In today’s fast-paced world, it seems we’re always chasing the next something: the next milestone, next promotion, next goal, next year…

As a result, many of us define our lives through milestones like birthdays, marriage, a new year, etc.—all while neglecting the mundane days that, too, make up our lives. Also known as the Wednesday effect, this life approach measures our time and worth through productivity and celebration. But sometimes, our best moments occur on an average Wednesday evening with our loved ones.

What Is the Wednesday Effect?

The Wednesday effect describes our apparent indifference toward seemingly mundane days, like a random Wednesday in the middle of a busy workweek. However, it also acknowledges that our lives are made up of these seemingly ordinary moments—and they’re worth celebrating just as much as any holiday, weekend, or milestone.

“The Wednesday effect is a common experience, especially when you get caught up in a routine that feels repetitive,” says Phil Smyth, LCADC, LPC, Executive Director at Milestone Treatment Center. 

“By Wednesday, the excitement of the weekend is often worn off, but the next one still feels far away,” Smyth continues. “People may feel drained from work, routines, and responsibilities, and the week feels like it’s dragging on.”

As a result, we often treat weekdays like Wednesdays as throwaway days—ones we rush through or wish away because we feel they lack substance.

“Our brains respond to routine, expectations, and how we perceive time,” says Smyth. “At the beginning of the week, we typically feel more motivated by a fresh start, and the weekend gives us something to look forward to. By Wednesday, that initial motivation may have faded, and the demands of the week can catch up to us. Decision fatigue can creep in, and motivation can slump.”

However, this concept challenges us to find magic in our routine. Rather than waiting to start a new project on Monday or delaying a dinner date for Friday night, why not treat every day like it’s special?

“When we spend too much time focused on what we need to get done, we can often overlook the small, positive experiences that make everyday life feel meaningful,” Smyth adds.

Making the Most of Mundane Wednesdays

Most of us can’t afford to celebrate every single day of every single week, nor can we maintain enthusiasm through every workday. The Wednesday effect is about finding joy and inspiration on your average weekday, when nothing feels pressing or even exciting. It reminds us to find purpose in every moment—that you don’t need a new day, week, or even year to start fresh or chase a new dream. All those in-between days still add up to your life.

“Try to find something to look forward to every day, no matter how small,” Smyth recommends. “Whether that’s making your favorite coffee, taking a walk during lunch, or getting together with a friend at the end of the day, fun rituals can break up your routine and help you feel more present in the moments you may normally rush through. We don’t have to wait for the weekend or a big milestone to feel good about our lives, and learning to appreciate the ordinary moments can help us feel more grounded and find value in the day we are living in.”

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The viral sensation known as Vlad Ncl, whose real name is Vladimiros Nicola, has worked his way into the hearts of millions by going “undercover as a woman.” The Cypriot-Russian with an international following has created and embodied the characters of Belle Delphine and Natalie UwU, or Natalia Munarova. He transforms into the different incarnations of his female best selves with stunning results. Whether choosing (with the help of prosthetics and his very own makeup wizardry) to morph into a sophisticated blonde, redheaded vixen, brunette with bangs, or pink-haired gamer girl, Vladimir amounts to one stunning femme fatale. In regard to his craft, Vladimir has proved a true artist, improv genius, and master thespian.

As a woman, I feel a certain warmth when I watch Vlad’s videos. At times, they make me laugh so hard that it hurts. At other times, the tension he so artfully builds makes me cringe so intensely it seems impossible. With Vlad, we always feel right there in the room with him. However, perhaps the most important aspect of Vlad’s work is not the smiles he brings viewers or the unforgettable lines he delivers impromptu, but rather the fact that his stunts expose and raise awareness of the dangers of being a woman. On duty, Vlad has been sexually assaulted on endless occasions (on the street, subway platforms, the beach, etc.), and in shocking manners which I do not wish to repeat here.

Vlad Ncl: Influencer Who Exposes Dangers of Being a Woman by Going ‘Undercover’

Taking the show on the road, Vladimir has conducted his “investigations” into what it’s like to be a woman in various cities around the world, though he is also beloved for his online antics, memorably on the now shuttered chat service Omegle, where he was more devilish and provocative. Our valiant perv-buster often interviews women from these different cities about how safe (or vulnerable) they feel in their home bases. Given that many politicians and media outlets try to tell us to get down into those subways, or that we can walk home alone from work at night, since busy-bee workers fuel the economy and therefore their wardrobes, the real and raw picture that Vlad captures is truly needed.

The fact that the respectable Natalia/Natalie often just strolls around minding her own business leading up to those aforementioned, typically outlandishly brazen assaults, involving skin-crawlingly creepy language and/or touching, helps to dispel the idea that women who are harassed must have done something to provoke the indignities received. You would have to see what Natalia faces to believe it, and, even then, there are doubters. Not only are Vlad’s videos great educational material for men, who really need to step up in helping ensure that society better protects women, but they also serve as an important reminder to women to be extra careful.

At least in her street videos, the chronic victim Natalia really does tend to appear innocent as an angel — a woman of class. A woman of tact. A woman who is gentle and admirably composed yet assertive. She’s ever so charming in a way that I interpret as distinctively Russian. (And as a Russian, her “red flag,” which she has proudly shown to men, is the Soviet banner…) Natalia may be statuesque, standing at over six feet tall, and looks like she could throw a good punch (if absolutely required), but even that does nothing to stop men from sticking their hands where they don’t belong.

