This Is How Your Brain Reacts to Porn

In the past few decades, the Internet has put everything under the sun within reach ... whenever we want it. We can binge-watch every season of Friends if we wanted to. We can have toilet paper shipped to our front door. We can find out how many teeth a shark has. (It has 5 rows of teeth totaling 3000. Do what you will with that information.)

And of course, we can watch pornography. Hours and hours of sexual images and videos involving (mostly) people in every imaginable combination and location, and some unimaginable ones, too. Never before in history have we had such infinite access to so much sexual stimuli.

When governments around the world put pandemic-related stay-at-home orders in place in March 2020, weekly visits went up sharply in all the affected countries and kept climbing for months.

When COVID-19 struck, we humans took porn consumption up a notch. All the social isolation and boredom drove people to porn on a scale never seen before. In 2019, Pornhub received a whopping 42 billion visits. But when governments around the world put pandemic-related stay-at-home orders in place in March 2020, weekly visits went up sharply in all the affected countries and kept climbing for months.

So, how does porn affect our brains? A 2014 study found that men who watched more porn had less gray matter volume—they literally had smaller brains. This finding caused a whirlwind of headlines and opinions. But is it true? What does it mean? Is porn really bad for us?

As usual, the answers are complicated. Let’s take a look at some interesting themes from neuroscience research on just how exactly pornography affects the way we see, think, feel, and act.

Brains on porn are different

One thing seems true: Brains on porn do appear to look and act somewhat differently. That infamous study from 2014? It found that the more porn men reported watching, the less volume and activity they had in the regions of the brain linked to reward processing and motivation, specifically the striatum.

They also found that connectivity between the striatum and the prefrontal cortex (which is the part of the brain used for decision making, planning, and behavior regulation) weakened the more porn the men reported watching. The researchers thought that, perhaps, we see these differences due to intense stimulation of the reward system, almost as if too much porn was wearing down this system and making it less sensitive.

This brain activity pattern looks awfully similar to the patterns in addiction.

Another...

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What's the Rule About Paragraph Length?

 

A while ago, I saw a comment on Facebook about professors who are teaching college students to make all their paragraphs the same length. The woman wrote, "There are professors at my school who deduct points, sometimes even letter grades, if paragraphs aren't the same exact length throughout a paper. Because writing should be 'balanced' and it can only achieve 'balance' if all paragraphs are equal in length."

Since this is one of the most preposterous things I’ve ever heard, I thought I must have misunderstood, but I asked for clarification and learned that the “uniform paragraph length rule” is so pervasive at this university that one professor uses a ruler to measure physical paragraph length in an introductory English class. Those poor students!

What Is the Purpose of a Paragraph?

Paragraphs represent ideas, and ideas come in many sizes. The most important point should be at the beginning of a paragraph—often, that point is called a topic sentence—and you use the rest of the paragraph to develop the point further.

How Long Should a Paragraph Be?

Both the Yahoo! Style Guide and the popular college handbook A Writer’s Reference (originally written by Diana Hacker, and often referred to as simply Hacker) recommend an average paragraph length of 100 to 200 words, but both also note that good writers treat this as a suggestion and not a hard-and-fast rule. For example, Hacker notes that in essays, introductory and concluding paragraphs are often shorter than other paragraphs, and that in scholarly works, paragraphs are often longer, suggesting “seriousness and depth.” 

It’s also important to mix up your paragraph length for the same reason you mix up your sentence structure: to keep your reader’s eyes from glazing over. Hacker notes that the reasons behind paragraph length aren’t always logical or tied to the “one idea, one paragraph” concept. Besides signaling a shift to a new idea, writers can use paragraph breaks to emphasize a point, to indicate a shift in time or place, or simply to break up text that looks too dense.

Your Audience May Determine What Your Paragraph Length Should Be

...

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What Does ‘Op-Ed’ Mean?

The New York Times is changing the name of its Op-Ed section to Guest Essays. It’s an interesting move, but it reminded me of something many people don’t know about the term “op-ed.” It stands for “opposite editorial,” not “opinion editorial” as many people think.

Op-Ed Pieces Run Opposite the Editorial Page

“Opposite editorial” refers to the pieces’ physical position in the newspaper, not to the opinions being opposite of the newspaper’s opinions, as some other people think. 

These commentaries, guest essays, simply run on the page opposite the editorial page. And that is one reason the New York Times is changing the name: In the digital world, many people aren’t reading the guest essays on a physical page that’s opposite the editorial page, so it’s not a very accurate or descriptive term anymore. 

Origin of the ‘Op-Ed’ Page

Although the New York Times didn’t start running an op-ed page until 1970, the term goes back at least to 1924, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The concept of a page that lives opposite the editorial page and features opinions from outside writers was pioneered a few years earlier in 1921 by the New York World newspaper’s editor and Pulitzer-Prize-winning writer, Harold Swope. 

Swope was friendly with members of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of writers and other creative people, including Dorothy Parker and Harpo Marx, who regularly met for lunch at the Algonquin Hotel, and according to Etymonline, Swope’s “op-ed pages launched the celebrity of many of the Algonquin Round Table writers.”

I find it funny that the New York Times announcement about the change mentions that people sometimes think the term “op-ed” means opinions opposite of editorial, as in the editorial board, and doesn’t mention that many...

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Video: Upper-Body Only Cardio

Over the last couple of weeks, I have had two separate requests for information on how to do cardio without using your legs. The first person just broke her ankle and isn't able to put any weight on her (very casted) foot for a few weeks. The other person is waiting to have hip surgery. While she can do some standing movement, including her physiotherapy movements, it causes her pain that she's hoping to minimize.

Admirably, both of them understand the importance of staying active, even with their own personal afflictions. So I got to work on putting together a routine that should help them not only get their heart rate up but also inspire them to create their own versions. If you're hoping to get an upper-body-only cardio workout, then this workout is for you, too.

In this video, I demonstrate a series of 5 exercises that you can do sitting down or standing up that will raise your heart rate, challenge your range of motion, and test your coordination.

The exercises are:

1. Alternating Side Reaches
2. Alternating Side Rotations
3. Big & Small Arm Circles
4. Three-Way Jabs
5. Sprinter Arms

What is Cardio?

The term cardio is simply short for cardiovascular exercise—an exercise that challenges your heart and lungs. But honestly, I can get my heart pumping and get out of breath while doom-scrolling social media, so there must be a better definition, right?

Personally, I like this definition from my buddy and biomechanist Katy Bowman's podcast. Katy says:

... any exercise that works large groups of muscles, raises your heart rate, and is rhythmic in nature is really what most people mean by cardiovascular exercise and what people writing and doing research in the literature would be calling cardiovascular exercise.

Notice that she did not say "going for a jog" or "using an elliptical machine at the gym," which are two things that many people equate with the word "cardio." And while those activities definitely do fit our definition and belong on our cardio list, there are many other muscle groups we can work that will raise our heart rate, make us breathe heavy, and are rhythmic in nature. Including, but not limited to, waving your arms in the air (like you just don't care). 

So, whether you have a lower-body injury, limited mobility, chronic...

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5 Ways to Actually Make Money Online

You're scrolling through Facebook when you see an ad about how you can make thousands of dollars online from home. You probably wince and think there's no way it's anything but a scam. While the claims you can make thousands of dollars in an hour likely are a sales gimmick, there are plenty of ways to make money online doing things that you love.

Just keep in mind you will not get rich quick, and that it will take hard work and patience.

How Should You Get Paid?

One of the first things to consider when working online is how you are willing to get paid. There are some websites that will pay you in credits to their site—say in the form of a gift card or a subscription. Other websites will pay to a PayPal account or to your bank account, just like a typical employer would.

