British startup Bactery says its battery, powered by bacteria, uses nature’s microbes to generate an unending trickle of power—and by stringing the prototypes together they can generate a stream. Bactery founder and CEO Jakub Dziegielowski says the device complements standard renewable systems like solar, especially because it draws power even when the sun isn’t shining. […] The post UK Startup is Making Electricity From Bacteria in the Soil – Maybe Your Garden Will Power Your Home Some Day appeared first on Good News Network.

A professor’s message of “frustration and sadness” went viral after he caught many of his students using AI on their papers. But this story didn’t play out in the way you might expect. Instead of punishing everyone with zeroes or taking disciplinary action, he wound up giving them all full credit. On one hand, it’s an exasperated reaction that many educators can relate to in the ChatGPT era, as grading written assignments has become more complicated. On the other hand, the response is part of a lesson about the importance of creative thinking and self-empowerment. The story blew up from a student’s post in the /mildlyinfuriating subreddit, where they claimed “three weeks of hard work on a paper” was wasted thanks to their classmates’ use of AI. (Ironically, their paper was an essay arguing “against the use of AI.”) But the professor’s message is more nuanced than a simple “I give up” sentiment. Three weeks of hard work on a paper all for nothing because of AI use byu/MortemPerPectus inmildlyinfuriating “I want to take a moment to speak candidly with all of you,” he writes. “Over the past week, as I have been reading your final papers, I have noticed a level of AI-generated writing that has left me deeply disappointed. Many of the submissions are so heavily AI-infused that they no longer reflect your voices, your thinking, or the skills this course is designed to build. It is disheartening for me as your instructor, and for what this means for your own learning.” Here’s what the professor told them He argued that, when using AI to write papers, students are “harming” themselves. “Writing is not an arbitrary hoop to jump through; it is one of the few durable intellectual skills that will serve you across professions, relationships, and civic life,” he writes. “When you outsource that work, you weaken not just your ability to write, but also your ability to reason, to communicate, and to advocate for yourselves…I am saying this not out of anger but out of frustration and sadness. I care about your development, I care about our state, and I am watching too many of you short-circuit your own growth and our collective future for the illusion of convenience.” The professor says that, in an “unusual decision,” he will give everyone a 10/10 on their final paper and cancel their final assignment, though he does also offer to give individual feedback to any student who emails him. “At this point, attempting to separate authentic work from AI-produced work has become counterproductive, and this course was never meant to be a surveillance exercise,” he continues. “I hate, absolutely hate, how AI has forced me to turn into a punitive detective, rather than, well, a teacher. I reject that completely. My goal is, and has always been, your learning.” He says that his decision wasn’t made lightly. “I need you to hear this clearly: This is not a reward. It is a warning,” he writes. “If you leave this course without having practiced your own writing, you will feel the consequences later, academically, professionally, and personally. AI cannot think for you. It cannot develop your voice. It cannot build skills you do not use. I sincerely hope you reflect on the choices you made in this course and how they align with what you want for yourselves. You deserve more than to let a machine do your thinking…I cannot want your learning more than you do.” The internet had a lot to say In the Reddit comments, people largely reacted to the teacher’s message. The responses are fascinating, with many supporting the instructor’s words of wisdom and others saluting the student for avoiding the temptation of AI, even if their classmates didn’t. “’I cannot want your learning more than you do.’ If that doesn’t sink deep for people, there’s no saving them.” “Dang that is a very bold statement and cuts to the core of what a student is supposed to be.” “The professor said you can send in your writing and he would offer feedback. I get your frustration… but why not turn it in anyway and say what you just explained here. You worked hard on this and deserve recognition. Great job at not taking the easy way out, btw… that’s super refreshing!” “These kids: ‘Gemini, summarize this email.'” “I feel bad for the instructor. The summation of their feelings of defeat and their struggle will hopefully compel a few people to try harder.” “I think the instructor’s point is that by canceling the assignment, they’re losing the opportunity to learn and develop their skills – that’s the punishment. Even though the people who cheated won’t realize it, now or possibly ever…A genuinely sad state