Man's 'beast' friend

Prosthesis has been designed with the purpose of using it for racing. Pic courtesy/guinnessworldrecords.com

Jonathan Tippett, who hails from Vancouver, spent more than a decade designing a giant, four-legged robot named Prosthesis. Tippett has been awarded a Guinness World Record for building the robot, which is the world's largest tetrapod exoskeleton. It stands tall at 16 feet and 18 inches long, and weighs 1,600kg. A pilot is required to operate the machine.

Pics/Jonathan Tippett, Facebook

Chromoly steel tubing, often used for aerospace and racing vehicles, was used to construct Prosthesis. Tippett spent over 10 years designing the exoskeleton and less than a year working on the final design.

Prosthesis has been designed with the purpose of using it for racing. This new sport aims to pit pilot against pilot in all electric, high-powered, and off-road running machines that rely solely on the expertise and training of the people inside them to move. Tipett hopes to continue to develop the technology and build the novel sport of mech racing.

1,600kg
Weight of the robot

Hate your ex?

A zoo is allowing you to name a cockroach after them

Valentine's day is just around the corner. It couldn't come at a worse time for people who have just split with their lovers. A zoo in Fairseat, England, has come up with a creative solution to help all the jilted folk. One can replace a romantic dinner for two with a dish best served cold, revenge. Hemsley Conservation Centre is providing people the opportunity to name cockroaches after their exes for £1.50 (R120).

The centre was initially planning to launch a cockroach adopting programme. They, however, opted for the 'name a cockroach programme' and decided to give singletons the means to vent. People who name a cockroach will receive a certificate specifying the name of the creature, apart from a quiz comparing one's former flame to a cockroach.

Tot croons own composition

Three-year-old composer Fenn Rosenthal did her musician father proud with her recent tune Dinosaurs in Love. It is about a couple of dinosaurs who are smitten and are at a dinner party immediately before an apocalyptic event, which wiped-out their race. The adorable video got over million views on Twitter.

Corona: Virus or beer?

A tweet by Google Trends showed that the global search interest for coronavirus symptoms has gone up by 1,050 per cent. Other top search phrases related to the fatal pathogen included Corona beer virus, indicating that people were trying to search if the beer and the virus are related.

Australian woman dies for cake, literally

A 60-year old woman died during a cake-eating competition held to celebrate Australia Day. She was speed-eating when she had a seizure, causing her to choke on a sponge cake. She was given CPR, but it failed to revive her. She was pronounced dead at the Hervey Bay Hospital.

Buy yourself a coffin coated with glitter

Glitter Coffin Co. is offering a wide range of "beautiful, bespoke glitter and crystal coffins and caskets" for those who want to go out in style. These coffins cost R15,000 roughly, and the company ships them worldwide.

Curb your cravings

Charles Spence, a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford, and plant-based food company Strong Roots have teamed up to come up with a patch, which claims to reduce food cravings. The patch, when scratched, emits the smell of cooked bacon. It is to be slapped on to one's arm much like a nicotine patch. "Our sense of smell is strongly connected to our ability to taste, therefore, experiencing food-related cues such as smelling bacon aroma, can lead us to imagine the act of eating that food. Imagine eating enough bacon and you might find yourself sated," Spence said.

Marble-ous Pillows

Norwegian artist Håkon Anton Fagerås is carving fluffy-looking white pillows out of white marble. "Because of the material qualities of marble itself, it appears fragile, but it's not. It appears so, because of the translucency of the stone," Fagerås said.

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