After the pandemic slapped us around the face, locked our doors and took away our keys, suddenly, a great portion of the population started checking in with themselves and focusing on their mental health. Being confined to our homes and having ‘normality’ snatched away from us, it’s been enough to send everyone a little bit nuts.Not to mention: the last decade has seen a huge shift in the understanding and broadcasting of mental health. This is a good thing. Promoting the message “It’s ok not to be ok” is something we need to prioritise, not stigmatise. It saves lives. You’d have to be a calcified fossil to write it off.But have we gone a little bit too far? Are we playing the mental card a little too freely in order to remove ourselves from situations that we just don’t feel like putting ourselves into?Some pundits think so.Legendary former tennis player Boris Becker is one such example. Becker recently slammed the current world women’s no.2 tennis player in the world Naomi Osaka, for her decision to withdraw from both the Roland Garros championships in France, and the prestigious Wimbledon tournament held in the UK, on mental health grounds.Osaka said press conferences during high-profile tournaments were detrimental to her mental health. When the organisers weren’t happy she refused to do the press conference, she pulled out of the tournament.Becker said, “It’s not something we look forward to [press conferences]. But it’s part of the job. You have to learn to deal with it.”“Is that really pressure? Isn’t it pressure when you don’t have food on the table?” When you’ve got to feed your family and you don’t have a job? When you have a life-changing injury? Isn’t that more pressure?”

“You’re 23, you’re healthy, you’re wealthy, your family is good. Where is the f**king pressure?”

A similar debate has raged in more recent days over Simone Biles’ decision to leave the woman’s gymnastics final because she was afraid she would be injured if she continued in a rattled state of mind – something which divided opinion on Twitter massively.

Athletes are now deemed more courageous, inspiring & heroic if they lose or quit then if they win or tough it out, which is ridiculous.I blame Twitter’s virtue-signallers for fuelling this culture of celebrating weakness. The real world doesn’t think like that.

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) July 27, 2021

‘Poisonous responses’. Stop dreaming. In today’s world there is literally nothing that garners a positive reaction more than mental health. She getting way more praise than she would have if she competed and won https://t.co/woLIjsp0Mt

— Spencer Morgan (@spencermorgan93) July 27, 2021

Telling people to tough it out when they have made clear they are suffering with a mental health condition is exactly why so many people refuse to come forward and get help. Get a grip Piers.

— Dazamax (@TheDazamax) July 27, 2021

Many people praised her. Others said it wasn’t brave because these days anything to do with mental health tends to be slavishly celebrated. They said resilience should be promoted instead.

What separates the elite of the elite from other athletes is their ability to fight through when they aren’t feeling 100%.

That said, in her sport, doing so could result in permanent paralysis or death. So if she’s not right mentally, it’s definitely wise for her to not compete.— Rip Steakface (@ericyoung) July 27, 2021

Our take? There is probably a mild overcorrection going on, where we celebrate these things a tad breathlessly. But after centuries of a ‘Viking mindset‘ causing us all sorts of issues, maybe that’s a small price to pay for the de-stigmatisation of mental health?

 

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To take the discussion beyond us airing our ~basic bro~ thoughts, DMARGE spoke exclusively with Dr Lars Madsen of The MindShift Foundation, to ask for his take on the whole Boris Becker/Naomi Osaka situation, and on whether this is potentially sending a bad message about resilience, or whether it is actually desirable in pursuit of the greater good – of people feeling more comfortable about being more open about their mental health.

 

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Dr Madsen said: “On one hand I can see it from [Osaka’s] point, that she’s feeling overwhelmed by things and she’s making a choice to step out of that, because that’s what she wants at this point in time.”“She’s been successful already, so she has been able to tolerate and deal with things, as you would have to do to achieve at that kind of level. She’s been brave enough to make a statement saying ‘this doesn’t really work for me and these are the reasons why’. And that’s ok, you’re allowed to do that and you’re allowed to change your mind.”“I think Boris Becker’s statement is probably a bit unnecessary and unhelpful and harsh, a little bit provocative perhaps. I think you can be [more] sensitive and warm and understanding.”Dr Madsen added: “But at the same time, he’s saying ‘to be able to achieve at this level you have to do these kind of things’, and he’s absolutely correct in saying that.”“I think Becker’s statement feels a little bit harsh and brutal, but he’s an elite sportsman talking to another elite sportsman, and of course to become an elite sportsman, they’ve got to become tough, and he’s spot on in saying, ‘well mate, you can’t run the marathon and not have sore feet’, it just doesn’t work like that.'”In response to the question, “is society becoming too soft?,” Dr Madsen admits “it’s complicated.”“It’s a verifiable minefield to address this question in a soundbite or two. On the one hand, I think we’ve become much more sensitive and aware of emotional issues and psychological issues than we probably have ever in the history of humanity.”“In certain parts of the world, in the UK and in some parts of Europe, the idea of hate speech and saying things that upset people has become a real issue for communities to have to make sense of and to deal with.”Asked whether society has done a 180 flip on the ‘Viking mentality’ we historically have been ingrained with (one with plenty of problems within itself), Dr Madsen says, “in certain areas it certainly seems to do that.”RELATED: Psychologist Explains ‘Viking’ Mentality We Shouldn’t Be So Quick To Dismiss“But let’s go back and talk about resilience, what is it? It’s being able to tolerate difficult feelings and emotional states and being able to persist and go through it.”

