Hurricane Dorian,a storm that started as a Category 3 that intensified into a Category 5 in a short span of time, wreaked havoc in the Bahamas. While some may attribute the storm’s change to climate change and global warming, scientists also point out a reason as to how the storm got stronger. The warm waters of Bahamas helped sustain (and intensify) one of the most destructive storms that the Bahamas had experienced. Warm waters, according to researchers, serve as a fuel to intensify a storm’s fire. National Geographic has the details: 

The fourth National Climate Assessment predicted hurricanes could become more intense and destructive as the climate warms. Some studies suggest a warming atmosphere could make for slower winds, and research is increasingly showing that warmer conditions make hurricanes slower and wetter.

He explains that both the temperature at the surface of the ocean and the depth of the warm water contribute to how strong a hurricane becomes.

“How strong a hurricane can get depends on warm it is,” says McNoldy.

When those storms are exposed to enough warm water and westbound winds, they can form what’s called a tropical depression, in which an area of drier, cooler air rushes to fill the void left by rapidly rising warm air.

Like adding more fuel to a fire, warm water (whether heated by regular summer temperatures or greenhouse gases) make hurricanes stronger.

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(A)Dressing Our Hidden Truths is an exhibition housed at the National Museum of Ireland-Decorative Arts and History, installed in a warren of small black rooms, and shows the crimes perpetrated by the Catholic church against women and children. Created by Northern Irish artist Alison Lowry, the exhibition’s primary medium is “pâte’ de verre,” (“paste of glass”) a labor-intensive 19th century form of glass casting. The beauty and aesthetic of the exhibition amplified the horror that it depicts, the slavery and abuse done by the church towards women and children, as Hyperallergic detailed: 

The first cases illustrate how women were shorn of their hair, their possessions and even their name; they were given new, Biblical names by the nuns.

The first object one encounters upon entering the exhibition is a life-sized, old-fashioned work apron fabricated of unfired pâte de verre over fabric. The beads of glass are textural and thick, giving the apron a slight fuzziness — like an old-time photograph that is slightly out of focus. The apron is both hard and soft, an interesting visual metaphor for the labor of laundry.

A brief background: In 2012 a mass grave holding the bodies of 796 children was discovered in Tuam, Ireland on the former site of St. Mary’s Mother and Baby Home, an institution run by the Bon Secours Sisters order of nuns from 1921 to 1965. Mother and baby homes (a tragically ironic name) were homes for unwed mothers and their children, many of whom were forcibly taken from their mothers for adoption, and the women forced into manual labor to “pay” for their care. The hygienic and medical conditions were abysmal; as a result, many of the babies, children, and mothers died.

The Magdalene Laundries, a Catholic institution run by nuns where unwanted women and children worked in forced servitude benefitting the church as a lucrative laundry facility. It is estimated that upwards of 30,000 women and teenage girls lived in slavery in these institutions from roughly 1760 until 1996, when the last workhouse was closed. 

image credit: Peter Moloney via Hyperallergic

To prevent the rising case of Salmonella, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reminded everyone in an update after their investigation of several multi-state outbreaks of Salmonella to give the chickens space. Don’t snuggle, kiss, or invite chickens into your homes, and make sure to wash your hands with soap and water after touching one. The CDC reminded everyone to avoid kissing their fowl companions after a 2016 study from the CDC showed that people contracted Salmonella from sharing a smooch with a chicken. CNN has the details: 

The CDC and health officials have been The organization issued an update to its investigation on August 30, and cautioned all chicken keepers to wash their hands with soap and water after touching poultry or anything where such animals roam.

The CDC reports that as of August 23, there have been more than 1,000 cases of Salmonella from the outbreak across 49 states. Two people have died from the infection, and 175 people have been hospitalized.

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Anxiety is a tough battle to win. Sometimes it’s there, sometimes it isn’t. We don’t know when an anxiety episode will arrive, but when it does, it feels like a freight train suddenly barging into the depths of one’s mind. It takes a lot of effort just to pull yourself back up and to continue. Sometimes we really want to avoid crying or breaking down in public, and we just want a fast fix to get ourselves somewhere we can get through an episode more personally. Refinery 29 lists some expert-backed tricks that we can use to calm ourselves down when everything gets in our head, and overwhelms us completely: 

Try a breathing technique. 

