Month: February 2017

Planning a wine and cheese party? Make sure what you’re using to serve snacks is just as cute as your food is delicious.

1. MOUSE TRAP; $22

At first glance, this item just looks like an oversized mouse trap. Ingeniously, the snapping part of the trap can be removed to reveal it’s actually a cheese slicer. A chunk of cheese can be displayed and sliced on the 9-inch-long board—just don’t invite any mice to the party.

Find it: Amazon

2. MOUSE BOARD; $30

If a mouse trap is a little too macabre for your shindig, consider this adorable alternative. Assemble your cheeses on the 8-inch-long board and slice them up with a mouse-shaped knife that can be stored in the Tom and Jerry-esque mouse hole at the bottom.

Find it: Amazon

3. STATE SLATE; $20

Celebrate cheese from all over the United States with this patriotic slate. You can even grab a piece of chalk and write down the names of all the cheeses for hungry guests.

Find it: UncommonGoods

4. LOG AND AXE; $25

Give your cheese a rustic presentation with this log and axe set-up. The solid beech cutting board is shaped like a log and comes with an axe-shaped knife to help you bring out your inner lumberjack.

Find it: Amazon

5. MARINER WHEEL; $32

Invite all your sailor friends over for snacks with this nautical cheese board. When each of the four differently-shaped knives are placed into their respective holes in the board, the board looks like a ship’s wheel.

Find it: UncommonGoods

6. CHEESE DEGREES; $20

Make sure everyone gets an even amount of cheese with this obsessively precise cutting board. Whether you want perfect cubes or exactly portioned triangles, this cheese board can help ensure that everything is perfectly sliced.

Find it: Amazon

7. THE STATES; $28

Celebrate your home state with a bamboo cutting board that’s made to order. Each state can be customized to say anything you would like, so long as it fits. The Michigan board that’s pictured is particularly great because its shape gives you a place to set your wine glass down.

Find it: Etsy

8. VOODOO DOLL; $28

Pull out this voodoo doll-shaped board when you’re feeling a little vindictive. You can hack away at meats and cheese and then store the knife appropriately in the wooden doll’s back.

Find it: Amazon

9. AMPERSAND; $48

Delight your guests with some knowledge about where the ampersand comes from while using this board, which lets you fill a twisting line of crackers around three different cheeses.

Find it: UncommonGoods

10. SAY CHEESE; $19

Smile! It’s cheese time. This mouth-shaped cheese board looks just as happy about the selection as you do. Underneath all the food, the board says “say cheese” in the center.

Find it: Amazon

11. OBSESSIVE CHEF; $33

This product comes with a series of lines to guide the cutter, including how to medium dice, small dice, brunoise, fine brunoise, batonnet, allumette, julienne, and fine julienne. The lines are burnished instead of printed, so they’ll never get worn away.

Find it: Amazon

Say goodbye to the cumbersome experience of cooking with a spatula or tongs—this unique pan lets you flip your food with ease, no master chef skills required. The Happycall pan is essentially two nonstick pans combined. Once your food is done cooking on one side, you can close the lid and flip the closed pan upside down for a more evenly cooked concoction. Thanks to a magnetic handle, the pans stick together and keep your food in place. Meals with a lot of moving or liquid parts (like say this Grilled Cheese Eggplosion) are a lot easier to manage when they can be flipped with one fluid motion.

Since the top can be closed, the pan helps cook food faster and guards against oil splatter. The double-sided pan also has silicone-lined edges to keep any grease or liquids from escaping during the flipping process. 

If you’re looking to improve your cooking game, you can grab one of these cooking innovations for $45.25 on Amazon.

