Category: News

Homelessness has become an increasingly dire problem for people living in the United States over the past several years. While there are shelters available for some, space is limited and resources are stretched thin. In fact, many shelters don’t allow people to be there during the day or have curfews that don’t account for people who work night shifts, making shelters unaccommodating for some.

But some people are looking to find solutions outside of the norm, which is where Sleep Trailer comes in. Sleep Trailer is a mobile pod system created by Jason Christensen, who is the son of a cabinet maker and home builder. He built this unique trailer as a means to help people experiencing homelessness.

The Sleep Trailer sleeps up to eight people in secure cubbies that come complete with heating and cooling, a carbon monoxide and smoke detector and washable floors. Each pod is 8 feet long, 48 inches wide and 4 feet tall, so just big enough for someone to be fairly comfortable inside with a radio or small television. Jason did a tour of the Sleep Trailer prototype and it’s racked up over 2.3 million views on TikTok.

“When I was looking for ways to help those experiencing homelessness, I wanted to do more than give somebody a meal for one day. I wanted to give them a space where they could be a real foundation and be a launch pad to help them break the cycle of homelessness,” Christensen explained in the video.

Since he originally posted the video in order to help look for donors to help make this resource a reality, residents have moved into the completed Sleep Trailer.

From the subsequent videos on his TikTok page, @sleeptrailerllc, there appears to be an interview process before a resident is approved to move into one of the pods. He’s hoping to make more Sleep Trailers to help more people, so he’s continuing to accept donations through his GoFundMe, which has currently raised $11,324 of his $80,000 goal. Sleep Trailer LLC also has a monthly donation option set up that people can use to offer continued support.

You can see the virtual tour below:

A group of friends are going viral on TikTok for an epic America-themed party thrown for a friend who gained her citizenship. And honestly, in a time when we’re so divided, it’s refreshing to see something everyone finds hilarious and heartwarming.

The clip shows a house full of partygoers surrounded by red, white and blue decorations, not to mention Smirnoff Ice jello shots (classic) and a cake that reads, “Sharon in the US Slay.”

And slay they did.

Everyone came dressed up as a symbol of America, from Rosie the Riveter to Ronald McDonald, but the particular fan favorites were Mount Rushmore and a bald eagle.

Judging from the flood of comments on TikTok, the party was a total success.

“Every single thing about this video is a masterpiece,” wrote one person.

Those who didn’t comment on the party just applauded how the group was “friend goals.” And they have a point. There was clearly some wholesome fun being had.

Seriously, there didn’t seem to be one negative comment in the entire thread. It’s refreshing to unanimously agree on something.

Watch below for further proof that America is not only eclectic, it’s wonderfully distinct.

@mias_memories 2.25.23. Congrats on getting your citizenship @sharonlin118 #fyp #usa #costumeparty #merica #fypシ ♬ Boy’s a liar Pt. 2 – PinkPantheress & Ice Spice

Did they nail it? Or did they nail it? We all know what the answer is.

The growing worldwide “right to repair” movement seeks to make it easier for consumers to fix their products by pressuring manufacturers to share repair information, provide diagnostic tools and supply service parts.

The movement believes that by creating a repair-friendly culture, we’ll be on a path to greater sustainability in a world of finite resources and a changing climate.

Hugh Jeffreys, a right-to-repair advocate and YouTuber with over 849,000 subscribers, took a trip to Cuba to see first-hand how the country’s people have created a culture of repair out of necessity that may provide a lesson for the rest of the world.

Unfortunately for Cuba’s population, they’ve been forced to develop this repair-oriented culture due to 7 decades of communist oppression and a 61-year U.S. trade embargo. An unintended consequence of this political climate has turned Cuba into one of the world’s most “repair-friendly countries.” Cubans repair their watches, cell phones, cars and television sets instead of throwing them out like in most counties.

“What is it like in a country with no other option than repair?” Jeffreys asks in a video that shows a country where most cars are from the ‘50s and people still watch television on old Soviet sets from the ‘70s.

Cuba’s political climate has put its people in the unenviable position of improvising and making the best use of what they have. But their ability to be resourceful and repair things instead of having the knee-jerk reaction to throw them out shows how far a repair-first mindset can go when you don’t have the luxury of being wasteful.

it makes one wonder: What would the environmental impact be if everyone in America first considered repairing their damaged goods instead of throwing them out?

Child care is essential for the majority of parents out there. Over the past couple of decades, it has become a necessity for both parents to work in many American households. When no one is home to care for the children, parents rely on daycares to fill the gap. But what happens when the only daycare in town is about to close?

