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The Biggest Myths About Obamacare, Shot Down In One Clip
On "All In With Chris Hayes," Chris and Ezra Klein from The Washington Post get into the biggest myths about the Affordable Care Act that are still raging on, facts be damned.
09.27.13
Balance out heavy holiday eating with some lighter—but still delicious—fare.
Lighten your calorie load with some delicious, nutritious food between big holiday meals.
The holiday season has arrived with its cozy vibe, joyous celebrations and inevitable indulgences. From Thanksgiving feasts to Christmas cookie exchanges to Aunt Eva’s irresistible jelly donuts—not to mention leftover Halloween candy still lingering—fall and winter can feel like a non-stop gorge fest.
Total resistance is fairly futile—let’s be real—so it’s helpful to arm yourself with ways to mitigate the effects of eating-all-the-things around the holidays. Serving smaller amounts of rich, celebratory foods and focusing on slowly savoring the taste is one way. Another is to counteract those holiday calorie-bomb meals with some lighter fare in between.
Contrary to popular belief, eating “light” doesn’t have to be tasteless, boring or unsatisfying. And contrary to common practice, meals don’t have to fill an entire plate—especially when we’re trying to balance out heavy holiday eating.
It is possible to enjoy the bounties of the season while maintaining a healthy balance. Whether you prefer to eat low-carb or plant-based or gluten-free or everything under the sun, we’ve got you covered with these 10 easy, low-calorie meals from across the dietary spectrum.
Each of these recipes has less than 600 calories (most a lot less) per serving and can be made in less than 30 minutes. And Albertsons has made it easy to find O Organics® ingredients you can put right in your shopping cart to make prepping these meals even simpler.
Enjoy!
Not quite green eggs and ham, but closeAlbertsons
Ingredients:
1 (5 oz) pkg baby spinach
2 eggs
1 clove garlic
4 slices prosciutto
1/2 medium yellow onion
1 medium zucchini squash
1/8 cup butter, unsalted
1 pinch crushed red pepper
Find full instructions and shopping list here.
Get your cauliflower power on.Albertsons
1/2 medium head cauliflower
1 stick celery
1/4 small bunch fresh dill
8 oz. ham steak, boneless
1/2 shallot
1/4 tspblack pepper
1/4 tsp curry powder
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp garlic powder
3 Tbsp mayonnaise
1/8 tsp paprika
2 tsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
Find full instructions and shopping list here.
Plant-based food fan? This combo looks yums. Albertsons
1 avocado
1/2 English cucumber
1 (12 oz.) package extra firm tofu
1 Granny Smith apple
3 Tbsp (45 ml) Ranch dressing
1/2 (14 oz bag) shredded cabbage (coleslaw mix)
2 tsp chili powder
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
Find full instructions and shopping list here.
Sometimes you just gotta frittata.Albertsons
6 eggs
1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted
2 oz Parmesan cheese
1 red bell pepper
1/2 medium red onion
8 sundried tomatoes, oil-packed
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp salt
Find full instructions and shopping list here.
Caprese, if you please.Albertsons
3/4 lb chicken breasts, boneless skinless
1/2 small pkg fresh basil
1/2 (8 oz pkg) fresh mozzarella cheese
1 clove garlic
3 tomatoes
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
4 3/4 pinches black pepper
1 1/2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
3/4 tsp salt
Find full instructions and shopping list here.
These mushrooms look positively poppable.Albertsons
1/2 lb cremini mushrooms
1 clove garlic
1/2 (4 oz) log goat cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
2 sundried tomatoes, oil-packed
1 1/4 pinches crushed red pepper
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp Italian seasoning
2 pinches salt
Find full instructions and shopping list here.
Move over, avocado toast. English muffin pizzas have arrived.Albertsons
3 Tbsp (45 ml) basil pesto
2 English muffins
1/2 (4 oz) log goat cheese
1/2 pint grape tomatoes
3/4 pinch black pepper
2 pinches salt
Find full instructions and shopping list here.
This pita pocket packs a colorful punch.Albertsons
1/4 (8 oz) block cheddar cheese
1/2 bunch Italian (flat-leaf) parsley
4 oz oven roasted turkey breast, sliced
1/2 (12 oz) jar roasted red bell peppers
1 whole grain pita
3/4 pinch black pepper
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp mayonnaise
Find full instructions and shopping list here.