It is only when our protagonist switches from his high-pitched, soft-spoken demeanor into his low-voiced male persona, flexing his guns, that the men cower in fear… But even this fear doesn’t always wipe away their lechery, as some still express the readiness to take Vladimir back to a hotel room. Indeed, Vlad nobly performs a truly dangerous job. He frequently has to discreetly hush fans who recognize him, lest they not only give away the act at an inopportune moment but, in so doing, cause one of those sleazeballs caught on camera to harm Vlad. One Irish man actually punched Vlad during a livestream, yet Vlad remained calm and didn’t seek revenge physically, though he did file a police report.

My all-time favorite Vladimir moment is his (and Natalia’s) dealing with a man who tried to snuggle up to him on a bench in front of a picturesque carousel: With perfect comic timing, Vladimir places a threatening arm around the “sneaky” little fox, whom he calls out in his male voice for trying to kiss him. He then asks the man if he still wants his kiss.

Vlad further plays with his predator-turned-prey:

“Come here, my brother. […] you know what happens to people who touch Vladimir without permission? […] Promise me that you’re not gonna touch another woman without her permission again. […] Because if you touch another woman without her permission, I will find you… Okay, shut up […] and I will touch you without your permission.“

Needless to say, Vlad brilliantly transitioned into the appropriately menacing role of an interrogator, speaking with the authority of someone with the right to use deadly means of torture.

Vlad’s mission and bravery are even more touching given his backstory. In an interview with Eddy Nassar, for example, Vlad opened up about his abusive father and his heroic mother who survived the cretin’s beatings. To make a traumatic childhood even worse, when Vlad was 10, his eldest brother was tragically murdered by a car bomb. Reflecting, Vlad states, “[…] the type of men that do the things in my videos are the type of men my father was.” Vlad’s mother’s hardships heightened his sense of empathy. Now that he has fully blossomed and is in a position of power, Vlad admits that he aims to make perpetrators “the woman,” giving them a taste of their own squirm-inducing medicine.

Earlier this year, Vlad travelled to South Korea for an 11-hour surgery, which, to my dismay, was intended to address facial insecurities — it’s not my business, but Vlad absolutely did not need any work done. Vlad recently broke up with his girlfriend Samantha and came out as bisexual, so we hope his friendship with Samantha stays strong and wish them both the best in moving forward.

May Vlad have all the freedom to be himself, as he continues to empower others.

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The prospect of living on the moon is getting even more far-fetched by the day. For example, researchers published concerning findings in The Planetary Science Journal using data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, finding that the Moon is shrinking and covered in over 10,000 visible faults that trigger moonquakes.

Study author Thomas R. Watters, a scientist emeritus at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, found that our nighttime companion rock is basically shriveling up like an old grape. As its interior cools, the moon’s radius has contracted by about 148 feet over the past 400 to 800 million years. That is a very, very slow rate of contraction, about 0.1 micrometers a year, but the structural consequences are immense for anyone hoping to build a lunar dream home.

The Moon Is Slowly Shrinking, Triggering Thousands of Faults and Moonquakes

The Earth distributes 90 percent of the seismic activity along a neat network of tectonic plate boundaries. The Moon is surrounded by a giant, unbroken shell, so when the interior contracts and stress isn’t released along predictable boundaries, the shell cracks. Moonquakes can pop up anywhere, without warning, meaning you’ll never quite feel confident enough in your real estate selection.

This poses a theoretical threat to lunar colonization, but also a practical, very real threat to NASA’s Artemis missions, which had already identified potential landing spots that were sitting uncomfortably close to active fault zones. A tremor could trigger a landslide or damage mission infrastructure. The study offered a silver lining for anyone hoping to build lunar infrastructure one day: areas with the thickest crust had fewer faults, making them the safest places to set up camp.

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In-N-Out Burger doesn’t do delivery. The hugely popular burger chain, found almost exclusively in the western half of the US, has refused to join the thriving delivery scene, which is why you can’t find it on apps like Uber Eats or DoorDash. The lack of delivery has created a small but thriving black market of In-N-Out delivery drivers, according to a report by Pablo Goldstein of the independent LA-centric news outlet LA Material.

In-N-Out owner and CEO Lynsi Snyder has said in the past that delivery strips away the customer service experience that contributes to the vibe that plays a large role in the chain’s popularity. It also ruins food freshness. The burger and fries you eat in the restaurant are a whole different experience than the ones you eat 30 to 40 minutes later, after they’ve cooled and steamed into soggy imperfection in their wrapping.

People Are Paying Ridiculous Amounts of Money to Get In-N-Out Delivered

That’s not going to stop starving LA folks in need of a burger fix but unwilling or unable to leave their homes for it, so those in desperate need of a Double-Double and Animal-Style fries have turned to Facebook Marketplace to find couriers who charge exorbitant fees (sometimes up to $50 on top of the food cost) just to get some In-N-Out delivered to their doorstep.

Beyond being expensive, it’s also risky: LA Material reports that one attempt to use a Facebook Marketplace In-N-Out Burger Courier ended with the customer getting ghosted, their money stolen, and, saddest of all, burgerless.

As long as delivery access to In-N-Out remains outlawed, only outlaws will deliver In-N-Out.

