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#Whaling Is The New #Planking And The New #Twerking And This Is The Only Video You Need

And people say lawyers have no sense of humor! Well these lawyers and scientists got together and joined in the latest silly Internet video craze, all to bring us an important reminder: Whales are seriously wonderful creatures and they — the real ones — need our protection. As for the whales in this video, they're probably dizzy and just need a minute to find their mousepad.

Yeah, you heard that right! They said, "perhaps they're trying to escape the lethal impacts of naval sonar testing, and perhaps they're trying to be free of entangling nets..."

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Levi Strauss Foundation
The Levi Strauss Foundation advances the human rights and well-being of underserved people in places where the company has a business presence
Modern Families

Once a refugee seeking safety in the U.S., Anita Omary is using what she learned to help others thrive.

Even in divided times, small acts of friendship help create vibrant communities where everyone feels safe.

Once a refugee seeking safety in the U.S., Anita Omary is using what she learned to help others thrive.
Pictured here: Anita Omary; her son, Osman; and Omary’s close friends
Pictured here: Anita Omary; her son, Osman; and Omary’s close friends
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In March 2023, after months of preparation and paperwork, Anita Omary arrived in the United States from her native Afghanistan to build a better life. Once she arrived in Connecticut, however, the experience was anything but easy.

“When I first arrived, everything felt so strange—the weather, the environment, the people,” Omary recalled. Omary had not only left behind her extended family and friends in Afghanistan, she left her career managing child protective cases and supporting refugee communities behind as well. Even more challenging, Anita was five months pregnant at the time, and because her husband was unable to obtain a travel visa, she found herself having to navigate a new language, a different culture, and an unfamiliar country entirely on her own.

“I went through a period of deep disappointment and depression, where I wasn’t able to do much for myself,” Omary said.

Then something incredible happened: Omary met a woman who would become her close friend, offering support that would change her experience as a refugee—and ultimately the trajectory of her entire life.

Understanding the journey

Like Anita Omary, tens of thousands of people come to the United States each year seeking safety from war, political violence, religious persecution, and other threats. Yet escaping danger, unfortunately, is only the first challenge. Once here, immigrant and refugee families must deal with the loss of displacement, while at the same time facing language barriers, adapting to a new culture, and sometimes even facing social stigma and anti-immigrant biases.

Welcoming immigrant and refugee neighbors strengthens the nation and benefits everyone—and according to Anita Omary, small, simple acts of human kindness can make the greatest difference in helping them feel safe, valued, and truly at home.

A warm welcome

Dee and Omary's son, Osman

Anita Omary was receiving prenatal checkups at a woman’s health center in West Haven when she met Dee, a nurse.

“She immediately recognized that I was new, and that I was struggling,” Omary said. “From that moment on, she became my support system.”

Dee started checking in on Omary throughout her pregnancy, both inside the clinic and out.

“She would call me and ask am I okay, am I eating, am I healthy,” Omary said. “She helped me with things I didn’t even realize I needed, like getting an air conditioner for my small, hot room.”

Soon, Dee was helping Omary apply for jobs and taking her on driving lessons every weekend. With her help, Omary landed a job, passed her road test on the first attempt, and even enrolled at the University of New Haven to pursue her master’s degree. Dee and Omary became like family. After Omary’s son, Osman, was born, Dee spent five days in the hospital at her side, bringing her halal food and brushing her hair in the same way Omary’s mother used to. When Omary’s postpartum pain became too great for her to lift Osman’s car seat, Dee accompanied her to his doctor’s appointments and carried the baby for her.

“Her support truly changed my life,” Omary said. “Her motivation, compassion, and support gave me hope. It gave me a sense of stability and confidence. I didn’t feel alone, because of her.”

More than that, the experience gave Omary a new resolve to help other people.

“That experience has deeply shaped the way I give back,” she said. “I want to be that source of encouragement and support for others that my friend was for me.”

Extending the welcome

Omary and Dee at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Vision Awards ceremony at the University of New Haven.

Omary is now flourishing. She currently works as a career development specialist as she continues her Master’s degree. She also, as a member of the Refugee Storytellers Collective, helps advocate for refugee and immigrant families by connecting them with resources—and teaches local communities how to best welcome newcomers.

