Posts by Kim Wong-Shing

You never get a second chance at a first impression, and when it comes to impressing strangers, some things aren’t within your control. For example: Your face. Every time you meet someone new, they judge your face on four basic characteristics, psychologist Leslie Zebrowitz says. She listed the four facial cues in a paper published...

Flu shots are important, but they can come with some annoying side effects. Namely, they often make your arm sore at the site of the injection, often for a day or two afterward. But although the soreness isn’t pleasant, it’s actually a good sign that the vaccine is doing its job. Soreness after a flu...

Turn off your phone. Better yet, throw it away! According to one 2017 study, you basically get stupider just by sharing the room with a smartphone, even if it’s not turned on. The idea that smartphones dull your intelligence is not a new one. Many people are cautious about the over-use of screens and what it’s...

Want to win the lottery? Yeah, join the club. While winning it big is mostly a matter of luck, there actually is some strategy to it. You can increase your chances of winning by using the numbers that are most common. While many faithful lottery players have their own “lucky numbers” that they use over and...

For many folks, the last hour of the workday is the most difficult part. You’re tired, your brain is unfocused, and you’re basically just counting down the minutes until you can finally clock out. But Reader’s Digest reports that — surprise! — that’s not how successful folks spend the last hour of their workday. As you might...

Horrible experiences aren’t as difficult to go through as they seem — as long as they have a pleasant ending. According to the “peak-end rule,” you judge experiences based on how they felt at the end, rather than how they felt overall. Psychologist Daniel Kahneman performed the first study on this phenomenon in 1993. He and his...

An Etsy shop is now selling customized pet cookie cutters, designed to look exactly like your precious dog or cat. Anyone who loves their pet enough to be tempted to eat their face will totally get the appeal. Bakers Street Cutters personally customizes a 4-inch cookie cutter based on a pet photo of your choice. Their...

Ready for winter? After you read this year’s weather forecast, you might not feel so prepared. The Old Farmer’s Almanac — a traditional source of weather predictions that was founded in 1792 — says that this winter is going to be a real mess. The Almanac was first created to help farmers anticipate how the...

If you’ve ever spent a day with a toddler, then you know that time works a bit differently in the toddler universe. They are capable of somehow wreaking hours worth of havoc in just a few short minutes. One dad knows this all too well. Arron Whysall of Nottingham, England left his 3-year-old daughter Olivia...

One couple’s California wildfire wedding photo has taken the internet by storm, as it’s the perfect example of the “new normal” of many Californians. California is once again being ravaged by multiple fires across the state, including the Getty fire, the Hill fire, the Maria fire, and the Easy fire. One of the largest fires...

Move over, Disneyland! There’s a new theme park in town. Nickelodeon Universe Theme Park officially opened to the public on October 25, and it’s sure to become a new crowd favorite. Unlike that other major theme park, Nickelodeon Universe Theme Park is located entirely indoors. At 8.5 acres large, it’s the largest indoor theme park...

Here’s some bad news for folks who desperately need more self-control in their lives. Research shows that wishing for more self-control actually has the opposite effect. In a 2017 study, psychologists measured participants’ desire to increase their self-control. Then the volunteers rated their current level of self-control. Lastly, they had to complete either an easy or a...

Ah, Halloween. It’s the one time of year when you can walk around with your face covered in blood without anyone skipping a beat. But these bloody costumes can create some confusion when you’re at the scene of an actual car accident, as one college student found out. Sidney Wolfe is a student at Marshall...

Here’s a fact that would have blown your 7-year-old self’s mind: you can cut any straight-sided shape out of a piece of paper with a single cut. Just one snip of the scissors and you can create anything from a star to a snowflake to a butterfly. The technique of folding up a piece of...

If you’re reading this, chances are you know the alphabet. You’ve heard and seen it a million times since childhood, and it’s now ingrained into your brain so deeply that you don’t even have to think about it consciously as you read these sentences. So if someone told you that there’s a letter that you...