[rflash8]

Sour Patch Kids Oreos? Peeps Pepsi? What’s behind the weird flavors popping up on store shelves


Weird takes on familiar favorites are showing up more frequently in grocery stores and restaurants as food companies try to keep brands relevant and distinct so they can win space on crowded store shelves

Van Leeuwen Ice Cream usually draws customers with gourmet takes on classics like vanilla and pistachio. But occasionally, the artisanal ice cream maker headquartered in New York slips in what it calls a “shock flavor,” like Hidden Valley Ranch or pizza.

Surprising flavor combinations – think gravy-flavored Jones Soda or Sour Patch Kids Oreos -- are showing up more frequently in grocery stores and restaurant chains.

Hershey recently introduced pink lemonade-flavored Kit Kats, while IHOP and Lay’s brought out Rooty Tooty Fresh n’ Fruity potato chips, designed to taste like strawberry-topped pancakes with a hint of bacon. In the United Kingdom, Little Moons made fish-and-chips mochi ice cream in 2021, while potato chip brand Walkers is known to celebrate Christmas with a Brussels sprout-flavored edition.

Usually, these are limited-time flavors, although occasionally they’re so popular they wind up on store shelves permanently, as Lay’s Flamin’ Hot Dill Pickle chips did in 2019.

While it’s tempting to pass them off as social media stunts, experts say there’s more to the story. Food companies are responding to the changing and expanding tastes of consumers while also trying to keep brands relevant and distinct to win space on crowded store shelves.

“We’re in a really exciting time of flavor development where consumers are not just one thing. You’re not just a sour lover or a sweet lover. You want a little of this and a little of that,” said Kristen Braun, the senior brand manager for Oreo innovation at Chicago-based food and beverage company Mondelez International. “Companies are finding the freedom to explore a little bit more and get more creative.”



Sour Patch Kids Oreos – vanilla cream-filled cookies speckled with colorful bites of the sour candies – are one of about a dozen limited-edition Oreo flavors that Mondelez plans to release this year. Braun said it takes the company one or two years to develop such products, which stay on shelves for about nine weeks. She’s already thinking ahead to future flavors that blur the lines between sweet, salty and spicy.

Oddball pairings aren’t entirely new in the food and beverage industry. Hubba Bubba released a bubble gum-flavored soda in the late 1980s, for example. But manufacturers and their suppliers have gotten more sophisticated and efficient, making it easier to experiment and put out limited-editions more frequently, said Mark Lang, a food marketing expert and associate professor of marketing at the University of Tampa.

Kyle Shadix, who as the corporate executive research chef for PepsiCo, has worked on beverages like Pepsi Maple Syrup and a strawberry shortcake Pepsi sold in Japan, said the members of Generation Z are also fueling innovation. They’re diverse, adventurous and pick up on food trends quickly through social media, he said.

“They’re every chef’s dream to design for,” said Shadix, who is currently experimenting a lot with Mexican, Korean and Japanese flavors. “Gen Z is going to drive us faster. We’re going to start to see even more exploration quicker than in the past because they’re just so open to it.”

Toying with flavors can boost brands in several ways. Sometimes they bring new customers to a brand. They might also nudge buyers to pick up the original flavor, Russell Zwanka, director of the food marketing program at Western Michigan University, said.

“Sour Patch Oreos sound interesting, but nobody wants to risk buying Oreos that don’t taste good, so people buy both,” Zwanka said.

When companies combine brands, they’re trying to build an association in consumers’ minds. Peeps-flavored Pepsi, which came out last year, sends the message that Pepsi is current and fun, Lang said. Mustard-flavored Skittles, which came out last summer, made the 104-year-old French’s brand seem playful.

Enter Kraft Heinz, which approached Van Leeuwen Ice Cream a few years ago about macaroni and cheese-flavored ice cream. Ben Van Leeuwen, the company’s co-founder and CEO, was doubtful at first but found that Kraft’s powder blended well with the Brooklyn-based company’s ice cream.

Van Leeuwen’s Kraft Macaroni and Cheese ice cream came out to rave reviews in 2021 and was re-released for a short time last fall.

“We will only do a shock flavor if we can make it good and distinct. We will not do a shock flavor where it’s just shock in name but taste like vanilla,” Van Leeuwen said.

But novel flavor combinations don’t always work. Van Leeuwen couldn’t eat more than a few bites of his company’s Hidden Valley Ranch ice cream, which contained onion and garlic powders. And shock flavors typically don’t end up on the permanent menu because of their lower “eat-ability,” he said.

“I think you would taste our mac and cheese and you’d say, ‘Oh, that’s good,’ but do you want to take a pint of that mac and cheese from your freezer when you’re watching whatever show on Netflix and eat the entire thing? Probably not,” Van Leeuwen said.

Candy brand Brach’s ran into that issue with its Turkey Dinner Candy Corn, a 2021 limited-edition version of the fall staple that tasted like turkey, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, apple pie and coffee. Katie Duffy, vice president and general manager of seasonal at Ferrara Candy Co., which owns Brach’s, acknowledged there was a “gross-out” factor.

