Comedy wildlife photography award finalists 2026 – in pictures:
A selection of the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards 2026 finalists – from a shortlist featuring a caiman wearing a wig, a leopard doing a handstand, a strutting white-tailed eagle and a polar bear appearing to chat and more…
“I could watch them forever.” This adorable clip will give your soul a boost:
Puffins spend the entire winter out at sea – but visitors to their breeding colonies can watch their adorable antics during spring and summer. October 2, 2026 Sometimes all you need is a dose of cuteness to brighten up your day – and puffins are, arguably, one of the cutest birds around. These pint-sized ‘sea parrots’, as they’re sometimes called, don’t even need to do anything to melt hearts.
“Our capacity to choose is only as meaningful as our capacity to notice.
We can’t choose differently if we can’t see what we’re already choosing:
our habits, our reactions, the stories we tell, the ways we move toward and away from one another.”
– Eric K.
Are We Listening?
Nova the Prescient Dog:
An airport security dog refused to allow an elderly passenger to board her plane, repeatedly planting herself in front of the traveler until her handler realized the real danger was something no scan could catch.
Nova had served nearly six years as a certified detection dog at the busy airport.
Her training was exact: when she detected a target scent, she sat down on the spot—no barking, no lunging, just an unmistakable signal. Her handler, Officer Reyes, trusted her judgment without question.
That morning, Nova abruptly cut across the concourse and sat directly in the path of a grandmother walking toward her gate.
Reyes followed standard protocol and requested an immediate secondary inspection. The passenger, clearly flustered and embarrassed, cooperated fully, repeating that she was only carrying her handbag and a small carry-on roller.
The inspection came back entirely clear. No prohibited materials, no traces of residue.
Reyes offered a polite apology and cleared her to proceed to boarding.
Nova, however, refused to break character.
She stepped right back into the woman’s way and sat down a second time, anchoring herself firmly to the floor.
In six years on the force, Reyes had never seen his partner signal twice on someone whose baggage had just cleared a thorough check.
His gut told him not to walk away.
Crouching down beside the passenger, Reyes gently asked if she was feeling well.
That simple question broke the barrier; visibly pale, she admitted she had been experiencing a heavy tightness in her chest and shortness of breath since arriving at the terminal. She had assumed it was merely severe anxiety from flying alone for the very first time since losing her late husband.
Reyes didn’t hesitate. He called for an on-site paramedic team on priority status.
Responders found her blood oxygen levels dangerously depleted and rushed her straight to the airport clinic for immediate stabilization.
Emergency physicians later confirmed she was in the critical opening stages of a massive cardiac event—one that would have almost certainly turned fatal once airborne at cruising altitude, miles away from a runway.
Nova had never received an hour of medical alert training.
To this day, Reyes cannot explain scientifically how a dog trained purely for security threats recognized that while the passenger’s bags carried nothing dangerous, her heart was running out of time.
She missed her flight that morning—and gained a lifetime of journeys ahead.
The scanners found nothing. The officers found nothing.
But Nova knew something was wrong—and she refused to move until someone listened…
Will You Be One of 250?
America just turned 250. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were always meant to include kindness. Without it, freedom is just isolation, and happiness is just noise.
I’m asking you to help write the next chapter.
Join Kindness Certified Companies, a Kids for Peace program already reaching 45,000+ schools in 123 countries and put your values on display.
Certification is simple: a small tax-deductible donation, a seal for your website, and a spot among 300+ kindness-driven businesses.
Do You Believe in Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness?
What are YOU willing to do to help us Live into these aspirations in 2026?
A couple of months ago, we celebrated an important milestone, the 250th anniversary of the USA. I was thinking to myself, what might happen, 250 years after our founding as a nation, if we chose to show up as
Caring Citizens, not crass consumers
FellowAmericans not democrats or republicans
And intentionally Kind Humans not divisive, polarized, pissed-off people?
Locally, what would it mean to model America’s Kindest and most Purposeful Region instead of America’s Finest City?
Life without kindness is a cold, fragile, and lonely human experience stripped of safety, deep meaning, and genuine community connection.