“Welcoming new families today has many challenges,” Omary said. “One major barrier is access to English classes. Many newcomers, especially those who have just arrived, often put their names on long wait lists and for months there are no available spots.” For women with children, the lack of available childcare makes attending English classes, or working outside the home, especially difficult.

Omary stresses that sometimes small, everyday acts of kindness can make the biggest difference to immigrant and refugee families.

“Welcome is not about big gestures, but about small, consistent acts of care that remind you that you belong,” Omary said. Receiving a compliment on her dress or her son from a stranger in the grocery store was incredibly uplifting during her early days as a newcomer, and Omary remembers how even the smallest gestures of kindness gave her hope that she could thrive and build a new life here.

“I built my new life, but I didn’t do it alone,” Omary said. “Community and kindness were my greatest strengths.”

Are you in? Click here to join the Refugee Advocacy Lab and sign the #WeWillWelcome pledge and complete one small act of welcome in your community. Together, with small, meaningful steps, we can build communities where everyone feels safe.

This article is part of Upworthy’s “The Threads Between U.S.” series that highlights what we have in common thanks to the generous support from the Levi Strauss Foundation, whose grantmaking is committed to creating a culture of belonging.

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Joy

Thomas Jefferson coined a hip and funny phrase for abrupt goodbyes that still holds up today

A great phrase for when you've just gotta leave without explanation.

thomas jefferson, goodbye, name is haines, woman waving, us history
via White House/Wikimedia Commons and Canva/Photos

Thomas Jefferson and a woman waving.

"Irish goodbye" is a term for when someone slips out of an event without telling anyone, avoiding the awkwardness of announcing their departure. (Though the Irish didn't necessarily invent the phenomenon.) But what do we call it when someone decides to turn tail and leave a situation immediately, without any explanation at all? These days, there doesn't seem to be a name for a sudden, unexpected exit. Back in the 1800s, however, there was one, courtesy of the third president, Thomas Jefferson.

The phrase: "My name is Haines."

This may sound a bit strange, but it all stems from an unusual interaction Jefferson had while in office with a member of the opposition party. According to Monticello.org, The Weekly Picayune originally published the story in New Orleans on February 17, 1840.

The story behind "My name is Haines"

In 1805, during his second term as president, Jefferson was riding near Monticello, his Virginia residence, when he struck up a conversation with another man on the road. Amusingly, the man had no idea who he was speaking to, and as a rank-and-file member of the Federalist Party, which opposed Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party, he had plenty of harsh words for the president.

monticello, thomas jefferson, jefferson house, virginia, famous houses Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.via Martin Falbisoner/Wikimedia Commons

The Weekly Picayune wrote:

"Haines took particular pains to abuse Mr. Jefferson; called him all kinds of hard names, ran down every measure of his administration, poked the non-intercourse and embargo acts at him as most outrageous and ruinous, ridiculed his gun-boat system as preposterous and nonsensical, opposed his purchase of Louisiana as a wild scheme — in short, took up every leading feature of the politics of the day, and descanted upon them and their originator with the greatest bitterness."

Jefferson simply listened, neither in the mood to argue nor to reveal his identity. When the two arrived at Jefferson's home, the president invited the man inside for refreshments. At one point, the visitor asked the president for his name. Here is how it was reported in The Weekly Picayune:

"Jefferson," said the President, blandly.

"The [devil]! What, Thomas Jefferson?"

"Yes sir, Thomas Jefferson."

"President Thomas Jefferson?" continued the astonished Federalist.

"The same," rejoined Mr. Jefferson.

"Well, my name is Haines!" and putting spurs to his horse, he was out of hearing instantly.

jefferson memorial, tidal basin, washington d.c., historical monuments, american history The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.via Joe Ravi/Wikimedia Commons

Why did Haines ride off so quickly?

There are many reasons Haines may have decided to bail on the president so abruptly. He was likely embarrassed after bad-mouthing the president to his face and may not have wanted to risk any reprisal for his harsh words. And as someone who harbored deep ill will toward the president, he probably had no interest in entertaining his company. Regardless, "My name is Haines" became a popular phrase after appearing in The Weekly Picayune , and it was used whenever someone wanted to leave a situation suddenly and without explanation.

