It is pretty wild to consider that Millennials are now entering their 40s and no longer hold the mantle of the young and up-and-coming generation. According to Pew Research, Millennials were born between 1981 and 1996, so these days they range between the ages of 29 and 42.These are the years when people begin to settle down, start families and experience the first uncomfortable signs of aging.The Holderness Family is headed by a Gen X couple, Kim and Penn Holderness, who are best known for their viral comedy songs. Their latest video is about welcoming Millennials to their next phase in life, one that’s less about spending all night in the club and more about embracing a quieter, more practical life. In this case, “the club” isn’t a loud place to get a Long Island iced tea but a state of mind where you’re more likely to appreciate a good walk for your mental health.Holderness Family Music has over 797,000 subscribers on YouTube and over 230 million views since they started their page in 2011. They “create original music, song parodies, and skits to poke fun of ourselves, the world we live in, and (hopefully) make you laugh.”The "Welcome to the Club, Millennials" video is a bit of a departure from the usual intergenerational bickering we’re accustomed to seeing on social media. Instead, Gen Xers open their doors to the Millennials entering the next phase in their lives. “Well, Gen X is here to say ‘don't be bummed, come on in, welcome to the club,’” Penn raps.According to the song, if you’re a Millennial and have done any of the following, you’re officially in “the club,” whether you know it or not:​Hung a calendar on your fridgeHave strong opinions on who’s the best “Jeopardy!” hostPlay WordleWore reader glassesDrink seltzersHad Gen Z call your clothes “vintage”Gone Christmas shopping in OctoberHad a three-day hangoverGone to a movie theater because it serves foodTook a mental health walksBought a chair for your backGrooved to supermarket musicOwn plastic houseplantsTaken supplementsSaved money for a Disney vacationHave zero f**cks to giveStill love Blink-182Millennials who are a little leery of aging should be happy to learn that they may be in the happiest times of their lives. According to developmental psychologists, the period of life between ages 30 to 45 is known as “established adulthood” and is a time of life when people are happiest.Even though people in this age group are stuck in the “career and care crunch,” where they are likely to juggle a job while caring for children or older relatives, this developmental stage is also very fulfilling.“Yes, people were feeling overwhelmed and talked about having too much to do in too little time,” Clare Mehta, Professor of Psychology at Emmanuel College, wrote in The Conversation. “But they also talked about feeling profoundly satisfied. All of these things that were bringing them stress were also bringing them joy.”This article originally appeared on 5.01.23

Google and smart phones have been around so long that Gen Z doesn't know a time before those things existed. They may have Googled what a card catalog was used for but plenty of them don't know the pressure we all felt having to learn the dewy decimal system while walking around the library with a card with numbers scribbled on it. They've never experienced the frustration of having an out of date Encyclopedia collection from the thrift store that was missing books "D" and "X-Z" when you had a research assignment due. Oh, sweet tech savvy - we not me generation, doesn't understand that riding shot gun on a road trip meant you were suddenly a pirate with an Atlas map bigger than the dashboard.Even as someone that was alive when having a rotary phone was the norm, I sometimes forget what life was like before all of the technological luxuries. It's not surprising that Gen Z is confused on how we survived back then without knowledge at our fingertips, so when one of them asked, Gen X, Xennials and elder Millennials entered the chat.Sarah Adelman posted a video to TikTok with the caption, "pls help I was born in 1997." In the video she says she has a genuine question for older people and that's when she asks, "what did you do before you could look something up?"Adelman gives the example of something that isn't in the dictionary or Encyclopedia. She wants to know what someone would do if there was a celebrity whose name you couldn't remember or other trivial things like that. "Would you go to the library? Like gen..and like okay, without Google Maps, like I know that there was MapQuest but before that like genuinely what would you do? Would you just accept not knowing," the Gen Zer asks before saying she doesn't think she would be able to survive without knowing. Unfortunately for Adelman, the older generations informed her that this is exactly what we did back in the 1900s. We simply wondered about things that popped into our heads. In fact, since we knew there was no way of knowing the name of the actor that played on "Matlock" for one episode, we didn't bother attempting to look it up. You'd either see them again in a rerun or it would come to you randomly while trying to locate a payphone. "The name of an actor would come up to you 3 weeks later while you were eating a bowl of cereal," one person writes. "You would just be forever annoyed by it, keep it bookmarked in the back of your mind, then realize one day that dude's name is Ray Liotta or something," another commenter says. "Ummm. I love how you reference Mapquest. We used maps. Just maps. Good ole paper maps," someone writes."We just lived in blissful ignorance and then in the middle of a conversation about pretzels a week later we would just yell out the answer," one person reveals.To no one's surprise Adelman did not like these answers. She replied to someone explaining that we simply wondered with, "I could never." The official Google account even chimed in saying, "however it worked, sounds bad."Ehh, it wasn't so bad. We didn't know any different, but in a way Adelman had that good old fashioned pre-Google experience when she posed this question. You can watch the perplexed girl's video below: @sarah_adelman Pls help i was born in 1997 #90s #genz #90skids #iphone #rant #question #funny This article originally appeared on 9.7.23

