With every instance of mankind’s success in exploring the deep recesses of space comes another instance of failure or disaster. Since humans are traveling in uncharted territory, there is a big risk in attempting to explore with our limited knowledge. Long-time planning could reduce the risks, but it is understandable that not everything will go according to plan. World Atlas lists ten of history’s worst disasters that happened as a result of mankind’s continuous study of space. Check the full list here.
If you’ve played any of the previous iterations of the Ace Attorney series, then you know how over-the-top and sometimes ridiculous the court cases get. From cross-examining a parrot to looking for a Loch Ness Monster, it’s fairly obvious that if these cases made it into a real life court, no one would take it seriously. It’s still fun to play, though! The release of a new addition to the franchise introduces new gameplay concepts for both in and out of the courtroom. PCGamesN enlists the help of Isabel Davies, an associate at media law firm Wiggin to determine if The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles can hold a candle to real life court cases. Check her full analysis here!
Barkha Kumari encountered a street snack in India that intrigued her. The vendor was cutting paper-thin slices off of what looked like a log, but was obviously softer. This was Ram Kand Mool. But what kind of a plant did it come from?
“It’s a root. It can grow five feet deep and 300kg,” he explained, in response to my shock. He sources it, he said, from the neighbouring state of Kerala, from people who “get it from the forests.” He hasn’t seen anybody extract the root, but has seen the tree it comes from. “It’s like a climber. It gives flowers. It grows near the sea. It’s called Bhoochakara Gadda in south India and Ram Kand Mool up north.”
Can a root be this massive? Especially the root of a climber or vine? Before I could ask Google, my snack was ready. It was seasoned with salt, chili powder, and lime; my husband’s had sugar and lime. It was crunchy, juicy, and refreshing, but had no taste of its own.
The snack sent Kumari down a rabbit hole trying to identify the plant that this food came from. She quickly figured out that the vendor, and others, either did not know or did not want to divulge the exact source of the "root." So she consulted food scientists and botanists, who did not know, either.
Soon enough, I’d learn that my idle curiosity was, in fact, a mystery that has baffled and, at times, infuriated botanists for decades. This snack has been widely sold on the streets for decades—from the city of Haridwar in the north to Pune in the west and in several places in the south—and yet, somehow, no one seems to know what it is.
New York City is a mecca for those who want to try out restaurants, and authentic Italian restaurants have been rising in popularity for the last decade or so. But how far can one stretch the definition of "authentic"? Food writer David Farley thought it would be an interesting experiment to take Italian tourists to an Olive Garden. You might be horrified by the ethics of this experiment, but through a friend, Farley managed to recruit an Italian couple who are living in New York temporarily and agreed to be taken to dinner at a surprise location. On the way, Marco and Giovanna speculated about which Italian restaurant they would be visiting.
That’s when I said, “ta dah!” and fanned my arm up at the Olive Garden logo, like I were a model standing next to a car on display at an automobile show. (This location has since closed, leaving the Times Square location the sole Olive Garden in Manhattan.)
Marco covered his face in disbelief. Giovanna said, “I’m not sure we’re going to survive this.”
We were seated in a large booth immediately. Nathan, our waiter, doled out the menus, which were big on photos and little on description.
My Italians scanned the menu. “This might as well be a Chinese menu,” Marco said.
“True,” Giovanna said. “There is nothing remotely similar here to anything you would find in Italy.”
Some people are just overachievers. Brian May is the guitarist for Queen, and also has a PhD in astrophysics. We know he is an avid gardener, and in his spare time, he collects stereographs, photographs in pairs taken from slightly different angles in order to produce a 3D effect. But this story isn't about Brian May, it's about one of his stereographs. It was taken by photographer Henry Brooks and shows his wife Caroline and their daughter Caroline Jane posing in front of Stonehenge in the 1860s.
It was discovered by the curators of the Brian May Archive of Stereoscopy following a public appeal by English Heritage to find the earliest family photo taken at the stones.
