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People

Amy and Justin Monger tied the knot on June 28, 2025, in Cincinnati, with a unique twist that left guests pleasantly surprised. As Amy prepared for the big day, she had a delightful plan up her sleeve to include their beloved dogs, Everest and Leila, as flower girls.

During the couple's first look—a special moment before the ceremony—Justin was expecting to see just his bride. Instead, he was greeted by Amy alongside their furry companions. "Everyone knows how much Leila and Everest mean to us," Amy shared with PEOPLE. "It warmed people's hearts to see that they got to be there."

The dogs, a 6-year-old Bernedoodle named Everest and an 11-year-old brindle mutt called Leila, are considered family by the couple. Amy had secretly coordinated with their dog sitter, Natalie, to bring the pups to Story Woods Park where the ceremony took place. This surprise was kept under wraps from Justin until the last moment.

"I was genuinely shocked," Justin admitted. He explained that he left for the ceremony without any clue about what awaited him. The couple had hired Natalie thinking she would care for Everest and Leila while they stayed at a hotel post-wedding. However, Natalie played a key role in bringing the plan together.

Earlier that week, Natalie met with Amy under the guise of discussing standard pet care duties. Instead, they finalized details for the surprise appearance of Leila and Everest at the wedding. To match the event's floral theme, Amy gave Natalie collars adorned with baby's breath for each dog.

Their neighbor and close friend Evan Brannon served as ring bearer and had the honor of escorting Everest and Leila down the aisle during their entrance. The dogs' presence added warmth and joy to an already special occasion.

"The guests were so excited and happy to see Leila and Everest," said Amy and Justin in their interview with PEOPLE. "Some of our guests were also surprised."

After fulfilling their roles as flower girls, Everest and Leila exited shortly thereafter to keep events running smoothly without extra chaos.

Reflecting on her choice of unconventional flower girls over traditional ones, Amy said she'd choose her "well-behaved and sweet" pets any day: "Justin and I wanted our wedding to be intimate, simple, and some things nontraditional."

The Mongers' decision not only personalized their ceremony but also underscored how cherished their four-legged friends are within their family circle.

Bride Surprises Groom by Having Their Dogs Serve As Flower Girls at Wedding

When a historic snowstorm slammed into western Pennsylvania last weekend, dozens of wedding guests found themselves stuck at a Hampton Inn with no safe way out. But instead of frustration, what followed was laughter, pizza, and some unexpected bonding.

“I wasn’t going to miss that,” said Benjamin Pallack, who drove nine hours from Albany, New York, to see his friend’s wedding. “Absolutely not.”

Pallack was one of dozens of guests snowed in at the Hampton Inn off the Turnpike in North Huntingdon Township, just outside Pittsburgh. A brutal winter storm on Sunday, January 25 dropped over 10 inches of snow across the region, with some counties buried under nearly 20 inches. It was the area’s snowiest day in 16 years, according to CBS News.

Staying put wasn’t a choice—it was a necessity. Roads were dangerous, tires were buried, and local restaurants had shut down. Out of the hotel’s 102 rooms, 40 were occupied by people stranded from the storm the night before, according to hotel manager Katie Baldassaro.

It was a first for her. In 34 years working in hotels, she had never seen a day where no one checked in.

“We’re actually having a blast. I mean, what are you gonna do, you know?” Baldassaro told local station WPXI.

With roads closed and supplies limited, Baldassaro stepped in to help make the evening more comfortable. She cooked pizza and wraps for the guests herself, pulling from her years in the hospitality business and an old-school sense of community.

“I’m always feeding the staff,” she said. “Growing up in the business, this is kind of what we did back in the day. So I feel like this is almost like a back in the day kind of thing, because not a lot of people get to talk anymore and things like that so it’ll be fun.”

And it wasn’t just Baldassaro. A team of nine hotel staffers volunteered to hunker down and ride out the storm together with the guests. Brandon Leone was one of them.

“I’ve been stuck in snowstorms before, but being in a hotel is a different story,” Leone said. “We are all in this together. We’ve got to take care of the guests, make the most of it, pack some sleds. Going to have some fun and just do what we do!”

The spirit of the weekend turned from stressful to celebratory, thanks to that approach. For Pallack, despite the snow, the delay, and the makeshift meals, there were no regrets.

“I would do it all over again,” he said. “Getting to see my close friend’s big day made it all worth it.”

After Historic Blizzard, Pennsylvania Hotel Staff Step Up for Stranded Wedding Guests

Science Alert

It turns out that a little really can go a long way—at least when it comes to exercise.

