Astro Alchemy

Auto, a six-year-old boy from Thailand who was dying of cancer, was granted his last wish not long ago — to see Moo Deng, the young pygmy hippo who’s become an Internet darling. When the Khao Kheow Open Zoo just south of Bangkok heard about Auto’s wish, they invited him

In 1904, stenographer Elizabeth Magie was granted a patent for her creation, The Landlord’s Game. A big hit with her friends in Maryland, Magie’s circular board game featured properties for sale and a ‘Go to Jail’ space, much like its later, more famous iteration – Monopoly. But Magie’s version had

You’ve probably never heard of him, but James Lafayette is a man worth remembering. Born into slavery in 1748 (records are sketchy, but he was likely a Sagittarian), James served bravely in the Revolutionary War under the Marquis de Lafayette, whose name he later took. His efforts as a spy

In September 1954, after receiving a terminal diagnosis, 63-year-old Annie Wilkins decided that a big change was in order. After living on the family farm in Maine her entire life, and with all her relatives gone, she decided to hit the road. When a coin toss came up heads, she

I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm.”  Psalm 55:6. There is a scene in the 1997 movie The Wings of the Dove in which

For two weeks, author Gregg Braden had acclimated his body to altitudes of over 16,500 feet above sea level. Along with 20 other seekers, he had crossed an icy river in hand-hewn wooden barges and hiked up the steep, jagged peaks of the Himalayas to a remote monastery, with one

Scorpio Full Moon 2025: Answered Prayers For two weeks, author Gregg Braden had acclimated his body to altitudes of over 16,500 feet above sea level. Along with 20 other seekers, he had crossed an icy river in hand-hewn wooden barges and hiked up the steep, jagged peaks of the Himalayas

Mrs. T, the Welsh wonder tortoise! A 90-year-old tortoise named Mrs. T made world headlines in 2015 after her front legs were gnawed off by rats while she was hibernating in a garden shed. Owner Jude Ryder of Pembroke, Wales, rushed her beloved pet to the vet, terrified she might

Things can go awry, often when you least expect it. You lose your job or your 401K through no fault of your own. Someone you love gets deported and ends up in a foreign detention center. The politician you voted for, believing that he would make things better for you,

Not long ago, singer Julia Price was getting some exercise, running along her usual path down a Chicago street, when she heard an older man yelling – loudly enough for her to hear through her headphones – “Sexy lady, hey hey hey sexy lady!” He kept screaming it, but she

In his seminal book Grist for the Mill, Ram Dass shared his experience of teaching meditation to prison inmates, including those on death row. He observed that the inmates condemned to die welcomed the teachings. They were so serene that he felt humbled to be in their presence. But when

During a particularly harsh Arctic winter in December 1984, native folks near the Bering Sea spotted over 2,000 beluga whales trapped by thick ice. Masses of frozen water were rapidly closing in on the mammals, squeezing them tightly together. For weeks, rescuers patiently hacked through the ice as best as

Some years ago, writer Elizabeth Gilbert was stuck on a crosstown bus in New York City during rush hour. As she recalled, “The bus was filled with cold, tired people who were deeply irritated – with one another, with the rainy, sleety weather, with the world itself. Two men barked

When Luna first held a snake as a young child, she fell in love with it. Over the years she’s admired and handled a wide variety of (even venomous!) snakes, with the expert guidance of folks at the San Diego Herpetological Society. She received a junior reptile handler’s license at

Most people associate Whitney Houston with the iconic hit “I Will Always Love You” (from her sexy 1992 movie The Bodyguard). But it was Dolly Parton who actually wrote the song in 1973 when, as a 22-year-old up-and-coming country singer, she was struggling with a professional breakup – not a