Lovstuhagen

PHILADELPHIA — The final 1-cent coin pressed by the U.S. Mint on Wednesday cost more than a pretty penny to make. In fact, it cost about three of them, and some change.

The end of the 232-year-old coin comes after President Donald Trump, in a social media post in February, called for the Treasury secretary to halt the production of new pennies.

One penny costs 3.7 cents to make, according to the latest 2024 U.S. Mint Annual Report. That is about 270% more than they are worth.

Penny production cost has been on the rise in recent years. It grew about 20% from 2023 to last year.

Since 2000, the cost of a penny has more than quadrupled.

There's more of the story at the article, but here I have compiled some excerpts about the rice, how rice is assessed, etc.

Usually, the chef would perform several test runs with a new rice to figure out the best soaking times, water levels and cooking temperatures. But with only 420 grams of Kinmemai Premium to play with, he’s had to improvise.

Fujimoto rinsed the rice for a mere second and soaked it for 30 minutes — 30 minutes less than the recommended time — before adding it to the pot.

His initial assessment? “Nice, clear color. I like it.” His wife Ai’s take? “Whoa. Shiny.”

“Like a diamond,” adds Fujimoto. “You can see every grain standing out, which usually indicates good quality. The shape is beautiful, and the aroma is nicely balanced — not too strong.”

Tasting it, he gives his approval.

“The flavor is well-balanced. The texture is good. It has nice moisture. This rice will appeal to everyone.”

Is he tempted to buy the rice for his restaurant?

“No, no, no. It’s too expensive — we’d have to triple our prices,” he laughs.

Like Toyo’s in-house chef, he also believes the rice is better served plain, more suited to a kaiseki restaurant, an establishment serving traditional refined dishes. “I think this rice isn’t really suited for sushi. It might get mushy if mixed with vinegar,” he says.

Chef Nansen Lai owns several Hong Kong restaurants including Flower Drum and Lai’s Kitchen – the latter of which specializes in clay pot rice. He also sampled the Kinmemai Premium, comparing it with his house blend — a mix of Thai fragrant rice and Koshihikari, another high-quality grain, from Japan’s Niigata prefecture.

“It looks stickier and doesn’t have as strong a rice fragrance as Thai rice, which is a normal difference between Thai and Japanese rice,” he says.

He takes a bite.

“It’s delicious, with a much more complex taste and flavor than our house rice,” says Lai, before inviting his staff to try it.

“From a restaurateur’s perspective, we can’t afford rice like this. We also need a firmer rice, like Thai rice, that can stand up to stronger sauces. But this rice is so tasty you could eat it plain.”

Scientists working in Mexico have recorded multiple incidents in which a group of orcas hunt young great white sharks and eat their energy-rich livers.

While orca pods in South Africa, Australia and California have been recorded engaging in similar behavior, this is the first time that it has been documented in Mexico, according to a study published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science on Monday.

In one incident, recorded in August 2020 using various cameras as well as a drone that captured aerial footage, a group of five female killer whales were recorded working together to attack a young white shark and remove its liver, before sharing it between them.

A few minutes later, the group attacks another young white shark, successfully removing the liver.

Another recording dates to August 2022, when a mixed group of orcas were recorded attacking a young white shark in the same location, then eating the liver.

The study noted that in two of the three recorded predation events the orcas immobilized the shark by flipping it onto its back and deftly avoided bites that could thwart the attack.

An Australian freshwater Murray cod has surprised scientists by swimming a marathon 530 miles along a major river system, believed to be a record for the species.

The fish, named Arnie after Australia's recently retired Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus, was first tagged in early 2022 in Mullaroo Creek, about a 13-hour drive west of Sydney, said Arthur Rylah Institute researcher Zeb Tonkin.

Four years old and weighing in at 3.7 pounds at the time, it "took off" when floods hit the area in the spring of that year, Tonkin said, traveling an initial 470 miles upstream in fewer than two months.

The scaly river dweller, an apex water predator, was able to cover longer distances because barriers had been removed along the Murray River to let flood waters pass through.

"It basically provided free passage for fish," said Tonkin.

Arnie then turned around at some point in the past 12 months, swimming another 60 miles downstream toward home.

Researchers only discovered the extent of the fish's travels when sharing data with colleagues a couple of weeks ago.

"We've been working on these species for decades ... and we haven't come across that sort of scale of movement beforehand," Tonkin said. "Probably the best we have seen a Murray cod do is around 160 kilometers (100 miles)."