Author: Anna Green

While sailing the Atlantic Ocean with her owner, a tiny dog named Scuba recently rescued an aquatic camera that had been lost at sea for three years. According to her owner, Eric Visage, Scuba spotted the camera, which belongs to National Geographic, floating in the middle of the ocean and barked until Visage retrieved it. It’s unclear why Scuba was so captivated by that particular piece of ocean debris, though it should be noted, the spherical camera does look a bit like a giant dog toy.

In the National Geographic video above, photographer Alan Turchik explains how the camera, called a DriftCam, got lost in a massive storm off the coast of Miami. It then ended up floating for three years and thousands of miles, before being picked up by Scuba and Visage. According to Turchik, the unique deep sea footage the camera recorded will be incredibly valuable for researchers. “Getting the camera back was incredible,” he says. “It’s not every day a dog with sea legs gets to help National Geographic study the oceans.”

Banner Image Credit: National Geographic, YouTube

If you want to create pointillist works of art without giving yourself carpal tunnel—or you just lack the artistic dexterity—you might want to invest in The Pointillist Artist’s Electronic Pen. The $70 pen was created by Hammacher Schlemmer, makers of other brilliant and pointless products like rideable beer coolers and forks that twirl your spaghetti for you (along with a slew of practical stuff), and allows artists to automatically produce pointillist dots without having to tap each one out by hand.

The electronic pen was designed to help artists create pointillist or stippled works like those of impressionist painter Georges Seurat and The Wall Street Journal illustrator Kevin Sprouls. It contains an electromagnetic mechanism that pushes the ink tip up and down like a miniature jackhammer, generating 600 ink dots per minute. According to Hammacher Schlemmer, the pen allows artists to stipple 10 times faster than usual—making it perfect for impatient artists and those who suffer from wrist fatigue. 

[h/t Gizmodo]

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As websites track our search histories, or buy and sell our online data, it’s easy to feel like online privacy is a thing of the past. But Google Maps recently showed it takes online privacy so seriously, it even protects the identities of cows.

It’s Google Maps’s policy to blur the faces of people captured by Street View cars as they map the Earth. As NPR reports, the service recently took that face-blurring practice a little further than usual. On a road along the bank of England’s River Cam, a Google camera captured a group of grazing cows. Normally, Google only obscures human faces, but apparently the website’s automatic blurring technology decided the identity of one black-and-white cow needed protecting—and blurred its face.

David Shariatmadari, an editor for The Guardian, noticed the mysterious bovine on Google Maps this week and posted a screenshot on Twitter, where it quickly went viral. When NPR asked Google why that particular cow’s identity needed protecting, Google replied, “We thought you were pulling the udder one when we herd the moos, but it’s clear that our automatic face-blurring technology has been a little overzealous. Of course, we don’t begrudge this cow milking its five minutes of fame.”

Great to see Google takes cow privacy seriously pic.twitter.com/ACTBpDwno6

— David Shariatmadari (@D_Shariatmadari) September 13, 2016

[h/t NPR]

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The Whole Shabangs are the most popular potato chip you’ve never heard of. Produced by the Keefe Group specifically for America’s prison inmates, the potato chips aren’t sold in stores—they’re sold in prison commissaries. But the potato chips, which blend barbecue, salt and vinegar, and a range of other mysterious flavors, are so popular that former inmates often seek them out once they get out of jail.

In the video below, NBC News reports that word of The Whole Shabangs is spreading: What started out as a prison snack is now sought after, not only by former prisoners and their friends and family members, but by other snack aficionados who have caught wind of the crunchy, flavorful chips. In fact, though you still won’t find The Whole Shabangs at your local supermarket, the Keefe Group recently began selling them online.

Check out the clip to find out more about the history of The Whole Shabang, and learn how prison inmates use the popular chip to make a delicious, sodium-filled soup.

[h/t Digg]

Banner Image Credit: iStock

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There’s an old saying, “Feed a cold, starve a fever.” But according to a recent study in the journal Cell, it might be more accurate to say, “Feed a viral infection, starve a bacterial infection.” That is, when you’re sick with a bacterial infection, fasting may be more effective than feasting, while viral infections may be alleviated by reaching for some chicken soup.

New Scientist reports that researchers at Yale wanted to determine the impact food has on illness recovery, so they rounded up a group of lab mice for some tests. They infected some mice with inflammation-triggering molecules from bacteria, and others with inflammation-triggering molecules from viruses. Then, they observed the effects of food (in this case, sugar glucose) on mouse recovery. They found that for mice with viral inflammation responses, consumption of glucose helped speed recovery. For mice with bacterial inflammation responses, however, glucose wasn’t just ineffective—it actually made them sicker, triggering seizures and even death.

Researchers believe glucose helped protect the brain cells of mice with viral infections from inflammation. In the case of bacterially infected mice, however, glucose digestion generated free radicals that ended up damaging neurons within the brain. Meanwhile, chemicals called ketones, produced by the bodies of fasting, bacteria-infected mice, seemed to protect these mice against neuronal damage.

Researchers still need to conduct more research to determine the exact implications of the study for humans. The next step, lead researcher Ruslan Medzhitov says, is to study the effects of eating or fasting on patients with sepsis (a complication of an infection that can cause organ failure). But for now, Medzhitov claims, it’s a good idea to listen to your body when you get sick: If you’re feeling feverish and famished, it’s likely you have a viral infection and should eat. But if you’re sick and lack an appetite, you may have a bacterial infection and might want to cut down on your food intake. As Medzhitov explains, “We think during illness one changes food preferences to support the appropriate metabolic program.”