“We have learned from consumers that we don’t want to have something where they eat a few pieces of candy and then they toss it because there’s some things that they don’t want to repeat,” Duffy said. “We want it to be a delicious flavor journey.”

Brach’s recently introduced Easter Brunch-flavored jelly beans, and they hit that mark, she said. The candy beans mimicked the flavors of blueberry maple pancakes, chocolate doughnuts, caramel cold brew, cinnamon rolls, berry smoothies and mimosa cocktails.

Shannon Weiner, senior director of insights and analytics at Ferrara, said the company closely tracks social media to see what flavors are trending. People are increasingly looking for dessert and dairy-flavored candies, she said. They’re also seeking more international flavors like Tajin, a brand of chile-lime spice from Mexico that recently did a collaboration with Pop Tarts.

Lang thinks the more time people spend in restaurants or trying out new foods, the more they seek out unusual flavors.

“We are variety-seeking animals. We constantly are seeking something new and different; it’s in our wiring,” he said. “We like to experiment.”

[Fatima99]

Helicopter Herder Follows a Dog’s Tracks from the Air to a Miracle Rescue



A helicopter pilot in Australia recently found a man’s missing dog in the Outback in what the owner called a “needle in a haystack rescue.”

For those who’ve never been to cattle country Down Under, it might come as a surprise to know that because the ranches are so vast, farmers will often hire helicopter pilots to round the cattle up for them.

But in late April, pilot Jack Poplawski got a different sort of phone call—a man had lost his dog and was desperate for some help.

Jamie Rooney was driving along in a remote part of West Australia’s Pilbara region near the town of Newman, and, coming across a large creek, he thought he’d let his dog Rocky go for a swim to cool off.

The American Staffordshire terrier was all too happy for the opportunity. It couldn’t have been more than a minute that Rocky was out of sight—as Rooney had gone up to his truck to get something. But returning to the water, Rocky was nowhere to be seen.

After frantically looking around the water, Rooney drove up and down the trails in the area, standing on the roof periodically and calling his dog’s name, but Rocky never turned up.

“Earlier that day, as I was driving past the airport I could see all the helicopters going up … [so] I just went online for rescue helicopters and I just called the number,” Rooney told ABC News Down Under.

On the other end of the line was pilot Jack Poplawski.

“At the start they said, ‘Look, it’s a needle in the haystack’, and I was very worried,” Rooney said. “Once you leave maybe 5-10 minutes out of town [Newman], it’s just nothing. It’s just vast outback land.”

But as a devoted dog owner himself, Poplawski was determined to help, despite the odds.

Flying low over the terrain, Poplawski’s 20-12 vision spotted a set of tracks, which even from his helicopter appeared to the pilot as too large to be a dingo’s. It was minutes later that Poplawski spotted Rocky trotting along a small track.

The reunion in the back of Poplawski’s chopper was emotional, with Rooney left grateful and in tears. The owner says the experience has led him to invest in a GPS tag for Rocky’s collar, as well as a new appreciation for the cattle-mustering pilots of Australia’s Outback.

[PennySerenade]

Frozen human brain tissue works perfectly when thawed 18 months later



In good news for future animation figureheads, there might be a new way to revive frozen brains without damaging them. Scientists in China have developed a new chemical concoction that lets brain tissue function again after being frozen.

Freezing is effective at keeping organic material from decomposing, but it still causes damage. As the water inside turns to ice, the crystals tear apart the cells. That’s why frozen meat or fruit goes a bit mushy after it’s defrosted – but a bigger problem is that it also happens with organs or tissues chilled for transplant or research.

For the new study, scientists at Fudan University in China experimented with various chemical compounds to see which ones might work to preserve living brain tissue during freezing. They started by testing out promising chemicals on brain organoids – small, lab-grown lumps of brain tissue that develop into different types of related cells.

The organoids were submerged in the various chemicals, then frozen in liquid nitrogen for 24 hours. Then they were quickly defrosted in warm water, and checked for function, growth and signs of cellular damage over time. The chemicals that protected the mini-brains the best then went through to the next round, which involved trying various combinations in similar freezing

Eventually, the researchers arrived at the most promising mixture, which they called MEDY, after the four main ingredients: methylcellulose, ethylene glycol, DMSO and Y27632. The team grew mini-brains to different ages, from four weeks to more than three months, froze them in MEDY, thawed them out, then continued monitoring them for a few weeks after.

Intriguingly, brain organoids preserved in MEDY showed similar growth and function patterns to those that had never been frozen. Incredibly, one batch was frozen in MEDY for as long as 18 months, and still showed similar protections against damage after thawing.

The team also froze samples of living brain tissue taken from a human epilepsy patient, and found that MEDY protected them from damage. The process didn’t disrupt the structure of the brain cells, and even preserved the pathologies of epilepsy – that’s important, because it means samples can be frozen for later study or analysis without damage from the freezing process confusing the results.

