Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Add Good to your Google News feed.
Google News Button

China FAQ, Part 2

Good Is
By Good IsApr 04, 2008
Good Is
See Full Bio
Seven cities bigger than New York (that you haven't heard of), Chinese phrases, and more.
chinacitieschinese phrasesmandarinolympic progress

The Latest

princess, queen, queen elizabeth, royalty, royal, mechanic, war, world war II
History

In WWII, Queen Elizabeth II was called "Princess Auto Mechanic." Here's how she earned the title.

chatgpt, ai, college essays, scientific study, creative writing
Science & Tech

College professors share the secret of how to detect ChatGPT in term papers

owl, interview, wildlife, hoot, birds, wildlife expert
Culture

Interviewing a wild owl, a man got an answer he never expected

bill gates, article, philanthropy, good, sharing, journalism, gates
Culture

Bill Gates reveals the 1997 article that convinced him to use his incredible wealth for good

More For You

gossip, community, ego, research, narcissists, self identity, social status, personal information

Gossiping in the office

Image via Canva - Photo by Science Photo Library

Surprising study shows these types of people actually really like being gossiped about

Almost every one of us wants to be accepted socially and gain some form of group attention. Studies have consistently shown that social isolation and loneliness leads to poor physical and mental health which includes a high risk of mortality. Trying to find a sense of community and elevate one's personal status at the same time can be confusing and often emotionally challenging. The need to be accepted and seen positively by others all influence our drive to fit in socially.

Some of our favorite secrets are about our friends and colleagues, and we divulge this information through a process called gossip. One of the main determining factors in finding pleasure through gossip is being an active participating witness instead of the actual subject. However this balance isn't the truth for all of us. Some people really like being talked about.
Keep ReadingShow less
red hot chili peppers, led zeppelin, john frusciante, jimmy page, letter

John Frusciante once wrote a letter to Jimmy Page, with a bold musical request.

Photo credit: Avda via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (left) / Afirebenside via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (right)

Red Hot Chili Peppers' John Frusciante once wrote Jimmy Page a letter, with a bold request

As a young guitarist, John Frusciante worshipped at the altar of rock giants like Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa. But as he recalled at the 2004 Mojo Awards while handing out a prize to Jimmy Page, the Led Zeppelin visionary was "the first person that made [him] want to play" the instrument. "[His] playing in Led Zeppelin was the perfect rock guitar playing, and he himself was the perfect rock guitar player," he enthused. "Four years before I started, I was taught the beginning of 'Stairway to Heaven' and stopped learning because my teacher could not show me the solo. Of course, I got around to it eventually…"

So in the early 2000s, when Frusciante started collaborating with Omar Rodríguez-López, bandleader of experimental prog-rock band The Mars Volta, he saw the perfect opportunity to connect with his childhood idol. Taking a personal approach, he sent Page a charmingly eager, handwritten letter, asking him to join in a triple-guitar solo for a Mars Volta song. While that would have been an incredible mind-meld and a notable moment in rock-guitar history, there’s no evidence to suggest it happened. Nonetheless, the letter itself is a thing of beauty, highlighting Frusciante’s reverence toward Page and a wide-eyed wonder about music creation.

Keep ReadingShow less
drag, drag queen, drag artist, drag king, kennedy center

Trump banned drag from the Kennedy Center stage, but he said nothing about drag artists in the audience.

Photo by Rochelle Brown on Unsplash

Drag artists shared their experiences attending the Kennedy Center on a powerful night out

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump shouted from TruthSocial “NO MORE DRAG SHOWS OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA” would be allowed on the Kennedy Center, but he said nothing about the audience. Four drag artists knew this well as they attended the Kennedy Center’s opening night of popular musical Les Misérables, itself known in part for commenting on themes of abuse of power. After the performance, all of the drag artists took to social media to recount their experiences.

They had all been given tickets to the show by The Qommittee, a D.C. based nonprofit dedicated to “bringing drag artists together to protect each other, support each other, and help each other thrive.” The tickets were donated to The Qommittee in part by “season ticket holders, in order to protest ‘Trump’s presence at the show, following his ban of drag at the center,’” The Qommittee told The Daily Beast.

Keep ReadingShow less
Elizabeth Dunn, psychologist, Phd, happiness, charity, depression, service, helping others

Elizabeth Dunn on her Ted Talk

Image from YouTube video.

Elizabeth Dunn shares why all giving doesn't make people happy. But one kind always works.

What's better than being depressed? How about being happy. For most of us, living is a constant mix of ups and downs. The older we get and the more experiences we have in navigating the trials of life, hopefully finding a routine of positive habits can help us manage our moods better.

