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The Sun
6 days ago
- The Sun
Italian city mixes nightlife with culture and makes for the perfect girls' mini-break
CRACKING nightlife and great culture, too – this Italian city makes for the perfect girls' mini-break, says Senior Writer Donna Smiley. Cycling along the 15km seafront promenade, my friends and I all turn our heads at the same time to take in the view of the bronzed men playing volleyball on the beach. 5 5 It's 8pm on a Friday in Rimini – a small resort city on Italy's northern Adriatic coast that the Italians adore for its sandy beaches, arts and vibrant culture. The sun is still shining and the seafront is packed with people of all ages and from all walks of life, while bodyboarders catch the last waves. After locking up our bikes, we head to the pier for one of Rimini 's most popular beachfront restaurants, Rock Island – a perfect place to watch the sunset with a glass of wine. It's buzzing, and while the outside bar pumps out loud house music to a younger crowd, I feast on delicious amberjack tortellini on asparagus cream, with a tomato confit and toasted almond flakes, £15, paired with a bottle of white Sartori Lugana wine, £19, in the elegant but relaxed interior ( On the way back to our hotel, the i-Suite, we stop for a nightcap at Barrumba, a pizza restaurant and live-music venue next door. At 1am, it's heaving and blasting out dance anthems – no one is in any rush for the night to end ( Revellers are relaxing in i-Suite's 24-hour pool, too, and we're tempted to join them – but for our early start to explore the city in a few hours' time. B&B for three people costs from £83 per person ( PIAZZA THE ACTION I'm in need of coffee and sugar come sunrise, and the friendly hotel waiter brings me a smooth cappuccino within minutes. 7 TOURIST DESTINATIONS - EVERGREEN LISTICLE We hire bikes for the day, £16 per person, and head to the historic old town, a 15-minute cycle away ( It's charming, with cobbled streets, ancient Roman landmarks, stunning medieval monuments and lively piazzas. Our first stop is the atmospheric Fellini Museum, which is dedicated to Italian film director and screenwriter Federico Fellini, who was recognised as one of the most influential ever in his field – he was even awarded the Honorary Oscar For Lifetime Achievement in 1993. Museum entry costs £8.50 ( Next, we head to Nud e Crud for a piada. It's the Emilia-Romagna region 's traditional street food and is a cross between a pitta bread and a tortilla. I opt for the PidGreek with grilled chicken, salad and tzatziki, £8.50 – so tasty I could easily eat another – and sip a very reasonably priced Aperol Spritz, £5 ( That evening, we take a short train, £3, to Cesenatico – a small and pretty town in the heart of the Riviera Romagnola – to enjoy seafood at Osteria Bartolini, a cute trattoria with alfresco tables overlooking the canal. 5 We share a bottle of crisp Pignoletto Frizzante, £19.50, baby cuttlefish with artichokes, £18, potato and cod croquettes, £14, and boneless and fried sardines with aromatic tomato, £14 – all of which are fresh and tasty ( We skip dessert and head back to cute Gelateria Pellicano, behind our hotel, for creamy salted caramel gelato, £3.50 ( The next day, we wander through the lush greenery of Parco Cervi, which takes us from the beach through grand giant arch Arco di Augusto, where shops are brimming with designer and high-street fashion, art galleries and souvenirs, such as leather goods, ceramics and local wine. I can't resist picking up some delicious olive oil. TIRAMIS-SO GOOD! We decide to spend the afternoon sunbathing at the most popular free beach, Marina Centro at Piazzale Boscovich in the harbour area, before heading back to our hotel to change for a cycle over to dinner at The Grand Hotel Rimini. This five-star hotel has always been considered the symbol of 'la dolce vita' on the Adriatic Riviera and is a magnificent building with more than 100 years of history. 5 It has hosted many celebrities in its time, including Princess Diana and actress Sharon Stone. Its ancient ballrooms are the beautiful setting for the (aptly titled) La Dolce Vita gourmet restaurant, where prices are surprisingly reasonable. The traditional risotto with carnaroli rice and grape and golden apple sauce, £19, is light and flavoursome, and for dessert, we all agree the tiramisu, £10.50, is to die for ( On another night, we treat ourselves to dinner at San Marino's fanciest restaurant, La Terrazza, which has breathtaking panoramic views. I start with the cheese and cold cuts selection with local mustards and honey from San Marino, £14 – the best I've ever had – before digging into handmade tagliolini pasta served with julienned crispy serrano ham and black truffle, £14, which also tastes amazing. A bottle of sparkling Pievalta