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]

Keeping up with all the news in the world can be a difficult task for anyone. That’s why we are here to help with a few weekly lists that look at some of the most notable events that occurred recently. Click here to find out about the crucial stories that made the headlines, or read on to find out about some bizarre and unique tales.

We have a few architectural stories this week about the world’s largest 3-D-printed bridge and an ancient stone circle that wasn’t so ancient. Two World War mysteries get answers, and we explore a budding rivalry between Canada and Norway over which country has the largest moose. In the world of cosmology, we have two new ideas to explore—one is about an alternative to the elusive Planet Nine and the other about the origins of black holes.

10 Enter The Moose Wars

A war is brewing between Canada and Norway over which country has the world’s tallest moose statue.

The city of Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan is home to Mac the Moose, a 9.8-meter-tall (32 ft) sculpture which was the largest moose in the world for over 30 years. It lost that title in 2015 when Norwegians from Stor-Elvdal built Storelgen (“The Big Elk”)—a shiny, stainless steel bull built 30 centimeters (12 in) higher with the express purpose of becoming the new tallest moose in the world.

It seems that the Canadians have had enough. Two comedians, Justin Reves and Greg Moore, have pleaded with the people of Moose Jaw to fight back and reclaim the record. They have set up an online fundraiser in the hopes of raising $50,000 to hire an engineer to increase the size of Mac. They have the support of the city’s mayor, Fraser Tolmie, who revealed that the fight is personal for him as the moose was named after his wife’s great-uncle.^[1]

The Scandinavians say there is no chance that they will let this one go. Stor-Elvdal’s deputy mayor, Linda Henriksen, said that they will do whatever they can to ensure that Storelgen keeps the title. They are prepared to double the size of their moose, if need be, but are waiting on the Canadians to act first.

9 The Not-So-Ancient Stone Circle

Scottish archaeologists were shocked to find out that an “ancient” stone circle they had been studying was actually built in the 1990s.

The “recumbent stone circle” in Leochel-Cushnie, Aberdeenshire, was hailed as a unique landmark because it was smaller in size than other similar monuments. Archaeologists discovered it on a farm last year and initially believed it to be 3,500–4,500 years old because that is the time period in which most stone circles were built throughout the northeast of Scotland.

Earlier this month, researchers from Historic Environment Scotland received a disheartening call from the former owner of the farm. He told them that the “ancient” monument was just a replica that he built in the mid-1990s.

Aberdeenshire council spokesman Neil Ackerman described the revelation as “disappointing” but still considers the circle a great addition to the local landscape. The modern replica will be included in official records going forward to prevent any future misidentifications.^[2]

8 The Shepherding Disk Hypothesis

A new study published in The Astronomical Journal proposes an alternative to the mysterious Planet Nine which would account for the bizarre observations made in the Kuiper Belt.

The idea of an undiscovered planet hiding somewhere in the outer solar system appeared when Caltech astronomers discovered icy bodies which were moving together in a doughnut shape as if they were gravitationally tethered to a large object. Later, other researchers found more trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) with eccentric orbits which showed that there was something interfering with their rotation. Scientists speculated that Planet Nine was responsible.

A team from the University of Cambridge and the American University of Beirut opined that, instead of one giant object, the culprit was a massive ice disk comprised of numerous small bodies spread out over a large area. They call this the “shepherding disk hypothesis” and claim that the collective attractions of all those objects would be enough to interfere with the orbits of other TNOs.^[3]

While this is more feasible than an undetected planet, there is yet no observational evidence to support the claim.

7 Like A Prayer

Pope Francis has launched an app which allows Catholics around the world to join him in prayer.

The application is called “Click to Pray” and was launched ahead of World Youth Day 2019. It is currently available in six languages. With the app, users will know exactly when the pope is praying and what he is praying for.^[4]

During a demo from an upstairs window of the Apostolic Palace, the pontiff prayed for Colombia and the Mediterranean Sea, referring to a car bomb that claimed the lives of 20 police cadets and shipwrecks that killed hundreds of migrants in the Mediterranean, respectively.

Catholics can check the pope’s profile on “Click to Pray” to find out his intentions and even click on an icon to indicate that they joined him in prayer.

6 Who Was Spandau #7?

A recent DNA study put to bed an old World War II conspiracy theory which claimed that inmate Spandau #7 was not the real Rudolf Hess but a doppelganger.

One of the leading members of the Nazi Party, Rudolf Hess went to Scotland alone in May 1941. He was arrested, put on trial, and sent to Spandau Prison in 1947. He spent the rest of his life as inmate Spandau #7 until he was found hanged in his cell in 1987.

Some people believe that the prisoner was not the real Hess. They have claimed that there were some physical discrepancies such as the lack of chest scars consistent with his World War I injuries or the lack of a gap in his front teeth.^[5]

Spandau #7 also refused to see relatives until 1969 and, at one point, claimed to have amnesia. There were prominent people who believed Hess had been replaced with a look-alike, including his doctor at Spandau and US President Franklin Roosevelt.

This conspiracy seemed destined to remain a mystery. There were no physical remains to analyze. Hess’s body was cremated and his grave site destroyed when it became a pilgrimage for neo-Nazis.