Liberty without kindness is fraught with selfishness, isolation, cruelty in disguise, reducing freedom to a lack of care for others.
The pursuit of happiness without kindness is hollow, leading to isolation, selfishness, and an empty focus on shallow pleasures. True fulfillment requires care for others.
Unlike the status quo, this is not standing against anything, rather it is standing for something! This is about independence and interdependence…
Did you know there is a Kindness Certified company network, that was birthed right here in a back yard in San Diego that is advancing this work for organizations as well as youth all over the world through Kids for Peace, that has now grown to more than 45,000 schools in 123 countries, with so many here in San Diego?
“My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness”- Dalai Lama
I am proud to be part of this network, wear my “Kindness Matters” bracelet nearly every day, and would love you to join us and help get the word out!
You can learn more about this movement here:
And learn more by listening to this podcast on your favorite platform:
Here is where you come in. My goal with your help is to add 250 new members/orgs right here in San Diego County in 2026, as living testimony and taking personal action, in the spirit of our founding fathers’ aspirations around independence and where our founding mothers would have undoubtedly included interdependence, modeling kindness, compassion, empathy and love.
Here is a positive way for each of us to show up in the best and highest way for America and San Diego to meet this moment.
The great news is the investment is nominal, we want your energy not your money, and just for us there is a 10% discount code to make this easy. The code is KINDNESSMATTERS250
Are you in? We will set up a Kindness Meter and track our progress over the next three months. Progress not perfection.
To the future of HumanKIND…
Love,
Neville
“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”
Social fitness is the biggest predictor of a happy life. Here’s how to improve yours:
Enjoying the weather? Did you see the game? Small-talk and simple face-to-face interactions have a bigger effect on our wellbeing than you might think. So, do you fancy a cuppa? Dr Gillian Sandstrom was at the opera when she realized how good she had become at talking to strangers. A woman with Parkinson’s was feeling anxious and needed an aisle seat and when Sandstrom noticed what was happening, she asked a whole row of people to move along to make room for the woman and her husband…
Disconnection is a national epidemic. The Chamber of Connection is a local antidote designed to interrupt transmission, treat those affected and prevent future spread!
Along with local friends and colleagues, I’d like to invite you to The Balboa Park Table on Monday, October 5 in Balboa Park at the Botanical Gardens from 6:30 to 9pm.
It’s a shared meal for 500 community leaders, builders, and weavers from every sector and community across San Diego County, hosted by Longer Tables San Diego and presented by OneSD. It isn’t a conference or a networking event. People sit at long tables and actually connect, without regard for our titles, job functions, or roles. This is a time for human being not human doing!
I was asked to help bring people I trust to expand the circle of community, and obviously you came to mind.
Access code: NEVILLEBILLIMORIA Two quick steps: 1. Click RSVP. 2. Your code should attach automatically. If you don’t see a ticket option for Community Leader, type the access code above to unlock it.
In the spirit of inclusion, Longer Tables SD is intentionally working to reach more San Diegans in East County, North Inland, our Hispanic/Latino and Asian communities, Indigenous/Tribal communities, people with disabilities, young adults and elders, cross-border/binational communities, and neighborhood, resident and frontline voices. If you are or know leaders in these areas or affinity groups and want to help invite them, you can register as a Community Partner at no cost and be recognized and represented in the event materials.
When you RSVP, please take the extra minute for the questionnaire at the end. It’s how they ensure we build a table that reflects the whole region, not just pockets of interest.
“When the human race learns to read the language of symbolism, a great veil will fall from the eyes of men.
They shall then know truth and, more than that, they shall realize that from the beginning truth has been in the world unrecognized,
save by a small but gradually increasing number appointed by the Lords of the Dawn as ministers to the needs of human creatures struggling to regain their consciousness of divinity.”
– Manly Hall
This week:
On vacation in Hawaii this week, I saw a sign.
What struck me as ironic is that we have had legislation since 1973 to protect turtles in the whole country, but today in 2026 we treat fellow human beings with harassment, harm, pursuit, shootings, woundings, killings and trapping them!
