Everyone is giddy over the official start of summer — and by "everyone," we mean humans and mosquitoes. The insects are out in droves this time of year, and South Carolina's Congaree National Park has a fun way of helping visitors prepare. The park is home to at least 20 mosquito species (shudder), and some days are worse than others, so officials set the wooden "Skeeter Meter" to one of its six levels to let guests know the forecast. As for the skeeters in your own neck of the woods, here are some basic tips for avoiding bites.
Featured Story
It Takes Two to Reconcile — A Psychologist Weighs In on How to Approach Relationship Repair
guoya/ iStock
Back in April, we wrote about the power of forgiveness and the scientific reasons it can pay to let things go. But after you enjoy the increased peace, meaning, and purpose that forgiving someone can offer, should you take it a step further and try to reconcile? Well, that's where it gets a bit tricky. Forgiveness is a solo act — you can forgive someone without them even knowing — but reconciliation requires both people to play a part. Furthermore, while it can be difficult enough to forgive those who've wronged you, actually repairing a relationship after it's been damaged is a different beast entirely. We spoke to Fred Luskin, director of Stanford University's Forgiveness Projects and a psychologist with 30 years of experience, about the benefits of reconciliation, when you may (and may not) want to reconcile, and how to go about it in a healthy way.
How do you disrupt the massive, outdated $5 trillion home construction market? Introduce assembly-line automation like BOXABL did. Much like Henry Ford automated car manufacturing, the company is bringing assembly-line efficiency and mass production to an artisanal, slow industry. Its homes are factory-built, folded, shipped via truck, and unfolded on site in one hour. And BOXABL's not just dreaming big; it's delivering. Recent wins include an initial prototype order delivered to SpaceX in 2020, a 156-home project order from the Department of Defense completed in 2021, and active deliveries to developers and consumers. The company has raised over $200 million from more than 50,000 investors since 2020, and the current opportunity to get involved ends Tuesday night, so you'll have to act fast. Invest in BOXABL for $0.80/share and claim your bonus before it's too late.
For the First Time in Years, a Rare "Ghost Elephant" Was Spotted on Camera
Panthera & Senegal's National Parks Directorate (DPN)
It's not every day a ghost is caught on camera, and this one has a trunk, tusk, and large ears. An elusive elephant dubbed a "ghost elephant" was spottedby a camera trap in Senegal's Niokolo-Koba National Park. The animal is a critically endangered African forest elephant, so this sighting is energizing conservationists about saving the species. The rare footage, captured by the wild cat conservation organization Panthera and Senegal's National Parks Directorate, shows a glimpse of the elephant during an evening stroll. He pauses in the camera's direction before carrying on walking in the moonlight, not realizing he's providing the first images of his species in the park in five years. Because of the elephant's mysterious nature combined with its species' small population size, sightings are hard to come by — making this moment all the more special. "Elephants are under immense pressure in West Africa. Only a few populations of the pachyderms survive in this region," Philipp Henschel, west and central regional director of Panthera, said in a statement to Newsweek. "Niokolo-Koba National Park, where this individual was filmed, is the last area in Senegal where this endangered species survives." Now, officials hope to discover if this elephant is the last survivor in the park — and if so, whether or not introducing more elephants may be a possibility to give a much-needed boost to the overall population. Check out the footage.
Health
Cuddling With Your Sweetheart Before Sleeping May Decrease Relational Stress, Study Says
gorodenkoff/ iStock
If you share a bed with your sweetie, consider incorporating this step into your nighttime routine if you aren't already: a snuggle sesh before sprawling out in starfish position or firing up the CPAP machine. A study found that couples who cuddled prior to drifting off experienced less stress and more feelings of security in the relationship. The research was conducted by psychologist Josh Novak and cognitive development researcher Kaleigh Miller from Alabama's Auburn University. They analyzed data from 143 heterosexual couples who had been together for an average of 13 years, and accounted for factors like sleep disorder diagnoses and whether kids or pets also slept in the bed. In general, individual sleep position preferences didn't match up with the positions couples took when cuddling. But regardless of preferred sleep positions, the subjects who were most physically close to each other at sleep onset reported feeling lower levels of stress, which was indirectly linked to lower levels of relational insecure attachment. Noting that while further research is needed, the study authors concluded that "physical closeness at sleep onset may be a promising and amenable avenue for improving relational and physiological well-being." Learn more about their findings (and check out this list for cuddling inspo).
Science
Your Breathing Is as Unique as Your Fingerprints, New Research Finds
Super Scout/ iStock
Inhale, exhale. You do it every day, all day, and although you don't see it, the way you breathe is as unique to you as your fingerprints, according to a new study. "In a way, we're reading the mind through the nose," co-author Noam Sobel told Nature. He explained that because breathing is connected to the brain and no two brains function in the same way, his team hypothesized that breathing patterns are also unique. To test that, researchers monitored the breathing of 97 people over 24 hours via a wearable device that recorded breath duration, the time between breaths, and the amount of air passing through each nostril. Using a machine learning program, the scientists analyzed the breathing patterns and found they were able to identify individuals with 96.8% accuracy, as well as glean other health insights, such as anxiety and depression levels and body mass index. Looking ahead, the team suggests that long-term breath monitoring could aid in the diagnostic process and management of certain conditions. "We intuitively assume that how depressed or anxious you are changes the way you breathe," Sobel said in a statement. "But it might be the other way around. Perhaps the way you breathe makes you anxious or depressed. If that's true, we might be able to change the way you breathe to change those conditions." While we're on the topic of inhales and exhales, why not take 60 seconds to do a quick meditation?
Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Amerie (who appeared on NPR's Tiny Desk concert series earlier this month) has published her first novel. The book centers on John, the first "visible and verifiable ghost," who has somehow wound up in Los Angeles with no memory of his past life or how he died. As a Black man claiming to have returned from the dead, John gets a lot of attention — TV appearances, brand deals, and rampant speculation — but all he wants is to go back to where he came from. To do so, though, he must first reckon with some hard truths about who he was and who he has to become.
Familiar Touch is a sharp, funny, yet heartrending "coming-of-old-age" film that follows a woman's transition into assisted living. An early scene features Ruth (Kathleen Chalfant) telling a younger man who's shown up to take her on a romantic getaway that she never had kids — didn't want them. But Ruth has dementia, the man is actually her son, and the "hotel" he took her to is her new home. The 91-minute movie focuses on her perspective, "presenting her not as a victim or a patient, but as the lucid, capable woman she still mostly feels she is," per Variety. It's playing in select theaters now.
This Week in History
The First Rainbow Pride Flag Is Unfurled in San Francisco
June 25, 1978
Meera Fox/ Getty Images
As the Museum of Modern Art put it, "some symbols can move the whole world," and the rainbow pride flag fits the bill. It was created in 1978 by artist and activist Gilbert Baker at the request of then-newly elected Harvey Milk, who challenged Baker to design a symbol of pride for the LGBTQ+ community. With the help of volunteers, Baker dyed strips of fabric and stitched them together into one enormous banner. The flag was unfurled that year at San Francisco's Gay Freedom Day parade, and its effect was immediate. "It completely astounded me that people just got it, in an instant like a bolt of lightning — that this was their flag," Baker later said, per SFTravel. Today, the flag is a symbol of not just pride, but acceptance, community, diversity, and love. Learn what each color represents.
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