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Why 'Jeopardy' Champions May Be The Dumbest People Alive
Possibly the saddest explanation for why kids eventually stop asking annoying questions.
02.27.13
She was totally chill about it, too.
TikTok user Absolutely Lauren catches an online scammer.
There was a massive jump in credit card fraud in America in 2021 due to the pandemic. According to CNET, fraud involving credit cards jumped 69% from 2020 to 2021, affecting 13 million Americans and costing $9 billion.
In a world where online transactions are part of everyday life, it’s hard to completely protect your information. But, by staying vigilant and monitoring your accounts you can report fraud before it gets out of hand.
A TikTok user by the name of Lauren (@absolutelylauren) from San Diego, California, got a notification that there was a $135 charge on her card at Olaplex’s online store that she hadn’t made. Olaplex sells products that repair excessively damaged hair. Before reporting the charge to her credit card company she asked her family members if they used her card by mistake.
“I don’t wanna shut my card down if it’s just my mom ordering some shampoo,” Lauren said in the video. “Definitely not my two younger brothers, they’ve got good hair but they don’t color it.”
After realizing the charge was fraudulent, most people would have called their credit card company and had their card canceled. But Lauren was curious and wanted to know who stole her information and used it to buy hair care products. So she concocted a plan to get their information. She called Olaplex’s customer service line asking for the name and address of the purchaser to see if it was made by a family member.
"Hey, can you help me with something?” Lauren asked Tanya, the Olaplex customer service agent. “If I can give you the time and date, purchase amount and card number and whatever could you let me know who placed an order?"
Tanya had no problem helping Lauren with her request.
@absolutelylauren olaplex customer service is top tier 😤 #creditcardscam
“At this point, I’m willingly giving Tanya enough info to steal my card as well — she could have very well taken advantage of me in that moment but she didn’t,” Lauren said. “She comes back — tell me why she gave me the little scammer their full government name and address.”
Tanya revealed that a guy named Jason in a modest suburb in Texas used her card to buy a gift for his wife. “They also did it on Black Friday so at least they got a deal I guess, it was the gift set,” Lauren continued.
Lauren then called her credit card company and shared the information she had on the fraudster. The card company is currently investigating the situation.
One commenter thought that Olaplex wasn’t supposed to share that information with Lauren. “For some reason, I don’t think olaplex was supposed to give that info,” Arae270 said.
“I definitely gave them the option, but I explained that it was an unauthorized purchase, and if the name did not match anyone that I knew that I would just tell them to cancel the order and refund me, I told the girl that they would probably save everyone, a headache!” Lauren replied.
People should use utmost caution before deciding to track down a credit card thief. But kudos to Lauren for being clever enough to track down the person who stole her card information to help the authorities with their investigation. She didn’t put herself in harm's way and if someone follows up on the tip, maybe they can prevent the same thing from happening to someone else.
Even though your dog might be sitting next to you at the table, they’re not usually eating as well as you.
They’re your best friend, your protector and oftentimes your dinner date. But even though your dog might be sitting next to you at the table, they’re not usually eating as well as you. And I’m not just talking about leftovers and scraps snuck off your plate, but rather what’s in their bowl every morning and night.
"We were honestly disturbed by what we learned about kibble, [so we] started cooking homemade meals for our dogs, Jack, with local, seasonal ingredients found at the markets near our family farm in Upstate New York. The more we cooked, the more we noticed the health effects on their energy, weight, and allergies,” explains Russell Breuer, the founder of Spot & Tango, the healthiest dog food on the market.
Spot & Tango reinvented kibble! Their “UnKibble” dry dog food is made with real, whole ingredients that are all human grade. Their award-winning vet team spent more than a year cooking, testing and perfecting a process for the healthiest dog food - combining fresh, whole foods which are then chilled and placed in a low pressure environment that extracts water and minimally processes the ingredients. That creates long-lasting meals without additives and fillers, and without sacrificing the convenience and reliability of shelf-stability!
This one of a kind Fresh Dry Process is what makes Spot & Tango the best dog food for puppies, dogs with allergies, and picky eaters, as well as older dogs who need soft foods or have sensitive stomachs. With only 14 ingredients transparently displayed on the front of their packaging, Spot & Tango gives dog parents the confidence in their pets’ food without taking up all the refrigerator space.
