Month: October 2016

Sitting down on your couch could be as contemplative as staring into the depths of the ocean with this coffee table created by the UK studio Duffy London. Called the Abyss Horizon, the table—spotted by Design Milk—mimics a topographical cross-section of the ocean, with islands and underwater canyons.

It’s not a map of any specific place on the seafloor, but the relief-based design evokes the varied topology of the world at the bottom of the ocean. Don’t worry; there’s a glass top, so your coffee mug won’t fall to the bottom of the ocean.

The Abyss Horizon took a year to develop, and is made of hand-crafted wood. It has a limited run of just 12 pieces, each made to order, and will be on display at various design shows this fall in London, New York, and Miami.

[h/t Design Milk]

All images courtesy Duffy London

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How would you like a live HD view of drifting jellyfish? Thanks to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, you’re in luck.

Tuning into the “Jelly Cam” lets you watch Chrysaora fuscescens, the stinging sea nettle, drifting against a beautiful blue background. It’s part of the Open Sea exhibit, and it’s stunning.

The aquarium explains:

Get an up-close look at the delicate sea nettles in our Open Sea exhibit.

Watch as their long tentacles and lacey mouth-arms move smoothly through the water. But don’t let these unassuming invertebrates fool you—their graceful trailing parts are covered in stinging cells used for hunting. When their tentacles touch tiny drifting prey, the stinging cells paralyze it and stick tight. The prey is moved to the mouth-arms and then to the mouth, where it’s digested.

This camera is live from 7 a.m. – 6 p.m. Pacific Time. Tune in and chill out:

For more on the animals you’re seeing, read this page.

An October surprise is any bit of news that breaks right before an election that has the capability to help determine the outcome of the race. Since voters are often swayed by these revelations, the right October surprise can swing a losing campaign right into White House. Here are a few notable examples.

1968: LBJ calls off the bombs.

The 1968 race between Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey looked like it would be an electoral rout. Nixon successfully ferreted away Southern Democrats who weren’t too keen on Humphrey’s support of civil rights, and liberal Democrats were disgusted with Democratic incumbent Lyndon Johnson’s handling of the Vietnam War. Furthermore, third-party candidate George Wallace eroded some of the historical Democratic base that Humphrey would normally have won. Late in the campaign, Humphrey appeared to be doomed.

Right before the election, though, incumbent Democrat LBJ pulled a trick of his own. On October 31, 1968, he announced an immediate halt to all bombing in North Vietnam. This peaceful move, coupled with Senator Eugene McCarthy’s late-October endorsement of Humphrey, unified the Democratic base and pulled Humphrey even with Nixon in the polls. Although Nixon obviously won the election and had a handy 301-to-191 majority of the electoral votes, he won the popular vote by just over 500,000, a much closer margin than anyone expected prior to LBJ’s bombing cessation.

1972: Peace is at hand. Again.

Nixon’s reelection campaign in 1972 is infamous for giving birth to the Watergate break-in and ensuing scandal, but it’s easy to see why Nixon would have been a bit nervous about his electoral chances. After all, voters elected him on a platform of ending the Vietnam War, which was still raging on. Although Nixon was probably going to beat challenger George McGovern anyway, an October surprise certainly didn’t hurt his chances. Just like four years earlier, this one involved Vietnam. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger appeared at the White House on October 26 and announced to reporters that “peace is at hand” in Vietnam. It was quite an announcement, and apparently not one that Nixon scripted. On White House tapes, he can be heard telling Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, “I wouldn’t have said that.”

The announcement gave Nixon’s already stout lead another bump, though, and he ended up winning a landslide victory with almost 61% of the popular vote. You may recall that peace wasn’t quite at hand; the war continued for another two and a half years.

1980: The Iran hostages remain in captivity.

Prior to the 1980 election the yearlong saga of the Iran hostage crisis held the nation’s attention. If incumbent Jimmy Carter could somehow get the hostages freed before voters headed to the polls, he’d gain a serious leg up on challenger Ronald Reagan. Unfortunately for Carter, it didn’t happen. In fact, the Iranian government decided right before the election that the hostages wouldn’t be freed until the voting was over, and Reagan won the White House.

