Debunking Myths About Genetically Modified Foods and Viral Videos

Genetically modified apples can increase food production, but concerns about authenticity and safety remain.

### Debunking Viral Food Videos: What's Real and What's Fake?
* 🍏 The discussion begins with a **genetically modified apple** designed to **grow year-round in Florida**, raising questions about the **trustworthiness of such innovations** amidst AI-generated content.
* 🎥 The skepticism around a video showcasing this apple leads to a comparison with AI-generated videos, noting that **current AI technology struggles with complex prompts** and often produces **low-quality results**.
* 🔍 To discern real from fake content, one can investigate the uploader's channel, revealing that some sources are **comedic and not meant to be taken seriously**.
* 🍦 A viewer's inquiry about a video involving ice cream leads to an experiment with **egg yolks as emulsifiers**, resulting in a **surprisingly tasty but messy outcome**.
* 🍿 Another experiment attempts to create a cracker from popcorn, demonstrating the **complexity of the actual production process** compared to the **unrealistic video portrayal**.
* 📰 The importance of verifying news sources is highlighted, with Ground News offering a platform to **compare how different outlets report on the same stories**, showcasing **potential biases**.
* 🔍 Further experiments with garlic in vinegar reveal that while the original video **exaggerated results**, the reaction was indeed real, emphasizing the **need for careful experimentation**.
* ☕ The segment wraps up by explaining the science behind whipped coffee, illustrating how certain ingredients **stabilize foam**, reinforcing the theme of **distinguishing fact from fiction** in viral trends.

This is a genetically modified apple. You've sent me a bunch of videos to debunk, so let's get straight to it with this one. Alex asks, "Is this how genetically modified food works? I can't trust things anymore due to AI, so I don't know if this is real or not?" Yep, an apple; it's been

modified to grow in Florida year-round rather than just seasonally further north. It tastes exactly the same, and I'm all for increasing food production, but it gives me a creepy feeling, like, should we be doing this? I don't know. What do you think? That video doesn't look real to me, but it

also doesn't look like it was generated using AI. I agree; there are a whole bunch of AI-generated fake videos going around on social media at the moment, and some of them are more realistic-looking than others. But if I go to a free AI video-generating website and ask it to make a video of an apple

that has an orange peel on the outside instead of apple skin, it seems to struggle with the complexity of that prompt. I did try and rewrite multiple different prompts, and it still did not get close to what we were after. And it can only generate 5-second, low-quality clips. I even ended

up paying for the premium version, which can do 10-second clips, and the results speak for themselves. And this is supposed to be one of the best AI video generators that are available at the moment. So if it wasn't done using AI, how was the video made? Well, if I had to guess, I'd say they probably

did it like this: To make this video, I just scooped the flesh out of an orange, added some glue to the outside skin of the apple, and put it inside and left it to dry. I know the orange looks whole, but if I turn it over, you can see that it's not. At the start of the clip, I rolled a whole orange onto

the board, then paused, swapped it out, and just added a cut in the video so your mind assumes that what you're seeing is a whole orange. So if people are going to such great effort to make fake content, how do you know what's real? Well, one thing you can do is look up the channel name

of the person who uploaded it. In this case, a quick Google search would have told you that the channel is a comedy channel, which is something that's a bit more obvious in their long-form videos but can be a bit lost on Shorts if you're not familiar with the channel already. Next, Elina sent in this

one... Elena wants to know, was that real? Why did they add egg, and why was the ice cream not all around the container? Which is a really good question. But starting with the egg question: egg yolks are a really common ingredient in homemade ice cream because they're an emulsifier; they help

keep the ice cream creamy, and you don't get as many of those icy ice crystals in it, so it makes for a better ice cream. Typically, you would just use egg yolks; they used whole eggs, so I'll do the same in this one, but I'm going to first of all heat that up with the cream and the sugar

and make sure it's hot enough to cook the egg so that we have a safer product. And then, because I'm not that familiar with cars and I have no idea how they only got one wheel to spin without any of the others spinning—I think that would just come off the jack—but because of that, I'm going to get Dave

to do it instead of me. So, what do you want me to do? Can you test the hack in the video for us? Okay. All right, step one: it's just squashed. Okay, next step... What? What? Why is he strapping it to his car wheel? That is ridiculous! The car will come off

The jack, it'll smash into a fence! This is crazy! Imagine telling your insurance company, "Oh yeah, no, it's just an accident that happened while I was making ice cream with my car... not doing it." I need to find another way. All right, a bit of wood, barrel, bucket, and switch it on.

All right, it's been half an hour. Let's see if it worked. And get the lid off. You're right, Elena, it is interesting that the ice cream isn't down the bottom; it's everywhere! Fact: everywhere! Spoon! Got my ice cream cone. I'm ready; the expectation is

palpable. It's a bit gooey inside. I don't know if you can see that, but it's a bit, uh, it's a bit drippy, but we have something on the top sort of resembling something. I'm going to say, kind of ice cream. Let's have a

taste. It's pretty good, actually. I surprised myself. Next, Bec sent in this one... That looks like a store-bought cracker. I'm fairly certain this is fake, but let's follow the recipe to see what actually happens.

