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Artist Sets Guinness World Record for Tallest Sand Castle
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How to Get the Biggest Reimbursement for a Canceled Flight
In the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, thrill-seekers can opt for a hardcore hair-straightening experience. As Reuters reports, local barber Ramadan Odwan styles his customers’ hair smooth using a blowtorch—and people are lining up to reap the benefits of its burn.
For 20 shekels (around $5), customers can receive a haircut and have their strands fire-straightened. “People have gone crazy about it,” Odwan told Reuters. “Many people are curious to go through the experience and they are not afraid. People here love adventures.”
Odwan isn’t the only beauty professional to offer extreme salon services. One barber in Milan burns the ends of his patrons’ hair with candles; in Madrid, there’s a barber who trims tresses with a samurai sword. Still, Odwan may be the only stylist in Gaza to use flames instead of a flat iron.
Odwan coats customers’ hair with a protective liquid (he won’t reveal what’s in it) and uses a blowtorch to apply fire in short intervals.
“I control how long I apply fire, I keep it on and off for 10 seconds or 15 seconds. It is completely safe and I have not encountered any accident since I started it two months ago,” Odwan told Reuters. We’re crossing our fingers for him (and his intrepid customers).
Check out Reuters’ story for more pictures of Odwan in action.
#AWANInews Hottest cut of all – Gaza barber wields blowtorch https://t.co/oyBPfVF56s pic.twitter.com/I4YD8dvlHc
— Astro AWANI (@501Awani) February 10, 2017
[h/t Reuters]
February 10, 2017 – 4:30pm
How Do “Skinny” Mirrors Work?
Today’s Big Question: How do “skinny” mirrors work?
See What Mr. Darcy Really Looks Like
Anyone who has ever read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice has surely conjured up his or her own idea of what the curmudgeonly-but-lovable Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy would look like in real life. According to a group of researchers tasked with creating a historically accurate representation of the leading man, he was no Colin Firth.
5 Things Happy People Do (That You Can, Too!)
Of course we all want to be happy, but sometimes—when work piles up, there’s friction in our relationships, or good news is hard to find—this feeling can seem out of reach. Here are five happiness-boosting habits that you can begin to incorporate into your routine today.
This Artist Knits the Most Beautiful Animal “Pelts”
Textile artist Ruth Marshall’s work makes viewers do a double-take. She crafts gorgeous animal pelts out of yarn.
Professional astronomers are responsible for 13 billion years’ worth of discoveries about our universe, but the cosmos is a big place, and at-home stargazers have been staring at the sky with a keen eye for a long time, too. These examples of weird and wonderful planetary phenomena—with an asteroid and comet in there too for good measure—were all first spotted by amateur astronomers, and prove that you don’t have to be a pro to make some stellar discoveries.
When amateur astronomers discovered a plume-like cloud on Mars, scientists were at a loss for an explanation. Mars has clouds, of course, but to form at such a height was unheard of on Mars or Earth. Scientists later correlated the phenomenon with a coronal mass ejection from the Sun. Studies continue, but the plume and its solar cause might help unlock the mystery of the vanished Martian atmosphere.
Tatooine has nothing on planet PH1, which has four suns (of sorts). The planet, discovered by amateurs, orbits two stars. Eighty billion miles away, those two stars are, in turn, orbited by two more stars.
While processing Voyager 2 images of Neptune, amateur astronomer Rolf Wahl Olsen discovered what appears to be a hexagon-shaped storm. More work needs to be done to confirm the phenomenon (perhaps in conjunction with some future mission there), but such a storm would not be without precedent: Jet streams near Saturn’s north pole form a hexagon as well.
In 2010, amateur scientists worked with the Cassini spacecraft team to go storm chasing on Saturn. As the spacecraft’s Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) instrument picked up evidence of possible storms, the information would be relayed to amateur astronomers, who would study Saturn for visual evidence. Discoveries would then be relayed back to the Cassini team for possible imaging and further study. (Yes, the ammonia-ice blizzards of Saturn could be seen by home stargazers here on Earth.)
