Scientists have discovered a new set of minerals in a meteorite that landed in Somalia in 2020. These new resources were found in a 70-gram slice from the said celestial object, which was called the El Ali meteorite. 

Taking a slice from the El Ali, experts have classified it as an Iron IAB complex meteorite, thanks to the meteoric iron and tiny chunks of silicates that compose it. 

Aside from discerning its type, they have also discovered the new minerals by comparing them with versions of them that had been previously synthesized in a lab, discerning that they were quite new from what the records the researchers had. 

These minerals were named elaliite after the meteor and elkinstantonite after Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the managing director of the Arizona State University Interplanetary Initiative. 

She is also the principal investigator of NASA’s upcoming mission Psyche, which aims to investigate the mineral-rich Psyche asteroid for evidence of how our solar system's planets formed.

These resources will be further investigated by experts to understand how El Ali was formed. Aside from that, they are also looking at how minerals can be applied to material science.   

If you’d like to learn more about the meteorite or the new minerals, check out Live Science’s full report here! 

Image credit: University of Alberta Meteorite Collection

Live the life of a rich landlord in Scotland– that is if you have $2 million on hand. 

Compared to the prices of lavish mansions and luxurious real estate properties in cities, getting a castle, along with its vast lands is quite a good bargain for that amount of money. It turns out that the Isle of Vaila in Scotland is looking for its next owner for that price! 

The isle is one of the 100 islands in the Shetland Islands archipelago near Scotland. The property on sale once belonged to Richard Rowland and his wife for about 30 years. He shared that it is now the right time for new people to follow their dreams on the beautiful island. 

The most eye-catching aspect of the property is the 17th-century manor house that was built to mimic a caste. It is a 6-bedroom unit, with modern amenities for the ultimate comfort. Aside from that, the home also has some secret areas, such as hidden gardens and rooms, perfect for mystery lovers at heart. 

Future tenants of the property will also get to tend an entire flock of sheep that comes with the home. If you also want to own a whale skeleton, then this area is the perfect match for you, as the bleached remains of a 42-foot sperm whale are on the island. 

Learn more about the beautiful property here! 

Image credit: Savills

Well, it looks like tourists will have to allocate more money for their museum visits. One of the most well-known locations in the world, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) will be raising its ticket prices by $5. 

This means that entry will now cost $30 for adults, $22 for seniors, and $17 for students. The museum previously had a “pay-as-you-wish” policy for their tickets until 2018. They did introduce strict entry fees after that. 

According to the museum, the $5 increase is modest for out-of-state and international visitors, seeing that it is the first price hike in 11 years. “For out of state residents, the Museum is always seeking a balance between ensuring we are providing as wide access as possible, and generating critical support for our programming,” a Met spokesperson shared in a statement regarding the price increase. 

The Met now joins Seattle’s Chihuly Garden and Glass museum ($30 admission) and London’s Churchill War Rooms (approximately $31.60) as one of the most expensive museums in the world. 

Image via Wikimedia commons 

Here are more fun hole covers to be installed all throughout Japan! 

The Pokemon Company, in collaboration with the Japanese government, is set to install more manhole covers as part of their Pokemon Local Arts. This project is an initiative that was started in 2020 by the company to boost tourism across the country. 

Pokemon manhole covers are not a new addition in the country. There have been various covers in other regions in Japan that feature that specific area’s Pokemon ambassador. 

The new set will be installed in the Fukushima prefecture in December 2022, featuring the region’s mascot Chansey. The pokemon will be accompanied by Swirlix, Rillaboom, Vanillish, Grotle, Swanna, Lilligant, Wooper, Talonflame, Blissey, and Roserade!

Check out the design of the new set of manhole covers here! 

Image credit: the Pokemon Company via Nintendo Soup

If you’re aspiring to finally finish that novel or original work you’re aiming to publish online or even submit to the printing press, then you might be interested in visiting some pubs where popular writers visited for that extra burst of creative energy. 

While drinking alcohol might be counterproductive to the writing process, some authors in history did tend to get a pint of beer while writing books, short stories, and poems. Matador Network shares some of the top literary pubs you could visit for your next literary journey.

One of the suggested pubs in their list is The Eagle and Child in Oxford, UK. This is where Inklings, a group of writers that included J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis met. Fans of these authors can also find photos of the writing group in the location’s Rabbit Room. 

