Ever been told to wear a hat because most of your body heat escapes through your head? I think we all have. 

Pediatricians Rachel Vreeman and Aaron Carroll looked into that one for the BMJ, along with the old belief that sugar turns kids into tiny maniacs. Your head accounts for about 10% of your body’s heat loss, and sugar doesn’t have the effect on kids that parents have been blaming it for. But these ideas refuse to die. Vanderbilt psychologist Lisa Fazio and her colleagues found that the more often we hear something, the more likely we are to believe it, even when we already know it’s wrong.

University of Central Florida psychologist Bobby Hoffman recently examined five popular achievement myths that have survived despite years of research challenging them. Some have even inspired entire industries.

1. Practice Alone Will Make You an Expert

The 10,000-hour rule became popular because it made success sound like something anyone could achieve with enough practice. Spend the time, put in the work, and eventually you’ll be great at whatever you’re doing. If only it worked that way.

A meta-analysis led by psychologist Brooke Macnamara found that deliberate practice explained about 26% of performance differences in games and 21% in music. In professional occupations, it accounted for less than 1%. Practice helps, of course, but you could spend 10,000 hours doing something and still be mediocre at it.

2. Rewards Ruin the Fun

Some parents worry that paying their kids to read or rewarding them for good grades will destroy their natural motivation. The research is a little more forgiving.

Researchers reviewed 40 years of studies and found that rewards aren’t the motivation killers we’ve been warned about. People who enjoyed their work generally did it better, while those offered incentives usually got more done. Rewards only seemed to hurt motivation under certain conditions.

3. A Mindset Workshop Can Fix Bad Grades

Tons of schools invested in growth mindset workshops that promised better grades by teaching students they could become smarter through effort. 

Researchers eventually reviewed 63 studies involving nearly 98,000 participants and found little evidence of meaningful academic improvement. The studies reporting better results were also more likely to come from researchers with financial ties to mindset consulting. Funny how that works.

4. Grit Is the Magic Ingredient

Grit had quite a moment. Schools started teaching it, books about it became bestsellers, and the message was hard to miss: if you wanted to succeed, you’d better learn to stick things out, even when hated everything about it.

But researchers who examined 88 samples involving more than 66,000 people found that grit had only a modest connection to success. Much of it was already covered by conscientiousness, a personality trait psychologists had studied for decades. Perseverance was the strongest aspect, though hardly a new discovery.

5. Your Passion Is Out There Waiting to Be Found

“Follow your passion” sounds lovely until you’re 35 and still wondering when yours is supposed to arrive.

Research co-authored by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck found that people who believe their interests are fixed and waiting to be discovered can lose enthusiasm when things become difficult. They’re also less inclined to explore unfamiliar subjects. Interests usually develop as people gain experience and get better at something.

As Hoffman put it, waiting for passion to strike is “a reliable way to wait a very long time.”

Even scientists aren’t immune to believing things that sound convincing. Hoffman admitted that several claims in an earlier version of his own article needed correcting. If the people studying this stuff can get it wrong, the rest of us probably shouldn’t feel too bad about falling for a few bestselling self-help books.

The post 5 Common Myths About Success That Science Has Already Debunked appeared first on VICE.

Holiday cheer comes with a price tag, and some Gen Zers are willing to risk a late rent payment to keep the festivities going.

A new Talker Research survey of 2,000 Americans who celebrate a winter holiday found that 46% of Gen Z respondents had delayed or skipped a rent or mortgage payment to afford holiday spending. Across all generations, that number dropped to 18%.

The survey was commissioned by Accredited Debt Relief and conducted online by Talker Research between October 16 and 20, 2026. Respondents celebrated a winter holiday and had internet access, although the researchers didn’t disclose how many belonged to Gen Z. So it’s difficult to know how many people that 46% represents.

Nearly Half of Gen Z Has Skipped Rent or Mortgage Payments to Afford the Holidays, According to New Survey

Americans expect to give an average of 15 gifts this year and spend $1,533 on the holidays, according to the survey. Nearly half anticipate taking on debt to cover the festivities, with about a third of their holiday expenses going on credit cards and another 12% through buy now, pay later services. And who knows if the person on the receiving end will even like the present?

Guilt plays a big role in all this spending. Forty-five percent said admitting they can’t afford something during the holidays makes them feel guilty, while 39% would rather take on debt than disappoint someone they love. Nearly half would skip gift exchanges altogether if they weren’t worried about hurting anyone’s feelings. So we’ve got people spending money they don’t have on presents they don’t even want to buy, for people who might feel exactly the same way. Sounds logical.

December also seems to do strange things to people’s understanding of money. For 39% of respondents, spending during the holidays feels less serious than spending during the rest of the year. And with 61% admitting they regularly forget to budget for at least one seasonal expense, it’s easy to see how shipping costs, decorations, parties, and those last-minute purchases can leave people wondering where their money went.

Bobbi Rebell, chief financial education adviser at Accredited Debt Relief, said one common mistake is “focusing on the gifts while overlooking everything else that comes with the season.”

Some people are dipping into money they’d originally saved for other things, too. Thirty-five percent have withdrawn savings to cover holiday expenses, and one in five has reduced or skipped retirement contributions. Another 39% would rather deal with the financial consequences in January than cut back on holiday spending now.

Showing up to a holiday gathering empty-handed can feel embarrassing when everyone else has practically bought out an entire department store. But January isn’t going to be very festive if the rent money went toward Christmas presents.

