The space telescope CHEOPS has detected some really wild data about an exoplanet 322 light years away. The planet is named WASP-189b, and it orbits the star HD 133112. At least that's what they are known by now; better names will come along sooner or later. Monika Lendl of the University of Geneva tells us how weird this planet really is.   

"WASP-189b is especially interesting because it is a gas giant that orbits very close to its host star. It takes less than three days for it to circle its star, and it is 20 times closer to the star than Earth is to the Sun," Monika Lendl says. The planet is more than 1.5 times as large as Jupiter, the largest planet of the solar system.

Monika Lendl further explains that planetary objects like WASP-189b are very exotic: "They have a permanent day side, which is always exposed to the light of the star, and, accordingly, a permanent night side." This means that its climate is completely different from that of the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn in our solar system. "Based on the observations using CHEOPS, we estimate the temperature of WASP-189b to be 3,200 degrees Celsius. Planets like WASP-189b are called "ultra-hot Jupiters. Iron melts at such a high temperature, and even becomes gaseous. This object is one of the most extreme planets we know so far," says Lendl.

The star it orbits is pretty extreme, too. Read about the findings from CHEOPS at PhysOrg. -via Damn Interesting

(Image credit: ESA)

The all-you-can-eat buffet of America’s prolific fast food chains is a
thing of the past, though sometimes it feels more like a dream https://t.co/FSpyN2ql5s

— Eater (@Eater) September 29, 2020

Fast food began in the mid 20th century with the idea of walking in and picking up hamburgers and fries that were already made, but fresh because that was the only thing on the menu. In the 1980s and '90s, casual restaurants offered all-you-can-eat buffets, which became so popular that eventually fast food chains jumped on the idea. But the concept was experimental, never universal, and didn't last long. Now people can barely remember ever seeing a fast food buffet. Have you ever been to a McDonald's outlet that had food out for patrons to pick up as much as they wanted?  MM Carrigan found that stories of such buffets are few and far between, and corporate offices tend to not talk about them.      

McDonald’s isn’t the only chain with a buffet whose existence is hazy. Yum Brands, the overlord of fast-food holy trinity Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Pizza Hut, is said to have had buffets at all three restaurants. I confirm nothing, however, when I reach out to the corporate authorities. On the KFC side, a spokesperson offers to look into “some historical information,” but doesn’t get back to me. My contact at Taco Bell tells me, “I’ll look into it. Certainly, nothing in existence today. I’ve never heard of it. Looks like there are a couple threads on Reddit.”

Reddit, of course, speculates a possible Mandela Effect — the phenomenon of a group of unrelated people remembering a different event than what actually occurred — in the existence of Taco Bell buffets. But I have a firmer lead in Payel Patel, a doctor who studied at Johns Hopkins, who tells me there was a Taco Bell Express in her dorm that was included in an all-you-can-eat meal plan option, though it only lasted one fleeting year. “You could order anything, like 15 nachos and 11 bean burritos,” she says, “and they would make it and give it to you, and you walked off without paying a cent.” A Johns Hopkins student newsletter published in 2001 corroborates the existence of the utopian all-you-can-eat Taco Bell, saying, “you can also gorge yourself on some good old Taco Bell tacos and burritos. Don’t forget, it’s all-you-can-eat. Just don’t eat too much; you don’t want to overload the John.”

While I had heard about fast food buffets in the past, I only encountered one in 2019 at a KFC in a tiny town at a sparse interstate exit. At the time, I quipped that the outlet would go bankrupt if anyone knew about it. Read about the rise and fall of the ephemeral (and possibly apocryphal) fast food buffet at Eater. -via Metafilter

Ida Schnell was a young nursemaid, taking care of infants in her hometown of Munich. She was only 13, but was described as appearing older, and none too bright. Schnell moved from job to job because the babies she cared for kept dying.

No one suspected the young teen of the deaths of their children until after the funeral of the 6th infant that died in her care. Each one had died sudden and mysterious deaths within six months and all under her care.

It was decided that they would exhume the body of the last victim, a 14-day-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Bichler of Ampermoching. The investigation revealed that the baby had been killed. The death was caused by a perforation of the child's soft skull with a sharp instrument.