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That scorching hot cup of coffee or tea you kick your day off with—the one that’s so hot that if a restaurant employee spilled it on you, you’d sue that establishment out of existence—is tripling your risk of esophageal cancer, according to a major study published in the International Journal of Cancer.

The idea that hot drinks could lead to cancer isn’t exactly new. In 2016, the World Health Organization announced that while coffee and tea themselves don’t cause cancer, serving them between 195 and 205 degrees Fahrenheit could turn your cup of caffeine into a carcinogen.

Recently, researchers at the University of Oxford analyzed data from nearly 1 million adults across the UK, making it the largest study to date investigating the link between scalding hot beverages and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, or SCC. The findings show that folks who prefer their drinks “very hot” face a 3.17-fold higher risk of developing SCC compared to those who settle for a nice, sensible “warm” cup of joe.

If you knock back six or more hot beverages a day, you add 71 percent more risk on top of that.

Drinking Extremely Hot Coffee or Tea Could Triple Your Risk of Esophageal Cancer

The science behind it is pretty logical. Pouring hot, near-boiling liquid down your esophagus causes thermal injury that degrades your mucosal lining and encourages cellular damage that eventually spins wildly out of control until it becomes a cancer.

All that said, esophageal cancer is still relatively rare, and the overall risk is still pretty low, according to the researchers. But then when paired with other vices like excessive drinking and smoking, you’re just begging for your esophagus to eventually become more tumor than esophagus.

If the mere prospect of your hot cup of coffee eventually turning into esophageal cancer, the Oxford researchers behind the study say that an estimated 14 percent of these cancer cases could be avoided if you just stopped pouring caffeinated molten lava down your throat and instead just waited a couple of extra minutes until it cooled down to a normal drinking temperature that perhaps didn’t burn away your taste buds upon first gulp.

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We already know all about Bryan Johnson’s girlfriend’s vaginal microbiome. And now, for some ungodly reason, we know how many “female erections” she’s getting every night. Why? Because we live in a crazy world, people.

Kate Tolo, 30, Johnson’s girlfriend and business partner, has been sleeping with a tampon-shaped light sensor inside her vagina to measure blood flow overnight. The equipment costs a whopping $15,723.68 and involves a wire taped to her leg, a monitoring device, and a laptop that has to stay awake the whole time. “The laptop can’t fall asleep, or we lose the data. I sadly learned that through experience,” she told the New York Post.

Johnson, the millionaire biohacker who’s made a career out of trying not to die, already tracks his own nighttime erections with a $275 gadget connected to his phone. And, naturally, he wants women involved, too. “Women have erections too. This is news for most women,” he wrote on X, explaining that the clitoris contains erectile tissue just like the penis.

Bryan Johnson’s Girlfriend Is Measuring Her Nighttime Erections, Because Apparently That’s a Thing

And he’s right about the anatomy. During sleep, specifically REM sleep, blood flow increases in the clitoris and vaginal tissue. Researchers have known about this for decades, although, surprise, surprise, no one is exactly rushing to develop affordable gadgets to monitor it. One older study even found that women who described themselves as highly arousable had similar nighttime vaginal blood-flow responses to women who reported much lower arousability.

That’s interesting because it raises questions about what nighttime responses can tell us about sexual function during the day. Low desire can have all sorts of contributing factors, including stress and relationship difficulties, although sleeping measurements by themselves can’t explain why someone isn’t interested in sex.

There’s also the cardiovascular angle. Erectile dysfunction in men can be an early warning sign of heart disease, but researchers haven’t established whether nighttime genital blood flow in women could provide similar information.

Tolo has argued that women’s nighttime erections have received very little scientific attention. If researchers eventually find a medical benefit to tracking them, she’d like to see someone develop a device that doesn’t require a small fortune and a laptop next to the bed.

And she’s got a point about the research imbalance. Urologist Rachel Rubin told PBS NewsHour that 27 fellowships focus on men’s sexual health. “We have one that even acknowledges women’s sexual health,” she said.

Of course, Tolo is one woman running an experiment on herself, and no established clinical test interprets these nighttime measurements. Still, if a millionaire biohacker and his girlfriend want to spend $16,000 investigating an overlooked aspect of women’s sexual health, there are certainly worse ways to spend their money.

Everyone else’s clitoris can keep doing its thing overnight, unmonitored and blissfully offline.

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Nothing takes the sexy out of a sexy nurse costume quite like getting patted down by a TSA agent named Gary while 40 irritated travelers watch. Halloween costumes are already ridiculous enough without having to explain to airport security why you’ve got fake blood on your face and a plastic machete in your carry-on.

Despite what some Halloween headlines suggest, TSA hasn’t introduced any new costume bans. The same security rules apply year-round, although they become a lot more irritating when you’re dressed as a medieval knight or carrying something that looks like a murder weapon. TSA recommends changing into your costume after security to avoid an unexpected pat-down.

Wearing a Halloween Costume to the Airport? Here’s What TSA Wants You to Know.

Metal can also be a pain at airport security. Chains, armor, studded belts, and other accessories can set off the scanners, leaving you to remove half your costume before you’re allowed through. And if you’ve spent three weeks putting together a historically accurate suit of armor, you probably don’t want to dismantle the damn thing at LaGuardia.

