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People are starting to take their mental health more seriously and utilizing mental health day. Some companies have even started offering mental health days for their employees on top of their regular sick and vacation days to ensure their employees needs are met. But how do you know it may be time to take a mental health day before you’re burned out completely?

One of the coolest things about our bodies is that it gives us cues on what it needs. We’re used to the loud physical cues like a grumbling tummy that lets you know it’s time to eat or excessive yawning and dry eyes that tell you its time to sleep. But there are other cues that we have either overlooked or haven’t quite learned to recognize what our body is trying to tell us and those have to do with needing a mental health break.

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When we think of our mental health, we don’t often think about the physical symptoms that can be a precursor to emotional symptoms. It’s the emotional symptoms that generally get our attention that say something may be bothering us, but our bodies give us clues. Maybe we should listen a bit more closely.

1. You’re always tired.

It doesn’t seem to matter how much sleep you got the night before, as soon as you get to work, you’re exhausted. All you can think about is going home and crawling back in bed. But when your shift is over, suddenly your energy rebounds and you feel like you can do everything you want to do.

2. Frequent headaches

It’s normal to get a headache every once in a while but for some reason you seem to only get them when you’re either at work, thinking about work or are getting ready to go to work. Could it be that work is giving you the headache? Possibly. Instead of stocking up on Aleve, you might just need a staycation for a couple of days to reset.

3. Muscle pain

For some reason your shoulders, neck and jaw muscles are always tight and you can’t figure out why. You try working the knots out yourself and even trade shoulder massages with your officemate but it keeps coming back. It could be tension that you’re carrying from work. Our shoulders, necks and jaws are places that tend to hold a lot of our tension so if you’re noticing constant muscle tightness in those areas while at work, it’s probably time to check in with yourself.

Of course, many of us ignore these physical symptoms of stress and push through, which can cause us to be more curt, snippy, easily irritated and flustered. Once you surpass the obvious symptoms that often feel like undue irritation, we can then slide into crying on breaks, heightened anxiety, feelings of depression, and more. Unfortunately, many people wait until they reach the more disruptive stages before recognizing they need to take a mental health break.

Now that you know the symptoms, how do you ask for a break? If you’re not working for yourself, chances are you’re reporting to a boss of some sort and will need to disclose you’d like to take a mental health break. If don’t work for a company that offers them, you can send an email or ask for a meeting.

You could say something along the lines of, “I’m really invested in the success of the company and my role within in it. In order for me to continue being successful and showing up at my best, I’d like to take two days off next week to focus on my mental health and recharging my battery.”

Depending on your company policy, you may need to give more notice. If it’s an emergent mental health situation it’s always best practice to be candid about your needs without disclosing an excessive amount of unneeded information.

This article was written by Jacalyn Wetzel, Licensed Clinical Social Worker and practicing therapist.

Imagine driving halfway across America in your electric vehicle on one charge. ONE CHARGE. Sixteen hundred miles. It’s impossible to believe—most EVs get maybe 250 miles before needing a charge—but German students created a car that does just that.

Called the “muc022 prototype,” the single-seater vehicle, which looks like a Smart car but even cuter and more aerodynamic, handily surpassed the previous record of 999.5 miles in four days. The team of students from the Technical University of Munich kept driving the 374-pound car for two more days until it finally coasted to a stop after going 1,599.27 miles. All told, the car made it 99 hours on the road.

Of course, it wasn’t truly a road. (Or autobahn, if you’re being authentisch.) The students tested the car, a modified version of a vehicle used in previous competitions, in an empty hangar at Munich airport. Students from the team even slept in the hangar.

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The group was awarded a Guinness World Record for “Greatest distance by electric vehicle, single charge (non-solar).”

The muc022 prototype is one of the most energy-efficient vehicles ever, with an energy consumption ratio of 103 miles per kilowatt-hour. For perspective, consider that Tesla Model Y, which calls itself “The most efficient Electric SUV ever built,” only offers 4 miles/kWh. The car built by German students is over twenty-five times more efficient! Take that, Elon!

It’s pretty amazing what students are coming up with these days on the automotive/energy front.

