14 STRANGEST RESORT VACATIONS THAT ARE MILES FROM NORMAL

14 Strangest Resort Vacations That Are Miles From Normal
By M. W. Byrne, The Coolist, 27 January 2017.

A few drinks on a sandy beach is fine, but getting day drunk in the baking sun while staring at waves is going to get old, eventually. People who have already hit the tourist traps at Times Square and seen a henge or two, as well as a few tall buildings will start to feel the ennui that affects veteran globe-trotters. It doesn’t mean that there’s nothing new under the sun, it merely means you’re growing as a person and you need to branch out to find a real experience that is above, beyond, and around the corner from the average vacation.

Resorts are odd little microcosms that tailor your experience, offering you a golden ticket to spend some time in the little wonderland they have created. Usually these are places full of booze and sometimes people dressed up like princesses, but those aren’t the only choices. Dig a little deeper and go a few miles out of your way, and you’ll find some gems in the rough that might be diamonds, or might be Jeremejevite. Either way, these 14 weird resorts are worth writing home about.

1. Kitzbühel

Image via feratel.com

An odd medieval town that still uses brickwork from almost 700 years ago on its main thoroughfare, serious skiers are already aware that this is the holy grail for slope hounds. From here you can reach 7 ski areas for a grand total of more than a thousand trails. Its crowning glory is the Hahnenkamm run, a terrifying downhill monster that has claimed lives and ended promising careers, all in the name of fun.

2. Yunessun Spa

Image via gabvine.com

Leave it to Japan to turn the notion of the spa resort into something that looks like a nightmare cooked up by Hieronymus Bosch. Located in the little-known town of Hakone, it’s likely you’ve heard of the red wine soak that you can do at Yunessun, as that’s their headlining feature, but there’s also the option to sit in green tea, sake, or ramen broth.

3. Jules’ Undersea Lodge

Image via thinglink.com

There’s no hidden gimmick here, just an undersea research station that has been converted into an Atlantean resort where visitors must be Scuba certified just to make it through the front door. They’ve pushed the whole subaquatic lifestyle to the limit, offering most everything that can be found in an ordinary resort, right down to under the sea pizza delivery.

4. Poseidon Undersea Resort

Image via fubiz.net

The second strange resort to use Davy Jones’ Locker as a locale, the Poseidon focuses almost exclusively on spa treatments that incorporate their watery setting, with various kinds of hydrotherapy, and then caps it off with Triton submarine tours that use the sea as a playground. Though, as time drags on and it remains unopened, the fantasy is quickly fading into making it a forgotten, neglected notion whose time had not yet come.

5. Abandoned Bounty Beach Bungalows Resort

Image via theholidaze.com

In the realm of abandoned resorts, few are quite as haunting as the forgotten set of resorts built in Bali. Prepared to open in the early aughts, bombings in the area and terrorist attacks caused tourism to halt dramatically. Though the owner claimed he would return when the tradewinds were more favorable, this grim little resort that never was is a nice camping trip for those who don’t mind eerie silence.

6. Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort

Image via archilovers.com

Naturalists have numerous bubble dome resorts where they can cool their heels in an igloo or stare at the stars, but the glass spheres of Kakslauttanen offer up a panoramic view of the northern lights, capitalizing wisely on nature to handle the fireworks. Only open when the lights promise to make an appearance, it’s the most comfortable way to see the Aurora Borealis we’ve found so far.

7. Eve’s Garden

Image via evesgarden.org

Ecologically enticing and as colorful as a massive quinceanera, every structure in the Garden is constructed out of Papercret, a mix of repurposed paper and cement. It’s a living work of art, a celebration of life, and made even more unusual by being placed in the land of oil and cattle: The Lone Star State. Fans of architecture, sustainability, artistry, clean living, and strangeness will fit right in here.

8. Giraffe Manor

Image via compassandpassport.com

Once a Scottish hunting lodge in Kenya, this has been repurposed to celebrate rather than annihilate the wildlife around it. It's a rescue preserve for the endangered Rothschild giraffes, who regularly shake down visitors for food. When you tire of staring up at the long necks, there’s an elephant orphanage on the resort where you can visit the playful pachyderms sharing this corner of Africa.