However, scientists found a blood sample taken from the inmate in 1982. It had been placed on a microscope slide and hermetically sealed for decades. They tracked down a male relative of Hess and compared their DNA. There was a 99.99 percent chance that they were related. Spandau #7 was Rudolf Hess.

5 For Whom The Bell Tolls

From a solved World War II mystery, we travel further back to World War I. Two historians believe that they have identified the Italian soldier who bore the brunt of a mortar attack and inadvertently saved the life of a young Ernest Hemingway.

An 18-year-old Hemingway was serving as a Red Cross volunteer on the battleground along the Piave River on the Austro-Italian front. He was hit by a mortar shell which gravely wounded the young American. Nevertheless, he survived because most of the impact was taken by an Italian soldier who was standing next to him.

American author James McGrath Morris and Italian historian Marino Perissinotto think they have identified the infantryman through the process of elimination. Eighteen Italian soldiers died that night. Fifteen of them were deployed in different parts of the front. Two of the remaining three were with the 152nd regiment a few kilometers behind the front line. That only left a 26-year-old private from Montalcino named Fedele Temperini.^[6]

As further evidence, the two researchers found a military report from an officer at a Red Cross station in the Republic of San Marino. It said that Hemingway was treated alongside an Italian soldier who succumbed to his wounds. The Italian was from the 69th infantry regiment which was Temperini’s unit. The historians are currently lobbying to have Temperini’s name included on a memorial along the Piave River where Hemingway was injured.

4 Monty Strikes Again

Melbourne’s infamous Montague Street Bridge has claimed its first victim of 2019 after 224 days of peace.

The bridge colorfully referred to as “Monty” has a low clearance of just 3 meters (10 ft). Ever since its construction over 100 years ago, it has been the bane of unaware truck drivers who plow into it and get their vehicles stuck under the bridge.

It is hard to say exactly how many collisions have taken place. A website keeps track of how many days have passed since the last crash, but it only goes back to 2016. Even so, it still has 20 entries. That does not count the most recent hit which took place this Tuesday.^[7]

In an effort to put an end to these collisions, Victorian traffic authority VicRoads installed height detection gantries on the main approaches to the bridge with black and yellow paddles. If the top of the truck hits the paddles, that means it will also hit Monty.

In total, 26 different warning signs advise drivers of the bridge’s low clearance. Even so, 14 crashes still occurred since the gantries have been installed. But a VicRoads spokesman feels that “stacks of accidents” have been prevented.

Some accidents are more serious than others. Last month, a bus driver received a five-year sentence after crashing a bus into the bridge and severely injuring six passengers.

3 Toilet Snake

Australia is currently experiencing blistering hot weather, and animals are taking refuge wherever they can. One snake sneaked into the toilet of a home in Brisbane and then bit a woman when she sat on the toilet.

Helen Richards was visiting relatives. In the night, she went to the bathroom without turning on the lights and did not see the 1.5-meter (5 ft) carpet python cooling off in the toilet.

As soon as she sat down, Helen felt a “sharp tap” which made her jump off the seat with her pants around her ankles. When she turned around, she saw something which resembled a “longneck turtle receding back into the bowl.”^[8]

Fortunately for Helen, the snake was nonvenomous and the bites were relatively harmless. She was fine after being treated with an antiseptic, and the snake was removed by a reptile handler.

2 Bridge Over The Small Canal

The longest 3-D-printed bridge in the world is now open to the people of Shanghai.

The concrete bridge is 26 meters (86 ft) long and was constructed by a team from the Tsinghua University School of Architecture in Beijing entirely using 3-D-printing technology. It is located in Shanghai’s Baoshan District and was modeled on the ancient Zhaozhou (Anji) Bridge, which is the oldest standing bridge in China.

The crossing consists of 112 separate concrete units—44 for the body and 68 for the two flowing sides. It also contains monitoring systems which keep track of the internal stress placed on the bridge in real time. According to designer Professor Xu Weiguo, they were all produced in just 450 hours and cost only a third of what a regular bridge of similar size would cost.^[9]

1 Dark Matter Halos Create Black Holes

Given how elusive and mysterious black holes are supposed to be, scientists seem to be discovering new things about these celestial objects every week. This recent finding, however, has the potential to completely rewrite our understanding of the cosmic phenomenon as it suggests that the first massive black holes of the primordial universe were made in halos of dark matter.

The study was published in Nature with backing from NASA, the EU, and the National Science Foundation and is the result of an international effort from researchers from the United States and Ireland. It shows that when galaxies formed very rapidly and very violently, they disrupted the normal formation of stars and triggered the creation of black holes.

This newly discovered mechanism would have been particularly prevalent in halos of dark matter due to their rapid growth. According to one of the paper’s authors, Georgia Tech astrophysics professor John Wise, forming massive black holes requires “being in a rare region with an intense convergence of matter.”^[10]

If this new model is correct, then it shifts away from the previously accepted thinking that massive black holes could only appear when exposed to huge levels of radiation powerful enough to inhibit star formation. It also suggests that they are far more common than we previously thought.

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.

