Japan puts a high standard on customer service. Much is expected from people who work as cashiers in stores; they should be “polite, well-groomed, and efficient.”

After all, if a store offers a sub-par shopping experience, Japanese shoppers are quick to go looking for a better one someplace else.

In other words, being a cashier is a stressful and draining job. And so it would only be appropriate to thank these people for their hard work. Unfortunately, many people forget even the most basic polite words: “please” and “thank you.” Twitter user @moroQma has these things to say:

“I think everyone should spend some time working as a cashier, to know what it feels like. That’s what I felt for the entire 15 years I worked part-time in a bookstore, and the things I desperately wish customers would do are:

• Say ‘Please’ when they bring their items to the register
• Say ‘Thank you’ when they receive their change

That’s really all I want. You can use whatever phrasing you feel like. If customers would just say these things, clerks would feel so much happier.”

SoraNews24 gives detailed instructions on how to say these two words in Japanese, as well as when to say these words. Check it out over at the site.

(Image Credit: SoraNews24)

As restaurants gradually re-open in countries affected by the pandemic around the world, patrons are noticing more and more that menus are more likely to be digital, accessed from your phone or a screen at the restaurant. Or maybe the menu is just a signboard at the restaurant entrance. Handing every diner their own menu listing what's for dinner may be going away forever. So Messy Messy Chic is taking a look at the history of the menu.

Menus actually got their start in special occasion events like weddings, graduations, or various anniversaries. They were costly and time-consuming to make, so it was only the fanciest restaurants that had the luxury of offering its patrons menus in the early days…

Some of the most beautiful 19th and 20th century menus recall times when travel was also considered quite grand. Taking the train? Hopping on an ocean liner, flying in a plane? These weren’t just a means of travel, but an event in themselves. Menus reflected that.

The article features a gallery of gorgeous and interesting menus from all over. You may be most impressed at the prices, which were not included in earlier menus. See them all at Messy Nessy Chic.

When animals look into a mirror, they are either frightened, or else they think that what they are looking at is the most beautiful creature in the world.

So relatable 😂

— Ann (@Titsup_Ramble) June 10, 2020

The same pet can be frightened at first, and then make friends with their image, and then fall in love with it (however, these two cats are not the same one). These occasions are all great photo opportunities, as you'll see in an amusing ranked collection of 30 pets looking into mirrors at Bored Panda.

(Top image credit: stationary_nomad)

Does cooldown really reduce muscle soreness after workout? Is body weight more important than resistance training? Are burpees the ultimate single exercise? Are planks better than crunches when trying to slim your waist?

Exercise scientist Sandra Hunter, physiologist Fabio Comana, and researcher Harry Dorell give a scientific and logical answer to these questions. Spoiler alert: the answers to the questions above are all no. The scientific reasons behind these answers could be found over at Discover Magazine.

For now, let’s look into the myth that cooldown reduces post-workout soreness.

“The research doesn’t support that a cooldown will reduce muscle soreness, because the muscle damage has already been done (during the workout),” says Comana.

Cooling down could have other benefits, though. For example, Comana says people with conditions such as high blood pressure may need to gradually taper their level of activity to avoid feeling light-headed. For others, cooldowns may be the perfect time to work on skills like flexibility.

But Comana admits he has been guilty of skipping them if he’s running short on time. “It’s not universal,” he adds. “It’s case-specific for every individual, though there are no downsides to doing a cooldown."

Check out the other debunked myths over at the site.

(Image Credit: Keifit/ Pixabay)

Animals who can hibernate or go to a hibernation-like state are amazing animals. These creatures can significantly reduce both their metabolic rate and drop their body temperature in order to survive in harsh environment conditions and in periods of food shortage. But how is this state of “suspended animation” triggered? Scientists may have figured out the cause of this phenomenon.

Two studies published in the journal Nature have independently zoned in on the brain circuitry that triggers a hibernation-like state in rodents, which they say could have implications for humans.

[...]

Although studies have pointed to the central nervous system’s involvement, the precise mechanism for this state has been elusive.

The two studies, which had different methods, both showed that a group of neurons found in the hypothalamus is what causes hibernation-like states in rats.

If humans have similar neurons, [the researchers] speculate this could help control fever or induce hypothermia and slow down metabolism after events like a heart attack or stroke to reduce tissue damage.

More details about these two studies over at Cosmos Magazine.

(Image Credit: Shutterbug75/ Pixabay)

Inside a bright room at Harvard Medical School, a series of tubes can be seen. Inside these tubes are fruit flies, all of them deprived of sleep. Inside one tube were flies who were genetically tweaked which kept them awake all the time. On the other tube were normal flies who weren’t able to sleep because of the constant vibrations in their tube. Both groups of flies ended up dead, with the genetically tweaked flies surviving only half as long as the shaken group of flies. But why would someone dare do this, you ask? For science, of course.

We all know that we need sleep to be at our best. But profound sleep loss has more serious and immediate effects: Animals completely deprived of sleep die. Yet scientists have found it oddly hard to say exactly why sleep loss is lethal.

What does sleep do that makes it deadly to go without? Could answering that question explain why we need sleep in the first place? Under the pale light of the incubators in Dragana Rogulja’s lab at Harvard Medical School, sleepless flies have been living and dying as she pursues the answers.

Rogulja is a neuroscientist and a developmental biologist by training, but she is not convinced that the most fundamental effect of sleep deprivation starts in the brain. “It could come from anywhere,” she said, and it might not look like what most people expect.

