Saying no to requests you don’t want to follow through on or don’t have time to accomplish is a difficult skill to master. Especially at the office, many people feel compelled to be a “yes man.” But as a video from SUCCESSmagazine’s Mel Robbins recently highlighted, there’s a pretty easy way to keep yourself from saying yes when what you really need to say is no.
The key lies in saying “I don’t” instead of “I can’t.” In one of several tests included in a study [PDF] by Boston College and Houston University first released several years ago, researchers found that volunteers who said “I don’t skip exercise” instead of “I can’t skip exercise” worked out more often.
Regardless of whether you’re talking to yourself or another person, “can’t” suggests that you might want to do something, but aren’t able to; Robbins gives the example of saying “I can’t eat cake for lunch.” The implication is that in another set of circumstances, you could. But when you say “I don’t” (“I don’t eat cake for lunch”), there’s no room for debate. It’s a hard-and-fast rule that you set for yourself.
The researchers write that “using the word ‘don’t’ serves as a self-affirmation of one’s personal willpower and control in the relevant self-regulatory goal pursuit, leading to a favorable influence on feelings of empowerment, as well as on actual behavior. On the other hand, saying ‘I can’t do X’ connotes an external focus on impediments.”
Caridean shrimp like this one carry pollen between male and female sea grass flowers. Image Credit: Enrique Dans via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 2.0.
Just when you thought nature couldn’t get any more adorable, there’s this. Scientists have discovered that teensy shrimp, jellies, and other sea creatures act as pollinators for underwater plants. They described the sea bees’ activity in the journal Nature Communications.
The sea grass Thalassia testudinum, also known as turtle grass, grows in dense meadows in the shallows of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. The grass puts out little white and pale pink flowers, some (male flowers) giving off pollen and others (female flowers) accepting it. Scientists have long believed that turtle grass pollinates itself by simply releasing its pollen into the water, which washes it into receptive female flowers.
Those scientists were correct. But the grass also seems to make use of its little visitors, as researchers learned when they trained video cameras on a flowering meadow. They discovered that the meadow was a bustling place frequented by dozens of different species [PDF], from shrimp and crabs to jellies, isopods, and worms.
Analysis of the recordings also revealed an interesting trend: male flowers full of pollen were far more popular with crustacean visitors than those without. The researchers watched as the tiny animals fed from the male flowers and swam away, grains of pollen still stuck to their bodies. The situation looked awfully familiar. Was it possible that the animals serve the same role underwater as bees do on land?
To find out, the researchers carefully collected flowering turtle grass and a sampling of its animal visitors, then brought them all into the lab. They set up a series of trays, each containing a single pollen-rich male and a single female flower, then added the trays to small aquaria teeming with their regular customers. They also ran a second experiment, in which the two flowers were buffeted by different types and strengths of current.
The researchers’ hypothesis was spot-on: The little animals were indeed ferrying grains of pollen from male to female flowers, allowing the flowers to get it on even in the absence of strong currents.
Kelly Darnell of The Water Institute of the Gulf was unaffiliated with the study, but told New Scientist she was excited with its findings.
“That pollination by animals can occur adds an entirely new level of complexity to the system,” she said, “and describes a very interesting plant-animal interaction that hasn’t really fully been described before.”
Turtle grass can also reproduce asexually, so pollination via shrimp likely represents a pretty small portion of its sex (or sexless) life. But the fact that it happens at all is delightful enough for us.
Recognizing a fellow human’s face is about more than just identifying a nose or mouth. It’s believed we use something called configural recognition to process the entire facial structure altogether, which is why there’s often a little bit of a lag time when we see a face upside-down (humans have an easier time recognizing other objects, like cars or houses, that have been flipped).
Researchers now believe chimpanzees have something similar to configural recognition. Only they use it to recognize each other’s butts.
In a paper published in the journal PLOS One, researchers from the Netherlands and Japan observed chimps as they examined photographs of primate buttocks and played a variation on the “match” game, coupling two identical butts together on a touch screen. They appeared slower to recognize posteriors when the images were rotated 180 degrees, indicating they rely on the same configural clues humans do. The researchers also carried out experiments on humans, who (as expected) took a longer time to process images of human faces flipped upside-down, but whose reaction time didn’t change significantly when they were presented with upside-down images of human behinds.