Another week is in the history books, which means we have another week’s worth of bizarre and unique stories to go through. Be sure to also check out the mind-blowing list to get fully up-to-date regarding the important happenings of the last few days.

We cover a few enigmas this week. There is something really strange happening in a tiny Canadian town, while Spanish authorities are trying to determine the mystery owner of a plane sitting in the Madrid airport. A third conundrum is put to rest as archaeologists rediscover the burial ground of an English explorer lost 150 years ago.

In science news, researchers planned one of the most ambitious experiments in history, developed a laser that whispers in your ear, and saw if Spock is wiser than Yoda.

10 Fortunate Folk Find Flinders, Finally

Archaeologists excavating for England’s new High Speed 2 (HS2) railway uncovered the final resting place of Captain Matthew Flinders, an explorer whose burial location was lost to history roughly 150 years ago.

At the start of the 19th century, Flinders led the first European circumnavigation of Australia. In total, he made three trips to the continent and recorded his adventures in a popular book called A Voyage to Terra Australis. He died in 1814 and was buried at St James’s Church in the center of London. Over the following decades, the cemetery saw extensive alterations and was finally turned into St James’s Gardens in 1878. Later, parts of the gardens were built over for the Euston railway station.

By then, people had long forgotten where Flinders was buried, although there was always a myth that the captain was interred below platform 15. That didn’t turn out to be the case, though, as his remains were found while digging for a new high-speed railway. Fortunately, Flinders was buried with a lead breastplate which had not corroded and still had his named engraved on it.^[10]

The remains will, most likely, be reburied at a new location yet to be determined. This spot was just one of 60 archaeological sites along the route of the future HS2 which will be explored before construction can begin.

9 The Ghost Plane Of Madrid

Officials from the Madrid-Barajas Airport in Spain are trying to find out who parked and abandoned a jetliner on their tarmac.

The Madrid airport might be among the largest in Europe, but even for a place of this size, it is unusual to leave an airplane untouched for years. And the aircraft is a McDonnell Douglas MD-87, a jetliner that seats over 100 passengers, so it isn’t exactly tiny.^[2] And yet it has been parked in the same place so long that airport authorities don’t know who owns it anymore.

Airport director Elena Mayoral placed a notice in the official Spanish bulletin regarding the abandoned plane. In accordance with Spanish law, officials must publish these notices for three straight months and then wait a year for the owner to come forward before being able to auction off the plane. So it looks like the aircraft will stay right where it is for the foreseeable future.

8 Vanilla Inebriation

A woman from Connecticut was arrested for driving under the influence of vanilla extract.

If there is one thing to learn from history, it’s that humans have always enjoyed getting wasted. No matter how unusual or unpleasant a substance might be, if it gets you blotto, then there will be someone somewhere willing to try it.

Our latest example is Stefanie Warner-Grise, a 50-year-old woman from New Canaan, Connecticut. Officers investigated a report that she had stopped her car in an intersection and was sitting in the driver’s seat with her eyes closed. A quick chat revealed that she was clearly inebriated, and after a failed sobriety test, she was taken into custody.

As it turned out, Warner-Grise had gotten drunk off vanilla extract.^[3] Officers found several bottles in her car and could smell the scent of vanilla on her breath. Vanilla extract is surprisingly potent. Per US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, the solution must be 35-percent alcohol by volume, at least. The alcohol typically evaporates during cooking, but if you drink it straight up, it is slightly less intoxicating than whiskey.

7 The Whisper Laser

Researchers from MIT have created lasers that can whisper sounds directly into a person’s ear.

The system works based on a phenomenon called the photoacoustic effect, which causes sound waves to form when a material absorbs light. In this case, the material is the water vapor naturally found in air. A 1.9-micrometer thulium laser is pointed at someone’s ear, excites the moisture surrounding it, and is able to quietly transmit a message to that person.

The MIT team experimented with different wavelengths and found the ones which are best absorbed by water. They also developed two techniques of transmitting the signal. One is through traditional modulation, while the other one sweeps the beam back and forth by bouncing it off a mirror. The former method provides higher audio fidelity, while the latter creates a louder message.^[4]

The scientists behind the technology claim the laser is perfectly safe and believe it will have numerous commercial applications in the future. At the moment, the “whisper” beams work at a distance of 2.5 meters (8 ft), so the next goal will be to move up to longer distances.

6 Yoda vs. Spock

Star Wars vs. Star Trek is a decades-old rivalry. Fans of the two iconic sci-fi franchises are always butting heads, but Canadian researchers from the University of Waterloo have stepped in to settle one debate: Who is wiser? Spock or Yoda?

The tiny ancient Jedi and the Vulcan second-in-command are generally considered to be the smartest characters in their respective franchises and have become archetypes of sage wisdom, but is there a way to determine if one is superior to the other?

There is one trait which distinguishes the two—emotion. Spock dismisses anything he considers illogical and refrains from showing almost any emotion, while Yoda teaches his pupils to embrace their feelings and does so himself. Researchers ascertain that a rich emotional life would be beneficial to wisdom, which is why the Jedi master is the wiser of the two.

