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Mon, Aug 24, 2026

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Guard Becomes Celebrity Making Mini Statues For Each Event at Virginia Tech As Free Giveaways

Guard Becomes Celebrity Making Mini Statues For Each Event at Virginia Tech As Free Giveaways

Courtesy of Virginia Tech – Art by Bryan Newton

The mini-statue of a warrior rhino was birthed in a guessing game.

After graduating from Virginia Tech, Bryan Newton kept cultivating his school spirit and connections to campus by working for Rhino Sports and Entertainment Services. He provides security support for the company at Virginia Tech's 1,274-seat performance hall.

He's always enjoyed the diversity of events booked at the Center for Performing Arts, including music and dance at opposite ends of the spectrum—from an ear-splitting Metallica concert one night to an artsy ballet a few days later.

Mr. Newton has had a fun, creative side going back to college 25 years ago, when he was the manager for the school's Marching Virginians band, he told a college news team.

About two years ago, a game originated among the Rhino staff to help enliven their shifts.

How many people are here tonight? The workers each had one guess and they played The Price is Right rules: try to get as close to the actual number of scanned tickets—without going over.

But every great game needs a prize.

The Rhino staff members started

Cat Named ‘Toast’ Survives Intense Heat of 4-Alarm Fire By Hiding in Closet

Cat Named ‘Toast’ Survives Intense Heat of 4-Alarm Fire By Hiding in Closet

A mechanical issue started a fire in a Utah apartment building last week that sent the entire five-story structure ablaze in a matter of minutes.

Residents in the Salt Lake City suburb—and their pets—were evacuated from the building in the immediate aftermath—but Toast the cat was nowhere to be found.

The black and gray cat named Toast Malone had scurried behind a washing machine amid the mounting flames and his owners had to flee the apartment without him.

The blaze reportedly raged-on for 60 hours before firefighters fully extinguished it.

The cat's nine lives had likely run out, too.

The Salt Lake County Animal Services put out a social media post to help search for Toast.

More time passed, and before long, hope became "harder to hold on to."

But then, more than 72 hours after the fire began, rescuers found something in a closet.

Co-owner Ryder with Toast after the fire – Courtesy of Unified Fire Authority on FB

The structure was one of the few spaces that survived the blaze. Smoke would have engulfed it. More than a hundred thousand gallons of water were sprayed around

Ospreys Recover Thanks to ‘Pioneering Pairs’ Who Nest Away From Main Population

Ospreys Recover Thanks to ‘Pioneering Pairs’ Who Nest Away From Main Population

Osprey in Britain – Credit: SWNS

Ospreys are recovering in Britain thanks to "pioneering pairs" who prefer to nest away from the main population, according to new research.

It could be key to increasing the proliferation of the raptors, which first became extinct in the British Isles in 1916 before recolonizing in 1954.

Researchers looked at a rare long-term dataset covering 54 years of recolonization of ospreys in northern Scotland.

They examined the distribution and density of nests, and the patterns of settlement to understand how ospreys spread and what drives spatial recovery.

The study, published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, was led by Bouremouth University PhD researcher Brittany Maxted working with the charity Birds of Poole Harbour, and The Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation which monitor ospreys in parts of Northern Scotland.

"Ospreys usually like to nest in areas where there are already other ospreys," said Ms. Maxted.

"Most males also exhibit natal philopatry, which means they tend to breed close to their own birthplace.

"Together, these factors lead to very slow population spread for such a large bird.

"However, in Scotland we noticed that a small

Surf’s Up for Pups at World Dog Surfing Championship Where Rosie Leads the Pack (Video)


One of California's most famous surfers has four legs and a tail.

They call her Rippin' Rosie. She's a lovable 5-year-old Labrador Retriever with golden fur and almost 340,000 followers on Instagram.

"Everyone knows Rosie!" said local surfer Jeremiah Kille in a great video by DOG PPL (view below).

The legend of Rosie continued to grow two weeks ago, with a new trophy and some shiny medals awarded for her impressive performance at the World Dog Surfing Championships in at Pacifica Beach in California.

Rosie started surfing at just seven months old when she would climb on a stand-up paddleboard with her owner, prosecuting attorney Steve Drottar. Over time, Rosie took on bigger waves, gaining more skills and more confidence. S

ilver-haired Steve has been surfing in Santa Cruz his whole life—and now Rosie joins him 4-5 times a week.

"Here comes some old dude with a stand-up board and a great big cute yellow Lab on the end of the board," Steve said in the video. "It's kind of hard for people not to smile."

