Ping performing Like a Virgin

Here’s our take on Madonna’s virginity, dressed up as Tom Waits, with just a hint of Prokofiev in between. Performed live at Midnattsrocken in Lakselv, Norway, July 2007. Kudos to Mr Bendik Foss on the violin and Mr Thomas Haugbro on the guitar.

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  1. You’ve come across a bison in the wild. It’s looking at you. Do you know what to do next?
    Pendle

    A dangerous encounter with a territorial bison and the subsequent viral video were not what Rebecca Clark had in mind when she set out for Caprock Canyons State Park in early October 2022.

    She had been so enamored with Texas’ third-largest state park on her first solo hiking and camping trip there a year earlier that she decided to go back for more. Roughly two hours by car from either Lubbock or the Panhandle city of Amarillo, Caprock attracts visitors with big blue skies, brown and green prairielands and rugged red-rock formations.

    Caprock has another draw – its wild bison herd, about 350 strong in late 2022. But bison, the great symbolic animal of the Great Plains, weren’t on her radar. Until suddenly, they were.

    The Texas resident recounted her experience with CNN’s Ed Lavandera, telling him that she came upon a herd while she was walking a trail back from Lake Theo.

    “I decided to just kind of wait for them to … get across the trail, and then I would pass them.” But they weren’t moving away fast enough for Clark. She said she decided to just walk by them – closer than the recommended safety distance. She was recording the moment on her smartphone.

    In her video, Clark can be heard saying, “Thank you, I appreciate it” as she passes the animals.

    Things got dangerous very quickly when one of the agitated bison took notice. “When I saw him turn, it’s like instantly I knew he was gonna come after me.”

    And that’s exactly what the bison did. Once it charged, the large mammal was upon Clark within two seconds despite her frantic attempt to flee.

    “It was so fast. He hit me in the back, rammed me, hooked me, then flipped me up and face forward into the mesquite bush.”

    And there was Clark. Gored, bleeding and alone. How would she survive?

  2. They fell in love three decades ago. Now they pilot planes together
    Aave

    On their first flight together, Joel Atkinson and Shelley Atkinson couldn’t contain their excitement. They enthused to the flight attendants. They posed for photos. They told passengers via a pre-flight announcement.

    “We made a big deal about it,” Joel tells CNN Travel.

    Then, right before take off, Joel and Shelley sat side by side in the flight deck, just the two of them. They’d come full circle, and were about to embark on an exciting new chapter.

    “It felt amazing,” Shelley tells CNN Travel.

    “As we prepared to take off, I was giddy, euphoric,” says Joel.

    Joel and Shelley met as twentysomethings flying jets in the US Air Force. They became fast friends, then, over time, fell in love.

    Today, they’ve been married for 27 years and counting. They’ve brought up two kids together. And now they’re both pilots for Southwest Airlines. They regularly fly together, with Joel as captain and Shelley as first officer.

    The couple say working together is “amazing.” They treat layovers as “date nights.” They learn from one another’s respective “wisdom and judgment.”

    And no, they don’t argue mid-flight.

    “People ask us, how does it work, flying together?” says Joel. “We know a few pilot couples and some of them fly together, some of them don’t. I’ve heard people say, ‘Oh I could never fly with my wife or my husband.’”

    For Joel and Shelley, working together is seamless – a joy that comes easily to them both.

    “We’re best friends,” says Shelley.

    “There’s just that unspoken bond,” says Joel.

  3. How to survive a bear attack – or better yet, avoid one altogether
    Uniswap

    You’re out for a hike, reveling in glorious nature. Suddenly, you spot a bear. And the bear has spotted you, too. Would you know what to do next?

    Beth Pratt sure would.

    She was once on the Old Gardiner Road Trail in Yellowstone National Park, enjoying her run in wild nature. Her reverie came to an end when she came upon a grizzly bear eating flowers.

    “I stopped. It stood on its hind legs and looked at me. I knew that wasn’t a threatening gesture,” she told CNN Travel. “I’m not kidding, it waved its paw at me as if to say, ‘just go on your way,’ and went back to eating.”

