News Digest: Tidings You Might Have Missed

Control the movements of the inhabitants of the Faroe Islands in a game

The game for remote tourism was launched on the Faroe Islands. Now, people from all over the world can control the moves of locals. The Faroese islanders will be the eyes, ears, and feet of tourists. In real time, they will be given commands to go, run, or jump. Faroese will carry out commands that do not harm their lives, meaning that they will not jump off the cliff at your request. Through the camera on the helmets of local residents, you can enjoy the scenery of the islands. The game was developed to support tourism and to encourage people whose travels were canceled due to the pandemic.

“Just like a real-life computer game, you – the main player – will control the moves of the Faroese islander, who will not only explore locations on foot, but also take to the skies by helicopter, giving virtual visitors a bird’s eye perspective on our beautiful island nation’s steep grassy slopes, our 80,000 sheep and our unspoilt, wild and natural countryside,” says the description of the project.

How does a device for interacting with dreams work? “Inception” in real life

MIT’s engineers have developed a system of devices that monitors a state of a person while he/she is asleep and is able to set the subject of dreams. A special glove-like device with sensors monitors the heart rate and other parameters. As soon as the system detects that a person falls into a state of hypnagogia (the transition state between wakefulness and sleep), the glove transmits a signal to a module that plays a previously recorded audio cue that consists of one word. For instance, if a person hears the word “cookie” at this moment, then he/she will probably dream about this bakery product.

Fifty volunteers took part in the testing of the glove-like device, and they really saw things that they heard of before falling asleep. So soon it may be possible to watch “movies” directed by yourself right in your dreams. But there’s the other side of the coin that scientists are concerned about – it is a potential opportunity to affect human behavior through control over our dreams.

A blogger’s study: all coronavirus ads are clichés and the same

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the concept of “corona marketing” appeared. It is used to refer to acutely relevant advertisements about the importance of washing our hands, following self-isolation rules, and about how not to lose our minds while sitting at home.

We’ve seen such commercials a million times already, and somehow it only occurred to one person to compare all the ads and prove that they are all the same and were shot using one template.

The YouTube channel called Microsoft Sam published a video showing that all coronavirus commercials were shot using the same scenario: to the accompaniment of the piano, we are informed that our world is now going through hard times, then follows a reminder of the importance of being together with our beloved ones, and then we see an assurance that the given brand always supported all the good things. In the end, you will definitely see promises that everything will be fine. Among the “twin ads,” there were videos of such giants as Budweiser, Heineken, FedEx, Uber, Apple, Samsung, Lexus, Facebook, and others.

A video of an empty Disneyland was shot from Aladdin’s-eye view

For more than half a century, it has been impossible to imagine Disneyland without large crowds of tourists. This spring, everything changed. The video taken from a drone demonstrates how empty Disneyland is. Now, it resembles the scenery for the disaster film rather than the amusement park. Not a single person, not a single Mickey Mouse, not even a single Pluto or Goofy can be seen in the video. If you suddenly spot anyone, feel free to write in the comments.

A giant Indian squirrel actually exists!

The network users clashed in a debate whether this creature is a direct consequence of bad ecology or a Photoshop trick. The reason for this was a photoshoot of this miraculous animal, which was made in an Indian forest, in the region of Pathanamthitta. The photographer was Kaushik Vijayan.

The queen of knowledge – Wikipedia – dispelled doubts, the squirrel is real! This tiny creature, the Indian giant squirrel (Ratufa Indica in Latin), is a species in the genus Ratufa. The size of one such squirrel is 60 centimeters. A healthy adult is two kilos of meat, bone, wool, and exceptional charm. Such a fluffy animal can cover up to six meters of distance, with one jump from tree to tree.