​Only two Asian countries make the top 10, with the rest spread across Europe, North America, and Oceania.

Despite historic economic challenges, Greece is projected to gain 1,200 High Net Worth Individuals this year. One reason could be the country’s golden visa program, wherein wealthy individuals can easily obtain residence and eventually EU passports for the right price—currently a minimum real estate investment cost of 250,000 euros is all that’s required.

Many of the leading millionaire destinations are attractive for wealthy individuals because of higher levels of economic freedom, allowing for laxer tax burdens or ease of investment. Singapore, which expects to gain 3,200 millionaires, is the most economically free market in the world.

The Countries Losing the Most Millionaires​
China is anticipated to lose 13,500 High Net Worth Individuals this year, more than double as many as the second place country, India (6,500).

​In a number of these countries, strict regulatory bodies and corrupt governments can hinder the ease with which HNWIs can manage their own money.

In Russia, many wealthy individuals are facing personal tariffs and trade restrictions from Western countries due to the war in Ukraine. China’s crackdowns on Hong Kong have made it a less attractive place for business. And finally, the UK’s exit from the EU has caused many businesses and individuals to lose the easy movement of labor, finances, and investment that made operations across European borders seamless.

Some of these countries may still be adding homegrown millionaires and billionaires, but losing thousands of HNWIs to net migration does have a considerable economic impact.
Overall, millionaires are increasingly on the move. In the 10 years of reporting—despite a dip during the pandemic—the number of HNWIs moving away from their countries of origin has been growing every year.

​​In a geopolitically fragile but more connected world, it’s no surprise to see millionaires voting with their feet. As a result, governments are increasingly in competition to win the hearts and minds of the world’s economic elite to their side.

Source:visualcapitalist.com​

​​In 2022, reported consumer losses to fraud totaled $8.8 billion. Younger adults ages 20-29 reported losing money more often than older adults ages 70-79.

With the help of technology, scammers are tricking Americans out of more money than ever before. But there are steps you can take to keep your money and information safe.


In 2022, reported consumer losses to fraud totaled $8.8 billion — a 30 percent increase from 2021, according to the most recent data from the Federal Trade Commission. The biggest losses were to investment scams, including cryptocurrency schemes, which cost people more than $3.8 billion, double the amount in 2021.


Younger adults ages 20-29 reported losing money more often than older adults ages 70-79, the FTC found. But when older adults did lose money, they lost more. Many retirees have assets like savings, pensions, life insurance policies or property for scammers to target.


With the rise of the digital economy, scammers now reach targets by social media and text, as well as phone and email. Online payment platforms, apps, and marketplaces have also increased opportunities. Still, many of their tactics and strategies are similar.


“The first thing they’ll do is get you into a heightened emotional state, because we can’t access clear thinking when we’re in that state,” said Kathy Stokes, director of fraud prevention for the AARP’s Fraud Watch Network. “It could be fear, panic, or excitement — ‘I just won a million dollars from Publishers Clearing House.’”


Once the sense of urgency is established, the target’s defenses are down.


“When approached with urgency, give it an extra three-second pause,” said Amanda Clayman, a financial therapist who works with digital payment network Zelle around issues of fraud. “When someone is trying to get us to take action quickly, that’s usually a red flag indicating we should do the opposite.”


Here’s what else to know to keep your money and information safe:


What are some common scams?
Simply being aware of typical scams can help, experts say. Robocalls in particular frequently target vulnerable individuals like seniors, people with disabilities, and people with debt.


“If you get a robocall out of the blue paying a recorded message trying to get you to buy something, just hang up,” aid James Lee, chief operating officer at the Identity Theft Resource Center. “Same goes for texts — anytime you get them from a number you don’t know asking you to pay, wire, or click on something suspicious.”


Lee urges consumers to hang up and call the company or institution in question at an official number.


Scammers will also often imitate someone in authority, such as a tax or debt collector. They might pretend to be a loved one calling to request immediate financial assistance for bail, legal help, or a hospital bill.


Romance scams
So-called “romance scams” often target lonely and isolated individuals, according to Will Maxson, assistant director of the Division of Marketing Practices at the FTC. These scams can take place over longer periods of time -- even years.


Kate Kleinart, 70, who lost tens of thousands to a romance scam over several months, said to be vigilant if a new Facebook friend is exceptionally good-looking, asks you to download WhatsApp to communicate, attempts to isolate you from friends and family, and/or gets romantic very quickly.


“If you’re seeing that picture of a very handsome person, ask someone younger in your life — a child, a grandchild, a niece or a nephew — to help you reverse-image search or identify the photo,” she said.


She said the man in pictures she received was a plastic surgeon from Spain whose photos have been stolen and used by scammers.
Kleinart had also been living under lockdown during the early pandemic when she got the initial friend request, and the companionship and communication meant a lot to her while she was cut off from family. When the scam fell apart, she missed the relationship even more than the savings.


“Losing the love was worse than losing the money,” she said.


What should I do about text and email scams?​
“I think anyone who has participated in the digital economy has received multiple attempts daily that have some sort of scheme, whether that’s, ‘Your account has been locked’ or ‘Your package delivery is delayed,’” Lee said. “Again — just take a breath — and verify.”

Lee urges people never to click an unusual link in a text or email, and instead go to the site in question directly, or call the number listed on the official site.

“It’ll take 30 or 40 seconds longer, but go ahead and do that because it could save you a lot of money every time,” he said.
Some indications to be extra wary could include an unrecognized sender, unusual wording, or a tell-tale misspelling.
In 2022, consumers lost more than $326 million from scam texts alone, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

What are other common red flags?
Gift cards. Both Maxson and Lee said any mention of payment with gift cards should be a blaring warning alarm.

Kleinart, who experienced the romance scam, was also initially asked to send money via gift cards, with varied explanations.
“Just don’t pay people with gift cards,” Maxson said. “No legitimate company or individual is going to ask you to buy large quantities of gift cards and then read the numbers off the cards. That is exclusively a payment method of fraudsters.”

“Let me tell you, the IRS does not accept gift cards,” Lee said. “But you’d be surprised by the number of people who fall for people calling from ‘fill in the blank agency’ or ‘fill in the blank company’ and who send $500 worth of gift cards.”

What about social media scams?
In addition to romance scams like the one Kleinart fell victim to, here’s what to know about other common social media scams:

Investment scams
According to Lois Greisman, an associate director of marketing practices at the FTC, an investment scam constitutes any get-rich-quick scheme that lures targets via social media accounts or online ads.


Investment scammers typically add different forms of “testimony,” such as from other social media accounts, to support that the “investment” works. Many of these also involve cryptocurrency. To avoid falling for these frauds, the FTC recommends independently researching the company — especially by searching the company’s name along with terms like “review” or “scam.”


Quiz scams
When you’re using Facebook or scrolling Google results, be aware of quiz scams, which typically appear innocuous and ask about topics you might be interested in, such as your car or favorite TV show. They may also ask you to take a personality test.


Despite these benign-seeming questions, scammers can then use the personal information you share to respond to security questions from your accounts or hack your social media to send malware links to your contacts.


To protect your personal information, the FTC simply recommends steering clear of online quizzes. The commission also advises consumers to use random answers for security questions.


“Asked to enter your mother’s maiden name? Say it’s something else: Parmesan or another word you’ll remember,” advises Terri Miller, consumer education specialist at the FTC. “This way, scammers won’t be able to use information they find to steal your identity.”


Marketplace scams
When buying or selling products on Instagram or Facebook Marketplace, keep in mind that not everyone that reaches out to you has the best intentions.
To avoid being scammed when selling via an online platform, the FTC recommends checking buyers’ profiles, not sharing any codes sent to your phone or email, and avoiding accepting online payments from unknown persons.
​

Likewise, when buying something from an online marketplace, make sure to diligently research the seller. Take a look at whether the profile is verified, what kind of reviews they have, and the terms and conditions of the purchase.

Source:The Associated Press
​

​In case you're wondering whether it's cheaper to start from scratch.

With buying an existing home being financially out of reach for so many, some people are considering going a different route: Purchasing land and constructing a new house. But when you factor in the cost of the property, labor, and materials—which have also gone up in price, thanks to supply chain issues and inflation—building a new home is unlikely to be cheaper, at least according to a new report from Today’s Homeowner.

​Of course, a lot depends on the size of the house you’re building, the type of materials and furnishings you plan to use, and where you live. To give you an idea of what you might end up paying in your area, here are Today’s Homeowner’s estimates of the average cost of building a new house in each state.

​The cost of building a new house in each state
To rank the states for their report, Today’s Homeowner estimated the average price of building a new 2,100-square-foot spec home, excluding “the cost of a land plot and development” in each location. Using that methodology, the average cost of building a new home in the United States is $332,397, which comes out to $158 per square foot.

Here are the average costs for each state, ranked from least to most expensive:

​

1. Mississippi
   Total price: $287,670
   Price per square foot: $137
2. Arkansas
   Total price: $288,175
   Price per square foot: $137
3. Alabama
   Total price: $291,397
   Price per square foot: $139
4. Louisiana
   Total price: $296,107
   Price per square foot: $141
5. North Carolina
   Total price: $297,062
   Price per square foot: $141
6. Florida
   Total price: $297,228
   Price per square foot: $142
7. Oklahoma
   Total price: $300,673
   Price per square foot: $143
8. South Carolina
   Total price: $301,079
   Price per square foot: $143
9. South Dakota
   Total price: $301,739
   Price per square foot: $144
10. Tennessee
    Total price: $302,204
    Price per square foot: $144
11. West Virginia
    Total price: $304,383
    Price per square foot: $145
12. Georgia
    Total price: $305,143
    Price per square foot: $145
13. Kentucky
    Total price: $308,661
    Price per square foot: $147
14. Texas
    Total price: $309,334
    Price per square foot: $147
15. Virginia
    Total price: $310,815
    Price per square foot: $148
16. Kansas
    Total price: $312,435
    Price per square foot: $149
17. New Mexico
    Total price: $314,409
    Price per square foot: $150
18. Arizona
    Total price: $317,153
    Price per square foot: $151
19. Vermont
    Total price: $322,652
    Price per square foot: $154
20. Iowa
    Total price: $324,620
    Price per square foot: $155
21. Michigan
    Total price: $325,347
    Price per square foot: $155
22. Idaho
    Total price: $326,675
    Price per square foot: $156
23. Nevada
    Total price: $326,753
    Price per square foot: $156
24. Delaware
    Total price: $329,212
    Price per square foot: $157
25. Wyoming
    Total price: $329,590
    Price per square foot: $157
26. Indiana
    Total price: $329,607
    Price per square foot: $157
27. Colorado
    Total price: $330,238
    Price per square foot: $157
28. Nebraska
    Total price: $332,676
    Price per square foot: $158
29. Ohio
    Total price: $333,741
    Price per square foot: $159
30. Montana
    Total price: $334,808
    Price per square foot: $159
31. Wisconsin
    Total price: $335,299
    Price per square foot: $160
32. Maryland
    Total price: $337,392
    Price per square foot: $161
33. Utah
    Total price: $338,173
    Price per square foot: $161
34. Oregon
    Total price: $338,532
    Price per square foot: $161
35. Pennsylvania
    Total price: $339,167
    Price per square foot: $162
36. North Dakota
    Total price: $340,480
    Price per square foot: $162
37. Missouri
    Total price: $341,452
    Price per square foot: $163
38. Maine
    Total price: $345,816
    Price per square foot: $165
39. Alaska
    Total price: $348,591
    Price per square foot: $166
40. Minnesota
    Total price: $352,943
    Price per square foot: $168
41. New Hampshire
    Total price: $361,098
    Price per square foot: $172
42. Washington
    Total price: $363,120
    Price per square foot: $173
43. California
    Total price: $363,314
    Price per square foot: $173
44. Connecticut
    Total price: $367,853
    Price per square foot: $175
45. New York
    Total price: $371,875
    Price per square foot: $177
46. Rhode Island
    Total price: $372,069
    Price per square foot: $177
47. Illinois
    Total price: $380,189
    Price per square foot: $181
48. New Jersey
    Total price: $387,262
    Price per square foot: $184
49. Massachusetts
    Total price: $402,709
    Price per square foot: $192
50. Hawaii
    Total price: $431,364
    Price per square foot:$205

The full report contains additional information about the methodology used to compile this list, as well as a breakdown of the types of expenses associated with building a new home.

