Encased by mountains and the sea, Granano, Italy is the ‘Città della Pasta’ (City of Pasta) - famed for its white gold or macaroni. This sleepy coastal town once was one of the richest in terms of pasta production. Nunzia Riccio, food technologist and quality control manager at Pastificio Di Martino explained  the town's past to the BBC:  

“In the past, almost every family in Gragnano produced pasta,” Riccio said. “This has been an ancient tradition for over 250 years, with ‘white gold’ serving as the economy of the city.”

Professor and historian Giuseppe Di Massa added more details on the town's old pasta-making traditions (away from the factories and technological improvements): 

“The municipality allowed pasta factories to occupy the space out front with the spasa (pasta on the reeds), and, playing their part, pasta factories guaranteed the street’s cleanliness, since they didn’t want their pasta to be contaminated by dust,” Di Massa explained. “The way Gragnano pasta was dried was a real art, improved over centuries and passed down as a family secret generation after generation. Since no preservatives or antibacterials existed at that time, the conservation [of pasta] depended upon slow drying.”

The beautiful and detailed past traditions of the town managed to remain, in the townspeople's heart and history- if Gragnano is mentioned, pasta is the next word that comes to mind. 

image credit: Consorzio di Tutela della Pasta di Gragnano IGP via BBC

A new summer exhibition in Brooklyn Museum aims to show another side of Garry Winogrand, the photographer regarded as the godfather of street photography. With his black-and-white frames of urban America in the 60s and 70s, and images that seem kinetic, frighteningly alive - the museum aims to show a more intimate, sentimental side of Winogrand: 

The purpose of the Brooklyn Museum’s summer exhibition is to show us a different side to Winogrand – more intimate, perhaps more sentimental. It brings together 450 images, most of which have never been seen in public before.

Asked why Winogrand took all those thousands upon thousands upon thousands of photographs, Kismaric says she’s not sure, even now: it was almost an ecstatic act, she suggests, a way of losing himself in the drama of the world carrying on around him. “Garry just loved taking photographs,” she suggests. “I think it was as simple, and as complicated, as that.”

Known as a photographer who snaps the shutter of his camera continuously , with more photos in his archive that remains unreleased into the world - the exhibit is another side of the photographer that no one knew existed: 

Susan Kismaric, a veteran curator and writer who knew Winogrand well, compares seeing the colour work to discovering a new period to Picasso’s life that no one fully realised was there. “There’s this aspect of his work that we didn’t know existed, really,” she tells me. “And this stuff deserves to be looked at.”

image credit: The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery via BBC

Ever wondered if you have what it takes to be the next top influencer on Instagram?  Check if you can or already fit these criterias that the top influencers all have in common. Paper Magazine’s Katherine Gillespie breaks down Instagram’s top accounts in terms of age, location, ethnicity, and subject focus. 

As Gillespie puts it, “in the algorithm age, there's a formula to getting those likes and follows.” : 

Young white American women dominate, many of them choosing beauty or modeling as a focus. But there are plenty of outliers to consider. Brazilian users like @whinderssonnunesand @jumunhoz boast considerable clout, as does @jiffpom, a Pomeranian with nine million loyal followers.

Instagram's top 100 are mostly female, white and English speaking — and more than a third reside in the Los Angeles area. But that's not to say someone can't build a profile in Lagos, Rio de Janeiro or Perth.

All these information won’t stop someone who’s an outlier to reach peak Instagram stardom.  No one can really tell the turn of fates, afterall - especially if Instagram stardom is for you. But it is nice to know the commonality between top influencers. 

image credit: Paper

In her book  A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind, Harriet Washington wrote how an industrial chemical company managed to poison an Alabama town (and somehow, managed to get away with it): 

“Monsanto did a job on this city,” summarizes Opal Scruggs, sixty-five, who, like everyone else in her neighborhood, has elevated blood levels of PCBs. “They thought we were stupid and illiterate people, so nobody would notice what happens to us.”

The city is Anniston, Alabama, where 52 percent of its population of 24,000 is African American. In its community meetings, people introduced themselves by ticking off their sky-high PCB (“brain thieves” that erode the structures and functioning of the brain and nervous system)  levels and bestiary of diseases, or compare their cancers and frailties. The reason for the city’s current health situation can be traced to an industrial chemical company’s unchecked chemical dumping: 

By 1969, the plant was Anniston’s major employer, discharging 250 pounds of PCBs into Snow Creek, at the heart of the city’s black residential community, every day. Years of unchecked chemical dumping had utterly poisoned the lands of Anniston’s black neighborhoods.

