Dream-job alert: Candyologists wanted

Do you like candy? Do you have opinions about it? Are you looking for a job?

 If you answered “yes” to all three questions, you may be interested in learning more about a position that will pay you cash money to taste-test candy.

Candy Funhouse, located in Ontario, Canada, will hire 10 Candyologists to taste candy.

The role is available in a part-time and full-time position. Full-time candy tasters (working 8-hour shifts) will be required to attend in-person taste testing, and part-time employees (15 hours a week) will be sent product samples remotely.

They all pay $30/hour.

Candyologists will taste samples objectively and will consider aspects of Taste, Texture, and Quality

They will have to follow Candy Funhouse in-house confectionary rating system.

They will have to write a brief, two-sentence description for each product tested. All reviews have a chance of appearing in Funhouse’s marketing materials.

According to the ad, preference will be given to applicants who have an interest in candy, pop culture and media.

The other qualifications necessary for the job:

• A high school diploma
• Basic writing skills
• Good communication skills
• Fluency in English
• Being a U.S. or Canadian citizen
• Not having any food allergies
• Being at least 18-years old

No candy-specific experience is required.

If you want to have more information click HERE or on the Screenshot below

Article from Lifehacker.com  and MSM.com

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Man leaves 2m euros to French village

An Austrian man who fled the Nazis with his family during the second world war has left a large part of his fortune to the French village whose residents hid them from persecution for years.

Eric Schwam, who died aged 90 on 25 December, wrote the surprise gift into his will for Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, located on a remote mountain plateau in south-east France that historically has a large Protestant community known for offering shelter to those in need.

“It’s a large amount for the village,” the mayor, Jean-Michel Eyraud, said. However, he declined to specify the amount since the will was still being sorted out, but his predecessor, who told a local website that she met Schwam and his wife twice to discuss the gift, said it was about €2m (USD1.22m).

Schwam and his family arrived in 1943 and were hidden in a school for the duration of the war, and remained until 1950.

He later studied pharmacy and married a Catholic woman from Lyon. According to local reports, the couple did not have children and he was a widower.

 Mayor Eyraud said Schwam wanted the money to be used for educational and youth initiatives, in particular scholarships.

About 2,500 Jews were taken in and protected during the war by Le Chambon-sur-Lignon.

Le Chambon-sur-Lignon has a population of only about 2,500 people but has a reputation as a place of refuge dating back to the French Protestant Huguenots who fled religious persecution during the 17th Century. Over the centuries the village has taken in a wide range of people fleeing religious or political persecution, from priests driven into hiding during the French Revolution to Spanish republicans during the 1930s civil war, and more recently migrants and refugees from the Middle East and Africa.

From The Guardian (edited)

Photo Credit BBC

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A 98 million-year-old titanosaur found in Patagonia

Experts have uncovered the remains of a gigantic dinosaur in Argentina, and believe it could be one of the largest creatures to have ever walked the Earth.

Paleontologists discovered the fossilized remains of a 98 million-year-old titanosaur in Neuquén Province in Argentina's northwest Patagonia, in thick, sedimentary deposits known as the Candeleros Formation.

The 24 vertebrae of the tail and elements of the pelvic and pectoral girdle discovered are thought to belong to a titanosaur, a diverse group of sauropod dinosaurs, characterized by their large size, a long neck and tail, and four-legged stance.

In research published in the journal Cretaceous Research, experts say they believe the creature to be "one of the largest sauropods ever found" and could exceed the size of a Patagotitan, a species which lived 100 million to 95 million years ago and measured up to a staggering 37.2 meters (122 feet) long.

"It is a huge dinosaur, but we expect to find much more of the skeleton in future field trips, so we'll have the possibility to address with confidence how really big it was," Alejandro Otero, a paleontologist with Argentina's Museo de La Plata, told CNN via email.

Titanosaur fossils have been found on all continents except Antarctica. But the biggest "multi-ton" varieties of the species -- including those titanosaurs exceeding 40 tons -- have mostly been discovered in Patagonia.

Without analyzing the dinosaur's humerus or femur, experts say it is not yet possible to say how much the creature weighs. However, the partially recovered dinosaur is thought to have a body mass exceeding or comparable to an Argentinosaurus.

