Health-Tracking “Smart Toilet” Discerns Users by Their Unique “Analprints”

Mountable on standard systems, a new “smart toilet” concept debuted in the scientific journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, in a research paper by Sanjiv Gambhir of Stanford University. The health-tracking system within the device scans biological waste and uploads the data found to the cloud. It builds unique user profiles based on “analprints,” or the distinct shape of everyone’s butthole—which it captures through a camera within …

Mykki Blanco: Patriarchy Aint The End of Me

In Mykki Blanco’s theatric two-minute track “Patriarchy Aint The End of Me,” the queer rapper tells a tale of defiance atop a dramatic soundscape. Produced by FaltyDL, the song incorporates backing vocals by Mykal Kilgore, L1ZY and Leah King. Blanco shared in a statement that the song was “written as if it were a scene from a musical with radical feminist strippers.” With its narrative …

Explore ASMR at the “Weird Sensation Feels Good” Exhibition

Inside Sweden’s national architecture and design museum in Stockholm, ArkDes, the first-of-its-kind exhibition Weird Sensation Feels Good investigates autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR)—a phenomenon now 13 million videos deep on the internet. ASMR—chilling, pleasurable tingles instigated by common sounds, like rustling, scratching or crinkling—grew beyond a niche subset. The exhibition examines the pre-internet history of ASMR, its development into an advertising and design tool, its …