UTL COMMENT:- Sorry about the weird Rasta dude. But the pool gunk story is interesting. BTW I have found this article below... The mist contains a cocktail of chemicals including Barium, Strontium, Aluminium Oxide and Graphene Oxide. jonfleetwood.substack.com/p/drones-to-spray-self-spreading-covid

Automakers closed 2024 with strong sales in the United States in the final three months of the year, helped by a surge in demand for electric models. The gains were led by General Motors, which said on Friday that its fourth-quarter sales rose 21 percent from a year earlier, to more than 755,000 cars and light trucks. Its electric-vehicle sales in the quarter more than doubled, to nearly 44,000, making G.M. the second-largest E.V. seller after Tesla.

Tesla reported its first decline in annual deliveries on Thursday, as the automaker handed over fewer-than-expected electric vehicles in the fourth quarter and incentives failed to boost demand for its aging line-up of models. Shares of the company closed down 6.1%, indicating investor worries over the challenges facing CEO Elon Musk, who expected promotions including zero-interest financing to power a “slight growth” in deliveries in 2024.

Tesla sales fell last year for the first time in more than a decade, as demand faltered and rivals gained pace. The company, led by billionaire Elon Musk, delivered almost 1.79 million cars last year, down about 1% from 1.8 million in 2023.

As you get older, it gets harder and harder to maintain friendships. It’s hard to make time for them as your family grows, bills pile up, and responsibilities keep cramming into your free time. It’s fairly common for plans to get canceled because you have chores that need to get done. However, a buzzworthy post on X stumbled upon a possible solution: invite your friends over for a “chore hang.” See on Instagram Lawyer and humor columnist Eli McCann (@EliMcCann) shared online that his husband needed to get some gardening done, but wanted to catch up with friends at the same time. So he just invited them over in shifts! Not to ask them to pitch in, but to just keep him company and enjoy a popsicle as he weeded and planted in his yard. — (@) This inspired hundreds of comments on X and Instagram: “I love this! I’ve needed to go through a costly storage unit for years, but it’s creepy to go alone. So I haven’t done it. I don’t even want help. Just company ?” “We all need a friend who will just keep us company while we do our drudgery.” “This is so me. Like please, sit in the kitchen area while I cook. No, you don’t need to do anything. Not a single thing but exist with me.” This idea of hanging out with one friend while getting some needed errands or house work done comes at an era of mass loneliness in the United States. A 2024 poll by the American Psychiatry Association showed that one in three Americans are lonely every week. A study from Colorado State University showed that 40% of Americans that were surveyed didn’t feel as close to their friends as they wanted to be. In part, this is due to the fact, according to MSNBC and other sources, that most Americans are overworked, needing multiple jobs to make ends meet and using whatever little free time they have on necessary home tasks rather than leisure or hanging out with friends. But we need to make time for our friends, not just to make us feel better emotionally and psychologically, but for our physical health, too. A 2023 study from the U.S. Surgeon General showed that a lack of social connection can negatively impact your heart and blood pressure while also increasing your risk of a stroke. That same study compared the lack of social connection as unhealthy as smoking 15 cigarettes per day! While there are large society-based issues that need to be tackled to resolve this problem, there are small solutions that you can do to improve any loneliness you feel, increase your quality time with friends, get your stuff done, and decrease your risk of a heart attack. Similar to the “errand dates” trend on TikTok, a “chore hang” or whatever you’d like to call it can help achieve all of those issues. If you have to get your clothes clean, grab a friend and give them a coffee to chat with while you wait for the dryer. If you need to clean out your shed, get a six-pack to share with a bud and offer them any items you were going to put up at a garage sale. Make a pizza and share it with a few friends friends while you dust and clean the rest of the apartment. The worst that could happen is that they politely decline and you end up doing your tasks alone anyway. Life is a team sport, no matter how much of a solo journey it can become. All it takes to improve isolation is an invitation.

