Erin Zaikis often used to think about how she could help change the world, but it wasn't until she got very sick with dengue fever that she decided to take action.

In high school, Zaikis' mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, and the teen slipped into depression -- trapped in what she described as a cycle of feeling sorry for herself. In college, she took a course in global poverty, which helped put her own struggles in perspective. And at 19, the Boston native traveled to Mumbai, where she spent a summer living in an orphanage that housed around 100 girls, some of whom had been left in trash cans or abandoned in train stations.

"I'm from a middle-, upper-class town and had never been exposed to extreme poverty, or starvation, or issues like child trafficking," Zaikis said. "It was life-changing."

After graduating, Zaikis, now 24, traveled to Thailand, where she worked with organizations that fight child trafficking. She visited schools to assess children's risk of being trafficked and to match them with local vocational programs.

During one such visit, she watched as middle school-age children entered and left a bathroom without washing their hands. With the help of a translator, she asked the children if they had soap, and was startled to learn they didn't know what soap was. The closest shop that sold it was a several-hour walk away. Zaikis made the trek and bought roughly 150 bars of pink and blue soap, which cost her $30 U.S.

"Cigarettes were much more expensive, but cigarettes were bought by almost everyone in the community," Zaikis said. "I really think the problem did not lie in the cost of soap, but rather the education. No one has spent the time to take these children aside and teach them how to wash their hands."

Zaikis knew her soap purchase was a temporary fix, and made plans to spend the summer partnering with schools and local organizations on hygiene projects. But within days, she collapsed and was rushed to the hospital with dengue hemorrhagic fever -- an often deadly infection spread by mosquitos. Her parents took her back to Boston, where she was treated at Massachusetts General Hospital.

"It was a really horrible couple of months," Zaikis said. "But I think I really needed that because I realized, one, life is short. And two, I could have died of dengue fever if I had stayed in this rural area. ... I felt incredibly fortunate to have survived, and realized I really wanted to dedicate my life to helping other people."

Once Zaikis recovered, she took a computer coding class and began searching for soap recipes. "The first soap burnt all my bowls and dishes," she laughed. "I set off the fire alarm. I cut my hand five times." She slowly perfected the process as well as the ingredients, testing her concoctions on herself, then finally on friends and family.

Roughly one month ago, Zaikis launched the website for Sundara, where she sells three handmade soaps, each inspired by a different country, and each shaped like a flower.

The Thailand soap is scented with lemongrass and pomelo, and a dollar from the sale of each soap supports the Hug Project's mission of funding medical professionals who schedule health visits with "street boys" and children at risk of being trafficked, as well as providing them with hygiene kits. Proceeds from the lavender and shea butter soap go to Ghana, where the Unlock Foundation is funding the construction of a sink and well in one school and supplying soap to the area, while proceeds from the chai tea soap go toward Gabriel Project Mumbai, which trains women in the community to lead hygiene workshops in schools located in local slums.

The goal, Zaikis said, is to help educate children about hygiene, and to give them the tools to protect themselves -- an uphill climb. The United Nations estimates that some 2,000 children younger than 5 die every day from diarrheal diseases, and the majority of those deaths are tied to water, sanitation and hygiene.

Zaikis works on Sundara full time, making all of the soaps and their packaging by hand. The business helps her pay rent on the Manhattan apartment she shares with her sister, but Zaikis frequently takes babysitting and dog-sitting jobs to supplement her income. She used money she'd saved while living in Thailand to buy soap ingredients -- things like spirulina and kelp -- which now crowd her apartment.

Her personal favorite is the chai soap. "Whenever I use it in the shower, I start thinking about tea, and I think, 'Oh, this smells edible!'" she said. "It's just a fun one to smell."

Zaikis plans to expand Sundara and to begin working with refugee women in New York to teach them how to make the soap. The happiness she gets from her work and from seeing photos of completed projects funded by her donations, she said, is unlike anything else.

"Every day I ask myself, what am I doing for other people?" she said. "This soap company is a great way to have fun, and learn about business, but more importantly, to help other people. ... It's a way to serve in some small way, and help someone who needs it."

Zaikis with her soaps, which she makes by hand in her New York City apartment.

The Simple Household Item This 24-Year-Old Is Using To Change The World

Erin Zaikis often used to think about how she could help change the world, but it wasn't until she got very sick with dengue fever that she decided to ta...

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Soap. But article is deeper than this tweet makes it seem


You'll Never Believe Who Robert Downey Jr.'s 'Free Pass' Is!

On Wednesday, Robert Downey Jr. visited the Howard Stern to drop a bomb about his "free pass". Even though the actor is happily married to his wife Susan Downey since 2005, he as an unspoken agreement to mack on a certain actress if the opportunity arises.

Opening up to Howard about his lucky lady, the actor admitted the woman in question is actually a good friend of Susan's. Uh, awkward much?!

So, which leading lady does the poppa want to get it on with?

According to R.D.J., the object of his affection is none other than Gwyneth Paltrow!

Elaborating on his surprising crush, Robert confessed:

"My free pass is, because her and Susan are such good friends, is Paltrow. I gotta get her back in [Marvel] movies so I can make out with her on screen again!"

Oh yeah! We almost forgot these two starred in Avengers together not too long ago!

Luckily for Susan, the action movie star revealed the "free pass" only covers first base and that it must be done on camera. The 51-year-old also went on to add that he doesn't even bother checking up on old girlfriends.

Ha! Way to sneak those stipulations into the fine print, S.D.!

It's not uncommon for couples to have free passes!

celebrity gossip, Hollywood gossip, juicy celebrity rumors, Perez Hilton, Mario Lavandeira, celebrity blog


THE NEWEST THEORY ON HIDDLESWIFT'S ROMANCE IS BIZARRE BUT STRANGELY COMPELLING

This whole Taylor Swift, Tom Hiddleston thing just doesn't add up to us. They're being so darn romantic together, it's just not natural.

The original theory was that Taylor, 26, and 35-year-old Tom weren't actually a legit couple – they're actually just filming a video for her next album, which judging by the rest of her albums coming out every two years, should be with us realllllllll soon.

But that theory is in fact rubbish too. Why? Well because we've done some super-serious investigative journalism, and have figured out that Hiddleswift are actually just filming the next Nicholas Sparks film! You know the ones – the sappy films based on Nick's books that are full of emotions and intense kissing by the beach. The Notebook, Safe Haven and Dear John, to name but a few.

And we've got the proof here in these photos. Once you put it all together it becomes clear that they're just filming all the scenes necessary to make a sappy NS film, which we think will be called The Right Note, and will be a film about a small-town girl who travels the world with just her guitar; trying to make it as a country star, before falling for a sauve English gentleman with a sweet smile and a dream to be the next Bond. James Bond.

And here we have Taylor and Tom filming the scene from their movie where they dance without a care in the world

Frolicking in the sea without a care in the world

See? Taylor and Tom are frolicking in the sea without a care in the world too. Coincidence? I don't think so

Laughing at dinner without a care in the world

The Newest Theory on Hiddleswift's Romance Is Bizarre but Strangely Compelling

We've done some serious investigative journalism, and here's what we've come up with

taylor swift, tom hiddleston, nicholas sparks, dear john, the notebook

They're filming the next Nicholas Sparks movie.


NBA Star surprises an inner-city youth basketball team

While spending his summer in Los Angeles, Denver Nuggets center JaVale McGee and his Hall of Fame mother, Pam McGee, were inspired to sponsor an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) boys’ basketball team for inner-city youth in Compton.

"I've always found when you keep it real with kids and you set a standard, they achieve it," Pam says in the above clip from "Mom's Got Game."

Ranging from ages 8 to 10 years old, the boys meet JaVale for the first time in the above video. "Whatever y'all are great at, just keep doing that," JaVale tells the kids. "Just have fun, whatever ya'll are happy about doing. And be positive, that too."

Pam is thrilled to see how the kids' eyes light up when the see JaVale, who leaves them with a piece of advice. "This is the key to life -- this is how you're going to make it in everything you do: hard work," he says.

NBA Player JaVale McGee Gives Pep Talk To A Boys' Basketball Team In Compton (VIDEO)

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.@JaValeMcGee34; Compton CA; gave pep talk


The little girl from "Titanic" is all grown up and still crazy adorable

1. Remember in Titanic when Rose (Kate Winslet) decides to ~slum it~ in steerage with Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) for a night of dancing, boozing, and steamy car sex?

2. Well, before Rose and Jack dashed off to ruin the upholstery of a Model T, they had a good ol’ time partying it up with all of Jack’s friends, including one VERY ADORABLE little girl named Cora.

3. And not only did she get to dance with Leo, I mean, Jack...

4. ...but he also called her his "best girl," which is the exact moment everyone in the audience thought, I am now dead.

5. But that was 20 years ago, and now IRL Cora, Alex Owens-Sarno (who was just 8 years old when they filmed Titanic), is all grown up and as adorable now as she was then.

7. And Alex has nothing but fond memories of making Titanic.

She told BuzzFeed, "My mom has an amazing picture of me, Leo, Kate, and my little sister Rachel hanging out when they were resetting for the dancing scene. It’s one of my favorites and is a reminder of just how lucky I am to have worked with two of the best actors out there."

"Leonardo DiCaprio was an absolute doll. He was so fun and charming. He loved to put a smile on everyone’s face. [I’d often] be on his lap with a PB&J in between takes."

