Meats are muscles. On account of this, theyre not perfectly symmetrical bricks. Different cuts can be tear-dropped, conical, or otherwise shaped asymmetrically with a thick and thin side. But, alas, uneven shapes lead to uneven cooking. The thinner end of a chicken breast can come to temperature relatively quickly compared to the bulbous end that might be nearly two inches thicker. Put an end to partially overcooked, dried-out, rubbery meat parts, and try a technique called butterflying.Butterflying is a simple method for modifying a cut of meat by slicing it in half horizontally.You can cut it through completely in this fashion and end up with two thin pieces, or take care not to cut through the other side, and open it like a book. This serves to even-out a cut of meat and extend the surface area. Keep in mind, butterflying doesnt turn the meat into a perfect rectangle, but rather modifies an extremely asymmetric cut to give it a more even thickness. Butterflying allows for more even exposure to heat, but the increase in surface area serves other functions too. It allows for easier pounding or tenderizing, thorough absorption of flavors through marinating, a more flexible and thin material for roulades, and a shortened cook time.How to butterfly a cut of meatButterflying a cut of meat takes a little getting used to at first, but once you do it a few times, it becomes easy, fast, and deliciously rewarding. Make sure you have a sharp knife, and a stable cutting board. 1. Lay the meat flat on the cutting boardFor an elongated cut of meat, such as a chicken breast, I usually place it so the thickest side is on the right and the point of the breast is pointing at me. The goal is to cut through the thicker side first, we'll be leaving the thinnest side connected so it will end up reflecting the same overall thickness of the other sides. If youre left-handed, you can reverse the arrangement. Im right-handed, so the thick side will be on the right. Cut the breast horizontally by starting on the thickest side. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann 2. Begin the cutPlace the knife against the chicken halfway down the thick side, parallel to the cutting board, and use slow strokes to begin cutting through. It helps to use your non-dominant hand to hold the chicken, and also lift the top section away as you butterfly. This steadies the meat and also creates some tension in the flesh to make cutting easier. Lift the top half as you cut for better control. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann Again, do this slowly, keep your fingers safe, and periodically check on where your knife is headed. One of the easiest mistakes you can make is to cut quickly without checking, and end up with one tiny piece and one big weird piece. One of the worst mistakes you can make is not checking on the knifes path, and accidentally cutting yourself. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann 3. Stop at the cut to maintain even thicknessContinue slicing along the same cut and stop the cut about a half inch from the connecting side. Now you can open it completely like a book (the hinge-side would be like the books binding). If you want two thin cuts, continue your cut through to the other side. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann For a proper butterflied chicken breast, the connecting side remains roughly as thick as the rest of the now-open chicken breast, so use your judgment on if you should stop more or less than a half-inch from the thin side. Once you become more comfortable, you can even adjust the cuts to butterfly chicken breast and other thick cuts of meat into three pieces, like unfolding a letter, for more surface area. Butterflying is a helpful technique that you can do to most boneless cuts of meat providing it's thick enough and you have precise knife skills. Try butterflying steak, chicken thighs, pork, or even shrimp. After this step, you can pound out the chicken or other meat and fill it with cheese and herbs, or dried fruit and bread stuffing for a leveled-up entree. Enjoy the quick cook time, and marinate, roulade, or tenderize to your stomachs content.

Yes, Google Maps is renaming the "Gulf of Mexico" to the "Gulf of America," but you won't see it when you open the app just yet. In a series of tweets, the News from Google account has revealed that the Maps app will roll out an update with the name change after the US government updates the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), which serves as the "federal and national standard for geographic nomenclature." Google Maps will also change the name of the highest mountain peak in North America from Denali, the name given to it by Alaskan Natives, to Mount McKinley when GNIS reflects its new official designation.When that happens, we will update Google Maps in the U.S. quickly to show Mount McKinley and Gulf of America. News from Google (@NewsFromGoogle) January 27, 2025 Google said it's a longstanding practice for the company to apply name changes in Maps only after they've been updated in official government resources. President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week to change the body of water's name, and the Interior Department announced on Friday that it's now officially known as the Gulf of America.However, only users in the US will see it labeled as such. It will still be called the Gulf of Mexico for users in Mexico, while users from outside either country will see both names in their Google Maps app. Google said that another official longstanding practice is to show official local names when they vary between countries, and as Reuters notes, it has applied the rule to many other areas with naming and territorial disputes like the Sea of Japan.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/google-maps-will-rename-gulf-of-mexico-to-gulf-of-america-but-only-for-us-users-043726929.html?src=rss

Casetify's latest collaboration is with Andy Warhol, and the best piece of the collection is this giant Banana phone case that was first seen on the cover of The Velvet Underground's first LP.