In a small Minnesota town, that question became reality because there weren’t enough workers and the cost to run the Little Sprouts Learning Center was high. Families, including the board members of Little Sprouts, were worried they’d have to relocate if the center was forced to close. They needed a radical plan.

Warren, Minnesota, where the childcare center is located, was in desperate need of a miracle since they’re located in a childcare desert. A CBS Saturday Morning segment about the center mentioned that 51% of Americans live in childcare deserts, “where there are more children than available daycare providers.”

“We really didn’t know what we would do. We don’t have any family who live here. What I have found over my experience with the daycare is that once they close, they’re very hard to get back open,” parent Kelly Pahlen told CBS.

So, what was the daycare board’s radical idea to not only keep the daycare open but make it bigger and better? They took a chance on their community and asked to raise the taxes just a little to keep the only childcare center in business. The board members knew the risk and braced for the town to refuse that half-cent increase to their sales tax.

Much to their delight, they were pleasantly surprised by the results of the vote. The measure to raise the sales tax passed by 15 votes, and that provided enough money for the daycare to build a new, bigger center to care for more children in town. This is a prime example of what community support can look like, and it could catch on in other areas when people see how successful this town was.

Watch the full video below:

The end to regulation in Cleveland was wild on Monday night, as the Boston Celtics, coming off a double overtime loss to the Knicks on Sunday, found themselves once again facing the threat of overtime after Cleveland clawed their way back from a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter.

After a questionable call (which was upheld on review) on Grant Williams allowed Donovan Mitchell to tie the game with a pair of free throws, Williams got a chance at redemption after he got fouled with 0.8 seconds left on a putback attempt. That sent him to the line needing just one make to win the game and avoid having back-to-back overtime games, and prior to the free throws, Mitchell stood in front of him and tried to get in his head with some words. Williams responded “I’ma make ’em both,” as the broadcast captured.

That was, unfortunately for Williams, not correct as he managed to rim out both attempts to the delight of the Cavs and the dismay of Grant and the Celtics.

Much like Sunday against the Knicks, things would not go the way of the Celtics in overtime. Boston could only muster five points in the additional period, all coming by way of Jaylen Brown, and Cleveland found an unlikely hero in Lamar Stevens, as he had five of the Cavs’ nine points in the overtime to win a 118-114 thriller. It’s the third consecutive loss to the Celtics, and while they were without key contributors like Jayson Tatum and Al Horford, it continues a concerning trend of Boston blowing leads late in games.

It’s undeniable that Norway’s Øya Fest is going to be a big treat this year. Taking place annually in Oslo, the five-day event already revealed a batch of exciting acts such as Blur, WizKid, Sigrid, and Caroline Polachek. While it doesn’t get much better than that, even more names have been announced, and they’re definitely going to draw in a new wave of stoked concertgoers.

Pusha T, Boygenius, and Snail Mail are joining this year’s lineup, along with Susanna Sundfør, Dry Cleaning, Ayra Starr, Liv.e, Balming Tiger, Oxlade, and more. Other artists on the bill who were previously announced include Devo, FKA Twigs, Shygirl, Amyl And The Sniffers, Obongjayar, and TV Girl. It’ll occur from August 8 to August 12 in Tøyen Park.

One of the goals of the festival is to be “as environmentally sustainable as possible,” as per a press release. “The site operates free of fossil fuels, with 98% of its power being renewable, and all construction machinery is run on biofuel.” It continues: “That progressive approach is also applied to everything from recycling.” It also prioritizes inclusion when it comes to gender by maintaining a 50/50 split of female artists and male artists on the roster.

Find ticket information here.

On Monday evening, Bill Walton and Jason Benetti hosted the “Throw it Down with Bill Walton” alternate telecast of the headline-grabbing matchup between the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers. In addition to the appeal of a matchup between top-four teams in the Eastern Conference, Walton is always entertaining and, this time around, the host pairing was joined by noted Celtics fan Ben Affleck.

Affleck and Matt Damon are making the rounds to promote their upcoming Air movie about Michael Jordan’s courtship with Nike, and Affleck told an amusing tale of how the two friends once drove to French Lick, Indiana to check out Larry Bird’s house and try to meet Larry — who wasn’t home at the time.

Afflack acknowledged he and Damon had no plan whatsoever in just popping into French Lick. Then, he brought it back around to emphasize the level of fandom required to make the pseudo-pilgrimage.

