Supercentenarians, a.k.a. people who live beyond 100, might have their superpowered, anti-cancer-fighting immune systems to thank. According to research published in Cell Reports, people who make it past 100 appear to develop more of a rare type of immune cell that helps fend off cancer and other cellular troubles.

Researchers at Osaka University studied blood samples from 28 Japanese people, ranging from their 70s to more than 110. They found that CD4 cytotoxic T lymphocytes, or CD4 CTLs (because I’m not typing that again), accounted for roughly 4 percent of T cells in participants under 100, nearly 10 percent in centenarians, and 17.6 percent in supercentenarians.

CD4 CTLs help coordinate the body’s immune response to infection, damage, or potentially cancerous cells. These cells didn’t appear depleted in the oldest participants despite having dealt with all sorts of biological mayhem and nonsense for a century or more.

A Rare Immune Cell May Help Explain Why Some People Live So Long

These cells seek out potentially dangerous cells and snuff them out, then clone themselves to create even larger populations. This suggests that the immune systems of supercentenarians were adapting to the increasing number of abnormal cells in their bodies, plus the infections and other challenges that arise when you far outlive the average person. They are, in essence, adapting to old age.

Before we start throwing macabre parties where we bathe in kiddie pools filled with the blood of 110-year-olds, keep in mind the study only involved 28 people, and all in Japan, so it’s hard to prove that CD4 CTLs are solely responsible for people who live for exceptionally long times. Other regional factors could be at play.

Researchers also don’t quite know exactly what these cells are attacking or whether having more of them is beneficial or just redundant.

The post Scientists Found a Possible Reason Some People Live Beyond 100 appeared first on VICE.

An otter in New York. It sounds like the title of a direct-to-VHS children’s movie starring Jason Alexander as both the voice of the otter and his human nemesis. Seeing an otter in the Bronx River doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it is. It’s a huge sign that decades of efforts to clean up one of the city’s most polluted waterways are finally paying off.

As the Wildlife Conservation Society and Bronx Zoo reported this week, a motion-sensitive camera caught a glimpse of a North American river otter swimming in the Bronx River in June. It’s the first documented sighting of an otter there since the early 1900s.

Nature is healing, as they say. And it didn’t do it on its own. It took tremendous effort from countless people who spent much of the 19th and 20th centuries cleaning up a waterway the city and its people treated like a moist garbage dump. Factories would dump chemicals in it. Slaughterhouses would toss in animal waste.

It was filled with oil, sewage, tires, appliances, and assorted detritus that definitely wouldn’t have been there without us. That’s why it was on us, more specifically those of us in New York, to clean it up.

In time, pollution drove away animal life, including river otters.

An Otter Was Spotted in the Bronx River for the First Time Since the Early 1900s

In the 1970s, people started to wake up to the fact that they were poisoning their own waterways, driving off the wildlife that helps maintain delicate ecological balance, so conservation groups, government agencies, and Bronx communities started the long, hard work of restoring it to its former glory. One surefire sign that the work has paid off is the return of wildlife. It took a while, but the otters might be back.

It joins a growing list of evidence that the efforts have not been in vain. Beavers returned in 2007 after being gone for more than two centuries. Camera traps have captured images of turtles, muskrats, and a variety of birds that had been around for several presidential administrations. The otters themselves are particularly encouraging since they were considered indicators of freshwater health.

They’re near the top of the food chain wherever they hang out, and need clean water and enough fish to survive. If they’re back, it means the water is well on its way to being healthy enough to sustain them.

Now just a matter of not letting up, not rescinding efforts at the first signs of success. Besides, researchers don’t know whether the otter is living there permanently or just stopping by on the way to somewhere more hospitable. Still, the picture, captured by scientist RJ Hawkins with a motion-activated camera, represents the potential rejuvenation of a place that was once so trashed and disrespected that not even animals wanted to live there.

The post River Otter Spotted in the Bronx for the First Time in More Than 100 Years appeared first on VICE.

The first time you hear it, you might think, “oooh, I’ve really got a pull on this guy.” Then the next guy who hits on you at a bar says it. Then your Hinge date says it. And it starts to feel like the cringiest phrase on the planet.

