If the happenings of the past week have got you down, perhaps this list can cheer you up a bit. Here we only talk about stories that are positive, amusing, or inspirational. Meanwhile, you can also check the Saturday offbeat list for a glimpse at some of the most bizarre news items that made the headlines.

This week, we look at a few commendable stories regarding children who impressed with their skills or heroics. There are also a few touching reunions. A boy in the hospital is comforted by the arrival of his canine best friend, while a musician reunites with his long-lost guitar after almost 50 years apart.

10 Reunited And It Feels So Good

Canadian rocker Myles Goodwyn was reunited with his beloved Gibson Melody Maker guitar. He thought it had been destroyed 46 years ago.

Back in the early ’70s, Goodwyn was still an unknown musician trying to make it big. His career took a turn when he got his hands on a new Gibson guitar. He customized it and then used it to write and perform most of the songs for April Wine’s first two albums.

The Melody Maker was the only guitar Goodwyn used, but he thought it was lost forever in 1973. While touring in Montreal, the truck that carried all the gear crashed. The guitarist was not able to inspect the wreckage but was told that his beloved Melody Maker had suffered a broken neck.^[1]

Obviously, Goodwyn has played other guitars since then. But he still inquired online about the Gibson every once in a while, hoping that perhaps someone took it from the crash. His persistence paid off. Last year, on the day before Christmas, he received a message saying that the Melody Maker was at an address in Victoria, British Columbia.

After 46 years apart, Goodwyn was reunited with his cherished guitar. The artist is still piecing together the history of the instrument, but it has changed hands multiple times over the last five decades. Fortunately, most owners treated it as a collectible or a showpiece and never actually played it. Therefore, the Melody Maker sounds like it did the day Goodwyn lost it.

9 The World’s Youngest Go Pro

Nine-year-old Japanese girl Sumire Nakamura is set to become the world’s youngest professional Go player.

In recent times, Japan has instituted a program that encourages new generations to start playing Go to compete with Chinese and Korean challengers in international competitions. Sumire will become the youngest person to play Go professionally when she debuts in her first tournament on April 1.

The girl from Osaka started playing the ancient board game when she was three years old. She was inspired by her father, Shinya, who also plays Go professionally and won a national title in 1998. Japanese Go officials are hopeful that Sumire’s involvement will help boost the popularity of the strategic game, mirroring how the success of Sota Fujii brought renewed interest to the game of shogi, popularly known as Japanese chess.^[2]

8 How Friendly Are Canadians?

As far as national stereotypes go, Canadians have it pretty good. They are known for being exceedingly friendly and apologetic. One person from Saskatchewan decided to put this to the test and spent most of 2018 walking from one corner of Canada to the other.

Zayell Johnston is a 27-year-old man from Yorkton, Saskatchewan. For years, he fantasized about trekking through the great outdoors. He wanted to see for himself if Canada was truly “the best country in the world with the friendliest people.”

In February 2018, Zayell set off on his gargantuan quest. He started in Victoria, British Columbia, where he splashed his face with water from the Pacific Ocean. Nine months later, Johnston ended his journey by splashing ocean water from the Atlantic. During that time, he walked 9,000 kilometers (5,590 mi) or, according to his Fitbit, 11.8 million steps.

The people he met along the way did not disappoint. Zayell set out with only $7,000 for food, equipment, and other necessities. And yet he hardly ever found himself in need of a place to sleep or extra supplies.

An elderly couple in Calgary was the first to offer him a place to stay. As Zayell documented his entire journey on social media, more and more people came forward wanting to help. He found it strange that everybody in Newfoundland offered him coffee.^[3]

Weather was Johnston’s biggest foe as several blizzards forced him to hunker down and wait for them to pass. He was stuck for a whole month near the Coquihalla Highway, but a stranger helped him get a job at a ski resort.

7 Netflix And Heat

A young boy from Delaware saved his mom from a fire after staying up late to watch Netflix against her orders.

Thirteen-year-old Damir Border did what all of us did at one point or another during our childhoods. He stayed up past his bedtime. In Damir’s case, it was to watch The Flash on Netflix. At around 1:00 AM, a faulty breaker box outside the Border mobile home caused a spark in an outlet which soon caught fire.

The boy’s mother, Angela, was sleeping while his father, Rich, was at work. If Damir hadn’t still been awake, the home and everybody in it would have gone up in flames. As it happened, Damir spotted the fire, was able to wake up his mom, and then called 911.

The two escaped the inferno in time, and people in the community are already collecting donations to help them replace necessary items lost in the blaze.^[4]

6 Iguanas In The Galapagos Again

For the first time since Charles Darwin visited in 1835, Santiago Island in the Galapagos has iguanas on it again following a mass reintroduction.

Over 1,400 Galapagos land iguanas have been released on the island after being wiped out almost 200 years ago. Once an important member of the island’s ecosystem, the reptile was killed off by predators introduced by humans, particularly the feral pig. The last recorded mention of the iguana was made by Charles Darwin during the iconic voyage of the HMS Beagle.

Since then, those unnatural predators have been eradicated. So the iguana should be able to thrive again and help the environment by dispersing seeds and clearing open spaces of vegetation.^[5]

Furthermore, the initiative should also protect the iguana population on nearby North Seymour Island where the reptiles came from. That island has the opposite problem: There are too many iguanas and not enough food to feed them all.

5 A Boy And His Dog

A man drove 3,700 kilometers (2,300 mi) to reunite a sickly boy he’d never met with the child’s beloved puppy.

The holidays have not been particularly joyous for eight-year-old Perryn Miller or his family. While visiting relatives in Utah, he started suffering from painful headaches. During a visit to the hospital, doctors found that Perryn had a brain tumor and required emergency surgery.^[6]

The operation went well, and various people have tried cheering up the boy during his convalescence. His favorite soccer player, Justen Glad, paid him a visit, and the West Valley Police Department named Perryn an officer for the day. But what the kid really wanted was to play with his best friend, an eight-month-old German shepherd named Frank.

There was just one problem. Frank was at the Miller home, 3,700 kilometers (2,300 mi) away in Wilmington, North Carolina. Fortunately, former trucker Bob Reynolds heard about Perryn’s story and drove 52 hours to bring Frank to him. Reynolds had never met the Millers but decided that this was something that he could and wanted to do. Reynolds has already volunteered to make the trip again to bring the dog back home.

4 The Truth About Female Scribes

The discovery of a rare pigment on a medieval set of female teeth provides evidence that nuns and other women monastics of that time were not only literate but also responsible for writing and illustrating manuscripts.

Monks from a thousand years ago get a lot of credit for writing many texts of that era and also providing masterful illustrations. However, most of them didn’t sign their work so we do not really know who did what.

In recent times, new research has suggested that nuns and other female scribes were also actively involved in book production. Tiny flecks of a blue pigment found on 1,000-year-old dental tartar indicate that we know of at least one woman who worked on medieval manuscripts.

The teeth belonged to a woman who lived in Germany between the 10th and 12th centuries and was buried in an all-female monastery. Monica Tromp, one of the paper’s authors, speculates that the staining happened when the woman licked the end of her brush while painting. Alternatively, she could have inhaled powder while preparing the pigment.^[7]

Also notable is the type of pigment found. The blue ink was called ultramarine. It was made from lapis lazuli found in a single region in Afghanistan. It was a luxury good worth its weight in gold. Only the most talented and prized illustrators would have been allowed to work with it.

3 A Doodle Earns A College Scholarship

A second grader won the 10th annual Doodle 4 Google contest with a drawing of dinosaurs shaped to resemble the company’s logo.

Google is known to create special versions of their logo which are displayed on their home page to commemorate holidays, unique events, and people. Once a year, the organization also hosts a competition open to students from kindergarten to the 12th grade to design one of their unique doodles. The winner is decided by a panel of judges. This year, it included guests such as Jimmy Fallon and Kermit the Frog.

Sarah Gomez-Lane from Falls Church, Virginia, came in first place with her dino doodle. The theme for the competition was “What Inspires Me.” Sarah’s drawing reflected her ambitions of becoming a paleontologist.

Fortunately for her, the prize for the contest is a $30,000 college scholarship. In addition, Sarah spent the day with Google’s Doodle Team to transform her drawing into an animated doodle which was featured on the search engine’s home page.^[8]

2 The Happiest Bus Driver In The World

In just 18 months, Patrick Lawson went from being a homeless drug addict with a criminal record to winning an award for being the happiest bus driver in London.

The beginning of Pat’s story is familiar—childhood abuse led to problems with drugs and violence. These led to jail time and homelessness. He lived like this for almost 50 years before hitting rock bottom and deciding that it was time to make a change.

The important part is that Pat actually followed through on his decision. First, he went to the hospital and got treated for his drug addiction. Then he received job training using London’s Single Homeless Project program.

On Pat’s first day as a bus driver, he greeted every passenger. His instructor didn’t think it was going to last. But here we are 18 months later and Pat is still doing it. He loves interacting with his passengers. He particularly enjoys when he has a reason to use the PA system and talk to the entire bus.

As it turns out, Lawson’s passengers appreciate that their driver goes the extra mile. In his first year on the job, 45 people called up the bus company to compliment Pat. This earned him a spot as a finalist for the Top London Bus Driver prize at the UK Bus Awards last year. More time has passed, more people have called up, and now Lawson has won the Hello London Award for Outstanding Customer Service at Transport.^[9]

1 Congratulations! It’s A Baby Black Hole

Scientists exploring the night sky might have serendipitously detected for the first time ever a black hole or a neutron star being born.

Back in June 2018, astronomers saw a bright glow in the sky. They called the unidentified object AT2018cow, better known simply as “The Cow.” They thought it was a nearby event of medium intensity, most likely a white dwarf. However, analyzing its light spectrum revealed that The Cow was much farther away in a galaxy about 200 million light-years away from us. It was certainly not a white dwarf.

The next sensible idea indicated a supernova, but The Cow kept doing “super weird” things that supernovae just don’t do. It was also 10–100 times brighter than your typical supernova and surprisingly brief.

Study lead author Raffaella Margutti, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern University in Illinois, believes their observations indicate that The Cow represents the accretion stage of a black hole or a neutron star. This would be the first time that humans have observed this phase as we typically see these cosmic behemoths millions or even billions of years after they are formed.^[10]

The results were published in The Astrophysical Journal and presented at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society this week. Others have shared their own findings relating to The Cow, and not all of them are in agreement. It remains to be seen in the weeks and months to come if we can conclusively find out the identity of The Cow.

To help you end the week on a positive note, we have gathered into one list all the news that might lift your spirits. This is where you’ll find a nice mix of feel-good stories combined with significant achievements and tales of true togetherness. If you prefer something weird and wacky, check out the offbeat list.

This week, we learn that the world’s loneliest frog has found a girlfriend. A puppy has a miraculous survival, and a man’s life is saved by beer. There are a few potentially “game-changing” medical breakthroughs, an extreme feat of endurance, and a humbling act of forgiveness.

10 Courtroom Clemency

The victim of a DUI hit stunned the courtroom when she not only forgave her attacker but also asked for his help.

Three and a half years ago, Montreal woman Tina Adams went out for a jog and was hit by 22-year-old Jordan Taylor, who was drunk behind the wheel. Nineteen surgeries later, Tina was able to overcome the fractured spine, cracked skull, brain injury, and blood clots she suffered in the crash.

She may have survived, but Adams will deal with pain for the rest of her life. She can no longer become a police officer because of her injuries and may not be able to have children. In the years since the crash, Tina has traveled to schools to talk about her experience and to warn students of the dangers of drunk driving.

She surprised everyone when she asked Taylor to join her on these school talks during his sentencing hearing.^[1] Tina believes that having the guy who hit her there will have a huge impact on the students. She had thought about doing this for a while but wanted to wait until meeting him in court to see if he showed genuine remorse.

9 Romeo Finds His Juliet

A lonely male frog once thought to be the last of his kind finally has a partner after a decade of solitude.

Romeo is a Sehuencas water frog. Ten years ago, conservationists realized that the species was in trouble so they collected him from the wild to place him into a breeding program. However, they couldn’t find a female suitable for him. Romeo was left in isolation in a Bolivian aquarium.

Now he is no longer alone. A recent expedition into the wilderness of Bolivia turned up five new Sehuencas water frogs—three males and two females. One of them, named Juliet, will be placed with Romeo in the hopes that they will breed together. At the moment, all the new amphibians are still in quarantine.

