Fast Food Strawberry Milkshake Requires 59 Ingredients But Surprisingly None Is Strawberry!

The flavor industry’s role has become so influential in terms of food production. Children for example, prefer artificial flavors rather than the real thing. Marketing to children has become so important such that flavorists have increased their efforts in finding out what children like. “Taste tests” are being done constantly by flavor companies for kid’s focus groups where they pilot their new products.  

Image Source: www.thekitchn.com

Complicated and unpredictable flavors are found in fresh vegetables and fruits and when flavorists create additives for adults, they imitate nature as closely as possible. They do the opposite for kids food where sweetness is increased and bitterness gotten rid of. In fact, children flavors are twice as sweet as those meant for adults.

"Children's expectation of a strawberry is completely different," one flavorist says. "They want something that is strong and that has something like bubblegum notes."

To make strawberry milkshake at home, you need : cream, ice, sugar, strawberry and a touch of vanilla. A fast food milkshake on the other hand contains: sugar, milkfat and nonfat milk, sweet whey, guar gum, high-fructose corn syrup, diglycerides and monoglycerides, sodium phosphate, cellulose gum, carrageenan, E129, citric acid and artificial strawberry flavor. 

The artificial strawberry flavor happens to contain all these chemicals: 

amyl butyrate, amyl acetate, amyl valerate, anisyl formate, anethol, benzyl isobutyrate,  benzyl acetate, cinnamyl valerate,  cinnamyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cognac essential oil, dipropyl ketone, diacetyl, ethyl butyrate, ethyl heptanoate,  ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptylate, ethyl methylphenylglycidate, ethyl lactate, ethyl nitrate, ethyl valerate, ethyl propionate, heliotropin, ionone, hydroxyphrenyl- 2-butanone (10% solution in alcohol), isobutyl butyrate, isobutyl anthranilate, maltol, 4-methylacetophenone, lemon essential oil, methyl anthranilate, methyl cinnamate, methyl benzoate, methyl heptine carbonate, methyl salicylate, methyl naphthyl ketone, mint essential oil, nerolin, neroli essential oil,  neryl isobutyrate, phenethyl alcohol, orris butter,  undecalactone, rum ether,  vanillin, rose and solvent.

So, the next time you order a strawberry milkshake, all you will be getting is a gloopy mixture of numerous additives that offer artificial strawberry flavor. Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation says that none of these ingredients used in fast foods bears a resemblance to the homemade version, that’s healthy. 

The sweet taste you get comes from sweet whey, sugar and high-fructose corn syrup. This shocking discovery was made by Eric on his new book Chew On This. The book tackles how fast food restaurants target children through advertising of their products. The book also reveals what an average strawberry milkshake is made of. 

In 1975, a typical American drank only 120 litres of soft drinks. This number has doubled to 240 litres today. That is about over 500 340 ml cans per person. Toddlers too have not been left out. About 20% of children between the age of one and two take soft drinks in America daily.
[Source: www.mirror.co.uk]

"TSA Agent Stole Goods Worth $800,000 From Travelers Luggage. This Video Shows How They Do It"

A TSA agent was in 2012 convicted of stealing goods worth more than $800,000 from travelers. He said this was a common theft among airport security. Pythias Brown worked at Newark Liberty International as a Transportation Security Administration officer before his arrest. He had spent four years stealing laptops, clothes, Nintendo Wiis, cameras, video games and cash from luggage and security checkpoints. 

Image Source: www.rt.com

After a 3 years imprisonment, Brown spoke publicly about the theft. He located valuable items to steal with the help of X-ray scanners. He worked alone most of the time screening luggage behind ticket counters and the overhead surveillance cameras that had been installed to prevent theft were not working.

Brown claimed that most officers are prompted to steal due to the low pay they get and bad treatment. The TSA managers also never check the employee’s bags as they leave. This shows how extensive airport theft is and the problems passenger’s face when they travel with valuables.

Whether you've ever been a victim of luggage theft or not, this video is a must watch. It will help you protect yourself from theft as you travel. Airport crime is a reality and unfortunately many people realize they've been robbed when it’s too late and their items are gone.

This video will show you how the thieves break into your luggage and snitch anything they can from you. Even if you use a deadbolt lock, they will get into your checked luggage if they want something from it. Whether you are a frequent traveler or not, you need to watch this. Please also share it to help your friends protect themselves too.
[Source: www.blog.petflow.com]

Revolutionary Breakthrough As Indian Scientists Converted Plastic Wastes Into High-grade Petrol And Diesel

Soon, India will be able to convert their plastic waste into diesel and petrol. This is thanks to a great breakthrough by Dehradun-based Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP) researchers. The IIP, which is a constituent lab of the Scientific and Industrial Research Council, has developed technology that converts plastic waste to petroleum products. Green technology is currently only available in Japan, Germany and US. The UK and Australia are still trying to work on it.