Is it just me or do you see a dichotomy here with how we treat “endangered species” and man’s inhumanity to man?
We call them animals but, in many cases, these purported animals are more compassionate and altruistic than we are.
Here are a few stories to reinforce our appreciation for these benevolent animals presenting an earnest opportunity for self-reflection for ourselves as a species.
These dogs were put into an MRI to discover what they know about human emotions – the results were astonishing:
Good news for dog lovers, they might understand your happiness more than you’d think. Whether it’s an enthusiastic tail wag or a gentle nudge of the leg with their nose, it can sometimes feel like man’s best friend is truly in tune with our emotions. But surely dogs can’t understand what we’re feeling, right? Well, science might say otherwise. A study, recently published in the journal iScience, found that not only could dogs understand our emotions, but that they can separate them into categories surprisingly well!
They should be enemies… but what these 2 animals do for each other has amazed experts and left them speechless:
Research reveals cross-species co-operation between warthogs and mongooses. Many mammals indulge in mutual grooming to remove ticks and other parasites from their fur and skin but, aside from the occasional intriguing anecdote, it is unheard of for one mammal species to groom another. But Andy Plumptre of the Wildlife Conservation Society reports that just such cross-species co-operation regularly occurs between warthogs and banded mongooses in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park.
People started building artificial beaver dams in California. Now something “mind blowing” is happening:
Following the construction of the dams, one river saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates soar from 8% to 60%. It’s well known that beaver dams transform landscapes. In their absence, artificial versions were built in northern California to recreate lost wetlands – boosting the survival of threatened coho salmon. The findings are published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. Fish biologist Michael Pollock of NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center called the results “mind blowing”!
Half the World are Women. The Other Half are Their Children:
Today, given the insane levels of uncertainty and inhumanity, many nonprofits, and the communities they serve are under siege and, leadership is more important than ever.
For decades, women in the nonprofit workforce have outpaced men, and the data validates that the larger the nonprofit, the more likely it is to be led by men.
In 2026, the uncontrolled gender pay gap in the United States stands at 82 cents for every dollar earned by men, widening slightly from 83 cents in prior cycles according to data from Payscale’s Gender Pay Gap Report.
If leadership is going to be more reflective and representative of those we serve, we need more women leaders in general- and particularly women of color- to align with the workforce and census numbers in our community.
Megaphone Hand, business concept with text Attention Please, vector illustration
Man UP!
Yes, I self-identify as a man, and I proudly believe in advocacy, allyship, and uplifting others regardless of gender or other factors.
What will it take so more of us can listen and amplify, challenge bias, mentor, and sponsor all in allyship?
It is time to “Man Up”!
Join us Aug 31st at noon for a free webinar, Women in Leadership: Leading with Confidence, Authenticity and Purpose.
Enjoy Leading Through Change: Building the Next Generation of Nonprofit Leadership with Dr. Laura Deitrick.
If you don’t know here, Dr. Laura Deitrick is the Executive Director of The Nonprofit Institute and a Professor of Practice in Leadership Studies at the University of San Diego. She has served as a nonprofit executive director, board member, management consultant, program evaluator, and governance strategist. Over the past 15 years, Dr. Deitrick has produced key research on major nonprofit trends, including the strength of the nonprofit workforce, the economic impact of nonprofits and philanthropy, grantmaking, nonprofit finance, strategy, and board oversight and governance. She founded the award-winning San Diego Nonprofit Academy, a two-day training program that she continues to shape to meet the evolving needs of the nonprofit community. She leads a national executive management certificate for Catholic Charities USA and the MS in Nonprofit Leadership and Management for the School of Leadership and Education Sciences.
Dr. Deitrick holds a PhD in Leadership Studies and an MA in Nonprofit Leadership and Management, both from the University of San Diego, as well as a BA in Economics from San Diego State University. She serves on the board of the Barrio Logan College Institute and is the co-author of Cases in Nonprofit Management: A Hands-on Approach to Problem Solving, published by Sage.
