BBC News

A school librarian in Reading has traced her family tree back nearly 500 years and found something she never expected — a distant connection to her literary hero, Jane Austen.

Joanne Wenman, who works at The Abbey School in Reading, said she was “excited” to discover the link to Austen, whose wit and insight into the lives of 19th-century women helped define English literature. Wenman’s 11th great-grandfather was Thomas Austen, who was also an ancestor of the celebrated author. As she explained to the BBC, “That makes me sixth cousin six times removed from Jane Austen.”

Wenman’s discovery comes just as fans around the world mark the 250th anniversary of Austen’s birth. The Abbey School itself is part of the story — it's named after the Reading Abbey Gateway, where Austen and her sister Cassandra were educated at a boarding school from 1785.

Wenman said she began researching her family tree about two years ago, using the site Ancestry. “When I was looking at my family tree… these Austens started appearing,” she said. “So my ninth great-grandmother is Jane Austen — not the Jane Austen but a different one — and then her grandfather is Thomas Austen.”

Even just seeing the name ‘Jane Austen’ in her ancestry gave her a thrill. “When I first saw a Jane Austen appear in the 1600s even that excited me,” she said. “I know it sounds weird but it was seeing that name on my family tree.”

She dug deeper. The Austen branch she belongs to was based in Hawkhurst, Kent — not far from Horsmonden, where Jane Austen’s immediate family also had roots. “That made me quite excited and then I cross-referenced and checked everything,” Wenman said. “I did lots of research before I was convinced.”

Her discovery is more than just a fun coincidence. Wenman, who spent two decades as an English teacher before becoming a librarian, said Austen played a direct role in her career path. “If somebody's already your hero and you admire them greatly, it's going to mean so much more,” she said. She described the connection as “really nice and exciting”.

She’s not the only one who’s thrilled. “The whole school is delighted for Joanne,” said Dr Sarah Tullis, head of The Abbey School. “We already knew what a huge fan of Jane Austen she is and how much this connection would mean to her. What makes this even more special for us here at The Abbey is that it strengthens our connections with Jane Austen even further.”

Jane Austen, born in Steventon, Hampshire in 1775, never married and had no direct descendants. But her literary legacy — from Pride and Prejudice to Emma and Persuasion — has made her a permanent fixture in English literature classrooms around the world.

Wenman is now set to meet other distant Austen relatives during a coffee morning hosted at The Abbey School to celebrate the author’s 250th birthday. For a lifelong fan, the moment is a little surreal. “Some of these coincidences,” she said, “are uncanny.”

School Librarian Discovers She’s Distantly Related to Jane Austen — at the School Where Austen Studied

Talker News

In the quaint village of Dunchurch, Warwickshire, locals woke up to a familiar festive surprise: the town’s historic statue of Lord John Scott had been cheekily transformed — this time into Chase from Paw Patrol.

The stone monument, which dates back to the 1800s, has become the centerpiece of an annual holiday prank, where mystery locals dress it up as a beloved children’s character each December. Past makeovers have included Bluey, Pinocchio, Peppa Pig, and Pingu.

“This much-loved tradition goes back many years,” said Amber Cummins of the Dunchurch Festival Group. “It’s heartwarming to see children and adults alike react with such excitement when they see it.”

Jordan Sargent, who brought her son to see the transformation, said, “Last year it was Peppa Pig and he loved that. This year it’s Chase. It’s not his favorite — he loves Rubble — but we still like Chase.”

No one knows exactly who’s behind the annual costume switch, but villagers agree on one thing: it’s become a cherished part of the town’s Christmas season.

Pranksters Transform Famous Statue Into Chase From 'Paw Patrol'

Artnet

A nearly complete skull of a dome-headed dinosaur that roamed the Earth over 66 million years ago is now part of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., thanks to a high-profile holiday donation.

