The internet makes it easy to learn about things you weren't taught in school, and things you don't want to ask your family about. Before the World Wide Web, it wasn't so simple. In the 1980s, people were eager to learn about sex from a 4' 7" Jewish grandmother named Ruth Westheimer. Dr. Ruth was a highly educated sex therapist who made talking about sex both acceptable and entertaining with her positive attitude and no-nonsense, non-judgmental advice.  

Westheimer started out with a radio show that aired after midnight on Sunday so that children weren't listening, as part of a public service commitment required at the time by the FCC. But she became so popular that an expansion to TV was inevitable. Explicit sexual terms didn't seem so prurient when spoken in her high-pitched grandmotherly German accent, often with a laugh. Her fans were even more impressed when they found out that after she lost her parents in the Holocaust, she moved to British-controlled Mandatory Palestine at age 16 and joined the Haganah at 17, where she was trained as a sniper. Westheimer, now 95, is still writing books and making occasional public appearances. Read about Dr. Ruth's meteoric rise as America's sex education teacher in the 1980s at Mental Floss.

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The British department store John Lewis has a tradition of well-produced tear-jerking Christmas ads every year. We've posted them for more than ten years now. They always manage to revolve around children, love, family or friends, and a magic twist. This year's ad titled Snapper: The Perfect Tree has all that, but served up with a huge dose of weird. A little boy wants to grow his own Christmas tree, but what he gets is nothing like a Christmas tree. You have to wonder if the writers are not-so-subtly mocking the syrupy-sweet ads of past years, or whether they were taking drugs. No, I'm not going to tell you what happens, because you need to watch the video. Even after you figure out what's going on, this will require some suspension of disbelief. You've been warned. -via Fark

The Purple Heart is a medal awarded to those who were wounded or killed in service of the US military. The process of getting a Purple Heart for those on active duty are usually by recommendation from their chain of command. During the Vietnam War, Korean War, and World War II, the Purple Heart was often awarded on the spot. Requests for retroactive awards usually go through the National Personnel Records Center, where they refer to service records to confirm the claim.

For Earl Meyer, his claim to a Purple Heart has been rejected time and again, citing a lack of proper documentation. He suffered an injury to his leg when shrapnel struck him during a mortar attack. However, since he wasn't able to file the paperwork after he returned to the States, and nobody in his unit from that time had survived, there isn't enough conclusive proof that he can show to attest that his account of the injury was true.

Initially, he wasn't going to pursue the Purple Heart because he didn't consider the injury as serious as what his compatriots had experienced. But his daughters convinced to try and apply for it. In the end, the Army review board issued him a final rejection in April which led him to sue the Department of Defense and the Army in September. Read the full story on La Crosse Tribune.

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It's natural for us to fear being rejected. We are social creatures after all, and having a sense of community and belonging is part of what it means to be human. We don't want to be outcasts, and so we try our best to fit in. Of course, these days, we are encouraged to embrace our differences and individuality as strengths. However, we can't escape that feeling of anxiety over what other people are thinking about us. It's just there, and we can either worry about it, ignore it, or care about it. And yes, there's a slight nuance between worrying and caring.

When we worry about something, we become awash with negative thoughts and emotions. As a response, we become defensive, and at times, we might try to push back. That can spiral down and cause us to even become paranoid to a certain extent. However, a more proactive approach, as suggested on Jeff Haden's article, is to care about what people think. Because then, you shift the focus from yourself and perceived inadequacies about you to other people, and what you can do for them, or what actions you can do to make people perceive you in a more positive light.

And in that sense, we can turn the crippling anxiety of worrying into a productive other-centered mindset of caring.

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It was probably the best gift the newlywed couple received for their wedding, or the day after. The groom, who wishes to remain anonymous, gave his bride a $10 lottery ticket to celebrate their first day of wedded bliss, but it surprised the both of them when they found out that the ticket won them $1 million. Now, anybody would be shocked and wary whether this was real or not. The couple was in disbelief and they wanted to make sure that they had really won, so they kept reading the instruction over and over.

They decided to bring it to the Michigan Lottery where they opted to take their prize as a one-time lump sum which amounted to $693,000 instead of receiving them in annuity payments. Of course, the choice of whether to get it in cash now or get it in several payments over the years depends on the winners' preference. Some financial advisors might suggest to take the annuity option as it provides a long-term financial safety net. But, the couple's decision to take the lump sum is totally understandable as they plan on putting the money into investments instead.

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There have been many significant events and achievements that happened first in America or was done first by Americans. For example, the first selfie was taken by Robert Cornelius in 1839. The first toilet paper was invented by Joseph Gayetty in 1857, and the first skyscraper ever built was in the city of Chicago in 1885, the Home Insurance Building, which stood at 138 feet, designed by William Le Baron Jenney. There are many more "firsts" in America's history, and each state actually has an entry of their own.