Looking for Quordle clues? We can help. Plus get the answers to Quordle today and past solutions.

Corporate travel platform TravelPerk raised $200 million from investors including Atomico and EQT in a funding round valuing the startup at $2.7 billion.

The vote marks the first successful organizing effort at Whole Foods since Amazon acquired the grocer for $13.7 billion in 2017.

Enter ancient Rome with ILMs groundbreaking visual effects for Ridley Scotts sequel, Gladiator II. The studios work on the sequel is nothing short of monumental, earning a BAFTA nomination for Best Special Visual Effects and two VES Award nominationsOutstanding Environment in a Photoreal Feature (Rome) and Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project (The Colosseum).ILM brought the grandeur of the Colosseum to life, combining cutting-edge technology with meticulous historical detail. The team reconstructed the iconic arena in breathtaking photorealism, seamlessly integrating it into the narratives sweeping battles and emotional depth.Now streaming on Paramount+, Gladiator II takes the audience behind the scenes of this epic saga in all its scale, artistry, and innovation. Paying homage to the rich legacy of its predecessor, ILMs visual effects redefine cinematic storytelling for a new generation.The post Behind the Magic: Crafting the Colosseum for Gladiator II appeared first on Vfxexpress.

Put on your straw hats and get ready for adventure! The LEGO Group, Netflix, and Tomorrow Studios join forces to bring One Piece, the fan favorite world, to life in LEGO form. This exciting series of LEGO sets will be new to the Netflix live-action version and recreate some of the most iconic moments from the series.This is a truly special collaboration. For the first time, LEGO play and the exciting world of anime meet, said Lena Dixen, Senior Vice President for Core Businesses at the LEGO Group. She described the project as both a creative challenge and a thrilling opportunity for fans to experience One Piece adventures like never before.Josh Simon, vice president of consumer products at Netflix, added his voice to the excitement: It is a privilege to partner with LEGO in bringing this great world to life. He stated that they did not compromise when it came to the details to ensure every one of these sets captures the magic of Eiichiro Odas iconic manga series.Featuring Monkey D. Luffys journey to become the Pirate King, One Piece takes readers on a thrilling adventure of daring expeditions, memorable characters, and heart-stopping battles. They can finally set sail on their own Grand Line voyages, brick by brick, with this historic collaboration.The post The LEGO Group, Netflix, and Tomorrow Studios Set Sail with One Piece Collaboration appeared first on Vfxexpress.

Millennial wealth in the United States has nearly quadrupled since 2019, outpacing both Gen X and baby boomers, yet most millennials dont consider themselves rich.Millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996 (give or take a year or two), are now worth a staggering $15.95 trillion, about four times what they were worth just five years ago, according to data from theFederal Reserve as reported by CNBC.As of 2024, the average net worth of a millennial was a whopping $333,096, according to Empower, a financial services company. Its data shows millennials managed to grow their wealth more than any other generation in 2024, increasing their net worth by 13.7% (compared to 7.7% for all Americans), and increasing their 401(k)s by 15.6% (nearly double that of the average American).However, as millennials face high costs of living, due in part to inflation and high interest rates, many say they feel less wealthy than they appear on paper, a phenomenon known as phantom wealth. Thats because much of their net worth is tied up in assets not readily available, like 401(k)s, homes, and the stock market.Thats because there are three main areas of growth that are driving millennial wealth: real estate, stocks and mutual funds, and money they are either inheriting or getting as gifts from parents and family.In the past several years, home equity has emerged as the greatest driver of wealth accumulation, and many millennials who bought homes before or during the pandemic are seeing their value greatly increase.Millennials have also, on average, contributed more to their retirement funds, increasing the value of their holdings both in stocks and mutual funds.Finally, they are also benefiting from their parents generosity, receiving financial gifts and inheriting wealth to pay off high student loans, mortgages, car payments, and high childcare costs, financial planner Sophia Bera Daigle told CNBC.

