A new breed of chefs coming from the little town of La Paz on the Andes Mountains are transforming the local culinary scene of Bolivia.

With some help from Danish chefs, the new generation of chefs they trained are literally putting the "haute" in haute cuisine, as they place La Paz as a culinary hotspot in the gourmet world.

When I first visited Gustu, in 2013, La Paz was an overlooked city, largely undeveloped, with no culinary scene to speak of. But the head chef at the time, Kamilla Seidler, also from Denmark, promised me that the young chefs in Gustu’s cooking programs would soon transform the city. “When we see this generation go off and do their own thing, it’s going to be very exciting,” she said.

She was right. Six years later, La Paz is in the midst of a culinary renaissance inspired by Gustu culinary principles and alums. That revival has overlapped with a rejuvenation of the city as a whole—one that has transformed La Paz into one of South America’s most exciting capitals.

Along with the rebirth of La Paz, locals now appreciate native ingredients better as the local chefs bring these into the fore of people's attention, letting them know and experience the pride that comes from making something out of their own.

Bolivia may be one of the poorest countries in the Americas, but geographically and biologically speaking, it’s one of the richest. Its endemic ingredients include some 2,000 different types of native potatoes, dozens of antioxidant-rich palm fruits, and a handful of protein-packed grains.

We expect much to come out from La Paz in the future. In the meanwhile, you have to try out some of the best dishes from the up and coming restaurants like Gustu, as suggested by Mark Johanson of Men's Journal.

(Image credit: Lito78/Wikimedia Commons)

What defines us living organisms? The question is an important one to ponder since we are making rapid progress into AI territory and synthetic bioengineering such that the lines between living and inanimate may become blurry but not at all completely dissipated.

There are still distinguishing features between humans and other living organisms to those that are artificial at their core. Even when robots, which have the capacity to read human emotions, are being developed, there is still something at the back of our minds making us to take a step back before plastering a label on them saying that they're "living".

Two scientists, John D. Loike and Robert Pollack, discuss this issue on how "life" and "living" should be defined in scientific terms. We can't simply have things that can think and feel as our basis for what "life" or "living organisms" should be. They propose a concise definition that encapsulates the conditions that make an organism a "living" one.

For natural selection to have generated such a diversity of living things on earth, time and the mortality of every individual organism to assure the future survival of species are both required. 

We propose a simple but challenging definition of life as the property of an organism that possesses any genetic code that allows for reproduction, natural selection, and individual mortality.

Would you agree with their definition?

(Image credit: Franck V./Unsplash)

Much of what we know about the known universe were all gathered through a lot of testing and theorizing, doing the scientific method with diligence and creativity, thinking outside the box to put the pieces together so that they fit nicely thus allowing us to get a good picture of what happens, how exactly it happens, and why.

One of these things that we believe to be the case from observation and inference is gene expression. We know that genes get replicated, transcribed, and translated. But there are questions to which we won't have definite answers without actually seeing the process.

Back then, we didn't really have sophisticated tools to peer through the genetic landscape and observe how it happens. However, scientists have, for the first time, witnessed one of the basic events in biology: the act of turning on a gene.

The video, reported last year, is fuzzy and a few seconds long, but it wowed the scientists who saw it. For the first time, they were witnessing details of an early step — long unseen, just cleverly inferred — in a central event in biology: the act of turning on a gene. Those blue and green blobs were two key bits of DNA called an enhancer and a promoter (labeled to fluoresce). When they touched, a gene powered up, as revealed by bursts of red.

-via The Scientist

(Image credit: The Digital Artist/Pixabay)

(Video credit: Knowable Mag)

National parks walk a fine line between preserving nature and facilitating access for people to enjoy the park. Then when a wildfire comes along, that work goes into overdrive. Dr. Martha Witter is a fire ecologist for the National Park Service, and has to be up on all aspects of nature's strengths and limitations to devise plans for recovery after a fire.

Witter studies all aspects of how a wildfire can affect a park environment — from what happens to the plants and animals to how the soil and water change. Her research helps the teams of experts deployed to parks after a fire be prepared to effectively protect and restore burned environments. Many times, she’s on site — assessing damage before a fire is even out.

With prime hiking season coming up, we asked Dr. Witter to explain the basics of wildfire recovery in the days, months, and years after the embers die out.

Witter explains three phases of park recovery that address safety, access, and the ecosystem after fire damage at Uproxx.