Herpetologists are hoping that opposites will attract when the two finally meet. Their personalities seem to be antithetical to each other. While Romeo is calm, slow, and doesn’t move around a lot, Juliet is very active, swims constantly, and eats everything in sight.^[2]

8 The Chief And The Good Samaritan

Last Saturday, the Kansas City Chiefs scored a playoff victory over the Indianapolis Colts and made their way to the AFC Championship Game later today. However, things might have turned out differently were it not for a Good Samaritan who stopped to lend a helping hand.

Hours before the game was set to start at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, Chiefs offensive lineman Jeff Allen was stuck in the snow. He probably would have missed the match if Dave Cochran hadn’t pulled over in his truck and helped Allen move his vehicle.

As it later turned out, Cochran was homeless and living in his truck. However, that did not stop him from aiding other people, which he considered his “natural habit.” When he pulled over, he didn’t know he was dealing with a Kansas City Chiefs player. He saw someone with Texas plates on his car and figured that he probably wasn’t used to driving in snowy conditions.

Allen was keen to return the favor and took to Twitter the next day to reach out to Cochran. Within a few hours, he was able to contact his snowy savior and give him a couple of tickets to the AFC Championship Game. Cochran admitted that he was only expecting a “thank you” but that Allen’s gesture is “like a dream come true.”^[3]

7 A New Therapy

According to a new study published in the journal Cancer Cell, Swiss researchers from the University of Basel are working on a revolutionary new therapy which can change breast cancer cells into harmless fat cells.

Cancer cells can undergo a process called epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Normally, this is something that makes them incredibly dangerous as it allows them to spread to other types of cells in the body. However, scientists believe that the same mechanism can be used against them.^[4]

During an experiment, researchers injected female mice with an aggressive form of female breast cancer. When the cells started undergoing EMT, the scientists also injected an antidiabetic drug called rosiglitazone and a cancer inhibitor named trametinib.

The combined therapy not only turned the cancer cells into fat cells but also stopped them from proliferating. Moreover, lead author Gerhard Christofori believes that the treatment will have a shorter, easier path to human trials because the drugs involved are already approved.

6 50,000 Cures For Loneliness

With his birthday approaching, World War II navy veteran Duane Sherman was feeling a bit lonely. His daughter asked friends on Facebook if they could send him some well-wishes. He received over 50,000 letters.

At the moment, there are birthday cards, thank you notes, small gifts, and mementos filling postal bins stacked one on top of another all throughout Sherman’s home in Fullerton, California. And that only represents a fraction of the total. He had to store thousands of letters at a friend’s house, and many more bins are still waiting to be picked up at the post office.^[5]

He has received letters from all 50 states and 10 different countries. Some of the senders included the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Secretary of the Navy. The commander of the USS Cowpens even took the vet out to lunch while officers from the San Diego US Navy Sonar School paid him a visit to listen to his stories.

Sherman’s birthday was on December 30, and so far, he has gone through fewer than 2,000 letters. He is legally blind, so his daughter, Sue Morse, has to read them to him. It’s pretty safe to say that they will be busy for the foreseeable future.

5 How To Get Over A Case Of The Mondays

Tomorrow is Blue Monday, considered to be the most miserable day of the year. But is there any truth to this, and are there ways of getting through the day with a smile on your face?

Right off the bat, if you live in the southern hemisphere, you’re off the hook. The cold weather is one of the main factors which contribute to the misery.

The concept of “Blue Monday” came from UK psychologist Cliff Arnall in 2005. It usually falls on the third Monday of the year. Arnall claims to have developed an equation to determine the saddest day using factors such as weather, debt level, time passed since the holidays, and time passed since people broke their New Year’s resolutions.^[6]

The whole thing was actually devised for an ad campaign for vacation company Sky Travel. It has been regularly dismissed as pseudoscience. Even Arnall admitted that he never intended to make the day sound negative but to inspire people to take action.

Let’s say you are feeling down in the dumps. Even if Blue Monday is a myth, seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is real. If you want to lift your spirits, psychologists recommend a bit of exercise, a nice walk outside, and fun, challenging indoor activities.

A healthier diet rich in good fats and antioxidants can also help to prevent depression. There is even light therapy using special SAD lamps to make up for all that sunlight you’re missing during winter.

4 Puppy Drop Has Happy Ending

A tiny puppy miraculously survived a drop from the sky with no serious injuries after being abducted by a hawk.

Last Saturday, construction workers in Austin, Texas, responded to cries belonging to a Chihuahua pooch which weighed less than 0.5 kilograms (1 lb). Wondering how the dog got there in the first place, they looked up and spotted a hawk circling above. They realized that the raptor had picked up the puppy and dropped it from the air.

The workers took the dog to the Austin Animal Center where vets were surprised to discover that the animal had only mild injuries and no broken bones. The worst of the bunch were the puncture wounds caused by the hawk’s talons, but even those will heal up completely in due time. The puppy, now called Tony Hawk, is resting with his foster family and will find a permanent home in a few weeks.^[7]

3 A Game-Changing Transplant

Medical experts are hailing a new procedure for liver transplants as a “game-changer” which will halve the waiting list.

Right now, about a third of all donated livers never make it into a patient. At the same time, 20 percent of people in need of a new liver die on the waiting list. This is due to the normal storage method which uses ice. It causes the organ to deteriorate, and there is only a limited time to transplant it before it becomes unusable.

A new treatment uses normothermic perfusion machines to preserve the liver. They constantly pump the organ with oxygenated blood and nutrients at body temperature so that it can be stored for longer periods of time with no ill effects.^[8]

Moreover, the blood treatment can actually be used to repair livers which have been damaged during removal or have come from elderly or ill donors. Therefore, they allow doctors to use organs which otherwise would have been discarded.

2 A Shattering Performance

New mother Jasmin Paris won the Montane Spine Race along the Pennine Way in the UK, smashing the previous record by over 12 hours.

The 431-kilometer (268 mi) race is one of the most grueling endurance challenges in Europe. Runners go from Derbyshire to the Scottish border, spending around two-thirds of their trek in the dark.

They cover a lot of hilly terrain and have to climb over 13,000 meters (43,000 ft) in total. They have to carry their own kit and supplies and can’t have a support team or runner join them on the course. Competitors carry an emergency button in case they are no longer able to walk.

With a time of 83 hours, 12 minutes, and 23 seconds, Paris became the first woman to win the race and had the fastest time ever—by far. The previous record of 95 hours and 17 minutes was set in 2016 by Eoin Keith.

Just a few checkpoints are allowed during the race, and Paris slept for only three hours during the whole thing. She admitted that she had begun hallucinating by the last day. She saw animals appear out of nowhere and trees doing morning stretches.^[9]

1 Beer Saves Life

Beer can be good for you, and 48-year-old Vietnamese man Nguyen Van Nhat is proof of that. When he came into the hospital unconscious, suffering from methanol poisoning, doctors pumped him with 15 cans of beer and saved his life.

Methanol is a form of alcohol. But it is a very toxic one which is typically found in paints, thinners, cleaning products, and antifreeze rather than beverages. Commercial spirit manufacturers take extra steps to remove methanol from their products, although it can still be found in dangerous quantities in bootleg liquor.

The source of the methanol consumed by Nguyen Van Nhat is unknown, but he had over 1,000 times the recommended limit. Doctors knew that he would die if his liver processed all the methanol in his system. The liver converts the alcohol into formaldehyde which is then broken down into formic acid. Doctors were looking for a way to slow down the process, and they found it with beer.

Beer contains another type of alcohol called ethanol. It is the alcohol found in most consumer drinks in the world. Although it is still toxic, its effects are far milder. As it happens, the liver first processes ethanol and only afterward moves up to methanol.

Therefore, as long as there was beer in Nguyen Van Nhat’s system, his body would not be damaged by the methanol. Doctors transfused 15 cans worth of beer into the patient at a rate of a can per hour, thus giving the dialysis enough time to remove the methanol from his system.^[10]

A new week is on the way, and we want to help you start it off on a happy note. That’s why this list has some of the most inspiring and positive stories that have happened over the last few days. If you would like to read about bizarre and outlandish occurrences instead, check out these offbeat stories.

This week is full of stories of people doing nice things for strangers. There’s a man who gave a ride to a doctor carrying a transplant organ, a kid who shared his peanut butter, and a barber who specialized in customers with dementia. There is also a touching reunion, a man who is an “octopus whisperer,” and a gator that acts as an emotional support animal.

10 See You Later, Wally Gator

A recent visit from Joie Henney to the Glatfelter Community Center in York, Pennsylvania, went viral because he brought along his faithful companion, an emotional support animal named Wally. There’s one catch: Wally is a 1.4-meter-long (4.5 ft) alligator.

Henney rescued Wally about three years ago when he was just a pup. Since then, his upbringing has been more like a dog than a reptile. At first, Wally was scared of everything and everyone, but he slowly became more domesticated.

He likes to follow people around the house, root through the kitchen cupboards, and watch TV. According to Henney, Wally’s favorite movie is The Lion King. He always watches it through to the end and even refuses to eat while the film is on.^[1]

Wally helped Henney deal with his depression, so he thought that the “big teddy bear” would make for a good support companion. Henney brings the gator to schools and senior centers where both young and old have lots of questions and take a lot of pictures.

9 Write A Letter, Win A House

A woman from Canada is awarding her million-dollar home to the winner of a writing contest.

Alla Wagner has a beautiful mansion about 65 kilometers (40 mi) south of Calgary, Alberta. She describes it as a “writer’s or artist’s paradise” with breathtaking, panoramic views of the Rockies. However, her poor health has left her confined to the upper floor. Unable to enjoy the house to its fullest, Wagner decided to sell it. She put it up for C$1.7 million, but there were no buyers. Instead, she decided to award it to a contest winner.^[2]

The competition will go on for at least three months. All participants must write an essay on the topic “Why would moving to this lakefront dream home change your life?” and submit it with a C$25 entry fee. Five hundred finalists will be selected through public voting, and an independent panel of judges will select a winner.

Wagner says she was inspired by similar contests held in recent years, but these raffles don’t always go smoothly. Some were under investigation to determine if they were illegal or rigged, while others were canceled due to lack of entries.

This competition may also be extended or even canceled if it doesn’t gain 60,000 entries to cover the house’s minimum listing amount.

8 Indiana Jones And The Garden Decorations

Just a few months ago, we talked about Arthur Brand, the Dutch art detective billed as the “Indiana Jones of the art world.” Back then, he recovered a sixth-century Byzantine mosaic. Brand is again in the news after finding a pair of seventh-century Visigoth reliefs which have been sitting in someone’s garden for 15 years.

In 2004, the carvings were stolen from the Santa Maria de Lara church near Burgos in northern Spain. The structure is one of the last-surviving Visigoth churches on the Iberian Peninsula, and the reliefs were at least 1,000 years old. They ended up in the hands of a French dealer who sold them as garden ornaments worth £50,000 each to an English noble family living in North London.

After nine years of searching, Brand received a tip from an informant about the artworks. He confronted the unidentified owners, who were shocked to find out the true origins of their garden decorations.^[3]

The nobleman willingly handed the reliefs to Brand. In turn, he gave them back to Spanish officials at their London embassy during a private ceremony on Monday.

7 Transplant Taxi

Somewhere in Pennsylvania, there is a person who received a second chance at life because Brad Dostlik likes to listen to his police radio and felt like doing a good deed.

Dostlik heard an unusual call over the radio—a doctor’s car had broken down while carrying sensitive cargo. That cargo was an organ which was due to be transplanted in just a few hours into 63-year-old Tom Loree at the UPMC Hamot Medical Center in Erie. Knowing that he was close, Dostlik jumped in his car and went to find the stranded surgeon.^[4]

Dr. Martin Wijkstrom was grateful for the assistance as a hospital response team was a long distance away and probably would not have arrived on time. Fortunately, Dostlik had a full tank of gas and was willing to drive the doctor 177 kilometers (110 mi) to reach Loree, who was suffering from kidney failure.

At 1:45 AM, Dostlik received a text that Loree was out of surgery and the transplant had been a success.

6 New Diagnostic Test For Alzheimer’s

Researchers from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Tubingen have developed a blood test which could detect the presence of Alzheimer’s disease over a decade before symptoms start to appear.

The test examines the levels of a protein called neurofilament light chain (NfL) in the blood and spinal fluid. Previous studies suggested a link between increased levels of NfL and brain damage and that the protein could be used as a marker for the progression of neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s.

