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I always hated the taste of truffles, or so I thought. It turns out nearly everything sold out there as containing truffles or truffle oil is just some cheap petroleum-derived product. And that includes in many higher-end restaurants.

Real truffles are incredibly rare and expensive:

Winter white truffle, or noble white truffle, is the most expensive and prized truffle. It can be found only in late autumn and winter, no earlier than September 15, no later than the end of January. The world's most famous winter white truffles are found in Alba, Italy, and Croatian Istria is also known for them.

Depending on how well the season was, this truffle can go for thousands of euros. In the case of large, first-class white truffles, the price per kilo comes close to 10,000 euros.

Maybe one day I'll taste the real thing and maybe I'll like it. Until then I'll keep avoiding anything with truffle in its name.

From the "what could go wrong?" department:

A startup claims it has launched weather balloons that may have released reflective sulfur particles in the stratosphere, potentially crossing a controversial barrier in the field of solar geoengineering.

Just explore this incredible isometric pixel art world in your browser. Filled with tons of little details and references.

An interesting theory on the Sapient Paradox, the question of why civilization came to be so late in the human species' evolution. We're about 200.000 years old but civilization is closer to 20.000.

The author posits that reputation/gossip control in small groups was the limiter to growth and that the structure of civilization helped dampen this need. However, social media has brought this "gossip trap" back on a worldwide level, risking a return to government by reputation.

I doubt things can be attributed to single causes like this but it's a compelling (and long) read.