For one, you can help the people in need. In a new research from Canada, researchers discovered that simply giving money to people in need made them spend fewer nights at a shelter, experienced fewer days without enough food, and secured stable housing quicker than those who weren’t given anything more than a workshop. The research was a year-long project, as Gizmodo details:

Beginning in spring 2018, the project recruited 115 individuals who had recently experienced homelessness (an average six months spent homeless). Of these, 50 people received the cash payment as well as training from a workshop on goal setting and personal planning; half were also offered additional life skills coaching. The no-cash group was split into two, with one group receiving the workshop and coaching and the other none. All participants, however, were given access to a savings account if they didn’t have one already. They were also all given questionnaires to fill out one, three, six and 12 months later, and completed an open-ended interview six and 12 months in.

In the first month alone, according to the report, people given the cash were able to cut their days living unhoused from 77 percent to 49 percent, compared to their recent baseline; while those without the payment actually increased their days of homelessness in the first month. On average, it took about three months for cash recipients to find stable housing, compared to the average 5 months it took everyone else.

Moreover, the cash group cut down their level of food insecurity—defined as having trouble eating three meals a day–from 70% to 33% in the first month, and were able to avoid food insecurity more than the control group throughout the year. On average, the group also saved $1,000 of the original payment by the end of the 12 month period, and there was an 39% decrease in the reported use of alcohol, cigarettes, and other drugs in the cash group as well.

image via Gizmodo

Look, trees take a very long time to grow. Years, decades, some take centuries to grow to their full height. However, trees planted today might not even reach their full growth because a lot of things are trying to kill them, from lumber companies, to housing projects, to cars belching pollution, and to human waste:

American cities are host to 3.8 billion trees—on sidewalks, in parks, in our front yards and backyards, outside houses of worship and office complexes. They’re crucial for urban life: Most notably, trees cool down cities by creating shade and engaging in transpiration, the process by which they return water vapor into the atmosphere. Together, these effects can lower the temperature of a city street a few degrees (and as much as 10 degrees, as one recent study found). Studies have also found that well-placed trees can reduce air-conditioning costs by about one-third. Trees also remove up to 24 percent of dust; studies show that kids who live near urban trees have lower rates of asthma. Trees can even make pavement last a decade longer.

If cities want to keep those benefits, they’ve got to plan 

for a future with a different, more hostile climate. As cities heat up, they effectively become different places, where a species that has persisted for hundreds of years can no longer thrive. By some estimates, the habitable zones for 130 of the country’s tree species could move north by more than 400 miles by the end of the century. New invasive species will arrive. Unless cities continually adapt, these shifts could significantly erode their tree canopies, making urban landscapes uglier—and more unlivable.

image via The Atlantic 

Dogs can get injuries, surgeries, and illnesses too, so they might need blood from their fellow canines! It works a little differently from how we humans do it, though. Popsugar talks to vets to learn what dogs can donate blood, and what the process is for donating: 

First and foremost, dogs have to be healthy and up to date on their shots. They must be adults and are usually larger breeds, weighing over 50 pounds. It's similar to humans donating blood in that the blood has to be healthy blood. 

It's not so much a casual thing as it can be for humans to drop by a blood donation drive and give blood. Owners of what are considered "donor dogs" are committed to giving their dogs the best care so they can continue to donate blood through their adult lives.

Gary Richter, DVM, a veterinary health expert with Rover.com told POPSUGAR, "The blood can be used for multiple purposes, including anemia (low red blood cells), clotting disorders (toxicity, immune mediated disease, etc.), or for pets with low blood proteins." To get into even more detail, the blood can be separated to be used even further, by giving red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets to dogs in need of just one part.

image via Popsugar

Don’t worry, it’s not a newly-found cult or something. Dark academia is a trend that lets Internet users post photos and videos that romanticise passion for art and knowledge. It’s an aesthetic, so to speak. Some who love the dark academia aesthetic posts photos of themselves in corduroy, plaids, tweeds (the peak academic fashion, alright), as Refinery 29 details: 

Although the origins of dark academia remain unclear, its genesis appears to be a heady mixture of a few key cultural works. Donna Tartt’s 1992 novel The Secret History is the trend’s foundational text but films like Dead Poets Society (1989) and Kill Your Darlings (2013) also serve as essential influences. Like the books and films that inspired it, dark academia draws an idealised version of campus life, typically at a hallowed and historic university.

Image via Instagram

We all know the pain of breaking your earphones. We miss the tranquility that music brings us when we lack earphones. Imagine losing the more expensive version of regular earphones, though. With how easy AirPods can fall off our ears, London-based jewelry designer Suhani Parekh has created earrings that are designed to attach to AirPods to stop them falling out of wearers’ ears, as Cult Of Mac details: 

“The earrings fit on as regular earrings do, with a back and post,” Parekh told Cult of Mac. “They’ve been designed so you can slip your AirPods in and out as you use them through the day without the need to take the earrings off.”

