Category: News

Not too long ago, it seemed like you could only be loyal to one team—team “physical books” or team “e-readers.” There was no neutral territory.

That debate might have dwindled, but it echoes on as people take a stand on physical books versus audiobooks, which have become increasingly popular—nearly half of all Americans currently pay for an audio content subscription, and the average adult in the U.S. listens to digital audio for a little over an hour and a half each day, 28% of that being spoken word. Audiobooks had a particularly big surge during the COVID-19 pandemic, as listeners found the activity more comforting and satisfying than a regular book while under quarantine.

You’d think that the general mindset would be “reading in any form has great benefits, so do whatever you want!” But alas, humans do find odd hills to die on.

Ashley Woodfolk might know a thing or two about books, being a writer herself, but it’s her perspective as a mom that really offers some fresh insight into why audiobooks and traditional books are not mortal enemies.

Woodfolk recently sent out a tweet rightfully boasting a total of 30 audiobooks listened to this year. It’s a number she never thought she would be able to hit after she became a mom.

I listened to 30 audiobooks this year. Post-baby, I NEVER thought I’d be able to get through as many books as I used to before I became a mom.

Accessibility is so important. Audiobooks have helped me regain a part of myself I worried was lost.
Let people read however they can.

— Ashley Woodfolk (@AshWrites) November 29, 2022

“Accessibility is so important,” her post concluded. “Audiobooks have helped me regain a part of myself I worried was lost. Let people read however they can.”

Woodfolk was clearly not the only one to feel this way, as her tweet was met with an overwhelming positive response from people who could relate.

“Audiobooks helped me survive as a mom. Hard nights, never ending bedtimes, depression and feeling completely overwhelmed. These helped me hold something for myself and regain some peace,” wrote one mom.

Another added, “Yes, this! After my first was born I read like 10 books a year for 6 years (after reading 2 a week for the previous, I dunno, 15?). And then with my second, I fell in love with audiobooks and everything changed.”

One person suggested that audiobooks should be more widely embraced for children too, saying, “My kids will listen to audiobooks on road trips or when doing puzzles, and it’s increased their vocabulary and fluency so much!”

Several others shared how audiobooks were a godsend when it came to long commutes. One person commented, “My only alone time is my work commute. If I couldn’t do audiobooks, I couldn’t read!”

Someone even illustrated how audiobooks actually bring us back to perhaps an even more natural way of enjoying stories, saying, “Stories started around campfires being TOLD,” and adding that “Socrates thought writing things down was a lazy person’s way to escape having to use their memory.”

Sure, there’s no feeling quite like a book in your hand. Books have that magical paper smell and turning pages can be heavenly. Even I call Barnes and Noble my happy place. But truly, an even greater feeling is actually being able to consume a great story start-to-finish or gain valuable insights that you might have otherwise been oblivious to. It’s good for the brain and it’s good for the soul. As Woodfolk put it, “Let people read however they can.” What really matters is that we are met where we are, and having access to that which fulfills and nourishes us.

For thousands of years, people around the world have been honing the art of agriculture. For the vast majority of human history, people planted and harvested and sorted produce largely by hand, gradually developing tools and machines over time that would make farming more efficient.

Many crops still have to be harvested and/or sorted by hand, but thanks to a rather mind-blowing machine, tomatoes aren’t one of them. A machine that harvests tomatoes saves a ton of time and labor, but as tomatoes don’t all ripen at the same time, pulling up an entire tomato plant results in a good number of green ones getting into the mix.

One solution to this problem would be to have the tomatoes transported down a conveyor belt in a factory while workers spot and remove the green ones by hand. However, an automated green tomato sorter does it right in the field as the tomatoes are being harvested, and a whole lot faster than any person ever could.

How many humans would it take to separate 32 green tomatoes from red ones in a single second? Um, a lot.