Costume weapons are another story. Fake swords, pitchforks, lightsabers, and even witch brooms generally belong in checked luggage, according to travel experts. TSA officers have the final say, and anything resembling an actual weapon could be an issue.

Replica explosives are an exceptionally bad idea. TSA prohibits realistic fake bombs and grenades in both carry-on and checked bags. And yes, somebody has tested this policy.

In 2025, officers at Boise Airport discovered what looked like a pipe bomb inside someone’s checked suitcase. It consisted of PVC pipes, wooden blocks marked “C4,” and wires sticking out. The passenger reportedly explained that the objects were training aids, although TSA wasn’t impressed.

Masks and elaborate face paint can cause problems, as well. Officers need to verify that your face matches your identification, so your Ghostface mask has to come off. TSA also discourages full-face makeup at checkpoints, meaning your zombie transformation might have to happen after you’ve made it through security.

Fake blood and liquid latex are going to get the same treatment as your shampoo and toothpaste. Under TSA’s 3-1-1 rule, you’re limited to 3.4 ounces per container, and it all has to fit in a single quart-size bag. Any bigger bottles need to go in your checked luggage. And if your Halloween makeup kit includes more than 12 ounces of powder, TSA might want to take a closer look at that, too.

At least the candy is safe. Solid Halloween treats can go in your carry-on, but TSA can still inspect them if necessary. If you’re unsure about a costume accessory, send a photo to AskTSA on X or Facebook Messenger before packing.

Otherwise, save the full costume for after security. Gary’s got enough to deal with without trying to figure out why you’ve got a fake sword strapped to your thigh.

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No one knows why a hacker or group of hackers decided to remotely overheat French supermarket refrigerators, sparking fires and spoiling millions of euros worth of food that had to be tossed out, but they did. And all thanks to an outdated, un-updated security system riddled with easy-to-exploit loopholes, as The New York Times reported.

Affecting over 400 supermarkets across France, including several major chains that supply densely populated urban areas, the grocers found their industrial fridges cranked up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit, effectively low-temp cooking tons of food that can easily spoil, and it did just that.

Hackers Turned French Supermarket Fridges Up to 122°F, Sparking Fires and Spoiling Food

Apparently, when you leave operational technology connected to the internet without a security patch for who knows how long, hackers can digitally walk in and try to turn the milk aisle into the yogurt aisle.

The chaos led to towering mountains of spoiled meat and melted frozen foods being tossed into dumpsters across the country, with some actual fires erupting from overheated fridges.

Danfoss, the Danish engineering company whose software runs the now-hacked industrial fridges, said that the affected refrigeration units were “end-of-life” systems running legacy firmware that hadn’t received security updates in ages. France’s National Cybersecurity Agency and Paris prosecutors are coordinating with neighboring European countries since similar refrigerator attacks might have occurred in Portugal, Spain, and Poland, according to Reuters.

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It’s nothing to be too freaked out over, but it is at least a little concerning that a fungal pathogen is apparently being tested out there that seems resistant to every antifungal drug it’s been hit with.

In a recent study published in Scientific Reports, scientists described the weird case of a 28-year-old woman in Kenya who developed a hospital-acquired surgical infection caused by a strain of Candidozyma auris that is to antifungal medication as bullets are to Superman. It shrugs off all four major classes of antifungal meds, including powerhouses like fluconazole and amphotericin B.

That’s evolution at work, and it’s only mildly terrifying. C. auris was already considered a pretty serious pathogen according to the World Health Organization, thanks to it being a fungus that calls hospitals its home and that it has a 30 to 50 percent mortality rate.

What Is ‘Pan-Drug Resistance’? A Rare Fungal Case in Kenya Is Raising Concern.

It’s not often that there is a pan- drug resistance thing out there making us all feel just a little bit freaked out by its mere presence in the world. This is the first time pan-drug resistance has been documented in Africa and only the second time in the world; the first time was in New York in 2022.

The Kenyan case is a little more worrying, as the Kenyan bug doesn’t share the same genetic mutations as the New York version. That means the fungus didn’t hop on a plane from New York to Kenya, which would have made sense. It became resistant to all four major antifungal drug classes entirely on its own in a completely different part of the world.

Right now, there doesn’t appear to be any immediate threat of this thing spreading, as the first line of defense is basic hygiene and strict hospital containment measures, but there is the bleak, perhaps overly anxious idea that immediately comes to mind: that this thing spreads and no modern medicine we currently have at our disposal can fight it.

Gulp.

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Anyone who grew up riding wooden roller coasters or getting tossed around on a county-fair Zipper knows that a little “harmless terror” is half the fun. Today’s rides are taller and faster, but expectations haven’t changed. You strap yourself in and trust that the people responsible for your safety have done their jobs.

On Monday, October 12, Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem, 42, died after falling from the Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia while riding with his son. According to Cobb County police, Kariem struck other riders before falling beneath the ride, injuring four people.

Investigators are still determining what happened aboard the coaster, which travels at 70 mph and uses lap-bar restraints. Six Flags has since temporarily closed nine similar coasters at six parks as a precaution.

Why Permanent Amusement Park Rides Fall Outside Federal Consumer Safety Oversight

The tragedy comes shortly after Six Flags Magic Mountain in California retired its X2 coaster amid allegations that more than 100 riders suffered serious injuries, including brain trauma. There’s no established connection between those incidents and Kariem’s death, but the recent events have renewed questions about who oversees roller coaster safety in the United States.

