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This bar bathroom poster is going viral for all the right reasons.

You shouldn't be scared to ask for help when you have a bad feeling.

Saving yourself from a potentially dangerous situation while on a date could be as easy as saying someone's name to the bartender.

At least, it should be that easy in an ideal world.

Picture this: You're on a date with someone you just met. You start to get a bad vibe. You have a feeling the situation is heading somewhere dangerous. If you leave with this person, there's a chance you might end up in a risky situation.

Image via iStock.

Your solution: Just ask for "Angela."

In Lincolnshire, U.K., "asking for Angela" is a new and effective way to combat sexual assault and abuse.

The campaign, titled #NoMore, launched in Lincolnshire recently and went viral after a woman shared a photo of the poster inside a women's restroom. As of now, the image has been shared over 30,000 times.

The name has special meanings, too. Hayley Child, a substance misuse and sexual violence coordinator for Lincolnshire County Council, says it's a partial play on "guardian angel." It's also named after Angela Crompton, a friend of a friend who was killed by her husband. Child hopes this program will eventually be implemented worldwide.

Posters like this one were placed in schools, on university campuses, and in bar restrooms in Lincolnshire during the last two weeks of September 2016:

The main idea is to help someone get out of a potentially dangerous scenario by inconspicuously asking for "Angela." That's the bar staff's cue to either call you a taxi or help get you out of that situation without causing a big scene. Perhaps the staff could conveniently notify you that your "car's being towed" to cause a disruption and get you out of the date. You get the idea.

Child said, "Sexual abuse and violence is an national issue and all councils have a responsibility to tackle abuse. This was Lincolnshire Community Safety Partnership's first awareness raising campaign on this issue."

People got so excited about this campaign that there are plans to roll out the efforts again in February 2017 as a response to National Sexual Violence and Abuse Awareness Week.

This idea is important because it offers a completely non-obvious way of asking for help. It's also free to implement anywhere.

Ultimately, #NoMore's goal is to keep spreading the word about this idea on social media and in your local community. You're invited to download a poster, take photos with it, and share those images on your social media channels using the #NoMore hashtag.

Image via iStock.

"It's very new, but the positive feedback from the public and bar staff has demonstrated they wanted something like this and are happy to know this support is available," Child said.

Plus, the more we can promote our solidarity against sexual violence and abuse, the better. It'll get us just a bit closer to a world where if you or someone you love are in a situation that require some serious saving, you can always politely ask for "Angela."

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Want your home to be 'the house' for your teens? Mom shares her 4 tips to make it happen.

Don't mistake being "the house" with being the "cool house."

parenting, teens, raising teens, teen hangout, high school, game night for teens, activities for teens, parenthood
hi.im.amywhite/Instagram

Amy White explains how her house became "the house" for her teens.

I grew up in "the house." In high school, my home was the designated place where my friends gathered, sometimes in big groups, sometimes just my small core squad. My three best friends spent the night there almost every Friday and/or Saturday night for four years straight. We devoured Totino's frozen pizzas by the dozen, inhaled soda, and laid waste to any snacks or leftovers that were brave enough to survive in the kitchen. Not only that, but my house was pretty small — four teenage boys took up a lot of space in the living room (the whole thing) and made a lot of noise playing video games deep into the night. It must have driven my parents and older brothers crazy. It's a wonder anyone put up with it.

Or so I thought when I was younger. When I became a parent myself, I started to understand a little more why my mom and dad were so willing to host and feed all my friends and me every single weekend. Why the outrageous grocery bill and constant chaos in the house were probably a small price to pay.

Mom explains how to make your house 'the house' where teenagers hang

One mom has perfectly encapsulated the value of turning your home into "the house" for your kids and their friends, and exactly how she did it for her family.

teens, teen house, teens hanging out, teens having fun, teenagers Teens hanging out in a living room.via Canva/Photos

Amy White shared a reel on Instagram showing her college-aged son hanging in her dining room with a group of friends playing cards. The text overlay reads "What makes your kids' high school friends want to come over, play cards & spend the night on their College Christmas Break." I think most parents can agree that we want our kids to keep coming home as long as possible! So how exactly did White pull this off?

Her explanation in the caption was spot-on.

First, White says that you have to start early. Become "the hang out house" in high school or even earlier. Then you have a better chance of holding onto the mantle into your kid's college years.


Next, be ready to stock the house with snacks and drinks, and don't make a fuss when your kid's friends have at it. "The kids knew we had food," she writes, "BUT they also knew I didn't care what they had. They knew they could eat anything in my pantry and fridge."

