Latest news with #OliveGarden
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
The Extensive Process Of How A Hurricane Forecast Comes Together
As summer ramps up, a lot of people start bracing for one of the scariest weather threats: hurricanes. So, how can you be prepared? Most people flock to the National Hurricane Center every week to see if there are any new storms. However, this website has a plethora of information and can be a little overwhelming if you aren't checking the forecast every day like we do. When people think of hurricane forecasting, they usually think about the National Hurricane Center's forecast cone, but it actually goes a lot deeper than that. To begin, let's start with when the map has no named storms on it. Monitoring the Tropics: Hurricane experts check a variety of data each and every day, monitoring for any ramp-ups in tropical activity. We're looking for the ingredients to come together to create a tropical system and allow it to grow. If you have heard of the European or the American model, well done! There are many others, and all of these models can be used to check for long-range forecasts in our neighboring oceans. This is where you'll find the first hints of tropical activity, often before clouds even form. While forecasts get less accurate the further out you go, these long-range forecasts help to give just a glimpse of what could be coming in the next couple of weeks. (MORE: Why Long-Range Model Forecasts for the Tropics Can't Often Be Trusted: A Case Study) Clouds are now forming and it is time to take some observations to form a forecast. In the ocean, buoys are constantly measuring current conditions like pressure, temperature, wind gusts and wave activity. Overhead, satellites are watching clouds, winds, dust and moisture. If we think something is beginning to brew, it's time to send in the pros. The most epic are hurricane hunters, who have the awesome responsibility of flying into the storm to get the most dynamic and up-to-date conditions of the storm. If the storm has an eye, they can even fly in the eye! We've got some action! Once a system begins to show signs of organization and more information is needed, the National Hurricane Center gives it a loose name based on its location, its latitude and chance of formation. It is at that point that the NHC will give it the name 'Invest'. For example, Invest 94L would describe an area of interest in the Atlantic Ocean. There are a few dozen such storms each year. Once they go invest, specific model forecasts are run for the system. Perhaps you have heard of the term spaghetti models. While tempting, these models are not available at Olive Garden. So what are these spaghetti models? They are a diverse mix of models that the NHC uses to forecast storms. There are many different types of models that the NHC uses, ranging from ones that create forecasts to ones that examine historical data. (MORE: What You Should Know About Spaghetti Models) These make up some of the ingredients for your eventual meal. The Forecast: The final dish presented to you from spaghetti models and forecasters at the NHC is the iconic forecast cone of uncertainty. These forecasts are given to storms that range from a nearly-formed tropical depression to a major hurricane and show the likely direction of the center of the storm over the next five days. The forecast is most accurate over the first day, so the cone is narrowest there. It then widens, the further out you go in time, as historical errors climb, hence the shape of an ice cream cone. The storm is not expected to travel right down the middle of this cone, but could move along one side of the cone or the other. Also, the cone doesn't actually show the size of the storm, so regardless of where the center is, people can see impacts far beyond the cone's borders. (MORE: What The Cone Means And What It Doesn't) Changing forecasts: Forecasts are constantly changing as the storm interacts with the atmospheric conditions in and around the oceans. There are steering currents that can change, potentially leading to shifts in where landfall can be. And should atmospheric conditions change to be more favorable for development before the storm's arrival, a hurricane can explode into a monster storm in a matter of hours in a process known as rapid intensification. Meteorologists are constantly running models and updating forecasts, working tirelessly to ensure that people are given the most up-to-date information as storms develop from areas of interest to full-fledged hurricanes. Robert Shackelford received his undergraduate and master's degree from the University of Georgia studying meteorology and experimenting with alternative hurricane forecasting tools.
