Fab Friday News
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- 3 min read
Concluding the week with a global smorgasbord of tasty, upbeat news nuggets.
Surreal Puzzle
Using nothing more than a smartphone and Instagram’s layout tool, Italian photographer Fontanesi has built a cult following. The artist, who works under the name of a street where he once had a particularly good time, transforms ordinary photographs into surreal visual puzzles. He combines two of his own images to create scenes that feel absurd and strangely believable all at once. His scenes read as real, at least for the brief moment before your brain catches up with your eyes. That moment is everything.
Apped Out
A plethora of explanations has been offered to explain falling birth rates in the developed world, said CNN, but a new study “offers a provocative culprit in a succinct package: the smartphone”. The paper argues that areas of the US where access to the iPhone was most widespread between its launch in 2007 and 2011 experienced a more pronounced decline in fertility. The study’s authors suggest the effect “may be related to ways the technology has shifted our time and attention”.
Boy Finds Tooth
An 11-year-old boy made a once-in-a-lifetime discovery after finding an ancient elephant tooth right on the beach. Charlie was walking with his parents along the beach in Bawdsey, a Suffolk coastal village in eastern England, when he spotted the rock-like object on the shoreline. The discovered tooth, which measures four inches in width, was confirmed by experts as the upper left molar of an Anancus arvernensis. A six-ton relative of the African bush elephant, the extinct mammal walked the Earth roughly 8.5 to 2 million years ago.
Stop Guessing
We all know that applying sunscreen is important. However, we normally rely on our instincts, habits, weather apps, or a generic UV index that doesn’t necessarily say much about what your skin is actually experiencing. The90 Gem is trying to make that exposure a little more personal. It's a sleek, necklace-style tracker that transforms invisible sun exposure into actionable, app-based skincare guidance. The pendant pairs with The90 app, which processes live UVA and UVB data throughout the day. The device also reflects a shift in wearables, moving beyond broad health metrics like steps, sleep, and workouts, toward more specific preventive tools. Skin health makes sense here: UV exposure is constant, invisible, and highly personal. Both the Gold and Silver variants of The90 Gem are available on The90’s website. The list price is US$299.
Words to Baz Luhrmann's 'Sunscreen': Entertaining and informative.
First in USA
A long-awaited giant leap in battery technology has taken another significant shuffle forward - thanks to the first fitting of a new type of hyper-efficient fast-charging battery in a road-going car in North America. A Dodge Charger guinea-pig vehicle has just been fitted with this revolutionary 'solid-state' battery pack for on-the-road testing. These aptly-named Charger experiments reportedly represent the first time that any of the new type of solid-state EV batteries have been integrated into a proper road-going car in North America.
"A Caring Place"
For more than 30 years, Mister Rogers created a relationship with millions of American children, each of whom felt like they were visiting with a trusted, cardigan-wearing, friend. Now, there's an official Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood YouTube channel that is aiming to continue to help children and parents navigate complex emotions through kindness and curiosity. The channel says that it is "a caring place where you are respected, where your feelings matter, where you can laugh and play, and where you are reminded every day that you are special just by being you."
"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth." Muhammad Ali
On This Day
19 June 1464: King Louis XI established the Royal Postal Service (poste aux chevaux). By placing post relays every 20 miles along major royal roads, couriers could swap horses and deliver official correspondence rapidly, laying the foundation for modern state communication. Recognizing that rapid, secure information flow was critical to outmaneuver feudal lords and centralize his kingdom, Louis XI (reigning 1461–1483) revolutionized communication in medieval France.
Today's Articles
First Floating City: A $16bn floating city that will be nearly a mile long and carry 80,000 people around the globe.
Mood Boosting Video
Flooding solution: This chubby beaver is one of London's new flood-stopping eco-warrior heroes.