Isnt AI supposed to make things simpler? asks a student in a new Saturday Night Live sketch.Technically, the answer is yes. Artificial intelligence is often pitched as a future-forward omni-tool for removing friction from everyday tasks. Of course, the student in this sketch (SNL cast member Sarah Sherman) only asks her question after AI has made one such task even more complicated. And thats just one of the many glaring flaws with AI, as it exists in 2025, that the shows writers illustrate to perfectionpresumably without any help from Sora.The premise of the sketch finds a high school investing in a new AI program that turns textbooks into educational podcasts. Its a barely veiled allusion to Googles NotebookLM, a program that creates breezy, conversational summaries from dense documentsand which quickly went viral after debuting last October. Unlike in real life, the SNL version of the fake podcasts has a video component. What the sketch portrays accurately, however, is the way AI products often have questionable utility, overinflate whatever utility they do have, and come brimming with glitches. The hosts of the podcast strain to sound natural, repeat key phrases again and again, and ultimately leave the skeptical students with more questions than answers.According to Gavin Purcell, a (very much human) cohost of the AI-demystifying podcast AI for Humans, the product this sketch is based on actually does offer some benefits.NotebookLM can struggle with getting all its facts right and, over time, the voices get repetitive, but its an interesting use case of how AI can break down complicated topics and make them more digestible, Purcell says. Try throwing an extensive Wikipedia page into it and see what comes out. You might be surprised.In the sketch, though, the program uses full textbooks rather than the smaller documents NotebookLM was made to condense. (The length of the average podcast the real product churns out is five to 10 minutes.) Condensing a whole textbook into a podcast would create something closer to a breezy, conversational audiobook than a short podcast snippet. And its exactly this kind of redundancy that AI tech too often offers.One need only visit the most recent CES to see this redundancy in action. That event was overflowing with AI-assisted devices like Boschs new smart crib, which lets parents know when their baby has pooped overnightas opposed to the age-old technology that has historically done so: a screaming baby . . . not to mention Samsungs new, AI-powered washing machine, which not only alerts users when their laundry is done, but also lets them take phone calls through the machine, for some reason.Beyond satirizing AI products whose usefulness is dubious, the SNL sketch also taps into AI true believers tendency to get overhyped too early. Anything that is useful at all suddenly becomes revolutionary. A student might understandably use a fake podcast to briefly learn about a specific topic, as Notebook LM demonstrated, but that doesnt mean the program is going to disrupt learning as we know it, let alone destroy the podcast industry.NotebookLM was one of these small, quirky AI products that I dont think Google even thought would blow up as big as it did, Purcell says. And, unfortunately, as often happens when something AI-based explodes into the mainstream, you get a lot of OMG, PODCASTING IS SO DEAD!! posts from hardcore AI people.In the past few years, experts have claimed that AI products like ChatGPT may fully reshape the legal and medical industries, among others. But ChatGPT has not yet demonstrated anything like the immaculate reliability it would need to truly revolutionize either field. Instead, its exhibited enough fallibility to only underscore the inherent value of human judgment. In one infamous example, a lawyer used ChatGPT to help a client sue an airline, and the program ended up hallucinating at least six precedent cases that did not actually exist. As long as such mistakes can ever happen, the hype around AIs power to remake every field in society should be taken with a grain of salt.And at this still-early stage in AIs evolution, mistakes happen all the time.The most prominent bug in the SNL sketch is an AI classic: One of the podcasters is depicted with six fingers. Generating anatomically correct extremities is something AI has long struggled with, but glitches manifest in all sorts of ways. McDonalds recently had to shut down its experiment with AI drive-thru, after a flurry of viral TikToks showed unwanted bacon on ice cream and other bugs, and Apple has reportedly paused AI news summaries on its new iPhones due to persistent glitches. Maybe one day, malfunctioning AI will become a rare exception, but for now, its much closer to the rule.The final turn in the SNL sketch reveals one problem with AI that humans, so far, have only scratched the surface ofits malevolent side.Do we eat? Do we exist? asks the AI podcaster played by Timothe Chalamet.Who are we? What made us? replies the one played by Bowen Yang.Now Im mad, he adds. Now I want revenge.Hopefully, though, weve all seen enough movies about the rise of the machines to know what to expect from AI if it ever reaches its apocalyptic era.