"It's a blast to watch them out there," Kille said.

At the 10th Annual World Championships

Good News in History, August 14

Good News in History, August 14

85 years ago today, US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued the joint declaration of peace and progress that later became known as the Atlantic Charter.

The statement was issued months before the US officially entered World War II, yet it set out the goals for after it was won. READ the Brilliant List of Goals… (1941)

US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issue Atlantic Charter

The British-American wish-list for the postwar world included a list: no territorial aggrandizement, no territorial changes made against the wishes of the people (self-determination), restoration of self-government to those deprived of it, reduction of trade restrictions, global co-operation to secure better economic and social conditions for all, freedom from fear and want, freedom of the seas, abandonment of the use of force, and disarmament of aggressor nations.

It became the basis for the Declaration for the modern United Nations.

MORE Good News on this Day:

  • US Social Security Act was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt creating unemployment insurance and pension plans for the elderly (1935)
  • Pakistan became independent of British rule (1947)
  • Bahrain declared its independence from

Five Endangered Secretarybird Chicks Hatch in Major Conservation First

Five Endangered Secretarybird Chicks Hatch in Major Conservation First

Screenshots of Secretarybirds with chick that hatched in Chester Zoo

England's Chester Zoo reported last week they successfully bred the stunning secretarybird for the first time in its 95-year history—producing five chicks.

The endangered African birds are part of an international conservation breeding program—and the latest success was described by the Zoo as "a landmark breeding breakthrough that we hope will help secure the future of the endangered species".

The arrival of the chicks marks the first time secretarybirds have bred at the zoo in its 95-year history.

The chicks hatched to parents John and Jolene, who arrived at the zoo as part of coordinated international efforts to help safeguard the future of one of Africa's rarest birds of prey.

Across the European breeding program, there are just 79 birds and, in the last year, only three other chicks have hatched elsewhere.

"Our experts believe the techniques developed here in Chester could now help other conservation zoos boost breeding success across Europe," said a media release.

Secretarybirds are among the world's most unusual birds of prey. Unlike eagles and hawks, they also hunt on foot, striding across African grasslands

Rescued Orangutans Released Into Isolated Forest Are Now Raising Babies, Creating New Wild Population

Rescued Orangutans Released Into Isolated Forest Are Now Raising Babies, Creating New Wild Population

Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) in the Tanjung Putting National Park by Thomas Fuhrmann – CC BY-SA 4.0 license

Fifteen years ago, conservationists began releasing rescued orangutans into a protected forest in Sumatra where no others from their species were living.

Some arrived had been in human care after being orphaned. Others had been rescued from conflict situations or captivity and needed months or years of rehabilitation before they could safely be returned to a forest.

Today, those formerly rescued animals aren't simply surviving—they're thriving. They're having babies, raising families and slowly establishing an entirely new population of critically-endangered Sumatran orangutans in the wild.

The remarkable experiment is unfolding in the Jantho Pine Forest Nature Reserve in Indonesia's Aceh province, where rehabilitated orangutans have been given a second chance at a natural life that many of them nearly lost forever. (WATCH the video at the bottom…)

From Rescue Animals to Wild Mothers

Orangutans aren't animals that can simply be taken from captivity and dropped into a forest.

Young orangutans normally spend years alongside their mothers learning an extraordinary catalog of survival skills: which fruits are safe to eat, where to find food when

New Radiation-Free Lung Scan Can Spot Disease Sooner in Children – And it’s Much Safer

New Radiation-Free Lung Scan Can Spot Disease Sooner in Children – And it’s Much Safer

Credit: Getty Images for Unsplash+

For caregivers of children living with chronic or rare lung diseases, monitoring their condition presents an uncomfortable tradeoff: Repeated scans can be valuable, but they can also expose patients to radiation.

Now, a rapidly advancing form of MRI is offering another possibility: detailed images of children's lungs that can reveal not only their structure, but how well they're actually working—all without exposing them to ionizing radiation.

Scientists at the University of Sheffield's POLARIS research group have been pioneering one particularly promising version of the technology, using a specially prepared form of xenon gas.

Their work is already helping doctors identify early signs of lung disease in children with cystic fibrosis without using radiation, and the technique is now being used in patient care at Sheffield Children's Hospital.