So where does the deadliest change happen? It happens where one might not expect: in the gut.

The indigo labyrinths of the flies’ small intestines light up with fiery fuchsia in micrographs, betraying an ominous buildup of molecules that destroy DNA and cause cellular damage. The molecules appear soon after sleep deprivation starts, before any other warning signs; if the flies are allowed to sleep again, the rosy bloom fades away. Strikingly, if the flies are fed antioxidants that neutralize these molecules, it does not matter if they never sleep again. They live as long as their rested brethren.

Check out Quanta Magazine for more details about this study.

(Image Credit: JACLOU-DL/ Pixabay)

Runner and filmmaker Kiplin Pastor wanted to have a rim-to-rim-to-rim hike in the Grand Canyon last April. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to because of the virus that hit the world. And so, Kiplin just did this stop-motion video of him hiking in a much smaller cartoony version of the Grand Canyon instead.

See the short video over at Outside Online.

(Image Credit: Outside Online)

With fitness enthusiasts unable to go to local gyms, people afraid of taking public transportation, and families going nuts inside their respective homes, the world has seen a sudden increase in bicycle demand, one that is unseen not just in years, but in decades.

In the United States, bicycle aisles at mass merchandisers like Walmart and Target have been swept clean, and independent shops are doing a brisk business and are selling out of affordable “family” bikes.

Bicycle sales over the past two months saw their biggest spike in the U.S. since the oil crisis of the 1970s, said Jay Townley, who analyzes cycling industry trends at Human Powered Solutions.

More details about this over at AP News.

As bicycles are eco-friendly, and more affordable than other vehicles (not to mention that biking is healthy), I don’t see a downside to this one.

Well, what do you think?

(Image Credit: Pixabay)

When a golf club is swung, you would expect that the next thing to happen is the ball flying across the golf field. But sometimes, beginners swing their clubs too low, and they hit the tee instead of the ball, and the result is this. Despite this happening all the time, it’s amazing to see this for someone who doesn’t play golf.

See the slo-mo video on Reddit.

(Image Credit: MaxwellIsSmall/ Reddit)

Imperator Cuts took the 2002 film Attack of the Clones and edited it into a trailer for a Star Wars movie in the style of the 2016 movie The Nice Guys. Or that is the idea. I am not familiar with that movie, but even so, this re-edit makes Attack of the Clones seem like a movie you might actually want to see, which is quite a feat. The soundtrack music is particularly satisfying.

To make sure nobody shares a photo of you, put a GettyImages® watermark on your face mask. pic.twitter.com/zSCkyic3LV

— Danielle Baskin (@djbaskin) June 14, 2020

Perhaps you can protect your privacy by informally copyrighting your face. Danielle Baskin made this face mask with iconic Getty Images stock photo logo on it. I wouldn't be surprised if it successfully tricked bots made to weed out copyrighted photos.

Sure, you can make a gourmet macaroni and cheese casserole that contains several types of artisanal cheeses lovingly blended into a Béchamel sauce and baked for an hour, but you probably have some Kraft mac and cheese in the cupboard all the same. Despite its reputation as a kids’ food, many of us keep boxes of macaroni and cheese (Kraft dinner to Canadians) around in case we need some quick comfort food. You might wonder where it came from. People have been eating cheese with pasta for hundreds of years, but the box the with orange powder is a 20th-century development, an offshoot of research into preserving cheese for longer periods of time.    

Credit for inventing processed cheese should go to a pair of Swiss food chemists named Walter Gerber and Fritz Stettler who, in 1913, were looking for a way to improve the shelf life of Emmenthaler cheese using sodium citrate. When they heated up the treated cheese, they noticed it melted better as well. But Chicago cheese salesman James L. Kraft was awarded the first patent for processed cheese in 1916.

Kraft understood the spoilage problem and had tried various solutions to it. He tried putting it tin foil packages, sealing it in jars, even canning it. But none of these solutions caught on with the public.

He eventually realized that the same bacteria that made cheese age nicely was also the bacteria that ultimately caused it to go bad. So he took some cheddar cheese scraps, heated them to kill the bacteria, ground them up with some sodium phosphate as an emulsifier and voila—Kraft processed cheese was born.

Still, it was another 30 years before processed cheese was made into a powder to reconstitute with macaroni. Read the rest of the story of boxed macaroni and cheese at Smithsonian.

Nothing like a good game to beat out boredom! If you don’t have a gaming console like a Playstation or a Nintendo Switch, worry not! There are still good games available for the PC! While it will take a long time for you to go through the available games to find the right one, here’s Kotaku’s pick of the best PC games to get you on the track!

image via Kotaku

Vogue Italia invited kids aged two to ten years old to illustrate what they think a magazine cover should look like. The magazine sought 100 kids to reimagine the looks of the season. Eight artworks were then chosen to be the cover of the magazine’s June issue. Chief editor of Vogue Italia shares the reason behind the concept:

“Kids have been the most overlooked and least obvious victims of the pandemic,” said Emanuele Farneti, chief editor of Vogue Italia in a statement. “We’re starting from them to imagine a new world.”

image via Fast Company

For me, the real horror lies in the Masterchef for adults, where the pressure of wanting to win the competition drives the competitors almost insane, and you also have Gordon Ramsay chewing them out like a drill sergeant. But it seems that even though Masterchef Junior is wholesome in some aspects, Cracked’s Dan Duddy lists three reasons why the show is like a lowkey horror show.

image via Cracked