Category Archives: Papers

Ikea Making Burgers, Hot Dogs, Meatballs With Bugs Inside

(via Business Insider)

Ikea is known across the globe for its furniture offerings, but many may not know that every location also has its own full-service restaurant.

Among the dishes served there, the Swedish meatball is probably the most famous.

Space10, Ikea’s external future-living lab in Copenhagen, Denmark, has been reinventing Ikea’s iconic meatball.

The company already took a huge step towards creating sustainable fast food when it made the meatballs vegan in 2015, and it’s continuing to experiment with new ideas. There are two versions of the “Neatball”: one made from root vegetables, and the other made from mealworms.

Though the company told Business Insider that there are no current plans to put the new dishes on Ikea’s menu, the ideas is to “Come up with dishes that look good, taste good – and are good for people and planet.”

It’s a “Rick & Morty” Plot Come True!

(via Daily Mail)

Recently, the Daily Mail reported that a girl, known only as Ashwini, started complaining of severe pain in her eyes…

She told her parents that she felt there was something stuck in her eyes sockets, and when they checked, they did find a small ant in one of her eyes.

They assumed the insect had gotten in there by accident, but it wasn’t long before the girl again started complaining about pain in her eyes.

As doctors were left scratching their heads about how the ants reached Ashwini’s eyes or what they could do to stop the bizarre phenomenon, she was taken to an eye hospital where her family hoped to get some answers.

A local doctor told Ashwini’s parents that the insects must have first entered her body through the ears and then somehow made their way to her eyes.

He prescribed some eye-drops to help with the irritation, but the girl still has 5-6 ants pulled from her eyes daily. All counted,  Ashwini’s eyes produced around 60 dead ants in a period of 10 days.

Highland Woman Becomes First Known Person to Keep Bumblebee as a Pet

(Via The Scotsman)

Fiona Presly has become the first person known to have kept a bumblebee as a pet.

Bee, as Presly named the insect, would even “Cuddle” and seemed to be “House-trained”.

The extraordinary story sparked the interest of bee psychologist Lars Chittka, a professor in sensory and behavioural ecology at Queen Mary University of London, after Presly got in touch and related her tale.

“Although previous research shows evidence of intelligence and problem-solving skills in insects, he says, very little is known about their emotional make-up.” He believes it is possible that Bee could have formed a bond with a human due to the natural biology of her species.

“The desired state for a bumblebee queen is to be surrounded by other bees, therefore it seems plausible that such an individual should feel something rewarding from being surrounded by living beings. Also the queen might feel the opposite of that when alone, because this would signify it hadn’t succeeded in founding a colony.”

“So the question simply becomes whether the other individuals and environment for that queen necessarily have to be other bees, or could it be something of a completely different species that provides things such as warmth, reward, security and so on?”.

Presly doesn’t need scientific research to validate the bond she has with her pet, which has changed her perspective: “I don’t just view bees differently, I now see all insects in a new light. They’re here for a reason.”

Insect-Based Ingredients Heading to Major Grocers

(via “The Conversation”)

Loblaws, Canada’s largest grocery chain, is now selling cricket flour.

Loblaw boldly put a picture of a cricket on the same package as its prized President’s Choice brand logo.

Given the growing number of consumers looking for protein alternatives beyond the meat trifecta of beef, pork and chicken, selling cricket flour is a sign that the protein wars in Canada are heating up.

For Loblaw it’s about health and sustainability, and the case for using crickets is actually quite compelling.

The University of Oxford published a compelling study on the nutritional value of crickets versus meat products.

From our western perspective, crickets do not look appetizing, but neither did lobsters at one point in time, and in fact they used to be known as the cockroaches of the sea.

It’s highly unlikely that grilled steaks, spicy chicken wings or juicy pork chops will be replaced by a plateful of roasted crickets any time soon, but ingredients sourced from the start of the food chain are starting to take their place in the retail market.

Pests are Responsible for 30% of False Security Alarm Triggers!

(Via which.co.uk)

While burglar alarms are a valuable way of deterring potential thieves from targeting your home, it seems they can get a little confused about what counts as a break-in, with more than a quarter of you reporting that an insect had triggered an alarm.

Read on to find out how you can minimize false alarms.

If you’re considering buying a alarm, find out how alarm owners rate big brands, including ADT, Honeywell and Response, in our guide to the best and worst burglar alarms.

What happens when your burglar alarm goes off, whether or not it’s a false alarm, partly depends on what type of alarm you have.

For these alarms, you pay a monthly or yearly fee to an alarm monitoring company, which will be notified when it is triggered.

A small percentage of the people we asked have had as many as five false alarms in the last year.

If you have a monitoring contract in which the police are notified when your alarm goes off, three false alarms can mean you’re struck off the police register and they won’t respond again.

Markets are projected to rise above 1 Billion By 2023

(Via Globe Newswire)

LONDON, March 21, 2018 – According to this latest publication from Meticulous Research™, the global edible insects market is expected to be valued at USD 1,181.6 million by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 23.8% from 2018, mainly due to “Growing population and decreasing food resources, increasing demand for protein rich food, high cost of animal protein, environmental sustainability with production and consumption of edible insects, high nutritional value of insects, and low risk of transmitting zoonotic disease.”

The report also notes that, crickets commanded the largest of the global edible insects market in 2017, primarily attributed to “Its high nutritional value, easy farming, easy processing and incorporation into various food recipes & products, and increasing demand for cricket-based products, such as protein powder, protein bars, and snacks, among others”.

Geographically, North America is slated to register the highest growth during the forecast period, primarily due to “Growing demand for environmental friendly high protein diets, aversion to highly processed foods, increasing demand for insect based foods, presence of large number of insect based food manufactures, and growing concerns about meat production”.

Spider-Man Cautiously Optimistic

(Via OC Register)

Disneyland is squashing its bugs in favor of Marvel superheroes, as it plans to replace the “a bug’s land” at Disney California Adventure theme park in Anaheim with a new “Land” devoted to Marvel comic characters.

New Marvel Lands will also be developed in Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong.

“At Disneyland Resort, the new themed land will be anchored by the popular Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! at Disney California Adventure park, which has become the highest-rated attraction at Disneyland Resort since its 2017 opening,” according to a Disney press release from Tuesday.

“The Guardians of the Galaxy will be joined by Spider-Man and the Avengers in what will become a completely immersive Super Hero universe. This expanded presence will begin recruiting guests in 2020, furthering the evolution of Disney California Adventure park.”

This latest move continues the ongoing renovations at Disney California Adventure, which is under construction right now turning its former Paradise Pier into a new land called Pixar Pier, including a newly revamped roller coaster, new carousel and renovated Mickey’s Fun Wheel ferris wheel.

The land marked the first major expansion of California Adventure, in response to vocal criticism that the park had too few fun rides when it opened in 2001.

Disney parks officials have been working to figure out how to drive more visitors into the less-crowded Disney California Adventure from the original park of Disneyland, before the projected July 2019 opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge land, expected to send attendance into the stratosphere.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]