strange and rare cloud formations
Photographers love to capture them, so thanks to their hard work, here are fabulous photos of lovely lenticular clouds.
The average American spends 90,000 hours at work over the course of their lifetime. There is no doubt that this is a significant part of life.
Work is a touchy issue for most. With all the recent findings on how unhealthy the average work environment is- combined with the fact that unless you’re born into a large trust fund you have to work 40+ hours to survive, it can often feel like a no-win situation. All you can do is figure out why bad habits to avoid at work that are the #1 contributors to an early death. This infographic has some helpful tips.
Would you ever take your cat climbing? Well this guy does. He spent a lot of time training his cat to do this and now she’s a hiking and mountain-climbing legend.
“She literally loves to climb things… if there’s high-ground she’ll seek it out,” Armstrong said in an interview with Bored Panda. He had nothing but praise for the tenacious little athlete: “Generally she does best on slabby routes where she can scramble from ledge to ledge. She’s an incredible athlete but steep juggy routes just aren’t her thing. When bouldering, though, she’s done some pretty amazing gaps and dynos.”
He also had plenty of advice for owners who might consider hiking with their own cats. “Get them used to their name and to you as a safe place. In talus fields or thick woods she’ll get distracted and climb trees or explore tiny caves and under boulders and stop following sometimes. It’s taken a lot of practice and many trips to get Millie to the point where she follows me down a trail past areas like thickets that would have distracted her otherwise.”
How much do you know about the banking system and who issues the money you carry in your pocket? Considering the vital role money plays both in our individual lives and in the world, our educational system teaches us amazingly little about how money is created, how banks operate, and what causes the huge banking scandals and bankruptcies that have occurred.
After reading this article you will understand why this critical information is kept quiet, and why we feel it is important to reveal what those in power don’t seem to want us to know.
Another World aka Project 23 emerged a few months ago as an idea for a short film by Bartek Hławka inspired by a well-known game Another World . Initialy it was planned as a short promo video for the Pixel Heaven 2014 event, but during months of preparation it became clear that it will be something much bigger.
Handmade in Poland! Over 800h of work, months of preparation, 5 shooting days, weeks of postproduction, countless hours spent on building movie props and set pieces.
Bucharest, the capital of Romania, is a beautiful city full of graceful architecture and rich with history. But beneath its beautiful streets is another world, buried there after the fall of Romania’s brutal communist dictatorship – a world of sewers and forgotten orphans.
This underground network of sewers is home to the city’s lost and forgotten souls, most of whom have HIV and a quarter of whom suffer from TB. The sewers, and their king Bruce Lee, were the subject of a recently released Channel 4 News film.
Bruce Lee, this underworld’s king and primary drug dealer, is a complicated figure. He keeps the underground supplied with a metallic paint called Aurelac that they inhale to get high and with other synthetic drugs. However, the fearsome orphan and former street-fighter also pays local gangs for protection and protects other young orphans who have fallen through the cracks. Social workers say that Lee protects the youngsters from sexual predators and that junkies are far less likely to die when Lee offers them a warm place to sleep.
The sewers are remnants of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu’s grand plan to centrally heat the city. Although this plan didn’t work out, the ruined infrastructure gave the orphans who were forgotten after the fall of his dictatorship a place to live.
At first glance, these brilliantly colorful gemstones might look like agate, a stone valued for its beauty and used in the jewelry industry. Their origin, however, might surprise you – these stones, called Fordite or Detroit Agate, are actually paint deposits from old car paintings racks.
Before the car painting process was automated like it is now, automotive bodies were painted by hand on long production lines. The vehicles’ paint would drip off and dry on the equipment used to move the automotive bodies. This enamel paint would then get baked onto the rack and solidify. After this process is repeated hundreds or thousands of times, the deposits can grow to be several inches thick.
Enterprising workers who recognized their potential value chipped off these waste products and saved them to be turned into jewelry later. When these stones are ground down and polished, they reveal a dazzling array of colors.
Some these stones can represent America’s automotive history – the older Fordite specimens contain colors that are no longer popular today, like pastel yellow or sea-foam green. Although modern jewelers are moderately successful at recreating the process and creating their own Fordite, the stones with an actual history to them are the most valuable.