“Resiliency doesn’t mean not having difficulty, failure, distress, adversity or trauma, it actually means being able to develop resources within oneself to overcome it.”

“And some aspects, with regards to how we respond in the community, don’t encourage us to be resilient, we almost have to marinade ourselves in having hurt feelings, or being upset. We often get to this place where we have to feel like we’re a victim and there is a certain sense of status afforded to the idea of being a victim and sitting in that kind of space.”

“I think this is problematic because it can take people’s power away from being able to act on and to be confident and capable in the world.”

Dr Madsen has also previously told us that the opposite approach – the stoic, pig-headed one – though it can be one useful tool in your belt, can quickly turn toxic if it’s all you know. Why? Persistence and self-reliance won’t solve every problem for you. Certain problems can’t be run away from, or sweated out – and can be helped massively by allowing yourself to be emotionally vulnerable; opening up; seeking help.To seek an athlete’s perspective on all this, DMARGE also spoke exclusively to former NRL great and Lexus ambassador Anthony Minichiello. Asking him how much assistance NRL players get to deal with the pressures of facing the media, Mini tells us, “It’s a lot better today than when I first started my career.”“There’s two sides of the coin, on one side there certainly seems that we have become very very sensitive to certain kinds of things, and our tolerance and capacity to tolerate hurt feelings has shifted.”“Our expectations seem to, certainly in some parts of our communities, have certainly shifted as well. We’ve become much more anxious about saying the wrong thing, we’ve become much more anxious about being seen as not supporting particular kinds of causes and viewpoints.”“And very quickly, people can say that they’ve been offended, or hurt, or psychologically upset about something and that’s taken very seriously in some respects. There is a debate in certain areas of the community, have we become more sensitive? Are we less resilient?”

 

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Indeed, Mini adds, “Back in 2000 there wasn’t much happening in this space, and certainly wasn’t as full-on as it is now. I do think it can still improve a lot, but it is really understanding your own thresholds to pressure. Everyone is different in the way they deal with all types of pressure, not just media pressure.”“The trick is to try and learn what triggers your stress levels in your own body so you can pull back or through them with assistance. With social media around there is a lot more pressure on athletes today than there was in the past, anyone and everyone can write a comment at any time towards an athlete, good or bad.”Speaking of resilience, DMARGE asked Dr Madsen how important it is that we build it.

“I think resiliency is crucial for mental health and well-being in your life. It’s crucial for being able to have positive relationships and to develop, pursue and achieve goals in your life. Resiliency is having to raise children, to have to go to school or pursue a career that is meaningful.”

“You have to be able to draw upon resources within yourself when you don’t feel like you want to, or that you can or that it all feels a bit too hard.”RELATED: Why You Need To Rethink Your Relationship With ResilienceIt’s not just tennis players that feel the pressure. Mini adds: “Dealing with the media is definitely a part of any athlete’s job these days, but if you don’t want to comment on a question, you don’t need to give an answer. You just politely decline.”“That always feels hard when you’re a young athlete and you’re getting asked an uncomfortable question. You might feel obliged to do media, but you can answer questions the way you want and feel.”

 

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Dr Madsen, for his part, adds: “I do believe there is much greater sensitivity towards feelings, and this idea that you’re allowed to be vulnerable, that you’re allowed to have mental health problems. And talking about this stuff is much more acceptable than it has ever been before.”“People are also much more tolerant of it today, they’re much more accepting of it, they’re more willing to open up and discuss it and identify those reasons why they’re struggling in their life.”“I think that’s a good thing, that we can talk about it and understanding themselves. But the other part of learning about these things and ourselves is learning how to live through it. Learning how to become accepting of pain, suffering, failure, depression and anxiety, and coping with it in a way that is helpful and effective for them.”“I think if we get stuck in one, such as believing you’re a victim and that’s what you are, that’s where you need to be and that’s ok, then I don’t think that’s helpful for the person. It’s not helpful for the person to have that view of themselves, to think ‘I’m suffering, that’s how it is and I can’t move on from it.'”“And it’s also about ‘what do you want to do about it?’, do you want to learn from it? do you want to become better at dealing with it? How do you move beyond it?”In conclusion, Dr Madsen agrees with both sides of the coin – it’s about finding a balance. We do have to essentially suck it up when the going gets tough, but it’s perfectly fine to talk about our problems. What we all need to do when we feel like we’re suffering, is to focus on our inner strength, to build up our resiliency levels, and push through the pain in order to have a more fruitful life.