Now payment method can vary pretty substantially depending on the type of work you are doing, and I would strongly recommend using a service such as PayPal to receive payments at first. The reason for this is that PayPal offers protections on withdrawing and depositing money, and they’ve been in the online payment space longer than most everyone else.

The idea here is to avoid giving out any kind of banking information to a company that you do not have a track record with. There have been many scams that try to snag as much information as possible from you in order to withdraw money for an account, or to try to steal you information and identity. In either case, being paid with PayPal for a while doesn’t hurt and keeps you safe.

Work for Yourself or Someone Else?

Now that we have squared away where the money goes, let’s talk about what you can do online to make money. There are two distinctions to be made: you can work for yourself or you can work for someone else. As you start out, you will most likely find that doing work for an existing company will be more lucrative. This is because an existing company will already have customers, a product or service, and a method of work. This means that you should expect a regular paycheck for work, and that you only have to worry about your specific task.

The other option is to work for yourself, which can be more difficult. It requires you to find customers, deal with billing, make a website, produce audio or video content, and figure out how to monetize it all. While this is challenging, it’s can also be much more lucrative in the long run if you’re successful.

Ultimately, what you decide has to work best for you. If you have a full time job already and you’re just looking to make some side...

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Insider Tips to Cut Auto Insurance Rates for You and Your Teen

Insurance is a critical part of a healthy financial life. Some types of coverage are optional, such as life and disability insurance. But other types, such as auto and homeowners, are required by law or by your lender. 

While every driver must have some amount of auto insurance, you shouldn’t put your policy on autopilot! If you don’t regularly shop and compare rates and take advantage of discounts, you’re probably overpaying to insure your new or used car.

If you don’t regularly shop and compare rates and take advantage of discounts, you’re probably overpaying to insure your new or used car.

I interviewed Leslie Kasperowicz, an insurance expert and managing editor with AutoInsurance.org, for tips on how individuals and families can save money on auto insurance. Unfortunately, if you have a teen driver, the cost of adding them to your policy may be shockingly high. 

Leslie spent several years with a top insurance carrier, working directly with customers. For more than a decade, she’s been an insurance writer, with articles and data studies featured in major publications, including Reader’s Digest, Fox Business, and the Washington Post. 

On the Money Girl podcast, Leslie and I discuss many often-overlooked car insurance discounts and strategies to reduce your auto premium without sacrificing the quality of your coverage. Some of the topics we cover include:

• Data from a 2021 AutoInsurance.org study, Best States for Cheap Teen Auto Insurance, on the most and least expensive states to have a teen driver. 
• Types of cars to consider for teens that save money on auto coverage. 
• Whether teens should purchase auto insurance or be on a parent’s policy. 
• How to avoid common and costly auto insurance mistakes. 
• Many tips for cutting the cost of car insurance and maintaining excellent coverage, and much more....

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Dopamine and Your Diet: What's the Link?

Leilla writes:

Recently I've been reading a bit about l-dopa in foods and supplements. There’s also something called the Dopamine Diet. However, I'm struggling to make sense of the information. Can either of these boost your mood? Or is this just another fad?

The reason Leilla may be struggling to make sense of the information is that a lot of what’s circulating around the internet about diet and dopamine doesn’t actually make a lot of sense.

Let’s start with the idea that foods or supplements that provide L-dopa can improve your mood.

Will foods or supplements containing L-dopa boost your mood?

One of dopamine’s primary functions in the brain is to control and coordinate muscle movements. The tremors and jerky movements that are typical of Parkinson’s disease, for example, are caused by low dopamine production in the brain. A drug called Levodopa (or L-dopa) can help reduce Parkinson’s symptoms by increasing dopamine levels in the brain.

I would not recommend adding velvet beans or L-dopa supplements to your diet. For one thing, L-dopa (whether from the bean or a lab) can be neurotoxic and cause significant side effects.

A natural form of L-dopa is also found in a tropical legume called the velvet bean. In fact, extracts from the velvet bean have been used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine to treat Parkinson’s disease. However, I would not recommend adding velvet beans or L-dopa supplements to your diet in an effort to raise your dopamine levels. For one thing, L-dopa (whether from the velvet bean or a lab) can be neurotoxic and cause significant side effects.

Can you boost your dopamine levels with diet?

The Dopamine Diet, a popular book by British chef Tom Kerridge, doesn’t include any recipes for velvet beans. But it does claim to boost your mood by increasing dopamine levels in the brain.

The idea that boosting your dopamine levels will lift your mood seems to be based on a misunderstanding about how dopamine works in the brain.

Diets that are low in refined carbohydrates and other highly processed foods have been correlated with a lower risk of depression. And the Dopamine Diet does focus on whole and minimally processed foods. But there’s very little evidence that we can change our dopamine levels by manipulating our diet.

More to the point, the idea that boosting your dopamine levels will lift your mood seems to be based on a misunderstanding about how dopamine works in the...

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How to Buy a Diamond Engagement Ring: 9 Essential Steps

The purpose of using a buying guide is to help you narrow down your choices according to the 4 Cs. This way, you can select the best quality based on your budget. Buying diamond jewelry is an investment. Out of all the gems, diamonds are considered the most expensive. It’s no secret that many people get duped into buying fakes. That’s why anyone in the market for a piece should be wary of dubious selling practices. Not only that, choosing diamonds can be quite daunting. And when it’s a loose gem meant for an engagement ring, the options are endless.

When buying a diamond engagement ring, price is most often the priority. And if you don’t want to overpay, you can use a helpful tool such as this diamond pricing guide from Naturally Colored. The purpose of using a buying guide is to help you narrow down your choices according to the 4 Cs. This way, you can select the best quality based on your budget. With that in mind, let’s discuss the nine steps you need to follow when choosing a diamond for an engagement ring.

Step 1: Choose a shape

The gem's shape is critical to the setting and style of the ring. Some shapes are more popular than others, but choosing one is mostly based on what you or your partner prefers. Round diamonds are considered common for engagement rings because the shape highlights the stone's brilliance. However, many people prefer a unique shape such as an oval or cushion.

If you aren't sure of what your partner for an engagement ring, you can ask their friends or relatives, or perhaps look for some inspiration online.

Step 2: Select carat weight

If your fiancée knows a lot about diamond jewelry, then you need to be ready to meet their expectations. The carat weight will determine if the stone is noticeable or dainty. Of course, the higher the carat, the more expensive the gem. A common choice for an engagement ring would be somewhere between 1 and 2. Nevertheless, you can choose a diamond with a weight lower than 1, especially if you’re on a strict budget.

Step 3: Choose cut quality

The cut of a diamond has a significant impact on its appeal and appearance. Many diamond experts make recommendations for high cut quality or whatever they feel ensures the best sparkle. For example, a particular vendor will recommend a diamond graded as Excellent or Ideal cut. If you prefer a fancy-shaped gem, choosing a cut could be more challenging. Unfortunately, without the proper knowledge, you may not know what is a good cut and not all vendors are gem experts. But for that, there is the certificate (see step 7). 

Step 4:...

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How To Get Into A Tech Career Successfully

It is no secret that the technology sector offers high-paying, lucrative, and flexible career opportunities. After all, these positions offer an enticing work-life balance, career growth, and professional development. For tech enthusiasts such as yourself, this allows you to discover new aptitude, challenge yourself with a continuous learning curve, and be your unique, creative self. However, effectively finding and securing a job in tech can be awfully intimidating. Fortunately, there is a lot you can do to make the transition less overwhelming and nerve-wracking. 

Build up your soft skills

First off, it is important to hone the soft skills that are essential for a career in tech. Prospective employers can teach you hard skills, such as coding languages, programming algorithms or data structures. However, you are expected to already be proficient in soft skills, which emphasize your personal qualities and character. For a high-paying tech role, you need to be expert in information synthesizing and troubleshooting. Similarly, it is fundamental to be well-versed in project management, analytics, and perseverance. In fact, you should be extremely seasoned in key principles of effective communication. Other important skills to focus on include resourcefulness and organization. 

