Some days you read stories that warm your heart and make you believe the best possible things about humanity. In this case, a classroom of children showed their unconditional love and support for their classmate when he was in the courthouse.

A 5-year-old boy named Michael from Grand Rapids, Michigan, showed up for an adoption hearing on Thursday. The heartwarming thing was that his entire kindergarten class turned up to cheer him on and congratulate him on starting a new chapter in his life. A lot of us probably wish that we could get the sort of support Michael did, every once in a while.

Besides his classmates and his teacher, Mrs. McKee, Michael was at the courthouse with his foster parents. The 5-year-old has been living with his foster parents since last Thanksgiving and is now legally their adoptive child.

5-year-old Michael went to his adoption hearing with a lot of support

Image credits: KentCountyMI

His foster parents were there…

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The idea to show Michael a whole bunch of moral support came to his kindergarten teacher Mrs. McKee who works at Wealthy Elementary School. She talked to his mom and both of them agreed that the plan was genius and would mean a lot to him.

…and his classmates, as well as his teacher, all turned up

Image credits: _JamesStarks

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Michael’s parents were amazed by the number of friends their son has and were thankful for how for the last year they invited him to their homes and on to “play dates.” According to his parents, he loves playing basketball and soccer, swimming, and dancing.

Michael’s classmates told the judge how much they like him

Michael’s father told CNN journalists that the part of the hearing he enjoyed the most was when the judge turned to everyone in the room and asked them to explain what the 5-year-old kindergartner means to them. Michael’s classmates then stood up and said things like “I love Michael” and “Michael’s my best friend.”

Michael was loving the fact that his friends showed up

About 135,000 people get adopted each year in the United States, according to the Adoption Network. This just goes to show that there are a lot of people out there willing to adopt and help out children without a family.

The day was full of happiness and laughter

Michael’s story just makes you want to smile, doesn’t it, dear Readers? What do you think of the kindergartners’ show of support for Michael? Have you ever supported a friend in a similar way? Let us and everyone else know in the comments below.

You can watch the heart-warming hearing video right here

Image credits: ABC

People loved how much love and support Michael got

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The pun is a misunderstood and often maligned form of comedy. Most of us, if you asked what we think of puns, would say we find them groan-worthy and associate them with dad jokes. But there’s so much you can do with language - it’s such a broad category of comedy that even if you think you can’t stand puns, there’s bound to be one out there for you too. Not to mention, dad jokes have actually been enjoying a surge of popularity in recent years.

Here are some posts that people shared on /r/puns as well as /r/PunPatrol, proving that wordplay is a thriving art. Some of the setups that people make just so they can take a picture of it and pun around might concern you. Others didn’t have to do anything, just find some poor sap who asked an innocent question and left themselves wide open.

Scroll down for some good and some so-bad-it's-good wordplay.

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We are so entrenched in the bubbles of our social lives that sometimes we forget how insignificant some of the things are when put against the whole image. And while for some people this realization might be comforting, that a spilled coffee, a lost job or a loss of a relationship is just such a small fraction of things happening in the universe, for others the thought can be absolutely terrifying.

Why not take a closer look at what’s out there and compare how vast the surrounding universe is compared to our little green planet? See for yourself just how big Jupiter is compared to North America? Or how big our sun is compared to the largest observed star? Maybe you’ll have to stop for a second and re-evaluate how you perceive everything around you!

This is the Earth, a planet that we all currently live on

Image credits: NASA

And this is the solar system where our planet shares space with the other 7

Image credits: NASA

The solar system is fascinating, with a history of not much, not little, just 4.568 billion years! It consists of a single star (Sun, duh!), 8 planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars,
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) and 3 universally accepted dwarf planets (Ceres, Pluto, Eris). Oh, and everything in between, such as moons and asteroids and such. The system mass of the solar system is 1.0014 solar masses (one solar mass is equal to approximately 2×1030 kg, do the calculations) and the majority of the system’s mass is in the Sun (99,86 %) with the remaining majority contained in Jupiter.

This is how far away (to scale) the Moon is from the Earth which doesn’t seem as much

Image credits: Nickshanks

However, you can fit every planet in the solar system in that gap. Quite cool, huh?

Image credits: reddit

Jupiter is our giant of the solar system. It is so big that the entire continent of North America looks like a green speck on it

Image credits: John Brady/Astronomy Central

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. Named after the Roman god of sky and lightning, Jupiter is a planet with a radius of 69,911 km (43,441 mi) and a surface area of 6.1419×1010 km2 (2.3714×1010 sq mi) which would be approximately 122 Earths. Now that’s impressive! Unlike planets like Earth and Mars (that have rocky, terrestrial terrains), Jupiter is a gas giant, meaning that it consists mainly of hydrogen and helium for which it is sometimes called a failed star (because they contain the same basic elements of a star). When compared to the sun, the planet seems like a meek little bubble as its mass is only one-thousandth that of the Sun, however, if you combined the masses of the remaining solar system planets, Jupiter would still be two-and-a-half times bigger.

Another big body is Saturn. Here you can see how big it is compared to Earth (or 6 of them)

Image credits: John Brady/Astronomy Central

If Saturn’s rings were placed around Earth, here’s how they would look

Image credits: Ron Miller

Our observation of other objects in the universe have improved quite a bit, and these images of Pluto are a good example

Image credits: NASA

Ah, the heartbreak of a century, first called a planet and then being stripped of the title and reclassified as a dwarf. Even though it happened back in 2006, there are still people who are upset over the International Astronomical Union’s decision to define the term ‘planet’ which led to Pluto being excluded. In classic mythology, Pluto is the god of the afterlife and the ruler of the underworld. Despite it not being a planet anymore, people still sought to reach it and in 2015 The New Horizons spacecraft became the first probe to perform a flyby of Pluto. It took almost a year for the spacecraft to send back the collected information, but it was so so worth it.