Psychologist Igor Grossman and his team ran various experiments over four years involving almost 3,700 participants to see how emotional states impacted the reasoning process. They concluded that experiencing a diverse and balanced range of emotions leads to wise reasoning—a state defined by intellectual humility, recognition of different perspectives, and willingness to integrate and compromise.^[5]

5 Enter The Hellevator

A group of Welsh shoppers experienced an ordeal out of a horror movie as they were trapped for 40 minutes in an elevator which repeatedly climbed to the top and then plunged back down again.

Last Saturday, over a dozen people became stuck in a lift at the St David’s Shopping Center in Cardiff. Being trapped in an elevator is nerve-wracking on its own, but this machine kept going to the top of the mall and then forcefully going back down as it jolted all of its occupants. It did this for 40 minutes before a fire brigade was able to get everyone out.^[6] To make matters worse, the helpline was not working for the first ten minutes, so the people stuck inside had no idea what was going on.

Physically, everybody was fine, although they did all receive the fright of their life, and one young girl suffered a panic attack. A spokeswoman for the shopping center didn’t give any reason for the malfunction, simply stating that there were no previous reports of faults with the elevator. For their ordeal, the shoppers were given free parking passes.

4 The 500-Year Experiment

Scientists from the University of Edinburgh have published the initial results from an experiment which is designed to run for the next 495 years.

Back in 2014, a group of researchers from Scotland, Germany, and the United States banded together to study the longevity of bacteria. Charles Cockell, one of the collaborators, once forgot about a petri dish with Chroococcidiopsis, only to find that the cells were still viable ten years later. Other scientists were able to revive bacteria much older than that. So how long do bacteria last for, anyway? And is there a predictable way to calculate the rate of loss of viability?

These are the questions that the research team wants to answer, but even if the experiment succeeds, none of them will be around to enjoy it. That is because the test is scheduled to end in 2514.^[7] They have only just published the initial results following the first two years of waiting.

The experiment consists of 800 glass vials hermetically sealed and filled with Chroococcidiopsis or Bacillus subtilis. Half of them are shielded from radiation using lead. Performing the evaluation is easy. All the tester has to do is take a few vials periodically, open them, add water, and check the number of bacteria colonies. The tricky part is finding people to keep the experiment running hundreds of years from now.

3 Burglars Burrow Beneath Bank

Police officers from Florida investigated a sinkhole and discovered that it was actually an unfinished tunnel leading underneath a bank.

Wednesday morning, Pembroke Pines PD got a call about a possible sinkhole near a shopping center. Upon closer inspection, officers realized that the hole was a narrow tunnel that someone had dug from a nearby wooded area to reach the Chase Bank inside the plaza. In the tunnel, police recovered a small generator and a power cord. They also found a winch, a ladder, a stool, a pair of muddy boots, and a small wagon outside the entrance, which was covered with a wooden pallet.

FBI special agent Michael D. Leverock described the situation as “truly a unique case.” He said the tunnel was “very claustrophobic” and was 45 meters (150 ft) long and around 90 centimeters (3 ft) in diameter.^[8] Scent dogs have determined that there aren’t any bodies inside the tunnel. Authorities aren’t sure yet if the tunnel was abandoned or if the recent rainfall caused it to collapse. They have posted photos of the wagon and the generator, hoping that someone might be able to identify the would-be bank robbers.

2 The Carstairs Conundrum

Something strange is happening in a small town in Alberta, Canada, and nobody is able to figure out why. Cars are acting bizarrely when they are parked outside the Westview Co-op grocery store in Carstairs.

The most common issue seems to be key fobs that stop working, but there have also been alarms that go off for no reason and cars that simply won’t start.^[9] The problems seem to have been going on for weeks and are concentrated in the parking lot of the co-op. The store managers have called in electricians, but they have not been able to solve the mystery. At the very least, they shut down the power source from the co-op to confirm that it isn’t the cause of the interference.

The RCMP confirmed that they have received multiple reports regarding the parking lot and, ultimately, plan to look into it, but they admit that it is not a high priority.

With no official answer, people have begun to speculate regarding the cause of the interference. They think it could be anything from LED bulbs or a radio antenna to train tracks and nearby security systems. And, of course, aliens.

Update: The mystery has since been solved. A remote car starter in the vicinity was stuck in transmit mode, causing the interference. Neither the co-op nor aliens were to blame.

1 Burger And Coke

A new fast food restaurant in Melbourne, Australia, called Pablo’s Escoburgers has garnered a lot of attention recently because it is themed around infamous Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.

The centerpiece of the controversy seems to be the restaurant’s signature “Patron Burger,” which is served with a line of white powder and a rolled-up American $100 bill.^[10] Of course, the money is fake, and the powder is actually white garlic, but people still found it in poor taste.

Critics are saying that the restaurant is profiting off the misery of the drug trade by glorifying one of the world’s most ruthless criminals and making light of drug use. The backlash to the burger joint prompted one of the co-owners to release a statement saying that they have no intention to offend and are simply “taking the piss” out of Escobar while enjoying a good play on words. At the moment, the restaurant has no plans to change the name or the menu.

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.

Let’s start the weekend with a look at some of the strangest things that have occurred over the last few days. We can also help you catch up on the important goings-on in the world by clicking here.

