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☆ 27 jaw-dropping images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope show its first year peering into the cosmos
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

This is just the beginning for NASA's most powerful telescope. Stephan's Quintet is shown here taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScIThis post has been updated. It was originally published December 25, 2022.

Persons: James Webb Organizations: James Webb Space Telescope, NASA, ESA, CSA

Hong Kong CNN —Hundreds of mourners attended a funeral on Sunday for a Hong Kong model whose grisly death earlier this year shocked the city, with floral tributes flowing in from loved ones, friends and celebrities alike. Abby Choi, a 28-year-old mother of four, went missing in late February until parts of her dismembered body were found by police in a rural village house. Hundreds of people dressed in black lined up outside the Po Fook Memorial Hall in a quiet suburb of Hong Kong just a dozen miles south of where her remains were found. Among those present at the funeral was her late husband Chris Tam, whose family founded a popular noodle chain in the city. Two others have been charged with assisting the ex-husband’s effort to escape, though they have been released on bail.

Persons: Abby Choi, Tok, Choi, Choi –, Chris Tam, Tam, Marie, Paola Bertrand, Hillion, Aaron Kwok, Hong, Alex Kwong, Anthony, Kwong Kau, Alex Kwong’s, Jenny Li Organizations: Hong Kong CNN Locations: Hong Kong, Paris, Choi’s

☆ Finland is consistently ranked the happiest country on earth. For Finns, it's an eye-roller.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-10 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Finland's high levels of social trust could be one reason the country has been ranked as the world's happiest for six years in a row. Finns don't view themselves as exceptionally happy people. A busy street in Helsinki, Finland. In 2021, the Nordic country spent 24% of its GDP on social protection — the highest of any other OECD country that year. 'We have problems as well'As fun as such ratings can be to share and debate, they of course obscure the challenges experienced in any country, even Finland.

Persons: Frank Martela, they've, Jennifer De Paola, De Paola's, Jimenez, you'll, We're, Meri Larivaara, it's, De Paola, ALESSANDRO RAMPAZZO, Martela, Larivaara, Eric, Susanna Nordvall, who's, De Organizations: Aalto University, De, Heli Jimenez, United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions, Gallup, Getty, Nordic, OECD, Healthcare, Mental Health Locations: Espoo, Finland's, Helsinki, Finland, AFP, Japan, Italy, Finnish

[1/4] Military officers assist a person on a dinghy after heavy rains hit Italy's Emilia Romagna region, in Faenza, Italy, May 18. "Climate change is here and we are living the consequences. Last July, an ice avalanche in the Italian Alps killed 11 people following a heatwave that exacerbated the worst drought that Italy has suffered for at least 70 years. "A climate change adaptation policy that goes beyond how to handle emergencies and considers the effects of ordinary planning is increasingly urgent," it said in a statement. Italy's national civil protection agency estimates that 94% of the country's municipalities are prone to natural disasters - making it inconceivable to protect everyone from the dangers of climate change.

☆ Photos: What it's like at the coronation celebrations
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

Robin Wight, who was celebrating the coronation along with his wife, Countess Paola Kovacz von Csaky, shows off the orders of knighthood and chivalry that he has received in his lifetime. "My CVO (Commander of the Royal Victorian Order) was for raising 65 million for the Duke of Edinburgh in 1999," he said. "And my CBE (Commander of the British Empire) was for setting up a charity called the Ideas Foundation, which gets kids from disadvantaged backgrounds into creative industries." Wight said he and his wife queued for 10 days to say goodbye to Queen Elizabeth II, and now they were here to say "hello" to King Charles III. "We worked together for 20 years, and I've known how great he is," Wight said.

REUTERS/Agustin MarcarianBUENOS AIRES, April 14 (Reuters) - Argentines, painfully accustomed to decades of spiraling prices, say that the current 102.5%-and-climbing inflation rate is on another level and is making it almost impossible to get by. "In my case, I have zero capacity to save," said Claudia Hernansaez, a publishing company employee. "In one year, beef went from around 1,000 pesos ($4.66) or 1,200 pesos to 2,800 pesos." Paola Lavezzari, also in publishing, said inflation was forcing her to tighten the purse strings and buy cheaper products. Because what you used to consume of a better quality, today is unaffordable," she said.

☆ US firm says Mexican authorities illegally seized its port terminal
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Sarah Morland | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] A sign reading "Closure" hangs on a fence at the entrance of the limestone mining by Vulcan Materials in Calica, in Quintana Roo state, Mexico May 6, 2022. Mexico's government on Friday ordered a halt to Vulcan Materials, a producer of gravel and crushed stone, citing environmental concerns and provoking the U.S.-based firm to say it will take legal action to restart operations in Playa del Carmen. REUTERS/Paola ChiomanteMEXICO CITY, March 20 (Reuters) - U.S. construction materials company Vulcan Materials (VMC.N) said on Monday Mexican security forces illegally took possession last week of its port terminal in southern Mexico, amid an extended lawsuit over its nearby limestone mining activities. It follows a 5-year fight with the Mexican government over Vulcan's concessions punctuated by sharp criticism from the country's president last year. Vulcan declined to say how last week's action was illegal or who is currently in control of its terminal.

