Welcome to Make It By Monday, GOOD's weekly DIY feature in which we curate, demystify, and add our own tips for craft projects from around the web (and our apartments). This week: DIY your belated thank you cards.
Lenstore, a UK-based eye care company, has created an ultra-difficult color test that’s so challenging, the retailer says that less than 1% of the first 2,000 people who took it got a perfect ten out of ten. The test involves distinguishing between different hues of the same color and putting the colors in the correct order on the spectrum.
Lenstore says that women fair better than men on the test. Females scored an average of 57.7%, while men obtained an average of 53.8%. These results closely mirror the current scientific data on sex and color perception.
In a 2012 study, Israel Abramov a psychologist from Brooklyn College found that males are less adept at perceiving colors in the center of the color spectrum, such as yellows, greens and blues. The same study showed that men were better at distinguishing quick-changing objects from afar.
Color blindness is also much more common in men. According to the National Eye Institute, 8% of men and 0.5% of women are color blind.
It’s believed that these differences in perception stem from humans evolving in hunter-gatherer societies in which men tracked distant objects and women focused on things up-close.
Age is also a major factor in the ability to perceive distinctions between colors. People between the ages of 31 to 35 scored the best with an average of 60%. While people ages 81 to 89 averaged 38%.
These results also gel with current scientific research. After the age of 70, the number of people who have trouble correctly perceiving color increases rapidly. “We find the color discrimination declines with age and that the majority of color defects among the older population are of the blue-yellow type,” Marilyn E. Schneck, PhD, and colleagues at The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute wrote.
Country of origin also plays a factor.
Here are the top ten countries in terms of color perception, according to their report:
While there was a significant difference between numbers one and ten on the list, there is no solid research that says whether people from different parts of the world are any better or worse at perceiving color. But there are differences in how colors are labeled.
For example, the word “orange” didn’t exist in the English language until orange trees were brought from Europe to Asia around the year 1500. There are also some cultures that speak unwritten languages that don’t have a word for color.
“There are tons of languages that have words for big and small, or hot and cold, without a word for size or temperature. Most unwritten languages don’t have words for abstractions. You don’t need ’em,” anthropologist Paul Kay said according to Sapiens.
A camera developed at MIT can photograph a trillion frames per second. Compare that with a traditional movie camera which takes a mere 24. This new advancement in photographic technology has given scientists the ability to photograph the movement of the fastest thing in the Universe, light. In the video below, you'll see experimental footage of light photons traveling 600-million-miles-per-hour through water.
The actual event occurred in a nano second, but the camera has the ability to slow it down to twenty seconds. For some perspective, according to New York Times writer, John Markoff, “If a bullet were tracked in the same fashion moving through the same fluid, the resulting movie would last three years."
It's impossible to directly record light so the camera takes millions of scans to recreate each image. The process has been called femto-photography and according to Andrea Velten, a researcher involved with the project, “There's nothing in the universe that looks fast to this camera."
It's super easy for most people to get hung up on the number on their scales and not how they actually look or, most importantly, feel. People often go on diets in hopes of reaching an ideal weight they had when they graduated high school or got married, but they're often disappointed when they can't attain it.
But a set of photos by fitness blogger Kelsey Wells is a great reminder for everyone to put their scales back in storage. Welles is best known as the voice and body behind My Sweat Life, a blog she started after gaining weight during pregnancy. To lose the weight, she started the Bikini Body Guide (BBG) training program and after 84 weeks she shared three photos on her Instagram account that prove the scale doesn't matter.
The photos showed her at her start weight (144 pounds), the weight she hit two months after giving birth (122 pounds), and current weight (140 pounds). Now she weighs exactly what she did when she started the program but her body is entirely different.
"SCREW THE SCALE || I figured it was time for a friendly, yet firm reminder. YOU GUYS. PLEASEEEEEE STOP GETTING HUNG UP ON THE NUMBER ON THE STUPID SCALE! PLEASE STOP THINKING YOUR WEIGHT EQUALS YOUR PROGRESS AND FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING PLEASE STOP LETTING YOR WEIGHT HAVE ANY AFFECT WHATSOEVER ON YOUR SELF ESTEEM, like I used to. To any of you who are where I once was, please listen to me. I am 5' 7" and weigh 140 lbs. When I first started #bbg I was 8 weeks post partum and 145 lbs. I weighed 130 before getting pregnant, so based on nothing besides my own warped perception, I decided my "goal weight" should be 122 and to fit into my skinniest jeans. Well after a few months of BBG and breastfeeding, I HIT IT and I fit into those size 0 jeans. Well guess what? I HAVE GAINED 18 POUNDS SINCE THEN. EIGHT FREAKING TEEN. Also, I have gone up two pant sizes and as a matter of fact I ripped those skinny jeans wide open just the other week trying to pull them up over my knees.?? My point?? According to my old self and flawed standards, I would be failing miserably."