New research based on data from more than 130,000 people shows that just five extra minutes of physical activity per day, or sitting for 30 minutes less, may significantly improve your chances of living longer.

The study, published in The Lancet, was led by researchers from the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences. It used wearable activity trackers to analyze data across several countries, modeling how small lifestyle tweaks might affect mortality risk.

Rather than following participants over time, the team used statistical models to estimate each person’s risk of death and how that risk changed depending on how active they were. The results? Even modest changes made a big difference—especially for people who were the least active to begin with.

For the bottom 20 percent of participants in terms of activity levels, researchers found that just five more minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise a day could reduce deaths by as much as 6 percent. Looking at the broader population—excluding only the most active 20 percent—those same small changes could reduce deaths by up to 10 percent.

"Small and realistic increases in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity of 5 min/day might prevent up to 6 percent of all deaths in a high-risk approach and 10 percent of all deaths in a population-based approach," the authors wrote.

The benefits of moving more were most pronounced among people who sat the most or exercised the least. In other words, if you’re barely active right now, you’re the most likely to benefit from even a small change.

Researchers also looked at sedentary time and found that reducing sitting by 30 minutes a day was linked to fewer deaths as well—though the gains weren’t as large as with active movement.

While the study doesn’t prove a direct cause-and-effect relationship—because it’s based on statistical modeling rather than long-term observation—the size of the dataset and consistency of the findings make a strong case for paying attention.

It also opens the door for further research, particularly in countries where physical activity levels and health risks might differ.

"We only investigated all-cause mortality; thus, future research should examine other health outcomes," the researchers noted. They also emphasized the need for similar studies in low- and middle-income countries, where lifestyle and disease patterns vary.

Health experts welcomed the findings as a reminder that physical activity doesn’t have to be intense or time-consuming to make a difference.

“A clear message we want to get across is that every movement counts and getting inactive people to do some activity is where we see the biggest gains in health,” said Daniel Bailey, a sedentary behavior scientist at Brunel University London who was not involved in the study.

“So, GPs, policymakers, or campaigners can certainly be looking to support patients and the public with making these relatively small changes to start with, which would give people a starting point to then kick on and increase their activity even more.”

The World Health Organization recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise per week, but for many, that target can feel overwhelming. This study suggests that smaller steps—literally—may still offer meaningful benefits.

A brisk five-minute walk, a short bike ride, or simply getting up from your desk more often could help. The people who have the most to gain are those moving the least right now.

Scientists Reveal How 5 Extra Minutes of Daily Activity Could Extend Your Life

BBC News

When six-year-old Finlay’s dad collapsed at home struggling to breathe, the Nottinghamshire schoolboy didn’t panic — he picked up the phone and saved his father's life.

The quick-thinking pupil from Robert Miles Infant School in Bingham is being hailed as a hero after calmly calling for help during a medical emergency that left his father, Phil, unconscious on the floor.

His mother Elaine, who was out at the time, said the family had only recently decided to keep their home landline so Finlay could learn how to use it in case of an emergency. Just days later, that lesson became a reality.

“I was looking into getting the home phone disconnected due to no longer needing it,” she said. “Instead, I decided to teach Finlay how to use it in case of an emergency. A few days later, I had popped out when I got a call from Finlay telling me 'daddy wasn't well'. I could hear that Phil could not breathe and Finlay told me he was on the floor.”

Elaine dialed 999 and gave dispatchers the home number, allowing them to speak directly with Finlay. He followed their instructions, opened the door for a friend who came to assist, and greeted paramedics when they arrived.

Back at home, Elaine found out just how serious things had been. “Phil was that poorly he had needed compressions,” she said. “Finlay kept calm and brave throughout. He is a superstar.”

The incident happened in October, and since then, Finlay’s bravery has inspired others at school. He shared the story with his classmates, and staff at Robert Miles presented him with a special certificate to honour his courage.

Assistant head teacher Rosie Pilborough said the school has since held lessons and assemblies to teach pupils how to respond in emergencies. “Finlay was able to keep so calm in such a tense and difficult situation and that's remarkable for someone so young,” she said. “Everyone at the school is so proud of Finlay. He is such a hero.”

This Six-Year-Old is Being Called a Hero After Saving His Dad’s Life

The Cool Down

Scientists have unveiled the most detailed map ever created of the landscape buried beneath Antarctica’s thick sheets of ice, revealing tens of thousands of features previously unknown to researchers — and offering a sharper tool for understanding how quickly sea levels could rise in the future.

