Chemist George Zaidan asks the important question: “What the hell is in gum that makes it so magical?” Specifically, why is gum chewy to start with, and how does it remain chewy for a long time despite your saliva trying to pre-digest it?

In this video, Zaidan explores the ingredients in chewing gum, then proceeds to make his own in a little saucepan. The key to understanding chewing gum is to get inside the meta-ingredient labeled “gum base” on the package. This stuff contains a subset of up to 46 actual ingredients, and therein lies the magic.

Chew on this:

Previous coverage of the Ingredients series: What’s in Nail Polish? and What’s in Toothpaste?

One of the best things about adulthood is that you can buy whatever candy you want, whenever you want it. And you can enjoy an adult beverage as you eat it. This Halloween season, when those discount bins of bite-sized candy call to you, you can also grab a bottle of wine that will complement the flavors of those Starbursts or Whoppers.

Vivino, a wine review app, asked a panel of wine experts to recommend wines that will go with your Halloween binge, and these are the pairings they came up with:

Though you may not understand why these wines make complementary flavor combinations when enjoyed with particular candies, don’t worry—the pairings aren’t random. Here are a few of the reasons behind them:

“Dominated by intense orange and candied lemon with touches of minerality, they make the candy taste less sour,” sommelier Laura Burgess says of pairing Rieslings with SweeTARTS, “enabling the eating of way too many packets at once!”

Restaurant beverage director Joel Caruso says “The huge malty character of Whoppers needs a wine with backbone and depth to keep from being overpowered by the malt and chocolate,” which is why he recommends a “ripe, bold Cabernet Sauvignon blend.”

And wine writer Karen MacNeil calls the mix of Moscato and candy corn “a fantasmagorica of sweetness,” because“the sugar in the candy corn amps up the fruitiness in the Moscato. Both taste better as a result.” Well, who wouldn’t want that?

More pairings and explanations from the sommeliers can be found on the Vivino blog.

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“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” If this motto summons up visions of brave postal workers trudging through inclement weather conditions, you’re not alone—for over a century, it’s been synonymous with the tireless work the postal service does to make sure you get your junk mail, magazines, and birthday cards on time. But if you think it’s the official creed of the United States Postal Service, think again—it was actually written about another set of postal workers from around 500 BCE.

In fact, the USPS doesn’t have an official motto [PDF]. And given that the postal service regularly cancels mail delivery due to weather, the misunderstanding about its motto regularly leads to even more frustration from mail-less customers.

Blame a building for the confusion. In 1912, a building then called the General Post Office Building (since renamed the James A. Farley Post Office Building) was constructed in what would later become ZIP code 10001. Smack in the center of Manhattan, the grand building was built right across from Penn Station and Madison Square Garden. It had prime real estate and a profile to match—white columns, a grandiose reception hall, and even a dry moat around it to light up its gigantic basement.

It also had an architect with a taste for classical flair. William Mitchell Kendall designed other column-studded sites like the Manhattan Municipal Building and the Arlington Memorial Bridge. Kendall, whose dad was a classics scholar, also loved the words of the ancients as much as their columns. So when he designed the post office, he decided to inscribe it with a phrase by Herodotus, the Greek scholar sometimes known as the father of history.

Kendall modified a translation of Herodotus’s work by George Herbert Palmer, a professor at Harvard and a preeminent classicist, for the building. The line was written by Herodotus in paragraph 98, book eight of his book The Persian Wars, which recounts the history of a war that took place between the Greeks and the Persian Empire from 499 to 479 BCE (the exact time period of the war is disputed).

Herodotus was impressed by the efficient, relay-like postal system employed by the Persians, which he compared to the Greek torch race. “There is nothing in the world which travels faster than the Persian couriers,” he wrote admiringly. The postal system may have been impressive, but it ultimately didn’t help Persia—after decades of conflicts, they lost the wars.

