A defect in the ventilation system at the Lindt & Sprüngli chocolate factory in Olten, Switzerland resulted in a spray of "cocoa nibs" into the air, leaving a fine dust of chocolate around the factory and the nearby environment.
The company says one car was lightly coated, and that it has offered to pay for any cleaning needed — but hasn’t yet been taken up on the offer.
One would guess that the owner of the car would be tempted to clean it himself -with his tongue. Or as the Fark headline said, "That's what a Lindt brush is for." Tay Zonday could not be reached for comment.
We’ve come a long way when it comes to technology. Even our footwear gets an upgrade! Meet the DropLabs EP-01. These shoes let you “feel” the bass in any media you play. Does it work like a bluetooth speaker, except it lets you feel the sound? Check out Unbox Therapy’s video to find out!
Scientists are measuring how far the moon has gotten away from us. Yes, the moon is drifting away from us every year. For decades, scientists have been measuring the moon’s retreat by firing a laser at the moon’s surface. Don’t worry, they’re not aiming to destroy the lunar surface. The laser hits the light-reflecting panels left on the surface, as The New York Times detail:
But the moon’s five retroreflectors are old, and they’re now much less efficient at flinging back light. To determine whether a layer of moon dust might be the culprit, researchers devised an audacious plan: They bounced laser light off a much smaller but newer retroreflector mounted aboard a NASA spacecraft that was skimming over the moon’s surface at thousands of miles per hour. And it worked.
These results were published this month in the journal Earth, Planets and Space.
Of all the stuff humans have left on the moon, the five retroreflectors, which were delivered by Apollo astronauts and two Soviet robotic rovers, are among the most scientifically important. They’re akin to really long yardsticks: By precisely timing how long it takes laser light to travel to the moon, bounce off a retroreflector and return to Earth (roughly 2.5 seconds, give or take), scientists can calculate the distance between the moon and Earth.
The Milky Way is a huge galaxy. It seems that astronomers aren’t even sure how many there are in the galaxy. Various estimates range from 100 billion to 400 billion, because some stars are not visible from Earth for multiple reasons: some of them being too far, too faint, or obscured by gas or dust.. If someone asks you the question though, just give them the estimate! That’s a better answer than nothing!
It’s all for self-protection. New research has found that narcissists are less likely to reflect on their mistakes and are more inclined to blame them on the unpredictability of the universe. Researchers tested the various levels of narcissism present among different people, as ScienceAlert detailed:
"We argue that, due to their exaggerated self-enhancement and self-protection tendencies, narcissists show stronger hindsight bias when their predictions are accurate and a reverse hindsight bias when their predictions are inaccurate, both of which harm their learning and future decision making," the authors of the new study argue.
To do this, volunteers were asked in an online survey whether they identified more with statements like "I think I am a special person" than statements like "I am no better or worse than most people."
Shortly after this quiz, applicants were offered an opportunity to sign up for another in-person study. To avoid influencing expectations, the researchers took efforts to keep the participants unaware that the questionnaire was connected to the follow-up study.
This more personal half of the study involved groups being asked to read a bunch of qualifications for a hypothetical job and choose who to hire. They were then given their pick's performance assessment and asked whether they made the right decision.
Subtle variations in the methodology and performance outcomes of all four experiments allowed researchers to analyse how narcissism can impact hindsight bias and our ability to reflect on what we should have done, known as 'should counterfactual thinking'.
Patents are granted to protect a person who has an idea, not to render judgement on whether it's a good idea. Therefore, the patent files are full of strange and wonderful notions that will make you scratch your head. In 1930, Shelby Helene Adelaide was granted a patent for a system to interrogate crime suspects and compel a confession from the guilty.
“The present invention relates to a new and useful apparatus for obtaining confessions from culprits, or those suspected of the commission of crimes, and photographically recording these confessions, in the form of sound waves, in conjunction with their pictures, depicting their every expression and emotion, to be preserved for later reproduction as evidence against them,” the inventor describes her invention.
The invention works somewhat like this: first, the suspect is isolated in a small, dark chamber. The examiner sits in a nearby chamber and asks their questions through a megaphone. But here’s a twist—the suspect isn’t able to see the questioner. Instead, they’re faced with “a figure in the form of a skeleton.”
Moreover, the eyes of the skeleton are glowing red “for the purpose of imparting to the eyes of the skeleton an unnatural ghastly glow”
While such a setup might be perfect for a haunted house attraction, its use in solving crimes might have only come down to separating hardened criminals from the hopelessly naive (and probably innocent), who would end up traumatized for life. At any rate, it seems no one built this contraption, much less used it in law enforcement. Read about Adelaide's patent and see more pictures at Bored Panda.
What do you do when you have a very lucrative franchise, a new streaming service, a holiday season ahead, and then live-action production is shut down due to a goal pandemic? Disney came up with an answer. The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special will debut on Disney+ on November 17. Like the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special, it will revolve around the holiday Life Day, but most of the Star Wars characters will be played by animated LEGO minifigs. Executive producer Josh Rimes hinted that the story will feature action, comedy, and nostalgia.
The Lego holiday special, which Rimes teases will feature a few “Star Wars” movie actors reprising their roles, catches up with the cast after the events of last year’s saga-closing “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” Rey and droid pal BB-8 head off on a quest to gain a deeper knowledge of the Force, but their visit to a mysterious Jedi Temple sends them careening through time and space. Rey interacts with Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and other characters in some of the franchise’s most beloved moments, as they try to return in time for a Life Day feast with her friends on Chewbacca’s Wookiee home world of Kashyyyk.
