We saw the finalists a couple of months ago, and now the awards are in. The winners of the Comedy Pet Photography Awards have been announced! The overall winner is Sarah Haskell for the image above, titled Not Just For Cats. Or at least that's what Haskell's dog Hector thought, but he didn't make it all the way through. This photo also won in the dog category. The cat category was won by the picture below, titled Cat in a trap like Super Mario by Kenichi Morinaga.



I see a theme developing, but not all the award-winning photos were of self-trapped animals. The People's Choice winner is titled Tarzan by Kazutoshi Ono.



There are plenty more winners in the different categories, plus highly commended photos as well, that you can see in a gallery at the contest site. They do this every year, so never pass up an opportunity to take pictures of your pets, lest you'll catch them doing something funny. -via Digg

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F hits theaters this weekend. It is the fourth installment of the Beverly Hills Cop franchise that started in 1984. Eddie Murphy returns as Axel Foley, a Detroit police officer who is transported to a different culture in Los Angeles. So Screen Junkies goes back forty years to the movie that started it all. Warning: revisiting the original may ruin the new movie for you. We won't know until someone actually sees it.

In 1984, Eddie Murphy was already quite popular from Saturday Night Live, his standup act, and a couple of movie roles. Beverly Hills Cop was his first as the solo star, and became the biggest movie of 1984, spending 14 weeks at #1. This video makes us remember why. Beverly Hills Cop made Murphy a superstar. The two sequels, from 1987 and 1994, couldn't hold a candle to the original. While Honest Trailers are usually pretty devastating, the parts they pick on in this one are honestly funny.

Although AI has been very popular over the past decade, and even more within the past five years, it still has its limitations. McDonald's US experimented with using AI to take orders for customers in their drive-thrus since 2021, and they have decided to pull the plug on the test this coming July. They will be removing their AI drive-thrus on July 27.

I have seen how ChatGPT is capable of voice recognition almost with 100% accuracy, if not 100% accuracy, no matter how people pronounce words or whether they have an accent. However, it's different when you're simply dictating a message that you want to send to a family member, a friend, or your spouse, or if you just want to make a note without having to type it. Then, AI will probably suffice. However, for a business like McDonald's, accuracy is the top priority since making a mistake means a lot of disgruntled and dissatisfied customers. It will cost them billions.

So, perhaps that's one of the reasons why they've decided to axe their AI drive-thrus. Initially though, they had considered these as a success with an 85% order accuracy. But 15% is still a lot, given how many people order at McDonald's every single day. Just some examples of order shenanigans include giving a customer cream packet instead of "no caramel" on their sundae.

According to the memo sent out by McDonald's US, they will continue to stay in partnership with IBM from whom they got the AI machines for their drive-thrus. The main challenge according to that memo was that the technology from IBM had trouble interpreting different accents and dialects. And given the massive ramifications that a single mistake would translate in terms of the bottom line, it's no surprise that McDonald's decided to ditch it after just three years of experimenting.

This just goes to show that AI will definitely not replace human beings any time soon, as one of the primary roles or functions that human beings still excel at much more than any computer or AI is communication and interpretation of the messages being given. Despite the great strides that AI technology has had, it still doesn't compare to humans' language ability, creativity, spatial understanding, and deductive reasoning.

(Image credit: Eduardo Soares/Unsplash)

About four years ago, I made a decision that I think has changed my life for the better. As an Asian guy, white rice has been a staple of our diet. We have it in every meal, and whenever we don't get it, we don't feel as though we've had an actual meal.

I'm not really overweight, although at that time, I was teetering on the edge of being overweight, and I felt it too. I felt heavy and almost unable to do any physical exercise. It wasn't helping that I was living abroad, and for my first year, I lived on the side of a mountain. So, whenever I needed to get groceries, I literally had to walk down and climb back up the mountain. Going down was a walk in the park, you just had to be careful not to slip and roll down the slope. It was the way back up that proved to be a challenge.