The Persians may not have won in Greece, but the Persian couriers who inspired the inscription must have been on to something—to this day, the USPS relies on a relay-like system to both get mail across the country and help postal carriers on their daily rounds. They may not operate in all weather conditions, but today’s USPS still manages to deliver hundreds of billions of pieces of mail each year. Not bad for an organization with no official motto.

On August 12, 1994, the MLB Players Association officially went on strike, cutting short a promising season that seemed destined for greatness just a few weeks earlier. Padres right fielder Tony Gwynn was on pace to become the game’s first .400 hitter since 1941, and many believed that Montreal had laid the groundwork for an exciting new dynasty up north.  

Unfortunately, squabbles between athletes and owners over revenue pulled the plug on these developing stories. Over 900 games were canceled, including the World Series.

Whether you hold the owners, players, commissioner, or any combination thereof responsible for denying fans a championship showdown in ‘94, it’s safe to say that the blame could be spread around. Ninety years earlier, however, calling off the World Series was a two-man job.

1903’s series—the first Fall Classic ever played—had been an enormous upset. In eight games, the National League’s heavily-favored Pittsburgh Pirates fell to the Boston Americans (later renamed the Red Sox), their American League opponents. National League baseball had been wowing spectators since 1876 (and the Pirates arrived six seasons later). In contrast, the up-and-coming American League was only three years old. Nevertheless, Bean Town’s superior pitching ensured a meaningful series victory on behalf of the younger coalition.

That impressive performance still couldn’t silence those who wanted to dismiss the new league as an inferior product, and no critic was louder than New York Giants manager John McGraw.

McGraw’s grievances ran deep. A.L. clubs could steal away key players from National League squads (like his) with the siren’s lure of fatter paychecks—an arrangement made possible by their elevated salary ceiling. Furthermore, in 1903, the organization hit McGraw’s bottom line even harder by giving Big Apple fans another team to watch: the fledgling New York Highlanders, whom we now call the Yankees.

Before debuting in New York City, those Highlanders had already ticked McGraw off during their 1901 and 1902 campaigns, when fans knew them as the Baltimore Orioles (not to be confused with today’s version of the O’s). McGraw was brought in to manage the Baltimore franchise by none other than A.L. president Ban Johnson, who quickly regretted the appointment. Umpires grew fearful of McGraw’s explosive tirades and Johnson retaliated by slapping him with suspension after suspension. Finally, McGraw gave up. Upon bidding Baltimore adieu, he switched leagues to oversee the lowly Giants.

By 1904, McGraw’s new gang had become the most dominant team in baseball. Led by future hall of famers Christy Mathewson and Joe McGinnity, they’d go on to amass a 106-47 record. That the Giants would win the coveted National League pennant soon became a foregone conclusion. Meanwhile, the A.L. race ran right down to the wire, as Boston found itself in a tight, season-long duel with the big-spending Highlanders. For the very first time, there was talk of a New York vs. New York series.

Giants owner John T. Brush made sure that never happened. As early as July 5, while the Boston Americans and Highlanders were still trading blows, sources close to him told reporters that, regardless of who won the American League, his team would most likely sit out the ensuing World Series. On October 6, he confirmed these rumors.

To the surprise of no one, McGraw backed his boss one hundred percent. As he’d smugly reminded everybody a few months prior, the manager felt nothing but contempt for either club. “Why should we play [Boston],” McGraw wondered aloud, “or any other American League team, for any postseason championship? When we clinch the National League pennant, we’ll be champions of the only real Major League.”

Their egos bruised, both rosters now desperately wanted to take a crack at his Giants. On October 9, the last day of the season, Boston nabbed its second consecutive A.L. pennant. With the taste of victory fresh on his tongue, John I. Tyler, the Americans’ president, dared McGraw to step up to the plate. “Dear Sir,” he wrote, “As the Boston club today won the championship of the American League, I challenge your club to play for the championship of the world. Of course, if you refuse to play, we get the title by default, but I shall prefer to win it on the diamond in a series of five games or more.”

