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14 eerie photos show how this sea became a desert, and how it's finally being revived.

This is a land without water.

Image from Arian Zwegers/Flickr.


Lines of old fishing boats sit abandoned.

Image from Arian Zwegers/Wikimedia Commons.

Decaying like ruins from a Percy Bysshe Shelly poem.

The water they once depended on is nowhere in sight.

Image from Vyacheslav Oseledko/AFP/Getty Images.

Now there is just sand. And scrub. And the slow decay of time.

Image from Gilad Rom/Flickr.

This is the former Aral Sea.

Image by Russians in Central Asia/Wikimedia Commons.

The Aral Sea, which lies between Southern Kazakhstan and Northern Uzbekistan, was once one of the world's largest saltwater lakes. Tens of thousands of people fished in its waters, producing one-sixth of the Soviet Union's fish intake.

But decades of mismanagement have destroyed it.

Beginning in the 1960s, Soviet engineers diverted the rivers that fed the Aral Sea, using their water to irrigate vast agricultural projects. And, without water, the Aral slowly began to dry out and disappear.

GIF from NordNordWest/Wikimedia Commons.

Leaving behind nothing.

Image from Staecker/Wikimedia Commons.

This was once a harbor.

Nothing but ruins...

Image from AFP/Victor Vasenin/Getty Images.

... and dust ...

Image from Martijn.Munneke/Flickr.

...and poison.

Image from Sebastian Kluger/Wikimedia Commons.

As the waters receded, they left behind vast plains covered in salt and toxic chemicals. And without plant life to hold it in place, winds spread the noxious mix of pesticides, industrial runoff, and other chemicals into the air.

Cancer and illness are sadly common here.

The land has a new name now: the Aralkum Desert.

Image from upyernoz/Flickr.

But, among all this, there is a glimmer of good news.

Starting in the 1990s, the nations around the Aral Sea began working on restoration projects. And while many of these projects have ended in failure, a few have succeeded.

In Kazakhstan, the government built a massive dam, called Dike Kokaral, around one of the remnants of the original Aral Sea.

Image by Antoine Lambroschini/AFP/Getty Images.

The dam holds back water from one of the major rivers, sacrificing the larger basin's water supply in order to replenish a smaller area known as the North Aral Sea.

Because of Dike Kokaral, the North Aral Sea is rising again.

The black outline shows the original coastline. GIF from Sibom/Wikimedia Commons.

Fish stocks have returned as well, helping to revive the fishing industry.

Image by Antoine Lambroschini/AFP/Getty Images.

The water's return even affected the local climate, returning rain to the area. This is just a tiny modicum of healing in a gravely ill region. But it's something.

Water is a precious resource and it's easy to forget how much we depend on clean, accessible water. These images show what can happen when we disregard it.

The next time someone claims there's no way humans can affect the environment, show them the desert that was once a sea.

A Korean mother and her son

A recently posted story on Reddit shows a mother confidently standing up for her family after being bullied by a teacher for her culture. Reddit user Flowergardens0 posted the story to the AITA forum, where people ask whether they are wrong in a specific situation.

Over 5,600 people commented on the story, and an overwhelming majority thought the mother was right. Here’s what went down:

“I (34F) have a (5M) son who attends preschool. A few hours after I picked him up from school today, I got a phone call from his teacher,” Flowergardens0 wrote. “She made absolutely no effort to sound kind when she, in an extremely rude and annoyed tone, told me to stop packing my son such ‘disgusting and inappropriate’ lunches."

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Education

Former teacher shares the funny 'secret code' she used when talking to parents

“Your son is going to make a great lawyer" is code for: "Your kid won’t stop arguing with me."

Miss Smith shares the "secret code" teachers use in emails to parents.

There are many things that teachers think but cannot say aloud. Teachers have to have a certain sense of decorum and often have strict rules about the things they can or can’t say about children, especially to their parents.

Plus, it’s a teacher’s job to educate, not judge. So, they find ways to kindly say what’s on their minds without having to resort to name-calling or talking disparagingly of a student.

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Family

Dad gives his young daughter a 'spa day' while mom and sister are out and people are gushing

"This healed a part of me. Thank you for doing this with your daughter."

Mason Smith pampered his baby girl during her "spa day."

Raising kids is no small feat. Just the basic logistics of caring for a human being from their helpless newborn stage to the full-fledged adult stage is a lot, much less doing the countless other things that will actually help that human thrive.

Parents who go above and beyond to create a nurturing environment and build strong core memories with their kids are inspiring examples for us all, and one dad's spa day with his daughter has people positively gushing.

Mason Smith (@thedadsocial) shared a video of a special spa day he gave his young daughter when her mom and older sister were having their own pampered outing. "Mom and sister went to the salon so I couldn't have her feeling left out," he wrote.

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It's incredible what a double-sided magnet can do.


A new trend in treasure hunting called magnet fishing has blown up over the past two years, evidenced by an explosion of YouTube channels covering the hobby. Magnet fishing is a pretty simple activity. Hobbyists attach high-powered magnets to strong ropes, drop them into waterways and see what they attract.

The hobby has caught the attention of law enforcement and government agencies because urban waterways are a popular place for criminals to drop weapons and stolen items after committing a crime. In 2019, a magnet fisherman in Michigan pulled up an antique World War I mortar grenade and the bomb squad had to be called out to investigate.


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Ring doorbell video captures what it's like to be the default parent.

Kids, man. I'm not sure of the scientific way audacity is distributed, but kids have a lot of it and somehow make it cute. That audacity overload is especially interesting when you're the default parent—you know, the parent kids go to for literally everything as if there's not another fully capable adult in the house. Chances are if your children haven't sought you out while you were taking a shower so you could open up a pack of fruit snacks, then you're not the default parental unit.

One parent captured exactly what it's like to be the default parent and shared it to TikTok, where the video has over 4 million views. Toniann Marchese went on a quick grocery run and *gasp* did not inform her children. Don't you fret, they're modern kids who know how to use modern means to get much-needed answers when mom is nowhere to be found. They went outside and rang the doorbell.

Back when we were children, this would've done nothing but make the dogs bark, but for Marchese's kids, who are 3 and 6 years old, it's as good as a phone call.

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Pop Culture

'American Idol' contestant has perfect response to Katy Perry's 'mom-shaming' joke

The 25-year-old used the moment to stand up for moms everywhere.

@sarabethliebe/TikTok

"Keep loving your babies."

You might recall us singing the praises of Sara Beth, the exuberant young mom with major vocal chops dubbed the “Accidental American Idol.”

During Sara Beth’s initial audition for the show, judge Katy Perry made a joke that rubbed many viewers the wrong way.

Before Sara Beth even began to sing, the 25-year-old revealed that she had three children, which prompted Katy Perry to dramatically stand up from her seat and feign shock. When Sara Beth, all smiles, said, “If Katy lays on the table, I think I’m going to pass out,” Perry retorted, “Honey, you’ve been laying on the table too much.”

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