Author: Lisa Mungovan

Don’t panic about what to have for dinner. It’s International Picnic Day, so you can literally go out to eat. Simply bring some sandwiches and water. Nature is the star of the meal! Actually, you can panic anyway, because it’s also International Panic Day. Just remember to calm down after your moment of stress!

How fast can you run a mile? How about when you’re blindfolded? Ashley Winter, from Hereford England, set the world record. He ran the fastest mile blindfolded, in 10 minutes and 11 seconds. Winter, who has the vision-impairing eye disease keratoconus, used his record-breaking run, to raise money for Fight for Sight.

This weekend, much of the world will be able to watch an incredible solar eclipse. It will be an annular eclipse, when the moon doesn’t fully obscure the sun. Instead, it will look like a ring of fire. Central Africa and Asia will get the best view. The rest of us can watch online.

Racism is something many people learn from their parents, before they’re even old enough to realize what it is. That doesn’t mean they can’t learn to be better. The Gallery X Art Collective tattoo parlor in Kentucky, will cover up gang-related, racist, or hateful tattoos for free. It’s never too late to change.

Today is Eat Your Vegetables Day. One way to get excited about eating veggies, is to grow your own! It’s not too late to plant a summer garden. In the meantime, visit a farmer’s market. If you don’t like veggies, dip them in something yummy, or puree them and bake them into brownies!

Tessellations are geometric patterns with no gaps, where the same shapes are repeated over and over again. It’s Tessellation Day! You can find tessellations in nature, like honeycombs, or in sports, like on your soccer ball. Create your own tessellation out of pastries, since it’s also Apple Strudel Day and Cherry Tart Day!

Many public pools are still closed because of the pandemic, but a bear didn’t let that stop him from swimming. He found a private pool in a backyard in California, and took a dip. He was also filmed wandering through the neighborhood, and rummaging through trash cans. Maybe he just needed a bath!

Did you ever take a trip, and leave something in the motel, or on the airplane? In Switzerland, someone left $190,000 worth of gold bars, on a train. Swiss officials have been searching for the owner for 8 months, and are now asking for help from the public. The owner will have 5 years to claim it.

25 years ago, scientists produced a fifth state of matter, called Bose-Einstein Condensate, or B-E-C. The first four states of matter were solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. Now, scientists can observe a B-E-C in space, at the International Space Station’s Cold Atom Lab. Ultracold atoms move more slowly, and there’s no pesky gravity to interfere.

Have you wondered why people say “Black Lives Matter,” instead of “All Lives Matter?” Think of it like this. If a house was on fire, the firefighters would spray water on the burning house, instead of spraying the entire neighborhood. By protecting the house that’s in immediate danger, everyone is safer.