For Your Enjoyment #39

The cute little Atlantic puffin might not strike you as a vessel built for life on the open ocean. But nothing could be further from the truth.

- Puffin researchers are learning more about the little birds' winter migrations. (Image above. On a side note: How does one become a puffin researcher?) 

The Navy stopped training its service members to navigate by the stars about a decade ago, focusing instead on electronic navigational systems. But dears about the security of the Global Positioning System and a desire to return to the basics of naval training are pushing the fleet back toward this ancient method of finding a course across open water. 

- The USNA is bringing back navigation by stars!

Even so, finance isn’t the biggest source of U.S. billionaires...That remains inherited wealth (29%, down from 52% in 1996) and company founders (32%, little changed from 1996).

- Hey Billionaires: Did you actually work to earn that money or were you just born into it?

“You’re so pretty,” a woman at a concert told me. “My son is marrying a Vietnamese girl. Are you Vietnamese?” You’re so pretty, too! I wanted to say. My cousin is marrying a white guy from Tennessee. Are you from Tennessee? 

- Welcome to being Asian while not in Asia. 

Once complete in 2019, [the new Polar research vessel] will travel to the Arctic to carry out important research in polar environments using robotic, satellite and underwater monitoring technology, in order to help us understand the global impact of changing sea-levels. The ship will weigh 15,000 tonnes, have 20 science labs on board, and will carry nine double-decker buses worth of scientific equipment. [The Natural Environment Research Council] has asked the general public to submit names for the boat and then vote for their favourites. It seems though, that people are not taking the naming of a £200 million massive boat, meant for serious environmental research, all that seriously. 

- Boaty McBoatface? This is why we can't have nice things, Internets. (On a related note - its mascot can be Hooty McOwlface)

[Fred] Rogers believed in accepting others despite any differences, teaching by example, and making the world a better place — because the responsibility belongs to everybody. With the 2016 presidential campaign in full swing and Republican candidate Donald Trump slinging mud left and right, we could all use a little more of Rogers’ positivity — especially Trump himself. 

- Donald Trump: Listen to Mister Rodgers, please

Netflix has picked up Paramount Pictures’ domestic rights to The Little Prince, the new animated film based on the 1943 book by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. The studio had originally slated the movie to open in U.S. theaters on March 18, but then quietly pulled it off that date. It is now expected to premiere stateside on the streaming service later this year.

- Streaming or not, I'm not quite sure sure how I feel about this new Little Prince movie

DANA: You seem like a cool guy. / PATRICK: Yup, that’s me — cool guy. Don’t know what my internationally acclaimed indie-musician girlfriend sees in me, but there must be something, because we are very much in love and not breaking up anytime soon.

- "Tactful Ways People Have Told Me That They're in a Relationship"

A new grant has apparently made the [Golden Gate National Recreation Area makeover] possible, with spokesperson Alexandra Pickavet claiming that “for two and a half million dollars, it’s the largest grant in the country for the national parks for maintenance backlog.

- Crissy Field is getting a facelift

The animal kingdom is massive, but scientists know that they have only found a portion of its members. They are currently aware of about 2.3 million species—but that number increases by about 15,000 new additions per year, according to some estimates. Researchers from 12 institutions in the US collaborated for years to document and quantify all of these animals, and created a comprehensive diagram to illustrate each known species and its evolutionary relationship to one another. Their work was published last year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

- The Circle of Life, diagrammed

"When we used the Ahwahnee Hotel in marketing, we always put a little 'R' by it," said Dan Jensen, who managed Yosemite properties for Delaware North. "The existence of the fact that these names are protected and trademarked is just not a surprise to anybody. It wasn't sneaky."

- Update on Yosemite naming news: Thanks to Delaware North, now you can stay at the Majestic Yosemite Hotel in not-Yosemite-National-Park