Over the past few years, women named Karen have taken a lot of heat in the media. The term "Karen" has been used to describe a specific type of entitled, privileged and often middle-aged white woman. Typically, "Karen” is depicted as demanding, self-important and constantly seeking to escalate minor inconveniences to authority figures, like demanding to "speak to the manager."Identifying the folks who create unnecessary drama in our world is important. But calling them a “Karen” isn’t the best way to solve the problem. There are many reasons to have an issue with the “Karen” stereotype. First, it’s terrible for people named Karen, and it’s also a connotation that many feel is racist, sexist and ageist. Further, according to a new study by Trustpilot, the stereotype isn’t accurate. A recent survey by the online media site found that the people who leave the most one-star reviews aren’t female, and the women who do it the most aren’t named Karen.Trustpilot is a site where people can review a business from which they’ve purchased a product or contacted customer service. According to TrustPilot, the number one biggest one-star reviewers are named John, not Karen.“The name John is top for [one-star] reviews in the US, with the rest of the top five positions filled by David, Michael, Chris and James,” the site wrote in a press release. “Looking at specific categories, John is also first for negative reviews in Business Services, Electronics and Technology, Shopping and Fashion, and Money and Insurance. Meanwhile, Lisa left the most [one-star] reviews in our Beauty and Wellbeing category.”So, if your name is Karen, keep this story in your back pocket next time someone stereotypes you as an entitled complainer. The real complainers are the Johns and, for the women, Lisas.Why do people go online and write negative reviews? Psychologist William Berry writes in Psychology Today that people get many positive benefits from complaining, although they may annoy everyone around them.The first big reason is an ego boost. When people complain, they feel validated. It also makes them feel superior to others. Complaining can also bring like-minded people together. If you and a significant other have ever been mistreated in a restaurant or car dealership, having a mutual enemy can work wonders for your relationship.There are also entire groups of people who bond over a common gripe.People who habitually complain may do so because of the brain’s negativity bias. “The human brain, geared for survival, focuses on negatives (as they appear more threatening to survival) than on positives (which enhance life but are less vital for survival),” Berry writes. “As the brain perceives negatives at an approximated ratio of five to one, there is simply more to complain about than there is to be grateful for. Additionally, this may lead to less general happiness.”Here are the top 15 names of consumers who leave the most one-star reviews on Trustpilot. (Also known as the folks that owe the Karens out there an apology.)1. John2. David3. Michael4. Chris5. James6. Mike7. Mark8. Robert9. Alex10. Paul11. Lisa12. Sarah13. Steve14. Sam15. DanielThis article originally appeared on 9.7.23

It's hard to truly describe the amazing bond between dads and their daughters. Being a dad is an amazing job no matter the gender of the tiny humans we're raising. But there's something unique about the bond between fathers and daughters.Most dads know what it's like to struggle with braiding hair, but we also know that bonding time provides immense value to our daughters. In fact, studies have shown that women with actively involved fathers are more confident and more successful in school and business.You know how a picture is worth a thousand words? I'll just let these images sum up the daddy-daughter bond.A 37-year-old Ukrainian artist affectionately known as Soosh, recently created some ridiculously heartwarming illustrations of the bond between a dad and his daughter, and put them on her Instagram feed. Sadly, her father wasn't involved in her life when she was a kid. But she wants to be sure her 9-year-old son doesn't follow in those footsteps."Part of the education for my kiddo who I want to grow up to be a good man is to understand what it's like to be one," Soosh told Upworthy. There are so many different ways that fathers demonstrate their love for their little girls, and Soosh pretty much nails all of them. Get ready to run the full gamut of the feels.1. Dads can do it all. Including hair.2. They also make pretty great game opponents.3. And the Hula-Hoop skills? Legendary.4. Dads know there's always time for a tea party regardless of the mountain of work in front of them.5. And their puppeteer skills totally belong on Broadway.6. Dads help us see the world from different views.7. So much so that we never want them to leave.8. They can make us feel protected, valued, and loved.9. Especially when there are monsters hiding in places they shouldn't.Seeing the daddy-daughter bond as art perfectly shows how beautiful fatherhood can be.This article originally appeared on 04.09.16