The post Gen Z Is Making Some Questionable Financial Decisions to Afford Christmas, Survey Finds appeared first on VICE.

Every great comeback story needs a rock bottom, and for one Virginia raccoon, rock bottom was the floor of a liquor store bathroom.

VICE covered the original incident last December, when a raccoon crashed through a ceiling tile at an ABC store in Ashland, Virginia, and helped himself to the liquor selection. According to The Washington Post, his evening involved rum, moonshine, scotch, vodka, peanut butter whiskey, and eggnog. He was eventually discovered passed out on the bathroom floor.

Nearly a year later, that spectacularly bad night has raised more than $290,000 for the Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter.

The Raccoon Who Passed Out in a Liquor Store Bathroom Is Now an Animal Shelter Hero

The department teamed up with an apparel company to sell merchandise featuring the unconscious raccoon and the slogan “Trashed Panda.” What started with shirts, hats, mugs, and stickers eventually expanded into seasonal collections, including “Hot Trash Summer” and “Trick or Trashed.” There’s even an anniversary design that reads “One Bad Night. A Whole Lot of Good.”

And people are buying this stuff. Chief of animal protection Jeffrey Parker told the Post that the shelter normally receives less than $20,000 in annual donations, so having a drunken raccoon bring in nearly 15 times that amount is quite an accomplishment.

The money is already going toward something the department has wanted for years: body cameras for its eight animal protection officers. They’ve been borrowing equipment from the sheriff’s office, but the new cameras will help document animal abuse investigations and provide footage when complaints arise. County supervisors unanimously approved the purchase in late October.

Parker also wants to put the approximate $140,000 remaining toward an emergency fund for injured animals. All thanks to a raccoon with terrible judgment and a taste for the bottom shelf.

Strangely, the animal kingdom has its share of questionable drinking habits. There’s the Swedish moose that got stuck in an apple tree, reportedly after eating fermented fruit, and the monkeys in St. Kitts known for stealing tourists’ cocktails. A 2020 study published in Biology Letters examined an alcohol-processing gene in 85 mammals and found that humans metabolize ethanol roughly 40 times faster than most other primates.

Raccoons weren’t included in the study, so we can only imagine how the little guy felt when he woke up.

After recovering, he was released into the wild about a mile from the liquor store. The shelter hasn’t received another raccoon break-in call since, although Parker still wonders what became of its most successful fundraiser.

“Hopefully he’s living a good life somewhere,” Parker told the Post, “and is being sober.”

The post Drunk Raccoon Who Passed Out in Liquor Store Has Now Raised $290,000 for Animal Shelter appeared first on VICE.

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For a day that’s supposed to bring bad luck, Friday the 13th has been awfully good to tattoo shops. People line up for hours to get $13 tattoos, and some shops can barely keep up with the demand.

According to new data from Square, tattoo shops using its payment system sold 170% to 191% more tattoo-related items on the first two Friday the 13ths of 2026 than on an average Friday. Back in 2018, the increase was around 77% to 86%. Square examined 15 Friday the 13ths since 2018, comparing sales with other Fridays in the same month, and the enthusiasm has grown over the years.

Tattoo Shops Are Offering Cheap Ink for Friday the 13th, and Customers Are Flocking In

We can thank Texas for much of this. Dallas tattoo artist Oliver Peck helped popularize the tradition in the 1990s, offering cheap tattoos of the supposedly unlucky number 13. He wasn’t the first artist to do it, but he told VICE in an earlier interview, “I definitely made it an event.” In 2008, Peck tattooed 415 people in 24 hours, earning a Guinness World Record. That’s about one tattoo every three and a half minutes. 

Texas hasn’t lost its enthusiasm. Square’s data puts San Antonio at the top for Friday the 13th tattoo activity, with Houston, Austin, Dallas, Waco, and Fort Worth also making the national top 20. Phoenix, however, recorded the largest jump among major cities, with tattoo item sales climbing more than 500% compared with a typical Friday.

The appeal isn’t hard to understand. Shops offer menus of small, ready-made designs called flash tattoos, with some starting at $13 and others running closer to $70. Square puts the typical tattoo item at participating shops around $140, so there’s a serious discount involved. Shops get a line of potential new customers, and customers get an inexpensive excuse to make a permanent decision.

Of course, there’s something mildly concerning about rushing through dozens of tattoos in a day. One artist recalled on Reddit accidentally misspelling “thirteen” after tattooing the word over and over. Imagine getting home and realizing your bargain tattoo came with a typo. No regerts.

New York has a slightly different approach. Square found that its tattoo item sales rose less dramatically, but customers paid more per item than in any other major market. Manhattan’s Daredevil Tattoo even warns that people expecting custom work in a normal setting should probably come back another day.

And the next opportunity is nearly here. Friday, November 13, is this week, with shops preparing for another round of cheap ink and long lines.

Just triple-check the spelling before someone starts tattooing.

The post Why Friday the 13th Has Become Black Friday for Tattoo Shops appeared first on VICE.

Don’t you just love when the internet comes together over a common cause? Well, according to NBC Chicago, hundreds of people gathered at the famous Bean sculpture in Chicago in a failed attempt to move it seven inches to the left.

Internet lore insists a mysterious man has been trapped inside Cloud Gate, Anish Kapoor’s 110-ton stainless steel landmark, for over two decades. Surely, one would assume he is long dead by now, having run out of insects and/or fallen tourists’ snacks by now. Yes, flyers shared across the city promised that shifting the giant metallic kidney seven inches would uncover a secret latch door on its underside, finally allowing Chicagoans to slide a pickle and other basic provisions to the captive within.

