The Department of Education has finalized plans to cap federal student aid for graduate degrees and restrict who qualifies for public-service loan forgiveness.

The Department of Education has excluded nursing as a "professional degree" program as it sets about implementing various measures regarding student loans laid out in President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill."

Has the Department of Government Efficiency delivered on promises to downsize federal employment, cut regulations, and reduce federal spending?

President Donald Trump has said American citizens can expect money back from the country's tariff income. Recently, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent talked about what would need to happen for people to get a cut of the funds. Could you see the money this year?

Have you ever looked back at your parents’ high school yearbook and thought that all the 11th graders looked like they were in their early 30s? Whether they were in school in the ‘60s and the kids had horn-rimmed glasses or the ‘80s with feathered hair, they looked at least a decade older than today's high school kids. One wonders if in 30 years, kids look at a yearbook from 2025 and see boys with broccoli cuts and girls with nose rings and they think, “What are they, 35?”The folks at Bright Side did a deep dive into the phenomenon and found a few reasons why people looked so much older in the past than they do now. It’s a mix of how our minds perceive older fashion and why people age more gracefully in modern times.Why did people look older in the past?“Specialists have looked into this phenomenon, and it does have some scientific facts to back it up,” the narrator states. “It's not necessarily that our ancestors looked older; it's more that we appear to look younger. And younger as generations go by, that's because over time humans have improved the way they live their lives in the us alone over the last 200 years.” - YouTube www.youtube.com A big reason people looked much older when photography became common in the late 1800s is that it coincided with tremendous advances in public health. The 1880s to the 1920s were a time of rapid advancement, when we began to understand infectious diseases and how they spread. “We gained access after safer types of foods, and we understand the importance of clean water. Our individual lifestyle choices can impact the way we look,” the video says.The way we work has also drastically changed how people look. Working in an office for eight hours a day in air conditioning will keep you a lot younger-looking than working all day as a Victorian chimney sweep. Plus, for people who work outside, sunscreen has made it much easier to protect our skin and decrease wrinkles.Let’s not forget the importance of a straight, white smile. Advances in dental care also help make people look younger. A "girl gang" in 1976.via Earthworm/Flickr Why do people wearing styles from the past appear older?Finally, there’s the clothes issue, and, yes, this does have a big impact on how we view the age of people from the past. “Our brains are wired to associate old trends with being old,” the video says. “For example, your grandpa might still have the shirt he wore in that 1970s picture, and it's because of that shirt that you retroactively associate that trend with being old, despite the fact that your granddad does look younger in the picture than he looks today. “ GIrls in class in the 1960s.via Phillips Academy/Flickr The interesting thing for people getting up in age is that if they want to appear younger, they have to be diligent about not wearing outdated styles, whether it's their makeup, hair, clothing, shoes, or how tight their jeans are. However, there's nothing that looks more foolish than a man in his 50s trying to dress like he's in his 20s, so what are we supposed to do? Humans are wired to figure out others' biological age, or how young they are, based on health cues, so instead of buying some new jeans, it may be better to hit the gym. In the end, the fact that people look much younger today than they did in the past is a testament to how the quality of life has drastically improved since cameras were invented. However, that doesn’t mean that fashion has improved at all. You have to admit that your dad with that fly butterfly collar in his 1977 graduation photo looks better than that multi-colored, Machine Gun Kelly-style hoodie you see guys wearing in high schools today.This article originally appeared in June.

