The first few things that comes to mind when I hear the word "wok" is East Asian cuisine particularly, Chinese food, as I always seem to see cooks in Chinese restaurants use woks for cooking their dishes. But Chinese cuisine isn't the only one that uses it. In fact, many other cuisines make use of the wok for cooking a variety of dishes. So what makes the wok such a special piece of cooking equipment? To find out, Serious Eats lists down the many uses of the wok.

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One of the biggest regrets Wally Conron has, he says, is creating the labradoodle. Because of the first mixed bred dog he made 30 years ago, many people are following the trend and interbreeding their dogs.

But his biggest issue with it is that people are doing it now for very different reasons from when he first bred the labradoodle. His original intention was to fulfill the request of a blind lady who wanted to have a guide dog that wouldn't trigger her husband's allergies. Now, dogs are being crossbred mostly for fashion purposes.

Read more on Boston.

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Minor issues can cause major problems, especially when we're talking about nuclear upgrades. And with the defects found in cheap commercially available electrical components, upgrades for the Navy's and the Air Force's nuclear warheads will be delayed for 18 months and will cost $1 billion.

When engineers evaluated available parts, they ran tests to determine if the off-the-shelf capacitors were compatible with the systems due for upgrades, Verdon said. Initial results suggested the components would work in the short-term.

The problem is, these parts used in the warhead upgrades must survive for decades, up to 30 years after production, Verdon said. However, the quality of each capacitor production lot varied, which led to the stress testing failure.

(Image credit: US Navy)

Extra Squishy Stress Turkey

Fall is here and that means that the holidays are right around the corner. Now is the perfect time to start emotionally and physically preparing yourself for all festivities that Fall and Winter have to offer. Today is a great day to take a deep breath and invest in the Extra Squishy Stress Turkey from the NeatoShop.  

The Extra Squishy Stress Turkey is perfect for squishing while: 

• Looking for cheap holiday airfare. 
• Realizing someone ate all the Halloween candy. 
• Deciding who will host Thanksgiving.
• Talking to annoying relatives at the dinner table. 
• Listening to your Dad talk politics.
• Deciding whose house you will go to for the holidays. 
• Holiday shopping. 
• Realizing how much you spent on pumpkin lattes.  
• Getting through the Fall semester. 
• Spending time with those you love.  
• And so much more!

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Office & Desk stuff. New items arriving all the time. 

Don't forget to stop by the store to see our large collection of customizable bags and apparel. We specialize in curvy and Big and Tall sizes. We carry baby 6 months all the way to adult 10 XL shirts. We know that fun, fabulous, and holiday loving people come in every size. 

Amazon announced that celebrity voices are coming to their Alexa home assistant system. The first to sign up is Samuel L. Jackson, whose voice is famously unique. But how much of it is really Jackson, and how much is computer generated?     

While Alexa has featured celebrity voices like Gordon Ramsay in the past, those Skills have only included a handful of pre-recorded phrases. The Guardian reports that this time, Amazon is using neural text-to-speech technology that can actually mimic Jackson’s voice, so you can really feel like you’re getting the current weather forecast from Hollywood’s highest-grossing actor himself.

Along with updating you on the weather, Jackson will be able to play music, set your alarm, sing you a “Happy Birthday” song, and more. But the Oscar nominee does have his limits: According to Amazon, Sam won’t be able to help with shopping, reminders, lists, or other Alexa Skills.

Jackson, of course, is almost as famous for his profanity as he is for roles in movies like 1994’s Pulp Fiction and 2000’s Shaft, not to mention various film appearances as Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And that proclivity for foul language will also be incorporated into his Alexa alter-ego: You can set your device to allow him to swear in his responses.

Jackson's voice will roll out at 99 cents as an introductory offer, then go to $4.99 later. Will hearing Jackson swear at you from your own Alexa device make up for the feeling that everyone at Amazon knows your business? Only time will tell. Read more about the plan at Mental Floss.

(Image credit: Kevin Tostado)

You can study a language in school for years, but if you don't practice it in the real world, how fluent are you, really? In this scenario from Foil Arms and Hog, a detective needs someone who knows Gaelic, fast. The skit is only two minutes long, despite the video length. -via Laughing Squid

He was a man who “knew how to form a personal bond with the French people,” according to former socialist President Francois Hollande. His country was in his blood, and he explored its every corner and tasted every local delicacy.

He is Jacques Chirac, the French president from 1995 to 2007. He passed away peacefully on Thursday surrounded by his loved ones, his son-in-law Frederic Salat-Baroux stated in an interview with Reuters.

Mayor of Paris for 18 years and prime minister for presidents on the political left and right before entering the Elysee Palace himself, Chirac had a knack for connecting with voters, particularly in rural France.

The National Assembly interrupted a sitting to hold a minute’s silence. President Emmanuel Macron canceled a public engagement and scheduled a televised address later on Thursday.

Know more about his life over at Reuters.

(Image Credit: David Scull/ Wikimedia Commons)

Trying to revitalize a city is painstaking labor. Not only do you need to have a vision that would see the city flourishing in the next ten, twenty, fifty years but you also need to understand the city's present condition, especially that of its inhabitants.

Pittsburgh tried several times to transform and reinvent itself starting in the 1940s. There were some setbacks along the way and downsides to the changes they made in certain aspects of the city. But now, it seems that it has gained momentum.

