Astronomers astonished by ring around frigid distant world Quaoar

The small distant world called Quaoar, named after a god of creation in Native American mythology, is producing some surprises for astronomers as it orbits beyond Pluto in the frigid outer reaches of our solar system.

Researchers said on Wednesday they have detected a ring encircling Quaoar akin to the one around the planet Saturn. But the one around Quaoar defies the current understanding of where such rings can form – located much further away from it than current scientific understanding would allow.

The distance of the ring from Quaoar places it in a location where scientists believe particles should readily come together around a celestial body to form a moon rather than remain as separate components in a disk of ring material.

“This is the discovery of a ring located in a place that should not be possible,” said astronomer Bruno Morgado of the Valongo Observatory and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature.

Discovered in 2002, Quaoar is currently defined as a minor planet and is proposed as a dwarf planet, though it has not yet been formally given that status by the International Astronomical Union, the scientific body that does such things.



Its diameter of about 700 miles (1,110 km) is about a third that of Earth’s moon and half that of the dwarf planet Pluto. It has a small moon called Weywot, Quaoar’s son in mythology, with a diameter of 105 miles (170 km) orbiting beyond the ring.

Inhabiting a distant region called the Kuiper belt populated by various icy bodies, Quaoar orbits about 43 times further than Earth’s distance to the sun. In comparison, Neptune, the outermost planet, orbits about 30 times further than Earth’s distance from the sun, and Pluto about 39 times further.

Quaoar’s ring was spotted using the European Space Agency’s orbiting Cheops telescope, whose primary purpose is to study planets beyond our solar system, as well as ground-based telescopes.

The ring, a clumpy disk made of ice-covered particles, is located about 2,550 miles (4,100 km) away from Quaoar’s center, with a diameter of about 5,100 miles (8,200 km).



“Ring systems may be due to debris from the same formation process that originated the central body or may be due to material resulting after a collision with another body and captured by the central body. We do not have hints at the moment on how the Quaoar ring formed,” said astronomer and study co-author Isabella Pagano, director of Italian research institute INAF’s Astrophysical Observatory of Catania.

Unlike any other known ring around a celestial body, Quaoar’s is located outside what is called the Roche limit. That refers to the distance from any celestial body possessing an appreciable gravitational field within which an approaching object would be pulled apart. Material in orbit outside the Roche limit would be expected to assemble into a moon.

Saturn has the largest ring system in our solar system. The other large gas planets – Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune – all have rings, though less impressive, as do the non-planetary bodies Chariklo and Haumea. All reside inside the Roche limit.

But how can Quaoar flout this rule?

“We considered some possible explanations: a ring made of debris, resulting from a putative disruptive impact into a Quaoar moon, would survive for a very short time – but the probability to observe that is extremely low,” Pagano said.

“Another possibility is that theories for the aggregation of icy particles need to be revised, and particles might not always aggregate into larger bodies as quickly as one might expect.”

https://nypost.com/2023/02/09/astronome ... ld-quaoar/

[johngriffen]

I sometimes get REALLY DEPRESSED reviewing the news these days.
It's always about a global pandemic threatening life as we know it,
protests around the world, stupid politicians, natural disasters,
or some other really bad story.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Welcome to The mobi weekly news magazine
IN OTHER NEWS
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 10
What is it?
Here is your chance to become an "ACE REPORTER" for our weekly news magazine.
It is your job to fine weird, funny or "good feel" stories from around the world and share them with our readers in our weekly magazine

How do you play?
Just post a story that you have come across that made you smile, laugh, feel good...
BUT NOTHING DEPRESSING

EXAMPLE POST

​Naked sunbather chases wild boar through park after it steals his laptop bag

A naked sunbather was seen chasing wild boar through a park after it stole his laptop bag.
Amusing photographs from Germany show the man running after the animal to try and claim the plastic bag back.
But the cheeky boar and its two piglets appear to be too quick for the sunbather, who can't keep up with their speedy little trotters.
As the incident unfolds, groups of friends and family sat on the grass watch on and laugh.
Heads are seen turning in surprise and amusement in the hilarious photographs.
The incident happened at Teufelssee Lake - a bathing spot in the Grunwell Forest in Berlin, Germany.

