The holiday season can be a time of joy for many, but also one of particular hardship for those experiencing homelessness. So for December’s Cause of the Month, we’re giving readers the opportunity to donate to Covenant House. With locations in 34 cities across Canada, Latin America, and the U.S., Covenant House opens its doors to unhoused youth and survivors of human trafficking, offering a warm bed, food, health and wellness services, and a case manager — “and, most important of all, unconditional love and absolute respect.” Learn more and show your support for the organization. — Rebekah, Ally, and Natalie
Featured Story
Everyone Is Talking About Gut Health Right Now — Why It’s Not Just a Trend
Vadym Gannenko/ iStock
From tummy gummies and digestive drops to de-bloating tips and tricks, your intestines have become the latest wellness frontier in recent years. Due to increased awareness via social media, a ballooning market of pre- and probiotics, and, unfortunately, more cases of gastrointestinal diseases, digestive health is having a moment — and for good reason. Nice News writer Alex Schwartz dug into the topic, laying out the inner workings of the digestive system and interviewing an expert to help readers better understand why gut health is so important and how to stay on top of their own.
This Smart Home Company Hit $10M in Revenue — And That’s Just the Beginning
No, it’s not Ring or Nest — it’s RYSE, the company redefining smart home innovation, and you can invest for just $1.75 per share. RYSE’s patented SmartShades are transforming how people control their window shades, offering seamless automation without costly replacements. With 10 fully granted patents and a pivotal Amazon court judgment safeguarding its technology, RYSE has established itself as a market leader in an industry projected to grow 23% annually. This year, RYSE surpassed $10 million in total revenue, expanded to 127 Best Buy locations, and experienced explosive200% month-over-month growth. With partnerships in progress with major retailers like Lowe’s and Home Depot, the startup is set for even bigger milestones, including international expansion and new product launches. Now is your last chance to invest at the current share price before the next stage of growth drives even greater demand.
A Painting in Motion: England’s First Luxury Sleeper Train Boasts a Nature-Themed Interior
Courtesy of Belmond
A new luxury sleeper train by Belmond is headed to England next summer, the first for the country where rail travel originated. Called the Britannic Explorer, it will depart from London on a trio of picturesque routes — though passengers may find that their interior surroundings rival the beauty outside their windows. Three of the train’s 18 cabins are grand suites that carry a price tag of around $17,700 a person. They’re designed to reflect the beauty of “an English country garden,” per the website, and include private butler service, in-room dining, and marble furnishings. Lower-cost accommodations, at about $7,300, have been decorated to embody Britain’s azure coastline and rolling green hills. The botanically themed restaurant cars are inspired by potting sheds and wildflower meadows, and will feature farm-to-table fine dining, with menus curated by renowned chef Simon Rogan. Altogether, the train has the effect of a “moving painting,” Ottavia Palomba, global head of brand communications at Belmond, told CNN. Also on board is a wellness suite, where passengers can enjoy spa treatments during their three-night journeys, and an expert-led yoga class that early risers can attend. Off-train excursions include private wine tastings, wild swimming, and art exhibitions. Check out more enchanting photos of the Britannic Explorer.
Humanity
A Practice of Love You Can Extend This Holiday Season — And Always
Gilberto Tadday / TED
Last June, Nice News had the pleasure of chatting with Scott Shigeoka, author of Seek: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change the World. In that interview, Shigeoka shared his perspective that a curious mindset is a superpower, and laid out his DIVE Model for cultivating the characteristic. Now, Shigeoka has brought those concepts to the TED stage in a new talk that went live Tuesday. He emphasizes that curiosity is a practice of love we can extend to ourselves and others — and one that can see us through times of change and uncertainty. “After years of research and exploration, the best idea I have seen about how we can love better is to practice curiosity,” Shigeoka explains. “Because when we do this we say: I want to understand you more. Tell me about yourself. I’m curious about you not because I want to change you, but because I want to see you in your full humanity. To care for you. To love you.” He continues: “Curiosity is not just this intellectual tool, it’s also this heart-centered force that we can bring into our lives. And I think it’s a practice that we really need right now in our country, and in the world.” Watch Shigeoka’s TED Talk.
Health
New USDA Study Aims for Precision Nutrition: “There’s No One-Size-Fits-All”
Graphicscoco/ iStock
You’re likely familiar with some of the USDA’s nutrition guidelines — perhaps the food pyramid, created in the 1990s, or the current “MyPlate.” But those guidelines and the ones before them have one problem in common: They’re created based on averages. “We know from virtually every nutrition study ever conducted, we have inner individual variability,” Holly Nicastro, a senior nutrition scientist at the National Institutes of Health, told CBS News. “That means we have some people that are going to respond, and some people that aren’t. There’s no one-size-fits-all.” Nicastro is a program coordinator for a new USDA project, the Nutrition for Precision Health Study. The study, enrolling up to 10,000 participants, aims to offer dietary guidance to people based on their individual characteristics and evaluate whether personalized nutrition can help prevent chronic illnesses. “We’re moving away from just saying ‘everybody go do this,’ to being able to say, ‘OK, if you have X, Y, and Z characteristics, then you’re more likely to respond to a diet, and somebody else that has A, B, and C characteristics will be responding to the diet differently,’” said Sai Das, a professor overseeing the study at Tufts University. Learn more about precision nutrition.
As proven by Charles Dickens’ 1843 classic A Christmas Carol — and about a million movies — the winter holiday is ripe for storytellers to spin poignant tales. And Norwegian writer Ingvild Rishoi’s bittersweet new novella fits perfectly within that genre. The book follows two adolescent sisters who help their alcoholic father find a job selling Christmas trees, and then decide to fill in for him when he falls off the wagon and stops showing up for work.
Within the four walls of your abode is a multitude of surprising histories, and we’re not referring to the ins and outs of your family tree. In this fascinating podcast, host Ruth Goodman recounts the origins and evolutions of everything from windows to carpets, clocks, dinner parties, and toothpaste, tracing everyday domestic objects back to ancient Greece, Victorian England, and elsewhere in time and space. You’ll never look at your wallpaper the same way again.
This Week in History
The First SMS Text Message Is Sent
December 3, 1992
Cesare Ferrari/ iStock
In 1992,when rotary phones could still be found in some households, 22-year-old engineer Neil Papworth made history by pressing send on a now-ubiquitous form of communication. He used his personal computer and the Vodafone network to transmit the world’s first SMS text message — just two simple words — to a colleague’s mobile phone. Papworth worked for a now-defunct IT services company that was developing a messaging service, and the big moment was merely part of a day’s work. “It didn’t feel momentous at all,” he later said, adding: “I had no idea that first text was going to snowball eventually into this thing we call texting today.” The following year, Nokia released the first cellphone with SMS capability.
Capitalize on the Next Smart Home Innovation: RYSE
Best Buy has placed its bet.Like the retailer did with Ring and Nest before it, Best Buy handpicked RYSE as the next innovator in smart home tech with a massive inventory rollout. With that launch and the seal of approval from Canada’s version of Shark Tank, Dragons’ Den, RYSE is poised to dominate the smart shades space — and you have the rare opportunity to invest in the tech startup at $1.75 per share.
