Month: November 2023

The Story of Bottled Water

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Here are six facts from the video above by The Story of Stuff Project that I’ll definitely remember next time I’m tempted to buy bottled water.

1. Bottled water is more expensive than tap water (and not just a little).

via The Story of Stuff Project/YouTube

A Business Insider column noted that
two-thirds of the bottled water sold in the United States is in individual 16.9-ounce bottles, which comes out to roughly $7.50 per gallon. That’s about 2,000 times higher than the cost of a gallon of tap water.

And in an
article in 20 Something Finance, G.E. Miller investigated the cost of bottled versus tap water for himself. He found that he could fill 4,787 20-ounce bottles with tap water for only $2.10! So if he paid $1 for a bottled water, he’d be paying 2,279 times the cost of tap.

2. Bottled water could potentially be of lower quality than tap water.

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Fiji Water ran an ad campaign that was pretty disparaging about the city of Cleveland. Not a wise move. The city ordered a test of the snooty brand’s water and found that Fiji Water contained levels of arsenic that weren’t seen in the city’s water supply.

How was that possible? Sarah Goodman of the New York Times explains:

” Bottled water manufacturers are not required to disclose as much information as municipal water utilities because of gaps in federal oversight authority. Bottom line: The Food and Drug Administration oversees bottled water, and U.S. EPA is in charge of tap water. FDA lacks the regulatory authority of EPA.”

3. The amount of bottled water we buy every week in the U.S. alone could circle the globe five times!

That sounded like it just had to be impossible, so we looked into it. Here’s what our fact-checkers found:

“According to the video, ‘ People in the U.S. buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week.’ National Geographic says for 2011, bottled water sales hit 9.1 billion gallons (roughly 34 billion liters).

A ‘typical’ water bottle is a half-liter, so that’s about 68 billion bottles per year. Divided by 52 weeks would be a little over 1 billion bottles of water sold per week in the U.S. Because that’s based on a smaller ‘typical’ bottle size, it seems reasonable that a half billion bottles a week could be accurate.

The Earth is about 131.5 million feet around, so yep, half a billion bottles of varying sizes strung end-to-end could circle the Earth five times.”

4. Paying for bottled water makes us chumps.

Beverage companies have turned bottled water into a multibillion-dollar industry through a concept known as manufactured demand. Bottled water advertisements used a combination of scare tactics (Tap water bad!) and seduction (From the purest mountain streams EVER!) to reel us in.

Well, we now know their claims about the superior quality of bottled water are mostly bogus. And research shows that anywhere from a quarter to 45% of all bottled water comes from the exact same place as your tap water (which, to reiterate, is so cheap it’s almost free).

5. Bottled water is FILTHY.

It takes oil — lots of it — to make plastic bottles. According to the video, the energy in the amount of oil it takes to make the plastic water bottles sold in the U.S. in one year could fuel a million cars. That’s not even counting the oil it takes to ship bottled water around the world.

And once we’ve guzzled our bottled water, up to 80% of the empty bottles end up in landfills or noxious-gas-producing incinerators. The rest is either recycled or shipped to countries like India where poor people without environmental and labor protections have to deal with it.

On top of all that, the process of manufacturing plastic bottles is polluting public water supplies, which makes it easier for bottled water companies to sell us their expensive product.

6. There are 750 million people around the world who don’t have access to clean water.

A child dies every minute from a waterborne disease. And for me, that’s the core of what makes bottled water so evil.

The video wraps by comparing buying bottled water to smoking while pregnant. That may sound extreme, but after learning everything I just did about the bottled water industry, I can’t disagree.

If you’re properly disgusted, here are a few ways you can help destroy the bottled water industry:

1. Don’t buy bottled water. Get a reusable water bottle. The savings will add up.
2. Rally your schools, workplaces, and communities to ban bottled water.
3. Demand that your city, state, and federal governments invest in better water infrastructure.

This article originally appeared on 5.7.15

What are women up to when no one is watching?

Artwork courtesy of Sally Nixon, used with permission.

Well, take a look at Sally Nixon’s illustrations and you’ll see.

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The subjects in her artwork aren’t aware we’re looking at them.

And that’s the point. They’re living in a world free from the pressures that exist in the real one.