The phrase would be used until around the Civil War, but by the beginning of the 20th century, it, too, had said goodbye. It faded away rather than vanishing in an instant, as Mr. Haines famously did.

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How the 'vegan but bacon' theory can transform how people think about habit change

"Stop making arbitrary rules for yourself."

vegan, bacon, habits, food, vegetarian, eating
Photo credit: Canva

The "vegan but bacon" message went viral.

Most of us have things we want to do in life, goals we want to achieve, but find that all kinds of obstacles get in our way. Sometimes those obstacles are external things we can't control, and sometimes they are internal things we aren't consciously aware of that hold us back.

For instance, certain mindsets can keep us from making progress, from negative thinking to creating rules for ourselves that don't actually exist. One example of the latter was brilliantly challenged by a vegan content creator named Liz, who had someone tell her that they'd go vegan if it weren't for their love of bacon. Her response was powerfully simple: "So do it. Go vegan but bacon."

Liz, Tiktok, video, viral, content creator, vegan TikTok · liz 🌱🥕🪱🤎 www.tiktok.com

The TikTok post was viewed nearly three million times, topped only by her similar post that said the same thing, but with cheese instead of bacon. Lots of people in the comments of both posts shared that they eat vegan 95% of the time, eat vegan only at home but not at other people's houses, or that they have one specific non-vegan food they eat but stick to plant-based foods otherwise. As Liz says, "Harm reduction is harm reduction," and most people do things a step at a time, not all at once.

The idea that you don't have to take an all-or-nothing approach to a certain diet or lifestyle was a revolutionary one for people who struggle with perfectionism. And, as another creator pointed out, this theory can apply to lots of areas of our lives.

"Stop making arbitrary rules for yourself," wrote Addie the Optimist on TikTok. "It prevents you from actually reaching your goals." She said if you don't have 100% of your energy to put in at the gym, go to the gym anyway and give 50%. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.

The truth is, there are very few actual rules in life. Aside from laws of the land and whatever spiritual laws someone might feel are obligatory, the "rules" we tend to live by are generally optional and largely arbitrary. Three meals a day? Totally made up. Wearing workout clothes to exercise? Genuinely optional. You can just do things. You rarely have to do them any particular way, and you rarely have to do them all the way.

Giving yourself permission to do something imperfectly is incredibly freeing, and may actually lead to greater progress than perfectionism, as many people shared in the comments:

"I was like 'I need to go the gym but I only like cardio' then I realized I can do just the cardio and no one will come arrest me."

"Sometimes washing most of the dishes is washing enough."

"Half-assing is the stepping stone to whole-assing. 🙂↕️"

"If you only have 10% to give and you give 10% you have just given 100%."

"Sloppy success beats perfect failure!"

"Perfect is the enemy of done."

"Once you get out of the all or nothing mindset the possibilities are endless."

vegan, habits, food, vegetarian, eating You don't have to take an all or nothing approach to change. Photo credit: Canva

As Addie said in her video, "You don't have to be imprisoned by your own rules." That's easier said than done for some of us, perhaps, but seeing a mindset shift demonstrated like this can sometimes help us snap out of our own self-limiting thoughts. Additionally, having a short slogan to remind ourselves to ditch all-or-nothing thinking can also be helpful. So, the next time you find yourself feeling like you have to do something all the way or not at all, just tell yourself "vegan but bacon," and give yourself permission to follow your own rules.

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Joy

Woman gets shamed at CVS for 'son's' unusual name. The reality has people rolling.

"You'll really name your son anything, huh?"

baby names, dog names, golden retriever, name shame, cvs, funny, funny tiktok, funny dog videos, names
@sarahwithscrubs/TikTok, used with permission

Honestly, most of us would have reacted this way.

It started like any ordinary pharmacy errand. A Michigan woman named Sarah was waiting at CVS to pick up a prescription for her “son.” When another woman waiting in line overheard the name of her “son,” she apparently couldn’t help but let out an unsolicited opinion.

“You’ll really name your son anything, huh?” the woman said with a sigh.

The name in question? Whiskey.

baby names, dog names, golden retriever, name shame, cvs, funny, funny tiktok, funny dog videos, names At least it wasn't Bubbles. Photo credit: Canva

Now, if you’re picturing a tiny human in a onesie named after your dad’s favorite Friday-night drink, and feeling a little baffled in the process, don’t worry. So was everyone else.