The renaissancers kept trying—“Hope in East Liberty,” ran a 1996 headline—but the people kept leaving. By 2010, Pittsburgh’s population was barely 300,000, less than half its size in 1950. Pittsburgh had all the comparative disadvantages of other Rust Belt cities: high taxes, powerful unions, burgeoning pension obligations, inferior public schools, and a decaying infrastructure. East Liberty and the rest of the city seemed a lost cause.

But then, over the past decade, I was stunned to see the ruins come to life. How did this happen? Outside economic forces were partly to thank: the new money flowing into Pittsburgh from fracking, robotics, health care, and other industries. But some credit goes to the same kind of coalition that led the earlier renaissances: business leaders, philanthropists, nonprofit groups, politicians, and developers. They learned from their predecessors’ mistakes, and the lessons are valuable for any city.

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Nowadays, with too many distractions taking up our attention, we can easily lose track of time and not be able to get our tasks done or even have enough sleep at night.

Especially for the younger generation, sleep deprivation could be a big issue as it stunts their growth and aggravates the effects of mood swings, physical exhaustion, and mental strain among others due to puberty.

So researchers conducted a study which combined two therapies to enable teens to get more sleep at night. And it resulted with teens getting 43 more minutes of sleep per night.

Stanford researchers increased how long teens slept with light therapy, used to reset their circadian clocks, combined with cognitive behavioral therapy to motivate them to go to bed earlier.

The treatment had two components: brief, early morning flashes of bright, broad-spectrum white light to reset the teens’ circadian clocks, and cognitive behavioral therapy that motivated them to try earlier bedtimes. The findings were published online Sept. 25 in JAMA Network Open.

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At about 9:15 PM on Tuesday, estate agent Asif Ali was taking a business call when he suddenly heard the dogs barking really aggressively. When he went to see what the commotion was about, he saw a man dressed in black from head to toe standing at his front door. Immediately, the man threw a punch at Ali, which Ali dodged. Ali then instantaneously responded with a flurry of punches which cornered the man in black.

“I didn't know what I was doing. Instinct just kicked in - I just trying to get him out of the house,” Ali said as he recounted the events of the night.

But the man dressed in black was not alone; there were four of them. But Ali was able to drive them all away from his home.

Find out the details over at Daily Mail.

(Image Credit: Men Media/ Daily Mail)

Have you ever had marital or family problems because of someone’s drinking habit? According to a survey published Monday, 1 in 10 Thais say they have experienced this problem.

The survey involved face-to-face interviews with 1,695 Thais over the course of twelve months, and it found out that over a third of respondents feel threatened when they see someone drinking in public.

The survey comes at a time when proponents of stricter alcohol regulations are saying it’s time the authorities focus on the adverse impacts of drinking, similar to a recent crackdown on second-hand smoking.

“When someone faces a drinking problem, people around them are affected as well,” survey organizer Orathai Waleewong from the Ministry of Public Health said at a news conference.

The survey was supported by four organizations, including the Thai Health Promotion Foundation and the Center for Alcohol Studies.

Although less than 2.4 percent of respondents say they have been assaulted by family members or friends under the influence of alcohol – and even less, 0.8 percent, say they have been sexually assaulted – Orathai said alcohol can precipitate violence.

She also identified other impacts on work, the emotional well-being, and the finances of drinkers.

More details on Khaosod English.

(Image Credit: Republica/ Pixabay)

ZeFrank tells us all about a spider named Margaret, who is an ogre-faced spider. You might guess from the name that the imagery in this True Facts video might be hard to take for people suffering from arachnophobia. Also, there's a bit of rude language. That said, the ogre-faced spider has a unique type of web and a unique method of hunting prey. -via Geeks Are Sexy 

The Disney parks around the world have a lot in common, but there have been other Disney projects that went nowhere. One of them was Disney’s America, a theme park announced in 1993 that would be built near Haymarket, Virginia.

The park would be arranged into nine sections, loosely focusing on significant periods of U.S. history. One land would focus on the founding fathers while others would feature a 20th century farm, world war battlefields, factories of the industrial revolution. The park would also cover some potentially controversial topics too, like turn-of-the-century immigration, Native Americans, and slavery.

Disney’s new park would be state-of-the-art amusement while mixing in education and sensitivity towards the “painful, disturbing, and agonizing” aspects of American history. Attendees could expect VR technology, innovative motion-simulators, next generation animatronics, and a nightly ironclad ship battle between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia.

For various reasons, the project was canceled less than a year after it was announced. But what they had planned is quite intriguing, including the development of technologies that were later used elsewhere in the Disney universe. Read a description of the attractions planned for Disney's America at Popular Mechanics. -via Digg

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Haburu loves to nap on his human's noise-making machine. Sometimes the noises that he uses it to make, such as something called "Brahm's Lullaby," are even soothing.

What's even better is when the hammers of the noise-making machine provide a gentle massage along one's back. The human and his machine are useful.

-via Twisted Sifter

A new research published in Cell has revealed that there is an astounding diversity of molecules living inside our bodies, many of which have not yet been described before. All of these microorganisms which compose of bacteria, archaea, and fungi build up the human microbiome and interact with each other in our bodies. -via LBL

“Because it is much more difficult to search for sequences encoding small proteins than it is to trawl for large proteins, our comprehension of the small proteins expressed by microbial communities has always been lacking,” said Nikos Kyrpides, a Berkeley Lab senior scientist who contributed to the work.

(Image credit: qimono/Pixabay)