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These birds may know something scientists don't
Ancient detours, linguistic tongue-twisters, and workplace diplomacy.
Greg Sullivan
November 04, 2026 • Est. Reading Time: 3 minutes
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“Don’t, I whisper, inside. Don’t leave. But I know she must. It’s in her nature.”
― Charlotte McConaghy
Communication is complicated. Birds have their own mysterious navigation system, perfectly ordinary English words can defeat a perfectly capable adult, and telling your boss what you really think requires the diplomacy of a United Nations ambassador. Today, Stephanie Szarmach takes us on a remarkable migration, while we explore the perils of pronunciation and the workplace art of saying "absolutely not" without actually saying it.
Science
Little travelers. Big journeys. Unexpected discoveries.
Tracking migrating songbirds is tricky. They're tiny, they're fast, and they're notoriously bad at sharing their location. You can't exactly ask a warbler to turn on Find My Friends.
So scientists did the next best thing: they fitted the little travelers with teeny-tiny backpacks containing tracking devices, then sent them on their way. All they had to do was wait for the birds to return. Easy, right?
As Stephanie Szarmach reports, the data revealed some truly astonishing journeys, including a few routes that seemed to make absolutely no sense. But there may be a fascinating reason for those strange detours, and it goes back thousands of years.
What a cinematic sunrise on South Padre Island, Texas, from the backyard of GOOD reader Bea Carrol. Looks like a shot from a classic Hollywood film!
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How far is the longest recorded nonstop flight by a bird?No snacks. No bathroom breaks. No in-flight entertainment. |
Yesterday's Results
In yesterday's issue, we shared why leaving fallen leaves alone might be the smartest thing you do for your yard.
And we asked: What's your relationship with fall yard work? A little cleanup won with 40.1%, but the leave-it-alone crowd was right on its heels at 37.3%. Nature may finally be winning its annual argument with the rake.
Out there with a rake before breakfast. (5.6%)
A little cleanup, then nature takes over. (40.1%)
Leave them. I've got better things to do. (37.3%)
What yard? I'm an apartment person. (16.9%)
Culture | Courtesy of Upworthy
 | ||
27 English words people have a hard time enunciating properly, even native speakers | ||
Say what? | ||
By Emily Shiffer | ||
The English language is hard to master, even for native speakers. With more than 600,000 entries in the Oxford English Dictionary alone and no agreed-upon total, not only are English words hard to memorize, they can be hard to properly pronounce and enunciate. Getting tripped up with pronunciation can make your communication unclear, or even lead others to make unfair assumptions about you. | ||
As American English teacher Vanessa explains, many mispronounced words are common and used in daily conversation due to tricky consonants and vowels in English words. But knowing the proper pronunciation, it can help you become a more confident speaker, which is why she shared 33 words that are hard for English language learners to pronounce, such as “probably,” “drawer,” and “sixth.” | ||
On the subreddit r/words, a person posed the question: “What’s a word you’ve noticed many native English speakers have difficulty enunciating even though the word is used fairly often?” | ||
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Work
We’ve got six phrases that let you disagree with your boss and keep your job.
"Well, sir, that's a stupid idea." We can't say it, but sometimes you need to find a way to get the message across before the stupid idea becomes your stupid project. Between the power dynamic, the egos on the line, and the general awkwardness of correcting the person who signs your timesheet, most of us just nod and brace for impact.
Erik Barnes explains there's a diplomatic workaround, and it never requires the words "no," "you're wrong," or "have you considered a different career." He rounded up six phrases from a tech career coach and an HR director, and each one is basically a cheat code for managing up. One of them, according to coach Dr. Kyle Elliott, gets your manager to "talk themselves into the problem before you have to point it out, which is a major win."
A few of these even double as workload protection, quietly ensuring that whatever happens to the bad idea, it doesn't happen to your calendar. If you've ever rehearsed a tough conversation in the shower and still chickened out, this one's for you.
On November 4, 1952, CBS used a UNIVAC computer to predict the outcome of the presidential election. The enormous machine confidently forecast an Eisenhower landslide, but the network's journalists were so skeptical they held back the prediction. Naturally, the computer was right. It was an early demonstration of computing's potential, and of humanity's longstanding reluctance to trust the machines.
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Until tomorrow, maybe throw on a backpack of your own and move around while the weather still allows it.