"Cat Island"

In Japan, there is the island of Tashiro, but it is also customary to call it "Cat Island" - the thing is that cats are a deity there, and the number of fluffies exceeds the population of the city by 6 times.

Unusual accordion.

Musician and engineer Linus Åkesson made an accordion out of two old Commodore 64 computers and floppy disks. The instrument is equipped with special software for computers to play certain sounds when the keys are pressed.

More than half of compostable plastic does not actually biodegrade.

About 60% of compostable plastic does not actually decompose in half a year, despite manufacturers' assurances. In landfills, this waste ends up in soil and groundwater. The only way to protect nature is to use less plastic. These conclusions were made by British scientists during the "Big Composting Experiment" with the participation of 9.7 thousand people.

In Barcelona, drones showed what the Sagrada de Familia will look like when completed.

Construction began already in 1882, 140 years ago. The architect Antoni Gaudí planned to complete the construction in 18 years in 1900.

China will force macaques to have sex in space.

It is not yet known how macaques will behave in space. In cramped cages on Earth, they feel uncomfortable: they begin to pull out their hair, refuse food or activity. In addition, rocket flying can be very scary for monkeys. “On the ground, a panicking monkey can be calmed down with toys, music, or just the company of relatives. How to take care of the happiness and comfort of a monkey in space is a new challenge for astronauts,” said one of the scientists.

Autonomous cars and cars with autopilots have a vulnerability

Тhey can be easily "blinded" with lasers. Most autonomous driving technologies work with cameras and lidar. In a presentation for the 2023 USENIX Security Symposium, hackers showed a dozen ways to use simple lasers to drive cars crazy and cause them to run over people, get into accidents, and make wrong turns.

Xiaomi has unveiled the world's first smartphone with a Leica lens mount.

This is a modified version of Xiaomi 12S Ultra, in which two inch sensors were installed at once. One is normal, and the one located in the center does not have its own optics - it is used only with a lens attached. There is also a wide-angle camera, but Xiaomi did not say anything about it. There is no data on technical characteristics, since the smartphone is in concept status. It is possible that it will never go on sale, but the company may well use the developments in one of the future devices.

SpaceX

NASA said that SpaceX has reached such a production rate that it can produce one Raptor engine per day. In comparison, the current supplier of engines for the SLS lunar rocket produces 4 units per year.

Italian scientists have created a pasta that can be stored for about 120 days when ready.

This will allow you to deal with the problem of throwing out spoiled food and not transfer the pasta just like that.

The new audio codec provides 10x compression compared to MP3.

Meta has announced a new AI-powered audio compression method called EnCodec. It provides 10x compression at 64 kbps without quality loss. The method can also significantly improve speech quality on low-bandwidth connections, the company says.

A new device for paralyzed people.

Implant manufacturer Synchron showed a new device that allows completely paralyzed people to use iPads and iPhones. The device literally reads thoughts and converts them into screen taps.

"Smart" billboard.

Carlsberg breaks into the Asian market: the company installed a “smart” billboard in Vietnam, which pours free foam for the normal pronunciation of the brand. The billboard is powered by AI, into the database of which several hundred “correct” records have been uploaded.

A professional chess player can burn up to 560 calories in a two hour game.

This is almost the same as what you would spend running 8 km. Where did the data come from: at one of the chess festivals, the organizers connected devices to Russian grandmaster Mikhail Antipov that measured the player’s heart rate and breathing rate. So they found out that it was exactly so many calories that he burned in a couple of hours of the game. No wonder chess players are called athletes. And it seems that soon they will overtake footballers in popularity.

French startup Kilow showed a prototype off-road electric car La Bagnole.

The car weighs only 283 kg, has a rear-wheel drive, a steel chassis and a double wishbone suspension, and it takes no more than a couple of hours to fully charge it from a conventional outlet. The creators themselves position the car as a toy for adults - it even comes in a stylized box. In Europe, you can drive an electric car in the basic configuration without a license, since the maximum speed does not exceed 45 km/h. For a more powerful version that develops 80 km / h, rights are already needed. In the first case, the power reserve is up to 70 km, in the second - up to 140 km. The guys plan to start selling in early 2023. Price - from 9990 euros.

An edible drone has been created in Switzerland as part of the RoboFood program.

The device, consisting of rice wafers, is designed to be sent one way to people in difficult situations. So at least they can eat.

Caviar presented a series of devices that can withstand an automatic bullet.

They can also withstand a hacker attack and a "tactical strike" blast wave. The flagship of the Security series is the hardened titanium Sarcophagus, which can withstand a direct hit from a 7.62 caliber bullet and the blast from a "tactical strike". For those who are more afraid of hackers, they released a Faraday Lockbox capsule that extinguishes any electrical charge, protecting it from any signals, as well as a Faraday Shield case with the same properties, but in a case format.

The NASCAR driver used a trick from the game to advance to the next stage of the competition.

Many gamers are familiar with this trick from the NFS series and other arcade racing games - it was they who successfully used the real-life NASCAR driver Ross Chastain on the last lap - at full speed drove the turn, resting sideways on the fences. This allowed him to go from 10th position to 5th, securing a place in the new stage of the championship. Moreover, Chastain set the fastest lap time by 2.5 seconds.

The super-heavy Falcon Heavy rocket made its first flight in three years.

SpaceX has launched the Falcon Heavy for the first time in three years as part of the USSF-44 mission for the US Space Force. At least two satellites have been put into geostationary orbit. The side boosters landed after launch, and the central unit did not return to land in a controlled manner this time.

A sugar beet farmer found a 2,500-year-old golden belt in his crop.

He immediately took the artifact to specialists, and they determined that the find used to be part of a leather belt. On first examination, the scientists assumed that the thin gold leaf was an ancient tiara, but upon re-analysis, they realized that it was too oblong to rest on anyone's head. The length of the artifact is 49 centimeters, and the width is nine. It weighs 56.5 grams. The share of gold in it is 84%. The alloy from which the belt is made also includes silver, copper and other trace elements.

In the United States presented the concept of the tank of the future.

In the United States, the concept of the AbramsX tank of the future with artificial intelligence was presented. The most important novelty of the tank of the future is the unmanned turret. It has an automatic loading system. This made it possible to reduce the tank crew from four to three people, placing them in the tank hull. The tank is equipped with a distributed aperture camera system (DAS), which allows the crew to have a 360-degree view. AbramsX weighs 60 tons. According to the creators, the tank has AI systems for detecting enemies. So far, this is a concept, so serial samples can be drastically different.