uphillbothways

The following pages are returning "404 page not found" consistently, for me at least. (Also, breaks infinite scroll on homepage.)

https://kbin.social/?p=2
https://kbin.social/?p=6
https://kbin.social/newest

(Though, https://kbin.social/newest?p=1 does seem to to work.)

Also not working:
https://kbin.social/all
https://kbin.social/active

The first non-Hopoo Risk of Rain game is exactly what many series fans had feared

A year ago almost to the day, Gearbox Publishing officially acquired the Risk of Rain IP from original developer Hopoo Games after serving as the publisher on runaway hit Risk of Rain 2. At the recent 10-year Risk of Rain anniversary blowout, Gearbox announced Risk of Rain: Hostile Worlds, a new mobile title in the works at developer Frima Studio, best known for the reasonably well-liked action RPG Disciples: Liberation, mobile spinoff Forza Street, and contributions to Fortnite's mobile version.

Hostile Worlds will be the first Risk of Rain game without Hopoo attached. It's an isometric action game explicitly built for Android and iOS devices, currently in regional testing ahead of a proper global launch. The game's been billed as a four-player hero collector which streamlines Risk of Rain's core gameplay loop – shoot, collect items, kill a boss, repeat – and marries it to free-to-play monetization.

Latest news and live updates on Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York as Ivanka Trump takes the stand. The former president appeared Monday, and his sons spoke last week.

Further updates and reporting are available here: https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-us-canada-67288390

The ability to 'boost' your own comments/threads has been used by a very small number of users in a way that seriously degrades conversation on the platform. These users constantly move their own contributions to the top of the conversation without regard to their value. If allowed to continue it will likely become standard for everyone to do the same and the value of the 'boost' feature will be lessened.

I can't see a downside to removing the ability to do so, and it seems like it would be very easy to implement. Though, I am open to discussion on the topic.

Thank you. (And, once again, I apologize if there is a thread about this topic already. I searched, but didn't see one.)

Are there plans for a 'hide thread' feature, under 'more'? (next to comment and boost)

Just curious. It's not the highest priority by any means, but I've found myself looking for it sometimes. (think it was a reddit option, can't remember for sure)

There are occasions when a thread is bothersome or somewhat triggering for one reason or another (maybe the image is a little much) and it would be nice to just not see that individual thread again in my own feed.

Thanks in advance. (And, sorry if there's another thread on this. I tried searching and didn't see one.)

ExxonMobil and Chevron both increased their stake in fossil fuels this month as they plan to continue their destruction of the environment.

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As Reuters reports, two weeks ago ExxonMobil agreed to acquire Pioneer Natural Resources for nearly $60 billion. This week, Chevron, the second largest oil company in the world, agreed to pay $53 billion for Hess. The Exxon acquisition is the largest in the company’s history since it acquired Mobil Oil nearly 20 years ago. The driving force behind the Chevron deal is that it gives it access to a new fossil fuels reserves being developed in Guyana, a country in northeast South America between Venezuela and Brazil.
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... This week in Germany, the Munich Regional Court sentenced four climate scientists turned activists to fines totaling €1680 each. If they do not pay the fines, they will be required to serve 105 days of prison. The four were convicted of criminal damage and trespassing during their peaceful protest against Germany’s policy failure regarding the climate crisis last year in Munich.
...

archive link: https://ghostarchive.org/archive/GyX1o

California has lost over 1,760 square miles—nearly 7%—of its tree cover since 1985, according to a recent study.

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Dead pines, firs, and cedars stretch as far as the eye can see. Fire burned so hot that soil was still barren in places more than a year later. Granite boulders were charred and flaked from the inferno. Long, narrow indentations marked the graves of fallen logs that vanished in smoke.
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After wildfires in 2020 and 2021 wiped out up to about a fifth of all giant sequoias — once considered almost fireproof — the National Park Service last week embarked on a controversial project to help the mighty trees recover with its largest planting of seedlings a single grove.
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archive link: https://ghostarchive.org/archive/wJQT6

Hills and valleys carved by ancient rivers in area the size of Belgium has remained untouched for more than 34m years

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Exactly when sunshine last touched this hidden world is difficult to determine, but the researchers are confident it has been at least 14m years.
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“We are now on course to develop atmospheric conditions similar to those that prevailed” between 14m and 34m years ago, when it was 3C to 7C warmer than currently, they wrote in the journal Nature Communications.
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Earlier this year it was clear Antarctic sea ice levels were low. Now, as the continent enters spring, it’s obvious that “it’s a really exceptional year.”