That's when I decided that perhaps it was time for me to watch my weight and watch what I was eating. So with the help of my friend, with whom I lived for about a year, I changed my diet from eating white rice to brown rice. I heard some of the health benefits of brown rice, so I decided to try it. It wasn't as bad as I thought, with regard to the taste, although the texture took some time to get used to.

Before long, I was exclusively eating brown rice at home, and only having white rice occasionally when eating out with friends. As the years went by, I made the decision to simply have one rice meal a day, and just eat fruits or whole grain bread for breakfast and even dinner. I lost about 18 pounds on the first year. And since then, I have just been maintaining my weight given that I'm not that heavy to begin with.

I noticed one major change in my body when I made that change, and that was my appetite. The less I ate, the more my body got used to the amount of food intake I get each day. I was able to control how much I ate in a day, and I also felt full a lot faster.

Now, some people may struggle more in controlling their hunger and satiety, and they might have tried various diets, workout routines, and other solutions to help them lose weight, but one particular solution may have been the "miracle" drug that some people have been looking for.

Ozempic initially is a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes, but now there are studies that have looked into its effects on weight loss. Although effects vary on different people, those who have experienced dramatic changes report that they had experienced something similar to what I had, in terms of the way they viewed food.

Some people reported no longer craving too much or being able to have more control over their cravings. More than helping improve their eating habits, it also reduced anxiety. These drugs are under a category called GLP-1 receptor agonists. And researchers have found that GLP-1 is not only associated with treatment for diabetes and weight loss, but also addiction treatment.

This spate of new studies on GLP-1 and how it affects a variety of physiological and neurological functions has researchers honing in on it and seeing how it's connected with different dysfunctions in the body. Right now, researchers are looking to break down the stigma on obesity and addiction with the help of research on GLP-1.

The more we understand that our cravings, addictions, or appetite may be connected to a mutation or malfunction in our natural GLP-1 receptor, the more we are able to empathize with people who struggle to make certain changes in their lives and maintain them. At the very least, with drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and other GLP-1-based medication, several people have found relief from lifelong struggles.

Hopefully, as further research and development progresses, we are able to unlock the secrets of our neurological pathways and how they are connected to a wide array of pathologies, which we may not even have much control over. For a more detailed explanation as to the mechanism behind GLP-1 and how targeting it helps control excessive behavior related to obesity or addiction, check out the article on Scientific American.

(Image credit: Kimzy Nanney/Unsplash)

Many people in my country probably share something in common with many others in the world: they want to live the American dream. And so, they pursue that dream through whatever means that's available to them. If an opportunity to work in the medical field, for example, opens up, many doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals apply for those jobs because they strongly believe that life in the US would be much better than life here.

Although it is true that the standard of living in the US is miles above our country's standard of living, people forget that there are other factors they need to consider when chasing after their dream or pursuing a career overseas. One of the biggest considerations is a place to live and the monthly rent one needs to pay.

The fact that rent is pretty expensive and getting increasingly unaffordable is not exclusive to the US. Many other major cities all over the world face the same issues. Tokyo, Seoul, London, Singapore, Paris, Amsterdam - these are only some of the major cities in the world where rent is sky high, and we shouldn't be surprised about that. The more densely populated an area is, the higher the rental costs would be as there would be a higher demand for housing.

The same is true for the US, especially if a dreamer is eyeing to live in a major city. Redfin conducted a survey to see in which cities in the US would be the most difficult and most unaffordable for people to rent an apartment. And the results are probably what you would expect if someone were to ask you, "Which city in the US has the most expensive rent?"

Of course, topping the list is New York City which requires one to have at least a $119,120 annual salary, with the median price of apartments being $2,978. Among all 33 major cities that Redfin analyzed, New York came out with the biggest gap (of 43.5% less than what they need) between a renter's median household income ($67,358) and the minimum household income one must receive to be able to afford an apartment in New York.

The following four cities in order are: Miami, Boston, Los Angeles, and Riverside. Although these cities aren't arranged in order of how much the median asking price for an apartment is, they are, however, arranged according to the gap existing between a renter's median household income and the minimum household income required for them to be able to rent an apartment in the respective cities.