The most immediate impacts for the new freezing tech are that it allows brain organoids and samples to be stored longer for biomedical research, but eventually it could be applied to whole brains, and other tissues.

The research was published in the journal Cell Reports Methods.

[midgemental]

Images show spectacle of Indonesian volcano eruption as authorities evacuate 7 nearby villages



Indonesian authorities evacuated residents of seven villages within a nearly four-mile radius of a volcano on the remote island of Halmahera in Indonesia after it erupted and spewed ash about 2.5 miles into the sky.

Reuters reported that Mount Ibu erupted on Saturday night, turning the sky into a spectacle of gray ash spewing out of the volcano’s crater with flashes of purple lightning.

A crew consisting of police, military and search and rescue services was sent to the area to evacuate residents from surrounding villages, according to a statement from the disaster mitigation agency.

The joint team reportedly assisted the elderly with evacuating the area while residents were moved out of the area in pickup trucks and taken to emergency tents to spend the night.

The agency did not specify how many people had been moved, though authorities recommended that a seven-kilometer (4.35-mile) radius be evacuated.
Mount Ibu in Indonesia spewing volcanic ash with lightning striking, as viewed from a distance, official warning issued to residents and tourists 3
Officials advised residents and tourists not to conduct any activities within three miles of Mount Ibu’s crater.

Mount Ibu erupted last Monday for about five minutes, just days after it erupted on May 10. The eruptions caused the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation to raise the alert level for the volcano from 2 to 3, which is the second-highest level.

Officials advised residents and tourists not to conduct any activities within three miles of Mount Ibu’s crater. More than 13,000 people live within a 3-mile radius of the northern side of the crater, Hendra Gunawan, chief of the Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation agency said.

Mount Ibu is a 4,347-foot volcano on the northwest coast of the remote island of Halmahera.

Indonesia, an archipelago of 270 million people, has 120 active volcanoes. It is prone to volcanic activity because it sits along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean. On Thursday, the agency raised the alert level to the highest level, following several eruptions.

On May 11, flash floods and “cold lava” flowed from Mount Marapi, one of the most active volcanoes in West Sumatra province, into nearby districts after torrential rains, killing more than 60 people.

North Sulawesi’s Ruang volcano also erupted in recent weeks, prompting authorities to evacuate more than 12,000 people from a nearby island.

https://nypost.com/2024/05/20/world-new ... -villages/

[goldie0608]

Here’s a Summer Dream Job: Get Paid $100K to Swim in Pools in All 50 States in the U.S.



The ‘Airbnb of Pools’ is offering a dream summer job for one lucky and talented content creator: make video reviews of pools in all fifty states and earn up to $100k.

Swimply is a company that specializes in neighborhood-driven rental markets of pools, hot tubs and saunas, tennis courts, patios, and other spaces for events and R&R.

With an already enormous list of locations across the country, they need one expert ‘Chief Pools Officer’ to review them.

Applicants should be over 18, and book one pool through the Swimply platform to create a social media-style video review about. Any videos must be submitted by June 15th, and any applications must include tagging and following the company through @swimply and using the hashtag #SwimplyDreamJob.

“With a diverse array of pools across the country, we have something for everyone, and the chief pools officer will be our primary expert and voice on how to find the best aquatic escapes nestled in America’s backyards,” Swimply wrote on its website.

The Chief Pools Officer’s base salary is a little below national standards for executives: $50,000 per annum, but it comes with $50,000 in potential performance bonuses depending on content engagement and feedback.

There is no limit to the number of applications, and all potential candidates will receive a follow-up with Swimply’s CEO Derek Callow, and a “swimming screen test.”

Solution Found for Lack of Natural Vanilla: A Way to Create it from Plant Waste in One Step



credit – Professor Toshiki Furuya, Department of Applied Biological Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science

Vanilla, the most widely used flavoring compound in confectionaries and cosmetics, gets its sweet flavor and aroma from the aptly-named chemical compound—’vanillin.’ However, the large-scale production of natural vanillin is essentially non-existent.

Now, researchers from Tokyo University of Science have genetically engineered a novel enzyme that can convert ferulic acid from plant waste into vanillin in a one-step sustainable process that should cause vanilla prices to plummet and free up land for use in cultivating other cash crops.

The product known as vanilla extract is mainly produced from the seed pods of this member of the orchid family, while the plant itself creates vanillin through the conversion of ferulic acid by a naturally produced enzyme with the chemical abbreviation VpVAN.

However, laboratory biosynthesis of vanillin from plant-derived VpVAN yields only very small quantities of vanillin, and is currently commercially impractical. Furthermore, although chemically derived vanilla essences are available cheaply, they do not match the flavor of natural vanilla extract, and the demand for the latter continues to remain high.

The challenges do not stop here as climatic restrictions for the cultivation of vanilla plants, and the relatively small yield obtained per plant, have led to a dwindling supply and a surge in the price of natural vanilla extract.

