Monday 5/8/23
Celebrate:
Free Trade Day
Great Lakes Awareness Day
Iris Day
National Coconut Cream Pie Day
National Give Someone a Cupcake Day
National Have a Coke Day
National Meeting Planners Appreciation Day (it could have been an e-mail)
National Student Nurses Day
No Socks Day
Victory in Europe Day
Time of Remembrance and Reconciliation for Those Who Lost Their Lives During WWII
World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day
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You shouldn't be storing medicine in your medicine cabinet. At least not long-term. Lifehacker posted a list of five things you shouldn't keep in your bathroom, because of how the heat and humidity from your shower affect them . . .
1. Medicine. High humidity shortens the shelf life, and it can become less potent. So medicine cabinets aren't really the best place to keep medicine.
2. Makeup. No matter where you store it, bacteria from your face ends up in your makeup. But the heat and humidity from your shower can make it grow faster.
3. Spare razor blades. The humidity can cause rust, or dull the blades before you've even used them.
4. Teeth-whitening gel. The humidity doesn't matter, but the temperature does. The fridge is actually the best place to keep it.
5. Painted wood furniture. Heat and humidity cause the wood to expand. So eventually, the paint will start cracking and flaking off.
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They aren't new, but it turns out "voice memos" are getting more popular, especially with young people. That's when you send an audio clip over text. They're also called "voice texts," "voice notes," or just "audio messages."
They're more personal than texts, because you can hear the person. But unlike a phone call, you can respond whenever you want.
It turns out the pandemic might have given voice memos a boost.
We started craving human interaction, and texts didn't quite scratch the itch. We wanted to hear actual human voices, just not on long, boring phone calls.
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44% of Americans think there's a good chance A.I. will KILL US ALL someday, according to a new poll. But if we were betting on what takes us down, A.I. is not what most people would put their money on.
There are six other doomsday scenarios we see as even more likely. 1,000 people were polled. Here's what they said . . .
1. Nuclear weapons. 70% of us think there's a good chance they'll take us down.
2. Another world war, 67%.
3. Armageddon or an act of God, 62%.
4. A pandemic, 56%.
5. Climate change, 53%.
6. An asteroid, 50%.
7. A.I., 44%.
8. A global inability to have kids, like in "The Handmaid's Tale", 36%.
9. An alien invasion, 25% think it's possible.
People were also asked how long they think we have left. And over a third of us are either very optimistic, or very pessimistic.
18% think we'll be gone within TEN YEARS . . . but another 18% think we'll still be here a MILLION years from now.
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There's a lot of concern about the prices of groceries . . . understandably . . . but there's one sure-fire trick to keeping the bill low: Only buy stuff you're going to actually USE.
A new report says that the average American throws away about $63 worth of groceries . . . every week. That's around $3,000 every year.
That can be: Fruits and veggies that spoil before you get to them . . . leftovers from meals that don't get eaten . . . and random stuff that just sits around forever until you toss it.
People were asked which foods were the "hardest to use up," and LETTUCE is #1. Bananas are second, followed by milk . . . apples . . . bread . . . avocado . . . deli items . . . eggs . . . meat . . . and carrots.
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Ben Coyles got the most amazing gift on his 22nd birthday . . . when he and his friends all dressed up as "Lord of the Rings" characters for his birthday pub crawl in Bristol, England.
Ben dressed as Gandalf . . . and he just happened to run into Sir Ian McKellen on the street.
Ben says, quote, "Me and all my mates were walking down the street and I heard behind me 'do you want to meet the real Gandalf?' I didn't recognize him immediately then I was like 'OH MY GOD IT'S SIR IAN MCKELLEN!'
"He asked me how old I was and said happy birthday and shook my hand. I was flabbergasted, I had no idea what to do or say."
McKellen is actually doing a play in Bristol, but Ben and his friends had no idea they'd run into him.
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A feathered friend is just a phone call away. Parrots are smart, social creatures, and a group of scientists recently studied 18 pet birds to see whether they could use technology to forge relationships. The parrots were taught to ring a bell if they wanted to request a video call, and then could look at a tablet with photos of other study participants to choose who to chat with.
The owners were told to keep the calls short and end them if their parrot became distressed. "The notion of choice was very important," researcher Rebecca Kleinberger told The New York Times. The parrots learned the bell system fast, and were regularly asking for calls. The owners reported they enjoyed connecting with their new friends and were highly engaged, looking intently at the screens, mirroring behavior, and singing. There are risks with too much screen time for parrots, but also social benefits — the birds, researcher Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas told the Times, use this technology "in very individual and very beautiful ways."
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Today’s Useless Fact of the Day - The word "onesie" is trademarked by Gerber . . . and they go after companies that use it instead of generic alternatives like "infant bodysuit."
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