Available at: fordite.com | azbluerockers.com
A CCTV camera caught a man successfully catching a one-year-old boy after the child fell from an apartment building in China’s Guangdong Province. Footage shows the men frantically anticipating the fall with their arms out. Catching child was difficult due to a heavy rainstorm.
“I didn’t think too much at the time. I was just afraid of failing to catch him. Some people put down cardboard to avoid serious injuries to the baby if I failed to catch him,” one of the man said in an interview with Reuters.
“It was nothing but human instinct to do so,” secod men added.
Mother’s love makes miracles. You’ll find out about it by reading this extraordinary story.
When Victoria Weaving-Shorrocks went into a traumatic 15-hour labor, she and her husband Richard didn’t know what to expect. When their son, Luke, was finally born, looks of panic and dread were on the faces of the hospital staff. Doctors then told the first-time mother that her son was dead.
The doctors thought there was nothing that could be done for their son so she asked to cuddle him. 36 minutes later… he began breathing! He was rushed into intensive care.
Luke was weak and barely breathing when he was born… and doctors mistakenly thought he passed away.
Because of the lack of oxygen to his brain, Luke suffered severe brain damage. Luke stayed in the hospital for 5 weeks before he was sent home. But unfortunately, just three short months later, Luke’s condition deteriorated and he passed away after being rushed back to the hospital.
This is the kind of tragedy you would never wish upon another person. Not only are Luke’s parents experiencing grief that would be impossible to understand, but this baby boy might have had a chance to live if the situation was handled better. Remember Luke by sharing his tragic story with others online.
Graduations are usually painstakingly boring, especially if the speaker delivers a dull, lengthy speech.
Occasionally, a hilarious and thought-provoking speech will make its way through all the tedious talking. A good graduation speech should be funny, wise, creative, and inspiring, and these people managed to check off all the boxes when they stood at the podium.
Get inspired by watching these thoughtful graduation speeches!
When you hear the word symmetry, you might think generally of triangles, butterflies, or even ballerinas. But defined scientifically, symmetry is “a transformation that leaves an object unchanged.” Huh?
Colm Kelleher unpacks this abstract term and explains how animal’s distinct symmetries can tell us more about them — and ourselves.
For centuries, game theorists have wondered about capitalizing on a strategy to attain a vital edge at Rock-Paper-Scissors. Well the conundrum scientists have been wrapping their heads around has finally been solved. Zhijian Wang, a game theorist at Zhejiang University in China claim there is more to Rock-Paper-Scissors than previously thought. Their work shows that behind a seemingly random acts lies a very consistent predictable pattern that an opponent could gain and exploit for a critical edge
Zhijian and his team began experiments with 360 students from the university and split them into 60 groups of six players each. Every group of players played 300 rounds of the game against each other with their actions and choices carefully recorded. Winners were paid in local currency in proportion to their number of victorious rounds. To test how the currency altered strategy, Zhijian varied each payout amount for different groups. If a loss is worth nothing and a tie worth 1, the winning payout varied from 1.1 to 100.
Initially the behavior showed a interesting pattern, where each group chose each choice a third of the time, which is precisely as expected if their choices were random, but after a closer inspection, Zhijian noticed those who win tend to lean toward the same action while those who lose switch to the next action in a clockwise direction, where R → P → S is clockwise.
“This game exhibits collective cyclic motions which cannot be understood by the Nash Equilibrium concept but are successfully explained by the empirical data-inspired conditional response mechanism,” say Zhijian and co. Implying that it completely makes send that a winning strategy would become complacent and a losing strategy would need to mix things up. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Source: MIT Technology Review
Despite any political differences between the United States and Russia, the space agencies of the two countries continue their cooperative work in Earth’s orbit, aboard the International Space Station. Apart from the research being done in microgravity, ISS crew members continue to send back amazing images of our home world, photographed from low Earth orbit.
Gathered here are recent images of Earth from aboard the ISS, and from a handful of other NASA satellites.
Photos and copy via The Atlantic
Why are some people so lazy?
Good news it may not be your fault that you don’t want to get off your butt and be productive. In a display of not at all being lazy themselves, researchers at the University of Missouri have deduced that genetic traits might make some people prone to low motivation and inactivity.
A handy visual guide. By Today I Learned Something New.