Perlugo, £21.50, goes down rather nicely, too ( We head back to Rimini train station on our last day to catch a bus to San Marino – the world's smallest republic state – located on a mountain top. After the 50-minute journey, £5, we hop on a cable car to the top of Monte Titano and walk among picturesque townhouses and cobbled streets, where three old castles and towers are linked by strong walls and fortifications. Wandering along the Passo delle Streghe, a fortified pathway between two of the towers, we learn its name means 'steps of the witches'. Ancient legend has it that witches could sometimes be seen dancing on the rocks of Monte Titano at night! Whether that's true or not, Rimini has proved to be one magical mini-break.
Daily Mail
19-06-2025
- Daily Mail
Sheriff reveals why they're convinced on-the-run killer dad Travis Decker is alive... and may be getting help
The sheriff's office hunting for Travis Decker, the Washington State father on the run after allegedly killing his three daughters, believes he is still alive and may be getting help. The 32-year-old fugitive allegedly strangled his three children - Paityn, nine, Evelyn, eight, and Olivia, five - and left their bodies near Rock Island Campground on June 2. As the search for Decker continues, Chelan County Sheriff Michael Morrison revealed authorities have been getting several leads on his whereabouts - perhaps hinting that Decker is still alive. 'Our primary focus has just remained on the investigation, but we are tracking down leads,' Morrison told News Nation, adding that all of the teams working to track Decker down have reinstated search and rescue operations and are following up on all information given to them. When asked if he believes the veteran is getting help, the sheriff said he wasn't 'quite sure,' but could have possibly 'staged some supplies beforehand.' Morrison went on to note that those who are 'sympathetic' towards Decker are not helping the investigation. 'There are some that may be sympathetic to his cause, which I think would be misguided. I mean, he's accused of murder, not just once but three times, and he is a danger,' he told the outlet. 'For those that might have sympathy towards him, please allow the opportunity for us to do our job. Set up that opportunity for him to be in front of our courts, and if he has different information he'd like to present and he thinks there's a way he could clear his name, let's go through the proper channels. 'As far as we can see he is still our suspect of interest, a subject we want to take into custody, and we want to set up that meeting where he can stand in front of our courts and speak his side of the story,' he added. Federal officials recently shared three new images of what the wanted man could now look like after being on the run for more than two weeks. The Chelan County Sheriff's Office created three updated pictures of the suspect, each depicting a different way he could have altered his features. Authorities also shared a message to Washington residents, stating the veteran is 'considered dangerous and may be armed.' 'Do not approach, call 911 immediately!' the wanted poster read. The manipulated images were made based on a photo of Decker posed in front of a landscape wearing a blue shirt and baseball cap, in which he has a beard, mustache and an earring. His hair is grown out to his neck. The first variation of his potential altered appearance showed Decker wearing no hat with a buzz cut and clean shaven facial hair. Another image showed Decker with a mustache and a buzzcut without a beard. In the third option, Decker has shoulder-length hair, no facial hair and is wearing a baseball cap. He has been missing since May 30, when he failed to return the three little girls back to their mother, Whitney, after a visit. Whitney, who is divorced from Decker, told police that he had picked the girls up around 5pm but had not returned them by 8pm, and his phone went straight to voicemail, court documents said. Detectives said she 'expressed concern because Decker reportedly has never done this before and … is currently experiencing some mental health issues.' She also told law enforcement officials that Decker was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and believes he did not take medication for the condition, according to court documents. On June 2, a search party led to the chilling discovery of the sisters' dead bodies near the Chelan County campsite along with Decker's truck. An autopsy revealed the girls died from suffocation and police reported their wrists were zip-tied when they were found, per court records. Police collected 'a large amount of evidence' from the truck, including male blood and non-human blood. The alleged killer's dog was found nearby as well and taken to an animal humane society, Fox 8 reported. Newly