Why they would not also let him out while they’re at it seems cruel, unless, of course, the man is perfectly fine in his subterranean bean bunker, in which case, to each his own, and let’s let him be.

Hundreds of People Gathered to Push Chicago’s Famous Bean Sculpture. Here’s Why.

At 12:47 p.m. on Sunday, crowds lined up along the Millennium Park and pushed with all their might. For some inexplicable reason, the 110-ton statue of pure steel anchored directly into the earth did not move when pushed by a smattering of 20-somethings. The crowd failed in its effort to move the statue seven inches, and thereby failed the man living beneath it, a dereliction that will surely haunt them for the remainder of their days, mourning the just but ultimately fruitless attempt in their final moments of life, hoping that God is indeed merciful.

City authorities and local aldermen have repeatedly pleaded with attendees, confirming that no one is currently living inside the public art piece. Their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

The post Chicago Residents Tried to Move the Famous Bean Sculpture to Rescue a Man Who Doesn’t Exist appeared first on VICE.

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Italians don’t seem to mind that we’ve collectively treated their culture as a joke. We do the Italian fingers and speak in ridiculous Mario voices, and they just smile, politely take it, and sometimes join in on the fun. One thing Italians seemingly will not stand for, though, is anyone messing with their food. Requesting that a real Italian chef put pineapple on a pizza is a grave insult, one that might be worth losing your job over.

Just ask Davide Tamburella, an Italian head chef living in Australia who lost his job over a few chunks of tropical fruit. According to reporting from The Guardian, Tamburella was fired from La Costa Restaurant and Bar in Brisbane after allegedly refusing to serve ham and pineapple pizza for a client who had dropped over $15,000 on a private function.

Italian Chef Says Pineapple on Pizza Offends His Culture, Gets Fired for Refusing to Serve It

Tamburella argued that management directives “need not be followed when it is offensive to his culture.” He even asked his boss to look into the historical record to “check how important it is for Italians not to put pineapple on a pizza.” This was allegedly the third time he had refused to put pineapple on pizzas in the past four years, so management cited his refusal to put pineapple and ham atop crust as part of his firing, along with general use of foul language in the workplace.

What makes this especially funny is that Queensland happens to be Australia’s pineapple capital, producing, according to the BBC, “all of the country’s commercially grown pineapples.”

An Italian chef living in Australia’s pineapple capital lost his job for refusing to put pineapple on a pizza. Kudos to him for standing his ground on something he truly believed in, even if it is a little silly, but man, you’ve got to understand the place you’re moving to before you reserve that U-Haul.

And because he didn’t, Tamburella lost his job, blew his employer-sponsored permanent residency visa process, and later had his unfair dismissal lawsuit thrown out by Australia’s Fair Work Commission for filing too late. Sheesh.

The restaurant eventually closed because the rent was too dang high, and Tamburella landed a gig as head chef at a different restaurant in Brisbane, so I guess he got the last laugh, since the BBC checked out the new restaurant’s menu and found not a speck of pineapple.  

The post Italian Chef Gets Fired for Refusing to Put Pineapple on Pizza, Claims It’s ‘Offensive to His Culture’ appeared first on VICE.

I know some Pokémon cards are selling for small fortunes, but no Pokémon card is worth more than your children. Maybe that one Pikachu card is worth $16.4 million, but you know, generally speaking, your child is intrinsically worth more.

It’s a lesson some people will simply never learn, as shown by a South Carolina dad who was recently arrested for allegedly leaving his daughter sleeping in line at Target while he kept his spot in line to wait for a newly released set of Pokémon cards.

According to reports from CBS 12 News, 35-year-old John-Michael Dooley waited outside of a Charleston Target with the crowd overnight for the drop of the “Mega Evolution — Delta Reign” expansion set, daughter in tow. Sometime after 1:00 a.m., Dooley allegedly handed his young daughter a pillow and a blanket, tucked her into his spot on the concrete like a tiny placeholder, and headed home.

Man Allegedly Used His 6-Year-Old Daughter to Hold His Place in Line for Pokémon Cards

An hour later, when Dooley was still nowhere to be seen, fellow shoppers allegedly called the cops to report the situation. Officers reportedly arrived around 2:30 a.m. and found the child alone.

According to reports, Dooley eventually wandered back and allegedly admitted to detectives that he went home to keep his place in line without actually standing in it, and was immediately arrested for unlawful conduct toward a child.

The little girl was fine, though she was placed in emergency protective custody. Dooley, meanwhile, had some time to think deeply about what he had done from his seat in the Al Cannon Detention Center.

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A crew of volunteer divers off the coast of Maine found the remains of the SS Cornwallis, a Canadian ship that was torpedoed by a Nazi submarine in December 1944, killing 43 crewmembers.

Reports from the Bangor Daily News confirm that after five trips and 50 square miles of side-scan sonar sweeping, the New Hampshire-based Nomad Exploration Team finally found the 5,500-ton ship about 400 feet below the Atlantic surface. Pretty wild, right?

The Cornwallis finally met its end thanks to a Nazi torpedo fired off of a sub filled with spies, but that was only the coup de grace. It had already been torpedoed previously, back in 1942, when it was packed with missiles off the coast of Barbados.