“You’re dangerous.” Two words. Zero originality. The phrase has saturated dating culture to the point of full-blown ick, with women on Reddit and TikTok collectively losing patience with men who think it comes across as a compliment. One Reddit user, @mothersecretary, has had enough: “Why do guys always say this? I think they think it’s smooth, but it’s so cliche. And what does that even mean? I swear every guy I’ve dated ends up saying this right after we kiss and it just makes me wish I never kissed them.”

The irritation has more to it than the phrase being overused. For many women, being labeled “dangerous” carries an implication they’d rather not deal with—that whatever the guy does next is somehow her fault. Reddit user @mleek said: “At worst, it’s a way to blame the woman for their incoming poor judgment. A way to negate their responsibility for their own choices and behavior. They couldn’t help themselves.”

The 2-Word Phrase Women Are Sick of Hearing From Men on Dates

Relationship therapist Kayte Callaghan told Metro the stakes of that implication are higher than most people even realize. “It can link us to the public shaming there has been about women where they have been sexually assaulted but blamed for wearing ‘sexy’ knickers or dressing provocatively.” A compliment that comes with that kind of baggage isn’t really a compliment.

There’s also the flattening effect. Calling a woman “dangerous” or “trouble” before you actually know her completely skips past her and drops her into a pre-written character—the femme fatale, the heartbreaker, the woman who makes men do stupid things. It’s a projection, not a read. And it gets old.

So why do men keep reaching for it? Pop culture has always rewarded the idea that a woman with a dark edge is more alluring, and the psychology research has added fuel to that fire. Studies have found that so-called dark personality traits—narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy—can pull up someone’s attractiveness rating, at least when things stay casual. One widely cited study found that women rated men with high dark triad traits as significantly more attractive than controls, even when physical appearance was held constant. Men have absorbed some version of this logic and apparently decided it works in reverse—that calling a woman dangerous makes her feel desired the way a “bad boy” might.

It doesn’t. TikToker @nina.brennan captured the reaction most women have, noting that the phrase isn’t romantic at all— it’s lazy. The “bad boy” equivalent has the same problem, Callaghan noted: “It can feel like you’re being asked to perform a particular version of masculinity—rebellious, emotionally unavailable or slightly out of control.”

Most people, surprise, surprise, want to be wanted for who they are. “You’re dangerous” is going to end with an eyeroll and slim chances for a second date. Please stop. 

The post The 2 Words Men Say on Dates That Are Guaranteed to Make a Women Cringe appeared first on VICE.

Ah, yes. The Brazilian wax. For those who want to be smooth as a Barbie down there, you know it’s going to come with pain, probably some ingrown hairs, and getting on all fours while a stranger gets a good look under bright lights. What the booking confirmation doesn’t mention, though, is the flatulence situation.

A TikTok from South Carolina content creator Sarah Baus went viral this summer after she laid out the physics of the problem with commendable directness. Remove the hair from your backside, she explained, and you’ve eliminated the natural friction barrier that gives gas somewhere to go…quietly. “When you rip that out, nothing! Silent farts are not a thing,” Baus told her followers. The comments section quickly filled up with people confirming they’d learned this the hard way.

The science supports her theory, even if the biology is less than flattering. Pubic hair functions as a physical cushion that reduces friction in a sensitive area, acting as a protective buffer against skin-on-skin contact. When you remove it, two smooth surfaces press directly together—which, under the right conditions, produces sounds that have no business coming out of a person who just spent $80 on personal grooming.

@sarahebaus

ANYONE getting a Brazilian wax should know this bringing this one back #brazilianwax #comedy

♬ original sound – Sarah Baus

Getting a Brazilian Wax Can Apparently Change the Way You Fart

Courtney Claghorn, founder of specialty grooming salon SUGARED + BRONZED, confirmed the basic physics to the New York Post. “Removing hair does leave you with smooth, bare skin, so I can understand the theory that increased skin-to-skin contact, especially when there’s moisture involved, could occasionally create some unexpected noises,” Claghorn said, adding that keeping the area cool, dry, and covered with loose breathable clothing may help reduce friction and moisture between the skin post-wax.