Anyone who's watched a film based on a book has experienced the disappointment of a movie character not matching their imagined version of what a character looks like. Book authors offer descriptions of characters with varying levels of detail, usually just enough to help us form a mental picture or give us necessary information about them, so we may not all imagine them the same way.Some characters' physical features are crucial to their story, such as Harry Potter's lightning-shaped forehead scar, but some are just an author's attempt to share whatever they themselves imagine a character to look like. There's often a lot that's open to interpretation, though, so it's a bit of a crapshoot whether a film depiction of a book character will match a writer's description of them—or a reader's vision based on that description. One artist is exploring this phenomenon with a video series in which he paints characters based solely on their written descriptions. Jazza, who has made a name for himself on social media with his creative art videos, is given the features of a character as described by a writer without being told who the character is or where they're from. Then we see how his depiction compares to the character as shown on screen.Sometimes his paintings are surprisingly close to the film character and he is able to guess who the character is based on what he drew. Some are more mysterious and he doesn't know who he's painted until it's revealed. And occasionally, it's not a character that's being described but a real person, which is the case with the last painting in this video, and it's extra hilarious. But it's always fascinating to see someone paint a picture of what they're visualizing in their mind, since most of us aren't able to do that. Watch: If you enjoyed those attempts, check out Part 2:The series has more parts and he also has a series where he sculpts monsters based on their descriptions. So fun to watch! Here's to the human imaginations that create characters on the page and those who bring them to life on screen. Different creative skills, but both so valuable to the storytelling that help us tap into our humanity. This article originally appeared last year.

At some point, every parent has to deal with a child who talks back and makes rude comments. It’s a normal part of growing up. But it’s a parent's job to stop it before it becomes an everyday behavior and an ingrained part of their personality.Stopping rude behavior can be especially difficult for parents because it's easy to get upset and escalate the situation when their children talk back or act rudely. The good news is that Dr. Becky is around to show us how to handle these situations like an adult. Dr. Becky Kennedy is a popular social media clinical psychologist who founded “Good Inside,” a program that helps support parents and children through every developmental phase.Dr. Becky shared 3 lines parents can use to respond to rudeness and talking back. “These will help you de-escalate the situation and immediately set you on the path for a positive interaction with your kid,” she says at the start of her video. See on Instagram Line 1: “I hear you, and you must be really upset to say something like that to me.”Line 2: “Look, all I’m saying is I know you’re a good kid, even when you say some not so good things.”Line 3: “I know there’s another way you can say that to me. Do you want to try again?”At first, a lot of folks may think that Dr. Becky is asking us to be too permissive of a kid who mouths off. But she has another perspective. “Now, I know what you might be thinking: ‘Am I just kind of permitting this rudeness?'” she says. “No! You are acting like an adult.” She says the key is avoiding being pulled into a power struggle or escalation of rudeness.“You are not being pulled into a power struggle or rudeness escalation. Yes, it might feel good in the moment to say something like, ‘You can’t talk to me like that, you’re so disrespectful, no iPad tonight!’ But we know if we give rudeness back to our kid, they are just going to give more rudeness back to us. That is so ineffective and we have to be the adult. So try one of those lines and let me know how it goes,” Dr. Becky said. A child is being rude to her mother.via RDNE Stock ProjectThe key question for parents to consider in this situation is: Am I reacting or responding to my child’s behavior? Dr. Becky believes we should respond to the situation calmly and redirect the child’s behavior.One commenter put Dr. Becky’s advice into action and had a great result.“This absolutely works! My son said something awful to me the other morning while getting ready for school. I thought of you , took a deep breath, and said, ‘Wow, you must be really upset to have said that to me’ and he just nodded and said, ‘I am.’ We hugged, he even apologized and we connected,” A commenter wrote.A fellow therapist, Dr. Claudia Luiz, explained the psychological concept behind Dr. Becky’s advice a bit further.“This is what psychoanalysis calls ‘fusion.’ When the bad is fused with good, it neutralizes toxic interactions. Fusion is hard to achieve. Negative feels eclipse the living, positive ones, leading to ‘rudeness.’ To get more ‘fused’ you start by processing your impatience with your own negative feelings. You can learn to appreciate why it’s hard to dislike and feel angry at your children with fusion to feel less intense or dysregulated. With fusion, you can be more chill,” Dr. Luiz wrote.Dr. Becky’s advice is valuable because most parents would have a knee-jerk reaction to their child being rude and attempt to punish them or correct them in a harsh manner. However, Dr. Becky says that it’s best to diffuse the situation instead and that will make it less likely for the child to be rude because they aren’t getting the response they want. But what they are getting is something more, a chance to connect with a parent and an open, safe space to share their feelings without having to mask them in hostility.This article originally appeared last year.

