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SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 18, 2023--

Bigfoot, Sasquatch, tedious old hoax – call it what you like, but the hairy beast remains one of the world’s most beloved and enduring mysteries. For centuries, sightings of the evasive forest-dweller have been reported across North America and, since the advent of portable cameras, there’s been an endless stream of “snapshots” and “footage” of the monster. One such video has recently been doing the rounds on TikTok, after it was shared by an influencer known as The Paranormal Chic. In a clip captioned “Bigfoot is real”, the TikToker told her followers that she was posting the footage because she “firmly believe[s] it's one of the best recordings of what looks to be like a Bigfoot caught on camera.” Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter She explained that it was filmed using a drone by a Vermont-based YouTuber called Kens Karpentry, who was “looking for a mama bear in her cubs when he encountered this unidentified creature” at the end of last year. The video shows the camera gliding over a snow-strewn forest as Ken’s voice can be heard gasping: “What in the world? What is that?” As he continues to gush: “That’s incredible,” a tall, furry figure (which, to us, looks not dissimilar to a man in a gorilla costume) can be seen walking through the trees. “No way. Are you serious?” the aghast-sounding Ken goes on, as he zooms in on the creature whose footsteps can clearly be heard crunching through the snow. @the_paranormal_chic What do you think, Bigfoot or Hoax? #bigfoot #bigfootisreal #bigfootsighting #sasqautch #bigfootspotted #yeti #yetitok #yowie #wildman #unitedstates #legends #mystery #unsolved #theparanormalchic #paranormal #fyp The Paranormal Chic’s video, racked up thousands of views in less than 24 hours, as commentators offered their take on the “evidence”. “PREACH!!! HE IS REAL, I get such flack for believing,” one wrote. “I believe it. But [...] have a drone drop it closer to the ground next time for [a] better angle,” suggested another. However, others weren’t so convinced. “I believe in BF (Bigfoot) but not this video. The man sounds too phoney and BF would probably hear the drone,” wrote one sceptic. “How come you hear the footsteps in the snow? Hoax,” concluded another. And a third asked: “Why not follow for longer to see where it was headed? Why not go back on foot to see [the] traces? Why not take [the] drone down [for a] closer look. So many questions.” Sasquatch, Bigfoot or a Bear? Not Real www.youtube.com And yet, if you check out the original video, posted to YouTube, Ken makes it pretty clear it was all a light-hearted prank. When one viewer wrote: “That's a KenSquatch! A very rare breed!” He replied simply: “Indeed.” And when another said: “Ken, for years and years I've been a harsh critic of those who believed in Sasquatch, castigating and criticizing any who believed in such foolishness. But clearly your evidence is both irrefutable and unquestionable!” He wrote back: “Haha thanks for watching.” Still, there has been renewed interest in the mythological man after authorities in New Mexico issued a “Bigfoot warning” to residents. Earlier this month, the Taos County Sheriff’s Office shared a post to Facebook “reminding” its community of the “do’s and don’t’s when encountering Sasquatch”. The instructions included: “Do not chase Bigfoot; do not yell at Bigfoot; do not feed Bigfoot,” but also, interestingly: “Do take pictures.” And yet, for all of the jokes and hoaxes surrounding the legend, there are some important reasons why some people still genuinely believe the beast exists. As journalist Ben Crair wrote in a 2018 article for Smithsonian Magazine: “The hunt for Bigfoot emulates an earlier mode of discovery, when new knowledge was not the product of advanced degrees and expensive machinery but rather curiosity, bravery, patience and survival. “In the 19th century, the American landscape revealed its majesties to ordinary settlers pushing westward into territory unmapped by Europeans. To track Bigfoot today is to channel that frontier spirit (as well as to appropriate Native American traditions).” He added: “Bigfoot also embodies other less romantic but no less enduring American traits, like gullibility and a hunger for attention.” Crair pointed out that the quantity of fake Sasquatch “footage” had been exacerbated by social media, with one expert telling him that whilst he believes there is legitimate evidence of the creature’s existence, it's almost impossible to sort the wheat from the chaff. “Technology has ruined the old cryptozoology,” Loren Coleman, founder of Portland’s International Cryptozoology Museum, told him. “[Loren's] complaint echoes concerns in more mainstream American life, where technologies that promised to build consensus have, in fact, made the truth more difficult than ever to discern,” Crair continued. “On the internet, Bigfoot has found a habitat much more hospitable than North American forests. It turns out that Bigfoot does not need to exist in order to live forever.