9. In fact, there’s even a deleted scene where Jack sketches with Cora.

Alex explained, "James Cameron had done all of Jack’s sketches [for the movie], and they had the sketch Jack does of Cora signed by Leonardo DiCaprio for me. Unfortunately, it got stolen out of someone’s trailer. That would have been the most amazing keepsake!"

10. These days Alex dedicates herself to studying acting, and she recently earned her degree in writing from California State University, Long Beach.

"I’ve been writing sketch comedy that I’ll start producing very soon, and I’m also in the process of writing a novel."

11. No doubt, Jack would be very proud of his best girl.

The Little Girl From "Titanic" Is All Grown Up And Still Crazy Adorable


Why we never really get over that first love

Twenty years ago . . . She was my first relationship . . . My first boyfriend . . . I was 17 . . . She was 19 . . . We were crazy about each other . . . We broke up because . . . So much time has passed . . . I find myself thinking of her . . . He keeps appearing in my dreams . . . I’m happily married . . . I’m happily married, BUT . . . I can’t help but wonder . . . We recently reconnected . . . I know I need to move on . . . Please, help . . . What should I do?

If you spend enough time reading advice columns, you notice a pattern. In the stream of sorrows and quandaries and relationship angst, one word bubbles up again and again. First. My first love. My first time. My first ever. And unlike all the relationships that came after, with this one, the past can’t seem to stay in the past.

Because long after it ends, our first love maintains some power over us. A haunting, bittersweet hold on our psyches, pulling us back to what was and what can never be again. Unless . . . ?

But why? Why should this one lodge in our brains any differently than the others, even when the others were longer, better, more right? They just weren’t quite as intense as the first.

The scientific research on this topic is thin, but the collective wisdom among psychologists says it’s a lot like skydiving. Meaning, you’ll remember the first time you jumped out of an airplane much more clearly than the 10th time you took the leap.

"Your first experience of something is going to be well remembered, more than later experiences," explains Art Aron, a psychology professor at State University of New York at Stony Brook who specializes in close relationships. "Presumably there’d be more arousal and excitement, especially if it’s somewhat scary. And falling in love is somewhat scary — you’re afraid you’ll be rejected, you’re afraid you won’t live up to their expectations, afraid they won’t live up to yours. Anxiety is a big part of falling in love, especially the first time."

So the relationship embeds itself in us in a way that all those who follow never can. Not that the subsequent loves aren’t as good. For most people, hopefully, the ones that come later, that last, are ultimately more nourishing, steadier and more solid. But this doesn’t stop anyone from clicking on their first love’s new profile picture when it pops up on Facebook. You know, just to see.

It’s possible, Aron says, that the experience is magnified because, for many, it happens during adolescence, when hormones are raging, and every life experience — a bad grade, a big win, a family fight — feels magnified. Even in a fully developed adult brain, "the neurological response to being in love with someone is very strong," he says. "It’s the same as being on cocaine. It’s this huge desire."

Jefferson Singer, a Connecticut College psychologist whose research focuses on autobiographical memory, says that most people have something he calls a "memory bump" between age 15 and 26. "They recall more memories, and they tend to be more positive memories," he says. That’s because we experience so many "firsts" during this period, but also because, after the fact, "we have more opportunity to rehearse it and replay it, rethink it, reimagine it, re-experience it."

And for first loves, he adds, "I also think it becomes, to some degree, a template. It becomes what we measure everything else against." Which can become a dangerous game, of course, if your first relationship was exciting, but volatile and unhealthy. Seeking those same highs and lows may lead to frustration at best, wreckage at worst.

Nancy Kalish has spent more than two decades studying couples who reunite after many years apart. The psychology professor at California State University at Sacramento says that the key to understanding the power of first love is knowing how it shaped us. In your first instance of requited romance, everything feels new, "and together you decide what love is."

Kalish says there’s "nothing magical about first love," beyond the fact that it happened to be the first. But there is something magical about couples whose love was interrupted and then rekindled later in life. With Facebook, this has become an ever more frequent occurrence.

The pairs who reunite successfully often fit a certain profile, says Kalish. They were younger than 24 when they dated, they grew up in the same place and broke up for some external reason — their parents didn’t approve, or someone moved away or shipped off to war.

During my years as The Washington Post’s wedding reporter, I wrote about several such couples, including Denise Pavone and Jeff Storck, who dated as teens on Long Island in the 1970s but broke up because of a miscommunication when Jeff left for college.

When they found each other in a Washington suburb 35 years later, they quickly fell in love all over again. "It’s like 35 years never happened," Storck said before their 2010 wedding. Today, after more than five years of marriage, he sees two versions of Denise. "I see her as she is," he says. "But I still look at her and see the 16-year-old that I remember."

Kalish says her research has found that when both parties to a first love are truly available when they reunite — either single, widowed or divorced — the relationships have a 70 percent success rate. But many of the people she hears from these days are heartsick, rather than happy. A survey she conducted two years ago found that two-thirds of the people who found their lost love were married at the time of the reunion.

Singer, the psychologist who studies memory, has one more theory about why the thought of a first love can remain so fresh and alluring, even after decades go by. Perhaps especially after decades go by.

"I think it’s not just about the other person. It’s about who we were at that time," he says. "We’re relishing the image of ourselves. They give us license to be the person we were once again – young and vibrant and beautiful."

It becomes a template for how we understand romance.

dating; relationships; first loves; valentine's day;


You Should NEVER Line The Toilet Seat With Paper. The Reason? SHOCKING!

S ometimes, public bathrooms are a necessary evil, especially during long car rides or when nature calls inconveniently.

We have no idea who has been in there before us, and sometimes, we just can’t help but feel wary of public toilets, We have no idea who has been in there before us, and sometimes, we just can’t help but feel wary of public toilets, considering all of the crazy things that have been found in them

When these feelings of insecurity strike, we usually reach for the nearest available seat cover and — if one isn’t available — we then make one of our own out of toilet paper.

This This lifehack may seem like a perfectly harmless, even safe, practice. But in truth, creating this protective paper barrier could be doing you way more harm than good.

Studies have found that where we perceive bacteria thriving in bathrooms can be completely backwards, and what we use to keep us clean could actually be spreading the problem around!

Read below to learn how bacteria is spread in all bathrooms, and what steps we should be taking to keep scary bathroom germs at bay!

You Should NEVER Line The Toilet Seat With Paper. The Reason? SHOCKIN...

Sometimes, public bathrooms are a necessary evil, especially during long car rides or when nature calls inconveniently. Though most are pretty pristine, every once in a while, we run into some truly unsavory public bathroom situations. We have no idea who has been in there before us, and sometimes, we just can’t help but feel wary...

Toilet Paper absorbs bacteria from previous flushes


She Puts Chicken Nuggets on the Waffle Iron. What She Does Next Will Blow Your Mind!

This recipe did NOT go where I thought it was going to go— and that’s an awesome thing! I’ve heard of chickenwaffles – and I’m sure you have, too! – but what about chickenwaffles? Or maybe it makes more sense to think of them as waffles madechicken? However you think of it, it might sound crazy, but after you watch this video from Allrecipes , it’ll just seem delicious. Watch to see what I mean, and to add a new, delicious recipe to your arsenal!

This recipe did NOT go where I thought it was going to go— and that’s an awesome thing! I’ve heard of chicken and waffles – and I’m sure you have, too! – but

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She Makes Waffles with Chicken Nuggets In Them


Tata Group Chairman seems to be having a troubled time since the company is seeing the tussle between him and Cyrus Mistry.

"Over the last two months there has been a definite move to damage my personal reputation and the reputation of this great group—the Tata Group," said Ratan Tata on Friday.

Speaking towards the end of the Tata Chemicals shareholders' meeting that had been called to remove his once close friend Nusli Wadia from the board, Tata said, "These days are very lonely because the newspapers are full of attacks, most of them unsubstantiated but nevertheless very painful."

Tata (78), who has attended all the extraordinary general meetings of the group companies over the last 10-odd days—TCS, Indian Hotels, Tata Steel, Tata Motors and finally Tata Chemicals—called to remove Cyrus Mistry and/or Wadia from the boards, went up to the microphone from which shareholders had earlier spoken, and after prefacing his brief speech with a "I shall not take very much time", went to on say, "I think the truth will prevail, whatever the process may be, however painful it may be."

"Coming here this week with all the shareholders , I have been so moved emotionally and deeply touched by the warmth and the support and the affection that they have shown. I could not leave here today without at least expressing my deepest gratitude to the shareholders. It has been a pleasure to be with you. It could have gone either way but your support has been overwhelming and remarkable. It has done more for my sense of goodwill today and this week than anything else that has happened. The group has been there for 150 years. It has been based on governance and fair play," Tata said, before ending by saying, "Thank you so much."

Ratan Tata Says He Is Lonely, Having A Painful Time Amid Ongoing Tussle With Cyrus Mistry

Tata, Ratan, Nusli, Cyrus, Mistry, tussle


11 great movies from 2016 that you can stream on Netflix (and 1 on Hulu)

Try out a few Disney favorites, a scary dinner party or Obama’s college days.

As anxious as we all are to bid 2016 adieu, we must not forget the wealth of great films the past year has given us. A handful of them are already available to stream at home. We’ve rounded up 12 titles that will help you welcome 2017 from the comfort of your couch.