It survived and was patched up, then went right back to hauling sugar and molasses. But then, two years later, just after dropping off to Nazi spies near Hancock, Maine, as part of “Operation Magpie”, German sub U-1230 spotted the Cornwallis and launched a single torpedo at it.

That’s all it took. Within 10 minutes, the Cornwallis was fully sunk. Only five of the 48 crew members survived.

An 82-Year-Old Mystery Has Finally Been Solved at the Bottom of the Atlantic Ocean

The wreck took close to a century to find for a reason. It was well hidden and obscured by a variety of obstacles. The divers had to wade through 10-knot currents near the Bay of Fundy, low visibility throughout, and all in 42-degree water or, as diver Jeff Goodreau put it, “much the worst-case scenario.”

Reaching the wreck wasn’t a casual weekend dip. The divers faced ripping ten-knot currents near the Bay of Fundy, 42-degree water, and zero visibility—a cocktail diver Jeff Goodreau called “pretty much the worst-case scenario,” according to the Portland Press Herald. They almost missed the shipwreck twice on sonar before matching underwater features to original blueprints.

Because the wreck lies in federal waters 25 miles out, it belongs to “everyone and no one,” as diver Danny Allan told the Bangor Daily News.

The post Volunteer Divers Just Discovered a World War II Shipwreck That Had Been Missing for More Than 80 Years appeared first on VICE.

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Every once in a while, a crime is committed by someone whose reasoning is sound and hard to argue with. When, according to South Florida ABC affiliate Local 10, a guy recently stole a school bus and drove around for an entire day until he was eventually arrested, his reasoning was so simple, so elegant, so endearing that I couldn’t help but nod my head and mutter “fair enough.”

23-year-old Erick Moore was taken into custody by the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office after seemingly demonstrating his fervent excitement for the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto 6 by stealing a 2001 International 3000 yellow school bus.

The school bus was remarkably easy to steal. Moore walked into the gated parking lot of Little Angels bus service in the town of Gladeview and took it. Once employees for the company noticed the bus was gone, they reviewed security footage and quickly recognized him, because he had allegedly stolen a bus from that same lot before.

Florida Man Allegedly Steals a School Bus, Then Drives Straight Into a Dead End

The next morning around 6:45 a.m., an unmarked detective cruiser spotted the giant yellow target tooling around town. When marked units activated their lights to pull him over, Moore ignored them. Authorities backed off to tail him safely until he accidentally turned onto a dead-end street at Northwest 73rd Terrace, trapping himself inside his own getaway vehicle.

Deputies swarmed the bus, arrested Moore, and discovered his license had been suspended since August 2024. During interrogation, Moore tried out a wild cover story first, claiming a shadowy figure threatened to kill his family unless he stole the bus for parts.

That in and of itself is more than enough to qualify for “fair enough” territory, but when detectives pressed more on why he spent a full 24 hours joyriding a giant yellow school bus without a hint of urgency to get to a chop shop, he dropped the act and confessed to the absolute purest motive in criminal history: he took the bus because he thought he could get away with it.

See what I mean? Fair enough.

The post Florida Man Arrested for Stealing School Bus, Claims He Thought He Could ‘Get Away With It’ appeared first on VICE.

I have a confession: Sometimes, I fantasize about being completely socially unavailable. No texts, emails, social media updates, phone calls…just silence. Just ask my friends; I am the absolute worst texter and take about five business days to respond to messages, voice notes, and phone calls (unless it’s urgent, of course).

Apparently, achieving this unreachable state can actually be a status symbol. (Not for me. Mine is the result of burnout.)

“In American culture, unavailability can signal that a person’s time is valuable,” says Dr. Wildaliz Caro, PhD, Medical Contributor at Aura Recovery Center. “A 2017 Journal of Consumer Research study found that busyness and lack of leisure led people to infer status because they associated them with competence, ambition, and being in demand.”

Is Unavailability Really a Status Symbol?

According to Yoni Neff, LMSW, a psychotherapist at LightLine Therapy in New York, “Evolutionarily, scarcity reads as value.”

“Our minds are wired to make us think that being busy says ‘people want me,’” Neff explains. “Being unavailable takes that a step further to signal ‘people want me and I get to decide whether they get me.’”

But does unavailability actually demonstrate high status? 

If you’re asking me, well, my unavailability means I’ve had enough social interactions for the year and would like to self-isolate and rest for the foreseeable future. I think many people can relate to this desire in today’s highly demanding world. Social burnout is a real experience.

“Unavailability may reflect overload, recovery needs, or vulnerability,” says Dr. Caro. “Setting limits is also an important component of a healthy human relationship and a healthy sense of self. Indeed, creating your own limitations can be an act of self-awareness, and that can be incredibly beneficial for your own welfare.”

“In my work, unavailability often serves a protective function,” Neff adds. “If you’re never reachable, nobody catches you being average, and you don’t let people get close enough to be disappointed by your averageness.”

In some cases, this might cause others to put you on a pedestal or view you as “unreachable”—both literally and figuratively.

Why Some People Like Being Unreachable

Aside from the obvious reason of being left alone? Some people crave space and time for themselves, where they don’t need to perform, put up a front, or be of service to anyone else.

“Being continuously available can make people feel pressured to perform and stay emotionally engaged, whereas taking a break helps minimize overstimulation,” Dr. Caro explains. “When you allow yourself a break from the daily grind, you may come back with renewed energy … We are social beings, and many of us need others to make time for us and put in an effort to reduce the distance between us.”

