Every New Year, millions of people make a resolution only to see it fall by the wayside within a few months, weeks, or even days. However, 26-year-old Luke Cameron is not amongst those. After losing a close family friend known for her generosity to cancer in 2013, the young man vowed to do at least one good deed a day, for 365 days - and he has not missed yet....

This holiday season, the people of Japan are dealing with an unusual food crisis - a butter shortage! Though that would not be a problem any other time of the year, it is during Christmas, because of an age-old Japanese tradition of celebrating the day with a delectable strawberry and cream sponge cake that is baked with . . . lots of butter!...

If the sun appears to set a little earlier (or later) this Sunday, it is not your imagination. That's because depending on where you live, December 21st will be the shortest or longest day of 2014. Also known as the winter (or summer) solstice, it marks the official start of winter for the residents of the Northern Hemisphere and summer for those that live in the Southern Hemisphere....

The "Field with irises near Arles" is one of Dutch artist Van Gogh's most famous paintings. Believed to have been the first of the 130 paintings the artist created while at the Saint Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Remy, France, it is amongst his most recognized and coveted masterpieces. Not surprisingly, the painting has been extremely well-preserved and looks as good as when the artist first painted it, except for one thing - the once purple irises have started to turn blue....

With their large flattened heads, small beady eyes and slimy skins, Japanese giant salamanders are not destined to take home the prize for "best-looking". However, according to a team of scientists they may just be eligible for the most "awesome dad" award, at least amongst amphibian males who are not known for their nurturing personalities....

With Christmas less than two weeks away, your neighborhood is probably aglow with beautiful lights. However they will pale in comparison to nature's own light show, the Geminids. Though this annual celestial display that has been nicknamed the 900-pound gorilla of meteor showers has been visible since December 4th, their best showing will be on the night of December 13th and the early morning of the 14th, until about 2.00 am local time....

After a day's delay caused by a wayward boat, bad weather, and some technical problems, NASA's next generation spacecraft Orion, blasted off to space from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 7.05 EST on Friday, December 5th. Perched atop a Delta 4 heavy rocket, it soared through the Earth's atmosphere and disappeared into space....

If you have ever tried a new sport or attempted learning a musical instrument, you are well aware that the hardest part is getting started. Once you figure out the technique, the skills return fairly easily, even if they are not used for long periods of time. Most experts attribute this to "muscle memory," which means the brain remembers the action and can recall it when needed. Now some researchers from John Hopkins University, believe there is another factor that may be as important in recalling previously learned motor skills - the errors made while learning the task....

An ancient Egyptian handbook that has been in the possession of Macquarie University's Museum of Ancient Cultures in Sydney, Australia, since 1981, has finally been deciphered. According to Macquarie University professor Malcolm Choat and University of Sydney professor Iain Gardner, the book contains magical spells that residents of ancient Egypt drew upon, to make all kinds of wishes come true....

Canberra resident David Richards is well known for his stunning Christmas light displays. In 2011, he won his first Guinness World Records title with one that featured 331,038 lights. After some New Yorkers laid claim to the title in 2012, the 'crazy Christmas lights guy', as he likes to call himself, repeated the feat in 2013 with over half a million lights and reclaimed it....

On November 28th, 1964, NASA's Mariner 4 launched off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a historic mission - to carry out the first-ever flyby of Mars. Though it took a little over six months, on July 15th, 1965, the spacecraft successfully entered the Red Planet's orbit and sent back 22 images - providing scientists with the first ever close look at the surface of another planet from deep space. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of this successful mission, crowd-sourced space-themed company Uwingu, ("sky" in Swahili), organized a global shout-out event....

In the popular Hunger Games series, the oppressed residents of District 12, often raised their hand in a three-finger salute - a gesture that began as a sign of gratitude and farewell, but soon evolved into a symbol of defiance. Now, the salute is being used by some Thai youngsters to show their displeasure with the military officials that have been ruling the country under martial law since they ousted the civilian government in May 2014. And just like the leaders of the dystopian society, Thailand's rulers are not too thrilled....