Lungs Are Difficult to Scan for MRIs, But There's an Ingenious Work-Around

MRI is already widely used throughout medicine because it produces detailed images using magnetic fields and radio waves rather than ionizing radiation. But lungs have traditionally been one of MRI's toughest challenges because they're mostly filled with air, which produces relatively little of the conventional 'MRI

97-Year-old is Overwhelmed to Attend Great-Granddaughter’s Graduation From Same Med School He Tackled 60 Years ago

97-Year-old is Overwhelmed to Attend Great-Granddaughter’s Graduation From Same Med School He Tackled 60 Years ago

Dr. Westel Creager and granddaughter Haiden Hauret

97-year-old Westel Creager became determined to keep a promise he made years ago.

When his great-granddaughter Haiden was going off to college, Westel told her that if she got into medical school, he'd be there when she graduated—and put on her first white coat.

For her side of the bargain, Haiden Hauret made good on the vow to go to medical school—and she even followed her great-grandfather to his alma mater, the University of Kentucky.

Westel attended 60 years ago, after starting his adult life as a carpenter, but eventually pushing himself to return to school, and pursue medicine.

He was the oldest in his class, but neither optics nor opinions nor anything else could keep him from his goals. He graduated and then went on to a long career serving others, working in emergency rooms well into his 70s.

"He always gave back to low economic areas that were underserved medically," Kristi Johnson, Creager's granddaughter and Hauret's aunt told Newsweek.

"He got his pilot's license and flew his plane with the Good Samaritans into Mexico and treated patients. He also opened

Good News in History, August 15

Good News in History, August 15

108 years ago today, American cartoonist Winsor McCay released the first long-form animation film, the Sinking of the Lusitania, showing what pure conviction looks like.

Far from being funny, the 12-minute film depicted the huge British steam liner carrying 2,000 passengers when it was torpedoed by a German submarine. An originator of animated cartoons, he was frustrated when his media bosses, the Hearst empire, downplayed the incident in its newspapers, because they wanted America to stay out of World War I. So McCay spent all his spare hours producing the film, which took him 22 months to create. SEE A CLIP and Learn More… (1918)

To tell the tale of "the most dastardly, cowardly act", 25,000 drawings were sketched and photographed for the musical animation which used the latest cel technology (short for celluloid).

It was not until Disney's feature films in the 1930s that the animation industry caught up with McCay's level of modernist technique. The seminal film was selected for preservation by the US National Film Registry for its significance. WATCH 8-minutes of the film…

 

MORE Good News on

Your Weekly Horoscope – ‘Free Will Astrology’ by Rob Brezsny

Your Weekly Horoscope – ‘Free Will Astrology’ by Rob Brezsny

Our partner Rob Brezsny, whose latest book is Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob's Free Will Astrology, is a syndicated weekly column appearing in over a hundred publications. He is also the author of Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How All of Creation Is Conspiring To Shower You with Blessings. (A free preview of the book is available here.)

Here is your weekly horoscope…

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week of August 15, 2026
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com

 

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Given how extra vibrant and refreshed you have been feeling, I would understand if you had zero interest in confronting The Dilemma That Refuses to Fade. Why deliberately tangle with that stale, long‑term energy drain when your spirits are so high? Here's why: At this moment, you possess a new and unprecedented advantage over The Dilemma That Refuses to Fade. You may not manage to completely vanquish it once and for all. But then again, you just

California Creek Restoration Helps Young Salmon Grow Twice as Fast—And Doubles Their Survival Rate

California Creek Restoration Helps Young Salmon Grow Twice as Fast—And Doubles Their Survival Rate

At the salmon monitoring station, Kevin Vandenack holds steelhead, Katherine Stonecypher holds coho salmon, and Bryan Crouch a Chinook salmon – Credit: Katherine Stonecypher for Cal Poly Humboldt

Along California's redwood coast, conservationists have been working for more than a decade to give a damaged creek something surprisingly simple: room to behave like a creek again.

Prairie Creek is one of the last refuges for three threatened species of salmon: California Coastal Chinook, Northern California steelhead, and coho salmon (whose numbers declined by 90% in the last century).

The major US restoration project, led by NOAA Fisheries and a broad coalition of partners, has transformed a former lumber mill into wetlands and a thriving floodplain ecosystem where young salmon can find food and grow before making the difficult journey to the Pacific Ocean.

Now, they're recording some remarkable results, after years of monitoring the fish.

Juvenile coho salmon using the restored habitat are growing faster than fish remaining in the main creek channel, and researchers say that in some places the difference has been dramatic.

Growing Twice as Fast

"In certain sites and certain years, the fish using restoration

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