We’ll get to the technology of how it works in a minute, but first you have to see the sorter work in slow motion. The machine is so fast you can’t even really see what it’s doing until you slow it down, but when you do, the wow factor is awesome. There are occasional misses, of course, but for how fast it’s going, the accuracy is remarkable—and impressive to watch.

As James Vincent put it in The Verge, “It’s sorting tomatoes, but it looks like the fingers of God flicking damned souls straight into hell.” Check this out:

u201cAutomated tomato sorter. u201d

— Fascinating (@Fascinating)
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So many immediate questions:

What?!?

How?!?

How does it know which tomatoes are green?

How does it work so precisely and freakishly fast to flick them away?

Am I the only one with a sudden urge to play Fruit Ninja?

The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation dove into a few of those questions with Don Douglas, president of Weco, a company that builds the optical technology behind the sorter. Douglas explained that light is used to create a reflection off the tomatoes and a sensor connected to software determines which tomatoes are green using that reflection.

It’s actually tech that’s been used for decades, but it’s obviously been perfected and optimized over the years. Watch the machine at work and hear Douglas explain how it does what it does:

It’s not always better to have machines do work humans can do, and there’s certainly plenty of reason to be concerned about human labor being replaced by machines. But when that labor is back-breaking and tedious, technology can be a big help. Some inventions are also such prime examples of human innovation and ingenuity, you just have to marvel at them—even if they’re just sorting green tomatoes from red ones.

This article originally appeared on 06.22.18

Imagine you’re sitting in a pub and Sir Paul McCartney walks in.

That’s exactly what happened when he guested on an episode of “Carpool Karaoke.” The legendary performer rolled through his hometown of Liverpool with host James Corden, sharing memories of the city, surprising fans in his favorite pub, and bringing all of us a badly needed emotional release with his music.

McCartney’s trip down Penny Lane was poignant, and his message of positivity brought James Corden to tears.

The most prevailing themes in The Beatles’ music are those of love, peace, joy, and togetherness. It’s the kind of music that you put on during the happiest times and when you’ve had a really rough day.

One of the most comforting songs in difficult times is “Let It Be,” and that’s no accident. During their road trip, McCartney told Corden it was inspired by a dream of his late mother.

“My mum, who died, came to me in the dream and was reassuring me, saying it’s gonna be OK, let it be.” McCartney said. “I wrote the song ‘Let It Be,’ but it was [inspired by] her positivity.”

“It got me emotional there, Paul,” Corden said, echoing the feelings of everyone watching.

“That’s the power of music,” McCartney replied. “It’s weird, isn’t it, how that can do that to you?”

McCartney’s reminder that things will be OK is something we all need.

“All you need is love” might sound a little sappy, but in these times, that message is more important than ever. And the Beatles’ continued success is a testament to how much we all need to work toward the joy the group so often sang about. To achieve it, we’ve all got to come together (right now).

Watch the full video below, free your tears, feel the full spectrum of your emotions, and then get to work making the world the awesome place we all know it can be. (The story starts at 4:50.)

James Corden heads to Liverpool for a special day with Paul McCartney spent exploring the city of Paul’s youth, visiting his childhood home where he wrote mu…

This article originally appeared on 01.11.19

Disney princesses are a magical thing, sometimes most of all for the princesses themselves.

Amber Shaddock Roberts used to visit Disneyland every year as a child. And from ages 2 to 15, she stopped to say hello and take pictures with the woman who was dressed as Snow White.

Amber Shaddock Roberts/Facebook

Amber Shaddock Roberts/Facebook

Roberts says the park employee remembered her by name each year, something that made her annual visits even more magical.

Fast forward several years and Roberts heard that the woman who portrayed Snow White was still working at Disneyland, only now portraying the Fairy Godmother. Roberts was able to track her down and brought her photo album of their shared memories in tow. What ensued was pure, magical bliss. As Roberts wrote in her Facebook post:

When I was 2 years old, I met Snow White. Every single time I saw her until I was 15, she recognized me and knew me by name. She made my Disney childhood so incredibly magical. I haven’t seen her in person since, but I knew she was now the Fairy Godmother. Today I tracked her down & got to hug her neck. Best day ever!!(And yes I cried!)