Some icons have truly left this world too early. It’s a tragedy when anyone doesn’t make it to see old age, but when it happens to a well-known public figure, it’s like a bit of their art and legacy dies with them. What might Freddie Mercury have created if he were granted the gift of long life? Bruce Lee? Princess Diana?Their futures might be mere musings of our imagination, but thanks to a lot of creativity (and a little tech) we can now get a glimpse into what these celebrities might have looked like when they were older. Alper Yesiltas, an Istanbul-based lawyer and photographer, created a photography series titled “As If Nothing Happened,” which features eerily realistic portraits of long gone celebrities in their golden years. To make the images as real looking as possible, Yesiltas incorporated various photo editing programs such as Adobe Lightroom and VSCO, as well as the AI photo-enhancing software Remini.“The hardest part of the creative process for me is making the image feel ‘real’ to me,” Yesiltas wrote about his passion project. “The moment I like the most is when I think the image in front of me looks as if it was taken by a photographer.”Yesiltas’ meticulousness paid off, because the results are uncanny.Along with each photo, Yesiltas writes a bittersweet message “wishing” how things might have gone differently … as if nothing happened.Freddie Mercury See on Instagram “I wish he hadn't got that disease.”There are plenty of amazing Freddie Mercury tributes and impersonators out there, but there will only ever be ONE Freddie Mercury.Heath Ledger See on Instagram “I wish he hadn't been affected by the exhaustion of his role.”One of Ledger's most notable roles is queer cowboy Ennis Del Mar in Ang Lee's iconic 2005 romantic western drama "Brokeback Mountain." In a time when queer storytelling was still taboo, Ledger's honest and compassionate portrayal broke down a lot of barriers for future stories.Though Ledger officially died due to an overdose, many believe it was his role of The Joker in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” that pushed him over the edge.Janis Joplin“I wish she hadn't sought the inspiration she needed elsewhere.”The powerful singer with electric stage presence is still one of the greatest female rock stars of all time. Scratch that—one of the greatest rock stars of all time, period. Jimi Hendrix“I wish he hadn't sought the inspiration he needed elsewhere.”Like Joplin and Ledger, Hendrix died due to an overdose—though many have speculated that it was instead the result of foul play. Michael Jackson See on Instagram “I wish he hadn't faced vitiligo.”However questionable his personal life was, the King of Pop made some of the biggest contributions to music of all time. People continue to sing his songs, and likely will for a very, very long time.Kurt Cobain“I wish he had decided to stay.”The insightful, poetic and troubled Cobain took his life at 27. His story is a cautionary tale that success does not necessarily help thwart struggles with mental health.Bruce Lee“I wish he hadn't taken that painkiller that day.”The actor and martial-arts expert died at 32, officially due to a harmful reaction to a painkiller. His philosophies around kung fu, however, are eternal.John Lennon See on Instagram “I wish he hadn't been in New York that day.”Legendary artist and activist John Lennon was fatally wounded by a gunshot in December 1980. The last thing he talked about, revealed ex-wife Yoko Ono in an interview, was the desire to see his son before he went to sleep.Elvis Presley“I wish he decided to live a life where he paid more attention to the health of his heart.”Had Presley not died of cardiac arrest, he would be 87 this year.Tupac Shakur See on Instagram “I wish he hadn't been involved in that event that would cause him to face the mafia.”The cause of Tupac’s untimely death is also one of debate and speculation. According to some, he never died at all. What we can all agree on—he was one of hip-hop's most iconic figures.Princess Diana See on Instagram This one seems to be a new addition to the collection, so no wistful message. Although I’m sure the general sentiment is “I wish she were still here.”AI-generated art is a controversial topic, to be sure. Some consider it a new, innovative medium. Others see it as devoid of any real creativity at all, as it’s produced by a machine, rather than a human. Many are concerned that, as is the case with many jobs that get machine automated, it will threaten the livelihood of actual illustrators. Those concerns are certainly valid, but perhaps there’s a balance to be found here, as Yesiltas seems to have accomplished. Previously, another artist similarly created stunningly lifelike portraits of cartoon characters from “Encanto” and ”The Simpsons.” These works still required the human touch, and were carefully crafted over time rather than cracked out in mere seconds, as is the case with a lot of AI art. At its best, AI art helps remind us, as Yesiltas puts it, that "anything imaginable can be shown in reality.” Which, at the end of the day, could be said for any art.This article originally appeared on 9.23.22