Here’s how an artist imagined Rosetta’s Comet (67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko) would look when compared to the size of downtown Los Angeles. Makes you think about those end-of-the-world movies, no?

Image credits: anosmicovni

Although none of the previous objects have substance compared to our sun, a yellow dwarf star

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Sitting at the center of our system, the Sun is a nearly-perfect sphere of hot plasma with a surface area of 6.09×10¹² km² which is 12,000 Earths (just think about it for a moment!). It takes 8 min and 19 s for the light from the Sun to reach our planet. The Sun is made of ~73% hydrogen with the rest being mostly helium (~25%) and only small quantities of heavier elements, including oxygen, carbon, neon, and iron. According to Wikipedia, the Sun “currently fuses about 600 million tons of hydrogen into helium every second, converting 4 million tons of matter into energy every second as a result”. The energy (which can take 10,000 – 170,000 years to escape from its core) is the source of Sun’s light and heat. When these processes decrease, the Sun’s core will increase density and temperature and the outer layers will expand, consuming the orbits of Mercury and Venus and rendering Earth uninhabitable. But that’s not going to happen in the upcoming 5 billion years or so, nothing to worry about!

This is how Earth looks from the surface of the Moon, not too bad?

Image credits: NASA/Bill Anders

Well, Mars gives a completely different perspective to our little planet

Image credits: NASA

And then there’s the view from behind Saturn’s rings, we seem like a planet for ants

Image credits: NASA

Around 2.9 billion miles away, just beyond Neptune, we seem smaller than a grain of salt

Image credits: NASA

So if that doesn’t put things into perspective, then let’s go big. This is how Earth looks when compared to the Sun

Image credits: John Brady/Astronomy Central

Though the Sun doesn’t look as bad when looking from the surface of Mars, right?

Image credits: NASA

There are so many stars in the universe that their number outweighs how many grains of sand there are on Earth’s beaches

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Which means that our sun is just a grain of sand in the whole picture, especially compared to such giants like VY Canis Majoris

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If VY Canis Majoris was placed in the center of our solar system, it would almost reach the orbit of Saturn

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If the Sun was scaled down to the size of a white blood cell, the Milky Way would be the size of the continental United States

Image credits: NASA

So when you look at our galaxy from that perspective, our tiny Earth truly loses its sense of magnitude

Almost all individual stars we see at night scattered all across the sky are just a fraction of what lies out there

Image credits: ScienceDump

And if you thought that the Milky Way is huge, here it is next to IC 1101, which is 1.04 billion light-years away

Image credits: IC 1101

To top the overwhelming vastness of universe exemplified so far, here’s a photo of thousands of galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope

Image credits: NASA

And here’s one of them, UDF 423, 7.7 billion light-years away

Image credits: NASA

What you see at night is just a small part of the universe

Image credits: NASA

And if you came here expecting black holes, here it is! This one’s compared to Earth’s orbit. Terrifying, isn’t it?

Image credits: D. Benningfield/K. Gebhardt/StarDate

We are often bombarded with fear-mongering and shocking headlines that make us feel that the world is falling apart.

However, while it’s important to report on problems and issues, I believe there is so much good in this world that it needs to be found and promoted just as widely.

Because of that, I started The Happy Broadcast. It's an anti-venom to the vitriolic rhetoric that pervades our media. Also, this year, I’ve illustrated even more happy news than in 2018.

We need more positive news to acknowledge that the world is actually getting better little by little.

More info: Instagram

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When I'm working on The Happy Broadcast, I try to pick news that has an international appeal and touches themes like animal rights, climate change and science. News that shows how much we’re progressing on many fronts despite being often bombarded with few-mongering headlines.

I think there are many reasons why negative news is dominating the media. It's like a sudden disaster a, it's more compelling than, for example, little improvements. Bad things can happen quickly, but good things aren’t built in a day, and as they unfold, they're out of sync with the news cycle.

As humans, we have this thing called “negative bias” that make us respond quicker to bad or dangerous situations. Nowadays, this bias is getting in the way of our happiness and well-being, and even our productivity because most of the narrative surrounding us (print, online or mobile) is that the “world is ending".

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I think we should find a balance between negative and positive news. From politics to climate change and economy, negative and bad news surrounds us everywhere we go. A potential solution could be to limit the amount of bad news, basically slow down our personal news cycle, adding some positive news to our “news diet” to make sure that our outlook on the world is more optimistic. Also, it's very important to invest time to deal with misinformation and the reliability of news sources.

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We’ve seen brand Twitter account tweet much more than news about their company, sales or exclusive items. Like that one time whoever was responsible for Wendy’s account went off and roasted everyone like no brand did before. And people loved it! And while there are surely times when the general public is dissatisfied with brand’s tweets and interactions on the social media platform, more often than not, people tend to keep and eye for such events.

This time, it was no other than Netflix representatives who decided to bring brands together for a witty challenge on Twitter. They posted a prompt for the companies to share best double entendres, and some surely delivered. Scroll down below to check them out and don’t forget to comment and vote for your favorites!

A new meme format has been floating on Twitter where people try to come up with best double entendres

Probably inspired by that, Netflix decided to challenge fellow brands to come up with their own

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It's certainly not the first time you've heard about puns, especially if you're a dad -- chances are that cringy poorly-timed puns are a way of life for you. But who's judging! Life wouldn't be much fun without a pun! For those who just love this sort of humor, we have a whole list for you to indulge in. We gathered some of the best puns collected by a Tumblr blog called Just Bad Puns. But don't let the name fool you, they are not bad at all. Actually, you'll probably find them hilarious if you're into dad jokes. So don't waste any more time and scroll below for the list!