The internet has been crowdsourcing solutions and commiserating in equal measure. “My farts have been putting my husband’s to shame since I started getting waxed,” one person admitted in Baus’s comments. Another offered a practical workaround: “Little life hack for [bikini farts]—if you cup and pull one [butt cheek] while you fart, there won’t be any noise because you’ve pulled away the part that makes noise.” A nurse practitioner on TikTok who goes by @hijabiluscious talked to her own followers about it: “Understand that if you get a Brazilian bikini wax, you may be subjected to having very loud farts that you didn’t expect.”

For anyone newly initiated, Claghorn recommends waiting at least 24 hours before getting intimate post-wax, or 48 hours for those prone to ingrown hairs. The recovery has enough going on as it is.

The post The Embarrassing Brazilian Wax Side Effect Your Esthetician Forgot to Mention appeared first on VICE.

Not to make light—or lightning, I guess—of a man’s death, but when an active volcano known for spewing molten rock and ash and occasionally producing volcanic lightning has signs telling people to please be careful because the area is experiencing intense volcanic activity, it’s probably best to abide by the sign’s wisdom.

According to the Associated Press, a 29-year-old Kansas man died Sunday after being struck by lightning while hiking on Sicily’s Mount Etna, Europe’s largest active volcano.

Rescuers found the man alone in an exposed area around 4,600 feet above sea level. He was airlifted to a hospital in Catania in cardiac arrest and was later pronounced dead. His name has not been released.

Kansas Man Dies After Being Struck by Lightning on Mount Etna

Local authorities had restricted access to parts of the volcano because of recent heightened activity, some of which, namely its volcanic ash, had disrupted flights at nearby Catania Airport. The area where the man was reportedly found, Valle del Bove, had been closed to hikers, according to local fire officials.

The source of the lightning is up for debate. Weather forecasts had predicted thunderstorms in Sicily on Sunday, but lightning can also be generated by volcanic eruptions, which create electrical charges when ash particles collide, creating terrifying electrical bolts nestled within the ominous dark plumes billowing out of a vent. Officials say that more people have died from lightning strikes on Etna in recent decades than from the volcano itself.

The last time someone died from an eruption-related incident was in 1987.

The post 29-Year-Old Tourist Killed by Lightning While Hiking Sicily’s Active Mount Etna appeared first on VICE.

When we think about data collection and the potential for some all-powerful entity to amass a comprehensive dossier of our behaviors, we tend to think of shadowy government agencies. You probably never would’ve suspected that McDonald’s has one on you. Because they do if you’re part of its loyalty program, which, according to a report from WIRED, collects an enormous amount of data that’s used to predict what you’ll eat next.

WIRED reporter Reece Rogers found this out after requesting his personal data from McDonald’s as a California resident. He got back a 515-page report detailing his years of purchases, his loyalty-points history, his activity, any promotional offers associated with this account, and even the codes he scanned for the McDonald’s Monopoly game.

Every interaction he had with the brand over the years was compiled into a report longer than the average novel. And it was all being fed into an algorithm that could predict his McDonald’s-related behavior.

A McDonald’s Customer Requested His Data and Got Back a 515-Page Report

For instance, the company was able to predict that Rogers would visit McDonald’s 2.16 times of the next six weeks, spending an average of $13.49 per order. It even provided him with a ranking of McDonald’s menu items that were most relevant to him. The top three included some McDonald’s standards, like a large Diet Coke and a spicy snack wrap.

I got a real kick out of the item in the number three slot, wherein McDonald’s predicted that Rogers would be gaga over the Grinch McShaker Fry Large, a limited-time offering that let people pour a little packet of Grinch-themed dill pickle-flavored powder over fries.

His “Customer Attrition Likelihood,” a.k.a. the odds that he’ll stop going to McDonald’s, was zero. They even know when they’ve ensnared you for life.

McDonald’s says this info helps provide personalized deals and messages, while privacy experts say all this extensive data collection is the norm for loyalty programs. Every transaction you make as a loyalty rewards program member is grist for the algorithmic mill.

