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Let's talk about the good stuff that happened this week, not the bad stuff.

Yes, a lot of bad things happened this week. We all know that. But so did a lot of great things!

A Philadelphia dance center held a daddy-daughter ballet class. A brave 19-year-old used his iPhone flashlight to save a young girl from a deadly house fire. A man in California has been single-handedly reviving a rare and beautiful species of butterfly in his backyard.

And that's not nearly all.


Here's a look at some of the wonderful things that happened this week. It'll make you feel good about the world again.

1. Pollution has gotten out of control in India, so Dehli banned all disposable plastic.

Sorry, floating bag from "American Beauty," this was the right move for our planet and should have a major impact on our oceans.

2. American Girl just released its first boy doll.

Image courtesy of American Girl.

Parents have been clamoring for more diversity from American Girl for years, and so in addition to Everett, the company's newest line will also feature a Hawaiian doll and a new black doll.

Boys play with dolls, too! Heck, yeah.

3. No longer the whitest show on television: Rachel Lindsay will be the first black "Bacehlorette."

GIF via The Bachelor

About. Damn. Time.

4. A city in Iowa is saving the bees!

City officials in Cedar Rapids are working to create a 1,000-acre "bee paradise" full of grasses and wildflowers to help rejuvenate dying populations of the crucial little pollinators.

5. But if that doesn't work, maybe these bee-like pollinating robots will.

An industrial design student in Georgia, Anna Haldewang, came up with a prototype for a tiny drone that may be able to mimic the important role bees play in keeping crops and plant-life thriving.

Man, young people are smart these days.

Image courtesy of Savannah College of Art and Design.

6. A father said his son with autism would only eat Star Wars macaroni and cheese, so William Shatner rallied the internet to help.

Kids with autism sometimes have trouble adapting to change, so when Reed Botwright ran out of his son's favorite dinner, he put out a call for help.

Okay, this is a bit of a call for help. I'm putting this out to the interwebz and social netz for some assistance. As...

Posted by Reed Botwright on Sunday, February 12, 2017

Then, William Shatner, aka Captain Kirk, did this and started an incredible domino chain of giving.

7. People in Ireland raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to send a girl to the U.S. for a rare and expensive cancer treatment.

Shauntelle Tynan's video pleading for people to help her raise the money she'd need to visit Houston, Texas, went massively viral. Her story struck a nerve in Ireland, whose people came together to raise a staggering 713,511 euros, or nearly $800,000, to help pay for treatment.

Me right now. GIF via 30 Rock.

8. A bunch of Sikh temples in California opened their doors and hearts to dam evacuees.

When the Oroville Dam in Northern California failed this past week, over 100,000 people were forced to evacuate. Lots of people stepped up to help with housing and shelter, including several Sikh temples in the area.

#LoveTrumpsHate

9. A school bus driver in Tennessee built a new ramp for a girl on his route with special needs.

She already had a wheelchair ramp at her house, but it didn't quite reach the bus. So Thomas Mitchell rounded up some buddies and built her a new one, no questions asked.

10. A high school student in Ohio handmade valentines for everyone in the school.

The girl, who has remained anonymous, spent months handfolding over a thousand origami hearts that say "You are loved."

On Valentine's Day, she and some friends placed them on every locker in the school.

Here is a follow up to an earlier post today sharing a random act of kindness by students at THS.This actually turned...

Posted by Troy High School on Tuesday, February 14, 2017

There's bound to be great news next week, too. You just have to look a little harder for it these days. But I promise you, it's worth it!

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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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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Pop Culture

Woman was mocked online for calling an $80 purse a 'luxury item.' Her response went viral.

"I'm so grateful that my dad was able to get me one. He worked so hard for that money.”

@zohtaco/TikTok

Zoe Gabriel, showing off her new purse from Charles & Keith

Insults of any kind are painful, but jabs towards someone’s financial status are their own breed.

In January 2023, Singapore-based Zoe Gabriel was on the receiving end of this particular flavor of mockery when she posted a TikTok about a purse from local retail brand Charles & Keith—a gift bought for her by her father.

In her excitement, the 17-year-old called the bag, which costs around $80, a “luxury” item as she unwrapped it. Her excitement was sadly cut short by some of the negative comments she received.

One comment seemed to stand out above the rest and prompted Gabriel to post an emotional response video.

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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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YouTube creator Steve Mould shows us what echo looks like through an acoustic camera.

It’s bizarre to think about seeing sound, but nowadays we can do just that. If you haven’t seen an acoustic camera before, that’s because they’re mainly used for industrial purposes, but they’ve been available commercially from gfai tech since 2001.

YouTuber Steve Mould, who has a science channel with over 2.1 million subscribers, took the complicated concept of the acoustic camera and made it easy to understand in his latest video, “Acoustic cameras can SEE sound.”

In the video, Mould explains how an acoustic camera is much like your smartphone's video recorder. But it also creates visual representations of sound emanating from where it’s generated within the video.

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