Since there has been an increasing interest in both the public and private sectors regarding space exploration, scientists are doubling their efforts to study various aspects to make it more secure and convenient for astronauts and hopefully, average people to go to space.

One of the factors we have been looking at since Einstein came out with his theory of general and special relativity is whether we can travel at the speed of light in order to make it easier for intergalactic space missions and exploration without having to spend long years going to and from outer space.

There are three ways in which we can possibly travel at the speed of light: electromagnetic fields, magnetic explosions, and wave-particle interactions.

-via The Daily Grail

(Image credit: NASA)

Are UFOs real? Will we ever get to see extraterrestrial beings in our lifetime? Do the aliens see us and just not bother? Do people still even care? 

These are only some of the questions that the writer of The Daily Grail grazed a bit on the article concerning History Channel's Unidentified premiere as well as disclosures about UFOs. Read more on it here.

(Image credit: The National Archives UK/Wikimedia Commons)

Summer is here and this would be the best time to hold pool parties, backyard barbecues, and other fun activities you can only do under the sun. Try to relax and hang around with your buddies. And of course, you can't have a good barbecue without some beer. In this list, Uproxx compiles some of the best beers that go with your barbecue.

(Image credit: Samuel Zeller/Unsplash)

Mysterious coincidences can sometimes happen to people and in this little anecdote, we learn of the consequences brought about by messing with Japanese temple gods.

In 1928, the traveling couple Charles James Lambert and his wife Marie had visited Japan and found a neat little ivory figurine of Ho-tei, the Japanese god of good fortune, in a souvenir shop so they bought it. And by some weird coincidence, the couple started suffering from severe toothaches.

This went on for their whole trip even pushing them to get the dentist to pull out their teeth until the pain was gone. But it never relieved them of their agony. Until at some point in their travels and with some help from other people, they realized what the source of their agony was.

The Lamberts did not connect their dental miseries to their new acquisition until a short while later, when they were sailing from America to Britain. A fellow passenger, who was a collector of ivory, borrowed the Ho-tei overnight. The next day, she told them that she and her husband had both suffered from toothaches all the time the object was in their cabin.

Mr. and Mrs. Lambert, at long last, put two and two together. "We went over dates and symptoms carefully all the way back to Japan, and our hair rose in horror." Mrs. Lambert was all for throwing the sadistic little object overboard, but her husband, who by now had a thorough dread of the figurine, feared it might retaliate by "rotting every tooth in our heads." They decided the safest thing to do would be to return the Ho-tei to its compatriots.

Ironic how this statue of good fortune brought misery upon the couple. When they gave it to a Japanese art shop in London, the store owners became so excited in receiving it and put it on a shrine in the shop. That was the last the Lamberts ever heard of Ho-tei.

(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)

In testament of the weird things that happen in Japan, recent reports from an investigation have suggested that someone had broken into one of the JR trains in the Tokaido line in Shizuoka and stole some of the parts and apparatuses from the train.

An inspection of the rest of the train revealed that door switches and safety devices were nowhere to be found on some cars as well, and since police found evidence that wires had been cut and screws had been intentionally loosened, the case is currently being treated and investigated as a robbery.

There have been no leads as to who could have possibly committed this crime or the objectives for doing it. Some speculate that the thief might sell the train parts to fans of Japanese trains, locally known as densha otaku or train geeks. But there are no traces or evidences of anything yet.

(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Known as Inland Empire, the area within and around San Bernardino and Riverside counties houses some of the biggest warehouses and distribution centers in the country.

This is where most businesses store their retail goods until they are delivered. However, this has also caused major air pollution to build up due to all the trucks, trains, and planes that pass through the row of warehouses every day.

Becoming a crucial hub of international trade has been an economic boon to the area, but there have been consequences, mostly from pollution associated with the movement of goods.

The Inland Empire’s economic appeal stems from its geography — but so do its air quality issues. Fewer than 100 miles west, the San Pedro Bay Port Complex, which is made up of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, is the busiest in the United States and the ninth busiest in the world.

Last year, it broke a record for the highest volume of shipping containers ever moved by a seaport in the entire Western Hemisphere. A significant portion of those goods doesn’t stay on the California coast long before being loaded up and sent east to be sorted and shipped from a growing network of warehouses within the Inland Empire.