Dr. Sherry Benton, Ph.D., ABPP, the founder and chief science officer of TAO Connect, says that to know how to combat anxiety when it strikes, you have to know what’s going on in your body. “Your breathing becomes more shallow and rapid,” she says. “Your heart starts beating faster, and this all feeds into changing your thinking to be more stressed and worried.”

Stop and inhale for four counts, pause, and then breathe out for four counts. While you do this, you can try saying a mantra. Perhaps try thinking “I am” as you breath in, and “relaxed” as you breathe out, Benton suggests. 

Challenge your thinking. 

stop yourself from doing this, you should challenge your thinking. Ask yourself: How realistic is this? Think about what you would tell a friend in the same situation. 

Write it down. 

Benton also says that when you’re spiraling into anxious thoughts, it can help to stop, write down everything you’re worried about, and then consider what you wrote: Is it realistic, or is it an exaggeration?

Distract yourself. 

It can be helpful to call a loved one or do an activity that takes some focus, like a Sudoku puzzle, to distract your mind from its unpleasant thoughts that are magnifying your worries. 

Try mindfulness meditation. 

There are all kinds of meditation apps you can try that are made to calm you down during the day, while helping you focus on the present moment. “Rather than thinking all of those thousand other things, it gives the brain a break,” Benton says. “It’s turning off the constant conversation in your head so you can be in this moment.” 

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As much as Millenials love to joke about having no money, it seems that it’s not just Millennials who are broke. In a study conducted by Northwestern Mutual, 2,003 American adults (aged 18 or older) that were surveyed admitted to have sizable debt, which opens the floor for another set of people to pull the “I'm broke” tweet, with a bunch of emojis: the Gen Z. Buzzfeed News’ Venessa Wong goes into detail as to why both Millenials and Gen Z kids are now in debt, at such a young age: 

Millennials' main source of debt is credit card bills, and Gen Z's is student loans. In a previous poll by CreditCards.com, 40% millennials said the top reason they carried a credit card balance was daily expenses such as groceries, childcare, and utilities, and about 20% pointed to unexpected emergencies such as medical bills and car repairs. Bonneau said discretionary expenses such as vacations and eating meals out also contribute to credit card debt.

About 45% of millennials and 43% of Gen Z reported feeling guilty about their debt at least every month — more than other age groups. But debt is a major stressor across age groups. One-fifth of all respondents said their debt made them physically ill at least monthly, 45% said it made them anxious at least monthly, and 35% said they felt guilty once a month or more.

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Mahjong, the tiled-based game popular among Chinese people (and to others of different nationalities) might be a possible way to boost mental health, according to a study from the University of Georgia. Playing Mahjong is a type of social participation linked to reduce rates of depression among the Chinese, as EurekAlert details: 

"Global economic and epidemiologic trends have led to significant increases in the burden of mental health among older adults, especially in the low- and middle-income countries," said Adam Chen, an associate professor of health policy and management at UGA's College of Public Health and study co-author.

"Our paper provides evidence on the association between social participation and mental health in the context of a developing country. We also examined the rural-urban difference, which has not been examined extensively in this line of literature."

They found that, on the whole, participating in a wide variety of activities more frequently was associated with better mental health. Specifically, urban residents who played mahjong, a popular strategy game, were less likely to feel depressed.

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The iPhone is a commonly-known and used gadget all over the world. It doesn’t matter if you have it, you see it everywhere. It’s the phone brand of choice by a lot of people. Have you ever wondered what the “i” in iphone stands for? The “i” originally stood for internet, which highlighted not the iPhone’s capacities, but the iMac, which was released first. However, Steve Jobs didn’t just have internet as the meaning of the “i” in iMac, as Reader’s Digest detailed: 

That little “I” actually got its start long before the iPhone became a reality. The first Apple product with an “I” in its name was the iMac computer, released back in 1998. So the “I” originally stood for Internet, to highlight the Mac’s revolutionary Internet capacities. 