Some of these firsts are quite historic such as that in Iowa, which was the first state to desegregate schools in 1867. The story goes that Susan Clark had been prohibited by Muscatine's Second Ward Common School because of her skin color. So, her father sued the school, and the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in their favor. Maryland can be proud to say that they had the world's first airport. The College Park Airport was originally built so that the Wright brothers could train a few military officers on how to fly their plane. That led to a whole slew of other firsts brought about by the new technology.

There are some very fun firsts as well such as the world's first German chocolate cake in Texas, when The Dallas Morning News published the recipe in June 1957. Tennessee boasts the world's first cotton candy when William Morrison and John Wharton developed the cotton candy machine in 1897 and debuted it at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 as "fairy floss". To see all the other states' firsts, check out the Saturday Evening Post's two-parter here and here.

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Taylor Swift is at the top of her game. Almost 20 years since her first album was released, she has shown no sign of stopping. Arguably, she also has one of the largest fanbases in the world, although there are many other artist fanbases with the same level of dedication and intensity as the Swiftie community, but hers seems to be ubiquitous. It cuts through generational lines and has no particular demographic leanings, although she has a lot of female fans. So, why is Taylor Swift so popular?

Brian L. Donovan, a sociology professor at the University of Kansas, teaches a class called "The Sociology of Taylor Swift" wherein he breaks down the reasons behind her popularity and how that has impacted culture. One of the main things that draw people into Taylor Swift is her songwriting. Most of her songs are drawn from her personal experiences and relationships, and they are conveyed in a way that makes them feel relatable on an almost universal scale.

Dr. Gayle Stever suggests that part of Swift's success can be attributed to the motivations that drive fans to become devoted to a particular artist, band, or cultural icon. These include talent, physical attractiveness, and role model qualities, which she says Swift embodies. However, despite her fame and success, it's difficult to avoid the pitfalls of having such a dedicated fanbase. Some may feel entitled, others may consider themselves 'more of a fan' in a hierarchical way than others, which can be exhausting to deal with.

Still, the love of fans for Swift continues to grow and has remained strong throughout her career, and there are no signs of it ceasing any time soon.

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Cats may seem like the most stoic of all house pets, or maybe they just appear that way because we have this notion that cats tend to be independent and standoffish. They don't show as much emotion readily as dogs let's say. It takes a while before a cat comes around and opens up to a human, but they do show affection, just in a different way. Brittany Florkiewicz had also thought that cats were aloof until she started studying them up close and observing their facial expressions.

Florkiewicz, a comparative and evolutionary psychologist and professor at Lyon College, and her colleague Lauren Scott, a medical student at the University of Kansas, recently published a study where they observed 53 adult domestic shorthair cats at CatCafe Lounge in Los Angeles, and found that cats actually make 276 different facial expressions as a means of communicating hostility or affection. This suggests that cats are social creatures as well, it's just that the way they express it can be more subtle than what we may be used to.

In order to tally these facial expressions, the researchers looked at different movements of the ears, lips, jaw, whiskers, and pupils using Facial Action Coding Systems designed for cats. Overall, there were 26 unique facial movements which combined into 276 distinct expressions, compared to 44 unique facial movements in humans, and 27 in dogs. Still, it's more than what many people believe cats can do.

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Led Zeppelin's fourth album was released on November 8, 1971. The cover features a framed picture of a man carrying a bundle of hazel, hung on a dilapidated wall. The original story was that it was an oil painting Robert Plant bought in an antique store. But it was a hand-tinted photograph, and the original photograph has been found.

Researcher Brian Edwards found the photograph while he was looking for early images of Stonehenge in 2021. It was in an album labeled “Reminiscences of a visit to Shaftesbury. Whitsuntide 1892. A present to Auntie from Ernest.” The man in the picture captioned “A Wiltshire thatcher” is believed to be Lot Long, who lived in the village of Mere and died in 1893. The photographer was Ernest Howard Farmer. The Wiltshire Museum, which now owns the photograph, has included it in an exhibition of Farmer's photographs called Wiltshire Thatcher: a photographic journey through Victorian Wessex scheduled for next spring. Read the story of how the photo came to light at the Guardian.

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The Minnesota legislature voted to replace the state's flag, which is the state's seal on a field of blue. The current design is both boring and illegible, and almost indistinguishable from dozens of other state flags. But what design will replace it?

In 2020, Mississippi asked for public input on a new state flag and got lots of wonderful, weird, and funny submissions. Minnesota is doing the same, and received 2,123 submissions! Some are seriously good, as if they were designed by trained graphic artists, while others appear to be a required elementary school assignment. And there are plenty of comedians taking advantage of the opportunity.

