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  • Michael Jordan made a beloved high school staffer’s final wish come true while she lay in hospice
    Photo credit: DiversifyLens/Canva and D. Myles Cullen/Wikimedia Commons – Michael Jordan and a woman in hospice.
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    Michael Jordan made a beloved high school staffer’s final wish come true while she lay in hospice

    Never forget the people who knew you on day 1.

    Tod Perry

    NBA legend Michael Jordan is known as one of the most ruthless competitors ever to step foot on a basketball court. But he also understands that success isn’t everything, and that it all works toward fulfilling a greater life purpose. “To be successful, you have to be selfish, or else you never achieve. And once you reach your highest level, you have to be unselfish. Stay reachable. Stay in touch,” he once said. 

    Jordan recently showed that he has never forgotten where he came from by reconnecting with Ms. Etta, the transportation coordinator at Emsley A. Laney High School where he graduated 45 years ago. Ms. Etta was a hospice patient at Lower Cape Fear LifeCare in Jordan’s hometown. In her final days, she couldn’t stop talking about Jordan, who was one of her favorite students. Her biggest wish was to hug him one last time.

    Jordan reaches out to a beloved high school teacher in her final days

    Administrators at LifeCare tried to reach out to Jordan, but they never heard back. Then, on May 12th while at home, Wendy, a LifeCare social worker, received a call from an unknown number. It was Jordan: “Is this Ms. Etta?” he asked. Wendy then drove over to Ms. Etta’s bedside, and they set up a video call with Jordan.

    “They laughed, reminisced, picked at each other, and shared a moment that brought tears to everyone in the room,” LifeCare wrote in the caption of an Instagram post showing Ms. Etta and Jordan smiling and talking together. “A memory her family will carry with them forever.”

    High school plays a big role in Jordan’s legend. He graduated from the school in 1981, but as a sophomore in 1979, Jordan was “cut” from the varsity basketball team. Jordan has always said this was the catalyst for his becoming one of the greatest pro athletes the world has ever seen. However, at that time, sophomores rarely played on varsity teams. Jordan was sent to Junior Varsity because the team needed taller players. 

    Michael Jordan, Air Jordan 1984, Michael Jordan 80s, Jordan press conference
    Michael Jordan in 1984. Credit: United Press International/Wikimedia Commons

    Jordan never forgot about his high school days

    Jordan has clearly gotten over the slight, and, in 2019, he donated $1.1 million to Laney as part of an agreed-upon deal between Jordan, the school, and Nike for the 2013 sales of Jordan’s special Laney 5 sneakers. 

    “Mike decided that he wanted to take care of Laney High School,” Laney Athletic Director Fred Lynch said, according to WECT. “With him and his attorneys wanting to make sure that it would go entirely to Laney High School. So, Mike is still the man.” Half of the money went to the athletic department, while the other half was used at the school’s discretion. “It’s a very good thing. It’s a blessing to give that much money to a school,” Laney student Dariius Dutton said. “It means a lot to me because I love Laney, I love my school. And I think it will help a lot.”

    One can have all the success in the world, but without gratitude, it’s as empty as never having achieved anything in the first place. For Jordan to reach out to someone who helped him as a child in their final days shows that, although he may have reached incredible heights as an athlete, he never forgot those who helped him get off the ground.

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  • The psychological trick behind why personality tests like Myers-Briggs always ‘work’
    Photo credit: Canva – So personality tests really tell us about ourselves?
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    The psychological trick behind why personality tests like Myers-Briggs always ‘work’

    It’s called the Barnum effect, named after P.T. Barnum.

    Annie Reneau

    If there’s one thing individuals and Fortune 500 companies have in common, it’s the inability to resist a personality test. Employers have long used tests like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or the Enneagram to understand their employees better and build more compatible teams. And people in general seem strangely addicted to quizzes that categorize them by personality type.

    It’s long been known that most personality tests aren’t scientifically sound, but that doesn’t stop people from taking them. Part of the reason is that those tests tell us something about ourselves as individuals while also making us feel like we’re part of a group identity. They seem to help us understand ourselves and one another better, and thus appear to “work.”

