Matthew Carver is on a patriotic mission to revive the British cheese industry, which has been in decline for a century. He began with a food truck which distributed British cheeses at festivals and other public events, then founded The Cheese Bar, a cheese-focused restaurant in London.

Now The Cheese Bar features a conveyor belt which brings cheeses around before the eyes and noses of hungry diners. Carver calls it the "Pick & Cheese." 40 meters of belt rotate, offering 25 different British cheeses. Food & Wine magazine describes how it works:

Cheese novices can choose a pre-selected cheese flight, while connoisseurs and more adventurous eaters can help themselves to a stoneware plate or two (or six, or 10) from the conveyor belt. Each plate is color-coded according to its price, which ranges from a £2.95 ($3.64) cream plate to a £6.10 ($7.54) yellow plate. (There's also an Off-Belt menu that includes the owner's signature Four Cheese Grilled Cheese Sandwich and pan-fried 'Angloumi,' their all-English take on Cypriot halloumi.)

-via Nag on the Lake | Photo: The Cheese Bar

The 12th verse of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” is an eggplant parm recipe but no one ever includes it in their cover.

— Jenny Jaffe (@jennyjaffe) September 8, 2019

Television writer Jenny Jaffe declared that the 12th verse of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" was an eggplant recipe. Her Twitter followers took that as a challenge, and some of their lyrics are delicious!

You salt the slices til they drain
Their bitterness, like tears of pain,
You dredge with flour, then dip in egg then bread crumbs
Arrange in pan and bake till brown
Then spread the sauce on every round
And sprinkle with the parmesan reggiano
Reggiano
Reggiano
Reggiano
Reggiano

— DrLith, the Good Chaos (@drlith) September 8, 2019

Continue reading to see more of them.

A team of researchers will be launching a year-long trial that could tremendously help people suffering with dementia when they arrive at a hospital emergency department. The hospital emergency department is a busy and noisy place, an environment which can make a person with advanced dementia frightened and even violent.

QUT nurse researcher Dr James Hughes is about to launch a trial of a deceptively simple method to help make the emergency department experience smoother for dementia patients.

“They’re very simple kits, they have things in them like a puzzle, sudoku and word puzzles, some colouring, some activity devices, we have some music in there that’s generationally appropriate,” Dr Hughes said.

“There’s nothing in these packs that you couldn’t find at your local Woolworths or Big W, so putting them together or even tailoring them to the local population could happen almost immediately.”

More details of this trial over at The Sydney Morning Herald.

(Image Credit: GDJ/ Pixabay)

A few months ago, Mr. Sato of SoraNews24 experimented with tapioca bubble tea and rice and found out that the combination tasted great. Now, he experimented with rice once again, this time fusing it with eggs. Will it be as good as the previous one?

Find out the answer over at the site.

What are your thoughts on this one?

(Image Credit: SoraNews24)

Someone said that iPhone 11 resembles coconut #iPhone11 pic.twitter.com/hOinrDhmXT

— OGA JOHN BOSCO (@johnboscokomedy) September 10, 2019

Fans on social are making fun of Apple’s new entry to the iPhone series, the iPhone 11. They have described the iPhone 11’s new camera feature, that being three rear cameras, as bearing resemblance to a coconut, to which I agree. The design does seem to be inspired by a coconut. Some liken the new design to that of a bowling ball.

Apple unveiled three versions of the device at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino on Tuesday, showing off a handset with a 6.1-inch display that will come in six colours: purple, white, yellow, green, black, and Product Red.

However, the feature that caught the eye of most fans were the three cameras clustered at the back of the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max versions of the product.

What are your thoughts?

(Image Credit: Oga John Bosco/ Twitter)

Australian cricket journalist Peter Lalor stopped at a bar in Manchester, northwest England, in order to, of course, drink. Little did he know that he was about to drink what he called to be “the most expensive beer in history”. Lalor was charged about A$100,000 ($68,120) for the said drink.

Relaying the tale on his Twitter account, Lalor said he was not wearing his glasses, so he did not check the bill for the bottle of Deuchars IPA he ordered before handing over his bank card.

The rude shock came a few hours later when Lalor’s wife, at home in Australia, alerted him to the fact that A$99,983.64 had been stripped from their joint account. Adding to the pain, he’d been slugged another A$2,500 as a transaction fee.

Some sleuthing revealed that instead of entering 5.50 pounds ($6.78), bar staff charged him 55,000 pounds for a single beer.

Thankfully, the transaction fee has already been refunded to Lalor, though he will have to face a “massive hole” in his finances, as the larger amount will take nine working days to be returned.

As for the quality of the ale itself, which has won a number of awards, Lalor was ambivalent: “It was good, but not that good.”

