One of the issues that still remain today is the significant gender gap in society. From job opportunities to education to income, there is a noticeable difference (and preference) between men and women. Apparently, the inequality people face today doesn’t end when they die. Living celebrities already experience a huge gender gap in their industry, but it extends past their death. Male celebrities who have died earn more and are treated with more reverence and importance than female celebrities, as BBC details: 

Both in life and death, celebrities wield significant power as a catalyst for cultural meaning. They possess symbolic and economic value that extends into death through the traces they leave behind. These traces continue the dead star’s celebrity power as a brand and include such things as photographs, films, signatures and recordings of their voice, as well as their celebrity persona (the character or personality they presented to fans).

But this posthumous celebrity varies in value. For many high-profile celebrity women, the traces they leave possess sexualised value, much as they had in life – related to their youth, beauty and sensuality. A great deal of their symbolic and economic value is about their bodies, so the way in which their traces are put to work after they die reflects gendered inequality.

 Forbes suggests that to achieve a financially successful posthumous career it helps to be a white man from either the US or UK, although black and minority ethnic people (BAME) are more likely to make the cut now than in 2001 as illustrated by Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Prince and Whitney Houston making recent lists.

image credit: via wikimedia commons

People love playing games. Some gravitate towards free games, while others are willing to spend huge amounts of money just to amplify their playing experience. In  the case of a Chinese gamer, he upgraded his character by spending money (and no one is here to judge). He spent $1.4 million on his character in the MMORPG Justice Online. Due to unseen circumstances, he got a big scare from nearly losing his million-dollar character because of a friend. Geek.com has the details: 

But in this case of Justice Online, the original player lent his pricey character to a friend. The friend then apparently tried to sell the character back for about $55,000, but accidentally listed the price as $552 instead. This led to yet another player snapping up the great unintentional bargain before any other sales could go through.

Fortunately, it all worked out. The sale was reversed. The character returned to its original home, and the innocent frugal player who bought the character got over $12,000 in damages. The whole mess makes you realize why China maybe wants to enforce stricter gaming curfews, even if we disagree.

image credit: via Geek.com

Art museums and universities offer classes, activities and programs for people living with dementia. These events give these people mind stimulation and a sense of inclusion. Not only do these events help in a theoretical sense, but science actually agrees with these methods as a way to give people living with dementia a helping hand. In a new study by researchers from the University of Canberra, these programs actually do help people with dementia, as Hyperallergic details: 

in a study that monitored 28 participants of the NGA’s Art and Dementia program before, during, and after the program. During that period, saliva samples were collected from participants to determine levels of cortisol, best known as the “stress hormone,” which plays an important role in dementia symptoms.

Elevated cortisol levels are associated with greater cognitive impairment, brain shrinkage, and a more rapid decline in cognitive function. According to the study, normal cortisol levels are usually high upon waking, then decrease during the day and drop significantly at bedtime. But in people living with dementia, this rhythm is disrupted, causing increased frailty, stress, agitation, and decreased cognitive performance.

“After the six-week intervention, we found the rhythm of salivary cortisol across the day to be improved,” D’Cunha told Hyperallergic in an email interview. “We also found the intervention improved some aspects of well-being. We think if both these physiological and psychological benefits could be sustained for long periods, it could help to improve quality of life.”

image credit: via Hyperallergic

New Zealander Cathy Valliant and Australian David Valiant tied the knot on Jetstar Flight 201, heading from Sydney to Auckland. The couple exchanged vows at 37,000 feet, just when the flight hit the halfway point between the two countries. Their ceremony was a celebration of their home countries, the first time they met, and their love of aviation, as UPI detailed: 

The ceremony was officiated by a Jetstar ground crew member.

The couple said airplanes have always been a big part of their relationship -- they met in 2011 as players of the Airport City computer game and first met in person at the Sydney airport two years later.

A Jetstar representative told CNN "all customers [who had been booked on the flight] received an email beforehand saying there was going to be filming."

The customers were allowed to change flights without extra charge if they did not want to be on camera.

image credit: screenshot via UPI

Internet Archive, a non-profit digital library is digging up old vinyl records. These large black disks that are now being recognized for both their sound and aesthetic value will be collected, digitized, and preserved. The old vinyl records the Archive digs up will be added to their collection, as one of the resources the Internet Archive is compiling for their “Universal Access to All Knowledge”  campaign. The vinyl records will be joining the Archive’s collection of books and television recordings, as My Modern Met detailed: 

To do so, the Internet Archive has teamed up with the Boston Public Library earlier this year to digitize more than 100,000 audio recordings from the Boston Library’s sound collection. Within this assemblage are recordings in formats like wax cylinders, 78 RPMs, and LPs—although, at the moment, the project is focusing on the LPs.

