Blogs Archives

National Dogs in Politics Day: A day to celebrate all the First Dogs that have lived at the White House.

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How many times a day do you worry about your health? How often do you google your “symptoms”? A new survey has found that the average American has had 560 moments of worry about their health since the start of COVID-19. And two-thirds of those surveyed said that their immune health is a constant source of worry. 30% said they didn’t even know what the immune system did before coronavirus. Since the pandemic started, 80% of respondents said they are re-thinking their health priorities and 85% want to make their healthy lifestyle changes permanent. (SWNS)

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Proof positive that social media challenges for the perfect photo or video are going too far, A woman in England fell out the passenger side window, onto a busy highway – while filming a Snapchat video. Police said it was “only by luck she wasn’t seriously injured or killed.” (Insider)

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Researchers at Oxford University have concluded that people who live near a bar or pub are happier than those who don’t. They found that people who had a pub on their street that they frequented had a larger circle of friends and therefore a better social life. They also found that these people are less likely to get fall-down drunk … probably because it’s easier to fall down if you have a longer distance to walk instead of just down the street. (BroBible)

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Yesterday, pre-orders for the new Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S were offered by retailers and thousands of gamers got online — and got in line — to get one of the new systems when they become available this November. Not surprisingly, there were reports of sites crashing and people struggling to add the product to their online shopping cart. By the end of the day, the pre-orders were pretty much sold out.

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Dr. Bill Lumsden works for a whisky distillery called Glenmorangie. Dr. Bill, whose official title is Director of Whisky Creation, developed a Scotch whisky that can be paired with cake. A Tale of Cake is a smooth, honeyed whisky, with hints of white chocolate and fruit flavors — and will be available in the United States starting October 1st. (Food & Wine)

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The holidays are coming … And in case you want to look like you did difficult yard work permanently, Gucci is selling grass stained jeans … for $770. You can also get some overalls that look you rolled around in the dirt … for $1,400. (In the Know)

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Who are these people? If you had to choose between your dog and your phone, you wouldn’t have to even think, you’d choose your dog. Right? Right?! Well, maybe not. According to a survey from SimpleTexting, 40% of participants said they would choose to be separated from their dog for a month instead of having to give up their phone for a month. Even scarier, 44% of people surveyed said they would give up seeing their significant other for a month if it meant keeping their phone with them at all times. (People)

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New research has found that there’s a link between eating too much at dinner and taking in more calories during the day and having a poorer diet overall. Seems it’s best to eat your bigger meals earlier in the day, and keep it light for dinner. (EurekAlert)

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The world of the Jetsons may be here before we know it. Future Car says General Motors is exploring the possibility of manufacturing flying cars for an aerial taxi program. Hyundai and Uber are already working on a similar program. General Motors would most likely use a vertical takeoff and landing system with electric motors instead of jet engines. Taxis would only be able to fly short routes

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Maybe it’s time to take your work outside … A new survey has found that office workers are more productive and in a better mood after spending time outdoors. Productivity improved by 45% after workers spent just a half-hour outside, and 63% said they felt better after spending time in fresh air. And this is interesting … 57% of managers surveyed said they thought their employees were more productive working from home. Because of that, 50% say they’re focusing on flexible schedules and encouraging staff to spend more time outside. (SWNS)

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The Sunday Blues are more like the Sunday Stress … A new survey found that people start to feel anxiety about the upcoming workweek at 3:58 p.m. on Sundays. 88% of respondents said they regularly feel anxiety on Sunday about what Monday morning will bring. The survey also revealed that a whole lot of us are working on the weekends – with the average worker doing about three hours of unpaid work on Saturdays and Sundays. 45% said they were looking at emails, 38% said they were going over presentations, and 31% said they made business calls over the weekend. And the survey found that people think about work and their jobs about six times a weekend.

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Are you happier around your friends than your family? Don’t be embarrassed to admit it … because you are definitely not alone. A new study from Southern Methodist University found that people are happier when they’re with their friends than with their spouse or kids. In fact, the research found that people reported the lowest levels of happiness when they were with a significant other. Ouch. But there’s a pretty good reason for this: The study found that when people are with friends, it typically involves fun, social events. The time spent with family tends to involve less fun activities – like doing chores. So basically, it’s not so much who you are with – but what you’re doing.

The lesson in all of this – according to SMU psychology professor Nathan Hudson, is to make an effort to do fun things with family – not just with friends. “It’s important to create opportunities for positive experiences with romantic partners and children – and to really mentally savor those positive times. In contrast, family relationships that involve nothing but chores, housework, and childcare likely won’t predict a lot of happiness.”

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IIamas May Hold Key To Beating Coronavirus: Raw Story says Stockholm, Sweden scientists are developing a coronavirus vaccine using llamas and alpacas. Dr. Gerald McInearney tells the website, “Camels, and alpacas and llamas and other animals from that family have special, small single-chain antibodies. Tiny antibodies they’ve proved can block Covid-19. We are very excited that we have something that’s very functional.”