(Image Credit: Alexas_Fotos/ Pixabay)

Bangkok, Thailand — A new addition to Bangkok’s buffet craze arrived in the form of unlimited durian last September 5. The buffet however, is expensive, costing 559 baht a head for an hour, which is about half-a-day’s earnings on minimum wage. Despite that being the case, it didn’t keep the customers away from the grand fruit event. After all, it happens only twice a year.

Eating durian, however, can be dangerous when eaten together with alcohol or soft drinks.

… a durian buffet is dead serious business, as a gentle warning sign in Thai, English and Chinese reminds guests: “Tips about durian. Eating durian together with alcohol can be lethal as it will rapidly increase sugar levels in the body and create an aggressive warming effect in the body.”

Non-alcoholic drinkers are warned as well: “Durian and soft drink can be a deadly combination. The fruit is high in sugar; combining with caffeine content in soft drink will cause a surge in blood pressure that [could] lead to sudden death.”

Those with diabetes, heart disease, or high blood pressure “should be careful of overindulgence in durian.”

More details over at Khaosod English.

(Image Credit: Khaosod English)

One of Instagram’s features is for a user to share daily snippets of their life on their account, making these small updates visible for anyone. In a sister app currently in the works, sharing goes between users and their closer friends. Threads, the application under development is basically Instagram for your closest friends list, Paper Magazine details: 

So it's basically Instagram pared down to your "Closest Friends" list? Yes, with a few additional features. The app will automatically "invite users to... share their location, speed, and battery life with friends," as well as typical memes and story reacts. The messaging app feature is apparently nearly identical to Instagram's current messaging interface.

Thread is all about "constant," aka it's gonna make your co-dependent ass even more terrified of being alone! If you opt in, it'll provide real-time updates about your friend's photos, posts, location and how fast they're moving towards the bar you're at.

image credit: wikimedia commons

Airbnb now caters to the world’s one-percent with Airbnb Luxe, a new vacation rental service specifically for them. One of the rentals the luxury rental service offers is an actual island in French Polynesia for $1 million a week. This jaw-dropping million-dollar Nukutepipi island accommodation can entertain 52 people in 21 bedrooms and 25 bathrooms, as W magazine details: 

Included in its initial offerings is 2,000 properties culled from Luxury Retreats, a different vacation rental company that Airbnb purchased in 2017. One of those happens to be an actual island in French Polynesia that you can rent for $1 million a week. As steep as that price tag is, the Nukutepipi island accommodates 52 people among 21 bedrooms and 25 bathrooms so you can bring your whole social network there. The other listings, meanwhile, are relatively a bargain at $1,500 to $2,000 a night. Of course, that's still an incredible leap from Airbnb's recently launched Plus tier, which begins at $150 per night.

Airbnb Luxe isn't just about dwellings; it's also about your entire journey as the program comes with access to a "dedicated trip designer" "who’s there to craft your five-star stay, even down to securing a table at a Michelin-starred restaurant," according to the website. These "designers" handle everything from your transportation to and from the properties, which can be tailored to include "private airport pick-up, an in-person welcome, and a home stocked with your must-haves," to services, "from personal chefs to massage therapists," as well as "childcare, to private chefs to personal training sessions in your own private gym."

This million-dollar rental is a dream for those who don’t want to share their accommodation with random guests, and will stay a dream for a broke person like me. If you have the money to spare, give it a try! 

image credit: via W magazine

In a new study by researchers from the University of South Carolina, bots have evolving to better mimic humans during elections. Bots or fake accounts (controlled by artificial intelligence) can copy human behaviours better to avoid detection, establishing an arms race between bots and detection as lead researcher Emilio Ferrara details: 

Lead author, Emilio Ferrara, noted, "Our study further corroborates this idea that there is an arms race between bots and detection algorithms. As social media companies put more efforts to mitigate abuse and stifle automated accounts, bots evolve to mimic human strategies. Advancements in AI enable bots producing more human-like content. We need to devote more efforts to understand how bots evolve and how more sophisticated ones can be detected. With the upcoming 2020 US elections, the integrity of social media discourse is of paramount importance to allow a democratic process free of external influences."

Bots, the researchers discovered, were more likely to employ a multi-bot approach as if to mimic authentic human engagement around an idea. Also, during the 2018 elections, as humans were much more likely to try to engage through replies, bots tried to establish voice and add to dialogue and engage through the use of polls, a strategy typical of reputable news agencies and pollsters, possibly aiming at lending legitimacy to these accounts.

image credit: wikimedia commons

A miles-wide asteroid struck the earth 66 million years ago and led to the extinction of the dinosaurs and countless other species. The impact left behind the 90-mile-wide Chicxulub crater buried miles beneath the Yucatán Peninsula and the Gulf of Mexico. In 2016, a core sample hundreds of feet long was extracted from the peak inner ring of the crater. A team of scientists led by University of Texas at Austin geologist Sean Gulick spent years analyzing the sample to tell the story of what happened on the day of the impact, which ended the Cretaceous and began the Cenozoic period.

