Artist Albert Choi dreams up what a legendary birds event could look like in ‘Pokémon Go’
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The Bronx doesn’t have a single (non-collegiate) bookstore. Noelle Santos is hoping to change that. Check out her Indiegogo
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This is a great solution that doesn’t shame people for being on their phones. | follow @the-future-now
10 ways the grocery store is tricking you into spending more money
1. Purposefully disorienting customers
Stores are intentionally laid out in a disorienting way so that it takes more time to find what you’re looking for. And the more items you walk by, the more likely you are to make impulse buys.
2. “Charm pricing” and false promises
Grocery stores deliberately price items to make you think you’re saving money when you’re not really: There’s “charm pricing,” where an item is one or two cents below a round number (like $9.99).
3. Giant shopping carts
Those gargantuan shopping carts are intentionally designed like that to trick your brain: When you double the size of a shopping cart, consumers will buy 40% more, marketing consultant Martin Lindstrom told Today.
4. “Open the wallet” pricing
This technique involves placing seemingly cheap items (a big “SALE” sign must a mean big discount — right?) in proximity to the entrance, so you are tricked into believing you’re starting your shopping expedition by saving money.
5. Playing music — with a slow beat
In one study on the influence of music on consumers, published in in the journal Procedia Economics and Finance, respondents said pleasurable music in the background increased the likelihood they’d spend more time and money in the store — and thwarted their negative emotions.
6. Placing dairy far from the entrance
Dairy is one of the most popular grocery categories — and you may have noticed it tends to be miles from the entrance. That’s not a coincidence. This forces the consumer to walk by more grocery items and, you guessed it, exposes them to more opportunities to buy things they don’t need… like an ergonomic, bacteria-free sponge.
7. Putting popular items in the center of aisles
The most popular items and brands are often placed in the middle of aisles, which forces you to walk by way more products than you otherwise would. All those extra goodies you’re exposed to on your shopping mission increase the likelihood of an unplanned purchase. You came for the toilet paper, but left with a plate of pitted dates. Good for your fiber intake — bad for your budget.
8. Presenting a feast for the senses
The smell of freshly baked bread and rotisserie chicken is a more well-known tactic supermarkets use. When were hungry, we’re more likely to buy more. This effect is compounded by colorful produce up front, which can be pleasing and exciting to the eye. The combo of nice smells and pretty colors puts us in a good — or at least better — mood, making us more willing to make unplanned purchases.
9. Overwhelming shoppers with options
Literally tens of thousands of items are on offer in your average supermarket. And that demands a lot of decision-making. Brains scans examined by Bangor University, Wales, reveal that we can only keep this up for about 40 minutes, at which point we kind of get tired and give up. Once we’ve given up, we start to make emotional purchases — aka impulse buys — and this can lead to as much as 50% of purchases being unplanned.
10. Narrowing the checkout lanes
Grocery stores have also made their checkout lanes purposefully narrow. This is so that when you’re unloading, if you suddenly realize you’ve impulsively and regretfully thrown in a $15 small bottle of freshly squeezed orange juice, it’s too hard to get out of the checkout lane to go and put it back. Read more
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Trump’s Muslim ban has trapped this Yemeni mother in a home destroyed by airstrikes
- Bushra al-Fusail wanted to be heard. She made that happen on Jan. 31 during a televised CNN town hall debate. With millions of viewers watching, the Yemeni asylum-seeker told former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi that her mother was trapped outside of the United States because of President Donald Trump’s executive order on refugees, which bars immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S.
- “My mom isn’t able to come to the U.S., due to [the order] Donald Trump signed recently,” al-Fusail said with a mic in hand. “What could you help us and our people to ensure more families are not turned apart?”
- Pelosi did not mince words.“Your family is suffering because our president is reckless and his administration is incompetent,” Pelosi said, offering to help with al-Fusail’s case. Read More (2/25/2017 2:46 PM)
Arizona teacher resigns after tweet suggesting immigrants should be killed
- After making a series of violently xenophobic comments on Twitter, Arizona teacher Bonnie Verne has tendered her resignation from Pardes Jewish Day School in the state’s town of Scottsdale, KTAR reports.
- The school released a statement saying that Verne had decided to leave her job teaching third-grade students. She’d been at the school 12 years.
- When it comes to immigrants’ well-being, Arizona does not have the best reputation. In 2010, the state passed a virulently anti-immigrant law, SB 1070, also known the “papers, please” law. The law required police to find out the immigration status of people they detain if there is “reasonable suspicion” they are undocumented. Read more (2/25/2017 2:38 PM)
Muhammad Ali Jr. was reportedly detained for hours at a Florida airport
- Muhammad Ali Jr., the son of the late, famous boxer, was reportedly detained at a Florida airport for hours earlier this month – and, according to friend and attorney Chris Mancini, officials asked him again and again if he was Muslim.
