What better way to start the week than with an upbeat collection of positive news nuggets?
The Art of Motivation
Here's a fabulous little story that reveals what really motivates people: "A few months after my husband and I moved to a small Massachusetts town I grumbled to a resident about the poor service at the library, hoping she would repeat my complaints to the librarian. The next time I went to the library, the librarian had set aside two bestsellers for me and a new biography for my husband. What's more, she appeared to be genuinely glad to see me. Later I reported the miraculous change to my friend. "I suppose you told her how poor we thought the service was?" I asked. "No," she confessed. "In fact - I hope you don't mind - I told her your husband was amazed at the way she had built up this small town library, and that you thought she showed unusually good taste in the new books she ordered."
Hahaha!
55555! Kikikiki! The world laughs in mysterious ways. Preply, an online language learning platform, released a fascinating look into how different cultures express laughter in text. In Thai, for instance, the number "5" is often used because the word is pronounced like "haah." In Japanese, the romanization of the words for "laughter" and "smile" begin with a w, so they sometimes type "wwwww." You'll also see variations based on pronunciation, like "kha kha" in Persian or "cha cha" in Lithuanian. It all translates to the same thing: "Hey, you're pretty funny!"
NASA to Hunt UFOs
We live in an era where the rapid advance of cutting-edge technology can help answer questions that have gone unanswered for decades. This is why NASA has commissioned a team of scientists to investigate unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) — also known as UFOs. But crucially, once the investigation begins this fall, the scientific community will look for ways to apply artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to tackle the UFO conundrum. We'll keep you posted!
Nikhedonia
You’re playing a game, and you suddenly realize that you’ve got it in the bag. Or you’re watching your favourite team play and, after a close-fought match, you see that they’re surely going to win. That’s nikhedonia - the feeling of excitement or elation that comes from anticipating success.
Talking Dirty
What would you do if you threw away a piece of garbage and the trash can let out a deep, carnal moan? Well, the town of Malmö, Sweden is hoping you'd ... do it again. Civic-minded pedestrians that drop trash into one of two bins on the city's Davidshallsbron footbridge are rewarded with sexy feedback like "Oh, right there, yes!", "Come back soon and do that again!" and "Mmm, a bit more to the left next time." The city council started the campaign to encourage people to be less dirty - with their litter, that is. So if you see someone on the Davidshallsbron bridge staring longingly at a trash can, just let them be. They're figuring some things out.
The Hills Are Alive
Julie Andrews and some of the Von Trapp children from The Sound of Music were reunited when Andrews was being honored with the American Film Institute's Live Achievement Award in Los Angeles. They made a very Von Trapp-style ensemble with their matching black and white. In a recent interview, Andrews said she was surprised by how much audiences loved the film, and that it has "stayed in people's consciousness all this time."
Terra Solar
The Philippines’ second-richest person, Enrique Razon, is on his way to building "the world’s largest" solar power facility with 2,500 to 3,500 megawatts of solar panels and 4,000 to 4,500 megawatt-hours of battery storage. To put this into context, that's equivalent to what some nuclear power plants offer. The electricity generated will be enough to replace 1.4 million tons of coal or 930,000 liters of oil every year, according to Terra Solar.
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Quote of the Day
"Summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language." Henry James
On this Day
13 June 1967: Thurgood Marshall was nominated as justice to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Lyndon B. Johnson; becoming the Court's first African American member.
Dive in Deeper
Legendary singer-songwriter Kate Bush is suddenly up and running again - even though she hasn’t released new material. Read on...
Volodymyr Zelensky hasn't lost his sense of humour, as illustrated by the particular gift he likes to give close allies when they visit. Read on...
Musical Mood Booster
Lots of movie clips cleverly spliced together to a song by Walk the Moon.