Month: September 2019

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These Cats Are Working Hard to Make Your Day Just a Little Bit Better

I’m not sure the Internet would have made it at all if it weren’t for people’s love of cats, and these 15 little guys are carrying on the long and storied tradition of being adorable and funny and giving us all a reason to keep going.

15. This doesn’t taste the way I expected…

Image Credit: Reddit

14. He doesn’t care how funny Schitt’s Creek is, he’s adorable!

Image Credit: Reddit

13. The more the merrier, I always say.

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You're an icon, BUB. #legend #lilbub

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12. That one black tile is ruining her disappearing act.

11. Oh so cute, it makes the immense amount of work raising them worth it.

10. Could you just go to your room so Mommy and Daddy can talk in private?

9. I’m going to be holding this yoga mat hostage until I get some scritches, thanks.

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Baby Pooky is too cute for a caption?

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8. Less talky, more petty.

7. It’s a lot like having a toddler.

6. Have you ever seen more perfect faces in your life?

5. This cat is definitely ready for a pumpkin spice latte.

4. And another kitty ready for hot cocoa and leaves and bonfires and stuff.

3. I’m going to keep this on my desktop for bad days.

Image Credit: Reddit

2. No one can pose like a wicked cat.

1. He’s going to be the best behaved passenger on that entire flight.

Image Credit: Reddit

I don’t currently have a cat, but I really think that needs to be remedied sooner rather than later.

Do you have a cat? Do you share his antics on the internet? I certainly hope so, for the good of all!

Do it in the comments y’all!

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Umbrella fitted with lightning conductor

In the late 18th century, Jacques Barbeu Du Bourg, Benjamin Franklin’s French translator, invented le parapluie-paratonnerre, the lightning rod umbrella, which is said to have become fashionable among Parisian gentlemen.

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Quaker Oats fed radioactive…

Quaker Oats fed radioactive milk and oatmeal to unsuspecting special needs kids under the guise of a science club in order to find out how beneficial certain nutrients were in their oats.

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Use These 5 Simple Steps to Solve a Rubik’s Cube

I’ve never even picked up a Rubik’s cube with the intention of actually solving it because I’m pretty sure you’re not going to be able to do it.

So watching someone else solve one with a few simple twists has always seemed pretty impressive, right? Or at least, you assume they’re much smarter than you and much better at things like math and puzzles and the like, yeah?

It turns out that’s not necessarily true.

Because what if they’re not figuring it out, but have simply memorized the best and fastest way to make the colors and sides line up?

It turns out that you, too, can impress your friends at parties – if you have the ability to memorize a few simple steps.

Reddit user CitizenYellow shared this simple infographic that lays out the step-by-step guide to solving the Cube. It’s broken into 5 parts and includes illustrations for each one, and if you follow them, you’ll end up with all of the colors on their separate sides.

How To: Solve A Rubik’s Cube from coolguides

There are actually more algorithms that can be used to solve the Rubik’s Cube without too much of a headache, but this one is simple and the infographic means that, after you practice a few times, it should be like second nature.

Then, you can work on your speed – if you want to beat the world’s best time, you’ll need to do it faster than 4.69 seconds.

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A Study Says You Can Tell If Someone Is Rich or Poor Just by Looking at Them

It’s said that people can tell a lot about you from looking you in the face, but until recently, no one suspected your gross average income could be one of those things.

A new study was published recently in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and it claims that you can tell whether someone is rich or poor simply by studying their face.

Image Credit: Pixabay

Co-author of the study, grad student Thora Bjornsdottir, explains.

“The relationship between well-being and social class has been demonstrated by previous research. In general, people with money tend to live happier, less anxious lives compared to those struggling to make ends meet, and these well-being differences are actually reflected in people’s faces.”

For the study, Bjornsdottir and a psychology professor, Nicholas O. Rule, had their subjects look at black-and-white photographs of 80 males and 80 females without any identifying markers like tattoos or piercings. Half of the photos were of people who made over $150k a year and the other half made less than $35k.

Image Credit: Pixabay

The subjects, who were from various ethnic backgrounds, then guessed the class of the people in the photos – and they were correct around 68% of the time.

That is, in case you’re wondering, significantly higher than random chance.

Dr. Rule told The Cut they were surprised themselves.

“I didn’t think the effects would be quite as strong, especially given how subtle the differences are in the faces. That’s the most surprising part of the study to me.”

Image Credit: Pixabay

“People are not really aware of what cues they are using when they make these judgments,” adds Bjornsdottir. “If you ask them why, they don’t know. They are not aware of how they are doing this.”

Interestingly, the subjects were also able to guess correctly when they were able to look just at the eyes, or just at the mouth, though not quite as often.