It’s believed chimps have evolved to focus on butts due to their proximity to them while moving in groups. Walking on four legs, they’re often (literally) faced with a rump ahead of them. Since ovulating females usually have red, swollen rear ends, male chimps benefit from being able to identify them. What’s more, chimps can typically separate an ovulating non-relative from a relative, preventing inbreeding.
The paper concludes, “The findings suggest an evolutionary shift in socio-sexual signalling function from behinds to faces, two hairless, symmetrical and attractive body parts, which might have attuned the human brain to process faces, and the human face to become more behind-like.”
While you’re probably familiar with pies, croissants, cream puffs, and tarts, there are plenty of other tantalizing pastries to discover. Using a simple base of flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and shortening, pastry chefs can create a cornucopia of delicious desserts. If you’re looking to expand your pastry horizons, consider these 12 delectable pastries from around the world.
Most popular in Hamburg and other parts of northern Germany, Franzbrötchen are croissant-like spiral pastries made with butter and cinnamon. Germans usually eat Franzbrötchen at breakfast with their morning coffee, and they sometimes add raisins to them.
We can thank India for gulab jamun, a glorious pastry that combines balls of fried dough with sweet syrup. Shaped like doughnut holes, the balls of dough are usually made with milk powder or corn flour and then fried in ghee. Gulab jamun packs a powerful dose of sugar, but cardamom, rose water, and saffron add more subtle notes to the pastry.
Cubans and Cuban-Americans in Miami know pastelitos well. Similar to jelly doughnuts, the pastries are typically made with flaky filo dough and contain a filling of guava and cheese. Some pastelitos have more unusual sweet and savory fillings, such as pineapple, coconut, ham, and crab.
A popular Middle Eastern dessert, baklava consists of layers of chopped pistachios and sweetened filo dough. The pastries may also include chopped walnuts or pecans as well as plenty of honey, butter, and sugar. For an authentic Turkish experience, savor baklava after a meal while sipping tea.
Cannoli got its start over 1000 years ago in Palermo, the capital of Sicily. Today, Italians still enjoy biting into the cannoli’s shell of fried dough to taste the creamy, sweetened ricotta filling. And thanks to Italian-Americans making and selling cannoli, most of us are familiar with the decadent Italian pastry.
Sufganiyot are Israel’s answer to jelly doughnuts. The balls of deep-fried dough are filled with jelly and topped with powdered sugar. The Jewish recipe is popular around the world now, especially each December when they are served during Hanukkah.
The beautiful latticework on the top of Linzer tortes makes them instantly recognizable. Said to date to the mid-1600s, people in Linz, Austria began making these tortes, layering pastry dough with currant preserves. Today, the torte usually contains a filling of berry preserves, and the pastry dough is made with butter and ground nuts.
Native to Kerman, Iran, kolompeh are cookie-sized pies made with minced dates, walnuts, cardamom, saffron, and sesame. Before baking the pastries, Iranians stamp them with kolompeh stamps, creating beautiful, intricate designs on the top of the pastries.
Pear lovers will enjoy Birnbrot, a pear-centric Swiss pastry that incorporates dried fruits, spices, and nuts. The sweet bread is made from yeast dough and filled with everything from dried pears, dried apples or figs, walnuts, raisins, cinnamon, clove, and coriander.
10. MOONCAKE // CHINA
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Every fall, Chinese people celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival by gathering to view the full moon and giving mooncakes to their friends and family, symbolizing completeness and unity. The pastries are round (like the moon), sweet, and filled with a paste made of lotus seeds, red beans, or dates. Some Cantonese mooncakes also contain a salted duck egg yolk inside.
If you’re at a wedding or special event in France and spot a tower of desserts, you’re probably looking at a croquembouche. This triangle-shaped tower consists of carefully stacked profiteroles (a.k.a. cream puffs) decorated with strands of caramelized sugar. It’s fancy, elegant, and downright delectable.
