Outsiders like to make fun of us Texans when harsh winter storms blow in. As much as it pains me to admit it, our reactions or overreactions to snow and ice can be embarrassing at times.
But getting out the fanboat and taking it out for the daily commute is nothing but a proud demonstration of Texans' ability to adapt to the ever-changing weather conditions. When northern Texas was hit with ice and sleet that froze over the roads, one Texan in the town of Princeton, which is northeast of Dallas, hit the road in his boat and skillfully navigated it through traffic.
Sometimes they're called ripped jeans and sometimes they're called distressed jeans. Either way, there's apparently money in tearing these clothes up. This aesthetic principle does not apply to other articles of clothing, such as overalls and suit jackets. To have ripped up jeans is a sign of refinement.
Artist and art director Pablo Rochat is offering a new way to tear your jeans. This will no doubt be the look for the new season. All you need is a cat and a laser pointer. You can actually do fairly precise work if your aim with the laser pointer is precise.
Bridgerton is a British television series set in the Regency Era. Regé-Jean Page was one of the stars of that show and, apparently, the most handsome man in the world.
The New York Post reports that this is the finding of a British plastic surgeon named Dr. Julian De Silva. He calculated the handsomeness of famous men using the Golden Ratio, which establishes a proportion of facial features of 1 to 1.618. Page is within 93.65% of compliance with that standard.
Following him were actors Chris Hemsworth, who scored as 93.53%, and Michael B. Jordan with 93.46%. According to Dr. De Silvia, it was Page's perfect lips which secured him the #1 position.
The AP Stylebook's Twitter account, in addition to creating writing standards often used in journalism, spends its time telling people what they should and should not think and say. In a recent now-deleted tweet, it urged people to avoid a particular type of phrasing that it regards as dehumanizing--describing people with a label preceded by the definite article.
Do not, it emphasizes derisively describe any person as belonging to some unfortunate class of people, such as "the poor, the mentally, ill, the French...."
The Embassy of the...uh, I mean, the Embassy of France to the United States is taking it fairly well:
Core 77 shares with us a fascinating development by NVIDIA, a graphics and artificial intelligence company.
Let's say that you're in a long virtual meeting with someone and would like to pretend to be paying attention to that person. Just occasionally nodding saying "uh huh" every 30 seconds isn't enough. People expect that you will maintain eye contact through the webcam in order to convincingly feign interest.
INVIDIA has developed an AI-based filter that will automatically present the eyes on display as directed at the camera. In addition to creating the appearance of attentiveness, it's useful when people are reading off of a script, such as a teleprompter, but wish to look their audiences directly in the eye.
How does one measure the size of asteroids? The Jerusalem Post is using a pug as a basic unit. If you stack 100 pugs together with paws on shoulders, then two particular asteroids are 100 pugs in width.
NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies warns that these two pugalicous asteroids, which are named 2019 BO2 and 2019 BZ4, will pass by Earth on Tuesday. BZ4 is traveling at approximately 36,261 MPH.
By my calculations, this is about 1,727 to 4,029 times faster than a pug can run. If this particular asteroid would ram the Earth at full speed, it would probably be an adorable apocalypse.
If you're young and broke and living in the city, do you really need a shower? I mean, occasionally, you should take a shower. But do you need an apartment that has its own shower?
Sora News 24 reports that increasing numbers of young residents in Tokyo are deliberately choosing apartments that are so inexpensive that they don't have a shower, then making use of one of the city's declining number of sentos--public bathhouses.
There's a risk involved: sentos aren't open 24 hours a day and the average cost of a single use is about 500 yen ($3.86 USD). But this option is popular enough that there's now a website that specializes in helping people find apartments without baths within a short walking distance of a sento.
St. Peter Stiftskulinarium in Salzburg, Austria was originally founded as a monastery, not an eatery, during the Seventh Century A.D. In 803, Bishop Arno of Salzburg reported dining there. So we can say that this establishment has been serving food to visitors for over 1,200 years.
Now, though, unlike Bishop Arno, you have to pay for your food. Moss and Fog describes and provides photos of this beautiful mixture of medieval architecture and modern fine dining.
Christopher Columbus himself might have eaten here. In 1783, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ate here with his family. You can have a similar experience and enjoy classical and modern Austrian cuisine at the restaurant. There’s also a Mozart-themed banquet that features live music while you eat.
UPDATE 1/24/22: AP reports that the Rhode Island Department of Health has completed its DNA examination of the Santa Claus evidence. It could not match the sample with DNA in its database, although there is a partial match a 1947 case in New York City.
ORIGINAL POST:
Chief Matthew Benson of the Cumberland, Rhode Island Police Department is taking this case very seriously. It began when, ABC 7 News reports, he received a letter from a little girl. It included part of a cookie and carrots that were left in her home last Christmas night. The cookie was for Santa Claus and the carrots for his reindeer. Would he run DNA tests on these objects and get back to her?
