The Two Headed Terrapin

0:03 Hey there, I'm Johnny Mac with five good news stories. On a protected nesting beach in Massachusetts, wildlife workers found a baby diamondback terrapin with two heads. Not metaphorically, two actual heads. The condition is called bicephaly, a rare developmental anomaly in which an embryo partially splits without fully separating itself. The baby was brought to the Cape Wildlife Center in Barnstable, where vets began monitoring it, tracking appetite, growth, behavior, watching to understand how the two heads and bodies work together. It is unknown what the long-term prognosis will be, but for now, the terrapin is doing okay. Meanwhile, in the courtyard of a hospital on an island in the middle of the Seine River in Paris, archaeologists found a wall.

0:49 It wasn't just any wall. It was a Gallic fortification wall. Large stone blocks with intersecting wooden beams, the kind the Celtic Gauls built 2,000 years ago. Behind that, a six-and-a-half-foot platform of sand and gravel, a spearhead, some seeds, the burned remains of wooden buildings. Carbon dating placed the construction right along with Julius Caesar's documented conquest of a Celtic settlement in 52 BCE. Caesar described attacking a fortified town and burning it. For centuries, historians have debated the location of Caesar's story. But Caesar himself gave no precise location. Other archaeological finds complicated the pictures. The mayor of Paris called it dizzying to discover the probable origins of his city.

1:31 It was a Saturday morning in Aspen. The market had not yet fully opened. But you know who showed up? A bear. The bear went to the bread booth. The bear was interested in some bread. It helped himself to the bread. Witnesses filmed the bear eating the bread. Aspen police arrived and they were like, hey, bear, get out of here. That didn't work. A Colorado Parks and Wildlife officer had to come. The bear, having made its feelings known about the morning's bread, climbed a nearby tree and waited. Then it left on its own. New York City just had its best tree planting year in a decade. During fiscal year 2026, the Parks Department planted 18,261 new trees across the five boroughs. That was the most in a single fiscal year since 2016. Most of them went into neighborhoods that have been identified as particularly vulnerable to extreme heat.

2:15 That's parts of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan. Staten Island apparently doing OK. Mayor Mamdani said access to green space and relief from extreme heat should not depend on your zip code. The department changed its approach this year, starting nursery prep earlier, harvesting trees before they began budding in the spring, and keeping newly planted trees watered and mulched throughout the summer. That's the big part. I see so many new plants that people put down these beautiful things and then nobody waters them and then they're just all like burnt out like a month later. The Oxford English Dictionary has added more than a dozen words from Bermuda and the Caribbean. This happens every now and then. The dictionary expands to recognize terms that have existed and meant things for people for a long time. Bimpered is a Bermudian word of unknown origin for a stupid or foolish person. Hornerman has been used in Trinidad and Tobago since 1975 to describe an unfaithful man. Leonard is a grocery store owner in Trinidad. He laughed when he heard it was being included and said, that's our heritage. That's what we grew up with. Jeblis is a shape-shifting female spirit with one cloven hoof who assumes the form of a beautiful woman to lure men to their deaths. Joan is the spirit of a child who died before baptism, depicted with backward-pointing feet and a large hat. who lures living children into the forest by calling their names. And then there's vex money, defined as money carried or kept in a safe place for a woman for use in an emergency or in any unexpected eventuality. Those are your five good news stories for today. Have an awesome day.