“What we know is that suffering is ubiquitous, from the day we’re born to the day we die, Buddha was spot on with that. It is a natural part of life. Suffering is always going to be there. It’s not about getting rid of it, it’s learning how to dance with it, how to work your way through it, how to learn to deal with and to learn how to integrate it into your life in a way that allows you to be who you want to be.”

Read Next

• Time To Take ‘Burnout’ Seriously, Says Australian Mental Health Expert
• Mental Health Apps Finally Losing Stigma Thanks To Most Unlikely Source

The post The Uncomfortable Truth About Sports' Ongoing Mental Health Debate appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Every revhead worth their salt dreams of one day coming across a barn find.To the uninitiated, a barn find is a car that has been rediscovered after being stored, typically for a very long time and typically in something like a shed or a barn, hence the name. They’re the equivalent of striking gold or uncovering a time capsule – and are naturally worth their weight in gold, too.Australian barn finds are particularly prized: our dry, virtually snow-free climate naturally lends itself well to classic car preservation. But most Aussie barn finds are locally-produced cars (which can still be worth a packet, like this classic Ford) – we’ve just never been as big a market for exotic cars as Europe or North America has been.That’s why it comes as a rather pleasant surprise that what’s believed to be the world’s oldest Ferrari barn find – an exquisite 1967 330 2+2 GT Coupé – has apparently been uncovered in rural New South Wales.

The post World’s Oldest Ferrari Barn Find Uncovered In Australia appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

With the pandemic feeling like an oppressive weather system we just can’t shake, with NSW recording a record 136 new cases today and with premier Gladys Berejiklian now saying restrictions could continue until October, this week has seen Australians hit with bad news after bad news.

If you’d like to end your Friday on a positive though, we have some happier vibes to dispatch: Andy Allen – chef, Masterchef judge and c-owner of Three Blue Ducks – is hosting a free, live, cooking masterclass tomorrow at 2pm, which promises to show you how to cook fried chicken like a pro.

Just tune into Andy’s (@andyallencooks) Instagram Live at 2pm AEST on Saturday to join.

 

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Andy announced the news on Wednesday, writing: “Let’s lift the lockdown vibes this weekend with a good old INSTA LIVE fried chicken cook-along. Grab your ingredients, a beer or a wine and jump on this Saturday at 2pm AEST.”

He made it inclusive for non-meat-eaters too: “Vegos and vegans you’re welcome too – swap the chicken for cauliflower and the buttermilk for nut milk and a squeeze of lemon.”

“Australia I know we’re doing it tough at the moment, but trust me, nothing puts a smile on your dial more than FRIED CHICKEN!”

He then provides a full list of ingredients you’ll need if you want to join:

Ingredients

• 1kg chicken wings
• 2L frying oil (rice bran, vegetable or sunflower)
• Your favourite hot sauce!

Marinade

• 1L buttermilk
• 1 tbsp ginger powder
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tbsp chilli powder
• 2 tsp cooking salt

Flour mix

• 100g rice flour
• 100g plain flour
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp ginger powder
• 1 tbsp chilli powder
• 1 tbsp cooking salt

Smoked paprika salt

• 3 tbsp salt flakes
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika

From “Stop it and get in and around my mouth” to “This looks fabulous… not going anywhere so will tune in and make some yummy chicken!” many of Andy’s followers said they would be tuning in for sure.

DMARGE asked Andy what sparked the idea.

Andy, who is based in Melbourne, said: “With NSW, VIC and SA in lockdown, I felt there were probably a few people out there that needed a bit of a boost. Is there a better way than cooking your own crispy, salty, lip smacking batch of fried chicken?”

He also said that it’s designed for everyone to have a go at – you don’t need to be an experienced cook to join. That said: there a few things you’ll want to nail if you want to nail it.

“Look the recipe is pretty simple. There are only a few ingredients in it, so for me it comes down to the fry on the chicken. It needs to be cooked through perfectly, super crispy and golden brown all at the right time!”

He added that he hoped it would give Australians something fun to do in lockdown.

“Yeah I think Aussies in general like to stay busy and that includes lockdown. If you’re not working from home, there’s only so many books you can read in LD before you go mad.”

Finally, he told us, for him, cooking is a form of meditation: “It’s not uncommon for me to spend the whole weekend pottering around the kitchen. It passes time, relaxes me and more often than not, we eat epic food.”