Philanthropists Eric and Wendy Schmidt have gifted the museum a rare Pachycephalosaurus skull, which they purchased at a Sotheby’s auction in July for $1.7 million, well above its $1.2 million estimate. The fossil will be on temporary display from December 22 to 28, with plans to make it part of the museum’s permanent exhibition in the coming years.

“This skull is by far the most spectacular specimen of this type of dinosaur that we have at the museum,” said Matthew Carrano, curator of Dinosauria at the museum. “We almost never get to see the animal’s face or the teeth or other parts of the head because they usually have broken away.”

The skull is a rare find. Excavated from private land in the Hell Creek Formation in South Dakota—a region known for some of the richest Late Cretaceous fossils in North America—the fossil includes 32 cranial bones, offering an unusually complete look at this little-understood species. Pachycephalosaurus fossils make up less than 1% of all finds in the formation, far less common than Triceratops, which account for roughly 40%.

Carrano believes this skull likely came from an individual that wasn’t fully grown, which opens up new research opportunities. The museum plans to scan and digitize the fossil to better understand how these dinosaurs developed over time.

Wendy Schmidt emphasized the broader significance of the gift. “When we see an ancient fossil like this one, we are confronted with the story of our planet’s past and can consider how humans fit into Earth’s geologic history in a profoundly different way,” she said. “Eric and I hope the digitization project and this rare Pachycephalosaurus skull will provide access to these fossils to anyone, anywhere in the world.”

Eric Schmidt is the former CEO of Google and executive chairman of Alphabet. Wendy Schmidt has a background in journalism and philanthropy. Together, they’ve launched initiatives including the Schmidt Family Foundation, Schmidt Ocean Institute, and Schmidt Sciences, which support environmental sustainability and scientific research.

Their gift comes amid a wave of high-profile fossil acquisitions. In 2023, hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin made headlines for loaning a $44 million Stegosaurus skeleton to the American Museum of Natural History—the most expensive dinosaur fossil ever sold at auction.

The Schmidts’ donation adds another exceptional specimen to public view, while helping researchers piece together the life and growth of one of the Cretaceous period’s most mysterious creatures.

Smithsonian Receives Rare $1.7 Million Dinosaur Skull as a Holiday Gift

People

Tangi the dog has a new leash on life.

Just five days after being left in a sealed cardboard box outside the Pennsylvania SPCA, the young pup has been adopted into a loving home.

“We are over the moon to share that Tangi has been adopted!” the shelter wrote in a joyful update on December 14, alongside a photo of the smiling dog with her new family. “We are so excited for her new chapter filled with love, snuggles, and adventures.”

Tangi’s story first made headlines on December 9, when staff at the SPCA’s Philadelphia shelter arrived to find a large box outside their door. On the outside was a handwritten note from her former owner, who said they were out of options.

“It's either eviction or let the dog go,” the note read. “I have filled out adoption apps, but nothing has happened. Today was my last day, and my back is [against] the wall. She has all her shots. Good dog. Her name is Tangi.”

Inside the box, staff found the frightened dog curled up and trembling.

“When we opened [the box], scared eyes looked up at us,” the SPCA wrote in a Facebook post. “She was shaking and so stressed … clearly overwhelmed by everything around her.”

But it didn’t take long for Tangi to respond to kindness.

“The moment a hand reached toward her, she leaned in, gentle and searching for comfort despite everything she had been through,” shelter staff said.

After medical testing and behavioral assessments, Tangi remained in the shelter’s care for several days in case her original owner returned. No one came forward.

Once cleared for adoption, it didn’t take long for the sweet-natured pup to find her perfect match.

“Thank you to everyone who shared her story and helped her find her perfect family,” the SPCA said. “Happy life, sweet girl.”

Dog Abandoned in Box Outside Shelter Finds a Loving New Home Days Later

GoodGoodGood

Earlier this year, a herd of giraffes, elephants, hyenas, and zebras took to the streets of cities around the world — not real animals, but towering, life-sized puppets made from recycled materials, carried by hundreds of people on a mission.

