Category: life

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Sexually Transmitted Disease Rates in America Are out of Control

Isn’t that a headline you just love to see?

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the sexually transmitted disease rate in the United States continues to rise in 2019. The report that the CDC released in October of this year shows historically high rates of chlamydia and the worst rates of gonorrhea and syphilis in almost 30 years – since 1991.

One of the most alarming statistics in the report concerns congenital syphilis, which has seen a 40% rise since 2017. The condition is potentially fatal and is passed from mother to fetus through the placenta.

This marks the fifth year in a row that sexually transmitted infections have been at an all-time high.

In a press release, the CDC addressed the situation:

“Data suggest that multiple factors are contributing to the overall increase in STDs, including:

Drug use, poverty, stigma, and unstable housing, which can reduce access to STD prevention and care.

Decreased condom use among vulnerable groups, including young people and gay and bisexual men.

Cuts to STD programs at the state and local level – in recent years, more than half of local programs have experienced budget cuts, resulting in clinic closures, reduced screening, staff loss, and reduced patient follow-up and linkage to care services.”

The states with the highest rate of chlamydia infection: Alaska (nearly 800 cases per 100,000 people), Louisiana (742), Mississippi (707), New Mexico (651), and South Carolina (649). The states with the lowest rate of infection are West Virginia, Vermont, New Hampshire, Utah, and Maine.

These statistics are pretty frightening, to say the least…

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A Village in Russia Is Facing a Sudden Onslaught of Polar Bears

As the earth continues to get warmer, polar bear populations are sadly declining. Strangely enough, though, one village in Russia is actually being overrun by polar bears.

Almost 60 polar bears were spotted looking for food near the village of Ryrkaypiy in far east Russia, CNN reports. The bears, most of them looking starved, are feeding on walrus carcasses on the village’s shores. Males, females, and cubs have all been spotted.

This is a marked increase from previous years, when it was rare to spot more than three to five polar bears at a time. Experts attribute the sudden increase to climate change – as warmer temperatures melt the sea ice, more bears are forced to remain on land rather than at sea, their preferred habitat.

“If the ice was strong enough, the bears, or at least some of them, would have already gone to sea, where they could hunt for seals or sea hares,” Mikhail Stishov, coordinator of WWF-Russia projects for the conservation of Arctic biodiversity, told CNN. “Similar situations are becoming the norm. We need to adapt to this so that neither people nor bears suffer.”

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Thankfully, no incidents have been reported between bears and humans. Still, Ryrkaypiy’s 500 residents are understandably stressed. What will happen if the bears run out of walrus carcasses to eat? They might venture even closer to people’s homes.

“The psychological situation in (Ryrkaypiy) is complicated, women worry, because their children walk to school,” said Anatoly Kochnev, a scientist at Russia’s Institute of Biological Problems of the North.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Volunteers on “bear patrol” are now on lookout at the town limits. School buses have also begun picking up children so they don’t have to walk to school.

This is climate change in action, folks.

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These Are the 20 Worst Passwords You Can Choose

You’ve probably realized that having strong passwords is one of the best things you can do to protect your identity, your money, and your privacy in general (if you have trouble remembering a lot of different passwords, get a password manager).

Or at least, I hope you have – because there are still a disturbing number of people using “password” as their password like, everywhere.

Yeah, even at their banks and stuff.

Along with that one, here are 20 of the easiest-to-guess, least secure passwords you could choose.

So…don’t.

20. welcome

Yes, welcome to my credit card.

19. 7777777

Random number, they’ll never guess seven!

18. lovely

This is just random.

17. 555555

Another number over and over, yes, secure.

16. 654321

Oooh backwards counting!

15. qwertyuiop

This made me giggle.

14. admin

Talk about phoning it in.

13. 1q2w3e4r

I mean, at least you pretended to try.

12. qwerty123

They’ll never try a combination!

11. abc123

Aw, look at you being all tricksy like.

10. 123123

Who do you think you’re kidding?

9. 111111

They’ll never guess this one!!

8. iloveyou

That’s sweet. Let me take all of your money.

7. 12345

Isn’t 6 characters like some kind of minimum?

6. 12345678

You guys, please stop.

5. 1234567

No seriously, stop.

4. password

Yep, still on the list. I told you.

3. qwerty

This one makes me laugh. People are dumb.

2. 123456789

At least it’s long?

1. 123456

Yes, really.