    However, as researcher Madelyn Leembruggen explained on SciShow, most personality profiles simply play into a psychological trick we humans easily fall into.

    The Barnum effect and how it works

    “Personality tests and profiles take advantage of a weird psychological tendency that also benefits everything from horoscopes to fortune tellers to Buzzfeed quizzes,” Leembruggen said. It’s called the Barnum effect.

    “The Barnum effect was named after P.T. Barnum, the iconic and problematic showman known for his ability to captivate, and often manipulate, an audience,” she explained. “The Barnum effect is the phenomenon where if you give someone a personality test, they’re pretty likely to believe that the results are true and accurate, regardless of how hard the profile-maker actually tried. There’s something about taking the test itself that makes an audience more likely to believe the end result.”

    Personality tests became popular after WWI, when someone developed an assessment to determine which soldiers might be prone to PTSD. In the decades that followed, personality profiles appeared in popular magazines and psychologists’ offices alike. But researcher and college professor Bertram Forer felt skeptical about their accuracy. He basically said the results weren’t any more specific than saying that a person has opposable thumbs.

    personality test, multiple choice, personality profile
    Personality test example (Photo credit: Canva)

    Professor Forer’s 1949 personality test experiment

    In 1949, he conducted an experiment to test his hypothesis. He gave his Intro to Psychology students a personality questionnaire. Then, he told them he’d analyze the results and create a unique personality profile for each student. When they got their results, they rated them for accuracy. Only one student rated their results below a 4 out of 5, indicating nearly all students felt their results reflected their personality. However, Forer had duped them. He had actually given every student the exact same analysis.

    “Forer made a list of general, vaguely flattering, and universally relatable statements,” Leembruggen explained. “So, why did everyone believe that their list was so perfectly tailored to them? Well, that’s the Barnum effect.”

    Essentially, most personality descriptors in personality profiles are fairly relatable to most people. And when you combine any sense of the trait being positive, most people will see themselves in it.

    The SciShow video gives these statements as examples:

    “You have an analytical mind, though  you also might space out at times.”

    “You pride yourself as an independent thinker, and don’t accept other people’s statements without good proof.”

    “You love variety and tend to rebel against too many restrictions and limitations.”

    “You don’t always reveal all of yourself to others.”

    “You have a great desire for other people to like and admire you.”

    Most people see themselves in some, if not all, of those statements because they’re vague enough to feel true.

    However, 1949 was a long time ago. Haven’t psychologists gotten better at creating real personality profiles?

    personality test, introvert, extrovert
    Many personality tests have binary categories of traits. (Photo credit: Canva)

    How accurate is the Myers-Brigg Type Indicator, though?

    One of the most popular personality tests of the past 50 years is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI. This test splits people into 16 personality categories based on combinations of eight traits or preferences: Introversion/Extroversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, and Perceiving/Judging. Your “type” would be a combination of four letters, like INTP or ESFJ, with a corresponding description of that personality.

    Many people have taken an MBTI test at work, but is it really accurate?

    “When researchers want to see how well a certain assessment tool, test, or survey actually works, one thing they’ll do is have the same people take the same test multiple times,” Leembruggen said. “If they get the same score each time, we’d say that tool has good test-retest reliability. And in studies of MBTI where participants took the assessment multiple times, up to half or even more test takers received a different result for at least one of the four letters.”

    Accurate or not, people love their Myers-Briggs. However, psychologists prefer a more recent personality indicator known as the Big Five Personality Trait model.  

    What is the Big Five Personality Trait model?

    In the Big Five, people rank as low, medium, or high in five personality dimensions: extroversion, neuroticism, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. (A more recent test known as HEXACO includes honesty-humility as a trait.)

    “These tests, and newer variations that include subcategories of these five, do seem to show better test-retest reliability,” Leembruggen shared. “One major reason that newer tests based on the Big Five are more reliable is that they’re based on accumulating data from multiple long-term studies from the 1990s onwards. And they’re rooted in the principle that, if a personality trait exists in humans, languages will adopt words to describe it.”