This translation chart will make you laugh out loud…
Imagine that the human brain was the size of earth, how big would all of the parts of it be?
Check out the infographic.
Within every cell in our body, two copies of a tumor suppressor gene called BRCA1 are tasked with regulating the speed at which cells divide.
Michael Windelspecht explains how these genes can sometimes mutate, making those cells less specialized and more likely to develop into cancer.
He puts the “GRASS” in deGrasse.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist, and knows where to get the good sh*t.
Most of the time, we see what we want to see. That’s why when you first look at these photos, you’re going to miss the most important part. If you’re in the mood to have your mind blown, these amazing photos will definitely do the trick.
When you see the truth behind each photo, your mind might just be blown. Sometimes in life, you just need to take a closer look…
From film creators Shimi Asresay and Hili Noy:
The peaceful daily routine of father and son is interrupted by an encounter of an unfamiliar boy, different from them in color. An allegory to the phenomena of racism as an acquired cultural epidemic, the story discusses the question of the personal conscience of each of us, versus the education we receive from our families and environment. Can we really insist on our personal belief system, when what we must believe in, is dictated to us?
The film presents how easily we acquire fear and hatred of foreigners, as well as how easily we might become the “strangers” and “others” ourselves.
How big of a problem is identity theft, really? And how concerned should you be about it?
Identity theft can make a huge negative impact on your credit score. It’s a big problem too – identity theft totaled 43% of the consumer fraud complaints made to the Federal Trade Commission in 2002. A low credit score can keep you from getting credit cards, loans, an apartment, or even a job.
The best ways to prevent theft: Keep a vigilant eye on your financial statements, and call about anything unfamiliar. Order your credit report for free on AnnualCreditReport.com, and make sure that it’s accurate. Consider a credit-score monitoring service or a credit freeze.
It is certain that in the Internet you can find everything. Exploration effects depend on what you are looking for. Sometimes we find some things that we would prefer not to know at all. Here are some of them.
What’s the weirdest and most unsettling thing you’ve seen on the internet?
It is believed that some children are born with the ability to see and hear ghosts. It seems though as time goes by and the child gets older, they seem to lose the ability to communicate with the other side.
Children are naturally more open minded than adults because they have not yet been exposed to things such as ghosts or what is fact or fiction. Many children just may not realize that what they are seeing is actually a ghost or spirit. To them a ghost may seem just as real and natural as interacting with the living.
Kids are able to do a lot of things that adults can’t but can they see ghosts? According to these stories they definitely can.
Whether you think they’re flesh-eating lizard men or Nazis from space, we all have our own theories about the Little Green Men.
Take a look at the video to discover if you agree with these ten curious theories about aliens.
In the last 100 years, a large collection of important archeological discoveries have been made. Some of these artifacts have helped people understand the origins of life on Earth, while others have presented problems for scientists. Hundreds of artifacts have been located and studied with some remarkable results.
This article will examine rare archeological discoveries.
A rural worker in Argentina discovered the remains of a dinosaur that weighed nearly 100 tons, ranking it as the world’s largest found so far according to the researchers calculate specimen. This is the femur of a herbivorous dinosaur family of sauropods that lived about 100 million years ago, found in Argentina’s Chubut province (south), near the town of Las Plumas.
Bone of this dinosaur “is the equivalent of 14 African elephants, so it follows that the animal weighed at least 100 tons,” said researcher Pablo Puerta, the Chubut paleontological museum “Egidio Feruglio”.
This monster is estimated to have been 130 feet long, 65 feet tall. Could you imagine something that big?
A Supercell development, a gigantic storm cloud with a flying saucer shape on 5/18/14, in eastern Wyoming near Newcastle.
The storm-chasing group called Basehunters captured the video.
There are moments in life that we want to treasure forever. Sometimes they are joyful and sometimes they are devastating, but both are times we will never forget and always keep in our hearts. These photos are moments are just like that, captured forever in a picture. This touching photos that will grab you by the Heart.. and never let go.
If these pictures don’t make you smile then you may not have a heart.
Video games have come a long way but you still have to appreciate the classics.
How many of these old school games have you played?
The field of astrophysics–let alone the people who comprise it–often presents itself as unapproachable. Its intricacies and wonders are hidden behind a tall wall of academia and advanced formulae. Thus when the world meets a character like Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the internet’s favorite science guy, whose sharp intelligence is matched by his rapier yet accessible wit, we all go a little gaga. Especially when we get bite size pieces of his wisdom, humor and brilliance via Twitter.