Andy also recently teamed up with @tanaka_coffee_melbourne to help feed vulnerable members of the community.

 

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Hats off. This is the kind of community pulling together behaviour we love to see.

Read Next

• Where To Find Fried Chicken In Sydney That Will Blow Your Tastebuds
• Celebrity Chef Tobie Puttock Shares Surprising Truth About Steak Every Australian Should Know

The post Masterchef Judge Throws Free ‘Dirty Bird’ Cooking Class For Locked Down Australians appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Picture the scene: you’ve dedicated hours to the gym, put yourself on a high-calorie meal plan and you find yourself having to buy clothing in a larger size to accomodate your insane gains. You’ve smashed all goals you set for yourself and have your sights firmly set on only increasing the size of your muscles.But, something unexpected stops your training in its tracks and you’re forced to take time off from the gym and you start to wonder just how much of your size and strength you’re going to lose due to inactivity. Naturally, you are going to suffer some setbacks, but just how much muscle will you lose?

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German fitness blogger Jo Lindner, is a perfect case study to visualise the effects inactivity can have on your body. Just over 2 weeks ago from the time of publishing, Jo suffered an injury to his left arm. He doesn’t say exactly what happened or how – although one video on his Instagram account suggests it happened while completing a shoulder workout – but his most recent post perfectly shows the monumental effect inactivity can have on your muscle mass.Update: some of his fans have suggested he did it lifting a fridge in a compromised position, and that he suffered a tendon rupture with “bicep tendon ripped from arm.”We’re used to seeing Jo with arms the size of which seem almost unnatural – he admits to taking steroids in his early training days but has since condemned their use and abuse – but a recent image showing his left arm looking considerably smaller than his right after just 15 days off from training, proves just how quickly you lose muscle.

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He adds in the post that the stitches from his surgery will be removed soon, but doesn’t provide an indication as to when he can get back to building his arm back up to regular size. It hasn’t stopped him from training entirely, however, as other posts on his account show him continuing to train his healthy right arm, while his left is in a sling.One comment from fellow bodybuilder Greg Doucette says, “Training one side of the body literally causes the other side of the body to build as well. Not as much as if you train both sides but training one side when injured will prevent the other side from shrinking as much.”

“It’s much better to keep training what’s healthy than to just completely give up and take time off from the gym.”

Taking this into account, Jo’s left arm could have potentially shrunk to an even smaller size, were he not to carry on with his workouts as normal.

As for how long it may take Jo to regain his size, well, it may not be too long after all. Irish personal trainer Peter O’Reily has previously spoken about a ‘muscle memory’ effect, which explains how you actually retain much of your strength, even if muscle loss occurs.“Strength can be maintained for up to 4 weeks before it starts to decline. This is if you’re someone who is trained. If you were only training for a little bit and are now taking time off, you won’t have the same turnaround,” he says.“Your muscle fibers get bigger from training and subsequently gain more nuclei. Once you stop training, your nuclei don’t decrease that quickly… the nuclei help resist muscle loss. This is what we call “muscle memory.'”

“Once it’s been about 2-3 weeks you can retrain and make your gains back fairly quickly in comparison to someone who has no training history [because] you won’t need to go through the process of forming new nuclei.”

So, while Jo may have suffered a huge setback, it shouldn’t be long before he’s back to his insane size. And, if you’re someone who trains regularly but suffers similar setbacks, don’t let it deter you from stepping foot back in the gym – provided you have sought expert advice on your situation, of course.

Watch how to get huge like Jo Lindner below

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• What Happens To Your Muscles & Body When You Stop Lifting Weights
• ‘Fitness Doctor’ Debunks Popular Muscle Building Myth

The post Jo Lindner Shows How Quickly You Can Lose Muscle Through Inactivity appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

There are cities, there are metropolises; then there's Barcelona. Though that sounds a bit fawning – or like it came from someone who has Drunk The Vermouth – letting the following image wash over your retinas it's hard not to see where the Catalan Crowd are coming from.

Posted to Reddit on Wednesday, the image soon started trending. At the time of writing it has 83.1k upvotes and 3.1k comments, clearly resonating with travel lovers, Hispanophiles and cool picture lovers all over the world.

Ironically enough it was posted by a Reddit user whose username is u/madrid987. Perhaps a grudging show of respect from the nation's capital?

[caption id="attachment_296555" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Reddit[/caption]

"There’s cities, there’s metropolises, and then there’s Barcelona," u/madrid987 captioned the image.

Members of the r/pics community were quick to shower Catalan architect, Idelfons Cerdà (who had the vision and the diplomatic skills to implement Barcelona’s iconic grid layout in the 19th century) with praise.

"The City Planner in Barcelona is a final boss," one wrote.

"Way ahead of his time in city planning. His grave gives a hint of his impact," wrote another.