Except Whiskey isn’t a little boy. He’s a red golden retriever.

Yep. Sarah’s “son” is of the four-legged variety, currently undergoing cancer treatments and racking up a pharmacy bill that could rival a small country’s GDP. She and her husband get his prescriptions filled at their local CVS because (fun fact) many human and animal meds are the same, just at different doses.

baby names, dog names, golden retriever, name shame, cvs, funny, funny tiktok, funny dog videos, names You just know there's a person named Whiskey out there getting a kick out of this. media4.giphy.com

As Sarah explained to Newsweek, this strategy saves them a few bucks, but can certainly lead to some incredible misunderstandings.

In her TikTok video, which has now been watched over 3 million times, Sarah retold this CVS name-shaming incident, and viewers collectively lost it.

@sarahwithscrubs I should’ve thrown in I was picking up his cancer meds too lol 🤭😂 #fyp #foryoupage #storytime #dogs #smallcreator ♬ original sound - sarah renee

One commenter shared, “I was shaming you too until you said dog!” Another wrote, “I mean, Whiskey is a horrible name for a child 😂 But for a dog? Okay lol.”

However, a few folks came to Sarah’s defense. One person noted, “There are women named Brandi—what’s wrong with Whiskey?” Another admitted, “in my 49 years I didn't know CVS filled pet meds!"

It’s the kind of mix-up that reminds us how funny life can be when the human and animal worlds collide. Because let’s face it: Whiskey the dog? Adorable. Whiskey the toddler? Maybe… less so. It might be a mostly unspoken rule, but a rule nonetheless.

As for what became of that misunderstanding, Sarah shared that when the other woman called Whiskey a "horrible" name for a child to grow up with that could lead to getting bullied in school, Sarah quipped back with "Well, he's a dog. So I don't think so." Upon that realization, Sarah told Newsweek that she “apologized very nicely” once she learned that Whiskey was, in fact, a dog.

As Sarah put it, the stranger “just left in a hurry, probably to think about her actions later.”

Meanwhile, TikTok is still chuckling, and celebrating one very good boy with a name that fits him perfectly.

Moral of the story: some names are meant for baby humans, like Zach or Emma. Others are for the fur babies who greet you at the door with a wagging tail and oodles of love…like Whiskey. 🐾🥃

This article originally appeared last year

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Music

Guy recreates Queen's 'bombastic' vocal harmonies and high notes in epic tribute video

Queen took no shortcuts to create their massive sound.

queen, queen tribute, freddie mercury, singers, vocal harmonies
Photo credit: Carl Lender via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0

Freddie Mercury performs at the New Haven Coliseum in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1977.

If you're debating the most breathtaking harmonies in rock history, you might consider The Beatles' youthful blend, The Beach Boys' highly orchestrated beauty, or the stacked sweetness of Crosby, Stills & Nash. But if you're lobbying for wall-to-wall, glass-shattering power, there's only one clear winner: Queen, who famously displayed that gift on '70s epics like "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Bicycle Race."

Now, in a stunning tribute video, a musician and content creator pays homage to the band's multi-layered, over-the-top vocals.

Jon Smith, leader of the Pennsylvania-based "theatrical rock band" Jon Smith's Voyages, details his approach in a viral Instagram clip titled "How to make your harmonies sound like Queen."

"I have always been fascinated by Queen's bombastic harmonies," he writes in the caption. "Here's a little breakdown of how to achieve a similar harmony style!"

Using a memorably vocal-rich section of 1978's "Don't Stop Me Now," he channels his inner Freddie Mercury to build an operatic web of vocals, piece by piece.

"Like an atom bomb"

In the video, Smith starts by recording a snippet of lead vocal (in this case, "like an atom bomb about to whoa-oh, whoa-oh, oh-explode!"). He then records that part two additional times to thicken it up. Next, he repeats this triple-take process for two harmony vocals, and then again one octave higher for each harmony, adding a lower-octave line for some bass presence. As he sings each line a cappella, it sounds more than a little goofy. But the full picture emerges when you hear the complete choral-style arrangement at the end.

Naturally, many fans were impressed. Here are some of the best comments:

"Epic!"