Pineapple buns—also called Bolo Bao—are soft, sweet, chewy, and slightly crunchy on top. They don’t actually have any pineapple in them; rather, the pastry’s crust has a grid pattern that resembles a pineapple. If you’re not in Hong Kong, you can probably find pineapple buns in Chinese bakeries.
This past year held some pleasant surprises for fans of Hayao Miyazaki. The legendary director recently announced he’s coming out of retirement to direct his final feature, and earlier this week, Spirited Away (2001) returned to theaters for a limited time. And 2017 is also shaping up to be a good year for the fanbase: As Screenrant reports, Princess Mononoke (1997) will play in select theaters across the U.S. this coming January.
In celebration of the film’s 20th anniversary, Fathom Events and Studio Ghibli’s American distributors GKIDS are joining forces for a special two-day event. The first screening scheduled for January 5 will feature the original Japanese audio with English subtitles. The second screening on January 9 will spotlight the English dub featuring Claire Danes, Billy Crudup, and Minnie Driver. Spectators at both showings will be treated to a bonus look at the rare music video Miyazaki directed for Japanese band Chage & Aska’s song “On Your Mark” in 1995. Animation enthusiasts can reserve tickets today through Fathom Events.
When Princess Mononoke debuted in 1997, it toppled box office records to become Japan’s highest grossing film. Today the movie is considered one of the best works to come out of Studio Ghibli. When it’s re-released on January 5, Princess Mononoke fans will have a second reason to celebrate: The date also marks Miyazaki’s 76th birthday. Despite more than 30 years with Ghibli, the director is still hard at work at what he promises is one last feature for the studio.
You’ve probably heard that yo-yo dieting can backfire. Now we have some idea why: Scientists say that intense food restriction teaches the body to hold on to any calories and fat it can get. The researchers published their findings in the journal Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health.
There are oodles of diets out there, each promising that it alone holds the secret to dropping pounds and keeping them off forever. But almost all these diets are short-term strategies. The weight we lose almost always comes creeping back in as soon as we go back to eating normally.
It’s something of an evolutionary puzzle. If carrying excess weight is physiologically inefficient—that is, it can be taxing for the body—why would our bodies work to regain what we’ve lost?
To find out, two British researchers looked in an unexpected direction: math. Animal behavior scientist Andrew Higginson of the University of Exeter teamed up with University of Exeter mathematician John McNamara to create a mathematical simulation of yo-yo dieting and its effects. Using what they knew about the behavior and physiology of existing animals, including humans, Higginson and McNamara created a hypothetical animal. They set it in a hypothetical natural world that followed the same patterns as our own. The animal had to eat to live, and being active used up energy. The animal’s food supply also fluctuated, as it does for real animals in real habitats. The researchers’ question was this: Would those fluctuations produce long-term changes in the animal’s body?
They certainly did. The simulation results showed that a body in inconsistent conditions like those in which our ancestors evolved would benefit from retaining any fat it could find in times of abundance. The results also suggested that the artificial scarcity created by dieting is a real trigger for this self-protective weight gain. According to the team’s results, on-again, off-again dieters are more likely to put on weight than people who never diet at all. And while this fact may be frustrating, the authors say, it’s actually a sign of a healthy body.
“The best thing for weight loss is to take it steady,” Higginson said in a statement. “Our work suggests that eating only slightly less than you should, all the time, and doing physical exercise is much more likely to help you reach a healthy weight than going on low-calorie diets.”
When we think of the effects of light, we usually think of the influence it has on our visual senses, our mood, or our skin. Too much—and too little—can spark an array of reactions, affecting everything from sleep quality to task performance. But, it turns out, light also has the ability to change our perceptions when it comes to taste.
For a 2009 study, researchers separated groups of wine drinkers, arranging them in rooms lit with red, blue, green, or yellow fluorescent lights. The subjects were then asked to sip wine and report on their impressions. Surprisingly, those bathed in red ambient light said the wine was sweeter, richer, and generally more satisfying than wine ingested in other rooms—and that they’d even be willing to pay more for it.
It turns out all of the study participants were drinking the exact same wine—the light hadn’t changed a thing besides the appearance of the liquid in their glasses. Under red light, it’s possible that the wine appeared darker and richer, creating a corresponding expectation in the minds of the subjects.
