Education is a lifelong process. Nobody stops learning just because they attained a certain degree or graduated high school. But for some people, circumstances might make it difficult for them to get formal education. Nonetheless, that doesn't hinder them to keep trying. Like Joyce Clements who at 64 has finally graduated from the GED program at Rowan College in Gloucester County.

It took her 21 years to get to the podium, trying and failing so often to pass her GED exams that she thought this day would never come. So, she asked the audience rhetorically, “What took me so long?”

She married, raised two kids of her own, and became a security guard at Bally’s Atlantic City Hotel & Casino, "making more money and proud of my efforts,” she said, even getting promoted to a dispatcher role.

So what exactly convinced her to go back to school and finish?

(Image credit: Tom Gralish/The Philadelphia Inquirer)

The Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge area at Disneyland in Anaheim has recently been unveiled and it will become open to all in 10 days from now (June 24), so for those fans of the franchise, you may want to think about planning your road trip if ever you will be visiting the most magical place on earth anytime soon.

The Seattle Times gives us a road map with some of the places any Star Wars fan should visit if they will be going on a road trip from Seattle to Anaheim. It's chock full of great places and sites to see.

(Image credit: Mark Nowlin/The Seattle Times)

LA Times’ Lucas Kwan Peterson ranked different fast food’s french fries. He explained his criteria for choosing the different food chains to be ranked and the judging criteria for the fries each establishment offered:

For the purposes of this survey, I've selected chains where there's an emphasis on speed of service, you're not waited on at a table, and where there are at least a couple hundred locations, if not more.

I ordered medium- or regular-sized fries (when available) and judged them based on the two metrics: (1) taste and (2) texture, which includes fry shape and mouthfeel.

The resulting french fries ranking is as follows:

    1. Five Guys

   2. Mc Donald's

   3.Del Taco

   4. Steak 'n Shake

   5. Arby's

   6. Carl's Jr.

   7. Dairy Queen

   8. Wendy's

   9. Shake Shack

   10. Burger King

   11. Chick Fil-A

   12. KFC

   13. Jack in the Box

   14. Popeye's

   15. Wienershnitzel

   16. Jollibee

   17. Rally's

   18. Sonic

19. In-N-Out

Do you agree with his rankings? Head on over to LA Times  to read Peterson’s detailed explanation for each ranking.   

Via book of joe .

Image Credit: (Lucas Kwan Peterson / Stephen Lurvey)

Join the fun with the cast of Sesame Street on their visit to the NPR headquarters for their 50th anniversary.

Watch the gang - Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, Rosita, Abby Cadabby, Cookie Monster, Elmo, Grover- and other surprise guests sing on NPR's Tiny Desk Segment.

I have also included their set list, so that you know what lyrics to search for as you sing along with them:

1. "The Sesame Street Theme (Sunny Days)"
2. "People In Your Neighborhood"
3. "What I Am"
4. "Sing After Me"
5. "Medley"
6. "Sing"

Here's a new interesting fact about our favourite feline companions today: cats farm bacteria in their butts.

Live Science reports :

Cats use their anal glands to produce a stinky pheromone spray made up of many volatile chemicals. And it turns out they probably don't make most of those smelly chemicals themselves; they outsource a lot of the production to microbes that live in those glands, new research reveals.

A secretion extracted from a Bengal cat contained 127 compounds, 67 bacteria produced in culture, and 52 identified microbes. Live Science further elaborates:

"So, it's reasonable to believe the microbes are making the volatile compounds" used in communication, Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist at UC Davis and co-author on the study, told Live Science.

The partnership makes sense for both parties: the feline host is able to outsource complex biochemical synthesis by offering the microbes a warm, moist, nutrient-rich home. And it's not all that surprising; other mammals also host microbes that can produce the volatile chemicals used in communication.

What do you think about this new information concerning our feline companions? Via Metafilter

Image credit: Andre Karwath/wikimedia commons

Vincent van Gogh and Ear Enamel Pin Set

Vincent van Gogh is probably one of the most well known post-impressionist painters the world has ever known. He was born in Holland in 1853 and died by complications of a gunshot wound in 1890. Most believe this was a self inflicted and intentional. Records suggest that he admitted to trying to kill himself. Other accounts of the event, however, shed doubt on the story. Perhaps someone else shot him accidentally. It has even been suggested that his suicide letter was not a suicide letter at all. 

Like his death, his life was also filled with mystery. Many of us have undoubtedly heard the gruesome tale of how Vincent van Gogh, in a fit of madness over his brother's engagement, cut off his own ear and gifted the body part to a prostitute. Turns out, however, that this story may also not be true. There have been rumors that there was an altercation between him and his flatmate.  It has been suggested that Guaguin actually accidentally sliced van Gogh's ear from his head.     