​Explore the beloved wildlife refuge in suburban Morris County, NJ, where countless species make their home and hundreds of volunteers are partnering with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to make it more accessible for years to come.

​​1. Lake Sports Home - Hopatcong
If you love action on the water, this is the place for you. This lakefront house is best known for its massive collection of lake sports equipment - including kayaks, surfboards, and even jet skis. The place is small and designed for two people, but has all the additional amenities you'll need - and you'll want to spend most of your time out on the water or grilling on the deck! Book your lakefront getaway at the official Airbnb listing.

2. Private Waterfront Park - White
​This might just be the most stunning guest suite in the state, sleeping three in the middle of a stunning Delaware riverfront park. It's a tiny home equipped with wifi and a smart TV, and a fully equipped cabin makes it easy to prepare meals far away from civilization. This is perfect for a glamping getaway amid south Jersey natural beauty, so book your getaway on the official Airbnb listing.

​

3. Apgar Stone House - Finesville​
This historic house near Phillipsburg was selected as the most hospitable host in NH for 2023, and this restored building is suited on the Musconetcong River. Wifi and a Smart TV are inside, but Spring is the perfect time to also enjoy the beauty of the outdoor garden in full bloom. This one sleeps six and is really the best of both world for nature lovers who also want a comfortable getaway, so book your stay on the official Airbnb listing!
​

5. Lakefront Vacation Home - Stanhope
​A charming art-deco lakefront home sleeping four on the banks of Lake Musconetcong, this is a laid-back place ideal for adults who want to do a little tour of the area. This is winery country, making for an amazing day trip. The lake is popular for fishing, and this is an ideal spot for a staycation with amazing lakefront views. Book your escape on the official Airbnb listing,.

​

6. Romantic Lake Cabin - West Milford
Maybe the most romantic spot on this list, this West Milford vacatiuon home sleeps three and has some incredible amenities - including an indoor hot tub with a stunning view of the woods outside. This private lakehouse retreat, known as Zen Xcape, is designed to look like a mountain lodge and comes with a full kitchen. It's only ten minutes from Wawayanda State Park's famous lake, and the hiking trails nearby are highly rated. Book your own getaway in nature on the official Airbnb listing!

​

​7. Pickle Farm - Far Hills
​If you're lookin for pastoral beauty, you won't do any better than this. Located on a 19th-centry farm, this location has been used for film shoots. The farmhouse sleeps five guests in roomy climates and is minutes from the train - but is surrounded. by hundreds of acres of gorgeous open land and state parks. This is the perfect staycation for those looking for a taste of farm life, so go ahead and book your getaway on the official Airbnb listing!
​

​"Best Cities" is the home of Resonance Consultancy’s exclusive ranking of the world’s top urban destinations. Their goal is to make "Best Cities" the most credible source of city performance in the eyes of visitors, investors and residents alike.

​Ditch the rental car and hit the streets in these gorgeous eco-friendly destinations.
Whenever I go down to God’s Waiting Room (i.e. South Florida) to see my father, I’m always struck by the fact that I can’t walk anywhere. I can’t stroll to the grocery store, can’t hoof it to a movie theater, can’t amble to—or stumble home from—the bar. It’s almost like the entire I-95 corridor from Jacksonville to Miami was designed to favor cars over actual humans. Oh, wait. It was.
New York, though! You can walk to pretty much anything—which is why you don’t get cabin fever here as you might in LA or Fort Lauderdale. I spent my formative years in the pedestrian wasteland of Orange County, where the closest grocery store was a two-mile walk through a gated subdivision. People driving by would actually slow down and ask if I was alright if they caught me walking; only a silly person would ever venture out of the house on foot.
Thankfully, sprawl is going out of style stateside. Cities that were once defined by their car-oriented layouts are now focusing on getting denser and more walkable. (I’ve seen those priorities change firsthand in my past life as a city planner in Boston and New York City.) You want to feel the future now? Get to one of these, the 10 most walkable cities in America selected by combining two exhaustive studies on pedestrian accessibility: Smart Growth America’s “Foot Traffic Ahead” and Redfin’s annual Walk Score rankings. These are places where you can get around cheaply, boost your health, and steer clear of ozone-depleting emissions—all while seeing the sights from the comfort of your own sneakers.

​New York City

Walking creds: It’s New York and then everywhere else when it comes to pure walkability. Density contributes, sure, but so does the consistent overlap of commercial and residential space, a mix that has become a veritable blueprint for a successful urban makeup. As city planning legend Jane Jacobs once said of mixed-use development: “Intricate minglings of different uses in cities are not a form of chaos. On the contrary, they represent a complex and highly developed form of order.” New York grew organically from the 17th century onward, long before New Yorkers could rely on cars. Partly as a result, it has always been a pedestrian’s city. As of 2021, 55% of New York City residents don’t have access to a car.

Best neighborhood for a stroll: If we’re talking about sheer density of things to eat, drink, and buy, you’re not going to beat Greenwich Village. The original borders of the Village run from Broadway on the east to the Hudson River on the west, and south from 14th Street to Houston Street, though I’m sure realtors are plotting ways carve and rebrand the neighborhood as we speak. If you want the real throwback NYC experience, start with a pint at the White Horse Tavern and wind through Washington Square Park before catching a movie at the Angelika Film Center.

​San Francisco, California

Walking creds: So maybe “hikable” is a better descriptor, but you’d still be hard-pressed to find another city in California that lets you go car-free without feeling like a pariah. (Though I’ve definitely gotten some side eye from local friends when I suggest we walk instead of summoning an Uber to travel six blocks.) The densely packed heart of San Francisco running roughly from the Mission in the south to North Beach rivals New York City in its concentrated mix of residences and commercial outposts. I know the tech bros now swarming the city are working to disrupt the legacy institution of “walking,” but until then San Francisco is a peripatetic paradise.
​
Best neighborhood for a stroll: The Mission. I know that makes me the millionth person to tell you “Oh, man, the Mission is awesome.” But it truly has everything you’d want in walkable neighborhood. And by “everything,” I mean Mexican food. Really, really exceptional Mexican food. Start at La Taqueria and work your way north until you inevitably nap it off in Dolores Park.

​Washington, DC

Walking creds: The nation’s capital ranks as the third most walkable city on Smart Growth America’s Foot Traffic Ahead. “There’s so much diversity in a walk through the city,” says longtime DC resident Felicia Stumpo. “You can walk through Meridian Hill or Georgetown or H Street or hike through Rock Creek Park, and you feel like you’re in a different city with each place.” DC’s shifting topography and generally short stature—only a handful of buildings here exceed 200 feet in height—imbues it with a constant sense of discovery, which is a big part of what makes a city a pleasure to stroll through.

Best neighborhood for a stroll: Hit a pair of adjacent ones: Bohemian Adams Morgan and rapidly gentrifying Columbia Heights. They’re both far enough north that you can avoid the poorly dressed phalanx of legislative aides plotting world domination in Dupont Circle without feeling like you’re in the ‘burbs, and you can also hoof it to both neighborhoods after a day of sightseeing on the Mall.

​Chicago, Illinois

Walking creds: Chicago has undergone a walkability renaissance over the past few years thanks to the city’s planning department designing streets with pedestrians in mind rather than cars. One visible project is the 606, an elevated park built along abandoned railway tracks and Chicago’s answer to New York’s wildly successful Highline. The renewed vision is boosted by the pipeline of young, creative folks moving to the Second City from all over the world—and perhaps by an epically cynical selloff that privatized street parking around the city, inadvertently making driving in Chicago feel like getting taken for a ride.

​Best neighborhood for a stroll: The 606 connects several of Chicago’s trendiest neighborhoods and thus should be avoided at all costs. I’m kidding. The 2.7-mile trail cuts through the hipster digs of Wicker Park and Logan Square and is only a couple blocks south of the bars and restaurants lining West Armitage Avenue. If you’re looking to eat your way through the 606, we’ve got you a good starting point.

​Philadelphia, Pennsylvania​
​
Walking creds: As New York real estate prices out young creative types, Philly is there to scoop ‘em up. And no wonder: Philly was always a distinct but sibling city to NYC. As a friend of mine once said: “With Philly you get 80% of New York for 50% of the price.” That ratio extends to the city’s walkability. You can stroll from the rowhouses along the waterfront in Old City to the Victorian mansions surrounding Rittenhouse Square without breaking a sweat and then head northeast to the hipster havens of Fishtown and Northern Liberties for dinner at Wm. Mulherin’s Sons or Fette Sau.

Best neighborhood for a stroll: While the twin hoods of Northern Liberties and Fishtown might be the trendiest spots in Philly, they’re too spread out to qualify as the most walkable neighborhoods in the city. That designation belongs to the tony stretch of brownstones and parks that line Center City in the heart of Philadelphia’s Downtown. Yes, it has all the makings of a tourist center but that’s balanced out by genuine landmarks like the Liberty Bell and City Hall, not to mention excellent restaurants like El Vez and the vegan sorcery at Vedge. (Rutabaga fondue. That’s all I’ll say.)

​Seattle, Washington
​
Walking creds: If Jeff Bezos had his way you’d probably have to traverse the Emerald City by drone, but for now the best way to see Seattle is on foot. (Or, if you’re masochistic, by bike.) The city is built atop hills that provide sweeping views of Puget Sound and also means the trek from waterside Belltown up what is basically a sheer cliff to trendy Capitol Hill. (As my Seattleite sister-in-law says, “We all have great glutes from walking those hills.”) Verticality is usually a good sign for walking, and Seattle packs a ton of housing and offices into its compact Downtown while also boasting some of the best food anywhere. You’ll inevitably need a good digestive walk.
​
Best neighborhood for a stroll: In my visits to Seattle, I’ve always felt an affinity for Capitol Hill and always find myself wandering back there no matter how daunting the hike looks from down by the water. It could be the army of hipsters sipping single-origin espresso that reminds me of home, but I like to think it’s the web of mixed-use buildings that let you go car-free without hassle.

