I have never heard of anything like this until today. A galaxy, the most luminous one that has been observed in the universe thus far, is feeding off the mass from nearby galaxies. Talk about loneliness and desperation.
Galactic cannibalism is not uncommon, though this is the most distant galaxy in which such behavior has been observed and the study authors are not aware of any other direct images of a galaxy simultaneously feeding on material from multiple sources at those early cosmic times.
For the rest of the world, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is probably one of the representations of how extravagant and lucrative it really is to live in America. Sure, other countries have festivals but it must be quite surprising for them to see how much is actually being spent for Macy's annual event.
It’s been 92 years since the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day (then dubbed Christmas) Parade first marched through the streets of Manhattan, and as millions flock to the parade itself, and millions more tune in from afar, it’s worth looking at its impacts on the ground in New York City.
Macy’s is famously sheepish when it comes to discussing the cost. For years, the company has put on the parade without disclosing the money involved. “Macy’s views the Parade as a gift to the City of New York and the nation, and like any good gift, you cut off the price tag when you give it, so we keep to that tradition as well,” a parade spokesperson told NBC New York in 2013.
So how much does it really cost? Check out Karim Doumar's piece on City Lab to find out. The answer just might surprise you. Or not.
Along with the internet, airline travel is probably one of the most important innovations of the 20th century. It allows ease of transportation from one part of the world to the other. But as the number of people who travel increases every year, there is a growing need for airports to innovate even further and cater to consumers. It's no longer about simply getting from one country to the other, it's all about the experience.
Of course, we don’t really need international polling to tell us that by world standards our [US] airports, like our roads, bridges and railroads, are crap. Anyone who covers aviation, as I do, feels the pain in a personal way: Why is the U.S. incapable of providing and running well the most basic services for one of the greatest advances in travel, the jet age, that was largely an American achievement?
Just take a flight from any of the New York area main airports to airports in Asia and you journey from chaos and dilapidation into what seems like another century.
Do you feel the same way?
(Image credit: Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast)
Certainly, each of us has a way of retaining concepts, ideas, and other information but it seems that our minds have a better grasp when we tap into our creative side and illustrate the concepts instead of simply writing them.
As opposed to simply reading about something, having a visual illustration of a concept makes it that much clearer in our minds how it works.
Images have a powerful impact on our minds and perhaps, that's one reason why we tend to remember things more when we have seen them and can associate them with certain pictures, symbols, or other visual representations.
A picture is worth a thousand words…. When it comes to conveying a concept, this sentiment can certainly be true. But it may also be the case for memory. At least that’s the message from Myra Fernandes and colleagues at the University of Waterloo, Canada – writing in Current Directions in Psychological Science, they argue that their research programme shows that drawing has a “surprisingly powerful influence” on memory, and as a mnemonic technique, it could be particularly useful for older adults – and even people with dementia.
Read Emma Young's article discussing highlights from the research on Reader's Digest.
Our brain and its different functions are still shrouded in mystery as we have not even discovered or mapped every part of it, let alone the specific purposes for each region of the brain.
But with this new technique, researchers from Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) led by neuroscientist George Paxinos, were able to find a previously unknown part of the brain.
Paxinos confirmed the existence of this brain structure while using a relatively new brain staining technique he developed to make images of the brain tissues clearer (and surely also prettier!) for the latest neuroanatomy atlas he has been working on.
In the culinary world, one of the most prestigious recognition any restaurateur strives toward is getting one of the famed Michelin stars. They try to perfect not just the food that they serve but also the quality of the service itself from the moment a guest arrives at the table until they leave the restaurant. It is a matter of pride.
But the Michelin stars weren't originally intended to become the culinary pedestal that it is today. Andre and Edouard Michelin simply wanted to give their customers a little extra as they toured around France. - via The BBC
War takes no prisoners in its path, razing everything to the ground. No one wins and the collateral damage of war leaves a lasting mark, not only in those who actively participated in it, but also to the battlefield where it took place.
After World War I, nine villages in France suffered tremendous damage and was declared uninhabitable - places which held memories of a life before tragedy struck. It was considered too costly to rebuild and too risky to even come near.
Over the last 100 years, only one of the destroyed villages has been reconstructed. Another two have been partially rebuilt, but the remaining six, including Fleury-devant-Douaumont, sit uninhabited within France’s Zone Rouge, or Red Zone.