Rules:
Each Edition of IN OTHER NEWS will be open for 7 days...
You can post as many stories as you like, but you will only get paid for One Story in any 24 hour period
So in other words, you can only earn WRZ$ once a day.
Each news day will start when I post announcing it
OR at:
9:00 AM CHICAGO TIME (UTC -6)
3:00 PM GMT (UTC -0)
on those days I space out and forget to post or can't due to Real Life
Stories may be accompanied with images - but No big images, please! 800x800 pixels wide maximum
Videos are allowed, but please keep them short, and post a short summary for those that don't like to click on videos
No Duplicate stories - Where a post has been edited resulting in duplicates, then the last one in time gets disallowed.
And please limit this to reasonably family friendly stories

Reward:
Each news story posted that I feel is acceptable (must be a real story, too few words or simply a headline are not considered acceptable) will earn you 50 WRZ$
If you post multiple stories on any given day, you will only earn 50 WRZ$ for the first story of the Day
All payments will be made at THE END of the weekly news cycle.
Special Bonus - Each week I will award "The Pulitzer Prize" for the best story of the week
The weekly winner of the "The Pulitzer Prize" will receive a 100 WRZ$ bonus
It's just my personal opinion, so my judgement is final

So help bring GOOD news to the members of mobi, and join our reporting team...

IN OTHER NEWS

[ozswede]

Scientists prove link between perceived penis size and sports cars

British scientists believe they have established a link between penis size and the desire to own a sports car.

Investigating whether there is “any truth to the cliche that a man driving an expensive sports car is compensating for his male inadequacy”, a team from the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University College London surveyed 200 men aged between 18 and 74.

They claim to have established “a casual psychological link between fast cars and small penises for the first time”.

Their report, Small Penises and Fast Cars, explains that “we made male participants believe that they had a relatively small or large penis by giving them false information about the average size of other men”.

“They then rated sports cars as more desirable if they felt they had a small penis.”



The study found men, particularly those over the age of 30, “rated sports cars as more desirable when they were made to feel that they had a small penis”.

The team behind the survey told some participants that the average penis size was 18 centimetres (7 inches), while others were told it was 10 centimetres (4 inches).

Men who were misled by the former claim were more likely to desire a sports car.



The trial manipulated self-esteem in different ways and measured ratings for other luxury products, but found no connection between anatomy and the desire to own objects.

Participants were presented with misleading information about personal finance, friendship, charity work and physical health, but none of those factors increased their desire to own a sports car.

Scientists expect their findings to continue to be reflected in “dad jokes”, but believe “the luxury automotive industry may be unwilling to acknowledge this link”.

(I wonder what it says about Andrew Tate, who needs 33 Lamborghinis )

Emu captured after running loose through Massachusetts city



Residents of a Massachusetts neighborhood were treated to an unusual spectacle when an escaped emu went running through the streets.

The Brockton Police Department said calls started coming in about 9:35 p.m. Thursday about an emu running loose through the Pine Street and Perry Avenue area.

Residents posted video footage of the Australian bird to social media.

Police said animal control officers were able to capture the emu around 10:30 p.m. The emu was returned to its owner's home in East Bridgewater.

[PennySerenade]

Woodpecker Stores 700 Lbs. of Acorns in Walls of California Home: 'Bit of a Hoarder'



Talk about a nutty situation!

A pest control company in Santa Rosa, Calif. got a huge surprise when called to a client's home. Upon investigating the damage in the resident's walls, an avalanche of acorns poured out, having been placed in the cavities by a rogue woodpecker.

"Bird was a bit of a hoarder," Nick Castro of Nick's Extreme Pest Control explained on Facebook. "Filled up about 8 garbage bags full of acorns weighing in about 700 lbs."



He added, "Unreal never came across something like this," and provided a series of eye-popping photos showing off piles and piles of nuts collected and stored by the bird.

When an astonished commenter asked how the homeowners knew there was something amiss going on in the first place, Castro said that they'd observed "little worms coming out of the wall that looked like maggots," and explained that they were actually a kind of mealworm.

He also gave insight as to the crafty woodpecker's storing technique: "The bird put acorns through the chimney stack after making 100s of holes in wood siding surrounding it."

"He came through attic ventilation port holes," Castro noted.



The piles of acorns went from the home's lower floor all the way up to about 20 feet into the attic, he reported, explaining that there were also acorns stored in the siding and trim and that the exterior of the house was "completely destroyed" with pecked holes.

"This bird was crazy," Castro wrote. "We actually saw him there when we were there."

The woodpecker, apparently not deterred at being spotted by the exterminators, was "putting more in the holes he created."