Master advanced tech & programming tools

Next, you should master advanced tech and software development tools. Modern information technology (IT) teams rely on several powerful solutions to revamp efficiency, productivity, and project management. For example, you can optimize your pipeline with a Docker registry by JFrog, which will help to automate development, manage distribution, and perform secure vulnerability analyses. Adopting these solutions, you can maximize resource utilization, reliably deploy containers, and better team collaboration. Naturally, these tools help your secure images and gain deeper insights into issues, which will promote operating system stability. 

Attend tech conferences, workshops, & seminars

...

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Why Play Is the Answer if You Hate to Exercise

My guest on today's episode is a fellow named Darryl Edwards. I recently described him to a friend of mine as one of the strongest and most physically capable people I have ever met who also just happens to shun going to the gym, lifting weights, and any other narrow view of exercise. Intrigued? You should be!

Darryl Edwards, Fitness Explorer

Darryl is a former investment banking technologist turned movement coach and author. He is the founder of the Primal Play Method, and a physical activity, health, and play researcher. His Primal Play Method fuses evolutionary biology with the science of physical activity and play psychology.

Like me, Darryl has dedicated himself to inspiring humans—regardless of age, ability, or disability—to transform their health by making physical activity fun and engaging. His work has been featured on documentaries, TV, radio, podcasts, and international press.

Darryl is the author of the best-selling book Animal Moves and has released a range of fun fitness cards for adults, juniors, infants, office workers, and fitness professionals called the Animal Moves Decks. He regularly presents as a keynote speaker at events worldwide. His April 2019 TED talk, "Why working out isn't working out," has now been viewed over 800,000 times.

I encourage you to listen to click on the audio player above or listen wherever you get your podcasts to catch every nuance of our interview. (As you might guess from his accent, Darryl resides in London, England.) Or you can read a transcript of our conversation below.

The Interview

Brock Armstrong

I recall you actually saying the words "I hate exercising" at the begging of your keynote presentation at a health and wellness conference we were both at a few years ago. There was an audible gasp from the audience (or at least from me). Why do you say that you hate exercising?

Darryl Edwards

I feel that exercise is a relatively modern construct. Exercise was only developed to cater to the lack of physical activity that would come up by our normal day-to-day activities. We became more sedentary: from a hunter-gatherer population to agriculturalists to factory workers, to a decrease in manual labor. And with that decline, there's been a greater desire to incorporate physical activities such as exercise as a supplement, as a substitute, as a proxy for the lack of physical activity that we get for our normal daily lives. And so because of that, because there isn't a driver to move based on our...

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How Women Unlock the Power of the Huddle: Interview with Brook Baldwin

In football (at least in the U.S.) teammates huddle together before each play in order to plan a winning strategy. These players have a shared goal—to score!—and each player has a specific role in bringing that play to life.

American journalist Brooke Baldwin, former CNN anchor and host of CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin, gives a female perspective to what she describes as a "male-tinted word." In her new book, Huddle – How Women Unlock Their Collective Power, she examines the power of the huddle off the field, telling incredible stories of women (both extraordinary and “ordinary extraordinary”) who have discovered and harnessed the power of the huddle to support each other in achieving incredible things.

Of the concept of the huddle, Brooke says, "I wanted [us], as women... to flip it on its head, feminize it, and own it."

Listen to the full conversation on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform, or just click the audio player above.

What is a huddle?

What role does the huddle play in empowering women?

The way I'm defining a huddle is where women are energized by the mere fact of their coexistence.

“It's a noun. It's a verb. The way I'm defining a huddle is where women are energized by the mere fact of their coexistence. A huddle can be two women. It can be 2000 women. It's where women thrive, where women succeed, where women get amazing things done. But it can also be a place where women just hold space for one another, where we're quiet, where we bear witness for one another.” 

While women can come together in work, play, prayer, and even at the gym, what really defines the huddle is its intention—“the mission of building a bigger table for women.”

What can a huddle deliver?

Through her research, Brooke interviewed incredible women who harnessed the power of other strong women. These women, collectively, huddled together to achieve amazing impacts seen by the world.

We talked about politician Stacey Abrams and soccer player Megan Rapinoe, whose willingness to link arms and share intention with other women have brought about equality in pay and voice. Both women achieved success early, yet they were moved to share the wealth, one of the...

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5 Cool Reasons for Parents to Learn to Love TikTok

If you pay any attention at all to the news, you've heard about TikTok. There are plenty of news articles that talk about the political uproar that surrounded the platform in 2020, but that's not what we're here to talk about today. If you have a GenZ tween or teen, you can safely bet that they're aware of TikTok at the very least. According to research from Statista, 7 in 10 U.S. teens use TikTok at least once a month.

What the heck is TikTok?

But TikTok isn't just for kids—it has some great benefits for parents, too! But before I talk more about them, let's start at the beginning. What the heck is TikTok?

Nearly two years ago, when my now 15-year-old daughter began using this popular app, I didn't have a clue what it was. I observed her recording crazy dance moves on her smartphone while lipsyncing to hip-hop songs. I asked her what she was doing, and she cheerfully replied, "TikToking!"

Huh?

As someone who primarily thrives in the world of Facebook, I had no idea that TikTok was the hottest new social media platform. I soon learned that TikTok (originally called musical.ly) is a social network for sharing user-generated videos. And just like what I experienced with my daughter, a lot of those videos are of people lip-syncing or dancing to popular songs.

CommonSenseMedia.org's article, the Parents' Ultimate Guide to TikTok, is an incredible resource. It answers practically any question you might have about this hot social media app. The article explained the gist of TikTok like this:

TikTok users sign up with a phone number, an email address, or a third-party account such as Facebook and Instagram. Once logged in, you can search popular creators, categories (comedy, animals, sports), and hashtags to find videos. Or you can use your phone contacts or social media followers to find friends already on the app. Many kids on TikTok like to create videos, but plenty of people don't post themselves—they use the app to find and follow content creators.

Once I understood this app, I was eager to check it out for myself. Within a few days, I realized what all the hype was about. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed TikTok! It was not only entertaining, but I also found I was learning on it as well. Here are five fun and practical ways TikTok can liven up your parenting world. 

5 reasons for parents to use TikTok

Using Tik Tok keeps you tuned in with your kids

Many parents search for ways to connect with their kids. When...

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How to Make Your Dreams Feel Real by Having Lucid Dreams

Last week, we opened up the world of lucid dreaming, an ancient and scientifically measurable practice that gives a dreamer the power to manipulate their dreams. We took a candid, scientific look at this sci-fi-sounding concept. And it turns out that neuroscientists have not only been able to measure lucid dreaming in the brain but even to hold two-way communication with a lucid dreamer in real-time. In an astonishing study published just this year, one lucid dreamer was fighting goblins while (correctly) answering the question coming from the sky: “What is six minus two?” And he did it all while staying asleep.

What happens when you try lucid dreaming?

This study got me so excited about lucid dreaming that I decided to give it a try this past week.

A little spoiler: It wasn’t easy. But on the fourth night of my self-study, I did manage to have a brief lucid moment just as I disembarked from a sky boat onto a long slide made of clouds. As I suddenly became aware that I was dreaming, I concentrated hard on this knowledge and told myself to fly… and it worked! I soared through the sky until I woke up.

How did I do it? Today, let’s walk through the scientifically documented methods for cultivating lucid dreaming.

Before we jump in, a reminder that some researchers have raised concerns about lucid dreaming, including the possibility that it could disrupt overall sleep quality if a person does it too often. There is also concern that frequent lucid dreaming could blur the lines between reality and dream, increasing the risk for psychosis or dissociation. More research is still needed to fully understand these potential risks. For now, “everything in moderation” seems like a good mantra. And if you’re at risk for psychosis or are prone to feeling detached from your body or reality, you should check with your doctor before trying to lucid dream.