“I like drawing girls doing their everyday routine — just hanging out, not worried about what others are thinking,” Nixon told Upworthy. “They’re usually alone or with other girls. Their guard is down.”

Editor’s note: An image below contains partial nudity.

Capturing her subjects in this liberated light wasn’t intentional at first, she explained.

But when she started a 365-day challenge last April to create one art piece a day, the work started reflecting the nuances of her own life away from prying eyes — “I was kind of like, ‘Oh, I’m brushing my teeth, so I’ll draw that.'” — and a theme began to form.Her illustrations show how women look, away from the exhausting world where they’re often judged more harshly than men.

You also might notice none of the girls in her illustrations are smiling.

According to Nixon, that’s a deliberate choice.

“I don’t sit around smiling to myself,” Nixon said, noting the double standard that exists in thinking women should always appear cheerful.

“I’ve been told, ‘You need to smile more.’ It’s so infuriating. I wanted to show the way girls actually look, comfortably.”

The theme of friendship is also an important one in Nixon’s drawings.

“I have four older sisters, so female friendship has always been a big part of my life,” Nixon told The Huffington Post. “You gotta have someone to talk about periods with, and dudes just don’t get it.”

Creating relatable scenes was key to Nixon, too — from the details of women’s lives to the physical shapes of their bodies.

“It’s important that the women I draw aren’t rail thin with huge boobs,” Nixon said. “I think there are enough images of bodies like that out in the world. The ladies I draw typically have small-ish, droopy breasts and thick thighs. They’re kind of lumpy but in an attractive way. Just like real people.”

The women in Nixon’s work aren’t real, but she hopes their stories are.

“One of my absolute favorite comments [on my work] is, ‘Oh my God, it’s me!'” she explained of the depictions.

“There’s a little bit of beauty in [everyday life] and I wanted to bring that out.”

You can view more of Nixon’s artwork on her website and check out her prints for purchase on Etsy.

This article originally appeared on 04.15.16

Norine Dworkin-McDaniel’s son came home from school one day talking about Newton’s first law of motion.

He had just learned it at school, her son explained as they sat around the dinner table one night. It was the idea that “an object at rest will remain at rest until acted on by an external force.”

“It struck me that it sounded an awful lot like him and his video games,” she joked.

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A writer by trade and always quick to turn a phrase, Norine grabbed a pen and scribbled some words:

“Newton’s First Law of Parenting: A child at rest will remain at rest … until you need your iPad back.”

And just like that, she started creating “The Science of Parenthood,” a series that names and identifies hilarious, universal parenting struggles. She put in a quick call to her friend Jessica Ziegler, a visual and graphics expert, and together the two set out to bring the project to life.

Here are some of their discoveries:

1. Newton’s first law of parenting

2. The sleep geometry theorem

3. The baby fluids effusion rule

4. The carnival arc

5. The Archimedes bath-time principle

6. Schrödinger’s backpack

7. The naptime disruption theorem

8. Calculation disintegration

9. Chuck e-conomics

10. Plate tectonics

11. Silicaphobia

12. Delusions of launder

13. The Costco contradiction

Norine and Jessica’s work struck a nerve with parents everywhere.

Norine said almost every parent who sees the cartoons has a similar reaction: a quiet moment of recognition, followed by a huge laugh as they recognize their own families in the illustrations.

But is there more to it than just getting a few chuckles? You bet, Norine and Jessica said.

“Even, at the worst possible moments, you’re standing there, your child has just vomited all over you, or you’ve opened up the diaper and your kid is sitting waist deep in liquid ****. Even at that moment, it’s not really that bad,” Norine said. “You will be able to laugh at this at some point.”

“It gets better. You’re not alone in this parenting thing.”

This article originally appeared on 11.30.16

Recent polls suggest that Republicans and Democrats have slightly different tastes that have nothing to do with politics.

If you like cats, The Beatles, and Starbucks, you tend to vote Democrat. If you’re into Toby Keith, Budweiser, and Dunkin’ Donuts, you tend to vote Republican.

But an interesting new quiz claims to be 98 percent effective at determining people’s political affiliations by asking questions that have zero to do with politics.

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Click here to take the quiz.

So how does it work? (Don’t read the answer if you haven’t taken the quiz yet.)

According to ChartsMe, recent studies have found that people who were more prone to disgust are more conservative. This leads them to more closely align with the Republican Party.

