If You Know Someone Who Doesn't Believe Sexism Exists, Show Them This
Women are often made to feel like being groped, leered at, and shouted at in the streets is normal and that they should just shut up about it. Yeah, so do you know what? That is NOT cool, and I wish something was being done about it. Oh hold up, there is! Watch to see what happens when this woman brings together the power of social media and other women from all around the world who have finally had enough of this treatment.
Doctors say a lot of us are showering more than we need to.
A few times in recent years, celebrities and social media influencers alike have made waves by sharing that they don't make their kids bathe every day. For some parents, that was totally par for the course, but for others, letting a child go more than a day without bathing was seen as a travesty.
But what about grownups? Most of us don't take baths regularly as adults, but what's the ideal frequency for showering?
According to a YouGov poll of over 5,700 Americans, just over half of respondents said they shower daily and 11% said they shower twice or more per day. That means two out of three of us are showering at least once a day.
But according to doctors and dermatologists, that's probably overkill for most people. Unless you're doing heavy labor, exercising vigorously, working outdoors or around toxins or otherwise getting excessively dirty or sweaty, a few showers per week is enough for healthy hygiene.
"Normal, healthy skin maintains a layer of oil and a balance of 'good' bacteria and other microorganisms," Dr. Shmerling writes. "Washing and scrubbing removes these, especially if the water is hot." He shares that removing that protective layer can make our skin dry, irritated or itchy, which can lead to damage that allows allergens and bacteria to cross the skin barrier. Additionally, our immune systems require exposure to microorganisms, dirt, and other environmental stimuli in order to create "immune memory," and if we wash them away too frequently, we might be inhibiting the effectiveness of our immune system.
Dermatologists who spoke to Vogue had similar advice about shower frequency. Board-certified dermatologist Deanne Robinson, MD, FAAD told the magazine that you can skip showering for the day if you haven't engaged in rigorous activity. Mamina Turegano, a triple board-certified dermatologist, internist and dermatopathologist. agreed. "I think that showering three to four times a week is plenty for most people,” she said.
Of course, everyone is different and what is good for one person's skin isn't good for another's. Showering frequency and health also depend on what kinds of products you're using, what temperature of water you're using and how long your shower is. There's a big difference between a quick pits-and-privates rinse-off and a long, hot shower.
While scorching yourself and steaming up the bathroom may feel luxurious and relaxing, especially if you've got sore muscles, dermatologists say it's not good for your skin. Hot showers are especially problematic for people with skin issues like eczema.
"Any skin condition characterized by a defective skin barrier can be worsened by a hot shower," board-certified New York City dermatologist Shari Marchbeintold Allure. "[It] strips the skin of sebum, the healthy fats and oils necessary for skin health, and dehydrates the skin."
In fact most dermatologists recommend keeping showers lukewarm. That sounds like torture, frankly, but who's going to argue with the experts?
A lot of people, actually. Modern humans are pretty particular about our shower preferences, and judging from the comments on cleanliness discussions, some folks are dead set on the idea that a daily shower is simply not negotiable. Even with the experts weighing in with their knowledge and science, a lot of people will continue to do what they do, advice be damned.
But at least the folks who've been judged harshly by the daily shower police have some official backup. As long as you're showering every couple of days, you're golden. As it turns out, there really is such a thing as being too clean.
How warm should an office be for optimal productivity?
For a species that evolved in a wide range of climates and conditions and had little ability to choose the temperature around us until recently, humans are awfully persnickety about our thermostat settings. Some of us are so sensitive to temperature fluctuations we can tell if someone has raised or lowered it by a degree or two—a reality that set the stage for many a workplace thermostat war.
If you think 68 degrees is the optimal room temperature in the office and start sweating at your desk when it hits 72, you're not alone. And if 68 degrees has you putting on your parka and begging the office manager for a nice, balmy 77, you're also not alone.
Obviously, there's a huge range of preferences, but is there an optimal room temperature for work productivity? And if so, what is it?
“It’s been documented that women like warmer indoor temperatures than men, but the idea until now has been that it’s a matter of personal preference,” study author and associate professor of finance and business economics Tommy Chang said. “What we found is it’s not just whether you feel comfortable or not, but that your performance on things that matter — in math and verbal dimensions, and how hard you try — is affected by temperature.”
In the study, women performed best when temperatures were between 70 and 80 degrees, while men's productivity increased as the temperature went down. However, men were not as negatively impacted by warmer temperatures as women were at cooler temperatures, which led Chang to pinpoint a number that seems ideal.
“I’m cringing a little bit to say this,” Chang told the Los Angeles Times. “75 degrees to me is boiling. That’s hot. I’m very warm at 75. But in a gender-balanced office environment, our results suggest that something like 75 degrees might be the optimal temperature to have for optimal productivity.”
Of course, there are men who run cold and women who run hot, but a clear difference in gender preference and performance overall was observed in the 543 people involved in the study, which tested productivity at temperatures ranging from about 61 degrees Fahrenheit to about 91 degrees Fahrenheit. This was especially apparent on verbal and math tasks.