 

I’m guilty of using variations of the same passwords for years on end, but none nearly as bad as these! Yeesh!

Are you guilty? Go ahead and out yourself in the comments!

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Postal Service Releases New Stamps Benefiting Veterans With PTSD

One thing that our divided nation can all get together to support is helping out our veterans. And even though the task may seem daunting to many of us, one easy way we can all help out is by purchasing these new stamps the United States Postal Service has put out to benefit military veterans suffering from Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Sales of the stamps (which cost 65 cents and will cover the cost of a piece of first-class mail) will benefit the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, which oversees the National Center for PTSD.

The photo of the plant sprouting from ground surrounded by dead leaves on the stamp was taken by Mark Laita. The USPS says the image on the stamp is meant to “symbolize the PTSD healing process, growth and hope.”

The USPS explained the motivation behind the stamp:

“With this semipostal stamp, the U.S. Postal Service will raise funds to help treat those impacted by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Tens of millions of Americans will experience PTSD in their lifetimes. Today, the nation is increasingly dedicated to compassionately treating this mental health issue.

Many kinds of trauma can lead people to experience persistent symptoms such as intrusive thoughts, nightmares, and difficulty sleeping. Depression, anxiety, and fear can also occur. Though these symptoms may initially interrupt one’s daily life, for most people they typically dissipate over time. However, if these problems continue for more than a month, PTSD may have developed.”

Go to your local post office to pick up these stamps or you can order them online HERE. Your money will go to a great cause.

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15 Siblings Who Don’t Deserve Forgiveness

Some transgressions can be forgiven because we’re family – but some things are just unforgivable horror shows. Frankly, these people below should be shamed for the rest of their lives (preferably on the internet). That’s how bad they are.

Let’s be real: these 15 siblings clearly are gonna get what’s coming to them.

15. You’re living with a monster.

What my older sister does to toothpaste tubes from mildlyinfuriating

14. How can you even be mad?

My mum asked my brother to share his Easter egg with me. from mildlyinfuriating

13. That’s a pretty epic level of lazy.

my little brother was too lazy to clean up monopoly so he threw it in the trash from mildlyinfuriating

12. What kind of person could do this?

How my sister eats her pizza…. from mildlyinfuriating

11. I love how there are no other texts in between.

My brother has a habit from mildlyinfuriating

10. She’s clearly trying to kill you.

About three weeks ago my sister knocked my lamp over and broke its glass cover. Today I saw that she had placed it next to my curtain, burning a hole in it and almost starting a fire. from mildlyinfuriating

9. Cheese and crackers, anyone?

I shit you not my brother ate the ham out of all 5 Lunchables and put them back in the refrigerator from mildlyinfuriating

8. It had to be a rainy day, too.

My brother backing out of my driveway… from mildlyinfuriating

7. But the middle is the best part?

My sister, everybody. from mildlyinfuriating

6. Okay but in her defense that could happen to anyone.

What my sister did to my earbuds… from mildlyinfuriating

5. Just shove it behind the couch, it will be like it doesn’t exist.

My brother calls this cable "management" from mildlyinfuriating

4. She’s just taking one for the team.

My sister only eats the chocolate from the top container on the YoCrunch yogurts, leaving the rest of us with plain vanilla yogurt. from mildlyinfuriating

3. Who thinks keeping a lollipop clean is more important than a phone screen?

My sister is a god damn savage. from mildlyinfuriating

2. But it wasn’t empty!

My brother thinks that, by leaving half a sheet on the roll, he won’t have to change it. from mildlyinfuriating

1. This makes me twitch.

My sister, everybody. from mildlyinfuriating

 

May I never do something like this to my poor, long-suffering sister.

Has one of your siblings ever let you down on this scale? Tell us the story in the comments!

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Kansas City Is the First U.S. City to Offer Free Public Transit

Imagine being able to ride your city’s bus or train and go anywhere for free. That’s the reality in just one groundbreaking U.S. city.

In Kansas City, Missouri, people will soon be able to ride on any bus or light rail without paying a fare of any kind. The city is the first in the country to approve a plan for free public transportation.

Kansas City’s streetcar has been free for some time, and a plan to eliminate bus fares for 2020 was approved by the city council in December 2019.

City officials estimate that the new plan will cost $8 million, which is about how much the transit system makes off of bus fares and monthly passes each year.

However, it will also likely make residents’ lives a whole lot easier, especially low-income residents.

