Finch Lingo, Mosquito Heads, London’s Green Vault, Long-Life Butterflies, US Green Energy & Some New Tunes…

Good News Friday, 26th June 2026

Published this week

[embed]Whether Depressed Or Anxious, You’re Denying Reality When we become trapped in unwanted thought patterns, our attention is pulled away from the reality of the present…medium.com

From the archive

This one’s gone a bit viral this week, so if you’ve missed it, here you go:

[embed]The Psychology Of People Who Don’t Post On Social Media 7 patterns linked to privacy, social comparison, and mental well-beingmedium.com

This week’s good news…

Photo by Dušan veverkolog on Unsplash

Scientists begin cracking the birdie dictionary

American neuroethologist Dr. Julie Elie has won a $100,000 prize after decoding 11 core calls used by zebra finches.

The garrulous wee birds use them to announce who they are, what they are doing, and whether hunger, danger, affection, or avian disagreement is afoot.

Experiments showed the finches sometimes confused calls with similar meanings rather than similar sounds, suggesting they understand the messages behind them. Thus draws nearer the venerable dream of speaking with animals, although God only knows what they have been saying about us all this time.

[embed]From: YouTube.com

***Learn more about this article’s writer, Paddy Murphy, here.***

Mosquitoes find honest work at last

Scientists have turned the proboscis — which is the long tube-like yoke in a mosquito’s gob — of dead female mosquitoes into ultrafine 3D printing nozzles. Weird, eh?

The process, called “3D necroprinting,” can produce lines just 20 microns wide, finer than many commercial nozzles. At last, the airborne blood thief has secured respectable employment.

The boffins at McGill’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and at Drexel University used it to print tiny, wee honeycombs, maple leaves, and cell-supporting scaffolds. It’s going to be cheap, biodegradable, and reusable, and the mosquito nozzles could eventually aid tissue engineering and microscopic manufacturing.

Not bad, eh, finally, something good about the irritating little feckers.

[embed]From: YouTube.com

Great green vault

The Royal Botanic Gardens in southwest London has digitized 7.4 million preserved plant and fungal specimens, making centuries of botanical knowledge available online for all of us.

[embed]From: YouTube.com

The butterfly that grows old disgracefully slowly

Some tropical Heliconius butterflies live three times longer than their closest relatives, with one surviving for a whopping 348 days.

Even in their dotage, certain butterflies retained their weight and grip strength, fluttering onward like tiny winged Methuselahs with zero intention of retiring.

Their unusual habit of eating pollen may help, though diet alone can’t really explain their longevity. Scientists are hoping that studying these little lads will reveal how they’ve evolved to slow physical decline, and see if any of what they’re doing can be applied to us lot.

Photo by William DeHoogh on Unsplash

A mighty wind awakens in the West

America’s largest renewable energy project is now fully operational. SunZia combines a 3,650 megawatt wind farm in New Mexico with a 550-mile transmission line, producing more power than the Hoover Dam and enough electricity for about one million homes.

Reading

Last week I mentioned I was reading Mark Lanegan’s Sing Backwards and Weep. It was really good. Now, look, you’re going to have to be a fan of The Screaming Trees and Seattle music, well then again, maybe not.

It’s about Langan’s tough upbringing, his struggles with identity, the band, and his crippling heroin addiction. I read the follow-up, too, Devil in a Coma, which is about his time in Ireland, in a Co. Kerry hospital, when he was suffering from Covid. And it really hit the poor guy hard; he was in a coma for months, and in-and-out of the hospital, but it ends on an upbeat…which is unfortunate, because he died around 70 days after the book was released, although his official cause of death has never been released.

Yeah, I really liked both. Very funny at times, really heartbreaking at others.

I’ve just begun reading Stoner by John Williams. It’s one of those books you always see listed as a classic. By the name, I thought it was going to be a Beat-type book about drugs. It’s most certainly not. So far, really enjoying it. Willians has a delicate touch; he can describe so brilliantly people who are so bloody repressed and out of touch with their emotions. I know I’m going to love the rest of it.

Music

“Grunge-fuelled indie based in Dublin,” so says the Bandcamp page for HAVVK. So, yeah, all in on that.

This is their fourth album, titled Time Will Kill. Actually, the whole album isn’t out yet, but it’s available to pre-order, and four tracks are on their Bandcamp page. The opening track, Happening Again, is a banger, though.

Yeah, these lads have only just popped up on my radar, so I’m going to be all over their discography over the next few days. Really like the grunge/punk energy of them, y’know, one of those rare bands that have something to say and it’s worth paying attention to what it is.

[embed]From: Bandcamp.com

We’ll stay in Ireland with a Limerick band, Theatre, who’ve just put out their debut EP, Incarnate. This one is very much of a shoegaze/alt-rock vibe. Very stoner-y music and yeah, hard not to love.

Really, really impressive for a debut EP. Here’s the opening track, Gaudete, and you can listen to the full release here on YouTube.

[embed]From: YouTube.com

Right folks, that’ll do for another week. Have a mighty weekend. Mind Yourself!

I’m Paddy Murphy. Thanks for reading my article. I’m a writer and mental health counselor. **Learn more about me here. Social media links here.**

Donations link: **https://ko-fi.com/murfowski**