The new map, published in the journal Science, combines satellite data with sophisticated physics models to expose Antarctica’s subglacial topography with unprecedented clarity. Researchers say it significantly improves on earlier versions, which were based on radar surveys that left large gaps between data points.

"It's like before you had a grainy pixel film camera, and now you've got a properly zoomed-in digital image of what's really going on," said lead author Helen Ockenden from Grenoble Alpes University in France.

Among the findings was a massive hidden channel in the Maud Subglacial Basin. The feature is about 50 meters deep, spans 6 kilometers across, and stretches almost 400 kilometers in length — the size and scale of which had never been seen in previous maps.

The research also uncovered thousands of hills, ridges, mountain ranges, and canyons that had been invisible to scientists until now. These features lie beneath several kilometers of ice, but they play a crucial role in controlling how glaciers move and melt.

Peter Fretwell of the British Antarctic Survey, who was not part of the study, called the new map “a really useful product” that fills in the blanks between older radar surveys. "This study gives us a better picture of what's going to happen in the future and how quickly ice in Antarctica will contribute to global sea-level rise," he told the BBC.

That matters because melting Antarctic ice is one of the biggest wild cards in predicting future sea level rise. How quickly that ice retreats depends heavily on what’s beneath it — the slopes, ridges, and pathways that influence how glaciers flow. Until now, scientists could only guess at large portions of that terrain.

Melting from the Antarctic Ice Sheet currently contributes to global sea level rise, and researchers expect that rate to increase as the planet continues to warm. Rising seas threaten to inundate coastal cities, contaminate drinking water supplies, and worsen damage from storms and flooding.

Professor Robert Bingham of the University of Edinburgh, a co-author of the study, said the opportunity to view the entire subglacial bed of Antarctica in such detail is “amazing.” He added that the new map will help researchers make better-informed predictions about how the continent’s ice might respond to future warming.

For climate scientists and policymakers alike, that clarity couldn’t come at a better time.

Scientists Reveal Detailed Map of Antarctica’s Hidden Terrain — and What It Means for Sea Level Rise

ABC News

Renée Watson has been awarded the 2026 John Newbery Medal, the top honor in U.S. children’s literature, for All the Blues in the Sky, a novel that blends poetry and prose to explore a teenager’s grief after losing her best friend.

The book was one of several celebrated Monday by the American Library Association, which announced its full slate of annual awards for children’s and young adult literature.

The Randolph Caldecott Medal for illustration went to Cátia Chien for Fireworks, a vivid, summertime picture book written by Matthew Burgess.

Jewell Parker Rhodes received the Coretta Scott King Award for best book by a Black author for Will’s Race for Home, an adventure story praised for its emotional depth and strong storytelling. Illustrator R. Gregory Christie earned the Coretta Scott King illustration prize for The Library in the Woods, a collaboration with author Calvin Alexander Ramsey.

Kadir Nelson, known for his work on The Undefeated and other acclaimed titles, was recognized with the King-Virginia Hamilton Award for lifetime achievement.

Lupe Ruiz-Flores won the Pura Belpré author award for The Pecan Sheller, while Abraham Matias received the Belpré illustration honor for Popo the Xolo. The awards highlight excellence in Latino literature for young readers.

The Alex Awards, given to 10 books written for adults that have special appeal to teens, included Janelle Brown’s What Kind of Paradise, Daniel H. Wilson’s Hole in the Sky, and Leila Mottley’s The Girls Who Grew Big.

Jose Pimienta took home the Stonewall Book Award for Halfway to Somewhere, recognized for its exceptional portrayal of LGBTQ+ experiences for children and teens.

All told, the awards showcased a broad range of voices and storytelling styles—recognizing everything from graphic novels to lyrical verse—at a time when books for young readers continue to face challenges and bans in school districts across the country.

'All The Blues In The Sky' Wins Newbery Medal For Best Children's Book

For Celestina Mahovic, fashion isn’t about following trends — it’s about changing habits.

The 37-year-old quantity surveyor from Carlisle has been organising clothing swaps across Cumbria for the past decade, creating what she calls “a sense of community” while fighting back against the environmental cost of fast fashion.

“It’s a little thing I can do to help the environment,” she said.

Mahovic started Clothes Swap Cumbria after attending swap events in Manchester, where she first learned about the darker side of the fashion industry. “I started learning about how fast fashion was ruining the environment,” she said. “I started delving into more and realised that there are a lot of things we can do and looked into recycling clothes and shopping second-hand.”