More info: justbadpuns.com

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The miracle of birth is so intense and powerful, some dads faint just from the sight of it. William Trice Battle didn’t. He was there, with his wife, all the way through. However, the man still doesn’t know how she did it. And it looks like he isn’t trying to explain it. Instead, William thanked his wife in an open letter and described everything he was going through. He did such a wonderful job of putting his thoughts and feelings into words, his post instantly went viral.

More info: Facebook

Image credits: William Trice Battle

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People were incredibly moved by William’s honest words

Friendship mostly arises among peers and outside the family. That is why this comical BFF relationship between 93-year-old Pauline „Granny“ Kana and her 27-year-old grandson Ross Smith is so special. It all started when more than 6 years ago, during his tenure in college, Ross began filming short videos on Vine. In one of the videos, he decided to feature his grandma blocking a basketball shot. The thing blew up all over the internet, and things weren’t the same ever since. The grandson saw potential in his badass grandma, so they became partners-in-crime, and started doing hilarious videos and fun photoshoots together. 892k Youtube subscribers, 2.7 million Instagram, and 9 million Facebook followers later, the viral duo are still going strong.

We present to you a collection of their costume parodies, which is only a tiny fraction of their overall content.

The gallery consists of occasions that span from Christmas, Easter, to Valentine’s, 4th of July, and beyond. They also have their own hilarious takes on popular movies like Marvel’s Avengers, or an animation classics like Toy Story. In any case, you can see that they’re having a blast every step of the way and that their chemistry is truly genuine.

Enjoy the gallery of the odd BFF couple’s misadventures. You can always check them out on their own social media profiles on Youtube, Instagram, and Facebook. 

More info: Instagram | Facebook | youtube.com

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The holidays are quickly approaching us with the smell of freshly-baked cookies, the malls are full of Christmas tunes, and we all know that it’s the season to spend time in the warm company of your family. However, not all people will have the luxury of spending time with their loved ones. Especially if they’re running for their lives.

Claremont United Methodist Church in California is making the headlines for its very unusual Nativity scene that depicts Jesus, Mary, and Joseph locked up in cages, as a family of asylum seekers separated at the border.

The reactions to the Nativity scene have been very different and society appears to be divided on the issue.

Claremont United Methodist Church divided society after it unveiled its Nativity scene with everyone in cages

Image credits: Karen Clark Ristine

Some believe that it’s the perfect way to grab everyone’s attention about an important societal issue. Others think that it’s wrong to politicize Jesus and his family, and it’s a ‘cheap’ way to get attention and ‘attack’ the current United States government. A third group thinks that the metaphor doesn’t quite work because Jesus and his family were in a different situation than asylum seekers today.

The church’s take on the Nativity scene is a criticism of the way asylum seekers and refugees are dealt with in the US

Image credits: Breznican

Image credits: Breznican

While the Claremont United Methodist Church’s lead pastor, Reverend Karen Clark Ristine, doesn’t see this is as a political statement—she sees it as a theological one. With such a cacophony of different views and opinions being expressed, it’s no wonder the church is getting so much attention.

“We see this as, in some ways, the Holy Family standing in for the nameless families,” Reverend Karen Clark Ristine told the media. “We’ve heard of their plight; we’ve seen how these asylum seekers have been greeted and treated. We wanted the Holy Family to stand in for those nameless people because they also were refugees.”

“We don’t see it as political; we see it as theological. I’m getting responses from people I don’t know,” said the Reverend, who has been leading the church since July 2019. “I am having people tell me that it moved them to tears. So if the Holy Family and the imagery of the Holy Family and the imagery of a Nativity is something you hold dear, and you see them separated, then that’s going to spark compassion in many people.”

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The Nativity scene is meant to show Jesus after he was born. However, the Claremont United Methodist Church is trying to make a metaphor about asylum seekers by alluding to Joseph and Mary’s flight to Egypt, to escape King Herod’s wrath.

The church does have a second, more traditional, Nativity scene inside the building itself. Claremont United Methodist Church often uses its Nativity scene to draw attention to important issues, such as Southern California’s homelessness crisis.

The lead pastor of the church shared her thoughts in this post:

Image credits: Karen Clark Ristine

Here’s how some people reacted to what the church did, some were very critical

While others loved the idea

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Most of us have lost someone from our family or our group of friends. And while death is a part of life, it doesn’t mean that we don’t sometimes still miss the people who’ve left us.

Rax King, a writer who also works at The Cheesecake Factory in Brooklyn, New York, misses her dad very much ever since he passed away and she has a unique way of keeping the connection between the two of them. She’s a ghostwriter, but not in the traditional sense: she emails her dead dad from time to time, asking for advice.

What Rax did not expect was to get a response to one of her emails, especially a wholesome and heart-warming one such as this.

More info: RaxKingIsDead.com | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

From time to time, Rax sends emails to her dad, who has passed away

Image credits: RaxKingIsDead

One day, she got a response

Image credits: RaxKingIsDead

Rax jokingly calls her dad a ‘boomer’ because he never had a personal email, only a work address. She was overwhelmed with emotions when she got the response and on social media, she admitted that she burst into tears. Her tweet went viral because people saw how heartfelt and genuine the response she got was.

She admitted that she cried

Image credits: RaxKingIsDead

Image credits: RaxKingIsDead

Moving on after the death of a loved one is one of the hardest things in life and one that we all have to deal with, sooner or later. Losing a parent is incredibly painful, no matter how old you might be, but the consequences are worse the younger you are.

According to Psychology today, losing a parent can lead to increased risks for “long-term emotional and mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, and substance abuse.” This is most likely to happen if you don’t receive enough support while you’re grieving or if you lost your parents as a child.

