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7 ghostly before-and-afters from WWII London remind us of the cost of war.

In September 1940, Germany began a bombing raid on London that lasted 57 consecutive days. The attacks on London, and surrounding areas, would continue until May 1941.

Known as "The Blitz," it was one of London's bloodiest chapters in World War II. Tens of thousands of people died, and about a third of the city was destroyed.

Many of those who survived did so by hiding all night in underground stations and tunnels — listening to the bombs crash overhead and hoping their world wasn't about to come crashing down on them.


Today, of course, London is a bustling metropolis with skyscrapers and five-star restaurants.

Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images.

But the city's wartime history can still be seen if you know where to look.

Photo by Keystone/Getty Images.

In the photo series below by photographer Jim Dyson, images of today's London have been overlaid with pictures of the destruction from WWII in the same locations, marking the passage of time as well as the healing of scars.

Photo by Jim Dyson/Getty Images. Overlay photo by Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

Photo by Jim Dyson/Getty Images. Overlay photo by Central Press/Getty Images.

From a crater in the middle of London's major thoroughfare...

Photo Jim Dyson/Getty Images. Overlay photo by Central Press/Getty Images.

...to a bombed-out bus in Harrington Square shown as a modern-day bus approaches the same station.

Photo by Jim Dyson/Getty Images. Overlay photo by H. F. Davis/Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

This crater was once directly in front of Buckingham Palace, which was bombed on Sept. 13, 1940.


Photo by Jim Dyson/Getty Images. Overlay photo by Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

The Surrey Docks were also bombed, creating a massive plume of smoke over the River Thames.

Photo by Jim Dyson/Getty Images. Overlay photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

On May 11, the world will commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of the Blitz.

Like most reflections on war, this anniversary comes with a mixture of feelings. While the streets have been repaved, the buildings rebuilt, and the buses and cars replaced, some scars remain — a reminder the war wasn't as long ago as it might feel. It was in people's current lifetimes.

Photo by Jim Dyson/Getty Images. Overlay photo by H F Davis/Getty Images.

There are still bomb shelter signs visible on London street corners, pointing people to safety. You can even visit the old stations that people used to hide in with their families as they prayed to make it through the night.

Down Street station in Mayfair, which operated as a bomb shelter in 1940. Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images.

Christ Church Greyfriars, a church in London that stands in the shadow of St. Paul's Cathedral, is still a skeleton of its former self. Only a bombed-out wall and recently restored steeple remain.

Photo by Iridescent/Wikimedia Commons.

As time moves on and we get further away from the visual reminders of these moments in time, it's important to occasionally look back and remember where we came from.

Some scars fade and some remain, but they'll always be part of us.

Planet

Easy (and free!) ways to save the ocean

The ocean is the heart of our planet. It needs our help to be healthy.

Ocean Wise

Volunteers at a local shoreline cleanup

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The ocean covers over 71% of the Earth’s surface and serves as our planet’s heart. Ocean currents circulate vital heat, moisture, and nutrients around the globe to influence and regulate our climate, similar to the human circulatory system. Cool, right?

Our ocean systems provide us with everything from fresh oxygen to fresh food. We need it to survive and thrive—and when the ocean struggles to function healthfully, the whole world is affected.

Pollution, overfishing, and climate change are the three biggest challenges preventing the ocean from doing its job, and it needs our help now more than ever. Humans created the problem; now humans are responsible for solving it.

#BeOceanWise is a global rallying cry to do what you can for the ocean, because we need the ocean and the ocean needs us. If you’re wondering how—or if—you can make a difference, the answer is a resounding YES. There are a myriad of ways you can help, even if you don’t live near a body of water. For example, you can focus on reducing the amount of plastic you purchase for yourself or your family.

Another easy way to help clean up our oceans is to be aware of what’s known as the “dirty dozen.” Every year, scientists release an updated list of the most-found litter scattered along shorelines. The biggest culprit? Single-use beverage and food items such as foam cups, straws, bottle caps, and cigarette butts. If you can’t cut single-use plastic out of your life completely, we understand. Just make sure to correctly recycle plastic when you are finished using it. A staggering 3 million tons of plastic ends up in our oceans annually. Imagine the difference we could make if everyone recycled!