[h/t Oddity Mall]

The winners of the 2017 Grammy Awards. And in case you’re wondering, here’s what they wore.
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Watch incredible sky dancers perform at the 2017 Wind Games. The extreme sport of indoor skydiving has become a real art form.
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Why Did Medieval Artists Give Elephants Trunks That Look Like Trumpets? Was it just because they looked cool that way?  
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How Scientists Collected a Piece of the Sun. Brought here by the spacecraft Genesis, it’s now stored in Houston.
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Why You Should Never Kiss a Toad. He won’t turn into a prince, and you might be poisoned.
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Rio’s Olympic venues, six months later. It didn’t take long for them to fall into ruin.
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Is Snapchat the next tech titan? With 161 million daily users, it’s the perfect time to go public.
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The Time Cats Delivered the Mail in Belgium. They weren’t very good at it.

Can the works of Shakespeare be improved upon? Nahum Tate certainly thought so.

Medical codes can get incredibly specific. When you go to the hospital, the doctor won’t just enter your diagnosis as “concussion” or “traffic accident”—you’ll go into the system as suffering from an “animal-drawn vehicle accident” or having been in an “unarmed fight or brawl.” The beauty of these medical codes is that you can track exactly how many people went to the hospital after crashing their horse-drawn buggy. The healthcare search site Amino recently did exactly that, finding out the causes of a disproportionate number of injuries in every state through health insurance claims.

Amino’s researchers combed through 244 million health insurance claims in its database between 2012 and 2016, looking for the injuries that stuck out in each state compared to the national average. Tennessee, for instance, sees 1.6 times more injury diagnoses related to motor vehicle crashes than the national average.

The data (larger image here) represents only injuries that were reported and recorded by doctors, so it’s possible that a ton of people get in fist fights in places other than New York but just don’t go to the doctor for it. The data is simplified so that the 3000 medical codes for physical injuries down are combined into 170 common terms, like calling all 38 types of contusions “bruising.”

Amino found that New York is home to over 10 percent of the medically documented fist fights (the aforementioned unarmed brawls). There were 35,000 New York fist fight injuries diagnosed during the period analyzed, compared to around 296,000 nationally. Indiana’s most disproportionately common injury is “struck by object.” Rural states like Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, Idaho, and Nebraska were home to a disproportionate number of the 43,000 “animal-drawn vehicle accidents” across the country—with 1000 (two percent of the national total) taking place just in Nebraska. Hawaii sees far more patients after “near drowning” than other states, as you might suspect of a state surrounded by water.

The major question is, what’s happening to people’s faces in Louisiana? And why are Missouri’s animals so dangerous?

Congratulations—you’ve scored your first job! But while the exhausting search for a full-time gig is over, the real hard part has just begun: Learning to live off the tiny paychecks you’ll likely earn once you start working. The average entry-level salary for Class of 2016 graduates was projected to be nearly $51,000, but plenty of brand-new employees earn well below that level. Here are seven simple tips for managing, saving, and spending money when you don’t have that much of it.

1. THERE’S A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOUR GROSS PAY AND YOUR NET PAY.

Your salary might sound pretty decent on paper—especially when you’ve never had one before—but keep in mind that number you’ve accepted (your gross pay) is higher than the amount you’ll actually take home each month (your net pay). When you get paid, the money isn’t just going to you. Portions of it also go toward federal, state, Social Security, and Medicare taxes. Other deductions include health insurance payments and retirement savings, like a 401(k), if you choose to put money into one. (You should.) If you aren’t sure how much to contribute, there are plenty of online tools that can help, like this one.

When all is said and done, you will likely only be pocketing 60 to 70 percent of your entire salary. Keep this in mind before planning a budget.

2. FINANCIAL EXPERTS RECOMMEND FOLLOWING THE 50/20/30 BUDGET RULE (WITHIN REASON).

Once you receive your first paycheck, resist the urge to splurge. Instead, sit down with a calculator and figure how much of it needs to go toward essential expenses, and how much can be set aside for fun stuff or saved for a rainy day.

Some financial experts recommend following what they call the 50/20/30 rule. That’s when 50 percent of each paycheck goes toward non-negotiable, “fixed” costs like rent, bills, and groceries; 20 percent of it goes toward savings; and 30 percent is spent on things like personal appearance (clothing, haircuts, etc.), travel, and entertainment.