But if you do have some room to share in your freezer, Spot & Tango also offers a Fresh frozen dog food without any preservatives and nothing artificial. Based on the recipes they’ve cooked for their pets and perfected with teams of nutritionists and vets, Spot & Tango has the best Fresh Dog Food delivery services! And with a variety of meals, your pet will never get tired of eating their fresh dog food.
If you can’t decide which recipes to try first, Spot & Tango has your back. They’ll work with you to develop a customizable meal plan based on your dog’s age, weight, breed, activity level and dietary needs. What’s more is that they offer a happy puppy guarantee! Spot & Tango trials are fully refundable – if it is not the right fit for you and your dog, you get your money back!
Check them out today and receive 50% off your first order with code UPWORTHY50!
Upworthy has earned revenue through a partnership and/or may earn a portion of sales revenue from purchases made through links on our site.
Move over, border collies, there's a new top dog in town.
Belgian Malinois, the smartest dog breed.
If you Google "smartest dog breeds," most lists you'll find put border collies in the No. 1 spot, followed in some order by poodles, German shepherds and golden retrievers.
But a new study of canine cognition from the University of Helsinki puts a whole different breed at the top of the ladder—one that most of us have probably seen before but haven't heard the name of—the Belgian Malinois.
Best known as a police or security dog, the Belgian Malinois is a shepherd breed that looks very similar to a German shepherd. Both breeds are of similar height and coloring, but the Malinois is lighter weight and its ears are more triangular-shaped, according to the American Kennel Club.
So what is it that makes the Belgian Malinois more intelligent than other dog breeds?
The study published in Scientific Reports analyzed 1,002 dogs from 13 different breeds using a battery of smartDOG cognition tests. These tests involve food reward tasks that determine a dog's capacity for memory, problem-solving, impulse control, reading human gestures, copying human behavior and logical reasoning. Despite a wide field of research on dogs, according to the study, only a handful of studies have examined cognition of specific breeds instead of breed groups. Additionally, not much empirical research has been done on nonsocial cognitive traits such as memory, inhibitory control, spatial problem-solving and logical reasoning—all of which were covered in this study.
The researchers identified a few different tests as signifying high intelligence. For the most significant measure of intelligence, logical reasoning, the study revealed no significant difference between the dog breeds. So the three tests the authors singled out instead for measuring and comparing intelligence, according to The Telegraph, were:
- A V-detour test, in which a dog had to detour around a transparent V-shaped fence to get to a food reward, showing some problem-solving ability.
- A human gesture reading test, in which a dog's response to five gestures—constant pointing, brief pointing, pointing with the foot, pointing at something while facing another direction and following a human's gaze—was measured.
- An unsolvable task test, in which a dog tries to access food in an unopenable box, measuring independence and how quickly a dog asked a human for help.
The Belgian Malinois scored 35 out of a possible 39 points on these three tasks, making it the top scorer for high intelligence overall. Border collies came in second with 26 points and hovawarts came in third at 25 points.
The study authors point out that there are strengths and weaknesses in most breeds. Some score very high on some tests and very low on others. Some breeds saw middle-of-the-road scores across most tests.
According to IFLScience, one weakness the Malinois showed was in the cylinder test, in which a dog is taught to retrieve a piece of food from inside an opaque cylinder. The opaque cylinder then gets replaced with a transparent one to see if the dog will go around to the end of the cylinder to retrieve the treat, as it did with the opaque one, or try to go directly through the side of the cylinder to get to it. This test measures inhibition, and the Malinois scored among the lowest of all breeds on it.
Every dog has its bright and dim spots, but it's clear why the Malinois is a dog of choice for security work. High intelligence, of course, but even being low on inhibition can be seen as a plus for a working dog that needs to be highly responsive and act quickly when needed.
“The Belgian Shepherd Malinois stood out in many of the cognitive tasks, having very good results in a majority of the tests,” study author and owner and CEO of smartDOG Dr. Katriina Tiira told The Telegraph.
“Border Collies also performed well in many of the tests," she added.
'De-condition and unlearn what you’ve been wired to think: that women are your competition.'
Jamie Lee Curtis celebrating Michelle Yeoh's Golden Globes win was an empowering moment for all women.
The 2023 Golden Globe Awards was an incredible night for Michelle Yeoh. The 60-year-old actress had waited 40 years to play the lead in a Hollywood film, and winning the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy for her starring role in "Everything Everywhere All at Once" was a dream come true.
