Good News for Fall Moods

Your healthy dose of feel-good current events in pop culture, fashion, travel, science, and everything in between…

And like a toasty breeze, the latest round of carefree weekly updates has arrived, showcasing 10 topical reports cherry-picked to deliver an opportuuunity to chill out and deeply breathe in that familiar smoky scent of easy fall times that lie so very directly ahead.

Take the chance to unapologetically recline, perhaps in a petal-soft robe, and lounge with some harmless (yet fascinating) stories selected to give you some clickable, likeable current events that are finally worth sharing with your favorites.

Peruse, ponder, audibly “awww,” lol a little, and enjoy the good news you might have missed:

 

“Terry just came along one day and introduced himself. He said he’d like to brush cats. Eventually it became every day,” says Elizabeth Feldhausen, founder of Safe Haven Pet Sanctuary, where everyone’s favorite volunteer has become a mainstay. “He brushes all of the cats and can tell you about all of their likes and dislikes. He also accidentally falls asleep most days — we don’t mind — cats need this.” Buckhorn, a nervous tabby who gets passed up often “because nobody even knows he’s there,” is Terry’s most recent favorite. After finding out about his internet fame, and the poems that have been written calling him Cat Grandpa, Terry doesn’t mind. “I fall asleep a lot, but I never felt that this was going to happen — Cat Grandpa is a good name.” 

“And you too, be it male or female, can be very fashionable.” When Brenda Dickson was informed that Welcome to My Home, her 80s instructional video on how to live a life as glamorous as her own, was about to be released on YouTube, she refused. Years later, the soap opera star is a viral phenomenon, more famous for the glamour shot styling of her series than her time on The Young and The Restless. Why? Likely all stemming from a deep love of hats and incomparable natural confidence, her style eccentricities, like glass drawers of crystal earrings and too many red leather boots to count, are visual catnip in 2018. 

This protective elephant trying to help a friend wash her hair is the montage of the season. 

Evoking a “so maybe that’s why it exists at all…” feeling similar to finding out Sea World is functioning as a shelter for manatees during Florida’s red tide, the team from The University of Texas Medical Branch has used Zika to kill aggressive brain cancer cells. Although the science has yet to be tested on humans, researchers note that the idea of “using viruses as a form of cancer therapy has potential.”

“It’s a hybrid of a kangaroo, a koala, a sloth, a monkey, and a bear,” says conservation scientist Lisa Dabek of the “unimaginably cute” tree kangaroo of Papua New Guinea. Thought to be extinct for decades, the Wondiwoi tree kangaroo left scientists its last traces in 1928, until a few months ago when it was finally photographed in a remote mountain range, where researchers realized it’s actually “amazingly common in a very small area.” And as Michael Smith, the amateur botanist that helped find it notes, “all this just shows that you can find interesting things if you simply go and look, on holidays over the years, I’ve discovered all kind of weird bits of archeology and ethnography. The general belief that there’s nothing more of interest to discover is quite mistaken.” 

When Sarah Spencer, a Melbourne-based software engineer, came across an old knitting machine from the 70s at a thrift store, she took it home and managed to get it up and running in a few hours, no manual required. Over the next year, she designed an algorithm that allowed it to produce multicolored knits. About 100 working hours later, she was about to create an enormous 9’ x 15’ tapestry of the cosmos called Stargazing based off publicly available star maps. According to her, she hopes to inspire the next generation with its scale and beauty. “As a woman in tech, I wanted to create something which would engage young minds in an area of STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics].” 

Is there anything that they can’t make look cooler? An ode to the simple pleasure of stripes.

“Any break, even if it’s just an hour, can be helpful,” says mental health counselor Rachel Gersten of the many benefits of a social media pause. The perks are kind of no-brainers, sure, but a reminder that your creativity can surge, your relationships can deepen, and your gratefulness for reality can heighten when you aren’t comparing your life to others is still helpful when it’s time to emerge from scroll fog. And as clinical psychologist Dr. Kevin Gilliland notes, “if you’re spending more time watching life than living it, it’s time for a break.” 

Bright pink and yellow like a Laffy Taffy twist, a new neon species of reef fish has been discovered in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Named after the Greek goddess of love, Tosanoides aphroditeor the Aphrodite anthias was so mesmerizing that the divers who found it didn’t even notice a giant shark swimming just above their team.

May your weekend be as pleasant as this lizard’s face, already sparking comparisons like: “It is a man who is going to see rice.” –@modokinatu (translated from Japanese). 

 

 

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5 years ago

Love this post :)

Awesome links! I love the smiling lizard meme. Is it just me or is it sort of cute?

Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com

5 years ago

This update includes very nice files, I want a set in it!

5 years ago

I love reading these articles because they’re short but infmeoativr.