Tyson currently has nearly two million followers on the social media platform, which is approximately the population of Latvia. And with trinkets like those featured below, it’s easy to see why.
Here are 25 Neil DeGrasse Tyson tweets chockfull of trivia you know you’ll end up dropping when you want to impress someone. Just hope they’re not one of his followers.
Pluto is the second-largest object in the outer reaches of our solar system, barely smaller than another dwarf planet, Eris. To this day, we still don’t know much about it.
Even more interesting, Charon is not Pluto’s only moon. It’s one of five other moons and maybe more. In recent years, other small moons of Pluto have been discovered orbiting the distant dwarf planet. And the way that Charon orbits Pluto makes it possibly a double planet.
To learn more about Pluto’s moon their sizes watch this video.
It seems like everyone is inked these days. But did you ever wonder what happens when you have a tattoo and then get old? Do young people with tattoos realize how ugly, stupid and dated they will look in 20 years time? Or maybe old people with tattoos look just as bad-ass as any twenty-something covered in ink?
We would like to know your opinion on this so share them in comments.
The wreck of the flagship Santa Maria, one of three ships that carried Christopher Columbus to the Americas more than five centuries ago, may have been found.
A ruin photographed off Haiti’s north coast, by an underwater investigator, “strongly suggests” is the Santa Maria.
Mr Clifford, 68, said: “This is the ship that changed the course of human history. It is the Mount Everest of shipwrecks for me.”
The video released from the History Channel, shows divers studying the wreck off the north coast of Haiti. Marine explorers say is proof they have found the shipwreck of the Santa Maria.
They add that the 500-year-old remains of the Santa Maria are embedded in the reef and have photographed and measured them to show off their findings.
La Santa María de la Inmaculada Concepción (Spanish for The Holy Mary of the Immaculate Conception), or La Santa María, was the largest of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus in his first voyage. Her master and owner was Juan de la Cosa.
The Santa María was built in Castro-Urdiales, Cantabria, in Spain’s northeast region. The Santa Maríawas probably a medium-sized nau (carrack), about 58 ft (17.7 m) long on deck, and according to Juan Escalante de Mendoza in 1575, the Santa Maria was “very little larger than 100 toneladas” (about 100 tons, or tuns) burthen, or burden, and was used as the flagship for the expedition. The Santa María had a single deck and three masts.
The first ever fully automatic wolverine claws that deploy AND retact automaticlly. These beuatiful 12″ stainless steel claws fire out at the touch of a button and bring me as close as anyone has to feeling like they have adamantium claws. I think these are best on the net so hope you like em.
You can see how they were made here:
http://youtu.be/fVBCFGebqTg
You may have noticed the wide proliferation of “gluten-free” products, or heard from a friend with celiac disease that they cannot eat the substance. But what the heck is it? Is it harmful, and worth cutting out as the latest food trend suggests?
Well science has an explanation.
A recent ad campaign put these pictures which show the homes of wealthy people next to the homes of poor people. The difference is unbelievable.
It didn’t take long for Ben Affleck’s Batman to become an internet sensation. He’s been dubbed Sad Batman and Sad Batman has been photoshopped into every hilarious scenario you could ever hope to see him in.
Video editor Jim Casey compiled this fantastic homage to visual effects in this amazing 3 minute montage. The chronological showcase captures defining moments in visual effects history starting from 1878. The progression is fascinating to see and it’s exciting to think what lies ahead.
For those curious, the music is “Liberi Fatali” from Final Fantasy VIII by Nobuo Uemats.
Robert Smith, Sheila Walker, Virginia Romero and Sean Gorecki share their experiences of what beauty means to them.
The music is “A song for stolen keys” by Exist Strategy.
In the bustling metropolis of Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), crossing the street is an art form.
The simplest advice is to walk slowly and steadily to the other side. Let the larger vehicles like trucks and buses pass and try to cross when it’s mostly scooters and motorbikes. No sudden stops or dashes, just walk confidently and cautiously.
If you’re looking to meet a lady in Russia, we’ve got some bad news for you. Apparently, you’re probably not going to find a looker. And if you do manage to find a looker, she’s probably going to be incredibly odd.