How to lucid dream

Start by keeping a dream logbook

Dream researchers have known for a long time that people who generally remember their dreams more often are also more likely to lucid dream. So, to set the table for our lucid dreaming program, we can begin by getting into a more dream-aware mindset overall.

Using either of these methods for a week significantly increased the number of dreams people remembered.

How can we remember our dreams more often? Simply by paying attention and noting them down. You can go as far as keeping a detailed dream journal that describes your...

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How to Clean a Coffee Maker

If you’re like me, you like your morning cup of Joe to get you going. My husband and I tend to drink a couple cups each day to get, and keep, us going.The thing that many coffee drinkers don’t realize is that their coffee maker could be filled with bacteria, mold, and scale deposits. Not only do those additional “ingredients” affect the taste of the coffee, but they can also be giving you an unwanted dose of gross with each cup you drink.

There was a study published in November of 2015 that revealed between 35 and 67 different bacteria living in the coffee makers they tested. This study focused on a particular brand of single cup coffee makers, but similar findings have been discovered in the past with other types of coffee makers. That means that, no matter what type of coffee maker you use, it likely has some level of unwanted bacteria floating around in it.

Domestic CEO also covered How to Clean Every Small Kitchen Appliance 

Luckily, cleaning a coffee maker is a very easy process. It takes just a minute or two each day, and then about five minutes of hands-on work each month. Going through the quick steps to clean your coffee maker on a regular basis will help ensure that you are getting the best tasting coffee on the block and aren’t getting any of the additional ickies in your brew.

Daily cleaning of your coffee maker

On a daily basis, it’s important to take a few steps to clean out your coffee maker. Bacteria loves warm, damp environments, so it makes sense that it can start to grow in the coffee maker.

To clean your coffee maker each day, first allow it to cool. The water that gets sent through the machine gets very hot, so opening the top door can release a bunch of steam the can cause burns. Also, some coffee carafes are made of glass. If you take the glass carafe straight from the heating element to cooler washing water, it may cause the glass to shatter. To make sure that you are staying safe, turn off the coffee maker and allow it to cool for at least 30 minutes before cleaning it out.

An easy way to remember to let your machine cool off before cleaning is to simply turn it off when you pour your last cup, and clean it when you bring that cup back into the kitchen when you’re finished.

Once the coffee maker is cooled, open the top and remove the used grounds. Toss them into the trash, or put them in your compost pile if you use them for your gardening.

Next, remove the filter basket, carafe, and any other removable parts from the machine. Use a...

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2 Things That Make English Weird

Is English “weird”? Many of us might feel this is true when we’re trying to explain the complex spelling rules of the language, or the meanings of idioms such as “it’s raining cats and dogs” to someone who is learning English. Teaching or learning any language is, however, never an easy task.

But what is a “weird” language anyway? As linguists, we generally aim to be as objective as possible in the study of human language. We view ourselves as language scientists who make hypotheses about how humans use language and test them against linguistic data. Unlike so-called “language police”, we believe it is important to avoid where possible making value judgements about language.

Some computational linguists have used data in the World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) to explore (tongue firmly in cheek) which languages might be considered the “weirdest”. This was not just a value judgement: they systematically compared the information in the WALS website for 239 languages from different parts of the world.

Their aim was to find out which languages had the largest number of features that differed most from other languages. In this survey, English came in 33rd position out of 239 languages. So it definitely has more atypical features than over 80% of the other languages in the survey.

Critics have however claimed the survey was too biased as it used only a few features of the world’s many languages. Indeed, there are aspects of English that are not unusual compared to many other languages, such as its dominant subject-verb-object word order. But let’s look here at two features of English that might in fact be unusual.

English sounds strange

English probably sounds a little strange to many speakers of other languages. According to the WALS, the average number of distinctive speech sounds in the world’s languages is about 25-30 – known as “phonemes”. Pirahã, an indigenous language spoken in the Amazon region of Brazil, has an unusually small set of phonemes. It has eight...

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The Intrusive 'Of'

One day last week was a red-letter day for me. I was reading in my local newspaper an article about the deal by which, in 1947, the Cleveland Indians bought Larry Doby’s contract from the Newark Eagles, making Doby the first African-American to play in the American League.  The price was a seemingly low $15,000. However, the article quoted a baseball historian, Jim Overmyer, as saying that relatively speaking, it wasn’t so low, because no other Black player fetched “that good [of] a price at that time.” The reason I was so excited was that the word “of” was in brackets.

In other words, in the interview, Overmyer had used the phrase “that good a price.” In the article the reporter added the word “of,” in brackets—meaning to correct the grammar, make the meaning clear, or both.

The intrusive 'of' is similiar to another use of 'of'

The construction in question is “[qualifier/intensifier] [adjective] of a [noun]”—“too big of a portion for me to eat,” “not that hard of a decision to make,” “not too good of a time,” and so on. It is traditionally and technically non-standard English, otherwise known as “wrong.” But I had observed it gaining popularity for some time, first in speech and then, more and more frequently, in print. I was fascinated by the newspaper example because it represented a milestone: the reporter felt it was so self-evident that the “of” was proper and good that he felt compelled to correct Overmyer’s (actually correct) sentence.

The prolific writer on grammar and style Bryan Garner coined a name for this  construction: “intrusive of.” It has a pretty long history. Presumably, it derives from a similar construction which is unimpeachable: “[noun/pronoun] of a [noun].” For example—“prince of a fellow,” “giant of a senator,” “not that that much of a problem,” and “enough of a delay.”

It began with 'considerable of'

In the United States (but not Great Britain), it all seems to have begun in the nineteenth century when “of” sneaked into phrases with one particular adjective: “considerable.” Mark Twain writes of the time a brick came through the window “and gave me considerable of a jolt in the back.” In his 1946 autobiography, William Allen White writes of someone who was...

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6 Ways to Save and Invest Money for Kids

Heather Q. says:

I love the Money Girl podcast! I just opened a 12-month CD for my daughter and plan to give her the money when she’s an adult. But I have about eight more years to save for her. Should I open new CDs as I save more, or should I add money to the same CD once it matures?

Thanks for your question, Heather! I know your daughter will be thrilled to have a financial leg up as she launches and becomes independent. If you also have children or are thinking about starting a family, it’s essential to get familiar with strategies and accounts that make it a little easier to save and invest for your kids.

This post will answer Heather’s question by reviewing six savings options and the pros and cons for each one. Plus, I’ll discuss when to begin saving for a child’s future and how it should fit into your big financial picture.

When should you begin saving for kids?

Being a parent means you've got plenty of expenses and maybe ongoing financial stress. You want the best for your children, but you also need to make wise decisions for your own future. While the cost of college seems to rise faster than hot air, we're living longer and may have less Social Security retirement income to count on in the future. That means you likely need a bigger nest egg than you think.

My point is that you should never forgo saving for your retirement to pay for a kid's college or any other significant expenses. Instead, create a financial plan that includes your retirement and savings for kids as soon as you start a family.

The sooner you begin saving for short- and long-term goals, the less stress you'll feel in your budget and emotionally. If you get a late start and can't afford to pay for a child's education, don't feel guilty about it. Remember, putting retirement first is in your entire family's best interest.

If you sacrifice your financial security for your kids, you may find yourself relying on them to support you in your old age!

If you sacrifice your financial security for your kids, you may find yourself relying on them to support you in your old age! While it might seem coldhearted for a parent to refuse to pay for a child's education, don't forget that kids have options, such as working, getting scholarships, and taking out federal student loans.

But there no loans or grants to support you after you stop working. If you're less than 20 years from retirement and haven't reached 80% of your savings goal, stay exclusively focused on building your retirement nest egg.