Rogers asked McDonald’s to delete his information. Probably for the best. Being in the thrall of a fast food menu is bad enough. Having gone so often, so regularly, that they know, for absolute fact, that you’ll never free yourself from its trap is just a bit unsettling.

The post McDonald’s Built a 515-Page Dossier on One Customer to Predict What He’d Order Next appeared first on VICE.

A theme park next door would probably come with some trade-offs. Like, horrific screams whirring past your house, for example. 

Universal Studios Hollywood’s “Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift” coaster—its first-ever outdoor roller coaster—has been in technical rehearsals since July, when a limited number of park guests were invited to test it. The ride hits 72 mph and features 360-degree rotating vehicles designed to simulate drifting. It sits on a hillside in the park’s upper lot, elevated above the Lakeside Golf Course, overlooking the residential streets of Toluca Lake below.

The neighbors noticed immediately. “When it’s running, it’s constant, and it sounds like bloody murder over there,” Toluca Lake resident Colby Jensen told KTLA. “It’s like a horror film going on. Constant screaming, yelling. Very intrusive.” Patrick Nazari described it to the LA Times with similar alarm: “You think something is happening. Like someone is getting murdered out there.” A third resident, Leonard R. Garner Jr., added: “I heard it, and I thought to myself, there are going to be problems with this.”

Universal Is Adding Sound Barriers After Complaints About Its New ‘Fast & Furious’ Coaster

The ride’s location compounds the issue. An outdoor coaster at 72 mph on an open hillside, with no natural buffer between the track and the residential neighborhood below, sends rider screams across the golf course and into homes with the doors shut.

Universal had tried to get ahead of this. Inside the Magic reported that sound-shield panels were incorporated around portions of the coaster in February, months before riders ever boarded. The park also promoted “sound reduction technology” as part of the ride’s design. Then the actual screaming started. LA City Councilmember Adrin Nazarian this week announced Universal would install two additional barriers, with construction expected to be complete by early September. Universal says the ride currently meets sound ordinance requirements and is adding more barriers in response to community feedback.

Universal’s statement walked a careful line, noting it welcomed community input, planned a meeting with HOA leadership, and would “continue to engage with our neighbors as the coaster remains in technical rehearsals ahead of its opening.” An official opening date has not been announced.

Universal’s first outdoor roller coaster doesn’t have an opening date yet. The neighbors, though, know exactly what it sounds like.

The post Universal’s New ‘Fast & Furious’ Coaster Has Neighbors Complaining About Screams appeared first on VICE.

Svalbard sits about 620 miles from the North Pole and is one of the few places left on Earth where polar bears roam freely. Thousands of tourists visit every year to see them in their natural habitat, and the Golden Rule is—look, snap some pics, and move on. Not everyone gets that. 

Earlier this month, an unidentified boat operator sailing through a fjord in northeastern Svalbard spotted a bear resting on land and responded by blasting the ship’s foghorn. The bear woke up and moved. The governor of the territory’s office issued a fine of $5,255 under Section 30a of the Svalbard Environmental Act, which prohibits needlessly disturbing, attracting, or pursuing a polar bear. The operator agreed to pay.

This wasn’t the first time this has happened. In June 2024, two guides with a French shipping company were each fined around $2,100 after steering paying guests in rubber boats toward a polar bear and cub feeding on a whale carcass in northern Svalbard. That incident was at least somewhat understandable, however dumb and misguided. Someone wanting a closer look is a human impulse. Blasting a foghorn at a sleeping bear is just being an a**hole. 

Norway Fined a Boat Operator for Disturbing a Sleeping Polar Bear in Svalbard

The rules have gotten stricter because tourism has boomed. Svalbard saw 506 cruise ships carrying 67,000 passengers in 2024 alone, a number that has doubled in under 15 years. Protections that took effect in January 2025 now require vessels to stay at least 300 meters from bears in summer and 500 meters through June. Fines are just the starting point for violations. In serious cases, the penalty goes up to five years in prison.

