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Are you getting enough rest? For many of us, the answer to that question is “I wish.” Some misconceptions about which activities are actually restful may be contributing to that response, and understanding them could help give your brain a much-needed break. Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, author of Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less, explained to The Washington Post: “The most restorative kinds of rest — the things that recharge our mental and physical batteries most effectively — are the things that are active rather than passive.” Read the outlet’s nine tips for adding more restful moments to your day.
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Culture
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| A Once Unsolvable Code Discovered in 1880s Silk Dress Has Finally Been Cracked |
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| Sara Rivers Cofield |
Over a decade ago, two pages of handwritten code were discovered in the secret pocket of an 1880s silk bustle dress. Codebreakers worked to decipher it for years without success, leading experts to dub “The Silk Dress Cryptogram” one of the 50 most unsolvable codes in the world. But a determined University of Manitoba researcher has finally cracked the case.
A woman named Sara Rivers Cofield found the crumpled pieces of paper after she purchased the dress for $100 at an antique mall in 2013. Stumped by the odd strings of words — like “Calgary Cuba unguard confute duck fagan” — and time-like notations, she shared it on her blog a few months later. “I’m putting it up here in case there’s some decoding prodigy out there looking for a project,” she wrote.
Data analyst Wayne Chan was intrigued. He knew that in the late 19th century, codes were often used in telegrams, so he scoured 170 telegraphic codebooks. Eventually, he found one that described weather codes used by the U.S. Army Signal Corps. With the help of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, he deciphered the message 10 years after its discovery: It indicated specific weather conditions, including those from May 27, 1888 in present-day North Dakota.
Learn more about the dress (and its possible original owner) at the link below. As Rivers Cofield said, per the NOAA: “Everybody loves a mystery.”
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Improve Your Gut Health in 2024
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What do you get when a probiotic company is founded by doctors from Johns Hopkins, Harvard, UC Berkeley, and Stanford, and has the Mayo Clinic as one of its first investors and research partners? You get Pendulum.
Pendulum is the only company in the U.S. that manufactures and sells live Akkermansia, a gut health game-changer. This exclusive probiotic helps reinforce your gut lining (based on in vitro studies), which is crucial for overall health, digestion, immune function, and metabolism. See what the professionals (and Chief Communications Officer Halle Berry) are talking about — get 20% off your first month of Akkermansia or any Pendulum membership with promo code NICENEWS.
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*Please support our sponsors! They help us keep Nice News free. ♡
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Science
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| Short Zaps to the Brain Can Increase Patients’ Hypnotizability, Study Finds |
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akinbostanci/ iStock
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When you think of hypnotism, visuals of swinging pocket watches may come to mind, but hypnotherapy has long been used in the field of medicine. Now, new research out of Stanford University has found that targeting electrical stimulation to a precise area of the brain for less than two minutes can increase hypnotization’s effectiveness for up to an hour.
“We know hypnosis is an effective treatment for many different symptoms and disorders, in particular pain,” lead author Afik Faerman, a postdoctoral scholar in psychiatry, said in a news release. “But we also know that not everyone benefits equally from hypnosis.”
He and his team recruited 80 people with fibromyalgia for the study. Half received two 46-second applications of transcranial magnetic stimulation, while the others underwent a placebo treatment designed to appear the same. Those who were administered the electrical pulses showed a significant increase in their ability to be hypnotized immediately after.
The results could lead to greater effectiveness in hypnotherapy used to treat those with anxiety, addiction, and chronic pain. “As a clinical psychologist, my personal vision is that, in the future, patients come in, they go into a quick, non-invasive brain stimulation session, then they go in to see their psychologist,” said Faerman. “Their benefit from treatment could be much higher.”
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Everyday Heroes
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| Inside the History of South Carolina’s First — and Only — Civil Rights Museum |
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Claflin University/ Historically Black Colleges & Universities via Getty Images
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For decades, photographer Cecil Williams captured the struggles and triumphs of South Carolina’s Black community, training his camera on Jim Crow protesters, people integrating universities, and more. In 2019, the activist launched the state’s first and only civil rights museum out of his former home — and soon, the groundbreaking institution will move to a building three times the size in downtown Orangeburg.
“Images can be very powerful storytelling,” 85-year-old Williams (pictured) told the Associated Press. “And the struggle to get the rights we were due under the U.S. Constitution is a very powerful story.” He started snapping pictures at age 9, and just a few years later, one of his photos earned him a lot of attention. It featured future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall stepping off a train on his way to work on a segregation case.
“We talk about superheroes like Superman or the Black Panther. But I wish young people would realize there are superheroes in their neighborhoods who fought injustice every day,” Williams said. Thankfully, millions of his photos are currently being digitized, per the AP, which will surely help in realizing that wish.
Click the link below to take a virtual tour of the Cecil Williams South Carolina Civil Rights Museum.
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In Other News
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Inspiring Stories
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The generosity of strangers
Devoted Burger King employee Kevin Ford received nearly $450,000 in GoFundMe donations from strangers after he went viral for never missing a day of work in 27 years. Now, Ford has used the money to purchase his first home, posting a video thanking those who helped and giving a tour of his new place. “Now my kids and my grandkids have someplace to come visit me,” he said.
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“The nicest thing anybody has ever done for me”
Back in 1972, Barbara Rieco wrote a children’s book, but never managed to get it published. Over 50 years later, her grandson surprised her with a beautiful illustrated copy of her original work. “This is probably the nicest thing anybody has ever done for me in my entire life,” she said. Watch Rieco’s tearful reaction to seeing the book.
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Post Of The Day
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@sielju
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You’ve heard of Little Free Libraries, but this adorable twist on the concept is giving a whole new meaning to the word “little” in the name. Click above to see a close-up of the tiny figurines browsing the miniature art gallery. (Photo Credit: @sielju/ X)
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Quote of the Day
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| “If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place.”
- Nora Roberts, Tears of the Moon
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