Ghana wants to train non-surgeons to repair hernias. But they need your help to do it. A promoted post for Johnson & Johnson.
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Thom Dunn is a Boston-based writer, musician, and utterly terrible dancer. He is the singer/guitarist for the indie rock/power-pop the Roland High Life, as well as a staff writer for the New York Times’ Wirecutter and a regular contributor at BoingBoing.net. Thom enjoys Oxford commas, metaphysics, and romantic clichés (especially when they involve whiskey), and he firmly believes that Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" is the single greatest atrocity committed against mankind. He is a graduate of Clarion Writer's Workshop at UCSD ('13) & Emerson College ('08).
7 Strange but Scrumptious Facts About the History of the Hamburger →
My ground meat patty don't want none unless you got buns, hun.
Read MoreThis massive immigrant broke several records for the U.S. Olympic team — and for the flag. →
They changed his name on Ellis Island, but this larger-than-life athlete still held the flag high for his new home nation.
Read MoreMagic helped her survive homelessness. But scholarships helped her succeed in school. →
A little support went a long way for a young woman who refused to give up. Now, she’s giving back. (Originally published on Upworthy.
Read MoreThese struggling students finally found success in an unlikely place: their phone screens. →
"We need to evolve and adapt to learning that best fits our kids — not the people serving, teaching, administering, and tutoring the kid."
Read MoreHuman waste as sustainable energy? These high schoolers made it happen. →
Leroy Mwasaru was a high school student at Kenya's prestigious Maseno School when a dorm room renovation created an unfortunate situation.
The school's outdoor latrines overflowed into the local water supply.
Understandably, this made some people quite upset. But Mwasaru saw this as an opportunity to turn something revolting into a revolution.
If he could redirect the overflowing human waste, it could give them cleaner water and help the school save money on fire and electricity.
Read MoreIT pros share some crucial lessons on how to avoid getting hacked. →
In 2009, Scott McGready stumbled on a massive phishing scam targeting his company's email server.
Read MoreHow to protect yourself from phishing, from experts who deal with it every day. →
Ever wonder what it's like to be hacked? Sarah Jeong did. So naturally, she decided to ask someone to hack her.
Read MoreWhat do at-risk teens do with $1,000? Turns out they help each other. →
When Heather Campbell-Lieberman first applied to teach at Lakota East High School in Ohio, she had one request:She needed the school to let her students give away a thousand dollars.
Read MoreShe returned from Iraq to a broken family. Then writing changed her life. →
Kate Hoit always dreamed of joining the FBI. Then she was deployed to Iraq in 2004, and her life took a different turn.
Read MoreShe turned her dad's 50-year-old FBI file into a stunning work of art. →
The FBI had more than 500 pages of records on Barnette. Now, nearly five decades later, he and his family got to see those pages.
Read MoreA massive new study shows how to reduce abortions — and it's not more regulation. →
Abortion rates in the United States just reached a record low, dropping below a million per year for the first time since Roe v. Wade.
That information comes from a new study by the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization committed to sexual and reproductive health. It's fair to say a hallmark reduction in any medical procedure is generally a good thing.
Read MoreAmericans view death way differently than other cultures. This woman wants to change that. →
"Americans want the good without the bad," Ebenstein says. "Life without death. Pleasure without pain. Light without dark. But that doesn’t exist."
Read MoreShe wanted Muslim women like her to have the world. So she gave them an entire universe. →
"'Saudi Girls Revolution' is an attempt to show the rest of the world that there’s a lot more to us as Arab women," Ahmed said. "We’re strong. We’re powerful. We know we overcome. We’re badass. We’re so many other things."
Read MoreFor this woman, who's blind and autistic, sex positivity matters even more. →
Michelle Smith, 21, was understandably nervous when her mom found the BDSM restraints she had hidden under her bed.
Read More'Little Miss Flint' is preparing to make Christmas dinner without running water. Again. →
It's Christmastime in Flint, Michigan, and all that Mari "Little Miss Flint" Copeny wants is a Hatchimal. Oh, and to finally have clean water again.