“When we’re talking about improving people’s lives who are our most vulnerable citizens, I don’t think there’s any question that we need to find that money,” City Councilman Eric Bunch told KSHB.

By making it easier for folks to get around, officials also hope that the plan will ultimately boost economic activity to make up for the lost money.

Photo Credit: iStock

Accessible public transit is a hot-button issue in many cities in the U.S. Many young activists praise mass transit as a possible way to fight the effects of climate change, and many large fossil fuel interests spend liberally to try and prevent the expansion of public transit systems.

However, no city has successfully enacted a plan for free public transit — until Kansas City. On the contrary, larger cities like New York City are famously cracking down on folks who ride the subway without paying (though New York has decades of mismanagement to thank for their current funding woes).

The success or failure of Kansas City’s plan will impact whether other cities follow suit, but it’s impossible to know how it’ll turn out without first trying — so hats off to you, KC!

Hopefully you’re the first of many.

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Here Are the 100 Most Popular Baby Names of the Decade

Baby names come and go, and it’s always interesting to see what sticks and what’s ultimately a flash in the pan. Have you wondered what the most popular names for kids have been the past ten years or so?

The numbers have been crunched from information from the Social Security Administration from 2010 to 2018 to give us the most popular baby names of the past decade.

Did you have any new kiddos in the past ten years? If so, did any of these names make the cut for you?

Tell us all about it in the comments!

1. Emma

Photo Credit: Pixabay

2. Sophia
3. Olivia
4. Noah
5. Isabella

Photo Credit: Pixabay

6. Liam
7. Jacob
8. Mason
9. William
10. Ava

Photo Credit: Pixabay

11. Ethan
12. Michael
13. Alexander
14. James
15. Elijah

Photo Credit: Pixabay

16. Daniel
17. Benjamin
18. Aiden
19. Jayden
20. Mia

Photo Credit: Pixabay

21. Logan
22. Matthew
23. Abigail
24. Emily
25. David

Photo Credit: Pixabay

26. Joseph
27. Lucas
28. Jackson
29. Anthony
30. Joshua

Photo Credit: Pixabay

31. Samuel
32. Andrew
33. Gabriel
34. Christopher
35. John

Photo Credit: Pixabay

36. Madison
37. Charlotte
38. Dylan
39. Carter
40. Isaac

Photo Credit: Pixabay

41. Elizabeth
42. Ryan
43. Luke
44. Oliver
45. Nathan

Photo Credit: Pixabay

46. Henry
47. Owen
48. Amelia
49. Caleb
50. Wyatt
51. Chloe

Photo Credit: Pixabay

52. Christian
53. Ella
54. Sebastian
55. Evelyn
56. Jack

Photo Credit: Pixabay

57. Avery
58. Sofia
59. Harper
60. Jonathan
61. Landon

Photo Credit: Pixabay

62. Julian
63. Isaiah
64. Hunter
65. Levi
66. Grace

Photo Credit: Pixabay

67. Addison
68. Aaron
69. Victoria
70. Eli
71. Charles
72. Natalie

Photo Credit: Pixabay

73. Thomas
74. Connor
75. Lily
76. Brayden
77. Nicholas

Photo Credit: Pixabay

78. Jaxon
79. Jeremiah
80. Aubrey
81. Cameron
82. Evan
83. Adrian
84. Jordan

Photo Credit: Pixabay

85. Lillian
86. Gavin
87. Zoey
88. Hannah
89. Grayson
90. Angel
91. Robert

Photo Credit: Pixabay

92. Layla
93. Tyler
94. Josiah
95. Brooklyn
96. Austin
97. Samantha

Photo Credit: Pixabay

98. Zoe
99. Colton
100. Brandon

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Dollar Stores Really Do Make Money

It may seem impossible that a store that offers pretty much everything cheaper than anywhere else (if not for an actual $1) could be a profitable business.

Dollar stores (to be clear, we’re talking about the category of stores “dollar stores,” not the chain of dollar stores called “Dollar Store”) have been around for decades, but after the recession in 2008, more and more people across all income levels began to patronize them.

“In general, dollar stores provide great value,” explained Meaghan Brophy, a retail analyst for FitSmallBusiness.com. “But as many items are custom-made in smaller sizes by manufacturers for dollar stores, shoppers need to compare the price against weight, length, and size,

Given that you can find them in pretty much every town, though – there are 15,000-of them across the U.S. –  they’re obviously turning a profit.