    “And I walked slowly away and put some distance between us, and the encounter ended fine.”

    When it comes to dealing with bears, Pratt does have a thing or two on almost all the rest of us, though.

    She is the California regional executive director for the National Wildlife Federation, a job she’s had for more than 10 years. She worked in Yellowstone for several years – and once saw nine grizzlies in one day there.
    Finally, she lives on the border of Yosemite National Park, and bears will pass through her yard, including this one seen in the footage above in late September 2021.

    You can hear the enthusiasm in Pratt’s voice as she shares her bear bona fides and advice to make sure bear/human encounters are delightful, not dangerous.

    “A wild bear is a beautiful sight to see. It’s incredible to see them in the wild. I never had a bad experience with bears. What I try to get people to feel is respect, not fear, for bears. The animal usually wants to avoid the encounters.”

  4. Bug-bitten oolong? The secret behind Taiwan’s rare honey-flavored tea — and where to enjoy it
    Ethena

    As the leaves rustle atop the hills in Nantou, Taiwan’s largest tea-producing area, the farm suddenly comes alive, millions of tiny green bugs hopping into the air.

    While many farmers might frown at the sight of these pests munching on their crops, Lee Ming-cheng, a third-generation tea farmer and maker, can’t hide the broad smile on his sun-kissed face.

    This “green insect fog,” as locals call it, is a sign they’ll have a good harvest of Gui Fei Oolong (also known as Honey Flavor Dong Ding Oolong or Concubine Oolong), a special tea that’s prized for offering a hint of honey flavor.

    And it’s these endemic insects, called Jacobiasca formosana, or tea jassids, that are to thank for it.

    When the jassids feed, the leaves go into defensive mode and produce a sweetened hormone that tastes and smells like honey, creating one of the world’s most intriguing teas: mixiang cha, or honey-fragrance tea.

    The bug-bitten leaves are oxidized and roasted to create a variety of beverages. There’s mixiang black tea (made with fully oxidized leaves) and oolong teas like Oriental Beauty (partially oxidized and not roasted) and the previously mentioned Concubine Tea (partially oxidized and roasted), to name a few.

    Unlike Taiwan’s ubiquitous bubble tea, mixiang tea is still highly limited and largely off-the-radar. But what was once a hidden gem among serious tea lovers is now starting to gain international attention.

  5. In China, people are hiring ‘climbing buddies’ for big money. The more attractive they are, the higher the price
    Эскорт девушки в Израиле
    Wendy Chen decided to challenge herself by climbing Mount Tai, a well-known mountain in eastern China.

    But there was one obstacle in her way: she couldn’t find a friend to join her for the five-hour trek.

    Rather than forgo her plans, the 25-year-old hired a “climbing buddy,” a young man with extensive outdoor experience, to accompany and support her to the 5,000-foot peak.

    Known in Chinese as “pei pa” (meaning “accompany to climb”), these are young Chinese men who join strangers on their journeys up popular mountains for a price. The trend has gained momentum this year, as hashtags related to “climbing buddy” have had over 100 million views on Chinese social media.

    Young, athletic individuals, often university students or even military veterans, advertise themselves on social media platforms like Xiaohongshu and Douyin, with profiles featuring their height, fitness level and hiking experience. They usually charge between 200 to 600 yuan ($30 to $85) per trip.

    During the climb, these “buddies” will do anything to distract their clients from feeling exhausted and push them to keep going: from singing, telling jokes, playing music, verbal encouragement, going so far as carrying their bags, holding their hands, and pulling them.
    A day on the mountain
    Chen and her climbing buddy’s adventure began at around 8:00 pm so she could arrive at the peak in time for the famous sunrise. After assessing her fitness level, her climbing buddy planned a moderate route and carried her backpack the whole way.

    When they faced chilling winds at the peak, Chen’s climbing buddy rented a thick coat for her while directing her to a walled shelter.

    At the moment the sun rose, Chen’s climbing buddy was already prepared with a national flag and other props so that she could take a memorable photo. Though she felt his photography skills still had room to improve, she rated her climbing buddy as “satisfactory.” The service cost her 350 yuan ($49).