Image Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

This technology uses a combination of suitable catalysts to convert plastic into diesel, gasoline or aromatics. LPG is also produced as a by-product. The IIP Director, M.O Garg says that the fuels obtained (diesel and gasoline) through the process the technology employs, are of very high quality and meet Euro-III standards. Almost nil sulphur content is used and the diesel obtained by using this process is of very high quality. It will also vastly reduce engine emissions according to officials. If an engine is run on this fuel, the vehicle will be able to run for at least two more kilometers per litre than when it uses ordinary diesel.

"We have applied for a patent. We developed this after nearly a decade of intensive research. We are now planning to commercialize the technology although we are still engaged in the process of engineering to design heavy machinery and processes," Garg told Mail Today. "The current prices of petrol, which is derived from crude hydrocarbons, range between Rs 70 to Rs 80 per litre. Petrol in this case costs Rs 30 to Rs 40 per litre, inclusive of the cost of plant, operations, manpower and land cost. There is a mammoth amount of solid waste generated in the country. It could be procured at a minuscule cost." 

This fuel will be ideal for users like state road corporations, railways and the defense establishment. As long as the effective implementation and enforcement of hazardous wastes (management and handling)Rules of 1989 is absent, handling of plastic waste in the country will continuously be a major challenge. If this technology is commercially implemented, India’s hazardous plastic waste problem will considerably be addressed.

[Source: www.dailymail.co.uk]

Spomeniks: The Incredible World War II Memorials That Resemble Alien Art

Spomeniks means monuments in Serbo-Croatian and they can be found in tranquil fields in Serbo Croatia. They look alien and at odds with their surrounding hills and farmhouses. Their beauty is in the misaligned locations. They are concrete structures that are lost in a natural landscape and conspicuously out of place. The only people who get to see these structures are the brave enough who are not scared of exploring Balkan’s nether regions.

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

If these structures had been built today, their obliqueness would spur a lot of controversy in the world of art. Built in the 1960s and 70s, their designers must have had their imagination stretched to the limits. Former President, Josip Broz Tito, commissioned them to commemorate world war II battle sites. Leading architects and sculptors like Dušan Džamonja, Miodrag Živković, Vojin Bakić,  Jordan, Iskra Grabul, Bogdan Bogdanović and Gradimir Medaković did this incredible work.

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

Jan Kempenaers from Belgium photographed the abandoned sculptures for a period of three years. He discovered them on an art encyclopedia in the Jan Van Eyck Academy library, in Maastricht. Zagreb, a friend, helped him and together they found a map that showed all locations of the monuments. They sought them out one by one and discovered that most of them had in fact been destroyed…and deliberately-  "because they referred to the previous regime and during the Balkan war, many were dynamited," Kempenaers says. "They refer to the fight for independence of Marshall Tito's partisan army, who led the resistance against the German army."

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

The monuments conveyed the confidence, power and strength of the Socialist Republic. In the 1980s, they attracted millions of visitors yearly for their patriotic education, especially to the young pioneers. "They were like medals in the countryside. Tito couldn't erect figures or busts in honor of generals because he didn't want to be seen to be favoring any ethnic group, for example a Bosnian general or a Serb war hero, so instead they made these things that didn't refer to people."  The monuments were devoid of identity and were used to cultivate cultural togetherness. They were, however completely abandoned after the republic dissolved in the early 1990s. Their symbolic meaning was also lost.

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

According to Kempenaers, nobody cares about them today - both the young and old. Those who encountered him as he photographed them thought he was mad. The spomeniks are in fact crumbling: they have been urinated on and graffiti scrawled on them. They are no longer being preserved and are slowly rotting away. Kempenaers gives them back their dignity with his series of photos; otherwise, they would be forgotten and lost forever.

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

Image credit: Jan Kempenaers (taken from)

(Source: www.theguardian.com)

This Looks Like A Normal Restaurant, But Once Inside, The Truth Will Amaze You

Signs Restaurant owner, Anjan Manikumar, opened his restaurant last month amid much fanfare but, it’s not just his cuisine that’s drawing customers to his spot- the restaurant has deaf waiters and waitresses. Diners at the restaurant are eager to support this initiative that is giving the deaf community an opportunity to work at an industry that has excluded them for a long time. Signs restaurant is a first of its kind.

Image Source: www.cbc.ca

Christine Nelson of the Bob Rumball Centre for the Deaf says the idea is “super inspiring. On behalf of the whole community we’re thrilled to see something like this take place."

"They're able to show their potential, they're able to show how good they are, and I think they are very talented," Manikumar who is not deaf but knows sign language says. He got his inspiration for the restaurant while working as a server in a Markham restaurant. He was serving a deaf customer who ordered by having to point at the menu. "I felt he wasn’t getting the service he deserved. He wasn't getting the personal touch," he says.

Image Source: www.cbc.ca

The restaurant offers its customers an opportunity to learn sign language through the use of graphics that are incorporated in the menu. Photographs are mounted on the walls that illustrate clearly signs for some common words one uses in a restaurant (like alcoholic drink names) and cheat-sheets are also placed on tables.

