For hundreds of years, historians and archaeologists believed that Mesopotamia (nearly 3800 BC) was the cradle of civilization. But in the past few years, this belief began to dwindle. In the 1960s, a Russian topographer was going through some aerial photographs of Ukraine when he noticed some unusual shadows materializing on the grounds of Kyiv city.
Curious, he magnified the photos and was flabbergasted, as many more concentric circles of these shadows emerged. Further examination revealed that the shadows were cast from unknown archaeological remains that lay buried in the soil. ScienceNews reports that when archaeologists studied these remains, they proposed that the first cities of humanity were built in Ukraine, not Mesopotamia (what is now Iraq). The secret hid in the Trypillia megasites, the forgotten city that mysteriously disappeared.
Previously, scientists believed that the world’s earliest cities like Uruk, Çatalhöyük, and Jericho, were located in Mesopotamia, or modern-day Iraq. But investigation of the Neolithic Cucuteni-Trypillia culture in present-day Ukraine revealed that some of the oldest cities dating back to around 4000 BC are situated here. Given the meticulous planning that the 6,000-year-old remnants of these settlements depicted, archaeologists deduced that these ancient people must have been brilliant urban town planners.
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During the initial discovery, Russian topographer Konstantin Shishkin had spotted evidence of almost 250 shadows looming over an area of 741 acres, reported ScienceNews. But at that time, he lacked advanced technology to carry on the investigation. It wasn’t until 1971 that these shadows were brought to light again. In 1971, some Ukrainian scientists examined the underground archaeological structures using geomagnetic technology that scans the underground realm to identify structures by tracking differences in Earth’s magnetic field at various spots.
In 2011, archaeologist Johannes Müller from the University of Kiel in Germany returned to the Trypillia site once again, and thoroughly examined the underground structures using geomagnetics and high-quality imaging technology. The structures spread out in concentric circles and streets are organized in grid-like patterns. These patterns were studied across three ancient cities: Maidanezke, Taljanki, and Nebelivka. “The architecture is reminiscent of Lego, it was a modular system,” Müller told the Swiss publication Neue Zürcher Zeitung. These low-density cities were referred to as “megasites,” according to ScienceNews.
Some of the houses dwelling in these cities were deliberately burned down. In Nebelivka, for example, people used wood to do ceremonial house burnings. “Burning a house down in this way created a spectacle that could be seen from many kilometers away,” archaeologist John Chapman of Durham University in England, told Science News.
The remnants of graves and burned houses also made scientists wonder about what kind of funerary practices and death rituals these ancient Trypillia people used to have. “Individual graves are something with which the group of burying people represents their role to others. This reflection of social structures does not exist here,” Müller stated. However, “If there are no graves marked in an archaeologist-friendly way, that does not mean that a cult of the dead did not exist.”
Now, the next challenge for archaeologists is to dig out some information about how these Trypillia cities were formed and how they disappeared mysteriously. Their study isn’t finished yet, and they will scour more details about these ancient civilizations that have seemingly collapsed Mesopotamia’s centuries-old title of being the most ancient city.
This article originally appeared last year.
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Underwater ruins of ancient temple building. (Representative cover image: Getty Images
Off the western coast of Italy, the Gulf of Pozzuoli in the Tyrrhenian Sea is an underwater museum of ancient ruins, submerged baths, and even remnants of a forgotten city. Its stunning emerald waters, where Roman emperors once bathed, are now home to dolphins and schools of sperm whales gliding through the historic depths. In 2023, archaeologists diving into these waters stumbled upon what appeared to be the remains of a 2,000-year-old Nabataean temple—a site with architectural echoes featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, according to Live Science. Their findings were officially published in Antiquity in September 2024.
This remarkable discovery came through a collaboration between Italy's Ministry of Culture and the University of Campania as part of the “Between Land and Sea” project. This initiative aims to uncover the rich archaeological heritage hidden along the Phlegraean coast, a region marked by ongoing volcanic activity and geological shifts. These underwater ruins offer an extraordinary window into ancient Rome's daily life, commerce, and culture, preserving layers of history within the tranquil yet tectonically active Gulf of Pozzuoli.
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During the Augustan era (31 B.C. – 14 A.D.), this region was one of the most important ports on the Mediterranean trade network. The bustling district boasted a rich urban landscape dotted with warehouses where merchants stored grains. This temple, however, was filled with concrete and broken pottery soon after it was constructed, probably due to foreign traders leaving the area.
