The concept of 'shrinkflation' has been floated around since the 1950s, although it has received quite a lot of attention in recent years especially as consumers have noticed how the products that they used to buy had decreased in size, number, or weight. The practice is done by manufacturers to assuage the effects of inflation and other factors like rising wages, increasing prices on raw materials, and the like on their profits. And as retail psychology goes, consumers will more readily notice an increase in prices over a decrease in the quantity or quality of the products, so from a retail perspective, it's much easier to simply shrink the products than to increase the price.

So, the question of whether or not it's advantageous depends on from whose perspective we're looking. Obviously, consumers bear the brunt of all these downsizing and cost-cutting practices that manufacturers implement to retain their profitability. However, in the long run, companies might be worse off as consumers become more aware and start to search for alternatives. This would be a great opportunity for low-cost products whose prices aren't affected by the brands that they wear. If you can find, for example, a bag of chips that is comparable to Pringles or Lays chips, but much cheaper, then consumers, especially those who are working on a tighter budget, would go for that.

The hard part of the whole shrinkflation ordeal is that most of the products hit are necessities such as toilet paper, sanitary pads, laundry detergent, shampoo and conditioner. Is it here to stay? It depends. There are many factors to consider and it may just be a necessary evil, however, it is also possible that it will just be a stopgap measure. All we can do is to become smarter in our grocery shopping and find ways to make our budgets work.

(Image credit: Maddi Bazzocco/Unsplash)

When the family gathers for a traditional holiday feast and everything is delicious, everyone gets along, and we all go home happy, it's just another Thanksgiving. But when the turkey catches fire and your drunk aunt tries hitting on the responding firemen, that's the Thanksgiving you will always remember. Or the time grandma accidentally got so drunk that she was taken to the emergency room. No one will forget that year a cousin left a stolen vehicle in the yard for the police to retrieve. Or the time a child threw up, and it luckily got grandma out of her seat just in time to avoid the ceiling falling on her. Those are the stories that will be told at every family gathering for generations to come.

Thanks to the internet, such stories escaped the family and were posted to reddit for everyone to enjoy. Cracked collected 29 of the most bizarre Thanksgiving family disasters they could find for us to first enjoy, and then give thanks that they didn't happen to us.  

"Linguistic determinism" is the idea that the words you use to communicate have a profound effect on how you think. An example is the Newspeak language of George Orwell's novel 1984. Another example might be your mother threatening to wash your mouth out with soap. But is there any truth to it? Further research shows that what we think and how we feel is fairly innate, no matter what language we speak or culture we originate from. It appears that the inability to express ourselves has more to do with the limits of our language than with the malleability of our thoughts. We have more control over the language than the language has control over us.  "Language relativism" is a whole other subject, and Tom Scott tries to explain the difference to us. It's a deep and complicated subject, but we don't have to understand all the intricacies of it to understand what researchers are finding out.   

It seems like only a few years ago we learned that modern humans carry around genes we inherited from our ancestors interbreeding with Neanderthals. Now there is evidence that we also have genes that originated with another extinct human species, the Denisovans. Actual fossil evidence of Denisovans is scant, but we have enough genetic material to trace back some of our modern human genes to them.

Denisovans evolved to survive in the mountains of Asia, and certain genes made them more adaptable to those conditions. One genetic variant allowed them to thrive in high altitudes, and that variant now only survives in Tibetans. But another genetic adaptation is now found in all populations outside of Africa. A gene called SLC30A9 regulates how zinc moves within a cell, which can have many effects. A mutation in that gene among Denisovans may have helped them adapt to cold climates. But it also appears to have left the rest of us predisposed to depression and other mental health problems. Read more about this research at Neoscope. -via Damn Interesting

(Image credit: Vincent van Gogh)

Police in Akron, Ohio responded to a report of a car theft at a wrecking yard. The suspect was inside a Nissan SUV but unable to escape because an employee of the yard had used a heavy forklift to pick the car high up into the air. It was only after police arrived and surrounded the scene that the operator lowered the car to the ground so that police could make the arrest.

It appears that all of the law enforcement professionals involved enjoyed this arrest. Fox News quotes the 911 dispatcher as saying "Wonderful, this is the greatest thing I've ever heard. We, we will get somebody out to you."

-via Dave Barry

If I had known this was a sport when I was younger, I'd be a world champion by now.

Spoon & Tamago informs us that there was a "spacing out" competition in Tokyo. For an hour and a half, competitors lay still and did nothing at all--or as close to nothing as they could manage--while not falling asleep.