Whatever happened to poor Vincent van Gogh we do know one thing for sure, he was an amazing artist. Without him there would be no The Starry Night.   

The Vincent van Gogh and Ear Enamel Pin set is a unique way to pay tribute to your favorite troubled artist. A man who sadly knew no success in life, but in death has become known as one of the greatest Dutch painters of all time. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more pins. New items arriving weekly. 

Don't forget to also stop by the store to check out our large and growing selection of artwork. We specialize in custom printing of curvy and hard to find sizes. Our t-shirts come in sizes baby 6 months all the way to 10 XL. We know that fun and fabulous people come in every size. 

San Ysidro High School valedictorian Nataly Buhr is angry.

Very angry.

And very patient.

She waited until, last Thursday, it was time to deliver her address at graduation. After thanking her parents, friends, and selected teachers for their support and contributions to her success, at the 1:20 mark, she called out lazy and negligent counselors and advisors, as well as one teacher who was intoxicated during class. The San Diego Union-Tribune quotes Buhr:

“To my counselor, thanks for teaching me to fend for myself,” Buhr said. “You were always unavailable to my parents and I, despite appointments. Only in these past few weeks, with the awards ceremonies and graduation coming up, did you begin making your appearance.”

Buhr went on to thank the school’s main office staff for teaching her to be “resourceful.”

“Your negligence to inform me of several scholarships until the day before they were due potentially caused me to miss out on thousands of dollars,” she said.

Her speech is a thing of beauty (assuming that it is accurate).

-via Ace of Spades HQ

Christi Milledge was simply enjoying watching a game between the Charlotte Knights and the Durham Bulls with her friend Jeremy Stephenson when suddenly after the batter made a late contact with the pitch, the ball sped past Stephenson's face.

He was startled and turned to see Milledge's reaction to what they just witnessed but as he did, he saw her face had been hit by the ball.

All he remembers for sure is a left-handed batter making late contact with a pitch, and in the next instant, the whoosh of a baseball as it sailed within a few inches of his nose.

“Did you see tha —” he started to say, turning toward Milledge.

“And I realize she’s holding her face, and there is blood everywhere,” Stephenson says.

Milledge, who works at Levine Children’s Hospital as a pediatric nurse, says she doesn’t remember the impact itself. But she does recall the blood pouring from her face, and using napkins to try to catch as much of it as she could, and looking down to see her front tooth — root and all — on the concrete in front of her.

Despite the harrowing experience, Milledge came out of it unscathed except for her dearly departed front tooth. It wasn't as painful an experience as she thought it would be. However, she said that she would rather have had one of her crooked bottom teeth struck instead of the straight upper ones. What a trooper!

(Image credit: Christi Milledge)

Nickelodeon is bringing back All That after almost 15 years and they have some good things in store. The reboot will feature a new cast but they will have some throwbacks and feature some of the original cast in their sketches.

In light of the upcoming release of the reboot on June 15, Nickelodeon set up an actual pop-up restaurant inspired by one of the popular sketches on the show, Good Burger. For some other sneak peaks, you may check out the Indy Star and Bustle.

(Image credit: Nickelodeon via Bustle)

Credit: Good Burger Pop-Up

The cat knows there should be a card flying around somewhere in the room. Or several. This isn't a nice thing to do to the kitty, but the cat's reaction is quite comical. This guy might find some revenge in his shoes later on. -via Boing Boing

We used to think that, barring injury or illness, the way our bones grow is determined by genetics. But scientists have determined that our living skeletons respond to not only environmental stresses, but the way we use them. In other words, our everyday activities can change our bodies' underlying structure.

This has led to a discipline known as “osteobiography" – literally “the biography of bones” – which involves looking at a skeleton to find out how its owner lived. It relies on the fact that certain activities, such as walking on two legs, leave a predictable signature behind, such as sturdier hip bones.

And from the discovery of a curious spiky growth on the back of many people’s skulls to the realisation that our jaws are getting smaller, to the enigmatic finding that German youths currently have narrower elbows than ever before, it’s clear that modern life is having an impact on our bones.  

One example is that strong men who do plenty of heavy lifting are building not only their muscles, but their bones as well. Scientists have also discovered some traits that are becoming more common and may be caused by modern activities like using a smartphone constantly, as in the case of spikes on the back of the skull, which were once rare, but now are found relatively often in the skulls of 18- to 30-year-olds. Read about more ways that modern life is changing our bones at BBC Future. -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Ankitshilu)

The hit series The Handmaid's Tale has been quite a relevant commentary on social issues and politics especially with the recent legislative decisions being passed down in certain US states.

