Watch as this star comes too close to a black hole and get ripped apart and then becomes gas. An amazing spectacle, if you ask me. A NASA satellite is reported to have witnessed the event.

It is one of the most detailed looks yet at the phenomenon, called a tidal disruption event (or TDE), and the first for NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (more commonly called TESS.)

The milestone was reached with the help of a worldwide network of robotic telescopes headquartered at The Ohio State University called ASAS-SN (All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae). Astronomers from the Carnegie Observatories, Ohio State and others published their findings today in The Astrophysical Journal.

Amazing!

(Video Credit: Ohio State News/ YouTube)

Michael Bennett has a YouTube channel named “NuggetNoggin” where he shows himself diving into rivers in search of lost treasure. Lots of his content involve finding laptops, nail polish containers, or GoPros.

Posted earlier this week, Michael went down to the bottom of Edisto River and managed to find a waterproof case. Inside the case was an iPhone. Amazingly, the iPhone still works despite it being submerged for 15 months!

Michael then returned the phone to its rightful owner.

(Video Credit: nuggetnoggin/ YouTube)

Between 1799 and 1804, reindeer farmer Ossip Shumachov watched a mammoth emerge from the ice during the summer thaws in a remote part of Siberia. By the time he brought tusk trader Roman Boltunov to see it, it had notably deteriorated from the intact specimen the ice had ejected. To be specific, the meat had been removed by animals. But Boltunov took some measurements and drew a picture of the mammoth.   

The drawing is crude, and depicts a strange swine-like creature with tusks pointing in opposite directions. The sketch “is a very good example of a reconstruction hindered by extreme ignorance of basic animal anatomy,” paleoartist Mauricio Anton wrote in an email. “The body and legs are shapeless, and each foot ends in a sort of hoof-like structure unlike anything seen in elephants (or any other animal).” Even so, this somewhat laughable caricature was the first reconstruction of a mammoth known to science that was based on more than bones, McKay writes on his blog Mammoth Tales. Much to the chagrin of stuffy Russian biologists, it played a pivotal role in science’s early understanding of mammoth anatomy.

Eventually, Shumachov's mammoth was removed from the tundra in pieces: bones, skin, and hair. It was the world's first mammoth to be reconstructed and put on display. Boltunov's original drawing has been lost; the image above is a copy. Read the story of what came to be known as Adam's mammoth, and the drawing that accompanied it, at Atlas Obscura.

Apparently the Martha Stewart brand is more than just refined, tasteful decor and furnishings. It can cut a swath through the winter hell outside your home in order to prepare a Vietnamese-style chicken soup in your Instant Pot. Her buddy Snoop will provide brownies.

I don't need a snow thrower here in Texas. But if she offers a stump grinder, I'll look into it.

-via Aaron Starmer | Photo: Snow Joe

A few years ago, when I heard that some people play money to watch other people play video games, I was confused. It was explained to me that this is similar to watching other people play sports. That makes sense, although I don't see the appeal of that activity either.

I nod and smile when young students at my college tell me about their favorite streamers on Twitch. Given that it's a huge industry and it's possible to earn money through it in a variety of watching-other-people-play-video-games related professions, I can respect it.

With the appropriate cheat codes, I could probably make it through this fake video game left by Jeff Wysaski's Obvious Plant project.

Living costs aren't getting any cheaper so if you're looking for a nice place to stay at an affordable price then the Residence 9 may not be the one for you.

However, if luxury is what you're looking for then there's no other place that screams luxury than Ireland's most expensive one-bedroom apartment, the Residence 9 which can be found inside the InterContinental Hotel in Ballsbridge, Dublin.

The other rather special aspect about Residence 9 is the price - it's asking €1.2m. This makes it the single most expensive one-bedroom apartment in Ireland bar none, and quite likely the most expensive one-bedroom apartment ever offered for sale in Ireland at any point in time.

But the advantages for those who will pay it are myriad, particularly for a high-end commercial traveller, who might need an office and meeting room and residential base in Ireland with everything thing rolled into one.

(Image credit: Residence 9 via Independent.ie)

(Image credit: Mister Global)

Thursday night was the annual Mister Global competition in Thailand. The 2019 winner of the male beauty pageant was Kim Jong-woo of South Korea. If you have an hour, you can see the entire competition, including the swimsuit stroll, on video.

Or you can see all the contestants in portraits of their national costumes in a gallery at imgur. Although some appear a bit over-the-top, they do not approach the levels of the Miss Universe national costumes, and each contestant paid a lot of attention to representing their nation's culture. Well, except for the guy from the USA. -via Metafilter

Films tell various kinds of stories and they often try to communicate a certain message. There are also times when they can be subversive and include ideological elements that attempt to influence its viewers.

Propaganda in films isn't something new. And even today, films are being used to bring forth a certain propaganda or at times, a cause or an advocacy. In this second part of Escapist's two-part series, they explore the different pop culture propaganda present in films.

(Image credit: Escapist Magazine/screen cap)

It's a grand symbol of the entire Rebel Alliance and the work of Luke Skywalker. Redditor Marcus_Nery made this custom ceiling fan. One of its best features is that if it takes damage, R2 can do minor repairs on the spot.

Disney should definitely market these. There should be a huge consumer market for them.

-via Geekologie

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.

(Image credit: Clem Onojeghuo/Unsplash)

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.

(Image credit: Seth Weisfeld/Unsplash)

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