Frosted Flakes: Astronauts, Emotional Support Animals and a Book Thief

Early in the week, temperatures were up in the mid-50s in southern Alberta, Canada. Now with a little bit of snow coming in yesterday, temperatures have dropped to the 20s. It was nice while it lasted. Thankfully I will be in Panama a month from now so I won’t have to worry about the cold weather for too much longer. This year, I spent more time in Canada than I expected so it will be nice to have a change of scenery and be able to get outside a little bit more.

There is still a lot of places to explore in Panama. January and February are dry season in Panama, which is usually the best time to visit there. However, I do realize that there’s a good chance Panama could be still be implementing strict measures next month. At this point, I’m just happy to be in a new place. I’ve reach the point where I start getting antsy if I’m staying in one place for more than 4-5 months at the time. I plan to spend around 2-3 months in Panama before moving to other parts of Central America. We’ll see how things works out.

Where is the first place that you want to travel next year once the vaccine is readily and the pandemic dies down? Let’s hear it in the comments below. Anyways…onto Flakes.

Nebraska Cornhuskers Men’s Basketball Fall to Yellow Jackets | Basketball | Corn Nation

A strong finish to the first half and a quick start to the second half put Nebraska in position to get a little pay back for last year’s 73-56 loss to Georgia Tech, and claim one more win for the Big 10 in the ACC/Big 10 challenge Wednesday at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Mailbag: A Husker-Themed Game of Should They Stay or Should They Go | Sports | Hail Varsity

Hail Varsity staff members Mike Babcock, Jacob Padilla, Greg Smith, Erin Sorensen and Brandon Vogel tackle your questions about the latest news in Husker Nation.

Tom Shatel: Nebraska Must Learn to Fight Through Adversity as a Team | Basketball | Omaha World-Herald

Fred Hoiberg’s second Nebraska team has upgraded talent and scoring ability and had a golden opportunity to beat an ACC team Wednesday. Instead, they were handed a 11-point loss to Georgia Tech and a hard lesson in power conference hoops. NU held a two-point lead at the seven-minute timeout in the second half, then watched Tech flip the game in the next four minutes.

Scouting Minnesota: Breaking Down the Golden Gophers | Football | Lincoln Journal Star

Nebraska would do well to avoid a slow start. Minnesota is 21-3 all-time under P.J. Fleck when it scores first, and the Gophers are 24-2 when leading at half. Combined with Nebraska’s second-half adventures this season, that’s a potentially dangerous spot to be in should the Huskers be on the short end of the scoreboard after two quarters.

Why Husker Junior Cam Taylor-Britt Is Ascending Into One of the Big Ten’s Best Corners | Football | Lincoln Journal Star

“Cam is playing at an elite level,” senior cornerback Dicaprio Bootle said Monday. “He’s a heavy competitor. Somebody who, no matter what it is, we could be flipping a coin and he’s going to want to get in on that coin flip and be able to call whether it’s heads or tails. That’s just a testament to the guy that he is.”

Holiday Gift Guides: The Best Presents for Every Type of Traveler | Travel | Conde Nast Traveler

Whether you’re in the market for budget-friendly, under-$50 gifts, a present for your friend who only talks about their trip to Italy or something for the traveler who turned to coffee or cooking to get through the year, we’ve got plenty of options.

How to Ensure Your Family Sits Together on a Plane | Travel | Conde Nast Traveler

Although it seems like a service you shouldn’t have to pay for, there is actually no federal regulation requiring airlines to seat parents with their children for free. Once a child passes the age of 2 years old, airlines can technically seat them anywhere on the plane. Most carriers, however, will try to work with passengers so at least one parent can be next to a young child without having to hand over more money.

Emotional Support Animals No Longer Guaranteed the Right to Fly | Travel | Travel and Leisure

The Department of Transportation’s Airline Carrier Access Act (ACAA) now strictly defines a service animal as a “dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability.” That disability can include, “physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability.”

