We aren’t living in the happiest of times right now, and most of us are just trying our best to get by. Some self-help media will recommend exercises, activities, hobbies, or meals that can help us a little. But did you know that some of those recommendations can aggravate underlying mental health issues? Take drinking coffee as an example. Who doesn’t love drinking coffee (or any caffeinated drink)? This refreshing drink can impact our mental health on the negative side, as Discover magazine details: 

“When we’re talking about caffeine and about alcohol and their impacts on mental health, the topic that you start focusing on is sleep,” says Alexander Blount, a psychologist and professor emeritus of family medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Sleep has a big impact on how people manage their mental health and feel about themselves generally, says Blount. Loss of sleep contributes to the development of some psychiatric conditions, like depression and bipolar disorder. People struggling with their mental health are more likely to struggle with sleep, too. In fact, 50 to 80 percent of patients in treatment for mental health issues also report sleep problems, says Blount.

Caffeine in moderation acts as a mood brightener, says Blount. There’s a difference between drinking a cup of coffee or two in the morning to get started and feel a little sharper and drinking eight cups or more over the course of the day, he says. Even if you’re able to fall asleep after drinking that much caffeine, your sleep quality is probably poor. Poor sleep quality can cause problems for people struggling with anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder in particular, says Blouth.

Too much caffeine can also increase existing feelings of stress and anxiety. Most people are familiar with the energy boost and jitters that can accompany getting a sudden shot of espresso or an energy drink. The substance increases your body’s alertness and in doing so can make someone already struggling even more anxious.

Image via Discover magazine 

On Labor Day weekend, more than 200 campers were trapped at Shaver Lake near Fresno, California, when wildfires surrounded them. The California Army National Guard, who had been called up to fight the flames, took two helicopters over mountain crests and through thick smoke to rescue them.  

Emergency crews on the ground from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, radioed to Rosamond that it was too risky. The Creek Fire in the Sierra National Forest was out of control and they should put down at a nearby ranch miles away and wait for the smoke to clear, they were told.

"I was listening to the radio calls when the Chinook approached restricted airspace" near the lake, said Army Maj. Gen. David S. Baldwin, adjutant general of the California National Guard.

"Chief Rosamond told them, 'Just tell us where the people are. We're going to go get them,'" Baldwin said in a video conference call Monday with the aircrews and defense reporters.

And so they did. Chief Warrant Officer 5 Joseph Rosamond piloted a Chinook and CWO 5 Kipp Goding took a Black Hawk into the campground three times Saturday night. They and their crews loaded up 214 campers, twelve of them injured, and airlifted them to safety in Fresno. Read the story at Military.com and see a video of the Chinook approaching here. -via Fark

(Images credit: 40th Combat Aviation Brigade)

... And they’re more fun to watch than the countless dance videos and harmful pranks that you see on the app.

Classical music is very underrated today, and so it is always a welcome thing to see classical music stuff in mainstream media.

Classic FM has compiled some of the classical music TikTok videos so that we won’t have to search for them on the app. See the funny clips over at the site.

(Image Credit: @mollieobrien/ TikTok/ Classic FM)

When this reporter asked Elon Musk how his son is doing, Elon was confused as to what or who the reporter was talking about. 

“How’s X Æ A-12?” asked the reporter.

“Sorry?” Elon replied, not recognizing what the off-cam reporter was talking about. The reporter then repeated his question.

“Oh, you mean my kid!” replied Elon with a laugh. “That sounds like a password,” he remarked.

Musk and the reporter both laughed it off, thankfully making it much less awkward than it had the potential to be.

He added: "He's great! I think next time I am going to bring him, maybe come back in a few months and bring him along."

But how does one properly pronounce X Æ A-12?

When Joe Rogan asked Musk how to pronounce the baby's name on his podcast back in May, he tried to clear things up a bit.

Speaking on the show, he said: "I mean it's just X, the letter X. And then, the Æ is, like, pronounced 'Ash'. And then, A-12, A-12 is my contribution. Archangel 12, the precursor to the SR-71, is the coolest plane ever."

That, or you could just call the baby by his nickname — Little X.

Speaking to Bloomberg, first-time mother and musician Grimes - real name Claire Elise Boucher - confirmed that the little guy's nickname is 'Little X'.

Yep, that makes sense. Sounds like a rapper, or maybe a wrestler.

Well, I guess I’ll just stick with the nickname. What about you?

(Image Credit: Elon Musk/ Twitter)

One of the best ways to make people remember is by giving them a picture of yourself with your name on it. That practice, however, is not much done today because everything is digital. But there still are ways to make people remember you, such as this one. It’s a bit annoying, though.

Yep, you can now get your face printed on a pancake. Well, you can get your face printed on a dorayaki, which is a Japanese traditional pancake usually filled with red bean paste.

The face dorayakis were launched by Japanese retailer li na stores in a bid to help people stay in touch with each other during the pandemic, according to 9Gag.

Anyone can get their face – or anyone else’s face for that matter – painted on the round treats, and you can even get text printed on them too.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: li na stores/ UNILAD)

Many video game companies recently have been releasing remakes of their respective games, such as Capcom with their Resident Evil 2 and 3, and Square Enix with their Final Fantasy VII Remake. Now, it seems that Ubisoft has done the same, as they recently released a trailer for their remake of the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time game. Unfortunately, people were disappointed by the aforementioned game, and you can see that disappointment in the comments section of the video. 

One person from the comments said that the remake, which will be released on PS4 next year, looks like a PS3 or an Xbox 360 game.

Well, what do you think?