Addressing these challenges, Professor Toshiki Furuya from the Department of Applied Biological Science at Tokyo University of Science and his graduate students Shizuka Fujimaki and Satsuki Sakamoto have successfully developed an enzyme that generates vanillin from plant-derived ferulic acid.

“Ferulic acid, the raw material, is a compound that can be obtained in abundance from agricultural waste such as rice bran and wheat bran,” explains Professor Furuya. “Vanillin is generated simply by mixing ferulic acid with the developed enzyme at room temperature. So, the established technology can provide a simple and environmentally friendly method for producing flavor compounds.”

A study presenting their new production method was published on May 10 in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

The researchers made their discovery by using genetic engineering approaches to modify the molecular structure of an enzyme called Ado. In its native state, Ado doesn’t have the ability to convert ferulic acid into vanillin.

Analyzing Ado to figure out why, the researchers were able to predict amino acid changes in Ado which would enable its interaction with ferulic acid. On these lines, they conducted a series of experiments by replacing the amino acids phenylalanine and valine with tyrosine and arginine.

The results were immediate and dramatic. The engineered enzyme did not require any cofactors for conversion, unlike other oxidases, and produced vanillin on a gram scale per liter of reaction solution, with a higher catalytic efficiency and affinity than that of the wild-type enzyme.

The reaction only required mixing the enzyme, ferulic acid, and air at room temperature, making it a simple, sustainable, and economically scalable process. Furthermore, it was also found to convert p-coumaric acid and sinapic acid, which are compounds obtained from the degradation of lignin—the cell that makes wood.

So far, no microbial or plant-derived enzymes have exhibited the ability to convert ferulic acid to vanillin at an industrial scale. Therefore, the enzyme developed in the current study shows considerable potential for enabling the commercial and economically viable production of natural vanillin.

“Harnessing the potential of microorganisms and enzymes to derive valuable compounds under mild conditions from renewable plant-based resources offers a sustainable approach to minimizing environmental footprint,” said Professor Fukuya.

[Misstee]

MTG v AOC: House hearing dissolves into chaos over Republican’s insult

Squabble started when Marjorie Taylor Greene insulted House member, spurring Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to demand apology






The two most famous sets of initials in US politics clashed in a chaotic House hearing on Thursday, as the progressive star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or AOC, objected fiercely to an attack on another Democrat by the far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, or MTG.

The oversight committee hearing concerned Republican attempts to hold the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, in contempt, for refusing to release tapes of interviews between Joe Biden and the special counsel Robert Hur.

Things went wrong when MTG made a partisan point, trying to tie Democrats to the judge in Donald Trump’s criminal hush-money case – which, by drawing a number of Republicans to the New York courtroom to support Trump, was responsible for the hearing starting late in the day.

In answer to MTG, Jasmine Crockett of Texas said: “Please tell me what that has to do with Merrick Garland … Do you know what we’re here for? You know we’re here about AG Garland?”

Greene, a conspiracy theorist from Georgia, said: “I don’t think you know what you’re here for … I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading.”

Amid jeers and calls for order, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said: “That’s beneath even you, Miss Greene.”

AOC, of New York, demanded MTG’s words be taken down.

As defined by the Congressional Research Service, that meant AOC thought MTG had “violated the rules of decorum in the House” and should withdraw her words.

“That is absolutely unacceptable,” AOC said. “How dare you attack the physical appearance of another person?”

MTG said: “Are your feelings hurt?”

AOC said: “Move her words down.”

MTG said: “Aw.”

AOC said: “Oh, girl. Baby girl.”

Amid laughter, MTG said: “Oh really?”

AOC said: “Don’t even play.”

MTG said: “Baby girl? I don’t think so.”

AOC said: “We’re gonna move and we’re gonna take your words down.”

James Comer, the Republican chair from Kentucky, struggled to impose order, eventually saying: “Miss Greene agrees to strike her words.”

AOC said: “I believe she must apologise.”

MTG said: “I’m not apologising.”

AOC said: “Well then, you’re not retracting your words.”

MTG said: “I’m not apologising.”

Comer banged his gavel, pleading: “C’mon, guys.”

MTG said: “Why don’t you debate me?”

As Raskin tried to interject, AOC said: “I think it’s pretty self-evident.”

MTG said: “Yeah, you don’t have enough intelligence.”

Comer cried, “You’re out of order, you’re out of order,” and tried to recognise Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, another pro-Trump extremist. Jeers broke out, Raskin calling: “I move to strike the lady’s words.”

“That’s two requests to strike,” AOC said.

MTG said: “Oh, they cannot take the words.”

Raskin told Comer: “Please get your members under control.”

MTG said: “I repeat again for the second time, yes, I’ll strike my words but I’m not apologising. Not apologising!”

Extraordinarily enough, that wasn’t the end. Crockett asked Comer: “I’m just curious, just to better understand your ruling. If someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleach-blond, bad-built, butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?”

Comer said: “A what now? … I have no idea what you just said.”

