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upworthy

canada

Family

When her 5-year-old broke his leg, this mom raised $0. It's actually inspiring.

Her crowdfunding alternative is so obvious, it's shocking America hasn't taken advantage of it.


Freddie Teer is a normal boy. He loves Legos, skateboarding, and horsing around with his older brother Ollie. But in March 2017, his mother faced every parent's worst nightmare.

Photo via iStock.

Freddie was doing tricks down the stairs of his front porch when he fell off his bike — and his bike fell on him.

"[He was] just crying, wouldn't let us touch his leg, couldn't put any weight on his leg. We knew," mom Ashley says.

Ashley rushed Freddie to the emergency room, where an X-ray confirmed the bones in his left shin were broken in half. He needed to be sedated, his bones set and put in a cast. It was an agonizing day for the Teers. But it's what happened next that was truly inspiring.

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Where did that crow learn to say "hello"?

Lisa Sandoval was walking near the waterfront in the small town of North Rustico on Prince Edward Island in Canada when she thought someone called out to her. “I heard someone call out to me, ‘Hello! Hello!” Sandoval told The Dodo. “I turned around and no one was there. Then I heard the voice again. ‘Hello! Hello!’ I got a little scared, then thought to myself, ‘Am I hearing things?’”

Then she realized the only living thing around her was a crow high atop its perch.

“I stopped and said, ‘Hello?’” Sandoval continued. “And to my shock, he answered me back. ‘Hello! Hello!’”

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@peterandmarie/TikTok

He cannot contain his joy at seeing snow for the first time.

Nature is a wondrous, magical thing. Everything from a falling star to the morning dew is its own small miracle. As children seeing the world for the first time, it’s easy to appreciate every natural phenomenon to the fullest (remember sticking your tongue out to taste the rain?) but those feelings are rarely so common in adulthood.

That’s why it’s so cool when we see grown-ups able to conjure true childlike awe—it’s almost like we remember to give ourselves permission to do the same.

Recently, people were brought to this space of pure joy after watching a Ugandan man experiencing snow for the first time.

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Health

I never realized how dumb our cities are until I saw what a smart one looks like.

There's community and there's commuting. Let's not confuse the two.

Image created from YouTube video.

A busy freeway.



With the population growing and most of it happening in cities, these Canadian journalists wanted to take a closer look at whether our sprawling modern villages are up to the task of housing more humans.

Over half of the world lives in urban areas.

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