released audio revealed Decker pleaded for more custody time to go camping with his daughters just months before their lifeless bodies were found. In the audio, which is from a September 2024 custody hearing, Decker made an eerie promise that no harm would come to the girls if he's given more time to take them camping in Washington State's wilderness. His visitation time with the girls had earlier been reduced after his ex-wife raised concerns over his declining mental health, alleged endangerment, and lack of stability. She was given near-full custody while Decker was only allowed to visit every other weekend for a set number of hours. Frustrated with the lack of time with his daughters, Decker pleaded with a family court judge to restore access to the girls - claiming he'd never put them in danger. 'Every time I've had the girls, we have been in campsites and national forests and paid campsites that have campers,' he said in the audio. 'We've never done anything that was unsafe, or anything I wouldn't want to put myself in.' 'I understand that my current position when I'm by myself isn't ideal, but my daughters aren't a part of that,' Decker continued. 'I only get to see them over the weekends, and camping is something that the four of us have done since the three of them were in diapers.' He emphasized again that he's never put his daughters at risk - and brings them to camp sights that are 'sold out.' Decker is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping.
CNN
30-05-2025
- Business
- CNN
This fragrance company is trying to recreate the scent of extinct blooms
What do you get when you combine a team of scientists, a lab specializing in sequencing DNA and some extinct species? While the answer could be the plot of 'Jurassic Park,' these are actually the foundations of Future Society, a biotech fragrance company that has changed the landscape of scent by conjuring extinct flowers. Working together with the Harvard University Herbaria — home to over five million botanical specimens — Future Society has successfully sequenced the genetic codes of preserved plants, some of which date back more than 150 years. Six of them have already been made into perfumes, with signature notes ranging from the green to woody and floral. Take the orbexilum stipulatum, a herbaceous, flowering plant that grew on Rock Island in the shallowest part of the old Falls of the Ohio and is last known to have flowered in 1881. The plant is thought to have been wiped out after the eradication of buffalo that used to migrate through the area, meaning its seeds were no longer dispersed far and wide. Then in the 1920s, the entire area was flooded by dams, submerging all hope for it. We used this technology… to provide a glimpse into what these extinct flowers might have smelled like. Future Society founder and CEO Jasmina Aganovic 'We set out to make scents we've never smelled before and fragrances that were previously not possible to make,' said Jasmina Aganovic, founder and CEO of Future Society and its parent company Arcaea, in a video interview with CNN. The six fragrances, Aganovic explained, have been made possible by DNA sequencing. 'It's similar (to the) technology that was used on and 23andme whereby users spit into a tube, send it away and wait to find out about their genetics,' she said. 'We used this technology on preserved plant specimens from extinct flowers, searching for scent molecules which started to provide a glimpse into what these extinct flowers might have smelled like.' Aganovic didn't set out with a grand plan for a certain flower she was desperate to smell, but wanted to demonstrate how new biological advancements could be used in the beauty sector. In a 'not very romantic' fashion, the Future Society team looked at how many specimens existed in the Harvard University Herbaria, how many samples they could get and which of those would be reconstructible, because DNA degrades over time, she said. 'Ultimately we didn't know if this de-extincting exercise was going to work, so it was a numbers game to try it out.' On the process, Aganovic explained: 'The actual specimens are small little snippets brought back to the lab and they undergo a series of chemical reactions to degrade them and ensure that all that's left is the DNA.' Part of the data that first emerged was very raw, Aganovic said. 'It smelled like something went through a lawnmower, because you're getting everything — not just the fragrant petals, you're getting the plant's stem, the leaves, who knows what… You don't just get the genetics for the flower in the petal, right? It's all of the genetics.' In other words, recreating an extinct bloom's scent is not, Aganovic points out, an exact science. Not least because scent is highly complex; for example, a jasmine flower or a rose is composed of hundreds — if not thousands — of different scent molecules and chemical compounds. 