Keep in mind that this rule isn’t hard and fast, and depends largely upon how much it costs to live in your region. For instance, you’ll likely pay way more cost of living expenses if you live in New York City than if you live in, say, suburban Ohio.

3. STUDENT LOANS CAN BE KEPT IN CHECK WITH THE RIGHT PAYMENT STRATEGY.

If you’re one of the 44 million Americans with student loan debt, the 50/20/30 rule can be particularly difficult to follow. But with a little strategic planning, you can avoid forking over your entire paycheck to education lenders. First, look into refinancing the terms of your loan, which could allow you to pay a lower interest rate and extend the repayment period. Depending on your income, you may also qualify for loan deferment or forbearance. The federal government also offers income-based repayment plans, which limit the percentage of income qualified applicants have to pay towards their loans.

4. YOU CAN ALWAYS FIND A BETTER DEAL FOR COST-OF-LIVING EXPENSES.

Necessary expenses like rent, transportation, and phone bills comprise a large part of your budget, but they aren’t set in stone. Just like you would likely search for contrasting deals while shopping for a TV or a sweater, continue to scan real estate ads for more affordable apartments, and check in with utilities reps to see if any special savings, discounts, or packages are appearing on the horizon. The little things add up too: Consider switching to generic household staples when you hit the grocery store, and ask your HR manager what, if any, pre-tax transportation benefits your company offers.

5. TRACKING YOUR SPENDING HABITS HELPS YOU ADHERE TO YOUR BUDGET.

Never have as much money in your bank account as you’d like? Sit down with your monthly bank statements, and take a long, hard look at your spending habits. You’ll see all the usual monthly bills, but you might notice some surprising patterns.

Do you buy expensive coffee more often than you realize, or splurge on new items right after you receive a paycheck? Recognizing—and curbing—these unplanned and impulse purchases can go a long way toward helping you stay at, or even under, your budget. To stay mindful of them, consider downloading—and using— an app that helps you budget and track expenses.

6. OVERTIME PAY IS YOUR FRIEND.

Clocking long workdays for very little money? If you put in more than 40 hours a work, your boss may be required to pay you overtime, or at least one and one-half times your regular pay. Check to see what the rules are, and if you are guaranteed a paycheck boost, start volunteering to take on additional early and late-night hours.

If you aren’t eligible for overtime, your company may offer other benefits to employees stuck working late. You may be able to expense dinner or a cab ride home.

7. YOU’RE PROBABLY STUCK SCRIMPING FOR A WHILE (BUT DON’T STOP BUDGETING ONCE YOU GET A RAISE).

After initial salary negotiations are made (and first-time budgets are blown), it might seem tempting to ask your boss for a raise only a few months into the job. Sadly, barring an overnight promotion or an extra-generous supervisor, you’re likely stuck with the same pay for the next year or so, as you typically should avoid asking an employer for more money until you’ve survived at least one annual review cycle. (Unless your responsibilities have substantially increased, in which case: Ask for the raise!)

In short, you’re going to be scrimping for a while. Use this period to learn good money habits, and once you do finally get that coveted promotion—and the accompanying bump in salary—you’ll be well on track to financial success. But even though you’ll be making more money, continue to adhere to the 50/20/30 rule, or consider contributing even more money to your savings if you feel like you have the wiggle room.

Over budget? Under budget? What’s a budget?  Answer these questions and more with tools like Slice-a-Budget on Prudential.com.

 

Sometimes we need a relaxing background sound. For some, it’s the Star Trek ship sound. For others, sleep-inducing podcasts are the way to go. For Netflix fans, there’s an oscillating fan.

