It's been said countless times, but teachers really are the best and bravest of us all. Anyone who has spent time surrounded by kids, trying to help them learn while managing the countless crises that can occur when hundreds of immature humans are put together in one place, knows that teaching encompasses so much more than just academic instruction. Teachers serve as mentors, counselors, nurses, mediators and sometimes even security guards.That's why a middle school teacher who thought there was a fight happening in her classroom ran full speed toward it—in a dress and heels, no less. A TikTok video shared by @lilythern shows a teacher sprinting down a school hallway with an overlay of text that reads, "This middle school teacher thought she was running to break up a fight." As she runs into the classroom, she sees a couple of dozen students gathered in a tight circle and shouting. The teacher immediately starts pushing her way through the outside of the circle, yelling, "Hey! Break it up! Break it up!" But there is no breaking up to be had. In fact, what she finds is the exact opposite. As the students part to let her through, we see some of them holding up signs and smiling. Then we see a man down on one knee. Watch: @lilythern #fyp #touchingmoment #middleschoolersbelike #loveit How fast was that adrenaline switch from fight-or-flight to genuine joy? Seriously, the fearlessness with which she ran into that room is as heartening as the proposal itself. People in the comments loved it:"She is so strong. She was running towards the chaos to stop it with her bare hands. What a fighter. This is the best proposal ever.""That was the 'Not in my school!' run! ????""Fearless teachers are the ones that deserve the most respect.""Don’t marry her, she has to join the Avengers."The students were clearly thrilled to be a part of the sweet proposal, and the teacher's immediate and enthusiastic "yes" made it all that much sweeter. Definitely a moment none of these students—or their teacher—will ever forget. This article originally appeared on 4.12.23

Hey there, millennials! Welcome to the "Holy crapoly, I have real-life memories from 20 years ago!" club. It's a strangely disorienting milestone to reach when you find yourself starting sentences with "When I was young…" or "Back in my day…" isn't it?Your Gen X elders have been here for a while, but even we have moments of incredulously calculating how the heck we've arrived at this place. Time is a tricky little jokester, isn't he?To highlight how much has changed for middle-aged folks since we were young, a user on Reddit asked people born before 1990 what useless skills they possess that nobody has a need for anymore. It's both a hilarious trip down memory lane and a time capsule of life pre-Y2K. (Do kids these days even know what Y2K was? Gracious.)If you're down for some good-old-days nostalgia, check out people's responses:Ask Reddit Question: People born before 1990, what trivial skill do you possess that no one uses anymore?Making brown paper bag book covers"I can cover a textbook with a brown paper bag." — sourwaterbugOh goodness yes. And there was always that one girl in class who had the art of the brown paper bag book cover perfected. (They're probably Pinterest influencers now.)Folding a map—and knowing where to find a map"I can re-fold a map correctly." —JungleZac"Man remember actually using maps…I had an atlas with the road system in my car to navigate other states during road trips. Crazy." – jagua_hakuHow did we ever figure out how to get anywhere before GPS and Google Maps? (Two-inch thick road atlases in our car and stopping at gas stations to buy local maps while traveling, that's how. Positively primitive.)Memorizing phone numbers and answering the house phoneFor real, though, kids these days don't even know. "Remembering phone numbers." — greatmilliondog"Not only that, having to speak to your friend's parents for a few minutes when you call their house." — Logical_Area_5552"How to take a message when the person they want to talk to isn't there." — Amoori_A_SploogeHow about dialing on a rotary phone, using a pay phone and making (or taking) a collect call?The skillful phone shoulder hold"Using your shoulder to hold a telephone up to your ear while doing multiple other things at once. Now, the phones are so damned small I drop them." – Regular_Sample_5197"100 ft phone cords ?" – mrch1ck3nn"I got in sooooo much trouble for stretching the phone cord into the bathroom for some privacy. Accidentally clotheslined Grandma ? She laughed about it but Mom was pissed!" – AffectionateBite3827Knowing the exact name of every Crayola color because we only had so many"I know what the color “goldenrod” is." — ImAmazedBaybee"That and burnt sienna were the crayolas of choice." — Signiference"Cornflower would like a word." — cps12345The art of the mixed tape—especially from the radioI don't think kids these days fully grasp how revolutionary Spotify and the like are for those of us who spent hours in front of the radio with our cassette tape recorder queued up at just the right spot waiting for the song we wanted to record to come one. And they will never, ever know the frustration of the DJ yapping right up until the lyrics start."Record to tape from the radio. Trying to make sure to not get the DJ/presenter talking sh-t or an ad" – Gankstajam"'Shut up, shut up, shut up!!! I'm trying to record my song!!!'" – tearsonurcheek"Haha yeah and trying to tell others so they don't make random noise or knock on the door.How about making cassette-based mix tapes, trying to figure out to the second, how many and which types of songs in which order, that would still fit perfectly on the length of tape per side.People who make digital recordings do not have to worry about 'running out of tape.'Having the first side be tempting enough that they'd flip the other side to continue listening. That's before continual playback machines existed. Had to flip the cassette." – CrunchyTeaTimeAnd there were many more, from rewinding a cassette tape with a pencil to writing in cursive to tearing the sides off of printer paper without tearing the paper itself. (Oh and of course the ability to count out change and understand what you're supposed to do if something costs $9.91 and someone hands you $10.01.)Gotta love it when the things that used to be totally normal now sound like historic artifacts found in a museum. Kind of makes you wonder what normal things from today we'll be laughing about in another 20 or 30 years. This article originally appeared on 6.22.23