'We can draw an analogy to our own genetics,' explained Aganovic. 'We carry two copies of genes, one from our biological father, one from our biological mother, but even though our body carries those genes, it doesn't express both. What the body chooses to express is exactly the nuance here.' When the extinct plant DNA was sequenced, many different genes for the scent molecules were exposed — but not all 'turned on' when they were put into yeast, a living organism, she said. 'That narrowed down the olfactory profile and gave more confidence around the direction that the physical flower went in.' While Aganovic and her team were left with this genetic evidence, there was still work to do to interpret it. 'Having the DNA in yeast doesn't brew this beautiful, fine fragrance, it just gives us the scent profile. The actual blending and composition relies on perfumers' existing notes and compounds from their own libraries,' Aganovic explained. Future Society does not use the DNA to regrow the extinct blooms. There are also scant — and subjective — records available. If no one living has experienced the flower first-hand, how does Future Society determine which flowers warrant a fragrance? 'This is what I really love about this work,' said Aganovic, who is a scientist by training but has been working in the beauty industry since 2014. 'It wasn't just down to the arrogance of science. While we had the data, we actually relied on different areas of expertise including perfumers and their knowledge of aroma chemicals and botany to look at the lineage of these plants, what living plants they were related to, where they were growing and what their environment was like… These elements all gave hints to how we might reconstruct the smell through a mixture of art and science.' Indeed, Future Society worked with perfumers from famed scent houses Givaudan (which Arcaea also counts as an investor, alongside Chanel and Olaplex) and Robertet to source a mixture of fragrance notes — synthetic, natural, and bioengineered — inspired by the scent molecules of the extinct flowers to create the blends. The resulting scents are, according to the brand's website, 'tributes to' what the plants could have smelled like. Future Society worked with three different perfumers for their recreated scents, each of whom viewed the data through their own unique lens. Olivia Jan, who worked on the Grassland Opera fragrance imagined the scent of the herbaceous orbexilum stipulatum flower. 'The Orbexilum stipulatum flower grew near a waterfall, so I tried to make something wet, green, and lush,' Jan told Harper's Bazaar USA in 2023. Perfumer Daniela Andrier, who formulated two fragrances for Future Society, wanted to tell the story of extinction from the perspective of the Earth. The Reclaimed Flame scent is a tribute to South Africa's extinct Leucadendron grandiflorum, which last bloomed in 1960, while Invisible Woods focuses on India's extinct Wendlandia angustifolia, which went extinct in 1917 due to drought. '(Andrier's) palette of ingredients relied on earthy, herbal ingredients because that was the feeling she wanted to evoke,' explained Aganovic. Meanwhile, Jérôme Epinette formulated three fragrances, including the bestselling scent Solar Canopy, which is based on the hibiscadelphus wilderianus, a hibiscus flower from Hawaii which died out in 1912 due to deforestation. Epinette was fascinated by time travel, and wanted the wearer to feel like they were there with the flower in the forest or on the mountain. 'From the DNA data, we knew there were some earthy tones in there, hence the fragrance has vetiver (the scent of which some liken to dry grass or wet woods), but there were also some juicier, fruitier things — elements of lychee, some magnolia, some sour notes too,' added Aganovic. While portions of the technology used in these projects are similar to the work being done by companies such as Colossal (who in April claimed to have brought the dire wolf back from extinction), Aganovic is keen to keep her distance. 'We are not fully resurrecting these flowers. We are a beauty company focused on self expression through personal scent, and I know that it's not sexy like, 'oh, we brought back the wolves,' but I think it's important to acknowledge,' she said. 'This de-extinction stuff (makes me) feel uneasy because… I definitely get whiffs of 'in the future, we will just de-extinct things,'' Aganovic continued. 'We can't be so arrogant to think we can just 'science' our way out of our problems, because sure, you know, technology means we can bring species back, but what we can't bring back is the relationship that certain populations had with that plant. Ultimately the human relationship with our environment is not just copy pasteable.'
