Mind Soup

This is a feature story done for Cloud 961 Magazine Issue 4 . The main purpose of medicine and the thousands of years of trying to perfect it is to extend a human’s life and eventually achieve immortality (through robotics for example). What the internet, social networks in particular, unexpectedly achieved is another type of immortality: digital immortality. Yet, people don’t usually think about what happens to their social profiles online once they are deceased, until they are forced to when someone close to them dies. According to a study done for the purpose of this article, 65% of the respondents have at least one deceased person as a connection on their social media platforms. Only 12%, however, are aware of Facebook’s and Twitter’s procedures for deceased people. Facebook’s official policy for deceased people who have profiles on their site is to turn it into a memorial where “people can save and share their memories of those who've passed.” This setting hides the prof...

OH MY GOD!  Yes! That is a real bug. Appropriately named the rhino beetle, it sure is huge. Imagine if more bugs were this size. Aaghh! It sure is a nightmare for those who are scared of creepy crawlies and even for those who get nervous when they see one close. It does redefine entomophobia, the fear of creepy crawlies. Can you just imagine how one would react to a couple of them crawling within a few feet of distance? These rhino beetles are a wily pest and can destroy coconut crops in a jiffy. Wonder what kind of bird if any has the guts to feed on this giant bug. Nature can have a strange sense of humor. Wonder why she made a bug so huge or may be we should be wondering why she made the others so small. Nature has her share of weird things in the world, so can man be far behind? So many extra large weird stuff, man made are out there to bring our fantasy to another level. Ranging from a gigantic burger, to a coffin shaped like a giant duffel bag or a coffee table...