Hollywood’s bloated franchise obsession is running thin, but Disney’s live-action reboots of its animated classics keep getting better. 2016 brought us "The Jungle Book" and "Pete’s Dragon," two surprisingly meditative takes on orphan boys surviving in the wilderness with their animal pals. Netflix recently signed a deal to acquire Disney’s new releases, so "The Jungle Book" has already hit the streaming service. Boot up Jon Favreau’s majestic adventure — featuring the voice work of Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o, Scarlett Johansson and Christopher Walken — for a beautifully rendered take on the bare necessities of life. [Trailer]

This deceptive chiller begins with a dinner party that reunites a group of friends at a nice home in the Hollywood Hills. It ends with a cultish quest for survival that comes to one of 2016’s most inventive culminations. Directed by Karyn Kusama ("Girlfight," "Jennifer’s Body"), "The Invitation" buries themes of grief and salvation in a story of menace and terror. [Trailer]

"Selma" director Ava DuVernay has crafted a must-see polemic that proves America is not as far removed from its slavery roots as we’d like to believe. Tracing a thin line between a loophole in the 13th Amendment that paved the way for segregation and mass incarceration, DuVernay profiles a dark facet of history via interviews with civil rights leaders, politicians and others who strip away partisan divides to show that everyone is responsible for the struggles plaguing modern race relations. [Trailer]

"Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You"

In creating socially pointed sitcoms like "All in the Family," "The Jeffersons" and "Maude," Norman Lear redefined television. Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady have made an inspired documentary that explores the legend’s life, from his childhood and World War II service to his pop-culture contributions and political activism. Along the way, you’ll see remarkable footage from 1970s writers rooms, a fascinating exploration of race in prime-time entertainment and an ode to a voice that helped to reshape modern culture. [Trailer]

Comparisons to "Kids" and "Spring Breakers" befit Elizabeth Wood’s edgy drama about a privileged New York City undergrad (Morgan Saylor) who entertains herself by hanging around a jailbait drug dealer (Brian Marc). She develops a penchant for cocaine and easy sex. Her class status and good looks mean she rarely considers consequences, making "White Girl" a frenzy of youthful endurance. When her druggie pal is arrested, she goes to extremes to prevent him from spending decades behind bars. [Trailer]

Netflix snatched up the exclusive rights to "Barry" after its Toronto Film Festival bow in September. Vikram Gandhi’s affecting biopic dramatizes Barack Obama’s start at Columbia University. The year is 1981. Everyone calls him Barry. Armed with cigarettes, Ralph Ellison books and no political ambition whatsoever, Obama struggles with his biracial identity and the aftermath of an absent father. The movie is a beguiling hindsight exploration of a man whose self-examination would later embed him at the center of American history. [Trailer]

"Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids"

Several years before he directed "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Philadelphia," Jonathan Demme made "Stop Making Sense," the acclaimed concert film about the Talking Heads. Years later, he gave Neil Young a similar treatment. In 2016, Demme made "Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids," another enlivening look at a lucrative arena tour. Filmed on the closing night of Timberlake’s 20/20 Experience roadshow, Demme spends just enough time with the singer and his band behind the scenes to make their onstage presence all the more seductive. He emphasizes the minutiae of a pop concert while highlighting the enveloping allure of Timberlake’s theatrics. [Trailer]

"Zootopia" marked another win for Disney in 2016, crossing $1 billion at the global box office. On its face, "Zootopia" is the charismatic story of a bunny striving to prove herself in a society that questions rabbits’ abilities as police officers. Beneath that is a parable about equality and a screed against xenophobia. It remains a surprisingly appropriate folktale for 2016. [Trailer]

Coming to Netflix on Jan. 9, "Under the Shadow" is an Iranian horror movie that didn’t earn enough attention when it popped through theaters last fall. Babak Anvari sheds a feminist light on the Middle East’s female oppression in this tense thriller about a medical student whose daughter suspects an evil presence lurking through their apartment. As war explodes around them, the supernatural forces strengthen. But something even scarier occurs: Paranoia turns their every interaction into a walking nightmare, told through soft thrills and political tribulation. "Under the Shadow" has been aptly compared to 2014’s "The Babadook." [Trailer]

Using glorious stop-motion animation, "The Little Prince" looks and feels like a poetic watercolor reverie. Mark Osborne’s adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s classic novel defies the onslaught of Hollywood kids movies that end with tidy bows. Instead, this story of a young girl whose overbearing mother dictates her prep-school future blossoms as our protagonist meets an elderly aviator who regales her with fantastical tales of his past. "The Little Prince" becomes a narrative about the disconnect between a life of cold calculations and one of outsized adventures. [Trailer]

The Avengers series grew up with "Captain America: Civil War," a politically thorny imbroglio that splits the Marvel superheroes into sparring factions. The results are no more coherent than any other contemporary comic-book adaptation, but the Russo brothers’ universe-expanding saga featured some of the most thrilling action on screen last year. Case in point: a whirling 15-minute battle sequence on an airport tarmac. [Trailer]

This one’s on Hulu, not Netflix. But don’t sleep on this underrated dramedy, whose misguided marketing campaign did it no favors at the box office. "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" tells the true story of Kim Baker (Tina Fey), a low-rung television journalist who volunteers as a war correspondent in Afghanistan. The movie is far from perfect, but the trailers wanted you to think it was full of antics. Instead, it’s a thoughtful romp about midlife restlessness that features Fey’s best performance yet. [Trailer]

11 Great Movies From 2016 That You Can Stream On Netflix (And 1 On Hulu)

Try out a few Disney favorites, a scary dinner party or Obama's college days.

Television,Science and Technology,Pop Culture,Electronic Commerce


Why I switched my Galaxy S7 for a boring old iPhone

The Samsung Galaxy S7 is the best smartphone I've ever used.

Not only is it powerful, with its VR capabilities and the best smartphone camera ever made, but it's also a gorgeous device. That slender, low-bezel frame. That metallic finish. That ultra-high-contrast milky-smooth screen.

Plus, you can leave it in a jug of water for the length of a phone demo with no ill effects. And it runs Android — a contentious operating system (that's a whole other post) but the one I prefer.

Recently, however, I've given mine up in favor of a boring, bulky, less cross-compatible iPhone 6s Plus.

The reason is simple: The iPhone's got a crazy-long battery life. And on the most important computer a person interacts with in a day, that's incredibly important.

If I were a light or even medium user, the S7 would be perfect for me. It does everything I want incredibly well, and turns on to the incredibly useful (if mildly creepy) Google Now main page.

But I'm a heavy user, sometimes taking hundreds of photos in a day, as well as constantly Googling facts for articles, recording phone interviews, testing out apps, listening to podcasts, and navigating to unfamiliar parts of the city. And day after day, the Galaxy S7 was dying around 5 p.m.

The iPhone 6s Plus has a 2,750 mAh battery, which is actually smaller than the Galaxy S7's 3,000 mAh battery. (You don't have to know what those numbers mean, just that one is bigger than the other.)

But the iPhone's operating system and software are much better optimized for their hardware and allow the handset to chug along much longer. And for me, no matter how fantastic a phone is, if I can't turn it on at 7 p.m. it's no good to me.

So, with a heavy heart, I've switched back.

Here's why I gave up my beloved Galaxy S7 for a boring old iPhone

I'm not happy about it, but the iPhone 6s Plus beats the Galaxy S7 in one crucial way.


It is with a heavy heart that I must share the sad news of the passing of a great beast, the Loch Ness monster.

The rotting carcass of the mythical beast was discovered on the banks of the infamous Scottish loch by a dog walker yesterday, The Mirror reports.

The body – which totally isn’t a TV set – was surrounded by police tape and looks an awful lot like the stereotypical description of the creature.

Help2Rehome Scotland posted the images on Facebook today asking: "Has Nessy been found? Or someone playing a fascinating prank?"

Of course some people aren’t convinced that the mess of bones and organs, which are startlingly well preserved, is actually Nessie’s body.

Social media of course went into meltdown with some saying it looked like ‘a bunch of ribs and white puddings’ while Stephen Welford thought: ‘That is a giraffe body’.

Meanwhile Help2Rehome Scotland have discredited the idea that Nessie’s really dead saying that it’s just a set for TV show.

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There's a New Best City in America for Startups (Hint: It's Not Silicon Valley)

As the startup scene in Silicon Valley becomes more saturated and the cost of living skyrockets, other cities are beginning to look far more attractive to startups -- and to venture capitalists.

While San Francisco continues to remain supreme as the biggest and baddest of startup cities, investment research company PitchBook decided to look into other regions and cities just to be sure. Shockingly, they found the Bay Area does not have the highest percentage of profitable startups. What's more, some of the smaller markets were far more profitable than large cities like New York City and Los Angeles. And the most profitable of all? Chicago.

In Chicago, 45 percent of investments produced 10 times a return on investment. This was far higher than the runner up, Raleigh, where 26 percent of startups produced the same return on investment. Chicago raked in high numbers across the board, with 81 percent of its startups producing between three and 10 percent a yield on initial investment. New York came in third below Chicago and Raleigh.

PitchBook culled through their proprietary data to draw up the results. Here's how they determined the profitability of the startups:

Full exit through acquisition or IPO in the last 10 years

At least $500,000 in VC funding had to be raised before the exit

PitchBook double checked all funding rounds to verify the total of invested capital

PitchBook confirmed the amount of the exit

Cities with at least 30 startups who met the above qualifications were included in their data set. That said, both Chicago and Raleigh only have 31 startups that met the profitability requirements. New York City has 98. As the granddaddy region of startups, the Bay Area has 613.

Consider joining the community of startups in this Midwestern city that generate huge returns on investment.