"I've been fascinated by stereo cards since I was a boy and got one in a cereal packet," said the Queen guitarist.
"This is a fantastic early example and exciting because it's one of the oldest family snaps taken at Stonehenge.
"It feels even more evocative when set to music - a bit like a silent movie and we thought it would be great fun to recreate the image as a stereo view at Stonehenge and breathe new life into an old photo," he added.
To be more precise, Madeleine Ravier referred to her invention as a "bicycle for animals." She did not restrict the design in her 1907 patent to horses.
Ravier concluded that, as human locomotion is more efficient on a bicycle, animals likewise benefit by an appropriately adapted vehicle. Weird Universe quotes a translation of her patent:
What man did for himself he can do it for animals, or at least for some of them; There is a way to increase the efficiency of their limbs by the intercalation, between these limbs and the field of motion, of mechanical devices receiving the reciprocating motion of the limbs, transforming it into continuous rotary motion, and ending in rotating parts; and the result obtained can be used to make animals move man faster and farther than has hitherto been done by using them.
Redditor UNHOLYpuppetboy shares this photo of the book stacks of his local public library. It's the Merchants' Square location of the Carmel Clay Public Library in Carmel, Indiana. The main library of that system is under renovation, so the collection and its services were moved into a closed grocery store last October. The local NBC News affiliate described the changes last year:
That's right, the library is now in the old Marsh in Merchants' Square while the main library undergoes renovations. The library expects construction could take up to two years, with a focus on expanding the "teen" area. [...]
"Our books in the freezer section. That's a popular area," said Director Bob Swanay. "The children's area is in what was formerly the winery section of the store."
Hawaii is a popular tourist destination. This is advantageous for locals, as it provides them a livelihood. However, because of tourists not sticking to the rules set by locals, they tend to damage popular sites. Social media posts that show visitors touching endangered Hawaiian monk seals, hiking on forbidden trails or going off designated paths are just few of the several instances of foreigners’ faux pass against locals:
Some residents are taking matters into their own hands, using social media as a tool to try to divert tourists away from sensitive areas as well as to educate people how to responsibly visit and interact with the wildlife and other natural wonders in the islands.
“When tourists come to visit these places, leave the geotag unavailable,” advises Melissa Akoni, who has become well known for her efforts to promote the responsible use of Hawaii’s resources.
[...]
The Honolulu Police Department said it issued more than 70 citations and made five arrests related to trespassers on the trail in the second half of June alone,Hawaii News Now reported.
“When it comes to Haiku Stairs, there is no middle ground,” Nathan Serota, a spokesman for the Department of Parks and Recreation, said in a telephone interview. “It’s illegal to go on the stairs. Period.”
Get your shit turned into gold! A South Korean researcher has created a toilet that turns human waste into power. Where does the money come in, you ask? Well, it’s the bonus incentive. Every use of the special toilet scores you the currency developed by Urban and environmental engineering professor Cho Jae-weon. The virtual currency, called Ggool (‘honey”), can be used to buy items within Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST):
The toilet first pumps your excrement into an underground tank, which means it uses less water right off the bat when compared to a traditional toilet. Microorganisms then break down the waste into methane, a usable source of energy.
In short, it’s a delightful new method of turning sewage into power.
“If we think out of the box, feces has precious value to make energy and manure,” inventor Cho Jae-weon, an urban and environmental engineering professor at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), told Reuters. “I have put this value into ecological circulation.”
The toilet could turn roughly a pound of solid human waste, the average amount a human poops in a day, into an impressive 50 liters of methane gas, according to Cho. That means it can generate half a kilowatt hour of electricity, enough to drive an electric car for three quarters of a mile.
He looks so happy! Animals, like humans, deserve to be spoiled on their birthdays, right? Especially if they reached a milestone in their life! Cornish Seal Sanctuary’s rescue seal Yulelogs celebrated his 32nd birthday with a giant ice cake filled with fish. Yulelogs’ birthday is a milestone for him, as male grey seals tend to only live around 25 years:
Yulelogs was rescued back in 1989 as a tiny pup. The marine park that saved him eventually closed, and Yulelogs was released back into the wild.