9. Mount Hermon

Image via crosswalk.com

Driving up to Hermon, past the blocked-off mine fields, it quickly becomes clear that you are in a hotly contested border region between two of the oldest conflicting forces in the world. Considered the site of the Transfiguration, the gospels also say that at the base is Caesarea Philippi, and is known as the Eyes of the World because of the deep gaze it offers into Syria from its Israeli-held perch.

10. Ariau Amazon Towers

Image via travelandleisure.com

They say the best way to learn a language is immersion. By that logic, the Amazon Towers is the best resort to visit if you want to learn about life among the birds and monkeys of the rain forest. 5 miles worth of walkways allow you to move among the canopy of the jungle, with the teeming life all around you, and even enjoy swimming pools that sit among the boughs.

11. No Man’s Fort

Image via junkee.com

Made in the Victorian era to prevent Napoleon from invading, this island unto itself sits between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. While the solitude would be enough to entice the anti-social, the fact that the owner added in a giant laser tag arena to make the resort a site of fun and frolic for all ages.

12. Amangiri

Image via ryljets.com

A salty, sandy spa that disappears into the desert around it, the blending of natural and man-made is what makes this such an unusual spot. Rather than attempting to attain a faux-zen appearance with carefully constructed rock gardens, they’ve let nature do the heavy lifting, creating an integrated feel that’s honestly down to Earth.

13. Winvian Farm

Image via winvian.com

More for the storybook vacationer who wants a weird spot to rest their head, Winvian is an arrangement of cottages that range from secret society temples to helicopters, to the more whimsical fantasy items.

14. Karosta Prison

Image via discover-latvia.lv

An event resort where you get to spend time in a real Latvia gulag and enjoy the same ambience that prisoners of the KGB always boast about. You get to endure guard abuse, sleep on bunks, and languish in cells for 12 hours or play that’s well worth the price of admission. Or, you could just commit a crime to get an extended stay with the Department of Corrections. Your choice.

Top image: Giraffe Manor, Nairobi, Kenya. Credit: The Safari Collection.

[Source: The Coolist. Edited. Top image added.]

7 INEXPENSIVE GADGETS TO MAKE YOUR HOME FEEL FUTURISTIC

7 Inexpensive Gadgets to Make Your Home Feel Futuristic
By Dan Price, Make Use Of, 26 January 2017.

I’ve previously explained what a smart home of the future might look like. Unfortunately, most of the technology I covered is still a few years away from being publicly available.

What can you do if you want to make your home feel futuristic right now? Don’t despair. You have options.

In this piece, I’m going to introduce you to seven inexpensive gadgets that’ll turn your abode into something resembling the Jetson’s household.

1. LAYKOR Touchless Automatic Sensor Faucet

While American bathrooms still trail behind their hi-tech Japanese counterparts, the gap is slowly narrowing.

You can cut the gap further (and reduce cross contamination) by installing LAYKOR’s Touchless Automatic Sensor Faucet. It’ll make your washroom feel like the swankiest hotel in Midtown, New York.

The smart faucet won’t just help you fight off the germs. According to the manufacturer, it’ll even save you money on your water bill.

There is one drawback. The use of a sensor means the faucet has no hot/cold controls. You can either have cold water only or install a mixing valve below the sink. [US$79.99 at Amazon]

2. GE Z-Wave Wireless Lighting Control Outdoor Module

Sticking with the theme of hotels, you know you’re in a fancy establishment when all the exterior paths and driveways have low-level mood lighting. It just feels luxurious.

Of course, you can connect similar lighting in your own home, but it lacks something. What will really set you apart from your neighbors is installing a system that comes complete with an accompanying mobile app.

The GE Z-Wave Wireless Lighting Control Outdoor Module does exactly that. When guests are leaving, you can wow them with a simple tap on your smart device.

The module is compatible with all the leading smart home hubs, including SmartThings, Pulse, Wink, Honeywell, Connect, and Iris. [US$33.55 at Amazon]

3. First Alert PIR725 Motion Sensing Light Socket

Opinion is split on smart lighting. Is it an essential aspect of a smart home, or technology for the sake of it?

One of the criticisms smart lighting detractors frequently bring up is the price. The market-leading Philips Hue system is expensive and all you get is two lightbulbs and a hub. If you want to equip your entire home, you might need to spend more than US$1,000.