A team of students from Switzerland called the Academic Motorsports of Zurich (AMZ) created the fastest-accelerating electric vehicle in the world. It goes zero to 62 mph in just nine-tenths of a second. This is big because the perception that electric cars are slow or lack oomph is one of the barriers to getting more on the road, despite their many health and environmental benefits.

AMZ – World Record! 0-100 km/h in 0.956 seconds

A student was also responsible for a massive breakthrough in the battery space. In 2016, University of California Irvine doctoral student Mya Le Thai accidentally created a rechargeable battery that could last 400 years. Whereas the average rechargeable laptop battery lasts 300 to 500 cycles, this nano battery easily made it to 200,000 charges in three months, meaning your laptop battery could effectively last 400 years.

So when will the average person get their hands on a car that goes 1600 miles or a battery that lasts four hundred years? The answer is hard to pin down. Commenters on the futurology subreddit discussed the timeline and related issues of bringing these innovations out of the classroom and into the marketplace.

Regarding the immortal battery, user EXSPFXDOG said: “I look at this as solving a big problem in multiple ways! It would eliminate you having to drop 20 grand plus to replace battery car batteries!

It may help the power storage issues with solar and wind. And it may keep millions of lithium batteries out of landfills. It seems like scalability may not be a big issue because it could mesh with how we make the millions of batteries currently being made. It also helps save some rainforest destruction for Lithium mining!”

Not everyone was so optimistic, though. “People who make batteries also sell batteries, and they don’t want you to have one that lasts forever. Nationalize all battery manufacturing asap,” suggested outtyn1nja

It’s not the worst suggestion. What would need to happen to nationalize battery manufacturing?

Hopefully, some forward-thinking students are working on figuring this out.

The way our brains react to musical harmony is fascinating. When notes are off, the blending of different tones is grating and unpleasant. But when a harmony hits just right, it’s a like a sweet celebration for our senses.

That’s why, when OK3 sang the opening bar of Meghan Trainor’s “Made You Look” in their debut performance on NBC’s “The Voice,” three of the four judges hit the button to turn their chair around within a remarkable 7 seconds. The women’s three-part harmony was powerful throughout the whole song, but their pitch perfect opening was the epitome of attention-grabbing.

The way “The Voice” works is four celebrity judges first hear singers in a blind audition, where their chairs are turned around so they can’t see the performers—they can only hear them. Then, if they like what they hear, they push their big red button and turn their chair around, indicating they want that performer on their coaching team. Ultimately, the judges compete along with the singers to have their chosen performers come out on top. When multiple judges turn their chairs, the performer gets to choose whose team they want to be on.

Usually, it takes longer than a few seconds of listening to a singer (or singers) perform for judges to start turning their chairs around, but in this case, it was almost immediate for three out of the four judges. And even the one holdout, Chance the Rapper, eventually hit his button as well, giving OK3 the coveted four-chair turn.

Watch:

The trio brought their vocal coach, who was the one who brought them together in the first place, and the judges encouraged them to consult her to make their decision about whose team they would be on.

Judge John Legend made a case for himself first.

“I loved your performance. … I grew up arranging songs for groups, and then, when I went to college, I was an award-winning a cappella arranger,” Legend said. “If there’s nothing else that I do, I do this.” He also added that he thinks “there’s a lot of space for a big pop girl group right now.”

Country duo judges Dan + Shay made a strong pitch as well, as they literally do harmonies themselves. And Reba McIntyre not only shares roots with the women being from Oklahoma herself, but she also pulled out her Grammy and a box of chicken nuggets, so it’s definitely going to be a tough choice.

The sneak preview clip didn’t show who the group chose, and neither did the season premiere that aired on February 26, 2024. The episode ended on a cliffhanger, so the choice will be revealed on February 27.

What a standout performance for these young women, Sierra Sikes, 23, Kenna Fields, 22, and Courtney Hooker, 25. Their journey on “The Voice” is sure to be a life-changing experience, if not a career-making one.

You can follow “The Voice” on YouTube.

Technology is the single greatest contributor to climate change but it may also soon be used to offset the damage we’ve done to our planet since the Industrial Age began.

In September 2018, a project in Myanmar used drones to fire “seed missiles” into remote areas of the country where trees were not growing. Less than a year later, thousands of those seed missiles have sprouted into 20-inch mangrove saplings that could literally be a case study in how technology can be used to innovate our way out of the climate change crisis.

