Author: Josh Taylor
The most famous actor whose face you’ve never seen
Posted by Josh Taylor / March 3, 2018Think of your favorite actor. Close your eyes for a minute and try to picture his or her face. How well do you know it? Do you think you could describe it to a sketch artist? Probably, since you’ve likely seen their movies or TV shows a bunch of times. But there’s one actor you’ve seen––and you’ve definitely seen him since he’s been in over 150 movies and TV shows. Meet Doug Jones, and see his face in this video.
Read MoreCringe-worthy Vice interview with Jordan Peterson
Posted by Josh Taylor / March 3, 2018Vice went to Jordan Peterson’s house to interview him. Even though Vice got several hours of interview footage, they’ve only released about fifteen minutes of the conversation. After you watch this conversation, you can see why. The interviewer seems barely able to keep up with Jordan Peterson’s questions and arguments, and at times the interviewer tries to put words into Peterson’s mouth. As you’ll see, that went about as well as Peterson’s UK Channel 4 interview.
Read MoreBabish teaches you to make tamales from Coco
Posted by Josh Taylor / March 3, 2018Pixar’s latest animated cry-fest, Coco, featured lots of aspects of Mexican culture, including (but not limited to!) tamales. So in this installment of Binging with Babish, he teaches you to make the tamales from that movie. The best part of making tamales is that you can do it in stages pretty much at your leisure. It may take a few days, but the recipe is so darn flexible that it’s not really a problem. It’s also an excellent family activity.
Read MoreYour brain’s sewer system
Posted by Josh Taylor / March 2, 2018Your body has a system that “takes out the trash,” as it were. It’s called the lymphatic system, and it takes out all the toxins in your body. Until recently, scientists did not know how the brain removed toxins in there. For awhile, scientists thought toxins were drained through the spinal cord. Eventually, though, they realized that it was impossible. Then they found that there is a glymphatic system that cleans out the brain toxins. Learn more in this video.
Read MoreAncient viruses may have changed our brains
Posted by Josh Taylor / March 2, 2018Most of us learned about the process of evolution in high school. What we learned was that over the course of millions of years of random variations in our genetic code produced some offspring that were more suitable to their environments. But what we didn’t learn was that other factors play a role in evolution. This video explores how ancient viruses impacted our brains evolution and details the experiments scientists did to figure it out.
Read MoreThe invention of sex
Posted by Josh Taylor / March 2, 2018Turn on the radio, the TV, or watch any movie and there’s a 99% chance that you’ll be hearing about or watching something about sex. Sex pretty much runs our culture, and it’s so omnipresent that we don’t often think about its history. There’s one question in particular that we should ask: When did sex begin? This video traces the origins of sex, a new process from the former process of mitosis. Don’t worry, this is totally safe for work.
Read MoreThe time Hooters tried to run an airline
Posted by Josh Taylor / March 1, 2018When you think of Hooters, you probably think of wings, right? Of course, what else would you think of? Anyway, there was a time when Hooters was associated with more than just chicken wings. Hooters once bought a charter jet service and tried to run an airline. Since we’re not taking international Hooters flights around the world, it should come as no surprise that the airline didn’t last. Here’s the story of the rise and fall of Hooters Air.
Read MoreWhy John Oliver is running for Prime Minister of Italy
Posted by Josh Taylor / March 1, 2018You likely haven’t been paying attention to Italian politics since American politics are such a mess right now. It’s important to pay attention to world politics, however, and at least the Last Week Tonight segment makes it entertaining. So here’s the scoop: Italy is having an election and the options are all terrible. On the one hand, they’re flirting with fascism. On the other, they’re bringing back a famously egomaniacal former PM. As a result, John Oliver is running.
Read MoreHow movies make stalking seem romantic
Posted by Josh Taylor / March 1, 2018Think about the movie Groundhog Day for a minute. First, it’s obviously hilarious so let’s get that out of the way. Now let’s think a little deeper. What’s the plot of that movie? A guy basically stalks a girl––he learns everything he possibly can about her by following her around and asking her creepy questions––so that he can “win her over.” Lots of other movies have a similar plot, think Fifty First Dates or There’s Something About Mary. It’s even on TV––think Stranger Things season two.
Read MoreIs psychotherapy effective?
Posted by Josh Taylor / February 28, 2018Psychotherapy takes a lot of time, money, and energy. In other words, it’s a huge investment. So like any big investment, you should want to know what the return will be. In terms of psychotherapy, that means you should wonder how effective it is. This video runs through different studies about the effectiveness of psychotherapy and ultimately suggests that therapy is worth trying as long as you stick through the recommended amount of time and are ready to call it quits after that if it’s not working for you.
Read MoreWhy we love our relatives (scientifically speaking)
Posted by Josh Taylor / February 28, 2018They say you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family. What that really means is that you can choose who you like, but you can’t choose who you love. There are plenty of religious or philosophical reasons that justify why we love our relatives, but what does science have to tell us? A lot, actually. There are even some calculations you can do that tell you why it’s in your best interest to protect your relatives.
Read MoreWhere to put your wifi router for best results
Posted by Josh Taylor / February 28, 2018Do you feel like your wireless router is not giving you the signal you should? Don’t run out and buy a new router just yet––there may be some ways that you can fix your router’s performance. First, you should know that your router’s signal output decreases exponentially with distance. So if you’ve got yours sitting in a far room, buy an extension cable and move it somewhere more central. Water absorbs signal and metal reflects it, so move it away from fishtanks or metal tables. Finally, try switching to the 5g mode.
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