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Growing up in the early 2000s-2010s meant the rite of passage into alcohol inevitably involved terrible choices, from alcopops (RIP) to grim beers (Coors) and nasty wine. Mostly white, rarely red, while rosé that both looked and tasted like Ribena was a world away from the delicate pale provencal style we’re so au fait with now. Then as now, the cheaper the better. Location, grape variety, acidity levels – it all meant absolutely nothing. Hell, taste didn’t matter either. Slurp it fast enough and you’d barely notice a slight whiff of paintstripper on the nose or a lingering hint of vinegar on the palate. It was just your (well below) average plonk. The number one important factor was price – swiftly followed by ABV, of course. The rough budget for a bottle was the mighty sum of £3-4. A tenner was a good night out. Remember those days? It was around this time that sauvignon blanc began its world domination. It was the IT wine to buy. Rocking up to your friend’s house with a bottle in tow made you look like you knew something about wine, maybe even had great taste (despite still buying the cheapest bottle possible, of course). It was even better if it was from New Zealand – top points if it came from Marlborough, the top of the South Island, where about 70 per cent of the country’s wine is produced. Love wine but don’t know where to start? The Independent Wine Club features curated cases from small growers and expert advice on how to enjoy wine. Sign up now for free. While Gen Z seem to have broken free of British booze culture altogether, when I was at university, rosé was the go-to pre-drink before a night on the tiles. And lots of it. It’s been off the table ever since. The mere smell of it takes me right back to those heady, alcohol-drenched days. Perhaps it’s just a case of unfortunate timing for my age group – victims of the wine’s popularity surging at the height of early-Noughties boozing culture. But why did sauvignon blanc become so popular 15 years ago? ​​Emily Harmen, wine consultant at Firmdale Hotels and Vina Lupa, says it’s “simply because when people get into wine, they usually like wines that are quite fruity”. Sauvignon blanc offers these fruity notes, as well as freshness. It’s famed for its notes of crisp asparagus, green pepper and often a grassy or herbaceous flavour too. High acidity makes it very dry. The New Zealand sauvignon blanc vines were planted in the Seventies, and its arrival on the British scene a few decades later served as a pointed change in taste from the overly oaked Chardonnays and sickly syrupy rieslings (the latter is now cool again; more drinkable and less sweet) that were popular at the time. Sam Tendall, co-founder of online wine shop Smashed Grapes agrees, and says sauvignon blanc’s prominent rise is owed to consumers wanting “lip-smackingly thirst-quenching drinks… that are naturally high in acidity with tropical fruit flavours”, and wines from Marlborough had that sort of fruitiness people were looking for. It wasn’t just in wine that tastes were changing, either. “This taste shift was mirrored in other drinks such as the boom of gin and flavoured tonics, or tropical IPAs in the beer world, which are all high in acidity and fruity,” Tendall adds. It quickly became Britain’s most popular white wine choice, both in supermarkets and restaurant wine menus, whether that’s by the glass or bottle, or even served as the house wine. Lauren Denyer, an educator at the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET), says that along with New Zealand’s “tropical fruit, such as passion fruit and mango, which many drinkers find very appealing”, it’s also its “lightness which make it easily quaffable”. However popular it may be, it can still divide opinion in the upper echelons of the wine world, especially among the more commercial labels that everyone is familiar with (Oyster Bay, we’re looking at you). Sauvignon blanc grapes originate in France, where the premium wines, Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé (from the highly regarded French regions of the same names) are still made. These are usually seen as a step up from your average savvy B, despite being made with the same grapes, and not just because they’re more expensive, but because they’re more complex. A lot of the Kiwi sauvignon blanc’s popularity is down to marketing. They do it very, very well to us Brits, who largely bought NZ’s green image (although there’s nothing green about shipping wine to the other side of the world). The price point of New Zealand’s offering also made them appealing. “People probably know the New Zealand sauvignon blanc more as it’s a more accessible price point… wines from the Loire region are more expensive because it’s a more challenging climate to grow wine, so you produce less,” explains Harmen. Its popularity knew no boundaries during the Noughties. So much so that wine makers couldn’t grow enough of the grapes. According to the NZ Winegrowers association’s annual 2020 report, between 2003 and 2015, sauvignon blanc vine planting increased five-fold to keep up with the demand. Although now, as climates warm up around the world leading to more extreme and freak weather, experts think it’s only a matter of time until this changes the wines beyond their signature characteristics. This has seen as recently as February when New Zealand felt the force of cyclone Gabrielle, which saw unprecedented amounts of rain and devastating effects including flooding some vineyards and burying others in silt on the North Island, just ahead of harvesting. In 2021, a harsh frost combined with an early budburst meant the crop yields were down by 30 per cent. The knock-on effect is already being felt, along with the rise in inflation and cost of living crisis, as Tendall says, in the wider market: “Sauvignon blanc is going up in price and big branded