The massive public art project, known as The Herds, was designed to sound the alarm on the climate crisis. Created by The Walk Productions — the same team behind Little Amal, the 12-foot puppet of a refugee girl who journeyed across 17 countries — The Herds brought together artists, producers, and volunteers across 11 nations for one purpose: to stir people into seeing climate change not as an abstract issue, but as something happening here and now.

The project spanned five months, from April to September 2025, covering 20,000 kilometers (roughly 15,500 miles) from the Congo Basin Rainforest to a melting glacier in Norway’s Jostedalsbreen National Park. Along the way, The Herds stopped in dozens of communities, including Cape Town, London, and others, with 56 public performances and over 1,000 people trained to animate the puppets.

“The Herds will happen in our immediate surroundings, in our familiar,” said artistic director Amir Nizar Zuabi, a Palestinian theatre-maker who first dreamed up the project while traveling with Little Amal. “It needs to happen where we feel safe, so we understand that we are not safe.”

Zuabi explained that his idea grew from a deeply personal place. As a child, he would lie in the desert in Palestine and watch the sky darken with migrating birds — herons, kites, storks — flying overhead.

“They placed me in the world. They were inspiring and humbling,” he said in a 2024 TED Talk. “But as I grew older, the flocks grew smaller.”

Years later, while walking with the Amal puppet across Europe, he looked up and saw fewer birds, just as he saw more people on the move — displaced by war, disaster, and climate change. That dual loss sparked a question: Could a public art project connect people to the climate crisis the way Amal connected people to the refugee experience?

The answer became The Herds — a visual story of animals migrating together, predator and prey alike, all fleeing a disaster not of their own making, but ours.

The first puppets were built by Ukwanda Puppetry and Designs Art Collective in Cape Town, South Africa. At each stop, local artists and volunteers learned how to build and operate their own. The animals traveled by foot, boat, and plane, carried through city streets, parks, and ports — anywhere people would see them and stop to ask why they were running.

“We’re migrating with an ever-evolving, growing group of animals,” Zuabi told The Guardian. “They will be an alarm bell, impossible to ignore.”

That urgency is the point. While climate scientists have long warned of rising seas, scorching heat, and extreme weather, Zuabi says data doesn’t always move people. Emotion does.

“The way we’ve been talking about the climate crisis is through data… but they don’t necessarily move us into action. Beauty does,” he told Atmos. “Beauty will make you care.”

Each puppet was designed to be stunning and expressive. And when lions, gazelles, wolves and zebras — animals that would normally flee from one another — ran together in peace, it forced people to ask: what disaster would make that happen?

“When lions and gazelles … zebras and hyenas … wolves and deer are running together — predator and prey running alongside one another — and they’re running away from us,” Zuabi said in his TED Talk, “what does that say about us?”

At its core, The Herds wasn’t just about spectacle. It was about unsettling the comfortable — bringing the crisis to the doorsteps of those who might otherwise think it’s happening “somewhere else.” And reminding everyone that nature is not separate from us.

“Underneath the layers of asphalt and concrete and vanity, there is nature,” Zuabi said. “And it is wild, vivacious and uncontrollable.”

As climate disasters become more frequent and more devastating, Zuabi hopes The Herds has done more than just raise awareness — he hopes it’s stirred a sense of urgency and responsibility.

“I don’t think that we do these projects and the world immediately becomes better,” he said. “But I want to believe that what we do matters.”

And for five months in 2025, a global audience got a glimpse of the beauty we’re in danger of losing — and maybe, a better reason to protect it.

Giant Animal Puppets Travel From Congo Basin To Melting Arctic Glacier With Important Message

Upworthy

Ethan, a 12-year-old from Ocean, New Jersey, became an overnight sensation after an unforgettable moment at his school assembly. The challenge was to hit a drum beat precisely during Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You," and Ethan nailed it perfectly. His peers erupted in cheers, chanting his name in the gym auditorium.