In order, these cities came out with these gap figures: 42.2%, 38.7%, 36.1%, and 30.8%. But if we were to look at merely how much the median price of an apartment would be in each of these cities, it would be as follows: $2,486 in Miami, $2,835 in Boston, $2,811 in Los Angeles, and $2,312 in Riverside. The gap figures take into account how much disposable income each person has, which affects the quality of life they can afford.

Despite this disparity, there are plenty of ways for people to find affordable housing and still be able to find a nice job in those cities. Whether it would be practical to take an hour or longer commute is within their discretion. But sometimes, people will just take their chances and hope they're able to make it through.

(Image credit: Sergio Arteaga/Unsplash)

Movies can be pretty influential, in more ways than you realize. Movies got us all to be afraid of quicksand, but that was because it was used in many movies. A lot of ideas that seem universal came from a single movie that proved strangely influential.

Everyone is used to NASA counting down the seconds before a space flight, as is tradition. But there's no real reason to do it like that, outside of the drama. The idea came from a 1926 German silent film. Yeah, they counted down to liftoff with intertitles. German rocket scientists like Werner von Braun were impressed, and did the same with their rockets, and then brought the idea to NASA. Now it's just what we do. We know that rabbits eat carrots because of Bugs Bunny, except rabbits don't normally eat carrots. Bugs only chomped on a carrot as a reference to another film, but since Bugs Bunny cartoons are in color, they ended up as more influential.

You might be surprised at some of the other stories about something small from a movie that became a part of our culture as explained at Cracked. Video clips of each movie are included.

When you were much younger, all kinds of adventure movies had a scene in which the protagonist or someone close to the protagonist fell into quicksand and had to be rescued before they slipped completely under and immediately drowned. Yeah, those movies still have those scenes, but new movies, not so much. Sinking in quicksand was an easy way for filmmakers to establish dangers lurking around every corner, get rid of minor characters, and give the hero something heroic to do. It happened so often on screen that it became a cliché, and that's why it's rarely used now. The fact that we learned that quicksand is not nearly as common nor dangerous as we were led to believe may have had something to do with it as well. But quicksand is a real thing, and it can kill you if conditions are just right. Weird History explains the difference between the movie version and real life, and how we can avoid dying in quicksand ourselves.   

Sam Woodhead, a certified CrossFit trainer and a trombonist in the US Army Band, knows the importance of staying fit and ready to march without missing a note. He lifts heavy weights and practices his trombone at the same time.

That headline might sound like a game of Mad Libs or even Cards Against Humanity, but it happened. Benjamin Franklin was known as a really good swimmer who could do tricks in the water. The Founding Father was on a boat on the Thames near Chelsea, accompanied by a man who boasted about Franklin's talents. Franklin was not shy, and it took only a little encouragement for him to strip down and demonstrate his abilities in the Thames. He swam alongside the boat, showing off for about three miles. His movements were akin to what we would later call water ballet, and is now known as synchronized swimming.    

It was an impressive feat because few people actually knew how to swim at the time. Ancient people up through the Roman era were swimmers, but during the Dark Ages, it was seen as sinful, both because of the pleasure it brought and because of the exposure of one's body. Franklin was quite an advocate for bringing back the custom of swimming. Read about the incident, and about Franklin's athletic abilities at LitHub.

By the way, before you get an unwanted image in your head, this happened in 1726, when Franklin was 19 years old. -via Nag on the Lake

Julian Hwang of West Virginia University and Dongso Lee of the Korea Rural Economic Institute publish in the Journal of Cultural Economics the results of their study of the economic valuation of being a superhero. Unfortunately, I do not have access to the full article--just to the abstract.

Personally, when I encounter stories of people gaining superpowers, such as the 2006-2010 television series Heroes,  I am struck by the responses of characters to their new abilities. If I had a superpower--any superpower--my first question would be "How can I use this power to get wealthy?" I would also keep that ability a secret in order to maximize my wealth-acquisition usage and reduce the potential of my enslavement by powerful organizations.