Alas, his taunts fell on deaf ears, and McGraw never responded. Meanwhile, when the second-place Highlanders invited the Giants to compete in an unofficial playoff series, Brush gave them an answer—and a pretty brutal one at that. Patronizingly, he asked “Who are these people? We do not know them at all. The Giants do not care to play minor leaguers, so this absurd challenge from a lot of nobodies will be ignored.”

Because World Series attendance wasn’t yet mandatory for pennant-winners, McGraw and Brush comfortably sat on their laurels. That year, a disappointed baseball-crazed nation was denied the pleasure of watching New York’s N.L. club try and back up its trash talk.  

History wouldn’t repeat itself in 1905. Following 1904’s debacle, both leagues formally agreed to make championship participation non-negotiable. The Giants again won the pennant and, this time, took home a World Series title by beating the Philadelphia Athletics four games to one.

However, as if by karmic retribution, McGraw’s team lost their next four appearances, including a date with the then recently-renamed Red Sox in 1912. Today, over 110 years after the Giants refused to face Tyler’s men, Boston fans are greeted by a red, white, and blue “1904” banner near the entrance of Fenway Park—a tribute to the greatest matchup that never was.   

Amateur astronomers will probably want to make space for this jewelry series from Maryland-based artist Lauren Beacham. Along with her husband Tyler, the designer creates jewelry inspired by celestial objects.

Beacham has a degree in fine art photography and computer imaging, which led her to start making photography-based jewelry. She moved into astronomy-themed items in 2013 and has since made a whole collection. The series of handmade jewelry includes cufflinks, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and more—each featuring an image of space.

For instance, her cufflinks are decorated with Earth, the Heart Nebula, and the golden record from the Voyager Probe. A bracelet and necklace bib features the planets in the solar system (plus Pluto and the sun), and a pair of earrings and a necklace show the phases of the moon.

You can find all her work sold on UncommonGoods.

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Need a little affirmation that there’s still a lot of good in this world? This October 22, volunteers from across the country will come together to help others in honor of “Make a Difference Day.” If you want to get in on the act, Make a Difference Day has a wide variety of volunteer opportunities available to help improve your community or brighten someone’s day. Or, you can also participate on your own time with some of these good deeds—many of which can easily become daily or monthly habits.

1. VOLUNTEER AT AN ANIMAL SHELTER.

Offer an hour out of your week to a local animal shelter. They usually need help walking dogs, grooming animals, and cleaning living spaces, among other things. Some shelters even let kids get in on the action by having them hone their reading skills by reading books to the animals, who appreciate the attention. No time to volunteer? Shelters always need pet food, toys, and other supplies if you’d prefer to make a donation.

2. DONATE UNUSED TOILETRIES.

Got extra toiletries? Maybe you’ve stashed away mini shampoos from hotel stays, or you stocked up the last time there was a good sale. Instead of letting those extras collect dust in your bathroom closet, donate them to homeless shelters or women’s shelters. Give your intended recipient a call first, though—some organizations only accept certain sizes.

3. PLANT PRODUCE FOR YOUR FOOD BANK.

Those of you with green thumbs can dedicate space in your garden to do good for others. Check with your local food banks to see what fresh produce they can accept, and then set aside some square footage—even just a row or a container—and give whatever grows to the food kitchen. Vegetables like carrots, peppers, onions, and tomatoes can go a long way in making a low-cost meal more nutritious.

4. GROW SOME EXTRA BLOOMS.

If you’re more inclined to grow flowers than veggies, you can do good with those, too. Plant a cutting garden, and take bouquets to hospitals and nursing homes to brighten someone’s day.

5. ADD ON TO YOUR ELECTRICITY BILL.

Many energy companies have programs that allow customers to make small donations while paying their bill that go to pay the energy bills of households that have trouble keeping the lights on and the house warm.

6. MULTIPLY YOUR DONATION—FOR FREE!

Many employers will match your charitable donations, usually to organizations that align with their own philosophies. Find out if your employer has a matching donation program—or ask if they’ll start one.

