Cute animal photos

Need I say more?

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2025/mar/21/week-in-wildlife-march-hares-a-dreaming-dormouse-and-the-first-chicks-of-spring.

And good news from Fix the News:

Mexico City changes bullfighting rules to preserve the spectacle but save the bulls: The biggest bullfighting city in the largest bullfighting country in the world is making a change to its centuries-old custom: from now on bullfighters will only be allowed to use capes (no swords!) and fights will be capped at 15 minutes. The shift is designed to protect the bulls while retaining the spectacle (and livelihoods!) of those that rely on the games. Mexico News Daily

Seventeen life hacks

Cheap little tricks that may make a nice difference. For example:

That’s where it goes:

“If you look for something and it’s not in the first place you look, THAT IS THE PLACE WHERE IT GOES. So when you find it, put it in the first place you looked for it.”

Also: How to argue (from a lawyer); buy the same socks; the restaurant bathroom test; how to talk to new people, etc.

Article: https://www.upworthy.com/17-life-hacks-that-are-so-good-people-almost-didn-t-want-to-share-but-thankfully-they-did-ex1.

And good news from Fix the News:

After being named “breakthrough of the year” by Science magazine in 2024, the HIV drug lenacapavir continues to improve. New Phase I trials show the drug maintains protection for a full year after a single dose.The previous twice-yearly formulation has already demonstrated unprecedented 100% effectiveness in preventing infections and its maker Gilead has arranged to make affordable versions accessible across 120 low-income countries. Oh, and The Global Fund says it will fund the rollout of lenacapavir with or without the help of the US government.MIT, Bhekisisa

Movie bloopers

…by extras, that somehow made it into the final film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVLq3xSClQA (8 min 25 seconds plus grrr commercials). Includes the famous Storm Trooper hitting the top of a door frame with his helmet:

And good news from Fix the News:

In the past five years, over 100 million people in Africa have gained access to electricity. Liberia has seen access go from 5% in 2017 to 35% today, Rwanda has gone from 6% in 2009 to 75% today, Nigeria is now at 70%, up from 50% a decade ago, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea have reached 90%, and Rwanda, Senegal and Kenya are all targeting universal access by 2030. Global Energy Prize

⚡ Those may seem like dry numbers but it’s life-changing stuff; for a vivid look at how lives change when people gain access to electric power, check out Robert Caro’s piece on pre- and post-electricity life in 1930s rural Texas in “The Sad Irons.”

Dino-killing ourselves

I found this description of how much energy we’re putting into our planet from fossil fuels:

Our addition of the greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is the long lever that can move the world. Between 1970 and 2020, 381±61 zetta joules (10^21 joules) of additional energy was absorbed into the system (i.e. the Earth).

This estimate was prepared using satellite data, which is public source, https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/15/1675/2023/

How much energy is this? It’s roughly 80% of the estimated energy of the Chicxulub impactor. Albeit spread over a significantly longer period of time.

The strongest explosion humanity has ever created is in the order of 10^17 joules, or a hundred quadrillion joules.

We’ve managed to add 1.5 million times that number in this 50 years. We’ve been essentially adding one Tsar Bomba’s worth of energy ((approx 50 megatons)) every fifteen to twenty minutes for the past five decades.

The Chicxulub meteor impact blew away roughly half a continent, and the resulting climate change wiped out all the dinosaurs except for birds. We’re doing the same thing to ourselves, spread out a bit but… that’s a lot of energy to be not thinking about. Yeesh.

Original: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42676838.

And good news from Fix the News:

Major wins for U.S. rape kit reform. In 2016, the Joyful Heart Foundation developed an actionable nationwide campaign to end the backlog of untested rape kits across the United States. As of January 2025, 21 states and Washington D.C. have achieved full rape kit reform, benefitting 163.4 million people. Two recent, big wins occurred in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, which both implemented a rape kit tracking system in 2024. End The Backlog