In a study with over 400 test subjects, the German team found that differences between people genetically predisposed to Alzheimer’s and those without a mutation of interest become apparent 16 years before the onset of symptoms.

Study coauthor Professor Mathias Jucker believes that the test will be useful not only in treating patients as early as possible but also in helping to determine the efficacy of future drugs to treat Alzheimer’s.

Dr. James Pickett, head of research at the Alzheimer’s Society, described the new development as helpful but also pointed out that it had limitations. It only looked at people with a genetic predisposition for the disease and didn’t account for the fact that other health problems such as multiple sclerosis could also increase NfL levels.^[5]

5 Peanut Butter Giveaway

A 15-year-old autistic boy from Virginia is sharing his lifetime supply of peanut butter with government workers affected by the shutdown.

The United States federal government shut down on December 22, 2018, with hundreds of thousands of people required to work without pay while others have been furloughed. Since then, many organizations and private citizens have offered assistance in various ways. (The shutdown officially ended on January 25, 2019.)

One notable helper is Eric McKay from Woodbridge, Virginia. Also known as “Bean,” McKay absolutely loves peanut butter and eats it every day. Therefore, when Lidl had a sale, his mom, Tracy, stocked up on 72 jars.

Inevitably, Bean went through the entire supply. He numbered each jar, took a picture with them, and tweeted it at Lidl. The company was so impressed with Eric’s love for its product that it not only sent him another 72 jars but also promised him a lifetime supply of peanut butter if he garnered 72,000 retweets.^[6]

Last week, Eric reached his goal, partly thanks to author Neil Gaiman who shared the original tweet with his 2.5 million followers. Eric also announced plans to share his winnings with federal workers affected by the shutdown. (That included his father.) They can claim up to three jars of peanut butter from Eric’s “stash” for free by showing their government ID at the Lidl in Dumfries, Virginia.

4 The Octopus Whisperer

An 84-year-old man has spent over 7,800 hours volunteering at the New England Aquarium in Boston and has become known as the “octopus whisperer.”

Twenty-five years ago, Wilson Menashi retired from his career as a chemical engineer. To pass the days, he began visiting the aquarium and started spending time with the cephalopods. He quickly realized that he had a knack for it.^[7]

Even decades later, Menashi admits that he can’t quite explain how he connects so strongly with the octopuses. Senior aquarist Bill Murphy believes that Menashi’s secret involves understanding that each octopus is different and using patience and experimentation to get on its good side.

At the moment, Menashi enjoys interacting with two cephalopods—a three-year-old female named Freya and a younger male called Professor Ludwig Von Drake. The octopus whisperer might go home with suction cup hickeys every day but never with serious injuries. Menashi describes the time spent with the octopuses as “a lifesaver” which gave him purpose after retirement.

3 Barber Services For Dementia Patients

Lenny White has developed a reputation as a dementia-friendly barber who offers his customers the traditional hot towel shave-and-a-haircut and “a bit of dignity.”

White’s career started recently following his divorce. He remembered fondly the time he spent when he was 17 working in a care facility and the knack he had for interacting with dementia patients.

He took a barbering course and volunteered at a senior facility in his hometown of Bangor, Northern Ireland. Lenny created the right atmosphere, complete with traditional barber pole and apron, lemon-scented cologne, and Dean Martin and Elvis Presley playing in the background.^[8]

The staff noticed a huge difference in their patients as even the most agitated men became more easygoing and relaxed. Word of Lenny’s services spread, and now he travels all over the United Kingdom to snip the hair of men with dementia. He even journeyed to New Jersey.

Lenny has added a portable jukebox and a robotic dog to his arsenal and is constantly improving at the “man-banter” he has with his customers. Men come in groups to recreate the camaraderie they felt in their younger days while in line at the barbershop.

Research suggests that what Lenny does is not only uplifting but also therapeutic for people with dementia as they respond well to stimuli which hark back to their younger days.

2 The Medic Meets Baby George

A former Navy medic reunited with the baby he helped to save over six decades ago during the Korean War.

Norm Van Sloun was born in Chaska, Minnesota, and enlisted when he was 21. In 1953, he served aboard the USS Point Cruz as one of only two hospital corpsmen caring for 1,000 soldiers. They became 1,001 after sailors walking through Seoul found a baby dumped in an ash can. He was half-Korean and half-Caucasian with blue eyes and blond hair, so the orphanages turned him away.

The baby was brought aboard ship and placed in the care of the two medics. They named him George Ascom Cruz. A Japanese newspaper first told the story of Baby George which eventually spread to the United States. An iconic photo of Van Sloun feeding the infant made the front pages across the world and was used for morale-boosting promotional material.

Norm cared for George for three months but never knew exactly what had happened to him until recently. His daughters took to social media in an effort to find George, and 66 years later, the two saw each other again.

Vice President Richard Nixon got a visa for Baby George. He was adopted by a Navy surgeon in Spokane, Washington, and became Dan Keenen.^[9]

1 Life Beneath The Ice

For the first time, scientists have explored Lake Mercer, a subglacial body of water in Antarctica covered by a sheet of ice over 1,100 meters (3,500 ft) thick. They thought they might find microbes, but they actually discovered ancient carcasses of tiny animals such as crustaceans and tardigrades.

Mercer is part of a network of hundreds of underground lakes buried beneath the Antarctic ice. It has been undisturbed for thousands of years, even hundreds of thousands of years, depending on when the last warm period occurred where the glaciers receded.

An expedition called Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access (SALSA) has brought together researchers from over a dozen universities to study these untouched environments. Lake Whillans was the first in 2013, and now Mercer is the second.^[10]

To their surprise, scientists found Whillans to be teeming with microbes far more than they expected from a place so isolated from the Sun’s energy. Even so, the findings in Lake Mercer were so staggering that project leader John Priscu had the equipment cleaned and used again because he thought it had been contaminated.

Researchers recovered shells and other bits from crustaceans, one tardigrade, and pieces of fungi. Some of them still had little hairs on them. These are in addition to the countless microbes that live in the lake. While unlikely, SALSA scientists are not completely ruling out the possibility that small animals could still be alive in the lake, feeding off bacteria. Priscu believes that this would be a “real wow moment.”

There is a lot more information to be gleaned from Lake Mercer in the weeks and months to come. Scientists also look at it as an analogous habitat for subglacial biospheres on other worlds such as Mars or Europa. They believe it could provide insight into what kind of life could survive in such conditions.

If the rest of the week has got you down, this might be able to lift your spirits a little. Here, we gather all the stories that amuse, inspire, and encourage in one handy-dandy list. It works well as a complement to Saturday’s offbeat list.

This week has been full of stories of people doing random, small gestures that meant a lot. There’s a runner who carried a puppy, a mechanic who checked on a car by the side of the road, a dispatcher who became a math tutor, and a lawyer who held an umbrella.

10 As Seen On The Office

A man from Tucson, Arizona, used the knowledge he learned from The Office to perform lifesaving CPR on a woman until the paramedics arrived.

Twenty-one-year-old auto shop technician Cross Scott took a client’s car on a test drive when he noticed a sedan pulled over on the side of the road with its hazard lights on. Approaching to see if he could help, he noticed that the female driver was unconscious and slumped over the wheel. Her lips were blue. Scott didn’t have his phone with him, so he flagged down two other motorists who called 911.

In the meantime, Scott dragged the driver out of the car and saw that she had no pulse. He had no first aid experience other than seeing an episode of The Office in which the main character, Michael Scott, tries to teach his employees CPR. His plan goes awry, but he did impart one genuine piece of advice which stuck with Cross Scott—you should perform the chest compressions in time to the beat from “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees.^[1]

The mechanic started singing and performing CPR, and after a minute, the woman took a breath. Paramedics arrived 10 minutes later and told Scott that the driver probably would have died without his help.

9 Shelter From The Rain

Sometimes, small gestures can make a big impact. A Good Samaritan came out in the rain to hold an umbrella for a deputy who was saluting the funeral procession of her fallen comrade.

Last Saturday, the people of Birmingham, Alabama, paid their last respects to Sergeant Wytasha Carter who was killed in the line of duty on January 13. Among them was Jefferson County Deputy Sheriff Tiffany Dial. As she stood in the rain saluting, a man walked up from behind her and held an umbrella above her head.

Witness Meghan Blankenship said he stood there for over 30 minutes and then left without saying a word. Dial didn’t even realize he was behind her as she was caught up in the moment. An online effort identified the man as Shawn Allen, a deputy district attorney for Jefferson County. He later said that he went outside to pay his respects, saw Dial in the rain, and just thought that it would be “a nice thing to do.”^[2]

8 Fundraiser For Fyre Festival Fraud

The Bahamian restaurant owner who lost over $100,000 in the Fyre Festival debacle and subsequently gained it back through donations announced plans to share the excess money with other people who were scammed.

The Fyre Festival was touted as a “luxury music festival” in the Bahamas which was supposed to take place in April and May 2017. People paid thousands of dollars for a ticket and expected lavish accommodations and gourmet food. Instead, they got tents and prepackaged sandwiches. Naturally, a bunch of lawsuits followed. In addition, the man behind the event, Billy McFarland, got six years in prison for wire fraud.

Attendees weren’t the only ones who got scammed. Local Bahamian businesses suffered losses because they worked with the festival organizers and never got paid.

In 2019, two different documentaries about the Fyre Festival came out a few days apart. They highlighted the plight of Maryann Rolle, the owner of the Exuma Point Bar and Grille. Her restaurant prepared thousands of meals without pay, incurring losses of over $100,000.

Since the documentaries came out, a GoFundMe campaign has paid Rolle almost double that in donations. However, instead of keeping the additional funds, she will distribute them to other local business owners who were duped into working for free.^[3]

7 A Promise To An Old Friend

Playwright A.E. Hotchner was finally able to keep a promise he made to Ernest Hemingway over 60 years ago.

Hotchner was well-known in his younger days for his close friendship with the famed novelist. He also wrote Hemingway’s biography and several teleplays for some of the writer’s short stories. Back in 1958, the two went together to see the movie adaptation of The Old Man and the Sea starring Spencer Tracy.

To put it mildly, Hemingway was not happy with the movie. According to Hotchner, the novelist felt that what the moviemakers did to his book was “like p—ing in your father’s beer.” He was particularly angered by the casting of Tracy in the lead role because he looked “like a fat, rich actor trying to play a fisherman.” The two went to a restaurant where Hemingway urged his friend to make his own adaptation of the book some day.

Over the years, Hotchner tried 10 times or more to adapt the book. But he always scrapped his drafts because he felt they weren’t up to snuff. Sixty years later, he was finally able to keep his promise. The 101-year-old playwright’s stage adaptation of The Old Man and the Sea opened on February 1 at the newly renovated Pittsburgh Playhouse.^[4]

6 A Math Emergency

A police dispatcher turned into a temporary math tutor when a child called 911 to ask for help with his homework.

Antonia Bundy was manning an emergency phone line in Lafayette, Indiana, when she received a peculiar call from a young boy. As Antonia was trying to ascertain the emergency, she realized that the boy had experienced a bad day at school. Digging a little deeper, she found out that he was struggling with his homework. Specifically, it was a math problem: What is 3×4 + 1×4?

It was a quiet day in Lafayette, so Bundy had some free time. Instead of chastising the kid for calling 911 and hanging up the phone, she decided to help him since she always enjoyed math in school. She walked him through the steps to solve the problem and found it a nice distraction from the calls she typically has to field.^[5]

5 A Discovery That’s Out Of This World

Japanese amateur astronomers can pat themselves on the back after using small, cheap telescopes to detect a true planetesimal for the first time.

According to our best hypothesis on planet formation, the creation of a star leaves behind a disk of dust and gases. These tiny particles start to clump together, getting bigger and bigger.

When a cosmic object passes that is about 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) in size, it can start pulling in other bodies through gravity. This creates a snowball effect which greatly speeds up the growing process. Those kilometer-sized objects which form the building blocks for protoplanets are called planetesimals.

As they are so small and dim, they have been predicted for decades but haven’t actually been observed. The recently explored Ultima Thule can be considered a planetesimal, but at 31 kilometers (19 mi) long, it is already an aggregate of much smaller building blocks.