The first thing you need to know about Charlie the golden retriever is that he loves Mr. Quackers.Mr. Quackers is Charlie's stuffed yellow duck. Charlie carries him around everywhere, he loves him so. @charliethegolden18 I always so happ to see my lil bro ? #dogsoftiktok #petsoftiktok #dogs #goldenretriever Anyone who's had a dog with a favorite stuffy knows that it's a bit like a child with a favorite stuffy. As long as the stuffy is there, all is well. If stuffy goes missing, all hell breaks loose. Nobody take the stuffy away. Nobody lose the stuffy. Nobody mess with the stuffy.Where they go, their stuffy goes.Where Charlie goes, Mr. Quackers goes.That's just the way it is. @charliethegolden18 Happens every..single..time ?? #dogsoftiktok #petsoftiktok #dogs #goldenretriever ♬ Quirky - Oleg Kirilkov The attachment is real. Watch what happens when Charlie's buddy Buddy tries to mess with Mr. Quackers. @charliethegolden18 Ain’t nobody touching my Mr. Quackers ? #dogsoftiktok #petsoftiktok #dogs #goldenretriever "There, see it!" Oh, Charlie. His love for Mr. Quackers is unrivaled, which is why his owner decided to pull an incredible pet prank and dress up as Mr. Quackers himself. @charliethegolden18 When your husband finds a costume that looks identical to your dogs favorite duck toy ? #dogsoftiktok #petsoftiktok #dogs #goldenretriever The things we do for our dogs, indeed. And when Charlie got to meet the life-sized Mr. Quackers? So. Much. Joy. @charliethegolden18 Dressed up as our dogs favorite duck toy. Full video on FB & YouTube. Link in bio. #dogsoftiktok #petsoftiktok #dogs #goldenretriever Charlie practically wagged his tail right off his body. And he never let go of the original Mr. Quackers the whole time—at least on TikTok.The extended video on YouTube shows Charlie dropping Mr. Quackers and trying to get a hold of Huge Mr. Quackers by the neck. Not in an aggressive way—more like in a "Hey, lemme carry you around like I do Mr. Quackers!" kind of way. And then the slow discovery that Huge Mr. Quackers smells an awful lot like his hooman … just too precious.Animals can bring such joy to our lives, especially when we take the time to play with them. Thanks, Charlie's parents, for sharing this moment of adorable delight with us all.Follow more of Charlie and Mr. Quackers' adventures on TikTok and YouTube.This article originally appeared on 03.30.22