Patagotitans may have been the world's largest terrestrial animal of all time, and weighed up to 77 tons, while Argentinosaurus  measured up to 40 meters and weighed up to 110 tons -- weighing more than 12 times more than an African elephant (up to 9 tons).

Experts believe that the specimen strongly suggests the co-existence of larger titanosaurs together with medium-sized titanosaurs and small-sized rebbachisaurids at the beginning of the Late Cretaceous period, which began 101 million years ago.

"These size differences could indeed explain the existence of such sauropod diversity in the Neuquén Basin during the Late Cretaceous in terms of niche partitioning," they wrote.

Researchers said that, while they don't believe the creature to belong to a new species, they have so far been unable to assign it to a known genus of dinosaur.

The research was conducted by Argentina's The Zapala Museum, Museo de La Plata, Museo Egidio Feruglio and the universities of Río Negro and Zaragoza.

From CNN 

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Japanese man rents himself to do nothing

For most people, work is an endless list of tasks to finish — there’s plenty of things to do and seemingly not enough time to tick them all off.

But for one man in Japan, it's quite the opposite. Shoji Morimoto offers himself “for rent” to do nothing. Yes, nothing - except eat, drink and give a simple response.

Shoji Morimoto, 37 and married, lives in Tokyo and holds a postgraduate degree in physics from Osaka University

Morimoto started renting himself first in June 2018 when he tweeted, "I offer myself for rent, as a person who does nothing. Is it difficult for you to enter a shop on your own? Are you missing a player on your team? Do you need someone to keep a place for you? I can’t do anything except easy things."

Initially, he started offering his services for free. However, he now charges to reduce the volume of requests he gets and also to discourage time-wasters.

He takes requests from people through his Twitter account, which has over 260,000 followers. “I will lend you a person (me) who does nothing,” his bio reads.

Each session costs 10,000 Japanese yen ($96), plus transportation and food fees. Morimoto estimates that he has taken around 3,000 requests since starting his business, usually meeting with two to three clients in one day. He typically spends around two to three hours with each person but Morimoto said that there is no time limit. So what does doing “nothing” actually entail?

“During the services, I accompany my customers on whatever they need me for. I answer their questions, listen to them, nod when needed. It was a little embarrassing in the beginning but I got used to it over time.” 

There is no typical work day for Morimoto. One day, he’s watching a movie in a cinema and on the next he’s on a helicopter ride. He has been to Disneyland with a client and listened to a cheater confess to an affair over a meal. Sometimes, he’s there for moral support — like when he accompanied someone to submit divorce papers. He has been hired to have lunch, pose for photos, catch butterflies in the park.

“I think the reason why people demand my services depends on the customer’s circumstances,” he said. “I think it comes down to needing ‘the presence of one human being’ in a given situation.” 

Morimoto was inspired to start his self-rental service after he left his previous job as a writer and editor for teaching materials.

“I used to carry around this complex, that I need to do something, but I’m not good at anything. I tried a bunch of things that I thought I’d be suitable for, but nothing stuck. So I thought, ‘I’m not suited to do anything, maybe I’m more suited to do nothing.’” 

According to Morimoto, this is the first time he has ever been satisfied with a job. 

“There are so many interesting ways my work develops, so I never get tired of it. I also get to do things I could’ve never imagined, which is interesting.”

Morimoto’s work has garnered so much attention in Japan that he has been featured in local media multiple times. His story even inspired a television drama series, Rental Nan mo Shinai Hito, or “Rent-a-Person Who Does Nothing.” 

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The White House official website changes

Shortly after President Biden and Vice President Harris took office, sharp-eyed Internet users noticed several major changes on the executive branch's official website. Among them: a new feature allowing users to include their pronouns when submitting contact forms and a relaunch of the Spanish-language website. 

• Click HERE or on any of the screenshots below to go the The White House website

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Thailand first cannabis restaurant

PRACHIN BURI, Thailand (Reuters) - “Giggling bread” and “joyfully dancing salad” aren’t the usual dishes on a menu in Thailand, but one eatery is hoping its cannabis-infused cuisine can attract foreign tourists and take the taboo out of the recently legalised leaf.