It's Chicago, when measured by number of startups yielding > 10x investment


40 People Got Burned 'Firewalking' in Texas For the Dumbest Reason

Around 40 people attending a seminar with motivational speaker Tony Robbins in downtown Dallas yesterday were injured when a group exercise involving walking across hot coals went wrong. And it’s not the first time this has happened: back in 2012, for instance, 21 people in San Jose were burned after attempting the stunt at another Robbins seminar.

People got burned walking across hot coals, you say? There’s a shocker. But the Dallas seminar had over 7000 participants, most of whom completed the fire walking ceremony without injury. Why did most of those people walk across the coals safely while a (relative) handful got burned?

The Robbins camp might say they just didn’t believe in themselves enough to fully unleash the power within, but it actually has everything to do with physics. As I wrote back in 2012, it is quite possible to firewalk safely. A physics professor at the University of Pittsburgh named David Willey does it all the time, thanks to his grasp of the underlying physics.

Infrared imagery shows a fire walker’s foot remains cool when the stunt is done correctly. (Image: D. Willey/K. Kjernsmo)

This is well-established science. The key factors at play are the low thermal conductivity of the burning wood-turned-to-coal, an insulating layer of ash, and the short time of contact between the hot coals and the soles of the feet.

In particular, the coals must burn down to around 1000 degrees Fahrenheit, preferably with a thin layer of ash providing extra insulation. This also burns off excess water, which increases the heat capacity and thermal conductivity of the coals.

And while it’s tempting to want to run across hot coals, this actually pushes your feet deeper into the embers, increasing the burn risk. A nice steady walking pace is best. (Some say wetting your feet beforehand can add protection via the Leidenfrost effect, but Willey has found the effects of this to be negligible and prefers to firewalk dry-footed.)

Back in 1998, Willey and Kjetil Kjernsmo of University of Oslo developed a computer model of a fire walker’s foot, and then compared it to infrared imagery of people fire walking in Seattle. Those images showed that the foot really does remain cool when the stunt is done correctly.

"[T]here was someone in front of us and someone behind us on their cell phone, taking selfies and taking pictures."

So what went wrong in Dallas? Probably the same thing that happened at the 2012 San Jose seminar. You have to set up a scientific experiment correctly to get the best results, and for something like fire walking there’s not much margin for error. Those who got burned probably lingered just a bit too long on the hot coals, the better to, say, snap a selfie of their moment of enlightenment.

That seems to be borne out by witness statements. "From my observation, there was someone in front of us and someone behind us on their cell phone, taking selfies and taking pictures," Jacqueline Luxemberg, a participant who did the firewalk and emerged unscathed, told WFAA. "[She asked others] to video record for her, so I think that that has a lot to do with it."

So should you ever decide to attempt a fire walking stunt yourself, remember: walk (don’t run), make sure the coals have burned down sufficiently, don’t wet your feet beforehand, and try not to strike too long a pose for that selfie. Oh, and have some ice and Vicodin handy, just in case.

They were at a motivational seminar led by Tony Robbins (not the first time this has happened at his seminars) yet only 40 of 7000 participants were burned, likely because they were stopping on the coals to take videos and selfies. #StopClickBait


@wearephoenix cancel big gig after Thomas Mars falls ill

Phoenix will cancel their iTunes Festival performance scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 7, following lead singer Thomas Mars falling ill. The band announced the news Friday via Twitter.

Unfortunately Thomas won't be able to sing as he is ill & cannot travel. We are very sorry that our @itunesfestival show on 9/7 is cancelled — Phoenix (@wearephoenix) September 6, 2013

Ireland-based indie group Little Green Cars was slated to open for Phoenix. The band members said they were "gutted" by the news of the cancellation.

The band are really gutted and hope we can make it up to you soon. - LGC HQ — Little Green Cars (@Littlegreencars) September 6, 2013

No specific notice of Mars' condition has been made public. The festival will not replace Phoenix's slot on the lineup, but will instead return Sunday with previously planned performers Bastille and The 1975.

Phoenix Cancel iTunes Festival Performance After Thomas Mars Falls Sick

Phoenix will cancel their iTunes Festival performance scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 7, following lead singer Thomas Mars falling ill. The band announced ...

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Bill Clinton delivers a sharp message to Donald Trump and his base

CRANFORD, N.J. — President Bill Clinton dismissed presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump’s policies as "divisive" and ineffective at a Wednesday campaign event for his wife, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

Speaking at Union County College, Bill Clinton also said "white, non-college-educated Americans" who are widely seen as a core part of Trump’s base "need to be brought along to the future."

Clinton began making his case by identifying "a reason why this has been such a crazy political year."

"All over the world there is stagnant economic growth, stagnant incomes, rising inequality and deep arguments over what to do about our increasing diversity," Clinton said.

This year’s election has delivered many surprises, including Trump’s emergence from the GOP field. Clinton’s wife, who was initially viewed as the inevitable Democratic nominee, has also faced an unexpectedly strong primary challenge from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Though Clinton attributed these unexpected results to tension and difficult economic realities in his speech, he argued that America remains "the best positioned country for the future." He also presented a prescription for how to take advantage of that positioning.

"To do it, we have to build a future that is inclusive — not divisive — a future which has not only higher incomes but more upward mobility and less inequality, and one which recognizes our diversity because its the only way to honor our common humanity," Clinton said.

Clinton criticized two of the most controversial elements of Trump’s platform: building a massive wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, and barring Muslim tourists and immigrants from entering the country. Though he took care not to name Trump, Clinton argued that these policies are misguided.

"We have been told over and over again in this election we ought to build a wall against Mexico, we ought to stop the Muslims from coming in, we want to do all this stuff," Clinton said as the crowd booed Trump’s ideas. "Let me tell you, all those people who want to do that — and one in particular — forget what the real security challenges we face are."

Clinton went on to cite the December 2015 shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., as proof that fortified borders and immigration bans can’t prevent terrorism. In the San Bernardino attack, a married couple opened fire at a holiday party for county workers, leaving 14 people dead and 22 injured. Clinton blamed online content for radicalizing the shooters.

"The last serious terrorist incident in the United States occurred in San Bernardino, Calif. Those people were converted over the internet," Clinton said. "You can build all the walls you want. You can build them all across Canada; they got a bunch of foreigners in Canada. You could build a seawall in the Atlantic and a seawall in the Pacific. .... And then you could send the Navy to the Gulf of Mexico to block anybody else, and put all the planes in the Air Force up. You could not keep out the social media."

Clinton said he is "really proud" his wife has argued "we need all people of all faiths, including Muslims who love freedom and hate terror, to help us improve the American idea." He went on to take a shot at Trump’s slogan, "Make America Great Again."

"She’s got the best vision: an inclusive, nondivisive America — an America that is oriented towards our future greatness, not trying to reclaim a past that is past and gone," Clinton said, adding, "And it wasn’t so great for some people anyway. Somebody said they’re going to make America great again. They need to talk to the people for whom it wasn’t so great."

Clinton suggested that "white, non-college educated Americans" are the ones who want to "reclaim" the past. That group is widely seen as a crucial part of Trump’s base of support

"We all need to recognize that white, non-college-educated Americans have seen great drops in their income, have seen great increases in their unemployment rate, have seen drops in their life expectancy, and they need to be brought along to the future. But they can’t live under the illusion that you can reclaim a past which is just that — past. This country is always about the future," Clinton said.

After his speech, Clinton greeted supporters along a rope line. Yahoo News asked if he read a column that was published by one of his former advisers, Doug Schoen, in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday evening. Clinton said he had not seen Schoen’s article. In his column, Schoen argued "there is now more than a theoretical chance that Hillary Clinton may not be the Democratic nominee for president."

Former President Bill Clinton campaigns for his wife, Hillary Clinton, at Edison High School in Edison, N.J., on May 27, 2016. (Photo: Dennis Van Tine/MediaPunch/IPX)


7 reminders of how ridiculous the XFL was

Remember the XFL? Of course you do. Especially now that ESPN has a 30 For 30 on the fabled football league coming down the pipeline early this year.

Headed by Vince McMahon, and fashioned after his WWE outfit, the XFL was of course a huge flop on just about every front when it debuted in 2001. It lost $50 million, was named the third-worst TV show of all time by TV Guide, and was the subject of widespread ridicule just about everywhere it went. From the cover of Sports Illustrated to the couch on "The Simpsons," the XFL was never really taken seriously.

Although the league may have lasted for just one season, its legacy continues to live on—through its website, which is inexplicably somehow still in existence. While the site is no longer updated and acknowledges the league's demise, it remains largely untouched from the era of XFL play.

Scavenging through this site is kind of like exploring a vacant Blockbuster that still had all of its VHS tapes and Nintendo 64 games. Only instead of VHS tapes and Nintendo 64 games, it features bad football and hilarious original content. The site even still runs advertising, so WWE and NBC—or whoever owns the website now—might even still make some money off of it.

If you haven’t gone on the XFL’s website, trust me: You’re not missing much. But there were some things on there that are funny in retrospect, and couldn't help but remind us of how crazy and over the top and ridiculous the league was during that one season. So here's a refresher for all you closet XFL fans who rooted like crazy for He Hate Me, Deathblow, and a cast of thousands that are now largely forgotten.

If you wanted to play, all you had to do was fill out a questionnaire.

No, really. The XFL’s website had a section called the "X-Zone" featuring Lucas Swineford, the site’s resident hot-takes guy who looks like he just rented "Mission: Impossible II" on VHS.

