Good Morning🌅
Back in 2002, the unstoppable Vonetta Flowers became the first Black athlete to win Winter Olympic gold—and she did it in bobsledding. Yes, a sport where you hurl yourself down an icy track at terrifying speeds. Originally a track star, she failed to qualify for the Summer Olympics but refused to let that be the end of her dream. So, what did she do? Switched sports, hopped in a bobsled, and made history! If that’s not a lesson in resilience and reinvention, I don’t know what is.
When life closes a lane, find another track—maybe even one covered in ice! 🛷❄️
SCIENCE
Humpback Whale Song Shares Structural Similarities to Human Language, Study Finds
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Turns out, whales might have more in common with us than we thought—at least when it comes to how they “talk.” A recent study found that the hauntingly beautiful songs of whales follow the same speech patterns as human language. Yes, really. 🤯
Researchers analyzed eight years of whale song data, breaking down their grunts, shrieks, and moans into frequency patterns. And guess what? The whales seemed to follow Zipf’s Law—a linguistic principle that governs how we humans use words. Basically, the most common sounds whales make occur twice as often as the second most common, three times as often as the third, and so on. If this sounds familiar, it's because the English language does the exact same thing with words like “the” and “of.” Full story here…
WORLD
Tour de headlines
HUMANITY
The Case for Teddy Bears as an Antidote to Negativity
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When New York City teacher Karen Feldman noticed an increase in hate speech among her middle school students, she didn’t just scold them—she gave them teddy bears. Yep, really. Teddy bears. 🧸
In 2022, Feldman partnered with Bear Givers, a nonprofit that helps children in need, to launch the Leading with Kindness Initiative. Instead of simply sitting in detention, students decorate teddy bear T-shirts and write heartfelt notes to comfort hospitalized children. The goal? To channel their energy into something positive.
“I wanted to give students that jolt of adrenaline, but because they’re doing something good,” Feldman told CBS News. “And maybe that would deter them from doing something bad.”
The impact has been so powerful that even students who never got detention are joining in—and some are still giving teddy bears in high school. Just goes to show, a little kindness goes a long way. 💙
Quote Of The Day
"There is no better compass than compassion." — Amanda Gorman
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