    However, she notes, most research only includes people from WEIRD countries: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. That reality alone makes it hard to extrapolate universal personality traits or types.

    woman on computer, personality test, online quiz
    Many people enjoy taking online personality tests. (Photo credit: Canva)

    The way personality tests are designed is inherently flawed

    Finally, the nature of personality tests with multiple-choice answers, most of which only offer two options, is flawed.

    “When you have to answer every question from a list of predetermined options, it’s called a forced-choice measure,” Leembruggen explained. “These tests are easy to administer and to grade, but the downside is that they’re really rigid and can flatten nuance, including how people’s personality traits can change due to the passage of time and other variables. We’ve all stared at a multiple-choice question and wished there was an option to check ‘other.’ So trying to make a questionnaire-style test that can accurately gauge anybody’s personality might be kind of impossible.”

    That certainly won’t stop a lot of people from taking those tests, though. Accurate or not, there’s something about them that draws us in. Maybe it’s just fun to self-analyze. Maybe we yearn to know ourselves better, and those tests offer a structured and largely harmless way to do that—or at least to feel like we’re doing it.

    You can follow SciShow on YouTube for more research-based learning.

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  • Scientists think humans developed right-handedness thanks to these 2 factors
    Photo credit: Canva – Human skull (left) human hand (right)
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    Scientists think humans developed right-handedness thanks to these 2 factors

    90% of the population is right-handed. Before now, we didn’t really know why.

    Heather Wake

    Since the dawn of man, right-handedness has reigned supreme without much intel as to why. While our ape brethren also develop strong preferences toward one hand over another, there is generally an equal number of left- and right-handed individuals. Conversely, 90% of humans are right-handed. And now, scientists think they have discovered when this prevalence developed. 

    A new study led by researchers at the University of Oxford suggests that it went hand-in-hand (pardon the pun) with two other major evolutionary shifts: walking on two legs and developing much larger brains.

    Thousands of primates helped narrow the possibilities

    biology, human evolution, scientific study
    A variety of primates, Canva

    The research, published in PLOS Biology, analyzed data from 2,025 monkeys and apes representing 41 different primate species.  All the evolutionary factors tested—tool use, diet, habitat, body size, social structure, brain size, movement patterns, etc.—seemed to match human data, leaving no real clues as to why our species decided to become almost exclusively right-handed. 

    However, that changed once researchers added brain size and the ratio between arm length and leg length to their analysis. Suddenly humans, with their larger brains and legs much longer than their arms (a hallmark trait of bipedal walking), stood out from an evolutionary standpoint. 

    These factors, along with other fossil records, help us imagine a timeline that looked something like this: 

    biology, human evolution, science
    The evolution of bidepal movement, Canva

    Human ancestors (Ardipithecus and Australopithecus, respectively) began walking upright, allowing one hand to become specialized over the other. At this point, there would likely be an equal number of left-handers to right-handers. 

    As our brains grow to incorporate more complex activities like using tools, communicating through a wide array of gestures, and participating in complex tasks like cooking and performing rituals, so too does our right-hand bias. In fact, the same 90% right-hand dominance is already present around 2.6 million years ago…before Homo sapiens and Neanderthals entered the scene. 

    One side of the brain might hold an important clue

    biology, human evolution, science
    Image of the brain hemispheres, Canva

    That third factor (complex tasks) is particularly interesting. Sequentially organized behaviors, also known as hierarchical action, are often believed to be something managed by the brain’s left hemisphere. The left hemisphere also controls all the motor functions and movements on the right side of the body. That said, all three elements, along with the fact that humans learn by imitating their parents, likely played equally important roles in the evolutionary narrative. 

    Ancient “hobbits” added another intriguing clue

    Backing this theory is the “hobbit” species discovered in Indonesia. This ancient humanoid species maintained smaller brains and the ability to climb while also walking. Conversely, it did not have nearly the same amount of right-hand dominance. 

    There are, of course, more mysteries to unravel. Why some of us are still left-handed, for instance. Or whether the limb preference of other animals suggests a similar evolutionary pattern. But, regardless, the study reminds us that even the most seemingly simple quirks that make us human actually tell an incomprehensibly vast story of how we came to be in the first place. 