"Wow he was doing this in the 1800s. Not even today planners are this good."

Giving up his career as a civil engineer, Cerdà ran for Parliament in order to enact his Barcelona-vision on a higher plain.

According to Type 7, “In the mid 1850s Cerdà… wins a seat in Spanish Parliament, and gets to work. He drafted groundbreaking legislation that would enable the government to have the power to radically alter the face and shape of the city, and in 1859 he revealed his plan to reshape Barcelona forever."

After a revision or two the polymath convinced his fellow politicians to put his plan into action, inventing a new word in the process: “Urbanización”. The rest is history.

 

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Let's not forget Gaudi either – the architect who came to define Barcelona's architecture in 1878 with such icons as the Sagrada Familia and Parc Güell.

Speaking of the Sagrada Familia, one Reddit user provided an interesting insight into why it's taking so long to finish.

In response to the remark, "Trying to finish that church is Barcelona’s final boss," they wrote: "I think it's interesting that the Sagrada Familia is famous for being uncompleted for so long. I mean, it has taken a long time to build, (139 years and counting), but that's not actually a long time for a full sized cathedral."

 

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"Many of them took a couple hundred years to build, and 400 or 500 isn't unheard of. At 150 total years or so, Sagrada Familia is pretty average for a cathedral. We just don't build that many full sized cathedrals these days, so we're not used to how long it takes."

"I wouldn’t never say they Sagrada Familia is taking an average amount of time for a a skyscraper. Just that it’s taking an average amount of time for a cathedral. And despite many modern aspects, Sagrada Familia is still in many ways a traditional gothic cathedral, and much of the work is traditional hand carved stone work and art, which modern tools and techniques can only speed up so much."

Another Reddit user shared some interesting insights around parking. In response to the comment, "I can't believe how few of these courtyards are green spaces," the user wrote: "While I don't disagree, what makes this block structure extremely successful is the ability to park cars in them. Or provide parking decks and parking garages internally."

"These city blocks create the dreamy streetscapes that everyone typically imagines of Europe. However, as an American city planner, wherever I have worked on projects that propose this, it receives insurmountable backlash from communities. Instead of addressing the street with a building facade that's adjacent and accessible from the street and sidewalk, we put a 600-car parking lot there instead."

"Furthermore, our outdated and lazy zoning requires excess parking (it's only full on Black Friday which may not be as big in the future) and building setbacks. We love to build cities that we hate living in. My bitterness aside, decades of poor planning policy and public distrust in the government and developers is making it incredibly difficult to correct because anything that's proposed is automatically viewed negatively."

Another commented: "I took a planning class as an elective in college. The big takeaway was that city planners are ignored for a living."

All we can say is if that's what it takes for our cities to look a little more like this, we'd happily trade Australia's power tools for dreamers and scalpels. Who knew? The key to immortality is making your work so complicated it can never be finished!

Read Next

• 'Classy' Photo Reveals Difference Between Sunbathing In Europe & Australia
• Important Eating Rules You Need To Know Before Visiting Spain
• How Not To Get Shot Or Arrested In The South Of Spain

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The post The Real Reason Barcelona Is Considered An ‘Immortal City’ appeared first on DMARGE.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man and now the world’s newest space tourist, recently rode a giant dildo into space. But while we’ll let the rest of the internet worry about everything that symbolises, we have our eyes on a style sin Bezos committed on the way.First: context. Earlier this week, Bezos – along with his brother Mark, 82-year-old Mercury 13 candidate Wally Funk and 18-year-old Dutch student Oliver Daemen (who just happens to have a millionaire father. Funny that) – took off in Blue Origin NS-16, a sub-orbital spaceflight mission that’s been widely panned as one of the most expensive and unnecessary marketing stunts ever.We’re not going to get into the ethics of Bezos’ spaceflight. What we are going to talk about is his style. Bezos wore a randomly huge cowboy hat before and after the flight, which we find mildly confusing but forgivable. What troubles us, however, is the weird way he was wearing his expensive Swiss watch.Bezos was spotted wearing an OMEGA Speedmaster Professional on a custom Blue Origin velcro strap… But on the outside of his jumpsuit. Most watch fans go to great lengths to have their watches sit under their shirt cuffs but it seems Bezos missed that memo.Naturally, the Internet has been quick to jump on Bezos’ watch fail, with popular social media comedian Elliot “fuckjerry” Tebele and watch culture satirist Horological Dicktionary just two of many voices having a dig at the billionaire’s expense (as well as OMEGA fans, to a lesser extent).

