By United Press International, Inc. | | 4/29/2025 1:45 PM
The Bronx Zoo in New York announced the first king vulture chick to hatch at the facility in three decades is being hand-raised using a puppet made to look like a mother vulture. ... Read full Story
By United Press International, Inc. | | 4/29/2025 1:32 PM
A Michigan State Police trooper's attempts to return $5,000 in lost cash to its owner were temporarily frustrated when the money's owner thought the calls were a scam. ... Read full Story
By United Press International, Inc. | | 4/29/2025 11:57 AM
A 5-foot boa constrictor rescued from a tree limb in Texas has a new permanent home with the animal control officer who captured her. ... Read full Story
A Chinese student who was airlifted from Japan's Mount Fuji last week had to be saved a second time just four days later, local authorities have said. ... Read full Story
By United Press International, Inc. | | 4/28/2025 4:07 PM
A Michigan man said more than 40 years of playing the lottery finally paid off when he scored $6 million from a scratch-off ticket. ... Read full Story
By United Press International, Inc. | | 4/28/2025 1:49 PM
Workers at the Museum of Natural History in Nova Scotia helped a resident wood turtle to walk more comfortably by building a custom mobility aid out of Lego pieces. ... Read full Story
By United Press International, Inc. | | 4/28/2025 12:50 PM
A Uruguay man living in Italy found himself with a Guinness World Records title thanks to an unusual party trick: popping his eyes out of their sockets. ... Read full Story
A climber airlifted with altitude sickness from near the peak of Japan's Mount Fuji last week returned to the slope and was rescued for a second time just four days later. ... Read full Story
By United Press International, Inc. | | 4/28/2025 10:47 AM
Serial Guinness World Record-breaker David Rush put his speedy stacking skills to the test to take on the title for the fastest time to stack 10 rolls of toilet paper with one hand. ... Read full Story
By United Press International, Inc. | | 4/28/2025 10:40 AM
A Virginia woman was enjoying a margarita at a Henrico County restaurant when a baby snake fell from the ceiling, bounced off her forehead and landed in her drink. ... Read full Story
By United Press International, Inc. | | 4/25/2025 11:36 AM
A Massachusetts town is under siege from an apparently territorial pileated woodpecker being blamed for damaging more than 25 vehicles in the area. ... Read full Story
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 30, 2025 is:
insouciance \in-SOO-see-unss\ noun
Insouciance is a formal word that refers to a feeling of carefree unconcern. It can also be understood as a word for the relaxed and calm state of a person who is not worried about anything.
// The young actor charmed interviewers with his easy smile and devil-may-care insouciance.
“Gladiator II is OK when Denzel’s off-screen, but sensational when he’s on it. ... What makes the performance great is its insouciance; it’s both precise and feather-light. And it’s what a great actor can do when he’s set free to have fun, to laugh at himself a little bit. ... Denzel’s Macrinus is gravitas and comic relief in one package.” — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 22 Nov. 2024
Did you know?
If you were alive and of whistling age in the late 1980s or early 1990s, chances are you whistled (and snapped your fingers, and tapped your toes) to a little ditty called “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin, an a cappella reggae-jazz-pop tune that took the charts by surprise and by storm. An ode to cheerful insouciance if ever there was one, its lyrics are entirely concerned with being entirely unconcerned, remaining trouble-free in the face of life’s various stressors and calamities. Such carefree nonchalance is at the heart of insouciance, which arrived in English (along with the adjective insouciant), from French, in the 1800s. The French word comes from a combining of the negative prefix in- with the verb soucier, meaning “to trouble or disturb.” The easiness and breeziness of insouciance isn’t always considered beautiful, however. Insouciance may also be used when someone’s lack of concern for serious matters is seen as more careless than carefree.