​Portland, Oregon
​
Walking creds: Yes, your friend who moved to Portland to become a parrot therapist is obnoxiously obsessed with his new home, but the throngs who have flocked to the City of Roses do have a point. It’s the rare city that lives up to the hype, and that you can explore most of by foot—or, if you want to fit in, by fixie—makes it all the more enticing. Posh neighborhoods like the Pearl have still kept their bohemian character intact, and the Alberta Arts district is a dense thicket of excellent restaurants, bars, and galleries all bunched into a 20-block stretch on the northeast side of the city. Also of note, the weather’s mild year-round, especially if you carry a rain shell.
​
Best neighborhood for a stroll: The Pearl is still Portland’s easiest and best neighborhood to explore on foot. Yes, it has given into the center-of-a-black-hole pressure from developers licking their chops over old buildings and construction tax breaks. But it’s also bursting with restaurants, bars, breweries, galleries, and residences, a mix of uses that have kept this section of northwest Portland bustling.

With more than 250 sales units in 58 countries around the world. Typical Brand Stores showcase a wide variety of our products. We have skilled design consultants on hand to help you make the best choices for your home.
Passion at our core
Passion and persistence are what move the people behind the BoConcept brand, whether they are designing a wall unit, leading a team, or managing a store. Our common mission is to make modern design furniture available to the urban-minded customer.


Our furniture and accessories
We offer customized, coordinated and affordable design furniture and accessories. Customized because our products can be fitted to the needs and dreams of our customers. Coordinated because we take a holistic approach in the development and design of our product range. Design because we are a design company with our own designers. Affordable because we want to spoil our customers by giving them great value.

Our Stores and Studios
Visit one of our Brand Stores, Inspiration Stores or Studios around the world and get professional advice about your home interior. At BoConcept, we are passionate about what we sell and take pride in achieving the best results for our customers. We have skilled interior consultants who care about furniture and urban design as much as you do. Their design and product knowledge can help you make the best choices for your home.
​

Migration patterns, cultural ties, geographic regions and class differences all shape speaking patterns.
The United States may lack an official language, but a road trip across the country reveals dozens of different accents and dialects of English that serve as living links to Americans’ ancestors.

What’s the difference between these two linguistic terms? Accents center on the pronunciation of words, while dialects encompass pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. They both often vary by region.

“Even Americans, most of whom speak only English, usually know more than one dialect,” notes the Linguistic Society of America. Consider, for instance, how an individual might speak to their boss versus a stranger who just rear-ended their car.

Dialects are rooted in the same system, but “their partly independent histories leave different parts of the parent system intact,” according to the society.

Myriad factors influence variations among American accents and dialects, including waves of settlement in a region, geographic location and class differences.

“There’s never [just] one accent in a given place,” says Teresa Pratt, a sociolinguist at San Francisco State University. “There’s so much variation, even in one particular region.”

​Regional differences
The U.S. is commonly divided into distinct regions: the West, the Midwest, the Southwest, the Southeast and the Northeast. But broad accent categories based on these regions are more accurately broken down into diverse dialects across different localities.

Dialects in the Deep South—encompassing Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia and South Carolina—are distinct from those in Texas, a large state that’s home to several linguistic varieties, as well as a mix of Spanish and English (nicknamed Spanglish) closer to the U.S.-Mexico border.
​
“The South gets stereotyped as a monolith, which is really unfair,” says Nicole Holliday, a linguist at Pomona College.

The many variations in the American South include South Midland, Ozark, Coastal Southern, Virginia Piedmont, Gullah, Cajun English and Gulf Southern.

The popularity of specific dialects is often tied to regional history. When English colonists first arrived in North America in the early 17th century, they landed on the East Coast, establishing English-speaking communities in the North and the South. The French, the Dutch, the Spanish and other European powers also introduced their own languages as they colonized different parts of the continent. Speaking styles in different colonies remained distinct because travel opportunities were limited at the time, says Jessi Grieser, a linguist at the University of Michigan. “Historically, it’s about migration and who went where,” she adds.
​
English settlers succumbed to competing influences when they came into contact with Native Americans and colonists from other countries, all while isolating themselves from England. Centuries of settlement on the East Coast resulted in more linguistic variation among the region’s cities because English was spoken there longer, Holliday says.
​

​California became a state in 1850, shortly after the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill. Many 49ers, as the fortune seekers who flocked to the region were nicknamed, initially hailed from Mexico, Chile and China. The U.S.’s first Chinatown was established in San Francisco, and in 1852 alone, 20,000 Chinese immigrants settled in the state.

The Gold Rush eventually attracted prospectors from all corners of the globe, including Europe, Australia and New Zealand. This international influence is evident in San Francisco, where Irish settlers shaped the “Mission Brogue,” a vocal pattern in which “coffee” is enunciated as “CAWfee.”

In the 1930s, California’s Central Valley, a swath of land spanning Redding to Sacramento to Bakersfield, welcomed an influx of migrants from Oklahoma, Arkansas and other Southern states devastated by the Dust Bowl. These settlers brought their regional dialects with them. Today, the speaking styles of the valley’s residents reflect Southern dialects, even if an individual’s ancestors weren’t part of the Dust Bowl diaspora, Pratt says.

​Today, one linguistic trend that’s synonymous with the state is the California vowel shift, which occurs when a person pronounces words differently by moving their vowels forward in their mouths. (“As with strangers in an elevator, one vowel shifts to keep its distance when another enters the space,” PBS explains.) “At its most extreme,” says Grieser, “that’s the thing we think of as that ‘Valley girl’ accent.”

According to Atlas Obscura, in the California vowel shift, “‘kit’ becomes ‘ket,’ ‘dress’ becomes ‘drass,’ and ‘trap’ becomes ‘trop.’”

From Kansas to Michigan, more Americans are picking up the California vowel shift, because it connotes a cool, urban variety of English, Grieser adds.

Prior to the Civil War, which started in 1861, many immigrants came to Appalachia to escape political revolts and crop failures in their homelands—chiefly China, Germany and Ireland.

The region’s geographic isolation influenced the development of its language dialects, including the predominant Appalachian English. “In Appalachia, people were isolated, because there were riverbeds and mountain ranges,” says Karen Adams, a linguist at Arizona State University. Many subvarieties exist within this dialect, but its chief features include using extra prepositions (“on up around on” instead of “on”); adding the “-iz” sound to the end of plural words, like “deskes” and “ghostes”; and pronouncing “-ow” as “-er” at the end of words like “hollow,” “potato” and “window.”
​
The Scots-Irish, a group of lowland Scots who relocated to Northern Ireland in the 17th century and to Appalachia in the 19th and 20th centuries, had a long-lasting influence on their new home region. Modern remnants of the Scots-Irish dialect include “pronouncing ‘pen’ and ‘pin’ the same way and referring to valleys as ‘bottoms,’” according to Lees-McRae College.
​​
JSTOR Daily describes Appalachian speech as “quite different from standard American English,” in part because of the historic vocabulary still in circulation. For instance, “britches” refers to “pants,” while “poke” is used for “bag.” Present-day Appalachian grammar is also reflective of Scots-Irish heritage.

New OrleansFounded more than 300 years ago by the French, the city now known as New Orleans was originally inhabited by the Chitimacha Tribe. As early as 1719, slave traders in the port city sold Africans kidnapped from their homes as enslaved laborers.
New Orleans changed hands in 1762, when the Spanish took control of Louisiana, bringing enslaved people from the Benin and Congo regions with them. The U.S. subsequently purchased the territory in 1803.
​
Other immigrant populations soon began to call New Orleans home, including Haitian refugees at the turn of the 19th century and German and Irish settlers in the middle of the century. The Irish served as a source of cheap labor following the U.S.’s 1808 ban on the importation of enslaved people. In the aftermath of the Civil War, the Crescent City saw an uptick in Jewish, Croatian and Chinese immigrants.

​​“Broadly speaking, coastal Southern accents were non-rhotic, and inland—especially mountain—Southern accents were rhotic,” Singer says. “You can trace those back to the original settlers and where they came from.”

Similarities still exist between New Orleans’ Yat variation and Brooklynese, a dialect popular in New York City, because of the urban centers’ shared Irish and Italian heritage. “There was a dialect in New Orleans that actually sounded very much like Brooklynese, because they had the same kinds of speakers move into those areas, and they developed varieties that actually sound alike,” says Adams.

Ultimately, Adams points out that pronunciation shifts constantly throughout the U.S., and “changes are continuing to happen all the time.” But one fact remains the same, she says: “Everyone speaks a dialect, and everyone has an accent.”

Source: Smithsonian Magazine

An increasing number of people are now wanting to do their part to save the planet due to the worsening problems caused by global warming. Unfortunately, numerous people assume that going green is costly and time consuming. Read on to discover several immediate things you can do to get on on the path to living green. 

Recycling is the top way to start. A lot of people continue to place glass and aluminum items in their normal garbage even though recycling is not that hard to do today. In the US, it's not hard to locate a trash service that offers glass and aluminum recycling choices. Many people still continue to discard these items even though recycling bins are not hard to find. It merely takes a few minutes to wash off the cans and bottles before placing them into the recycle bin. 

Newspapers are another item that overburden our landfills. Virtually all people will merely take their daily paper and toss it in the garbage when they are done with it. But, there are many other uses that you can get out of your newsprint other than poring over it it. Did you know that you can keep your windows clean using newspapers? If you're tired of seeing small white fragments and streaks on your windowpanes after you clean them with paper towels and cleaner, try to use old newspapers instead. Several community groups run regular paper drives. Merely compilepile all of your old newspapers, put them in a stack, and see if the paper drive organizers will come to your location and pick them up. 

One more thing that could help you to start to live green is to begin walking a bit more. Lots of people routinely drive short distances merely to buy one thing at their local corner market. If you just walk to the store, not only could it take less time, because you won't have to locate a parking spot, but you will be saving money on gas and helping to save planet Earth by not burning those fuels. 

If you wish to save even more on gas, take the chance to car pool when you can and only mow your lawn two times a month instead of weekly. A gorgeous lawn is good to have but skipping an additional week before you mow again shouldn't significantly affect it. Using a manual push mower like those more normally used many, many years ago will help to save the environment even more. Numerous hardware shops still carry this type of mower. 

When people make up their mind to try green living, it's easy to make a few lifestyle modifications that will benefit our environment. Likewise, you can find lots of info all over the Internet on other ways to start living green, you only have to look for it.

Carabanchel Madrid, Spain 
Next up is Carabanchel, an artsy neighborhood that has earned the nickname “the Soho of Madrid.” The formerly working-class locale is now home to more than 130 artists spread throughout 40 studios, workshops, and other creative spaces, per the city’s culture and tourism department. 