Not to mention, it seems everyone expects constant communication—or at least quick responses—from their friends, family, colleagues, or loved ones today.

“Being reachable is now inherently the baseline condition of adult life. However, the ancient bodies we have, which now live in modern society, were never quite designed to sustain the always-on lifestyle,” says Neff. “Plenty of folks crave unavailability because they can’t give themselves permission to rest otherwise. So, over time, we’ve learned that ‘I’m off the grid’ sounds a lot better than ‘I’m tired.’”

The post Why Being Unavailable Has Become a Status Symbol, According to Therapists appeared first on VICE.

As we wind down from Halloween, our mouths drop in horror at the thought of a recent discovery made at Jorge Chávez International Airport in Lima, Peru: Over 3,000 tarantulas that had been hidden within dirty socks were seized, as the National Forestry and Wildlife Service (SERFOR) told Agence France-Presse.

On November 4, dutiful agents spotted some curious wriggling within luggage, thus prompting the chilling find. Two Germans and one Pole, who were detained, each harbored a share of these creepy crawlers in their suitcases. Each of these suitcases contained between 15 and 22 socks with different numbers and kinds of tarantulas. The genera included the Brachypelma, Avicularia, and Pamphobeteus. The Pamphobeteus antinous species is currently categorized as Vulnerable. The impressive and carefully selected specimens were gathered from various parts of Peru. They ranged from eggs to adults, and some were even brightly colored.

The arachnid victims of the failed trafficking scheme were destined for Germany, where they would have fetched a hefty sum. Their collective worth was estimated at over €1.5 million ($1.7 million). SERFOR’s Cora Suarez explained that a single one of these arthropods can sell for around €500 ($560) in Europe. Whereas the tarantulas would have probably become pets, been used for research purposes, and the like, the collectible creatures will instead be taken to a breeding center. Fortunately, Peru protects tarantulas, even if many civilians hold a stigma against them, and the three hooligans can look forward to the cold hand of justice.

Travelers Allegedly Tried to Smuggle 3,000 Tarantulas Inside Dirty Socks. It Didn’t Go Well.

Naturally, I reached out to an expert — leading music photographer and former pilot NecrosHorns. He told me a wild story that I certainly was not expecting, “Once, flying from the Bocas del Toro Island Archipelago in Panama, I noticed a crab had grabbed onto luggage and was traveling in the cargo area.” I expressed my shock, and NecrosHorns clarified that “the adventurous crab” had attached himself to the luggage of his own free will. No one had noticed the peculiar presence until NecrosHorns’ observant eye spotted the free-riding, hanger-oner of a crustacean. NecrosHorns stated, “I notified cargo people, and they took it out and threw it back into the water.”

NecrosHorns also mentioned that, as a photographer, airport security stopped him in Leipzig because he was wearing a vest with a slaughtered lamb painted on it — artwork for the band Mare. While exploring the underworld of black metal, I’ve heard of the struggles that extreme bands face, as they sometimes try to transport spikes, animal parts, blood, bones, and other oddities. If they are wise, however, they will arrange to have their stage necessities supplied by sources local to the sites of their planned gigs, as label owner Yosuke Konishi once explained to me.

The post Three Travelers Were Detained After Airport Officials Found Thousands of Spiders in Their Socks appeared first on VICE.

A man named Vito passed away in what was perhaps the most beautiful fashion. Vito’s “dramatic exit” came shortly after he danced to the classic “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees and while his favorite music was still blasting. As we send our condolences to Vito’s family and friends, we allow ourselves to feel inspired by his story and the kindness of Los Angeles-anchored baker Eden Malinoff.

Malinoff, who operates Baked SoCal, commented on TikTok, “[…] if there’s any way that Vito would have chosen to go out, it would have been like this, surrounded by people he loved. We were celebrating his long and full life, and I am just so grateful I got to be a part of it.” She described her late friend as “an icon” and “an absolute legend.”

Man Dies at His Own 97th Birthday Party, Just Moments After Celebrating With Friends

The sweet California girl and wizard in the kitchen explained, “[…] when I asked him earlier in the week what the key was to living such a long life, he told me it was, and I quote, ‘To never drink cheap liquor.'” Malinoff thus carefully prepared a gorgeous red wine chocolate cake for the Halloween-themed rager in celebration of Vito’s 97th birthday.

Vito, clad in black and looking fabulous, was filmed moving swimmingly; a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader and other well-dressed characters filled the room. Vito’s friends were fortunately able to sing “Happy Birthday” just before tragedy struck. “At 24 years old, I could not keep up with this man. He was the life of the party,” Malinoff reflected.

One of Vito’s best friends confirmed on social media, “It was an amazing birthday party.” The man revealed that Vito’s friend group had been unaware of the severity of his medical issues. Vito was indeed lucky to have an arsenal of such great souls by his side.

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Weddings, whether your own or someone else’s, are a great way to discover the truth about who your friends are and aren’t. In a viral TikTok video, one user, jackie.o436, claimed that her supposed best friend since high school, Nikki, asked her to gain roughly 120 pounds so that she’d look petite compared to her on her big day.

According to Jackie O, Nikki invited her to be her bridesmaid while out to dinner. Jackie’s excitement turned to disbelief when Nikki insisted she start getting facials twice a week because photoshopping away her “eyesore” acne represented an expense she did not want to cover. Let it be noted: Jackie’s skin looks clear and radiant to me. Nikki is such a cheapskate that she wasn’t even prepared to pay for Jackie’s dress.