People are convinced there’s a ‘glitch in the matrix’ after plane spotted not moving in sky



A video of a plane seemingly hanging in the air has got people questioning whether life is really just one great big glitchy simulation.

In the viral clip, the passenger plane looks as though it's frozen in time as it levitates above the traffic below.

What you reckon then? Definitive proof we are living in a video game or something like that?

A TikTok user by the name of Tania posted the clip with the caption: "Glitch in Matrix? This isn't the first time I've seen this in Chicago either."

The video has been viewed 1.2 million times, and some people were as baffled as Tania.

Commenting on the video, one viewer wrote: "I would've had to pull over & get out to make sure I was seeing this correctly…. This is wicked lol"

Another said: "Can't no plane just sit in idle… yeah definitely a glitch."

A third added: "dude this confirms way back I saw a plane stay in one spot and looked at everyone around me they thought I was nuts..."

Indeed, there were loads of people who attested to observing similar baffling sights while driving - though none of them seemed to be aware of the fact that filming something moving in the opposite direction can make it appear stationary.

But yeah, let's call it a glitch in the matrix and abandon all our prior beliefs eh, why not?



Of course, this world is full of weird, wonderful and confusing moments, and sometimes it can be hard to rationally explain them away.

Last June, for example, a woman was left convinced that we're all living in a simulation because of a run-in with a lemon.

Sharing a video of herself preparing food in a kitchen, the woman behind the clip explained: "You can see me grabbing a lemon, right. I cut it in half and then I cut it in half once more right there.

"You can see me cut it, then I go get a bag, I grab the bag and go back for the lemon, and I grab the lemon and I touch it and I'm like "why is it not cut in half?'

"I am freaking out because the lemon wasn't cut in half any more. It was literally intact, you can see me in the video cut the lemon in half. This has never happened to me and I don't know how to act, I'm freaking out."

I don't suppose the sentient machines that simulated our reality were particularly thrilled about having their master plan foiled by a lemon, but who are we to judge?

https://www.unilad.com/news/glitch-martrix-plane-tiktok-viral-190377-20230209

[goldie0608]

Man Spent 2 Years Writing Memoir to Propose to His Girlfriend in Final Chapter: 'Happy Ending'

"I snuck in the last chapter to my editor on the day my final manuscript was due," Roz Weston tells PEOPLE of his secret plan to ask his partner to marry him



Roz Weston wrote a book just to propose to the woman he loves — in a chapter he didn't show her until the time was right.

The longtime TV host and correspondent, 48, released his memoir A Little Bit Broken in September. And in a YouTube video, he used his final chapter to secure a life partner in now-fiancée Katherine Holland.

"Katherine read through every draft as I wrote it for almost two years, but I saved the last chapter," Weston, co-host of The Roz & Mocha Show, tells PEOPLE. "Once I had an actual copy of the book, Katherine read it for the first time with me and our kid. I filmed the entire thing and the video will make you cry, I promise."

"But no, nobody knew ahead of time," he continued. "When I sold the book to the publisher, they had no idea. I sold it without the proposal. I snuck in the last chapter to my editor on the day my final manuscript was due."

Holland, 38, and their daughter Roxy, 13, sat by Weston's side in the clip where she reads the final chapter — a plan which was two years in the making for Weston. Of course, the family embraced in a hug amid it all.

"I had absolutely no idea," she tells PEOPLE. "Roz is great at always trying to create beautiful surprises for us, so it didn't seem too out of the ordinary, but I certainly didn't expect a proposal."

"We had never really discussed getting married, as it wasn't really a priority for either of us — only that we thought it would be lovely if our daughter could be a part of it — so I was truly shocked."



Weston tells PEOPLE that he actually started writing his book with the first line, "When you choose the person to spend the rest of your life with, you're also choosing the person who'll tell your story when you're gone. And if you're lucky, you'll find someone who only see's the best in you."

And while he saved it for the final chapter, and even spoiled the ending for some with his YouTube video, he admits he "needed people to know there's a happy ending" since the book is a tough read.

In A Little Bit Broken, Weston reflects on his 17 years as a senior correspondent for ET Canada and host of ET Canada Live, an opioid addiction, losing his father, and having Tourette's. And he caps it all off with the wholesome proposal — but that's only where his story ends for now.

The TV and podcast host is already focused on wedding planning, too, with a small ceremony approaching in July featuring close friends.