Next to him, Raskin buried his face in his hands.

Comer imposed a five-minute recess. When the hearing resumed, Lauren Boebert – the Colorado extremist and theatrical exhibitionist who usually battles for attention with MTG – was of all people the one to offer an apology “to the American people”.

I'll do part 2 tomorrow if someone else doesn't.

[Alessa9]

First warm-blooded dinosaurs may have emerged 180 million years ago

In the early 20th century it was thought that dinosaurs were slow-moving creatures that relied on heat from the sun to regulate their temperature.


The first warm-blooded dinosaurs may have emerged 180 million years ago, a study suggests

The ability to regulate body temperature, a trait all mammals and birds have today, may have evolved among some dinosaurs around 180 million years ago, a study suggests.

Analysing 1,000 fossils, climate models, geography and how dinosaurs evolved, the new study looked at the spread of dinosaurs across different climates on Earth throughout the Mesozoic era (the dinosaur era lasting from 230 to 66 million years ago).

Researchers found that two of the three main groupings of dinosaurs, theropods (such as T. rex and velociraptor) and ornithischians (including relatives of the plant-eaters stegosaurus and triceratops), moved to colder climates during the Early Jurassic.



This suggests this is when the animals may have developed the ability to internally generate heat.

The findings also indicate that sauropods, including brontosaurus and the diplodocus, kept to warmer areas of the planet.

In the early 20th century it was thought that dinosaurs were slow-moving creatures that relied on heat from the sun to regulate their temperature.

While newer discoveries indicate some of the animals were likely capable of generating their own body heat, it is not known when this adaptation happened.

First author Dr Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, of UCL Earth Sciences, said: “Our analyses show that different climate preferences emerged among the main dinosaur groups around the time of the Jenkyns event 183 million years ago, when intense volcanic activity led to global warming and extinction of plant groups.

“At this time, many new dinosaur groups emerged.

“The adoption of endothermy, perhaps a result of this environmental crisis, may have enabled theropods and ornithischians to thrive in colder environments, allowing them to be highly active and sustain activity over longer periods, to develop and grow faster and produce more offspring.”

Co-author Dr Sara Varela, of the Universidade de Vigo, Spain, said: “Theropods also include birds and our study suggests that birds’ unique temperature regulation may have had its origin in this Early Jurassic epoch.

“Sauropods, on the other hand, which stayed in warmer climates, grew to a gigantic size at around this time – another possible adaptation due to environmental pressure.

“Their smaller surface area to volume ratio would have meant these larger creatures would lose heat at a reduced rate, allowing them to stay active for longer.”

Blueberry Wine Could Be The Next Big Superfood

This fruity vino might maximize some of the potential benefits of blueberries.


Blueberries are packed with antioxidants.
Image credit: zoryanchik/Shutterstock.com

We’re now in the midst of blueberry season and that means a glut of delicious blue-but-not-really fruit heading toward our tables. If you end up with more blueberries than you can freeze, bake, or blend, one option might be to turn it into wine – though according to a new study, maximizing the plonk’s potential benefits might depend on how you make it.

Not only are blueberries delicious, but they’re also considered something of a superfood. Well, that’s actually just a marketing term, but they are packed with micronutrients like vitamins and minerals. They also contain a bunch of compounds with antioxidant activity, which some scientists think confers health benefits to the people that snack on them.

However, the processing of foods can sometimes change their nutritional properties, and researchers from the University of Córdoba sought to investigate if the same could be said for blueberry wine – particularly under different conditions.

The team used blueberries harvested from the Huelva in southern Spain, crushing them up and adding them to a sugar solution to make a total 8 liters of blueberry juice, to which they added some yeast. The juice was analyzed for the concentration of the antioxidant compounds within – namely anthocyanins, flavonols, flavan-3-ols, tannins, and Vitamin C – and the overall antioxidant activity.

Then, the juice was separated in equal amounts into eight different flasks, which were split into two groups: one set of four which went into a water bath at 63°F and the other four in a bath at 70°F. In each bath, two of the flasks were only allowed to partially ferment, making a sweet wine, while the other two completed fermentation, making a dry wine.

Taking a small amount of wine out of each of the flasks, the team analyzed antioxidant concentrations and activity within the wine samples, and compared what they found to the original juice.

The results revealed that the blueberry wine managed to hold on to some of the potential benefits of the fruit – all of the wines made, regardless of differences in temperature or fermentation time, showed higher antioxidant activity than the original blueberry juice.

That being said, the different conditions did appear to have some effect on the concentration of the different antioxidant compounds. For example, longer fermentation times led to lower concentrations of anthocyanins, flavonols, and tannins – though flavan-3-ol levels actually increased with time.

Temperature also seemed to make some difference, with the wine kept at a higher temperature found to have roughly half as much vitamin C than the wine fermented at a lower heat.

The study concludes that “winemaking blueberries maximize the benefits of the fruit, but temperature and fermentation time significantly influence their composition.”

