At first glance, this map could be the next framed addition to your wall decor. It’s that aesthetically pleasing. However, this map actually shows world population density in 3D. Created by Alasdair Rae of Sheffield, England, a former professor of urban studies who is the founder of Automatic Knowledge, no land is actually shown on the map: 

The higher the spike, the more people live in an area. Where there are no spikes, there are no people (e.g. you can clearly identify ... the Sahara Desert)."

The major world population concentrations are immediately obvious — particularly China, India and Indonesia.

"Yet it is often also possible to pick out even quite small towns and cities, such as those in the south of New Zealand, or northern Russia."

How it works: Rae says that he uses "data from the EU's GHSL dataset, software is Aerialod by @ephtracy and render time for the big image was about 6 hours."

Rae explains that the light-and-shadow effect lets you identify some isolated population centers, including ones in Hawaii and central Australia.

And he reminds us of the old saying: "Where there is water, there is life."

Image via Axios

I don’t know about you but I usually feel happy when I buy something. It’s like a sense of accomplishment, being able to purchase something with your own money. But too much shopping can get on our bank accounts, and if we hoard too many items, it’s just not gonna be good for our home, really. Thanks to the Internet, social media, and thousands of marketing stunts, we have been sold the narrative that the more stuff we own, the happier we will be. But now, the narrative is shifting, people are looking at what they actually want and need: 

So will owning less truly make you happier? In the research paper turned book, The High Price of Materialism, Tim Kasser offers a scientific exploration of our culture of consumerism, finding that people who consider material belongings and assets important are less satisfied overall than those who don't. Happily, the digitalisation of our daily lives has enabled more sustainable movements to flourish: from low waste to slow fashion to the sharing economy (renting a dreamy dress for a special event is now as normal as the way we used to view shopping new), 'less is more' has never felt truer.

That being said, it can be hard to change your actions and divorce yourself from societally conditioned ideas about consumerism, particularly when fast fashion tends to be more size-inclusive than luxury and more affordable than sustainable brands. 

Image via wikimedia commons

Are you looking at yoga as your next indoor activity? If you are, heads up! Yoga isn’t just about whether or not you can become more flexible, but it’s the process of building awareness and using that awareness to make decisions that help you find health and happiness. Sounds too optimistic, I know. Some of us look at yoga and label it as a flexibility boot camp, but there’s a certain limit to flexibility for each one of us. Check Yoga Journal’s guide on yoga and flexibility before you start on your first yoga session. 

Image via Yoga Journal 

Well, if we can’t travel for the holidays, we can safely browse through the Internet and live vicariously through photos of holiday destinations on the Internet. Mirror UK takes a look at the world’s six most festive hotels and suites to have on our radars. Well, it’s not like we can visit right now, but there’s no harm in looking, right? Check how these hotels transform their suites with tributes to everything from the Christmas film Elf to chocolate treats, epic events, and even an on-site train decked out in lights. The effort! 

Image via Mirror UK

No words. Okay, maybe one: why? Marcus Monroe has been slammed after a video of cooking a steak in a Delta plane lavatory went viral. Don’t worry though, this one is apparently fake. The New York prankster pretended to use canned heat (powered by smokeless ethanol gel) within the toilet bowl. This isn’t the first time Munroe came under fire for his pranks. He has been previously slammed for cutting a woman’s hair while sleeping (which was also fake). 

Image via Sam Chui 

Well, they could be, if you think about it. Listen, we can only watch so many rom-com holiday movies. Sometimes we need to move to other genres, but there’s always the chance that we lose the festive vibes the holiday rom-com flicks give. Don’t worry, CNN has us covered. Check their list of recommended movies to watch during the holidays! These movies might not seem festive at first glance, but with the right perspective, they could be! 

Image via CNN 

Owning electric cars will now be more convenient. There’s no need for electric vehicle owners to plug their cars into wall outlets. A wireless charger for electric cars will be available in the future, as car manufacturers are readying their systems to be compatible with the chargers that will be released in the future. The Society of Automotive Engineers is  now supported by a lot of automakers and suppliers to develop the universal charging system, as Freep details: 

If you use wireless charging for your phone, you know how quickly having to plug in seems as old-fashioned and laborious as carrying a bucket of well water to your house. People will get used to wireless vehicle charging just as quickly.