pinot grigio has stayed at the value end, so with the cost of living we are seeing a small decline in sauvignon popularity.” The pandemic has also contributed to a change in tastes and buying habits. Some people stopped drinking altogether, while others used the time to nurture their passion for it. As shopping in person became harder, subscription boxes and independent online sellers introduced lesser known varieties to the market. Dayner explains: “Prompted by the pandemic, drinking the same wines regularly became less desirable”, and instead, people were “increasingly willing to try a wider range of wines and sales of wine for home consumption increased hugely as drinkers looked to mix things up a little bit”. Harman doesn’t see any indication that the guests of the hotels she consults for (which are mostly high end including London’s Ham Yard Hotel and The Soho Hotel) are changing their mind on sauvignon blanc. However, she deals in artisan, handcrafted and mostly organic wines, rather than the commercial wines we buy in supermarkets for less than £10. Instead, what Harman is seeing more of is some producers experimenting with skin contact styles, and more natural varieties, a style which sauvignon blanc grapes lend themselves well to. “A producer in Australia called Tom Shobbrook makes a wine called giallo (yellow in Italian) which is one of the benchmark examples of the more experimental natural wines,” she explains. Skin contact sauvignon blanc feels a world away from my entry level days into savvy B, which were so atrocious that I steered clear of white wine for many years. It was the reappearance of viognier on menus that enticed me back – in particular an organic viognier from South Australia’s Yalumba vineyard. But if you really can’t hack it, I asked the experts for their advice, and these are the wines to drink if you don’t like Sauvignon blanc: 1. Verdejo All three experts mentioned this wine. “From Spain’s Rueda region, it’s the country’s favourite white wine, loved for its brisk acidity and vibrant fruit. It’s now starting to become more popular in the UK market,” says Denyer. 2. Picpoul For something more mineral, that’s lighter and fresh, Harmen suggests Picpoul, which is quickly growing in popularity again. Denyer adds that “although grown somewhere that can get extremely hot, the wines are super-fresh with apple, lemon and hints of peach on the palate”. 3. Bacchus Denyer says: “It’s a grape variety that is originally a German cross. It has all the appeal of Sauvignon Blanc and a plus point is that the wine does not have to travel far. You can even get sparkling versions, great for summer picnics and gatherings.” 4. Albariño “Also from Spain, the main grape in Vinho Verde and is a cracking patio wine, jam-packed with the lemon sherbert refreshment sauvignon blanc drinkers love,” says Tendall. 5. Austrian Grüner Veltliner “Forgot its old reputation of tasting like antifreeze, it’s full of those classic gooseberry flavours long associated with top Marlborough varieties,” says Tendall. 6. Trebianno “This Italian white has delicate aromatics with white flowers, it’s quite savoury with more peachy fruit flavours,” says Harmen. For more white wine inspiration that’s not sauvignon blanc read our review of the best dry whites here Read More The Independent Wine Club best cases 2023: Wine from small growers Win a mixed wine case, perfect for pairing with food Uncorked: How do I keep my wine cool at a picnic? The Independent Wine Club best cases 2023: Wine from small growers Win a mixed wine case, perfect for pairing with food Uncorked: How do I keep my wine cool at a picnic?

A mysterious new set of stars has been detected by Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope, which could shed new light on dark matter. Dark matter remains one of the most hotly debated elements in our solar system, and the new objects could change the way it is studied. Scientists believe the huge, newly-discovered stars are powered by illusive dark matter and shared their findings in the journal PNAS. “Discovering a new type of star is pretty interesting all by itself, but discovering it’s dark matter that’s powering this – that would be huge,” said study co-author Katherine Freese from The University of Texas in Austin. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The dark stars, known as JADES-GS-z13-0, JADES-GS-z12-0 and JADES-GS-z11-0 – were first identified as galaxies last December. It’s thought that they existed about 320-400 million years after the Big Bang, making them some of the earliest objects ever seen. The nature of dark matter continues to fascinate and mystify the scientific community. It’s believed that it could be formed by a new type of undiscovered particle, and the theorised component of the universe does not absorb, reflect or emit light. It’s also thought that suspected dark stars like these could explain a potential anomaly surrounding the number of large galaxies in the early universe. Currently, there are too many to fit the predictions of the theories surrounding the origins and the future of the universe. “It’s more likely that something within the standard model [of cosmology] needs tuning, because proposing something entirely new, as we did, is always less probable,” Dr Freese said. “But if some of these objects that look like early galaxies are actually dark stars, the simulations of galaxy formation agree better with observations,” she explained. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.