The painting of an old devout man praying over a bowl of gruel and a loaf of bread in front of a Bible is one of the most popular pieces of 20th century American art. The piece is called “Grace” and you’ll find it in homes, churches and even restaurants. I clearly remember there was a copy of it hanging on the wall at my corner burger joint, Mack’s Burgers, in Torrance, California, in the ’80s. Sadly, it’s been torn down and is now a Jack in the Box. However ubiquitous the photo may be, a new video by pop culture YouTube user Austin McConnell shows that “Grace” isn’t really what it seems. “Grace” was originally a photograph taken in 1918, during World War I, by Eric Enstrom, a Swedish American from Bovey, Minnesota. Enstrom was preparing some photographs to take with him to a convention when Charles Wilden, a salesman selling boot scrapers, came to his door, and he know he had to take his photo. “There was something about the old gentleman’s face that immediately impressed me. I saw that he had a kind face… there weren’t any harsh lines in it,” Enstrom said. “I wanted to take a picture that would show people that even though they had to do without many things because of the war they still had much to be thankful for,” he added.“There was something about the old gentleman’s face that immediately impressed me. I saw that he had a kind face… there weren’t any harsh lines in it,” Enstrom said. “I wanted to take a picture that would show people that even though they had to do without many things because of the war they still had much to be thankful for,” he added.Enstrom posed Wilden in front of a loaf of bread, a bowl—which may have been empty—and a large book that many assume to be the Bible. But, as McConnell notes, the book is far too large to be the good book, as most people assume. The Grand Forks Herald claims that a receipt for payment from Enstrom to Wilden reveals that the book is a dictionary.The photograph went on to be a huge hit at the convention and Enstrom began selling copies about town. After many requested copies of the photo in color, Enstrom’s daughter, Rhoda Nyberg, began hand-painting them in oils and added a streak of light on the left side of the painting. This is the version that people have come to love. \u201c@BrentTerhune The artist who hand- colored \u201cGrace,\u201d a photo showing a white-bearded man bowed in prayer before a simple meal, was Rhoda Nyberg, the daughter of Eric Enstrom. Rhoda's father took the photo in his studio in Bovey, Minnesota in 1918.\n\nRhoda Nyberg died at the age of 95. in 2015.\u201d — Brent Terhune in Akron Jan 6 & 7 (@Brent Terhune in Akron Jan 6 & 7) 1640282253 "The intent of the photo is fairly obvious,” McConnell says in the video. “Enstrom wanted an image that conveyed to people that even though they had to do without many provisions because of the ongoing war, there was still much to be thankful for. A picture that seemed to say 'this man doesn't have much of earthly goods, but he has more than most people because he has a thankful heart.'"Enstrom convinced Wilden to sign over his rights for $5, which gave him the sole copyright. He then licensed the image to the Lutheran-affiliated Augsburg publishing house, which distributed the image across the country.According to McConnell “thousands and thousands” of copies of the photo were sold. The image entered the public domain in 1995.Although not much is known about Wilden, it is believed that he lived a hard life. "He was living in a very primitive sod hut near Grand Rapids, eking out a very precarious living," retired history professor Don Boese told the Grand Forks Herald. It’s also likely that he wasn’t the devout man we imagine in the photo. "The stories about him centered more around drinking and not accomplishing very much,” Boese said.So the painting was actually a photo. The Bible, a dictionary, and the subject was more likely to be the town drunk than a saint. But, in the end, does it matter? McConnell believes that its meaning rests in the eye of the beholder."If you found out today that everything you thought you knew about this iconic image was actually wrong, would you take it off your wall?” McConnell asks at the end of the video. “Or would you accept that the value in a piece of art isn't merely derived from the knowledge of how it was made? Or who made it?”This article originally appeared two years ago.