​

Havnen Copenhagen, Denmark
Havnen scored the No. 4 ranking in part for its wealth of waterfront activities, including its solar-powered GoBoats and free-to-rent Green Kayaks. The neighborhood is also home to the Royal Danish Theatre and the recently completed Opera Park. 
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Sheung Wan Hong Kong
The top-ranked neighborhood in Asia, Sheung Wan offers a mix of antiquity and modernity. Visit its historic temples, then go shopping in its stylish boutiques and grab a bite to eat one of its contemporary restaurants. Learn more about the lively district with Time Out’s complete guide. 


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Brunswick East Melbourne, Australia
You’ve heard of Brunswick, but how about Brunswick East? Eclectic and “increasingly cool,” per Time Out, this Melbourne suburb has everything an extrovert could dream of: hip coffee shops, cozy bars, and plenty of live music venues. Even cooler? It also hosts the CERES Community Environment Park, a sustainable space complete with a community vegetable garden, education centers, and more. 

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Mid-City New Orleans, U.S.
Representing Louisiana and the U.S. in the top 10, Mid-city is just east of New Orleans’ French Quarter and its vibe is “quirky, unpretentious, and funky,” according to New Orleans & Company. Hit up a po’ boy shop, scope out the colorful houses and centuries-old oak trees, and then cap off your day with a cold one at one of the neighborhood’s microbreweries. 


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Isola Milan, Italy
Across the pond in Europe once more, we have No. 6. Per AFAR, Isola is Milan’s “slightly offbeat, somewhat hipster, and completely all-natural neighborhood.” It’s rich with vibrant street art, designer and vintage shopping, a weekly outdoor market, and, of course, delicious food and wine. 


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​One-third of the world’s population can’t see the starry band of light in the night sky that makes up the Milky Way (above). The new show “Lights Out: Recovering Our Night Sky” at the National Museum of Natural History looks at the devastating impacts of artificial light.
​​A new Smithsonian exhibition delves into the issue of light pollution, with easy solutions offering an immediate change.

Gazing upward into the night sky, the Greeks recognized a human figure in the stars. They dubbed him Orion, and the hunter’s story has persisted for thousands of years. The Egyptians regarded the same group of stars as the place where the soul of a god—Osiris—found eternal rest. The Arabs interpreted the starry figure as a giant. In India, the constellation was seen as a king who’d been shot by an arrow. To America’s Ojibwe people, the celestial figure is Biboonkeonini the Wintermaker, who, they know by tracking movements of the stars, becomes most prominent during the coldest season of the year.
“The night sky belongs to everybody—this is humanity’s common heritage,” says Stephen Loring, an archaeologist with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. “Everybody all around the world has some kind of story about the night sky.”

​Celestial beauty is something sacred that is shared across human cultures around the globe, he says.

​

​But today the connections that have always tethered humanity to the same night sky are disappearing behind the ubiquitous brightness of artificial lights. Glow from buildings, parking lots, roadways, billboards, landscape lighting and countless other sources blots out the stars over a surprisingly large part of the planet and disrupts the lifecycles of birds, insects and other creatures.
One-third of the world’s population can’t see the starry band of light in the night sky that makes up the Milky Way—the vast spiraled arms of our own galaxy. The stunning array is now rendered invisible for some 60 percent of Europeans and almost 80 percent of North Americans. And as light pollution literally makes the darkness disappear, all types of plants and animals, accustomed to cycles of night and day for millions of years, are being dramatically affected in ways both obvious and unknown. Just as a bright light coming into a bedroom window might interrupt the sleep of any one of us, darkness is a foundational need of untold floral and animal species; artificial light impedes their ability to rest, feed and reproduce.

​​For the millions who have never had such an experience because they live in and near cities where they’ve been disconnected from the night sky for generations, Barentine suggests that they may not even realize what they’ve lost. “How do you get people to care about something that they don’t have access to, and they may never have had access to?” he asks.

But the loss of the night sky goes far beyond human enjoyment of a starry sky. Most species are guided by a circadian rhythm, an internal clock attuned to light and dark that governs cycles of activity and rest.

Scientists are working to uncover the many ways in which artificial light and a lack of darkness can harm the planet’s living things. Birds, for example, are paying a heavy price. Each year millions of migrating birds, traveling through the cool, less turbulent night air, are killed when artificial lights in urban buildings throw them off a course that is steered by the moon and stars. Attracted by the lights, confused birds crash into buildings or exhaust themselves trying to find their way.

​“We’re talking about billions of birds dying,” says Loring. The easy solution, he adds, is to just turn off those lights. “They don’t have to be on all night long.”
​
Some cities in migratory pathways are doing just that; Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco and other areas are periodically reducing lighting during key migration periods—and these “Lights Out” initiatives have caused bird deaths to drop dramatically.

​Unnatural light can also hinder reproductive cycles, which have evolved to coincide with seasonal light changes. For example, tammar wallabies living near urban areas in Western Australia reproduce a month later than others, and these kinds of changes might threaten species when the timings of births no longer match the supplies of food.
​
Marine species, too, can suffer from bright skies. Studies show that light pollution throws off coral reproduction, because the natural light cycles of day and night along with the moon phases are necessary for the synchronized spawning process that leads to the release of eggs and sperm.

​While we tend to think of plants as light-lovers, the biological need for darkness is crucial to their existence. Artificial light stresses plants, including trees, by driving excess photosynthesis, and altering the timing of budding and leaf dropping. Some flowering plants only open at night, when they attract nocturnal pollinators like bats and insects—if they aren’t lured away by lights. More than 500 species, including bananas and mangoes, are pollinated by bats, and these critical plants are at risk when light disrupts nocturnal movement of their pollinators.
​

​​Insects are famously attracted to light bulbs, where they may die from exhausted flittering or be picked off by predators. Worldwide, insects are being decimated in diversity and in numbers. This stems from many factors, but light pollution is likely among them, as more than half of all insects are nocturnal. Some insects, like the cabbage moth, not only live at night but also reproduce exclusively in the dark. Studies show that artificial light interrupts the female moth’s ability to produce pheromones that attract mates, thus stymying the insect’s once-in-a-lifetime shot at reproduction.

Humans, too, can suffer from the proliferation of artificial light. Darkness triggers the production of the hormone melatonin, which helps us sleep, and exposure to even dim artificial lights can block melatonin production. This can cost us restful sleep, which is bad enough, but studies also show that these disruptions of our own circadian rhythms can be linked to a host of health problems, including depression, obesity, heart conditions and even cancer. Blue light wavelengths produced by today’s ubiquitous LED bulbs, which are increasingly used in outdoor lighting, are especially disruptive to our natural rhythms of rest and activity.
​
Artificial light is also dimming our ability to see beyond our own planet into the vast, limitless possibilities beyond. Astronomers, peering deep into the darkened skies, were among the very first to raise an alarm that our own artificial lights were beginning to blot out the nighttime views.

​The Harvard College Observatory, now part of Harvard and the Smithsonian’s Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, once housed the largest telescope in North America. As lights multiplied in the surrounding city, the instrument—like other urban observatories—became obsolete.

As early as 1958, Lowell Observatory experts became vexed by local lights—and their concerns prompted nearby Flagstaff, Arizona, to enact the world’s first light-pollution ordinance on April 15 of that year. Ordinance No. 440 prohibited the use of certain searchlights within the city limits.
Observatories have since been pushed to remote, dark, high-elevation sites, yet their ability to observe invisible light is still a major concern. “Astronomers are losing important access to our understanding of what’s beyond us,” says Kim Arcand, the Chandra visualization scientist and emerging technology lead with the Center for Astrophysics, who co-curated the new show.
​
“That ability to go outside and look up,” she says, “means we can see a part of where we come from, quite literally the iron in our blood and the calcium in our bones, is coming from the previous generation of stars that have exploded long ago.”

​
​“There are very good reasons to protect dark skies for astronomy’s sake,” Arcand says, “but it all comes back to those same questions humans have been asking across the millennia: Where do we come from? Why are we here? And where are we going?”

There are still quiet, rural spots where the night sky is dark—and these regions are being celebrated. The International Dark-Sky Association recognizes more than 200 Dark Sky Places. Escaping urban areas for these starry refuges inspires people with the wonders of the night sky, but it doesn’t solve the problem. Urban sprawl keeps growing, and light pollution from a bright city impairs views of the sky even to those more than 40 miles away.

​Experts argue that the night sky does not need to be a tourist destination. Practical solutions for local communities not only save money, but they also recognize that many lights are simply unnecessary. According to the museum, about 30 percent of all the country’s outdoor lighting goes to waste, squandering around $3.5 billion. Unshaded fixtures shine light needlessly into the sky, while others are wasted on low-trafficked roadways and at shopping centers and office parks that don’t need to be continuously lit up all night long.

For safety and just for getting around, stark overhead lights can be effectively replaced with less bright lights or more reflective surfaces. Shades can redirect light where it’s needed on the ground and reduce the ubiquitous skyward glow.

LED blue lights should be replaced with warmer-colored lights, which are typically strong enough to do the job. Timers and motion-detection lights can limit the lengthy amounts of time that unneeded lights are left to simply blaze away and illuminate nothing at all.

“For me there’s something eminently fixable about an issue that we can improve if we just direct our lights the right way, if we just turn off lights when we’re not using them,” Arcand says, noting that real change can occur at the community and even personal levels. “None of these things are hard or trying to take the fun out of life. They are such small things that the individual has some ability to enact change and just fix a very human-made problem.”

There’s plenty of proof that these ideas work. In 2017, the U.S. National Park Service used cameras to compare lights in Flagstaff, a leading dark sky city, with comparably sized Cheyenne, Wyoming.

​Cheyenne, with no dark sky regulations, was 14 times as bright. “Flagstaff has chosen that path and said, ‘We’re going to go dark,’ so it can be done,” Loring says. “And maybe it grows. Maybe cities and towns say, ‘The next time we need to fix the lights, let’s do this.’”

“We know what policies are demonstrated to work, there is no technical obstacle, we’re not trying to devise a solution—we know what it is,” Barentine stresses. “Our only barrier to implementing it is convincing enough people that there are good reasons to do this.”

Barentine says, in his experience, not everyone is easily convinced to embrace those changes. Some people just cannot fathom how light, which they enjoy for practical, aesthetic and safety reasons, can be a bad thing.

“There’s a very deep-seated human psychology that simply makes many of us afraid of the dark,” he says. That’s why efforts to restore the night sky stress using better lighting, not living in the dark.

And unlike air or water pollution efforts, which can take many years, cleaning up light pollution can have immediate results. Doing so can help restore the natural darkness to which so many species are attuned—and keep humanity’s connection with the night sky strong.

​Report this ad“We have been looking up for millennia,” says Arcand, “and it’s given us an amazing amount of art, cultural stories and ideas.” Among those inspired was Dante, whose Inferno ended its epic tour of hell when the author and Virgil escape from the tortures of the underworld to be greeted by a wondrous sight.

​An illustrated tour of why scientists are finding that sleep matters more than we know.​
​Source: Reuters

​Beth Bogdewiecz prefers activity dates. She likes getting to know someone beyond conversation, seeing how they react to stress or crowds to better gauge her interest in the potential match.