But how?

Darya Minovi, a policy associate at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, can tell us at least part of the story.

“Dollar stores are able to profit on slim margins, in part because operating costs are kept low by employing only a handful of people to stock aisles, and by limiting the amount of cold chain storage in their stores (which is necessary for fresh foods like produce).”

Basically, they take care when deciding what to stock and how much in order to cut down on operating costs in their stores –  which explains why you’re pretty much always on your own when it comes to finding something in their jumbled aisles of canned vegetables and paper goods.

There’s more to the equation, though, says Minovi.

“Dollar stores in the United States typically seek to open locations in economically disadvantaged communities that lack a full-service grocery store. It’s worth noting that consumable goods were nearly 78% of Dollar General’s total sales in 2018. Unfortunately, the food on offer is largely calorie-dense and nutrient-poor, so this model depends on selling nutritionally poor food and beverages to mostly low-income customers.”

Which is all to say that dollar stores, though they serve the needs of certain communities, are not without their issues.

One of those issues, though, isn’t turning a profit.

Just so you know.

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It Took 20 Years for This Woman to Recover Her Lost Luggage

Losing your luggage sucks. I mean sure, you can pack the things you really need in your carry-on, but there’s just something about not having your things that can make you feel so much more lost, and stressed, especially if you’re away from home.

Most of the time, though, the airline is quick to recover and return your things.

That wasn’t the case for Tuscon resident Maria Dellos, whose bags went missing more than two decades ago, never to be seen again.

Image Credit: KVOA Tucson

At least, that’s what she thought…

Until she got a call from TSA.

Because she apparently has terrible luck, she assumed they were ringing about the luggage they lost 4 months ago, but no – it was about her bag that had disappeared twenty years earlier.

She told KVOA news about her reaction to the call.

“Well I actually almost ignored the call because of telemarketing. All day long I get calls.”

We feel you, Maria.

The bag was returned, and inside it she found art supplies she’d purchased from a trade show, as well as a handwritten note that was chock full of nostalgia for her.

Image Credit: KVOA Tucson

“When I looked at this note, it was dated, it dated me as 20 years ago! And I was just absolutely blown away. I’m absolutely thankful to the TSA for calling me today and giving me great faith back into the airline industry.”

I don’t know if I’d have “great faith” if I was her, but it’s also amazing to me that they actually called and got her the bag instead of trashing it in order to never have to discuss their mistake.

TSA says the bag was likely left unattended for so long that someone dumped it in lost and found without researching who it might belong to or where it should properly have been sent.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

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Oh, and her more recently lost bags? Those’ve been returned, too, so maybe her faith isn’t totally misplaced.

Time will tell. I’ll be ready for updates the next time she flies.

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This Is Why Black Clothes Seem so Slimming

If you’re anything like me, a quick scan of your closet will show you one thing: you wear a lot of black. For me, it’s not because I’m satanic or allergic to the rest of the color palette. Rather, it has to do with the fact that black clothes are unquestionably slimming, especially for a guy of my size who needs all the help he can get. And for the rest of my black-wearing brethren, science backs up our undying loyalty to the slimming magic of black clothing.

The reason black clothes make us look sleek and slim is due to the way our visual system processes light. It all comes down to an irradiation illusion— a concept written about by 19th-century German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz. Author of the foundational  Handbook of Physiological Optics, Helmholtz discussed the interaction of physics, physiology and psychology in how we perceive certain colors and spaces.

But the obsession with illusions dates back even farther – to the 1500s, with Galileo Galilei’s curiosity about why some planets appeared closer to the naked eye than with a telescope. Turn the clock far ahead to 2014 and an answer finally appeared.

Researchers at the State University of New York College of Optometry studied the electric signals from neurons in the visual areas of human, cat and monkey brains. The test subjects looked at a mix of light shapes on dark backgrounds, dark shapes on light backgrounds, light shapes on gray backgrounds and dark shapes on gray backgrounds.

Based on their findings, the researchers discovered that the two sets of neurons respond differently to light and darkness. The dark (off) neurons responded more strongly to dark shapes on light backgrounds. On the other hand, the light (on) neurons, even with the same amount of contrast, had a significantly greater response.

Whether you believe in the science or you think your eyes are playing tricks on you, black is not only fashionable but makes you look more fit. A black blazer or pair of jeans will make you look slim and sleek the next time you’re out on the town.

It’s science.

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