Here's a floating billboard that's a cross between a drone and a blimp

This inflatable machine combines the maneuverability of a drone with efficiency of a blimp. Developed by Swiss startup Aerotain, the helium-filled, propeller-powered Skye can be outfitted with an internal projector to display moving pictures on the balloon's skin, turning it into some kind of spherical billboard that can float safely around and interact with people.

"This is where the magic happens; four motors are allowing it to perform any movement, so you can really move it in the air like a flying eye," Aerotain co-founder Daniel Meier told Reuters. "There is a computer on board which knows exactly how it's orientated in the world, and then it gives commands to the motors to actually align it to where you want it to be. And there are four motors on it which can rotate around their axis and with them you can precisely control it in any environment, basically."

Skye has been used at events as a crowd-pleaser, but it's also strong enough to carry on-board cameras for aerial photography. Below is an early demo video of the machine in action.

[h/t: Fortune]

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Preserved tattoos of the dead

The idea of preserving tattoos after death came into existence long before NAPSA . London's Wellcome Collection has over 300 specimens of preserved human flesh bearing tattoos , collected in the late 19th century. There are many more examples of smaller collections in Paris, Poland, Portugal, Berlin, and Austria. But what fascinates me the most is this lesser-known museum at Tokyo University, the Medical Pathology Museum, which houses pieces of skin collected since 1926 by Dr. Masaichi Fukushi. "Fukushi would perform autopsies on donated cadavers and dissect off just the skin. He created a method of treatment to preserve the skin and kept them stretched in a glass frame, essentially like a leather. Later the ownership of the tattooed skin collection was passed on to Fukushi's son Katsunari. Katsunari added a further 20 tattooed skins himself and it's believed that the Medical Pathology Museum has 105 in its collection, many with full body suits." ...

This monk makes the best vinegar in New York

Brother Victor-Antoine d' Avila-Latourrette is a Benedictine monk who lives at a secluded monastery in New York's Hudson Valley. He's an internationally acclaimed, best-selling author of several cookbooks, including From a Monastery Kitchen and Twelve Months of Monastery Salads . And he makes vinegars unlike those found in most markets.

Acorn-shaped meditation pod

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