The sad fact is that many infants died in that era; it was just a fact of life. Another sad fact was that this nursemaid killed babies for the simple reason that she did not want to hear them cry. Read an overview of the case at Murders in History, or for a more in-depth look, here are five contemporary newspaper accounts that tell the story. -via Strange Company

Viola Brand is an artistic cyclist in Germany. Here she takes over the ballroom of a castle to dance with her bike and show us the things we will never, ever be able to do. -via Nag on the Lake

Château de Brézé is a perfectly lovely 16th-century French castle near the village of Brézé. It was built over the foundations of an earlier fortress, one that sported a deep moat and an underground bunker system consisting of numerous rooms and three kilometers of tunnels that connect them.  

The underground refugee is accessible from within the moat; the entrance tunnel being dug on the moat face. The underground quarters, designed like a fortress, would have made it possible for the Maillé-Brézé family to defend itself against enemy attacks, as well as escape harsh winters and even epidemics. In times of need, they would have quickly abandoned the castle above and retreated into their subterranean refugee. Among the maze of corridors, there was every conceivable luxury including bedrooms, bakeries, cellars, kitchens, as well as room for livestock and cattle, and stables for horses. For defense, holes were carved into the walls of the corridors through which the castle defenders could shoot arrows into approaching intruders without exposing themselves. Fortunately for the Breze family, they never had to find out whether their defenses were adequate because the castle was never sieged.

Take a visual tour of this ancient and unique underground refuge at Amusing Planet.

(Image credit: Flickr user Martin Burns)

There are about 50,000 self-storage facilities in the US. How did that ever happen? Sure, it's a great way to make money, mostly passively, if you have a place to put one of these businesses. But why are they so popular? And why do we have so much stuff that we have to rent a place to put it all? Cheddar explains. -via Digg

This seal is well-known among the people who live along the River Witham in Anton's Gowt, Lincolnshire, UK. He is called Dandy Dinmont (and he looks the role) and has been a resident since 2017.

Recently, Dandy visited a group of paddleboarders. Lincolnshire Live reports that he climbed on two of the boards and stayed there for about 10 to 15 minutes.

-via Super Punch

The Roman Empire wasn't built in a day, and neither were most other fabulous realms of powerful men in history. But sometimes power is seized in a hurry, and new fortunes are squandered in a hurry. You may recall Mobutu Sese Seko, who ruled the Republic of the Congo/Congo-Léopoldville/Zaire (now named the Democratic Republic of the Congo) from 1965 to 1997. You are less likely to recall Gbadolite, Mobutu's ancestral home.

Deep in the rainforest, more than 1,000 km from Kinshasa, the capital of Democratic Republic of the Congo, lies the decaying city of Gbadolite, home to nearly two hundred thousand people. Fifty years ago, Gbadolite was a just small village of 1,500 with mud brick houses. It wasn’t even marked on maps, until Mobutu Sese Seko became the president. Within a decade, Gbadolite was transformed into a sprawling city with an airport, five-star hotels, supermarkets, hospitals with high tech facilities, and palatial homes for Mobutu. All of these are in ruins today swallowed by the jungle.

Read how the city flourished in a hurry and was wrecked even more quickly at Amusing Planet.

Everyone is a fan of something, even if it's just the nightly local news broadcast. Most of us have a movie, TV series, video game, or band that we really enjoy, whether we admit to it or not. Come to think of it, being a fan of the local nightly news is one that people would want to hide. You probably know I am partial to The Walking Dead and Star Wars, even when they are subpar. Celebrities are the same.

Read up on 15 celebrities and the unexpected pop culture they love at Cracked.

What makes a good earbud and a great earbud? The former fits quite right in your ear, while the latter fits perfectly in your ear. And if you’re not content with good earbuds, then Ultimate Ears just might be the perfect earbuds for you. It’s a little expensive, however.

Ultimate Ears wants to offer that option to more people — without making them go to their local audiologist for a[n] ear mold. The company’s new $249 UE Fits have gel-filled tips that, through a 60-second process initiated on your smartphone, will permanently harden in the shape of your ears.