Third, and this is a big one, don't mistake being the "cool house" for being "the house." Some parents choose to allow their underage kids and friends to drink alcohol under their supervision, but you don't have to bend your morals and the law to lure the squad over to your place. Pizza and Coke is plenty to keep most teens happy. "We were not the house that served alcohol or even allowed the kids to bring alcohol to our house. And Guess What?? The kids still came and wanted to hang at our house!"

teens, teen house, teens hanging out, teens having fun, teenagers Teenagers eating pizza.via Canva/Photos

Fourth, always say Yes (as often as possible, anyway) when your kids want to have friends over. "They know my answer is 99% of the time YES," White writes. "You have to have your kids take the leadership of offering your home and if your home was 'open' to their friends in high school, they know it will be 'open' to their friends in college."

As a bonus tip, White pleas with parents not to worry about the mess having friends over makes. "I love a clean house and organization, BUT I would much rather have a crazy messy house for the kids where memories are made than a quiet house with nothing going on just to keep my house 'clean.'"

Should parents allow teens to drink at home?

There's an age-old debate over whether parents should allow teens to drink at home because it's better than if they do is unsupervised or keep their home dry as a bone. A recent study out of the University of Buffalo found that kids who grew up drinking at home had a greater chance of having addiction problems when they got older. "A robust relationship was found between parental permission to use alcohol during adolescence and increased alcohol use frequency and quantity, alcohol use disorder symptoms, and alcohol-related harms in young adulthood," the study says.

White writes, "It's worth being 'the house', so let go of control & get to know your kids friends." Commenters agreed.

White's video went viral to the tune of 8.5 million views and hundreds of comments. Parents shared their own experiences of what it's like being the default hang out house.

"Our house was the high school hangout for my son and friends... every weekend... I loved it!! Miss it now that they are all college graduates and have moved away. I love seeing them when they do come home for the holidays"

"A wise man once said don't be the house with the alcohol. Be the house with the food."

"Amy 1000% agree!!! My house is full of teenagers on the weekends and I love every bit of it. Even though I wake up to a kitchen that looked much different from when I left it"


teens, teen house, teens hanging out, teens having fun, teenagers Teenagers eating pizza.via Canva/Photos

"We never allowed alcohol, drugs, bad language, always respectful, and guess what, our house was always the house where the kids hung out. First my daughter, then my son. Through grade school, high school, then when my kids went out of state for college their college friends would come spend a couple weeks during the summer. I always thought of it this way, I loved knowing my kids friends and, who knows, maybe some of those kids, especially during the younger years, just maybe those kids just needed an adult to care. Anyway, it was always fun to have them here!"

"It used to crack me up when my daughter would bring over a bunch of her friends (girls and boys) in high school and instead of hanging out in the family room they all wanted to crowd into either the kitchen with me or our tiny office and happily share all the gossip with me."

Experts say that knowing your kids' friends, and their parents, can have huge benefits. Not only will it bring you the peace of mind of knowing where your kid is and who they're with when they get to those crucial high school years, it has been shown to tangibly improve kids ability to create positive relationships and problem-solve collaboratively. Plus, it can actually be really fun! Kids and teens are the funniest, silliest, most interesting people on the planet. Having a house full of them is messy and loud, but it's always a good time.

One caveat: "don’t feel bad if your house isn’t the chosen house," one commenter reminds us. "Just be happy your kid has a good group of friends and be thankful they have somewhere safe to hang out."

This article originally appeared last year.

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Joy

People share the 15 signs you should know it's time to leave a party

"If the host starts cleaning up instead of socializing, it's either time to help or time to leave."

girls at party, party time, having fun, great party, time to leave, party people, girls in 20s
via Renata Chebel/Flickr

Two women having a good time at a party.

There's something incredibly satisfying about knowing the right time to leave a party. You felt the vibe was about to shift in the wrong direction, so you grabbed your coat, said some goodbyes, and hit the door. Then, when you hear the next day that the couple who hosted the party got into a big argument that brought everything to a halt, you can be proud you called it.

Knowing when to bail means making sure you don't have to console somebody who got into a disagreement with their significant other, talk to the cops, or sit through someone picking up an acoustic guitar and playing bad Nirvana covers.

acoustic guitar, party, lighter, singing, harmonica, house party A guy playing guitar at a party. via AG Gilmore/Flickr

Becoming a trained professional in the world of partying doesn't just happen overnight; it comes from years of experience honing a keen social Spidey sense. The folks on Reddit came together to share the signs it's time to leave a party, hoping to protect younger people from making the same mistakes they did.

The answers fall into two lanes: the first focuses on recognizing when the host wants to wind things down, and the second on signs the party is about to go sideways.

