Georgia voters are jazzed about voting, and they set another early voting record on Saturday. “Congratulations to the counties and especially our great Georgia voters,” Gabriel Sterling, the chief operating officer for the state's secretary of state, wrote on the social media platform X. “Y'all have broken another RECORD. Biggest turnout ever for a General Election Saturday.”

A record number of people voted early in North Carolina this week, even amid challenges from Hurricane Helene, which swept through the state last month. Helene was the deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The storm killed at least 246 people, a little over half of them reported in North Carolina. As of Saturday morning, 90% of the state’s early voting sites were up and running. In total, that’s 419 polling stations across North...

One of the most pivotal battleground states in the 2024 election has now seen more than 1.4 million residents cast their ballots early. Georgia has been shattering turnout records since early voting began on Tuesday. As of Monday morning, the Georgia state elections website showed 1,347,843 ballots were cast in person so far, while just over 80,000 absentee ballots have been returned and accepted.

The painting of an old devout man praying over a bowl of gruel and a loaf of bread in front of a Bible is one of the most popular pieces of 20th century American art. The piece is called “Grace” and you’ll find it in homes, churches and even restaurants. I clearly remember there was a copy of it hanging on the wall at my corner burger joint, Mack’s Burgers, in Torrance, California, in the ’80s. Sadly, it’s been torn down and is now a Jack in the Box. However ubiquitous the photo may be, a new video by pop culture YouTube user Austin McConnell shows that “Grace” isn’t really what it seems. “Grace” was originally a photograph taken in 1918, during World War I, by Eric Enstrom, a Swedish American from Bovey, Minnesota. Enstrom was preparing some photographs to take with him to a convention when Charles Wilden, a salesman selling boot scrapers, came to his door, and he know he had to take his photo. “There was something about the old gentleman’s face that immediately impressed me. I saw that he had a kind face… there weren’t any harsh lines in it,” Enstrom said. “I wanted to take a picture that would show people that even though they had to do without many things because of the war they still had much to be thankful for,” he added.“There was something about the old gentleman’s face that immediately impressed me. I saw that he had a kind face… there weren’t any harsh lines in it,” Enstrom said. “I wanted to take a picture that would show people that even though they had to do without many things because of the war they still had much to be thankful for,” he added.Enstrom posed Wilden in front of a loaf of bread, a bowl—which may have been empty—and a large book that many assume to be the Bible. But, as McConnell notes, the book is far too large to be the good book, as most people assume. The Grand Forks Herald claims that a receipt for payment from Enstrom to Wilden reveals that the book is a dictionary.The photograph went on to be a huge hit at the convention and Enstrom began selling copies about town. After many requested copies of the photo in color, Enstrom’s daughter, Rhoda Nyberg, began hand-painting them in oils and added a streak of light on the left side of the painting. This is the version that people have come to love. \u201c@BrentTerhune The artist who hand- colored \u201cGrace,\u201d a photo showing a white-bearded man bowed in prayer before a simple meal, was Rhoda Nyberg, the daughter of Eric Enstrom. Rhoda's father took the photo in his studio in Bovey, Minnesota in 1918.\n\nRhoda Nyberg died at the age of 95. in 2015.\u201d — Brent Terhune in Akron Jan 6 & 7 (@Brent Terhune in Akron Jan 6 & 7) 1640282253 "The intent of the photo is fairly obvious,” McConnell says in the video. “Enstrom wanted an image that conveyed to people that even though they had to do without many provisions because of the ongoing war, there was still much to be thankful for. A picture that seemed to say 'this man doesn't have much of earthly goods, but he has more than most people because he has a thankful heart.'"Enstrom convinced Wilden to sign over his rights for $5, which gave him the sole copyright. He then licensed the image to the Lutheran-affiliated Augsburg publishing house, which distributed the image across the country.According to McConnell “thousands and thousands” of copies of the photo were sold. The image entered the public domain in 1995.Although not much is known about Wilden, it is believed that he lived a hard life. "He was living in a very primitive sod hut near Grand Rapids, eking out a very precarious living," retired history professor Don Boese told the Grand Forks Herald. It’s also likely that he wasn’t the devout man we imagine in the photo. "The stories about him centered more around drinking and not accomplishing very much,” Boese said.So the painting was actually a photo. The Bible, a dictionary, and the subject was more likely to be the town drunk than a saint. But, in the end, does it matter? McConnell believes that its meaning rests in the eye of the beholder."If you found out today that everything you thought you knew about this iconic image was actually wrong, would you take it off your wall?” McConnell asks at the end of the video. “Or would you accept that the value in a piece of art isn't merely derived from the knowledge of how it was made? Or who made it?”This article originally appeared on 1.6.23