Thankfully, there are cheaper products available. One option is the First Alert PIR725 Motion Sensing Light Socket. It will automatically sense when someone enters or leaves a room, and turn the lights on or off accordingly.

The sensor screws directly into your existing light sockets and works with your current bulbs. It’s one of the most cost-effective ways to drag your property into the 21st century. [US$18.45 at Amazon]

4. Belkin WeMo Insight Switch

If you want to automate even more electrical items in your home, the Belkin WeMo Insight Switch is the way to go.

The switch plugs directly into your electric socket and connects to your Wi-Fi network. Your gadgets and appliances then plug into the switch. It allows you to control any connected device from your smartphone.

The uses are almost endless. You could turn on your kettle from your bed, surprise visitors with instant music through your hi-fi, or instantly activate your fans on a hot day.

The device’s capabilities extend beyond merely turning things on and off. You’ll get detailed reports about each plug’s electric usage, the ability to create schedules (you could make your kettle boil at the same time every morning), and even alerts when an appliance (such as your washing machine) turns itself off. [US$18.45 at Amazon]

5. KOHLER Moxie Showerhead and Wireless Speaker

Let’s return to your bathroom. Aside from automated faucets, what’s another gadget that all expensive hotels and gyms have? A built-in shower speaker, of course!

But how can you get a built-in speaker without spending a fortune ripping open your walls and installing a new shower? If you buy the KOHLER K-9245-CP 2.5 GPM Moxie Showerhead and Wireless Speaker, it’s easy.

You don’t need any DIY skills. The device screws directly onto your existing shower arm.

The speaker uses Bluetooth to connect with devices up to 32 feet away. The speaker part of the unit can be disconnected from the rest of the showerhead for easy recharging. [Buy Now At Amazon]

6. WINBOT W730 Window Cleaning Robot

By now, most of you will have heard of the Roomba floor cleaner. It can sweep, mop, and vacuum without any user input. You just place it on the floor and let it do its thing.

But how many of you have heard of the WINBOT W730 Window Cleaning Robot? The premise is the same as the Roomba, but instead of cleaning your floors, it cleans your windows.

It uses a suction system to attach itself to the glass, then uses sensors to clean every corner of the pane using its two cleaning pads and squeegee.

The robot is particularly useful if you have tall windows that are hard to reach or want to clean the exterior side of a window that’s not on the first floor. [US$179.00 at Amazon]

7. Curtain Call Remote-Controlled Drapery System

To add the finishing touches to your (reasonably) inexpensive futuristic smart home, you should consider adding automated blinds and curtains.

The Curtain Call Electric Remote Controlled Drapery System will work with any existing curtains that weigh less than 100 pounds. It will also sync with all the most common smart home hubs.

This item is the most expensive on this list, but it’s money well-spent. You’ll look seriously cool when the lights automatically dim, the drapes automatically close, and a movie automatically starts playing, all thanks to a few taps on your phone.

If you’re considering buying this item, make sure your curtains are close to a power supply - you need to plug in the rail for it to operate. [US$395.00 at Amazon]

I hope these seven smart home gadgets have made you realize it’s possible to have a futuristic home without breaking the bank.

A quick search on Google will reveal hundreds of similarly cheap products; you can find everything from automatic toilet flushes to smart trash cans.

Top image: ECOVACS WINBOT Window Cleaning Robot. Credit: ECOVACS.

[Source: Make Use Of. Edited. Top image added.]

INFOGRAPHIC: CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN THE DIGITAL AGE

The digital age has changed many aspects of our daily lives, from how we communicate with each other to how we work. One thing that hasn’t changed is the inevitability that conflicts will arise at home, in the workplace, and among friends. Conflict resolution in this digital age can be complicated and in many ways more challenging to resolve. This infographic by Abilene Christian University shows you what you need to know to be successful in this environment.