15 signs that it's time to leave the party

1. Leave before round 2

"When that one guy who got drunk first and had to be airlifted into a bed to come to his senses at the beginning of the party gets up and is ready for round two. Time to go, you do not want to see round two."

"You absolutely do want to see round two, just from the safety of your own place, the next day, laughing at the photos people took."

2. Take the "well" clue

"Host puts their hands on their knees, stands up and says 'Well, it's getting late.'"

"Slap the knees and say 'right' is the British way."

3. Host cleans, you leave

"If the host starts cleaning up instead of socializing, it's either time to help or time to leave."

"A friend of mine would regularly stop the music, yell '10 second tidy!' and everyone would just start picking up bottles and stuff and clean up. It was always quite fun and somehow never a buzz kill."

4. The first drunk cry

"When that one girl starts drunk-crying and making a scene for nothing."

"Since everyone is sharing stories; I used to work in hotels and we would often have parties at someone's house after shifts. There was one girl in particular who was sweet as pie and super shy when sober, but when drunk, she turned into an absolute mess. After she got drunk, started crying and then locked herself in the bathroom for multiple hours, two parties in a row, we stopped inviting her."

"I see you've met my brother's wife. There is always a moment at family gatherings when she starts her sh*t, my husband and I look at each other and announce we are leaving. Staying never ends well."

Why is it that some people get extra happy when they drink, while others get depressed? Researchers aren't sure of the exact reason, but polls show that around 2% of people regularly cry when they drink alcohol. Scientists suggest that drinking may increase some people's stress response, which can leave them crying in their beer.

bbq, bar b que, back yard party, argument, beer, Argument at a backyard party.via Canva/Photos

5. When the dog gets nervous

"This is for real. If the dog's trying to deuce out, I'm gone too."

"This is the one. The dogs know what's coming."

6. If the host yawns

"When the hosts yawn, leave. If the hosts don't yawn, leave by the time half the guest have. Don't stay until the end unless it's your best friend."

"Yeah, basically just observe the hosts. It's not always a yawn. Sometimes they go into this thousand-yard stare, sometimes they excuse themselves and start cleaning up, sometimes they just start looking at their phone or watch a bit more than usual."

7. Weird dudes roll up

"A group of males that no one really knows show up."

"This happened at a house party I was at once. The host was a female and asked who they came with, and they just stared at her and left the room and went to the backyard. It was so creepy. It was 5 or 6 guys and absolutely no one at the party knew them. She ended up calling the police because she was scared to tell them to leave."


house party, res solo cup, beers, rager, big party, fun party People hanging out at a house party.via Canva/Photos

8. When the phones come out

"In my experience, when someone shares a YouTube video they're excited about. The video is fine, but it inevitably leads to 'Oh, that reminds me of one I saw!' leading to an unending chain of people sharing videos, most of the group bored at any given one. The party is over, now its just people watching Youtube. Bail."

"Underrated answer. I looooathe the end of night YouTube loop."

9. Trust your gut

"As soon as your gut tells you to leave. Don't let anyone convince you to stay if you have that feeling."

10. It depends on your age

"In your teens: any vomiting.

In your 20s: it's just you and the host's closest friends, and everyone left there is a closer friend than you.

In your 30s: the babysitter needs to get home.

In your 40s: no one needs encouragement. Our pajamas start calling us immediately after dinner."

11. Leave by midnight

"Been a bartender for several several years. NOTHING good happens after midnight. It's just drunk people and the people trying to take advantage of them."


hungover, hangover, sleeping on floor, after the party, disco ball, the next day A woman who slept on the floor.via Canva/Photos

12. When it moves to the front lawn

"When the party spills outside the house cause the cops are coming."

"The first time a neighbor complains. They may have already called the cops."

13. When the "Grease Megamix" comes on

"I always left office Christmas parties when the DJ played Grease Megamix. After 20 years in the industry, I deduced that this was a distinctive sign that everything was going to go downhill rapidly from that point. My advice to young people when hearing Grease Megamix at a company party:

Put down your drink.
Get your coat.
Vacate the premises using the nearest exit in a calm and ordinary manner."

"The only time i've heard the Grease Megamix in the wild was at a wedding in the middle of nowhere, and sh*t got weird soon after. fighting, crying, screaming, throwing things—mostly by the couple's relatives, all of them over 50. you're absolutely right, it always goes downhill after the megamix."

- YouTube www.youtube.com

14. When the badmouthing begins

"When everyone just starts bad mouthing each other and no one is actually socializing lol. like what's the point?"

15. If you're the only woman there

"As a woman?? You show up and you're either the only girl there or one of the only girls there...you won't be having a good time."

