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Scientists are weighing in on why a whale is living in NYC's Hudson River.

Here's a question New Yorkers don't get to ask themselves a lot: "Was that a freaking whale I just saw?"  

Besides the big blue one at the Natural History Museum, New York City and its surrounding rivers are not exactly known for having a large population of whales. But things started to get interesting, when the U.S. Coast Guard was flooded with dozens of reports of whale sightings in the Hudson River.

Dr. Rachel Dubroff, who lives in a 63rd Street apartment overlooking the Hudson, told the New York Times that she's seen — or thinks she's seen — a humpback whale hanging out in the Hudson for two years.


Turns out, she wasn't mistaken.

It's now been confirmed that a humpback whale has taken up residence in New York's Hudson River.

“We received the first reports on Wednesday, Nov. 9,” Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Jason Moritz said in a news release. “We’ve had multiple daily sightings since then throughout the harbor and up the Hudson River.”

The Coast Guard is urging all boats on the Hudson to slow down and keep an eye out for more.

You're probably thinking: What's a whale doing in the Hudson River? Well, that's even cooler.

In the 35 years since the Clean Water Act was passed, the Hudson has become a cleaner and healthier habitat for a variety of fish — fish that are super delicious if you're a whale.

When the weather gets cold, whales migrate and look for warm, safe waters with plentiful fish to eat.

A humpback whale in Sydney after migrating from southern waters. Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images.

"The whales found this spot as a feeding ground,” Paul Sieswerda, president of Gotham Whale, which tracks marine life around the city, told the New York Times. “Rather than go all the way up to Massachusetts and Maine, they’ve found a good feeding ground right here in New York.”

As conservation efforts continue, even more whale sightings are likely in the coming years.

"30 years ago you’d see maybe one whale off of Long Island a season," Chuck Bowman, of the Riverhead Foundation, told the New York Times. "Now you see them all the time. ... You get a bigger population and you get a greater chance of things like this happening."

This humpback in Ecuador migrated from the Antarctic. Photo by Rodrigo Buenida/AFP/Getty Images.

It's hard to say if the cleaner waters are directly responsible for the whale's appearance in the Hudson, however, as CBS reports: "Although most experts agree water conditions have improved in the river in the 35 years since the passage of the Clean Water Act, they weren’t willing to say that the visit from the humpback had a direct correlation."

The Hudson whale is a delight for New Yorkers and a significant win for conservationists.

Their hard work has made the waters around New York a vibrant and clean ecosystem for a huge variety of marine life. This year alone, there have been over 100 whale sightings in New York and New Jersey, and scientists are expecting more.

Let's just hope they don't start taking the subway.

Family

Mom calls out teacher who gave her son a 'zero' grade for not providing class with supplies

Her viral video sparked a debate as to whether or not providing school supplies should be mandatory for parents.

@shanittanicole/TikTok

A zero grade for not providing school supplies?

The debate as to whether or not parents should supply classroom supplies is not new. But as prices continue to rise, parents are growing more baffled as to how they can be expected by teachers to provide all the various glue sticks, colored pencils, rulers and other various items the incoming students might need.

What’s even more perplexing, however, is penalizing the children of parents who won’t (or can’t) provide them.

This was the case for Shanitta Nicole, who discovered her son received a zero grade in his new school for not bringing school supplies for the entire classroom.
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Identity

Neo-Nazis slowly realize this small town totally punked them

Local residents came together to fight Nazis a hilariously perfect way.

Image from YouTube video.

Neo-Nazis parade.

In preparation for an upcoming neo-Nazi march in the small Bavarian town of Wunsiedel, local residents decided to fight back in a hilariously perfect way: by sponsoring each of the 250 fascist participants.

According to Heeb Magazine, "For every metre they walked, €10 went to a programme called EXIT Deutschland, which helps people escape extremist groups."

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Time travel back to 1905.

Back in 1905, a book called "The Apples of New York" was published by the New York State Department of Agriculture. It featured hundreds of apple varieties of all shapes, colors, and sizes, including Thomas Jefferson's personal favorite, the Esopus Spitzenburg.






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When a man asks people to translate a hate message he's received, their response is unforgettable

Reading the words would be one thing. Having to think about what they mean is almost too intense.


As part of an experiment, a man asks for help translating a Facebook message he has received.

There's a man in Lithuania who speaks only English. The message is in Lithuanian. He can't read it, so he asks some locals to translate it for him.

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A viral photo of a calm dad and a screaming toddler holds an important parenting lesson

He exemplified patient parenting when his daughter started having a meltdown at the store.

Actor Justin Baldoni exemplified patient parenting when his daughter had a meltdown at the store.


Young kids don't always pick the best times to have emotional meltdowns.

Just ask any parent.

Grocery stores, malls, and restaurants (or any place with lots of people around) in particular seem to bring out the worst in our little ones, prompting explosive tantrums that can make even the most stoic parent turn red-faced with embarrassment.

But why be embarrassed? It's just kids being kids, after all.

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Education

A teen student delivered a masterclass on the true history of the Confederate flag

Christopher Justice broke it down into incredible details most of us probably weren't even aware of.

Six years ago, a high school student named Christopher Justice eloquently explained the multiple problems with flying the Confederate flag. A video clip of Justice's truth bomb has made the viral rounds a few times since then, and here it is once again getting the attention it deserves.

Justice doesn't just explain why the flag is seen as a symbol of racism. He also explains the history of when the flag originated and why flying a Confederate flag makes no sense for people who claim to be loyal Americans.

But that clip, as great as it is, is a small part of the whole story. Knowing how the discussion came about and seeing the full debate in context is even more impressive.

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