"Katherine is currently on the hunt for the perfect dress," he says. "And, yes, she finally got an engagement ring. I didn't have one when I proposed because I couldn't risk spoiling the secret. She chose a custom-made combination of low-profile black diamonds and sapphire on a gold band."

As Holland tells PEOPLE, she "can't imagine a better proposal."

"I was an absolute sobbing mess," she says. "When I think about the time, I spent reading and re-reading his book for him in the early stages, totally unaware of how it was going to end. And now we have such a beautiful document in the book (and the video) to be able to relive it forever."

Piece of sun breaks off, stuns scientists: ‘Very curious’



Scientists were left baffled after material broke off of the sun’s surface and created a tornado-like swirl around its northern pole.

The remarkable phenomenon was caught by NASA on the James Webb Space Telescope and tweeted by Dr. Tamitha Skov, a space weather forecaster.

“Talk about Polar Vortex!” she wrote last week. “Material from a northern prominence just broke away from the main filament & is now circulating in a massive polar vortex around the north pole of our Star. Implications for understanding the Sun’s atmospheric dynamics above 55° here cannot be overstated!”

Unusual activity typically occcurs at the sun’s 55-degree latitudes once every 11-year solar cycle, according to experts, but this incident is stumping researchers.

A prominence is a large, bright feature that extends outward from the sun’s surface. Other filament tear-aways have been observed in the past — not like this, though.

Solar physicist Scott McIntosh, the deputy director at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, told Space.com that researchers aren’t sure what causes such a unique event.

“Once every solar cycle, it forms at the 55-degree latitude and it starts to march up to the solar poles,” McIntosh said. “It’s very curious. There is a big ‘why’ question around it. Why does it only move toward the pole one time and then disappear and then come back, magically, three or four years later in exactly the same region?”

While experts admit it probably has something to do with the sun’s magnetic field, the rest remains a mystery due to humanity’s limited view of its star. Scientists can only view the sun from the “ecliptic plane,” or the geometric plane that contains the orbit of Earth.

The European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter mission — which is taking photos of the sun while raising its orbit beyond the ecliptic plane — might provide answers, but until then, researchers are left scratching their heads.

Experts have observed solar projections fairly often, such as last year’s solar flares that threatened to impact Earth. Such projections could disrupt GPS systems, power grids, and even radio signals, researchers warned at the time — although there’s no way to precisely predict how this solar vortex would affect our planet.

Just this month, the sun projected multiple “powerful” flares that disrupted communication on Earth, according to Space.com, although it appeared to be otherwise harmless. The sun is en route to reaching its peak of activity during the current 11-year cycle in 2025.

https://nypost.com/2023/02/09/piece-of- ... y-curious/

[Misstee]

Watch this genius bird plan for its ‘handyman’ job
Goffin’s cockatoos take a tool set to work on a puzzle box, a rare example of pre-planning in the animal kingdom
10 FEB 202311:00 AMBYVIRGINIA MORELL

This Goffin’s cockatoo carries with it the tools it needs to solve a puzzle box and win a cashew.ANTONIO OSUNA-MASCARÓ





The Goffin’s cockatoo is the handyman of the avian kingdom. This crested, white-feathered Indonesian bird crafts what are essentially crowbars, ice picks, and spoons to pry open its favorite fruits, making it one of very few species to not only use tools, but fashion an entire tool set. Now, researchers have shown the cockatoos appear to plan ahead for the job, toting with them the tools needed to solve a puzzle. Outside of humans, carrying tools for a future job has only been seen in one other animal—a population of wild chimpanzees in the Congo Basin.

The work shows tool set planning is “not unique” to great apes, says Richard Byrne, an emeritus primatologist at the University of St. Andrews who has studied manual skills and planning in gorillas and chimpanzees but who was not involved with the new research. It’s “a fine example of the clever use of experiment and observations to explore a tricky area of psychology: Can an animal think ahead like we do?”

To investigate that question, scientists at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna tempted lab-kept Goffin’s cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana) with their favorite snack: cashews. Inside a see-through acrylic box, the researchers placed a single nut on a platform, then blocked the birds’ access to it with a small screen. One at a time, 10 captive cockatoos were shown the box and offered two tools: a short, pointed stick and a longer, flexible straw.