You end up with popcorn that is very burnt at the bottom and slightly squished, even if I get popcorn that's already been popped so it doesn't burn, and add a lid and then another ring so that we can apply more pressure, and I stand on it, which is not hygienic, I know, but I can then squash it

into a cracker, sort of! It's very fragile and just falls apart. And that is because this is not how those crackers are made. You need a special piece of machinery, and you need to take some corn or some rice and you soak it in water first so that it's moist, and then a small amount is pushed into

the mold, and then it is squashed before popping,
and then the top lifts up a little to allow room for it to puff, and the heat and the pressure makes it puff into a cracker. And then, further down the production line, they add flavors to it. So that video was totally fake. It is getting harder to

tell what is real online. If you do check the actual channel source and see, do they normally upload stuff that is fake? That can help. The same goes for the news, and that's why today's sponsor, Ground News, exists to help us find sources that stick to the facts. Created by a former NASA

engineer, Ground News gathers stories from over 50,000 sources worldwide so that you can see how different outlets cover the same story. For example, this story was covered by 232 sources, and if we look at the bias distribution, this one was pretty equally reported. If we read the headlines

though, this one says, "Trump supporters decry death of Peanut the squirrel as government overreach." It's from a low factuality, far-right source, but if we scroll down to a higher factuality, centrist source, it puts it as, "Orphaned squirrel who became a social media star euthanized after being seized

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story, not just what the algorithm shows you. Next, lots of people sent in clips like this: that is not how you make crackled glass. It is true that glassblowers do dunk hot glass into water in order to make it crackle, but then they put it back into the hot furnace

and reheat it and put it back into a mold so that
they can close all of the gaps so that it's strong
and secure. Some flat crackled glass is made by
having three layers of glass and shattering just
the middle one, but dunking a hot wine glass into
cold water is just going to end up with a brittle

mess, or a broken glass, or maybe even injuries.
These sort of videos come under 'rage bait.' They
do something dumb like this that I think even
they know is not good, but they're doing it in
order to get people's emotions and anger boiling
so that people comment, and that higher engagement

rate means that the videos get recommended more
and get more views, and then because you get one
with more views, other people copy that idea and
they also get lots of views, and it's just this
terrible cycle. On a more positive note, Dave and
I are doing a meet-and-greet authors talk at Knox

Library very shortly, which is in Melbourne,
Victoria. If you're not familiar with it, I'll
put a link below with all the details.
I love meeting you guys, so do come out—you do need to register; it's free, but there
are limited places because it's a smaller venue

so make sure you register below for that one.
Next, King of Cats wants to know, "Is this real?" Let's try it... rub the garlic with some
salt for quite a while, and I'm going to put
these into a few different sterilized jars so
that we can do some experiments. This one I'm

filling with room-temperature white vinegar,
this one is hot white vinegar, and this one
is hot rice wine vinegar, like they used in
their video. The next day, none of them were
turning green at all, so I followed a different
recipe that said to rub the garlic with salt

and then let it sit for 30 minutes, then rinse off that salt and boil up a mixture of white vinegar, sugar, water, and salt. That way, you can better control the amount of salt that you get in your jars and the flavor. For the last jar, I used a different type of garlic that had more of a

reddish skin; the others were all white and papery on the outside. Okay, so now let's put these on a time lapse and see what happens. Keep in mind that those last two are a whole day behind the first three jars. I left this time lapse running for 3 days. The acid in the vinegar helps break

down the cell walls in the garlic, releasing some of the amino acids, which then react to form blue and yellow pigments, which combine to give us the green color that we see. From our experiment, the white vinegar seemed to be more effective than the rice wine vinegar, and some types of garlic seem

to be less reactive than others, possibly due to the different amounts of amino acids in different types of garlic. But overall, this one is true, not fake. However, in their video, theirs did look a lot more bright green than mine came out, and that could be due again to different types of garlic, or

maybe they left it for longer than they said they did, or perhaps they just upped the saturation on their video. Next, Nalene wants to know, "Please, please, pretty please, is this real?" It sounds to me like you really want it to be real, so let's try it: three eggs, half a cup of milk, agave syrup,

cinnamon. Whisk it together, soak the rice paper in it, and then stack up three layers of rice paper, add chocolate, and wrap it up like a present. Pop that in the air fryer at 180°C until it's golden. Look at that! Break it in half... and my chocolate is overcooked!

really disappointing. So then I tried less bake time than the recipe said, and it just wasn't crispy on the outside, and the chocolate inside was still overcooked. I also tried drying the rice paper and stacking the chocolate so it was a bit more protected from the heat, and it's

still overcooked. So then I rewatched the original recipe and discovered that he used 75g of chocolate, which was nearly double what I was using, so I tried it one more time, put it in at a hotter temperature for less time, and finally, we got a crispy outside and a melted

chocolate inside. Gluten-free treat. Gluten-free, hmm, all right. I mean, it looks quite yummy. Wow, went all over me! It's been like a spring roll stuffed with chocolate. The pastry is quite crunchy, like, um, but chewy at the same time. It was pretty good.