This bad news, coupled with the fact that the hostages were finally freed on the day of Reagan’s inauguration the following January, leads some people to believe that the Reagan camp made some sort of backdoor deal with the Iranian government in order to secure the election. In return for hanging onto the hostages to prevent an October surprise in Carter’s favor, the Iranian government would receive weapons from the Reagan administration. Although two congressional investigations found these claims to be groundless, conspiracy theorists insist Reagan cut the deal.

1992: Iran-Contra scandal makes a comeback.

Although it may be difficult to remember now, the 1992 race was a fairly heated one. Incumbent George H.W. Bush faced two challengers, Democrat Bill Clinton and independent Ross Perot, and both seemed capable of winning the election. (Perot may now be little more than a footnote in our minds, but at points in 1992 he actually led all candidates in national polls.) Four days before the election, though, the surprise showed up. Caspar Weinberger, who had been Reagan’s Secretary of Defense, was indicted for lying to the independent counsel that had investigated the Iran-Contra scandal. Since Bush had served with Weinberger and had so far managed to avoid much of the Iran-Contra taint, this development seemed to be a blow to his reelection chances. Obviously, it didn’t help, and Clinton won the election handily. Bush gave Weinberger a lame-duck pardon the next month.

2000: George W. Bush takes a tipple.

Any race as tightly contested as the 2000 election between Al Gore and George W. Bush is bound to have an October surprise. In fact, though, this election’s stunner didn’t break until November. Less than a week before voters headed to the polls, a Fox News report surfaced that Bush had been arrested for driving under the influence in Maine in 1976 following a night of boozing with former world tennis champion John Newcombe. Instead of trying to fight the accusation, Bush confirmed the story and told reporters, “I’m not proud of that. I made some mistakes. I occasionally drank too much, and I did that night. I learned my lesson.” And, well, you know the rest.

As many a child has realized during a fancy dinner, crystal glasses make a ringing noise when a bored diner runs a wet finger around the rim. Similarly to blowing into a beer bottle, the act usually only produces one note, but with a little strategy, you can make a whole song. These special crystal wine glasses from UncommonGoods have markings on them to show different notes. Simply pour enough wine (or grape juice) to the indicated lines to produce the right notes.

This party trick is sure to turn your party guests into a full band. You can purchase a set of two or eight glasses, depending on how committed you are to recreating the talent show scene from Miss Congeniality (2000). You can also download some helpful sheet music to get you started: [PDF].

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The human body is an amazing thing. For each one of us, it’s the most intimate object we know. And yet most of us don’t know enough about it: its features, functions, quirks, and mysteries. That’s why we’re launching a new series called The Body, which will explore human anatomy, part by part. Think of it as a mini digital encyclopedia with a dose of wow.
 

Your nose is more than just a bump on your face—it’s an important part of the respiratory system and affects many other senses, including your taste and hearing. For being something that’s so central to our daily interactions with the world, there’s still a surprising amount to discover about the nose. Here’s a bit of what we do know. 

1. SCENT DETECTIVE: WHAT THE NOSE KNOWS

Although the human nose is weak compared to canine sniffers, our noses can detect 1 trillion smells. Strangely, scientists still aren’t sure exactly how we smell. For decades, researchers thought the olfactory system worked through receptor binding, meaning molecules of different shapes and sizes bonded to specific parts of the nose like puzzle pieces, triggering smell recognition in the brain. But recently, Luca Turin, a biophysicist at the Institute of Theoretical Physics Ulm University, has proposed the nose detects smell through quantum vibrations. Turin suggests the frequency at which different molecules vibrate helps the nose identify them as different scents. The theory could explain why molecules of the same shape smell quite differently. Intriguing as it is, this new theory hasn’t been tested enough to be universally accepted.

2. EVOLUTION: JUST HOW DID WE GROW HONKERS, ANYWAY?

As anyone who’s been to a zoo probably knows, great apes (the closest human ancestors) have flat nasal openings—and researchers found that type of nose is far more effective at inhaling air than the human version. So what’s up with ours? Scientists think the shape might be a by-product of our big brain. The growing cerebellum forced human faces to become smaller, which probably affected the nose as well.

3. SUPER SNIFFERS: WHEN A ROSE DOESN’T SMELL AS SWEET

In the battle of the sexes, women’s noses come out on top. When tested for odor detection and identification, women score consistently higher than men. This might have something to do with the size of their olfactory bulb, a structure in the brain that helps humans identify smells. One study found that women have, on average, 43 percent more cells in their olfactory bulb than men do—meaning they can smell more smells.

