(quote)

Sea Otters Returned to a Degraded Coastline Ate Enough Crabs to Restore Balance and Cut Erosion by 90%
Against all odds, a distressed California coastal ecosystem is on the mend, in large part, thanks to the insatiable appetite sea otters have for crabs.

In a groundbreaking study published this week in Nature, scientists revealed that the return of sea otters read more

(quote)

“Our request is simple: tax us, the very richest in society,” they write in an open letter.
“If elected representatives of the world’s leading economies do not take steps to address the dramatic rise of economic inequality, the consequences will continue to be catastrophic,” the letter writes.

Among the letter’s signatories: Valerie Rockefeller, heir to the American read more

(quote)

Tough crowd? Feds putting end to ‘humorous’ highway signs to prioritize safety
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is cracking down on “humorous” digital signs that have been cracking smiles on drivers all across the US.

The days an Ohio highway tells drivers to “slow down” to arrive at the in-laws late or a New Jersey road advising Halloween read more

(quote)

Gen Xers and older millennials really just want to go back in time to before the internet existed
According to a new survey, Americans are yearning for an era before constant connectivity. Can we blame them?

According to a new Harris Poll shared exclusively with Fast Company, most Americans would prefer to live in a simpler read more

(quote)

‘Steamboat Willie’ is now in the public domain. What does that mean for Mickey Mouse?
An early Walt Disney movie featuring the first appearance of Mickey Mouse is among the copyrighted works from 1928 moving into the public domain on Jan. 1, 2024.

“You know, he’s evolved so much and become more 3D and colorful,” observes Ryan Harmon, a former Disney read more

(quote)

Every Bitcoin transaction uses, on average, enough water to fill “a back yard swimming pool”, a new study suggests. That’s around six million times more than is used in a typical credit card swipe, Alex de Vries of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, calculates. The figure is due to the water used to power and cool the millions of computers worldwide Bitcoin relies on. It comes as many regions struggle with read more

(quote)

Jobs, Not Jail: A Judge Was Sick of Sending Kids to Prison, So He Found a Better Way
By the year 2000, Judge John Phillips had long since lost count of the number of minors he had sent through the California penitentiary system for crimes committed during a violent, unguided, and hopeless adolescence. “You send these young people to prison, and read more

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” – Marcus Aurelius (quote)

What were Marcus Aurelius’ rules for life? His self-help classic has the answers
Despite being written for his eyes only, the philosopher emperor’s private journal, Meditations, has now read more

(quote)

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope have united to study an expansive galaxy cluster known as MACS0416. The resulting panchromatic image combines visible and infrared light to assemble one of the most comprehensive views of the universe ever taken. Located about 4.3 billion light-years from Earth, MACS0416 is a pair of colliding galaxy read more

“The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.” – Alfred Austin

“It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees.” – George Eliot

“To plant a garden is to dream of tomorrow.” “Even if you have only a tiny piece of earth, you can create something beautiful, which we all have a great need for. If we read more

(quote)

California has ordered the company Cruise to immediately stop operations of its driverless cars in the state. The Department of Motor Vehicles said on Tuesday that it was issuing the indefinite suspension because of safety issues with the vehicles. “When there is an unreasonable risk to public safety, the DMV can immediately suspend or read more