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According to data collected by FinanceBuzz, the average driver spends 2.24 percent of their monthly income on gas – and more if you’re driving a fuel-inefficient SUV or truck. However, the data, which FinanceBuzz collected from AAA, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the U.S. Department of Transportation, shows that some drivers need to fork over 3.12 percent of their income to go toward gas. As with anything, not all states are hit the same regarding how much income is going toward gas each month....

Gas prices have been on the rise for over a year. The climb is due to the impact of COVID-19 which altered supply and demand chains. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) lowed gas production early in the pandemic which resulted in some of the price jumps earlier on. However, the later half of 2021, gas prices were significantly impacted once the U.S. announced sanctions were placed on Russia over the Russian invasion of Ukraine....

For years, scientists have been boggled by an apparent gap in known methane sources and the amount of methane heating up the Earth. While it’s been known for some time that the primary sources of methane are the natural gas industry, livestock operations, and landfills, those sources don’t fully account for the amount of methane that accumulates every year in the atmosphere. As one of the most potent greenhouse gases, researchers have been eager to discover the mysterious extra source of the invisible gas....

Meet the Landworks Utility Cart. It’s a heavy-duty, versatile wheelbarrow with a 48-volt electric motor that makes it way easier to transport even the heaviest loads. Using the thumb-operated, handle-mounted accelerator you can propel it forward up to five km per hour (just over three mph). It won’t exactly set any land-speed records, but it will make any home improvement or gardening task that necessitates moving something heavy from point A to point B much easier and less likely to give you a sore back....

A mid-July FBI report found that the FBI’s Indianapolis office mishandled and delayed the arrest of Larry Nassar even after being notified that he was abusing gymnasts. In fact, the report claims the FBI, and in particular senior officials within the Indianapolis office, didn’t take the allegations seriously enough and failed to stop Nassar when they knew there were many allegations against him. The FBI “failed to respond to the Nassar allegations with the utmost seriousness and urgency that they deserved and required, made numerous and fundamental errors when they did respond to them, and violated multiple FBI policies,” the report in July reads....

More than simply being scientifically inaccurate, many old wives tales are firmly grounded in prejudice. It’s not just that they’re wrong, but they’re wrong for the worst reasons. So while it might be fun to consider the following pregnancy old wives tales, it’s probably best to leave the superstition in the past and love your baby for whoever they turn out to be. Old Wives Tales About a Baby’s Gender Revealing a baby’s sex is such a big deal that it’s spawned its own party-based industry and inadvertently killed several people....

Blame COVID. This holiday season, toys and other consumer goods are expected to be harder to find because of the disruption to the global supply chain. There’s the problem with the raw materials because of extreme weather. Rob Handfield, professor of supply chain management at North Carolina State University and director of the Supply Chain Resource Cooperative, said that weather emergencies have reduced the availability of the fundamental petrochemical materials — plastic resins that have petrochemical feedstocks — used to make most toys....

I love our kid’s teachers, but they’re killing me right now with this homeschooling. The expectations on my first grader and fourth grader are really expectations for the parents and it isn’t fair. The school basically just dropped a bunch of crap in our lap when the school closed. I’ve had to sign up for half a dozen online learning webpages and my printer is smoking with the number of worksheets I’ve printed off....

It’s both the best of times and the worst of times to be a doting new parent because you’re there for every burp and crawl, but there’s also no escape. Ferguson and husband Justin Mikita have been hunkering down, at home in Los Angeles, reading soft books with Beckett and going on socially-distanced bike rides. Given his culinary prowess, Ferguson has been forced to make peace with his stove, which is somehow both his raison d’etre and his nemesis....

But there is such a thing as a friendly post-divorce relationship. In fact, there are many couples who stay amicable with their exes and have co-parenting agreements that are flexible and easy to handle. Those agreements are largely never easy to negotiate, but down the line, as wounds heal, it gets easier. Here, five divorced men talk about how they negotiated a happy — or at least, amicable — co-parenting relationship with their spouses....

Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the relationships of fathers and sons. Outwardly, many father and son pairs may appear distant and disengaged. A guy who wouldn’t think twice about hugging and kissing his mom might offer his father only a stilted handshake. Dads who shower their daughters with affection may go years without telling their sons they love them. Men are often chided by their wives or mothers for not being willing to show more affection to their dads or their sons....

Research might clue us in. In the real world, friendships take on different shapes, and researchers who have studied them closely find that some models are healthier than others. In 2014, Todd Migliaccio at California State University at Sacramento, offered different models of specifically male friendship, including: Closed friendships: Buddies who bond over doing stuff together and not much else. These are common, but as they’re just scratching the surface, they don’t offer the many benefits that intimate, lifelong friendships do....

And while factors like increased demand and COVID disruptions are part of the problem, the Biden administration says that corporate greed enabled by the consolidaiton of meat processors is mostly to blame. It’s promising “bold action” to make food more affordable and the industry more equitable for working families. Three members of the president’s National Economic Council penned a lengthy blog post outlining the problem and a potential solution. Four conglomerates control the majority of the market for all three kinds of meat, and they’ve all been raising prices and generating record profits during the pandemic, to the harm of workers and consumers....

Parents can often cure minor injuries with a handful of colorful Band-Aids and some kindness. When more serious medical intervention is required, however, an ER visit or ambulance ride will require an intelligent game plan to keep a kid calm, reassured, and prepared to get treatment. Parents can help kids in the aftermath of an injury by reacting appropriately and talking through the process of getting it fixed. “Saying ‘don’t be afraid’ has not, in the history of mankind, ever helped anyone not feel afraid,” says Dr....

So, what makes difficult people so persistently, well, difficult? Ian Parker, clinical director of mental health treatment center Newport Healthcare says lack of empathy is at the heart of the problem. “I often think of difficult people as those who are standing in line at a restaurant and begin to act as if they are the only ones who are waiting for their service,” he says. “They begin badgering the staff, demanding to speak with a manager, and can be thrown into a fit of anger over small or perceived slights....

Still, we proceed, trying to force our message on unreceptive ears. We start raising our voices, interrupting, and finishing other people’s sentences, none of which has ever been taught in Effective Communications 101. While saying something as simple as, “Is now okay to talk?” can solve some problems, the larger issue centers on expectations. It’s not solely men, but a lot of men certainly believe that when they have something to say, it must be said immediately....

“You seriously never listen to me, do you?” Andrew responded. Harvey, mouth agape, sat still. It was clear he was confused. “What do you mean, I don’t listen to you?” he asked, “I clearly just listened to you and gave you a solution.” “I didn’t want your solutions,” Andrew said. “I wanted you to just hear me out and care about how I feel.” Chances are you can relate to this conversation....

Weston wasn’t surprised — he did choose to raise his kids on a Florida ranch that doubles as something of a motor sports testing ground. “You figure, ‘Let’s get him into something,’” he recollects, as if he’s talking about fitting his kid for new cleats. “Something” turned out to be a custom-built monster truck, scaled appropriately for a kid KJ’s size and costing north of $40,000. Six years later, KJ, 12, and his brother Jake, 10, drive as part of a team of monster truck tykes that does halftime shows all over the country....

Right now, consumers are seemingly getting hammered on all sides by inflation. In February, the consumer price index rose at an annual rate of 7.9%. The last time we felt price shocks this bad, Ronald Reagan was in his first term and E.T. was playing in movie theaters. The $64,000 question right now: How can we combat those soaring expenses so we’re not sweating whether we’ll be able to afford the electric bill or mortgage?...