Every year, two turkeys manage to escape the Thanksgiving table thanks to a special pardoning granted by the President of the United States of America. This year was no exception! On Wednesday, November 26th, President Obama used his powers to free a 49-pound turkey named "Cheese" and a lucky spare named "Mac" and allowed them to trot off to Morven Park, in Leesburg, Virginia, where they will spend the rest of their lives in blissful retirement....

On November 15th, children aged 8 to 12 got together at a designated location in five cities around the world - Berlin, Rio de Janeiro, Nairobi, Dublin and Amsterdam, to participate in the first Global Children's Designathon. The event that was organized by Dutch design agency Unexpect, challenged kids to come up with solutions for some of the world's most pressing issues - food, waste and traffic - in a single day!...

Concerned about the city's growing obesity rates, in July 2013, the Dubai Municipality came up with an innovative plan to incentivize residents to lose weight. Called 'Your Weight In Gold', it promised to reward contestants with the precious metal if they shed weight, during a specified two-month period. The challenge was so successful that the officials not only decided to offer it again, but also make it a family affair....

When the administrators of the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, adopted six 'therapy' cats from an animal shelter, they had no idea that among them was one that possessed an uncanny sixth sense to predict the impending death of terminally ill patients....

Tiny monitoring devices have become an increasingly common way for scientists to study elusive animals that are difficult to track on a day-to-day basis. However, now it seems that smart seals have caught on to the trick and are using it to their advantage to catch fish!...

The world's most complicated watch, a 1933 timepiece made by luxury watchmaker Patek Phillipe was sold for an astounding $24.4 million USD at a Sotheby's auction in Switzerland on November 11th. The historic price for the aptly named 'Supercomplication' masterpiece smashed the world record set by same watch in 1999, when it was bought by Sheikh Saud Bin Mohammed Bin Ali Al-Thani, a member of Qatar's royal family, for $11 million USD....

On Wednesday, November 12th, an unmanned spacecraft made history by landing perfectly on its target - a speeding comet that lies at a distance of 310 million miles from earth. According to the European Space Agency (ESA), the brainchild behind this audacious project, the Rosetta space probe that housed the 220-pound washing machine-sized Philae lander, released its passenger to its destination perfectly - not an easy feat given that the Comet 67P was hurtling through space at a speed of 41,000 mph....

The recent report of the sighting of a few Kashmir musk deer has given conservationists hope that the species may be alive and well amongst the forests in Afghanistan. The study published by the World Wildlife Foundation in the November edition of the journal Oryx, states that a team of researchers scouring the country's Nuristan Province in 2008 and 2009, encountered the animals on five separate occasions....

For all you middle-school presidents, secretaries and treasurers that aspire to lead the country some day, here is some encouraging news - Elise Stefanik, the youngest woman ever to be elected to the US Congress started the same way. The 30-year-old who defeated Democratic incumbent Aaron Woolf in New York's 21st Congressional District in the November 4th midterm elections, began her political career in sixth grade, as student council secretary....

After a senseless attack left former fireman Darek Fidyka paralyzed from the waist down in 2010, he never thought he would be able to stand up again. But thanks to a revolutionary technique, the 38-year-old Polish man has become the first person in the world to regain use of his legs, following a traumatic spinal cord injury....

Most animals are skittish around people which makes observing them in the wild, a challenging endeavor for researchers. The issue is exacerbated with naturally shy creatures like emperor penguins, who show signs of physical distress in the presence of humans....

With a population of 156 million, Bangladesh ranks amongst the world's most populous nations. What makes the situation worse is that most of the country is situated on the low-lying Ganges delta, formed by the confluence of three major rivers - Ganges, Brahamputra and Meghna. As a result, it is highly susceptible to flooding especially during the rainy season from July to October, when the rivers rise as much as 12-feet, making many areas accessible only by boat....