Amber Shaddock Roberts/Facebook

Amber Shaddock Roberts/Facebook

Amber Shaddock Roberts/Facebook

We hear you, Amber. We hear you. Is that fairy dust in our eyes?

And so does the world. The post has barely been up on Facebook for 24 hours and has already been shared more than 80,000 times with no sign of slowing down.

This article originally appeared on 07.22.21

As if a Canada goose named Arnold isn’t endearing enough, his partner who came looking for him when he was injured is warming hearts and having us root for this sweet feathered couple.

Cape Wildlife Center in Barnstable, Massachusetts shared the story on its Facebook page, in what they called “a first” for their animal hospital.

“We often have people ask if they can visit the patients they dropped off, but today we had our first animal visitor!” they wrote. “For the safety of our patients we do not accommodate visitation requests, but in this case we had to make an exception!”

Arnold is a Canada goose that lives on a pond near the facility and is part of a mated pair of wild geese that have been together for several years. The center said the geese usually keep to themselves, but one of their staff noticed that Arnold was walking with a “significant limp” and kept falling over. They were able to capture him and bring him into the hospital for examination.

“Upon exam our veterinary team found that he had two open-fractures on his foot,” they wrote. “This means that the tissue and skin has been pulled away leaving the bone exposed. Our best guess is that a Snapping turtle or other predator attacked him while swimming.”

To save his foot and help him survive, the staff knew they had to amputate one of the digits and suture the other wound closed. They gave him antibiotics and pain meds and prepped him for surgery the following morning.

Then his mate came knocking.

“Today, as we prepared to sedate Arnold and get him ready for surgery, we heard a faint tapping at the clinic door,” the center wrote. “We turned to see that his mate had waddled up onto the porch and was attempting to break into our clinic! She had somehow located him and was agitated that she could not get inside. She remained there throughout the entire procedure, watching us work, never moving from the doorway.”

Aww.

Surgery went well, and once Arnold woke up the staff decided to let him recover by the doorway so he and his mate could see each other.

“We opened the door and gave Arnold his flow-by oxygen in the doorway. His mate immediately calmed down and began to groom him through the door. They both seemed much more at ease in each other’s presence.”

AWWWW.

“Arnold will likely need several weeks of treatment in our hospital before he is ready to rejoin his mate in the wild,” they added. “He will need to be kept inside for the majority of this time in order to keep his wound sterile and prevent infection. We will do our best to get him back out quickly and will perform bandage changes and treatments in view of the doorway when possible so that his mate can check up on him. ❤️”

While attempting not to anthropomorphize too much, it’s so sweet to see animal partners show such genuine care for one another. Canada geese mate for life, and they are known to mourn in seclusion when they lose a mate. Seeing Arnold’s mate coming to find him and comfort him during his treatment is just too lovely.

Feel good story of the day, indeed. Wishing you a speedy recovery, Arnold!

Somebody call the Gazpacho Police: Marjorie Taylor Greene read a book! OK, so she watched the movie version of a children’s book — but even that seems suspect, given the analogy she attempted to make between The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the allegedly jubilant feeling that has overcome Greene and her fellow members of Congress.

On Wednesday night, former federal prosecutor Ron Filipkowski posted a video of the conspiracy theory-loving Georgia congresswoman, in which she attempted to paint the halls of congress as the happiest place on Earth now that Republicans managed to flip the House. But what Greene is describing isn’t just a case of Republicans versus Democrats; she implied that members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are practically skipping down the halls knowing that Nancy Pelosi’s reign is coming to an end. She even went so far as to compare it to “Narnia.”

As MTG explained:

Remember in the movie Narnia, where the witch, the Ice Queen, she was losing her power. And so in the land of Narnia, the ice was beginning to melt and the snow was beginning to melt, and people were becoming more brave. People were starting to be happy again and started having hope.