You can spend all day looking through the official gallery of submissions, or skip to Racket, for a gallery of the 30 goofiest designs. But really, there are a lot more than 30 that will make you laugh.

There is also a separate gallery of suggested designs for a new state seal, which makes incorporating the design of the new seal into the new flag fairly impossible, and that's a good thing according to CGP Grey. The committee tasked with coming up with a new flag is supposed to have it ready for thelegislature to consider by January first. -via Metafilter

How does a family business become an incorporated town? A town is usually defined as a place that provides services like utilities and law enforcement, and is supported by taxes on something like sales, property value, or income. Or all three. So becoming a town involves some serious thinking. Reuben Syrett had a ranch in Bryce Canyon, Utah, and opened a hotel. What was Ruby's Inn for a century is now Bryce Canyon City. Well, it's still a hotel, but it's also a city unto itself. That took a fight, over taxes of course.

If you ever visit beautiful Bryce Canyon National Park, you can't miss Ruby's Inn because it's at the park's northwest entrance, which was very intentional. Even if you never visit Bryce Canyon, the park or the city, you'll get a kick out of the story of how Bryce Canyon City came to be. This video is only five and a half minutes long; the rest is an ad.

In an age when the average attention span of a typical human being is 8.25 seconds, a study has revealed that we actually pay better attention today than 30 years ago. It's a bit surprising but the rationale behind this result is the fact that the average IQ of populations have increased from one generation to the next, a phenomenon described as the Flynn effect. This conclusion came from an analysis of data from 179 studies which involved 21,000 people from 32 countries. The studies were conducted between 1990 and 2021 wherein participants had taken a d2 Test of Attention.

Looking through the data, the researchers led by Denise Andrzejewsky of the University of Vienna, saw that the performance of adults had increased in that span of time while children's results remained about the same. However, they did notice that children made more mistakes despite being able to complete the test quicker. But, when looking at results from German-speaking countries, children made fewer mistakes, but adults' results were roughly the same throughout the years. -via Boing Boing

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Animals probably have some of the best reasons to be grumpy. They have been driven out of their natural habitats with some ecosystems being disrupted or completely destroyed; other animals have been captured, poached, sold, and left almost at the brink of extinction; and many animals have been raised to become food for humans. With all of these things happening for animals, who knows what they might be thinking or what they might want to say in response?

Well, artist beastflaps knows exactly what. So, he drew 100 animals with a caption below them saying some witty lines and unleashing their fury. Some of them are simply snippy comments.

Others are quite smart with their retorts.

And there are a few that are just downright threats.

Beastflaps wrote and published the book which you can check on Amazon, and you may see some examples of the funny collection on Sad and Useless.

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A team of researchers from the University of Surrey have developed a new material that enables it to act like human tissue, thus making it easier to scan an object due to its flexibility. Not only will it improve the accuracy of detection, but it will also make it safer when putting patients under the X-ray, for example, when trying to scan for tumors or administering radiotherapy.

Common materials used for X-ray detectors are silicon or germanium, but their rigidity limits the scope of what the devices can do, so alternatives called organic semiconductors made up of hydrogen and carbon were considered as more flexible means for detection, but they cannot capture detailed X-ray images as the traditional ones. However, the new device, developed by Dr. Prabodhi Nanayakkara and her team, are made with low quantities of high atomic number elements added to an organic semiconductor. With it, live dosimetry becomes possible, and makes the process safer and easier.

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It was a Friday in October 1937, in Blackrock, County Louth. Julia Clarke had been seen kissing her boyfriend in public. Three witnesses reported them to the police and they were brought to court. At the time, Ireland had a law, Section 18 of the 1935 Criminal Law Amendment Act, that had an ambiguous phrasing which made it open to interpretation. In essence, it stated that if anybody was caught committing acts that might offend or cause a scandal, they will be considered guilty.

The judge, District Justice Goff, who presided their case, inquired of the state of the defendants at the time of their sighting. According to witnesses, the boy was a bit inebriated at the time, but respectable in his manner. And so, the judge let the boy go provided that he donate £2 to charity and paid the court fees. Julia Clarke, on the other hand, was said to not have had any drink and that she had no past criminal record.

Given the circumstances, the boy's case was dismissed and he was proclaimed innocent, but Clarke was declared guilty of public indecency, and sentenced to one month's imprisonment. Since Clarke lived in Scotland and had only been on a holiday in Ireland, the sentence practically kept her banished from Ireland. Seemingly, the reason for Goff's sentence was to keep 'those kind of people' away from Ireland.

Later on, Julia Clarke was asked what she thought about the sentence, and the short clip above shows her just laughing it off.

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