Google wants to debug, but not the way that you might think. The tech giant recently applied for a permit to release 32 million mosquitoes in California and Florida. Google’s Debug program wants to “stop bad bugs with good bugs,” and mosquitoes are the star of the show.  While that sounds great in theory, just thinking about millions of mosquitoes flying around makes us itch. According to Debug, the bad mosquitoes bite, breed, and spread diseases. The good mosquitoes don’t, and Google wants more of the non-biting, non-breeding, and non-disease-spreading kind. “Good bugs are the same species of mosquito as the bad bugs that spread disease. Our good bugs are male mosquitoes that have a naturally occurring bacterium called Wolbachia, which makes them unable to have offspring with wild female mosquitoes. Male mosquitoes can’t bite or spread disease, so good bugs will stop bad ones from reproducing. Over time, there will be fewer and fewer bad mosquitoes,” the website explains. View this post on Instagram A post shared by SFGATE | California's largest news site (@sfgate) Google Knows That Mosquitoes Are Deadly Mosquito bites aren’t just itchy; they also can make us very sick, and Google wants to help stop the spread of their deadly diseases.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mosquitoes are the deadliest creatures on the planet. There are 3,500 species of mosquitoes that spread diseases like dengue fever, Zika, and chikungunya to millions of people every year. Google hopes to stop these nasty mosquitoes in their tracks. “We’re currently developing our technologies and methods to target Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. This means partnering closely with scientists, communities, and governments. Debug is off to a good start, but there is still plenty to do,” Debug explains. “We look forward to working with communities to show that by releasing enough good bugs, Debug can have a real impact on mosquito populations and disease. Eventually, we hope to help millions of people live longer, healthier lives.” This actually sounds like a great idea. If Google can help get rid of disease-carrying mosquitoes, we are all in. This story’s featured image can be found here

Killearn Lakes is a 3,000-acre suburban community in northeast Tallahassee, full of mature trees, winding roads, and a scattering of lakes. The homeowners’ association there manages over 440 acres of green space, five lakes, and three community parks. Recently, it tried to roughly double everyone’s annual dues. It did not go smoothly. The plan was to raise annual dues from $120 to $250 for regular homeowners, and $268 for lakefront owners. In letters to residents, the board explained the money would go toward enhanced code enforcement, lake and park maintenance, green space upkeep, and repairs to dams and spillways. Reasonable-sounding stuff, in theory. In practice, it set off a revolt. Not as reasonable as it sounds The flashpoint wasn’t just the size of the increase. It was how the votes were being handled. HOA votes often rely on proxies, where homeowners who can’t attend a meeting assign their vote to someone who can. Resident Ted Phillips accused the board of mishandling those proxies, and he said so out loud at a meeting. “I made an announcement and told everybody, ‘If you want to vote no with your proxy, do not give it to these people. They’re automatically counting every proxy they collect as a yes vote,'” Phillips told WTXL ABC 27 News. “That’s when the crowd got angry and loud.” A small council gathers to take a vote. Photo credit: Canva Phillips wasn’t shy about how he felt regarding the board overall. “I don’t trust anything they do or say,” he said. “The whole board needs to go, and we need to replace them with honest people and put some people in there that are going to be transparent and are going to be frugal with our money.” The board’s side of the story isn’t unsympathetic. Mark Reichert, the former board president who’s lived in the area for 42 years, pointed out that the last dues increase was in 2005, two decades ago, while costs have climbed relentlessly since. “You can’t run an organization the size of a small city on a budget that has been flat for 21 years,” he said. “Since 2005, the consumer price increase has gone up 64%, so how have we managed over the years? We’ve cut services.” Reichert also made the self-interested-but-honest argument that nobody wins if the neighborhood deteriorates, including him, because his own property value would drop alongside everyone else’s. Is there a middle ground? The data backs up the idea that rising HOA fees are common. A March 2026 LendingTree survey of 2,000 American residents found that 82% reported an increase in their HOA fees over the past three years. A separate Frontdoor survey found that about 35% of homeowners don’t think their HOA fees are reasonable, and 51% reported a fee increase. So the board’s underlying problem may well be legitimate. But legitimacy doesn’t matter much if homeowners don’t trust how the decision gets made. And in this case, they didn’t. Fighting back On May 14, the board voted to postpone the increase. Its official notice said the adjustment is “deferred until further notice” while a “revised implementation timeline” is finalized. The controversy also cost the board its president, who resigned over the dispute. Interim President Richard P. Massa Jr. struck a conciliatory tone, acknowledging the board needs to own its mistake and find a better way to communicate with homeowners. He said he hopes to rebuild trust through transparency and open dialogue. The next meeting on the issue is scheduled for June. Whether the board can make its case without another room full of angry residents remains to be seen. The math may be on their side but the goodwill, at the moment, is not. The post Florida HOA tried to double fees. One resident’s question about the ‘yes’ votes changed everything. appeared first on Upworthy.