Infographic Sources:
1. Here's How Many Internet Users There Are
2. The Third Wheel: The Impact of Twitter Use on Relationship Infidelity and Divorce
3. Mobile Phones and Society - How Being Constantly Connected Impacts Our Lives
4. How Texting Changes Communication
5. The smartphone in the bed: How to keep technology from ruining your relationship
6. Cell Phones are Changing Social Interaction
7. Most U.S. Smartphone Owners Check Phone at Least Hourly
8. Addicted to Your Smartphone? Here's What to Do
9. The Effect of Technology on Face-to-Face Communication
10. Social Media Usage: 2005-2015
11. Antisocial Networks? Hostility on social media rising for 78 percent of users

[Source: Abilene Christian University.]

10 HEARTBREAKING FACTS ABOUT HOMELESSNESS

10 Heartbreaking Facts About Homelessness
Posted by Morris M, Toptenz, 27 January 2017.

According to the Department for Housing and Urban Development (HUD) there are over half a million homeless living in the US. Visit a country like, say, India, and that number rises comfortably into the millions. Even Japan, which has one of the lowest homeless rates on Earth, has over 20,000 citizens sleeping rough. We’re not exaggerating when we say homelessness is a problem that affects every society there is.

But what exactly does it mean to be homeless in 2017? Is it a non-stop horror show of misery, or an easy life of living it large at society’s expense? Dig beneath the headlines and the stereotypes, and it becomes plain that homelessness is bigger, crazier, and more-difficult to deal with than you could have possibly imagined.

10. Life Expectancy is Shockingly Low

If you’re reading this from a developed nation, chances are you have a reasonable shot at reaching 80 years of age. Between 77-89 is the life expectancy for nations as diverse as the USA, UK, Czech Republic, Albania, Costa Rica, Japan and Monaco. Even countries like Colombia, Morocco, and the West Bank have average life expectancies of over 75 years. Unless you happen to be homeless. In the UK, the average homeless life expectancy is a shocking 47 years.

That’s a shorter time on this Earth than you’d get living in Chad, Afghanistan or North Korea. Were homelessness a country, it’d have by far the lowest life expectancy on the planet. And here’s the thing, the UK isn’t an outlier. In parts of the US, homeless people die on average around the age of 42. In parts of Scotland, they can expect to die at 39.

The last time the US or UK had a life expectancy that low in their general population, Queen Victoria was still on the throne. That’s right. Homelessness is as bad for your health as living in a time before penicillin and mass-vaccinations. It certainly doesn’t help that…

9. Being Homeless Means Being Horribly Ill

Remember the last time you were caught outside in bad weather and came down with a stinking cold? Homelessness is that experience, 24/7. Only, instead of a few days in bed or feeling gross at work, you get months of feeling like your entire body is going haywire.

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) has a list here of some of the health problems associated with homelessness. It makes for awful reading. Stuff like frostbite, disorders of the extremities, malnutrition and skin diseases are par for the course. Tooth and gum problems, degenerative illnesses and infected wounds are prevalent, as are things like alcohol poisoning and sexually-transmitted diseases. Terrifyingly, one of the most common health problems comes from trauma. A depressing number of people out there like nothing more than to attack the homeless and try and put them in the hospital.

Speaking of hospitals, mental problems and social stigma also make the homeless less likely to seek medical help, meaning treatable problems get worse. The NCBI page includes the tale of a woman whose swollen legs eventually gave way to maggot-infested open sores.

8. You Can be Homeless and Working

What’s your mental image of homelessness? We’re betting its some grizzled old dude with a weather-beaten face, muttering on the subway about the government planting radios in his teeth. We’re not gonna deny those guys exist. But they’re far from the whole story. There exists a whole branch of homeless people out there who we never hear anything about. These are the people who are homeless while still holding down a job.

A December 2016 Guardian article interviewed people who worked at pubs, at McDonald’s, and even in an office making over minimum wage, but were still homeless. Some were in temporary accommodation, some slept at their place of employment, and some simply slept in parks. While the newspaper’s story was London-specific, this happens in the US, too. Al-Jazeera reported in 2013 that as many as 25% of American homeless may have jobs.

For the working homeless, life on the streets means pain and ill-heath and misery, but also keeping yourself clean and presentable enough to go to work every day. It’s a horribly depressing existence, and one that’s often ignored in articles like this one. ‘But how can someone possibly be holding down a long-term job and dealing with homelessness?’ we hear you cry. We’re glad you asked.