Within minutes of the asteroid strike, Gulick and colleagues found, the underlying rock at the site collapsed and formed a crater with a peak ring. The ring was soon covered by over 70 feet of additional rock that had melted in the heat of the blast.

The sea battered against the new hole in the planet, and in the minutes and hours that followed, surges of water rushing back into the crater carried laid down more than 260 additional feet of melted stone atop the already accumulated rock. Then a tsunami hit. The wave, reflected back toward the crater after the initial impact, added another distinct layer of rock—sediments of gravel, sand and charcoal—all within the first 24 hours of the strike.

The planetary collision triggered wildfires inland, burning forests that were later doused by devastating waves. Debris from the charred woods washed out to sea, and some accumulated in the crater.

That was just the beginning. Read how the impact's effects changed the entire world at Smithsonian.

Is anyone surprised? If Michael Lang couldn't pull off a 50th anniversary recreation of Woodstock, what were the chances for a three-day music festival in the middle of nowhere that suddenly grew out of an internet meme? Alienstock in Rachel, Nevada, was to be the musical accompaniment of the Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us event on September 20.  

A notice on the Alienstock website said that due to various hurdles that included “the lack of infrastructure, poor planning, risk management and blatant disregard” for the safety of potential attendees, the event that was supposed to take place in Rachel, Nevada from September 19- 22 has been canceled and a new, 21-and-over event is scheduled for September 19 in Downtown Las Vegas.

Matty Roberts, the creator of the event, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal this week that the cancellation was a “fantastic relief,” adding that he’d “had a lot of concerns leading up to Alienstock.” The notice on the event’s website pointed the finger at Connie West, owner of the Little A’Le’Inn in Rachel—a community with a population of around 50 people—and permit holder for the event as failing to provide adequate proof of contracts and other documentation related to the event.

The new event in Las Vegas is called the Area 51 Celebration Party, and admission is free. Read more on the story at Gizmodo.

(Image credit: Photog)

The Arctic is part of a global cooling system. With the rapid change in climate, along with sea ice slowly melting down, that system is breaking down. That situation prompts researchers to gather data from the ice, sea, and atmosphere to measure changes over time that scientists hope will help them predict the planet’s future. In a Greenland Arctic base, researchers from around the world gather data about the warming arctic, but they are far from lonely with their work. National Geographic shares details on the scientists’ daily life: 

One person is playing the guitar, another is reading. There’s a relaxed, vacation vibe despite the location: 575 miles from the North Pole at a Danish military outpost in northeastern Greenland called Station Nord. The generator hums in the distance, and occasionally the two Greenland dogs begin to bark. The sun circles the Arctic sky.

The station, which began primarily as a weather center in 1952, is essentially a small village with its own airport. There are more than 25 buildings, including bunkhouses, workshops, a generator shed, a kitchen, and a community center. Single-purpose structures are spread out as a precaution against fire.

The campus is extensive enough to provide the infrastructure required to produce world-class science in a hazardous—and beautiful—environment. The soldiers clear runways, fuel airplanes, clean barracks, secure food shipped on cargo planes and retrieve water from a glacial lake nearby, and repair equipment. In winter the six of them—eight if you count the dogs—are alone for months, with a satellite connection that allows for basic email and text messages. Everyone gets a monthly call allowance. It’s more work to shut the station completely during winter than to keep a skeleton crew to look after things.

The community has a culture of its own. If you are late for a communal meal, you are expected, at some point, to bake a cake for everyone. Every Saturday night is feast night, with a three-course meal. Everyone must wear a necktie or a skirt, and if you didn’t bring one, as most first timers don’t, you may use the station facilities to make one out of anything you can find, including wood, electrical wire, books, or tea bag wrappers; real examples are exhibited on the kitchen wall.

On Saturdays, soldier Mads Adamsen says, you feel like you’re “coming home to your family from another place.”

image credit: wikimedia commons

Do you want to wear skinny jeans or bell bottoms? Now you now longer have to choose. For a mere $462, you can own a pair of jeans that goes half and half. Fashion brand Ksenia Schnaider lets you keep one foot in the 70s and one in 10s.

A crazy theory of mine: the manufacturer accidentally made a batch of defective jeans and convinced a retailer that it intentionally made pants to look like this.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Neiman Marcus

Working in shells, driftwood, geodes, and other media, Debra Bernier finds within her source material images reminiscent of fairies, druids, mothers, and mysteries of nature. She reverently journeys into the depths of those materials to reveal what is unseen to us, as she explains to My Modern Met:

“Sometimes these natural sculptures were just created, like a spider’s web or the colors on a leaf. Other times, it took millions of years to form something I can hold in my hand, like a stone or a fossil.” She has gratitude for these amazing formulations and continues their legacy with her own additions. “There is a sacred connection between us and the natural world that is unseen. I try to make this unity visible through my art.”