Elle
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Elle
How Jenny Han Went From Taking Orders at Olive Garden to Writing Your Favorite Love Stories
Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. In ELLE's series Office Hours, we ask people in powerful positions to take us through their first jobs, worst jobs, and everything in between. This month, we spoke with Jenny Han, the bestselling author of the To All the Boys I Loved Before and The Summer I Turned Pretty book series. She's also brought the beloved coming-of-age stories to the screen as the executive producer of the To All the Boys film trilogy and creator and executive producer of the spin-off, XO, Kitty. And, as the creator and showrunner of The Summer I Turned Pretty's TV adaptation, she kicked off the series' third and final season this month, amassing 25 million views globally on Prime Video in a week. While the show is coming to a close, Han has more projects in the works, thanks to an overall deal with Amazon Studios and another season of XO, Kitty on the way. As her literary and cinematic universe continues to expand, the stories still hit close to home. 'This idea that you can make mistakes and stumble but you're still a person that's worthy of love is something that's really important to me, and [it's] something that I think I explore in all my characters,' she says. What also stands out about her work onscreen is that it revolves around Asian American young women. The To All the Boys film, which came out in 2018 and became a modern classic, marked a rare case of an Asian woman, Lana Condor, leading a rom-com. Lola Tung (who stars as Belly in TSITP) and Anna Cathcart (who plays the titular role in XO, Kitty) are also both of Asian descent. Han, who is Korean, praises the growing representation. 'That makes me really proud,' she says. 'It's very exciting to see that.' Below, the multi-hyphenate discusses her unique approach to writing, her go-to advice for authors, and her thoughts on the TSITP fandom. I had campus jobs, but my first more official job was when I was a server at Olive Garden for a summer. I was the best server you ever had if I only had one or two tables, and then I was a disaster if I had more than two tables. My go-to [order] was the lunch portion chicken alfredo, but I would add spinach to it, and then I would have a raspberry lemonade, breadsticks, and salad. And then if I'm doing dessert, I'm doing the white chocolate raspberry cheesecake. When I was first living in New York and I was going to grad school [to get my master's in creative writing], I was temping on the side. My grad program was only at night, so I worked during the day. Every week, I would be doing something different. Usually I'd just be in some sort of office, and I would be answering the phones or putting in the lunch orders and stuff. And I was always scared to say if I was proficient at Excel. You made more money if you said that you were, but I was afraid I was going to get asked to make crazy spreadsheets, so then I would never put that [on my resume]. But then I only made $10 an hour. I should have just done that. But I abide by the rules. I was temping probably for a few months, and then I got a job working part-time at a children's bookstore in the city. It's different when I'm writing a novel versus a script. I don't write in order when I'm writing a novel. I just write whatever I feel compelled to write that day, whatever I'm excited to write about. I call it 'dessert first.' To me, it feels good because then I can gather a bunch of scenes together and figure out the connective tissue and what's missing and what I need to build on. It feels a lot better when you see you have 40,000 words already. It's less daunting. Filmmaking is really collaborative, and you get to work with so many different people, and you really get the benefit of their expertise, creativity, and their wide amount of knowledge. For instance, a production designer [might say], 'This color on the walls is going to be better for us because of the light here or there.' When you're writing a novel, it is a solitary process. It's just you and the page. So you decide everything, and you are the director, the producer, the production designer, the costume designer. You're the person who creates the whole world on your own, so that's very different. I feel proud when I feel like I understand what my audience wants and I'm able to give it to them. To me, telling stories, making TV, and writing books is really all about connection. I feel really lucky to feel like I am connected to the audience. I first heard about this in an interview with Nancy Pelosi. They were asking her about being the most hated woman in America. She said, 'You're in the arena; you've got to take a punch getting in that arena.' And if you're not taking hits, then you're just a 'spectator.' That's really smart for risk-taking or being in the spotlight. It is really fun to be able to expand out and to tell stories in more mediums. Because the books will always be there for [the fans]. People were dressing up as Lara Jean [from To All the Boys I Loved Before] before the movies. They had their own ideas about who she was and what she would wear, and they would come to my book signings dressed up as her. And people felt connected to Belly's story when it was just on the page, and now it's definitely reached a far bigger audience. I would say The Summer I Turned Pretty has always been my most popular story globally, because I think people can put themselves in Belly's shoes, and you really could be sitting on a Swedish