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“We now have a case confirmed of what species we can plant and in what conditions,” Irina Fedorenko, co-founder of Biocarbon Engineering, told Fast Company. “We are now ready to scale up our planting and replicate this success.”

According to Fedoranko, just two operators could send out a mini-fleet of seed missile planting drones that could plant 400,000 trees a day — a number that quite possibly could make massive headway in combating the effects of manmade climate change.

The drones were designed by an ex-NASA engineer. And with a pressing need to reseed an area in Myanmar equal to the size of Rhode Island, the challenge is massive but suddenly within reach. Bremley Lyngdoh, founder and CEO of World Impact, says reseeding that area could theoretically house as many as 1 billion new trees.

“Obviously, planting a billion trees will take a long time without the help of drones,” Lyngdoh told Fast Company.

But they’ve now got a powerful new ally in their corner. For context, it took the Worldview Foundation 7 years to plant 6 million trees in Myanmar. Now, with the help of the drones, they hope to plant another 4 million before the end of 2019.

Myanmar is a great case study for the project. In addition to the available land for the drone project, the nation has been particularly hit by the early effects of climate change in recent years. Rising sea levels are having a measurable impact on the population. In addition to their ability to clear CO2 from the atmosphere, healthy trees can also help solidify the soil, which can reduce the kind of soil erosion that has been affecting local populations in Myanmar.

Going forward, technologies like seed-planting drones could help stem the tide of catastrophic climate change while our governments and societies work to change the habits of consumers and corporations that are driving the problem. Our endless hunger for new technology may be the driving force behind climate change and deforestation but it could also end up being the solution to a problem.

This article originally appeared on 4.17.19

Bathrobe. Socks. Insurance card. Snacks.

Sound at all familiar? Maybe, maybe not.

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These items would commonly be found on a checklist of things that expecting parents should bring to the hospital with them — in the U.S., anyway.

But what is that list like in other parts of the world?

For Doris, that list included water.

Doris, who lives Morogoro, Tanzania, had to bring her own water to the health center where she was giving birth in 2014. The water she brought was used to clean the nurse’s hands, clean the delivery area, and wash the babies (she had twins!). Unfortunately, the water Doris brought ran out before she was able to wash herself or her clothes, so she had to wait 24 hours before cleaning herself.

I’ll let Doris tell the story herself:

Lack of access to clean water in Tanzania is a very big deal.

Everything turned out alright for Doris and her babies, but thousands of other women aren’t as lucky. But there are ways to help: Organizations and individuals are pitching in to help build water taps, rainwater tanks, and latrines in Tanzanian hospitals, and they’re making a huge difference.

“I want to express my gratitude to the health workers … because they have a great sense of humor with the patients. But the problem is the availability of enough water.” — Doris Alikado

This article originally appeared on 03.26.15

Jon Stewart might be best known as a late night show host and political commentator, but he is also a very loving dog dad.

That became evident Monday (26 February), as Stewart, eyes already bloodshot, as though he had been weeping the night before, told “The Daily Show” viewers that his beloved dog Dipper had passed away the day before.

“In a world of good boys, he was the best,” Stewart said, his voice already breaking. “I thought I’d get further.”

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Tears kept rolling as he paid an emotional tribute to his late dog, sharing the story of how Dipper came to be part of his family.

Stewart recalled that twelve years ago, his kids wanted to raise money for an animal shelter in New York called Animal Haven. After baking cupcakes to sell just outside Animal Haven, the staff brought out a “one-ish year old brindle pitbull” who had lost his right leg after being hit by a car. After Dipper sat in Stewart’s lap for the first time, all bets were off.

Since that fateful day, Dipper became “part of the OG ‘Daily Show’ dog crew.”

“We’d come to tape this show, and Dipper would wait for me to be done,” he said. “He met actors and authors and presidents and kings. And he did what the Taliban could not do, which is, put a scare into Malala Yousafzai.”

He then ran a clip of Yousafzai getting spooked by Dipper during her guest appearance.