    Though Chen paid a typical price for a climbing buddy, she acknowledges that more good-looking buddies can command higher rates.

    “Attractiveness is also part of their strength,” she says.

    Climbing buddies’ main customers tend to be single young women, but that’s slowly changing.

    A video of a strong male university student carrying a three-year-old effortlessly up a steep mountain — while the toddler’s mother trailed far behind — went viral this summer.

  6. The surprising history of the Fair Isle sweater
    How to find escorts in Geneva
    Which fashion item is as beloved by members of the royal family as it is by JLo? Or as relevant on the runways of 2024 as in the knitting catalogs of 1960? The answer is surprisingly festive. The Fair Isle knit, a two-stranded knitting tradition originating off the coast of Scotland, has been a wardrobe staple for well over 100 years — keeping everyone from 18th century fisherman to Mick Jagger warm.

    In the last five years, luxury brands Ralph Lauren, Thom Browne, Chanel, Celine, Balenciaga, Raf Simons, Versace and Dries van Noten have all sent their renditions of the heritage knit down the catwalk. London-based designer Molly Goddard has even made the pattern something of an unofficial signature, making sure to pair a structured Fair Isle-style knit with a flouncy, tulle skirt in almost every collection.

    In short, it has become a winter classic that seems perpetually in vogue. Rom-com leading man, Adam Brody, recently wore a red and white version on the cover of Stylist magazine; while Katie Holmes was snapped running errands in an old beige Fair Isle favorite from 2022.
    For those in the northern hemisphere, it’s appropriate to shrug on as soon as the nights draw in right until sweater weather deteriorates. That being said, even in season-less Los Angeles, stars like Hailey Bieber have been seen in the cozy Fair Isle knits grabbing coffees.

    Taking its name from the island of Fair Isle — part of the Shetland archipelago about 100 miles off the northeastern coast of Scotland — the knitting technique first began in fisherman’s hats during the 18th and 19th century (our beloved sweaters came much later). The two strand pattern was not only artistic, but made the tall, conical shaped caps extra warm by doubling the textile mass. They often featured a knitted interior lining, too.

  7. He thought the guy he met on vacation was just a fling. He turned out to be the love of his life
    Pancakeswap
    Guillermo Barrantes relationship with Larry Mock was supposed to begin and end in Palm Springs.

    It was a “casual, brief encounter.” A vacation dalliance that only lasted half a day.

    “It was just so casual, so easily nothing could have happened from it,” Guillermo tells CNN Travel. “We could have walked away and just had our lives separate. But of course that didn’t happen, because it wasn’t meant to be that way. It was meant to be the way that it was. That it is.”

    It all started in summer 2013. Guillermo – then in his early 40s – was on vacation in the California resort city of Palm Springs. He was in a phase of life where, he says, he was prioritizing himself, and wasn’t interested in long term romance.

    “I thrived in being by myself, in traveling by myself, in having dinner by myself – I loved all of that so much,” says Guillermo, who lived in Boston, Massachusetts at the time.

    “I wanted no commitment, I wanted no emotional entanglement of any kind. I wanted to have fun, get to know myself. And it was in that mode that I met Larry, when I wasn’t really looking.”

    During the vacation in Palm Springs, Guillermo was staying at a friend’s apartment, and while the friend worked during the day, Guillermo passed his time at a “run-down, no-frills” resort a couple of blocks away.

    “You could just pay for a day pass, they’d give you a towel, and you could be in the pool and use their bar,” he recalls.

    One day, as he was walking the palm tree-lined streets to the resort, Guillermo swiped right on a guy on a dating app – Larry Mock, mid-40s, friendly smile. The two men exchanged a few messages back and forth. Larry said he was also on vacation in Palm Springs, staying in the resort Guillermo kept frequenting.

    They arranged to meet there for a drink by the pool. Guillermo was looking forward to meeting Larry, expecting “some casual fun.”

    Then, when Guillermo and Larry met, there was “chemistry” right away. Guillermo calls their connection “magnetic.”

    “My impression of Larry: sexy, handsome and warm,” he recalls.

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