Optical illusions are universally beloved for how they trick our brains and blow our minds. There's a reason we enjoy magic shows and Escher paintings and are mesmerized by fake oases in the desert. We love seeing things that bend our perceptions of reality, and the science behind the magic always proves fascinating as well.The Ames window is a pretty well-known optical illusion, but it's always cool to see. When spun, the angled window appears to oscillate back and forth instead of spin all the way around. But this video adds a twist that makes the effect even more mindbending—our brains simply can't process objective reality mixed with an optical illusion.The YouTube channel Curiosity Show explains the science of the illusion and gives a DIY demonstration for making your own Ames window. But wait until the pen gets taped to the window and spun. This is some real-life magic right here. Mind. Blown.This article originally appeared on 02.21.20

Ever fallen into one of those Internet dating quizzes? You know, the ones that promise to categorize you? Like "what your astrological sign says about your relationship style."They can be fun, but we all know they're mostly fluff.What if I told you someone did find a way to "categorize" your love style but with actual real science?Three relationship scientists asked about 400 couples to track how they felt about their relationship and how committed they felt to marrying their partner. They followed each of the couples for nine months. Not, like, literally followed them — that would be creepy. Instead, they just asked them a few questions and asked them to keep track of how committed they were feeling over time.At the end of the nine months, the scientists collected all the couple's responses and delved deep into the data. They found that couples did indeed tend to fall into one of four categories.Prepare yourself for some soul searching because you might just be:1. The Conflicted, but PassionateThis is the couple Facebook made the "It's Complicated" relationship status for. Their levels of commitment tend to go up and down over time, especially after arguments. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. These folks use those conflicts to help them make decisions about the relationship, and in fact, they didn't appear to be any more destined for a breakup than any of the other groups.Also, as a bonus, they tend to follow those turbulent downs with passionate ups. "These couples operate in a tension between conflict that pushes them apart and passionate attraction that pulls them back together," said study author Brian Ogolsky.2. The Partner-FocusedIf your idea of a perfect date night is a long walk followed by eight hours of binge-watching "House of Cards" together, you might fall into this category.Partner-focused couples tend to spend a lot of time together and share hobbies or leisure activities, and it's that shared time that tends to propel them forward. They tended to be more careful and thoughtful about their relationship decisions — more likely to build from the inside out — and tended to be the most satisfied overall.3. The Social ButterfliesOn the other hand, if your perfect evening with your partner involves grabbing all your friends and hitting the bars or breaking out Settlers of Catan for the hundredth time, this might be the category that best describes you. Social couples usually share a friend group and use that time spent with friends to inform and build their relationship as a couple."Having mutual friends makes people in these couples feel closer and more committed," said Ogolsky. They also tended to be pretty stable and have higher levels of love based on feelings of friendship toward each other, which can be a good indicator for long-term happiness.4. The DramaticUnfortunately, not every couple's path is easy. Things may start out good, but tend not to stay that way for dramatic couples. This type of couple tends to make decisions based on negative experiences or stuff from outside the relationship."These couples have a lot of ups and downs, and their commitment swings wildly," said Ogolsky. "You begin to see little things eroding, and you start to see the relationship in a negative light, and soon you give up," said Ogolsky.Perhaps unsurprisingly, dramatic couples tended to break up the most, twice as much as other couples.So what's best? Well, here's where this article differs from a lot of those Internet quizzes. Because the answer is that there isn't a "best" kind of relationship.Different couples work and grow differently. These are different pathways and it'd be a mistake to assume there's a "correct" way to love someone. Or even that you're forever locked into a certain style of relationships. "These are not predefined, for-life patterns," said Ogolsky.And even in a single relationship, these patterns aren't predictors of destiny — a dramatic couple may, in fact, outlast a social one, and a partner-driven couple may be as passionate as anyone you could ever meet.And the researchers willingly admit in their paper that their study doesn't cover all relationships. Many very happy couples have no desire to marry, for instance. And, it should be noted, that it wasn't too long ago that the U.S. didn't even allow all couples to get married!Wait, you're not going to tell me how to find the perfect, golden, eternally-happy relationship?! Why even study this then?Because, in our hearts, humans are social creatures, Ogolsky explained. Love, friendship, passion, and commitment are part of the human experience. Understanding relationships can be as important to understanding ourselves as studying chemistry or biology. They can even affect your health!As for what you can learn from all this, the important takeaway is that what you use to make decisions — whether from conflict, from the inside, from the outside, or from friendship — can influence your level of commitment. It might be useful for couples to think not just about their choices but how they make their choices.So ... what's your category?This article originally appeared on 02.15.16