That is EXACTLY how it is in the Capitol and in the halls of Congress. I have noticed a difference in a lot of the staff that actually work in the building every single day. I’ve noticed a difference in the Capitol police officers. I’ve noticed a difference in even Democrat members of Congress, who used to never say hello to me but are actually smiling and starting to say hello.

See, Nancy Pelosi is the Ice Queen. And her reign is ending very, very soon.

First of all, Marge: You’re referring to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — a book, which is an object you may or may not be acquainted with. Yes, it was made into a movie, but even that was called The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, as tribute to the iconic work of literature from which it sprung.

Second: There is no Ice Queen in either the damn book or the movie. She’s the White Witch! And if all members of congress were polled about who the Capitol’s main antagonist is, it wouldn’t likely be the current Speaker of the House.

Third: If you’re going to talk about The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, you could at least have the decency to mention that James McAvoy makes a pretty hot Faun. So if you’re going to make movie references in the future, stick with cribbing lines from Independence Day.
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Is it possible that Greene is telling the truth? Sure. Yes, she has been formally accused of lying under oath in the past. And did help to incite an insurrection that led to the deaths of several Capitol police officers. Then voted against awarding the officers who fought to upend this fatal riot. All just a month before she called the Capitol police to report Jimmy Kimmel for making a joke about her. But yes, it’s totally believable that they’re all thrilled to see that she managed to hold on to her congressional seat.

Get ready to aim your Razor Crest shifter toward Disney+ on March 1st. Mandalorian returns with a vengeance, following a second season that ended with Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Baby Yoda (Baby Yoda) resolutely heading to the bounty hunter’s home planet. The teaser trailer Lucasfilm released in September was comprised almost entirely of Beskar-armored fighters strapped with jetpacks, but Carl Weathers are Giancarlo Esposito are returning in their respective roles, as is the rebellious leader Bo-Katan Kryze played by Katee Sackhoff.

According to Variety, Christopher Lloyd will also make an appearance in Mandalorian‘s third season, so the casting director continues a stellar win streak (shout out to Sarah Finn!).

Going by the teaser, it feels like the larger story arc will hit a lot closer to home this time around, mirroring the first season’s sewer-bound exiles. The big question is whether Din Djarin will reach Mandalore quickly or be waylaid by a series of slightly comic, western-themed side quests that pop up because the Razor Crest needs an oil change or Grogu eats the wrong eggs. The other big question is which of the other guest star characters will return. Amy Sedaris? Ming-Na Wen? Will Rosario Dawson drop by to say hello on the way to the set of the Ahsoka Tano spin-off show?

We’ll find out March 1st when Mandalorian returns.

(via Variety)

Star-Lord is still the worst Marvel hero, as the Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 trailer seemingly confirms with giggles from Drax the Destroyer. Both of them get knocked in the head with a ball, but who did you enjoy watching while getting nailed the most?

Yes, that’s too much of a tangent, but this is gleeful madness on display. C’mon, Avengers fans haven’t even recovered from seeing that controversial Bucky joke in the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, and James Gunn is already rolling out more comic-book loving fuel, even as he toils away on that top-secret DC project. That can always wait because this trailer is worth the “We Are Groot” moment and more. It’s one last rodeo for these guys, at least while they’re together.

The trailer contains nods to Gamora and more emotion from my man, Rocket Raccoon, with accompaniment from “In the Meantime” by Spacehog. From the official synopsis:

In Marvel Studios “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” our beloved band of misfits are looking a bit different these days. Peter Quill, still reeling from the loss of Gamora, must rally his team around him to defend the universe along with protecting one of their own. A mission that, if not completed successfully, could quite possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them.

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 arrives on May 5, 2023.

Paramore’s sixth album, This Is Why, is scheduled to drop on February 10th, 2023, and the band has been methodically teasing and dropping new music in the process. Now after a TikTok clip seemed to indicate that the next single on the way from the new album would be “The News,” the band went ahead and confirmed that via their official Twitter account today.