Two-year-olds are the best. Hands down. People like to complain about the "terrible twos," and yes, there are challenges that arise as a child starts to recognize that they have free will. But there is nothing cuter than a conversation with a tiny human who's only been on this planet for a couple of years. The way toddlers think, the way they speak—it's just nonstop hilarity.And when we you get a particularly funny 2-year-old? Seriously, the best improv on Earth.That's why one mom's TikToks of her daughter Willow serving patrons at her little outdoor diner are bringing entertainment to millions. Willow's "patrons" are primarily her mom Sarah and her three siblings. Her outdoor "diner" is her toy kitchen on the porch with fake food. And the service is … well, you just have to see it.Willow calls her patrons "ma'am," no matter what their gender, which is adorable. And her facial expressions. Oh my gosh. She's like a semi-grumpy, middle-aged diner lady who's seen it all and has no patience for your foolishness. Just watch what happens when this "ma'am" tries to order the cookie she's eating: @saruh2themax I got put on a strict diet due to my audacity. #willowpenelope #willowsdiner #cute #funnytoddler "That's mines. I have broccoli. There you go, ma'am," all while continuing to eat the cookie. Totally savage.Check out how she serves—or doesn't—her brother, Jack: @saruh2themax Today at Willow’s Diner: The bonds of family are tested. #willowpenelope #willowsdiner #jackattack "I don't know what her rules are!" was the best line. Nobody knows what a 2-year-old's rules are. Not even the 2-year-old herself. And Willow's "Can you be the ma'am?" after Jack gave up trying to get his food? Classic.(Arbitrarily being denied service at Willow's Diner is not unusual, by the way. There's even clever merch that says "I didn't get served at Willow's Diner.")Does Willow serve rocks at her diner? Sure, why not? As long as she keeps making those faces, she can serve anything she pleases. @saruh2themax That time she successfully upsold me on a rock… #willowsdiner #willowpenelope Just don't mess with her tea-making process. Like, at all. @saruh2themax Willow’s diner. Now serving chocolate milk tea! #willowpenelope And definitely don't try to serve her some tea. @saruh2themax Replying to @suppgorjess She tolerates me being the waitress for approximately 2 seconds and no more. It's the unbroken eye contact, right? You can't train this kind of comedy into a kid.The thing about 2-year-olds is they're only that age for a short spell. The tyrannical threes and the fascist fours, with all of their complex adorableness, are coming fast, so it's wise of this mom to frequent Willow's Diner—and document the experience—while 2-year-old Willow is still in business.This article originally appeared on 1.10.23

The prevailing logic in today’s political world is that polarization is worsening because people live in media echo chambers where they are only exposed to outlets that mirror their views.People who live in echo chambers come to distrust any opinions that exist outside of their bubbles and when they're not exposed to any conflicting information. This creates a scenario where the person becomes increasingly entrenched in their worldview.One would assume that after a person becomes fully entrenched in an echo chamber they have little chance of changing their views. However, a new working paper by researchers at Stanford and Yale universities has found that when people are removed from their bubbles there’s a chance they’ll change their minds.David Broockman of Stanford and Joshua Kalla of Yale conducted a study in 2022 where they paid regular Fox News viewers $15 an hour to watch CNN for around seven hours a week for a month. The researchers then surveyed them about their political beliefs and knowledge of current events.The study is titled “The manifold effects of partisan media on viewers’ beliefs and attitudes: A field experiment with Fox News viewers.” The research was done in fall 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and lead-up to the presidential election.When the participants were polled, researchers found that they were 5 percentage points more likely to believe that people suffer from long COVID, 6 points more likely to believe that other countries did a better job of controlling the virus and 7 points more likely to support voting by mail.“CNN provided extensive coverage of COVID-19, which included information about the severity of the COVID-19 crisis and poor aspects of Trump’s performance handling COVID-19. Fox News covered COVID-19 much less,” said the study.​After the Fox viewers switched to CNN, it changed their opinions on the social justice protests happening at the time as well. The switchers were 10 points less likely to think that Biden supporters were happy when police got shot and 13 points less likely to believe that if Biden gets elected “we’ll see many more police get shot by Black Lives Matter activists.”Many of the participants also realized that when it came to Trump, they weren’t getting the whole story. After switching to a steady diet of CNN they were less likely to agree that “if Donald Trump did something bad, Fox News would discuss it.”“Despite regular Fox viewers being largely strong partisans, we found manifold effects of changing the slant of their media diets on their factual beliefs, attitudes, perceptions of issues’ importance, and overall political views,” the authors of the study said.The study shows that Fox News isn’t just a media outlet that affirms its viewers' worldviews, it also feeds them a distorted version of reality that pushes them toward more extreme opinions. The good news is that some of these people can be changed when exposed to better information. It should also be noted that Fox News viewers aren’t the only ones living in information bubbles and that there are plenty of ideological traps that ensnare people on the left as well. The study should give everyone hope that all is not lost and that America’s political divide may not be impossible to bridge.