“In the best-case scenario, the death of a parent is anticipated and there’s time for families to prepare, say their goodbyes, and surround themselves with support,” psychiatrist Dr. Nikole Benders-Hadi told Fatherly. “In cases where a death is unexpected, such as with an acute illness or traumatic accident, adult children may remain in the denial and anger phases of the loss for extended periods of time … [leading to] diagnosis of major depressive disorder or even PTSD, if trauma is involved.”

Rax’s tweet went viral and many people could relate to how she felt

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Julie Hang has always been drawing cartoons. Ever since she was a little kid. But there’s something else that Julie had dedicated a lot of her younger days to. Alienating herself from others and rationalizing to herself that it’s ok because she’s “not like the other girls.”

“I was a shy, anxious kid, and had a hard time making friends,” Julie told Bored Panda. “Instead of recognizing my anxiety and trying to overcome it, I’d thought there must be something that separated me from other girls. Reading ‘me vs. other girls’ comics online validated those negative feelings and stereotypes I had towards other girls, and made me feel like it was the ‘cool’ thing to do.”

More info: juliehang.com | Instagram

“I became judgmental and presumptive towards my peers, categorizing other girls into stereotypes before I even got to know them,” the artist said. “I made such a point of staying away from those stereotypes that I didn’t let myself experience things that I thought ‘other girls’ were into, including ‘girly’ things like going shopping, dressing up, and getting your nails done – things that I later found I actually enjoy doing!”

However, as time went by, Julie developed not only as an artist, but as a person as well. She began to realize that bitterness doesn’t lead to anything good. “Meeting more people and getting to know them helped open up my world view, especially when I attended summer camp in high school and, later, art school.”

“It was a blank slate for everyone, which presented me the option to let go of all of those categories and those stereotypes towards “other girls” that I had held onto for so long. So I did just that. What followed could only be described as an epiphany – I had been setting myself apart from the very people I felt I belonged with the most. There was so much I had in common with ‘other girls’! I made lifelong friends from a variety of backgrounds and interests who are bright, hilarious, loving, kind – girls who are unique in their own way!”

Image credits: juliehangart

Looking back, Julie said that social isolation really affected her. “When you’re young and still trying to figure out who you are, the one thing you really want to have is individuality. There are lots of healthy ways to discover yourself, like joining a club where you can meet people with similar interests. Then there is the ‘I’m not like other girls’ theme online that communicates that you are indeed unique, but does so by putting other girls down.”

However, she successfully got rid of this dangerous mindset and has a lot going for her. Having graduated from Otis College of Art & Design with a major in Animation, Julie’s now a motion designer at Part IV, a digital marketing agency. When she’s not motion-designing, she likes to draw comics, design characters, do painting studies… pretty much anything you can see on her Instagram.

She also believes that the trend of “relatable” girl comics is slowly changing for the better. “In recent years, I’ve felt as though webcomics are headed in a more positive and inclusive direction, with deeper meanings and consideration for their readers, and I’m more than happy to be contributing to that movement,” the artist added.

Here’s what people said about Julie’s comic and the whole “I’m not like the other girls” topic in general

LEGO isn’t just for kids. I mean, people have used these iconic building blocks to create a full-scale, drivable replica of the $3,000,000 Bugatti Chiron for crying out loud. Designer Shari Austrian is also one of those people who just can’t put them away. Only her area of expertise is a little more static. She specializes in recreating homes. In fact, she enjoys this so much, she even launched an ETSY shop, offering to replicate people’s actual houses.

More info: ETSY

Designer Shari Austrian is recreating people’s homes using LEGOs, and they’re incredibly detailed

Image credits: LittleBrickLane

The price is $1.25 per square foot, so a 3,000-square-foot domicile would cost $3,750

Image credits: Shari Austrian

These replicas aren’t cheap. A full model will cost at least $2500 (the exact price is based on the square footage of your home). The price includes the cost of the materials Austrian invests in each project, which can add up fast. The designer said that the average LEGO piece costs about 10 cents and her models are made up of tens of thousands of pieces.

However, if you’re looking for something cheaper, she also offers exterior-only miniatures for $1,500 and up.

Image credits: Shari Austrian

“I have always adored, collected and created all sorts of miniatures — they’re just so cute. From the time I was a little girl, I was building mini fruits, animals, and homes out of Play-Doh and LEGO,” Austrian told TODAY Home.

Image credits: LittleBrickLane

Austrian bases her designs off interior and exterior photos of the houses, as well as their architectural plans

Image credits: LittleBrickLane

Image credits: LittleBrickLane

She usually spends 8 to 12 weeks on one project

Image credits: LittleBrickLane

Image credits: LittleBrickLane

“I like working with LEGO both for the complexity and simplicity,” she said

Image credits: LittleBrickLane

Image credits: Shari Austrian

“I’m a perfectionist just as much as I’m an artist and I value the clean lines, precision and interlocking strength of the bricks”

Image credits: LittleBrickLane

Image credits: LittleBrickLane

Image credits: LittleBrickLane

Image credits: LittleBrickLane

Image credits: LittleBrickLane

Image credits: LittleBrickLane

Image credits: LittleBrickLane

Image credits: LittleBrickLane

Sadly, Austrian has run into some problems that made her question if it’s even feasible to safely ship her models. “I pour all of my passion and energy into creating solid, tiny masterpieces for my customers to enjoy. But my efforts are only one part of the equation when having to [transport them],” she wrote on Facebook. “I was a bit nervous about handing a model over to UPS but they assured me that everything would be just fine, that they package and ship lighting fixtures, etc. [However,] my model was destroyed. I flew out to Tennessee the following week to reassemble the model so it was as good as new but the whole experience was heartbreaking.”

Let’s hope she finds a way to safely ship her precious creations.