Most of the birds used both tools across 15 testing sessions. They picked up the pointed stick with their beaks, reached it through an opening in the box and stabbed the screen. This stick was too short to reach the nut, however, so the birds dropped it in favor of the longer straw, which they used to knock the nut off the platform and into a dispensing tray.

To see whether the cockatoos understood that they would need both tools to tackle the task, the scientists later tested the birds by placing the box at the top of a small ladder or on a raised platform. To access it, the birds would have to carry the tools some distance—either by flying up or climbing a ladder—to earn their reward.

Like most of us, the cockatoos weren’t excited to climb a ladder twice to do a job, although some did anyway. One bird quickly figured out it could fit the pointed stick inside the straw and carry both together to the box, where it adeptly separated them and used them to poke the screen and knock off the nut. Ultimately, four birds came up with this method of transporting their tools to the job site, the scientists report today in Current Biology.

“Our study shows the cockatoos can see the need for the tool set,” says Antonio Osuna-Mascaró, an evolutionary biologist and the study’s lead author. Byrne agrees: “The birds anticipate the need for both tools.” In short, they are planning ahead.

Not all the birds succeeded. Some weren’t strong or coordinated enough to carry both tools together, whereas others simply didn’t appear motivated to try. Those that failed likely did so because of “age, sex, or experience differences,” says Karl Berg, a behavioral ecologist and parrot expert at the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley

Nevertheless, the study “is an impressive first step” toward proving these birds can build a mental representation or image of the task ahead of them, says Irene Pepperberg, a comparative cognition scientist who studies avian intelligence at Boston University. Not long ago, many researchers believed that was impossible for creatures with a bird brain.

But Goffin’s cockatoos have large brains compared with other birds, just as humans and chimps are big-brained compared with other great apes—and that may be the key trait necessary for anticipatory planning, Byrne says.

[Fatima99]

Student gets epic revenge on food thief who keeps stealing takeaway deliveries



Many people who have lived in student accommodation will have experienced items, usually food, going missing.

Whether it's someone who always keeps digging into your butter in the fridge, or you might notice your cereal is running out faster than you're eating it.

One student was so fed up with his food thief, who has been stealing his takeaway deliveries, he decided to get epic revenge.

Ethan Pham, a student at The University of Texas at Austin, decided to have "a little bit of fun," while also trying to catch the person stealing his food.

Sharing his plan on TikTok account @ethanphamtastic, Ethan explained: "So someone in my dorm has been stealing my food deliveries and I want to find out who it is but I also want to get revenge."

The student's plan was to plant a fake takeaway delivery bag and see if the thief stole it.

Ethan explained: "So my plan is to fill this bag with a fake Chipotle bowl full of vegetables and also a picture that says 'caught you in 4K' and we'll see if they take the bait."

The student got hold of a crisp, new paper bag from Chipotle, complete with a napkin and fork "to make it look more realistic". He then put a load of vegetables in the takeaway container and he also stuck a note on it saying: Eat your veggies!



After sticking the Chipotle sticker on the bag, Ethan left it on the rack in the communal area where delivery drivers leave items.

With over 1.6m people seeing the original video, it's understandable that many were desperate to hear an update.

In a second video, Ethan told his followers that, as expected, the Chipotle bag had been taken within the first few hours of being there.

However, he still didn't know who the thief was, so he decided to have some more fun.

Some people had said his vegetables were "too nice", so this time he decided to fill a Chick-Fil-A bag with rubbish from the bin.

Speaking about his plan to catch the thief, Ethan said: "Honestly right now I'm probably not going to know who's stealing the food. I just want to troll them a little bit so they can stop stealing people's food."

Ethan's followers are still eagerly awaiting any further updates about his plan to catch the food thief.

[lush]

9 Fun Pizza Facts to Celebrate National Pizza Day
February 9, 2023*

• If there’s a day to enjoy a nice slice, it’s today!



Happy national pizza day! If you didn’t know that’s today, well, it is — February 9 is the day to celebrate everyone’s favorite flat-packed pie.

Pizza is popular around the world and for a good reason. It’s relatively easy to make, convenient to eat on the go, and just straight-up delicious.

To show our appreciation for pizza and everything it’s done for us, let’s take a look at some fun and unusual pizza facts you may not have known about.

1. Pizza Used to Be Completely Different


Flatbread topped with oil, vegetables, and meat has existed pretty much as long as humans have known how to cook. However, the food called pizza originated in Italy in the 16th century.

