It may be a new year, but we’re still in the thick of awards season, and the 82nd annual Golden Globes are set to start 2025 off with a bang. The ceremony will take place tonight at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, and home viewers can catch it live on CBS at 8 p.m. ET or stream it on Paramount+. Comedian Nikki Glaser is hosting, Aubrey Plaza and Colin Farrell are among those presenting, and Ariana Grande and Hiroyuki Sanada are two of the first-time nominees. But the real stars of the show may be the gift bags for winners and presenters: Packed full of items and experiences, they’re worth a total of $1 million a piece. Take a peek inside the posh purses. — the Nice News team
Featured Story
What Makes Someone Likable? 5 Key Factors That Influence People’s Perception of You
Rudzhan Nagiev/ iStock
Glinda the Good Witch said it best: It’s all about popular. Sometimes it seems that being likable is the key to thriving socially and professionally in our culture (whether you like it or not). After all, when Glinda gleefully belts the lyrics, “It’s not about aptitude, it’s the way you’re viewed,” she has a point. As attractive as likability can be, it’s also a pretty complex characteristic — and if it isn’t top of mind for you, there’s nothing wrong with tuning out the opinions of others. But if you’re curious about its nuances, click below. We unpacked the pros and cons of trying to become more likable and narrowed down five factors that can impact how others perceive you.
Meet the Genius Who Invented Plastic That Dissolves in Water
The world produces 450 million metric tons of plastic waste each year. Microplastics are seeping into our oceans and food. They even show up in our bodies. So you can imagine how revolutionary a new kind of plastic that completely dissolves in water would be. Thatʼs exactly what Timeplast created. The company patented a water-soluble, time-programmable plastic that vanishes without harming the environment. Major players are already partnering with Timeplast for its patented technology. Now you can invest in Timeplast as it scales in its $1.3 trillion market. Become a Timeplast shareholder here.
Disclosure: This is a paid advertisement for Timeplast’s Regulation CF Offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.timeplast.com.
This Week’s Top Stories
Culture
Cleaner Oceans and a New WNBA Team: 10 Things to Look Forward to in 2025
Mlenny/ iStock
The bottles have been popped, the cookies have been eaten, and the tree has been tucked into its box for another year (unless you’re like some Nice News team members who keep it up for a few more weeks). But the joy doesn’t have to end with the holiday festivities. Now that we’ve kissed 2024 goodbye, it’s time to welcome all the possibilities of a new year — and luckily, there’s plenty of exciting news on the horizon. From epic celestial shows to the promise of a cleaner Baltic Sea and a WNBA expansion team hitting the court, 2025 is already packed full of exciting events. So mark your brand-new calendars, because we’re getting started with 10 things to look forward to over the next 12 months.
Humanity
Gretchen Rubin Shares Lessons for Leading a Happier Life in the New Year and Beyond
Mary Long/ iStock
Happiness is hard to characterize. Is it contentment? Satisfaction? Joy? Ask author Gretchen Rubin, who studies and writes about the subject, and she won’t miss a beat in answering. “I do not define it,” Rubin tells Nice News matter-of-factly. “I started my career in law where we spent an entire semester arguing about contracts, and happiness is an even more elusive concept.” She notes that there are some 15 academic definitions of the term and adds: “We can all bring to it what we want.” “I think, for the ordinary person, it’s more helpful to think about being happier,” she explains. “If you do this — this week, this month, this year — are you likely to be happier? However you define that for yourself.” Host of the podcast Happier With Gretchen Rubin, the Yale graduate published the New York Times bestselling book The Happiness Project in 2018 and went on to create a newsletter and award-winning app on the topic. Her ideas about human behavior are rooted in research and, as she puts it, “me-search.” One of her most refreshing assertions? “You don’t have to change.” Read more of her practical advice.
Environment
$100M Deal Protects Grand Teton National Park From Developers
Matt Anderson Photography/ Moment via Getty Images
Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park is getting 1 square mile bigger. That might not sound like a huge deal, but the relatively small piece of land represents greater protections for the animals that call the Tetons home and the park at large. Known as the Kelly Parcel, the land will officially be turned over to the federal government after years of debate and negotiations regarding the state’s idea to sell it to developers. Instead, the nonprofit Grand Teton National Park Foundation raised $37.6 million to buy the parcel, while the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund provided the remaining $62.4 million for a total of $100 million. “Today marks an incredible milestone, decades in the making, to permanently protect an essential wildlife migration corridor and treasured landscape within Grand Teton National Park,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement on Dec. 30. Since the Kelly Parcel is a state trust land, the money from the sale will help fund Wyoming’s public schools. “This will benefit our public lands and Wyoming’s public school students for generations to come,” Haaland added.
Traditions like Chinese New Year, Holi, and Day of the Dead are well-known across the globe, but what about the less heralded customs on the verge of disappearing altogether? Journalist Eliot Stein set out on a quest to learn about the remarkable people who are preserving some of the most extraordinary cultural rites — from a British beekeeper who chats with his colonies to one of the only living women who know how to make the world’s rarest pasta.
While fans of Free Willy remember the heartwarming tale of the boy who broke a killer whale out of captivity, the real-life celebrity orca was facing a much different fate at the time the movie was released. When the public caught on that the whale slash actor named Keiko was living in a small theme park pool in Mexico City, their fury sparked an “epic science experiment” to return him to the ocean’s freedom — all of which is documented in the six-part podcast The Good Whale.
This Week in History
The First US Presidential Election Is Held
January 7, 1789
Photo by MPI/Getty Images
Two hundred thirty-six years ago this week marked the first presidential election (the illustration above shows George Washington learning the good news) — and the first time the U.S. deployed the Electoral College system still in use today. A few things have changed since 1789, of course. Back then, only property-owning white men could vote. And while Washington clinched the presidency with all 69 electoral votes (considerably fewer than today’s 538), rival candidate John Adams automatically nabbed the vice presidency for coming in second place. A national hero on the heels of his leadership in the Revolutionary War, Washington is the only U.S. president who did not represent a specific political party.Learn more about the historic election.
Cornbread Hemp Makes America’s First Organic CBD Sleep Gummy
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