beach, a beach in the Philippines, or really anywhere and imagine that you're her. It feels very universal. I've always approached telling stories about young people as not really different from telling stories about adults. I think it's being respectful of that experience and taking it seriously. To me, the most important thing is to really honor that and see that a young person's experience is valid and their point of view is valid. They haven't lived as long yet, and they have a more limited experience because they're younger, but that doesn't make it any less important or real. If you have a big fight with your best friend and you're in high school, it can be very earth-shattering. It can really destabilize your whole existence. I don't feel that's any less real or important than something happening to an adult. Those feelings are the same, and sometimes they're even deeper because you're experiencing it for the first time, and you don't know yet that it will get better and you just have to keep going. You haven't been able to experience that yet. Sometimes you just need time to heal, and so it can feel really intense and sharp. The first time is always going to be a shock to the system in some ways. Gavin [Casalegno] is filming a movie right now in Thailand with Lana [Condor], and they FaceTimed me this morning. It's been very cool to see the two of them working together. And then Lola [Tung] actually was on Broadway in Hadestown with Jordan Fisher, who was also in the To All the Boys universe. We all know each other very well. When you're working on set, you're together for sometimes 12 hours a day. We were in Wilmington, which is a small beach town in North Carolina. I would stay there the whole time because I was just really focused on the work. Everyone was doing that; people weren't leaving a ton. You really bond working on something together. It really does have that theater-troupe feeling. I think it's also that feeling of, we are experiencing this thing together, and we're really in it together. That's unique. I'm protective over the cast, and I just like to remind people that everyone sees what you're saying online, and there are real people who are playing these characters. I don't think it's easy to be in the public eye and have people dissecting everything about you. I don't think that's healthy for anybody. I think the Summer I Turned Pretty cast aren't super online. I want to do what I can to protect them, but also I really love the audience as well. It's always really fun to see people celebrating and having their watch parties. People are so smart and funny and create really fun videos around the show that I enjoy watching. That can be just rewarding too, to see people do their own thing with it. If I was going to say there's a message, it's just to know that everyone is human, people make mistakes, but you're still somebody who's worthy of love. I'm working on a couple of movies. I'm developing a series, but nothing I could speak to at the moment. It's too soon. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
What You Need to Know Ahead of Darden Restaurants' Earnings Release
Valued at a market cap of $23.9 billion, Darden Restaurants, Inc. (DRI) is a leading full-service restaurant company headquartered in Orlando, Florida. It operates thousands of restaurants under iconic brands such as Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen, Yard House, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52, Eddie V's, and Bahama Breeze. The company is scheduled to announce its fiscal Q1 earnings for 2026 on Thursday, Sept. 18. Analysts project this restaurant company to report a profit of $1.99 per share in Q1, up 13.7% from $1.75 per share in the year-ago quarter. The company has missed Wall Street's bottom-line estimates in three of the last four quarters, while exceeding on another occasion. Its earnings of $2.98 per share in the previous quarter outpaced the consensus estimates by a slight margin. More News from Barchart Warren Buffett Warns Inflation Turns Business Into 'The Upside-Down World of Alice in Wonderland' But Weeds Out 'Bad Businesses' Why GOOGL Stock May Be the Market's Next Big Winner Alphabet Posts Lower Free Cash Flow and FCF Margins - Is GOOGL Stock Overvalued? Tired of missing midday reversals? The FREE Barchart Brief newsletter keeps you in the know. Sign up now! For the full year, analysts expect DRI to report EPS of $10.63, up 11.3% from $9.55 per share in fiscal 2025. Its EPS is expected to further grow 7.4% year-over-year (YoY) to $11.42 in fiscal 2027. DRI has rallied 44.1% over the past 52 weeks, considerably outperforming both the S&P 500 Index's ($SPX) 18.3% return and the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund's (XLY) 24.5% uptick over the same time frame. Shares of DRI surged 1.4% on June 20, after its Q4 earnings release. The company's overall revenue advanced 10.6% YoY to $3.3 billion, with blended same-restaurant sales increasing by 4.6%. Its top-line figure came in line with the consensus estimates. Moreover, its adjusted EPS from continuing operations improved 12.5% annually to $2.98. Looking ahead to fiscal 2026, DRI expects sales growth of 7% to 8%, and anticipates adjusted EPS from continuing operations to be between $10.50 and $10.70. Wall Street analysts are moderately optimistic about DRI stock, with an overall "Moderate Buy" rating. Among 28 analysts covering the stock, 16 recommend a "Strong Buy," two indicate a "Moderate Buy," and 10 advise a 'Hold.' The mean price target for DRI is $234.64, indicating a 14.7% upside potential from the current levels. On the date of publication, Neharika Jain did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Sign in to access your portfolio