A funeral is a time to bid goodbye to the ones we love, but they are also be moments to celebrate the life and memories made with our lost loved one. Funerals are bittersweet in this way, straddling the line between joy and deep sorrow. They're not only a time to run through the accomplishments and events of a life, but they're also an opportunity to remember the person for the unique individual they were, in all their multifaceted glory—the good, the bad, and everything in between. In 2019, a grandpa from Dublin called Shay Bradley was having his last rites performed by family and friends, per Dublin Live. Surprise struck when the mourning family members heard a “Hello!” coming from the coffin. Seriously. Coffin says, "Hello!" Canva PhotosThe grandfather of eight was known for his jovial, heartwarming wit and sense of humor. Clearly, one of his final wishes was to remind his family that even a time like this was ripe for the ultimate "granddad" joke. Ben Bradley, one of Shay's grandsons, posted a video of his grandfather's last joke on X. In it, Shay’s loved ones are seen surrounding the burial spot. In the seconds after Shay’s coffin is lowered into the ground, a loud “Hello!” is heard. It's followed by a loud knocking and then, "It's Shay! I'm in here; let me out!" Though clearly shocked and confused at first, the family members break into smiles and tearful laughter. In just a moment, Shay's final prank brought humor and levity to the tearful graveside, something Shay was well-known for while he was alive. “For anyone who hasn’t seen, My grandad was a one-of-a-kind character and has left his legacy for the world to see,” Ben wrote in his caption. He followed with the hashtag #shayslastlaugh.The rest of the recording was Shay breaking into a sarcastic sing-song voice and trying to convince his family members he was "unwillingly stuck in the coffin." “Hello again, it’s me. I’m here to say goodbye,” he sang. — (@) By the end of it all, Shay's family was gifted a last memory of their beloved grandpa, just as he intended. His daughter, Andrea, shared a picture of her late father on X. “Here is a picture of the legend himself," she wrote in the caption. "My dad, Shay Bradley. It was his dying wish that we played this at his funeral. What a man... To make us all laugh when we were incredibly sad..... He was some man for one man... Love you forever, Poppabear. #Shayslastlaugh” One commenter wrote, “Glad he was sent off with a laugh, after all, it is a celebration of his life..” Another added, “His video is now making people smile around the world. What a legend!” — (@) What a legend indeed. This article originally appeared in September. It has been updated.

When we hear the name Maria Von Trapp, most of us conjure an image of Julie Andrews as the young would-be-nun who fell in love with Georg Von Trapp, a widower with six children, in "The Sound of Music." In the film, the love story between Maria and Georg is irresistibly swoon-worthy, with meaningful glances, a highly charged dance scene, and ultimately a confession of love under the moonlight. As it turns out, the real love story between the real Von Trapps is even more fascinating than the fictional film version. - YouTube youtu.be The National Archives has collected information about what's fact and what's fiction in The Sound of Music, which is based on a real family in Austria named Von Trapp. The film was generally based on the first section of Maria Von Trapp's 1949 autobiography, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, with some of the details being true and others fictionalized for a movie audience.For instance, Maria was actually hired on as a tutor for just one of Georg's children, not as a governess for all of them. The children, whose names, ages and sexes were changed, were already musically inclined before Maria arrived. Georg was not the cold, grumpy dad he was portrayed as in the beginning of the film, but rather a warm and involved parent who enjoyed making music with his kids. Maria and Georg were married 11 years before leaving Austria, not right before the Nazi takeover. The Von Trapps left by train, not in a secret excursion over the mountains.But perhaps the most intriguing detail? Maria was not in love with Georg at all when they got married. The real-life Maria and Georg Von TrappPublic domainWhile it may not make for a great Hollywood romance, the Von Trapp love story began with marriage for other reasons and only later evolved into a genuine love story. Maria wrote that she fell in love with Georg's children at first sight, but she wasn't sure about leaving her religious calling when Georg asked her to marry him. The nuns urged her to do God's will and marry him, but for Maria it was all about the children, not him. When Georg proposed, he asked her to stay with him and become a second mother to his children. "God must have made him word it that way," Maria wrote, "because if he had only asked me to marry him I might not have said yes.""I really and truly was not in love," she wrote. "I liked him but didn't love him. However, I loved the children, so in a way I really married the children."However, she shared that her feelings for Georg changed over time. "…[B]y and by I learned to love him more than I have ever loved before or after." Georg Von Trapp in "The Sound of Music" Giphy The idea of marrying someone you don't love is antithetical to every romantic notion our society celebrates, yet the evolution of Maria's love for Georg has been a common occurrence across many cultures throughout history. Romantic love was not always the primary impetus for marriage. It was more often an economic proposition and communal arrangement that united families and peoples, formed the basis of alliances, and enabled individuals to rise through social ranks. Some cultures still practice arranged marriage, which limited research has found has outcomes identical to love-first marriage in reports of passionate love, companionate love, satisfaction, and commitment. The idea of marrying someone you don't already love is anathema to modern Western sensibilities, but the reality is that people have married over the centuries for many reasons, only one of which is falling in love.Maria's marriage to Georg actually was about falling in love, but not with him. She loved his children and wanted to be with them. It definitely helped that she liked the guy, but she wasn't swept off her feet by him, there were no moonlit confessions of love a la "Something Good," and their happily ever after love story didn't come until much later. - YouTube www.youtube.com Ultimately, Maria and Georg's love story was one for the ages, just not one that fits the Hollywood film trope. And it's a compelling reminder that our unwritten rules and social norms determining what love and marriage should look like aren't set in stone. Do marriages for reasons other than love always evolve into genuine love? No. Do marriages based on falling in love first always last? Also no. Should a marriage that starts with "like" and develops into to a genuine, deep love over years be considered "true love" in the way we usually think of it? Who can say? Lots to ponder over in this love story.But Maria's description of learning "to love him more than I have ever loved before or after" is a pretty high bar, so clearly it worked for them. The Von Trapps were married for 20 years and had three more children together before Georg died of lung cancer in 1947. Maria would live another four decades and never remarried. She died in 1987 at age 82 and is buried next to Georg on the family's property in Vermont.If that's not a compelling love story, what is? This article originally appeared in June.