Any planetesimals in the solar system are likely to be found in the Kuiper Belt. In fact, a group of scientists from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan studied these Kuiper Belt objects and believe that they have spotted an initial planetesimal with a radius of 1.3 kilometers (0.8 mi).^[6]

They observed the object through occultation. They looked at stars and waited for other objects to pass in front of them and block part of their light. They did this using two 28-centimeter (11 in) telescopes and spotted the body orbiting the Sun at 32 astronomical units.

4 Baloo Lives In North Carolina

In a tale of The Jungle Book come to life, a three-year-old claims to have survived three days in the wilderness thanks to a friendly bear who kept him company.

Last week, young Casey Hathaway went missing in Craven County, North Carolina. During the first night, he endured freezing temperatures, while the second night saw 5 centimeters (2 in) of rain. By the third day, weather conditions had become so bad that authorities had to turn away volunteers.

On Thursday night, they finally found Casey entangled in a patch of thorny bushes. He was cold, soaked, and crying for his mom but otherwise safe. When asked how he made it through his ordeal, Casey claimed he was helped by a bear guardian who stood by him the entire time.^[7]

Suffice it to say that people are a bit skeptical. But at the moment, they are just happy that the boy is back safe.

3 Super Bowl Dream Comes True

Today is the day of Super Bowl LIII as the Los Angeles Rams are taking on the New England Patriots. The Rams will have two special fans showing their love for the team after the Rams surprised one of their own custodians with two tickets to the Super Bowl.

Last Friday started off like a regular day for Alfonso Garcia who works as a facility employee at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. He became nervous when he was told he had to go to the general manager’s office.

Garcia relaxed a little when he saw wide receiver Brandin Cooks waiting for him inside. The player wanted the custodian to know that his efforts to keep the facility in “tip-top shape” did not go unnoticed. Cooks was there to reward Garcia with a special gift—a trip to Super Bowl LIII for Alfonso and his son, Joshua.^[8]

Garcia described the moment as a “dream come true,” saying he had wanted to attend a Super Bowl ever since he was a kid.

2 Egg-Citing Medical Research

Scientists from the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh have genetically modified chickens to lay eggs which contain antiviral, anticancer, and tissue-regenerating proteins.

The concept is not a new one. Japanese scientists have previously introduced genes to chickens which caused them to lay eggs rich in a protein called “interferon beta.” Goats and rabbits have also been genetically modified to produce milk which was used in protein therapies.

However, Scottish researchers claim that their new approach is more efficient, more cost-effective, and produces better yields. It is also between 10 and 100 times cheaper to produce than the traditional method where synthetic proteins are grown in labs.^[9]

One of the scientists, Dr. Lissa Herron, promises that the chickens don’t suffer in any way and, in fact, are quite “pampered” compared to regular farm animals. However, their DNA is modified by introducing the human gene responsible for creating the respective protein into the part of the chicken’s genetic code which produces albumen.

The animal then lays the egg. The white is separated from the yolk and used in drug manufacturing. It takes around three eggs to create one dose, and a chicken can lay up to 300 eggs a year.

The Scottish team realizes that it may take 10–20 years before their technique is permissible for human treatments. In the meantime, they are hopeful that their poultry pharmaceuticals can be used to develop drugs for animal medicine.

1 A Pup Named Chombueng

The Chombueng marathon took place earlier this month in Thailand. Khemjira Klongsanun was just one of the many people who ran the race, but she had a unique handicap for most of the marathon—she was carrying a puppy.

About 11 kilometers (7 mi) into the event, Khemjira noticed runners ahead of her dodging something in the road. It was a tiny, trembling dog. Seeing that there were no houses around and fearing that he might get trampled, she took him with her. Khemjira ran another 30 kilometers (19 mi) and crossed the finish line with the pup in her arms.^[10]

The story didn’t end there, though, as the marathon runner later reached out to the dog’s owner to come forward. Nobody did, so Khemjira adopted him. The newly dubbed “Chombueng” now lives with her and her two other dogs.

If the rest of the week has got you down a little, perhaps this list can cheer you up. Here, we only talk about stories that are positive, amusing, or inspirational. Meanwhile, you can also check the Saturday offbeat list for a glimpse at some of the strangest news items that made the headlines.

This week, we look at a few inspirational stories of people helping other people deal with the extremely cold weather that struck parts of the world. There is also a touching reunion from World War II, a kid philanthropist, a new island rich with life, and the recovery of Sweden’s crown jewels.

10 Chilling At Jamaica Inn

The famed Jamaica Inn in Cornwall, UK, opened its doors to over 100 people who got stranded in the snow.

The traditional inn might be almost 270 years old, but it gained worldwide attention in 1936 following Daphne du Maurier’s novel Jamaica Inn which was turned into a movie of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock a few years later.

Fortunately for travelers, the modern inn underwent a major refurbishment and now has 36 rooms to rent. They came in pretty handy as more and more people trickled into the taproom looking for refuge as a major snowstorm trapped them out on the A30, the third-longest A-road in Britain running WSW from London to Land’s End.

When all was said and done, 140 people, including staff, were crammed into the inn. Strangers were packed five into one bedroom, and 20 makeshift beds were placed in the restaurant and lounge.^[1]

Even so, spirits were high and people were cheerful. Assistant manager Charlotte Barron described it as a “lovely atmosphere” as their guests played board games together and took advantage of the kitchen and bar, which were open until the wee hours of the morning.

The inn was subsequently presented with a Customer Award for Services to the Welfare of Motorists by Highways England for going above and beyond to help those in need.

9 Fair Play Off The Field

A football steward has earned praise for helping a disabled fan of the opposite team get out of his wheelchair to celebrate alongside the rest of the supporters whenever his team scored.

Loviu Ngozulu works as a steward for Shrewsbury Town FC, an English football team from the League One division. His job primarily involves crowd control—dealing with fans who get a bit rowdy or helping people exit during an evacuation.

Last Saturday, his team played against Luton Town FC and got walloped 3–0. Even so, Ngozulu helped a Luton fan get out of his wheelchair so he could join in on the celebrations every time his team scored. Ngozulu’s actions were lauded by both sides. Luton interim boss Mick Harford called it “a touch of class,” while Shrewsbury named Ngozulu “Man of the Match” instead of any of their players.^[2]

8 Neighbor’s Best Friend

Midnight, the four-year-old black Labrador mix, has been spoiled silly with treats after saving her elderly neighbor who fell down in the snow and couldn’t get back up.

A cold snap hit Minnesota last week with temperatures dipping below -17 degrees Celsius (0 °F). When Tim Curfman went to take out the garbage, his dog, Midnight, left the house for a quick frolic in the snow. She made a disturbing discovery in the backyard. The Curfmans’ 87-year-old neighbor, Noreen, was lying in the snow and couldn’t move.^[3]

Midnight went up to Tim and got his attention by staring at him and raising her ears. Seeing as how this was abnormal behavior for her, Curfman realized that something might be wrong. The Lab then led him to the other side of the house where he found Noreen.

The elderly neighbor had fallen while trying to fill the bird feeder. She didn’t have the strength to push herself up, and there was nothing for her to grab onto. Curfman took Noreen inside. She had been lying in the snow in subzero temperatures for about half an hour, but she had suffered no serious injuries or frostbite.

7 Stem Cells Can Produce Insulin

In a medical first, researchers from the University of California San Francisco have managed to transform human stem cells into insulin-producing cells. The breakthrough promises to be a major component in future treatments of type 1 diabetes such as islet cell transplantation.^[4]

At the moment, this method can help people with the disease achieve insulin independence after several years of therapy. However, they need to be constantly injected with immunosuppressant drugs to protect the cells. This lowers their immune system and leaves them vulnerable to infection. Scientists are hopeful that this new discovery will improve the efficacy of the treatment.

Study senior author Matthias Hebrok said that the insulin-producing cells they generated from stem cells look and act like the pancreatic beta cells we have in our bodies. Previous tests have failed to let the cells reach maturity. But a new strategy that separated the pancreatic stem cells from the rest of the pancreas and re-formed them into clusters yielded success.

Although this technique proved efficient on mice, there is still plenty of work to be done before it is ready for humans.

6 Good Samaritan Looks After Chicago’s Homeless

A real estate broker looked after Chicago’s homeless during the cold weather by renting out dozens of rooms at a hotel.

Temperatures dropped well below freezing in the city last week, leaving numerous homeless people in search of a warm bed to outlast the cold snap. Thirty-four-year-old Candice Payne made a “spur-of-the-moment” decision to help them. After searching local hotels for vacancies, she rented out 30 rooms at the Amber Inn.^[5]

Meanwhile, she also reached out on social media for volunteers to help transport the homeless. Soon enough, a convoy of cars and vans was making its way to a tent city where the homeless usually live. Over 100 of them got to enjoy a hot bath and a warm bed for the night.

Better yet, Candice’s act of kindness inspired others to act. She spent around $4,700 of her own money but received over $10,000 more in donations. Also, other people started calling the hotel and paying for more rooms on their own.

The extra funds were used to double the number of booked rooms and to extend the stay from Thursday until Sunday. The manager of the Amber Inn, Robyn Smith, lowered the price to accommodate more people.

Candice also used the money to buy food, toiletries, prenatal vitamins, and snacks and turned them into care packages for the people. She intends to come up with a more permanent way of helping the homeless of Chicago in the future.

5 Navy Buddies Reunited

A few weeks ago, we talked about World War II navy veteran Duane Sherman who was feeling lonely. With his birthday approaching, his daughter, Sue, reached out on Facebook and asked friends to send him some well-wishes. Duane received over 50,000 letters. One of them stood out and led to a reunion with a shipmate he had not seen in almost 75 years.

When all was said and done, the number of birthday cards and messages of gratitude sent to Sherman actually passed 100,000. He has vowed to go through all of them. But as he is legally blind, he has to wait for Sue to read them to him. She has received some help from a group of friends dubbed the “card squad” who stop by and read letters to Duane.^[6]

One of the messages was from 96-year-old Bob Apple. He served alongside Sherman on the USS Lamson. The two last saw each other in 1944 when they had to abandon ship due to a kamikaze attack.

The letter led to talks of a meeting, and the two former navy buddies saw each other for the first in 74 years. Apple brought along a present for Sherman—a painting of the USS Lamson in flames.

4 Sweden Gets Back Its Crown Jewels

Swedish police believe that they have “most likely” found the crown jewels which were stolen last July and are currently working to confirm that they are the genuine articles.

The jewels were on display at Strangnas Cathedral near Stockholm when a group of thieves snatched them and made their getaway via speedboat. They disappeared using a vast network of lakes. The criminals stole two crowns and an orb made of gold, pearls, and precious stones which came from the 1611 funeral regalia of King Karl IX and Queen Christina.^[7]

Officials described the stolen jewels as “invaluable items of national interest” and declared their loss a true “blow” to Sweden. However, one or more of the artifacts have been recovered from a suburb of Stockholm.

Curiously, they were found sitting on top of a rubbish bin, which is why authorities are still working to ensure that they are the real deal. A 22-year-old man is currently facing trial for the theft, but police are still looking for his accomplices.

3 Life Finds A Way

Have you ever wondered how long it would take for nature to lay claim to a piece of land? Scientists explored a new island in Tonga and discovered that life is already thriving on it after a few years.

In late 2014, a submarine volcano erupted and created an island about 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) long. By itself, this isn’t particularly noteworthy as such tiny strips of land emerge frequently. However, they typically don’t last very long.

This one is still going strong. In 150 years, it is just the third of its kind to last more than a few months. Volcanologist Jess Phoenix believes the island’s resiliency comes from the chemical reaction between the ash and the seawater which hardened it more than usual.

It still doesn’t have an official name. People call it Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, named after the two preexisting islands between which it is nestled. Researchers have been keeping an eye on it using satellite images. But in October 2018, they decided it was time to take a firsthand look.

NASA scientist Dan Slayback was among the visitors and described everyone there as “giddy schoolchildren.” The ground was covered in a sticky, light-colored clay. There was plenty of vegetation and blooming flowers and hundreds of nests of sooty terns.^[8]

Studying the island is a unique opportunity for scientists, but they know they have a limited window. Due to erosion caused by heavy rain, the landmass might be gone in a decade or so.

2 Egg Wants To Talk About Mental Health

Eugene the egg used its new platform to reach out to tens of millions of people and promote a mental health campaign.

The story is one that perfectly illustrates the power, the reach, and the apparent randomness of viral media. At the start of the year, a simple picture of an egg appeared on Instagram with the goal of becoming the most liked post in the history of the social media platform. It had to beat a record of 18 million by Kylie Jenner. It gained over 52 million likes.