The heartwarming scene unfolded at Township of Ocean Intermediate School and quickly went viral online. Ethan has Down syndrome, but that didn't stop him from becoming the star of the event. As the crowd egged him on with chants of "Ethan, Ethan, Ethan," he waited for the perfect moment in the song before striking the drum with confidence.

Christopher Amato, the school's principal, described it as a "powerful and organic moment of inclusion, acceptance, trust, kindness, and joy." The video has since attracted hundreds of thousands of likes and comments. One person remarked on how much kindness and joy children can bring into the world.

Ethan's mother, Danielle, expressed her excitement over her son's unexpected fame. She said they are thrilled about all the positivity he's been able to spread. Speaking to Upworthy about Ethan's life at home and school, she painted a picture of a vibrant young boy who loves music and movies. He's one of five siblings and enjoys spending time at the beach with his family.

Describing his personality, Danielle said Ethan has an innate ability to sense when someone needs comfort. He loves singing songs from Moana and Rihanna and often pretends to play instruments alongside his stepdad. At school, he's known as "the mayor" because everyone wants to be his friend.

The Whitney Houston challenge happened during an event called "Almost Anything Goes," where students compete in various activities. Ethan watched others attempt the challenge before stepping up himself without any prior practice.

Danielle also shared insights into raising Ethan after learning he had Down syndrome immediately after birth. Despite initial shock from medical staff treating it as bad news, she couldn't be happier with her son’s impact on their lives. According to her, having a brother with special needs taught her other children acceptance and compassion.

For Danielle, Ethan's viral moment isn't just about hitting a drumbeat perfectly; it's about kindness and inclusion being celebrated in their community.

Boy With Down Syndrome Brings Joy by Nailing 'Whitney Houston Challenge'

Science Alert

A new study in mice may shed light on how psilocybin, the active compound in magic mushrooms, appears to help people with depression: by breaking the brain’s habitual loops of negative thinking.

Scientists at Cornell University used a specially engineered rabies virus to track how a single dose of psilocybin altered brain circuits in mice. The changes they observed help explain the promising results seen in human clinical trials, where psilocybin has shown potential as a fast-acting, long-lasting antidepressant.

“Rumination is one of the main points for depression, where people have this unhealthy focus, and they keep dwelling on the same negative thoughts,” said Alex Kwan, a biomedical engineer at Cornell. “By reducing some of these feedback loops, our findings are consistent with the interpretation that psilocybin may rewire the brain to break, or at least weaken, that cycle.”

More than 300 million people globally live with depression, a leading cause of disability. Current treatments don’t work for everyone and often come with side effects. That’s driven interest in alternatives like psilocybin, which is also being studied for its anti-inflammatory effects.

In 2021, Kwan’s lab showed that psilocybin could reshape brain connections, with some changes lasting for weeks. But it wasn’t clear which circuits were being affected or why some neurons grew more connections while others lost them.

To find out, Kwan and his team, led by biomedical engineer Quan Jiang, used a modified rabies virus that traces connections between neurons by carrying fluorescent proteins. In the study, mice were given either a single dose of psilocybin or a placebo. A day later, they were injected with the virus. One week after that, the researchers examined their brains.

What they found was striking. Brain regions involved in sensory processing became more connected with those responsible for decision-making and taking action. Meanwhile, connections within the cortex — where repetitive negative thoughts often originate in humans — were reduced.

That shift, the researchers believe, may help explain how psilocybin loosens the grip of ruminative thought patterns.

The study also found that brain activity itself may help guide where psilocybin does its rewiring. That opens up the possibility of combining psilocybin with noninvasive brain stimulation techniques to more precisely target specific circuits.

“Our study hints at an exciting avenue for future research to combine neuromodulation with psychedelics to precisely target [and rewire] specific circuits,” the researchers wrote.