But when that first iMac launched, the “I” had several other meanings as well. When Steve Jobs introduced the iMac, he displayed a presentation with not one but five potential I-meanings. “Steve Jobs said the ‘I’ stands for ‘internet, individual, instruct, inform, [and] inspire,'” Paul Bischoff, a privacy advocate at Comparitech, explains. However, while these words were an important part of the presentation, Jobs also said that the “I” “didn’t have an official meaning,” Bischoff continues. “He also alluded to it referencing ‘I’ as a personal pronoun, and ‘instruction’ for education purposes.” So it seems the “I” is open to Interpretation.

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School festivals are usually the highlight of a Japanese student’s school year. Alternatively called the bunkasai (culture festival), this annual event is where students come together to showcase displays, booths, and performances for the entire school. From cosplay cafes to arcade games, it seems that one group of students’ event for the bunkasai took the cake for the most unique (and most viral). A video of students building a wooden roller coaster inside the school is went viral, as SoraNews 24 details: 

The video starts with two students pushing another one in a cart, the three of them perched high above the ground on a stack of school desks. As the cart rolls down the roller coaster, screams ring out as the ride gathers speed, turning a number of corners that have been so cleverly designed the cart even goes backwards at one point, before safely coming to a stop on the ground below.

While the design is ingenious, we can’t deny that it looks frightening, due to the fact that it’s constructed on stacks of school desks. Some people couldn’t help but wonder if the ride was structurally sound, prompting the video’s uploader to leave some follow-up tweets to alleviate everyone’s concerns about student safety.

“This was a trial run during summer vacation so we increased its strength to about five times more than this.”

image credit: via SoraNews 24

A cake is a great treat. A luxury for some, a daily treat for others. Besides its delicate flavours and elaborative decorations, an Italian pastry chef turns his cakes into miniature worlds. Matteo Stucchi’s culinary creations feature tiny figurines cleverly located among his cake to resemble something that can be seen in real life. His cakes appear as if being explored by miniature humans, My Modern Met details: 

His portfolio of pastry art includes a cheesecake topped with tiny bricklayers who appear to be smoothing out the chocolate “cement.” In another creation, tiny climbers attempt to ascend a sugar-dusted “Mount Pavlova,” and Stucchi has even created an ocean scene atop of a blue mirror-glazed cake, complete with a tiny sailboat.

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Area 51 is the Air Force facility best known for UFO conspiracies and alien encounters, and it isn’t a surprise that the location attracts a lot of curious minds. Curiosity killed two cats this time, as two Dutch YouTube vloggers ended up in jail for trespassing the Nevada National Security Site outside Area 51, with the two vloggers chalking up the trespassing allegations as a misunderstanding. The Washington Post has the details: 

Ties Granzier, 20, and Govert Sweep, 21, were each charged with trespassing and held at the Nye County Detention Center, roughly 250 miles north of Las Vegas, according to the Nye County Sheriff’s Office.

Despite seeing a sign barring entry, Sweep said he interpreted the warning as applying to nonresidents, and thought they could ask a live person if they might enter anyway. Though both of the men read, write and speak English, Sweep chalked up their alleged trespass to a simple misunderstanding.

The NNSS website describes the Mercury location as a “premier outdoor, indoor, and underground national laboratory” located in a “remote, highly secure area of southern Nevada.” While scheduled tours are open to the public, foreign nationals are required to submit advance paperwork to visit — and all visitors are barred from bringing recording devices such as cameras, cellphones and laptops.

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Traveling is one of the most exhilarating activities one can do in their lifetime, for the joy of exploring new and different locations, along with the feeling of being free and away from your responsibilities from home. However, there are certain risks to this fun and rewarding activity, such as security threats, according to Adam Dean, a senior security specialist. When we travel, we are vulnerable to security threats, along with having little to no privacy, Dean elaborates. 

So how can we protect our privacy while traveling? USA Today lists down some helpful tips to avoid having our privacy compromised: 

What to do about cameras

If the rental comes with cameras, ensure they aren't in a sensitive area by conducting a careful sweep. Report anything suspicious to the host immediately – and if you don't like what you hear, leave.

What to do about data breaches

a hotel clerk sometimes asks for your name and then announces your room number after you've checked in. You're better off handing the employee your ID when he or she asks for your name and asking the employee to write your room number on a piece of paper. Why? Because there are other people in the lobby, and they could be listening.

"I’ve seen my entire credit card number on hotel receipts," O’Rourke says. "Just to be sure, never leave the customer copy behind. You can destroy it later, but keep it under your control until you do."