Image credits: Insider

Twitter users have figured out how to troll art thieves, and it’s turned into a hilarious meme for a good cause.

Artists on social media have long faced the problem of bootleg merch sites reprinting their work. A print-on-demand site snapping up a design that you spent days or weeks creating so they can have it automatically printed by order on t-shirts, mugs, stickers, and hats is instantaneous, and once your design is on this network of sites, it takes a legal game of whack-a-mole to get it removed.

Recently, people on Twitter began to notice just how instantaneous and automatic it is. As a matter of fact, bots are doing it indiscriminately, observed Rob Schamberger, who paints official merch for WWE. When people reply to a tweet saying they want a design on a shirt, bots zero in on those keywords, and the image in the original tweet gets uploaded on print-on-demand sites.

This artist first brought attention to the phenomenon

Image credits: robschamberger

Image credits: robschamberger

Artists immediately tested it out by asking their followers to reply to incriminating images with the magic phrase “I want this on a shirt!” Soon, the bootleg sites were offering t-shirts with MSPaint scrawl proclaiming that the site on which it can be found steals art.

Another artist’s experiment started a savage meme

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But to turn this from an embarrassment into a disaster for sellers that thrive on art theft, Twitter users decided to bring in the big guns. Drawings of copyrighted characters, often behaving badly and urging their owner companies to take legal action (“pwease sue us daddy disney,”) proliferated. Other popular themes include support of Hong Kong’s protests against meddling by the Chinese government, and calls to look into China’s imprisonment of Uighur people in detention camps, all statements that could get print-on-demand sites based in China into legal hot water.

Twitter users are taking advantage of the art theft bots’ lack of quality control

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Image credits: robo_friend

Currently, we are on a cyberpunk battlefield in which the front pages of print-on-demand sites are plastered with crudely drawn art theft admissions, and Disney’s official Twitter account’s mentions are flooded with users asking for t-shirts in order to bait the bots to put its uploaded images up for sale. And this happened in a week. It remains to be seen whether entertainment giants like Disney and Nintendo will take legal action. Whatever the case, artists’ hope is that print-on-demand sites no longer being able to trust bots to discern what to print might force them to limit their operations.

Excellent job, Twitter

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As an added bonus, people are realizing that asking an artist for their design on a t-shirt is a bad idea and wondering what they can do to support artists on Twitter. The cute kitty drawings and tips for expressing interest in artists’ work without attracting art thieves show that some wholesomeness has come out of the fiasco as well.

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Here’s how people reacted

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Best meme of the decade? We’ll see how it plays out.

A branch of the New York Police Department has a new squad member who transferred in from the North Pole, and it looks like he has his work cut out for him.

At the beginning of the month, the police used Twitter to reveal the new addition to their team, an Elf on the Shelf who they have called, in typical elf naming tradition, Pete on the Beat. The Elf on the Shelf, if you’re not familiar with the custom, is a messenger for Santa, tasked with monitoring whether his subjects are being naughty or nice, and reporting back to the North Pole every night (much to the annoyance of parents who introduce the game to their kids and have to remember to move and pose the doll 25 nights in a row.)

The cops haven’t run out of ideas yet, tweeting daily pictures of Pete clowning around the office in a little uniform, getting briefed, and posing in miniature Law and Order-themed sets.

The police shared the elf’s adventures on Twitter

Image credits: NYPD19Pct

Image credits: NYPD19Pct

Image credits: NYPD19Pct

Image credits: NYPD19Pct

Image credits: NYPD19Pct

Image credits: NYPD19Pct

Santa, is this normal?

Note to sELF: Don’t ask #PeteOnTheBeat for help with administrative work… pic.twitter.com/avvc99UQBE

— NYPD 19th Precinct (@NYPD19Pct) December 5, 2019

Police like releasing fluffy news and participating in memes, and social media makes it easier than ever to craft a friendly, wholesome public image. But some take a more skeptical view of campaigns like this one and their potential to shift attention away from more disturbing news.

In November, for instance, NYPD was the subject of protests after increasing its subway presence and cracking down on subway fare enforcement. Someone had recently filmed half a dozen officers pointing their weapons at a man with his hands up and manhandling him to the floor, eventually arresting him for the non-violent crime of fare evasion, and someone else filmed an officer who had responded to a fight on a subway platform starting a fistfight with a bystander who was not initially involved.

After all that, it’s no wonder the police would want to start the Christmas season with some slightly better PR. And having someone on the squad paying attention to who’s naughty and who’s nice can’t hurt.

Here’s what commenters thought of the campaign

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For a really long time, biologists tried to unwrap the evolutionary history of various animals to figure out how they are related to one another. They have taken a seemingly logical course — to classify animals according to their morphological characteristics and fossil records. Thus, many similarly looking animals were presumed to have come from the same ancestors. However, scientists eventually realized that this sort of classification is not always accurate. Many morphological traits, such as, having wings or thumbs, may evolve multiple times, resulting in species that have similar traits but share a different evolutionary history. Things have changed with the recent advancement of molecular technologies. Scientists are now able to perform genetic analyses instead of relying on traditional morphological and fossil data. This has posed some rather interesting results and completely changed the way we look at some animals. For those who have been completely unaware of this advancement, the findings can be quite shocking.Recently, Tumblr users shared what they have found out from genetic analyses performed by scientists and shared what surprised them the most. Scroll down below for a few most uncanny animal pairs that look similar but are genetically very distant!

More info: iwilleatyourenglish.tumblr.com

Just a few month ago we found out who the best Wildlife Photographer of the year 2019 was and promptly congratulated Yongqing Bao with a well-deserved win. His winning photograph titled “The Moment” showcases a a young fox and a marmot in a moment of life and death. The hungry mother fox baring its teeth, the shock on the marmot’s face who just woke up from hibernation proved to be the perfect snap that won the recognition of the jury.