The use of LEGO not only eased production in the age of social distancing, it also signals that the special is not competing with any of the other Star Wars productions, and is not to be taken as canon. Read more details about the upcoming stunt holiday special at USA Today. -via Boing Boing
Living in a lamp is so old school. Modern day genies live in their Uber cars! He can make your wishes come true, except in matters of love- that's not allowed, because it involves more than one person. But where there's a will, there's a way! -via reddit
Kelsey Hermanson's home is decorated in Disney. She has every room in the house decorated in the theme of a different Disney movie! Above, you see the Lilo and Stitch living room. The dining room is from Beauty and the Beast, the entry room is Rapunzel, the master bedroom is Cinderella, another bedroom is The Lion King, and the bathrooms are for Alice in Wonderland, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin.
They also have a Lady and the Tramp nursery, and a Ratatouille kitchen! Hermanson buys Disney art, but also makes a lot of the objects that create the style. Her husband Eric is also pretty handy at home decor. Read about their Disney house at Buzzfeed, and see more pictures at Instagram.
Multiple sclerosis is a terrible disease to have. A person who suffers from this disease has their nerves eaten away, and this causes serious disabilities. Worse, MS has no cure, but there are treatments which could speed up the person’s recovery. Now, it seems that a substance in cashew shells could be used in future treatments.
In laboratory experiments, a chemical compound found in the shell of the cashew nut promotes the repair of myelin, a team from Vanderbilt University Medical Center reports today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“We see this as an exciting finding, suggesting a new avenue in the search for therapies to correct the ravages of MS and other demyelinating diseases,” said the paper’s senior author, Subramaniam Sriram, MBBS, William C. Weaver III Professor of Neurology and chief of the Division of Neuroimmunology.
Previous work led by Sriram showed that a protein called interleukin 33, or IL-33, induced myelin formation. IL-33 is, among other things, an immune response regulator, and multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disorder.
Thanks to the magnetic field of our planet, we are safe from the charged particles of the Sun, as it repels and traps them. However, there is an area on our planet, specifically over South America and the southern Atlantic Ocean, where the field is unusually weak. The area is called the South Atlantic Anomaly, or the SAA.
Currently, the SAA creates no visible impacts on daily life on the surface. However, recent observations and forecasts show that the region is expanding westward and continuing to weaken in intensity. It is also splitting -- recent data shows the anomaly's valley, or region of minimum field strength, has split into two lobes, creating additional challenges for satellite missions.
While the SAA does not pose any danger on daily life, it does pose a danger for low-Earth orbit satellites.
Learn more about the South Atlantic Anomaly, and how it affects satellites, over at Science Daily.
Sweeping around billions of stars which are highlighted by the brightest and the bluest, this galaxy is truly a magnificent sight to behold, worthy of being designated as a grand design spiral galaxy. Just make sure that you don’t approach the center of the spiral, as what is found there is a supermassive black hole, which devours stars and gas, not to mention the hot plasma that surrounds it.
The central violent activity gives it the designation of a Seyfert galaxy. Together, this beauty and beast are cataloged as NGC 6814 and have been appearing together toward the constellation of the Eagle (Aquila) for roughly the past billion years.
Twitter user Kat (@bbykaat ) was enjoying her meal when her lovely companion Soda took a chunk of her boiled eggs. Kat shared the photo of her cat caught in the act, looking a bit surprised as it chomps on her boiled egg. It’s both funny and adorable!
Oh, I thought that the “phantom of the opera” was just a fictional character. It turns out that a real opera ghost exists, but he isn’t the masked character we see in the play, no - he’s just a sneaky theater tech. Organ enthusiast Joe Patten repaired the Fox Theatre’s Mighty Mo, the second largest organ in the world, which was broken for fifteen years. He earned his reputation as a ghost by spending his time in the theatre maintaining its instruments and moving like a ghost through the structure, as Cracked detailed:
In return, the Fox eventually made Patten its Technical Director and, since he "was spending 16 hours a day at the theatre anyway," let him live there rent-free. The Phantom chose a series of abandoned offices as his lair, which he remodeled into a 3000 square foot luxury apartment. Through a gate with a hidden lock that only a password could open, several winding steps would lead only Patten to a Moorish Rococo abode that would've fit perfectly in a Gaston Leroux novel. (This blog has a gorgeous photo gallery of the apartment in all its theatrical grandeur). It even had a revolving bookcase that led to a secret closet -- if he ever needed a place to stash billowing capes and sinister half-masks.
Over the past weeks, some people have been given the privilege to test Starlink, a satellite-broadband service by SpaceX. Anonymized speed tests by these Starlink beta users were released by a Reddit user almost a week ago, and it seems that the satellite-broadband is showing promising speeds.
Beta users of SpaceX's Starlink satellite-broadband service are getting download speeds ranging from 11Mbps to 60Mbps, according to tests conducted using Ookla's speedtest.net tool. Speed tests showed upload speeds ranging from 5Mbps to 18Mbps.
The tests showed good ping speed as well.
SpaceX has told the Federal Communications Commission that Starlink would eventually hit gigabit speeds, saying in its 2016 application to the FCC that "once fully optimized through the Final Deployment, the system will be able to provide high bandwidth (up to 1Gbps per user), low latency broadband services for consumers and businesses in the US and globally." SpaceX has launched about 600 satellites so far and has FCC permission to launch nearly 12,000.
While 60Mbps isn't a gigabit, it's on par with some of the lower cable speed tiers and is much higher than speeds offered by many DSL services in the rural areas where SpaceX is likely to see plenty of interest.
In March, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said, "We're targeting latency below 20 milliseconds, so somebody could play a fast-response video game at a competitive level." SpaceX satellites have low-Earth orbits of 540km to 570km, making them capable of much lower latency than geostationary satellites that orbit at about 35,000km.