Today, I am proud to present 10 hours of ambient sound, featuring a polar icebreaker in a storm. The sound is part live recording, part synthesized audio, and the video features a static shot of a Norwegian research vessel. The net effect is truly relaxing, conducive to background sound for reading, sleeping, bathing, you name it. From the YouTube description:

10 hours video of Arctic ambience with frozen ocean, ice cracking, snow falling, icebreaker idling and distant howling wind sound. Natural white noise sounds generated by the wind and snow falling, combined with deep low frequencies with delta waves from the powerful icebreaker idling engines, recorded at 96 kHz – 24 bit and designed for relaxation, meditation, study and sleep.

Crank this up and relax:

Relevant reading: Why Is White Noise ‘White’?

[h/t: Boing Boing.]

Our oceans are an endless cornucopia of weirdness. Today, we’d like to introduce you to a cockeyed deep-sea cephalopod called the strawberry squid. Researchers writing in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B say each of the squid’s unusual eyes serves a separate purpose in the black depths of the sea.

Histioteuthis heteropsis (literally “different eyes”) is pink, studded with bioluminescent spots, and quite content to cruise through the “twilight zone” some 650–3300 feet beneath the surface of the ocean. It has one enormous yellow eye and one normal blue eye—as normal as squid eyes get, anyway.

Biologist Kate Thomas of Duke University, lead author on the paper, says she was impressed by the strawberry squid’s strangeness. “You can’t look at one and not wonder what’s going on with them,” she says in the video above.

So she decided to find out. She pulled up 30 years’ worth of undersea video recorded by remotely operated vehicles at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and scrolled through, watching the squids’ behavior and looking for clues. She analyzed 152 different H. heteropsis sightings and another nine sightings of its cousin, Stigmatoteuthis dofleini.

The onscreen sightings revealed yet another strawberry squid eccentricity: They like to float along upside down, with their heads pointed toward the ocean floor. But this posture, while whimsical, appears to be practical. The head-down orientation aims the squid’s large eye toward the surface—which is where any light might originate. The little blue eye, better suited for spotting bioluminescence, can keep looking downward into the darkness.

Senior author Sönke Johnsen, Thomas’s advisor, said the squid’s blue eye could only have one job. “There is no way it is able to pick out shapes against the ambient light,” he said in a statement. “And once it is looking for bioluminescence, it doesn’t really need to be particularly big, so it can actually shrivel up a little bit over generations. But the eye looking up actually does benefit from getting a bit bigger.”

It’s an ingenious solution to a low-light situation. “Eyes are really expensive to make and maintain,” Thomas added. “You want eyes just big enough to do what you need to do, but you don’t want to have any bigger eyes because then you are just wasting resources.”

For centuries, libraries have offered an amazing deal to the American people: Cardholders can check out any book in the building for free, provided that it’s returned by the due date. Now Slate reports that libraries around the country are making this deal even sweeter by eliminating late fees.

The pushback against fines may sound like a recipe for anarchy to some book lovers, but the librarians behind it insist it stays in line with their core mission. Penalties for overdue books have the biggest impact on poor patrons, the very people librarians most want using their services. According to the Children’s Literacy Foundation, 61 percent of low-income families don’t have age-appropriate books at home. The same organization states that one in six kids who aren’t reading proficiently by the third grade won’t graduate high school on time. By not charging late fees or banning members outright when they lose a book, libraries aim to become more welcoming to citizens who may otherwise be wary of using them.

In the past seven years, districts in Massachusetts, California, and Illinois have scrapped some or all of their penalties. Colorado State Libraries recommends that all districts in the state do away with late fees, especially when they apply to children’s books. Libraries that are already struggling may be hesitant to let go of the revenue, but according to Janine Reid, executive director of the High Plains, Colorado library system, the circulation boost helps balance out the loss. She told 9NEWS that 95 percent of the materials that are checked out are still returned within a week of their due dates.

“We’re no longer having to finagle around or haggle around every 10 cent fine,” Reid said. “Instead, the conversation is all about how much they enjoyed reading the materials.”

[h/t Slate]