The conversation took another nosedive when the 200-pound Nikki finally broke that legendary piece of news to Jackie, who says she had worked hard to lose weight, about her wish to be the “skinniest bi—h” in the room through efforts other than her own… When Jackie tried to raise her objections to the idea of plumping up, she learned that Nikki had uninvited her own sister, Rachel, who already suffers from an ED, for refusing to agree to even bigger gains.

A Woman Says Her Friend Asked Her to Gain 120 Pounds for Her Wedding, Then Threw Spaghetti at Her

Upon pointing out that Nikki was being unreasonable, Jackie received a plate of spaghetti flung over her outfit, as Nikki indulged in a “tantrum like a three-year-old.” Nikki then not only accused Jackie of being a jealous “single loser,” despite the fact that the latter had set up her engagement, but also a fake friend. Jackie paid for the two meals in an effort to flee but turned around at the door, only to see Nikki stress-eating from the ground as a security guard walked over.

Jackie says that she had previously believed that bridezillas of such epic proportions only existed in movies, and it seems that the Nikki in question only exists in the imaginations of netizens. Jackie has used social media to tell other curious tales, and her tone of voice and mannerisms when speaking of Nikki are far from organic…

Regardless of the truth, Jackie successfully managed to open up a dialogue around the thought, “There is nothing scarier in this world than a woman who is about to get married.” Verily, many narcissistic brides have left their friends gasping for air with outrageous demands, and sometimes one just has to learn to say no. In addition, we can thank Jackie for kindly raising awareness of sizeism, as it relates to petite women.

The post Bride Allegedly Asked Her Bridesmaid to Gain 120 Pounds So She’d Look Skinnier at Her Wedding appeared first on VICE.

Companies like Colossal Biosciences have been flirting with the idea of bringing back extinct animals for years. But now that a team of researchers says they’ve found traces of dinosaur red blood cells that somehow survived 115 million years, we might finally see whether researchers can show a level of restraint that Jurassic Park’s John Hammond clearly didn’t have. Though, we probably won’t have to worry about that kind of problem for a while.

According to new research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, paleontologists led by Kliti Grice at Curtin University analyzed a 10-foot, 75-pound juvenile Aratasaurus museunacionali dug up in Brazil. Inside the leg bone’s vascular canals, they found oval structures packed with heme, the iron-filled chemical ring in hemoglobin that moves oxygen around the body.

It’s the first time anyone has identified heme within the structures in a dinosaur fossil.

Researchers Discovered a Surprising Clue About Dinosaur Biology Inside a 115-Million-Year-Old Fossil

Those squishy bits survived for hundreds of millions of years without rotting thanks to the low-oxygen mud that seems to have overtaken the creature soon after its death, quickly halting the decay process. Then, a manganese oxide mineral called hausmannite moved in, acting like all-natural bubblewrap that kept the cellular framework and collagen amino acids in place.

While the imagination immediately turns to Jurassic Park and whether anyone with the power to bring dinosaurs back to life actually paid attention to the moral lessons of the multibillion-dollar film franchise, finding heme isn’t the same as finding intact DNA.

Grice insists they aren’t trying to cook up a live dinosaur; instead, they’ll use this discovery to study the creature’s metabolism, how it transported oxygen throughout its body, and its activity levels. And then there’s the much more interesting question posed by this discovery: the chances might be slight, but if there is one set of dinosaur bones out there with some little specks of blood still kicking around, there might be others just like it sitting in museum collections around the world or in the next batch of bone researchers dig up.

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For most of history, parents prayed for a son to carry on the family name. Now some moms are crying into the blue confetti.

Americans have a long history of preferring boys. Gallup has asked which sex people would choose if they could have only one child since 1941, and boys have come out ahead every time. In 2018, the split was 36% for boys and 28% for girls. Women, however, were almost evenly divided, with a slight preference for daughters.

A separate 2025 Gallup International survey of nearly 45,000 people across 44 countries found that 19% of women preferred a daughter, compared with 12% who wanted a son. The majority, 66%, had no preference whatsoever. So the idea that women everywhere have suddenly decided boys are terrible isn’t exactly supported by the numbers.

Why Some Expectant Mothers Secretly Hope They’re Having a Girl, According to Psychology

Still, gender disappointment is very real. In a December 2025 Reddit discussion, an expectant mother admitted she was struggling after learning she was having a boy. She’d always pictured raising a daughter, and knowing this would probably be her only pregnancy made it harder. She was also excited to meet her son, but she also said “I am now grieving the future.” Both feelings existed at once.

A paper published in BJPsych Bulletin examined this experience, noting that parents frequently want the opportunity to raise both a son and a daughter. Having several children of the same sex can make that imagined family feel increasingly unlikely.

There’s also pressure from other people. One mother on Reddit described being thrilled about expecting her second boy, only to have relatives express disappointment. Her relatives seemed to have decided she needed a daughter, whether she wanted one or not.

And those expectations can get ridiculous. Having a girl doesn’t guarantee a future of wedding dress shopping and Sunday phone calls, any more than having a boy guarantees football games and a lifetime of dirty socks.

It’s understandable to feel sad about the daughter you’ll never have, especially if you’ve pictured that relationship your whole life. But the little boy you’re bringing home has no idea about any of those expectations. He just needs parents who are happy he’s here.

The post Why Some Moms-to-Be Dread Hearing ‘It’s a Boy’: ‘I Am Now Grieving the Future’ appeared first on VICE.