4. EATING WITH YOUR NOSE: THE ROLE OF SCENT IN FOOD

Think you like chocolate just because it tastes good? Think again. Smell is responsible for 75 to 95 percent of flavor, which explains why plugging your nose helps you swallow something unappetizing. More recently, chefs and neurologists have teamed up to create meals for cancer patients and others with a diminished sense of smell, such as the elderly. Cooking meals tailored to the smell-less could help stave off depression and improve the appetite without over-relying on sugar and salt.

5. REBUILDING A FACE: WHEN ONE NOSE IS NOT ENOUGH

 
When people have cancer or are in an accident, the nose can become infected or even be completely destroyed. But fear not. Plastic surgeons have a nifty way to regrow your nose—on your forehead. Using cartilage from the ribs and tissue expanders that allow the skin to stretch and grow, a new nose can be formed to replace the old one. And while a nose growing out of your forehead looks odd, it’s actually one of the best places for a new nose to grow. The forehead’s blood vessels can be harnessed to help grow the tissue, and removing the new nose only leaves a small scar. Doctors have performed the procedure in the U.S., China, and India.

6. SOMATOSENSORY: NOT ALL SMELLS ARE SMELLS

The nose doesn’t just translate odors in the nasal passage—the tip is also full of nerves that detect pain and temperature. This helps us “smell” non-odor smells. Even people who can no longer smell things with their olfactory system can detect substances like menthol, the minty compound that makes your skin tingle. (Unfortunately, they can’t detect pure scents like vanilla.)

7. THE BODY’S AIR FILTER: MORE THAN JUST A SNIFF MACHINE

The average adult breathes around 20,000 liters of air every day, which keeps the nose quite busy. As the first line of defense for the lungs, the nose filters out small particles like pollen and dust. It also adds moisture to the air and warms it so the lungs are saved from any irritation.

8. SMELL DISORDERS: AN ODORLESS WORLD

There are plenty of things that can go wrong in your nose. Allergic rhinitis, sinus infections, and broken noses are just a few. But perhaps less well known are disorders that affect the nose’s ability to smell. Anosmia is the complete inability to detect odors and can be caused by illness, aging, radiation, chemical exposure, or even genetics. Equally bizarre are parosmia and phantosmia: The former changes your perception of smells, and the latter creates the perception of smells that don’t exist. Luckily, only 1 or 2 percent of North Americans suffer from any smell disorders.

Young adults are waiting longer to buy homes, get married, and have kids than the generations that came before them. It makes sense, then, that they’d use an entirely different set of milestones to mark the transition into adulthood: Opening a savings account, making your rent payments, and signing up for health insurance all qualify as “adulting” by today’s standards. According to a recent study, young women are more likely to have all these boxes checked than their male counterparts. A new report released by Bank of America and USA Today [PDF] shows that 18- to 26-year-old women are more financially independent than their male peers, Fortune reports.

For the study, researchers surveyed 2180 young adults in the first three weeks of July 2016. When breaking down the financial habits of 18- to 26-year-olds, they found some significant differences between male and female respondents. Sixty-one percent of women have savings set aside compared to 55 percent of men. Young women are also more likely to do their own taxes (34 percent compared to 28 percent of men in this age category), have health insurance (33 percent to 25 percent), and pay their own rent (38 percent to 32 percent).

These numbers may look surprising in the context of the growing conversation around the wage gap, but some research shows that women in their 20s actually out-earn men of the same age (by £1111 or $1381 a year, according to data taken from the UK’s Office for National Statistics). It’s around age 30, a.k.a. when more women are starting their families, that the pay gap really begins to widen in favor of men. In addition to a lack of paid family leave and inflexible hours potentially slowing women’s careers, men also tend to advance up the ladder sooner in their careers while female workers struggle to catch up.

While women may be better off financially earlier in life than men, the statistics aren’t altogether reassuring. The fact that college-age students were included in the survey only partly explains why less than 40 percent of all respondents pay their own rent. A Pew survey released over the summer revealed that 32.1 percent of Millennials still live with their parents.

[h/t Fortune]

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