It’s worth pointing out that real astronauts traditionally wear their watches on the outside of their spacesuits, too. But Bezos wasn’t wearing a spacesuit per se – nor was he actively piloting his flight or expected to do any real space ‘work’ on his million-dollar joyride. It’s an affectation. Like the whole bloody flight…We’re also in two minds about his choice of watch. The OMEGA Speedmaster Professional, of course, is famously associated with the history of space exploration – immortalised as ‘the first watch on the moon’ thanks to its use by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins during Apollo 11.RELATED: OMEGA Gives Its ‘Moonwatch’ A Much Anticipated UpgradeBut it’s also a 64-year-old watch design; it’s archaic. In 2021, there are far more practical, technically advanced timepieces that are far better suited to the potential rigours of spaceflight than a pricey Swiss mechanical watch. Maybe a G-SHOCK would have been a better choice – indeed, it’s the choice of many modern astronauts.That said, OMEGA watches – including the classic Speedmaster Professional – still see plenty of use in space, in part because they remain the only watches officially certified by NASA to be able to handle spacewalks. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield famously wore a Speedmaster Skywalker X-33 during his time on the International Space Station, but unlike the OG Speedmaster, the X-33 is a highly modern watch: made from titanium and featuring a quartz movement plus a hybrid digital display.

Watch Jeff Bezos goof around in zero gravity during his space flight

Bezos’ Blue Origin NS-16 is just the latest billionaire spaceflight that’s captivated and infuriated the globe in recent weeks.Earlier this month, Virgin founder Richard Branson beat Bezos to the punch in the billionaire space race with his successful Virgin Galactic Unity 22 mission, a suborbital test flight for his spaceflight company Virgin Galactic.Naturally, you’d expect that SpaceX’s founder Elon Musk would be lining up next, but according to recent interviews, he’s apparently uninterested, Yahoo! Finance relates. But Musk is hardly known for keeping his word… We wonder what watch he’d choose to wear to space. A Raketa, maybe?

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The post Jeff Bezos’ Astronomical Watch Fail Proves Money Can’t Buy Style appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

For some car lovers, on-street parking is unthinkable. You’ve got to have a garage to keep your pride and joy safe.But what if you have more than one ‘pride and joy’? What if you’re an unrepentant car collector? What if even the biggest McMansion double garage isn’t going to cut it? Short of moving out to the sticks or renting an aircraft hanger like some sort of Bond villain, you don’t have many options.One Melbourne family have come up with a novel, if ruthless solution: buy your neighbour’s house, knock it down, and turn the entire property into a home for classic cars. Meet 13 Creswick Street, Brighton East (or really, 13 Creswick Street/14 Churchill Court) – one of the strangest houses currently up for sale in Australia.As we alluded to, it’s really two houses. The owners bought the Creswick Street property in 2007, and then bought the neighbouring Churchill Court property over the back fence in 2009, initially bulldozing the latter and building a new house for their children to live in. Must be nice to have mum and dad build you a house…RELATED: 1993 ‘Average Wage’ Statistic Explains Why You Can’t Afford A House

But after the kids moved out, they virtually gutted the new house and knocked down the back fence, in order to convert the property into one huge garage – complete with Tasmanian oak floors, a room for up to seven vehicles, a dealership-style car turntable and glass walls, so the cars inside could be on full display in the shared backyard. What an absolute flex.The listing shows off some of the owner’s current beauties: a Jaguar E-Type, a Ferrari 308 GTB, an Aston Martin DB Mark III… We wish the house came with the cars, quite frankly.RELATED: Melbourne ‘Cloud Chamber’ Property Comes With Free Porsche 911… But There’s A CatchNot that getting ‘just’ the house – or really, two houses – is a consolation prize by any means. The unique large shared backyard is touted as giving off “Whitsunday resort” vibes (especially with that huge pool) and is a drawcard in of itself.  Naturally, the main property is incredibly luxurious, too.Some of its sumptuous features include a large kitchen with a butler’s pantry, hydronic underfloor heating, a private gym, and a soundproofed music/cinema room perfect for listening to booming Hans Zimmer scores or practising the drums or electric guitar as loud as you like.Oh, and don’t be worried about the prospect of having to buy two separate properties – it’s now one consolidated block, which the two separate titles rolled into one. Although you could probably turn the Churchill Court residence back into a normal house… But why would you? The unique garage setup is half the allure.The agent, Buxton’s Todd Dixon, confirms that a successful sale in the home’s $6.85m-$7.35m price guide would “smash” the suburb’s $6.3m high-water mark, realestate.com.au reports. We wouldn’t be surprised if it went for even more than that – it’s the ultimate upper crust revhead pad. It even gives Dan Bilzerian’s car collection a run for its money. And that’s saying something (see below).

Watch Dan Bilzerian show off his insane car collection

Expressions of interest close on the 24th of August at 6pm, unless sold prior. Better get the Toorak tractor in gear if you want to secure pole position for this property.