The bears are doing better than the headlines around them suggest. Jon Aars, a senior scientist with the Norwegian Polar Institute, led a team that tracked the weight and size of nearly 800 bears in Svalbard between 1992 and 2019 and found them healthy and reproducing despite major sea ice loss. “I was quite surprised,” Aars told CBS News, “because we have lost so much sea ice since I started.” His data suggests the bears have adapted, hunting more efficiently as shrinking ice concentrates their prey. “Some of us would predict that they should be in trouble already,” he said.

They’ve outlasted unregulated hunting and a warming Arctic. A foghorn is a minor problem by comparison, but it’s still a d*ck move. 

The post A Boat Operator Was Fined for Waking a Sleeping Polar Bear With a Foghorn appeared first on VICE.

There’s a reason dogs are trusted as emotional companions. If it seems like they have a nearly supernatural ability to sense human emotion, it’s because they practically do. As researchers at the University of Vienna recently found, dogs are especially good at parsing the emotions we humans are expressing with our faces.

The study, published in iScience, used fMRI scans to watch what happened inside dogs’ brains while they looked at photographs of human faces showing happiness, sadness, anger and fear. One of the study’s limitations is also one of the reasons the researchers were able to complete it at all. It’s difficult to get humans to sit still for an MRI scan, let alone a dog. The researchers had to use a specific breed, border collies, because they were especially good at sitting still on command. Border collies are great at following social cues and love following human orders.

In the first experiment, researchers found that happy human faces activated areas including the dogs’ temporal cortex and caudate nucleus. In a follow-up experiment involving 12 dogs, researchers went further, finding distinct brain activity patterns when the animals viewed fearful, angry and sad faces.

Dogs Can Apparently Read Your Face, Even When You’re Trying to Hide It

The researchers found that the dogs could distinguish between several nuanced expressions of emotion, particularly negative ones. That doesn’t necessarily mean that dogs totally understand emotion. They don’t look at your sad face and know that you’re sad because of your recent breakup. They just know that you’re sad.

In the real world, they have more information to work with than a still image of a sad face. Dogs pick up on and respond to a variety of cues, including body language, vocal tics, and even a person’s smell can tip off their mood.

While the study primarily focused on collies, broadly speaking, the study does offer some direct evidence of something that dog owners have long suspected: our precious, angelic little pooches really do seem to know what we’re feeling.

They don’t know why you’re in a bad mood. But they know you’re in one, which is a lot more than some people can say about their human partners.

The post Your Dog May Know You’re Sad Just by Looking at Your Face, Study Finds appeared first on VICE.

No one’s getting hired by sending a PDF into the void anymore.

The math on job searching in 2026 helps explain why. The average corporate job posting attracts 242 applications, and according to data from The Interview Guys, 75% of resumes never reach a human being at all, filtered out in under a second by AI before anyone with a pulse sees them. Only 2-3% of applications lead to interviews. So now, people are posting their resumes on TikTok.

What started as a Gen Z workaround is now an actual job search strategy across generations. TikTok has officially overtaken LinkedIn as the top job search tool among Gen Z, with 22.1% using it compared to 20.8% on LinkedIn. And 46% of Gen Z workers say they’ve landed a job or internship by using the platform, according to Zety’s 2025 Gen Z Career Trends Report. One in five scored an interview because of a post.

Gen Z Is Using TikTok to Find Jobs Because Regular Applications Feel Broken

Times are-a-changin’ and how people look for jobs is no exception. “The application process seems kind of broken, and applying to jobs on LinkedIn feels like a wild black hole where your resume gets screened out by AI filters before you get seen by a person,” creative strategist Josh Katz told the New York Post. Katz posted a 60-second video resume and invited his comments section to serve as his reference letter. It pulled hundreds of thousands of views, produced multiple interviews, and kept pulling in freelance work months after posting.

TikTok is just the most visible example. 73% of millennials say they found their last job through a social media platform, and Instagram portfolios, LinkedIn video posts, and YouTube channels are all new platforms of choice, especially in creative fields. Employers are already looking at your social media profiles anyway: 91% of U.S. companies now use social media in their hiring process, with 82% using it to find candidates who aren’t actively applying anywhere. People sourced through social media are eight times more likely to get hired than those coming through traditional job boards.