Did we say, "Move over, avocado toast?" What we meant was "Throw some prosciutto on it!" Albertsons
1 avocado
2 slices prosciutto
2 slices whole grain bread
1 5/8 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp onion powder
Find full instructions and shopping list here.
Vegetarian chili with a fall twistAlbertsons
2 (15 oz can) black beans
1/2 (8 oz ) block cheddar cheese
2 (14.5 oz) cans diced tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
2 green bell peppers
1 small bunch green onions (scallions)
1 (15 oz) can pure pumpkin purée
1 medium yellow onion
1/2 tsp black pepper
5 7/8 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp cumin, ground
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp virgin coconut oil
Find full instructions and shopping list here.
For more delicious and nutritious recipes, visit albertsons.com/recipes.
Van Gogh saw something it took scientists another 100 years to see.
Van Gogh’s Starry Night.
Van Gough never got to enjoy his own historic success as an artist (even though we've been able to imagine what that moment might have looked like). But it turns out that those of us who have appreciated his work have been missing out on some critical details for more than 100 years.
But I found this and I thought, "Oh, what a vaguely interesting thing." And then I got to the part about the Hubble Space Telescope, and, let me tell you: Mind. Blown.
We've got the set up here, but you have to watch the video for the full effect. It's all the way at the bottom.
What’s the truth behind when you take off an ear?
*Pretty much.
While Van Gogh was in an asylum in France, after he mutilated his ear during a psychotic episode*...
(*Or, and I'd like to thank the entire Internet for pointing this out, there's a theory that his friend Paul Gauguin actually cut off his ear, in a drunken sword fight, in the dark. The more you know!)
Animated a thinking one-eared Van Gogh.
All Van Gogh GIFs via TED-Ed.
...he was able to capture one of science's most elusive concepts:
Turbulence expressed through art.
Although it's hard to understand with math (like, REALLY HARD), it turns out that art makes it easy to depict how it LOOKS.
So what is turbulence?
Turbulence, or turbulent flow, is a concept of fluid dynamics where fluid movements are "self-similar" when there's an energy cascade — so basically, big eddies make smaller eddies, and those make even smaller ones ... and so on and so forth.
It looks like this:
Pictures explain science.
See? It's easier to look at pictures to understand it.
Animation of referencing art to science.
Science studying Van Gogh.
The folks who noticed Van Gogh's ability to capture turbulence checked to see whether other artists did the same. Most impressionists achieved " luminance" with their art (which is the sort-of *pulsing* you see when you look at their paintings that really shows what light looks like).
NOPE.
Capturing concepts of nature.
Even in his darkest time, Van Gogh was able to capture — eerily accurately — one of nature's most complex and confusing concepts ... 100 years before scientists had the technology to observe actual star turbulence and realize its similarity to fluid turbulence mathematics as well as Van Gogh's swirling sky. Cool, huh?
This article originally appeared on November 14, 2014
Must've been a good nap.
Dog waits patiently for human after being caught in couch cover
Dogs are certainly entertaining if they're nothing else. You never know what sort of nonsense they're going to get into while you're away or even down the hall. Dogs have dug holes in couches to play in the foam, spread trash all over the floor because they smelled an empty peanut butter container. Some dogs have even found their way to their owner's roofs for no apparent reason outside of getting closer to the birds.
One dog and his dog sibling were snoozing away while their owners were out. The couch one of the dogs was sleeping on had a fitted sheet or couch cover draped over it...until the dog got startled almost rolling off the couch. While the brown pooch was attempting to correct himself so he didn't land on his back, the couch cover decided to turn the poor dog into a burrito.
He successfully got turned around in time to gently hop onto the floor but everything went black.
The dog was completed wrapped up in the blanket totally not freaking out at all. Okay, maybe he was freaking out a little bit but his brother was actually planning to rescue him...until it wigged him out too and he was left to figure it out on his own. But it didn't take long at all for him to realize that maybe being a couch cover ghost wasn't so bad after all. Thankfully after his quick stint as a Halloween decoration, humans walked through the door to free him. The video was shared by LADbible Australia and commenters got a good belly laugh.
"Well I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time," one person writes.
"Bless the dog who decides to sit and patiently wait for the blanket to be removed," a commenter says.
"The fact the dog sat and accepted its fate," another person laughs.