In a Q&A piece on the website, in which he pretty much just whines about how nobody takes the XFL seriously, he answers questions about the league that his friends keep asking him:

The fact that this question even needs to be answered should tell you everything you need to know about the XFL.

You can still find a list of videos (which have since been disabled) touting players getting "smashed," "slammed into a wall," and "eating dirt" that these days would make the NFL cringe. But back in 2001, McMahon and his league played up the outlaw nature of the players and teams and were more than happy to watch guys unnecessarily get body slammed into the turf and repurpose the highlight for the web.

From the site: Also, to raise public awareness of the "Million Dollar Game" and the April 14-15 playoff weekend, as well as to reintroduce fans to the XFL, the league has embarked on an advertising campaign encompassing national and local market electronic and print media. In addition, the league has modified its point after touchdown rule by adding two and three-point conversions to its existing one-point effort. Beginning with the two playoff games, teams will choose whether to go for one point from the one-yard-line, two points from the five or three points from the 10.

This actually doesn’t sound like the worst idea. Maybe with the way kickers have been struggling to hit extra points this year, Roger Goodell and the NFL will call up McMahon to see if he has any ideas for spicing up the PAT.

Good news, XFL fans: Any rumors about the league failing are not true!

At least that’s what a press release on the San Francisco Demons’ website said. The Demons touted their attendance at what is now the Giants’ AT&T Park, which the team nicknamed the "Hell Hole." I guess nobody told them that "Hell hole" is typically used pejoratively.

Anyways, the XFL folded less than two months after this press release came out. Guess the lamestream media was right about this one.

The P.C. Police weren’t too happy with the Memphis Maniax’s name or logo.

About 12 people actually cared about the XFL and of those 12, it looks like two of them were mental health advocates ticked off about the Memphis Maniax’s team name.

"The name and logo of the Memphis Maniax is demeaning to the 54 million Americans and their families who are affected by mental illness each year," Michael M. Faenza, the president of the National Mental Health Association told the AP.

Here are the logos, which are still available as desktop wallpapers on the team’s site.

Yeah, don’t see why that could be problematic. The logo on the right looks like a caricature of an extra from "Breaking Bad," which is not exactly a look you want on the side of a team’s helmet.

This commercial just screams class. The XFL figured that if they pushed the envelope on its cheerleaders, they could draw in some viewers. Because, you know, "Man stuff."

But here’s the thing: The cheerleaders they put out weren’t even that risque. They were a little risque, but not risque enough that anyone outside of the "dirty old man" demographic would tune in just for the cheerleaders. Here is the cheerleader page for the New York/New Jersey Hitmen (Yes, that was really the team’s name).

This could probably still make the cut into pretty much any PG movie, which isn’t a good thing if sexy cheerleaders is one of your major selling points.

The championship game was originally called "The Big Game at the End."

The Super Bowl. The World Series. The Stanley Cup Finals.  Most major sports' championships have iconic names

ones that millions dream of someday being a part of.

"The Big Game at the End" doesn’t really have the same kind of ring. To be fair, the name of the title game was eventually changed to "The Million Dollar Game," which sounds a lot better than "The Big Game at the End." But "The Big Game at the End" should have still never seen the light of day.

HOW IS THE XFL SEASON STRUCTURED? The XFL season kicks off on Saturday, February 3, 2001. Each of the league’s eight teams will play a 10-game regular season. There are no bye weeks. Two games will be on Saturday night, one on Sunday afternoon and one on Sunday night. The top two teams in each division advance to the postseason, with playoff games taking place the weekend of April 14-15. The inaugural XFL Championship Game, affectionately called "The Big Game At The End," will be played on Saturday, April 21.

And reading this site, you don’t even get the feel that they came up with this name ironically. Like how "Friends" titles all of its episodes with "The one where..." out of irony. Someone actually probably thought "The Big Game at the End" was a good idea. Sad!

7 Reminders of How Ridiculous the XFL Was

The XFL was only around for one year but these are seven reasons why as ridiculous as it was, we'll never forget it.


Why "Finding Dory" actually has scientists really worried

Worrying is an emotion that Finding Nemo‘s Dory is certainly no stranger to. Not only was she happy to help out Nemo’s constantly-worried father (Marlin), but she would sometimes find herself a little overwhelmed with the emotion herself. Usually this was because, as we know, she had some memory issues.

But even though Dory was able to work through her worry (thanks to her "just keep swimming" mantra), Finding Nemo and its upcoming sequel, Finding Dory, has some marine biologists pretty worried, according to an article in The Wrap. After Finding Nemo, people everywhere wanted to have a little Nemo for themselves. The original movie’s popularity led to a 40% rise in the sale of clownfish everywhere. But that wasn’t too much of an issue since clownfish can be safely bred in captivity and do ok in personal tanks.

But Dory is no clownfish. She’s a blue tang fish, which are much rarer than clownfish and don’t do nearly as well in tanks. If Finding Dory leads to the same demand for blue tang fish that Finding Nemo did for clown fish, there could be some problems. Blue tang fish are found in areas around Indonesia and the Philippines, where there aren’t very many rules or regulations about large-scale fish collection. This means, if there’s too much demand for these fish as pets, there’s nothing really stopping people from going out and gathering lots of them (and majorly destroying ecosystems in the process).

Ellen Degeneres, who famously voices the delightful Dory, says she hopes this will not be an issue since the central message of the movie is that fish belong in the wild and not in tanks. This means that if you love Dory (and who doesn’t) the best thing you can do for her is to let her — and all of her fishy relatives — stay in the ocean where they belong.

Here's why marine biologists are worried by Finding Dory.

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Despite the central message of the movie being that fish belong in the ocean, Finding Nemo resulted in a 40% rise in clown-fish sales and the Blue Tang fish (Dory's species) are already rare. A high demand for these may cause harmful, large-scale collections of the fish, damaging ecosystems to meet sales demands. #StopClickBait


Pregnant Mother Goes Into Labor, Gets Biggest Surprise Of Her Life

A woman from California almost lost her newborn baby after testing positive for methamphetamine. The problem? She never used the drug.

Maggie Downs, a writer from Palm Springs, CA, was several hours into labor with her first child when a nurse confronted her in the hospital bathroom and told her that she had tested positive for methamphetamine.

Popular Video A judge looked this inmate straight in the eyes and said something that left the entire courtroom in tears:

Confused, Downs joked awkwardly in response.

"Well, I’ve always been a positive person," Downs told the nurse, according to her account on Narratively.

But Downs figured it was just a mistake. So when the nurse asked her to urinate in a cup for drug-testing, she did so without hesitation. But it came back positive again.

As she went through the pains of contractions, she was told that she'd be unable to breastfeed her child. As her husband spoke with the hospital staff, insisting there had been a mistake, Downs wondered how such a thing could happen and recounted her diet during pregnancy.

"No alcohol, no deli foods, nothing raw, undercooked or smoked," she wrote. "The bulk of my produce was organic, my drinking water purified through a reverse-osmosis system. I used clove oil on a persistent toothache instead of visiting the dentist, because I didn’t want any anesthetic to pass through my body and into the placenta. During all 42 weeks, the hardest drugs that entered my body were prenatal vitamins and puffs from my prescription asthma inhaler."

Turns out, the inhaler was the problem. Downs and her husband insisted that was the cause for the failed drug tests and looked up information online that shows inhalers can contain traces of methamphetamine. According to Labcorp, Methamphetamine is available in two forms: "d" and "l." The "d" form is a prescription stimulant and appetite suppressant. The "l" form is available over-the-counter as the active ingredient of the Vick's inhaler and is included in certain prescription medications. And illegal methamphetamine may contain a mixture, which could be the reason why a drug test proved positive for "methamphetamine."

But the hospital still had to report the incident to Child Protective Services and a social worker warned Downs that they could come by her house and take away her baby.

"The weeks that follow are dark," Downs wrote. "I don’t know if I would have experienced the same level of postpartum depression without failing those drug tests. But I do know most other mothers don’t spend their first few weeks with baby the way I do – the shades drawn, peeking out from behind the blinds, examining each car that drives past."

Fortunately for Downs, CPS never came. The hospital was able to resolve the matter and she was able to keep her baby.

A woman from California almost lost her newborn baby after testing positive for methamphetamine. The pro...

She tested positive for meth. It was because she used an inhaler. #StopClickBait Thanks Kayla for the link.


Former Los Angeles Laker injured in hit-and-run

Citing an Orlando Police Department report, The Associated Press writes that the former Los Angeles Lakers guard had been in a parking garage with his brother-in-law, Julio Hernandez, when he got into a "verbal altercation with a man in a black Lexus."

The driver reportedly stepped out of his car for a moment, before getting behind the wheel and accelerating toward the two men.

Fox 35 News reports that Hernandez escaped harm, but Duhon was struck by the vehicle. The 31-year-old is said to have hit his head on the windshield, before the driver zoomed away.

Duhon, who was waived by the Lakers earlier this year, suffered minor injuries and was taken to the hospital.

Police say they are investigating the incident.

NBA Free Agent Chris Duhon Injured In Hit-And-Run

NBA player Chris Duhon claims he was intentionally struck by a car in Florida over the weekend after he got into an argument with the driver.

Citing a...

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Chris Duhon (also former Bull Knick and Magician)


While the tumor itself was not all that big, the cyst was almost unimaginable.

When doctors took a look at her scans, they were floored to find that Olivia’s ovarian cyst had grown to the size of a watermelon.

Fortunately, after removing both the tumor and the 30-cm cyst, doctors told Olivia that the cancer had not spread.