(Video Credit: IGN/ YouTube)

A husband and wife were moving some boxes outside their apartment in Winter Haven, Florida. Suddenly, the husband spotted an alligator lurking inside a storage shed. Alarmed, his wife immediately called 911. 

A few moments later, Deputy Mark Trexler arrived on the scene, and he managed to wrestle with the alligator, which apparently was just an inflatable pool toy.

Well done, Deputy!

(Image Credit: Polk County Sheriff/ Twitter)

The ball python (whose identity the St. Louis Zoo is protecting), laid a clutch of eggs despite being the oldest known snake in a zoo and, even more impressively, having no males to mate with. How is this possible? Stuff reports that the snake may have kept a sperm sample handy:

Mark Wanner, manager of herpetology at the St. Louis Zoo, said it unusual but not rare for ball pythons to reproduce asexually. The snakes also sometimes store sperm for delayed fertilization.

Photo: St. Louis Zoo/Chawa Schuette

Science Insider gives us the real poop on taking the perfect poop. Yeah, this is very explicit, but at least it's all animated. Sure, you've been pooping for many years, and you've gotten pretty good at it by now. Still, there may be something in here you don't already know, and if you don't need the information now, you might some time in the future. -via Digg

The Hackney Mosaic Project has been beautifying the Hackney neighborhood of London by installing locally-produced mosaic art at Hackney Downs park and other places. Under the guidance of mosaicist Tessa Hunkin, people learn to make sturdy art from broken tiles and ceramics.

The Hackney Mosaic Project aims to help people with addiction and mental health problems and at the same time to improve neglected corners of the city. We engage volunteers, recruited both from the Hackney recovery Services and the local community, in making large mosaics in Hackney Parks and other locations. We also teach and encourage them to create their own artworks.

The Project does not just make colourful pictures out of broken fragments - it also helps to piece back broken lives, and build a new community by bringing people together around a shared vision.

The project's latest public work is a large mosaic called the Hounds of Hackney Downs, the second of its kind, featuring portraits of the dogs who frequent the park. The mosaic was installed Wednesday, and the official unveiling will be later this month, to which the dogs themselves are invited. You can see closeups of the mosaic dogs at Spitalfields Life.

Read more about the project at its website. You can even buy some mosaics through their Etsy store. -via Nag on the Lake

Mary Donahue, a college professor, champion swimmer, outdoorswoman, and, well, her list of accomplishments is very long, writes about how park rangers and staff at Yosemite National Park have attempted to make human food stores safe from bears. Bears are smart, ravenous, have a keen sense of smell, and very flexible paws.

They can manipulate many physical objects, so one food storage locker design requires the user to insert the handle into the lock before turning it.

Even if you don't know the kings of history, you can recognize that the young man in the portrait is a Habsburg. Charles von Habsburg was born in 1500 as the heir to half the kingdoms of Europe, and eventually became the Holy Roman Emperor. As such, the matchmaking began early. Charles was engaged to be married by the age of seven. However, these things don't always work out.

Charles had an almost inexhaustible number of possible brides. During his lifetime, he was engaged to at least five different women, with only one resulting in marriage. He was engaged to two English princesses, two French princesses, and one Portuguese princess. Two of his fiancées were his close cousins.

That's what royals do. Read about the unfortunate early love life of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at The Freelance History Writer. -via Strange Company

Batzorig Vaanchig is a Mongolian throat singer. Here he collaborates with his daughter Marla. The song is "Xotgoidiin Unaga" (foal from Xotgoidiin), about a horse with a white blaze who always wins races. One commenter summed up the performance:

When she began singing, I smiled, when he began...I became one with the universe.

He is a talented musician, and she is following in his footsteps, but together they are just adorably wholesome. Read more about throat singing here.  -via reddit

Halloween was cancelled in 1918 because of a flu pandemic that killed fifty to one hundred million people. With the current pandemic, the holiday may be cancelled this year. Los Angeles County has issued a formal guidance that recommends against trick-or-treating and bans outright haunted houses, festivals and other traditional festivities that would fall under current Covid-19 health guidelines. Safety first, everybody! There’s always the next year to come for celebrations!

Image via CNN

Fredrick Joseph, a former national surrogate for Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, accused the owner of an Airbnb of having satanic objects. The marketing CEO released a long Twitter thread where he claimed that the Airbnb he stayed in was full of “seemingly satanic items and stuff for witchcraft rituals.” Vice reached out to the host of the Airbnb and the Church of Satan for their thoughts on the matter: 

the host was able to take us on a walkthrough of the house and show convincingly that many of the alleged markers of “Satanic” activity are art books and kitschy objects. Joseph also claimed the house’s basement had “ritualistic markings” on the floor, which, from our viewing, is flatly untrue. They looked like paint smudges.

“They [the items] are not Satanic,” the host, whose name is Alex, told Motherboard on a video call from the house. “They’re kitsch. None of it is occult. You can get this stuff at a bodega.”

The Church of Satan, one of two prominent global Satanic organizations based in the United States, responded to Joseph on Twitter, writing, “The photos in this thread depict thrift store curiosities & hot topic kitsch, not evidence of satanic rituals. Sounds like you have an over active imagination and can’t tell the difference between supernatural horror movies and reality.” (Joseph did not respond.) The Satanic Temple—a group distinct from, and which has long feuded with, the Church of Satan—has a Baphomet statue at its headquarters, and garnered a great deal of news coverage for trying to place Baphomet statutes alongside Christian monuments at state capitol buildings across the country, to make a point about religious plurality in America.

image via Vice