What they don’t mention is whether or not it tastes any good, but hey, taste is a lot more subjective than antioxidant activity.

The study is published in ACS Food Science & Technology. (open access)

[lush]

German Teenager Left Parents’ Home to Live Exclusively on Trains for the Last Year and a Half
031424*

A 17-year-old German teen has been living life as a modern nomad, leaving his parents’ house to live on trains and travel all over his country.

While most 17-year-olds are only just beginning to consider the idea of leaving the nest, Lasse Stolley has already been on his own for over a year and a half. Convinced that his school studies were already behind him, he convinced his parents to allow him to leave their home in Fockbek, Schleswig-Holstein to embark on a unique train-hopping adventure. It took a lot of convincing, but they eventually agreed, and for the last year and a half, the German teen has essentially been living on trains, traveling all over his home country, working as a self-employed coder during the day, and sleeping on night trains at night.


Photo: Daniel Abadia/Unsplash

“I’ve been living on the train as a digital nomad for a year and a half now,” Lasse told Business Insider. “At night I sleep on the moving Intercity Express (ICE) train and during the day I sit in a seat, at a table and work as a programmer, surrounded by many other commuters and passengers. I travel from one end of the country to the other. I’m exploring the whole of Germany.”

He gave into his wanderlust in 2022, selling most of his possessions and packing what was left in a 36-liter backpack that he has been carrying with him ever since. Minimalism and resisting the urge to acquire new stuff are an essential part of his lifestyle, as he needs to take everything with him wherever he goes. It’s not always easy, but he has found a way to make it work.

“The challenge of not accumulating more and more things is a central component of minimalist living. Especially with a backpack, you quickly reach a space limit,” Stolley said. “The most important thing is my laptop and my noise-canceling headphones, which at least give me a little privacy on the train.”

After deciding that he wanted to move out of his childhood home to adopt a nomad lifestyle, Lasse Stolley signed up for Germany’s rail discount scheme and bought himself a Bahncard 100, which allowed him to hop on and off any Deutsche Bahn indefinitely. He estimates that this unusual living arrangement has cost him around 10,000 euros per year, which doesn’t sound like much, but is also not the most convenient way to live.

“The early months were tough and I had to learn a lot about how it all worked. Everything was different than how I’d imagined,” the teen said. “Every night I have to make sure that I catch the night train and sometimes I have to reschedule very quickly because it suddenly doesn’t arrive.”

But living on trains also has its perks, as it allows the young nomad to visit virtually every part of Germany, from the sea in the north to the Alps for a nice hike, as well as bustling cities like Berlin and Munich. Everything is just a train ride away, and he has gotten used to traveling approximately 600 miles per day. He estimated he has traveled more than 300,000 miles on trains since leaving his parents’ house.

Lasse gets to hang out in first-class carriages when he’s not working on his laptop and mostly eats at Deutsche Bahn lounges at train stations around the country. Personal hygiene is a bit trickier, as he has to shower in public swimming pools and leisure centers.

Living on trains is not ideal, and 17-year-old Lasse Stolley doesn’t see himself doing it for the rest of his life, but it works for now, as he still has much of Germany to see. Plus, his Bahncard 100 card is still valid for six months.

[Zbignieww]

NASA Wants To Use The Sun As A Giant Telescope To View The Surface Of Alien Planets
As sci-fi as it sounds, the project has already reached phase III at NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts program.



In 1936, Albert Einstein published what he described as a "little calculation", showing how the Sun could one day be used as a gigantic telescope. Incredible as it may sound, the concept is not so far out of our reach, and one idea for how to practically achieve it is at phase III of NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts.

"Some time ago, R. W. Mandl paid me a visit and asked me to publish the results of a little calculation, which I had made at his request," Einstein wrote in the journal Science. "This note complies with his wish."

As implied by Einstein's general theory of relativity, giant objects in the universe bend space-time, altering the path of light. This isn't some abstract idea, but something we can do fairly regularly using telescopes such as JWST, essentially extending the telescope's range by viewing light which has been bent by massive objects on its path to Earth.

Einstein realized – though clearly only calculated it under duress from Mandl – that this meant there is a region of our Solar System where light from behind the Sun is focused, having been bent by our star's gravity.

The region where this effect takes place is around 550 Astronomical Units (AU) from the Sun, with one AU being the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Place a telescope in that region, and we could use it to view the surfaces of exoplanets, without the need for engineering mind-bogglingly huge space telescopes (or telescope arrays) that would otherwise entail.

"The gravitational field of the Sun acts as a spherical lens to magnify the intensity of radiation from a distant source along a semi-infinite focal line," Von Russel Eshleman, who first proposed a mission to make such a telescope, wrote in a paper. "A spacecraft anywhere on that line in principle could observe, eavesdrop, and communicate over interstellar distances, using equipment comparable in size and power with what is now used for interplanetary distances. If one neglects coronal effects, the maximum magnification factor for coherent radiation is inversely proportional to the wavelength, being 100 million at 1 millimeter."