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The post Ruthless Melbourne Yuppies Convert Neighbours’ House Into Classic Car Garage appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Foie gras is as controversial as it is luxurious.

A well-known delicacy in French cuisine, foie gras is the liver of a fattened duck or a goose, sold whole or prepared as a mousse, parfait, or pâté. Prized for its rich, buttery and delicate flavour, it’s an expensive treat, often costing as much as $300 a kilogram.

But its price isn’t what gets people hot under the collar. The traditional method of making foie gras involves gavage, or force-feeding ducks or geese so their liver swells up to 10 times their normal size. Naturally, many people consider this inhumane, and many countries – including Australia, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom – have banned foie gras production.

Yet foie gras remains a popular dish, especially in France and increasingly in China. Indeed, the French value foie gras so much that French law states that “foie gras belongs to the protected cultural and gastronomical heritage of France.” Despite the controversy, the French aren’t likely to give up their foie gras habit any time soon.

But one French firm thinks that foie gras lovers should have their cake and eat it too. Gourmey, a start-up based in Paris, has come up with a way to make foie gras in a lab – no animal cruelty involved – and is attracting big investment dollars for their efforts.

According to Bloomberg Pursuits, the lab-grown liver is made from duck stem cells that are harvested from a single fertilized egg, which are then grown in vitro in large stainless-steel tanks. The resulting product can then be fashioned into something resembling foie gras entier (“whole foie gras”, i.e. liver lobes), bloc de foie gras (a moulded block, which is probably what most consumers are familiar with) or other common preparations.

One of the biggest obstacles for ‘cellular agriculture’ is the texture of the resulting food, particularly when making substantial cuts of meat like steaks. However, Gourmey relates that on a technical level, foie gras is uniquely suited to lab growing precisely because of its delicate texture compared with other types of meat, a New York Times article relates.

RELATED: ‘Surf & Turf War’: Lobsters Could Soon Be Replacing Steaks On Australian Plates

The real challenge is cost. Gourmey’s lab-grown foie gras currently costs around AU$1,600 per kilogram. For it to be competitive with the real deal, it needs to reach something closer to price parity. Still, if it tastes the same and costs the same, there shouldn’t be any reason not to switch to lab-grown.

It’s certainly an exciting culinary development and could be a sign of things to come in haute cuisine. The key will be getting chefs and diners on board with this Frankenstein foie gras…

Gourmey is one of a number of businesses pioneering lab-grown meat. Another firm that’s received a lot of media attention is Californian outfit Just, which make products like chicken nuggets and chicken chorizo by taking cells from chicken feathers, dispersing in a protein-rich liquid that delivers nutrients in the same way that blood feeds the tissue in living animals, producing a product that (somewhat) tastes and browns like conventional chicken, Wall Street Journal relates.

Of course, there are also plenty of businesses who’ve found great success developing plant-based meat alternatives that taste and behave similarly to animal protein, such as Impossible Foods with their famous Impossible Burger which ‘bleeds’ like a real beef patty.

Last year, DMARGE spoke exclusively with James Whelan, Investment Manager at VFS Group in Sydney, who related how even investors who don’t really care about veganism or animal cruelty are increasingly interested in animal meat alternatives – simply because it’s an increasingly big business.

He argues that the COVID-19 crisis has further contributed to rising business interest in alternative proteins. There’s far less risk of animal-to-human contagions spreading with lab-grown or plant-based meats…

RELATED: ‘Vegan Investors’ Set To Bring Home The Bacon During Pandemic

Maybe 2021 will finally be the year that diners finally get over the ‘ick factor’ of lab-grown or plant-based meats. Beats the risk of another Bat Kiss.

It’s not just animal proteins that are the subject of research and innovation. Another growth area is that of cruelty-free leather – check out how French luxury goods purveyor Hermès are experimenting with bags made from ‘mushroom leather’.

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The post Freaky French Food Invention Will Have Gastronomes Clutching Their Croutons appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

If you’re investing in crypto in 2021 then you will probably be sick of hearing the phrase “never invest more than you can afford to lose.”It’s still as true as ever.But if you ignored all those trying to steer you towards more sensible investments and piled into crypto at its very peak earlier this year, and are now watching your money roll off a cliff, you might like to know what the hell is going on with the cryptocurrency market right now – and if it’s ever coming back.RELATED: I Bought $1,000 Worth Of Cryptocurrency. It Was A Huge MistakeTo that end, allow us to bring you eToro market analyst and crypto expert Simon Peters’ analysis of what’s going on in the crypto world right now. Though neither he nor we have a crystal ball, and though this shouldn’t be taken as advice so much as information, it does provide a handy summation of what’s happening in the sector at present.

Wow … Looking at my crypto wallet did not spark joy today.