- Mancini told the Courier-Journal that Camacho-Ali was released, reportedly after showing officials a photograph of herself with Muhammad Ali — but her son was allegedly held for close to two hours while officials asked him about his religion, his name, and his place of birth, Mancini said.
- Ali Jr. was born in Philadelphia in 1972, the Courier-Journal reported. Mancini said that the family now believes that Ali Jr. was detained as a result of President Donald Trump’s de-facto “Muslim ban” — the executive order signed in January that banned citizens from seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the U.S. and led to confusion at airports across the U.S. Read more (2/25/17 12:36 PM)
Mike Pence tweeted the Nicaraguan flag instead of the Israeli flag to show Jewish people he cares
- On Friday night, in a since-deleted tweet, Mike Pence tweeted out his support for American Jews and Israel but swapped out the Israeli flag, which prominently features a Star of David, with the Nicaraguan flag, which has similar white and blue stripes and no Star of David.
- Pence’s snafu represents another misstep in this administration’s relationship with the Jewish community. In January, Trump’s statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day failed to include any reference to Jewish people.
- During Trump’s bizarre 80-minute press conference on Feb. 16, he also berated a reporter who asked a question about the president’s plan to fight the rise in anti-Semitism. Read more (2/25/2017 12:04 PM)
Activists celebrated trans youth with a dance party right outside the White House
- In the wake of the Trump administration’s decision last week to reverse a directive from former President Barack Obama meant to protect transgender students in public schools, activists are fighting back — with a dance party.
- On Friday evening, just outside of the White House fence, activists gathered to celebrate trans youth by dancing to Beyoncé and Michael Jackson, as about half a dozen uniformed police officers looked on from the sidelines.
- Speaking at the dance party on Friday, Firas Nasr, a founding organizer of Werk for Peace, told Mic’s Will Drabold that the action was a way of sending a message to the Trump administration that the LGBTQ community would stand together as a “united front.” Read more (2/25/2017 11:37 AM)
Bernie Sanders tweeted a sick burn at Donald Trump about his inauguration crowd size
- On Saturday morning, President Donald Trump tweeted that his followers should hold their own rally, even though his presidential campaign was a series of rallies that continued into his presidency with a rally last weekend in Melbourne, Florida.
- Bernie Sanders promptly replied with a brutal tweet, reminding Donald Trump of the small crowd that gathered for his inauguration.
- Trump has been more than a little sensitive about the size of his inauguration crowd, which was also objectively smaller in comparison to the crowds for Obama’s inauguration in 2009. Read more (2/25/17 11:09 AM)
‘Overwatch’ colorblind mode sucks, says a top player — and the community agrees
- Blizzard has a good reputation for constantly making tweaks and updates, but there’s one area it seems to be dropping the ball: Accessibility options for players with disabilities.
- In the past, Blizzard has come under fire for its lack of subtitles for hearing impaired players.
- This time around, Overwatch’s colorblind players are asking for some much needed improvements.
- According to one of the world’s top Bastion players, Overwatch’s colorblind mode makes everything look like a psychedelic fever dream but isn’t actually all that helpful. Read more (2/24/17 2:28 PM)
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‘Oxford Dictionaries’ accepts “yas,” “squad goals” and others into its vaunted pages
- Everybody say “yas!” The English language is evolving — or disintegrating, depending on how you look at it. But instead of sipping the “haterade,” why not join Oxford Dictionaries’ “lovefest” for its latest additions. Promise it’ll be “funtastic” — not “craptastic.”
- Those are just five of the new words and phrases inducted into Oxford Dictionaries Thursday. The tome is powered by the University of Oxford — makers of the famous Oxford English Dictionary — and “focuses on current language,” as distinct from its older sibling which focuses on the etymologies of our language. Consider it lexicographer “#SquadGoals.”
- As part of its grand announcement, Oxford Dictionaries used Twitter to boast how “on fleek” it’s becoming. Read more (2/24/17 4:28 PM)
US Latinos say their situation is getting worse under Trump
- After running a campaign fueled by xenophobia and talk of “bad hombres,” Trump has a very unhappy Latino population on his hands.
- A new survey from Pew shows that, not only do a sizeable portion of Latinos in the U.S. believe that they have it harder now than they did a year ago, the amount that say it’s getting worse is growing.
- According to the survey, 32% of Latinos say their situation in the U.S. has gotten worse in the past year. Only 15% said the same thing in 2013.
- Meanwhile, 49% of Latinos say their situation is about the same, down from 58% in 2013. A much smaller portion of Latinos think their situation has gotten better — 16% — down from 25% four years ago. Read more (2/24/17 4:10 PM)
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