Problems like sexism and racism don't just pop up out of nowhere in adulthood. These prejudices are deeply embedded in culture, and the seeds of them are sown from a young age. Telling boys they can't like pink, pushing girls to play with princesses and dolls, and sometimes, it gets even more blatant than that.A dad named Robert Sutcliffe recently shared what happened when his 8-year-old daughter brought home a worksheet with a... let's called it outdated... question on it.Sutcliffe shared a picture of his daughter’s homework, which focused on a basic English lesson. The homework was designed to teach the students the concept and use of “ur” in words and how they are pronounced. Many questions featured words containing the letter “ur” to teach students how to use them.One question, however, stood out — not just for its content, but for how the teacher marked Sutcliffe's daughter's response.The question clue read “Hospital Lady” followed by a blank for the students to fill in. Sutcliffe’s 8-year-old wrote down a reasonable and logical (and correct) answer: "Surgeon." The teacher, in red pen, offered a correction that had the Internet up in arms. — (@) Despite the student filling in the word “surgeon,” the teacher sent back the sheet with a correction “or nurse.” The creators of the worksheet may have meant "nurse" when they wrote out the question, but "surgeon" is a perfectly acceptable and accurate answer. Technically, the teacher didn't mark the girl's answer as wrong, but there was really no need to correct it.The best part? Sutcliffe and his wife are both surgeons, which is likely where their daughter learned to see through the common stereotype. woman wears green face mask Photo by Artur Tumasjan on Unsplash People in the comments weren't too pleased with how the teacher handled this scenario:“Teacher excels at passive-aggressive marking, bravo," wrote one.“I wonder if she had written nurse, would the teacher have written surgeon," said another.But the overwhelming sentiment in the response to Sutcliffe's post was a resounding round of applause for his whip-smart daughter.“More power to your daughter! Go girl! Be anything you want to be.” “Nurse = 'hospital lady' will be disconcerting for the 10% of nurses who are gentlemen.” "And then people get furious if you dare to suggest that gender roles have anything to do with societal pressure.” “Good on her, gender should know no bounds.”Practicing physicians are more likely to be men, but that ratio has been rapidly shrinking. The latest polls show that about 39% of doctors are women and women currently outnumber men in America's medical school programs. About 12% of nurses, too, are men – not an insignificant number. - YouTube www.youtube.com Attitudes and stereotypes, however, lag several years behind. So, too, do the textbooks our kids use. Eagle-eyed social media users noted that the homework Sutcliffe's daughter brought home was designed in 1997. More concerning than the slight but unnecessary correction by the teacher are the horribly outdated educational materials our kids are bringing home. No matter how you slice Sutcliffe's assignment, it doesn't meet the standard for education in 2025.This article originally appeared 3 months ago. It has been updated.

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