CR Saikley, the Director of Special Projects at the Internet Archive, says, “The LP was our primary musical medium for over a generation. From Elvis, to the Beatles, to the Clash, the LP was witness to the birth of both Rock & Roll and Punk Rock. It was integral to our culture from the 1950s to the 1980s and is important for us to preserve for future generations.” These audio files were never translated into digital format, which means their content is at risk since it is locked in the physical vinyl. This makes the LP digitization project a priority for the Internet Archive and the Boston Public Library.

Currently, you can listen to 750 full LP albums by visiting Unlocked Recordings on the Internet Archive.

image credit: via wikimedia commons

Regular puffer jackets better watch out, as there’s a new hot item in town! Vollebak, a start-up company that uses science and technology to make the future of clothing happen first has introduced the indestructible puffer jacket. Designed to outlive the owner and be an item that can be passed down to generations, the heavyweight jacket is made out of the world’s strongest fiber, dyneema, as Designboom detailed:

Made out of dyneema, the world’s strongest fiber, the puffer jacket is considered to be fifteen times stronger than steel. Dyneema is most commonly used for heavy duty jobs, such as tethering satellites from space or mooring giant container ships. Unlike other puffer jackets on the market, the ‘indestructible’ coat can also serve as a protective armor, as it endures extreme damage tests, such as knife slashing and tearing.

Besides the ultra-durable fabric that integrates dyneema, the jacket also features military-grade belt tape, zippers, elasticated drawcord adjusters and other details that will last for years. 

image credit: via Vollebak

We’ve seen it in enough holiday rom-coms, from parties to family gatherings, the mistletoe is a very well-known Christmas item and tradition. While it stems from Norse mythology and Greek and Roman medicine, how did it end up being everyone’s most loved or most despised Christmas decoration? The mistletoe’s ties to both love and fertility from mythology is what encorporated the plant in Christmas traditions, as Reader’s Digest details: 

Since this healing plant blossoms even in the cold winter, Celtic Druids thought it restored fertility, too. On the mythology side, legend says the gods used mistletoe to resurrect Odin’s son Baldur from the dead. And Baldur’s mother, the goddess of love, vowed to kiss whoever passed the plant, a symbol of love.

Ties with fertility and love stuck with the plant through the 18th century and were easily incorporated into Christmas celebrations. It reportedly started with lower-class servants in England before moving up to the middle classes, according to TODAY. 

Versions of the tradition have changed throughout the years, too. One version says couples who kiss should also take a berry from the mistletoe with each kiss, and another says that refusing a kiss under the mistletoe is bad luck.

image credit: via Reader’s Digest

The Internet, specifically social media had dealt a huge impact on every aspect of our lives. From aesthetically pleasing shots of food, and clothes that someone owns for clout, to setting the trend on what’s the good thing to do, eat, or wear, not only has social media affected our culture, but also Japan’s food culture. Japan Times details the heavy impact and change social media has on what people want to eat nowadays: 

The photographic skills of the uploader became very important and, at the same time, there were many examples of food that wasn’t just made for show that became wildly popular because it was ba-e (good looking). Few foodstuffs demonstrate this as well as bubble tea, called tapioca milk tea in Japan. Tapioca had an early peak in popularity in the 1990s, but the big tapioca pearls in the milk tea introduced from Taiwan around 2015 were deemed to be particularly ba-e, and millions of Instagrammers pose with cups of the cute drinks.

While Instagram helped to popularize the notion of regular food as visually attractive, most people (women especially) no longer seem that interested in making highly complicated food. Short and sweet recipes are now the norm, and choi-tashi (adding just a bit of something to packaged food to make it different) recipes are very popular.

image credit: via wikimedia commons

The United States (and the Internet) has celebrated the National Selfie Day to give tribute to the style of self-portrait, the selfie. While there are debates on what does count as “a selfie”, NASA laid claim that Buzz Aldrin, the second man who walked on the moon, was the first to take a selfie (in space). This claim defied the usual definition that a selfie should be taken digitally, as National Geographic detailed:

“For me, it needs to be digital to be a selfie,” argues Jennifer Levasseur, a curator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. According to Levasseur, the concept of a selfie is directly linked to internet culture and the human desire to interact on social platforms. “The thing that makes a selfie a selfie is sharing it,” she says.

