Children who blink more, think more. Researchers found that spontaneous and rapid eye-blinking is a sign of higher performance on cognitive flexibility tasks in children aged 3-6. The association is linked to brain activation in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dIPFC), which controls executive functioning for planning and focus. Blinking is directly related to brain … Read more
You better ‘Believe’ it. Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! museum in San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf is closing after nearly 60 years. The long-running tourist attraction announced Tuesday that its doors will shutter by year’s end — but did not give a specific closing date or a concrete reason for the closure. Sign up for the California … Read more
Some say a sick day shouldn’t be so easy to take. Sir Charlie Mayfield, a senior government advisor in the UK and former boss at John Lewis (a British high-end department store chain), recently shared that he wants to “change the norms” when it comes to taking off sick from work. In a recent interview … Read more
A kids’ birthday party in Australia is making a splash among parents, some of whom say it may be the best idea they’ve ever seen. Scenes of the festivities, filmed by the birthday girl’s mom, have gone viral on social media, racking up more than one million views and praise from hundreds of parents. “My … Read more
Weird things are continuing to go down at fashion shows around the world. Yesterday at Milan Fashion Week, Diesel Creative Director Glenn Martens decided to do something a little … different for his Spring-Summer 2027 runway show. It all started relatively normally, with models walking down the runway, as they tend to do at these … Read more
They’re turning it into Mont Brown. French authorities are imposing a ban on Mont Blanc day trippers after noticing a surge in tourists defecating on site, feeding wildlife, and making unreasonable demands. “Faced with these excesses, we are showing that the ‘anything goes’ approach is over,” Jean-Marc Peillex, the mayor of Saint-Gervais and president of … Read more
People wait all year for the Feast of San Gennaro. Vendors pay thousands of dollars for the chance to be there. And then, almost overnight, Little Italy comes alive. Food stands spring up along 11 blocks, the smell of sausage and peppers fills the air, music spills into the streets and an estimated million people … Read more
A 6-year-old Chinese girl has set a new women’s world record by solving Rubik’s cubes at an average pace of just over four seconds per cube. Lian Yunzhi first broke the record earlier this month, averaging 4.52 seconds at a World Cube Association-certified competition in Wuhan, a central Chinese city, and later improved to 4.27 … Read more
CVS has been accused of illegally selling your data — and you could cash in. The healthcare powerhouse is accused of illegally sharing private user data — like health information, personal insights, browsing data, identifiers and more to Criteo and other third parties through technology embedded on any of the CVS Digital Properties. This includes … Read more
The Radio City Rockettes are getting a “darker, moodier” upgrade on their music and choreography ahead of their 101st birthday. For the first time since 2018, America’s most famous dance troupe will introduce a new dance routine during this year’s Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. The new number promises a different vibe than … Read more
It’s rough out here. As a 22-year-old member of Gen Z, I wasn’t surprised by a new study from The Kinsey Institute saying that my generation isn’t having sex. The study claims that it’s mostly financial anxiety responsible for our collective dry spell — 43% said financial concerns made it harder to date or maintain … Read more
DEAR ABBY: My husband, “Dirk,” cheated on me more than 20 years ago. He has kept in touch with the woman since then. Sixteen months ago, she told him she was “in a bad place.” He offered to let this (married) woman move in with us and didn’t tell me until two weeks before she … Read more
One of Costco’s newer food court additions is packing more protein than anything else on the menu, but a dietitian says shoppers should look beyond the eye-catching number. The Rotisserie Chicken Chef Salad, which Costco highlighted among its new food court offerings this year, contains 59 grams of protein along with 840 calories. The $7.99 salad … Read more
Another longtime Los Angeles restaurant is checking out. Messhall Kitchen, the popular Los Feliz neighborhood hangout housed inside a storied former Brown Derby building, announced it will permanently close Oct. 17 after 14 years in business. “Thank you to our team, past & present, for giving this place its heart,” the restaurant announced on Instagram. … Read more
A Route 66 legend could soon be no more. The future of the Bagdad Cafe, a popular waypoint along America’s legendary Mother Road, is hanging in the balance — following the closure of the cafe’s kitchen and the death of its founder. Inspired by the 1987 film of the same name, Andrea Pruett opened the restaurant … Read more
That secret sauce might just have come with whiskers. Hipster burger lovers in Los Angeles got a stomach-churning surprise Tuesday, after trendy hotspot The Win-Dow was slapped with a closure order by pubic health inspectors for a rodent and vermin infestation. The walk-up smashburger spot had developed a devoted following for its no-frills, affordable food … Read more
Californians are catching a break. Households across the struggling Golden State are receiving some relief from their sky-high utility bills — with reams of tapped-out ratepayers seeing automatic $75 discounts on their statements during the months of August and September. The emergency aid — which comes as experts are calling the punishing electricity prices paid in California “alarming” … Read more
These top-selling Amazon toys triggered an urgent safety recall. Tens of thousands of popular bendable desk toys have been yanked from Amazon after multiple children swallowed small, loose internal magnets, federal safety officials warned. Roughly 38,500 Jerify Magnetic Humanoid Toy Sets were slapped with an urgent safety recall on Sept. 17 after the US Consumer … Read more
Drive across town? In this economy? A depressing new map reveals just how far Los Angeles drivers can go on $20 worth of gas today — and the results are beyond pathetic. Using metro-area average pump prices mapped over the local road network, plus an average of 28 miles to the gallon, the confounding cartography … Read more
A woman’s annual leave request has highlighted a fiery debate that has long created tension in workplaces: Should employees with young children have priority? The argument once again erupted online this week after a worker in the UK, Chloe, asked for time off over the Christmas holiday. Despite submitting her desired dates in mid-September, she … Read more