I don't mind the crispy outside; I give it a thumbs up for sure, a chocolatey thumbs up. Next, one of my subscribers wants to know why does coffee whip? This recipe was huge a few years ago during lockdown, so this whipped coffee stuff has been all over the internet; everyone's doing

it. Start by adding 2 tablespoons of instant coffee to a bowl along with 2 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons of boiling water... and now we're just going to beat this until it gets foamy... It's called dalgona coffee. Dalgona... what does dalgona even mean?

The simple combination of instant coffee, sugar, and water does whip up to make a very stable foam. There are other things that you're already familiar with that whip up to make a stable foam, things like egg whites. When you whip them with sugar, you get this really thick foam. Egg whites are

quite thick to start with, and they contain lots of protein, which helps surround those air bubbles and make it stable. The liquid from a can of cannellini beans contains some of the same proteins that you find in egg whites, and that's why, if you whip that with a beater, you

will also get a foam. It's not quite as stable as the egg whites, but it whips pretty well. But most liquids, like this apple juice, are very thin and watery in consistency and don't contain any protein, and if you whip them up, they might make frothy bubbles, but all those bubbles very quickly pop

and the foam disappears. If you want it to last longer, you're going to need to add something to it that will stabilize those bubbles. For example, if I take some bloomed gelatin and melt that in

the microwave with a little bit of the juice, and then add that gelatin into the apple juice and

whip it up again. Now you can see I'm getting a lot more bubbles than I did before, and this foam is much more stable. To make a stable foam, ideally you need two things: one, the liquid needs to be thick or viscous, a bit like the consistency of an egg white; and two, you need something to stabilize

those bubbles and stop them from popping. Naturally, coffee contains some different gums which, when concentrated like they are in instant coffee, they do both of the functions that we need; they thicken the mixture and they stabilize the bubbles. Thanks to all our patrons. Make it a great

week, and we'll see you on Friday. In the meantime, go make yourself some treadmill ice cream. Mmm 😊

Debunking Crackle Glass, 5-Min Craft Ice Cream, GMO oranges | How To Cook That Ann Reardon

How To Cook That

Debunking a Genetically Modified Apple Video

A viewer questions the authenticity of a video showing a genetically modified apple.

The apple is modified to grow year-round in Florida.

The creator tests AI video generation capabilities and finds limitations.

Even premium AI video generators struggle with complex prompts and short clip lengths.

The video's creation method is explained: using an orange inside an apple.

The video uses editing techniques to create a false impression of a whole orange.

A viewer questions the authenticity of a homemade ice cream video.

Egg yolks are used as an emulsifier in homemade ice cream.

The creator replicates the ice cream recipe, emphasizing safe egg cooking.

The creator attempts the ice cream-making method shown in the video, encountering challenges.

The video's method of using a car wheel is deemed unsafe and impractical.

An alternative method is used, resulting in ice cream that is spread throughout the container.

A viewer questions the authenticity of a video showing a method of making crackers from popcorn.

The creator attempts the recipe, resulting in a burnt and fragile product.

The actual cracker-making process involves specialized machinery and soaking the corn or rice.

The video is deemed fake due to the unrealistic method shown.

Identifying Reliable Online Information Sources

The difficulty of discerning real information online is highlighted.

Ground News is introduced as a tool for comparing news coverage from various sources.

An example shows how different sources present the same story with varying biases.

Ground News helps users see both sides of a story, beyond algorithmic filtering.

A video demonstrating crackled glass creation is analyzed.

The method shown is unsafe and would likely result in broken glass or injury.

Such videos are categorized as 'rage bait,' aiming to generate engagement through anger.

Author Talk Announcement and Garlic Experiment

An experiment on turning garlic green using vinegar is conducted.

Different vinegar types and garlic varieties are tested.

A modified recipe with controlled salt is used.

The experiment shows that the acid in vinegar breaks down garlic cell walls, releasing amino acids that create the green color.

Testing a Rice Paper Chocolate Treat Recipe

A viewer requests verification of a rice paper chocolate treat recipe.

Initial attempts result in overcooked chocolate.

Adjustments to baking time and chocolate amount are made.

A successful attempt produces a crispy outside and melted chocolate inside.

The final product is described as a crunchy and chewy treat.

A viewer asks why coffee whips up into a foam.

The process of making dalgona coffee is shown.

The role of proteins in stabilizing foam is explained using egg whites as an example.

The protein content in cannellini bean liquid is compared to egg whites.

The need for thickening and stabilization for stable foam is discussed.

Gelatin is used to stabilize apple juice foam.