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10 things that made us smile this week

Music fairies and tigers and baby sloths, oh my!

upworthy 10 things, good news
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So many reasons to smile (and sing!).

Holy moly, it was a great week for music and animal lovers. Of course, amazing acts and heartwarming fur baby stories are always welcome at Upworthy, but they really made up the bulk of our reasons to smile this week.

Why? Because these weren't just moments of "aw, how cute," or "wow, what talent," although we absolutely love those simple pleasures. Many of these stories offered a glimpse of what humanity can accomplish at its best—what can happen when we make a concerted effort toward protecting nature, or when we allow people to express themselves authentically, or when we honor our inherent interconnectedness. There weren't just 10 reasons to smile this week, but 10 reasons to feel hopeful about where we're going collectively.

And those 10 reasons are below.


1. 78-year-old Joni Mitchell makes surprise appearance with Brandi Carlile at folk festival.

The one, the only, THE Joni Mitchell joined fellow singer Brandi Carlile on stage at the Newport Folk Festival, playing some of her most beloved classics including "Big Yellow Taxi," as well as a rendition of "Both Sides Now" that left everyone in tears. You can read even more about her incredible comeback here.

2. Sweet dog loves pats so much, she made a sign for strangers to let them know.

Tubs the Blue Staffy made sure to let everyone know she is a friendly good girl who welcomes gentle pats. To no one's surprise, people were quick to accept her invitation.

3. Flowers were planted along the road to reduce speeding and it worked incredibly well.

Photo by Sergey Shmidt on Unsplash

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Long Newnton Parish Council planted flowers by the roadside to help improve biodiversity (BBC). Turns out, the beauty of the flowers cause motorists to literally "slow down and smell the roses." Now the money raised from a crowdfunding campaign will go to plant even more flowers and hopefully reduce speeding on even more roads.

4. A musical fairy absolutely wowed everyone on "America's Got Talent" with a Disney classic.

"Freckled Zelda" showed up in full costume, ocarina and all, for her performance of "Colors of the Wind" from the movie "Pocahontas." By the end, even Simon Cowell was impressed. And so were we.

5. Native birds of Miramar increased by a whopping 51%.

Photo by Sonika Agarwal on Unsplash

Radio New Zealand (RNZ) announced that Wellington's Miramar Peninsula saw a spike in several native bird species, like pīwakawakas, riroriros and tūī. This was largely due to community efforts to eliminate the surplus of natural predators in the area.

6. A positive moment in history resurfaced, giving us all a breath of fresh air.

A step in the right direction, and hopefully the first among many.

7. People fell in love with the security guard moved to tears at a Kendrick Lamar concert.

@dejaihvu Mans shoulda just bought a ticket 😩🤣 #kendricklamar#thebigstepperstour#houstontx♬ original sound - Dejaih Smith

Security guard Devyn Sanford was caught on video sobbing to Lamar performing "Love." That touching video of his pure joy went viral on TikTok gaining 11 million views.

8.  Man had one cat, then no cats, then two cats. 

The best copycat story ever. Now he has double the chonks to love.

9. An adorable baby sloth was born at a zoo in Mississippi.

Baaaaaaaby sloth, do, do, do, do, do do. This little guy's name is Lumpawaroo. Lumpy for short. You're welcome.

10. There are now double the amount of tigers in Nepal.

Photo by Kartik Iyer on Unsplash

By tackling poaching and using government intervention strategies like replacing livestock eaten by tigers (thus reducing conflicts between the tigers and farmers), Nepal now has an estimated 355 big cats in the country, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Compare that to the 121 estimated in 2009. Wow.

Joy

Sorry, Labradors. After 31 years, America has a new favorite dog.

The American Kennel Club has crowned a new favorite.

via Pixabay

A sad-looking Labrador Retriever

The sweet-faced, loveable Labrador Retriever is no longer America’s favorite dog breed. The breed best known for having a heart of gold has been replaced by the smaller, more urban-friendly French Bulldog.