Since then, the account has posted a few more pictures of Eugene becoming more and more cracked. The last one promised that all would be revealed during Super Bowl weekend.

The reveal came in the form of a video which showed the egg cracking and encouraging people to visit TalkingEgg if they are also feeling the pressure. The site is an aggregator that links to dozens of mental health organizations all over the world.^[9]

1 The Kid Hero Of Arkansas

An 11-year-old “Kid Hero” managed to raise over $70,000 for elderly residents of nursing homes.

Over the summer, fifth-grader Ruby Kate Chitsey spent a lot of time at nursing homes throughout Harrison, Arkansas, because her mother worked there as a nurse. One day, she struck up a conversation with a woman in a wheelchair. The woman was sad because she couldn’t see her dog very often as pet sitter prices were too high.

Since that encounter, Ruby got to thinking about other things that would bring the residents joy. Going from person to person, she asked them for three wishes and wrote down the answers in her notebook. She documented her project on a Facebook page, and her mother, Amanda, started a GoFundMe account in the hopes that they might be able to make a few wishes come true.^[10]

What really shocked Amanda was the simplicity of the requests. People didn’t want fast cars or millions of dollars. They wanted snacks, books, haircuts, and more comfortable pillows. One man wanted pants that fit. Another wanted fresh strawberries.

Fortunately, Ruby’s project got a boost when GoFundMe highlighted her as the “Kid Hero” of the month. She raised over $70,000, which she spent on fulfilling the wishes of residents in five different nursing homes.

Now she even has an assistant in the form of 74-year-old Marilyn Spurlock. Marilyn goes around asking others what else would make them happy which, in turn, fulfills her own wish of feeling useful again.

If anything happened in the news over the last few days that might put a smile on your face, you will probably find it on this list. For the weirder stuff that is likely to bemuse or astound you, check the offbeat list as well.

We have quite a few touching animal stories this week. There’s talk of a hero pit bull, an elusive black leopard, and the adorable pairing of a beagle and a possum. Then there’s also the oldest-known wild bird in the world which became a mom for the 30-something time.

10 Happy Little Impersonators

Texas students organized a Bob Ross flash mob to pay homage to the late art instructor and television host.

Ross started presenting The Joy of Painting in 1983. The show ran for 11 years on PBS, and its host became well-known for his Afro, his calm and soothing voice, and his overall friendly demeanor. It was a far cry from the two decades that Ross had spent in the Air Force as a mean sergeant who screamed at cadets to “scrub the latrine.”

Bob Ross died in 1995. He has experienced a resurgence in popularity over the last few years as the Internet made his show easily accessible and a new generation was exposed to his wholesomeness.

That’s how art teacher Brady Sloane from Madison Middle School in Abilene, Texas, got the idea for a Bob Ross flash mob to reward Advanced Placement students who were stressed out over grades and projects.

Around 50 kids donned wigs and button-down blue shirts and grabbed their palettes of paint to create some “happy little accidents.”^[1]

9 The Pit Bull Protector

Sadie the 11-year-old pit bull escaped her home and brought police back to her house where they detected a gas leak.

One afternoon, residents of a quiet neighborhood in Westchester County, New York, were disturbed by a commotion caused by one dog roaming the streets and barking loudly. Eventually, someone called the authorities. When police showed up, Sadie took off.

Making sure they were still following her, the dog led officers through several streets all the way back to the house where she lives with Serena Costello and her four-year-old daughter. There, police were quickly able to smell gas. They called in the fire department who detected a leak in the basement.^[2]

According to authorities, the leak could have caused an explosion. Sadie’s early detection likely saved her and her family. This was the first time in 11 years that the pit bull had run away from home, and the inside of the house showed signs of her determination. There were bloody claw marks as Sadie had to dig out a blocker under a sliding glass door to make her exit.

8 A Greener Earth

A new study from Boston University published in the journal Nature Sustainability used data from NASA to show that the planet is greener now than it was 20 years ago.

Most environmental news seems to be doom and gloom, so it’s good to learn about something positive every now and then. Research showed that the Earth has seen a 5 percent increase of green leaf areas compared to the early 2000s, or roughly 5.18 million square kilometers (2 million mi²) of added greening per year.^[3]

This insight comes to us courtesy of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). It is a NASA instrument which has been aboard two satellites orbiting our planet since the mid-1990s. It can provide information regarding Earth’s vegetation down to a level of 500 meters (1,600 ft) on the ground.

Perhaps even more surprising are the main sources for the greening of the planet: China and India. Both countries have seen significant increases in vegetation thanks to ambitious foresting programs and intensive agriculture.

7 Back In Black

A wildlife photographer snatched a photo of the exceedingly rare wild black leopard, possibly for the first time in over 100 years.

British shutterbug Will Burrard-Lucas traveled to the Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya after hearing reports of sightings of the elusive creature. Such tales are not unheard-of throughout Africa, but the last time someone managed to obtain confirmed photographic evidence was in 1909 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The chances of Burrard-Lucas being the one to obtain a new snapshot were remote, to say the least.

Nevertheless, the wildlife photographer went to Africa and set up his camera traps. The first few days yielded no results. But one morning, he was scrolling through photos taken the previous night and saw a pair of eyes surrounded by darkness.^[4] He had managed to capture multiple images of a leopard whose coat is sooty black due to a pigment adaptation called melanism.

Around the same time, a team of researchers from San Diego Zoo Global traveled to the wilderness camp and managed to capture video footage of a black leopard. Their study discusses both their findings and Burrard-Lucas’s photos.

The claims that these images are the first in over a century have been controversial. A Kenyan newspaper photographed a black leopard in 2013. But study lead author Dr. Nicholas Pilfold says that the animal was not wild and was brought from America as a cub. Another picture from 2007 has recently resurfaced in light of recent events. If genuine, it would predate them all.

6 A Dedicated Mother

The world’s oldest-known wild bird has become a mother again at age 68. Wisdom the Laysan albatross laid an egg back in December, and it hatched earlier this month.

Laysan albatrosses mate for life and only lay one egg per year at most. Since 2006, Wisdom and her partner, Akeakamai, have visited the wildlife refuge center on Midway Atoll in the North Pacific Ocean during mating season.^[5]

According to US Fish and Wildlife, she has raised at least 31 chicks and now has No. 32 to look after. The baby albatross will spend five to six more months in the care of mom and dad before flying out to sea, where it will spend most of its life.

The average life span of the Laysan albatross is 50 years, but Wisdom is at least 68 years old. She was banded in 1956 when she first came to the breeding site on Midway Atoll. As she was ready to mate, scientists estimated that Wisdom was five to six years old. But she could have been older.

5 Mobility Mucus Marks Mind-Blowing Milestone

There have been many notable discoveries in recent times, but scientists are currently excited over a trail of mucus. That’s because this trail is around 2.1 billion years old and represents the oldest-known evidence of mobility.

Researchers made the discovery in the Franceville basin in Gabon. The area is a black shale province and contains remarkably preserved fossils. A few years back, scientists found there what they believed to be the earliest signs of multicellular life informally referred to as the “Gabonionta.” Now they have uncovered fossilized tracks which show how these primitive marine life-forms moved through the mud.^[6]

The tricky part was examining the fossils without destroying them as the tracks were only a few millimeters wide. Scientists used X-rays to image them and then recreated them in 3-D.

They were surprised to find that the tracks were both horizontal and vertical. The horizontal ones were to be expected as the ancient creatures pushed themselves through sediment. However, vertical tracks suggest that the Gabonionta had a more complex system of mobility than expected.

4 Logan’s Little Library

Some kids set up lemonade stands in their yards, while others might prefer tree houses. Logan Brinson opened a library.

Logan is just five years old, but he loves to read. Unfortunately, his tiny village of Alpha, Illinois, did not have a library, so he decided to start one himself. Last summer, he and his parents met with town officials and proposed to organize a lending library.

That’s how Logan’s Little Library came to be.^[7] Installed in front of the Brinsons’ home, the library is a small, wooden, green-painted house which contains a few dozen books. They are available to readers of all ages as long as they only check out one book at a time.

Logan’s initiative proved to be quite popular with the residents of Alpha. They are now planning to open a second lending library near the gazebo in the town center.

3 Molly And Poss

An animal odd couple won over the hearts of Australians after Molly the beagle adopted a baby possum named Poss.

Molly was feeling distraught after losing her litter of puppies during birth, but a new friend jumped into her life. The little marsupial hopped onto the beagle’s back and made herself at home. Molly was a heartbroken mother without her pups, while Poss was a baby most likely abandoned by her own mom. They found each other at the perfect time and formed a symbiotic relationship.

At the moment, the pair is inseparable, which is particularly tricky as Poss is nocturnal. Whenever she feels like a midday nap, Molly stays close by, waiting patiently for her adopted baby to wake up. The beagle’s owners, Elle and Sara Moyle, announced that they have also adopted Poss and will look after the possum for as long as she wants to stay with Molly.^[8]

2 Lost Memories

Eighty-two-year-old Martha Ina Ingham was recently reunited with something she undoubtedly never expected to see again: her old handbag from high school. Among other items were letters which told the story of two boys who both wanted to take Marty to the prom.

Back in 1954, Marty was a student at Jeffersonville High School in Clark County, Indiana. The school was closed down in 1971 but was only recently marked for demolition.

Construction workers were removing cabinets from one of the science classrooms when they found the handbag. Inside were items you would expect a teenage girl to carry, such as lipstick and ID cards. There was also a letter from a boy asking Marty to the prom in case she hadn’t already said “yes” to another boy named Paul.^[9]

School officials enlisted the power of social media to see if they could track down the former student and return her handbag. Fortunately, Jeffersonville is not a big city. Two days later, they announced triumphantly that Marty had been found. Now all we’re waiting for is an update to let us know whom she took to the prom.

1 A Rose For Valentine’s Day

For the past eight years, Seth Stewart and his friends have spent Valentine’s Day delivering roses to widows, military wives, and single women around Spokane, Washington, so they wouldn’t feel lonely.

It all started when Seth and one of his brothers bought two dozen roses to give to their single friends on Valentine’s Day. The community heard of their small act of kindness, and the next year, they received requests.

The tradition got bigger and bigger over the years. In 2019, Stewart hired a group of drivers to deliver more than 550 roses. Now there is a dedicated “Rose Rush” Facebook page to send requests. All roses are free of charge, and every requested recipient gets one. People can even include a personalized message.^[10]

No matter how big the operation gets, Stewart has his own personal list of women who have had an impact on his life. He delivers flowers to them personally, and his first four customers are always the same: his mom and his sisters.

Far too often, the media focuses on negative events while positive news items take a back seat. That’s not the case here as this list covers only stories that inspire, amuse, and uplift. If weirdness is more your thing, you can check out the offbeat list, too.

There are several stories this week of elderly people who prove that age is nothing but a number. A neighborhood bands together to help a deaf girl while a hockey ref fights against Alzheimer’s with a little support from AC/DC.

10 The Senior Junior Ranger

A centenarian became a junior ranger of the Grand Canyon National Park to encourage newer generations to protect and learn about the great outdoors.

Rose Torphy made her first trip to the Grand Canyon back in 1985. Now, on her second visit, she heard about the junior ranger program and wanted to be a part of it. Her parents taught her to care for the land, and in turn, she desires to do the same for other kids.

Although the junior program is intended for children, it is available to everyone from ages four and up. Therefore, Rose was able to enlist even though the 103-year-old is actually older than the national park she has sworn to protect. On February 26, the Grand Canyon will be celebrating 100 years since its designation as a national park.^[1]

9 An Unlikely Savior

A Florida inmate used his criminal expertise for good to rescue a baby trapped inside a locked car.

It all started when the father of the child strapped his one-year-old daughter in the safety seat in the back of his Chevy Tahoe and threw the keys in the front seat. He then exited the SUV and instinctively closed the door. Only then did he realize that he had just locked himself out of the vehicle.

Meanwhile, a group of low-level offenders was repairing medians nearby under the supervision of Pasco County deputies. They heard the commotion and rushed to help. One of them used a coat hanger to jimmy the lock and open the door of the car. The whole thing took about five minutes, and the baby was completely safe.

Her mother, Shadow Lantry, filmed the whole thing and then posted it on social media. She was grateful to the men who had dashed to her rescue, saying that she respects them all.

Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco admitted that such opportunities are rare where a criminal breaks into a car for the right reasons. However, he also extended his appreciation toward the inmates by claiming that they are individuals who have made mistakes but want to “do the right thing in life.”^[2]

8 Rowing Seniors Claim World Record

Two English grandfathers in their early sixties became the oldest duo to row across the Atlantic Ocean while simultaneously raising money for veterans’ charities.

Neil Young and Peter Ketley have the combined age of 123. Despite this, the two former paratroopers were able to row 4,828 kilometers (3,000 mi) from the Canary Islands to Antigua in just 63 days. Moreover, they had no previous rowing experience apart from a year-long training regimen they underwent before departing in December 2018.

Ketley and Young took part in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. Started in 1997 by Sir Chay Blyth as the Atlantic Rowing Race, this endurance event touts itself as the “world’s toughest row.” The aging duo managed to raise over £30,000 to support charities such as Dreams Come True, Support Our Paras, and the Royal British Legion Industries.^[3]

7 It Takes A Village

All the people of a neighborhood in Newton, Massachusetts, have begun learning sign language so that they can communicate with their deaf two-year-old neighbor.

Samantha Savitz is just like many young kids her age: She’s happy, outgoing, and loves to chat up people. There is just one problem, though. Sam is deaf. She knows sign language, but that is not a skill many other people have. Therefore, her attempts at social engagement often go unanswered. Sam is left visibly frustrated, even sad, when she is unable to communicate.

Her neighbors have noticed this and decided to do something about it. They got together, hired a teacher, and began taking American Sign Language classes. The instructor, Rhys McGovern, has been impressed with the kinship and care shown in this community.

Rhys remarked that, in other cases, not even the parents of a deaf child bother learning sign language, let alone the neighbors. Sam’s mother, Glenda Savitz, already sees a difference in her daughter’s behavior and is still looking for a way to express her gratitude for her neighborhood’s “shocking and beautiful” gesture.^[4]

6 One Good Deed Deserves Another

An amateur Canadian hockey ref has been doing marathon skate sessions to raise money and awareness for Alzheimer’s disease. This year’s session came with a surprise donation from his favorite rocker, Angus Young from AC/DC.

Steve McNeil has been skating for charity since 2012 in honor of his mother who died from Alzheimer’s. She was born in 1926, so McNeil skates for 19 hours and 26 minutes in every Canadian city that has an NHL team. Since he started, McNeil has raised over C$40,000, which he donates to the local chapters of the Alzheimer Society.^[5]

Sometimes, it gets really cold and tiresome on the ice. When that happens, Steve has two things to keep him going. He thinks of his mother’s home cooking, and he cranks up AC/DC on his headphones. He has always been a massive fan of the band, but they’ve been on his mind more in recent years after Malcolm Young died of dementia.

Word of Steve McNeil’s efforts reached Malcolm’s brother, AC/DC lead guitarist Angus Young. To show his approval, the rocker donated C$19,260 to the Alzheimer Society of Ontario. The money will be distributed to support music programs for people with dementia across Canada.

5 Remembrance Of Things Past

An antique dealer found a letter from World War I among a stack of old papers she bought for a dollar. It was a “thank you” from Canadian soldier Earl Sorel to the sister of another fighter who had sacrificed his life to save Sorel at the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

Amanda Kehler owns a cafe and antique shop in Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada. She was going through a bunch of recently purchased documents when she found the letter from Sorel, a soldier with the 78th Battalion. It was postmarked May 1917.

The letter detailed the heroics of Sergeant Gorden. He was in charge of a platoon at the Battle of Vimy Ridge on April 9, 1917. They had pushed for about 1,100 meters (3,600 ft) when Sorel heard a loud “bang” and felt a sharp burning in his back and left arm. He had been shot, but Gorden carried him to a shell hole.

Sorel was eventually taken to a dressing station and survived his injuries. He found out the next day that Gorden had been killed in the charge. However, Sorel wanted the sergeant’s sister to know that her brother “died a hero, along with many others that day.”^[6]

4 Grateful Like Gary

Celebrities and veterans banded together this week to create a heartwarming video thanking actor Gary Sinise for all the charity work he has done to benefit military families and first responders.

Titled #GratefulLikeGary, the video was made to surprise Sinise after the release of his book Grateful American: A Journey From Self To Service. Jay Leno, Rob Lowe, Robert De Niro, and Steve Buscemi are just a few of the actors who appeared in the clip alongside many firefighters and soldiers.

Sinise became involved with charity work for veterans after starring as Lt. Dan in Forrest Gump, which is celebrating 25 years since its release later this year. He founded the Gary Sinise Foundation which raises around $30 million a year for veterans.

He also built dozens of smart homes for soldiers with disabilities and organized over 400 benefit concerts. He is even part of a cover group called the Lt. Dan Band which does USO shows.

Fittingly, the tribute video ends with his Forrest Gump costar Tom Hanks saying simply, “Thanks, Lt. Dan.”^[7]

3 Back From Extinction

It has been a good week for large species of animals thought to be extinct. The world’s biggest bee has been found alive in Indonesia, and a giant Galapagos tortoise was sighted for the first time in over 100 years.

Megachile pluto is also known as Wallace’s giant bee, named after Alfred Russel Wallace who first collected and described it in 1858. The female can reach a length of 3.8 centimeters (1.5 in) with a wingspan over 6 centimeters (2.5 in) long.

It was considered extinct in modern times until scientists found a few specimens in the Indonesian Bacan Islands in 1981. Then the species was not seen again and was feared extinct once more.

This January, however, a team of wildlife experts journeyed to the North Moluccas islands and caught sight of Wallace’s giant bee once again. They only found one female, but it was enough to give them hope that the insect is still thriving in areas left alone by man.

On the Galapagos island of Fernandina, a scientific expedition found a tortoise species not seen since 1906. According to the Ecuadorian government, researchers found an adult female Fernandina giant tortoise believed to be over a century old.

Moreover, they also discovered tracks and scents which suggest that she is not the only one of her species still around. Conservationists are hoping to find other tortoises, including males, to start a breeding program.^[8]

2 The Crochet Whiz Kid

An 11-year-old kid from La Crosse, Wisconsin, has won over the online world thanks to his mad skills at crochet.

It’s not exactly a typical pastime for young boys, but Jonah Larson’s newfound fame has turned him into an ambassador of the crochet world. He started learning when he was five years old by watching YouTube videos. Jonah quickly discovered that he had a knack for it, and now he gives his own online lessons.

The young man also started selling his creations through his own crochet business called Jonah’s Hands. His story went viral after being recently featured in a local paper, and Jonah had to temporarily stop taking requests to fulfill a backlog of over 2,500 orders. He also makes sure to give back to the community and regularly donates money and goods to the Ethiopian orphanage from which he was adopted.

Right now, Jonah is happy with his role of introducing new generations to crochet. His ambition, however, is to put his skillful hands to a different use in the future as he wants to become a surgeon.^[9]

1 Flyby For Fallen Soldiers

The story of one man’s dedication led to 10,000 people attending a flyby over Endcliffe Park, Sheffield, to honor 10 American airmen who died there in 1944.

It all began in early January when BBC presenter Dan Walker was walking his dog and ran into octogenarian Tony Foulds. The latter was tending to a memorial dedicated to the crew of US bomber Mi Amigo. On February 22, 1944, the plane was coming back from a bombing run. It crashed into the woodlands of Endcliffe Park, and all 10 men aboard died.

Foulds was there that day. He was an eight-year-old boy playing with his mates in the open field. He feels guilty about the crash because he believes the pilot wanted to land in the field but veered at the last moment to avoid smashing into the children. Since then, Foulds has spent decades looking after the memorial.

Walker told Tony’s story and began campaigning for a flyby to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the crash. Word spread on social media, and the campaign was a success. On Friday, Foulds was joined by around 10,000 people who gathered to witness American and British aircraft take off from RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk and do a flyby over the park.^[10]

March is here, and we want to start you off on a happy note. That’s why this list has some of the more inspiring and amusing stories that happened over the last few days. If you would also like to read about bizarre and outlandish occurrences, check out the offbeat list right here.

This week is about extremes as we cover stories about people at the opposite ends of the age spectrum. One pensioner spends his days scouring the streets for coins to donate, and a centenarian grandmother goes skydiving.

Meanwhile, a teenager becomes the youngest person to achieve nuclear fusion, a record-breaking preemie goes home, and a 12-year-old budding reporter displays the kind of doggedness you want to see in that line of work. There are also dogs and a fat rat.

10 The Penny-Pincher

A Canadian pensioner has a unique way of spending his free time: He scours the streets of Montreal looking for spare change to collect and donate.

Young S. New has a simple philosophy taught by his father back in Korea: Respect the penny. Therefore, after he retired, he started a new hobby. He would walk the streets of his neighborhood in the west end of the city looking for discarded change. He considered it good exercise, plus it helped him do his good deed for the day.

New has been doing this for 12 years. Other people started joining in, and he even started his own club called the Montreal Hainneville Collectors (MHC). For the first several years, the collected money would be split between New’s church and the Gazette Christmas Fund. Nowadays, he prefers to give the money directly to the homeless.^[1]

9 Jackson’s Laboratory

An American teenager and nuclear engineering hobbyist might have become the youngest-known person in the world to achieve nuclear fusion.

Despite being only 14 years old, Jackson Oswalt from Memphis, Tennessee, is a regular contributor to the forum of the Open Source Fusor Research Consortium. Using about $10,000 worth of equipment bought on eBay, he converted an old playroom in his parents’ house into a nuclear laboratory.^[2]

According to posts on the forum, Jackson successfully managed to heat up deuterium gas and fuse the nuclei to release energy, thus creating a nuclear reaction. He did this in early January 2018 when he was just 12 years old.

While the hobbyist research consortium acknowledges Oswalt’s achievement, it would have to be verified by an official organization and published in an academic journal before being accepted by the scientific community. If this happens, then Jackson will become the youngest recognized individual to attain nuclear fusion, surpassing previous record holder Taylor Wilson who did it when he was 14 years old.

8 Bad Person Doing A Nice Thing?

A stranger did his good deed for the day when he walked up to a Girl Scout troop selling cookies and bought their entire supply so that they could get out of the cold.

Last Friday, Troop 1574 from Greenville, South Carolina, was dutifully selling Girl Scout cookies even though it was 1 degree Celsius (34 °F) outside. Kayla Dillard, one of the girls’ mothers, was with them to act as “cookie manager.”

A Good Samaritan walked up to their table. First, he bought seven packs of treats and paid $40, telling the girls to keep the change. He then changed his mind, came back, and purchased the rest of the cookies so the scouts could pack up and leave early. He spent another $540 on cookies.^[3]

The troop sold over 220 cookie packages that night. Most of them went to the stranger, who didn’t even give his name, although he did pose for a picture with two of the scouts.

This story took an unexpected turn this week. After his photo went viral, the man later identified as Detric McGowan was arrested in a DEA bust on multiple federal drug charges.

7 Firefighters Mount Rodent Rescue

German firefighters from the town of Bensheim received an unusual request for help this week. A chubby rat didn’t quite get rid of all her extra winter weight and got stuck in the hole of a manhole cover.

The first to spot the distressed rodent was a little girl. She contacted animal rescuer Michael Sehr. When he couldn’t get the animal out on his own, he got in touch with the fire department. Eight volunteer firefighters turned up to save the day, although truth be told, most of them sat around watching or filming the bizarre rescue operation.

The trick wasn’t really getting the rat out of the hole but doing it in such a way that neither the rat nor the firefighters were injured. One of them secured the animal in place while others lifted the manhole cover and propped it up with wedges. Sehr then popped the rotund rodent out of the hole and released her back into the sewer.^[4]

Some wondered why anyone would go to all this effort just to save a rat, although the fire department’s Facebook page also attracted hundreds of comments praising the work of the firefighters. As for Michael Sehr, he got his thanks in the form of a hand-drawn picture of the rat surrounded by hearts, courtesy of the little girl who first found the trapped animal.

6 Grandma Takes To The Skies

A new centenarian celebrated her 100th birthday by going skydiving for the first time.

Jane Haynes is not your average pensioner. Her daughter, Patricia, says that “[Jane’s] life began at 60.”^[5] That is when Jane decided to live out her remaining years to the fullest and started going on one adventure after another. She went hiking in the Grand Canyon, explored the Mayan ruins of Guatemala, and went whitewater rafting in Alaska.