Activists then have been using this tactic of donning the signature red cloak with a white bonnet cap in order to make a statement and let legislators hear their voices through imagery and symbolism.

However, some are saying that, in large part, The Handmaid's Tale costume may still be seen as just a meme rather than a force to be reckoned with in US politics.

Still, Moss has faith that the imagery can make a striking statement that sticks in people's minds. "I hope that people take it that seriously," she says. "I hope that they don't just treat it as a catchy thing to say. I hope they take that feeling and put it into action. I hope that people take their feelings of frustration about the show's relevance and actually do something about it."

The problem, as Wired critiqued, is that imagery alone isn't powerful unless it's attached to collective action: "The costume's flexibility is part of its power, but also keeps handmaids from being real drivers of discourse.

Even so, this could provide the impetus for more people to join in the cause and fight for what they believe is their right. Imagery alone may not be enough but it does have significance.

(Image credit: Jenn Farr/Flickr)

This new technology developed by researchers from the University of Washington and Facebook can bring still images to life! (although it is not yet fully developed, and some still images, as you can see, move awkwardly and creep you out.) They call this “Photo Wake-Up”, which I think is a really straightforward name.

On their project page, UW computing scientists Chung-Yi Weng and Brian Curless, along with Facebook’s Ira Kemelmacher-Shlizerman, describe a process that can take one single photo and create a character that walks out of the frame toward the viewer. They can also make the character run, sit, or jump.

The researchers will present their algorithm later this month at the Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition in Long Beach, California, but the software begins by analyzing a still image to detect a human form and fits a morphable body on it. From there it creates a body map, labeling each of the parts. Once the map is done, the software uses it to construct the three-dimensional mesh of the character, estimating the weight of their body so it can later apply realistic motion. Finally, it takes the original image and uses it to build a texture around the 3D body. The final step is to reconstruct the background that is occluded by the person’s form so they don’t leave a white hole behind.

(Video Credit: Chung-Yi Weng/ YouTube)

Identical twins were served potato chips. One of them experienced a triglyceride peak six times higher than the other. (Triglycerides are significantly correlated with obesity). This means that this twin has to eat snacks with a lower amount of fat.

What made their bodies react differently toward those potato chips? It would seem that even though DNA has a role in our respective diets, it's not enough to explain why different individuals react differently:

A decade ago, spurred by the success of the Human Genome Project and the affordability of genetic sequencing, scientists began to explore the promise of “nutrigenomics.” Could personalized nutrition, informed by knowledge of an individual’s DNA, help prevent and even treat diet-related diseases?

The results of early studies from Harvard, Stanford and elsewhere were compelling: Genetic differences seemed to predispose individuals to lose different amounts of weight on different types of diets. A multimillion-dollar industry soon sprang up, premised on marketing DNA-based diets. But subsequent research has failed to show any statistically significant difference in weight loss between overweight people who “eat right for their genotype” and those who do not.

In fact, the effect of genes on obesity has been hard to tease out; various studies put the figure at anywhere from 35 to 85 percent. Nutritionists have long observed that no one weight-loss strategy works for everyone, and that individuals show striking differences in their responses to different diets. What, then, explains the large variation in individual metabolism?

Last year, Tim Spector and Sarah Berry, epidemiologists at King’s College, London, and Dr. Andrew Chan, of Harvard Medical School, began an ambitious new search for the answer. Their new study, called Predict, is the world’s largest and most comprehensive experiment to look at individual responses to food.

More details of the study over at The New York Times.

(Image Credit: Fotorech/ Pixabay)

We've seen a lot of Robert E. Howard lately, and a good deal of his most famous character, Conan. Now let's look at another of his famous characters, Breckinridge Elkins.

Howard was born and bred in Texas and so had a lot of the state's culture, legends, and traditions at his disposal. As such, he created another character around which to write a series of popular short stories, this being Breckinridge Elkins, best described as a civilized Conan who used a horse pistol instead of a sword and buckskins instead of a breechclout.

But whereas his Conan stories are grim as death and full of murderous violence, his Elkins series are all humorous and Breckinridge never kills anyone, although he doesn't mind banging his adversaries up a bit - "So I riz up and taken Joe by the neck and crotch and throwed him through a winder as gentle as I could, but I forgot about the hickory-wood bars which was nailed acrost it to keep the bears out. He took ‘em along with him, and that was how he got skint up like he did."

Note that Howard wrote this series in a backwoods vernacular, as opposed to the perfect diction generally found in his other writing. He knew his markets, that is for sure.

This series proved to be so popular that Howard wrote more of them and even created a secondary character of the same nature, but there really wasn't enough material to go around and this second character failed.

As we have seen with other of his writing, this work is in the public domain and may be downloaded or read online here.