According to the American Kennel Club, for the past 31 years, the Labrador Retriever was America’s favorite dog, but it was eclipsed in 2022 by the Frenchie. The rankings are based on nearly 716,500 dogs newly registered in 2022, of which about 1 in 7 were Frenchies. Around 108,000 French Bulldogs were recorded in the U.S. in 2022, surpassing Labrador Retrievers by over 21,000.

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via Google and Freepik

Google's new personal information removal submission page.

In the internet era, the idea of personal privacy is all but a myth. With a few keystrokes just about anyone can get your home address, phone number, email, age and the names of your family members. The fact that this information is readily available puts us all in the dangerous position of being the victim of fraud, stalking and violence.

What makes the situation even worse is that our information was put online without any of our consent.

The good news is that Google just made a big change that gives us all a little more control over our personal information. On April 27, the company announced it will allow anyone to request removals of their personal information from its Search feature.

“Open access to information is a key goal of Search, but so is empowering people with the tools they need to protect themselves and keep their sensitive, personally identifiable information private. That’s why we’re updating our policies to help people take more control of their online presence in Search,” Michelle Chang, Google’s Global Policy Lead for Search, announced on the company’s blog.

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Joy

An 8-year-old snuck his handwritten book onto a library shelf. Now it has a 56-person waiting list.

Dillon Helbig's 81-page graphic novel— written by "Dillon His Self"—captured the hearts of his local librarians and their patrons.

Dillon Helbig's 81-page graphic novel captured the hearts of his local librarians.

Writing a book is no easy task, even for adult professional writers. Many would-be authors dream of a day when their work can be found on library shelves, unsure if it will ever come.

But for 8-year-old Dillon Helbig, that day has already arrived—in truly unconventional fashion—thanks to his own determination to make it happen.

Dillon wrote his 81-page graphic novel, "The Adventures of Dillon Helbig's Crismis" (written by "Dillon His Self") in a hardcover journal with colored pencils over the course of a few days. He even put a label on the back of the book that reads "Made in Idho" [sic] and put an illustrated spine label on it as well. Then, without telling anyone, he brought it to his local library in Boise, Idaho, and slipped it in among the books in the children's section.

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Becca Moore and Raul Torres having margaritas.

Becca Moore is a popular TikToker with over 800,000 followers who's known for her funny, laid-back takes on dating. Like any influencer-type she was at the Coachella music and arts festival in Indio, California recently. While she was at Coachella, she was robbed of her phone, rental car keys and wallet.

“I went to Coachella this weekend and I thought this guy was kinda hitting on me but then he just robbed me,” Becca says at the beginning of her three-minute TikTok video with over 3 million views. After the festival, she was left with no ride, money, or means to get in contact with friends and family. She was stranded in the desert.

Becca’s friend’s hotel called her an Uber so she could get to a local store to buy a new phone. The driver she was incredibly lucky to be connected with was a lot more than a guy with a car in a time of need, he was a guardian angel named Raul Torres from Fresno, California, six hours north of Indio.

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Joy

44 years ago he became her protector after a terrible act. Today, they've been reunited in love.

Betsy and Irv are finally getting the happy ending they deserve. Together.

It’s pretty safe to say that everyone loves a good love story.

There’s a whole genre of music and movies dedicated to the idea of someone being swept off of their feet after circumstances tried to keep them from their true love. Romance novels could single handedly keep public libraries and bookstores afloat. Everyone loves "love" and the story of Betsy and Irv just takes the cake. Betsy Sailor attended Penn State University as a business major, which was almost unheard of in 1978 and Irv Pankey attended the university while playing football. The pair’s paths never crossed, until an unfortunate incident bonded the two forever.

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@SopheAlice/TikTok

Best way to travel, really.

As they say, “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.”

This old adage was brought to life in a whole new way after two friends who thought they booked tickets to Budapest, Hungary, instead found themselves heading to Bucharest, Romania.

Just a minor 500-mile difference, but who’s counting?

TikToker @SophAlice posted a video of the pair realizing their mix-up, which went viral and set them off on an impromptu adventure based entirely on the comments they received.
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