No matter how you feel about it, everyone can agree that art is interesting. It makes us think. And one of the greatest things about art is that it can be interpreted a thousand different ways depending on the eye of the beholder. The artist usually has some intent when they initially create a piece, but once it's out in the public eye, its meaning can be anything. It can also be used for anything (barring copyrights, which do not come into play in this story).
Enter Middle Earth Organics and their pasta sauce. Middle Earth Organics is known for their organic pasta sauces, and each label on their products features a famous Italian painting.
Cool, but what about it? Well, the painting they chose for their tomato and porcini mushroom sauce has been stirring up controversy online.
Beautiful and a little haunting, the painted woman on the label is quite arresting. But what is she looking at? Sorry to burst any bubbles, but the woman in the painting above is not staring with intense concentration at a pot of delicious, simmering sugo.
No. This is what she's looking at: the man she's beheading. The image comes from the painting, "Judith Beheading Holofernes," by the artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (known simply as Caravaggio) in 1599. Judith, seen above, is not making an al dente delight. Judith is cutting off some dude's head.
The artwork depicts an often-painted Biblical episode from the apocryphal "Book of Judith," a work excluded from the Hebrew and Protestant Bibles (but included in the Septuagint). The story goes that an Assyrian general, Holofernes, was about to destroy Bethulia, the home of beautiful Jewish widow, Judith. Judith is invited into Holofernes' tent where she then plies him with drink until he passes out and decapitates him. Not exactly the most appetizing story.
As 11., the unofficial authority on art history, noted, "That unfortunate painting selection could've been avoided if they'd just hired an art history major."
Still, it is on theme for the brand's packaging. Take a look at the art inspired lineup of sauces.
General Motors has been one of America's largest car and truck companies for more than 100 years, and with a huge "reinvention" underway, they're positioning themselves to be around for a lot longer.
The science on climate change has made it clear that the future of transportation has to be greener and cleaner. Vehicles are one of the main sources of greenhouse gases, and with fossil fuels being both a limited resource and a polluting one, car companies will need to turn to new technologies in order to compete in the global market.
GM, in a big pivot from just a couple of years ago, is embracing that future with both hands. In November, GM withdrew from a Trump administration lawsuit against California's strict emissions standards and invited other companies to do the same. Now, in a hilarious new ad, it has announced that GM will add 30 electric vehicle (EV) models by the year 2025—just four years from now.
In the 90-second spot, which will air during the Super Bowl, Will Ferrell points out that Norway sells more electric vehicles per capita than the United States, and he clearly takes that fact personally. Let Norway dominate the U.S.? No friggin' way.
"With GM's new Ultium battery, we're gonna crush those lugers," declares Ferrell. "CRUSH THEM." American competitiveness for the win.
Ferrell runs and grabs Kenan Thompson and Awkwafina and tells them to meet him ASAP in Norway with an EV. They all end up in the wrong Scandanavian countries, and it's just silly and clever and cute and now I kinda want to buy a GM EV.
Even the slogan, "everybody in" (highlighting the EV) is simply clever. Big bucks can buy you great marketing, but when a company is leading on climate-friendly initiatives and combining that push with fun marketing messaging, it's a win-win for us all.
The greener, cleaner pivot from GM is a good indication that the tide is finally turning when it comes to electric car technologies. We've seen the slow roll out from the concept stage over the years, and electric cars have always been embraced by hipsters and environmentalists. But this push feels like it has the potential to actually get more electric vehicles into more American garages and to normalize the idea that the future is in climate-friendly innovation.
— (@)
"Our team accepted the challenge to transform product development at GM and position our company for an all-electric future," said Mary Barra, GM chairman and CEO when the company first announced their new battery technology last March. "What we have done is build a multi-brand, multi-segment EV strategy with economies of scale that rival our full-size truck business with much less complexity and even more flexibility."
"Thousands of GM scientists, engineers and designers are working to execute an historic reinvention of the company," added GM President Mark Reuss. "They are on the cusp of delivering a profitable EV business that can satisfy millions of customers."
Whether GM is making these changes because the political winds are shifting with the election of Joe Biden, the capitalist landscape has changed with consumers demanding products that are better for the environment, or the company really just wants to do the right thing, the end result is the same. More climate-friendly cars coming to market—and a chance to best our Norwegians friends in the electric vehicle race.
NASA has a fancy term for using materials it finds in space to help propel its missions forward, "in-situ resource utilization" (ISRU). ISRU is the process of collecting, storing, processing, and using objects to replace those brought from Earth.
