Read my contributions at RYOT for more stories that fly below the radar
 

Russian aircraft approach USS Ronald Reagan, prompting US fighter jet scramble

"China's military will take "all necessary" measures in response to any future U.S. Navy incursions into what it considers its territorial waters around islands in the South China Sea, a Defense Ministry spokesman said Thursday.

The statement by Col. Yang Yujun followed the sailing of a U.S. guided missile destroyer within the 12-nautical mile (22-kilometer) territorial limit of one of the islands newly created by China in the strategically vital region. The U.S. refuses to recognize the man-made islets as deserving of sovereign territory status.

"We would urge the U.S. not to continue down the wrong path. But if the U.S. side does continue, we will take all necessary measures according to the need," Yang said. China's resolve to safeguard its national sovereignty and security interests is "rock-solid," he added.

Sting to Sell 200+ Art Collection at Christie's
[Art Net News]

Sting and Trudy are putting over 200 items from their "fantastic art collection" on the auction block. The sale will include "Ben Nicholson's March 55 (Amethyst) (1955), which has a presale estimate between £300,000–500,000 ($459,891–763,185). Henri Matisse's Jazz portfolio (1947), which is considered one of the most important print series of the 20th century, is also hitting the auction block as part of the sale, with a presale estimated between £250,000–350,000 ($381,592–534,229) Meanwhile, Pablo Picasso's lithograph Le Corsage à Carreaux (1949), has a presale estimate between £30,000-50,000 ($45,791–76,318)." Sting and Trudy are cutting back, you see. They "decided to auction a chunk of their art collection shortly after selling their £19 million ($28 million) home in Queen Anne's Gate, central London, last August."

Why I’ve made my home at a kibbutz near Gaza, on the verge of hell
[Times of Israel]
A wonderful first-person account. The author lives in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, the closest place in Israel to Gaza. He says he has "been living in Nahal Oz for almost a year and have gone to the observation point dozens of times, but only once during the night. It’s too depressing to look at the complete darkness on the other side, and realize that many people actually live in it." What follows is a description of life that is anything but normal. 

 

The Illusion of Taste
[The New Yorker]
Here it is argued that "in most cases at least half of our experience of food and drink is determined by the forgotten flavor senses of vision, sound, and touch." For example, "Spence has found that a strawberry-flavored mousse tastes ten per cent sweeter when served from a white container rather than a black one; that coffee tastes nearly twice as intense but only two-thirds as sweet when it is drunk from a white mug rather than a clear glass one; that adding two and a half ounces to the weight of a plastic yogurt container makes the yogurt seem about twenty-five per cent more filling..."