Once you become accustomed to an expertly pulled shot of espresso or a pour-over cup of joe, it can be hard to go back to the stuff Starbucks has on hand. The Upcycle Coffee Travel Kit promises to make on-the-go coffee more delicious.

It comes with an Aeropress coffee maker—beloved among coffee experts—a mini hand grinder, an insulated to-go mug, a bamboo spoon, a bag of coffee beans, a table cloth (for those morning picnics), and a leather travel bag that you can attach to your bike’s handlebars, if you’re so inclined.

It’s made by Looptworks, a Portland-based company devoted to making sure that excess materials from other products don’t end up in landfills. Instead, the company uses them to make elegant, eco-friendly offerings. The recycled materials don’t come at a low price point, though. The kit costs $185.

However, if you’re going to use it often, it might be worth the investment. All of Looptworks’s designs also come with a lifetime guarantee, ensuring you don’t need to throw them in the trash a few years down the line.

Unsure how much you spent during the last holiday season? If you don’t know definitively, there’s a good chance it was more than you bargained for. In fact, according to national polls, consumers spend an average of $750 on holiday gifts and entertainment each year. How do you budget for such a big one-time expense? Our good tidings to you are surefire tips to keep your celebratory spending in check.

1. BUDGET TIME JUST AS YOU DO MONEY.

It goes without saying that creating a spending budget is a key way to stay on top of your personal finances, but also scheduling when you plan to shop—and setting reasonable deadlines—will keep you on target. After all, the longer you wait, the higher the prices will rise and the more desperate you’ll be to buy products at a premium because you’re running out of time.

2. KEEP A RAINY DAY FUND.

It’s common financial sense to have an emergency fund for the unexpected, whether it’s a job layoff, a car repair, or a sudden medical procedure, but it’s also wise to have some funds tucked away for expected, but no less expensive, costs. When moving money into a savings account every month, consider also tucking additional cash away in an easily accessible account for annual birthdays and holidays.

3. CLEAR YOUR CACHE WHEN SEARCHING FOR FLIGHTS.

There are easily thousands of tips for scoring a cheap flight, but unless you want to wake up at 2:32 a.m. on a Tuesday, consider simply erasing your browser history before researching airfare. Many airlines track how many times you visit their sites, and in doing so, provide different offers and deals. The more they see you searching, the higher they’ll raise the prices.

4. CUT THE BOOZE.

It’s a lot less fun, sure, but consuming alcoholic beverages at restaurants and bars is a costly expense in general, never mind during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Not convinced? Consider this: By abstaining from just two glasses of wine or fancy cocktails, you’ll be able to afford one more substantial gift for a friend or loved one.

5. SET YOUR OWN PURCHASING WAITING PERIODS.

Instant gratification is one of the trickiest urges to overcome when trying to stay on budget. Just because it’s easy to find what you are looking for and order it right away doesn’t mean you should. Instead, mandate a waiting period for the bigger purchases on your list or at least double-check return policies.

6. APPLY THE SAME RULES TO YOUR GROCERY LIST.

Holiday spending isn’t just about gifts and decorations—it’s also about entertaining, and those costs add up just as quickly. If you’re baking or cooking for a family gathering, do your best to clip coupons or find other ways to save money on foods and beverages.

7. USE A CASH-BACK CREDIT CARD.

Although the benefits of a rewards card won’t benefit you immediately, it behooves you to shop with one. As long as you’re smart about paying off the balance so you aren’t faced with interest charges, you could save anywhere from 1 to 5 percent on each purchase in the form of either a rebate or a statement credit.

8. PAY WITH CASH.

If, however, you have a history of credit card debt, consider instilling a cash-only policy for all holiday expenses. When it comes time to shop, label envelopes with the name of the gift recipient and put the appropriate amount in each one. That way, there’s no possibility of going over your maximum, even by a few cents.

For the tools and resources you need to take control of your financial future this holiday season and beyond, head to Allstate.com.

Raymond Tomlinson, the man who invented email, died earlier this year. Tomlinson is the man who introduced the @ symbol into our electronic communications. Every time you give someone or something your email address, you are using his invention.

Tomlinson didn’t invent the @: That honor lies somewhere long before he was born. It’s unclear still how the circle found its way around the a, but during the Renaissance the symbol slowly crept into texts as a way to denote how much something cost per unit. So you might see something like: “10 loaves of bread @ 25 pence each.” For hundreds of years, the symbol was mostly used by merchants, and nobody else. Fast forward to 1971, and Tomlinson borrowed the symbol to mean “located at” in an email address. And that’s how we mainly use the symbol today.