"We expect our customers to order using sign language - our menus are designed in such a way that our customers can do that," Manikumar says. "This will allow our customers to experience the fun of learning something new."

The restaurant aims at becoming a meeting point for the deaf community. It will also provide a casual atmosphere for hearing customers to learn and practice sign language. According to Manikumar, the restaurant will not only offer hearing customers a fun experience while they practice sign language, it will also provide job opportunities for the deaf community, in an industry they have been shunned from.

Rachel Shemuel, the manager says that they “want to create awareness for the hearing community that the deaf community has the ability to do anything and everything. It’s also a good opportunity for the hearing community to see exactly what it is that the deaf community goes through on a day to day basis."

When they posted the position for a deaf waiter’s staff, they got over 200 responses and they hired about 50 of them. They have little or no experience at the hospitality sector while some have never had any full time jobs but they are grateful for the opportunity to work in an encouraging environment.

“It’s wonderful. I’m so excited to be here,” Mehdi Safavi, one of the employees says. “It’s a deaf environment where people can come in and experience our world and our culture, so it’s really amazing. It’s a challenge for me. But a great challenge.”

Manikumar hopes that other sectors will be inspired and encouraged to hire from the deaf community as well. As of right now, Signs has very many reservations from diners in Toronto, eager to try sign language.

(Source: www.huffingtonpost.com)

Watch As The Most Massive Robotic Swarm Work Together To Form Complex Shapes

Harvard computer science researchers have created tiny robots that complete tasks by working together. Though many teams of scientists have over time managed to link simple robots together then issue commands, this is in itself revolutionary. They are on an entirely different level! Imagine the 1024 of them moving in concert?  Together they comprise the largest, most impressive robotic swarm to ever be created. They have been named Kilobots which somehow almost sounds like killbots, but okay.

Image Source: www.io9.com

Researchers who have been working on the Kilobot Project say that:  “In current robotics research there is a vast body of work on algorithms and control methods for groups of decentralized cooperating robots, called a swarm or collective. These algorithms are generally meant to control collectives of hundreds or even thousands of robots; however, for reasons of cost, time, or complexity, they are generally validated in simulation only, or on a group of a few 10s of robots. To address this issue, we designed the Kilobot, a low-cost robot designed to make testing collective algorithms on hundreds or thousands ("kilos") of robots accessible to robotics researchers. Each robot has the basic capabilities required for a swarm robot, but is made with low-cost parts, and is mostly assembled by an automated process. In addition, the system design allows a single user to easily and scalably operate a large Kilobot collective, such as programming, powering on, and charging all robots systems.” 

Image Source: www.io9.com

Each kilobit is an inch-wide and has three peg-like legs that are powered by vibration motors. It uses this to help it slide around when responding to commands given over an infrared control system. One single kilobot’s behavior is limited and simple, but when a thousand of them are combined, complex behaviors are generated without the use of high level programming. It’s more like building a virtual ant’s colony rather than a robotic humanoid. 

Image Source: www.io9.com

Previous attempts at building a swarm of robots have only yielded around 100 devices. Algorithms that keep these units connected by this time get complicated and they need more expensive and advanced hardware for the robots. The kilobots are different in that, when they are commanded to form a certain shape, four robots act as the design’s point of origin. A 2D map of the image to be made is received by the other robots and instead of going straight to image formation, they split into groups that take turns to move into position.  Individual kilobots help keep the swarm on track by moving along the edge. 
This AI algorithm is clever and great results have been seen from it- considering the robots are limited. Moving in a straight line is usually trouble and the behavior from one robot to another can vary. Still, these kilobots work together and prove that complexity can materialize from simplicity. The kilobots will be used as a test platform by the team for future swarming- not for killing humans, they say.

[Source: www.geek.com]

These Fascinating Photos Show An Interesting Side Of History You Didn't Know About

These are rare and interesting photos that show a different and eye-opening side to many historical events and figures. They stunningly capture relationships and interesting sides of famous people we never saw before. Some will surprise you or make you laugh, while some will make you appreciate history.
This punt gun was capable of discharging over a pound of shot at a time and could kill over 50 birds. This had a great negative effect on the birds and by the 1860s, it was banned in most states.

Image Source: www.imgur.com

1939, a crowd in New York (there is not one unhatted head)

Image Source: www.imgur.com

A unique Adolf Hitler photo that captures the blue in his eyes

Image Source: www.imgur.com

1923, the testing of a bulletproof vest

Image Source: www.imgur.com

1967, when Sweden switched sides of the road

Image Source: www.imgur.com

1935, German soldier takes while on the back of a trained horse

Image Source: www.imgur.com

1945, a crowded ship as it brought American troops after V-Day to New York

Image Source: www.imgur.com

General Ambrose Burnside of the Civil war: his unusual facial hair led to coining of the word “sideburns”.

Image Source: www.imgur.com

1905, first bananas in Norway

Image Source: www.imgur.com

1937. A clear depiction of the class divide that existed pre-war Britain.

Image Source: www.imgur.com

[Source: www.imgur.com]