The big question people are asking is why does it have to be all in Inland Empire? And the reason for that is that there's nowhere else for them to go. This is the hub for all storage and movement of goods. If you want it to make it big as a retailer, especially an online one, this is the place you need to be.

(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Thelma Smith, who has lived in her Ladera Heights residence for 30 years, will soon be evicted after receiving a notice from her landlord who issued it because his daughter will be moving into the place after graduating from law school.

Smith was given three months to evacuate but not having any other place to stay, she doesn't have any choice because it is legal for landowners to evict their tenants for the purpose of providing housing to their relatives.

Under Los Angeles’ Rent Stabilization Ordinance, a landlord can legally evict a tenant to accommodate a relative’s housing needs. But the city law indicates that if the landlord’s units are of comparable housing, the last person who moved in would be the first person forced to leave. That regulation is meant to protect low-paying tenants from being targeted.

In greater L.A. County, where a temporary rent stabilization policy for unincorporated areas went into effect in December, the law is weaker.

For now, Smith, who recently celebrated her birthday, is asking help from friends and family who would be able to accommodate her once the time comes for her to vacate her premises. She has until June 30.

(Image credit: Wynter Eddins/Go Fund Me)

Instead of just being a place filled with parking lots, Exposition Park in LA will be revitalized with new additions to the park which the management believe would make the area more like an actual park, where people stroll, exercise, relax and sit while admiring the beautiful sights surrounding the place.

“It’s sort of chaos right now,” said Billie Greer, chair of the Master Plan Committee for the board of directors of Exposition Park. “We have to remember that people should be able to come to the park, not just to go to a museum or a stadium. But to exercise. To walk. To sit. To dream a little bit and enjoy the outside. We need some quiet places and some beautiful places.”

Officials have commissioned a new master plan timed with the most significant park additions in decades: MAD Architects’ Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which is under construction and will float above the west edge of the park; Frederick Fisher and Partners’ new wing for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, which will serve as a new entrance facing the Lucas Museum; and ZGF’s Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, a permanent home for the (soon-to-be upright) Space Shuttle. Also of note: USC’s ongoing $270-million renovation of the Coliseum.

(Image credit: MAD Architects/Lucas Museum of Narrative Art)

Don't get me wrong, for any book lover, any bookstore would be a joy to scour through and peruse. What seems like a mere few minutes has actually been several hours once you dive into the wonderful world of books.

But there's something about going through a used bookstore that new ones couldn't aspire to replicate. Perhaps, it's the history or the musk of the books.

Maybe, it's the fact that the books they house have passed on from one hand to another, bringing with it the joy and the sentiment of reading. Whatever it is, there's always bound to be something for everyone.

There’s a certain beauty to a used bookstore. Though authors make nothing from the sale of used books, I can’t be alone in thanking donators and sellers for the chance encounters I’ve had with authors among the stacks that I never would have heard of otherwise.

A new bookstore, shiny and edgy, can’t quite meet my romantic expectations (not that it stops me going in and buying buying buying), and the slight murk of the fantasy and sci-fi sections of a delightfully characterful haven for cast-offs never fails to make my heart beat faster.

Aisling Twomey shares some of her experiences with used bookstores and the different ones she has been to on Book Riot.

(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Taking a little bit from Tyrion's final speech to the council of the lords and ladies of Westeros, stories are what tether us to who we are. Stories are the foundation of our identity, of our past, and thus, our future.

And since early civilization, when paleolithic humans were sketching stick figures in caves, we had already been passing on narratives, telling tales of what was or how things came to be, and we share that with a group of people with whom we find kinship.

If we are to take a deeper, more scientific or rigorous look at what folklore really is, perhaps it would reveal that it's not just about fairy tales or myths and legends. Folklore is at the heart of human society. It's simple but it can also be profound.

Here, C.S. MacCath explores the brief history of folklore research as a discipline and how it was developed from the nineteenth century until today.

(Image credit: Pieter Brueghel the Elder/Kunsthistoriches Museum; Wikimedia Commons)

The Philippines has experienced so many disastrous typhoons causing flash floods and killing thousands, and that's only over the past 20 years.