Recently, Jane had her sights set on a new challenge—skydiving. She had wanted to try it ever since she saw her granddaughter do it. What better opportunity for this than her 100th birthday?

Jane visited Skydive Arizona in Eloy and did a tandem jump from 4,000 meters (13,000 ft). She landed safely and is probably already thinking of the next thing to try.

5 Sully’s New Gig

Sully, the former service dog of President George H.W. Bush, has found a new job with the US Navy helping veterans at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

The yellow Labrador received his training and certification as a service dog from a nonprofit organization named America’s VetDogs. Following the death of Barbara Bush in April 2018, Sully became the companion of George Bush Sr. After Bush also died in November 2018, his dog gained international fame after an image of Sully resting beside his master’s coffin went viral.

Now Sully will work at the medical center alongside other service dogs. His duties will include interacting with both staff and patients to reduce stress and increase their well-being.

The Labrador was appointed to the rank of hospital corpsman second class in a ceremony where he also received his new “military uniform” in the form of a vest. His personalized oath of enlistment stated that Sully will “comfort and cure warriors and their families, active and retired” and will do so freely “without any promise of treats or tummy rubs.”^[6]

4 Open For Business

Staff from a grocery store in Canada accidentally left the supermarket completely unattended with the doors unlocked. You might think this would be a recipe for chaos, but it turned out to be a stunning display of honesty.

February 18 was Family Day in Canada. In honor of the holiday, the Food Basics supermarket in Kingston, Ontario, was supposed to be closed. No employees showed up for work, but the doors had been left unlocked. Customers soon started appearing and entered the store to do some shopping. Before long, they realized that they were completely unattended.

For dishonest people, this could have been the perfect opportunity to get a few weeks’ worth of shopping done for free. That’s not what happened here. Customers left confused, perhaps a bit annoyed, but empty-handed.

According to one eyewitness, he saw a guy exiting the supermarket and carrying two packages of cherry tomatoes. He approached the man asking if he was just planning to take the tomatoes, to which the other shopper replied that he had left $5 on the counter.^[7]

The police were called, and they contacted store management. Staffers arrived in the afternoon and did a quick inventory check. They confirmed that a few other customers had followed the lead of the aforementioned shopper. They wrote lists with the groceries they took and left money on the counters.

3 Tiny Baby Boy Goes Home

A premature baby has become the smallest boy on record to be successfully treated and leave the hospital in good health.

In August, the baby was born at only 24 weeks by emergency C-section at Keio University Hospital in Tokyo, Japan. He weighed only 268 grams (9.45 oz), 6 grams (0.2 oz) less than the previous record holder.

Survival rates for babies under 300 grams (10.6 oz) are not good, and the odds go down further for boys. Doctors are not sure why, but they believe that it has to do with slower lung development.

The boy spent the first five months of his life in the hospital, but against all odds, he survived. After being treated in the intensive care unit, the infant now weighs 3.2 kilograms (7 lbs) and is feeding normally. He was finally able to go home with his family last week.^[8]

2 Fighting For The Fourth Estate

A town in Arizona issued a formal apology to an intrepid 12-year-old reporter after a marshal violated her First Amendment rights.

Hilde Lysiak is not like most girls her age. She has great journalistic ambitions and has started pursuing her dream from a young age. She is already a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.

She has her own online newspaper called the Orange Street News where she edits and posts news items from her town of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. In 2016, Hilde, then nine years old, made the headlines after she covered a murder in her neighborhood, getting an exclusive out hours before other media outlets.

Hilde was recently in Patagonia, Arizona, and she was running down a lead. Town marshal Joseph Patterson approached her. When the young girl identified herself as a reporter, the officer allegedly told her not to give him “any of that freedom of the press stuff.” He then threatened to arrest her and throw her in juvie.^[9]

This would scare off most kids, but Hilde just saw it as a new development. She approached the marshal again and this time caught the meeting on video. He lied to her on camera, saying that it was illegal for her to post the clip online.

The interaction caused a bit of a brouhaha. Following a town council meeting, Patagonia Mayor Andrea Wood apologized to Hilde Lysiak. The girl accepted, glad that she could move forward and get back to covering the news.

1 The Life Of Cuddles

Raised to be a vicious warrior, she was rescued from a fighting ring only to be sentenced to death. She earned a reprieve and did a stint in prison where she earned her PhD. Now she has finally found love and a forever home with a former veteran and retired firefighter. This is the story of Cuddles the pit bull.

In 2015, Cuddles and 20 other pit bulls were recovered when police busted a dog fighting ring in Ontario, Canada. However, an animal behavior expert from the SPCA recommended that all the dogs be put down because they were too aggressive to be re-homed.

The pit bulls became known as the Ontario 21. Animal rights groups protested the death sentence and took the battle to court. After two years, they got a third-party evaluator to come in and do a reassessment of the animals’ behavior. He cleared all but two dogs for retraining.

Cuddles ended up in the care of a nonprofit organization from Florida called the Pit Sisters.^[10] They placed the dog in the Teaching Animals and Inmates Life Skills (TAILS) prison program. Cuddles responded very well to the initiative and graduated with a PhD from the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT) and a Canine Good Citizen certification from the American Kennel Club (AKC).

Late last year, the prison pooch finally found a forever home in New York with Billy Brauer. The 73-year-old former firefighter was looking for companionship after suffering a stroke, and the two hit it off immediately.

If the week has got you down, this list might help lift your spirits. We looked at all the positive, inspiring, and amusing stories that made the headlines over the last few days and put them all into one list. It goes well with a side of quirkiness from our offbeat stories list.

This week comes with a varied panoply of positive tales. There’s a lonely dog that finds a home, two teachers who encourage reading in their own ways, and four teens who help out a sickly neighbor. There is good news from Chichen Itza and a promising development regarding HIV. Two conjoined twins return home, while astronauts prepare for the first all-female spacewalk.

10 A Home For Hector

A two-year-old pooch which was once billed as “Britain’s loneliest dog” has finally found a home.

Hector the lurcher was rescued by the RSPCA back in 2017 over welfare concerns. He went to the Little Valley Animal Shelter in Exeter. That is where he spent the next 500+ days of his life. In the process, Hector became the shelter’s longest-staying resident and also earned the reputation of being the loneliest dog in the country.

This February, staff at the shelter decided to become more proactive to find a home for Hector. They launched a social media campaign. It soon went viral, and hundreds of offers came in from people willing to take in the lovable dog.

Then came the process of going through candidates and finding the right person. The shelter believed that Hector would best benefit from a household with no kids, no other pets, and an owner who can give him plenty of attention.

As it turns out, there was at least one such candidate. Although the shelter did not reveal that person’s identity, it did confirm that Hector now has a “forever home.”^[1]

9 Reading The Fine Print

A 59-year-old teacher earned a nice $10,000 retirement bonus and a few charitable donations all because she read the terms and conditions of her insurance policy.

Donelan Andrews bought a $400 Tin Leg travel policy from Squaremouth, an insurance company based in St. Petersburg, Florida. Andrews describes herself as an “unapologetic nerd,” and she is in the habit of doing something that we all say we do but really don’t. She reads the terms of service of all agreements. Therefore, she printed out her policy and started reviewing it.

On page seven, she noticed something curious. Sandwiched between legal mumbo jumbo was a small section titled “Pays to Read.” It detailed a contest meant to highlight the importance of reading the documents we sign. It also provided instructions on how to claim a grand prize of $10,000. Donelan quickly emailed the company. The next day, she was contacted by a Squaremouth employee who confirmed that she had won the money.^[2]

The company intended to run the contest for a whole year. They didn’t actually expect anyone to win it and were planning to give the money to charity at the end. The contest only lasted for 23 hours.

Even so, 73 other people bought the same kind of policy and could have claimed the prize before Andrews, but none of them read the terms and conditions. To celebrate the teacher’s dedication, Squaremouth also donated $5,000 to each of the two schools where she works and another $10,000 to children’s literacy charity Reading Is Fundamental.

8 Culinary Calamity Creates Cornbread Comeback

Two years ago at the Charleston Wine + Food festival, Stefan DeArmon was a homeless veteran looking for a job with one of the restaurants. At this year’s edition, he is one of the headlining teachers with his own cornbread company.

When DeArmon retired from the US Coast Guard, he wanted to return to his hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, to help out his elderly parents. However, he didn’t have a lot of money so he was placed in a homeless shelter called One80 Place. DeArmon took advantage of the shelter’s recent partnership with the Charleston Wine + Food festival and found work with a barbecue restaurant called Smoke.

DeArmon started as a dishwasher and worked his way up to food preparation. His black chef coat and white undershirt earned him the nickname “Reverend.” One day, he was making a batch of cornbread when he mistakenly poured heavy cream in the batter instead of buttermilk. He feared he might get fired, but his boss, Roland Feldman, told him to bake it anyway.^[3]

The result was a delicious accident which prompted Feldman to start a new business called the Reverend Cornbread Company with DeArmon as his partner.

At the 2019 Charleston Wine + Food festival which took place this week, Reverend taught a baking class. He also makes sure to give back by schooling students at the One80 culinary program and by having his food truck deliver meals to the shelter multiple times a month.

7 Two People Become HIV-Free

A man in London became the second person in the world to be free of HIV following a bone marrow stem cell transplant.

Over 10 years ago, Timothy Brown became the first person to get rid of the virus. In both patients, the “cure” for HIV was incidental. Like Brown, the unidentified London man received a stem cell transplant to treat a form of immune cell cancer. As it happened, both their donors had a rare genetic mutation of the CCR5 gene. This made them HIV-resistant, and even when Brown stopped taking his antiretroviral drugs, he was still able to suppress the virus.^[4]

The same thing happened to the London patient who has been HIV-free for 18 months without medication. Unfortunately, the technique is not viable as a large-scale cure. Even so, Anton Pozniak, president of the International AIDS Society, sees it as critical proof of concept that shows that HIV is curable.

Just a few days after the initial announcement, there was mention of a third cured person at a conference in Seattle. The “Dusseldorf patient” has shown no signs of HIV following three months off antiviral drugs.

6 New Treasure Trove At Chichen Itza

Despite being one of the most famous pre-Columbian archaeological sites in North America, Chichen Itza still has secrets. Researchers recently found an untouched cave full of hundreds of Mayan artifacts.

The cave is located about 2.7 kilometers (1.7 mi) east of the famed El Castillo step pyramid. Local farmers actually first found it back in 1966. They told archaeologist Victor Segovia Pinto. He had the cave sealed and wrote a report about it which was promptly forgotten.

It wasn’t until recently that locals reminded scientists once more about the cave and the treasure trove that rests inside. This time, researchers investigated the site with a bit more aplomb.

The cave contains seven chambers full of small artifacts which the Maya left as offerings to Tlaloc, the god of rain. They include ceramic incense burners, bones, and clay vessels. The archaeological team plans to inspect and leave the artifacts in situ out of respect for local customs.^[5]

Team leader Guillermo de Anda is actually happy that Pinto decided to seal off the cave decades ago without removing any items. This way, de Anda believes that researchers will be able to learn more about the cultural exchanges that took place between the Maya and other civilizations.

5 Tucked-In Tuesdays

An elementary school principal is being praised for starting “Tucked-In Tuesdays” where she reads bedtime stories to her students over Facebook Live.

Dr. Belinda George is still in her first year as principal of Homer Drive Elementary in Beaumont, Texas. Over the Christmas break, she realized she was going to miss her students (whom she calls “scholars”). So she looked for a way to reach out to them even when school is out.

That is where “Tucked-In Tuesdays” came in. Every Tuesday night at 7:30 PM, the principal reads bedtime stories from her living room which anyone can listen to using Facebook. She believes it is important to love and nurture children if you want them to trust you. She sees this as an extra step which can help her build stronger relationships with her students and their families.^[6]

As far as the parents are concerned, they love that George spends time with the children outside of regular hours. Already, the school has seen improvements in its literacy and reading comprehension scores, which many have attributed to “Tucked-In Tuesdays.”

4 Good Neighbors

Four teens met up at 4:30 AM to shovel a neighbor’s driveway so she could go to her dialysis treatment.

The township of Parsippany-Troy Hills in Morris County, New Jersey, has been hit by snowstorms over the last few days. This is a serious problem for Natalie Blair who relies on dialysis treatments because her kidneys are failing.

Fortunately for her, the Lanigans are good neighbors. Normally, Brian Lanigan shoveled her driveway so that Natalie could leave her home. However, when the community was hit by over 20 centimeters (8 in) of snow, Brian was at his job as an EMT.