Bjornsdottir believes the effect is “due to emotion patterns becoming etched into their faces over time,” because the chronic contraction of certain muscles can lead to changes in the actual structure of your face.

When the subjects were shown pictures of people smiling, they were unable to discern the socioeconomic status of the people in the images with any reliability.

Image Credit: Pixabay

The researchers believe their results are important because first impressions come into play in the real world – a fact they proved when they asked the subjects to choose who they would hire as an accountant based on the images alone.

They chose the people who appeared to be high-earners, which means employers could be doing the same thing.

“Face-based perceptions of social class may have important downstream consequences. People talk about the cycle of poverty, and this is potentially one contributor to that,” they conclude.

So, even though “don’t judge a book by its cover” is one of the world’s more famous sayings, it turns out we’re all doing exactly that every day without even realizing it.

Kind of makes me rethink my decision to not wear makeup most days.

How about you?

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Every Single Part of This Tree Could Kill or Maim You

Beware of this tree!

The manchineel tree is one of nature’s mysteries that no one is likely to solve anytime soon – every single part of it is toxic to animals (including humans).

Also known as the beach apple, la manzanilla de la muerte (the little apple of death), or sometimes arbol de la muerte (tree of death), the manchineel lives along the coast in brackish waters, occurring in tropical North, Central and South American settings and living in clusters.

The tree itself looks pleasant enough, even beachy, and its small, greenish-yellow fruits have surely been tempting to more than a few hungry, thirsty, unwitting travelers.

You definitely don’t want to eat the fruit, though. Or touch the trunk. Or a branch. Or stand under the tree when it’s raining or touch your eyes or the leaves or really even breathe in while you’re standing too close to it.

You could ask Juan Ponce de Leon why not, had the tree’s poison not (we believe) spelled his demise.

A brief guide to the tree, written by Michael G. Andreu and Melissa H. Friedman, minces no words.

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Wow, found this tree I’ve been dying to see right here in st kitts at the #tciawmc2019 !! The Manchineel Tree is considered the most poisonous tree in the world! It causes painful blisters if you stand under it during rain, blinds you if the smoke from its burned wood touches your eyes, can poison water with it’s leaves and will cause death if you eat it’s fruit!! #manchineeltree #deadly #spotted #poisonous #tciawmc2019 #tcia #isa #bts #bofingers #bofingerstreeservice #treecare #treework #treebiz #treeclimber #arborist #welovetrees #weekend #stkitts @husqvarnausa @arborwear @treecareindustry @carhartt @isaarboriculture @truewerk @allthingsarb @slattrax @treecaretips @treestuffdotcom

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“Warning: all parts of manchineel are extremely poisonous. The content in this document is strictly informational. Interaction with and ingestion of any part of this tree may be lethal.”

Reports from people who have been unfortunate enough to eat the fruit claim inflammation and blistering around the mouth and severe stomach and intestinal issues – accounts backed up by the unfortunate Nicola Strickland, who wrote about her taste of the fruit for posterity.

I rashly took a bite from this fruit and found it pleasantly sweet. My friend also partook (at my suggestion). Moments later we noticed a strange peppery feeling in our mouths, which gradually progressed to a burning, tearing sensation and tightness of the throat. The symptoms worsened over a couple of hours until we could barely swallow solid food because of the excruciating pain and the feeling of a huge obstructing pharyngeal lump. Sadly, the pain was exacerbated by most alcoholic beverages, although mildly appeased by pina coladas, but more so by milk alone.

Over the next eight hours our oral symptoms slowly began to subside, but our cervical lymph nodes became very tender and easily palpable. Recounting our experience to the locals elicited frank horror and incredulity, such was the fruit’s poisonous reputation.

While the fruit may not always be deadly, the milky white sap certainly is – it causes burn-like blisters, temporary blindness, and, if it finds its way under the skin and into the bloodstream, death.

Native peoples were thought to have used the sap to tip their arrows – arrows that killed Ponce de Leon on his second trip to Florida in 1521.

Natives have also used the manchineel and other trees in the spurge family for medicinal purposes (mostly as a laxative, hence the name).

Though the manchineel is the deadliest tree in the lower 48 (it can be found in Florida), it’s not the deadliest plant – that title belongs to the spotted water hemlock.

“A quarter-inch of the stem is enough to kill a person,” confirms botanist and naturalist Roger Hammer. “It’s probably the most violently poisonous plant on the North American continent.”

It is also found in Florida.