This time, the deciding factor is people and their votes. Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest just announced the 25 finalists of its LUMIX People's Choice Award and you can vote for the best photograph. The Natural History Museum has handpicked a selection of photographs from all over the world that didn’t make it to the finals of the first competition and gave you the power to decide which one deserves the title of fan favorite.

The voting deadline is on Tuesday 4 February 2020, so you have plenty of time to think hard and decide. In the meanwhile, let’s take a look at the stunning photographs showcasing different aspects of wildlife. From predators hunting prey to animals in captivity the images are a good reflection of the many aspects of our nature.

#1 "Station Squabble", Sam Rowley, UK

Sam discovered the best way to photograph the mice inhabiting London’s Underground was to lie on the platform and wait. He only saw them fight over scraps of food dropped by passengers a few times, possibly because it is so abundant. This fight lasted a split second, before one grabbed a crumb and they went their separate ways.

Image credits: Sam Rowley

#2 "The Surrogate Mother", Martin Buzora, Canada

Elias Mugambi is a ranger at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in northern Kenya. He often spends weeks away from his family caring for orphaned black rhinos like Kitui here. The young rhinos are in the sanctuary as a result of poaching or because their mothers are blind and cannot care for them safely in the wild.

Image credits: Martin Buzora

#3 "Winter's Tale", Valeriy Maleev, Russia

Valeriy encountered this Pallas’s cat while it was out hunting in the Mongolian grasslands – it was -42°C (-44°F) on that frosty day, but the fairy tale scene cancelled out the cold. Pallas's cats are no bigger than a domestic cat and they stalk small rodents, birds and occasionally insects.

Image credits: Valeriy Maleev

#4 "Mother Knows Best", Marion Vollborn, Germany

While on a bear watching trip to the Nakina River in British Columbia, Canada Marion spotted a grizzly bear and her young cub approach a tree. The mother bear started to rub against the tree trunk and was followed shortly by the cub, imitating its mother.

Image credits: Marion Vollborn

#5 "Tender Play", Steve Levi, USA

It was early March and Steve spotted this mother polar bear and her two cubs after 10 days of looking. They had recently left their birthing den in Wapusk National Park, Canada, to begin the long journey to the sea ice so their mother could feed. After a nap the cubs were in a playful mood.

Image credits: Steve Levi

#6 "Trustful", Ingo Arndt, Germany

For over two years Ingo has followed the pumas of Torres del Paine National Park, in Patagonia, Chile. This female was so used to his presence that one day she fell asleep nearby. On wakening, she glanced at him in a familiar way, and he was able to capture this portrait of a completely relaxed puma.

Image credits: Ingo Arndt

#7 "What A Poser", Clement Mwangi, Kenya

In Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve, Clement spent time observing this beautiful leopard as she soaked up the last warm rays of the setting sun. Clement is mindful to remember to take pleasure in life’s simple moments – being all too aware that sometimes, as a wildlife photographer, you can miss the exceptional while looking for the unusual.

Image credits: Clement Mwangi

#8 "Inquisitive", Audun Rikardsen, Norway

From a hide on the coast of northern Norway, it took Audun three years of planning to capture this majestic bird of prey in its coastal environment. After some time, the golden eagle became curious of the camera and seemed to like being in the spotlight.

Image credits: Audun Rikardsen

#9 "The Unwelcome Visitor", Salvador Colvée Nebot, Spain

Over several months, Salvador watched different species of bird use the dead flower spike of this agave in Valencia, Spain as a perch before descending to a small pond to drink. A pair of common kestrels were frequent visitors though each time they came magpies would hassle them.

Image credits: Salvador Colvée Nebot

#10 "Training Session", Stefan Christmann, Germany

When Stefan came across this penguin couple in Atka Bay, Antarctica, seemingly with an egg, he was surprised as it was too early in the season for egg-laying. Upon closer inspection he discovered the egg was a snowball! Perhaps the diligent couple were practicing egg transfer in preparation for when their real egg arrived. This is possibly the first time it has ever been witnessed and documented.

Image credits: Stefan Christmann

#11 "Matching Outfits", Michel Zoghzoghi, Lebanon

Michel was in the Pantanal, Brazil photographing jaguars. One afternoon, as he was on the Três Irmãos River, a mother and her cub crossed right in front of his boat. He watched mesmerized as they left the water holding an anaconda with a very similar pattern to their own.

Image credits: Michel Zoghzoghi

#12 "Teamwork", Jake Davis, USA

Jake was on a boat off the coast of Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada where he watched humpback whales bubble-net feeding. Here the lead whale dives to locate the fish, once the fish are located, the rest of the pod swim in decreasing circles while blowing bubbles which create a net, trapping the fish.

Image credits: Jake Davis

#13 "A Suitable Gift", Marco Valentini, Italy

Marco was in Hortobágyi National Park, Hungary when he spotted these kestrels displaying typical courtship behaviour. Here the female has just received an offering of a young green lizard from her suitor and in this touching moment she tenderly took hold of his claw.

Image credits: Marco Valentini

#14 "Dressed For Dawn", Csaba Tökölyi, Hungary

Csaba had been in a hide all night photographing nocturnal species and their activities, but as the golden light of dawn reflected on the surface of the water, an egret in wonderful breeding plumage stopped close by. The elongated scapular feathers covered the bird as if it was wearing a gown.

Image credits: Csaba Tökölyi

#15 "Spot The Reindeer", Francis De Andres, Spain

The conditions for photographing at the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard are extreme, but wildlife has adapted to the environment and its freezing temperatures. Francis found this composition of white arctic reindeer, which were observing him, both curious and charming.