The problem is the price. In Denver, where she lives, an hour of climbing or pingpong at a bar with appetizers, ends up being ~2x the cost of a standard drinks date.

“There’s always a chance it could turn into more,” she told The Hustle. “On a deeper level, it’s like, ‘Do I want to spend money tonight?'”
Bogdewiecz isn’t alone.

The recent bout of inflation has impacted nearly every component of dating life — food, drinks, transportation — and has added additional financial pressure to courtship. 

The Hustle was curious to learn more about the economics of modern dating life, so we recently surveyed ~700 of our readers on the topic.
How much do people spend on dates? What do they do? How has inflation impacted dating life? And what broader roles do money play in whom we choose to go out with?
​
A few key findings:

• How much does the average date cost? $68.
• How much did the average person spend on dates in 2022? $1,260.
• How much did the average respondent’s most expensive date cost? $492.
• Where do people go for a first date? The most popular first date is getting drinks at a bar.
• Who pays? 83% of men report always paying for the date, while 5% of women report always paying for the date.
• How has inflation impacted dating? 85% of respondents said dating has gotten significantly more expensive, but only 38% said it has caused them to go on fewer dates.
•  What role does income play in dating life? Nearly half of respondents said a suitor’s income and/or profession influences whether or not they go on the date.

Let’s take a deeper look at the findings.

Who are these daters?
Among our respondents, six out of 10 reported to have been on the dating scene for three years or less.

​Likewise, the distribution of date frequency skewed toward the lower end.

Three-quarters of our respondents said they went on 10 or fewer dates last year.
​
That may seem low, but some researchers have suggested that finding an ideal partner (if that’s the goal) isn’t about sheer volume. According to the “optimal stopping theory,” daters should reject the first 37% of potential matches to maximize their chances of finding the most ideal partner.
​
Where do people choose to go on all these dates?

Overwhelmingly, daters tend to skip the meals and activities and go straight to the bar to meet up for drinks.

That said, many respondents suggested drinks were overplayed, citing costs and the routine nature of a drink. Several preferred a walk or a coffee as a first date before they’d be interested in a drink or dinner. 
​

• One person’s favorite date featured variety: They “walked to Whole Foods, purchased popcorn and drinks, sat in the seating area, and watched TikTok and YouTube videos.” 
• Another was impressed by a guy who bought her a quesadilla instead of a drink. “I loved that gesture,” she said.

While the movie date was once a staple of dating culture, only 1% of our respondents said they head to the theaters with a date. This echoes broader trends with the evolution of film watching — though the “Netflix and chill” date at home seems to be equally unpopular.

The cost of datingSo, how much does all this dating cost the average person?

Our average respondent reported spending ~$68 per date — though that average varied wildly across demographics.

The differences were the most dramatic across gender lines. The average man who paid for a date reported spending $87 per date, while the average woman who paid for a date reported spending $48. (Our nonbinary responses were not statistically significant enough to include.)

Predictably, younger daters (Gen Z and millennials) spend less than the average, while more mature daters — particularly Gen Xers — spend more.
​
As income went up, so too did spending on dates: Those who reported earning $150k+ spent more than twice as much on the average date as those in lower income brackets. 

​But not all dates are created equal.

We asked our respondents to share the most expensive date they’ve ever been on. On average, the total came in at $492.
They included:

• A trip to Bangkok ($10k)
• A weekend trip to Dubai ($5k)
• A Blue Man Group concert in Vegas followed by dinner, drinks, and a “ginormous” hotel suite ($3k)
• A nice steak dinner with wine, a concert, and a hotel room ($1k)
• A hot air balloon ride ($800)
• Tickets to Hamilton ($750)

​Who pays for all these dates?
Our respondents adhered to traditional gender norms: 83% of men reported usually paying for dates, compared to 5% of women, although nearly half of female respondents said they typically split the bill.

​For both men and women alike, finances seem to play a central role in dating:

• 47% said a person’s occupation and/or income has dictated whether or not they go on a date with a person
• 41% said money has dictated the number of dates they go on
• 37% said they have discussed personal finances during a date
• 24% say they’ve declined a date due to money

In recent times, inflation has made many daters even more hyper-vigilant about money.

How has inflation affected dating life?
​In our survey, 85% of daters said that inflation has made dating noticeably more expensive over the past year.

​Among the respondents was Rahm Shoshana, a senior at the University of Illinois Chicago with a limited income.

Shoshana has been in a long-distance relationship for nearly a year and said he and his boyfriend have cut back on visits because of higher prices for gasoline and Amtrak. 

When they’re together, they’ve stopped going out to restaurants and movie theaters and opted for grocery shopping dates and Netflix. 
“That is what it is and what it will probably have to be for a very long time for us,” Shoshana said.
​
Inflation has impacted nearly every component of dating life — especially food, drinks, entertainment, and transportation.

​Michael Beale, a Gen Zer, has noticed the price of cocktails — an important component of “Dating 101,” he said — have increased from $12 to $14 where he lives in Connecticut. But he’s still going on dates with his girlfriend, less concerned by inflation because he recently started a higher-paying job. 

At the end of the day, dating seems to be mostly price inelastic — that is, habits tend to stay the same regardless of increases in price: 63% of respondents said inflation hasn’t caused them to go on fewer dates.
​
And though inflation has made things a bit more challenging for the daters in our survey, only 3% reported that they have walked out and left a date with the tab.

​Source: The Hustle

On social media, separating fact from fiction isn’t always easy. Use these tips to help cut through the noise.

During the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization identified another troubling outbreak: a massive “infodemic,” defined as an overabundance of information that makes it difficult for people to find trustworthy, reliable guidance when they need it most.

While some of the information in our social-media ecosystem is verifiably true, plenty of it is not. Unfortunately, research shows that lies tend to spread farther and faster than accurate information, particularly online. Some psychologists suggest that even after misinformation is corrected, we can go on believing it anyway, because our brains have trouble letting it go — a concept known as the “continued influence effect.”

Although misinformation may primarily spread on digital platforms, it has real-world consequences. Researchers estimate that between January and March 2020, nearly 6,000 people around the globe were hospitalized because of coronavirus misinformation: Whether they had believed that the virus was no worse than the flu or that it could be cured by gargling vinegar or drinking bleach, exposure to rumors and conspiracy theories had a direct effect on their health.

We’re also contending with disinformation, which is different from misinformation in its intent. If you share an inaccurate article on Facebook without knowing that it’s false, you’re spreading misinformation. Disinformation, on the other hand, means knowingly spreading falsehoods, often with the intent of manipulating a public narrative or influencing politics.

To make matters more complicated, this monster has a third head. Some researchers call it “gray-area misinformation,” and bad actors are using it to outsmart recent efforts by social-media platforms to crack down on falsehoods. Gray-area misinformation isn’t outright untrue — which means it’s harder to moderate — but it gets shared in a way that drives a misleading narrative.

Take the example of the U.S. women’s soccer team and their final pre-Olympic match on July 5, 2021. Before the game, World War II veteran Pete DuPré performed the national anthem on his harmonica, and during his performance, some of the players turned to face the American flag at one end of the field. Posts to a Facebook page called Hold the Line mischaracterized the players’ actions, stating that they “turned their backs” on DuPré in a “DISGRACE TO AMERICA!” Similar posts proliferated on Facebook and Twitter, referring to the team as “shameful” and “disrespectful,” with some posters calling for their disqualification from the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo. The story itself is true — some players did turn to face the American flag, in accordance with national-anthem etiquette recommended for civilians; the implication that they did so as a gesture of disrespect toward DuPré is false.

In the end, the age of social media means that anyone can have a platform, which means anyone has the ability to amplify content. That’s a tremendous responsibility, and learning to be more cognizant of what we’re reading and sharing online is one way to be part of the solution to our misinformation problem.
The next time you come across a post that doesn’t seem quite right, take a moment to ask yourself some of these questions, which can help you learn to spot misinformation in the wild.

1. Who said it?
If possible, you should always try to trace information back to its source. Then, ask yourself some questions: Who are they? Who do they work for? What’s their goal in sharing this? What about their expertise? Thinking critically about these things can help you identify whether a source is trustworthy, or if they have an ulterior motive.
Often, simply figuring out who’s behind the post can help you know whether to take it seriously. The Center for Countering Digital Hate has identified that a group of just 12 anti-vaccine activists are responsible for almost two-thirds of anti-vaccine content on social media. The “Disinformation Dozen” have massive social-media followings, which they’ve used to cast doubt on the safety of coronavirus vaccines.
If the post itself doesn’t offer many clues about the source, see if you can trace the claims to a news article or another website. Then, consider whether that site is a reliable source of information: Who’s behind the project? Does the article link to primary or secondary sources? Is it riddled with spelling errors or biased language? Can you verify the information elsewhere?

Depending on what you’re reading about, you may have to look at several different sources to get a sense of the whole picture. Whatever you do, don’t just read a headline and assume you get the gist. Also, be mindful of satirical news sites, many of which mimic the tone and appearance of actual news — research has shown that many Americans have trouble differentiating one from the other.

2. What’s the evidence?
If the post makes a particular claim — for example, that eating carrots will make your hair fall out — try to evaluate whether you see enough evidence to support that claim. Does the post link to a study or a news article with more information? Don’t believe it just because your neighbor says that her brother used to love carrots until he went bald. That’s called anecdotal evidence, and it’s usually not reliable, especially if it’s not supported by other forms of scientific data.
Considering the evidence is especially important in this age of social media, when it’s easy for anyone with Photoshop to create a meme with a misleading statistic or two. Don’t believe every meme you see — they’re usually intended for laughs or virality, not for sharing important, reliable info.

3. Does it confirm a belief you already hold?
Humans are wired to seek out content that reinforces our beliefs, a principle known as confirmation bias. “You notice the things you agree with,” media psychologist Pamela Rutledge, PhD, told Experience Life in 2020. “You share them because you’re reassuring yourself that your way is the right way.”
In psychology, confirmation bias is sometimes called “selective collection of evidence,” because we tend to hold on to information that supports our beliefs and reject the evidence we don’t like. One way to counter this is to make a conscious effort to diversify your media diet, including information from outlets outside of your usual bubble.

4. Does it appeal to your emotions?
Misinformation often plays on our feelings to circumvent our critical thinking. The next time you see a headline that is especially emotionally resonant — whether it makes you feel angry, or scared, or excited, or sad — consider that it’s likely an attempt to grab your attention or to get you to share without thinking.
One example of this is #SaveTheChildren, which went viral in August 2020. At first glance, many of these posts may have seemed emotionally resonant or even morally righteous — the movement purported to be about raising awareness around child sex trafficking. But lurking behind the hashtag? QAnon, a baseless conspiracy theory leveraging false statistics and emotional appeals about child sex trafficking in order to draw unwitting social-media users into their broader movement.

5. Is it hateful?
Plenty of people tweet angry, but if you’re seeing posts that seem especially cruel or violent — particularly if they target marginalized groups — consider that a red flag. Extremists often use social media to spread disinformation, conspiracy theories, and hate speech, and they’re often rewarded with increased exposure and new followers.