“This personalized fit provides wearable comfort free of pressure, pain or irritation, even after extended use,” the company said in today’s press release for the earbuds. “UE Fits also offer superior passive noise isolation as the fitted tips create a natural seal that blocks ambient noise.”

Know more about these earbuds over at The Verge.

Well, what do you think? Is the price reasonable?

(Image Credit: Ultimate Ears/ The Verge)

Apparently, there is a myth that people in ancient societies die by their 30s. Popular knowledge, however, contradicts this myth. We know for a fact that there are people who have lived a long, full life in the ancient world, with their stories told in historical documents. We also have statues and busts that depict old age, such as those of philosophers. If everyone died young in ancient societies, how then does one explain where they got an idea of how old people would like?

The question is, if we somehow know that some people lived a long life in the ancient past, then where did this myth come from?

The answer over at Big Think.

(Image Credit: Marie-Lan Nguyen/ Wikimedia Commons)

Security updates for the Windows XP operating system stopped in 2014. Despite this being the case, some organizations and businesses still use the outdated operating system, and now they might be in danger because of a recent leak circulating online.

The leaked torrent files, published on the bulletin board website 4chan, include the source code for Windows XP Service Pack 1, Windows Server 2003, MS DOS 3.30, MS DOS 6.0, Windows 2000, Windows CE 3, Windows CE 4, Windows CE 5, Windows Embedded 7, Windows Embedded CE, Windows NT 3.5 and Windows NT 4.

[...]

According to a report from computer security company F-Secure, on average it takes about 20 minutes for a Windows XP machine to be hacked once it’s connected to the internet.

[...]

Windows XP is still used by people, airlines, banks, organisations and in industrial environments [over the world].

Learn more details about this over at The Conversation.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: @RoninDey/ Twitter)

We know that potatoes were developed in South America, and were unknown in Europe before colonization. We also know that Europeans were resistant to consuming them, and had to be tricked into trying potatoes (however, that trick has been credited to two different men). But going back further, we learn that the potatoes of the Andes in 8,000 BCE were actually toxic.

These early potatoes were very different from the potatoes we know today. They came in a variety of shapes and sizes and had a bitter taste that no amount of cooking could get rid of. They were also slightly poisonous. To combat this toxicity, wild relatives of the llama would lick clay before eating them. The toxins in the potatoes would stick to the clay particles, allowing the animals to consume them safely. People in the Andes noticed this and started dunking their potatoes in a mixture of clay and water—not the most appetizing gravy, perhaps, but an ingenious solution to their potato problem. Even today, when selective breeding has made most potato varieties safe to eat, some poisonous varieties can still be bought in Andean markets, where they're sold alongside digestion-aiding clay dust.

We also learn the different methods of making mashed potatoes and how Thomas Jefferson made his from spuds he dehydrated. This history is available in both text and video form at Mental Floss.

When Ernő Rubik invented the Rubik’s Cube (originally called Magic Cube) in 1974, he did not expect it to be as popular as it is today. Over 40 years after its invention, the three-dimensional combination puzzle is still a subject of many books and videos. This isn’t surprising, considering that this puzzle has over 43 quintillion combinations. But this might just be the most challenging Rubik’s Cube of all.

That’s because it’s only .39 inches tall.

Japanese toy company Mega House has introduced an officially-licensed Rubik’s Cube that was made in collaboration with metal precision processing company Iriso Seimitsu Co. Ltd. using precision metallurgy to craft a diversion sized for a Keebler elf. Each colored piece is only .10 inches. And instead of having a white side, Mega House left the metal unpainted. There’s even an engraved Rubik’s logo.

While it’s totally functional, you’ll need to have some nimble fingers to manipulate it.

But don’t think that this cube is cheap because of its tiny size.

Mega House is selling it for 180,000 yen, or about $1700, and will begin shipping it at the end of December.

Well, what do you think?

(Image Credit: MegahouseJP/ YouTube)

Imagine having such a hard time playing a piece that you ask for help from a professor, and then finding out that your professor is only a 13-year-old kid. I don’t know if there’s something more intimidating than this kind of situation.

In this video, Brett and Eddy get schooled by prodigy violinist Chloe Chua.

(Image Credit: TwoSetViolin/ YouTube)