The one real caution is how public this all is. A post that comes across as sloppy or desperate can circulate just as fast as one that was done well. Before you post, ask yourself if this is how you would really present yourself at an interview. Just because the platform changed doesn’t mean the job standards did. 

The post Gen Z Started Using TikTok to Find Jobs Out of Desperation, and It’s Actually Working appeared first on VICE.

China’s short drama industry is worth nearly $18 billion globally. And some of that money is going toward very personalized passion projects

Actor Zhong Yufei, 23, recently went public on social media about a production that was supposed to be his big break in the Chinese short drama world. The unnamed investor behind the 50-episode series had two non-negotiable conditions for putting up the money: she would play the lead female role, and she would have final say on the script. No one on set was in a position to argue, because she could pull the plug at any time, and everyone knew it.

What she did with that power was commission over 60 kissing scenes.

According to Zhong and producer Meng Xing, who later came forward to explain what happened, the crew pushed back. The director reportedly told the investor repeatedly that the volume of intimate scenes would disrupt the plot and lose audiences. The investor’s alleged response: “I’ve seen more short dramas than you’ve ever made.” The kissing scenes stayed.

A Short Drama Investor Allegedly Gave Herself the Lead Role and 60 Kissing Scenes

Zhong says his co-star took things further on set. During their first romantic scene, he claims she French-kissed him without warning. When he instinctively pulled back, she allegedly grabbed the back of his head and held him there. He was new to lead roles, and he felt like speaking up could cost him the project, so he didn’t. He also says the rest of the crew looked the other way.

The production ended in commercial failure. After filming wrapped, the streaming platform rejected over 20 scenes for being too explicit, gutting chunks of the plot. The investor then allegedly refused to pay the remaining 30,000 yuan (roughly $4,100) of the production fee, reportedly because she was unhappy that so many of her kissing scenes got cut.

The story blew up on Chinese social media, and the numbers behind the industry make it more unsurprising than it sounds. China’s short drama market hit $6.9 billion domestically in 2024, and the flood of outside investment has come with almost no creative gatekeeping. Whoever controls the budget controls everything, including the script, the casting, and how many times the male lead has to kiss them.

Producer Meng Xing said he and his team had almost no say throughout the entire production. The director clarified publicly that all decisions ran through the investor. The production company stated it would do a better job protecting actors’ rights in future contracts. Whether that actually changes anything remains to be seen.

The post A Wealthy Woman Funded a Drama Series Just So She Could Kiss the Male Lead 60 Times appeared first on VICE.

There’s a fluffy Yorkie in the produce section, and its owner cannot understand why anyone has a problem with this.

Pet humanization has been building to this for years. Sixty-nine percent of millennials and Gen Z now describe their pets as family members. The American Pet Products Association projects the US pet industry will hit $165.6 billion in 2026. When the average annual cost of dog ownership hits $2,500, the grocery store ban feels almost arbitrary.

Reddit has been arguing about it for weeks. On r/AskUK, shoppers complained about dogs urinating in aisles, owners touching produce while carrying their pets, and staff allegedly affording animals “superior rights.” One commenter described the habit as “unsanitary and inconsiderate.” Not everyone agreed.

“Do you really think having a dog in a grocer is that unhygienic compared to the average person? They’re hardly going to be licking the fruit,” one commenter wrote on Reddit. “If anything, letting kids run amok would be less hygienic.”

Why Are People Bringing Dogs Into Grocery Stores?

People act surprised by the rules, but the rules aren’t new. The FDA Food Code bans live animals from food establishments across the board. Trained service animals get an exception under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Emotional support animals do not. Publix felt compelled to post signs about this at its store entrances in 2023—”not permitted in Publix, even with a doctor’s note”—and the signs went viral.

The fact that a grocery chain had to put up a sign explaining federal law tells you where things stood. AKA—entitled owners. The UK draws a similar line, with pet dogs holding no legal right of access to food shops and only assistance dogs protected—though enforcement gets complicated when handlers aren’t required to show proof.