I'm not sure what a DNA test would reveal, but Chief Benson processed the evidence and sent it to the Rhode Island Department of Health for examination. Is Santa real? Do these remains point to the presence of Santa and his reindeer in her home on Christmas night? The police will follow up with the child and let her know.
-via Dave Barry | Photos: Cumberland Police Department
At least, that's what I'm going to call it until someone actually tastes it to verify its flavor.
If it's not a cinnamon bun, then the mysterious object that appeared in the sky over Bursa, Turkey on Thursday might be a lenticular cloud. The US National Weather Service defines those objects as clouds formed:
...when relatively stable, fast moving air is forced up and over a topographic barrier that is oriented more or less perpendicular to the direction from which the upper-level wind is blowing.
The forces that shaped this cinnamon bun must have been purely coincidental, I'm sad to say.
Fox Weather notes that sightings like this one are unusual. Lenticular clouds, which signal impending preciptation, are far more likely to occur over mountainous areas.
The Power of Decision is both a thrilling movie and an official US Air Force training film. Its production origin is unclear, although George Washington University has some details about this film gleaned from the National Archives as well as the Air Force.
The 55-minute film begins with the narrator, who is identified as Colonel Dawes, introducing the audience to operations at the headquarters of the Strategic Air Command. At 9 minutes into the video, it switches to a dramatic presentation of how the Air Force would respond to a surprise nuclear attack by the Soviet Union.
For a training film, this is remarkably good filmmaking. There's good camera framing and skilled acting by the participants who are obviously trained thespians instead of Air Force personnel who were conveniently nearby during filming.
I'm trying to find the identity of the actor who plays the narrator, Colonel Dawes. He is also the star in the 1963 US Army training movie The Battalion Commander. If you can find his name, please note it in the comments.
Until 1998, a point of order during a vote in the House of Commons could only be made while wearing a hat.
A collapsible opera top hat was kept with the doormen solely for this purpose, as seen worn by Tony Marlow in this clip from 1994. pic.twitter.com/evVm033phH
In its modern form, the British House of Commons dates back to 1801, although its origins can be traced to 1341. That's several centuries of developing tradition, including the rule that, if a member wishes to raise a point of order to the Speaker, s/he must be "seated and covered" -- the latter of which means wearing a hat of some sort.
Since headwear was in decline during the late Twentieth Century, it became customary to keep a single collapsable opera hat nearby. The member must retrieve it and then sit down before raising the point of order. One advantage of this practice is that it has:
...has undoubtedly been retained to deter honourable Members from raising points of order during divisions by making them appear ridiculous and feel acutely embarrassed.
It is not obvious what works of literature will enter into a literary canon by becoming assigned reading in college classes. The Pudding, a website devoted to data-driven longform journalism, notes that it is difficult to predict the future fame and respectability of recent books.
Herman Wouk's 1951 novel The Caine Munity won a Pulitzer Prize, was lauded by critics as a masterpiece, and was on the New York Times bestseller list for months. Yet rarely does it appear on college class syllabi now. All of Zora Neale Hurston's novels were out of print by the 1970s, when scholars elevated her from postmortem obscurity. Now Their Eyes Were Watching God is often required reading at colleges.
If we look at three sets of data--the New York Times bestseller list, Goodreads rankings, and literary prizes--what can we discover about literature from the 90s? Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was a collossal success in the 90s, but is absent from most literary couse syllabi. Tim O'Brien's short story collection about the Vietnam War titled The Things They Carried is, though, widely assigned reading even though it was obscure at the time of its publication in 1990.
Ultimately, The Pudding offers no answer, only questions. What causes a work of literature to enter a literary canon (and how that canon can be defined) requires more research and study.
There’s a definite appeal to being a sperm donor: in addition to a being small source of income, it’s a way for a man to ensure that his genetic legacy is perpetuated.
That’s because giving sperm samples is an onerous task. There’s a lot of preliminary screening and a commitment to regular participation. About 55% of potential donors drop out during the process. The clinics then reject 17% for medical reasons, 10% for donor lifestyle reasons, and 11% for low sperm quality. Fewer than 4 in 100 men will make the cut.
Since the end of World War II, Americans have been fascinated with French cuisine and desired to incorporate it into the American diet. French cuisine has come to epitomize the refined palate--even for something as simple as a sandwich.
Food & Wine magazine brings us eight French sandwiches that we must try soon. Among them is the pan bagnat, which is from the Provence region in the south of France. It uses a particular type of sourdough bread. Inside are anchovies, capers, black olives (specifically niçoise olives from the Nice area), tuna, hard boiled eggs, and roasted red peppers. I want to make one, but perhaps I should go to France to get an authentic pan bagnat.