Officials monitored their heart rates and disqualified anyone who talked or slept during the contest. Athletes who wore impressive costumes and kept empty facial expressions received extra points.

The winners were a team who evidently knew how to work together to accomplish as little as possible.

-via Super Punch | Photo: Sankei

Brendan Leonard is the author of the books I Hate Running and You Can Too, and MAKE IT: 50 Myths and Truths About Creating. He was asked by a fellow writer and runner about the most challenging thing in the creative process, and he came up with this list of eight things that those two things - running and the creative process - have in common. And one of the things that strike me the most is the fact that these two things are fueled by self-motivation. It's true. No one is making you do these things. You have to find the drive and the focus to accomplish them yourself, otherwise, you won't reach your goals and get far.

The other thing that resonated with me in his list is the fact that both of these activities are uncomfortable. The only way that you will find it bearable is if you do it a lot. Because by then, you will have become unfazed by the discomfort and simply go with the flow.

(Image credit: Brendan Leonard)

I haven't had any bad experiences with Airbnb yet, personally, although there was one place which I had booked for my parents and my mom's friend, wherein halfway through the rental period, they had decided to move out and switch to a different accommodation because the first Airbnb didn't have separate rooms and some issues with the bathroom. The host was gracious and understanding enough about the situation and it went off without a hitch. My parents and my mom's friend loved the second accommodation and their stay had been pleasant for the rest of their trip.

That wasn't the case for redditor fmbrandon who stayed with his family - wife and two kids - along with some friends at a San Antonio, Texas Airbnb. They decided that renting a house instead of three separate hotel rooms would be much cheaper, as it usually should, but were surprised to find a list of chores that they needed to do before leaving as well as a $165 cleaning fee. Much discussion has gone around on what Airbnb could do to improve users' experience and one recommendation that topped the list was to lower cleaning fees, which led to many listings either lowering or removing their cleaning fees.

It is common courtesy for guests to leave their accommodation without any heavy cleaning but in the same way, hosts shouldn't oblige their guests with a to-do list of chores before leaving. As for Brandon and his family, their host did leave feedback saying they were happy to have them back again despite their failure to complete the checkout instructions.

(Image credit: fmbrandon/Reddit)

Lucid dreams sound pretty cool. You get to wake up in your own dream or become aware that you are dreaming while in the process. If you experience a lucid dream, it is said that you will be able to control the dream, which could make for some really wild dreams where, in some ways, you can make the impossible possible, or literally have your dreams come to reality, even if just in the dream world. It feels magical, and just being able to experience it must be an incredible feeling. Which is why a new tech startup called Prophetic wants people to have the ability to induce lucid dreams on demand, by creating a wearable device that enables them to do just that.

Right now, the company is working on the Halo, which detects when people are in REM sleep, and then, stabilize and induce lucid dreaming. According to their website, they want to use it in order to pursue answers to life's biggest questions. Of course, lucid dreams are said to help people overcome nightmares, relieve anxiety and PTSD, and even improve motor skills. The cofounders of Prophetic have no specific medical claims for their device, but are partnering with researchers to explore the technology and possible benefits.

(Image credit: Bruce Christianson/Unsplash)

The Beatles were a global phenomenon and it has been more than 40 years since the world has seen all four members of the legendary rock band together. It might be surprising to say that they have released a song, their last one, in 2023, but it was uploaded three days ago, on November 3rd, with vocals from John Lennon and contributions from all the other three. Even though there are only two remaining members of the band, with the help of new technology developed by Peter Jackson and his team, they were able to finally complete the song which had been in the works since the 1970s.

The song is called "Now and Then" and in 1995, the other Beatles members, Paul, Ringo, and George had started the project however, because there were no means at the time to separate the vocals which John Lennon had recorded two decades earlier from the piano parts of the tape, it could not progress any further. Until 2022, when the software system was developed and finally, the recording was brought to fruition. Now, we can listen to the Beatles' final song to ever be released with all four members contributing to its creation, "Now and Then".

Open Culture also shares the making of the last Beatles song.

(Video credit: The Beatles/Youtube)

I sometimes get cravings at the most inopportune times, and several of those times were during rainy days. I had terribly wanted some McDonald's one night and unfortunately, moments after I had ordered my food online, it started raining, heavily. I was living in Busan at the time, and my place was on a mountain, while the McDonald's was at the foot of the mountain. When my order had arrived, the rider gave me my food and hurried along.