-via Marginal Revolution

Traveling is a great way to relax and unwind, or to explore and learn more about other cultures and places, or meet new people. I'm not sure if you can do all three at the same time, because most of my travel experiences require me to just have one or the other, never all at the same time.

Perhaps a more lengthy duration of the trip with some expert budgeting can help you plan out when to relax, when to explore, and when to let the wind take you where it blows, but since most of my trips are generally shorter or have a very tight budget, it's easy to see why I can never achieve those traveling goals in one trip.

In any case, here's a list of some obvious travel advice with which you may already be familiar, but some of which didn't seem obvious to me, up until I read them. Here are some of the advice which I found quite interesting and resonant:

Although I never willingly put myself in a position in which I would get soaked, I never would have imagined that simply wearing my wet clothes would be the best way for them to dry. At the very least, my thought process is that I don't want to get sick so I better get changed.

There was only one time when I got absolutely soaked while traveling, and that's when my father, my cousin, and I went on a ride at an amusement park which as it turns out had a big splash in the end, and so we ended up having to buy a new shirt from the store nearby. Despite feeling uncomfortable, I wore my pants until they dried, so I guess that's the spirit of the advice.

When I was younger and traveling with family, we often would economize and maximize our trips so that we can do so much with so little. Now, that we're older, I have learned that it doesn't matter how much you're able to save on a trip, because in the end, it won't be as enjoyable, especially when you travel with much older people.

These days, we prioritize comfort and/or convenience over economy, and so spending a little bit more on accommodation, transportation, and other aspects of traveling that could be a hassle, definitely helped a lot in our recent travels. And so, I understand where this tip is coming from, and I totally agree with it.

I found that whenever I travel and get out of the hustle and bustle of my regular, daily life, my mind is able to break away from invisible shackles that seem to keep it bound to something, which I believe is obligation or in other cases, responsibility. Being able to relax and look at new and unfamiliar scenery gives us time to unwind and slow down.

Of course, if you're traveling with a schedule, then it might not be as slowed down as it could be. But, letting go of a very strict schedule, and just enjoying every moment and experience you encounter in your travels, can have this effect of time slowing down with everything around you seemingly so fresh and brand new.

And finally, the previous tip connects with this one. Simply being present in the moment and letting the different sensations and sensory experiences wash over you will heighten your positive memories of the trip. I mean, the reason why we even went on a trip in the first place was so that we can throw all our cares away, and forget about our usual worries, even for just a moment.

So, it's no surprise why people who are able to just live in the moment have the best travel experiences. They're able to take in everything that's happening without resistance, and just go with the flow. In doing that, we will then be able to open ourselves to opportunities or encounters that present themselves, and get the most out of them.

Nothing really novel, game-changing, or enigmatic about these pieces of travel advice, just some obvious observations which can perhaps get us to reflect on our next trip and what to do. Personally, the most life-changing travel advice that I have taken to heart is traveling light. It eases all my troubles and gives me freedom to go where the wind takes me. - via Kottke

(Image credit: JESHOOTS/Unsplash)

With the advancement in drone technology, photographers are now able to capture more detailed and stunning aerial shots of different scenery, sights, and spectacles like we never have before. And each year, the Siena Drone Photo Awards gathers some of the best drone shots photographers have sent in and gives the winner €500 worth of photography equipment, the "Pangea Prize" crystal statuette, and two overnight stays at the Siena during the awards ceremony among other prizes.

This year, the promising crop of finalists include an aerial shot of Indian wrestlers, a pack of pelicans, a whole village trekking a 160-kilometer-long (100-mile-long) stretch of mountainous jungle and swamp called the Darien Gap, crowds gathered around a bull fight in Mexico, roaming Banni buffalos, a six-mile bridge in China, and the village of Kargapazari in Turkey steeped in snow. These are only some of the nominees of the Siena Drone Photo Awards, also featured on NPR.

Out of the these, I thought that the most captivating one was the photo by Hüseyin Karahan, a former Turkish naval officer, who took a photo of Kargapazari village during a time when people were about to leave a mosque after prayers. Seeing as they were struggling to go out, he used his drone to take a wider view of the situation, and that's when his camera saw a very picturesque, almost abstract landscape, showing how the whole village had been snowed in.