In their latest TikTok post, Paramore actually played a snippet of “The News,” along with a video of singer Hayley Williams writing the 12-8 release date on a CD that she put in a package to be sent out. The post was tagged with the handle for user @gwizzle, a fan account that the video makes it seem will receive the package with the recording of the track before it drops. You can hear Williams singing the tune over math rock drumming as the track plays and just as you’re sucked into it, the music stops. This is what we call an effective teaser.

A tweet went up today with an auburn-haired Williams sitting in front of an ominous door, confirming the release of the new single. “The News. 12.8”

Looking at the tracklist for This Is Why, we see that “The News” is the second track off of the upcoming album. It follows the already released, opening title track, “This Is Why.”

Whether they’re being baked for your loved ones (or just yourself), the one thing we should all be able to agree on is that holiday treats go better with a warm beverage sipped straight from a steaming mug. And while this list will certainly up your stocking game, we won’t blame you if you give these gifts a little early (or stick them in your own stocking). Plus, each of our top picks are from ethical, sustainable, incredibly unique brands who have all agreed to donate 10% of sales made through this gift guide to Feeding America, to help alleviate hunger for people in need this holiday season.

Peace Coffee – Organic and fair trade, in addition to being women and LGBTQ+ led, Peace Coffee brings freshly roasted small-batch coffees straight to your door. Gift their Decaf French Roast to serve after the holiday dinner, or a Seasonal Coffee Subscription so dashing, beans will be brewed as soon as they’re pulled from the stocking. And if you feel like you need to give yourself a little boost to get through this holiday season, check out their signature blends like Birchwood Breakfast Blend or Black Squirrel Espresso.

Verdant Tea – Sustainable, small family, farm-to-table Verdant Teas are unmatched in quality and taste. Perfect for the foodie or travel bug, these teas bring the very best of China’s tea country straight to your door. Gift something unique like a tea tasting kit featuring six individual farmers, or a 2018 white tea aged with mandarin peel from the Wu Family. And for those bigger stockings, consider adding a Golden Ginko Glass Brew Mug or Long-Handle Contemporary Glass Teapot.

Javamelts – Enjoy gifting these naturally-flavored sugars that bring your morning cup of joe or holiday baking to that gourmet level. The French Vanilla and Mocha sugar packets are ideal for traveling, and if it’s your S.O.’s first time meeting your family, the least you can do is sweeten up their morning coffee after a restless night sleeping on your mother’s lumpy couch. Or, if you’re hosting the holidays, make this show-stopping caramel chai martini, because isn’t it more fun to drink your desserts?

Burlap & Barrel – These premium, ethically-sourced spices have never been available in the US before Burlap & Barrel partnered with farmers from different regions around the world. Give the foodie in your life the Chef’s Collection, which includes spices like Black Urfa Chili and Tomato Powder. For the home cook, give the Salt and Pepper Collection, with blends like Black Lime and Chili Salt. Feel like giving a bit of both? Build your own set of spices and move this present from the stocking to the box under the tree.

Behrens – You may need a real heavy-duty stocking, but if you have a sustainable-loving chef on your list, you can always gift them Behrens’ indoor kitchen composting pail. Not only does it compost any food scraps quickly and effectively, but it looks great on your kitchen counter doing it. And if your chef is lucky enough to enjoy a warm, outdoor holiday season, consider giving them some of Behrens fantastic gardening and party products to throw an outdoor holiday get-together that’ll make all their snow-dwelling friends jealous.

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Gem Joy – While the baker on your list is waiting for their next treat to come out of the oven, why not gift them the fun of a Gem Joy augmented reality bracelet? These beautiful gems allow you to feel like a sorceress and have enchanting encounters like flying with dragons and riding with unicorns. Play games, learn, and explore new worlds any time you want a little break from the holiday commotion.

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