After moving to Seoul, there was one rainy night, again, when I had a strong urge for some McDonald's. I logged on to the app, clicked on my usual order which I had already saved on the app for quicker processing time, and went to the checkout page. As I was about to pay for my meal, I was interrupted and the app said that they will be no delivery service due to intermittent weather. That was the first time I had encountered that, and as disappointing as it was, I understood the reason behind it. Nobody wants to risk their riders' safety just for some profit. The same thing happened when it snowed, and so I went out one snowy evening to buy some McDonald's, since I knew delivery services won't be in operation.

That's if stores would be proactive about these sorts of situations. But there are places where rainy days are ordinary, and barring floods which will completely shut down traffic, delivery riders will be expected to deliver despite the weather conditions. So, Rice Media talked to delivery riders to hear what they actually think about people ordering food during rainy days.

(Image credit: Brett Jordan/Unsplash)

Hobbies differ in all shapes and sizes. Some people like collecting rocks, others do origami or papier mache; some people are into simple hobbies like baking or watching movies, while others are into extreme ones like skydiving or bungee jumping. There are people with more unique hobbies such as this guy named Edoardo Flores who described himself as a retired international civil servant from Turin, Italy who has amassed a large collection of hotel 'do not disturb' signs. On his Flickr, there are more than 20,000 photos of these 'do not disturb' signs and he says that he started collecting them while on a business trip in Pakistan.

How the collection became as large as it is, he recounts that after the first sign he took home, he just found himself becoming addicted to collecting them. And it's quite understandable as different hotels from various countries literally come in different shapes, sizes, formats, and styles. Most of them say 'Do Not Disturb' however, there are a few which just alludes to the fact. But each one tries to imbue a trait or characteristic into the design that is particular to the place where the hotel is located. To see some from the collection, check it out at Messy Nessy Chic. For the full collection, check out Edoardo Flores' Flickr.

(Image credit: Edoardo Flores)

Overall, we have come out of the pandemic tunnel which lasted for three years and we have learned a lot during that time. I was in South Korea for the entire time and as has been reported, the Korean government implemented strict guidelines of social distancing and other counter-measures such as wearing filtering face masks everywhere and practicing frequent hand-washing. At the start of the pandemic, Harry Stevens of The Washington Post wrote an article that showed a simulation of how a social distancing policy would affect the spread of a disease, which in his example was called simulitis. It is an interesting depiction of how diseases are transmitted and mitigated.

On a related note, Kevin Simler at around the same time, found that article very interesting and so decided to create playable simulations of a disease outbreak wherein one can adjust factors such as transmission rate, travel radius, encounter frequency, and mortality rates to see how those would affect the outcome of the outbreak. They are fascinating visual representations of how outbreaks worked, and quite informative on the possible preventive measures to mitigate their effects on the global population. And you may check out the various grid simulations he made on Melting Asphalt.

(Image credit: Harry Stevens/The Washington Post)

What's in a name? A person's name may determine how they and the people around them see themselves. It's a part of our identity and that's why it's very important for parents, especially new parents, to think carefully about their baby's name. You wouldn't want your children to resent you for giving them a name that would get them bullied at school or by the other kids in the neighborhood, would you? You don't want to know what kind of life Macaroni 85 or his siblings Spaghetti 88 and Sincerely Yours 98 have had to live.

Some people prefer passing on their names to their first child or naming their children after their parents, relatives, or favorite historical figures. Some hope their children will take after the people after whom they were named. Some want strong names, others want pretty names, and others want nice names. But how about a lucky name? Whether giving babies a 'lucky name' will actually make them favorably disposed to good fortune might be an inspiration for a possible future study, still, people who do give their babies 'lucky names' think it might help them later in life or think that the names are just pretty or trendy.

On the list compiled by Marie Claire, I find some really appealing names like Felix or Asher for boys and Iris or Kiara for girls. To see the complete list of the top 10 lucky baby names for boys and girls, check it out on Marie Claire.

(Image credit: Kelly Sikkema/Unsplash)

Going through airport security can be a tedious ordeal, but on the other side, TSA officers must have encountered many weird things in passengers' suitcases, especially during Halloween season. It's probably no surprise, and as usual, they will always be on the look out for anything suspicious or remotely threatening, as it did on Halloween at Salt Lake City Airport.

TSA Officer Justin Buttars saw a skull as it passed through the scanner, which wouldn't have been too much of a scare, except that it appeared to have batteries and wires inside it. This alerted the officer and upon investigating, it was revealed that the skull was just a training aid for neurosurgery which was going to be used for a seminar and trade show in Cancun, Mexico. However, despite a reasonable explanation from the owner of the skull, it wasn't allowed to go through because it wasn't properly labeled and disassembled.

(Image credit: TSA SLC)