CNN
30-05-2025
- Business
- CNN
This fragrance company is trying to recreate the scent of extinct blooms
What do you get when you combine a team of scientists, a lab specializing in sequencing DNA and some extinct species? While the answer could be the plot of 'Jurassic Park,' these are actually the foundations of Future Society, a biotech fragrance company that has changed the landscape of scent by conjuring extinct flowers. Working together with the Harvard University Herbaria — home to over five million botanical specimens — Future Society has successfully sequenced the genetic codes of preserved plants, some of which date back more than 150 years. Six of them have already been made into perfumes, with signature notes ranging from the green to woody and floral. Take the orbexilum stipulatum, a herbaceous, flowering plant that grew on Rock Island in the shallowest part of the old Falls of the Ohio and is last known to have flowered in 1881. The plant is thought to have been wiped out after the eradication of buffalo that used to migrate through the area, meaning its seeds were no longer dispersed far and wide. Then in the 1920s, the entire area was flooded by dams, submerging all hope for it. We used this technology… to provide a glimpse into what these extinct flowers might have smelled like. Future Society founder and CEO Jasmina Aganovic 'We set out to make scents we've never smelled before and fragrances that were previously not possible to make,' said Jasmina Aganovic, founder and CEO of Future Society and its parent company Arcaea, in a video interview with CNN. The six fragrances, Aganovic explained, have been made possible by DNA sequencing. 'It's similar (to the) technology that was used on and 23andme whereby users spit into a tube, send it away and wait to find out about their genetics,' she said. 'We used this technology on preserved plant specimens from extinct flowers, searching for scent molecules which started to provide a glimpse into what these extinct flowers might have smelled like.' Aganovic didn't set out with a grand plan for a certain flower she was desperate to smell, but wanted to demonstrate how new biological advancements could be used in the beauty sector. In a 'not very romantic' fashion, the Future Society team looked at how many specimens existed in the Harvard University Herbaria, how many samples they could get and which of those would be reconstructible, because DNA degrades over time, she said. 'Ultimately we didn't know if this de-extincting exercise was going to work, so it was a numbers game to try it out.' On the process, Aganovic explained: 'The actual specimens are small little snippets brought back to the lab and they undergo a series of chemical reactions to degrade them and ensure that all that's left is the DNA.' Part of the data that first emerged was very raw, Aganovic said. 'It smelled like something went through a lawnmower, because you're getting everything — not just the fragrant petals, you're getting the plant's stem, the leaves, who knows what… You don't just get the genetics for the flower in the petal, right? It's all of the genetics.' In other words, recreating an extinct bloom's scent is not, Aganovic points out, an exact science. Not least because scent is highly complex; for example, a jasmine flower or a rose is composed of hundreds — if not thousands — of different scent molecules and chemical compounds. 'We can draw an analogy to our own genetics,' explained Aganovic. 'We carry two copies of genes, one from our biological father, one from our biological mother, but even though our body carries those genes, it doesn't express both. What the body chooses to express is exactly the nuance here.' When the extinct plant DNA was sequenced, many different genes for the scent molecules were exposed — but not all 'turned on' when they were put into yeast, a living organism, she said. 'That narrowed down the olfactory profile and gave more confidence around the direction that the physical flower went in.' While Aganovic and her team were left with this genetic evidence, there was still work to do to interpret it. 'Having the DNA in yeast doesn't brew this beautiful, fine fragrance, it just gives us the scent profile. The actual blending and composition relies on perfumers' existing notes and compounds from their own libraries,' Aganovic explained. Future Society does not use the DNA to regrow the extinct blooms. There are also scant — and subjective — records available. If no one living has experienced the flower first-hand, how does Future Society determine which flowers warrant a fragrance? 