As the evidence of Anniston’s poisoning mounted, Monsanto shed its industrial-chemical fibers business into a separate company called Solutia.

Residents settled a case against the company in April 2001 for $43 million, and in 2003, a jury determined that the Anniston Monsanto plant had imbued Anniston with PCBs. Monsanto and Solutia agreed to pay $600 million to settle the claims, but Solutia declared bankruptcy that very year. 

The company - Monsanto Industrial Chemicals caused severe damage to the town by dumping millions of pounds of PCBs for four decades. As much as the residents have sued and asked for compensation, it seems that the company still got away with giving away so little, while causing so much lasting damage. 

image credit: Dave Martin | AP via Buzzfeed News

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Staying up late this weekend was worth it when you get to cheer on @carson.pickett ! ⚽️ I love fist bumping her.🤜 If you can't tell she makes me smile, double chin and all! . . . Swipe ➡️ to see how big my smile gets after I fist bumped her. I couldn't stop giggling! 😁 Carson is such a great role model. . . . #orlandopride #nwsl #biggerthansoccer #filledwithpride #luckyfinfamily #luckyfinproject #limbdifferenceawareness #16 #orlando #fistbump #doublechin #giggling #smile #grateful #stayinguplate #toddler #cheerleader #tenfingersareoverrated #orlandocity #orlandocitysoccer #rolemodel #soccer #unstoppable

A post shared by Joseph Tidd (@tiddbit_outta_hand) on Jun 5, 2019 at 7:53pm PDT

A photo of a boy (with a missing lower left arm) arm-bumping with Orlando Pride player Carson Pickett (who is also missing her lower left arm) went viral. Pickett jogged towards where the one-year old Joseph Tidd and his family were cheering at a home game, The Washington Post reported, and repeatedly bumped arms with Joseph: 

Pickett, a defender, came onto the Tidd family’s radar while she was playing for the Seattle Reign because, like Joseph, she had a congenital limb difference. Pickett joined the Pride last year, and the Tidds were excited that she would be playing near their Orlando-area home.

Meeting Pickett gave Joseph a new friend, and gave his family the reassurance that he would be fine in the future, from Pickett’s self-assuredness. It’s also great to meet someone that is similar to you and that can give you the confidence you need, right?  

image credit: Colleen Tidd

A new quest has appeared for the people of the Internet- to find the owner of a lost item. Twitter user  @shika_no_suke1 was walking along the beach when he spotted an interesting item, now the subject of mystery and intrigue on the Internet - a hero’s shield : 

“I was taking a walk on the local beach, and this hero’s shield-looking thing washed up. I wonder if he was able to finish his quest safely,” tweeted @shika_no_suke1 with the photos.

Sadly, it seems that @shika_no_suke1 is not destined to rescue any kidnapped princesses, slay any dragons, nor defeat any dark lords. “After I took the photos, I reached out to pick up the shield,” he reports, “but then a wave came and swept the shield back out to sea. It seems I’m not worthy of becoming a hero.”

The shield swept back at the sea did not stop the netizens from finding out the mysterious shield’s owner. In an interesting turn of events, multiple commenters have claimed the shield to be their own - or their offspring’s, bought for 200 gold: 

“Before my child set out on his adventure, I recall that he went to the weapon and armor shops Daiso and Seria, where he purchased this shield, and a sword too, for 200 gold.”

“I believe this is the same legendary hero shield I obtained at the armor shop Seria in 2010.”

It seems that @shika_no_suke can forge his own destiny to slay dark lords and mythical creatures by purchasing a shield of his own from Daiso or Seria.

image credit: via @shika_no_suke1

This Prague megaclub makes sure that its clubbers will not get ripped off with a weak drink, as the bartender is well-programmed to make the right quantities (or drinks). 

You read that right - well-programmed as the bartender, in the form of two robotic pincher arms is programmed and can create 16 different mixed drinks, where customers choose from touchscreen terminals. The club’s robot bartender can churn out 80 drinks per hour, Reuters note. 