Yeoh's moment in the spotlight made headlines that night as her award speech went viral. But following the ceremony, another moment went viral—the split second Yeoh's name was called as the winner and the reaction of her co-star, Jamie Lee Curtis.
Curtis herself had been nominated for the Best Supporting Actress award for her role in the film but didn't win. (That award went to Angela Bassett in "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.") But whatever disappointment Curtis may have felt about not winning her own award did not diminish her response to Yeoh's win, which was immediate, intense and immensely joyful.
A screenshot of Curtis' triumphant celebration of Yeoh's win was shared on LinkedIn by Erin Gallagher, CEO and founder of gender equity company Ella, along with a powerful message that's resonating with women everywhere.
Gallagher wrote:
"Ladies, this is your vibe for 2023: unabashed hype woman.
Full on. Full out. Full force.
This photo was taken last night at the Golden Globes when Michelle Yeoh won Best Actress for her role in 'Everything Everywhere All at Once.'
Look at Jamie Lee Curtis.
Look. At. Her."
Erin Gallagher's post about Jamie Lee Curtis hyping Michelle Yeoh's win has been reshared thousands of times across social media.
Gallagher continued:
"You can feel her energy, her fire, her power.The message hit home, and hard. Reposts on Facebook have circulated thousands of times as women share the message with an enthusiastic, "Yes, this!"
The sense of competition between women is often unspoken and not overtly encouraged, yet it exists. Research indicates that women have had complex relationships with one another, marked by both competition and cooperation, throughout human history. Throw in the uphill battle for social and political power in the modern era and it's perhaps unsurprising that women can sometimes see other women's success as threatening to their own.
That isn't really how it works, though. It's not like there's a finite amount of female good fortune to go around. Success is not pie. As Gallagher points out, another woman's success does not detract from our own, and there's ample awesomeness out there for all of us.
Plenty of forces will try to pull women down and hold them back—do we really want to add to that? Be a force that lifts women up. Hype those you know who are crushing it. Celebrate their successes. Be their Jamie. There's nothing but winning in it for us all.
This kid is going places.
A coveted Xbox.
WCNC reports that Nash Johnson, an 8-year-old boy in Lexington, Kentucky, wanted an Xbox, but his $5-a-week allowance wasn’t enough to make it happen. An Xbox costs about $300 so at that rate, it would take him five years to save up enough money to buy one.
Nash figured he’d earn money a lot faster if he got a job. He saw a “help wanted” sign in front of Drake’s restaurant near his grandmother's house so he went online and applied for a dishwasher position. "I'm very good at washing the dishes," Nash told WCNC.
The only problem for Nash was that you have to be 16 years old to get a job in Kentucky. The application caught the attention of the management at Drake’s and they reached out to Nash to speak with him.
"At the very bottom of the application, he put that he was 8 years old … and when the kitchen manager saw the application, she just assumed that he forgot to put the 1 in front of the 8. And so she called him in very innocently," Mark Thornburg, the chief operating officer at Drake's, told Good Morning America. "The number that he put on [the application] was his grandmother's house and … she asked for Nash and Nash gets on the phone, and he says, 'Well, I'm only 8 years old.'"
Nash’s mom, Belinda Johnson, thought it was funny that her son applied for the job but it didn’t surprise her one bit. “That kid is not afraid to fail. He’s a go-getter,” she said.
Financial literacy is a big thing in the Johnson household, which isn’t the case in a lot of American homes. A recent CNBC + Acorns Invest in You survey found that only 15% of parents talk with their children more than once a week about household finances and 31% never do.
Belinda gives her son three jars so he knows what percentage of his money he should spend, save and give. After looking in his jars he realized he needed to put more money in the “save” jar. “He’s like, 'I can get me more money if I get me a job,’” Belinda said.
Even though Nash didn’t get hired at Drake’s, the restaurant’s management invited him to a new hire orientation to show him what it’s like to start a new job. At the orientation, Nash was given an official Drake’s employee shirt.
“I tell a lot of people he would have been just as happy with his uniform shirt because his eyes got about as big as a softball. I mean, he was so excited when I gave him his uniform shirt,” Thornburg told Good Morning America. They also taught Nash how to use the dishwasher, should he'd be ready to work for the restaurant when he’s older.
