Only if you are a fun-guy!

It turns out that the vast majority of functioning close-door buttons on elevators became obsolete as a result of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, which required that elevator doors remain open for a minimum of three seconds, or long enough for anyone with a wheelchair, cane, etc. to safely get on board. The only exception to the rule is if a firefighter manually overrides the door function with a key. Karen W. Penafiel, the...

The Disney+ streaming service, which launched Nov. 12, will include over 500 films and 7,500 television episodes from Disney's main entertainment studios, including Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, National Geographic, 20th Century Fox, Touchstone Pictures, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Blue Sky Studios, and Hollywood Pictures. In addition to the entire Disney film catalogue, original scripted and non-scripted series are also in production to stream on the service, including content based...

Deval Patrick is an American politician, civil rights lawyer, and businessman who served as the governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015. On Nov. 14, 2019, he announced his intention to run for president in 2020. Patrick, a Democrat, grew up in Chicago and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1982. He worked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund from 1983 to 1986, and later served as the assistant attorney general for the Civil...

According to the Mayo Clinic, as long as there is no fever present, mild to moderate exercise is usually acceptable, and it can even help open the nasal passages and relieve congestion. As long as your symptoms are “above the neck” (runny nose, sore throat, etc.), you’re good to go. However, even if you don’t have a fever, exercise should be avoided if you are experiencing “below the neck” symptoms, such as nausea or chest...

Mine made me think about my own kindness—or lack of it. I'm somewhat experienced living/working in cities, which means I'm just below expert level at walking past beggars—I do it, but I still feel bad about it, even if it's obviously a scam. My college town was a training ground, widely suburban with a dense commercial core that planted my will to walk past; I studied in Rome and Florence for a month one summer, an...

Cats are built to be predators, and stalking prey takes a lot of energy. They’re programmed to recharge from all that taxing hunting with generous nap schedules—they can sleep up to 20 hours per day, depending on factors like age, disposition, and even the weather. That can seem like a lot to us, especially because much of that sleep happens during the day. Although house cats are not strictly nocturnal, they are crepuscular, meaning they’re...

In many American grocery stores, the vegetables labeled “yams” and “sweet potatoes” are just different varieties of sweet potatoes—when a softer, orange-fleshed variety of sweet potatoes hit the U.S. markets in the mid-20th century, they were labeled as yams to differentiate them from varieties Americans were already familiar with, and the name stuck. True yams are somewhat rare in the United States. They’re starchier than sweet potatoes, they have a slightly different shape (sweet potatoes taper...

Disney+ is a subscription streaming service housing content from Disney, including Marvel, National Geographic, and Pixar titles. In addition to a large back catalogue of films and shows, it features original films (including the Christmas comedy Noelle, starring Anna Kendrick) and series (including High School Musical: The Musical: The Series). It launched Nov. 12, 2019. To sign up for Disney+, click here....

It’s called the watch pocket, according to Levi Strauss & Co. It's been around as long as jeans have, and it was originally meant to protect the wearer's pocket watch. It's been given many informal names since, including the match pocket, the coin pocket, the condom pocket, and the ticket pocket....

I get a minor case of the Mondays every morning, whether it's Monday or not. To be up and doing something right after you were just down and snoozing for hours is the Great Drag of our time. To shake it off, you just have to open up—open up your eyes and let that light in, open up your lungs to let that oxygen in, and open up your mouth to let that water in....

Yes, if they really need them. Lots of surgeons will try to avoid having to use the restroom by limiting fluid intake, but nobody’s going to deny them a bathroom break if they need to go. They simply "break scrub," do their business, and scrub back in. To make them more manageable, some intense surgeries have different teams to handle different aspects. With this strategy, a day-long surgery can translate into only a few hours...

A recent report from the group Healthy Babies Bright Futures found that 95 percent of baby foods tested contained one of the following toxic chemicals: lead, arsenic, mercury, or cadmium. Out of the 168 foods tested, the chemical breakdowns are as follows: 94 percent contained lead, 73 percent contained arsenic, 75 percent contained cadmium, and 32 percent contained mercury. 1 in 4 of the foods contained all four heavy metals. Although the toxins were found in...

Generally speaking, most people in the United States will tell you that good service deserves a 15-20% tip. As a former server myself, I tend to give more than 20% to support my fellow industry friends as a sign of solidarity. Also, I'm proud to say that when I was last waiting tables, I averaged above 25% tips, but that's because I was lucky enough to have wonderful regular customers. Truly great service can be rare,...

In climates that experience winter, the influenza virus tends to survive longer and transmit itself better in cold and dry conditions, which leads to more people contracting the flu during those colder months. In climates that do not have a winter season, however, the flu is more common in periods of high humidity and lots of rain. Scientists aren’t sure why that is, but it doesn’t seem to have to do with the immune system...

It doesn’t contain chocolate’s hallmark ingredient. Some purists (and the Encyclopedia Britannica) don’t even consider it chocolate. To explain, let’s start on common ground: cocoa beans. When you dry, ferment, roast, and shell a cocoa bean, you wind up with a chocolate nib; grind that nib into a paste, and you get chocolate liquor; separate the liquor into its two components, and you get cocoa solids and cocoa butter. True chocolate contains cocoa solids; white chocolate,...

The unstoppable force of ambitious directors and CGI. James Dean, the Hollywood heartthrob who died in a car crash in 1955, will be digitally revived for the film Finding Jack, directed by Anton Ernst and Tati Golykh. The film will focus on "the existence and abandonment of more than 10,000 military dogs at the end of the Vietnam War," and it’s set to premiere on Veterans Day 2020, according to The Hollywood Reporter. CGI teams will...

Typically the day after Thanksgiving is when the Christmas decorations go up! The elf on the shelf makes his appearance on St. Nicks Day and the friends and family celebrations take place all throughout December....

Although technically Rock, Paper, Scissors is considered a game of chance, there are a few patterns to keep in mind that could give you a leg up on your competition. Men are statistically more likely to throw rock first, whereas women are more likely to start with scissors. Further, if someone wins on a particular throw, they are more likely to start with the same choice in the next round. Similarly, if they lose, they’re likely...

Nov. 5, 2019 is an election day in many states, and millions of Americans will be directly affected by the outcome of today’s votes. Many voters will be surprised to hear about November elections in an odd-numbered year. Five states—Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia—hold elections for state executives and state legislators on odd years for a variety of historical reasons. Kentucky, for instance, has held odd-year elections since 1850 in what was originally...

It depends on the circumstances under which the party is objecting. For instance, if the objection comes from a disgruntled family member who simply disapproves of the union for personal reasons, then nothing would come of the objection—the officiant only asks for reasons "this couple cannot lawfully be joined." However, if someone were to object on the grounds that either the bride or groom were already married, for instance, or that one of the parties...

Popeyes released their new chicken sandwich on August 12, 2019, and so many people bought it that the company actually sold out in two weeks. After a two-month hiatus, the sandwich returned to the menu on November 3, and customers are already reporting absurdly long drive-thru lines. The initial launch of the sandwich began what was dubbed online as “The Chicken Sandwich Wars,” with Popeyes main competitor being Chick-fil-A. Customers took to social media to cast...

We can’t say for sure, but there are several possible explanations. One potential explanation comes from research out of the University of Nottingham, which suggests that contagious yawns are prompted by automatic, primitive reflexes in the part of the brain responsible for motor function. Other researchers think it has something to do with empathy or social cues. "Researchers have seen that yawning may not be as contagious to people with autism or schizophrenia," Meredith Williamson, clinical...