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 April 13, 2024

I know most people are done talking about the eclipse, but I'm not!!! While many of us were grabbing glasses and scoping out watching spots, I heard a few people this week poo-pooh the long, long human history of attaching meaning to such celestial occurrences. "Sure, maybe back in the day it was shrouded in mystery," the anonymous embodiment of eclipse nonchalance may say. "But now we know it's just the moon passing in front of the sun." Just?!! It's the moon! Passing in front of the sun! That's amazing. That's a momentary affirmation of the cosmic vastness beyond our own sphere. Just because we know why it happens doesn't make it any less meaningful, or humbling, or whatever description strikes you as you watch the daylight get queer and the shadows warp into crescents on the ground. In fact, knowing why something happens only makes it more fascinating, because we can feel the twin sparks of knowledge and wonder at the same time. 

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Our favorites this week

Get going with some of our most popular good news stories of the week

The new iPad kids
Parrots are so smart it's scary, and now some researchers are teaching them how to play games on tablets. By designing a balloon-popping tablet game and collecting data from 20 pet parrots, the researchers found that birds’ interest in the game indicated mental stimulation. The question is: Why? Well, besides looking very cool, since some birds are so smart, scientists figure they could benefit from enhanced enrichment. The tests are part of a larger body of work looking at how we can better support our ultra-intelligent animal friends. If parrot-friendly tablets or games make it into the mainstream, bird parents could find new ways to enjoy some quality time with their pets. 

Read the whole story here. 

Why did the toad cross the road?
Speaking of helping our animal friends, a Russian nature reserve is calling for volunteers to — literally — help toads across a road. The Sestroretsk Swamp reserve near St. Petersburg is preparing for the seasonal migration of the area's gray toads. But a road bisects the toads' roughly 19-mile migration path and has become a threat to the toad population. So, in order to preserve the little hoppers, the reserve seeks the help of volunteers every year to help the toads safely reach their spawning grounds. Not just anyone can be a vaunted toad marshal (though it clearly makes a fantastic addition to any CV): Volunteers must have special training, and the reserve is reminding untrained laypeople not to help the toads, lest they harm the animals or themselves. 

Read the whole story here.

The right dog for the job
This one's bittersweet, but sometimes good stories are. Roger the labrador retriever first won hearts in Taiwan when he flunked out of drug-sniffing dog school for being too friendly and playful. However, handlers saw that his outgoing nature suited him to different work as a rescue dog. Since his career switch, Roger has provided assistance at seven different locations, according to local media. Recently, he was on the scene in the aftermath of a deadly 7.4-magnitude earthquake that hit Taiwan in early April. It's serious work, but the story of a friendly dog finding such an important role helped to ease the heartache on Taiwanese social media. Oh, and Roger is really good at what he does: In 2022, he was certified by the International Rescue Dog Organization.

Read the whole story here.  

This week on the 5 Good Things podcast, meet a grandma and grandson who have visited every US National Park! Plus, scientists think they have an explanation for the world's oldest known tattoos.

Listen to the latest episode here!

A bright idea

Would you try food made from ... chicken feathers? The London-based company Kera Protein Ltd. is turning discarded waste from poultry production into imitation meat to provide a new solution for manufacturing "waste." (Waste here being more byproduct than, say, actual waste.) As much as 3 million tons of poultry feathers are wasted each year in the EU alone, usually incinerated or dumped into landfills. Kera Protein's founder saw the potential: these feathers contain a lot of keratin, which could be used as a food product. At Kera, the chicken feathers supplied by a local farm are cleaned, pulverized, treated with acids and enzymes, heated and then cooled to produce a powder almost like collagen. Now, the question is, how does it taste? CNN's Leah Collins gave it a try. "Despite my preconceptions, I was pleasantly surprised," she wrote. "The Kera feather-meat was undetectable, tasting exactly like the real thing. I only really noticed the consistency, which felt slightly starchier than ordinary beef."

Read the whole story here. 

Hear, hear!

Peace comes from being able to contribute the best that we have, and all that we are, toward creating a world that supports everyone. But it is also securing the space for others to contribute the best that they have and all that they are.

- Hafsat Abiola, Nigerian human rights activist. She is also the founder of the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND), a Nigerian pro-democracy organization, and the President of Women in Africa Initiative (WIA), which supports African women entrepreneurs. 

Who knew?

According to a growing body of evidence, foxes were once a favorite companion of humans! Scientists conducted years of tests on a fox found in an ancient burial site in Argentina. They discovered that the fox ate the same food that this group of humans did, and may have even been fed by multiple members of the community. Given its honored placement, was likely tame and kept as a pet. The notion of foxes as pets in South America aligns with evidence from other fox burials in Europe and Asia. All in all, it adds to the very likely assumption that humans have always turned to other nearby species for companionship. 

Read the whole story here. 

Rec of the week

Shameless animal video

There's always time for cute animal videos. That time is now.

This wide-eyed lemur baby is not only adorable — it’s one of the world's rarest primates. (Click here to view)

Made with love by CNN's 5 Things team. 

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