☆ The man in charge of deporting Pablo Escobar's 'cocaine hippos' explains how he plans to fly 70 of them across the world
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Crystal Raypole | Jessica Orwig | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Authorities plan to relocate 70 of the hippos living wild in Colombia, but it's not an easy task. Very carefully, according to David Echeverri López, head of Biodiversity Management, Protected Areas, and Ecosystem Services at Cornare in Colombia. So, authorities will continue pursuing other options, from sterilization to searching for other zoos and sanctuaries willing to take hippos. The thickness of a hippo's skin, and the density of their subcutaneous tissue, also makes it challenging to deliver enough anesthesia to keep them asleep for the right amount of time. Cornare has sterilized 13 hippos, López said, and relocated seven to zoos in Colombia.

☆ Was the poet poisoned? Chile awaits new report on Neruda’s death
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] A picture of Chilean poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda is seen inside his museum house in the coastal sector of Isla Negra, Chile, April 26, 2016. REUTERS/Rodrigo GarridoFeb 15 (Reuters) - A third inquiry into the death of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda 50 years ago could shed new light on whether he was poisoned by political enemies, as alleged by some of his family. Rodolfo Reyes, a Neruda nephew, reiterated this week claims that his uncle - a member of the Communist party and the most important Chilean intellectual of the time - was poisoned. Previous tests have found no evidence Neruda, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1971, was poisoned. Reporting by Fabian Andrés Cambero; Writing by Isabel Woodford; Editing by Tom HogueOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ American cacti are rapidly colonizing the slopes of the Swiss Alps as snow disappears, says report
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Prickly pear cacti, native to the arid regions of the Americas, are now thriving in the Swiss Alps. The plants are typically seen in hot, dry areas, such as the Grand Canyon. So, diminishing snow cover provides a fertile environment for them to thrive. Snow cover in the Alps has been plummeting. Another study said the number of days where there is snow cover under 2,600 feet has halved since 1970.

YouTube is shaking up its influencer-marketing program BrandConnect. As part of the layoffs, the BrandConnect team shrunk, with several people who identified themselves as part of that team posting on LinkedIn that they'd been let go. Many of the insiders said they were unclear as to YouTube's future plans for BrandConnect and its team. Two talent managers said the BrandConnect team would routinely present deals that paid mid-five-figures. But sourcing deals focused on YouTube had begun to feel out of step with the market, some insiders said.

In recent years some euro zone countries have sought to rein in temporary contracts to promote stable jobs. It also plans to reduce the labour tax costs to employers of temporary contracts, which were raised in 2018. The reform reversed the easy hire-and-fire regime put in place after the sovereign debt crisis a decade ago by abolishing most forms of temporary contracts. Within that total, the number of temporary workers has jumped by 25% from 2.4 million to 3.0 million. Stable contracts should be the norm, not the exception," she said.

☆ The Art Behind Supply Chains Is Front and Center at a Museum Exhibit
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Liz Young | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Newsletter Sign-up The Logistics Report Top news and in-depth analysis on the world of logistics, from supply chain to transport and technology. “What we wanted to do was to make the invisible visible, to look at the supply chain as a key part of how AI works,” Dr. Crawford said. “The best artists are all geometry and symmetrical work coupled with creativity, and that’s what supply chain is. Some of the artists on display in the MoMA gallery have gone on to create more work centered on supply chains. “When you start to do this research, you see everything differently and the precarity of the supply chain was made so clear to me,” she said.

☆ Why we love to anthropomorphize space-faring robots
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

We know Mars rovers are robots, but they feel like friends, or pets. "It's the way the rovers are designed," Abigail Freeman, the deputy project scientist of the Curiosity rover, told Insider. The first selfie NASA's Opportunity Mars rover snapped. Their ability to snap selfies on the Martian surface make them seem self-awareNASA's Curiosity Mars rover created this selfie in front of Mont Mercou. On February 12, 2019, mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, sent the last commands to ask NASA’s Opportunity rover on Mars to call home.

☆ I have visual-snow syndrome. This is what it's like living with static-like vision 24/7.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Sierra Domb is the CEO and founder of the Visual Snow Initiative and has visual-snow syndrome. I immediately contacted the doctor who wrote the article, and he subsequently diagnosed me with visual-snow syndrome. When I first experienced the onset of visual-snow syndrome, I wasn't even aware there were other people out there who had it too. This graphic showcases the vision of someone without visual-snow syndrome, on the left, and the vision of someone with visual snow, on the right. Visual Snow InitiativePeople might link their visual snow to a specific incident.

☆ 11 qualities in men that women find attractive, according to science
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Rebecca Harrington | Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Good looks can be a factor, but they're not as important as you may think. Studies from Evolutionary Psychology and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found women typically choose better-looking guys for flings, not long-term relationships.