Now that’s efficiency (although a human bartender lost a job in that megaclub)!  

image credit: screenshot via Reuters

This senior pilot left his airline company to fly on the same airplane as his daughters. In a trending reddit post by u/pervertmaindo, the reddit user shared a photo of the pilot beside his daughter, adding that the man decided to fly as a junior pilot in the new airline for his daughters - which raised some concerns: 

 He’s in the left seat and wearing captain's epaulettes, I dont think he's a junior anything.

Yea, I was like aw how sweet then I looked and was like why does he have more stripes than her if this is true

Even though the man has more stripes than his daughter in the picture, making pervertmaindo’s caption incorrect - other users also shared that the original poster’s caption is correct: 

A: If the caption is accurate and B: this new airline works like American domestic carriers, he absolutely is. Rank means nothing, it's all about Seniority. That's why you seen First Officers with 30+ years tenure, because seniority is what matters. If a FO with 15 years tenure with an airline crosses over to be a Captain they start back at the bottom.

This guy was probably hired as a Captain but is at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to getting preferred flight routes, etc.

image credit: via u/pervertmaindo

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria already killed around 700,000 people each year, and that number could increase dramatically as new superbugs appear. On a medical quest to defeat antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a 25 year old female scientist has developed a novel solution: a substance that may treat antibiotic resistant bacterial infection by beating the bacteria to pieces: 

Shu Lam, a 25-year-old PhD student at the University of Melbourne in Australia, has developed a star-shaped polymer that can kill six different superbug strains without antibiotics, simply by ripping apart their cell walls.

"We've discovered that [the polymers] actually target the bacteria and kill it in multiple ways," Lam told Nicola Smith from The Telegraph. "One method is by physically disrupting or breaking apart the cell wall of the bacteria. This creates a lot of stress on the bacteria and causes it to start killing itself."

Lam’s approach has been tested only on mice (in the lab), but it is a potential solution to the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Sometimes physical action is the solution, huh?  

image credit: Shu Lam via Science Alert

A mysterious stray cat showed up in front of a convenience store in Japan, and refused to budge.  The stray cat’s refusal to move from the store’s front door forced customers to step around it as they go in and out from the store. 

Here’s what makes this whole event more mysterious: the cat arrived and refused to move from its place on the anniversary of the death of the convenience store’s manager: 

Twitter user @ringroad1 captured the scene at a 7-Eleven in Gunma Prefecture earlier this month, snapping a pic of the cat and the sign which had been placed next to it by staff.

The sign reads:

“This cat suddenly came to our store early this morning. We led it far away from here but it has returned. We tried to lure it with pet food but it will not move.

Today is the anniversary of the death of our store’s manager so we’ve decided to see this situation as a special day. Please forgive us for the hindrance.”

image credit: ringroad1 on twitter

Looking for a place to visit in Vietnam? This abandoned water park might just be the next “it” destination! 

Ho Thuy Tien is an abandoned water park, left to nature’s mercy. Shut down years ago, this water park is now a hot destination for tourists - with its dirt-covered graffiti magnets, unkempt foliage, shattered glass, and what was once the park’s centerpiece, a now discolored, cavernous, three-story-tall dragon-shaped aquarium. It is truly a post-apocalyptic wonderland.

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СКОЛЬКО СТОИТ ПОЕЗДКА ВО ВЬЕТНАМ 🇻🇳💰 ⠀ Как думаете, сколько может стоит поездка в Азию на 15 дней за 2-х? 150к, 200к или 250к?🙈 ⠀ Не жадничайте лайк посту пожалуйста 😍♥️ Ваш лайк - возможность видеть меня в ленте ⠀ Когда я начала планировать нашу поездку, то сначала я вообще не хотела заморачиваться и взять тур. Потому что, чаще всего, летать в Азию турами бывает выгоднее ⠀ Но все туры вели меня в одно место - Нячанг 🤢 Это «русская» деревня во Вьетнаме с отдыхом типа «Валераааа, ну я заняла тебе 3 лежака ты где шляешься!?» ⠀ Но я ж блогер (читай нормальный человек, который хочет посмотреть страну 😅) Поэтому я решила, что маршрут Ханой-Дананг-Хоян-Дананг-Хюэ-Ханой будет в самый раз 👍🏻 ⠀ ✅СКОЛЬКО ЭТО ВСЕ СТОИТ? Смотрите в сториз @nezlobina.t И потом не говорите, что не видели 💁🏼‍♀️ ⠀ Скажу одно, это ВСЁ вышло дешевле тура! 😱 Раза в 1,5 😂 🔻Все отели хорошие 3*. Все отели были отличными 😏 🔻Поездка была не с целью экономить по максимуму, а с целью просто отдохнуть. + отели я искала с хорошим интернетом, а это не самые дешевые 😏 🔻Цена перелетов зависит от сезона. В связи с отпуском моего спутника именно в июне - дешевле не было вариантов ⠀ Ну как думаете - дорого/дешево вышло ли? 😏