Statistically speaking, the number of humans who have traveled into space is insignificant. But the experience of leaving our home planet and venturing into the great beyond is incredibly significant for the individuals who have actually done it.One of those fortunate humans is actor William Shatner, who spent three years pretending to hurtle through space in his iconic role as Captain James T. Kirk on the original "Star Trek" series. As captain of the USS Enterprise, Captain Kirk was dedicated to exploring "strange new worlds," seeking out "new life and new civilizations" and boldly going "where no man has gone before." Naturally, Shatner has spent a lot of time pondering what it would be like to actually experience leaving Earth, and when he took the opportunity to join Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin trip to space in October 2021 at age 90, he was able to compare how his expectations met up with reality.Shatner shared an excerpt from his new book with Variety, and it reveals that his initial reaction to being in space was surprisingly dark. "I love the mystery of the universe," Shatner wrote. "I love all the questions that have come to us over thousands of years of exploration and hypotheses. Stars exploding years ago, their light traveling to us years later; black holes absorbing energy; satellites showing us entire galaxies in areas thought to be devoid of matter entirely… all of that has thrilled me for years…"However, as he looked out the window of the spacecraft—a real one, not a screen on a film set—and looked in the direction opposite Earth, "there was no mystery, no majestic awe to behold," he wrote. "All I saw was death. I saw a cold, dark, black emptiness. It was unlike any blackness you can see or feel on Earth. It was deep, enveloping, all-encompassing."As he turned back toward "the light of home," he saw the opposite. "I could see the curvature of Earth, the beige of the desert, the white of the clouds and the blue of the sky. It was life. Nurturing, sustaining, life. Mother Earth. Gaia. And I was leaving her."Then he had a stunning revelation: "Everything I had thought was wrong. Everything I had expected to see was wrong."Again, this is a man who has spent much of his life thinking about space—not as an astronaut or astronomer or astrophysicist, but as a human being stuck on the Earth's surface, struck with wonder about what's out there. He explained what he had been wrong about:"I had thought that going into space would be the ultimate catharsis of that connection I had been looking for between all living things—that being up there would be the next beautiful step to understanding the harmony of the universe. In the film 'Contact,' when Jodie Foster’s character goes to space and looks out into the heavens, she lets out an astonished whisper, 'They should’ve sent a poet.' I had a different experience, because I discovered that the beauty isn’t out there, it’s down here, with all of us. Leaving that behind made my connection to our tiny planet even more profound."It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness. Every day, we are confronted with the knowledge of further destruction of Earth at our hands: the extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna . . . things that took five billion years to evolve, and suddenly we will never see them again because of the interference of mankind. It filled me with dread. My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral."Shatner explained how this "sense of the planet’s fragility takes hold in an ineffable, instinctive manner" for many astronauts when they view Earth from orbit. It's part of the "overview effect"—the profound shift in perspective that comes with seeing our collective home from a distance. With no visible borders between nations or peoples, it becomes clear that our divisions are all manmade, which can change the way we view humanity as a whole. The experience left Shatner with renewed conviction to focus on what we share in common."It reinforced tenfold my own view on the power of our beautiful, mysterious collective human entanglement," he wrote, "and eventually, it returned a feeling of hope to my heart. In this insignificance we share, we have one gift that other species perhaps do not: we are aware—not only of our insignificance, but the grandeur around us that makes us insignificant. That allows us perhaps a chance to rededicate ourselves to our planet, to each other, to life and love all around us. If we seize that chance."Just beautiful. Since most of us will never leave Earth, we can take inspiration from those who have, acknowledge our essential oneness and do everything in our power to protect our beautiful, life-giving home.Shatner shares more of his reflections on life on this planet and beyond in his most recent book, "Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder."This article originally appeared on 10.10.22