One of the most beautiful features of old European neighborhoods are the rows of quaint, walk-up apartments that are the backbone of walkable neighborhoods. They help create a community where people can exit their front door and walk to a local café or market without getting in their car.Unfortunately, these neighborhoods are hard to find in the United States, where these types of apartment buildings are exceedingly rare. Why is that? In the video below, About Here’s founder, Uytae Lee, explains why regulations in North America have made these quaint walk-up apartments, known by architects as point access blocks, nearly impossible to build. Uytae Lee is an urban planner and videographer passionate about sharing stories about our cities.“Quaint, walk-up apartments … are a beloved feature in cities around the world,” Lee says in his video entitled “Why North Americans Can’t Have Nice Apartments.” “They’re inviting and full of character. But, here in North America, they are not allowed to be built today. Instead, our departments are big and imposing, often stretching across the entire block and the reason why it really comes down to one reason: staircases.”Why North America Can't Build Nice ApartmentsThe problem is that one stairway in a point access block allows access to all apartments. This became a problem in the late 1800s when fires were commonplace in urban areas worldwide and people were more likely to die in a fire with only one exit route. So, in the U.S. and Canada, they created new regulations that made it so all buildings over 2 to 3 stories had to have two staircases to allow them to exit during a fire.“Staircases take up a lot of space and fitting two of them in a small building means that there is much less usable floor space on every floor,” Lee says in the video. “As a result, developers here construct much larger buildings so that the staircases and hallways take up a much smaller proportion of the overall building. It's why apartments in North America, in general, are much bigger and wider than their European counterparts.”But there are fires in Europe, too. Why did they stop short of requiring multiple staircases in apartment buildings on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean? Instead of changing the floorplans on new buildings, Europeans opted to require fireproof materials in new building construction. A big reason why the U.S. and Canada opted for larger buildings over fireproofing was because they had better access to materials and the new direction aligned with the move towards suburban sprawl.The two-staircase regulations in the U.S also made it harder to build units greater than one bedroom because the buildings needed long hallways which reduced the number of layout options.The current housing crisis has many rethinking the regulations that require apartment buildings to have two stairways in North America. Many urban planners believe that modern-day demands mean we should return to building more point access block buildings, but this time with modern fire-retardant materials.In some cities, such as Seattle, Washington, lawmakers have repealed staircase mandates and begun building point access block housing to ease the crisis.“Now, if all this makes you a bit nervous, I get it. After all, these codes are about our safety. But I do want to mention that these codes do change over time as our technology and our understanding of safety evolves,” Lee finishes the video. “It’s important that we discuss and update these rules as our world changes.”This article originally appeared two years ago.

Ah, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman. No 'celebrity feud' has been this entertaining since the days of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Unlike Davis and Crawford, however, the war between Jackman and Reynolds is nothing but friendly fire. Before starring together in the billion dollar cinematic hit Deadpool and Wolverine, the pair spent years playing jokes on each other and having a good-natured series of laughs at each other's expense. Who could forget their People’s Sexiest Man Alive shenanigans? Or their fake political ads against one another in 2018? I mean, these are some grade A, next-level types of pranks here. So is it any surprise really, that on opening night of “The Music Man,” where Hugh Jackman would star as the titular character, that Ryan Reynolds wouldn’t behave himself? I think not. And we’d all be disappointed if he did, anyway.Cut to opening night, as Jackman prepares to take the stage as con man Harold Hill. Jackman reveals in a hilarious tongue-in-cheek Instagram post that among the blessings of “gorgeous flowers, champagne and heartfelt wishes,” he also received Ryan’s gift … if you can call it that. See on Instagram In Jackman's dressing room are two black-and-white portraits of Reynolds, one a sketch of him looking dapper while leering with arms crossed and the other a photo while he leaps in the air, sort of the same move Jackman does in the show. Perhaps one to intimidate, and the other mock? Who knows why mad men do what they do.Attached is a note, with a passive aggressive pep talk from Reynolds.“Hugh, good luck with your little show. I’ll be watching.” Despite the jabs, however, Reynolds gave nothing but glowing reviews, calling the show “actually perfect.” But what he had to say about Jackman in particular was even more noteworthy.“I don’t generally like to speak about @thehughjackman. Particularly in a positive light,” Reynolds wrote. “But his performance in @musicmanbway is one of the most electric things I’ve ever seen him do. The chemistry between [him] and @suttonlenore is off the charts.”I mean, if even Jackman’s infamous nemesis enjoyed it, this show has to be really something, right? During an interview in 2020, Jackman told The Daily Beast, "It's gone back so long now … God, this is a classic sign where your feud has gone too long, where you don't even know why or how it started," regarding the playfully tumultuous relationship he shared with Reynolds.But ask anyone, and I think they’ll tell you that we never want this delightful trolling to end. This article originally appeared three years ago.