This mosaic of the Red Planet released by the European Space Agency (ESA) is made up of many images taken by the agency’s Mars Express spacecraft. These images were then stitched together, resulting in this highly detailed mosaic.

It indeed is a magnificent image.

(Image Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)

This is the Weald and Downland Living Museum, spread over 40 acres in the village of Singleton, in West Sussex. This museum is dedicated to real historic buildings. It showcases over 50 buildings which date from the 10th to the 19th century. The aforementioned buildings were rescued from demolition.

Each building has been carefully dismantled, transported from its original site, and painstakingly reconstructed here. There are homes, farmhouses, workers’ cottages, shops, barns, schools, churches and more. They come from all over South East England.

In other words, what you see here are not merely reproductions; they are the authentic ones.

The buildings are furnished just as they would have been in the past, so exploring the houses is like walking through almost a thousand years of rural English life. You can climb the stairs of a 17th-century craftsman’s cottage to lie on the straw bed, grind flour in the 17th-century watermill, or even taste some beef with prune pottage and walnuts in a 1540’s Tudor kitchen.

See the photos over at the Amusing Planet.

(Image Credit: Adrian Cable/ Wikimedia Commons)

The original plan was to gather millions people to overwhelm security and get inside Area 51, the military's secret facility in Nevada. The goal was to find the extraterrestrials that are supposedly hidden inside. Two million people signed up for the event via Facebook. The reality was that several dozen people camped out in Rachel, Nevada, and then approached the gates of Area 51 long before daylight.

The only person to be arrested was a man caught urinating near the entrance and a woman was detained for an undisclosed reason, Associated Press reported.

Jeffrey Gonzalez was there and shot a video of the confrontation.

According to Gonzalez, who runs ParanormalCentral.net, about a hundred stormers arrived at one of the gates for the U.S. Air Force base known as Area 51, and they were greeted by several members of law enforcement who were amicable and even joked about the strange moment.

“It was history. This was the first of its kind as far as storming Area 51,” Gonzalez told Gizmodo. “We stormed it. Well...” he trailed off and shrugged his shoulders, but conceded, “I was part of history last night.”

The like-minded individuals who gathered in the Nevada desert included some who sported space suits or tinfoil hats, and were almost matched by the number of security personnel and journalists. Read a short account of the raid and see the video at Gizmodo. A good time was had by all.  

Chad Riden's grandma turned 101 years old. When her children ordered the birthday cake, they said she would be one hundred and one. So the decorator wrote a hundred, then a one. Here she is, trying to look upset, but you know she's suppressing a giggle.

A discussion on the wording of numbers tells us that you shouldn't use the word "and" because the numerals would be 100.1 or maybe 100.01 which some say is taught in school, but I'd never heard of that before. In this case, you can be sure that the decorator just wasn't thinking. If it were a proper cake phrase, the numeral would be 101st. You might imagine what would have happened if they'd have asked for "Happy one hundred and first birthday."    

-via reddit

The iPhone is a commonly-known and used gadget all over the world. It doesn’t matter if you have it, you see it everywhere. It’s the phone brand of choice by a lot of people. Have you ever wondered what the “i” in iphone stands for? The “i” originally stood for internet, which highlighted not the iPhone’s capacities, but the iMac, which was released first. However, Steve Jobs didn’t just have internet as the meaning of the “i” in iMac, as Reader’s Digest detailed: 

That little “I” actually got its start long before the iPhone became a reality. The first Apple product with an “I” in its name was the iMac computer, released back in 1998. So the “I” originally stood for Internet, to highlight the Mac’s revolutionary Internet capacities. 

But when that first iMac launched, the “I” had several other meanings as well. When Steve Jobs introduced the iMac, he displayed a presentation with not one but five potential I-meanings. “Steve Jobs said the ‘I’ stands for ‘internet, individual, instruct, inform, [and] inspire,'” Paul Bischoff, a privacy advocate at Comparitech, explains. However, while these words were an important part of the presentation, Jobs also said that the “I” “didn’t have an official meaning,” Bischoff continues. “He also alluded to it referencing ‘I’ as a personal pronoun, and ‘instruction’ for education purposes.” So it seems the “I” is open to Interpretation.

image credit: via wikimedia commons

Mahjong, the tiled-based game popular among Chinese people (and to others of different nationalities) might be a possible way to boost mental health, according to a study from the University of Georgia. Playing Mahjong is a type of social participation linked to reduce rates of depression among the Chinese, as EurekAlert details: 

"Global economic and epidemiologic trends have led to significant increases in the burden of mental health among older adults, especially in the low- and middle-income countries," said Adam Chen, an associate professor of health policy and management at UGA's College of Public Health and study co-author.