Image credits: Francis De Andres

#16 "The Humpback Calf", Wayne Osborn, Australia

Wayne spotted this male humpback calf and its mother while diving off the Vava'u Island group in the Kingdom of Tonga. The calf kept a curious eye on Wayne as it twisted and turned before returning to its mother periodically to suckle. She was relaxed and motionless 20 metres (65 feet) below.

Image credits: Wayne Osborn

#17 "Family Get-Together", Michael Schober, Austria

Marmots have become accustomed to the presence of humans in Hohe Tauern National Park, Austria and allow people to observe and photograph them at close range. This behaviour is beneficial for the marmots, as human company deters predators such as golden eagles.

Image credits: Michael Schober

#18 "Beak To Beak", Claudio Contreras Koob, Mexico

Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve in the state of Yucatán is home to Mexico's largest flock of Caribbean flamingos. This chick is less than five days old – it will stay in its nest less than a week before it joins a crèche of other youngsters who wander around the colony searching for food.

Image credits: Claudio Contreras Koob

#19 "Big Ears", Valeriy Maleev, Russia

Valeriy was on a summer expedition to the Mongolian part of the Gobi Desert when he happened upon a long-eared jerboa. As blood moves through the ears of these usually nocturnal animals, excess heat dissipates across the skin and so the jerboa is able to stay cool.

Image credits: Valeriy Maleev

#20 "Captive", Marcus Westberg, Sweden

A giant panda sits in its cage in a breeding centre in Shaanxi, China. With a growing wild population and no realistic plan of how to breed and raise pandas for rerelease into the wild rather than a life in captivity – not to mention lack of habitat being the largest barrier to the continued spread of the wild population – it is unclear how such centres will benefit the species.

Image credits: Marcus Westberg

#21 "Ocean´s Signature", Angel Fitor, Spain

Angel took this image in the waters off of Alicante, Spain. Immersed in a strong current, an otherwise slightly undulating salp chain twists and turns forming whimsical shapes. Salps move by contracting, which pumps water through their gelatinous bodies.

Image credits: Angel Fitor

#22 "A Pulsing Sea", David Doubilet, USA

A school of red tooth triggerfish form a cloud of silhouettes above a river of convict blennies flowing over the coral in Verde Island Passage, Philippines. The Passage, a strait that separates the islands of Luzon and Mindoro, is one of the most productive marine ecosystems in the world.

Image credits: David Doubilet

#23 "Bon Appétit", Lucas Bustamante, Ecuador

Night hikes through the Ecuadorian jungle are one of Lucas’ favourite activities. With a keen interest in herpetology, he was overjoyed to spot this labiated rainfrog which are abundant in the region. It had just caught a baby tarantula and its comical expression said ‘caught in the act!’

Image credits: Lucas Bustamante

#24 "Meeting Place", Yaz Loukhal, France

After a rough journey by sea to the remote Snow Hill Island off the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, Yaz flew by helicopter and then trekked through thick snow to reach the emperor penguin colony. His efforts were rewarded with this incredible view of the whole colony.

Image credits: Yaz Loukhal

#25 "Losing The Fight", Aaron Gekoski, UK

Orangutans have been used in degrading performances at Safari World, Bangkok – and many other locations – for decades. The shows were temporarily stopped in 2004 due to international pressure, but today the shows continue – twice a day, every day – with hundreds of people paying to watch the orangutans box, dance, play the drums and more.

Image credits: Aaron Gekoski

Sometimes, people just don’t get along for a dozen possible reasons. But sometimes the main reason is that one person is a complete jerk and disrespects the other individual.

Case in point, some women got so fed up with some men who were acting like misogynists that they just had to turn to Twitter and write jokes about them for acting that way.

Scroll down for our collection of jokes on Twitter by women who poke fun at ‘toxic’ and misogynistic guys. Upvote your fave tweets and leave us a comment with your thoughts below. Be sure to let us know which jokes you enjoyed and why.

And if you’re still hungry for some more Bored Panda content, check out our previous articles about epic tweets by women, funny tweets by women, as well as tweets that will make feminists laugh.

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According to Psychology Today, there are some traits that misogynists exhibit that can let you spot them from a mile away. For example, while at first, a guy can seem “flirtatious, exciting, fun, and charismatic,” as time goes by, he may start showing extreme swings in his personality. A bit like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Misogynists also often make promises to women that they fail to keep and lack punctuality when they do manage to keep appointments. What’s more, Psychology Today explains that being outperformed by women professionally or socially will make misogynists feel “terrible.” 

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Hypocrisy is another trait of misogynists because they will allow their male friends and colleagues to do things that they’d criticize women for doing.

They also tend to put down women in public, steal their ideas “in professional contexts,” and even borrow money without the intention of giving it back. On dates, these ‘toxic’ guys always act the opposite of how women prefer to be treated; while in relationships they will tend to cheat on their female partners because they feel that they don’t ‘owe’ them monogamy.

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Everyone knows that cats love to stuff themselves into compartments of any size. Whether it’s a laundry basket, a drawer or their all-time favorite cardboard box, these fluffy felines just can’t resist them. While it’s a little frustrating when you get your cat a brand new bed and they end up napping in the box it came in, there’s an explanation to this obsession.

More info: sciencedirect.com

Image credits: FranktheDork

It has been theorized that cats feel so content in boxes because they reduce stress. In 2014, researchers from the University of Utrecht decided to put this theory to the test by conducting a study.

Image credits: piparkaq

Image credits: vinkulelu

What they have found will not surprise you — laying in boxes do, in fact, reduce cats’ stress levels. The researchers carried out a study at a Dutch shelter, involving 19 shelter cats, 10 of which had a box with them.

