A sleeping cat hugs a fish in a picture seen from the air, picked out in sprouting rainbow seedlings in a rice field in Thailand to illustrate a traditional proverb about abundance. Farmer Tanyapong Jaikham and a team of workers planted the seedlings at various spots in the field in the northern province of Chiang Rai to depict cartoon cats, hoping to lure tourists and cat lovers. “We’re expecting tens of thousands to come and see the art in the rice fields,” he said. The process relies on GPS coordinates to position the seedlings as designated in an initial artist’s sketch, he said, with the plants changing tint as they grow. “It’s crucial to position them accurately, and the rice will gradually change shades over time,” he added, until in the final harvest stage, the rice straw yields the portrait of Cooper, the cat on which it was modeled. Viewing towers are being built in the surrounding area to give visitors a glimpse of the artwork, which is based on a Thai saying, “There is fish in the water and rice in the fields.” The world’s second largest exporter of the grain after India, Thailand aims to ship 8.5 million metric tons this year. Young people wanting to learn more about the interaction of art and technology could also benefit from visiting the site, Tanyapong said. “Previously, rice was mainly considered for consumption,” he said. “This approach allows us to develop tourism and agriculture simultaneously.”   Source: CNN

There is a legend that a group of Portuguese monks were sailing to Macao when their ship hit bad weather and they landed in Nagasaki, Japan, instead. That accidental encounter ended up changing Japan – and its food – forever. One thing these monks, and the many Portuguese who would come after them, brought to the country was a simple, powerful and much-loved ingredient – sugar. During the 16th century, Nagasaki, on the island of Kyushu, was the only city through which foreigners could trade with the Japanese. As a result, it developed the strongest sweet tooth. Many of Japan’s present-day favorite wagashi – sweets – have their origins on Kyushu. One of these is castella, a Portuguese-inspired pound cake. Though the style of making pound cake came via Portugal, one ingredient makes it specifically Japanese: mizuame syrup, which is made from glutinous rice. The best place to snag some for yourself is at Fukusaya. It’s a well-known cake shop chain, with the first location opening – where else? – in Nagasaki in 1624. In Fukuoka, the largest city on the island of Kyushu, Fukusaya’s main branch is in the busy Akasaka neighborhood, not far from where tourists spill into the city from Hakata Station, western terminus of the Shinkansen high-speed train line. The castella here are cut into cubes, individually wrapped in colorful packaging and placed into gift boxes. Though there are occasional special flavors like sakura (cherry blossom) in the spring or chocolate around Christmas, it’s the classic castella that still sells the most, according to an Akasaka employee. Castella (kasutera in Japanese) also makes an appearance in another popular Japanese sweet, dorayaki. Here, the castella cake is thinner and made into a pancake with a layer of sweet red bean paste inside. Source: CNN

NASA astronomers have made a startling discovery as the team has managed to detect one of the oldest black holes with the help of the James Webb Space Telescope. The details are astonishing as the black hole might be dating back more than 13 billion years to the dawn of the universe. The earliest black holes have major possibilities to unlock a puzzle about the amazing counterparts of the galaxies including the Milky Way, which is a billion times bigger than the mass of the sun.  Now, the latest observations reveal that the galaxy called GN-z11 has pushed the origins of this mystery of the black hole’s infancy and has suggested that these black holes are either constructed big or grow rapidly in their early phase. Black holes are one of the universe’s most questionable and weirdest objects. They are extremely powerful and have an intense gravity with light or matter fighting hard to escape their grip.  The threshold of a black hole is traced out by its horizon, which is a no-point-of-return zone. Therefore, if anything goes beyond that boundary, it’s gone forever.

Archaeologists excavating the ancient Roman city of Pompeii have uncovered a "prison bakery" where slaves and blindfolded donkeys were kept locked up underground to grind grain for bread, officials said this week. Underneath a house in the ruins they found "a cramped room with no view of the outside world and with small windows high in the wall, with iron bars, to let the light in", the Archaeological Park of Pompeii announced on Friday (Dec 8). Archaeologists deduced they had found a "prison bakery", the UNESCO World Heritage Site near Naples, southern Italy, said on its website. They also discovered "indentations" in the floor "to coordinate the movement of the animals, forced to walk around for hours, blindfolded". The house, on the 44-hectare site that is currently under excavation, was divided into a residential area "decorated with exquisite Fourth Style frescoes" and a "productive quarter", the bakery. Three skeletons were discovered in one room of the bakery, showing that the house was inhabited. - 'Shocking' side of ancient world - "It is, in other words, a space in which we have to imagine the presence of people of servile status whose freedom of movement the owner felt the need to restrict," wrote Pompeii director Gabriel Zuchtreigel in a scholarly article. "It is the most shocking side of ancient slavery, the one devoid of both trusting relationships and promises of manumission, where we were reduced to brute violence, an impression that is entirely confirmed by the securing of the few windows with iron bars." The public can view more evidence of this harsh daily life in an exhibition called "The Other Pompeii: Ordinary Lives in the Shadow of Vesuvius" which opens at the Palestra Grande in Pompeii on December 15.

The Japanese long-breathing exercise is being touted for its weight loss benefits. However, is this claim valid? We investigate. On your weight loss journey, you may have come across a lot of quick-fix hacks to lose those extra calories. One such technique that has come into the foray is the Japanese long-breathing exercise, which is being touted for its weight loss benefits. However, is this claim valid? We investigate. Championed by Japanese actor Miki Ryosuke, this technique, initially aimed at alleviating back pain, unexpectedly led to a weight loss of 13 kgs in a matter of weeks for Ryosuke. The underlying principle revolves around the belief that fat, composed of oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen, disintegrates as oxygen reaches the fat cells during deep breathing, effectively aiding weight loss.