The wellness centre restaurant at the Chao Phya Abhaibhubejhr Hospital in Prachin Buri started serving its own happy meals this month, after Thailand de-listed cannabis as a narcotic, allowing state-authorised firms to cultivate the plant.

“Cannabis leaves, when put in the food or even a small amount ... it will help the patient to recover faster from the illness,” said Pakakrong Kwankao, the project leader at the hospital.

“The cannabis leaf can improve appetite and make people sleep well, and also be in a good mood.”

The hospital is known as a pioneer in Thailand for studying marijuana and its ability to relieve pain and fatigue.

In 2017 Thailand became the first Southeast Asian country to legalise cannabis for medical use and has since opened numerous medical marijuana clinics.

The restaurant’s offerings include a happy pork soup, deep-fried bread topped with pork and a marijuana leaf, and a salad of crispy cannabis leaves served with ground pork and chopped vegetables.

“I’ve never taken cannabis before, it feels weird but it’s delicious,” said diner Ketsirin Boonsiri, adding  the cannabis leaves was similar to everyday vegetables, but the after-effects were quite different. “It makes my throat dry and I crave sweets,” she said.

Thai deputy education minister Kanokwan Vilawan said the next step was to offer famous Thai dishes to reach an international audience.

“We plan to add more (cannabis) to Thai dishes that are already well known, such as green curry soup, to boost the popularity of these dishes even more,” Kanokwan said.

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The isolated cinema on a Swedish island

Taking social distancing to a whole new level, Sweden's  Göteborg Film Festival  is inviting one cinema fan to spend seven days on an isolated lighthouse island, with only movies and the sea for company.

Like many recent film festivals, Göteborg festival  will go digital in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, but organizers decided to offer one festival goer a totally different experience, dubbed The Isolated Cinema.

The chosen fan will be transported by boat to the Swedish island of Pater Noster -- which Göteborg Film Festival artistic director Jonas Holmberg calls "one of the most beautiful and dramatic places I know."

Once there, they will be set up in the former lighthouse keeper's house and spend a week from January 30 to February 6 watching Göteborg's offerings. They won't be allowed a cellphone, a laptop, a book or any other distractions.

Artistic director Jonas Holmberg says the inspiration for the idea was how people have turned to films for comfort during the pandemic.

"We are interested in how the audience's relationship to films changes under those circumstances, and wanted to explore this relationship by taking it to the extreme -- isolating one person on a small rock in the sea for one week with films as the only company," says Holmberg.

If you're interested, you can apply online, all you have to do is email and say who you are and why you're interested in the Isolated Cinema.

Pater Noster is the name of the cast bright red lighthouse that was built in 1868 and is a feature of the tiny island of Hamneskär.  A lighthouse keeper lived on the island in the cottage until the 1960s when the beacon was automated.

Hamneskär is situated off the coast of Marstrand in western Sweden. Apparently the name "Pater Noster" (meaning "Our Father" in Latin) came from sailors fearful of the rough seas surrounding the island, who prayed to the Lord as they sailed these waters.

The lighthouse was deactivated in recent years, and the lighthouse cabin was recently renovated by design agency Stylt, so the chosen film fan will be able to relax in comfort and style. The living room will be set up as a screening room for movie-watching, while food will be provided for self-catering.

For safety reasons, the visitor will not be totally alone.  Another person will stay on the island but they will keep their distance. If everything goes as planned, they will never meet during the seven days.

The festival is accepting applications from across the world, but naturally they  will need to take into consideration Covid-related lockdowns and travel regulations.

"Of course we have to ensure that it is safe and possible for the person to travel to the island," Holmberg says. "The rules are changing all the time, and we will adjust to the regulations that are in effect when the festival starts."

The winning applicant won't have to pay for the experience.

So how can you make your application for film-watching-lighthouse-keeper stand out?

First and foremost, says Holmberg, they're looking for a real lover of cinema. Göteborg is the biggest film festival in Scandinavia. Alongside new films, the festival also showcases seminars and exhibitions.

The chosen applicant must also to be up for the challenge. It also has to be someone quite stable, who is not troubled by the idea of spending one week in total solitude," says Holmberg.