“It makes EVs more convenient,” IHSA Markit senior analyst Stephanie Brinley said. “Giving customers more choices will expand the market.”

The system delivers DC current up to 11 kilowatts at the maximum voltage the vehicle can accept over up to 10 inches of space between a pad mounted on the floor to a receiver on the vehicle. Charging efficiency is up to 94%, comparable to wired connections. The SAE is working on higher power levels for future passenger vehicles and heavy-duty applications like mining equipment.

Image via Freep 

Art lovers, rejoice! You can now attend art fairs from the comfort of your home! Well, some art fairs, at least. This year’s Miami Art Fair will almost be entirely held online. Virtual showrooms will be made available for viewing, and enthusiasts can zoom in as much as they want on the artworks (yes, no one will stop you from coming closer to an artwork anymore). There are still some exceptions, as Miami Herald details: 

Design Miami/ is bringing a hybrid event to the venue where the fair launched in 2005: the Design District’s Moore building. From Nov. 27 through Dec. 6 the design fair will set up shop inside the building with more than 139 pieces — including 57 works shown as part of the exhibition Podium, which explores the theme “America(s).“ Pieces range from historic artifacts to contemporary ceramics inspired by artist Isaac Scott’s photographs of Black Lives Matter protests in Philadelphia. The Liberty City Roots Collective will screen-print T-shirts on site in partnership with Emmett Moore and 4WorthDoing, and designs from more than 50 contributors including designer Virgil Abloh.

Timed tickets are required for the exhibition and cost $22.50. All works shown within the fair will also be displayed online. But the fair will be complemented by a series of free pop-up shows and satellite exhibitions scattered throughout the 18 blocks that span the open-air neighborhood. Guests will be treated to immersive exhibits including a rooftop lounge designed by Takashi Murakami.

Image via the Miami Herald 

Alabama residents got a rare glimpse of one of the world’s largest creatures. The mysterious giant of the gulf, the sperm whale, has graced its presence upon the humans. Just kidding! A sperm whale was spotted in Mobile Bay, Alabama for the very first time. The hype that comes with the rare sight is because there is still a lot that we don’t know about these whales: 

Its scientific name (Physeter macrocephalus) roughly translates to “blower with a huge head,” and it is believed to have the largest brain of any mammal, both in sheer size and in proportion to the rest of its body. Male sperm whales’ heads can make up about a third of their total body length.

Full-grown males average 49 feet in length and historically some have been reported to reach 66 feet or more in length, though scientists believe sperm whales that large are rare. Females average around 35 feet, roughly the size of the whale that stranded in Mobile Bay.

There is a population that seems to live exclusively in the Gulf of Mexico, though its size is largely unknown. 

Image via Al.com

No, this isn’t the game show. It’s an actual family feud. A divorce battle over a whopping £453m fortune will be discussed over in a London court. Tatiana Akhmedova will accuse her ex-husband, Farkhad Akhmedov, an oligarch and ally of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and their son Temur Akhmedov of hiding hundreds of millions in assets just to not give her the settlement awarded by the high court in 2016. For perspective, the things that are included in the fortune are several luxury mansions, a superyacht, a helicopter, a private jet, and an art collection:  

Akhmedova alleges that her Azerbaijani-born Russian husband transferred cash and assets to their son in order to avoid paying her the money. They deny the claims and say she was aware of the father-to-son gifts, which included a £30m apartment in One Hyde Park, the exclusive London development, at the time. On Monday she will take her son to the high court accusing him of acting “as his father’s lieutenant” in a scheme to hide the fortune.

In her quest to uncover the award Akhmedova has in the past two weeks won court orders to raid her son’s luxury apartment in the opulent Knightsbridge development to search for evidence, and to force Google to hand over the contents of his emails.

Speaking publicly for the first time her son, Temur, 27, said that no matter what happens in court he would “never be reconciled with her” because “her outrageous, revengeful behaviour” has destroyed their once close relationship.

Temur said of the 10-hour search of his apartment: “I sent her [his mother] a text [during the raid] I said ‘why the fuck are you doing this?’”

The search of flat and associated wine cellar led to the seizure of 58 devices, 47 of which were said to belong to Temur. He said the devices included four Xboxes and a PlayStation console.