of affairs. I get where they’re coming from, though, and I hope the students do at some point realize what they missed out on.” “Great quote recently from Ted Chiang (sci-fi author) when asked about AI use in education: ‘Your job is not to turn in completed assignments, it is to learn how to think.'” “Listen to what your teacher is trying to say. You did NOT do this assignment for nothing, because the point of the class is not to hand in a paper and get a grade. It’s what you learned, what skills you mobilized. And you did that, while your fellow students who used AI didn’t. You’re right to be proud of your work, and what others did and what the teacher decided to do in reply doesn’t take anything away from that. If you want feedback on your paper in order to improve, I would write to your teacher and explain this to him. Great job not taking the stupid way out, and good luck for your other finals.” One user did note that “a large number of the AI-detection tools are pretty inaccurate,” an argument supported by the University of San Diego Legal Research Center and Ars Technica. “As tempting as it is to rely on AI tools to detect AI-generated writing,” the latter wrote, “evidence so far has shown that they are not reliable.” This issue isn’t going away, especially with AI growing even more sophisticated in mimicking human writing. The professor’s “warning” may be even more relevant in a few years. What other teachers can learn from this So what can other educators do? MIT Sloan Teaching & Learning Technologies offer a helpful guide, breaking down how “clear guidelines, open dialogue with students, creative assignment design, and other strategies can promote academic honesty and critical thinking in an AI-enabled world.” This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated. The post Professor gives his class perfect scores after realizing most were cheating on their final papers appeared first on Upworthy.

“The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter, it isn’t just one of your holiday games…” – T.S. Eliot One of the best parts of getting a new pet is choosing a name for them. Unlike children, who have conscious feelings about their names and may object to off-the-wall choices at some point, a pet presumably couldn’t care less what the humans in their lives call them. A dog could be named Fred, Red, or Potatohead and be none the wiser. We’ve seen cats with names that go far beyond the norm even for pet names, like Parking Lot, Crunchwrap Supreme, and Missile Launcher (Missy for short) among other creative monikers. But if any animals were going to care about what we name them, surely it would be our finicky feline friends. And one man, whom we’ll call Unc (for his @UncGotThaMunchies handle), seems to have a gift for giving kitties very special (or rather, “pecial”) names. Unc has become the father of 13 kitties, and his naming of cats has become a bit of a viral phenomenon. @uncgotthakitties #cat #cats #catsoftiktok #kitten #kittensoftiktok ♬ original sound – UncGotThaKitties Meet Unc’s growing kitty family First, there’s Blackaroni and Cheese, a black and orange kitten pair that people are just gaga over. But Unc has begun a whole movement of naming kitties in a “berry pecial” way, with Hersberry leading the way. Why Hersberry? Because her’s berry pecial to Unc, of course. @uncgotthakitties #cats #cat #kitten #kittens #catsoftiktok ♬ original sound – UncGotThaKitties Among the other kittens, we have another pair named Thor and Lowkey (yes, spelled Lowkey) and another orange kitty that Unc named Midas, “because there Midas well be no other kitties on the whole planet.” @uncgotthakitties #cat #catsoftiktok #kitten #kittens #kittensoftiktok ♬ original sound – UncGotThaKitties Now strangers want his help too People have become so enamored with these cute and clever kitty names that some have started asking Unc to help them name their own kittens. One person shared a photo of their adorable orange kitten and asked if Unc could name him because they couldn’t think of a good name. Unc didn’t disappoint. “When people see dis kitty right here,” he said in a response video. “They will say, ‘Oh, dis kitty is so beautiful. Oh, dis kitty is so pecial.’ So I think his name should be O’dis.” Then he explained all the nickname benefits of the name O’dis and how special this name would make the kitty feel. @uncgotthakitties Replying to @glitterdiamondsparkles #greenscreen #cat #catsoftiktok #kitten #kittens ♬ original sound – UncGotThaKitties Someone else shared a photo of their fuzzy little tabby kitten, writing, “First I saw your Hersberry video then Midas and now the universe sent us a kitten and we can’t think of a name for her. Can you help name her??” Unc responded with a video saying that he’d had a premonition as he was laying around looking at kitties on TikTok that a beautiful little girl kitty was going to come to him needing a name, and he should have the name ready for her when he saw her. Watch how that played out: @uncgotthakitties Replying to @megan_elizabeth__ #greenscreen #cat #catsoftiktok #kitten #kittensoftiktok ♬ original sound – UncGotThaKitties Did he choose a perfect name or what? The kitten’s owner responded in the comments and said, “Won’Da it is!! Thank you!!” Unc got another orange kitten sent to him with a name request. This one got the name Nuffin: @uncgotthakitties Replying to @Raegan Schafer #greenscreen #cats #cat #kittens #kittensoftiktok ♬ original sound – UncGotThaKitties “Because there is nuffin on dis Earf more cuter than this kitty. And there is nuffin on dis Earf that I would not do for this kitty. And there is nuffin on this whole Earf that could keep me from loving this kitty,” explained Unc. Of course. People are loving watching Unc name other people’s kitties, with multiple people calling him a walking green flag. “There is nuffin on this earf as precious as you naming kitties.” wrote one commenter. “There is nuffin I love more than a man who loves his kitties as much as you do!!” “Another perfect name!!! My sister is adopting a kitty today and I’ve been telling her about your names and how you come up with them. It’s great.” It’s not just the names people love Ultimately, the way Unc interacts with his kitties is what keeps people coming back. There’s something so endearing about the mutual affection between him and the whole lot of them. Not all cats are sweet and snuggly, but Unc’s kitties seem to be quite affectionate. People with more standoffish cats may be wondering why this man’s cats and kittens are so loving. Well, here you go: @uncgotthakitties #cat #catsoftiktok #kitten #kittensoftiktok #kittens ♬ original sound – UncGotThaKitties So berry, berry pecial. You can follow Unc on TikTok. This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated. The post Man’s unique gift for naming cats has strangers asking him to name their kittens appeared first on Upworthy.

Author George Orwell is best known for his books 1984 andAnimal Farm. He was an English novelist whose real name was Eric Arthur Blair, according to the Orwell Foundation. Orwell was a prolific writer known for his politically themed novels and essays. His life came to an end in 1950 at just 46 years old after a battle with advanced tuberculosis. But in those short years, his writing came to inspire millions of readers around the world. In 1946, Orwell shared a few of his writing rules with readers in an essay titled “Politics and the English Language.” The essay features Orwell’s commentary on the craft of writing, according to Douglas E. Abrams, a University of Missouri law professor. In his paper “Orwell’s Six Cures to Bad Writing,” Abrams writes that for Orwell, “Good writing depends on sound grammar, spelling, style, and syntax, but it also depends on willingness to bend or break the ‘rules’ when advisable.” View this post on Instagram Orwell didn’t hold back his opinion Orwell writes, “[T]he English language is in a bad way.” He argues that “debased” prose is marked by “abuse,” “slovenliness,” and a “lifeless, imitative style” nearly devoid of “a fresh, vivid, homemade turn of speech.” A “tendency … away from concreteness,” he says, has left writing “dreary,” “ugly,” and “inaccurate.” “Vagueness and sheer incompetence,” Orwell concludes, “are the most marked characteristics of modern English prose.” Specifically, Orwell shared six rules he stood by to help others write clearly and concisely. “This last effort of the mind cuts out all stale or mixed images, all prefabricated phrases, needless repetitions, and humbug and vagueness generally,” Orwell wrote. “But one can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase, and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. I think the following rules will cover most cases.” George Orwell’s Six Rules for Writing Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. Never use the passive where you can use the active. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous. Nearly 80 years later, it still holds up Although Orwell’s advice dates back to 1946, writers today still credit his tips with making them better writers. People on Reddit shared how his rules have impacted their ability to write. “George Orwell’s writing advice is amazingly instructive when it comes to writing with clarity,” one person wrote. Another commented, “Following the first two rules changed my writing completely (for the better), I think sometime in college. I think people mistake those rules to mean ‘always use a shorter word or fewer words,’ which isn’t the case. But it takes some experience to figure out good exceptions to the rules.” Another writer noted, “I think it’s literally follow 1-5, unless it reads better to break them, then use 6. If you aren’t writing for yourself, write something your readers will understand without a dictionary or reference texts. Knowing your audience is extremely important; I feel these rules are especially important when writing about fields with their own ‘language’ (words used in ways the common person would not assume).” This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated. The post George Orwell shared ‘6 rules for writing’ in 1946. People say they’re more essential than ever. appeared first on Upworthy.