"Staggering"

"Dude how good is your range?? Fantastic! Love seeing things like this and playing around with harmonies!"

"Basically: record an entire choir 😂"

"Yeahhh! 🤘"

"Ohmygod I freaking LOVE your energy dude, you are like the 2026 version of queen"

"So the answer is I should have 6 octaves vocal range, got it boss👍"

"Unfortunately, I am a baritone"

"This only works if you can sing"

"me 1000 octaves high"

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Queen's complex vocal parts

Replying to one user, Smith noted that the video is not meant to be a literal example of Queen's process. Instead, he described it as "wayyyyy oversimplified," meant to demonstrate how the band often used elaborate layering to achieve those mile-wide harmonies.

Elsewhere, multiple commenters rightly pointed out Queen's democratic approach to studio harmonies. While Mercury was the band's primary lead vocalist, guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor were also crucial in fleshing out the vocal parts.

In a 2002 Queen mini-documentary, May went into fascinating detail about the band's approach:

"That's normally what we'd do: Three of us would sing the line once, double it—in other words, do the same thing again—and then probably triple it, so you have three tracks of us all singing the same line. And only then do you move on to the next part...It sounds like a lot of people singing really, and part of that's good construction, and part of it's luck because our voices blended very well."

- YouTube www.youtube.com

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Science

Her groundbreaking sea floor discovery was dismissed as 'girl talk.' But science proved her right.

Marie Tharp changed how humanity sees the planet, yet so many have never heard her name.

marie tharp, marie tharp scientist. continental drift theory, women in stem, women's history, scientific discoveries
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Marie Tharp aboard the USNS Kane in 1968.

Most of us learn about the Earth's shifting tectonic plates in middle school. But in Marie Tharp's time, this fact we now take for granted was a groundbreaking, radical concept—and one that had to overcome gender bias.

In 1957, Tharp, a geologist and oceanographic cartographer, and her colleague Bruce Heezen published the first bathymetric map of the Atlantic Ocean. Tharp faced considerable challenges due to sexism. For one thing, women were not allowed on the ships that collected the seafloor data used to create the maps. So, Tharp spent hours at a desk translating thousands of sonar readings from ships that would not allow her aboard.

Her hand-drawn maps eventually revealed that the seafloor was covered in canyons, ridges, and mountains, all of which suggested that at some point, pieces of the Earth had moved.

This was important because the prevailing view at the time was that the ocean floor was flat and motionless. However, Tharp's findings supported Alfred Wegener's highly controversial continental drift theory, which proposed in 1912 that today's continents once fit together as a single supercontinent, known as Pangea.

Of course, we now know Pangea to be real, but not long ago, the idea was considered heresy. When Tharp reintroduced it through her findings, Heezen dismissed it as "girl talk," or an "old wives' tale," depending on the account. Either way, the context is clear.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Heezen would come around in time, but the duo still had to persuade the rest of the scientific community. At that point, the supposed peaks and valleys were only conjecture. However, in 1959, when Jacques Cousteau, determined to prove Tharp wrong, lowered his underwater camera with 16-millimeter film into the middle of the ocean and a valley appeared on the footage, it became clear that she was right.

Though it was primarily Tharp's groundbreaking findings that paved the way for a new understanding of the seafloor, she was still viewed as "merely a technician." As a result, Heezen received the lion's share of the credit as they continued working together, eventually mapping all of the world's oceans. Tharp would not be allowed to set foot on a research ship until 1968.

But proving her tenacity, Tharp was nevertheless able to make a life-changing scientific contribution in spite of it all, because she was resourceful and believed deeply in the importance of her work. As she herself said, "I had a blank canvas to fill with extraordinary possibilities, a fascinating jigsaw puzzle to piece together. It was a once-in-a-lifetime — a once-in-the-history-of-the-world-opportunity for anyone, but especially for a woman in the 1940s."

In time, Tharp did receive recognition. In 1978, the National Geographic Society awarded Tharp and Heezen (posthumously) the highly prestigious Hubbard Medal. And, in 1997, the Library of Congress named her one of the greatest cartographers of the 20th century.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

And, of course, every time we look at a map, we witness a bit of her signature. Still, one can't help but wonder about the other women from history who secretly shaped the way we view the world today, and the pains they took to do so.

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