"Luckily, surgeons got rid of it and the cancer hadn't spread any further," Olivia said. "It never crossed my mind that you could get cancer at such a young age, you don't think it's ever going to happen to you."

Just a few weeks after the life-changing surgery, Olivia was already back in action, doing sports and going on long hikes with all her friends.

Dr. Richard Hutson, the gynecological oncologist who performed Olivia’s emergency surgery, soon had even more incredible news for the teen.

Although doctors had to remove a tumor and a huge cyst from her ovary, Olivia’s fertility was in no way affected by the surgery.

"Additionally, as there has been no damage to her fertility, she will be in the same boat as anyone else of her age if she wants children in the future," Hutson said.

As it turns out, Olivia wasn’t pregnant at all—she had a tumor in her left ovary, surrounded by a massive cyst."The cyst was so huge I thought it was going to pop like a balloon at any moment - and I feared the cancer would spread throughout my body," the teen recalled.

Doctor Suspects Teen Is Hiding Pregnancy When He Sees Her Belly—Until He Checks Her Scan

When Olivia Key first visited her doctor with a painfully bloated belly, she was immediately told that she had to be pregnant. Unable to deal with the excruciating pain any longer, Olivia, now 18, had to be rushed to the hospital, where doctors could figure out what was wrong with the "baby." As

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This Oregon Home Includes the Coolest Feature We've Ever Seen

How would you make use of nearly 20 sprawling acres in the picturesque Oregon countryside? If you happened to be an expert model train builder, the answer would be simple: You'd build an 11,000-foot ridable train track circling your property, complete with perfectly-scaled steam locomotives and passenger cars for 30 to 40 of your closest friends, naturally!

That's exactly what the current owner of this Sherwood home did, and a visit to his property (for sale for a cool $2,900,000—trains included!) is nothing short of magical. To see the whole thing, hop aboard the train for the ride of your life—it goes over a 30-foot tall trestle and through a 400-foot long tunnel en route to its very own, custom-built waiting platform. It's all built to scale, of course, and was constructed on-site in the owner's personal machine shop.

The fun doesn't stop there. Also on the property is a separate building containing a hand-crafted, world-class model train weaving through 12-foot mountains and thousands of trees, which the owner believes to be the largest indoor F-scale train layout in the world.

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It includes an 11,000 ft rideable train track. #StopClickBait


We bet you didn't know this about @cjronson

Most of the time, fashion designers have really decadent homes, filled with priceless antiques and furniture that only seems to exist on pages of high-end catalogues. But we were pleasantly surprised to see Charlotte Ronson's amazing house is not only beautiful but, well, real.

Ronson showed off her New York City pad on Domaine Home, which definitely has a comfortable vibe. The space is airy and light thanks to the white walls, which also help accentuate her eclectic pieces of artwork. She adds pops of color to the space by adding bright furniture, like those baby blue dining chairs, and pretty flowers, which she tries to keep in her home at all times. "Having art and beautiful things around me really makes a difference," she said. And we couldn't agree more.

Charlotte Ronson's New York Home Pops With Bright Colors (PHOTOS)

Most of the time, fashion designers have really decadent homes, filled with priceless antiques and furniture that only seems to exist on pages of high-en...

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She has a colorful apartment in NYC with stuff in it


What group of people have accurately selected the President for 40 years?

The beef between the Don and the pontiff — Pope Francis suggesting that it’s not very Christian to build a wall, Donald J. Trump responding that ISIS will attack the Vatican if he’s not in the Oval Office — has quelled, for now. But if Trump is serious about becoming President Trump, it may behoove him to show a bit more reverence to the man in white. After all ...

The candidate who wins the Catholic vote has also won the popular vote in every election since 1972.

That’s four decades of picking the winner, according to exit poll estimates, from Nixon to Obama. What makes the Catholic vote unique is its ability to mimic the trends of the American populace as a whole, says Robert P. Jones of the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute. Add that to the the fact that Catholics make up almost a quarter of the U.S. population — and have a solid history of actually showing up at the polls — and you can understand why the demographic is highly sought by campaigners.

But does the correlation between the Catholic vote and the presidency suggest that papacy can sway an American election?

Yes and no. That record "is a little bit illusory," Jones says, because the Catholic vote isn’t monolithic, even if its leadership appears to be. The church’s political divide runs along ethnic lines, which, by the way, holds true for the nation, too. In 2012, that split meant white laypeople supported Romney, while their brown brothers in faith overwhelmingly voted for Obama. Catholics might be good predictors because their demographics reflect the general population almost perfectly:

On race: In 2014, 41 percent of Catholics were Hispanic, compared to 38 percent generally.

In 2014, 41 percent of Catholics were Hispanic, compared to 38 percent generally. On education: 26 percent of Catholics held a bachelor’s degree or higher, versus 27 percent overall.

26 percent of Catholics held a bachelor’s degree or higher, versus 27 percent overall. On earnings: 47 percent of Catholics reported income levels under $50,000, compared to 55 percent overall.

The vote has changed — and become less associated with a single party — as Catholics have "become more assimilated into the overall population," says Steve Krueger, president of the Catholic Democrats advocacy organization. Plus, as the Pew Research Center reported this year, millennials as a whole are less religious than any previous generation, and that reality affects young Catholics, too. (While neither Trump’s campaign nor the Vatican responded to a request for comment, the Pope’s spokesman released a statement after the wall remark, saying that building bridges versus walls is "his generic view, coherent with the nature of solidarity from the gospel.")

The party gap will only get wider, especially if you’re a Catholic, thanks to a particularly divisive election year. "This is the church that cares about defending life in the womb and immigrants," says the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Jonathan Reyes, director of the justice, peace and human development department. "Just in those two issues, there is no easy home." In its official election-year reflection on voting faithfully, the church agrees that its vision isn’t contained in any one candidate or party. Adherents are free to decide — based on their conscience — which priorities most closely align with their faith, which is why it’s hard to round up Catholics, as a whole, into any one party’s back corner.

Want to Know Who Will Win the Presidency? Ask the Pope

As the Catholics go, so goes the nation.


This is the most booming big city in America:

Stories about America's urban renaissance have become something of a cliché by now. But there's a reason for that—they're true! Big cities are growing faster than the country as a whole, which is basically for the best (dense urban areas tend to be more efficient and economically productive, after all). And today, the Census Bureau shared its estimates of which locales have expanded quickest in these post-recession years. Among the 25 largest cities in the country, top prize goes to Austin, Texas, which experienced a 12 percent population surge between 2010 and 2013.

It's not much of a mystery why Austin has fared so well. The city was only lightly affected by the recession, thanks in part to the fact that Texas was generally spared a housing bust, and its local economy is anchored by a state government, a massive university, and a tech scene. And yes, it's fun and still at least a tiny bit weird (RIP Leslie). But what's interesting here is that all over, large cities are outpacing the U.S. writ large. It's not even about regional migration: The South and West grew at 3.3 and 3.2 percent rates, slower than cities like Denver, Phoenix, and San Diego.

Of course, there are exceptions. Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia are lagging behind the national growth rate. And poor Detroit.

To be clear, meanwhile, we are talking about cities specifically here, not metro areas that encompass the suburbs. The Census Bureau is specifically analyzing growth patterns in "incorporated places," the legal entities you and I know as cities, towns, and so forth.

One other interesting tidbit: As a group, the largest cities, with populations exceeding 1 million, are growing far, far faster than before. During the entire first decade of the 21st century, they expanded by 2.1 percent. Between 2010 and 2013, though, they've bulked up by 3.1 percent. Though the Census Bureau doesn't break down the numbers on this front, my guess is that mostly has to do with fast-growing cities in the South and West crossing the 1 million threshold then continuing apace.

All Hail Austin, Texas, the Boomingest Big City of All

Stories about America's urban renaissance have become something of a cliché by now. But there's a reason for that—they're true! Big cities are growing  ...

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He’ll Pay You $180,000,000 To Marry His Daughter... But There’s A CATCH!!

He’ll Pay You $180M To Marry His Daughter... But There’s A CATCH.

Every once in awhile, we hear a story that's so over-the-top, all we can do is shrug our shoulders and wish everyone involved the best.

Chinese billionaire Cecil Chao is man who has it all. He made his massive fortune through real estate and luxury property development in Hong Kong, and is known for making grandiose moves with his money.

Unfortunately, the one thing that Chao couldn't buy is the thing he wanted most in the world: His only daughter is a lesbian, and he wants to pay a man to "turn her straight."

She's a lesbian, you have to turn her straight. This story is really old, the offer is over (20 PAGE SLIDESHOW)


In 1980, soon after Pakistani professor Abdus Salam was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contribution to developing the theory of electroweak unification in particle physics, he was invited to a ceremony at the Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) in Islamabad.

Few at the time expected the decision would backfire.

But it did, and the reason was because of sectarian hatred unleashed by a 1974 law that declared the Ahmadi community - to which Dr Salam belonged - as non-Muslim.

"The ceremony was organised to honour Dr Salam, and was to be held at QAU's Department of Physics, which was founded by one of his former students, Dr Riazuddin," says Pervez Hoodbhoy, a well-known Pakistani physicist, academic and security analyst who was among the organisers.

Dr Salam arrived in Islamabad to attend the ceremony, but couldn't enter the QAU premises due to fierce agitation started by student members of the powerful political and religious wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami party.

"The situation grew extremely tense; I clearly remember, they were threatening that they would break Dr Salam's legs if he dared enter the university campus; we had to call off the programme," Mr Hoodbhoy recalls.