“One of the most surprising things we learned is this isn’t about the extremes of temperature,” Chang said. “It’s not like we’re getting to freezing or boiling hot. Even if you go from 60 to 75 degrees, which is a relatively normal temperature range, you still see a meaningful variation in performance.”
For many of us, 60 and 75 do feel like extreme temperatures, but that's neither here nor there. If all else fails, take a poll to see what people's temperature preferences are and find the median to come the closest to making everyone happy. But considering the entirety of a workplace, assuming an even number of men and women, the thermostat should be set somewhere around 75 if you want people to have the greatest productivity overall.
But maybe provide a desk fan for the under-70-degrees folks, because 75 will likely feel like the surface of the sun for them.
Odds are you’ve heard Wally de Backer, aka Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know.”
It’s the Australian musician’s biggest commercial hit, selling more than 20 million copies since its release in 2011, making it one of the best-selling digital singles of all time. Not to mention it inspired several amazing covers, which you might have also stumbled upon.
The music video, in its poignant simplicity, is every bit as iconic.
Gotye stands naked facing the camera, as featured singer Kimbra faces him. As they sing, they are slowly “painted” into and out of the background of geometric shapes using stop motion animation. There’s a very Wes Anderson feel to it that adds so much to the story told in the song, making it all the more memorable.
All this to say…it would be a challenge to recreate the magic that’s so inherent in the original. And yet, one dance company has clearly understood the assignment.
All this to say…it would be a challenge to recreate the magic that’s so inherent in the original. And yet, one dance company has clearly understood the assignment.
Netherland based dance troupe CDK recently went viral for their highly stylized movement performance to the well known art pop ballad.
As thousands of viewers were quick to note, it’s not just the incredible dance moves that make this performance so captivating. It’s a killer combination of choreography, camerawork and costumes that make the piece impossible to turn away from.
“This is pure art,” one person wrote. While another added, “I think I’m going to watch it everyday for the rest of my life.”
Take a look for yourself:
CDK - Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye
This group is clearly at the top of their game, by how easy they make it all look (like, I've already convinced myself that I can pull off those moves). But what’s more evident is that they enjoy what they’re doing to the nth degree.
To find even more of CDK's performances, follow them on Instagram.
Fun fact #1: Gotye allows small independent projects, like student films—and probably this dance piece—to use his music free of charge. "If someone wants to use it commercially I look at what the budget is and the creativity of the project," he said, according to News.com.
Fun fact #2: CDK isn't the only group to have recently breathed new life into the song. A few weeks ago, an electronic remix of the song titled "Somebody (2024)," created by electronic music producers Chris Lake, Fisher, and Sante Sansone, debuted. Much like it's predecessor, "Somebody (2024) is topping the charts.
Had a cup of coffee today? If yes, you are part of the world’s 4.83 billion coffee drinkers. That’s approximately 60% of our entire adult population.
Coffee is virtually everywhere, in various different forms. A dark roast americano at the press of a button at home. Fancy lattes at the nearest coffee shop, of which there are two more across the street. The cheap, diluted stuff from the gas station. The possibilities are endless.
Coffee is so commonplace now that it’s almost hard to fathom a time before it…a time when people had to either take a nap or surrender to being tired all day (those were the real dark times).
But just like every modern day convenience, coffee has an origin story. And a pretty interesting one at that.
As a video from Ted-Ed explains, coffee is said to have been discovered by a goat herder.
So sayeth the Ethiopian legend: A goat herder named Kaldi noticed that when members of his flock began to eat the berries off of a certain tree, they’d get bursts of energy. When Kaldi decided to try the berries himself, he too got a jolt.
Considering Ethiopia is where most agree that coffee originated, why not go with their legend? Coffee was being foraged here by the 1400s, but instead of roasting the beans, the leaves would be brewed just like tea. Or the berries would be combined with butter and salt for a quick energy snack. (I’ll stick to my chocolate covered espresso beans, thank you very much.)
Eventually the berries would be made into an “energizing elixir” and traded along the route to the Middle East. By the 1450s, coffee was already popular in Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Yemen and Persia.
By this time, coffee was also used for ritual worship in Yemen, which brought about the new brewing methods of roasting and grinding the beans. Dark roast lovers…you can thank the Ottoman Empire.
There was even a period in the 1500s when authorities tried to ban coffee, for fear that it was too much of an intoxicating drug (which, scientifically speaking, isn’t too inaccurate). But eventually that concern was ruled out, and coffee houses began popping up all over the map, spreading to Istanbul, Damascus, and beyond.
Not only more coffee shops, but coffee bean farms. And this is where we got certain names for coffee drinks, like Mocha and Java.
By the 1650s, at the dawn of the Enlightenment Period, coffee shops were opened in Europe. This had an especially powerful effect on London culture, as tavern-going was replaced by attending coffee houses, dubbed “penny universities.” For just one penny (the price of a cup of coffee), customers could not only get a burst of energy, but exposure to new ideas from academics, artists, and intellectuals.
Of course, new ways of thinking didn’t really sit well with King Charles II at the time. Fearing that it might become a threat to his throne, he attempted to “close coffee-houses altogether,” an order which he went back on two days before it would go into effect, as Brian Cowan writes in “The Social Life of Coffee: The Emergence of the British Coffeehouse.”