One of the most productive tools for feeling good is service. Yes, having a big chunk of money or great things occurring are super positive influences for a moment. But showing up for friends, family, and strangers boosts are inner morale like no other. Surprisingly, how we do that has a dramatic affect on it working.

Keep ReadingShow less
tom jones, prince, david gilmour, pink floyd, cover songs

Tom Jones once recruited Pink Floyd's David Gilmour to cover Prince's "Purple Rain."

Photo credit: screenshots from Tom Jones YouTube

27 years ago Tom Jones and David Gilmour performed an astounding version of Prince's 'Purple Rain'

In theory, these three names—Prince, Tom Jones, and David Gilmour— shouldn’t even appear in the same sentence. But they just appeared in the same sentence for a weird and wonderful reason: Jones, the husky-voiced baritone pop crooner, once recruited Gilmour, the psychedelic maestro from Pink Floyd, to help reinterpret Prince’s eternal rock ballad "Purple Rain" on stage.

At first, it might be hard to compute what such a cover song might sound like. If you throw "Purple Rain" in a blender with "It’s Not Unusual" and "Comfortably Numb," would said blender just explode? Well, sort of—and that’s part of what makes their live take so fun. The performance dates back to 1992, during an episode of the limited TV series Tom Jones: The Right Time, in which the singer explored how modern popular music had been influenced by disparate genres like country and soul.

Keep ReadingShow less
AI, human vs AI, artificial intelligence, energy efficiency, brain power

Humans beat A.I. overwhelmingly in this category.

Photo credit: Canva

Humans still win: The one crucial factor that keeps A.I. from competing with the human brain

Artificial intelligence has been marketed to the general public for years now as a means to write up stories, lists, papers, and the like along with generating images for prompts. As the technology continues to learn from previous manmade art, written work, and history as a whole, many are wondering if humans can keep up with it. Well, while in many fashions A.I. is being set up to compete with humanity, there is one thing that the human brain is superior to A.I. every time no matter what task is being asked: energy efficiency.

A published study has shown that whether it is coming up with something to write, draw, or calculate, artificial intelligence requires significantly more energy to come up with results than a human brain according to Switzerland’s Blue Brain Project. To put it in terms of numbers, the human brain processes thought with only 12 watts of power, but A.I. simulating a human brain’s thought process would take around 2.7 billion watts of power. In short, it takes the human brain less power to light up a lightbulb to process a thought while it takes A.I. the power of 18 million laptop processors to simulate the same thing. This makes the organic brain millions of times more energy efficient.

Keep ReadingShow less
employee revenge, manager ultimatums, work etiquette, bad managers, conflict resolution

When have hostile ultimatums led to positive results?

Photo credit: Canva

‘I turned around and went home’: Why managers making ultimatums to employees never works

Another story of an employee standing up for themselves has been spreading around online. In this situation, an 18-year-old retail worker showed up for her shift six minutes late due to traffic. Her manager yelled at her and humiliated her in front of fellow coworkers and even some customers. The manager laid down an ultimatum: “If you don’t show up on time, don’t come in at all!” The retail worker called her bluff.

The following week, the retail worker realized she was going to be five minutes late when heading over to her job. Knowing this, she "turned around and went home." She texted her manager, “Per your instruction, I’m not coming in since I couldn’t be on time.” The manager freaked out and the retail worker ignored any calls from them. The next day, the retail worker came to work, explaining that she was just following her manager’s instructions. The manager hasn't bothered her about being mildly late ever since.

Keep ReadingShow less
john lennon, paul mccartney, the beatles, john lennon and paul mccartney, jam session

When John Lennon and Paul McCartney reunited for a 1974 studio jam, the results were chaotic.

Bernard Gotfryd (Library of Congress) via Wikimedia Commons (left) / Corwin via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 (right)

Four years after The Beatles' breakup, John Lennon and Paul McCartney had a chaotic final studio jam

In the mid-'70s, the most coveted "rock star jam" was almost certainly John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The duo had been on awkward terms in the immediate aftermath of The Beatles’ 1970 breakup, briefly trading public jabs through lyrics and interview quotes—and even when tensions settled, they frequently faced questions about a potential Beatles reunion. Given that immense spotlight and the weight of their shared history, it was hard to expect any sort of studio team-up. (The closest they came during that era was in 1973, when all four Beatles contributed to Ringo Starr’s self-titled solo album—just never all on the same track.)

But that long-awaited Lennon-McCartney summit, widely considered their last studio encounter, did occur—just probably not in the way anyone expected. The whole thing was casual to the point of hilarity—and so musically inconsequential, the results only exist through a somewhat obscure bootleg titled A Toot and a Snore in '74. But, ironically, that backstory only makes the event more compelling. It’s worth revisiting this bizarre moment in rock history and, perhaps, pondering what could have been.

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2025