The federal government hasn’t regulated permanent amusement park rides since 1981. Instead, each state sets its own inspection and safety requirements, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission remains responsible for traveling carnival rides. Critics have been calling this uneven system the “roller coaster loophole.”

What happens after an inspector discovers a safety issue also depends on where the ride is located. Some states require regular government inspections, while others rely largely on park operators and private inspectors. David Bertozzi, president of the National Association of Amusement Ride Safety Officials, told the New York Post that when he discovers a safety issue in a state without mandatory inspections, “I have no authority to shut them down.”

Sen. Ed Markey has pushed to close the loophole since 1999, but the amusement industry has continued to oppose federal oversight. He’s also criticized Congress for losing interest in ride safety once the summer season ends, once remarking that “as the weather cools, so does Congress’s interest.”

The chances of getting seriously hurt on a ride at a permanent amusement park are low, with industry estimates putting the odds at about one in 15.5 million rides. But injuries still happen, and a National Safety Council report counted an estimated 652 roller coaster injuries across North America in 2024, up from 458 in 2023.

For Kariem’s family, those numbers cannot begin to explain the loss of a husband and father who went to an amusement park and never came home.

Riders can look into their state’s inspection requirements before visiting a park, but keeping people safe is ultimately the responsibility of the operators, inspectors, and regulators overseeing these rides.

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It’s weird to think there was a time when people didn’t logically assume that inhaling cigarette smoke several times a day didn’t have some kind of native effect on the body. Some doctors even recommended smoking at one point. Now we know smoking causes a range of issues, like cancer and emphysema. But those are the broad implications that affect everyone. According to new research, cigarettes can impact our reproductive organs, but those impacts may affect men and women differently.

A study published in Frontiers in Toxicology by researchers at the Universities of Nottingham and Sheffield looked at how cigarette smoke extract affected male and female mice over twelve weeks. The team found that while tobacco smoke wrecks reproductive health across the board, regardless of whatever factors you threw in front of it, it does operate through distinct biological routes depending on sex.

Scientists Exposed Mice to Cigarette Smoke Extract. Here’s What Changed.

Female mice suffered damage that was invisible to the naked eye. Under a microscope, their ovaries and egg-developing follicles looked healthy. No visible signs of damage. But when researchers took a peek at the genetic level, they found that smoke exposure altered key genes linked to cell division and protein production, triggering a pattern that looked like premature ovarian aging paired with a reduction in function.

Male mice couldn’t hide the damage. Higher doses of smoke extract caused physical changes within the testicles, visibly enlarging the seminiferous tubules where sperm develop. The physical structures of male sex organs were damaged, and so were the genes regulating sperm production and immune responses.

As I always say in these cases, it is a study of mice, and while they were a lot like us and therefore make great test subjects, it’s not a one-to-one comparison. As study co-author Dr. Adam Watkins says, we know smoking is bad for your reproductive health, but “the exact mechanisms are not fully understood.”

We need to dig deeper into this research now that we know there is a lot of damage we can’t see at a glance.  

The post How Badly Does Smoking Wreck Your Reproductive Organs? Here’s What the Science Says. appeared first on VICE.

A team of divers off the coast of Turkey found what might be the oldest shipwreck ever discovered, so they needed to check what was inside the large ancient jars the ship carried when it sank.

Archaeologists from Akdeniz University, who published a preliminary report in the Journal of Maritime Archaeology, discovered a site nearly 100 feet underwater off Kekova Island. There, they found about 30 ceramic amphorae and three stone anchors belonging to a sunken vessel dating to 4,400 to 4,700 years ago.

There’s not much of a ship to see in this shipwreck, as the wooden ship disintegrated long ago, but it still suggests a 33-foot vessel filled with ancient booze and olive oil.

An Archaeologist ‘Nearly Fainted’ After Seeing What Was Left in These Ancient Jars

Lead archaeologist Hakan Öniz described the site as a “time capsule at the bottom of the sea.” Is this time capsule filled with the usual time-capsule fodder? A newspaper from the day it sank? Nifty tchotchkes of the day? Nope.

They found a lot of sludge! Sludge that apparently has some kind of archaeological value, according to Australian archaeologist Karin Sowada, who says she “nearly fainted” when she looked inside the recovered jugs, bowled over by how much material was still lingering around after being at the bottom of the ocean for nearly 5,000 years,

Experts believe these Levantine-style vessels originally hauled wine, olive oil, or tree resin, but sailors were crafty and found other uses for their ships, like how one appeared to have two holes carved out in its body that researchers think may have been used to make butter or cheese, since these guys were likely hauling live goats across the Mediterranean.

Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy says the vessels match designs from Egypt, Troy, and Crete, suggesting global trade networks were already fully operational thousands of years ago, and that ancient sailors about 5000 years ago were the ancient version of the Sysco 18-wheelers you see on the highway.

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Ask a woman in her mid-40s how she slept, and she’ll probably laugh at you. Then she’ll tell you the exact minute she woke up, because it’s been the same one for months.

For many women, that hour is somewhere around 3:30 a.m. There’s even a name for the unfortunate experience now: Club 330. Membership is free, nobody wants to belong, and you’re probably reading this after getting four hours of sleep. I feel you. 

