Family

There's still time to save summer, and these seven parent-tested ideas cost nothing

A parent asked the internet how to survive summer on $0 and got a masterclass.

We're deep enough into summer that the video-game glaze has fully set in, but there are still a few weeks of break left, which means it's not too late to inject a little memory-making into the home stretch. And you can do it without spending a dime, which is exactly the corner one Reddit parent found themselves in when they posted about facing a "No spend summer with 3 kids."

What happened next is the best-case scenario for asking the internet for help. As Mark Wales writes, the community showed up with seven genuinely clever, genuinely free ideas, and they're a lot better than the usual "go play outside." There's the blanket-fort indoor campout with flashlights and s'mores, the playground-hopping bike adventure a mom used to buy herself reading time, and the library trick that quietly gets you free museum passes. Splash pads, city movie nights in the park, humane-society animal visits that double as a lesson in why you are not adopting a giraffe.

Do you have a GOOD picture to share?

Send us your best images, and we may feature them as the image of the day. Be sure to tell us a bit about your pic.

Health | Courtesy of Upworthy

Psychologists say fast walkers share 7 traits

Hey, slow down, you’ll want to hear this!

There are two kinds of people on any given sidewalk: the ones weaving through the crowd like they're late for a flight, and the ones strolling without a care in the world. The gap between them isn't just about punctuality, it's about personality, and science has been quietly taking notes.

In this story by Emily Shiffer, first shared on our sister site Upworthy, clinical psychologist Christal Castagnozz maps out seven traits that fast walkers tend to share. Conscientiousness leads the pack: "People high in this trait tend to manage their time well and move with intention." In other words, that speed-walker who just blew past you probably has an inbox at zero.

Speed demons also skew extraverted, which tracks for people who treat striking up conversations with strangers as a sport. But the trait most likely to make you rethink your whole commute? It has nothing to do with hustle and everything to do with what fast walkers don't do. Consider it one more reason moving your body pays dividends you can't see in the mirror.

And what did we learn?

Yesterday we shared the story of “We’ve only just begun,” the hit song that started as an ad jingle.

Did GOOD readers spot the other smash hit that began as a jingle from among the clever wrong answers? Well, that was not as challenging as I thought it would be! About 85% of you clocked the right answer in no time.

• "Build Me Up Buttercup" by the Foundations (6.5%)

• "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" by the New Seekers (84.7%) 🏆

• "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond (2.8%)

• "Happy Together" by the Turtles (6.0%)

"I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing," began as the 1971 Coca-Cola jingle "Buy the World a Coke" before the New Seekers stripped out the soda and took it to No. 1 in the UK. The others earned their commercial paychecks later: Buttercup sold motorcycle insurance for GEICO, "Happy Together" moved ketchup and cereal, and Sweet Caroline just got the full Andy Samberg treatment in this year's Super Bowl. 🎶So good, so good.🎶

Health

A tiny battery, a healing gel, and the sci-fi trick that could save limbs

Is there nothing that a battery can’t make better?

My favorite kind of story. Sci-fi made real! Imagine a gel combined with an electricity source that leverages electrolysis within the body to heal wounds.

That is exactly what researchers at UC Riverside have built. In this story by Mark Wales, we learn how a soft hydrogel paired with a hearing-aid-sized battery can generate a steady stream of oxygen directly inside damaged tissue.

Even wilder? The same oxygen bottleneck is what keeps lab-grown organs from reaching full size. The team believes this tech could help bridge that gap.

A squishy patch. A tiny battery. And a very real shot at turning “unhealable” into “handled.”

On July 21, 1853, the New York State Legislature passed an act setting aside more than 750 rocky, swampy acres in the middle of Manhattan for something the city had never had before: Central Park, America's first major landscaped public park.

At the time, the idea was almost radical. New York's only real green spaces were private gated squares and, believe it or not, cemeteries. Reformers argued that a truly public park, open to rich and poor alike, was a democratic necessity, and the legislature agreed. The land itself was no postcard: rock outcrops, marshes, and scattered farms and settlements that were cleared, at real human cost, to make way.

A design contest followed, and Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux's "Greensward" plan beat 32 rivals. The final price tag for the land alone topped what America later paid Russia for all of Alaska. Money well spent: today the park draws roughly 42 million visitors a year, every one of them enjoying the best real estate decision New York ever made. 

Do you have something GOOD to share?

We’re always on the lookout for uplifting, enlightening, and engaging content to share with readers like you. If you have something you think should be featured in the Daily GOOD, let me know!

💬 From the group text…

If you carrot care, it is a carrot wrought iron gate latch. I don’t know what to say; it tickled my brain.

Join the Group Text! Send us your social media gold.