Dogs carry pathogens on their paws and coats, and a grocery store has no shortage of open surfaces for those to land on. Fresh produce bins, deli counters, and bakery displays were not designed with a dog in the aisle in mind. A calm, leashed dog poses minimal risk. What’s harder to manage is the dog that isn’t calm or leashed, the one sniffing shelves and making contact with surfaces that don’t get wiped down between shoppers.

That dog exists; it shows up in grocery stores, and most stores have no infrastructure to address it before something has already gone wrong.

The pet industry got to $165 billion by following the dog wherever it wanted to go. Federal food safety law draws the line at the grocery store. One of those forces is winning, and it isn’t the FDA.

The post Why Everyone Is Suddenly Fighting About Dogs in Grocery Stores appeared first on VICE.

In 1987, the descendants of Boston-area blacksmith Thomas Wells donated a label belonging to a chest of Chinese tea recovered from the Boston Tea Party to the Old South Meeting House. It’s a museum today, but back in 1773, that’s where the Boston Tea Party was planned. The problem, as researchers have just discovered, is that the label was probably created somewhere between the 1860s and 1870s, about 100 years after the historic event.  

MIT historian Tristan Brown initially assumed the label was genuine. Then he translated the Chinese script on the label.

It’s not like he was the first to do this. Previous researchers have translated its writing, but they translated it in Mandarin. Brown is a historian of China and, as such, realized that part of the writing made more sense in Cantonese, the language that dominated Chinese commercial shipping networks.

Suddenly, the label made a lot more sense. It revealed an American name, “Smith, Archer,” as it identified Smith, Archer and Co., a New York trading firm active in East Asia during the 1860s and 1870s.

A Supposed Relic From the Boston Tea Party Just Got a Very Different Origin Story

And thus, the idea that this label belonged to a chest of tea tossed into the harbor during the Boston Tea Party died. But that doesn’t mean the label doesn’t have a little bit of fascinating history of its own. Brown says the label likely made it to the Wells family through John Milton Wells, a relative who went west during the gold rush and later sold imported Asian teeth in Michigan.

Somewhere along the way, as it traveled through the tangled web of history, the label became associated with a foundational moment in American history and eventually became a museum piece.

The myth grew larger and larger during the 19^th century, an era when America became obsessed with its own revolutionary past. Family stories, museum displays, and newspaper articles passed it on. At some point, what might’ve started as an understanding became historical fact.

The post A Supposed Boston Tea Party Artifact May Not Be From the Boston Tea Party at All appeared first on VICE.

Almost exactly a year after I wrote about how one of the biggest nuclear power plants in Europe was shut down by a swarm of jellyfish that clogged its cooling system, it happened again.

According to Reuters, three reactors at France’s Gravelines nuclear power plant were taken offline Monday after a massive jellyfish swarm clogged the systems that draw in seawater to cool the reactors. A fourth reactor was reduced to half power, just in case.

This is becoming an annual tradition for the jellyfish, as in August 2025 they did the same thing, shutting down four of six reactors at the very same nuclear power plant. Back then, officials spent hundreds of thousands of euros installing cameras to improve monitoring and arranging for fishing boats to patrol the area.

While it sounds like they failed, actually, all did their jobs. The swarm was just too powerful. The fishing boats were deployed this year after early warnings, and the crews got to work using vacuum trucks to suck up the jellyfish and already reached the plant.

Three Reactors Went Offline After Jellyfish Clogged a French Nuclear Plant’s Cooling System

French utility provider EDF says the massive jellyfish swarm poses no danger to anyone and that the affected reactors will return to service soon. Don’t worry, your Godzilla nightmares will not come true, as the jellyfish are not being exposed to radiation of any kind, though the reason they were swarming a nuclear reactor is something of a weapon of mass destruction: climate change.

Warm oceans encourage jellyfish to reproduce and extend their breeding seasons. Other factors, like overfishing, habitat loss, and population declines in their natural predators, also help these blooms grow.

Obviously, this isn’t the first time this has happened, but even last year’s jellyfish clog wasn’t the first time. It’s been happening at nuclear reactors all over the world for at least a decade and a half, maybe more. Like the rest of us during the peak of summer, when it gets too hot, we retreat to cooler temps. And since we don’t seem to be doing too much about climate change, we can probably expect this to happen more often.

