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How long do you want a movie to last? When do you start looking at your watch and wonder when you can leave the darkness of the cinema?

Or maybe it doesn't matter because you watch everything on streaming services, and you can pause anytime you like.

But according to a survey from the US, the perfect movie length is 92 minutes — about the same as a soccer match.

A polling company called Talker Research asked 2,000 people how long movies should be.

Only about 2% said they thought movies should be longer than two and a half hours, while just 15% want to watch a movie that's more than two hours long.

Movies like Dodgeball, Kung Fu Panda and Toy Story 2 are all about 92 minutes long.

But data suggests that the most popular movies are getting longer and longer.

A website called What to Watch found that the average length of the most successful movies has increased from 110 minutes in 1981 to 141 minutes in 2022.

The Guardian reports that nine out of the top 10 most successful films of all time are longer than two hours. Three of them are longer than three hours.

However, some say it's not the length of the film that's important, but how good it is.

There are really long films that feel much shorter because they're so interesting, and there are shorter movies that you wish would just end fast!

Survey Reveals the Perfect Movie Length

"Not all heroes wear capes."

This is a phrase that's often used online to talk about normal people who do amazing things.

They don't need a cape — like Superman — to do something amazing.

But here's a hero who not only didn't wear a cape — he didn't have a name either.

Or at least, he kept his name a secret.

This is the story of a Filipino man in Japan who saved a young boy from the sea in Fukuoka city.

A 6-year-old boy was at Hakozaki pier with his family when he fell about 2 meters down into the water below. His family didn't notice at first that he had fallen, but the Filipino man did.

He was fishing nearby, and jumped into the sea to keep the boy safe while they waited to be helped out of the water.

The 6-year-old was not wearing a life jacket, and the coast guard said if the man had not jumped in, the boy could have been in trouble.

The Filipino man, who is 26 and lives in Fukuoka, gave his details to the coast guard afterward. But when the family asked for his name and his contact information, he declined and went home.

Some reports said he replied that he was not worth identifying.

SoraNews24 said the man replied in Japanese: "I'm not important enough for people to need to be concerned about my name."

The website said this is a phrase that is more likely to be used in action movies or manga, perhaps by a hero who has just saved the day.

The Filipino man was not hurt, while the boy was taken to hospital.

Man Saves Boy from Sea, Keeps Name Secret

Swedish furniture company IKEA has opened a new store.

There's nothing strange about that. But wait a minute — the new store is inside a video game. And it's paying real people to work there!

IKEA advertised for 10 positions in a virtual store it has opened in Roblox — and got more than 178,000 applications!

Roblox is a popular online gaming platform that lets users play games and create their own.

IKEA has created The Co-Worker Game on the platform. And it needed some employees.

At the start of June, IKEA began looking for people aged 18 and over in the UK and Ireland to work as paid members of staff at the in-game store.

It said staff would help customers, and would be able to get promoted and move departments, just like in real life.

The company said it wanted to show that it does things a little differently.

Wes Davis from technology website The Verge called it a "weird" but "harmless" idea.

He said he'd never heard of other companies paying people to work in a game, but added that US company Walmart has already created a game on Roblox.

IKEA said its employees would be paid a little over $16.50 per hour during their work-from-home shifts, which is about the same as the company's other workers get paid in the UK.

The store opened on June 24. It's not clear how long the workers will be employed for, although the company said the positions would be on a "limited contract."

It also said anyone who didn't get a job could still experience the virtual store and win in-game prizes.

IKEA Pays People Real Money to Work in Video Game

People in Switzerland eat more chocolate than anyone else in the world.

According to data from World Population Review, the average Swiss person eats nearly 9 kilograms of chocolate a year — almost twice as much as people in America.

So it might be no surprise that a Swiss university is doing research on chocolate — looking for ways to make it healthier and better for the planet!

Chocolate is made using cocoa beans, which grow in pods on the cacao tree. Each pod holds 20 to 60 seeds — or beans — that are covered in sweet white pulp.

Researchers from the university ETH Zurich have found a way to mix the pulp with part of the pod to make a sweet gel, which can be used instead of the powdered sugar that's usually added to cocoa beans when making chocolate.

Typical dark chocolate might be made of 30% to 40% powdered sugar. Testing different recipes, the researchers found they could make chocolate that was up to 20% gel and about as sweet as chocolate with 5% to 10% powdered sugar.

The new chocolate also had 20% more fiber and 30% less saturated fat than typical European dark chocolate — meaning it's healthier to eat.

Main study writer, Kim Mishra, told The Guardian that the new chocolate has a fruitier taste than typical dark chocolate — although it also tastes more acidic.

The researchers said using parts of the cocoa plant that are usually thrown away reduces waste, while using the new gel would let cocoa farmers get money not just from their beans, but by selling the pulp and pod parts needed for the gel as well.

It may be a while before we can try this chocolate for ourselves. However, ETH Zurich has already filed a patent for the recipe.



Scientists Make Healthier, Less Wasteful Chocolate

If robots do take over the world, this one probably won't be the leader.

Less than 5.8 centimeters tall — a little shorter than a lighter — it has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's smallest humanoid robot.

Humanoid robots look and act like humans. For the Guinness record, they must be able to move their shoulders, elbows, knees and hips, and also be able to walk.

Made by a Japanese student named Mitsuya Tatsuhiko, this one is less than half the size of the previous holder of the world record, which was made by students from Hong Kong.

Tatsuhiko is a postgraduate student at Nagoya Institute of Technology, where he researches crawler robots. Crawler robots don't look like humans, however, and they're used to inspect places that are hard to get to.

Tatsuhiko has been interested in robots since he was a child.

According to Guinness World Records, he built his first humanoid robot when he was 10.

He didn't spend as much time making them during high school, but he has returned to his passion as he has gotten older.

It took him a few tries to get his record-breaking robot right, and he worked hard to make it as small as he could.

He applied for the record with his third attempt while he was in the fourth year of his degree. He said he was very happy to have broken the record.

Tatsuhiko hopes to work with robots when he finishes university, but he'll also keep making them at home as a hobby.

Japanese Student Makes Smallest Humanoid Robot

People have been building boats for at least 10,000 years, making them one of the oldest types of transportation. They're a big part of history, which is why there are many expressions about boats.

If you have the same problems or are in the same situation as someone else, you can say you are "in the same boat." This expression comes from the fact that people on the same boat are all affected if the boat gets into trouble while at sea.

For example, if your friend told you they had lost their job, and you had also lost your job, you could say "Looks like we're in the same boat — I lost my job too!"

If a person is doing something too much or in an extreme way, you can say they are "going overboard" with it. This expression comes from the 1600s when boats were mostly made of wooden boards, and going overboard meant falling into the water.

So if your friend kept calling the same company to ask for a job, you could say, "Don't go overboard! If you keep calling them they won't hire you."

If someone misses out on something, especially because they were late or too slow, you can say they have "missed the boat." This expression refers to being late to board a boat that departed at a specific time.

So your friend might say, "I just want to make sure I'm the first person they call when they're hiring. I don't want to miss the boat!"