At 47, Joe Kavaluskis lost his nine-year battle with multiple myeloma, a rare blood cancer, on January 8, 2020, leaving behind a wife and two sons. But that didn't stop him from fulfilling one of his son's dreams a week later on his 13th birthday.In the final days of his life, he told his wife, Melanie, to buy their son, Logan, a puppy after he passed. He thought the dog would brighten his spirits after such a loss and it was something he always wanted but couldn't have. Joe was allergic to dogs so he couldn't have one in the home. "He said, 'Just promise that when I do pass, that you get Logan a puppy as soon as you can, because I know that it will bring him a lot of comfort,'" Melanie Kavaluskis told Inside Edition.Throughout his childhood, Logan had hermit crabs and lizards, but never the puppy he always wanted. When he was 3 years old he got a stuffed Boston terrier and named it Puppers and took it everywhere he went for years.Joe thought it was the right time for him to have a real Boston terrier of his own. 13-year-old cries as he's surprised with dog from late dad. www.youtube.com A week after Joe's passing, Melanie told her son Logan they had to drive to Midland, Michigan to pick up a puppy, but he had no idea it was a gift for him. Halfway through the drive home, his cousin Jon broke the news."That's from your dad. That's your dog," Jon told an astonished Logan. "Really? Logan replied. The 13-year-old boy looked down at the dog and he still couldn't believe it was his. "'Dad wanted you to have a puppy," his cousin said."Words can't explain the shock," Logan later told WZZM13. "I had to ask 'really?' again, just to make sure it was my dog and not a horrid prank."The family has named the dog Indy and Logan says he's a great fit for the family."He fits to all of our needs. Cuddles with my mom and my brother and plays with me, unless I want him to relax," Logan said.Melanie thinks that her husband's final gesture may have been his best."He got it right. This was amazing. This gift is just perfect. Perfect timing," she said. Kid gets surprise gift after dad's death. www.youtube.com Joe's gesture may have done more than just cheer up his son. Research shows that pets can be a big help for kids who are grieving."Pets can help improve mood," said Gina McDowell, a licensed professional clinical counselor and behavioral health clinical educator at the Big Lots Behavioral Health Pavilion at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, in a Huffington Post article."Playing with pets often creates positive emotions that can last throughout the day and may even help manage symptoms of anxiety and depression," she continued. It has to be terribly frustrating to be suffering from a terminal disease knowing you'll be unable to comfort your children when you're gone. But Joe did one of the most beautiful things imaginable by fulfilling one of his son's dreams while also giving him a way to cope in a time of need.This article originally appeared on 10.28.21

One of the ways to tell if you're in a healthy relationship is whether you and your partner are free to talk about other people you find attractive. For many couples, bringing up such a sensitive topic can cause some major jealousy.Of course, there's a healthy way to approach such a potentially dangerous topic.Telling your partner you find someone else attractive shouldn't be about making them feel jealous. It's probably also best that if you're attracted to a coworker, friend, or their sibling, that you keep it to yourself.But, being open about your sexual feelings, can be a way to spice things up in the bedroom and to let your partner know what you like.Actress and mental health advocate Kristen Bell admits that she and her husband, actor Dax Shepard, have learned how to be open about their attraction to other people. The couple believes that being able to talk about such taboo topics without making each other jealous is a great way to preserve their relationship."He can tell me someone he finds attractive, female or male, 'cause he pauses the Olympics on a lot of runners, but it doesn't make me feel like he's going to leave me for that person because I'm not allowing my self-esteem to be affected," she explained. Bell believes that it's completely normal and healthy for people in monogamous relationships to be attracted to other people."I know there are people on planet Earth that are more attractive than me, and well, we're not dead. I have to acknowledge we're monkeys," Bell said. As an attractive, famous couple working in Hollywood, there is extra pressure for them to be able to handle their jealousy.The couple has also done a good job at accepting the fact that Bell is the primary bread-winner in the family. Studies show men have higher levels of stress if their wives earn more than 40% of their home's combined income.About a third of women in the U.S. make more than their husbands. While Shepard has had a successful career, acting in films such as "Idiocracy" and "Without a Paddle," Bell has starred in some major hits including, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and the "Bad Moms" films.She's also made a pretty penny voicing Princess Anna in Disney's "Frozen" franchise."I think I've always out-earned him," Bell said about their careers. "I got a lot of opportunity, you're sharing in it, we're able to provide for a ton of our family members who may or may not be struggling," she continued, as if addressing Shepard. "I don't look at it like, 'This is mine and this is yours.' I'm like, 'This is ours. Get over it.'"Bell believes that the couple's ability to get over petty jealousy is one way to make sure their unique relationship stands the test of time."Do you want to be on the porch with someone when you're 80?" Bell asked. "We both want that."This article originally appeared on 5.6.21