"For me, this was one of the most unexpected discoveries," the study's lead author Michele Stefanile, told Live Science. The temple was discovered through aerial photogrammetry conducted in the region in 2022. Inside the temple, the researchers found two rooms bordered by walls of “opus reticulatum,” an ancient Roman construction consisting of small blocks of volcanic tuff arranged in a net-like pattern.
In one room, two altars of white marble leaned against a wall with several rectangular recesses, that once housed “anepigraphic betyls,” sacred stones that Nabataeans used for worship. Each room also revealed a marble slab featuring the Latin inscription "Dusari sacrum," meaning "consecrated to Dushara," the main god in the ancient Nabataean religion. "It seems that we have a building dedicated to the Nabataean gods, but with Roman architecture and Latin inscription," Stefanile said.
According to the study authors, “The existence of a Nabataean sanctuary within the port area confirms that there was a community from that region participating in the commercial activities of Puteoli.” Between the fourth to second centuries B.C., the Nabataean Kingdom was in its golden age, where prosperous merchants traded in luxury goods such as incense, gold, ivory, and perfumes.
Nabataea experienced its decline in 106 CE when Emperor Trajan created the province of Arabia Petraea, affecting the independence of Nabataeans with his conquest. In the early 2nd century BC, this temple was clogged with concrete powder and was considered forgotten, until these archaeologists dug it up. The presence of amphorae discovered in the submerged temple is evidence of this. This event not only marked the decline of the Nabataean kingdom but also brought down its formerly flourishing trade network.
Childhood sweethearts finding their way back to each other after decades apart sounds like something out of a fairytale, but sometimes, real life has plans even more poetic. That seemed to be the case for Lauren and Brooks, who went their separate ways in February 2015. But during a flight to Oklahoma, Brooks felt a shift—he realized that Lauren was truly the love of his life and decided he was going to marry her.
And marry her he did. Recently, to mark their third wedding anniversary, Lauren shared a touching clip from their wedding ceremony on her Instagram page. In the video, Brooks tells her about the moment on that flight when he wrote a heartfelt love confession, acknowledging how much she meant to him. The video was taken during a beautifully orchestrated day that included a bachelorette party, a rehearsal dinner, and a garden pizza party, all leading up to the church ceremony where they exchanged vows. In her blog, Lauren shares that in that moment, surrounded by loved ones and the church’s priest, Brooks recalled how that flight had changed everything for him.
“So there I was, sitting at the airport, upset, fighting tears,” he said on the microphone. “But despite our current situation, I knew we would be together. Sitting there in that moment, on my plane ticket I wrote, I’m going to marry that woman.” The groom then slipped out the old ticket from his coat’s pocket and handed it to Lauren. The priest looked at the ticket and read the note for the guests, “On the ticket, it says, I am going to marry that woman with a little smiley face. There’s a little heart too.” Continuing his speech, Brooks said, “A few years, countless memories later, here we are.”
Calling her childhood sweetheart and husband “the most thoughtful human,” Lauren wrote in the post, “It’s the love in my life that keeps me going.” The video has been viewed by more than 9.7 million people ever since it was shared. “The kind of man every woman deserves,” @fabulousjudy_ commented on the wholesome clip, while @tmcconnell74 said, “I still believe in love because of you nice people sharing your stories.” Reflecting on the couple’s story, @realmeyure added, “When you genuinely want to work things with another person, you literally move mountains, aka you would literally do anything to be with that person.”
In the blog post, Lauren described that she and Brooks organized their wedding in the Southern California area where most of their guests lived. They opted for a sustainable wedding, to minimize the waste that is typically generated during weddings. They also skipped the traditional “save the date” invites and chose vintage postcards with QR codes printed on them for the guests. “A wedding is a time to publicly declare how much you love your partner, invite your beloved community into that experience, eat your favorite foods, drink your favorite drinks, dance your butt off, and have a blast,” Lauren wrote, describing how the couple marked everything off their checklist.
Khari Arnold is just a dad in Atlanta that wanted to bond with his baby daughter and instill a love of reading into her. After a year of taking his daughter to the library and reading to her aloud, he posted a reel on Instagram to recap his weekly trips. He wanted his fellow fathers in the community to share this joy, so he stepped up to create Library Dads.
