Reminder:

https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2023-01-10/virgin-orbits-statement-in-full-after-uks-space-mission-failed

An investigation will be carried out after a mission to launch satellites from the UK, which would have made British space history, failed.

The attempt to launch a rocket into orbit from UK soil for the first time suffered an 'anomaly' during the flight.
Virgin Orbit's modified Boeing 747 took off from Cornwall, last night (9 January) but the rocket failed to reach orbit after a technical issue.

Virgin Orbit issued a statement early this morning (10 January) saying that the historic attempt 'ultimately fell short of reaching its target'.

The statement goes on to read: "After successfully taking off from the runway at Spaceport Cornwall – which just a few weeks ago was transformed from a mere slab of empty cement at a commercial airport to the world’s newest space launch operations centre – and travelling to the designated drop zone, Cosmic Girl, the customised 747 that serves as the LauncherOne system’s carrier aircraft, successfully released the rocket. "The rocket then ignited its engines, quickly going hypersonic and successfully reaching space.

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“From a designer’s perspective, the human body is the most interesting topic ever,” says French-Algerian designer Anissa Kermiche. If you’re familiar with Anissa’s work, this statement will come as no surprise, but to the uninitiated (where have you been?), look only to her best-selling ‘Love Handles’ vase for a quick introduction. Yep, the designer’s jewellery and ceramics are unapologetic celebrations of the female form in all its voluptuous, womanly glory. But do such sensibilities carry through to her living space? We went for a nose around to find out...

00:21 - Unconventional Chairs
01:12 - Niece's Painting
01:59 - Dream Chest of Drawers
02:48 - Human Mirror
03:33 - Tea Set
04:21 - Jewellery Display
04:58 - Bedroom with Pink

https://www.thedailybeast.com/noma-worlds-best-restaurant-set-to-close-in-2024



Noma, the Copenhagen fine-dining institution widely considered the best restaurant in the world, is set to close for regular food service in 2024.

“To continue being noma, we must change,” a post shared on the restaurant’s Instagram page on Monday read. “Winter 2024 will be the last season of noma as we know it. We are beginning a new chapter; noma 3.0.”

In an interview with the New York Times, chef René Redzepi said Noma would instead become a full-time food laboratory with the dining room only opening occasionally for pop-ups. “It’s unsustainable,” Redzepi said of the modern fine-dining model. “Financially and emotionally, as an employer and as a human being, it just doesn’t work.”

His $500+ per person, three-Michelin-star restaurant topped the list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants for a record-breaking fifth time in 2021.



https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnMNfeeueHs/

https://noma.dk/

Read it at New York Times

From savory to sweet, the flavors of the Philippines are as vast as its islands.

https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/filipino-food-guide-flavors-seasoning



Growing up in the Philippines and stewing in the centuries-old roots of its colonizers—Spain, the United States, Japan—I always looked outwards, dreaming of elsewhere. I scoffed at most things local. But now, a decade after living far and away from my motherland, I realize that I was wrong. Why was I oblivious to riches all around me in that tropical paradise? My cuisine, often maligned, misunderstood and pigeon holed here in the West, is as vast and diverse as its over 7,000 islands. But there are hallmarks of its distinct flavor, recognizable across the diaspora, singing to our lonely souls in our homes away from home. Let’s break them down, element by element, these building blocks of Filipino food.

Rice is life

Kanin, or rice, is the staff of life for Filipinos. No meal, including midday merienda (a snack or light meal), passes muster without rice on the plate. It is a blank canvas, steamed plain, to be painted with the accompanying ulam (main entree) or jazzed up with garlic as seen in sinangag, which is a dishof garlic-potent fried rice. White rice is also the foundation of kakanin, the category of sticky sweet bites, including the varieties of suman, puto, and bibingka, enjoyed as breakfast, dessert, or snack.

Coconut reigns in dishes both sweet and savory

From the root to the trunk to the leaves and fruit, every element of the coconut (niyog) serves a purpose, including in Filipino cuisine. Coconut meat, juice, and milk are key ingredients in both savory and sweet preparations. Coconut juice is good to simply drink, of course, but it also makes the brothy base in dishes such as Binakol Na Manok, a.k.a. chicken in coconut soup. Then there’s an entire spectrum of guinataan dishes—which is to say, foods cooked with gata, or coconut cream or milk. Grated coconut flesh often accompanies rice cakes, otherwise known as kakanin. Or sweetened and transformed into macapuno, this coconut component makes its famous appearance in the iconic shaved iced dessert halo-halo.

Sour flavors are always welcome

Filipinos are suckers for the pucker of asim, or sour, flavors. From the generous use of vinegars of all kinds—sugar cane, palm or coconut—in adobo, paksiw, kinilaw or extra sawsawan, to citrus superstar calamansi as juice or seasoning to using fruits as souring agents in sinigang, to enjoying raw, sliced, green mangoes with bagoong, asim gives us life.

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