Mattress company Simba surveyed 1,000 British women over 40 and found that 84% regularly wake up during the night. On average, it takes nearly 34 minutes to fall back asleep, although 27% spend at least 45 minutes lying there contemplating their existence. 

Women have been discussing these middle-of-the-night awakenings online for years. One woman on X asked, “How did 3 am become the universal perimenopause wake-up time?” The replies were full of women who’d apparently been keeping the exact same miserable schedule.

Why So Many Women Over 40 Keep Waking Up at 3 A.M.

Perimenopause likely explains many of them. Estrogen and progesterone fluctuate during the transition, interfering with sleep and making it harder to stay asleep. And, of course, there are the night sweats, because who doesn’t love waking up at 3 a.m. in soaking wet pajamas?

The second half of the night is also when sleep naturally becomes lighter, so interruptions are more likely. Hormones don’t cause every 3 a.m. awakening, but they can make an already frustrating situation worse.

According to the University of Texas Medical Branch, up to 70% of women experience sleep disturbances around menopause. Researcher Emily Lantz, Ph.D., said nighttime hot flashes were among the biggest complaints women raised during sleep interviews.

In her team’s 2026 study, 43 women received either menopause education or cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) that included help managing hot flashes. Women in the therapy group slept better and had fewer nighttime hot flashes. It’s a small study, involving 43 participants, but the findings offer another option for women tired of spending their nights staring at the ceiling.

One thing you can try tonight is resisting the urge to check the time. Sleep expert Dr. Zoe Gotts told Metro that checking the time can increase alertness, making it harder to fall asleep again.

And if this has been happening for months, bring it up with your doctor. There’s no prize for making it through perimenopause on four hours of sleep.

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Every small town needs its own “thing.” That one little kitschy hook that offers them a sense of identity, even if it’s a little silly.

You’ve probably never heard of the Central Texas town of Buda, and you may not know any of the estimated 16,166 people who live there, but now you will forever know them as the “wiener dog capital of Texas” and as the place that has a 10-foot-tall, 19-foot-long steel sculpture of a dachshund, aka a wiener dog.

As reported by Chron, the Buda Economic Development Corporation recently unveiled the gigantic, rust-colored wiener dog at Buda City Park to an eager onlooking crowd. The statue is crafted from over 400 pieces of Cor-Ten weathering steel and is designed to age into a dachshund-like dark brown patina under the hot Texas sun.

A new statue has popped up in Buda, Texas, a Central Texas city known for its affinity for wiener dogs. The Buda Wiener Dog Races have been taking place in the city since 1997, and the event is now being honored with a 19-feet-long statue in Buda City Park. pic.twitter.com/hu12OKChsP

— Spectrum News 1 Texas (@SpectrumNews1TX) October 14, 2026

A Texas Town Is Trying to Lure Tourists With a Giant Metal Wiener Dog

If you’re wondering why they built this enormous statue to a very specific dog breed and why this small town is making the bold claim that it’s the “wiener dog capital of Texas,” it’s because the town really likes wiener dogs and is the host of the annual Buda Wiener Dog Races, where upwards of 20,000 spectators descend upon the town to watch hundreds of the famously stubby-legged, little hot dog-looking dogs sprint for glory.

If you’re thinking this feels like those old-school road trip roadside attractions like the old cliché of the largest ball of twine, which is, by the way, real and is located in Minnesota, Jennifer Storm, the CEO of Buda EDC, got the idea for the giant metal wiener dog statue after visiting Minnesota’s largest ball of twine. That is not to be confused with “the world’s largest ball of twine.” That’s a different roadside attraction in Kansas.

According to the publication Texashighways.com, Storm said, “I remember thinking, ‘If people will drive hours to see a ball of twine, what could we do in Buda to get people to exit I-35 and discover our community?’ I started Googling giant dachshunds right there in the car.” 

I appreciate the candor. You’ve got to be known for something, and if the one thing that consistently attracts out-of-towners to your small neck of the woods is a wiener dog race, then dammit, erect a wiener dog the size of the Colossus of Rhodes in your park to celebrate the majesty of the wiener dog race.

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As I wrote back in July, a brand-new expedition led by researchers from Purdue University and the Archaeological Legacy Institute is headed toward an extremely small island in the middle of the Pacific called Nikumaroro Island to finally investigate the long-held hypothesis that pilot Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan were shooting for Howland Island back on their fateful voyage in 1937 and instead landed and were stranded on Nikumaroro.

The 17-person team finally reached the uninhabited island on October 12, 2026, hoping to investigate the “Taraia Object,” a weird thing researchers spotted on Apple Maps that might be Amelia Earhart’s downed Lockheed Electra 10E…or it could be a fallen tree. No one knows for sure, but they went there to find out.

It all sounds like the setup for a B science fiction movie, and we haven’t even gotten to the story’s horrifying monster, because there actually is one. Several, in fact: giant meat-eating crabs.

Amelia Earhart Search Team Flees Remote Island Nightly Due to Giant Flesh-Eating Crabs

Giant coconut crabs are enormous, land-dwelling crustaceans with three-foot leg spans and claws capable of crushing objects with 3300 newtons of force. Run-of-the-mill crabs eat random bits of ocean fodder like worms, snails, clams, and shrimp. Small stuff that any animal can tangle with.