There’s no shortage of theories about what happens after we die. Scientists have a little more to say about what happens right before.

Researchers in Italy asked 239 hospice volunteers and palliative care professionals about the strange things patients had described seeing near the end of their lives. For a 2026 study in Death Studies, they collected accounts of dreams that sometimes felt incredibly real, along with visions patients reported having while fully awake.

A white horse galloping along a beach is a strange thing to see near the end of your life, but that’s what one patient reportedly described. Others remembered staircases and open doorways. For many, though, the visions involved people they knew, including family members who had died years earlier. One woman dreamed that her late husband told her, “I’m waiting for you.”

What Happens Right Before We Die, According to Science

Most of these encounters were comforting. Imagine being near the end of your life and suddenly seeing someone you’ve missed for 30 years. For some patients, though, the dreams brought up painful memories or relationships that had never been resolved.

The Italian researchers collected these accounts from caregivers, so they were relying on what people remembered hearing rather than interviewing the patients themselves. But similar experiences have been documented directly.

In a 2014 study published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine, Christopher Kerr and his colleagues interviewed hospice patients in Buffalo, New York, about their dreams and visions. Fifty-nine of the 66 patients enrolled were included in the final analysis, and most recalled at least one such experience. Nearly all said it felt real.

Visits from deceased loved ones were among the most comforting experiences patients described. They also became more common as death approached. Kerr has spoken about how frequently love and forgiveness come up in these accounts, something that can be difficult to explain when you’re looking at the subject strictly through a medical lens.

Even the caregivers weren’t always sure what to make of these experiences. Medication and serious illness can affect how someone sees the world, and delirium is another possibility near the end of life. The Italian researchers encouraged caregivers to listen to patients rather than dismissing everything they describe as confusion.

There’s something beautifully human about all of this. Near the end of their lives, people are remembering the faces they loved, the people they lost, and sometimes a dog they haven’t seen in decades. Science can’t tell us exactly why. But it’s hard not to be moved by the thought of someone seeing their mother again.

The post Scientists Are Studying What People See Right Before They Die, and the Results Are Eerie appeared first on VICE.

Gym guys have never met a recovery shortcut they didn’t want to inject.

The latest is the “Wolverine shot,” named after the X-Men character who can recover from just about anything. It’s a combination of two synthetic peptides, BPC-157 and TB-500, that fitness enthusiasts are using in hopes of recovering faster from injuries and punishing workouts. BPC-157 is based on a substance found in the stomach, while TB-500 is derived from a protein involved in tissue repair.

The injections have some famous supporters. Joe Rogan claimed his elbow tendinitis disappeared within two weeks of using BPC-157, and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spoken about using the peptide to treat a muscle injury.

The enthusiasm is running well ahead of the science. Most research comes from animal experiments, and there’s little reliable human evidence that either peptide helps people heal. FDA scientists have raised concerns about allergic or immune reactions and impurities, with too little information to know how safe these substances are. Buying injectable vials from an overseas supplier adds the possibility of contamination or getting something entirely different from what you ordered.

Access is getting easier anyway.

The ‘Wolverine Shot’ Claims to Help Your Body Heal Like a Superhero. Does It Actually Work?

On October 28, HHS announced that it wouldn’t pursue enforcement against certain licensed pharmacies and physicians compounding six unapproved peptides, including BPC-157 and TB-500, provided they meet strict conditions. Kennedy’s administration argues that supervised compounding offers a safer alternative to the online gray market. Critics worry that patients will mistake easier access for evidence that the drugs work.

There’s another catch. The policy allows each peptide to be compounded individually, not combined into the Wolverine stack. Neither has FDA approval. Competitive athletes also have reason to steer clear. Both substances are prohibited under the World Anti-Doping Agency’s rules.

Actual human research is still catching up. A small, placebo-controlled trial of BPC-157 after shoulder surgery is planned for 2027. Researcher Shiloah Kviatkovsky told Business Insider that the popularity of these treatments before proper testing is frightening, especially when buyers can’t always know what’s in their injections.

Wolverine also has an unbreakable metal skeleton and a team of comic book writers looking out for him. The rest of us have to deal with actual consequences.

The post The Truth About the ‘Wolverine Shot,’ the Viral Recovery Hack That Has Doctors Concerned appeared first on VICE.

If you live in an apartment with neighbors above you, you know the nightmare. Are they dropping bowling balls up there? Is this some kind of home renovation project nobody told you about? And why does it always start at 1 a.m.?

New York City received more than 738,000 noise complaints through 311 in 2024, according to FOX 5, including over 356,000 involving residential noise. Older buildings can be especially miserable, since floors and ceilings weren’t always designed with much consideration for the people living on either side of them.

Figure Out What You’re Hearing

Not all noise travels the same way. Voices, televisions, and music are considered airborne noise, while footsteps, dropped objects, and furniture scraping across hardwood create impact noise. The latter travels through the building itself, making it much harder to block from below.

Soundproofist explains that impact noise is best addressed at the source, meaning the floor upstairs. Acoustic foam panels won’t do much to stop the sound of your upstairs neighbor stomping around in work boots.

Have an Awkward Conversation

There’s a solid chance your upstairs neighbor has no idea how much you can hear. You might hear every footstep and chair scraping across the floor, while they assume they’re just going about their day. It’s an awkward conversation to have, but telling them what’s happening is a good place to start.