Move on some 37 years later and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday surprised many by approving a plan to rename that same department of the QAU as the Dr Abdus Salam Centre for Physics.

He also approved five annual scholarships for Pakistani students competing for doctoral programmes in physics at overseas universities.

Many have welcomed the decision. Dawn newspaper, in an editorial comment on Wednesday, expressed hope that "a historic wrong is finally on course to being set right".

"That it has taken nearly four decades for this country to honour a globally renowned scientist who was one of its own, is a sad reflection of the priorities that hold sway here... For Dr Salam was an Ahmadi, a persecuted minority in Pakistan, and his faith rather than his towering achievements was the yardstick by which he was judged," Dawn noted.

Abdus Salam was born to a family of modest means in the Jhang region of central Punjab in 1926. He studied maths at Government College Lahore and earned a scholarship to the University of Cambridge where he completed his doctorate in 1951.

Between 1960 and 1974 he worked as an advisor to the Pakistani president on scientific matters, and is widely credited with laying the foundations of both the country's space and nuclear programmes.

He left the country in 1974 in protest over the enactment of a constitutional amendment that declared Ahmadis as non-Muslims, but in doing so did not sever links with the scientific community in Pakistan.

During this period, a rising tide of religious extremism backed by powerful quarters in the military establishment led to the creation of a furiously anti-Ahmadi social narrative which has still not run out of steam.

As such, his not an inspirational story in Pakistan, and there is no mention of him in textbooks.

Until recently, any public mention of Dr Salam as a hero invariably provoked a backlash from what many call the "guardians of faith".

So why did Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif take the gamble of honouring him now - so long after his death in Oxford in 1996 at the age of 70?

It appears that the immediate trigger came through a rare TV programme commemorating the 20th anniversary of Dr Salam's death on 29 November, which the prime minister happened to be watching, according to a credible source.

Soon after the programme, he rang up one of the participants in the programme to recommend naming the National Centre of Physics after Dr Salam.

But more significantly, the prime minister's decision came in the wake of a similar controversy which followed news that that one of the four candidates for the head of Pakistan's army, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, was married to a woman who had Ahmadi relatives.

Gen Bajwa's selection by the prime minister despite this campaign, and the fact that the army did not object to it, appears to have silenced the anti-Ahmadi groups for the moment.

The prime minister appears to have seized this moment to correct the wrong Pakistan has done to Dr Salam, believes Pervez Hoodbhoy.

"The decision shows that Pakistan wants to become a 'normal' country, and Nawaz Sharif would like to change its image from a state promoting extremist ideologies to one that can overcome obscurantism and own up to its heroes, Muslim or no Muslim," he says.

But the shift, if there is one, is only just beginning, and some elements have already made what is being seen as a feeble attempt to throw a spanner in the works.

On the very day the prime minister honoured Dr Salam, a police party raided the Ahmadi sect's headquarters in the town of Rabwah. They arrested four people and sealed a printing press which they said was printing "hate material".

Why has this Nobel winner been ignored for 30 years?

Why Pakistan's Nobel Prize winning scientist Abdus Salam has been officially ignored for 30 years.


Player spends 9 years leveling up to pass through a secret door in game

In the online MMO Tibia, there's a door with a simple message: "You see a gate of expertise for level 999. Only the worthy may pass." This week, a player named Kharsek passed through that door. It took him nine years to build up enough experience to hit level 999. But once he passed through the door, Kharsek disappeared, and took the secrets with him.

This mysterious door has been one of Tibia's more reclusive secrets since it was added into the game in 2005. For a long time, the developers told me, there was nothing behind the door. It was a joke shared with the community, an amusing "what if?" meant to remain unsolved.

"The main motivation clearly was to tease players because the creators honestly did not think that anyone would actually reach that level," said Tibia lead project manager Martin Eglseder.

This is the door that people have been wondering about for a decade.

Tibia, one of the oldest MMOs on the internet, launched in 1997. Nearly 20 years later, people are still actively playing it. As of this writing, there are 12,701 people playing Tibia. It's never been a game for the timid; Tibia is a hardcore online RPG, one that regularly kicks players in the teeth. When you die, the game docks a percentage of experience from your character, potentially rolling back real-world days worth of progress. That edge is what keeps people coming back.

"The combination of the extremely harsh death penalty and the hardcore leveling curve is what makes the game fun," said Mathias Bynens, the owner of TibiaMaps, a blog chronicling the ongoing changes made to the world of Tibia. "It makes gaining another level feel like an accomplishment and successfully escaping from a dangerous situation feel like a relief."

Tibia started as a hobbyist project by four German computer-science students. The game's unexpected success prompted them to form CipSoft. The game's almost two decades old, but CipSoft told me the game still commands roughly 500,000 active players from 200 countries.

" "That Kharsek reached level 999 is impressive. That he did it in a little under nine years is outright incredible." -Mathias Bynens "

"As one player once put it, 'Tibian friendships last a lifetime,'" said Eglseder. "This is one of the main reasons people stay in the game or come back to it after some time of 'retirement.' Many players have accompanied Tibia throughout the years and so the game has become a part of their lives. They are Tibians."

Tibians are often obsessed with knowing everything about the game. A true secret is hard to find. That's what makes the locked door so alluring: For once, everybody is truly in the dark.

There is no level cap in Tibia. If players truly wanted to, they could level forever. But the reason a door demanding a player reach level 999 was so daunting is because leveling up in Tibia, especially as you reach into the hundreds, is a draining and time-consuming task. That didn't stop Kharsek, who first joined the game in 2007. He's the first player to reach level 999.

"That Kharsek reached level 999 is impressive," said Bynens. "That he did it in a little under nine years is outright incredible."

The developers agreed, telling me nine years is "considered quite fast by many Tibians."

Kharsek is a reclusive player, one who's become more hermit-like since his accomplishment began attracting wider attention. "All I know is that he's a Brazilian player who keeps to himself," said Bynens, "which is perfectly understandable seeing as he's probably getting spammed in-game 24/7 by fans, especially now, with all the hype going on." I didn't have any luck trying to get in touch with him myself.

So what does it actually take to reach level 999 and open the mysterious door? Well, let's put it in perspective. Going from level 19 to level 20 requires 15,400 experience points, and the most you can get from a single enemy is a high-level boss that drops 35,000 XP. For level 49 to level 50, it's 112,900 XP. At level 50, you've acquired a grand total of 1,847,300 XP. At level 100, it's a massive 15,694,800 XP.

Moving from level 998 to level 999, though? It requires the equivalent number of points as leaping from level 1 to level 145: 49,650,700. According to a website tracking Tibia player data , there are only four players above level 900. The closest player to Kharsek is 60 levels behind.

Even with a team of people helping him with buffing, healing, and other tactics, Bynens estimates Kharsek was earning roughly 5 million XP per hour. At that pace, it would take roughly nine hours of constant grinding simply to move from level 998 to level 999.

And he's not the only one who's been keeping tabs on Kharsek. His level progression has been closely monitored and celebrated, as the milestones stacked, with videos shared on YouTube.

Eight months ago, Kharsek was only on level 930. Three months ago , he was on level 968. And remember, any time that Kharsek was killed would send him spiraling back down in levels, taking him further away from his goal.

The level 999 door has vexed Tibia players for years, but it drew wider awareness when a Reddit post predicted Kharsek would soon reach level 999, drawing interest to a fever pitch.

"I've never heard of this game in my life," said one commenter , "and the most important thing I have right now is this stupid bastard opening that stupid door."

The developers have been preparing for this moment, long before Kharsek hit level 999.

" "I've never heard of this game in my life, and the most important thing I have right now is this stupid bastard opening that stupid door." -Reddit comment

"A secret that has existed and been nourished by players for so many years cannot be lifted without disappointment," said Eglseder. "You cannot fulfill all the different hopes and expectations that players have attached to it. No matter what you do, you cannot satisfy everybody."

In terms of deciding what would actually be beyond the door, they went with something they feel is "best for the game as a whole and in the long run."

In today's streaming culture, it wouldn't have been a surprise if Kharsek made a big deal about walking through the door. He could have built up the spectacle and drawn attention to himself. But that's not what happened. Instead, earlier this week, Kharsek did what no other player in Tibia has done before and quietly walked through the door that demanded a player be level 999.

... And that was it. The outside world hasn't heard from Kharsek since. It's been radio silence.

"Maybe there are chests with rewards inside there," reads a forum post by a player that watched as Kharsek walked through the level 999 door. "Maybe there are NPCs there... Maybe levers and hidden stuff... We don't know... Kharsek got out... and logged off."

As of today, no one knows what's behind the door. The developers are keeping quiet, too.

"No, we won't spoil what's behind [the door]," said Eglseder. "We could verify this, but we leave it up to the player to tell whatever he wants to share about the door and the secret behind [it]."

The most Eglseder would say, perhaps to calm players worried they're missing something amazing, is "there's not a whole feature set or package of 'end game' content behind it."

It seems possible that Kharsek was upset about the way Tibia player have been treating him. On his quest to level 999, people would track him down and screw with his leveling progress.

"A group of people liked to consistently invade the spawns Kharsek was hunting in and kill as many creatures as possible, just to lower his exp/hour rate," said Bynens. "Other times they'd lure hordes of strong creatures on Kharsek's healers, forcing them to run away or die, causing Kharsek to be left without a healer, which is dangerous even at his level. Bullying at its worst. I don't know what Kharsek did to deserve this. Maybe people just got jealous at his high level?"