Stewart then delivered the heartbreaking news that “Dipper passed away yesterday. He was ready. He was tired, but I wasn’t. And the family, we were all together.”

“My wish for you is one day you find that dog, that one dog… It’s just… It’s the best,” Stewart concluded.

The segment ended with a moment of silence for Dipper as a video of him happy in the snow played with the credits.

Watch the touching moment below:

The raw video resonated with so many viewers, and even inspired some to share their own tragic losses. One thing became clear: this heartbreak is a feeling shared by parents.

As one Youtube commenter poignantly wrote:

“Anyone who has had a pet will know that grief and loss are a part of that beautiful, goofy, loving, sometimes chaotic package. We know it when we take them on, and yet somehow, when the time comes, it’s always the same, heart-wrenching, emptying experience. I am so glad you found your heart-dog, and that he found you and your family.”

Though Dipper will be missed, Stewart is not without animals in his life. Eight years ago, Stewart and his wife traded in their city life to live on a farm, which eventually became the fourth property of Farm Sanctuary, an advocacy group that fights the factory farm industry and cares for abused animals.

I got a promotion a few days ago, so I decided to stop for a drink on my way home — just me and my sense of accomplishment.

I ended up alone in the bar, running defense against a bouncer who held my ID hostage while he commented on my ass (among other things) and asked me vaguely threatening questions about my sex life.

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This is not a Yelp review. It’s not an angry rant, and it’s definitely not something women need to be reminded of.

As far as I can tell, there is only one good lesson to pull out of this otherwise shitty and all-too-familiar interaction: In my experience, a lot of thoroughly decent men are still having trouble understanding this.

I have a friend who once joked that it was all right for him to catcall women because he’s good-looking. I had another ask me in faux outrage why it was OK for me to describe a cupcake (as in an actual chocolate baked good) as a “seven,” but not OK for him to rank women the same way. I was recently at a house party where a group of guys referred to a soundproofed recording studio in the basement as the “rape room” 45 times.

Some of these jokes were a little funny. Some of them really weren’t. But they were all endemic of something more sinister, and I honestly don’t think the men in question even realize it.

So to the generally well-intentioned men in my life, please consider this:

I have a friend who once joked that it was all right for him to catcall women because he’s good-looking. I had another ask me in faux outrage why it was OK for me to describe a cupcake (as in an actual chocolate baked good) as a “seven,” but not OK for him to rank women the same way. I was recently at a house party where a group of guys referred to a soundproofed recording studio in the basement as the “rape room” 45 times.

Some of these jokes were a little funny. Some of them really weren’t. But they were all endemic of something more sinister, and I honestly don’t think the men in question even realize it.

This has made me defensive. It has put me more on my guard than I would like to be.

Decent male humans, this is not your fault, but it also does not have nothing to do with you.

If a woman is frosty or standoffish or doesn’t laugh at your joke, consider the notion that maybe she is not an uptight, humorless bitch, but rather has had experiences outside your realm of understanding that have adversely colored her perception of the world.

Consider that while you’re just joking around, a woman might actually be doing some quick mental math to see if she’s going to have to hide in a bathroom stall and call someone to come help her, like I did three days ago.

Please adjust your mindset and your words accordingly.

This article was written by Laura Munoz and originally appeared on 03.08.16.

There’s not a woman alive who hasn’t suffered through an unwanted come-on from a creep. Some women are so afraid of these encounters they feel they can’t be as nice to men as they’d like, for fear their friendliness will be mistaken for flirtation.

One woman’s encounter with a creepy come-on has received over 110,000 likes on Twitter because of her flawless response.

Twitter user @LovableAndKind recently shared screenshots from a text exchange between her sister and a Jiffy Lube employee who found her phone number and sent her an unsolicited text.

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The woman received a text from an unfamiliar number that read: “You are gorgeous.” When she asked who it was he responded, “Your favorite oil change guy.”

The woman could have responded with anger or ignored the creep and blocked him, but instead she decided to create a teachable moment.

“While I know you were wanting to give me a compliment, it was completely unnecessary and unsolicited,” she replied. “I am a customer, you are a service provider, and there should be no communication outside of that unless I, the customer, express interest.”

She then explained why his text was so violating.

“It is a violation of my privacy for you to contact me from your personal phone with information that you got without my permission,” she continued.