This week is a blast from the past as we explore several mysteries that were considered dead and buried. They include the infamous Dyatlov Pass incident and the suspicious circumstances surrounding James Brown’s death. We also appreciate the efforts of the British Library to bring historical erotica to the masses.

There are also a few criminal capers to talk about: a successful diamond heist in Belgium and a not-so-successful robbery attempt in Canada which was foiled by bananas.

10 Beware Of Dragon

North Wales Police are warning motorists traveling on the A5 motorway near Tregarth, Gwynedd, to pay attention to the road and not the dragon sitting beside it.

Okay, so the dragon is not real but rather a 7.6-meter-long (25 ft) carving called Y Ddraig Derw (“the Oak Dragon”). Using a chainsaw, Simon O’Rourke sculpted the dragon from a fallen oak tree. The carving sits on private property facing the road.

As you might expect, the impressive dragon is something of an eye-grabber which isn’t ideal for road safety. Drivers keep slowing down suddenly to look at it. The sculpture has been in place for about a month and has led to one accident and numerous near misses.^[1]

Although Welsh police say they “love the oak dragon,” they urge drivers to keep their full concentration on the road and to park somewhere safely if they want to take a good look at it. So far, the owner of the carving hasn’t announced any plans to move it somewhere out of view.

9 Super Bowl Scandal

Super Bowl LIII is in the history books. There was one juicy bit of controversy to come out of it, but it had nothing to do with the actual game. Gamblers are arguing over the exact duration of Gladys Knight’s rendition of the national anthem.

Americans wagered around $6 billion on the match. However, not all the bets were placed on the outcome or the score. So-called “prop bets” are getting increasingly popular, and they can be placed on all kinds of things—from the half-time show to the color of the Gatorade that will be poured on the winning coach.

One prop bet concerned the duration of the anthem. This year, the “Empress of Soul” Gladys Knight did the honors and most betting sites had the over/under line at 1 minute and 50 seconds.

This meant that people could bet on the song lasting for more or less than 1:50. It sounded like Knight finished singing “home of the brave” at 1:49, meaning that under won. However, she then repeated the words “the brave,” thus clocking in at around two minutes and giving the bet to over.

This is the controversy: Does the anthem end when the official lyrics end or when the performer stops singing altogether? There was a lot of debate given that the decision determined who gets paid and who does not. One sportsbook avoided unhappy customers by paying out on both sides of the line, while most others concluded that the clock stops after the original “brave.”^[2]

8 Banana Attack Makes Robber Split

A 69-year-old store owner was able to fend off a would-be robber by hitting him repeatedly with a bunch of bananas.

Seungae Kim operates a convenience store with her husband in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. On Saturday night, she was at the till eating a banana when a masked man walked inside and demanded that she open the cash register. When she refused, the robber tried to jump over the counter.^[3]

That’s when Seungae started to fight back. She grabbed the first thing she could get her hands on and started hitting the thief in the face. Her weapon of choice was a bunch of bananas, but it did the trick. After a few smacks, the masked criminal turned around and walked toward the exit. As the security footage showed, Seungae wasn’t finished and threw the bananas after him.

In a later interview, the store owner said that she was more concerned with protecting her husband than she was with the money in the till.

7 It’s Not Smutty If It’s Historical

If you’ve ever had an interest in historical erotica, your day is about to get a lot better. The British Library has digitized and will soon publish online its “Private Case”—a collection of 2,500 erotic and pornographic volumes from the 17th century onward.

Included in the collection is the Merryland series. First published in the mid-18th century, it is a group of erotic books which metaphorically refer to the study of the female body as new land that needs to be explored and “ploughed.” They have been written by multiple authors, many anonymous, and feature a narrator named Roger Pheuquewell.

Also in the collection are the works of the Marquis de Sade and dozens of copies of Fanny Hill or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. Written in 1748 by John Cleland, it is considered to be the first original pornographic novel in the English language. The oldest volume in the “Private Case” is a book called Rare Verities: the Cabinet of Venus Unlocked and Her Secrets Laid Open from 1658.

Some volumes are more practical than others. For example, Harris’s Lists of Covent-Garden Ladies is an 18th-century directory of female prostitutes in London. Entries contain names, addresses, and small descriptions. Miss Spencer from No. 35, Newman Street, for example, “is never so good a companion as when a little enlivened with the juice of the grape.”^[4]

6 USB Drive Sealed Away

Scientists from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in New Zealand have been studying seal poop to monitor the health and diet of seal populations. They made an interesting discovery inside one scat sample—a USB stick full of holiday photos.

The sample in question had been collected from a leopard seal on Oreti Beach, Invercargill, by a vet and sent to the research facility over a year ago. It had been frozen and stored for most of that time before being thawed out to be analyzed.

Researchers let the USB stick dry out for a few weeks but then discovered that it was still in pretty good condition “considering where it had come from.”^[5] On it they found pictures of seals, sea lions, and a video of a mother playing with her baby.

Scientists are very keen to know the movements of these animals in New Zealand waters and even have a dedicated hotline where people can call to report sightings. Some volunteers even patrol the beaches on the lookout for more seal poop.

