Conversation Piece, November 5, 2017

A weekly series.

Conversation Piece

Enjoy our Sunday series, Conversation Piece, a NUVO–curated digest of things on the Internet we think you’ll want to talk about.

Took them long enough. Jumpin’ gingers, redheads rejoice! Finally, after what feels like an eternity, Unicode (the makers of such memorable emojis as the smiling face with heart eyes, the person shrugging, and everyone’s favourite, the friendly pile of poop) have finally announced they will release the most-requested icon since Apple unveiled iOS 11.1—yes, finally we redheads will have a way to identify ourselves accurately via tiny caricature. We’re also getting curly-headed emojis, cupcakes, and swans. Learn more, here.

Sacre beurre. France is running out of butter—meaning, the biggest per capita butter consumers in the world are struggling with shortages as increasing global demand and falling supplies have contributed in skyrocketing prices—the price of butter tripled in 2016, and is still on the rise. As a result, citizens of France have resorted to panic-buying sticks of the good stuff to spread on baguettes and melt into sauces—though they chaos is (thankfully) predicted to be short-lived. Read about it, here.

The science of sleep. Last month, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to a team of sleep researchers for their discoveries pertaining to the circadian rhythm—the body’s biological clock, a system of particular interest during the “catastrophic sleep-loss epidemic” the team believes the world is facing. Why catastrophic? Well, the effects of sleep-loss are powerfully linked to diseases like Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes, and obesity. As we prepare to set our clocks back this Sunday, it seems a pertinent time to be reminded why an extra hour is a powerful thing. Read more.

PSA: Coconut oil is not a cure-all. Coconut oil is awesome, but not for everything, warns beauty site Into the Gloss. Yes, we’ve been told in recent years that coconut oil is something of a magic elixir—good for the body, inside and out, smeared on toast or rubbed into scalps. But this smug organic product is not actually supposed to be used on your face, or hair, or on problems like eczema, or heaven help you as a personal lubricant. So, stop it. Just stop. Here’s more on why.

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