So whether or not you’re just looking for a historical pub to visit or a good place that was once frequented by writers, these pubs can be your next destination. Check the full list here. 

Image credit: Luis Poletti/Pexels 

A new excavation found new fossils that restarted the discussions surrounding the origin of humanity. Found in the Sterkfontein Caves in South Africa, the fossils were part of a cave woman nicknamed Mrs. Ples. 

Determining the age of the skeletal remains in the caves made researchers examine not just the items in the question itself, but also the radioactive decay in rocks buried at the same time as Mrs. Ples. This new method of dating work can push the age of the fossils in human evolution research, according to Dominic Stratford, the director of research in the Sterkfontein Caves. 

Thanks to this methodology, the experts have estimated her fossils to date back between 3.4 to 3.6 million years ago. Because of this dating, scientists can now say that the hominins existed in South Africa around the same time as the oldest remains were found in East Africa. For reference, the skeleton is actually referring to Lucy, who was found in Ethiopia in 1974.

The discovery of Mrs. Ples now indicated that Lucy, who was an East African hominin, lived too late to be considered the ancestor of modern-day humans. 

Image credit: Maël BALLAND/Pexels 

Here’s something that can uplift your spirits, even just for a bit. A blooper reel from 1991 showcases the fun times Robin Williams had with the popular character Elmo. 

Before the comedian’s death in 2014, he appears frequently on Sesame Street, playing different roles in the show. His most notable moment in the show is when he interacts with Big Bird and Elmo. 

In one of the clips featured in the video, Williams can be seen trying his best to make Elmo’s puppeteer, Kevin Clash break character. The comedian cracks a few jokes in his style, and you can actually see Elmo trying his best (to not make a mistake). 

The clip was actually from the 1991 episode of the show called “Big Bird's Birthday or Let Me Eat Cake.” Thanks to Williams’ brilliance, he was able to get Elmo enthralled even if he accidentally lose composure, goofed a line, and then walked off camera. When the comedian came back to continue the scene, it was Elmo’s turn to make mistake as he gets Williams’ name wrong. 

Did your favorite cookie brand make it, we wonder? 

Cookies are one of the most common snacks that are loved by people of ages. The chocolate chip cookie variation is also a popular option for bakeries and manufacturers alike. Did you know that this flavor was invented in the late 1930s? 

Ruth Wakefield of the Toll House Restaurant in Whitman, Massachusetts created the recipe and granted Nestle the use of her recipe in the succeeding years.  This small event has kick-started the rise of the multiple brands, flavors, and variations of the classic treat in supermarkets and stores. 

To determine what cookie is the best in the market right now, Tasting Table recruited three product testers to rank all the chocolate chip cookies in the market from worst to best. The results may shock you— they certainly surprised us! 

Before we give a short discussion on the results, we’d like to recommend you go here if you don’t want spoilers. If you’d rather read up on the top-ranking cookie brand, read more below! 

Interestingly enough, out of all the cookie brands you can find on grocery shelves, the Tasting Table ranks Trader Joe’s Crispy Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies as the best of the best. The testers found the ratio of chocolate chips per cookie good. Additionally, the cookie’s pleasing buttery flavor complements its crispy and crunchy texture. 

Image credit: Lisa Pawldak / Tasting Table 

The moon is receiving quite a lot of visitors recently. From debris to rocks to space junk, the celestial object has now got a mysterious object slamming into its surface. 

Initially reported as three tons of space junk back in March, NASA has determined that the junk that just hit the Moon is a rocket. Unfortunately, no one wants to claim ownership of the intriguing spacecraft that hit the Moon’s surface. 

Theories range from the rocket belonging to a SpaceX launch vehicle that was launched in 2015, to a Chinese rocket that launched in 2014. Both entities, however, denied ownership of the vehicle. 

According to China, the 2014 rocket was already burned during reentry. So until now, no one knows who owns it, much to the experts' and the Internet’s own dismay. 

The reason why this event has created more buzz for space enthusiasts and experts alike is that rockets create a lot of trash. They feature multiple stages and have multiple moving parts that can be dislodged during entry. With a lot of junk, it will be difficult to trace all of them and leaves the Moon with a lot of unwanted items on its surface. 