Some scientists believe it’s ancestral and that the adverse reactions to conditions we’d label “disgusting” were used to protect primitive ancestors from contamination and disease. This way a person wouldn’t confuse drinking water with dirty pond scum. But if the test told you that you’re a Republican, you probably won’t accept that explanation because studies show you probably don’t believe in evolution.

Click here to take the quiz.

This article originally appeared on 08.09.18

Camp Flog Gnaw returned yesterday (November 11) for the kickoff of the annual Los Angeles festival’s 2023 edition. As for the headliners, Kendrick Lamar and his cousin, Baby Keem, made their live debut as a duo now known as The Hillbillies. Throughout the set, both rappers played songs from their catalogs, including Lamar treating the Dodger Stadium crowd to hits like “Swimming Pools (Drank)” and “Humble.”

As they neared the end of the 23-song setlist, Lamar and Keem had one final surprise in store. The two brought out the event’s founder, none other than Tyler, The Creator, to groove along with them as they performed “The Hillbillies” song for the first time live also. Originally, the track dropped as a single online release in May. Tyler also appeared in the music video, making his appearance a fun surprise for fans.

The second day of 2023’s Camp Flog Gnaw is taking place today, as SZA is closing the night out as the other headliner, so there will (hopefully) be more surprises in store with her set. For those who are attending the sold-out event, more information can be found here.

Check out the video of Kendrick Lamar and Baby Keem dancing with Tyler, The Creator below.

A week after getting the Chiefs and Dolphins in a matchup of the AFC’s best, the good people of Frankfurt, Germany were reminded what the bottom half of the NFL looks like when the Colts and Patriots showed up to play the latest NFL overseas game.

It was a quarterback showdown of Gardner Minshew and Mac Jones, and as expected, it was rather hideous. The Colts led 10-6 late in the fourth quarter, as they had the lone touchdown of the game, when the Pats offense finally came to life a bit as the running game got going and Jones hit a couple of pass plays to move the Patriots into the red zone. After a run play got stuffed on first down, the Pats faced a 2nd and 12 from the 15 and Mike Gesicki got a great release off the line and was behind the defense going into the end zone.

All Mac Jones need to do was put some air under it and throw it over the top. Unfortunately for New England, Mac Jones is not good at playing quarterback and instead underthrew it horrifically, right into the arms of Julian Blackmon who was almost shocked to see the ball coming towards him.

It’s legitimately one of the worst interceptions of the season given time, situation, and the fact that Jones wasn’t hit and the ball wasn’t tipped and still came up this short. The throw was bad enough that Jones was benched for the final drive of the game, as Bailey Zappe was sent out on the field to try and lead a game-winning drive in the two-minute drill.

That worked for a bit, but then Zappe went with a fake spike at midfield and threw his own dreadful interception to end the game.

I’m starting to think the Patriots might need new quarterbacks.

Donald Trump made an appearance last night at UFC 295 — accompanied by super cool bros Don Jr., Tucker Carlson, Kid Rock, and UFC honcho Dana White — hours after giving a speech in New Hampshire in which he once again seemed to think that Barack Obama is still the president of the United States of America. Unlike his recent appearance at a college football game in Iowa, Trump received a mostly warm welcome from the UFC fans in attendance as his entrance was broadcast on the arena’s big screens. Also, Trump entered the arena to Kid Rock’s “American Badass,” because of course.

Trump’s appearance was a bit of a surprise, as noted by the Daily Mail.

He was given a huge ovation and the crowd followed up with chants of ‘USA’ before the promo for the UFC’s 30th anniversary event was played. The crowd went wild again a few minutes later when the 45th president appeared on the big screen inside the arena…Trump has been in the crowd at UFC events in previous years and there had been speculation all week that he would be at the Garden on Saturday night. The crowd got their wish shortly before the start of the main card as Trump made a grand entrance.

One fan in attendance, however, did not appear to be thrilled to see the disgraced ex-president with 91 felony charges hanging over his head. And that person just happened to be Bill Burr’s wife, actress/writer/producer Nia Renee Hill.

Let’s take a closer look…

Yep, those are indeed the vaunted double birds, a move one only uses when in the presence of people who are truly loathed. Burr’s weekly “Monday Morning Podcast” should be fun this week!