That question doesn’t keep office hours. It shows up on the drive home. In the quiet after a hard board meeting. At the end of a day when you poured everything into the mission and still wonder if you got it right.
If you lead a nonprofit, you know the rest of them:
How do I get to the next level? How do I build a network beyond my own organization? Where do I find the people, the ideas, the resources that would make me better at this? How do I move my vision — and my career — forward inside all of it?
Most leaders try to answer those alone. You don’t have to.
NCPC’s 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿 (𝗜𝗟𝗔) exists so San Diego’s nonprofit leaders can stop figuring it out in isolation. Learn alongside peers who get it. Build real relationships. Broaden your perspective and sharpen the skills that make you more effective — for your team, your mission, and yourself.
The next cohort starts in September.
Know someone carrying these questions alone? Send this their way.
Neuroscientists have vastly underestimated brain cells’ computing power:
A new study shows that each neuron can do multiple computations at once thanks to hundreds of sprawling branches Neurons have hundreds of treelike branches that receive signals from neighboring cells. One of the central mysteries of the brain is how it achieves so much with so little. At any given moment, it processes an entire world of input, pilots a body and generates conscious experience—all with relatively modest energy demands.
Experts just found a surprisingly easy way to improve your brain at any age:
A new study suggests cognitive decline may not be inevitable Turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks, according to new research into how we might keep our brains healthy. A three-year study of nearly 4,000 adults suggests that there is no ceiling for improving our brains, and cognitive decline is not an inevitable part of the ageing process.
Today more than ever, we need purpose-driven and conscious leaders of all stripes to help us navigate the uncertainties of an everchanging social, economic, and geopolitical landscape.
Academics used to call it a VUCA world- Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous
Now the pundits are referring to it as a BANI world- Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, and Incomprehensible
But forget the brainiacs and theoreticians, how are you experiencing this moment?
This week’s missive explores leadership including local and impactful options to upskill your meta-competencies in the leadership sphere.
You’ve got this and we need YOU!
A Stanford Business School Professor Just Gave the Best Definition of Leadership I’ve Ever Heard
What Causes Poor Leadership? Research Points to Four Leadership Failures
A CEO Should Only Do 3 Things. Delegate Everything Else
The one surprising habit shared by the world’s best decision-makers, according to psychologists
Steve Jobs Said Great Leaders Make One Difficult Choice Most Managers Avoid
+ 𝗛𝗼𝘄 D𝗼 𝗜 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮 B𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 L𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿, Right Here in San Diego?
That last question doesn’t keep office hours. It shows up on the drive home. In the quiet after a hard board meeting. At the end of a day when you poured everything into the mission and still wonder if you got it right. If you lead, you know the rest of them:
How do I get to the next level? How do I build a network beyond my own organization? Where do I find the people, the ideas, the resources that would make me better at this? How do I move my vision — and my career — forward inside all of it?
Most leaders try to answer those alone. You don’t have to… (read on)
A Stanford Business School Professor Just Gave the Best Definition of Leadership I’ve Ever Heard:
It has nothing to do with strategy, charisma, or vision. It’s about something much simpler.
“Great leaders are people who think of themselves as trustees of other people’s time.”
What Causes Poor Leadership? Research Points to Four Leadership Failures:
Companies create many of their own leadership problems by promoting capable people without preparing them to lead. What if the biggest leadership problem in your company is not a shortage of talented people, but the way you select, promote, and develop managers? Poor leaders are not bad people. Many are smart, hardworking, and technically gifted.
A CEO Should Only Do 3 Things. Delegate Everything Else:
This idea reorganized my entire working life. It fits on an index card. I’ve founded seven companies, and for the first few of them, I wasn’t the best CEO. Not because I lacked effort — because I was drowning in it. I wrote the marketing copy, tweaked the proposals, sat in on every interview, and answered emails at midnight like it was a badge of honor…
The one surprising habit shared by the world’s best decision-makers, according to psychologists:
It’s time to start thinking about doing some thinking about thinking. There’s a scene in the UK mockumentary series Cunk on Earth where the ill-informed investigative reporter Philomena Cunk is in a museum, looking at busts of Greek philosophers. Philosophy, she explains, “is basically thinking about thinking, which sounds like a waste of time, because it is.” It’s a funny observation, but as usual, Cunk is wrong.