NIWA posted a video from the USB stick in an effort to identify its owner. She was later identified as Amanda Nally, a local who already volunteered with the New Zealand Sea Lion Trust.

5 Was James Brown Murdered?

A new CNN investigation has brought into question the circumstances surrounding the death of James Brown over 12 years ago. Although the official cause of death was natural causes, this inquiry suggests that he could have been murdered. It calls for a criminal investigation and an autopsy.

Brown died on Christmas Day 2006 following a short illness. One of the people most surprised by his passing was Marvin Crawford, the doctor who signed his death certificate. The singer’s condition was initially improving before taking a sudden turn for the worse. Crawford always found this deterioration suspicious. Later, he said that a nurse had told him that she found drug residue inside the tube which was helping Brown breathe.^[6]

Over a dozen people have called for a new look into Brown’s death, including relatives, his former manager Frank Copsidas, and Reverend Al Sharpton. The bulk of the evidence from the CNN report was gathered by Jacqueline Hollander, a former friend of Brown’s third wife, Adrienne Rodriguez. Hollander had once accused Brown of raping her.

Besides investigating the singer’s death, Hollander also alleges that Adrienne was murdered by a doctor. Officially, Adrienne Rodriguez died of an accidental overdose of painkillers following plastic surgery. But the police officer who handled her case did have an informant who also claimed that she was murdered. It remains to be seen if authorities will launch an inquiry into the numerous sordid accusations that surrounded the “godfather of soul.”

4 Toilet Trouble In Space

The International Space Station suffered a toilet leak after astronauts tried to install a new double stall which caused almost 10 liters (2.6 gal) of water to pour out.

The previous toilet had been aboard the ISS since 2008, so it was due for an upgrade. The new Universal Waste Management System (UWMS) comes with a host of improvements. Crucially, it includes a double stall which will separate the toilet from the rest of the hygiene department.^[7]

Astronauts experienced a leak while de-mating a Quick Disconnect for the potable water bus. Around 9.5 liters (2.5 gal) of water discharged before the ISS crew was able to isolate and fix the drip. They had to use towels to soak up all the excess liquid, but no serious damage was reported. The UWMS has been installed in anticipation of brand-new toilets which will be arriving in 2020.

3 Diamond Heist In Belgium

Last week, we talked about an attempted Hollywood-style heist when an unidentified person or persons dug a tunnel leading underneath a Chase Bank in Florida. The sequel comes this week except that the thieves were actually successful.

The caper took place last Sunday in Antwerp, the Belgian city famed for its diamond sector. The robbers set up shop in a house 400 meters (1,310 ft) away from the BNP Paribas Fortis branch.

They dug a tunnel several meters long to connect to the sewer system, and then they crawled through the sewers. When they were underneath the bank, they dug another few meters and were inside the vault. When bank employees checked the vault on Monday, they discovered that the thieves had cracked open 30 or so safes and absconded with their contents.

At the moment, both the bank and the police are keeping quiet about the stolen goods or their estimated value. Considering that the branch’s clientele consists of many diamond traders, it is fair to say that the criminals made off with an impressive haul.^[8]

A 27-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the heist, but details are still scarce regarding his role in the caper or possible accomplices.

2 Beer Or Wine First?

“Beer before wine, and you’ll feel fine. Wine before beer, and you’ll feel queer.”

That’s the old saying which implies that the order in which you consume your beverages will have an effect on the hangover you experience after a night of heavy drinking. British and German researchers decided to put the aphorism to the test to see if there is any validity to it.

Ninety volunteers between 19 and 40 made the ultimate sacrifice of getting sloshed for science. They were given a standardized meal and then split into three groups.

The first drank 1.2 liters (2.5 pints) of lager followed by four large glasses of white wine. The second group had the same drinks but in reverse order. The third only drank beer or wine of equivalent alcohol concentration. Everyone stopped drinking when they had a 0.11 percent alcohol level.^[9]

All the participants were quizzed throughout the night and were given a glass of water before bed. But the real testing started the next morning. They had to rate their hangovers on a scale which included factors such as nausea, dizziness, headache, thirst, fatigue, and loss of appetite.

The test subjects returned the next week and repeated the experiment but switched places. Their hangovers the next day showed negligible differences compared to the first ones. The study, which was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, concluded that drink order had no impact on the intensity of the hangover.

1 A New Look At Dyatlov Pass

Russian authorities have launched a new investigation into the notorious Dyatlov Pass incident which mysteriously claimed the lives of nine hikers 60 years ago.

On January 23, 1959, seven men and two women led by Igor Dyatlov set out to cross the northern Ural Mountains. One night, the hikers fled their tent dressed only in their underwear. Predictably, they froze to death.

A rescue team found their tent sliced open and gradually located the bodies, which featured broken bones and some head wounds. The Soviets blamed their deaths on the “spontaneous power of nature.” But this didn’t really explain what had driven nine experienced adventurers to leave their tent without clothes. Surely, they had realized that this would kill them.

Over the years, dozens of hypotheses were put forward. They include a secret KGB plot, escaped convicts, violence from the local Mansi tribe, a Yeti, and, of course, aliens.