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At what age do you think workers hit career burnout? 40s? 50s? 60s? Nope. It’s a lot sooner. According to a new study, workers are most likely to experience career burnout at the age of … 32. The research found that nearly a third of workers polled said they’ve felt overwhelming stress and exhaustion at some point during their careers. The reasons? 52% of respondents said it was because they tried to do too much, 58% blamed it on a long work hours, and 39% said it was not taking enough vacation days. Other reasons: Feeling like you always have to be “on” (47%) and pressure to go above and beyond in order to keep your job (37%). (SWNS)

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Are virtual weddings here to stay? Seems many wedding planners think virtual weddings will continue even after the pandemic is over. “I think virtual will become a piece of every wedding in the future, even long past this pandemic,” said Samie Roberts, co-founder wedding streaming service LoveStream. “You always have a grandparent who isn’t able to make it, or a pregnant friend, or any of those things. I think that now that there’s a way to have a virtual piece of a wedding, it will become more of the norm.” (Insider)

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The Aruba Tourism Authority is inviting people who are working from home to work from Aruba. They’ve launched something called the “One Happy Work-ation” program, allowing visitors to stay for up to three months. And, as an added bonus, Aruba is offering hotel packages which include special rates, complimentary WiFi and even all-inclusive food and beverage options.

Why not take them up on the offer? If you do it right, your boss will never know. (Travel + Leisure)

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The Big Ten announced today that it will resume its football season on October 24th.

The conference initially cancelled football until the spring, but its Council of Presidents and Chancellors got together and decided to allow the league to play football this fall amid serious questions about COVID-19 testing and tracing, and concerns about myocarditis — an inflammation of the heart muscle which is believed to be a long term effect of the coronavirus.

The season will include eight games over eight weeks, with a Big Ten Championship Game scheduled for December 19th. (USA Today)

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Getting ready to dive into a new TV series, but not sure how much time you’ll need to dedicate to binge the whole thing? There’s an app for that. Bingeclock crunched the numbers on 52 of the most popular shows, like The Office, Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad.

It will take you just over four days to run watch all nine seasons of The Office or around three days to revisit Game of Thrones. You can binge Breaking Bad in 2 days and 14 hours. It will take just shy of 14 days to run through the backlog of Simpsons episodes. But if you’ve really got time on your hands, consider watching some soaps — you’ll need almost a year and a half to catch up on nearly 60 years of General Hospital reruns. (Stacker)

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Curious what wine pairs well with a Taco Bell Chalupa? The answer is… a spicy Jalapeño Noir Red Wine. Apparently, the wine has wild strawberry, cherry and beetroot notes and pairs well with a Toasted Cheesy Chalupa. Unfortunately, the wine is only available at Taco Bell locations in Canada right now. But Windsor isn’t that far, right? (Delish)

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Last week there was the story of the gender reveal party in California that sparked a wildfire that spread to more than 10,000 acres, and now there’s a new story of a gender reveal party gone bad. This time, a man in western Massachusetts accidentally shot himself in the crotch. Tom Cressotti and his wife, Kristin, each had a powder-filled canon they would pull. The color of the cartridge’s contents, blue powder or pink powder, would reveal the gender of their baby. Well, it seems Tim was holding the canon the wrong way – and shot himself in the groin with blue smoke. It’s a boy! A video of the event shows poor Tom on the ground, writhing in pain. (Insider)

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If you’re one of the few that enjoys a bit of Black Friday deal Thanksgiving day shopping, Newsweek says Simon Malls plans to close all of their properties on Thanksgiving because of the coronavirus. They released a statement saying, “In these challenging times. We made the decision that we will not open on Thanksgiving Day, instead allowing our associates to spend the holiday with their loved ones.” The closest Simon properties to our area include University Park Mall in Mishawaka, and Lighthouse Place in Michigan City.

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If you’re going on a first date, job interview, or anywhere you want to make a good impression, you may want to stay away from this one color … mustard yellow. According to a new poll, wearing the color yellow can instantly make you less attractive to people. 39% of men and 31% of women said yellow was among the least attractive colors. (Best Life)

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If there’s one thing that 2020 has taught us, it’s to expect the unexpected. No one could have expected a marriage between Pepsi and Red Lobster to create a new cocktail — a Mountain Dew margarita called the DEW-Garita. The cocktail is said to be made with a secret recipe and will be available at all Red Lobster restaurants by the end of the year. (People)

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You don’t typically think of Pepsi as something to drink when you want to fall asleep, but the company is about to add a new water beverage to their drink lineup — and it’s specifically designed to be sipped before you go to sleep. Driftwell, which launches in December, contains L-theanine and magnesium, which are ingredients said to help you relax and de-stress before falling asleep. The drink, which only comes in one flavor right now — blackberry lavender — is sold in 7.5-ounce mini cans which, according to a PepsiCo spokesperson, is the perfect size for “hydrating before bedtime without requiring another trip to the bathroom.” (CNBC)