"Our paper provides evidence on the association between social participation and mental health in the context of a developing country. We also examined the rural-urban difference, which has not been examined extensively in this line of literature."

They found that, on the whole, participating in a wide variety of activities more frequently was associated with better mental health. Specifically, urban residents who played mahjong, a popular strategy game, were less likely to feel depressed.

image credit: via wikimedia commons

As much as Millenials love to joke about having no money, it seems that it’s not just Millennials who are broke. In a study conducted by Northwestern Mutual, 2,003 American adults (aged 18 or older) that were surveyed admitted to have sizable debt, which opens the floor for another set of people to pull the “I'm broke” tweet, with a bunch of emojis: the Gen Z. Buzzfeed News’ Venessa Wong goes into detail as to why both Millenials and Gen Z kids are now in debt, at such a young age: 

Millennials' main source of debt is credit card bills, and Gen Z's is student loans. In a previous poll by CreditCards.com, 40% millennials said the top reason they carried a credit card balance was daily expenses such as groceries, childcare, and utilities, and about 20% pointed to unexpected emergencies such as medical bills and car repairs. Bonneau said discretionary expenses such as vacations and eating meals out also contribute to credit card debt.

About 45% of millennials and 43% of Gen Z reported feeling guilty about their debt at least every month — more than other age groups. But debt is a major stressor across age groups. One-fifth of all respondents said their debt made them physically ill at least monthly, 45% said it made them anxious at least monthly, and 35% said they felt guilty once a month or more.

image credit: Flickr via wikimedia commons

Anxiety is a tough battle to win. Sometimes it’s there, sometimes it isn’t. We don’t know when an anxiety episode will arrive, but when it does, it feels like a freight train suddenly barging into the depths of one’s mind. It takes a lot of effort just to pull yourself back up and to continue. Sometimes we really want to avoid crying or breaking down in public, and we just want a fast fix to get ourselves somewhere we can get through an episode more personally. Refinery 29 lists some expert-backed tricks that we can use to calm ourselves down when everything gets in our head, and overwhelms us completely: 

Try a breathing technique. 

Dr. Sherry Benton, Ph.D., ABPP, the founder and chief science officer of TAO Connect, says that to know how to combat anxiety when it strikes, you have to know what’s going on in your body. “Your breathing becomes more shallow and rapid,” she says. “Your heart starts beating faster, and this all feeds into changing your thinking to be more stressed and worried.”

Stop and inhale for four counts, pause, and then breathe out for four counts. While you do this, you can try saying a mantra. Perhaps try thinking “I am” as you breath in, and “relaxed” as you breathe out, Benton suggests. 

Challenge your thinking. 

stop yourself from doing this, you should challenge your thinking. Ask yourself: How realistic is this? Think about what you would tell a friend in the same situation. 

Write it down. 

Benton also says that when you’re spiraling into anxious thoughts, it can help to stop, write down everything you’re worried about, and then consider what you wrote: Is it realistic, or is it an exaggeration?

Distract yourself. 

It can be helpful to call a loved one or do an activity that takes some focus, like a Sudoku puzzle, to distract your mind from its unpleasant thoughts that are magnifying your worries. 

Try mindfulness meditation. 

There are all kinds of meditation apps you can try that are made to calm you down during the day, while helping you focus on the present moment. “Rather than thinking all of those thousand other things, it gives the brain a break,” Benton says. “It’s turning off the constant conversation in your head so you can be in this moment.” 

image credit: via wikimedia commons

To prevent the rising case of Salmonella, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reminded everyone in an update after their investigation of several multi-state outbreaks of Salmonella to give the chickens space. Don’t snuggle, kiss, or invite chickens into your homes, and make sure to wash your hands with soap and water after touching one. The CDC reminded everyone to avoid kissing their fowl companions after a 2016 study from the CDC showed that people contracted Salmonella from sharing a smooch with a chicken. CNN has the details: 

The CDC and health officials have been The organization issued an update to its investigation on August 30, and cautioned all chicken keepers to wash their hands with soap and water after touching poultry or anything where such animals roam.