So I’ll see you back here in a year.

The post A Jellyfish Swarm Shut Down Reactors at One of Europe’s Biggest Nuclear Plants appeared first on VICE.

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who order the fries for the table, and those who steal them off someone else’s plate. Within that, there's a very special subgroup—the ones who order the fries, don’t Venmo request anyone, and just silently let the group benefit. Bless those people. There’s a special place in heaven for them (probably with a trio of unlimited aiolis and fountain Diet Coke).

Fries are technically a side dish, but let’s be real: they’re doing main character work. Whether they’re saving a sad dinner, showing up as girl dinner (see: Caesar salad, fries, and a Diet Coke), or loaded with toppings and eaten straight from the sheet pan, fries are the one food that almost no one can resist.

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If you’ve ever tried to find Medjool dates in a grocery store, you know it’s not always intuitive. You might check near the bananas, wander toward the baking aisle, or give up and ask someone. Until recently, date packaging rarely did itself any favors: generic plastic clamshells, muted colors, minimal context. The fruit may have been sweet, but it didn’t exactly look like it.

That started to change in 2019, when a line of brightly packaged, California-grown Medjool dates called Joolies started showing up in stores across the country. You’ve probably seen them even if you don’t know the name: turquoise stand-up pouches stamped with a bold yellow sun, sitting up in the produce section. Joolies wasn’t just trying to sell dates—they were trying to rebrand them entirely.

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If there’s one thing I love in this world, it’s an unexpected cocktail—especially heading into the summer months, when Friday happy hours feel more joyous than ever. I’m always on a quest to perfect my espresso martini (more on that soon), but this month, I’m in the mood for something new.

And that leads us to the question that rolls around every June: What’s going to be the drink of the summer? A safe bet (that I’d put actual money on) is the Aperol spritz, still going strong five years later. The limoncello spritz has also gained steam—and honestly, I get the appeal. I recently tried Pallini’s version for their summer spritz activation, and their sunny vibes once again sold me.

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There’s no doubt that America is currently obsessed with matcha. In desserts, savory dishes, and lattes, green tea is finally getting its flowers. However, there are a few recipes that truly stand out from the rest in terms of internet virality. In this case, I have not been able to escape matcha brookies—which are exactly what they sound likematcha blondie dough combined with chocolate chip cookie dough. The original viral video and recipe is made by Ivy Woolenberg, otherwise known as @bakedwithlovebyivy on social media, and we were lucky enough to host her in the Food52 test kitchen to make her signature dessert.

Here’s how we made them:

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The word viral is overused (I’m guilty), but when it comes to the internet-iconic Rhode Island coffee shop The Nitro Bar, there’s no better way to describe the phenomenon. The Nitro Bar has three locations across the tiny state of Rhode Island, and all of them have an ever-growing line out the door at all times. Their TikTok and Instagram rack up crazy impression numbers, which has food businesses everywhere copying their marketing tactics. The genius behind it all: Audrey Finocchiaro, the co-owner and co-founder of the successful shop(s), which started as a humble little cart serving cold brew.

The videos and social media content that perform so well pretty much all showcase a Nitro Bar drink being made, with a specialty coffee syrup or some sort of flavored twist. Right now, their summer syrups include strawberry and caramelized banana (yum), while some off-season favorites include orange chocolate, black raspberry, and cherry vanilla. Customers wait in long lines year-round for anything and everything Nitro Bar— including me. When I lived in Boston a few years ago, I would hop on the commuter rail train to Providence and get their chocolate wafer iced latte and spend a rainy day sipping and snacking with friends. I’ve been a follower of Audrey and the Nitro Bar’s work for a while now, and was so happy to get her into the Food52 office.

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In no particular order, I believe three of the world’s hardest questions to answer are as follows:

1. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
2. What do you want to eat?
3. What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?

Numbers 1 and 2 will always elicit some sort of response in the vein of “I couldn’t have less of an idea.” But number 3? Oh, I have lots of ideas… and even more follow-up questions.

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