— Margot_Aces (@margot_aces) July 20, 2021

Harsh conditions for bitcoin and ether continue

Recent harsh conditions for bitcoin and ether continued last week as both cryptoassets saw significant sell-offs continue, Mr Peters explains.“Bitcoin’s recent woes deepened as the cryptoasset slumped across the week, starting trading above $34,000 before losing ground. It is now trading around $31,791.”“Likewise ether has come down heavily from recent highs,” Mr Peters continued. “ETH began the week above $2,000 but saw a quick sell off to trade below $1,900 at times. At the time of writing, the cryptoasset’s value is hovering very slightly above $1,900.”He added: “With yet another poor performing week, speculation on the short-term price direction of major cryptoassets is rife, with mixed opinions on price depending on what metric/indicators analysts are looking at.”

“Long-term confidence remains high, however, with a recent survey of FinTech experts revealing more than half believe bitcoin is capable of becoming the global reserve currency by 2050.”

“In the survey from Finder, some 29% believed this so-called ‘hyperbitcoinization’ could happen as early as 2035 though. Two thirds of respondents believed the current price levels of the cryptoasset were undervaluing the digital currency.”News.com.au yesterday presented similar arguments from experts in the crypto world.They first quoted Edward Moya, US senior market analyst for the online trader Oanda, who said: “Bitcoin is the ultimate risky asset right now and it could see intense selling pressure if Wall Street enters into panic-selling mode.”They also quoted Adrian Przelozny, CEO of Australian cryptocurrency exchange Independent Reserve, who (yesterday) said while bitcoin is down 4 per cent today, it has grown 225 per cent in the past year.“If the large volume going through our … desk right now is anything to go by, sophisticated investors see this as a great opportunity to buy more bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies,” he said.“For those of us who have been in this space for some years, we already know that bitcoin has its ups and downs. I take a long-term view, focusing on advancements in technology and innovation in order to get a gauge on the healthiness of the broader ecosystem. With the amount of global venture capital funding getting behind projects right now, short-term price dips do not change my long-term bullishness.”

Square to launch DeFi division

Payments firm Square is to launch its own decentralised finance (DeFi) division, chief executive Jack Dorsey has announced, eToro’s Mr Peters told DMARGE.The chief executive said on Twitter the payments firm will be opening a new business wing to focus on Bitcoin-focused services and DeFi.Dorsey said it would focus on an open developer platform with non-custodial decentralised financial services dedicated to bitcoin and completely permissionless. Dorsey said the name was still “TBD”.He added: “Like our new #Bitcoin hardware wallet, we’re going to do this completely in the open. Open roadmap, open development, and open source. @brockm is leading and building this team, and we have some ideas around the initial platform primitives we want to build.”It comes not long after the CEO also announced Twitter’s intention to launch a bitcoin hardware wallet.

Football NFT closing in on record funding round

Paris-based digital playing cards startup Sorare is reportedly close to a record funding round of some $532 million.Multiple sources [1] [2] [3] indicate SoftBank is set to lead the round of investment, but the chief executive Nicolas Julia has denied it is even taking place.The firm which was established in 2018 sells digital playing cards of football players which match their real-world performances and rankings via NFT. Its sales reached above $2.1 billion in the first quarter of 2021.

Bitcoin network nodes hit all-time high

Despite tribulations in the value of bitcoin in recent weeks, the number of nodes on the network has reached an all-time high, according to Bitnodes.io and Coin.Dance.The milestone was reached around 5 July with some 13,374 on the network. 99% of the network is running Bitcoin’s core software, with the other 1% managing other less popular versions.The expansion of nodes on the network is a positive indicator of its decentralised nature, increasing by over 2,000 in the past year according to Bitnodes.A Bitcoin node is a computer on the network which follows rules and shares information on the cryptoasset’s blockchain. A ‘full’ node is a device that hosts an entire copy of the Bitcoin blockchain in the peer-to-peer network.Disclaimer with regards to all eToro commentary: this should not be taken as investment advice, personal recommendation, or an offer of, or solicitation to buy or sell, any financial instruments. This material has been prepared without having regard to any particular investment objectives or financial situation, and has not been prepared in accordance with the legal and regulatory requirements to promote independent research. Any references to past performance of a financial instrument, index or a packaged investment product are not, and should not be taken as a reliable indicator of future results.All contents within this report are for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. eToro makes no representation and assumes no liability as to the accuracy or completeness of the content of this publication, which has been prepared utilising publicly-available information.Cryptoassets are volatile instruments which can fluctuate widely in a very short timeframe and therefore are not appropriate for all investors. Other than via CFDs, trading cryptoassets is unregulated and therefore is not supervised by any EU regulatory framework. Your capital is at risk.

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The post Time To Bail? Expert Explains WTF Is Going On With Crypto Right Now appeared first on DMARGE Australia.