If you think crossing time zones and navigating Daylight Savings Time can be confusing, imagine losing or gaining multiple days just by crossing a border. That was life for Europeans in the late 16th century after 10 days were eliminated from the Gregorian calendar. In 1582, if you lived in a Catholic country, the calendar went from October 4 to October 15—the dates in between just didn't exist. As a result, you could find yourself going back or forward in time simply by entering or exiting a non-Catholic country. What happened to the missing 10 days in October of 1582?The mystery of the missing days isn't so much a mystery as a miscalculation. For nearly 1,600 years, the Julian calendar had been used by people across Europe, and on the surface it wasn't a whole lot different than the Gregorian calendar we use today—365 days in a year with a leap year every 4 years and the spring equinox being placed on March 21. But there was one problem: It was off on how long a solar year is by 11 minutes and 14 seconds. — (@) That may not seem like much, but after over 1,000 years, it added up. Placing a leap year every four years without exception meant that the equinox was slowly pushed back on the calendar. By the mid-1500s, the equinox fell on March 11 instead of March 21. As a result, the calculations for Easter were thrown off.How the Gregorian calendar recalibrated the spring equinoxAfter years of consultations among church leaders about how to fix the problem, Pope Gregory XIII signed an edict implementing a new calendar system—the Gregorian calendar we use today—in February of 1582. As part of the implementation, 10 days were removed from October during weeks that wouldn't affect any of the Christian holidays to get the equinox back to March 21.But losing those days wasn't seamless. For one, since the change came from the pope, non-Catholic countries weren't too keen on taking up the new calendar. Austria, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Poland, and the Catholic states of Germany switched to the Gregorian calendar, but Protestant and Orthodox countries of Europe resisted. They all came around eventually, but it took more than 100 years for the British Empire to jump on board, and some countries, including Russia, Turkey, Greece, Albania, Lithuania, and Estonia, didn't make the switch until the 20th century.In the meantime, the removal of October 5 to 14 meant that dates were different in different countries—and in some cases even within the same country. Germany was split by Catholic and Protestant regions, so the two different calendars made travel between those regions really weird date-wise. (Imagine trying to navigate that kind of chaos in today's global neighborhood. Good thing they didn't have airplanes then.)Leap year calculations in the Gregorian calendar are a little more complicatedNow, one might ask, "If the Julian calendar had a leap year every four years, didn't that account for the length of time in a solar year? How is that different than the leap years we have in the Gregorian calendar?"The answer is that the way leap years work in the Gregorian calendar is a bit more complex than many of us realize. Most of us were taught that we have a leap year every four years, which is generally true, but with some regularly scheduled exceptions. We don't hear about these exceptions because they happen so infrequently and won't happen within our lifetime, but they make all the difference mathematically. via GIPHYIn the Gregorian calendar, we add a day to the calendar (February 29th) every four years except on years that can be divided by 100, which are not leap years, unless the year can also be divided by 400, in which case it is a leap year. That might sound confusing, but essentially, 1700, 1800, 1900 were not leap years, but 2000 was. The years 2100, 2200 and 2300 will not be leap years, but 2400 will be. Removing those leap years every 100 years but not every 400 years accounts for the miscalculation in the Julian calendar, just as removing the 10 days from October of 1582 fixed the drift that had occured over millennia because of it. There are still different calendars used in different places for different purposes, but the Gregorian calendar has gradually become the international standard for dates and times. Time may be a construct, but humans have managed to construct quite a detailed system of measuring it, even with some quirky bumps along the way.

by Jeff Thomas, International Man: Like waves on the ocean, countries tend to go through economic cycles. First, we have the micro cycles, which tend to rise and fall every few years, but may last a decade or more. Then we have the macro cycles, which tend to take hundreds of years. In a macro […]

by Michael Snyder, End Of The American Dream: I have no idea why this isn’t getting more attention.  Israeli tanks are literally rolling into southern  Lebanon right now.  When you send tanks in, you aren’t just conducting “localized raids”.  A lot of people don’t seem to understand that this is it.  The IDF has initiated a ground […]

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