Steve Jobs Said Great Leaders Make One Difficult Choice Most Managers Avoid:
Making people better requires high standards, honest feedback, and a workplace where people are not afraid of the boss. Apple CEO Steve Jobs speaks at All Things Digital June 1, 2010, in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. Jobs spoke about where he thought the industry was headed. There is a dangerous idea floating around the workplace: If you care about employees, you should avoid making them uncomfortable. That sounds compassionate. Sometimes it is…
All fine and dandy but, what do YOU plan to do about it?
Leadership
𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝗜 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿?
That question doesn’t keep office hours.
It shows up on the drive home. In the quiet after a hard board meeting. At the end of a day when you poured everything into the mission and still wonder if you got it right.
If you lead a nonprofit, you know the rest of them:
How do I get to the next level? How do I build a network beyond my own organization? Where do I find the people, the ideas, the resources that would make me better at this? How do I move my vision — and my career — forward inside all of it?
Most leaders try to answer those alone. You don’t have to.
NCPC’s 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿 (𝗜𝗟𝗔) exists so San Diego’s nonprofit leaders can stop figuring it out in isolation. Learn alongside peers who get it. Build real relationships. Broaden your perspective and sharpen the skills that make you more effective — for your team, your mission, and yourself.
The next cohort starts in September.
Know someone carrying these questions alone? Send this their way.
Science Says 1 Emotion Best Predicts Whether You Will Someday Feel You Lived a Meaningful Life:
Your Brain Forgets Your Wins. A Brag Folder Can Help
1 Simple Mental Habit Gives You a Happier Life, According to a Study of 51,000 People
A Trauma Practitioner Says These 4 Hobbies Can Help Ease Anxiety
+ 35 delightful images from the 2026 International Pet Photography Awards
Science Says 1 Emotion Best Predicts Whether You Will Someday Feel You Lived a Meaningful Life:
The key to feeling your life has, and had, meaning? Hope. Jul 24, 2026 Maybe you’re reading this because you sometimes imagine sitting on your metaphorical front porch, thinking back on your life. While Jeff Bezos says the last thing you want to feel is regret over chances you didn’t take, more likely you’ll consider whether your life had meaning. More likely, you’re reading this because you currently sometimes ask yourself whether your life has meaning. How do you answer that question?
Your Brain Forgets Your Wins. A Brag Folder Can Help:
You’ve probably saved plenty of things you’ll never need again: old tax returns, the assembly instructions for a bookshelf you built a decade ago, screenshots of recipes you’ll never cook. But when it comes to evidence of what you’ve done well—whether that’s accomplishing something meaningful, helping someone, or growing in ways that matter—most of us keep surprisingly little. Psychologists say that’s a missed opportunity. And it’s why many recommend keeping what’s known as a brag folder.
1 Simple Mental Habit Gives You a Happier Life, according to a Study of 51,000 People:
Stop trying to crush the competition. Is there a mindset change that could make you both happier and more successful at work? Research suggests that the answer is yes. Seek admiration and rewards for your own accomplishments. Don’t focus on beating out your competition. That may sound like advice a life coach or spiritual leader would give. But it’s backed by science, most recently an analysis of survey responses from 51,070 people all over the world.
A Trauma Practitioner Says These 4 Hobbies Can Help Ease Anxiety:
As someone who’s battled severe anxiety and OCD since I was six years old, one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned over time was the importance of engaging in calming hobbies. Activities like reading, writing, and yoga have helped me in ways that talk therapy never could.
35 delightful images from the 2026 International Pet Photography Awards:
35 delightful images from the 2026 International Pet Photography Awards From dogs defying gravity to prim and proper cats. If you share a home with a pet, it’s likely you’ve filled your camera with photos of your furry (or feathered or scaly) friend. We humans love documenting the antics of our animal companions. The International Pet Photography Awards celebrates our quest to capture the perfect snapshot of our beloved pets