Again, shore up your financial well-being first, even if that means saving nothing or less than you'd like for your kids....

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Why Is Weight Loss Harder for Some than Others?

If you have excess body weight, the standard advice is to eat less and move more. Of course, we all know this is easier said than done.

For one thing, it takes a lot of work to change deeply ingrained habits and behavior patterns. It’s hard to move more when our workplaces are designed for sitting and our neighborhoods are designed for driving. It’s hard to eat less when you’re constantly surrounded by hyper-palatable food. It’s also challenging to eat less when you’ve learned to use food to cope with stress or soothe your emotions.

These are all issues that a good behavior modification program can help with. But It’s also really hard to eat less when your brain is sending you the wrong signals about whether you’ve had enough to eat.

If you have excess body weight, the standard advice is to eat less and move more. Of course, we all know this is easier said than done.

Hunger (the urge to eat or to seek food) and satiation (the feeling that you’re full and don’t want more food) are both regulated in the hypothalamus, the most primitive part of the brain. The hypothalamus responds to hormonal signals being sent from different organs of the body via various chemical messengers. When this system is working as it should, our hunger increases when our body needs energy and decreases when it doesn’t. The result is a stable body weight.

But sometimes, the system goes awry. Dr. Gabriel Smolarz is an endocrinologist specializing in the treatment of obesity. Here’s how he explains it:

"The hypothalamus is receiving all of these different inputs and processing the situation to then say: Should we eat? Should we not eat? Should we stop eating? We conclude that there's dysregulation when the gas tank is full, but the hypothalamus is indicating an empty tank."

If your brain is receiving the wrong signals about whether or not you need food, this is obviously going to make it much more difficult for you to eat less.

Are genetics to blame for obesity?

Dysregulation of appetite signals can be due to genetics—similar to the way you might inherit a dysfunction in your body’s ability to regulate your cholesterol levels or blood pressure. This may be at least part of the reason that obesity, like high cholesterol, runs in families.

Of course, our genetics haven’t changed that much in the last 100 years, while the incidence of obesity has skyrocketed. But genes aren’t always destiny. Sometimes they need an environmental trigger to...

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10 All-Natural DIY Fertilizers for Your Garden and Yard

Hydrogen Peroxide for Plant Roots

Help strengthen your plant’s root system with hydrogen peroxide—the extra pump of oxygen from the peroxide prevents root rot and over-watering. Just mix a tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide with 2 cups water, and water your plant with the solution. Its disinfectant properties will fend off bacteria, mold, fungus, and other nasty soil-borne diseases.

Cereal Crumb Fertilizer

Did you know that cereal crumbs are great for plants? They supply much-needed nutrients to the soil, which makes sense given that they’re grains that came from the soil in the first place! Instead of shaking the box over the trash before ripping it up for recycling, dump the remains of the flakes into your houseplants or garden for a treat they’ll love.

Wondering what else you can do with leftover cereal? Check out Clever Cookstr's 93 Ways to Cook with Crispy Rice Cereal

Make Your Own Bonemeal

As you may know, bonemeal is an excellent source of nutrients for your plants. But instead of spending $8–$10 on a bag at your local gardening store, make your own! Bonemeal is just bones, after all. Save bones from chicken, turkey, steaks, and stews, then dry them out by roasting them in a 425ºF oven for a half an hour or microwaving them on high for 1–6 minutes (depending on how many bones you have). Then place them in a plastic or paper bag and grind them up by hitting them with a hammer, then rolling them with a rolling pin. Mix the resulting powder into your soil for a life-producing treat for your plants. And you didn’t spend a cent!

A Must-Have for Growing Carrots and Tomatoes

The best thing you can give your carrot and tomato plant seeds is also what keeps you going during the day—coffee! Carrots and tomatoes both need extra nitrogen, which coffee has in spades. Mix the seeds with coffee grounds (used is fine) before you plant them. The coffee will provide your growing plants with the nitrogen they need, while having some extra bulk to plant will ensure they don’t end up all lumped together.

What else can coffee do? Read Ask Science's Health Benefits of Coffee

Slow-Release Nitrogen

For plants...

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Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier

The next season of Unknown History will be released later this summer, but today, we have something special to share with you. It’s an exclusive excerpt from a new must-listen history audiobook, Blood and Treasure by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin.

In the mid-eighteenth century, the 13 American colonies were packed full of anxious colonists. They were desperate to conquer and settle North America’s “First Frontier," the land beyond the Appalachian Mountains. But they weren't the only ones after the land, and so began a series of bloody battles. The colonists would wage war against Native American tribes, the French, and finally the mother country itself in an American Revolution destined to reverberate around the world.

This is the setting of Blood and Treasure, and the guide to this epic narrative is America’s first and greatest pathfinder, Daniel Boone—not the coonskin cap-wearing caricature of popular culture but the flesh-and-blood frontiersman and Revolutionary War hero whose explorations into the frontier would become the stuff of legend. Now, thanks to painstaking research by two award-winning authors, the story of the brutal birth of the United States is told through the eyes of the men and women who witnessed it.

Fueled by contemporary diaries and journals, newspaper reports, and eyewitness accounts, this fast-paced and fiery narrative is a stirring chronicle of the conflict over America’s “First Frontier” that places the reader at the center of this remarkable epoch and its gripping tales of courage and sacrifice.

Click the red player above for an exclusive segment from the audiobook. If you like what you hear, you can buy Blood and Treasure now here or wherever books are sold.

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Humans and Robots: Understanding Our Connection

With a big surge of interest in artificial intelligence and robotics in  the past few years, the press is eagerly speculating about our future with  robots, with headlines like “Will Robots Steal Your Job?,” “The Robots Are Coming, Prepare for Trouble,” and “Welcome, Robot Overlords. Please Don’t Fire Us?” In 2013, a widely promoted University of Oxford study predicted that almost half of all employment in the United States was at high risk of being replaced by robots and AI within ten to twenty  years, and others have predicted even greater vulnerability. Technology is advancing at a breathtaking pace, they say. And robots, the story goes, will soon be able to do everything that humans do, while never tiring, never complaining, and working twenty-four hours a day. A 2017 Pew Research study showed that 77 percent of Americans think that during  their lifetime, robots and AI will be able to do many of the jobs currently done by humans. According to Pew surveyor Aaron Smith, most  people “are not incredibly excited about machines taking over those responsibilities.”

Not only are we on the cusp of the robot job takeover, say the headlines; some believe the robots will take over more than our jobs. Artificial intelligence, they claim, is on the threshold of outsmarting us. Respected thinkers have raised concerns about artificial superintelligence, predicting that robots could outpace human intelligence and wreak havoc on the world. From Stephen Hawking to Elon Musk, these high-profile individuals have sounded the alarm on what they view as the greatest threat to humanity, fanning the flames of latent fears. It’s easy for people to get on board with the robot takeover narrative, at least in the West. After all, most of our mainstream science-fictional portrayal of robots has been around precisely this topic, from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Ex Machina.

New technologies often inspire concern, but perhaps not quite in the same way as robots. According to tech philosophy and ethics scholars Peter Asaro and Wendell Wallach, our robot narratives throughout  history are about good robots turning evil, either turning against their genius creators, like Frankenstein’s monster, or turning against human civilization at large. Is this because robots inherently pose this threat? It’s worth noting that this fear seems culturally specific. Karel Čapek’s famous...

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How to Build Balance and Strength with a BOSU

Whether you call it a half dome, BOSU Balance Trainer, or just a BOSU, this fitness training device consists of an inflated rubber hemisphere attached to a rigid flat plastic platform. And because it looks like a stability ball that has been cut in half, you may even have heard it referred to as the "blue half-ball." But the name BOSU is actually an acronym for "BOth Sides Up" or “BOth Sides Utilized” because this versatile little fitness pillow can be used with either the dome side or the platform side facing up. 