In 2008, Richard Miles, a British amateur astronomer, discovered the then-fastest-spinning object in the solar system. Asteroid 2008HJ completes one rotation every 42.7 seconds, and falls under a class of celestial objects called “super-fast rotators,” for obvious reasons. Dwarf planet Haumea is now considered the solar system’s fastest spinner.
Photos of Jupiter taken by amateur astronomers in 2010 revealed the disappearance of one of its famous red stripes. Jupiter’s mystifying weather means that its bands sometimes fade and its great red spot changes in size.
In 1933, actor and amateur astronomer Will Hay discovered a “white spot” on Saturn. It wasn’t the first instance of such a spot being observed, but Hay’s study was perhaps the most famous. The spots were once thought to be signs of collisions by foreign bodies, but are now thought to be related to the planet’s turbulent weather (see #4).
Cryovolcanoes are just what they sound like: volcanoes that erupt ice as opposed to lava. They are well-known features of such moons as Enceladus (one of Saturn’s satellites), and in 2015, were spotted by amateurs on Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann.
In 1953, an amateur astronomer named Leon Stuart witnessed what appeared to be an explosion on the Moon. He took a picture of it, and in the process became “the first and only human in history to witness and document the impact of an asteroid-sized body impacting the Moon’s scarred exterior,” according to NASA. Fifty years later, planetary scientists proved Stuart’s discovery to be a legitimate instance of space weathering.
In 1779, amateur astronomer William Herschel, using a telescope of his own design, discovered what he first thought was an oddly behaving star and later thought was a comet. As it turned out, Herschel had inadvertently built one of the most powerful telescopes in the world, and his comet was, in fact, the first new planet to be discovered since antiquity: Uranus.
February 10, 2017 – 4:00pm
5 Ways the ‘Little House on the Prairie’ Books Stretched the Truth
Generations of readers fell in love with the “true story” of the Ingalls family’s pioneering lifestyle, as depicted in the “Little House” books—only things didn’t always go down in real life exactly as they did on the page. Here are five ways Laura Ingalls Wilder stretched the truth in her telling of her family’s tale.
Whether it’s a technical issue or an overbooked plane, a lot of factors can get between you and a stress-free flight. Air travel is especially unpredictable during snowstorm season, with up to tens of thousands of flights getting canceled in the U.S. each winter. If you find yourself the victim of a cancellation, there are a few important tips to remember to make sure you receive the maximum amount of compensation.
As Business Insider recently shared, the most important step to take after your flight gets canceled is to contact the airline directly. No matter which company you’re dealing with, you should be guaranteed two contractual rights in the event of a cancellation: The airline must either find you a seat on their next available flight to your destination or refund the remaining value of your ticket. Airlines sometimes provide extra assistance in addition to these basic rights, so make sure to ask about what you’re owed. The reason for the cancellation also makes a difference—for example, airlines are usually more accommodating when the fault lies with them rather than outside forces like the weather.
After speaking with your airline, check to see if your credit card offers special protection in such scenarios. Chase Sapphire, Chase’s United Airlines Explorer card, and some Citibank American Airlines Advantage cards include built-in emergency funds to use on a hotel if an airline leaves you stranded. Cardholders are usually given between $300 and $500 to spend.
Travelers flying to or from Europe may be able to receive more money than their canceled flights were worth. According to the EU’s air passenger rights policy, customers dealt canceled flights traveling within the EU, from EU-based airports, or on EU-based airlines are eligible to receive €600 (about $666) in compensation plus the cost of meals and lodging. The provision may not apply to shorter flights or trips canceled “due to extraordinary conditions.”
If keeping tabs on your passenger rights seems like a lot to juggle, there are websites that can help you. Refund.me and Airhelp.com are two resources that will fill out your paperwork for you and retrieve the maximum amount of whatever you’re owed (keep in mind these sites do claim part of the money they get back, sometimes as much as 25 percent).
A smart way to avoid all this hassle is to book through an airline that’s less likely to cancel your flight in the first place. According to Travel + Leisure, ExpressJet, Delta’s Comair, and AmericanEagle are the worst offenders in this department.
[h/t Business Insider]
February 10, 2017 – 8:22pm