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History (Education)

3 simple words that helped Robert Frost stay resilient through a lifetime of anxiety and depression

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life."

robert frost, poet robert frost, robert frost poem, robert frost poems, writer robert frost
Images via Wikipedia

American poet Robert Frost as a young man in 1910 and again in 1949.

Poet Robert Frost created inspiring poems that are beloved around the world. Frost was known for his simple yet deep style of poetry, and, although he didn't publish his first book until he was 40, he went on to earn four Pulitzer Prizes.

He created a body of work that continues to touch people. Yet, like many great artists, Frost struggled with his mental health throughout his life. (Frost was born in 1874 and died in 1963.) William & Mary English Professor and Frost biographer Henry Hart found that many of Frost's relatives struggled with schizophrenia as well as depression.

"Throughout his life, he struggled to fit in. His education was irregular, routinely disrupted when Frost dropped out after suffering attacks of anxiety and depression that expressed themselves in various physical ailments," notes the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Frost experienced many hardships during his life, beginning at a young age. His father William Prescott Frost, Jr., died when he was just 11 years old. His sister Jeanie would later suffer from mental illness, and died in a mental hospital.

Frost would go on to marry his high school girlfriend, Elinor White, in 1895. The couple had six children, a blessing that came with loads of tragedy.

"Four of Frost’s six children died before he did, including Carol, the son who committed suicide. Frost’s daughter Irma suffered mental problems that required hospitalization, and Elinor battled anxiety, too. She died of heart failure in 1938," according to the NEH. "Frost’s own bouts of depression brought physical and mental anguish. 'Cast your eye back over my family luck, and perhaps you will wonder if I haven’t had pretty near enough,' he lamented at one point."

- YouTube www.youtube.com

His wife Elinor was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1937, and died in 1938 from heart disease. "She had been the unspoken half of everything I ever wrote," Frost said. He would go on to live 26 more years without her.

Through these challenges, Frost developed resilience and perseverance. One of his most famous quotes describes his advice on how he pushed through:

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."

The quote is reported to come from a September 1954 interview with journalist Ray Josephs for This Week Magazine. During the interview, Josephs asks Frost, "In all your years and all your travels, what do you think is the most important thing you’ve learned about life?"

- YouTube www.youtube.com

From there, Frost shared his wise insights.

"He paused a moment, then with the twinkle sparkling under those brambly eyebrows he replied: 'In three words, I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on. In all the confusions of today, with all our troubles . . . with politicians and people slinging the word fear around, all of us become discouraged . . . tempted to say this is the end, the finish. But life — it goes on. It always has. It always will. Don’t forget that.'"

Frost died at age 88 in 1963 and was buried in Bennington, Vermont, next to his wife Elinor. Honest about life's struggles to the end, Frost's gravestone reads: "I had a lover's quarrel with the world."

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Gen X-ers are imagining the 'perfect' Gen X nursing homes and the ideas are brilliant

"Are younger folks going to come in and put on some raves?"

Gen X, Generation X, Senior Living Facility, Senior home, aging
Photo Credit: Canva

Gen X-ers are their cool selves as they enter their official senior years.

The time has come. Some Gen X-ers have officially begun to enter their "third act," in which they're picking out and moving into senior living facilities. (Though to be fair, the oldest Gen X-er in 2026 is only 61, so still relatively young.) But as each generation enters this season of life, surely the senior homes will reflect their generational preferences.

A thread on Reddit got right to the meat of it, posting this question: "How do you envision what Gen X nursing homes will be like?" They follow this up with a few thoughts, "The most striking difference between visiting my great grandparents, grandparents, and parents in a nursing home was the musical entertainment. It used to be old wartime songs and now it's the Beatles and Rolling Stones tunes.

Late 80s rave in the U.k. www.youtube.com, Kinolibrary

Are younger folks going to come in and put on some raves? Will a band play Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam songs? Will a DJ start a dance party for us with us chiming, 'It's Britney, Bitch?' My dream nursing home would be a converted abandoned mall and revive it as a hangout place: arcades, Dairy Queen, movie theater, shops."

There are over 350 comments in response to the thought-provoking inquiry. Some are sincere suggestions and others are brilliant jokes, exemplifying Generation X's avant-garde irreverence.

One commenter points out that the latch-key generation didn't need much to entertain us growing up. "Ironically, I was just talking about this to my best friend, lol. Let's be honest, most of us spent our time entertaining ourselves and being self-sufficient. I don't see that changing. We just need a few raw materials. I like the idea of abandoned malls."