The name BOSU is an acronym for 'BOth Sides Up' or 'BOth Sides Utilized.' Its half-dome half-platform can help improve your balance, stability, mobility, and strength, depending on how you use it.

The BOSU was originally developed to train balance because when the dome side is facing up, it provides the user with an unstable surface to stand on while the entire device itself remains completely still. And if the flat side is facing up, it provides a solid surface that has an unstable base. And it is this combination of still, flat and unstable that makes this device so versatile and useful. 

The BOSU’s half-dome half-platform can help improve your balance, stability, mobility, and strength, depending on how you use it. The BOSU’s unique shape can make it the perfect item for spicing up your home gym. 

BOSU and Balance

In a scientific study, researchers found that 12 weeks of proprioception training on a BOSU and Swiss Ball was effective in postural stability, static balance, and dynamic balance. They concluded that using a BOSU could lead to an improvement in gait and balance capacity and decrease the risk of falling in adults aged 65 years and older. 

A portion of these successful results was attributed to an increase in the participant’s core strength.

These results were seen after volunteers did various standing and sitting exercises, with their eyes open and closed, twice a week for 50 minutes each session. 

While balance is made up of many components, including the vestibular system (inner ear and the pathways to the brainstem), a portion of these successful results was attributed to an increase in the participant’s core strength. 

BOSU and core Strength

It’s easy to see how a device like this would benefit and build our balance, much in the same way that walking on uneven ground or doing an obstacle course would. But one of the most impressive features of the BOSU is how effective it is at...

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Are Your Critics Actually the Secret to Success?

Six years ago, as I prepared to launch my consulting business, I was fueled by the overwhelming support and validation I received from friends and family. Clearly I was onto something ... because everyone around me told me so.

But one night, just before my shingle was hung, I had a chat with a cynical uncle that gave me pause. “What if you don’t find clients?” he asked. “Or what if you find too many and you can’t juggle the work? Or you make a big mistake? Or there is too much competition out there?”

This conversation let the air out of my tires. But it's also the one that prompted me to sharpen and refine the business I ultimately launched. And by my standards, it’s absolutely been a success.

Cheerleading is great. But sometimes, it’s exactly the opposite we need to hear.

When you have an idea—a business, a product, or just something different you’d like to try at work—it’s natural to seek out supporters. We get a boost of confidence from everyone who's will tell us why our idea is a win. And cheerleading is great. But sometimes, it’s exactly the opposite we need to hear.

As the Harvard Business Review reports:

Avoiding negative feedback is both wrong-headed and dangerous. Wrong-headed because, when delivered the right way, at the right time, criticism is, in fact, highly motivating. Dangerous because without awareness of the mistakes he or she is making, no one can possibly improve.

So if you’re ready to bring an idea or an inkling from good to great, let’s talk about how you can find and harness the right critics to help you make it shine.

1. Find the right people 

Have you ever heard of the Segway? Invented in 2001, it was a brilliantly designed “self-balancing personal transporter.” Technologically, it was genius. And its inventor, Dean Kamen, brought it to market with gusto.

Game-changing though its design was, the product ultimately flopped. Why? Because, according to this Fast Company piece, “Nobody involved in the project ever really stepped back to ask whether consumers would be willing to spend a few thousand dollars to buy a product that helps them achieve a goal they can already satisfy for free. It would have been useful to have more people in the inner management team calling into question the core market assumptions at the basis of the business model....

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Change Your Child's Rebellious Behavior with 4 Positive Strategies

One of the best parenting tips I gleaned from our pediatrician was that kids secretly thrive on having rules and boundaries. Because of her keen advice, I hit the ground running with a loving set of family expectations when we began raising our brood of eight.

My once easygoing daughter announced she didn't have to help with her chores any longer ... because she didn't feel like it.

She was right! My kids always did better when they had firm expectations. As they grew, we tweaked them. However, I vividly remember when there was a shift in my kid's attitudes about our household rules. My once easygoing daughter announced she didn't have to help with her chores any longer ... because she didn't feel like it. And my usually eager-to-please tween son decided he was no longer going to walk the dog and take out the trash before he started his homework. And that was if, in fact, he even did his homework at all.

Huh? What was going on here?

Why does rebellious behavior happen in children?

Parents know their kids better than anyone. If you've noticed behaviors that don't reflect the personality you're used to seeing from your child, do some investigating to figure out what might be going on. The source might be as simple as your teen being districted by having a crush on a girl in biology class. Or maybe it's more challenging, like your tween being bullied by the mean girls during lunch. Circumstances like those can make for unexpected changes in your child's behavior.

It's normal for teens to test authority when they want to exert their independence and get out from under their parent's constant watch and supervision.

But under any circumstances, it's normal for teens to test authority when they want to exert their independence and get out from under their parent's constant watch and supervision. Studies have shown that a teen's brain is still not done forming and growing, which can lead to emotional outbursts. David Elkind, Ph.D., author of All Grown Up and No Place to Go and professor of child development at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, explains that:

During the teenage years, the area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex is developing. This is the part of your brain that is behind your forehead. It's your thinking cap and judgment center, which means kids can now develop their ideals and ideas.... In turn, this means that younger children don't see the flaws in their parents, whereas adolescents suddenly see the world more realistically.

David Elkind, Ph.D,...

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How Professional SEO Services Can Help Your Website

No matter what type of business you are in today, having a strong online presence is very important. While this includes having a good social media and digital marketing campaign, finding a way to attract customers to your website continues to be important as well. One way that you can find more customers is by attracting them through major search engines. To do this, you should consider working with a professional SEO service. Professional SEO services can help your website in a variety of different ways.

No matter what type of business you are in today, having a strong online presence is very important.

Consultation for current website

When you hire a professional to help with SEO, the first thing that they will do is provide you with a consultation on your current website. The service will be able to provide you with data on where your visitors are coming from, how many visitors you are receiving and what is attracting visitors and customers to competitor’s websites as well. They can then help you identify what part of the website is attracting customers and what may be reducing visitation. They can show you what landing pages are effective and what landing pages could use some improvement.

Development of strategy

A professional SEO service can also provide you with the guidance to help you develop a strategy for your website. After assessing the strengths and weaknesses of your website, the team can help you develop a strategy that will be effective to maximize the SEO position of your website. This can include coming up with target phrases that will help you to attract your desired customer base and including content that will help improve the overall integrity and quality of your website. A lot of aspects of SEO require strategy and expertise, such as creating a landing page that converts. Professional SEO services know the best practices for landing pages and what is needed to improve SEO rankings and increase conversions.

Implementation of SEO strategy

Once you have agreed upon a strategy with the SEO service provider, the next thing that they will do is implement it for you. The SEO service will spend time...

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Lucid Dreaming: Can You Really Control Your Dreams?

Have you ever flown through the clouds or swum with unicorn dolphins? Done somersaults in zero gravity? I have! Maybe not in real life, but I’ve been lucky enough to have some amazing dreams that felt so real I could have been in the movie Inception.

How cool would it be if you could create these dreams yourself? Or at least realize you’re dreaming in the middle of one so you can do whatever you please? Well, some people can. They practice lucid dreaming, where the dreamer becomes aware that they’re dreaming and may even gain some control over the dream content.

Lucid dreaming is where the dreamer becomes aware that they’re dreaming and may even gain some control over the dream content.

Lucid dreaming has been part of spiritual practice around the world for centuries. Tibetan monks have called it “dream yoga,” where dreamers train themselves to recognize they’re in a dream and learn to control dream content. Islamic scriptures have described lucid dreaming as a special mental state for reaching the mystical. A 4th-century Christian theologian believed lucid dreaming to be a preview of the afterlife.