Right now we can use gravitational lensing to see incredibly distant objects, but we are limited by the location of these objects, and objects which happen to be behind them. Using spacecraft, we could place our telescope on the opposite side of the Sun to the distant object we want to view, dramatically upping our viewing distance. It has been proposed in a project in phase III of NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts that using this method, we could image the surface of exoplanets in our stellar neighborhood.

"Even in the presence of the solar corona, the [signal-to-noise ratio] is high enough that in six months of integration time one can reconstruct the exoplanet image with ~25 km [15.5 mile]-scale surface resolution," NASA explains, "enough to see surface features and signs of habitability."

"Of course, there is no hope of observing this phenomenon directly," Einstein added. "We shall scarcely ever approach closely enough to such a central line."

While that is still a huge distance – Voyager I has reached a little over 160 AU since its launch in 1977 – it is looking a lot more achievable than it was when Einstein ruled such a mission out. The NASA project proposes using a "swarm architecture" of smallsats using solar sails to propel them to the required position in under 25 years.

Though there are still astronomical challenges ahead for such a mission (including significant distortion introduced by gravitational lensing, and moving spacecraft vast distances to observe the object behind it that you are interested in), it is possible we could build up images of the actual surfaces of alien exoplanets within our lifetimes. Which is pretty cool, even if Einstein thought of it as a distracting chore to note down and publish.

https://www.iflscience.com/nasa-wants-t ... nets-74320

Russian woman is selling a 'wish-granting' cat
Source: Unexplained-Mysteries


Vinsik (or Vincent I) is a Scottish Fold
Image: CC BY-SA 3.0 Psihopat

October 8, 2020 – One Novosibirsk resident claims that her magical pet cat grants its owner three wishes and now she's selling it on.

Listed on Russian classified ad platform Avito, the magical feline - which goes by the name Vinsik - is being sold for a whopping $127,000 thanks to it's alleged wish-granting powers.

Its owner - a woman named Elena - claims that she had only discovered its abilities by accident.

"It works only with the owners," she said. "I needed an apartment, and somehow I told Vincent for fun: 'Fulfill my wish!' And literally the next day I realized that everything would come true."

"You immediately feel that events are starting to take shape as they should. And a month later I already had an apartment."
"His mother, Octaviante Lolita, was like a real witch, black as coal and also lop-eared. His dad - Rochester - a healthy blue cat, but with straight ears."

The fantastical cat has since lived with her for nine years.

When quizzed over why she would want to part with such an animal, Elena explained that the cat only grants its owner three wishes and she had already used hers up.

She also claims that she wants to share his magical powers with other people.

With an asking price of $127,000 however, it seems unlikely that the cat will be going anywhere.

[Fatima99]

I sometimes get REALLY DEPRESSED reviewing the news these days.
It's always about a global pandemic threatening life as we know it,
protests around the world, stupid politicians, natural disasters,
or some other really bad story.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Welcome to The mobi weekly news magazine
IN OTHER NEWS
WEDNESDAY MAY 22
What is it?
Here is your chance to become an "ACE REPORTER" for our weekly news magazine.
It is your job to find weird, funny or "good feel" stories from around the world and share them with our readers in our weekly magazine

How do you play?
Just post a story that you have come across that made you smile, laugh, feel good...
BUT NOTHING DEPRESSING

EXAMPLE POST

​Naked sunbather chases wild boar through park after it steals his laptop bag

A naked sunbather was seen chasing wild boar through a park after it stole his laptop bag.
Amusing photographs from Germany show the man running after the animal to try and claim the plastic bag back.
But the cheeky boar and its two piglets appear to be too quick for the sunbather, who can't keep up with their speedy little trotters.
As the incident unfolds, groups of friends and family sat on the grass watch on and laugh.
Heads are seen turning in surprise and amusement in the hilarious photographs.
The incident happened at Teufelssee Lake - a bathing spot in the Grunwell Forest in Berlin, Germany.

Rules:
Each Edition of IN OTHER NEWS will be open for 7 days...
You can post as many stories as you like, but you will only get paid for One Story in any 24 hour period
So in other words, you can only earn WRZ$ once a day.
Each news day will start when I post announcing it
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Stories may be accompanied with images - but No big images, please! 800x800 pixels wide maximum
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All payments will be made at THE END of the weekly news cycle.
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It's just my personal opinion, so my judgement is final

So help bring GOOD news to the members of mobi, and join our reporting team...

IN OTHER NEWS

[ozswede]

A paw-fect ending! Samoyed who survived China's dog meat trade after being rescued from 'brutal slaughterhouse' walks Cannes Film Festival's red carpet in a custom-made gown

A dog who was rescued from China's meat trade has been snapped on the red carpet at Cannes Film Festival sporting a custom-made gold gown.

Samoyed Felicity was rescued from a 'brutal slaughterhouse' by London-based charity NoToDogMeat.

The organisation was founded in 2009 by Julia de Cadenet, after she saw for herself the horrors of the trade.