Library Dads is a community of Atlanta fathers that get together on weekends twice a month to take their children to the library. At these “Library Link-Ups” the dads get to bond with their children and participate in read-aloud story time. It’s not only a bonding experience from father to child and a promotion of literacy, but a “brotherhood” of dads looking for community and friendship.
“One of our favorite sayings is, ‘It’s one thing to have men in your circle, it’s another thing to have men in your corner,’ said Arnold. Arnold wanted to foster a group of dads that can teach, learn, and encourage one another in their paths in fatherhood on top of providing a spot for their children to read and grow.
Illiteracy is a pressing issue in the United States, and not just for children. According to a 2022–2023 study conducted by the National Literacy Institute, 130 million adults are unable to read a simple story to their children. Along with that, approximately 50% of adults read so poorly that they cannot achieve simple tasks such as reading the label on their prescription drugs.
When it comes to kids, 40% of students throughout the United States are unable to read at a basic level. Young students in elementary school that struggle with reading are shown to have several emotional, social, and societal struggles compared to kids that are literate within their age range or higher.
Communities like Library Dads present an opportunity for both children and adults to get more involved with reading to offset those issues. It also provides a great social space for dads to make friends with fellow dads to help them find kinship in men that aren’t family members nor friends that don’t have children.
You can be a part of a group of reading dads, too!Photo credit: @thelibrarydads
Arnold’s hope is for Library Dads to open chapters throughout the country, spreading this idea around to help fathers with their kids, along with addressing those literacy issues. However, you don’t have to wait for him.
If you want you can start your own dad or parent reading group trip to your local library. Create a group on Facebook, post a date on a community cork board, and chat with your local library for resources to make a group like Library Dads in your area. If not the library, grab some children’s books and meet up at a local state park near picnic tables or at a community center to foster a group.
Illiteracy may seem like a personal issue for a parent or a child, but it’s a community problem that can be resolved if enough people gather together to help and encourage one another.
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Ivy Mix and Lynnette Marrero, renowned bartenders and co-founders of Speed Rack, an all-female and femme speed bartending competition.
“We have no women bartenders, where are all the women?” Lynnette Marrero remembered.
The decorated bartender and mixologist worked a cocktail festival many years ago where some 30 women put it together behind the scenes. But when it came time for a film crew to record female bartenders, they were at a loss. She didn’t want it to happen again and neither did fellow renowned bartender Ivy Mix. “It was an a-ha moment, of what can we do to showcase these women?”
Their answer became Speed Rack, the world’s first and only all-female and femme speed bartending competition–a speed rack is also part of a bar to place liquor for quick handling. Now in its thirteenth year, Speed Rack, featuring “Women shaking up the cocktail world,” is part of a larger movement ensuring nobody else wonders where the female bartenders are: they’re right there behind the bar. Marrero and Mix had witnessed too many women and femme identified individuals not getting the credit they deserved or not being able to break through into craft cocktails. Speed Rack became a way to help change that. “It was just about creating a platform and a pedestal for these women to be seen doing what they do every day,” Marrero says. Plus, all proceeds from every Speed Rack event support charities dedicated to breast cancer research like The Pink Agenda. Since it began, Speed Rack has raised over two million dollars for these organizations.
Competitors Sam Smagala, of the bar Joyface, and Miranda Midler, Head Bartender of Dear Irving's Broadway location, shake it off before Round 1 begins. Elyssa Goodman
On February 17 2025, the eight top bartenders in New York’s regional Speed Rack competition arrived at Melrose Ballroom in Queens for the city’s regional finals. By that point, the field had already been narrowed from some 85 online applications with video submissions to a preliminary competition of 20-25 to tonight’s eight participants. They came from across the city’s cocktail bars–Mister Paradise, The Crane Club, The Portrait Bar, and others–and had to be working at least four shifts a week to qualify.
In a round-robin, bracket-style competition, participants will have to make four perfect cocktails in a matter of minutes–it’s a competition that’s ultimately about speed and accuracy. The drinks will then be delivered to the judges, who will deliberate and give feedback–errors will add time to a competitor’s score. The winner of each round proceeds until there are only two left and a winner is chosen.