Anyone who has dogs, children, or family members who refuse to use coasters will love this affordable and easy hack to fix scratches on a wooden table. Kait Schulhof, known as A Clean Bee, shows in a viral TikTok video that all you need are some walnuts and natural furniture polish to get your table looking scratch-free. "Just scrub the walnut over any scratches, divots, or worn areas. As you scrub, oil is released from the walnut, which can eliminate the appearance of scratches in the wood,” Kait says in the video. To finish the job, she rubs the wood down with a simple homemade wood polish made from olive oil, distilled white vinegar and a citrus essential oil to give it a nice glossy shine.​The hack is not only clever but also a big win for the environment, using simple, natural ingredients instead of harsh chemicals. "Every time I do this, I am just amazed by the results. It's just one of those cleaning hacks that seriously works,” Kait says.Did you know a walnut can repair scratches on wood surfaces? It’s like magic!  @acleanbee TikTok · Kait Katie McDonald at Food52 is also a big fan of the walnut-and-polish hack. But she cautions that there may be better ideas for some types of wood. “This trick only works on finished wood and is most successful with lighter scratches,” she writes. “Deep grooves and darker woods will likely need the help of floor polish. Oh, and you want to hold off on using nuts if you have a precious antique; that's better for a professional to look at.”

At 1:30 am on a Monday morning in February, an AMBER Alert went out in southern Louisiana about a missing 10-year-old girl from New Iberia. It was believed she had been kidnapped and driven away in a 2012 silver Nissan Altima.A few hours later at 7 am, Dion Merrick and Brandon Antoine, sanitation workers for Pelican Waste, were on their daily route when they noticed a vehicle that fit the description in the alert.The sanitation workers thought it was suspicious that a silver sedan was parked alone in a field in St. Martin Parish."Something told me, like just look, I said what is that car doing in that field like that? What the car doing? Guess what, that's the dude with the little girl," Merrick said in a Facebook Live video. "That's God."The video has been seen over 1.5 million times since it was posted on Monday morning.To prevent the possible kidnapper from escaping, they parked the large sanitation truck the wrong way on the highway to "Make sure they couldn't get out," Merrick said. Then, they called 911.When police arrived they arrested Michael R. Sereal, the man whose car was mentioned in the AMBER Alert. The police were also able to safely recover the girl who appeared unharmed. She was later taken to the hospital to be evaluated by medical personnel.The Iberia Parish Sheriff's Department's online sex offender registry has a Michael Roy Sereal but authorities wouldn't confirm it's the same man.The young girls' family got in touch with the two men who saved her and have shown amazing gratitude. "I'm just so happy and blessed that I have actually seen the car and we actually responded like we were supposed to respond," Merrick told KHOU.Merrick hopes that his actions will inspire others to be proactive as well. "Don't be scared if you see something. If you know something is wrong, report it," Merrick said. "Call authorities because it could save someone's life."The two men were applauded by the St. John Parish's Sheriff, who offered to buy them lunch."I was just doing my job man. I was just doing my job and actually came across somebody who needed help," Merrick said. "Got me tearing up."The AMBER Alert system was created in 1996 after nine-year-old Amber Hagerman was abducted and murdered while riding her bike in Texas. Since its inception, nearly seven in 10 AMBER alert cases have resulted in children being successfully reunited with their parents.In 17% of the cases, the child's recovery is a direct result of the alert.As of December 2020, 1,029 children rescued specifically because of the system.This article originally appeared on 02.09.21