Light can also have the opposite effect: Psychologists have noted that appetites under blue lights appear to shrink, with blue-tinged foods becoming less appealing due to their appearance. In other studies focused on light and how we perceive taste, some people were shown to be attracted to stronger flavors under brighter lights, and more subdued foods when the light is dim.
One theory is that our senses are trying to maintain a balance. If you don’t feel like having something sweet in a dimly-lit restaurant, that might be one reason why. And if you want to be serious about your wine-tasting, there might be something more important than a bottle opener: a neutrally-lit room.
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Two years after Nickelodeon’s official launch, it began airing the comedy series that would set the standard for the kid-friendly comedies that have dominated the channel’s programming lineup in the nearly 40 years since. Like a tween version of Laugh-In, You Can’t Do That On Television offered kids a somewhat subversive take on the sketch comedy genre. Its ensuing popularity essentially defined the network in the 1980s, and introduced its iconic green slime to the world. Here are 12 fun facts you might not have known about You Can’t Do That on Television.
1. IT DIDN’T START OUT AS A NICKELODEON SHOW.
Two years before making its international debut, You Can’t Do That on Television was created in Ottawa, Canada with the intention of airing there and only there. It wasn’t until two years after its original premiere that Nickelodeon took a shine to it and expressed interest in bringing it to cable television. In early 1982, Nickelodeon took a chance on the series and began airing some edited versions of the show to gauge audience reaction. It quickly became the channel’s biggest hit.
2. THE OPENING CREDITS WERE INSPIRED BY TERRY GILLIAM.
If the opening credits to You Can’t Do That on Television look familiar, you might be thinking of Monty Python’s Flying Circus or any number of other Terry Gilliam-created animations. When asked about the similarities in animation style by Splitsider, You Can’t Do That on Television executive producer Geoffrey Darby admitted that, yes, “The opening was definitely influenced by [Gilliam]. In fact, it was very much a crib on some of the things he had done previously. Not the sausage factory, but the conveyor belt and hitting the head, and having it crack open. That was very much the style of a lot of animation in 1979 and 1980. It was very much the cutout Terry Gilliam style.”
3. CHRISTINE MCGLADE WAS CAST AS THE HOST ALMOST ACCIDENTALLY.
Christine “Moose” McGlade showed up at the first audition for You Can’t Do That on Television with no intention of auditioning. She was there merely as emotional support for a friend and fellow actress, who was trying out. But show creator Roger Price wasn’t having it: he reportedly insisted that McGlade either audition or leave. She opted for the former and ended up being cast as the show’s host.
4. IT HELPED LAUNCH THE CAREERS OF SOME FUTURE STARS.
While not all of You Can’t Do That on Television’s kid stars remained in show biz, the series did help to kickstart the careers of a few household names—most notably, singer Alanis Morissette, who appeared in a handful of episodes of the show in 1986; less than a decade later, she released her hit album Jagged Little Pill, which became one of the best-selling albums of all time. Bill Prady, who would go on to executive produce Gilmore Girls and The Big Bang Theory, was a writer on the show.
5. IT WAS INTENTIONALLY ANTI-EDUCATIONAL.
Whereas other kid television creators were aiming for education over entertainment, Roger Price was focused squarely on making kids laugh. “You Can’t Do That on Television was kind of anti-educational,” McGlade told The Huffington Post. “It’s funny because I’ve worked in educational media and one of my former cast mates grew up to be a teacher. But actually, Roger Price was a very rebellious anti-establishment man. His thought process was ‘If the kids took over the studio, all these fun, silly, hilarious things could happen.'”
6. IT’S BEEN CREDITED AS THE BIRTHPLACE OF “GROSS” HUMOR.
As part of that “anti-establishment” mentality, You Can’t Do That on Television was full of bathroom humor—so much so that many people point to the series as the birthplace of gross-out humor. “[You Can’t Do That on Television] was probably the first,” Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi toldThe Ottawa Citizen of how the show opened the door for more potty humor-loving kids series. “If it hadn’t been for them, we wouldn’t have been able to do our thing. It was Les Lye and all those wacky guys who paved the way.”