Some evidence suggests that social-media algorithms also amplify harmful or hateful content — because polarizing posts are more likely to go viral. Some of these algorithms drive users toward more extremist content by recommending more violent or hateful posts, a concept dubbed “algorithmic radicalization.”

6. Is it too soon?
Social media tends to move faster than traditional media. Immediately in the aftermath of a tragic event or a novel discovery — like the coronavirus — falsehoods often pour in to fill the void left by experts and organizations who are hesitant to make immediate clear, declarative statements.
If you’re reading a post about a developing topic with lots of unanswered questions, take a beat. Check out WNYC Studios’ Breaking News Consumer’s Handbook for more guidance on how to interpret breaking news.
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7. Is it already viral?
Fake news is more likely to go viral than a true story, no matter the subject — though, unsurprisingly, false statements about politics frequently perform best. “Whereas the truth rarely diffused to more than 1,000 people, the top 1 percent of false-news cascades routinely diffused to between 1,000 and 100,000 people,” the authors wrote. They concluded that a false story reaches 1,500 people about six times faster, on average, than it would take for a true story to reach the same number of people.

​Source: Experience Life by Life Time

​While it’s easy to get caught up in chasing reservations at the buzziest new cocktail destinations, there’s something to be said for bars that can stand the test of time. These American bars especially — with the oldest establishment on the list dating all the way back to 1673 — are tried and true.
Most of these establishments have persisted through decades — and in some cases, centuries — thanks to their dedication to sticking to what works. Rather than rebranding to sound more trendy, most of these bars’ names still unironically boast terms like “saloon,” “pirate”, and “olde” with astounding frequency. Instead of newfangled cocktails and natural wine, these places mostly persist on foamy beers and straight whiskey. And forget about modern interior design: Most of these spots are scattered with bizarre yet charming memorabilia from their centuries of operation — and that’s why we love them.
In many states these bars are widely recognized, and proudly flaunted, as the region’s oldest bar, but in others, the fight for the title can be a bit more controversial. Through centuries of history, including the murky years of prohibition, there are bound to be a few caveats to the oldest bar designations. So to compile this list, we had to make a few judgment calls

With that, let’s take a step back through time and explore the oldest bar in every U.S. state.
Alabama: The Peerless Saloon (1899)Who exactly holds the title of Alabama’s oldest bar is actually a bit controversial. While T.P. Crockmeirs claims to be the oldest as it was established in 1875, the bar originally opened in Atlanta, Ga., before moving to Mobile — so some believe considering it the oldest in the state isn’t quite accurate. Next in line for the title is The Peerless Saloon, which opened in Anniston, Ala., in 1899. Though not quite as old, the saloon still has incredible historical features, including its large, mirror-backed mahogany bar that was featured in the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.
Alaska: B&B Bar (1906)
This local fishermen’s haunt in Kodiak displays the oldest liquor license in the state, issued in 1906. The rural dive bar features a list of rules, including “know what you want,” “cash only,” “no whining,” and the peculiar “shut up Bruce,” the last of which supposedly targeted one of the establishment’s regulars.

Arizona: The Palace Restaurant & Saloon (1877)
As the oldest frontier saloon in Arizona, this historic Prescott bar transports visitors back to the Wild West. The bar hosted famous 1870s-era gamblers and gunslingers Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, and Doc Holliday as early patrons. The bar was so beloved by locals that even when the Whiskey Row fire destroyed the building in 1900, the patrons carried the hand-carved bartop across the street to safety and continued drinking. The Palace was rebuilt as a hotel, restaurant, and bar that guests can still visit today, where they can see the original 1800s bar that was saved from the fire.

Arkansas: Ohio Club (1905)
This unassuming bar in Hot Springs was the place to be in the early 1900s. Many famous figures of the time stopped by the bar — including Al Capone and Bugsy Segal — and the spot was frequented by Major League Baseball players during spring training, including Babe Ruth. The bar acted as a speakeasy during Prohibition, changing its name out front to Ohio Cigar Store so it could stay in business. The venue has always embraced live music and still does today by hosting blues and jazz performers.
California: The Iron Door Saloon (1852)
Though many bars in California try to stake their claim on the crown for oldest bar, the Iron Door Saloon makes the most convincing argument, as it was established in 1852 just outside of Yosemite. It is said to have lasted all of these years, through harsh elements and fires, because of its signature iron doors.

Colorado: Buffalo Rose (1859)
Buffalo Rose has been the heart of Golden, Colo., since the city’s founding in 1859. The city has evolved around the site of the bar, which has acted as the local watering hope for over 150 years. Though the building has seen some major renovations that have given it a more modern feel, you can sense this bar’s importance and history.

Connecticut: Griswold Inn Tap Room (1776)
Founded the same year as America itself, this historic bar and inn in Essex, Conn., has been through a lot. During the War of 1812, British forces mounted an attack on this town, where they allegedly marched down Main Street to the Bushnell Tavern (as it was known then) and demanded breakfast before stealing the bar’s rum and burning down the surrounding shops. Luckily, the bar survived and was later renamed the Griswold House, or “The Gris” as locals called it. A visit to this charming bar and inn now will give you real insight into its rich New England history.

Delaware: Kelly’s Logan House (1864)
Though many sources claim Jessop’s Tavern as the oldest bar in Delaware, as its location was built in 1682, the spot actually served as a cooperage for most of its history, and only started serving booze in the late 1900s. This makes Kelly’s Logan House the oldest functioning bar in the state. This lively Irish spot in Wilmington has been the state’s St. Patrick’s Day destination for over 150 years.

District of Columbia: Old Ebbitt Grill (1856)
Even though the physical location of the Old Ebbitt Grill has moved several times throughout its history, the legacy of the Ebbitt name has lived through the years. Legend has it that innkeeper William E. Ebbitt bought a boarding house in 1856 with a guest list touting America’s most influential politicians, including President McKinley, Ulysses S. Grant, Andrew Johnson, Grover Cleveland, and Theodore Roosevelt — who all supposedly enjoyed refreshing themselves at the house’s stand-around bar. After Ebbitt’s hopped around D.C. for about a century, it landed in its current location at 675 15th St. in 1983, where it remains a historic landmark.

Florida: Palace Saloon (1903)
Fernandina Beach, where the Palace Saloon is located, was home to some of the busiest docks in the South in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In its heyday, this bar welcomed travelers from all corners of the globe to enjoy some brews and company. The original bar was designed by Adolphus Bush, founder of Anheuser-Busch, who even ventured from St. Louis to oversee the installation of this famous fixture.

Georgia: The Pirate’s House (1753)​
No, the name of this bar isn’t some modern-day pirate joke — this Savannah spot was actually an old rendezvous spot for sailors and pirates visiting the shore. Even though the building remained intact over the centuries, the business struggled after World War II, and was even slated for demolition. Thankfully, some locals took it upon themselves to restore The Pirate’s House to keep its historic charm.

Hawaii: Smith’s Union Bar (1935)
Located on Hotel Street, which used to be a popular hub in Honolulu’s red light district, this bar was the main watering hole for sailors and merchants visiting the area. It still remains an admired dive bar today, particularly famous for its karaoke nights.

Idaho: White Horse Saloon (1907)
The White Horse Saloon is not only the oldest bar in Idaho, but is also located the tallest building in the town of Spirit Lake. The space features the building’s original wood floors and bar, giving it an authentic old-school vibe. The bar is also the leading purveyor of Canadian beers in the Panhandle of Idaho, so it’s a great place to visit next time you’re craving a Moosehead Lager.

Illinois: The Village Tavern (1847)
Just outside Chicago in Long Grove, Ill., you’ll find The Village Tavern, established in 1847. The large space features an impressive mahogany bar dubbed The President’s Bar, which was rescued from the Great McCormick Place Fire in 1967 and is still in use today.

Indiana: Knickerbocker Saloon (1835)
The Knickerbocker Saloon takes pride in its history, displaying its liquor license — the first one ever granted in the state — on the wall. The bar’s alleged past patrons include President Grant, Mark Twain, Al Capone, and Neil Armstrong.

Iowa: Breitbach’s Country Dining (1852)
This classic bar and restaurant based in Balltown, Iowa, has been run by the same family for six generations. It’s so adored by its patrons that when it burned down not once, but twice in 2007 and 2008, people traveled from across the Midwest to help rebuild it so it could live on.

Kansas: Hays House (1857)
Hays House has a rich history, located on the Sante Fe Trail since the mid-1800s. It once acted as not only a restaurant and bar, but a trading post and gathering space as well. The U.S. government would rent space in the building to hold court and distribute mail, there were theatrical performances on the second floor, and the bartenders would cover up the liquor bottles so church services could be held on Sundays. If you step into the rustic stone basement and see the original Hays House bar, you can imagine Santa Fe Trail travelers saddling up for a few brews.

Kentucky: Talbott Tavern (1779)
​In 1779, before Bardstown became the bourbon capital it is today, the town had just one bourbon bar: the Talbott Tavern. The bar and inn was located at the crossroads of the young West, so it was a hub for those travelers from all directions. Even Abraham Lincoln supposedly stayed the night at the inn when he was 5 years old. There are remnants of the bar’s past littered all over the space, including a dozen or more bullet holes in the plaster of one of the walls — legend has it they were left by Jesse James.

Louisiana: Jean Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop (1772)
Built between 1722 and 1732, this site is widely considered the oldest structure in the U.S. to operate as a bar, landing it a spot as a historical landmark. In 1772, the property officially opened, but was also home to some under-the-table business. Legend has it that the bar was used by the Lafitte brothers, Jean and Pierre, as the New Orleans base for their smuggling operations. Even though it was a haunt for pirates and smugglers back in the day, Jean Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop is a cozy, unassuming pub on Bourbon Street today.
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Maine: Jameson Tavern (1779)
Jameson Tavern in Freeport, Maine, claims to be “the Birthplace of Maine.” And rightly so, as records show that it was the meeting place for many years as the province of Maine was deciding to pursue independence from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Commissioners actually signed the final papers that granted Maine its sovereignty as its own state on the second floor of the tavern.
Maryland: Middleton Tavern (1750)This Annapolis staple was the after-work hangout spot for the Continental Congress back in its heyday, which means yes, you can visit the same bar where George Washington, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson knocked back beers and talked politics.
Massachusetts: Warren Tavern (1780)This historic tavern in Charlestown, Mass., is another that boasts an impressive guest list. George Washington stopped in from time to time, and the bar was one of Paul Revere’s favorite watering holes.

Michigan: Old Tavern Inn (1835)
While the Old Tavern Inn in Niles, Mich. is touted as not only the oldest bar, but oldest business still operating its original building, by the state’s travel board, Pure Michigan, there is another establishment that claims the right to this title. The New Hudson Inn states on its website that it was founded in 1831, and it is an official regional landmark. Between the Old Tavern Inn and the New Hudson Inn, we’ll let you decide which sounds the oldest.