While the findings are in mice and need confirmation in humans, they offer one of the clearest looks yet at how psychedelics may work at the level of brain wiring. The research was published in Cell.

Scientists Track Brain Changes In Mice Using Virus To Reveal a Potential Treatment For Depression

Sofronio Vasquez's life changed overnight in December 2024 when he won Season 26 of The Voice — and he hasn’t slowed down since.

The win was historic. Vasquez became the first Filipino singer to win the U.S. version of the singing competition, and it marked the first-ever victory for his coach, Michael Bublé.

“My Filipino brother, you are the hope of so many people,” Bublé told him during the finale. “It has been such an unbelievable journey. I’m just so happy for you.”

Before becoming a household name, Vasquez was studying to become a dentist. That path changed after the death of his father — the man who introduced him to music. To honor his memory, Vasquez moved to the United States and committed fully to his dream.

That dream came with a $100,000 prize and a recording contract. Less than two months later, he announced a 20-stop concert tour.

The tour kicked off in March 2025 and wrapped in October, spanning North America, the Philippines and Dubai.

“Those international shows taught me so much,” Vasquez told the Asian Journal News in October. “Music really does cross every boundary you can think of.”

He added, “I’ve watched people who don’t speak English connect emotionally with a song, and that’s powerful. Every country, every audience has given me something different.”

The 26-year-old has also been releasing new music. Since The Voice, he’s put out several singles, including “Maalaala Mo Kaya,” “Nandito Lang,” and “Patient.” He’s also leaned into holiday classics, releasing “Maybe This Christmas” with Michael Bublé and a version of “My Grown Up Christmas List” with David Foster.

Beyond the studio and tour venues, Vasquez has also been in demand for major public performances. In July, he sang “America the Beautiful” at the Belmont Derby Invitational in New York. Three months later, he performed at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City during an NFL game between the Chiefs and the Commanders.

Now, Vasquez is returning to the stage that launched his career.

He’ll appear on The Voice again during the Season 28 finale on December 16, debuting a brand-new single titled “Superman” — written by Bublé himself.

From a dentistry student chasing a dream to a rising star performing around the world, Sofronio Vasquez is making the most of his moment — and shows no signs of slowing down.

'The Voice' Season 26 Winner Is Back With New Music, a Global Tour and a Holiday Duet With Bublé

Mongabay

A project that aims to build a kind of “internet of animals” is back in action after a three-year hiatus — and scientists say it could reshape how we protect wildlife.

Project ICARUS, short for International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space, has resumed operations following the successful November launch of a satellite carrying a crucial receiver. The system collects data from tiny, wireless tracking sensors that scientists around the world have attached to animals as varied as sea turtles, bats, pelicans and wild dogs.

The goal is ambitious: to create a real-time, planetary-scale view of animal behavior, migration, and survival.

“It’s a global collaboration of scientists trying to understand animal movements and the information from animals,” said Martin Wikelski, the project’s lead and director of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany, in an interview with Mongabay.

ICARUS started in 2020, launching its equipment aboard a Russian spacecraft. But technical glitches and, later, geopolitical fallout from the war in Ukraine brought the system to a halt. Since then, the data has gone silent — until now.

With a new satellite now in orbit, the ICARUS team plans to spend the next three months testing the system before bringing it fully back online.

Unlike traditional GPS trackers, ICARUS tags are lightweight and capable of capturing detailed environmental data — including temperature, humidity, pressure, altitude, and acceleration — in addition to location. This makes them ideal for studying everything from migration patterns to disease outbreaks to how animals respond to human threats like habitat loss or poaching.

It’s the scale that makes ICARUS different. While wildlife tracking isn’t new, ICARUS is the first major effort to unify efforts from researchers all over the world under a single system, allowing for global collaboration and data sharing.

“This is really grasping at the interaction of animals globally,” Wikelski said. “It’s almost like understanding dark matter and things that couldn’t be seen and studied before.”