Image credits: imgur

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The scientists stated in their study: “Stressful experiences can have a major impact on the cats’ welfare and may cause higher incidences of infectious diseases in the shelters due to raised cortisol levels causing immunodeficiency. Though several studies showed a preference for hiding places and stress-reducing effects of hiding boxes on cats in combined studies, none of these studies determined if proper hiding enrichment would be effective in a quarantine cattery.”

Image credits: vinkulelu

Image credits: hyperspacesquirrel

Immediately, they noticed a difference between the group of cats who were kept with a box and those who were not provided the box. Cat stress level was determined by using the Kessler and Turner Cat-Stress Score (CSS). After a few days, the cats with a box recorded a lower stress level than a non-boxed group of cats. A few weeks later, both groups recorded the same CSS.

Image credits: cinziamaria

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The scientists concluded: “The hiding box appears to be an important enrichment for the cat to cope effectively with stressors in a new shelter environment the first weeks after arrival.” Scientists stated that further study is needed to determine what effect the hiding box has on house cats, its long term effects, and correlation with outbreak frequencies of infectious diseases.

Here’s how people reacted

This hardworking young mother is proof that nobody stands in your way of success except for yourself. She became pregnant at a very young age, gave up her education and was bullied for being a teenage mother – but Rachel went against all odds as she knew that there are good things waiting for her out there, she just had to work for them.

Rachel Campey – a 21-year-old from Leeds, UK – recently gained her counseling psychology degree at Leeds Trinity University – with her smiling six-year-old daughter by her side. Her inspiring story went viral, encouraging people not to give up on themselves, no matter how hard the path you’re walking sometimes may seem.

More info: Twitter

Rachel Campey got her degree in counseling psychology while holding her daughter’s hand

Image credits: Rachel Campey

Rachel, who got pregnant at just 14, shared adorable photos of herself graduating from university with her now six-year-old daughter by her side. This week, she got a degree in Counseling Psychology and told the media that it was ‘overwhelming’ to achieve academic success after being kicked out of school at 15.

Rachel told the media that the ceremony was ‘really emotional,’ as she was battling anxiety and the pressure of getting a degree, working and raising a daughter as a single mother. “I saw Lily-Rose’s face as I put my gown and my cap on when I was getting ready for the ceremony, and it just made it all feel so worthwhile,” she said. “I just felt a lot of completion throughout the day. I felt overwhelming love and pride from my family, and from myself, as well as my daughter.” She added that although tired, her 6-year-old was “smiling all day long.”

She took to Twitter to celebrate her achievement and the post went viral

Image credits: RachaelCampey

Rachel got pregnant at 14 and was forced to leave school due to lack of support

Image credits: Rachel Campey

Rachel Campey – a recent graduate who lives in Cross Gates, Leeds – said she had to leave her school months after she became pregnant at the age of 14, as they couldn’t support her. After, she went to various schools before eventually enrolling in York College and going to university from there.

The young mother told the media that her daughter was one of the main inspirations to get a degree: “If I hadn’t had Lily-Rose, because I was struggling with my mental health, I don’t think I would be here now. She changed my whole perception. I was on a very dark path before I had her, and she brightened it all up. I had so many moments in the first year where I didn’t think I could do it, I was walking down the hall crying my eyes out going to drop out of university, thinking ‘this is such a mess, why have I put myself in this situation,” she said.

But her daughter inspired her to move forward while Rachel is inspiring others

Image credits: Rachel Campey

“When I was writing my dissertation, she was doing homework at the side of me, so she gets how long a process it has been,” talking about her adorable 6-year-old, Rachel revealed to the media.

“They accidentally pronounced my surname wrong when I went onto the stage to collect my degree, and I heard her correct them and say ‘that’s my mummy.”

Rachel has been nominated for the inspiration individual award at the 2020 Yorkshire Choice awards and is hoping to continue her education or becoming a public speaker. The young mom is also an ambassador for MindMate, a National Health Service (NHS) organization, that supports young people and professionals.

“If you’re a young parent and you’ve suffered with mental health issues, it doesn’t mean the end of your goals. You can still work towards them whenever you’re ready. Just because somebody says you can’t do it doesn’t mean you can’t actually do it, because you can if you really want to.”

Here’s how people online reacted

Finding out your partner is unfaithful to you is never good news in any sane person’s mind. Well, unless you were planning to break up with them in the first place. But that wasn’t Jane Slater’s plan when she received a Fitbit as a Christmas gift from her boyfriend. In fact, the couple bonded over the device, syncing up their activities so they could motivate each other to stay fit. Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, not exactly.

Apparently, things weren’t exactly as peachy as they may look at first. One night, on Jane’s boyfriend’s birthday, to be exact, the woman showed up at his apartment with balloons to, naturally, wish him a happy birthday! As she waited for a long time, wondering where had her boyfriend vanished to, Slater noticed that her boyfriend’s Fitbit showed increased physical activity…. at 4am!

The NFL reporter recently took to Twitter to share how she caught a cheating boyfriend

Image credits: janeashleyslater

After the man failed to return Slater’s text messages and calls, Jane eventually figured out that he wasn’t “enrolled in an OrangeTheory class at 4am”, he was cheating on her with someone else. Not classy!

Image credits: SlaterNFL

Image credits: SlaterNFL

Image credits: SlaterNFL

Slater shared her story on Twitter to her 118.3K followers and the story blew up, gathering 16.9k retweets and 387.3k likes and dozens of replies. Many responded by telling their own cheating stories as well as sharing some insights on similar cases. The others, of course, expressed their opinion on the situation by words and, understandably, memes and gifs.

People responded by sharing some of their stories

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Jane Slater is a a NFL reporter from Dallas, Texas who puts a spotlight on the news about the Dallas Cowboys. The woman is also a sideline report for CBS Sports.

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Others responded by tweeting their opinions and reactions

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