This is a transcript of the Freakonomics Radio podcast “How to Fix a Broken High Schooler, in Four Easy Steps” [MUSIC: Two Dark Birds, “Ill Wind Again” (from Songs For The New)] Carolyn ACKER: My name is Caroline Acker. I was the executive director of the Regent Park Community Health Center. Stephen J. DUBNER: Regent Park, […]
via Freakonomics » Blog
How to Fix a Broken High Schooler, in Four Easy Steps Full Transcript
Counteract Wrist Pain from Your Keyboard & Mouse with a Few Stretches
There are many ways you can maintain your health while still working a desk job. Part of that includes undoing the impact using a keyboard and mouse all day has on your wrists and forearms. A few simple stretches might help your wrists feel better.
Bari Lieberman at Refinery29 shares a list of possible stretches that can help, including this useful one:
This move reverses the grip of your wrists and forearms on the keyboard and mouse. Place both palms on a flat surface (the floor, a table, or a chair). Now, flip your hands so that your thumbs are on the outside and your pinkies are on the inside. Adjust the pressure and angle so that your palms are fully in contact with the surface. Exaggerate the spread of your fingers, and attempt to migrate your forearms and elbows toward your body to increase the stretch. Hold for 10 breaths.
You can easily do this simple move at your desk, or if that’ll draw looks from your coworkers, at home. For more exercises you can do to counteract the effects of working at a desk for a majority of the day, check out the full post linked below.
How to Undo the Damage of Sitting at Your Desk All Day | Refinery29
via Lifehacker
Counteract Wrist Pain from Your Keyboard & Mouse with a Few Stretches
Super Glue’s Got Nothing On This Liquid Plastic You Harden With UV Light
Billed as the world’s first liquid plastic welder, Bondic might look like a tube of super glue, but it’s far easier to apply and use—without those loopy fumes. It’s actually a liquid plastic that remains fluid when applied until you hit it with a blast of UV light for about four seconds. That hardens it into a rock-hard plastic that can be sanded and finished so your repairs don’t stand out. It seems a lot less finicky than glue, and it will never dry out if you forget to cap it.
Bondic’s creators stress that you actually need to use and think of it more like welding than gluing, but it can adhere to wood, plastic, and even fabrics, through a process where you slowly build it up layer by layer (as needed for strength) not unlike 3D printing. A starter kit that includes the UV hardening light on the dispenser is just $22, which sounds like a pretty great deal if it means you’ll never accidentally glue your hand to your workbench again. Oh, like I’m the only one who’s ever done that! [Bondic via Werd]
via Gizmodo
Super Glue’s Got Nothing On This Liquid Plastic You Harden With UV Light
Dear Inbox
Dear Inbox is a paper greeting card service built into Gmail via a Chrome extension. Its fonts resemble handwriting and you can preview cards right in your Gmail page. Theodore Twombly not included.
via The Awesomer
Dear Inbox
How Hard It Will Be to Pay off a Student Loan Based on Your Major
One of the hardest parts about getting an undergraduate degree is picking your focus, and different fields of study usually lead to very different earnings. A $30,000 loan for an art student can be a lot harder to pay off than it would be for a computer science student. This calculator determines how difficult a student loan will be to repay based on your major and average earnings.
The calculator, from the Brookings Institution’s Hamilton Project, looks at your loan, interest, term, and whether you plan on making any additional monthly payments. What’s really helpful about this calculator, though, is that it takes your undergraduate major into account—sorry grad students. Additionally, you can see different variations if you expect to have low, mid-range, or high earnings, and whether you expect to always work full-time or not. The earnings data being used comes directly from the U.S. Census Bureau, and you can select from 80 different majors.
Once you have everything entered, you’ll see the minimum monthly payment you’ll need to make in order to pay off the loan within the chosen term, how much interest you’ll have paid, and how much of your earnings you’ll actually get to keep over that time period. As you’ll likely see in your chart, the first few years of payments are usually the hardest. It’s important to keep in mind that no tools like this can predict the future, but you’ll at least get an idea of what kind of dollars and cents you could be dealing with. Check out the calculator at the link below.
Undergraduate Student Loan Calculator | The Hamilton Project
via Lifehacker
How Hard It Will Be to Pay off a Student Loan Based on Your Major
DNA Confirms: Here Lieth Richard III, Under Yon Parking Lot
The king’s genes also raise some royally embarrassing questions about the legitimacy of the Tudors who ended his reign.
via National Geographic News
DNA Confirms: Here Lieth Richard III, Under Yon Parking Lot
Find Your Fit Shows Women’s Clothing Sizes by Brands That Fit You Best
Shopping for clothes that actually fit is downright agonizing—especially for women, when a size 8 varies so ridiculously across clothing brands. Find Your Fit might help put an end to this shopping frustration.
The webapp takes your measurements and compares them to retailers’ published size charts, then shows you the brand and size that would fit you best. You can click on the retailer name to see how your body outline coincides (and varies) with the retailers’.
The tool’s not perfect, because unless you’re very lucky, retailers’ measurements won’t fit all three measurements for you perfectly, but it does show you the closest option from its database of brands. In the example above, Anthropologie’s size 10 size chart lists a 38" bust measurement, 30-32" for the waist, and 40" for the hips. Banana Republic’s size 10 measurements are 37" bust, 30" waist, and 40" hips.
In some cases—if one measurement is much greater or smaller than the others, for example, or all three measurements are nearly the same—you’ll have a harder time finding a perfect match, thanks to designers’ emphasis on a not-so-universal hourglass shape (when in doubt, it looks like the app tries to fit your hip and bust size before the waist). You can still use the tool, though, to check out how the brands’ clothes might possibly fit you.
Find Your Fit also has a "recommended clothing items" feature, which pulls in clothes listed on eBay via Pic Click’s visual search.
via Lifehacker
Find Your Fit Shows Women’s Clothing Sizes by Brands That Fit You Best
Master blacksmith forges a beautiful knife
DNA proves parking lot skeleton is Richard III
Researchers have discovered overwhelming evidence that a skeleton found under a parking lot in Leicester, England, belonged to King Richard III. … Continued
The post DNA proves parking lot skeleton is Richard III appeared first on Futurity.
Mr. Plinkett: Star Wars VII Teaser
(NSFW: Language) Plinkett – the creepy film critic behind the hilarious and on point Star Wars prequels reviews – weighs in on the teaser for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, reminding us of its ultimate purpose: marketing.
via The Awesomer
Mr. Plinkett: Star Wars VII Teaser