Minnesota: Neumann’s Bar (1887)
In 1887, when the Wisconsin Central Railway was extended to the town that is now known as North St. Paul, Bill Neumann opened Neumann’s Bar to serve Hamm’s beer to the rapidly growing community. The local Hamm’s Brewery actually helped open the business, providing the statement backbar that remains there to this day. During Prohibition, the ground floor of the bar stayed open selling non-alcoholic beverages while the second floor housed a speakeasy. If you go upstairs at the bar today, you can see the keyhole window that allowed the barkeepers to screen their guests.

Mississippi: King’s Tavern (1789)
If you’re into ghost stories, this is the haunt for you. Rumor has it that the bar’s founder, Richard King, had an illicit affair with one of the bar’s waitresses, Madeline. When Mrs. King caught wind of this betrayal, she allegedly had the server killed, and it wasn’t until the new owner started renovations on the building in the 1930s that people discovered her body along with two others. Some believe her ghost still haunts the bar to this day.

​Missouri: O’Malley’s Pub (1842)
O’Malley’s Pub embodies the true sense of a speakeasy. This bar is hidden about 60 feet underground in the cellar of the Weston Brewing Company, and offers a large, dimly lit space with charming old stone walls to enjoy music and booze.

Montana: Bale of Hay Saloon (1863)
The Bale of Hay Saloon celebrates its heritage by displaying antique decor and keepsakes, as well as throwing its annual Brothel Days festival to remember the time this bar was definitely more than a bar. While this classic Virginia City watering hole embraces its roots, it’s also known for having a great selection of new local microbrews.

Nebraska: Glur’s Tavern (1876)
This long-standing bar opened in Columbus, Neb., in 1876, and claims to be the oldest continuously operating tavern west of the Missouri River. Back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Glur’s was frequented by famous soldier and bison hunter William “Buffalo Bill” Cody. Now, the spot is known for its delicious burgers and rowdy beer garden, complete with a basketball hoop and a volleyball court.

Nevada: Genoa Bar (1853)
This bar boasts the title of “Nevada’s Oldest Thirst Parlor” on a sign at the entrance. The establishment has seen many celebrities and political figures over the years, including Mark Twain and Theodore Roosevelt. More recently, actress Raquel Welch visited the bar and was asked to contribute her bra to the collection hanging from the ceiling. She obliged, but demanded that all other bras be taken down, so now, you can see her leopard print bra alone gracing the bar. The Genoa Bar’s old-western vibe also makes it a prime location for filming movies and commercials, including “The Shootist” starring John Wayne and “Honky Tonk Man” with Clint Eastwood.

New Hampshire: The Hancock Inn (1789)
This charming New England tavern and inn on Hancock, N.H.’s Main Street was frequented by Franklin Pierce, the only U.S. president from New Hampshire. Though the inn is temporarily closed until late 2023, it will continue its streak as the oldest bar in the state soon.

New Jersey: Barnsboro Inn (1776)
On March 19, 1776, before the U.S. even declared independence, John Barnes had his own battle in mind. He petitioned the judges of the Gloucester County Court to license his house as an inn and tavern, which he argued was much needed in the area. The license required that Barnes keep two spare beds for lodgers and provide stables for travelers’ horses. Now, the space just operates as a bar, keeping its focus on the food and drink offerings.
New Mexico: El Farol (1835)Even though this hub for flamenco dancing and hatch chile drinks has a rich history, the space definitely has a modern, cool vibe for its age. Maybe all that dancing keeps it young.

​New York: The Old ‘76 House (1755)
Before New York City was the cocktail hub it is today, Old ‘76 House in Tappan, N.Y., was the state’s hottest spot. It served many travelers as well as members of the Continental Army, including George Washington himself. The bar even played an important part in the Revolutionary War, offering a safe space for Americans at that time. The Old ‘76 House is often referred to as “Andre’s Prison,” as the tavern briefly acted as a prison for Britain’s notorious spy, John Andre.

North Carolina: Antler’s Bar (1932)
The Tavern in Old Salem, built in 1816, long held the title of North Carolina’s oldest bar until it unfortunately shut down in 2019 due to construction issues. This left a crack in the door for Antlers Bar, which opened in 1932, to sneak in and claim the honor.

North Dakota: Peacock Alley (1933)
Peacock Alley was once a famous bar and hotel. Now, that hotel has now been converted into a senior living residence. Before the hotel closed, the property hosted iconic patrons including JFK and Teddy Roosevelt. That’s not to say the crowd isn’t as fun these days — retirement homes are known to get down.

Ohio: Ye Olde Trail Tavern (1827)
Another hotspot for paranormal activity, Yellow Springs’ Ye Olde Trail Tavern was built in 1827 and is believed to still be haunted by its original owners. Check it out if you enjoy ghost tours, or if you just want to try their incredible burger.

Oklahoma: Eischen’s Bar (1896)
Originally opened in 1896 by Peter Eischen, Eischen’s Bar had to shut down soon after due to Prohibition. But shortly after it was repealed, Peter’s son and grandson opened the bar back up, keeping its legacy alive. The bar’s most prized feature is its massive, black bar that was hand-carved in Spain in the early 1800s. It was shipped to California during the Gold Rush, but somehow made its way to Okarche, Okla., in 1950, where it remains today. Eischen’s is also a must-visit fried chicken destination.

Oregon: Huber’s (1879)
Would you believe me if I told you Oregon’s oldest bar is best known for its… turkey? When Jim Huber took over the Bureau Saloon in 1891, he insisted that every drink come with a free turkey sandwich, and soon, the hub was full of people knocking back brews with one hand and chowing down with the other. The bar’s famous turkey actually helped save it during Prohibition, as the cafe remained popular when it switched to just serving turkey dinners. While the sandwiches are no longer free, guests can still eat Huber’s signature turkey today.

Pennsylvania: King George II Inn (1681)
The title of oldest bar in Pennsylvania recently changed hands after the Broad Axe Tavern, which also opened in 1861, closed in 2019. Now, it’s the King George Inn’s moment in the sun. In addition to its new status, this establishment claims to be America’s oldest continuously operating inn.

​Rhode Island: White Horse Tavern (1673)
Finally, we’ve made it to what’s widely regarded as the oldest bar in the entire country. The White Horse Tavern was established in Newport in 1673, making it not only the oldest tavern in the U.S., but one of the 10 oldest restaurants in the world. For almost 100 years, the large space was used as the meeting place of the colony’s general assembly, criminal court, and city council. The space oozes colonial history, so this is a must-visit if that’s what you’re into.

South Carolina: The Tavern at Rainbow Row (1686)
For the longest time, McCrady’s was considered South Carolina’s oldest bar, so when it closed in 2020, there was some confusion in establishing this title’s successor. The jury is still out, but The Tavern at Rainbow Row, an old liquor store and drink parlor that has been serving Charleston since 1686, seems like a good contender.

South Dakota: Buffalo Bodega Bar (1877)
When Mike Russell arrived by stagecoach in Deadwood, S.D., in 1877, there were already 17 saloons in town, but he felt there was room for one more. Russell named his establishment the Buffalo Bar, after his good friend “Buffalo Bill” Cody, who drank and gambled at the bar frequently. Even though it was new on the scene then, this bar is the last of the many old-school saloons still operating today. Now the Buffalo Bodega Complex serves as a bar, casino, hotel, and steakhouse.
Tennessee: Springwater Supper Club (1896)Unsurprisingly, Tennessee’s oldest bar is a hub in Nashville known for its great live music. That said, it’s not the scene you would expect from this famous country music town. The Springwater Supper Club has been described as “the divyest dive bar you’ll find,” and grunge rock takes center stage.

Texas: Scholz Garten (1866)
Founded by German immigrant and Civil War veteran August Scholz in 1866, the Scholz Garden became a hub for German immigrants in the Austin area. There were also many thirsty politicians roaming the state capital who found themselves drinking beer and eating schnitzel at this historic bar. Today’s politicians are known to stop by there, too, with a recent notable visit from Beto O’Rourke for a campaign speech.

Utah: Shooting Star Saloon (1879)
The Shooting Star Saloon in Huntsville has a quintessential old-western vibe, decorated with quirky antique decor that’s odd as it is endearing. The ceiling is covered with currency from all over the world with signatures from visiting patrons — at an estimated value of $15,000 — and the bar also features a mounted head of “Buck,” the Guinness Book of World Records holder for largest St. Bernard for more than 20 years. If niche taxidermy isn’t your thing, the saloon’s famous burger still makes it worth the stop.

Vermont: Ye Olde Tavern (1790)
Ye Olde Tavern lives up to its name. With crooked floors and uneven doorways, this place will transport you straight back to America’s colonial days. The bar’s rich history, including being the site of the town’s first-ever telephone line, landed it a spot on the Vermont Register of Historic Places.

​Virginia: The Tavern (1779)
Back in the day, bars never really just served as bars. These establishments were viewed as common spaces to fit just about any need the town had. For example, the oldest bar in the Commonwealth served as a post office, a hospital for soldiers during the Civil War, and an inn where the likes of Andrew Jackson and King Louis Philippe of France spent the night.

Washington: The Brick Saloon (1889)
After its opening in 1889, the tavern was rebuilt in 1898 using 45,000 bricks, giving it its name. The neighborhood pub in Roslyn features a lot of original decor to really drive home that old-school vibe, including its original running-water spittoon.

West Virginia: North End Tavern & Brewery (1899)
Locally known as the NET, the North End Tavern & Brewery is not only the oldest bar in the state, but when it expanded to start producing beer in 1997, it also became the oldest brewery in West Virginia.

Wisconsin: The Uptowner (1884)
In true Wisconsin fashion, the state’s oldest bar was originally opened by Joseph Schlitz, the German-American brewer behind the beer that made Milwaukee famous. The Uptowner was actually one of 54 “Schlitz taverns” that he founded in order to sell more of his family’s beer. In the 1950s and ‘60s, the bar was known for opening up at 6 a.m. so local factory workers could enjoy a cold beer after a night shift.
Wyoming: Miners and Stockmen’s Steakhouse (1862)This bar actually predates Wyoming’s status as a state, which was granted in 1890. Aptly, Miners and Stockmen’s Steakhouse is located in Hartville, one of Wyoming’s oldest incorporated towns with a population of just 62.

Source: vinepair

​We all want to live long, healthy lives. In the early 2000s, a few demographers discovered several areas they claimed produced the highest concentration of healthy 100-year-olds in the world. According to their research, people in these areas were 10 times more likely to reach age 100 than people in the US. While some aspects of their work are speculative and partly outdated, their five so-called Blue Zones provide inspiration for developing a healthy lifestyle anywhere in the world. 

So what are the five zones, and what are the nine common denominators making them so healthy?

​The Blue Zones
​Ogliastra, Sardinia, Italy

• The original research site out of which the Blue Zones project was born, the mountains of Sardinia at that time were inhabited by the highest concentration of centenarian men—due partly to a genetic marker linked to longevity, helped by the region’s geographic isolation.

Ikaria, Greece

• On this tiny island in the Aegean Sea between the coasts of Turkey and Greece, residents experience half the rate of heart disease compared to Americans, as well as almost no dementia.