Once in a while, a kid pops up with a talent that makes everyone start tossing around the word “prodigy.” Sometimes it’s math, sometimes it’s music, but one 12-year-old’s impressive ability sits under an entirely different umbrella: bird calls. Mimicking bird sounds comes in handy for birdwatchers and ornithologists. It’s a pretty niche undertaking, and one that most don’t master as children. But Samuel Henderson started learning bird calls on his own at age six, and his intense interest in birds hasn’t waned since. As a result, he has mastered 114 bird calls, some of which sound downright impossible for a human to make. Watch Samuel at his Oklahoma middle school talent show as he demonstrates some of his favorites. (Be prepared to start off thinking, “Aw, that’s cute” and then get gobsmacked by the cardinal and red-tailed hawk, among others.) @diabetic4one Two years after his first ever Talent Show, Samuel came back to where it all started. Some new birds and some of the familiar bird calls this time. It was a farewell to Intermediate school #birder #autism #tourettes #fyp ♬ original sound – Lori, Samuel’s mom Most of us couldn’t even name most of these calls, much less imitate them perfectly. But we do recognize many bird sounds when we hear them, which is why over 29 million people have watched this video and been blown away by it. People loved Samuel’s bird call performance as well as the reaction of his peers Commenters expressed what most so many of us felt while watching: “This is VERY good. I would buy tickets to see this. He’s very good at this and it’s not easy to mimic. My favorite was the joke about the American eagle, but my favorite of ALL TIME was the mourning dove! You don’t see them as much anymore.” “I started off skeptical, but damn this kid is good.” “Birds are SO hard to imitate! The mourning dove call gave me goosebumps.” “As a Minnesotan, that call of the loon was SPOT ON.” “The red-tailed hawk sound sent me into oblivion.” Samuel’s cardinal call was incredibly accurate. (Photo credit: Canva) But just as impactful as his talent was the reaction of his schoolmates in the audience: “I can’t tell you how touching it is to see all those kids cheering him on while he shares his special interest. The world can sometimes be unkind to people who love things so deeply, I’m glad he has a community where he can shine the way he is.” “I love the kid in the front showing exactly how we all feel… how amazing this is!” “I’m on my period rn and this made me cry because I’m so happy that everyone thought his bird calls were cool and it’s so cute.” Samuel’s mother shared how he got to this level of mastery In an interview with Good Morning America, Samuel’s mom shared that she first noted his unique talent when he was around six years old. “Walking through parking lots, there’d be birds running around,” she said. “He’d make the sound, and they’d be following us. And I was like, ‘Oh, wow. Wow. He’s really good at this. They think he’s another bird.” She shared that Samuel, who has autism and Tourette’s Syndrome, keeps a journal of the bird calls he has mastered. One way Samuel can tell when he has a bird call down is through a bird sound identifier app he uses from the Cornell University ornithology lab. When he makes the call, if it’s accurate, the app will pull up the name of the bird species that makes that sound. Watch him demonstrate: @diabetic4one Samuel wanted to show off his bird accuracy #merlinbirdapp #birder #cornelluniversity ♬ original sound – Lori, Samuel’s mom It’s so wonderful to see someone immerse themselves so deeply in something they’re passionate about, and to see the world celebrate them for it. You can follow Samuel on his mom’s TikTok channel here. The post 12-yr-old’s bird calls at Oklahoma school talent show have people’s jaws on the floor appeared first on Upworthy.