You Can Now Do a COVID Test At Home Before Flying to Any of These 14 US Destinations | Travel | Lonely Planet

The airline began offering the service to domestic passengers flying to Hawaii, and international passengers traveling to Belize, Grenada and St Lucia on November 16. Now its rolling out the at-home COVID-19 testing kit to passengers flying to all US destinations where a negative test result is required to skip or shorten mandatory quarantine.

In Mexico’s Vibrant Forests, Locals Adapt to a Year Without Tourists | Travel | National Geographic

Loss of tourist revenue has prompted some forest communities to return to illegal logging, while others scrape by on subsistence farming. But under pressure, solutions also tend to crystalize. Forest communities across the country are finding new ways to invite the outside world in—and protect their forests at the same time.

Are Economics Driving Tourists to Reopen Countries? | Travel | National Geographic

Coronavirus is raging in countries including the United States, France, and Germany. Many other nations are returning to full or partial lockdowns to combat viral transmission as we head into an ominous winter. Yet other countries are starting to reopen to tourists coming from the very same places where the virus is rampant. Why is this happening?

Canada’s Little-Known Emerald Isle | Travel | BBC

Jutting out of the east of Fogo Island, Tilting looks across the ocean towards Ireland. But turn inland and you’ll find Ireland there too. A welcome sign on the side of the road announces “Fáilte go Tilting” (“Welcome to Tilting” in Irish) and shamrocks adorn buildings and flagpoles.

India’s Beloved Gargantuan Roti | Travel | BBC

One of the top-trending foods in India through the pandemic has been khoba roti, a beautiful rustic bread from the north-western state of Rajasthan. Crafted from wheat flour, salt, chili flakes and carom seeds, the unleavened flatbread with intricate patterns and ghee-filled indentations has catapulted to fame through a spontaneous social media trend.

The Man Who Found Forrest Fenn’s Treasure | Adventure | Outside Online

The decade-long hunt captured the world’s attention, but when it finally ended in June, everyone still wanted to know: Who had solved the mystery? This week, as legal proceedings threaten his anonymity, a 32-year-old medical student is ready to go on the record.

How German Libraries Caught An Elusive Book Thief | History | Atlas Obscura

On the afternoon of February 21, 2006, Norbert Schild sat down at a desk in the reading room of the City Library of Trier, in western Germany, and opened a 400-year-old book on European geography. Working quickly, Schild laid a piece of blank white paper on top of the book, took a boxcutter from his lap, and discreetly sliced out a map of Alsace from pages 375 and 376.

‘The Queen’s Gambit’ is Inspiring Millions of Newcomers to Play Chess | Games | CNN

In the first three weeks after its debut, sales of chess sets went up by 87% in the US and sales of books about chess leaped 603%, according to marketing research company NPD Group. Google searches for chess shot up from October to last month. And crafts site Etsy has seen a 364% increase in searches for chess items in the past month compared to the same time last year, said spokeswoman Hannah Album.

To Study Aging, Scientists Are Looking to Outer Space | Science | National Geographic

The new studies bring us a step closer to identifying the mechanisms underpinning the biological responses to living in space. More than 200 scientists demonstrated that space upends the genes, mitochondrial function, and chemical balances in the cells to trigger a cascade of broader health effects in spacefaring humans and animals.

These Shrimp Parade on Land. Now We Know Why. | Animals | National Geographic

The parade, they observed, is a continuous stream of shrimp leaving and joining the crowd, depending on the amount of time they’d been out of the water, with some individuals marching distances of up to 65 feet.

NASA Announces Artemis Astronauts to Fly to the Moon | Space | National Geographic

None of the 18 astronauts has been assigned to a specific Artemis mission yet. NASA says that more astronauts, including some from international partners, will be added in the future. But this group is the first to begin preparing for NASA’s 21st-century moon missions. Of the 18, nine are women—and one of them might well be the first to walk on the moon.

“Secret’s out…chicken man.”