7. LEAVE GOOD READING MATERIAL FOR SOMEONE TO FIND.

I just shared a kind act for Give Your Favorite Book Away #giveabook #choosekindness https://t.co/ZfUdGJQn3s pic.twitter.com/DRUTIGFgwA

— Lit Up (@litupshow) October 7, 2016

You can make someone’s commute or lunch break far more interesting by leaving a good book for them to find. Attach a note with a brief recommendation (and an assurance that the book is meant to be taken and enjoyed) and, if you want to spread the literary love even more, participate in this Kindness initiative by posting your gift and encouraging your friends on social media to join in.

8. MULTITASK WHEN YOU GO ON WALKS.

The next time you head out for a relaxing stroll, take a bag with you and pick up litter and trash along your route. Not only will Mother Nature appreciate the effort, you’ll also make the next person’s walk that much more enjoyable.

9. MAKE YOUR EXERCISE CHARITABLE.

Do twice as much good while you’re on that walk. A free app called Charity Miles partners with companies that make charitable donations based on the distance you walk or run, which is tracked via the app. You can choose from a number of charities, including the National Park Foundation, the ASPCA, the Wounded Warrior Project, Habitat for Humanity, and many more.

10. BUY AN EXTRA ITEM WHEN YOU GROCERY SHOP.

Every time you make a stop at the grocery store, pick up an extra nonperishable item or two. At the end of the month, you’ll have a good stash to donate to your local food bank.

11. DRIVE A VETERAN.

Have a driver’s license and a little bit of free time? Volunteer to drive a veteran to appointments at your local VA hospital to get the treatments they need. And that’s just one of the ways you can help our military members—you can also donate frequent flyer miles, help train service dogs, and help build or modify homes for disabled veterans who need customized accommodations.

Parenting is a heck of a lot more complicated than it used to be. For one, raising a child in a hyper-connected world raises a lot of questions about the benefits and drawbacks of technology use. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) does its best to offer answers, and has just updated its recommendations on media use for kids.

Today, October 21, the AAP put out two updates, both published in the journal Pediatrics: “Media and Young Minds” recommendations for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers [PDF]; and “Media Use in School-Aged Children and Adolescents” [PDF]. The upshot of both is that parents should approach the screen-time issue with a strategy.

“Families should proactively think about their children’s media use and talk with children about it,” report author Jenny Radesky said in a statement, “because too much media use can mean that children don’t have enough time during the day to play, study, talk, or sleep. What’s most important is that parents be their child’s ‘media mentor.’ That means teaching them how to use it as a tool to create, connect, and learn.”

The new recommendations lift the AAP’s previous ban on screen time for kids under 2 years old, but it still warns parents and pediatricians to restrict media time for very small children.

Other recommendations include:

– For children younger than 18 months, avoid use of screen media other than video-chatting. Parents of children 18 to 24 months of age who want to introduce digital media should choose high-quality and interactive programming, and watch it with their children to help them understand what they’re seeing.

– For children ages 2 to 5 years, limit screen use to 1 hour per day of high-quality programs. Parents should co-view media with children to help them understand what they are seeing and apply it to the world around them.

– For children ages 6 and older, place consistent limits on the time spent using media, and the types of media, and make sure media does not take the place of adequate sleep, physical activity, and other behaviors essential to health.

– Designate media-free times together, such as dinner or driving, as well as media-free locations at home, such as bedrooms.

– Have ongoing communication about online citizenship and safety, including treating others with respect online and offline.

Older kids and teens are not immune to media influence, the report cautions. Scores of studies have linked childhood consumption of TV and other media to lower self-esteem, unrealistic expectations, and believing harmful stereotypes.

Physician and education expert Megan Moreno co-authored the policy report on media use in older children. “Parents play an important role in helping children and teens navigate media, which can have both positive and negative effects,” she said. “Parents can set expectations and boundaries to make sure their children’s media experience is a positive one. The key is mindful use of media within a family.”

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There’s never been a better time to show off your hometown pride. As the design critics at Co.Design recently pointed out, “infrastructure is now a lifestyle trend.” You can celebrate your favorite city through posters, jewelry, glassware, or now, chess sets. San Diego-based designer Abe Ruiz 3D-prints chess pieces that resemble the iconic skyscrapers of particular cities, Gizmodo reports.