Some of the earliest pizza recipes come from Bartolomeo Scappi’s “Opera dell’arte del cucinare, written in 1570. You probably wouldn’t recognize Scappi’s pies as pizza, though.

After all, tomatoes had just barely made their way to Italy and the locals considered them poisonous, so there was no tomato sauce. Scappi’s pizza is closer to a sweet dessert pie than the cheese-laden treat we know today.

2. The Most Popular Pizza Topping is Pepperoni


Well, this sure is no surprise. Year after year, pepperoni tops the polls every year as the single most popular pizza topping.

It’s not just Americans that love pepperoni. The British, too, enjoy some thin sausage slices on their pies.

Behind pepperoni, sausage is the second most popular topping, followed by mushrooms and extra cheese. Surprisingly, the most disliked topping isn’t pineapple — it’s anchovies.

3. Americans Eat 350 Slices of Pizza — Per Second


America really loves pizza. That’s evident in the ridiculous amount of pizza we eat per second.

On average, Americans consume about 350 pizza slices with every passing second. Considering that the average pizza is generally divided into eight slices, that’s almost 44 pizzas disappearing into our gullets with each tick of the clock.

4. Norwegians Eat the Most Pizza in the World


Despite the hundreds of slices eaten every second in America, the U.S. consumes only the second most pizza in the world. At the top place, Norway reigns supreme.

However, there’s a small twist. Americans eat the most fresh pizza, but Norway inches ahead when we take frozen pizza consumption into account.

The Grandiosa brand of frozen pizza is so stupidly popular in Norway that about a fifth of Norwegians consider it the country’s unofficial national dish.

5. The World’s Largest Pizza is the Size of Three Basketball Courts


The world record for the largest pizza was actually broken very recently. On January 19, 2023, YouTuber Airrack received the official Guinness recognition for the biggest pie in the world.

This pizza pie was 13,957 square feet in area — nearly equal to three NBA basketball courts. Baking it required 13,600 pounds of dough, 4,500 pounds of marinara sauce, 8,800 pounds of cheese, and about 630,500 slices of pepperoni.

It’s a further testament to pepperoni’s popularity.

6. The Most Expensive Pizza Costs $12,000
[img]https://www.oddee.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/DSCF1729-400x300.jpg[/img]

A lot of people love pizza because it’s fairly affordable, but not all pizza is cheap. The world’s most expensive pizza costs a whopping $12,000.

This pie — developed by Italian master pizza chef Renato Viola — is less than eight inches in diameter. It’s topped with three kinds of caviar, prawns, lobster, mantis shrimp, and organic buffalo mozzarella.

With the meal, you get to enjoy high-quality, expensive cognac and champagne.

7. Pizza Can Predict Economic Turmoil


If you bought the monstrously expensive $12,000 pizza, you can probably expect some economic hardship. But for decades, economists have been able to forecasts market downturns by observing the Pizza Principle.

This principle states that the price of a slice of pizza in New York always roughly equals the cost of a subway ticket. This has been a remarkably accurate measurement since the 1960s, and a rise in either cost has generally predicted hard times.

In recent years, however, the Pizza Principle has started becoming less and less accurate due to unprecedented economic turmoil. Thanks, COVID.

8. Pizza Tossing is a Recognized Sport


Tossing the perfect pizza crust is more than just cooking — it’s an art. And it’s also a sport.

The World Pizza Championships have been organized annually since 1991. Categories in the contest include, among others, making pizza at speed, freestyle pizza toss acrobatics, and achieving the largest dough stretch.

9. Italy Has a Law Defining ‘Real’ Pizza


Since it originated in Italy, it only makes sense that Italians are proud of their pizza-making heritage. In fact, they’re so protective of it that what counts as authentic pizza is codified in Italian law.

It’s illegal to call a pie “authentic Italian pizza” unless its preparation method, ingredients, and toppings adhere to the strict guidelines set in the law. Additionally, frozen pizza can never be called authentic, even if it was originally prepared according to the law.

Sorry, Norway.