While these Russian women from social networks might think they are hot stuff what do you think about their unique style?
One guy was walking in Ann Arbor, MI and saw this really cool person being a Transformer. He share this video, and all I can say – it’s amazing!
Awesome costume and the person’s entertaining children.
It’s beautiful, that in our world dominated by haste and desire for profit, some people still find a moment for others. Complete strangers helped each other out for no reason other than to be good people. This is the sort of kindness that really renews your faith in the world and other people.
It’s important to remember such random acts of kindness because the world isn’t always fair.
Making use of the very strait that many believe to have allowed for the human migration from Asia to the Americas some 20,000 years ago, various organizations have motioned to unite Russia and the United States via a Bering Strait railroad.The proposed crossing has been dubbed everything from “The Intercontinental Peace Bridge” to the “TKM-World Link” to the “AmerAsian Peace Tunnel”.
Recently Russian government officials stated that they would put forth $99 billion to build the tunnel. It would pass underneath the Big Diomede and Little Diomede islands and straddle the international dateline to link East and West.
Engineers have said there is no technical reason the tunnel could not be completed and it could provide a cheaper way of shipping freight around the world. The epic project could be completed by 2045.
No matter what country you live in, it’s safe to say that the culture in your country is quite different from the culture in the next country over. But what about countries that are on the other side of the world?
See how different civilizations and cultures look and live through these stunning pictures.
Until quite recent history, the writing of the Ancient Egyptians was a secret to man. Eventually, with the help of the Rosetta stone, Jean-François Champollion was able to solve the ancient mystery. Throughout history, humans have overcome so many things… which almost makes is hard to believe that there are still mysteries that remain unsolved. No matter what technological or social advances we have seen, there are a few enigmas that have left to be deciphered.
This is a list of the ten most famous ciphers and writing systems that are still unsolved. They have been discovered decades or centuries ago, yet they were so well written that they may never be solved. It’s incredible.
Do you hate mornings? They may be rough for some of us. Most people aren’t very happy when it comes to this time of day. Wouldn’t it be better not to hate the start of a new day?
Learning how to be a morning person won’t happen overnight and it is “painful”, but there are some things you can at least try to do. Just because you’re a night owl doesn’t mean you can’t be a morning person. Learnhow to sleep better and wake up happy. Good luck!
Pessimists tend to have a very negative outlook on life. New research shows that this outlook isn’t their fault! The ability to stay positive when times get tough – and, conversely, of being negative – may be hardwired in the brain, finds new research led by a Michigan State University psychologist.
Anthony discusses how the brain of a pessimist is very different than the brain of an optimist!
Humans want to believe that they’re the smartest creatures on the planet. But the more we understand octopuses, the more it seems that we may not be alone in our ability to solve problems, make complex connections between ideas, and survive by wits alone.
It’s amazing to see how with a few deft turns of its tentacles, octopus manages to unscrew the lid of its enclosure from the inside.
You think that animals are stupid and can not use tools like we do? Watch this!
Iranian artist and designer Mehdi Ghadyanloo creates impressive murals in Tehran transforming blank, gray walls into amazing large-scale works of art.
Mehdi studied at Tarbiat Modares University and is the owner and designer of his mural painting company Blue Sky Painters Company… He has painted over 100 murals so far, says he hopes “to bring some cohesion or at least colour to the often confused and smog-smeared architectural face of the city.”
The colorful scenes are often quite surreal in nature. Many of the murals also interact with the surrounding urban environment. He’s works are amazing, it’s enough to say that this initiative could bring (inner) peace to the people. Seriously.
Photographs have long been used to record special and unique moments. These photographs all tell stories about the historical figures or events that they represent. Once taken simply to document their present, they now help us witness the past. From historical landmarks and famous people to the basic daily routines of the past, these pictures portray the past in a way that we can empathize with and understand more intimately. We hope this series of images will astound, delight and enthrall you.
Many of these photographs become iconic shots. Let us know which you find the most striking and compelling in the comments section below.
See more interesting historical photos:
>> Photos from the past that can tell you more about history than any story
>> Ultimate collection of rare historical photos. A big piece of history (200 pictures!)
>> 32 compelling strange & odd photos throughout history