The CDC reports that as of August 23, there have been more than 1,000 cases of Salmonella from the outbreak across 49 states. Two people have died from the infection, and 175 people have been hospitalized.

image credit: via wikimedia commons

(Image credit: Flickr user Fon Zhou)

In the 12th century, the people of Fujian province in China developed an architectural wonder to protect their communities from bandits and warfare. A tulou is a fortified apartment home for several hundred people with a central courtyard and outer walls up to six feet thick! The floors are cantilevered to maximize living space while preserving the common courtyard.  

Most tulous are either circular or rectangular in shape.  As a result of the walls and their sheer size the result was a mini-city which was also wind-proofed and extremely well ventilated: the tulous are an oasis of coolness in the hot summer months and the insulation provided by the walls means that they retain warmth in the winter.

There was also another significant advantage of these vast structures.  Whether it was planned originally or not, the tulous are able to stand up to high magnitude earthquakes – the major contributor to their centuries of longevity.

(Image credit: Flickr user Squashimono)

The Fujian Tulou is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Some of the tulous are still occupied, while others are used for reunions by families who retain property rights. Read about tulous and see plenty of pictures at Kuriositas.

In this song parody, YouTuber Liechee uses Carly Rae Jepson's song "Call Me Maybe" to tell the story of The Little Mermaid. It's not only a clever and funny idea (if a little dated), but the song and video turned out right nice. -via Geeks Are Sexy

The engineer, Seth Vargo, pulled his open-source code off Github when he found out that the company using his code worked with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. With him pulling off his code from the repository hosting device, the company, enterprise software company Chef, discovered that without Vargo’s code, their business stopped working.

Vargo had worked for the Seattle-based company, but he didn’t know about the contract with ICE until tech writer Shanley Kane tweeted about it on Monday. ICE, which was formed under the presidency of George W. Bush in 2003, has stirred protests as it ratcheted up deportation and family separation policies under President Donald Trump.

Vargo reached out to Chef executives to better understand their rationale for the ICE contract, but got no response for three days. “It became apparent that they had no interest in acknowledging their partnership with ICE — the organization best known for tearing apart families and locking children in cages,” Vargo wrote in a text conversation with The Verge.

… he decided to pull the open-source project off Github. He knew the company would notice, but he was surprised to find out it relied on his code so heavily that it began experiencing significant downtimes at once.

More details of this news over at The Verge.

What are your thoughts on this one?

(Image Credit: Comfreak/ Pixabay)

props to the Google Engineer who yanked code from Chef for working with ICE. You've made my job harder today, but I really don't mind.

— marea rosa (@smrt_fasizmu) September 19, 2019

We're still waiting for a cure for HIV and AIDS but there have been significant progress as some research on using antiretroviral therapy has proven to cure HIV in mice and it could possibly carry over to humans as well.

For now, HIV-infected individuals must rely on other drugs and treatment. In Canada, a new pill called Dovato has been approved which combines two different components used in treating HIV.

The drugs inside Dovato are not new. Dolutegravir has been used in Canada since 2013. It belongs to a class of drugs called integrase inhibitors. Over the past seven years, integrase inhibitors have become the cornerstone of combination therapy for HIV in Canada and other high-income countries.

The other medicine that makes up Dovato is the nucleoside analogue 3TC (lamivudine). This drug has been used in HIV treatment regimens since the mid-1990s. It is generally safe and a successful part of many regimens.

For the first time, dolutegravir and 3TC are in one pill and this pill is approved for the initial treatment of HIV infection.

To know more about this hybrid pill, check it out on CATIE.

(Image credit: stevepb/Pixabay)

It's been two years since the last season of The Crown and with the new trailer being released by Netflix, it's certainly is worth the wait and should get everyone excited to meet the new face who will be portraying the Queen, Olivia Colman.

(Image credit: Netflix)

No doubt some of the most endearing anime to become very popular not just in Japan but all over the world are the works of Studio Ghibli and its co-founder Hayao Miyazaki. From beloved titles like Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, we are taken into worlds of Miyazaki's imagination.

With stories and characters that dig deep into concepts like environmental consciousness, youthful romance, childlike curiosity, and the human essence, watching these Ghibli films is like being a child once again and looking at the world from their perspective.

But where does Miyazaki find inspiration to make these stories?

(Image credit: Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli via Gurney Journey)