Okinawa, Japan

• The tiny islands at the southern tip of Japan are home to some of the oldest women in the world, with exceptionally low cancer, heart disease, and dementia rates.

Loma Linda, California, USA

• A community started by a group of Seventh-Day Adventists in the 1840s about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, its residents now outlast the average US life span by at least 10 years on average.

Nicoya, Costa Rica

• In a country known for cultivating exceptional well-being, the residents of the southern peninsula city Nicoya are particularly healthy, spending only 15% on healthcare of what the average American does.

​Studies show that having a clear sense of your purpose in life has concrete benefits on longevity. Without a foundational motivation, sustaining the discipline needed to make healthy behaviors into habits is difficult.

Tips: Get involved with local community development, donate your time, and take up a passionate interest. Learn more here.

A moderate amount of alcohol each day—roughly one to two glasses of wine—is associated with longer life in these Blue Zone communities, with moderate drinkers outlasting nondrinkers. The key is, of course, moderation, as well as enjoying a libation with friends and food. Some recent studies, however, counter this claim.

Tip: No need to start if you don’t drink already, be mindful about its effects, and have a heart-healthy wine.
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​The closest ties we typically have are family members—but that can be our biological or chosen family. The essential part is having committed relationships into your older years with people who share your health and life goals.

Tips: Be intentional about together time, eat together, and ask good questions. See more here.
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​You learn it from an early age: Who you surround yourself with will determine what you become. Blue Zone centenarians have a tight-knit community, whose habits and outlooks positively influence one another. Values are contagious, from happiness to loneliness.
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Tips: Find friends who share your values. See more here.

​The pandemic and the evolution of the real estate market during the last few years didn’t suppress Millennials’ appetite for buying forever homes. On the contrary, most Millennials are now sipping their matchas in their own homes rather than in rentals.

• With 52% of Millennials owning a home, the largest generation in the nation transitioned from renter-majority to owner-majority in 2022.
• The number of Millennial homeowners increased by 7 million in the last five years, more than triple the number added by Gen X, who came in second.
• Millennials remained the dominant renter generation, with 17.2 million renter households.
• Gen Z is now the only renter-majority generation with a 74% share and 4.5 million renters added in the last five years, more than any other age group.
• Of the nation’s top 50 largest metros, Richmond, VA, saw the highest jump in Millennial homeowners — 234%.

This demographic gained 10.8 million homeowners in the last decade, including 7.1 million in the last five years to reach 18.2 million in 2022. This boost tipped the balance in favor of homeownership and made Millennials an owner-majority generation with a share of 51.5%.
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As a result, this demographic (also known as generation Y) passed the renter-majority torch to Zoomers: The Gen Z cohort gained nearly 4.5 million renters in the last five years, leading to a renter share of 74%, while all the other generations lost renters. Clearly, Gen Zers are now coming of age and becoming a significant market for apartment builders, reaching 5.6 million renter households in 2022.

Click on the arrows below to see how the number of owners and renters evolved for each generation in the last three decades.

To get a clearer view of generational trends in homeownership and renting across the country, we analyzed IPUMS data for the nation’s 110 largest metros (with populations of 500,000 or more). In more than a quarter of these metros, the number of Millennial owners doubled between 2017 and 2022.

The average Millennial homeowner bought their first home at 34 years old, later than their parents or grandparentsDue to housing affordability as well as generational values, homeownership happened later in life for Millennials than for Gen Xers or Baby Boomers. When Millennials became an owner-majority generation in 2022, the average Millennial was 34. Gen Xers reached the milestone in 2003, at an average age of 32. Boomers crossed this threshold in 1987, at the average age of 33.

The idea of the American Dream has begun to distance itself from the picket fence narrative. That’s because Millennials are living by other principles and values than their parents or grandparents. However, despite the growing popularity of the renter-by-choice lifestyle, America’s largest adult generation is now mostly made up of homeowners. Whether they bought a home to start a family or as an investment, this demographic cohort counts 18.2 million homeowners and nearly 17.2 million renters. By comparison, Baby Boomers are the largest group of homeowners at 32.1 million versus 9.1 million renters.

Family support fueled homebuying for MillennialsBetween 2017 and 2022, the number of Millennial homeowners increased by a whopping 64% to 18.2 million. The staggering addition of 7.1 million households exceeded the number added by all the other generations combined. Gen X recorded only 1.9 million new owner households in the last five years, while Baby Boomers saw a decline of 354,000 within the same timeframe.

For Gen Z, the total number of homebuyers rose by 1.6 million between 2017 and 2022, representing a 455% jump, the highest among all demographic groups we analyzed. Still, homeownership in the U.S. was dominated by Boomers, who totaled 32.1 million owners, followed by Gen X with 24.4 million owner households.

Renters vs. Owners: Five-Year Changes in Number of Households

Millennials, who are now in their prime homebuying years, had several economic factors working to their benefit in the last few years, which helped make their picket fence dreams come true. First, Gen Y reached a historically high median income in 2022: $108,000 per year, up 44% compared to five years earlier. This was the most significant income increase among all generations. Gen Z came in next with a 33% rise in median income, followed by Gen X with 25%. Boomers saw an 8% jump.

Second, many moved back in with their parents during the pandemic or delayed moving out entirely. With work-from-home supporting these decisions, many Millennials saw this period as an opportunity to save for a down payment. As a bonus, 59% of Millennial homebuyers also received financial support from their parents for their mortgage down payment, according to a LendingTree survey.

At the same time, the median home price in the U.S. has been on a steady steep climb ever since the lockdown, going from $322,600 in the spring of 2020 to $454,900 in the summer of 2022, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. However, this didn’t slow the housing market as anticipated.

In 2020, the number of Millennial homeowners increased by 12.6% compared to 2019. In addition, despite the record-breaking home prices during the pandemic, the number of Millennial homeowners rose by almost 30% between 2019 and 2022. Only Zoomers had a more impressive rise in homeownership in the last three years (157%), but this is to be expected as this cohort is now coming of age and establishing itself in the job market.

Five-Year Changes in Number of People Living in Multigenerational Households by Generation
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When it comes to renting, only Gen Z saw an increase in the last five years — up by 391% (an addition of nearly 4.5 million renters) to a total of 5.6 million. Millennials lost close to 1.4 million renters in the same timeframe but nevertheless remained the dominant demographic in the renting market with a total of 17.1 million households in 2022. Gen X was next with 10.6 million renters, followed by Boomers with 9.1 million.


Renters vs. owners in America’s largest metros: Millennials homeowners go for New York, but renters prefer L.A.
Below, we list the changes in renting and owning by generation in the nation’s 50 largest urban areas, starting with New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Dallas.


#1 New York
​The number of Millennial homeowners in New York increased by 90% in the last five years, despite the median home sale price in the metro remaining above the $600,000 threshold since 2018. When it comes to renting, the area's rich cultural scene and dynamic tech business environment led to an 892% rise in Zoomer renters during the last five years. All of the other generations we looked at lost renters in New York, including Millennials (-0.3%).


#2 Los Angeles
In that same timeframe, Millennial homeownership jumped 47% in Los Angeles, while Millennial renters grew by 6.8%. By contrast, in more than half of the nation’s 50 largest metros, the number of Millennial renters decreased.
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The West Coast metro was also attractive for the younger demographic. More precisely, the number of Zoomer renters in Los Angeles increased by 82% in the last five years. Yet, while this may seem like a significant jump, it was still considerably lower than the gains in the country's other large metros.

#3 Chicago
Chicago was preferred by young professionals looking to settle down in a major metro. One of the reasons that may have led to the trend was the 36% income increase in Chicagoland in the last five years, according to IPUMS data. Between 2017 and 2022, the metro recorded a 75.6% rise in Millennial homeowners. That said, there were also 7% fewer Millennial renters and 25% fewer Boomer renters in Chicago than there were five years prior.


#4 Houston
Down south, Houston gained homeowners in all but one generation in the last five years (Baby Boomer owners decreased by 1.6%). Specifically, the number of Millennial owners rose by 52%, while Texas’ largest metro saw a 15% decline in Millennial renters. In addition, there were 38% fewer Boomers living in rental apartments in Houston. On the other hand, the metro gained Gen Z (a 541% rise) and Gen X renters (12%).


#5 Dallas
In addition, Dallas’ tech town appeal convinced a significant amount of young talent to choose it for buying a forever home. The metro saw a 64% gain in Millennial homeowners between 2017 and 2022 and a mere 4.5% uptick in Millennial renters. The number of Gen Zers who bought a home in Dallas grew five times in that same timeframe, while the number of Zoomer renters multiplied seven times.


Surprisingly, the area was also popular for Baby Boomers. Dallas saw a 5% rise in Boomer homeowners and an 18% increase in Boomer renters in the last five years.


Millennial homeownership is rising the most in Richmond, VA

As we zoomed in on the most notable changes in the nation’s 50 largest urban hubs, Richmond, VA, stood out. Here, the number of Millennial homeowners tripled in the last five years -- the most significant rise in Millennial homeownership among the country’s largest 50 metros. The area’s funky, hipster reputation and cost of living below the state and national averages were two of the main reasons that drew in Millennials looking to buy a home.


Las Vegas occupied the second spot with a 158% jump in homeownership for the same demographic cohort, followed by Milwaukee with 157%. Cincinnati was at the other end of the spectrum with a 16% decrease in Millennial owners.


Cleveland; Raleigh, NC; San Jose, CA; and San Diego were the cities with the highest increases in the number of Millennial renters between 2017 and 2022 — 85% for the first two and close to 50% for San Diego and Silicon Valley’s largest metro area.


Florida might be the state with the most attractive cities for renters, but many cities in the Sunshine State saw decreases in their renting population in the last five years: Millennial renters in Atlanta; Tampa, FL; Cincinnati; and Jacksonville, FL, decreased by more than one-third, the most out of all the 50 largest metros.


Florida’s smaller metros are gaining Millennial homeowners at full tilt​
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Expanding our analysis to 110 metros, we noticed that the number of Millennial homeowners more than doubled in 29 of the areas we looked at. The top two metros by the rise in Millennial homeownership were Modesto, CA, where it increased 24 times in the last five years, and North Port, FL, where it rose eight times. Overall, the Sunshine State was the #1 choice for Millennials looking to buy a home. Namely, Port St. Lucie, Lakeland-Winter Haven and Pensacola were also at the top of the list with rises in Millennial homeownership ranging from 507% to 217%.
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Our list of metros where Millennial homeownership more than doubled also included Bakersfield, CA; Youngstown, OH; Deltona, FL; Greensboro, NC; Portland, OR; Akron, OH; Omaha, NE; Atlanta; San Antonio; Grand Rapids, MI; Jacksonville, FL; Des Moines, IA; Orlando, FL; Austin, TX; Memphis, TN; and Bridgeport, CT.
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Granted, experts predict that the year ahead will be a slow one for home sales, mainly because the economy is in a phase of transition. This will likely encourage renting, which should continue to be the first housing option for many, particularly for Zoomers.
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​Source:​https://www.rentcafe.com/