Image via the Guardian 

If you want the energy boost that coffee gives you without the bitter taste, a simple trick might just help you in that endeavor. Sprinkle in some salt. Okay, okay, before you all come at me for this trick, it has scientific backing. A 1997 study found that ‘salt was more effective in decreasing the awareness of the bitter compound than the sweet sugar solution.’ Adding a grain  or two of salt in your coffee can suppress the taste receptors in our tongue that alert our brain to its bitterness: 

“Our ability to taste has an association with our survival as a species: bitter signals that something is likely poisonous and we are averse to too much of it,” she says. “The thought is that salt binds to the taste receptors and blocks the bitter compounds from binding to the bitter taste receptors.” Suppressing that signal also allows you to better taste and enjoy the other flavors associated with coffee.

When you’re using salt in your coffee to block out the bitterness, the key is finding the right balance for your palate. Bryson Jackson says you can do this by starting small and working your way up. Start by adding a little salt into your cup, stirring it, then tasting. If the bitterness isn’t quite gone, continue the process until it fades. Or, take your kitchen science experiment to the next level.

Image via wikimedia commons

Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan, will be opening a library containing the works of well-known author Haruki Marukami. The Waseda International House of Literature, also known as the Haruki Murakami Library, will contain the author’s  books, translation work, notes, and thousands of other records. Murakami, a Waseda alumni, actually donated his personal archive to the university. 

Image via Waseda University 

The Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, will return a rare 10th-11th-century hand-written gospel manuscript to the Kosinitza Monastery in northern Greece. The document was looted from the site by Bulgarian troops during the first world war. The museum informed the office of office of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the world leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church that they have the rare document, and offered to return it: 

According to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency, the patriarch has permitted the museum to display the work until October 2021, and loaned it three more manuscripts as a gesture of gratitude for the gospels’ return.

In recent years, the Museum of the Bible’s collection, originally owned by the Green family in Oklahoma City, founders of the arts and crafts chain Hobby Lobby, has been found to hold many objects that were smuggled out of their countries of origin or brought into the US improperly. The museum, which opened in 2017 in a massive former refrigerated warehouse south of the National Mall, has started to more thoroughly investigate its collection and has returned other antiquities. Now closed, the museum had a pre-pandemic attendance of one million visitors per year.

The Eikosiphoinissa Manuscript 220 was among 431 manuscripts and 470 other works pillaged from the monastery’s library, including icons, vestments and liturgical objects.

image via the Art Newspaper

Upper floors of an apartment in New Bedford, Massachusetts, were set on fire because of a cooking mishap. Residents near the apartment were deep-frying a turkey on their back porch when it exploded, setting fire into nearby houses. Firefighters have quickly responded to the scene, but the mayor Jon Mitchell warns people on the perils of deep frying a turkey. Be careful, guys!

(via Flipboard) 

Image screenshot via Flipboard

Ah, Supreme. The streetwear brand that many people have been hunting down to collect (and flex, really). Supreme’s limited launch drops have increased its value and worth, and a lot of people are hyped to get any product from the streetwear brand (they even managed to sell a brick). This man’s collection of Supreme T-shirts is expected to sell for millions at an auction, showing the worth behind the brand. Vancouver-resident James Bogart has a curated collection of every single shirt from Supreme: 

Bogart’s Box Logo Collection, comprised of 253 pieces released over 26 years and obsessively curated over five, is considered the first complete archive of Supreme tees in existence.

“I’ve been doing this non-stop for the last six years, obsessively,” Bogart said. “It obviously started just as a complete passion. I absolutely loved it, I loved everything that the brand stood for. I loved the brand identity. I loved the secrecy behind it. And more than anything, I really loved the hunt.”

The hunt took him all over the world. Most of the pieces were acquired through the secondary market, or from secretive collectors. As a 17-year-old, Bogart flew to London to meet a Supreme buyer with a shirt he’d never seen: a rare, green tee with a red box, released in 1996. Bogart’s friends and fellow collectors didn’t even know it existed: Supreme has never released an official archive. The process of creating one himself, and reaching a consensus with the rest of the community, took years.

They said it couldn’t be done.

“A lot of people who have helped me and contributed towards this collection and sold and traded with me over the years, they told me that this was impossible to do,” Bogart said.

Image via Vancouver Sun