Parekh said that the concept was to create earrings that would solve a real problem (stop AirPods falling out), but also look stylish without the need for AirPods. They come in three different styles: Pebble Pods, Minimal/Active Tall Pods and Minimal/Active Tiny Pods. Prices range from $40 to $100, depending on the style you choose.

“The Pebble Pods are handcrafted in sterling silver and plated in 22k gold,” Parekh said. “There’s one for every occasion — from the sculptural Pebble Pods that make a serious style statement to the minimal Active wear options perfect for a busy day at work, a long run or an intense workout at the gym.”

Image via Cult Of Mac 

Brands go the extra mile to send invitations for their runway shows. It’s no longer just a beautiful enveloped invitation; some brands include other goodies. Take for example, Gucci. For its July presentation, the luxury brand sent out boxes of organic, locally sourced fruits and vegetables to a select number of fashion-industry professionals and people who would see the collection in person. This instance was an early example of brands finding wild and creative ways to send show invites. The Cut lists the best (and frankly, the wildest) show invites brands have sent for its latest fashion shows: 

When New York Fashion Week began in March, more packages started going out. In addition to images and information about the collection, some of them included fabric swatches and hardware, which was helpful in bringing the clothes to life while looking at two-dimensional images.

During Paris Fashion Week, brands got a little more intellectual, a little more high-concept. Thom Browne sent a puzzle, for example, which instantly stumped me. Miu Miu sent a notepad and pencil. MM6 Maison Margiela sent — I’m not even kidding — a box with an empty tin can and string in it, with instructions like: “Hold the tin can to your ear and listen to the sea … Put the can on your head. Make it a cute hat … Name it.” My roommate, not a fashion person, was especially perplexed by this one.

The invite you’ve probably seen the most on social media is the Loewe “show on the wall.” It followed the brand’s “show in a box,” which was sent out for its men’s collection over the summer, and included paper dolls, plus a vinyl record that played the sounds of the brand’s Spanish factory. The “show on the wall,” meanwhile, came with a roll of wallpaper designed by Anthea Hamilton; a Loewe-branded paintbrush, scissors, and tool bag; and some scented ceramic, in case you actually wanted to plaster it all over your home. (Some people actually did.)

Image via The Cut 

Do you want to spice up your daily routine? Try eating some glass shards! Okay, not actual glass shards (I mean, eating actual glass shards would spice up your life, but that’ll be the last moment of your life); edible glass shards. Watch BORE.D’s RPG-esque tutorial on how to cook some edible glass shards.

Let’s go, women! The winners for the Nobel Prize for Chemistry have been announced, and Emmanuelle Charpentier of France and Jennifer Doudna of the United States are the winners of the 2020 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their genome editing research. Both of them will receive a gold medal and share a cash award of a whopping $1.12 million, as NPR details: 

The winners are Emmanuelle Charpentier of France, and Jennifer Doudna of the United States. Charpentier is at the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens in Berlin, and Doudna is at the University of California, Berkeley.

As is customary, the winners were announced at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. The formal ceremonies in December will take place online because of the pandemic.

Image via NPR 

When the pandemic hit us, most of us treated the quarantine as a summer camp or a productivity workshop for the first few months. Some set new goals, some baked a lot, and some learned new languages. However, the longer the pandemic stays, people realize that they’re not in control of how their future plays out anymore. We’re all trapped in the situation, stuck at our homes, unsure when the pandemic will end. With those thoughts on our minds, we tend to reach out for objects that can give us comfort, that’s why some play Animal Crossing, and some reach out for their old books, as Salon details: 

When prompted, everyone I asked said that the main appeal of revisiting these books was found in knowing how the story was going to end, even when everything around us still feels so uncertain. 

"Trauma takes away our gray areas. It divides our timeline into a before and an after," Dr. Valentina Stoycheva, an author and clinical psychologist specializing in traumatic stress, told the New York Times. "And while it has the danger of creating this longing for the before, when things were maybe safer, and when we were unaware of all of this and protected by our naïveté, there's also something about nostalgic behaviors — fashion, clothes, movies, music — that serve as a transitional object."

Those transitional objects — much like a baby's blanket or favorite stuffed animal — can help people through life changes and in navigating specific stressors by providing more outlets for self-soothing, Stoycheva told the Times. 

Bradley gave me the example of how she used to carry a battered, coffee-stained copy of "Where the Wild Things Are" in her purse when she would travel via airplane. She was afraid of flying, and a quote from the book — "there should be a place where only the things you want to happen, happen" — always calms her. 

"The feeling of nostalgia is kind of hard to put into words," Bradley said. "But I know when I pull out that book, I'm immediately transported back to a time when I felt safe and it felt like there was so much still left to discover. It keeps me from becoming jaded." 