Archive: https://ghostarchive.org/archive/O3xl6

The Latest
Winter is over in the Southern Hemisphere and sea ice around Antarctica has likely grown as much as it’s going to for 2023, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Antarctic sea ice reached its lowest peak by a wide margin for any year since 1979, when the continuous satellite record began.

“The ice this year is so far out of the range of all the other years that it’s a really exceptional year,” said Ariaan Purich, a climate scientist at Monash University in Australia.

By Sept. 10, sea ice had grown to cover 6.5 million square miles around the continent, or just under 17 million square kilometers. The difference this year from the 1981 to 2010 average is an area roughly the size of Alaska.

Why It Matters: Sea ice protects the continent’s ice shelf and wildlife.
Antarctica has ice both on land, in the form of its massive continental ice sheet, and in the waters around it, in the form of seasonal sea ice. The ice in the water helps protect the land ice from the warming ocean. Less sea ice could mean that the continental ice sheet melts and breaks faster, contributing to faster sea-level rise around the world.

That sea ice supports a whole ecosystem of wildlife, including both Adélie and emperor penguins. Last year, several emperor penguin colonies suffered a widespread loss of their chicks when the ice broke up early.

Background: This year’s record low follows several years of decline.
Antarctic sea ice has been growing sluggishly and staying at record lows for each month since April.

“Things got really strange,” said Walt Meier, a senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center. “It started diverging from anything we’d seen before.”

Satellite data from 1966 showed a similarly low sea ice extent, but Dr. Meier cautioned that this earlier data is less reliable and should not be used as a direct comparison to today’s observations.

The departure from previous years is particularly significant right now, but follows several years of declining sea ice. Until 2016, the sea ice around Antarctica had remained relatively stable, unlike ice in the Arctic Ocean, even as the global temperature rose. But in the past seven years, Antarctic sea ice has reached record lows numerous times.

What’s Next: A potential new, unstable era for Antarctic sea ice.
A complicated mix of atmospheric and oceanic factors influence how much sea ice forms around Antarctica each year, and scientists still debate the relative importance of each factor. But ocean warming from global climate change seems to be a growing influence, said Dr. Purich, who published a study in September on trends for this year’s Antarctic sea ice, suggesting that Antarctica and the Southern Ocean may be tipping into a new state with persistently low sea ice.

This year’s trends might continue into 2024 thanks to the potential of what’s known as a positive feedback loop. White ice reflects sunlight, while dark ocean water absorbs it. So the less sea ice there is, the more local sea-surface temperatures are likely to rise and melt the ice further, said Marilyn Raphael, a geography professor and director of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at University of California, Los Angeles.

She recently helped reconstruct a longer record of Antarctic sea ice that includes seasonal averages stretching back to 1905 using historical weather observations. The average sea-ice cover from June through August this year was far outside any other winter average even in this longer record.

A correction was made on Oct. 5, 2023: An earlier version of this article characterized incorrectly the cycle of melting described by Marilyn Raphael. It is a positive feedback loop (because the product of the reaction leads to an increase in that reaction) not a negative feedback loop.