Her events are simple, but effective. People gather in community centres, homes, or other public spaces to trade clothes they no longer wear — no money changes hands, and everyone leaves with something new to them. It’s a sustainable, budget-friendly way to update a wardrobe, especially during financially tight months like January.

The idea has caught on. Clothes swaps have grown in popularity as more people look for ways to cut costs and reduce waste. According to a 2024 study by The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed, side hustles in the UK jumped to 460,000 last year, up from 383,000 the year before. While Mahovic doesn’t run the swaps as a business, her passion project fits into a broader shift toward creative, community-driven solutions to big problems.

She also wants people to think more critically about where their donated clothes actually end up.

“Many people think giving away clothes to the charity shop is helping — but it only works if people are actually buying the clothes,” she said. Swapping, she argues, keeps items in use and out of landfills without relying on resale.

Ten years on, Mahovic has no plans to stop. The swaps have become more than just a way to reduce fashion waste — they’re a place for people to connect, share, and rethink their relationship with clothing.

“It’s a Little Thing I Can Do”: Why She Spent 10 Years Swapping Clothes Instead of Buying New

ABCNews

Two simple wooden objects unearthed in southern Greece are now considered the oldest wooden tools ever found, dating back an estimated 430,000 years. Scientists say the artifacts offer a rare glimpse into the daily lives and survival strategies of early human ancestors, whose technology extended far beyond stone tools.

The two items — one a slender digging stick, the other a smaller handheld piece — were found in the Megalopolis basin, an area rich in prehistoric remains. According to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the longer tool, made from either willow or poplar wood, is about 80 centimeters long and may have been used to dig into the muddy lake shore. The other object’s function remains a mystery, but researchers believe it might have been used to shape or craft stone tools.

What makes this discovery remarkable isn’t just the age of the tools, but the fact that they survived at all. Wood usually decays quickly unless it’s protected in rare conditions — frozen in ice, sealed in caves, or submerged in waterlogged ground. In this case, researchers believe the Greek site’s wet, muddy environment helped preserve the artifacts. They weren’t directly dated, but sediment layers and surrounding finds suggest they’re around 430,000 years old.

“I’ve always just been thrilled to be able to touch these objects,” said Annemieke Milks, one of the study’s authors and a researcher at the University of Reading.

The team didn’t find any human remains at the site, so it’s still unclear who exactly used the tools. They could have belonged to early Neanderthals, Homo heidelbergensis, or another unknown hominin group. Still, their survival hints at a much broader range of tool use than the stone tools usually associated with early humans.

Other ancient wooden tools have been found elsewhere, such as spears from Germany and 300,000-year-old digging sticks in China, but the Greek finds are now the earliest on record.

“These types of discoveries are extremely rare,” said Katerina Harvati of the University of Tübingen, another co-author of the study. The tools help fill a “little known aspect of the technology of early humans,” she said.

Despite their historic significance, the tools themselves aren’t especially eye-catching. That makes them easy to overlook or dismiss, even by archaeologists.

“It’s difficult to get excited about these because they don’t strike you immediately as wooden tools. And we don’t know what they were used for,” said Jarod Hutson, an archaeologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History who was not involved in the research.

But scientists say the Megalopolis site, which has also yielded stone tools and cut-marked elephant bones, still holds plenty of potential. Its thick layers of ancient sediment may contain more surprises — and possibly even the remains of the tool users themselves.

For now, these two modest wooden fragments offer a rare and valuable connection to the ingenuity of early humans, preserved not in stone, but in ancient wood.

Scientists Recover The Oldest Wooden Tools From A Site In Greece

A California man who vanished during a solo hike on Halloween says he was never scared—even after falling into a ravine and spending nearly 12 hours lost in the dark.

“I was never afraid,” Grant Gunderson, 67, told PEOPLE. “I knew that God was going to help me get rescued from the ravine. Sooner or later, there would be a search party looking for me.”

That confidence proved right. After his wife, Tammy, reported him missing, a 40-person search and rescue team launched a night operation in Marin County’s Mount Tamalpais State Park. Just after 2 a.m. on November 1, rescuers found Gunderson alive and in surprisingly good condition.

“I’m just happy to be back home with my wife and family and friends,” he said. “I feel like God has blessed me with a second chance to make a difference for Him in this life.”

The ordeal began after Gunderson wrapped up business meetings around 2 p.m. on October 31 and decided to take a short hike along Cataract Trail, a route he’d done more than 20 times before. Hoping to catch a better view of the Bay Area—and a cell signal—he took a steeper, less familiar trail uphill. He managed to text his wife at 5:40 p.m. to say his phone was dying and he was heading back down.