NDTV
24-07-2025
- Entertainment
- NDTV
Watch: Young Boy Takes Blind Pizza Taste Test, Guesses Their Chain Stores Like A Pro
The world of food is full of delightful surprises, from the perfect bite of a burger to the most decadent chocolate desserts. But every now and then, we come across something that truly defies expectations. In a similar awe-inspiring video shared on Instagram, an 8-year-old boy flaunted his skills to pinpoint the exact pizza chain store behind each delicious pie he tasted. If that's not impressive enough, he did it all while blindfolded. In the video, George's father asks him to decide on an activity. Without hesitation, the young boy replies he would like to do a blind taste test where he tastes pizzas and guesses what store it came from. The next scene shows him sitting on a counter with a blindfold on. For the first pizza, he recognises the "small crust" of the pie by touch. He adds, "I taste an olive in there, is it Olive Garden?," correctly guessing the first pizza store. He rates it 50/50. Next, George takes a pizza slice in hand and mentions that its "long and pointy at the top," declaring it to be from Dominoes. His parents tell him that he is correct and ask for a rating. He rates it a "thumbs up out of 10". Not surprisingly, George guesses the remaining 3 pizzas from Pizza Hut, Little Ceasers and Papa John's correctly. His mother exclaims, "You read pizzas better than words." View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ashley Seely (@thedashleys) Pizza lovers were impressed with young boy's pizza knowledge. Take a look at the comments: One user wrote, "George has been waiting for this opportunity his whole life." Another added, "Thought he was just pulling dad's leg to get tons of pizza. Turns out, this kid reads pizza like it's braille." "Kid's a pizza Sommelier," read a comment. A viewer penned, "Bro had a super power he's been wanting to show the world." What do you think of the video? Let us know in the comment section.
Yahoo
24-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How Olive Garden is able to afford giving away unlimited breadsticks
Olive Garden, the Italian restaurant owned by Darden Restaurants, was founded in Orlando in the '80s and quickly found a loyal fanbase in part because of its 'never-ending' first course, which includes unlimited breadsticks. While unlimited breadsticks have now become a staple of the company's brand, the dish was actually first offered as a way to occupy customers after long wait times to receive their meal. Olive Garden's unlimited breadsticks are beloved by its loyal customers more than any other menu item, but few know the treasured appetizer was originally adopted to keep them busy. The breadsticks have been a staple of Olive Garden's Italian-style fare since 1982, when the first restaurant was opened on International Drive in Orlando. An immediate success, the restaurant enjoyed a far better crowd than expected on that first day, but food took longer than expected to leave the kitchen, an Olive Garden spokesperson told Fortune. On the restaurant's second day, it was just as busy, and the restaurant team made a decision that would later become a staple of the brand: to give the customers refills on breadsticks, for no extra cost, while they waited for their meals to arrive. While alarm bells rang and kitchen staff struggled to make enough sauce, customers munching on free breadsticks were satisfied. 'It made guests really happy, but it also helped the kitchen catch up since servers could get them themselves,' Jaime Bunker, Olive Garden's senior vice president of marketing, told CNN. Soon after, the company added soup and salad for customers purchasing an adult entrée to enjoy in the restaurant. 'Olive Garden's Never-Ending First Course was born,' the spokesperson said. While the breadsticks have always been popular with customers, the way Olive Garden managed them wasn't always a hit with investors. In 2014, hedge fund Starboard Value released a 300-page presentation criticizing Darden and Olive Garden. In the document, the investor said servers were bringing out too many breadsticks at once and claimed the breadsticks had declined in quality so much as to be compared to hot dog buns. After a proxy battle, Starboard replaced Darden's board of directors and made significant changes to the company's restaurants including Olive Garden, but kept the unlimited breadsticks as a staple. More than 40 years later, the company's bottomless breadsticks go hand-in-hand with the brand's identity and are a big part of why customers have made Olive Garden one of Darden Restaurants' most profitable brands, said Fordham University adjunct professor of Hospitality Marketing Stacy Ross Cohen. Olive Garden accounted for $5.21 billion in sales in fiscal 2025, making up about 43% of Darden Restaurants' revenue for the year, and 47% of its total segment profit over the same period. Of all the company's brands, which also include Ruth's Chris Steakhouse and LongHorn Steakhouse, Olive Garden has the most non-franchise locations at 935. Customers have come to expect the breadsticks and keep coming back in part just for the experience, Ross Cohen told Fortune. 'The breadsticks are something that make people feel recognized. They make them feel important. They feel cared for,' said Ross Cohen, who is also CEO of marketing agency Co-Communications. This story was originally featured on Sign in to access your portfolio