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  • After the death of his wife, C.S. Lewis shared exactly how he dealt with grief
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis#/media/File:CS_Lewis_photo_on_dust_jacket.jpgC.S. Lewis and wife Helen Joy Davidman.
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    After the death of his wife, C.S. Lewis shared exactly how he dealt with grief

    His wife, Joy, died of cancer in 1960.

    Emily Shiffer

    Author and lay theologian C.S. Lewis (short for Clive Staples Lewis), lived a full life steeped in education and literature. A prolific writer, Lewis authored more than 30 books across genres, including popular fantasy saga, The Chronicles of Narnia. Born in 1898 in Northern Ireland, Lewis would become one of the most esteemed writers of the 20th century.

    Professionally successful, C.S. Lewis found love later in life. He fell deeply in love with American poet Helen Joy Davidman. The two married in 1956 when Lewis was 58 years old and Davidman was 41.

    However, their marriage was short-lived. Davidman passed away from cancer in 1960 after struggling with tumors in her breasts that spread to her bones.

    Lewis’ resulting grief turned into one of his most personal works that he had no intent on publishing: a journal he kept following her death that would later be titled A Grief Observed. Lewis used a pseudonym to publish it, N.W. Clerk, which is a pun on the Old English for “I know not what scholar,” according to the C.S. Lewis Institute.

    Who was C.S. Lewis’ wife?

    Helen Joy Davidman was born into a Jewish family in New York City in 1915, and went by “Joy.” She was extremely intelligent (called a ‘prodigy), and graduated high school at just 14. She went on to attend Hunter College for her undergraduate degree and Columbia University for her master’s degree.

    She became a teacher and writer, and discovered her love and talent for poetry. She married a man named William Lindsay Gresham in 1942, and they had two boys. They officially divorced in 1954.

    Davidsman was an atheist but searching for God, and became a Christian thanks in part to reading many of Lewis’ books, including: The Great Divorce, Miracles, and The Screwtape Letters. When she read an article on C.S. Lewis in The New York Times by a writer named Chad Walsh in 1948, her connection to Lewis began.

    Walsh ultimately became her mentor, and he encouraged her to write to Lewis. She did in January 1950, and love eventually blossomed. They married on April 23, 1956.

    She had battled health issues for years, and discovered in 1957 that she had serious cancer. She passed in July 1960 at the age of 45.

    But their love had sustained them both. She wrote him romantic sonnets and he wrote to a friend, “It’s funny having at 59 the sort of happiness most men have in their twenties. . . [ellipses his] ‘Thou has kept the good wine till now.’”)

    Lewis’ grief journey

    Davidson’s death absolutely gutted Lewis. He wrote a beautiful epitaph for her:

    Here the whole world (stars, water, air,
    And field, and forest, as they were
    Reflected in a single mind)
    Like cast off clothes was left behind
    In ashes, yet with hopes that she,
    Re-born from holy poverty,
    In lenten lands, hereafter may
    Resume them on her Easter Day.

    Lewis famously compared grief to fear. He wrote in A Grief Observed:

    “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing.“

    He candidly expressed his process through grief in relation to fear, explaining that he feared going to “our favorite pub, our favorite wood.”

    Lewis also wrote on fearing the future with grief: “This is one of the things I’m afraid of. The agonies, the mad moments, must, in the course of nature die away. But what will follow? Just this apathy, this dead flatness?“

    A Grief Observed is revered for Lewis’ brutal honesty about grief, including his anger and questioning of God:

    “But go to Him when your need is desperable, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double-bolting on the inside. After that, silence.”

    As former president of the C.S. Lewis Institute Arthur W. Lindsley wrote in 2001, “the process was not pretty or easy. The path was much clouded by fear, doubt, and anger before the gradual lifting of the darkness and breaking through of the sun.”

    Lightness did come back to Lewis unexpectedly and gradually:

    “It came this morning, early … my heart was lighter than it had been for many weeks… like the warming of a room or the coming of daylight. When you first notice them, they have been already going on for some time.“

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  • A Sacramento ‘food desert’ is getting a transformative, first-of-its-kind public market
    Photo credit: Alchemist CDC – Jerk Street Tacos will be one of many local food businesses at Alchemist Public Market.
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    A Sacramento ‘food desert’ is getting a transformative, first-of-its-kind public market

    “We want this to be a place where neighborhood residents, visitors to Sacramento, and anyone who loves food and community feel welcome and connected.”