But as daylight faded, Gunderson grew disoriented. He came across a lake he didn’t recognize, and then, while walking along a wet path, he slipped.

“I lost traction and suddenly found myself careening quickly down a steep ravine feet first in a sitting position,” he said. “I shouted a quick prayer—‘Jesus help and save me!’—as I plummeted down the ravine in the dark.”

The fall ended abruptly, sparing him from a potentially fatal head injury.

“I came to a dead stop with my head facing downhill,” he said. “I saw two huge granite boulders just below in the creek bed. I knew that if my fall had not stopped, my head would have hit it.”

Though bruised and exhausted, he wasn’t seriously hurt. With no cell service and no idea where he was, Gunderson relied on faith and instinct.

“At this point, it was just me and God, nature, and the animals in the park,” he said. “I didn’t fear the darkness.”

He wandered for hours, eventually reaching a shoreline and spotting what he thought was a drone light overhead. But fatigue set in. After falling multiple times, he rested on a log for nearly 40 minutes—until he saw three beams of light moving along a trail nearby.

“Help, I’m Grant and I’ve fallen. I’m over here!” he yelled.

Rescuers heard him and brought him safely back to the trailhead. From there, he was driven to his vehicle and reunited with his wife.

“I was so glad to drive home and hug and see my wife,” he said.

The experience left him grateful—and eager to share some advice. His top tips for fellow hikers: keep your phone fully charged, use a tracking app, and if you ever get lost, “Never give up and never panic.”

This Hiker Survived a Ravine Fall With Help From His Wife's Voice in the Dark

Science Daily

Quantum technology is entering a new chapter—one that looks a lot like the earliest days of classical computing. A new paper published in Science says the field has officially moved beyond lab experiments and is now facing the challenge of making quantum systems usable, scalable, and practical.

"This transformative moment in quantum technology is reminiscent of the transistor's earliest days," said lead author David Awschalom, a physicist at the University of Chicago and director of both the Chicago Quantum Exchange and the Chicago Quantum Institute.

Awschalom and colleagues from MIT, Stanford, the University of Innsbruck, and Delft University of Technology say quantum devices are starting to resemble complete systems, capable of supporting early applications in communication, sensing, and computation. But as with early silicon chips, functionality is still limited and large-scale impact is a long way off.

The paper reviews six major hardware platforms—superconducting qubits, trapped ions, spin defects, semiconductor quantum dots, neutral atoms, and optical photonic qubits—and uses AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini to estimate their technology readiness levels (TRL). These levels, ranging from 1 to 9, are commonly used to gauge how close a technology is to practical deployment.

In the analysis, superconducting qubits came out on top for computing, neutral atoms led in simulation, photonic qubits ranked highest for networking, and spin defects were best for sensing.

But a high TRL doesn’t mean the tech is ready to change the world.

"While semiconductor chips in the 1970s were TLR-9 for that time, they could do very little compared with today's advanced integrated circuits," said coauthor William D. Oliver, director of the Center for Quantum Engineering at MIT. “A high TRL for quantum technologies today does not indicate that the end goal has been achieved.”

Many of the most anticipated uses—like accurate quantum chemistry simulations that could change medicine or materials science—will require millions of qubits, ultra-low error rates, and far more coordination between system components than what’s possible today.

Some platforms already support limited public access via cloud-based tools, but the systems are still fragile and error-prone. Building a version that runs reliably and scales to meet real-world demands is the next frontier—and it's a tough one.

Among the challenges: today’s quantum systems still rely on dedicated control wiring for each qubit. That approach quickly breaks down as systems grow, echoing a problem that stumped classical engineers in the 1960s, known as the “tyranny of numbers.”

Power consumption, cooling, automated calibration, and efficient signal routing are all pressure points as systems scale up. Improvements in materials and chip design are critical, but so are bigger-picture design changes and smarter collaboration across the field.

The authors say the quantum field now faces a choice—whether to prioritize open science and interoperability, or splinter too early into incompatible commercial approaches. They argue for lessons from classical computing, where public-private partnerships and patient, long-term investments drove progress.

“We must nurture the partnerships and coordinated efforts necessary to achieve the technology’s full, utility-scale potential,” Awschalom said.

And expectations should be managed, the paper warns. Breakthroughs in computing often took decades to mature into real-world products. Quantum is likely no different.

“Patience has been a key element in many landmark developments,” the authors write. “And points to the importance of tempering timeline expectations in quantum technologies.”

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