Other commenters pointed out the more serious side of this common situation dogs can find themselves in. One person writes, "Well hopefully now you know that's a danger to the pups when you leave them alone at home and don't do it anymore."
Another says, "Poor baby! While it's hysterical and the baby is safe, it's still scary to know what could have happened had their humans not arrived home so soon!"
Dogs often behave like unsupervised toddlers. They're still trying to figure out the world with their disadvantage of non-opposable thumbs halfway up their wrists. That means that they sometimes get into hilarious but sticky situations that require human intervention. So while this video will certainly tickle funny bones, it's also a great reminder to secure your couch covers or securely crate your pup while unsupervised.
'You date people you think you deserve. You deserve better.'
Gen Xer shares some timeless advice for Gen Z.
Meghan Smith is the owner of Melody Note Vintage store in the eternally hip town of Palm Springs, California, and her old-school Gen X advice has really connected with younger people on TikTok.
In a video posted in December 2022, she shares the advice she wishes that “somebody told me in my twenties” and it has received more than 13 million views. Smith says that she gave the same advice to her partner's two daughters when they reached their twenties.
The video is hashtagged #GenX advice for #GenZ and late #millennials. Sorry older millennials, you’re too old to receive these pearls of wisdom.
Here is some of the timeless advice that Smith shares in the video.
Perfection is bullshit.
You will never be more good-looking than you are today.
Put your phone down and enjoy your life.
Don't change for anybody.
Don't worry about making mistakes.
Laugh at yourself.
If somebody shows you their true colors, believe them.
Travel.
You end up dating the people you think you deserve. Usually, you deserve better.
Don’t forget to always wear your sunscreen.
@melodynotevintage This might only help one person and thats ok. Advice I wish somebody told me in my twenties. #genx advice for #genz and late #millennials #adviceforyour20s #lifeadvice #fyp dont be an asshat in the comments if you are older, its not helpful.
She followed up the video with a sequel with even more sage advice.
Know who's on your side and who you can ask for help.
Don't smoke.
Don't spend longer than one year with the wrong person.
Find your own style.
Don't stress over the small stuff.
Good manners don't go out of style.
Do the work that it takes to be really good at something.
Your happiness is more important than other people's disappointment.
@melodynotevintage This might only help one person and thats ok. Advice I wish somebody told me in my twenties part 2 #genx advice for #genz and late #millennials #adviceforyour20s #lifeadvice #fyp
This article originally appeared on 1.18.23
Mapping out the structure of the inner ear.
There are no two human beings who are exactly alike. One of the funny quirks of evolution is that some of us can do things with our bodies we think are routine, but are impossible for others.
Some people can wiggle their ears, others can't. Some can wiggle their nose like Samantha from "Bewitched" while others just look really silly when making an attempt.
Not everyone can lick their elbow but most wouldn't attempt to do so in public.
A Twitter user named Massimo dropped some knowledge about a skill that not everyone has and even fewer discuss: ear rumbling.
Those of us who can do it know exactly what it is, while it's a mystery to those who cannot.
A part of the human population can voluntarily control the tensor tympani, a muscle within the ear. Contracting this muscle produces vibration and sound. The sound is usually described as a rumbling sound http://bit.ly/2Clijef\u00a0pic.twitter.com/ianKb60EK8— Massimo (@Massimo) 1581957023
People who can ear rumble have the ability to control the tensor tympani, a muscle within the ear. Contracting the muscle creates a rushing, rumbling sound that, if flexed enough, can drown out a significant amount of noise.
This can be useful when someone is saying something that you don't want to hear but don't want to be rude and cover your ears. It can come in real handy if someone is about to spoil your favorite TV show or if you live with someone who can't stop nagging.
Some people cannot voluntarily create the rumbling sound but hear it when they let out a large yawn.
There's a Reddit sub-forum just for ear rumblers with over 60,000 people. Here's how some of them get rumblin'.
"I just squeeze the muscle in my ears I guess," — melvinthefish
"When I flex and hold whatever I'm manipulating to do that, I get my rumble," — ttywzl
"I get a mild rumble just doing the usual flex, but i can make it a bit louder by bringing my top lip up to my nose," — Willmono7
"The best way I can describe it is I 'squint my ears,'" —SteeleIT
The muscle exists to mask-low frequency sounds so we can focus on those at a higher frequency. It also works to mute sounds we create ourselves such as eating potato chips or coughing. It's a way that helps us from becoming annoyed with our own bodies.