But there is hope:
In the ghost villages of the Red Zone, nature also thrives. In the decades after the war, millions of saplings – including thousands of Austrian pines given as war reparations by Vienna – were planted in and around the cratered trenches. Today these stalwart pines share the land with some of the same species of magnificent oak and horse chestnut that made their way to Britain.
As much as we love our movies and TV shows, adapting a certain story onto the big and small screen goes through changes in the production process. Scenes are edited out, realities get stretched, and personas become inflated in order to make the best possible cinematic experience. It is fiction after all and it is for our viewing pleasure.
However, when asked about what they thought was the most realistic portrayal of espionage in film, the former spies answered: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. And here's why.
Books have always been the vehicle to share knowledge and inspire imagination in people's minds. Sure, we have the internet and other digital means of sourcing information but as a book lover, it is just a different experience holding a paperback in your palms and flipping through its pages one by one.
Schools also try to instill the thirst for knowledge in their students and have launched initiatives such as reading programs to get them to pick a book, read it, and spark some discussion and critical thinking among students.
With the changing times, certain books become more relevant than others. Sara Ernst and Courtney Rozen of NPR explored what college freshmen are reading these days. Look at the list that they have collated at NPR.
Yes, we were told that if we work hard, study and learn as much knowledge and skills as we could, and apply all of that in our daily lives, at work, at school, and other aspects of life, then we would achieve our goals and become successful. Well, that's not always the case.
A quote from a show I recently watched says, "If you believe then your dream will come true." It's a much simplified version of reality, it continued. The more accurate version, it mentions, is that if you believe and work hard, study, and do all that you can, then you might have a better probability of achieving your dreams. But it's no guarantee.
Researchers A. Pluchino, A. E. Biondo, and A. Rapisarda in their recent paper “Talent vs Luck: the role of randomness in success and failure” say, “the largely dominant meritocratic paradigm of highly competitive Western cultures is rooted on the belief that success is due mainly, if not exclusively, to personal qualities such as talent, intelligence, skills, smartness, efforts, willfulness, hard work or risk taking”.
Not luck.
The paper is academic and includes 23 pages of analysis and models. But as a high-level summary, the authors say, “it is rather common to underestimate the importance of external forces in individual success stories”.
For 500 years, it has been known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa because, well, the building leans toward one side which is a remarkable feat of architecture to be able to stand in that position without toppling.
But years ago, there were concerns that the Leaning Tower might actually topple over and so work was done to restore it. Now, it seems that because of the restoration, the Leaning Tower is now "leaning less".
How would you like to experience going beyond the Earth's atmosphere and into the reaches of space? Well, it might become possible for ordinary citizens to do so, however you would probably need millions of dollars first.
Recently, NASA has been facing some adversities in their program which caused them to consider even sending private citizens to space. Why would they do that especially with the risks of bringing untrained individuals into a completely different environment?
"It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both," says the Italian philosopher and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli. And in this day and age, fear has become the main impetus some people use to rile up violence and bigotry.
Adam G. Klein, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Pace University, writes:
Hate crimes in the 21st century follow a familiar pattern in which an online tirade escalates into violent actions. The pattern of extremists unloading their intolerance online has been a disturbing feature of some recent hate crimes. But most online hate isn’t that flagrant, or as easy to spot.
As I found in my 2017 study on extremism in social networks and political blogs, rather than overt bigotry, most online hate looks a lot like fear. It’s not expressed in racial slurs or calls for confrontation, but rather in unfounded allegations of Hispanic invaders pouring into the country, black-on-white crime or Sharia law infiltrating American cities.
Whenever you have so much going on in your mind and you experience stress from thinking about it all, one of the best things to help calm you down and think straight is to stop for a moment and take a deep breath or two.
Research has shown that breathing deeply relieves stress and anxiety but scientists are looking deeper into the connection between the way we breathe and its effects on our cognitive functions.
Studies have shown that when rodents sniff, the flow of even odorless air initiates brain activity by stimulating neurons in what’s called the olfactory bulb, which then signal the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in the creation and storage of memories.
Recently, a group of researchers conducted a study to determine the relationship between our memory and how we breathe.
If you think eating pepper is very agonizing to do especially if you have a low tolerance to hot, spicy things, you probably shouldn't go near this cactus-like plant. Its active ingredient is 10,000 times hotter than the world's hottest pepper.
However, what if this chemical has the property of blocking out your sense of pain? And it can do this without affecting other nerves in your system. So it effectively targets only the nerves that react to pain. That could make this chemical possibly one of the most potent painkillers which can be used in a variety of situations.