[johngriffen]

I sometimes get REALLY DEPRESSED reviewing the news these days.
It's always about a global pandemic threatening life as we know it,
protests around the world, stupid politicians, natural disasters,
or some other really bad story.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Welcome to The mobi weekly news magazine
IN OTHER NEWS
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 11
What is it?
Here is your chance to become an "ACE REPORTER" for our weekly news magazine.
It is your job to fine weird, funny or "good feel" stories from around the world and share them with our readers in our weekly magazine

How do you play?
Just post a story that you have come across that made you smile, laugh, feel good...
BUT NOTHING DEPRESSING

EXAMPLE POST

​Naked sunbather chases wild boar through park after it steals his laptop bag

A naked sunbather was seen chasing wild boar through a park after it stole his laptop bag.
Amusing photographs from Germany show the man running after the animal to try and claim the plastic bag back.
But the cheeky boar and its two piglets appear to be too quick for the sunbather, who can't keep up with their speedy little trotters.
As the incident unfolds, groups of friends and family sat on the grass watch on and laugh.
Heads are seen turning in surprise and amusement in the hilarious photographs.
The incident happened at Teufelssee Lake - a bathing spot in the Grunwell Forest in Berlin, Germany.

Rules:
Each Edition of IN OTHER NEWS will be open for 7 days...
You can post as many stories as you like, but you will only get paid for One Story in any 24 hour period
So in other words, you can only earn WRZ$ once a day.
Each news day will start when I post announcing it
OR at:
9:00 AM CHICAGO TIME (UTC -6)
3:00 PM GMT (UTC -0)
on those days I space out and forget to post or can't due to Real Life
Stories may be accompanied with images - but No big images, please! 800x800 pixels wide maximum
Videos are allowed, but please keep them short, and post a short summary for those that don't like to click on videos
No Duplicate stories - Where a post has been edited resulting in duplicates, then the last one in time gets disallowed.
And please limit this to reasonably family friendly stories

Reward:
Each news story posted that I feel is acceptable (must be a real story, too few words or simply a headline are not considered acceptable) will earn you 50 WRZ$
If you post multiple stories on any given day, you will only earn 50 WRZ$ for the first story of the Day
All payments will be made at THE END of the weekly news cycle.
Special Bonus - Each week I will award "The Pulitzer Prize" for the best story of the week
The weekly winner of the "The Pulitzer Prize" will receive a 100 WRZ$ bonus
It's just my personal opinion, so my judgement is final

So help bring GOOD news to the members of mobi, and join our reporting team...

IN OTHER NEWS

[ozswede]

Chemist Makes the Stinkiest Compound Ever Known

Chemist NileRed bravely challenged himself to whip up a batch of Thioacetone, an organosulfur compound said to be the stinkiest chemical ever known.

Thioacetone is something that I’ve been wanting to make for a while, and now, I finally get to experience its horror. Will it be as horrendously stinky as it is claimed to be? … It’s actually considered a dangerous chemical due to its extremely foul odor and its ability to render people unconscious and induce vomiting …Will it make me pass out and vomit?.

This compound was first discovered in 1889 by German scientists Baumann and Fromm, although it has rarely been replicated due to its incredibly foul odor and ability to reach long distances. A public incident with this odiferous compound and subsequent panic occurred upon its discovery.

What’s also kind of concerning is that the smell itself has been described as just fearful and it apparently has the ability to spread over large areas. This was unfortunately experienced firsthand in 1889 when some scientists accidentally released a small amount of it. The horrible smell was then able to quickly spread out over a large area of the town and it caused people to faint and vomit and it led to a panic evacuation. There are even some claims that diluting the smell makes it worse and that it’s possible to smell a drop of it downwind.

While Nile wasn’t too bothered by the smell but his cameraman was. So he took the whole batch to an isolated island.

I rented an entire Island so I’d be far away from any potential victims the only downside was that if it were horrible it would be way harder to get away but I figured I’d deal with that later when I eventually got to the island I took a quick little tour and I tried to find what I felt would be the best spot to do it when I eventually found something that I liked I went back and got all my supplies and I started putting together my setup – this was thankfully really easy….

He still didn’t think it smelled that bad, so he retested the sample he had created. After adding more heat and time, he got to experience the effects of the compound.

In the end I had successfully made the mythical Thioacetone and I’m very happy that I got to personally experience its horribleness. It wasn’t quite as overwhelmingly bad as I was hoping it would be but it made up for that by being almost unbelievably potent and I was genuinely surprised by how far it could travel. …I think that it’s pretty much as bad as it’s claimed to be and it’s almost definitely one of the worst smelling chemicals ever made.

[goldie0608]

Customer who bought 2 coffees at Starbucks hit with an erroneous $4K tip, forcing family to postpone trip to Thailand

Jesse O'Dell, 36, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, waited about a month to get his money back after refund checks bounced. Police said the gratuity was added accidentally or was a "machine error."