7. THE KIDS SHOT AFTER SCHOOL AND ON WEEKENDS.
Unlike other kid actors who have on-set tutors, You Can’t Do That on Television‘s producers wanted the kids who appeared on the show to remain “normal” kids in every sense. So that they could maintain their regular routines, production occurred around school schedules. “They all went to regular school and were in regular classes,” Darby explained. “They would come after school for the table readings and then would work on the weekends. They stayed regular, local kids, because we didn’t want them in a bubble. Because then they’re no longer kids, they’re ‘act-ores.’ Which is never what was wanted.”
8. IT ORIGINATED NICKELODEON’S FAMOUS GREEN SLIME.
To this day, “getting slimed” is a staple of the Nickelodeon network—and it started with You Can’t Do That on Television. Anytime a kid said the phrase “I don’t know,” he or she would be doused with a bucket of bright green slime—which Darby said happened kind of by accident:
“We were in the dungeon set and what happened was we had this joke, which was, ‘Whatever you do, kids, don’t pull on that chain.’
We went to the cafeteria and got them to give us a bucket of slop.
We said, ‘We want you to take all the stuff that’s left on plates over the whole day and put it in this bucket.’ And then we were going to dump it on the kid so that it looked like if he pulled the chain, sewage would come out.
We didn’t get around to shooting the scene because you can’t go into overtime with children. It’s against the law. If you don’t get the scene, you don’t get the scene. We didn’t get it shot.
So we put the set up again the following week to shoot that one scene … The prop man came to me—literally, this is a completely true story—and said, ‘There’s a problem.’ The problem was that he didn’t get a new bucket of slop. He just kept the old one back stage. There was about eight to 1- inches of green crud. Growing. It had grown on the top of this bucket of … stuff. There was mold.
So, we had to get the scene, right? We couldn’t get more slop, because we couldn’t! I said, ‘Dump … it … on … the … kid … anyway.’ And that’s how green slime was invented.”
9. BEING SLIMED MEANT A BIGGER PAYCHECK.
Green slime wasn’t the only liquid kids on the show got doused with; any mention of “water” or “wet” would lead to a bucket of water being dumped on their heads. But there was a tradeoff: Kids were paid an extra $75 per episode that required them to be soaked, and $150 per episode that required them to be slimed. “We just thought it was a way to reward them for the horror of having that done,” Darby told Splitsider.
10. ONE EPISODE PROVED SO CONTROVERSIAL THAT IT WAS BANNED IN AMERICA.
In the show’s eighth season, one episode—“Adoption”—proved to be quite controversial. It did air in the U.S., but was quickly banned. Looking back on the episode in 2012, Darby admitted that the episode was a misstep, saying that, “We ourselves didn’t understand what buttons were being pushed about an episode dealing with adoption. And that was our mistake. None of the kids were adopted, we didn’t know anybody who had been adopted. That was really us just not being cognizant of the world of adoption. And so that was a bad show. That was just not being respectful.”
11. MR. ROGERS WASN’T A FAN.
Though kids loved the show, it had its fair share of detractors—many of them parents who didn’t like the way that adults were portrayed on the show. It also had one very famous critic: “Fred Rogers hates the show,” Price said in 1989. ”He doesn’t realize we’re saying the same thing—I’m saying it to eight-year-olds and he’s saying it to four-year-olds … I care about my viewers: I don’t care what their parents may want them to be, I care about them for what they are.”
12. IT INSPIRED A DOCUMENTARY FEATURE.
More than a decade after You Can’t Do That on Television’s series finale, interest in the show was still strong enough that Shout! Factory released You Can’t Do That on Film, a feature-length documentary about the series, directed by David Dillehunt.
Had your eye on an Apple Watch? Today’s the day to take the plunge. Amazon is running a Deal of the Day on certified refurbished versions of the 38mm Stainless Steel Case model with a black sport band. It’s down to $269.99, an $80 discount from the normal $349.99 price tag. If you’re looking for the 42mm version, Amazon is running a couple of solid deals on it, too. You can pick up a 42mm Stainless Steel Case with a black classic buckle for $359.99, a $90 discount. These deals likely won’t last all day, so get them while they’re still active.
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