That is when little brother Patrick stepped in. He called his friends and had a sleepover so they would be ready to shovel her driveway early in the morning. The four of them worked together and cleared the snow in less than 30 minutes. The rest of the world found out about their kindness when proud father Peter Lanigan tweeted a picture of his son whom he described as a “small kid with a big heart.”^[7]

3 Happy Ending For Conjoined Twins

Two conjoined twins from Bhutan arrived back home this week after traveling to Australia to be surgically separated.

Nima and Dawa Pelden were born in 2017 attached at the stomach. They were always facing each other and unable to move independently. The girls and their mother, Bhumchu, were flown to Melbourne in October 2018 after a charity called the Children First Foundation raised the $180,000 necessary to cover the costs of their medical treatment.

A team of 25 doctors, nurses, and anesthetists operated for six hours and managed to successfully separate Nima and Dawa. They were kept under observation during the following months and were finally able to go back home to Bhutan this week.

According to staff at the Melbourne Royal Children’s Hospital, the girls might be separated but they still like being close to each other. Nurses tried to keep them apart, but the sisters would shuffle toward each other and intertwine their legs.^[8]

2 A Historic Spacewalk

March 1 kicked off Women’s History Month. The celebration will end with a notable first as two NASA astronauts will perform the inaugural all-female spacewalk on the International Space Station.

Anne McClain and Christina Koch are scheduled for a spacewalk on March 29. They will be assisted by Lead Flight Director Mary Lawrence and Lead EVA Flight Controller Jackie Kagey who will be providing ground support from NASA’s Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. It is estimated that the spacewalk will last around seven hours, although NASA has not disclosed what tasks the astronauts will perform.^[9]

The event is the result of serendipitous timing rather than any kind of purposeful planning. It will be the second of three spacewalks planned as part of Expedition 59. McClain has been aboard the ISS since December 2018 and will have her first spacewalk on March 22 alongside astronaut Nick Hague. Koch is due to arrive on the ISS on March 14, marking her first trip into space.

1 Sisters Safe And Sound

The story of two young sisters lost in the California woods had a happy ending. After almost two days in the forest, eight-year-old Leia Carrico and her five-year-old sister, Caroline, were found safe by search-and-rescue teams.

Last Friday afternoon, the sisters went for a walk near their rural home in Garberville, Humboldt County. Even though they spend a lot of time outdoors, they became lost in the woods with no food or water. A search team with the Piercy Volunteer Fire Department found them on Sunday about 2.3 kilometers (1.4 mi) away from home. The girls were hungry and cold but uninjured and in fairly good spirits.^[10]

In a later interview, mother Misty Carrico partly credited their survival to the wilderness training they received as part of the 4-H program. The girls were able to find shelter under a fallen branch and drank water from huckleberry leaves. They stayed in the same place knowing that this would increase the chances of them being found.

If you’re feeling a bit down in the dumps, we’ve got the solution. This list focuses only on positive, inspirational, and amusing stories from the last few days, which ensure that you won’t end the week on a sour note. Click here if you also want to read up on the weird happenings.

This week, we have two tales of dogs in the mountains, although one is about a heartwarming rescue while the other shows off one pooch’s steely determination. We also have a few positive accounts from the world of heavy metal. Lastly, we examine some notable feats: a record-breaking row across the Atlantic, the longest calculation of pi, and a viral challenge that’s actually worth doing.

10 A Transcontinental Row

A former Royal Marine with only one leg smashed the record for the fastest unsupported solo row across the Atlantic Ocean while also raising tens of thousands of dollars for veterans’ charities.

Lee Spencer lost his limb in an accident but was adamant about proving that “no-one should be defined by disability.” The 49-year-old father of two from Horrabridge, Devon, made the 6,115-kilometer (3,800 mi) journey from mainland Europe to South America in just 60 days. This not only made him the first disabled person to row from continent to continent, but he also beat the able-bodied record for that route by 36 days.^[1]

During his journey, Spencer slept only two hours per day. He also had to contend with waves over 12 meters (40 ft) high and a bout of gastroenteritis. He set off from Portugal and arrived in Cayenne, French Guiana, on Monday. His trip actually had a slight detour, as Spencer had to stop in the Canary Islands to fix his navigation system.

Back in 2016, Spencer and three other former servicemen became the first team of amputees to cross the Atlantic. This time, his record-setting journey also helped raise over £55,000 ($72,000) for charities near and dear to Spencer’s heart, such as the Royal Marines Charity and the Endeavour Fund.

9 Billy’s Donuts Becomes Big Hit

The power of social media turned a man’s new doughnut shop into a success following a tweet from his son that went viral.

Last Saturday was the grand opening of Billy’s Donuts in Missouri City, Texas. There was only one problem: No one showed up. This left the owner feeling a little down. Trying to drum up some interest, his son, Billy By, posted a few photos on Twitter of his sad dad and his empty doughnut shop.^[2]

Those images resonated with the online community, and the post garnered over a million likes and shares in just a few days. Moreover, customers came in droves to Billy’s Donuts, and the shop has sold out multiple days in a row. Suffice to say that the store has turned into an overnight hit, and Billy’s dad isn’t so sad anymore.

8 A Dedicated Canine Companion

A stray dog named Mera might have accidentally recorded the highest climb for a canine after befriending a mountaineering expedition and scaling almost 7,130 meters (23,390 ft) to the top of Baruntse in Nepal.

Dogs are a pretty common sight at the Everest Base Camp, 5,360 meters (17,600 ft) up. They will even climb to Camp II, which is 6,500 meters (21,300 ft) high. However, Billi Bierling of the Himalayan Database believes this to be the highest recorded climb of a dog according to expedition documents.^[3]

Mera is a 20-kilogram (45 lb) stray who appears to be a cross between a Himalayan sheepdog and a Tibetan mastiff. She joined the expedition when it was already almost 5,200 meters (17,000 ft) up and formed a bond with Don Wargowsky from Seattle, who shared his tent and food with her.

The Sherpas said they have never seen a dog like Mera before, and some even came to believe she was blessed. Clearly, this wasn’t her first climb. She seemed unfazed by the altitude and the precipices and still had energy to play and run even after reaching the summit.

7 The Kazoo Party

Heavy metal vocalist Randy Blythe led a kazoo “counter-party” to drown out a protest by the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC).

The WBC is a controversial church which has often been described as a hate group. It first gained infamy for protesting military funerals with inflammatory slogans such as “Thank God for dead soldiers” and “God hates f—s.” Since then, they have protested pretty much anything that would gain them some attention.

Recently, they intended to stage a protest against Danica Roem, the first transgender person elected to the Virginia State Assembly. This didn’t sit well with Randy Blythe, a resident of Virginia and Roem’s friend. He is best known as the singer for heavy metal band Lamb of God.

Blythe reached out to his followers on social media and invited them to a counter-protest to show the members of the WBC their “famous Southern hospitality.”^[4] He stressed that their gathering would be full of colorful outfits and loud kazoos, their strategy being to simply drown out the protest. He advised attendees not to engage with the WBC in any way, knowing that they are looking for disputes, even fights, because that is when they attract the most publicity.

6 Rescue And Reunion For Family Pet

A helicopter crew with the Inverness Coastguard mounted a daring rescue of a dog that became stranded in the Cairngorms in Scotland.

Ben is a Bichon Frise/Cavalier King Charles mix who went on a trip with his family near Lake Avon. On Monday, he ran away and became lost as snow and storms engulfed the region.

On Wednesday, a team from the Coastguard was doing winter training at nearby Stag Rocks. Crew members spotted Ben stuck on a ridge above a 60-meter (200 ft) vertical drop.^[5] In a moment of serendipity, the weather cleared just in time to organize a rescue.

One of the Coastguard members was lowered from the helicopter, picked up the pooch, and lifted him up to safety. Ben was scared and cold, as his fur was caked in snow, but uninjured. A vet gave him a quick checkup before reuniting him with his family.

5 Happy Birthday, Billboard Dad

A 62-year-old man from New Jersey has received tens of thousands of birthday greetings after his sons put up a billboard asking strangers to wish him a happy birthday.

Michael and Chris Ferry are in Florida right now and couldn’t be with their father, Chris Sr., in Linwood, New Jersey, to celebrate his birthday. Even so, they decided they would give him one to remember. They rented a billboard with their dad’s face and phone number on it and simply asked people to wish him a happy birthday.

Chris first got wind of his sons’ plan when he received a greeting from a man named Nick. When asked how he knew Chris’s birthday was coming up, the stranger replied that he saw it on a billboard. Since then, tens of thousands of people from all over the world have called or texted Chris Ferry to commemorate his birthday. Some of them shared anecdotes about their own fathers or mentioned persons who shared Chris’s birthday. He even got recognized in public a few times by people who call him the “billboard dad.”^[6]

The sons were completely blown away by the response, as they thought only a few locals might take them up on their request. They said the idea originated from a prank they pulled when they were kids. Their dad would take them to restaurants after their hockey games, and they would say it was his birthday so that the waiter would bring him free cake. They already suggested that next year, they might rent a larger billboard.

4 The Biggest Slice Of Pi

This Thursday was Pi Day. Fittingly, a Japanese Google employee broke the world record for the length of the value of Pi by calculating the number to 31 trillion digits. This is nine trillion more than the previous record.

Pi is a special number. It is an irrational number which has been used in mathematics for thousands of years. Nowadays, it still plays a vital role in engineering, physics, and space exploration, among others.

Most of us know it as 3.14, but pi has an infinite number of digits. However, calculating the series of digits in pi is difficult because they don’t follow a set pattern. This has become a favored pastime of mathematicians, who see it as a challenge. Up until recently, the record for longest calculation of pi was 22 trillion digits. However, Emma Haruka Iwao extended it to 31.4 trillion digits.^[7] The number is so long that it would take 332,064 years to say it aloud.

As a Google employee, Emma made use of the company’s resources. It took 25 machines 121 days and 170 terabytes of data to calculate the latest pi. Already, she hopes to expand the number even further in the future.

3 Death Metal Fans Are Nice People

A new study published in the Royal Society’s Open Science journal indicates that death metal music does not incite violence, nor does it desensitize its listeners.

Professor Bill Thompson from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, has been investigating the emotional effects of music for decades. His latest experiment shows that fans of death metal “are nice people” and unlikely to hurt others due to the music they listen to.

The test was based on a phenomenon called “binocular rivalry.”^[8] Eighty people took part: 32 death metal fans and 48 non-fans. They had to look at pairs of images (one for each eye) while listening to music. One image was neutral, while the other one was violent. A normal response focuses more on the violent representation because the brain deems it a threat.

The other part of the test involved listening to music to see if death metal actively changed the subconscious response. First, participants heard the cannibalism-themed track “Eaten” by Bloodbath, a good representation of the genre. Then, they listened to something deemed the complete opposite—“Happy” by Pharrell Williams.

Death metal fans displayed the same bias as regular people. This shows that they still share the same sensitivity to violence as everyone else.

2 Greta Garners Nobel Nomination

On Friday, tens of thousands of students walked out of school and staged protests in over 100 countries to challenge politicians to become more proactive when it comes to climate change. This youth movement started with just one Swedish girl, who has now been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Greta Thunberg is a 16-year-old girl from Stockholm. Back in August of last year, she began a solo demonstration which has since evolved into a global phenomenon. She continued her protest at the UN climate change summit last December and at the 2019 economic conference in Davos.

Greta’s nomination came courtesy of three Norwegian members of parliament.^[9] Under normal circumstances, the names of the nominees and nominators are kept secret for 50 years. Greta is just one of 301 candidates who will be in the running for the Nobel Peace Prize this year. The winners will be announced in October and receive their awards in December.

1 The #TrashTag Challenge

There is a new Internet challenge that has gone viral. Most such trends are often stupid, dangerous, or, at the very least, pointless. But this new movement actually does some good. It is called the #TrashTag Challenge and encourages people to clean up public areas.

The way it works is pretty simple. Participants must clear the litter and garbage from a public spot or a natural space. They must show their work by posting before and after photos, and then they can nominate someone else to clean another space.

The #trashtag idea was actually part of a 2015 campaign developed by outdoors gear retailer UCO.^[10] However, the concept recently picked up global steam after a Reddit thread went viral. Already, there have been tens of thousands of online posts using the #trashtag hashtag which show people cleaning up public areas as part of the challenge.