With most of us working or studying at home, we tend to find other hobbies to keep us distracted from the current situation. Many people have started baking bread, until it escalated as a major trend. Stress baking actually has a lot of benefits, so if you’ve seen your friends bake more treats that you imagined, know that it’s also mentally good for them: 

That’s why channelling your focus on one thing, otherwise known as mindfulness, can be a necessary break for both your brain and body.

Harvard Medical School says mindfulness “teaches people to live each moment as it unfolds. The idea is to focus attention on what is happening in the present and accept it without judgment.” Allow yourself the time to bake without a deadline. Slowly measure each ingredient and notice its texture, colour and smell. You should make baking about the journey, not the destination.

Check out more benefits of stress baking here. 

image via wikimedia commons

The Persona 4 Golden Rainy Day Mega Beef Bowl challenge is one of the challenging ‘mini-games’ (while not exactly a mini-game, it does require you to raise your character’s stats to win) in the game. Experience the deliciousness and the challenge in real life by trying to recreate the bowl itself! Watch CHEFPK as he shares the recipe of the rice bowl. It’s up to you to be challenged, tempted (to eat a big meal like this one), or both.

This one isn’t just some art illusion drawn in the ground. The Abyss is a deep crack that appears to go down to the centre of the earth. If you wanna reach this place, you need your hiking shoes because you’ll take a 4.5-kilometre hike along the Extension Ridge in Nanaimo, Canada. Narcity has more details: 

The photos of this fissure don't do it justice for how impressive it is. Just make sure not to get too close. There are no barriers around here, so you do have to be careful.

The long crack in the ground is roughly 16 inches wide. It is wide enough for a pet or person to fall into.

The cause of the long split is still a mystery. Some of the theories suggest the area is the result of a collapsed old mine tunnel or an earthquake.

The unusual sight is 30 minutes from downtown Nanaimo. You'll need to drive along Harwood Mine Road. 

image via Narcity

This latest private airline suite concept will be a dream come true for germaphobes, or for people who would like a very clean suite.The concept called ‘Pure Skies’ was created by UK design consultancy PriestmanGoode. The company improved hygiene and personal space by harnessing UVC light and heat cleaning, as Dmarge detailed: 

“We’ve introduced UVC light and heat cleaning, in combination with photochromic and thermochromic inks in the materials and finishes,” the company wrote. “As the heat from cleaning reacts with the inks, a message of reassurance appears on seats, helping alleviate passenger anxiety about hygiene during boarding.”

“The pandemic will have a lasting impact on passenger expectations. Pure Skies is a complete review of both Economy and Business Class cabins.”

“Our vision takes into account development times, airline requirements for revenue streams, increased passenger concerns around hygiene and personal space and green recovery incentives,” PriestmanGoode added.

image via Dmarge

Broadway houses some of Manhattan’s most celebrated structures like the Custom House, the Woolworth Building, City Hall, and the Flatiron. But the famous avenue is also home to other buildings that deserve a closer inspection! Check out William J. Hennessey’s list of Broadway’s hidden gems. The next time you’re on Broadway, you should also look for these structures. 

image via The Daily Beast

We really can’t get out of our homes right now, but who can stop us from daydreaming or planning our future trips? If you’re looking for more places to put on your itinerary list, this Star Bed in Zimbabwe might catch your interest! Wilderness Safaris’s Star Bed overlooks a productive area for wildlife activity, as Travel and Leisure detailed: 

“Linkwasha’s new Star Bed is positioned right in the middle of the action where the animals come to drink at Scott’s Pan and is a wonderful addition to our Hwange offering,” Wilderness Safaris Zimbabwe Managing Director, Ron Goatley, shared in a statement. “In the dry season, the magical elephant experience will be taking place all night long, in front of and all around the Star Bed — offering a life-changing experience for our guests who want an authentic wildlife adventure.”

The star bed sits out on a wooden platform, covered in a protective mosquito net, and not much else. But, its minimal design is ideal, as the true star of the show is the epic view. 

image via Travel and Leisure

This video can enlighten you about some of the people behind the magic that happens in film. Filmmaking is no easy feat, and is a combined effort of many. Insider details eight different jobs that are part of every film set, from styling food for a shot to creating realistic-looking food props. 

Fancy an elegant and beautiful bag to carry watermelon-sized fruits? Worry not, as Japanese designer Tsuchiya Kaban designed a leather bag that can hold your fruit. The tote, part of The Fun of Carrying project, can carry exactly one round watermelon. Now you can carry your melons in style and comfort! 

image via The Colossal

Now that’s a venture I did not see coming. Tesla’s senior industrial designer Remy Labesque has redesigned the chocolate chip. Labesque believed that the classic chocolate chip’s teardrop shape is not suited to its function, as Dallas News detailed: 

The chip isn’t a designed shape,” Labesque said. “It’s a product of an industrial manufacturing process.”

The baking standby is optimized for mass production, not for baking in cookies, whose broad surface area is better suited to maximize taste and melt-in-your-mouth

texture. Labesque’s redesign for artisanal Dandelion Chocolate is a square, faceted pyramid, kind of like a flattened diamond. Two edges are thick, and two exceedingly thin, for even more textural pleasure.

image via Dallas News

The tangled algae we see along the beach are more than additions to our dining table! Did you know that seaweed can improve gut health, and act as an anti-inflammatory agent? Not only is seaweed a good ingredient for skin care, it can also serve as a substitute material for plastic bags! Wallpaper has more details:

The most common second home for seaweed outside of the ocean is no doubt the dining room table. Nicknamed the ‘vegetable of the sea’, seaweed contains a wealth of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids that are key to a healthy diet. Slipping some onto your plate can help you get some much-needed A, C, E, and B vitamins, as well as iodine and calcium.