They then got super specific, with one writing, "Definitely have metal and grunge playing through the intercom. How about a mech shop with a small racetrack for all the modded scooters? Smoking area, after all, it's medicinal now. Gaming rooms with D&D, MTG, and whatever else. Video gaming areas. Gardens. Movies. Kitchen/baking."

Another Redditor notes that there should be different "zones" based on one's musical tastes: "Acid house jazz and banging Drum n Bass. Chill-out zones with metalheads swaying on Zimmers. Somewhere Carl Cox is still mixing on seven decks, eternally young."

This person worries that elderly Gen X-ers will have specific physical issues, writing, "Lots of injuries from walkers and oxygen tanks in the mosh pit. Infected piercings."

And quite a few brought up the idea of marijuana (medical-grade, of course) dispensaries: "They will definitely need a dispensary. It could be high school for Gen X-ers. I can tell you I'm not going down without a fight."

To prove that Gen X is still going strong and not quite ready for the senior mosh pit, 50-year-old teacher Josh Johnson has gone viral for showing off his incredibly gifted '90s-styled dance skills. Standing at a school desk, he is "called" by the music—in this case, it's the 1991 hit "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now")" by C+C Music Factory. Once his legs start moving, they can't stop…won't stop.

The comments on both his Instagram and Facebook page seem truly impressed. One writes, "The call of the Gen X knows no boundary. It's primal."

Another is impressed by his actual dancing abilities, writing, "No way, those are 50-year-old knees."

And bringing it back home, this commenter declares, "Gen X is gonna have the best nursing homes." Indeed, we will. Or in typical Gen X speak…whatever.

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Animals & Wildlife

An Austrian cow has made scientific history by using a broom to scratch her itches

Cow tools are a real thing now.

cows, scientific discovery, animals, animal behavior, pop culture
Photo credit: A.J. Asuna-Mascaro & A.M.I. Auersperg via IFL Science on YouTube

Veronika knows how to use a broom for her own purposes.

One of the main traits that separates mankind from animals is our use of tools. However, there are some species that do use or construct a tool to help them accomplish a task. Chimpanzees, ravens, and other animals have been recorded using tools, but a cow was never among them. Until now.

Veronika, a 13-year-old Swiss brown cow living in Austria, has made scientific history by being the first recorded case of a cow using tools. Veronika reportedly picked up sticks and used them to scratch unreachable parts of herself as early as three years old. When researchers went to study Veronika, they gave her a broom to see if she would use it like her trusty sticks. Veronika not only picked up the broom by the handle to use its bristles to scratch her torso, but she would intentionally switch it up to use the smoother handle end to poke at more sensitive areas. This means that Veronika can not only use a tool, but adapt the same tool for another purpose.

- YouTube youtu.be

“It was clear that this was not accidental," said Alice Auersperg, a cognitive biologist at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna (UVM Vienna) to Ars Technica. “This was a meaningful example of tool use.”

"We were not expecting cows to be able to use tools, and we were not expecting a cow to use a tool as a multipurpose tool,” said Dr Antonio Osuna-Mascaro of UVM Vienna to BBC News. “Until now this has only been consistently reported in chimpanzees."

@independent

This is Veronika, a 13-year-old brown Swiss cow from the Austrian countryside who has stunned scientists by becoming the first documented cow to use a multi-purpose tool. Experts say Veronika's back scratching may force us to rethink the intelligence of the species. Click the link in bio for more 🔗

While this is the first scientific study of a cow using tools, there have since been other videos popping up online showing other cows demonstrating similar behavior to Veronika’s. Some of the videos included Brahman bulls, a type of cattle that diverged from Veronika’s millions of years ago. This suggests that cows and other bovines using tools isn’t a new feat for them, but rather something that we just didn’t notice or look for until recently.

Both the authors of the study and lay people online remarked that the scientific uncovering reminded them of the infamous Far Side comic strip titled Cow Tools. In the single panel comic, Far Side creator and artist Gary Larson drew a bipedal cow displaying weird objects on a table outside a barn with a simple caption: “Cow tools.” Since its publication in 1982, fans and critics of Larson’s work have debated whether the comic was too confusing or too weird to be funny, or if it was a high concept or plain bizarre comedy work. In spite of it being considered Larson’s most confusing comic, Cow Tools would take on a life of its own as an Internet meme decades after its initial publication.

@stuffyoushouldknowpod

The Far Side is one of the greatest cartoons in history. Today we go to great lengths to convince you of that. #sysk #farside #comics #comicstrip #cowtools

Unintentionally, Larson appears to have manifested the concept of cows using tools into our reality, or at least caused UVM Vienna to pay enough attention to actually notice them. It goes to show that there is plenty more to discover about the animals around us. Who knows what else has gone long overlooked?

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