    Annie Reneau

    Picture this: A city neighborhood has exploded in population, from a few hundred people to more than 3,000 residents in just a few years. With a new $450 million soccer stadium being built nearby, experts expect that population to rise to more than 9,000.

    And yet, there are glaring gaps in the community. With no neighborhood school, library, or community center, people have few local public spaces to gather. And with a stark lack of grocery stores and restaurants, residents have found themselves living in a “food desert.”

    The nonprofit Alchemist Community Development Corporation has its finger on the pulse of this emerging neighborhood in Sacramento, California’s historically industrial River District. It also has an innovative solution to fill many of those glaring gaps: Alchemist Public Market (APM).

    Artist’s rendering of the front of Alchemist Public Market. Photo courtesy of Alchemist CDC

    A vibrant public space that serves as an incubator for new food businesses

    The first-of-its-kind public market will include a corner store that accepts WIC and CalFresh (California’s SNAP benefits program) and sells grocery staples and products from local makers. People will be able to connect at the market’s eating areas, co-working space, inclusive playground, and weekly farmers market.

    But APM will also provide opportunities for up-and-coming food entrepreneurs. The space will be home to eight small incubator restaurants in a shared food court, as well as a shared-use commissary kitchen that can support dozens of independent food vendors.

    Shannin Stein, Alchemist’s director of advancement, tells Upworthy that one goal of the market is to make sure people living and working in the neighborhood aren’t left out of the economic conversation as hundreds of millions of dollars are invested in the surrounding area. That goal aligns with Alchemist CDC’s long-time support of food entrepreneurs from underserved populations.

    Helping food entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground

    Alchemist CDC has multiple programs that help support burgeoning food businesses, and APM will serve as an extension of that support.

    Nikki Gaddis-Chester, owner of Jerk Street Tacos, has been part of the Alchemist Kitchen Incubator Program (AKIP) for the past two years and looks forward to having a space at APM. She tells Upworthy that mentorship from Alchemist has “significantly transformed” her business journey.

    “This vibrant community has not only supported the growth of our small mobile food business, but has also equipped us with essential tools for developing and sustaining our menu,” she said.

    Jessica Brown, founder of Latin Caribbean culinary brand Caribe Azul, tells Upworthy that APM will be “a powerful opportunity for entrepreneurs who have the creativity, culinary experience, and drive to start a business but may not yet have the structure, knowledge, or support to build a strong foundation.”

    Brown has participated in Alchemist CDC’s Microenterprise Academy program, a 12-week training course for starting a food business.

    “I came into the program with a clear concept for my Latin Caribbean cuisine, but building a business can feel isolating when you are managing so many parts on your own, from operations to marketing and promotion,” she said. “What I experienced through Alchemist felt like opening a gate to a portal I did not realize I had access to, but that was always there. It helped me recognize the strengths I already had while giving me the structure to apply them with confidence.”

    An all-electric campus that fosters community around food

    The APM project aims to connect people to local agriculture and food businesses while also meeting the goal of environmental sustainability.

    “APM is being built as a state-of-the-art, all-electric, sustainably designed campus that reflects Sacramento’s leadership in environmental innovation, investment in local food systems, and community-centered economic development,” Stein said. “We want this to be a place where neighborhood residents, visitors to Sacramento, and anyone who loves food and community feel welcome and connected.”

    So-called “third places,” where people can meet up outside of home or work, play an important role in building community culture. Sam Greenlee, CEO of Alchemist, describes how local residents will be able to use the space:

    “Alchemist Public Market will serve as a heart for this emerging community. At APM, people can walk over to buy their grocery staples, and that includes people who depend on EBT and WIC nutrition benefits. Community elders can read the paper and chat over a great cup of coffee. Parents of young kids can meet up to enjoy delicious food while their kids have fun in the play area. Co-workers can go out to lunch and find enough variety to make everyone happy. Teens can come by after school, get a snack, and check out ping pong paddles or a basketball to play in the park next door. Families can meet their neighbors at the weekly farmers’ market, listen to local musicians during dinner, and celebrate after Sacramento Republic FC matches.”