Jesse O’Dell called it a “moment of weakness” when he scooped up two coffees at a Starbucks’ drive-thru last month.

The Tulsa, Oklahoma, resident paid using a credit card and said he selected the “no tip” option on the coffee chains’ computerized system and shelled out $11.83 on Jan. 7 for a venti Iced Americano and a venti Caramel Frappuccino with a single shot espresso for his wife.

Unbeknownst to O’Dell, he was actually charged a whopping $4,444.44 gratuity, which he didn’t learn about until two days later when the credit card used at Starbucks was declined while his wife was shopping, he said.

“I entered no tip,” O’Dell, 36, said Friday. “But somehow there’s a massive tip on it.”

That’s when a monthlong fight began for O’Dell to recoup the money. The ordeal even prompted the O’Dells to cancel a family trip to Thailand.

After learning about the colossal coffee charge, O’Dell said his wife, Deedee O’Dell, called the credit card company and learned about the tip at Starbucks. They then went to the Starbucks to dispute the gratuity and were initially told it was a “legitimate charge," O'Dell said.

After speaking to multiple managers, O’Dell was told he would be mailed checks to cover the tip.

Two checks arrived in late January, O’Dell said. But they bounced.

“I’m going to go insane,” O’Dell said he told an area manager after explaining the checks were not able to be cashed.

O’Dell, who runs a nonprofit, and his wife, a general manager at a restaurant, canceled a family trip to visit Chonburi, Thailand, where she is from.



The couple has four daughters ranging in ages from 13 to an infant.

“I didn’t want to be traveling across the planet while we had thousands of dollars hung up somewhere,” he said.

O’Dell then went to police because he was unsure if he’d ever get the money back and did not know if the gratuity was added on purpose.

A spokesperson with the Tulsa police said Friday in an emailed statement that no one was charged in the case.

A fraud investigation began on Jan. 26, the spokesperson said.

“Detectives with our Financial Crimes Unit investigated the case and found the gratuity was added either by accident or by machine error. Detectives did not find any intent of fraud from the employees working at the time,” the statement said. The spokesperson added, “We are no longer investigating the case because it is our understanding that Starbucks is making a good faith effort to refund the customers and we did not find any evidence of fraud.”

A spokesperson for Starbucks said Friday in a phone call that the matter had been “resolved.”

“This is an unfortunate situation that is now resolved,” the spokesperson said. “There was an error made regarding a customer tip at a Starbucks drive-thru and we worked to address the situation as quickly as possible. Checks have been issued and were cashed by the customer on Monday, February, 6.”

O’Dell confirmed the checks were cashed. He said, with a hearty laugh, he and his wife’s habit of swinging by Starbucks a few times a week is over.

“I make better coffee than Starbucks,” he said. “I have a French press.”

[Fatima99]

‘Miss Patty’ Has Made 7,000 Hats for the Students that Ride Her Bus



Many employees of school systems leave behind important memories with their students, but for bus driver Patty Reitz, she principally leaves behind a memory of friendship, and warm ears.

Known as Miss Patty, the Clarence Central School District bus driver has crocheted 7,083 hats over three decades of service for the students and the school.

Her career included years working in the elementary school’s cafeteria, but she began crocheting in 2005 to pass the time while caring for her mother while she was in the hospital.

“I needed something to do,” she said. Later she took it up while waiting for the students to board her bus.

Back on her first attempt at a hat, a high schooler started it all when he noticed what she was doing.

“The one boy gets on the bus, and he goes ‘what are you doing?’ I said I’m making a hat. He said ‘that would be great going down ski slopes at Holiday Valley.’ So I said what color would you like? That started everything,” Reitz told the local NBC affiliate.

Her specialties are either an elf hat with pompom or a sort of potato sack-shaped affair with tassels on the corners.

She uses colored yarn and buys it all herself, though she regularly receives gift cards and other presents, certainly around Christmas time.

“She cares. She cares about her students,” said third-grade teacher Deborah Bosworth. “Any student that I’ve had that has been on Miss Patty’s bus gets a hat, and they also get a friend. Miss Patty is one of the favorites.”

Despite the tremendous amount of work that she’s already done, Reitz says she has no plans to stop with her hat-making. The bus driver said she’s already getting organized for next year’s bus riders.

“I’m going to do it until I can’t do it anymore,” she said.