Bumblebees Have Learned to Read Simple Morse Code–an Ability Seen Only in Humans and Vertebrates
A new study is the first to show that an insect can differentiate between different durations of visual cues. In Morse code, a short duration flash or “dot” denotes a letter “E” and a long duration flash— or “dash”—means letter “T”. Until now, the ability to discriminate between “dot” and “dash” has been seen only […]
Good News in History, November 13
85 years ago today, the animated film Fantasia, conceived and produced by Walt Disney himself, was released. It was only Disney’s third animated film and, though it featured Mickey Mouse in the role of ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’, it had almost no dialogue and consisted of eight pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, including […]
Good News in History, November 12
45 years ago today, NASA’s Voyager 1 probe arrived at Saturn and beamed back the first images ever taken of its rings. It arrived at our solar system’s second-largest planet via a gravitational assist trajectory at Jupiter which was replicated with Voyager 2. On November 12th, when the space probe came within 77,000 miles of Saturn’s cloud-tops, […]
Birds Feast on Sunflower Seeds in Perfect Autumnal Scene Captured From Kitchen Window
Stunning pictures from England show hungry birds feasting on sunflower seeds in a gorgeous autumn scene. Photographer Andrew Fusek Peters captured the magical moment from his kitchen in Shropshire, as the birds dove into the seeds to release them from fading sunflowers. “It’s basic botanical biology happening before our eyes,” he mused in an interview […]
Airbnb Lets You Open Bedroom Door to Welcome in a Miniature Horse (LOOK)
A unique Airbnb in England offers the chance to spend the night in a decorated barn containing a friendly miniature horse. Brittany Sparham began renting out part of her barn in a rural village outside Nottinghamshire during the pandemic in response to the rising popularity of ‘staycations’. Since the rustic apartment would share its wall […]
A Smart Keyboard for Parkinson’s Patients Wins 2025 James Dyson Global Award
An innovative smart keyboard designed to significantly improve typing ability for people living with Parkinson’s disease has been named a Global Winner of the prestigious 2025 James Dyson Award. The groundbreaking invention, called “OnCue”, was created by Italian product designer Alessandra Galli as a school thesis project at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. […]
Your Weekly Horoscope – ‘Free Will Astrology’ by Rob Brezsny
Our partner Rob Brezsny, who has a new book out, Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicated weekly column appearing in over a hundred publications. He is also the author of Pronoia Is the Antidote […]
Good News in History, November 8
60 years ago today, the ironically-named Murder Act of 1965 is given Royal Assent, formally abolishing the death penalty in the United Kingdom for almost all crimes. Introduced by MP for Liverpool Sydney Silverman, it replaced hanging with mandatory sentences of life-imprisonment in all but 4 cases. The outstanding exceptions related to military-intelligence crimes, such […]
Good News in History, November 7
16 years ago today, Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan became the first in professional basketball history to win 1,000 games with a single team. Described as “one of the greatest and most respected coaches in NBA history,” he spent nearly his entire 23-year coaching career at Utah, managing the team through good times and bad, […]
Good News in History, November 4
101 years ago today, “Silent” Calvin Coolidge was elected to serve as the 30th President of the United States. Undoubtedly the greatest domestic/peacetime President in the 20th century, Coolidge embodied not only the Founders’ vision of the Executive, but many of the most quintessentially American qualities we struggle to find today in our political caste. […]