We’ve all had those mundane, everyday problems that sometimes get referred to as “first world problems.” You know, things like not being able to get ice cubes into your favorite water bottle or someone stealing a nonfat yogurt you were saving as a treat from the break room. Monsters!
But what if there were a few easy things you can do to eliminate the unnecessary stress in your life? These simple life hacks could make everything so much easier…
There’s a reason this story has been going viral on Reddit and other social media sites: it’s absolutely heartbreaking, yet incredibly sweet at the same time. It also goes to show just how incredible the bond us mere humans can be lucky enough to have with our precious dogs.
The Reddit user shared his personal story about his wife and dog, Bella.
The tales of King Arthur, his Knights of the Round Table, and his wizard Merlin have regaled children around the world for hundreds of years. If you happen to be a Camelot-ophile yourself, you may be thrilled to hear that we may be getting more stories soon, thanks to academic Michael Richardson.
Richardson was scouring the University of Bristol’s Special Collections Library for new reading materials for the university’s master’s program in Medieval Studies, when he found something totally unexpected.
Inside some of the 16th century books he was thumbing through were seven hand-written parchment fragments that contained, upon closer examination, new renderings of the King Arthur, Merlin, and the Holy Grail legends.
Richardson contacted Leah Tether, the President of the International Arthurian Society, and together they found the fragments told familiar – though at times significantly different – stories. Tether expounded on their findings in a statement.
“These fragments of the Story of Merlin are a wonderfully exciting find, which may have implications for the study not just of this text but also of other related and later texts that have shaped our modern understanding of the Arthurian legend.”
The new fragments depict longer, more detailed accounts of the stories of Arthur, Merlin, and Gawain preparing for battle against Lancelot’s father, King Claudas, and include many unique details.
The fragments were found in books that are believed to have been printed in Strasbourg between 1494 and 1502, and then sent to England unbound. Researchers believe the Arthurian parchments were probably used as extra material during the binding process in order to save money.
Based on the content of the parchments, Tether and others theorize they come from an old French text called the Vulgate Cycle (aka the Lacelot-Grail Cycle), which were used as the primary source for the work of Sir Thomas Mallory. He penned the most famous account of King Arthur – the one that inspired most modern retellings of the tales – Le Morte D’Arthur.
“Time and research will reveal what further secrets about the legends of Arthur, Merlin and the Holy Grail these fragments might hold,” says Tether.
The world’s recent obsession with avocados, possibly fueled by the millennial love for avocado toast, might have you thinking they’re a newcomer to the culinary scene, but they’ve actually been around for a long, long time. Avocados are heart-healthy, jam-packed with nutrients, and they pretty much go great with anything.
Basically, the only thing that could make an avocado better is if it were bigger, smoother, or more easily spreadable.
But, hang on. Agriculture heard our wails and has acted benevolently. Giant avocados – called “avozillas” – actually do exist. According to The Guardian Australia, a farm in Queensland is cultivating enormous avocados “as big as your head.” They are, in fact, about four times larger than a normal avocado.
A company in South Africa owns the rights to the variety, which was produced via cross-breeding. Anyone interested in growing their own avozillas must pay to obtain permission and then pay royalties. Currently one farmer in Australia has the lock on a few hundred trees, so the giant fruit (it’s a fruit) is available in a few cities there. They have also exported them to England.
What’s keeping the avozilla from taking over? Ian Groves, the first to have grown them on his Australian farm, believes they may be too niche.
He also told The Guardian, “There is a nursery we buy different trees off, and when we were planting a bunch of avocados 10 years ago, they gave us one as a trial. And after about four or five years, we tried a few of the fruit and thought we’d give them a go. So we planted a small block of about just under 400 trees. They’re coming up to about four years and this is their first production.”
Clearly it takes some forethought to get from idea to table.
Avozillas may not be available everywhere guac fans are, but that hasn’t stopped the internet from falling head over pit for them.
When it comes to natural medicines and therapies, I’ve always been a bit wary. While I’ve had a few instances where a natural remedy might have helped me feel better, I’m certainly not about to throw good ol’ science-based medicine out the window!
The news isn’t great for natural remedies these days. While mainstream medicine (and the health care system in the U.S.) has a LONG way to go, it’s still the best way to get treated – and that’s backed up by research. A study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute states that cancer patients are twice as likely to die from their cancer if they choose natural remedies over regular medicine. And if you have breast or colorectal cancer, you’re FIVE TIMES more likely to die if you choose alternative medicine.
To be clear, these statistics do not reflect people who use alternative medicine along with traditional treatment.