[h/t New Scientist]

In 1975, Nevada made a strange addition to its voting ballots: Underneath the names of all the politicians running for office, voters were given the opportunity to officially cast a vote for no one. 

Atlas Obscura reports that the “none of these candidates” option, which still appears on ballots to this day, was created in an attempt to encourage people to vote. Officials believed that by giving voters a way to voice their dissent on the ballot itself, they could inspire more people to show up at their polling station. Unfortunately, the initiative didn’t work as planned: Despite the opportunity to officially stick it to unlikable candidates, voter turnout has continued to decline.

The “none of these candidates” option, however, has been a consistently popular candidate. Not only does it appear on every ballot, but it has even “won” a few elections. In 2014, for instance, “none of these candidates” beat out all eight of the Democratic governor candidates in Nevada, winning a full 30 percent of the vote. Not bad for a candidate who doesn’t exist.

[h/t Atlas Obscura]

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If you’re looking for a tasty way to help the environment, consider swapping your lawn for a vegetable garden. According to a recent study in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning, each kilo of vegetables you grow can cut greenhouse gases by two kilograms. Over time that can add up: Researchers found that vegetable gardens, if properly managed, could substantially help states reach their greenhouse gas reduction goals.

Researcher David Cleveland of UC Santa Barbara calculated the environmental impact of home vegetable gardens in California by looking at a range of factors: He considered how much energy would be saved by replacing supermarket produce with homegrown veggies, as well as the impact of composting organic waste and using gray water for garden irrigation.

His findings were encouraging, with a few caveats: According to Cleveland, vegetable gardens can help lower greenhouse gas emissions, but only if they’re properly managed. Home farmers need to make sure they’re composting properly or else their organic waste could actually end up emitting, rather than reducing, greenhouse gases like nitrous oxide and methane. However, with care, Cleveland estimates that vegetable gardens could help the state of California meet its 2020 greenhouse gas reduction goals, contributing up to 7.8 percent of its target.

While vegetable gardens aren’t for everyone, Cleveland claims they can have plenty of benefits for people willing to put in the effort. “In addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, there are other potential environmental, social, psychological, and nutritional advantages to growing food yourself, whether in a household, community or school garden,” Cleveland explains. “However, the degree to which those benefits are realized can depend on small things. Our hope is that this research helps motivate households, communities and policymakers to support vegetable gardens that can contribute to mitigating climate change.”

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Over the course of his three-decade acting career, Nicolas Cage has become famous for his strange screeches, screams, and over-the-top performances of rage, emerging over time as something of a connoisseur of anger. Now one website dares to ask the question: Can you rage like Nicolas Cage?

AV Club reports that an interactive website called The Nic Cage Rage Page lets visitors see how their screams compare to those of Nicolas Cage. Simply hit a button and begin yelling into your computer to see if your rage matches up with that of cinema’s angriest man.

“Nicolas Cage defies definition. He defies logic. He can be an over the top caricature, yet painfully human at the same time,” Jane.Works, the company behind the website, explains. “But one thing he can always do is scream. No one screams like Nic Cage. It’s part feral beast, part existential crisis. Something so contradictory, yet so pure.”

[h/t AV Club]

Fans of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” can now escape into a virtual reality version of the classic song. The Verge reports that Queen, Google Play, and Enosis VR have teamed up to produce The Bohemian Rhapsody Experience, which blends motion-capture animation and archival footage to bring the song to life.

Google calls The Bohemian Rhapsody Experience, which is currently available on Google Play, “a journey through frontman Freddie Mercury’s subconscious mind.” The VR app not only allows viewers to explore a surreal landscape, but uses a spatialized version of the song that changes as viewers move around. It includes animated renderings of band members and concert footage, as well as more abstract and fantastical imagery.

Queen guitarist and VR enthusiast Brian May claims the surreal, imaginative lyrics of “Bohemian Rhapsody” are perfectly in tune with the concept of virtual reality.

“‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is unusual isn’t it? Because even 40 years later or whatever it is, it still sounds innovative,” May says in the video below. “But the framework is Freddie’s incredible imagination.”

[h/t The Verge]

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Humans have been working with birds for thousands of years: We’ve hired them to carry our messages, help us find honey, protect our crops, and even act as spies. So it only makes sense that when the people of the Netherlands began to worry about catching rogue drones, they turned to their avian friends for help. Back in February, we reported that the Dutch police were training eagles to pluck illegal drones from the sky. Now, The Next Web reports, the eagle trial and training program is complete, and the birds are finally taking to the skies.

Dutch police will use the highly skilled eagles to tackle rogue drones that pose a security threat. For instance, if police spot a dangerous-looking drone when a politician is making a public appearance, protocol will be to move the politician safely inside, then release an eagle to take down the robot. After a seven-month training period conducted with help from Guard From Above, Dutch police are now so confident in the abilities of their eagle enforcers, they’ve started purchasing eagle chicks, which they will train from infancy.

“It’s a low-tech solution to a high-tech problem,” police spokesman Dennis Janus told AFP during a public demonstration. “The eagles see the drones as prey and intercept them as they are flying, before landing where they feel safe with the drone still in their claws.”

To see one of the impressive take-downs, check out the video below.

[h/t The Next Web]

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