A post shared by ОТПУТЕШЕСТВУЮ ТЕБЯ БЕСПЛАТНО (@nezlobina.t) on Jun 24, 2019 at 8:59am PDT

As on how to get to the park, Popsugar gave tips : 

So how on earth do you reach this Jurassic Park movie-worthy destination? A quick search on Google Maps reveals Hồ Thuỷ Tiên's exact location, which is situated just outside the Vietnamese city of Huế. Word around town is that there's typically a "guard" at the desolate park's front gate, and visitors tend to tip them for access, so be sure to have cash on hand if you're planning to stop by.

image via Atlas Obscura

A video of a woman crossing a road goes viral - the footage showed her struggling to navigate the floodwaters as a crowd gathered to watch.

What’s so unusual about the flood is that it occurred on the streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Watch this brave New Yorker walk (swim) across a flooded street in #Williamsburg #Brooklyn pic.twitter.com/mwRHd32fyg

— NYC Scanner (@NYScanner) July 22, 2019

A severe thunderstorm has hit parts of New York and  the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning  for Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn: 

A severe thunderstorm has hit parts of New York, where tourists and locals are bracing themselves for more flash flooding after a warning was issued.

 The National Weather Service issued severe thunderstorm warnings and watches, and a flash flood warning for Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn.

 Already, streets and subways are experiencing flash floods after the area has experienced extremely high temperatures of more than 30C, over the last three days.

 Photos and videos uploaded to social media have shown people walking in water that is above their knees, as they try to cross local streets.

screenshot taken from NYScanner

They were 784 in number. That’s right - 784 attendees of the San Diego Comic Con 2019 performed the world’s largest synchronized kamehameha. 

These eager fans truly made the event more memorable, as they channel their inner Gokus, led by Sean Schemmel, the American voice actor of Goku. The crowd and their spirited attacks has also led a new entry to the Guinness World Records - the largest Kamehameha ever.

サンディエゴ開催のコミコンで #ギネス世界記録「かめはめ波をした最多人数」が達成㊗️記録は784人🐉

挑戦は「ドラゴンボール ワールド アドベンチャー」が主催、英語版の孫悟空役、ショーン・シュメルが参加者をリード #SDCC2019 #DragonBallWorldAdventure pic.twitter.com/GjuAWvNitf

— ギネス世界記録【公式】 (@GWRJapan) July 18, 2019

Now we’re just waiting for Japan to reply with their own version of a large synchronized Kamehameha! 

(via Sora News 24)

image credit: Guiness World Records Japan twitter

Looking for a new anime-themed cafe to visit on a trip to Japan? Maybe this Sailor Moon Restaurant is for you! 

Located in the Azabu Juban district (where Usagi lived in the series), Sailor Moon Shining Moon Tokyo offers a wide variety of meals and drinks inspired from the hit (and classic) 1991 anime series, just like what anime-themed cafes would do.

The restaurant offers something in addition to food and drinks for its customers: live shows - everyday. The live show would be held every evening, for customers that would come for dinner. 

Performance and food based on Sailor Moon? Now sign me up for that! 

(via Sora News 24)

image credit : via Sora News 24

A beautiful art garden cafe in Zambales, Philippines is extra special because it employs people with special needs and disabilities.

Julyan’s Coffee Spot, the art garden cafe in spotlight -  was founded by Rachel Harrison who returned to build a home for her autistic son, Julyan.  The cafe houses some artwork made by Julyan himself and by other people with special needs and disabilities. Rappler shares more details on this beautiful autism awareness cafe: 

Uy says the employees with special needs and disabilities wear a pin that mentions their being differently-abled so customers know. She said that when trained well, people with special needs and disabilities can also work well and are very focused on their tasks.

image credit: Rhea Claire Madarang via Rappler