Doja Cat‘s fans are currently spiraling after the singer posted a cryptic video to her Instagram, with nothing but the caption “Out Monday.” The clip finds Doja (as her red-painted Scarlet altar-ego) interviewing the seemingly regular Doja, mirroring the style of a late-night television show.

“This might be a silly question,” Doja asks herself from the hosting desk in the skit. “Do you appreciate the people and the fans who support your music?”

The video then cuts to Doja dressed up, as she sits on the stage. A thought bubble version of herself appears right above. “I hate my fans,” she says, speaking from her inner thoughts. “My fans are dumb.” Instead of saying that out loud, she just answers, “Yeah,” as the audience cheers.

It is playing off Doja’s recent headline-making moment after she criticized her fanbase on social media — which sparked questions of whether she genuinely thought it or was leaning into some sort of persona for her recently released album, Scarlet.

While it’s still unclear exactly what this teaser is for, Doja’s fans seem to believe that it’s likely for a new music video. Some have speculated possibly for “F*ck The Girls (FTG),” “Shutcho,” or something else entirely.

Check out Doja’s video above.

After a disappointing 5-4 start to the season that included losses to pretty much every top program they faced, Texas A&M took out some frustration this weekend with a 51-10 win over Mississippi State on Saturday afternoon.

That performance will apparently be the last under head coach Jimbo Fisher, as his tenure with the school is set to end after almost six seasons in College Station, according to Billy Liucci of TexAgs and confirmed by Pete Thamel of ESPN.

Fisher finishes with a 45-25 record at A&M, but more important to his firing is a middling 27-21 record in SEC play. Aside from the weird 10-game 2020 season (9-1), the Aggies were never particularly competitive in the SEC West in terms of being a threat to make it to Atlanta for the SEC Championship game. The good news for Fisher is he has one of the most hilariously large buyouts in college football history, as he’ll get paid $76 million to not coach Texas A&M going forward, with no offsets if he gets another job in the future — and a lot of that money coming his way soon.

As for Texas A&M, they figure to be one of the most coveted jobs in college football despite having not been a national title contender in decades, as they have incredible resources, money, and recruiting area. Thamel’s initial coaching search frontrunners include the likes of Oregon’s Dan Lanning, Duke’s Mike Elko, and, hysterically, Kliff Kingsbury who has never been particularly successful as a head coach at any level but happened to be at A&M when Johnny Manziel was there.

If nothing else, Texas A&M becoming an open job means coaches everywhere are about to get big time extensions, as Jimmy Sexton is set to go to work with the leverage of the Aggies throwing their money around trying to land a splashy hire.

Every single week, our TV and film experts will list the most important ten streaming selections for you to pop into your queues. We’re not strictly operating upon reviews or accrued streaming clicks (although yes, we’ve scoured the streaming site charts) but, instead, upon those selections that are really worth noticing amid the churning sea of content. There’s a lot out there, after all, and your time is valuable.

TIE: 10. The Buccaneers (Apple TV+ series)

Corsets are somehow all the rage again. That’s to be expected in the era of Downton Abbey, The Gilded Age, Bridgerton, and Queen Charlotte supremacy. Christina Hendricks stars in this series with similar opulent surroundings and wiggery, but that’s not all. The story revolves around the new rich in America and their daughters, known as The Buccaneers, who make a spectacle of themselves in London while attempting to find some aristocratic dudes who are both handsome and classy. Gotta dig that hot corset action.

TIE: 10. Dumb Money (Sony Pictures movie streaming on VOD & Amazon Prime)

The GameStop short-squeeze of 2021 saw a fairly fast turnaround into a movie starring Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, Seth Rogen, and Shailene Woodley. Dano stars as a dude (Keith Gill) who puts his life savings into the stock starting in 2020, soon enough, much of Internet joined him. This doesn’t last too long, however, when billionaires grow incensed that someone is gaming their system that they, too, are gaming. This led to mass chaos for the Robinhood platform, and before long, those involved saw their lives upended.

9. Blue Eye Samurai (Netflix series)

This animated series starring Maya Erskine, Brenda Song, Kenneth Branagh, and Masi Oka will appeal to Quentin Tarantino fans, not only for the revenge story but several other touches, including choreographed violence. The story takes place in 16th century Edo-period Japan, where a young warrior is driven into vengeance by sword. Mizo is a mixed-race sword master, in fact, and she conceals herself, including those blue eyes — which would make those suspicious of foreigners to take notice of her — and her gender, while undertaking her mission. You’re in good hands with creators Amber Noizumi and Michael Green, the latter of whom penned Blade Runner 2049 and Logan.