Unfortunately, the muscle has a rather slow reaction time so it cannot prevent us from hearing loud sudden noises like a gunshot or a book slamming on the ground.
Massimo's tweet caused quite a stir on the platform.
Been able to do that forever and wiggle my ears independently. Regrettably It doesn’t attract women and I can’t make money from it. Sad face.
— Simon the Smith 3.5% (@Simstersnose) February 17, 2020
To me it sounds like when there’s a big thunderstorm and the thunder is just lowly rolling around in the sky forever with only tiny flashes of lightning that don’t leave the clouds
— 🍀shmily🧚🏽☻ (@turtlelaughing) February 18, 2020
Quick! We need a Venn Diagram to show people who can do this, people who have internal monologues, people who have synaesthesia, and people with any other weird "I thought everyone did this" stuff.
— Marian Matta writes (among other things) (@MadWomansKnitti) February 18, 2020
Although scientists have known about ear rumbling since at least the 1800s, there doesn't appear to have been too much research on the topic. We know that some can rumble and others cannot, but it's unclear how it breaks down percentage-wise or if it's more prevalent in certain groups.
The good news is that the word is starting to get out and people who've been rumbling all their lives suddenly don't feel so alone.
This article originally appeared on 03.05.20
Ashley Tieperman and her father.
I think I always knew, but I never saw him actually drinking. Usually, he downed a fifth of vodka before he came home from work or hid tiny bottles in the garage and bathroom cabinets.
My name is Ashley, and I am the child of an addict. As a kid, I cried when our family dinner reservation shrunk from four to three after a man with glassy eyes stumbled through the door. I didn't guzzle the vodka, but I felt the heartbreak of missed birthdays. I feel like I should weigh 500 pounds from all the “I'm sorry" chocolate donuts. I had to grow up quicker, but it made me into the person I am today.
Me and my dad.
Photo with permission from writer Ashley Tieperman.
I spent many years shouting into journals about why this was happening to me. But this is the thing that no one will tell you about loving someone who has an addiction: it will force you to see the world through different eyes.
Here are some things I've learned:
My family yelled about everything — and nothing — to avoid the messy stuff. We all handled my dad's addiction differently. My brother devoured sports. My mom took bubble baths. I slammed doors and slammed boyfriends for not understanding my family's secrets.
Regardless of the preferred coping mechanism, everyone feels pain differently.
Boyfriends became my great escape when I was young. But when I expected them to rescue me from the pain I grew up with, it never worked out. No matter how strapping they looked galloping in on those white horses, they couldn't save me or fix anything.
In the end, I realized that I had to find healing on my own before I could build a strong relationship.
When my dad punched holes in the wall, my mom covered them up with artwork. I wanted to rip the artwork down to expose all the holes, especially as a bratty teenager. But eventually I realized that it wasn't my choice. My parents had bills to pay and jobs to keep. I've learned it's common to cover up for dysfunction in your family, especially when it feels like the world expects perfection.
Bulldozed by broken promises, I remember collapsing on a friend's couch from the crippling pain of unmet expectations. I hyperventilated. Things felt uncontrollable and hopeless. My friend rubbed my back and just listened.
These are the kinds of friends I will keep forever, the ones who crawled down into the dark places with me and didn't make me get back up until I was ready.
When I was a teenager, I called a family meeting. I started by playing a Switchfoot song: “This is your life. Are you who you want to be?"
Let's skip to the punchline: It didn't work.
It wasn't just me. Nothing anyone did worked. My dad had to lose a lot — mostly himself — before he hit that place they call “rock bottom." And, in all honesty, I hate that label because “rock bottom" isn't just a one-and-done kind of place.
What can you do while you wait for someone to actually want to get help? Sometimes, you just wait. And you hope. And you pray. And you love. And you mostly just wait.
When a counselor gave me scripted lines to follow if my dad relapsed, I wanted to shred those “1-2-3 easy steps" into a million pieces.
For me, there was nothing easy about my dad's recovery. My whole family had to learn steps to a new dance when my dad went into recovery. The healing dance felt like shuffling and awkwardly stepping on toes. It was uncomfortable; new words, like trust and respect, take time to sink in. And that awkwardness is also OK.