The 2022 "Dirty Dozen" ListOcean Wise

If you live near a shoreline, help clean it up! Organize or join an effort to take action and make a positive impact in your community alongside your friends, family, or colleagues. You can also tag @oceanwise on social if you spot a beach that needs some love. The location will be added to Ocean Wise’s system so you can submit data on the litter found during future Shoreline Cleanups. This data helps Ocean Wise work with businesses and governments to stop plastic pollution at its source. In Canada, Ocean Wise data helped inform a federal ban on unnecessary single-use plastics. Small but important actions like these greatly help reduce the litter that ends up in our ocean.

Ocean Wise, a conservation organization on a mission to restore and protect our oceans, is focused on empowering and educating everyone from individuals to governments on how to protect our waters. They are making conservation happen through five big initiatives: monitoring and protecting whales, fighting climate change and restoring biodiversity, innovating for a plastic-free ocean, protecting and restoring fish stocks, and finally, educating and empowering youth. The non-profit believes that in order to rebuild a resilient and vibrant ocean within the next ten years, everyone needs to take action.

Become an Ocean Wise ally and share your knowledge with others. The more people who know how badly the ocean needs our help, the better! Now is a great time to commit to being a part of something bigger and get our oceans healthy again.

Innovation

A student accidentally created a rechargeable battery that could last 400 years

"This thing has been cycling 10,000 cycles and it’s still going." ⚡️⚡️

There's an old saying that luck happens when preparation meets opportunity.

There's no better example of that than a 2016 discovery at the University of California, Irvine, by doctoral student Mya Le Thai. After playing around in the lab, she made a discovery that could lead to a rechargeable battery that could last up to 400 years. That means longer-lasting laptops and smartphones and fewer lithium ion batteries piling up in landfills.

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How anger and irritability can disguise depression

Anger is such a weird emotion and it's totally not anger's fault. It's just existing for valid reasons but shows up when we feel like it shouldn't. The thing with anger is that in many cases it acts as a coat for an underlying emotion hiding that for some reason or another isn't ready to be revealed.

But sometimes anger is hiding something bigger than a fleeting emotion. Emma McAdam, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and host of the YouTube channel, Therapy in a Nutshell, posted a video explaining how anger and irritability can actually be a symptom of depression.

The video really breaks down how the media portrays depression versus some of the lesser known symptoms of depression. When people think of depression, they often imagine someone that's extremely sad all the time and struggling to do basic skills. But depression can show up hidden behind other symptoms like irritability, insomnia, loss of appetite, and lack of focus.

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Science

Researchers dumped tons of coffee waste into a forest. This is what it looks like now.

30 dump truck loads and two years later, the forest looks totally different.

One of the biggest problems with coffee production is that it generates an incredible amount of waste. Once coffee beans are separated from cherries, about 45% of the entire biomass is discarded.

So for every pound of roasted coffee we enjoy, an equivalent amount of coffee pulp is discarded into massive landfills across the globe. That means that approximately 10 million tons of coffee pulp is discarded into the environment every year.

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How to end hunger, according to the people who face it daily

Here’s what people facing food insecurity want you to know about solving the hunger problem in America

Even though America is the world’s wealthiest nation, about 1 in 6 of our neighbors turned to food banks and community programs in order to feed themselves and their families last year. Think about it: More than 9 million children faced hunger in 2021 (1 in 8 children).

In order to solve a problem, we must first understand it. Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, released its second annual Elevating Voices: Insights Report and turned to the experts—people experiencing hunger—to find out how this issue can be solved once and for all.

Here are the four most important things people facing hunger want you to know.

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An ambulance, a Waffle House and an angry bison.

While the United States is undeniably one of the most culturally dominant countries in the world, its depth and complexity go far beyond what most people understand before seeing it for themselves.

The U.S. is a melting pot of diverse cultures, histories and landscapes, creating a rich and complex national tapestry that takes time and travel to truly comprehend. Heck, even Americans ourselves have a hard time understanding each other from time to time.

It's a place where every state can feel like its own little world, each with its own traditions, accents and cuisines. So, it’s understandable that when many people from around the world visit for the first time, there are some things they probably wished they had known ahead of time.

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Joy

Service dog flunks out of training school in spectacular fashion

The other dogs can't believe what they are seeing.

Double H Canine Academy in Louisville, Kentucky is a place where dog owners can take their rambunctious pets and have them turned into respectable members of the family.

However, as you can tell in this hilarious video, not all dogs are meant to follow orders.

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