The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease. In a nutshell, Alzheimer’s is a disease where you forget things, until it comes to a point where you even forget to breathe (loss of bodily functions). Oftentimes, this disease is interchanged with the general term dementia.

“Not everything that looks like Alzheimer’s disease is Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dr. Julie Schneider, a neuropathologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. And among all the known dementias, this newly identified kind “is the most striking mimic of Alzheimer’s,” she added.

Find out more on this new type of A̶l̶z̶h̶e̶i̶m̶e̶r̶'̶s̶ I meant dementia, on AP News.

(Image Credit: Mark Cornelison/ University of Kentucky via AP)

There are no cardinal directions to tell where I am from. I am from everywhere. I am from Sudan, Chad, France, and the United States, and a little city called Utica, New York....I am from Masalit, English, and Braille. Masalit is not written or read. I am making history at this moment when I say 'talim'. This translates to 'education' in English. It is historical because it is the first time a Masalit word has ever been written, read, and recorded in Braille.

Ahmat Djouma, a student at Mohawk Valley Community College, gave this moving speech before the 2019 conference of the Achieving the Dream Network, an organization of community colleges. He grew up in Sudan and then Chad while blind and speaking a language, Masalit, that has no written form. His long journey, which he hopes will lead to a career in law or government, is only just beginning.

Schrodinger's Cat Enamel Pin Set

Are you still trying to wrap your head around Schrodinger's cat thought experiment and how it applied to the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics?

The paradox of that poor hypothetical cat in a box. How did the cat get into the box? Did it willingly jump in there, and then the hypotherical pshycist slammed the lid closed? Sure cats love boxes, but every cat owner knows how hard it is to get an unwilling cat into a box. Ever try getting a cat into a pet carrier? Scary! 

How is that cute kitty both simulatneously alive and dead. Is the kitty a zombie cat? Does the hypothetical zombie kitty now have super powers from the radioactive material? Why hasn't said super powered zombie cat had it's own action movie made about him? Would super powered zombie cat be a villian or super hero?   

Why in the world does someone want to put a cat in a box with with a jar of radioactive stuff anyway?What kind of evil genius physicist does that. Soon your head is spinning. The questions about Schodinger's Cat thought experiment go on and on.   

I'm no physcist, or quantum mechanics expert, but I can tell you that the Schrodinger's Cat Enamel Pin Set is a drop dead fun way to liven up your warbrobe, backpack, or lanyard. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great pins. New items arriving weekly. 

We also carry an amazing selection of deisgns that can be printed on bags or a variety of apparel. We specialize in curvy and hard to find sizes. We carry 6 months baby all the way to 10 XL shirts. We belive that fun and fabulous people come in every shape and size. 

Why are the Big Brother posters in Nineteen Eighty-Four so intimidating? Perhaps because there are clear links between human behavior and the presence of watching eyes, or even just the appearance of watchful eyes.

Some scientists have already found that people in cafeterias are more likely to pick up their trash if there's a poster with eyes in the room. Others found that people are more likely to pay into honor boxes if images of eyes are clearly present.

In 2012, scientists at the Newcastle University (UK) published a study of human responses to donation boxes at supermarket checkouts. They found that people were far more likely to donate if the scientists had glued googly eyes onto the buckets:

In an 11-wk field experiment in a supermarket, we displayed either eye images or control images on charity collection buckets. There was no normative requirement to donate in this setting, and most people did not do so. However, the presence of eye images increased donations by 48% relative to control images. 

-via Caleb Howe

Most of us, if not all of us, can’t rid ourselves of plastic use. Yearly, we humans produce over 300 million tons of plastic (such as plastic bottles, plastic bags, etc.). Approximately 50% of this (150 million tons) is single-use plastic, which are plastic products that are discarded after use. Also, over 8 million tons of plastic are thrown to our oceans yearly. This phenomenon severely affects the environment. (Also, plastic takes 1,000 years to decompose).

One of the solutions offered to us are biodegradable bags which usually take 3 to 6 months to decompose. However, this may not be the case.

...new research from the University of Plymouth found that after three years in the dirt or water, so-called “biodegradable” bags were still in relatively good shape. Many were still perfectly functional bags that had lost little of their material or tensile strength, still able to carry five pounds of groceries. And even “compostable” samples didn’t always disappear without a trace. While more research is needed, the scientists concluded that biodegradable bags may not disappear from the environment much, if any, faster than traditional plastic ones.

What, then, could the possible solution be? We could rid ourselves of plastic, or, should we find ourselves having a plastic bag, let us just keep using it until it is no longer usable.