If you’re reading this from the United States, you probably know the @ as the “at” symbol. But in other parts of the world, that’s not always how they refer to the little squiggly a. Here are some of the other ways of referring to our friendly email address signifier.

1. ITALIANS SEE A TINY SNAIL.

The Italians call the symbol a chiocciola or a “snail,” to describe its spiral shape.

2. HUNGARIANS SEE A SLIMIER ANIMAL: A WORM.

In Hungarian, the @ is likened to a wiggly earth-eater and called a kukac, which means “little worm” or “maggot.”

3. ARMENIANS THINK THE @ IS A CUTE LITTLE DOG.

They call the @ ishnik or “puppy.”

4. GERMANS HAVE A SPECIFIC MONKEY IN MIND FOR THE @.

German slang call the symbol klammeraffe or “spider monkey,” which is delightfully specific in the way you expect from Germans.

5. THE DUTCH ALSO SEE A MONKEY, BUT A LESS SPECIFIC ONE.

The Dutch have a similar nickname as the Germans: They call it an apestaart or “monkey’s tail.” No specific species this time. 

6. IN DANISH YOU GET TWO ANIMALS TO CHOOSE FROM. 

In Danish, the @ gets two names, both animal in origin. Sometimes, it’s a grisehale or “pig’s tail.” But most of the time it’s a snabel or “elephant’s trunk.”  

7. THE TAIWANESE SEE A MOUSE. 

In Taiwanese the @ symbol is called 小老鼠 or “little mouse.” 

8. ISRAELIS HAVE FOOD ON THE BRAIN WHEN IT COMES TO THE @.

To Israelis, the @ is often called a שטרודל, or a “strudel,” as in the delicious layered pastry.

9. IN CZECH AND SLOVAK THE @ ALSO POINTS TO FOOD. 

In Czech and Slovak, the @ symbol is called a zavináč or rollmops. For those uninitiated, a rollmop is a fillet of pickled herring, rolled up around a savory filling, often olives or pimentos.

10. IN SWEDISH IT’S ALL ABOUT THE SWEET BUNS.

Swedish has a few names for the @, but one of them is kanelbulle or “cinnamon bun.”

11. THE CHINESE SEE THE @ AS FANCY. 

The Chinese have a couple of different ways of referring to @ but one of them is 花A or “flowery A.” 

12. IN SERBIAN THE @ IS WILD.

In Serbian, the @ has gotten out of hand, and is called лудо А or “crazy A.”

13. VIETNAM HAS TWO NAMES FOR THE @, BENT AND HOOKED.

The Vietnamese have different names for the @ in the northern and southern bits of the country. In the North @ is A còng or “bent A,” and in the south the @ is A móc or “hooked A.”

All images courtesy of iStock

In this vintage episode of Computer Chronicles, Stewart Cheifet takes us on a tour of the best Cyber Cafés. You might ask: “Wait, what’s a Cyber Café?” Well, let me explain: These were places where you could pay an hourly fee to use somebody else’s computer, access the internet, and maybe have some coffee or food. This was back in the day when pretty much nobody had a portable computing device, and lots of people didn’t have an email address (yet).

In the first interview, Cheifet asks the proprietor of one shop, “Is this kind of like Cheers but with terminals? Is that what goes on?” The man responds, “If we could do as well as Cheers, I think we’d do all right.” (Now if you have to ask me what Cheers is, why don’t you go where everybody knows your name?)

Turn the clock back 20 years and enjoy all the wonders 1996 had to offer:

In this incredibly geeky Numberphile video, Dr. Hannah Fry discusses various issues inherent in typical Secret Santa implementations. If you’re not familiar with Secret Santa, it’s a custom in which people within a group (say, an office) anonymously buy gifts for other members of the group. Fry says:

“I think there are two fundamental things that you need for a perfect Secret Santa. One, total anonymity. And two, everyone should have an equal probability of being selected by anybody else. … The normal way you do this—everybody writing their name down and picking it from a hat—fails on both counts.”

Where it gets interesting is her suggestion for how to make it work better. Tune in and geek out:

(Incidentally, the comments on this YouTube video are amusing. Lots of people discuss their own computer-based approaches for the same problem, while others take issue with Dr. Fry’s characterization of a Klein bottle as a poor choice for a gift.)