City in Japan’s Ehime Prefecture is a magical little island that is home to over a hundred cats. There are only about 15 human residents there, most of whom are senior citizens. 

Aoishima Island used to have a larger human population during the 1960s, when people sought refuge during World War II. However, most of them abandoned the island for the mainland, leaving … Read More → "In Japan, a small island has been taken over by cats"

Scientists are now able to study brain activity in the real world with enough precision to know if a subject is thinking about anything related to numbers or quantities. New research out of Stanford University, published this week in Nature, demonstrates the ability to determine when a subject either read, heard, spoke, or thought about quantities.
via The Verge

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Kotaku has posted a delightful photo gallery of large scale rice straw sculptures from Japan’s straw art festivals. The festivals are an annual fall tradition in rural Japan, particularly the Kagawa and Niigata prefectures.
via Laughing Squid

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Those long dark stretches of highway out in the middle of nowhere without any streetlights might soon be a thing of the past thanks to the engineers and designers at the Netherlands-based Kaal Masten. They’ve created the Spirit, a standalone solar-powered streetlight that gets all the energy it needs from the sun, so it can be installed and provide lighting anywhere—even remote locations without access to power grids.
via Read More → "Self-contained solar-powered streetlights stay completely off the grid"

Back in August, Smithsonian Magazine took an in-depth look at prosthetic limbs and artificial organs, with one of its main subjects being a true “Bionic Man.” A team of scientists and researchers at the University of Zurich were able to recreate more than 50 percent of the human body using the “most sophisticated” prosthetics and artificial organs (like a full circulatory … Read More → "‘Bionic Man’ will walk the streets of Washington, DC"

Michael Paul Smith’s photos of a fictional mid-20th century town, Egin Park, are accomplished using his detailed scale models shot against real backgrounds. The effect is spectacular.
via Boing Boing 

Check out … Read More → "Model car photography with full-size backgrounds"

Manhole covers have always terrified me, as I seem to have an inexplicable phobia of someday falling into one that wasn’t on right or simply wasn’t on at all. But one company’s idea of turning a manhole into a wireless charging station for electric vehicles (EV) somehow makes them seem less scary.

By using a resonance-based charging system installed underneath the city pavement via a pre-existing manhole cover, Hevo … Read More → "NYC manhole covers to soon become wireless car battery chargers"

We are naturally inclined to investigate a machine that looks or sounds human, even if we know that it isn’t quite like us in every respect. Chimpanzees, it turns out, may be intrigued by robots, too. In fact, when they are introduced to one, they often socialize with it, offer it toys, and invite it to play, as they might when meeting a human or a … Read More → "Robots push the right buttons for inquisitive chimps"

The minds of man and machine suffer from a glaring disconnect: The inability to interface directly with one another. We have to use our hands, keyboards, and mice to issue commands to our robotic minions and they can only respond via physical sensory mediums. But we can do better. We can use our minds. In fact, we already are.

Read More → "How we’ll command the future with our thoughts"

Play dates with an imaginary friend could help children become better problem solvers down the road. According to The Wall Street Journal, researchers have found that children who keep imaginary friends eventually develop better internalized thinking, which separately has been found to help children do better with cognitive tasks like planning and puzzle solving. The research, led from Durham University, … Read More → "Imaginary friends help kids become better problem solvers, study finds"