Each set is carefully designed to evoke the specific urban skyline of the city, while also being recognizable as the intended game pieceS. The Chicago set, for instance, uses the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) as its king, while the city’s second-tallest building, the John Hancock Tower, is the queen. The pawns are in the shape of Bertrand Goldberg’s Prentice Women’s Hospital, an architectural treasure that was demolished in 2014.

The pieces are sold in half-sets, so you choose whether you want to buy, for instance, the Chicago pieces in white and the San Diego pieces in black, or a full set of just Chicago pieces. The pieces have a small magnet at the bottom to give them extra stability on the wood-and-metal board. The boards, sold separately, are overlaid with city street maps, but you can also use the pieces on any other metal board if you aren’t dedicated to battling it out for urban domination.

There are sets for Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and San Diego, with corresponding map boards. All of them are available on Etsy or on Ruiz’s website. They start at $96.

[h/t Gizmodo]

All images courtesy Abe Ruiz Design.

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The people who keep zoos and aquariums up and running don’t get a lot of time in the spotlight, but someone has to take care of the creatures that we come to see. The Telegraph’s latest “day in the life” video follows Kat Dixon, a senior aquarist at the Sea Life London Aquarium, as she explains what exactly she does all day. The video is 360°, so you can move the camera’s vantage point around to see the whole aquarium setup. And yes, she gets to play with the penguins.

“They have all got their own personalities—I can tell them apart just by the way they act,” Dixon says. “We play with them when we’re cleaning their enclosure.”

She also gets to clean out the shark tank. And while that may not sound as enticing to some people, it can sometimes be a treat. According to Dixon, at least one of the sharks, Betty, is “very curious and playful,” and “will always come over and nudge the divers a bit.”

[h/t The Telegraph]

Header image by Pete Stewart via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 2.0

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What’s your personality like? Long before BuzzFeed or the Myers-Briggs personality test, there was phrenology—a pseudoscience that used the lumps and bumps of human skulls to tease out the secrets of human psychology.

This skeleton-bedecked snuff box looks creepy, but it served as a handy reference for its 19th-century owner. Part of the collection of the Science Museum, London, it shows three views of a numbered skull on the lid and has a handy-dandy key on the bottom of the box.

The concept behind phrenology makes a certain kind of sense: Since the brain holds the mind, different faculties of the mind must live in certain parts of the brain, or so phrenology’s followers believed. And while that’s not totally off base, they also believed that one could “read” the elevations and depressions of the skull for clues about the capabilities and “faculties” of the brain within.

That’s demonstrated on this snuff box, which shows three views of a skull studded with numbers. Each number on the skull corresponds to an “organ” responsible for a personality trait. Number 18, for example, indicated vanity, so someone with a large or protruding area at that part of the skull would presumably be vain.

There are 27 “faculties” or “organs” overall, each divvied up and named by Franz Joseph Gall, the German physiologist who invented phrenology. The sections cover the entire gamut of human emotion and behavior, from haughtiness and arrogance to poetic talent.

Phrenology may have long since been dismissed as a pseudoscience, but it sure left some creepy memorabilia behind. Take the box in question: Made in France at some point between 1800 and 1830, it also jumped on another trend—sniffing snuff, or fine-ground tobacco. The practice was all the rage in Europe between the 16th and 19th centuries, and spawned not only elaborate snuff-taking rituals but a collecting craze. Today, snuff boxes made of everything from silver to papier-mâché are still prized collector’s items.

Though snuff has fallen out of favor, it’s not dead: You can still buy it in some places, and in the British House of Commons, where smoking is banned, some MPs still take a snort of snuff from the Parliament’s communal box before legislating. Their box isn’t as creepy-cool, though … merely plated with pure silver. (There are snuff boxes in the U.S. Senate, too, but though they’re filled with snuff they’re not used by any Senators today.)

[h/t Lindsey Fitzharris]