\u201cThis is what I'm talking about!!! Love this kid! If you want something,, work hard for it!!\n\nLexington 8-year-old applies for Drake's dishwasher job to buy Xbox https://t.co/CkpEtIHtoh via @WDRBNews\u201d— Mike C (@Mike C) 1667578189
But, by far the best part for Nash at the orientation was when Thornburg gave him a new Xbox for having such a great work ethic. Thornburg says the gift “changed the little guy's life for sure."
“We got to do something for this young man. He's obviously very special," Thornburg said, adding that the third grader is "definitely is the youngest applicant" he's ever had.
Few things will carry a person further in this world than having the willingness to go out and work for the things they want in life. Kudos to Belinda for instilling financial literacy in her son and to the management at Drake’s for encouraging his work ethic.
'If you too can have the strength to just get to your feet and go to the light, good things will happen.'
Brendan Fraser took home Best Actor from the Critics Choice Awards.
Like the rest of the world, we at Upworthy have found Brendan Fraser’s glorious return to the Hollywood spotlight to be inspiring. After a multiyear hiatus, his role in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale” has been a career milestone—both catapulting him back onto the big screen and gaining widespread accolades for his incredible performance. Seriously, if you haven’t seen it yet, do. And bring tissues … it’s beautifully heartbreaking.
At long last, it seems this beloved actor and genuinely decent guy is getting the comeback he deserves. Since “The Whale” released to theaters, Fraser has been a frontrunner for the coveted Best Actor title, and scored his first win (of probably many) at the 2023 Critics Choice Awards.As you can probably imagine, this full-circle moment meant a lot to Fraser. The video below captures his initial reaction to hearing his name being announced and taking his triumphant march to the stage.
The moment Brendan Fraser won Best Actor at the #CriticsChoiceAwards
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) January 16, 2023
See the full winners list: https://t.co/7bQikYH6Lepic.twitter.com/lAgX8fAPJI
And as he delivered a moving acceptance speech, there wasn’t a dry eye left in the house.
Because Brendan Fraser wouldn’t be Brendan Fraser without a charming sense of humor, he began by making the audience laugh. “Where were you for ‘Furry Vengeance’?” he quipped, harkening back to his comedy heyday.
He continued by praising his cast and crew members—including Aronofsky, who essentially plucked the actor out of obscurity. “I was in the wilderness and I probably should have left a trail of breadcrumbs, but you found me. And like all the best directors, you merely just showed me where to go to get to where I needed to be,” he told the director.
Then, with his voice trembling with emotion, Fraser declared, "If you, like a guy like Charlie, who I played in this movie, in any way struggle with obesity or you just feel like you’re in a dark sea, I want you to know that if you too can have the strength to just get to your feet and go to the light, good things will happen."
Brendan Fraser’s emotional acceptance speech at the #CriticsChoiceAwards
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) January 16, 2023
See the full winners list: https://t.co/7bQikYH6Lepic.twitter.com/j0cj0tw3YQ
In “The Whale,” Fraser plays a 600-pound man who uses his final days to reconcile with his estranged daughter (played by Sadie Sink). Whether or not obesity is a mental illness has been a subject of debate, however it has been closely linked with mood disorders like depression—which, let’s face it, can make anyone feel hopeless and inert, overweight or not. Above all, the big theme of the film is about having the strength to hold onto hope, regardless of circumstances. Or as Fraser put it, “finding the light in a dark place.”
Fraser's words touched many who have found themselves in similar situations:
hearing this at a dark time in my life really does make me emotional gyat dayum
— gungbunglung (@anthonypalmier9) January 16, 2023
I have yet to watch this movie 😭😭🥺 Getting to the light is so worth it, especially after rough times, when you felt trapped, subdued and with no way out! I’m so happy because I did that, here I am, in the light 💜💜💜
— Mariana / Your Curly Girl ☺️ (@mar5729_) January 17, 2023
Amazing speech! 👏 So many people out there struggling & so beautiful how he expresses how it feels & how to look for the Light! Keep pressing on till you find it! 💯
— Lynnda Mackey (@lynndamack) January 16, 2023
Time will tell if this moment foreshadows an Oscar win, but in our hearts, Fraser is already a winner. Thank you for giving us all a masterclass in emotional resilience and compassion.