(Image Credit: Lloyd Russell/ University of Plymouth)

Living in the deep sea some 4500 meters deep would prove to be difficult for amphipods — tiny shrimplike crustaceans found in most aquatic ecosystems. We know that the deeper the water, the higher the pressure. Add to that low temperatures in the ocean deep, and high acidity of the waters. This would mean trouble for the tiny creatures, as these factors cause “the calcium carbonate in their exoskeletons to dissolve, making them vulnerable to pressure and predators”. However, this is not the case for the Hirondellea gigas. This one species found a way to survive in the harsh conditions of the deep sea. Their solution? Making aluminum suits of armor.

Researchers first analyzed H. gigas specimens found at the bottom of the Challenger Deep, more than 10,000 meters below the surface of the ocean. They found that this extreme amphipod constructs a personal suit of armor—a layer of aluminum hydroxide gel covering the surface of its exoskeleton. But aluminum isn’t abundant in ocean water, making it hard to source as a building material. It is, however, abundant in ocean sediment.

Nature sure is amazing.

(Image Credit: Daiju Azuma/ Wikimedia Commons)

There were many 'wannabe states' yearning to be one of the fifty States - however, some never quite got to full statehood. Here are twelve states that could have been.

via Amaze | Image: Wikimedia

A man gets off a boat. He walks into a restaurant and orders albatross soup. He takes one sip... pulls out a gun, and shoots himself to death. So...why did he kill himself?

It's not a true story, and while it is a riddle, Albatross Soup is much more than that. This surreal animation by Winnie Cheung explores the "twenty questions" type mystery and how people come to the answer. The whole story eventually becomes clear, although it is told backwards. This video contains NSFW language. Cheung discusses the short film in an interview at the Vimeo blog.  -via Laughing Squid

Marion Stokes has been recording bits of television shows ranging from sitcoms, news reports, and documentaries non-stop for over 30 years, from 1975 to her death at 2012. In 1975, she got a Betamax tape recorder, and that’s where it all began.

From the outset of the Iran Hostage Crisis on November 4, 1979, “she hit record and she never stopped,” said her son Michael Metelits in Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project, a newly released documentary about his mother and the archival project that became her life’s work.

As of today, the 71,000 VHS and Betamax cassettes sit in boxes of the Internet Archive’s physical storage facility in Richmond, California pending for digitization.

More details about Marion’s life at Atlas Obscura.

(Image Credit: Eileen Emond/ Courtesy End Cue/ Electric Chinoland)

Stuart Dahlquist never expected that he’d have crow friends who would follow him along as he takes his walks. He never thought he would be friends with the black birds. 

“This particular family of crows has been hanging around our house I'd guess about four years,” Dahlquist told The Dodo. “They had nested in a large Douglas fir in the front yard and we could hear the babies when the adults fed them.” 

Dahlquist loved to listen to the excited chirping of the baby crows. But, one day he went outside and immediately realized something was wrong. Both chicks had fallen from their nest, and their parents were unable to help them.

“[The chicks] were almost able to fly, but instead were just running around the yard — their parents squawking,” Dahlquist said. “I caught the two of them and got them into a tree. I put some food and water underneath them in case they fell again.”

What a thoughtful guy.

The crows would remember Dahlquist after what he did (crows can remember faces, by the way).

See more about Stuart’s friendship about the crows and the crows’ gift to him at The Dodo.

(Image Credit: Stuart Dahlquist)

With the help of medical technology and sanitation procedures, surgeries and amputations these days aren't as frightening to undergo. Anesthetics and morphine can numb our senses to soothe the pain so the procedure won't be as agonizing.

But during the Civil War era, it was a lot bloodier. There were no anesthetics, tools weren't sterilized, and painkillers were rarely given to patients due to lack of availability. Wounded soldiers would have to lie awake on the bed and bear through the pain of getting their limbs cut off.

Most bullets during the Civil War were made of soft lead. These soft bullets would expand on impact, creating large entrance and exit wounds. As a result, bones were shattered and tissue was destroyed. There was no way to reverse or lessen the damage, making amputation a necessary evil.

Doctors, covered in blood, moved from one patient to the next, without washing, and used the same set of tools on all the patients.

Sponges soaked in blood and pus were simply squeezed out in a bowl of water and reused on the next patient.

Thankfully, we have the conveniences of modern medicine so that we won't have to endure anything like those Civil War amputations.

(Image credit: Mutter Museum/Wikimedia Commons)