The winner will proceed to the National Finals in July at the annual Tales of the Cocktail conference, this year in New Orleans. There, winners from events in Chicago, Denver, Portland, OR, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico will join her, as will winners from Fast Track competitions in Nashville, San Francisco, Houston, Louisville, and Orlando. By the time finalists get to Nationals, they’ll have been training for at least two months, selected for teams sponsored by some of the biggest alcohol brands in the world.
Competitor Hope Rice of The Crane Club finishes up the final cocktail of her round, an Old Cuban, with a pour of G.H.Mumm Champagne. The Old Cuban is a drink created by legendary bartender Audrey Saunders. Elyssa Goodman
At Nationals, between 16-18 people will compete for a scholarship to the Beverage Alcohol Resource’s 5-Day Program, featuring an opportunity for certification with the “Curriculum for the World’s Most Comprehensive Distilled Spirits & Mixology” held at once a year at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, not to mention countless brand and networking opportunities. Marrero says that Mix usually speaks to contestants beforehand and reminds them that “everyone knows you competed.This is a job interview, so go out there and network, do your best, because whether you're the winner or not, there's opportunities that come from this.” Later this year, Speed Rack will also return to Canada and Australia.
Speed Rack becomes not just a way to bring awareness to the gender gap in bartending and the beverage industry, it’s how the gap starts to close. Build a community, reward people for doing a good job, and give them the resources to continue pursuing their education in the field. So it’s fitting that even before the audience starts to arrive at Melrose Ballroom, there’s something electric happening. What’s at stake is not just about cocktails.The venue’s two floors will eventually fill up entirely, and over $14,000 will go to charity. The hot pink fireballs of Speed Rack’s logo and matching pink lights cast a glow across the venue, where sponsors of the event, including brands like Cointreau and Patron, among many others, have set up booths and started mixing cocktails of their own for guests. It’ll be a night full of industry folks, though anyone is welcome to attend.
Competitor Ileana Hernandez just before her round begins. Ileana works at Greenwich Village restaurant Llama San.Elyssa Goodman
Contestants start to mill about the space–they’ve dotted their faces with pink glitter, tied hot pink Speed Rack bandanas around their necks, spotted clothing with pink rhinestones, painted on thick cat eye liner, donned olive cocktail rings, and more. Hugs are thrown with abandon.
“We have so many fresh new faces, I just wanna let y’all know drinking culture in New York is in great hands,” Marrero says, to uproarious applause as she and Mix begin the event. With volunteer barbacks, the first contestants prepare their stations. Ice fills glassware, and sponsors’ bottles are lined up behind the bars for easy access. The host tonight is Vance Henderson, lauded National Brand Ambassador for Hendricks Gin, decked out in hot pink sunglasses and a matching feather boa. He introduces the judges, who are also deeply respected in the beverage industry: Ignacio “Nacho" Jimenez, Operating Partner of cocktail bar Superbueno; Iain Griffiths, co-founder of Bar Snack; Charlotte Voisey, Tales of the Cocktail’s Executive Director; and Amy Racine, Beverage Director and Partner of JF Restaurants.
Full of friends and industry professionals, the audience cheers for the annual New York Regional Speed Rack competition. Elyssa Goodman
I feel jitters just hearing their credentials, but it’s part of the bartenders’ presentation tonight to remain calm and poised. The event, Marrero says later, “showcases what happens on a Friday night, Saturday night, when you're in a craft cocktail bar and you're working service, and then four cocktail luminaries walk in and ask for a round, and you have to make that round perfectly, beautifully and fast, really fast.” The drinks must be “balanced, look beautiful and be made with grace behind the bars,” Speed Rack says in its competition notes. The event is intense–the opportunities it gives participants could really change their lives if they want it to–but the mood remains high: Henderson introduces each contestant not unlike fighters in a boxing match, and volunteer barbacks, also industry people, are personal hype folks throughout the night, waving fans and cheering on participants.
With each round, contestants will be given four classic cocktails to produce, one selected by each judge, and the round will be over in a matter of minutes–never longer than five, and even four would be pushing it. The bartenders become a choreography of shaking and stirring and pouring and tasting (and, at least once, egg separating) and when they’ve finished all four beverages, they slap a buzzer to stop their clock. Bensonhurst, Suffering Bastard, Whiskey Sour, Cosmopolitan, Nippon and other cocktails course over the bar through the evening, and soon the judges weigh in. Was it perfect? Too much tequila? Too herbaceous? Was the garnish placed appropriately? Did the drink need to be more diluted? While they wait for final scores, bartenders high five friends like they’re autographing headshots at a movie premiere, they pour shots into mouths, they can’t believe they did it again. With final scores, the winners advance.