☆ Italian film legend Gina Lollobrigida dies at age 95
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

ROME (AP) — Italian film legend Gina Lollobrigida, who achieved international stardom during the 1950s and was dubbed “the most beautiful woman in the world” after the title of one of her movies, died in Rome on Monday, her agent said. Lollobrigida also was an accomplished sculptor, painter and photographer, and eventually essentially dropped film for the other arts. Lollobrigida was born on July 4, 1927 in Subiaco, a picturesque hill town near Rome, where her father was a furniture maker. Lollobrigida began her career in beauty contests, posing for the covers of magazines and making brief appearances in minor films. On her website, Lollobrigida recalled how her family lost its house during the bombings of World War II and went to live in Rome.

☆ How exoplanet hunters find alien worlds hundreds of light-years away and figure out if they have water
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

In the journal Nature Astronomy, astronomers announced that the two exoplanets — Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 d — could be made up of mostly water. NASA AmesSince the first worlds outside our solar system were discovered in 1992, astronomers have searched for other planets orbiting sun-like stars. Astronomers have already captured direct evidence of 5,241 planets beyond our solar system, according to NASA's Exoplanet Archive. Water worlds beyond our solar system could be abundant in the universeWorlds rich in liquid water might not be as rare as astronomers previously thought, Piaulet said. But by discovering and studying new worlds, astronomers can hone in on what makes a world habitable beyond a sample size of one — Earth.

☆ ExxonMobil's secret projections of the climate crisis were astonishingly accurate, and a legal expert says that's 'a stick of dynamite' for the oil giant's court battles
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

ExxonMobil scientists knew about the coming climate crisis in precise detail, a Harvard study found. The analysis is "dynamite" for an array of lawsuits against ExxonMobil, legal experts told Insider. A growing wave of 'unassailable' evidence suggests Exxon lied about what it knewDespite having accurate predictions about global warming, the oil giant denied it would happen. That's exactly the track global warming is on right now. Those "stranded assets" are now a real possibility, due to global climate goals outlined in the Paris Agreement.

☆ Blood Falls gushes red water from Antarctica's ice. It took scientists 106 years to figure out what causes its color.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

"Among the big questions here are 'how does an ecosystem function below glaciers? ', 'How are they able to persist below hundreds of meters of ice and live in permanently cold and dark conditions for extended periods of time, in the case of Blood Falls, over millions of years?," Jill Mikucki, a microbiologist and the study's lead author, said in a press release. Blood Falls overlooking Lake Bonney. Peter West / NSFSource: National Science Foundation

☆ The timing of your meals can help jumpstart weight loss, according to science
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Rebecca Harrington | Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Making breakfast the largest meal of the day is best for losing weight, studies have found. Now you know you're not supposed to eat that late, because you've heard it's bad for you, but how late is too late? While most Americans eat our biggest meal at dinner, multiple studies have found this is linked to weight gain. ferrantraite/Getty ImagesResearchers have had groups of people eat more calories at breakfast than dinner, while the other group eats more at dinner than breakfast. In studies, people who eat most of their calories at dinner also tend to skip breakfast, get worse sleep, eat more calories overall, and be obese.

☆ 17 scientific facts to motivate you to eat healthier, even when you don't want to
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Rebecca Harrington | Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Eating right could improve men's fertility. The Office / NBCA 2017 study suggest a Mediterranean diet — which includes whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans, herbs, spices, nuts and healthy fats such as olive oil — is associated with an increased sperm count. Meanwhile, a number of studies have found that obese men tend to have fewer, more abnormal sperm.

☆ Lasers revealed 5 ancient civilizations that were hiding in plain sight
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Archeologists beam lasers from the sky to unearth ancient settlements hiding in plain sight. State-of-the-art laser technology is transforming archaeology by creating 3D renderings of ruins. A hidden 2,000-year-old Mayan civilization in northern GuatemalaResearchers found a 2,000-year-old Mayan civilization in northern Guatemala using LiDAR. 61,000 previously unknown structures hidden under the dense Guatemalan jungleLiDAR laser technology found ancient cities with more than 60,000 structures in Guatemala. An overgrown ancient civilization buried in the Bolivian AmazonA LiDAR image of an ancient Amazonian urban network in what is now Bolivia.

☆ It should take another 300 years for NASA's Voyager 1 probe to reach the most distant region of our solar system. Until then, it's cruising through the void between the stars.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Voyager 1 and 2 are exploring the mysterious region between stars, called interstellar space. Both plucky spacecraft continue to send data back from beyond the solar system — and their cosmic journeys are far from over. A diagram showing both of NASA's Voyager probes in interstellar space as of November 2018. An illustration of the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud in relation to our solar system. NASA/JPL-CaltechFor the last decade, Voyager 1 has been exploring interstellar space, which is full of gas, dust, and charged energetic particles.

☆ 6 climate wins from 2022 that are worth celebrating
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Sweeping climate legislation passed, climate candidates won, and animals got important protections. Here are six of the year's highlights in climate progress, according to experts. But through it all, there was encouraging progress on climate that's worth celebrating. Peter B. de Menocal, president of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, told Insider that the event featured the first-ever Ocean Pavilion. "I want to invite other Indigenous communities in Ecuador and the world to join these collective fights happening in Amazonia," Lucitante previously told Insider.

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