Popping a vase full of flowers on your dining room table or in a guest room can elevate your home aesthetic in seconds. Friends coming over for dinner? In-laws in town for the weekend? Arrange a simple bouquet and suddenly you’re Martha Stewart. More importantly than impressing visitors, though, flowers offer the chance to practice moments of mindfulness throughout your day by beckoning your eyes (and nose) every time you pass by. Check out Popular Science’s tips for keeping your florals looking fresh as long as possible — and then take this fun quiz to find out which flower you are.
Featured Story
From Legacy Contacts to a Power of Attorney: Items Every Adult Should Have in Order
In the United States, talking about death can be somewhat taboo, with many people preferring to keep the end of life out of mind. This tendency — perhaps along with our collective enthusiasm for “living in the moment” — may have the unintended consequence of placing us at a disadvantage when it comes to being prepared for the inevitable. No matter your age, putting certain plans in ordercan provide you peace of mind in knowing that your loved ones will be taken care of, your property will be passed into the right hands, and your wishes for medical care will be followed through. Read the article at the link below for our recommendations, and consider sharing it with others you feel could benefit from the information.
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If you’re in the U.S. and fancy a Slurpee or hot dog, 7-Eleven is the place to go. In Japan, however, the chain’s customers can choose from a far wider range of food options, including higher quality prepared dishes curated for each establishment’s location and clientele. Now, American stores are starting to follow suit. The shift represents a new business strategy for the brand, as fewer people are smoking and more are driving electric vehicles. “We believe that we need to change our business model from one that relies on gasoline and cigarettes to one in which customers choose us based on our products,” Ryuichi Isaka, president and CEO of 7-Eleven’s Japanese parent company, explained to Bloomberg Television. “The key to this change is fresh food.” By introducing new, fresher fare, the world’s largest convenience store chain is hoping to make one-third of its total sales from store-brand goods, like food, next year, TheWall Street Journal reports. “In Asia I think there is so much excitement around convenience stores and the types of food and snacks they offer,” said JinJoo Lee, a columnist for the outlet. “So if they can bring even a little bit of that excitement to the U.S., that would be a great success.”Look inside a Japanese 7-Eleven.
Science
Welcome Back! Volunteers Who Lived in Mars Simulation Emerge Over 1 Year Later
NASA/Josh Valcarcel
After being away for 378 days, four volunteers officially completed their mission of living on Mars — or rather, in NASA’s first-of-its-kind Mars simulation at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Mission commander Kelly Haston started her return speech with one simple word: “Hello.” She continued, “It’s actually just so wonderful to be able to say hello to you all!” The quartet, seen here before the experiment began, may have never left Earth physically, but going to space wasn’t the point. Instead, the aim was to observe how humans would respond to the conditions that come with living on Mars. Haston, Anca Selariu, Ross Brockwell, and Nathan Jones did everything from growing their own veggies and maintaining equipment to facing stressors (like long communication delays with Earth) and going on simulated spacewalks, all within a 1,700-square-foot habitat. Zooming out, this is the first of three faux-Mars missions that will help NASA work toward the goal of sending astronauts to the real red planet as soon as the 2030s. After leaving the simulation, Selariu shed some light on the “why”behind that aspiration. “I’ve been asked many times: Why the obsession with Mars? Why go to Mars?” she said. “Because it’s possible. Because space can unite and bring out the best in us. Because it’s one defining step that Earthlings will take to light the way into the next centuries.” See the volunteers after emerging.
Culture
Oldest Known Picture Story Beats Previous Record by 6,000 Years
Ratno Sardi
Archaeologists say they’ve found the oldest known picture story in a cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The scene is believed to be “at least” 51,200 years old and depicts three human-animal beings with a wild pig, according to a recent study. Until now, the record holder for the oldest picture story was a life-size painting of a wild pig located just over 6 miles away on the same island, The Guardian reported. That depiction was believed to be created at least 45,500 years ago, making it thousands of years younger. Adam Brumm, a professor from Griffith University and study co-author, told the outlet the scene offers a lens into what was important to these early people “symbolically and perhaps even spiritually.” He added: “Storytelling is a hugely important part of human evolution and possibly even helps to explain our success as a species, but finding evidence for it in art, especially in very early cave art, is exceptionally rare.” Check out the picture story and explore the discovery site.
A Reese’s Book Club pick, The Cliffsis a modern-day Gothic novel set in a Victorian mansion on a secluded bluff in Maine. Mysterious and abandoned when a teenaged Jane Flanagan first encountered it, the now-renovated house is nearly unrecognizable when the archivist revisits as an adult, hired by its new owner (who’s convinced the place is haunted) to research the secrets within. Author J. Courtney Sullivan deftly explores themes of family legacies, colonialism, and the history geography holds.
Arriving just in time to mark the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, this space-race rom-com — which hit theaters Friday — revisits the time period leading up to the historic event. The film follows Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson), a Madison Avenue marketing whiz who’s tasked by the FBI with drumming up public interest in the upcoming mission, but must contend with straitlaced NASA team captain Cole Davis (Channing Tatum) while she’s at it.
This Wednesday, the “Happiest Place on Earth” turns 69 years old. After a year of construction and a $17 million investment (the equivalent of nearly $200 million today), Disneyland welcomed its first visitors, inviting thousands of studio staffers, construction workers, members of the press, and company sponsors to preview the Anaheim, California, park before it opened to the public the following day. At the time, tickets to exploreAdventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, and Main Street USA cost just $1 for adults and 50 cents for kids. See rare color photos from opening day.