In South Africa’s Kruger National Park, for instance, ICARUS has already helped conservationists reduce the number of endangered African wild dogs being killed by snares meant for other animals.

“With this system, we saved more than 10-15% of the population over the past few years,” Wikelski said.

The project also has applications far beyond conservation. For example, if a few ducks start showing abnormally high body temperatures, researchers can investigate the area for signs of a virus. In another case, an unusual number of pelican deaths led to a timely identification of avian influenza.

There were challenges at the outset, Wikelski said. Many scientists were hesitant to share their data on a global platform. But growing threats to biodiversity have shifted attitudes.

“There’s life disappearing from our planet,” he said. “All these mobile species that move between countries and continents, we don’t know where they disappear. So it’s crucial we understand what’s happening so that it’s easy to remedy them.”

Once the ICARUS network is fully operational again, researchers hope it will offer a clearer window into the lives of the planet’s most elusive and threatened animals — before it’s too late.

Back Online: Global Satellite Network Resumes Tracking Animal Movements After Three-Year Pause

Kare11 NBC

At Duluth’s Bayfront Festival Park, the glow of the setting sun is the only light that isn’t Nathan Bentley’s doing.

“I do everything,” he says, half-laughing, half out of breath, as he pushes a portable toilet down the sidewalk. A few minutes earlier, he’d been setting out donation boxes, wheelchairs, and strollers. In a few more, he’ll be rallying the crowd with a nightly countdown.

“Welcome to Bentleyville, 2025!” he yells into a handheld mic as the gates swing open and kids sprint past him. “No sense getting tackled by a 7-year-old,” he jokes.

Once inside, visitors are immersed in a 22-acre Christmas spectacle, with more than six million lights blinking, twinkling, and pulsing across walkways, tunnels, trees, and rooftops. Bentleyville is the largest free walk-through light display in the United States.

“Bentleyville is completely an accident,” says Bentley. “It’s just an accident that turned into a hobby that turned into a circus.”

The circus began modestly enough in 2001, when he decorated his home in Esko, Minnesota. It got bigger when he moved to nearby Cloquet. But it also got more complicated.

“The traffic, it was unbelievable,” he says. “When you're on a first-name basis with the St. Louis County Sheriff's Department and the State Patrol, you know you've drawn some attention to yourself.”

In 2008, Duluth’s mayor stepped in and offered Bayfront Park as a new home for the display. Bentley jumped at the chance — and filled the space tenfold.

“Just my personality; I love to do things that other people don't do,” says Bentley, who runs an emblem and screen printing company when he’s not stringing up lights or moving port-a-potties.

He’s not doing it all alone. About 2,600 volunteers keep Bentleyville running every year, along with financial support from Duluth’s business community.

Since moving to the park, the light show has only gotten bigger. Its centerpiece, added in 2010, is a towering metal Christmas tree pulsing with lights in sync with music.

“This is the tallest manmade tree in the United States,” Bentley says, standing proudly at its base. “It's 128 feet tall, weighs 17 tons.”

Bentley seems to know every number by heart. Over 12,000 extension cords. 100,000 zip ties. Three semi loads of firewood for 30 fire pits. “We prepare for 350,000 people who come through Bentleyville each year,” he adds.

That’s almost four times the population of Duluth. And most of those visitors are coming from far away — about 60% travel more than 100 miles to get there.

The Santa line alone stretches endlessly. “There's hundreds and hundreds of people in line tonight,” Bentley notes. “Everybody's got to see the big man.”

Some visitors come back year after year. Some get engaged under the lights. Some name their dog Bentley.

Bentley’s favorite moments are often the small ones. Like when a family asks him to take their photo in front of the giant tree. He takes the shot, hands back the phone, and quips, “You know, these are pretty good even without me in 'em.”

As the moon rises over the glowing park, Bentley finally finds a moment to catch his breath. It’s the one light in Duluth he didn’t install.

But during the holidays, it’s hard to find many others.

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