    A community gathering space that serves as an engine of economic growth

    Alchemist Public Market broke ground in April 2026 with bipartisan support and significant public funding secured. Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty and Congresswoman Doris Matsui attended the groundbreaking.

    “Alchemist Public Market will drive economic growth, support public health, and transform a vacant space into a community center, increasing food access for the immediate neighborhood and fostering economic growth that will ripple across Sacramento,” McCarty told Upworthy. “We were proud to support Alchemist CDC’s Farmers’ Market access program and look forward to this all-electric market.”

    Greenlee concurs on the importance of the market as a driver of the local economy. “APM is going to be an economic development engine at the heart of our region for decades to come,” he said, “launching new businesses that represent the diversity of our communities, filling vacant storefronts, hiring neighbors, paying local taxes, and altogether making Sacramento a more vibrant place to live.”

    The challenges of nonprofit projects in tough economic times

    Of course, like most nonprofit organizations, Alchemist has had to play whack-a-mole with challenges since the market’s inception. The economic woes we’ve all experienced in recent years have taken a toll on the project and its organizers as they navigate the ever-evolving world of government funding, manage cash flow timing, and deal with dramatic increases in building material costs.

    “Community-based organizations are often expected to solve deeply complex social and economic challenges, but without the same incentives, flexibility, or financial backing commonly available to traditional for-profit development projects,” Stein said. “It can create a difficult dynamic where nonprofits are asked to prove success long before receiving the level of investment needed to fully realize that success.”

    Though construction has already begun, the project faces an immediate need for a bridge loan to move forward as red tape ties up funding disbursements. However, Alchemist is determined to bring the market and all it has to offer to life.

    “This project’s existence is the story of numerous almost-insurmountable challenges, and the tenacity to find a way through each one,” Greenlee said. “Early on, many people understandably thought the project was a bit pie in the sky; a great idea that seemed unlikely to become reality. As a non-profit, we have always faced challenges funding the next step of the project…But at every step in the process, we have demonstrated our commitment to see this project through, and we have found people stepping up to help us through each and every obstacle.” 

    You can find updates on Alchemist Public Market here and learn more about what Alchemist CDC does here.

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  • George Washington offered wise advice on why friendships should develop like ‘a plant of slow growth’
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington#/media/File:Gilbert_Stuart_Williamstown_Portrait_of_George_Washington.jpgGeorge Washington shared his advice on building friendships.
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    George Washington offered wise advice on why friendships should develop like ‘a plant of slow growth’

    He shared his wisdom with nephew Bushrod Washington in 1783.

    Emily Shiffer

    George Washington became the first President of the United States on April 30, 1789. Born in 1732, he was raised in Virginia and dedicated to the formation of the United States of America (after previously being called the ‘United Colonies‘.)

    Both his military and political service led to Washington developing many deep friendships throughout his life. He died at his Mount Vernon estate in 1799.

    “Among his friends, Washington also showed a capacity for intimacy and playfulness that was largely absent from his public persona as Commander-and-Chief and later president,” noted Cassandra Good, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of History Marymount University.

    Washington offered his wisdom on developing and maintaining friendships in his personal letters.

    George Washington’s friendship advice

    Washington had a large family and often shared his sage life experience with his many nieces and nephews. In the early 1780s, his nephew Bushrod Washington was studying law in Philadelphia. He would go on to become an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and inherited Mount Vernon (Washington’s famed estate in Virginia) after his uncle’s death.

    Washington offered his wisdom on friendship to his nephew Bushrod Washington in a letter dated January 15, 1783:

    “Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence—true friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo & withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.”

    George Washington’s friendships

    Washington friendships were described as “selective, but often long-lasting, loyal, and integral to his public life.”