Beyond the dinner table, seaweed has long been used for cosmetic and medical purposes. It is a key element of ‘thalassotherapy,’ or ‘healing through the sea,’ a form of therapy that became popular in 19th century coastal France and which uses seawater and sea products for improved physical and emotional health. 

In Ireland too, seaweed baths have long been used to relieve aching joints and calm anxious minds. Since 1912, Kilcullen’s Seaweed Baths in Sligo has offered soaks in porcelain bathtubs filled with seawater and seaweed. The iodine-rich bath is meant to combat symptoms of rheumatism and arthritis, as well as improve general health.

image via Wallpaper

A glazed ceramic vessel set an auction record for a work by the Arts and Crafts-era design firm. The small vase sold for a whopping $431,250 after a forty-minute bidding war. It was initially estimated to sell for between $7,000 and $9,000 at a Sotheby’s auction, as artnet news detailed: 

“The work exhibits a highly unusual and rare glaze coloration for Grueby pottery, with terrific proportions and crisp modeling, which helped drive the intense competition between at least two collectors,” a representative for the auction house said in a statement to Artnet News. “It is unlikely that another work with this particular glaze coloration will be discovered.”

image via artnet news

It was a technical glitch, but hey, at least we can say that Mickey Mouse signed checks to over 200 people in Rhode Island! These people received tax refund checks signed by none other than Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse. Rhode Island officials have clarified that the checks signed with the famous duo’s signature was a technical glitch, and officials have mailed new checks signed by the right people. 

image via TMZ

A lot of industries, establishments, and sports are now forced to operate at a minimum, or not operate at all. For professional baseball, some players who are not on the top rosters aren’t able to play due to a lot of games being cancelled. Minor league players don’t have the chance to play and further hone their skills this year, and some believe that players may be less talented next year because of the cancellations. FiveThirtyEight compared the performance of players who missed a full season to players who were called to serve during WWII:  

We don’t have a huge sample to look at. There were 98 players who lost at least one full season to military service between 1939 and 1946. Of that group, there were 30 hitters to reach 150 plate appearances in their first year before service and also in their first season back. There were 15 pitchers to total at least 70 innings in their last year before WWII participation and in their first year playing after the war. All of those players returned in either the 1945, 1946 or 1947 MLB seasons. (There were 343 total MLB players who played in 1944 and 1945, so many returnees were facing players who did not miss time in previous seasons).

The hitters suffered some performance decline, relative to the league average. As a group, their OPS+ — which adjusts for the run-scoring environment and ballpark factors — declined by 5.2 percent, from an average of 118.1 pre-service to 111.9 in their first season back. But there were also cases like that of Ted Williams, who missed his age-24, 25 and 26 seasons and returned in 1946 to win the AL MVP award. Perhaps there was some aging effect in the group, but the average age of players in their return was 30.1 years, which likely placed near their prime performance years.

image via FiveThirtyEight

An unusual question to ask, right? But if you’re curious about it, worry not- researchers from the University of Bristol in England and the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico have discovered the answer! Using 3-D microscopy and advanced mathematical analyses, the team found that the human sperm tails’ snakelike movement is an optical illusion. Human sperm only turns in one direction, as The Smithsonian details: 

Rather than moving side-to-side, sperm tails actually turn in only one direction. Without other adjustments, a one-sided stroke would result in sperm swimming in circles and never reaching their destination, the female egg. To compensate, the scientists found, the body or head of the sperm rotates independently in a corkscrew-like motion in the opposite direction, enabling the whole cell to move forward in a straight line.

“We were not expecting to find what we found,” says Hermes Gadêlha, head of the Polymaths Lab at University of Bristol and lead author on the study. “The aim of the project was ‘blue sky’ [or broad] research, to understand how sperm moves in three dimensions. And the result has completely changed the belief system that we have.”

image via The Smithsonian

Would you quit a well-paying job, in the middle of a pandemic, in order to find something that would make you feel more fulfilled? Some feel free to do so just to have more meaning to their life than working at a desk for hours. Bryan Schatz and Patrick Hutchison did exactly that. They were two people with arguably good careers, but felt caged and overwhelmed by the same, tiring routine brought by their jobs, so they tried out something different, as Outside detailed: 

We laid out our plan, which was: we didn’t really have a plan. We’d build a cabin for sure, but whether we’d keep it or rent it or sell it wasn’t clear. We hadn’t actually priced anything out, but we figured we could get it done for about $20,000, maybe less. We’d pool our money saved from working and go in on it together, splitting up the investment equally. Dan couldn’t quit his job—he was building a career in the maritime industry in Seattle, getting hours toward his captain’s license—but he’d help out on weekends when he could. 

Three weeks later, we found a quarter-acre of raw land near Pat’s tiny off-grid in the Cascades. It was a sloping meadow of ferns a short walk from the Skykomish River, festooned with mature Douglas fir, big leaf maple, and cedar. We put down an impossibly low offer of $3,000, certain the sellers wouldn’t take it seriously. If they accepted, we’d consider it a sign from the universe. 

They accepted almost immediately. It was early spring.  

Check out the full piece here. 

image via Outside