Talking about the photo, Karahan mentioned how Turkish photographer Ara Güler inspired him to take up photography, and how there was such beauty that we can see in the spontaneity of our world. From his experiences taking the photo of Kargapazari, he was reminded how vast our world really is, and how small we are in comparison to it.

Meanwhile, Roberto Hernandez's photo of a bullfight in Mexico City's Plaza Mexico arena shown above is a great depiction of the spectacle, not just of bullfighting itself, but how that event brings people together. In fact, the photo shows more than 42,000 people who were gathered at the arena to witness the final moments of that bullfight.

From above, the collective throng seem so small and insignificant that one doesn't realize how many there really are, and that there's such a great number packed into this arena. Apparently, in order for Hernandez to get this great shot of the arena, there was much planning and testing that went into it. He shared how he had to rent the roof of the tallest building near the arena, and from that height, he was able to take this shot.

Finally, the other photo that stood out for me from among the collection was Sanchayan Chowdhury's photo of the famed Abdul Jabbar's Boli Khela - a wrestling tournament that was being held in Chittagong, Bangladesh. What entranced me in this photo was the geometry of the shot as well as the use of space.

According to Chowdhury, he took the photo not only as a commemorative token of the event, but also as a means of honoring his cultural heritage and capturing the passion of the wrestlers and the vibrant atmosphere of the event.

(Image credits: Hüseyin Karahan; Roberto Hernandez; Sanchayan Chowdhury/NPR)

This video contains NSFW language. There is so much documentation about the struggle for the American colonies to separate from British rule, but for some reason we focus on one quip in a letter from John Adams to his wife about celebrating independence with "bonfires and illuminations." This custom quickly settled into fireworks, because if there's anything Americans love, it's blowing things up.

Roger Horton is back to get honest with us about the Fourth of July, which was supposed to be the Second of July. We tend to just ignore that, as we do the fact that many of the things our country was founded on were compromises that made no one happy, but got the document out that started the Revolutionary War. The way we celebrate today has little to do with the actual events that gave us the holiday, but at least we have a good time. Still, be careful out there.  

George Frandsen has been collecting coprolites since he was 14. Those are fossilized turds, or dinosaur poop. It's a subject that may not appeal to everyone, but we've learned a lot about dinosaurs by the things they left behind, so to speak. Frandsen has the world's largest coprolite collection, despite giving them away regularly to museums. In 2014, Frandsen launched the Poozeum as a virtual and traveling exhibit, hosted by various museums around the country. But as of May, the Poozeum has a permanent home in Williams, Arizona. The displays include the largest dino coprolite ever found, so big it got its own name, Barnum. There's also a statue of a T. rex on the toilet, reminiscent of Rodin's sculpture The Thinker, which has become the Poozeum's most iconic image.



You could say the Poozeum is a crappy museum, but that's kind of the point. The museum doesn't smell; after all, these are fossils that are millions of years old. They also have a gift shop where you can buy all kinds of poop-related souvenirs. The Poozeum is open every day except Monday, and admission is free. Be sure to check it out the next time you are in Arizona. -via Boing Boing

In the latest episode of Ze Frank's True Facts series, he learn about five very strange species of eel. There are more than a thousand species of eel, so you probably haven't seen anywhere near most of them. Still, all eels are fish, but not like other fish. or example, the ribbon eel is born male -all of them. But you can't reproduce like that, so some turn into females as they mature. Moray eels have a second set of jaws like a xenomorph, and some can hunt prey on land. The pelican eel is called that because of its terrifying mouth. American eels and European eels don't even have sex organs until late in life, when they grow a pair (literally), and meet up to have an orgy in the ocean, right before they die. But those facts are just a tiny taste of the weird things you will learn about eels. Expect double entendres, snide remarks, and juvenile humor, as always. This video has a 70-second skippable ad at 6:23.

See Also: Previous True Facts videos.