Elephants are unique among animals in so many ways. Their massive size, of course. Their funky trunks that function like a fifth limb as well as a literal hose. The fact that they weigh thousands of pounds but can walk almost completely silently. Their high intelligence and complex social behaviors.And now, apparently, their individualized "names."New research from Kenya indicates that elephants may have something akin to human names, which they use to communicate directly to specific members of their herd. According to Reuters, elephant researchers had noticed over the years that sometimes an elephant would make a vocalization to a group and all the elephants would respond, but sometimes the same elephant would make a similar call to the group, but only one elephant would respond—almost as if it had been called by name. Researchers studied the vocalizations of 100 African savannah elephants in Amboseli National Park and Samburu National Reserve to see if they could determine whether or not that's what was actually happening. Using a machine-learning model, they identified vocalizations that appeared to be tied to specific individuals, then tested them on 17 elephants whose "names" they may have discovered. Sure enough, when a vocalization that the model had identified as being addressed to a specific elephant was played on audio, that elephant responded by moving toward the audio source and behaving more enthusiastically, making more vocalizations in return, than when a vocalization that was apparently directed toward someone else was played.“They could tell if a call was addressed to them just by hearing that call,” said behavioral ecologist and lead study author Mickey Pardo of Cornell University (formerly of Colorado State University).According to the study published in the Nature Ecology and Evolution journal, this kind of name usage is rare in the animal world. Bottlenose dolphins and orange-fronted parrots will call individuals with specific sounds, but they do so by simply mimicking the calls of the animal they're addressing. That's not what the elephants appear to be doing. "Instead, their names seem to be arbitrary, like human names," Pardo said, according to Reuters. "Addressing individuals with arbitrary names likely requires a capacity for some degree of abstract thought."Part of what makes studying elephant vocalizations tricky is the range of sounds they make. We often associate elephants with a loud trumpet-like sound, but Pardo said the name vocalizations are found in the lower, rumbling noises they make.“The rumbles themselves are highly structurally variable,” said Pardo, who conducted the research while working at Colorado State University, according to NPR. “There's quite a lot of variation in their acoustic structure.”One of the most common usages of elephant names discovered in the study were from mother elephants to their calves, seemingly to calm them down or check in with them. But Pardo told NPR that while they knew the vocalizations they played were directed at specific individuals, they weren't able to isolate the actual "names" of individual elephants from the vocalizations in the study."If we could do that, we could answer a lot of other questions that we weren't able to fully figure out in this study,” Pardo said.Some of those questions include: Do elephants all use the same "name" when they're addressing the same elephant? Are they names or nicknames? Do elephants talk about each other? Do they say other elephants' names when they're not around? There are more specific linguistic questions as well. "We still don't know the syntax or basic elements by which elephant vocalizations encode information," Colorado State University conservation biologist and study co-author George Wittemyer told Reuters. "We need to figure that out before we can make deeper progress on understanding them."What the study found does indicate, however, is that elephants are even more mentally and socially sophisticated than we thought. "Certainly, in order to address one another in this way, elephants must learn to associate particular sounds with particular individuals and then use those sounds to get the attention of the individual in question, which requires sophisticated learning ability and understanding of social relationships," Pardo said, according to Reuters. "The fact that elephants address one another as individuals highlights the importance of social bonds—and specifically, maintaining many different social bonds—for these animals."

Douglas Scott grew up on Washington's Olympic Peninsula in the dying shadow of the timber industry that had supported the region for decades."Nearly every home had a bright orange or yellow sign reading 'This home supported by timber dollars,'" Scott wrote on Outdoor Society.While the region has also been recognized for its succulent seafood, temperate climate, and stunning natural formations, nothing shaped the community — or the physical landscape — quite like logging did.The tension in the air between the loggers and the environmentalists throughout the 1980s was thicker than the trees being cut down."I heard from old timers in the Harbor about how environmentalists were ruining the region, and I was told by environmentalists that loggers were killing everything in sight," Scott recalled.But to understand the full impact of deforestation on the region, it helps to take the bird's eye view.Here's a satellite image of the Olympic Peninsula from 1984. The white region in the center are the mountaintops in Olympic National Park; you'll also notice the grey and brown areas along the western and northern coasts of the peninsula."When I moved away from the area in 1997, there wasn't much of a logging or mill economy in dozens of towns around the region," Scott said.By that time, tourism had begun to take the place of timber as the region's major industry — which was probably helped along by the fact that the trees were slowly but surely starting to recover, enhancing the already stunning vistas that drew visitors.Here's how the Olympic Peninsula looked by the time that Scott and his family left the area; you'll notice the western and northern coasts are just a little bit greener than they were 13 years prior...Those great green arbors continued their gradual recovery into the 2000s...And they're still going today.But those isolated moments don't tell the whole story of the region's recovery. It's even more remarkable when you can see it in action...We don't always notice the world changing right before our eyes, but the decades-long view of the Olympic Peninsula shows the true power of nature.It's not just the trees, either; according to Scott, the replenished forests have also had a positive impact on the local salmon population and other treasured natural resources.That doesn't mean we shouldn't use the natural world, of course. We still need wood, for example, but now we know there are sustainable ways to use it without recklessly damaging to the planet.The Earth was built to take care of itself. We just need to let Mother Nature do her thing.This article originally appeared on 12.22.16

A ridiculous reason. The post The Oasis lyrics Liam Gallagher refuses to sing: “Never sings it live. Ever” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

Perfect enough for rock and roll. The post The Rolling Stones song Mick Jagger struggled to sing: “I didn’t really hit the notes that great” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

A great song. The post The Radiohead song so vulnerable it made Thom Yorke weep: “That’s too much me” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.