Russian prosecutors have dismissed any idea which is criminal in nature. Instead, they announced plans to investigate three scenarios which they consider most likely. All involve natural phenomena. They are an avalanche, a snow slab, or a hurricane. Authorities are hopeful that modern technology will yield new clues. Investigators are due to fly to the remote site next month.^[10]

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.

It is Saturday, which means it is time to do a quick review of the most notable stories that occurred over the last few days. Click here to check out some recent urgent matters while we focus on tales that come out of left field.

This week was Valentine’s Day, so naturally, we needed to have a few strange stories regarding the holiday. There is also controversy from the pizza world and the discovery of a tiger by two stoners. We introduce you to the Assman and a nun who liked to party. Finally, we say a bittersweet farewell to the Opportunity rover.

10 Tiger In The Garage

Two people from Texas snuck into a derelict home to smoke a little weed and found a tiger inside the garage.

Last week, an unidentified man and woman entered an abandoned home in Southeast Houston to relax with a joint. While the human tenants might have been gone, there was still one notable occupant inside the home. The smokers found a male tiger locked inside a “rinky-dink” cage in the garage.^[1]

After making sure that the large feline was not the result of a weed-induced hallucination, the woman called the authorities. A vet ensured that the tiger was in good health, and animal control officers were able to tranquilize him and move him safely to a temporary home at the local shelter.

The tiger has been named “Tyson” in reference to The Hangover and was relocated to the Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch, southeast of Dallas.

9 Ultima Thule Gets Weirder

New images of Ultima Thule have come in, and puzzled scientists say they have “never seen something like this orbiting the sun.”

At the start of the year, the New Horizons probe sent back our first images of Ultima Thule, which became the most distant object ever explored by humans. Back then, it looked like Ultima Thule was a contact binary made from the collision of two round shapes, which made it resemble a snowman.

Of course, New Horizons took more pictures of the cosmic object, but it took them a while to get here. New images from the side suggest that the two lobes are flatter than previously thought and resemble a walnut smashed into a pancake.^[2] More importantly, though, this bizarre shape is not something we have encountered before. Scientists now have a new conundrum before them as they try to work out how such an object could have formed.

It should be mentioned that the recent shots show Ultima Thule brightly lit only on one edge. While this has given us a better idea of its true form, the final shape might be altered yet again as New Horizons beams more images back to Earth.

8 Who Was The Patriarch Of Pizza?

There is controversy in the world of pizza. One researcher has suggested that the man who brought pizza to America might not have been, in fact, the man who brought pizza to America.

An Italian immigrant named Gennaro Lombardi is the one typically credited with the accolade. According to legend, he applied for a restaurant license to sell pizza in 1905 and opened Lombardi’s on Spring Street in Manhattan. However, food historian Peter Regas has scoured through old newspapers and uncovered articles which suggest that the true patriarch of American pizza is one Filippo Milone.^[3]

Curiously, Regas still believes that Lombardi’s was the country’s first pizzeria. He merely asserts that it already existed before Gennaro Lombardi obtained ownership. The researcher claims that Milone opened Lombardi’s under a different name in 1898. He then sold it to Giovanni Santillo, who owned it until Lombardi came along.

Independently, food historian Scott Wiener was researching the origins of New York pizza around the same time, and he discovered that Gennaro Lombardi didn’t own the pizza joint until 1908. This lends some validity to Regas’s story, but it remains to be seen if it is accepted by the industry.

7 Knowing Your Mark

A telephone scammer picked the wrong target after trying to con the only person in US history to serve as director of both the FBI and the CIA.

William Webster might be 94 years old now, but he can still tell when something smells fishy. Therefore, when someone called him up and told him he’d won $15.5 million and a brand-new Mercedes-Benz in the Mega Millions Lottery, he knew it was a scam. When the caller told Webster he had to pay $50,000 to cover the taxes on the prize, he notified the FBI.^[4]

When the Websters refused to pay, the calls turned into harassment and then threats. On one occasion, the scammer talked to Webster’s wife, Lynda, and described in gory detail what would happen if he were to shoot a sniper’s bullet through her head.

The scammer was 29-year-old Keniel Thomas from Jamaica. He had no idea that the FBI had already identified him and that there was a warrant out for his arrest. In late 2017, he flew into New York and was promptly detained. He was sentenced last week to 71 months in prison for extortion using interstate communications.

6 Mother Knows Best

The Towson University Police Department advised students of a woman in her fifties who was walking around campus looking for a date for her son.

Valentine’s Day is here, and some people might be willing to go to great lengths in order to share the holiday with a special someone. In the case of one Maryland mom, she was more interested in playing matchmaker for her offspring. Campus authorities received complaints from several female students who said that the woman approached them, showed them a picture of her son on her phone, and asked if they would be interested in dating him.^[5]

Towson police sent out an advisory to the student body and also released two images of the woman in an attempt to identify her. They made it clear that there were no criminal charges against her, but that they did want her to stop playing cupid on campus.

5 No More Giri Choco

Speaking of Valentine’s Day, women in Japan are pushing against a tradition which involves them buying chocolates for male coworkers during the holiday.

