Uplifting News

A survey of the world’s largest free-roaming giant tortoise population has discovered that the once endangered species is thriving.

Insurers and employers have been required to publish their negotiated rates for hospital and physician services every month for more than four years under what is known as the Transparency in Coverage regulation. But those data files have been filled with unusable data known as “ghost rates” or “zombie rates” — prices for services that would never happen, like if a dermatologist were to perform an open-heart surgery. Some research has suggested more than 90% of the prices are ghost rates.

Karure, the New Zealand’s black robin (petroica traversi) is an amazing story of how a species on the brink of extinction, with one breeding pair left, has now recovered to approximately 350 individuals in 2025. All of these individuals are descended from one female called Old Blue.

geteilt von: https://lemmy.world/post/52617918

Every year, Katmai National Park does this outreach event to teach people a bit about bears. They share “before” pictures of skinny bears and bear families from the beginning of the summer, and then after pictures from the end of fall showing how THICC the bears get while preparing to hibernate. They run polls to let people vote on who is the fattest bear every year. Last year, 32 Chunk won the fattest bear title, putting on an impressive amount of bulk despite a broken jaw. This year I’m torn between 164 “Bucky” and 910, who does not currently have a nickname. Bucky was looking very lean back in June, but by September he’s looking two or three times as big. 910 started the summer at a reasonable weight, but by September she is looking like an absolute majestic force of nature. The ground must be shaking in awe at the size of her. If this piques your interest, make sure you get in there, meet the bears, and cast your votes for the hotly contested title of “Fattest Bear!”

It’s important enough to be in Wikipedia’s “In the news section”

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/70753629

California is currently one of only three states in the country — alongside Mississippi and New Mexico — that sets no minimum age at all for marriage, allowing a child of any age to be legally wed as long as a parent or guardian signs off. A bill designed to close that loophole for good just cleared a major hurdle in Sacramento, passing the state Senate on a unanimous 38-0 vote this past Wednesday.

Trans Pride Brighton has secured more than £120,000 in National Lottery funding to protect the future of its community centre, providing a major boost for the city’s trans and non-binary community.

Cross posted from https://slrpnk.net/post/41680206