'This is what I really love about this work,' said Aganovic, who is a scientist by training but has been working in the beauty industry since 2014. 'It wasn't just down to the arrogance of science. While we had the data, we actually relied on different areas of expertise including perfumers and their knowledge of aroma chemicals and botany to look at the lineage of these plants, what living plants they were related to, where they were growing and what their environment was like… These elements all gave hints to how we might reconstruct the smell through a mixture of art and science.' Indeed, Future Society worked with perfumers from famed scent houses Givaudan (which Arcaea also counts as an investor, alongside Chanel and Olaplex) and Robertet to source a mixture of fragrance notes — synthetic, natural, and bioengineered — inspired by the scent molecules of the extinct flowers to create the blends. The resulting scents are, according to the brand's website, 'tributes to' what the plants could have smelled like. Future Society worked with three different perfumers for their recreated scents, each of whom viewed the data through their own unique lens. Olivia Jan, who worked on the Grassland Opera fragrance imagined the scent of the herbaceous orbexilum stipulatum flower. 'The Orbexilum stipulatum flower grew near a waterfall, so I tried to make something wet, green, and lush,' Jan told Harper's Bazaar USA in 2023. Perfumer Daniela Andrier, who formulated two fragrances for Future Society, wanted to tell the story of extinction from the perspective of the Earth. The Reclaimed Flame scent is a tribute to South Africa's extinct Leucadendron grandiflorum, which last bloomed in 1960, while Invisible Woods focuses on India's extinct Wendlandia angustifolia, which went extinct in 1917 due to drought. '(Andrier's) palette of ingredients relied on earthy, herbal ingredients because that was the feeling she wanted to evoke,' explained Aganovic. Meanwhile, Jérôme Epinette formulated three fragrances, including the bestselling scent Solar Canopy, which is based on the hibiscadelphus wilderianus, a hibiscus flower from Hawaii which died out in 1912 due to deforestation. Epinette was fascinated by time travel, and wanted the wearer to feel like they were there with the flower in the forest or on the mountain. 'From the DNA data, we knew there were some earthy tones in there, hence the fragrance has vetiver (the scent of which some liken to dry grass or wet woods), but there were also some juicier, fruitier things — elements of lychee, some magnolia, some sour notes too,' added Aganovic. While portions of the technology used in these projects are similar to the work being done by companies such as Colossal (who in April claimed to have brought the dire wolf back from extinction), Aganovic is keen to keep her distance. 'We are not fully resurrecting these flowers. We are a beauty company focused on self expression through personal scent, and I know that it's not sexy like, 'oh, we brought back the wolves,' but I think it's important to acknowledge,' she said. 'This de-extinction stuff (makes me) feel uneasy because… I definitely get whiffs of 'in the future, we will just de-extinct things,'' Aganovic continued. 'We can't be so arrogant to think we can just 'science' our way out of our problems, because sure, you know, technology means we can bring species back, but what we can't bring back is the relationship that certain populations had with that plant. Ultimately the human relationship with our environment is not just copy pasteable.'
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Crews battle house fire in Rock Island
The cause of a Rock Island house fire that started about 3:15 p.m. Monday remains under investigation, according to firefighters. Our Quad Cities News crew saw smoke billow from the structure on the 1400 block of 15th Avenue as crews extinguished the blaze. There were no apparent injuries. The house has a 'For Sale' sign in front of it. We will remain in contact with firefighters to provide details when they become available. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