Trigger warning for discussion of sexual assault and violence.A recent video by Just Not Sports took two prominent female sportswriters and had regular guys* read the awful abuse they receive online aloud.Sportswriters Sarah Spain and Julie DiCaro sat by as men read some of the most vile tweets they receive on a daily basis. See how long you can last watching it.*(Note: The men reading them did not write these comments; they're just being helpful volunteers to prove a point.)It starts out kind of jokey but eventually devolves into messages like this:These types of messages come in response to one thing: The women were doing their jobs.Those wishes that DiCaro would die by hockey stick and get raped? Those were the result of her simply reporting on the National Hockey League's most disturbing ordeal: the Patrick Kane rape case, in which one of the league's top players was accused of rape.DiCaro wasn't writing opinion pieces. She was simply reporting things like what the police said, statements from lawyers, and just general everyday work reporters do. In response, she received a deluge of death threats. Her male colleagues didn't receive nearly the same amount of abuse.It got to the point where she and her employer thought it best to stay home for a day or two for her own physical safety.The men in the video seemed absolutely shocked that real live human beings would attack someone simply for doing their jobs.Most found themselves speechless or, at very least, struggling to read the words being presented.Think this is all just anecdotal? There's evidence to the contrary.The Guardian did a study to find out how bad this problem really is.They did a study of over 70 million comments that have been posted on their site since 2006. They counted how many comments that violated their comment policy were blocked.The stats were staggering.From their comprehensive and disturbing article:"Although the majority of our regular opinion writers are white men, we found that those who experienced the highest levels of abuse and dismissive trolling were not. The 10 regular writers who got the most abuse were eight women (four white and four non-white) and two black men. Two of the women and one of the men were gay. And of the eight women in the 'top 10', one was Muslim and one Jewish.And the 10 regular writers who got the least abuse? All men."So what can people do about this kind of harassment once they know it exists?To start? Share things that make people aware it's happening. Listen to the Just Not Sports podcast where they talk about it.If you know someone who talks like this to anyone on the internet, CALL THEM OUT. Publicly, privately — just let them know it's not OK to talk to anyone like this.Don't stop talking about it. Every day, the harassment continues. Don't let it linger without attention.There are no easy answers. But the more people who know this behavior exists, the more people there will be to tell others it's not OK to talk to anyone like that.Watch the whole video below:.This article originally appeared on 04.27.16

Everyone seems to have a theory on the best time to purchase airfare to save the most money. Some say it's right before take-off. Others will swear that prices are lowest six months before the flight. Well, now we have the truth. A scientific study was conducted by Expedia and the Airlines Reporting Commission that found the best times to buy flight tickets to get the best deal possible.When we actually buy...DOMESTIC: 32 DAYS IN ADVANCEINTERNATIONAL: 59 DAYS IN ADVANCEWhen we should buy...DOMESTIC: 57 DAYS IN ADVANCEThe ideal advance-purchase time for domestic flight to snag the lowest average airfare is 57 with prices climbing most rapidly in the 20 days leading up to the flight. On a flight that averages $496, it will cost $401 57 days before the flight and around $650 the day of departure.INTERNATIONAL: 171 DAYS IN ADVANCEFor a ticket that averages $1,368, the lowest average of $1,004 happens around 171 days before take-off. On the day of, the price will be around $1875. Ticket prices begin to dramatically escalate 75 days leading up to departure.(H/T Conde Nast Traveler)This article originally appeared on 10.14.15

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