7. Being Homeless is Insanely Expensive

Most of us probably assume that there’s no cheaper lifestyle than homelessness. Most of us are wrong. For some people who find themselves out on the streets, homelessness isn’t just a depressing pain. It’s a financial black hole that sucks in all their available funds.

Things many of us take for granted are not available on the streets. Finding somewhere to shower costs money. Finding somewhere safe to leave your work clothes costs money. Staying in even the worst motel costs more than paying rent, and sleeping in your car means you’re still dealing with gas and maintenance. Then there are the homeless who wind up on the streets with their kids. If they’re working, most of their money is probably going into paying someone to look after their child for a few hours every day so they don’t wind up getting hurt or assaulted.

But what about shelters? Sadly, most shelters will move you on after a few months. It all adds up to a world where the money coming in can be just enough to sustain your homeless lifestyle, but not enough to escape it. Proper streets-and-sleeping-under-bridges homelessness is undoubtedly cheap. Homelessness when you’re desperately trying to cling onto your job and have a kid to take care of? Not so much.

6. You Can be Homeless and Studying

Being homeless and working is bad enough. But there’s another sub-section of the homeless that we hear even less about: those who are homeless and studying. In 2014, over 56,000 college students in America were classified as homeless. Rather than safe spaces and trigger warnings, these kids are dealing with a daily fight for survival.

The reasons are myriad and complex. Some come from poor families and went to college on a scholarship, only to lose funding. Others were working class students who suffered a sudden injury or layoff and now can’t bring money in. Yet others were homeless from the get-go, and are desperately trying to earn a college degree and escape into the middle class. Some sleep in the campus library. Some in their cars. Yet others sofa surf friends’ houses. Some are even stuck in shelters.

As an added kick to the groin, many find the pressures of homelessness so stressful that they perform poorly in class, endangering their chances of escaping from poverty. Graduating with a debt of around US$30,000 doesn’t help, either.

5. Dealing With Homelessness Costs the State Crazy Money

We mentioned a moment ago that homelessness is expensive. We didn’t just mean for the homeless themselves. Rough sleeping costs society crazy amounts of money. At the end of the last decade, it cost the mayor’s office US$36,000 per year to shelter a single family in New York City. It was such a drain on the city’s coffers that the Bloomberg administration began buying one way airline tickets to anywhere in the world for homeless people, paying over US$6,000 in one instance to fly a homeless person to Paris.

Do even the tiniest bit of research and the numbers quickly become mind-boggling. When HUD calculated the cost of homelessness, including increased use of public services due to health problems, they found a single homeless person in the US can cost the taxpayer US$40,000 a year. For those with mental health issues living in expensive parts of the country, that cost could rise as high as US$150,000. Given the half-a-million American homeless we mentioned earlier, you can see how those figures quickly add up.

4. Middle Class Homelessness

The Great Recession has been over for a while now, and the media is reporting on it less and less. Unemployment is down. Growth is (kinda) back. But the effects of the devastating ’08 crash are still lingering. While the rich have rebounded, many in middle class have been forced into desperate situations they’re still trying to escape. Some of them have even wound up becoming homeless.

In November 2015, homeless advocates estimated that there were more homeless living in cars than at any time since the Great Depression. While the US government doesn’t keep precise data on these mobile homeless, it is assumed that a great many of them are middle class. The American middle class rarely does full-on, on-the-streets homelessness. Those who were in decent, white collar jobs tend to wind up in cheap motels, or sleeping in the houses of friends and relatives, or just living out of their cars. In effect, they’re the invisible homeless. And you better believe that life is still tough for them.

Part of this is due to the general decline of the American middle class. For the first time in decades, the middle class, as a group, has seen their combined wealth dip below that of the combined upper class. Being middle class just doesn’t pay anymore.

3. Non-Homeless Peoples’ Brains See the Homeless as Objects

We’ve all heard people - friends, relatives, colleagues - complaining about homeless people before, often in language that suggests they don’t see the poor as even human. It’s not a nice thing to hear, but there’s a good chance it’s not even their fault. Our brains respond in different ways to different groups, depending on our prejudices. Where the homeless are concerned, neuroimaging studies suggest we see them as literally no different to objects.