These days, scientists and spiritualists alike practice this ancient art. One of the pioneers of modern research on lucid dreaming is Stephen La Berge, a scientist who kept a detailed dream diary for three years and, during that time, developed a lucid dreaming technique. He published his experiences as a case study in 1980, at which point he was reporting multiple lucid dreams per night.

How did he do it? Is it even a real thing? If so, is it a good idea to practice lucid dreaming? In this two-part series, we’ll take a trip through the neuroscience of lucid dreaming, learn how to decide if it’s a good idea for you, and explore practical how-to tips for cultivating your own lucid dreams. In part one, we start with the question:

Is lucid dreaming even a real thing?

Is lucid dreaming a real brain phenomenon?

Neuroscientists have been honing in on a method to prove that lucid dreaming is a real brain state that you can measure. Just this year, an international team of researchers published a set of bombshell studies in the journal Current Biology with the most compelling...

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How To Speedwrite and Increase Your Productivity

Look! On the page! It's a bird! It's a plane! Faster than a speeding bullet… it's Super Writer! 

Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, being Super Writer isn’t completely realistic. While all writers dream of getting a manuscript down in one go, it’s never actually like that — in fact, the writing process is often long, requiring a lot of thinking time and numerous revisions. 

But that doesn’t mean it’s time to give up! Nearly everybody who writes wishes they were able to write much quicker than they do, and the good news is that speed-writing is possible with hard work — and some tricks up your sleeve. Here are 12 tips to get more words on the page in less time. 

1. Write at the right time 

In other words: determine your “golden hours” for writing. No one writer is the same, so the first step to speedwriting is understanding how you write — and when you work best. 

Learn to become in tune with your own rhythm and lifestyle choices, so that you use your energy wisely and work at times that are optimal for you. While some people might swear by an early start, if you’re not a morning person, well… you’re just not a morning person! Others who have kids may want to capitalize on kid-free daycare times to write. Whenever your own productivity peak is, find it to maximize your writing output. 

2. Make a basic outline first

Going into writing with nothing planned is likely to be a daunting prospect — and the one thing you don’t want to do is feel overwhelmed before you’ve even started your novel. For this reason, drawing up a skeleton structure before you get down to putting words on a page is going to help the words flow more smoothly. This goes for everything from a book to a blog post. Instead of pausing to spend an hour deliberating over your character’s next move or the next point you want to make, you’ll know exactly what’s coming.

3. Leave the editing for later

We’ve all been there — laboring over a sentence that we just can’t seem to get right. By-and-large, these deliberations drain us of our time and distract us from our ultimate goal: getting words on the page quicker. 

Try not to spend more than 10 to 15 seconds on any corrections. While all great work is subject to great editing, it’s much better to treat this as a distinct process that comes after you have your entire first draft nailed...

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Why Is the Letter W a Double U?

Teachers, jump to the bottom for lesson ideas.

VOICEMAIL: “Hi, Grammar Girl. I have a question about a letter of the alphabet. I always grew up singing W, X, Y, and Z; but when I was taking German class in college, W was pronounced “double-veh,” and that got me thinking about what's up with that letter. The W to us looks like two V's put together, unless you're doing cursive, and then it can kinda look like two U’s put together. But neither one is correct in saying "v-v" or "u-u," or so what's up with the letter W and it’s weird name. Thank you.”

Like many of the words we use in English, we have Latin to thank for our alphabet. With only a few exceptions, the letters we know and love trace their roots at least back to ancient Rome.

One of those exceptions, however, is the weird and wonky letter W. 

The letter W is young

The letter W is one of the youngest letters of the English alphabet, not arriving until somewhere around the 11^th century, and has the distinction of being the only one named after a different letter of the alphabet. Not only that, based on the way we almost always see the letter printed, it’s not even named after the correct other letter!

Our caller isn’t the only one to wonder why we call a letter that looks like two V’s that have been welded together “double U.”

The answer, weirdly, is that the name of the letter is much older than the letter itself.

Latin didn't have a W sound

Back in the 7^th century, when English started being written using Latin letters, there was a problem with how to write the /w/ sound. Latin had no such sound, and so had never developed a letter for it. 

Since it was slightly similar to the sound represented by the letter U, that seemed like a natural choice, but English also had a /u/ vowel sound, so early scribes started using “uu” to represent that specific sound.

After about a hundred years of that, people in Britain started using a letter from the Runic alphabet called “wyn,” which looks a bit like a combination of lowercase letter P and a backwards “y” (“ƿ”), and before long the “uu” all but disappeared on the island.

UU became common in Europe

Although the “uu” convention disappeared in England, it continued in Europe. Some German dialects adopted it for their /w/ sound, and French, like Latin, didn’t have a letter W, so “uu” was used to represent Germanic or Celtic loan words and proper names with that sound in...

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Bonus: WorkLife with Adam Grant

Today, I’m excited to share a special episode of WorkLife with Adam Grant, a podcast from the TED Audio Collective.

Everyone’s career will hit some turbulence at some point. The past year has left us all reacting to dramatic change. Instead of pushing harder against the headwinds, we’re sometimes better off tilting our rudder and charting a new course.

In this episode, you'll hear from people who have taken unusual steps to battle uncertainty, rethought their approach to finding and landing a job, and reached out for help in unexpected places. You'll also hear from an expert on recessions who forecasts the future by looking to the past. 

Click the red audio player above to listen to the episode. And if you like what you hear, subscribe to WorkLife anywhere you get your podcasts. 

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Video: How to Use a Stationary Bike for Active Recovery

Recovering between sets of high-intensity intervals doesn't have to include sitting on a bench scrolling through Instagram or taking selfies in the gym mirror. In fact, you can continue moving your body in interesting ways (like pedaling a ProForm Pro 22 studio bike) while you recover.

Because let's face it, we came here to work out, not to make (or entertain) friends.

The workout I demonstrate in this video goes like this:

• Warm-up with some easy cycling
• 30 seconds of High Intensity (running on the spot with high knees)
• Cycle easy again until your heart rate returns to your aerobic zone
• 30 seconds of High Intensity (burpees)
• Cycle easy again until your heart rate recovers
• 30 seconds of High Intensity (jumping jacks)
• Cool down with some easy cycling

You don't have to use a stationary bike or do burpees. You can do an easy jog between sets of bench press, or clean the kitchen between sets of pull-ups. Anything that keeps your body moving while also allowing you to get ready for your next set will do. 

Check out Get-Fit Guy's Hate Burpees? Here's How to Love Challenging Exercises to learn more about embracing exercises we all love to hate.

The great thing about active recovery is that it maximizes your workout time and actually makes your recovery time more effective by flushing metabolic byproducts out of your muscles quicker and keeping your momentum up. Like the old saying goes: a meat-sack in motion stays in motion. Or something like that.

Like the old saying goes: a meat-sack in motion stays in motion. Or something like that.

Measuring recovery

The key here is to make sure you are truly recovering between your hard sets. That means the movement you choose to do needs to be easy enough that your heart rate can come down and your body can flush the lactate from your muscles. In the video, I use an arm monitor and the iFit interface on my bike to keep an eye on my heart rate so I can see when I am back into my MAF heart rate zone. 

If you're training longer than an hour, you're making friends, not training.

Charles Poliquin

The heart rate formula I use and mention in the video is...

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Nutrition Diva User Survey 2021 Sweepstakes

15 Things You Didn't Know Tea Could Do

Household helper

Make dinner clean-up a breeze

Remove cooked-on food from pots and pans effortlessly by filling them with water, adding a tea bag, and simmering. The tea’s acid will break up food, so no harsh scrubbing is needed.

Protect your stove

Crazy but true: You can use tea to keep gunk from sticking to your stove. Brew a pot of tea that is four times normal strength, then wipe it on your stove. The tannins in the tea will make it hard for grease and food to stick, giving you the gift of quick and easy cleaning.