Giant coconut crabs hunt live birds and rats. These monster crabs are also the stars of a popular, if slightly silly and intriguing, theory that suggests Earhart survived the crash landing but was killed and eaten by swarms of bloodthirsty giant crabs.

It sounds absurd, but it has a bit of scientific logic. Popular Mechanics notes that researchers tested the theory years back by tossing a pig carcass onto the island. Within days, the crabs tore the flesh to shreds and scattered the bones several feet away. Maybe Earhart and Noonan suffered a similar grisly fate?

We’ll see what the Purdue team uncovers as it sweeps the island with sonar and dredges the water during the day before retreating to safety at night.

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In a story that will assuredly be adapted into a Netflix movie no one knows exists, an avalanche slammed into a couple of mountaineers in Alaska, separating them from their dog. The dog went missing for about 50 hours before Scripps News Group reported it was finally found alive.

This all went down in Alaska’s Chugach State Park when a massive slab of snow engulfed two veteran human climbers and pushed them right off the side of a mountain ridge, sending them tumbling roughly 500 feet and causing severe injuries. Luckily, all they suffered were injuries, as the pair managed to survive, but they were separated from their dog, a four-year-old poodle-husky mix named LouLou, as it vanished into the freezing void of the Alaskan wilderness.

Lauren Padawer, the girlfriend of one of the swept-away climbers, learned of the disaster on Facebook while traveling overseas. After confirming that her partner was one of the affected mountaineers and that he was receiving medical care, she mobilized a digital army of local pet lovers, outdoor enthusiasts, and just general goodhearted folks with access to drones and helicopters.

A Dog’s AirTag Helped Searchers Find Her 50 Hours After an Alaska Avalanche

All that stuff and all that manpower was well and good, but the real hero was a fairly small, relatively inexpensive, yet seemingly invaluable piece of common consumer tech: LouLou’s Apple AirTag. The tracker pinged satellite grids from the mountain, giving aerial search teams a more precise target area to focus on in the blinding sea of snow.

The combination of AirTag and drone-assisted manpower found LouLou about 50 hours after the initial avalanche separated the dog from its owners. LouLou was found standing around in the freezing wilderness just kind of chilling, shockingly uninjured considering that she survived two full days and brutal subzero solitude after getting rammed off a mountain cliff by an avalanche.

All a screenwriter has to do is write in a bear encounter and maybe a friendly rabbit that leads LouLou to safety or something like that, and you’ve got a movie you can toss on your kid’s iPad for an hour and a half of silence.

The post A Dog Survived 50 Hours Alone After an Avalanche. Here’s How Rescuers Found Her. appeared first on VICE.

The word “bro” really has taken off, hasn’t it? For decades, it lagged behind other colloquial sentence tags like “dude” and “man.” Like those other terms that dominated the lexicons of the previous century, “bro” is now the perfect way to end an utterly stupid sentence, the exact way to let you know the speaker or reader is an idiot of the highest magnitude.

For example, take Isaiah Delgado, a 27-year-old Florida drug dealer who sold a deadly dose of fentanyl-laced cocaine to his customer, Kalev Kangro, in February 2024. Unaware that Kangro was already lying dead face-down inside his Boynton Beach apartment, Delgado returned later that same day with a fresh supply, knocked on the door, and, according to The Palm Beach Post, eventually texted the corpse: “Really hope ur ok bro. I waited a long time and even knocked hard as hell and no one answered.”

A Drug Dealer’s ‘Hope Ur OK Bro’ Text Helped Turn an Overdose Into a Murder Case

That check-in text eventually turned an accidental overdose into a murder prosecution. Delgado spent the next six months selling $7000 worth of cocaine to an undercover cop while bragging about his long history of supplying Kangro.

Boynton Beach police eventually slapped him with a premeditated murder charge in July 2024. Palm Beach County prosecutors have, of late, indicted multiple drug dealers on first-degree murder charges after customer overdoses, though they haven’t yet secured a single murder conviction at trial, opting instead for heavy plea deals, according to the Palm Beach Post.

Delgado is the latest drug dealer to take that deal as he pled guilty to manslaughter along with nearly 2 dozen drug charges in exchange for a 33-year prison sentence. Justice is served, bro.

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Harmony had just stepped off a four-hour flight when she finally heard from the guy who’d blown off their coffee date that morning. He didn’t text. He sent a voice note, and it was so ridiculous she had to play it for a friend on camera.

The Australian TikToker, @harmonys_homee, had arranged to meet a guy from Hinge for coffee at 8:30 a.m. at Gather & Grounds. At 7:38, she texted to confirm they were still on. No response. She went anyway, had her coffee without him, and just before 11 a.m. sent a message that said, “Coffee was great this morning if you were wondering!”

A little passive-aggressive? Maybe. But after being stood up before 9 a.m., she was entitled to a little sarcasm.

@harmonys_homee

Farrrrk, what a shame bro slept all the way in @summerswrld #stoodup #datingapps #hinge #coffeedate #coffeedate

♬ original sound – harmony

Man Apologizes for Missing Date by Saying He’s Jealous She Attended It

“F***, I’m so sorry,” his voice note began. He’d slept in, hadn’t looked at his phone, and had a 10 a.m. jiu-jitsu session where he’d promised to help someone train for a competition. He described the whole thing as a “very rushed and silly morning for myself,” which is one way to describe forgetting you had a date.

But then came the best excuse of all.