You remember her, right? The adorable 9-year-old beauty queen who wrote a letter to President Obama about her hometown's ongoing water crisis and later got caught in an unfortunate campaign trail photo with Donald Trump?
Mari hasn't had a bath at home under an actual running faucet since April 2014. And it's not looking like that's going to change anytime soon, either.
Read More5 images of Victorian England that will make you rethink LGBTQ history. →
Officially, there were no homosexual men in Victorian England.
But that's just because the word "homosexual" didn't enter the language until the mid-to-late 1890s. ("Transsexual" and "transgender" would catch on even later.)
There were, however, men who engaged in sexual and/or romantic relationships with each other.
Read MoreWhat 8 successful ADHDers want you to know about how they get stuff done. →
Up and Worthy!
Just a friendly update to show what I've been up to at Upworthy these past few weeks! First, here's a slideshow put together by our Editorial Director, Amy O'Leary, detailing the company's new direction (with the secondary purpose of pre-emptively shutting down your rehashed "clickbait" jokes*):
While I'm still getting the hang of the system (it's only been 2 weeks, after all), I've still got a few stories up that you can check out. It's mostly coincidence that the subject matter is, well, pretty much right my alley. I've also got a new Official Writer-y Facebook page, if you want to follow all of my (strictly professional!) adventures.
*I can say that, because my own jokes are half the reason that I work there now.
Yes, I know this is dead. But this line is strangely fitting. Also I have my very own personal weirdo spambot now, in case you were lacking for nonsensical Internet philosophies.
Everything Happens So Much
First of all, sorry for the lack of updates — as you'll see below, things have been pretty crazy 'round these parts.
For one thing, I'm already a week late on announcing my participation in the Clarion Write-a-thon to raise money for the Clarion Writing Workshop at UCSD, which I attended in 2013. I kind of, uhhh, messed up when I was filling out my sponsorship profile, and I meant to write a goal of 800 words a day in pursuit of this novelization that I'm working on. Instead, I accidentally wrote 800 words total for the entire summer. Ah well. Either way! Give me money to give to Clarion!
I've written before about the incredible personal and professional impact of my Clarion experience, which is why I feel so strongly about providing the same opportunities for other young writers. I came away from those 6 weeks not only with some amazing new friendships, but a stronger grasp on my own strengths and faults as a writer, as well as a greater familiarity and confidence in the genre publishing industry as a whole. And while it might not seem a direct correlation, I feel confident in attributing much of my success as a current full-time professional writer to the Clarion Workshop.
Oh. That's the other thing that happened: starting July 1, I will be a full-time salaried staff writer for Upworthy.com. "Isn't that that click-bait-y website with all the happy liberal stuff?" you might ask, in which case, well, you're not entirely off the mark. But in truth, Upworthy does tremendous promoting and supporting numerous progressive causes, campaigns, and charities, and getting their stuff in front of millions of eyeballs every month (also, they've all-but-sworn-off the "click-bait-y" stuff in the last 2 years, after indirectly creating an Internet monster out of it). They're going through a bit of a renaissance right now as well, part of which involves a shift towards more original storytelling and content, which is where I come in. The specifics of my storytelling work is still in their formative stages, but suffice to say that it's a very, very, very exciting time to be a part of the company, and I can't wait to see what happens next.
(also fun fact: Upworthy themselves have never, ever, ever used the click-bait-y headline suffix, "...you won't believe what happens next," despite the fact that that's the thing that everyone thinks about when they think about Upworthy and clickbait and whatnot) (also also, I'd argue that "clickbait" refers specifically to misleading links that are gravely lacking in content, whereas Upworthy has simply mastered the art of Vague But Intriguing Headlines That Compel You To Click and actually have good content on the other side to backup what they're saying) (also also also, this is genuinely me saying this, and not just the company line)
Finally, there was...I swear there was something else, something...cool, some good reason why I've been mostly MIA and why I'm still a week behind on the write-a-thon and —
OH! That's right. I got married. So, ya know. I guess that's kinda cool.
Photo credit: Bethany & Dan