By 1906, when the world’s first commercial espresso machine and industrial roasting machine were introduced, we began getting our first coffee brands, which would slowly make their way into many homes around the globe. Only a few short years later, coffee breaks were introduced to a majority of workplaces. And here we are today, in a land where PSLs (pumpkin spice lattes, for the uninitiated) are an expected annual delight and you can take your cup of joe with a zillion different kinds of alternative milks. What a time to be alive.
Luckily, the ways of creating and consuming coffee continue to evolve in ways that are more ethical and sustainable. It’s no secret that, historically, slave labor was used to harvest the product, and Indigenous peoples have been displaced to secure more growing land. Today, there are certification efforts being made to right those wrongs, including livable wages and incorporating different farming techniques like agroforestry. There’s certainly more progress to be made here, but progress is being made nonetheless.
There you have it, folks. Next time you’re enjoying a nice cuppa joe, savor all the history that goes into every single sip.
But having a pet can become a financial burden that not all elderly people can afford. Instead of doing the unimaginable, giving up their pet, some elderly people will go without eating to make sure their pets have food. Many senior citizens are on a fixed income, causing them to make difficult financial decisions including forgoing important medications and feeding their pets.
Programs like Meals on Wheels make sure that elderly individuals are eating at least one hot meal a day, and it's free of charge. Meals on Wheels is a national program that reduces elderly hunger while also helping to provide elderly people living alone with human contact.
Recently, Meals on Wheels in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, started including an addition to their program–pet food. Elder Services of Berkshire County, which has been providing meals for seniors, teamed up with Berkshire Humane Society and Berkshire Family & Individual Resources (BFAIR) to start a pet assistance program for meal recipients according to iBerkshires.com.
The Berkshire County Meals on Wheels program will deliver pet food once a month to elderly program members who cannot get to the store. Since many of the people that receive meals from the food program are on a fixed income, it's also a probability that some of the members cannot afford pet food even if they could get to the store.
Elder Services Community Services Director Kayla Brown-Wood tells iBerkshire, "I think most people would feed their pets before they feed themselves. So, this helps minimize that from happening. It's just a really great collaboration and the idea is to be able to help those people that might not have the means to come here and visit the emergency pet food bank at Berkshire Humane Society. So, it's just another way to help bridge that gap and that need in the community."
The national Meals on Wheels organization also helps elderly people keep their pets in the home by partnering with PetSmart Charities. The partnership has "helped more than 25,000 Meals on Wheels clients remain at home and together with their beloved companions," according to the Meals on Wheels website.
They don't stop with helping to provide meals for humans and their pets. Meals on Wheels helps support local programs that provide pet food, grooming services as well as veterinary services to the animals of elderly people who may not be able to afford it otherwise.
Meals on Wheels says, "97% of clients receiving pet assistance say that Meals on Wheels has made it possible for them to keep their loving companion, according to our research with partner PetSmart Charities."
The partnership between Meals on Wheels and PetSmart Charities ensures that the pets of seniors have the things they need, like cat litter, nail trims, free boarding and even transportation to the veterinarian. Pets become part of your family, and with seniors that are homebound, their Meals on Wheels delivery person and their pet may be the only interaction they receive. It's amazing to see that this essential program is not forgetting about the animal companions living with the seniors they serve.
Could have been worse. At least it wasn't a rooster.
There’s always that one wedding guest, isn’t there?
For Amy and Harry, their problematic wedding guest wasn’t even technically invited…or human.
As seen in a hilarious now-viral video posted to Instagram by Something Borrowed Films, Amy and Harry’s wedding photographer, the bride and groom stand before the officiant, surrounded by loved ones and the picturesque green fields of their outdoor ceremony venue.
All seems straight out of a fairytale as the officiant begins to ask if anyone has any objections to the partnership. When out of nowhere, a loud “MOOOOOOOOOOO” rings through the air.
Laughter ensues as the officiant tries again if there are any objections, which begets another moo from the “local” cow visible in the video’s background. Understandably, nobody could really keep it together at that point.
“This cow definitely has a sense of comedic timing 😂,” Borrowed Films wrote in the caption of the post.
The clip has racked up over 12 million views and 830,000 likes so far, and gotten some jokes in the comments that were just as funny as the incident itself.
“That has to be an ancestor trying to send a message,”
“You need to hear me out, they said ‘speak cow.’”
“The cow literally spoke at the point the officiant was asking ‘does any person here object?’ When they were done laughing the cow spoke a second time as the officiant asked who may object. That was a sign and they ignored it.”
“A few years later during a fight- "I knew I shouldn't have married you!!!! I should have listened to that cow!!!" 😂😂😂😂”
“Cow didn’t care about them getting married… they lied to her and said it was a vegan wedding but she saw beef on the menu 😂😂”
All bovine antics aside, Borrowed Films assured everyone that it did not ruin Amy and Harry’s big day. In a follow-up video, we can see how the happy couple’s ceremony was “amazing from start to finish.”
But still, we have the local cow to thank for truly giving them an unforgettable moo-ment.