Abstract: The study aimed to evaluate the potential use of spent coffee powder (SCP) and spent tea powder (STP) as bioactive supplements for sponge cake. To achieve this aim, we initially compared the chemical properties of spent tea and coffee powders with those of their raw forms. Subsequently, three supplemented cake blends were prepared (1, 2, and 3% of SCP and STP) to test the effect of their addition on the chemophysical characteristics, sensory attributes, and shelf life of the final products. Our results indicated that spent tea and coffee are prospective materials for polyphenols. Spent tea powder could retain up to 72% (theaflavin trigallate), while spent coffee powder could retain up to 63.9% (1-caffeoylquinic acid) of the identified compounds compared to the raw materials. Furthermore, spent tea and coffee powders contained high levels of dietary fiber (18.95 and 31.65 g/100 g dry weight) and the elements potassium (254.6 and 1218.2 mg/100 g of DW), phosphorus (189.8 and 161.3 mg/100 g of DW), calcium (904.1 and 237.8 mg/100 g of DW), and magnesium (158.8 and 199.6 mg/100 g of DW). In addition, the fortified samples with SCP and STP significantly enhanced the nutritional values while retaining good sensory qualities compared to those of the control sample. Moreover, cakes fortified with the highest concentrations of SCP and STP (3%) showed a significant decrease in malondialdehyde content (MDA; 17.7 and 18.0 μg/g) and microbiological counts (2.4 and 2.5 log cfu/g) compared to the control cake after 14 days of storage. These findings suggest that incorporating SCP and STP into cakes not only enhances their nutritional value but also extends their shelf life. By utilizing these waste products, we can contribute to a more sustainable and ecofriendly food industry.

Introduction

For many years, human development and population growth have been accompanied by the exhaustion and depletion of natural resources and the generation of a significant amount of agri-food waste due to following the linear economy model of “produce, use, then throw away”. (1)

Tea and coffee are the most consumed beverages around the world due to their pleasant aroma, health benefits, and even religious beliefs. (2,3) They are rich in bioactive substances, and their consumption is linked to health benefits, including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiviral, antiallergic, anticancer, and cardiovascular benefits. (4,5) Furthermore, they could enhance memory, mood, and cognitive ability. (6,7)

For both products, around 10% of the dry weight is extracted during brewing in their infusions while around 90% is finally disposed into landfills. (2,8) However, only low molecular weight components are extracted in their respective infusions while the spent coffee powders and tea leaves still retain considerable amounts of bioactive substances, including polyphenols, fibers, and essential elements. (2,9−11)

Currently, the awareness of the general farmers and consumers of terms including sustainable development and circular bioeconomy helped in mitigating this problem, and agri-food waste is now accepted as a valuable resource and re-entered the supply chain via recycling, valorization, energy recovery, and other uses. (2,12−17) In this context, there have been studies on the use of used spent coffee and tea leaves in the field of livestock nutrition, agricultural compost, or production of biogas, or valorized for their bioactive molecules. (2,13,18−21) However, there is a lack of research on the use of spent tea and coffee in the production of novel foods. (22−24)

It has been noted that research on natural functional food additives, including those that exhibit high antioxidant activity, has been developing rapidly in recent years. Consumers prefer antioxidants derived from natural plant sources versus possibly hazardous, manufactured chemicals. (25−28) In this context, several studies have explored the effects of fortifying bakery products with coffee, tea, or their extracts on the technological and nutritional properties of the final products. (29−33) However, to our knowledge, less effort is made to incorporate spent tea or Arabic coffee in making sponge cakes and to investigate their effects on the sensorial, technological, and shelf lives of the final products. Therefore, the current study aimed to (I) evaluate the use of byproducts of tea and Arabic coffee as a novel functional food ingredient in bakery goods; (II) study the impact of adding spent tea or Arabic coffee ground on the sensory qualities, nutritional values, and shelf life of the final product; and (III) validate our findings using chemometric methods. All in all, we aimed to provide normal households with easy-to-use methods to reduce their carbon footprint by utilizing their nutrient-rich food wastes to prepare diverse food concepts to their liking, social habits, and lifestyle.

.....

Conclusion and Future Perspectives

In conclusion, evaluating spent coffee and tea powders as bioactive supplements for sponge cake showed promising results. Both spent tea and coffee powders were rich sources of bioactive compounds, including polyphenols, and retained high levels of important dietary elements. By incorporation of spent tea and coffee powders into the sponge cake blend, the nutritional value of the cake can be enhanced, providing additional health benefits to consumers. The presence of bioactive compounds in the powders also contributes to the potential antioxidant activity and reduction of peroxide production and delays microbial growth during storage. Finally, further research could explore the potential applications of leftover coffee and tea powders in other food products such as bread or snacks. Additionally, investigating the economic feasibility of large-scale utilization of these waste products would be beneficial in determining their viability for commercial production.