"However, after such a long time in captivity, he had no idea how to feed himself and had become too used to humans," says the Cornish Seal Sanctuary on their website. "Three months after his release, Yulelogs was rescued by the RSPCA after receiving calls from concerned members of the public saying he had been chasing people with buckets on the beach, believing they contained fish."
If I got a private concert just outside my home, I too would be amazed! Violinist Big Lux played some fin-shaking music in front of two belugas at Connecticut's Mystic Aquarium. The two whales appeared to be entranced as they paid attention to the violinist’s beautiful playing, as they sway their flippers to the beat:
"We recently had a private performance for Juno, Kela, and Natasha! This type of enrichment is great for animals and humans alike!" the aquarium wrote in the caption.
It actually wasn't the first beluga concert at Mystic Aquarium. Back in July 2011, Juno wasfilmed "dancing" alongside a mariachi band during a wedding. At the time, a representative from the aquarium, Lindsey Nelson, told a reporter Juno was likely mimicking the band's guitar player—not dancing.
Officially released in 2011, it doesn’t come as a surprise that people keep inventing new ways to enjoy Minecraft. YouTuber GrayStillPlays has dedicated an entire series to break the game in different ways. His latest attempt is to raise a horde of axolotls in the game and use them to kill the final boss, the ender dragon:
AMinecraft axolotl joins his army every 30 seconds, and each one eventually levels up and gains new abilities, they quickly go from being adorable walking fish to frightening monsters, capable of shooting arrows and causing massive explosions with a mere chomp of their tiny teeth. Things get rough when Gray tries to trade with some Piglins for ender pearls, with the axolotls seemingly so thirsty for blood that they start killing everything in sight. But he manages it, and it's genuinely quite awe-inspiring watching how quickly the ender dragon goes down at the end of it all.
In a bid to bring in tourists, people from Gyoda, Japan create massive artworks in their rice fields every year. The tradition started in 2008, and they also managed to earn a Guinness World Record for creating the world's largest rice field artwork in 2015! The process in creating these beautiful images is a long and arduous process, as Roya News details:
A design is selected early in the year, with planting happening around May. In 2019, the theme honoured the Rugby World Cup, hosted by Japan.
This year's image was intended to highlight Japan's cultural heritage, on the assumption that crowds of foreign visitors would be in the country for the Games.
"We wanted to show the Japanese arts of Ukiyoe (woodblock prints) and Kabuki (theatre) in a rice paddy field, which itself is also an important part of Japan's culture," Gyoda city official Shuhei Tagashira told AFP.
"We wanted to present Japan to the world."
It hasn't worked out that way, with foreign spectators barred and most Games events happening without even domestic fans allowed in the stands.
But on Friday, there were still people taking in the view from an observatory 50 metres up that offers a bird's eye view of the piece.
The usual tourist destinations for reliving the wonders of the ancient world are Petra, Angkor Wat, and the Coliseum. God knows there’s a lot more areas to explore that could provide more and varying contexts to the ancient world! BBC’s Husna Haq dove deep in the question-and-answer site Quora to look for opinions on some ofthe most impressive ancient structures in the world. Check Haq’s list of some unknown wonders here!
The Tower Bridge in London is a tourist attraction, and it carries tons of traffic over the River Thames -more than 20,000 vehicles a day. It is also a drawbridge that lifts up when a tall boat goes beneath, due to an old law that says river traffic has the right-of-way. Recently, Tom Scott had the opportunity to participate in lifting the bridge for a boat. I don't know how long ago that was, but on the day he uploaded the video, Tower Bridge became stuck open in its upright position and traffic is currently a mess.
honestly, you let @tomscott press a couple of buttons and all hell let's loose.
