Thursday 3/30/23
Celebrate:
Grass is Always Browner on the Other Side of the Fence Day
National Doctors Day
National I am in Control Day
National Virtual Vacation Day
Pencil Day
Take a Walk in the Park Day
Turkey Neck Soup Day
World Bipolar Day
–
Ed Sheeran, 32, revealed last week in a Rolling Stone interview that he has dealt with an eating disorder as a result of working in the entertainment industry and constantly being compared to other male stars.
"I'm self-conscious anyway, but you get into an industry where you're getting compared to every other pop star," Sheeran said. "I was in the One Direction wave, and I'm like, 'Well, why don't I have a six pack?' And I was like, 'Oh, because you love kebabs and drink beer.' Then you do songs with Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendes. All these people have fantastic figures. And I was always like, 'Well, why am I so … fat?' "
Another star coming out and making the conversation eaiser for other ment.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2023/03/28/ed-sheeran-eating-disorder-bulimia/11548863002/
--
A 79-year-old teacher in Oklahoma has been running a 5K every day since the pandemic started . . . now more than 1,000 days in a row. She says she tried it for a week, and it just became a habit eventually.
--
Here's a fun thought: What would happen to the Earth if all eight billion people jumped at the same time? The website IFLScience looked into it, and the answer is . . . not much. It would feel like a small earthquake, but that's it.
–
When Jon Favreau got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in February, Robert Downey Jr. "christened" it with a piece of chewed gum.
And that gum is now on eBay, with a starting bid of 55,000 Canadian dollars. That's a little over $40,000 U.S.
Is it legit? Who knows. The seller claims to have attended the ceremony and scooped the gum right up from the star.
The seller says, quote, "I'm selling it in the same condition I got it in and it can be tested for his DNA."
–
Keanu Reeves doesn't have a lot to say in "John Wick: Chapter 4". The "Wall Street Journal" actually counted, and Keanu only says 380 words throughout the movie . . . which is almost three hours long.
About 10% of his words are spoken in the movie's two and a half minute trailer . . . and he says more in that trailer than he does in the first 25 minutes of the film.
Here's Keanu's longest line of dialog: "You and I left a good life behind a long time ago, my friend."
And that was Keanu's call. Director Chad Stahelski says, quote, "Mr. Reeves stripped out roughly half the dialogue written for his character in the initial script."
–
If it seems like people are dumber than they used to be, maybe it's because we really ARE getting dumber: A new study found America's collective IQ may have dropped for the first time in almost a century.
IQs tend to go up from generation to generation, something called the "Flynn effect". In the last 90 years, they've increased an average of about three points per decade.
But a study at Northwestern and the University of Oregon found the trend may have stalled out since 2006, or even reversed.
The biggest change they saw was in kids. But they found a slight dip in IQs across ALL age groups, even adults. That includes being worse at problem solving, math skills, and verbal reasoning.
They didn't look at what's causing it, but suggested it might have to do with our education system. That said, it's not just happening here. Separate studies have found IQs might be dropping globally.
Other theories for what's behind it include more pollution . . . changes in our diet . . . and our new obsession with phones and social media.
–
While egg prices have fallen from January's peak of $4.82 per dozen, they are still more expensive than just a couple years ago.
Why not keep your own backyard chickens? asks Coop, the agriculture tech startup that makes exactly what their name says. They're pitching soft-handed urban- and suburbanites on an Ikea-like setup, built-in cameras with a live feed to your phone, and an app that lets you pay other people to check in on the hens, feed them, and clean up their poop.
–
March is National Sleep Awareness Month and for some people, the best sleep comes when they're alone.
In a new poll, 49% of people who live with a partner say they either sleep in separate beds or would try it . . . if it meant they could get better sleep.
Sleeping with a partner can be disrupting. 35% say they wake up when their partner steals the covers . . . another 35% are bothered by tossing and turning . . . and other common disrupters include:
Sleeping with the TV on . . . snoring . . . sleeping with the lights on . . . a partner not showering before bedtime . . . and children climbing into bed.
The poll also found that people who slept in the same room as a family member growing up, like a sibling, had an easier time dealing with sleep disruptions as an adult.
--
What would you do if you saw your job posted online . . . for $30,000 more?
A 25-year-old woman in New York noticed that her company posted a job listing for the same job she does . . . a tech writer . . . and the advertised pay was a LOT more than she was making. It was $32,000 to $90,000 MORE.
And to make things worse, she'd been trying to get a salary bump for months, without any luck. So, she applied for the new gig.
She Tweeted about it, and it went viral. The company responded by taking the listing down, and then reposting it as a separate job. Then they claimed it was an internal posting and wasn't meant for anyone to apply externally.
And then they floated talk about possible layoffs at the company.
It's unclear what madness was going on behind the scenes . . . but the woman says she hasn't been contacted about her application for the new, higher paying job. And she actually expects to be fired for drawing attention to this fiasco.
It sounds like she'll be fine though . . . she's using this unexpected attention to promote a book of poetry she put out last year. And now, it's selling like crazy.
And people are sending her job offers and listings, and she's actively pursuing them. But this has all happened within the past week, so she's still working at the same company for now.
Cannabis has strong ties to Jamaican culture . . . but it's NOT a legal free-for-all there. And this person found that out the hard way.
A 37-year-old American woman was busted a couple weeks ago after trying to bring about 20 ounces of weed into Jamaica.
And when she was caught, she told the customs officer she wanted to show her Jamaican friends "that there is better weed in the United States."
The woman was from New York and had a license to have marijuana for medicinal purposes . . . but she did not have permission to have it in Jamaica.
Last week, a court ordered her to pay a fine of $30,000 or do 30 days in jail for importing the drug. It's unclear which she chose, or if she's able to appeal.
–
Today's Useless Fact of the Day - People started celebrating Thanksgiving in Canada in 1578 . . . 43 years before the Pilgrims started celebrating it in America. It is commonly the second Monday of October.
–
Check out the web version of this briefing, along with The Anniversary Song of the Day and more content, on the web at https://bribriny.wixsite.com/brianbriefing