Being an archipelago in the Pacific, having at least 20 typhoons in a year is quite normal. However, the situation is aggravated by the fact that illegal logging has stripped forests and mountains bare, eroding the soil and making lower-lying areas vulnerable to such disasters.

In response to this, a law has been recently passed mandating students who will be graduating from high school and university to plant at least ten trees as a requirement for graduation.

"With over 12 million students graduating from elementary and nearly five million students graduating from high school and almost 500,000 graduating from college each year, this initiative, if properly implemented, will ensure that at least 175 million new trees would be planted each year. In the course of one generation, no less than 525 billion can be planted under this initiative," Alejano explains.

(Image credit: Dmitry Dreyer/Unsplash)

The way we see ourselves changes as we grow older and experience more of the world. As we mature, we become more attuned and settled with our identity, more or less.

In a study conducted by researchers from the University of Reading led by Emily Hards, they wanted to know exactly how teenagers see themselves, what their self-concept or self-image is, and how that affects their construction of the self.

In all, the participants provided 6,558 self-descriptions or self-images. After removing any redundancy, the researchers calculated that the teens came up with 443 different ways of describing themselves.

Overall, researchers found that teenagers often described themselves in terms of their traits and personal characteristics which they say is consistent with how teenagers are still building up or developing their self-image.

They compared these results with those from a previous study of young adults. They found that these adults associated themselves more with their social roles rather than traits.

(Image credit: Raw Pixel/Pexels)

We have all probably experienced the agony of not being able to relieve ourselves smoothly. It's a common occurrence especially when we haven't had enough fluids or fiber in our diet. But a woman from Hong Kong had an unusual experience.

After relieving herself, it had affected her so much that her mind went blank. She literally experienced temporary amnesia for eight hours.

Concerned that she suddenly couldn’t remember anything from the last decade, her family took her to the hospital. According to her son, she had been suffering from constipation for a while now and had a ‘mental blackout’ because of it.

But after spending the night at the hospital, she woke up with all her memories mysteriously and thankfully restored. She didn’t even realise that this had happened and had no recollection of the dramatic scare she had caused.

A neurologist explained that this was most likely 'transient global amnesia'. Perhaps with the excessive straining she had exerted, blood flow and oxygen going to the brain had been compromised causing her to experience fainting and loss of consciousness.

(Image credit: Alexas_Fotos/Pixabay)

Several services take a major hit when disasters strike. With phone lines and electrical cables down, it will take time before services and utilities will be restored for consumers which would make life inconvenient.

Now, Loon is an Alphabet spinoff which provides LTE coverage through internet-relaying balloons. And in the recent 8.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Peru, Loon quickly sprung into action.

This isn't the first time Loon has provided connectivity following a disaster. It delivered internet to 100,000 people in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria struck in 2017. But in that case, it took Loon four weeks to get the balloons online.

The difference in Peru is that Loon was already negotiating a commercial contract with international carrier Telefónica. In the past month, it began installing infrastructure and testing the balloons in the country, so it had some of the pieces in place.

(Image credit: iLighter/Flickr; Wikimedia Commons)

In the search for their roots and identity, Bobby and Jeramy Neugin had to scour all sorts of archives and museums to find out about Cherokee culture which had almost been lost after the "Trail of Tears".

Jeramy had been very curious about his culture's history, the past that was taken from them, and wanted to know from his grandfather. But due to the trauma and the pain his grandfather saw and felt, he was reluctant.

Eventually, after gathering information about Cherokee culture, most especially their rich stories filled with magic and colorful language, his grandfather opened up and told him bits and pieces of what he knew or remembered.

Finally, like a puzzle with no idea of the picture or how the pieces worked, we began to see it. Our culture. This museum had our clothing. This one our weapons and tools. This one our stories, another archives of interviews of Cherokee. Any gaps I had, my grandfather would fill in.

My grandfather passed away without ever seeing how far we’ve progressed with it. He never got to see us performing or that being seen by the public as conjurers or that the stories, culture and magic is seen as something good, instead of something shameful. He never got to see how this has been nothing but good for us.

(Image credit: Nikhita Singhal/Unsplash)