As the cost of living in large cities continues to rise due to inflation, tariffs, and other economic factors, more and more people are realizing that the value of a dollar in the United States is a very relative concept. For decades, cost of living indices have sought to address and benchmark the inconsistencies in what money will buy, but they are often so specific they prevent a holistic picture or the ability to “browse” the data based on geographic location. Each year, the Tax Foundation addresses many of these shortcomings using the most recent Bureau of Economic Analysis data to provide a familiar map of the United States overlaid with the relative value of what $100 is “worth” in each state. In recent years, they’ve further updated their data so that you can break down the value of your money across every single metro area in the United States. It’s an incredibly valuable tool for the many people considering (or who have already acted and migrated from states like California to Florida), Texas and other states with friendly state taxes rates and more affordable housing options. The map quantifies and presents the cost of living by geography in a brilliantly simple way. For instance, if you’re looking for a beach lifestyle but don’t want to pay California prices, try Florida, which is about as close to “average” (in terms of purchasing power, anyway) as any state in the Union. If you find yourself in a Silicon Valley tax bracket, head to Hawaii, D.C., or New York. You’ll burn through your money in no time. And in some of those places like Hawaii, there are quality of life measurements that often exceed raw purchasing power. Here’s where your dollar stretches furthest So, where does your dollar go the furthest in 2025? The financial planning site GoBankingRates.com compiled its own list of cash purchasing power across each state and found that in California, you get the least bang for your buck: only $87.42 in real purchasing power for every $100 of cash. The average person in California makes $96,344 annually, one of the higher income levels in the country. However, just living in California on average costs residents a staggering $86,408, leaving the average person with little flexibility for long-term financial planning projects like retirement, saving for a new home, or even buying a new car. At the other end of the spectrum is Arkansas, where your dollar goes the furthest. In fact, that $100 bill burning a hole in your proverbial wallet is in fact worth more than its technical value, with a real value of $113.49. On top of that, the cost of living is only $37,067, less than half of that in California. Further, the average cost of a new home in Arkansas is $208,743, less than one-third of a new home in California. Not coincidentally, in 2023, Arkansas was the top destination for people moving to another state within the United States, followed by Texas. Family moving into a new home. Photo credit Canva What about Florida’s numbers? How about Florida, which has received outsized attention in recent years for its overt efforts to draw residents from California and other states with higher costs of living? According to the most recent data, Florida is in fact much closer to California than Arkansas, coming in only in 40th place on the GoBankingRates rankings, with $100 in cash only being worth $96.55. However, the annual cost of living is still only slightly more than half of that in California, coming in at $53,505. And if you’re looking to buy some real estate, the average home is valued at $404,924. That’s still well outside the purchasing power of many Americans, but with built-in advantages such as warm weather and one of the top-ranked state education system in America, it’s obvious why so many people, especially those with families, are choosing Florida over California in recent years. According to U.S. News and World Report’s data analysis, California only has the nation’s 23rd best education system and is ranked a paltry 37th overall in their state rankings. It’s quite a contrast for a state that bills itself on the promise of opportunity, natural wonder, and positive lifestyle options. And with the devastating wildfires of early 2025, an annually-worsening wildfire season, the constant threat of earthquakes, and other factors, California clearly has challenges beyond economics if it wants to remain one of the more attractive states in the nation. Of course, those numbers are always in flux, and political leaders in California have promised concrete reforms in order to address the state’s high cost of living compared with the value of its social and emergency services. If you want proof of how quickly things can change, look at a similar analysis of the value of $100 in each state from 2015. However, those negative statistical trends aside, California continues to have an incredible pull on our collective imagination. 423,194 Americans left their state for California according to the most recent data in 2023, placing it in third behind our previously mentioned top two states, Arkansas and Texas. It’s about more than just the math So, it’s clear there are a number of factors that determine the best place to live in America. When it comes to raw purchasing power, you cannot beat Arkansas. But there’s so much else to consider: public resources like education and healthcare, job opportunities (you probably won’t make nearly as much in Arkansas as you might in California) and other factors such as proximity to family, friends, and personal interests. There’s no doubt America is rapidly changing and that includes what people value the most when they decide where to live. In uncertain economic times, the face of America will likely change radically in the coming years with the political, economic, and social landscape shifting in meaningful ways. This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated. The post This surprising map reveals the real value of $100 in each state appeared first on Upworthy.