A handful of applicants will be interviewed before the final selection takes place. The festival organizers will ask the chosen film fan to record daily video diaries about their experiences while on the island.

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Jet ski Romeo

On Thursday, Dale Mclaughlan bought a Jet Ski for 6,000 pounds.

On Monday, the 28-year-old Scotsman was sentenced to four weeks in jail.

What happened on the three days in between, according to court documents, may be one of the more unusual instances of rule-flouting during the coronavirus pandemic.

The day after purchasing the watercraft, Mclaughlan set off at 8 a.m. for what he thought would be a 40-minute trip from the southwestern coast of Scotland to his girlfriend’s home on the Isle of Man, between England and Ireland. He later told authorities that he had never ridden a Jet Ski before and that bad weather on the Irish Sea caused the trip to stretch to 4 1/2 hours.

Mclaughlan finally reached Jessica Radcliffe, his girlfriend, on Friday night, after walking 15 miles from the Isle of Man’s coast to her home in its capital, Douglas. The couple spent the weekend enjoying the city’s nightlife, but their reunion was cut short, when he was arrested and later charged with one count of violating the Isle of Man’s coronavirus restrictions.

On Monday, he received a four-week jail sentence.

“This individual was aware of the law and showed a flagrant disregard when they chose to break it, mixing in the community and potentially putting lives at risk,” Howard Quayle, chief minister of the Isle of Man, said in a statement Tuesday.

The Isle of Man, which relies on Britain for defense but is self-governing, is closed to nonresidents, except for those who have special permission. Mclaughlan arrived without an entry permission and failed to declare his arrival or self-isolate.

The island, which has a population of about 85,000, has only four active coronavirus cases and has not had a locally transmitted case for more than six months.

With isolation fatigue setting in, thousands of people around the world have been caught, fined and even jailed for defying coronavirus restrictions. In a case in Italy this year, a man was fined after leaving his house to cool off after an argument with his wife, breaching the country’s curfew. In Taiwan, a man was penalized for leaving his quarantine room for eight seconds, and in Australia, a man was caught violating lockdown to get butter chicken curry.

Mclaughlan, like many who have been separated from loved ones during the pandemic, was having trouble coping with the distance. He met his girlfriend in September, when he visited the island for his job as a roofer. After returning to Scotland, he twice applied to travel to the Isle of Man to see his girlfriend, but both requests were denied, according to court documents.

As for why it took Mclaughlan more than four hours to cross a short distance, Allan Stirling, owner of a boat dealer in Linwood, Scotland, said the trip should have taken less than an hour.

“You can see the Isle of Man from the peninsula where he set off from,” Stirling said. “To cover that distance is not a big deal.”

Dale Mclaughlan told reporters: “As soon as I hit open water I thought ‘Oh my God’. It was like getting a kick in the teeth. It was terrible. It wasn’t fun. I followed the GPS, but after half an hour a massive wave wiped it away. I didn’t have a clue where I was going”.

“After two hours I thought, ‘Where the bloody hell am I’? I couldn’t see a thing … I thought I was lost at sea. I was scared,” he said.

His gas tank warned him he was about to run out just as he saw the coast of the Isle of Man, which he recalled “like a beacon of hope.”

But he was off-target, and at least 15-miles from Jessica’s home — which he says he just walked.

“I just stuck my headphones on and off I went. I was listening to power ballads”.

Jessica Radcliffe had no idea he was making the romantic trip, and when he got to her home she “peeked her head out of the window, opened the door, jumped around my waist and gave me a big kiss. I said, ‘Hi, babe!’ I was still a bit smelly from the water,” he said.

“When I was arrested, I didn’t deny it – I was caught red-handed”.

McLaughlan was sentenced to four weeks in jail, and says he was amazed at making headlines around the world. “I was like, ‘What? I’m just a guy from Scotland!’ People are saying I’m a legend.I think I’ve lifted a lot of spirits. A lot of people say I’ve made a good end to a terrible year. That made me feel better,” he said.

“I broke the law. But I did it for love.I should never have done it. It could be called a crime of passion.”

Jessica Radcliffe told the paper that she loves her madcap Romeo.

“How could I not after what he did?” she said. “I would like to marry him, but not this year. He’s got to get over here first – legally this time!”

 

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