As the night goes on, more and more people push toward the front. People cheer on their friends, bang on the stage, a flamboyant chorus of “WOOOOOOO” and “GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS!” and the girl next to me who looks a contestant dead in the eyes and says “Rachel, you’re a bad bitch. BAD. BITCHES. ONLY,” with a half-empty cocktail in her hand.
Competitor Rachel Prucha, of Mister Paradise and Hawksmoor, ready to take on her round.Elyssa Goodman
The music gets louder. In the last round, the finalists are indeed the aforementioned Rachel, Prucha of Mister Paradise and Hawksmoor, and Lana Epstein of The Portrait Bar. Taking their places behind the bar, all they have to do now is make four perfect cocktails while a few hundred of their closest friends and industry professionals scream and chant and applaud. It’s another dance, of whiskey and raspberries and straws and tonic and ice and god knows what else, into jiggers, into shakers, into mixing glasses, until that buzzer is banged for the last time and the cocktails are out, in front of the judges. The deliberation feels endless. It’s some four hours from when we started and nerves are askew. More shots! More cheering! Lana, Lana! Rachel, Rachel!
Lana wins, and then something amazing happens–a swirl of friends and bartenders who competed rush the stage to cheer her on, her name chanting from their lips as they embrace her in a giant hug and pink petals fall from the ceiling. People put her on their shoulders, they take pictures, they pour bubbly into her mouth like it’s the Super Bowl. The joy is genuine, and to me it’s the most moving part of the evening because it’s ultimately what Speed Rack is actually about: women supporting women.
Bartender Lana Epstein, of The Portrait Bar, wins Speed Rack's New York Regional competition. Friends and fellow competitors raise her up and offer bubbly to celebrate. Elyssa Goodman
“The community vibe of, ‘it's not just one of us, it's all of us,’ is really important,” Marrero says. She believes Speed Rack can keep regenerating itself because it really is an event for the community. There’s an understanding that the platform represents inclusivity, she continues, giving basic training to everyone and sharing foundational knowledge, and this helps people move up in the industry and continue sharing.
Marrero doesn’t remember a lot of men helping her with this when she started–it was women. She hopes in the future there will be even more women and femme identified individuals in ownership, partnership, and leadership positions throughout the beverage industry. While she says many people come to the industry for a flexible work life as they pursue an artistic endeavor, she already sees Speed Rack’s impact making space for the next generation. “The future is in, the more people that we continue to recruit to stay in the industry,” she says. “The rest of us can then go on to get funding, open places, and give those folks a spot to grow and and really, light the world on fire one cocktail at a time.”
When he isn’t working as a lobbyist, Sacramento’s Joe Lang spends much of his spare time fighting to find a cure for Jordan’s Syndrome, the highly rare neurodevelopment disorder named after his daughter. After learning Jordan was among a small handful of children with the condition, which can result in significant intellectual disability, Lang made it his life’s mission to fund research—and that tireless work has now resulted in a breakthrough, with Japanese pharmaceutical company Shionogi announcing plans to start a clinical trial into potential treatment.
"When my daughter, Jordan, was finally diagnosed after years of testing, it became my family’s mission to cultivate and grow a supportive community with the shared goal of advancing the understanding of this disorder and progressing towards potential treatment options,” said Lang—who co-founded the nonprofit foundation Jordan’s Guardian Angels with his wife, Cynthia—in a statement announcing the trial. "While we know this is just the beginning, this is a profound moment for our community, and we are hopeful for our children’s futures and the future of rare disease drug development."
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Jordan, now 19, was diagnosed at age 10 after a doctor recommended her genes be mapped—a decision that prompted the discovery of a mutation on a gene called PPP2R5D. While only six children had been diagnosed at the time, that total has now reportedly swelled to roughly 350. And the Langs have been at the heart of those research efforts.
"If somebody said, ‘We want to help your child,’ as a dad you’re going to say, ‘OK, what do I need to do?’" Joe told CalMatters, a nonprofit news outlet focused on issues affecting Californians. Describing his efforts as "extremely fulfilling," he called himself "just a dad that got thrown in the deep end of the pool."