It’s wild how some artists have songs that were dead on arrival when they were first recorded, but that found huge audiences decades later. Elvis Presley recorded “A Little Less Conversation” in 1968, and it stalled on the charts at 69. In 2002, JXL gave the song a big-beat remix, and it became a worldwide smash.  Pavement recorded “Harness Your Hopes” in 1999, and it was relegated to B-side status. But in the 2020s, Spotify algorithms and a viral run on TikTok made it the band’s most popular with over 261 million plays, six times more than their number 2 song, “Cut Your Hair.” Given the phenomenal success of Michael, the Michael Jackson biopic, four songs by the late King of Pop are currently in the Billboard top 100. Three of them aren’t shockers—“Billie Jean” (19), “Human Nature” (31) and “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough (43)—but coming in hot at 30 is “Chicago,” which wasn’t even featured in the film. What is Michael Jackson’s ‘Chicago’ about? “Chicago” is a dark R&B song about a woman whose been lying about being married. She said she didn’t have no man Raised the kids the very best she can (She was lovin’ me) She told me she was all alone Sad at home, she didn’t have no one (She was wantin’ me) She said just to give her a page Fifty-nine was the code she gave (She was lovin’ me) She’d lied to you, lied to me ‘Cause she was lovin’ me, lovin’ me, yeah The song was written by Cory Rooney in 1999, who was inspired after speaking with Jackson’s confidant, Carole Bayer Sager. “Michael is one of the world’s most amazing storytellers,” Sager told Rooney, according to Variety. “He’s really good when he’s singing a song that has a story.” Jackson initially loved the song and recorded it at New York’s Hit Factory studios under the title “She Was Loving Me.” Unfortunately for Rooney, the song was never included on Michael’s 2001 Invincible album, and was shelved. Michael Jackson’s Deep Cut ‘Chicago’ Debuts on Billboard Hot 100https://t.co/EN97djHrti— billboard (@billboard) June 2, 2026 ‘Chicago’ finally gets released The song was considered for release on 2010’s Michael, a posthumous collection of unreleased material, but it was eventually decided against. Finally, the song appeared on the second posthumous album, 2014’s Xscape, but wasn’t released as a radio single. However, the song has slowly gained notoriety in Jackson’s canon. In 2023, a sped-up version of the song became popular as a lip-sync on TikTok with people miming the lyrics, “She smiled and looked at me / I was surprised to see that a woman like that was really into me.” The song has now risen to become Jackson’s eighth most popular on Spotify, with more plays than classics such as “Man in the Mirror” and “Bad.” @jazz_editz8239 Birds dancing to michael Jackson Chicago#songs#dance#michealjackson#music ♬ original sound – Jazz_editz8239 – Jazz_editz8239 The success of “Chicago,” 27 years after it was recorded and shelved, is a great lesson for artists everywhere. Never give up on the creations you love, even if they aren’t appreciated in the moment. If Michael Jackson, Elvis, and Pavement are any example, sometimes things take time to find an audience. The post Three decades after being recorded and shelved, Michael Jackson returns to the top 100 with ‘Chicago’ appeared first on Upworthy.

A few years ago (spring of 2022, to be precise), lab tech for Cornell University’s entomology department Rachel Fordyce had taken her usual morning stroll through East Lawn Cemetery in Ithaca, New York, when something altogether unusual happened. Out of seemingly nowhere, a bee appeared. A bee. Photo Credit: Canva Then another, and another. Pretty soon she’d noticed they were actually all over the cemetery. And yet, no hives were to be seen.  Knowing she had to investigate further, Fordyce captured a few specimens in a jar (brave soul) and continued on to work.  This finding would lead to an incredible discovery It turns out these bees were just part of a whopping 5.5 million bee mega-colony living underground throughout the property. For context: if these bees were the hive-dwelling sort, we’d see more than 200 hives throughout the cemetery’s 1.5 acres.  “I was completely floored,” Bryan Danforth, a professor of entomology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences whom Fordyce collaborated with, told Scientific American. Not only that, but historical data revealed that these ground-nesting bees (known as the Andrena regularis species or “regular mining bee”) had been living there since at least the early 1900s. The cemetery itself was founded in 1878.  A bee community unlike the ones we usually imagine Technically, calling it a “colony” might be a bit of a misnomer. Unlike honeybees, mining bees are solitary insects, meaning there isn’t a queen or hive structure. Instead, the female digs and maintains her own nest, laying eggs and storing pollen underground for her offspring. Though we tend to associate bees with hives, roughly 75% of all bee species prefer this type of lifestyle.  Why a cemetery turned out to be the perfect home A cemetery. Photo Credit: Canva Surprisingly, the cemetery provides several conditions that make it an ideal bee habitat. The sandy soil is easy to dig in, the grounds experience very little disturbance or alterations, and pesticide exposure is limited. Not only that, but the cemetery sits close to Cornell Orchards, where apple trees and other fruit crops bloom each spring.  Aside from showing that bees are clearly goth at heart, this discovery portrays how vital pollinators naturally thrive in untouched environments. That’s why the study’s authors have launched a global citizen science initiative, where people can report any sightings of underground bees, so that these spots might be protected from getting destroyed.  The longstanding connection between bees and the afterlife Throughout history, various cultures have linked bees with death and the underworld, likely due to the fact that they were often found underground, in caves, and on hollow rock faces. The Celts had a practice of “telling the bees” of a death by knocking on the hive or draping black cloth over it to avoid bad fortune. Ancient Egyptians used honey in their embalming rituals. Meanwhile, many of the Greeks believed that human souls could be reincarnated as bees. So it feels very fitting that, of all places, bees would be finding new life in a place centered around human death.  This all goes to show that no matter how far we advance in technology, our relationship to nature is deep-rooted and eternal. Our ancestors knew this, and it’s something we are continuing to relearn.  The post No one could have guessed that this New York cemetery has been home to 5.5 million bees for centuries appeared first on Upworthy.