“We went and rang the bell. Nobody answered,” Affleck said. “We took pictures out front. That’s what kind of Celtics fans we were. We probably watched that ‘Larry Legend’ VHS tape, narrated by Daniel Stern, 200 times.”

It seems logical that Affleck and Damon weren’t the only fans to show up at Bird’s house unannounced in the last few decades. Still, it is something different given that they became quite famous in their own right, and it would’ve been interesting to see what happened if Bird was home and welcomed the duo in.

The water bill at the Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis residence appears to be pretty low after recent revelations the couple made about their family’s bathing habits.

In a recent appearance on Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast, they admitted they’re not that into bathing themselves or their two children, Dimitri Portwood, 4, and Wyatt Isabelle, 6.

The conversation started when Shepard explained his ongoing disagreement with co-host Monica Padman. The two have dissenting views over whether people should use soap. “You should not be getting rid of all the natural oil on your skin with a bar of soap every day,” he said. “It’s insane.”

Kunis agreed with Shepard and was very candid about her bathing ritual. “I don’t wash my body with soap every day,” she shared. “But I wash pits and tits and holes and soles.”

“I can’t believe I’m in the minority here of washing my whole body in the shower,” Padman replied. “Who taught you to not wash?”

“I didn’t have hot water growing up as a child,” Kunis recalled, “so I didn’t shower very much anyway.” Kunis was born in the then-Soviet controlled Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi in 1983. Her family migrated to America when she was seven.

Kutcher added that he regularly uses soap and water on just his “armpits and crotch” and “nothing else.”

Kunis has passed her lax attitude towards bathing on to her children.

“When I had children,” she said, “I also didn’t wash them every day. I wasn’t the parent that bathed my newborns—ever.” Shepard agreed, saying that he and wife Kristen Bell only bathe their children as part of a nighttime routine and don’t pay much attention to their cleanliness.

“That’s how we feel about our children. We’re like, ‘Oof, something smells,'” Kunis added. Kutcher has a simple rule when it comes to his children and their cleanliness. “Here’s the thing — if you can see the dirt on ’em, clean ’em,” he says. “Otherwise, there’s no point.”

u201cMila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher Say They Only Bathe Their Kids When ‘You Can See the Dirt on Them’u201d

— People (@People)
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While the Kutcher-Kunis clan’s approach towards hygiene may not be typical of the average American family, they may not be wrong according to science. Research suggests that children benefit from being exposed to germs early in life.

“This line of thinking, called the ‘hygiene hypothesis,’ holds that when exposure to parasites, bacteria, and viruses is limited early in life, children face a greater chance of having allergies, asthma, and other autoimmune diseases during adulthood,” WebMD says.

Basically, the more your body is exposed to the more it can fight off.

“Just as a baby’s brain needs stimulation, input, and interaction to develop normally, the young immune system is strengthened by exposure to everyday germs so that it can learn, adapt, and regulate itself,” notes Thom McDade, PhD, associate professor and director of the Laboratory for Human Biology Research at Northwestern University.

As for Kutcher and Kunis, they both share the same attitude when it comes to hygiene so nobody in the relationship has the right to complain if the other is a little funky. If it works for them, who are we to judge?

This article originally appeared on July 28, 2021

For grieving pet parents, few words come closer to providing some sort of comfort than those of “Rainbow Bridge.” After all, the poignant and wildly popular poem offers a slice of hope, promising a reunion with our furry loved ones in a magical paradise of the afterlife. Even for those who aren’t so theologically inclined, the imagery can be soothing after irrevocable loss.

For so long, “Rainbow Bridge” has seemingly existed as its own entity, being handed out by vets or shared in condolence cards and online sans a credited author. However, thanks to the tireless sleuthing of historian and author Paul Koudounaris, that mystery has been solved.

According to an interview with National Geographic, Koudounaris had first become enticed to find the unknown creator of “Rainbow Bridge” after encountering it several times while working on his book about pet cemeteries (fitting). Wanting the person who wrote what he described as “a text with monumental importance to the world of animal mourning” to receive some well-deserved acclaim, Koudounaris began his search.

He discovered that “Rainbow Bridge” first came to notoriety through the long syndicated advice column “Dear Abby,” where in 1994 the poem was printed along with a warning for readers to “grab their hankies.” However, there was still no writer’s name attached. Koudounaris would have to compile two dozen names with even the slightest connection to the poem, and one by one cross them off the list until he landed on just one—a woman in Scotland by the name of Edna Clyne-Rekhy.