Let's say NASA wanted to visit Mars and knew there are building materials on the planet. Instead of wasting resources flying the materials from Earth, the astronauts could harvest them on Mars instead.
According to NASA, "in-situ resource utilization will enable the affordable establishment of extraterrestrial exploration and operations by minimizing the materials carried from Earth."
Nike is using the same strategy for a new pair of limited-release sneakers that it claims have its "lowest carbon footprint" ever.
"There's this idea in space exploration that if you're going to fly to the moon or fly to Mars and stay there and do something, you have to create things with what you find there," said Nike designer Noah Murphy-Reinhertz.
The new, aptly-named Space Hippie line of sneakers are made from "space junk" or the scraps of material that Nike has collected from its factory floors. "It is about figuring out how to make the most with the least material, the least energy and the least carbon," John Hoke, Nike's chief design officer, said according to Deezen.
"It's changed the way we look at materials, it's changed the way that we look at the aesthetics of our product," he added. "It's changed how we approach putting product together," he continued.
Nike says that the new shoes are its first attempt at joining the circular economy. This emerging business strategy aims to eliminate all waste and pollution from manufacturing.
"We believe the future for product will be circular," Seana Hannah, vice president of sustainable innovation at Nike, said. "We must think about the entire process: how we design it, how we make it, how we use it, how we reuse it and how we cut out waste at every step. These are the fundamentals of a circular mindset that inform best practices."
There are four different versions of the shoe, Space Hippie 01, 02, 03 and 04. The shoes are mostly gray with bright orange accents, including the brand's iconic Swoosh logo.
The shoe's upper portion is constructed with Nike's "space waste yarn" which is made up of 100% recycled materials including textile scraps, T-shirts, and plastic water bottles. Nike says that the entire upper part of the shoe is made from 90% recycled materials.
The shoe's sole is far less sustainable. It's a combination of standard Nike foams and 15% recycled waste rubber.
Although the shoe is limited-edition, it feels like a glimpse into the future when the most important aspect of what we wear is less about style and more about substance. And by substance, we mean that actual materials that go into the shoe.
The Nike Space Hippie will be available later this spring to members of Nike House of Innovation flagship locations.
"Tom and Jerry" animated shorts follow the countless attempts of a cat named Tom to capture his friend Jerry, a mouse.
The two have genuine affection for each other although they are constantly ensnared into a literal game of cat-and-mouse where Jerry almost always wins and Tom winds up getting pulverized.
The show is either a monument to Tom's perseverance to catch the mouse or his stupidity because he never achieves his goal.
The series was first created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and, over the years won seven Academy Awards. The original series of animated shorts was created from 1940 to 1967 and has been the source for numerous spin-offs over the years.
"Tom and Jerry" was undoubtedly the inspiration for Bart's favorite show on "The Simpsons," the ultra-violent duo Itchy and Scratchy.
It has also been an inspiration for Japanese sculpture artist Taku Inoue who has created perfect sculptures of the duo — most of them being hilarious depictions of Tom being injured.
"A lot of people have seen (my sculptures) and I'm very surprised," Taku told BuzzFeed. "Tom and Jerry had a big impact on my childhood, it's influential to my creative work."
At this past weekend's North American International Toy Fair in New York, not every participant was a toymaker. In the back of the huge space was a booth for BuddyTag—a smart wristband that helps parents monitor children within 120 feet. BuddyTag was invented by Willie Wu after he lost his daughter at Six Flags. “His child did everything right—waiting in one place with an employee of the park," said Wu's sister, who was stationed at the booth. The kid was found in an hour, “but it was the worst hour of his life." It also sparked an idea.
Wu's device is for parents who are within the vicinity of their child but want the security of extra protection. “It gives them the freedom to play in playgrounds and amusement parks, near your eyesight," Ms. Wu said. It also has a Panic Button on the wristband that kids can press to alert their parents that they're in danger, as well as the ability to email. This allows parents to view when and where their child was last tracked by the app—for example, if he's on a field trip or with a babysitter.
The wristband came out two years ago. “It was capable before then, but bulky. This design is low battery, low power, Bluetooth, and waterproof," Ms. Wu explained. The device can be set to send an alert when your child wanders out of your proximity. The range varies from about 80 to 120 feet in an open area (playground or shopping mall, for example) or about 40 feet in an indoor area. Available with a silicone or Velcro wristband, the BuddyTag costs about $35.
The device can be programmed to work with new versions of iPhone and Android phones as well as some iPad and iPod Touch models.
blue white and red paperPhoto by 
Itv Quiz GIF by Stellify Media
Label for Middle Earth Organics' Organic Tomato & Porcini Mushroom Sauce
"Judith Beheading Holofernes" by Caravaggio (1599)