Image credit: Dom Le Roy/Pexels

Kreis Cup is a sustainable, durable, and reusable item perfect for coffee drinkers. Even though it is made from used coffee grounds and plant-based materials, the product is still heat resistant, so you’ll be able to drink your hot coffee with ease!

Speaking of hot coffee, what’s great about Kreis Cup is that it is also designed to keep your coffee’s temperature for longer periods of time. 

To create the right product for potential customers, the spent coffee grounds were dried, treated, and suspended in a natural polymer. The material holds the ingredients together as it is shaped into a cup. The resulting Kreis Cup doesn’t hold the full smell of coffee due to the manufacturing process, but it still has a faint whiff of coffee that is still a treat to the senses. 

Fully playing into its environment-friendly nature, the cup is biodegradable. When customers would like to dispose of theirs in the future, they can bury it in the soil. The product will safely biodegrade in the ground as a fertilizer for the soil.

For those interested, the Kreis Cup comes in a set of 3 different products: (a) 14oz (415ml) that comes with a detachable sipper lid, (b) 12oz (335 ml) cup, and (c) a complementary saucer. 

Image credit: Coffee Kreis  

A secret musician, caught in the act! 

In a video uploaded on YouTube, a dog can be seen hopping into a piano stool and starts… playing the piano. Well, of course, the pupper doesn’t just play, he also sings! 

He starts by warming up his skills by playing some small chords for a while. After that, he proceeds to howl along as he continues playing more notes on the instrument. We’ve noticed that this white pooch tends to offer an occasional howl that adds to the charisma of his performance. 

At the end of his wonderful performance, the pup seems to wait for the applause of the masses or a gesture of acknowledgment of his efforts. Unfortunately, there seems to be no one in the audience but the camera that was recording him. The pooch then decides to jump down the stool and go off his business. 

If you want to see the full video, we’ve embedded it below! 

Image credit: PawshPal 

Power of love, indeed! 

Mark Libertini, Kellner Libertini, and their love story managed to save a 90-year-old chocolate shop in Queens. The two met at a tapas restaurant that he used to own, where they bonded over the idea of food being therapy. 

When they started dating, they moved to Queens, where Mark found Aigner Chocolates was closing down. Deciding that this must be a sign to take the business and make it his own, the couple signed a property contract and re-opened the shop in time for Halloween 2015. 

Ever since then, the shop has been donating to various causes and continuing to spread their love for each other through their passion for chocolate! "Our vision is to share our love for the art of making chocolate to make the world a better place," Kellner said, "and we created that vision statement seven years ago, not knowing what the last two years were going to bring."

Image credit: Lisa / Pexels

Welcome to this week’s existential crisis moment: are we merely characters of our own creation? What if we are just merely living in a sci-fi-esque simulation as a random fictional character, subject to the whims of the writer of this story? 

Nick Chater believes this to be true. According to him, our moment-by-moment stream of consciousness is technically us writing our autobiography. He also cites modern scientific fields such as neuroscience, psychology, and AI as pushing toward this narrative. “The conclusion that the stories we tell ourselves about our motives, beliefs, and values are not merely unreliable in their specifics but are fictitious through and through. They are improvisations, created in retrospect by the astonishing story-spinner that is the human mind,” he explained further. 

Image credit: cottonbro

Yep, another one. There are reports circulating that Bethesda’s highest-selling game is heading to the Nintendo Switch… again. 

But doesn’t the console already have this game? Well, not the Anniversary Edition! A digital game rating committee listed this edition as a title coming to the Switch real soon. 

For reference, the Skyrim Anniversary Edition includes the base game, all the DLC and mods, and other new bits of gameplay. Well, it seems that we can expect an announcement soon. 

Image credit: Bethesda 

Oh, dear. 

The Grand Canyon National Park is currently experiencing an outbreak. It has affected over 118 people who visited the location. The sickness is a gastrointestinal illness that closely resembles norovirus, a disease that can cause vomiting, diarrhea, cramping, body aches, and mild fever.

To prevent the illness from spreading further, the park has been issuing alerts since May. “We haven’t seen something like this kind of outbreak in about 10 years,” Jan Balsom, chief of communications, partnerships, and external affairs at the Office of the Superintendent at Grand Canyon National Park, said.

Image credit: Josh Sorenson