“What initially would have seemed like the most unlikely candidate in the end turned out to be the most intriguing candidate and, of course, the actual author,” Koudounaris told National Geographic, noting that Clyne-Rekhy was the only non-American on the list.

Koudounaris reached out to Clyne-Rekhy, who was not only shocked that he had found her but completely unaware that her poem had touched millions of hearts.

As Koudounaris details in his own story, Clyne-Rekhy was only 19 years old when she first put her words to paper. The year was 1959, and she had just lost her beloved Labrador named Major. Her only ambition (or more accurately—compulsion) at that time was to memorialize him and surrender to the “warm feeling” that seemed to be inspiring her to write.

Even when it was but a messy draft full of crossed-out words and scribbles, people knew the poem was special. At least, the few people who were shown it knew. Despite her husband’s encouragement, Clyne-Rekhy never sought to publish but would share a copy from time to time, always without her name written on it.

Here is the poem in its entirety:

The Rainbow Bridge

By Edna Clyne-Rekhy

“Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, your pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water, and sunshine, and friends are warm and comfortable. All the animals who have been ill and old are restored to health and strength, those who were hurt are made better and strong again, like we remember them before they go to heaven. They are happy and content except for one small thing, they each miss someone very special to them who had to be left behind. They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance, his bright eyes are shineing (sic), his body shakes. Suddenly he begins to run from the herd, rushing over the grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cuddle in a happy hug never to be apart again. You and your pet are in tears. Your hands again cuddle his head and you look again into his trusting eyes, so long gone from life, but never absent from your heart, and then you cross the Rainbow Bridge together.“

See on Instagram

By the early 90s, “Rainbow Bridge” made its way to a few animal lovers’ groups in America and then to the 1 million readers of “Dear Abby.” Sixty-four years after its creation, now we see its words engraved on countless pet gravestones and recited during mourning groups. Clyne-Rekhy had no idea.

And though she wasn’t thrilled that several people attempted to take credit for something she poured her heart into—including one who, according to Koudounaris, insisted it was originally performed by a Native American shaman—more than anything, she was touched to learn that it made such a positive impact on others.

As for any further advice for grieving a lost pet? Clyne-Rekhy, now 82, says get another one. While she agrees that no two animals are alike, she told Koudounaris, “There’s no reason to deny yourself…your previous pet certainly wouldn’t have wanted you to live without it.”

When we think about gifted conversationalists, we’re more likely to think of great talkers—those who wow us with their insights, wit, and charm. However, communication experts believe that if you want to make a great impression on someone, knowing how to listen goes a long way.

Those of us who love being verbose may think the world loves us because of how well we can talk. But the person sitting in front of you has a lot to say, and nothing makes them feel better during a conversation than your undivided attention.

As the old saying goes, we never quite remember everything someone has said to us, but we’ll never forget how they made us feel. When you actively listen to your conversation partner, they feel that you value them and are receptive to their needs. It also eases any feelings of conflict or resentment.

After a good conversation, the person you spoke with should think, “Wow, that person really gets me,” instead of, “It was like I didn’t even exist.”

A study from 2016 on sales calls did an excellent job of quantifying the amount we should speak versus listen during a conversation. A marketing director at Gong.io analyzed 25,537 sales calls using artificial intelligence and found that the interactions where the salesperson talked 43% of the time and listened 57% of the time had the highest sales yield.

This finding has come to be known as the 43:57 rule.

Even though the study was conducted on business calls, the reason that it works should apply to social conversations as well. Paying more attention helps a salesperson identify the client’s needs and makes them feel comfortable spending money because they know it’s with someone who understands their interests.

It’s the same as a social situation where the person you speak to wants to know they are valued and you respect what they say.

This is excellent advice, but sometimes it’s hard to listen when you’re in a fun conversation and have a lot to say. Kate Murphy, author of “You’re Not Listening,” says it’s all about staying calm.

“Deep breaths are always good. They’re always good. Because it…calms down that fear response. It helps you get more centered,” Murphy told WBUR. “But also to develop your curiosity. Like I said, make it more important to be curious than to be right. And to go into every conversation with that mindset of how could I be wrong? Instead of, let me prove how I’m right.”

“That’s how you develop creative ideas. It’s how you cooperate. It’s how you find middle ground, or at least a peaceable existence,” Murphy added.

The idea that to be a great conversationalist one should master the art of listening is a bit counterintuitive. But, if you feel that you have a lot to say in conversations and can be interesting to listen to, imagine how great that’ll make others feel when you show that you enjoy listening to them as well. It’s a virtuous cycle where everyone wins.