The practice is called giri choco—literally meaning “obligation chocolates.”^[6] They are intended not just for romantic interests or friends but all colleagues of the opposite sex. In turn, men are supposed to reciprocate on White Day on March 14.

Women say they are tired of having to spend thousands of yen on chocolates just to avoid awkward situations in the workplace. According to a survey, almost two thirds of women intended to buy the treat just for themselves on February 14. Around 56 percent planned to buy some for their family members, while 36 percent were going to give chocolate to their partners or romantic interests. Less than 35 percent planned to buy some for their coworkers.

Some companies have banned giri choco entirely in recent years. And while the holiday accounts for a huge chunk of sales for confectioners, some of them have seen the writing on the wall and are acting accordingly. Last year, Godiva Chocolatier caused a bit of commotion when it ran a marketing campaign against giri choco. They argued, “Valentine’s Day is a day when people convey their true feelings, not coordinate relationships at work.”

4 The Assman Cometh

Back in 1995, a Canadian gas station employee got his 15 minutes of fame because he had the humorous name of Dick Assman. Now, a new Assman is in the news, thanks to his battle with Saskatchewan authorities to use his name for a vanity plate.

Dave Assman (pronounced “Oss-men”) wanted to immortalize his last name on a license plate. However, the Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI), which deals with vehicle registration in the province, denied his request. They considered it offensive out of context. They subsequently denied an appeal filed by Assman.

Not one to give up easily, Dave came up with an alternative solution. SGI might be able to tell him what license plate he can and cannot have, but they have no authority over decals. Therefore, he adorned the back of his truck with a giant green “ASSMAN” decal.^[7] It appears that SGI are satisfied with Dave’s workaround, simply saying that “all’s well that ends well.”

3 Toilet Scare At Home Depot

A man’s warning of a vigorous bowel movement in a public bathroom was mistaken for a bomb threat which brought in the Wichita Police Department.

If you ever find yourself in a public restroom, and your stomach is telling you that you are about to do something particularly heinous in the stall, it’s common courtesy to give those around you a quick notice. That’s what happened at the Wichita Home Depot. A man entered the bathroom and told the other two customers inside that they “need to get out of here because [he is] fixin’ to blow it up.”^[8] Of course, they all understood his meaning and had a quick laugh. The man entered the stall, did his business, and went on with his day.

When one of the other two customers was leaving his stall, a Home Depot employee entered the bathroom. The customer thought he would continue the joke and told the staff member that he should leave because someone told him there’s a bomb in there.

The employee didn’t quite get his meaning so the man repeated it . . . twice. The employee then proceeded to go to store security and report a potential bomb threat.

By the time police arrived on the scene, the customer had left Home Depot, but a clerk identified him as a “regular.” Fortunately, police decided not to act hastily and simply called the man to inquire about his bomb comment. He apologized for causing alarm and said he didn’t expect his bathroom humor to be taken so seriously.

2 Nun On The Run Looking For Some Fun

British historians from the University of York went through medieval business records that once belonged to the archbishops of York. So far, so dull, you might think. However, they also stumbled upon the tale of a 14th-century nun who faked her death using a dummy in order to escape her convent and pursue “the way of carnal lust.”^[9]

It all started with a marginal note written in Latin by Archbishop William Melton in 1318. It said simply to warn Joan of Leeds, who used to be a nun at St Clement by York, to return home. The notes continued as the archbishop wrote to the Dean of Beverley to inform him of the scandalous rumor that Joan had fled the convent, casting aside both “the propriety of religion and the modesty of her sex.”

She did this by faking an illness and then pretending to die. Joan had unnamed “evildoers” as her accomplices, who helped her fashion a dummy in her likeness which got buried instead of her. After that, she “perverted her path of life” and wandered at large “to the notorious peril to her soul.”

Chief researcher Professor Sarah Rees Jones likened the tale to a Monty Python sketch. Unfortunately, the notes appear to end there, so we will never know what the outcome was for Joan the runaway nun.

1 A Farewell To Mars

After almost 15 years of service, NASA has declared the Opportunity rover dead and officially ended its exploration mission on Mars.

Back in July, the Red Planet was engulfed in a massive dust storm. As a precautionary measure, scientists powered down the Opportunity rover in hopes of preserving its solar battery. They knew that it would be weeks, even months, until the vehicle would be able to resume communications, but they also had a lurking fear that it might never become operational again.

The storm ended in early October, but Opportunity didn’t respond. It was possible that the violent weather either caused a catastrophic malfunction or covered the solar panels in a thick layer of dust. Even so, NASA scientists were still hopeful that strong winds might clear the dust, so they kept waiting.

Those winds came in late January. Over the following days, mission control sent over 800 commands to the rover in the hopes that one of them might generate a response, but none succeeded. A final attempt to make contact took place on February 12, and NASA declared the mission over the next day.

Launched in 2004, Opportunity ‘s initial goal was to last for 90 Martian days and travel 1,000 meters (3,300 ft).^[10] Instead, it endured 60 times longer than expected, traveled over 45 kilometers (28 mi), and ended its journey, fittingly, in Perseverance Valley. Two new rovers are scheduled to launch in 2020, both with the goal of searching the Red Planet for past signs of life.

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.