The research shows that natural treatments do not address the actual problem when it comes to cancer. Your body likely won’t recognize the problem when cancer cells are growing because the cancer isn’t trying to kill, the cells are trying to multiply.
Bottom line: modern medicine isn’t perfect, but it is your best bet. Cancer treatments are harsh and invasive, but your chances of living longer are greatly improved if you take advantage of them. And more people are living with cancer today than ever before.
Cancer is a grim subject, but there is absolutely room for hope!
Late-term abortions have been in the news quite a bit lately due to recent decisions by some states to allow abortions after 24 weeks when medically necessitated.
But, there’s a lot of misinformation out there about late-term abortions.
Non medically indicated = for no health-related reason. Dr. Gunter means that every single late term abortion she ever performed was for a significant medical reason.
Everybody always has that one friend – you know, the one who can take down a whole pizza and some beer all by themselves, then turn around and ask for dessert… all while maintaining their seemingly impossibly svelte physique. Oh, and they don’t work out either. Nope, they just go around eating whatever they like with no consequences at all. No pounds piling on, no ours of atonement at the gym. Must be nice.
Well, you’ll be interested in the results of this study, which claims to have the answers…though they’re probably not going to make you feel any better.
Basically, your body type depends on the genes you were born with far more than on any diet or exercise routine you employ as an adult.
The new research aimed to pinpoint the genetic architecture of skinniness and severe obesity, and their findings, published in PLOS Genetics, could help explain why some people find staying thin easy while others have the opposite experience.
That is not to say that environmental factors like high-calorie diets or sedentary lifestyles don’t play any role, but obesity, as many people have realized, is more complex than eating too much fast food.
The study leader, Professor Sadaf Farooqi, issued this statement:
“This research shows for the first time that healthy thin people are generally thin because they have a lower burden of genes that increase a person’s chances of being overweight and not because they are morally superior, as some people like to suggest. It’s easy to rush to judgement and criticize people for their weight, but the science shows that things are far more complex. We have far less control over our weight than we might wish to think.”
No one tell the billion-dollar diet industry that they’re bunk.
Or wait. Maybe we should.
This study included the DNA of around 14,000 people – 1622 thin people, 1985 obese people, and 10433 people with average body mass, and identified the genes linked to slimmer people. Adds researcher Dr. Ines Barroso,
“As anticipated, we found that obese people had a higher genetic risk score than normal weight people, which contributes to their risk of being overweight. The genetic dice are loaded against them.”
The research supports previous studies, which have suggested that though a number of variables dictate weight gain (or loss), your natural metabolism has a lot to do with how you look.
With obesity posing a huge health risk, particularly in Western countries like the US and the UK, these researchers hope their findings will help doctors and laypeople alike gain a more attenuated understanding of what causes it – and how we can adjust our weight-loss strategies accordingly.
The study might also lead to different approaches in the future, as our science continues to advance. Professor Farooqi suggests,
“If we can find the genes that prevent them from putting on weight, we may be able to target those genes to find new weight loss strategies and help people who do not have this advantage.”
Which is to say, you might be able to find a diet and exercise routine that compliment your genetic makeup, therefore not applying unrealistic standards and goals in each specific case.
Having your work critiqued is always difficult. It’s a very vulnerable position to put yourself in, because you never know how someone will react to your work. Particularly for beginners, it can be a disheartening process.
A Reddit user wanted to encourage his mother, Cindi Decker, to stick with her artwork, so he decided to post a photo of her holding one of her first paintings.
Here is the photo of Decker and her painting with the caption, “My mom painted this and said no one would like it. It’s her 2nd painting.”
Little did mother and son know that the online floodgates were going to open, in a good way. A Reddit user suggested “Someone paint the photo of his mom holding her painting and repost it with the same title for extra extra karma.” And what do you know…
Cindi Decker said of all the hoopla, “Even though people say, ‘You inspired me to paint,’ I don’t know that it was so much me. I really give credit to the first artist who painted. You know, I’m not a painter. I’m just somebody who went out and did a little painting thing, so I got lucky to get caught up in all this fun craziness.”
I love when the Internet comes together for good instead of evil! Let’s see more of this!
We all have our pet peeves. I know I certainly do. Some of the things I’m petty about are, admittedly, pretty stupid – like my hatred of large tablespoons. I hate the way they feel in my mouth. I’m #TeamSmallerSpoons all day.
With that in mind, let’s have a look at the seemingly inconsequential things that really annoy the hell out of other people, shall we?
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