“I’m jealous because I wanted to go to Gather & Grounds before you flew out,” he said. The man who failed to attend his own date was jealous that Harmony had gone without him.

And because the apology hadn’t gotten strange enough, he interrupted himself to mention, “I’m having lunch by the way.” At least that explained the chewing.

Harmony played the recording for her friend Summer, who couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “I’m jealous that you went to our date and I didn’t turn up,” Summer repeated, impersonating him. Then she asked a fair question: “Why does he talk like that?”

Harmony seemed more amused than upset. She figured that even if they’d managed to have coffee, the worst outcome would have been never seeing him again. She also kept his identity private, telling viewers, “No name, no face.”

The comments had opinions. “The way he’s acting like he didn’t stand you up,” one person wrote. Another said they were borrowing “Appointment with jiu-jitsu” as an excuse for the next time they needed to get out of something.

He missed the date, but at least he made it to jiu-jitsu and lunch. Good to know the important appointments were covered.

The post WATCH: This Guy’s Apology for Missing a Hinge Date Just Kept Getting Weirder and Weirder appeared first on VICE.

Japan has a word for falling asleep at your desk, on the train, or halfway through a meeting, and depending on the circumstances, no one bats an eye. Now there’s an actual competition where people get paid to sleep. And the prize money beats what some people make while they’re awake.

The word is inemuri, or “sleeping while present,” as Cambridge researcher Brigitte Steger explains. In Japan, nodding off in public isn’t necessarily embarrassing. At work, it can even suggest you’ve been putting in so many hours that your body has finally had enough. Social rules still dictate when it’s acceptable, though. 

On October 5, mattress company Koala Sleep Japan decided to make an official sport out of sleeping. The competition, aptly named Matt Race, drew dozens of people to Tokyo to see who could fall asleep fastest and stay asleep the soundest.

A Sleeping Competition in Tokyo Paid Its Winner About $14,000

According to AFP, contestants stretched out on mattresses in a dimly lit room with sleep monitors attached to their heads. Some brought stuffed animals. They had up to 90 minutes to sleep, and the winner was determined by how quickly and how well they did.

First prize was 2.22 million yen, or around $14,000. That’s a damn good payday for an afternoon nap.

Riichiro Nakama, the event’s creative director, told AFP he wanted people to think more seriously about getting enough rest. Japan has a reputation for long working hours, and its residents don’t get much sleep.  One contestant, 32-year-old Chisato Honda, seemed disappointed when his time was up. “I almost wish I could have slept a little longer,” he said. 

Japan could certainly use the extra sleep. According to 2021 OECD data, Japanese adults averaged just seven hours and 24 minutes a day, putting them dead last among the countries surveyed. Between long workdays and lengthy commutes, they have little time left for sleep, let alone a leisurely afternoon nap.

And the lack of sleep is expensive. A RAND Europe study estimated that insufficient sleep could cost Japan as much as $138 billion annually, equivalent to 2.92% of its GDP. That’s an enormous amount of money lost because people aren’t getting enough rest.

The winner, known as Suimii, told AFP she planned to use her winnings to move into her own place. She also wanted to buy herself a princess-style bed.

If sleeping earned me $14,000, I’d probably upgrade my mattress, too.

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The giant tortoises of the Seychelles once dominated the landscape. And then, we came along. 15th-century human explorers hunted them for food, reducing the population to fewer than a thousand by the 19th century. Proving once again that conservation efforts work, a study published in Ecology and Evolution found that giant tortoises in the Seychelles now outnumber humans for the first time in centuries.

Who would’ve thunk decades of strict environmental protections on the Aldabra Atoll would make a difference by turning the island into a full-blown giant tortoise metropolis? Other than, of course, conservationists who logically figure that if you protect the species and let it thrive, it will. Statistical modeling estimates that the current population sits at somewhere around 180,000 free-roaming giant tortoises, blowing past the island nation’s roughly 100,000 human residents.

The giant tortoises spend their days lounging in open grasslands known as “tortoise turf,” knocking down trees to eat their leaves and spreading seeds in their poop, seeds that will probably grow into a tree one day, which their ancestors, or maybe even they themselves, will get to knock down.

Seychelles Giant Tortoises Now Outnumber Humans After Centuries of Decline

In related news, you might remember that a deeply unfunny person thought it would be funny to announce that Jonathan, the 194-year-old Aldabra giant tortoise living on St. Helena, had died. That was a hoax, thankfully, because in a study published in Science Advances, researchers recently announced that they were able to analyze cheek swabs from the living legend known as Jonathan and found that perhaps some of the keys to his extraordinarily long life are 287 gene variants linked to DNA repair and anti-inflammation that contributed to his overall cellular resilience.

Unlike us humans, whose cellular machinery breaks down and starts causing all sorts of age-related diseases, Jonathan somehow maintains the genetic control switches of a much younger animal. By studying how these living ancient creatures dodge cancer and tissue degradation, researchers hope to develop a new drug that could help humans slow cellular decline.

In other words, it’s in our best interest not just to keep giant tortoises of the Seychelles alive and well, but to keep them thriving so we can study what makes them live so long, in the hope that we can one day apply some of that knowledge to ourselves.

The post An Island Nation’s Giant Tortoises Now Outnumber Its People. Here’s Why That’s a Good Thing. appeared first on VICE.