When we see images of other humans, our medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) typically activates. Functional magnetic resonance imaging shows it has activity even when viewing groups we typically see as undesirable (hate preachers, say). On the other hand, there is no mPFC activity when we’re looking at objects. When a Princeton study measured our brains’ responses to homeless people, it found there was no mPFC activation. In other words, most non-homeless brains process rough sleepers in the exact same way we process objects.

This is consistent with how extreme ‘out groups’ are often seen in society. An analogy might be how the Tutsi were seen by the Hutu ethnic group prior to the Rwandan genocide. While we doubt we’re about to see a mass-killing of homeless people, these same mechanisms do mean we care much less when we hear about the homeless being harassed or begging for help than we would if they came from another social group.

2. Elderly Homeless Numbers are Rising

We mentioned earlier that the homeless tend to die younger. That’s because living on the streets is really, really not something the elderly are well-equipped to deal with. Nonetheless, old homeless people do exist, and always have. The difference is that now their numbers are rising. In 2016, nearly a third of America’s homeless population was over the age of 51.

This is a relatively new phenomenon. Prior to 2007, the fraction was closer to a fifth. Then the Great Recession came, and older homeless numbers spiked by 10 percentage points. Plenty of them are the same people who got caught when the Recession killed the US middle class. They’re former entrepreneurs, writers, artists, stay-at-home moms and business consultants who thought they’d put enough away for the future in the heady credit-fueled days of the early 21st century. Then the banks nearly collapsed, work dried up, money ran out and they found out they were wrong.

Now they’re scraping by, at the bottom of society, trying to survive in a world that’s tough enough when you’re young and fit. Ignored by the government, with no hope for the future.

1. Homelessness and Murder

Just being homeless puts you at an increased risk of being assaulted or murdered. Go looking, and you’ll find plenty of stories like that of the homeless woman who had her head stamped on 7 times because a local man couldn’t stand her “smell.” Or the homeless man who nearly burned to death when violent thugs set his tent on fire. While these crimes are serious enough in America, in other parts of the world they’re truly shocking.

Take Colombia. In Bogota, the army operated death squads that would execute the homeless, dress them up as fighters for the FARC rebel group, and claim a bounty on them. Over a thousand were murdered this way, in a scandal now known as the ‘false positives’. Or take India, where homeless shelters are so thin on the ground that 33,000 died from exposure in Delhi alone in a single decade. Or North Korea, where homeless children are interred in camps and left to die of malnutrition.

These are all extreme cases, but they’re also a sad reality of life for many millions of homeless across the world. Being homeless in America, Britain, or Europe is undoubtedly better. But that doesn’t mean it’s a walk in the park.

Top image: Homeless Veteran on the streets of Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Credit: Matthew Woitunski/Wikimedia Commons.

[Source: Toptenz. Edited. Top image added.]

INFOGRAPHIC: 7 BODY LANGUAGE INTERVIEW MISTAKES (AND HOW TO AVOID THEM)

Employer surveys conducted by Career Builder and Adecco suggest that every little thing you're doing with your eyes, hands, and body during an interview could be sending out signals about you that you're completely unaware of. It's not what you say that's important to your prospective employer, but how you say it. It's your non-verbal behaviors that you should pay attention to, not your words. This infographic by On Stride Financial illustrates seven non-verbal behaviors that makes for a priceless resource ahead of an interview.

Infographic Sources:
1. Employers Share Strangest Interview Mishaps and Biggest Body Language Mistakes
2. Hiring Managers Believe New College Grads are Unprepared for the Workforce
3. Fear and avoidance of eye contact in social anxiety disorder
4. 3 Etiquette Rules You Should Know About Eye Contact
5. Body Language at Interviews: eye contact, posture, confidence
6. Why Do We Fidget?
7. Seven Ways to Boost Confidence at a Job Interview
8. The 10 worst body language mistakes job seekers make
9. The Five Mistakes That Can Ruin Any Handshake
10. Research confirms a firm grip is key to successful job interview
11. Handshake Key to Landing a Job, Scientists Claim
12. Powerful Postures Versus Powerful Roles
13. Body Language Tricks to Use During a Job Interview
14. Top 10 Interview Tips From An Etiquette Professional
15. 15 Body Language Secrets of Successful People.
16. Tattoos bring a new form of body language to the office
17. Is Nonverbal Communication a Numbers Game?

[Source: On Stride Financial via Mental Floss.]