What to do about nosy seatmates

"Consider getting a privacy filter that covers your laptop or tablet," he says. "These screens let the user see the content on the screen from a front-on view, while anyone trying to view the content from the next seat over will see a black screen and nothing else."Josh McCormick, the vice president of operations for Mr. Electric, an electrical installation and repair services company.

More ways to enhance your privacy when you travel

• Don't broadcast your itinerary on social media. Wait until you return to start posting vacation photos.

• Get a virtual private network. "The No. 1 danger, when it comes to privacy, is public Wi-Fi hotspots," says Dimitar Dobrev, a director for VPNArea, a VPN provider. A VPN can protect you.

• If your laptop or any storage devices are reviewed at customs or appear to have been moved in your hotel room, you should assume that your drive has been copied, says Bruce McIndoe, founder of WorldAware, a travel risk management firm. "Only take the bare essentials when you are traveling," he advises. "A travel laptop stripped of any nonessential files is a good strategy. Keep your laptop locked up when you are leaving your room. Do not leave it or any electronic devices unattended."

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Disneyland in Shanghai, China, is now allowing outside food after a lawsuit in March. A student named Wang filed the said lawsuit against Shanghai Disneyland in March after being barred from bringing her own food. The theme park’s rules were criticized online as discrimination against Asians, since Europe and US Disneyland parks allow visitors to bring in outside food. The new policy now allows guests to bring outside edible items, except for the ones with bad odors, as Reuters detailed: 

"We value the feedback from our visitors. The updated food-carrying guidelines are implemented based on the point of safety and ensuring visitors' satisfaction," Shanghai Disneyland staff told AFP on the phone.

The new policy states "guests are allowed to bring outside food and beverage items into the Park for self-consumption," provided that they do not need to be reheated or refrigerated and "do not have pungent odors" such as durian fruit.

Whole watermelons and stinky tofu are also excluded, according to state newspaper People's Daily.

The company's website shows it will continue to check all personal belongings and require all guests to pass through a metal detector in accordance with the law, despite public concerns over privacy.

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A new device can produce electricity from the cool air of the evening, according to University of California Los Angeles materials scientist Aaswath Raman and Stanford University engineers Wei Li and Shanhui Fan. In a prototype they created, the device generated around 0.8 milliwatts of power, enough to keep a hearing aid working. The prototype can operate at hours when solar cells cannot, making nighttime an optimal source of renewable power, as ScienceAlert detailed:

Using a material called a thermocouple, engineers can convert a change in temperature into a difference in voltage. This demands something relatively toasty on one side and a place for that heat energy to escape to on the other.

They put together a cheap thermoelectric generator and linked it with a black aluminium disk to shed heat in the night air as it faced the sky. The generator was placed inside a polystyrene enclosure sealed with a window transparent to infrared light, and linked to a single tiny LED.

For six hours one evening, the box was left to cool on a roof-top in Stanford as the temperature fell just below freezing. As the heat flowed from the ground into the sky, the small generator produced just enough current to make the light flicker to life.  

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Sherry Tina Uwanawich, a 28-year-old woman from South Florida, was sentenced to three years and four months in prison for a $1.6 million curse scam. The scam involved her asking a Texas woman to pay her large sums of money to remove a curse from her family, that the money is needed for crystals and candles to perform meditations that will lift the curse. 

Uwanawich gained the woman’s trust and managed to convince her that a curse was placed on her and her family when she met her in 2007. In addition to imprisonment, Uwanawich must also pay for restitution, as court records detailed. 

(via AP News)

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In the Nile Delta governorate of Gharbeya, an Egyptian masseuse plays with fire to ease his client’s muscle pain. The technique, an ancient Pharaonic technique known as the “fiery towel” starts with a standard massage, then Abdel Rehim Saeid, the masseur, places several layers of towels and insulating materials on the client’s back and a final towel soaked in alcohol. The alcohol-soaked towel is set on fire for a minute before the flames are put out with a wet towel, as Reuters details: 

“It is ...called a fiery massage,” Saeid said, that works by sucking moisture out of the body.

“I communicate with the human body, coming into close contact with the body of the human in front of me,” he said.

Saeid said he cannot use the technique with people suffering from high blood pressure, kidney failure or haemophilia.

image credit: screenshot via Reuters