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#FunFactFriday: this is #TheMostDangerousTree in the ? ! The #ManchineelTree (Hippomane mancinella) is so toxic it can cause SKIN BLISTERING if you stand under it in the rain ☔ with minute droplets of it’s sap landing on you. The fruit is also known as #BeachApple or #PoisonGuava and in Spanish the tree has been called “arbol de la muerte” or the ? of ?! The tree is found in our FL Everglades, the Caribbean, and South America. HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND ? ? ? ? ? . . ?ZocDoc.com or ? to book an appointment w/ me, Dr. Dan Ilkovitch, for skin checks, medical concerns, and cosmetic desires ? ?! . ????????????????? Dan Ilkovitch, MD, PhD, FAAD 2320 NE 62nd Street Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33308 ? 954-500-3376 ????????????????? . #florida #fortlauderdale #miamibeach #miami #sobe #southbeach #aventurafl #lasolas #Davie #westonfl #bocaraton #southflorida #wiltonmanors #ftlauderdalebeach #pompanobeach #pompano #delraybeach #oaklandpark #wynwood #brickell #floridaderm #BoardCertifiedDermatologist #ASDSskinMD #clearlyderm

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The moral of this story seems to be that when traveling to wonderful foreign places (or Florida), take as much care with the flora as the snakes and gators – just because plants don’t have teeth doesn’t mean they aren’t going to murder you before you know what happened.

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5 Ways ‘The Golden Girls’ Was Way Ahead of Its Time

If you don’t like The Golden Girls, then I’m sorry, but we can’t be friends. The show is hilarious, poignant, heartfelt, and brilliant – everything and more you could ask from any sitcom (plus, FEMINISM!).

Which is why I maintain that it’s one of the best ever, and I would like to submit these 5 facts to bolster my case.

5. They didn’t need to be married to be complete and happy.

All four ladies were either widowed or divorced, and though they dated regularly, their lives didn’t revolve around the idea that the only way to be happy was to find their way back into a marriage. Instead, the show focused on the ways they took care of themselves and each other, and the lack of focus on romantic relationships was extremely refreshing.

4. The intentional inclusion of homosexuality.

The episode titled “Isn’t It Romantic?” won an Emmy for the way the ladies took in stride the appearance Dorothy’s friend Jean, who was a lesbian.

I mean, they were just totally unruffled by the fact. How novel.

3. The Girls loved themselves without apology.

It remains something of an act of rebellion for women to love themselves and their bodies no matter what society has to say on the matter, but these four ate, talked, laughed, and never bothered wondering what others might think about any of it.

2. The way they addressed a HIV/AIDS scare.

Rose found out that she might have contracted the virus after a blood transfusion and, during the nail-biting, 72-hour wait, panics and thinks God is judging her – to which Blanche has the perfect response.

“AIDS is not a bad person’s disease, Rose. It is not God punishing people for their sins.”

The AIDS crisis was raging, and with it a rising tide of homophobia, so those words would have meant a lot to many people.

1. All of the times they discussed their sex lives without shame or judgment.

The show went against the grain by having older women not only enjoying sex, but talking about it like a totally normal topic between women (which of course it always has been).

 

I think it’s time to pull up some reruns!

Do you love The Golden Girls? Have you seen it? If you don’t agree with me on this, I’d love to hear your arguments in the comments (but we still can’t be friends).

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10 Interesting Food Facts That You Should Know

You might think you know A TON about food, there’s always something new to learn, right? Right!

So let’s take a look at 10 food facts that you might not be aware of.

1. That’s kind of gross…

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IT’S FINALLY FRYDAY ?

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The fries at McDonald’s were cooked in beef fat until 1990. They’re now cooked in vegetable oil to be at least a little bit healthier.

2. Wow, that’s cool.

Glass gem corn exists. A farmer in Oklahoma named Carl Barnes spent years selectively breeding corn to come up with these beauties. Now anyone can buy and plant these cobs.

3. That’s a head-scratcher.

German chocolate cake actually didn’t originate in Germany—it got its name from Sam German, a guy who invented a certain kind of baking chocolate. The first recipe for German chocolate cake was written by a homemaker in Texas.

4. Wait a second…

Hawaiian pizza wasn’t invented in Hawaii.

It originally came from…wait for it…Canada.

5. This one blew my mind.

Spam is a mashup of the words “spice” and “ham.”

6. Say it ain’t so!

Most wasabi is just horseradish dyed green…and now I’m upset.

7. That’s a loooooong time.

Pineapples can take two to three years to grow. You’ve come a long way baby.

8. Samesies.

Fresh coriander and cilantro are the same thing.

9. Load up on ’em!

Peppers have two to three times as much Vitamin C than oranges, depending on the color.

10. That’s what you can call it.

A single spaghetti noodle is called a spaghetto—an ‘i’ at the end of an Italian word indicates a plural masculine noun, and the singular is usually the same word, just ending in an ‘o.’

Did you learn some new things? Share some of your favorite food facts in the comments!

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