    In a letter dated June 15, 1790 to David Stuart (a man who became Washington’s close friend after he married his step-daughter-in-law), he wrote: 

    “I can truly say I had rather be at Mount Vernon with a friend or two about me, than to be attended at the Seat of Government by the Officers of State and the Representatives of every Power in Europe… “

    Washington gained friends through many outlets, including his Virginia social circle and his military service in the Revolutionary War. During the American Revolution, Washington met and became close friends with General Henry Knox, who would become Secretary of State.

    The two maintained a 25-year friendship, and Washington wrote of Knox: “there is no man in the United States with whom I have been in habits of greater intimacy, no one whom I have loved more sincerely, nor any for whom I have had a greater friendship.”

    Washington’s friendship with Thomas Jefferson

    One of Washington’s most notable friendships was with fellow Founding Father Thomas Jefferson. According to author Francis D. Cogliano’s book A Revolutionary Friendship (published by Harvard University Press), the two were friends for 30 years.

    Washington seemed to take his own advice on friendship when it came to Jefferson. They bonded over their love of theater, agriculture and architecture.

    “Their relationship evolved slowly, but they became close friends,” Cogliano wrote. “Each respected the other’s qualities, and they worked productively together for twenty years.”

    Unfortunately, the two would become estranged in 1797 after a letter Jefferson wrote a friend with “unflattering references to Washington” was ultimately published in Europe and America.

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  • Scientists finally uncover why old buildings feel creepy, and it has nothing to do with haunted spirits
    Photo credit: Canva – Man covering ears (left) Creepy old building (right)
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    Scientists finally uncover why old buildings feel creepy, and it has nothing to do with haunted spirits

    There is more than meets the eye…or ears…

    Heather Wake

    Many of us have walked into an old building and felt some kind of eeriness. Depending on your own personal beliefs, you might be inclined to attribute this feeling to the presence of something supernatural. But science has found another culprit that haunts our psyche in these places, and it’s not ghosts. 

    Researchers at MacEwan University in Edmonton, Canada, found that when people were exposed to infrasound, which is typically imperceptible to humans, they still experienced a rise in cortisol levels and irritation. 

    “In an old building, there is a good chance that infrasound is present, particularly in basements where aging pipes and ventilation systems produce low-frequency vibrations,” noted senior author Rodney Schmaltz. 

    old building, science, interesting
    Interior of an old building, Canva

    Therefore, many people who notice a mood shift in a place regularly defined as “haunted”  might attribute that agitation to something supernatural. In reality, the infrasound waves are to blame. 

    How the study worked 

    The study, published this year in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, randomly assigned 36 participants to one of four groups. Each group would listen to either “calming” meditative music or “unsettling” horror-themed ambient audio. Each group would also be near hidden speakers playing infrasound between 75 and 78 decibels, a range consistent with what mechanical systems commonly produce inside buildings. These speakers were turned off and on once throughout the study. 

    old buildings, science, paranormal
    Sound waves, Canva

    Each participant provided saliva samples immediately before the music started and again 20 minutes later, which were analyzed to measure cortisol, the hormone the body releases under stress. 

    Researchers found that, regardless of which type of music they heard, the participants showed a notable increase in salivary cortisol when exposed to infrasound. 

    And while anecdotal, participants in the infrasound condition rated themselves as more irritable, less interested afterward, and even described the music as noticeably sadder.  

    Interestingly, what people didn’t seem to feel when exposed to infrasound was anxiety or fear, but rather irritability, disinterest, and a low-grade emotional discomfort…all of which correlate to a spike in cortisol. 

    Infrasound in nature

    The researcher explained that in the animal kingdom, some species (such as elephants) use it to communicate with one another over great distances. Others, like some birds, detect coming storms from infrasound.

    Others still have an aversion to the discomfort it causes. Some fish have tiny stone-like organs in their inner ear that help them stay away from it and remain balanced and upright in the water. 

    sound, science, haunted house
    A school of fish. Canva

    Humans happen to have similar structures, and researchers theorize that this balance system, which connects to brain regions involved in emotion, may register infrasound without conscious awareness. 

    Still, given the small amount of study participants (as well as the lack of diversity, most were female undergrad students), no major conclusions can be drawn. So ghost hunters, fret not! 