Still, astronauts have been carrying cameras aboard space vehicles since the 1960s, and they’ve taken plenty of pictures of themselves along the way. In 1966, Aldrin used a Hasselblad camera that was designed specifically for space, with an extra-large trigger to accommodate the astronaut’s thick gloves. Hasselblad also painted the first camera in space a matte black to minimize reflections in the orbiter window. But cameras used in space need to survive extreme conditions, like temperature swings from -149° to 248°F, so Hasselblad painted later models silver to help the camera adjust to these temperature changes.

image credit: screenshot via National Geographic

Canadian makeup artist Bean Dawson takes a step out of the usual beauty looks and creates a range of “creative” looks on her Instagram. Using decapitated dolls and teddy bear heads, Dawson showcases her aesthetic and her talent with Special FX makeup. Dawson describes her aesthetic as “campy editorial makeup meets surreal props and headpieces,” as she explains to Paper: 

"Each day is different. Today, I'll make a headpiece out of teddy bears, tomorrow I'll turn my face into Candyland," she tells PAPER. "I love taking things, weird things, cute things, old things, anything and turning them into looks."

But despite her impressive use of colors and makeup in communicating her aesthetic, she refuses to label herself as a makeup artist. "My makeup is just for me, I see it as an extension of myself and an art form," she says. "I actually don't enjoy doing makeup on others. I have a ton of respect for working MUAs; there's a lot of knowledge that goes into the profession."

image credit: Bean Dawson on Instagram

Frozen 2 has just been released, and while a lot of fans are reeling over the famous Disney film’s sequel, some of us are left wondering on what is it like to be behind the scenes of such a huge production. Whether it’s Frozen or any other big Disney film, what are the processes involved in the creation of such a film? Norman Lemay, the head of story for Frozen 2, tells Rappler the details: 

Could you take us through what a Disney Head of Story does?

Normand: In any animated film, the directors oversee a lot of creative departments while the movie is being produced, and one of them is the story department.

In the story department, I act as a supervisor for the story team. I’m in between the director and the story artists, so I work closely with both to develop the movie visually as a cinematic experience.

I've been with Disney since 2009, so I've worked for the first Frozen movie as well as other in-betweens, like Big Hero 6, Moana, and Zootopia.

image credit: Walt Disney Philippines via Rappler

A French court ruled that the ducks on a smallholding in France may carry on quacking, ruling against a neighbor’s complaint that the ducks were disrupting their lives with their loud quacking. The noise from 60 ducks and geese, kept by Dominique Douthe in Pyrenees, France was within acceptable limits, as Reuters detailed: 

“The ducks have won,” Douthe told Reuters after the court decision. “I’m very happy because I didn’t want to slaughter my ducks.”

The complaint was brought by Douthe’s neighbor who moved from the city around a year ago into a property about 50 meters (yards) away from the enclosure in the Soustons district where Douthe keeps her flock.

The dispute is the latest in a series of court cases that have pitted the traditional way of life in rural France against modern values which, country-dwellers say, are creeping in from the city.

image credit: via wikimedia commons

KFC initially opened an an all-you-can eat buffet restaurant in Osaka back in 2015. Now KFC takes this wonderful treat to Tokyo, opening KFC Restaurant. Located at the Minami Machida Grandberry Park, KFC Restaurant offers a lot of dishes, including the classics such as their original recipe fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and new dishes from their “KFC Special Chicken Menu”. Head over to SoraNews24’s recap on their experience queueing up for hours just to get to eat at KFC Restaurant. 

image credit: via SoraNews24

London-based photographer Joshua Blackburn photographed every launderette in London. Launderama, the photo series resulting from Blackburn’s project, features photos from the 462 launderettes he has visited. From the old model of laundry machines, to the aesthetics of these last remaining public laundries, Blackburn managed to immortalize and showcase the individuality and aesthetics of these laundries. To see more from the project, you can head to his Instagram.

image credit: Joshua Blackburn on Instagram

Twelves bottles of wine are inside a Northrup Grumman resupply rocket, along with other essential supplies for the International Space Station. Unfortunately, the wine isn’t part of the astronaut’s supplies. The wine was sent by French startup Space Cargo Unlimited for a project meant to study the effects of space on wine aging, aptly named  “Vitis Vinum in Spatium Experimentia” (“Wine Grape in Space Experiment.”). Futurism has the details: 

For the next twelve months, the wine will remain on the ISS, sealed in its glass bottles, while samples from the batch age simultaneously back on Earth. After the space wine returns to Earth, the researchers will analyze both samples to determine how space aging affects the fermentation process of wine, including a bit of taste testing to see how flavors may have changed.

According to Space Cargo Unlimited’s website, the mission is “the first privately lead comprehensive research program on the ISS” to focus “on the future of agriculture for a changing Earth.”

image credit: via wikimedia commons