The unofficial end of summer is just over a week away. Whileour team is keeping Labor Day celebrations close to home on Sept. 2 — including having a seaside staycay in Los Angeles; hanging out on Lake Michigan; and taking it easy with family and friends in Orange County, California — millions of Americans will be traveling for the holiday. Check out the top 10 domestic and international destinations according to AAA booking data. — Rebekah, Ally, and Natalie
Featured Story
“Tip-of-the-Tongue” Phenomenon Increases With Age — And Could Have a Positive Explanation
porcorex/ iStock
The “tip-of-the-tongue” phenomenon, also known as lethologica, refers to the inability to immediately recall a known word. It’s universally experienced, increases in frequency with age, and occurs most often with proper nouns. Middle-aged and older adults who experience this may worry that it indicates a declining memory, but according to two co-authors of a book about language and aging, that isn’t necessarily the case. Learn about a more positive possible explanation in our article below.
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A Special Sweepstakes for a Special Street Sweeper
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On a typical day, Paul Spiers cheerfully sweeps streets in Beckenham, a leafy London suburb, while listening to Elvis Presley. The 63-year-old’s joyful spirit is so infectious that thecommunity he cares forraised around $4,000 to help him go on his dream vacation to Albufeira, a seaside town in Portugal. Unfortunately, there was some red tape getting in the way of this kind gesture — Spiers’ bosses wouldn’t let him take the money due to a council policy. That’s when a British travel company called On the Beach came up with a clever solution. It launched a one-of-a-kind sweepstakes (pun intended) with some very specific eligibility requirements: the winner must love Elvis Presley, must be aged between 62-64, must be loved by the local community, must be a street cleaner in Beckenham, and must have the surname Spiers. Soon after, Spiers got the green light from his employers to use the “voucher” to go on his trip and walked away with a reminder that his community has his back. “I didn’t know I was appreciated,”Spiers said in a statement, per The Washington Post. “I thought I was coming here to do my job.”
Science
The Simple Science-Backed Tip That Can Keep Arguments From Escalating
bymuratdeniz/ iStock
It’s part of being in a relationship: Arguments happen. Maybe they’re about dishwasher duties, weekend plans, or money, parenting, politics — you name it. While no one-size-fits-all solution can resolve every fight, researchers discovered a simple tip that requires very little effort and can go a long way: Take a five-second break. “It sounds obvious, but this is the first time anyone has experimentally demonstrated a reduction in aggression following enforced breaks,” Annah McCurry, the lead author of a recent study outlining the findings, said in a press release. She added: “It’s cheaper than couple’s therapy and can be easily integrated into everyday interactions.” For the study, researchers analyzed couples playing a competitive game via a 360-degree camera. They found that the partners tended to match each other’s aggression levels, a pattern that was disrupted when they were forced to take a short break. The results suggest that a time-out could be an effective tool for “managing the mundane, everyday arguments that couples have,” the release said. Are longer breaks better? Not necessarily. A five-second break was equally as effective as a 10- or 15-second break when it came to reducing negative emotions, showing that “even the briefest of pauses can help diffuse an argument,” McCurry shared.
Culture
Kansas Is Home to the Best Community College in the Country
Manhattan Area Technical College
Figuring out where to start a college career can be difficult, especially when considering finances. Community college is often the most accessible and affordable option, and WalletHub recently analyzed 653 community colleges around the United States to find the cream of the crop. To help students get “the best education at the lowest price,” the site looked at 18 key factors, including the cost of tuition, graduation rates, student-faculty ratios, and the median salaries of graduates. “A good community college minimizes costs for students while also providing an enriching learning experience that leads to high student retention and high graduation rates,” WalletHub analyst Cassandra Happe said in the report. Coming in first is the Manhattan Area Technical College in Kansas, scoring particularly high marks in career and education outcomes. The State Technical College of Missouri took second, with Pratt Community College, also in Kansas, in third. See the rest of the top 30.
Sunday Selections
Deep Dives
Dig into the research around compliments and get tips for giving better ones
The road to today’s self-driving cars began nearly two decades ago with an SUV named Stanley
A famed illustrator built a tiny town inside his home to bring his latest children’s book to life
Award-winning Japanese novelist Yoko Ogawa explores the roles of memory and storytelling in her latest work to be translated into English. The “elegant jewel box of a book” takes place in 1972 and follows an adolescent girl as she leaves her widowed mom in Tokyo to spend a year with her aunt in a sprawling mansion on the coast. There, she bonds with her chronically ill yet high-spirited cousin Mina, entering into her richly imaginative world while uncovering some of their family’s long-held secrets.
It’s the final day of the Little League World Series, and this feel-good film about the 2002 tournament is a fitting follow-up watch. Starring Luke Wilson and Greg Kinnear — and featuring Patrick Renna of The Sandlot fame — the tearjerker is based on the true story of an underdog team from Texas that dedicates their season to one member’s dying father. Against all odds, they make it to the championship series, the first team from Fort Worth to do so since 1960. It opens in theaters Friday.
This Week in History
The National Park Service Is Created
August 25, 1916
Rebecca L. Latson/Moment via Getty Images
Famously, the world’s first official national park was Yellowstone, designated in 1872. But it wasn’t until over 40 years later that the agency that runs the U.S. parks would be created. By 1916, the Department of the Interior was overseeing 14 parks and 21 national monuments, but lacked unified leadership. So that summer, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Act to Establish the National Park Service into law. Today, the NPS is responsible for 431 areas covering more than 85 million acres across every state, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Check out U.S. News & World Report’s 2024 ranking of the best national parks and see where your favorite falls.
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“There’s no failure in sports. You know, there’s good days, bad days. Some days you are able to be successful, some days you’re not. Some days it’s your turn, some days it’s not your turn. And that’s what sports [are] about. You don’t always win.”