    Whether you lean paranormal or skeptical, the science does confirm that humans are more sensitive to unseen forces than we realize, whether those forces come from vibrations in the environment or something we simply don’t yet understand. Either way, our minds and bodies seem capable of picking up signals long before we consciously recognize them.

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  • 15 years ago pro bowler Tom Daugherty was humiliated. He turned it into the sport’s greatest comeback story.

    Photo Credit: Canva Photos

    The bowler who scored the lowest total in televised history returned the very next year.
    ,

    15 years ago pro bowler Tom Daugherty was humiliated. He turned it into the sport’s greatest comeback story.

    His score of 100 is the lowest that’s ever been televised.

    Evan Porter

    Everyone has bad days, even world class athletes. Any number of circumstances can cause someone who’s been training their entire life to simply miss the moment; be it physical, mental, or just plain bad luck.

    It happened to Simone Biles when she got the the “twisties” and became disoriented in the air during what should have been a pinnacle moment in her Olympic career. It happened to golfer Greg Norman when he squandered an unprecedented six-stroke lead at the 1996 Masters in a stunning collapse.

    The best athletes, and people, aren’t defined by perfection, however. They’re defined by what they do after they fail.

    Bowler Tom Daugherty puts on one of the worst performances of all time

    Bowling, while not a premier sport in the minds of most viewers, comes with a ton of pressure. It’s a highly technical sport where being just a millimeter or a fraction of a second off in your technique can be disastrous.

    Tom Daugherty found this out firsthand in what has became a legendary game…but not legendary for the reasons he’d like.

    In 2011, Daugherty faced off with Mike Koiveniemi in a semifinal match of the PBA Tournament of Champions. The event was televised, and the pressure was high. Luck, however, was not on Daugherty’s side that day. He rolled his way into every conceivable bad split you could possibly imagine.

    The round was a nightmare, and Daugherty found himself facing his final shot of the night with a score under 100. His opponent, meanwhile, finished with a 299—nearly a perfect game. For reference, a 70-100 is roughly an achievable score for people who only bowl a few times per year and are not trained at all in form and technique. Yikes.

    When Daugherty’s last shot connected, it put his final score at 100 exactly: triple digits. He reacted by running around and high-fiving the crowd, determined not to let himself get down.

    His 199-point loss is one of the worst margins in professional bowling history, and his score of 100 is the lowest that’s ever been televised.

    Daugherty did not let the humiliation define him, and came back stronger

    Through it all, Tom Daugherty kept an impressive sense of humor about what could have been the greatest failure of his career, to date.

    As the third place winner in the tournament, he won $50,000. He joked that he was excited to have won “$500 per pin.”

    Later, he was quoted as saying: “That 100 game was the best thing that ever happened to me. I have no problem with it. No one would remember me if I hadn’t bowled that game.”

    The positive attitude served him well. The very next year, he returned to another PBA tournament—this time the Bowlers Journal Scorpion Championship at the World Series of Bowling in Las Vegas—in his first televised performance since the infamous “100 game.”

    Daugherty won the whole thing, snagging his first PBA title.

    Since then, he’s gone on to have a fantastic career that features four PBA Tour titles, including one major title at the 2021 PBA World Championship.

    In 2026, he even got a rematch against his opponent from the famed 100-game—and beat him.

    Athletes like Daugherty give us a good blueprint for how to deal with failure

    Anyone who performs at the highest level of their chosen endeavor is going to fail and suffer setbacks. We can learn a lot from how they pick themselves back up afterwards.

    Kevin Chapman, PhD, clinical psychologist and founder of The Kentucky Center for Anxiety and Related Disorder, writes: “People who have a high standard for themselves understand that failure is part of the journey towards growth and success. On the other hand, people who are perfectionistic view failure as unacceptable, which is actually very limiting. When you view failure as just another part of the process, then significant learning can occur as a result. You fix it and then move forward.”

    It would be easy for anyone to implode after a performance like Daugherty’s. The way he handled the epic loss with humility and humor, though, no doubt helped him get in the right mindset for next time. He was able to learn where things had gone wrong for him in 2011 and come back a far better bowler the very next year when he won it all.

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