Image via Salon

Maximalism is about making the most out of your space by designing it with many items that showcase your personality. While that’s a great way to decorate your space, sometimes we unavoidably turn our space into a cluttered chaos instead of achieving the chic maximalist look we want. Hunker shares some tips and tricks on how to avoid the clutter and go straight for the trendy approach. Check the full piece here.

Image via Hunker

Science can’t prove the existence of ghosts, but people in the media will try their best proving that yes, ghosts are real and they’re here to give us a fright (or a message, who knows?). But have you ever wondered why people still see ghosts, in this day and age? Popular Science cites few mental and physical factors that could contribute to people seeing these ghouls. Check the full piece here. 

Image via Popular Science 

The next opportunity you get to travel via plane, make sure to plan the right travel outfits! Planning the clothes you’ll wear on your next trip brings a sense of happiness and excitement, but it also helps you prepare well. While showing off your style isn’t wrong, take note of these dos and don'ts when it comes to flying fashion. Check the List’s full guide here. 

Image via the List 

Some Nintendo Switch players have experienced the ‘Joy-Con drift’ issue- where the Switch Joy-Con controllers make in-game characters “drift” even when no one is moving them. While some would just get new controllers, some players’ Joy-Con drift was too ingrained to the point that buying new controllers won’t make the issue go away permanently. This was what happened to Luz Sanchez’ son. She filed a class action lawsuit against the company for not  doing enough to fix a hardware problem common among Nintendo Switch controllers, as Wired detailed: 

Joy-Con drift is pervasive among Switch devices. (Anecdotally, I’ve experienced it on two sets of my own controllers). Characters inch left or right as if a ghost was operating the console. Nintendo didn’t acknowledge the problem much until July 2019. That month, a thread on the Nintendo Switch subreddit calling out Joy-Con drift received over 25,000 upvotes. More than a dozen Switch owners filed a potential class action lawsuit at the time calling Joy-Cons “defective.” Lawyers said Nintendo had heard users’ complaints for long enough; why didn’t the company disclose the issue?

The 2019 lawsuit has been moved into arbitration, and the plaintiffs' lawyers recently asked Switch users to submit videos describing their experiences with Joy-Con drift to help bolster their case. Last month, a French consumer group filed a complaint, too, alleging planned obsolescence.

Nintendo began fixing Joy-Cons for free, post-warranty, in July 2019, and Nintendo’s president apologized for the problem in a financial meeting this summer. But Sanchez’s lawyers argue that Nintendo hasn’t done enough to fix the issue or warn customers about it up front. “Defendant continues to market and sell the Products with full knowledge of the defect and without disclosing the Joy-Con Drift defect to consumers in its marketing, promotion, or packaging,” the complaint reads. “Defendant has had a financial motive to conceal the defect, as it did not want to stop selling the Products, and/or would need to expend a significant amount of money to cure the defect.”

Image via Wired 

Worried about how people with dementia were coping during the lockdown, three teenagers developed an app that uses music to comfort its users. The Nigerian-Irish trio (Rachael, 16, Margaret, 17, and Joy, 17) decided to launch the application, called Memory Haven, when their mentor, Evelyn Nomayo, lost her mother to dementia. The app beat 1,500 entries from across 62 countries at Technovation, a prestigious technology competition, as Inews details: 

The app uses facial recognition. It will detect the person’s mood by reading their facial expression and tailor the music it plays accordingly.

It has five other main features as well as the music which include a health check, a photo wallet, reminder alerts, a memory game feature and a reach-out feature that can be used to contact friends, families, caregivers, doctors or emergency services.

They want as many people as possible to benefit from their app.

“The main aim for all of us was to try and help as many families, individuals and communities because we know firsthand how tough it is knowing somebody living with dementia,” they explain. “We hope the app can go global one day and reach millions of people who are affected by dementia and help make their lives somewhat easier.”

Image via Inews 

NVIDIA’s new AI-powered suite can improve the quality of video calls and reduce bandwidth usage. God knows how much bandwidth is spent in video calls! How, you ask? Simple. The AI platform just generates a fake version of you. The NVIDIA Maxine creates a model of a speaker's face, and then only update their expressions as they happen in real time, as Input Magazine details: 

Put together, all the enhancements provided by Maxine should save money for developers and help workers better contend with home settings that aren't always conducive to professional-grade teleconferencing.

Because streaming video can quickly get expensive, Nvidia found a way to analyze the key facial features of everyone on a call and intelligently re-animate them in the cloud instead of streaming an entire screen of pixels. Maxine also converts lower resolutions streams to higher resolution video in real-time and can compress the resulting feed by 90 percent more than the current H.264 standard can manage. The result is that the amount data being sent back and forth is significantly reduced without compromising on image quality.

Image via Input Magazine