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Conservationists in Africa came up with a genius way to save elephants: move them.

Human beings haven't always been the best of friends to elephants.

Photo by Brian Snelson/Flickr.


While we've written some of our most delightful children's books about them...

We've done OK by Babar. Photo by Jean de Brunhoff/Wikimedia Commons.

...we've also poached them for centuries, destroyed their habitats, and generally been pretty bad at sharing our planet with them.

Illegal ivory sits in a storeroom in Kenya. Photo by Carl de Souza/Getty Images.

Recently, conservationists in Malawi decided to tranquilize 500 elephants, pick them up by their hind legs, and drive them almost 200 miles across bumpy savannah on the back of a truck. And while it might look like yet another attempt to mess with these gentle creatures...

Photo by Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP.

...it actually might be the nicest thing we've done for elephants in quite some time.

While the task was anything but nice, the goal was simple: to relocate the animals from two Malawi national parks where they're (relatively) plentiful to a park with more room and, thereby, more safety for the elephants.

"This is very much the way that we'll have to manage things in the future," Craig Reid, manager of the country's Liwonde National Park, told The Associated Press.

According to the AP, who embedded with the team, the project is one of the largest-ever and most logistically complicated relocations of its kind.

Similar moves have been made before, but few have been attempted with so many animals.

Moving the elephants required enlisting a fleet of helicopters, cranes, and trucks as well as a team of dedicated pilots, drivers, and conservationists to manage the creatures as they made their way across the country.

It's the latest attempt to give these giant, emotionally complex animals a chance to recover.

An elephant strides around Kenya. Photo by Tony Karumba/Getty Images.

African elephants — highly social creatures who have been shown to react to each other's pain, soothe suffering friends, and even grieve for their dead — used to number in the millions, but rampant hunting has caused their population decline over decades — by as much as 80% in some areas.

More recently, increases in demand for ivory has led to a surge in poaching, and human encroachment is always a threat.

The World Wildlife Fund estimates their numbers today at approximately 470,000.

Project managers are prioritizing moving the elephants with their families.

An elephant mother with her calf at the London Zoo. Photo by Adrien Dennis/Getty Images.

According to conservationists on the team, keeping mothers and calves together is key to the success of the relocation because elephants, like humans, form tight familial bonds.

Relocating hundreds of the huge creatures is challenging, and there are potential drawbacks.

Some conservationists worry that mass artificial migration could facilitate the spread of disease, and being handled by humans with giant cranes can, understandably, stress out the animals.

But if the end result is more elephants, many experts believe it's a chance worth taking.

Photo by Lucas Schulze/Getty Images.

WWF African species manager Bas Huijbregts told the AP that the relocation project would be "a win-win for elephants and people" and hopes that it "will likely become the new norm in many places in Africa."

The best part? We get to brag about doing the elephants a solid for once.

It may not look like it.

Photo by Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP.

But one day, they'll totally appreciate us for it.

Photo by Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP.

Maybe.

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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Family

Pediatrician shares two simple tips that could save a child's life at a pool party

"The more folks present, the safer the pool is, right? Wrong."

Photo by Ash Dowie on Unsplash

If there's a body of water anywhere, a designated adult needs to have their eyes on it.

It's that time of year when the weather across the country is warm enough for families to enjoy outdoor barbecues, picnics and pool parties. That means it's also the time of year when tragedy will strike a certain percentage of families who get blindsided by how quickly and easily a child can drown in a backyard pool, even when they're surrounded by people who care about them and their safety.

We've all been at a gathering where adults are coming and going, chatting, setting up food, taking trips to the bathroom, all while kids are busy playing in the water. In such scenarios, it's easy to assume that someone else is keeping an eye on the pool.

But as pediatrician Diane Arnaout has shared, the harrowing reality is that the more people there are at a pool party the more likely it is that a child could slip into the pool or become distressed in the water without anyone noticing.

In a Facebook post that has been shared more than 77,000 times, Dr. Arnaout wrote:

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Drew Barrymore speaks during the FLOWER Beauty launch at Westfield Parramatta on April 13, 2019, in Sydney, Australia.

Drew Barrymore, 48, has been in the public consciousness since she starred as Gertie in 1982’s mega-blockbuster, “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. So, it makes sense that many people of a certain age feel as if they’ve grown up with her.

Now, she’s an even more significant part of people’s lives as the host of “The Drew Barrymore Show,” which runs every weekday on CBS.

On May 25, the show’s Instagram page posted a touching video of an off-the-cuff moment between Barrymore and a fan during a taping of her show. In the clip, Barrymore realizes that someone in the audience is crying. So, instead of ignoring the fan, she jumps to action to see what is the matter.

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Pop Culture

Musician uses traditional Chinese instrument to create hypnotic cover of 'Hotel California'

There are literally hundreds of covers of this song floating around on the internet, but this one has its own unique flair.

Moyun/Youtube

Moyun peforms "Hotel California" on the guzheng.

The Eagles' hit song, “Hotel California,” has been covered countless times over the years by a variety of artists, including the likes of Nancy Sinatra, the Gypsy Kings and that guy at your local karaoke spot.

And while every rendition gives the song a fresh dynamic, one musician with a penchant for mystery has transformed the rock n’ roll staple into something entirely new.

Using a traditional Chinese string instrument called a guzheng, Moyun plays the song focusing mostly on its two guitar solo arrangements, creating a sound that has all the otherworldly beauty of an ancient folk tale.
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Pop Culture

Man rewatches shows from his childhood and his recaps of the bonkers storylines are priceless

Rob Anderson's hilarious recaps of shows like "Mighty Ducks," "Beethoven," and "7th Heaven" might make you wonder how they got made in the first place.

@hearthrobert/TikTok

These plots makes zero sense.

While there are no doubt some timeless classics from our childhood that remain every bit as amazing as we remember, many are straight-up cringey upon a later viewing. Really, it’s to be expected as societal viewpoints change…sort of a marker of how far we’ve collectively come.

And so, what do we do with these problematic pieces of old-school pop culture? Well, we can certainly update them to better reflect a more modern attitude, but that also comes with a set of potential problems. Or we could simply never watch them again. Certainly an option given all the content out there. But then we might miss an opportunity to better understand what seemed to work for the mainstream then, and why it doesn’t work now.

And then there’s the third option—allow ourselves to be entertained by their cringiness.

That’s certainly the route taken by Rob Anderson. Over on TikTok, Anderson has taken ultra-popular movies and television shows from his childhood and given them hilarious recaps capturing how absurd some of the storylines are.
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Joy

Woman decides that she is the love of her life and marries herself at her retirement home

“I said, you know what, I’ve done everything else. Why not?”

77-year-old woman decides she's the love of her life and marries herself.

We joke about marrying ourselves or a platonic friend if some arbitrary amount of time has passed without a proposal from an imaginary suitor. And sure, some people do wind up marrying a friend in more of a business arrangement, but it's not very common that someone follows through with marrying themselves.

Dorothy "Dottie" Fideli, decided that she was going to break the mold. The 77-year-old sat down and thought about all of the things she had done in life and who was with her the entire time cheering her on. It was an easy answer: herself. She was her biggest cheerleader, the person who always showed up and the love of her life, so Fideli made the plan to marry herself.

On a beautiful May day, friends and family gathered in the O’Bannon Terrace Retirement Community, where Fideli is a resident, to witness the ceremony.

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