Tea takes away odors

We hate to throw anything away, so we love this way to repurpose used tea bags. Place them in a bowl and put them at the back of your refrigerator or drop a few dried ones in the bottom of your trash can. They’ll remove odors just as well as baking soda!

Erase pen marks from skin

Our kids drive us crazy by writing notes and drawing all over their hands (thankfully, not answers to tests, as far as we know). The fastest way to clean them up? Green or black tea bags. Once you’ve brewed a cup of tea, use the wet bag to dab at ink stains.

Fight fungus on your plants

Brew up an extra-strong cup of chamomile tea, and spray the cooled tea all over the leaves. Repeat daily until the fungus is gone.

Who Knew has a lot of plant tips! Check out 6 Things You Didn't Know Could Fertilize Your Houseplants

Treat your grass

Did you know that watering your plants with tea every now and then is good for them, because it supplies them with nutrients that help them grow? In fact, using tea bags when planting new grass can be your secret to success. Wet the bags, then lay them in the dirt to make an inviting “bed” for the grass seeds. Then sprinkle on the seeds and water frequently.

Guard garden tools

Toss a handful of tea leaves in whatever container you keep your garden tools in. The leaves will help keep the metal nice, new, and rust-free.

Health and beauty

Pore-cleansing, stress-relieving facial 

This super-effective pore cleanser couldn’t be simpler.

1. Place three bags of chamomile tea in a medium-size bowl, and cover with several cups of boiling water.
2. Cover the bowl with a towel, and allow the tea to steep for 10 minutes.
3. Remove the towel, place it over your head, and hold your face over the bowl.

The steam will open your pores, and the chamomile will help unclog them. (As a bonus, chamomile is also a great stress reliever!) After 5 to 10 minutes, rinse your face with cold water. Alternatively, you can use...

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7 Must-Know Financial Tips Before You Start a Side Hustle

Years ago, I broke away from the traditional nine-to-five world and started working for myself. I wanted to do fulfilling work without fighting layers of bureaucracy or attending hours of company meetings. But I started my entrepreneurial journey slowly by creating a business on the side. Keeping my day job allowed me to test out my business ideas while maintaining my extra income.

Keeping my day job allowed me to test out my business ideas while maintaining my extra income.

If you also pine for the freedom and flexibility to do truly gratifying work and wake up excited about being your own boss, you can do what I did, too. Even starting a part-time business on the side has plenty of benefits. Today we'll look at critical financial issues to consider before you begin a venture that will help you succeed. 

7 financial tips for starting a successful side hustle

Here's more detail on each of these must-know financial considerations before you become an entrepreneur.

1. Determine your business entity

When you work for yourself, there's a lot to do. You might need to look for new clients, create deliverables for current clients, bill customers, search contractors, or do a million other things. But one of the first tasks you should do is choose a business entity.

Your business entity determines your business structure according to the laws in your state. You'll need to know your business entity and name before getting a business bank account, insurance, or paying taxes.

However, choosing a business entity can also be a passive decision. If you don't register your business with the state, you'll automatically be a sole proprietor. That's why many self-employed people start as sole proprietors by default. In fact, if you're doing freelance work or have a small side hustle, you may have a sole proprietorship right now and not even realize it.

The reason you may not want to remain a sole proprietor indefinitely is that there's no distinction or legal separation between you and your business.

There isn't one best entity for a given business, and it's not a binding decision. As your business needs change, it's possible to change your entity. Some common business entities include:

• Sole proprietorship 
• General Partnership 
• Limited liability company (LLC) 
• C corporation 
• S corporation

Most small businesses start as a sole proprietorship and then change to a corporation or LLC as they grow. The reason you may not want to remain a sole proprietor indefinitely is that there's no...

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Is Seitan Healthy? (And What the Heck Is It, Anyway?)

My editor, who is way cooler than me, has been hanging out on TikTok lately and says she is seeing lots of videos about cooking with seitan. Apparently, this meat substitute is having a bit of a moment. But plenty of people are still unfamiliar with this ingredient: What the heck is it, how does it stack up nutritionally, and how do you eat it?

Apparently, seitan is having a bit of a moment. But the food it refers to has been a staple in Asian cultures for at least 15 centuries.

Seitan is not a new thing. The word (pronounced say-tan) is Japanese and was coined just 50 years ago by one of the proponents of the macrobiotic diet. But the food it refers to has been a staple in Asian cultures for at least 15 centuries. I remember seeing it (but not buying it) at the Food Coop I belonged to as an undergraduate at Boston University. Although that was not quite 15 centuries ago, it was still long before the days of Whole Foods stores and yoga studios on every corner. Back then, food coops (and health food, in general) occupied a sort of a fringe culture left over from the Age of Aquarius.

Today, of course, plant-based and plant-forward diets have become relatively mainstream and you are much more likely to run across seitan at your local grocery store. It's often next to the tofu or the plant-based meat alternatives. If your local grocery doesn't carry it, seek out a health food store, food coop (yes, they still exist!), or Asian grocer. You can even make your own! (More about that in a moment.)

What is seitan made of?

Seitan is most frequently used as a meat substitute in vegetarian diets. It has a sort of stringy, chewy texture that makes it a fairly good substitute for meat. Unlike some meat substitutes, however, it’s actually a decent source of protein. But the source of the protein might surprise you.

The source of seitan's protein might surprise you!

Seitan is made from wheat gluten. Yes, you heard me correctly. This “health food” consists almost entirely of gluten: a substance a lot of people are going to great lengths to avoid these days. It’s made by rinsing wheat flour dough to dissolve and remove most of the starch and fiber. Eventually, what you have left is a sticky, elastic mass of protein.

Wheat as a source of protein

We tend to think of wheat and products made from wheat (such as bread and pasta) as “carbs.” However, people forget that...

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Making More Out of Less: The Power of Subtraction

1. What inspired you to write on this topic? Was there a specific situation where you realized that people overlook subtraction? 

Our struggle to subtract has long puzzled me. Sure, we can find terrific advice on digital minimalism; five-ingredient recipes; and, of course, decluttering our homes. But why do I need to read three different books to fix the same basic problem when it crops up in my inbox, my kitchen, and my home? Why does this advice remain surprising?

It’s been five centuries since Da Vinci defined perfection as when there is nothing left to take away; seven centuries since William of Ockham noted that it is “in vain to do with more what can be done with less,” and two and a half millennia since Lao Tzu advised: “To attain wisdom, subtract things every day.” The advice endures because we continue to neglect subtraction.

My favorite (non-research) breakthrough was when my toddler son, Ezra, and I were struggling to build a “bridge” using his Lego Blocks. The support towers for the bridge were different heights, so we couldn’t span them. I reached behind me to grab a block to add to the shorter tower. But as I turned back towards the soon-to-be bridge, Ezra was already removing a block from the taller tower. While my instinct was to add, putting an additional Lego on the short support, it was actually faster and more efficient to subtract to create a level bridge. 

(To be clear, Ezra isn’t any better at subtraction than the rest of us. He just caught a lucky break..)

2. How can ordinary people start “subtracting” from their own lives, and where is it most important to start from? What are the first and second steps toward achieving this “deletion” mindset?

The essential first step is to appreciate that our brains are wired to overlook subtraction. That’s why I wrote the book. It turns out that this mindset is the root cause of so many of our problems.  Cluttered closets, inboxes, and calendars are just symptoms.

Only when we focus on the root cause can we move on to the next step: to subtract first. Say, for example, you are planning your schedule for the upcoming week. Force yourself to take away one regular group meeting as the very first thing you do. (Don’t worry, you will be fine, they will be fine.) Once you start subtracting and realize you like the results, it becomes much harder to overlook subtraction going forward....

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