THEN: Felicity (pictured) was in 'a terrible state' when she was found by rescuers

According to NoToDogMeat, it was the first charity to bring the annual June Yulin Dog Meat Festival to the world's attention, and now holds United Nations Special Consultative status.

Felicity, just one of the many dogs (and cats) saved by the charity, now lives in the UK with Julia. And the courageous pooch acts as the ambassador for the cause, raising awareness by attending different events and meeting people.


NOW: Felicity looks like a different dog following her rescue by NoToDogMeat and subsequent rehoming in the UK

Felicity first attended the Cannes Film Festival, which is a long-time supporter of the cause, last year.

This year, she returned to the red carpet, wearing a hand-made gold dressed specially created by charity volunteer Michelle Parker from Leeds, and scooping a nomination as best dressed at the Festival.

A photo of Felicity at the screening of Girl with a Needle went viral and led to multiple nominations of one of Cannes 24 best dressed.

Last year, Michelle made Felicity a red dress adapted from a prom outfit she purchased online.

This year, she was even more ambitious, hand-stitching roses onto gold organza. It took her more than 40 hours to complete the dress.

According to NoToDogMeat CEO Julia de Cadenet: ' Felicity loves nothing more than strutting her stuff out and about raising awareness for the 700 dogs we have in our shelter looking for new homes'

'She is completely unfazed by noise and crowds and is so trusting of humans despite all she has gone through'


The purpose of Felicity's Cannes' appearance is to raise awareness of the brutal dog meat trade in China

'Michelle had the idea to make Felicity a handmade gown and she modelled it on the doggy pageant outfit her dog Keisha had previously worn.'

She continued: 'It was really special for Felicity to wear it at such a high-profile event and although her best friend Keisha is no longer with us, it was a lovely memory.'

Speaking after Felicity attended Cannes last year, Julia said she hoped the animal's story would help to educate and inspire people to act in the fight against the dog meat trade.

She added: 'When we found Felicity she was in a terrible state, but over time and with a lot of love and care her outgoing personality has blossomed.


NoToDogMeat operates in China, Cambodia and the Philippines, working with local people who want to end the dog meat trade

'She really is a miracle and loves to show off and meet people, so this really is a perfect moment for her.

'She deserves it so much and we hope that by telling Felicity's story, and when people meet her, they will be inspired to join our movement.

NoToDogMeat Charity rescues many dogs like Felicity each year and hopes they will all find loving homes.

It operates projects in China, Cambodia and the Philippines, where it works with local people who want to make a difference.

It currently cares for more than 750 dogs at its shelters in China.

(Beautiful dog! I do wish China would stop this barbaric tradition. Sadly, I don't think they ever will though. (And people ask me why I'm a vegetarian...)

Does the Milky Way orbit anything?

Do galaxies, including our own Milky Way, orbit anything in the universe?


Our galaxy is on a collision course with the Andromeda galaxy. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

It seems like everything orbits something in space. Moons orbit planets. Planets orbit stars. Stars orbit the centers of galaxies. But beyond that, things get a little harder to visualize. Do galaxies — and, specifically, the Milky Way — orbit anything?

To answer that, we first need to know how orbits work. Consider two objects orbiting each other. Those two bodies exert a gravitational pull on each other, keeping them bound together. The objects orbit their common center of mass — if you could shrink the system, the center of mass would be the point where you could balance it on your finger. But in the case of the solar system, or Earth and the moon, one of the objects is much larger than the other. The center of mass ends up lying inside the larger body, so the larger object doesn't move much and the smaller object moves on a roughly circular path around the bigger one.

At larger scales, things get a little more complicated. Our galaxy is part of a collection of galaxies called the Local Group, which includes the Milky Way; the Andromeda galaxy; a smaller spiral galaxy called Triangulum; and several dwarf galaxies, including the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. The Milky Way and Andromeda are the two largest objects in the Local Group. Because their masses are comparable, the center of mass lies between the two galaxies, said Sangmo Tony Sohn, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Maryland. There's nothing significantly larger than either galaxy nearby, so the two end up orbiting each other.

But the Milky Way's orbit isn't circular or elliptical like the orbits of planets around the sun. "It's going to be weird to say if the Milky Way is orbiting around something, because that kind of implies that there's a bigger object," Sohn told Live Science. "But that's not the concept here."

Instead, both the Milky Way and Andromeda are on mostly radial orbits. "Imagine the gravity of two things pulling on each other, and they're not moving in any way other than the gravitational pull. They will just move directly on the line towards each other. That's a purely radial orbit," said Chris Mihos, an astronomer at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. The Milky Way's orbit isn't perfectly radial because there's a bit of sideways motion between the two galaxies, Mihos told Live Science.

Their mostly radial orbits toward each other mean that the Milky Way and Andromeda will eventually collide, some 4.5 billion years from now. Individual stars likely won't crash into each other because of the huge distances between them, so the galaxies will pass through each other and separate again — but not for long.