Rugs with thick padding can reduce the sound of footsteps, and felt pads under furniture can help with scraping noises. You can’t make someone buy a rug or change how they live, but they might be willing to make a few adjustments once they know how much sound travels downstairs.

Make Some Changes Downstairs

Voices and music give you a few more options. Upholstered furniture, curtains, and rugs can absorb some sound inside your apartment, although they won’t soundproof it. A heavy bookcase against a shared wall might help a little, depending on where the noise enters.

Drafty doors are another place to look. Weatherstripping and a door sweep can reduce sound slipping through the gaps.

Find Something to Cover the Noise

Sometimes your best option is making the noise less noticeable. A fan, white noise machine, or comfortable earplugs can help at night, especially when you’re dealing with sounds you can’t control.

Know When to Complain

If you’ve already talked to your neighbor and the noise hasn’t improved, it’s probably time to involve your landlord or property manager. A record of when the noise happens, how long it lasts, and what you’re hearing can help make your case. You can also check your city’s noise ordinances to see what rules apply to late-night disturbances.

As tempting as it is to bang on the ceiling with a broom, that probably won’t accomplish anything beyond making your upstairs neighbor angry. And you still have to live underneath them.

The post How to Deal With Noisy Upstairs Neighbors Without Starting a War: A Guide appeared first on VICE.

Doing your job well is only half the job these days. The other half is making sure everyone saw you do it.

In the U.K., they’re calling it “loud working.” A new survey from business platform Tide found that workers spend an average of 2.8 hours a week making sure their efforts get noticed. Tide estimates that adds up to 131 hours a year, or over 17 working days devoted to talking about work instead of doing it.

There’s always someone at work who needs an audience for everything they do. A meeting can’t end without them mentioning how much they’ve accomplished, and they make sure the boss always hears about every extra hour they’ve put in. Meanwhile, everyone else is just trying to get through the workday.

Employees Are Wasting Nearly 3 Hours a Week Trying to Prove They’re Working

For some workers, it’s become unbearable. Tide found that 27% of U.K. respondents had considered leaving a job because of the pressure to promote themselves, and nearly one in 10 said they’d already quit over it.

Employee relations expert Jim Moore of Hamilton Nash told Metro that office self-promotion has been around forever. We’ve just given it a new name and a LinkedIn account.

There’s also the related business of looking busy, even when you’re getting very little done. In Slack’s 2023 State of Work survey of over 18,000 desk workers worldwide, respondents estimated spending 32% of their work time on tasks meant to create the appearance of productivity rather than contribute to company goals. For U.S. respondents, that figure was 28%. Another 63% of workers across the survey admitted they tried to keep their online status active even when they weren’t working.

Some of this comes from management. Microsoft’s 2022 Work Trend Index found that 87% of employees felt productive, but only 12% of leaders said they had full confidence in their teams’ productivity. Microsoft called the disconnect “productivity paranoia.”

It’s not hard to see how that creates an office full of people desperate to prove they’re working. When the boss pays attention to who’s talking the most, the employee quietly getting everything done can look like the one who isn’t pulling their weight.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting recognition for a job well done. But when workers feel pressured to announce every accomplishment, it’s fair to wonder how much anyone is paying attention to the actual work.

Then again, someone has to write those LinkedIn posts about being humbled and honored to announce another exciting professional milestone.

The post What Is ‘Loud Working’? The Workplace Trend That’s Driving Employees to Quit. appeared first on VICE.

Watching The Matrix for the first time is a one-shot deal. A cinema chain in the Netherlands thinks a hypnotist can get you a second shot at seeing it for the first time…again.

Pathé is attempting exactly that on November 9 at its Buitenhof theater in The Hague. The experiment, called REWIND, will involve 30 movie fans and hypnotherapist Victor Kraemer, who’s been practicing for over 30 years. Participants will have individual online hypnosis sessions, followed by another session immediately before the screening.

The movie will be one of four: The Matrix, Se7en, La La Land, or Interstellar. Pathé will choose based on participants’ preferences, with the hope that hypnosis can make a familiar movie feel brand new.

“Who wouldn’t want to see their favorite film again for the very first time?” Pathé spokesperson Imke van Schaaijk said. Quite a few people would probably sign up for that. Whether they’ll forget anything is another question. Pathé hasn’t promised it’ll work, and there’s no established method for erasing someone’s memory of an entire movie.

Want to Watch Your Favorite Movie for the First Time Again? This Theater Thinks Hypnosis Can Help.

There is, however, some interesting research on the subject. A 2008 study published in Neuron had participants watch a film and return a week later for hypnosis. People who were highly susceptible to posthypnotic amnesia recalled fewer details after being told to forget what they’d watched. Once researchers gave them a cue to remember, their recall improved.

No one actually forgot the movie. The hypnosis temporarily made certain details harder to recall, and only among people who were especially responsive to it. Whether that would work on someone who’s watched Interstellar half a dozen times is another question.

There’s also research suggesting that knowing a movie’s ending isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Psychologists Nicholas Christenfeld and Jonathan Leavitt at UC San Diego found that people enjoyed short stories more when the endings were revealed beforehand. Their experiments involved written fiction, but the findings raise an interesting question about why we love rewatching movies in the first place.

After all, knowing what’s coming gives you a chance to appreciate details you missed the first time.

Pathé’s experiment might work for some participants, or everyone could spend an evening watching a movie they already know by heart. Either way, if Se7en wins the vote, somebody in The Hague is going to spend two hours hoping they’ve forgotten what’s in that box.

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