Researchers modeled the gene to study how it malfunctioned, and doctors screened tens of thousands of existing drugs to see which, if any, could be used for treatment. Now Shionogi and Jordan’s Guardian Angels are collaborating on the first-ever clinical trial for Jordan’s Syndrome, evaluating the safety and tolerability of Zatolmilast, an "investigational selective PDE4D inhibitor."
The clinical program, partly funded by the state of California, involves the collaborative efforts of 10 research and academic institutions: Columbia University, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, UC Davis, University of South Alabama, Vanderbilt University, the University of Wisconsin Madison, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, the University of Iowa, and the University of Rochester.
There are currently no medications or treatments for Jordan’s Syndrome, and the disorder is difficult to diagnose because of its wide range of symptoms, which include "global developmental delays, seizures, physical abnormalities, vision problems, muscle weakness, attention disorder, social and sensory challenges commonly associated with autism, disordered sleep and feeding difficulties." The mutation on the genes PPP2R5D (Jordan’s Syndrome), PPP2R5C, and PPP2R1A is also "linked to autism, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, cancer, and Parkinson’s."
The U.S. FDA recently granted to Zatolmilast Rare Pediatric Disease Designation (RPD)—reserved for "serious and life-threatening diseases that affect children ages 18 years or younger with fewer than 200,000 people in the United States"—for the treatment of Jordan’s Syndrome.
Lang’s eventual goal is for his daughter to begin speaking, which he described to CalMatters as a "sea change." But in the meantime, as the trial moves forward, other research on possible treatments—and a cure—will continue. "I think Jordan will be able to say the things that she has not been able to say to us," Cynthia Lang told CBS News Sacramento. "She might have been thinking them, but I think now she'll be able to communicate them."
In the meantime, you can stay up to date with Jordan’s Guardian Angels through their official podcast, which recently launched its fifth season. They cover "dozens of topics in the rare disease space," they write on their website, "and give you a closer look at our groundbreaking research into Jordan’s Syndrome that could one day change the world."
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People with autism shared things they considered "normal" until neurotypical folks told them otherwise.
There are lots of behaviors I once thought were universal. For example, I recently learned that not everyone has an internal monologue running through their head all day long—a fact that, frankly, I’m still struggling to process. In a recent viral thread, people with autism shared things they thought were "normal" until a neurotypical told them otherwise. It’s an absorbing read top to bottom, with the responses exploring everything from body language to conversational style to following social rules and etiquette.
One of the top comments on r/AskReddit relates to "maladaptive daydreaming," which Cleveland Clinic describes as a "mental health issue that causes a person to lose themselves in complex daydreams," usually as a "coping mechanism for other mental health conditions or circumstances."
"I only just this year learned the term 'maladaptive daydreaming' and I had no idea it was uncommon to space out so thoroughly in one's head as to be completely oblivious to all external sensory input for an hour or longer," one user wrote. Another replied, "This...isn't the norm? What do people do when they're bored or have spare time? If I don't have a book or don't feel like looking at my phone I'm basically playing full production movies in my head."
Someone else wrote they often "rehearse conversations in [their] head before having them—like full-on scripts for every possible response." They were "completely shocked" to learn that most people don’t: "It blew my mind that people just wing social interactions without a mental rehearsal. Still can’t imagine how that works."
Another user said they’re compelled to give people "factually correct information" and didn’t realize until their late 30s that it’s "considered rude by neurotypical people to correct their incorrect beliefs about the world." They added, "If something I believe to be true is wrong then I would like to be corrected, with reliable sources, of course. Who wants to walk around scientifically incorrect information?"
One popular response focused on how verbal tone shapes meaning: "Believing exactly what people say when they say something and being shocked when it turns out they didn't mean it the way they said it and there was something in the WAY they said it that I was supposed to have picked up on."
Elsewhere, someone shared that they have to "consciously them [themselves] to show emotions during conversations," with examples like, "It’s time to smile now," "people are laughing; I need to laugh too," and "remember to look at the person talking." They continued, "For so long I just thought that was how people worked. The fact that it comes natural for most people is still kind of hard to understand."