8. The Fall Of The House Of Usher (Netflix series)

Never doubt horror maestro Mike Flanagan, especially because his latest spooky series is going strong well into November. Here, he casts Carla Gugino again, practically in several roles as the shapeshifting Verna. This show is so brazenly up in the Edgar Allan Poe references with so many macabre happenings that we put together a death ranking. Also, this isn’t a literal telling of the Poe story but one that successfully incorporates modern ills while skewering the concepts of wealth, privilege, and power.

7. No Hard Feelings (Sony Pictures movie streaming on Netflix)

Sometimes, you simply wanna tuck in with a simple, non-stressful movie that isn’t four hours long and features Jennifer Lawrence is raunchy mode. As it turns out, a lot of people have had the same wish for months, since this movie did respectably at the box office and has been going strong on streaming for weeks. In this R-rated sex comedy, Lawrence portrays Maddie, a fail-hard young woman who needs to make some money, fast, so she answers a Craigslist ad from parents who would really like a nice woman to “date” their awkward 19-year-old son. Despite the bawdy premise, this movie also has heart, and Lawrence dove right in on both fronts.

6. Lawmen: Bass Reeves (Paramount+ series)

Taylor Sheridan currently has 6666, 2024, and 1944 in the works on the Yellowstone side, so he’s got the modern cowboys covered. For the moment, however, he’s taking viewers back to the real Old West. David Oyelowo portrays the legendary Black U.S. Deputy Marshal in a series that harkens back to the Post-Reconstruction era, in which Bass Reeves became a notorious frontier hero by capturing thousands of the most frightening criminals around. Co-stars include Dennis Quaid, Garrett Hedlund, and Donald Sutherland.

5. Gen V (Amazon Prime series)

The season finale (to quote Bill Murray in Ghostbusters) came, saw, and kicked ass with a short but highly impactful cameo from the original series to top things off. Speaking of which, Antony Starr only gets worse/better as Homelander, and his appearance, along with that of Karl Urban’s Billy Butcher, lets us know where the cards will be stacked for Season 4 of The Boys. Oi.

4. The Killer (Netflix film)

Michael Fassbender does yoga in this David Fincher film. Oh, do you want more? Well, Fassbender also portrays an assassin who is usually incredibly good at never failing at his job. At one point, however, he gets emotional, and that might be his fatal flaw. Uh oh. He also uses several aliases, including Felix Unger, Archibald Bunker, and Oscar Madison, so there’s that to look forward to as well. It’s a lean and mean film that did the festival circuit and has now swiftly landed in your living room to enjoy at home.

3. Invincible (Amazon series)

So, is Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) a villain now? That’s a major question explored during the first episodes of Season 2 from Robert Kirkland, and the voices of Walton Goggins and Sandra Oh are here to help guide you toward an answer. This season goes deeper into emotions and motivations for most characters, and it’s still the same smart and visually lush production as last time. No one is better at crowd-pleasing comic-book adaptations right now than Amazon, and that probably wasn’t on anyone’s nerd-bingo card five years ago, yet we will take it.

2. Loki (Disney+ series)

The second season finale left the door open for more of Tom Hiddleston’s trickster god. He’s still burdened with glorious purpose, and this season even took on shades of a romantic comedy when Miss Minutes wasn’t scaring the pants off everyone. Of course, there was plenty more about the temporal time loop with more questions about fate and whether or not Jonathan Majors will remain in the MCU. No word yet on that last awkward note.

1. Five Nights At Freddy’s (Blumhouse film streaming on Peacock)

This film simultaneously scared up box-office and streaming success on the same weekend. The timing was perfect, given that this film not only fit the spooky time of year but also blossomed as yet another successful video-game-to-screen adaptation. Josh Hutcherson did not have the quiet little evening at work that his character imagined, since this no ordinary pizzeria. Animatronic horror villains are no less scary than horrific and homicidal dolls like M3GAN and those sporting ski masks and chainsaws, as it turns out. And now, the wait for the green lighting of a sequel shall begin.