If you happen to be walking around Hawaii midday in late May or mid-to-late July, you might notice something missing. Specifically: shadows. That’s because during this time, known to locals as Lahaina Noon, the sun appears to sit directly overhead, causing vertical objects like flagpoles and people to cast no visible shadow. This “Zero Shadow Day” is deeply ingrained in Hawaiian culture. Historically, Native Hawaiians referred to this moment as kau ka lā i ka lolo, which translates to “the sun rests upon the brain.” The term Lāhainā Noon (meaning “cruel sun”) is a modern moniker, coined by Hawaii’s Bishop Museum during the ‘90s.  How Hawaii commemorates Lāhainā Noon  There are often activities held around the event. One is held near a giant, bendy sculpture named Sky Gate (created by artist and landscape architect Isamu Noguchi). While most items have no shadow during Lāhainā Noon, this fixture casts a perfect circular shadow on the ground. Any other time of the year, it casts a curved, twisted one.  But perhaps the most popular “Zero Shadow Day” pastime is taking mind-bending photos and posting them online, making everyone think they are witnessing an optical illusion or some kind of Photoshop wizardry. Or, you know, that they’re seeing more AI-generated content. But no, this is content made by Mother Nature herself!  Twice a year, Hawai'i experiences a strange moment where the sun appears to be exactly overhead & anything that is completely vertical casts no shadow.Let's learn about Lāhainā Noon, subsolar points & 'Kau ka lā i ka lolo', meaning "the sun rests on the brains."— c0nc0rdance (@c0nc0rdance.bsky.social) 2026-07-19T21:34:51.182Z Where to see Zero Shadow Day While Hawaii is the only spot in the U.S. to experience Zero Shadow Day twice a year, any location on Earth located in the tropics—between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn—will have it.  Other examples include Mexico City (Mexico), San Juan (Puerto Rico), and major Indian cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Chennai. There is, however, a catch. Since our orbit around the sun is never static, Lāhainā Noon only lasts for a few minutes, meaning the entire shebang could be thwarted by one passing cloud. So, you might want to hold off on buying tickets to any of these places simply to take in the phenomenon.  Nature has plenty more optical tricks Even if you miss Lāhainā Noon, nature offers plenty of other opportunities to capture impossible-at-first-glance scenes. Under just the right conditions, a “superior mirage” can make distant ships appear to float above the horizon. In colder climates, sunlight reflecting off airborne ice crystals can produce dazzling “sun dogs,” creating bright spots of light on either side of the sun. Photographers also chase rare moments like the “glory,” when sunlight interacting with tiny water droplets surrounds an airplane’s shadow with colorful rings, or the “Brocken spectre,” which can make a hiker’s shadow appear gigantic on a bank of fog. Even a perfectly timed reflection on a calm lake can produce an image that looks upside down or digitally manipulated. Many of these moments last only a few minutes before the angle of the sun changes, the clouds drift away, or the atmosphere shifts. That fleeting quality is part of what makes them so captivating. Even as technology advances, our most astonishing images don’t come from editing software or special effects. Instead, they are born out of being immersed in the neutral world at exactly the right place and the right time. The post Twice a year, Hawaii experiences a ‘Zero Shadow Day,’ creating mind-boggling optical illusions appeared first on Upworthy.

Tracy Nitschke is InspireMore’s Early Bird promotion winner for her song, “Our Father.” “This song is so special to me,” Nitschke said after her big win. “I think the ‘Lords Prayer’ is such a powerful piece of scripture. I thought to myself, ‘What if it were a song that could be played as a prayer over the people who hear it?’ So I set my mind to trying to adapt it.” “When I say I labored over each line, I truly put my everything into trying to make sure I was always scripturally accurate, never changing a single meaning, yet also adapting it into song that held my own thoughts and words,” she added. “… But I think all the overthinking paid off, I’m so proud of this song, and I feel like it accomplished my goal of feeling like a reassuring prayer over the listener who hears it.” Read on to learn more about Nitschke. Tracy Nitschke Q&A HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN SONGWRITING? It feels like I’ve only been songwriting for a few years, but I wrote my first song in college, and I just realized that’s been almost 10 years ago! WHAT GOT YOU INTO MUSIC IN THE FIRST PLACE? I’ve always loved being creative. Music, drawing, painting, ceramics, construction; I see it as experimenting and playing with the world. But I have to give all the credit to my parents who had me learn piano at a young age… Surprisingly, I actually didn’t like it at all. I quit as soon as they let me and started learning guitar at age 13, but then something about piano pulled me back and a year later. It became a lifesaver for me. I used music to deal with a lot of hard experiences and it became my therapy. I could sit down at the piano feeling like I was at the lowest of my lows, play out all my emotions, and then leave feeling like I could do this after all. WHAT HAS WINNING MEANT TO YOU? I am just so honored to have been picked. I poured a lot of myself into this song and it feels so wonderful to have it be seen and loved.  WHAT SONGWRITERS AND ARTISTS DO YOU COUNT AS YOUR BIGGEST INSPIRATIONS? WHY? Like everyone, I’m a huge Noah Kahan fan. I would love to write a “folky worship” sort of album some day. Cameron Witcomb is also quite high on the list, as is Joel Ansett. I’ve been a NeedToBreathe fan since I first had enough money to buy a CD. Anything that is thoughtful and interesting catches my ear and inspires me. TELL US ABOUT YOUR PLANS IN 2026. I have been working on a simple worship covers album since 2020… I just finished it and it should be on all platforms soon.  As for other new music, I’m currently living abroad and getting married this year, so not a lot of time to work on new original music! But stay tuned for 2027… I’ve got big hopes. Maybe that “folky worship” album will start to take shape…. Maybe. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST CAREER DREAM? I think I’m at a stage where I’m still just figuring things out. I adore creativity and have been working in film—in set decoration and props—the last four years. Life is full of transitions and I’m feeling a new one starting. It could be pouring more into music? It could be something else? All I know is that my biggest dream is to be creative, play with life and the world, and see what happens from there. WHAT WOULD YOU TELL OTHER ARTISTS WHO ARE CONSIDERING ENTERING THE CONTEST? I would say, just do it. You never know what will happen! The surest way to fail is by never trying… so why not try? Photo courtesy of Tracy Nitschke This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

As soon as Aleksander Wolszczan confirmed the observation of the first planet outside of our solar system, he immediately reasoned that thousands more would be discovered in the coming decades. On that prediction the astronomer, now 80, was eminently correct, and the trend has expanded to the point that recent observation seems to include the […] The post Did Scientists Just Detect the First Known ‘Exomoon’? appeared first on Good News Network.

Because a kitten named Gelato deserves to feel like a Transformer, too. Source: Animal shelter staff makes paralyzed kitten a custom wheelchair out of Hot Wheels: ‘It’s already working’ Nifty. And cute!

Déjà vu, a French term meaning "already seen," is a fascinating phenomenon that many people have experienced at least once in their lives. It's that eerie feeling when you think you've lived a moment before, even though you know you haven't. This sensation has intrigued scientists, psychologists, and philosophers for centuries, leading to numerous studies and theories. Source