And now, there's another reason to be jealous: Kharsek is the only one who knows what's behind that door.

One Player’s Nine-Year Journey to Open a Locked, Secret Door

It took someone nine years to unlock a long-hidden secret. But once they did, that player disappeared and took the answers with them.

VICE US, VICE Gaming, gaming, Tibia, MMO

He didn't tell anyone what the secret was and disappeared from the game


Is it possible to kill someone with farts? An investigation:

Last month there was a deadly gas leak at a Dupont facility in La Porte, Texas. Four people died from asphyxiation when a bad valve let huge quantities of the noxious gas methyl mercaptan leak into an area where employees were working, and their deaths would have been preceded by a nasty, familiar odor—one that's present in rotting cabbage, and, yes, your butt.

Farts contain not just methyl mercaptan, but other asphyxiants like methane and dimethyl sulfides. Here's the question though: Let's say you were John Doe from Se7en, and farting were a deadly sin. Could you actually kill someone with farts?

I'm pretty strict on what I mean when I say "kill" someone with farts:

The victim would have to be an otherwise healthy person—no farts so smelly they make your grandma have a heart attack. You would have to use some combination of farts and a closed space or mask, but nothing that could be considered a weapon—no plastic bags over the head. You would have to be able to kill them within a few hours for it to be considered a fart-related death—no infections caused by airborne intestinal bacteria. The farts themselves would have to deliver the fatal injury—no farting out so many greenhouse gasses you cause climate change–related natural disasters.

Estimates vary on exactly how much of every gas is in every fart, because what you've been eating determines what's in your digestive tract—apart from a very small percentage of smell-producing gasses that make up a kind of smell signature.

The gasses in your farts that can kill someone are called asphyxiants, which are very different from cytotoxic agents like mustard gas, which damage your cells on contact. Nitrogen, a gas that can be used to execute prisoners is the asphyxiant found in greatest quantity in farts. Flammable methane is another such asphyxiant, and can constitute a large percentage of your fart gas.

Your farts also don't have much oxygen in them. The National Institutes of Health told me they don't keep data on the subject, so I had to get my data from wacky trivia books. Still, reliable sources say the oxygen in your farts comes entirely from air you swallow while you eat and drink, making it a small percentage, much of which is absorbed by your intestines during the digestive process. The best estimate I can find is that 3 to 5 percent of a fart is oxygen.

So if you were breathing pure farts, you would very quickly use up the oxygen they contain, and the methane and nitrogen would displace the oxygen anyway.

But could you hold someone under your bedsheets and asphyxiate them by farting? No—you can see just how little gas there actually is in a fart from the video above. But there are known specifics about the volume of farts.

The authority on this is Dr. Michael D. Levitt, chief of staff at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, who has published perhaps 300 papers on the subject. He concluded that there's only about 110 milliliters of gas in a normal fart. Still, a legendary, once-in-a-lifetime super-sized fart might just be enough to fill someone's lungs—an average person's lung capacity is around 500 milliliters. But you have to think bigger than that.

How About a Convoluted, Horror Movie-Type Scenario?

Fart gas is unbreathable air, and if you were able to fill a scuba tank with it by saving up your farts for a year, and then make someone breathe the resulting gas, they would die from lack of oxygen. That would be a step removed from killing someone with farts , though, and the puzzled detectives on the case might not even reach the conclusion that the gas was farts, unless they smelled it.

Any decent movie killer who used farts as a weapon would require that the victim be aware of the farts' exiting the rectums of the farter, or more likely farters. I'm imagining a cafeteria full of captives who had just eaten a bunch of gas-causing food. I asked the National Institutes of Health what foods cause farts, and they pointed me toward meals rich in short-chain carbohydrates, causing excessive, gas-producing fermentation in the gut. "Fructans, galacto-oligosaccharides, polyols, fructose and lactose," would be the menu in a fart factory—a bunch of onions, baby food, and milk, basically.

Isolating the farts from the outside atmosphere would be tricky though, requiring a vacuum seal around the butts of the captives having their farts harvested. Does such a thing exist? Yes. It's called a space toilet.

Though not designed to capture farts, a space toilet could theoretically do the job, although it would take a little bit of a redesign, and the first few farts would have oxygen-rich air mixed in. But over the course of six hours strapped to a space toilet, a person would produce about ten ounces of gas, according to Dr. Levitt.

Once the fart tubes, connected to a roomful of people, were feeding their farts to your victim's breathing mask, asphyxia would start pretty quickly. Simulations of inert gas asphyxiation (in which no oxygen at all was present) conducted by The International Humanitarian Hypoxia Project, show that "after just two or three breaths of nitrogen, the oxygen concentration in the lungs would be low enough for some oxygen already in the bloodstream to exchange back to the lungs and be eliminated by exhalation."

The victim would feel no unusual sensation, since the urgent need to gulp air when you hold your breath comes from buildup of carbon dioxide, not lack of oxygen. "Loss of consciousness may be accompanied by convulsions" the Hypoxia Project pointed out, "followed by cyanosis and cardiac arrest."

An oxygen-deprived brain takes about seven minutes to die, which by my calculations would require a formidable 605 farts if the victim continued breathing until brain death, which is unlikely. But since 3 to 5 percent of the gas you're using is oxygen it might take a bit longer. This would require your fart factory to contain hundreds of people with major gas.

It would take a large room of people strapped to space toilets, piped into your victim's breathing mask, or into a gas chamber. But in that convoluted, horror movie–type scenario, the result is a dead person. Who died from breathing farts.

Is It Possible to Kill Someone with Farts?

An investigation finds that yes, you probably could, but it would take some doing.

culture, news, lgbtq, politics, journalism, video, documentary, sex, drugs, film, tv, entertainment, travel, crime,SCIENCE,murder,serial killers,Vice Blog,farts,killing someone with farts,intestinal gas,producing enough farts to kill someone,harvesting farts,fart composition,what's in a fart,Saw 6,killing someone with asphyxiation,room full of farters,complicated scenarios,fart floor,breath play


After french gymnast broke his leg, paramedics did the worst thing imaginable

Horrendous video of the French gymnast who broke his leg at the Olympics on Saturday has been floating all over the Internet, but sadly his bad luck didn’t stop there.

Gymnast Samir Aït Saïd, 26, went off the vault but soon ended horribly when he attempted to land, breaking his left leg with everyone watching.

As if that wasn’t scarring enough, paramedics later dropped him while trying to get him onto a stretcher into an ambulance.

Just after a French gymnast broke his leg at the Olympics, paramedics accidentally did the worst thing imaginable

all news, caught on video, rio olympics, timely

The dropped him getting him onto the stretcher


This is why it’s so great that the iPhone 7 is killing off the headphone jack

Apple’s new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will be packed full of all sorts of technology when they debut next week. They’ll sport brand new cameras that should be among the best in the world, and they’ll pack new Apple A10 processors that will undoubtedly blow away the competition. But as the rumor mill heats up ahead of next week’s announcement, attention still isn’t focused on all of the great new features Apple’s next-generation iPhones will usher in. Instead, everyone is fixed on two "problems" with Apple’s iPhone 7 lineup.

The first issue is the design, which many people complain looks too much like Apple’s previous two generations of iPhones. That’s a valid complaint, though we would counter that a familiar design hardly means the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are going to be boring . The second issue is the lack of a standard headphone jack, but there’s a silver lining there as well.

Apple has made no announcements at this point so absolutely nothing is confirmed when it comes to the company’s next-generation iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. That said, the new phones aren’t going to have 3.5mm headphone jacks. We’d bet he barn on it.

For many users, that change means they can no longer simply plug their standard headphones into the iPhone. Is that a big deal? Well, it would be if Apple didn’t plan to include a 3.5mm to Lightning adapter right in the box with its new iPhones. But since there is an adapter there, this is a non-story. The same headphones you’re using right now will connect to your iPhone 7 later this month, just like they connect to your iPhone 6s or 6s Plus right now.

So what’s so great about Apple’s move to ditch the headphone jack? Aside from a thinner design, better water-resistance and a step toward a future iPhone with no ports at all , people who decide to upgrade and purchase new Lightning headphones will enjoy much higher-quality sound. And beyond that, Apple’s move is pushing other companies to embrace the Lightning connector, which means they can improve their products as a result.

Here’s a perfect example: Check out these noise cancelling earbuds from Bose . They’re fantastic and they actively cancel noise rather than just isolate sound like regular earbuds. But there’s an obvious downside: using these headphones means you have yet another device to worry about charging. Since they use active noise cancellation, they need to be powered.

Now take a look at the new Q Adapt In-Ear Earbuds announced on Thursday by Libratone . They also offer active noise cancellation so they also require power, but you’ll never have to charge them even once. Why? Because they draw power from a connected iPhone, iPad or iPod touch through the Lightning port.

Apple has been using a Lightning connector for years now on its iOS devices, but we’re about to see an influx of great new audio products that are improved by the utilization of Apple’s digital Lightning connector. Why now? That’s right, it’s because the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus won’t have 3.5mm audio ports.

Sure there are drawbacks — using Lightning headphones instead of older headphones means you can only connect them to Apple devices. But for many, the benefits will outweigh the downsides; keeping your old headphones around to use on airplanes when you travel isn’t really such a big deal, is it?

iPhone 7 Rumors: Headphone jack is out, and good riddance

Apple's new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will be packed full of all sorts of technology when they debut next week. They'll sport brand new cameras that should be among the best in the world, and they'll pack new Apple A10 processors that will undoubtedly blow away the competition.