According to The University of Texas at Dallas, people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) "often have problems recognizing the emotions of others from physical cues, such as facial expression or body posture." But in a 2015 study published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, researchers sought to investigate how those without ASD experience facial expressivity in those with ASD. The report found that adults without ASD "could identify the emotions expressed by high-functioning adults with ASD, but they often rated the expressions as exaggerated and odd."
"Overwhelmingly, most research in autism focuses on impairments in the person’s ability to understand social and emotional information about other people,” said study co-author Dr. Noah Sasson.“Rarely do we think about others having difficulty understanding the emotions and the thought processes of people with autism, but social interaction is a two-way street."
From mammoths to saber-toothed cats, extinct creatures have fascinated us for decades. But the idea of a supposedly extinct species reappearing after more than a century is nearly unimaginable. That’s exactly how a group of scientists felt during an expedition in Papua New Guinea, where they spotted the black-naped pheasant pigeon—a bird that was thought to be extinct for 140 years. Their elation, captured in a viral video, was shared on Reddit by u/rarepredator in the r/interestingasfuck group, where it’s generating buzz across social media.
“Suddenly I was confronted with this image of what at that time felt like a mythical creature,” shared Jordan Boersma, the expedition's leader, with the National Audubon Society. “It was, without exaggeration, the most surreal moment of my life.” The camera trap had captured an unmistakable image of the elusive pheasant pigeon, which hadn’t been seen since 1882. John Mittermeier of the American Bird Conservancy, who co-led the expedition, echoed the wonder: “To find something that’s been gone for that long, that you’re thinking is almost extinct, and then to figure out that it’s not extinct, it feels like finding a unicorn or a Bigfoot. It’s extraordinarily unusual.”
Speaking to Re:Wild, Mittermeier added that seeing the first photos of the lost pigeon was “the kind of moment you dream about your entire life as a conservationist and birdwatcher.” This eight-member expedition conducted the first-ever camera trapping study on Fergusson Island, according to a press release shared by Re:Wild. The discovery was also a part of “The Search for Lost Birds,” a collaboration between BirdLife International, Re:wild, and American Bird Conservancy, which funded the trip.
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The discovery of this chicken-sized floor-dwelling pigeon wouldn’t have been possible without the help of local villagers and hunters, especially a hunter named Augustin Gregory. Gregory guided the team through the village of Duda Ununa west of Mt. Kilkerran, recommending the most appropriate locations for setting camera traps. He was so keen to help them because he, himself, had seen the pigeon somewhere along the ridgeline, and heard its distinctive calls.
Serena Ketaloya, a conservationist from Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea told Re:Wild that the local community was very excited about the discovery of the long-lost pigeon, and is now doing their best to protect the pheasant pigeon. But even the enthusiasm of locals couldn’t match the reactions that Jordan and Doka had when they first looked through the camera footage. A Redditor, u/zurzoth, commented on their video, saying, “It's like finding Waldo in the actual jungle.”
u/sneeko wrote, “That is the most pure joy reaction I think I've ever seen in my life. I love it.” u/yoshithefluffer added, “If everyone in the world was at least half as passionate for the natural world as these guys we would be in such a better place.” Putting it in a rather sentimental manner, u/naavilatov wrote in a comment, “It's always fun seeing grown men giddy about wholesome things.”
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You can be a part of a group of reading dads, too!Photo credit: @thelibrarydads
Competitors Sam Smagala, of the bar Joyface, and Miranda Midler, Head Bartender of Dear Irving's Broadway location, shake it off before Round 1 begins. Elyssa Goodman
Competitor Hope Rice of The Crane Club finishes up the final cocktail of her round, an Old Cuban, with a pour of G.H.Mumm Champagne. The Old Cuban is a drink created by legendary bartender Audrey Saunders. Elyssa Goodman
Competitor Ileana Hernandez just before her round begins. Ileana works at Greenwich Village restaurant Llama San.Elyssa Goodman
Full of friends and industry professionals, the audience cheers for the annual New York Regional Speed Rack competition. Elyssa Goodman
Competitor Rachel Prucha, of Mister Paradise and Hawksmoor, ready to take on her round.Elyssa Goodman
Bartender Lana Epstein, of The Portrait Bar, wins Speed Rack's New York Regional competition. Friends and fellow competitors raise her up and offer bubbly to celebrate. Elyssa Goodman
