While it is hard to say what she truly felt, Tahlequah the killer whale appeared heartbroken when her calf died soon after being born. As any mother would, she took it hard, and could not let go. Tahlequah carried her child’s body for 1,000 miles over 17 days before finally letting her go.
The Landfill Harmonic
Teacher Fabio Chavez leads a children’s orchestra in a slum built upon garbage. The Landfill Harmonic orchestra gets its name from the word ‘philharmonic,’ which means ‘music loving.’ Chavez brings his love of music and a passion for social change to the kids of Cateura, a town outside the capital of Paraguay that is built upon a landfill.
Who Makes The Decision?
On March 1st, 1950, a natural gas explosion in Nebraska blew up a church. Choir practice at the West Side Baptist Church usually kicked off at 7:20 pm. The church exploded at 7:25, but not a single person was killed or injured. The choir members often arrived early, but on that day, every single one of them was late.
Feeling Lucky?
Are you superstitious? Most people would say no, but in fact, many of us live our lives making off the wall choices. In the US, Friday the 13th is thought to be so unlucky that 10,000 fewer people choose to fly on this day. And businesses also suffer on that day because fewer people are traveling. The effects of the inauspicious number aren’t just limited to travel. Some elevators in the US even forgo the 13th floor, moving from the 12th floor to the 14th floor. Similarly, in Japan and China, people are superstitious about the number 4, so buildings sometimes lack a 4th floor.
Should Your Doctor Be Studying Astrology?
The ancient Greek doctor Hippocrates said, “a physician without knowledge of astrology has no right to call himself a physician.” Believers in astrology have been around for thousands of years. They looked to the position of the sun and planets to understand our health, our personalities, and to make predictions about the future.
The Earth Is Growing
We think of islands as being fixed in size, but some do grow. On the Big Island of Hawaii, Kilauea volcano erupted almost continuously from 1983 to 2018. For 35 years, lava poured out, and some of it reached the ocean, which caused the island to grow fresh land. Between 1983 and 2002, the island’s landmass grew by 542 acres.
Where Are All The Aliens?
Our Milky Way Galaxy may be home to 2 billion planets that have the right conditions to support life. These planets have the correct temperature for liquid water. While no one knows what alien life would look like, if it is anything like life on earth, it would need water to survive. The possibility of liquid water depends on a planet’s distance from the nearest star. Too close and water evaporates; too far away and water freezes. Scientists have also looked at the effects of clouds on planet temperature. This has increased the estimate of habitable planets to 2 billion. This is only the number of habitable planets in the Milky Way Galaxy, which is just one of an estimated 100 to 200 billion galaxies in the universe.
The Practice of Gratitude
Natalie Price was in dire straits. She was in the middle of a divorce and was struggling to put a roof over her children’s heads. After losing her job, she was at her wit’s end. With no other options, she moved in with her parents. At 2 AM, she woke up in pain. She was having a heart attack.
Railroad Time
The word “time” is the most common noun in the English language, so it’s no wonder that there are so many idioms related to time. Keeping time is an idiom that means measuring time. The history of keeping time dates back to ancient Egypt. They used tall standing beams called obelisks to measure the time it took the sun to move across the sky. Watching the moving shadow of an obelisk was used by cultures all over the world to tell time. Later, people used burning incense or candles, sand in an hourglass, and even water to keep time. In 1685, a man named Christiaan Huygens invented the world’s first pendulum clock that used a swinging weight to measure time.
Can The Language You Speak Make You Healthier?
According to research on language and culture, your health and even your finances are related to the language you speak. Linguists have long known that language can directly influence your perception of the world. For example, in the Kook Thaayorre language, there are no words for left and right. There is no way to explain where something is without using the words north, south, east, and west. Because of this, these people have an innate understanding of which way is north at all times. In some languages, there aren’t different words for blue and green. Speakers of these languages have trouble distinguishing between the two colors.
Extreme Choices
Mark Twain once said, “Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.” According to a University of Toronto research study, it takes an average of 30 attempts to successfully quit smoking. ‘Desperate times call for desperate measures.’ is a well-known English expression that means extreme circumstances or problems necessitate extreme responses.
Coffee Culture And Creativity
Coffee and the caffeine inside it is one of the world’s most popular drugs. The scientific opinion about whether it is healthy or not is always changing. Some researchers say that coffee creates inflammation in your body and can cause high blood pressure as well as other problems. Other researchers say coffee can lower your risk for some types of cancer and other diseases.
Time Traveling Seeds And Satellites
There are more than 200,000 species of plant life on planet earth, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. The history of land plants is 420 million years old, and no one can say how many species have lived and died off over the years. While many of these species are gone for good, there is hope that we can bring at least some of these plants back to life. In 2008, scientists in Israel did exactly that. They found 2,000-year-old seeds from a species of date tree that had become extinct. After planting the seeds, amazingly, one of them grew.
Only 24 Hours in a Day?
Time flies, and sometimes we feel like we never have enough. According to some research, the answer to this problem might lie in finding more awe in our lives. Awe is something that fills you with wonder. It’s a jaw-dropping experience that takes your breath away. This is often something so powerful and extraordinary that words cannot adequately describe the feeling. It stops you in your tracks. The experience of awe is often connected to vastness of size. This could be a physical size, like being near a large mountain or the ocean, or it could be an emotional vastness brought on by music, art, love, or a spiritual experience. It could even be an idea that is so vast or complex that it doesn’t fit into our normal understanding of the world.
New Year’s Resolutions Around The World
As the year winds down, people around the world resolve to make changes in their lives. This New Year’s resolution tradition is more than 4,000 years old and dates back to the Babylonians, who resolved to pay old debts and return borrowed things at the end of the year. Today, people all over the world still make New Year’s resolutions. A few years back, Google created a website recording peoples’ New Year’s resolutions from different countries.
Christmas Truce
During WWI, many of the British, French, and German soldiers lived, fought, and died in trenches that snaked thousands of miles through the countryside. These trenches were grim, dark places averaging 7 feet deep and 6 feet wide. On the Allied side, they were often full of mud, rats, and disease. The men lived in these trenches, struggling to keep dry, stay alive, and not lose their minds. The trenches of the enemy were sometimes just 30 meters away, and sticking your head above the trench could easily get you killed.
That Prairie Dog Thinks You’re Fat!
Has anyone ever told you, you could stand to lose some weight? Or maybe people have told you you’re as thin as a rail. Either way, it might not just be other people judging you on your looks. Prairie dogs have a complex language, and they are not only talking about people, but also calling them fat, skinny, tall, or short.
Secret Language of Plants
A famous book from the 70s called The Secret Life of Plants says that plants are conscious and even have a preference for music. In one research study, plants exposed to Mozart were healthier and grew faster than plants exposed to Jimi Hendrix. Some say these studies that claim plants have a taste for music are full of holes. But there is growing research on plant intelligence and plant communication.
Dream Reading
A young Albert Einstein dreamed he was sliding down a snow covered hill. As he began to move faster and faster, he looked up and saw that the appearance of the stars was changing. Einstein then awoke and spent the next 12 years thinking about the meaning of this dream, which eventually led him to the theory of relativity, also known as E=MC2.
Can Money Buy Happiness?
We’ve all heard the old adage that money can’t buy happiness, but according to a Princeton University study that looked at 450,000 surveys from 1,000 US residents, that might not be true. Nobel prize-winning scientists Deaton and Kahneman looked at two measures of happiness: ‘life evaluation’ and ’emotional well-being.’