“And now I know that you are the type of person to go back in someone’s file to find their personal information, what is to keep you from going back and getting my address? There are men who stalk, rape and murder women this way.”

She then wrote that she could call Jiffy Lube human resources to report his actions, but she’d rather he learned from the incident.

“Sorry about that yes ma’am,” he responded.

Then she hit him back with one final diss.

“Oh, and you didn’t tell me what the tire pressure was on the rear passenger tire like I asked, so you’re definitely not even in my top five favorite oil change guys,” she wrote.

Here’s the entire exchange.

This article originally appeared on 08.09.19

Today’s MAGA conservatives are a famously untruthful bunch, led by a guy who keeps getting sued for defamation. But there’s one lie that’s stranger than most: They’ve been painting New York City as a crime-ridden Boschian hellscape that’s slipped back to its gritty 1970s low point. Guess what? It’s not! It’s arguably the safest it’s ever been in its 400-year history. That doesn’t stop some in the GOP from claiming otherwise, even if crime is way, way, way worse in their own states. Enter noted dim bulb Tommy Tuberville.

The college football coach-somehow-turned-powerful Republican senator was among the rightwing voices thrown into a tizzy over Joe Biden eating ice cream Monday. His contribution to the furor was a little weaker than most, though: “Hope @JoeBiden enjoyed going out for ice cream in NYC while the rest of the city is afraid of crime and migrants.”

Tuberville could have asked any New Yorker if they think they’re living in the original Death Wish. They could have then laughed in his face. Crime has been tumbling for decades; it fell another 4.1% from 2022 to 2023. (That said, hate crime has been on the rise, some of it fueled by racist anti-Asian statements made by people like Donald Trump.) But Tuberville didn’t do that, and so he got rigorously owned on social media.

The most common attack on Tuberville wasn’t simply that he was wrong. It was that his own state of Alabama has a far higher crime rate. His tweet earned a brutal community note:

New York City’s homicide rate is 4.8 per 100,000. Alabama, the home state of Sen. Tuberville, has a homicide rate three times higher (15.9 per 100,000)

Others reminded him of his error.

The city’s mayor, who’s not exactly loved by his citizenry, even got in on the action, throwing in a reference to his recent dunderheaded comments about IVF that got him schooled last week.

Speaking of, some New Yorkers are far more scared of a powerful senator who controls women’s reproductive rights than some fictitious crime wave.

Besides, the nation’s finest city is so tough on crime one of its most prominent criminals was even found guilty of fraud.

Tuberville also received some miscellaneous jokes.

Tuberville’s no stranger to being dunked on social media. Last fall, as he was holding up hundreds of military promotions as a stunt, people tried to make themselves feel better by sharing an old clip of him falling down some stairs like a clutz.

(Via Mediaite)

From the founders of ONE Musicfest comes Twogetherland, the Southwest’s newest hip-hop and R&B music festival. The inaugural TwoGether Land will take place over the course of two days — May 25 and 26 — at Fair Park in Dallas, Texas. On the bill are some of the biggest names in music.

Including Lil Wayne, Summer Walker, Gucci Mane, and Latto. Fans can also expect fire performances from That Mexican OT, Muni Long, Jeezy, Mariah The Scientist, Three 6 Mafia, and Tyla.

Dallas hip-hop favorites, including Big Tuck, Erica Banks, Yella Beezy, Dorrough, and Chalie Boy, will had some homegrown flavor to the inaugural festival. The podcast stage will host tapings of podcasts by The Smooothvega Podcast — hosted by veteran music manager Lorenzo “Smoothvega” Zenteno — Angela Yee’s Lipservice, Whorible Decisions, and more.

TwoGether Land arrives to Dallas by way of a partnership between One Musicfest and Live Nation Urban.

“We’re thrilled about going to Dallas for the inaugural TwoGether Land Festival,” said J. Carter, ONE Musicfest Founder in a statement. “Continuing our motto of unity through music, the festival will be an unforgettable experience for our ever-growing community. We look forward to TwoGether Land becoming a must-attend event, much like ONE Musicfest.”

Tickets for TwoGether Land are available for purchase here. You can see the full lineup below.

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.