Nothing about an addict's life happens linearly. I learned that early on. My dad cycled through 12-step programs again and again, to the point where I just wanted to hurl whenever anyone tried to talk about it. And then we finally reached a point where it felt like recovery stuck.
But even now, I'll never say, “My dad used to deal with addiction." My whole family continues to wrestle with the highs and lows of life with an addict every single day.
My family will also probably never clink glasses of red wine or stock the fridge full of beer. I'm convinced happy hours and wedding receptions will get easier, but they might not. People get offended when my dad orders a Diet Coke instead of their fine whisky.
Plus, there's the paranoia factor. Surrounded by flowing liquor, I hate watching my dad crawl out of his skin, tempted to look “normal" and tackle small talk with people we barely know. I've learned that this fear will probably last for a while, and it's because I care.
With constant fear of the unknown, sometimes our world is not a pretty place. I remember watching the breaking news on 9/11 and feeling the terror of the planes crashing into the Twin Towers as if I was there.
My dad numbed the anxiety of these dark days with vodka, but this didn't paint a prettier world for him when he woke up the next day. I've dealt with the fear of the unknown with the help of boys, booze, and bad dancing on pool tables. Life hurts for everyone, and I think we all have to decide how we're going to handle the darkness.
Sometimes I look in the mirror and I see only my broken journey. In some twisted way, I'm comforted by the dysfunction because it's kept me company for so long. It's easy to let the shadow of my family's past follow me around and choose to drown in the darkness.
But every day, I'm learning to turn on the light. I have to write the next chapter in my recovery story, but I can't climb that mountain with all this crap weighing me down.
Some people have given me sucky advice about how I should write an anthem on daddy bashing, or how to hit the delete button on the things that shaped my story.
Instead, my dad and I are both learning to celebrate the little things, like the day that he could change my flat tire. On that day, I didn't have to wonder if he was too drunk to come help me.
But I've learned that for my own well-being, I can't harbor bitterness until I explode.
Instead, I can love my dad, day by day, and learn to trust in the New Dad — the one with clearer eyes and a full heart. The one who rescues me when I call.
This article was written by Ashley Tieperman and originally appeared on 04.27.16
Our relationship with our planet can be mutually beneficial if we commit ourselves to sustainability.
A return to green over decades.
"Nearly every home had a bright orange or yellow sign reading 'This home supported by timber dollars,'" Scott wrote on Outdoor Society.
While the region has also been recognized for its succulent seafood, temperate climate, and stunning natural formations, nothing shaped the community — or the physical landscape — quite like logging did.
Logging repercussions felt on the Olympic Peninsula.
Olympic Peninsula, circa 1972. Photo from the Records of the Environmental Protection Agency.
"I heard from old timers in the Harbor about how environmentalists were ruining the region, and I was told by environmentalists that loggers were killing everything in sight," Scott recalled.
But to understand the full impact of deforestation on the region, it helps to take the bird's eye view.
Here's a satellite image of the Olympic Peninsula from 1984. The white region in the center are the mountaintops in Olympic National Park; you'll also notice the grey and brown areas along the western and northern coasts of the peninsula.
Satellite image of deforestation on the region of the Olympic Peninsula.
Screenshot via GoogleEarth Engine.
By that time, tourism had begun to take the place of timber as the region's major industry — which was probably helped along by the fact that the trees were slowly but surely starting to recover, enhancing the already stunning vistas that drew visitors.
Here's how the Olympic Peninsula looked by the time that Scott and his family left the area; you'll notice the western and northern coasts are just a little bit greener than they were 13 years prior...
Some green coming back.
Screenshot via GoogleEarth Engine.
More forest returns to the peninsula.
Screenshot via GoogleEarth Engine.
And still more green comes back.
Screenshot via GoogleEarth Engine.
Olympic Peninsula demonstrating the power of nature.
GIF via GoogleEarth Engine.
It's not just the trees, either; according to Scott, the replenished forests have also had a positive impact on the local salmon population and other treasured natural resources.
Mother Nature doing her thing.
Left photo from Records of the Environmental Protection Agency; Right, by Miguel Vieira/Flickr.
That doesn't mean we shouldn't use the natural world, of course. We still need wood, for example, but now we know there are sustainable ways to use it without recklessly damaging to the planet.
The Earth was built to take care of itself. We just need to let Mother Nature do her thing.
This article originally appeared on 12.22.16